《The First Order》


 Chapter 1 - A sickness in the head

    <h4>Chapter 1: A sickness in the head</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    In the chaotic darkness, the young Ren Xiaosu awoke and started wiping off the sweat on his forehead. Then he looked towards the boy of around 14 who was standing at the door.


    ¡°Liuyuan, did anything happen?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Addressed as Liuyuan, the boy¡¯s full name was Yan Liuyuan.


    From his appearance, Yan Liuyuan looked like a very harmless and innocent person. However, he was holding a bone knife in his hands and standing guard at the door. It was deep into the night at the moment, but he did not close his eyes even though he looked very sleepy, as he had to keep watch through the night.


    Yan Liuyuan shook his head and said, ¡°No, everything is fine. Hmm, what exactly is this sickness you¡¯re experiencing in your head? Even the town¡¯s doctor can¡¯t diagnose what¡¯s wrong with you?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about such things. What I¡¯m experiencing is not a sickness.¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°It¡¯ll be dawn soon, and I¡¯ll be going out to hunt. You should sleep for a while so that you can get up in time for school.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded, glum. ¡°But what¡¯s the point of studying in a wastnd like this...¡±


    ¡°It will be useful for you in the future,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in an irrefutable tone.


    ¡°I want to go out to hunt too.¡± Yan Liuyuan pouted.


    ¡°Who¡¯s going to keep watch at night if something happens to you? Me, who¡¯s unconscious?¡± Ren Xiaosu stood up and prepared to go fetch water from the town center as it was less dangerous to do so after dawn broke.


    During the night, it was awlessnd out there.


    ...


    Dark clouds were building up without rest in the cloudy sky. A drop of acid rain eventually fell from above. It got blown about by the strong winds and finallynded in front of Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu was lying on the ground in the wilderness. He frowned and felt that he was a little unlucky today as the acid rain arrived before his prey appeared.


    Someone mentioned that he must be careful of the beasts while moving around in this wastnd.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that the person left everything else unspoken, because many things could still kill a person out in this wastnd. One of them was the acid rain.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still did not make a move. If he couldn¡¯t catch some game today, he and Yan Liuyuan would starve to death before they could die from the disease caused by the acid rain.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes popped when he heard a bird¡¯s wings pping. However, the rhythm of his breathing did not change.


    Ren Xiaosu had used a tree branch to prop up a ck cauldron and scattered some ck bread crumbs underneath it a short distance ahead of himself.


    Thatrge birdnded beside the cauldron and looked around sharply with an alert gaze. The size of the bird was not that much smaller than the cauldron, in fact.


    As it stood in the same spot preening its feathers, Ren Xiaosu did not make a move and continued waiting.


    The bird finally seemed to let its guard down as it started sneaking towards the cauldron as a thief would.


    However, when it entered into the boundary under the cauldron and was about to lower its head to peck on the bread crumbs, Ren Xiaosu pulled hard on the rope in his hand. Right after, the young man jumped up and rushed towards the cauldron like an unbridled wild donkey. Before therge bird could flip the cauldron over, he mustered all of his strength and used his body to pin down the cauldron!


    ¡°Phew!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief as he had waited an entire night just to catch this sparrow. Fortunately, his efforts had not gone to waste today, especially since such good opportunities were hard toe by.


    ttering came from inside the cauldron as the struggling sparrow battered its tough wings against it. At this moment, the short melody of the clock striking the hour rang from the refugee stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the town. He wondered when he could finally bring Yan Liuyuan to live inside the stronghold.


    To Ren Xiaosu, the people living in the stronghold were fortunate because they did not have to face the dangers of the wastnds.


    However, not just anyone could enter that ce as they wished.


    Right at this moment, the activity in the cauldron quieted by a lot. He let out a sigh and checked if the ragged cloth was wrapped firmly around his hand. Then Ren Xiaosu slowly lifted the cauldron up to create a tiny opening and put his hand in. He attempted to grab hold of therge sparrow by its legs!


    However, life was not always that smooth sailing. Ren Xiaosu yelped right after putting his hand under the cauldron.


    Ren Xiaosu pulled out his hand and had a look at his palm. The web between his thumb and forefinger was bleeding, as not even the ragged cloth could protect it against the sparrow¡¯s sharp beak.


    Ren Xiaosu got angry. He removed his ragged jacket and wrapped it around his hand. Then he thrust his hand under the cauldron again and grabbed the sparrow by its neck this time.


    He took the sparrow out from under the cauldron and tucked it in his arm. With a strong twist of his hand, the sparrow¡¯s neck broke and it went limp.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a pinch in his heart because therge sparrow¡¯s ws had punched several holes into his jacket.


    Suddenly, his mind went nk, and Ren Xiaosu fell to his knees. It was as if a massive copper bell had been struck inside his head. Then he descended into a chaotic darkness.


    Oh no! In the past, this sickness only urred at midnight, but now it came earlier?


    This was not the first time his sickness had ¡°acted up.¡± Almost all the people in town knew there was something wrong with his head, and his pain would re up at random times.


    Only Ren Xiaosu knew that it was not pain but a state of confusion that he was experiencing.


    Wait a minute. This time, it was different from the past. The ck mist in his mind had dispersed and revealed a ¡°pce¡± beyond it!


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes flew open, and he stood up. He looked at himself in disbelief. ¡°I came to this quickly?¡±


    He originally had a chance to get a closer look at the pce¡¯s appearance, but he knew better. There was no difference between remaining unconscious and dying out here in the wilderness. Right now, he had to rush back to the town that was situated outside of Stronghold 113 before the heavens opened up with the acid rain!


    Ren Xiaosu tied the sparrow¡¯s legs together and slung it over his shoulder. Then he lifted the big cauldron and inverted it onto his head before running away. Pitter-patter. Raindrops started falling on the cauldron.


    The cauldron had turned into his umbre.


    Before he could run far, however, the silhouette of a person holding a bone knife stood in his way. ¡°Give your catch to me¡ª¡±


    But before the person could finish his sentence, he saw a big cauldron swinging in closer and closer, until it smacked into his face!


    ¡°Damn!¡± The robber fell backwards. He had not expected Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attack to be that swift! And it was so forceful too!


    Then he saw Ren Xiaosu lower the pot before swinging it back up and cing it over his head to use as an umbre, all in a single, continuous motion.... The robber had not even fallen to the ground, yet Ren Xiaosu was already running off into the distance!


    The robberid on the ground facing the sky as the acid rain came down. It was a little painful and stung his face. There was something about this that he could not understand.


    In most situations, shouldn¡¯t there be some interaction between them? Just how many times had this young man encountered a simr situation to react so instinctively!?


    Something was not right. He could hear that young man¡¯s footsteps approaching again!


    The robber hurriedly sat up and turned around to look. He discovered that the young man wasing back to him!


    Ren Xiaosu had not nned to return, but he distinctly heard a voice reverberate from the pce in his mind, ¡°Quest: Gift your catch to someone else.¡±


    Who said that? Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked back to the robber with some uncertainty.


    The robber said in panic, ¡°Let¡¯s talk this over.... Hey, that¡¯s not right, I¡¯m the victim here....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sized up the robber. He noticed that there were no others nearby.


    ¡°You want this sparrow?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    The robber¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°I do!¡±


    ¡°Here, take it.¡± Ren Xiaosu stuffed the sparrow into the man¡¯s arms without exining himself.


    That unfamiliar yet neutral voice intoned again, ¡°Questplete. Awarded: Basic Skill Duplication Scroll. You may use it to learn another person¡¯s skills.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned, because he could feel a leather parchment appear within his mind!


    A Skill Duplication Scroll that he could use to copy another¡¯s skills? Like hunting? Survival? Or some other skill?


    The robber hugged therge sparrow tightly in his arms and began to express his gratitude. ¡°You¡¯re a good person¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, he saw Ren Xiaosu grab the sparrow back before leaving again.


    The robber was confused.


    He stared at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s receding figure as he scurried away.... The fuck is this guy! What is he after?

 Chapter 2 - This world has never trusted tears

    <h4>Chapter 2: This world has never trusted tears</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu returnedter than usual because of the robbery and his sudden loss of consciousness. Since he saw the sky darkening, he knew that it would be extremely dangerous to pass through the town with his catch at this time.


    During the day, people from the stronghold still came out to maintain order. But at night, those people would return back to the stronghold.


    Of course, the people from the stronghold were not doing this with good intentions. They were only worried that if the town got too chaotic, it would affect the manualbor that the refugees were performing.


    ¡°Oh, looks like Ren Xiaosu got quite the harvest today!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu ran back into town carrying the cauldron, someone with a dirty face greeted him. It was as though he had not washed his face ever since the day he was born.


    Most of the people in town looked like that. On most days, they went to the nearby coal mine to work in exchange for some food. The coal they mined would be delivered into the stronghold, and in turn, the workers would receive just enough ck bread or potatoes to survive on.


    It wasn¡¯t only the mining of coal. All the necessary dirty work the stronghold needed to be done would be performed by the refugees.


    Since the well water in town was rationed, the amount that everyone got per day was fixed, and no one dared to even think of asking for more. Besides, barely any clean water sources existed nearby. Or rather, any clean water source was too dangerous to go to since feral beasts would gather there to drink. Hence everyone in town would always look so dirty that no one could see their faces clearly. Ren Xiaosu was no exception either.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had never worked in the coal mine before. He had his own way of surviving.


    Ren Xiaosu did not respond to anyone who greeted him. He just wanted to get back to his shack as quickly as possible.


    As Ren Xiaosu took an alternate way into town, he could see the towering stronghold walls from a short distance away. It felt very oppressive, for he could not even see the top when he looked up.


    Not many stone structures could be found in town as most people only stayed in shacks.


    Ren Xiaosu had started out quite rxed. But he went on guard the moment he entered town and even drew the bone knife from his waist. The atmosphere on the street grew tense as though some kind of danger lurked within the shacks. But with Ren Xiaosu holding a bone knife in his hand, the people with threatening intentions restrained themselves.


    The first thing Ren Xiaosu learned while staying here was not to trust anyone... other than Yan Liuyuan.


    Whispers came from the shack next to the road. ¡°Ren Xiaosu has caught more game meat.¡±


    ¡°How does that count as game? It¡¯s only a sparrow.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s different from the sparrow that we saw in the ancient textbooks. I reckon that the eagles from before The Cataclysm were also around this size?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t provoke him.¡± A voice ended the whispering from inside the shack. Someone seemed to know about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s past.


    Ren Xiaosu lifted the curtain door to his shack. The warmth in it made him less tense.


    When Yan Liuyuan, who was sitting in the shack and doing his homework, saw Ren Xiaosu return, he looked pleasantly surprised. ¡°You caught a sparrow?¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you light the kerosenemp?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked while frowning.


    Yan Liuyuan was usually a wayward child, but in front of Ren Xiaosu, who was like his elder brother, he became surprisingly docile. ¡°I wanted to save some fuel for us.¡±


    ¡°What if you be nearsighted?¡± Ren Xiaosu put the sparrow down.


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°The schoolteacher mentioned something called ¡®spectacles¡¯ that existed before The Cataclysm but can only be found in the stronghold now. If we have something like that, we won¡¯t have to worry about being nearsighted anymore.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu treated the statement with disdain. ¡°I¡¯ve seen someone wearing the thing that you mentioned before. But to have your vision depend on something that could be dropped at any time out here in the wilderness, that¡¯s as good as death. Don¡¯t listen to your teacher¡¯s nonsense. Not everything he says is right.¡±


    ¡°Oh...¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded and said, ¡°Then why do you still insist on sending me to school?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu choked on his words. ¡°Why do you keep bbering?¡±


    ¡°When can I go hunting with you?¡± Yan Liuyuan continued to ask.


    ¡°You¡¯re only 14. Why would you want to go hunting? If you do well in school, you won¡¯t have to go hunting.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it much better to learn ounting, physics, or chemistry rather than hunting?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you only 17?¡± Yan Liuyuan was unconvinced.


    In this era, even savages recognized the importance of knowledge.


    This was also why a teacher could survive in town. Whatever trouble happened in town, a teacher would always be the safest person since no one would target them.


    However, tuition was expensive. Otherwise, Ren Xiaosu would have gone to attend sses himself as well.


    Ren Xiaosu propped up the cauldron and skillfully dissected the sparrow at the same time. ¡°What did the teacher talk about today? I can only let you eat the sparrow¡¯s offal. I have to sell off the rest of it at the market tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Did you get injured?¡± Yan Liuyuan frowned when he saw the wound on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. It had been pecked by the sparrow, and the wound was still bleeding.


    The big cauldron was hung on a rod, and the flicking fire in the shack¡¯s fire pit illuminated Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face every now and again. ¡°It¡¯s just a scratch.¡±


    It fell silent in the shack. After a while, Ren Xiaosudled out the cooked organs of the sparrow from the pot and handed them to Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Eat up.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes suddenly reddened. ¡°I don¡¯t want it. You should have it instead since you need to heal your wound.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll just have some soup.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I still have some ck bread that I can eat.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not eating. Your wound isn¡¯t a scratch at all. I saw someone in town die as a result of an infection a few days ago because we don¡¯t have ess to any medicine for treating cuts and scrapes,¡± Yan Liuyuan stubbornly said as tears nearly rolled down his face.


    Pah!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly pped Yan Liuyuan across the face and said, ¡°Remember this, you and I can never cry as long as we are living in this world. This world doesn¡¯t trust tears.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°Look at what kind of people are around us. What will happen to me if you don¡¯t eat well and someone rushes in and stabs me to death at night? I send you to school because I hope you won¡¯t be someone like me, who only knows how to hunt. You have a unique skill. As long as you study hard, you will not need to work all day in the wilderness like me to earn a living. The reason I send you to school is because I don¡¯t want you to be savages like them!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly took the sparrow offal from Ren Xiaosu and gobbled them down. He managed to hold back his tears in the end as he wanted to learn to be as strong as Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Ahem,e over and help me dress the wound with a clean cloth after you¡¯ve eaten,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°OK,¡± Yan Liuyuan responded.


    ¡°You¡¯re normally full of mischief when we¡¯re outside, so why do you behave like such a doormat whenever we¡¯re home?¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Did anything happen in town today?¡±


    ¡°Oh yes!¡± Yan Liuyuan said as he looked for a clean cloth, ¡°A group of people came out of the stronghold saying that they were looking for a guide to lead them to Stronghold 112. They want to head there by going straight through the Jing Mountains.¡±


    ¡°They want to go to Stronghold 112?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment before frowning. ¡°They¡¯re even insisting on getting there via the Jing Mountains?¡±


    ¡°Do you think they¡¯lle looking for you? Everyone in town knows that you¡¯re familiar with thends outside.¡± Yan Liuyuan blinked and said, ¡°I heard that they¡¯re musicians and singers of a band in Stronghold 113 who have been invited to perform at Stronghold 112. I¡¯ve never seen a singer before though.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°Let those people go via the Jing Mountains if they want. I want you to stay away from them. There¡¯s something strange about those people.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu had conflicted feelings. In a world like this, there were still professional singers and musicians in bands? What on earth was it like inside the stronghold?


    Ren Xiaosu was suddenly looking forward to finding out.

 Chapter 3 - A palace

    <h4>Chapter 3: A pce</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu had already fallen asleep. After waiting out in the wilderness for such a long time, all he managed to catch was one sparrow. Although he spent a majority of the time lying on the ground and keeping still, anyone with experience would know that staying alert in such a position was actually very tiring.


    Before sleeping, he instructed Yan Liuyuan again, ¡°Stay away from those people if you see them. It can¡¯t be that they don¡¯t know how dangerous the Jing Mountains are. Most people would choose to avoid passing through there, yet they insist on taking that route. My instincts tell me that this isn¡¯t a simple matter.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded obediently. ¡°Got it.¡±


    As a matter of fact, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were quite the odd team. A few years ago, they did not know each other at all. Later on, Ren Xiaosu decided to protect the young Yan Liuyuan as he unintentionally discovered Yan Liuyuan¡¯s secret. On top of that, his headache had been troubling him for a very long time, so he needed someone to keep watch for him at night.


    Back then, Ren Xiaosu told Yan Liuyuan in no uncertain terms that they were only a team because of mutual benefit. But over the years, it soon became unclear whether their partnership had any feelings involved or if it was still for mutual benefit.


    Yan Liuyuan had always been a very clever person when outside. He only behaved like an obedientmb in front of Ren Xiaosu.


    Sometimes, Yan Liuyuan would say that he was only alive because Ren Xiaosu had risked his own life to save him. However, Ren Xiaosu had never acknowledged it.


    At present, Ren Xiaosu only wanted to find out what kinds of changes his mind had gone through. He waited a very long time tonight as he wanted to see if this ¡°sickness¡± that had been troubling him would recur. In the end, that chaotic ¡°confusion¡± did not set in.


    It seemed like the pce had always stayed hidden when he was in a confused state. But now, that ck mist of confusion finally dispersed.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to see exactly what was inside the pce.


    When Yan Liuyuan saw Ren Xiaosu lie down next to him, he silently picked up the bone knife and sat at the entrance of the shack where the curtain door was. As it was almost fall, it felt a little cold.


    At this moment, the rain stopped.


    Footsteps came from outside the shack¡¯s curtain door. The shoes that were stepping on the muddy road after the rain made a unique slippery sound.


    Someone lifted a corner of the curtain door. However, before the visitor could lift the curtain door aside, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s bone knife was pressed against the person¡¯s neck.


    It was a pretty face; a beautiful woman stood outside.


    Yan Liuyuan frowned when he saw the woman. It was not a stranger. She lived nearby.


    The woman smiled. ¡°Liuyuan, you¡¯re still awake? Where is Xiaosu? I heard that he got back.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s already asleep, Big Sister Xiaoyu.¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled. ¡°If you have anything to say, just tell me.¡±


    Xiaoyu¡¯s face looked a little unnatural. ¡°Did he get hurt when he went out this time?¡±


    ¡°His hand was nipped by a sparrow. But Big Sister Xiaoyu, you don¡¯t have to be so concerned about my brother, do you? After all, you¡¯re eight years older than him.¡± After Ren Xiaosu had fallen asleep, Yan Liuyuan adopted a maturity beyond his years when dealing with outsiders. No matter whether he knew the person or whatever they might say, he didn¡¯t move the bone knife away from her neck.


    Xiaoyu took out a cigarette and lighter from her bag that she carried around. It was a rolled cigarette that was only distributed at the coal mines, power nts, and other properties under the control of the stronghold.


    A lot of the able-bodiedborers went there to work not only for the money and food, but also for the cigarettes. They would receive a cigarette for each day of work they put in.


    As such, at night after work, arge group of people could be regrly seen gathering together and smoking. Ren Xiaosu once exined to Yan Liuyuan that the cigarettes were likely mixed with something highly addictive.


    However, it was obvious that Xiaoyu did not get her cigarette from working at those ces.


    Xiaoyu lit the cigarette and took two puffs from it. She seemed to be thinking of something. ¡°You cheeky imp, I consider you two my little brothers.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked, ¡°Did you catch a cold?¡±


    Xiaoyu was stunned. ¡°Yes, does my voice sound a little hoarse?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head andughed. ¡°I saw that the smoke was noting out from one of your nostrils after you took a puff.¡±


    Xiaoyu was speechless.


    For some reason, Xiaoyu felt that Yan Liuyuan did not like her very much.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll head back first.¡± Xiaoyu said, ¡°When your brother wakes up, tell him that I came over.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled. ¡°I¡¯ll pass the message along.¡±


    After Xiaoyu left, Ren Xiaosu suddenly spoke from behind Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Don¡¯t bully Big Sister Xiaoyu in the future. It¡¯s not easy for her either.¡±


    ¡°Bro, she¡¯s not decent.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Besides, she¡¯s only sticking close to you because she knows you always seed when hunting.¡±


    ¡°Who¡¯s decent around here? Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°No decent person can survive in this world. Everyone¡¯s hand is forced by their living conditions. We can only distance ourselves from her. Don¡¯t make fun of her.¡±


    A chaste woman who was too decent would not be able to survive in this town.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, ¡°She didn¡¯t even mention that she likes me. Besides, are you sure that she¡¯s only getting close to me because I¡¯m sessful at hunting? And not because I¡¯m handsome?¡±


    ¡°Bro, everyone has not washed their faces for months. Everyone here looks basically the same.¡± Yan Liuyuan was speechless as he looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Bro, didn¡¯t you fall asleep? Why are you still awake?¡±


    ¡°I was just thinking,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as a brief exnation.


    Ren Xiaosu was not asleep because he had been exploring the secrets of the pce in his mind.


    In the circr pce, the walls were lined with old wooden cabs, making it look like a huge showroom of sorts. However, he could not see what was on the disy cabs in the showroom as they were covered in ck mist.


    In the middle of the room, there was only one table with a brass typewriter on top of it. It was an obsolete typewriter that would make loud cking sounds when typed on and hadn¡¯t existed for a very long time since The Cataclysm.


    There were only 24 brass keys on this typewriter. Each of them was engraved with a character: fair, positive, honest, real, friendly, kind, rich, strong, etc.


    It was full of positive energy, in a manner of speaking.


    But it seemed that the typewriter was supplied with an unlimited amount of leather parchment and would move by itself without anyone typing on the brass keys. Currently on it were two small lines of words that had appeared during the afternoon: ¡°Quest: Gift your catch to someone else. Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll. You may use it to learn another person¡¯s skills.¡±


    He could not tell if he was imagining this or if there was some other exnation for it. ording to legend, some people could create a memory pce and build a fantasy world based on the level of their spiritual will.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that his pce... looked a little different from the description of a memory pce.


    Why would it get him to gift his catch to someone else? Did this typewriter want him to be a good person?


    To be a good person in a world where ethics came at a premium?


    No way in hell!


    At this moment, his consciousness was standing in the center of the vast pce as he looked at the ¡°disy cabs¡± around him. It looked like items were floating within the disy cabs, but they were hidden by the darkness. That ck mist didn¡¯t allow Ren Xiaosu to see what was floating inside.


    These disy cabs were connected to the dome of the pce, making it look like a huge museum. Ren Xiaosu walked up to one of the cabs and tried touching the item floating in the ck mist. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not prate the resistance of the ck mist.


    It was a power that he could not pry into right now.


    If Ren Xiaosu wanted to know whether the pce was real, he would have to use actions to prove its existence.

 Chapter 4 - Luck is a type of skill too

    <h4>Chapter 4: Luck is a type of skill too</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°I might possess some kind of skill too,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Sitting at the entrance of the shack, Yan Liuyuan was stunned as he lifted the curtain door to gaze at the starry sky after the rain. ¡°You mean...¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m still not sure. I have to try it out and see.¡± Ren Xiaosu sat down beside Yan Liuyuan. ¡°ording to the legends in town, someone could pull a train out of thin air. I didn¡¯t believe it in the past, but after I met you, I thought that it might be a possibility. Now that I might also have a strange skill, this feels very weird to me.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s skill was luck.


    It was a very baffling skill toprehend. When Yan Liuyuan made a wish for Ren Xiaosu to return from a sessful hunt, a sparrow would mysteriously drop at his feet even though he did not do anything while walking out in the wilderness.


    However, this skill had a side effect. Yan Liuyuan would usually get a fever that would not subside or suffer some other minor illnesses or mishaps after he made a wish.


    This was why Ren Xiaosu wanted to protect Yan Liuyuan at the beginning. At first, he did not believe it. Butter, he had no choice but to ept this truth.


    Suddenly, a shooting star shed across the sky. Yan Liuyuan subconsciously put his hands together to make a wish. However, he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Don¡¯t you go making any wishes. Something is going to happen to you if you do.¡±


    Nowadays, Ren Xiaosu rarely depended on Yan Liuyuan¡¯s luck as he was capable of hunting with great sess. He did not need Yan Liuyuan to cast his skill anymore, and Yan Liuyuan wouldn¡¯t go against his wishes either.


    The skinny Yan Liuyuan watched the shooting star vanished, lost in thought. ¡°Why do shooting starse and go so quickly? What if people can¡¯t make a wish in time?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and answered, ¡°They probably move so quickly because they don¡¯t actually want to listen to anyone¡¯s wishes.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan turned his head and gave Ren Xiaosu a nk stare.


    ...


    Yan Liuyuan was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s night watchman, but it did not mean that he had to keep watch throughout the night. Ren Xiaosu would take turns with him. After all, Yan Liyuan still needed to attend school during the day.


    This was an excruciating situation, as not getting enough sleep was a huge problem. But to survive in such an environment, be it Ren Xiaosu or Yan Liuyuan, they had no choice but to take these actions.


    In the early morning, Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan outside. They took their valuables, including Ren Xiaosu¡¯s big cauldron, with them.


    It was expected for someone to rummage through their shack by the time they returned at night.


    ¡°I heard that the people living in the stronghold don¡¯t shut their doors at night because no one will steal their things.¡± Yan Liuyuan was carrying a bedroll on his back while he looked at Ren Xiaosu holding the cauldron he carried wherever he went. These were almost all of their belongings.


    Yan Liuyuan would usually carry the bedroll with him whenever he went to school. It was almost the same situation with the other students as well. Everyone was ustomed to this.


    ¡°Bullshit.¡± Although Ren Xiaosu looked forward to living in the stronghold, he refused to believe there was a ce where people would leave their doors open at night. ¡°Some people have the mindset that even the farts of those who live in the stronghold smell good and that the air there is sweet.¡±


    ¡°But you still shouldn¡¯t be carrying that cauldron on your back everywhere you go,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°It wasn¡¯t easy for me to get my hands on this cauldron. I can cook meals and catch sparrows with it. If we lose it, how are we going to spend our days?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu held the cauldron over his shoulder with one hand while clutching therge sparrow upside down in his other. Along the way, many people were looking at Ren Xiaosu with envious eyes.


    It was important to realize that humans were no longer at the top of the food chain.


    There were rumors that the sparrows of the past were smaller than the size of a palm. But these days, even a bird like that could kill people by pecking them.


    Not everyone could catch a sparrow or had the patience to lie in wait in the wilderness for an entire day to catch one. They all hadn¡¯t seen meat and fish dishes in a long time, so it would be a lie if they were not envious of Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan to the stronghold¡¯s city gate. The towering walls made them feel miniscule and oppressed.


    Once they reached this ce, there were noticeable changes in the architecture, and they could even see brick houses.


    As they approached the stronghold, the ce began to look cleaner, tidier, and wealthier. The people living here were likely rted to the people living in the stronghold. Perhaps they were good at ttery or had rtives living inside.


    But no matter what, these refugees were all known as ¡°contaminated¡± and were not allowed inside the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu walked into a shop with a ¡°grocery store¡± sign above the entrance. All sorts of items, such as cigarettes, matchsticks, metalware, food, and clothing, were sold in here. But the prices were very expensive.


    The old man in the shop was over the moon when he saw Ren Xiaosu. ¡°That looks like a ratherrge sparrow!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu threw the sparrow onto the ss counter. ¡°How much can I get for this?¡±


    ¡°Oh my, don¡¯t be so rough. That¡¯s an expensive piece of ss you¡¯re throwing it onto,¡± Old Wang said, pained. He picked up the limp sparrow and put it onto the metallic scale beside him. ¡°1.74 kilograms. Not bad, Xiaosu.¡±


    At this moment, the wlike fingers of Old Wang¡¯s wrinkled hands instinctively started making some calctions on an abacus. The abacus beads were pushed around, ticking and tacking. ¡°The market rate today is 200 yuan <sup>1</sup> per 500 grams, so I¡¯ll pay you 700 for this catch!¡±


    ¡°Make it 900.¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°It¡¯s almost winter, and there are fewer sparrows out there these days, so 900 yuan is the lowest I will sell it for.¡±


    Old Wang was unhappy as he pushed his abacus in front of Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°I¡¯ll be sending this sparrow into the stronghold for the aristocracy to eat. Although there¡¯s ack of meat in the stronghold, there¡¯s still a fixed price for everything. We have to do it by the book.¡±


    Right as Old Wang finished speaking, he saw Ren Xiaosu take the sparrow back and get ready to leave the shop. He quickly yanked the sleeve of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ragged jacket. ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to check the price at Old Li¡¯s grocery store,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Old Wang¡¯s grasp tightened even further. Someone from the stronghold¡¯s management had specifically given notice that they would being out to collect exotic animals today. This news wasn¡¯t promulgated to him alone.


    Old Wang smiled, his wrinkles appearing. ¡°How much do you want to sell it for?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu still wanted to leave. ¡°We¡¯ll talk again after I ask around.¡±


    Old Wang smiled amiably. ¡°Then won¡¯t Liuyuan bete for school? Alright, 900 yuan it is!¡±


    ¡°What did you just say?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked calmly.


    ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t Liuyuan bete¡ª¡±


    ¡°The sentence before that.¡±


    ¡°How much do you want to sell it for?¡±


    ¡°1200.¡±


    Old Wang was confused


    A momentter, Old Wang was feeling the pinch as he counted the money. He wet his fingers with his saliva and counted the cash over and over again, afraid that he would get the amount wrong.


    The final transaction price was 1198 yuan. Ren Xiaosu had also given some concessions of his own.


    A sparrow fetching 1198 yuan was not the result of the inted prices, nor was it because of therge size of the sparrow. More importantly, it was because the people in Stronghold 113 did not normally get the chance to eat such exotic animals.


    Things were precious because they were scarce. Old Wang would never make a bad business deal. When he resold this sparrow to a powerful customer, he would still be able to earn a small profit from it and even gain their favor.


    Old Wang stuffed a stash of loose change into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands unwillingly. Nobody knew what he was thinking when he lowered his voice and whispered, ¡°Xiaosu, the next time you catch a sparrow, don¡¯t kill it. Some aristocrats want them alive and will offer an even higher price to buy them in that state!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Why would they want a live sparrow? So that they can kill it themselves?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Old Wang shook his head and said, ¡°You don¡¯t know, right? There are people who keep them as pets!¡±

 Chapter 5 - The school

    <h4>Chapter 5: The school</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°As pets? They¡¯re not buying them to eat?¡± Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. ¡°What a waste! All of the meat on this is great!¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t understand the world that the rich live in.¡± Old Wangughed and said, ¡°I heard that rich people used to keep eagles as pets a few hundred years ago. But haven¡¯t the eagles gotten too big and dangerous now? So the next best thing is the sparrows. Just look at how menacing this sparrow looks. It¡¯s exactly what the rich like.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it for a while. So while there were still a lot of people who didn¡¯t have enough to eat, some people had started keeping sparrows as pets.


    ¡°But I¡¯ll have to sell it for a higher price if they want it alive.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°When this bird is still alive, it can even kill people if you aren¡¯t careful! It¡¯s too dangerous!¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought that if the refugees outside the stronghold were contaminated, wouldn¡¯t the sparrows be contaminated as well? Or did the people in the stronghold only need these refugees to work for them? And the walls, did they naturally divide them into a hierarchy?


    ¡°You can only get rich by taking risks.¡± Old Wang smiled and said, ¡°Since you can wait an entire night hunting, you¡¯re no ordinary person. If you make an effort to catch a live sparrow, you can probably afford to stop working for the next six months. Besides, haven¡¯t you thought about making some money so that you can get a wife?¡±


    ¡°Get a wife? My ass!¡± Ren Xiaosu said petntly.


    Old Wang purposely said in a mysterious tone, ¡°Old Li, who lives next door, has a daughter who¡¯s studying at the same school as your little brother, Liuyuan. She¡¯s a really decent girl....¡±


    ¡°Based on what you said, wouldn¡¯t it be better if I just sold this sparrow to Old Li directly? Would I still need your introduction then?¡± Ren Xiaosu turned his head to Yan Liuyuan and asked, ¡°Is Old Li¡¯s daughter your ssmate?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°She¡¯s quite big.¡±


    ¡°Shoo, go y over there,¡± Old Wang snapped. ¡°Pretend I didn¡¯t say anything since you¡¯re mistaking my kindness for ill intent!¡±


    Seeing that he almost got caught between Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan¡¯s bantering, Old Wang decisively stopped them by changing the topic. ¡°Remember, the next time you catch a live sparrow, you must bring it to me.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Although catching it alive was dangerous, it was not impossible. He looked around the grocery store and asked, ¡°How much are you selling the cotton-padded jacket for?¡±


    ¡°The jackets are new arrivals, and they cost 500 yuan apiece! You should know that I bought them for 490 yuan each. I¡¯m not looking to profit from selling these cotton-padded jackets at all.¡± Old Wang said, ¡°One less death is one life saved, after all.¡±


    ¡°How kind of you,¡± praised Ren Xiaosu nonchntly. ¡°I¡¯ll buy one. Check and see what size Liuyuan should wear.¡±


    ¡°Bro, buy one for yourself too,¡± Yan Liuyuan quickly said.


    ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt when adults are talking.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°I¡¯m not cold.¡±


    Money was a good thing. The organizations that controlled the strongholds issued money to ensure the distribution of goods and materials. Although it was convenient, without it, nothing could be done.


    The winter here was freezing, but he had to put some money aside in case of emergencies. As there was still over a month left until winter, Ren Xiaosu thought that it would not be toote to buy another cotton-padded jacket by then if he could catch another sparrow.


    More importantly, it was time for Yan Liuyuan to pay for his monthly tuition.


    Ren Xiaosu nced around the grocery store again, his gaze arresting at the counter behind Old Wang. ¡°How much are you selling the antibiotics and anti-inmmatory drugs for?¡±


    ¡°You want to buy medicine?¡± Only then did Old Wang notice the bloodstained bandage wrapped around Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. ¡°You¡¯re injured? You really must buy some medicine then. If not, you could get an infection and die!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m asking you how much it is!¡± Ren Xiaosu said impatiently.


    ¡°210 yuan each.¡± Old Wang said, ¡°Antibiotics must be taken for three days straight. I¡¯ll sell you three pills for 620 yuan and give you an application of iodopovidone <sup>1</sup> for free. I only have 10 pills left in stock here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before saying, ¡°How about rounding it down...¡±


    ¡°If by rounding down, you mean removing the zero, shut it,¡± Old Wang snapped.


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips and reluctantly looked away. ¡°Forget it, I¡¯m not buying them. Inmmation is umon during winter.¡±


    He turned around and led Yan Liuyuan to school. When they passed by the grain store, Ren Xiaosu went in and bought a long loaf of ck bread. The ck bread was mixed with something that would make their throats ufortable when swallowed.


    Yan Liuyuan said as he chewed on the ck bread, ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t you also pay for the tuition ande to school since you want to attend sses so much.¡±


    ¡°I still have to go out to hunt.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°About what Old Wang said earlier, there are quite a few well-to-do girls in your school, right? You had better not fall in love at such an early age.¡±


    ¡°I heard that people in the past used to get married when they were around 13 to 14 years old,¡± Yan Liuyuan retorted. Although he had never given such matters any thought before, he found it fun and enjoyable to bicker with Ren Xiaosu.


    Finding joy amid hardship was probably one of the greatest skills that humans had.


    Ren Xiaosu feigned a p upside Yan Liuyuan¡¯s head. ¡°How can wepare what people did in the past? You¡¯re still young. The women you get into a rtionship with now will end up bing someone else¡¯s wife in the future.¡± Ren Xiaosu marveled at the thought. ¡°A rtionship with someone else¡¯s wife sounds quite exciting for some reason....¡±


    ¡°Bro, what are you talking about? Why can¡¯t I understand?¡± said Yan Liuyuan while blinking.


    ¡°Get lost. Stop acting innocent with me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said peeved.


    ...


    The school was the cleanest and tidiest ce in the entire town. It was also the only residence that had its own individual yard.


    Walking in from the outside, properly spaced crops grown in the yard could be seen: scallions, garlic sprouts, potatoes, cabbages, and many others.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that a ce like a school should have bamboo trees growing around it instead. But then again, with food not easily essible these days, it was quite fortunate to have a ce to grow these vegetables. As such, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wish was for Yan Liuyuan to be a teacher when he grew up.


    It was not because he had a lot of respect for teachers, but that he felt that being a teacher was safe. They also had the privilege of having their own yard to grow some vegetables in. Furthermore, no one would ever steal their crops.


    It was such a wonderful thing.


    Generally speaking, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wishes had always been very ¡°simple.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan took his tuition money and went to ss. Ren Xiaosu squatted on top of the wall and listened to what was being taught inside the ssroom. As he could not afford to pay the tuition, he had to eavesdrop like this.


    The teacher would sometimes tell the students stories about how glorious human civilization was in the past. Frankly, however, the teacher had not witnessed such a time either. Whatever he was telling them now were details passed on by word of mouth, so the truth had probably been distorted already.


    Although it was not very reliable, Ren Xiaosu was still fascinated by it.


    At times, Ren Xiaosu would ask Yan Liuyuan questions about information he didn¡¯t understand or hear. This greatly troubled Yan Liuyuan because if he could not answer him, it would show that he did not pay attention during the lessons. Hence, whenever Ren Xiaosu was present to attend the lessons, Yan Liuyuan would be exceptionally attentive during ss.


    For some reason, Yan Liuyuan had to admit that his brother looked rather charming when he was seriously learning. It was no wonder Xiaoyu would throw herself at him.


    The teacher was holding a book in the ssroom as he stared with mncholic eyes at some of the sleeping students. Then he looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was on top of the wall outside the window. He said to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°When you get back today, tell your brother that he cane into the yard and listen to my lessons in the future.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled happily.

 Chapter 6 - Walls and science

    <h4>Chapter 6: Walls and science</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    There was only one teacher who gave sses at the school. His name was Zhang Jinglin.


    Most people felt that the teacher was wise and thought that he knew everything. However, Ren Xiaosu always had doubts since people specialized in different professions, which meant people were usually only good at certain things. So how could it be possible for Mr. Zhang to be omniscient?


    Ren Xiaosu had always been different from most other people as he liked to ponder questions that he came across. Later on, he found out from listening to Mr. Zhang¡¯s lessons that this was known as dialectical logic.


    Yan Liuyuan was sometimes bewildered because Ren Xiaosu would often oppose Mr. Zhang Jinglin¡¯s views, yet he still kepting back to attend sses whenever he had free time.


    During the afternoon ss, Ren Xiaosu specially brought Yan Liuyuan out to celebrate. It wasn¡¯t for any reason other than to celebrate the fact that he could start listening to the lessons from the yard in the future.


    Usually when he squatted on the walls, he was too distant from the ssroom to clearly hear what was being taught. Zhang Jinglin used to like to keep the windows shut during ss as he was afraid that any outsidemotion would affect the students and distract them.


    But after he realized that Ren Xiaosu was eavesdropping from outside the ss, he left a window open for him.


    And now, he might as well just let Ren Xiaosu into the yard.


    Living in this chaotic world, many of the students¡¯ parents sent their children to school not because they wanted them to gain knowledge, but so that they could easily get married in the future. This was especially true for the girls who attended school as they would often marry into good families.


    In this generation, it was impressive to be literate and to handle three-digit calctions.


    Everyone was busy trying to survive, so who would care if you were cultured or not when food was short?


    Hence, most of the parents were sending their children to school not because they had any long-term ns for them. Even in this hamlet, there were poor and rich people. Wherever there were people,parisons were unavoidable.


    Yan Liuyuan saw Ren Xiaosu go into the grocery store to buy a filtered cigarette. Old Wang even proudly mentioned that his cigarettes did not have any additional substances and were very safe to smoke.


    A cigarette costs 20 yuan per stick, extremely expensive.


    Yan Liuyuan asked with suspicion, ¡°Bro, why are you buying a cigarette?¡±


    ¡°Your teacher allowed me to listen to his lessons from the yard. Even if I don¡¯t have to pay tuition, I should still show my gratitude.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I know that Mr. Zhang likes to smoke.¡±


    Whenever someone treated Ren Xiaosu kindly, he would return the gesture.


    While everyone was out in the school¡¯s backyard eating lunch, the two of them took the opportunity to approach Zhang Jinglin. He was eating some stir-fried cabbage when Ren Xiaosu handed the cigarette to him with a grin.


    Zhang Jinglin did not reject it. However, he made Yan Liuyuan stand a distance away from him. ¡°It¡¯s not good for you to inhale cigarette smoke while you¡¯re still growing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thanked him. ¡°Thank you for letting me into the yard to attend your lessons, sir.¡±


    ¡°Phew.¡± Zhang Jinglin lit the cigarette with a match he used for preparing meals at home. Then he blew out a breathful of smoke, looking pleased. ¡°Students who enjoy attending lessons like you are rare. You can attend the lessons if you like. In the future, you can stand at the door, but you¡¯re not allowed to enter the ssroom.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Teacher, I have a question.¡±


    ¡°Speak.¡± Perhaps due to the fact that Zhang Jinglin rarely had the chance to have a smoke, he didn¡¯t mind any questions that Ren Xiaosu had for him.


    ¡°Teacher, you said before that humans had a lot of technology before The Cataclysm happened. Since we humans were not wiped out, why didn¡¯t those technologies reappear?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°For a period of time after The Cataclysm, humans did not keep track of how long they had been drifting along in anarchy. It was good enough to survive each day, so nobody bothered with gaining knowledge and bing a learned person.¡±


    ¡°But we should still have some information left, right? If we learn them, couldn¡¯t we return to civilization quicker?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°It¡¯s be lost through the generations,¡± Zhang Jinglin said in regret. ¡°Let me ask you. If I gave you a set of instructions to construct an airne, would you be able to make one?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯ve learned how to do it before. Although having the instructions can save a lot of time, I¡¯ll still have to start from scratch,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Everyone is starting from scratch.¡± Zhang Jinglin looked at the remaining half of his cigarette, feeling a little pained. It looked like he was deciding on whether to keep smoking.


    He had intended to save the remaining half of the cigarette to smoke at ater time. But if he put out the cigarette in front of Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, wouldn¡¯t it be a loss of face for him?


    Ren Xiaosu was still doubtful. ¡°How could no one have ovee the hardships and gotten into research and building up knowledge again in all those years?¡±


    ¡°Those who attempted all died from starvation,¡± Zhang Jinglin said.


    ¡°Could all of that knowledge really have be lost through the generations?¡± Ren Xiaosu could not ept it.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Ren Xiaosu seriously this time and said pointedly, ¡°They are in the possession of a small number of people.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡± Zhang Jinglin stood up and said, ¡°Don¡¯t pursue this matter any further.. It¡¯s time for ss.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pestered Zhang Jinglin with a final question. ¡°Teacher, when were the walls of the stronghold built? And why did they build them?¡±


    ¡°After The Cataclysm, wild animals ran rampant. A very long time ago, there was even a bug infestation. As such, humans were forced to build tall walls to ward off the danger,¡± Zhang Jinglin exined.


    ¡°But even though animals have evolved, they don¡¯t actually initiate attacks on humans.¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious about this. Monkeys still remained omnivores, and sparrows still loved eating grains, so it was not like they would actively try to make a meal out of humans.


    In the ¡°ring¡± where humanity was living in at Stronghold 113, the majority of the more ferocious animals had actually been isted outside of it.


    The higher the number of a stronghold, the more dangerous a ce it was. For example, the legendary Stronghold 178 would often see many casualties each year as they tried to expel beasts from around their area.


    Meanwhile, Stronghold 113 was considered to be an ¡°ind¡± area.


    There were still many dangers lurking out in the wilderness though, like the wolf pack he had encountered before. However, it wasn¡¯t impossible to ovee them. So then why were there still such towering walls built in a huge gathering ce of humans like this one?


    Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°So long as danger still exists on the outside, refugees must depend on the stronghold to make a living. In this way, the stronghold will gain arge force of cheapbor. Do you think that the organizations controlling the strongholds do not have the ability to eliminate those dangers out there? The firearms and explosives that humans possess are more powerful than you can imagine. But why would they want to eliminate them? They don¡¯t pose any threat to the organizations at all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell deep into thought. Although he was mature beyond his years, there were still some things he hadn¡¯t experienced. As such, it was expected that he could not understand them. This was also the reason why he was so thirsty for knowledge.


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°They won¡¯t topple the walls. Why would groups with a vested interest behind the walls give up a stronghold that gives them a natural ss superiority?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin then went to get a change of clothes. Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Teacher, why did you change your clothes? Your previous set of clothes were not dirty at all.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin adjusted his cor and replied, ¡°The set I was wearing earlier reeks of cigarette smoke. It is not good for the students if they smell it.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s respect for him deepened, but Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little unhappy. ¡°So it¡¯s alright for me to smell it then? It wasn¡¯t like you asked me to stand further away from you just now, right?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin thought for a long while. ¡°Get lost.¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard a voice speak again from the pce in his mind, ¡°Quest: Thirst for knowledge is never a bad thing. But you have to teach other people whatever you¡¯ve learned.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He did not fully understand what this quest required him to do.


    ...


    During the afternoon ss, the students found it very refreshing when they saw Ren Xiaosu, who was a few years older than them, standing outside the door. It made many of the students turn their heads to look at him.


    Zhang Jinglin had to knock on the ckboard several times before he could get the students¡¯ attention. He said, ¡°I¡¯ll be teaching about survival for the afternoon ss.¡±


    This was the current era, and the distinctiveness of school came from not only teaching the arts and sciences, but also teaching survival.


    However, Zhang Jinglin had always felt exasperated when teaching this lesson, because he wasn¡¯t experienced with surviving in the wild.


    Therefore, for most of this lesson, he could only teach it ording to what was written in the books that were preserved from the past.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at the students in the ssroom. ¡°Pay attention and listen in ss. Don¡¯t think that danger is very far from you. For now, your parents are still protecting you. But when you grow up, you have to learn how to protect yourselves. For today¡¯s lesson, we¡¯ll be discussing what you should do if you encounter a pack of wolves.¡±


    The students in ss actually liked listening to the survival lessons the most. The other subjects were still a little boring for their current age group, whereas they found the survival lessons to be the most interesting.


    The ssroom quieted down. Zhang Jinglin looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was standing at the door and listening in on the lesson. ¡°You there, tell us what you do when you encounter a pack of wolves in the wild.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before replying, ¡°I¡¯d try my best to find a slope surrounded by greenery, because that will be the most suitable ce for an auspicious burial ground.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin was surprised.

 Chapter 7 - Substitute teacher

    <h4>Chapter 7: Substitute teacher</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Zhang Jinglin was left speechless by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s answer. However, he wasn¡¯t aware that Ren Xiaosu was also wondering about this right now. Didn¡¯t he teach everyone what he knew? Why was the quest still notplete?


    Could there be something wrong with the knowledge that he imparted?


    ¡°Teacher.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°You probably haven¡¯t seen how huge the wolves in the wild are. Most of the people in town haven¡¯t even seen or dealt with them before, but I did. Don¡¯t mention a pack of wolves. Even if I were just encountering a lone wolf, the oue would still be the same. Choose wherever you want to be buried.¡±


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought that Zhang Jinglin would refute him. After all, the way he answered the question would affect the teacher¡¯s authority and dignity.


    However, Zhang Jinglin thought for a long time before saying, ¡°You can sit in the ssroom for future lessons. You will also be teaching the survival lessons from now on.¡±


    For the first time ever, the school in the town outside Stronghold 113 gained a substitute teacher.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not give any exnation in ss about how he survived despite encountering a lone wolf or wolf pack in the wild.


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.¡±


    ...


    By the end of the day, Ren Xiaosu still could not find an opportunity to use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll he had. He went to school because he liked to gain more knowledge, but the knowledge Zhang Jinglin had would not be very useful for his survival for the time being.


    The first priority Ren Xiaosu had to consider was still survival.


    Therefore, if he could not use the skill scroll, it would be impossible for him to prove whether everything in his mind was purely made up by his own imagination.


    However, Ren Xiaosu kept waiting because he felt that there would still be another quest given.


    Now he hadpleted yet another quest, and he was rewarded with a 1.0 Strength increase. This was a very straightforward figure, and Ren Xiaosu could feel it in his body. He could feel his muscles bulking up slightly underneath his clothes. This was a real supernatural phenomenon as no one could suddenly gain additional muscle strength in a mere tenth of a second.


    With this, Ren Xiaosu was quite sure that his mind pce was indeed a unique type of skill.


    This made Ren Xiaosu ecstatic. In fact, he should have been overjoyed about it long ago, but he was afraid that none of it would turn out to be real.


    A frequent hunter must be highly familiar with their body. They had to know how much they could lift and how fast and hard they could punch or stab with a knife.


    So Ren Xiaosu immediately evaluated his newfound strength. If the average male adult had a strength rating of 3.0, then Ren Xiaosu used to have a strength rating of 2.5.


    As he was only 17 years old, it was quite normal for him to be weaker than an adult. He could survive in this town all these years not because of his strength, but because he was ruthless, alert, and calm enough.


    As his strength surpassed that of the average male adult¡¯s, this meant that his chance of survival in this wastnd increased by arge amount.


    After school, Yan Liuyuan excitedly said, ¡°Bro, now that you¡¯ve be the substitute teacher, maybe you¡¯ll rece Mr. Zhang as our town¡¯s teacher in the future?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu paused. ¡°Indeed, that seems likely. Mr. Zhang also started off as a substitute teacher. It was only after the old teacher passed away that he took over teaching at school.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, everyone in town knows that whoever bes the substitute teacher will likely take over at the school someday. Think about it. Mr. Zhang allowed you into the ssroom to attend the lessons and even made you the substitute teacher. He¡¯s definitely thinking of letting you rece him in the future.¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°If the people in town learn about it, they will have to treat us with more respect next time.¡±


    ¡°That might not be the case.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought and said, ¡°I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s only because he hopes to get more cigarettes to smoke.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan stared at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Bro, are you being serious?¡±


    ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not a bad idea if I really do be the schoolteacher.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°When I get the position, I¡¯ll give it up to you. In that way, you¡¯ll end up bing the schoolteacher instead, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had really never thought about bing a schoolteacher, but it was not because he despised the profession. If he had despised it, he wouldn¡¯t think of handing the position to Yan Liuyuan.


    Instead, he felt that he was not suitable for this profession at all. If he really had no chance to enter the stronghold at some point in the future, then the wilderness would be the only ce left where he could truly belong.


    Ren Xiaosu was imagining a future where he handed the schoolteacher position to Yan Liuyuan as they walked, but he did not notice Yan Liuyuan slowing down. Looking at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back, Yan Liuyuan experienced an indescribable feeling.


    This young man¡¯s hand was still wrapped in bandages, and even though he had a sharp tongue, he would always leave the best for him.


    When Ren Xiaosu turned around and realized that Yan Liuyuan had fallen quite far behind, he barked, ¡°What are you doing? Hurry up!¡±


    ¡°Coming!¡±


    Outside the stronghold, a continuous trail of white smoke was billowing out of the factory chimneys into the sky. As the setting sun shone down onto their backs, it was as though they had nothing in life to worry about.


    ...


    On their way back home, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan suddenly saw a group of peoplee out of the stronghold. There were around 14 of them in the group, and half of them were wearing fanciful clothes of all colors, while the other half was made up of people who donned thebat uniform of the private army employed by the overseers of Stronghold 113. It looked like their trip would be apanied by soldiers, so it was no wonder they dared to head out into a ce like the Jing Mountains.


    These people actually didn¡¯t require guides withbat value. They only needed someone who knew the way.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not assume the private troops were strong just because they were employed by the overseers of Stronghold 113. In fact, he rarely saw these private troops leaving the stronghold, so it could still lead to serious issues as they might not even have any actualbat experience or seen blood before.


    Ren Xiaosu saw some of the private troops smoking filtered cigarettes, which were rarely seen in town.


    A light whiff of cigarette smoke drifted over. Ren Xiaosu could distinctly smell a weird odor. He remembered Old Wang mentioning that many of the cigarettes given out by the factories had addictive substances added into them to give people a high.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled why the private troops would smoke something like that when their profession required them to keep a clear mind.


    He had witnessed people go crazy from smoking these cigarettes, and the private troops only seemed to be smoking the better quality ones.


    Slowly, a crowd in town gathered. This was because these people had such clean faces that it sharply contrasted the faces of those in town.


    ¡°Bro, is water so abundant in the stronghold that they can wash their faces every day?¡± Yan Liuyuan blinked with a shimmer in his eyes.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to envy them. The grease on our faces acts as a protectiveyer for our skin,¡± Ren Xiaosu consoled without actually trying.


    But then he noticed a unique presence among that group of people. There was a girl wearing a cap so low he could not tell how old she was. She was dressed in rtively normal clothes that looked loose but fitting.


    Ren Xiaosu focused on her because it felt like an encounter with a beast in the wild the moment he saw her.


    Something was fishy about these people, and Ren Xiaosu trusted his intuition.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan stopped in their tracks, watching from afar. They vaguely knew that this group of people was making inquiries about something with Old Wang from the grocery store.


    They could hear Old Wang saying loudly, ¡°If y¡¯all are going to the Jing Mountains, you must look for Ren Xiaosu. Without him, you definitely can¡¯t pass through. Besides, there are also wolves out there in the wilderness. Might I suggest that you don¡¯t take that route?¡±


    A soldier in the private army sneered, ¡°Those wolves will be scared off when they hear our gunshots. Why would we need to worry about them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. So the wolves were actually afraid of gunshots? This was probably due to the natural instincts of such wild animals. As he had never seen a firearm before, he wasn¡¯t sure if the other party was telling the truth. However, some doubts still remained.


    Another member of the private army asked, ¡°Who is Ren Xiaosu? We don¡¯t care how skillful he is atbat as long as he knows the way.¡±


    ¡°Oh, Ren Xiaosu is well-known for being the best hunter in town. He knows most of the routes, so it¡¯ll be perfectly fine if you get him to lead the way.¡± Old Wang smiled and said, ¡°Take my word for it, he¡¯s definitely the right choice. But there¡¯s something wrong with that kid¡¯s head....¡±


    Having heard all this, Ren Xiaosu turned around and led Yan Liuyuan away. ¡°Is Old Wang¡¯s son in your ss too? That fat kid?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan gasped at him. ¡°Bro, you shouldn¡¯t involve his family members....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he had wanted to steer clear of this issue. However, he never expected that Old Wang would deliberately rmend himself to this mysterious band.

 Chapter 8 - Something really is wrong with his head

    <h4>Chapter 8: Something really is wrong with his head</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    As night fell, the people in town gradually returned to their homes. Those living in houses would keep their doors shut while those living in shacks would conceal themselves behind curtain doors.


    When Ren Xiaosu came back in the evening, he heard that a man working at the rubber factory had been stabbed to death after returning from work. It was said that someone learned about that man¡¯s habit of saving money, so someone got evil intentions.


    The people in town liked living together to look out for each other. Friends, brothers, and couples stayed together and took turns to keep watch throughout the night. In a way, this gave them a better sense of security. This was also how Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan teamed up together at the beginning.


    But some people fell victim to the people they partnered with.


    The assants were often shortsighted as they did not realize that after harming their partners, no one would ever trust them again.


    The assants who ended up alone this way would usuallye to a bad end.


    Ren Xiaosu sat in his shack and unwrapped the bandage from his hand. He frowned when he saw the condition of the wound. The flesh around it was red and swollen. This was a sign of inmmation. When he looked up and saw Yan Liuyuan walking over, he hurriedly rewrapped the bandage around his hand.


    ¡°Bro, how¡¯s your injury?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Ren Xiaosu calmly said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you. Let me have a look,¡± Yan Liuyuan said as he tried to remove the bandage that Ren Xiaosu had just rewrapped.


    ¡°I said that I¡¯m fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu pushed Yan Liuyuan away. ¡°If it gets bad, I¡¯ll go and buy medicine.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me. You tried to endure it the previous time,¡± Yan Liuyuan said in agony.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I won¡¯t treat my life as a joke.¡±


    In nature, predators didn¡¯t usually go hunting on a whim because they understood one principle: If they got injured even slightly, it could spell death.


    If even animals could understand this, how could Ren Xiaosu not?


    ¡°Eh, bro, there are two potatoes hidden under the chair. Oh, there are even three pills here too. Aren¡¯t these the anti-inmmatory pills that you wanted to buy today? They look just like the ones we saw at the store.¡± Yan Liuyuan was surprised. ¡°Did you put them there?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head as he looked at the three pills. ¡°These sure are anti-inmmatory pills.¡±


    ¡°Then Big Sister Xiaoyu must have been the one who put them there. She was the only one I told about your injury.¡± Yan Liuyuan grinned as he handed a potato to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu is so good to you. Why don¡¯t you marry her?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did a double take. ¡°You really change your stance quickly, huh? When she gives us something to eat, you praise her. But when there¡¯s nothing, you start badmouthing her.¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Yan Liuyuan chomped on the potato noisily. They usually wouldn¡¯t get any dinner. Ren Xiaosu said that one had to eat a hearty breakfast and a full lunch, but eating at night was bad for the body.


    This was a saying passed down from before The Cataclysm. Actually, Ren Xiaosu knew the reason for not eating any supper in the present was due to the fact that they were poor.


    ¡°Bro.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around. He suddenly noticed that Yan Liuyuan had his head down and sounded a little sad. He asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    ¡°Do you still remember when you came back here after getting attacked by a wolf packst year? Someone secretly gave us some medicine that ended up helping you survive the ordeal,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    ¡°Of course I remember. I¡¯ve always been trying to find out who that person was,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu probably also gave us those pill.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°The hiding spot of the pills is exactly the same.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got lost in thought.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard footstepsing from outside.


    There were a lot of people.


    It was very rare for people to travel on the streets of the town at night. But Ren Xiaosu had already guessed who they were and what their motive was.


    ...


    The reason why the band needed to go via the Jing Mountains this time was just as Ren Xiaosu had predicted. The soldiers of the private army were indeed on another mission. Stronghold 113¡¯s overseers had found some information that proved that the Jing Mountains were actually formed after a severe tectonic movement of the Earth¡¯s tes, so this could mean that something from before The Cataclysm could still be found there.


    The group had learned about Ren Xiaosu from Old Wang¡¯s grocery store. Although they had some hesitations over his ¡°mental illness,¡± they asked some other sources as well, and almost everyone felt that Ren Xiaosu was the best candidate to act as their guide.


    Some of them even wondered what was so great about this Ren Xiaosu that made him so well-known in town!


    Driven by curiosity, they continued making further inquiries. Finally, they got an ambivalent answer: Ren Xiaosu seemed to be the only person around here to have survived an attack by wolves and still make it back to town alive.


    Last year, when Ren Xiaosu returned to town after a hunting session, he was almost at death¡¯s door. His body was bleeding from the wounds that the wolves had inflicted on him with their ws.


    No matter how vicious the people in town were, they would not do something bad to a dying youth. Everyone looked on with indifference from the sidelines.


    Even though everyone thought that Ren Xiaosu would surely die that night, he unexpectedly pulled through and even lived well until now.


    The band members were interested in learning how that youth had managed to survive. Old Wang smiled and said that it was entirely because of Yan Liuyuan, who went door-to-door to beg for food on his knees. In the end, Ren Xiaosu survived. It even seemed like someone had given him some medicine, but no one knew who it was.


    Everyone in town knew that Ren Xiaosu had survived through that ordeal, but it also left him with a sickness in the head from that day onwards.


    ¡°By the way, Wang Fugui,¡± a person from the group said to the apanying Old Wang, ¡°What do you mean by ¡®there¡¯s something wrong with his head¡¯?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing. I was just saying.¡± Old Wang said with a grin as wrinkles appeared on his face, ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal. It¡¯s not anything serious. Look, his ce is right ahead.¡±


    Old Wang only dared to tread the streets at night if he was tagging along with these important people who hailed from the stronghold. At this moment, he deliberately spoke in a louder voice as though he purposely wanted to let the townspeople know that he, Old Wang, had a fantastic rtionship with these important people of the stronghold.


    ¡°Xiaosu, hurry out. You have VIPs,¡± Old Wang shouted with augh.


    Suddenly, the shack¡¯s curtain door was thrown aside.


    Ren Xiaosu happily grasped Old Wang¡¯s hands and said to him, ¡°Congrattions! Father and child are both fine! The baby weighs 3.24 kilograms!¡±


    Old Wang was confused, as were the band and the soldiers of the private army.


    A band member pointed at Ren Xiaosu and looked at Old Wang. ¡°How can you call this alright when he¡¯s so mentally ill?!¡±


    Besides, what the hell did he mean by father and child are both fine? Wasn¡¯t it supposed to be mother and child are both fine?!


    That band member said angrily, ¡°Wang Fugui, do you know what the consequences of lying to us are? Is this what you call alright?¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the band members turned around and left. They had had some expectations for the legendary Ren Xiaosu, but in the end, they found out that he was just a lunatic.


    No wonder the people in town said that there was something wrong with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s head. There, didn¡¯t what they say turn out to be true?

 Chapter 9 - Ask me if theres anything you dont understand

    <h4>Chapter 9: Ask me if there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t understand</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the entrance of his shack as he watched the band leave. Old Wang was still at their side apologizing to them, ¡°Although there¡¯s something wrong with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s head, this is not what it¡¯s like. Please let me exin...¡±


    The band member did not bother listening to his exnation. ¡°Wang Fugui, I¡¯m giving you six hours to get me a suitable candidate. Even if there¡¯s nothing wrong with this kid, we won¡¯t be using him. We¡¯ll be setting off at dawn, so don¡¯t screw up our ns!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood happily at the shack¡¯s entrance and watched themotion as though he had nothing to do with it. But unexpectedly, the girl wearing the cap turned around and looked at him. Ren Xiaosu suddenly had a feeling that he had been figured out.


    He could not even see the expression of the girl under her cap, yet he felt his heart throb for some reason.


    Ren Xiaosu subconsciously activated and used his Skill Duplication Scroll. A voice intoned from the pce, ¡°One of the target¡¯s skills will be randomly copied.¡±


    ¡°Randomly copied?¡±


    ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s firearms skill. Do you want to learn it?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Seeing the Skill Duplication Scroll disappear, Ren Xiaosu thought that if he did not learn it, it would have gone to waste.


    ¡°Learning sessful. You¡¯ve mastered the Advanced Firearms Proficiency.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute, didn¡¯t I get a basic scroll? How did I master Advanced Firearms Proficiency? Shouldn¡¯t I learn a skill at the basic level at most?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered in his mind.


    ¡°There are only two types of Skill Duplication Scrolls. The first type is the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll, which you can use to learn any skill advanced and lower. The second type of scroll is the Master Skill Duplication Scroll, which you can use to learn a master-level skill, provided you¡¯ve also attained the advanced level of the skill. There is also the chance of copying a target¡¯s superpowers,¡± answered the voice from the pce.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned to learn that he could also duplicate another¡¯s superpowers! He then remembered the girl and asked, ¡°Can you tell me the level of that girl¡¯s firearms skill?¡±


    ¡°Yes, this information can be revealed if it¡¯s a target you¡¯ve learned from.¡±


    ¡°What is the level of her firearms skill proficiency? Master?¡±


    ¡°Perfect.¡±


    ...


    The Basic Skill Duplication Scroll allowed the user to learn a random basic or advanced skill of the target. Meanwhile, the Master Skill Duplication Scroll allowed for a master-level skill to be learned, provided that particr skill was in the advanced level. There was even a chance of learning the other party¡¯s superpower.


    These levels were entirely judged by the pce itself. Although the pce mentioned something about a sess chance, Ren Xiaosu got a little excited at the possibility of learning other people¡¯s superpowers.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan had once discussed whether some superpowers were superior to others. Some people were born fighters while others were born a little weaker.


    A person like Ren Xiaosu, who needed to survive in the wilderness, would feel that an offensive superpower was more powerful. However, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s skill depended on the element of luck, so he couldn¡¯t partake in battles. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu was insistent in his belief that there were only different types of superpowers; none was superior to another.


    But now, a skill that could copy someone else¡¯s skills? Just how superior was that!


    However, Ren Xiaosu was puzzled about that girl wearing a cap.


    When Ren Xiaosu received the Advanced Firearms Proficiency, arge amount of firearms knowledge was channeled into his mind. It was as though the knowledge had been integrated into him. He gained an instinctive feel for the subject.


    What he possessed was not only the knowledge of all the different types and models of firearms, their disassembly, maintenance, and usage, but also a near instinctive feel for aiming them.


    Ren Xiaosu even knew how much recoil each type of gun had. If he was handed a gun right now, as long as it was covered by the advanced firearms knowledge that he had gained, he would be no different from a professional who had trained for years.


    Regarding uracy, getting a score of 9.5 and above at a range of 100 meters seemed to be the standard for the Advanced Firearms Proficiency.


    This surprised Ren Xiaosu a little, but not to the extent of being ecstatic yet. After all, he did not have a gun in his hand. What shocked him even more was that his mind pce had evaluated the girl¡¯s firearms skill as perfect.


    Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t imagine how amazing the master-level skill was, much less think about what he could do if he perfected the skill.


    Someone like her was in a band?


    It seemed that those soldiers of the private army and band members were not aware that such a terror existed in their group. Ren Xiaosu realized earlier that everyone treated her as a normal member of the group.


    The girl had probably not expected that Ren Xiaosu would use such a mysterious method to gain ess to her secret.


    He made a wise decision to get out of joining this group for their mission. At the same time, Ren Xiaosu derived great pleasure from finding out about someone else¡¯s secret.


    ¡°Bro, why do you keep staring at her back? Yan Liuyuan asked as he stuck his head out of the shack.


    Ren Xiaosu grinned from ear to ear. He turned around and looked at Yan Liuyuan. Just when he was about to behave like an elder brother with authority, the curtain door from next door was lifted. A woman asked, ¡°Whose back? Where?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu were stunned. The person who came out from the shack next door turned out to be Xiaoyu!


    Yan Liuyuan wondered, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, why are you in the shack next door?¡±


    Xiaoyubed her hair and said with a smile, ¡°I moved here and will be your neighbor from now on.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s the family of three who were living here?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Where¡¯ve they gone?¡±


    ¡°I switched houses with them,¡± Xiaoyu exined.


    Yan Liuyuan pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and whispered, ¡°Bro, Big Sister Xiaoyu has made a big investment this time. She used to live in a brick house!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything as he lowered his head and went straight back into the shack. Yan Liuyuan smiled at Xiaoyu before withdrawing his head back into the shack as well.


    ¡°Bro, you¡¯re still a virgin, right?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    Ren Xiaosu stared at Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Liuyuan, since you¡¯re not young anymore, I wish to educate you about this.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan sat bolt upright and turned serious. ¡°Alright, Bro, ask me if there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t understand¡ª¡±


    Before Yan Liuyuan could finish, he was kicked to the ground by Ren Xiaosu. But Yan Liuyuan did not get angry. He just keptughing.


    ¡°You¡¯ve really grown bolder, huh?¡± Ren Xiaosuid the bed and said, ¡°Do your best to not provoke Big Sister Xiaoyu, and don¡¯t try to matchmake us. We can¡¯t even handle ourselves, so where will we get the time to worry about others?¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Yan Liuyuan replied obediently. ¡°But she gave us some potatoes and medicine, and she¡¯s also very concerned about you. Are you really going to ignore her?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before saying, ¡°The most important things about being human are to be honest and have a clear conscience. But if we ever feel a pang in our conscience, we must convince ourselves that it isn¡¯t so.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was confused.


    When Ren Xiaosu started speaking, Yan Liuyuan got ready to get lectured by him. But by the time Ren Xiaosu finished, Yan Liuyuan couldn¡¯t be more dumbfounded.


    Perhaps this was just how Ren Xiaosu was.


    In an era like this, a person like Ren Xiaosu would probably survive better than most people. However, Yan Liuyuan did not mind at all the kind of person Ren Xiaosu was. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s constant fussing and cautiousness was all due to the lessons and experience he gained through the many scars that he received in the past.


    However, Yan Liuyuan knew that Ren Xiaosu still kept some of the things he wanted to say filed away.

 Chapter 10 - Side quest

    <h4>Chapter 10: Side quest</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    At this moment, a rough voice came from outside the shack. It was directed to their new neighbor, Xiaoyu. ¡°Xiaoyu, I only found out you moved here when I went over to visit you just now. I brought you cigarettes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan looked at each other and frowned. They heard Xiaoyu say, ¡°I don¡¯t provide that kind of service anymore.¡±


    ¡°Haha!¡± It was as though that person with a rough voice had heard something funny. ¡°If you don¡¯t do that kind of thing anymore, how are you going to survive? Who will supply you with cigarettes in the future?¡±


    ¡°Let go of me!¡± Xiaoyu sounded angry. The two of them had apparentlye to blows Something ripped. It sounded like someone¡¯s clothes had been torn.


    When Yan Liuyuan turned to look at Ren Xiaosu, he saw that Ren Xiaosu was still frowning. Then he said in a whisper, ¡°Bro, go and help her.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood up and untied the bone knife from his calf. Raising it aloft, he walked out of the shack.


    Right at this moment, the keys of the brass typewriter within Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind pce started typing words onto the leather parchment. The voice from the magnificent pce intoned at the same time, ¡°Quest: Help¡ª¡±


    He sneered in his mind and interrupted the voice from the pce. ¡°Even without this quest, I¡¯ll still help her.¡±


    From the time that Ren Xiaosu came out of his shack holding the knife, it took just two seconds for him to rush up to that man.


    Ren Xiaosu did not say any threatening words like ¡°let her go¡± or ¡°touch her again if you dare¡± because he knew that any unnecessary actions could lead to failure.


    All he needed to do was to use the simplest solution to solve the simplest problem.


    When Ren Xiaosu¡¯s slim but strong figure came sprinting over like a cheetah, the man promptly drew a knife from his waist and shed at Ren Xiaosu. Everyone in town would carry a self-defense weapon on their person.


    The man started tough mockingly in his mind because he was almost a head taller than Ren Xiaosu. Further, he was holding an actual metal weapon, not just some bone knife.


    However, in the next moment, his ridiculingughter halted.


    It wasmon knowledge that a metal weapon would reign over a bone knife even though the wild beasts had gained a skeletal structure as strong as steel.


    But being as strong as steel did not mean that it was steel.


    Melee weapons were not banned in town, but it was almost impossible to obtain a good metal weapon. Even though some industries were slowly catching back up to the standards before The Cataclysm, they were still limited by ack of resources at present.


    Ren Xiaosu appeared before the man in a sh. His sprint had started off with his left leg hitting the ground while the muscles in his right leg tensed up and supported his body weight. Both of his feet now gripped the ground as he concentrated all of his strength there for maximum push off. Then, like an electric current, he let this strength surge through him from his waist up and into his arms.


    Ren Xiaosu swung his knife diagonally upwards so hard that he almost shed a crack right into the darkness of the night, cutting a gully across thend.


    ng! The bone knife and the metal weapon collided with each other. The onlookers who were secretly watching were astonished when they saw the two knives break in half at the same time. They had only expected the bone knife to break!


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu threw the bone knife aside without hesitation as the man was caught by surprise. This action of throwing the knife away was done in a swift motion after the swing. It was as though Ren Xiaosu had expected it to break. It was obvious he had other ns from the start.


    He grabbed the man¡¯s wrist and punched him hard with his other hand right in his axiry nerve <sup>1</sup> .


    The man tried to break free from his grasp but suddenly realized that the young man was much stronger than him!


    How could this be? Wasn¡¯t his opponent young? This young man probably only stood as tall as his neck!


    However, when the man noticed the tough muscles around Ren Xiaosu¡¯s neck, he realized that it was pure strength.


    The axiry nerve ran about three centimeters around the upper arm and the armpit, but the punch did not need tond precisely because the size of the fist was enough to cover any deviation.


    This area is one of the human body¡¯s weaknesses. When the axiry nerve receives heavy trauma <sup>1</sup> , neuropathy <sup>2</sup> can ur. Considering the nerve as an electrical cable, such a trauma can cause the axiry nerve to generate an uncontrolled release of electrical signals that can interfere with urate signal transmission. When the brain gets overloaded by such signals, it will send out a pain signal. The signal overload also causes the limbs to receive a confused jumble of signals. The body then begins to secreterge amounts of calcium and potassium ions in reaction, and the resulting electrical overload is enough to paralyze the entire body for a second!


    The man let out a scream as he fell to the ground, his limbs twitching uncontrobly. When he finally realized what was going on, he did not have any strength left to take on Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu stood silently beside him and looked like he was thinking about something. The man panted for a while before begging for mercy. ¡°I won¡¯t bear a grudge. Please let me go. I¡¯ll forget about today¡¯s incident.¡±


    Any smart person would know that their life was in the hands of Ren Xiaosu. So he shouldn¡¯t hoot and holler rudely and unreasonably, but to leave it forter instead.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xiaoyu. ¡°Who is he?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a foreman of the coal mine. He was also the one who led the group that stabbed a person to death in townst night. Since he heard that man had a habit of saving money, he started getting ideas since he had gambling debts.¡± Xiaoyu revealed what the man had told herst night when he boasted about the incident to her.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over to the road and picked up the man¡¯s metal weapon. Then he walked back next to the man. As he stared down at him in contempt, he estimated there to be at most four to five seconds before the man would regain his mobility.


    Suddenly, the voice from the pce that had been silent for a while intoned again. ¡°Quest: Set your foe free.¡±


    But just as the voice from the pce started trailing off, Ren Xiaosu crouched down and jabbed the metal weapon into the man¡¯s stomach. The sharp sound of the metal weapon tearing through leather and skin left every onlooker or anyone eavesdropping with a tingling sensation on their scalps. Then the man started bleeding profusely.


    ¡°You have around three minutes. If you can reach the town¡¯s clinic in time and get it stitched up, there might still be a chance for you to survive,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    When the man heard that, he stopped caring about the pain. He immediately got up and ran towards the clinic without another word.


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    ¡°Due to the loss of your weapon, a special side quest has been activated....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned even before he finished listening. The first quest should be rted to him saving Xiaoyu, so he could understand why it was sessfullypleted. He did not expect for the second quest to also be consideredplete.


    How the hell does this pce make judgments?!


    Yan Liuyuan asked from beside him, ¡°Bro, you¡¯re letting him go just like that? What if he recovers after getting stitched up at the clinic andes back to take revenge on you? He¡¯s not a good person at all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stared into the night. ¡°As if that shitty clinic in town knows how to stitch someone up.¡±


    ¡°Bro, seeing how you¡¯re still so ruthless, I can rest easy.¡±


    Because of this, Ren Xiaosu was relieved that the quest was consideredplete even though that man was definitely going to die. Moreover, even if he did not die, that rusty metal knife was still a potent weapon for causing tetanus. Even if he could survive the injury, he might as well be dead.


    Although that man had a metal weapon, he could only afford to get the cheapest type. Ren Xiaosu would probably not have broken the knife otherwise.


    A person like Ren Xiaosu had a personal set of principles that he would not stray from. Even though he had a superpower now, it would not change his way of doing things.


    If he had to change, it would due to his own free will. No one else could make him do it.


    Therefore, it seemed that the criteria for whether a quest wasplete was not that strict? What the pce really cared about was...the attitude that Ren Xiaosu disyed?


    At this moment, some people in the shacks along the road started whispering. In fact, over the years, they learned how ruthless Ren Xiaosu was. Nheless, they were shocked by today¡¯s events.


    This was because the physiques of the twobatants today were too different. Besides, the strength disyed by Ren Xiaosu was by no means inferior to the foreman¡¯s. In fact, he was probably even stronger than the other guy.


    It was unbelievable.


    Someone muttered softly in one of the shacks, ¡°See, I said not to provoke him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu went to pick up the bone knife that had apanied him for over a year. Its lifespan had finallye to an end.


    He turned around and looked at Xiaoyu. In the night, Xiaoyu looked a little delicate. Xiaoyu was, in fact, eight years older than Ren Xiaosu, but right now, it looked more like she was younger than Ren Xiaosu by eight years.


    Ren Xiaosu bluntly asked, ¡°Can you quit smoking?¡±


    Xiaoyu nodded vigorously.


    ¡°Those things aren¡¯t that addictive since they¡¯ve only added a tiny amount of poppy pods to it. Old Wang mentioned that the proportion of added substance is very low, so it¡¯s still possible to quit if you really want to,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he walked to the door of Xiaoyu¡¯s shack and crouched down. He thrust half of his white bone knife ruthlessly into the mud, leaving only a small portion of it above ground.


    The onlookers who had some unscrupulous thoughts for Xiaoyu immediately dropped the idea.


    In the town, this half of the bone knife now symbolized a certain someone¡¯s will. No one was willing to make any rash decisions and end up offending the ruthless Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to Xiaoyu, ¡°But there¡¯s something I want to make clear. Although I¡¯m very handsome, although I¡¯m... It¡¯s impossible between us....¡±


    Xiaoyu looked stunned. ¡°I¡¯ve only seen you as a little brother.¡±


    It was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be stunned. ¡°Hahahaha, this is so awkward.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately led Yan Liuyuan back to their shack. He stared at Yan Liuyuan as they walked back. It¡¯s all your fault for always babbling nonsense about that to me!


    Yan Liuyuan surreptitiously turned around and winked at Xiaoyu. When Xiaoyu saw Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face, she startedughing. All her unhappy feelings seemed to vanish into thin air.


    She squatted on the ground and stared at that half of the bone knife for a long time before heading to sleep with a smile on her face.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu closed his eyes and took a detailed observation of the inside of the pce. He also checked out what the typewriter had typed onto the leather parchment.


    A side quest? How interesting!

 Chapter 11 - Easily worth millions

    <h4>Chapter 11: Easily worth millions</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Getting two Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls was extremely useful to Ren Xiaosu. He had always thirsted for knowledge. With just one of these scrolls, he could now readily learn an existing skill from someone. As such, Ren Xiaosu regarded them as treasures.


    Although it was used to learn a random skill, and he might end up learning something useless, the Advanced Firearms Proficiency he learned had already given him a sweet taste of things toe.


    However, what attracted Ren Xiaosu toe to explore the pce was not these two Skill Duplication Scrolls, but what the pce had mentioned at the end...a side quest!


    Since it was only a side quest, then it should not be something too important or was something that took a brief amount of time toplete.


    However, Ren Xiaosu clearly heard what the voice from the pce had said at that time: ¡°Due to the loss of your weapon, a special...¡±


    So this quest had something to do with a weapon, right?


    In the long time that Ren Xiaosu had been going out into the wilderness, he understood well the importance of having a good weapon. Old Wang once bought a steel knife and wanted to resell it to Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t afford it even after trying to earn and save money for half a year.


    In the end, Old Wang sold that knife to a manager at the chemical nt. A factory manager was usually selected by the stronghold from among the refugees to take a leadership role. In a way, they could be considered people who enjoyed the benefits as followers of those in power within the stronghold.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu thought how great it would be if he could get his hands on a good weapon soon. Then he would not have to lie in the wilderness every day to wait to catch sparrows. It was getting much harder to wait for the birds. It was tormenting him.


    If he got his hands on a knife, he could totally go out and hunt for some other wild animals such as rabbits, field mice, bamboo rats, etc.


    Yes, even rabbits were considered wild animals <sup>1</sup> now.


    Rabbits in the wilderness would not attack humans, but they were very strong and could reach the height of an adult¡¯s shins. Ren Xiaosu once dug a trap that was about two meters deep and a rabbit fell into it. However, when Ren Xiaosu approached it, the rabbit hopped straight out of the pit and even kicked him in the head while in midair. Ren Xiaosu nearly suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the leather parchment in the typewriter: ¡°Due to the loss of your weapon, a special side quest has been activated: Collect 100 sincere gratitudes to unlock a new weapon. In addition, you can use the gratitudes gained in exchange for items.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked bewildered. Why does this side quest feel so weird?


    Collect gratitudes? And they had to be sincere too?


    It should be easy for him to collect thanks, but this was made difficult by the fact that they needed to be sincere.


    Besides, thanks could even be used as currency? More importantly, what kinds of items could it purchase?


    He continued reading the leather parchment and was astonished to see new words appearing on it from time to time.


    ¡°Gratitude received from Li Xiaoyu, +1.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was pleased to know that he had not saved an ingrate. There shouldn¡¯t be any mistakes with the pce¡¯s judgment.


    At this moment, he noticed another line of words in fine print on the leather parchment¡ªWeapon Unlock: 1/100.


    Ren Xiaosu felt unfortunate. If only he were required to collect negative emotions instead, that would have been great. He knew that he could easily cause the entire townspeople to max out on their negativity for him with no effort at all!


    But he would have to make do with what the pce needed him to do. Now, Ren Xiaosu was looking forward to getting his hands on his future weapon.


    An item given by the mysterious pce would definitely not be inferior.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Liuyuan, say thank you to me.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. ¡°Bro, don¡¯t be like this. You¡¯re making me a little scared.¡±


    ¡°What are you scared of?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped. ¡°Hurry up and say it.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan thought for a while and said, ¡°Thank you for taking care of me all this while.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Yan Liuyuan, +1.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. Is it this simple?


    ¡°C¡¯mon, thank me a few more times,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly felt at a loss for words. ¡°Er... thank you....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was disappointed this time. It looked like he could not keep getting thanked repeatedly. The main focus was still on the gratitude needing to be sincere. He raised his head in dissatisfaction and looked at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°You¡¯re not being sincere!


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not right. Your emotions are not correct, say it again.


    ¡°It¡¯s still not right. You have to let your emotions build up. Come,e... yes, yes, yes, this is the expression.


    ¡°Try it again, sincerity can work wonders....


    ¡°Try again, put more emotion into the way you say it....¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nearly copsed. He said with a dry mouth, ¡°Bro, this is your skill? It feels like your skill really takes a toll on the voice.¡±


    On this very night, Ren Xiaosu insisted on testing the gratitude system with Yan Liuyuan throughout the night. In the end, he still only received one sincere gratitude from him.


    But with this gratitude, he now had two token coins in total. The token had a heart engraved on it with line of words on the reverse side: ¡°A grateful heart, thankful to you for apanying me in life and giving me the courage to be myself. A grateful heart, thankful for fate. As flowers bloom and wither, I remain appreciative.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips, thinking that it flowed well.


    At this moment, the showroom cabs in the pce that were originally shrouded in a ck mist saw some changes. On the left side of the typewriter, the ck mist finally dissipated from one of the cabs and revealed something within. A vending machine.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for quite a while. He wondered what its function was since this was the first time he saw it. He hadn¡¯te across something like it before in the outside world as no such thing existed in the current day.


    However, he knew what the words on the vending machine said: coin slot.


    There were no other options on it. Since there was only a coin slot avable, he did not need to think further and just inserted a token into it.


    Clink. The token with a heart engraving was slotted into the machine. Then it started to activate with a rumble. After that, a small bottle about the size of a palm rolled out.


    Ren Xiaosu took it out and had a look. The vial was onlybeled with the word ¡°drug.¡±


    ¡°Come on, you should at least tell me what illness this is for, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. When he thought about it and opened his eyes, he was holding the vial of medicine in his hand. But when that thought vanished, the vial of medicine disappeared as well.


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned at the sight. ¡°Bro, are you performing magic?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ignored him. He decisively pulled off the cloth bandaging the wound on his hand to reveal an already infected wound.


    Extravasated blood had surrounded the wound for quite a while now, and interstitial fluid was continuously flowing out. Ren Xiaosu knew that if he did not apply medicine to it in time, the wound would fester, and he would go down with a fever soon after.


    When Yan Liuyuan saw this, he immediately stood up and walked out. Ren Xiaosu pulled him back. ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll go and buy medicine for you,¡± Yan Liuyuan stubbornly said.


    ¡°No need for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu picked up the vial and swabbed a little bit of the ointment in it with his index finger before applying it carefully onto his wound. This vial of ointment was notrge and was even very shallow. It looked like it was probably just enough for three dosages.


    After applying it, Ren Xiaosu felt a little regretful. The vial was onlybeled with the word ¡°drug,¡± but what if it turned out to be poisonous?


    However, his worries did note to pass. After applying the ointment onto the wound, Ren Xiaosu immediately felt the initial burning sensation in the wound disappear.


    The anti-inmmatory medicine given by Xiaoyu had been saved since he no longer needed it. Anti-inmmatory medicine must be taken for three days straights, while this ointment immediately worked wonders. An anti-inmmatory pill was worth 200 yuan each, and Ren Xiaosu roughly estimated that if he were to use this vial of ointment in ce of the anti-inmmatory medicine, its value would be...easily worth millions!


    Then Ren Xiaosu spun around and looked at Yan Liuyuan. He firmly demanded, ¡°Help me think! What can I do to quickly gain other people¡¯s gratitude?¡±

 Chapter 12 - A grateful heart, thankful to you

    <h4>Chapter 12: A grateful heart, thankful to you</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu had a very serious discussion with Yan Liuyuan on what they could do to quickly reap the gratitudes. As he was a very ¡°down-to-earth¡± person, once he learned how valuable each of these sincere gratitudes was, he understood that he needed to have them.


    It was just that Yan Liuyuan felt that Ren Xiaosu had used the phrase ¡°down-to-earth¡± in the wrong sense.


    ¡°Bro, I think that you can go out and perform some good deeds.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be the most direct method to gain other people¡¯s sincere gratitude? For example, you can hand out food to hungry people or give out water to the thirsty.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu red at him. ¡°Am I such a person? If I give them food and water, what would I have left to eat and drink? And what will you have to eat and drink!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said resentfully, ¡°Then, bro, please don¡¯t expect to get any sincere gratitude from anyone!¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu rejected Yan Liuyuan¡¯s statement. ¡°There must be other ways!¡±


    Since a long time ago, Ren Xiaosu knew that the current era was not kind to humans. Or rather, it was also very difficult for humans to treat other humans with true kindness.


    There was once a beggar in town, and a kindhearted girl would bring him something to eat every day.


    But after the girl got married, she no longer sent him any more food.


    The beggar pursued the girl to her home and asked her why she did not give him food anymore. In the end, he was thrown out by her family as that girl¡¯s husband was not as kind as her.


    Everyone thought that the matter would end there. Some people in town even purposely went to mock the beggar and wanted to see when he would starve to death. But on that very night, the beggar made his way back to where the girl lived and murdered the couple.


    Ren Xiaosu always felt that there was a much greater philosophy in life behind these events. But as he was still young back then, he only had a vague understanding that he had to be careful when sleeping at night.


    ...


    The next morning, a hubbub mored from the streets. Ren Xiaosu got up and lifted up the curtain door to have a look outside. He was surprised to see the people from the band making their way out of town with an acquaintance next to them.


    That man was also an experienced hunter in town who was very skilled. He appeared quite happy as he walked beside the band members. It was as though he finally had the opportunity to get to know important people from the stronghold.


    In fact, many sessful people in town also started off this way. It seemed that whoever the important people from the stronghold picked to do their bidding would lead to those people living prosperous lives.


    And the ¡°prosperous life¡± would mean opening a grocery store like Wang Fugui had done.


    Ren Xiaosu had once asked Wang Fugui why he always fawned upon those who came out from the stronghold. Surely not everyone in the stronghold were people of importance, right?


    At that time, Wang Fugui gave a mysterious smile and said, ¡°There are indeed poor and rich people in the stronghold as well, but only the important people are allowed to freely enter or leave the ce.¡±


    Based on what Wang Fugui had said, it would mean that it was also very difficult for the poor toe out from the stronghold.


    The towering walls did not only stop people outside of the stronghold from getting in. It also stopped those on the inside from getting out.


    Wang Fugui was also following alongside the band members. As he walked past Ren Xiaosu, he kept staring at him. Finally, he whispered to him, ¡°You ingrate, I rmended such a wonderful job to you and you rejected it? Do you know something? I heard the band say that they intend to find a capable guide to bring into the stronghold so that they will have someone to guide them whenever there is a need!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned as he did not expect it to be an opportunity like this.


    If he knew that it would turn out this way, would he still reject the opportunity?


    Yes, because even though he would be brought into the stronghold, Yan Liuyuan would definitely not be allowed to go in with him. How could he leave Yan Liuyuan on the outside by himself?


    Yan Liuyuan whispered, ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t you talk to those people from the band again? You¡¯re much more capable than that Old Liu. He always returns home empty-handed from his hunts. Besides, he¡¯s never dared to venture too far out of town either.¡±


    ¡°Stop spouting nonsense.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned as it was impossible for him to not regret or feel tempted by the opportunity. However, he had already made his decision. ¡°Let¡¯s go, I¡¯m sending you to school.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan reached the school, Zhang Jinglin was already in the ssroom cleaning the ckboard. He nearly jumped when he turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan standing there. They had very deep and dark circles under their eyes that made them look like ghosts.


    ¡°What happened to the two of you?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked with some uncertainty.


    Yan Liuyuan tried to exin. ¡°My brother insisted on¡ª¡±


    However, before Yan Liuyuan could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu pped him upside the head and cut him off. Ren Xiaosu then said, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, we just didn¡¯t sleep well.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Zhang Jinglin did not try to pry into their private affairs. He asked, ¡°Have you thought about what you¡¯ll be teaching for today¡¯s lesson? It will be your first day as the substitute teacher.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I have.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    For most of the day, he would be sitting in the ssroom as a student until it was time for thest period in the afternoon when he would take over as the substitute teacher to teach the survival lesson.


    When it came time for thest period, Zhang Jinglin started worrying about Ren Xiaosu not having any experience in teaching, so he sat down in the back row of the ss to give him some support.


    When Ren Xiaosu walked up to the podium, the ss monitor shouted, ¡°All rise!¡±


    Then, everyone said loudly, ¡°Good afternoon, Teacher!¡±


    To the students, Ren Xiaosu was a unique presence in ss. He was their ¡°ssmate,¡± the oldest one among them, as well as a well-known person in town. So it was a really refreshing experience for them to have Ren Xiaosu teach their ss.


    It was at this moment that Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Don¡¯t you guys think that it¡¯s tough for Mr. Zhang to teach us? We¡¯re all allowed to sit down during the lessons, but Mr. Zhang has to stand all day.¡±


    In such circumstances, how could the students say that it was not tough? As Zhang Jinglin was still around... they could only agree.


    Then Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°So shouldn¡¯t we be showing our gratitude for Mr. Zhang?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± the students answered in unison.


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s expression changed as he cheered madly in his mind. Here ites!


    Ren Xiaosu nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Then from now on, there will be no need to say ¡®good afternoon, Teacher.¡¯ We will say ¡®thank you, Teacher¡¯ instead!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin was dumbfounded throughout this as he did not understand what Ren Xiaosu was trying to do!


    ¡°Alright, everyone, please sit down. Let¡¯s give it a try!¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°All rise!¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Teacher!¡± the students said in unison again.


    However, when Ren Xiaosu had an internal look at the typewriter in the pce, he was sorely disappointed. None of these little bastards were actually being sincere when thanking their teacher!


    Was it so difficult to show sincere gratitude to educators these days?!


    This wouldn¡¯t do! He had toe up with another way now that his first attempt had failed!


    However, failure was not something that Ren Xiaosu was unfamiliar with. epting his failures with grace was actually one of his greatest strengths.


    Ren Xiaosu heard of a saying once: Life is no bed of roses.


    What this means is that most of the time, life doesn¡¯t go your way.


    But even so, wouldn¡¯t you still have to continue living? Of course!

 Chapter 13 - This is reality

    <h4>Chapter 13: This is reality</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    After much thinking, Ren Xiaosu still felt that being a teacher was the easiest way to gain the gratitude of others.


    However, he had neglected one problem. While he was very eager to learn and was very thirsty for knowledge, it was because he was born into abnormal times thatcked knowledge. This was what caused him to be so hungry to learn.


    The more onecked something, the more one desired it.


    However, the things that he desired were not necessarily the same as what the students desired. The students who could attend school in such an era were mostly from families with a rather good background. All of them were living with the blessings of their parents.


    These kids had been attending school for several years now, and the most annoying person to them would be their teacher, since he would make them recite from textbooks and give them homework. During students¡¯ teenage years, teachers were their mortal enemy most of the time.


    Even though Ren Xiaosu was teaching them their favorite survival lesson, the students were far from feeling grateful to him.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that perhaps with a few more lessons, the students would finally be grateful to him for teaching them?


    Usually, the school in town would let out at 4 PM. Starting from 6 AM, the stronghold¡¯s clock would ring every two hours to signal the time. Under normal circumstances, Zhang Jinglin would never prolong his lessons.


    However, today, in his attempt to gain the gratitude of the students, Ren Xiaosu was teaching them almost all of his experience in wilderness survival. Once he got started, he continued talking all the way until 5 PM.


    As it waste autumn, it started getting dark at 5 PM. The students stared nkly at him and thought to themselves, ¡®This son of a bitch just keeps on fucking going.¡¯


    Even Zhang Jinglin couldn¡¯t bear it anymore. He went out to the yard to chop up a cabbage and made dinner.


    A student who could not stand it any longer, said, ¡°Son of a... Teacher, if you¡¯re not going to end ss soon, it¡¯ll be dark out, and it won¡¯t be safe to be in town.¡±


    The student was still a little afraid of this person who was well-known in town for being ruthless. That was the reason he did not dare to challenge him directly.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He thought, ¡®Instead of showing your gratitude, you¡¯re asking the teacher to end ss?¡¯ However, he understood that safety came first. So when Ren Xiaosu saw the sky darkening, he could only helplessly wave his hand and say, ¡°ss dismissed.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Teacher!¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Teacher!¡±


    The students started swarming out of ss. When two of the students thanked Ren Xiaosu for saying ¡°ss dismissed,¡± they were truly thankful! If ss still didn¡¯t get dismissed, it would have be unbearable for them!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly noticed two more gratitude tokens appear in the pce and was overjoyed.


    Like he knew what the students were thanking him for. All he felt was that he done a great job teaching them!


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, Looks like my loving efforts have not gone to waste. After such a long lesson, he felt that the students were still actually very grateful to him.


    Yan Liuyuan said as he pulled a long face, ¡°Can you stop making the lessons runte?¡±


    Before Ren Xiaosu could say anything, Zhang Jinglin walked in with a bowl of rice that he was eating from. He controlled his tone and said, ¡°Xiaosu, I know that you¡¯re passionate about teaching, but it¡¯s bad to make the ss stay behind for such a long time. Also, what if you overextend yourself by working too hard?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was having none of it. Was he making the ss stay behind? No, he was just ensuring that he would earn the sincere gratitude of the students, which in turn meant making money from them!


    ¡°No,¡± Ren Xiaosu said righteously, ¡°I¡¯m willing to devote my entire life to the cause of education, so it¡¯s fine with me if I have to teach a little longer!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin coughed, choking at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words. But when he saw Ren Xiaosu behaving like that, he did not bother to argue with him. ¡°Alright then.¡±


    The two students who thanked him did not even know that by saying ¡°thank you, Teacher¡± they had brought a major disaster upon themselves.


    A proverb for situations like this went: Loose lips cause trouble.


    ...


    On the way back, Yan Liuyuan was sulking and ignoring Ren Xiaosu. He had originally nned to stroll around town with Ren Xiaosu after school. But in the end, it wasn¡¯t to be.


    When they passed by a pawnshop at the city gate, Yan Liuyuan tugged on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sleeve and pointed at it. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see Xiaoyu in there. She seemed to be talking to the shopkeeper.


    Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan a little bit closer. They could hear Xiaoyu saying to the shopkeeper, ¡°My pair of earrings are very valuable. Can¡¯t you give me a little more for them?¡±


    The shopkeeper smiled flippantly at Xiaoyu. ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t have to pawn it. Why would you have to...¡±


    He shut his mouth before he finished talking because he saw Ren Xiaosu walking towards the pawnshop. Word ofst night¡¯s incident had already spread all over the town, and everyone knew that Li Xiaoyu was now very close to Ren Xiaosu.


    It didn¡¯t mean that just because this was a survival of the fittest era, everyone would naturally be more ferocious. In fact, every era would always have its fair share of weaklings and ruthless people. And most of the time, those who were ruthless would survive better.


    The shopkeeper was a weakling, and a weakling feared the strong and would only dare to bully the weak. The person that Ren Xiaosu had killedst night was well-known in town as a ruthless person. So Ren Xiaosu had be the most ruthless of the ruthless.


    The shopkeeper¡¯s gaze became shifty as he pretended to drink some water. He wasn¡¯t sure if Ren Xiaosu had overheard what he had just said.


    Ren Xiaosu counted 620 yuan from his pocket and stuffed it into Xiaoyu¡¯s hand. ¡°You don¡¯t have to sell your belongings. This is the money for the three anti-inmmatory pills that you gave mest night.¡±


    As Li Xiaoyu did not have a source of ie now, she had no choice but to fritter away her savings. However, Ren Xiaosu could not bear to see her in such a miserable state.


    Li Xiaoyu wanted to return the money to Ren Xiaosu, but he said, ¡°I was already nning to use the money to buy some medicine anyway, so you should keep it. It¡¯s not that I¡¯m rejecting your kindness, but there¡¯s no need for us to be so polite with each other in the future.¡±


    Li Xiaoyu was stunned for a while. ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu luckily escaped from the wolvesst year, he did not mention to anyone how he made it back alive. However, it was a fact that he only survived because of the medicine given by Li Xiaoyu. Without the antibiotics and anti-inmmatory pills, he would have been dead long ago.


    Therefore, what he owed to Li Xiaoyu was not just a few pills, but his life.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Xiaoyu in a serious tone, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. From now on, as long as there¡¯s meat for me to eat, I¡¯ll make sure there will be soup for you to drink!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan whispered, ¡°Bro, you¡¯ve said it wrong. Shouldn¡¯t all of us be eating meat together? Why, then, has it turned into you eating meat while the rest of us only get soup to drink? Besides, we don¡¯t even have any meat at home....¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and put it another way to Xiaoyu. ¡°From now on, as long as I have soup to drink, there will be bowls for you to wash!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was confused


    ¡°Pfft!¡± The shopkeeper who was taking a sip of water did a spit-take from nearby.


    However, Li Xiaoyu did not mind. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll wash the bowls and do theundry for you two.¡±


    When she said this, she did not consider if there would be enough ¡°water¡± to go around for all of them. In any case, she agreed to it.


    The shopkeeper pouted as he looked at the three of them walk out. He turned around and said to his shop assistant, ¡°Don¡¯t ever provoke him, ya hear?¡±


    Right when the trio stepped out of the shop, they heard someone shout, ¡°Doctor, please save my husband! If he dies, our family won¡¯t survive!¡±


    They saw a middle-aged woman kneeling and kowtowing to the town¡¯s only doctor in front of the clinic. However, the doctor sneered. ¡°If you don¡¯t have any money, what makes you think you can see the doctor?¡±


    ¡°If you save him, our whole family will thank you for your great kindness.¡± The woman sobbed, ¡°The old doctor was such a benevolent man when he was still around. As his son, you must also be very benevolent.¡±


    ¡°My father¡¯s benevolence was his business!¡±


    Then the doctor turned around and mmed the clinic¡¯s door shut. A man was lying beside the woman, his stomach bleeding nonstop.


    Ren Xiaosu did not approach them nor be the Good Samaritan this time around. In fact, he could tell that the man had already died.


    He calmly said as he looked on, ¡°Liuyuan, remember everything that you¡¯ve just witnessed. This is reality.¡±

 Chapter 14 - Deception

    <h4>Chapter 14: Deception</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Dark clouds loomed on the horizon before night fell.


    ¡°The acid rain ising. Let¡¯s hurry back home,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with an impassive expression. The woman was still crying and shouting, but no one cared about them.


    The man did not look like he had suffered the injury due to an ident. Ren Xiaosu could easily tell that it was a knife wound, so he was sure that the man did not identally get injured at the factory but was killed in a fight.


    When they got back to their shack, the acid rain came and went just as quickly.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly said as he sat on the bedroll, ¡°Bro, you want the sincere gratitudes of other people, right? Being a doctor seems like it¡¯s an easy way to gain more gratitude. In the past when the old doctor was still around, everyone was always very grateful to him. But I don¡¯t suggest you be a doctor. First off, it¡¯s very easy for a doctor to get stuck in a dilemma. Second, you don¡¯t have any medical skills.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Yan Liuyuan with an expressionless face. ¡°Then what the hell are you thering about!¡±


    Wait a moment!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that he had missed something. Although he did not have any medical skills, he could learn them!


    The two Skill Duplication Scrolls awarded by his mind pce were still avable. By using one of these scrolls, he should be able to learn another person¡¯s medical skill, right?


    At that time, he could start seeing patients, or at least be able to treat Yan Liuyuan or himself if they fell sick or got into idents.


    When the old doctor was still around, he would often go out to gather medicinal herbs. Back then, the old doctor had smilingly mentioned to people that even though the beasts were more powerful in the current day, the medicinal herbs had also be more effective.


    Thus, the old doctor sessfully treated many people with his skill in identifying the different types of medicinal herbs and having excellent medical skills. Furthermore, he even sold the medicinal herbs that he gathered at a dirt-cheap price.


    But of course, Ren Xiaosu was not as kind as the old doctor. He only felt that if he should possess such good medical skills, he could better deal with future emergencies, as well as making money on top of that!


    Usually, Yan Liuyuan would suffer a cold, headache, or fever as a consequence of making a wish. Even though he did not want Yan Liuyuan to face these side effects, what if they were forced by circumstance?


    ¡°I¡¯m going to be a doctor!¡± Ren Xiaosu said as his eyes shone with an unwavering determination.


    ¡°Bro, are you alright?¡± Yan Liuyuan was stunned. ¡°It¡¯s not like you have any medical skills, so please don¡¯t cause deaths. Although we don¡¯t know how to save people, we shouldn¡¯t harm them either.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu feigned a p upside Yan Liuyuan¡¯s head. ¡°You always have so much to say. When have I ever initiated harm upon others?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was making some calctions. If he became a doctor, he would definitely profit and earn a stable ie.


    As the people in town often got injured, going to the doctor for their injuries had be a necessity.


    He proceeded with his n immediately. The next day, Ren Xiaosu did not go to school when he awoke. After scarfing down two bites of ck bread, he went and crouched at the clinic¡¯s door and waited for it to open.


    In the end, the clinic openedte. Ren Xiaosu waited until the afternoon, but the clinic still remained closed


    In the afternoon, when the stronghold¡¯s clock rang to signal that it was 2 PM, the young doctor leisurely opened the door from the inside and stretched himself under the sun. But before he could stretch his entire body, he was startled by the presence of Ren Xiaosu, who was crouching at the entrance.


    ¡°Are you here to see the doctor? And did you bring any money?¡± the doctor asked.


    The doctor did not even bother asking what illness Ren Xiaosu was suffering from. All he recognized was money.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a grin, ¡°I¡¯m not here to see the doctor. Please carry on with whatever you were doing.¡±


    The doctor was dumbfounded. ¡®If you¡¯re not here to see the doctor, what are you doing squatting at my front door?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu silently used one of the Skill Duplication Scrolls in his pce.


    He saw the Skill Duplication Scroll made from leather parchment spontaneouslybust and instantly burn to nothing.


    ¡°One of the target¡¯s skills will be randomly copied.


    ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s bragging skill. Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded on the spot. Why would I learn bragging?


    He had almost forgotten that the Skill Duplication Scroll could only randomly copy another person¡¯s skill for him to learn. It wasn¡¯t something that he had control over.


    But the problem was: ¡®Why the fuck would you even have a skill like bragging? Something like this can even be considered a skill?! You fucking useless piece of shit!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu gave the doctor a dirty stare and felt that the man was an awfully disgusting person. However, since he was here to steal his upation, he couldn¡¯t possibly be beating him up after trying to do so, right? That wouldn¡¯t be cool.


    The doctor felt a little ufortable being stared at. Just as he was about to say something, he finally remembered who Ren Xiaosu was!


    Ren Xiaosu never came to his clinic to see him. However, both of them had heard about the other. One of them was the only doctor in town, while the other was a well-known ruthless individual. So it was only natural that they knew about each other.


    As such, the young doctor was terrified.


    ¡°What are you trying to do?¡± the doctor asked meekly.


    ¡°Are you always bragging when you have nothing to do?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped at him.


    The young doctor was dumbfounded. ¡°What the hell?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not bother arguing with him. He definitely did not want to learn how to brag since it would be useless even if he learned it. So he could only consider it a waste of a Skill Duplication Scroll.


    Then he used the second Skill Duplication Scroll!


    ¡°One of the target¡¯s skills will be randomly copied.


    ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s deception skill. Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Learn, my ass! What the hell is this!


    Ren Xiaosu red at the young doctor. ¡°You¡¯ve got quite a lot of messed up skills for someone so young.¡±


    The young doctor was on the verge of crying. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me saying this, but do you like cheating people a lot?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who¡¯ve you cheated before? Why don¡¯t you tell me about it?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you bullshit me. Who have I ever cheated?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a rational person. After suffering such a heavy loss, he meticulously analyzed his current situation. He certainly needed to learn some medical skills. He was sure that the pce would give him another Skill Duplication Scroll in the future, but he did not know when it would assign him another quest to get them.


    Hence, Ren Xiaosu wanted to find out how good his target¡¯s medical skill was and whether it would be worth trying to continue learning from him.


    He asked in his mind, ¡°What¡¯s the level of that doctor¡¯s medical skill?¡±


    ¡°This information can be revealed if it¡¯s for a former target that you¡¯ve attempted to learn from.


    ¡°He has no medical skill.¡±


    What the fuck!


    Motherfucker!


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to smash therge cauldron that he was carrying right then and there. He had carried the pot with him when he came out this morning.


    No wonder you¡¯re so fucking good at deception. Dammit! So it turns out that you don¡¯t have any medical skills at all and have been swindling people all this time?


    How did the old doctor get such a good-for-nothing son!


    This guy was utterly relying on the reputation of the old doctor to get by. Since there wasn¡¯t a second doctor in town, he had no qualms about swindling others. If his patients managed to survive, then good for them. For those who did not, the people around here were used to death anyway. After all, there were also some patients that the old doctor couldn¡¯t save.


    Moreover, before the old doctor passed on, he left behind a lot of medicinal herbs for his son and evenbeled what symptoms each type would treat. All he needed to do was to give a prescription to his patients.


    Ren Xiaosu learned a lesson today. If he encountered another such situation in which he was unsessful at copying a skill on the first attempt, he would have to make sure that the other party had the skills that he wanted in the first ce.

 Chapter 15 - Promoting your own product

    Chapter 15: Promoting your own product


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Ren Xiaosu sulked as he left. He wanted to beat up the young doctor, but his reason was unjustified. After all, he had intended to steal the doc¡¯s upation.


    He had to be a doctor. Ren Xiaosupletely agreed with Yan Liuyuan¡¯s point of view. The physician profession could very easily obtain the gratitude of others.


    But how was he going to be a doctor if he did not have any medical skills?


    After he reached the school, he started wracking his brains. Then he remembered the scene when they stepped out of the pawnshopst night.


    The woman was crying loudly at the door of the clinic while the man was bleeding nonstop. In the end, his heart stopped.


    Ren Xiaosu unwittingly looked at the skin between his thumb and index finger. Eh, the infected wound had scabbed over today?


    So that ck ointment not only reduces inmmation, it can even quickly heal a wound?


    Ren Xiaosu had been wounded before, so he knew a great deal about the healing process of the human body. For example, a wound caused by a sparrow¡¯s peck would take at least seven days to scab over.


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu got an idea on how he could be a doctor. If that person at the clinic could be a doctor through deception and bragging, why couldn¡¯t he also be a doctor? This was especially true as he had a miracle medicine on him now.


    Wouldn¡¯t it be fine if he just opened a clinic that specialized in knife wounds? He could just stitch up the patient and then apply some ck ointment onto it and the job would be done!


    Back when the old doctor was still alive, he mentioned that he would not do suturing because he did not have the necessary sterilization equipment. If outside bacteria stayed in the body, they could kill the patient, so it would be useless even if he did stitch them up.


    The old doctor understood this.


    However, it was different for Ren Xiaosu. He did not have to worry about this at all!


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu got an idea. He even thought of how he could make some arrangements for Xiaoyu in the future.


    Xiaoyu¡¯s n for the future was to see if she could get some sewing or patching jobs to earn some money to make a living. But Ren Xiaosu felt that this would be very difficult for her. If she were to offer this service in the stronghold, there would probably be a lot of customers looking for her.


    But as everyone in town was poor, they could do their own sewing and patching work at home. Who would want to waste their money on a service like this?


    Ren Xiaosu thought that since she wasn¡¯t going to be able to sew clothes, she could sew wounds instead. But he did not know if Xiaoyu would faint at the sight of blood.


    Ren Xiaosu even specially went to inquire with the schoolteacher, Zhang Jinglin. After all, he knew more than most people.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. ¡°You want to open a clinic that specializes in treating knife wounds? Do you have sutures?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and asked, ¡°What¡¯s a suture?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin was dumbfounded. ¡°Then do you have anesthetics?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s an anesthetic?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin was at a loss for words.


    In this moment, Zhang Jinglin realized that Ren Xiaosu was utterly unprepared.


    Zhang Jinglin patiently said, ¡°Do you know why the clinic has never thought of doing such procedures when there are so many patients with knife wounds in town? It¡¯s not only a problem of bacterial infection. There¡¯s also ack of anesthetics and sutures. I heard that these supplies are desperately needed even within the stronghold.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°There¡¯s also a particr way to administer the anesthetic. If too little is administered, it will be painful for the patient. But if too much of it is administered, the patient will be susceptible toplications. As for the sutures, it¡¯s even more difficult. Not only do you have to consider the tensile strength, you also have to consider if its coefficient of friction will allow it to prate the tissue of the human body.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s like that.¡± Ren Xiaosu waved his hand around. ¡°That¡¯s not a problem. A dying person won¡¯t care about the pain. I¡¯ll just use threads for sewing clothes to stitch them up.¡±


    ¡°Then what about the sterilization?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked in a startled manner.


    ¡°I have a secret form for that!¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    It was just as Ren Xiaosu had predicted. Zhang Jinglin was not omniscient. He had some specialized knowledge, but the rest of his knowledge rested at a superficial level.


    As such, Zhang Jinglin suddenly realized that he did not know how to refute Ren Xiaosu. In the end, he gave a wave of his hand. ¡°Get ready for your ss. The next period will be the survival lesson.¡±


    Because Ren Xiaosu had tasted the sweetness on the first day he taught the ss, he decided to prolong the lesson again until night fell before dismissing the ss.


    Some of the students still did not realize the kind of life they were going to live from now on.


    After school, the students started walking out of the ss. When Ren Xiaosu noticed that no one thanked him today, he could not help but take the initiative to ask, ¡°Aren¡¯t you guys going to thank your teachers?¡±


    The students shuddered in fear as they collectively turned around and thanked their teachers.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was utterly disappointed when he took a mental look at the pce. He did not gain even a single gratitude token coin.


    Zhang Jinglin had already told him that it was quite normal for the students to not understand the teacher¡¯s perspective. Ren Xiaosu felt that he still had a long way to go.


    On their way back home that night, Ren Xiaosu could see that the lights were on in their shack from a distance away. He hurriedly went over and lifted the curtain door. When he stepped inside, he was surprised to see Xiaoyu sitting in their broken chair and sewing their clothes for them. There was even corn porridge and cooked wild vegetables next to her, which she had made for them.


    They usually left their clothing in the shack since no one would steal them.


    Even if someone stole the clothes, the thief would have to wear them out someday. Once they did that, they would get recognized. It would be a surprise if Ren Xiaosu did not beat the thief to death.


    When Xiaoyu saw them return, she smiled and said, ¡°Sorry that I came in without your permission. I saw that your clothes were ripped, so I decided to sew them up for you. Quick, eat dinner.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan reached his hand out, wanting to scoop out some porridge. This meal was considered a luxury in town. Normally, they would only eat ck bread or potatoes for their meals. However, Ren Xiaosu pped Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hand. ¡°Have you thanked Big Sister Xiaoyu yet?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan still behaved himself in front of Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Thank you, Big Sister Xiaoyu.¡±


    Xiaoyu quickly said, ¡°Stop hitting Liuyuan.¡±


    ¡°I can spoil him now, but no one will spoil him when he¡¯s on his own,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined. Then he also said in a serious tone, ¡°Thank you, Big Sister Xiaoyu.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re wee.¡± Xiaoyu smiled and said, ¡°What do you two usually like having for dinner?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°We don¡¯t usually eat dinner.¡±


    ¡°How can that do? You¡¯re both still growing,¡± Xiaoyu said.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Xiaoyu should have been their sister all this while. No one would say such words to them in the past.


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu,¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°your sewing skills are great. Why don¡¯t youe over and help us when our knife wound clinic opens for business?¡±


    ¡°A knife wound clinic?¡± Xiaoyu was stunned. ¡°Why do you suddenly want to open a clinic that specializes in knife wounds?¡±


    ¡°Because I have a medicinal herb form for treating knife wounds. It can reduce inmmation and help wounds heal quicker.¡± After Ren Xiaosu finished, he showed the wound on his hand to her. Xiaoyu took a look at it and noticed that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wound had already formed into a scab.


    Xiaoyu thought for a moment and said, ¡°But there are much fewer fights happening in town these days. In the past, more than ten people would get injured each day, but only one person gets injured every few days now.¡±


    This was indeed true. Excluding the person killed by Ren Xiaosu and the man at the clinic entrance yesterday, it seemed that there were really no fights happening recently.


    The cases of night break-ins weren¡¯t counted because there wouldn¡¯t be any survivors left most of the time.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment. ¡°Why don¡¯t I go and chop some people up?¡± He quickly shook his head.


    At the same time, Yan Liuyuan was shocked. ¡°Bro, aren¡¯t you being too ruthless? What is this? Promoting your own product?¡±


    ¡°No, no, we can¡¯t do such things. We mustn¡¯t get carried away by our own interests.¡±

 Chapter 16 - I’ll make it cheaper for you

    <h4>Chapter 16: I¡¯ll make it cheaper for you</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    In the dead of the night, Ren Xiaosu checked his harvest thus far. Two days ago, Xiaoyu, Yan Liuyuan, and the two students had each earned him a gratitude token. All in all, he had collected four gratitude token coins.


    However, as he used up one of them, he only had three gratitude tokens left and a small bottle of ointment with two dosages remaining. Ren Xiaosu decided to name this ointment the ¡°ck medicine¡± as it was simple and easy to remember.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, he could use one gratitude token in exchange for one bottle of ck medicine, and each bottle of ck medicine could be used to treat three people. In the long run, having one bottle that could get three gratitudes in exchange would surely guarantee him a profit.


    By exchanging the gratitude tokens for the ck medicine and selling them, it seemed that it would slow down his progress of unlocking the weapon. But the more ck medicine he exchanged with his gratitude tokens, the more gratitude tokens he would get in return, right? This was an exponential growth, and it might even help to unlock the weapon faster!


    Moreover, he could still make do with Yan Liuyuan¡¯s bone knife. In the short term, he would not need to go out to hunt. Thus, bringing home the bacon became his utmost priority. He had to earn some money first!


    Last night, Ren Xiaosu had a dream. He dreamed that he was standing in the wilderness with a ck knife in his hands, the knife as dense and mysterious as the night.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu went out early the next morning. He did not carry his cauldron today, taking only Yan Liuyuan¡¯s bone knife with him.


    Now that Xiaoyu was staying home to look after the two shacks, it became very unlikely that they would lose their belongings during the daytime. And frankly, the people in town who harbored evil thoughts would only dare to bully the weak. Why would they resort to stealing from the ruthless Ren Xiaosu?


    Not needing to carry the cauldron out with him felt amazing.


    As a promising young man, Ren Xiaosu wouldn¡¯t look good if he had to carry the cauldron out every day wherever he went.


    Today, he went out to the wilderness not because he needed to hunt, but to pretend that he was gathering medicinal herbs.


    Ren Xiaosu was a very cautious person. Since he imed that he had a herb form, he would have to gather the herbs. Only then would he not be suspected by others.


    Although Ren Xiaosu did not hear about anyone being against ¡°supernatural beings,¡± Ren Xiaosu understood the principle. If you wanted to ensure your survival among a group of chaotic people, you would have to blend in with them.


    Tall poppies get cut short, the tallest tress get blown over first, don¡¯t unt your wealth¡ªthese ancient sayings were warnings to everyone to not posture.


    When he came back to town, it was still noon. When Ren Xiaosu carried arge bunch of medicinal herbs back, someone he knew asked, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, why are you carrying all these weeds around?¡±


    ¡°Are these weeds?¡± Ren Xiaosu stared at him and said, ¡°These are medicinal herbs!¡±


    Medicinal herbs? The person asking was dumbfounded. As someone born and raised right here in town, wouldn¡¯t he know what those nts were? No one had ever thought of them as medicinal herbs before.


    Ren Xiaosu said conspiratorially, ¡°As long as you add in different fractions, you can concoct a medicine that can be used to treat wounds. How do you think I recovered from my past injuries?¡±


    The questioner thought for a long time. ¡°Didn¡¯t you pull through due to sheer willpower?¡±


    ¡°Get lost.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not stop in his tracks and headed straight back to his shack.


    Xiaoyu was currently sewing Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan¡¯s clothes. When she looked up and saw Ren Xiaosu walking in with arge bunch of medicinal herbs, she put the patchwork in her hands down. ¡°What are all these?¡±


    ¡°These are the medicinal herbs used to concoct the secret form,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.


    Ren Xiaosu set up the cauldron and started a fire. He added some water in and pretended to concoct the medicinal herb form. In the process of concocting this form, the costliest part was actually the water. Water was a much more valuable resource than the firewood used or the weeds that were put in.


    He even purposely lifted the shack¡¯s curtain door to let the people in town see what he was doing.


    A lot of people saw Ren Xiaosu brewing a herb concoction but no one dared to approach him to ask what it was.


    Ren Xiaosu was starting to feel unhappy about this. The reason he lifted the curtain door was so that people woulde over to ask him what he was doing. When that happened, he would be able to promote his medicinal concoction.


    After waiting for a long time, no one approached him to ask about it. Ren Xiaosu pulled a long face as he looked at a skinny man who was surreptitiously lurking outside the entrance. ¡°You!¡±


    The skinny man pointed at himself. ¡°Me?¡±


    ¡°Yes,e over here.¡± Ren Xiaosu waited until the skinny man warily came closer. Then he said, ¡°Ask me what I am doing already!¡±


    The skinny man was speechless.


    So was Xiaoyu.


    ¡°Go on, ask,¡± Ren Xiaosu urged him.


    ¡°Wh-What are you doing?¡± the skinny man asked.


    With his motive achieved, Ren Xiaosu broke into a smile. He said with a kind look, ¡°I¡¯m brewing a herbal concoction.I usually brew this type of medicinal herb concoction when I get injured. It not only reduces inmmation and stops pain, it can also make the wound heal faster! In the past, I kept this medicine hidden from everyone. But now I¡¯ve realized my mistake. So I¡¯ve decided that I want to make the concoction and share it with everyone! From today onwards, I¡¯ll open a clinic that specializes in treating wounds. Is anyone injured and in need of treatment?¡±


    The people standing outside were stunned by the speech that Ren Xiaosu had just given. However, everyone just looked at one another before dispersing. No one believed him.


    What a joke! Ren Xiaosu, you might be impressive, but to suddenly im that you can treat people¡¯s wounds is bullshit. Everyone in the entire neighborhood knows that you pulled through by enduring your injuries in the past.


    But now you¡¯re suddenly telling us that you have a medicinal herb concoction? Like we¡¯d believe you!


    Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t very happy about this. He had to make everyone learn of the medicine¡¯s effectiveness. It was very simple because he had personally tried it before. The moment he applied the medicine on the wound, the pain and burning sensation vanished and then scabbing formed the next day!


    If only he could make everyone learn of its effectiveness. Business would boom, right?


    Ren Xiaosu brought the small vial of ointment with him and went around town looking for patients. Which ce had the most patients? The clinic, of course!


    When Ren Xiaosu reached the clinic, he realized there was not a single patient there. In fact, the fees for the doctor¡¯s consultation were so expensive that nobody could afford toe here!


    Ren Xiaosu red daggers at the young doctor before turning around and walking away. The young doctor who was leisurely sipping tea suddenly became a little nervous due to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s intense ring.


    Left with no other choice, Ren Xiaosu went to find other opportunities in town. It wasn¡¯t until every factory had ended work in the afternoon that Ren Xiaosu finally spotted a skinny man with a cut on his hand!


    Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. ¡°Brother, did you injure your hand during work? I have a wonder drug here. Do you want to try some?¡±


    The skinny man looked at him warily as he felt that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s tone did not sound reputable. ¡°No need.¡±


    ¡°Come, try it.¡± Ren Xiaosu went forward and held the skinny man down. To promote his ck medicine, Ren Xiaosu even bent his most important principle. ¡°I¡¯ll make it cheaper for you!¡±


    But the man was still unwilling. After all, the ck stuff on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand looked a little dubious.


    Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth and said, ¡°For the sake of publicity, I¡¯ll treat your wound for free this time!¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, put away your knife first.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu came out looking for patients to treat, he had brought a bone knife with him.

 Chapter 17 - Totally unexpected

    Chapter 17: Totally unexpected


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    ¡°Bro,¡± Yan Liuyuan asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Did you really treat someone for free this afternoon? That¡¯s so unlike you!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t ask. Kill yourself if you do,¡± Ren Xiaosu said bitterly.


    Honestly speaking, he really wanted to promote the ck medicine to everyone. He wouldrgely have to depend on this method to gain the gratitude of others. Moreover, this medicine was also the core of his n to make money in the short term.


    So Ren Xiaosu convinced himself that the beginning was always the most challenging as a constion. People with big goals should not be hindered by trivialities. He would have to be generous as a person!


    Ren Xiaosu was not stingy for the sake of it. He knew well what he had to do at the appropriate times. However, he couldn¡¯t help but feel the pinch.


    Xiaoyu consoled with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll definitely seed.¡±


    After saying that, Xiaoyu returned to her shack and went to bed. In the past, she could not sleep all that well at night. But since moving here, she could always sleep soundly every day.


    The next morning, the stronghold¡¯s clock abruptly rang as though it were reminding everyone that it was time to go work at the factory.


    Ren Xiaosu returned with the allocated amount of water that he was allowed to draw for the day. He estimated that it would take 12 hours for the wound to start scabbing over after the ck medicine was applied, so he was not in a rush to see what the reactions of the people in town were.


    Once everyone learned of the effectiveness of the medicine, people would naturally approach him with questions.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not expect that when he carried the bucket of water back, Wang Fugui would be there waiting at the entrance of the shack with a smile.


    ¡°Old Wang, what are you doing here so early? I haven¡¯t been out to catch any sparrowstely,¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhurriedly as he put the bucket on the ground. He nced into the shack. Quick-witted Yan Liuyuan had already raised his bone knife to guard against Old Wang. It was only after he saw Ren Xiaosu that he finally lowered the bone knife.


    When Wang Fugui saw Ren Xiaosu, his eyes shimmered. ¡°Oh, Xiaosu, you¡¯re finally back! I came over this early in the morning just to look for you!¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Ren Xiaosu felt that something was amiss. What could make Old Wang that happy? He examined Old Wang closely and said, ¡°Have you been drinking?¡±


    Wang Fugui immediately looked annoyed. ¡°What do you mean by drinking? Don¡¯t you know that alcohol is prohibited now? Who¡¯d be brave enough to drink when everyone does not even have enough food to spare?¡±


    ¡°I remember smelling something particr on you the previous time...¡±


    Wang Fugui¡¯s expression became thunderous in reaction to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words He quickly interrupted him and said, ¡°Don¡¯t you spout nonsense!¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, I won¡¯t. Why are you looking for me?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Did you treat Iron Head¡¯s wound yesterday? The one who lives on the east side of town?¡± Wang Fugui said as he winked at him.


    ¡°Oh, so he¡¯s called Iron Head.... His head doesn¡¯t feel that hard to me, so why does he have that name?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt me.¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°Just tell me if you did or not.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I did!¡± Ren Xiaosu was beginning to cheer in his mind. Wang Fugui was a person who would not look for someone without a reason. It must be the ck medicine¡¯s effectiveness that attracted him and made him see the profitability of it. Why else would he be so polite towards him?


    This proved that the market for his ck medicine was opening up!


    Wang Fugui was ted when Ren Xiaosu admitted to it. ¡°Do you... still have that medicine? You can give them with me. I¡¯ll sell it for you!¡±


    ¡°You want to sell it for me? No way!¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t have a middleman taking a cut of the profit. This town is so small already. Wouldn¡¯t it be better for me to sell it myself? It¡¯s not like I¡¯m nning to sell my medicine at every stronghold out there. Besides, even if I had such a big business, you wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it.¡±


    Wang Fugui was stunned at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words. Right, this town was tiny, so why would Ren Xiaosu let him sell the medicine for him?


    But Wang Fugui said again, ¡°It¡¯s fine even if you sell a little bit of it to me.¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu scrutinized Wang Fugui. ¡°You don¡¯t look injured, so why would you need this medicine?¡±


    Wang Fugui smiled mysteriously and said, ¡°You still don¡¯t know, right? Yesterday, Iron Head got a little suspicious after returning home. He wanted to know what you applied to his wound. So he smelled it but couldn¡¯t make out what it was. After that, he licked it, trying to taste what it was made with. Guess what happened as a result.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered what the hell was wrong with that guy. He¡¯d even licked it.


    There was nothing wrong with the ck medicine¡¯s effectiveness. When Iron Head inspected his wound that night, he knew that Ren Xiaosu did not lie to him. It was indeed a good medicine. Driven by curiosity, he was hoping to find out what it was made with.


    Wang Fugui continued, ¡°In the end, he and his wife went at it all night, all the way until this morning! That medicine of yours is way too effective!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked!


    Yan Liuyuan, who was in the shack, was also shocked by what he heard!


    Ren Xiaosu had also wondered whether the ck medicine could be taken orally and if there would be any side effects. He felt that maybe it could be taken orally, but he did not dare to try it out himself.


    Now he found out that the medicine had such an effect when it was taken orally! To be able to do it from night until morning, just what kind of medicine was this?


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Then why are you buying this medicine?¡±


    He had good reason to ask this. He knew Wang Fugui¡¯s wife had passed away several years ago due to illness. So he wouldn¡¯t have any reason for taking this medicine.


    Wang Fugui said unhappily, ¡°Can¡¯t I have a second chance at love? It¡¯s just that my body¡¯s a little weak now.¡±


    ¡°Eh? You found another woman?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    ¡°Not yet,¡± Old Wang said, ¡°but I¡¯m thinking about it. No one would want to marry an impotent man, right? That¡¯s why I want to be ready with your medicine.¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°You¡¯re funny, Wang Fugui. Old but energetic! What kind of wife are you looking for?¡±


    Wang Fugui said modestly, ¡°As long as she likes me, it¡¯s good enough.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu mulled it over. ¡°That¡¯s not an easy requirement.¡±


    Wang Fugui was annoyed. ¡°Are we close?¡± Wang Fugui said with a dark expression, ¡°I¡¯m one of the richest people in town anyway, so why wouldn¡¯t a women take a liking to me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed, a little mncholic. ¡°One of the richest people in our town is a grocery store owner. Why does that sound a little shameful....¡±


    ¡°Who are you to criticize me? Cut the crap. Do you want to sell it or not?!¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before saying, ¡°You get the special ¡®acquaintance discount,¡¯ 600 yuan!¡±


    ¡°Highway robbery!¡± Wang Fugui said angrily.


    For now, the amount of ck medicine that Ren Xiaosu had left was only enough for a one-time treatment of wounds. However, based on Old Wang¡¯s description of the medicine being effective with just one lick, the remaining portion should still be enough for quite a few more licks.


    However, the sought-after effects of this medicine when taken orally were not driven by necessity, so he could not sell it for too much.


    ¡°Do you want to buy it or not?¡± Ren Xiaosu snorted at Wang Fugui.


    ¡°Yes!¡± Wang Fugui then counted out 600 yuan and paid it to Ren Xiaosu. He did not even try to haggle over the price!


    Ren Xiaosu could never have expected that the market for his ck medicine would get opened in such a manner.


    His initial n was to be a doctor so that he could ¡°practice medicine to help the people.¡± He never thought he would be an aphrodisiacs supplier instead.


    Wang Fugui spun around and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Thank you for this!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless


    He finally had four gratitude tokens again, although this gratitude token was earned a little differently from how Ren Xiaosu had expected.

 Chapter 18 - It’s quite simple

    <h4>Chapter 18: It¡¯s quite simple</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Bro, this is actually not bad at all.¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°No matter what effects it has, we can still make money off it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was unhappy about this. He whispered, ¡°Is this a matter of making money? How many sincere gratitudes can I even get from this?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood that if he relied on this effect of the medicine to sell it, then the chances of gaining the sincere gratitude of others would be much lower than through saving people¡¯s lives. It was only people like Old Wang who desired to reinject some intimacy back into their private lives who would show their gratitude to him.


    Besides, was his motive to make money? No, he still needed people¡¯s gratitude more. Without it, he would not be able to get more ck medicine.


    Ren Xiaosu said in annoyance, ¡°If I healed people and saved their lives, everyone in town would start treating me with respect whenever they see me. Just look at that fellow down at the clinic. Even though so many people have died in his care, no one does anything to him. Why? Because he¡¯s the only doctor in town!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right, Bro,¡± Yan Liuyuan agreed. In reality, it did not matter to him at all. All he knew was... they were going to get rich!


    ¡°And most importantly.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If I healed people and saved their lives, everyone would address me as Dr. Ren whenever they saw me. If I don¡¯t heal people and save their lives, do you know what they¡¯ll call me behind my back? ¡®Hey, that drug dealer...¡¯¡±


    It was obvious that the social standing of the two were not the same!


    Yan Liuyuan couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer. He was convulsing withughter in the shack as he said, ¡°Bro, you have an overactive imagination.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu was unaware that Old Wang did not use the medicine that he bought from him. After all, Old Wang had not found a lover yet.


    The vial containing the ck medicine was nothing unique. It was just a small, normal-looking porcin bottle that could be found everywhere in town. The original vial that contained the ck medicine was made of ss, and the craftsmanship was of an exceptional caliber. Ren Xiaosu was worried that people would get suspicious of the medicine again and learn where it came from. After all, no one sold this kind of vial in town.


    Wang Fugui passed on the small porcin bottle to one of the town administrators. He was also one of the few people who was sent out here from the stronghold.


    Old Wang felt that Ren Xiaosu did not know the value of the medicine, but he did.


    Which ce needed this ck medicine¡¯s effect most when it was taken orally? Was it the men in town? Nope.


    Although the men in town barely had enough food to eat, with some of them even skin and bones, everyone was still performing physicalbor. Even if they were skinny, their health was actually great.


    With enough exercise, maintaining the body¡¯s metabolism and functions of organs would not be difficult. As such, the men in town did not really need this ck medicine.


    The people who needed the ck medicine most were actually the ¡°aristocracy¡± in the stronghold.


    Wang Fugui furtively handed over the ck medicine to the administrator who had been sent by the stronghold. The town administrators were people who had knowledge of all the ongoings in town. Their daily work was to gain insight into any unusual activities happening in town. Hence, this administrator also knew about the incident fromst night when Iron Head licked the ck medicine.


    However, the administrator did not use it either. After he went back at night, he regifted it to his superior.


    Nobody knew where the small porcin bottle with the ck medicine eventually ended up.


    Ren Xiaosu had no knowledge of any of this. He used another gratitude token in exchange for another vial of ck medicine. Then he had Xiaoyu buy a white linen cloth from town. Afterwards, he had her sew the word ¡°clinic¡± onto it using ck thread, as well as the words ¡°kind doctor specializing in wounds¡± in a smaller size underneath.


    With that, the clinic began operating.


    While Xiaoyu was sewing, she asked Ren Xiaosu if he wanted her to sew the words ¡°magic hands restore spring.¡± Ren Xiaosu quickly turned her down as he was a little sensitive to the word ¡°spring¡± <sup>1</sup> right now.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life slowly got on track from here. Before dawn, he would go and gather herbs in the wilds. During the morning, he would stay in his shack to attend to patients. In the afternoon, he would go to the school to teach survival lessons. After that, he would use Yan Liuyuan¡¯s notes to catch up on his homework.


    Although there was no business at his clinic yet, he could not afford to be away from here. If a patient came to see the doctor, Xiaoyu could not handle it alone.


    He would have liked to sit in the bright and spacious ssroom like Yan Liuyuan and learn. But if he went to school to study, what would happen to Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu?


    In this family, there had to be someone who was willing to sacrifice their aspirations.


    The next day, Ren Xiaosu was sitting and resting in the shack with the curtain door lifted wide open. Xiaoyu was sewing and patching behind him. Sometimes, Xiaoyu wouldment how these two brothers did not even patch up their clothes once in the past. How on earth did they umte so many holes in them?


    At this moment, someone sprinted over from the other end of the dirt track with a bleeding arm.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°You might die if you don¡¯t get your injuries treated.¡±


    However, that man did not even look at Ren Xiaosu. Everyone would still subconsciously head to the clinic to treat their injuries since that ce was the more authoritative one. Besides, everyone¡¯s impression of Ren Xiaosu was still ¡°that drug dealer¡± rather than ¡°someone who treats knife wounds.¡±


    Then the long-awaited voice intoned from the pce in his mind, ¡°Quest: Sessfully treat one patient.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood up and said disconstely, ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    After that, Xiaoyu saw Ren Xiaosu dash out of the shack. Less than a minuteter, she saw him carrying that man back.


    Ren Xiaosu kindly said to the patient, ¡°That doctor at the clinic is a quack. Do you know that by carrying you back here, I¡¯m saving you?¡±


    As the man had been bleeding for a long time, he did not have any more strength. The man nearly crumpled with Ren Xiaosu holding him down firmly.


    At this moment, another two men ran over from the opposite side of the dirt track. Seeing their bodies stained with blood, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Did y¡¯all get into a fight?¡±


    When the man who was being held down heard that, he exined, ¡°No, it¡¯s the boiler at the factory. It exploded! The injuries that we sustained are light, so we could still run back here by ourselves. However, I¡¯m afraid that some people died on the scene.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded in silence. In the present, no one would be so kindhearted as to bring you to get your injuries treated in the event of an ident at the factory. They couldn¡¯t wish more than for you to die so that your belongings would go to them.


    ¡°Come, Big Sister Xiaoyu, sterilize the needle,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. Although he was not worried about the inmmation, he still had to put on an act for the patient, right? After he said that, he went outside again. This time, he brought back another two men.


    Ren Xiaosu used both his hands and a leg to hold the three of them down. The three of them lost all will to resist. If not for their injuries, Ren Xiaosu would never have been able to hold them down.


    In fact, they knew they could also get treated at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ce. However, they were running towards the clinic out of sheer habit. Now that they had been pinned down, they might as well stop resisting altogether.


    Then they saw Xiaoyu put down the patchwork in her hands. She took the needle that she had been using to sew the clothes and ced it over the fire. As this needle was a little longer, she did not get burned while holding the other end.


    ¡°Do I just stitch them up?¡± Xiaoyu asked timidly.


    ¡°Yes. Just stitch their wounds like you¡¯re sewing clothes.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s quite simple.¡±


    Xiaoyu mustered up her courage and proceeded to suture the wound on one of the patients. However, the skin sizzled, the smell of burning flesh apanying it.


    The man trembled as he asked, ¡°I understand that you¡¯re using fire to sterilize the needle, but could you at least wait for the needle to cool before you start stitching?¡±

 Chapter 19 - Why didn’t you run faster then?

    <h4>Chapter 19: Why didn¡¯t you run faster then?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°It was a mistake,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined with a smile. ¡°This is the first day of work for our nurse, so she doesn¡¯t know the exact procedures yet. Come, let¡¯s continue suturing. Big Sister Xiaoyu, treat it as sewing clothes.¡±


    Xiaoyu was not afraid of blood. Frankly, everyone in town was used to seeing people die all the time, so it wasn¡¯t such a big deal when they had to face minor injuries like these. Besides, she really enjoyed her current job. It wasn¡¯t that she liked seeing blood, but that she liked being a ¡°useful¡± person.


    It wasmon knowledge in town that everyone had to be useful in the current environment as it was full of hardship and difficulties. Useless people would get abandoned sooner orter. This was the simplest logic for deciding who to live around.


    Xiaoyu was unsure if Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan would abandon her due to her uselessness, but she knew that she couldn¡¯t just do nothing and leach off of them.


    When she heard Ren Xiaosu tell her to stitch up the wound like she was sewing clothes, her confidence grew and her stitching motions became much more consistent.


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was still holding down that man by his arm, so it made it easier for her to put her sewing skills to good use.


    When the suturing was almost finished, Xiaoyu said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°There¡¯s still some difference between stitching up a wound and sewing clothes. When sewing clothes, the thread should stay hidden in the clothes as far as possible so that it won¡¯t be visible. But for the suturing of a wound, the thread should not be left inside and has to be reverse stitched. However, that makes it look quite ugly.¡±


    The three patients became incredibly ufortable. The more Xiaoyu said, the more flustered they became.


    When Xiaoyu finished suturing, Ren Xiaosu took out a small porcin vial and applied the medicine onto the first patient¡¯s wound. ¡°My medicine is very precious, but I will not overcharge you for it. I¡¯ll just charge you the same fee as the clinic does, 600 yuan. I believe all of you should be able to afford it.¡±


    The price of a cotton-padded jacket was around 600 yuan. However, these workers¡¯ sries per month were probably at around 2200 to 2800 yuan. This made the price of the goods sold rtively expensive to their sries earned. But all of this was due to a supply and demand issue. The aristocracy in the stronghold could not wish more for these people to earn as little as possible for the rest of their lives. In that way, they would have to keep working earnestly for the aristocrats.


    Besides, these workers could not just drop everything and leave since they would not be able to survive in the wilderness. The aristocracy relied on this to exploit the refugees.


    In the opinion of the aristocracy, it was already nice that they did not make the refugees pay protection money to them when they were living under the protection of the stronghold. But that was only because they felt that protection racketeering was below them.


    The reason Ren Xiaosu could get by in the past without needing to go to work at the coal mine was because he only needed to hunt three sparrows a month to earn more than the majority of workers. Even if he did not manage to hunt three sparrows, he could scrimp and save and still be able to lead a normal life.


    These were abnormal times, and people tried resisting it at the beginning. However, they all failed.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu was right that the three men could afford the fees. After the ck medicine was applied to the wound of the first patient, his pain immediately stopped. He paid up very willingly as the fee would have been the same if he went to the clinic to treat his injury.


    When the patient who had just been treated was about to leave, Ren Xiaosu said amiably, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you be saying thanks now that you¡¯ve been treated?¡±


    The man shuddered and quickly turned his head back and said, ¡°Thank you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded in satisfaction. However, when he had a look in the pce, he was startled to find that he did not gain any additional gratitude tokens!


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®Are patient-doctor rtionships these days all as tense as that?! I¡¯ve treated your wound, yet you won¡¯t even give me a sincere thank you?!¡¯


    Immediately, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the pce informing him that he hadpleted the quest. ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.¡±


    The quest to sessfully treat one patient was finallyplete. He did not expect the pce to award him with another 1.0 Strength increase. It was also one of the things that Ren Xiaosu desired most at this moment. After all, whoever had the bigger fist won.


    The voice from the pce intoned again, ¡°Quest: Sessfully treat two patients.¡±


    Eh, so this was a repeatable quest? When the first quest waspleted, another quest of a higher difficulty would appear.


    Weren¡¯t there two patients in front of him right now?


    Would he be awarded another 1.0 Strength increase afterpleting this quest? In that case, wouldn¡¯t he end up looking like a beefcake?


    Actually, that wouldn¡¯t be good because he would be sacrificing his speed for more strength. With greater muscle mass, it would lower the speed at which he could put them to use.


    The fastest runner should be someone with the most bnced muscr build, not a bodybuilder with the most chiseled physique.


    As of now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength was much stronger than the average adult¡¯s. He deliberately made an observation and realized that no one had noticed that his muscles had swelled up this time. As it waste autumn, the clothes that he wore concealed his build quite well.


    But right at this moment, one of the patients took the opportunity to get up and run out of the clinic while Ren Xiaosu was distracted. Xiaoyu called out to him, ¡°The patient is escaping.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s okay. He won¡¯t get far since he¡¯s still injured. I¡¯ll go and bring him back.¡±


    Xiaoyu and the remaining patient were speechless.


    While Ren Xiaosu went out to catch the patient, Xiaoyu looked at the remaining patient and gently said, ¡°Are you going to run away too? If you¡¯re also thinking of doing so, I¡¯ll suture you up afterwards.¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not gonna run away.¡± That patient closed his eyes and put a determined expression on his face. ¡°Go ahead and stitch me up.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu carried the patient back again, he didn¡¯t find it as strenuous as before and could carry him with just one hand. However, this made the patient despair.


    The following treatments for the patients were much easier to do. Ren Xiaosu used one hand for each person and held them down so no one could move.


    The two men who were being held down at this moment were rather astonished because they never expected to not be able to fight back against Ren Xiaosu. It was as though they were being dominated by him.


    Just how much strength would he need to achieve this? Even if they were injured, they shouldn¡¯t be that weak, right? They were still able to struggle a little a bit ago!


    What was most important here was, would anyone still be able to escape from Ren Xiaosu if he ever decided that he wanted to treat their wounds in the future.


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.


    ¡°Quest: Sessfully treat 10 patients.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this voice again, he froze, because he could feel his muscles that had swelled up earlier had now started to dete by quite a bit.


    Dexterity was a way to increase the strength of the muscle fibers. Upon reaching the same level of power, it would help to lower the muscle mass. In this way, Ren Xiaosu would not need to worry about looking like a beefcake.


    If Ren Xiaosu¡¯s muscle fibers in the past were as strong as a wooden staff, then the muscle fibers were nowparable to the strength of an iron rod.


    Right, this was more logical. The correct way would be to increase the quality, not purely build on the quantity.


    Moreover, his resistance to attacks would increase ordingly, right?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the patient who had just attempted to run away. ¡°Do you understand now the benefits of the ck medicine that I applied on you? It can stop your pain immediately, and the wound won¡¯t get inmed afterwards either. I can¡¯t understand why you¡¯d run away.¡±


    The patient hemmed and hawed for a long time before finally saying, ¡°I don¡¯t have enough money...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was pained. He said resentfully, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you run faster then!¡±

 Chapter 20 - Wolf pack

    <h4>Chapter 20: Wolf pack</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When the patient heard Ren Xiaosumenting how he did not run faster, he couldn¡¯t feel more aggrieved. ¡°I was already running with everything I had. You were too crazy fast for me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grimaced and said, ¡°The others have already paid and left. Tell me, how are we going to settle this? We are a clinic, not some charity organization!¡±


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t you tell me how I should settle it?¡± The man was about to cry. Seeing how he was no match for Ren Xiaosu and was unable to afford the treatment, he might just end up dying here today.


    ¡°Look here.¡± Ren Xiaosu said nicely, ¡°Why don¡¯t you try to recall whether you have any money hidden somewhere at home?¡±


    ¡°No. Who would dare to hide their money at home these days? Even your own wife is not trustworthy.¡± The man was nearly driven to despair.


    Ren Xiaosu started getting a little impatient. ¡°You¡¯re a grown man, so don¡¯t act like you¡¯re being bullied. Just tell me how much money you have on you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s almost the end of the month, so there¡¯s only around five days until I get paid. We can¡¯t save much money doing what we do....¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m asking how much money you have on you!¡± Ren Xiaosu yelled.


    ¡°432 yuan,¡± the man sobbed.


    He definitely could not allow him to write a promissory note. In the current day, if he let someone sign a promissory note today, who knew if that person might just end up dead the next day.


    Ren Xiaosu was wondering whether this man had any other valuables on him.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought of something. He said as his eyes lit up, ¡°How about this? I don¡¯t think it¡¯s easy for you either, so why don¡¯t I waive the remaining fee for you? You can just give me whatever money you have in your pocket. You can keep the 32 yuan for your meals.... Scratch that, you can keep 2 yuan for your next meal.¡±


    When the man heard that, he teared up with emotion. ¡°Thank you, thank you so much!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Dong Mingshuai, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was ecstatic. He had finally found a way to gain the gratitude of his patients!


    First, he had to set a reasonable price. If the clinic charged 600 yuan, he would charge 600 yuan too. In this way, no one would feel that he was ripping them off. Secondly, he would have to put on an act. Even if it meant earning less money, he would earn their gratitude!


    Making money wasn¡¯t the priority; gaining gratitude was. Only by gaining gratitude could he earn money! Within a short period of one day, Ren Xiaosu had already made 1630 yuan. This was even faster than if he had gone to hunt for sparrows! Moreover, there wasn¡¯t any danger involved.


    For now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s number of gratitude tokens was back to four. It might look like there wasn¡¯t an increase, but it was more important he had found a method to gain more of them through trial and error!


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was happily thinking about buying a set of fall clothing for Yan Liuyuan. He turned around and nced at Xiaoyu. And he could buy a cotton-padded jacket for Xiaoyu to wear through the winter as well!


    Now that Xiaoyu had be their clinic¡¯s nurse, Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t let her work for nothing, right?


    But there was no hurry. He could wait and see roughly how much they made in a month before deciding how much to pay Xiaoyu.


    ...


    When news of the boiler explosion at the factory spread, many of the town¡¯s women got very worried. They were all afraid that something happened to their husbands.


    In the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu sat in his shack as he waited for the factory workers to return so that he could intercept and carry them to the clinic for treatment. But in the end, he didn¡¯t see anyone elseing back.


    The person who found it most unbearable would have to be that swindler at the town¡¯s clinic. After he heard about the boiler explosion, he excitedly waited for the patients toe. However, no one came to him to seek treatment even as night fell!


    As such, the young doctor went out and asked around. He¡¯d clearly heard that three injured people ran back in the afternoon, but why didn¡¯t any of theme to him to get bandaged?


    However, after asking around, he felt blueballed when he found out that his business had been stolen away by someone!


    He wondered who would be so brave as to stole away his business. After asking around again, he found out that it was Ren Xiaosu!


    The young doctor deliberated over this before he finally clenched his teeth in anger. So what if it was Ren Xiaosu? Could he steal someone else¡¯s upation just because he was Ren Xiaosu?


    However, the young doctor felt that something was amiss. How did Ren Xiaosu suddenly know how to treat wounds and save people? When he first heard about the ck medicine, he only thought of it as something that Ren Xiaosu had randomly concocted. He had doubts about it at that time, but he had no choice but to believe it now.


    He angrily went to look for Ren Xiaosu to demand an exnation. When he arrived at the door of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shack, Ren Xiaosu was paring a potato with a bone knife. Ren Xiaosu stabbed the potato with the bone knife, piercing right through it.


    Ren Xiaosu asked nonchntly, ¡°You¡¯re looking for me?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing. I just wanted to ask if you¡¯ve eaten yet.¡± The young doctorughed dryly.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him and said, ¡°Yu Tong, you aren¡¯t young anymore. You¡¯ve been depending on the old doctor¡¯s reputation long enough. It¡¯s running out. I advise you run home and flip through the old doctor¡¯s medical books so that you don¡¯t flounder in the future.¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Yu Tong said diffidently. ¡°I study the medical books every day.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good then.¡± Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and continued paring the potatoes, ignoring him.


    Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu and the others did not used to peel their potatoes. They ate the entire thing, skin and all. By peeling them, a substantial amount of the potato would go to waste. But it was different now. Ren Xiaosu had be rich, so he got a swelled head!


    All of a sudden, over a dozen people ran into town and shouted, ¡°This is bad! Something terrible has happened!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. He pulled one of them over and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°The scent of blood after the factory boiler explosion has attracted a pack of wolves.¡± That man said disconcertedly, ¡°I don¡¯t know where the wolves came from, but there are a lot of them!¡±


    ¡°How many is a lot?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid there are over a 100 of them, at least!¡±


    This was indeed terrible. It looked like the fate of the workers remaining at the factory was grim.


    The wolves hadn¡¯t appeared in over a year. During this time, everyone had almost forgotten about their threat. No one knew where they had gone to during this yearlong disappearance, but now that they were back, their numbers had increased by several times.


    However, the wolves did not dare toe and ravage the town because of the tall walls. And on top of these walls, there were firearms and explosives.


    This was why the refugees had gathered outside of the walls and built a town around it.


    ¡°What are you looking at? Eat your food,¡± Ren Xiaosu told Yan Liuyuan.


    After saying that, he sat down and continued eating his food. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan looked outside curiously as he ate his food and said, ¡°Bro, how did you manage to survive back then? You¡¯ve never talked about it before.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look but did not answer the question. Xiaoyu, who was beside them, also looked at Ren Xiaosu, although she did not ask him anything.


    After Yan Liuyuan finished eating a potato, Ren Xiaosu handed him another one. ¡°You should eat more so that you can grow better. Only then will you have a better chance of survival than others.¡±


    ¡°Bro, are you worried that the wolves wille into town?¡± Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu, who still had a frown on his face.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°They are much smarter than you guys can imagine, so they won¡¯t risk it bying here. If the boiler at the factory did not explode and cause those injuries and deaths, they wouldn¡¯t even have gone there. They weren¡¯t attracted to the smell of blood in the first ce. It was the smell of death that made them go there.¡±


    ¡°Then what are you worrying about, Bro?¡± Yan Liuyuan wondered.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a long time. ¡°What if the walls copse one day?¡±


    Xiaoyu was taken aback. ¡°Will these walls copse?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head again. ¡°But there¡¯s nothing that ever stays the same in this world. Actually, I¡¯ve encountered the wolf pack twice. The first time, I managed to run away after spotting them from afar. But I wasn¡¯t that fortunate the second time around. However, it feels like... they¡¯re getting much stronger than before!¡±


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu was also wondering what would happen if the walls copsed one day. What would happen to this society?

 Chapter 21 - Family standing

    <h4>Chapter 21: Family standing</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    News of today¡¯s unexpected incidents kept going around, rming everyone in town. On this night, no one stayed in their homes. Everyone was out and about as they discussed the events.


    Actually, a boiler explosion at the factory was not exactly a serious matter. After all, the factory¡¯s boiler had blown up on more than one asion due to years of poor maintenance.


    It was different this time, however. In the past, the wolf pack wouldn¡¯t have dared to attack a factory under the control of humans. Almost every factory had over a thousand workers working in them, and it would get especially rowdy on the streets outside of town after the workday ended.


    Some of the workers would return to town to stay for the night while others would simply sleep overnight at the factories¡¯ dorms. The factories operated around the clock with three shifts of workers.


    The wolf pack was bold enough to venture into a small human settlement positioned right next to the stronghold? There was something very bizarre about this indeed.


    As the soldiers apanying the band said, Stronghold 113 was situated in arger circr group of other strongholds, and being on the inside of this circr group, it made their stronghold saferpared to the other ces. At the beginning, the stronghold was still sending troops to garrison the factory. But when everyone realized that there were no wild animal attacks on the factories, they withdrew the troops and only left behind some guns for the factory managers to use in case of emergency.


    That night, the stronghold¡¯s city gate was suddenly opened. A loud rumbling could be heard as the stronghold¡¯s gate opened up. Then several hundred soldiers carrying loaded guns marched out.


    These were the private troops of Stronghold 113. Or to more aptly put it, they were the private army controlled by the Qing Consortium, the group behind Stronghold 113.


    The schoolteacher, Zhang Jinglin, once unwittingly mentioned that the consortium was the actual controller of the stronghold these days. They had power over the lives of humans and possessed weapons that could be used to fight off the dangers of the outside world. With money and weapons, they were firmly in control of the entire stronghold.


    This was the first time Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan had ever seen so many soldierse out of the stronghold. Yan Liuyuan was hiding in the shack and secretly watching the private army as they marched out of town. He muttered, ¡°Bro, are those guns they¡¯re carrying on their backs?¡±


    Those ck guns looked brutal and menacing. However, Ren Xiaosu was not surprised that he could recognize all of those weapons.


    Moreover, he had a feeling that... as long as he could get his hands on those firearms, he could use them to great effect immediately.


    The private army was not marching in an orderly fashion. There was an off-road vehicle leading the way, but the formation of the soldiers following it was a mess and could even be called chaotic. Someone from the private armyined, ¡°Isn¡¯t it just some people dying at the factory? Why can¡¯t we head there tomorrow morning? Why do we have to go there and kill the wolves tonight?¡±


    ¡°Shut up, the higher-ups ordered this mission.¡± Someone red at him.


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? It¡¯s not like those jackoffs-in-office can hear us anyway. They¡¯re probably still sleeping with women right now,¡± that man grumbled. He then lit himself a thinly rolled cigarette.


    Ren Xiaosu once again caught a whiff of that unusual smell of cigarettes. He frowned as he started increasingly distrust the stronghold¡¯s private troops.


    At this moment, the smoking soldier from the private army turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan looking at his automatic rifle. He scolded, ¡°What are the two of you brats looking at? Do you know what this is? Quit staring. You wouldn¡¯t know how to use it even if I gave it to you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pulled the curtain door down, although he did not agree with thetter half of what the soldier said.


    For some reason, he deduced that the soldier might not be good at marksmanship. His right shoulder pocket that was supposed to bear the recoil of the rifle did not show any signs of long-term training with firearms.


    In reality, what Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know was that firearms these days were also quite precious resources in the stronghold. Usually, the private army¡¯s officers would not let the soldiers waste their ammunition. If they had that kind of budget, they would rather go drinking or look for women to fool around with.


    Alcohol was prohibited outside the stronghold, but it was not the case on the inside.


    Yan Liuyuan wondered, ¡°Bro, why do I feel that you seem to know about their guns?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look and said, ¡°Don¡¯t ask so much.¡±


    Yan Liuyuanined, ¡°Do I still have any standing in this family?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was thinking about something else as he replied nonchntly, ¡°Don¡¯t think too much about it. Your role in the family is just to stay alive.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was speechless


    When the sound of the private army¡¯s marching got further away, Ren Xiaosu shot to his feet and told Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Go to Big Sister Xiaoyu¡¯s shack tonight and stay there for a while. Come back only after I return.¡±


    ¡°Bro, where are you going?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked in a stunned manner.


    By the time he finished asking, Ren Xiaosu had already quietly lifted the curtain door and gone out. A lot of people had gathered on the streets, so no one took any notice of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts.


    Usually, no one would dare toe outside at night. But today, everyone had left their houses ande outside as though they were celebrating the new year.


    Ren Xiaosu navigated his way through the darkness. After leaving the proximity of the town, he began to bolted forward. The moonlight was not very bright on this night, but as Ren Xiaosu had been going out of town almost every day for the past few years, he could essentially walk out here with his eyes closed!


    The stronghold¡¯s private army took the main road while Ren Xiaosu chose to go by a parallel path to avoid bumping into them.


    He came out here not for anything else but to see if there was an opportunity. As for what kind of opportunity it was, he was not sure yet.


    Guns!


    It was the guns that enticed Ren Xiaosu toe out here!


    Ren Xiaosu had acquired Advanced Firearms Proficiency, so he knew very well how important firearms were in today¡¯s era. The private troops who were apanying the band once said that they were carrying firearms with them and that any wolves would flee if they heard their gunshots.


    Ren Xiaosu, who had encountered the wolf pack before, knew exactly how terrifying they were. But such terrifying creatures were afraid of gunshots?


    Ren Xiaosu did not know what would happen to these private troops if they came face to face with the wolves. He was not thinking of getting their guns because his target was actually the factory. The people in town all knew that the factory managers were assigned firearms.


    ording to the people who returned after fleeing the factory, it was already over for those who remained behind. Ren Xiaosu had been wondering about it since the afternoon. Didn¡¯t they say that wolves were afraid of the sound of gunshots? Then shouldn¡¯t the managers be able to scare them away by just firing a few shots?


    Perhaps they did not expect that the wolves woulde, so it could have been toote for them to draw the guns. Or maybe the wolves carried out a sneak attack on the shooters. There could also be some other reasons, but the guns were probably still there at the factory.


    Ren Xiaosu ran as fast as he could towards the factory. He was more familiar with this ce than the private army was. And besides, the private army was marching there while he was running.


    Suddenly, a gunshot rang out in the darkness. Then a prolonged series of deafening gunshots rattled through the night. There was even the screaming of humans.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around and looked in the direction of the sound. Clearly, the private army had encountered the wolves, and many of them were still getting attacked after firing their guns. Didn¡¯t they say the wolves were afraid of gunshots? Didn¡¯t they say it was an animal¡¯s instinct to avoid danger?


    Today, Ren Xiaosu gained a new awareness of something: Although beasts had evolved to be stronger, they had never been able to ovee their animal instincts. Rabbits still ate grass, and wolves were still afraid of gunshots.


    Unless everything had changed.

 Chapter 22 - Guns!

    <h4>Chapter 22: Guns!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    There was an intense battle in the wilderness as the private army had not expected to encounter wolves. The wolves were extremely fierce and cunning, and it seemed like they had been waiting in ambush.


    At first, the troops thought that they could scare away the wolves by just firing their guns, but it turned out they were wrong. The wolves did not panic this time when they heard the gunshots!


    By the time the wolves appeared in front of them, the private troops were shocked to discover that these wolves were even bigger than they had imagined. They were the size of bison!


    Wait a minute! After these wolves attacked the factory, they waited in the only possible path that the private army would have to pass through. Why did it seem like they had been targeting these private troops from the very beginning?


    However, the private troops were trained soldiers. Before the casualties started piling up, they fell in and began to defend. Comparing the firearms of humans with the sharp teeth and ws of an animal, firearms would stille out on top in the end!


    The private army had dealt with the wolves on more than one asion. In recent years, they had slowly started pulling back on their ns to encircle and keep the wolves suppressed after being instructed to do so by the people in charge. Of course, this also gave the wolves some respite.


    For some reason, as Ren Xiaosu listened to the gunshots, he found the cracks to be so pleasant that his adrenaline started pumping. The gunshots excited him.


    He didn¡¯t go and take a closer peek at the battle. All he knew was that if the wolves and the private army were fighting now, it would be safe for him to go to the factory.


    Ren Xiaosu ran like a cheetah through the wilderness. For the first time, he could get aplete sense of his newly obtained strength and dexterity.


    His muscle fibers tensed up and rxed over and over again. This sort of feeling could only be described as invigorating.


    When Ren Xiaosu neared the factory, he finally slowed down. He hid in the darkness and approached it quietly. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see many of the refugees¡¯ dead bodies lying around. It seemed like they had wanted to escape back to town but were caught by the wolves one after another.


    Only a minority of them were lucky enough to escape at the expense of theirpanions.


    Ren Xiaosu painstakingly examined their wounds. They looked like they had been bitten in the neck by the wolves and died immediately. However, the wolves did not feed on their corpses and seemingly left in a hurry.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. He did not enter through the main entrance, instead climbing his way up a pipe on the outside of the factory building. Each time he passed by a window, he would scrupulously check if there were still any survivors inside.


    When Ren Xiaosu got to the top floor of the building, his heart sank. It didn¡¯t look like any survivors remained in the factory. The wolves had already swept through the entire factory, sparing no one.


    ¡®Where are the guns hidden?¡¯ Ren Xiaosu wondered. The factory managers would definitely not ce them where it would be easily essible to others.


    Ren Xiaosu broke the ss window on the top floor and jumped into the building. He looked around and saw that the hallway was full of bloodstains and corpses. Therge factory felt like a purgatory.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized something was off. All of the corpses looked like they had been running in the same direction when they were alive, as though something was guiding them towards it.


    What would attract people to run towards the same ce at such a crucial time?


    Ren Xiaosu came to a conclusion. That ce would either be the location of the weapons storage or a hiding ce.


    He followed this path all the way until he ended up in the basement. Was this... the emergency shelter?


    The more he walked forward, the more corpses there were. Ren Xiaosu could imagine what the scene looked like when everyone was trying to escape in panic from the wolves. They wanted to escape to a safe ce, but they were not fast enough to outrun the wolves.


    Ren Xiaosu arrived at an iron door. Indeed, everyone was escaping towards this ce because they wanted to get in. No matter how much the wolves had evolved, they were still only flesh and blood. It would still be rather difficult to break through an iron door several inches thick.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if anyone was still behind the iron door. He hesitated for quite a while before he raised his fist and knocked on the st door three times.


    Someone behind the iron door shouted happily, ¡°Is that the private army? You¡¯ve finallye to rescue me. I¡¯ll open the door right away!¡±


    The rhythm of the knocking was obvious and could not have been made by a wild animal. As such, the person on the inside mistook Ren Xiaosu as a soldier from the private army that had been sent to rescue him.


    With a loud grinding sound, the iron door burst open and revealed a middle-aged man on the inside. He had a leg wound, and his pants were stained red with blood. Even as he opened the door, he was standing on just one leg.


    However, the moment the door opened, both parties took action. Ren Xiaosu bent low and prepared to rush him. When the middle-aged man saw that the person in front of him was not a soldier, his first reaction was to raise his pistol!


    The atmosphere grew tense. Ren Xiaosu stopped in front of the middle-aged man because the ck muzzle of the pistol was pointed right at his forehead.


    ¡°Hehe,¡± the middle-aged manughed. ¡°So it¡¯s a little burr who wants to take advantage of the situation, eh? I recognize you; you¡¯re Ren Xiaosu from town.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also recognized him. The middle-aged man was the factory manager, Wang Dongyang.


    ¡°I recognize you too,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he straightened up as though nothing had happened. ¡°Why are you the only person in there? No... you were the first person who fled here, and you closed the door immediately while keeping everyone else outside!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a sudden chill pass through him. No wonder there were bloody handprints all over the outside of the iron dor. So it turned out that it was because of the refugees¡¯ crazy thumping on it. When the iron door was closed from the inside, it was impossible to open it via normal means from the outside.


    Wang Dongyangughed and said, ¡°You don¡¯t need to bother yourself with such matters. If you carry me back to town now, I¡¯ll spare your life.¡±


    ¡°And what if I refuse to carry you back?¡± Ren Xiaosu startedughing as well.


    ¡°Then I will just kill you with one shot. After that, I¡¯ll lock the door again and continue to wait for the army toe and rescue me. I¡¯m a resident of the stronghold, so they will definitelye and save me,¡± Wang Dongyang said.


    ¡°You must be afraid that I¡¯ll tell everyone how you sold out everyone here and left them for dead, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu continued tough and say.


    Wang Dongyang sneered at him. As the pistol gave him tremendous courage, he had no fear at all. ¡°How do you know that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment. ¡°The father knows his son the best.¡±


    Wang Dongyang was confused. Then factory manager grew infuriated. ¡°Do you think I won¡¯t kill you?¡±


    ¡°I also know another thing,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    ¡°What?¡± Wang Dongyang had a bad feeling about it.


    ¡°I know you didn¡¯t disengage the safety on the gun, and it¡¯s toote for you to do so now.¡±


    Wang Dongyang¡¯s pupils suddenly contracted. He had originally thought that it was the private army who came, so he didn¡¯t really think too much of it. But when he saw that it was Ren Xiaosu, and Ren Xiaosu had rushed in so decisively, he did not have enough time to disengage the safety.


    He had thought that he could easily frighten Ren Xiaosu because he felt that a refugee like him would not have seen a gun before or know how it worked. He thought that he would only feel fear with one pointed at him.


    However, Ren Xiaosu knew more about guns than the majority of people in Stronghold 113!

 Chapter 23 - Boss Luo

    <h4>Chapter 23: Boss Luo</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The factory manager, Wang Dongyang, felt a sense of despair growing as it grasped at his heart like a creeper vine. He didn¡¯t think he would get seen through by an unexpected development. He couldn¡¯t understand why this youth facing him knew about guns.


    A secondter, he suddenly took a step back as he wanted to use this opportunity to disengage the safety. But Ren Xiaosu would never give him the chance to do so. He charged at Wang Dongyang like a cannonball, crushing Wang Dongyang¡¯s ribs. Even his gun was sent flying out of his hand.


    Wang Dongyang had nothing to rely on now. Heid on the ground, coughing up blood, and said, ¡°Let me go. I¡¯ll tell you where I kept all my belongings.¡±


    ¡°Tell me first and I¡¯ll let you go,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m stupid?¡± Wang Dongyang actually knew this was just a futile attempt to be let off. How could this teen possibly let him go? If Ren Xiaosu allowed him to leave, could he still survive in the vicinity of Stronghold 113? And when Wang Dongyang first learned of the existence of Ren Xiaosu, he was even referred to as... Ruthless Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Your lungs have already been pierced by your broken ribs, so it¡¯s toote for you even if you go back to town now.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. Although he was eager to get Wang Dongyang¡¯s belongings, it was clear that he would not tell him where he kept them.


    Ren Xiaosu wasted no time here. He did not know when the battle between the private army and the wolves would end. But if he dragged his feet around here any longer, it would not end well for him no matter which side arrived at the factory.


    The sound of a sharp weapon cutting through leather tore the air. Ren Xiaosu used the bone knife to imitate a wolf¡¯s ws shing across Wang Dongyang¡¯s chest, creating fake wounds. He waited until he was certain Wang Dongyang¡¯s vital signs had stopped before he picked up the pistol and headed out. Ren Xiaosu also took the two magazines Wang Dongyang carried on him.


    There were a total of 36 bullets.


    By the time Ren Xiaosu left the factory, no one remained alive. Ren Xiaosu turned around and gazed at the building where a bloodbath had taken ce. Behind him was the darkness of night. This was the world he lived in.


    ...


    ¡°Bro, are you alright?¡± Yan Liuyuan said eagerly when he saw Ren Xiaosu lift the curtain door and walk in. He circled around Ren Xiaosu to check if there were any bloodstains on him before he felt at ease.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± While tying the bone knife back around his calf, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did anything happen in town while I was away? Is the private army back yet?¡±


    ¡°Some of them have returned. They brought some wounded soldiers back with them, as well as the dead bodies of their fellow soldiers and carcasses of the wolves. I heard that the rest of the troops continued on to the factory,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t think that this was unusual. No matter how strong the wild wolves might be, it would be impossible for them to win when faced with a private army that was several times greater than them in number. Moreover, the soldiers were even carrying weapons with them.


    ¡°How many wolf carcasses did they bring back?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Over thirty of them.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Bro, those wild wolves are enormous!¡±


    When Yan Liuyuan had asked Ren Xiaosu what size the wolves were, Ren Xiaosu just described them as very big. As for what ¡°very big¡± truly meant, Yan Liuyuan found out today.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. He was d that he hadn¡¯t stayed at the factory for too long. Otherwise, he would likely have run into the private army that arrived at the factory shortly after. It seemed that the wolves withdrew once they felt that their ambush had failed. So the battle with them did not dy the private army for too long.


    It was no wonder he didn¡¯t hear any gunshots in the wilderness when he came back via an alternate route.


    However, the wolves were getting stronger and smarter. If they let them go this time, the people in town might have to face an even stronger attack from them the next time.


    Suddenly, amotion brewed outside. Ren Xiaosu lifted the curtain door and watched what was happening. It turned out that a group of ten soldiers from the private army had driven back in advance in an off-road vehicle.


    An officer in the vehicle said, ¡°Anyone who volunteers any information on those who went out of town tonight will be handsomely rewarded!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback because he knew they were clearly looking for him!


    They must have already gone to the factory and looked around the ce. Ren Xiaosu had thought that it would be impossible for a normal person to discover the phoniness of Wang Dongyang¡¯s wounds. However, there was still a crucial problem that could not be reconciled¡ªWang Dongyang¡¯s pistol had gone missing!


    If someone worked backwards upon discovering this problem, it would be easy to get clues on what had happened. This was something that Ren Xiaosu could not prevent.


    ¡°Bro.¡± Yan Liuyuan got worried as he looked at Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu pushed Yan Liuyuan¡¯s head back into the shack.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully recalled that he did not take the main road when he left town. If he remembered it urately, no one should have any idea that he had gone out other than Yan Liuyuan.


    The soldiers were standing guard at the entrance of the town. Soon after, all of the other soldiers returned as well. The people in town watched. Right afterwards, the private troops began going door to door and rummaged through every household¡¯s storage chests and cabs.


    They were... searching for that gun.


    Suddenly, a familiar voice shouted, ¡°I know who went out in the middle of the night.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw that it was the clinic¡¯s doctor, Yu Tong. He was looking at Ren Xiaosu with a smile on his face and standing very far away from him, as he was afraid that Ren Xiaosu would try to kill him.


    The private army¡¯s officer strolled over and asked, ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s him, Ren Xiaosu. I saw him go out of town with my very own eyes,¡± Yu Tong said with an arrogant smile.


    Ren Xiaosu did not deny this. He admitted, ¡°At that time, the town¡¯smon privy was upied by He Zong, so I had to go outside to relieve myself.¡±


    ¡°Who is He Zong? Is he telling the truth?¡± the officer shouted.


    He Zong, who was standing nearby, had a dumbfounded look on his face as he did not know how he suddenly got implicated in this. He said meekly, ¡°Indeed, I had diarrhea tonight. Many people can testify....¡±


    The officer turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu as he sneered, ¡°Search.¡±


    After he said that, Wang Fugui darted out before his soldiers could rush into the shack. ¡°Wait a minute, he¡¯s someone who has been singled out by one of the aristocrats in the stronghold to be taken care of. You can¡¯t treat him like this.¡±


    The officer was stunned. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°In the afternoon, Boss Luo Lan from the stronghold specially ordered for him to be taken care of. Even Ren Xiaosu himself doesn¡¯t know about this yet! But as for why he is doing this, you¡¯ll have to ask Boss Luo yourself. It¡¯s not convenient for us to reveal it to you,¡± Wang Fugui exined quickly.


    ¡°Boss Luo?¡± The officer was a little surprised. Everyone could tell from his reaction that he clearly knew the boss who went by the name of Luo Lan. In fact, it even seemed like he was a big shot in the stronghold.


    The officer thought for a moment and said, ¡°Even if he is Boss Luo¡¯s guy, we must still search him. This is a very serious matter. I¡¯ll personally apologize and exin it to Boss Luo tonight.¡±


    After saying that, the soldiers rushed into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shack and rummaged through their belongings. Another two soldiers carried out a body search on Ren Xiaosu.


    Two minutester, the soldiers were all shaking their heads when the search did not turn up anything.


    The officer looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Bring me to the ce where you took a dump.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he made his way out of town. He didn¡¯t expect the officer to be so rigorous with the checks in order not to miss any details! Yan Liuyuan, who was behind him, was about to run over. However, Ren Xiaosu turned around and snapped, ¡°Get back inside!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes reddened.


    Ren Xiaosu led the officer and soldiers out of town. He pointed to a pool of feces and said, ¡°There, it¡¯s still hot and fresh.¡±


    The officer had a look at it and then ordered the soldiers to continue searching the other households. They did not bother with Ren Xiaosu anymore.


    Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he was well-prepared. Before he left town, he observed the surroundings and thought of a reason before he came back. Not only did he bury the gun outside of town, he alsoid thest of the situational evidence to cover his lie... by taking a dump right outside of town.


    He turned his gaze to Yu Tong, who had been following them. Yu Tong pissed his pants when he saw the daggers in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes.

 Chapter 24 - Ren Xiaosu, the drug dealer

    <h4>Chapter 24: Ren Xiaosu, the drug dealer</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    At first, Ren Xiaosu was unsure whether the clinic¡¯s owner, Yu Tong, had really spotted him going out of town or if he was deliberately trying to frame him even though he did not see anything.


    Later, he recalled that he had not seen Yu Tong at that time. Ren Xiaosu knew he would have to be wary of Yu Tong after stealing his business in case Yu Tong tried to take revenge on him. After all, it was always necessary to be cautious of scheming people in times like this. As such, if Ren Xiaosu did not have any impression of such ¡°dangerous targets¡± appearing in his memory, it would surely mean that the other party had not witnessed him leaving town. Therefore, it was more than likely that Yu Tong was deliberately lying to frame Ren Xiaosu.


    As for whether Yu Tong had considered the consequences of unsessfully framing him, Ren Xiaosu felt that he was not smart enough to have considered this scenario.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu could tolerate Yu Tong¡¯s antics. As he had stolen some of his business away, Ren Xiaosu could not bear to thoroughly break his living. Thus, he exhorted Yu Tong to return to his medical books and study them well. In the end, not only did he not take his advice, he even plotted against him.


    Ren Xiaosu sneered as he looked at Yu Tong, who had turned tail and fled back to town. There was also a puddle on the ground where he had been standing.


    Next to him, Wang Fuguiughed and said, ¡°Looks like my intervention was not needed after all. You were going to be alright anyway.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned his head to Wang Fugui and thanked him earnestly. He would remember those who were willing to step forward and put in a good word for him in a situation like this.


    ¡°Hey, no need to be so polite.¡± Wang Fugui smiled brightly. ¡°If not for Boss Luo¡¯s appreciation of you, I would¡¯ve been too scared to step forward and speak up for you. Boss Luo specifically sent someone to bring word to the town administrators to look out for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Who¡¯s Boss Luo? Does he know me?¡±


    Wang Fugui winked at him and whispered, ¡°That medicine of yours... Boss Luo likes it a lot!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Ren Xiaosu realized that the ck medicine that Wang Fugui purchased from him had been sent into the stronghold.


    ¡°Boss Luo has given his word that as long as you hand over a fixed amount of the ck medicine on time each month, he will ensure that you¡¯ll be free from trouble here outside the stronghold,¡± Wang Fugui said with a smile. In reality, he had an ulterior motive for doing this. After all, he could ensure his own safety by acting as the intermediary for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ck medicine that Boss Luo wanted.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu got an idea. ¡°Is Boss Luo very influential and powerful in the stronghold?¡±


    ¡°You still don¡¯t know, do you?¡± Wang Fugui dered proudly, ¡°He is the Qing Consortium¡¯s representative in Stronghold 113.¡±


    ¡°If he¡¯s the representative of the Qing Consortium, why isn¡¯t his surname Qing?¡± Ren Xiaosu felt that something was off here.


    ¡°Don¡¯t go shooting your mouth off after I tell you.¡± Wang Fugui lowered his voice to a whisper. ¡°It¡¯s said that he¡¯s the half-brother of some big shot within the Qing Consortium, an illegitimate son of the family.¡±


    ¡°Then can you ask Boss Luo to help get us into the stronghold?¡± Ren Xiaosu thought that if an influential person like Boss Luo, who had great authority in the stronghold helped them, it wouldn¡¯t be too difficult to get them in, right?


    ¡°We¡¯re all contaminated, so how can we be allowed inside the stronghold?¡± Wang Fugui said with a sad frown. ¡°Besides, if you get into the stronghold, who¡¯s going to pick the wild medicinal herbs for Boss Luo?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had a realization. Thetter half of the sentence was actually the truth as to why he wasn¡¯t going to be allowed into the stronghold, right? For Boss Luo, there was no reason at all to bring Ren Xiaosu and the others in. He could leave them outside the stronghold and have Ren Xiaosu continue supplying him with the ck medicine.


    That same night, Yan Liuyuan suddenly ran a high fever. Ren Xiaosu exchanged a bottle of ck medicine and tried applying it on Yan Liuyuan¡¯s forehead, but it did not make his fever go down.


    Ren Xiaosu sat beside the bed and looked at the feeble Yan Liuyuan. He said with a sigh, ¡°You didn¡¯t have to make a wish for this. Don¡¯t make any wishes without me asking you to do so in the future, understand? The fevers that you get as a result could end up killing you.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan could barely open his eyes as he said weakly, ¡°But what am I to do if something happens to you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and thought for a long time. ¡°Don¡¯t be stubborn. I will definitely ensure that we¡¯ll lead afortable life together someday.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡±


    ...


    The next morning, when Ren Xiaosu went to town to fetch water, he was surprised to hear a piece of news. Yu Tong had packed all of his belongings and money and run away in the night. He would rather face the dangers lurking in the wilderness than face Ren Xiaosu.


    Someone said that Yu Tong had gone to Stronghold 114 because it was the closest to Stronghold 113 and was also in the opposite direction of where the wolves appeared. As long as he took the main road there, he should be fine.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. Yu Tong had actually run away in fear...


    However, something that surprised Ren Xiaosu even more happened. Chen Haidong, who was an administrator sent from the stronghold, came knocking on his door. He asked affably, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, I heard that you know how to heal people and save their lives?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°I can only treat knife wounds and external injuries.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine, that¡¯s fine.¡± Chen Haidong was smiling even more happily now. ¡°That still makes you a doctor. Now that our town no longer has a doctor, do you think you¡¯d be interested in bing one?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan, who was still lying down in the shack with a fever, opened his eyes in shock. This brother of his had only wanted to earn some gratitude tokens and money initially, so how did he suddenly be a real doctor? Furthermore, he was going to be the only doctor in town too? He didn¡¯t even have to make a wish for that!


    Was it because it was unnecessary to make that wish for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s incidentst night that it somehow changed his luck?


    However, Ren Xiaosu understood that this was only happening because the administrator, Chen Haidong, was also trying to get into Boss Luo¡¯s good books.


    Authority made the people around you want to serve you meticulously.


    Ren Xiaosu was not dumb. He agreed immediately and said, ¡°About that house at the clinic, can I...¡±


    ¡°Yes, you can.¡± Chen Haidong said with a friendly smile, ¡°You totally can! You can move in today since no one is living there.¡±


    Chen Haidong then walked off, his hands behind his back, while humming a little ditty. Right after, Old Wang came back with a wooden box tucked under his armpit. After Old Wang arrived, some of the people, who were rumored to be members of the richest group in town and lived in brick houses, also dropped by.


    Some of them operated small gambling dens, draper¡¯s shops, and grain shops.


    Old Wang said, ¡°Congrattions, Ren Xiaosu! You get to live in a brick house just like that!¡± During the conversation, Old Wang handed a gift box to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I got a small present for you and Liuyuan. Since both of you are still growing, eating this will help strengthen your bodies!¡±


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu opened it and was surprised to see a white lump. ¡°What is this?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know what this is, right? I¡¯ve kept this bird¡¯s nest for many years,¡± Wang Fugui exined. ¡°It¡¯s really nourishing!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had only heard of this stuff. He had never seen it before. However, he had always had doubts about it. ¡°Mr. Zhang Jinglin said that bird¡¯s nest is made from a swiftlet¡¯s saliva, but I don¡¯t think that the viscosity of saliva can be that thick, so it¡¯s probably made of... phlegm?¡±


    Wang Fugui was annoyed. ¡®Don¡¯t make my gift sound so disgusting.¡¯ He said unhappily, ¡°Then what about blood bird¡¯s nest <sup>1</sup> ? What is that made of?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. ¡°Phlegm tainted by blood?¡±

 Chapter 25 - A banner

    <h4>Chapter 25: A banner</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Give it back to me if you don¡¯t want it. You don¡¯t have to make it sound so disgusting,¡± Wang Fugui said as he tried to snatch the bird¡¯s nest back.


    Ren Xiaosu happily covered up the bird¡¯s nest box and threw it into the shack. ¡°Come on, it was just a joke. I didn¡¯t mean to make it sound disgusting.¡±


    He looked at the people behind Old Wang. Frankly, if he were to address them as esquires, that would be an insult to the word ¡°esquire.¡±


    These people were all holding some gifts in their hands. Actually, everyone here was no stranger to Ren Xiaosu. Their main intention ining over this time was to exchange civilities with Ren Xiaosu. What this meant was that they had epted him into their circle, and they were all going to be friends from now on.


    Ren Xiaosu did not stand on ceremony with them. Yan Liuyuan was still lying in bed and recuperating at this moment, so if there were tonics for them, why not?


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu.¡± Old Wang pulled him aside and said, ¡°You should move into the clinic as soon as possible. There are two other houses attached behind the clinic, and ites with a yard measuring over a dozen square meters. A lot of people are already eyeing the ce!¡±


    ¡°Um, OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. He was still quite polite towards Wang Fugui.


    ¡°Furthermore, Boss Luo has gotten his people to send you some medical supplies from the stronghold. These are all worth quite a bit of money. I¡¯ve already told them to send the supplies to the clinic. The most expensive ones are the anti-inmmatory pills and anesthetics. You had better keep an eye on them,¡± Wang Fugui whispered. ¡°There are people who steal anesthetics as a substitute for their smoking addiction when they can¡¯t get their hands on cigarettes. I¡¯ve suffered losses from such cases.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He didn¡¯t think that anesthetics had such an effect. However, it was still good to have someone give him things for free. Hoping for more, he asked, ¡°Did he send anything else?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a banner as well.¡±


    ...


    In the morning, Ren Xiaosu and Xiaoyu threw their belongings together in a pack and headed to the clinic. Who would want to live in a shack when they could live in a brick house with bright windows and clean tables?


    He had already nned for Yan Liuyuan and himself to live in one of the two rear houses, while Xiaoyu could live in the other.


    Xiaoyu had initially lived in a brick house. After that, she moved into a shack for the sake of these two ¡°younger brothers.¡± Now that Xiaoyu could live in a brick house again, one of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wishes could be considered fulfilled.


    But when Ren Xiaosu walked into the clinic carrying Yan Liuyuan on his back, he was dumbfounded.


    He saw a banner hanging in the middle of the clinic¡¯s wall. It was emzoned with the words ¡°Magic hands restore spring¡ªFrom Luo Lan.¡±


    ording to Wang Fugui, as long as the banner was hanging in the clinic, no one would dare to do anything to Ren Xiaosu. But of course, Ren Xiaosu would first have to not involve himself in anything that went against Luo Lan¡¯s interests.


    This would act as a talisman for them, even though it made Ren Xiaosu feel very ufortable. He did not know if Luo Lan had casually instructed his people to make the banner or if he was deliberately teasing him.


    ¡®It¡¯s probably the former, right?¡¯ After all, in Luo Lan¡¯s eyes, Ren Xiaosu was only a refugee who sold medicine outside of the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu helped Yan Liuyuan get settled in. Ren Xiaosu did not tell Xiaoyu about Yan Liuyuan¡¯s conditionst night because he was afraid to disturb her sleep. She only found out about it this morning, so she was feeling terrible.


    Yan Liuyuan was thoroughly enjoying Xiaoyu¡¯s meticulous care for him. Suddenly, he thought of how he always used to make fun of her, so he said weakly, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, I¡¯m sorry for behaving the way I did in the past.¡±


    Xiaoyu looked at him. ¡°The two of you are imps, so there¡¯s no need to apologize to your sister. But if you weren¡¯t more mature than the other kids, you wouldn¡¯t have survived until now.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s mainly because my brother is amazing.¡± Yan Liuyuanughed.


    ¡°I wonder how much hardship that kid has had to suffer through the years.¡± Xiaoyu sighed.


    ¡°Countless hardships,¡± replied Yan Liuyuan calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu was currently browsing through and checking the medicine that was left behind in the clinic, as well as the new medical supplies sent over on the orders of Luo Lan. Perhaps someone had informed Boss Luo that he specialized in treating wounds, as he had sent a lot more anesthetics and anti-inmmatory pills over.


    Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed when he saw that there were fever relievers and antidotes inside the crate of medicine. He brought the anti-inmmatory pills, fever relievers, and antidotes to Yan Liuyuan and made him take them. The main symptom of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s illness was the inmmation of the tonsils caused by excessive internal heat <sup>1</sup> . It didn¡¯t matter if this medicine was suitable for the symptoms. It would cure the illness.


    There were also some medicinal herbs in the clinic. Some of the cabs had the names of medicinal herbs written on them and the treatment suggestions for the different types of symptoms. Ren Xiaosumented how Yu Tong did not cherish his chances even though he had such a good father.


    That same night, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s fever finally subsided. Only then did Ren Xiaosu heave a sigh of relief. He said to Xiaoyu, ¡°You can brew the tonics that those people brought over. You and Liuyuan can eat them.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Xiaoyu nodded and went to make dinner.


    Recently, the three of them were just like siblings and were at ease around each other. Sometimes, fate was a wonderful thing. These three who did not seem to fit together did just that.


    When Xiaoyu returned with the dishes, she shouted for Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan to eat. Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something and said, ¡°Xiaoyu, since you¡¯ll be living next door from now on, you can use the ce as your bridal chamber when you get married.¡±


    Xiaoyu¡¯s expression changed right as she was about to pass a bowl of rice to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You¡¯re getting sick of me so soon? Do I eat a lot? Or do I waste money?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, that¡¯s not what I meant....¡±


    ¡°Then what did you mean?¡± Xiaoyu took the bowl back and said spitefully, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, you¡¯re such a heartless person. You¡¯re eating the food that I cooked and you still wish to kick me out? Even if I fed it to a dog, I wouldn¡¯t let you eat it.¡±


    Xiaoyu then shoved the bowl into Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hands and said, ¡°Finish the rice.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was confused.


    After saying that, Xiaoyu was the first to break intoughter. Then Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuanughed along.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly felt that Xiaoyu looked tender and gentle when she wasughing. It was just a pity that... she was born in the wrong era.


    ¡°Xiaosu, what ns do you have for the future?¡± Xiaoyu asked as she ate.


    ¡°I¡¯ve no ns at the moment. I¡¯m just gonna take it one step at a time,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He was still most concerned about the quest weapon that had yet to be unlocked.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s initial wish was to ensure that he and Yan Liuyuan could carry on living well. But when he realized that he had a superpower, he couldn¡¯t help thinking that there was more that he desired now.


    For now, the repeatable quest was notplete. He still had to sessfully treat ten patients.


    He didn¡¯t know what the new quest would reward him with. As for the mysterious vending machine, would there be any other products besides the ck medicine?


    All these unknowns were awaiting discovery.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu with much anticipation. ¡°Bro, what are we going to do tomorrow? Can I help you treat the patients?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°Why? Are you well again?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Yan Liuyuan replied. Having finished dinner, he was in rather good spirits. ¡°I¡¯m feeling fine already.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Go to school if you¡¯re fine then.¡±


    ¡°OK...¡±

 Chapter 26 - Save the mother or the baby?

    Chapter 26: Save the mother or the baby?


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu opened the clinic¡¯s door and observed the surroundings. This was probably the first time in many years that he found the morning air in town refreshing.


    After The Cataclysm, the sky was covered with a strange haze most of the time. The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin, said that a huge amount of dust particles were sted into the sky during The Cataclysm. It not only blocked sunlight for photosynthesis, but the climate also became extremely cold, and acid rains were a frequent phenomenon as well.


    The situation had gradually improved in recent decades, with the sun being visible for most of the year now.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s clinic was across from the grocery store. The moment he opened his door, he saw Wang Fuguiing out of his store with two freshly baked sweet potatoes in his hands. ¡°Xiaosu,e, have some sweet potatoes!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Before this, he found it difficult to even ask for a free needle to sew his clothes with from Old Wang. Even free thread for sewing clothes was impossible to get, let alone a needle.


    But now this scrooge took the initiative to offer him sweet potatoes...


    Ren Xiaosu looked at how cheerful Wang Fugui was. Since someone gave him a gift, he should probably give something back to reciprocate, right? He smacked his lips and said, ¡°I don¡¯t have much to give in return, but I¡¯ve got plenty of anesthetics to go around. Why don¡¯t I give you a free shot of it?¡±


    ¡°How can you offer to give me a shot of something like that?¡± Wang Fugui¡¯s expression darkened. He asked, ¡°Say, you haven¡¯t been out to gather any medicinal herbs for the past few days. Would you happen to still have any of that medicine left?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve got anti-inmmatory pills, anesthetics, and cough and mucus medicine,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°I mean, do you still have that ck medicine avable?¡± Wang Fugui was slightly embarrassed.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you just buy some not long ago?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked knowingly.


    ¡°That was for the big shots in the stronghold, so stop acting dumb. If I didn¡¯t send the medicine in, do you think you would have taken over this clinic so easily?¡± Wang Fuguiined. ¡°To tell you the truth, I was only nning to give it to Chen Haidong at the beginning. I don¡¯t understand how it made its way into Boss Luo¡¯s hands in the end....¡±


    Wang Fugui did not really understand how the ck medicine made its way up the ranks. He wondered how many more dosages were left by the time it got delivered into Boss Luo¡¯s hands.


    ¡°Here.¡± Ren Xiaosu took out two small porcin vials. Yesterday, he bought a small vial of ck medicine to treat Yan Liuyuan¡¯s fever. There were still two dosages left, so he separated them into different packaging a while ago. ¡°1200 yuan, and not a single yuan less.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be sending one of these vials into the stronghold.¡± Wang Fugui stared. ¡°Don¡¯t you feel embarrassed about how much you¡¯re charging me?¡±


    ¡°Take it or leave it.¡± Ren Xiaosu prepared to put the ck medicine back into his pocket.


    In the end, Wang Fugui did not hesitate. He decisively held Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arm andpleted the transaction with cash. After that, Wang Fugui even thanked him!


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!¡±


    Eh? Ren Xiaosu felt that Wang Fugui was quite an interesting person. His two ¡°thank yous¡± so far had earned Ren Xiaosu two gratitude tokens!


    However, Ren Xiaosu found it a little pitiful to give away the medicine just like that. Also, why were his gratitude tokens dwindling? He only had four tokens left.


    But he weighed the pros and cons. As he wanted Yan Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu to have a better life in town, it was essential to foster ties with people in the stronghold.


    Besides, the ck medicine was not exactly given away for nothing, so why not?


    Thinking this, Ren Xiaosu sighed. He would have to see if he could gain more gratitude from the people now that he had been appointed as the clinic¡¯s doctor.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s top priority was to go out to gather more medicinal herbs. As he was a cautious person, he had to pull out all the stops. It would be bad if he aroused the suspicion of others.


    Otherwise, when people talked about him in the future, they might just go, ¡°So-and-so¡¯s superpower is to make an iceberg appear out of thin air and drop it on a city, while so-and-so has a power that can cut through mountains.¡± Meanwhile, when they talked about Ren Xiaosu, they would say, ¡°His superpower is to create that kind of medicine.¡± That would be too damn embarrassing.


    After Ren Xiaosu reached the wilderness, he couldn¡¯t help but look for where he buried the pistol. He had to be sure that no one else found it before he could feel at ease. The handgun was now the greatest reliance he had. He couldn¡¯t let any of his n go wrong.


    Even though he possessed a Strength of 4.5 and Dexterity of 4.1 now, humans still couldn¡¯t outrun or win against a gun.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned to the clinic carrying a bamboo basket on his back, he saw Xiaoyu looking ufortable trying to help a couple who hade to the clinic for a consultation.


    The moment she saw that Ren Xiaosu had returned, she turned her eyes to him, signaling for help. ¡°Xiaosu, attend to the patients quickly.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ced the bamboo basket on the ground and asked, ¡°What injuries do the two of you have? I¡¯ll have you know you¡¯vee to the right ce.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great.¡± The man said, ¡°We aren¡¯t injured, but my wife, who¡¯s four months pregnant, suddenly got some pain in her stomach this morning. I was afraid that something might have happened, so we came to see if you could treat her.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze. Although he was a doctor, he had no idea how to treat something like this!


    In these current times, there was no such thing as andrology and gynecology. The mindset of the refugees in town was to go to the clinic whenever they felt ill.


    This put Ren Xiaosu in a difficult position. He had said those boastful words and was now faced with the expectations of the couple, so surely he could not disgrace himself, right?


    Ren Xiaosu tried hard to remember the lessons that Mr. Zhang had taught in school and the books that he had read there to think of a way to deal with this problem he was facing. What would doctorsmonly say to expectant mothers and their family members?


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. ¡°Do you want to save the mother or the baby?¡±


    The couple was confused.


    The man grew furious. ¡°You¡¯re a quack, right? My wife is only experiencing some stomach pain and you asking me whether I want to save the mother or the baby? The problem is, my wife is only four months pregnant! Where would I put the baby if I chose to save it?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought it sounded quite logical.


    This time he said with a sigh, ¡°I¡¯m really sorry to the two of you. I was in the wrong. To be honest, I don¡¯t know a thing about gynecology. If I continued fooling you, that would be unforgivable. The previous doctor also wouldn¡¯t know how to treat her since he really was a quack.¡±


    It had to be said that Ren Xiaosu could easily kill someone without blinking his eyes if they deserved to die, but he couldn¡¯t do something against his conscience like lying to an expectant mother.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°My suggestion is that you go to school and borrow some books from Mr. Zhang to read and let your wife eat and drink well most days. Then it will depend on fate for whether she gives birth smoothly or not. I won¡¯t con any money from you two. On top of that, don¡¯t go around buying random medicine from other people. I know that you shouldn¡¯t take any medicine when you¡¯re pregnant. There¡¯s a high probability that it will lead to malformation of the child in the womb. If you don¡¯t believe me, you can check with Mr. Zhang or borrow some books from him on how to prevent a miscarriage.¡±


    The couple looked at each other as they did not expect Ren Xiaosu to say something like that. The man thought for a while. ¡°I feel that you¡¯re a little better than the previous doctor. Thest time I got sick, he was so afraid that I wouldn¡¯t buy his medicine. However, my health did not improve even after taking his medicine. I had to pull through and recover by myself.¡±


    The pregnant woman stood up and said with a smile, ¡°Thank you, doctor.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Qin Jiajia, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He did almost nothing this time, but he still gained a gratitude out of the blue.

 Chapter 27 - Giving in to temptation

    <h4>Chapter 27: Giving in to temptation</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little puzzled. He was merely telling the truth, yet somehow, he still received the patient¡¯s gratitude.


    Both Yan Liuyuan and he had the mindset that people would only be grateful if they were given something for free.


    Ren Xiaosu had attended one of Mr. Zhang Jinglin¡¯s ss where he described how great human civility used to be. This made him wonder why the graciousness that took several thousand years to build up had copsed so quickly.


    Today, this couple made Ren Xiaosu gain a vague understanding. However, he could not quite put a finger on what it was.


    On the same day, Ren Xiaosu had Xiaoyu take down the sign that was hung outside the clinic to sew on the additional word ¡°wounds¡± before the word ¡°clinic.¡±


    He¡¯d lied, cheated, and stolen many times, but he only did them selectively.


    Today, Ren Xiaosu made a decision. From now on, he would only treat illnesses that he could treat. If he couldn¡¯t, then so be it.


    In the end, none of the patients that came today suffered from any sort of wounds. Instead, all of them had aches and ailments that he did not know how to treat. To his surprise, when he told these patients that he honestly couldn¡¯t do anything for them, he still managed to raise the number of gratitude tokens to ten at the end of the day, without even having to use any of the ck medicine!


    Ren Xiaosu sat in the clinic in a state of confusion. What the fuck was going on?


    He didn¡¯t know everyone had umted grievances with the previous doctor, Yu Tong, over a long period of time. Through Ren Xiaosu¡¯s actions, those who had gone to seek treatment from him started publicizing him. ¡°I think Ruthless Ren Xiaosu is a much better person than that previous bastard of a doctor, Yu Tong! If he doesn¡¯t know how to treat your illness, he will never try to make money off you by prescribing medicine on a whim!¡±


    When some busybodies heard about this, they thought, ¡®Wow, there¡¯s even something like that?¡¯ Then they went to the clinic to check it out.


    While they had their fun, Ren Xiaosu was feeling hard done by. The number of patients that consulted him exceeded the number of gratitude tokens he earned by at least ten times!


    Some of themined of headaches while others thought that their faces had suddenly swelled up. The fact that someone even came to him to get their fortune told left Ren Xiaosu speechless.


    But once Ren Xiaosu made up his mind on something, he would make sure to do it. He advised the townspeople and sent them away like how he had exined things to the couple.


    Afterwards, the townspeople realized that Ren Xiaosu really did not charge at a whim for his medical services.


    Their initial impression of Ren Xiaosu was that he was a very ruthless person. This was because the young Ren Xiaosu had to take care of Yan Liuyuan and wanted to gain a foothold in this town. As such, he had topete bravely and ruthlessly against others to have even a slim chance of survival.


    Later, everyone¡¯s impression of him changed to... drug dealer.


    But right now, everyone was beginning to think that if they ever received a wound, they would immediately go to the clinic to get treated by Ren Xiaosu.


    Such word of mouth hade from nowhere and puzzled Ren Xiaosu greatly.


    At noon, Xiaoyu went to town with her basket to buy some groceries. During this recent period, they could afford the better things in life as their savings reached 3,400 yuan. As such, they could also get better raw ingredients from the town¡¯s market.


    Xiaoyu would even buy some fine salt and pigskin asionally. The texture of fine salt in the mouth was quite different from that of coarse salt, while oil from the pigskin was extracted to be used for frying.


    There were pig farms located outside of this town. Domesticated pigs had also evolved after The Cataclysm, but as long as they were neutered while they were young, they would grow up to be very docile animals.


    Without a doubt, humans were the most adaptable species and were good at utilizing the environment around them. No other species came close.


    Usually, the good meat from these pigs was shipped into the stronghold for consumption. Only a tiny quantity of the remainder would remain in town for sale.


    In the past, Yan Liuyuan dreamed of getting into the stronghold as one of his biggest wishes was to eat meat.


    Xiaoyu returned to the clinic with a basketful of vegetables. The moment she came in, she beamed and said, ¡°My, oh, my, Xiaosu, do you know that the townspeople are praising you to the high heavens?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Xiaoyu smiled and started cutting up the vegetables. ¡°Our Xiaosu has be a doctor now, so your future wife will surely be the best possible candidate in town. When you get married and have children, I¡¯ll help you take care of them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grew ufortable. ¡°I¡¯ve never thought about that before.¡±


    Xiaoyu got upset. ¡°How old do you think you are? It¡¯s time you started thinking about it. Oh, I also bought some peanuts today. I wonder where the townspeople dug them up from. I¡¯ll cook some for both of you in a bit.¡±


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan came back from school. Nowadays, he could also eat lunch when he returned home at noon just like the other students. He used to bring two potatoes with him to school every morning and eat them for lunch.


    Aftering through the door, he spotted some peanuts in the basket and immediately picked one up. But before he could shell it, Xiaoyu pped it out of his hand. ¡°Don¡¯t you eat that. There¡¯s still dirt on it.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan angrily banged on the table. ¡°Why is a person as beautiful as you stopping me from having peanuts!¡±


    Sister Xiaoyu broke into a smile again and said, ¡°Alright, alright, you can eat them.¡±


    While shelling the peanuts, Yan Liuyuan told Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Bro, a lot of people gathered outside the school today. During our sses, Mr. Zhang wouldn¡¯t allow any of them in. But as soon as sses finished, all of them rushed in. I don¡¯t even know what happened. Do you want to go and have a look?¡±


    ¡°Ah?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Then an ominous feeling rose inside him.


    A familiar figure angrily made his way in. It was the schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Mr. Zhang, you¡¯re here? Would you like to join us for lunch?¡±


    ¡°Lunch? My ass!¡± Zhang Jinglin said angrily, ¡°If you can¡¯t treat the illness, then don¡¯t do it! Why did you have to direct everyone to go and look for me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had said to the couple, ¡°If you don¡¯t believe me, you can check with Mr. Zhang or borrow some books from him on how to prevent a miscarriage.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu felt that this method was pretty useful, he gave the same advice to every patient who consulted him during the morning.


    Zhang Jinglin said resentfully, ¡°If they were just normal illnesses, I could have let it slide. But you even referred someone with athlete¡¯s foot to me! You don¡¯t know just how bad it smelled when that guy took off his shoes! Fortunately, I was able to escape in time!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was embarrassed. He smiled apologetically. ¡°That¡¯s only because I think you¡¯re knowledgeable and learn¨¨d.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin was on the verge of a breakdown. ¡°I¡¯m just a teacher. If you can¡¯t treat the illness, do you think I can treat it? If you push any more patients onto me in the future, I will make sure to give Yan Liuyuan endless homework to do!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was still shelling peanuts and was confused. ¡®Why are you dragging me into your conflict!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu grabbed some peanuts and stuffed them into Zhang Jinglin¡¯s hands. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t do that anymore. I really won¡¯t, I promise!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin thought for a while before returning to the school while shelling and munching on the peanuts.

 Chapter 28 - Caught off guard

    <h4>Chapter 28: Caught off guard</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    As night fell, Ren Xiaosu felt that his life was starting to get better. At this moment, he was staring at the ten gratitude tokens that he had umted inside the pce. He was thinking about how great it would be if he could unlock the weapon soon.


    Yan Liuyuan was sleeping soundly next to him. During the afternoon ss, the students wanted Ren Xiaosu to share more of his stories about the wolves due to the recent incident in town. For example, they wanted to know what they should do or how they could escape if they ever encountered a wolf pack.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not want to talk about this and continued sharing his knowledge of wilderness survival with the students. He felt that if there came a day that these children encountered wolves in the wilderness, they were more likely to perish than anything. The physical differences between humans and today¡¯s beasts ensured such an oue. That was not something that he could help with by teaching them.


    Rather than teaching them how to hunt and kill wild animals, it was better to teach them how to find food and water to preserve their lives if they did not encounter the wolves.


    Being killed by the wolves was a kind of helplessness. But if they starved to death, that would be too unworthy.


    Most unforgivable was not that the contents of the lecture were not to the expectations of the students, but that Ren Xiaosu held the ss behind to give the lesson. This led the students bing aggravated with him. They even went home andined to their parents.


    But what the students did not know was that while they did not dare to provoke Ren Xiaosu, their parents were also afraid of doing so.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard an unusual noiseing from behind the yard¡¯s wall. The person who made that sound seemed to be extremely cautious about something. However, someone like Ren Xiaosu, who had often survived out in the wilderness, had to be alert to any sound or movement. He might die if he wasn¡¯t.


    He immediately blew out the kerosenemp in the room and quietly made his way into the yard.


    Ren Xiaosu hid at the bottom of the wall and carefully listened to the movements on the other side.


    He heard someone leap onto the wall from outside. That person grabbed the top of the wall with their hands and then pulled themselves up with both hands before finally leaping over the wall and into the yard.


    While still in midair, the man looked down at the ground and happened to spot Ren Xiaosu, who was sizing him up with a curious look.


    the next second, he saw Ren Xiaosu fall into a squat and draw his arms back. It was as though he was gathering up all of his strength before letting it burst!


    He threw a punch that could split a mountain apart, aiming it straight at the crotch of the uninvited guest! The uninvited guest tried to dodge the attack. He was quite skillful and could easily counter the danger by putting his knees together and using them to strike Ren Xiaosu.


    But Ren Xiaosu was much quicker than he expected


    ¡°Wait... ahhh!¡± The uninvited guest lost his bnce and fell to the ground in pain. He clutched his privates and chuffed in agony.


    At this moment, footfalls thudded from outside. It seemed like more than one person hade. Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at the person who was lying on the ground. He could not tell the identity of the person from his attire.


    A secondter, another two figures jumped in.


    ¡°Wait... ahhh!¡±


    ¡°Fuck!¡±


    Another two people were left rolling on the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. If he had to give an assessment of their skills, it was probably just average. But if he were blunt, these people would not evenst one round against him.


    Someone knocked on the front door. A familiar voice said, ¡°Open up.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remembered this voice. It was the officer who had led the private army to search the entire town.


    Suddenly, he realized that these people were from the stronghold¡¯s private army. However, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why these people were so weak.


    In reality, they weren¡¯t weak. Although the stronghold¡¯s private troops often neglected their training, normal people couldn¡¯t deal with them so easily.


    These private troops had heard from someone that Ren Xiaosu was well-known for being ruthless. But from their point of view, how strong could a refugee be?


    Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan, who were sound asleep in the house, had been woken up. They put on their clothes and came out to see what themotion was about. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Get back into the house.¡± Ren Xiaosu then went to open the door for the officer. He wondered why the private army¡¯s troops would intrude on their property by climbing over the wall while dressed in civilian clothing.


    It was quite obvious that they were trying to catch him off guard and hade back to check on the most suspicious person in the ¡°missing gun¡± case. Perhaps these private troops were eager to answer to the higher-ups but were also afraid of offending Boss Luo.


    It would be fine if they could find the evidence. Boss Luo was not the only person who called the shots in Stronghold 113. Besides, he might not necessarily think that highly of Ren Xiaosu. But if they could not find the gun, they might end up facing the wrath of Boss Luo.


    Logically speaking, after getting searched the first time, and with Boss Luo¡¯s influence in this matter, most people would not expect the private troops to return again and continue the search.


    What if he had brought the gun back with him when he went out to gather medicinal herbs the previous time? Then he would have ced himself in great danger. ording to Wang Fugui, the factory manager that he had killed was also from quite an influential family within the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. They were trespassing on his property tonight. Furthermore, this was the second time they were searching him. Based on the circumstances, he should be in the right. However, who could he possibly reason with here, outside of the stronghold?


    Reasoning was determined by the size of one¡¯s fist, but his fist was not big enough yet.


    Ren Xiaosu had beaten up three of the soldiers in a single breath, so he felt that they would not let the matter slide so easily. After this incident, Ren Xiaosu knew that he would have to remind himself to be even more cautious and not underestimate anyone at all.


    In fact, the officer who was standing at the door with about a dozen men was also enraged. He could not ept the fact that his soldiers could not even handle a simple refugee like Ren Xiaosu and that he had toe in to save them!


    If this got out, his reputation would take a big hit! So there had to be a conclusion to this matter today.


    Right when he was about to tell his men to kick the door open, the clinic¡¯s door opened by itself.


    The soldiers standing outside the door were confused. They saw Ren Xiaosu wrapped in arge banner that had the words ¡°Magic hands restore spring¡ªFrom Luo Lan¡± on it.


    The officer fell silent for a while, thenughed in spite of himself. What was this? Using the banner to protect himself?!


    Ren Xiaosu was on full alert as he scrutinized the officer¡¯s expression. He was mainly worried that the officer would get impulsive and take revenge even though he saw the banner that was wrapped around his body.


    However, the officer skirted around him and went straight in. ¡°Search!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu followed them and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you already search me?¡±


    The officer¡¯s expression darkened when he saw his soldiers still rolling around in the yard. ¡°Buncha good-for-nothings.¡±


    He turned to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°My name is Wang Congyang. If you want to get Boss Luo to stand up for you, you can tell him my name.¡±


    ¡°How can I?¡± Ren Xiaosu grinned sarcastically and said, ¡°It¡¯s not like you¡¯ve done anything wrong.¡±


    Wang Congyang sized up Ren Xiaosu. After several minutes of searching by his men, they came out and reported, ¡°We couldn¡¯t find anything.¡±


    Wang Congyang immediately led his soldiers out. Before he left, he turned around and smiled ambiguously at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°If only you were born in the stronghold. That would have been great. You make a much better soldier than this buncha wastes of space.¡±


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu was stunned. The factory manager was named Wang Dongyang. Could it be that this Wang Congyang was rted to him in some way?


    No wonder this man did not give up on investigating him. It was because he was trying to track down the murderer.

 Chapter 29 - The sorrows of our era

    <strong>Chapter 29: The sorrows of our era</strong>


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    When Ren Xiaosu found out that the officer¡¯s name was Wang Congyang, he was shocked. He was very worried that this fellow would start relentlessly pursuing him.


    At dawn, Ren Xiaosu opened the clinic¡¯s door and saw Wang Fugui sweeping the grocery store with a broom. When Wang Fugui saw him, he put the broom aside and walked over. He lowered his voice and asked, ¡°What happenedst night?¡±


    ¡°It was nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°The stronghold¡¯s private army still suspects me and conducted another search.¡±


    Wang Fugui spat in anger. He said indignantly, ¡°They always treat us refugees as thieves. Even after I told them that you had the backing of Boss Luo, they still dared toe and search a second time?¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, you can stop putting on an act.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui in a speechless manner. ¡°Why are you feeling so disgruntled for me?¡±


    Wang Fugui started tough. ¡°You can rest assured that you¡¯ll be alright. I¡¯ve sent a new batch of ck medicine into the stronghold.¡±


    Right at this moment, a man sprinted over with a bleeding arm. When the man was still a distance away from the clinic, he shouted, ¡°Doctor! Please save me!¡±


    The man was probably frightened because his arm was bleeding heavily. However, Ren Xiaosu knew at a nce that this man¡¯s wound was nothing serious.


    In town, nothing serious meant not having to die.


    It had to be said that the refugees had quite a broad outlook on life. Other than matters concerning life and death, nothing was considered too serious.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°Come in. You¡¯re not that badly hurt, so you won¡¯t die. How did you get injured?¡±


    ¡°I was on my way to work at the factory, but I realized that I had forgotten to bring something. I ended up going back home to get it, but I discovered that there was someone in my shack stealing my stuff. I tried to catch him, but he shed me with his knife,¡± the man exined. ¡°Doctor, will I really be alright? I¡¯ve already lost so much blood.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    When the man heard that he would not die, he calmed down a little. Ren Xiaosu took another look at his wound and wondered if he should use the anesthetics that he recently received and had yet to use.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the man and said, ¡°We have anesthetics here. After the injection, you won¡¯t feel any pain while we¡¯re treating the wound.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± The man was taken aback. ¡°Do I have to pay for it?¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped. ¡°Would I give you such an expensive drug if I didn¡¯t need you to pay? Look at the size of your wound. It¡¯s at least ten centimeters long. You¡¯re gonna die from the pain if I sew it up with a needle on a wound this long.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was actually telling the truth. As the wound was toorge, he would have to be very careful when applying the ck medicine on it. Otherwise, a single dosage would not even be enough.


    So he was truly worried that this man would not be able to tolerate the pain.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu came out holding a metallic tray with a syringe and a small bottle of anesthetics on it. The syringe was from the equipment that was left behind in the clinic.


    Due to the state of medical treatment avable, they did not have any disposable syringes and needles. Therefore, they had to properly disinfect the equipment each time they used them. Based on best practices, this was definitely the wrong way of doing it. But what could Ren Xiaosu do about that?


    The best he could do was to disinfect the equipment properly, like sterilizing the needle over a me for a little longer.


    This time, Xiaoyu waited for the needle to cool down before she used it to suture the wound. But just as she was about to use it, she had a dilemma. ¡°Xiaosu, should I administer the anesthetic inside or outside the wound?¡±


    They had never used anesthetics before, so Xiaoyu was wondering whether the anesthetic would be more effective if it was administered into the wound.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He had also not thought about it before. ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡±


    The man beside them listened to their conversation and nearly pissed his pants. ¡°So you¡¯ve never used anesthetics before? Do you even know how to treat wounds in the first ce?¡±


    The man had heard before that Ren Xiaosu could treat wounds. Coupled with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s good reputation in town, he immediately thought ofing here to get himself looked at.


    However, it didn¡¯t seem like that was the case!


    ¡°So where should I administer it, Xiaosu?¡± Xiaoyu asked.


    Ren Xiaosu saw the patient¡¯s expression and gave it some thought. ¡°Why don¡¯t you administer it on his leg instead? Prevent him from running away afterwards.¡±


    The patient was surprised.


    ...


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.


    ¡°Quest: Sessfully treat 20 patients.¡±


    Even though Ren Xiaosu hadpleted the repeatable quest for the third time by sessfully treating 10 patients throughout the day, his gratitude tokens fell from ten to eight. Many of the patients did not give him any gratitude even after they had been sessfully treated.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that his life was extraordinarily enriching.


    During the morning, he would attend to patients at the clinic. During the afternoon, he would take over his duties as the substitute teacher at school. At night, he would chat with Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan out in the yard. He had tilled the soil in the yard and nned to nt some vegetables. One of his greatest wishes from before was to have a yard he could nt scallions, garlic seedlings, and various vegetables.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu felt that his strength had almost doubled to that of a normal adult male, and his muscle had be denser.


    Ren Xiaosu asked his mind pce, ¡°What are my current Strength and Dexterity?¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°You have a Strength of 5.5 and a Dexterity of 4.1.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. It seemed that his attributes were rtively bnced for now, and it was unlikely that he would suddenly look like a beefcake.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked, ¡°Bro, why didn¡¯t you treat all the patients? Every one of them represents money to be made.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to treat them.¡±


    ¡°The previous doctor didn¡¯t know how to treat them either, yet he still treated everyone who came to the clinic.¡± Yan Liuyuan thought about it and questioned him again.


    ¡°We can¡¯t learn from him.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°Take a look at his current plight. Did anyone offer to help him when he was in trouble? As people, we need to have invible principles.¡±


    ¡°But if something happens to us, others may not help either,¡± Yan Liuyuan muttered with his head lowered. ¡°Since they won¡¯t help us, why should we be so kind to them? These days, there are a lot of people who can¡¯t wait to see us fall.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan with a serious expression. He knew that Yan Liuyuan was still young and that his values were still in their formative stage. The environment Yan Liuyuan lived in had ensured he would suffer plenty of malice from the outside world.


    Ren Xiaosu had to admit that Yan Liuyuan was right. In this era, everyone was selfish. Selfishness was such a natural thing that even the intention to harm others was seen as normal. But Ren Xiaosu had to make Yan Liuyuan understand that they should not be like the others just because it was the norm.


    ¡°Liuyuan, remember this.¡± Ren Xiaosu said seriously, ¡°Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan fell deep into thought while Xiaoyu looked at the two brothers with glistening eyes. She suddenly felt that as long as Ren Xiaosu was with Yan Liuyuan, he would never take a wrong path in his life.


    A hubbub burst from outside. Someone eximed, ¡°The band is back! Didn¡¯t they go to Stronghold 112? Why did theye back?¡±


    ¡°Right, and that guy who went as their guide isn¡¯t among them anymore!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up and suddenly thought of the cap-wearing girl with Perfect Firearms Proficiency.

 Chapter 30 - Ren Xiaosu, that guy who’s sick in the head

    <h4>Chapter 30: Ren Xiaosu, that guy who¡¯s sick in the head</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The band was back? Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled by this. It would have taken them at least two months to go back and forth from Stronghold 112 and here.


    Calcting the time, it was probably only a week since the band left. So... they couldn¡¯t have reached Stronghold 112 at all. In fact, they wouldn¡¯t even have reached the foot of the Jing Mountains.


    In theory, there shouldn¡¯t be any danger along the way other than the wolves. But the appearance of the wolves here in town was staggered with the band¡¯s timing. If the band had actually encountered the wolf pack, they probably wouldn¡¯t have made it back alive.


    After all, the wolves were no longer afraid of gunshots!


    When he remembered the wolves, Ren Xiaosu got a little worried. When the subject of the wolves was brought up during a conversation with Wang Fugui yesterday, Wang Fugui revealed that he learned some news from one of the town administrators, Chen Haidong. He said that the wolves had suffered heavy casualties after ambushing the private troops, and the entire wolf pack had retreated in the direction of Stronghold 111 to hide in Mount Yang. They presumed that the wolves would not dare toe back here again.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not think so. The wolves had also gone away once before, but didn¡¯t they stille back? And they were even more ferocious than ever!


    What had caused these wolves to evolve again? Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know.


    Ren Xiaosu was watching themotion through the clinic¡¯s window. He saw the refugees in towning out of their shacks as they watched silently. They were very curious about the band initially, but when they realized that something might have happened to them, they became even more curious.


    When the band departed from here, they had with them four off-road vehicles. However, only one of those was left, and it was even moving slowly. The stronghold¡¯s celebrity, Luo Xinyu, and three private soldiers sat in it while others followed behind on foot. Their outfits were all torn to pieces.


    Yan Liuyuan wondered, ¡°When they left, they were all prim and proper. Now that they¡¯re back, why have they be like us?¡±


    Although their current lives had improved, there was still ack of water. The refugees were always treated equally when it came to the allocation of any water. The stronghold was very strict about this administration.


    So if there was any excess water at home, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan would automatically let Xiaoyu use it to wash up. Meanwhile, they would brush their teeth with a little bit of the water.


    What it really meant to brush teeth was to dip a willow twig into some coarse salt and scrape their teeth with it. After brushing for some time, they would then gargle water in their mouths to rinse.


    When the dirty-looking Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan saw that the people in the band had also be like them, they felt a little happy on the inside.


    The cap-wearing girl with Perfect Firearms Proficiency was also walking behind the off-road vehicle with holes all over her clothes. But when Ren Xiaosu examined her, he realized that although she looked pathetic just like everyone else in the band, her steps were still light and steady.


    From this observation alone, the cap-wearing girl was much stronger than the apanying private troops.


    Of course, this was also what Ren Xiaosu had expected. After all, how could someone withPerfect Firearms Proficiency be outshone by those private troops?


    The celebrity, Luo Xinyu, who was in the off-road vehicle, ordered, ¡°Run along and report to the stronghold that we¡¯re going in. Don¡¯t let these refugees look at us like we¡¯re monkeys.¡±


    When the private troops received this order, they pointed the ck muzzles of their automatic rifles at the refugees. One of them said ruthlessly, ¡°Return to your respective pigsties.¡±


    When the refugees saw the private troops getting ready to take action after being annoyed, the refugees hid back into their shacks.


    ¡°Another thing!¡± Luo Xinyu said coldly, ¡°Go and find that Wang Fugui!¡±


    The mor of voices in town died away. Everyone only dared to talk in whispers within their own shacks. If they felt that chatting among the family was not enough, they could also chat with their next-door neighbors through the curtain doors. Those were not soundproof anyway.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were leaning on the windowsill as they looked outside. They saw that the band was divided into two groups. One group went to process the clearance for entry into the stronghold while another headed straight for Wang Fugui¡¯s grocery store.


    ¡°Bro, why are they looking for Old Wang?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°They could be looking to settle the score with him. He was the one who rmended the guide, after all. That hunter who went as their guide didn¡¯te back with them, so who knows whether he was the one who led them into trouble and made them have toe back earlier in such a pathetic state.¡± Ren Xiaosu gave a rough assessment of the situation.


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips sympathetically. When the guide was leaving town, he had given Ren Xiaosu a pompous look. But who could have known it would turn out to be farewell for him.


    Ren Xiaosu saw the group of people knocking on the door at Wang Fugui¡¯s grocery store. Wang Fugui leisurely opened it from the inside and seemed to be quite calm.


    Ren Xiaosu had been a little worried about Wang Fugui. However, when he saw him looking so calm, he thought that maybe there wasn¡¯t a need to worry for him.


    The people in the off-road vehicle got out as well. Luo Xinyu was dressed in white casual wear, or rather, it had been white at first. She stared at Wang Fugui and questioned, ¡°What kind of guide did you rmend to us?¡±


    Wang Fugui asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    He was truly a little curious. Since that person was supposedly an experienced hunter, it was unlikely that he would make any rookie mistakes. So why were these people so angry?


    ¡°You dare to ask what¡¯s the matter?¡± Luo Xinyu said coldly, ¡°Before we could even get near the Jing Mountains, he had taken us in the wrong direction. We couldn¡¯t figure out our exact location even after trying for three days.¡±


    A lot of people knew that it was possible to drive to the Jing Mountains because there was a gravel road in the canyon where there likely had been a riverbed. But for some reason, that river had dried up.


    Of course, ordinary cars couldn¡¯t go on this road. But it wasn¡¯t difficult at all for off-road vehicles.


    This showed that the guide was not even able to lead the band to that road.


    ¡°So, where is he now?¡± Old Wang asked startled.


    ¡°He died before he could find the way.¡± A private soldier said coldly, ¡°As a hunter from around here, he didn¡¯t even know that there was danger in the waters. When he went to wash up at the riverbank in the morning, his face got bitten to a bloody pulp by something. When we found him, he was already dead! What¡¯s more, there were so many cruel monkeys on the route that he took us by. We almost didn¡¯t make it back alive!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. No, there was something very wrong here. He had never heard of any fish in the nearby rivers that bit people.... Was it really a fish?


    Wang Fugui leaned against the doorframe of the grocery store and said, ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s what happened eh? But I probably won¡¯t have time to find you a new guide. I have to get something done for Boss Luo Lan.¡±


    In reality, Boss Luo hadn¡¯t arranged any tasks for him. He was just trying to let them know that he was in the care of Boss Luo!


    The private troops started frowning, and even Luo Xinyu was shocked to hear that. They didn¡¯t expect the man they wanted to teach a lesson to be backed by Luo Lan.


    Rxed, Wang Fugui said, ¡°I told you a long time ago that if you¡¯re looking to get there, you have to find Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°That guy who¡¯s sick in the head?¡± A private soldier frowned deeply. ¡°That kid who fantasized about being a doctor?¡±


    Wang Fugui suddenly felt a little awkward. He pointed at the window of the clinic across the way. ¡°Perhaps, none of you expected it, but he has really be a doctor.¡±


    Luo Xinyu and the private troops were surprised.


    Everyone looked in the direction Wang Fugui was pointing. They saw two dirty-looking faces leaning on the windowsill of the clinic curiously looking back at them.


    Honestly, Wang Fugui was also feeling a little emotional at this moment. He thought, ¡®That¡¯s right, just how did this kid suddenly end up bing a doctor?¡¯

 Chapter 31 - A new opportunity

    <h4>Chapter 31: A new opportunity</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°He¡¯s... really a doctor?¡± someone from the band asked in a slightly doubtful and disbelieving tone.


    ¡°Could we have misunderstood him?!¡± Luo Xinyu was even more puzzled.


    Wang Fugui thought, ¡®There¡¯s no misunderstanding at all. He only became a doctor two days ago.¡¯


    But he wasn¡¯t going to tell them that since he wanted to entirely distance himself from the matter. ¡°Y¡¯all were saying that I rmended someone who was sick in the head to be your guide, but I didn¡¯t. Just look, he really is a doctor.¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be right. Let me try to remember.¡± A soldier from the private army thought for a while and said, ¡°What did he say thest time we saw him?¡±


    ¡°Congrattions! Father and child are both doing fine! The baby weighs 3.24 kilograms!¡± someone answered.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, who says something like ¡®father and child are both doing fine!¡¯¡± That soldier said angrily, ¡°Someone like that can even be a doctor in this town?¡±


    Seeing them recall word for word what Ren Xiaosu said, Wang Fugui exined, ¡°Aren¡¯t we living in conditions where medical treatment is not so good? But it¡¯s absolutely true. He is indeed our town¡¯s doctor. If you don¡¯t believe me, you can ask the people around here.¡±


    Wang Fugui then walked a few houses down. He knocked on a random door and asked, ¡°Is Ren Xiaosu our town¡¯s doctor?¡±


    The person who answered the door was taken aback momentarily. ¡°Yes, he is.¡±


    ¡°How are his medical skills?¡± Wang Fugui asked again.


    That person gave him a thumbs up. ¡°Who in town is not praising Ren Xiaosu these days!¡±


    The band members were lost in thought again. They turned their heads back towards the clinic and saw that there was no one at the window anymore.


    ¡°You were saying that he¡¯s the only person who can bring people through the Jing Mountains?¡± asked Luo Xinyu, having calmed down.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Wang Fugui gave it some thought and said with a smile, ¡°Actually, I can¡¯t guarantee that he¡¯ll take you through. But if even he can¡¯t do it, no one else in this town can get you there.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re almost praising him to the high heavens.¡± Luo Xinyu sneered, ¡°Tell him that he has been recruited. We¡¯ll set off again after we¡¯ve rested and reorganized the group.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t, there¡¯s no use telling me about this.¡± Wang Fugui gave a sheepish smile and said, ¡°If you want to recruit him, you¡¯ll have to seek Boss Luo¡¯s permission.¡±


    ¡°Boss Luo? How¡¯s he rted to Boss Luo?¡± Luo Xinyu was stunned.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know the exact details, but you definitely can¡¯t just recruit and use him as you please,¡± Wang Fugui stated.


    Luo Xinyu snorted in disgust. At this moment, the soldiers who reported back to the stronghold returned with news that they could enter. Soldiers stationed atop the stronghold walls slowly raised the portcullis. Without another word, Luo Xinyu led her group back into the stronghold.


    Wang Fugui patted his chest in relief. In fact, he had been afraid that they would try to settle the score with him. But fortunately for him, he had struck up a good rtionship with Boss Luo because of the ck medicine. If he did not throw this name out today, he would probably have gotten severely punished even if he would not have to die.


    In reality, even Wang Fugui himself was unsure of how powerful Boss Luo was in the stronghold. But whenever he threw this name around, he could get a deep sense of how damn useful it was.


    Wang Fugui went to knock on the clinic¡¯s door as he wanted to discuss the matter with Ren Xiaosu. But even after knocking for a long time, no one answered him. Wang Fugui muttered, ¡°Could they bear a grudge against me?¡±


    The next morning, Ren Xiaosu opened the clinic on time and got ready for business. But as soon as he opened the door, he saw Wang Fugui standing outside with a smile on his face. Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°You see, I rmended you to them back then with good intentions.¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°It¡¯s a chance for you get into the stronghold. Do you know how many people out here want to get into the stronghold? Everyone wants that!¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you seize this good opportunity for yourself?¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°I¡¯ll draw a map for you to lead them there. If you manage to bring them there, you¡¯ll gain entry to the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t go.¡± Wang Fugui flinched. ¡°I¡¯m not as skilled as you. Besides, what will my son do if I end up getting into the stronghold? Since I¡¯m so old, I can find a wife out here as long as I¡¯m willing to spend some money. But there won¡¯t be anyone who will be interested in me if I get into the stronghold.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You may have a son, but I also have Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu. What will happen to them if I get into the stronghold? If you rmend me to them again, I¡¯ll make Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu go to your ce and leech off of you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m only doing this for your good!¡± Wang Fugui was exasperated and said, ¡°If I were 20 years younger, I would have gone!¡±


    ¡°For my own good?¡± Ren Xiaosu sneered. ¡°I thank your whole family!¡±


    Wang Fugui also got angry. ¡°I thank your eight generations of ancestors!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused. He raged at the pce in his mind, ¡°How can this also be fucking considered as a gratitude?! You¡¯re even assessing it to be sincere? You must be fucking doing this on purpose!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could never have expected to gain his ninth gratitude token in this fashion. It was too easy!


    However, even though Ren Xiaosu knew that Wang Fugui was thinking of getting friendly with the celebrity from the stronghold, he had indeed rmended him to them out of good intentions.


    But the problem was that Ren Xiaosu did not really wish to get into the stronghold. But if Yan Liuyuan were allowed to go in instead, he would probably have already agreed to take on the task.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying earnestly, ¡°Old Wang, I¡¯m serious. I can¡¯t abandon Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu to get into the stronghold myself. Stop suggesting that I be their guide.¡±


    Wang Fugui was also starting to get fed up. ¡°OK, OK, I understand. You can rest assured that as long as Boss Luo does not give his permission, they won¡¯t be able to take you away. This journey will take over three months toplete. If you¡¯re gone, who¡¯s going to supply the medicine to Boss Luo, right?¡±


    ¡°OK, as long as you understand what I¡¯m saying,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    At this moment, a man came up to Ren Xiaosu from the road and said, ¡°Doctor, I want a consultation.¡±


    ¡°Enough talking, I¡¯ve got a patient to attend to.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned around and went back into the clinic.


    Ren Xiaosu sat behind the table and said to the man, ¡°Where¡¯s your injury? Let me have a look.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not injured; my balls ache,¡± the man said.


    After he said that, the nurse, Xiaoyu, who was standing nearby blushed in embarrassment. Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward as well, so he tried to be professional and asked, ¡°Do you experience the pain after intercourse?¡±


    The man was taken aback. ¡°It hurts all the same whether I finish doing it or not!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was at a loss. ¡®What the hell is going on with the newest patients whoe for a consultation?!¡¯


    After he advised the man and sent him away, he reaped yet another gratitude token.


    Alright, no matter what illnesses they might have, it was fine as long as they could earn him some gratitude tokens.


    Now that Ren Xiaosu had earned ten gratitude tokens, it seemed like he wasn¡¯t that far from unlocking his weapon.


    One of the reasons why Ren Xiaosu did not want to be the group¡¯s guide at this moment was that he felt that it would be more convenient to earn gratitude tokens while in town. If he were to go with the band and private army, would they show their gratitude for him?


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was consistently looking forward to getting the weapon and wanted to find out just what on earth it looked like.


    Since sincere gratitudes were so hard toe by, the weapon would not be terrible, right?

 Chapter 32 - Dreams are always the opposite of reality

    <h4>Chapter 32: Dreams are always the opposite of reality</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Perhaps the band was in a pathetic state, as it took them longer to reorganize. They did note out til several dayster.


    ording to what they had said, the band and the private army would have to make a trip to the Jing Mountains no matter what. It was only a matter of when they would get there.


    What was there in the Jing Mountains? Ren Xiaosu always felt that these people¡¯s desire to get to the Jing Mountains was far greater than responding to the invitation to perform at Stronghold 112.


    The Jing Mountains spanned a vast area. Up until now, no one had really explored the hintends of the mountain range, so what kind of information did the stronghold¡¯s overseers receive?


    In the morning, Yan Liuyuan went to school happily with his new schoolbag that was recently sewn up by Xiaoyu.


    When he arrived at school, he realized that something was off. Why were all of his ssmates staring at him as soon as he entered the room?


    Yan Liuyuan ignored them as he took his seat. However, all of the students crowded around him. A strapping girl, Li Youqian, who was the daughter of Old Li from the grocery store, said to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Liuyuan, can you go back and tell your brother to stop making the ss stayte?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Wang Fugui¡¯s idiot son alsoined, ¡°By making the ss stayte every day, none of us have time to y anymore.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was stuck between a rock and a hard ce. He said helplessly, ¡°If what I say is useful, he would¡¯ve already stopped making the ss stayte.¡±


    Everyone was unhappy to hear him say that. Li Youqian sneered, ¡°It¡¯s not like Mr. Zhang is paying your brother. I heard that your family doesn¡¯tck money these days, so why is he so serious with the teaching? What, does he intend to take over at the school already? He¡¯s just a substitute teacher, but that doesn¡¯t mean he can tell us what to do¡ªow!¡±


    Li Youqian let out a cry of pain.


    Yan Liuyuan got up and kicked Li Youqian in the hip. No one had expected Yan Liuyuan to get angry. They heard Yan Liuyuan sneer, ¡°What my brother taught you is knowledge that can help save your life out there in the wilderness. If you don¡¯t appreciate it, that¡¯s fine. But why are you making things up about him behind his back? If anyone mentions this again, don¡¯t me me for being harsh on you.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan turned 14 years old this year, but Li Youqian was already 16 years old. Although they were about the same height, Li Youqian was much stronger than Yan Liuyuan.


    Back when Wang Fugui tried to introduce Li Youqian to Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan had mentioned that she was a strapping girl. He was not lying at that time.


    But when the other students saw Yan Liuyuan in this moment, it was as though they were watching a miniature version of Ren Xiaosu. The ferocity that exploded from both of them was exactly the same.


    Even though Yan Liuyuan often spoke harshly to people, his appearance was much milder and gentler than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s. But why did the mention of Ren Xiaosu make him react so strongly?


    Only now did they realize that there was a wild side to Yan Liuyuan.


    Li Youqian had wanted to get up to return the blow. But when she saw Yan Liuyuan¡¯s expression, she reluctantly dropped the idea. ¡°I didn¡¯t make anything up about him. I was just telling the truth.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan felt trapped. He was obviously thest person who wanted Ren Xiaosu to make the ss stayte!


    The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, came in from outside with his hands behind his back. ¡°Why are all of you crowding around each other? Get back to your seats and prepare for ss.¡±


    All the students hurried back to their seats. Although Mr. Zhang looked quite kind and amiable after school, he was sterner than anyone else during lessons.


    Wang Fugui¡¯s idiot son, Wang Dalong, sat down beside Yan Liuyuan. He was Yan Liuyuan¡¯s deskmate.


    Wang Dalong stole a nce at Yan Liuyuan. When he saw Yan Liuyuan still sulking, he tried to change the subject to resolve the awkwardness. ¡°I had a dream yesterday that my father found me a stepmother. She mistreated me badly.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nced at him. ¡°It¡¯s alright. Dreams are always the opposite of reality.¡±


    Wang Dalong beamed with joy at the words. ¡°True that.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan thought for a moment before saying, ¡°I think he might have found you a stepfather instead.¡±


    Wang Dalong was confused.


    ...


    That evening, Ren Xiaosu and the others were having dinner. After dinner, he was nning to catch up on the lessons that Yan Liuyuan and his ssmates had gone through at the school today. But at this moment, he saw an angry Wang Fugui leading a crying Wang Dalong into the clinic. ¡°Ren Xiaosu,e out!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned, holding a bowl of rice in his hand. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°Ask Liuyuan what he said to my son. The moment he got home, he started crying nonstop.¡± Wang Fugui got even angrier when he recounted what his son had told him while crying.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. Yan Liuyuan, who was sitting obediently in his chair, said. ¡°I told him that Old Wang might have found him a stepfather.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused.


    With a loud wail, Wang Dalong cried even harder.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°You¡¯re in the wrong this time, Liuyuan. How can you say something like that to someone?¡± He turned around andforted Wang Dalong, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, your father will find you a stepmother. It¡¯s impossible that he¡¯ll find a stepfather for you.¡±


    Wang Dalong was stunned. He didn¡¯t want a stepmother either! He continued crying!


    This made Wang Fugui so angry that he cursed, ¡°I really have you to thank for exining it for me!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. Although he felt that it was a strange way to gain a gratitude token, it was still a gratitude token!


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that a magical door was slowly opening for him.


    His gratitude tokens had umted to 11 just like that!


    Wang Fugui suddenly seemed to remember something that caused his anger to subside. He cautioned Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Our town¡¯s administrator, Chen Haidong, unintentionally let slip something yesterday. He said that something strange has been happening at the other strongholds and that the same thing also seems to be happening at Stronghold 113.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in a serious tone.


    ¡°He didn¡¯t seem to know the details.¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°I¡¯ll let you know if I have any news. Anyways, be extra careful. It¡¯s usually not good when there are strange urrences happening these days.¡±


    After Wang Fugui left, Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Why did Old Wang say that it¡¯s usually not good when there are strange urrences happening these days?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because our definition of what is good is too limited. We only call things that are advantageous to us good.¡±


    ¡°Are we wrong to think that?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked. To be honest, even though he went to school much more than Ren Xiaosu, he was not as hardworking as him.


    Ren Xiaosu would always read the books that he borrowed from Mr. Zhang while Yan Liuyuanzed around. Sometimes, Yan Liuyuan thought, ¡®Since Ren Xiaosu is already so capable, why would I need to work so hard?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Remember this: It¡¯s not wrong to think of it that way. Whatever is beneficial to us is good. There¡¯s nothing wrong with being selfish. But I want you to have a line you won¡¯t cross and to not be a doormat others walk over.¡±

 Chapter 33 - What are you waiting for?

    <h4>Chapter 33: What are you waiting for?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Whenever Ren Xiaosu educated Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu would quietly watch them from nearby. All of a sudden, she felt a little envious of Yan Liuyuan. If someone had guided her in the past, she might not have taken so many wrong turns.


    ¡°Bro, can you teach me more about life lessons from now on?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked enthusiastically.


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°Don¡¯t you always fall asleep whenever I teach you such things? How can I teach you? Through your dreams?¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t fall asleep next time.¡± Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu andughed in embarrassment.


    All of a sudden, someone knocked on the front door of the clinic.


    Frowning, Ren Xiaosu turned around. There normally wouldn¡¯t be someoneing to look for him when night fell because it was not safe in town.


    What was going on today? Could it be that Wang Fugui had turned around ande back to the clinic? In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, Wang Fugui was likely the only one who woulde to their ce at such a time. After all, the two households were right next to each other.


    Even if someone intended to use this opportunity to carry out a crime against Wang Fugui, he would have already reached the clinic before it could be carried out.


    Ren Xiaosu said as he opened the door, ¡°Old Wang, you really need to find a wife. Why do you knock on our door every day?¡±


    But when the door opened, Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. It was not Wang Fugui.


    Ren Xiaosu recognized this person. It was a young man who often idled around town named Zhang Baogen. He did not work and lived off his parents who worked at the factory.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What is it?¡±


    He examined him and saw that he had no injuries.


    Why did this persone here sote at night? If he wanted to rob the clinic, then this guy had traveled quite the distance for that...


    Ren Xiaosu now possessed a Strength of 5.5 and a Dexterity of 4.1 and had many years of experience in ruthless fighting against others. Not even ten versions of a young man like Zhang Baogen would be a match for Ren Xiaosu.


    Zhang Baogen said rapidly, ¡°Doctor, please take a look at my illness. But you must keep it a secret for me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it and stepped aside to let him in. He purely felt a little curious. ¡°So tell me, what¡¯s your illness? Don¡¯t feel ufortable to share. I¡¯ve seen much in life, so there isn¡¯t any illness that I haven¡¯te across before.¡±


    ¡°Please wait a moment.¡± Zhang Baogen was still quite polite to Ren Xiaosu.


    There were many young people in town who lived off their parents like Zhang Baogen who came together to steal, extort, and fornicate. No one in town was willing to provoke them without reason.


    However, Zhang Baogen was not foolish either. He knew better than to offend Ren Xiaosu.


    In fact, no one had dared to provoke Ren Xiaosu either. Although it seemed like Ren Xiaosu was simr to this batch of youngsters, the townspeople well knew that offending Zhang Baogen and the others simply meant having to put up with a slight retaliation from them. It wasn¡¯t difficult to endure it, and it would be a trivial matter at most.


    But if they had messed with Ren Xiaosu, they could end up dying...


    Zhang Baogen closed the clinic¡¯s door behind him before turning around to ask, ¡°Doctor, something strange is happening to me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°I can¡¯t treat you if you¡¯re impotent.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that.¡± Zhang Baogen said, ¡°Let me demonstrate it to you. Don¡¯t get surprised.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu waited to see what would happen.


    He saw Zhang Baogen open his mouth and blow a saliva bubble!


    Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. ¡®Is that it?!¡¯


    But the next instant, the bubble that floated out of Zhang Baogen¡¯s mouth popped. Ren Xiaosu could feel a burst of power from it pushing him backwards.


    It wasn¡¯t very strong, but it was definitely not something that your ordinary saliva bubble could do!


    ¡°Doctor? Doctor, what are you doing?¡± Zhang Baogen looked at Ren Xiaosu uncertainly.


    ¡°I¡¯m just checking to see if any of your saliva sshed onto me.¡± After tidying up his clothes, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°When did you gain such a power? This is not an illness, so I can¡¯t treat it.¡±


    ¡°But my parents said that I¡¯m sick and that there¡¯s something wrong with my head,¡± Zhang Baogen exined. ¡°If I didn¡¯te to see you, they wouldn¡¯t feel at ease. My parents are very fond of you....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that this sounded a little strange. But he thought for a while before saying, ¡°What you have doesn¡¯t seem like an illness to me. You might have heard of some people possessing strange powers these days.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not lying. Once upon a time, someone in this world supposedly had a superpower that could pull a train out of thin air.


    The townspeople used to share this story with excitement, describing it in vivid detail.


    But when it happened to them, why did they end upbeling it as an illness?


    When Zhang Baogen heard Ren Xiaosu tell him that he was not sick, he thanked him with joy. ¡°Thank you, doctor. I¡¯ll go back now and tell my parents about it.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Zhang Baogen, +1!¡±


    Then Zhang Baogen turned around and left. Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this kid was still quite a polite person.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not like youngsters who were like Zhang Baogen. After all, if you did not work hard in this era, you couldn¡¯t survive. The reason these young people had it so easy in life without doing anything was simply because their parents were still around.


    All parents worry about their children. But some parents were willing to give up everything they had in life to ensure their children could lead a good life.


    The next morning, Wang Fugui quietly walked into the clinic. He pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and whispered, ¡°I have news! Chen Haidong just found out about what happened. It seems like someone in another stronghold suddenly attacked their stronghold¡¯s overseer with a superpower. They¡¯re now investigating the existence of supernatural beings in all of the other strongholds. So such people really do exist!¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a look of shock, ¡°Then could there also be supernatural beings around us?¡±


    ¡°Who knows?¡± Wang Fugui said with augh. ¡°This doesn¡¯t really have anything to do with us.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed along with him. However, he was thinking about what happened the previous night. He wondered if Zhang Baogen had told anyone else about it.


    It was a good thing to have someone as gossipy as Wang Fugui around. As this guy was close to the people from the stronghold, he was able to find out about any news faster than most people in town.


    It was no wonder that Wang Fugui could lead a better life than most of the townspeople. To his credit, this was probably the best expertise that he had.


    Suddenly, Wang Fugui gave a sillyugh and asked, ¡°Xiaosu, if I had a superpower, would it be easier for me to find a wife?¡±


    ¡°You can forget about it.¡± Ren Xiaosu teased, ¡°You¡¯re still thinking about that when your fool of a son is crying so hard over it?¡±


    ¡°Bullshit, my son isn¡¯t a fool,¡± Wang Fugui said unhappily. ¡°He can¡¯t poke his nose into my business. Besides, I was only bringing it up. Once I have a superpower too¡ª¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you already have one if you had any? What are you waiting for?¡± Ren Xiaosu interrupted.


    Wang Fugui could note up with a reply.

 Chapter 34 - The misfortune of others

    <h4>Chapter 34: The misfortune of others</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me saying this, Old Wang, but why are you always thinking about finding another wife?¡± Ren Xiaosu could not understand. ¡°There¡¯s no shortage of women in our town, right? I¡¯m sure many of them wouldn¡¯t mind being with you as long as you can ensure they won¡¯t go hungry.¡±


    Such matters were amon sight to Ren Xiaosu. Even men were like this, much less women. In the past, several women threw themselves at Ren Xiaosu just so they could survive in these harsh times. Some men did so as well, which made Yan Liuyuan want to gag when he learned about it. This was why Yan Liuyuan was so wary of Xiaoyu at the beginning.


    Sometimes, reality was stranger than the fiction found at Mr. Zhang¡¯s school.


    Wang Fugui shook his greasy, medium-length hair and said proudly, ¡°Would I want those immoral women? With my status, I should at least be looking for a properdy to marry, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, you¡¯re the esquire of our town.¡± Ren Xiaosu gave him a backhandedpliment.


    At this moment, two women walked past the clinic. Wang Fugui¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°What do you think of those two?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu examined them. ¡°One of them looks really good, but her figure is a littlecking. The other one isn¡¯t that pretty, but she has a good figure. So then if may I ask, what do those two girls have anything to do with you?¡±


    These words made Wang Fugui choke with anger. He was so furious that he turned around and got ready to head back to his grocery store to attend to his customers. However, a surprising turn of events happened!


    They saw the stronghold¡¯s portcullis being raised slowly. The sound of steel, wood, and rope rubbing against each other left people cringing. The dense, thick portcullis was being raised bit by bit. The weight of it left people short of breath.


    Chen Haidong came out of the stronghold with a group of soldiers. This time, the officer leading the private troops was not Wang Congyang, whom Ren Xiaosu had dealt with before. It was a fresh face that had never been seen in town before.


    Where was Wang Congyang? Did he get punished by Boss Luo?


    ¡°What are they going to do now?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Wang Fugui had a nk look on his face. He brushed off Ren Xiaosu and headed towards Chen Haidong. Due to the distance, Ren Xiaosu could not hear what they were talking about.


    Then they saw the private troops of Stronghold 113 running towards town. After a while, they returned holding a man captive. That man screamed hysterically, ¡°Why are you arresting me? Let go of me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched silently. The man, who got arrested turned out to be Zhang Baogen, the person who came to look for himst night.


    When Wang Fugui saw the private troops arresting people like that, he quickly stopped them. ¡°My dear officers, what is going on here? Although this guy might be a little mischievous, he didn¡¯tmit any major crimes, right?¡±


    ¡°Get lost.¡± The private army¡¯s officer sneered.


    Facing the dark and unfeeling firearms, Wang Fugui could only back off. Otherwise, they might just shoot at him!


    Wang Fugui spoke to the town administrator, Chen Haidong, again for a long time. In the end, Zhang Baogen was still brought into the stronghold.


    The screeching sound rang out again as the dense and heavy portcullis separated the two worlds once again.


    Ren Xiaosu went up to Wang Fugui and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡±


    He had to clear it up because he knew that Zhang Baogen must have been arrested and brought into the stronghold due to his ¡°superpower.¡± Moreover, both he and Yan Liuyuan possessed such a power too.


    Wang Fugui sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s over, that kid is done for.¡±


    ¡°Why do you say that?¡±


    ¡°Chen Haidong said that guy showed off his superpower to a scoundrel friend of his yesterday. That scoundrel sold him out as soon as possible. All of the strongholds are weeding out these supernatural beings right now. If there were no incidents of a supernatural being attacking a stronghold overseer, it might have been easier to handle. But now, they¡¯ve be the people the overseers dread the most. What would you do if you were afraid of someone?¡±


    ¡°Kill them,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered calmly and firmly.


    ¡°See, that¡¯s where the overseers of the stronghold are different from you.¡± Wang Fugui said with a frown, ¡°The first thing they thought of when they realized the danger of this was not to kill them but to understand them better! Chen Haidong mentioned that a yard and building in the stronghold have been vacated for a psychiatric hospital to be temporarily set up. They¡¯ve also sent a lot of medical devices over to that ce.¡±


    ¡°Are they going to treat these supernatural beings?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment.


    ¡°Treatment? My ass!¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°Chen Haidong said that those devices are not meant for treating people. They were previously used for scientific research inside the stronghold. In just one day, the stronghold has arrested three supernatural beings. Those three people are more or less done for now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a chill pass through himself. He could not imagine what it would feel like to be stuck in a psychiatric hospital and be studied by someone.


    ¡°Old Wang, are you still keen on getting a superpower?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Wang Fugui thought for a while. ¡°I don¡¯t mind having one, but I won¡¯t be so dumb as to let anyone know. The same goes for you, Xiaosu. If you and Liuyuan have any superpowers, don¡¯t ever let anyone know.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu put a strange expression on his face. ¡°Um, okay.¡±


    That same night, a major incident happened in town. Zhang Baogen¡¯s father found his way into that scoundrel¡¯s shack in the middle of the night, a ce that was only a few square meters in size, and killed all four members of their family. In the end, he also died due to severe blood loss.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Baogen¡¯s mother hanged herself on the dead, wilted tree at the intersection in the town.


    Zhang Baogen was the only child in their family and was pampered all his life by his parents. He didn¡¯t even have to work as his parents would take care of him. Now that he was gone, his parents had no reason to live anymore.


    In town, some people sympathized with them while others secretly mocked, ¡°What a showoff. So what if you have a superpower? And that Zhang Baogen¡¯s father, if he really had the courage, he would have charged straight into the stronghold instead.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu remembered the look on Zhang Baogen¡¯s face when he was blowing the saliva bubble. ¡°What a fucking awful era!¡±


    The high and mighty aristocrats in the stronghold seemed to have the power to control the life and death of people, but Ren Xiaosu felt that this would change someday.


    The only thing was, nobody knew when this day woulde.


    A group of people gathered together in town, gazing at the dead, wilted tree where Zhang Baogen¡¯s mother had hanged herself. Ren Xiaosu saw that Mr. Zhang from school was also around.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at some of the people next to him who had gathered around and said, ¡°Did I teach y¡¯all to be rubberneckers at school? Don¡¯t gloat over the misfortunes of others, lest theirs be yours.¡±


    When he said that, several young and strong men beside Zhang Jinglin looked down in shame. Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°Help bury the couple together in the same ce.¡±


    ¡°Teacher, we have to go to work at the factory now,¡± a few of the strong young men said hesitantly.


    Wang Fugui said, ¡°You won¡¯t be working for nothing. I¡¯ll fork out 800 yuan for their burial.¡±


    ¡°Aye,¡± the strong young men answered, ¡°we¡¯ll get to it immediately.¡±

 Chapter 35 - Maxing out on gratitude tokens!

    <h4>Chapter 35: Maxing out on gratitude tokens!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The mood in town turned heavy due to the issues surrounding Zhang Baogen. Even though everyone was ustomed to living under the rule of the stronghold, when they realized that their right to life was not within their control, they grew gloomy.


    Ren Xiaosu had something on his mind all day. Based on what Wang Fugui had told him, Zhang Baogen was more or less done for the moment he got captured and sent to the psychiatric hospital.


    After the people from the stronghold finished conducting thorough research on him, he would surely have suffered terribly even if he did not die. Most importantly, Zhang Baogen had lost his freedom from this day onwards.


    As for Ren Xiaosu himself, his secret was much bigger than Zhang Baogen¡¯s.


    He had unlocked many features of his mind pce, but there were still many other features left waiting for Ren Xiaosu to explore. Even Ren Xiaosu himself did not know how deep the pce interior went and what level it would elevate him to eventually.


    If his secret were revealed, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if he got taken away by the people from the stronghold and had his brains taken out and sliced apart.


    Ren Xiaosu had gone to school earlier and found Yan Liuyuan. He somberly instructed him to not reveal his secret to anyone and told him that this concerned their life and death.


    The two brothers did not have the ability to take on the stronghold yet.


    Inside and outside of the stronghold, thick and continuous trails of white smoke were spewing out through the factory chimneys into the sky. The clock in the stronghold was still ringing on time. It was as though nothing had happened.


    Today, Mr. Zhang seemed a little downtrodden. Sometimes, his mind would wander as he delivered his lessons. Whenever his students reminded him that he was losing his focus, he would bow and apologize to them.


    Finally, Mr. Zhang said, ¡°Students, I¡¯m sorry. I can¡¯t teach well today due to some personal issues. ss, study by yourselves. We won¡¯t be having any more lessons today.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not go back straight to the clinic. He wanted to calm himself down at a ¡°quiet¡± ce like the school and think about the future of Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and him.


    When Ren Xiaosu took over the lessons in the afternoon, he did not teach anything new either. Frankly, his mind was not present at all today.


    By the time school ended, Ren Xiaosu surprisingly did not make the ss stayte. He was only concerned with getting Yan Liuyuan home early.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°ss dismissed. I won¡¯t be teaching y¡¯all about other things today.¡±


    ¡°All rise!¡± the ss monitor said.


    ¡°Thank you, Teacher!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Li Youqian, +1!


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Dalong, +1!


    ¡°Gratitude received from...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned by this. There were only 24 fucking students in the entire ss, but he managed to gain 23 gratitude token coins when he dismissed the ss?


    Yan Liuyuan was the only one he didn¡¯t earn a gratitude token from. Yan Liuyuan had also noticed that Ren Xiaosu was a little absent-minded today, so he was more concerned about what was happening with his brother rather than thinking about going out to y after school.


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at the little bastards as they ran away and disappeared without a trace. So they didn¡¯t like his lessons after all?


    ¡®Y¡¯all better fucking watch out! What is so bad with my teaching!¡¯


    It was a very fascinating day. Ren Xiaosu had worked very hard for nearly a fortnight just to earn 12 gratitude tokens. But in just one day today, he managed to gain 23 gratitude tokens.


    The total amount of his gratitude tokens had reached 35. It seemed that he was another step closer to unlocking the weapon.


    After Ren Xiaosu carefully weighed the pros and cons, he decided that if they did not like his lecture, then so be it. It was good enough as long as they let him earn those gratitude tokens.


    For the following day¡¯s lessons, Ren Xiaosu went straight to school instead of attending to patients at the clinic. He understood what he needed to do. What was his reason for opening the clinic? Was it to make money? That was definitely not the case!


    Now that he had found a method to quickly earn gratitude tokens, how could he miss out?


    The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin, was not even finished with his lesson when he saw Ren Xiaosu already standing outside the ssroom. The students followed Zhang Jinglin¡¯s gaze to Ren Xiaosu. For some reason, when they saw him, a shiver ran down their spines.


    Today, Ren Xiaosu did not teach his usual wilderness survival lessons. Instead, he taught them about where to deal a fatal blow to another person during a fight or how to make an opponent instantly lose control of their motor functions.


    Ren Xiaosu himself had not actually received any rted training in this field, and there were no ces in town where he could learn something like this either. Therefore, everything he was teaching was umted from his years of experience in being involved in ruthless fights with others.


    Zhang Jinglin frowned when he heard Ren Xiaosu teaching them how to fight other people. He did not like to teach such things to the students and usually taught them about how tobat nature.


    There would be a psychological suggestion that humans were the enemies if you taught the students how to fight against other humans. Simrly, if you taught them how to take on wolves, they would regard wolves as their enemy as well.


    At heart, Zhang Jinglin never hoped for his students to be violent extremists. But for some reason, when he thought about Zhang Baogen¡¯s incident, he couldn¡¯t help but let out a sigh. In the end, he did not interfere with what Ren Xiaosu was teaching.


    Ren Xiaosu said to the students from the lectern, ¡°Which are the most vulnerable parts of a human? If I have to list them, I¡¯d list them in order of importance. Let¡¯s start with the one that most people know... the neck.


    ¡°In fact, this area is not particrly easy to aim for when you are fighting someone. That¡¯s because a person will subconsciously protect it the most. The entire neck and trachea are made up of bone and nearly 20 fragile rings of cartge. By crushing any one of them with an attack, you can instantly cause your opponent to lose their will to fight. The fragmented bones will quickly block the delivery of oxygen, which will then lead to them suffocating to death.¡±


    The ssroom was silent. Ren Xiaosu looked over everyone. ¡°Are there any questions?¡±


    Wang Dalong asked meekly, ¡°How do you know that there are nearly 20 fragile rings of cartge in the neck....¡±


    There were no relevant books in school, and no one in town specialized in this subject either. If Ren Xiaosu had not counted them himself before, how could he possibly know something like that?


    But how did Ren Xiaosu count them? Whose cartge did he count? Thinking of this, everyone felt a little nervous.


    Ren Xiaosu did not answer this question. He looked out at the sky as the stronghold¡¯s clock rang to signal that it was 4 PM. Ren Xiaosu said cheerfully to everyone, ¡°ss dismissed.¡±


    ¡°All rise!¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Teacher!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Dalong, +1!


    ¡°Gratitude received from...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly frowned when he realized that the number of gratitudes was incorrect. Shouldn¡¯t he be seeing an increase of more than 20 gratitude tokens? Why were there only nine tokens?


    These little bastards had gotten used to him not making the ss stayte this quickly? They didn¡¯t even give him any sincere gratitude now?


    ¡®I¡¯m afraid that y¡¯all haven¡¯t faced the harsh realities of society yet!¡¯


    Just as the students were about to rush out of ss, they heard the sinister voice of Ren Xiaosu reverberate from behind them, ¡°Everyone, get back here right now! Today, I¡¯m gonna teach y¡¯all how I came to learn how many rings of cartge there are...¡±


    Wang Dalong and Li Youqian were speechless.


    So was the entire ss.

 Chapter 36 - Parents watching their children die

    <h4>Chapter 36: Parents watching their children die</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Since Ren Xiaosu had explicitly told them toe back, would the students dare to disobey him?


    The students had gone home andined about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s misdeeds to their parents, but their parents¡¯ reactions were all identical. ¡°It¡¯s good that the teacher is teaching you more things. You should be grateful for it rather thanin, understand? You mustn¡¯tin, especially not to your substitute teacher.¡±


    The students could not understand this. In the past, the parents would side with them. But this time, they were all siding with Ren Xiaosu?


    Furthermore, why did their parents¡¯ tone sound a little strange?


    The students felt that there was something wrong with their parents¡¯ tone, so they kept at it and continuedining. Li Youqian¡¯s father, Li Facai, said in a heartfelt manner to her, ¡°Stop asking, dearie, and concentrate on your studies. You mustn¡¯t trouble your teacher, Ren Xiaosu, anymore, understand? Dad doesn¡¯t want you to leave this world before he does.¡±


    The strapping girl, Li Youqian, was shocked when she heard that. What did her father mean by ¡°Dad doesn¡¯t want you to leave this world before he does¡±?!


    Hence, the students now behaved exceptionally well in front of Ren Xiaosu. The moment he called them back, the students all rushed back to their seats like scared fledglings.


    Once he started teaching again, he lectured until it turned dark.


    As the sky darkened, the students stared nkly at Ren Xiaosu as he got more and more enthusiastic with his teaching. Finally, Li Youqian could no longer stand it. She said meekly, ¡°Teacher, it¡¯s getting dark. It won¡¯t be safe for us if we don¡¯t go home now.¡±


    When the students previously said something simr, Ren Xiaosu would dismiss the ss immediately. As such, when Li Youqian finished saying that, all the students looked at Ren Xiaosu in anticipation.


    However, Ren Xiaosu said kindly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, y¡¯all¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    On this day, Ren Xiaosu lectured all the way until 8 PM before he finally dismissed the ss. Night had fallen by this point. Ren Xiaosu did not receive any gratitude tokens at the end of the lesson, but he did not mind.


    The ¡°Stockholm Syndrome effect¡± said that if there was no cruelty, how could there be gratitude?


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Teacher will send all of you home,¡± Ren Xiaosu said even more kindly.


    The students looked at one another. They suddenly felt that the substitute teacher, Ren Xiaosu, seemed to possess some kind of remarkable skill.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu would definitely let the students return home before the sky darkened because it wouldn¡¯t be safe if they went back home anyter than that.


    But this time, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t find it much of an issue to waste a bit of time, as long as the students could learn something useful! They had to understand how cruel society could be!


    Although it might be a little unsafe for ordinary people to lead arge group of children, it was not so for Ren Xiaosu. He was nearly twice as strong as the average adult in town, so the issue of safety was negligible.


    As long as someone didn¡¯t have a gun, Ren Xiaosu had nothing to be afraid of.


    Ren Xiaosu personally handed the students over to their parents one by one in order of the distance they lived from school. When some of the neighbors saw Ren Xiaosu sparing no effort to impart knowledge to the students and even sending them home personally for their safety, they felt that he was a great teacher!


    The parents did not know why Ren Xiaosu was doing this and simply considered him a kind and generous person. Thus, just this act of sending the students home had earned Ren Xiaosu six gratitudes from the parents.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that he had not fully taken the initiative before. After working so hard to heal people and save their lives, he had only received 12 gratitude tokens. But ever since changing his mindset and way of doing things, his gratitude tokens shot up to 50.


    And the only price to pay was that Yan Liuyuan refused to talk to him for the entire night...


    To be honest, the total duration of the daytime sses was only about five hours. Before Ren Xiaosu took over as the substitute teacher, the students could never have expected that the survival lesson wouldst for a full five hours!


    The next day, Ren Xiaosu could not wait to go to school. However, the schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin, was the first to voice his opinion. He pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and said, ¡°In the future, you mustn¡¯t dismiss the ss sote. There should be a proper bnce between work and rest when ites to learning, and it has to be done gradually as well. Even if you want to impart unto them all your knowledge, you still have to do it slowly!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu humbly epted Zhang Jinglin¡¯s suggestion. ¡°Teacher, you can rest assured that I will definitely not make the ss stayte today.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was indifferent when he heard the conversation between the two of them. Of course he knew that Ren Xiaosu would not make the ss stay behind today. His purpose for doing so yesterday was just so that he could harvest a wave of gratitudes from the students today!


    Yan Liuyuan knew Ren Xiaosu too well!


    As Yan Liuyuan predicted, the moment the stronghold¡¯s clock rang to signal 4 PM in the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu smiled and said amiably, ¡°Shall we end the ss here, everyone?¡±


    Everyone in the ssroom was silent. No one knew why Ren Xiaosu would ask such a question. If they answered yes, wouldn¡¯t it mean that Ren Xiaosu was bad at teaching? But if they answered no, they were afraid that Ren Xiaosu would grant their wish of not wanting to end the ss.


    So they simply kept their mouths shut.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°There should be a proper bnce between work and rest when ites to learning. I imparted so much knowledge to everyone yesterday, so I¡¯ll not make y¡¯all stayte today. On one hand, this is so that everyone can process the knowledge you¡¯ve learned. On the other hand, it¡¯s so that everyone can rx a little and have some fun today.¡±


    The students were so touched that they nearly cried.


    ¡°ss dismissed!¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°All rise!¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Teacher!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Li Youqian, +1!


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Dalong...


    ¡°Gratitude received from...¡±


    Like the day before yesterday, Ren Xiaosu reaped another 23 gratitude tokens, with the exception of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s. In just three days, he was close to maxing out on the 100 gratitude tokens that he needed!


    Now with 73 tokens, he was super close to unlocking the weapon!


    Through the open ssroom door, Ren Xiaosu saw Wang Fugui trotting towards the school.


    ¡°Old Wang, what are you doing here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. He wondered if something had happened to Xiaoyu at the clinic. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu was about to hurry home with Yan Liuyuan.


    However, Wang Fugui said, ¡°Please get ready. The band will being out of the stronghold again. Someone just delivered a letter to me from Boss Luo, and I don¡¯t know how they did it, but he actually gave his permission for you to be their guide!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze. His first reaction was one of relief when he knew that Xiaoyu wasn¡¯t in trouble. But right after, he got worried because he realized that the band must have had a more obscure and important purpose in venturing into the mountains. How else could they have sessfully persuaded Boss Luo into allowing him to go with them?


    Was it because they had given Boss Luo enough kickbacks? Or could it be that Boss Luo was involved in the band¡¯s n to venture into the Jing Mountains?


    Either way, it seemed like Ren Xiaosu would have to make this trip.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked to the school¡¯s backyard. Wang Fugui asked anxiously, ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna look for Mr. Zhang to discuss rooming Yan Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu at the school or at least living here until I get back,¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly.


    Only then would Ren Xiaosu not have any worries.


    However, it would be a huge mistake if this group of people thought that Ren Xiaosu could be easily pushed around once they reached the wilderness.

 Chapter 37 - The outside world

    <h4>Chapter 37: The outside world</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Mr. Zhang,¡± Ren Xiaosu said politely to Zhang Jinglin, ¡°I hope that you can let Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu live on the school premises during my period of absence.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Has it already been confirmed that you must go?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s no way to reject them anymore. You saw the plight of Zhang Baogen. Your life and mine are in the hands of those people from the stronghold. If I take the initiative to go and face the dangers now, I might be able to avoid dying. I could even sacrifice the others to save myself when I¡¯m out there. But if I continue to stay here and reject them, I¡¯m afraid that they¡¯ll start using underhand methods to deal with us.¡±


    ¡°Is there no better option?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°But, Mr. Zhang, don¡¯t worry. Even if they get wiped out, I¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu did not want to get involved in this initially. With his current fitness and experience in field survival, he was not worried that he would not make it back alive.


    However, the reward that was offered to him was unsatisfactory. It would have been better if he, Yan Liuyuan, and Xiaoyu could all get into the stronghold. Otherwise, it would all be meaningless to him.


    He was very eager to get into the stronghold, but he could not leave Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu behind and go in by himself.


    What Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t tell Yan Liuyuan was that after he had gained his power, he would, on certain nights, toss and turn in bed in his desire to see the bigger world.


    This town was so small that he could see the other end of it in a single nce from a high ce. It was so small that he could hear the voice of a widow scolding some young punks in the west from the east of town.


    He had also thought of heading out to see the world.


    In fact, the only thing that Ren Xiaosu was worried about was who would ensure the safety of Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan if he left.


    If Zhang Jinglin refused to allow Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan to stay, Ren Xiaosu would not leave with the band no matter what.


    ¡°It looks like you know what you¡¯re doing. Tell Xiaoyu and Liuyuan to move over this evening. I¡¯ll clean up the house for them in the meantime,¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a nod. Zhang Jinglin felt that no one in town would be more experienced than Ren Xiaosu when it came to surviving in the wilderness. As such, seeing how confident Ren Xiaosu was from his point of view as a teacher, he did not say anything more.


    Ren Xiaosu was relieved when Zhang Jinglin agreed to his request. ¡°Teacher, I¡¯ve recently managed to save up 5,000 yuan, so please ept it as a boarding fee for Big Sister Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan.¡±


    ¡°Take it back.¡± Zhang Jinglin shook his head and said, ¡°I¡¯m a schoolteacher, so I only ept payment for tuition.¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t reject it, Teacher. You can use the money to buy some cigarettes to smoke,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Zhang Jinglin hesitated for a moment before coughing. ¡°I¡¯ll ept 1,000 yuan as the rent.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not haggle with him any further. He counted out 1,000 yuan and handed it to Zhang Jinglin. He was usually a stingy person, but he would never mull over something so important. Ren Xiaosu would never hesitate to spend money on Yan Liuyuan.


    For the remaining 4,000 yuan, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s intention was to hand it over to Xiaoyu.


    This money must not be handed over to Yan Liuyuan in case Xiaoyu got any ideas for the money. At most, she could take all of the money and leave, but Yan Liuyuan would note to any harm as a result.


    If the money was given to Yan Liuyuan instead, his safety would be threatened.


    Even now, Ren Xiaosu still had some doubts about Xiaoyu. He might be wrong in thinking this way and Xiaoyu would feel let down if she knew about it, but this was probably the best choice to minimize any pain or regrets.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu still felt that their time spent with Xiaoyu was too short. It was not that he doubted Xiaoyu to have any motives. It was just that he had been struggling for so long in this wastnd, fighting for each day of survival with his own hands and leaving a trail of blood every step of the way. Having led such a life, how could he so easily leave their fate to someone they had known for such a short time?


    Ren Xiaosu returned to the clinic with Yan Liuyuan to pack their belongings. He did not expect that their recently acquired ¡°new home¡± would be vacated again. Wang Fugui said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll look after the yard for you and will absolutely not let anyone else move in.¡±


    ¡°OK, much appreciated,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t have to insist on letting them move into the school. With me around, what¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± Wang Fuguiughed.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t I also guarding against you?¡± Ren Xiaosu mercilessly rejected Wang Fugui¡¯s suggestion. In this town, the school was the safest.


    Wang Fugui was not angry. He knew what kind of person Ren Xiaosu was, so he expected Ren Xiaosu to guard against him as well.


    Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan did not talk at all throughout this, merely looking down and packing their stuff. Only when they finally packed everything did Yan Liuyuan ask in a whisper, ¡°Do you have to go?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯lle back. It won¡¯t be dangerous as long as we take the correct route. If it really gets dangerous, I¡¯ll leave them behind and run back here myself,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. Instead of answering Yan Liuyuan¡¯s question, he just stuffed the money into Xiaoyu¡¯s hands. ¡°Anyways, I won¡¯t be able to spend any money when I¡¯m out in the wilderness, so keep this money safe with you.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Xiaoyu agreed. ¡°You should bring more dried food with you. It¡¯s too much hard work to depend on luck when you¡¯re looking for food in the wilderness.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°Not taking into consideration the taste and my tolerance for it, it¡¯ll still be very easy to find food once we get dozens of kilometers away from the stronghold.¡±


    But Xiaoyu¡¯s words reminded Ren Xiaosu of something. Since he could ce the medicine vial into his mind pce at any time he wanted, could he do the same with other items?


    Since the medicine vial was a real object with mass, it meant the pce was in a peculiar dimension.


    If that were the case, Ren Xiaosu would also like to secretly bring along the town¡¯s well with him on this trip. After all, the water outside town was not exactly safe for consumption.


    This was probably what ¡°being uprooted¡± <sup>1</sup> meant.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu took a cornbread bun <sup>1</sup> next him and secretly tried to store it away into the pce. Then something strange happened. The cornbread was still in his hands.


    The voice from the pce intoned, ¡°Storage rights have not been obtained.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So he really could store things into the pce, but he wasn¡¯t qualified to do so yet!


    He asked in his mind, ¡°How do I obtain the rights to ess the storage?¡±


    ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡± The pce went silent and did not answer Ren Xiaosu¡¯s question.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that the pce did not seem to have its own consciousness. It was just assigning specific quests to Ren Xiaosu based on a certain logic. Its role... seemed only to provide guidance to Ren Xiaosu on how to act.


    ...


    After Ren Xiaosu lodged both Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan at the school, he turned around and left without hesitation. Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan stood at the school¡¯s entrance and looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s receding figure as he walked off into the darkness. Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, you know why he handed all the money to you, right?¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Xiaoyu acknowledged quietly.


    ¡°Will you me him?¡± Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu.


    ¡°No.¡± Sister Xiaoyu started smiling.


    Ren Xiaosu walked far away before finally looking back in the direction of the school. He could also see the vast gxy spreading out across the sky overhead, a sea of stars.


    He turned around and marched with conviction to the clinic to wee the arriving guests.


    A lot of the time, when people looked back on their lives, they might remember a minor decision that they made at a certain point in time. However, that decision could very well turn out to be the crossroads where they experienced a great change in their life.


    Going left or right took a momentary thought, and once they made that decision, they would have to leap into the unknown without hesitation.


    But at that moment in time, they would only think of it as a normal day in their lives.

 Chapter 38 - Negotiating the terms

    <h4>Chapter 38: Negotiating the terms</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu was resting in the backyard of the clinic as he waited for the band to arrive. But it wasn¡¯t until early in the morning that he heard the stronghold¡¯s portcullis being raised slowly.


    It sucked that he couldn¡¯t harvest the vegetables that had just been nted in the yard, those scallions, garlic seedlings, bok choy, and so on.


    What had toe would eventuallye. Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes and walked towards the consultation room at the front. He sat upright with decorum in the seat and waited.


    Knock, knock, knock. Three raps sounded on the door.


    ¡°Pleasee in, the door¡¯s open,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He did not even raise his head, looking like he was busy filling out a medical record.


    When the door opened, the morning sun shone onto Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face. He looked up and was surprised to see a well-dressed woman standing at the door. Ren Xiaosu had never seen someone wear this kind of outfit in town before.


    Ren Xiaosu had seen her before when he was leaning on the windowsill. This woman was the famous singer from the stronghold, Luo Xinyu.


    ¡°How fanciful,¡± Ren Xiaosu mumbled to himself. Then he looked behind Luo Xinyu at where the band members and private troops were standing. This time, the private army had actually sent out 12 soldiers, even more than the previous expedition.


    But Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attention was still on the girl with the cap, the owner of the Perfect Firearms Proficiency.


    The girl was dressed in dark blue sportswear and still wearing her cap very low. She seemed to have noticed that Ren Xiaosu was staring at her, so she raised her face slightly.


    Ren Xiaosu saw her delicate chin but still could not see her eyes that were shrouded by the shadow of the cap.


    Behind this group of people, arge group of students had gathered.


    In fact, the band members were also a little confused. Why had these children suddenly gathered here? Li Facai¡¯s strapping daughter whispered from behind to the girl with the cap, ¡°Are y¡¯all taking Ren Xiaosu away?¡±


    No one answered Li Youqian. It seemed that the girl with the cap didn¡¯t like to say much.


    But suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the pce in his mind say, ¡°Quest: Reject going with them to the Jing Mountains.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Why was the pce also involving itself in this matter? Typically, the pce would do things for his good, but why was it not allowing him to go to the Jing Mountains? What could possibly be there?


    Obviously, Ren Xiaosu had been to the Jing Mountains before. Although that ce was definitely a little more dangerous than staying in town, it shouldn¡¯t be so dangerous that the pce had to remind him not to go.


    Unless something had changed?


    Thinking of this, the thought of backing out started to grow in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind. He wanted was to see the vast world, not how dangerous it was.


    Luo Xinyu sat down across from Ren Xiaosu. She smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯re Ren Xiaosu, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Xinyu and started to wonder aloud, ¡°My father¡¯s father is called grandpa, my father¡¯s mother is called grandma...¡±


    Luo Xinyu was confused. ¡®Are you seriously mental?¡¯


    Then an officer from the private army walked in. He looked at Ren Xiaosu andughed. ¡°Stop pretending, we¡¯ve met before.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu looked up and saw the person approaching, he didn¡¯t feel so good anymore. Wasn¡¯t this Wang Congyang? The man who had searched him twice already!


    He couldn¡¯t keep pretending. Not only that, but Ren Xiaosu also knew he had to go on this expedition no matter what now.


    He slumped out of his upright posture, leaning against the back of the chair. His entire body suddenly turned indolent. ¡°I¡¯m not going!¡±


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll. You may use it to learn another person¡¯s skills.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. The quest wasplete!


    Indeed, the criteria for whether a quest wasplete as judged by the pce was not based on the established facts but the attitude disyed by Ren Xiaosu!


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu got a bold idea.


    Wang Congyang, who was standing by the side, said, ¡°How can you not go¡ª¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll go,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone.


    Wang Congyang was confused.


    However, to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s great disappointment, the pce did not give him another new quest. Come to think of it, he could onlyplete the quest to gift the sparrow to someone once. How could Ren Xiaosu possibly be allowed to keep spamming quests like this?


    At this moment, Luo Xinyuughed. ¡°If you¡¯re willing to go, that would be for the best. I trust that the letter from Boss Luo has already been delivered to you. If you don¡¯t go, you won¡¯t have any standing in this town.¡±


    ¡°I can go,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°but I have a few conditions.¡±


    Luo Xinyu looked at Ren Xiaosu with a smile. She felt that their conversation was finally getting somewhere. ¡°Speak.¡±


    ¡°I want 30,000 yuan as remuneration.¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯ll only get 10,000 yuan.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll want an additional 10 bags of salt, 10 cartons of cigarettes, 100 kilograms of rice, and...¡± Ren Xiaosu started counting on his fingers.


    Luo Xinyu said calmly, ¡°Let me stop you right there. I¡¯ll pay you the 30,000 yuan.¡±


    ¡°Alright, but I still have another condition,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you say everything in one go?¡± Luo Xinyu said impatiently.


    ¡°You were the one who cut me off just now.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I can go, but Wang Congyang can¡¯t.¡±


    Wang Congyang was obviously a rtive of the dead factory manager, Wang Dongyang. He had already abused his authority by searching him twice. If they set off on the expedition together, there might just be some trouble along the way.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu was reluctant to have a time bomb like him going with him.


    Eh, wait a moment! Could it be possible that Wang Congyang was expelled because he searched Ren Xiaosu twice and offended Boss Luo in the process?


    This was a very strong possibility. Which ordinary soldier would be willing to go out into the wilderness? Did they get sick of enjoying their life in the stronghold?


    Hence, if Wang Congyang were expelled, his unhappiness towards Ren Xiaosu would be even greater. In that case, all the more he should not go on the expedition together with him!


    It was said that the most worrying thing in this wastnd were the beasts that had grown increasingly strong, but Ren Xiaosu disagreed, as he had encountered and killed some of those before. To him, most worrying in this wastnd were not the beasts but the humans.


    Luo Xinyu turned to look at Wang Congyang. She didn¡¯t expect that these two would have a grudge with each other.


    Luo Xinyu turned around and nced at the girl with the cap who gave a veiled nod at her. Luo Xinyu said, ¡°Alright, Wang Congyang, you can return to the stronghold.¡±


    Wang Congyang looked at Ren Xiaosu. With a chuckle, Ren Xiaosu said to him, ¡°You don¡¯t really want to go either, right?¡±


    The corners of Wang Congyang¡¯s mouth curled up. ¡°You¡¯re interesting.¡±


    Wang Congyang then turned around and left.


    After he was gone, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Actually, I still have another condition.¡±


    But Luo Xinyu had already stood up, and her smile had turned into a stern look. ¡°Lad, my patience has run out.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered why the people from this stronghold had such frequent mood swings. She was smiling at him a moment ago, so why did her attitude change all of a sudden?

 Chapter 39 - Yang Xiaojin

    <h4>Chapter 39: Yang Xiaojin</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    For the time being, the group was unable to set off because they were waiting for the recement officer from the stronghold¡¯s private army.


    A spontaneous decision like recing an officer, even if it was just a low-ranking one, was enough to show what kind of influence Luo Xinyu had in the stronghold. It was just that Ren Xiaosu had also noticed the girl with the cap surreptitiously nodding at Luo Xinyu.


    Just who was this cap-wearing girl?


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°We¡¯re going to be a team, but I still don¡¯t know what your names are.¡±


    A band member sneered, ¡°We¡¯re no teammates with a refugee. You¡¯re only a guide, so don¡¯t act like you¡¯re close with us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu scrutinized this band member as he was seriously considering whether there would be a suitable ce to kill him along the way.


    There was a clear contrast between the refugees in town and the residents of the stronghold. Compared to the fair and refined people in the stronghold, the dirtiness and barbaric behavior of the townspeople were quite evident. But there was an even more essential difference between the two.


    Their attitude towards life.


    How did Ren Xiaosu survive all this while? And how did these people live their life infort in the stronghold? The environment would greatly influence the development of a person: their thinking, their character, etc.


    At this moment, an officer came out of the stronghold and headed straight to the clinic. When he appeared in front of everyone, he spoke, ¡°I¡¯m Second Lieutenant Xu Xianchu of the Field Service Division.¡±


    It was not until this moment that everyone started introducing themselves. However, Ren Xiaosu did not bother remembering any of their names as he continued staring at the band member who¡¯d mocked him.


    He heard the band member introducing himself as, ¡°I¡¯m Ms. Luo Xinyu¡¯s agent. My name is Liu Bu.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took note of Liu Bu¡¯s name and jotted it into his memory.


    Suddenly, the cap-wearing girl said, ¡°I¡¯m Yang Xiaojin <sup>1</sup> .¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. So this girl was named Yang Xiaojin. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that this name sounded very pleasant.


    Importantly, the town¡¯s refugees and the people from the stronghold also had another difference, their names.


    Look at the names of the people from the stronghold. Xu Xianchu, Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, Wang Congyang, Yang Xiaojin, etc.


    And then look at the names of the refugees in town. Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, Li Facai, Li Youqian, etc.


    The names of the townspeople sounded way too crude <sup>1</sup> !


    But with this, Ren Xiaosu got an understanding of what the duties of those in the team were. As Luo Xinyu¡¯s agent, Liu Bu was the person who was in charge of the band¡¯s overall affairs. Things like the distribution of daily necessities and other administrative matters were all in his care.


    Five off-road vehicles and a pickup truck were dispatched this time, and the trunks were filled with all of their daily essentials.


    Meanwhile, Xu Xianchu was responsible for the management of the convoy and ensuring the safety of the group.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought that Yang Xiaojin would have some responsibilities as well. However, after listening to all of the introductions, he realized that she was apparently detached from the team, with no responsibilities to oversee.


    ording to Luo Xinyu¡¯s introduction to Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin was a friend of hers, and she was only following them to Stronghold 112 for an excursion.


    At that moment, Ren Xiaosu was tempted to say, ¡°Like hell I¡¯d believe that!¡±


    After the introductions finished up, everyone boarded their assigned vehicles. There were a total of 20 people going on this expedition, including Ren Xiaosu.


    But when Ren Xiaosu was about to get into the vehicle, Liu Bu suddenly said, ¡°Don¡¯t sit in the vehicle since you¡¯re so dirty. Go sit in the bed of the pickup.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not argue with him. After all, was it necessary to take it up with someone who was essentially dead?


    Ren Xiaosu sat in the cargo bed of the pickup and listened to the loud droning of the vehicle¡¯s engine as the town slowly disappeared from his view.


    At the moment of departure, Ren Xiaosu still had some unwillingness in his heart. No matter how dirty and crappy this town was, he still called the ce home all these years.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was getting a little emotional, he heard cheering erupt. ¡°Ren Xiaosu is leaving atst!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re free now!¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, our days of suffering are finally over!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around speechlessly and looked. He was surprised to see Li Youqian and Wang Dalong leading a group of students from the school in celebration as they high fived each other.


    The other townspeople did not feel much. While Ren Xiaosu was the only doctor in town, it wouldn¡¯t really make a difference in their lives even after he left.


    But it was different for the students. They knew that their lives would definitely get better after today!


    In this moment, they forgot the fear of being dominated by Ren Xiaosu.


    A middle-aged man dashed out of the crowd. It was Li Youqian¡¯s father, Li Facai.


    Li Facai dragged his strapping daughter back home. ¡°Do you not want to live anymore?¡±


    Li Youqian wondered, ¡°What are you afraid of, Dad? Ren Xiaosu is already gone!¡±


    Li Facai griped, ¡°But he¡¯ll be back!¡±


    ¡°What if he doesn¡¯t make it back?¡± Li Youqian argued, ¡°Don¡¯t they all say it¡¯s very dangerous in the wilderness?¡±


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Li Facai¡¯s grip tightened even further as he squeezed her hand. ¡°Even if all of the others perish, he would still make it back alive! And don¡¯t you be wishing death unto other people in the future, ya hear?¡±


    By saying that Ren Xiaosu might not make it back, Li Youqian was implying that he would die in the wilderness.


    In reality, the townspeople were numb to such life and death events. It was quite normal for them to experience death in their daily lives.


    But if such a menacing seed of thought were nted in a child, no one would know what sort of fruit it would bear in the future.


    Luo Xinyu and the others who were in the off-road vehicles also heard the cheering. They rolled down their windows and looked back to see what was going on. Although they did not know what hatred those people had for Ren Xiaosu, they knew that they were celebrating his departure from town.


    Liu Bu was sitting in the front passenger seat and muttered, ¡°How unpopr does he have to be for them to celebrate his departure....¡±


    In the backseats, Luo Xinyuughed and said, ¡°When we get back, we should make a proper inquiry into this guy. I want to know exactly what he¡¯s done in this town.¡±


    ¡°Why would you want to find out more about him, Xinyu?¡± Liu Bu scorned. ¡°He¡¯s just a punk kid from the hamlet. If we weren¡¯t looking for a guide, would he have any chance of interacting with people like us? This is a blessing that he earned through his previous life, but he doesn¡¯t cherish it.¡±


    Only Yang Xiaojin remained silent as she sat in the vehicle. She seemed to be thinking about something.


    ...


    At the school gate, Xiaoyu was holding onto the bars of the fence as she looked at the end of the road leading out of town. She watched Ren Xiaosu and those vehicles turn into tiny ck dots in the distance.


    She turned around and went into the backyard of the school to wet a towel with some water. Then she walked into the school and wiped Yan Liuyuan¡¯s forehead with it. He had be unconscious aftering down with a sudden fever.


    Mr. Zhang went to Old Wang¡¯s grocery store to buy some anti-fever medication while Xiaoyu stayed by Yan Liuyuan¡¯s side to take care of him.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was groaning, and it seemed like he was having a bad dream. Xiaoyu gently put her hand on Yan Liuyuan¡¯s forehead and whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Liuyuan, he¡¯ll definitely make it back.¡±

 Chapter 40 - I want to be with my crackers!

    <h4>Chapter 40: I want to be with my crackers!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The route to the Jing Mountains was difficult to travel on as it was mostly made up of dirt roads.


    While sitting in the pickup truck bed, Ren Xiaosu asionally saw some concrete surfaces on the road. But for whatever reason, those roads had crumbled a long time ago and were in a state of decay.


    Ren Xiaosu had once heard from the schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, that the concrete roads were left behind from the time before The Cataclysm. The structure of the roads had degraded after so many years, and most of them were now covered byyers of dirt.


    This was the case with most of the ¡°major¡± roads linking the strongholds together. However, these dirt roads had a slightly more even surface due to more vehicles traveling on them.


    In reality, not many vehicles traveled between the strongholds. Back at their own town, Ren Xiaosu and the others would only see nonlocal vehiclesing to Stronghold 113 about a dozen times a year. Even that was considered quite a lot.


    The wilderness was not all deste. On the contrary, it took only dozens of kilometers after leaving town before they were greeted with lush greenery everywhere. Over the years, the vegetation got even lusher.


    However, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t feel that this was a bad thing. Back in town, food was usually considered a scarcity. Since he could not have meat, he would eat more vegetables. He had also noticed that the cabbages nted by Zhang Jinglin were gettingrger than before.


    Ren Xiaosu even specifically asked Zhang Jinglin whether he had used any fertilizers to grow them, but he denied it.


    This was a good thing. Perhaps one day a single potato might even be enough to feed a family of three.


    When Liu Bu made Ren Xiaosu sit in the bed of the pickup, he never could have expected that Ren Xiaosu would do something.


    The cargo bed was filled with food and water provisions they brought with them from the stronghold. There was no need to lock such items up, so they were simply covered with tarps.


    While Ren Xiaosu sat in the cargo bed, he lifted the tarp out of curiosity. He had a look under it and immediately saw the word ¡°cracker.¡± Then he lifted another tarp and saw bottled water.


    Because of the bumpy road, the vehicles did not go fast. In reality, the band did not fear wild animal encounters. After all, they had 12 soldiers from the private army who were carrying loaded weapons with them. As such, they did not have to worry too much about any beasts.


    Although a wolf attack had taken ce earlier, the wolves were long gone and hiding in the mountains several hundred kilometers away from here. There was absolutely no need to worry that they would suddenly return.


    ording to past experience at the stronghold, it would take at least a year of recuperation for them toe back and be active in the area again.


    So what worried the convoy the most at the moment was what would happen if the vehicles broke down.


    Half of these soldiers from the private army were trained in automobile repair, but they couldn¡¯t possibly bring a full set of spare parts for the expedition with them.


    While this made the journey slower, it was better than having to walk there.


    In between, Ren Xiaosu insisted on getting out to relieve himself. As a result, the entire convoy had to stop and wait for him. This made them even more displeased with him, but Ren Xiaosu was not bothered by it. He faced everyone¡¯sints as if it were nothing.


    The convoy continued moving until noon. When they came to a stop, Liu Bu jumped out of the vehicle first. Heughed happily and said, ¡°I¡¯ve stayed in the stronghold for too long. It¡¯s such a great feeling toe out here and see the sweeping vistas.¡±


    A soldierughed and said, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right. I¡¯ve gotten terribly bored from staying inside the stronghold all the time.¡±


    In fact, everyone had such thoughts from the moment they set off on this expedition. They were all in the mood to enjoy the scenery, chat, andugh. However, this would likely not be the case in a few days.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu also thought that it was rather lovely when he first came out to the wilderness to hunt.


    Liu Bu beckoned for everyone to get out of their vehicles. He said, ¡°Let¡¯s get out here and eat something. After we finish, we¡¯ll continue on our journey and try to get to the Yun Range before it gets dark. We were there the previous time, and there¡¯s a clearing that¡¯s suitable for setting up camp.¡±[1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yun_Range]


    Everyone was chatting andughing as they got out of the off-road vehicles. Several of the soldiers gathered to smoke together. Their faces were full of happiness when they started puffing away.


    Liu Bu called for the band to go over to the pickup truck. He did not have the authority to order the soldiers around. It was neither down to his nor Luo Xinyu¡¯s influence that they were able to hire 12 soldiers from the private army toe with them on this trip. In actual fact, their band was here to act as a cover for the private troops to carry out their mission!


    In such circumstances, others might think that Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu were very influential. But they knew better.


    As Liu Bu walked towards the pickup truck, he said to a band member next to him, ¡°We¡¯ll distribute the cigarettes that we brought along to the soldiers in a bit.¡±


    ¡°Alright, how many should we give out to them?¡± the band member asked.


    ¡°Bring out one carton first. Didn¡¯t we take ten cartons along with us? There¡¯s no need to be so anxious. We can hand them out slowly.¡± Liu Bu smiled and said, ¡°We have a fresh group of soldiers joining us, so everyone will start getting along once we get familiar with one another.¡±


    When Liu Bu came to the back of the pickup truck, he received a shock as he turned around and had a look inside. ¡°Holy shit! Ren Xiaosu, what have you done?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Liu Bu and said, ¡°Why do you look so shocked? I didn¡¯t do anything at all!¡± He burped. As he had a little too much to eat, he couldn¡¯t help burping. Ren Xiaosu stood up to stretch himself, then brushed off the cracker crumbs on his body...


    Liu Bu leaned over into the cargo bed and looked around. His heart ached. ¡°Are you a pig? How can you eat so much? You ate five packets of crackers all by yourself in one morning?!¡±


    Quite frankly, it had been a long time since Ren Xiaosu had eaten so much. In their poorest days, he would leave his food for Yan Liuyuan to eat. They only became rich recently, so he hadn¡¯t had the chance to be extravagant yet.


    Besides, the crackers they brought along were delicious. There were both sweet and salty ones.


    Importantly, salt and sugar were luxury goods in town. Most of the time, they would just have in boiled potatoes or some simr food to eat. Where would they get the chance to eat such delicious food like crackers? There was even a lot of potable water avable in the vehicle.


    ¡°Look how bloated your belly is!¡± Liu Bu roared. ¡°You must be four months pregnant, right? Don¡¯t you feel ufortable stuffing yourself with so much food?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°It¡¯s only because you let me sit here in the bed that this happened! But now that you mention it, it does feel a little ufortable.¡± Ren Xiaosu got out of the pickup and started running into the distance. ¡°Y¡¯all can eat first. I need to take a dump.¡±


    While Ren Xiaosu ran far away, Liu Bu and the others felt frustrated in the wilderness.


    A band member hesitated before saying, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just let him sit inside the vehicle?¡±


    Liu Bu stared at him. ¡°Why should we let him sit in the vehicle? Is a refugee like him qualified to sit together with us, huh?¡±


    The band member did not sound so confident at his suggestion anymore, but he still muttered, ¡°If we continue to let him sit in the bed of the pickup for two more days, I¡¯m afraid that our provisions will notst until Stronghold 112....¡±


    At the words, Liu Bu made a rough estimation of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s appetite. Then he sighed and said, ¡°Indeed, we won¡¯t be able tost until then.¡±


    In the end, everyone unanimously decided to let Ren Xiaosu sit in the vehicle.


    When Ren Xiaosu came back, he was unhappy to find out that he had to sit in the vehicle. ¡°I don¡¯t want to sit in the vehicle. I¡¯m not qualified to sit together with y¡¯all. I¡¯m just a refugee!


    ¡°Let me go, let me be with my crackers!


    ¡°Are you people human!¡±


    Eventually, things were solved after everyone worked together to cram him into the vehicle.

 Chapter 41 - Resolve it by yourself

    <h4>Chapter 41: Resolve it by yourself</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    There was a reason why the band members were unhappy with Ren Xiaosu. Even though they were ¡°important people¡± from the stronghold, he had actually made excuses to reject them when they came looking for a guide in town. It was as though being their guide was an embarrassing thing for him.


    In their opinion, shouldn¡¯t you, Ren Xiaosu, take the initiative and volunteer like the first guide had done?!


    How many people were hoping to strike up a closer rtionship with those from the stronghold? Wang Fugui was indeed right to say that whoever the important people from the stronghold picked to do their bidding would lead to said people having a prosperous life.


    Yet Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reaction was to simply avoid them.


    As a result, everyone¡¯s impression of Ren Xiaosu worsened after the cracker incident. Especially Liu Bu. He was now even trying to persuade Luo Xinyu to head back to town to find another guide.


    ¡°Xinyu, we¡¯ve only set off for half a day.¡± Liu Bu said, ¡°It¡¯s still not toote if we return to town. We¡¯ll only be wasting a day of travel time.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s still a waste of time,¡± Luo Xinyu said as she looked out of the window.


    ¡°But have you thought about it?¡± Liu Bu continued, ¡°This kid seems really unreliable. If he gets even more unreliable, we won¡¯t just be wasting a day¡¯s time. I¡¯ve heard before that the refugees in town don¡¯t have much ss, but I didn¡¯t expect it to be so bad!¡±


    Luo Xinyu shook her head and said, ¡°Wang Fugui said that if even he can¡¯t lead us through the mountains, no one else can do it.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe that.¡± Liu Bu said in scorn, ¡°The town is so big, so how can there not be someone who can lead us through the mountains? We only asked around the town, but there are actually a lot more people in the vicinity where there are sevenrge factories. Quite a few of them live at the factories, so if we went there to ask around, we might just discover something new.¡±


    ¡°There are only six factories now,¡± Luo Xinyu corrected.


    One of the factories had just been destroyed by the wolves¡¯ attack. As such, there were only six left.


    ¡°Then we can go and check out the other factories,¡± Liu Bu said in embarrassment.


    ¡°Enough, there will be no more discussion on this matter.¡± Luo Xinyu rejected him and said, ¡°It wasn¡¯t easy for us to get 12 soldiers from the private army to escort us this time, so don¡¯tplicate things any further.¡±


    Liu Bu did not keep arguing. Outsiders might think that Luo Xinyu was still young and most of the decisions would be made by him, the agent. But Liu Bu knew best that Luo Xinyu was a highly independent girl, and he was just the executor of her decisions.


    Nowadays, there were celebrities like Luo Xinyu in everyrge stronghold. They weremonly known as ¡°protags.¡±


    But these protagonists would generally only have supporters within their own strongholds, and it was very difficult for them to make it at the other strongholds.


    After all, the roads in the outside world were not as well-developed as before The Cataclysm happened. Furthermore, it was difficult to predict what people liked, so there were certainly some risks to bear if they wanted to expand their influence out of their own strongholds.


    Once, a celebrity in Stronghold 89 wanted to cross over to the other strongholds to expand his influence. As a result, he went missing after leaving his stronghold. His agent and apanying bodyguards were also nowhere to be found. It wasn¡¯t until two monthster that a body suspected to be his was found in the wilderness. There was a bullet embedded in his skeletal remains that clearly suggested he died from a gunshot wound. Further, he was even shot from behind.


    This made everyone else even warier.


    But Luo Xinyu was never satisfied with only being prominent in one stronghold. She was willing to take risks even though she knew it was dangerous to do so. For a girl, this required a lot of courage.


    Luo Xinyu looked at Liu Bu, who kept silent. ¡°You can pick on him, but don¡¯t let it affect our journey. We just need him to properly guide us to our destination. Once we get back from Stronghold 112, you can do whatever you want with him.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Liu Bu responded.


    It was a bumpy ride in the vehicles, with the soldiers from the private army driving. They were already driving the vehicles as safely as possible to avoid any irreversible damage to the suspensions, chassis, tires, and other parts of the vehicles. However, the road was too bumpy. There was hardly anything they could do about that.


    Ren Xiaosu sat in the backseat of the point vehicle and gave directions to the driver from time to time. But as Liu Bu did not trust Ren Xiaosu, he¡¯d specifically assigned two band members to sit beside him and keep an eye on him. This led to the point vehicle carrying five passengers in total.


    The two band members sitting in the back had standoffish looks on their faces. They used to have plenty of room to spare in the backseats. But with Ren Xiaosu joining them, everyone felt ufortable.


    This group that was nning to pass through the Jing Mountains suddenly looked like they were a special task force established to escort Ren Xiaosu to Stronghold 112...


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that Liu Bu was a little na?ve. With only one soldier from the private army driving the vehicle, the remaining three were all members of the band.


    If he really wanted to cause trouble, he could probably kill everyone else in the vehicle in a mere three seconds, leaving him the only person alive inside.


    The stronghold¡¯s people did not understand a thing about the living conditions of the refugees. They only knew that it was full of hardships and was very dirty. That was basically all the knowledge they had.


    The band member sitting next to Ren Xiaosu nced at him and said haughtily, ¡°You¡¯d better behave yourself and not cause any unnecessary trouble.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°I only ate a little of your crackers. Is this really necessary?¡±


    The band member raised his voice. ¡°You call that a little? Let me tell you, you had no say over your own life from the moment you joined us, do you understand? Don¡¯t overestimate yourself!¡±


    The band member sitting in the front seatughed and said, ¡°Kid, do you know what¡¯ll break when you throw an egg at a rock?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°The heart.¡±


    That band member was taken aback. ¡°Whose heart?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°The hen¡¯s heart will be broken.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was quite happy with his reply as he managed to show a trace of humanity amid the witty response.


    That evening, the convoy sessfully crossed through a mountain pass in the Yun Range. From here, the terrain opened up, and arge forest could be seen beyond the Yun Range. Ren Xiaosu was gazing out the window, spellbound. A picturesque gully cutting through the vast, lively, and tnd had sprung from the extraordinary craftsmanship of nature.


    The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, had said that this uniquendform was formed by the tectonic movement of the Earth¡¯s tes. Ren Xiaosu sometimes felt that humans were miniscule in the presence of such majesty.


    The trees here were flourishing. Only a few muddy paths proved that humanity had been here before. This was also where the band had lost their way during the first expedition. Ren Xiaosu had heard from Mr. Zhang that trees in the tropical rainforest were so dense that it was almost impossible to pass through. However, the forest north of here was still rtively sparse. Only the grass seemed to be growing a little taller than usual.


    In the evening, the convoy finally arrived at the clearing that Liu Bu had talked about. Liu Bu jumped out of the vehicle andughed loudly. ¡°Let¡¯s set up camp here for today. Everyone, get some rest and eat something.¡±


    The moment he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu walked towards the pickup truck. But Liu Bu immediately stopped him. Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°What?¡±


    Liu Bu sneered. ¡°We didn¡¯t bring your share of the food and water, so resolve it by yourself.¡±

 Chapter 42 - Losing one’s home

    <h4>Chapter 42: Losing one¡¯s home</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    It looked like Liu Bu had been pissed off by Ren Xiaosu eating the crackers.


    But in reality, Ren Xiaosu knew that even if he had not eaten the crackers, Liu Bu would still have treated him with the same bad attitude. Ren Xiaosu had already expected to not be given any of the convoy¡¯s food. However, he was surprised at how upfront they were about it.


    It was better this way, honestly. Ren Xiaosu was quite rxed about it. This way, he would not have anything to worry about. And he had been prepared for the current situation.


    He turned around and walked to the forest, but Liu Bu asked in panic, ¡°Where are you going? If you run away now, you¡¯ll never be able to return to the town at Stronghold 113!¡±


    If Ren Xiaosu were to leave, they would have wasted their time again today. Without a guide, it would be impossible for them to pass through this forest and find their way to the Jing Mountains.


    It had to be said that Ren Xiaosu was fairly impressed by these people. It took another five days to get to the Jing Mountains from here. Last time, they were fortunate to have lost their way early on and eventually found their way out of the forest. If they had walked for another few days and gone deeper, they would probably not have been able to get out.


    It would not just be a waste of a day if that happened. These important people who were used to livingfortably in the stronghold had not yet realized whose territory they were in...


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu understood that people were suspect to cognitive inertia. It was not as though the important people in the stronghold had only just started despising the refugees. As such, it should be expected for them to be unable to change their mindset so soon into the expedition.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and grinned. ¡°I¡¯m just going to look for something to eat. What are you panicking for?¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t panicking.¡± Liu Bu exined in embarrassment, ¡°I just wanted to remind you that the previous guide died around this area. Don¡¯t follow in his footsteps by somehow dying in this ce and wasting our time.¡±


    The previous guide had brought them here and then led them the wrong way forward. In the end, when everyone felt that they had been going in the wrong direction after walking for several days, they decided to return back to the Yun Range. However, that guide suffered an unfortunate end in the morning when he went to the river to wash his face.


    As they were talking, a band member eximed, ¡°There¡¯s some animal tracks on your side of the ground!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. What wild animals could be here? Very few wild animals would live at the edge of the forest. Besides, when humans started constructing the strongholds, therger beasts were shut out on the outside of the stronghold¡¯s perimeter. Very fewrge beasts could get through the defenses on the outside of the stronghold perimeter and get into the zone around Stronghold 113.


    Like the wolves that had attacked the factory, such examples were rare.


    Everyone went over to see what the animal tracks on the ground looked like. The soldiers were unconcerned. What was there to be afraid of when they had guns with them?


    But when they saw the tracks, they were all stunned. The animal tracks continued all the way into the forest, and each footprint looked about half the size of a person¡¯s head.


    When the soldiers saw this, all of them immediately raised their guns and nervously aimed into the depths of the forest. For some reason, the troops of the private army suddenly felt unsafe even with their guns.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t see these tracks when we were herest time, right?¡± someone said in a trembling voice.


    ¡°No.¡± Someone shook their head.


    When Ren Xiaosu observed the tracks, he knew exactly what kind of animal it was and felt relieved.


    Then he gazed at the clearing where the band was going to set up camp. He immediately noticed some garbage that was left behind by the group the previous time they were here. There were a lot of food scraps still lying around on the ground. He said in a serious tone, ¡°It¡¯s a bear. It was attracted to the food scraps that y¡¯all left behind thest time.¡±


    Liu Bu said with a doubt, ¡°Nonsense! Do you think I¡¯ve not seen what a bear¡¯s paws look like?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu followed the tracks into the forest. He was not kind enough to tell everything that he knew to the band and private troops. ¡°Ahem, it could also be a boar too....¡±


    The group behind Ren Xiaosu could only watch helplessly as he went into the forest. He seemed fearless of the tracks and the dangers lurking inside the forest.


    ¡°That kid is too bold.¡± Liu Bu gasped. ¡°Does he not want to live?¡±


    The soldiers lowered their guns. If there were any terrifying beasts in the forest, it would not be toote for them to raise their guns if they heard Ren Xiaosu scream.


    These soldiers lookedpletely unafraid, but the trembling voice from earlier had revealed that they were just putting on a brave front.


    Ren Xiaosu was moving around in the forest. In reality, he could tell from a nce that these were the hoofprints of a deer.


    He followed the deer tracks because it was usually possible to find a source of water or river by following the tracks ofrge animals in the forest. Like humans, they needed to rehydrate at certain intervals.


    Besides, he also intended to go to the river to understand why that guide died.


    ording to Liu Bu¡¯s ount of the incident, the guide was washing his face in the river when he got chewed to pieces by something. As a result, he died on the spot.


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°What an idiot.¡± Even though it was well-known that animals were evolving, it wasmon knowledge that herbivores still ate grass and carnivores still ate meat.


    This guide was probably like many of the others in town who thought that fish only survived by feeding on aquatic nts. However, Ren Xiaosu had read from a perfectly preserved book at school that freshwater fishes like the northern snakehead and catfish were carnivores, while the remaining ones were mostly omnivores. However, there were basically none that were herbivores.


    Would any fish refuse such arge piece of meat like your face when it gets ced right in front of its mouth?


    Ren Xiaosu was d that he understood the power of knowledge and that he had also been learning all this time. Otherwise, he might have ended up dying by trapping himself as that guide had done.


    He followed the tracks and kept walking. As deer were one of the gentler creatures in the forest, nothing would typically happen if you did not provoke them.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu noticed a trail of sawdust-like matter on a tree. This was obviously left behind by termites after they had gnawed on the wood. He looked at the base of the tree, and, indeed, there was an abnormal dirt mound wrapped around the tree roots.


    Ren Xiaosu trampled on the dirt mound and destroyed it with very little effort, exposing the brown termites on the inside. The termites were crawling around rapidly within the nest and looked to be about the size of a pinky finger pad. Although these termites were not tasty, they were full of nutrients.


    Importantly, many of the townspeople had been suffering from malnutrition for years. Usually, they would use termites and termite eggs to supplement their diets, and some people would be so happy at finding a termite¡¯s nest that it would keep them smiling for days.


    But these termites could not be eaten raw in fear that they might secrete formic acid out of their bodies. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was not so desperate that he needed to eat these termites in order to survive.


    After the nest was destroyed, the termites scrambled around at a loss. Before they could figure out why their nest had copsed, Ren Xiaosu tore off arge leaf off the branches of the tree and used it to wrap up a small piece of the termite nest, on which some termites were still crawling.


    He broke off a tree branch and trimmed it slightly with his bone knife, turning it into a simple spear. With that, he was ready to catch some fish.


    Before walking far away, Ren Xiaosu turned around and came back again. He poked around at the termite nest with his bone knife for a while until he located the plump termite queen. He took her along with him as well.


    The termites had sufferedplete disaster. Ignoring bioethics, this could simply be described as ¡°losing both one¡¯s home and mother.¡±

 Chapter 43 - First time in his life

    <h4>Chapter 43: First time in his life</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu had not dug up the termite nest because he wanted to eat them. He continued following the deer tracks and heard the sound of running water after just a few minutes.


    The closer Ren Xiaosu got to the river, the warier he became. Although it was past the evening period when living creatures gathered to drink at the riverside, he still needed to be careful. If any of the wild animals arrived herete due to matters at home, Ren Xiaosu might just bump into them.


    But to his relief, he was not that unlucky.


    Ren Xiaosu unwrapped the leaf containing the piece of the termite nest and threw it into the river. As the current was not rapid at this time, he did not have to think of how to build a stone weir <sup>1</sup> in the river.


    Right after, he used his bone knife to cut open the palm-sized termite queen and threw her into the river as well. Then he began to wait patiently while holding the sharpened branch.


    The moonlight tonight was particrly bright. Otherwise, Ren Xiaosu would not have seen what was in the river.


    As the termite queen and her nest drifted slowly downstream with the current, Ren Xiaosu followed it from the riverbank. All of a sudden, a silhouette appeared and swam under the floating termite nest. The surface of the water roiled, and arge fish appeared with its mouth wide open as it tried to swallow the termite queen and nest in one gulp.


    But as it opened its mouth, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sharpened branch struck it!


    Ren Xiaosu had previously used this method to catch fish as well. As his speed and strength were much worse at the time, it took him many tries before he seeded in catching one.


    However, that was the past. His movements used to be slower than a fish¡¯s, but he had gotten much faster than them by now.


    Ren Xiaosu retracted the branch with lightning speed, therge, ck fish struggling nonstop on it to no avail. Ren Xiaosu cautiously moved away from the riverbank. It seemed that the blood of the ck fish had attracted something bad. Below the river¡¯s surface, a dense mass of silhouettes swarmed together.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. ¡®Are these the silhouettes of fish?¡¯ He immediately cut open therge, ck fish on the shore and threw all of its internal organs back into the river. He could not bring the fish back to the campsite and slice it open there because that would leave a bloody scent around the campsite.


    If cracker crumbs could attract a huge deer, who knew what the scent of blood could attract? Although there shouldn¡¯t be any bears or the likes in the vicinity, there was no harm in being cautious. Moreover, the roasted fish meat and bones that were left over from a meal would have to be dumped as far away as possible.


    A secondter, a frenzy erupted in the river. Countless fish scrambled to feed on the bloody organs, and they were even biting one another.


    Once a fish got bitten, it would immediately end up as food for the other fish.


    What a brutal river. What would happen if a person had fallen in?


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu was stunned, because he noticed that all the fish had swam away in a hurry. Ren Xiaosu turned around and left without any hesitation. Anything that could frighten away such vicious fish was probably something that he should not mess with.


    On the way back to the campsite, Ren Xiaosu kept thinking about what kinds of changes the current wilderness had gone through.


    Why were the wild animals evolving, yet there didn¡¯t seem to be any changes in humans?


    No, there were some changes!


    For example, there was Zhang Baogen, who had demonstrated his superpower to him. Or Yan Liuyuan and himself? Weren¡¯t they all different from before?


    When Ren Xiaosu returned to the campsite, the band and the soldiers were eating porridge and canned food.


    When everyone saw the fish that Ren Xiaosu was holding, they were stunned. In the afternoon, they had thought they would see Ren Xiaosu make a fool of himself. This was because Ren Xiaosu was only wearing a loose jacket, and they knew at a nce that he had not brought along any dried food with him.


    So when Liu Bu told Ren Xiaosu to handle his meals by himself, everyone gloated at him. They were all quite annoyed with Ren Xiaosu, this refugee kid who constantly gave them an inexplicable feeling of unease. However, they could not tell what it was that made them feel so.


    But now, while they had to make do with canned luncheon meat in the wilderness, the smell of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s roasted fish drifted over.


    Ren Xiaosu had brought along a metal cup, a bone knife, and a box of matches with him for this journey. These necessities were part of his survival kit whenever he went into the wilderness. Of course, he could¡¯ve left the matches behind since he knew other techniques for starting a fire. But if he could save some trouble by bringing matches along with him, why would he want to make it more difficult for himself? The matchbox didn¡¯t take up a lot of space anyway.


    Liu Bu wrinkled his nose when he smelled the roasted fish. ¡°Hur hur, no big deal, it¡¯s only a fish.¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the pce say, ¡°Quest: Good things should be shared with others.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for some time. He picked up the branch that the fish was skewered on and walked to Liu Bu.


    Liu Bu¡¯s eyes lit up as he said in a reserved tone, ¡°What, are you going to invite us to eat the fish? Well, I guess we can¡ª¡±


    ¡°What are you thinking?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I was only showing it to you to share my happiness.¡±


    Liu Bu was confused.


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.¡±


    ¡®Alright!¡¯ Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. There were many ways of sharing after all!


    Liu Bu flew into a rage from shame. ¡°Ren Xiaosu, do you really think that I would have any of your fish?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the fish that was about half a meter long and felt that a person would not be able to finish this on their own. So he looked at Liu Bu and said, ¡°I¡¯ll trade half of the fish for three bottles of water.¡±


    Liu Bu said without hesitation, ¡°Deal!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to trade his food for some water because it was really troublesome for him to find water. Initially, he had nned to go to the river to get his water but gave up on the idea after being frightened by what he saw there. He could also look for pine needles as his water source, but it would be too slow to squeeze the water out of them bit by bit. So he might as well make it more convenient for himself by using something that he did not require in exchange for some water from the other party.


    With three bottles of water, he could drink one bottle tonight and leave the other two bottles for the journey.


    ¡°Come,e, everyone,e and have some fish.¡± Liu Bu took out a pot they had brought along andid half of the fish that Ren Xiaosu had given to them in it. But what Liu Bu had not expected was that the group of soldiers had already distributed the fish among themselves before Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin, and he could even get to eat it!


    ¡°Um...¡± Liu Bu looked at Luo Xinyu in embarrassment. He could never have expected the soldiers to be such selfish people!


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was sitting alone beside his personal fire pit while the others congregated around therger campfire. Both sides drew a distinct line between themselves as though they were people from two different worlds.


    Suddenly, Yang Xiaojin got up and went over to sit down across from Ren Xiaosu. She calmly said, ¡°Fish.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was so surprised to find her tone unusually calm that he could note up with a reason to reject her.


    The light of the campfire was flickering against the figure of the girl. Ren Xiaosu started wondering if the girls from the stronghold were all as beautiful like her. ¡®But,dy, can you move the gun away from me first? You have Perfect Firearms Proficiency and you¡¯re pointing a gun at me, so I can¡¯t help but feel a tad nervous!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu had never robbed anyone before, but he hadn¡¯t been robbed before either. This was the first time he¡¯d experiencing something like this in his life!


    ¡°I¡¯ll let you have two bites, just two bites!¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly.

 Chapter 44 - Just two bites

    <h4>Chapter 44: Just two bites</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The glow cast by the campfire was flickering and swaying. The woods rustled as the wind blew through it. It was the wonderful melody of leaves brushing against one another.


    The ck fish was a little too big, in fact. It was so big that Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t think he could finish eating half of it.


    But even if he could not finish eating it, it did not mean that he should get robbed at gunpoint by someone for it.


    He saw Yang Xiaojin take out a small salt shaker from her tracksuit¡¯s shirt pocket and sprinkled it over the fish while holding a ck pistol in her other hand. She was not being courteous with Ren Xiaosu at all.


    Ren Xiaosu had tried guessing what kind of person Yang Xiaojin was. This reticent girl always looked calm andposed.


    Ren Xiaosu guessed that the girl had a cold and callous personality, but he did not expect her to be so temperamental.


    From the moment she sat down, Yang Xiaojin had only said one word: fish. Her temper was like a turbulent current hidden under the calm surface of a sea, frightening others.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw that Yang Xiaojin had already sprinkled the salt evenly all over the fish, he couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer. He looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, ¡°Do you have any cumin?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked up at him. ¡°No.¡±


    Now, Ren Xiaosu took a careful look at the gun in Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hand. It was an M9, a simple and durable handgun. Of the knowledge covered by his Advanced Firearms Proficiency, it seemed like the M9 was still the pistol he was most familiar with.


    Did that mean that Yang Xiaojin used the M9 the most?


    Yang Xiaojin hands were not big, but she was able to hold the gun tightly in her hand without any signs of trembling. As such, there was something special about her when she was gripping the M9. The weight of this gun fully loaded was only 1.2 kilograms, and it was made entirely out of an aluminum alloy. Perhaps that was the reason Yang Xiaojin chose to carry this gun.


    After Yang Xiaojin finished sprinkling the salt, she turned to Luo Xinyu and said, ¡°Come and eat the fish.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused. ¡®I was only going to let you have two bites. Why would you invite someone else to have some?¡¯


    While they were conversing, Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu had gotten up happily and walked over to them. However, Yang Xiaojin pointed her gun at Liu Bu. ¡°Go back, the owner of this fish does not wee you.¡±


    Liu Bu stood awkwardly in ce as he did not know whether to sit down or continue standing. He had not expected Yang Xiaojin to say something like that!


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. At this point, he could not tell what Yang Xiaojin¡¯s way of doing things was. She seemed a little interesting.


    Yang Xiaojin turned to look at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°We¡¯ll just have two bites each, nothing more.¡±


    Luo Xinyu sat down and curiously sized up Ren Xiaosu. The atmosphere seemed to have livened up a bit. Sheughed and said, ¡°I won¡¯t eat your food for nothing either. Here, I¡¯ll let you have two bites of this chocte in return.¡±


    Luo Xinyu then took out arge piece of chocte from her pocket and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. She looked to be making a trade.


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before taking the chocte from her. This was his first time seeing the real thing. He had only ever heard Mr. Zhang talking about the high calorie food that could quickly replenish one¡¯s physical strength.


    However, Old Wang¡¯s grocery store in town only sold ordinary white sugar, and it was extremely expensive too. There was no such thing as chocte in his store.


    It was as though ¡°two bites¡± had be a tacit agreement between everyone. No one was allowed to eat any more than that.


    Ren Xiaosu took the chocte and removed the wrapper from it. Then he opened his mouth as wide as possible and stuffed all of the chocte into his mouth in one shot.


    Luo Xinyu was dumbfounded. Even Yang Xiaojin was giving Ren Xiaosu a nk stare.


    After Ren Xiaosu finished slowly chewing on the chocte, he thought for a moment, then said to Luo Xinyu, ¡°You still owe me another bite.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was surprised. Yang Xiaojin was speechless.


    The chocte was delicious. Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®Even the food in the stronghold is different from what we have in town.¡¯


    The crackers were so sweet and tasty, and the chocte had a exotic taste with a bitterness before the sweetness set in.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that he had to find a way to trade for more of such food with Luo Xinyu and the others during the journey. When he returned to town, he could let Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu eat whatever he brought back with him.


    Luo Xinyu had wanted to get a little closer to Ren Xiaosu as she felt that he had a unique survival skill. If anything were to happen along the way, he could take care of her. People like Luo Xinyu were always smooth operators, tactful in their dealings. How else could they coax the genuine ¡°big shots¡± in the stronghold into flocking to them?


    But Luo Xinyu did not expect Ren Xiaosu to be so difficult to get along with. Rather, she always felt that there might really be something wrong with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s head.


    Luo Xinyu took two small bites of the fish and returned back to her campfire. She took another piece of chocte from the vehicle and gave it to Ren Xiaosu. He did not eat it, instead stuffing it into his pocket.


    At this time, Ren Xiaosu turned to look at Yang Xiaojin. He saw her opening her mouth as wide as possible and chomp down on the fish, biting off almost a quarter of the remaining portion in one bite! Ren Xiaosu was shocked. ¡®As a girl, can¡¯t you be a little more reserved? Even Li Youqian, the strapping girl from town, does not eat with such manners, alright!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu had had half a fish left after exchanging half of it for water. Now that Yang Xiaojin had taken two bites from it, there was only a quarter of it left. But for some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin wasn¡¯t putting on airs. Everything that she did was straightforward. It was so much better than how the celebrity, Luo Xinyu, acted.


    However, when Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin turning to look at him, he quickly licked the fish in his hands. ¡°Want some more?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin walked away with an expressionless face. ¡°Don¡¯t carry the chocte around on your person. It¡¯ll melt.¡±


    That night, everyone set up their tents and encamped. These people had brought along brightly colored tents in the vehicles¡¯ trunks. It was just enough for two people to share a tent. Only Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had personal tents.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was focusing on dumping all of the fish bones and scraps at least a 100 meters away before returning to set up his own temporary bed.


    The others sat in their tents as they curiously watched Ren Xiaosu, who was fussing around the campsite. They thought, ¡®So these are wilderness survival techniques? It does look like he is extremely skilled at them.¡¯


    They saw Ren Xiaosu shift the original campfire and build another one with a lot of pine twigs and logs of hardwoods that tended to burn longer. Ren Xiaosu had already extinguished and cleaned up the original campfire, and he¡¯d covered the hot ground with plenty of pine needles.


    These pine needles were readily avable in the woods and could be found in the thick foliage all around.


    ¡°That kid even made himself a bed!¡± Liu Bu said as he watched Ren Xiaosu lyingfortably on the pine needles. As it waste fall, it must have been warm andfortable on the extinguished campfire. Moreover, another campfire was burning beside him.


    It looked really cozy.


    In contrast, the soldiers¡¯ tents were set up tightly around the campfire, so the band members were forced to endure the cold with their tents situated further away from the campfire. Fortunately, though, they had nkets to cover themselves with. Otherwise, they didn¡¯t know how they would have gotten through the night.


    Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin had set up her tent beside Ren Xiaosu¡¯s campfire. She wasn¡¯t courteous to him at all.


    Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes and looked over at Yang Xiaojin¡¯s tent. He saw that the p of her tent was not closed. In this way, it would be convenient for her to observe any movements in the surroundings, and the gun in her hand was still pointed in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s direction.. No, it wasn¡¯t only that. There was another gun in her other hand as well, and it was pointed in the direction of the soldiers¡¯ tents!

 Chapter 45 - What kind of doctor are you?

    <h4>Chapter 45: What kind of doctor are you?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Compared to Yang Xiaojin, the others in the team were far less cautious based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s observations. With 12 soldiers here, not even one of them were willing to be the night watchman.


    It was obvious that everyone was in deep sleep as there was loud snoringing from the tents. Although therger beasts had been kept outside the stronghold perimeter, these people were still too careless.


    However, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s breathing was even and light. It was obvious that she had not entered deep sleep.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that it was normal for him to be cautious because he had seen a lot of people getting stabbed to death in their sleep at night. But what kind of environment did Yang Xiaojin live in for her to develop a simr habit?


    He felt that a person¡¯s past experiences would determine their current thoughts and habits. Yang Xiaojin must have gone through some very dangerous situations in the past.


    At dawn, Ren Xiaosu went to check on the ce where he had dumped the fish bones before everyone else woke up. He had specially set aside some scrapsst night to see if any wild animals would get attracted by it.


    A lot of people feared wild animals because they felt that they were not afraid of humans due to their ferocity. However, wild animals were not that reckless. In fact, most of them were exceedingly cautious. Usually, a solitary animal would leave when they spotted so many tents set up in an area. But as the fish scraps and bones were dumped far away from the campsite, it should attract some wild animals and make them leave behind some tracks.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully approached the area where he dumped the fish scraps and bones. He kept an eye on his surroundings for any signs of beasts that could have been there before him but saw nothing suspicious.


    But upon reaching the spot, he realized that all of the fish scraps and bones on the ground had disappeared and that there were no signs of any animal tracks around it!


    Ren Xiaosu immediately took his bone knife out of his sleeves and kept a watchful eye on the surroundings. He kept his guard up as he stepped back cautiously. Was it ants that carried away the fish scraps and bones? This was quite a possibility since ants nowadays had grown to be asrge as a human¡¯s finger pads. If an ant nest were nearby, it would be quite normal for them to carry it away in just one night.


    But Ren Xiaosu still held some doubt. When he returned to the campsite, everyone was already packing up and getting ready to set off. They were all folding their tents and stuffing them back into the trunks of the off-road vehicles.


    by the vehicles, Liu Bu was stillining to Luo Xinyu, ¡°Xinyu, you shouldn¡¯t have traded the chocte with him. Does a refugee deserve to eat something like that?¡±


    Luo Xinyu ignored him. She also had not expected that she would end up giving two bars of chocte away!


    The convoy set off. They finally started venturing deep into the woods with the directions that Ren Xiaosu had plotted for them. Sunrays shone through the canopy of the trees, beautifying the entire woods.


    By this point, everyone had long forgotten about the fear from yesterday night that was brought on by the discovery of therge hoofprints of a deer. Ren Xiaosu could even hear singinging from the vehicles behind him. A group of soldiers wereughing loudly as they cracked dirty jokes.


    It felt as though everyone were here on a pic.


    There was a short stretch where they had to travel quite close to the riverbank. Ren Xiaosu said to the driver, ¡°Keep as far away from the river as possible.¡±


    He did not exactly know what dangers lurked in the river, butst night¡¯s events had left an intense impression on him.


    However, the driver thought otherwise. ¡°There¡¯s quite a distance between us and the riverbank. Besides, aren¡¯t there only some fish in the river? Don¡¯t tell me that they can leap ashore and bite you on the face? You¡¯ll be fine as long as you don¡¯t go swimming.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything else. He made the decision that if there were any danger, he would shake off these fools and make a quick escape by himself.


    At this moment, the point vehicle that Ren Xiaosu was in braked hard. The driver from the private army said in apprehension, ¡°Look!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned to look and was surprised to see arge red deer.


    Red deer were huge in size and were the secondrgest in the family of deer after the moose. They liked living in groups and mainly ruminated on grass, leaves, twigs, tree bark, and fruit for their diet while also enjoying licking mineral salts.


    The red deer in front of him was probably over two meters tall. It was standing quietly on the road and looking at the convoy.


    The convoy was on edge. These soldiers picked up their automatic rifles and pulled back the charging handles. Suddenly, the woods rustled as two smaller deer came out. From the looks of it, they were probably the first deer¡¯s fawns.


    Xu Xianchu¡¯s voice crackled from the mobile transceiver. ¡°Don¡¯t shoot it!¡±


    The red deer did not look aggressive. It was just looking at the convoy and was probably wondering, ¡°What the hell is this?¡± in its mind before getting ready to leave again. Everyone in the team heaved a sigh of relief and calmed down.


    A soldierughed and said, ¡°It¡¯s just a herbivore. Look at how scared you guys are. There aren¡¯t anyrge carnivores around here.¡±


    Everyone started teasing each other again. It was as though they had not gotten nervous just now.


    Right at this moment, however, the red deer charged at the convoy. It dropped its head low, its huge antlersing straight for the point vehicle!


    The driver of the point vehicle swore as he stomped on the gas and turned into the woods to avoid the deer. He no longer cared if he would hit a tree or roll the vehicle.


    Fortunately, the point vehicle managed to turn away in time and narrowly avoided the antlers of the huge deer as it went for them. However, the trailing vehicle was not so lucky. The antlers were so tough that they stabbed into the hood of the vehicle like the forks of a forklift truck. Then it tossed its head and flung the entire vehicle away!


    Right after, the huge deer ran into the woods with its two fawns before the soldiers could get out of the other vehicles. It felt like they had escaped after pulling off a big one against the convoy!


    Some of the soldiers fired frantically at the huge deer that was fleeing, but they didn¡¯t hit it. Their marksmanship was surprisingly bad.


    The point vehicle that Ren Xiaosu and the others were in crashed into a tree next to the dirt road at high speed, deforming the hood. A great amount of white smoke started fuming beneath it!


    Then someone shouted from the direction of the convoy, ¡°Hurry, someonee and save him!¡±


    Liu Bu¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°Isn¡¯t that refugee a doctor in town? Quick, get him toe over and save him!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got out of the vehicle and walked towards the convoy. But when he got there, he realized that the driver of the second vehicle only had a scrape on his arm. What was the big deal?


    Death had always lingered around the refugees since childhood. They treated it like it was a trifling part of life. Suffering a scrape like this was nothing at all.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned because he had absolutely no intention of treating the soldier. He did not want to waste his ck medicine on someone like that. He was more surprised by the huge deer disying such aggressiveness at them and wondered why.


    Liu Bu shoved Ren Xiaosu and shouted, ¡°Aren¡¯t you a doctor? Hurry up and save him!¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh.¡± Ren Xiaosu acknowledged him before he began chanting at the driver¡¯s wound, ¡°Get well soon, get well soon, get well soon...¡±


    Liu Bu was dumbfounded. ¡°Who treats a wound like that? What kind of doctor are you?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before venturing, ¡°A witch doctor?¡±

 Chapter 46 - A mysterious death

    <h4>Chapter 46: A mysterious death</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    These people hadn¡¯t even believed that Ren Xiaosu was the only doctor in town because they had a preconceived notion of him. When they first met him, he was still living in a shack, so how did he be a doctor just a few dayster?


    Why weren¡¯t you practicing medicine if you had actual skill?


    But right now, everyone just felt desperate. There¡¯s an old saying that can perfectly sum up the current situation: ¡°Desperate times call for desperate measures.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s answer shocked them. What the hell is a witch doctor?


    ¡°Get up.¡± Liu Bu brushed Ren Xiaosu aside. He then went to the injured driver and asked in concern, ¡°Are you alright? Does it hurt?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked around. They had started with five off-road vehicles and a pickup truck in the convoy, but only four vehicles remained.


    From the look of things, it would be quite difficult to fix the two damaged vehicles. But as Ren Xiaosu did not have any knowledge of automobiles, he would have to wait and see what the private troops had to say about it.


    Second Lieutenant Xu Xianchu led some of his men over to inspect the vehicles. They found that it would be impossible to repair the vehicle that had been thrown upside down by the huge deer as there were several holes in the engine.


    But the huge deer did not get awaypletely unscathed either. Ren Xiaosu saw a small segment of its antler on the ground. It looked like it had been broken off by the recent impact.


    Liu Bu went up to Xu Xianchu and asked, ¡°Can they be repaired?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll have to take a look at the flipped vehicle first.¡± After checking the vehicle, Xu Xianchu said, ¡°This vehicle is definitely beyond repair. But the damage on that one isn¡¯t too serious since it didn¡¯t hit the tree that fast. The only thing we can do now is salvage parts from the flipped vehicle to fix this one.¡±


    ¡°Only one of them can be repaired?!¡± Liu Bu was taken aback. ¡°What should we do then? There are so many of us here!¡±


    Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, ¡°There¡¯s still some space in the pickup truck bed....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his hand. ¡°I¡¯ll go!¡±


    ¡°Go to hell!¡± Liu Bu said angrily.


    This time, Liu Bu would rather sit in the bed of the pickup himself than let Ren Xiaosu sit there!


    Xu Xianchu quickly had his men grab some tools to repair the vehicles. While they were carrying out the repair works, he ordered the soldiers under him with a frown on his face, ¡°Stay alert to your surroundings, everyone. If any unknown creatures approach us, shoot to kill.¡±


    Perhaps there was a deeper sense of bureaucratic order among the troops as everyone was focused on carrying out repairs. However, Xu Xianchu didn¡¯t seem like he was an idiot either. If he didn¡¯t remind everyone to stay alert at a time like this, it might be toote if anyrge creatures approached them while they were repairing the vehicle. That could very well result in many deaths for them.


    Ren Xiaosu was squatting beside the vehicle and watching the private troops make repairs to it. He wanted to understand how a vehicle worked as he has always been very eager to learn about more things. In his eyes, rge machinery¡± like off-road vehicles held a unique charm.


    All of these details represented the essence of humanity¡¯s knowledge in the rebuilding of civilization.


    Beside him, Liu Bu folded his arms and sneered, ¡°Do you even understand what they¡¯re doing?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked him, ¡°I don¡¯t, but do you?¡±


    Liu Bu was taken aback. In fact, he did not understand either.


    ¡°Look here, you and I both don¡¯t understand what they¡¯re doing,¡± Ren Xiaosu said slowly. ¡°So what are you jabbering about?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ignored him. The repairs on the vehicle went on from morning til afternoon. In the meantime, Liu Bu and the others discussed how to divvy up the seating arrangements and the defense strategy they would adopt from here on out.


    Someone said that if they encountered such creatures againter on, they should just shoot them. But someone else asked about what would happen if the gunshot startled the creatures instead. Judging by the sheer size of that huge deer, bullets might not even pierce its skull unless someone could shoot it in the eyes. But who here had such good marksmanship?


    That required a score of nine and above for a standard moving target, right?


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®Seems like these people don¡¯t know that Yang Xiaojin has Perfect Firearms Proficiency. No one could achieve it other than her.¡¯ Ren Xiaosu was currently 60% confident that he could sessfully shoot the huge deer through its eyes with a pistol from 50 meters away. As such, he felt that Yang Xiaojin would have at least a 90% chance of doing so, perhaps even a 100% chance!


    Ren Xiaosu furtively observed Yang Xiaojin¡¯s reaction. But while the others were discussing how to deal with these beasts, she kept quiet throughout as though it were none of her business.


    However, everyone also felt a little relieved at the fact that the huge deer was just a herbivore. If it had been looking for food, there probably would¡¯ve been three or four deaths in the team.


    Xu Xianchu said, ¡°It¡¯s mostly justrge herbivores living in the woods. Otherwise, they would¡¯ve been identified and eliminated as key targets when the stronghold perimeter was first established. We should stay vignt when we encounter this kind of creature again and try not to rm them. But if we encounter a carnivore, shoot to kill. Alright, the repairs are finished. Let¡¯s get ready to set off.¡±


    Liu Bu followed up with, ¡°Now that we¡¯ve lost a vehicle, we need to reshuffle the seating arrangements.¡± He said to a band member, ¡°Xu Xia, you and Cheng Donghang will sit in the bed of the pickup. Please bear with it for the time being.¡±


    The two band members, Xu Xia and Cheng Donghang, looked at Ren Xiaosu, hurt. They could have made Ren Xiaosu sit in the pickup truck bed by himself, but Liu Bu had to worry about Ren Xiaosu eating all the crackers and food. As such, he had to make his own people watch over them.


    Xu Xia and Cheng Donghang grumbled as they climbed into the pickup truck bed. Suddenly, Xu Xia let out a piercing scream and fell out of the pickup truck bed. On hearing Xu Xia¡¯s scream, Ren Xiaosu turned around in shock and saw him holding his neck while wailing.


    Xu Xia¡¯s face had already reddened and swelled up. It was as if he were experiencing tremendous pain that he had never experienced before in his life. In just ten seconds, he was already lying motionless on the ground before anyone could react. He was foaming at the mouth, and his face was turning ck and blue.


    Xu Xianchu cautiously approached him with his gun ready. After finding no anomalies nearby, he put a hand under Xu Xia¡¯s nose to check for breathing. He turned around and said solemnly, ¡°He¡¯s not breathing anymore.¡±


    Everyone stood expressionless in their spots. How could a person die just like that?


    Liu Bu trembled as he asked Cheng Donghang, ¡°What happened to him?¡±


    Cheng Donghang leaned against the cargo bed and said in horror, ¡°I don¡¯t know. When we hopped on together, he suddenly shrieked, scaring me. I didn¡¯t notice anything strange either.¡±


    The rustling in the woods started to sound a little eerie. The trees were still the same, but everyone¡¯s mood had changed.


    This was the first time that one of their people had died on this expedition. Liu Bu shouted at Ren Xiaosu, ¡°What route are you taking us on? Why didn¡¯t we encounter a situation like thisst time? Is there something wrong with the route that you¡¯re taking us on?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no problem with the route that I took.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at Liu Bu. ¡°Although you people live in the stronghold, you should know about how the wilderness has been getting stranger. I don¡¯t know why exactly you want to go to the Jing Mountains, but my advice is to turn back immediately and return to Stronghold 113.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Xu Xianchu said coldly, ¡°It¡¯s an order from the higher-ups that we can¡¯t defy this time. We can¡¯t go back until the mission has beenpleted. And that includes all of you as well!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that something was amiss. There was no way Xu Xianchu would risk his life just toplete a mission. There must be some other reason!

 Chapter 47 - Eerie woods

    <h4>Chapter 47: Eerie woods</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Once Liu Bu realized that it was not possible to head back, he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You¡¯ll sit alone in the pickup truck bed while Cheng Donghang will sit in the vehicle.¡± He sneered, ¡°Since you im that you didn¡¯t take us on the wrong road, we¡¯ll leave you to face the danger yourself.¡±


    He couldn¡¯t care less about Ren Xiaosu eating the crackers. Obviously, surviving was more important than him eating some crackers. After all, none of them wanted to die out here.


    Ren Xiaosu ignored him and went over to check on Xu Xia¡¯s injury. He took Xu Xia¡¯s hand away from his neck and was surprised to see a long stinger in his neck. Ren Xiaosu immediately recognized what it was... a ho!


    He quietly pulled out the stinger with his back facing those standing behind him. He didn¡¯t want the others to know how Xu Xia had died. The atmosphere in the team was bing stranger and stranger. As the ¡°guide,¡± it would be more advantageous for him if the group learned to be fearful of the wilderness at times. Ren Xiaosu had never regarded himself as a good person, nor was he obliged to tell others about everything. His own survival was more important than anything else.


    However, Ren Xiaosu also heaved a sigh of relief. As long as it was not some mysterious species that attacked humans, it was all good. In fact, he was also startled by what had happened just now.


    Ren Xiaosu deduced that a ho might have flown into the pickup truck bed and remained in there. When Xu Xia climbed into the vehicle, his movements rmed the ho, so it stung him.


    But he had not expected that a ho¡¯s sting would be so lethal. Was it the swollen neck that caused asphyxiation? No, no, no, that couldn¡¯t be. If he had suffocated, it would at least take some time for him to die, certainly not just ten seconds. It seemed that the source of the problem was the venom itself.


    When Ren Xiaosu was young, he had also been stung by a ho before. But only half of his face swelled up for several days, and he did not die from the sting.


    This wilderness was getting more and more dangerous.


    Sometimes Ren Xiaosu would have contradictory thoughts. On one hand, he was attracted by the mysterious wilderness and wanted to learn its secrets. On the other hand, he well knew that his curiosity could kill him.


    There were many different dimensions of a human being, and their thoughts were alwaysplicated. This was a defining factor of humanity.


    The shadow of death enveloped the entire convoy, whereas Ren Xiaosu had now be the calmest person in the convoy. Xu Xianchu came to check on the wound but could only see a red dot on his neck. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was observing everyone¡¯s reaction. He saw Yang Xiaojin frowning as well after she pretended to inadvertently check on Xu Xia¡¯s wound.


    Only Ren Xiaosu knew that Xu Xia had actually been stung by a ho that had evolved in the wilderness.


    Someone said, ¡°What should we do with Xu Xia¡¯s body? We can¡¯t possibly abandon him in the wilderness, right?¡±


    ¡°What else can we do?¡± Liu Bu frowned. He had nned to dump Xu Xia here as burying him would take them some time. He didn¡¯t want to stay a moment longer in this godforsaken ce.


    Luo Xinyu said, ¡°Put him in the bed of the pickup. Let¡¯s get out of here first before we find a suitable spot to bury him.¡±


    As the leader of the band, what would the others think of her if she dumped Xu Xia here? Her reputation would be tainted if word of what happened got out.


    When Liu Bu heard her, he immediately made a decision. ¡°Ren Xiaosu, carry Xu Xia into the bed of the pickup and sit in there with him!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not mind this at all. Since he hadn¡¯t eaten any of the crackers since a day ago, he rather missed them.


    He was even less stressed with sitting with the corpse. He had also not been frightened by the number of corpses left behind by the wolves when they attacked the factory.


    People in the stronghold were awed by death, but Ren Xiaosu only had reverence for life. He did not fear death at all.


    As the convoy set off again, Ren Xiaosu sat in the back of the pickup truck bed, eating crackers and drinking bottled water while muttering to Xu Xia, ¡°Why did y¡¯all have toe out here for no reason? See, you¡¯re dead now, aren¡¯t you?


    ¡°Hey, what exactly does the inside of the stronghold look like? Many of us on the outside are on the verge of starving to death, yet y¡¯all¡¯re still in the mood to listen to music and support celebrities?


    ¡°Even the pork gets shipped into the stronghold for y¡¯all to enjoy while we can¡¯t even get to eat it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was bored and had nothing to do, but the two buddies in the driver and co-driver seats did not think that way. Along the way, they heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s faint voice. The driver felt a tingling sensation on his scalp. He asked his co-driver, ¡°Who is he talking to?¡±


    ¡°I... I don¡¯t know. He¡¯s probably just talking to himself....¡±


    ¡°Do you think there¡¯s something wrong with his head?¡±


    That evening, the convoy failed to find a suitable ce to set up camp and was forced to settle for a small clearing. Everyone was quiet as they were in no mood to chat and brag after all that had happened today.


    Early the next morning, Ren Xiaosu got up and stretched. He did not go out to find foodst night. After all, he had gorged himself on crackers.


    The choctes had also been ced in the pickup truck bed. However, Liu Bu had shrewdly carried them into his vehicle. As there was no space for the box of chocte in the vehicle, Liu Bu had to hold onto it for the entire afternoon.


    Ren Xiaosu had already nned ahead for the day. He did not have to eat in the morning since he could eat whatever he wanted in the cargo bed after the convoy set off and continued journeying.


    Right at this moment, however, he heard a scream. He whipped his head in the direction of the pickup. A soldier shouted, ¡°Where is Xu Xia¡¯s corpse? Did any of you see his body?¡±


    All of them were stunned. ¡°Isn¡¯t it in the pickup?¡±


    ¡°His body has gone missing!¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu felt a tingling on his scalp!


    What was going on? The corpse had been ced properly in the cargo bed, so how could it just disappear?


    The typical adult male weighed between 70 and 90 kilograms. So it would be exhausting for a human to carry off the body without making any noise.


    How could no one have heard any noise when there were so many people around? Who had carried Xu Xia¡¯s corpse away?


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly recalled the fish scraps and bones that he had thrown away earlier. It seemed that those had disappeared in the same manner. Without any clues, there was absolutely no way to tell what could have done this.


    At that time, he had guessed that ants did it. But it couldn¡¯t possibly be them this time. No matter how much ants had evolved, they couldn¡¯t carry away such arge corpse overnight.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was overwhelmed with doubt. He frowned and wondered, ¡®What on earth could have done this?¡¯


    Liu Bu was trembling all over as he looked at Xu Xianchu. ¡°Sir, why don¡¯t we all head back to the stronghold? This is getting eerie.¡±


    Xu Xianchu was holding his gun and warily pointing it at the surroundings. ¡°I¡¯m just as afraid as you are, but we absolutely can¡¯t go back until we¡¯ve aplished our mission. From now on, we must act like we¡¯re refugees. If we can¡¯t go back, you guys can¡¯t go back either.¡±


    ¡°But these woods are way too strange!¡± Liu Bu was almost crying.


    ¡°Everyone, get into the vehicles and let¡¯s get the hell out of this ce!¡± Xu Xianchu roared.


    From this moment onward, Ren Xiaosu held his bone knife in his hand at all times. His mind sharpened, and he would always be on guard against any danger that might approach him.

 Chapter 48 - All human behavior and motivation stems from the fear of death

    <h4>Chapter 48: All human behavior and motivation stems from the fear of death</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Why did Xu Xia¡¯s corpse disappear? And where did it go? These two questions lingered in everyone¡¯s minds.


    Ren Xiaosu kept wondering about something. If the entity could make something asrge as a corpse disappear without a trace, why didn¡¯t it do the same to those who were alive?


    Judging by what the entity was capable of, it could easily inflict heavy casualties on the entire campsite during the dead of the night.


    Something was amiss!


    Everyone was sitting in the vehicles except for Ren Xiaosu, who was in the bed of the pickup truck. When they first came here, all of them were chatting,ughing, and even singing with the windows down!


    But now, all of the windows were shut tight. They were afraid that something paranormal would suddenly get into the vehicles and kill everyone.


    Everyone felt that the additionalyer of a window between them and the wilderness would make them safer.


    As Ren Xiaosu sat in the cargo bed, the woods slowly disappeared from his sight. The shadows of the swaying leaves seemed to hide a killing intent. Even Ren Xiaosu got a little frightened by it.


    But what could he do? So he started eating the crackers to calm his nerves.


    Whenever Ren Xiaosu thought of a conjecture that frightened him, he would eat a cracker to calm down.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu felt that sitting in either the pickup or the off-road vehicles were both just as unsafe. Now that his physical fitness had be better, and with a rtively broad view of the surroundings, he could immediately find a way out or make a n in the event of any danger.


    Nobody in the entire convoy could outrun him other than maybe Yang Xiaojin, whose stamina was unknown.


    Ren Xiaosu had never considered saving the others if danger descended upon them. After all, he was not an idiot!


    As their guide, not only did they not provide him with food, they even made him sit in the bed of the pickup. They were already fortunate that Ren Xiaosu did not take revenge on them!


    Everyone was fleeing like there was a monster chasing after them. Liu Bu was still persuading Xu Xianchu when they got into the vehicle, ¡°Sir, let¡¯s turn around and give an exnation to those back at the stronghold. Surely your superior won¡¯t be so heartless as to drive you out, right?¡±


    But Xu Xianchu did not answer him. If it were anyone other than him, his superior might not be as heartless. However, it was a different case for him.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu noticed a long time ago that Wang Congyang and Xu Xianchu, both of whom were officers in the private army, had likely offended their superiors before.


    When a plight arose in the wilderness during the middle of the night, the first person they sent out was Wang Congyang. After Ren Xiaosu and Luo Xinyu requested for him to be reced, Xu Xianchu became the next in line to be sent out by the stronghold.


    The sessful officers would be enjoying themselves in the stronghold. Only those who were unpopr would get ostracized and be made to perform missions in the wilderness. Why else would anyone be willing to leave home and head into battle in the middle of the night?


    There was a sense of honor among soldiers before The Cataclysm happened. But Ren Xiaosu felt that these soldiers from the private army were nothing like that.


    In fact, Xu Xianchu and Wang Congyang were both in awkward positions within the ranks of the private army. Their superiors were already looking to suppress them, so with a valid reason like them failing their mission this time, they would probably not be allowed to go back.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still had some doubts. He nced beside him and finally asked Yang Xiaojin in a whisper, ¡°Are these troops really reliable? The stronghold¡¯s defense is dependent on them, but it feels like they¡¯ll start behaving like a disorderly mob the moment they encounter any danger.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave Ren Xiaosu a look and said something that sounded confusing to him. ¡°The Consortium¡¯s troops are the Consortium¡¯s troops. The stronghold¡¯s troops are the stronghold¡¯s troops. The Consortium does not wish for the stronghold to control a powerful military.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a long time. What were the Consortium¡¯s troops like? Xu Xianchu was obviously shrewder and tougher than the other soldiers. Ren Xiaosu had never seen him smoking or cking off on their journey thus far, and he always carried himself with dignity.


    Who were the ostracized officers? Ren Xiaosu knew at least two of them. One was Wang Congyang; the other was Xu Xianchu. Without mentioning Xu Xianchu, Wang Congyang had disyed his meticulousness when he searched Ren Xiaosu back in town. He waspletely different from these private troops and even showed his contempt for them in front of Ren Xiaosu.


    So were Xu Xianchu and Wang Congyang both ostracized because they were unwilling to wallow in the mire with them?


    By his worst reckonings, Ren Xiaosu thought that even the cigarettes might have been supplied by the Consortium. Had the Consortium been carefully scheming all these years and finally managed topletely cripple the stronghold¡¯s military force? Ren Xiaosu was unable to ascertain this. But as Mr. Zhang had said before, a minority possessed science and technology now, so wouldn¡¯t it also be natural for the military to fall under the control of a minority as well?


    But he still had doubts about Xu Xia. Was it true that people who were alive would not get attacked? If not, why didn¡¯t anything happen to them?


    Why was the stronghold so interested in the Pre-Cataclysm ruins hidden in the Jing Mountains? Could the dangers that they¡¯d faced today have originated at the site of these ruins?


    Xu Xianchu said sternly, ¡°I¡¯m taking over the wartime management of everyone. As for any future ns, none of you have any rights to question me about them.¡±


    Liu Bu opened his mouth but stopped short of saying anything. He realized that Xu Xianchu had turned serious.


    At noon, the convoy took a short break at a ce called the Rainbow Cliffs. The formation of the Rainbow Cliffs was rted to te tectonics as well. They were cliffs formed by thepression of the Earth¡¯s tes and were made up of many colorful rockyers. The private army¡¯s troops named it as such when they went out into the woods many years ago to clear out the wild animals from the area.


    Liu Bu was wiping his sweat as he supported himself against the cliffs. He said, ¡°It¡¯s almost winter, but why is it getting warmer the further we walk north?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sat nearby and belched while saying, ¡°There are several volcanoes up ahead in the Jing Mountains. They aren¡¯t extinct yet, so there¡¯s a lot of volcanic activity.¡±


    Many of the people on the team were surprised to hear that as they had never been to this ce before. They always thought that volcanoes were something that was distant from them and never expected several of them in the Jing Mountains.


    But Xu Xianchu was not surprised as he had already familiarized himself with the terrain around the Jing Mountains based on the private army¡¯s briefing for the mission. The private army¡¯s troops had also been here before, so it was natural they knew about these volcanoes as well.


    But Xu Xianchu wondered how unprofessional his predecessors in the private army were. After clearing out and eliminating the wild animals in the Jing Mountains, they did not even bother to map out the area?


    As of now, none of the various major strongholds had evene up with an urate map of the area!


    Liu Bu walked over to the pickup to get some food to distribute to everyone. When he saw that many of the crackers had gone missing again, he nearly passed out. His voice was trembling as he asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Why would you eat so many crackers!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu burped and patted his chest. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with me eating some of your crackers to calm my nerves? I was sitting all alone by myself in the bed of the pickup!¡±


    Suddenly, a howl came from the north. It sounded so eerie that all of the soldiers raised their guns and pointed them northwards at the main road. They heard Ren Xiaosu say, ¡°Quick, help me up. Let me have another cracker to calm my nerves.¡±


    Liu Bu was speechless.


    Luo Xinyu looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You must know what sound that is.¡±


    Xu Xianchu pointed his gun at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Don¡¯t hide anything from us!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows and said, ¡°That soundes from the Howling Canyon. We¡¯re not far from therge canyon pass that will lead us into the Jing Mountains. When a strong gust of wind passes through the canyon, it makes a sound like that. It¡¯s nothing to be scared by.¡±


    Only now did everyone realize that it was still very useful to have an experienced guide on the team. It wasn¡¯t until this time when they were all fearful that they began to recognize Ren Xiaosu¡¯s value. At the very least, they didn¡¯t feel so afraid anymore when they heard the howling.


    Their original n was to arrive at the canyon in three to five days, but the power of fear had elerated their progress some. If nothing unexpected happened, they could reach the Howling Canyon by this evening!


    The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, had once mentioned in his lectures that all human behavior and motivation stemmed from the fear of death.


    They ate because they didn¡¯t want to die; they struggled just so they could stay alive.


    But now, they were all caught in a mountain range where death could ur at any time. The possibility of death was like a shot of adrenaline that made everyone even more clearheaded and eager to get out of this ce alive.

 Chapter 49 - Stop here, ye who live

    <h4>Chapter 49: Stop here, ye who live</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    For now, the convoy was traveling at a rapid pace. On one hand, this stretch of road was a little smoother to travel on. On the other hand, everyone felt that as long as they drove fast enough, they could leave the danger behind them.


    As the setting sun cast rays from the sky heading into evening, the convoy finally emerged out of the woods and saw the towering cliffs and canyon ahead of them.


    The cliffs were like giant stairs that had been yanked out of the ground. When they got out of their vehicles, they had to crane their heads so far back their necks felt strained before they could see the top of the cliffs. But when they gazed to the left and right, they couldn¡¯t see the end.


    These were nature¡¯s stairs. It was like you could climb into heaven by taking this staircase.


    The Howling Canyon looked like a thin ck line as it stretched out into the distance. But when they approached it, they realized that the canyon was so wide that five or six cars could pass through it side by side.


    A howl and whistle was produced when the strong mountain winds blew through the canyon. If someone were standing at the mouth of the canyon, they would hardly be able to stay upright and would almost certainly get knocked over by the wind.


    The magic and magnificence of nature were given full expression with this disy.


    Suddenly, Liu Bu shouted, ¡°Everyone,e look at this.¡±


    Liu Bu stood next to entrance of the Howling Canyon and pointed at a section on the cliff wall while shouting, ¡°There¡¯s something written on here!¡±


    Everyone went over and saw that someone had carved the words ¡°Stop here, ye who live¡± asrge as a person¡¯s head on the cliff wall.


    Xu Xianchu looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Who carved this into the cliff?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I didn¡¯t see these five words when I was herest year.¡±


    ¡°Why did youe here?¡± Liu Bu shrieked. ¡°Do you know how far from town this is? You shouldn¡¯t have ventured out this far even if you were out hunting. Who the hell are you, really? You must have kept your identity from us!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°Yes, there¡¯s something that I haven¡¯t told y¡¯all yet. I¡¯m actually... the heir of the dragon.¡±


    Liu Bu, Xu Xianchu, and Luo Xinyu were speechless.


    ¡°There are too many doubts about you right now.¡± Xu Xianchu pointed his gun at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°You must exin exactly why you came out herest year. This area is off the beaten track. Stronghold 113 has not sent anyone to this ce in many years, and even though this is the only route linking Stronghold 112 to Stronghold 113, no one from Stronghold 112 has been to our side this past year either. You¡¯re likely the only person who¡¯s been here this year, so did you carve these words into the cliff?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°The words are carved in a very high ce. I can¡¯t reach it without moving a rock over to stand on with how short I am. Besides, I¡¯m just as surprised as y¡¯all are about these five words. I¡¯m also incredibly puzzled about who did this.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t lying about this. He truly did not carve these words.


    ¡°You haven¡¯t given us an exnation of why you came to this ce!¡± Liu Bu roared. ¡°Do you know how far from town we are?¡±


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu. Although they had driven at a slower pace than jogging, they still covered a pretty long distance in three days. There was no reason for Ren Xiaosu toe to this ce.


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Last year, I encountered a pack of wolves when I was at the Yuns. They pursued me until I reached this ce.¡±


    This was also the truth.


    ¡°You¡¯re bullshitting.¡± Liu Bu retorted, ¡°How could a kid like you survive an encounter with the wolves? Tell me, why did the wolves let you go?¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t their target at the time. I just happened to be there. I ran into the woods in a hurry, thinking they would ignore me. I didn¡¯t expect them to chase me. As for how I survived... after I entered the Howling Canyon, they stopped chasing me. I hid in there for two days and only came out after they left. I don¡¯t know my way around the inside of the canyon since I haven¡¯t gone that far in myself.¡±


    Everyone was stunned. Even the wolves stopped chasing when they reached this ce? Could something terrible really lurk beyond this canyon?


    Perhaps some kind person had gone in and discovered the secret of the Jing Mountains, so they left behind a mess on the canyon¡¯s cliff wall to warn others not to proceed further.


    Everyone believed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s exnation, but he wasn¡¯t telling the full truth this time. Back then, he had indeed been pursued by the wolves, but the truth was that they continued chasing him instead of stopping here.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu also wasn¡¯t sure how he had survived. He had lost his consciousness shortly after the wolves caught up to him. When he woke up, he was injured all over but the wolves were nowhere to be seen.


    He was at death¡¯s door when he finally struggled back into town. It was only at that time that he realized the horror of the wolves. But it was also after this encounter with the wolves that the ck mist started appearing in his mind.


    Ren Xiaosu had spent the entire year thinking about whether there was any link between the ck mist in his mind and him losing consciousness at that time. What exactly had happened while he was unconscious?


    Someone suddenly said, ¡°Do you guys know anything about those supernatural beings? Maybe the writing was left behind by one of them. It¡¯s not surprising since they can walk around freely in the wilderness. Some of these supernatural beings have long surpassed the realm of normal human beings.¡±


    The person who spoke was a soldier. However, Xu Xianchu looked at him in fury. ¡°That¡¯s a military secret.¡±


    ¡°Why are you still pretending? Didn¡¯t the whole lot of us get sent here because we¡¯re all ostracized? How much longer do you think you can stay an officer?¡± The soldier sneered and said, ¡°Even if we canplete the mission, do you really think that Ma Xin will let you off when you return?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. The chain ofmand of the private army was such a mess that the enlisted confronted the officers as they wished? Unknowingly, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s impression of the private army worsened. The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, had described that the armies from before The Cataclysm were well-disciplined, which in turn made them into a unified, strong unit.


    Xu Xianchu looked at that soldier. ¡°Even if he doesn¡¯t let me off, I¡¯ll make sure you get cast out before I do. You¡¯d better shut your trap now. Otherwise, I¡¯m going to treat you as a deserter and punish you ordingly.¡±


    The soldier fell silent, but Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu started to get curious. ¡°We heard that three supernatural beings were arrested in our stronghold by the private army some time ago. What happened to them?¡±


    Xu Xianchu deliberated before saying, ¡°It¡¯s none of your business. We were just carrying out our superiors¡¯ orders.¡±


    ¡°Then are we still heading in?¡± Liu Bu pleaded, ¡°Sir, why don¡¯t we turn back? It¡¯s too dangerous in there!¡±


    Xu Xianchu finally showed signs of wavering. He looked at the sky and said with a sigh, ¡°Since it¡¯s gettingte, let¡¯s set up camp here for the night. We¡¯ll discuss whether to stay or go, then make a decision. How about that?¡±


    Liu Bu and the others agreed. As long as they were not going forward, they were fine with any decision.


    Ren Xiaosu gazed deep into the canyon. The straight canyon walls on either side looked like they joined with the sky. A small ray of light shone in from a crevice at the top, but this ray of light faded as it made its way down into the canyon. The deeper he looked into it, the darker it became.

 Chapter 50 - The horror in the canyon

    <h4>Chapter 50: The horror in the canyon</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu did not have to go out to look for food anymore. Driven by the fear of death, Liu Bu¡¯s mind was no longer on Ren Xiaosu taking their food. Everyone was now thinking about how to survive the night. Or rather, they were thinking of how to make it out alive from this ce instead of worrying about what there was to eat at night.


    That same night, some of them did not even want to set up their tents to sleep in as they were afraid it would hinder their escape route. However, Xu Xianchu did not allow them to do so. ¡°Get all of your tents set up. It¡¯s alreadyte autumn. If you don¡¯t have a tent to protect yourselves from the wind, you won¡¯t be able to make it out of the Jing Mountains once you fall sick!¡±


    The group built a bonfire and sat quietly around it. Although they did not dare to go far or venture into the woods again while collecting firewood, they still managed to collect quite a bit of it with theirbined efforts. It seemed that therger the campfire was, the more of a sense of security they felt.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu did not start a campfire by himself because Xu Xianchu requested for him to join their discussion.


    ¡°What gives him the right to sit here?¡± Liu Bu said displeased, ¡°How can we sit together with a refugee? Ren Xiaosu, go and sit a little further back.¡±


    No one rebuked Liu Bu because there was no reason in offending people like him over a refugee.


    Everyone had been sitting together in a circle. However, after Liu Bu forced Ren Xiaosu to sit further out by himself, it suddenly looked like he was just listening in on their conversation.


    They really needed Ren Xiaosu to give them some suggestions, but in Liu Bu¡¯s opinion, Ren Xiaosu could just answer whatever questions they had from the back.


    However, Xu Xianchu was much more rational than Liu Bu. ¡°Quit discussing irrelevant matters. We have to seriously discuss the issue of whether we¡¯re continuing ahead or returning to town.¡±


    Xu Xianchu had previously insisted on heading to the Jing Mountains because he had to consider his future and situation in the stronghold. However, he had also be disheartened with the current circumstances. Even if he were expelled from the stronghold and became a refugee, it would still be better than dying out here.


    The soldiers trusted the cold and emotionless guns in their hands. But when they realized that even guns might not be able to solve their problems, a great fear started growing in the soldiers. Their greatest reliance could no longer provide them with a sense of security.


    When Xu Xianchu saw that everyone had calmed down, he said, ¡°We¡¯re faced with a dilemma. On one hand, we can walk through the canyon where unknown dangers lurk, but there could also be the existence of some creatures that even supernatural beings can¡¯t cope with. Otherwise, it¡¯s very difficult to exin why someone woulde all the way here by themselves and leave behind a warning saying ¡®Stop here, ye who live.¡¯¡±


    Xu Xianchu continued, ¡°But on the other hand, there are hidden dangers in the woods as well. The mysterious death of Xu Xia and the disappearance of his body are unsolved mysteries. So we¡¯re also unsure of what we¡¯ll encounter on our way back.¡±


    Luo Xinyu suddenly said, ¡°Although we did face some dangers in the wods, our forces have not been wiped out. After all, so many of us are still alive after getting here, but it¡¯s very difficult to say what danger lies beyond the canyon. I still think it¡¯s better to face the dangers in the woods.¡±


    After passing through the woods, only one person on the team had died. Even if another person died on their way back, they might not be that unfortunate one. Therefore, turning back was probably the best choice for them.


    But Xu Xianchu was still in a predicament. Should he really return? If he did, how would his superiors at the stronghold make things difficult for him?


    Everyone fell silent again. Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and noticed she still looked calm andposed. It was as if she didn¡¯t care about whether they were going back or staying here.


    Wait a minute, could Yang Xiaojin be that legendary supernatural being?


    Ren Xiaosu could not confirm it. But for some reason, he suddenly felt that Yang Xiaojin seemed to have a different purpose from everyone else ining here. When they were eating the fish, Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin hade along to protect Luo Xinyu as they were friends.


    But the problem was that Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin did not look like they had a particrly close friendship. Their rtionship was just like that of employer and employee.


    Ren Xiaosu rather yearned to see the supernatural beings that Xu Xianchu and the others mentioned. However, he did not feel envious of them because he was one of the ¡°supernatural beings¡± himself. It was just that he had not grown that strong yet.


    Luo Xinyu observed Xu Xianchu¡¯s expression and said, ¡°Sir, are you worried about the situation you¡¯ll be caught in if we return to the stronghold? You don¡¯t have to worry about that. Once we get back, I can find someone to transfer you out of the private army, even if it means arranging for you to do clerical work.¡±


    Xu Xianchu was taken aback. ¡°Are you serious?¡±


    Luo Xinyu said earnestly, ¡°Of course, I still have quite a bit of influence in the stronghold.¡±


    Her words seemed to be quite effective as Xu Xianchu finally made up his mind. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s set off early tomorrow morning and return to the stronghold!¡±


    At this moment, the wind in the canyon stopped blowing. When the loud howling ceased, the entire woods fell silent.


    In this moment of silence, everyone¡¯s hairs stood on end when they suddenly heard the sound of chewinging from the pickup. Liu Bu trembled and said, ¡°What¡¯s that sound?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯sing from the bed of the pickup!¡±


    Everyone looked over in horror. They couldn¡¯t figure out why there were soundsing from the bed of the pickup when it was only their daily necessities in there. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was also out here with them, so what was making that sound?


    Xu Xianchu¡¯s expression turned ck after getting frightened. ¡°I don¡¯t believe there¡¯s something that isn¡¯t afraid of bullets!¡± He then signaled for the private troops to move slowly toward the pickup.


    The chewing had been going on for a while now, but they could not hear it over the loud wind blowing in the canyon.


    Ren Xiaosu also stood up. It seemed that after his physical fitness had gotten stronger. He did not feel cold even though he was only wearing a thin jacket inte fall.


    He had held his bone knife in his hand the entire time. When he turned around and looked at Yang Xiaojin, she also had her hand on the pistol she carried with her.


    Xu Xianchu and the others slowly approached the pickup. All of a sudden, a shadowy figure jumped out of the pickup truck¡¯s cargo bed and frightened everyone. They immediately started shooting before they could even process what had happened.


    The dark figure encountered a fierce barrage of gunfire while in midair and was sent flying backwards after getting hit by several bullets. At this moment, they heard another sounding from the pickup¡¯s cargo bed. Without pausing to think, Xu Xianchu and the others started shooting mercilessly at the bed of the pickup.


    Click, click!


    The empty guns made clicking noises. These soldiers had finished firing all their rounds in the magazines and the pickup was now in a terrible condition. It was full of holes and the fuel tank had started leaking. Someone actually fired at the fuel tank and left a bullet hole in it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not worried that the pickup would explode. This was because he had the relevant knowledge with his Advanced Firearms Proficiency: Unless firebombs are used, it is very difficult to blow up a fuel tank by shooting at it with guns.


    Xu Xianchu slowly approached the pickup as he got ready to check out the shadowy figure that had jumped out. But after he saw it, he was somewhat frustrated. What frightened them turned out to be just a rat stealing their food!


    ¡°How did that rat grow to be so big?¡± Liu Bu was still in a state of shock. ¡°It¡¯s almost the size of two human heads.¡±


    Xu Xianchu cast aside his fear and looked into the pickup. There was another rat in there that had already been riddled with bullets.


    It turned out to be just a false rm. Everyone was bing too nervous and would get suspicious of any slight movements around them.


    It was time to return to the stronghold. No one could withstand this tremendous mental pressure if they remained here.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu spun around and looked at the route they¡¯de from. He saw a silver wolf standing on the top of a cliff not far away looking right at them. It was the Wolf King!


    ¡®This is bad! Why have theye back so quickly!¡¯

 Chapter 51 - It’s only reasonable

    <h4>Chapter 51: It¡¯s only reasonable</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The silver Wolf King shone brightly under the moonlight that reflected off it and made it look like it was glowing. Up on the cliff, the Wolf King¡¯s silver fur was fluttering in the wind like a fine work of art.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any intention of appreciating it. He only wanted to run away!


    Didn¡¯t they say that the wolves had already left the vicinity of Stronghold 113 and headed into the mountain range that was several hundred kilometers away? Why had they suddenly reappeared here?


    The cliff was not far, and it would only take around ten minutes for the wolves to get here. However, Ren Xiaosu was most worried about the whereabouts of the other wolves. What if they were nearby?


    Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Hurry into the canyon!¡±


    Liu Bu was stunned. ¡°Get into the canyon? Are you crazy? If we enter the canyon, wouldn¡¯t we be digging our own graves?!¡±


    ¡°If we don¡¯t get into the canyon now, we¡¯ll all die!¡± Ren Xiaosu rushed over to the side of the pickup and grabbed therge and rather intact rat carcass before running towards the canyon. He had the most experience with the wolves, so he knew best the terrifying opponents they would face if they did not make their escape now.


    The natural predators of wolves might have been eliminated by the stronghold when they were assigned to clear out the wilderness, leaving them with the freedom to move about fearlessly in the wilderness.


    Ren Xiaosu looked behind him and was surprised to see that the others were still in the mood to retrieve their belongings by the campfire and load them back into their vehicles! It was as though the wolves were still very far away. No one was particrly anxious about the situation.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu mentioned earlier that these wolves did not dare enter the canyon. That also gave these people a boost of confidence. As long as they could enter the canyon that was about ten meters away, they would be safe.


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®These people are really not afraid of dying. Why are they still packing their clothes at a time like this? Shouldn¡¯t they at least grab food and water first?¡¯


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized that Yang Xiaojin, Xu Xianchu, and him had the most awareness within the team.


    Xu Xianchu immediately went to his vehicle to retrieve his gun and ammunition while Yang Xiaojin threatened a driver with a gun to get him into the vehicle to drive.


    But what could Ren Xiaosu do now? Surely he could not perish together with them here. As he ran into the canyon, he observed the cliffs on both sides. Although it looked precipitous, it did have some handholds to hold on to if he had to climb it.


    Ren Xiaosu was examining this because he knew that he had told the others that the wolves would not enter the canyon just so that he could hide the truth of how he survived. But he knew that the wolves had not hesitated at all when they chased him into the canyon that time.


    So the wolves would definitely chase after them, and it would be a major problem on how to escape at that time.


    The off-road vehicles were a great form of transportation. But it was difficult to say whether they could even outrun the wolves on t ground, let alone on this rocky road in the canyon.


    A few days ago, the private troops skirmished with the wolves. Although there were several hundred soldiers with loaded guns, several dozen of them were still bitten to death by the wolves. With just under twenty of them, it was nowhere near enough.


    There was an appropriate saying for these events: ¡°You don¡¯t have to outrun wolves as long as you outrun everyone else.¡± But a dozen-odd people could not possibly slow the wolves¡¯ pace. If anything, all of them would perish.


    That was why Ren Xiaosu did not get into the vehicles immediately but ran towards the canyon instead. It was not because he made the choice in panic, but that he knew right from the start that he wouldn¡¯t be able to escape even if he got into a vehicle. He had to find another way.


    If he were left no other choice, he would have to climb the cliff. No matter how strong the wolves were, they couldn¡¯t possibly climb walls, right?


    Ren Xiaosu was not sure if he had enough strength to climb to the top, but that was the only way to survive.


    At this moment, someone started a vehicle and gunned it for the canyon. There were not enough vehicles for everyone now because the pickup had been totaled.


    Everyone was terrified after they spotted the wolves appearing at the edge of the forest. Those wolves were probably as tall as buffalo, and they seemed to be in no hurry as they moved slowly towards the humans.


    Liu Bu kept screaming in horror, and many of the soldiers nched.


    Those who were determined to pack their belongings now realized just how foolish they had been. If they hadn¡¯t gone to take their stuff, they would probably have already reached the inside of canyon by now!


    ¡°Wait, don¡¯t close the door!¡± Someone shouted, ¡°Squeeze in a little, we all can fit!¡±


    But before the person saying that could squeeze into the vehicle, he was kicked out of the vehicle by Liu Bu. After that, the vehicle door was mmed shut!


    ¡°Start driving! Hurry up!¡± someone yelled.


    Ren Xiaosu was extremely calm at this moment. There was no right or wrong in the wilderness. Surviving was right, while dying was wrong. All he could do now was survive and became thest survivor. That was all.


    The four vehicles that were still working drove straight into the canyon. This was at the cost of leaving behind two people who did not manage to get in on time. Suddenly, they heard two screams from outside the canyon. Ren Xiaosu trembled as he realized that the wolves were faster than he had imagined.


    When the vehicles were passing by Ren Xiaosu, one of them actually stopped for him. He could see Yang Xiaojin pointing a gun at the driver¡¯s head from the backseat of the vehicle. She turned to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Get in!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He didn¡¯t expect that Yang Xiaojin would threaten the driver with a gun to stop the vehicle. Besides, he had no intention of getting into the vehicle! Could a vehicle outrun the wolves in this godforsaken ce?


    Yang Xiaojin seemed to realize that Ren Xiaosu was not budging. She pulled out a ck pistol, an M9, with her other hand and pointed it at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Get into the vehicle!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He turned around to look out of the canyon and was surprised by what he saw. Yang Xiaojin followed his gaze and looked back as well. She saw that the wolves hade to a stop outside the canyon. Several dozen huge wolves were quietly peering into the entrance of the canyon. Their fur was stained with blood.


    Liu Bu watched the wolves from his vehicle and said in a startled manner, ¡°So they really won¡¯t enter the canyon. We¡¯re safe!¡±


    Everyone felt like they had survived a disaster after getting away from the wolves!


    Someone even started crying. ¡°We¡¯ve been saved!¡±


    Liu Bu muttered, ¡°I never expected the refugee kid was telling the truth.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t at ease one bit, because he had lied to these people and did not expect the wolves to actually stop chasing them.


    What did this mean?


    It showed that some changes had really urred in the Jing Mountains during the past year. This must have been the reason why the wolves had stopped in their tracks at this ce.


    It also meant that it must have gotten much more dangerous in the Jing Mountains lying beyond the canyon than imagined. Those five words on the cliff that said, ¡°Stop here, ye who live,¡± was absolutely not a lie.


    What should they do?


    Someone got out of the vehicle and looked at the wolves that were standing outside the canyon. ¡°Why don¡¯t we set up camp here and wait for the wolves to leave before we head back the way we came?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®I¡¯ve never heard a dumber suggestion.¡¯ He said, ¡°If y¡¯all want to head back, carry on. I¡¯ll never go back the same way.¡±


    Xu Xianchu nodded and said gravely, ¡°That¡¯s right, there¡¯s no way we can turn back.¡±


    In this sort of situation, the forest was essentially the wolves¡¯ home field. If you wanted to wait for them to leave, where would you expect them to go to? It would take three days to get back to the stronghold from here. In the space of three days, these wolves might even have enough time to turn into werewolves and give you a good thrashing while holding you up.


    Of course, the wolves couldn¡¯t possibly turn into werewolves. That was just an analogy.


    No one responded to Xu Xianchu because everyone knew they would die no matter when they decided to head back. The only way that they could continue living was to head to Stronghold 112!


    There was no way back anymore!


    Liu Bu looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Why are you carrying that rat?¡±


    ¡°To eat, of course!¡± Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly. ¡°What else would I do with it?¡±


    Liu Bu nearly puked. ¡°You¡¯re going to eat that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°All of the food is in the pickup, and the pickup¡¯s gone now. If I don¡¯t eat this, what should I eat? Also, it¡¯s only reasonable to eat them since they ate my crackers.¡±


    Liu Bu was speechless.


    That did sound rather reasonable!


    In actual fact, Ren Xiaosu knew that the biggest problems this group would face were the food and water supplies.


    Although Ren Xiaosu had grossed Liu Bu out, he did not really intend to eat the rat.

 Chapter 52 - Face bugs

    <h4>Chapter 52: Face bugs</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    To Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and the others who lived in the stronghold, a rat was synonymous with dirtiness. Traditionally, they were creatures that scuttled around in the sewers and represented gue, disease, miasma, and so on.


    Although Ren Xiaosu also did not eat rats, it was only because he had seen them feeding on carrion before. It left a terrible impression on him. But to the other refugees in town, their natural mindset was that rats in the wilderness were food all the same. These rats stole food from humans and even preyed on other living creatures, so there was no difference between them and any other wild animals.


    Since there was a shortage of food in town, they would even turn to eating termites, not to mention rats. This rat would look just like a walking piece of meat to them.


    Compared to those in the stronghold, the refugees¡¯ perception of food was different. The refugees felt that anything could be eaten as long as it didn¡¯t kill them.


    The pickup was now destroyed, and the provisions had been shot to smithereens by the soldiers. Even if there were still food left, no one would dare retrieve it at the risk of being attacked by the wolves. As such, they would have to bear with the hunger and starvation that was toe.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid. Anyone but him could starve in this wilderness.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was looking at Yang Xiaojin. Earlier, he thought that she wanted to save him when she pointed a gun at the driver. But when she pointed the gun at him as well, he realized she only needed a guide who was familiar with the environment.


    Or maybe Yang Xiaojin had realized it would get more difficult to find food from now on, while Ren Xiaosu had disyed skill in this aspect. That was why she had to bring along someone who could find food for her.


    As persons specialized in different professions, being skilled with firearms did not necessarily mean that they would be skilled at wilderness survival as well. But as it happened, Ren Xiaosu was also skilled at wilderness survival.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered what his wilderness survival proficiency would be if it were ssified as a skill.


    He asked in his mind, ¡°What¡¯s the proficiency of my wilderness survival?¡±


    ¡°It can be evaluated. You¡¯re at master level,¡± the voice from the pce crisply answered.


    Ren Xiaosu was momentarily stunned as he did not expect that it could be assessed. He had never thought that his wilderness survival skill would be at master level. It felt amazing.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was getting suspicious of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s identity. As someone living in the stronghold, she acted too decisively and never did anything sloppily.


    It was still the middle of the night, so everyone was extremely tired. Since the wolves did not dare to enter the canyon, they stopped to rest after walking several kilometers in.


    They stopped because they had to discuss the countermeasures to adopt. On top of that, they were afraid of what was beyond the canyon. They wanted to dy walking through the canyon for as long as they could.


    ¡°We can only keep going forward,¡± Xu Xianchu said as he stood in the canyon. ¡°This canyon is called the Howling Canyon. It looks calm now, but all of you have seen how strong the wind can get around here. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if someone¡¯s been blown out of this canyon before.¡±


    ¡°But there doesn¡¯t seem to be any wind here at night,¡± Liu Bu wondered. ¡°From the evening until now, there hasn¡¯t been much wind. By parking the vehicles side by side to act as a shield, the wind shouldn¡¯t be much of a problem for us.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do. We can rest here for now but we have to leave before dawn,¡± Xu Xianchu refuted. ¡°And we don¡¯t have any food left. Our top priority is to make it out of the canyon so that we can look for food. It doesn¡¯t seem like there¡¯s any food in this canyon.¡±


    ¡°Now that you mention it, I¡¯m getting a little hungry,¡± Liu Bu murmured.


    During the night, everyone sat around the campfire that was set up. Because of their fear, they did not have much appetite. But it was five to six hours past dinnertime, and everyone had expended a great deal of stamina and energy while making their escape, so they were all a little hungry.


    ¡°If I had known, I would have gone to get the food supplies first,¡± someoneined. ¡°Although the pickup was shot beyond recognition, the food was still edible.¡±


    ¡°What can we do now? We still have almost a fortnight¡¯s journey ahead of us. What can we eat and drink?¡± Liu Bu asked.


    With this question, everyone turned their eyes to Ren Xiaosu. In everyone¡¯s opinion, Ren Xiaosu was amazing at surviving in the wilderness. Didn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu catch arge fish?


    However, Ren Xiaosu pointed to the rat at his feet. ¡°Do y¡¯all want to eat this?¡±


    Everyone fell silent, but they knew they would definitely eat the rat if they were at their wits¡¯ end. This was the reality of things.


    In fact, everyone in the convoy knew that Ren Xiaosu would definitely be unwilling to help them look for food. After all, the convoy did not provide Ren Xiaosu with any food before this. Not only did they ostracize him, they also deliberately made fun of him and constantly put him in difficult positions. As such, how could they expect that he¡¯d help them find food?


    Some people suddenly started to grumble in their heads about Liu Bu. ¡®What was wrong with giving Ren Xiaosu some food when there was plenty of provisions in the pickup? Look at how things have turned out.¡¯


    They had also never thought they would end up in this situation. Although they did not say anything at the time, they were allughing when Liu Bu refused to provide Ren Xiaosu with any food.


    Ren Xiaosu sneered in his mind at the time. ¡®It¡¯s every man for himself out here.¡¯


    ¡°Let¡¯s take a break for now. At dawn, we¡¯ll pass straight through the canyon,¡± Xu Xianchu decided. ¡°Once we get out of here, we¡¯ll all have to be careful. Let¡¯s be sure that there¡¯s no more danger before we talk about food. One or two days isn¡¯t enough to make us die of hunger.¡±


    When there was a shortage of food in town, Ren Xiaosu saw someone eating tree bark and roots. After that, they even ate soil before eventually dying.


    Ren Xiaosu knew exactly what would happen to people when they got hungry. Right now, they would not eat the rat. But in another two days, they would get so desperate they would even eat soil.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin went over to Ren Xiaosu and handed him a dagger. Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Are you giving that to me?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just lending it to you,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°Conditions?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. These two people conducted themselves in a very straightforward manner. Love and hate didn¡¯t exist for no reason in this world, so there must be a reason why Yang Xiaojin was lending her dagger to Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Food,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°Then it¡¯s not enough to just lend it to me.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°You¡¯ll have to give it to me.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Yang Xiaojin turned around and left.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. In fact, Yang Xiaojin had already nned to use the dagger as a trading condition right from the start. When she said that she would lend it to him, it was only to leave some room for negotiation.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. He felt that he must be more careful when dealing with Yang Xiaojin in the future.


    He inspected the dagger and could tell it was of much better quality than all of the metal weapons he had ever seen in Old Wang¡¯s grocery store. He figured this even though he did not understand much about knives.


    Ren Xiaosu put the dagger back into its sheath and hid it up his sleeve. All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu looked horrified. He looked above the cliff, and everyone followed his gaze. ¡°What¡¯s that up there?¡±


    Right as he finished speaking, the rattle of hard shells grinding against each other could be heard inside the canyon. Xu Xianchu shone a bright shlight over his head and saw an uncountable ck swarm of insects crawling down the cliff walls.


    No one here had seen these bugs before. The patterns on the back of the ck bug¡¯s shells resembled the human face. Their mandibles were opening and closing as they wildly rushed down at the group of people at the bottom of the cliff wall. It was as though they were following some sort ofmand, as some of them leaped from a height onto Ren Xiaosu and the others.


    Ren Xiaosu pulled out his dagger and sliced apart a huge bug that had lunged for him. Then he shouted, ¡°Run!¡±


    ¡°What the hell is that?!¡± Liu Bu was scared to death.

 Chapter 53 - A clear conscience

    <h4>Chapter 53: A clear conscience</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Although Ren Xiaosu had been venturing into the wilderness for many years, he had not heard of face bugs before, let alone seen them.


    Ren Xiaosu was still calm andposed when he faced ants and termites. That was because if he did not have any bloody scent on him, therge ants nowadays would not show any special interest in him.


    But these face bugs were terrifying. It was obvious they wanted to eat people!


    As the canyon was really windy most of the time, nobody knew where these face bugs usually hid. Now that they¡¯d spotted their prey, they were turning out in full force.


    Was this what the wolves were afraid of? If Ren Xiaosu had known that there were so many of these face bugs in the canyon, he would not havee in no matter what. This time, he didn¡¯t even bother taking the rat.


    He had thought of climbing the cliff, but he was really d that he didn¡¯t move faster earlier on. Otherwise, he would have died if he encountered these things midway up the climb!


    ¡°Get into the vehicles!¡± Xu Xianchu shouted to everyone.


    Ren Xiaosu shed at two of the face bugs in session. The two face bugs already had their mandibles open in midair as they lunged at him. Although their ws were not sharp, their mandibles were like hooks that could easily take a person¡¯s life.


    Ren Xiaosu did not run for it this time because he knew it would be safest to stay inside a vehicle. While everyone was still panicking, he got into one. Not only that, he even hoisted a driver in with him.


    As Ren Xiaosu did not know how to drive, he could not escape if he did not drag a driver around with him.


    He threw the driver into the driver¡¯s seat and shouted, ¡°Drive, hurry up and drive!¡±


    The driver looked at him innocently. ¡°This is not the vehicle I was driving. I don¡¯t have the key for it.¡±


    Damn... Ren Xiaosu felt that he was in a really disadvantageous position for not having driven a vehicle before. He did not even have themon sense they had in the stronghold to know that each vehicle needed separate keys to operate!


    But without any hesitation, he dragged the driver out of the vehicle. Ren Xiaosu bellowed, ¡°Which one did you drive?¡±


    The driver was in a state of confusion from being dragged around by Ren Xiaosu. Amid the chaotic group of people, he pointed at a vehicle and said, ¡°That one!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu dragged the driver over to that vehicle. At this moment, all the others were running madly for their lives. Some of them fled to the vehicles, some of them ran further into the canyon without getting into the vehicles, and some of them even ran towards the wolves.


    At this critical moment of life and death, the band members who were untrained and had never experienced such a situation before had lost their ability to think properly.


    It was at this time that the voice from the pce in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind intoned, ¡°Quest: Help at least ten people escape from the canyon.¡±


    ¡®Help? Your sister!¡¯ Ren Xiaosu continued running to the vehicle while dragging the driver by his arm. Since he wouldn¡¯t be punished for notpleting the quest, he couldn¡¯t care less about it. His own life was the priority!


    All of a sudden, he realized that someone was following him.


    When he turned around to look, he was surprised to see the Perfect Firearms Proficiency marksman, Yang Xiaojin, following him. She looked like she was holding something in her hand, but Ren Xiaosu was too busy to see what it was.


    This girl must have been unwavering in her determination to escape with Ren Xiaosu. It looked like she felt that only by following Ren Xiaosu would she have a chance of survival!


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t care. When he came to the vehicle and opened its door, he found a soldier inside shivering in fright in the driver¡¯s seat. Ren Xiaosu pulled him out in anger. ¡®What are you doing here if you don¡¯t have the key?! Are you waiting to die?¡¯


    At this moment, two face bugs attempted to crawl into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pants. However, they were sted to pieces by Yang Xiaojin with two shots as soon as they approached Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu jumped into the backseats of the off-road vehicle with Yang Xiaojin following him. Ren Xiaosu shouted at the driver who was in a daze, ¡°Start driving! What are you waiting for!¡±


    The driver had fallen into a stupor and was behaving mechanically. When Ren Xiaosu shouted at him, he hurriedly inserted the key and turned over the engine. He stepped on the gas but the vehicle did not move forward. When the driver realized that the hand brake was still on, he hurriedly released it and drove forward.


    Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief. Although the vehicles could not outrun the wolves, it could outrun the face bugs. There were already two vehicles driving in the distance ahead of them, and several people had been overwhelmed by the face bugs behind them. The swarm of ck bugs engulfed their victims¡¯ bodies as they struggled in vain to break free by twisting and turning their bodies.


    Chewing sounds came from the ck swarm of bugs as they gnawed on the blood and flesh, turning it into minced meat with their sharp mandibles.


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. So this was the real wilderness?


    This was the world that humans would have to face in the future?!


    The strange face bugs got attracted by the scent of flesh and blood and no longer went after the vehicles. Ren Xiaosu slumped in his seat and panted. As he had expended a lot of energy just now, he was a little exhausted.


    Even for him, it wasn¡¯t easy to drag an adult around while running around.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and saw her sitting calmly in the vehicle. She said, ¡°You¡¯ve got quite the strength.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ignored her and looked at the driver. He asked, ¡°There aren¡¯t any more bugs chasing us, right?¡±


    ¡°No more,¡± the driver said as he slowly recovered from surviving disaster. He snapped out of his stupor and regained some awareness. He kept muttering in the driver¡¯s seat, ¡°Thank you, I might not have lived if it weren¡¯t for you.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Sun Junzheng, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought about how his gratitude tokens had finally reached 74 and how he had not dragged a person around for nothing. He gave it some thought and said, ¡°Don¡¯t be so grateful to me. I only needed you to drive the vehicle.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright. Whatever the reason, I still have to thank you. I¡¯m sorry for what we did. You can rest assured that I¡¯ll repay you,¡± Sun Junzheng said.


    ¡°Gratitude received from Sun Junzheng, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled for a moment. He could actually receive more than one gratitude token for a single event? This was probably due to it being a life-saving grace, and Sun Junzheng was still in a state of shock. So all of his thanks were sincere.


    Ren Xiaosu tested him by saying, ¡°Let me hear you thank me another time.¡±


    Sun Junzheng was speechless for some time as his emotions turned unstable!


    Yang Xiaojin gave Ren Xiaosu a strange look. This young man was too calm as they were not clear of the danger yet.


    After waiting for a long time, his 76th gratitude token still did note. He felt that he might have gotten a little too enthusiastic about this.


    If he had remained patient for a little longer, he might have gotten a few more of them. But one shouldn¡¯t be too greedy, so that would be the end of it.


    Ren Xiaosu noticed the puzzled expression on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s face. He cleared his throat and said, ¡°I was just kidding. Let¡¯s get out of the canyon quickly and meet up with the others ahead of us before those face bugs catch up to us.¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought of the quest that was assigned by the pce. He didn¡¯t feel bad about it at all. Under such circumstances, he would never have given up his own life to save the others.


    Just as he had said to Yan Liuyuan before, ¡°If we ever feel a pang in our conscience, we must convince ourselves that it isn¡¯t so!¡±


    Furthermore, his conscience was clear on this matter.


    But then, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from his mind pce say, ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.¡±


    What was with this? Did it mean that as long as he had acted to save those people and as long as ten or more people in the team survived, the quest would be consideredplete?


    This pce¡¯s judgment was way too random.

 Chapter 54 - The escape

    <h4>Chapter 54: The escape</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu was astounded to learn he had actuallypleted the quest, because he had no intention ofpleting it right from the start. It seemed that the pce only wanted him to get stronger. How else could Wang Fugui¡¯s ¡°I thank your eight generations of ancestors¡± count as sincere thanks?!


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current Strength was 6.5 and had officially exceeded twice the level of a normal adult. Of course, this was only aparison of the average rating of a human being. Individuals who had undergone intensive training would not be considered average.


    The convoy quickly passed through the canyon and drove on. Those who had fled in the direction of the wolves in their panic ended up getting bitten to death by them. The pursuing face bugs were acting strangely as well. They were unwilling to step out of the canyon by even an inch, retreating slowly when they reached the edge of the canyon pass.


    The wolves and face bugs were like two species in the wilderness that did not intrude into each others¡¯ territories and coexisted in a unique way.


    The wolves looked to their Wolf King as it turned around and trod back slowly towards the woods. It seemed that once it was sure that the prey had run off, it would depart without any hesitation.


    The driver, Sun Junzheng, said as he drove, ¡°I wonder how many of us survived this time?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s enough that we survived,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered. Others surviving wasn¡¯t in his scope of considerations.


    In reality, it was better to have arger group of people in the wilderness. After all, the more people they had, the greater their strength. Besides, they could all take care of each other if something were to happen.


    But now that Ren Xiaosu witnessed how these soldiers and band members reacted, it proved to him that these people were definitely not dependable. Not only they were not dependable, but he might even get killed through their actions if he was not careful enough.


    ¡°Look, there are so many skeletons around here!¡± Sun Junzheng suddenly shouted.


    As the vehicle passed through the canyon, they saw several dozen human skeletons scattered in grotesque fashion throughout the canyon.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that these might be left by the face bugs,¡± Ren Xiaosu calmly said.


    Now that he thought about it, Ren Xiaosu, who remained the calmest at the time, had been able to observe the face bugs while he was retreating back to the vehicle.


    He remembered that not every face bug had a human face on the back of their shells. Was it because they were not fully grown yet? Or was it because the faces would only appear after they ate a human?


    In a strange ce like this, Ren Xiaosu assumed the most horrifying possibilities.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu felt a shiver running down his spine. Why did it feel like these face bugs had swallowed the souls of their victims? The victims¡¯ souls were then hideously disyed on the back of the face bugs¡¯ shells.


    The convoy originally had six vehicles, but they only possessed three now. It took them more than ten minutes to pass through the entirety of the canyon. The moment the vehicle drove out of the canyon, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Sun Junzheng were stunned by what they saw.


    As it was stillte at night, the canyon was dark and cryptic. The only light came from the vehicles¡¯ headlights.


    But outside the canyon, stars hung in a picturesque scene in the sky overhead. It felt like it was right in front of them. Furthermore, the vegetation on the ground was oddly dense with many fireflies among the trees. The surrounding mountains seemed to have deliberately marked out this huge garden as an immortal paradise.


    They slowly got out of the vehicle and took in everything the night could offer. Sun Junzheng couldn¡¯t help himself and walked towards the woods with a look of longing on his face.


    However, Ren Xiaosu pped his face. ¡°You still want to go into that strange a forest?¡±


    Those living in the stronghold were attracted to ¡°beauty.¡± But for Ren Xiaosu, the beauty that existed in nature was inherently full of dangers.


    To survive in the wilderness, they had to understand that the more beautiful a snake looked, the more dangerous was. The prettier the mushrooms looked, the more poisonous they were. The more gorgeous spiders looked, the deadlier they were.


    So Ren Xiaosu naturally had some resistance towards beautiful things. He categorized the beauty of this wilderness as alluringly dangerous.


    Everyone had already gotten out of their vehicles. Ren Xiaosu looked around and found that Xu Xianchu had indeed survived, as he was the first to react. But to his surprise, Liu Bu survived as well.


    Ren Xiaosu did not hope Liu Bu would die, but he was a little puzzled. How did a timid person like him manage to survive when he all could do was shout and scream after getting scared?


    Luo Xinyu also managed to survive. Ren Xiaosu remembered that Luo Xinyu had immediately gone to Xu Xianchu after the face bugs appeared. It was probably under Xu Xianchu¡¯s lead that she was fortunate enough to escape.


    Xu Xianchu looked solemn as he counted the number of people. ¡°We only have 11 people left.¡±


    When they came here, there was a total of 20 people. But now, only 11 of them remained, and they had not even reached the Jing Mountains yet. From here on out, they might face even more danger. It was difficult to say how many people could make it out of the Jing Mountains.


    ¡°I said that we should all head back, but you people still insisted on entering the canyon. That supernatural being cautioned us, so why couldn¡¯t you just heed the warning?¡± Liu Bu grumbled.


    ¡°Shut up,¡± Luo Xinyu said coldly.


    Liu Bu seemed to have regained his courage at this time and even mocked his boss, Luo Xinyu. ¡°I told you not to risk our lives by venturing outside the stronghold. Why didn¡¯t you listen to me? Are you satisfied now?¡±


    Luo Xinyu was livid. ¡°You were the one who readily agreed when I brought it up!¡±


    ¡°Would I dare disagree with you?¡± Liu Bu rebuked.


    Xu Xianchu frowned as he looked at Liu Bu and said, ¡°What¡¯s the use of saying all this now? Do you want to go back and find the wolves? We were also forced to enter inside the canyon. Everyone is lucky to have survived, so stop arguing already. The most important thing for us now is to work together to ovee this difficult situation!¡±


    Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu both kept quiet. Ren Xiaosu felt that he had to find another way out as he realized the team was falling apart. Any mention of ¡°working together¡± now was empty talk.


    They could not keep driving. No one had expected the vegetation here to get as dense as a subtropical rain forest, which made driving through impossible.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get some rest first,¡± Xu Xianchu said wearily. They had yet to sleep soundly this entire evening as danger after danger kepting at them. Everyone was on the verge of copse at this point.


    Ren Xiaosu pretended to be thoroughly exhausted as he sat on the ground far away from the woods. Not only did everyone have no food at this moment, but they also had no tents and nkets.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly regretted that he had forgotten to bring the rat carcass with him. He wondered if a face bug would turn into a ratface bug if it ate the rat carcass.


    It did not seem so bad once he thought of it that way. In fact, he was even looking forward to finding out if that would really happen.


    ¡°Sir.¡± Luo Xinyu looked at Xu Xianchu and asked, ¡°What exactly is the mission that requires you to go into the Jing Mountains?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu. This was also a question he had.


    Xu Xianchu hesitated for a moment but still did not tell them what he knew. However, Ren Xiaosu realized that Xu Xianchu had something on his mind.

 Chapter 55 - A temporary alliance

    <h4>Chapter 55: A temporary alliance</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Right from the beginning, Xu Xianchu had not told them what their mission was. Meanwhile, the band members, such as Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu, obviously did not know. Otherwise, they would not have asked Xu Xianchu in such a manner.


    Ren Xiaosu had some doubts about this. Was there any rtionship between their mission objective and the changes that had been happening in the Jing Mountains?


    Xu Xianchu suddenly said, ¡°Actually, we didn¡¯t expect there to be such great changes out here. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t have only been the 12 of using on this mission. What I can tell you is that we do not know what is going on around here at all.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s still uncertain if all of us can get out of here alive, so why can¡¯t you share your secret with us?¡± Liu Bu was on the verge of a breakdown. He just wanted to know what kind of situation he was in, so he was unwilling to give up on any possible leads. He clenched his teeth and said to Xu Xianchu, ¡°We¡¯re all in the same boat. If you don¡¯t tell us, the secret could end up getting buried with us!¡±


    Liu Bu¡¯s face was almost touching Xu Xianchu¡¯s face and his spittle was flying around.


    Xu Xianchu pushed Liu Bu aside and said, ¡°You still dare to me us when you were the ones who approached us in the first ce? I heard that you¡¯ve always wanted to go to the other strongholds, so it¡¯s not like you won¡¯t be heading there even without this mission. To be denying everything at this time, you¡¯re putting it like we¡¯re sending you to your deaths!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was watching the argument. All hecked were some peanuts to munch on. All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin said from beside him, ¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback and thought, ¡®Why are you telling me that you are hungry for?¡¯


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°The dagger.¡±


    ¡°Oh, oh, oh!¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded immediately. ¡°Sit still, I¡¯ll get you something to eat right away! Is there anything that you don¡¯t eat?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Yang Xiaojin said while sitting on the ground. Luo Xinyu hadid a piece of clothing on the ground before sitting down, but Yang Xiaojin was not particr about it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was a little despondent because he had lost the rat he had been holding onto. He had to drag the driver around with one hand and hold his dagger in the other at the time, so he couldn¡¯t carry the rat around any longer. As such, it became a little difficult for him to find food now.


    Besides, the dense forest up ahead was way too strange. It was impossible to see what was happening inside during the night. He would have to wait until the daytime to examine the forest before he would dare to go in and find food.


    As a result, when Yang Xiaojin saw him looking somewhat stumped, she said, ¡°I threw the rat into the trunk earlier.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He vaguely recalled that Yang Xiaojin was holding something in her hands amid the recent chaos. But he was in such a hurry that he didn¡¯t get a careful look at it. So the thing she was carrying turned out to be therge rat.


    It had to be said that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s proactiveness had saved Ren Xiaosu a lot of trouble. In the past, he was always alone in the wilderness with no one to help him. Hence, he needed to face the dangers and difficulties all by himself.


    Actually, some people in town had approached Ren Xiaosu to go hunting together, but he rejected them all.


    It was not that they were notpetent enough, rather he could not trust them. As it was very easy to get exhausted in the wilderness, he found it was better to be in thepany of wild animals rather than humans.


    Ren Xiaosu had previously thought about training Yan Liuyuan so that a huge burden could be lifted off his shoulders. But after some thought, he dismissed the idea entirely. He did not want to ce Yan Liuyuan in any danger.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu was feeling for the first time what it meant to have his own ¡°helper.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu immediately banished the idea. This was purely a rtionship for mutual benefit. They had formed a temporary alliance in the wilderness because they trusted each other¡¯s skills and resources. The alliance was a silent agreement, but they did not actually trust each other and just took what they needed from the partnership.


    Ren Xiaosu went to the vehicle and took therge rat out of the trunk. At this moment, even though the others were extremely hungry, they were not that desperate yet that they¡¯d eat a rat. So when they saw Ren Xiaosu holding the rat, they felt a little nauseated at the thought of him eating it.


    While the others were busy discussing what to do, Yang Xiaojin collected some firewood and came back to start a fire. Ren Xiaosu reminded her softly, ¡°When youe out of the forest, make your retreat facing it.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin raised her eyebrows and asked, ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because the big cats get tempted to make a sneak attack due to their instincts. It¡¯s something that I feel they don¡¯t even have any control over. It¡¯s just what cats do,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined. ¡°There are actually many wild felines in the wilderness. Mr. Zhang once mentioned that the wild felines could have descended from the domesticated cats that existed before The Cataclysm. Without their owners, they could only go live in the wilderness. Gradually, their behavior turned feral as a result of living in the wild. Furthermore, the wild felines are gettingrger andrger, and they¡¯re getting incredibly lethal as well.¡±


    ¡°Are they that dangerous?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Yes, very dangerous. But they might not attack you when you¡¯re facing them, so don¡¯t ever turn your back on the forest. No one knows what¡¯s hiding in it,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Ren Xiaosu shared a few more things with Yang Xiaojin because he was thinking of maintaining this short-term alliance a little longer to improve his chances of survival.


    Ren Xiaosu started cutting open the rat with the dagger. Honestly, he had nned to use the rat meat to catch centipedes. Compared to the rat meat, Ren Xiaosu thought that roasted centipedes tasted better.


    But he had no other choice now. After the interaction with the face bugs, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried that he might end up catching something even stranger...


    He quickly cut off the thick and muscr hind legs of the rat and handed them to Yang Xiaojin to roast over the fire. It didn¡¯t take ten seconds before the aroma of the meat drifted a dozen meters away.


    Prior to this, Liu Bu and the others were having a heated discussion. But when they smelled the aroma of the meat, all of them swallowed hard. Whatever they were discussing was forgotten.


    Everyone quietly turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. However, they saw him throwing the rest of the rat into the forest with just a swing of his hand at this moment. Ren Xiaosu currently felt like he had infinite strength, and that meat vanished from sight with just a simple throw.


    Liu Bu said anxiously, ¡°Why did you throw the meat away?¡±


    ¡°Since y¡¯all don¡¯t want to eat it, why would I keep it here to attract the wild animals?¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at them unhappily. ¡°If you want to eat it, go and pick it up by yourself.¡±


    Liu Bu was stunned for a while. He then said with a sneer, ¡°I will not eat something that disgusting.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu calmly said, ¡°That¡¯s because you haven¡¯t eaten something even more disgusting yet...¡±


    Eh, no, these people had clearly eaten something even more disgusting before. In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, these people in the stronghold could even eat something like bird¡¯s nest, so what was the big deal with some rat meat?


    Ren Xiaosu had heard from Mr. Zhang that many of the aristocrats in the stronghold liked eating bird¡¯s nest. He wondered how the swallows had so much phlegm to make them. Perhaps all of those birds had suffered from tuberculosis? No wonder there was an idiom that went ¡± forced to go separate ways <sup>1</sup> .¡± So that was what it meant.


    However, he didn¡¯t care much about these people. The plump rat meat that had been skinned was quickly roasted to a light brown color over the fire. Liu Bu and the others had already ended their conversation as they couldn¡¯t stop swallowing their saliva.


    Everyone had been kept busy for the entire night. Due to their fear, they had no appetite during dinner. Now that they had spent the entire evening running for their lives, their stamina had almost been depleted. Everyone was so hungry that their stomachs were rumbling.


    Someone thought of going into the forest to pick up the remaining rat meat, but the problem was that Ren Xiaosu had thrown it too far away!

 Chapter 56 - A new skill

    <h4>Chapter 56: A new skill</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu had thrown away the remaining rat meat with a swing of his hand. It seemed that he had no intention of sharing it with the others, nor did he feel that it was wasteful to throw it away.


    Liu Bu thought to himself, ¡®Even if you don¡¯t want the others to have it, shouldn¡¯t you keep the rest for tomorrow?¡¯


    However, Ren Xiaosu had a different thought. He would rather search for food again tomorrow or even go hungry than leave this strong scent of blood lingering on him.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was quietly looking at the roasted rat meat with a small salt shaker in her hand. Just by looking at her, it was unimaginable that she would be a firearms master who could point a gun at others without warning.


    Eh? Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered that the pce had rewarded him with a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll when hepleted the quest in which he had to reject going with them to the Jing Mountains. That scroll had remained unused until now!


    There weren¡¯t any targets in town he could learn a skill from. But wasn¡¯t there a target sitting right beside him that he could learn a skill from?


    However, the scroll was just a basic one, so it could no longer help him improve his firearms skill. However, someone like Yang Xiaojin would possess other great skills, right?


    A basic scroll did not seem that hard to get. Ren Xiaosu felt that he could easily learn a few more lifesaving skills from Yang Xiaojin.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked in his mind, ¡°Can you list all of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s skills to me?¡±


    He wanted to know what other worthy skills Yang Xiaojin had before making his final decision.


    ¡°Unauthorized to reveal,¡± the voice from the pce answered firmly.


    ¡°Eh, didn¡¯t I already learn a skill from her?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.


    ¡°Unauthorized to reveal,¡± the voice from the pce answered firmly again.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and phrased his question in another way. ¡°What¡¯s herbat skill level?¡±


    ¡°Advanced,¡± the voice from the pce said.


    Ren Xiaosu now understood that he could only ask the pce leading questions about certain skills. For example, the pce would only answer him if he asked specifically whether the target hadbat skills, medical skills, etc.


    But if he wanted the pce to list all of the target¡¯s skills, the pce would ignore him. So this was all about guessing.


    ¡°Then what¡¯s the level of mybat skill?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again.


    ¡°Intermediate,¡± the voice from the pce said.


    Thebat skill he was referring to was actually just his experience of being in ruthless fights with others over the years, not something that he had carefully formed a doctrine around. For him, he knew exactly where on an opponents¡¯ body he could deal a fatal blow to. Butpared to Yang Xiaojin, what he knew aboutbat was not ¡°scientific¡± or ¡°concrete.¡± He only fought based on his intuition.


    Hence, Yang Xiaojin was at an advanced level while he was only at an intermediate level.


    But if they really fought each other, it would still depend on their physicality. If Yang Xiaojin¡¯s strength and dexterity were not as good as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s, or if their difference was too great, it would be useless even if she had a higher level ofbat than him.


    Ren Xiaosu scrutinized Yang Xiaojin and realized that she was not muscr at all. So she shouldn¡¯t be stronger than him, right?


    Ren Xiaosu was very tempted by the advancedbat skill because he understood how important this skill was.


    With Advanced Combat Proficiency, not only would he be more confident in taking on others in a fight, but he would also be able to use the Master Skill Duplication Scroll if he met someone with a master-levelbat skill. Only by mastering an advanced skill could he use the key that was the Master Skill Duplication Scroll.


    Without the key, he would not be able to learn the target¡¯s master-level skill even if they had one.


    ¡°Use the Skill Duplication Scroll!¡± Ren Xiaosu waited quietly after he finished speaking to the pce in his mind. He kept praying in his head, ¡®Let it be the advancedbat skill! Let it be the advancedbat skill!¡¯


    A secondter, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s advanced jump rope. skill. Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused.


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at Yang Xiaojin. He had not expected that a fine woman like her with Perfect Firearms Proficiency would have a skill like jumping rope.


    Fucking jump rope! Why the hell had he copied a skill like that?!


    Yang Xiaojin seemed to have noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze. She calmly turned around and asked, ¡°When will the meat be done roasting?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt outraged right now. When will it be done roasting?! Like I give a dog¡¯s bollocks about that! Could the Skill Duplication Scroll be any more unreliable than this? Never mind the previous incident with the deception and bragging skills, he gained another lousy skill like jumping rope? Besides, why would a skill like this even have a level!


    What does an advanced jump rope skill involve? Can I do a backflip while jumping rope at the same time?!


    Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, ¡°When we eat something in the wilderness, we must roast it a little longer; the same goes for the water. Water must be boiled for longer than ten minutes before drinking it.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin raise her arm, revealing a watch on her wrist. Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He had seen watches before, but he also knew that only the important people in the stronghold wore them.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that you¡¯ll fall sick from eating something from the wilderness?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin calmly said, ¡°There¡¯s only a chance to fall sick if I¡¯m still alive.¡±


    She then picked up the small salt shaker and sprinkled it over the rat meat. Nearby, Liu Bu and the others were drooling from the sight.


    When they were having a conversation earlier, everyone didn¡¯t feel particrly hungry. But now that the aroma of food kept drifting towards them, Liu Bu and the others felt as though there was a vacuum in their deted stomachs!


    ¡°Did anyone bring along any food?¡± Xu Xianchu asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Everyone shook their heads.


    Close by, Ren Xiaosu was amused to hear that. He had clearly seen some of them taking some food, but those who did so were now tacitly denying it.


    It seemed that everyone here knew that the food they were hiding could very well save their lives!


    How could something that could save their lives be shared with others?


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that many of these soldiers from the private army did not have their guns with them anymore. Did they really throw away something that could protect their lives during the chaos just so they could run faster?


    How stupid were they?


    The stronghold¡¯s celebrity, Luo Xinyu, said unhappily, ¡°How can we survive without food? Why didn¡¯t you all take any of the food with you?¡±


    A soldier sneered and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you also not take any?¡±


    Luo Xinyu took a subconscious step back. She realized some of the men around her had an indescribable malice in their eyes.


    As a celebrity in the stronghold, Luo Xinyu was not only beautiful in appearance, she also had a great figure. She loved wearing short skirts that exposed her thighs openly during summer in the stronghold.


    And those people in the stronghold could do nothing but look at her from afar because they were still civilized in there.


    But she was in the wilderness now. Many of those in the team had fallen into some kind of despair and wondered if they could walk out of here alive.


    Under such circumstances, the evil within them started to amplify.


    There was no civility, now, and no morality here. Perhaps no one would learn about what happened here either.


    Luo Xinyu subconsciously inched closer to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side. She had not expected that she would choose to trust the ¡°refugee¡± who looked most like a wild animal over her own team members.

 Chapter 57 - Supernatural being!

    <h4>Chapter 57: Supernatural being!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Seeing that the atmosphere in the team was getting stranger, Xu Xianchu said coldly, ¡°Look at your behaviors. The most important thing for us now is to find food and then get out of here. Unless you all wish to die here?¡±


    Liu Buughed loudly and said, ¡°That¡¯s right, we should focus on working together now.¡±


    Just a moment ago, a wicked thought entered Liu Bu¡¯s mind. But he realized that he didn¡¯t have many teammates left on his side. If anything shameful happened here, and all of them somehow made it out of this ce alive, these soldiers would definitely silence those who were not with the private army.


    ¡°Where are we going to look for food?¡± Someoneined, ¡°Do you guys still wanna enter this forest? I¡¯m not going in!¡±


    Xu Xianchu looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Since you¡¯re the most knowledgeable in wilderness survival, you can help us look for food.¡±


    All of a sudden, the voice from the pce in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind said, ¡°Quest: Help the team look for food.¡±


    Look for food?


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before pointing at a soldier next to Xu Xianchu and said, ¡°I saw him taking food from the pickup before we entered the canyon. There should be some food in his backpack.¡±


    That soldier was dumbfounded. ¡®You were told to look for food from the wilderness. What¡¯s with pointing out that I have food on me?!¡¯


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. After all, the pce had only said to help the team look for food. It did not say where he had to look for it. Even if the food was someone else¡¯s, it was still considered food!


    He was really beginning to like the way the pce passed its judgment.


    Xu Xianchu looked at the soldier next to him. ¡°Take the food out.¡±


    ¡°Why should I take my food out?¡± The soldier turned hostile and said, ¡°What were all of you doing when I went to get the food? Some of you went to take your clothes, tents, and that celebrity even went to get her makeup bag. Why should I share the food with you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°That sounds pretty reasonable.¡±


    Everyone turned to look at him in silence.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu supported this person¡¯s argument. On one hand, he felt that the others had not behaved properly during the chaos. None of them rushed to grab any of the provisions, yet they wanted him to share his food with everyone else? This was moral coercion. But on the other hand, Ren Xiaosu was having so much fun watching this that he didn¡¯t see the need to take a side. He was not a good person to begin with anyway.


    At this moment, everyone ignored Ren Xiaosu. When Luo Xinyu went to sit down next to Ren Xiaosu, he pushed her away.


    So Luo Xinyu went to sit beside Yang Xiaojin. But Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu¡¯s rtionship seemed to be only that of an employer and employee. In this moment, Yang Xiaojin no longer cared to put on an act and ate the rat meat, ignoring Luo Xinyu.


    She was still holding the handgun but acted as though it had nothing to do with her.


    Xu Xianchu looked at the soldier who had kept his food hidden and said, ¡°Hand the food over. Since we¡¯re working together to get through these difficult times, we can¡¯t be so selfish. When day breaks, we¡¯ll naturally be able to find food. You won¡¯t starve to death.¡±


    ¡°Who knows if we¡¯ll still be alive tomorrow?¡± The soldier said, ¡°Besides, I was not the only person that went to grab provisions. Li Maoxian and Jiang Yang also took some as well. Why should I be the only one to contribute my share of the food?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard the name Li Maoxian. So there were people with such crude names living in the stronghold as well!?


    But more importantly, the atmosphere within the group had reached a freezing point. It was surprising that the teammates who had just survived a cmity together would immediately start quarreling over a little bit of food.


    Xu Xianchu tactfully advised, ¡°I¡¯m doing this for the good of the whole team.¡±


    The soldier next to him sneered and said, ¡°Are you still trying to assert your authority? You have a gun, but so do I!¡±


    After he said that, he tried to pull his gun from his waist, but Xu Xianchu suddenly raised his leg and made his move. He kicked the soldier in his chest and sent him flying several meters.


    No one had expected that Xu Xianchu would suddenly get physical and almost cripple someone with a single kick!


    Ren Xiaosu roughly gauged that he should be able to do the same as well with his current physical fitness. In fact, he might even have greater strength than Xu Xianchu. Thinking of this, he felt a little more at ease.


    The soldier who got kicked could end up not being able to walk out of the forest alive. Xu Xianchu¡¯s kick was so heavy that it must have inflicted an internal injury to him.


    Starting from now, he would have to carry this internal injury while moving around in the forest. Eventually, he would start getting more and more fatigued before he finally copsed in the forest.


    It looked like Xu Xianchu intended to use him as a warning to the others. Even if the team were to lose another member, he would not hesitate to do it.


    But before Xu Xianchu could withdraw his leg, a soldier behind himunched an attack. The soldier pulled out a bay from his waist and stabbed it towards Xu Xianchu. It seemed that he intended to stab Xu Xianchu to death while he was dealing with the others!


    This time, even Yang Xiaojin stopped chewing her food. If this stab went in sessfully, Xu Xianchu would die for sure.


    Wait!


    Ren Xiaosu was suddenly surprised to see an identical ¡°shadow¡± separating from Xu Xianchu¡¯s body. That gray shadow was just like a duplicate of Xu Xianchu.


    At first, Ren Xiaosu thought that he was just seeing things, but he then understood. A supernatural being!


    Xu Xianchu turned out to be a supernatural being!


    It was no wonder Xu Xianchu insisted on advancing even after he witnessed those strange urrences. So it was because he had something to rely on!


    Ren Xiaosu had long felt that something was amiss. No matter how badly Xu Xianchu wanted toplete the mission, and how worried he was about getting expelled from the stronghold, surely he couldn¡¯t have such disregard for his life, right?


    So it was not because Xu Xianchu was unafraid of dying; it was because he had a secret.


    When faced with the sneak attack by the bay, the gray shadow spun around. It behaved just like a real person as it firmly grabbed the iing bay. This gray shadow was even faster and more powerful than Xu Xianchu!


    Moreover, it seemed that the gray shadow was unafraid of sharp weapons since it grabbed hold of the bay with its bare hands. In the blink of an eye, the soldier holding the bay was left in a state of confusion. He did not expect that he would be confronted with a supernatural being, nor did he expect that the opponent would dare to grab hold of the bay with its bare hands!


    While the soldier was distracted, the gray shadow grabbed the bay from him and ruthlessly stabbed it into his abdomen.


    Everyone at the campsite fell silent. Only the sound of their nervous panting could be heard. The soldier slowly fell to the ground, and the blood that appeared purple in the moonlight seeped into the soil, turning it ck.


    But the soldier did not die on the spot from his injury. He was still breathing as hey on the ground.


    The soldier who had been kicked to the ground earlier struggled to pull out his pistol before raising it and shooting. However, a shocking scene happened. That gray shadow actually stood in front of Xu Xianchu andpletely shielded him from the bullets!


    There was a rippling effect on the gray shadow as the bullets it blocked fell onto the ground one by one.


    Some of them had wanted to use Xu Xianchu of killing theirpatriots, but they no longer dared to speak out now!


    Everyone looked at Xu Xianchu in shock. Was his power to create an identical shadow of himself? But the shadow was obviously a little stronger than Xu Xianchu himself.


    Moreover, even gunfire could not prate the gray shadow!


    So this was what a real supernatural being was like?


    While Ren Xiaosu was pondering things, he realized Xu Xianchu¡¯s face had turned a little pale. Did this mean that there was an effect on the wielder¡¯s body when the gray shadow shielded him against the bullets?


    The two instances of Xu Xianchu then looked around and surveyed the situation. Afterwards, the gray shadow slowly moved towards the original Xu Xianchu and merged right back into him from behind.

 Chapter 58 - I brought money!

    <h4>Chapter 58: I brought money!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Throughout the journey, Ren Xiaosu had spected that if anyone on the team were a supernatural being, then Yang Xiaojin would most likely be the one.


    But to his surprise, it turned out to be Xu Xianchu, the most inconspicuous person in the team.


    Regarding Yang Xiaojin, Ren Xiaosu had at least already learned some information about her and knew that she was dangerous. But Ren Xiaosu had never thought much of Xu Xianchu at all.


    However, this was also because Xu Xianchu¡¯s power was easy to hide. Although the gray shadow was extremely strong, Xu Xianchu was just an ordinary soldier. This left Ren Xiaosu unable to assess him.


    What a pity! If only he had a Master Skill Duplication Scroll! He could immediately use it on Xu Xianchu!


    If he were lucky enough to copy Xu Xianchu¡¯s skill, Ren Xiaosu would have even more trump cards for the journey.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had never seen a Master Skill Duplication Scroll since the pce was activated. He believed that it must be very rare for it to appear.


    At this moment, Xu Xianchu let out a sigh and said, ¡°I just wanted to bring everyone out of here. I wasn¡¯t intending to hurt anyone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu observed from the side but could not tell whether Xu Xianchu was being sincere.


    In fact, he did not have a bad impression of Xu Xianchu. Previously, when Liu Bu and the rest of the others ostracized him, Xu Xianchu did not join in in doing so. But of course, Ren Xiaosu did not have a good impression of him either.


    If that contentious soldier had not pulled out his pistol just now, Xu Xianchu might not have made a move.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Yang Xiaojin. He saw that Yang Xiaojin had reverted to her previously calm state. It was as though she was not interested in supernatural beings at all.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you curious?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I am,¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. This curiosity she had was too perfunctory.


    Suddenly, Xu Xianchu looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you a doctor? Can you take a look at their injuries? Before joining the group, Wang Congyang told me about you, so you don¡¯t have to pretend.¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh.¡± Ren Xiaosu simply stood up and went to the soldier who got stabbed and squatted down beside him. Then he turned to Xu Xianchu and said, ¡°He¡¯s quite badly hurt but there are no medical supplies in the wilderness.¡±


    At this moment, the soldier asked with a pale face, ¡°How long can I still live for?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Ten...¡±


    ¡°10 minutes?¡± The soldier was stunned.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him seriously and said, ¡°Nine... eight... seven...¡±


    The soldier got scared.


    ¡°I avoided kicking him in vulnerable spots and internal organs, so don¡¯t scare him like this.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°I heard from Wang Congyang that you have an extremely effective medicine that is used to specially treat wounds. I don¡¯t believe that you didn¡¯t bring it out with you to the wilderness.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°My medicine is very expensive. Are you gonna pay for it? I¡¯m only the guide, not your apanying doctor. But if you want me to be that, you¡¯ll have to pay me more.¡±


    Needless to say, Ren Xiaosu really did have two vials of the ck medicine with him.


    Xu Xianchu was taken aback. ¡°I lost my money along the way.¡±


    He turned his gaze to the others and thought of telling everyone to pool their money together to save their teammate¡¯s life. In reality, Xu Xianchu didn¡¯t wish to kill anyone. He was only hoping to deter the others from doing anything wrong.


    However, the others turned to look away as they were unwilling to help. Especially Luo Xinyu. This wounded soldier had kept looking at her with wicked intentions.


    Seeing that no one was willing to fork out any money, Ren Xiaosu was about to tell them to forget it. However, a weak voice came from the ground beside Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I brought money...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought about how strong this person¡¯s will to live was.


    He asked, ¡°Where did you keep the money? Is it in the left pocket or the right pocket? I have to tell you, I don¡¯t know how to suture a wound, so it¡¯ll entirely depend on fate if the wound heals after applying the medicine.¡±


    The others were stunned. Would it work if you only applied the medicine but not suture the wound? Luo Xinyu said, ¡°I have a sewing kit here, but I¡¯ll faint at the sight of blood.¡±


    ¡°Let me do the sewing then,¡± Xu Xianchu said.


    Ren Xiaosu had already taken out a stack of money from the soldier¡¯s pocket. ¡°I won¡¯t overcharge you, so I¡¯ll just take 1200 yuan.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± The soldier¡¯s mood became much better when he realized that he did not have to die. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Lei, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up as his gratitude tokens went up again. After Wang Lei¡¯s thanks, his tokens finally reached 77. He was another step closer to unlocking the weapon.


    The tension at the campsite eased up a little. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s antics had made the atmosphere less tense, and everyone also realized that even though Xu Xianchu had injured someone decisively, he was actually not a ruthless and cruel person.


    If Xu Xianchu were brutal, everyone would have to be careful of him. After all, it was very dangerous to have a supernatural being like him around them.


    While suturing the wound for the soldier, Xu Xianchu said, ¡°I don¡¯t have to hide anything from you guys anymore. The people in the stronghold only found out that the ruins of a Pre-Cataclysm civilization existed in the Jing Mountains. They¡¯re only sending our private troops out here to draw up a map and chart out routes to facilitate the exploration by the main troopster on. Actually, we didn¡¯t even know what had happened out here before we came to this ce.


    ¡°After I got here, I found that there was something wrong going on in the Jing Mountains. I was thinking that if the secret of the Jing Mountains could make the wild animals evolve, would it also prove to be useful to humans and help supernatural beings like us too? That¡¯s why I insisted on us advancing.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say before that you already gave up on the mission?¡± Liu Bu asked.


    ¡°At the time, I felt that it was getting too dangerous. I decided to give up to not expose my identity as a supernatural being. I can just follow the main troops from the stronghold ande back here againter since that would be much safer,¡± Xu Xianchu answered.


    Ren Xiaosu knew that Xu Xianchu had really thought about giving up on the mission.


    After he said that, Xu Xianchu paused for a while before continuing, ¡°But I can¡¯t return to the stronghold anymore. You¡¯ve all seen the stronghold¡¯s treatment of the supernatural beings. If I were to go back, I would be more or less done for. So I¡¯ll head into the depths of the Jing Mountains to explore it. If you want to go to Stronghold 112, we¡¯ll split up here. I won¡¯t stop you either.¡±


    The depths of the Jing Mountains and Stronghold 112 were in two different directions. One was to the northeast while the other was to the northwest. Everyone was faced with two choices. One was to let Xu Xianchu depart from the team, while the other was to follow him.


    No one at the campsite spoke. It was as though they were all waiting for the others to make a decision first.


    ¡°I¡¯ll follow you.¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°It¡¯s too dangerous here. The surest way of getting out alive is by following a supernatural being like you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu went through his memory and realized this was the most that Yang Xiaojin had spoken throughout their journey.


    But he felt that Yang Xiaojin was lying. Her original goal should be to get to the depths of the Jing Mountains as well!


    Ren Xiaosu was getting more and more suspicious of Yang Xiaojin. He felt that she might also be a supernatural being.

 Chapter 59 - A boar runs into a tree

    <h4>Chapter 59: A boar runs into a tree</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s decision to follow Xu Xianchu to the Jing mountains surprised everyone. Nobody expected that the first person to voice their opinion would be a girl.


    But what Yang Xiaojin said was very reasonable. Too many dangers lurked around here. With a supernatural being around, he would make everyone feel more at ease.


    If they were without the protection of a supernatural being, even if they did not venture into the depths of the Jing Mountains, they might not be able to reach Stronghold 112 safely either.


    After a brief silence, someone else said, ¡°I¡¯ll follow too.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going too.¡±


    Suddenly, everyone decided to follow Xu Xianchu to the Jing Mountains. It looked like all of them were not dumb.


    Just then, Luo Xinyu whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Are you going too?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was clearly taken aback. ¡°Why are you asking me?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll go if you¡¯re going,¡± Luo Xinyu said.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. ¡®Sis, we¡¯re not that familiar with each other, so why are you trying to make it seem like we¡¯re super close?¡¯


    He ignored Luo Xinyu. Instead, he turned to Xu Xianchu and said, ¡°I¡¯ll go with you too.¡±


    A bright light suddenly appeared in the sky in the distance. Xu Xianchu looked at the sky and said, ¡°Let¡¯s quickly get some rest. Since all of you have decided to follow me, we¡¯ll set off once it¡¯s bright. Now remember, the entire team has to listen to my instructions. If anyone still goes against me, I won¡¯t hesitate to go hard on you.¡±


    He then led the soldiers to pick up some branches andshed them into a stretcher. The soldier who got kicked could still walk on his own, but the one who was stabbed couldn¡¯t.


    Xu Xianchu was actually thinking of taking the wounded with them. All of them had to abandon their vehicles now that a dense forest had suddenly appeared. If they were to carry one more person, it would be a great burden for them.


    There was probably no one in the team that would be willing to carry the stretcher as a normal adult man was really heavy. Even some adult women would be heavy, much less a man.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Was Xu Xianchu someone who was full of positive energy or was he deliberately trying to win them over?


    The injured Wang Lei was almost moved to tears as he kept saying ¡°thank you, sir¡± to Xu Xianchu.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard his thanks, he got a bold idea.


    After the stretcher was constructed, Xu Xianchu asked, ¡°Who¡¯s willing to carry him with me?¡±


    ¡°Let me carry him!¡± Ren Xiaosu stepped forward of his own initiative.


    Everyone around him was confused by this. ¡®Ren Xiaosu, are you that nice?¡¯


    Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Since you¡¯re the most familiar with the wilderness, you should lead the way from the front. Besides, you¡¯re still young, so I¡¯m afraid that you won¡¯t be able to carry the weight of an adult man.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was starting to get anxious. ¡°No, I have to carry him today no matter what! I¡¯ll cut anyone that tries to vie with me to death!¡±


    Everyone else was speechless. Everyone was dumbfounded. ¡®Do you even have to resort to threatening words to do a good deed these days?¡¯


    ...


    Half an hourter, Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu were carrying the stretcher together. But Ren Xiaosu did not find it heavy at all. After all, he was extraordinarily strong now.


    After Ren Xiaosu applied the medicine on Wang Lei, Wang Lei thanked Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Gratitude token +1.¡± When they carried Wang Lei, Wang Lei thanked Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Gratitude token +1.¡± Along the way, Ren Xiaosu showed a lot of concern to Wang Lei and kept checking with him if he was hungry or thirsty. With that, Wang Lei thanked him again. ¡°Gratitude token +1.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu really did not expect to find a ¡°divine weapon¡± he could spam increase his gratitude tokens with!


    In just half an hour, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gratitude tokens reached 82!


    Xu Xianchu found it a little strange. In his eyes, Ren Xiaosu was obviously the type of person who would not care about anyone other than himself. Why did he suddenly be such a good person then?!


    He didn¡¯t believe it!


    But Xu Xianchu kept thinking about this along the way. If Ren Xiaosu had an ulterior motive, what would he be after?


    However, he could not figure it out no matter how hard he thought.


    The dense forest was not easy to walk through. Ren Xiaosu had nevere across such a thick forest before.


    He wasst here just a year ago. But when he looked at the forest before him, it felt like it had been decades since he came here. This ce had changed far too much.


    Ren Xiaosu was chatting on and off with Wang Lei, but his eyes were observing the surroundings at all times. As they were walked, Ren Xiaosu deliberately gazed at the ce where he had thrown the rat. However, the rat¡¯s remains had already be a pile of bones after only a few hours.


    This showed that there must be some scavenger insects like ants nearby.


    In the process of advancing, Luo Xinyu stuck close to Xu Xianchu as though she had developed a great interest in him.


    Ren Xiaosu saw that Luo Xinyu had almost glued her entire body onto Xu Xianchu several times. However, Xu Xianchu always kept a certain distance from her.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a familiar air around Luo Xinyu as it reminded him of some of the women in town. So women from the stronghold would also subconsciously seek a supporting figure in a dangerous environment.


    Ren Xiaosu looked over to Yang Xiaojin again, but he only saw her holding her two guns and pointing them at the others at all times.


    Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin were pr opposites.


    At noon, Xu Xianchu asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Can you find some food for everyone here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with his mind elsewhere, ¡°I¡¯m not a god. Do you think I can just find food whenever I want to? If I say that a boar will run into a tree, would a boar really run into a tree?¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, they heard a loud noise crash several hundred meters in front of them. Right after, the breaking of tree branches rang out. It was as though something had really run into a tree!


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu strangely while Xu Xianchu led them and approached cautiously. When they saw it, they were surprised to find that a boar had really run into a tall tree. At this moment, the boar was struggling to get up as itid beside the tree. However, it was so dazed after running into the tree that it could not get up at all.


    The gray shadow separated from Xu Xianchu and jumped several meters into the air. When it came back down again, it ruthlesslynded a punch on the boar¡¯s head that caused it to copse to the ground!


    But nobody cared about the gray shadow. Instead, they were staring at Ren Xiaosu dumbfoundedly.


    Liu Buughed and said, ¡°We can have some game meat for lunch. Ren Xiaosu, well done! What you said has reallye true!¡±


    Everyone was smiling. It was always good to have something to eat, but only Ren Xiaosu did not smile. He turned around and looked in the direction of the town as he got worried for Yan Liuyuan.


    Only Ren Xiaosu knew that Yan Liuyuan must have made a wish for him again. He must have been suffering the pain brought on by the side effects right now. He could only hope that Big Sister Xiaoyu and Zhang Jinglin would take good care of him.


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. He decided to try his best to avoid saying such spective words in the future. Otherwise, the luckier he got, the more dangerous it would be for Yan Liuyuan.


    Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh in his head. ¡®How stubborn!¡¯


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu had an unprecedented desire to return to town. He wanted to know if Yan Liuyuan was alright.

 Chapter 60 - I like you

    <h4>Chapter 60: I like you</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    No one dared to enter the dense forestst night as it felt extremely eerie in there. But after walking all morning, the group had yet to encounter anything dangerous.


    The only thing that could possibly pose a threat to them was the boar, but it had rammed itself straight into a tree.


    Ren Xiaosu was looking out for any traces ofrge animals¡¯ feces during the journey, but he saw nothing.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not lower his guard as he still couldn¡¯t figure out why the fish scraps and bones had disappeared, as well as why Xu Xia¡¯s body had vanished.


    They found a small clearing in the forest and started collecting a lot of firewood as they nned to set up camp here. As everyone did not get any sleepst night, they wanted to turn in early today. Otherwise, no one could bear it for much longer!


    Xu Xianchu dissected the boar with a bay. Soon, the scent of blood filled the entire clearing. Ren Xiaosu reminded him, ¡°Don¡¯t think you can leave any unfinished food for tomorrow. A lot of the dangers in the wilderness are created by the scent of blood.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu then pointed to the ground. A swarm of ck ants had already gathered here. Each of them was about the size of a finger pad, and they looked exceptionally terrifying. ¡°They won¡¯t attack you when you¡¯re moving about during the day since they¡¯re just looking for the food source through the scent of blood. But by nighttime, you¡¯ll end up bing their food if you sleep in an area filled with a bloody scent. The formic acid secreted by the ants after a bite is enough to make you feel like dying.¡±


    Xu Xianchu nodded. ¡°Understood, thank you for the reminder.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Xu Xianchu, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. It seemed like Xu Xianchu was quite a sincere person after all.


    At noon, everyone gorged themselves on the roasted pork as they were starving. While Ren Xiaosu was eating the meat, Luo Xinyu unexpectedly took a seat beside him.


    Luo Xinyu said innocently, ¡°I feel that it¡¯s possible to lead an interesting life in the wilderness. It feels really romantic.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°This is about survival. There¡¯s nothing romantic about it.¡±


    In the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu had never heard of the word ¡°romantic¡± before. Besides, anything that urred in the wilderness could never be associated with the word ¡°romantic¡± at all.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu felt that there was a huge gulf between his mindset as a refugee and those from the stronghold.


    Luo Xinyu ignored Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rebuttal and said to him, ¡°Do you know that you¡¯re very charming?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. Did shee and find him after hitting a roadblock with Xu Xianchu?


    He pretended not to have heard her, but Luo Xinyu stayed beside him and did not leave.


    In fact, Luo Xinyu had her own ns. By following Ren Xiaosu, she would at least not go hungry in this ce.


    The others might not have noticed, but Luo Xinyu had realized that Ren Xiaosu was definitely not an ordinary person. How could an ordinary young man drag an adult man around while making an escape? Even Xu Xianchu would probably not be able to do this.


    As such, Luo Xinyu felt that men were most likely to behave impulsively during their adolescence. It was probably the same in the town as in the stronghold. All she needed to do was to be more friendly towards this young man, and he would be willing to go through all kinds of hardships for her. In fact, she would not even mind letting Ren Xiaosu take advantage of her for real.


    Did such incidents rarely happen in the stronghold? Hardly so.


    To put it bluntly, she felt insecure and wanted to look for someone she could use.


    In reality, Luo Xinyu could also express her interest to Xu Xianchu. Before the expedition started, Luo Xinyu had approached Xu Xianchu more than once to chat, but she was rebuffed by him every time.


    In Luo Xinyu¡¯s eyes, Xu Xianchu was a rtively headstrong adult who knew what he wanted. If there were danger, it could be very possible that Xu Xianchu would abandon her at once.


    As for Liu Bu, needless to say, he was just a good-for-nothing....


    In her opinion, how could a refugee like Ren Xiaosu who had not seen the world yet possibly resist her charms?


    In fact, Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu had a certain air to them when they faced the refugees. They regarded the refugees as inferior to those from the stronghold. They were not people, just goods or essories.


    Ren Xiaosu controlled his tone and said to Luo Xinyu, ¡°Lady, please stay away from me.¡±


    Annoyed, Luo Xinyu decided she had to be more direct. She smiled and said, ¡°Could there have been a misunderstanding between us? Actually, I...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What¡¯s with you?¡±


    Luo Xinyu leaned in closer to Ren Xiaosu as though she were whispering something secretive to him. She got so close that her body was nearly touching his arm. As she spoke, her breath smelled like flowers. ¡°I like you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression turned to one of fury. ¡°You better watch your words!¡±


    Luo Xinyu was surprised.


    Pfft! Yang Xiaojin, who was drinking from a water bottle beside them, spat out everything at once. Apparently realizing she shouldn¡¯t have reacted this way, she quickly pretended not to have heard anything.


    Meanwhile, Luo Xinyu never thought that Ren Xiaosu would react to her in such a way! Was this how a normal person would react? Who should be watching their words?!


    ¡®He must be sick in the head, right?!¡¯


    At this moment, Luo Xinyu started to wonder if she had made the wrong decision.


    What Luo Xinyu didn¡¯t know was that Ren Xiaosu had seen too many of such ¡°seduction¡± cases during his time in town. Since the time he learned how to hunt, a lot of women threw themselves at him. That was why Yan Liuyuan was so wary of Xiaoyu at the beginning.


    Luo Xinyu still had the impression that he was quite inexperienced. But in actual fact, Ren Xiaosu had seen so much that it would likely scare her if she knew all about it.


    Ren Xiaosu sneered in his head. He wouldn¡¯t want a woman like Luo Xinyu even if she gave herself to him. It would be a waste of his food if he had to feed her!


    In the past, he thought that the people in the stronghold would all be smart. After all, Mr. Zhang had mentioned that most of the books were kept in the stronghold. Hence, Ren Xiaosu thought that the more that people read, the smarter they should be.


    However, both Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu were shaking up his understanding of this.


    Of course, there were also smart people in the stronghold such as the two officers, Wang Congyang and Xu Xianchu.


    Luo Xinyu calmed down and said, ¡°If you help me get out of here alive, I¡¯ll fight for three spots in the stronghold for you when we get back to Stronghold 113.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got up to leave. ¡°Who are you trying to bluff? You¡¯re making it sound like you call the shots in the stronghold.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not foolish. He felt that if he used the Skill Duplication Scroll on Luo Xinyu, he might just end up copying her advanced bragging skill.

 Chapter 61 - Attitude changes faster than flipping through a book!

    <h4>Chapter 61: Attitude changes faster than flipping through a book!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    How difficult was it for the refugees to get into the stronghold? ording to Wang Fugui, he had only seen four people get into the stronghold sessfully in his forty years of being alive. All of them were the ¡°distant rtives¡± of certain important people in the stronghold.


    Many of these people came to the stronghold to seek refuge with their rtives but were turned away by the stronghold. So they had to settle down in town and slowly wait for an opportunity toe.


    If it was already so difficult for the rtives of important people to get into the stronghold, would Luo Xinyu¡¯s ims of giving away three spots even be possible? If you were really that influential, you wouldn¡¯t have had to make a deal with the soldiers to go to Stronghold 112. Shouldn¡¯t you have gotten them to escort you there directly?


    Stupid people think others are stupid.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Xinyu was going through too much trouble to achieve her objective. Even though he was a refugee, he did notck judgment. If someone else were the guide, they might just believe her ims. However, Ren Xiaosu did not.


    If Ren Xiaosu epted her terms, how would he find Luo Xinyu once she got back to the stronghold? What would prevent her from jumping ship?


    Besides, honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu did not have a good impression of Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu at all.


    Everyone was parched after having pork for lunch. However, all of their bottled water and food had been left behind in the pickup, or rather, most of their bottled water and food had been destroyed when Xu Xianchu and the others mercilessly shot at the provisions.


    Xu Xianchu looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°How can we find a source of water out here?¡±


    At this moment, the pce assigned a quest. ¡°Quest: Teach everyone how to locate a source of water.¡±


    ¡°You can only search for a river or collect dew from leaves.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not hide information from them. ¡°But I don¡¯t rmend you go to the riverbank. Based on my estimates, the nearest river is still quite a distance away. Just bear with it for now. You won¡¯t die of thirst yet. We¡¯ll collect dew tomorrow morning.¡±


    Xu Xianchu nodded and said, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Xu Xianchu, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu waited for quite a while before asking in his mind, ¡°Where¡¯s my reward?¡±


    However, the pce ignored him. Ren Xiaosu wondered what was going on.


    It was as though this was the first time the pce had witnessed Ren Xiaosupleting a quest without resorting to unconventional methods. Thus, the pce had some trouble making a decision on the oue!


    After a long time, the voice from the pce in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind finally said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Although the quest had beenpleted, it was not what he had expected. Why was he given additional strength again?


    Ren Xiaosu had been wondering if the pce would increase his Strength and Dexterity attributes in an even manner. But in the end, his Dexterity still remained at 4.1 while his Strength had already reached 7.5.


    With a few more quests, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Strength would probably hit three times that of what a normal adult had.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu still had the two bottles of water he had traded half a fish for. It was not possible to hide them. After all, his jacket¡¯s pockets were only so big.


    Suddenly, Liu Bu came to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Sell me a bottle for 1,000 yuan.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°I¡¯m not selling.¡±


    ¡°2,000 yuan!¡± Liu Bu said eagerly, ¡°Will you sell it to me for 2,000 yuan? I¡¯m really thirsty!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Liu Bu was seriously a little dumb. He looked at Liu Bu and said, ¡°Money is of no use in a ce like this. The value of food and water is priceless. If you want to drink water, go get it from the riverbank yourself.¡±


    Liu Bu wanted to vent his anger at Ren Xiaosu. But he couldn¡¯t as he no longer had the bluster he had at the beginning. He also knew that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s role had be increasingly more important than his during the journey. Based on Xu Xianchu¡¯s character, if there were any disputes or irreconcble differences between the two of them, he would definitely choose to abandon Liu Bu instead of Ren Xiaosu.


    When he first came out of the stronghold, Liu Bu thought that the refugees were simply there to serve the stronghold, and those from stronghold like them would always be regarded as high and mighty. But now he was sobering up to the fact that it was not that way.


    Ren Xiaosu wiped his hands clean with some leaves picked from a tree. Then he went to look for Wang Lei and showered him with concern again to obtain more gratitude tokens.


    But how could there be an unlimited amount of gratitude tokens that he could gain from him? After receiving Ren Xiaosu¡¯s warm and passionate care, Wang Lei realized that something was off with how Ren Xiaosu was treating him. As a result, Ren Xiaosu did not get any more gratitude tokens from Wang Lei¡¯s thanks.


    When Ren Xiaosu recognized that he was not receiving any more gratitude tokens from Wang Lei, he decisively gave up on him. By now, his gratitude tokens were at 84.


    In the afternoon, Xu Xianchu looked up at the sky and said, ¡°This ce is not suitable for setting up camp. We must find a ce that is not as open to prevent wild animals from attacking us. Everyone, let¡¯s endure and keep going.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu agreed with Xu Xianchu¡¯s suggestion. This ce had be too dangerous after a boar was killed and barbecued. It might seem like nothing was happening right now, but as the venomous snakes, bugs, and ants got more active at night, it could spell disaster for everyone when night fell.


    Didn¡¯t the rat that was dumped earlier be just a skeleton?


    Xu Xianchu went to the stretcher and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Come, let¡¯s carry him together.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Why would I carry him?¡±


    Xu Xianchu and Wang Lei were confused.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Liu Bu and said, ¡°Go and carry the stretcher. If you don¡¯t carry it, I¡¯ll chop you up.¡±


    Liu Bu nearly broke down. Had he gone crazy?!


    The others at the campsite were shocked at this development. They thought, ¡®Are you a schizo or what? Why has your attitude changed so quickly? Didn¡¯t you say that you would chop whoever tried to vie with you to carry the stretcher this morning?¡¯


    Xu Xianchu did not want to waste any more time. He said, ¡°Everyone will take turns carrying the wounded except for thedies. Some of you might also get hurt at some point. If you don¡¯t want to be left for dead when that happens, you should help out now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Xu Xianchu was quite a rational person. No matter what went on with the team, he would try his best to get everyone back on track.


    Along the way, some misbehaving soldiers started getting closer to Luo Xinyu again. They would even pretend to casually brush their arms against Luo Xinyu when they passed her. But Luo Xinyu would keep anticipating it and try to avoid their advances. After which, some of the soldiers wouldugh pervertedly.


    Logically speaking, Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu should have a good rtionship, but Liu Bu didn¡¯t even dare to speak out when he saw this. How could he offend the soldiers?


    After hitting a roadblock with Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu, Luo Xinyu seemed to be somewhat at a loss. She did not know what to do and could only passively avoid them.


    Moreover, the soldiers were starting to reveal their bestial sides as they found themselves stuck in this seemingly dangerous situation in which they might not even survive until tomorrow.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not want to intervene. As the team moved forward, he remembered he had gained another Skill Duplication Scroll. He wondered if he could copy Yang Xiaojin¡¯s advancedbat skill this time.


    However, when Ren Xiaosu raised his head to look for Yang Xiaojin, he saw her pointing a gun at a soldier¡¯s head. Yang Xiaojin turned to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°His gun belongs to you now.¡±

 Chapter 62 - Preserve your dignity

    <h4>Chapter 62: Preserve your dignity</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The soldier Yang Xiaojin was pointing her gun at happened to be the one who harassed Luo Xinyu the most. Hence, Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin was finally going to help Luo Xinyu.


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin was also someone who didn¡¯t care about anyone other than herself. However, he never expected that she could not tolerate seeing Luo Xinyu being harassed by the soldiers. Perhaps that was the bottom line for women.


    The people at the front looked back at thismotion and wondered if a violent sh would ur between Yang Xiaojin and the soldiers.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu and saw that he had frowned but was not about to step in. It looked like Xu Xianchu also felt that these soldiers had gone too far.


    Meanwhile, none of the other soldiers dared to step forward or speak up for the soldier. It was clear at a nce their team was not united.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to act politely with them. He walked right next to the soldier and pulled out his gun from the holster. When these soldiers were escaping, they felt that their firearms were too heavy to lug around, so they threw away their rifles, only keeping their sidearms.


    The soldier said coldly, ¡°Do you know how serious of a crime it is to seize a gun from a soldier?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°If you threaten me again, you just might die.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu almost apuded when he heard that. She really was a decisive girl...


    When he pulled the soldier¡¯s gun out from the holster, the soldier used his right hand to sp it tightly against his waist. He was attempting to quietly stop Ren Xiaosu from taking his gun. However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current strength was so great that it was unimaginable. He forcefully pried each of the soldier¡¯s fingers away. If this soldier hadn¡¯t given in midway, Ren Xiaosu would have broken his fingers on purpose.


    This was a gun! Ren Xiaosu could finally hold a gun openly. Ever since he acquired the Advanced Firearms Proficiency, he never had the opportunity to handle a gun so openly!


    The soldier who had his gun seized looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Haven¡¯t you already taken the gun from me? Why are you still touching me?¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s the magazine?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    The soldier was speechless. ¡°It¡¯s on the left side of the uniform.¡±


    As he let Ren Xiaosu continue searching his person, he sneered at Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°Even if you give him the gun, does he know how to use it? He¡¯s only a refugee.¡±


    The others also felt that the soldier¡¯s words were not wrong. Only Yang Xiaojin was slightly doubtful of that when she saw the way Ren Xiaosu held the gun.


    Yang Xiaojin was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable on firearms of all the people here. Otherwise, the pce would not have evaluated her skill as perfect.


    So when the others thought that Ren Xiaosu would not know how to use a gun even if he were to carry one, she had already noticed that his stance of holding the gun was very natural and proficient. Even with his arm was lowered, it was still ced at the most suitable angle to raise the gun in an instant!


    This was not a skill a refugee should have. The others could not tell, but Yang Xiaojin definitely could!


    But she didn¡¯t dwell on this for too long. She just said to the soldier, ¡°Get lost.¡±


    Being stripped of their firearms was probably one of the greatest humiliations a soldier could experience. That soldier looked ghastly pale as he stood aside. When Xu Xianchu saw that the matter had been resolved, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s keep moving forward. We need to find a suitable campsite before sunset.¡±


    Xu Xianchu did not want to get involved in the mess that was going on in the team. He had nothing else on his mind other than getting to the Jing Mountains.


    Along the way, the soldiers drew a clear boundary between themselves and Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu. Both sides were keeping their distance from each other.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was thinking about something. If Yang Xiaojin insisted on helping Luo Xinyu, or even offered to help her get out of this ce together, he would probably have no choice but to abandon their temporary alliance.


    At this moment, Luo Xinyu said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Thank you for helping me. I hope that we can work together to get out of the Jing Mountains over theing days.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu clearly noticed a moment of hesitation from Yang Xiaojin. Then Yang Xiaojin said to Luo Xinyu, ¡°I¡¯m not helping you for nothing. Give me back the money that I paid you first.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was speechless for a moment. She took out 10,000 yuan from her bag and handed it to Yang Xiaojin. ¡°Back then, you paid me 5,000 yuan. But I¡¯ll return 10,000 yuan to you. Take this as my gratitude to you.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin evenly acknowledged her and pocketed the 10,000 yuan without standing on ceremony.


    Luo Xinyu smiled when she saw Yang Xiaojin ept the money. ¡°Then you¡¯ll help me on this journey, right?¡±


    ¡°Let me correct that.¡± Yang Xiaojin said to Luo Xinyu, ¡°I¡¯ve never thought about helping you get out of the Jing Mountains. I can only ensure that you¡¯ll get to preserve your dignity when you die.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was speechless.


    Listening to their conversation, Ren Xiaosu understood what Yang Xiaojin meant. She would only ensure that Luo Xinyu would not get vited by these soldiers. As for whether she would survive, she didn¡¯t care much about that.


    In reality, Luo Xinyu was also rather pitiable. Although she was the one who initiated their trip out from the stronghold, she couldn¡¯t trust a single person anymore.


    A fork appeared in the road. These were two mountain roads leading in two different directions.


    The canopy here was so tall it covered almost the entire sky. They could not even tell the position of the sun and which direction led to the Jing Mountains.


    Xu Xianchu turned around and asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Which way do we go?¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the pce intone, ¡°Quest: Give directions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°Go left.¡±


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could feel that his muscle density getting firmer again. He could finally confirm something. ¡®Strength and Dexteritybined are what makes up true muscle density. It¡¯s not good enough to just increase Strength or Dexterity.¡¯


    At this moment, the soldier who had his gun seized said coldly, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that you haven¡¯t been out this far before? I remember you mentioning that you hid in the canyon for a few days beforeing out. So how do you know which way to go?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I don¡¯t.¡±


    Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were speechless.


    Everyone was left speechless. ¡®If you don¡¯t know the way, why did you tell us to go left?¡¯


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not under any pressure. He was only asked to give them directions for the pce¡¯s quest. It did not say where he had to direct them. Whether or not he knew the correct way, all he had to do was point a way forward.


    He did not know the correct path, but the quest had to bepleted!


    Xu Xianchu hesitated for a while and said, ¡°Then why did you point to the left?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Although I don¡¯t know which way to go, I know that the Jing Mountains are on the left ahead of us.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Xu Xianchu nodded. ¡°Then we¡¯ll go left. You can tell me when you spot a suitable ce to set up camp.¡±


    When Xu Xianchu made a decision in the wilderness, he would habitually turn to Ren Xiaosu for his opinion. And as the facts had shown, his opinions were generally correct.


    Ren Xiaosu would climb up any pine trees they came across along the way to pluck some pine cones and plump pine needles. The others had some misgivings. They could understand why he plucked the pine cones since those things were edible. But why did he pluck the pine needles? They saw Ren Xiaosu squeeze out a light green substance from the pine needles one by one and then lick it all up. He said to the others, ¡°If you guys don¡¯t wanna die of thirst, you can learn from me.¡±


    Some of them hesitated as they did not know whether they should learn from him or not. In the end, only Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu climbed up the pine tree without any hesitation.

 Chapter 63 - All of them have disappeared

    <h4>Chapter 63: All of them have disappeared</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Speaking of survival instincts, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were the two least pretentious people in the team other than Ren Xiaosu.


    When Ren Xiaosu said that the substance extracted from the pine needles was drinkable, the two of them did not hesitate and climbed up the tree to search for suitable pine needles to extract. They even plucked a whole lot of pine cones as well.


    In fact, only someone like Ren Xiaosu who had been surviving out in the wilderness would know that nature was generous. It doesn¡¯t care who gains from it. So long as you put in the effort, you can depend on nature to survive.


    Someonemented, ¡°It¡¯s better off being an animal if I have to do this. How I wish that I can be reborn as an animal in my next life.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°Animals do not lead as carefree a life as you think. I¡¯ve heard that giraffes, which are the tallestnd animals around, can defend against their predators due to them being bigger in size. However, its mating process can get veryplicated. That¡¯s why the male giraffe needs to drink the urine of the female to determine whether she¡¯s in heat before he starts courting her. If it doesn¡¯t turn out as he expects, the male giraffe will have drunk the urine for nothing....¡±


    The rest of the team suspected that Ren Xiaosu was deliberately trying to gross them out.


    No, this refugee kid was definitely trying to gross them out!


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s confidence was boosted since he possessed a gun now. There were only 11 people and 7 guns within the entire group, with 3 of the guns already in the hands of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had the advanced firearms skill and perfect firearms skill respectively. Unless they shed head-on with Xu Xianchu, their simple alliance would definitely ensure them aplete victory over whoever they came up against.


    While waiting for everyone to pluck the pine needles and pine cones, Ren Xiaosu had nothing much to do. He then remembered his still unused Skill Duplication Scroll. He nced at Yang Xiaojin and said decisively in his mind, ¡°Use the Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s advanced skill: Bomb making.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He immediately learned the skill but was a little puzzled. What kind of training did Yang Xiaojin receive in the past? Why were all her skills so violent?


    Besides, thebination of her firearms, bomb making, and jumping rope skills were so mismatched. Were these skills really from the same person?


    Ren Xiaosu got curious. He asked in his mind, ¡°Does the target have an assassination skill?¡±


    ¡°This information can be revealed if it¡¯s for a former target you¡¯ve attempted to learn from. She has an advanced assassination skill.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something and asked, ¡°Does the target have Nursery Rhymes Singing?¡±


    ¡°This information can be revealed if it¡¯s for a former target you¡¯ve attempted to learn from. She has Advanced Nursery Rhymes Singing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was left speechless. What a bunch of messed up skills...


    He felt like he must have been really crazy to ask those questions, but he never expected her to really have those skills, and they were even advanced skills too.


    By this time, the whole lot of them had finally finished plucking pine cones and pine needles. Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Can¡¯t y¡¯all pluck them from different trees? By taking everything from the same tree, it¡¯s nearly been stripped bare by y¡¯all!¡±


    When everyone heard this, they looked up. Sure enough, the tree was nearly stripped bare.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t y¡¯all be thanking me for teaching you how to survive in the wilderness?¡±


    The others were taken aback. Then several people thanked Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu discovered that only Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were sincere in thanking him.


    With his gratitude tokens at 86, Ren Xiaosu became even more eager to unlock the weapon. So he shifted his attention to the others around him.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized that Luo Xinyu¡¯s hands were still empty. Even Liu Bu was holding several pine cones.


    When Luo Xinyu realized that Ren Xiaosu was staring at her, she said in embarrassment, ¡°I can¡¯t climb up....¡±


    Since when had Luo Xinyu, a celebrity from the stronghold, ever climbed a tall tree like that? Hence, she was the only one who was empty-handed. When does someone feel the loneliest? When everyone has something, but not you.


    For example, everyone has money, but not you.


    For example, everyone has pine cones, but not Luo Xinyu.


    Luo Xinyu hesitated for a bit before saying to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I¡¯ll pay you 10,000 yuan, so can you help me pluck some?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. He immediately stuffed all of the pine cones and pine needles that he had wrapped in his clothes into Luo Xinyu¡¯s arms. ¡°You¡¯re my bro from now on!¡±


    Luo Xinyu was surprised. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Luo Xinyu, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had not sold his water earlier because bottled water was too precious. It was clean and convenient to carry around. But the pine cones and pine needles were different as they were readily avable.


    Furthermore, Luo Xinyu offered a lot of money! What could he do with 10,000 yuan? He could use it to live the good life in town for up to two years. There wouldn¡¯t be a need to worry about food and clothing!


    In fact, you would never know whether you would be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s brother before giving money to him. This was also known as Schr?dinger¡¯s brother <sup>1</sup> !


    Luo Xinyu took the pine cones and pine needles from him. However, she realized that Ren Xiaosu did not go and pluck any more. She asked curiously, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to pluck some more pine cones? What are you going to eat at night?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ll eat the chocte.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu still had the chocte with him that he had traded with Luo Xinyu for. It happened that the chocte had melted a little while he was carrying it on his person for the past few days. Although it waste fall, his body still transmitted heat through his pockets.


    At the beginning, he did not believe Yang Xiaojin when she said the chocte would melt. After all, he had never eaten chocte before. He had nned on bringing it back for Yan Liuyuan to try, but it seemed that he could not bring it back.


    In an instant, Luo Xinyu¡¯s gratitude vanished. That chocte was the one he had scammed from her!


    ...


    Before evening fell, Ren Xiaosu found a huge hollow that was suitable for setting up camp. A rock protruded out of a cliff, creating a huge overhang that formed a natural, semi-open shelter like a cave.


    Ren Xiaosu noticed some cirrocumulus clouds in the sky when he passed through a clearing. Although he did not understand the principle behind it, he knew it was a sign of rain.


    Now they could rest better as they found a cliff face that would shelter them from the wind and rain.


    While they settled down beneath this rocky overhang, the rain began to pour. Xu Xianchu turned to Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Can we drink the rainwater?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Even though it¡¯s not so acidic anymore, you can still die from drinking acid rain.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was still unsure of how acid rain formed and what criteria ssified it as acid rain, so he could only use ¡°acidity¡± to roughly describe the hazard level of acid rain.


    Suddenly, some strange sounds came from the forest outside the hollow. But it traveled far away in an instant, not giving Ren Xiaosu andpany time to react.


    Right at this moment, the person deepest in the hollow said, ¡°Look, someone etched some words over here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu went to the wall and were surprised to see two lines of crooked writing etched by someone at the top of the hollow: ¡°We saw some strange shadows moving in the forest. They¡¯ve disappeared, all of them have disappeared.¡±


    <h4>Comment (1)</h4>


    VIEW ALL COMMENTSRate this chapterVote with Power StoneSend Gifts<h4>Chapter 64: Satellites</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When everyone saw the two lines of writing, the atmosphere in the hollow plummeted to a freezing point.


    Since entering the forest today, the group did encounter any more dangers. Other than exhaustion from a sleepless night, no other strange urrences took ce.


    This gave everyone the wrong impression that this ce was safer than the canyon and the other ces they had been to earlier in the journey. They¡¯d nearly even forgotten about the warning that was written outside the canyon.


    But it was alling back to them at this moment.


    The missing corpse of Xu Xia, the horrible face bugs, and those words carved on the cliff wall that warned: ¡°Stop here, ye who live.¡±


    ¡°Has anyone gone missing so far?¡± Xu Xianchu¡¯s first reaction was to count the number of people in their group. However, he found that no one was missing.


    ¡°Could someone be ying a trick on us by etching those words here?¡± Liu Bu wondered. ¡°There are no signs of any struggle in this hollow, and we didn¡¯t even see any skeletal remains of humans or wild animals along the way.¡±


    ¡®Wait a minute!¡¯ Liu Bu¡¯s words startled Ren Xiaosu. Actually, that was the strangest thing that had been happening. Some skeletal remains would usually be scattered throughout the forest. Be it birds, snakes, or anyrger wild animals, their skeletal remains should bemonly seen.


    But the strangest thing about this forest was that Ren Xiaosu had yet toe across any skeletal remains even once, other than the one belonging to the rat he had thrown away.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu wanted to turn back to confirm if the rat skeleton had disappeared as well. After all, it hadn¡¯t been thrown away for too long, and some bones still remained when he had gone to check on it in the morning. But by now, the bones might have disappeared.


    It was the same for Xu Xia¡¯s body and the fish scraps and bones.


    There was something creepy about this huge forest. A soldier asked, ¡°It seems like some people have been here within the past year, and it was even quite arge group too. But almost no one from Stronghold 113 havee out here to the Jing Mountains during this past year.¡±


    ¡°It might¡¯ve been the people from Stronghold 112 who were traveling to our stronghold, but something unexpected happened to them.¡± Xu Xianchu searched his memory. ¡°But since we¡¯re the lowest ranking troops in the private army, we can¡¯t possibly know who¡¯s been here.¡±


    Xu Xianchu was right about that. They were the most insignificant people within the private army, so why would the higher-ups tell them all the information they knew?


    Someone said, ¡°Could it be that we were sent here because something happened to the team that came out here? And when the higher-ups in the stronghold found out about it, they sent us in to investigate? If that team had carried a satellite phone, they should¡¯ve been able to transmit information back to the stronghold, right?¡±


    This was the first time that Ren Xiaosu heard of the term ¡°satellite phone.¡± It had not even been mentioned before by Mr. Zhang at school.


    He had wondered about this several times as well and believed that there should be some form ofmunication between the various strongholds. And it seemed that theirmunications were made through this satellite phone they were talking about?


    Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin in a whisper, ¡°What¡¯s a satellite phone? I¡¯ve heard from Mr. Zhang that there¡¯s something called a telephone in the stronghold, but what¡¯s a satellite phone?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, ¡°Mankind has taken control of several satellites from before The Cataclysm, so we can maintainmunication between the various strongholds.¡±


    Someone said indignantly, ¡°If the higher-ups knew they¡¯d gone missing, it¡¯s obvious they intend to send us to our deaths by sending us out here. Were they thinking of using human lives to confirm whether the news was true? If we die out here as well, it would mean that this ce is really dangerous. It¡¯s no wonder that we weren¡¯t even given any satellite phones this time. It seems like they¡¯re trying to minimize their losses, right? Could our lives be worth less than a satellite phone?¡±


    Xu Xianchu nced at him and said, ¡°Don¡¯t go making wild guesses when you have so little information. Also, your spection isn¡¯t logical either.¡±


    In reality, the soldier was too frightened at the moment and could not speak sensibly. As such, Xu Xianchu did not agree with his assumptions. However, Ren Xiaosu took a closer look at the two lines of words and said, ¡°What was used to etch these words in the wall? I think it might¡¯ve been something like a bay. It¡¯s not possible to carve such deep marks into the rock surface using everyday items that normal people carry around.¡±


    Xu Xianchu nodded. ¡°It should be the soldiers from Stronghold 112.¡± He turned to everyone and said, ¡°Sleep tight tonight. If anyone wants to head out of the hollow at night to relieve yourself, make sure to go together in groups of three.¡±


    This arrangement was made to prevent inexplicable disappearances from happening again. Even if they got into danger, it was unlikely that three people could not scream for help.


    Xu Xianchu continued, ¡°And tonight, everyone has to take turns to keep watch. How about this? I¡¯ll take the first shift before the others take over. Thedies don¡¯t need to keep watch.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu epted the arrangement but thought there wasn¡¯t really any point in keeping a night watch. Not only did they have to guard against external dangers, they also needed to guard against internal dangers from the team.


    After all, Yang Xiaojin and he had just seized a gun from a soldier, so it was quite likely that the soldier would try to sneak attack him in the middle of the night.


    But at this moment, Yang Xiaojin said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You keep watch for the first half of the night while I¡¯ll take over for the second half.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Their temporary alliance had another basic foundation: They did not have any reason to harm the other.


    ¡°I¡¯m going outside for a while,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®Aren¡¯t you afraid that something will happen to you?¡¯ He asked her, ¡°Do you need me to go with you?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin paused for a while before saying in a low voice, ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Isn¡¯t this girl a little too brave? Just what kind of skill is she hiding?


    Beside them, Luo Xinyu stood up and said, ¡°Let me apany you.¡± She then turned to Ren Xiaosu and gave him a look. ¡°You¡¯re really ignorant.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt his face burning with embarrassment. He just realized what was going on!


    The two girls braved the rain and went outside. Xu Xianchu saw them but did not say anything.


    A soldier whispered mockingly, ¡°It would be such a pity if those two girls went missing.¡±


    But less than five minutester, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu returned to the hollow as though nothing had happened.


    Had something changed? Could it be that the team was not targeted by the ¡°strange shadows¡± in the forest?


    When two soldiers saw that they hade back, they stood up and said, ¡°We¡¯ll also go outside to relieve ourselves. Can¡¯t hold it in any longer.¡±


    The two men had actually let the two girls go ahead to scout out the route before they dared to head outside themselves. Furthermore, the both of them nearly even pissed their pants out of fear. They really couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer.


    In fact, they had nned to relieve themselves in the hollow. But didn¡¯t Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyue back just fine? So they had to muster up their courage and head outside.


    Xu Xianchu nodded and said, ¡°Come back quickly. Don¡¯t waste time smoking out there.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry ¡¯bout it.¡± The two soldiers put on their clothes and went out.


    Ren Xiaosu was eating the chocte and watching Yang Xiaojin, who was drying herself in the hollow. Curious, he asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t anything happen to you two out there?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Yang Xiaojin replied simply.


    Someone in the hollow started a fire. After everyone threw the pine cones into the fire, they started squeezing the liquid substance from the pine needles and licked it to quench their thirst.


    The pine cones crackled as they roasted in the fire. Everyone was warmed by it. They felt like they were getting brought back to life.


    Right then, Xu Xianchu looked out of the hollow. ¡°Those two... why haven¡¯t they returned?!¡±

 Chapter 64 - Satellites

    <h4>Chapter 64: Satellites</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When everyone saw the two lines of writing, the atmosphere in the hollow plummeted to a freezing point.


    Since entering the forest today, the group did encounter any more dangers. Other than exhaustion from a sleepless night, no other strange urrences took ce.


    This gave everyone the wrong impression that this ce was safer than the canyon and the other ces they had been to earlier in the journey. They¡¯d nearly even forgotten about the warning that was written outside the canyon.


    But it was alling back to them at this moment.


    The missing corpse of Xu Xia, the horrible face bugs, and those words carved on the cliff wall that warned: ¡°Stop here, ye who live.¡±


    ¡°Has anyone gone missing so far?¡± Xu Xianchu¡¯s first reaction was to count the number of people in their group. However, he found that no one was missing.


    ¡°Could someone be ying a trick on us by etching those words here?¡± Liu Bu wondered. ¡°There are no signs of any struggle in this hollow, and we didn¡¯t even see any skeletal remains of humans or wild animals along the way.¡±


    ¡®Wait a minute!¡¯ Liu Bu¡¯s words startled Ren Xiaosu. Actually, that was the strangest thing that had been happening. Some skeletal remains would usually be scattered throughout the forest. Be it birds, snakes, or anyrger wild animals, their skeletal remains should bemonly seen.


    But the strangest thing about this forest was that Ren Xiaosu had yet toe across any skeletal remains even once, other than the one belonging to the rat he had thrown away.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu wanted to turn back to confirm if the rat skeleton had disappeared as well. After all, it hadn¡¯t been thrown away for too long, and some bones still remained when he had gone to check on it in the morning. But by now, the bones might have disappeared.


    It was the same for Xu Xia¡¯s body and the fish scraps and bones.


    There was something creepy about this huge forest. A soldier asked, ¡°It seems like some people have been here within the past year, and it was even quite arge group too. But almost no one from Stronghold 113 havee out here to the Jing Mountains during this past year.¡±


    ¡°It might¡¯ve been the people from Stronghold 112 who were traveling to our stronghold, but something unexpected happened to them.¡± Xu Xianchu searched his memory. ¡°But since we¡¯re the lowest ranking troops in the private army, we can¡¯t possibly know who¡¯s been here.¡±


    Xu Xianchu was right about that. They were the most insignificant people within the private army, so why would the higher-ups tell them all the information they knew?


    Someone said, ¡°Could it be that we were sent here because something happened to the team that came out here? And when the higher-ups in the stronghold found out about it, they sent us in to investigate? If that team had carried a satellite phone, they should¡¯ve been able to transmit information back to the stronghold, right?¡±


    This was the first time that Ren Xiaosu heard of the term ¡°satellite phone.¡± It had not even been mentioned before by Mr. Zhang at school.


    He had wondered about this several times as well and believed that there should be some form ofmunication between the various strongholds. And it seemed that theirmunications were made through this satellite phone they were talking about?


    Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin in a whisper, ¡°What¡¯s a satellite phone? I¡¯ve heard from Mr. Zhang that there¡¯s something called a telephone in the stronghold, but what¡¯s a satellite phone?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, ¡°Mankind has taken control of several satellites from before The Cataclysm, so we can maintainmunication between the various strongholds.¡±


    Someone said indignantly, ¡°If the higher-ups knew they¡¯d gone missing, it¡¯s obvious they intend to send us to our deaths by sending us out here. Were they thinking of using human lives to confirm whether the news was true? If we die out here as well, it would mean that this ce is really dangerous. It¡¯s no wonder that we weren¡¯t even given any satellite phones this time. It seems like they¡¯re trying to minimize their losses, right? Could our lives be worth less than a satellite phone?¡±


    Xu Xianchu nced at him and said, ¡°Don¡¯t go making wild guesses when you have so little information. Also, your spection isn¡¯t logical either.¡±


    In reality, the soldier was too frightened at the moment and could not speak sensibly. As such, Xu Xianchu did not agree with his assumptions. However, Ren Xiaosu took a closer look at the two lines of words and said, ¡°What was used to etch these words in the wall? I think it might¡¯ve been something like a bay. It¡¯s not possible to carve such deep marks into the rock surface using everyday items that normal people carry around.¡±


    Xu Xianchu nodded. ¡°It should be the soldiers from Stronghold 112.¡± He turned to everyone and said, ¡°Sleep tight tonight. If anyone wants to head out of the hollow at night to relieve yourself, make sure to go together in groups of three.¡±


    This arrangement was made to prevent inexplicable disappearances from happening again. Even if they got into danger, it was unlikely that three people could not scream for help.


    Xu Xianchu continued, ¡°And tonight, everyone has to take turns to keep watch. How about this? I¡¯ll take the first shift before the others take over. Thedies don¡¯t need to keep watch.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu epted the arrangement but thought there wasn¡¯t really any point in keeping a night watch. Not only did they have to guard against external dangers, they also needed to guard against internal dangers from the team.


    After all, Yang Xiaojin and he had just seized a gun from a soldier, so it was quite likely that the soldier would try to sneak attack him in the middle of the night.


    But at this moment, Yang Xiaojin said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You keep watch for the first half of the night while I¡¯ll take over for the second half.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Their temporary alliance had another basic foundation: They did not have any reason to harm the other.


    ¡°I¡¯m going outside for a while,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®Aren¡¯t you afraid that something will happen to you?¡¯ He asked her, ¡°Do you need me to go with you?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin paused for a while before saying in a low voice, ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Isn¡¯t this girl a little too brave? Just what kind of skill is she hiding?


    Beside them, Luo Xinyu stood up and said, ¡°Let me apany you.¡± She then turned to Ren Xiaosu and gave him a look. ¡°You¡¯re really ignorant.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt his face burning with embarrassment. He just realized what was going on!


    The two girls braved the rain and went outside. Xu Xianchu saw them but did not say anything.


    A soldier whispered mockingly, ¡°It would be such a pity if those two girls went missing.¡±


    But less than five minutester, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu returned to the hollow as though nothing had happened.


    Had something changed? Could it be that the team was not targeted by the ¡°strange shadows¡± in the forest?


    When two soldiers saw that they hade back, they stood up and said, ¡°We¡¯ll also go outside to relieve ourselves. Can¡¯t hold it in any longer.¡±


    The two men had actually let the two girls go ahead to scout out the route before they dared to head outside themselves. Furthermore, the both of them nearly even pissed their pants out of fear. They really couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer.


    In fact, they had nned to relieve themselves in the hollow. But didn¡¯t Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyue back just fine? So they had to muster up their courage and head outside.


    Xu Xianchu nodded and said, ¡°Come back quickly. Don¡¯t waste time smoking out there.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry ¡¯bout it.¡± The two soldiers put on their clothes and went out.


    Ren Xiaosu was eating the chocte and watching Yang Xiaojin, who was drying herself in the hollow. Curious, he asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t anything happen to you two out there?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Yang Xiaojin replied simply.


    Someone in the hollow started a fire. After everyone threw the pine cones into the fire, they started squeezing the liquid substance from the pine needles and licked it to quench their thirst.


    The pine cones crackled as they roasted in the fire. Everyone was warmed by it. They felt like they were getting brought back to life.


    Right then, Xu Xianchu looked out of the hollow. ¡°Those two... why haven¡¯t they returned?!¡±

 Chapter 65 - Withdrawal symptoms

    <h4>Chapter 65: Withdrawal symptoms</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The two soldiers who had not returned yet had only dared to venture out when they saw nothing had happened to Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu. By going outside together, they took the necessary precautions.


    But now that almost ten minutes had passed, the two of them were still not back.


    Xu Xianchu stood at the edge of the hollow and peered out into the forest. Although it was only evening, the sky had already turned ck due to the rain.


    ¡°Could something have happened to them?¡± someone asked.


    ¡°But there wasn¡¯t any noise,¡± someone said, curled up in the corner of the hollow. ¡°Surely they couldn¡¯t have been attacked at the same time and made no sound, right?¡±


    Logically speaking, that should have been the case. But wasn¡¯t this exactly what made it even more frightening? Xu Xianchu had instructed everyone to go out in groups, but even so, something still happened.


    Xu Xianchu said, ¡°Don¡¯t think too hard. They might¡¯ve been dyed just a little. It¡¯s only been ten minutes, after all.¡±


    Everyone in the hollow became quiet. Although Xu Xianchuforted everyone by saying that, those two soldiers didn¡¯t reappear as time slowly ticked by.


    Xu Xianchu said, ¡°Who¡¯s willing to go and look for them with me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Xu Xianchu was even willing to risk the unknown danger and acid rain to go into the forest and search for his subordinates.


    But no one in the hollow volunteered. Who would be willing to go out and seek death at a time like this? Some of the soldiers even urinated at the innermost part of the hollow and filled the entire hollow with the smell of urine. As a result, Ren Xiaosu and the others were forced to sit near the outer part of the hollow where there was venttion. Although it was a little cold there, at least they didn¡¯t have to smell it.


    Xu Xianchu sighed and said, ¡°If you all don¡¯t help the others, don¡¯t me others for not helping when the same happens to you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not worried about that since he did not expect anyone to save him. Even Yang Xiaojin, who was his ally, would probably abandon everyone in the event of any danger.


    As they were not rted to one another, it was already great that they did not sabotage each other.


    The sound of rain pouring over the forest came from outside. Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°I¡¯ll keep watch for the first half of the night. You go and get some rest. The forest ground will be very difficult to walk through after the rain. It¡¯ll use up a lot of your stamina. Be careful of those soldiers too. They¡¯re up to no good.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had known ever since the two of them seized the gun that the soldiers would cluster together from time to time. This spelled potential trouble for them, but Ren Xiaosu had not figured out how to handle it yet.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. Then she closed her eyes and leaned against the wall to get some rest. But even so, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s gun was still pointing at everyone, including Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and did not mind it. If it were him, he would have done the same.


    A team of 11 people had inexplicably turned into nine. Ren Xiaosu looked at the remaining soldiers in the hollow and saw some of them sitting and smoking. The cigarette smoke was stillced with a smell that nauseated Ren Xiaosu.


    He found it hard to imagine just how vulnerable the defenses of the stronghold was when even the soldiers of the stronghold were using such psychoactive drugs to stimte themselves.


    Was this only happening in Stronghold 113 or were most of the soldiers from the other strongholds also the same?


    These soldiers had brought quite a lot of cigarettes along, and Liu Bu had also prepared ten packs for them. However, they lost most of them while they were making their escape. Right now, they only had around half a pack or a full pack left on each of them, while some of them did not even have any left at all.


    The group of people sitting there were smoking together, filling the entire hollow with smoke. Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu were all sitting at the outer edge of the hollow, so they were not that greatly affected.


    They heard one soldier saying to the others, ¡°Lend me a cig. I¡¯ve run out.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve run out too. This is thest cig I have.¡± The soldier beside him moved a little to the other side. Actually, he still had more than half a pack left in his pocket, but the days ahead of them were still so long. Who the hell knew how long it¡¯d be before they could finally get out of this ce? He did not even have enough to spare for himself.


    The soldier who wanted to bum a cigarette looked to the others and said, ¡°Lend me a cig. I¡¯ll return a pack to you when we get back to the stronghold.¡±


    By this time, his ¡°withdrawals¡± had kicked in. He didn¡¯t hesitate making a promise like that just so he could smoke a cigarette. And cigarettes were not cheap in the stronghold.


    ¡°Who knows if we can even get back to the stronghold alive?¡± someone scoffed. ¡°What are you going to pay with at that time, your life?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. These soldiers were really like a disorderly mob. While two of theirrades¡¯ lives were still at stake, they fell into infighting over some cigarettes.


    The soldier whose withdrawal symptoms were starting to kick in could only sit inside the hollow when he failed to get any cigarettes. Ren Xiaosu observed him as he started shivering while beads of sweat began forming on his forehead.


    Although these soldiers smoked a better quality of cigarettes than the town¡¯s workers, their withdrawal symptoms were more intense.


    If they encountered danger at this moment, this addict would probably not even able to stand up, let alone resist.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Xinyu, who was still awake, and said, ¡°What on earth is it like... inside the stronghold you¡¯re from?¡±


    This was actually one question that Ren Xiaosu was most curious about as he had always yearned to live in the stronghold, because all of the best quality daily necessities produced in town would get selected and transported into the stronghold. The people inside did not have to eat cornbread, could wash their faces every day, and it was said they had electricity as well.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan used to think that the ce was heaven, but now it seemed that it was not as beautiful as they had imagined.


    Luo Xinyu was delighted when Ren Xiaosu took the initiative to talk to her. She still needed to rely on him plenty during the journey. She exined in a whisper, ¡°Actually, there¡¯s people who made them like this on purpose. A mutiny by the private army in one of the strongholds happened, and the overseers of the other strongholds slowly began bearing ill will for the soldiers. While the big shots hoped that there would be people to protect them, they wanted their soldiers to stay loyal and have no ambition. So these cigarettes are the best tool to make them lose their ambition.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Is smoking too much of this stuff OK?¡±


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Luo Xinyu said, ¡°Some veterans in the stronghold behave like zombies.... And some of their wives even ran off with others as a result.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s such a mess in the stronghold.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    ¡°That¡¯s nothing.¡± Luo Xinyu said, ¡°I¡¯ve seen a 60-year-old woman with a dozen gigolos she¡¯s paying to support. You could say she¡¯s robbing the cradle!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°A 60 year old? I don¡¯t think robbing the cradle properly describes that.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was startled. ¡°Then what would?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Having children in old age!¡±


    Luo Xinyu was speechless. Luo Xinyu realized that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s brain was truly wired a little differently from others. It was no wonder the townspeople all said he was sick in the head! He was clearly a normal person, yet he exhibited signs of mental illness. Just how did his mind work?!


    At this moment, someone in the cave eximed, ¡°What is this?! It¡¯s so wet!¡±


    After he said that, the group ran out of the cave as though they received a great shock. Ren Xiaosu looked into the hollow but was puzzled. There was nothing inside.

 Chapter 66 - A businessman

    <h4>Chapter 66: A businessman</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t believe in ghosts and the likes, so he analyzed the situation when he saw nothing in the hollow. Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu realized what was going on.


    He saw water droplets dripping from the hollow¡¯s ceiling onto the ground.


    It was probably wet due to the rainwater that had seeped through the hollow¡¯s ceiling and dripped down bit by bit. The soldier who got rmed was merely too tense and fell into a state of panic. As a result, he thought the water droplets were caused by some imaginary enemy, like a drooling monster.


    But when Ren Xiaosu saw this, he found a treasure. He said to the others, ¡°Y¡¯all can get water straight from here. The hollow¡¯s ceiling is a natural filter that makes the water a little cleaner than well water. Of course, if you¡¯re still worried, you can also boil it before you drink it.¡±


    Xu Xianchu asked seriously, ¡°Are you sure this water is drinkable?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s probably one of the cleanest sources of water you can find in the wilderness. Sometimes, not even spring water is safer than this.¡±


    When Xu Xianchu heard that, he grabbed his military issue canteen to top up his water supply. Although the pine needles could replenish some water loss from the body, it was far too little.


    Those could only ensure that everyone would not die of thirst.


    Xu Xianchu did not horde the water source for too long. After hanging his military issue canteen over the campfire, he said to the others, ¡°You guys should drink up too.¡±


    The others were not like Xu Xianchu who still had his military issue canteen to hold the water and boil it with. They could only collect the water with their mouths, let alone boil it.


    The crowd was pushing and shoving under the water source. It was alright for the soldiers as each of them took turns to drink from it for a while. But Liu Bu couldn¡¯t be in a more pathetic state since no one would let him have a taste of the water.


    After a while, a soldier said, fuming, ¡°How is it enough for anyone to drink water one drop at a time? Ren Xiaosu still has two bottles of water in his pockets. He¡¯s making us lick the rock wall and the pine needles while he drinks from the bottle himself. Who knows if there¡¯s problems with the water?¡±


    Several soldiers got angry. However, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin each had a gun in their hands, so they did not dare to say anything in front of them.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he wondered how great it would be if he could store his items in the pce. He could secretly put the bottled water into the pce tomorrow and im to the others that he had identally lost it. That way, no one would target him anymore.


    Otherwise, if these people went crazy for the water, someone might even take the risk to attack him.


    Currently, the two bottles of water were in each side of his jacket pockets. He put his hands into the pockets and held the water bottles as he attempted to store them in the pce again.


    But the voice from the pce intoned, ¡°Storage rights have not been obtained.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was upset and sullen when he heard the voice. ¡®You should at least tell me how to obtain the rights, right? Why can I freely store the ck medicine in the pce but not the bottled water? Why? Why can¡¯t the bottled water be stored?!¡¯


    As Ren Xiaosu retreated to one side, Luo Xinyu looked at him. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you going over to drink the water?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Xinyu¡¯s skeptical look. It was obvious she did not believe he would be so generous.


    Ren Xiaosu grinned. ¡°I¡¯m gonna drink the bottled water.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was speechless. In this moment, Luo Xinyu realized that Ren Xiaosu was really talented at annoying people at any time.


    However, she did not know that Ren Xiaosu had actually given it careful consideration before deciding to leave the water source for the others. First of all, everyone was parched, and the water source that was dripping bit by bit would definitely be insufficient. As a supernatural being, Xu Xianchu could horde the water source for as long as he wanted, and no one would dare to say a thing. But Ren Xiaosu ¡°wasn¡¯t¡± one.


    Some people were already jealous of the fact that he still had two bottles of water on him. As such, he didn¡¯t need to hoard them.


    One of the principles of survival in the wilderness was to not be too greedy. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had to made Xu Xianchu understand that if he wanted to survive in the wilderness, the most indispensable person in the team was him, Ren Xiaosu. If Ren Xiaosu could get the support of a supernatural being like Xu Xianchu, wouldn¡¯t that be better?


    Also, the smell in the hallow was simply too pungent.


    In such a tense atmosphere, Luo Xinyu was initially terrified. As such, she chatted with Ren Xiaosu so she could alleviate the fear she was feeling. After all, it was always better to have someone to talk to.


    In fact, this method was extremely effective. When Ren Xiaosu spoke about ¡°having children in old age,¡± Luo Xinyu didn¡¯t feel afraid anymore. There was only a string of ellipses on her mind.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Do you know where the cigarettes that the soldiers smokee from? I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any suitable ces near Stronghold 113 to grow something like that, right?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± Luo Xinyu asked, feeling puzzled. ¡°Wang Fugui said that you had the backing of Luo Lan, so how can you possibly not know anything about it?¡±


    ¡°What does Luo Lan have anything to do with it?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Although he had received a banner from Luo Lan, he and Boss Luo did not have any other dealings.


    ¡°Boss Luo is the representative of the Qing Consortium in Stronghold 113,¡± Luo Xinyu exined.


    ¡°What is his job title in the stronghold?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. Although he heard Wang Fugui mention Boss Luo¡¯s name every day, Ren Xiaosu realized that he actually didn¡¯t know much about Boss Luo.


    ¡°Boss Luo doesn¡¯t have a job title.¡± Luo Xinyu looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. ¡°Alright, it looks like you really don¡¯t know anything. He only controls some factories that deal with metallurgy, water production, and chemical nts. If you have to ask what his title is... then he¡¯s strictly considered a businessman.¡±


    ¡°How does a businessman get to call the shots in the stronghold?¡± Ren Xiaosu said after thinking for a moment. He had thought that Boss Luo was just a stronghold overseer.


    ¡°It¡¯s unnecessary for them to hold a job title.¡± Luo Xinyu said helplessly, ¡°They are like the sky above the stronghold overseers. When nothing happens, everyone lives peacefully together. But when something crops up, that businessman will definitely be the decision maker of the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°Does he have an army around him?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked after some thought.


    Luo Xinyu nced at him and said, ¡°Yes, he has an army that is many times stronger than these private troops. Thebat brigade that¡¯s stationed in Stronghold 113 is way beyond your imagination. They¡¯re nothing like these private troops you¡¯re watching.¡±


    It meant that there were two different types of troops stationed at the stronghold. Although the stronghold had nominal overseers, their authority existed in name only. If they did not resist, the consortium would allow them to enjoy a life of luxury as their puppets.


    ¡°But there¡¯s something I still don¡¯t understand.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why don¡¯t they just take control of the stronghold and be the overseers themselves? Isn¡¯t it unnecessary to support puppets?¡±


    ¡°Because the Qing Consortium is not the only organization in this world,¡± Luo Xinyu said.


    Hearing this, Ren Xiaosu gained an understanding. The control of the hundred-odd strongholds was in the hands of just a few organizations. Although they worked together to take control of the strongholds, there was a delicate bnce of power between them. By using some strange methods of cooperation, they would seize resources for themselves.


    ¡°So the Qing Consortium was the one who supplied those cigarettes to Stronghold 113?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.

 Chapter 67 - It’s not like you have nothing left

    <h4>Chapter 67: It¡¯s not like you have nothing left</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°All the cigarettes supplied to the private army were delivered from other locations by the Qing Consortium. You¡¯ve seen the fleet of trucks before, right? The supplies they delivered were none other than cigarettes.¡± Luo Xinyu said, ¡°Actually, the same thing¡¯s happening in the other strongholds. Although the various strongholds¡¯ overseers know they¡¯re puppets, there are always a few who try to break free of their strings.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. It looked like he could not measure the consortium¡¯s power based on the private army¡¯s strength. Ren Xiaosu had learned enough from Luo Xinyu for the day and had to digest all of this information.


    ¡°I¡¯ll ask one final question.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why did you choose a person like Liu Bu as your manager?¡±


    Luo Xinyu was not exactly stupid either, so why did she choose Liu Bu?


    Luo Xinyu exined, ¡°He¡¯s the younger brother of a unit chief in the stronghold¡¯s Logistics Division.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could more or less understand some of the reasons behind this, but he didn¡¯t exactly know what kind of authority a unit chief in the Logistics Division had.


    Luo Xinyu felt her rtionship with Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu had be a little closer. She hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Can you help me make it out of this ce alive? I have nothing left out here in the wilderness and can only depend on the two of you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°It¡¯s not like you have nothing left.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was taken aback. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°You still have the cheek to ask me to get you out of here alive.¡± Having said that, Ren Xiaosu ignored Luo Xinyu.


    Luo Xinyu was left confused by Ren Xiaosu on this dark and rainy night. She still had something left? She still had the cheek to ask him for something?


    What fuckingnguage proficiency is this? Are we even speaking the samenguage?


    It was at this time that Luo Xinyu realized that her ¡°close rtionship¡± was only an illusion.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu found Luo Xinyu to be quite pitiable. She was all alone in the wilderness with no one to trust and had no one who was willing to help her. She was even surrounded by these ruffian soldiers who kept trying to take advantage of her.


    But who wasn¡¯t pitiable? Yan Liuyuan, who was suffering in town from the pain brought on by the side effects of his wish, wasn¡¯t he pitiable?


    If Ren Xiaosu promised to help get someone out of this ce, that would be irresponsible towards Yan Liuyuan.


    As long as Ren Xiaosu relied on his luck, Yan Liuyuan was bound to suffer even more from the side effects.


    Although Yan Liuyuan would usually only get a headache or fever after making a wish, the problem was that if Ren Xiaosu used his luck to avoid death, Yan Liuyuan would not only be suffering simple side effects like a headache or fever!


    This was a power governed by thew of conservation. If one party got luckier, the other would be unluckier.


    The moment Yan Liuyuan made a wish for Ren Xiaosu, he had ced his life in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands.


    Therefore, for Yan Liuyuan¡¯s sake, Ren Xiaosu could not promise anyone that he would help them get out of here alive.


    The other people¡¯s lives were not as valuable as Yan Liuyuan¡¯s.


    When Yang Xiaojin woke up in the middle of the night, she looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°It¡¯s your turn to sleep.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep. He had not gotten any rest for nearly 30 hours. Even that was too much for him to bear in his current shape.


    Ren Xiaosu kept thinking about a couple questions while in a semiconscious state. ¡®What exactly is Yang Xiaojin¡¯s identity? Does she belong to the so-calledbat brigade of the Qing Consortium?¡¯


    No, that couldn¡¯t be right. If she were from thebat brigade, she wouldn¡¯t have to hide her identity to join the team, right? Besides, she even had to pay Luo Xinyu to join them.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, if the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat brigade stationed at Stronghold 113 were to send someone to join them for the mission, wouldn¡¯t the soldiers from the private army revere her like a god?


    After all, that was the authority that really had the power to control life and death in the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu could not figure out Yang Xiaojin¡¯s motive, so he could only remain suspicious of her identity.


    The hollow waspletely quiet in the early morning. Yang Xiaojin was feeling energetic again after waking up. As she had received relevant training in this field, the way she slept was beyond most people¡¯s imagination. She was actually able to stay alert while sleeping.


    This was something that normal people could not understand, just like how normal people in the current day still could not understand supernatural beings.


    The rain outside came to a stop. Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, the forest ground became quagmire of mud after the rain. Some people would probably fall behind during tomorrow¡¯s journey.


    Some of the soldiers in the hollow were still not asleep and were whispering about something. Meanwhile, Liu Bu was catching the dripping water with his mouth open. It was finally his turn to drink now that everyone else had enough.


    Yang Xiaojin was opening the pine cones left over from the evening. She took out the pine nuts from within and put them into her mouth one by one to replenish the nutrients she needed.


    Yang Xiaojin, who was sitting across from Ren Xiaosu, was looking at him sleeping as she ate her pine nuts. Was he really asleep or was he in a semiconscious state?


    However, Yang Xiaojin heard Ren Xiaosu start snoring. She wasn¡¯t the only one who heard it; the entire hollow heard it as well! The snoring was way too loud!


    At this moment, two soldiers got up and said to Xu Xianchu, ¡°We¡¯ll take over the watch from you. You should get some rest now.¡±


    Xu Xianchu nodded. ¡°Be on your toes, don¡¯t lower your guard.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± one of the soldiers replied.


    The two soldiers slowly walked to the entrance of the hollow, as though they were going to keep watch there.


    Yang Xiaojin lowered her head and hid her gaze under her cap. When she saw the two ruffian soldiers, the corners of her mouth curled up a tad. This was because she noticed that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s snoring had... stopped.


    But the two soldiers did not seem to have noticed anything. One of them remarked, ¡°I wonder if we can get back to the stronghold alive.¡±


    ¡°Who knows?¡± the other replied.


    It seemed like the two men were having a normal conversation. But when they passed Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu, they sprang into action. As the rain had stopped, the hollow waspletely silent.


    The two soldiers, standing on the left and right side, whipped out their bays. They were actually thinking of sneak attacking both Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin!


    Which would react faster within three steps? A person or a gun? This question had been discussed by many people before, and everyone felt that a person could probably react faster in the space of three steps. But right now, the two assants were only one step away from Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Within such a short distance, it would be almost impossible for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin to pull out their guns.


    They were not foolish. Therefore, they waited until the wee hours of the morning when Ren Xiaosu had just fallen asleep and Yang Xiaojin was just waking up to carry out their n. A person tended to have stiff muscles when they were just waking up from sleep. This was not due to being in bad shape, rather, the body¡¯s mobility has not fully kicked in yet.


    They had probably decided tounch a sneak attack on Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu for their guns, or their water, or for Luo Xinyu. However, they did not know what kind of opponents they were about to face!


    Bang!


    With a gunshot, the ruffian soldier standing before Yang Xiaojin looked at the bleeding wound in his abdomen in disbelief. He clearly saw that Yang Xiaojin had been peeling pine nuts, and her gun was not out. So how did Yang Xiaojin manage to react so much quicker than him?


    Meanwhile, the assant on the other side let out a pained cry. Just as he was about to use the bay in his hand, Ren Xiaosu sprang up and grabbed him by his neck in an instant, quick as lightning.


    The assant wanted to stab Ren Xiaosu with the bay in his hand, but he realized that Ren Xiaosu had already grabbed his arm. He could not move a muscle.


    Ren Xiaosu lifted the adult man weighing 85 kilograms up by his neck with one hand. Then the assant felt a great pain radiate from his back. In the blink of an eye, Ren Xiaosu had mmed him up against the stone wall with one hand!


    The bay fell to the ground as the assant could no longer grip it.

 Chapter 68 - Master Skill Duplication Scroll

    <h4>Chapter 68: Master Skill Duplication Scroll</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    All of the others who were sleeping were awoken by the outbreak of a sudden fight. As the thunderous gunshot echoed through the hollow, everyone felt like an explosive had gone off beside them.


    While these people who had just been awoken were still clueless about what was going on, Xu Xianchu¡¯s gray shadow clone appeared and stayed put by his side.


    The temperature at Yang Xiaojin¡¯s gun barrel rapidly cooled as her opponent¡¯s body quickly turned cold. This was actually the first time Yang Xiaojin had fired her gun during the expedition. It seemed no one had expected that she would be so firm and decisive in her actions.


    Moreover, she looked exceedingly calm while killing someone. It looked as normal as drinking a ss of water.


    But actually, what left the deepest impression on the others was not Yang Xiaojin¡¯s actions, but Ren Xiaosu¡¯s.


    It only took a moment for the gun to go off and the bullet to enter the soldier¡¯s body. The huge kic energy of the rotating bullet then tore through the muscles and organs inside of him and only came to a stop after the kic energy was fully expended. But neither anyone on the outside nor the victim himself could see the internal effects.


    But it was different for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side. The sight of an adult man being forcefully lifted up with one hand was too violent.


    Ren Xiaosu was only 1.78 meters tall, and his body was still not fully developed at the age of 17. So whether it was Xu Xianchu, Liu Bu, or Yang Xiaojin, they had never thought about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bat prowess¡± before.


    They thought, ¡®How much strength could a malnourished young refugee from town have?¡¯ At most, he would have some survival skills that he honed from living in the wilderness.


    Ren Xiaosu had never revealed his true power, and Yang Xiaojin had not fired her gun before this, so it led everyone to have only a very vague idea of theirbat strength. This was the why the assants dared to attack them.


    However, no one could have expected that this vague idea they had turned out to be extremely wrong.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fingers were locked around the assant¡¯s neck like a pair of pincers. The assant could immediately feel the blood flow to his brain stopping. In fact, he could have kicked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s vital regions with his legs, but his mind had already turned nk while his hands and feet convulsed in spasms.


    Yang Xiaojin did not look at the soldier who had fallen in front of her but looked quietly at Ren Xiaosu instead. She was already holding up two guns and pointing them at everyone else in the hollow.


    However, she was also a little puzzled. Earlier, Ren Xiaosu was clearly asleep. He could have faked his snoring, but it was impossible to disguise the movement of his eyelids.


    She had even been trained to judge whether someone was sleeping for real. A person could pretend to be asleep, but the mind would subconsciously cause the eyelids to move. A person who was not fast asleep would find it impossible to control their eyelid movements for an extended duration.


    So she knew that Ren Xiaosu had really fallen asleep just now. But the moment the assants got up, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s snoring stopped, which proved that he was awake at that point.


    How could a person in deep sleep constantly remain alert like he had? A refugee like Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t possibly have received the same kind of training she had!


    Back in town, Yan Liuyuan was actually the happiest when he could keep watch during the night for Ren Xiaosu. It made him feel like Ren Xiaosu needed him the most at such a time and he was able to do something for him.


    Although he couldn¡¯t go hunting with Ren Xiaosu as a result of having to keep watch at night, he still felt that being a ¡°night watchman¡± was extremely meaningful.


    But what Yan Liuyuan didn¡¯t know was that Ren Xiaosu actually didn¡¯t need anyone to keep watch at night for him ever since the pce came into existence.


    And at this moment, the Ren Xiaosu in Yang Xiaojin¡¯s eyes was disying a supernatural strength. How could a thin young man like him possess a strength like that? Even Yang Xiaojin couldn¡¯t have expected this.


    The soldier, who was soaking in a pool of his own blood on the ground, struggled to spit out, ¡°Sun Junzheng, get them!¡±


    But the soldier named Sun Junzheng was currently curled up inside the hollow. He was so afraid that he didn¡¯t dare say a thing.


    Xu Xianchu frowned and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ignored him and continued to re at the assant. He had found those pine cones and pine needles for these people and even let them have the water source in the hollow. Although his motivation was to get their gratitude tokens, the overall oue was still a good one.


    Ren Xiaosu had realized long ago that these people were plotting something. He initially thought that these people would have a bottom line or at least show a little restraint.


    He didn¡¯t even try to ask the assants what they were after. Water? Guns? Luo Xinyu? Ren Xiaosu thought that there wasn¡¯t a need to ask them like he was being betrayed and feeling anguished since he did not need an answer from them.


    Without any trust in the first ce, there was naturally no sense of betrayal. In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes, there was no difference between these teammates and the wild beasts.


    Ren Xiaosu did not immediately snap the assant¡¯s neck only because he wanted to see how Xu Xianchu would react.


    But at this moment, the voice from his pce said, ¡°Quest: Give the enemy a swift death.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was really stunned this time. Wasn¡¯t this a pce that advocated doing good? Why did it suddenly be so straightforward and decisive then?


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu would always try to take the easy way out toplete his quests by taking advantage of any loopholes. But this time, it was so direct that he couldn¡¯t get used to it.


    Or perhaps to the pce, not torturing the enemy was considered a good deed? ¡®Damn, aren¡¯t you bending your principles a little too quickly?¡¯ But Ren Xiaosu knew that the pce did not have a mind of its own. It must have its own judgment mechanisms for it to assign a quest like this.


    With a muffled crack, Ren Xiaosu snapped the assant¡¯s neck. When Sun Junzheng, who was in the hollow, heard the sound, he trembled. ¡°It¡¯s got nothing to do with me.... I didn¡¯t even tell them that you had great strength!¡±


    Bang!


    Yang Xiaojin shot Sun Junzheng right between his eyes before he could finish speaking.


    Ren Xiaosu turned his head to Yang Xiaojin. Yang Xiaojin calmly said, ¡°Hiding a crime is the same asmitting one.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sucked in a breath. Yang Xiaojin was implying that even though Sun Junzheng did not tell Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength to the assants, he did not give any prior warning about their intention to attack them either. Therefore, to rid themselves of any further threats, Sun Junzheng had to die as well.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that even though he had repeatedly updated his understanding of Yang Xiaojin, her ruthlessness and decisiveness still exceeded his expectations.


    But he did not feel that she was wrong.


    A team that originally consisted of 11 people was now left with six people in the matter of a night. Only Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, Wang Lei, and Yang Xiaojin were left.


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded Master Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    Without pausing to think, Ren Xiaosu used the Master Skill Duplication Scroll on Xu Xianchu. Using Yang Xiaojin¡¯s firearms skill as aparison, there wasn¡¯t much significance in upgrading his Advanced Firearms Proficiency to the master level. So at this moment, he needed Xu Xianchu¡¯s power more!


    ¡°About to copy the target¡¯s master-level skill or superpower. If you do not have the corresponding advanced-level skill after copying a master-level skill, you will not be able to learn it. The target does not have a master-level skill. Randomly copied target¡¯s superpower, ¡®Shadow Clone.¡¯ Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. So if the target had no master-level skills, he could directly copy their superpowers?


    He had thought the chances would be very slim!


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°You have learned ¡®Shadow Clone.¡¯¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could feel the new power in him that he had just copied and learned. He was surprised to discover a shadow clone of himself standing quietly within the pce.


    But what left Ren Xiaosu a little surprised was that, while Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone was gray in color, his was ck. ¡®What¡¯s with this? Is it darker because I don¡¯t wash my face?¡¯

 Chapter 69 - Got what they deserved

    <h4>Chapter 69: Got what they deserved</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The atmosphere in the hollow reached freezing. Everyone felt glum and downtrodden after two of their teammates disappeared in the night without any exnation. And now, to everyone¡¯s surprise, another internal conflict happened between those who were left?


    The four of Xu Xianchu, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei roughly knew that the soldiers had nned on attacking Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. However, that was handled by the two of them in an instant.


    The duration of this fight was so quick that it was unimaginable, and the conflict also made Xu Xianchu seriously reassess these two people standing in front of him.


    He sighed and said, ¡°They probably got what they deserved.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. After thinking about it, he understood that Xu Xianchu had no motive to cause this assault.


    If it were for the guns, Xu Xianchu still had his rifle and pistol on him. If it were to possess Luo Xinyu, Xu Xianchu got the opportunity long ago. After all, Luo Xinyu had even thrown herself at him, yet he never reacted positively to her advances. If it were for the water, Xu Xianchu had already collected a bottle in the evening. He didn¡¯t have any reason to set his sights on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s two bottles of water.


    Ren Xiaosu was worried that Xu Xianchu would take action to maintain order in the team, but as it turned out, he did not want to get involved in this conflict at all.


    Xu Xianchu¡¯s overarching objective was to explore the mystery of the Jing Mountains and the evolution of the creatures that lived there. He was not concerned about getting the others out of this ce alive.


    ¡°But surely Sun Junzheng¡¯s crime should not amount to his death, right?¡± Xu Xianchu sighed again. ¡°Forget it, no one can truly be faulted out in this wilderness.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Xu Xianchu already understood the principles of wilderness survival. There was no right or wrong. Survival was the only gospel truth.


    He also did not want to say that Yang Xiaojin was right to do so, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with ridding themselves of any threats!


    Ren Xiaosu carried the three corpses and threw them outside the hollow. Then he said to Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin, ¡°I could never figure out how Xu Xia¡¯s corpse disappeared, so why don¡¯t we closely observe what happens this time?¡±


    He told Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Shout me awake if anything strange happens.¡± He then sat down against the stone wall and went back to sleep.


    The others looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered how he could remain so calm. Why could he go straight back to sleep like nothing had happened when he obviously just killed someone? Were you not the one who killed that person just now?


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu was not asleep. He was just taking a mental look at the pce because a ck shadow clone had appeared in it. This made Ren Xiaosu lose his sleepiness as his interest was piqued!


    Crucially, he had been very envious of Xu Xianchu and was even a little envious of Zhang Baogen¡¯s power of blowing the explosive saliva bubbles.


    Although the saliva bubbles looked very weak, Ren Xiaosu suspected there was still room for improvement in its power.


    Did the supernatural beings have any room for improvement? He felt that there certainly must be.


    As for him, even though he had a pce that looked quite intimidating, the problem was that he had mostly been raising his Strength and Dexterity attributes thus far. It made him feel like he was not really a supernatural being. After all, some people could also reach his current state of strength after a long period of training.


    As such, before he learned the Shadow Clone power he copied from Xu Xianchu, he could not be truly regarded as a supernatural being. At the very least, he could not be considered as one in terms ofbat strength.


    Ren Xiaosu had long coveted Xu Xianchu¡¯s Shadow Cone that was capable of blocking bullets. In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, weapons such as firearms and explosives were terrifying. The initial velocity at which a bullet was fired at could reach Mach speed or several times Mach. Normal people would have no chance of fighting back against weapons like firearms.


    Therefore, to Ren Xiaosu, the qualifier that separated a normal person from a supernatural being would be the fear of firearms and explosives.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was also not fearless of firearms and explosives. He would still die if someone carried out a sneak attack on him with those weapons.


    At this moment, the ck shadow clone stood quietly and motionlessly beside the brass typewriter in the pce. Ren Xiaosu scrutinized it and saw that the silhouette of the shadow clone was clearly his own. It looked just like a blurred version of him.


    Why was Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone gray in color while his was ck? He had clearly copied the power straight from him, so could there be other differences?


    Ren Xiaosu started to nimbly manipte the shadow clone by moving it around within the pce. Then he realized that... the strength of the shadow clone seemed to be closely rted to that of his own strength. Even without any testing, Ren Xiaosu knew that this was a kind of connection on the mental level. It seemed like the shadow clone was formed straight from his mental willpower.


    The strength, speed, and even ¡°density¡± of this shadow clone were twice of what Ren Xiaosu had. It was no wonder it could even block bullets. A normal person could also block bullets, but they would die, while the shadow clone wouldn¡¯t.


    Through Ren Xiaosu¡¯s personal experimentation, he found the usage of the shadow clone was determined by the willpower he had. As long as he was full of vigor, he could continue using it.


    But Ren Xiaosu was a little curious about how something as vague as willpower could be calcted.


    He tried asking the pce, ¡°What¡¯s the level of my willpower?¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Since his master-level Wilderness Survival Proficiency could be determined, and his Strength and Dexterity attributes could also be determined, then why couldn¡¯t the pce determine the level of his willpower?


    Was there no criterion for determining one¡¯s willpower or was there some other reason for it?


    Since he could not get an answer for the time being, Ren Xiaosu did not dwell any further on it and went to sleep!


    But Ren Xiaosu had sort of figured out why Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone was gray while his was ck. His own body was stronger than Xu Xianchu¡¯s, so his shadow clone was denser!


    ...


    When the sunshine shone on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face in the morning, the first thing he did when he woke up was to look at the spot where he dumped the corpses. It surprised him that nothing had urred with the three corpses. It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin did not wake him up in the middle of the night to say something. So it turned out that nothing unusual had happened.


    It was good that nothing had happened. He couldn¡¯t constantly hope that something dangerous would happen to them, right?


    Then he turned his gaze back into the hollow and happened to meet Liu Bu¡¯s eyes. However, Liu Bu did not wear the arrogance he had from long ago when he first came out of the stronghold. He was starting to avoid looking at Ren Xiaosu.


    Liu Bu did not rest wellst night. He was someone who only knew how to bully the weak and fear the strong. When he learned that Ren Xiaosu was actually powerful, he started to panic a little.


    He could not help but feel anxious. He, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were all shocked to discover that even with so few people left on the team, everyone else were monsters, unlike the three of them.


    Xu Xianchu was already standing outside the hollow. He was thinking about something as he looked at the forest before him.


    When Ren Xiaosu walked beside Wang Lei, who was lying on the stretcher, Wang Lei flinched away from him. But how could he be faster than Ren Xiaosu?


    Ren Xiaosu lifted up his shirt and took a look at Wang Lei¡¯s stab wound created by Xu Xianchu. He said, ¡°Alright, you can get up now and walk on your own. The wound¡¯s already healed.¡±


    All of a sudden, Wang Lei realized that his wound did not hurt anymore. Could Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ck medicine really be that effective?!

 Chapter 70 - Storage rights

    <h4>Chapter 70: Storage rights</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When Xu Xianchu returned to the hollow, he saw Wang Lei inspecting his wound. He asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Do you still have any of that medicine?¡±


    With Wang Lei acting as the guinea pig, Xu Xianchu knew well how important that ck medicine was. If he sustained any injuries in the wilderness, his survival chances would greatly increase as long as he had the ck medicine with him!


    ¡°No,¡± Ren Xiaosu instinctively replied.


    ¡°I¡¯ll pay you for it...¡± Xu Xianchu said.


    ¡°In that case, I still have a little,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied. If it were for something else, he would probably not be willing to exchange it for money. After all, there was no use for money in the wilderness. However, the ck medicine was different.


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of a problem. ¡°Haven¡¯t you run out of money?¡±


    Xu Xianchu said, ¡°There was money on those three that you two killed, so I took it from them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt such a heart-wrenching pain that he couldn¡¯t breathe. He was too inexperienced! How could he not have searched the bodies?! How could he have made such an amateur mistake?!


    So it turned out that Xu Xianchu had gone outside to search the corpses just now. This guy was too good at waiting. He was afraid it would be dangerous during the night, so he waited until dawn before going outside.


    Ren Xiaosu said resentfully, ¡°That isn¡¯t your money! It¡¯s clearly my money! You have to at least share half of it with me!¡±


    Xu Xianchu gave it some thought and said, ¡°Money is of no use for me here. As long as you give me the ck medicine, I¡¯ll give all of the 8,000-plus yuan on me to you.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that those three had more than 8,000 yuan with them, the pain in his heart grew even greater.


    However, Ren Xiaosu carefully sized up Xu Xianchu. ¡®This guy really isn¡¯t greedy for money?¡¯ He took out the bottle of ck medicine, which was now half-used after it had been applied on Wang Lei, and handed it to Xu Xianchu. ¡°Money, please.¡±


    ¡°Here.¡± Xu Xianchu took all the money out and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. He even purposely turned his pants¡¯ pockets inside out to prove that he had no money left on him.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded in satisfaction. Although he did not know Xu Xianchu well, it felt like he was rather sincere through his actions on the journey thus far.


    And when Ren Xiaosu took the money from Xu Xianchu, the voice from his pce said, ¡°It has been detected that the host is carrying 20,000 yuan in cash. Basic storage rights have been unlocked for purchase.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu treated Wang Lei¡¯s wound, Wang Lei paid him 1,200 yuan. Then Luo Xinyu handed 10,000 yuan to him for his help. And now, he received a further 8,900 yuan from Xu Xianchu. Added together, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cash on hand reached 20,100 yuan.


    But Ren Xiaosu was astounded this time. Before this, he had been very anxious to unlock the pce¡¯s storage function, but the pce never once told him how to gain ess to it.


    He had guessed that he might have toplete a certain quest or side quest that was simr to unlocking the weapon.


    But never could he have imagined he would have to spend his own money to unlock the storage! ¡®As a virtual pce, why would you need money?!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu had never saved more than 10,000 yuan in his entire life before. But now that he had received close to 10,000 yuan from Xu Xianchu, he was going to have to spend it all again. This really felt like going back to square one.


    He had no choice but to spend the money! Ren Xiaosu knew very well how important it was to have a storage space in the wilderness. He clenched his teeth and said to his mind pce, ¡°Purchase it!¡±


    ¡°Purchase sessful. You¡¯ve unlocked basic storage rights.¡±


    At this moment, another door appeared in the pce and slowly opened. Then Ren Xiaosu saw a space measuring one cubic meter embedded in the middle of a wall behind it.


    ¡®What a scam! 20,000 yuan bought me such a small space? What did the pce say just now? Oh right, the basic storage rights have been unlocked.¡¯


    That meant he could still buy the intermediate, advanced, and so on and so forth grades of storage in the future? The space behind this door would probably getrger after more purchases and maybe even turn into an actual house?


    But how much money would he have to spend for that? Ren Xiaosu did not even know if he could make that much money in this lifetime!


    Ren Xiaosu had thought it impressive to earn 20,000 yuan!


    Ren Xiaosu felt it was bittersweet. Honestly, his harvest today was far greater than the previous days of the expeditionbined. He went outside and broke a tree branch off, then peeled off the bark and used the white stem inside to scrape his teeth clean. Although he could do without washing his face, he needed to keep his teeth feeling clean and fresh.


    To be able to live freely in this wilderness, you had to have good oral hygiene.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu discovered that Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu were also ¡°brushing¡± their teeth with the snapped off branches like he did. These two people had a very positive attitude regarding survival. They were learning from nearly everything Ren Xiaosu did.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly grabbed a handful of leaves and stuffed them into his pocket. As a result, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin also plucked a handful of leaves from the same type of tree and stuffed them into their pockets.


    As the saying goes: ¡°There will always be someone to learn from in a group of people.¡± When Xu Xianchu and the others realized that Ren Xiaosu had far more experience in wilderness survival than them, their first thoughts were to learn from him. Only by learning from Ren Xiaosu could they survive a little morefortably in this wilderness.


    But Xu Xianchu was a little curious. ¡°What use do these leaves have?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he took the leaves out and threw them away. ¡°They have no use. I only wanted to see if the two of you would copy what I did.¡±


    Xu Xianchu was surprised. He looked at Ren Xiaosu for a long time without saying anything. He stubbornly kept the leaves in his pocket and did not throw them away. He plucked the leaves because he wanted to pluck them and definitely not because he was copying Ren Xiaosu¡¯s actions!


    But Yang Xiaojin was different. She acted like no one was around and grabbed another handful of leaves and stuffed them into her pocket.


    The mental fortitude of Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu was obviously better than Luo Xinyu¡¯s and the others¡¯. After witnessing so many deathsst night, the three of them could still face their circumstances with calm. It was as though they did not take these matters to heart.


    But Luo Xinyu and the others could not do it. When Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu went out of the hollow to brush their teeth, Luo Xinyu and the others did not dare go out because they were scared of the three corpses lying outside.


    Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei had to calm themselves for half an hour before they finally dared toe out of the cave. They just couldn¡¯t understand why the others could stillugh after all that had happened.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get ready to set off.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°Although we don¡¯t know what dangers we might encounterter on, we can¡¯t stay here. Before it gets dark again, we have to find a suitable ce to set up camp for the night. I hope that no one is thinking of going around on their own anymore. After all, you¡¯ve all seen what happened to those who went by themselves.¡±


    They were now on the periphery of the Jing Mountains, and Ren Xiaosu could even see the ck smoke spewing from the active volcanoes in the range. The further they went in, the more dangerous it would get.


    ¡°Can y¡¯all say what exactly exists in the Jing Mountains?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, ¡°It could be the mystery of the wild animals¡¯ evolution that¡¯s hidden within or perhaps the origination of a new taxonomic order.¡±


    ¡°When you came out of the stronghold, did they tell you what the site that possibly existed there might be?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Xu Xianchu stopped hiding the information. ¡°A mysterious city.¡±

 Chapter 71 - Ren Xiaosu’s perfect skill

    <h4>Chapter 71: Ren Xiaosu¡¯s perfect skill</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When Ren Xiaosu listened in on Zhang Jinglin¡¯s lessons on top of the school walls, he had once heard Zhang Jinglin sharing some strange stories, including some that talked about ¡°disappearing cities.¡±


    Sometimes, when Ren Xiaosu remembered Zhang Jinglin, he would feel that he wasn¡¯t always a serious person. Whenever this teacher got tired of teaching, he would simply take a chair to the podium and sit down to share some interesting stories to fill the ss time.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that this was quite normal. After all, being the only teacher in town, it would be quite difficult for Zhang Jinglin to only talk about lessons all day.


    In the past, Mr. Zhang had told of an ancient city in the wilderness during one of his story sessions. The ancient city had been prosperous for some time but suddenly started declining for some reason. Zhang Jinglin said that it seemed like demons started appearing after the decline of the ancient city.


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu was tempted to say, ¡°Like hell I¡¯d believe that!¡± If he didn¡¯t want to teach the lesson, so be it. Why did he have to make up topics like demons and the such? How could there really be demons in this world?


    But Ren Xiaosu was a little convinced now.


    In fact, Zhang Jinglin should not be too old and was probably only in his thirties. Ren Xiaosu had heard from Wang Fugui before that Zhang Jinglin came from a different ce a long time ago. As for how long ago that was, no one could remember.


    Ren Xiaosu would sometimes question whether Zhang Jinglin was a resident of the stronghold before he became a refugee. How else could he know so many things? Even though some of the things that he said could have been made up...


    Now, when Xu Xianchu said that there was a mysterious city hidden within the Jing Mountains, Ren Xiaosu remembered what Zhang Jinglin had said. Then did that mean there were demons in the Jing Mountains?


    Ren Xiaosu asked Xu Xianchu, ¡°Did they talk about any other things?¡±


    Xu Xianchu thought it over carefully and said, ¡°I think Wang Congyang also found out from his sources right before we set off that this information about the Jing Mountains was not only exclusive to Stronghold 113. It seems that other teams are also on their way there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought that Xu Xianchu was going to reveal some secrets, but it turned out to only be this.


    ¡°Actually, be it the stronghold overseers or the corporations, they¡¯re all very interested in the evolution of these supernatural beings.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°You all should also know about the newly built psychiatric hospital in the stronghold, right? The supernatural beings are being studied not only because the overseers want to learn how to defend against them, but also because they intend to make use of them.¡±


    ¡°Can you talk more about these supernatural beings?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°As a supernatural being, you should be very concerned about this issue, right?¡±


    ¡°Supernatural beings...¡± Xu Xianchu pondered it before saying, ¡°Actually, supernatural beings existed since a long time ago. It was just that everyone regarded them as legends in the past. There¡¯s increased attention on them again these days because the supernatural beings have started appearing more frequently. There¡¯s even an extremely secretive organization of supernatural beings that has appeared in some ces.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°They even have an organization now?¡±


    The existence of such an organization would mean that the number of supernatural beings was not small.


    ¡°You guys might¡¯ve already heard about the event where a supernatural being tried to assassinate a stronghold overseer sometime back, right?¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°Wang Congyang told me that the supernatural being was from an organization called the ¡®Saboteurs,¡¯ or at least that¡¯s what that supernatural being imed.¡±


    ¡°Did he get caught?¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious.


    ¡°No.¡± Xu Xianchu shook his head. ¡°He¡¯s far more powerful than you can imagine. Nowadays, every major stronghold is targeting the supernatural beings. It seems that they¡¯re still assessing the danger ratings of these people, but I¡¯m not sure how they¡¯re being evaluated.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°Why do they have to fight to the death? Can¡¯t they just get along with one another?¡±


    He said so because he could sympathize with the situation. As Ren Xiaosu was also a supernatural being, and having to suddenly face thoserge organizations, he felt a little ufortable. Yang Xiaojin nced at him but did not say anything.


    Xu Xianchu sighed and said, ¡°I can¡¯t return to the stronghold anymore. If the people in the stronghold learn that I¡¯m a supernatural being, it¡¯ll end tragically for me.¡±


    Beside him, Liu Bu piped up, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t reveal your secret!¡±


    Honestly speaking, Liu Bu was a little worried that he would get silenced by Xu Xianchu. As such, he hurriedly expressed his stance on the matter.


    Xu Xianchu nced at Liu Bu without saying a word. It could be seen that he still held to his principles and would not do something like silencing someone.


    But who would believe Liu Bu¡¯s assurance? It would be beyond idiotic to trust him.


    Xu Xianchu gave Liu Bu the rare rebuttal. ¡°Of everyone here, you¡¯re the one who worries me the most!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Then you can go back if Liu Bu dies in an ident, right?¡±


    Liu Bu was stunned. How could he curse him like that? Liu Bu wanted to scold Ren Xiaosu but did not have the guts to do so!


    Xu Xianchu, who was standing off to the side, said with a sigh, ¡°You¡¯re also a supernatural being, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Huh?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered whether he had given himself away somehow and that had Yang Xiaojin noticed that something was up.


    Then Xu Xianchu said, ¡°You must have awakened your powers to annoy people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. But, Ren Xiaosu got a sudden inspiration. He said to the pce in his mind, ¡°Pce, do I have a skill to annoy people? What¡¯s my level of proficiency?¡±


    The voice from the pce calmly answered, ¡°Perfect.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    It was actually perfect!


    Ren Xiaosu had gasped in admiration at Yang Xiaojin when he found out that she had a perfect skill. But he did not expect himself to have one as well! Butparing his perfect skill with hers, what he had was bullshit! ¡®Pce, are you serious?!¡¯


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of himself also having a perfect skill, his balls ached. But it was nheless a perfect skill, so he was still kind of happy.


    Some people talked about how it wasn¡¯t easy to perfect a skill in life... but who could have expected that he would aplish it so early in life?


    Xu Xianchu cast a nce at the three corpses outside the hollow and finally said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. Whatever it is that lies in the Jing Mountains, I¡¯ll go and have a look at it myself.¡±


    This was what supernatural beings desired. Everyone used to think that what was said in the legends were unrealistic, but once they started closing in on the legends themselves, they would develop a desire for the world atrge.


    It was the same for Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu too.


    Xu Xianchu said, ¡°I don¡¯t know if you guys have ever read a book called Journey to the West. I¡¯ve seen it in a library at the stronghold. When I read in the book that someone could lift a cudgel weighing 13,500 catties, I found it unbelievable. But these days, I kinda wonder if the characters in the book could possibly exist in this world. The book said the cudgel was so powerful it could crush mountains.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it and said, ¡°I¡¯ve nevere across the book you just mentioned as the school in town doesn¡¯t carry it. But I have an issue with it if you say that a cudgel weighing 13,500 catties can crush mountains. That works out to only be around six tons. The tractors at the factory outside town can already bear a load of ten tons. Even if they went over the limit by a little and carried two of those cudgels, it wouldn¡¯t be an issue at all.¡±


    Xu Xianchu took a deep breath before he turned around and walked towards the forest. He was about to head into the unknown Jing Mountains.

 Chapter 72 - Ghost

    <h4>Chapter 72: Ghost</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    After they went into the forest, Ren Xiaosu paid close attention to any signs of a struggle, as the mystery of the two missing soldiers fromst night remained unsolved. Ren Xiaosu wanted to know what exactly happened to them.


    The heavy rain had washed away both of their footprints, which made it very difficult for Ren Xiaosu to locate their tracks.


    Without any footprints, he could only examine the leaves and branches in the surroundings.


    As the forest was extremely dense, thick bushes could be found everywhere under the huge canopies. If the two of them had passed through the forest, they would definitely break some branches along the way. This was something that would not get washed away by the rain.


    Ren Xiaosu followed the path of some slightly broken branches, but the trail onlysted a few dozen meters before vanishing.


    When Xu Xianchu realized that Ren Xiaosu was looking for something, he asked, ¡°Found anything yet?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°They didn¡¯t go any further than this. Their tracks abruptly stopped over here.¡±


    The two of them must have been terrified, so they shouldn¡¯t have ventured too far away from the hollow. However, something here did not make any sense. The two of them were just barely more than ten meters out from the hollow at the time. If an ident had happened here, those of us in the hollow should have heard it.


    Even if there the sound of the rain was muffling it at the time!


    So the most probable reason was that, when they came here to relieve themselves, they encountered something that caught them so off guard that they didn¡¯t even have the chance to make a sound!


    When Ren Xiaosu looked at the trees in the surrounding area, he found that not a single tree had bark torn off the tree trunks. There were no traces of fighting or struggle, nothing at all.


    What was truly scary here was the fear of the unknown.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°In such circumstances, we need to find an even safer ce to set up camp. We have to do that even if we have to end the day¡¯s journey earlier than scheduled.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu agreed with Xu Xianchu¡¯s point of view. ¡°It¡¯s best if we can find a cave simr to the hollow fromst night. Although we don¡¯t know what happened, we were safe in the hollow. So I think it¡¯s better to find a simr cave to set up camp tonight.¡±


    The sky had not cleared up yet after the rain, so it could still rain again afterwards. As the saying went, ¡°A cold spelles after the autumn rain.¡± The rain had also staved off the sweltering heat caused by the volcanic activity.


    The group of people walked through the forest with extreme difficulty. Ren Xiaosu suggested to Xu Xianchu to try his best to take a path where there were no puddles. In the current era where ants could grow to asrge as a human finger pad, and face bugs were even a freaking thing, encountering something like leeches now might just get someone killed.


    The clothes they were wearing could not protect them from a leech¡¯s bite.


    ¡°I wonder how the bugs grew to such arge size?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Just what are those face bugs, really?¡±


    Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Whatever they are, those face bugs shouldn¡¯t be able to surpass the limitations of being an insect, right? Their body structure ensures that they can¡¯t grow to arge size like mammals since the supply of oxygen just wouldn¡¯t allow for something like that to happen. That¡¯s why I suspect the proportion of oxygen in the air here is very high, which has allowed them to grow to the size they are. Have you guys noticed it yet? Even though we¡¯re fatigued physically, our minds are in fine shape, and we can still think clearly. This definitely has something to do with the increased amount of oxygen we¡¯re breathing.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu listened to Xu Xianchu¡¯s analysis, he found that it sounded quite reasonable. It was not only due to the lifeforms here evolving, there was also some scientific reasoning involved.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised. ¡°Is it because the nt life here is also mutating and evolving that it increased the oxygen levels? The vegetation near the stronghold has also started thriving a little. In that case, will there also be incidents of insect infestations in the future?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s very possible,¡± Xu Xianchu said.


    Everyone¡¯s difference in stamina became obvious as they continued to advance. It was a cakewalk for Ren Xiaosu. With his current stamina, he could easily trek through the forest without losing strength and not feel tired at all.


    Although Xu Xianchu was a supernatural being, his physical fitness did not seem to have improved much. Xu Xianchu himself also admitted that his physical fitness had only started to enhance after bing a supernatural being.


    But it seemed like this was a slow process. As such, Xu Xianchu¡¯s physical fitness was not so good that it could be on par with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s.


    Xu Xianchu said, ¡°Ever since my power awakened and I became a supernatural being, I realized that every time I push my body to its limits in training, my physical fitness gets raised further.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if that was really true. Could he also try that out in the future? But he would have to wait until he got back to the town for that. Pushing himself to his limits out here would probably spell an earlier end for him.


    Meanwhile, Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were all in miserable states as their clothes were getting a little ragged. When they came out of the stronghold, they were all prim and proper. But now, their faces had be almost as dirty as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s.


    But they did not dare to fall behind since they were afraid that Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin would not wait for them. If that happened, there would only be death waiting for them.


    The person that surprised Ren Xiaosu the most was Yang Xiaojin. He realized that she also looked a little tired now, but her endurance was still much better than Xu Xianchu¡¯s.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw a shadow clone emerge from Xu Xianchu¡¯s body. Ren Xiaosu thought that Xu Xianchu was reacting to some kind of danger, so he immediately went alert.


    However, he saw Xu Xianchu climb onto the back of his shadow clone like no one was watching. He intended to take a piggyback ride on it!


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. ¡®Hey, that¡¯s fucking cheating!¡¯


    Ever since Xu Xianchu exposed himself as a supernatural being, he was getting more and more fond of using his power openly. As he was used to keeping it hidden, there were even times when he could not remember that he could use its power.


    The physical fitness of this shadow clone was twice of Xu Xianchu¡¯s own physical fitness. It could walk in the forest like it was walking on t ground. If not for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reluctance to expose the fact he had copied Xu Xianchu¡¯s Shadow Clone, he would have used it to carry him as well!


    Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were almost driven to despair. It was really frustrating to be drawn intoparisons with other people. Why couldn¡¯t they also have their own powers awakened so that they could be supernatural beings as well?!


    Suddenly, Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone stopped in front of them. This time, Ren Xiaosu got really nervous because he noticed Xu Xianchu¡¯s muscles tensing up just like a puffed up cat would!


    They saw Xu Xianchu slowly get off from the back of the shadow clone to prevent himself from slowing it down. Then he whispered, ¡°Everyone, look ahead.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked into the obscure and gloomy forest in front of him. Through the dense foliage of the forest, it seemed like there was something white lingering in front of them.


    ¡°W-What is that?¡± Liu Bu asked, trembling. While he asked that question, he subconsciously moved behind Luo Xinyu and Wang Lei, hiding all the way at the back of the team.


    Xu Xianchu scrutinized it. He hesitated for a while before saying, ¡°Look, doesn¡¯t that white figure look like a woman in white scratching a tree?¡±


    As the sight was so eerie, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hair stood on end!

 Chapter 73 - A Pre-Cataclysm civilization

    <h4>Chapter 73: A Pre-Cataclysm civilization</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    In the gloomy forest, the rustling leaves seemed to suggest that there were some horrible creatures shuttling through the canopies. Everyone held their breaths as they kept their eyes on that strange, white figure in front of them. It was as though they were afraid that their ¡°aura¡± would provoke it into attacking them.


    Why was there a woman scratching a tree with her back facing them in a ce like this? Nobody could understand it.


    But the more they couldn¡¯t exin it, the greater their fears.


    Next to him, Ren Xiaosu found that Yang Xiaojin looked very nervous for the first time. He could see her pursing her lips while her knuckles turned white from gripping the gun so tightly.


    Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone was standing right in front of him. It seemed that it was guarding against the woman in white in case she suddenly pounced at him. But in reality, that woman was still dozens of meters away from them.


    ¡°Should we take a detour?¡± Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°She might not follow us.¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, a strong wind gusted through the forest, and the woman in white seemed to float up.


    Xu Xianchu clenched his teeth and said, ¡°We can¡¯t avoid it. If something like a ghost can stop us here in our tracks, how do you expect to get to the Jing Mountains?!¡±


    Xu Xianchu thenmanded his shadow clone to move towards the woman in white as he followed closely. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin gave each other a look. They did not expect Xu Xianchu to be so brave in this situation.


    Some people tended to make outrageous ims in normal times but would get timid, nervous, or scared in the face of something serious. Others were different. The more dangerous a situation, the calmer they would be. There was a kind of ferocity embedded in their bones!


    ¡°Let¡¯s catch up,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin tacitly followed Xu Xianchu. As they were all in the same boat now, they couldn¡¯t let Xu Xianchu take on the risks by himself.


    Liu Bu was trembling as he said, ¡°What should we do? Should we follow them?¡±


    ¡°But what if something else like that also appears beside us?¡± Luo Xinyu said in fear. After that, she caught up to them with Wang Lei following close behind.


    Seeing that he was all alone, Liu Bu got even more frightened. He whispered, ¡°Wait for me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said to Xu Xianchu from behind, ¡°Once you find that you¡¯re no match for her, restrict her movements with your shadow clone and buy us some time so that we can concentrate our firepower on her.¡±


    Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin were all carrying guns. On the surface, this was the strongest direct form of attack they had. If this woman in white turned out to be unafraid of bullets, there was nothing more they could do!


    Xu Xianchu answered softly, ¡°OK... watch my back, and pay close attention to the surroundings.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Perhaps the people in the stronghold had not experienced life like those who lived in town, so they were more trusting of others than the refugees.


    Living in town, there was even a need for someone to keep watch at night while they slept. People who grew up in such an environment would never ask someone they barely knew to watch their backs.


    Was that the difference between the town and the stronghold?


    The three of them cautiously approached the woman in white. However, a strange feeling grew inside them the closer they approached.


    Ren Xiaosu was initially crouching because this posture was the easiest for him to make a move. In the end, he slowly straightened up as he stood and said, ¡°What the hell is this?¡±


    Xu Xianchu was also confused. Hemanded his shadow clone as it swayed towards the ¡°woman in white¡± and ¡°plucked¡± her down from the tree.


    It was a... tattered, stic, female doll, the type that looked intable.


    ¡°Uh...¡± Ren Xiaosu walked beside Xu Xianchu and looked at it for some time. ¡°What is this thing?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Xu Xianchu said, shaking his head. As they had never seen this thing before, they all expressed theirck of knowledge. ¡°But it looks to be in terrible condition.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Is this not something from the stronghold?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen it before in the stronghold,¡± Xu Xianchu denied again.


    Everyone did not know whether tough or cry as they wondered what this doll was. They were just frightened by something as crappy as it! It wasn¡¯t until they got close to it that they realized something was off!


    ¡°Wait a minute, there¡¯s something else under the tree.¡± Ren Xiaosu happened to spot a metallic box that was caught within the knotted tree roots.


    Ren Xiaosu took his dagger and poked the rusty box. As a result, the metallic box, which was already badly corroded, crumbled the moment the dagger touched it slightly.


    The metallic box contained several light-red pieces of paper. When the metallic box crumbled, the pieces of paper also turned into powder along with it. In the blink of an eye, only one item was left from inside the metallic box.


    It was a piece of green stic. Rather, it was a piece of green paper wrapped between two stic sheets. The green paper had mysterious twisting and turning patterns, not unlike tadpoles, printed on it.


    ¡°This...¡± Xu Xianchu was stunned as he looked at the ¡°stic sheet¡± in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. ¡°Could this be something that was left behind by human civilization from before The Cataclysm? And that stic doll too? It takes several hundred years for stics to fully dpose, even if they¡¯re buried underground. So while everything else has already dposed, this thing was preserved.¡±


    ¡°But what¡¯s this strange pattern on it? Is it hiding some kind of a secret?¡± Yang Xiaojin frowned and wondered about it.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you all think it looks like a map?¡± At this moment, Liu Bu and the two who had rushed over said, ¡°These symbols contained within the square grid are turning in all sorts of different directions. It looks just like a maze!¡±


    Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Could this be a map of that mysterious city in the Jing Mountains?!¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Luo Xinyu said, ¡°Look, there are some words on it.¡±


    Due to the dposition, the stic sheet had discolored and yellowed. But after Luo Xinyu¡¯s observation, they took notice and saw a small line of words below the mysterious pattern.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully read aloud, ¡°Please scan the QR code for payment?¡±


    The group was confused. ¡°What¡¯s a QR code? Who do we pay it to?¡±


    ¡°What? We still have to pay to get through the maze?¡±


    Because knowledge of civilization had be lost through the generations, nobody knew how some things worked during the Pre-Cataclysm times. Some of these practices had been abandoned by humans because they had no use for them, while others were forgotten during the Dark Age of Survival.


    No one had seen these things in the stronghold or town before, so its function had be a mystery.


    In any case, it was not a map of a maze.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu. ¡°Are you sure there¡¯s a mysterious city in that ce? Can the mystery of the evolution really be found there?¡±


    ¡°If not, how do you exin the current changes urring in the Jing Mountains?¡± Xu Xianchu asked.


    ¡°Indeed...¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The mountains are always full of secrets, but I keep getting the feeling that the city might not be that mysterious....¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, we¡¯ll only find out after we see it for ourselves.¡± Xu Xianchu carefully ced the QR code into his breast pocket as though he was afraid of damaging it.


    ¡°Should we take this tattered doll with us?¡± Liu Bu asked.


    ¡°Just bring it along, I guess. Who knows if it¡¯ll be useful or not?¡± Xu Xianchu said.

 Chapter 74 - Pyro

    <h4>Chapter 74: Pyro</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Of course, Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin were not willing to carry the tattered doll with them. And since the question of whether to take the doll along with them was brought up by Liu Bu, he was automatically tasked with the responsibility of carrying it.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu andpany didn¡¯t think the doll would be of any use to them. Although no one knew what usage it served before The Cataclysm, they were not dumb either.


    But since they didn¡¯t have to carry the doll themselves, it wouldn¡¯t trouble them to bring it along.


    As such, Liu Bu felt miserable the entire way. Even though he was exhausted, he still had to carry that tattered doll around with care.


    The worst thing was that all of them had not eaten yet today.


    Xu Xianchu suddenly stopped walking. Xu Xianchu could barely take it for much longer, let alone Liu BU, Luo XInyu, and Wang Lei. He turned around and said, ¡°Everyone, let¡¯s find some pine trees to pluck pine cones from. We¡¯ll eat something first before we continue on our journey.¡±


    Based on Xu Xianchu and the others¡¯ wilderness survival lessons thus far, they had only learned the extent of plucking pine cones to fill their stomachs. In reality, these pine cones were incredibly difficult to peel and had very few nuts in them.


    The pine nuts they could retrieve from arge pine tree wouldn¡¯t even be enough to fill their stomachs, but what else could they have if they did not eat this? They could only look at Ren Xiaosu, who did not seem to care about them at all.


    They saw him take his dagger and cut into an unidentified tree next to him. Then a white, milky sap started flowing out of the incision he made. Xu Xianchu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Can you drink that?¡±


    The others also looked over in surprise. However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°The majority of the milky saps that can be found in the forest are undrinkable because there¡¯s a high chance of getting poisoned if you do.¡±


    Xu Xianchu wondered, ¡°Then why did you make an incision to get the sap?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m applying it onto my dagger,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, as though it were a matter of course.


    The others immediately wondered what kind of person he was. He actually thought of applying poison onto his dagger? What a treacherous person!


    But they did not dare to despise Ren Xiaosu¡¯s treachery. After all, they had been depending on him too much for the entire journey. If any of them were to get injured, they could only rely on him to suture their wounds together and apply the ck medicine for them.


    Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei still had some money left on them in case of any emergencies that would require Ren Xiaosu to save them.


    They had already realized that having money might mean keeping their lives with Ren Xiaosu around.


    If they offended Ren Xiaosu at this time, he would probably still be willing to treat their wounds if they paid him money. But who knew if Ren Xiaosu might end up having an extra kidney in his hand after suturing up their wounds? If that happened, what could they do?


    While Liu Bu was plucking pine cones, he identally fell out of the tree. But luckily for him, it did not hurt as the ground was covered with soft pine needles that cushioned his fall.


    He got so emotional that he nearly broke down. ¡°This is all the wolves¡¯ fault. Didn¡¯t they say in the stronghold that the wolves had run off to another mountain range? Why did they suddenly reappear here?! If not for those wolves, we might¡¯ve already gotten back to the stronghold! It¡¯s just as the proverb says, ¡® The Wolf and the Bei make mischief. <sup>1</sup> ¡® Wolves were never good to start off with!¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu disagreed this time. ¡°I¡¯ve also heard that proverb before, but have you seen an actual bei before?¡±


    The others were stunned. ¡°Isn¡¯t the bei an animal that clings onto a wolf¡¯s behind? This proverb says that the wolves and bei work together to catch livestock by using their forelegs and hind legs respectively. It means that they collude <sup>1</sup> with each other to do bad things.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°That¡¯s what Mr. Zhang said in school, but my question remains, has anyone ever seen a bei before?¡±


    Liu Bu was stunned. He muttered, ¡°How could we see one if we live in the stronghold?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen one before.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It was among the wolf pack that chased us into the canyon. When I encountered themst year, I saw a bei with them.¡±


    ¡°What does a bei look like?¡± someone asked with curiosity.


    ¡°The bei is actually a wolf as well.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°It¡¯s just that its forelegs could no longer move after it got caught in a hunter¡¯s trap. So the other wolves carried it around on their backs and helped it continue living.¡±


    Xu Xianchu and the others were startled. They had learned the proverb ¡°the Wolf and the Bei make mischief¡± during their school days in the stronghold. The teacher told them then that the wolves and bei were both evil. They were even taught which insects were beneficial and which were pests.


    But Ren Xiaosu, who had ventured into the wilderness, did not think that way. He heard from Zhang Jinglin that the nomads of the grasnds used to worship wolves. Back then, he wasn¡¯t allowed to attend lessons in the school, so he asked Yan Liuyuan to help him ask a question. ¡°Aren¡¯t wolves harmful to livestock? Why did the nomads worship wolves?¡±


    Mr. Zhang replied with a question. ¡°Are the wolves at fault?¡±


    True, wolves eat sheep and sheep eat grass. Neither was in the wrong. This is the order of the food chain and this is what they were born to be.


    Although wolves were harmful to humans, they would never abandon their disabled counterparts. Would a human do that? Just how many people had died due to the disregard shown by theirpanions during this expedition to the Jing Mountains?


    It was not that they were in the wrong, but Ren Xiaosu sometimes envied the wolves. At least when something happened, they would not get left behind mercilessly.


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t care what the rest of them thought. He started digging up the soil at the roots of the pine tree with his dagger and said, ¡°Don¡¯t clear the piles of leaves with your bare hands in the wilderness because there might be scorpions, centipedes, or poisonous snakes hidden in them. If you disturb them, it¡¯ll lead to your death.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu did not find any scorpions or the like, he was a little disappointed. After all, roasted scorpions tasted rather good. Ren Xiaosu wondered if he should deliberately try to catch some scorpions and centipedes to eat for dinner.


    As he was thinking about it, he dug out some of the pine tree¡¯s roots. ¡°If y¡¯all feel that the pine cones are not filling enough, you can cook the pine roots to eat for dinner.¡±


    The others looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. It seemed like everything was edible in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes. It still wasn¡¯t too bad when they were told to eat the pine nuts. But now, he was even telling them they could eat the pine roots?


    ¡®Is this even food? This is more like building materials, alright?!¡¯


    But Ren Xiaosu did not mind. He had eaten so many things in the wilderness over the years that other people thought were inedible.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu thought of a question. ¡°Are there any simr ces like the Jing Mountains near the other strongholds? I¡¯m talking about those ces that experienced a sudden mutation and evolution of their lifeforms.¡±


    Xu Xianchu was silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s already under the control of the Pyro Company.¡±


    ¡°The Pyro Company?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why haven¡¯t I heard of it before? Which of the organizations does it fall under?¡±


    ¡°None, it¡¯s an independent corporation with more than 20 strongholds under its control.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°But they¡¯re quite far away from our Stronghold 113, so it¡¯s normal that you haven¡¯t heard of them before.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the ce controlled by the Pyro Company like?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Xu Xianchu looked embarrassed. That seemed to be the extent of his knowledge. Instead, it was Yang Xiaojin who spoke up. ¡°That ce the Pyro Company controls are very mysterious. Someone mentioned that they¡¯d seen huge prehistoric birds flying over the skies there, but the Pyro Company has such a powerful military that it managed to gain control of that ce. Perhaps only the core personnel of the Pyro Company know what really happened there.¡±

 Chapter 75 - Prehistoric birds

    <h4>Chapter 75: Prehistoric birds</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Yang Xiaojin talking about the Pyro Company, he quickly processed what she said. That was because a lot of information was contained within that short passage of words.


    Xu Xianchu obviously did not know this information about the Pyro Company. That was to say, Yang Xiaojin had far surpassed Xu Xianchu, who was a soldier of the private army, in terms of gathering intelligence.


    Moreover, Yang Xiaojin had mentioned, ¡°Perhaps only the core personnel of the Pyro Company know what really happened there.¡± Why was she so sure that only the core personnel knew about it rather than the entire Pyro Company? Yang Xiaojin must have sought out information from some of the Pyro Company¡¯s members before but to no avail.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin couldn¡¯t have managed that alone. It was just like how he didn¡¯t know how many strongholds had been built by humans until now, with the highest number that he had ever heard of being Stronghold 178.


    He did not know about the Pyro Company, nor how many organizations were out there. To be able to understand the overall situation of the world in this era wheremunications infrastructure was underdeveloped, she had to have an organization behind her!


    Therefore, Yang Xiaojin must belong to an organization. As for which organization she belonged to, nobody knew.


    Ren Xiaosu was someone who liked learning and contemtion a lot. At this moment, Yang Xiaojin stopped talking when she noticed that Ren Xiaosu was deep in thought. Yang Xiaojin was not stupid. She realized that Ren Xiaosu was analyzing the information she had just said.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Are these the only two known locations with mysterious activities happening?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. ¡°There will be more and more of such ces.¡±


    In the afternoon, everyone was showing signs of fatigue except for Ren Xiaosu. As Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were only normal people, their soles had already started blistering. However, they did not dare to fall behind or ask if they could take a rest.


    Ren Xiaosu finished a bottle of water and then refilled it in a shallow stream. As the other three did not have any containers with them, they had to find somerge leaves to hold the water.


    In front, Xu Xianchu had a canteen while Yang Xiaojin had a bottle of water hidden on her too. As for Ren Xiaosu, needless to say, he not only had a water bottle, there was even the metal cup he¡¯d brought from home.


    However, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei did not have any containers. As such, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu were strolling ahead of them with their hands swinging about. Meanwhile, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei each held a leaf in their hands as they followed them and looked pretty pathetic.


    When they were getting water, Ren Xiaosu expressly instructed, ¡°Y¡¯all can¡¯t go near the deep end. Just get water from the streams. Once you get it, leave A-SAP.¡±


    When Xu Xianchu mentioned the prehistoric birds had appeared in the ce controlled by the Pyro Company, he remembered the dark shadow in the river he encountered when he was catching fish!


    It was a creature that even other fishes in the water were afraid of. Ren Xiaosu even regretted that he didn¡¯t catch a glimpse of what it really was.


    At dusk, they finally found a new cave to settle in, but it was tiny this time. It was a little crowded with six people sitting inside, but they had no choice. The forest was too scary at night.


    When they huddled together to keep themselves warm over a fire, everyone felt a rare sense of security. Perhaps humans would only realize the importance ofpanionship during moments like this.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully checked the inside of the cave to look for any traces left behind by humans, such as inscriptions like the ones left in the hollowst night. Unfortunately, he could not find any traces of that here.


    Xu Xianchu instructed, ¡°If anyone wants to relieve themselves, it will be best not to head into the forest in case of idents. If thedies want to relieve themselves, we¡¯ll just turn our heads the other way. The two of you can take turns to watch over us to make sure we¡¯re not peeking. This is also for the sake of everyone¡¯s safety.¡±


    As the group chewed on the cooked pine roots, Liu Bu remembered the aroma of the roasted boar from before and joked to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Why don¡¯t you make another wish? Wouldn¡¯t it be great if another animal ran into a tree?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped at him, ¡°Why don¡¯t you wish for it yourself then?¡±


    He wouldn¡¯t sacrifice Yan Liuyuan¡¯s health in exchange for food for himself. This pine root tasted just like celery anyway and was not too difficult to swallow either.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu was paying great attention to what he said since he was afraid of causing harm to Yan Liuyuan at home.


    After getting rebuked by Ren Xiaosu, Liu Bu felt a little embarrassed. ¡°Come on, it was just a joke. I would have wished for it a long time ago if it were effective. If I wished for a wild animal to get presented to us, do you really think that a wild animal would really get presented to us?¡±


    But at this moment, they heard a strange sounding from the forest outside the cave. It sounded like there was a lot of movement.


    Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu instinctively picked up their guns upon hearing the sounds. The next second, three boars, two wildcats, two snakes, and seven monkeys scattered out of the forest.


    The wildcats already looked the size of the leopards found in the schoolbooks, not to mention the size of the boars! The monkeys were nearly as tall as humans, and if they stood upright, they would probably be 1.6 meters tall!


    Ren Xiaosu was quite sure this was not caused by Yan Liuyuan¡¯s luck from making a wish. With all of these animals put together, they would probably be more than enough to kill the six of them. This should not fucking be considered good luck!


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at the wild animals and said, ¡°Liu Bu, is your mouth fucking jinxed?!¡±


    Liu Bu was nearly in tears. ¡°I was just saying...¡±


    The wild animals and humans were caught in a deadlock. It seemed that the wild animals had not expected anyone to be in here either. Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and whispered, ¡°Liu Bu, go tell them that we¡¯re vegetarians today so they can leave.¡±


    Liu Bu burst into tears. He looked at the pack of wild animals outside the cave and said, ¡°Would my words be effective? Hey, you all there, please leave!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was just kidding. But after Liu Bu said ¡°please leave,¡± those wild animals actually turned around and ran in another direction.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu felt that he could defeat them. Although pistols would barely cause any substantial harm to these animals, he still had a ¡°shadow clone¡± as his greatest trump card.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not want to get exposed. As soon as his shadow clone appeared, Xu Xianchu and the others would know that he could copy other people¡¯s powers. It would be difficult to say what kind of consequences there would be.


    Moreover, the Shadow Clone he copied turned out to be even stronger than Xu Xianchu¡¯s, so that wouldn¡¯t make him look good either!


    Ren Xiaosu looked back at Liu Bu in surprise. ¡®Did this guy awaken his skill of luck just like Yan Liuyuan had?! That¡¯s not it!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu looked back to the forest and said, ¡°What drove those wild animals out here to where we are?! Wild animals shouldn¡¯t get along this well. They neither attacked each other nor attacked us. That means something even more terrifying is oppressing them inside the forest. They intended to take refuge in this cave!¡±


    ¡°It seems like that¡¯s really it.¡± Xu Xianchu nodded and said, ¡°But because we¡¯ve already upied the cave, they have no choice but to go elsewhere.¡±


    ¡°Do y¡¯all remember? Some strangemotions came from the forest yesterday evening as well, but whatever made that noise went away before it showed itself. I assumed that whatever made that sound was the source of the danger. But now that I think about it, it might¡¯ve been animals searching for a cave to seek refuge in,¡± Ren Xiaosu recalled. ¡°Just what¡¯s in this forest that made these ¡®natives¡¯ stay away from their own territory and cause the different species to get along with each other?¡±

 Chapter 76 - Chains

    <h4>Chapter 76: Chains</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    They had all been relieved when they found a cave to settle in for the night. However, no one thought something unexpected would soon happen.


    ¡°Should we hide elsewhere?¡± Someone whispered, ¡°What if something dashes out of the forest?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to go elsewhere.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°The animals obviously wanted to hide in here but we already upied the spot. Just this point alone proves that the cave we¡¯re in should be safe enough.¡±


    ¡°Just what could they be avoiding?¡± Liu Bu wondered.


    Xu Xianchu looked at the forest outside the cave. ¡°They might be trying to avoid the forest. Or more specifically, the forest at night.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I think so too. Animals are far more alert to danger than humans because of their instincts. Do y¡¯all remember? When we passed through the canyon, we saw some human skeletons lying there. But since we entered the forest, we did not see any skeletons of animals. That¡¯s unusual.¡±


    ¡°As long as it¡¯s a living creature, it will live and die. How is it possible that we didn¡¯t even see the skeletal remains of an animal?¡± Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°I had dumped some fish scraps and bones in the forest south of the canyon. But when I went to check on it the next morning, I found that they¡¯d already disappeared. There were no traces of it being moved away in the surrounding area. It just disappeared in the same way as Xu Xia¡¯s corpse had. There¡¯s one thing inmon about these missing skeletal remains and the corpse, which is that they were in the forest at the time.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Xu Xianchu nodded. ¡°Besides, these creatures show that they¡¯re really afraid of the forest, so it¡¯s clear that it¡¯s fishy.¡±


    A forest that eats living creatures...


    The others gazed into the forest and started wondering if the botanical life had also started evolving after the animals had evolved.


    Xu Xianchuforted, ¡°But actually, this is a good thing. Now that we¡¯ve identified a pattern, we can take precautions.¡±


    When an unknown fear bes known, and when you can even understand the logic behind it, that fearful feeling will lessen.


    That¡¯s right, as long as no one entered the forest at night, everything should be fine.


    Thinking of this, their fear from earlier dispersed a little. Wang Lei smiled and said, ¡°Then we must find a ce far away from the forest to set up camp before nightfall.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°We need to be careful not only at night but also during the day. We don¡¯t know whether these animals and nts have evolved to the stage where they might even eat people during the day.¡±


    ¡°Then we¡¯ll just walk along the sparser areas of the mountain ridges!¡± Xu Xianchu made the final decision.


    Everyone went back to chewing on the pine roots before someone asked, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, how did you discover that pine roots are edible?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t discover it myself. Someone in town mentioned it before,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he calmly added more firewood to the campfire.


    Liu Bu was looking to ease his rtionship with Ren Xiaosu, so he quickly praised, ¡°You townspeople know so much about the wilderness. This is truly humanity¡¯s wisdom!¡±


    Liu Bu did not know how he should praise him, so he came up with something random for the sake of praise.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not quite agree with his statement. He looked at him and said, ¡°That¡¯s not wisdom. Who would be willing to eat pine roots if they had proper food to eat? The townspeople have long said pine roots are edible. When I first heard it, I imagined just how many people died of hunger in the past.¡±


    In an era where refugees might not even be able to survive until the next day, everything they did would be rted to their survival.


    Liu Bu had only wanted to pepper him with some good words, but he ended up falling into an even more embarrassing situation.


    Luo Xinyu eased the tension. ¡°Why are the wild animals gettingrger in size but not humans? Instead, we¡¯re evolving into supernatural beings like Xu Xianchu.¡±


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because humans evolve in a different way.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°From the ancient times to the present day, humans have always been evolving their brainpower.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ve heard another exnation. Last year, I had some doubts after I escaped from the wolves, so I asked Mr. Zhang from the school about it. He said to me, ¡®Some living creatures in nature can develop strong muscles without the need for much exercise. There used to be a species of animal called the chimpanzee that was caged by humans in the past. Even if they just ate and slept every day, they would still develop greater muscle mass than humans. But if humans only ate and slept every day, their muscles would end up shrinking.¡¯¡±


    Yang Xiaojin spoke, ¡°That Mr. Zhang from your school is no normal person.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know how Yang Xiaojin passed that judgment. He did not know if Zhang Jinglin was a normal person, but he knew he was a good person.


    He continued, ¡°Mr. Zhang mentioned that there¡¯s a gene in the human body that restricts muscle development, and that gene has been evolving as humans get smarter and smarter. He said that it¡¯s the price to pay for wisdom.¡±


    Everyone got lost in thought as though that were really the case. People among them from the upper ss liked exercising to lose weight, and it even became a trend among them. This activity was especially popr two years ago.


    Even Liu Bu participated in such activities by joining the trend to fit in with the upper ss, but heter realized how difficult it was to gain any muscles through exercising.


    But suddenly, Yang Xiaojin poured cold water on Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯ve seen a supernatural being with an evolved build before, so how do you exin that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He pondered it before saying, ¡°Could his ancestors have had an illicit rtionship with a wild animal?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was speechless. Xu Xianchu was speechless. Liu Bu was speechless.


    Everyone was speechless as they looked at Ren Xiaosu. This turned into a fucking insult!


    Luo Xinyu suddenly became interested in this topic. ¡°That Mr. Zhang from your school seems outstanding. He must be very knowledgeable, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and answered, ¡°He¡¯s quite knowledgeable, but when he encounters a subject he doesn¡¯t understand during ss, he just bluffs his way through.¡±


    ¡°Does he usually read books to brush up on his knowledge when he has free time? There are also such people in the stronghold.¡± Luo Xinyu said, ¡°Those people are all very smart.¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°He just nts vegetables in the school yard when he has free time.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was speechless for a while. Why were the majority of things in town so different from what she expected?


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that Zhang Jinglin was quite good in this way. He studied hard but not overzealously. Even though he was very knowledgeable, he would still do manualbor like hoeing.


    All of sudden, everyone heard the rattling of chains being dragged on the grounding from the forest.


    When the chains collided with the ground, a sharp rattle could be heard. The creator of the sound seemed to be crawling the forest grounds and patrolling its territory.


    Ren Xiaosu and the others felt chills running up their spines. How could there still be a living creature walking through the forest at this time of night? Could their previous assessment of the situation be wrong?


    Were those animals not trying to avoid the forest?!

 Chapter 77 - The Qing Consortium

    <h4>Chapter 77: The Qing Consortium</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Earlier, everyone was chatting happily because they thought that they had discovered the secret of the forest: As long as they stayed away from it, they would be safe at night.


    But what was going on now? The rattling of the chains being dragged was getting closer and closer. What creature would move around while dragging chains? Had it been chained up but broken free somehow?


    Just what sort of a ce was the Jing Mountains? Why was there such weird happenings here?


    That rattling of the chains being dragged seemed to be attracted by the light in the cave. It slowly came towards the edge of the forest.


    Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu each disengaged the safety on their guns and were prepared to shoot in the direction of the sound.


    Almost instantaneously, Yang Xiaojin realized that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s handling of the gun was too professional and even looked a little familiar!


    This familiarity was somewhat baffling, but it made her feel extraordinarilyfortable. It was like how patients with obsessivepulsive disorders felt after finally properly cing blocks of wood in front of themselves.


    But right now, she did not have time to think about that. This was because the owner of the chains had crawled to the edge of the forest.


    The people in the cave were straining to see what it was, but the other party kept itself hidden in the darkness and never showed itself.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard a dripping sound from the forest, he felt nauseous as he realized it was the other party¡¯s saliva that was dripping onto the leaves on the forest floor!


    ¡°The moment it shows up, shoot it.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°Our firepower will be quick enough to cover all of the directions that it can rush into the cave from. Then I¡¯llmand my shadow clone to subdue it.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered softly. He thought, ¡®If the creature turns out to be too strong, I won¡¯t care about hiding my shadow clone anymore.¡¯


    Nobody knew where those cheetah-sized wildcats and the boars built like miniature mountains had escaped to, but Ren Xiaosu knew that only a stronger and more unstoppable force could send those ferocious animals running from the forest.


    As Ren Xiaosu took longer breaths, his emotions calmed down. He no longer paid attention to his heartbeat and breathing, but listened attentively for any sounds or movementsing from the forest.


    The secret of the forest might just reveal its true face at the very next moment.


    But what they didn¡¯t expect was that when the rattling chains rang out again from the forest, it was of the chains¡¯ owner moving further away.


    ¡°What¡¯s happened?¡± Xu Xianchu frowned as he said, ¡°Could it be afraid toe out of the forest?¡±


    The three of them were still holding their aim as they were afraid the other party was trying to pull a fast one on them. Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°It¡¯s very possible that the other party isn¡¯t willing to walk out of the forest. Otherwise, the wild animals from earlier wouldn¡¯t have regarded this cave to be their refuge when it¡¯s only about ten meters away from the forest.¡±


    The rattling of the chains being dragged on the ground sounded further and further away. Ren Xiaosu and the two of them could finally rx a little. ¡°It seems that we¡¯re still too optimistic. We can¡¯t explore the secret of the Jing Mountains with just our guesswork.¡±


    ¡°Something is definitely fishy about the forest, or there could be some other forms of terror in it.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Otherwise, it would be impossible to exin the disappearance of Xu Xia¡¯s body without any clues.¡±


    ¡°Everyone, get some rest.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°I¡¯ll take the first shift tonight. You guys can take over from me after midnight.¡±


    But despite the words, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin still tacitly stuck to their own two-shift rotation, with one keeping watch for the first half of the night and the other taking the second half.


    Seeing this, Xu Xianchu gave a wry smile in his mind. It seemed that he was still an untrustworthy person to them.


    Nothing else happened through the night. When the first rays of sunlight shone down in the morning, Ren Xiaosu could hear the shuffle of wild animals returning to the forest in the distance. From the looks of it, these animals were ustomed to taking refuge during the night and returning into the forest during the day. Could the wild animal with the chains fromst night be a creature that slept during the day?


    Ren Xiaosu stood up to stretch. But before he could even stretch his back, he heard a loud explosione from the depths of the Jing Mountains.


    The sound was so abrupt that Ren Xiaosu jumped in fright.


    The people in the cave came out one after another. ¡°What¡¯s going on? What happened?!¡±


    Someone asked, ¡°Could a volcano in the Jing Mountains have erupted?¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t sound like a volcano.¡± Xu Xianchu shook his head. ¡°It sounded more like the explosives that we humans use.¡±


    If Xu Xianchu couldn¡¯t confirm it, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin could. Ren Xiaosu had copied the Advanced Bomb-making skill from Yang Xiaojin, together with an indeterminate number of experimental sts she had carried out.


    From that sound, Ren Xiaosu was sure it was the directional st of a shaped charge <sup>1</sup> .


    This sort of shaped charge would be simr to that of an armor-piercing projectile, which usually used violent sts to create holes in a hard ground. It used the Munroe effect <sup>1</sup> to orient the wave of the st to create huge holes in the ground.


    The sound of this explosive was clearly different from that of a ¡°satchel charge¡± and ¡°mine-clearing line charge.¡±


    ¡± Satchel charges <sup>1</sup> ¡± were packed explosives with powerful shockwaves used for demolishing bunkers and other types of buildings.


    ¡°Mine-clearing line charges¡± were demolition devices like the Bangalore <sup>1</sup> .


    Ren Xiaosu knew that if he could recognize the sound, Yang Xiaojin could definitely recognize it as well. Someone was excavating the depths of the mountains!


    Why were they excavating? Could there really be some sort of huge secret buried beneath the Jing Mountains?


    ¡°Earlier, you said that there were also other squads that came to the Jing Mountains?¡± Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked Xu Xianchu.


    ¡°Yes, they were likely from the Qing Consortium as well.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°After all, Stronghold 112 is also controlled by the Qing Consortium, so it would be very hard for any other organization to get past them to enter the Jing Mountains.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu flicked a nce at Yang Xiaojin. So her purpose foring here under that guise was also because of the secret in the Jing Mountains?


    Ren Xiaosu did not know what Yang Xiaojin¡¯s trump card was even now. Other than her Perfect Firearms Proficiency, this cap-wearing girl must have had something else she could rely on.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, we have to hurry.¡± Xu Xianchu was not about to be left out of whatever was happening. ¡°Based on this explosion we heard, the Qing Consortium might¡¯ve sent out a massive military force from Stronghold 112. We have to rush there before they get to the secret.¡±


    ¡°Do you have a death wish?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu in a speechless manner. ¡°Knowing the Qing Consortium has already sent reinforcements, you still dare to rush in there?¡±


    After a long silence, Xu Xianchu said, ¡°But we¡¯re already here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. For some reason, those words had a magical charm.


    ¡°Besides, do we have anywhere else to retreat to?¡± Xu Xianchu asked, ¡°Since we can¡¯t fall back, we can only go forward. If we don¡¯t get an opportunity when we¡¯re there, we¡¯ll just go around the Qing Consortium and leave the mountains in the direction they came from. I believe the path they took here will be much safer than us turning back here.¡±


    That was true. They knew even explosives had been used, so the Qing Consortium had probably cleared out an entire path to Stronghold 112.

 Chapter 78 - No retreat

    <h4>Chapter 78: No retreat</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    If they could not retreat, they had to go forward.


    It seemed like Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin were the most interested in the secret of the Jing Mountains. Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei were different. They only hoped to quickly join up with those from the Qing Consortium!


    Regardless of the secret, they would only have a chance of survival if they headed somewhere with a lot of people!


    They had seen the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat brigade in Stronghold 113 before, and the private troops definitely paled inparison. So they believed they would be safe once they joined up with them.


    And besides, both Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu could say that they were on good terms with the Qing Consortium. Although they were not particrly close, they had met Boss Luo on several asions.


    Therefore, if they brought up Boss Luo¡¯s name and made known their identities when the time came, they would immediately get returned to ¡°human civilization.¡±


    To them, the wilderness was a world that belonged to the beasts.


    There was also another point. As they almost had an encounter with the mysterious monster of the forestst night, they wanted to quickly get out of this ce before it got dark again.


    Worried about the monster, Ren Xiaosu tried his best to travel in the open areas of the mountains instead of going through the forest.


    Who knew if that monster would be active during the day? It was not as though it had personally informed them that it wouldn¡¯t venture out in the day! What if it just liked being a night owl and was actually not afraid of daylight? What if its daily routine had been messed up today?


    No one knew for sure!


    Their cave was about several dozen kilometers away from the sound of the explosion in the Jing Mountains. If they hurried up, they could reach the range by evening.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was also afraid of any potential idents. He held a discussion with Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin. ¡°We can¡¯t only consider the straight line distance of the route in the mountains. We have to ount for the winding paths that we might need to take. We may need to walk for several more days based on the distance that we worked out before we can get there.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Xu Xianchu asked.


    ¡°If we can¡¯t get there by today, we must not take the risk of traveling through the night.¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°If y¡¯all insist on it, I¡¯ll find a ce by myself and wait until dawn.¡±


    Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I agree. We won¡¯t travel through the night.¡±


    Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu looked over to Yang Xiaojin, and she said, ¡°I agree.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s hope the journey won¡¯t be too difficult,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Nobody knew where Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu found their strength from for today¡¯s march. They had just burst the blisters on their feetst night by picking at them. But with the intensity of walking to be done today, the skin on their soles would probably be torn off by the time they were finished.


    Seeing this, Ren Xiaosu teased them by suggesting that they could rest for the day. However, Liu Bu stated matter-of-factly that he was fine with carrying on.


    As Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei were just normal people, it was obvious they had unleashed their greatest potential due to their desire to survive.


    Suddenly, Xu Xianchu said, ¡°There¡¯s a human body up front.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up and spotted a human body lying quietly in the middle of the valley of the mountain pass. But what surprised him was that there were scattered pieces of clothing lying next to the nearly skeletal remains of the body. The blood had dried into a dark purple patch on the rocky ground.


    Ren Xiaosu said in bewilderment, ¡°Since there¡¯s still flesh and blood and no dposition, it means that this person died not too long ago!¡± ¡®Wait a minute, why would a rtively fresh human corpse appear here?¡¯ ¡°Could it be someone from the Qing Consortium?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Xu Xianchu shook his head and said, ¡°Look at what he was wearing. That¡¯s the uniform of the private army. The uniform of the private army is dark blue while the Qing Consortium¡¯s uniform is ck.¡±


    ¡°The private army? Which private army? Does Stronghold 112¡¯s private army also wear the same uniform?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    They warily approached it and had an ominous feeling. Xu Xianchu saw a small dog tag that was supposed to be hanging around the neck of the corpse. In this way, everyone would know the identity of the deceased.


    But he was stunned when he picked up the dog tag. ¡°Xu Xia? How could this be Xu Xia?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a chill in his heart. ¡°Are you sure this is Xu Xia?¡±


    ¡°Look at this. The name on the dog tag wouldn¡¯t be wrong,¡± Xu Xianchu said. As he spoke, he had his automatic rifle up in the fear that something terrible would charge from next to him.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the dog tag. ¡°It¡¯s really Xu Xia. Why would his corpse be here?¡±


    Xu Xia¡¯s corpse had gone missing before they entered the canyon. As they had walked almost a 100 kilometers over the past two days, how could Xu Xia¡¯s corpse suddenly appear here by itself?


    What could have brought Xu Xia¡¯s corpse here?


    While Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu raised their guns in response to this discovery, Ren Xiaosu squatted down and inspected the corpse. Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu were sickened by this sight from the start and after vomiting for a while, Luo Xinyu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression did not change at all. ¡°I¡¯ve seen worse.... Wait, there¡¯s something off about the wounds on this corpse. Although that monster ate his organs, look at the wounds on the edge of the abdomen. What could create such neat bite marks? I¡¯ve nevere across any animal with a set of teeth like this.¡±


    Even Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu couldn¡¯t help but look over when Ren Xiaosu said that. They understood just how much Ren Xiaosu knew about the wilderness. If Ren Xiaosu said that he hadn¡¯t seen it before, it would have to be an unusual animal.


    But when Xu Xianchu saw it, he frowned. ¡°Fuck, these are the bite marks of a human!¡±


    It seemed that Xu Xianchu had even started spouting obscenities due to a deep kind of fear. But not just Xu Xianchu. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were also getting the chills. Ren Xiaosu looked up and asked, ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m very sure.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°I was bitten on the arm by my first love when I broke up with her in school.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°Why the hell are you telling us that when we were scared to death?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was truly afraid now!


    Xu Xianchu also felt a little scared. ¡°Why are there human bite marks on the corpse?¡±


    ¡°I wonder.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Could it be possible that the one dragging the chainsst night... was a human?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Set up a three-man tactical formation in case something attacks us! If that thing can silently take the corpse away, it can silently sneak up on us as well!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked nervously, ¡°What¡¯s a tactical formation?¡±


    He was not fooling around as he really did not know!


    ¡°You stand on my left!¡± Yang Xiaojin did not exin too much. ¡°Each of us will take care of whateveres into our field of view. If any strange creatures approach us, shoot them down.¡±


    All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin had takenmand of the team. However, neither Ren Xiaosu nor Xu Xianchu said anything.


    At this moment, everyone understood that they were walking a tightrope. If they were not careful, they would be doomed.


    Everyone wanted to survive, especially Ren Xiaosu.

 Chapter 79 - Not a single snowflake in an avalanche is innocent

    <h4>Chapter 79: Not a single snowke in an avnche is innocent</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Perhaps due to it being daytime, Ren Xiaosu and the others did not really encounter any further danger that threatened their lives. Along the way, they encountered a wildcat that wasing at them from the opposite direction. However, it did not attack them and ran away.


    When Ren Xiaosu and the group got closer to where the Qing Consortium was, they became even more cautious.


    ¡°Based on the usual strategies that abat brigade uses, scouts set up observation posts <sup>1</sup> around the area while they conduct demolition and reconnaissance.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°So we must be as careful as possible when approaching them.¡±


    ¡°Are they that professional? There are even observation posts?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But it¡¯s not like there are only observation posts, right? They¡¯ve probably cleared the entire surrounding area with their military force. You saw how frightened that wildcat was just now, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood animal behavior very well. Cats had be extremely calm and cautious animals again after they went feral. They seldom panicked in the way the wildcat did just now.


    Sure enough, they could vaguely hear the intense sound of gunfire as they slowly started approaching again.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that the armed forces of the consortium were truly much stronger than the private army. The private troops seemed to have been sent here to die while the consortium could give the beasts of the Jing Mountains a good thrashing.


    He suddenly recalled what Zhang Jinglin had said before: ¡°The firearms and explosives humans possess are far more powerful than you all can imagine.¡±


    With the advanced firearms skill, Ren Xiaosu could now deeply understand how true Zhang Jinglin¡¯s statement was.


    At this moment, a wounded boar ran towards Ren Xiaosu and the team. Xu Xianchu whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t shoot, let it go!¡±


    The boar was a littlerger than the ones they had seen. However, its head and abdomen were bleeding profusely, making it very aggressive as well.


    Xu Xianchu and the others quickly moved away to avoid the path of the boar. It was not that they couldn¡¯t kill the boar... but since they could hear the gunshots of the consortium¡¯sbat troops, the consortium could hear them as well.


    Furthermore, what worried them the most was that they would get discovered in advance by the consortium.


    Liu Bu looked at the boar and said, ¡°Since we haven¡¯t eaten for almost a day now, it¡¯d be great if we could stop it and roast it!¡±


    Ren Xiaosumented how such a group of people could actually exist in this world. Their existence merely served as a foil to make others look better? He said to Liu Bu, ¡°I¡¯m so envious of you. Even though you¡¯ve evolved into something with intelligence, you don¡¯t use it. You look super carefree....¡±


    Liu Bu choked on his words and did not say anything more. Xu Xianchu exined, ¡°By setting up a naked me here, aren¡¯t you telling the Qing Consortium that you¡¯re here?¡±


    Seeing the boar pass them by, Wang Lei wondered, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we quickly make contact with those from the Qing Consortium? Since we¡¯re all humans, why should we be worried about getting discovered by them?¡±


    Wang Lei, Liu Bu, and Luo Xinyu were hoping that the Qing Consortium woulde and rescue them immediately!


    Yang Xiaojin replied, ¡°Many organizations have sent out their military forces to carry out investigations at the mysterious ce controlled by the Pyro Company, but all of them have been silenced. Do you think that if the Qing Consortium also finds you here, they would treat you nicely and keep you well-fed, then send you back to the stronghold? This is also the reason why the private troops dispatched by Stronghold 113 had to travel under the guise of being part of a band, even if it was pretty obvious they were not.¡±


    To the consortium, the secrets here were more valuable than human lives.


    ¡°You guys actually think that something like a corporation would save you?¡± Xu Xianchu sighed.


    When Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei, who had originally nned on seeking help from the consortium, heard this, they looked bereaved. Frankly, they did not have much contact with the world atrge and would be considered rtively inexperienced by the consortium¡¯s standards. As such, they did not understand how an organization worked nor knew how cruel this world was because they had lived a sheltered life all this while.


    They were only required to do well in their everyday jobs in the stronghold to ensure there would be food and drink without having to worry about other things like wild animals or hunger.


    The consortium told them the outside world was very safe and that the wild animals had already been cleared out of the stronghold perimeter. As such, they all fell for the false show of peace and prosperity that was put up in the stronghold.


    ¡°Why are we still headed there then?¡± When Liu Bu realized he would be silenced if he were found, he lost the pir of support that kept him going for the day. His desire to seek help from the Qing Consortium had almost be hisst lifeline.


    Liu Bu sat on the ground, dejected. ¡°You all can go ahead. I¡¯m not going to walk any further.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and the others continued moving forward without paying attention to Liu Bu. To them, it didn¡¯t really matter whether Liu Bu died or not. Honestly, Ren Xiaosu preferred that Liu Bu stayed here.


    Listening to the subtle sound of the wind in the trees around him, Liu Bu got even more frightened. Before the others could walk out of sight, he got up again and said, ¡°Wait for me!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What should we do if we encounter the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops?¡±


    Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, ¡°We should be making retreating our main priority. Their main mission must be the excavation of the Pre-Cataclysm civilization, not hunting us down.¡±


    ¡°You all have underestimated the consortium¡¯s determination to lock down the news.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, ¡°They¡¯re definitely not going to let the matter rest once they discover our presence. Moreover, they have wirelessms in their helmets. If they discover they can¡¯t kill us off immediately, they¡¯ll definitely call for backup. When that timees, you¡¯ll find that you¡¯d rather spend time with the face bugs.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Was this Qing Consortium really that fearsome? He asked, ¡°You seem to know a lot about the troops of these consortiums?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him but did not answer the question. ¡°We must kill all visible targets once we encounter them. Do not show mercy to them because they will not show mercy to us either.¡±


    ¡°But the consortium¡¯s soldiers also have children and mothers.¡± Wang Lei said hesitantly, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be too cruel?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°Not one snowke in an avnche is innocent. Be it voluntary or forced, anyone in war is a tragic figure, while also inflicting tragedies onto others.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Xu Xianchu looked at the forest up ahead.


    The secret of the Jing Mountains was calling out to them. If the consortium had given up on this ce, they would probably have lost interest as well. But if this secret were so precious to the consortium, there must be something valuable about it.


    They would die if they turned back, so the only way to survive was to march forward.


    Xu Xianchu and the others carefully identified the direction of the gunshots, as they tried their best to avoid a head-on encounter with the consortium¡¯sbat troops. Ren Xiaosu estimated they would probably find out what was hidden in the Jing Mountains in an hour¡¯s time.

 Chapter 80 - Experimentals

    Chapter 80: Experimentals


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    The intense gunshots in the forest ahead came to a stop. It sounded like the Qing Consortium hadpleted its sweep of the outer perimeter. All of the wild animals that could pose a threat to them had been eliminated.


    Xu Xianchu whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°This is when the Qing Consortium will set up the observation posts around the perimeter. Even with their manpower, they won¡¯t be able to lock down such arge area with just several hundred people.¡±


    ¡°About how many people are there in a Qing Consortiumbat brigade?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Xu Xianchu hesitated before saying, ¡°Approximately 4,000 to 5,000, but it¡¯s impossible they would mobilize all of them. After all, they still have to consider keeping order in the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a big problem in the stronghold. Will the people in a stronghold dare to rebel in just a few days? That¡¯s impossible. So we have to be prepared that they have turned out in full force with at least a few thousand people.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Xu Xianchu understood his argument but was hoping they would be lucky. He analyzed the situation before saying, ¡°But actually, they will not mobilize their full force. The supplies of the various strongholds are not enough to provision a few thousand-strong expedition into the Jing Mountains for such a long period of time. It¡¯s not that there aren¡¯t enough supplies, but that the transportation, logistics, manpower issues, etc., all have to be considered. As their soldiers brought a lot of firearms and explosives with them, I believe the advanced party that arrived at the Jing Mountains should number around a thousand men or so after taking into ount aprehensive mix of factors.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought it over. Xu Xianchu probably had a more expert opinion on military operations. He said, ¡°I trust your judgment. But I¡¯ll still say the same thing. If the observation posts make the perimeter too secure, I¡¯ll take a detour out of the mountains in the direction of Stronghold 112 without hesitation.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Xu Xianchu nodded. He knew that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s decision was right. After all, if he, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin were to face the pursuit of over a thousand people, it would surely lead to a very bad end. Xu Xianchu put on a face of determination. ¡°If we need to resort to guerri warfare, we¡¯ll have to abandon the other three since they won¡¯t be able to keep with our pace¡ªwait a minute! ¡±


    As he spoke, Xu Xianchu was stunned. He looked around and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was also shocked. After looking around, he asked Liu Bu, who was at the rear of the team, ¡°Have you seen Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    ¡°No, I wasn¡¯t paying attention,¡± Liu Bu answered nkly.


    Everyone realized that no one knew when Yang Xiaojin had disappeared during their journey!


    If it were Liu Bu who went missing, Ren Xiaosu would think that he might have been taken away by something. But for Yang Xiaojin, that would definitely not be the case!


    Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu had thought that Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei would be their burden, but they suddenly got a feeling that Yang Xiaojin thought that all five of them were her burden.


    But what exactly was Yang Xiaojin¡¯s purpose ining here? Ren Xiaosu realized that she might not be after the secret of the Jing Mountains at all!


    Yang Xiaojin carried an even greater secret!


    Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu looked at each other as though they came to a decision at the same time.


    ¡°So...¡± Ren Xiaosu said righteously, ¡°Yang Xiaojin might have fallen behind. As teammates, we should split up to look for her. It¡¯ll be too dangerous if she¡¯s found by herself.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu then walked separately in two different directions. Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei looked back at the way they came and wondered how Yang Xiaojin could have disappeared so quietly. Liu Bu asked, ¡°Do you feel that Yang Xiaojin has been behaving very strangely? She paid us to join the team, but it¡¯s clear that she has her own purpose ining here....¡±


    Liu Bu turned to look in the directions of where Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu went. However... both of them had also gone missing!


    What the fuck?!


    What did you mean by splitting up to look for her? You two were obviously making your escape!


    Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin had respectively made their decisions to drop their burdens once they got near the hintends of the Jing Mountains.


    After all, they knew how powerful the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were. Whether they were to sneak in or take a detour and leave, they couldn¡¯t afford to bring Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei along with them.


    Anyway, they were not rted nor owed them anything, so there was really no stress when it came to making the decision to abandon them.


    But Ren Xiaosu found it quite unfortunate as he had been constantly trying to find ways to gain the gratitude of these people during the past few days. After putting in much effort and gaining 93 gratitude tokens from them, it would not be easy to earn more of them now that he had to go solo.


    Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei panicked on the spot. They had wanted to seek help from the Qing Consortium but found out that they might get killed instead. Thus, they thought that it would also be a good idea to leave with Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin. But to their surprise, the three of them ran off one after the other!


    But while they were in a state of confusion, Liu Bu, Luo Xinyu, and Wang Lei suddenly heard the rattling of chains being dragged on the ground!


    They felt a tingling sensation on their scalps. Didn¡¯t they say the monster wouldn¡¯t be active during the day? Why did it keep following the team then?!


    They remembered Xu Xia¡¯s ravaged corpse and the wild animals that had fled from the forest the previous night. Liu Bu could even remember the sound of the monster¡¯s saliva dripping onto the leaves.


    A secondter, Liu Bu turned around and ran away. He didn¡¯t care anymore whether the Qing Consortium would kill him or not. He just didn¡¯t want to die!


    When Liu Bu started to run, the other two followed him. However, Liu Bu suddenly discovered that he could not run as fast as Wang Lei and Luo Xinyu.


    Although Wang Lei was wounded before this, he had already fully recovered in slightly over two days due to the magical effects of the ck medicine. He was terrified of the mysterious monster behind him, but right as he passed Liu Bu, Wang Lei suddenly saw that Liu Bu had unexpectedly stretched out his foot to trip him!


    With a loud thud, Wang Lei fell heavily onto the ground. Liu Bu could only apologize in his head. Someone had to be sacrificed in order for others to live!


    Liu Bu ran away as fast as he could. But before he could get far, he heard Wang Lei¡¯s scream and the disturbing sound of chewing flesh!


    Wang Lei¡¯s scream tore into Liu Bu like a fearsome ghost. However, this scream did notst long before it stopped.


    The rattling of the chains could be heard again, and the monster chased after them once more!


    Liu Bu was in despair. When he thought of pulling Luo Xinyu down this time, he found that she had already gotten far away from him.


    ¡°Who is it?¡± Someone was talking up ahead in the forest. Liu Bu focused his vision over there and realized that the person was wearing a pure ck uniform and holding a gun in his hands.


    Liu Bu shouted, ¡°A monster! There¡¯s a monster behind me!¡±


    He saw the consortium¡¯s soldier making several tactical hand signals, followed by more than 20 soldiers appearing out from the forest beside him as they slowly made their way towards Liu Bu. It was a full toon of soldiers!


    The person leading the toon ordered, ¡°Kneel down and put your hands behind your head!¡±


    Liu Bu immediately knelt down on the ground. He knew that if he did not follow his instructions, thesebat troops would open fire and kill him. All he could do now was to leave his life in the hands of fate!


    The rattling of the chains grew closer. When the owner of the chains showed up, the soldier shouted through the wirelessmunications equipment in his helmet, ¡°Please send reinforcements! We¡¯ve spotted an escaping Experimental! Fire!¡±


    Gunfire thundered!

 Chapter 81 - A ruined civilization

    <h4>Chapter 81: A ruined civilization</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Aplete toon consisted of 30 people in a corporation¡¯s order of battle <sup>1</sup> . When they encountered any danger, they could immediately use all their firepower to carry out a full coverage attack. This was also the reason why the wild animals could only flee in haste when facing them.


    However, even with such a powerful toon, they did not hesitate to call for reinforcements when they came into contact with the ¡°Experimental.¡± This showed that they did not have the confidence to defeat it with their current strength!


    Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu knelt on the ground as they listened to the sound of gunfire bursting out around them. A soldier slung his rifle over his shoulder and tied Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu¡¯s thumbs on both hands together with some stic strips <sup>1</sup> . It was tied so tightly that they were in pain.


    Furthermore, the soldierpleted a body search on Liu Bu in just two seconds and ensured that this man and woman in front of him would not be of any threat.


    The soldier did not ask them anything. He just left them to rejoin his team and continued with the battle.


    All the other soldiers ignored Liu Bu. It was as though he did not exist. Each of them had their own responsibilities and were working like gears in a well-oiled machine. They took every step with steady precision.


    Someone muttered, ¡°What is that stic doll he¡¯s carrying on his back?¡±


    Someone on themunications channel shouted, ¡°The Experimental has fled to our 9 o¡¯clock. Take notice, formations over there. The Experimental has fled to our 9 o¡¯clock!¡±


    The Experimental also did not seem like it wanted to confront these toons with such heavy firepower. It chose to avoid them for now.


    At this moment, Liu Bu felt thatparing thebat strength of the consortium¡¯s troops to the private army was simply a matter of heaven and earth. With these sights, the private army was like a pig farmpared to the consortium!


    Liu Bu had been worried the consortium would immediately kill him. After all, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had described them as demons. By the looks of it, that was not the case. The consortium tied him up together with Luo Xinyu but did not do anything to them.


    With that, Liu Bu was finally relieved. At least, he would not have to die, right?


    However, a momentter, Liu Bu heard the screams of the troops up front. It sounded like they had suffered some casualties!


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu was hiding in the shadows of the forest and was very well-hidden within the bushes. A centipede was crawling quickly towards him, but Ren Xiaosu stabbed it down into the soil with his dagger. Ren Xiaosu had changed into Sun Junzheng¡¯s private army uniform. He didn¡¯t put on a dead person¡¯s clothes because he was that poor but because the camouge patterns would help him to stay well-hidden in the forest.


    Soon after, he heard the sound of footstepsing from in front. As he had not gone far, he could hear the consortium¡¯s toon calling for backup from theirrades.


    For Ren Xiaosu, this was probably the best chance to sneak past the perimeter that was set up by the consortium. If they needed reinforcements on this side, the consortium¡¯s line of fire would gradually be concentrated here. At that time, openings would start appearing in the perimeter of defense!


    When he and Xu Xianchu parted ways, there was no mention of where they would meet up again. At this point, they had tacitly chosen to act alone as they believed that their individual skills surpassed the strength of the group.


    But that alone was not enough to give them a reason to act solo. More importantly, they still did not trust each other.


    Everyone still had some scruples about the team when Yang Xiaojin was around. The three people kept each other in check and formed a temporary, stable alliance. But now that Yang Xiaojin had suddenly disappeared, it led to the immediate breakup of the group.


    Ren Xiaosu held his breath and waited for the oing toon to pass him. It was obvious that the Qing Consortium was more informed than Xu Xianchu. They even knew what the chain dragging monster was.


    Experimentals? People were conducting experiments in the depths of the mountains?


    Ren Xiaosu had some doubts, but he did not waste too much time thinking about this. After a supporting toon passed him by, he headed towards the hintends of the Jing Mountains at a shockingly fast pace. During this time, Ren Xiaosu almost encountered another two toons that responded to the call for reinforcements. Fortunately, he managed to avoid them in time.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a little puzzled. They could not even kill one monster with so many people? Or... could it be that monster was too powerful?


    He did not care too much about that since he had to sneak past the inner perimeter first. Whether he was nning to escape from the Jing Mountains or explore its secrets, this was the best opportunity.


    As Ren Xiaosu galloped through the forest, the knotty roots and pitfalls in the ground were not an obstacle to his advancement. His travel speed in the forest had never been slowed by such obstacles before.


    Gradually, Ren Xiaosu could hear the sound of heavy machinery operating ahead of him. It seemed an ongoing excavation was being carried out at a huge site ahead.


    There was a hill in front of him. When Ren Xiaosu quietly climbed up to have a look at the other side, he was stunned. Frankly, he had not expected there would be such a lively ce in the hintends of the Jing Mountains.


    He was surprised to see a dozen excavators digging up the soil about 500 meters behind the slope of the hill he was on. Then Ren Xiaosu saw something. It was not these dozen or so excavators that caught his interest but the magnificent sight of a city behind this slope!


    However, the city had been reduced to ruins. The dozen or so excavators were doing some digging near a pit that looked like it had just been blown up by the Qing Consortium with their shaped charges. It looked like they were searching for something.


    In reality, the city in front of him was not considered aplete one. In fact, it was far from that. At the furthest point that was visible to him, the skyline of the city abruptly came to an end with the rest of it buried underneath mountains and earth.


    The jagged city from before The Cataclysm was like a giant maze that got destroyed.


    Even though Ren Xiaosu could only see a part of it, he could already imagine how magnificent the city was in the past!


    He saw a rtively well-preserved metal sign hanging on a building with the characters ¡± xiao long kan <sup>1</sup> ¡± on it.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. What sort of a name was ¡°xiao long kan¡±? Was it the idea of a carp turning into a dragon after jumping over a waterfall <sup>1</sup> ? What a mysterious sounding ce.


    But before Ren Xiaosu could figure it out, the sign crumbled into pieces when the excavator touched it. Eons had passed, so everything was in a state of decay.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was really looking forward to seeing this ce. The tectonic movements that urred had buried much of the Pre-Cataclysm civilization deep underground, but these te tectonics were also responsible for the formation of the volcanoes in the Jing Mountains.


    Somehow, a huge city was preserved in this location. Although the buildings were all broken and in pieces, the main structure still existed!


    When Ren Xiaosu looked into the distance from the hilltop, he saw that some areas spaced several kilometers apart had already been excavated. However, some of the excavation sites had stopped halfway.


    It looked like... they were searching for something. Once they found the excavated site was not what they were searching for, they would immediately stop work and identify a different location.


    Ren Xiaosu could sense that whatever the Qing Consortium was searching for, it must be very important to them. Furthermore, they knew exactly what they were searching for.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu spotted a ce heavily guarded by soldiers in the distance. Some cargo containers were stacked over there. Next to it, soldiers were injecting drugs into some unconscious animals before loading them into the containers one by one.


    Were these wild animals captured by the Qing Consortium? Perhaps even these evolved beasts would find it difficult to escape the fate of being studied.


    ¡°Should I leave?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered as he felt he might not even have a chance to get near the ¡°target¡± the Qing Consortium was searching for.


    After all, he had already witnessed the might of the Qing Consortium, so he knew it would be impossible for him to snatch the ¡°secret¡± away from them.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw a young man in a white suit standing on the roof of a building overlooking the city.


    In the wilderness, that white suit was so spotless it would amaze anyone.


    A sight like this was just like a sh of violence and civility that would make it unforgettable to whoever witnessed it.

 Chapter 82 - Tobacco and liquor

    <h4>Chapter 82: Tobo and liquor</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    As the important people had to pass through town whenever they came out of the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu had seen them sitting in their cars in their suits from afar. Back then, Ren Xiaosu thought those important people had an imposing air about them.


    But if someone wore a suit out into the wilderness, and a white suit at that, Ren Xiaosu would definitely cuss that person under his breath, ¡°Dumbass!¡±


    Wearing a suit would be too much of an impediment in a fight as it would restrict the wearer from raising their arms and legs. If someone encountered a wild animal they could not beat, they probably couldn¡¯t even run away.


    But when Ren Xiaosu saw that young man standing atop the building, he did not find his clothing to be unsuitable or incongruous with the wilderness. That was because this person was not required to fight.


    He was probably the leader of the Qing Consortium for this operation. Ren Xiaosu felt that this consortium¡¯s VIP really looked quite different from the others.


    He kept his head low as he was afraid that he would get discovered by the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops. Over a thousand troops had been mobilized just to handle the security in the vicinity of the excavation site. Ren Xiaosu felt that both he and Xu Xianchu had underestimated the Qing Consortium¡¯s determination to lock down the area.


    Ren Xiaosu looked around his surroundings with curiosity and wondered where Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were hiding.


    Although he could not see them, Ren Xiaosu knew that they must be around here somewhere.


    ¡°Time to get out of here,¡± Ren Xiaosu told himself, not caring what the others would do. When he learned he could not get his hands on the secret of the Jing Mountains, the thought of making a retreat grew in his mind.


    If not, it would be quite pointless for him to stay here. As for the secret of the Jing Mountains, Yang Xiaojin and Xu Xianchu probably had a greater interest in that.


    Ren Xiaosu felt there wasn¡¯t a need to risk his life for this secret. If someone else here had all kinds of advanced skills, and Ren Xiaosu had dozens of Basic or Master Skill Duplication Scrolls on hand, he might be willing to give it a try. Someone like that would be a real treasure trove for him.


    In reality, the most important thing was that Ren Xiaosu was seeing more and more of those buildings that had been excavated belowground. Some of them even copsed at the lightest touch from the excavators. They had still been standing upright but that was only because no one had ¡°touched¡± them.


    He could still vaguely recognize some of the buildings exposed aboveground based on their rtively intact store signs. For example, there were beauty salons, blind massage, and so on.


    Ren Xiaosu did not believe there would be anything too valuable here. And that was the main reason why he wanted to get out of here.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw those signs, he felt that his trust had been betrayed and his intelligence insulted. Upon recalling those things like the QR code, ¡°xiao long kan,¡± and the stic doll, it was obvious they were not particrly rare things at all!


    He wondered what Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin would think if they saw these sights. Anyway, Ren Xiaosu had had enough of it. ¡®After running all this way out here and experiencing so much danger, it was all for the sake of showing me this?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu kept his head low as he quietly headed towards the side of the mountain. At present, he could still hear gunshots going off in the forest behind him. This meant the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops had not sessfully taken care of that monster yet. The gunshots were at least an assurance for Ren Xiaosu that the Qing Consortium would definitely not have the time to deal with him at this moment.


    Although more soldiers were patrolling at the foot of the mountain, the problem was that these people were focusing on the excavation site nearby. The abandoned sites seemed to have already lost their value, and the soldiers did not even bother looking at them.


    However, Ren Xiaosu could make use of the sites abandoned by the consortium as an opening to sneak past the perimeter.


    The Qing Consortium had cut down so many trees along the way that it was enough to pave the entire length of the road back to Stronghold 112. Ren Xiaosu had to admit he was impressed with what an organization was capable of.


    In a ce like the wilderness, they could open up a path as they liked, and there was no need to consult with the wild animals living in the mountains.


    This led Ren Xiaosu to reevaluate the capabilities of an organization. Importantly, this was only thebat troops of one stronghold. ording to Yang Xiaojin, an organization might control 10 to 20 strongholds in total!


    So if Ren Xiaosu escaped in the direction of Stronghold 112, whatever wild animals or the like along the way would have already been scared away.


    Although it would be a little more difficult to return to Stronghold 113 and required him to take a longer detour if he went this way, he had no other options since this was his best choice.


    As Ren Xiaosu quietly walked towards the other areas of this ¡°city,¡± the natural ravines and ruined buildings exposed aboveground became his best cover.


    He saw the ruins of a tall building that had copsed and was broken into two sections. Ren Xiaosu had no doubt that there used to be people who could totally stand atop this tall building and get a bird¡¯s eye view of the entire city before The Cataclysm.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu would often fantasize about what it would be like to stay in the stronghold with Yan Liuyuan when they were living in the town. But it seemed that, although the stronghold was bigger than this city in terms of area, the level of grandeur and prosperity in there was iparable to this ce.


    Of course, the grandeur and prosperity were things of the past. Now, only ruins and destion were left here.


    Ren Xiaosu slid down the hill¡¯s slope under the cover of the shadowy forest and saw some signs covered in dust scattered around the ruins. He muttered, ¡°Why are there so many reflexology spa signs in this city? Did the past people enjoy washing their feet this much?¡±


    While walking between the abandoned city and the mountainside, Ren Xiaosu carefully avoided being caught in the line of sight of anyone. He was only about 500 meters away from the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops at this moment. As long as he carefully made use of the blind corners and buildings, he wouldn¡¯t get discovered by them.


    But as he proceeded, Ren Xiaosu started feeling like he could hardly walk anymore. He was surprised to see a well-preserved tobo and liquor store on his left-hand side.


    Although a majority of the buildings had been crushed to dust during the earthquakes caused by tectonic shift, 30% of the buildings in the city still remained.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes gleamed when he saw the tobo and liquor store.


    Tobo and liquor were scarce goods in town. Why else would a teacher like Zhang Jinglin not have cigarettes to smoke every day?


    The stock in this tobo and liquor store was probably more than what Old Wang and Old Li had in their storesbined. If he could bring it all back, he could easily be the richest person in town!


    Ren Xiaosu stole a nce at the Qing Consortium¡¯s people. When he was sure no one was looking in his vicinity, he rushed into the store excitedly.


    He reached for the cigarettes on the counter. As there was a transparent stic wrapper around the cigarette pack, Ren Xiaosu thought it would still be in a good condition since it was protected by an outeryer of stic.


    But the moment he touched it, the cigarette pack disintegrated into powder along with it.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a pain in his heart. Just how long had these things been kept here?


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu did not know that cigarettes also had a shelf life. Although the tobo factories never stated how long their cigarettes could be kept for, they would generally turn bad after more than three years of storage.


    After all, the packaging of the stic seal could not be more simply done.

 Chapter 83 - A peculiar child

    <h4>Chapter 83: A peculiar child</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the disintegrated packs of cigarettes and felt a pain in his heart. Based on the selling price of 20 yuan per cigarette at Wang Fugui¡¯s store, how much would the cigarettes in this shop be worth?


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had estimated there to be at least five tobo and liquor stores on this street.


    Ren Xiaosu converted the prices and felt that humans from before The Cataclysm were really rich.


    In his haste, Ren Xiaosu did not realize that tobo was actually not a scarcemodity before The Cataclysm. He turned around and looked at the bottles of liquor that were ced on the shelves against the wall. As they were not sealed in stic packaging, the liquor was gone. All the bottles here were empty.


    It seemed that some of the liquor bottles had been scattered onto the ground and were in pieces, probably due to earthquakes, while some were still standing on the shelves. But when Ren Xiaosu opened one of the bottles, he found that the liquor in it had disappeared.


    He wondered how long it had been since The Cataclysm happened. The liquor in the bottle hadpletely vaporized.


    Ren Xiaosu grumbled, ¡°Didn¡¯t the wineries in the past know how to seal bottles better?!¡±


    He refused to believe this as he took another well-preserved bottle and shook it. However, the liquor in the bottle was also gone without an exception.


    In fact, this kind of liquor needed to be processed with a specialized technology if it were to be preserved, such as sealing the bottle with wax. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t be umon for only half a bottle of liquor to be left after 50 years of storage.


    These days, the most expensive things in town were cigarettes, liquor, and medicine. Especially alcohol, which was banned. The townspeople were even more attracted to it. The more something was prohibited, the more valuable it became.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw these shops initially, he thought that he had found a huge treasure trove. But now, he realized that his thoughts were pure fantasy.


    The Cataclysm was like a gigantic sword that cut between the old and new civilizations. Ren Xiaosu thought that if both the tobo and liquor products he found were already like this, there would be even less of a need to mention the medicine.


    Earlier, he was thinking of checking out a pharmacy if he saw one. But now, it seemed like there was no need for that anymore.


    Ren Xiaosu started thinking seriously as he walked out onto the street. Was there anything that did not have a shelf life? Or rather, something that couldst for over a hundred years?


    He suddenly saw the name of a shop next to him called ¡°Family nning & Healthcare,¡± but he did not go in. After all, in his opinion, it should just be a shop selling healthcare products. But what healthcare products could be kept that long?


    He felt reassured when he saw that the Qing Consortium¡¯s people had not shifted their attention over to his side yet. Ren Xiaosu could still hear gunshotsing from the outer perimeter. He wondered if that Experimental was really that powerful.


    But all of a sudden, he thought of something. ¡®Aren¡¯t metals able tost hundreds of years without dposing?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu whipped his head around. He had heard from Wang Fugui before that there were jewelry shops inside the stronghold. In that case, there must also be jewelry shops in a city asrge as this!


    Ren Xiaosu, a little downtrodden before this, had his morale lifted again!


    Gold was still a hard currency even in these times. Ren Xiaosu had asked Zhang Jinglin why gold was still needed as a hard currency after the Qing Consortium¡¯s bank had issued its own currency.


    Zhang Jinglin smiled and answered, ¡°Because it¡¯s not only the Qing Consortium that has issued their own currency. Perhaps that currency is usable within the Qing Consortium¡¯s territories, but it¡¯ll be useless once you go to another stronghold that¡¯s not controlled by them. At that time, there¡¯s a need for something that can be conveniently measured and valued to rece your paper money.¡±


    In fact, the corporations used currency as a method to control the various strongholds. They allowed people to get used to the convenience of using paper money, but they had the final say in how much currency was issued.


    This was the real lifeline of the economy and one of the fundamentals of a corporation.


    However, Zhang Jinglin exined, ¡°Because of the currency cirction problem, several consortiums havee together to form the Mary Management Committee. Everyone has strict regtions on the issuance of money so that there will be no chaos in the world. They are all on friendly terms at the moment, but who can guarantee that it¡¯ll remain the same?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu remembered Zhang Jinglin¡¯s words, the more he felt that Zhang Jinglin was no ordinary person. No one knew where the school teacher came from, and he had lived in the town outside of Stronghold 113 for many years.


    Ren Xiaosu decided he would carefully watch Zhang Jinglin after he got back to town.


    He started exploring further up in front away from the Qing Consortium¡¯s people as he tried to find the existence of any jewelry shops or the like. If there were any jewelry shops still standing, wouldn¡¯t he be rich?


    ...


    In the backyard of the school in town, Zhang Jinglin had just returned after a day of lessons. He saw Yan Liuyuan, who had already stepped out of his room and was basking in the sun. He smiled and said, ¡°Have you fully recovered?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded as he smiled and said, ¡°Teacher, Big Sister Xiaoyu, thank you for taking care of me in this period of time.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was in a fantastic mood at this moment. It was not because of recovering from illness, but that he knew why it had not deteriorated. This meant Ren Xiaosu did not need to depend on much of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s ¡°luck¡± so far. In other words, Ren Xiaosu had not encountered any real danger.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu came in from outside the school, holding a basket. When she saw Yan Liuyuan, she said in surprise, ¡°Liuyuan, have you fully recovered already? Go into your room. Don¡¯t catch a cold.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked adorably cute as he smiled and said, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, I¡¯m fine. You can rest easy now. What are we having for dinner?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll fry some eggs and vegetables for you two.¡± Xiaoyu smiled and said, ¡°I went to town earlier and bought some fatty meat. I can use it as an oil substitute for frying the dishes so that you two can have a taste of meat.¡±


    ¡°Alright,¡± Yan Liuyuan responded. But as he walked out of the yard, he said, ¡°I¡¯m going out for a while and will be back before sunset!¡±


    Xiaoyu was about to stop him, but when she turned around, Yan Liuyuan had already disappeared.


    As she waited in worry at the gated entrance to the school, Zhang Jinglin thought to himself, ¡®Weren¡¯t you getting ready to cook just now? How much longer are you going to wait there?¡¯ However, he was too embarrassed to say anything.


    To Zhang Jinglin, the two brothers were not people who would easily end up on the losing side. When they were out on the streets, it should be other people who had to worry.


    Just a moment ago, Zhang Jinglin clearly saw Yan Liuyuan taking a kitchen knife and hiding it within his bosom. Whose child would bring a kitchen knife with them when they went out? Would this be the behavior of a decent kid?


    But Yan Liuyuan really did return before dark. Both Zhang Jinglin and Xiaoyu did not know where he had gone. When they asked him, he did not say anything and smiled before changing the subject.


    There were three rooms in the backyard of the school, but one of them was used as the kitchen. Of the remaining two, one was Zhang Jinglin¡¯s room while the other was upied by Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu.


    In the evening, Xiaoyu would make the bed for Yan Liuyuan while sheid on the bedroll and slept on the floor. As it was almost winter now, the floor was freezing. However, Xiaoyu never said anything about it.


    After turning off the kerosenemp, Xiaoyu suddenly asked Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Do you think your brother is safe?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯s definitely safe.¡±


    Xiaoyu was stunned. She did not understand why Yan Liuyuan was so confident.

 Chapter 84 - Gunshots at midnight

    <h4>Chapter 84: Gunshots at midnight</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Liuyuan, don¡¯t you go running out by yourself again these days.¡± Xiaoyu said in the pitch-ck room, ¡°How am I going to answer to your brother if something happens to you?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t do it again,¡± Yan Liuyuan promised. Recently, he had gotten increasingly trustful of Xiaoyu because she continued caring for him even though she had the opportunity to leave him behind.


    As he was running a high fever several days ago, Xiaoyu could have just taken the money and left, but she did not do that.


    While he was sleeping, there would always be a fresh and cool towel wiping his face and armpits to keep his temperature down. Yan Liuyuan even heard a gentle singing voice that felt like a warm ocean and reminded him of a child being held in its mother¡¯s arms.


    Yan Liuyuan had never experienced any of these feelings before. Even though Ren Xiaosu also provided him with a lot of warmth and care, it felt like he was always chasing after his elder brother. It did not feel like an embrace.


    ¡°OK.¡± Xiaoyu felt reassured after hearing Yan Liuyuan¡¯s promise. She thought of something and said, ¡°Since you¡¯ve recovered from your illness, you have to attend ss tomorrow to catch up.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan paled at the mention. ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, surely that¡¯s unnecessary. My brother isn¡¯t around anyway!¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do.¡± Xiaoyu said, ¡°It¡¯ll be my fault if Xiaosues back and finds out that you¡¯ve fallen behind on your homework. He told me before he left.¡±


    ¡°When did he tell you that?!¡± Yan Liuyuan wailed, ¡°I never heard him mentioning anything about it at all!¡±


    Xiaoyu giggled while lying on the bedroll. ¡°Anyway, I don¡¯t care. You must be obedient.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan lost the will to argue as he stared at the ceiling, but there was a slight smile on his lips. At this moment, he heard someone jump into the courtyard, and it was not just one person!


    Xiaoyu also heard the sound. But the usually gentle and timid Xiaoyu took out a bone knife from under her pillow. She clenched her teeth and said, ¡°Stay still!¡±


    In the dimly lit room, Yan Liuyuan could see Xiaoyu trembling a little. They both knew that someone leaping over the yard¡¯s wall at such ate time must havee with evil purposes. But as Ren Xiaosu was not around, Xiaoyu felt that she should bear the responsibility of protecting Yan Liuyuan.


    A secondter, three burly men kicked open the door to their room. Two of them tried to hold Xiaoyu against the ground while the other man stabbed at Yan Liuyuan, who was lying in bed with a bone knife.


    Although Xiaoyu was also holding a bone knife, her strength as a woman was a lot weakerpared to that of an adult man.


    When one of the burly men jumped her, he let out a groan like he had been stabbed by her bone knife. However, the other man kicked it out of her hand!


    Yan Liuyuan looked at them with the aid of the moonlight. In that instant, he recognized that these three men were some of the idlers in town. He had never unexpected they would target the school!


    Perhaps they thought Ren Xiaosu had earned some money after opening the clinic some time ago. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was not in town at the moment, so they started getting ideas tomit a crime.


    Xiaoyu was very cautious whenever she spent any money during this period. Every time she bought her groceries from the market, she would haggle over the price for a long time. She would even resort to picking wild vegetables so she could pretend she was broke.


    However, Yan Liuyuan needed nutrition when he was ill. In the end, she still bought some meat, and that attracted the attention of others.


    This was what was scary about a home without a man. Although Yan Liuyuan was also a man, he was too young to be intimidating to others.


    As Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu likely had a lot of money with them now, not even the thought of this being a school could hinder the robbers from targeting them.


    At the same time, Yan Liuyuan heard the door beside their room being kicked open. It seemed like someone else was attempting to kill Zhang Jinglin! These people were so reckless they even dared to touch the schoolteacher. They wanted to silence everyone so no one would know who the culprits were.


    However, right at this moment, a gunshot rang through the night. The idler who had rushed at Yan Liuyuan stared disbelievingly at the ck muzzle of the pistol before him. Then he looked down at his bleeding abdomen. He couldn¡¯t understand why Yan Liuyuan had a gun in his hand!


    If they knew that Yan Liuyuan had a gun, they would definitely not have taken the risk to rob them. In fact, guns were prohibited in town. Some people had built their own guns before, but they were all confiscated by the stronghold.


    Everyone in the room looked at Yan Liuyuan in surprise. Even Xiaoyu had not expected it.


    In an instant, six gunshots were fired off. After Yan Liuyuan killed one person, he did not get frightened. Instead, he shot the two idlers who had rushed Xiaoyu and killed them as well.


    Every time Yan Liuyuan fired a shot, he felt like a darkness in his heart was pulling him slowly into the abyss. In this world, if you want to live, you must know how to kill!


    He jumped out of bed and ran out of the door. The two idlers who had just barged into Zhang Jinglin¡¯s room next door ran out when they heard the gunshots, but it was already toote!


    Another two gunshots rang out. Yan Liuyuan had opened fire and killed five people in the space of one minute! The sound of the gunshots cracked through the air and spread outwards like a howling roar!


    Mr. Zhang walked out of the room next door and gazed at Yan Liuyuan, who was standing next to him, as though he was getting to know this young man again.


    Zhang Jinglin knew that Ren Xiaosu was a ruthless person and even knew that Yan Liuyuan had been deeply influenced by Ren Xiaosu over the years. Although Yan Liuyuan belonged to the youngest batch of students in the school, the older children did not dare provoke him and were even afraid of him.


    But whose 13-year-old child would know how to shoot and kill?


    He stood there panting in a pool of blood outside the room. As his expression was always calm, you would only realize he was actually afraid if you saw his hands trembling slightly.


    Xiaoyu came out of their room as well. She hugged Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, don¡¯t be afraid.¡±


    It was obvious that Yan Liuyuan had stepped up to save everyone. But for some reason, Yan Liuyuan felt relieved when Xiaoyu embraced him. Her warm touch dispersed the coldness throughout his body.


    The loud and crisp gunshots had jolted the entire town awake. Everyone came out and looked in the direction of the school, but they still did not know what had happened.


    It was clear that the stronghold¡¯s residents had already returned into the stronghold. So why were there gunshots? Based on the refugees¡¯ knowledge, only the important people of the stronghold could possess firearms.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at the gun in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hand and said with a sigh, ¡°Did Ren Xiaosu leave that gun for you? You went out in the afternoon because you wanted to retrieve it?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°I¡¯ll leave town with Big Sister Xiaoyu right away. We won¡¯t burden you.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu left town, he broke away from the team for a while to go to the ce where the gun was buried. But instead of taking it away, he marked the spot where it was buried and left it to Yan Liuyuan.


    Before he departed, he quietly told Yan Liuyuan to retrieve the gun after he went away. If he encountered any danger that he could not fight against, he should use the gun and then escape into the wilderness. He had prepared a secret cave somewhere in the wilderness for Yan Liuyuan to take refuge in.


    When Ren Xiaosu was finished with his business, he would go and look for him.

 Chapter 85 - Mr. Zhang

    <h4>Chapter 85: Mr. Zhang</h4>


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    When Ren Xiaosu left, made it crystal clear to Yan Liuyuan that if Big Sister Xiaoyu was still taking care of him at that time, he would have to bring her along with him as well. If Xiaoyu had already taken the money and left, then Yan Liuyuan should go there and hide by himself.


    Don¡¯t hope to get lucky, and leave immediately at the sign of any trouble!


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, nothing was more important in this world than staying alive. It was better to have a gun for self-defense than having nothing at all.


    Ren Xiaosu also wished that he could bring the gun with him into the Jing Mountains. Butpared to his own safety, he felt that it was better to leave the gun for Yan Liuyuan.


    It was just that Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu could not have expected something would happen so soon after Yan Liuyuan had retrieved the gun.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was actually not worried for himself. This was because he believed the ce Ren Xiaosu had prepared for him would be safe and sound. He also believed that Ren Xiaosu would be back for him.


    What he was worried about was Ren Xiaosu.


    Ever since Yan Liuyuan gained his power of affecting luck, he suffered the side effects of making a wish several times. Therefore, he knew well that those side effects... were not simply a sickness.


    Yan Liuyuan looked in the direction of the Jing Mountains with a frown. He knew that Ren Xiaosu must¡¯ve encountered danger, and it was definitely something extremely dangerous too.


    This was his inexorable destiny, and this was the cause and effect of him making a wish!


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu...¡± There was a pent-up feeling in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s heart. In times of danger, these two brothers would always be worrying about each other¡¯s safety instead of their own.


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu,e with me.¡± Yan Liuyuan turned around and went into the house to pick up some clothes before getting ready to head out of the school. Xiaoyu did not even ask where they were going. She just took the money out from between the bricks on the ground and followed him.


    But Zhang Jinglin caught his arm and stopped him. Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s not safe out there in the wilderness. You don¡¯t have to escape. Let me handle it for you.¡±


    ¡°Let you handle it?¡± Yan Liuyuan didn¡¯t understand what Zhang Jinglin meant. While they were talking, he even thought of breaking free from Zhang Jinglin grasp. However, he discovered that Zhang Jinglin was much stronger than he had thought and couldn¡¯t break free from him.


    Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°The wolf pack has already returned. The ce Ren Xiaosu prepared for you is very well-hidden, but it won¡¯t escape the wolves¡¯ noses. I¡¯m afraid that Ren Xiaosu probably did not expect the wolf pack to return so soon either.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan had some doubts. Why did Zhang Jinglin know the wolves were back? There was clearly no one in town who had sighted the wolf pack or heard any news about it.


    Meanwhile, the stronghold¡¯s gate was being raised. Soon after, Zhang Jinglin and the others could hear the sound of footsteps. It looked like the gunshots had also rmed those in the stronghold, and the private army¡¯s troops hade out to check!


    The town started stirring, and the nocturnalmotion made all the refugees crawl out of bed. Everyone came out onto the street and looked in the direction of the school where there were some movements. Some of the more daring ones even headed over to the school to check out what was happening.


    Zhang Jinglin waited silently. Not long after, someone kicked open the front door of the school. Wang Congyang led a squad of troops and walked in. He observed the surroundings and had a look at the five corpses lying on the ground, then looked over at Zhang Jinglin. At this moment, the gun was in Zhang Jinglin¡¯s hand.


    Wang Congyang smiled and said, ¡°The pistol was indeed taken by that kid, Ren Xiaosu. I¡¯ve been thinking about it for a very long time. There isn¡¯t anyone else in town who has the balls to go and get their hands on a gun. Only he would dare to do something like that.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin and the others did not say anything. Xiaoyu looked anxiously at Zhang Jinglin as though she was worried he couldn¡¯t handle the situation before him.


    From outside, Wang Fugui came running in with his clothes all haphazard. He smiled and said in a servile manner to Wang Congyang, ¡°Sir, there must be a mistake somewhere!¡±


    ¡°There isn¡¯t any mistake.¡± Wang Congyang shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m quite certain Wang Dongyang was killed by Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    Wang Fugui took a stack of money out of his pocket at the words and tried to push it onto Wang Congyang. ¡°You¡¯re not really on good terms with Wang Dongyang anyway, so whether or not he was really killed by Ren Xiaosu, maybe we should give this matter some further thought.¡±


    ¡°Hahaha,¡± Wang Congyangughed and shoved Wang Fugui aside. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m like the others from the stronghold who only have eyes for money? Round them all up! I¡¯ll wait for Ren Xiaosu toe back and see how he exins himself!¡±


    Though pushed aside, Wang Fugui came up to him again. As a result, Wang Congyang pulled his pistol out of its holster and pointed it right at Wang Fugui¡¯s temple. ¡°Stay away, understand?¡±


    Then Wang Congyang was taken aback, because he saw Zhang Jinglin take some papers out of his pocket. Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Bring this into the stronghold and let Fatty Luoe and see me.¡±


    Wang Congyang looked at Zhang Jinglin with suspicion. This was because Zhang Jinglin¡¯s tone was too calm for this situation. In the vicinity of Stronghold 113, Zhang Jinglin was probably the only person Wang Congyang had met in his life who dared to call Boss Luo Fatty Luo.


    Zhang Jinglin did not exin what the papers were. In the past, Wang Congyang had taken notice of Zhang Jinglin. He felt that Zhang Jinglin was no ordinary person, but he did not delve any deeper into it. Honestly, it did not matter to him whether Zhang Jinglin was normal or not.


    But it was different now. He realized he had been embroiled into the mystery of Zhang Jinglin¡¯s identity now.


    As such, Wang Congyang was even a little afraid to take the red documentation from Zhang Jinglin. It looked a little aged, and the outside covering was slightly damaged.


    Zhang Jinglin handed his documentation to Wang Congyang. ¡°Here you go, bring it to him and he¡¯ll understand. This isn¡¯t something that you can handle anymore.¡±


    ¡°Watch them,¡± Wang Congyang told the private troops beside him. It wouldn¡¯t do to get others to run this errand. He would need to head back to the stronghold personally and look for Boss Luo himself.


    And yet he was afraid he had been fooled. Based on Wang Congyang¡¯s meticulous nature, it was absolutely necessary to keep the soldiers behind to watch over Zhang Jinglin and Yan Liuyuan.


    Xiaoyu looked over at Zhang Jinglin in worry. ¡°Mr. Zhang, will it be alright?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin waved it off. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, nothing will happen. They wouldn¡¯t dare to do anything to me yet.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan whispered from next to him, ¡°Sorry, Teacher.¡±


    If he had not fired the gun, Zhang Jinglin wouldn¡¯t have had to expose his identity.


    Zhang Jinglin gave him a nce and sighed. ¡°You were not in the wrong. It¡¯s this world¡¯s fault. Besides, I still have to thank you. You only did it because you wanted to save me.¡±


    In Zhang Jinglin¡¯s opinion, he did not think that Yan Liuyuan had done anything wrong. If he hadn¡¯t fired the gun, it would have ended tragically for both Liuyuan and Xiaoyu, as well as himself. This was because Zhang Jinglin was simply a normal teacher now.


    Did Yan Liuyuan show off his fortune? No.


    Did Yan Liuyuan kill the wrong people? No.


    Zhang Jinglin suddenly felt that Yan Liuyuan was quite simr to Ren Xiaosu in some ways. He was ruthless like Ren Xiaosu, he was cold to his enemies like Ren Xiaosu, and he always had precaution for this world like Ren Xiaosu did.


    In the past, Zhang Jinglin felt that it wasn¡¯t good for Ren Xiaosu to be this way. But for some reason, he started thinking Ren Xiaosu was much more human than most people after interacting with him for some time.


    This might sound a little wrong, but it was what Zhang Jinglin thought.

 Chapter 86 - Northern Frontier

    <h4>Chapter 86: Northern Frontier</h4>


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    The other refugees in town were still unaware of what was going on. The outer wall of the school was not high. It was just an earthen wall measuring about 1.7 meters tall. So some people could see into the school by standing on their tiptoes and looking over the wall. What they saw gave them a fright. There were two bodies lying in the backyard of the school, while blood was still flowing out of the house.


    It had been many years, and this was the first time someone had been killed at the school!


    Of course, it was also because this event was so odd that it made Yan Liuyuan worry even more about Ren Xiaosu.


    Wang Congyang ran back into the stronghold. Along the way, he pored over the documentation for himself. He saw the words ¡°Stronghold 178, Zhang Jinglin¡± written on the inside.


    Wang Congyang gasped. He had nevere across any identification like this before. Shouldn¡¯t such papers only indicate one¡¯s identity and the jobs they did? It might also include the date of birth, a photo, and any other relevant details to easily verify someone¡¯s identity.


    But this identification was different. Anyone who saw it would immediately know who it belonged to. And at this moment, when Wang Congyang thought about the person from Stronghold 178 who had been rumored to be missing for over a decade, he picked up the pace.


    However, Wang Congyang wasn¡¯t high-ranking enough, so he wasn¡¯t sure if his guess was correct.


    Wang Congyang did not go to the stronghold¡¯s overseers but drove straight to Luo Lan¡¯s residence. In truth, everyone knew that Luo Lan was just a businessman. But whenever something major happened in the stronghold, they would all go and look for him. The overseers of the stronghold had already epted this as fact.


    Luo Lan¡¯s residence was located in the dead center of the stronghold. From the time Wang Congyang entered the stronghold, he drove nearly an hour before he reached it, and this was even in the dead of the night when there were no pedestrians or traffic on the roads.


    He arrived outside Luo Lan¡¯s residence, or rather, arge military base.


    At the entrance of the base stood a stone monument, red words carved on it: Military Zone.


    The consortium¡¯sbat brigade, dressed in ck uniforms, handled the security at the entrance. Every one of them was issued with live ammunition and was ready to fight at any time. Before Wang Congyang¡¯s vehicle could get close, he could already see spotlights shining down on him from the military base¡¯s tall walls.


    Wang Congyang shed his identification at the entrance and said, ¡°I¡¯m Wang Congyang from the private army. There¡¯s something I have urgently need Boss Luo for. It¡¯s a matter regarding Stronghold 178.¡±


    At this moment, Wang Congyang could feel no less than 10 rifles pointing at him. Someone from the consortium¡¯s military walked over and said indifferently, ¡°Identification!¡±


    In the face of the consortium¡¯s military, the private army¡¯s troops were inferior. Therefore, even though Wang Congyang was being aimed at with rifles, he did not dare to say anything about it.


    Wang Congyang handed both his and Zhang Jinglin¡¯s identification papers over. The soldier responsible for checking them returned inside and came out again after more than ten minutes. ¡°Your identity has been verified. You¡¯re free to enter.¡±


    The main entrance of the military base was finally opened to Wang Congyang.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s military might had always been considered the best, and they were also very disciplined and had an extremely strongbat capability. However, martialw wasn¡¯t implemented in the past. It was only after the appearance of a supernatural being who tried to kill a stronghold overseer that the various corporations raised the level of martialw around the strongholds.


    In the end, the entire military base illuminated not long after Wang Congyang came in. The sound of sharp marching could be clearly heard, and the stronghold residents living near the base woke up in rm. They still did not know what had happened at the military base, but the sound of the marching was clearly from the assembly of thebat brigade.


    A ck off-road vehicle sped out from the stronghold, and it was even followed by three military trucks. The trucks were carrying three squads.


    ¡°Are they going to war?¡± someone said when they saw this scene from their house¡¯s window.


    ¡°Who is the Qing Consortium going to war with? But if they¡¯re really going to war, surely they can¡¯t just be mobilizing such a small force, right?¡± someone said in doubt. ¡°I think it was Boss Luo sitting in the off-road vehicle just now? That guy hasn¡¯t left the base in two years, so what could¡¯ve rmed him this time?¡±


    But the person most shocked was still Wang Congyang. This was because he saw Luo Lan jump in panic when he received Zhang Jinglin¡¯s identification from him.


    Shortly after, the entire military base seemingly entered a wartime state as sophisticated machines of war were deployed in an instant.


    It was at this moment that Wang Congyang could confirm that Zhang Jinglin might be the person he guessed he was!


    If he really was that person, what made him appear in this ce?!


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s convoy headed straight for the stronghold gate. Yan Liuyuan and the others were still waiting in the schoolyard. He suddenly turned his head to Zhang Jinglin and asked, ¡°Teacher, what did you do before you became a teacher?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan also understood that Mr. Zhang¡¯s identity was scarily important.


    Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°I was a soldier.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. It didn¡¯t ur to him that Mr. Zhang Jinglin would be any kind of soldier he knew. Curious, Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you continue being a soldier?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin went silent for a long while at the question. He was apparently perplexed as well. Zhang Jinglin finally answered after thinking about it for a long time, ¡°Because war will not save humanity.¡±


    ¡°Are you leaving?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Zhang Jinglin nodded. ¡°There are still people waiting for me in the Northern Frontier.¡±


    All of a sudden, Yan Liuyuan realized Zhang Jinglin had chosen Ren Xiaosu to be the substitute teacher as he had really wanted him to be the school¡¯s new teacher, because Zhang Jinglin had nned on leaving. Even without tonight¡¯s incident, Zhang Jinglin would probably not have stayed much longer.


    ¡°Why do you want to go back to the Northern Frontier?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°Because this world... is starting to get a little different. I need to be with those who are waiting for me,¡± Zhang Jinglin exined.


    ¡°What¡¯s in the Northern Frontier?¡± Yan Liuyuan kept asking questions. He and Ren Xiaosu had never been to the ce before, and it was said to be far off in the northwest.


    Yan Liuyuan recalled the time Mr. Zhang got distracted in ss. On that day, Mr. Zhang was looking out of the window at the sky and saying, ¡°The spring snow and ice in the Northern Frontier has yet to melt, so there isn¡¯t any greenery, only sandstorms and yellow earth. The snow in the Northern Frontier is vast and white, and humanity is very lonely.¡±


    At that time, although Mr. Zhang had described the Northern Frontier as a bleak and deste ce, Yan Liuyuan could sense his yearning and nostalgia for it. It was only upon recalling this that Yan Liuyuan understood those feelings. So it was because Zhang Jinglin came from there.


    ¡°What¡¯s in the Northern Frontier? There¡¯s cigarettes to smoke?¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid. They wouldn¡¯t dare do anything to me. They won¡¯t be able to try anything funny and will only send me back to Stronghold 178 in the end.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. He thought to himself how Ren Xiaosu would not be able to nag him to do his homework in the future. The town wouldn¡¯t even have a teacher anymore.


    However, Yan Liuyuan didn¡¯t feel as happy as before when he thought about not having to do any more homework in the future.

 Chapter 87 - Living specimen

    <h4>Chapter 87: Living specimen</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Meanwhile, Luo Lan was panting as he sat in the backseat of the off-road vehicle. He was making a call on a satellite phone. ¡°Hey, Zhang Jinglin has appeared!¡±


    The person on the other end of the call fell silent for a moment. ¡°Has it been verified?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not verified yet, but if it¡¯s true, should I kill him?¡± Luo Lan seemed to be seeking the other person¡¯s opinion. ¡°Why does this old boy have to hide in my territory of all ces?¡±


    From his tone, it sounded like Luo Lan considered Zhang Jinglin a hot potato of sorts.


    Everyone usually felt that Luo Lan was always smiling and easy to approach, but the smart ones all knew that Luo Lan wasn¡¯t that different from his crazy younger brother. They were both thick-skinned and ck-hearted murderers.


    If Yan Liuyuan heard what Luo Lan asked, he would be extremely worried for Zhang Jinglin. However, the person on the other end of the satellite call asked, ¡°Kill him?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Fatty Luo said. ¡°This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!¡±


    ¡°A lot of people have now heard he¡¯s still alive, right?¡± The person on the other end said, ¡°Don¡¯t you think that, if you kill him now, that damned group from Stronghold 178 might even abandon their stronghold ande over to kill you?¡±


    Luo Lan actually shivered at the words. ¡°I can get it done without causing a scene.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no such thing as an impervious wall in this world.¡± The other person said, ¡°Send him back to Stronghold 178. Isn¡¯t someone guarding the Northern Frontier for us better? Even if he has to die... it cannot be to the hands of our Qing Consortium, much less by your hand.¡±


    ¡°But what if one day, he...¡± Luo Lan hesitated.


    ¡°It won¡¯t be toote to kill him at that time. For now, we¡¯ll let others get a headache over this.¡± The person on the other end sounded unquestionably firm. He then seemed to think of something. ¡°By the way, I¡¯m at the Jing Mountains. Is there a refugee from your ce named Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Luo Lan froze: ¡°The one who sells medicine?!¡±


    This time, it was the person on the other end who was surprised. ¡°What about selling medicine? Who¡¯s selling medicine?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± Luo Lan said with some diffidence. ¡°Did you discover anything in the Jing Mountains? I only found out two days ago that Old Liu from our Stronghold 113 secretly sent a squad of private troops to the Jing Mountains. They were even traveling under the pretense of being a band. How childish. I actually quite liked the female singer. It¡¯s such a waste that she¡¯s probably going to die in the Jing Mountains.¡±


    ¡°Oh, the female singer you¡¯re talking about, she¡¯s not dead yet,¡± the person on the other end said with augh. ¡°So Ren Xiaosu is the one who sells medicine and Luo Xinyu is the singer, but who is Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    ¡°Yang Xiaojin? I¡¯ve never even heard of that name before,¡± Luo Lan muttered. ¡°Discover anything in the Jing Mountains?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m close to locating the researchb from before The Cataclysm.¡± The person on the other end said, ¡°But, Bro, you can take a back seat in Stronghold 113. You shouldn¡¯t be questioning me on such matters.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Luo Lan fell silent for a moment. In a normal family, the elder brother would usually have more say over things. However, Boss Luo had absolutely no authority before his younger brother.


    ¡°One more question.¡± The person on the other end asked, ¡°How long has it been since Luo Xinyu became a singer at your stronghold?¡±


    ¡°About two years?¡± Luo Lan replied.


    ¡°Then does that Ren Xiaosu have any friends or rtives?¡± the person on the other end asked.


    ¡°I think he has a younger brother,¡± Luo Lan said. Then he turned to Wang Congyang, who was beside him, and asked, ¡°Does that Ren Xiaosu have any friends or rtives?¡±


    Wang Congyang froze. ¡°This Zhang Jinglin is his friend....¡±


    Luo Lan was taken aback. ¡°How coincidental.¡±


    ¡°Then don¡¯t touch his brother. They¡¯re just refugees.¡± The person on the other end sounded less hostile. ¡°While you¡¯re sending Zhang Jinglin back to the Northern Frontier, ship Old Liu off from your Stronghold 113 as well. He has no ce over there anymore.¡±


    Luo Lan muttered, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just kill him? It¡¯s so much more trouble sending him away.¡±


    ¡°Just do as I say.¡± With a click, the other person hung up.


    Wang Congyang, who was sitting next to Luo Lan, did not say a word. He had not expected these two brothers could decide the fate of a stronghold overseer with just a call. So this was what an organization could do.


    ...


    At this time, it had also turned dark in the Jing Mountains. The Qing Consortium troops had erected huge spotlights around the excavation sites, with one shining in each of the four cardinal directions, illuminating the entire city in the valley.


    The consortium was very experienced atbat operations, so they were used to treating every mission as a real battle. The only difference was that some battles were more major than others.


    And the most important factors in a battle were: intelligence and reconnaissance.


    After the young man dressed in a white suit hung up, he looked at Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu, who were in front of him, with a smile. It had been several hours since the battle between thebat troops and the Experimental ended. Only afterwards were Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu taken to this ruined city.


    ¡°I forgot to introduce myself earlier.¡± The young man in the white suit said with a smile, ¡°I am Qing Zhen of the Qing Consortium, also known as Luo Lan¡¯s younger brother. I¡¯m very happy to meet you two, my guests, Mr. Liu Bu and Ms. Luo Xinyu.¡±


    Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu¡¯s hands had been secured behind their backs with stic ties. This did not make them feel like they were guests at all. Liu Bu suddenly said, ¡°Everything that I said just now is true. I didn¡¯t hide anything. Xu Xianchu is a supernatural being, and Yang Xiaojin is also very likely one. But the person you have to be wariest of is that Ren Xiaosu. I suggest you kill him on the spot if you encounter him! Their motives ining to the Jing Mountains definitely aren¡¯t innocent. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re trying to infringe on the interests of the Qing Consortium. I¡¯m very familiar with Boss Luo, so you mustn¡¯t kill me!¡±


    Qing Zhen thought for a moment before asking, ¡°Have you two heard about that schoolteacher from town, Zhang Jinglin?¡±


    Liu Bu was startled. ¡°I¡¯ve heard Ren Xiaosu mention him a few times before. But why are you asking about this? Is it Zhang Jinglin who has a problem? That Ren Xiaosu seems to be very close to Zhang Jinglin, so there has to be a problem with him!¡±


    Liu Bu was getting flustered and panicky. He was answering almost every question posed to him. Usually, the members of the consortium were gentlemanly and refined, and there was always a very graceful demeanor about them when they attended gs or parties.


    But right now, they were surrounded by countless troops. These soldiers were all standing as still as statues, yet keeping an eye on all that was going on around them.


    The gentleman revealed his fangs and muscrity all of a sudden, as his malicious nature that was usually hidden under his elegant exterior reared its head!


    Liu Bu had only heard of Qing Zhen because of Boss Luo. Many of Stronghold 113¡¯s residents had secretly talked about this pair of strange brothers. However, Qing Zhen¡¯s reputation was not good because he was always the one handling the Qing Consortium¡¯s assassinations in recent years.


    ording to what many people say, Qing Zhen was a demon who skinned his dead victims.

 Chapter 88 - Shadow, Qing Zhen

    <h4>Chapter 88: Shadow, Qing Zhen</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Members of the Qing Consortium were divided into several different groups. One of them was the Dependables. They were responsible for running the organizational machine. They did the honorable work and garnered respect and influence for the consortium.


    Another group was the Bums, with people such as Luo Lan, who just needed to be kept alive and be well-fed in a stronghold. They were not expected to excel and just stayed around until they died.


    Yet another type were the Shadows. Like Qing Zhen, who did all the dirty work yet had hardly anything to do with the inheritance of the consortium. He tended to earn the most money. Normally, an illegitimate child like Luo Lan would not be qualified to take control of a stronghold, yet Qing Zhen was able to help him do so.


    Or maybe Luo Lan¡¯spetitors did not dare to vie with him for control of the stronghold as they either feared Qing Zhen or relied on him for certain things. It was the first time the Qing Consortium had ced an illegitimate child in the controlling position of a stronghold, which demonstrated Qing Zhen¡¯s standing within the consortium.


    Qing Zhen looked at Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu and said, ¡°Tell me about those three people. I¡¯m talking about Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu.... Eh? Is Ren Xiaosu rted to Yang Xiaojin in any way? It sounds like they¡¯re prettypatible based on their names.¡±


    ¡°No, they¡¯re not rted.¡± Liu Bu shook his head. ¡°Ren Xiaosu is just a refugee from outside the stronghold. We forced him to be the guide for our expedition. He has great strength, so I suspect he might also be a supernatural being.¡±


    Qing Zhen shook his head. ¡°So it¡¯s just his strength that¡¯s a little greater?¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that enough? He¡¯s capable of lifting up a full-grown man single-handed.¡± Liu Bu said anxiously, ¡°And that Xu Xianchu, even though his stamina and strength are quite normal, his power is to create a shadow clone of himself. That shadow clone can even shield him from bullets!¡±


    Qing Zhen got interested. He ordered someone next to him, ¡°Take notes. Xu Xianchu, supernatural being who hasn¡¯t reached his full potential; Danger Rating: C. Ren Xiaosu, suspected Strength-type supernatural being; Danger Rating: F.¡±


    There were not onlybat troops surrounding Qing Zhen, but also many researchers in hazmat suits. One of them was even responsible for making note of the decisions Qing Zhen make.


    All of a sudden, Liu Bu realized that Qing Zhen was actually more interested in Xu Xianchu. It seemed like he didn¡¯t really care about Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°So Ren Xiaosu is also considered a supernatural being? Then you should hurry up and capture him,¡± Liu Bu said. All this while, Luo Xinyu, who was beside him, hadn¡¯t said a word.


    Qing Zhenughed. ¡°We¡¯ll definitely capture him. I believe they must be in the city right now. But there¡¯s nothing rare about Strength-type supernatural beings.¡±


    At this moment, be it Liu Bu or Luo Xinyu, they both realized that Qing Consortium¡¯s understanding of supernatural beings was definitely not on a superficial level.


    It seemed that the Qing Consortium had gained a very deep understanding of these supernatural beings. But upon some thought, it wasn¡¯t that surprising. The world was under the control of the organizations, so it was also quite normal they would have an advanced understanding of such secrets. They had many more resources, as well as the power of information.


    But it felt like even the Qing Consortium was unable to fully define the level of powers that a supernatural being had. They could only use danger ratings to rank them.


    This danger rating was probably assessed based on what could threaten the consortium, right?


    So, for example, Xu Xianchu, who could summon a shadow clone to battle on his behalf, was assessed to be a C-ss danger due to the bullet blocking ability it had, while Ren Xiaosu, who only had greater strength than normal, was ignored. No matter how strong one was, could they possibly ovee firearms and explosives?


    Fists and kicks were ultimately no match for guns and cannons. In the eyes of the organizations, if someone¡¯s strength didn¡¯t surpass the power of a firearm, then the supernatural being¡¯s destructive powers would be limited.


    This was because the vast majority of firearms were still controlled by the organizations.


    Qing Zhen was now sure that Ren Xiaosu was a refugee from the town outside of the stronghold, Xu Xianchu was an officer of the private army, while Yang Xiaojin¡¯s origins remained unknown. Of course, even though Luo Lan had told him about them personally, he still might not believe his words. He was always the type who liked to verify the truth for himself.


    Liu Bu could not really understand. Compared to Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu, Qing Zhen was clearly more interested in Yang Xiaojin. ording to Liu Bu, Yang Xiaojin was very well-informed about the Pyro Company and other organizations. Therefore, this made Yang Xiaojin¡¯s identity far moreplicated than Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu.


    Qing Zhen was currently standing in the ruins of the city. With a destroyed civilization and toughbatants of the consortium around him, his white suit remained spotlessly clean. He asked with great interest, ¡°Has Yang Xiaojin shown herself to have any types of special skills?¡±


    ¡°Yang Xiaojin doesn¡¯t have any special skills.¡± Liu Bu thought about it carefully for a long time. It felt like other than being decisive and ruthless, Yang Xiaojin was just a girl who didn¡¯t exhibit any trace of special skills.


    If Ren Xiaosu were here, he would have none of it. Those advanced jump rope and Advanced Nursery Rhymes Singing skills were both very impressive skills! Surely that was special enough, right?


    But of course, Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t here right now. By this point, he had located the jewelry shop he was longing to find!


    Qing Zhen did not get the answer he desired, so he looked at Liu Bu seriously and said, ¡°Think harder.¡±


    For some reason, Liu Bu suddenly felt an oppressive forcee over him. He clenched his teeth and said, ¡°Yang Xiaojin really doesn¡¯t have any special skills. Instead, I think you should raise your guard against Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Qing Zhen nodded. He turned to look at Luo Xinyu. ¡°Just what is so special about this Ren Xiaosu that Liu Bu cannot take his mind off him? Could it be that he has some special skills other than his strength?¡±


    Luo Xinyu froze. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s special skill?


    She gave it some thought before venturing, ¡°Maybe he¡¯s quite skilled at annoying people?¡±


    Luo Xinyu was not making this up. In fact, she felt deeply about this!


    But when Qing Zhen heard this, heughed. He said to the person beside him, ¡°Xu Man, bring a team and seek these three people out. Get back here before 12 midnight.¡±


    ¡°Affirmative.¡± The soldier named Xu Man led six toons off, using 180 men to deal with three people. This was probably the highest form of ¡°treatment¡± even within the Qing Consortium.


    As Qing Zhen¡¯s trusted aide, Xu Man understood the secret of the Jing Mountains must not be leaked. Everyone who was an outsider today would not be allowed to walk away from here.


    Qing Zhen stood still and started humming a song. He had apparently rxed. However, Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu did not feel the same way. Luo Xinyu couldn¡¯t resist testing Qing Zhen by saying, ¡°Do the changes in the Jing Mountains also have something to do with this researchb?¡±


    ¡°No, no, no.¡± Qing Zhen said with a smile, ¡°The changes in the Jing Mountains were beyond our expectations as well. We normally call this ce... the Holy Land. Due to the changes in a certain person, there was a change to the entire mountain range. Because we discovered the change in the Jing Mountains toote, we were unable to identify who that person is.¡±


    Liu Bu said nervously, ¡°This matter has nothing to do with us!¡±


    Qing Zhen paused. ¡°I know it has nothing to do with you two. If it did, I would be the nervous one.¡±


    ¡°Then what are you nning to do with us?¡±


    However, Qing Zhen did not seem to hear him. He was just waiting for Xu Man to bring Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin to him.


    At this moment, the troops returned from the forest. It looked like they were carrying something back with them. Qing Zhen smiled and said to Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu, ¡°Don¡¯t get too rmedter.¡±

 Chapter 89 - A product of genetic modification

    <h4>Chapter 89: A product of gic modification</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu looked at them in surprise. When they were brought back here earlier, the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops were still dealing with the Experimental. So was thismotion rted to the troops bringing back the Experimental? Honestly speaking, both of them were curious. Just what were those Experimentals?


    But a momentter, they were stunned. They saw a multyered, reinforced steel cage get carried over. Lying inside of it was a gray... person!


    Liu Bu suspiciously checked out the person inside the cage. That person was riddled with bullets, but there wasn¡¯t much bleeding. It was as though it could control its skin and muscles to close up its wounds the instant the bullet entered its body.


    This would be pretty unimaginable to the average person because no one could control their bodies like that.


    In addition, this gray figure was chained up by its arms and legs!


    The chains had been meant to imprison the person somewhere, but it had somehow managed to break them off. Did the sound that Liu Bu and the others hear the other nighte from this person?


    At this moment, Liu Bu remembered the ravaged corpse of Xu Xia and the human teeth marks on it. He vomited on the spot at the thought. When Xu Xianchu and the others said that it was a human who bit Xu Xia¡¯s corpse, he did not believe them. But now, there was no reason not to believe it.


    Feelings of terror and disgust were gripping Liu Bu¡¯s stomach like they were squeezing everything out of it.


    He had no food inside him, so he could only vomit out a pale-green mixture of gastric juices and bile.


    Qing Zhen looked at Liu Bu with great interest. ¡°It looks like you also have some understanding of this thing here. Have you seen it chewing on a corpse too?¡±


    Luo Xinyu¡¯s reaction was tougher than Liu Bu. She forced herself to calm down and asked, ¡°Just what is this thing?¡±


    ¡°Since it¡¯s called an Experimental, then of course it¡¯s something that¡¯s used for performing experiments on.¡± Qing Zhen said, ¡°But don¡¯t misunderstand, this thing¡¯s got nothing to do with our Qing Consortium. They are a product from the Pre-Cataclysm times. We also found out about their existence just recently.¡±


    ¡°It was from before The Cataclysm?¡± Luo Xinyu said, rather shocked. ¡°How many years has it already been since The Cataclysm happened? Can they live for so long? Wait, when you said ¡®they¡¯...¡±


    It was at this time that Luo Xinyu realized there wasn¡¯t just one of these things around!


    Qing Zhen carefully sized up the ¡°person¡± in the cage. He said, ¡°They seem to have just escaped from the researchboratory. Even I¡¯m very curious about how they managed to live until now. This is basically a living specimen.¡±


    Liu Bu shivered. This Qing Zhen was treating a living person as a specimen, even if that person was neither human nor demon.


    Luo Xinyu suddenly realized what the Qing Consortium hade to the Jing Mountains for. They had even mobilized arge number of industrial machinery and spared no manpower or logistics, all so they could locate the researchboratory where these freaks were previously imprisoned!


    When they realized that there wasn¡¯t just one of these Experimentals around, they finally understood why thebat troops had called for support at first contact with the Experimental. It was because they were worried there would be more of them in the area!


    ¡°How many Experimentals did you all encounter, and how many people were injured or killed in the capture of this Experimental?¡± Qing Zhen asked.


    Nearby, someone answered, ¡°We only encountered this one. We mobilized five toons, and three people died while another 13 were injured.¡±


    Qing Zhen shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s enough to capture one of these Experimentals. For future encounters, it doesn¡¯t matter whether they live or die. Just destroy them all. Don¡¯t add to the number of casualties on our side.¡±


    ¡°Roger,¡± an officer of the consortium¡¯sbat troops answered.


    The Experimental in the cage was clearly not dead yet. Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu could tell because they could see it was still breathing from the rising and falling of its chest.


    However, Luo Xinyu was a little skeptical. ¡°It should¡¯ve been centuries years since The Cataclysm happened, right? How are they still alive?¡±


    This was the most puzzling thing. The average human¡¯s lifespan was only several decades long, or at most, a little over a hundred years. But if these Experimentals were really from the time before The Cataclysm, how did they manage to survive til now in the undergroundb? This didn¡¯t make sense.


    Even if their lifespan could be extended, what did these Experimentals eat in the undergroundb?


    Qing Zhen stood before the cage andughed. ¡°Did I not capture them to find out their secret? For example, multicellr organisms like humans use cell division to perform growth and reproduction. Logically, cell division should be an infinite process, since if it could be divided once, then it could be divided again for a second time or more. But what¡¯s strange is that human cells can only divide an average of 50 times before they stop dividing <sup>1</sup> . After that, they will head into an irreversible decline.¡±


    This is the reason why humans grow old and die. After human cells divide themselves about 50 times, the cells enter a senescence phase. Then the organs start to fail until death urs.


    Qing Zhen looked at the person in the cage and continued, ¡°I suspect thisb has discovered a way to make the cells divide indefinitely. By doing so, the human body¡¯s metabolic rate and lifespan increases. However, they did not consider the consequences of doing something like that.¡±


    Qing Zhenbeled this creature in the cage as a Fiend, but it was neither human nor demon. To him, these Fiends had lost their human minds, and their intelligence had degraded to the point of being not that much different from a beast.


    But in contrast to their intelligence, these Fiends had physical strength and agility that surpassed the average human¡¯s to the point that not even wild animals were a match.


    Moreover, wild animals obeyed an order. Just like Ren Xiaosu had said, the different species still had taxonomic orders <sup>1</sup> .


    But these Experimentals were different. They did not belong in an order.


    Right at this moment, the Experimental that had been shot four or five times starteding around. It curled its body and mmed itself against the steel cage, as if it wanted to use brute strength to break the cage apart!


    However, it seemed that this cage had been specially built by the Qing Consortium. It got slightly deformed but did not break apart from the Experimental mming itself against it.


    Eventually, the Experimental stopped trying. It just red daggers at Qing Zhen, who was in front of it. Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu discovered that Qing Zhen remained unusually calm no matter how aggressively the Experimental was struggling. There was no point in time that he took a step back due to fear.


    Qing Zhen removed the magazine from a pistol and threw the pistol into the cage. The Experimental bit into the steel pistol and crushed it with its jaws!


    Qing Zhen and the Experimental looked at each other. Suddenly, he said, ¡°Note this down. Subject¡¯s teeth have evolved to be harder, its pupils are narrow, and it has a habit of crawling to move around. This thing can no longer be categorized as human, and it¡¯s suspected that they are a product of gic modification. Theb is suspected as a possible secret testing site for the Pyro Company from before The Cataclysm.¡±


    From nearby, someone took out pen and paper to takeplete notes on Qing Zhen¡¯s observations. Compared to Luo Xinyu and Liu Bu¡¯s startled looks, everyone else looked like they had gotten used to Qing Zhen¡¯s calm demeanor.

 Chapter 90 - Rounding up Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 90: Rounding up Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    For some reason, Luo Xinyu suddenly felt that the calm-looking Qing Zhen standing outside of the cage was even more vicious than the Experimental inside of it.


    And... what did this have anything to do with the Pyro Company?


    ¡°Shine a bright light at it,¡± said Qing Zhen.


    Someone shone the spotlight onto the Experimental¡¯s face. The Experimental feared the light so much it instinctively tried to block its eyes with its arms.


    Qing Zhen wondered, ¡°They are clearly afraid of light, so why were they active during the day today? Have they evolved even further... or was it because there was something special that attracted them and made them want toe out even in the light!¡±


    Someone beside him said calmly, ¡°There are two possibilities why they¡¯re afraid of the light. One would be that their former human personalities can¡¯t face their current selves, and the other would be that their DNA was inserted with animal behavior like nocturnality.¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t urgent.¡± Qing Zhen nodded and said, ¡°Ask Xu Man over the radio whether he¡¯s located those three people yet. I¡¯m guessing they must¡¯ve sneaked into our area of operations during the time you all were busy capturing the Experimental.¡±


    Qing Zhen had managed to guess when Ren Xiaosu and the others had sneaked past the perimeter they had locked down. Qing Zhen was very eager to find the trio because he wanted to know if the Experimentals had suddenlye out in the daytime because one of the three had attracted them.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu was wandering around a huge shopping mall. Perhaps due to the incredible construction quality of the building, this huge mall did not copse from earthquakes.


    But even so, while the fa?ade of the building was still intact, the interior furnishings were damaged beyond recognition. Many of the dropped ceiling tiles had crashed to the floor, and the messy counters below were gray and dusty. Theyer of dust that had gathered on them looked like it was at least ten centimeters thick. The items that could not stand the passage of time had all deteriorated and been damaged.


    And it was in this shopping mall that Ren Xiaosu finally saw a jewelry shop.


    The jewelry had oxidized, and the silver ornaments on the counter had all tarnished ck. Only by snapping them apart could a trace of its original silvery color be seen in the break lines.


    As for gold jewelry, they would oxidize as well. The gold in this shopping mall had apparentlye in contact for a long time with some iron that was contained in the copsed dropped ceilings, resulting in red spots forming on the surface. But of course, that wouldn¡¯t affect the intrinsic value of the gold itself.


    He definitely did not want the items made of silver. Silver was not particrly valuable in these times.


    Ren Xiaosu could only take a limited amount of items with him by himself. He had to go for the items that were the highest in value.


    It was at this time that the benefit of the storage space was amplified. How much gold could be loaded into a space of one cubic meter? Ren Xiaosu had been worried about how he could continue upgrading his storage space. But now there wasn¡¯t a need to worry. The gold that was here would probably be enough for him, Yan Liuyuan, and Sister Xiaoyu to livefortably for many decades toe!


    Most of the gold in the shopping mall was in the form of jewelry. So to save space, Ren Xiaosu squeezed the gold bracelets and gold nes into a clump before storing them in the pce. After all, he could do anything he wanted with his strong hands.


    But even so, there was still a lot of empty space in the storage area after he had stuffed it full with the gold, which Ren Xiaosu felt was tragic.


    In the end, he took off his jacket and used it to wrap some of the gold up.


    Ren Xiaosu even saw diamonds in the shopping mall, but diamonds were no longer considered valuable in these times. Mr. Zhang from the school had once said that a long time ago, diamonds were extremely expensive, even though there was arge quantity of them in the world. It was only priced highly because supply was controlled and prices were inted.


    As such, in the current day, no one was advocating owning diamonds anymore. Or perhaps, in times when everyone was more willing to purchase food and not diamonds, the value of diamonds would naturally depreciate.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of footsteps neatly marching outside the shopping mall. He frowned when he realized the Qing Consortium¡¯s people had arrived.


    Ren Xiaosu knew well that the Qing Consortium would find out about the existence of Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and him. Since Liu Bu had been captured, he would surely tell the Qing Consortium about them.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was in the shopping mall carrying gold inside his jacket as the storage space in his pce was full.


    He didn¡¯t care if Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin had achieved their purpose for the expedition. He had everything he needed.


    Perhaps Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were here to find out about the secret of the supernatural beings and the evolution that was happening in the world, but Ren Xiaosu was not interested in that at all. If there were a reflexology spa still operating in this city, he might be interested in that....


    Ren Xiaosu was just thinking of making off with the gold he had gotten his hands on.


    But just as he was about to leave the ce, he heard the neat marching of the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops as they arrived outside the mall. Ren Xiaosu frowned and stepped back into the jewelry shop.


    It looked like Liu Bu had already revealed their existence after getting captured by the Qing Consortium. However, Ren Xiaosu was not panicking yet. This shopping mall was gigantic, so Ren Xiaosu did not think the troops would easily find him even if they came in and searched.


    Moreover, this ruined city was colossal, and there were a lot of buildings too. Even if the Qing Consortium had thousands of troops, and they were all mobilized to conduct a search of the entire city, it would still take them at least ten days to a fortnight to sweep through it.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s Xu Man was leading the toons through the dusty streets. They were ready to engage inbat at any time, because based on Liu Bu¡¯s description, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were both rtively dangerous people. This was especially so for Xu Xianchu since he had a danger rating of C.


    As for someone like Ren Xiaosu, everyone¡¯s judgment of him was more or less the same: A typical refugee who had slightly greater than normal strength and knew how to kill people but was otherwise not considered much of a threat. It wasn¡¯t because Xu Man and Qing Zhen were blindly arrogant, but because Liu Bu didn¡¯t know what Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ace in the hole was.


    Xu Man was a professional soldier with an abundance ofbat experience. He also understood that if Ren Xiaosu only had greater strength than normal, he wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against their firearms.


    Ren Xiaosu hid behind a dpidated steel shelf in the shopping mall. He made sure he waspletely hidden in the shadows so he would not be discovered by anyone who happened to pass by outside.


    When he saw a toon of soldiers being led by Xu Man slowly passing by in front of the broken entrance, Ren Xiaosu felt a slight relief.


    When Xu Man led the toon past the next building¡¯s corner, he halted in his tracks. He turned around and said to the soldier behind him, ¡°I don¡¯t remember some of the things in that building being ced that way. Someone¡¯s been here, and he could still be inside!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had probably not expected there would be such a fearsomebatant within the ranks of the Qing Consortium. He was very detailed about things and had an amazing memory too.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not really touch the items on the counters facing the outside. At most, he had handled one or two of them. But even so, that did not escape Xu Man¡¯s eyes.

 Chapter 91 - Fighting alone

    <h4>Chapter 91: Fighting alone</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Xu Man was very cautious. He first pretended not to have found anything and walked past the shopping mall. When he confirmed that he was far away from it, he immediately called for support to try to surround the mall.


    The toon carefully made their way back, while the other five toons were closing in as well. The wirelessmunications equipment they had in their helmets was far more convenient than they could imagine.


    Xu Man slowly led the soldiers towards the main entrance as though they hade back after a normal patrol of the area and there was nothing unusual about their movements. Theirbat boots were hard bottomed, so it was impossible for them to staypletely silent while walking on the concrete surfaces. So it was better to pretend they were on a normal patrol.


    However, when Ren Xiaosu heard these footsteps again, he let out a sigh in his head. He knew that anyone in this world who depended on luck would not live for long. If he were still thinking the other party hadn¡¯t discovered him yet, that would be too stupid of him.


    For the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops to suddenly return, it didn¡¯t matter how unconcerned they were trying to act. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood there must be a reason for it. In that instant, Ren Xiaosu felt his heart ache. He slowlyid down the jacket he had used to wrap up the gold with onto the floor. He decided to abandon it.


    Now that he had to run for his life, he couldn¡¯t risk his life for the gold.


    Even if he had great strength, carrying a bundle of gold would affect his speed, or worse, his sense of bnce.


    Ren Xiaosu had always treated money as just a tool. He liked it, but he would never indulge in it. It had always been so for him.


    Not only was he abandoning the gold, Ren Xiaosu was even nning on discarding the jacket. If he slowly took out the gold jewelry from inside the jacket, it would make too much noise.


    He turned around and ran lightly into the depths of the shopping mall. This mall was huge and spanned several stories as well.


    The outside of the building was probably surrounded already. Ren Xiaosu wouldn¡¯t use his life to test whether anyone standing behind the doors. What if a hail of gunfire swept over him the moment he opened one? That would be the end for him. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu had to run upstairs.


    From his memory, there was another building next to this shopping mall that was simr in height. This mall had been located in the most prosperous business center of the city, so it wasn¡¯t the only building around the area.


    Ren Xiaosu was not a reckless person. Xu Man might pick up that someone was hiding in the mall from his keen observation, but Ren Xiaosu had simrly picked out his getaway route beforehand.


    The gap between the two buildings was around 20 meters, and Ren Xiaosu was confident that he could leap over based on his current strength and dexterity.


    Xu Man slowly led the troops into the mall. They had their tactical shlights on as they slowly infiltrated into the darkness within.


    But not long after entering the building, Xu Man noticed the jacket and gold Ren Xiaosu had abandoned on the ground.


    He said on themunications channel, ¡°We¡¯ve got confirmation on the target¡¯s trail. The target has noticed we¡¯re after him and is currently on the run in another direction! Target is extremely cautious!¡±


    Qing Zhen¡¯s voice sounded on themunications channel. ¡°Have you discovered who it is yet?¡±


    Xu Man hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°It might be that refugee, Ren Xiaosu. I¡¯ve not set eyes on the target yet, so I can¡¯t confirm.¡±


    ¡°How did you guess it¡¯s Ren Xiaosu without seeing him?¡± Qing Zhen asked, ¡°Did you find some clues?¡±


    Xu Man hesitated and said, ¡°We discovered a stash of gold here.... I¡¯m guessing only that kid would be so interested in gold.¡±


    Qing Zhen startedughing. He agreed with Xu Man¡¯s judgment. Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were obviously after the secret of the Jing Mountains. The two of them would definitely not be interested in something like gold. At least, it wouldn¡¯t be their immediate goal.


    Who would run this far out here and experience so much danger and terror all for the sake of making off with a bag of gold?


    If Ren Xiaosu were to hear this, he would be the first to object. Gold was so adorable, so why couldn¡¯t he hope to make off with some?!


    Luo Lan and Liu Bu had mentioned that Ren Xiaosu was just a refugee, but Qing Zhen did not entirely believe them.


    He was a suspicious person, so even if everyone said Ren Xiaosu was just a refugee, he would still not underestimate Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu could have been pretending all this while and might not have been the ordinary refugee they imed he was.


    Everyone who appeared here could possibly be here for the secret of the Jing Mountains. They could all have another identity.


    However, Qing Zhenughed. He suddenly felt that Ren Xiaosu really might not be interested in the secret of the Jing Mountains. At least to him, gold ranked above the secret of this ce.


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°This Ren Xiaosu is pretty interesting. Capture and bring him to me.¡±


    ¡°Roger.¡±


    A momentter, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops stormed into the shopping mall like ck vipers!


    ¡°Target is escaping to the second floor.¡±


    ¡°Target is escaping to the third floor.¡±


    Xu Man was listening in on thems to receive updates on the operations. By this time, the troops had discovered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s footprints. Inside the building, the floor was covered withyers of dust umted over the years, and anyone who stepped on it would leave behind their footprints.


    It was a good thing to have discovered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts. But Xu Man was considering something. This building had six floors, and the total height was probably between 30 and 40 meters. If Ren Xiaosu kept escaping upwards, he might end up having nowhere to go once he reached the top!


    Was Ren Xiaosu an idiot? Why would he escape up to a dead end?


    As Xu Man led thebat troops up, he recalled the details of his encounter with Ren Xiaosu. When this young man discovered he and the soldiers had returned to this building, he gave up on the gold without any hesitation and even started fleeing as quickly as possible.


    This person loved money, but he was not greedy. When he realized he was in danger, he did not take any chances and abandoned the gold.


    Based on the logic of most people, they might bring the gold along with them as they made their escape for a while. They would only make the decision to discard the gold when they realized it was a hindrance to their escape. This was human nature.


    However, Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t like this. The way he had abandoned the gold was decisive.


    Xu Man understood this young man he encountered was not simple. The target had a very strong survival instinct, as well as a no-nonsense and sober reasoning process.


    Besides, even if their target of capture were really an idiot, he would still treat that person as the smartest person around. This was the kind of mindset to approach anybat situation!


    So since Ren Xiaosu was escaping upstairs, did that mean there was a route of escape up there?


    This was clearly a separate building by itself, so where could Ren Xiaosu run to?


    That wasn¡¯t right!


    Xu Man suddenly remembered there was a building beside the mall, and it was just over a dozen meters away and slightly shorter than the one they were in. Could Ren Xiaosu escape by jumping over?!


    Xu Man did not think of this before because he had believed Ren Xiaosu could not leap across to the nearby building since he himself couldn¡¯t do so.


    The misconception here was that humans tended to judge other people based on their own abilities. If they could not do something, they would think others couldn¡¯t do it either.


    But while Xu Man could not do it, that did not mean Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t do it either!


    Xu Man said loudly in thems channel, ¡°Outside toons, go and lock down the adjacent building!¡±

 Chapter 92 - Intentions revealed! A midnight assassination!

    <h4>Chapter 92: Intentions revealed! A midnight assassination!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Surrounding the adjacent building now might already be toote.


    But what Xu Man couldn¡¯t understand was, if Ren Xiaosu could really leap across the building, then just what kind of strength and speed did he have?


    Xu Man said to the other soldiers of the toon he was leading, ¡°You guys keep chasing him upstairs!¡±


    He then turned around and headed downstairs, running straight for the adjacent building. Xu Man firmly believed that Ren Xiaosu wouldn¡¯t wait to get caught on the roof. That young man would definitely jump to the next building!


    Just several moments after he rushed out of the building he was in, he looked up and saw Ren Xiaosu flying overhead. The young man¡¯s speed in the air was shockingly fast, and his body wasfortably outstretched to the extreme. Then he lightlynded on the roof of the building across thene! In that instant, Xu Man thought he saw a bird flying.


    Xu Man drew in a deep breath. He ran towards the adjacent building while saying on thems channel, ¡°Target Ren Xiaosu will need to have his powers reassessed! I repeat! Target¡¯s powers will need to be reassessed!¡±


    This young man was far from what they had imagined him! This was absolutely not a level of strength that theirmonly designated F-ss threats could reach!


    Xu Man rushed into the building and ran like mad up the stairs to the roof. But everyone who was in this ruined city heard a loud sounde from out of the blue. The sound reverberated through the city and out into the distance, as though a death knell had suddenly sounded.


    Xu Man stood in the dark building and looked around. He was puzzled. What was that sound? It sounded like it came from somewhere nearby!


    ...


    A few moments ago, while Ren Xiaosu was in midair after leaping across to the next building, he saw someone standing atop a fractured skyscraper in the distance before him.


    He had intended to head to that fractured skyscraper in the first ce, so he wasn¡¯t really that far from it at this point.


    A momentter, hended on the roof and stood there as he looked at the breach of the skyscraper. The broken and twisted rebar made the skyscraper look like it was a demon¡¯s tentacles piercing the sky.


    On top of that fracture, a cap-wearing girl plucked arge sniper rifle out of thin air. Then she ced a foot onto the edge of the crumbled wall and used both her hands to lift therge rifle onto her raised leg for support!


    Locked and loaded, she took aim!


    Ren Xiaosu did not know how Yang Xiaojin had conjured the sniper rifle. He looked in the direction Yang Xiaojin was aiming and saw Qing Zhen, who was wearing his white suit and standing in the spotlight!


    Ren Xiaosu was standing in the middle between Yang Xiaojin and Qing Zhen, so he could just barely make out the situation at Qing Zhen¡¯s location.


    So... Yang Xiaojin wasn¡¯t here for anything else. She wasn¡¯t here to visit her rtives, nor was she here for the secret of the Jing Mountains. Right from the beginning, her purpose was to kill this young man wearing the white suit!


    Ren Xiaosu had given it deep thought before and deduced there must have been an organization backing Yang Xiaojin. Moreover, the organization would also have its own intelligence agency. So this could exin why Yang Xiaojin knew about Qing Zhen¡¯s whereabouts and that he would appear here.


    Right now in the hintends of the Jing Mountains, this cap-wearing girl had finally revealed her intentions and was about to create her greatest assassination attempt!


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Advanced Firearms Proficiency made him suddenly think at this moment. He looked in the direction of the suit-wearing young man and considered the many factors affecting a long-distance shot on a target. The distance between Yang Xiaojin and the suit-wearing young man was at the point where the shooter would have to considerpensating for the Earth¡¯s rotation. If there wasn¡¯t any point of reference, how should the shot be carried out?


    At this moment, Luo Xinyu, who wasn¡¯t far away from the suit-wearing young man, had her head lowered. Her long hair was draped in front of her and blowing in the light breeze. When the wind stopped blowing, Luo Xinyu¡¯s hair would also stop moving. Ren Xiaosu realized that the moment was now!


    At some point in time, Luo Xinyu had freed herself from the shackles on her hands. She pulled out a ck dagger from her dense hair and thrust it at the bodyguard beside Qing Zhen. But the bodyguard did not back down. Instead, a white light started glowing in his hands as he conjured two fan-like objects and aimed it at Luo Xinyu with killing intent.


    Beside them, Liu Bu was dumbfounded with shock. He could never have expected the Luo Xinyu he knew to suddenly be like she was someone else. Where did that delicate and fragile Luo Xinyu go?! Was this someone else impersonating her?!


    The dagger Luo Xinyu was holding looked like a work of art. But in her slender hand, the dagger somehow seemed to be imbued with so much power.


    When thebat troops around them saw this development, they raised their guns and took aim at Luo Xinyu. If Qing Zhen¡¯s bodyguard could not stand up to her, they would fire their weapons in Luo Xinyu¡¯s path to prevent her from assassinating Qing Zhen!


    But Luo Xinyu was not going to kill anyone. She had apparently done this to give Yang Xiaojin an opening. Be it Qing Zhen¡¯s bodyguard or those troops, none of them were expecting the assasination attempt toe from the top of a far away skyscraper.


    Luo Xinyu only feinted an attack before making her retreat. Almost instantly, she stepped back into a shroud of shadow in the building behind her and disappeared. It was as though the door she opened in the shroud of shadow allowed her to cross spacetime!


    It was Luo Xinyu¡¯s power. Perhaps even Ren Xiaosu did not expect another supernatural being to be hidden on their team. Furthermore, it was even the person whose acting was the best.


    This turn of events overwhelmed everyone. But at this time, Qing Zhen spun and looked at the top of the skyscraper. He could feel a sharp pain in his temples!


    With a pull of the trigger, the muzzle sh from Yang Xiaojin¡¯s sniper rifle was like a fire-breathing dragon in the dark of night that suddenly brought on the bloodshed!


    That bodyguard noticed the muzzle sh in his peripheral vision and immediately gave up on chasing after Luo Xinyu to return back to Qing Zhen¡¯s side.


    The duty of a bodyguard was to protect rather than to kill enemies. That bodyguard roared with rage, ¡°Sniper!¡±


    The distance between Yang Xiaojin and Qing Zhen allowed the bodyguard to react in time. Even though a bullet was fast, it was all rtive. With the distance extended, a bullet meant for killing would still have to travel across the dense air of the night sky!


    The bodyguard threw his own body in front of Qing Zhen to shield him, with those two glowing hand fans made of white light held out in front of his chest. He could have tried to push Qing Zhen aside, but Qing Zhen was just a normal person, so that would have been too slow.


    Time stilled.


    A sniper rifle¡¯s bullet that was the length of a hand tore through the air of this world. The energy from its rotation distorted the air all around it as it prated through the night sky!


    The spotlight illuminated the area around Qing Zhen like a stage. Meanwhile, that bullet seemingly prated through the gaps of the light beams as it arrived onstage after traveling a 1,000 meters.


    With a loud impact, the rotating bullet mmed into the glowing white fans with great force. The white fans started crumbling apart bit by bit.


    At one point, the bodyguard even felt like he could see the patterning on the silver hand-length bullet.


    Right after, the bullet spun through his muscles and heart. It continued to pass through him as it exited the wound with a stter of blood. This bullet that had traveled over 1,000 meters had the extraordinary capability to pierce through this supernatural being¡¯s power and body before it finally fell to the ground.


    Those two white fans were extremely tough, but they were still unable to stop death.


    The blood flew through the air and sttered onto Qing Zhen¡¯s white suit, staining it red. The spots of blood on the white suit made it look just like plum blossoms that had just bloomed in the winter forest.


    But even at this moment, Qing Zhen was still looking as calm as ever. It was as though the bullet was noting for him in the first ce.


    ¡°What a pity,¡± Qing Zhen said and sighed. The people beside him could not tell what he meant. Was he talking about the supernatural being who was his bodyguard who had just died? Or was he referring to his white suit?

 Chapter 93 - What a scam!

    <h4>Chapter 93: What a scam!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    A normal 7.62 mm bullet had 2,600 joules of kic energy upon firing, while a 12.7 mm bullet could reach 15,000 joules of kic energy.


    But actually, even with such simplified data avable, it would still be very difficult for people to imagine how powerful a bullet from a sniper rifle was when it hit and passed through someone.


    Qing Zhen¡¯s bodyguard was a supernatural being. But what was very shocking was that at a time when the various organizations were arresting these supernatural beings, Qing Zhen had started using them for his own purposes.


    At this moment, this silent tiger of the Qing Consortium with a notorious reputation even among the other organizations was standing in the limelight as though this were his stage. He bent over to pick up the bullet off the ground and said with a smile, ¡°The Saboteurs have finally set their sights on me?¡±


    The people around Qing Zhen were taken aback. So it was the Saboteurs who did this? That obscure legend of a group that was being discussed by the organizations?


    Qing Zhen turned to look at Liu Bu. He said with a smile, ¡°As her agent, you didn¡¯t even know your client is a supernatural being. You¡¯re pretty stupid then. Rest in peace. There is no ce for a useless person... in this era.¡±


    Qing Zhen grabbed Liu Bu by his hair and stabbed the hand-length bullet into Liu Bu¡¯s eye with his bare hands. Liu Bu could only let out a short cry of pain before he stopped moving.


    Both of Qing Zhen¡¯s hands were bloody.


    ...


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu was standing atop the roof as he dumbfoundedly watched Yang Xiaojin dismount her gun and stand up without any dy. It was as though she already knew it would be very difficult to make another attempt on Qing Zhen¡¯s life even if she were to keep shooting at him.


    A secondter, the sniper rifle¡¯s muzzle swung over. It was aimed straight at Ren Xiaosu, who was on the roof. Ren Xiaosu sensed a trace of the girl¡¯s mischief behind the scope.


    Ren Xiaosu panicked. ¡®Shouldn¡¯t you fucking be taking another shot after failing toplete your mission? Why are you aiming at me?!¡¯


    But Yang Xiaojin appeared to be very calm. She had failed, so whatever happened wasn¡¯t worth looking back on.


    The rifle was fired with a cracking sound. But this time, there wasn¡¯t anything spectacr about the gunshot. This was because Ren Xiaosu stood there without moving, and the bullet didn¡¯t hit him either.


    As Ren Xiaosu knew all about Yang Xiaojin¡¯s firearms proficiency, he knew she hadn¡¯t fired this shot to kill him. It was to draw a clear line between them in front of the Qing Consortium?


    If it were really that, then wasn¡¯t this done too hastily?! Or could it be that she was just doing this out of spite for Luo Xinyu¡¯s sake?!


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Xinyu, who had just disappeared, appear on top of the skyscraper. She waved at Ren Xiaosu like she was greeting him before taking Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hand and bringing her into the shadow with her.


    Ren Xiaosu was absolutely stunned by what he had seen this time. He looked at the top of the skyscraper that was now empty, then looked over at the numerous Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troopsing for him. ¡®You guys are just gonna leave like that? Aren¡¯t you gonna bring me along too?!¡¯


    Seeing therge force of the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat brigade approaching, Ren Xiaosu wanted to cry. ¡®You two may escape with your superpowers after attracting such firepower, but have you considered that you might be inconveniencing for others?!¡¯


    What a scam!


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could never have imagined that Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin were in on it together. Even Yang Xiaojin¡¯s assassination attempt on Qing Zhen didn¡¯t leave him so surprised.


    At this time, Ren Xiaosu remembered the first time he met Luo Xinyu and how he had requested to switch Wang Congyang with someone else for the expedition. Back then, Luo Xinyu had secretly given Yang Xiaojin a look no one but Ren Xiaosu had noticed.


    Later on, when they were eating fish together, Yang Xiaojin called Luo Xinyu over to have some as well. When someone harassed Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin stood up for her just in time.


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu had thought Yang Xiaojin was only doing this because they were both women. He never expected these two people already knew each other, and they even put on such a great act in front of everyone!


    They did not exactly cover all details with their acting, but it was still enough to fool Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Liu Bu.


    Luo Xinyu was only a girl. So many soldiers of the private army had died, but Luo Xinyu survived until the very end. This in and of itself should have aroused Ren Xiaosu¡¯s suspicions.


    Before he learned of this oue, those shreds of evidence were hidden in in sight, but he didn¡¯t pick up on them. But after what happened here, and upon remembering, the details popped into his mind.


    Ren Xiaosu watched with a pained heart as the dense, dark group of troops neared. He had been too careless!


    The saying was indeed true: The prettier the animal, the deadlier it was. So this rule was not only true for the wilderness!


    And these two girls had been keeping Liu Bu around because he helped to lessen the suspicion on Luo Xinyu. In the end, Luo Xinyu helped Yang Xiaojin determine Qing Zhen¡¯s location and even helped her gain an extra moment of time.


    The only surprise was that they had not expected Qing Zhen to have a supernatural being who would protect him even at the expense of the being¡¯s own life.


    What was so extraordinary about Qing Zhen that a supernatural being would follow him?!


    Right at this time, the rusty iron door on the roof was shattered by someone ramming into it. Ren Xiaosu raised his gun and opened fire in that person¡¯s path, blocking his route. He looked around him and let out a curse. ¡°Fuck!¡±


    Not a secondter, Xu Man arrived through the shattered door onto the rooftop. When he saw Ren sprinting for the side of the roof, he attempted to shoot at him to stop him. In the end, he couldn¡¯t match Ren Xiaosu¡¯s speed as he tried to take aim at him!


    In the ruined city, the troops in their ck uniforms were making their way towards him like snakes hunting prey. Ren Xiaosu could no longer wait. He had to get out of here before they surrounded him!


    Back when Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Xu Xianchu prated into the city perimeter, he thought he would be the fastest person to get away from here in the event they had to escape.


    However, that wasn¡¯t the case at all. Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had a trick up their sleeves!


    Ren Xiaosu leaped off the rooftop. The rooftop on the adjacent building was a drop of several dozen meters from the one he was on. However, Ren Xiaosu was confident he would be fine!


    Xu Man rushed to the edge of the roof in the hope that he could fire another shot at Ren Xiaosu. But by the time he reached the edge, he could only see Ren Xiaosu¡¯s receding figure running off into the distance towards the edge of the city. Xu Man shouted on thems channel, ¡°Target is escaping at my ten o¡¯clock! Shrink the perimeter and lock it down!¡±


    In the forest outside of the city, the Qing Consortium¡¯s perimeter lockdown was still in effect. Over there were countless troops waiting for any signs of unknown danger that approached. But to everyone¡¯s surprise, that danger turned out to be a refugee escaping towards them.


    Before this, almost no one regarded this refugee to be any danger at all.


    Ren Xiaosu was making a mad dash through the city streets and alleys. Ever since he jumped off the rooftop, he was trying his best not to head for higher ground. This was because he didn¡¯t want to end up bing a live target for the troops.


    As he ran, he kept thinking about how Xu Xianchu didn¡¯t seem to have made any moves. It would have been good if there were someone else sharing a load of this firepower at this time!


    This ruined city was a huge chessboard, and Ren Xiaosu was a small chess piece running around on it. On this chessboard, the other white chess pieces on his team were gone. Meanwhile, those heavily armed ck pieces were all looking to hunt him down and kill him.

 Chapter 94 - Xu Xianchu at your service! Who dares challenge me!

    <h4>Chapter 94: Xu Xianchu at your service! Who dares challenge me!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu scampered towards the forest at the edge of the city. He was heading north to Stronghold 112, also where the active volcanoes were.


    He knewbat troops would for sure be waiting for him up front. The they had set would slowly open as he arrived.


    But Ren Xiaosu had no other choice. Only by getting there would he have a chance of survival!


    But all of a sudden, a violent rumble came from the depths of the Jing Mountains hintends. Ren Xiaosu raised his head at the mountains in the distance and saw a fiery light erupting from within the mountain range!


    ¡®Wait a minute, the volcano is about to erupt!¡¯


    Should he keep running forward, or should he turn around?


    Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth. At this time, why should he worry about the volcano? Only by staying alive could he consider other matters!


    Behind him, Xu Man also froze for a moment when he saw what was happening at the volcano. Heading within range of the volcano during an eruption was extremely dangerous. Much less going further, they wouldn¡¯t even be able to turn around and escape if the volcano really erupted.


    A lot of people thought that only the living creatures around the main mountain would be affected during a volcanic eruption, but that was only because they underestimated the true power of one!


    Perhaps the entire area spanning tens to hundreds of kilometers around would go up in a fiery sea!


    However, Xu Man only hesitated for a moment before saying on thems channel, ¡°Keep advancing!¡±


    Having fled to the edge of the city, Ren Xiaosu turned around and nced at the city behind him. The ck ironsand-like torrent of Qing Consortium troops was almost reaching him. Without further hesitation, Ren Xiaosu turned and went straight into the forest in the north!


    As the scattered Qing Consortium troops stationed in the forest started narrowing down the perimeter lockdown, their tactical movements had an unusual sense of depth.


    Their movements seemed to have been practiced hundreds to thousands of times, with the toons knowing exactly who would be advancing and who would be providing cover from behind.


    The toons in the northern forest had already received orders to round up and capture Ren Xiaosu. Even though the sound of an eruption was currentlying from the volcano behind them, it did not affect them from carrying out their orders.


    At this moment, Xu Man¡¯s voice came on through thems channel. ¡°Target¡¯s 100-meter sprint time is 3.92 seconds, and he has an unknown strength. All units, kill on sight.¡±


    Perhaps even Ren Xiaosu could not imagine the kind of technology the Qing Consortium had in their hands. Within the ranks of their troops, there was someone who specialized in evaluating the power and speed of their targets from afar.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had still not revealed his true strength and capabilities yet, so this didn¡¯t allow the troops to fully assess him for now.


    Qing Zhen had been quite interested in Ren Xiaosu. Moreover, there was also his rtionship with Zhang Jinglin to consider, so Qing Zhen was actually thinking of keeping Ren Xiaosu for other purposes.


    But right now, he did not want to wait anymore.


    There was only a thin line between capturing him and killing him on sight.


    The seven toons in the forest pulled back their charging handles at almost the same time and pointed their muzzles downwards, ready to raise their rifles and shoot at any moment.


    In addition, these seven toons had switched theirmunications channel to a different frequency. This was to prevent any outsidemunications from interfering with their operations. At this moment, these 210 soldiers formed an independent ORBAT <sup>1</sup> that could act first and reportter.


    This had always been the practice of thebat troops under Qing Zhen¡¯smand. Qing Zhen¡¯s opinion was that if an independent ORBAT was not even allowed to make their own decisions, then the war machine would not truly have anybat effectiveness.


    Many people within the Qing Consortium ranks had criticized his militarymand before, but Qing Zhen had never epted their point of view. He did not ept it in the past, and he would not ept it in the future either.


    However, what many of the important figures in the Qing Consortium did not know was that this form ofmand made many of the soldiers willing to work for Qing Zhen. He would often make them feel like they were trusted.


    At this time, Qing Zhen was looking at Liu Bu, who was lying in a puddle of blood. Some of the troops were carrying out another detailed search on Liu Bu¡¯s corpse. In the end, someone found a folded figure of a tattered doll and said, ¡°This was the thing that he was carrying around.¡±


    Qing Zhen frowned and said, ¡°What the hell is this?!¡±


    It seemed that not even someone like Qing Zhen had ever seen such a thing before...


    ...


    The troops in the forest were slowly shrinking the perimeter lockdown and had switched on their tactical shlights.


    Based on the information Xu Man had gathered from Liu Bu, Ren Xiaosu should have a gun on him. Other than that, he also seized three magazines of ammo from the private troops.


    But the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were not afraid of being live targets by switching on their shlights. After all, Ren Xiaosu, who was alone, definitely could not kill all 30 of them in one fell swoop. If he dared to fire at them, theirrades would instantly open fire at Ren Xiaosu and turn him into Swiss cheese!


    In the forest, the seven toons were gradually moving closer to the city. Meanwhile, Xu Man was leading six toons towards the forest in an attempt to corner their target. To catch one person, they had mobilized several hundred soldiers. Ren Xiaosu was getting an unprecedented kind of treatment.


    However, they still underestimated Ren Xiaosu¡¯s capabilities in the wilderness.


    The reason why Ren Xiaosu had agreed to be the expedition¡¯s guide was also due to his self-confidence.


    Although the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were fearsome, they stillcked far too much experience in the wilderness aspared to Ren Xiaosu!


    When the six toons that Xu Man was leading got closer to the seven toonsing from the forest, a ck shadow suddenly crashed into them.


    That ck shadow was thick as ink, but its movements were demonically fast and nimble. It was as if the trees in the forest were not an obstacle for it at all.


    The toons on the northern side did not hesitate and fired straight at it. But the ck shadow was prepared for it and simply sidestepped to the right, making the bullets miss.


    The ck shadow did not stop after it sidestepped, and it leaned forward. Taking a stride, it pushed off and rushed into the crowd of the most frontline toon!


    What could be done when the enemy had the most powerful firearms and explosives? This was a question Ren Xiaosu had asked Zhang Jinglin before. At that time, Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°You should, of course, run right into their midst, because they won¡¯t shoot indiscriminately at you. Theirrades are all around them, while everyone else is an enemy for you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was unsure if Zhang Jinglin¡¯s advice was a joke or what, but it seemed like it would work in his current situation.


    He saw every one of the troops unsheathing theirbat knives as a result. As the ck shadow was moving too fast, they were indeed worried about friendly fire.


    But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone, these normal human beings were too slow, as well as too weak!


    The ck shadow waspletely fearless of being sliced by the knives. It only needed one punch to end a life. Suddenly, the ck shadow raised its leg and kicked one of the troops in the chest. That soldier was sent flying five meters away just like a kite cut from its line!


    The other troops were frightened by this. The power in that kick was overwhelming!


    Xu Man, who had arrived just in time, saw a blur of this ck shadow from afar. When he finally managed to get a clearer view of it, he was a little puzzled. Weren¡¯t they chasing after Ren Xiaosu? Why didn¡¯t anyone mention that Ren Xiaosu had such a power?


    Right at this moment, Ren Xiaosu roared, ¡°Xu Xianchu at your service! Who dares challenge me!¡±

 Chapter 95 - Dead ends everywhere

    <h4>Chapter 95: Dead ends everywhere</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu had given it careful consideration before he resorted to using the shadow clone. It wasn¡¯t because he was afraid that he would reveal himself as a supernatural being, since why would he care about that if he was close to death?


    He was only afraid that he would reveal his power that could copy other people¡¯s powers. Ren Xiaosu only pretended to be Xu Xianchu because he knew that Xu Xianchu had not been captured yet, while he was sure that the Qing Consortium had already found out about Xu Xianchu¡¯s powers from Liu Bu.


    Ren Xiaosu had alreadye across several supernatural beings. Yang Xiaojin could pull an unparalleled sniper rifle out of thin air, Xu Xianchu could create a shadow clone of himself, Luo Xinyu could travel through the shadows, and Qing Zhen¡¯s bodyguard could materialize white fans in his hands.


    Ren Xiaosu got a false sense that supernatural beings were a dime a dozen.


    But his superpower was different. A superpower that could copy other people¡¯s superpowers, just how would that be rated? Ren Xiaosu did not know.


    If the Qing Consortium discovered he could copy other people¡¯s powers and took an interest in him, who knew what they might do to him.


    When Ren Xiaosu was escaping, he was wondering about how many supernatural beings existed in this world. Was it a lot?


    But upon careful consideration, it didn¡¯t seem to be so. It was probably the Jing Mountains and Qing Zhen that attracted all of them over here.


    When Xu Xianchu heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s roar, his doubts from earlier were all answered. He immediately updated everyone through thems channel, ¡°The intel earlier was wrong. Target isn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu, it¡¯s Xu Xianchu!¡±


    In reality, they had determined Ren Xiaosu to be Ren Xiaosu simply because they thought that as a refugee, he would be more interested in the gold. However, there wasn¡¯t any direct evidence to prove that his identity was Ren Xiaosu. First of all, they had never seen what Ren Xiaosu looked like. Second, even if they had seen Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu before, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face was dirty beyond recognition. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was wearing Sun Junzheng¡¯s uniform, so he was actually dressed in the same outfit as Xu Xianchu.


    ording to the intel the Qing Consortium had gained, Xu Xianchu was known to be able to create a shadow clone of himself to fight in battles. Furthermore, itsbat strength was extremely strong, and it could even block bullets.


    Although this shadow clone of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s was ck in color and different from Liu Bu¡¯s description, Xu Man felt that this could be due to the lighting. Perhaps, this shadow clone would turn gray in the daytime.


    When the troops of the Qing Consortium heard Ren Xiaosu courageous deration of ¡°Xu Xianchu at your service! Who dares challenge me!¡±, they thought their target wanted to challenge them to a fight to the death. However, their target turned around and fled!


    Several shots had brushed past Ren Xiaosu, but he remained unharmed so far.


    He knew that it wasn¡¯t because he could duck well, nor that the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were bad at aiming. It was because Yan Liuyuan¡¯s wish... was taking effect.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned in worry as he wondered how Liuyuan was doing. He had to quickly get away from the Qing Consortium and stop risking things here.


    Only when he ran out to about a 100 meters away did he finally recall his shadow clone!


    The shadow clone was running rampant in the crowd, and Ren Xiaosu was not even controlling it to aim at the vital points of the enemies anymore. Instead, he made it use its body to ram them into a pulp.


    Remember, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength was nearly equivalent to three adult men¡¯s, and the shadow¡¯s attributes were double that!


    So there wasn¡¯t a need to aim for the vital points. Whoever the shadow clone ran into, it would give that person broken bones all over his body.


    In the perimeter the Qing Consortium had set up, the shadow was fighting by itself like a lone sampan. The soldiers felt like it would start waning away at any moment, but the shadow clone surprisingly battled on like it could go on forever no matter how much it got beaten up or how many injuries it received.


    There were many troops standing between Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone. When Ren Xiaosu recalled it, the shadow clone smashed into everyone in the crowd like a train on tracks!


    With the shadow clone recalled, Ren Xiaosu would have to merge with it. Likewise, when Ren Xiaosu wanted it to be released, it would only be able toe out from behind him.


    When the shadow clone came back to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side, there were a lot of injuries and scars on its body. Ren Xiaosu could feel the injuries it suffered like they were his own, and the pain was unbearable. While the shadow clone was making its escape, it was also shot at by the troops a few times. The pain nearly made Ren Xiaosu cough up blood!


    Large beads of sweat were rolling down his face and back as Ren Xiaosu endured the pain while continuing to make his escape.


    It was no wonder Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone made him look all pale after it shielded him from the bullets. So there was actually a ¡°side effect¡± from using the shadow clone as well.


    But what Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know was that if Xu Xianchu saw this, he would be incredibly surprised.


    Xu Xianchu had tried it out for himself once before. After the shadow clone experienced a high intensity workout, it would lead to the main body feeling mentally exhausted. When that happened, the main body would experience nausea, vomiting, chest tightness, and the user would feel that they might be better off dying!


    But Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone was utterly different from his.


    Ren Xiaosu had once asked the pce whether his mental strength could be assessed. In the end, the answer he got was: ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu continued making his escape in the forest, and the pain brought on by remerging with the shadow clone did not fade away even after a long time. It was at this time that Ren Xiaosu realized he should not use the shadow clone without good reason. If he intended to let the shadow clone take his ce in death, then he would have to be prepared for the pain it would bring him.


    If the shadow clone died once, he would have to ¡°die¡± once as well.


    Ren Xiaosu was violently gasping. He had been injured before, but this pain was much more intense than how a real wound felt.


    But Ren Xiaosu wasforted in the fact that the shadow clone did not dissipate even after all the injuries, so he still had an ally in battle.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s troops behind him were like a pack of ck hunting dogs that continued hounding him. If Ren Xiaosu were not advancing at a faster speed than them, he would already be in a lot of trouble. Ren Xiaosu did not run in a straight line. Instead, he was trying to slowly shake off the dogs that were chasing after him. Soon, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops began to wonder which direction Ren Xiaosu was.


    It was only at this point that Ren Xiaosu was able to breathe a sigh of relief. After all, it was way too stressful to be chased by several hundred people. He was prepared to hide in the forest for a while to catch his breath.


    But it was at this moment that he suddenly heard the rattling of chains up ahead.


    Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks and clutched his chest as he let out a sadugh. ¡®What the fuck...¡¯


    Hemented, ¡°Dead ends are everywhere in life.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had seen the Experimental that Qing Zhen had locked up in a cage from afar. However, he did not hear what Qing Zhen had said at that time, so he didn¡¯t know there was more than one of these Experimentals.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that the greatest obstacle in his path as he escaped northwards would be the volcano, but how could he have guessed it would turn out to be these Experimentals?


    Based on the source of the sounds, Ren Xiaosu instantly knew that the enemy wasing from three directions. In that sense, it meant he had encountered at least three of these Experimentals!


    The rattling of chains was getting closer and closer. Ren Xiaosu could once again hear the sound of the Experimentals¡¯ saliva dripping onto the dposing leaves on the forest floor.


    The shadow clone stood side-by-side with him. Ren Xiaosu made a rough estimation in his mind and thought that the shadow clone might be able to take on two of those Experimentals. However, he did not know whether he could go up against the remaining one all by himself.


    There were three Experimentals ahead and several hundred people behind. All of them were looking to do Ren Xiaosu in.

 Chapter 96 - I want to thank myself seven times

    <h4>Chapter 96: I want to thank myself seven times</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Although Ren Xiaosu had a gun with him, his location would immediately be identified if he fired a shot. In that case, the Qing Consortium¡¯s people behind him would all get attracted, and it would really be over for him once he got caught in between them and the Experimentals. Moreover, if the Experimentals attacked from a close distance, a gun would be of less use than a dagger.


    He instinctively moved his hand to the dagger Yang Xiaojin had traded him for food. However, this action shocked Ren Xiaosu a great deal. The dagger was no longer there!


    Ren Xiaosu started thinking back. When Yang Xiaojin split up with them, she had pretended to identally bump into him. The dagger was probably stolen away by her at that time.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. This girl was really not one to ept being on the losing end. She had clearly said that she¡¯d trade the dagger for his food, yet she actually stole it back?! Where did the trust between fellow human beings go?


    How heartless of her...


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s skill at stealing must also be very high, as no one in town had ever managed to steal Ren Xiaosu¡¯s stuff without him knowing.


    He gave a mental sigh. What should he do now that he didn¡¯t have the dagger?


    What Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know was it would be very difficult to cut through the skin of these Experimentals using an ordinary de. Even a bullet fired at it would instantly be stopped by the muscles under the surface of their skin.


    Direct headshots wouldn¡¯t work either since the toughest bones in the body are part of the skull. These Experimentals had always been unafraid of the threat of bullets, unless they were shot in the eye.


    However, the speed of these Experimentals was far different from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s. There was almost a zero percent chance that he could hit them in the eye with a shot.


    His firearms proficiency was only at the advanced stage, not the perfect stage.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt a brush of wind behind him. He reflexively bent over as a noxious gust of wind went over his head.


    Once Ren Xiaosu stabilized his footing and looked to see what it was, he was shocked to discover that an Experimental had somehow gotten close to him, but there were no chains on this Experimental¡¯s arms.


    It had be his mindset that the Experimentals would have chains on their arms, and it would be possible to know of their presence once they got close. However, Ren Xiaosu had not expected that not all Experimentals would have chains on them. Furthermore, an Experimental without chains could even travel in a forest without making a sound. Just this fact alone made it terrifying!


    When Ren Xiaosu felt around on his back, he frowned. He had still gotten scratched a moment earlier, and there were five lines of blood.


    He started reminiscing about town. Although it was also rather dangerous there, people would only take advantage of you if you showed your weakness to them.


    But it was different here. Everywhere there were people looking to end you!


    Ren Xiaosu tried to retreat. But with each step back, those four Experimentals took two steps forward. At some point, Ren Xiaosu realized the appearance of these Experimentals here was not a coincidence. They wereing for him!


    Those four Experimentals were all crawling on their hands and legs, while the unchained Experimental had silently crawled into a tree looking just like arge spider.


    Ren Xiaosu could not understand something. Just what kind of a ce could turn a living human being into something like that?


    At this moment, a toon passed by just several hundred meters behind Ren Xiaosu. However, it seemed like they had lost track of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts. So they were unaware of the situation Ren Xiaosu was in even though they were only a few hundred meters apart.


    Ren Xiaosu was observing the reactions of these four Experimentals. When the toon passed by, the Experimentals all stopped in their tracks. It was as though they also didn¡¯t wish to be disturbed by the troops during their hunt!


    Ren Xiaosu got a strange feeling about this, but he didn¡¯t have the time to explore it. While the Experimentals were distracted by thebat troops, Ren Xiaosu decided to order his shadow clone to attack them.


    Ren Xiaosu decided he would strike first!


    He was hoping he could lure these Experimentals over to where the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were. However, he was more worried those few hundred people would annihte all of the living creatures in their line of fire.


    Compared to the few hundred Qing Consortium troops, Ren Xiaosu was more willing to face these four Experimentals!


    When his shadow clone rushed at the three Experimentals on the ground, the Experimental in the tree leaped down at Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu took a small step backwards. The muscles in his left leg tensed up the moment itnded on the ground, and all of the strength in his body was raging. When the Experimental got in front of him, Ren Xiaosu threw his fist out at his opponent and punched as hard as a cannon shot.


    But he had underestimated the dexterity of the Experimentals. His opponent twisted its body in midair and forcibly avoided Ren Xiaosu¡¯s punch. It even managed to stretch its hand out and grab hold of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arm!


    Ren Xiaosu was startled before pulling back his punch and taking another small step backwards. At the same time, he raised his leg and kicked the Experimental several meters away. The Experimentalid on the ground and twitched a little before getting on its feet again to jump at Ren Xiaosu!


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt a burst of pain throughout his body. The tearing feeling going through his bones made him break out into a sweat as his muscles started trembling.


    He saw his shadow clone tussling with the three Experimentals as they ripped and snatched at the crouched shadow clone¡¯s body. One of the Experimentals was even biting on the shadow clone¡¯s waist!


    The shadow clone had enough strength to lift up an Experimental with a single hand. It picked one of them up and mmed it ruthlessly onto the ground. However, this Experimental was even hardier than Ren Xiaosu imagined. It didn¡¯t even look like it was hurt after being mmed like that!


    This was the disadvantage of not having a weapon. Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t kill off these Experimentals, so it would be difficult to say who might end up dying.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to get home, even if the path back was filled with blood and thorns.


    Because there were no sharp objects to kill the Experimentals with, the shadow clone¡¯s strength eventually ebbed away due to the fact that it was facing the three terrifying monsters of the Experimentals at once.


    These monsters were biting onto the shadow clone and not letting go. Ren Xiaosu felt like every bite was bitten on his own body.


    The unbearable pain was being transmitted to his central nervous system from various parts of his ¡°body¡± and was generating aplex array of signals that ran wild through his neuralwork. This in turn affected the normal function of his willpower.


    Raising his hand became slow, and his hands were trembling as well. The Experimental in front of him had many of its attacks blocked by Ren Xiaosu, but it gradually realized its enemy¡¯s actions were starting to slow down and be weaker.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes had reddened. He endured the severe pain and was nearly in tears.


    In all his years, Ren Xiaosu had never cried before. He never even shed a single tear. He grabbed a tree branch next to him for support and caught his breath. Everyone here was hellbent on killing him.


    The Experimentals wanted him dead.


    The Qing Consortium also wanted him dead.


    But importantly, he didn¡¯t want to die.


    The shadow clone was not omnipotent. Or perhaps, no superpowers in this world were omnipotent.


    Ren Xiaosu needed a weapon, even if his gratitude tokens only stood at 93.


    He said to the pce, ¡°Give me the weapon.¡±


    The voice from the pce said calmly, ¡°You have 93 gratitude tokens at the moment. Unauthorized to unlock the weapon.¡±


    ¡°Hey... I said give me the weapon.¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice sounded like it was sinking into the ocean. ¡°I¡¯m telling you now that I¡¯m dying, so give me the weapon.¡±


    At this moment, time seemed to have frozen. Ren Xiaosu saw the Experimental that was leaping at him slow down, moving so slow that it looked like it was stationary.


    The voice from the pce finally said, ¡°Detecting the smell of death. Do you want to activate the seal?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in confusion, ¡°Activate what seal?¡±


    ¡°Unknown.¡±


    ¡°Then what is the price for activating this seal?¡±


    ¡°Loss?¡±


    ¡°Lose what?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°You have to at least tell me what I¡¯ll lose, right? Only then can I decide whether I want to activate the seal or not.¡±


    ¡°Everything.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly sneered at the pce. ¡®How much blood have I bled in the wilderness in all my years of survival? How many tree roots and wild vegetables have I eaten? Yet you¡¯re telling me now that I will have to lose everything? Why do I have to listen to you! Based on what! And besides, do you know what everything represents? Gold, money, the gun I have, Yan Liuyuan, Sister Xiaoyu, and even these clothes I¡¯m wearing! You¡¯re just a lousy pce. Why would you need my clothes?!¡¯


    The pce did not speak anymore. Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward. Shouldn¡¯t it at least haggle?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the forest in the night, then looked at that intent to kill that was getting ever closer. The frozen ¡°time¡± was gradually beginning to thaw while the speed of the Experimental that was leaping at him was bing faster.


    That Experimental opened its mouth to reveal a set of vicious teeth as it tried to devour Ren Xiaosu¡¯s organs and even suck all of his blood and marrow dry.


    ¡®Am I really on the verge of death?¡¯ Ren Xiaosu thought as he stared at it.


    But he still hadn¡¯t lived yet!


    The next moment, a wan smile appeared on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face. ¡®Isn¡¯t it just seven thanks?¡¯


    He said calmly in his mind: ¡°I want to thank myself seven times.


    ¡°First, I want to thank myself for never shying away from an opportunity.


    ¡°Second, I want to thank myself for not being afraid when facing danger.


    ¡°Third, I want to thank myself for notpromising in the face of adversity.


    ¡°Fourth, I want to thank myself for being principled in the face of temptation.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mental voice was getting louder and louder, to the point of being thunderous as it shook the entire pce.


    ¡°Fifth, I want to thank myself for never being hypocritical.¡±


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu heard his own heartbeat beating loud as a drum.


    ¡°Sixth, I want to thank myself for always staying clear-headed and never hesitating.¡±


    He heard the sound of the wind again as it brushed against his skin. The researchers in the city who were inside the researchb suddenly raised their heads. They detected a huge energy surge in the north that felt like the rising sun!


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly and determinedly, ¡°Seventh, I want to thank myself for always keeping my head up and taking on whatever the quagmire of life throws at me!¡±


    The voice from the pce stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Gratitude received from Ren Xiaosu, +7!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve received rights to unlock the weapon. Confirm unlock?¡±


    ¡°Unlock!¡± Ren Xiaosu roared.


    Suddenly, it was as though the ¡°lock¡± on time melted away. Ren Xiaosu watched quietly as the Experimental before him came leaping at him. He stuck out his hand and grabbed at nothing, as though he had gained some sort of inexplicable power.


    The next moment, a ck saber appeared in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. In that instant, Ren Xiaosu grit his teeth and swung it horizontally with all his power. The muscles in his body were pumping hard to the extreme, and the veins on his forehead were pulsating nonstop!


    With a sh, the tearing sound of leather and skin reverberated through the forest. That originally ferocious Experimental was split in two by the ck saber!


    Ren Xiaosu was enraged. Life and death, that was basically the essence of everything in this world!


    The look in the Experimental¡¯s eyes was one of confusion. It seemed like it couldn¡¯t understand where the saber in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand hade from, nor could it understand why one sh was all it took to end it.


    Pale yellow blood trailed down the ck saber and dripped onto the ground of dposing leaves. Ren Xiaosu held the saber up and looked at the battlefield.


    For some reason, when Ren Xiaosu held this saber that had appeared out of thin air in his hands, another saber also appeared in his shadow clone¡¯s hand.


    That ck saber and his ck shadow clone seemed to merge perfectly into one entity.


    The second the shadow clone¡¯s saber appeared, the three Experimentals engaging it wanted to give up attacking. But it was already toote for them.


    The shadow clone swung its saber down and split the Experimental in front of it in half. It did not stop, taking a quick step forward and holding down another Experimental by its neck. That Experimental was being pressed ruthlessly against the ground and could not move.


    The Experimentals had great strength, but when one was held down by the shadow clone, it was as though it was a helpless beast on the verge of death. The shadow clone chopped off the Experimental¡¯s head.


    Thest remaining Experimental escaped into the forest, but Ren Xiaosu knew it wouldn¡¯t get all that far.


    Ren Xiaosu stood in ce and stared into the darkness of the night before him. The pain he had suffered earlier was still stimting his nerves, but this was the first time he experienced the joy of the battle!


    So this was what it meant to be a supernatural being.


    At this moment, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Side Quest #2 has been activated: Collect 1000 gratitude tokens to unlock the intermediate form of the weapon.¡±

 Chapter 97 - Reevaluating the level of danger!

    <h4>Chapter 97: Reevaluating the level of danger!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The battle between Ren Xiaosu and the Experimentals was still going to attract the Qing Consortium¡¯s people over. After all, there would be noise made in any intense battle. Although the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops had lost track of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s position, they had been keeping up with their search all this while in the forest.


    When someone heard the sound of the fighting, the first thing they did was to send amand over themunications channel for everyone to gather.


    Like ck ironsand that was attracted to a ma, the Xu Man-led Qing Consortiumbat troops quickly moved towards the point of the incident. But they were disappointed the target was already gone by the time they arrived at the scene of the battle.


    Let alone mistaking Xu Xianchu as Ren Xiaosu at the beginning, they had even lost track of Xu Xianchu now. This made Xu Man feel extremely depressed.


    It had been some years, but this was the first time Xu Man had encountered this many unexpected things while carrying out his mission.


    Xu Man advanced forward with great difficulty inside the forest. They trampled on the dposing leaves and twigs, making a lot of noise. Xu Man pulled down his protective goggles and took a look around, then suddenly gasped.


    He saw the corpses of several Experimentals up ahead that had been dismembered by some sharp object. The pale yellow blood of these Experimentals sttered on the ground was actually not obvious, but the broken bodies shocked everyone a lot.


    Xu Man said, ¡°Gather the body parts and put them together to see how many Experimentals fought in the battle.¡±


    Based on Xu Man¡¯s guess, Xu Xianchu must have encountered these Experimentals soon after his retreat. After that, the battle urred.


    By this time, the troops had picked up the pieces of the Experimentals¡¯ corpses and put them together.


    ¡°Four Experimentals.¡± Someone said, ¡°One of the Experimentals¡¯ arms couldn¡¯t be found, but it should be around here somewhere.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s only a single set of shoeprints here. The Experimentals were naked, so we suspect the number of humans who participated in the battle should be just Xu Xianchu,¡± someone analyzed.


    Xu Man nodded. He spoke on the openms channel, ¡°Boss, we might have to reevaluate Xu Xianchu¡¯s power. He killed off four Experimentals by himself.¡± Xu Man looked at the ground at a leaf and continued, ¡°But Xu Xianchu is also hurt. There are traces of his blood here.¡±


    Qing Zhen stood outside of the spotlight¡¯s focus. The ce was bright as day, and he thought for a long time before saying, ¡°Being able to take on four Experimentals and kill them all is really quite shocking. Upgrade Xu Xianchu¡¯s danger rating to B. Remember to bring back a sample of Xu Xianchu¡¯s blood to ce it into the records.¡±


    ¡°Roger.¡± Xu Man arranged for the people around him to get samples of the blood for safekeeping from the leaf on the ground.


    In this era, the DNA contained in blood was extremely vital.


    Qing Zhen had folded his hands behind his back. He stood in ce and wondered, ¡°Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin have both appeared. Luo Xinyu has also revealed herself to be part of the Saboteurs Syndicate. But what about Ren Xiaosu? Has anyone of you seen Ren Xiaosu!?¡±


    They did not know Ren Xiaosu had sessfully made Xu Xianchu the scapegoat. The supernatural being they recognized to be a B-ss threat was actually Ren Xiaosu.


    What was the concept of being a B-ss threat? All of the supernatural beings who had been marked as a B-ss threat were considered extremely dangerous people.


    Xu Man answered on thems channel, ¡°We didn¡¯t see Ren Xiaosu. It might be possible that he didn¡¯t evene into the perimeter we set up.¡±


    ¡°That could be possible.¡± Qing Zhen nodded. If they were to go back to their initial assessment of the targets, Ren Xiaosu would just be an unimportant F-ss threat. In that case, it would be quite normal that he had chosen to retreat after finding the perimeter the Qing Consortium had set up.


    Liu Bu had also mentioned that Ren Xiaosu had always insisted on avoiding the Qing Consortium.


    Qing Zhen smiled. If only they had caught Ren Xiaosu; that would have been great. He might have be a bargaining chip they could use against Zhang Jinglin in the future.


    It was a well-known fact throughout the entire Northern Frontier that Zhang Jinglin ced a lot of importance on friendship.


    But it wasn¡¯t a big deal even though they hadn¡¯t caught him. Be it Stronghold 112 or Stronghold 113, they were both controlled by the Qing Consortium. Once Ren Xiaosu got back, their Qing Consortium would still be able to get their hands on him at any time.


    Xu Man looked up ahead in the forest. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s footprints showed that he was heading straight in the direction of the volcano. It seemed that he had already escaped north.


    He did not keep pursuing. From the looks of the bloodstains at the battle site, ¡°Xu Xianchu¡± must¡¯ve not been badly hurt. Even if they continued after him, it would be toote.


    However, Xu Man was rather shocked by this. During the day when so many of the troops took on just one Experimental, three of their soldiers had died while another thirteen were injured. But now, there was someone who could kill four Experimentals single-handedly!


    Moreover, the wounds on these Experimentals were all very simr. They had tested it out before and found that even an extremely sharpbat knife would have to be wielded with great strength to tear through the skin of the Experimentals.


    The secret of this ¡°Xu Xianchu¡± ran far deeper than anyone could imagine. Xu Man had already decided to hold the upper management of Stronghold 113¡¯s private army ountable for this matter. How could they not know there was such a terrifying supernatural being in their own ranks?


    At this time, Xu Xianchu was still in the dark about the consequences he would be facing. Unlike Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, he was actually the one who didn¡¯t break into the perimeter of Qing Consortium¡¯s operations.


    Xu Xianchu did want to find out about what was happening in the Jing Mountains. But after not managing to break into the perimeter at the beginning, he thought about how he might not be able to get out once he got in. In the end, he decided to just go around the perimeter and head towards Stronghold 112.


    He had his shadow clone carry him the entire way as he hurried to his destination. By the time Ren Xiaosu retrieved the gold, Xu Xianchu had already gone around the city and arrived at the rear of the Qing Consortium. So Xu Xianchu knew nothing of what was happening in the city. He also did not know he had been put on the Qing Consortium¡¯s threat list, nor that he was really high up on it as well.


    If he knew about this, he might just have turned back to fight Ren Xiaosu to the death.


    Xu Xianchu, who was being carried by his shadow clone, had a niggling feeling that something was wrong, but he didn¡¯t know what it was....


    ¡°Let¡¯s fall back.¡± Xu Man said, ¡°Set up the defensive line. It¡¯s almost time for the Experimentals to start getting active. We still don¡¯t know where their hideout is.¡±


    Xu Man seemed to understand that even with these four Experimentals dead, that did not signify it was the end of them. The number of Experimentals was far more than anyone could imagine.


    But right at this moment, Xu Man suddenly heard the sound of rapid footsteps from some hundreds of meters up ahead. It sounded like someone was running in a great hurry!


    He flicked the beam of his tactical shlight over and was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu being piggybacked on his shadow clone and fleeing.


    Xu Xianchu was stunned. What was with this? Why was this ¡°Xu Xianchu¡± running back here? Didn¡¯t he already escape?


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Xu Man and the soldiers from afar, he started deviating from his original path. He had intended to go around on the left side of the toons to bypass the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers.


    But Xu Man did not hesitate. He immediately pulled the charging handle of his gun back and prepared to shoot.


    But when Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of guns being cocked, he immediately said, ¡°Why the hell are you shooting at me? Look at what¡¯s behind me!¡±


    Xu Man suspiciously looked at what was behind Ren Xiaosu. He saw dark shadows moving in the forest as he heard the loud dissonance of chains being dragged around.


    Xu Man immediately knew that this was bad. Did you fucking go and poke the Experimentals¡¯ nest?!

 Chapter 98 - Recreational activities of the Experimentals

    <h4>Chapter 98: Recreational activities of the Experimentals</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The countless Experimentals scuttled through the shadows in the forest like arge, dense group of spiders. Faced with this sight, even a highly experienced soldier like Xu Man paled.


    For someone like Xu Man who could grasp the situation, he knew immediately that ¡°Xu Xianchu¡± had identally walked into the current hideout of the Experimentals. That was why he attracted all of them.


    Those who didn¡¯t would fucking think that Ren Xiaosu had called for backup ande back to seek revenge!


    But because of this, Xu Man could confirm ¡°Xu Xianchu¡¯s¡± identity even further. After all, as Liu Bu had said, Xu Xianchu once used his shadow clone to carry himself as they walked. It was just that easy and rxing.


    Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu himself also had not expected that Liu Bu would somehow end up helping him to conceal his identity and even end up selflessly paying the price with his life.


    Those Experimentals were chasing after Ren Xiaosu in a frenzy. Their saliva was flying all over the ce as they scampered across the ground.


    When Xu Man saw this, the first thing he did was to call out on thems channel, ¡°Attention, everyone in the vicinity of the city, set up a defensive line!¡±


    There were a lot of Qing Consortium troops in the forest, with up to several hundred of them. But it seemed like there were even more Experimentals than them!


    But at this time, Xu Man had notified those in the city to set up a defensive line instead of issuing themand for those who were here to evacuate?


    Xu Man said on thems channel, ¡°All units onsite, stay in your assigned positions as per your toon orders to defend and fire. We have to buy some time for those who are still in the urban area!¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu ran like mad, he watched the Qing Consortium troops stop in their tracks and kneel down to adopt a shooting stance. Without any other defensive fortifications, they started using their own bodies as shields.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s speed while his shadow clone piggybacked him was much faster than the Experimentals could travel. Thus, he was able to sessfully veer off his initial trajectory when the Qing Consortium troops opened fire and avoided being caught in their line of fire.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt rather shocked at heart. So this was the difference between an organization¡¯sbat troops and soldiers from a private army? Thebat troops of an organization would actually sacrifice their own lives and safety in order to gain more time for their brothers in arms! What was it about that suit-wearing young man that he could lead a force like that?


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu had thought too highly of an organization¡¯sbat troops, or rather, the soldiers under Qing Zhen¡¯smand had given Ren Xiaosu a false impression that soldiers belonging to an organization were very united and fearsome. The truth was, these soldiers serving under Qing Zhen were in fact also considered the best of the best within all of the organizations¡¯ militaries.


    Xu Man was a verybat-oriented warrior, but that didn¡¯t mean that he was unafraid of dying.


    One of the most important qualities inbat was an understanding of the overall situation so that a correct decision could be made.


    He understood this. If he stayed to buy time for those in the city, he would very likely end up dead. But if he were to retreat, hisrades in the city would not have enough time to prepare for the situation and even more people would die as a result.


    Qing Zhen had already ordered the troops to fortify the defenses, such as building simple bunkers and enclosures that were all necessary.


    But Xu Man knew well that they had incorrectly estimated the number of Experimentals here in the Jing Mountains. ording to their information, there should only be about a hundred or so Experimentals here.


    The records of the Pyro Company¡¯s researchboratory only showed 87 living specimens back then!


    Could it be that the Pyro Company had purposely leaked this false information to lure the Qing Consortium into a trap after they were unable to get ahead of them to restart this researchb? Importantly, Qing Zhen had killed many of the Pyro Company¡¯s people over the past two years.


    Of course, Qing Zhen was not a fool either. He had brought several times more people out here than was originally nned. Qing Zhen wasn¡¯t going to die in such a ce.


    What Xu Man was worried about was not Qing Zhen¡¯s safety, but the heavy losses that Stronghold 112¡¯sbat brigade might suffer.


    At the moment, Xu Man¡¯s openmunications channel was live. As such, he could hear Qing Zhen¡¯s calm voice speaking in his helmet, ¡°Go and save them, then slowly retreat to the edge of the city. I was prepared for this.¡±


    Xu Man heaved a sigh of relief. He said on the tacticalmunications channel, ¡°Hold the line! Reinforcements will be here soon!¡±


    If they could defend long enough, they wouldn¡¯t die. Or at least, most of them wouldn¡¯t.


    If it had been another big shot of the organization, their first response would probably be to abandon the lone fighting force out here.


    Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the chaos to bypass the perimeter the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were defending, and his shadow clone made a mad dash south. Ren Xiaosu had initially thought that it would be safer for him to go north, but who could have guessed that it would be even more dangerous.


    When the Qing Consortium came into the Jing Mountains, they had deliberately avoided the volcanic area because the poisonous gases there could not be warded off. So this volcanic area became the only ce where the Qing Consortium had not conducted a sweep. Who would have thought that those Experimentals were hiding in the vicinity of the volcanoes?


    However, these Experimentals were not lured out by Ren Xiaosu. He had only encountered them along the way while he was heading north. These several hundred Experimentals were clearly looking to attack all humans who were in the Jing Mountains at this time!


    Ren Xiaosu did not know what attracted them out, or if they were awoken when they realized the volcanoes were about to erupt. Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t care. Even if he had to face the face bugs or the wolf pack, it was still a better option than facing the Qing Consortium or the Experimentals!


    He could handle four of them, but taking on several hundred Experimentals was way out of his league! If he didn¡¯t have his shadow clone to carry him as he made his escape, Ren Xiaosu might haveid down on the ground and pretended that he was an Experimental too. These Experimentals might just fall for it since their intelligence had lowered to such a point.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered why there were so many of these Experimentals. It was quite obvious that Xu Man did not expect there to be so many of them either, so could it be that they had been breeding all these years? Were those Experimentals unchained at their limbs the ones bornter?


    Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t being overly imaginative. He just didn¡¯t understand why. These Experimentals didn¡¯t have many recreational activities to do deep in the mountains and forests anyway, so other than reproducing, what else could they do?


    After he killed those four Experimentals, Ren Xiaosu felt like he couldn¡¯t be more invincible. But just half an hourter, that sense of superiority was crushed by reality.


    Ren Xiaosu: I am invincible!


    Reality: No, you¡¯re not.


    The rest of the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops headed north to save Xu Man and his men.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu made use of this gap to escape south, which would bring him back on his original route to Stronghold 113.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s and Luo Xinyu¡¯s whereabouts were unknown, while Xu Xianchu was leisurely taking another route as he left the Jing Mountains.


    This adventure had ended up more like a farce. However, it did reveal the true nature of the world to Ren Xiaosu.


    He only knew about the Pyro Company and Qing Consortium for now, but there were many more organizations and strongholds out there. This world was much bigger than he had thought it to be.


    While Ren Xiaosu was making his escape, he suddenly heard another loud rumble from the volcano behind him. This time, the ground even started shaking.


    He saw the volcano erupting asva spewed out of the crater into the air. Clumps of magma cooled rapidly after reacting with the cold air and solidified into hot rocks. Shortly after, a hail of meteorite showers started pouring down, and the forest turned into a sea of fire!

 Chapter 99 - Going home!

    Chapter 99: Going home!


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu could only count himself fortunate to have escaped quickly enough and was even d to have encountered those Experimentals along the way. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to avoid the volcanic eruption zone.


    The built-up pressure in the volcano finally erupted. Qing Zhen watched the sights from the ruined city and said with a sigh, ¡°What a pity.¡±


    No one knew what he was feeling pity for this time.


    Someone beside Qing Zhen asked, ¡°Boss, what do we do now?¡±


    But just as the question was asked, an earthshaking roar of a creature came from the crater of the volcano. The sound of that roar seemed to travel dozens of kilometers in an instant!


    Ren Xiaosu looked back in surprise. At the peak of the volcano, he suddenly saw a huge w grabbing onto the edge of the volcano¡¯s crater. It looked like it was something trying to climb out!


    There was actually a creature hidden inside that volcano? What kind of creature could possibly live in magma? Something that terrifying had even appeared now? Then what kind of terrifying existence could that creature he had encountered at the river but not seen with his own eyes be?


    Qing Zhen sighed and said, ¡°Such a thing actually exists? Let¡¯s temporarily pull out of the Jing Mountains from the west. The mission is a failure.¡±


    Qing Zhen¡¯s trusted aide who was standing next to him said in shock, ¡°Just what the hell is that....¡±


    ¡°Yan Tao, call that useless brother of mine,¡± Qing Zhen said as he kept his gaze on the volcano. ¡°If that thing crawls out, or arge number of Experimentals get forced south because of the eruption, Stronghold 113 will be in danger.¡±


    The trusted aide whose name was Yan Tao wondered if Qing Zhen really thought the stronghold would fall. He instinctively went to retrieve the satellite phone but discovered that the usually working satellite phone couldn¡¯t make any calls.


    The heatwave caused by the volcanic eruption began to sweep through the entire mountain range. Keep in mind that there wasn¡¯t only one volcano in the Jing Mountains. Seeing this, Qing Zhen said, ¡°Let¡¯s leave this ce first!¡±


    This sea of fire looked like it was about to bury the secret of the Jing Mountains.


    Xu Man and the others who received their orders to retreat continued firing in an orderly manner as they did so. They did not start panicking because of the volcanic eruption. Caught in this dangerous situation, they became even calmer.


    When they finally came out of the forest and arrived at the edge of the city, someone who was with Qing Zhen triggered a remote in their hand. In an instant, a line of fire was lit as the dividing line between the city, and the forest started burning.


    The explosives the Qing Consortium had buried here beforehand were detonated all at once andpletely contained the Experimentals to the north of the forest. Even for creatures as strong and tough as the Experimentals, half of them were still killed or wounded by the explosives detonating. As for the remaining wave of Experimentals that had not been affected by the explosion, they could only watch from behind the wall of fire as the Qing Consortium¡¯s personnel made their retreat.


    The Experimentals did not linger here for long. Instead, they went back into the forest, seemingly to look for another route to bypass this area.


    Panting, Xu Xianchu returned and came up to Qing Zhen. He lowered his head and said, ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t manage to bring Xu Xianchu back.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK.¡± Qing Zhen shook his head. ¡°Get in the car, we¡¯ll head west. There should be another route there that can bring us back to Stronghold 112.¡± Qing Zhen then turned around and left. The sound of his leather shoes tapping on the ground gave an aura of calm to his footsteps.


    Arge convoy of military transport trucks and off-road vehicles, as well as many other heavy machines, were parked at the edge of the city.


    Xu Man did not move. Qing Zhen turned around and looked at him. ¡°You want to ask me why I got our people to save you? Don¡¯t feel too touched by that. It¡¯s just business between us. I only got our people to save you because I still have use for you.¡±


    Xu Man stammered as though he was going to say something.


    In the end, Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°Save your words of loyalty. I¡¯ve never believed in that.¡±


    But at this time, a soldier up ahead shouted, ¡°This is bad! Our vehicles can¡¯t be driven anymore. Come over and take a look at what¡¯s happened to the tires...¡±


    Xu Man was startled. ¡°What happened? Are the tires punctured? We brought along tire jacks and machinery to patch up tires and fill them with air.¡±


    The soldier said with a bitter expression, ¡°It¡¯s not a puncture. Our vehicles¡¯ tires have been shed....¡±


    Xu Man and Qing Zhen were confused.


    The smile on the previously calm Qing Zhen stiffened. ¡°...Xu Xianchu, this is the first time I¡¯ve been so keen on killing someone. Xu Man, bring me my uniform....¡±


    Qing Zhen and Xu Man knew that ¡°Xu Xianchu¡± had escaped south, but they really hadn¡¯t expected something like this to happen.


    In Xu Man¡¯s opinion, it should have been enough to just puncture the tires. But rather than that, their opponent had chosen to sh the tires?!


    By shing the tires, it would mean that everyone from the Qing Consortium would have to leave the Jing Mountains on foot. It wasn¡¯t really that dangerous, but it would definitely make them look pathetic, especially if they were wearing a white suit.


    Xu Man whispered in a soft voice behind Qing Zhen, ¡°This mission failure might make the consortium punish you.¡±


    Qing Zhen did not mind that. ¡°It¡¯s fine, those old fogies will still need someone to do their work for them. I¡¯ll just treat it as taking a vacation for some time.¡±


    ¡°How are we going to handle that Ren Xiaosu?¡± Xu Man asked.


    ¡°If he doesn¡¯t die in the Jing Mountains, he¡¯ll definitely find a way to get back to Stronghold 113.¡± Qing Zhen thought for a moment before saying, ¡°When the satellite phone works again, tell Luo Lan to keep a watch out for now. As for how to handle him, I still haven¡¯t thought of it yet. Also, get him to quickly send Zhang Jinglin away. That person must not die under our watch. It¡¯s quite possible that someone has already been sent out to assassinate him.¡±


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu was indeed the person who shed the tires of the Qing Consortium¡¯s vehicles. At that time, the Qing Consortium¡¯s people were still busy fighting the Experimentals, so he decided he might as well do it.


    Besides, Ren Xiaosu had been running from the Qing Consortium¡¯s pursuit for some time, so he couldn¡¯t vent his anger if he didn¡¯t get his revenge!


    The volcano behind him was still erupting. The moon in the sky was already covered by the plumes of ash and smoke in the air. Moreover, the volcano¡¯s eruption seemed like it was getting more and more violent.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. What was that roaring creature in the volcano¡¯s crater? Even at the end, he did not see it fully emerge out of the crater.


    As he left the city, he watched the Qing Consortium detonate explosives at the edge of the city. Ren Xiaosu once again witnessed how terrifying explosive weapons were in the possession of humans.


    Ren Xiaosu kept heading back south via the original route he had taken here. He suspected there could still be a few sporadic Experimentals along the way, just not as many as the entire nest he had stumbled upon. In fact, Ren Xiaosu was no longer as scared.


    With his shadow clone¡¯s super strength and dexterity wielding the ck saber, his destructive power was incalcble.


    With the two skills stacked, it became a much more powerfulbination. Somehow, this seemed like the path forward for Ren Xiaosu. However, this path might be littered with many more twists and bends.


    On the way back to Stronghold 113, it wasn¡¯t the Experimentals that would be the most dangerous to encounter, but those face bugs and the wolf pack.


    Ren Xiaosu recharged himself while being carried on his shadow clone¡¯s back. Meanwhile, the shadow clone was going so fast that it felt like it was floating in the air. It even looked like its legs were casting an afterimage behind it as it ran.


    Although this made Ren Xiaosu look like he was disabled and needed to depend on someone to carry him, he did not care...


    In between, he even went back to the cave they had spent a night in. There, he discovered that a line of elegantly written words had appeared at the top of the cave: ¡°It¡¯s right behind you.¡±


    These words were not here before, and they looked like they were still fresh in the rock. In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s memory, he remembered that Yang Xiaojin had fallen behind on the day they set off from here. For some reason, he suddenly felt that this line of elegant writing must have been made by Yang Xiaojin to scare people for fun.


    ¡°How mischievous, eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu continued on his way back south after having a look here.


    An hourter, the forest fire caused by the volcanic eruption spread southwards. The entire Jing Mountain range had be a sea of fire. Ren Xiaosu could vaguely hear the sound of wild animals running behind him. It sounded like they were escaping to the canyon. However, this didn¡¯t really bother Ren Xiaosu.


    It had taken them a long time to get here, but it felt much faster when he was going back. It only took half a day before Ren Xiaosu reached the canyon again. He looked into the canyon and that shimmer of light above the towering cliff walls. Ren Xiaosu did not hesitate any further.


    As long as he was fast enough, the face bugs, wolf pack, or even loneliness could not catch him to him!


    The shadow clone carrying Ren Xiaosu ran through the canyon like a gust of wind. The face bugs atop the towering cliff walls sensed the aura of a human and swarmed out. But as soon as they came out, Ren Xiaosu had already made it out of the canyon!


    The face bugs were left silent on the cliff for a long while. All of them weremunicating with their feelers with one another. ¡°Did a person pass by here just now?¡±


    ¡°The fuck can that be a person?!¡±


    The moment he passed through the canyon, dawn broke. In the sky, golden rays of light prated through the cloud cover. When Ren Xiaosu saw this sight, he felt a little more spirited. He had gained a lot in his trip to the Jing Mountains this time, even though he didn¡¯t stay for long.


    But when he got back to the canyon again, it suddenly felt like it had been a long time since he was here. It felt like a century had passed.


    He wondered how Yan Liuyuan and Sister Xiaoyu were doing at home. Ren Xiaosu was really anxious to return home.


    Ren Xiaosu could dimly sense some movementsing from the forest. He was startled before realizing that the wolf pack had stayed around the entrance of the canyon all this while, as though they were waiting for him toe back!


    Soon after, the slowly approaching wolves watched as Ren Xiaosu, who wasying on his shadow clone¡¯s back, ran through the gaps in their pack. They didn¡¯t even have time to react!


    The wolf pack stopped in their tracks and quietly watched Ren Xiaosu¡¯s receding figure as he left. He was even faster than they were....


    The Wolf King also fell silent. Had they been waiting here for nothing all these days?!

 Chapter 100 - Image down the drain

    <h4>Chapter 100: Image down the drain</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Liuyuan, see what I brought you.¡± Wang Fugui¡¯s voice rang out from afar before he could be seen in the school.


    When Yan Liuyuan opened his eyes under the nket, he refused to get out of bed.


    Xiaoyu was folding clothes and saying, ¡°It¡¯s time to get up, Liuyuan.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t wanna! Let me sleep for a while more!¡± Yan Liuyuan murmured.


    Xiaoyuughed and said, ¡°If you get up 15 minutes earlier each day, you¡¯d have gained an additional 90 hours a year that you could use to do something you like doing. Think about it, what do you like doing the most?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan pondered for a long time before saying with uncertainty, ¡°I like sleeping the most....¡±


    ¡°Get up already!¡± Xiaoyu frowned and said, ¡°You¡¯re even more annoying than your brother!¡± Xiaoyu lifted Yan Liuyuan¡¯s nket. The warm air inside escaped all at once, and Yan Liuyuan unwillingly got out of bed.


    It was winter now, and the winter temperatures in this era were extremely cold. In Yan Liuyuan¡¯s memory, there would always be people freezing to death in the streets or in their shacks during winter each year.


    The shacks were only built out of tree branches or metal frames, while the four walls were wrapped with broken rags and cloth. This construct waspletely unable to shield anyone on the inside from the wind.


    During those years, he and Ren Xiaosu were always shivering in their shacks from the cold. Ren Xiaosu even took all of their summer and winter clothing out to wrap it around Yan Liuyuan. But even so, it was still very cold.


    But whenever he thought of those times, Yan Liuyuan would always feel overjoyed.


    He recalled what Ren Xiaosu said to him at that time: ¡°The happiness of humans does not stem from enjoyment but the suffering we go through. When you¡¯re going through the worst moments of suffering and taste sweetness, you would desperately want to keep living no matter what. That sweet taste of things might not be much to other people, but it is the greatest happiness that you know at that moment.¡±


    Sometimes, Yan Liuyuan felt that if Ren Xiaosu were born inside the stronghold, he would probably be a philosopher like Mr. Zhang had described in ss before.


    Wang Fugui walked in with two sweet potatoes and greeted them. ¡°Xiaoyu, I brought one for each of you. Eat them while they¡¯re hot.¡±


    ¡°Uncle Fugui,¡± Yan Liuyuan took the sweet potato from him and asked, ¡°Why do you like eating sweet potatoes so much? You roast them every day.¡±


    Wang Fugui said with a wide smile, ¡°When I was still a child in the town outside of Stronghold 107, there was a famine, so my father and I escaped all the way here to seek help from our rtives. Back then, it still wasn¡¯t so dangerous on the outside. Once, we dug up two sweet potatoes in the wilderness and my father roasted them for me to eat. At that time, I felt that sweet potatoes were the most delicious thing in the world.¡±


    Ever since Wang Fugui came running over to the school wearing his jacket and trying to bribe Wang Congyang over the gun firing at midnight, the way Yan Liuyuan addressed Wang Fugui had changed.


    Wang Fugui also realized this change and was secretly delighted.


    He had taken a great liking to these two brothers. Compared to that silly son of his, they were so much better. Witnessing how Ren Xiaosu protected Yan Liuyuan in their struggle to stay alive over the years, he felt that the two of them really did not have it easy.


    Wang Fugui watched Li Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan as they ate the sweet potatoes. Suddenly, he looked around the school and said with a sigh, ¡°With Mr. Zhang gone, our town won¡¯t have a teacher anymore.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said unbothered, ¡°What¡¯s so bad about that? When my brother gets back, he¡¯ll take over as the teacher.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin had already been sent away by Luo Lan for being the hot potato that he was. The day he was sent away was probably the most sensational day the town¡¯s refugees had ever seen.


    Quite a few military transport trucks and off-road vehicles stopped outside the school¡¯s entrance and that big shot from the stronghold whose name was Luo Lan bowed politely to Zhang Jinglin.


    The refugees couldn¡¯t have expected that their town¡¯s Mr. Zhang would be someone so important. If they had known, they wouldn¡¯t have scrimped on tuition and also sent their children to attend sses at the school.


    Who knew if they might have built some kind of connection?


    Thinking of this, many of the refugees decided they would send their children to school. The logic they had was this simple: They wanted to send their children to school not for knowledge, but for building connections.


    But before they could fantasize any further, Luo Lan sent Zhang Jinglin away that same day.


    Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu, who were living at the school, were utterly ignored by everyone. Even after Zhang Jinglin left, Wang Congyang did note to give them any further trouble.


    But even so, a lot of unfamiliar refugees started appearing at the school¡¯s entrance, peddling fruits or vegetables. Wang Fugui had seen some of them before and knew they usually worked at the factory. However, they were all pretending not to know one another here.


    It was at this time that Wang Fugui realized the stronghold¡¯s control over the town wasn¡¯t as simple as he thought it was. Some of the refugees had been bought as eyes for those in the stronghold.


    In normal times, these people were just ordinary refugees. But once some among the refugees wanted to start a rebellion or organize a strike, they would immediately inform those in the stronghold and turn over the names of those troublemakers.


    It was no wonder the two previous strikes had been suppressed so quickly by the private army from the stronghold. It was because they had eyes here.


    Wang Fugui remembered the faces of these people and took note not to offend them, nor ever tell them what he was really thinking.


    It was not only those refugees watching at the entrance. There were also a few people who clearly looked tougher and more ruthless than the private troops of the stronghold. Wang Fugui spected they might very well be people from the Qing Consortium.


    Speaking of Ren Xiaosu, Wang Fugui frowned. ¡°There¡¯s someone up ahead who works in a factory near the Jing Mountains who just got back. He said that there seems to be something going on over there and that a volcano in the mountains erupted. The entire sky above the Jing Mountains is filled with dark clouds now.¡±


    However, Yan Liuyuan said in a very rxed tone, ¡°My brother will be fine for sure.¡±


    That was because the wish he made was to use his own life to ensure that Ren Xiaosu would return safely.


    Since he wasn¡¯t dead yet, it meant Ren Xiaosu was fine.


    If he told Wang Fugui and Xiaoyu about this, they would probably not believe him. But neither would Yan Liuyuan spill his own secrets.


    Wang Fugui thought for a moment before saying, ¡°True, a kid like Ren Xiaosu would definitely live on to be a scourge for a millennium.¡±


    But right at this time, Wang Fugui felt the hairs on his back of his neck stand on end. Wang Fugui calmed himself and stifled his doubts, then whispered Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu, ¡°You two better be careful. If you wish to leave town, let me know. I¡¯ll help you to think of a way. I don¡¯t think that these people out here are here for you two. They should be targeting Ren Xiaosu instead.¡±


    Wang Fugui was very smart. He thought about it over and over again before deducing that those people outside the school entrance were just like a waiting for someone to get caught in it.


    Zhang Jinglin had been sent away, so who else could this be for if not Ren Xiaosu?


    ¡°They want to arrest Ren Xiaosu? Why?¡± Xiaoyu nearly eximed.


    Wang Fugui considered it for a long time before saying, ¡°Could Ren Xiaosu have caused trouble for those in the stronghold in the Jing Mountains?! That¡¯s quite a possibility!¡±


    However, the truth still exceeded Wang Fugui¡¯s imagination. Not only did Ren Xiaosu cause trouble for those people in the band, he even caused trouble for the Qing Consortium.


    At this moment, Qing Zhen was standing on one of the mountain slopes with a helpless expression. ¡°Just how fucking long do we have to continue walking until we get back to Stronghold 112?!¡±


    Xu Man sighed and said, ¡°Boss, even you¡¯ve started to curse and swear.¡±


    Disconste, Qing Zhen said, ¡°My image has gone down the drain!¡±

 Chapter 101 - Leaving Stronghold 113

    <h4>Chapter 101: Leaving Stronghold 113</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    While Wang Fugui was talking to them, they suddenly heard amotione from town. Wang Fugui curiously walked out of the school and said, ¡°What¡¯s the uproar this time?¡±


    All of a sudden, he felt that something was wrong. Then he saw the sky was turning gloomy.


    That gray smog in the air did not change from light to dark. It turned into a strange dull yellow instead, and the wind was getting stronger as well.


    All of the refugees in town were carrying their valuables and running out onto the streets. Some of them were even holding onto their shacks and trying to stabilize them in case the wind blew them down.


    At this moment, someone from outside the town ran in shouting, ¡°I think a volcano in the Jing Mountains has erupted. The entire sky above the Jing Mountains is filled with smoke!¡±


    The town administrator stared at him and said, ¡°What are you panicking for? What has the volcano in the Jing Mountains got anything to do with us? We¡¯re so far away from it! Where did youe back from?¡±


    ¡°I just came back from the coal mine.¡± That person said, ¡°The factory manager made mee back to report to the stronghold about what is happening at the Jing Mountains. I¡¯m a safety officer at the mine.¡±


    ¡°Alright, go and do what you need to do,¡± the town administrator snapped. ¡°Everyone else, be careful and pay attention. Get back into your shacks after the earthquake is over.¡±


    Only Yan Liuyuan thought there was something wrong with those words. That was because the birds in the sky were all flying south, and the bugs in the ground had all crawled out as well. Could a volcano so far away have so much power? Yan Liuyuan felt something even more terrifying would happen after this.


    There was a river running through Stronghold 113, but no one had ever delved into where this river¡¯s source was and where it ended.


    The important people in the stronghold had set up several iron fences at the river to prevent any refugees from sneaking into the stronghold. In fact, refugees did so in the past.


    But at this moment, the people in the stronghold were also panicking due to the earthquake. As a result, no one noticed that the fences at the river had been knocked down by something in the river. That strange thing kept swimming towards the city, and the fish in the river were all rmed as they swam in the opposite direction of it. It was as though they were exhibiting an instinctive fear.


    At this time, many people from outside of town came running back. Everyone was wondering, ¡°Weren¡¯t y¡¯all working at the coal mine? Why did y¡¯alle back?¡±


    The people who came back shouted, ¡°The entrance to the mine has copsed. There are also many strange bugs running from the Jing Mountains with faces of people on their back shells. They even eat people!¡±


    Everyone was stunned. There was once a bug epidemic that happened in this world, but that was put to a stop very quickly by humans. But for the people of this era, they had only heard of the bug epidemic but did not see it for themselves.


    Was history going to repeat itself?


    Suddenly, Yan Liuyuan heard someone jump into the yard behind them. He turned around and was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu signaled for them not to speak and whispered, ¡°Quick, pack up our belongings!¡±


    Although Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu did not know what was going on, they did as they were told by Ren Xiaosu.


    Yan Liuyuan decided that something must¡¯ve happened that made Ren Xiaosue back here to bring them out of Stronghold 113.


    After living here for so many years, were they finally going to leave this ce? However, Yan Liuyuan was not really bothered by this. Wherever Ren Xiaosu was, that was home for him.


    It was just that Ren Xiaosu had returned too suddenly, so he felt undecided between joy and urgency.


    When Wang Fugui came back into the school, he saw Ren Xiaosu holding a gun in his hand that was pointed at him. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Old Wang, stay here until we leave, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Wang Fugui gave a bitter smile and said, ¡°Are y¡¯all leaving? There¡¯s a lot of people outside keeping watch over this yard. Perhaps you could walk out without any trouble, but what about Yan Liuyuan and Li Xiaoyu?¡±


    ¡°They won¡¯t be able to stop me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    After returning to the town, he did not rush over to the school immediately. Instead, he went to check on the spot where he had buried the gun. When he found that it was gone, he went to check on the cave he had prepared for Yan Liuyuan. When he realized that Yan Liuyuan had not gone there, he finally returned to town.


    But before he could make it to the school, he discovered people outside the school keeping watch. Moreover, several of them gave him a familiar feeling. They were from the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops!


    It was very easy to tell the difference between the stronghold¡¯s private troops and the consortium¡¯sbat troops. The soldiers from the private army were like ruffians without any proper bearing. Meanwhile, the soldiers of thebat troops under the Qing Consortium were always standing with their backs straight. It clearly showed they had gone through a lot of training.


    Because of these people keeping watch, Ren Xiaosu chose to sneak into the school. Now that it was getting chaotic in town, it was the best opportunity for him to bring Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu away.


    Wang Fugui said curiously, ¡°Actually, with Mr. Zhang around, the Qing Consortium wouldn¡¯t dare do anything to you, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. ¡°Mr. Zhang?¡± At this time, Ren Xiaosu realized Zhang Jinglin wasn¡¯t around the school anymore. He still didn¡¯t know what had happened at the school.


    But there wasn¡¯t any time to talk about this now. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m not leaving because of the Qing Consortium. It¡¯s just that demons and monsters have started appearing in the Jing Mountains, and they¡¯re heading here now!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu was passing through the canyon, he heard the sound of the wild animals running behind him. The wild animals, Experimentals, and face bugs were all probably being forced southwards by that sea of fire.


    At that time, it wouldn¡¯t be him alone who would be in danger. Everyone in town would end up in danger as well.


    But Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t have any time to exin. He said to Wang Fugui, ¡°You heard them talking about those bugs, right? The number of bugs is terrifying, but they¡¯re just a small part of the danger.¡±


    Wang Fugui said in surprise, ¡°Just what did y¡¯all encounter in the Jing Mountains...No, Ren Xiaosu, you have to let me go. I have to go back and get my son. We¡¯ll leave together with you!¡±


    ¡°Leave with us?¡± Ren Xiaosu said doubtfully, ¡°Your family business is here, but you want to leave with me?¡±


    He never considered the possibility of bringing Wang Fugui with them. Normally, even if Ren Xiaosu were to try and persuade Wang Fugui to leave together, he should be unwilling to believe Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words.


    But as it turned out, it was theplete opposite. Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t even have to persuade Wang Fugui and he made the decision instantly.


    Wang Fugui thought about it and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know about other things, but I know that we can survive as long as we follow you!¡±


    When Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin came out of the stronghold for the first time, Wang Fugui had said to them that no one but Ren Xiaosu would make a good guide for their expedition into the Jing Mountains.


    Of course, this did not mean that Old Wang believed Ren Xiaosu was really good at what he did, but that he felt Ren Xiaosu was tough enough.


    A child who survived an attack by a pack of wolves and also brought another child with him to grow up and survive together, that was not something a normal person could do.


    Right now, there was something Wang Fugui understood: Only Ren Xiaosu knew what had happened in the Jing Mountains. He was someone who had witnessed the changes in the Jing Mountains personally. If he did not believe him, who else could he believe?

 Chapter 102 - A love gone dead

    <h4>Chapter 102: A love gone dead</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    If Ren Xiaosu went out into the town now and shouted, ¡°The wolves areing, the Experimentals areing, the face bugs areing, and maybe even that monster in the volcano ising too!¡± probably half of the people in town would stare at him dumbfoundedly like they were looking at a fool, while the remaining half might be skeptical of what he had just said.


    But Wang Fugui was different. He felt that if he didn¡¯t believe someone who had personally experienced what had happened, then who else could he believe?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui seriously for a moment. He suddenly understood why Old Wang had managed to live safely up til now.


    Wang Fugui was neither a capable person, nor was he ruthless enough. All he knew was how to act in front of those important people from the stronghold by behaving slickly, but that shouldn¡¯t have been enough to keep him alive for so long.


    In the past, some esquires enjoyed a good rtionship with the important people in the stronghold too, but didn¡¯t they also get harmed or killed all the same?


    It had to be said, Wang Fugui possibly had a peculiar survival instinct that allowed him to make the most correct of choices in the face of danger.


    Wang Fugui reiterated, ¡°Perhaps no one else believes you, but I do. I¡¯m going with you.¡±


    To tell the truth, Ren Xiaosu was also thinking about it. Most people would be a burden to Ren Xiaosu if escaping. But Wang Fugui was different. Old Wang was still a businessman at heart, but he had shown enough goodwill to Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.


    Being the shrewd businessman he was, Wang Fugui noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hesitation. He said, ¡°I won¡¯t go with you and add nothing. First of all, I have money and medicine. Second, I¡¯m better at dealing with people than y¡¯all are, so I¡¯m not going to be a drag.¡±


    At this critical juncture, Wang Fugui made his value known. Only by having value would someone else want to bring you along with them. He did not pin his hopes on depending on their previous friendship to convince Ren Xiaosu because he didn¡¯t think that friendship was worth much in times like this.


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before saying, ¡°I don¡¯t care about your money. Go ande back quickly!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t a devout person. If it had been someone else, he definitely wouldn¡¯t allow that person to leave at such a time. What if that person reported his presence to the Qing Consortium?


    But the goodwill Wang Fugui had shown to Ren Xiaosu made him trust Wang Fugui this one time. Moreover, the Qing Consortium was probably too busy to do anything about Ren Xiaosu. The people keeping watch outside were nowhere near enough to take him on.


    Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu quickly packed their belongings. Yan Liuyuan handed a copper coin to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Mr. Zhang said that if we have no ce left to go, we can head to the Northern Frontier to look for him. But if we still have a chance of survival somewhere else, don¡¯t go there. He says that the Northern Frontier is a very tough ce to live.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the coin and asked, ¡°What happened here?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan proceeded to rte the events of that night, including Luo Lan¡¯s attitude towards Zhang Jinglin and also some of the things Zhang Jinglin said.


    He concluded, ¡°Uncle Fugui was also the only one who stood up for us that night.¡±


    ¡°OK, I understand.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Did Mr. Zhang mention what his identity was?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know what his identity is, and he didn¡¯t answer me either when I asked. But one thing¡¯s for sure; he¡¯s definitely an important person in Stronghold 178.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If we really have no ce to turn to, we¡¯ll go look for him at the Northern Frontier.¡±


    Xiaoyu said, ¡°Our belongings are packed. There isn¡¯t actually a lot to bring.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a look and saw that Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan had basically only brought along foodstuffs. Even the cabbage that was nted by Zhang Jinglin in the school¡¯s backyard had been picked. They were quite simr to him, very practical.


    ¡°Bring the buns and cornbread.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But the cabbage is unnecessary. We can always pick wild vegetables along the way while we¡¯re escaping. Eh, what¡¯s in that bag?¡±


    ¡°Smoked meat.¡± Sister Xiaoyu said, ¡°You didn¡¯t bring any dried food with you thest time you departed, so I thought I¡¯d make some smoked meat to store away for whenever you needed to go out again.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a bit. ¡°Thank you, Big Sister Xiaoyu. This has reallye in handy.¡±


    ¡°Bro.¡± Yan Liuyuan looked up at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Is it really dangerous this time?¡±


    ¡°The people in the stronghold can depend on the walls to keep them safe, but the townspeople can¡¯t defend themselves against those creatures. There won¡¯t even be a ce for them to hide.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Actually, the best thing to do now should be to open the stronghold to everyone so they can go in. But I doubt that those who¡¯re in the stronghold will allow that to happen.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s wait for Uncle Fugui toe back before we leave. We can head southwest to where Stronghold 109 is,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Ren Xiaosu sized up Yan Liuyuan and said with augh, ¡°You look pretty handsome with your face cleaned up. It¡¯s like you¡¯re one of them in the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Yan Liuyuan smirked.


    These two brothers¡¯ faces had always been dirty. But ever since Yan Liuyuan went down with a fever for some time, Xiaoyu helped him wipe his face clean.


    Suddenly, the town broke into an uproar. But this time, it wasn¡¯t the sound of people watching amotion but the sound of cries for help by many.


    The entire town had descended into chaos!


    Ren Xiaosu strode out of the school¡¯s entrance. The soldiers keeping watch immediately reached for their guns when they saw Ren Xiaosu. They had been distracted by the events in town, so they didn¡¯t expect to see Ren Xiaosu walk out from the inside.


    But before they could even draw their guns, Ren Xiaosu made the first move. He started shooting as he made his way outside. None of those who had been keeping watch managed to run away, and they all ended up dying to his pistol.


    At this moment, Wang Fugui ran over to the school with his silly son, Wang Dalong. When he saw Ren Xiaosu finishing off around seven people without any hesitation, he felt quite shocked. Although Ren Xiaosu was known to be ruthless, he never expected he would be this ruthless. It was as if Ren Xiaosu had changed after his trip into the Jing Mountains.


    When Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Wang Fugui, Wang Fugui nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the coldness in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes. However, Ren Xiaosu lowered his gun when he saw that it was Wang Fugui who hade. ¡°Let¡¯s go, we¡¯ll head over to Stronghold 109.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± Wang Dalong suddenly said, ¡°Can we bring Li Youqian along?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu seriously pondered this question. ¡°...Who is Li Youqian?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s Old Li¡¯s strapping daughter,¡± Yan Liuyuan provided.


    ¡°I won¡¯t bring her along with us,¡± Ren Xiaosu said and shook his head.


    Wang Dalong got ticked off. ¡°You¡¯re the school¡¯s substitute teacher. How can you abandon your students without a care? If Mr. Zhang were here, he definitely wouldn¡¯t just leave her here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui and sighed with emotion. ¡°Seeing how anxious your son is, it feels just like love.... Actually, they¡¯re quitepatible.¡±


    Wang Fugui was astonished. ¡°Why would you say something like that at this time?!¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu turned to look at Wang Dalong and said, ¡°Too bad I¡¯m not Mr. Zhang.¡±


    When Wang Dalong heard this, his heart broke. He didn¡¯t expect his rtionship to end just like that.

 Chapter 103 - The walls collapse

    <h4>Chapter 103: The walls copse</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    the north of town were already in a state of disarray. Before the group left with Wang Fugui, Ren Xiaosu jumped atop a roof and looked north. He was shocked to see a dense, dark cloud of bugs were currently overwhelming the town.


    That sight made it look like the town had suddenly been dyed ck with an inkpot. The originally colorful town was getting taken over by the invading swarm of insects.


    The wild animals were further out and running over. Ren Xiaosu did not spot the wolf pack or the Experimentals, so the face bugs were probably the first wave of creatures to reach the town. But he thought that it wouldn¡¯t take too long before an even greater danger arrived.


    The refugees were all fleeing to the stronghold¡¯s gate and crying as they begged outside the walls for those in the stronghold to save them.


    ¡°Open the gate, quick!¡±


    ¡°Please, open the gate and save us! Don¡¯t you all see those bugs?!¡±


    ¡°Please, just let my child in!¡±


    The refugees outside the walls were all begging on their knees, but the private troops guarding the walls only gave some token fire with their automatic rifles at the dense cloud of bugs. At no time did they ever think of opening the gate to let the refugees through.


    Besides, their action of firing at the bugs was no different from trying to put out a forest fire with a bucket of water.


    Seeing that the bugs were about to arrive and the gate was still firmly shut, some of the refugees started cursing. But before they could swear much, they were forced to leave. Otherwise, the bugs would be here!


    Ren Xiaosu had never had expectations of anyone, so his initial reaction was not to go to the stronghold to bargain but to leave immediately.


    He didn¡¯t care if other people lived or died. All he wanted was to take care of Yan Liuyuan and the others first.


    At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu was worried that Wang Fugui would bring along many cumbersome items. But then he discovered that Wang Fugui and Wang Dalong were only carrying one backpack each. Although Wang Dalong looked a little stupid, he was very strong. He did not look careless at all carrying his belongings.


    There was even a moment when Ren Xiaosu wondered if Wang Dalong was a supernatural being himself. Ren Xiaosu opened Wang Dalong¡¯s backpack and took a look inside. He found it was filled with hardtack that had circted from the stronghold, while Wang Fugui¡¯s backpack was filled with medicinal supplies.


    The medicinal supplies had been taken out of their packaging and stored into stic bottles ording to their function to make them easy to carry around.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked Wang Fugui as he led everyone in their escape to the southwest, ¡°I thought you would bring gold or something simr.¡±


    ¡°I would have liked to, but I don¡¯t have the strength to carry them. If my stamina doesn¡¯tst, I¡¯ll end up dead,¡± Wang Fugui said with a bitter expression. ¡°But I did bring quite a bit of money with me. However, they¡¯re all issued by the Qing Consortium. When we get to Stronghold 109 and exchange them for the Li Consortium¡¯s currency, they¡¯re probably going to be devalued by half.¡±


    Wang Fugui was panting as he ran. As he usually didn¡¯t exercise, he ended up being the most tired as they were making their escape.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°Quitining. The medicine you¡¯ve brought with you is valuable stuff. Those thousands of anti-inmmatory pills you have are worth 200 yuan each.¡±


    There was also another thing. Now that they were escaping, money was useless whenpared to medicine.


    Zhang Jinglin had once said that gold was a hard currency. However, he didn¡¯t mention another hard currency, medicine.


    In fact, Wang Fugui had made the smartest decision this time.


    ...


    Not every refugee in town was foolish enough to cry for help at the stronghold walls. Some also understood the important people in the stronghold did not care about the lives of the refugees. As such, they decided to escape straight into the wilderness.


    When Ren Xiaosu andpany left, they could still hear the cries of the refugees who stayed behind and gunshots fired from the top of the walls. Soon after, an even more thunderous sound rang out. Ren Xiaosu turned back to look and saw that the private troops atop the wall had started throwing grenades and bombs down!


    There were still a lot of alive people below the walls!


    Some of the smarter refugees were running frantically for the wilderness. When some of them tripped, they just rolled over and got up again in one swift motion. No one daredy on the ground for even one second.


    It wasn¡¯t only Ren Xiaosu andpany who were escaping southwest. Several hundred others were doing the same as well.


    As Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu were unable to run as fast, Ren Xiaosu had to run together in a group with those few hundred others.


    Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu was able to carry all of their luggage by himself, so that made it easier for Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu.


    After running for a while, everyone started to slow down when they realized the face bugs did note chasing after them. Everyone other than Ren Xiaosu was exhausted from the running.


    Some of them turned around to have a look and saw that the town had now be a purgatory of sorts. Their shacks were all burning up in mes.


    ¡°Our home is gone,¡± someone muttered.


    Some of those who had just lost their families couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer and started crying. Ren Xiaosu witnessed earlier that some of these people had even abandoned their young children so they could run a little faster.


    But there were also others who held onto their children protectively before eventually getting killed by the swarm of face bugs. The back shells of those face bugs seemed to be clearer, and the sound of their mandibles chewing on their victims was a nightmare many would find hard to forget.


    By this time, their group had reached a rtively safe zone having left the town earlier. The face bugs seemed like they were more interested in the stronghold, so they did not bother to catch up to the humans who had escaped into the wilderness.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly had a feeling that the stronghold would help attract attention from the humans who were escaping. After all, those wild animals and face bugs would go to wherever there was more ¡°food.¡±


    At that time, when the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops joined the battle with their firearms and heavy weapons, they shouldn¡¯t have a problem holding off the wild animals and monsters with the help of the stronghold.


    If it weren¡¯t for the fact that he needed to avoid the Qing Consortium, Ren Xiaosu might just have waited for a while here in the wilderness until the Qing Consortium finished off those monsters. Then he would bring Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu back to the stronghold¡¯s town.


    But right now, he needed to steer clear of any Qing Consortium-controlled areas.


    But it was at this time that Ren Xiaosu started frowning as he looked out into the area. Everyone could feel it as well. ¡°It¡¯s another earthquake!¡±


    This earthquake was even more violent than the previous one, and some people who were unprepared for it fell to the ground!


    ¡°Look, what¡¯s that!¡± someone said as they pointed north.


    They saw a giant, dark line quickly approaching southwards from the direction of the Jing Mountains, which then went straight into the stronghold like a knife!


    The grand and curved wall made a loud crackling sound like an iceberg breaking off. There were even thin cracks appearing from the bottom and going up on the sturdy walls.


    Ren Xiaosu was so absolutely stunned by this scene that he could not speak. The giant fissure did not form a trench but broke the entire stronghold up into two semicircles. In addition, the ground on the west side was suddenly raised by over ten meters!


    It was as if someone had suddenly pulled up an entire piece of the in to form a stair!


    It was here that two tectonic tes converged, and it only took an instant to break the stronghold¡¯s walls into two halves!


    The walls had copsed!

 Chapter 104 - A real disaster

    <h4>Chapter 104: A real disaster</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu once posed a question while chatting with Yan Liuyuan. What would happen if the walls that protected the humans copsed?


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t really pay much attention even though he was the one who raised the question. After all, they would just rebuild the walls if they copsed. The important people in the stronghold would still be important, and the refugees in town would still remain refugees.


    But it was different this time. The walls could copse at any other time but now. There were wolves waiting outside of the walls; wild animals and poisonous insects were also escaping out of the Jing Mountain range. There were face bugs and the Experimentals!


    The tectonic te movement that caused the earthquake was like a ck swan <sup>1</sup> that pped its wings and brought a disaster upon the stronghold.


    This stronghold seemed like it was situated right on two fault lines. With the violent movement of the tes, they tore it apart.


    But that was not the only disaster brought on by the earthquake. The houses in the stronghold also crumbled, and countless people were buried alive under the buildings!


    Ren Xiaosu was watching all this unfold from a faraway hilltop. The walls that had protected the residents of the stronghold for decades, or even over a century, was crumbling piece by piece like a melting cier. In the end, the entire ce was reduced to ruins.


    This was perhaps the most shocking and insane sight Ren Xiaosu had ever witnessed in his life. The private troops atop the walls did not even have time to withdraw and fell to the ground along with the walls. Their bodies were all crushed!


    These walls were at least 50 meters tall. A normal person who fell off would die for sure.


    The wave of face bugs that couldn¡¯t get past the walls started swarming into the city within the stronghold. Those ¡°important people¡± in the city who were unable to recover in time from their panic caused by the copsed buildings were eaten by the face bugs.


    Wang Fugui and the others also stopped in their tracks and turned around to watch this sight with deep fear in their eyes.


    ¡°Xiaosu, will the people in the city survive?¡± Xiaoyu asked under her breath.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and continued heading in the direction of Stronghold 109. ¡°It¡¯s enough that we survive.¡±


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, there would still be a portion of the stronghold¡¯s residents who could make it out alive. With a poption of several hundred thousand, it was impossible that there weren¡¯t any smart people in the stronghold¡¯s city. Moreover, the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops were still in there.


    But all of that didn¡¯t have anything to do with him. In this era, if it was of no concern to you, you didn¡¯t have to care about it. In the past, none of the important people ever cared about the life and death of the refugees. As such, no one would care about their lives now.


    Besides, it wasn¡¯t like anyone could do anything about this disaster.


    Suddenly, someone said, ¡°Look, there seems to be some kind of strange light in the stronghold.¡±


    The next moment, Ren Xiaosu turned around and was surprised to see a gigantic bubble drifting towards the face bugs. Shortly after, the bubble burst, and it forcibly pushed the swarm of bugs back by dozens of meters. Furthermore, the bugs closest to the front looked like they had been killed by the st.


    The others might not know what that was, but Ren Xiaosu immediately thought of the person who had been caught and sent into the stronghold, Zhang Baogen.


    This bubble was alsorger than the one he had seen, but its appearance and effect were exactly the same.


    Ren Xiaosu was uncertain. It looked like Zhang Baogen wasn¡¯t dead yet. In fact, his power had grown even stronger.


    ¡°It¡¯s a supernatural being!¡± Someone eximed, ¡°A supernatural being in the stronghold has made their move!¡±


    ¡°What the hell is that bubble?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the surprised people and thought, ¡°If I say that it¡¯s a saliva bubble blown by Zhang Baogen, none of you will believe me....¡¯


    Wang Fugui¡¯s son, Wang Dalong, muttered, ¡°How I wish I were also a supernatural being.¡±


    When the stronghold arrested the supernatural beings, everyone distanced themselves at the mention of the words ¡°supernatural being.¡± They were all afraid they would get implicated due to these two words.


    But if they were honest with themselves, who wouldn¡¯t want to have extraordinary superpowers? Even someone who had already entered middle age, Wang Fugui, had also fantasized about it.


    This was the ultimate desire human beings wanted from this world.


    However, supernatural beings were rare. From the looks of it, there were probably only a dozen or so among several hundred thousand people. Ren Xiaosu knew there must still be other hidden supernatural beings in the stronghold, but their number would definitely not be too high.


    ¡°How does one be a supernatural being?¡± Wang Dalong asked his father.


    Wang Fugui said in a speechless manner, ¡°I don¡¯t know either.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan remarked, ¡°There are probably some conditions, like luck or bloodline, things like that?¡±


    Wang Dalong became dejected. ¡°Well, my dad is no supernatural being either.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan consoled, ¡°Don¡¯t despair, maybe he¡¯s not your biological father?¡±


    Wang Dalong was confused. While he was making his escape, Wang Dalong did not even cry over his lost love. But with this, he started wailing.


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu, you and your brother have such potty mouths.¡± Wang Fugui was nearly cursing. ¡°That Zhang Baogen is a supernatural being, but does his father look like he has any supernatural bloodline in him?¡±


    By this time, Zhang Baogen had spat out about five saliva bubbles and forced the bugs back, helping quite a few people finally get a chance to catch a breather. They immediately made use of this window to escape out of the stronghold. They were heading for exactly where Ren Xiaosu and the others were.


    The walls of the stronghold that had crumbled formedrge obstacles on the path that made it difficult for the people on the inside to get out. But luckily for them, there was an openingrge enough to let several people through at once in the direction of Ren Xiaosu.


    In times of distress, people would tend to blindly follow others. The people who had been caught in this disaster had lost their ability to think normally and could only run to wherever the others ran to.


    When one person ran towards this opening, the other lucky survivors followed. The number of escaping survivors started to snowball.


    Wang Fugui could only make a rough estimation of the numbers. There were probably at least upwards of several thousand people making their escape right now, and it was only going to get higher.


    They couldn¡¯t wait anymore. The face bugs were probably not going to give up on so much food, and neither would those wolves.


    The sound of sporadic gunfire was getting weaker and weaker. Ren Xiaosu had thought the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops would be very effective here. But surprisingly, he didn¡¯t even see thebat brigade joining the battle.


    Could it be that the military base was too far away?


    Eventually, some people from the stronghold tried escaping into the river to avoid the face bugs. Normally, bugs were afraid of water.


    But just as some people jumped into the river, something in the murky water suddenly opened its mouth and swallowed them. Right after, a dense trail of blood appeared under the murky waters.


    The entire stronghold city was filled with smoke and the scent of blood. Ren Xiaosu had never seen such a savage sight before. Even he felt that this was too cruel.


    He frowned and said, ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here. Those people who escaped from the stronghold might attract danger.¡±


    Many of the refugees around them were so tired they didn¡¯t want to move anymore. When they were felling from the town, they didn¡¯t feel it. But now that they had stopped, they could feel all the muscles in their bodies aching.


    Much more physical energy is consumed when running at full speedpared to jogging.


    Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, Yan Liuyuan, and Xiaoyu were all not as physically fit as Ren Xiaosu. But when Ren Xiaosu called for them to continue, none of them said a word in protest.


    They would only survive if they listened to Ren Xiaosu.


    Xiaoyu and the others clenched their teeth and caught up with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pace. Ren Xiaosu said softly, ¡°A lot ofctic acid will umte in the body after an intense workout. You must keep going, or else you¡¯ll aching even more if you rest any longer.¡±


    When the other refugees saw Ren andpany leaving, some of them followed. But others thought that since the face bugs hadn¡¯t noticed them here, there was no hurry for them to leave. It wasn¡¯t that they didn¡¯t want to go, but that they wanted to rest for a few more minutes.


    No matter the situation, there were always people who counted on their luck too much.


    Suddenly, Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan realized that of all those who were here, Ren Xiaosu looked the most rxed. It was as though he didn¡¯t feel tired at all.

 Chapter 105 - The wolves are coming

    <h4>Chapter 105: The wolves areing</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Some people thought they had gotten lucky and that the face bugs would note after them anymore. However, Ren Xiaosu knew the true danger in this disaster might not be the face bugs.


    Be it the Experimentals or that terrifying monster in the volcano, they were all creatures Ren Xiaosu wanted to run away from.


    Around 400 people, all of whom were refugees from town, continued escaping towards Stronghold 109. Ren Xiaosu led Xiaoyu andpany to join the crowd but did not have any interactions with other people.


    Many of the people could recognize Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others, but everyone was too busy fleeing to care about it.


    Someone suddenly thought of something. ¡°Say, shouldn¡¯t there be a factory along the route to Stronghold 109?¡±


    A buff young man said, ¡°That¡¯s right, there¡¯s a sand factory over there. I¡¯ve worked there before.¡±


    ¡°How many people work at that factory?¡±


    ¡°Around 200 people. It¡¯s mostly the machines digging for sand in the sand fields, so there isn¡¯t a need for too many people. But they do have a vegetable farm, so maybe we can look for something to eat over there?¡± Having escaped a short while ago, everyone was starting to feel a little hungry.


    ¡°Now that the stronghold is no longer standing, does it mean we can detour back to the pig farm and kill some pigs for pork?¡± A man said, ¡°There won¡¯t be anyone there to stop us anyway.¡±


    ¡°I wonder if the women in the stronghold are all pretty.¡± Someone remarked, ¡°I¡¯ve seen that Luo Xinyu before, and she¡¯s particrly good-looking. Now that the people from the stronghold are in trouble...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sized them up. Perhaps these people thought they were no longer in danger, so they also became more rxed.


    These people weren¡¯t really affected by those who died.


    The majority of the town¡¯s refugees were unfeeling and antisocial. On most days, it was enough if no one made things difficult for others. As such, none of them really felt sad about it when the others died.


    In addition, they were even more unaffected if it were those important people in the stronghold who had died. In fact, they were probably cheering for this at heart.


    Only a minority of those who had lost their families appeared to be in very low spirits at this time.


    Of the 400 or so people here, slightly less than half were female. They were warily watching the men around them. Some of their husbands had just died, so they all knew what kind of danger they were in this time.


    ¡°Xiaosu, are we going to the sand nt to rest for a while?¡± Xiaoyu asked in worry.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°We must stay away from them when we rest at night. When danger approaches, it will surely get attracted to thergest group of people first. On top of that, these people could also be a new source of danger.¡±


    Xiaoyu was relieved to hear that. ¡°Mhm, we brought some food, so you don¡¯t have to worry about the food. I know these people from town too well. They¡¯re capable of anything.¡±


    ¡°OK. Of course, there¡¯s no need to get too worried. They¡¯re just a mob.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he looked to Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Hide the gun.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu killed the people who were watching them, he had fired the gun. Even if it was very chaotic in town at that time, a lot of people would still have noticed.


    He wasn¡¯t worried that this mob would dare get any ideas about them. But it was still necessary to be careful in case they tried any tricks.


    ¡°The people at the sand nt might not know what happened in town. They probably felt the strong earthquake, but they won¡¯t know that the stronghold has already fallen,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Jing Mountains, with the seismic waves spreading out several hundreds of kilometers. Ren Xiaosu was wondering if Stronghold 112 would also have copsed since Stronghold 113 had been shaken so badly.


    After all, Stronghold 113 and Stronghold 112 were about the same distance from the Jing Mountains.


    The fleeing group of people arrived at the sand nt in the afternoon. In the end, they saw that the factory building and the workers¡¯ dormitories had all copsed. Arge group of the sand nt workers were busy driving excavators around to clear the ruins of the factory building.


    When the sand nt workers saw such arge group of people arriving, they were confused. In the end, when they heard that the stronghold was in ruins, they did not know how to react.


    If the stronghold had fallen, what was the point of rebuilding the sand nt?


    Most of the escapees sat on the ground. They really could not walk anymore and were nning to rest for the night here at the sand factory. At least there was food here.


    Some of the people wanted to leave with Ren Xiaosu, but when they saw the majority staying behind, they stopped following him. After all, wouldn¡¯t it be safer if everyone stayed together?


    With the addition of these workers from the sand nt, the crowd had grown to around 600 people.


    Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t bothered by this. Instead, he had a look at the sky and continued leading Yan Liuyuan and the others forward. There was probably only two or three hours before it turned dark, but it was enough time for them to get further.


    Wang Dalong was grumbling along the way, ¡°Can¡¯t we rest for even a bit?¡±


    But before Ren Xiaosu could even say anything, Wang Fugui had already pped his son upside the head. ¡°Keep going if you¡¯re told to! Stopining!¡±


    Wang Fugui gave Ren Xiaosu a smile and said, ¡°He¡¯s just a kid, don¡¯t mind him.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. He definitely needed to remember Wang Fugui¡¯s friendship with Yan Liuyuan and him. As such, he didn¡¯t take Wang Dalong¡¯s grumblings to heart.


    Even if Wang Dalong kept speaking rudely, Ren Xiaosu would still get Wang Dalong to Stronghold 109.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a bit more before adding, ¡°Let¡¯s keep going for a little more before we find a ce to rest. But each of you will have to properly rub down your muscles before fully resting. Otherwise, none of you are gonna be able to go on tomorrow. You won¡¯t be able to get away if there¡¯s any danger.¡±


    This was based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s many years of wilderness survival experience.


    At this moment, the people who were making their escape together with Ren Xiaosu sat on the ground and watched them continue off into the distance. Someoneughed and said, ¡°Isn¡¯t that Ren Xiaosu afraid that he¡¯ll tire the people with him to death?¡±


    ¡°Wang Fugui looks pretty smart himself and has always enjoyed his status in town. But why has he decided to follow a few brats?¡± Someone scorned, ¡°When I saw him leaving so anxiously at the beginning, I caught up thinking that there was still danger lurking behind us. But there isn¡¯t even anything catching up to us!¡±


    ¡°Wang Fugui must¡¯ve brought quite a bit of money with him.¡± A shady man whispered, ¡°He¡¯s been running a grocery store for so many years, so he must have taken all of his family belongings with him when he escaped.¡±


    ¡°And that Li Xiaoyu...¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it.¡± Someone said with a sneer, ¡°Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan both have guns with them. Surely, you know that?¡±


    ¡°What are you afraid of? We have so many people.¡± Someone said unconvinced, ¡°Why would so many of us be afraid of a gun? How many bullets can he have?¡±


    ¡°Oh, then are you going to attack first?¡±


    With that, no one else made another sound. Although Ren Xiaosu had a limited amount of bullets, they only had a life each. Whoever attacked first would die.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s assessment of them was not wrong at all: They were just a mob.


    Someone waved it off. ¡°Don¡¯t talk about these useless things. Let¡¯s rest here for the night and set off again tomorrow.¡±


    But as night fell, they suddenly heard the howling of wolves in the distance. Everyone who was resting immediately stood up and looked in the direction of the howling in fear.


    They knew how scary the wolf pack was, but they never expected them to be here as well!


    Based on the howls, the wolf pack was at most three to five kilometers away!


    ¡°Hurry and run! I didn¡¯t really think that there would be danger!¡±


    ¡°We should have followed Ren Xiaosu and left together, fuck!¡±


    This group of people now regretted it. But when they stood up and got ready to make their escape again, they discovered their legs had be as heavy as lead! They were aching all over their bodies!

 Chapter 106 - Roaring engines

    <h4>Chapter 106: Roaring engines</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Before the wolves arrived, almost everyone felt that Ren Xiaosu was being too cautious. The danger had already passed, so why did he still insist on continuing on?


    But when the wolves arrived, they finally understood how Ren Xiaosu managed to survive all those years in the wilderness.


    ¡°Run, quick!¡±


    ¡°Those who don¡¯t want to die, hurry and run. Don¡¯t fall behind!¡±


    The majority of the people picked themselves up and ran in the direction of where Ren Xiaosu had gone. They finally recalled the fear they felt when they first saw the face bugs!


    It had been less than a month since the wolf pack destroyed the factory and the stronghold¡¯s overseers had issued an order for the refugees to go and bury the dead there. Many of these refugees puked when they saw the bloody scenes at the factory.


    Even these refugees, who were used to seeing death, couldn¡¯t stand the sights at the factory. Of the bodies that were cleared out from the factory that day, none of them were intact. Every single one had been torn apart by the wolves.


    Ren Xiaosu was away from town at the time, so he didn¡¯t know this happened. But for the refugee, they got a fear of wolves.


    But the faster these refugees wanted to run at this moment, the more they found it difficult to do so.


    Far away, Ren Xiaosu was sitting beside a campfire and adding firewood to it. As they were too distant, they did not hear the howls of the wolves.


    There was steam emitting from a small pot hanging over the campfire. Ren Xiaosu had cut off two pieces of the smoked meat Xiaoyu had prepared, and thrown it into the pot. The instant he did so, the aroma of the meat drifted out from the clear porridge that was being cooked while Wang Dalong looked at it hungrily.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at everyone else and said, ¡°Don¡¯t just sit there and wait. Use this time to massage your muscles. We still have to run tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Smells good.¡± Yan Liuyuan sniffed the food.


    ¡°I even saw some wild coriander along the road. Let¡¯s crush itter and throw it into the porridge to make it even better,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    The coriander found in town were usually just saplings. However, coriander could grow up to half the height of a human being. In fact, a lot of people wouldn¡¯t even recognize it once it grew beyond the sapling stage.


    ¡°Coriander?¡± Wang Dalong squirmed and pouted, ¡°I don¡¯t eat coriander!¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t eat coriander?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°But it¡¯s such a fragrant herb. Why don¡¯t you eat it?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you find that coriander has a bedbug-like smell? It makes me want to vomit whenever I smell it.¡± Wang Dalong said, ¡°How can you guys even eat it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the coriander in his hand and mused, ¡°Maybe because I¡¯ve never eaten bedbugs before?¡±


    Wang Dalong was confused. ¡®I¡¯ve also never freaking eaten it before, alright!¡¯


    Wang Fugui was peeved as hedled out a tiny bowl of porridge for his son. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°If you want to put in coriander, just put it in. But can you not gross out my dear son?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled at that. However, he realized Wang Fugui had taken too little porridge for Wang Dalong. He purposely didn¡¯t take a single piece of smoked meat for him and left it for everyone else.


    ¡°Old Wang,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°I¡¯m very grateful that you stood up for Yan Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu that night. Also, you were always great to me whenever I sold my catch in town. I remember all of that, so you don¡¯t have to be so polite since we¡¯re all trying to escape together.¡± Ren Xiaosu took Wang Dalong¡¯s small metal bowl anddled out some more porridge for him. He also added a piece of smoked meat for him.


    Xiaoyu had brought several metal bowls along. In the early winter, every one of them was holding the metal bowls as they waited for the porridge to cool down while it warmed their hands.


    Ren Xiaosu often sold his sparrow catches to Old Wang and often mentioned he could also sell it to Old Li¡¯s grocery store as an excuse to raise Old Wang¡¯s offers. But in fact, Ren Xiaosu had been to Old Li¡¯s shop before and knew that he only bought sparrows for 900 yuan. Meanwhile, Wang Fugui sometimes paid him up to 1200 yuan.


    Whenever winter arrived, Wang Fugui¡¯s offer to buy the sparrows would go up by a few hundred yuan, and those few hundred yuan was often enough to afford a new coat.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu felt that even in such difficult times like now, there were still some people who glowed with kindness. It was like a charcoal fire burning in snowy weather.


    Wang Fugui looked at the smoked meat in Wang Dalong¡¯s bowl and said with a sigh, ¡°I¡¯m d I didn¡¯t misjudge the two of you brothers.¡±


    Although Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan could be very annoying, Wang Fugui knew well that these two brothers were both very sentimental.


    ¡°Uncle Fugui, don¡¯t worry.¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°Once we get to Stronghold 109, we¡¯ll help you rebuild the grocery store!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re in such a desperate state. There¡¯s no need to talk about the past.¡± Wang Fugui waved it off with a smile.


    Actually, Wang Fugui was more open-minded than Ren Xiaosu imagined. It was as though he wasn¡¯t particrly attached to the family business he operated at Stronghold 113.


    But right at this time, Ren Xiaosu and the others heard footsteps in the distance. There seemed to be several hundred people running here towards them. Ren Xiaosu drew his gun and looked at the others. ¡°Hurry up and finish your porridge.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and the others did not care about how hot it was anymore. They gulped down the porridge in one go per Ren Xiaosu¡¯s instructions. It was fortunate that it had already cooled down a little, or else everyone would have scalded their tongues.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he watched the crowd of several hundred people running over. ¡°Something¡¯s wrong. These people are fleeing for their lives. We¡¯ve got to hurry and leave too!¡±


    At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu was quite curious as to why this mob was suddenly on the move again. Didn¡¯t they say they were going to rest at the sand farm for the night? But he immediately figured it out. The only thing that could get these people moving again was danger!


    Ren Xiaosu and the others were also decisively quick. Before this crowd of people could get close to them, they had already continued to escape.


    The mob behind them were all achy and hungry, while Ren Xiaosu andpany had massaged themselves for some time and even ate hot porridge. Although everyone was trying to escape, the circumstances of their situations were entirely different.


    And in times of real danger, Ren Xiaosu could carry the luggage of everyone, so his group had it easier.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the top of a hill in the distance. The silvery Wolf King he had seen before was currently overlooking the escaping crowd in the wilderness. It was quietly watching its prey.


    Wolves usually followed behind their prey and waited until they get exhausted beforeunching their final attack on them.


    If the mob kept running away in fear, soon they would probably lose all strength to keep escaping. When that happened, it would be time for the wolf pack to capture their prey.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°We have to get as far away from those people as we can. Although it may sound bad if I say they¡¯re our shield, we don¡¯t have a choice here.¡±


    Wang Fugui hurriedly said, ¡°It¡¯s not too bad to use others as our shield....¡±


    But just as he finished his sentence, Ren Xiaosu heard the roaring of engines and was stunned. Why were there vehicles out here?


    The sound of the engines was very abrupt in the wilderness. It sounded like the roar of a wild animal.


    Before long, Ren Xiaosu realized what had happened. It was the sound of the people who had escaped from the stronghold!


    From the looks of it, their escape route was also in this direction. However, he didn¡¯t know just how many people had managed to make it out of the stronghold.

 Chapter 107 - The grace of dripping water

    <h4>Chapter 107: The grace of dripping water</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When the off-road vehicles and military transport trucks of the Qing Consortium appeared on the horizon, Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought that this might also be why the wolf pack was not in a hurry to carry out their hunt.


    Ren Xiaosu was quite familiar with the logo of the Qing Consortium on those vehicles, having just seen it in the past few days.


    The logo of a white ginkgo leaf was visible on the vehicles. ording to Mr. Zhang, this world had already gone through hundreds of millions of years of change. However, only the ginkgo tree of all the nts in the world retained its original appearance since the Quaternary ciation.


    This was one of the world¡¯s oldest genus of tree, as well as the species with the most powerful ¡°gics.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu first saw the Qing Consortium¡¯s logo in the Jing Mountains, he wondered if they had chosen to use the white ginkgo leaf as their logo because they hoped to stay around forever.


    The vehicles were roaring as they arrived. But when they approached, Ren Xiaosu felt there were too few of them. They were so few in number there wasn¡¯t a need to count them¡ªthere were just three off-road vehicles and two military transport trucks.


    Didn¡¯t Xu Xianchu say that the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat brigade had a strength of 4,500 soldiers? Why did so few people make it out then? A single truck could take up to 50 people at least, right? Then did it mean that only about a hundred of them managed to escape from the stronghold?


    What exactly happened?


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu had underestimated the horror of this disaster. As there were much fewer brick and mortar structures in town, Ren Xiaosu did not consider the consequences of them or even the high-rise buildings copsing. Most of the structures in the stronghold were made of brick and mortar.


    You could say that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s imagination had been limited by his poverty.


    This earthquake had even caused thend to crack open, splitting the stronghold into two as it forcibly turned the river into a waterfall.


    This was the power of nature, and humanity could do nothing about it.


    After the brick and mortar structures in the stronghold copsed, arge number of humans were crushed to death under the buildings. Countless people had died, including those who were from the Qing Consortium.


    What was most unfortunate was that the military base was situated right across the fault line, as it got split in half.


    Luo Lan was panting in the off-road vehicle. The most embarrassing fact was that he was only dressed in a pair of flowery boxers. When the earthquake urred, he was still fast asleep. It was fortunate that the barracks he was living in was hardy and strong, and the structure was low to the ground, letting him survive.


    As it was winter now, there was heating in the barracks and inside the off-road vehicle. However, there wasn¡¯t any in the wilderness.


    Right now, Luo Lan was most worried about what would happen if the vehicle ran out of gas before they could reach Stronghold 109. At that time, he might have to get out and hoof it as they made their way towards Stronghold 109!


    Thinking of this, Luo Lan said, ¡°How much gas does the car still have?¡±


    The soldier in the driver¡¯s seat said, ¡°There¡¯s still a third left. We can keep driving for about 130 kilometers.¡±


    ¡°Can we make it to Stronghold 109?¡± Luo Lan asked.


    The soldier said awkwardly, ¡°We¡¯re still 210 kilometers away from Stronghold 109. There¡¯s definitely not enough gas, but we can actually have the people in the off-road vehicle behind us get out while we siphon the gas from their vehicle....¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Luo Lan¡¯s eyes lit up before he sighed. ¡°Forget it, the people in that off-road vehicle are all injured, and so are those in the transport trucks.¡±


    The soldier was silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Sir, both you and Mr. Qing Zhen treat us very well, unlike the other big shots of the consortium. We don¡¯t mind if we have to suffer a little.¡±


    ¡°Enough, don¡¯t bring it up anymore.¡± Luo Lan waved his hand irritably. ¡°You¡¯re speaking like I¡¯m a good person. I¡¯m not. Don¡¯t you know that the good die young?¡±


    ¡°Sir, there¡¯s a group of people up ahead running,¡± the soldier said when he saw the fleeing refugees.


    Luo Lan disdained, ¡°There was also a group behind us just now. What¡¯s the big deal? Pass them and make them eat our dust!¡±


    When the refugees saw the convoy of vehicles passing them, they got rather jealous. How great it would be if they also had such vehicles to ride in.


    There were actually vehicles at the sand nt as well, but as they were deployed to transport the sand, only the excavators remained at the nt. They couldn¡¯t go fast and were gas guzzlers!


    At this time, someone from the group of refugees suddenly ran out. ¡°Boss Luo, I¡¯m the manager of the sand factory, Wang Yiheng. Please bring me along with you! I¡¯ve met you before!¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s driver asked, ¡°Should we bring him with us?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t even have enough space for the injured. Why would I bring him?¡± Luo Lan scolded, ¡°Ignore him.¡±


    When Wang Yiheng saw the convoy getting further and further away, he got so angry that he almost wanted to shoot that Fatty Luo dead with the gun in his hand. But on the one hand, he did not have the balls to do so, so he could only think about it. On the other hand, he couldn¡¯t catch up to them.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu watched the convoy as it approached from afar. He told Wang Fugui and the others, ¡°I believe that there¡¯ll be quite a lot of people from the stronghold making their way here. Don¡¯t worry too much. There¡¯ll be enough people to attract the attention of the wild animals on our behalf. If there are still wild animals that might attack us, leave them to me.¡±


    Wang Fugui was a very smart man and could sense the confidence in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ims.


    Ren Xiaosu should know all about the kinds of danger following them, but he wasn¡¯t afraid at all. Wang Fugui thought about it and wondered if Ren Xiaosu could also be... a supernatural being?


    How else could he be the only one to return when so many people went on the expedition to the Jing Mountains? Moreover, could Ren Xiaosu also have killed people in the Jing Mountains? If not, why was Ren Xiaosu able to kill those people keeping watch at the entrance of the school without batting an eye?


    ¡°Um, Xiaosu, I¡¯m not sure if I should ask this?¡± Wang Fugui said with some hesitation, ¡°But what on earth happened in the Jing Mountains? Where did the others go?¡±


    ¡°20 of us went on the expedition.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought about it as he said, ¡°But there should only be only four of us who made it out alive.¡±


    These four were Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, Luo Xinyu, and Ren Xiaosu himself.


    ¡°As for what happened in the Jing Mountains, I¡¯m not sure either. There are bugs that eat humans and humanoid Experimentals whose intelligence has been dumbed down.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, ¡°But actually, those aren¡¯t the scariest things out there.¡±


    The monster whose ws came out of the crater was like a bad memory for Ren Xiaosu. The monster was simply too enormous, and it even lived in magma.


    At this time, the Qing Consortium¡¯s convoy of vehicles passed Ren Xiaosu andpany. Ren Xiaosu saw Fatty Luo through the windows and wondered if this was the legendary Boss Luo who gifted him that banner with the words ¡°Magic hands restore spring.¡±


    ¡°No matter what, we¡¯re fortunate to have you with us.¡± Wang Fugui said with a sigh, ¡°If you didn¡¯t bring us out with you in time, Dalong and I might not have made it out at all. I don¡¯t even know how to thank you.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui seriously and said, ¡°The grace of dripping water should be reciprocated by a gushing spring...¡±


    Wang Fugui was confused. ¡®Shouldn¡¯t we be a little more polite with one another?!¡¯


    However, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t say anything else. He found a high vantage point to look into the distance and saw that there were still many others who escaped from the stronghold.


    ¡°We¡¯ll find a ce downwind and get ready to rest.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It seems like there are several thousand people in the group that¡¯s to the rear of us. so we¡¯re safe for now. Besides, I think y¡¯all are gonna copse if we still don¡¯t get any rest.¡±


    At present, the moon was hanging high in the night sky. Everyone had been fleeing since the morning and were on the verge of copse. Ren Xiaosu felt that they had to reintegrate with therger group of people again and use them as their shield.


    If it were a group of several hundred people, they might get attacked by the wolves. But with a several thousand-strong crowd, even the wolves should have second thoughts about attacking, right?


    And if they encountered any danger, all he would have to do was have Yan Liuyuan and the others escape faster than the crowd of several thousand.


    It might sound a little cruel, but the others were probably thinking likewise.


    Moreover, if they followed the crowd to Stronghold 109, would there be any possibility that they could pretend they were residents of Stronghold 113 and sneak into Stronghold 109?


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if Stronghold 109 would agree to let them in.

 Chapter 108 - Sneaking into the stronghold

    <h4>Chapter 108: Sneaking into the stronghold</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    It was getting darker. Since Ren Xiaosu had the idea to sneak into Stronghold 109, he started toe up with some crooked ideas. He called everyone together and whispered, ¡°What do y¡¯all think of sneaking into Stronghold 109 by passing off as residents of Stronghold 113?¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t work.¡± Wang Fugui shook his head and said, ¡°The stronghold residents have ID papers. We don¡¯t have anything like that.¡±


    ¡°I can just say that I lost them while we were escaping, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu replied. ¡°It should not be surprising since we traveled over a 100 kilometers to escape from such a big disaster.¡±


    Wang Fugui said, ¡°It¡¯s difficult to say since there isn¡¯t information sharing between the strongholds. Even if you say that you were a Stronghold 113 resident, there isn¡¯t a way for them to verify it. In the past, an authorization letter would be required to travel between the strongholds, and the letter would have to bear the official seal of the stronghold overseer. But now that Stronghold 113 is no more, and with Stronghold 113¡¯s overseer, Old Liu, sent away to the Northern Frontier by the Qing Consortium, who knows whose hands the official seal has ended up in....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu clicked his tongue. ¡°He would¡¯ve died in the stronghold if he didn¡¯t get shipped off to the Northern Frontier. What a blessing in disguise...¡±


    ¡°Now that you say it, it sounds like the Qing Consortium saved his life,¡± Wang Fugui said in a speechless manner. ¡°But you have to consider other factors, too, if you want to sneak into Stronghold 109. For example, there are still more than 600 refugees here who recognize you. Besides, if Stronghold 109 were to refuse every single person from entering, even the big shots of Stronghold 113 would end up bing refugees, not to mention us.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a possibility.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Stronghold 109 most likely won¡¯t allow anyone in.¡±


    No precedent had been set for a matter like this. As no stronghold had copsed before, there was nothing Ren Xiaosu and the others couldpare it to. They could only take it one step at a time.


    It would be good if they could get into the stronghold, of course. But even if they could not get in, Ren Xiaosu andpany would still be able to live well.


    However, it would be tough for those big shots who escaped from the stronghold. It was at least another 100 kilometers from Stronghold 109 from where they were now. To get there, the distance alone might be enough to exhaust them to death.


    In the event they did arrive at Stronghold 109, many of these people would probably break down if they found out they weren¡¯t allowed in.


    Ren Xiaosu and his group found a spot downwind and decided to rest there for a while. Even if Ren Xiaosu could go on, Wang Fugui, Xiaoyu, and the others would not be able to bear it for much longer.


    When the other refugees who escaped walked past them, they discovered that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group had stopped moving and were rather surprised by it. They asked, ¡°Why have y¡¯all stopped walking?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at them. ¡°We can¡¯t walk anymore.¡± Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting on the ground, lowered his head again and started massaging his leg muscles.


    Seeing that Ren Xiaosu did not want to bother with them, the refugees didn¡¯t say anything further and continued moving forward.


    ¡°Are they really unable to keep walking?¡± a few people asked after they walked away.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you see them massaging their legs? We had some rest in between, but they probably had none at all, right? They were being too smart for their own good.¡±


    ¡°I think he was so far ahead that he didn¡¯t hear the wolves howling.¡± Someone sneered, ¡°If he heard it, he would definitely be running away faster than us.¡±


    This group of people kept whispering as they continued to walk. They were not nning to tell Ren Xiaosu about the wolves at all.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did indeed know about the wolf pack that was following them. It wasn¡¯t only the wolf pack; there were even more terrors like the Experimentals!


    After those refugees walked away, Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°I have a bottle of water here. All of you take a cloth, wet it, and wipe your faces. The faces of the stronghold residents are all clean, but our refugee faces are too dirty. We would get recognized straight away. Put on whatever better clothes you have as well so that we can assimte with the stronghold residents.¡±


    The refugeescked water, as even the families of esquires like Wang Fugui did not have enough water rationed to them.


    Ren Xiaosu had retrieved this bottle of water from the storage space in the pce. Even during the period he was stashing away the gold, he did not forget to ce the two bottles of water inside. It was exceedingly important to have clean water when you were out in the wilderness.


    Of course, the water in the bottle was refilled at ater time. The water that was originally in it had been drunk long ago.


    As refugees, they were used to not washing their faces on most days. But now that they were nning on assimting with the group of stronghold residents, they would have to look it. If there were really a chance to get into Stronghold 109 when they arrived there, it would be terrible if they were denied based on this detail.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu had the chance to wash his face clean. After all, it wasn¡¯t particrly difficult to find a water source out in the wilderness. But his dirty face at that time had served as protection for him.


    If Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu saw Ren Xiaosu after he wiped his face clean, they would probably not recognize him if they didn¡¯t scrutinize him.


    His face before could be considered beyond dirty.


    When the other refugees passed by them, Ren Xiaosu deliberately had Yan Liuyuan lower his head. In their group, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face was clean, so it would make him easily recognizable to any refugees who saw him.


    Now that they had wiped their faces clean and changed into better clothes, they might just be unrecognizable once they mixed with the crowd of stronghold residents. After all, there were several thousand of them behind and it was a sea of people.


    They dusted off the dirt on themselves and cleaned their faces a bit more. At this moment, therge contingent of residents who had escaped from the stronghold finally arrived.


    As a result, Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw them. Why were this group of people¡¯s faces even dirtier than theirs?


    The fuck!


    What a miscalction!


    He had the mindset that the stronghold residents¡¯ faces were all very clean. And since Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face stayed clean even after escaping all the way here, Ren Xiaosu did not think about how these people did not have it as easy as Yan Liuyuan did when they fled for their lives.


    He saw these people appearing before him who each looked more wretched than thest. The grime on their faces was so dark it looked like they had just been through a battle.


    The dust generated from the copse of the buildings after the earthquake stuck to their faces. As they made their escape, they started sweating, which made all of their faces look ck and dirty!


    At this moment, the faces of Ren Xiaosu andpany were extremely clean and it made it seem like they were the big shots of the stronghold. Meanwhile, these people in front of them ended up looking like refugees.


    The earliest batch of stronghold residents that arrived was taken aback when they saw Ren Xiaosu. However, no one said a thing at all. Everyone was busy escaping right now, so who would care whether some people¡¯s faces were clean.


    Xiaoyu startedughing from beside him. Ren Xiaosu said expressionlessly, ¡°Ahem, let¡¯s dirty our faces a little again....¡±


    What a waste of half a bottle of water! Ren Xiaosu found it somewhat regretful to have cleaned their faces.


    When the main group of stronghold residents passed by, Ren Xiaosu sessfully blended Yan Liuyuan and the others into the crowd. Everyone was in a state of confusion at this time, and no one noticed them joining in.


    ¡°We¡¯ll stay in the middle of this crowd.¡± Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°Try to minimize contact with the refugees.¡±


    Worried, Wang Fugui said, ¡°Will this really work? There¡¯ll surely be some refugees who can recognize us.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Ren Xiaosu was not bothered about that. ¡°We¡¯re just trying out our luck. Just think about it. If all of those refugees die, then no one would know our identities.¡±


    Wang Fugui looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. Could that even happen?


    But all of a sudden, it seemed a conflict broke out among the fleeing crowd up ahead. Ren Xiaosu jumped up a little to have a look. It appeared that there was an argument going on between the crowd of refugees and stronghold residents. The sand nt¡¯s manager, Wang Yiheng, was holding up a gun to someone¡¯s head.

 Chapter 109 - I want to thank myself again

    <h4>Chapter 109: I want to thank myself again</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Due to themotion, many people were attracted as they wanted to see what was going on up front. Ren Xiaosu told Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Hide the gun and wait for me here. I¡¯ll go and have a look to see what¡¯s happening.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. Ren Xiaosu could not possibly protect him at every moment, so he would have to learn to protect himself and even the others.


    Ren Xiaosu squeezed to the front of the crowd. With his current physical fitness, no one was able to stop him from pushing his way to the front. When he got there and furtively started watching themotion, he heard Wang Yiheng say ruthlessly, ¡°I said, hand over your food to me! Can¡¯t you understand humannguage?¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯m very hungry as well,¡± said the bespectacled middle-aged man who had a gun pointed at his head, choking up. It seemed he had never met some as fierce as this in the stronghold.


    The managers of the various factories, like Wang Yiheng, were actually residents of the stronghold as well. But as they had been stationed outside for a long time, there was always going to be a little bit of unruliness to them.


    They were the ¡°imperial¡± envoys sent out by the stronghold. Since they were equipped with guns, they had long since gotten used to having things go their way.


    By this point, everyone had descended into a world without order. As such, they started behaving like wild animals. But just some time ago, this fellow wanted to kneel down and beg Luo Lan to take him along with them.


    Wang Yiheng said to the people beside him, ¡°Search him and those two fatties next to him too. Their pockets are bulging!¡±


    The people standing with Wang Yiheng were his workers at the sand nt, so they were used to carrying out his orders. As he had a gun with him during this time, and because he had promised to help them get settled upon reaching Stronghold 109, Wang Yiheng became the mainstay of this group.


    But to carry out a body search on the stronghold residents? How would they as refugees dare to do something like that?


    Seeing these people around him not moving, Wang Yiheng raged, ¡°What? Are you all deaf to my words now? I have a gun, so my word isw! Search them without worries! They¡¯re not armed!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood from this statement that there were some gun controlws within the stronghold, which was why Wang Yiheng was so sure the others did not carry any guns.


    At a nce, he saw the refugees subconsciously stood on the side of Wang Yiheng. One of the reasons for this was that Wang Yiheng had already made a name for himself in town. The other was because he was carrying a gun.


    At this moment, a middle-aged man came to the front of the crowd. ¡°Wang Yiheng, you had better put the gun down. We won¡¯t condone your tyranny.¡±


    ¡°Chief Ma!¡± Wang Yiheng looked startled. ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    Chief Ma sneered, ¡°What? Did you think that we¡¯re all dead? Hand the gun over!¡±


    Gun? Wang Yiheng turned to look at the gun in his hand as if making a decision. Then a cold smile appeared on his face as he raised his hand and fired the gun at Chief Ma.


    Bang! Chief Ma fell to the ground in a pool of blood. There wasn¡¯t even a chance for him to react. He had not expected Wang Yiheng to shoot!


    The people watching themotion started screaming and wanted to retreat, but where could they retreat to?


    Wang Yiheng had hesitated for a moment because he used to live under the rule of Chief Ma. But he soon came around and remembered that Stronghold 113 was no more, so what power did Chief Ma have over him?


    Wang Yiheng said in a cold voice, ¡°Stronghold 113 is no more. When we get to Stronghold 109, everyone will get a fresh start. I¡¯m not a cold-blooded killer, but if anyone disobeys my orders, don¡¯t me me for being unkind.¡±


    Of the several thousand people escaping, there must have been some high-ranking officials in the stronghold among them. But even then, so what? They were nothing the moment they left Stronghold 113!


    Ren Xiaosu stepped back and withdrew. When Wang Yiheng killed that person, none of the refugees dared to even make a sound. As such, Wang Yiheng would probably get even more unreasonable with his gang of refugeester on.


    But what business was that of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s? None at all! As for the gun Wang Yiheng carried around, Ren Xiaosu was not the least bit bothered by it. Just by the stance Wang Yiheng held when he fired the shot, it looked beyond amateur to Ren Xiaosu. If Wang Yiheng fired off another few shots in session, the recoil might even cause him to lose grip of the gun and send it flying out of his hands.


    As he made his way back to Yan Liuyuan and the others, Ren Xiaosu noticed a group of teenage boys and girls wearing light blue uniforms. He was taken aback by the sight because he saw the words ¡°Stronghold 113 No. 2 Senior High School¡± written on the back.


    Were they students? Ren Xiaosu once heard Zhang Jinglin say there were dozens of schools in the stronghold, consisting of elementary, junior high, and senior high schools. There were even such things as ¡°universities¡± in therger strongholds too.


    Zhang Jinglin also mentioned that teenagers around Ren Xiaosu¡¯s age were able to sit in clean and well-lit ssrooms while attending their sses. There would be many teachers teaching them basic knowledge of subjects, and there wasn¡¯t a need to go out into the wilderness or go to work. The strongholds even offered some subsidies for the students.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu felt really envious of their situation and thought how good it would have been to be born in the stronghold.


    When Ren Xiaosu passed by these students, they took a look at him and did not think much of it. They did not know that what was so easily essible to them was something Ren Xiaosu badly wanted in the past.


    The students seemed to have been frightened by the gunshot. A young woman beside them said, ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid. Your teacher will deal with anything that happens. We¡¯ve already escaped from the stronghold.¡±


    So this was a teacher of the stronghold? Ren Xiaosu nced at the young female teacher and thought she was much better looking than Zhang Jinglin. If they had a teacher like her at the school, perhaps even a child like Wang Dalong would start studying hard.


    Seeing so many of these students here, his thoughts shifted to the second side quest he was given. A 1,000 gratitude tokens! In the past, Ren Xiaosu wouldn¡¯t even think about it. Where was he supposed to earn so many gratitude tokens from?


    When he first heard about this side quest, his reaction was to earn them at the school. After all, he had only managed toplete his previous quest with arge portion of the gratitude tokensing from the students.


    But now that the stronghold had been destroyed, he didn¡¯t have any idea of where he would earn these gratitude tokens from.


    Ren Xiaosu remembered the time he killed the Experimentals where he thanked himself seven times. If he could thank himself and earn the gratitude tokens, did that mean that he could do it again until hepleted the quest?


    The ck saber was floating quietly within the pce in its disy cab at this moment. Once his mind focused on it, it would materialize in his hands. Even now, Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t forget the pleasure of slicing through those Experimentals with a single sh!


    So, if the basic form of the ck saber was this powerful, what would it be like when he unlocked the next stage?


    When he came back to where Yan Liuyuan and the others were, he tried out the thanking in a whisper. Yan Liuyuan was quietly watching Ren Xiaosu as he mumbled, ¡°I want to thank myself for not killing the innocent?


    ¡°I want to thank myself for raising Yan Liuyuan to this age?


    ¡°I want to thank myself for not spitting out the grape skin when I eat grapes!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was confused.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. The pce was seemingly dead. It had no reaction at all!

 Chapter 110 - Robbery

    <h4>Chapter 110: Robbery</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Perhaps it was because he was sincere at that time, or perhaps it was because the pce didn¡¯t want Ren Xiaosu to die, the seven thanks he gave were all returned with gratitude tokens. But this time around, none of his thanks managed to gain any tokens.


    Ren Xiaosu found this a little regrettable. If he had known, he would have thanked himself more while he could!


    But Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t notice that Yan Liuyuan, who was next to him, was totally confused by this. Other people might not have heard what Ren Xiaosu said, but Yan Liuyuan did.


    The psychological impact he had gotten from being asked by Ren Xiaosu to thank him for an entire night had not beenpletely forgotten yet. And now, his brother was even resorting to thanking himself? And what was that about thanking himself for not spitting out the grape skin when eating grapes? Could he get more insincere than that?


    Suddenly, amotion broke out in the crowd again. Wang Yiheng had ordered the refugees to conduct a search on everyone present there. It seemed like he intended to confiscate and collect everyone¡¯s food supplies.


    Wait! It wasn¡¯t just food.


    Ren Xiaosu saw those refugees taking the watches off the wrists of others and their jewelry as well. They didn¡¯t miss out on a single item.


    These residents who had escaped from the stronghold were really unfortunate. They had just lost their properties and families this morning, and by nighttime, they were stripped of everything they owned. By the time they reached Stronghold 109, they might even end up with nothing on them that they could sell for money.


    Wang Fugui was a little nervous. ¡°Xiaosu, will they take everything of ours for themselves?¡±


    As a matter of fact, Wang Fugui was carrying his life savings, medicinal supplies, gold jewelry, and cash on him. These things were all extremely valuable, so those refugees would definitely not miss out on taking it for themselves.


    But Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, no one¡¯s gonna take anything from us.¡±


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu had no intention of crossing paths with Wang Yiheng and his group. He only wanted to arrive at Stronghold 109 safely. That was it. But the problem was, even though he did not trouble trouble, trouble troubled him.


    The escaping crowd of people were like an obedient bunch of sheep at this moment. More than 3,000 people were getting body searched by over 600 refugees, but no one resisted, nor did any of them dare to say a word. They didn¡¯t even have the balls to escape from here and just stood in their spots.


    Ren Xiaosu found it a little difficult to understand this. If the 3,000 of you raised your arms against those refugees in protest, what could the 600 of them possibly do?


    The refugees were indeed more fierce than those from the stronghold. But two fists would find it difficult to ovee four hands, so what was there to be afraid of?


    Ren Xiaosu looked into the crowd and saw the female teacher sneaking her students towards the back. It seemed like they were trying to escape from being searched.


    When the refugees first started searching the stronghold residents, they were holding back a little due to fear. After all, they were facing those from the stronghold. In their minds, these people had always been lofty existences to them.


    But when they realized the people from the stronghold did not dare to stand up to them, they became even more bold. Some of them even got touchy when they were searching the women!


    It was at this moment that the female teacher led her students next to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group and stood behind them, apparently to observe the situation to see if they should continue moving further back.


    But some of the refugees had alreadye this way.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at those refugees and wondered whether he would get recognized by them. Since they had changed clothes and mixed into the crowd, it shouldn¡¯t be obvious, right?


    A dozen or so refugees walked over holding big and small bags. They were all wearing the watches they had just confiscated from the stronghold residents.


    Watches were very valuable items in both the town and stronghold. When the town still existed, only Old Li from the grocery store owned a watch. Not even Wang Fugui had one!


    It looked like there were quite a few rich people of high standing in this group of escapees. But right now, the authority and standing they used to enjoy had all but disappeared.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly watched as those dozen refugees came over. However, those refugees froze when they saw Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu could only let out a mental sigh as he wondered how the fuck he got recognized so easily. His disguise was an absolute failure.


    While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about how to deal with the refugees, the person who was in charge of searching and confiscating people¡¯s belongings decided to detour around them and went towards the others.


    Those near Ren Xiaosu looked over in surprise. What was with this? Why had those fierce refugees bypassed this teenager all on their own?


    Why did they do something like that? Wasn¡¯t he just a 16 or 17-year-old kid?


    In fact, they had all seen it. When the refugees saw Ren Xiaosu, they had expressions of deep fear on their faces as though they were terrified of Ren Xiaosu.


    They couldn¡¯t figure out why these refugees were afraid of him.


    But what they didn¡¯t know was that no one dared to provoke Ren Xiaosu even when they were still in town, much less now when they were making their escape. This guy was famous for being ruthless, and he even had a gun on him!


    Although the refugees knew there would be a lot of valuable items in Wang Fugui¡¯s and Wang Dalong¡¯s bags, it was not worth risking their lives for it!


    The group of students and the female teacher behind Ren Xiaosu silently observed all that happened. The female teacher was looking at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back and appeared deep in thought as she pressed her lips together.


    Just as the refugees were turning away to conduct a search on the others, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Ahem, you guys,e here.¡±


    The refugees froze on the spot. They turned their heads slowly to Ren Xiaosu and said stiffly, ¡°What...¡±


    ¡°Those watches ain¡¯t bad,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The refugees looked at each other. They had fucking robbed over a 1,000 people so far. But now, they were going to get robbed by Ren Xiaosu of all people?! What the fuck!


    This time, the people around them were left even more speechless. So there was someone even more ruthless among them?!


    Then, one of the refugees quietly slipped off his wristwatch and handed it over to Ren Xiaosu in humiliation. Coincidentally, he had witnessed how Ren Xiaosu killed those people at the school...


    The refugees were ready to turn away and leave. They wanted to get as far away as possible from Ren Xiaosu, but his voice rang out again. ¡°You! You! You! You! Your watches are all pretty nice!¡±


    The four people Ren Xiaosu pointed at scowled. It hadn¡¯t ended yet?


    But what could they say? All they could do was obediently hand over their watches to Ren Xiaosu. Everyone around them was shocked. How ruthless was this teenager?!


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t continue to rob them. After all, he didn¡¯t really want to take on these refugees. It was better to keep the peace. He waved his hand and said, ¡°Carry on then.¡±


    The refugees slipped away, their newfound confidence evaporating.


    Ren Xiaosu handed over the four watches he had just taken off them to Xiaoyu and the others. He said proudly, ¡°Here, we can see the time from now on.¡±


    This was Wang Fugui¡¯s first time wearing a watch. He took the watch meant for Wang Dalong with a smile and said, ¡°Quick, thank your Uncle Xiaosu!¡±


    Wang Dalong nearly cried. Why the hell had he suddenly been relegated a generation below Ren Xiaosu?!


    Ren Xiaosu started to get endless fantasies. He wouldn¡¯t usually resort to robbing other people, but it wouldn¡¯t be a bad thing if hemitted crimes against a viin, right?

 Chapter 111 - Liu Bu’s elder brother

    <h4>Chapter 111: Liu Bu¡¯s elder brother</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Several thousand of the escaping stronghold residents had been looted by several hundred refugees of their watches, jewelry, cash, and food, leaving nothing for them at all.


    The food they were carrying was already scarce. When the disaster struck, none of them were ready for it, so who would think to go and grab food? Or to put it better, the important people from the stronghold did not have a concept of what to do in a time like this. That was because the majority of them had never had to suffer from hunger before. So even those who did take some food with them had only grabbed a few snacks at most.


    Of course, there were also some people who didn¡¯t get robbed. For example, those who were standing in the radius of five meters around Ren Xiaosu were spared from the looting.


    It was just that the refugee aggressors did not dare to hang around Ren Xiaosu for a second longer. They were all afraid that if they stood near him for a few seconds, Ren Xiaosu would spot something that he liked on them.


    Ren Xiaosu was checking out the new watches they received with Wang Fugui and the others, unaware of the looks the people around were giving him.


    Especially that female teacher standing behind him. The look on her face while gazing at him could only be described asplicated.


    The escaping stronghold residents around Ren Xiaosu could all see that the refugees were afraid of this young man! They were terrified of him!


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not kill people indiscriminately back in town. He had only killed those people because he was forced to do so. But somehow, the refugees always had an instinctive fear whenever they faced Ren Xiaosu.


    This world was destined to work in a food web. The fearful were afraid of the vicious, while the viscous were afraid of those who murdered in cold blood.


    After the group of refugees were done with the body searches and looting, they went back to report to Wang Yiheng. Someone whispered some words into his ear, causing Wang Yiheng to turn to look in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s direction.


    Right at this moment, Ren Xiaosu had a feeling that someone was looking at him. So he turned around and locked eyes with Wang Yiheng.


    However, there was a cid look in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes. It was as though he had no fear at all. Wang Yiheng had a sullen expression while he remained silent. After a long while, he suddenly said to the refugee beside him, ¡°Ignore Ren Xiaosu for now. If he tries anything else funny, we can always teach him a lesson.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Wang Yiheng¡¯s gaze turning elsewhere, he sneered. Wang Yiheng was just someone who picked on the weak. Although he didn¡¯t have any dealings with Wang Yiheng before, their town wasn¡¯t thatrge, and there were only so many factory managers around. As such, he had heard of him.


    Wang Fugui said softly, ¡°This Wang Yiheng has a godmother who resides in the stronghold, and it was because of her that he got the position of manager at the sand factory.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Just ignore him.¡±


    Because of Wang Yiheng¡¯s ransack of the stronghold residents, it dyed the entire group¡¯s escape attempt. Right now, everyone was weary and thought they might as well sit down and rest. In just a short while, numerous people were lying all over the ground.


    It was way too tiring, so tiring that everyone unknowingly dozed off.


    Ren Xiaosu instructed, ¡°Y¡¯all go and get some rest first. I¡¯ll keep watch for the first half of the night. Liuyuan, Old Wang, you guys take the second half.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and he couldn¡¯t both be asleep at the same time. This was because he and Yan Liuyuan were the only ones who had a gun on them in their group, so one of them would have to remain in an alert alert at all times.


    Within their group, Wang Fugui, Xiaoyu, and Wang Dalong all had no reason to harm him. First of all, Ren Xiaosu had not revealed to them the gold he had stored away in his pce. Second, none of them could make it to Stronghold 109 alive without Ren Xiaosu¡¯s help.


    In this chaotic mob, the five of them had formed a small unit. No one else would be allowed into their group, nor would Ren Xiaosu trust any other person.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t you sleep first and I¡¯ll keep watch for the first half? You should be tired after everything you¡¯ve been through today.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Go and sleep like I told you to. Don¡¯t waste any more time.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded obediently.


    Wang Fugui gave a mental sigh. Seeing how well-behaved Yan Liuyuan was in front of Ren Xiaosu, who could have imagined this kid had just shot and killed several criminals a few days ago? These two kids were cut from the same cloth.


    When everyone was asleep, Ren Xiaosu started thinking about what they should do. If they could get into Stronghold 109, that would be for the best. The gold he had and those medicinal supplies Old Wang brought along should be enough for them to live on. But if they could not get in, they would have to make do with living in the town outside Stronghold 109.


    That earthquake should have affected Stronghold 109 as well, but it wouldn¡¯t have been instantly destroyed like Stronghold 113 had.


    All of a sudden, a middle-aged man stood up and walked over to Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu looked up at him. ¡°Don¡¯te any closer, or you¡¯ll die.¡±


    Rather embarrassed, the middle-aged man said, ¡°I was a supervisor at our Stronghold 113¡¯s Logistics Division. My name is Liu Hai.¡±


    This time, it was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be stunned. He remembered that Luo Xinyu had told him Liu Bu¡¯s elder brother was a supervisor at the Logistics Division. Surely that wasn¡¯t referring to this person in front of him, right?!


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu felt unhappy. At that time, Ren Xiaosu had wanted to kill Liu Bu. But he, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin were not cold-blooded people, after all, so they didn¡¯t end up killing Liu Bu.


    But didn¡¯t Liu Bu still betray all of them?


    With the attitude Liu Bu had, would his brother be any better than him?


    Liu Hai looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°It¡¯s actually like this: I was wondering if I could join your group? When we get to Stronghold 109, I¡¯ll immediately have my contacts help arrange for a good ce to settle down inside the stronghold. If you want money, I have that too. But it¡¯s all kept in the Qing Consortium Bank!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a cold stare. It was yet another person making empty promises. ¡°I doubt even your division chief can do what you had just imed, right? If you were really that capable, you wouldn¡¯t just be a supervisor. Get lost.¡±


    Liu Hai paled as he remained silent for a long time.


    A lot of nearby people got awoken by themotion. However, they did not make a sound and just quietly listened to the exchange between Liu Hai and Ren Xiaosu. In fact, many of these people had simr thoughts to Liu Hai¡¯s. It was very obvious that Wang Yiheng and the other refugees did not quite dare to mess with Ren Xiaosu. And Ren Xiaosu also seemed a little more approachable than Wang Yiheng¡¯s group. In that case, wouldn¡¯t it be good if they could get Ren Xiaosu to take care of them?


    They assumed Ren Xiaosu was a kind person since the group he was taking care of consisted of the old, young, and women. However, they did not know the things Wang Fugui and Xiaoyu had done for Ren Xiaosu.


    The students from Stronghold 113 No. 2 Senior High School were spread out and lying on the ground. They didn¡¯t care if it was dirty or not anymore as everyone was exhausted. Only that female teacher was still forcing herself to stay standing. When she saw people approaching Ren Xiaosu for help, her eyes lit up. But to her surprise, Ren Xiaosu dismissed all of those thoughts. She was a little disappointed, but there was nothing she could do. She also started dozing off. It had been a taxing day for this female teacher as she led her students in their escape.


    In the middle of the night, Yan Liuyuan woke up. ¡°Bro, it¡¯s your turn to sleep.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. He nced at Xiaoyu, Wang Fugui, and Wang Dalong, who were all fast asleep. Thinking, he said with a sigh, ¡°Let them rest well today. It¡¯s fine for just you and me to keep watch for the night.¡±

 Chapter 112 - Wild vegetables

    <h4>Chapter 112: Wild vegetables</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The next morning, Ren Xiaosu woke up very early. He did not understand why, but since he became a supernatural being, he felt more energetic than ever. It was like there was a fire burning nonstop inside his body. He had only slept for four hoursst night. But after waking up, he could feel himself back at his best.


    Wang Fugui took out his food and handed it to everyone. They were now sharing their food. No one hid anything from the others.


    Seeing how the thousands of escapees were all going hungry without food, the escapees who were beside Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group swallowed hard when they saw them eating.


    But they could only watch them eat. None of these people dared to approach Ren Xiaosu to ask for food. They were not dumb. They knew no one would possibly share their food at a time like this. Instead of being rejected, they might as well not ask.


    Over at Wang Yiheng¡¯s side, they had looted a lot of food. But the problem for them was that most of those refugees had not brought any food with them either. And the number of these refugees on Wang Yiheng¡¯s side numbered over 600. In the end, only Wang Yiheng and a few dozen of his most trusted refugees managed to get anything to eat. The rest had to go hungry.


    ¡°We have to continue moving.¡± Wang Yiheng said with a sullen face, ¡°Those of you who haven¡¯t had anything to eat yet, don¡¯t worry. I believe there¡¯ll be food further ahead. From today onwards, we¡¯ll all eat wild vegetables and tree bark if we have to!¡±


    The refugees who didn¡¯t have anything to eat yet were allining in their heads, ¡®Yeah, right, you¡¯re iming you¡¯ll pick wild vegetables with us after eating a full meal? Where were you earlier?¡¯ However, they did not dare to speak out even if they were angry.


    In reality, this group of refugees was not united. Just as Ren Xiaosu had described, they were just a mob.


    Wang Yiheng led the refugees on a march. The thousands of stronghold residents making their escape followed them and started moving as well.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. If it were he who had been robbed, he wouldn¡¯t follow Wang Yiheng and those refugees even if it meant death. But these escaping stronghold residents were different in that they still had to follow the refugees even if they were robbed by them.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Xiaoyu and the others, ¡°It¡¯s still a long way from Stronghold 109. We can¡¯t afford to rx.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Xiaoyu nodded. The majority of the townspeople were mentally stronger than those who lived in the stronghold. Whatever suffering they were going through, they experienced it long ago.


    The students behind Ren Xiaosu stood up as well. Their teacher was groaning in pain and even fell back onto the ground. Ren Xiaosu turned around to look and saw some of the female students wanting to help their teacher up. In the end, the female teacher slowly got up by herself. She said to her students, ¡°Your teacher is fine. You don¡¯t have to worry about me. We must not lose sight of the main group.¡±


    A student said softly, ¡°Ms. Jiang Wu, I¡¯m so hungry.¡±


    They hadn¡¯t eaten for a full day, and after making such a lengthy escape, how could they not be hungry? Some of the students were even experiencing dizziness.


    The female teacher named Jiang Wu was put into a difficult situation. She consoled, ¡°Let¡¯s keep moving forward. Who knows if we might find some food along the way. And there might be people from Stronghold 109 sent over to rescue us. If none of that works out, your teacher will pick some wild vegetables for us to eat.¡±


    ¡°Teacher, what do wild vegetables look like?¡± a female student asked.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at that female student and saw she was still wearing a gold bracelet. If their group hadn¡¯t been standing close to Ren Xiaosust night, that gold bracelet would probably have been taken by the refugees.


    These children had grown up in a world under the protection of the consortium all their lives. They did not even get the slightest whiff of the difficult environment the people living outside the stronghold had to go through, so of course they wouldn¡¯t know what wild vegetables looked like.


    But this question stumped Jiang Wu as well. She had only heard the people around them saying they could pick wild vegetables to eat, but she did not have the know-how to identify what wild vegetables were. This was not something they had learned in the stronghold before.


    But Jiang Wu was not stupid. She surreptitiously pointed at Ren Xiaosu and his group, then whispered to her students, ¡°See those people in front? You can see at a nce they¡¯re more capable than the others. Whatever nts they pick, we¡¯ll follow along and pick the same ones as them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had yet not realized that this teacher named Jiang Wu had already identified him as the most capable person of the entire escaping crowd.


    A student said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just ask him to help us?¡±


    Jiang Wu shook her head. ¡°Now that the stronghold has been destroyed, you guys must understand something: No one owes us any help; we can only depend on ourselves.¡±


    After setting off again, Xiaoyu, Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, and Wang Dalong were clearly back to a better state of mind. Xiaoyu turned around to look at Jiang Wu and her students, then said softly to Ren Xiaosu in a happy voice, ¡°There are quite a few pretty girls in that group of stronghold students, and they¡¯re even around the same age as you. How about it? Who caught your eye? Wanna let Big Sis go and speak to them on your behalf? They would absolutely be willing to follow you if you can take care of their meals.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, you don¡¯t have to worry about this. Getting to Stronghold 109 is our main priority.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright.¡± Xiaoyu smirked. ¡°But if you change your mind, you can let me know at any time. Big Sis will care for your future children.¡±


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up when he noticed the nts growing beside the road. He walked over and pulled the entire root out of the ground.


    When Jiang Wu saw this, she hurriedly whispered her students, ¡°Go, go and search for the same nts he¡¯s picked!¡±


    The students who had been hungry for some time rushed over to the side of the road.


    Right then, Ren Xiaosu told Wang Fugui, ¡°These nts absolutely must not be eaten. After I had some of it two years ago, I had diarrhea for three straight days.¡±


    When Jiang Wu and her students heard that, they were speechless. One by one, they threw away the nts they had just plucked out of the ground.


    Now, Ren Xiaosu realized the students were learning from him. After some thought, he told Wang Fugui, ¡°That small bunch of nts next to your feet is known as pillow grass, AKA shepard¡¯s purse <sup>1</sup> . It¡¯s an edible nt that if eaten raw will taste bitter due to its alkaline nature. Butpared to surviving, what¡¯s a little bitterness?¡±


    Wang Fugui was confused about why he was being schooled on something like this. ¡®My family always makes shepard¡¯s purse dumplings, so I know this.¡¯


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not say this for his sake. Jiang Wu gave Ren Xiaosu a look because she had been observing him all this time and knew why he had suddenly said this. He was saying it for her.


    Jiang Wu nced at Ren Xiaosu before turning back to her students and saying, ¡°Everyone, go and pick the shepard¡¯s purse.¡±


    After she said that, she turned to look at Ren Xiaosu again and discovered he had already left with his group.


    Laughing next to Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Bro, are you interested in that female teacher? She¡¯s quite pretty.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m only hoping that teacher will survive a while more by doing that, that¡¯s all.¡±


    Jiang Wu must have suffered quite a bit after bringing her students out and escaping from the stronghold. In a time like this, who had the time to care about whether others lived or died?


    Ren Xiaosu was a selfish person, but this didn¡¯t prevent him from admiring Jiang Wu a bit.

 Chapter 113 - A balanced state of mind

    <h4>Chapter 113: A bnced state of mind</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    As the several thousand-strong group made their way forward, most of them did so in extreme hunger. Especially since it was the beginning of winter, those who didn¡¯t eat were extremely cold.


    At this time of year, the wild vegetables were beginning to shrivel up. Even a nt as tough as the shepard¡¯s purse had started withering.


    The escaping masses scoured the roadside as they advanced, looking for anything from nts, to tree bark, and tree roots to eat.


    At the beginning, the people from the stronghold still held on to their dignity. But now that they were this hungry, they dropped whatever they had left.


    Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu andpany who did not feel any stress. They had been eating such things all along.


    When wild vegetables were eaten raw, they tasted bitter. They would leave an astringent aftertaste. Some people vomited after eating them as their bodies couldn¡¯t handle such foods.


    However, some people were even more unfortunate. They ended up dropping to the ground and started foaming at their mouths after eating some unknown food they found.


    No one cared about these people who had fallen to the ground. Everyone walked by them indifferently and continued advancing, as though they were a group of soulless bodies.


    Only Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks. He looked at someone who had fallen and said to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°These are the symptoms of eating pulsati root <sup>1</sup> , which I usually call wild celery or poison ginseng. The leaves of this nt look exactly like that of celery¡¯s. If it mistakenly gets eaten, the person will show signs of nausea, vomiting, cold hands and feet, and paralysis of the limbs. In serious cases, it can even cause death.¡±


    Jiang Wu, who was following quietly, took note of what he said. Afterwards, she warned her students not to pick any nts with leaves that looked like celery¡¯s. The students said in bewilderment, ¡°But what do celery leaves look like?¡±


    These students used to live in the stronghold, so it was only natural that their parents took care of all their basic needs. So who could have possibly learned what celery leaves looked like?


    After the several thousand escapees passed by, the path they took looked as though it had been swarmed by locusts. All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw an off-road vehicle ahead of them. Wasn¡¯t that Luo Lan¡¯s vehicle? Why was it left there all by itself?


    Everyone went over to have a look and was astonished to see that the vehicle frame was broken beyond repair.


    The dirt road in this wilderness was extremely bumpy, so even if an off-road vehicle was well-suited for such conditions, it still couldn¡¯t hold up to the abuse.


    Perhaps not even Luo Lan could have expected that he would get into an ident. As a result, they had to abandon the vehicle.


    A crowd of escapees were frantically opening the vehicle doors to search for anything inside that could be eaten, but they were all disappointed as the inside of the vehicle was cleaned out. Even the seats¡¯ leather had been stripped off.


    Not only that, some of the easier to carry parts were stripped off as well. Ren Xiaosu concluded that those parts must have been taken away to use as spares in case the other vehicles malfunctioned. As for this vehicle, it was totaled.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if Luo Lan was trying his hardest to hurry to Stronghold 109. Logically, Luo Lan might even have arrived at Stronghold 109 by now.


    Today, many of the escapees were discussing whether they would be allowed into the stronghold when they got there. On what basis could Stronghold 109 reject them from entering? They were, after all, legal residents of a stronghold.


    Although there was a big division between the various strongholds, with the organizations the true controllers of each stronghold, they were all supposed to be on the same battlefront.


    Some of these people were also saying they would probably not be allowed in. They were from Stronghold 113, controlled by the Qing Consortium. But Stronghold 109, which they were heading to, was controlled by the Li Consortium. If they refused to let them in, there was really nothing they couldin about.


    Ren Xiaosu thought important people from the consortiums such as Luo Lan would probably not have to think about whether they would be allowed into the stronghold. After all, the Li Consortium would still have to give some face to the Qing Consortium.


    But for everyone else, it would be difficult to say where they would end up.


    They kept moving. But not long after, Ren Xiaosu saw yet another military transport truck parked alone on the road.


    Yet another vehicle had broken down? Everyone walked closer and realized it had a t tire.


    ¡°Did they not have any spare tires?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    When the military transport truck passed Ren Xiaosu, he saw that it was full of soldiers. Clearly, they had overloaded the truck with too many people.


    If any more of their vehicles broke down, Ren Xiaosu thought it would probably be incredibly difficult for Luo Lan to get to Stronghold 109.


    But everyone was overjoyed at the sight of these impaired vehicles. When Luo Lan and his people drove by like the wind, the escapees were all thinking about what gave them the right to travel in vehicles while everyone else had to walk.


    But it was all good now. Their state of mind had been brought back into bnce.


    On this night, everyone settled down next to the abandoned military transport truck to get some rest. It couldn¡¯t even be called a ¡°campsite,¡± as it was purely a mass of people huddling together on the ground in the wilderness to sleep.


    The ground was freezing, and lying down on it would cause the cold temperature of the ground to seep into their bodies.


    A lot of these people wanted to start a campfire, but the problem was they had nothing to start a fire with!


    After Ren Xiaosu found a ce for Yan Liuyuan and the others, he went to pick some firewood. The ursed weather was getting colder, so the firewood would have tost through the night. Otherwise, everyone could easily catch a cold when they woke up the next morning.


    Even though Wang Fugui was carrying medicinal supplies, who in the right mind would choose to get sick for no good reason?


    At this time of year, it was pretty easy to find firewood. When Ren Xiaosu came back carrying arge pile, he spotted Jiang Wu crouching on the ground as she attempted to start a campfire. This female teacher had organized her students and got them to gather back a lot of firewood. Then she tried her hardest to drill wood to start a fire.


    Ren Xiaosu silently shook his head, thinking that this delicate female teacher had probably never done such tough work before. Normal people who wanted to start a fire this way might not even be able to start one after blistering their hands from drilling the wood.


    Jiang Wu thought she might as well stubbornly hand drill to start a fire.


    A male student said, ¡°Teacher, why don¡¯t you let me do it instead?¡±


    Jiang Wu shook her head. ¡°You¡¯re students. There¡¯s no need to do such menial and hard work. Go and get some rest.¡±


    She nced to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side, hoping to learn from watching how he drilled the wood to make a fire. In the end, she saw Ren Xiaosu taking out a box of matches.


    Why was this person always so prepared? Jiang Wu covered her mouth in astonishment. All of them were clearly fellow escapees, but why did she feel that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group had it so much easier than the others?


    When Ren Xiaosu got the fire started, it added a warm color to the darkness of the campsite. The previously cold moonlight was also given a touch of warmth.


    Of course, it wasn¡¯t only Ren Xiaosu who had managed to start a fire in the campsite. Some smokers had also brought along matches. But when a few women went over to them to ask to borrow their fire, presumptuous requests were made of them. How long had it been since they¡¯d escaped from the disaster? So who would possibly give themselves up just to start a campfire?


    Jiang Wu hesitated for a long while before walking over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s area. Xiaoyu and the others were chatting when she saw Jiang Wu stop to look at her.


    ¡°Can I...¡± Jiang Wu asked discreetly, ¡°Can I borrow your fire? I can offer you firewood in exchange.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Xiaoyu said with a smile. ¡°There¡¯s no need to give us any firewood. We have enough.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Jiang Wu said rather excitedly, ¡°Thank you so much!¡±


    She ran back to her area and carried some firewood over. Then she used Ren Xiaosu¡¯s campfire to light it. The students were all watching like an eager flock of fledglings waiting to be fed.

 Chapter 114 - The Great Sage Equal to Heaven

    <h4>Chapter 114: The Great Sage Equal to Heaven</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When Jiang Wu started their campfire, all of the students gathered around for warmth. Their bodies had gotten so cold their fingers and toes were freezing!


    All of a sudden, two middle-aged men stood up and walked over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group. But before they could get near them, Xiaoyu had already given them a cold ¡°no¡± in response.


    The two middle-aged men resentfully returned to where they came from, wondering why there was such a great difference in their attitude towards men and women.


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu is quite assertive,¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile. He mimicked Big Sister Xiaoyu¡¯s tone and said coldly, ¡°No!¡±


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Xiaoyu smiled and rolled her eyes at him. ¡°That teacher named Jiang Wu seems rather nice and is a good person. The two men had the cheek to wait for a woman to set an example for them before they came forward to ask for help? They¡¯re such failures as men. Besides, Jiang Wu had been trying for so long to start a fire by hand drilling wood. She only came to borrow our fire when she was left with no choice. As for the others, they only know to receive the fruits of ourbor and don¡¯t even want to put in any effort for their survival!¡±


    When Xiaoyu said this, she purposely raised her voice. The group of men around her were incredibly embarrassed. Then she smiled at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°I only dared to speak louder because you¡¯re around. So, what do you think of that girl?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was mystified. ¡°What the hell are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Stop ying dumb.¡± Xiaoyu giggled. ¡°Although she looks a little older than you, a mature wife ensures a joyful life. As long as she¡¯s a good person, that¡¯s good enough.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, Big Sister Xiaoyu.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Just eat already.¡±


    currently, Jiang Wu was sitting around the campfire with her students. Sheforted them, ¡°Everyone, sleep tight tonight. I have a hairpin you guys can use to burst the blisters on your feet before you sleep.¡±


    All of the students fell silent. A female student lowered her head and said, ¡°Thank you, Teacher. Actually, you don¡¯t have to do all these things for us. We¡¯re no longer at school.¡±


    ¡°What are you saying?¡± Jiang Wu interrupted. ¡°I¡¯m your teacher, so I have to safely lead you guys to the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°Teacher, I miss home....¡±


    ¡°I miss my parents so much, I wonder where they are now....¡±


    The students began crying as they continued. It wasn¡¯t until this moment that their grief from the disaster was finally let out.


    When someone starts crying, the people around them also start crying. It¡¯s contagious.


    The people who had escaped from the stronghold were all crying, and everyone could not help but feel sad. They had really lost everything.


    Only Ren Xiaosu andpany were sitting among the crowd of crying people with dumbfounded looks on their faces.


    ¡°Bro, should we be crying too?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked meekly as he looked around him.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, we don¡¯t have to cry,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner.


    Suddenly, footsteps and some voices came from the way that they hade from.


    They heard someone over there shout, ¡°Look, there¡¯s the glow of fire. There must be survivors!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and was surprised to see a young man running towards them with several dozen people. The young man shouted excitedly, ¡°See, what did I tell y¡¯all? I said I would bring all of you to the others, didn¡¯t I?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. This group of people must also have escaped from the stronghold, right? Why had they only just caught up?


    When the young man came to therger group, someone asked, ¡°Did you guys escape from the stronghold as well? I remember that those behind us had been prevented from escaping by those strange bugs, right?¡±


    A person answered, ¡°It was all thanks to Chen Wudi. He was the one who helped open a path so we could escape. Oh yeah, he¡¯s a supernatural being!¡±


    The young man whose name was Chen Wudi said happily, ¡°That was something I should do. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven shall subdue all demons and monsters to protect the people!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®What the hell!¡¯ He took a better look and felt Chen Wudi¡¯s attire looked a little strange. There were some words written on the chest area of the blue and white striped clothing he was wearing: Stronghold 113 No. 3 Psychiatric Hospital.


    ¡®What? This person is a mental patient?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu had heard of the title ¡°Great Sage Equal to Heaven¡± before.


    There used to be a set of books at the school called Journey to the West that students could borrow. There was also a bar that operated before alcohol was prohibited. The storyteller in the bar loved telling stories of Zhao Zilong of the Three Kingdoms, who charged through Cao Cao¡¯s army seven times at the Battle of Changban <sup>1</sup> , and also of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, who wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Pce.


    Zhang Jinglin had said they were part of the Four Great ssical Novels and were treasures of mankind. There were also two novels named Dream of the Red Chamber and Water Margin. But the storyteller had never once narrated Dream of the Red Chamber.


    Someone once asked the storyteller why he never narrated Dream of the Red Chamber. The storyteller smiled and said it was because he didn¡¯t find it exciting enough to tell the story.


    Some years back, Ren Xiaosu liked to bring Yan Liuyuan along to listen to the stories. But when alcohol became prohibited, life became more difficult as well. As they did not know where the storyteller had gone, they could not listen to the stories anymore.


    At this moment, someone whispered to a person standing beside Chen Wudi, ¡°Did he escape from the asylum? Isn¡¯t he one of those people the Qing Consortium captured some time ago?¡±


    The man beside Chen Wudi whispered, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that it might be the case. He¡¯s a supernatural being who can materialize a staff in his hand. In fact, he¡¯s really powerful too. But he keeps insisting that he is the reincarnation of the Great Sage. We don¡¯t know whether that is true or not.¡±


    Honestly, they would have regarded Chen Wudi as just a patient with a paranoia if he wasn¡¯t a supernatural being. But it was different now as some people, in their daze, actually started to believe a little of what Chen Wudi was saying. But of course, they were also skeptical.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi with curiosity as he was now extremely interested in everything rted to supernatural beings. But as Chen Wudi¡¯s gaze swept through the crowd, his expression changed when he saw Ren Xiaosu. His eyes seemed to overflow with exhration!


    ¡°Make way! Make way!¡± Chen Wudi squeezed through the crowd as he walked over to Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling about this. Yan Liuyuan asked in a whisper, ¡°Bro, do you know him?¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Ren Xiaosu said in puzzlement.


    Chen Wudi was approaching Ren Xiaosu. Finally, he stopped when he came before Ren Xiaosu and looked at him with piercing eyes.


    ¡°Master!¡± Chen Wudi surprisingly said.


    Ren Xiaosu had no response. ¡®What the hell?!¡¯


    Chen Wudi turned around and shouted to those who were with him, ¡°I found my master. Y¡¯all take care of yourselves! I¡¯ll be escorting him to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain the Buddhist scriptures!¡±


    Everyone watching was speechless.


    Wang Fugui was next to them and startedughing like mad. Even though he could not understand what was going on, he felt an inexplicable joy when he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shocked expression.


    But at this moment, Chen Wudi turned his head to Wang Fugui and said, ¡°Pigsy, what are youughing at?¡±


    Wang Fugui stoppedughing.


    Chen Wudi ignored him and went on to look at Wang Dalong. Then he said with a smile, ¡°Friar Sand, you¡¯re here too? That¡¯s great!¡±


    Wang Dalong was confused and suddenly felt that his rtionship with his father seemed to have changed. Originally, they were father and son. But it had turned into a rtionship of fellow disciples.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little mncholic. Did he really have to go to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures?!


    The turning points in life were always unexpected.

 Chapter 115 - It’s you

    <h4>Chapter 115: It¡¯s you</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu stared at Chen Wudi in dismay. ¡°I have to exin that I¡¯m not your master, and I won¡¯t go to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain Buddhist scriptures.¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be right.¡± Chen Wudi shook his head. ¡°Master, which direction are you heading?¡±


    ¡°Southwest?¡± Ren Xiaosu was a little stunned. ¡°Stronghold 109 is to the southwest.¡±


    Chen Wudi said solemnly, ¡°The Western Paradise is also in the southwest. Perhaps Master hasn¡¯t realized it yet, but you¡¯re already on your pilgrimage.¡±


    What the hell! This was the first time Ren Xiaosu was so confused by someone. ¡°I¡¯ll repeat myself: I¡¯m really not your master, Old Wang is not Pigsy, and the person next to him is Wang Dalong, not Friar Sand!¡±


    Chen Wudi gave a wave of his hand. ¡°That isn¡¯t important!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui were dumbfounded. What did he mean by it wasn¡¯t important? It was very important, alright!


    Beside them, Yan Liuyuan was trying to hold back hisughter as he was afraid he would attract Chen Wudi¡¯s attention. Xiaoyu was hiding behind Yan Liuyuan, and the two of them wereughing so hard their bodies began to tremble!


    At this moment, someone asked, ¡°What did you guys encounter during the escape?¡±


    Those who had just joined therger group were still in a state of shock. ¡°Those bugs with human faces on their backs were terrifying. Last night, we even heard wolves howling. We were so frightened we did not dare to sleep for the entire night. But fortunately, Chen Wudi¡ª¡±


    ¡°Call me the Great Sage,¡± Chen Wudi corrected.


    ¡°OK. Fortunately, the Great Sage helped us drive away all the bugs. They seemed to be quite afraid of him.¡± The person speaking was exhausted as he had been in constant fear for the past two days. Now that they had joined thousands of others, they finally felt a sense of security.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was starting to think about how to get along with this Chen Wudi.


    This guy imed to be the reincarnation of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, but Ren Xiaosu did not believe his ims. He presumed this fellow had heard too much of the story of the Monkey King when he was young, so he ended up fantasizing himself to be said hero.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu realized after reading Journey to the West that the unyielding heroic image of the Great Sage who subdued evil was purely the imagination of the people. They only exaggerated his image because they needed a hero to look up to.


    At this moment, Wang Yiheng and the others came over. He deliberately avoided Ren Xiaosu and said to the group of people who had just arrived, ¡°Hand over all your valuables!¡±


    He still had his eyes on Ren Xiaosu as he spoke. Wang Yiheng¡¯s strategy was very simple: First, I won¡¯t provoke you and your people. But when I¡¯m bullying the others, you had better not interfere either. We¡¯re both wielding guns, so mind your own business!


    However, he was stunned when his gaze fell on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side where he saw Chen Wudi materializing a ck and gold metal staff out of thin air. Ren Xiaosu was also shocked. The metal staff had a gold band on each end, with the middle section being ck!


    Isn¡¯t this the Golden-Hooped Rod from Journey to the West?


    When Wang Yiheng turned his head to Chen Wudi, he saw Chen Wudi pointing the Golden-Hooped Rod at him and saying, ¡°It¡¯s you, Xiaozuanfeng <sup>1</sup> !¡±


    Wang Yiheng was confused ¡®Who the hell is Xiaozuanfeng?!¡¯ Wang Yiheng thought that even if this guy had a mental illness, surely he should be called the ck Mountain Old Demon, Yellow-robed Monster or something of that level, right? ¡®By calling me Xiaozuanfeng, aren¡¯t you looking down on me a little too much?!¡¯


    But before Wang Yiheng could react, he saw Chen Wudi swinging the staff at him. Chen Wudi roared, ¡°You¡¯re not allowed to bully the folks here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had Yan Liuyuan and the others take a few steps back. He was afraid someone would identally get injured by the battle. Wang Yiheng still possessed a gun.


    When Wang Yiheng saw the Golden-Hooped Rod being swung at him, he reflexively backed off and drew his gun in a hurry. Chen Wudi¡¯s staff brushed past the tip of Wang Yiheng¡¯s nose before mming into the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust as the ground trembled.


    In his surprise, Ren Xiaosu wondered whether Chen Wudi¡¯s staff really weighed more than 13,500 catties <sup>1</sup> . No, it shouldn¡¯t be that heavy!


    With a loud bang, a muzzle sh appeared from Wang Yiheng¡¯s gun. But everyone was stunned. No one knew when Chen Wudi had ced his staff horizontally in front of his chest. Heughed and said, ¡°No bullets can prate my Golden-Hooped Rod!¡±


    Nearby, Yan Liuyuan curiously said, ¡°But the bullet didn¡¯t hit your Golden-Hooped Rod. Your chest is bleeding.¡±


    Chen Wudi looked down at his chest, then took a deep breath and said, ¡°Fuck...¡± After that, the veins on Chen Wudi¡¯s neck pulsated, and the bullet that went into his chest was squeezed out of his body with brute force!


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu noticed the bullet itself did not prate his skin. He could still see part of the brass bullet exposed on the surface of Chen Wudi¡¯s skin.


    ording to the story, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven was so strong he was basically invulnerable. But what kind of muscle strength would it take to stop bullets from prating?


    Ren Xiaosu was absolutely sure he couldn¡¯t do the same.


    Wang Yiheng clenched his teeth and attempted to fire off another shot. But in the blink of an eye, Chen Wudi vanished from view.


    A momentter, the heavy Golden-Hooped Rod appeared on Wang Yiheng¡¯s left, vibrating as it swooshed through the air. It almost felt like the air around it was resonating.


    As the refugees around Wang Yiheng fled from the scene of battle, the Golden-Hooped Rod smashed ruthlessly into Wang Yiheng¡¯s waist.


    With an audible crack, Wang Yiheng¡¯s body was twisted in an irregr fashion from his waist. This strike had broken his spine!


    In that instant, Wang Yiheng was sent flying away. He could feel his whole body paralyzed as hey on the ground!


    Chen Wudi plunged the Golden-Hooped Rod hard onto the ground with a loud thud. Holding the staff upright, he looked majestic.


    Chen Wudi turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Master, am I cool?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m really...¡± Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded and did not know how to continue the conversation.


    The refugees quickly distanced themselves from Wang Yiheng. They were all afraid of getting implicated by Wang Yiheng, who was wailing in agony on the ground, while other escapees¡¯ eyes were filled with joy. They had long hated Wang Yiheng and knew he would only get more and more difficult to satisfy.


    Someone said to Chen Wudi, ¡°Thank you!¡±


    ¡°Why are you thanking me?¡± Chen Wudi waved his hand without a care. ¡°You should thank my master instead!¡±


    A few people were stunned as they turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Thank you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up, because he had received more than ten gratitude tokens with almost no effort!


    He had been worrying about how to collect more gratitude tokens. He did not expect Chen Wudi would help him get so many of them without him needing to do anything.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu. He wanted to ask him what they should do next. However, he saw Ren Xiaosu walking eagerly towards Chen Wudi. ¡°Disciple, does your injury still hurt? Master has an excellent medicine here that can treat wounds!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was confused


    Wang Fugui was confused


    Everyone watching was confused.


    Did they really have to head to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures?!

 Chapter 116 - 72 Transformations

    Chapter 116: 72 Transformations


    Just a moment ago, Ren Xiaosu was still trying his best to deny that he was Chen Wudi¡¯s so-called master. But now the two were putting on a show of how deep their teacher-disciple rtionship was?


    Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others stared nkly at Ren Xiaosu as he took out a vial. Wang Fugui gasped as Ren Xiaosu had always treated this medicine like a treasure. Back then, Ren Xiaosu was not even willing to make it cheaper for him no matter how much he tried to persuade him! But now, Ren Xiaosu was willing to take it out and give it to Chen Wudi for free! Was this still Ren Xiaosu?


    However, only Ren Xiaosu understood how a delusional person who liked subduing demons and monsters to uphold justice like Chen Wudi could end up bing a divine weapon for him to gain heaps of gratitude tokens!


    In fact, the thought of purely making use of Chen Wudi also crossed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind. But when he saw Chen Wudi¡¯s sincere gaze, he felt a little touched. He sighed and turned to look at Wang Fugui.


    Before Wang Fugui could react from his shock, he heard Ren Xiaosu say to him, ¡°Pigsy, give some food to your senior apprentice brother.¡±


    Wang Fugui was dumbfounded. Had he gone crazy?! Wang Fugui felt as though the entire world had gone crazy! Although he had such thoughts, Wang Fugui still took out some cornbread and handed it to Chen Wudi.


    ¡°Thank you, Master!¡± Chen Wudi took the cornbread and stuffed it into his mouth. He was famished!


    ¡°Gratitude received from Chen Wudi, +1!¡± The pce¡¯s judgment could not be wrong. This was a sincere thank you.


    When Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi gobbling down his food, he suddenly felt that this master-disciple rtionship wasn¡¯t too bad.


    Chen Wudi looked up and said, ¡°Master, I¡¯m still hungry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought that not only could this disciple fight well, he was quite an eater too.


    He thought for a moment and said, ¡°Disciple, do you know what begging for alms is?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Chen Wudi nodded.


    ¡°I¡¯ll point out a few people for you. Go up to them and ask them to spare you some vegetarian food.¡± Ren Xiaosu then pointed out several refugees to Chen Wudi. They all used to be Wang Yiheng¡¯s trusted aides at the sand nt. Ren Xiaosu knew they must have hidden some of the food they had robbed from the escapees.


    ¡°OK, Master!¡± Chen Wudi carried the Golden-Hooped Rod and went to look for those refugees. The refugees nearly pissed their pants. Even now, Wang Yiheng was wailing in agony on the ground!


    ¡®You call this begging for alms? Even though everyone wasmitting robbery all the same, what makes ours a robbery, and yours begging for alms?!¡¯


    They nced at Wang Yiheng and decided to take out whatever food they had on them. When Chen Wudi returned to Ren Xiaosu, he was holding a lot of food, such as choctes and crackers. Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu as though he wanted to im credit for it. ¡°Master, these are for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°Since you¡¯re the one who earned it, you should save it for yourself to eat.¡±


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could not bear to eat any of Chen Wudi¡¯s food. He did not feel any pressure when he strongarmed the other refugees into giving him something. But for some reason, Ren Xiaosu kept feeling a sense of guilt whenever the thought of bullying the dimwitted Chen Wudi crossed his mind. Perhaps this was also one of Chen Wudi¡¯s talents.


    Beside them, the girls from Stronghold 113 No. 2 Senior High School admired Chen Wudi. He looked rather handsome and even upheld justice for them. Other than his asylum clothes that looked rather unsightly, he looked quite suitable as a hero.


    The girls stole nces at Chen Wudi. They were also at an age where they were starting to understand love. In this chaotic environment, people who could give them some sense of security would immediately give them a good impression.


    Only Jiang Wu¡¯s gaze was still on Ren Xiaosu. She suddenly felt that Ren Xiaosu might not be a good person, but he was also definitely not a bad person.


    After the events blew over, everyone returned to normal. They urgently needed some rest as they still had to continue on their way tomorrow.


    Ren Xiaosu found it a little odd. Those refugees had also robbed many things from the stronghold¡¯s residents. Previously, it could be said that everyone had not dared to resist only because Wang Yiheng had a gun on him. That was understandable. But right now, Wang Yiheng, who was the backbone of the refugees, was dead, and the gun had fallen into Wang Fugui¡¯s hands. Logically, the stronghold¡¯s residents should be taking revenge and snatching back their belongings at this time. Unfortunately, Ren Xiaosu realized these people were still afraid of shing with the refugees.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group consisted of five people surrounding the campfire. But now it had turned into six people.


    Chen Wudi ate his food noisily. It looked like he had really been starving for the past two days.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°I heard that the Great Sage can perform 72 Transformations and can use his hair to create a bunch of monkeys. Since you¡¯re the Great Sage, do you know how to do that?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Chen Wudi admitted his failings. He said, ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s because I¡¯ve reincarnated recently. I haven¡¯t awakened my other skills yet.¡±


    ¡°Have you tried it before?¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious.


    ¡°Yes, but it didn¡¯t work,¡± Chen Wudi answered honestly.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Chen Wudi¡¯s head and noticed a small bald patch behind his right ear. It looked like he really had tried it before.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu started to get the feeling that everyone¡¯s superpowers were somehow rted to their willpower.


    For example, it was still a mystery as to what the value of his ¡°mental fortitude¡± was.


    For example, thebat strength of Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone was directly corrted to his mental strength.


    But it was even more obvious for Chen Wudi. He had fantasized about being the Monkey King, and as a result, he materialized the Golden-Hooped Rod. Moreover, his physical fitness was also approaching a state that surpassed humans.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered whether there were even more patients with delusions who had be supernatural beings like Chen Wudi. Wouldn¡¯t those patients with ¡°schizophrenia¡± be miserable then? They might end up killing themselves soon after bing a supernatural being due to their own paranoia.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu felt this was quite unrealistic. Not all the mentally ill would have strong mental strength.


    While he was pondering this, some female escapees walked over to Jiang Wu and asked, ¡°Can you let us light a fire with your fire?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned to look and saw that several women of different ages had approached Jiang Wu. They probably felt that being a female teacher, she would be easier to talk to about borrowing the fire as ignition than approaching Ren Xiaosu. Perhaps, they were worried Ren Xiaosu might make some indecent requests of them?


    Ren Xiaosu was not happy about this. ¡®What do you take me for? Am I such a desperate person? And woman, you¡¯re already in your fifties, alright?! What¡¯s with that wary look in your eyes while looking at me?!¡¯


    But Jiang Wu did not oblige their request. She looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°I borrowed your fire to light mine. Would you agree if I let them use my fire to light theirs?¡±


    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked up at the women. He was not so petty as to scorn them. However, Jiang Wu¡¯s reaction surprised him.


    As the women repeatedly thanked Ren Xiaosu, they lit the firewood they were carrying and returned back to their spots. From this, Ren Xiaosu reaped yet another three gratitude tokens.

 Chapter 117 - You have to go!

    <h4>Chapter 117: You have to go!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Looking at the women bringing the firewood back to their location, Ren Xiaosumented that it truly was quite difficult for women to survive in this sort of environment.


    At this moment, he heard someone snoring beside him. When Ren Xiaosu turned around to look, he saw that Chen Wudi had fallen asleep while eating.


    Chen Wudi was probably exhausted from having to protect dozens of people all by himself en route.


    Ren Xiaosu felt this world was a little ironic. Of the several thousand people here, only the crazy Chen Wudi and one woman named Jiang Wu were willing to be good people. As for those who felt they were smart and capable, they only had the thought of saving themselves. Even Ren Xiaosu was no exception. But Ren Xiaosu was not ashamed of that. He had never thought of being a good person.


    ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t you sleep for a while?¡± Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu as he added more firewood to the campfire. ¡°Uncle Fugui and I will keep watch for the first half of the night.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I also have a gun now.¡± Wang Fugui smiled. He kept the gun close to him as though it gave him a sense of security while holding it.


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll get some sleep first. Liuyuan, teach Old Wang how to use the gun.¡±


    Wang Yiheng, who had been struck in the waist by Chen Wudi, had died. Not only was his spine broken, his vital organs had also sustained various degrees of damage. With such injuries, no one could survive.


    When Ren Xiaosu woke up in the middle of the night, he saw Chen Wudi staring at him with a piercing gaze. No one knew when he had woken up.


    Yan Liuyuan and Wang Fugui had not slept yet as they were responsible for keeping watch during the night. Wang Fugui was holding his gun and guarding against outside threats while Yan Liuyuan guarded against Chen Wudi.


    Although everyone knew that firearms would not be effective against Chen Wudi, they still had to keep their guards up around him.


    To Ren Xiaosu and the others, no matter how much sincerity Chen Wudi had shown them, everyone had just gotten to know him. Who knew if he was just good at acting?


    Of course, even if they felt that Chen Wudi had other reasons for approaching Ren Xiaosu, it did not seem like he had any motive for doing so either.


    Right now, the Qing Consortium was probably the most interested in Ren Xiaosu. No, strictly speaking, the Qing Consortium was more interested in Xu Xianchu. So Chen Wudi was probably not sent by the Qing Consortium.


    ¡°Master, you¡¯re finally awake!¡± Chen Wudi said.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°You¡¯ve only slept for a while. Aren¡¯t you sleepy?¡±


    ¡°Not at all.¡± Chen Wudi shook his head and said, ¡°Ever since I realized that I¡¯m the reincarnation of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, I¡¯m fine with just three to four hours of sleep per night. It¡¯s as good as sleeping for an entire night like I used to.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. It was about the same for him. Now, he could just sleep three to four hours every day and it would be sufficient rest for him. ¡°Liuyuan, Old Wang, both of you can go and sleep now. I¡¯ll take over.¡±


    ¡°Master, why don¡¯t you sleep for a little while more?¡± Chen Wudi said, ¡°I¡¯ll keep watch for you!¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°How old are you?¡±


    ¡°Several thousand years old?¡± Chen Wudi wasn¡¯t too sure of it himself. ¡°After all, I don¡¯t know how long I lived in the past.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m talking about this current life!¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped. He realized he actually had to phrase his words carefully whenmunicating with Chen Wudi.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m 22,¡± Chen Wudi said.


    As Ren Xiaosu felt it was rather strange that someone who was five years older than him had suddenly be his disciple, he asked, ¡°Were you arrested and brought to the asylum by the private army?¡±


    When Zhang Baogen got arrested, Wang Fugui received news that three arrested supernatural beings had been sent to the newly established psychiatric hospital by the private army on that same night. They even transported a lot of medical devices to the hospital at the time.


    ¡°No.¡± Chen Wudi shook his head and said, ¡°I was already in an asylum a few years ago. I told them that I was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, but they didn¡¯t believe me. Some time ago, they transferred me to a new hospital for some reason. They even drew my blood and did some tests on me.¡±


    ¡°Then do you know Zhang Baogen?¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious.


    ¡°The one who blows bubbles?¡± Chen Wudi¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Yes, he was in the ward next to mine. There was also another patient, but I don¡¯t know where he went.¡±


    From those words, Ren Xiaosu confirmed that Chen Wudi was really from the psychiatric hospital and had been in there with Zhang Baogen at the same time.


    He had thought Zhang Baogen and the others who had been arrested would get dissected after they got sent into the stronghold. However, they only had their blood drawn? No, ording to Chen Wudi, there were originally three supernatural beings locked together, but one of them went missing.


    The one who went missing... probably died, right?!


    ¡°What ns do you have?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I¡¯ll apany Master to obtain the Buddhist scriptures from the Western Paradise,¡± Chen Wudi answered matter-of-factly.


    Ren Xiaosu felt ufortable and upset whenever he heard this. He thought for a while and said, ¡°What if I¡¯m not seeking the scriptures?¡±


    Chen Wudi was stumped. If they were not going to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain the Buddhist scriptures, what else could he do? For the past few years, he had been thinking every day about looking for his master so they could go to the Western Paradise on a pilgrimage to obtain the Buddhist scriptures. Along the way, he would subdue demons and monsters and bring justice to the innocent. However, his master was saying he didn¡¯t want to go to the Western Paradise?!


    Chen Wudi considered it for a long time before saying, ¡°No, you have to go!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. ¡®What do you mean by I have to go? I first have to know where the Western Paradise is, right? It¡¯s not like Zhang Jinglin talked about this before!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Do you know where the Western Paradise is?¡±


    Chen Wudi was stunned once again. ¡°Nope.¡±


    Well, this would be easy to handle.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu had realized Chen Wudi had not read the original text of Journey to the West. He only knew about it from hearsay, so it led to him having a heroic dream like this. Those who had read the original text knew that Sun Wukong¡¯s image was not that great.


    Hence, Chen Wudi would not know where the Western Paradise was and probably did not even know what could be found there. He could only remember that the Great Sage Equal to Heaven was a very powerful hero and that he must escort his master to obtain the Buddhist scriptures in the Western Paradise. Even if his master did not wish to do so, he had to escort him.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that it was better that Chen Wudi did not know what Sun Wukong was like in the novel. Sometimes the world needed a hero like him.


    Even Ren Xiaosu preferred the storyteller¡¯s version more. In that version, Sun Wukong treaded on rainbow clouds, wore golden armor, and was an unrivaled god.


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and saw several thousand people sleeping on the ground with only a few campfires burning. The sky was shrouded in darkness, and the early winter wind got even colder.


    After the escapees experienced massive setbacks and went on a distant and arduous journey for two days, they still had to endure their hunger. They were feeble to the point of copsing. When the cold wind blew tonight, a lot of these people were likely not going to get up again the next morning.


    Fever, diarrhea, the flu, and heart and lung failure were allmon symptoms for those who suffered from the winter weather.


    In this wilderness, humans not only faced the hardships of wild animals. There were also prevalent diseases all around them.


    With so many people fleeing for their lives, it would be impressive if half of them could reach Stronghold 109.


    The numbers would be fewer if they encountered the Experimentals and wolves along the way. In fact, they could be wiped out if that happened!

 Chapter 118 - Epidemic

    <h4>Chapter 118: Epidemic</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The next morning, a lot of people were feeling weak all over, and their bodies were aching as they got up from the ground. It was just as Ren Xiaosu had predicted.


    The effects of being on a long and arduous journey and being affected by the cold weather had emerged. The healthier and stronger people could endure it, but a minority could not stand up to it at all.


    Ren Xiaosu realized the stronghold¡¯s residents did not have developed muscles. At least, they were not like the refugees in town where even a woman like Xiaoyu was slightly stronger than them.


    At this moment, the difference in the circumstances of those who had a campfire to warm themselvesst night and those who didn¡¯t could clearly be seen. Even the students led by Jiang Wu appeared to be doing fine.


    ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up and leave.¡± Ren Xiaosu got up and looked at the people around them. ¡°This area has be ground zero for an epidemic. If we don¡¯t leave quickly, we might get infected as well.¡±


    No one could save those people anymore.


    ¡°Master, there¡¯s greater merit in saving a life than building a seven-story pagoda!¡± Chen Wudi said, ¡°We can¡¯t just leave these people behind!¡±


    ¡°The Western Paradise is just up ahead.¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he walked, ¡°I¡¯m going there to obtain the scriptures. You can stay behind if you wish.¡±


    Chen Wudi was stunned. After considering it for a long while, he finally caught up. It seemed that escorting his master to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures was top priority for him.


    Seeing Chen Wudi catch up, Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He was worried Chen Wudi would foolishly try to save those several hundred people who had fallen sick.


    How could they save them?


    Wang Fugui still had some antibiotics on him, but how much could the medicine that one person carried do in this situation? Besides, that was all of Wang Fugui¡¯s life savings, so why would he selflessly give it up to those people?


    When they were about to leave the ce, Jiang Wu gathered her students to follow close behind. In any case, Jiang Wu would have her students do whatever Ren Xiaosu was doing.


    As everyone looked at the sick people around them, it was inevitable they would feel a little gloomy. But what could they do?


    Some of the kinder students said to Jiang Wu, ¡°Teacher, why don¡¯t we stay behind and help them?¡±


    Jiang Wu clenched her teeth in a dilemma. She decided, ¡°No, we need to learn to save ourselves first. Perhaps I¡¯m teaching you the wrong things right now, but you guys must leave with me straight away.¡±


    This world had forced such a gentle and kind teacher into a corner, but she did not regret it.


    ¡°Stay close and don¡¯t fall behind, everyone. Do you still remember the wild vegetables we ate yesterday? Pick them if you spot any by the road,¡± Jiang Wu said.


    ¡°But those wild vegetables taste horrible,¡± a student muttered with his head lowered.


    ¡°Even if it tastes horrible, you still have to eat it,¡± Jiang Wu said firmly.


    With Ren Xiaosu getting up to leave, the escapees who could still move tagged along. They felt aimless and only knew how to follow whoever took the lead.


    In the end, only the sick people were left lying on the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. He knew the wolves had been following them all this while, but they had note out to attack the group. Why was that? It was clear these people were no threat to them, so could it be the wolves were deterred by the number of people in the group?


    What about the Experimentals? Ren Xiaosu was hoping that they had gone northwards from the Jing Mountains with the Qing Consortium¡¯s people. That way, he would not have to worry too much about their threat.


    Of course, if the Experimentals perished in that volcanic eruption, it would even be better....


    Ren Xiaosu still couldn¡¯t determine how many Experimentals there were or who had created them. He only understood that this world was not as simple as he had thought it was.


    At this moment, the escapees were mostly avoiding Ren Xiaosu andpany as they made their way along.


    Ren Xiaosu had deliberately refrained from showing his superpower to the escapees because they still had to go to Stronghold 109. Who knew what they did to supernatural beings over there? What if they started arresting such people when they saw them just like what had happened in Stronghold 113?


    As Chen Wudi had already exposed himself as a supernatural being, this could end up bing troublesome for them. Ren Xiaosu felt a bit uncertain, but they could only take it one step at a time.


    Ren Xiaosu found it quite funny when he saw another stationary off-road vehicle up ahead. He remembered there were three off-road vehicles and two military transport trucks when the Qing Consortium drove past them. But now, more than half of them had broken down.


    While making their escape yesterday, they had seen an off-road vehicle and a military transport truck parked on the side of the road. And now, yet another vehicle was dumped midway. Ren Xiaosu thought that if they hurried up, they might just catch up to the Qing Consortium¡¯s people.


    After all, they couldn¡¯t fit so many people into the remaining vehicles after three had broken down. Therefore, some of them must be traveling on foot.


    Luo Lan would probably have his soldiers walk slowly to their destination while he went on ahead to Stronghold 109 in one of the remaining off-road vehicles or military transport trucks.


    As the evening sun shone down on them, the escapees furthest up front raised a ruckus. Someone shouted, ¡°Everyone, look!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the people from the Qing Consortium!¡± Someone shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s get help from them!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve finally met up with the troops!¡±


    They did not even consider whether thebat brigade was willing to let them join their group and madly dashed up to the front. It was as though they were trying to grab onto a lifeline.


    Ren Xiaosu looked up when he heard themotion. He was surprised to see Luo Lan sitting in the scarlet sunset with several hundred of the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops. Why had this fatty only walked until here? Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Lan¡¯s pants looked a little funny. Upon closer inspection, why did his pants seem like they were made from two leather seat covers stitched together?!


    At this moment, Luo Lan was ordering the soldiers to set up their tents. But when he turned around, he nearly jumped out of his skin. There was arge, dense crowd of people closing on them!


    He quickly said to the troops, ¡°Quick, those carrying firearms, take them out and prevent the escapees from invading our campsite!¡±


    As the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops werebat oriented, the sounds of weapons being cocked reverberated right after Luo Lan finished speaking.


    When the escapees saw the guns pointing in their direction, everyone stopped in their tracks. They were at a loss.


    A middle-aged man shouted from a distance, ¡°Boss Luo, I¡¯m Little Zhang from the nning Division! You¡¯ve met me before!¡±


    Luo Lan hocked a loogie and shouted, ¡°Aren¡¯t you embarrassed to be called Little Zhang at your age? All of you, move back. We¡¯ll open fire if you take another step forward!¡±


    None of the escapees dared to move. The Qing Consortium did not care about who they were. As long as it were not one of their own, they would treat everyone as their enemies.


    Ren Xiaosu was observing this scene while hiding behind the crowd. He had hoped the Qing Consortium would not interact with the escapees. After all, it was quite possible he was wanted by them. Of course, Ren Xiaosu felt that these people did not have the excess energy and time for that.


    Seeing so many of the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops wrapped up in bandages, it looked like they had been injured while escaping from the stronghold.


    But Ren Xiaosu was a little curious. Luo Lan had not abandoned the soldiers and run off by himself. This surprised him a great deal.

 Chapter 119 - Where is the Western Paradise?

    <h4>Chapter 119: Where is the Western Paradise?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The escapees and the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat brigade eventually reached a standoff. The escapees had no intention of attacking thebat brigade; they just couldn¡¯t ept the situation.


    Everyone initially ran over in enthusiasm to seek ¡°refuge¡± with the troops, but they backed off when the guns were pointed at them.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu felt there was nothing wrong with the actions the Qing Consortium took. If it were him, he would have done the same.


    But the escapees felt that even though they could not get near the Qing Consortium, it would be good enough to follow them. So they decided to rest on the spot. When the Qing Consortium set off, they would quietly follow them.


    At the very least, the Qing Consortium would know how to get to Stronghold 109, right?!


    Besides, now that there was clearly no more space in the Qing Consortium¡¯s vehicles, the majority of those from the Qing Consortium had to travel on foot. As such, the escapees were not worried they would get shaken off by them.


    ¡°Xiaosu, will there be any danger if we stick so close to the Qing Consortium?¡± Wang Fugui asked in worry. After all, Ren Xiaosu had killed several of their people who were keeping watch at the school when the earthquake struck.


    ¡°It should be fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu stole a nce at the Qing Consortium.


    Currently, the Qing Consortium and the escapees were separated by an open area. It seemed like the Qing Consortium¡¯s people did not intend to make any contact with them.


    It was better this way since the Qing Consortium would not know Ren Xiaosu was here.


    ¡°Y¡¯all can stay here without worries.¡± Ren Xiaosu cautiously reminded them, ¡°If the situation does not seem right, we¡¯ll escape into the wilderness. Based on the current situation, it¡¯s better to stay with everyone else for the time being. I¡¯m a little worried the wolves will try to pick off vulnerable targets if we get separated from the group.¡±


    The wolves did not dare to attack a group numbering several thousand people, but it would be hard to say what they¡¯d do if Ren Xiaosu andpany dropped out of the group.


    Actually, Luo Lan was not thinking about capturing Ren Xiaosu at all costs.


    When Qing Zhen was about to call him on the satellite phone and issue an arrest on Ren Xiaosu, the volcanic cloud happened to block out the signal. By the time Qing Zhen reached a spot where there was a signal, Stronghold 113 had already been destroyed. In his haste, Luo Lan did not take his satellite phone with him while making his escape. So they two of them couldn¡¯t contact each other.


    ¡°Sure, whatever you say.¡± Wang Fugui nodded.


    Ren Xiaosu went to gather for firewood as usual to start a fire and even brought Chen Wudi along with him. It was not that he wanted to order Chen Wudi around, but that he wanted to guard against him in case he really had other motives for joining their group.


    In their group, only Ren Xiaosu could keep Chen Wudi in check. So it was better to keep him by his side. It was definitely a little tiring to keep guarding against someone, but Ren Xiaosu felt there was nothing wrong with being extra cautious. As they still had a long journey ahead, Ren Xiaosu would ept Chen Wudi if heter proved to have no other motives.


    On their way to gather firewood, Ren Xiaosu found that the escapees had wisened up. They knew it would be very difficult to get to Stronghold 109 if they did not have a campfire to keep themselves warm. As such, a lot of people went to gather firewood and even shamelessly borrowed other people¡¯s fire to start their own.


    It was quite a spectacr sight seeing several thousand people gathering firewood together. Ren Xiaosumented he might have been toote in going out to collect the firewood. He mainly had not expected such a situation to ur. As he waste by a few minutes, Ren Xiaosu could not find any firewood even after walking around for a long time.


    Beside him, Chen Wudi asked, ¡°Master, didn¡¯t you say that the Western Paradise was just ahead of us this morning? Why aren¡¯t we there yet even after walking for a day?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He thought for a while and said, ¡°The Western Paradise... has shifted elsewhere....¡±


    Chen Wudi said unhappily, ¡°Master, do you think I¡¯m dumb?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. Indeed, even a fool would not get deceived by such an answer.


    ¡°Wudi.¡± Ren Xiaosu earnestly tried to change the subject. ¡°Do you have any other wishes besides apanying me to obtain the Buddhist scriptures in the Western Paradise?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was thinking of chatting with Chen Wudi for a while longer. After all, loose lips sank ships. As long as Chen Wudi¡¯s thoughts were impure, he would reveal something if he spoke enough.


    But he realized Chen Wudi was behaving awkwardly. ¡°Yeah, I have another wish.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m looking for a girl named Zixia.¡± Chen Wudi said in a serious tone, ¡°I have two things that I mustplete in this reincarnation of mine. One is to escort Master to obtain the scriptures, and the other is to find Zixia <sup>1</sup> !¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned to his side and stared nkly at Chen Wudi. Which version of Journey to the West did you read?


    Even though he carefully recalled all the versions of Journey to the West he had read, he could not remember any woman named Zixia.


    Suddenly, Jiang Wu came walking over from the opposite direction. She and her students were carrying a lot of firewood in their arms.


    When Jiang Wu saw Ren Xiaosu, her eyes lit up. ¡°You guys don¡¯t have to collect any firewood. We¡¯ve already helped you gather plenty.¡±


    Strength in numbers, as they said. With Jiang Wu leading 28 students to collect the firewood, it was much faster than if Ren Xiaosu had collected it alone. Not only that, Ren Xiaosu estimated that the firewood they were carrying should be enough for four or five campfires.


    Ren Xiaosu did not reject her and nodded. It was a good thing she intended to return the favor, and he did not mind her kind gesture.


    He saw several female students looking at Chen Wudi in embarrassment. They walked over hesitantly and said to him, ¡°You¡¯re so handsome.¡±


    Chen Wudi was stunned before replying, ¡°Thank you, female almsgivers.¡±


    The words ¡°female almsgivers¡± were like buckets of cold water that immediately extinguished any romantic thoughts the young women had.


    Ren Xiaosu ignored them as he walked to the front. He shouted as he walked, ¡°Come,e, I¡¯ve discovered some good things!¡±


    Sometimes, nature is very generous in gifting. As long as you have a good pair of ¡°seeking¡± eyes, you would definitely not starve to death.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to turn around, he suddenly saw that something was off about the patch of wild grass in front of him. Taking a closer look, he realized it was a sweet potato field!


    He did not know how long this sweet potato field had been growing in the wilderness. Furthermore, this was the season sweet potatoes were the most delicious!


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to Jiang Wu, ¡°What are you still standing around for? Have your students start digging!¡±


    ¡°Oh, OK.¡± Jiang Wu reacted immediately as she beckoned her students to start digging. Honestly, if not for Ren Xiaosu, she would not know there were so many sweet potatoes growing underground.


    They had to hurry before the other escapees found out. Otherwise, there wouldn¡¯t be many sweet potatoes left for them.


    There were simply too many escapees.


    As Jiang Wu dug for the sweet potatoes with her students, she constantly stole nces at Ren Xiaosu. This young man was always full of surprises, which gradually turned into a strange kind of dependence for her. Jiang Wu felt that as long as they followed Ren Xiaosu, they would make it to Stronghold 109 alive.


    Within a minute, all of the other escapees rushed over once they learned of the situation here.


    No one dared to vie with Ren Xiaosu for the sweet potatoes. But as the field was huge, there were still many other spots for them to dig.


    Ren Xiaosu did not care about the others. He and Chen Wudi dug up more than 30 sweet potatoes before they finally stopped. These sweet potatoes were shockinglyrge, so they wouldn¡¯t have to worry about their provisions for the next few days at least.


    When he got up from the ground and looked around him, he was shocked to see that the entire sweet potato field had almost been stripped bare by the escapees.


    Even a locust swarm was not that terrifying....

 Chapter 120 - House arrest

    <h4>Chapter 120: House arrest</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    It didn¡¯t seem like tonight would be difficult to get through. Several thousand people had gathered around their campfires to keep themselves warm and thrown countless sweet potatoes into the fire to roast.


    Eventually, the entire campsite was suffused with an enchantingly sweet aroma.


    In the night, it seemed like countlessmps had been lit in the dark, and the deste wastnd was flickering with yellow lights. Many people were watching with great anticipation as the sweet potatoes roasted in the campfires.


    The sweet potatoes were each asrge as a liquor bottle. When Chen Wudi ate three of them in one sitting, Ren Xiaosu was shocked. He suddenly felt that Chen Wudi had acknowledged him as his master probably so that he could scrounge all his food!


    As Chen Wudi wiped his mouth clean, he looked at the people around him: Ren Xiaosu, Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and Wang Dalong.


    ¡°What are you looking at?¡± Ren Xiaosu gave him a look.


    ¡°Master, don¡¯t you think that our group¡¯s still missing something?¡± Chen Wudi asked.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. ¡°What are we missing?¡±


    Chen Wudi¡¯s gaze kept wandering back and forth between Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu. ¡°We¡¯re still missing a White Dragon Horse <sup>1</sup> .¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu both felt sick. However, Chen Wudi had principles. He said, ¡°You two don¡¯t have to look at me like that. Neither of you is the White Dragon Horse. I won¡¯t acknowledge just anyone.¡±


    Wang Fugui and Wang Dalong felt ufortable again. Could this mean the two of them were really Pigsy and Friar Sand?!


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless and a little mncholic. Their group had been quite normal, but why did the group be weird after Chen Wudi joined them?


    But Ren Xiaosu was more surprised by the fact that Chen Wudi had a logic system he abided by even though he was insane. So why had he acknowledged Ren Xiaosu as his master?


    He ignored Chen Wudi as he quietly estimated everyone¡¯s food intake. Currently, the sweet potatoes they had should be enough for them to survive on for the next two days. Furthermore, food like sweet potatoes might not turn bad even if they were kept past winter. However, it would be a little tiring to carry them as they pushed on towards Stronghold 109. After all, sweet potatoes were rather heavy.


    They were only about a 100 kilometers away from Stronghold 109. Calcting the distance the average person could travel in eight hours, it was about 40 kilometers a day. If the intensity were higher, it might be possible to walk 50 kilometers. However, Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, and Xiaoyu probably couldn¡¯t take it.


    In the afternoon, Xiaoyu took a sewing needle and helped Yan Liuyuan pop the newly formed blisters on his feet by pricking them. As Yan Liuyuan quietly watched the profile of her face, he felt it was really good to have a sister like her.


    By this time, the blisters on the escapees¡¯ feet had burst and scabbed over and over again. Fleeing as far as they could was not simply a matter of ¡°How many kilometers can they travel in a day?¡±


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu estimated it would take at least three days for them to get to Stronghold 109. They did not even have to go out to search for food again if they rationed their sweet potatoes properly.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard Jiang Wu speaking from a short distance behind him, ¡°Everyone, let¡¯s hang in there a bit more. We¡¯ll reach Stronghold 109 very soon. Remember to bring along the sweet potatoes we dug up in the afternoon. Although it might get tiring as we travel, it¡¯s better than going hungry.¡±


    These sheltered students had already passed the stage of homesickness and vulnerability as they learned how to be strong. Someone suddenly asked, ¡°Teacher, can we really get to Stronghold 109 safely?¡±


    ¡°Definitely.¡± Jiang Wu said, ¡°As long as we follow that young man, we¡¯ll definitely get there.¡±


    At this moment, some students winked and raised their eyebrows at Jiang Wu, telling her to look behind her. Jiang Wu happened to lock eyes with Ren Xiaosu the moment she turned around. She eximed and quickly turned away. Her cheeks glowed so red it looked like a campfire was illuminating them.


    Jiang Wu lowered her voice and whispered to her students, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you all tell me earlier!¡±


    ¡°Haha,¡± the studentsughed and said, ¡°teacher is embarrassed.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu watched this happen, he realized humans were probably the best at finding joy amid hardship among all living things. If they could see a little hope, they would want to keep living.


    After a while, Jiang Wu¡¯s students started singing in soft voices of what sounded like schoolyard songs.


    Ren Xiaosu fell into a trance as he listened to their singing. He had also wanted to live in a stronghold free from worries so that he could enjoy afortable life. But of course, life in the stronghold was probably no longer asfortable.


    At the Qing Consortium¡¯s campsite a distance away, Luo Lan could smell the roasted sweet potatoes. While eating thebat rations taken from thebat brigade¡¯s vehicle, he sighed, ¡°These poor people really know how to live.¡±


    Beside him, Luo Lan¡¯s trusted aide asked, ¡°Boss, do you think your brother will send someone to rescue you?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Luo Lan was sad. ¡°I¡¯m worried about him instead. He was still in the Jing Mountains when things went wrong, and nobody knows whether he¡¯s dead or alive.¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s trusted aide muttered, ¡°I think Boss Qing Zhen will be fine. You can always count on him to get things done. He¡¯s that reliable.¡±


    ¡°Reliable?¡± Luo Lan sighed. ¡°Didn¡¯t an ident still happen all the same? But of course, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are natural disasters. They¡¯re unstoppable forces.¡±


    ¡°Do you think the same thing happened to Stronghold 112?¡± his trusted aide asked. ¡°After all, the distance of the two strongholds from the Jing Mountains is about the same. If our side could not stand up to the earthquake¡¯s destruction, it should be the same on their side as well.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Luo Lan thought for a while and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid Stronghold 112 might have copsed as well. With the Qing Consortium suddenly losing two strongholds, Qing Zhen will probably get severely punished by the consortium.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s not our fault either.¡± His trusted aide said softly, ¡°It would still have copsed no matter who was in charge.¡±


    ¡°Qing Zhen has too many enemies within the consortium itself.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°Furthermore, he recently killed a lot of the other consortium¡¯s members. The consortium is probably worried it will be too difficult to keep him in check, so they might as well hang him out to dry. However, that¡¯ll all be temporary since the Qing Consortium still needs him to do their work. Indeed, the others can¡¯t perform as well as Qing Zhen can... rather, they are not as ruthless as he is.¡±


    At this moment, Qing Zhen was still trekking on the paths within the Jing Mountains. His face had been ckened by the soot that had gushed out of the eruption, flushing his image down the drain.


    Next to Qing Zhen, Xu Man said as he held the satellite phone, ¡°Boss, the Board would like to speak with you.¡±


    By this time, they had walked out of the cover of the volcanic ash cloud, and the satellite phone¡¯s signal had been restored to normal.


    ¡°Tell them I don¡¯t have free time,¡± Qing Zhen said, sounding peeved.


    Xu Man felt conflicted but still conveyed the message exactly as it was said. After a few seconds, he looked at Qing Zhen. ¡°They¡¯re requesting you to immediately go to Stronghold 111 to be investigated once we get out of the Jing Mountains. Without their permission, you¡¯re not to leave Stronghold 111. Stronghold 112 and Stronghold 113... have been destroyed....¡±


    ¡°Tell them I understand,¡± Qing Zhen said, uncaring.


    Xu Man hung up after replying to the other party in the call, then said to Qing Zhen, ¡°Are they nning to put you under house arrest?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been a long while since we¡¯ve gone to Stronghold 111.¡± Qing Zhen said, ¡°Call Stronghold 109¡¯s Lu Yuan and have him send someone to search for Luo Lan.¡±


    Xu Man hesitated and said, ¡°As a stronghold overseer, Lu Yuan might not have the authority to do much in a stronghold that¡¯s controlled by the Li Consortium.¡±


    ¡°He should still have some authority when ites to deploying a few private troops. Since Stronghold 109 is the closest to Stronghold 113, Luo Lan will definitely escape to Lu Yuan¡¯s side if nothing happened to him.¡± Qing Zhen looked up at the gray skies behind him and said, ¡°Tell him that if he can¡¯t locate Luo Lan, death awaits him.¡±


    Xu Man suddenly felt that Qing Zhen did not seem like someone who was going to be ced under house arrest and be investigated by the consortium. Moreover, the rtionship between Qing Zhen and Luo Lan felt much better than what the rumors said.

 Chapter 121 - Stupid or just playing dumb?

    <h4>Chapter 121: Stupid or just ying dumb?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Luo Lan did not know that Qing Zhen had already ordered people to start looking for him, nor did he know that Qing Zhen was facing subjugation by the consortium¡¯s board of directors. He only knew the distant sweet potatoes smelled good.


    He looked over to his trusted aide next to him and said, ¡°Well... Tang Zhou, go and see if there are any more sweet potatoes that they haven¡¯t dug up from the field.¡±


    His trusted aide whose name was Tang Zhou said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just take some from them?¡±


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Luo Lan scolded angrily, ¡°Am I that kind of person? If the consortium wants me to kill those from the Pyro Company right now, I would do it without batting an eyelid. But what would they say about me if it gets found out that I snatched food from a group of escapees?¡±


    ¡°But the sweet potato field has already been dug clean by them,¡± Tang Zhou said awkwardly.


    There were over 3,000 escapees in total. The sweet potato field was not the result of scaled up agriculture, but one that had sprouted up in the wild since who knew when.


    It was not easy for these escapees who had been starving for several days to find something to eat. So they would definitely dig up everything they could find. Even if they could not finish eating the sweet potatoes, they could take them with them on the road. At the least, they would not have to go hungry again for the next few days.


    Only people who had gone hungry before would understand what it felt like to be starving. Seeing that it was only a few days since their escape, all of the escapees had slimmed down quite a bit.


    Only Ren Xiaosu andpany did not seem like they had changed much in appearance.


    Luo Lan thought about it for a long time. ¡°Those of you who brought money with you, go and buy some from them.¡±


    Luo Lan did not have the time to bring anything with him during his escape. Otherwise, he would have put on pants. It was almost the same for thebat brigade soldiers as well. As the earthquake happened too suddenly, nearly all those who had the thought to retrieve their money were buried underneath houses.


    The soldiers looked at each other as they pooled their money. Finally, they managed toe up with 4,000 yuan that was made up of whatever spare change they usually carried in their pockets.


    Luo Lan looked at the money with glimmering eyes. ¡°Tang Zhou, take some people over and buy the food. Be careful not to get attacked by them.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡± Tang Zhou led abat toon with him. Thebat toons that were lucky to survive had been reorganized into new teams. Although the wounded would not have to join the battles, at least two-thirds out of 200 troops could still fight.


    Luo Lan did not forget to tell them, ¡°Buy it at 50 times the usual price and don¡¯t disgrace the Qing Consortium. We don¡¯t take advantage of others.¡±


    Food was obviously more important than money at this time, but whether offering 50 times the normal price was worth it would depend on the point of view.


    They would get back human civilization someday and might even reach Stronghold 109 in another three days if they walked a bit faster. At that time, they would need money to buy things. Although the Qing Consortium only had a so-so rtionship with the Li Consortium, they still had some businesses and assets in Stronghold 109. Therefore, the money issued by the Qing Consortium would still have some purchasing power.


    The rtionship between the organizations was veryplicated. It was not like a stronghold controlled by the Li Consortium would not be influenced by the other organizations. Most of the time, the distribution of influence between the organizations was interconnected in aplex fashion.


    As the various strongholds were in different locations, it meant they controlled different natural resources. So there was a mutual dependency between the corporations.


    For example, the areas controlled by the Qing Consortium were mainly rich in vanadium titanomaite ore, halite, mirabilite, descloizite, sulfur, iron ore, asbestos, mica, gold, phosphorus, limestone, coal, and natural gas; while the Li Consortium-controlled south had nonferrous metals, coal mines, and an agriculture industry that produced an abundance of tobo leaves.


    But the most important fact was that the Qing Consortium was situated in a climate friendly basin. They controlled the nting of food crops such as rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, and cash crops like tea leaves. The Li Consortium had to purchase such foodmodities from the Qing Consortium on many asions. Although they also grew these crops, their own supply was inadequate.


    Every organization ced a great deal of importance on agriculture. But it didn¡¯t automatically mean that thend they controlled would be suitable for growing such crops just because it was a priority for them. Nature would not bend to suit human will.


    Soon after, Tang Zhou and his men returned with a lot of sweet potatoes in their arms. Not many people would dare to refuse the request of the Qing Consortium when they saw their soldiers approaching them with guns and offering to buy their sweet potatoes. Moreover, the Qing Consortium was not lowballing them.


    Luo Lan excitedly ordered the soldiers to throw the sweet potatoes into the fire. Then the group waited eagerly for them to be cooked.


    Luo Lan counted the number of people and sweet potatoes they had, then said with a sigh, ¡°Each of us can only eat half of one; no one is to eat more. The wounded can eat a whole sweet potato by themselves.¡±


    When the sweet potatoes were ready for consumption, Tang Zhou used a stick to retrieve one out of the fire for Luo Lan. ¡°Here, Boss, eat up.¡±


    Luo Lan picked it up, broke it in half, and handed a piece to Tang Zhou. ¡°We¡¯ll each have half.¡±


    ¡°Boss, you don¡¯t have to share it.¡± Tang Zhou was a little hesitant. ¡°Are you going to eat half as well?¡±


    ¡°Cut the crap and take it. It¡¯s really hot!¡± Luo Lan looked at the others and said, ¡°I have no time to prattle on with you. When we get to Stronghold 109, I¡¯ll take everyone out for a good time. Hehehe, we¡¯re bound for good fortune after surviving a huge disaster!¡±


    Thebat brigade¡¯s troops ate their sweet potatoes without a word.


    Ren Xiaosu had been observing the actions of the Qing Consortium. But a woman in the escapee group suddenly screamed. It was followed by an audible p.


    They turned around and saw a middle-aged man tussling with a woman. He said, ¡°You¡¯re still pretending to be decent after eating the sweet potato that I found? Your husband died in the stronghold! If it weren¡¯t for me, do you think you¡¯d¡¯ve survived until now?¡±


    ¡°I said that I would pay you for the sweet potato when we got to Stronghold 109!¡± said the woman through clenched teeth.


    ¡°What are you going to pay me with? When we get to Stronghold 109, everyone will still be penniless!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu scowled. These two people knew each other? The man was probably pped for making indecent advances on her just now. In his anger and embarrassment, he dragged the woman and headed for the secluded wilderness. The woman was crying out but couldn¡¯t put up a fight. However, everyone watched indifferently.


    But then, a shout rang out beside Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Stop it! So it¡¯s you, King of the Southern Mountains <sup>1</sup> , who¡¯s causing trouble around here!¡±


    This shout was so loud it kept ringing in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ears. He looked at Chen Wudi with a stunned expression, only to see him rushing towards the two with his Golden-Hooped Rod out.


    That middle-aged man could not react in time and got sted to the ground by Chen Wudi¡¯s staff strike and nearly vomited blood!


    Chen Wudi even held back a little. Otherwise, the man would have died on the spot.


    But before Chen Wudi could bask in the glory of subduing a demon, the woman who got dragged out by the man became angry. She looked at Chen Wudi and said, ¡°Why did you hit him?! Get lost!¡±


    Chen Wudi felt a little aggrieved but could not understand what was going on with them. He could only walk back to Ren Xiaosu while hanging his head.


    Everyone was surprised to see this oue. Only Ren Xiaosu, who had read the original text of Journey to the West, felt that something was off. The King of the Southern Mountains was the demon king of the Hidden Misty Mountain, Bent Peak, and Linked Cave in Journey to the West. In the original story, this demon king took a liking to a farmer¡¯s wife and took her for himself.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was odd here, because he realized that whenever Chen Wudi was about to hit someone, he would always assign them a demon name, such as Xiaozuanfeng, King of the Southern Mountains, and so on When he wasn¡¯t going to fight them, the other party would just be a normal human being to him.


    This seemed to be the logic of a mental patient for affirming their own ¡°reasons¡± and ¡°stance¡± on a matter. He was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, so he must battle demons.


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at Chen Wudi after he rejoined him. He thought for a moment and teased, ¡°My disciple, what will you do if you start running out of demon names to use when you encounter more and more enemies?¡±


    After all, there was only a finite number of demons in Journey to the West. Once he finished battling all of them, there would be no one left for him to fight.


    Chen Wudi sank deep into thought as though this were a real possibility.


    But after a while, Chen Wudi decided to bend his principles and said, ¡°It¡¯s alright, I can just recycle the demon names.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know what to say.


    Was he stupid or just ying dumb?! Didn¡¯t he say he would not acknowledge just anyone?

 Chapter 122 - Nightfall

    <h4>Chapter 122</h4> <h4>: Nightfall</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Master,¡± Chen Wudi said as he sat down next to the campfire and stared at it in a daze, ¡°I defeated the King of the Southern Mountains, so why did that woman tell me to get lost?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu kept quiet. He wanted to tell Chen Wudi that human nature wasplicated and some people were just not worth saving. But he was also worried that he would destroy Chen Wudi¡¯s innocence.


    If there really were a Great Sage in times like these who ended up getting persuaded by Ren Xiaosu to be an ordinary mortal, he wondered if he would have done a good or bad thing.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know if it would be a good thing or not if he managed to persuade a real Great Sage to be a normal person in this world.


    But at this moment, Wang Fugui chuckled next to him. ¡°You¡¯re too much of a busybody. You would¡¯ve saved yourself a lot of trouble if you adopted the mindsets of ¡®none of your business¡¯ and ¡®none of my business¡¯ in your life.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Chen Wudi looked up, stunned.


    ¡°Look here.¡± Wang Fugui said earnestly, ¡°Why do you have to poke your nose into this matter for no good reason? If you don¡¯t poke your nose¡ª¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s none of your business,¡± interrupted Chen Wudi.


    Wang Fugui was speechless.


    ¡°Hahaha!¡± Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and Xiaoyu were convulsing withughter. It was great that Chen Wudi had already mastered the use of the phrase ¡°none of your business.¡±


    As for whether he could learn ¡°none of my business,¡± Ren Xiaosu felt that it depend on whether Chen Wudi was willing to learn it.


    The next morning, Ren Xiaosu andpany got up early and roasted some sweet potatoes to eat. A lot of people preferred to sleep for a while longer than to get up and eat. In reality, if they did not eat in the morning during this season, their bodies would remain cold for the rest of the day.


    Ren Xiaosu saw that the Qing Consortium¡¯s people had also gotten up. After all, thebat troops were different from the escapees in that they had a certain regimen to follow.


    The conditions of the escapees were much better today. As usual, some of them still fell sick and went down with a fever, but it was not that many of them.


    When the Qing Consortium started moving off, the escapees followed. Everyone silently and eagerly followed the Qing Consortium as they did not want to lose sight of them.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the group of escapees and discovered that the ¡°King of the Southern Mountains¡± who had been beaten up by Chen Wudist night was lying on the ground taking hisst breaths. The woman who was with him had already rejoined therger group and blended into the crowd.


    Lying on the ground with no help from anyone would lead to certain death.


    Actually, if what this unfortunate fellow had said was true, that woman not only should have been taken good care of by him in the stronghold, she was also only able to escape the stronghold with his help. But once he was in trouble, that woman decisively abandoned him.


    In a world like this, there was no saying who deserved death more.


    Ren Xiaosu looked over to the Qing Consortium¡¯s people. The remaining two vehicles were now driving very slowly. Those who couldn¡¯t fit into the vehicles had to keep up next to them on foot.


    But Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see Luo Lan walking on foot as well instead of riding in a vehicle!


    Why? Was he working out to get fitter?


    Then Ren Xiaosu made a careful observation. Just which soldiers were allowed to ride in the vehicles? There shouldn¡¯t be anyone more important than Luo Lan, right?


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned by his observation. He saw the bandaged wounded in the back of the military transport truck and in the off-road vehicle. The truck was also half-loaded with firearms and munitions.


    The firearms and munitions were definitely indispensable. Even if the soldiers were forced to walk, they would still have to bring those along with them. After all, those were their only means of protecting their lives!


    The soldiers had helped Luo Lan force his way through a blockade of the face bugs, so Luo Lan allowed them to ride in the vehicles instead of himself.


    The walking wounded still existed, but it was only because the vehicles were filled to the brim with people. Those who could still walk didn¡¯t get into the vehicles.


    But the wounded who weren¡¯t in the vehicles were neither depressed nor resentful. It even seemed to Ren Xiaosu like they were chatting andughing during the march.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought Luo Lan would just abandon the wounded and drive straight to Stronghold 109 by himself. But what really happened was a total surprise to him.


    These two brothers, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan... it was no wonder that even a supernatural being was willing to die for Qing Zhen.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not know the deceased supernatural being was not hired by Qing Zhen but was originally a soldier within the ranks of Qing Zhen¡¯sbat brigade. After awakening his power, he instantly became Qing Zhen¡¯s bodyguard and remained loyal and devoted to him.


    That night, Ren Xiaosu felt an inexplicable sense of unease. Even Xiaoyu noticed his perturbation. Xiaoyu asked, ¡°Xiaosu, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the campfire and shook his head. ¡°I just feel like something¡¯s off.¡±


    But he couldn¡¯t figure out what was wrong.... It felt like he was back at the extremely dangerous Jing Mountains.


    The night was pitch ck, enveloping them like a prison cell.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Ren Xiaosu extinguished their campfire with his feet. ¡°We can¡¯t stay here any longer tonight.¡±


    After much deliberation, he still believed his intuition, because his intuition had saved him on more than one asion.


    Zhang Jinglin had once said that scientists from before The Cataclysm proved ¡°gut feelings¡± were real.


    When Ren Xiaosu stood up and extinguished the campfire, the escapees around them stared at him with puzzled looks on their faces. Jiang Wu reacted the quickest to it. Before the others could figure out what was going on, she was already urging the students to follow suit.


    Although she didn¡¯t know what was going on, she knew that there was no wrong in escaping with Ren Xiaosu!


    Someone wondered, ¡°Has that young man gone crazy?¡±


    ¡°I have no idea.¡±


    ¡°Bro, where are we going?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°We¡¯ll talk after we get out of here.¡±


    But just as they separated from the group of escapees and were about to bypass the Qing Consortium¡¯s campsite, Ren Xiaosu heard from behind him the sound of chains being dragged across the ground!


    Furthermore, the sound was closing in!


    ¡°Run!¡± Ren Xiaosu yelled in a low voice. He was probably the only person among the countless escapees who knew what wasing from behind them!


    When he saw a pack of Experimentals making a rush at him in the Jing Mountains, he instinctively retreated and fled. He didn¡¯t even hesitate knowing that he would have to turn around and face the Qing Consortium instead! At that time, Ren Xiaosu could not determine exactly how many Experimentals there were. He only knew that if he did not run, he would surely die there!


    Ren Xiaosu had been worrying about the wolf pack and Experimentals for the past two days. His worries would not dissipate until the day he got to Stronghold 109.


    He had hoped that the destroyed stronghold would attract the Experimentals and wolves to it. But now, it seemed like all hope was lost. They could only make use of whatever time they had left to escape!


    Although, Ren Xiaosu was a little confused by this. The Experimentals had only been active within the perimeter of the forest. Why had all of theme out now?!


    Wang Fugui and the others did not know why Ren Xiaosu told them to run, but they had already started trusting him.


    ¡°What about the sweet potatoes!¡± Wang Dalong shouted as he ran.


    Wang Fugui turned around and smacked away all the sweet potatoes in Wang Dalong¡¯s arms. ¡°How can you eat the sweet potatoes when you¡¯re dead?! Quickly follow Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    The sound of the chainsing from behind the escapees was growing louder. When everyone turned to look back, they saw the Experimentals scampering across the ground like spiders as they approached. They looked like demons!


    It wasn¡¯t until this moment that the escapees started screaming in horror before fleeing for their lives!


    But the size of the escapee group was toorge. The people at the front were still unsure of what was going on, while those at the rear were already running madly for their lives. As a result, a lot of people were knocked down as they collided into one another!


    Terrified screams could be heard at the back of the crowd. Hundreds of Experimentals had rushed into the group and started hunting and killing maniacally!


    Once they killed someone, they did not hesitate to pounce onto others. It was as though they wanted to finish off all of the escapees!


    When Ren Xiaosu looked back, he noticed another Experimental walking upright behind the maniacal Experimentals. It was staring at them coldly.


    Ren Xiaosu realized someone else might be controlling these Experimentals. They had not yet lost all of their intelligence.

 Chapter 123 - Someone must be sacrificed

    Chapter 123: Someone must be sacrificed


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    As Ren Xiaosu was the first to start fleeing, his group was consistently ahead of the other escapees. While getting away, he turned around once to have a look and could vaguely sense there were not as many Experimentals as when he had faced them in the Jing Mountains.


    Did the volcanic eruption reduce their numbers?


    But that was a good thing. Ren Xiaosu could not wish more for them to die inside the Jing Mountains. The more, the merrier!


    As he ran with his group, he shouted at the Qing Consortium from afar, ¡°Don¡¯t open fire. We have to escape together!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he was worried the Qing Consortium would start shooting indiscriminately. If the Qing Consortium troops took up firing positions, he would have to use his shadow clone to force his way out of this ce.


    Chen Wudi suddenly muttered as he looked at Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Master, you have too much aggression in your current life.... But it¡¯s much better than your previous life where you were too indecisive.¡±


    Chen Wudi turned around to look and saw a bloody scene behind them. As the Experimentals murdered their victims, they did so in an exceedingly brutal manner. Blood was sttering everywhere!


    The cries and screams sounded like they were all muffled as though purgatory were behind them.


    Agony.


    This was the agony of the mortal world.


    Chen Wudi¡¯s Golden-Hooped Rod materialized in his hand. The idea of subduing evil was stirring in him. But as there were too many Experimentals, he couldn¡¯t possibly defeat them all by himself.


    At this moment, a faint golden glow seemed to shimmer around Chen Wudi¡¯s body. Ren Xiaosu did not see it as he was busy protecting Xiaoyu and the others who were fleeing up ahead.


    The glow came from the golden chainmail armor and the phoenix-feather cap as recorded in Journey to the West!


    But before all of these could fully materialize, a golden band appeared on Chen Wudi¡¯s head! Then the golden armor and phoenix-feather cap 1 vanished at the same time.


    Chen Wudi stood still and looked at the ferocious Experimentals.


    ¡°Forget it, I¡¯d better go to the Heavenly Pce to request reinforcements! Master, wait for me!¡± Chen Wudi turned around and ran away!


    Ren Xiaosu turned his head and shouted at Chen Wudi, ¡°Disciple, help our guys carry their luggage!¡±


    If Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, and Xiaoyu got slowed down during their escape, they might not be able to outrun the escapees!


    Moreover, Chen Wudi¡¯s strength was even greater than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s, so it was not going to be a problem for him to carry a few of their luggage bags.


    By now, the Qing Consortium had realized the chaos. Although the escapees had blocked their field of view, which made them unsure of what was happening, Luo Lan did not hesitate in this time of chaos. He ordered all of the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops to quickly retreat.


    Even with the escapees rushing towards them, the Qing Consortium was still running ahead of them. As Luo Lan fled for his life, he shouted to those in the vehicles, ¡°You leave first! It¡¯s quicker to get away with the vehicles!¡±


    The wounded soldiers on the vehicles fell silent. Someone said, ¡°We can¡¯t leave you behind.¡±


    Luo Lan panted as he said, ¡°Hurry up and get lost! Why is a group of wounded people acting all melodramatic?¡±


    The wounded soldiers in the vehicles could see from their rtively elevated position that the Experimentals were iming the lives of the escapees with super high efficiency. Based on their speed, it would be impossible for normal humans to escape from their pursuit even if they ran with all they had.


    It would have been good if the Experimentals were attracted by the humans at the back of the group who could not run fast enough. But the Experimentals did not seem hesitant in leaving behind their ¡°food¡± they¡¯d killed. They were looking to finish off everyone here!


    The legendary saying, ¡°You don¡¯t have to run faster than the bear to get away. You just have to run faster than the guy next to you,¡± was no longer applicable. Everyone here had to die!


    The wounded soldiers did not obey Luo Lan¡¯s order to leave, decisively stopping the vehicles and unloading the firearms and munitions to the ground. Luo Lan¡¯s trusted aide, Tang Zhou, ordered thebatants to quickly form a defensive firing line. He shouted, ¡°I need two men to get in a vehicle and escort the boss out of this ce!¡±


    Tang Zhou¡¯s decision was the correct one. With so many of them here, only one-third of their total strength could fit into the vehicles, while the remaining two-thirds could not outrun the Experimentals. Moreover, the group of escapees was getting killed so quickly it wouldn¡¯t be possible to buy them much time.


    Tang Zhou knew very well they couldn¡¯t kill the Experimentals either. When Qing Zhen first caught an Experimental, he immediately fed the data to Luo Lan.


    Hence, someone had to be sacrificed.


    ¡°What are you all waiting for? Waiting to die together?¡± Tang Zhou said coldly. He pointed at two of the younger soldiers and said, ¡°You two, take the boss and leave!¡±


    By selecting these two soldiers, he was giving them a chance to keep living. He picked them because they were still young and did not get a chance to savor life yet.


    The other soldiers fell silent. They also knew the consequences of having to stay behind, but no one stepped forward to protest Tang Zhou¡¯s decision.


    ¡°Fuck, let go of me!¡± Luo Lan was carried away by the two young soldiers. He immediately turned anxious as he tried to break free from the two soldiers. He said, ¡°Are you trying to rebel? I, Luo Lan, have never been a deserter before!¡±


    Tang Zhou smiled and said, ¡°Thanks to both you and Boss Qing Zhen for taking care of me over the years.¡± He then said firmly to the two young soldiers, ¡°Quickly get the boss into the vehicle.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had just led Xiaoyu andpany to the front of the Qing Consortium¡¯s people. Jiang Wu was also following close behind them with her students. However, the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers did not care and allowed them and several other escapees to pass through the openings in their defensive line.


    Tang Zhou looked calmly ahead as the escapees were chased down by the Experimentals. The Experimentals were getting closer and closer to them but he had to wait for an opportune moment.


    ¡°toons One through Five, get ready to shoot. toon Six, be on standby to rece them on the firing line. The wounded soldiers will be responsible for passing along ammo for reloading.¡± Tang Zhou¡¯s calm voice echoed in the soldiers¡¯ ears. Then he opened up a box on the ground and took out a rocket-propelled grenadeuncher.


    Tang Zhou smiled happily and said, ¡°Luckily for us, we brought along this thing!¡±


    The escapees were wiped out by the Experimentals in just a few minutes. Tang Zhou knelt on one knee and ced the RPGuncher onto his shoulder.


    When the first Experimental appeared in his line of sight, Tang Zhou calmly said, ¡°Open fire!¡±


    With a loud bang, the grenade fired out of theuncher on his shoulder. The momentary burst of power whistled like it had been sent from heaven as the RPG hit hell via Earth!


    Ren Xiaosu looked behind him and realized the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops were unusually calm and unperturbed in the face of death.


    Clearly, this should have been a very touching sight, but there was hardly any drama. It was as though it were a trivial matter.


    Luo Lan was dragged into the off-road vehicle by the two soldiers. Then they sped off for Stronghold 109.


    But at this moment, a surprising turn of events happened. Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw as many as nine Experimentals approaching them from nowhere on both sides!


    The Experimentals had circled around the sides of the Qing Consortium¡¯s defensive line, and four of the Experimentals rushed in from the rear at Tang Zhou. Ren Xiaosu knew it was all over for Tang Zhou and his men!


    Footnotes:

 Chapter 124 - 10,000 years from now!

    Chapter 124: 10,000 years from now!


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Even though they had powerful firearms and explosives on their side, the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops stood no chance of survival if their defensive line was breached.


    Some of the soldiers fired at the Experimentals, but their opponents swiftly dodged the bullets. It was simply too difficult to hit their targets.


    Suddenly, a wounded soldier pounced up and grabbed both legs of an Experimental with a grenade in his other hand.


    With a loud boom, the wounded soldier and Experimental were blown away by the explosion. Ren Xiaosu realized that not even the Experimentals could handle the destructive power of a grenade!


    The four Experimentals that pounced onto the defensive line turned into just three. This gave Tang Zhou and his men some respite.


    But Ren Xiaosu was most touched by how the wounded soldier still remained calm before his death. There was absolutely no sense of tragedy or any noblest words. It was as though he was just trying to aplish a trivial task.


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t want to watch any further. The Qing Consortium was challenging his opinion of them.


    He looked at the remaining Experimentals and saw one of them running fast as lightning in the direction of the departing off-road vehicle. It rammed itself straight into the vehicle during its pursuit.


    When it collided with the off-road vehicle, Ren Xiaosu could even see the entire process of the vehicle¡¯s structure crumpling. A momentter, the off-road vehicle lost bnce and flipped over. It seemed like the Experimental waspletely unscathed!


    That Experimental got off the ground and gave a few slight shakes of its head. Then it jumped onto the vehicle and started tearing through the vehicle¡¯s metal body. It seemed like it wanted to dismantle the vehicle.


    However, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t care about what was going on over there, because the four Experimentals that had surrounded them were bounding over! Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Chen Wudi, cover the right!¡±


    By the time Ren Xiaosu finished speaking, he was holding a ck saber in his hands. It looked like he had pulled it out of thin air.


    Instantly, the ck saber came into contact with the Experimental that pounced at him from the left side. Its body was shed in half at the waist by the ck saber like a knife cutting through hot butter!


    In the flurry, Wang Fugui was stunned by what he saw. So Ren Xiaosu really was a supernatural being!


    Be it Ren Xiaosu¡¯s speed or strength, they had surpassed the realm of normal people!


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu was not all that nervous while battling the Experimentals, because he had previously fought these things. With the four Experimentals standing on one side, it was exactly the same situation as before. The only difference was that this time, Chen Wudi was around to help share the burden of fighting them. There was not even a need for Ren Xiaosu to use his shadow clone in the fight.


    His only concern was that Yan Liuyuan and the others might identally get injured during the fight. After all, they had no chance of striking back when facing the Experimentals.


    Ren Xiaosu had raised his saber and shed it down in one swift motion, dicing that Experimental in half at the waist. Then he shouted to Wang Fugui and the others, ¡°All of you, run!¡±


    Be it Wang Fugui, Jiang Wu and her students, or even Yan Liuyuan, they were all frightened by the terrifying Experimentals.


    The Experimentals were clearly humanoid, as they had the same nose, mouth, arms, and body as humans. But be it their behavior or ferocity, it was obvious they were no different from beasts.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Wang Fugui and the others not budging, he shouted, ¡°Go on, run!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was the first to react. ¡°Let¡¯s go! Don¡¯t stay here and be a burden to my brother!¡±


    As Wang Fugui ran with Yan Liuyuan, those words kept ringing in his mind. It seemed like Yan Liuyuan did not think they would be of any help to Ren Xiaosu. This was even as Wang Fugui and Yan Liuyuan possessed guns.


    Seeing that they had started fleeing for their lives, Ren Xiaosu finally heaved a sigh of relief. But the danger had not passed yet!


    Importantly, a lot of Experimentals got temporarily halted by Tang Zhou and the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops. But as their defensive line had been breached by the Experimentals from their rear, it would be difficult to say just how much longer they could hang on for. Seeing Tang Zhou and his men¡¯s defensive line weakening, the group of Experimentals chasing after the escapees also started rushing at the defensive formation!


    Ren Xiaosu had a frown on his face. Even if Tang Zhou and his men could hold the line for a little longer, how fast could Xiaoyu and the others run? They would probably get quickly caught by the Experimentals.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the remaining Experimental he was fighting against. It seemed like it was hesitating after itspanion got killed so easily. As such, it did not pounce at him again in attack for a long time. It started slowly backing off instead.


    Ren Xiaosu did not intend to tussle with it either. He looked over at Chen Wudi and was stunned by the sight unfolding in front of him.


    He saw the two Experimentals Chen Wudi was fighting already lying on the ground. Chen Wudi was stepping on them as he ced the Golden-Hooped Rod over his shoulder with one hand. There was a smug look to him.


    This left Ren Xiaosu very surprised because he had felt Chen Wudi might not be that strong since he couldn¡¯t block a bullet. But now, hisbat value was probably much higher than what he had imagined. Unfortunately, as he had no time to pay attention to Chen Wudi¡¯s earlier battle, he could not make a detailed assessment of him.


    He heard Chen Wudi say, ¡°You all will remember my name 10,000 years from now. My name is¡ª¡±


    ¡°Stop being so long-winded!¡± Ren Xiaosu angrily interrupted.


    ¡°OK.¡± Chen Wudi turned glum.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard someone shouting something. The shouting wasing from the overturned off-road vehicle.


    Ren Xiaosu realized the Experimental that had been trying to tear through the metal body of the vehicle had disappeared. The off-road vehicle was shaking violently. It looked like the Experimental had found its way inside the off-road vehicle!


    Save them? Or not save them?


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s Luo Lan was inside the vehicle. Currently, Ren Xiaosu was a wanted man by the Qing Consortium, and they were looking to take him dead or alive. It would already be great if Ren Xiaosu did not take this chance to make a move on Luo Lan, so why could he possibly want to save him?


    No, he could save him!


    However, Ren Xiaosu had to first dump the Experimental he had just killed in a faraway ce before rescuing Luo Lan. After all, the wound on the waist of the Experimental was too obvious. If Luo Lan saw it, he might instantly match Ren Xiaosu to the person in the Jing Mountains!


    Since Luo Lan was also unaware of how many Experimentals were outside the car, Ren Xiaosu would just have to tell him there were two of them, both of which had been single-handedly killed by Chen Wudi.


    Ren Xiaosu only rushed over after dumping the body. He saw the inside of the vehicle through the fissure. It was full of blood. A plump figure was wrestling with an Experimental inside the vehicle, but he wasn¡¯t going tost much longer.


    The plump figure was Luo Lan, and the other two people in the vehicle had probably been killed by the Experimental when they tried to protect Luo Lan. That was where the blood in the vehicle came from.


    At this moment, Chen Wudi rushed over and grabbed the vehicle with both hands. He let out a shout and tore the vehicle apart using the fissure!


    ¡°Kill it,¡± Ren Xiaosu ordered Chen Wudi. After Chen Wudi received the order, he grabbed his Golden-Hooped Rod and smashed it onto the Experimental¡¯s head from behind. Its pale yellow blood sttered all over Luo Lan¡¯s face.

 Chapter 125 - Forced by circumstances

    Chapter 125: Forced by circumstances


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    The reason Ren Xiaosu decided to save Luo Lan was because he intended to try to get into Stronghold 109 through Luo Lan!


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu noticed Luo Lan and the soldiers were getting along great. Moreover, he could feel their support for Luo Lan and Qing Zhen. People that well-supported must have something extraordinary about them. So Ren Xiaosu had been thinking if this lifesaving favor could resolve the enmity from before. If he couldn¡¯t resolve it, it would not be toote for Ren Xiaosu to personally kill Luo Lan. He also thought about whether to conceal his identity by using another name, for example. But after thinking about it, Ren Xiaosu rejected the idea, because Luo Lan had seen Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu before.


    ¡°Brother, give me a hand!¡± Luo Lan wiped his face and said, ¡°I can¡¯t get out of the vehicle myself.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pulled Luo Lan out of the vehicle. ¡°Let¡¯s leave quickly. The Experimentals will break through the defensive line soon.¡±


    But Luo Lan broke free from Ren Xiaosu and looked at Tang Zhou¡¯s group in a daze. They were about to get overwhelmed by the Experimentals.


    Concentrated gunfire and exploding grenades sounded from time to time at the defensive line they set up. The Experimentals still couldn¡¯t breach the Qing Consortium¡¯s defensive line for the time being.


    This battle was enough to show how outstanding the soldiers of the Qing Consortium were.


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°It¡¯s hopeless for them. If you rush over there now, they would just die in vain.¡±


    Luo Lan took a deep breath and said, ¡°I have to! Thank you for saving me, but I can¡¯t leave yet!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could tell Luo Lan really cared about this group of soldiers. If he didn¡¯t, his first reaction wouldn¡¯t have been to check whether his soldiers were alright after hearing the Experimentals were about to breach the defensive line.


    This was different from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mindset of how an organization was run. He had thought they were just a group of snobbish and cold-blooded animals.


    Chen Wudi turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. He asked, ¡°Pigsy and the others have run far away. What should we do?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Ren Xiaosu took a look at Luo Lan and decided to give up on him. Luo Lan had already run back to the troops¡¯ defensive line. There was no need to die with Luo Lan just because he wanted to gain passage into the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu could tell Luo Lan was terrified. If it were anyone else, they would be terrified as well. Now that all of the escapees had been wiped out, only a few people managed to escape sessfully. This ce had been reduced to ruins.


    But Ren Xiaosu could not understand why a fatty like Luo Lan could ovee his fear and run straight towards death. This wasn¡¯t about putting on an act. He would really die if he went back there!


    But when Ren Xiaosu and his group were about to leave, they suddenly heard the howling of wolves in the distance!


    This howling came at such an extraordinarily abrupt time it made Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart sink. Was the situation about to be worse?


    But to his surprise, the Experimentals started to stop attacking when they heard the howling of the wolves. Then they quickly retreated and left the battlefield within a minute!


    What was happening? Ren Xiaosu stood still as he watched the scene unfold. He wondered if it was possible that these Experimentals were afraid of the wolves.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought things would get worse with the arrival of the wolves. However, he did not expect the wolves¡¯ presence to end up counterbncing the Experimentals and holding them in check!


    Ren Xiaosu did not wish to find out about what had happened between the wolves and Experimentals. He only hoped to get Stronghold 109 safely!


    He said to Chen Wudi, ¡°Wudi, go and tell Wang Fugui and the others¡ª¡±


    ¡°Who is Wang Fugui?¡± Chen Wudi was taken aback.


    ¡°Go and tell Pigsy and the others... to not turn back. If something happens, they should continue escaping,¡± Ren Xiaosu corrected.


    It didn¡¯t seem like he could pass on the message effectively without referring to ¡°dharma names 1.¡±


    Chen Wudi went on ahead while Ren Xiaosu followed Luo Lan to return to the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops.


    ¡°Boss, why have youe back?¡± Tang Zhou was gasping as heid on top of a corpse. ¡°Hurry up and leave. Those things coulde back soon.¡±


    Luo Lan squatted down next to Tang Zhou. He looked around and saw that more than 90% of the soldiers who had escaped with him from the stronghold were dead.


    As for the remaining five or six soldiers, all of them had been seriously injured. Even though they might still be alive now, they couldn¡¯t survive long enough to get to Stronghold 109.


    The cruelty of the Experimentals was horrifying.


    Squatting down next to Tang Zhou, Luo Lan said, ¡°Do you have any words you want me to pass on?¡±


    Tang Zhou smiled and said, ¡°Boss, you said you¡¯d treat us to a good time and show us the sensual pleasures of this world when we got to Stronghold 109. We¡¯re afraid we won¡¯t make it there anymore. So, Boss, please enjoy it on our behalf when the timees.¡±


    Luo Lan was sorrowful. ¡°I¡¯d probably die in Stronghold 109.¡±


    The two of them broke intoughter as though they had cracked someme joke.


    Tang Zhou suddenly said, ¡°We don¡¯t regret it.¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Luo Lan grunted in response.


    ¡°Um, let me interrupt you two for a moment.¡± Ren Xiaosu watched the two men and could not help but stop their conversation. ¡°Actually, they won¡¯t have to die.¡±


    Tang Zhou and Luo Lan were stunned. They simultaneously looked at Ren Xiaosu. Tang Zhou startedughing and said, ¡°Young man, stop joking. No one can stop my bleeding.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu ignored them and took out a vial. ¡°I have an excellent medicine here for treating wounds. Don¡¯t worry, y¡¯all won¡¯t die. But I won¡¯t be treating your wounds for nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. ¡°In return, I want you to get us into Stronghold 109 and obtain legal resident statuses for us.¡±


    But Luo Lan ignored thetter part of his sentence and stared at the ck medicine in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. This vial looked a little familiar to him.


    Luo Lan¡¯s expression gradually turned from calm to shock. ¡°This can also treat wounds?! Wait a minute, you¡¯re the magic hands that restore spring, Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    Fucking ¡°magic hands restore spring¡±! Ren Xiaosu nearly kicked Luo Lan to the ground when he was reminded him about that banner!


    Still, Ren Xiaosu was one of the targets wanted by the Qing Consortium. Luo Lan could never have expected that Ren Xiaosu would appear here, and even rescue him at that.


    Suddenly, Luo Lan remembered someone had mentioned before that Ren Xiaosu was a doctor back in town. This gave him some hope!


    Seeing how Tang Zhou¡¯s group needed Ren Xiaosu to save them, Luo Lan resolutely humbled himself and tried to cotton up to Ren Xiaosu by saying, ¡°With our rtionship, I¡¯m fine with however many people you wish to bring into the stronghold. Anything can be agreed upon as long as you save them!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What¡¯s our rtionship?¡±


    Luo Lan was also left speechless by that question. He hesitated awhile before saying, ¡°A doctor-patient rtionship...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu speechlessly threw three vials of the ck medicine to Luo Lan. ¡°Apply these to their wounds.¡±


    Luo Lan hesitated for a moment. ¡°It won¡¯t have that side effect, will it?¡±


    ¡°No, hurry up and apply the medicine on them. If the Experimentals or wolvese back, no one is gonna get out of here alive!¡± Ren Xiaosu was starting to get impatient. In reality, he decided to treat Tang Zhou and his squadmates¡¯ wounds because he wanted Luo Lan to owe him a favor. Even though the off-road vehicle had overturned, the transport truck was still in good condition. After he finished treating Tang Zhou¡¯s group, he could get them to drive the truck and pick up Yan Liuyuan and the others. It would be much easier for everyone this way.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. ¡°You guys won¡¯t be arresting me after you¡¯ve recovered from these injuries, right?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Luo Lan hurriedly shook his head and said, ¡°We¡¯re actually just after Xu Xianchu, but you being wanted as well was purely a coincidence!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu reacted with an odd expression. ¡°That¡¯s a good thing....¡±


    He could only say in his head, ¡®Big Brother Xu Xianchu, I¡¯m sorry.¡¯


    Although this might inconvenience Xu Xianchu a bit, what else could Ren Xiaosu do? He was forced by the circumstances!


    Footnotes:

 Chapter 126 - A lunatic wouldn’t admit they’re crazy

    Chapter 126: A lunatic wouldn¡¯t admit they¡¯re crazy


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    When the ck medicine was applied to Tang Zhou¡¯s wounds, he felt like was brought back to Earth from the underworld.


    The ck medicine¡¯s ability to stop pain was incredibly amazing and it applied a cooling sensation to a wound.


    Tang Zhou looked up at Ren Xiaosu and said in shock, ¡°Is this really the type of medicine Boss usually takes?!¡±


    Luo Lan grew angry and snapped, ¡°Will you die if you don¡¯t speak? Shut up!¡±


    ¡°Which of the wounded knows how to drive?¡± Ren Xiaosu interrupted them. ¡°If y¡¯all don¡¯t wanna die, get in the truck quickly and let¡¯s get out of this ce.¡±


    Everyone stayed quiet. A wounded soldier who could still move struggled to get up and climbed into the driver seat of the transport truck. Ren Xiaosu frowned and said to Luo Lan, ¡°Can you drive instead? He might die while driving with the shape he¡¯s in.¡±


    Luo Lan said helplessly, ¡°I don¡¯t know how to drive....¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know how to drive?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with some disbelief, ¡°You¡¯re such a big shot in the stronghold, but you don¡¯t even know how to drive?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no rtion between being a big shot and knowing how to drive, right?¡± Luo Lan said in a speechless manner, ¡°Oh, wait, it is rted. It¡¯s because I don¡¯t need to drive myself when I go out, so I didn¡¯t need to learn how to drive.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had no time to argue with him right now. ¡°Hurry up and get into the truck.¡±


    In the Qing Consortium¡¯s records, Ren Xiaosu was just a rtively stronger refugee. Xu Xianchu was the one who was supposedly the most dangerous of all.


    When the truck passed the spot where Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi had killed the Experimentals, Luo Lan even counted how many there were. A total of three Experimentals had been killed, including the one that pounced on the off-road vehicle.


    Logically, Ren Xiaosu would not have the ability to do this. Luo Lan suddenly recalled that the young man next to Ren Xiaosu looked a little familiar. But he could not remember who it was since he was still in a state of shock.


    Soon after, the truck drove over to Xiaoyu andpany. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s head poked out from the back of the military transport truck. He said, ¡°Hop in!¡±


    Jiang Wu stood there and watched Yan Liuyuan andpany climb in the truck. She said hesitantly, ¡°Can you let us in as well? Or just let the students get in. There¡¯s no need to worry about me.¡±


    As Jiang Wu believed they were not rted in any manner to Ren Xiaosu and his group, it would only take a word from him to determine whether they would be allowed into the truck. She knew she had to make this request.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu for a bit, then said, ¡°That¡¯s what I intended all along.¡±


    ¡°Thank you! Thank you very much!¡± Jiang Wu got excited and urged the students, ¡°Everyone, hurry up and get into the truck. Remember to thank him for saving our lives!¡±


    The group of students climbed into the back of the truck and saw it was more thanrge enough for everyone to sit in. Only Luo Lan, who was sitting in the corner, kept grumbling softly, ¡°Isn¡¯t this supposed to be my truck?¡±


    Why did it seem like Ren Xiaosu was making most of the decisions here?


    But Luo Lan had to bow out. He realized at this moment that Ren Xiaosu had an absolute advantage over the people in the group.


    When Ren Xiaosu was giving treatment to Tang Zhou¡¯s group, he deliberately took away all their weapons.


    Every student who climbed in would say a few words of thanks to Ren Xiaosu. He found he gained more than 20 gratitude tokens in just a short time. The students were all sincerely grateful to him.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu thought it might the teacher, Jiang Wu, who had influenced them to be this way. As just a normal person caught in the disaster, this female teacher had disyed the most glorious aspect of human nature.


    Ren Xiaosu, who lived in the chaotic town, felt somewhat envious.


    By now, Ren Xiaosu had earned 56 gratitude tokens from everyone, including the gratitude tokens Tang Zhou, Luo Lan, and their soldiers gave. The gratitude tokens he reaped for this side quest came in much quicker than the previous one.


    When everyone got into the truck, it started moving again. Everyone was sitting quietly. Everyone would feel different emotions after such a close brush with death. Only after near-death encounters would people yearn to live.


    Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan took out some food from their bags and handed it to Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi. They knew Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi needed food to replenish their strength after the battle.


    The others swallowed hard when they saw the food, but no one dared to ask for a share. Even Luo Lan did not say anything.


    But all of a sudden, Luo Lan¡¯s eyes shed as he gave Chen Wudi a look. He finally remembered who he was!


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you that lunatic from Third Psychiatric Hospital?¡± Luo Lan sat up straight. ¡°Your name is... yes, your name is Chen Wudi!¡±


    As the actual controller of the stronghold, how could Luo Lan not know about the existence of No. 3 Psychiatric Hospital? Moreover, all of the information on the supernatural beings who had been detained would be reported back to him. The content of the information was meticulously detailed and would even include their daily life, words spoken, and behavior disyed!


    Even for the Qing Consortium, supernatural beings were an extremely important resource. Whether they had been made use of or studied upon, the Qing Consortium could not ignore the existence of such people.


    Luo Lan figured out something at this moment: Who exactly had killed the Experimentals?


    However, he was only seeing what Ren Xiaosu wanted him to see.


    Chen Wudi looked at Luo Lan. He had not really taken a careful look at Luo Lan earlier on. In addition, Luo Lan¡¯s face was stained with yellow blood at that time. Only after he had wiped his face clean did Chen Wudi finally recognize Luo Lan. ¡°It¡¯s you, Benbo¡¯erba 1!¡±


    ¡°Ben? Ben, my ass!¡± Luo Lan grew heated. He had read Journey to the West before, alright? ¡°You lunatic, don¡¯t spout nonsense. Who the fucking hell is Benbo¡¯erba?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave Luo Lan a nce. He remembered that whenever Chen Wudi was about to hit someone, he would always assign a demon name to them.


    Chen Wudi looked at Luo Lan unhappily. ¡°Please address me as the Great Sage in the future. On top of that, I¡¯m not a lunatic.¡±


    Luo Lan snapped, ¡°No lunatic would admit they¡¯re crazy. You say you¡¯re the Great Sage who protects his master so you people can go to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures? In that case, you must first have a master, right? So where is your master?¡±


    It fell silent in the vehicle.


    Then, Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and said, ¡°I¡¯m his master.¡±


    Wang Fugui said, ¡°I¡¯m Pigsy.¡±


    Wang Dalong¡¯s gaze kept wandering back and forth between Wang Fugui and Ren Xiaosu. He hesitated for a few seconds before saying, ¡°I¡¯m Friar Sand...¡±


    Luo Lan was confused.


    Just how many mentally ill people were there in the truck? Luo Lan was dumbfounded. ¡°Are you serious?¡±


    Suddenly, the soldier in the driver seat shouted, ¡°We have a situation up ahead!¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu heard a sharp braking sound. It was as though the driver hade across an unbelievable sight.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in a serious tone.


    ¡°There are a few cars ahead,¡± the driver answered. ¡°No, there are a few damaged cars ahead of us. It looks like they came from the direction of Stronghold 109.¡±

 Chapter 127 - Gaining legal resident status in the stronghold!

    Chapter 127: Gaining legal resident status in the stronghold!


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Damaged cars?


    After hearing what the driver said, many of those in the truck were startled. How could there be cars around here?


    ¡°All of you, stay in the truck.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned to Chen Wudi and said, ¡°Wudi, get out with me and look.¡±


    The truck was already stationary. After jumping off the back of the truck, Ren Xiaosu discovered Luo Lan had also jumped down with them. The three of them slowly advanced towards the damaged cars. But before they even got close, Ren Xiaosu could smell blood in the air.


    Just as the driver had mentioned, three cars were blocking the road up ahead. They were all badly damaged and dripping with blood.


    ¡°Be careful,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. As he spoke, he inspected the nearby pavement to see what on earth could have attacked the convoy.


    ¡°Strange,¡± Luo Lan said in surprise, ¡°these are indeed vehicles from Stronghold 109, but why did they send them out at this hour? And they were even headed in the direction of Stronghold 113?¡±


    At present, Luo Lan had no idea that Qing Zhen had threatened the Stronghold 109 overseer. Lu Yuan, who was the overseer of that stronghold, had no choice but to hold off the pressure from the Li Consortium and send out a small group of private troops to search for Luo Lan¡¯s whereabouts.


    However, they ran into an ident.


    The three cars were parked in a crooked manner on the road. The trio of Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and Luo Lan did not see any bodies and were only greeted by a trail of blood that led into the depths of the dark wilderness.


    The bloodstains had already dried. Judging by the color, Ren Xiaosu deduced that the battle must have taken ce around half a day ago.


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu noticed a strand of white fur on the ground. Following, his expression turned to one of great shock. ¡°This is the fur of a wolf!¡± Ren Xiaosu retreated with Chen Wudi. He finally realized what the bloodstains leading into the wilderness meant. It was the blood of the victims as they got dragged off in the mouths of the wolves.


    What were the wolves doing here half a day ago?


    But Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t care think too much. He just wanted to get back to the truck and get out of here!


    ¡°Wait a second for me!¡± Luo Lan whispered.


    Ren Xiaosu watched him jog all the way over to the three cars. It seemed that he was looking for something in them.


    A secondter, Luo Lan took out a device Ren Xiaosu hadn¡¯t seen before. ¡°I found it!¡±


    When the three of them returned to the truck, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What were you searching for in their cars?¡±


    ¡°Hehe,¡± Luo Lan chuckled. ¡°A satellite phone! I hope the PIN on this hasn¡¯t been changed from the original ¡®1111,¡¯ or I won¡¯t be able to use it. We¡¯re going to have to take a gamble.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu examined it. So this was what the legendary satellite phone looked like? But what was that PIN Luo Lan mentioned? Ren Xiaosu had never even remotely heard of it before.


    When the truck started moving again, Luo Lan said in surprise after keying in ¡°1111¡± on the satellite phone, ¡°It works!¡± Right after, he dialed another series of numbers with a sense of familiarity. He had memorized this number a long time ago.


    ¡°Who are you calling?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°My little brother,¡± Luo Lan replied and then waited patiently for the call to connect.


    Suddenly, a man¡¯s voice could be heard on the other end. ¡°Hello, who is this?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Luo Lan. Get my little brother on the line!¡± Luo Lan said in delight.


    Very quickly, someone else spoke on the phone. ¡°Where are you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to escape. I can probably get to Stronghold 109 in a day and a half at thetest,¡± Luo Lan replied. ¡°How is everything on your side? Have you made it out of the Jing Mountains yet?¡±


    On the other end, Qing Zhen paused and said, ¡°I¡¯m still in the Jing Mountains.... Xu Xianchu, god fucking damn you!¡±


    The call volume of the satellite phone was a little loud. Ren Xiaosu felt a little guilty after hearing what Qing Zhen said. He knew exactly why Qing Zhen was still stuck in the Jing Mountains. He was the one who shed all of their vehicles¡¯ tires.


    Apparently reining in his emotions, Qing Zhen asked calmly, ¡°Whose phone are you calling from? Have Lu Yuan¡¯s men picked you up?¡±


    Only then did Luo Lan realize the three cars were sent out by Lu Yuan under Qing Zhen¡¯s orders. He answered, ¡°Something happened to Lu Yuan¡¯s men along the way. I found this satellite phone in one of their cars.¡±


    Qing Zhen did not care about what happened to Lu Yuan¡¯s men. He thought for a while and said, ¡°Reorganize yourselves once you get to Stronghold 109, and don¡¯t return to the Qing Consortium for the time being.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Luo Lan was taken aback but reacted quickly. ¡°Have those old fogeys of the Board decided to punish you?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re just going to put me under house arrest in Stronghold 111,¡± Qing Zhen said in a rxed tone. ¡°But a lot of people have been very unhappy with you. If you go back now, you might receive a heavier punishment. Since they don¡¯t know you¡¯re still alive, you should stay at Stronghold 109 for the time being.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Luo Lan acknowledged in a low voice.


    ¡°By the way,¡± Qing Zhen said, ¡°when you get to Stronghold 109, tell Lu Yuan to arrest Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu. I suspect these four people might¡¯ve headed there after escaping from the Jing Mountains. After all, Stronghold 111 and 109 are the nearest to the Jing Mountains.¡±


    Luo Lan gave an embarrassed nce at Ren Xiaosu: ¡°Ren Xiaosu is right next to me....¡±


    Qing Zhen was silent for a while, then asked in bewilderment, ¡°You¡¯ve caught him already?!¡±


    Luo Lan got even more embarrassed. ¡°You might not believe it when I say this, but based on the current circumstances, I¡¯m probably the one who¡¯s been caught....¡±


    Qing Zhen was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at Luo Lan, who was stressed a great deal, as he quickly sought to exin it was Ren Xiaosu who saved him. He would probably have died if not for that action.


    Qing Zhen finally understood what had happened. Qing Zhen said from the other end, ¡°Tell him we¡¯ll forget all the unpleasantness between him and our Qing Consortium. On top of that, I, Qing Zhen, now owes him a favor and a life.¡±


    ¡°They want to enter Stronghold 109 and be legal residents there,¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°You can speak directly to Lu Yuan.¡± Qing Zhen did not seem too concerned about this matter.


    Phew! Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. The name of the Qing Consortium had been weighing on his mind recently.


    It was quite terrifying to be on the radar of such a huge corporation. Who in this era would be willing to go against a corporation that controlled over 20 strongholds?


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was even more determined now to not let Qing Zhen find out he was the one who shed all of their vehicles¡¯ tires that night. Just based on how Qing Zhen had sworn at Xu Xianchu earlier, Ren Xiaosu got the feeling this matter wasn¡¯t over yet.


    But Ren Xiaosu remembered what Qing Zhen just said. He wondered where Yang Xiaojin would go after escaping from the Jing Mountains. Would it be to Stronghold 109 or Stronghold 111? Or perhaps somewhere even further away?


    Since there were limitations to Luo Xinyu¡¯s power to travel through the shadows, Yang Xiaojin and she couldn¡¯t have gone too far, right?


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu. Everyone heard the conversation between Luo Lan and Qing Zhen. At this very moment, there was visible excitement in both Ren Xiaosu¡¯s and Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes. They understood they were no longer going to be refugees. From this moment onward, they would be legal residents of Stronghold 109!

 Chapter 128 - Headache spell

    Chapter 128: Headache spell


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s motive for rescuing Luo Lan was so they could get into the stronghold through him. Now that his objective was achieved, his wish could finally be considered fulfilled.


    As for how Luo Lan and Qing Zhen would convince the Li Consortium and Stronghold 109¡¯s overseer, that would be up to them. After all, the corporations had business dealings with one another all the time, so they would have to give each other some face.


    From Qing Zhen¡¯s tone, it felt like it wasn¡¯t a particrly difficult matter to handle.


    Nearby, Wang Fugui let out a sigh and said softly, ¡°Some issues can be extremely difficult for us to handle but are only a matter of words for people in their world.¡±


    Luo Lan said, ¡°If we promise you something, our Qing Consortium will see it gets done. Would arge organization need to lie to a few refugees like you?¡±


    All of a sudden, Wang Fugui asked Luo Lan, ¡°Xiaosu saved your life, isn¡¯t that right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Luo Lan said in a surprised manner.


    ¡°Boss Luo is a big shot,¡± Wang Fugui said as his eyes revealed a certain shrewdness. ¡°Since your life is so valuable, it would not be enough to just get us into the stronghold. If this matter gets out, other people will feel that the Qing Consortium is being stingy.¡±


    When Wang Fugui escaped from town with Ren Xiaosu, he had explicitly expressed to Ren Xiaosu the value he could bring to the group. Now was finally the time to show it.


    In reality, Wang Fugui knew all about his own shorings. He had never seen much of the world before and would appear very crude by bargaining with a big shot like Luo Lan. In fact, Luo Lan might even be mentally mocking him for daring to ask for help when he was not qualified to do so. But that didn¡¯t matter to him. Wang Fugui had to help Ren Xiaosu obtain the most favorable conditions to the best of his abilities. For this reason alone, he was willing to be shameless.


    From the conversation between Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, Wang Fugui realized that obtaining legal resident statuses in the stronghold was no big deal for these big shots. So he wondered if they could get even more out of them.


    ¡°What else do you all want?¡± Luo Lan rxed in the cargo bed and looked at Wang Fugui. ¡°But you had better not make unreasonable demands!¡±


    Wang Fugui felt hopeful at the words. He said, ¡°We want a shop. The Qing Consortium must have a lot of properties in Stronghold 109, so it shouldn¡¯t be a problem to get us a shop!¡±


    Luo Lan downyed, ¡°My life isn¡¯t worth as much as one shop.¡±


    Old Wang was a little taken aback. Luo Lan was being rather shameless if he put it that way. As a refugee, Wang Fugui could be shameless. But how could a big shot of the Qing Consortium behave so shamelessly as well?


    But Wang Fugui didn¡¯t know that the most shameless people in the world were actually those who belonged to the organizations. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for them to make an organization in the first ce.


    Wang Fugui asked Luo Lan, ¡°Your younger brother just said he owed Ren Xiaosu a favor and a life, right?¡±


    ¡°What is it you¡¯re trying to say?¡± Luo Lan was feeling speechless.


    ¡°Is the favor and the life that your younger brother mentioned worth a shop?¡± Wang Fugui asked.


    Luo Lan went quiet for a long time before answering, ¡°Yes.¡±


    Although he could be shameless about himself, it was not so when Qing Zhen¡¯s name was mentioned.


    ¡°I¡¯ll prepare a simple shop for you all.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°But our Qing Consortium does not owe you anything more after that.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu decisively epted it. This would be a stable ie stream for them in the stronghold. Even if they didn¡¯t use the shop to do business, the rent they could obtain from it would probably be enough for their daily living expenses. Furthermore, he had promised Old Wang he would reopen a grocery store for him.


    However, Wang Fugui still seemed unsatisfied. He said to Luo Lan, ¡°How much do you think the lives of your five subordinates are worth?¡±


    Luo Lan got annoyed. ¡°Couldn¡¯t you have finished saying it in one shot? Alright, I¡¯ll give you a big shop that¡¯s in a good location. Don¡¯t ask me for anything more, or I¡¯ll die here right in front of you!¡±


    Wang Fugui wanted to go even further, but Ren Xiaosu tugged at him. It was best to stop asking since they had gotten what they wanted.


    If they really made Luo Lan angry, he might just go back on his words after they got to the stronghold. At that time, Ren Xiaosu and the others would not be able to do anything about it.


    Ren Xiaosu had chosen to save Tang Zhou and his soldiers because he realized Luo Lan was a little sentimental. Luo Lan would feel grateful to him after he saved them.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw Chen Wudi, who was seated opposite him, looking at Luo Lan in a hostile manner. It was as though he wanted to subdue evil right now.


    He noticed some changes in Chen Wudi¡¯s appearance, but he could not immediately tell what the difference was. Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Eh, Wudi, is that a golden circlet on your head? Where did ite from?¡±


    Before this night, he was quite certain Chen Wudi did not have a golden circlet on his head.


    Ren Xiaosu suspected this item had also materialized out of Chen Wudi¡¯s imagination. But unlike the Golden-Hooped Rod, this golden circlet was different as it didn¡¯t actually disappear.


    ¡°The golden circlet was given to me by the bodhisattva. Master, don¡¯t you know that?¡± Chen Wudi looked like he expected this to bemon knowledge.


    ¡°...I do,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered. ¡®But that¡¯s not what I was asking!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu intended to make up an excuse to get past his questioning. After all, his current role was Master Sanzang, so how could he possibly not know where his disciple¡¯s golden circlet came from?


    Then, Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu seriously and asked, ¡°Master, do you still remember how to recite the headache spell?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nearly broken down. ¡®How am I supposed to know that spell?!¡¯


    In the original text of Journey to the West, there was no mention of the specific contents of the spell when Guanyin 1 taught it to Tripitaka. Ren Xiaosu saw a sparkle of excitement in Chen Wudi¡¯s eyes as he anticipated what was about toe. Ren Xiaosu tested him by reciting, ¡°Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers 1?¡±


    ¡°Ahhh!¡± Chen Wudi clutched his head and cried out, ¡°Master, stop it! Master, stop it!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sat there with his mouth agape. He thought to himself, ¡®Chen Wudi, you¡¯re ying along quite well.¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu realized that everyone else was giving him strange looks. Some students even sank deep into thought over this.


    This bodhisattva was probably some kind ofedian, right?!


    Luo Lan felt like his intelligence had been greatly insulted. He could not understand why a lunatic like Chen Wudi would regard Ren Xiaosu as his master!


    If he had to believe that Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, Wang Fugui, and Wang Dalong were the reincarnations of Tripitaka and his disciples, he would rather kill himself by smashing his head here in the truck!


    The truck had been driving for dozens of kilometers before they slowly came to a stop. Luo Lan asked, ¡°Can we afford to take a break now? Won¡¯t the wolf pack catch up to us?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was reminded about the strangeness of the wolves¡¯ behavior. He gave it some thought before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s take a short rest. We only have one driver, so it won¡¯t be good if he gets exhausted. Besides, if the wolvese chasing after us, the vehicle probably can¡¯t outrun them if we keep driving.¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu was constantly wondering in his mind. He had previously thought that the wolves had not attacked the escapees only because they had gone back to what was now the ruins of Stronghold 113.


    But by the looks of it, it seemed the wolves had been keeping close to them all this while. There was even a time when the pack overtook their group.


    But why didn¡¯t the wolves attack the escapees?


    There was no logical exnation for it!


    Unless there was someone in the group the wolves were unwilling to attack!


    Footnotes:

 Chapter 129 - Instigating Chen Wudi’s defection

    Chapter 129: Instigating Chen Wudi¡¯s defection


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    While everyone was resting, Ren Xiaosu found a hilltop where he could look around to spot the whereabouts of the wolves.


    But when he reached the top of the hill, he was stunned. Ren Xiaosu did not really expect the wolves to be nearby.


    He saw the silvery Wolf King standing in the wilderness and staring at him quietly. Even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing for it.


    But very surprisingly, Ren Xiaosu did not get the feeling the Wolf King had any intention of attacking them this time. It just nced at him quietly before turning around to run back into the wilderness.


    The Wolf King looked extremely strong and powerful. Using some of the bushes that it stood next to earlier as a reference, Ren Xiaosu was startled when he realized his estimation was not wrong. This Wolf King had grown to a sizerger than a cow.


    Why? What motives did the wolves have in following them?


    Ren Xiaosu had thought something did not feel quite right. Although the wolves did not dare to pass through the canyon, Ren Xiaosu found they had been waiting there all along when he returned from the mountains beyond the canyon.


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu wondered if they bore a grudge against him after he had escaped from them the previous year. But now, it seemed like the situation was far moreplicated than that.


    Whatever! Ren Xiaosu thought it was going well as long as the wolves did not attack them. As for what that reason might be, he had no intention of delving any deeper into it.


    He would be bidding farewell to the wilderness in another day or so. After that, he would be entering the stronghold he had always been dreaming of to live a life without fear or worry.


    Then their lives would start getting better with each passing day. Ren Xiaosu had promised Yan Liuyuan he would lead him to afortable life someday.


    When he returned to the vehicle, everyone had disembarked from the truck to stretch themselves. Although it was not too crowded inside the truck bed, there was still some difort from being stuck in it for an extended period.


    Wang Fugui approached Ren Xiaosu and said solemnly, ¡°Thank you, Xiaosu. Thank you for taking me and my son with you into the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Fugui, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui and said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so polite with me. We¡¯re not only going into the stronghold, we¡¯re also going to reopen your grocery store.¡±


    Wang Fugui shook his head. ¡°It won¡¯t be my grocery store but yours. Listen to me, Xiaosu. You¡¯ve earned that grocery store in return for risking your life. It¡¯s enough for me to be your shopkeeper in the future. I have nothing more to ask for, except that you remember to give me a high sry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. He had not expected Wang Fugui to reject him when faced with such an enticing deal.


    While Wang Fugui continued thinking about how to persuade Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu said, feeling touched, ¡°OK, let¡¯s do it as you say.¡±


    Wang Fugui was speechless. Ren Xiaosu was still the same shameless, money-loving young man he knew.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu added, ¡°You¡¯ll get a 30% share in the shop, and the money you get from selling those antibiotics will be yours to keep too.¡±


    He was not exactly giving out shares to him for nothing. First of all, Ren Xiaosu did not have any talent in running a shop, while Old Wang had been running one all his life. So Ren Xiaosu felt he should let the professional handle it so he could spend his time on other things. In fact, what Ren Xiaosu wanted to do now was not to earn money but to go to school.


    ...


    Luo Lan made use of this time to size up Chen Wudi while Ren Xiaosu was away. He was already quite familiar with Chen Wudi. Be it his daily routine or hobbies, someone had reported this information to him before.


    Luo Lan had been quite envious that his younger brother had a supernatural being for a bodyguard. It felt really nice to even just think about that.


    Unfortunately, the supernatural being had been serving in the military base under Qing Zhen¡¯smand. However, Luo Lan was not that lucky.


    And now, Luo Lan was starting to have such ideas again after finding out Chen Wudi was able to take on three Experimentals all by himself.


    Chen Wudi was just a fool. As a big shot of the Qing Consortium, couldn¡¯t he easily fool a fool?


    As Ren Xiaosu had never disyed his superpower in front of Luo Lan before, he was only a skilled and ballsy refugee in Luo Lan¡¯s eyes. What did he do to deserve such a powerful supernatural being like Chen Wudi as his follower? And it was even a master-disciple rtionship too!


    Luo Lan was richer and more handsome than Ren Xiaosu. He was also an organization¡¯s big shot with power beyond imagination. A person like him should have a follower like Chen Wudi instead!


    Thinking of this, Luo Lan went up to Chen Wudi and chuckled. ¡°Hey, Wudi, since your master is so poor, why don¡¯t you follow me instead?¡±


    Chen Wudi nced at Luo Lan and said, ¡°I don¡¯t wanna talk to Benbo¡¯erba.¡±


    Luo Lan was annoyed. ¡®Fucking Benbo¡¯erba! Are you still not done with that yet?! Just what is with a mentally ill peron¡¯s train of thought? Can¡¯t it be a little more normal?!¡¯


    When Ren Xiaosu came back, he saw Luo Lan sitting right up against Chen Wudi. He smiled and said, ¡°What, you wanna go with us to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures too? If you really wanna, we¡¯re still missing a White Dragon Horse.... No, you don¡¯t look like White Dragon Horse.¡± So saying, Ren Xiaosu turned his head and looked around. When he saw Wang Dalong, his eyes lit up. ¡°We¡¯re still missing a carrying pole 1 and two baskets. So why don¡¯t you be the bamboo basket instead!¡±


    Luo Lan got so angry he turned around and left. He suddenly felt he was not crazy enough to get along with Ren Xiaosu and the others.


    Early the next morning, the truck was ready to set off again. This time, they were going to head straight for Stronghold 109!


    When their other vehicles broke down, they siphoned the gas from them into the other vehicles that were still working. As such, the gas in the truck¡¯s tank was more than enough to cover this leg of the journey.


    Ren Xiaosu started imagining what it would be like to live in the stronghold. He suddenly asked Jiang Wu and her students, ¡°What on earth is it like inside a stronghold?¡±


    Jiang Wu thought back and said, ¡°Students can attend lessons in the stronghold without worry. During their break, they can even y basketball and sweat it out in the schoolyard. When the girls see the boys they like, they will cheer for them. Actually, the teachers already know those students have developed feelings for each other, but they sometimes choose to turn a blind eye to it. Of course, the majority of the teachers will still choose to call the students¡¯ parents.¡±


    ¡°Call their parents?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Why would they call their parents?¡±


    ¡°To tell the parents so they¡¯ll punish their children,¡± Jiang Wu said with a smile.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Fortunately for me, I don¡¯t have parents.¡±


    Jiang Wu choked on her words as she did not know how to continue the conversation! But for some reason, she felt a little sad for him. So this young man had been living in the deste wastnds in such manner with absolutely nothing to fall back on.


    Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Everyone, get into the truck! We¡¯re setting off!¡±


    Then he saw Luo Lan bow three times in the direction of where they came from. He was doing that for the soldiers of thebat brigade who had died for him.


    Actually, Luo Lan had not shown any signs of exceptional sadness along the way thus far. It was as though he were still very optimistic about things.


    But when Ren Xiaosu saw this, he felt that Luo Lan was not showing his sadness simply because he did not want to appear weak.

 Chapter 130 - A brush with death

    <h4>Chapter 130: A brush with death</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°The town is right in front of us.¡± Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes were shimmering as he leaned forward from the back of the truck and peeked through the transparent window between the cab and cargo bed.


    Upon hearing that, all of the people who were nodding off in the back of the truck were jolted awake.


    Everyone did not have it easy their entire journey here. There wasn¡¯t even a ce for them to lie down for one day, and everyone was always in a state of anxiety and constant worry. What if the wolves or the terrifying Experimentals caught up to them again?


    Even if there was a supernatural being like Chen Wudi around, he probably couldn¡¯t hold off so many Experimentals, right?


    Although Ren Xiaosu told them they would be fine, everyone was still uneasy until the moment they finally saw ¡°human civilization¡± again. An emotion welled up inside them. It was a kind of happiness that came after a brush with death.


    Naturally, some people were puzzled too. For example, Luo Lan and Jiang Wu wondered why Ren Xiaosu would make the judgment call that the wolves would not be attacking them again when they didn¡¯t even see him doing anything about it. Furthermore, the wolves really did note to attack them!


    Jiang Wu had already experienced it so many times along the way. The young refugee made many decisions correctly as though he had prior knowledge.


    If she didn¡¯t have her students catch up with Ren Xiaosu in advance on the evening the Experimentals attacked, they would have probably died there.


    During their escape, Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others in their group did not suffer much. The other escapees had not brought anything with them on their escape. Of all the escapees, only the five of them were carrying a full set of luggage, and it was clear they were well-prepared. This made Jiang Wu envy Yan Liuyuan and the others. If Ren Xiaosu had led her and her students as well, they would probably have suffered a lot less.


    Of course, she knew that Ren Xiaosu did not have such an obligation to them. Furthermore, he had already helped her with many things, such as searching for food and letting them get into the truck. Jiang Wu knew full well it was due to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s credit that she and her students got to Stronghold 109 alive. She turned to the students and said, ¡°Everyone,e and thank Ren Xiaosu. You should all know you¡¯re only alive because of what he did.¡±


    The students looked at Ren Xiaosu. This refugee, the same age as them, had truly earned their genuine admiration.


    ¡°Thank you!¡±


    ¡°Thank you so much!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Xie Guangkun, +1!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Chenghe, +1!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was on cloud nine. ¡°You¡¯re all too polite, too polite!¡±


    Within a minute, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said as he counted the number of people, ¡°There are still two people who haven¡¯t thanked me yet. Hurry up and...¡±


    Jiang Wu did not know whether tough or cry. Although she was very grateful to Ren Xiaosu, she sometimes felt that his brain might really be wired differently from others.


    The military transport truck drove on the road that cut through the center of town towards the stronghold¡¯s gate. Yan Liuyuan leaned out of the back of the truck and looked outside. ¡°Bro, this ce is just like our town.¡±


    What he meant by ¡°just like¡± probably referred to the shacks and living conditions in town.


    Ren Xiaosu used to think the sights in town were awful, but the same sights here felt warm and fuzzy to him now.


    He was a little different from the others. After venturing out to the Jing Mountains, he didn¡¯t even get to rest before he came back and encountered the disaster at the stronghold. It¡¯d been half a month since he had gotten any proper rest.


    Even someone with an extremely strong will like him would feel worn out.


    Jiang Wu said hesitantly, ¡°Did you guys used to live in a ce like this?¡±


    Everyone in the stronghold knew there was a town outside, but they did not know what the town actually looked like. That was because not everyone could pass through the stronghold¡¯s gate as they wished.


    So Jiang Wu had thought the town was some dpidated ce with squat buildings. She had never expected there would be no buildings at all. The majority of the homes here were run-down.


    So they had been living in a fairy tale heaven the entire time, while Ren Xiaosu andpany lived in hell.


    Xiaoyu smiled and said, ¡°But life was not that hard. Our Xiaosu was even a substitute teacher in town. If nothing had happened to the stronghold, he would probably have be the new teacher.¡±


    Her words surprised Jiang Wu even more as she looked closely at Ren Xiaosu. Honestly, she only thought that Ren Xiaosu was capable. She did not expect he was even a teacher. In that instant, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s image in her head became even greater.


    This was the social status that came along with a social identity. If Ren Xiaosu were only a ¡°drug dealer,¡± he would definitely not gain any respect from others.


    Grumpy, Luo Lan jumped out of the vehicle. The more he looked at Ren Xiaosu, the angrier he became. He was clearly just a refugee, yet he had a supernatural being as his disciple and even a beautiful female teacher with eyes only for him.


    He marched up to the gate in an awe-inspiring manner and shouted to the people at the gate, ¡°Tell Lu Yuan toe out and see me!¡±


    It seemed like the man at the gate was a town resident. He was stunned as he stared at Luo Lan. ¡°Who is Lu Yuan?¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s face darkened. He shouted, ¡°Where¡¯s the town administrator? Get him out here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also jumped out of the vehicle and immediately saw the figure of a town administrator. After all, the demeanor and attire of the town administrator were totally different from those of the refugees. Ren Xiaosu told him, ¡°We came from Stronghold 113. This is Luo Lan of the Qing Consortium. Report this to your stronghold overseer.¡± Ren Xiaosu then turned around to Yan Liuyuan and the others and said, ¡°Y¡¯all don¡¯t have to get out of the vehicle. We¡¯ll be driving straight into the stronghold.¡±


    Jiang Wu was slightly taken aback, because Ren Xiaosu cast a nce at her when he spoke. She realized Ren Xiaosu was hinting something to her.


    Luo Lan had only promised to let the six of them into the stronghold. He didn¡¯t include Jiang Wu and her students. If someone made a fuss about it, Jiang Wu and her students might just end up refugees in the future.


    But right now, they had the backing of Luo Lan. Everyone just needed to remain in the truck while they entered the stronghold. No one could say a thing about it. The people of Stronghold 109 would probably just think the truck was carrying the Qing Consortium¡¯s people!


    Usually, they would check their IDs before allowing them into the stronghold, but Ren Xiaosu was going to gamble that Lu Yuan would not dare to check Luo Lan.


    The high and mighty stronghold overseers were poor bastards caught in between the various organizations at such a time. They wouldn¡¯t dare offend any of them.


    When Ren Xiaosu finished speaking, he got back into the truck to get some rest. Meanwhile, Luo Lan, Tang Zhou, and their soldiers waited outside for Lu Yuan toe out. The waitsted an hour.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu always felt the way Luo Lan carried himself was extremely simr to that of his younger brother, Qing Zhen. In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes, the cocky looks on their faces were exactly the same. It was just that Luo Lan always seemed to be a level below Qing Zhen.


    After all, Qing Zhen had been surrounded by arge number ofbat troops, and he could feel the intimidating aura blow against his face; whereas when Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Lan for the first time, he was already in a pathetic state.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was still unaware he had flushed Qing Zhen¡¯s image down the drain. This was also the reason why Qing Zhen was so determined to arrest Xu Xianchu by any means necessary.

 Chapter 131 - Inside the stronghold!

    <h4>Chapter 131: Inside the stronghold!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Finally, after an indefinite amount of time, the stronghold¡¯s gate opened slowly. The heavy gate was pulled up by a rope hidden within the walls as the huge machinery behind it made loud, grinding noises.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately turned around and looked inside the gate. This was the first time he so strongly desired to have a clear look at the inside world.


    Stronghold 113¡¯s gate would often open as well, but Ren Xiaosu had always restrained himself from looking at what was inside. That was because there were good days and bad days in these times, and he was afraid he would end up constantly thinking about it if he saw what it was like on the other side.


    Yan Liuyuan had wanted to sneak a look inside, but he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu. At that time, Ren Xiaosu said he would definitely take Yan Liuyuan to live inside the stronghold in the future, but he didn¡¯t actually believe that himself.


    And now, they were going to be part of that world soon.


    When arge group of people came out of the stronghold, a handsome, middle-aged man strode forward. He smiled at Luo Lan in greeting. ¡°A warm wee to you, Boss Luo. Sorry for not weing you at the gate!¡±


    However, Luo Lan¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Is an apology enough for making me wait out here for so long?¡±


    Lu Yuan smiled and repeatedly apologized. ¡°I immediately sent someone out to pick you up after receiving Boss Qing Zhen¡¯s instructions. However, I lost contact with them as well. Otherwise, I would¡¯ve been waiting out here for you for a long time.¡±


    Luo Lan did not say anything else and walked into Stronghold 109. He waved the truck in. ¡°Drive in!¡±


    All of a sudden, Lu Yuan said loudly, ¡°Wait a minute, who are those people in the truck? Shouldn¡¯t they get out for inspection?¡±


    Not a secondter, Luo Lan turned around andnded a loud p on Lu Yuan¡¯s face. ¡°Don¡¯t overstep your boundaries! How dare you try to conduct a spot check on our Qing Consortium¡¯s truck!¡±


    Everyone was stunned! This was Lu Yuan, the overseer of Stronghold 109!


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. He didn¡¯t expect Luo Lan to have such a violent outburst. It wasn¡¯t until this moment that Luo Lan finally had the bearing of an organization¡¯s ¡°big shot¡± like he had imagined. But in reality, he knew this was not Luo Lan¡¯s nature after spending some time with him on their way here.


    Rather, Luo Lan was just trying to protect himself with that appearance. He needed others to be afraid of him. It was no wonder that people in Stronghold 113 so revered Luo Lan when they heard his name.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not know that the fate of Stronghold 113¡¯s overseer, Old Liu, had been decided by a word from Qing Zhen. He had already died on the way to Stronghold 178 after being exiled there.


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly found Luo Lan to be quite interesting as he was only doing this so they could get into the stronghold. There was nothing in the truck besides Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group of six, as well as Jiang Wu and her 28 students.


    The middle-aged man who was pped in the face stood there for a long while without saying a word. Luo Lan smiled ambiguously at him and said, ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Lu Yuan? Have you forgotten your ce?¡±


    Lu Yuan lowered his head. ¡°No, I didn¡¯t forget. Boss Luo, please enter.¡±


    He didn¡¯t even ask Luo Lan why the people he sent out did note back with them. But that was not actually important to him.


    Ren Xiaosu sat in the truck and watched quietly. So this was the authority and power of an organization.


    At this moment, another few people came out of the stronghold and said respectfully to Luo Lan, ¡°Boss Qing Zhen ordered us to wait here for you.¡±


    Luo Lan raised his eyebrows. ¡°You¡¯re my younger brother¡¯s men?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    Luo Lan beamed. ¡°Alright, lead the way.¡± After that, he turned to Lu Yuan and said, ¡°Carry on with whatever you were busy with. I¡¯ll get someone to send you the ID information this evening. Print around 40 stronghold ID cards and send them over to us.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I understand,¡± Lu Yuan said politely.


    Luo Lan then got into the off-road vehicle that had been sent to pick him up. Ren Xiaosu watched from the shadows in the back of the truck as it slowly drove into the stronghold. Lu Yuan looked like he was thinking about something as he quietly stood outside the stronghold.


    When the vehicles got into the stronghold, Yan Liuyuan leaned out of the back of the truck and sighed. ¡°Bro, the streets inside the stronghold are so clean!


    ¡°Bro, the buildings inside the stronghold are so tall!¡±


    There were only one-story houses and no tall buildings in the town, but they could see buildings with two or three stories everywhere in here. Some of the taller buildings even had five or six stories.


    However, Ren Xiaosu wanted to tell Yan Liuyuan he had seen even taller skyscrapers in the abandoned city inside the Jing Mountains. They were so tall they looked like swords poking the sky.


    Having witnessed that sight, Ren Xiaosu realized the high-rise buildings in the stronghold didn¡¯t exactly seem that tall anymore. After all, human civilization had regressed a lot.


    Jiang Wu quietly looked at Yan Liuyuan as he got dazzled by the sights. But she did not find anything humor in this. She only felt that the life they were used to was way too different from what the refugees knew.


    ¡°Bro, there are a lot of nts here inside the stronghold, and they can also be seen on both sides of the roads. Wait a minute, there¡¯s even arge meadow over there!¡± Yan Liuyuan eximed.


    ¡°That¡¯s a park.¡± Jiang Wu exined to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°The stronghold¡¯s residents can stroll there after dinner, and there are even some aunties who go dancing there at night. In this era, tape recorders are considered rare. So if any auntie has a cassette and a tape recorder to y music with, she bes the most dazzling person on the dance team.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°Bro, look at that father and daughter sitting on thewn. They¡¯re feeding each other food. What a loving scene.... Wait, why have they started kissing?¡±


    Jiang Wu said with a odd expression on her face, ¡°They aren¡¯t father and daughter....¡±


    At this moment, a strange car sped past the truck. As it passed by, the engine made loud roaring sounds. A balding, middle-aged man was sitting in the car.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Jiang Wu, ¡°Why doesn¡¯t that car have a roof?¡±


    Jiang Wu thought for a moment before answering, ¡°That¡¯s what we call a convertible. It¡¯s a car that only the rich can drive and is also a status symbol inside the stronghold.¡±


    Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°How nice it is to be rich. Even their head is a convertible.¡±


    Jiang Wu was stunned. She simply did not know how to respond!


    Ren Xiaosu finally understood that it was no wonder celebrities like Luo Xinyu existed inside the stronghold. So it was because the stronghold¡¯s residents were leading a much more luxurious life than them!


    These people neither had to face wild animals nor get drenched in sweat carrying buckets of coal out of the mine. They only needed to work decent jobs within the stronghold in order to earn their pay.


    The refugees outside the stronghold were like worker ants supporting over a 100,000 queen ants.


    Ren Xiaosu had heard from Zhang Jinglin before that the refugees outside Stronghold 113 were considered few in number. In some other ces, arge number of refugees would gather together to grow crops and work in manufacturing industries. There were evenrge human colonies entirely made up of refugees.


    Naturally, thoserge human colonies were also controlled by the organizations.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw several rail linesid within the ground. ¡°What are these things?¡±


    ¡°Those are trolley tracks.¡± Jiang Wu said, ¡°The residents can take the streetcar to work and back home every day.¡±

 Chapter 132 - Going to school!

    <h4>Chapter 132: Going to school!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    As the truck drove forward, everything in the stronghold seemed new and interesting to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group, although some things still felt odd to them.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu sometimes thought that the wilderness was getting more dangerous these days. Although Stronghold 109 was not as affected as Stronghold 113 by the terrible earthquake, what if something happened here as well someday?


    But the residents of the stronghold had never considered the fact that a disaster might happen and they would be left to fend for themselves. It seemed that all these problems had nothing to do with them and were only for the consortium to worry about.


    If something really happened, these stronghold residents would not survive in the wilderness.


    As the truck advanced, Yan Liuyuan kept looking out. However, some pedestrians in the stronghold had a kind of curious and sympathetic look in their eyes when they saw his dirty appearance.


    It was either a look of loathing or sympathy as they silently assumed this child was a poor thing.


    When Yan Liuyuan came into contact with these stares, the excitement in his eyes slowly faded away. Then he retreated into the back of the truck.


    He and Ren Xiaosu had never needed anyone¡¯s pity before since they didn¡¯t feel like they led a miserable life.


    ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t we go back to the town?¡± Yan Liuyuan was rapidly starting to get ufortable here.


    ¡°Oh,e off it,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. Pausing, he added, ¡°If we really can¡¯t get used to living in the stronghold, I¡¯ll find a way to go with you to live outside the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded happily.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Jiang Wu and her students. ¡°What ns do y¡¯all have for the future?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group did not have to worry about his group¡¯s livelihoods for the time being. After all, he had a lot of gold in his possession, and Old Wang also brought along a lot of medicinal supplies as hard currency. They probably wouldn¡¯t starve to death in the stronghold in the short term. Moreover, they even took over a shop from the Qing Consortium, which had also settled their living arrangements.


    The question put Jiang Wu in a dilemma, because there was no ce for them to go.


    Tang Zhou smiled and said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about this. We¡¯ll arrange for you guys to be admitted to school once you¡¯ve received this stronghold¡¯s ID cards. Teacher Jiang Wu can still be a teacher, and the students can continue attending school. If you live in the school¡¯s dorm, you can even qualify for subsidies. You guys don¡¯t have to worry about anything regarding your livelihoods.¡±


    ¡°Are y¡¯all that kind?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t about being kind.¡± Tang Zhou said, ¡°Since we went through a near-death experience, we¡¯rerades. Our Qing Consortium isn¡¯t so petty that we would not help with such small favors.¡±


    ¡°But isn¡¯t this stronghold controlled by the Li Consortium? Does your word carry any weight in here?¡± Wang Fugui asked.


    ¡°The Li Consortium wouldn¡¯t sacrifice their ties with us over such a trivial matter.¡± Tang Zhou said with a smile, ¡°The matters between the corporations are sometimes veryplicated and sometimes very simple. When there¡¯s no conflict of interest, everyone will remain on friendly terms with each other.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that it was just a triviality for an organization to send several people to school. They weren¡¯t even worried about it.


    ¡°Um... ahem, how much are the subsidies the school gives out to their students worth?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°900 yuan per month?¡± Tang Zhou wasn¡¯t too sure. ¡°Every stronghold is different. As long as the funds cover a student¡¯s monthly expenses, it¡¯s sufficient.¡±


    ¡°Yan Liuyuan and I will attend school as well then!¡± Ren Xiaosu said righteously, ¡°It¡¯s not about the money. We¡¯re just thirsty for knowledge!¡±


    Dumbfounded, Tang Zhou stared at Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°No, wait.¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°It¡¯s not just the two of us. Including Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, Big Sister Xiaoyu and Chen Wudi, all six of us are looking forward to attending school!¡±


    Tang Zhou looked at Wang Fugui in bewilderment. ¡®Isn¡¯t this man almost 50? You¡¯re saying he also wants to attend school? Can you really be any more shameless than that?!¡¯


    Wang Fugui was even bewildered by what Ren Xiaosu had said, let alone Tang Zhou.


    ¡°I think we can forget about the others.¡± Tang Zhou said in a hollow voice, ¡°We can make arrangements for you and Yan Liuyuan to attend school.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nearly cried. ¡°But I don¡¯t want to attend school either!¡±


    ¡°Do you think you have a say in this matter?¡± Ren Xiaosu red at him. But at this moment, he saw a familiar figure outside the truck in his peripheral vision. When he turned to get a better look, he discovered the figure had vanished.


    Was it an illusion or did he really see something? Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled.


    The familiarity struck him like a sh of lightning,ing and going just as fast.


    ¡°But don¡¯t be too happy yet.¡± Tang Zhou said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Since our Qing Consortium and you don¡¯t owe each other anything else, this is an addition to our deal. So if you want us to help you with your enrollment to school, you¡¯ll have to give us something in exchange.¡±


    With a smack, Ren Xiaosu pped two small vials into Tang Zhou¡¯s hands as though he already knew. ¡°I know Fatty Luo wants this, so take these to him.¡±


    Tang Zhou was speechless. ¡®You think you can address him as Fatty Luo?!¡¯


    There were only two people in this world who could address Luo Lan as ¡°Fatty Luo¡± and get away with it. One of them was Qing Zhen; the other was Zhang Jinglin.


    But Tang Zhou suddenly felt Ren Xiaosu might turn out to be the third such person.


    As the truck slowly rolled to a stop, Luo Lan¡¯s voice came from outside. ¡°Disembark.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu jumped out of the truck, Luo Lan told him, ¡°The shop on the left is what I¡¯ve promised you. As this ce is a prime location, you won¡¯t be making a loss if you start a business here.¡±


    Looking around, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find the street was full of shops and had a high volume of foot traffic.


    While Ren Xiaosu was looking around, the passersby were looking curiously at him. However, everyone recognized the ginkgo leaf logo on the truck and knew he was one of Qing Consortium¡¯s people.


    ¡°What do you think?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked to Wang Fugui for his opinion. It was not like Ren Xiaosu knew if this location was good.


    ¡°It¡¯s not bad.¡± Wang Fugui nodded to indicate to Ren Xiaosu to ept the offer. He knew Luo Lan wasn¡¯t lying to them. There really was a lot of foot traffic as well as shops on this stretch of road. When it came to doing business, getting people in the door would mean making money!


    ¡°There¡¯s also a yard and several rooms in the back that¡¯s enough for you all to live in. The original business operation here was very simr to what you did, so I guess you got lucky.¡± Luo Lan said nonchntly, ¡°From now on, I, Luo Lan, don¡¯t owe you anything.¡± As soon as he finished, he got into the vehicle with a very smug look on his face and left, leaving the six of them behind.


    After that, Tang Zhou said to Ren Xiaosu and the others, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll send someone to deliver you your stronghold ID cards and school admission applications this evening.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan had already rushed into the shop in excitement. It was clear this shop used to be a traditional Chinese medicine clinic. Before Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group arrived, it was being run normally. After the Qing Consortium¡¯s people pulled out from running this shop, they did not take anything away. The ce was already fully furnished with tables, chairs, benches, and a good supply of traditional Chinese medicine.


    Luo Lan had given this shop to them because he knew Ren Xiaosu had been the only doctor in town. So he thought Ren Xiaosu might want to reopen his clinic here.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt sad. As if he knew shit about medicine.

 Chapter 133 - Where has Senior Apprentice Brother gone?

    <h4>Chapter 133: Where has Senior Apprentice Brother gone?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The shop given to Ren Xiaosu by the Qing Consortium was called the Hall of Chinese Medicine. On the same day, Wang Fugui said he wanted to custom build a new signboard for the shop, but Ren Xiaosu rejected his suggestion. After all, a new, custom-made sign required money, so they should discuss it together before doing it.


    At the back of this shop were five rooms; a kitchen, three bedrooms, and a toilet.


    After arriving at this stronghold, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t even know how to use the toilet when he saw one. The toilets in town were all pittrines, while they could flush water directly into the sewers in the stronghold.


    Everyone finally learned how to use the toilet after trying it for a long time.


    There was a tap in the bathroom that nobody knew what it did at first. But the moment it was turned on, they could see clear water flowing out.


    Ren Xiaosu and the others were very surprised. They had never seen anything so magical before!


    It seemed the original owner of the shop used this tap as the source of their daily water consumption. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s no wonder the stronghold¡¯s residents are so clean. It¡¯s because they don¡¯t have to ration their water usage in the stronghold.¡±


    In town, each person was allocated a fixed amount of water each day. No one could change that rule.


    Originally, there were still some wells in town. But those were sealed up by the stronghold for the reasons of preventing water theft and wasting of water.


    The three bedrooms were allocated as followed: Xiaoyu would have one room for herself, Wang Dalong and Wang Fugui would be in another room, while Chen Wudi, Yan Liuyuan, and Ren Xiaosu would take the remaining room. With this arrangement, everything was set.


    Although it seemed crowded for six people to live in, it wasfortable enough for Ren Xiaosu and the others. What kind of ce did they used to live in? This was iparable to that!


    The six of them carried small stools out into the backyard and sat down, with the first shareholder meeting being held in this simple a ce.


    Wang Fugui spoke first. ¡°While we were tidying up the house, a few patients came to the shop and wanted to see the doctor, not knowing the shop changed owners. It seems the original shop¡¯s business was excellent and had a rather good reputation as well. Why don¡¯t we continue to operate the shop as is?¡±


    ¡°But which of us knows medicine?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped. ¡°I don¡¯t, anyway. All I have is the ck medicine.¡±


    The refugees of Stronghold 113¡¯s town had suffered so much. For the past few years, there had only been two doctors in town, and they didn¡¯t even have any medical skills to speak of.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt he was better than that quack doctor, Yu Tong. At least his ck medicine was really able to treat wounds! Actually, he could learn some medical knowledge for real since he had something as wonderfully magical as the pce. There had to be a proper hospital and doctors here in the stronghold. So Ren Xiaosu could use the Skill Duplication Scrolls on an actual doctor this time. The previous situation would definitely not repeat itself again.


    But Ren Xiaosu was also wondering about something. Was it really necessary for him to waste a precious Skill Duplication Scroll on medical skills? In fact, he felt deeply that his Skill Duplication Scrolls were not enough after getting acquainted with Yang Xiaojin and the others! Right now, he wanted nothing more than to gain another dozen or so Skill Duplication Scrolls so he could learn all of the useful skills from Yang Xiaojin in one go when he saw her again.


    Besides, he had only wanted to learn medicine for the gratitude tokens. Later on, he realized the doctor-patient rtionship had gotten too tense these days. He couldn¡¯t get many gratitude tokens by treating and saving the lives of people. It was too slow a process!


    So Ren Xiaosu would prioritize saving the Skill Duplication Scrolls instead of learning medical skills if he had them. He would only use them all at once if he met with another ¡°skill bank¡± like Yang Xiaojin. At that time, he might even gain a lot of excellent skills, such as jumping rope, Nursery Rhymes Singing, marble throwing, and so on.


    Even now, he was full of resentment whenever he was reminded about the jumping rope skill.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let¡¯s sell the antibiotics you have for cash first. Those items have an expiration date, right?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Wang Fugui nodded and said, ¡°I think I have enough to sell for a while. Since it¡¯s gettingte, I¡¯ll go and exchange the Qing Consortium¡¯s currency for some of the Li Consortium¡¯s currency tomorrow. We don¡¯t actually need money in the short term.¡±


    ¡°Alright, you can continue plying your old grocery store trade if we really don¡¯t have enough money to get by,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°But we¡¯ll need to have an excellent, long-term product to sell in the store. There are so many types of traditional Chinese medicine here. Do you think you can concoct the ck medicine from it?¡± Wang Fugui¡¯s eyes were shimmering as he could totally foresee how well-received the ck medicine would be in the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Yeah, but we can¡¯t sell the ck medicine inrge quantities. Just sell one dosage per week.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯ll do.¡± Wang Fugui beamed and said, ¡°A shop must have a unique product in its inventory. With something like this around, we won¡¯t have to worry about not having any customers!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t intend to exchange the ck medicine for money. After all, he still had so much gold with him, so he preferred to unlock the intermediate form of the weapon over earning more money.


    But since a single gratitude token could be exchanged for three small vials of ck medicine, and one small vial could be further divided into five or six portions to sell, just one gratitude token would be enough tost Ren Xiaosu for several months. It was not a heavy price to pay at all.


    Ren Xiaosu decided he would first walk around the stronghold tomorrow to see if he could sell the gold he had bit by bit.


    All of a sudden, Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Chen Wudi? Have y¡¯all seen him?¡±


    Wang Fugui was taken aback. ¡°Right, where has Senior Apprentice Brother... ptui. Where has Chen Wudi gone?¡±


    ...


    At this moment, Chen Wudi was having a curious look around the streets of the stronghold. He had been sent to a psychiatric hospital in his childhood, and the gloomy and oppressive environment in there made him yearn for the outside world. He had also lived in a prosperous world, but that was a memory of a long time ago.


    Everything here gave him a familiar and strange feeling. The dazzling shops andmodities even made him forget about the important matter of going to the Western Paradise to obtain the Buddhist scriptures.


    As Chen Wudi slowly made his way to the park they had passed by during the day, he heard singing drift out from it.


    Chen Wudi walked into the park and saw aunties dancing in a neat square formation on a wide za. This scene was so familiar yet so strange to him that he felt as though he had been transported back in time, distracting him a little.


    The aunties stared at Chen Wudi as he walked with dignity to the front of their square formation. Before they could realize what was going on, they saw the young man staring at them with piercing eyes and shouting, ¡°Children, start dancing!¡±


    When Chen Wudi returned to the shop that night, his face was all bruised and swollen. When Ren Xiaosu saw him, he was shocked. Chen Wudi was someone who could even emerge unscathed after getting hit by a bullet. Who could be so godly to beat him up to such a state?!


    Could there be someone extremely powerful inside this stronghold?


    But no matter how Ren Xiaosu questioned Chen Wudi, Chen Wudi wouldn¡¯t tell him what had happened.

 Chapter 134 - Encountering Yang Xiaojin again!

    <h4>Chapter 134: Encountering Yang Xiaojin again!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The Qing Consortium had sent Jiang Wu, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, Wang Dalong, and the students to a school known as 13th High. The full name was Stronghold 109 No. 13 High School <sup>1</sup> .


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the name of the school, his first reaction was to think of howrge the stronghold was to have 13 high schools. No, there should absolutely be more than that.


    In the enrollment form given to him by the Qing Consortium, there were rmendation letters, stronghold ID cards, enrollment grade, and basic student registration information, etc., to be filled in. Tang Zhou said the school would officially add him to the school roster only after he had reported for school.


    Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong would attend 9th grade while Ren Xiaosu would attend 12th grade. When Tang Zhou said this, he also asked for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion on whether he would be able to keep up with the learning progress. After all, what could he have learned from the school in town? It would be embarrassing if he sat in ss and not understand anything that was being taught.


    However, Ren Xiaosu sneered at him. How could Tang Zhou possibly fathom a person as studious as him?


    When Tang Zhou heard Ren Xiaosu say that, he did not say another word.


    In reality, even though Ren Xiaosu and Luo Lan had grossed each other out, their short experience of teetering on the verge of death together brought them closer. Although everyone was saying they did not owe each other anything else, Tang Zhou was still very considerate of Ren Xiaosu and the others when doing things for them.


    If not for Ren Xiaosu, Tang Zhou would have died in the wilderness.


    ording to Tang Zhou, there was also a university in Stronghold 109 that some students from other strongholds would try to qualify for.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt it was all in the past when the wilderness was still safe to go out into. Now, very few people dared to venture out of their strongholds.


    When Ren Xiaosu mentioned this, Wang Fugui chuckled. He said that even though there were norge animals or the existence of wolves in the wilderness when he was young, there were still refugees who became bandits and killed others for gain. But even so, people would still risk their lives to travel through the wilderness to go between the strongholds.


    Sometimes, he really could not understand what those people were thinking. Perhaps they were really brave or just stupid, but there had never been ack of such people.


    Ren Xiaosu was not in a rush to have Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong go through the school admission procedures. Instead, he decided he would take everyone on a tour of the stronghold the next morning after washing up. The six of them in their group were too unfamiliar with how things worked in the stronghold.


    Rather than quickly getting down to making money, they wanted to see what this ce they had been longing to see for so many years was really like.


    The next morning, Yan Liuyuan suddenly shouted from the front yard, ¡°Bro,e and take a look at this. There¡¯s a note here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned before quickly walking over. He had had the feeling something was off since yesterday. First, he had briefly spotted a familiar figure in the streets, then sensed someone was staring at him the whole time. The feeling of being stared at instinctively made him shudder. And now, a note had appeared from nowhere. However, this might give him some answers to all that had been going on.


    Ren Xiaosu took the note from Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hand and saw a line of small words written on it: Don¡¯t overstay your wee in this eventful ce.


    ¡°Bro, what do the words on the note mean?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Who wrote it?¡±


    ¡°Where did you discover this note?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked back.


    Yan Liuyuan pointed to the entrance and said, ¡°It came from underneath the gap under the door. I think someone slotted it inst night. Could they be ying a prank on us?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head as he was certain this was not a prank. Because... he recognized the handwriting on the note.


    On his way back to the stronghold from the Jing Mountains, he had seen another line of small, beautiful words appear in the cave. At the time, Ren Xiaosu knew these words were left there by Yang Xiaojin.


    And it was clear the handwriting on this note was almost identical to the one in the cave.


    Together with the familiar figure he had spotted yesterday, Ren Xiaosu could finally confirm that Yang Xiaojin was also here in Stronghold 109. Furthermore, she left this note for him.


    Was some kind of major incident going to happen in Stronghold 109? That actually made her persuade him to leave?


    Ren Xiaosu was certain Yang Xiaojin was backed by a powerful organization that was supporting her actions. She had to know something and hade here with a specific goal in mind.


    Was she going to assassinate Luo Lan? After all, Yang Xiaojin had attempted to assassinate Qing Zhen, so it was understandable if she wanted to assassinate Luo Lan as well. But it didn¡¯t make sense. Currently, Luo Lan did not have that many soldiers or someone really powerful around him. It didn¡¯t seem like it would be a difficult task to kill him. If Luo Lan were really her target, Fatty Luo would probably have died yesterday.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered why Yang Xiaojin hade to warn him. When Yang Xiaojin left him, she even stole her dagger back from him. He didn¡¯t believe Yang Xiaojin would be so kind. But Yang Xiaojin probably did not know Ren Xiaosu had returned to that cave. So she would also not know the note she had secretly slipped in had exposed her.


    Everything that happened in this world was just this coincidental.


    But where could he go if he left this ce? Ren Xiaosu was a little aggrieved. Having just been allowed into the stronghold, he had to leave again before he could even find out the name of the street he lived on?


    But more importantly, he couldn¡¯t get out of this ce!


    Ren Xiaosu thought Luo Xinyu¡¯s ability might be able to disregard the presence of the stronghold¡¯s walls. In that way, she coulde inside with Yang Xiaojin.


    But what ability did Ren Xiaosu have that would allow him to phase through the stronghold¡¯s walls?


    ¡°Let¡¯s not worry about this for now.¡± Ren Xiaosu told Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Don¡¯t tell Old Wang and Big Sister Xiaoyu about it yet in case they get more worried.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded.


    ¡°Do you need to catch up on sleep?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Nah.¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ve gotten enough sleep.¡±


    Even though they were in the stronghold now, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan still kept up with their habit of keeping watchst night.


    It wasn¡¯t because they thought there was any hidden danger around but that they were used to this routine.


    If the stronghold¡¯s residents learned about this, they would probablyugh at them for not knowing things. There were indeed some thieves in the stronghold, and some people would even asionally stake out remote ces in the middle of the night to rob others, but even that was exceedingly rare. There was no need for people to keep a night watch.


    Living in a stronghold and living in the wilderness was different.


    In the morning, Wang Fugui first went out to exchange the Qing Consortium¡¯s currency they had. He inquired at the foreign exchange counter of the Li Consortium¡¯s bank. But when he asked about it, he realized there was a transaction fee of 23% on the total amount exchanged!


    Ren Xiaosu advised him not to exchange too much of the money. If they ended up having to go to another stronghold someday, wouldn¡¯t the transaction fee all go to waste?


    When Wang Fugui heard this, he felt a little nervous. ¡°Xiaosu, you mentioned that we might end up having to go to another strongholdter? Where will we be going?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say that we¡¯ll definitely have to leave here.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°But for now, we don¡¯t really need much money. Just exchange it for some pocket money and save the rest forter.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu already felt that they might really have to leave this ce someday to travel to the next unfamiliar stronghold. But right now, he was more curious about why Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu hade to Stronghold 109.


    He wondered if he would get another chance to copy Yang Xiaojin¡¯s skills.

 Chapter 135 - Contamination

    <h4>Chapter 135: Contamination</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The streetcar rattled along the track inside the stronghold. It wasn¡¯t that Ren Xiaosu had not been in one before, but that this was his first time seeing this mode of ¡°public transportation.¡±


    When anyone boarded the streetcar, they just needed to drop 20 cents into a box at the entrance and they could ride to ces far away. It wouldn¡¯t even be a problem to ride from the origin station to the terminal station.


    Wang Fugui had heard of streetcars long ago. After all, there would always be mention of new and quirky stuff in the stronghold whenever he interacted with the stronghold¡¯s residents.


    So when Ren Xiaosu mentioned he wanted to tour the stronghold, Wang Fugui said that taking the streetcar would be the easiest and most economic mode of transportation.


    ¡°Bro,¡± Yan Liuyuan said while leaning on the windowsill, ¡°the stronghold¡¯s residents will definitely not have anything to worry about. It¡¯s so safe and convenient to live inside here. They can enjoy a life that is hundreds of times better than the refugees by just working an easy job in the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°How can people not have any worries?¡± Ren Xiaosu sat beside him and said with a smile, ¡°Even Luo Lan will have things to worry about. Something like that does not decrease with the increase of material gains.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°Then do you think there is anyone in the world who does not have anything to worry about?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Yeah, the dead.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan slowly turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Bro, do you think it¡¯s suitable to say something like that on such a happy asion....¡±


    ¡°Even a fool like Chen Wudi has his own worries.¡± Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh. Chen Wudi was sitting in thest row with his face still swollen. No one knew where this fellow had gone to yesterday and who had given him such a beating.


    On either side of the street in this stronghold city, people were selling all sorts of things, like soup dumplings, tofu brains, and other breakfast foods. Some shops also sold all kinds of hardware products and groceries.


    Pedestrians were walking on sidewalks, and cyclists would asionally speed past them.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How much does a bicycle cost in the stronghold? I feel like it¡¯s quite convenient to travel around on one instead of having to walk.¡±


    Once, an ¡°esquire¡± in town bought a bicycle that had circted out of the stronghold, but it was stolen on that very same night by someone else. To escape the pursuit of the esquire, the thief rode the bicycle all the way to another stronghold.


    A bicycle was a luxury item in town. It was something you couldn¡¯t buy even if you wanted to.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go ask around this afternoon.¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be cheap. After all, resources are so scarce these days. You can see that those riding bicycles are wearing clothes of rtively better quality. It seems that they¡¯re considered quite well-off in the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°I should¡¯ve found out more from Jiang Wu on our way here to the stronghold,¡± regretted Ren Xiaosu. They had never been in a stronghold before, but Jiang Wu grew up in one.


    But by now, Jiang Wu had reported to the school to continue working as a teacher. She was probably also going to be teaching at 13th High.


    ...


    On the way, Ren Xiaosu heard some people around him talking. ¡°Have you heard? Stronghold 113 has been given up on. It¡¯s said the recent earthquake copsed Stronghold 113. Even the Qing Consortium¡¯s people have fled here to our stronghold.¡±


    ¡°For real?¡± someone said in surprise. ¡°It wasn¡¯t mentioned on the radio.¡±


    ¡°They definitely wouldn¡¯t tell you anything about it on the radio,¡± the first person said with a smile. ¡°But I have a friend who has a working rtionship with the Qing Consortium, and he told me that the big shots from the Qing Consortium arrived at our stronghold. They even brought in dozens of refugees with them.¡±


    ¡°Refugees?¡± The other person said in surprise, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t the refugees be obediently working outside the stronghold? Why did theye in?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave them a look but did not say anything. He heard someone else say, ¡°Who knows? I wonder if they brought in any diseases, germs, or contamination from the outside.¡±


    ¡°Shh, look at those people behind us. I think they might be those refugees!¡± someone said in shock.


    With this reminder, the others on the streetcar also turned around and looked at them. The more they looked at them, the more they felt that Ren Xiaosu andpany might really be refugees.


    Yan Liuyuan was surprised when he saw all of these people disembarking at the next stop.


    After just one stop, they were the only ones left on the streetcar. If the driver weren¡¯t required to operate the streetcar, Yan Liuyuan sensed he would also have gotten out!


    Ren Xiaosu scrutinized the six of themselves. Today, all of them had put on their newly washed clothes, and everyone had taken a hot water bath too, so their faces and bodies were no longer dirty.


    But the fashion of clothing the refugees could buy and their tanned skin contrasted too greatly from those of the stronghold residents.


    ¡°Bro,¡± Yan Liuyuan whispered, ¡°I feel like the stronghold¡¯s residents aren¡¯t too friendly.¡±


    The residents in the stronghold did not evene over to check with them and just avoided them as though they were the gue after guessing they might be refugees.


    All because they could be carrying germs from the outside, and because the stronghold had spread word that refugees were not allowed on the inside due to their ¡°contamination.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not reply to him. He calmly said, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, buy two new sets of clothes for each one of us tomorrow. Everyone will start wearing their new clothes so that we can blend in with the residents of the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to wear them,¡± Yan Liuyuan protested softly. It would feel like he was bowing down to the stronghold¡¯s residents if he wore the new clothes.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Whether we¡¯re living in the wilderness or the stronghold, you must blend in with and understand your surroundings to survive. Only then will you have the ability to resist. When you can¡¯t change the environment, you must first learn how to disguise yourself.¡±


    Wang Fugui was stunned to hear this. He didn¡¯t expect Ren Xiaosu would apply his wilderness survival principles to living in the stronghold. So was he also treating the stronghold like a ce in the wilderness?


    They heard Ren Xiaosu add, ¡°We might still have to leave the stronghold someday, so let¡¯s be prepared for that.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up. As someone who knew Ren Xiaosu best, he could tell that Ren Xiaosu had already made up his mind about leaving!


    But Wang Fugui smiled and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we leave tomorrow then? For some reason, I always felt morefortable living in town.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no hurry.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°And we can¡¯t go outside anyway. Let¡¯s talk about it when I find a chance.¡±


    At this moment, the streetcar reached the terminal station. Ren Xiaosu and the others had nned to stay on the streetcar for the return trip at first. However, they saw many residential houses further out from where the terminal station was, and they even came with yards!


    From a distance, it looked like this area was ratherrge, but it was also much more secluded whenpared with other ces.


    Ren Xiaosu tapped on the streetcar operator and asked, ¡°What is that ce?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s an affluent neighborhood in our stronghold.¡± The driver said, ¡°Only the rich and powerful live here. There¡¯s no trolley tracks going there since everyone who lives there has their own car.¡± As the driver spoke, he kept inching back as he was afraid of getting too close to Ren Xiaosu.

 Chapter 136 - Xu Xianchu is here!

    <h4>Chapter 136: Xu Xianchu is here!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The driver had wanted to reprimand Ren Xiaosu to get him to stand further away. But for some reason, he was terrified when he met Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Oh, thank you.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded as he looked at the affluent neighborhood. So it turned out there were also both poor and rich neighborhoods inside the stronghold? It seemed like the difference between the rich and poor was just as obvious within this stronghold.


    When Ren Xiaosu thanked him for the information, the streetcar operator was stunned. He had already regarded Ren Xiaosu and his group as dreadful monsters, so he didn¡¯t expect Ren Xiaosu would thank him so politely.


    Before the driver could react, Ren Xiaosu was asking him again, ¡°When does this streetcar turn around?¡±


    The driver said haltingly, ¡°Why don¡¯t you take the next streetcar? It¡¯ll arrive in 20 minutes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the driver. ¡°Your suggestion is very irrational.¡±


    ¡°...All passengers, please sit tight and hold onto the handrails.¡±


    ...


    On the way back, Ren Xiaosu disembarked from the streetcar a stop early, not far from their shop, because he had spotted a jewelry shop.


    After confirming that no one was tailing him, he pretended to walk in as normally as he could. But as soon as he got in, he noticed a wanted poster put up on the walls of the jewelry shop.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw the wanted poster. Wasn¡¯t this Xu Xianchu¡¯s photo?! He was shown smartly dressed in a private army uniform that was probably taken when he was working for the stronghold.


    ¡°Manager, who¡¯s on the wanted poster?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Someone from the stronghold¡¯s Public Order Division came to put this up today.¡± The owner of the jewelry shop said, ¡°They only mentioned that if anyone saw this person, they should immediately report it to them. There¡¯s even a reward for doing so.¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t seen this anywhere else, so why was it only put up in the jewelry shop?¡± Ren Xiaosu was getting worried.


    ¡°I heard it¡¯s because someone stole some gold from the Qing Consortium. I don¡¯t know the exact details, but the Public Order Division is conducting strict checks on all unknown supplies of gold. As long as the gold shows any signs of oxidization or doesn¡¯t have a consortium¡¯s logo imprinted on it, we are to report it to the Public Order Division when wee across it.¡± The owner of the jewelry store asked, ¡°So, is there anything I can help you with?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing...¡± Ren Xiaosu immediately walked back out of the jewelry shop.


    Ren Xiaosu was despondent. He realized the Qing Consortium had likely detected he had taken a lot of gold with him.


    Although he had left behind some of the gold he¡¯d wrapped up in the jacket, someone from the Qing Consortium had to have realized the amount did not add up upon checking the jewelry shop¡¯s disy counters. In fact, the check would reveal that arge quantity of gold had gone missing! That was because a lot of dust had settled on the gold items that had been ced on the counter. After the gold was taken away, the signs pointing to it would be painfully obvious.


    Ren Xiaosu did not want to take any chances. He knew that if the Qing Consortium had specifically put up the photo of a wanted man in a jewelry shop, they must have found out something. They clearly intended to seek him out at the point of sale when he tried to dispose of the stolen goods.


    No, they should be seeking out Xu Xianchu.


    Xu Xianchu had just arrived at the town outside Stronghold 111. After being on the run for many days, he finally made it here before he starved to death.


    Along the way, Xu Xianchu would use his shadow clone to run as long as he was in a good frame of mind. Although it saved him a lot of energy when using the shadow clone to carry himself forward, he was on the verge of vomiting due to the bumpy ride when being piggybacked by the shadow clone.


    But more importantly, he could not find much food to eat in the wilderness after parting ways with Ren Xiaosu and could only make do with some wild vegetables he found. During this time, he even suffered from diarrhea for an entire day. Fortunately for him, he was a supernatural being. Now that he had excellent physical fitness, eating some poisonous wild vegetables would not be enough to kill him.


    At this moment, Xu Xianchu was looking forward to getting back to human civilization so that he could get something to eat. Every time he came across a rock these past two days, he would think it was an unfilled steamed bun that could be eaten!


    But when he arrived at the entrance of the town, he had a feeling that several people staring were at him.


    Xu Xianchu went over to a shack and said, ¡°Hello, do you have anything I can eat? I¡¯ll pay you for it.¡±


    Xu Xianchu swallowed hard when he saw some cornbread inside the shack.


    The man of the family came out and sized up Xu Xianchu. ¡°You¡¯re not from our town, right? You don¡¯t look familiar at all.¡±


    ¡°Ahem, I¡¯m just passing by,¡± Xu Xianchu exined. He was thinking that other people should not recognize him since his face was so dirty now.


    But as the refugee sized up Xu Xianchu, he suddenly noticed something. He shouted, ¡°Xu Xianchu! Xu Xianchu is here! Everyone, grab him!¡±


    Xu Xianchu was confused.


    On his way here to Stronghold 111, Xu Xianchu actually felt very hesitant. After all, Stronghold 111 was where the Qing Consortium¡¯s headquarters were. But he felt that it wouldn¡¯t be a problem if he just stayed in town for a short while, right? But at this moment, Xu Xianchu realized he was wrong to have thought that way!


    The Qing Consortium should have issued an order to arrest him. Otherwise, these refugees would not be trying to catch him like they were all soldiers.


    But he hadn¡¯t done anything at all. When he was still in the Jing Mountains, he did not even manage to get past the lockdown perimeter the Qing Consortium had set up. So why were they wasting so much effort to try to catch him?!


    Of course, Xu Xianchu was also a little worried for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. If there were already so many people going after someone who had not even breached the perimeter, he could easily imagine how massive the turnout would be when it came to arresting Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu.


    In that instant, Xu Xianchu did not hesitate any further. He summoned his shadow clone to kick aside the refugee in front of him. Simultaneously, he rushed into the shack and grabbed several ck cornbreads into his arms before running away!


    He could not stay here anymore. It seemed he had to head elsewhere. It would be best if he could go somewhere not under the control of the Qing Consortium!


    After much consideration, Xu Xianchu suddenly felt that Stronghold 109, which was controlled by the Li Consortium, was his best choice!


    At this moment, the engines of a huge convoy of vehicles roared in the distance. Xu Xianchu had already mounted the back of the shadow clone before the refugees could catch up to him. The buff shadow clone immediately elerated into the depths of the wilderness!


    When the refugees saw this, they stopped in their tracks. This was most likely the first time they had ever seen a supernatural being with their own eyes!


    When the convoy arrived in town after driving back from far in the wilderness, it started slowing down. Inside one of the vehicles, Qing Zhen was dirty and covered in dirt. If it weren¡¯t for the consortium¡¯s people picking him up from outside the Jing Mountains, who knows when he would have gotten back to Stronghold 111.


    Qing Zhen frowned when he saw the disturbance in town. ¡°Xu Man, go and find out what¡¯s happening.¡±


    They didn¡¯t manage to see what had happened because they were too far away.


    Xu Man rolled down the window and looked at one of the refugees. ¡°What happened here?¡±


    The refugee walked over and said in a respectful tone, ¡°We discovered Xu Xianchu just now.¡±


    Qing Zhen, who was seated in the back, immediately sat straight. ¡°Xu Xianchu? Where is he?¡±


    The refugee pointed in the direction Xu Xianchu had fled and said, ¡°He ran out into the wilderness.¡±


    ¡°...Get someone to catch him.¡± Qing Zhen said, ¡°Let the Spec Ops soldiers do it. They¡¯re much more experienced in the wilderness than Xu Xianchu is.¡±


    ¡°Boss,¡± Xu Man said awkwardly, ¡°you¡¯re about to start your house arrest.¡±


    Qing Zhen asked, ¡°...Where does that path lead?¡±


    Xu Man gave it some thought. ¡°Boss, it should be Stronghold 109 over there.¡±


    ¡°Call Luo Lan.¡± Qing Zhen clenched his teeth and said, ¡°If Xu Xianchu shows up in the vicinity of Stronghold 109, I want him arrested!¡±

 Chapter 137 - Obsessed with fame and fortune

    <h4>Chapter 137: Obsessed with fame and fortune</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Qing Zhen had not expected he would miss Xu Xianchu by such a narrow window, having just returnedter by a moment.


    However, he was not someone to dwell on such matters. Since he had missed his chance to get him, there was no point in regretting it.


    ¡°Let¡¯s enter the stronghold,¡± Qing Zhen said calmly. Actually, what he should be most concerned about was not Xu Xianchu, but how the old fogeys from the Qing Consortium were going to punish him. Or rather, how they were intending to usurp his authority.


    A lot of people in the outside world thought the Qing Consortium was helmed by Qing Zhen. But in actual fact, he only controlled a portion of the military.


    Because the consortium¡¯s external affairs were mainly handled by Qing Zhen, outsiders thought that Qing Zhen was very influential within the Qing Consortium.


    Only Qing Zhen himself knew that the old fogeys in the consortium never trusted him. With batches and batches of the organization¡¯s Shadows constantly getting reced, the ¡°face¡± of the Qing Consortium was the only thing that mattered to the old fogeys.


    A saying that had circted from the Qing Consortium went: ¡°Violence is only a means to maintain order; it can never be order itself.¡±


    In short, a Shadow should stay hidden instead ofing into the open.


    With Qing Zhen stealing all the limelight after his confrontation with the Pyro Company, and the old fogeys of the consortium long wanting to suppress his arrogance, they turned to cing him under house arrest and relieving him of all his authority.


    Xu Man whispered, ¡°Boss, we¡¯re going to report to the War Department tomorrow. All of our men will probably get separated and assigned to the other forces.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Qing Zhen nodded nonchntly. ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any words you want me to tell the others?¡± Xu Man asked, ¡°Why don¡¯t you step out of the car to say a few words to the men? Or we can go with you to wander the wilderness? There are so many of us, and we even have guns too, so we can do anything that we want.¡±


    Qing Zhen chuckled and shook his head. ¡°Many of them are waiting to be reunited with their wives and children back home. But you want to tell them to go back to the wilderness and try to survive there instead?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯d be willing,¡± Xu Man said.


    Qing Zhen opened the car door. The moment he came out, all the soldiers inside the military transport trucks behind him also alighted from their vehicles. The town was suddenly overcrowded with several thousand soldiers, resulting in all of the refugees running away in panic.


    ¡°Gentlemen,¡± Qing Zhen said calmly as he looked at the soldiers in front of him, ¡°after you get assigned to other forces, perform your best and don¡¯t embarrass me.¡±


    Once Qing Zhen finished, several thousand soldiers straightened their backs and answered in unison, ¡°Yes, sir!¡±


    The soldiers understood the fate awaiting them.


    ¡°Back into the vehicles!¡± Qing Zhen then got into his car nonchntly.


    The garrison standing on the ramparts was a little startled after witnessing this scene. It seemed like none of the Qing Consortium¡¯s troopmanders were anywhere near as influential as Qing Zhen.


    After entering the stronghold, Qing Zhen returned to his residential vi. He took a shower and then put on a new white suit. He had someone burn his old suit.


    As soon as Qing Zhen¡¯s group entered the stronghold, some of the Qing Consortium¡¯s big shots eagerly took over his operationalmand. The several thousand-strong troops were divvied up as they got assigned to the forces under the different big shots based on a list. The soldiers under Qing Zhen¡¯smand were all brave veterans. Now that the big shots had a chance to takemand of a portion of these troops, no one was willing to let this chance slip away.


    But it seemed that Qing Zhen did not mind at all.


    After his shower, Qing Zhen came out of the vi¡¯s front door. His personal car that had been parked at the door was gone. He smiled. ¡°They even took the car away.¡±


    He headed outside. But the two soldiers on guard duty looked at him awkwardly and said, ¡°Boss Qing Zhen, you can¡¯t leave the house. Please don¡¯t make it difficult for us.¡±


    Qing Zhen raised his eyebrows. ¡°The old fogeys only said that I¡¯m not allowed out of Stronghold 111. When did they say that I can¡¯t even step out of the house? Is someone making things up? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m just going out to listen to some singing. Who in Stronghold 111 doesn¡¯t know that I like listening to singing?¡±


    The two soldiers looked at each other. How could he be in the mood to listen to singing at a time like this? Could it be that the renowned Boss Qing Zhen wasn¡¯t worried about his own situation? But the soldiers still did not step aside for him.


    Qing Zhen did not say anything. Then, a bullet came from nowhere and hit the gstone pavement in front of the two soldiers. There was a hidden sniper nearby protecting Qing Zhen!


    The two soldiers knew the sniper had shown them mercy. Even if the sniper had shot them dead, the Board would not impose a heavier punishment on Qing Zhen over such a small matter.


    No one would want to cause any more trouble during the handing over ofmand of thebat troops!


    Qing Zhen was still looking calmly at the two soldiers when they decided to step back. ¡°Thank you, Boss Qing Zhen, for showing mercy to us.¡±


    ¡°Alright, don¡¯t worry, no one will make things difficult for you two.¡± Qing Zhen chuckled and walked out.


    The two soldiers couldn¡¯t help wondering about this as Qing Zhen left them. Everyone had heard he kept a lot of trump cards around him, but no one expected it to be true.


    But didn¡¯t the Board usurp Qing Zhen¡¯s authority? How could anyone still be willing to follow someone who had fallen out of favor with the consortium?


    They heard Qing Zhen humming happily as he headed towards the prosperous part of the city. One of the soldiers asked as Qing Zhen walked away, ¡°What is Boss Qing Zhen singing?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. We don¡¯t even have the money to go and listen to concerts.¡± The other soldier was unsure about what song it was.


    In the evening, Qing Zhen sat down alone inside a theater. Everyone else had left the ce as they feared he was poison. Only Qing Zhen was watching the performances as the performers on stage rotated.


    He leaned his head against one of his hands. The more alcohol he drank, the clearer his vision became.


    In this theater, there was only a sweet and sorrowful voice drifting up to the neon lights.


    ¡°A posthouse, a crossroads, how many officials go north and south every day?


    ¡°Promotion brings untold joy; demotion sends one home in silence.


    ¡°Fame and fortune have always been fleeting. Life keeps flowing and growing....¡±


    At this moment, someone walked up from behind him and said, ¡°Qing Zhen, the Board has something to discuss with you. They¡¯re requesting you attend the meeting.¡±


    Qing Zhen smiled. ¡°Tell them I¡¯m not going.¡±


    ...


    On his way back from the jewelry shop, Ren Xiaosu thought about his future ns. Now that he couldn¡¯t sell the gold in his possession and might even get targeted by others at any moment, he was starting to worry that he couldn¡¯t exchange them for cash.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu was not enthusiastic about opening the shop because he still had gold. But now, he had to reconsider opening the shop to do business again. He couldn¡¯t possibly expect to live on the subsidies given by the school to students, right?


    Should he sell the ck medicine? Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t want to do that. After all, it was more difficult to earn gratitude tokens than money.


    As he walked, he suddenly realized he was back at the shop when he finally looked up. But the moment he came into the shop, he saw Wang Fugui acting suspiciously as he promoted something to a man.


    When Ren Xiaosu got closer, he was surprised to see it was the ck medicine being promoted.


    From Wang Fugui¡¯s expression, it was obvious he was not exining the proper use of the ck medicine. Moreover, the middle-aged man had an indecent look about him.


    Ren Xiaosu felt sad. Was he destined to be a drug dealer forever?!

 Chapter 138 - Pyro

    <h4>Chapter 138: Pyro</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°That drug dealer¡±¡ªthis was often abel that came up during discussions surrounding questionable behavior.


    Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t ept this. How could a young and promising supernatural being like him bebeled with such an unworthy title?


    Just as he had said before, his social standing would plummet if he became known as ¡°the drug dealer.¡±


    At this moment, a man walked in and said, ¡°Doctor, can you take a look at what¡¯s wrong with me? My stomach constantly hurts.¡±


    Without even thinking, Ren Xiaosu rejected him. ¡°We won¡¯t be treating any more patients from now on.¡±


    However, the man became unhappy. He said, ¡°You¡¯re running a clinic, so how can you refuse to treat patients? Do you know who I am?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was also getting unhappy. What was with the residents¡¯ behavior in this stronghold? Why did they all like to boast so much about who they were the moment they opened their mouths? It was as though they were living based on their social statuses. He stared at that man. ¡°And who are you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Yan Linfeng from the Western District! Just go around and ask who I am!¡± the man said disdainfully.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the long-awaited voice from the pce say, ¡°Quest: Treat a patient.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Linfeng with a broad grin. ¡°Come,e, tell me about your symptoms.¡±


    Yan Linfeng was stupefied. Was his name really that effective? He had only wanted to throw a tantrum to vent his anger but that quickly subsided. ¡°My stomach doesn¡¯t feel good. It hurts a little.¡±


    ¡°Old Wang, prescribe three antibiotic pills for this patient.¡± Ren Xiaosu said nicely, ¡°You have gastritis, but you¡¯ll be fine after taking some medicine.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Yan Linfeng said skeptically.


    ¡°Yes!¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly. ¡®Like I care whether it¡¯s real. Completing the quest is more important.¡¯


    The pce had not assigned him any quests for a dozen days. This was a good start to the day.


    The moment that man took the medicine from him, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. The quest wasplete!


    When Yan Linfeng took the medicine and paid for it, he asked, ¡°Is there any food I should avoid?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t eat bitter melon,¡± Ren Xiaosu said absentmindedly as he started thinking about the scroll in the pce.


    ¡°Why shouldn¡¯t I eat bitter melon?¡± Yan Linfeng was taken aback.


    Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°Because it doesn¡¯t taste good.¡±


    Yan Linfeng was confused.


    Wang Fugui sent Yan Linfeng away. Ren Xiaosu looked up and asked, ¡°Did we only get two customers today?¡±


    ¡°Well, not really, but we don¡¯t know how to treat patients, so we just asked them to leave,¡± Wang Fugui said with a smile. Then he slid out a piece of red paper from underneath the counter. ¡°By the way, someone sent us a pamphlet. Have a look.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Ren Xiaosu was uncertain as he took it from him. But he was stunned when he saw it, because the logo of the Pyro Company was printed at the top of the pamphlet.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s logo was that of a small me which seemed to represent the survival of civilization as it passed on from generation to generation.


    Ren Xiaosu turned serious. Did the Pyro Company have business here in Stronghold 109 as well? Ever since he got out of the Jing Mountains, the Pyro Company was one of the organizations Ren Xiaosu was most curious about.


    Until now, he could only specte on thepany based on a few words Yang Xiaojin had said. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu kept a constant wariness for thepany.


    Maybe it was because Yang Xiaojin had a hostile attitude when she was describing the Pyro Company, and he got influenced.


    ¡°Effective from today, supernatural beings can drop by ourpany and get paid for donating your blood. Your blood will be used for ourpany¡¯s future research and also contribute to humanity¡¯s progress. Furthermore, you will receive 1,000,000 yuan in exchange for just 200 mL of your blood. Ourpany will keep your personal information confidential and offer you protection. For further information, please contact...¡±


    There was a series of numbers at the bottom.


    ording to Yang Xiaojin, the Pyro Company controlled a ce simr to the Jing Mountains. Furthermore, there were no volcanoes there, and it was preserved in pristine condition.


    Currently, all of the strongholds held a mostly hostile view of supernatural beings. However, not only had the Pyro Company started purchasing the blood of supernatural beings, they even openly offered them protection!


    Wang Fugui looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Well, do you want to give it a try?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan walked next to them and nced at the pamphlet. ¡°Uncle Fugui, something is off about thispany. My brother must not go there.¡±


    ¡°True.¡± Wang Fugui immediately understood. They had witnessed the tragic cases of Zhang Baogen and Chen Wudi for themselves. Who could guarantee that this Pyro Company was acting with good intentions?


    Even if the Pyro Company meant well, who could guarantee they could keep the information confidential? So they would rather not earn this money if it meant Ren Xiaosu had to risk his life for it.


    However, Wang Fugui realized from this just how aware Yan Liuyuan was of his surroundings.


    Holding the pamphlet in his hand, Ren Xiaosu tried to figure out what other tricks thepany might be ying. In reality, Wang Fugui and Yan Liuyuan still did not understand this world well enough.


    Just citing those terrifying Experimentals as an example, did those subjects all willingly be Experimentals? Probably not.


    If the Pyro Company were trying to obtain the blood samples of supernatural beings, they were definitely thinking of obtaining the gic information. Thispany was so ambitious that it actually sought to collect the blood of all supernatural beings in the world for research.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not think this was a good thing. He called Chen Wudi over and instructed him not to use his superpowers without his permission. For this reason, Ren Xiaosu even had to threaten Chen Wudi with the headache spell before Chen Wudi was willing to promise he would not do so.


    ¡°I never expected that the headache spell would be that useful,¡± Ren Xiaosumented.


    Wang Fugui said with some regret, ¡°But it¡¯s quite a pity to give up on such a huge reward.¡±


    Making money was a lifetime business to him. It was really difficult not to feel tempted when faced with the promise of so much money for the first time. Of course, he knew his priorities.


    All of a sudden, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Since this Pyro Company is so rich, why don¡¯t we pull a heist on them!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu kicked Yan Liuyuan¡¯s buttocks. ¡°Get lost. Pack up and get ready to go with me to school tomorrow!¡±


    ¡°OK...¡± Yan Liuyuan responded.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Yan Liuyuan. As this kid had grown up in an environment as harsh as the town, someone would have to teach him from time to time about right and wrong.


    Ren Xiaosu noticed the series of numbers at the bottom of the pamphlet. ¡°What do these numbers represent? Is it a code?¡±


    ¡°That should be a telephone number.¡± Wang Fugui smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ve heard before that every stronghold has a telephonework. A person can chat with another person even though they¡¯re dozens of kilometers away from each other. We have andline in our shop too, but we haven¡¯t figured out how to use it yet.¡±


    After this group of refugees arrived, they had to explore everything by themselves. Ren Xiaosu was wondering if he should ask Jiang Wu toe over to give them a lesson about living in the stronghold so they would all get a better understanding of how things worked here.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we try using the phone?¡± Yan Liuyuan said excitedly. He was at an age where he was interested in all kinds of new things.

 Chapter 139 - Leaving an escape route

    <h4>Chapter 139: Leaving an escape route</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    A group of people gathered around the magicalndline. Even Xiaoyu joined in on the fun.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How do we use this thing?¡± He saw a bunch of numeric buttons on the phone, but there was no operating manual for it.


    ¡°Look at the series of numbers on the Pyro Company¡¯s pamphlet.¡± Wang Fugui said as he pointed at it, ¡°Do we just dial them in sequential order?¡±


    ¡°I guess so. Let¡¯s try it.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Liuyuan, you give it a try.¡±


    Everyone was quite curious about this new device, but Ren Xiaosu still took care of Yan Liuyuan and decided to let him have fun with it first.


    Under the gaze of everyone¡¯s anticipation, Yan Liuyuan dialed the series of numbers. They definitely would not use the Pyro Company¡¯s numbers to test it out, so it ended up with numbers being punched in randomly.


    But after dialing the number, nothing happened!


    Yan Liuyuan looked up at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Bro, there¡¯s no response.¡±


    ¡°Let me think.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°We probably made a mistake operating it. You can see that it¡¯s an eight-digit number on the Pyro Company¡¯s leaflet. So we should be dialing an eight-digit number as well.¡±


    Chen Wudi came in from the backyard and saw the whole lot of them crowded together. He asked, ¡°Master, what are all of you doing?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Come,e, my disciple, see if you know how to operate this thing.¡±


    Although Chen Wudi used to live in a psychiatric hospital, he should still understand some basic functions of things, right? Maybe there was such a thing as a telephone in the psychiatric hospital?


    ¡°Let me see.¡± Chen Wudi nced at it and said, ¡°This is a telephone.¡±


    Chen Wudi then picked up the handset on the telephone. Ren Xiaosu and the others finally understood they had to pick it up first before using it.


    They saw Chen Wudi punch in a series of numbers. After several rings, a voice sounded from the receiver. ¡°Who is it?¡±


    Chen Wudi said in an imposing manner, ¡°I¡¯m the Great Sage!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re crazy!¡±


    With a click, the person on the other end hung up.


    Ren Xiaosu grinned. This phone thingy was amazing! The person on the other end could even urately identify Chen Wudi¡¯s nature through it.


    Chen Wudi got so angry he wanted to call back to scold that person. However, he had already forgotten what number he dialed.


    ¡°Come, Liuyuan, give it a try as well,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    Yan Liuyuan dialed the numbers in anticipation. After two rings, someone picked up the phone, and the voice of a middle-aged man could be heard saying, ¡°Who is this?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan felt as though he had opened up a door to a new world. He said politely, ¡°Hello, uncle.¡±


    The person on the other end was stunned. ¡°Who are you? Is there anything you¡¯re calling me for?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, I was just trying to make a call,¡± Yan Liuyuan said honestly. ¡°I just learned how to use the telephone. I¡¯m sorry for disturbing you.¡±


    ¡°Um, it¡¯s alright.¡± The person on the other end hung up.


    Yan Liuyuan looked up and said to Ren Xiaosu with the receiver in his hand, ¡°Bro, this phone thingy is amazing. The other person on the phone feels like he¡¯s right across from me.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t test it anymore. It¡¯s not good to disturb others.¡±


    But suddenly, the phone rang. Ren Xiaosu was stunned before picking it up. ¡°Hello?¡±


    The person on the other end said, ¡°Do you need a small loan...¡±


    The person prattled on and said a lot of things, but Ren Xiaosu and the others were stunned. They just could not understand what the person was saying. Ren Xiaosu hesitated before saying, ¡°I don¡¯t understand what you mean.¡±


    That person stayed silent for a couple seconds. ¡°It just means that we can lend you money.¡±


    ¡°How much is the interest?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked after a short pause.


    ¡± 3% <sup>1</sup> ,¡± the person in the call said.


    Ren Xiaosuughed, ¡°Isn¡¯t that loansharking?¡±


    The person in the call shouted to someone, ¡°Boss, someone says that we¡¯re loan sharks.¡±


    Someone else came to the phone and said, ¡°Young man, don¡¯t you spout nonsense. We aren¡¯t loan sharks.¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed his ass off. ¡°Isn¡¯t charging 3% interest loansharking? Of all the businesspeople out there, you¡¯re the ones without a conscience.¡±


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu thought that everyone in the stronghold lived and worked in a prosperous environment. But it seemed that there were also some shady businesses.


    The man spoke in a low voice, ¡°Do you know who I am?¡±


    Immediately, Ren Xiaosu wondered why the voice sounded so familiar. Didn¡¯t he hear this voice somewhere before? He asked him back, ¡°Do you know who I am?¡±


    The man was stunned. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m Yan Linfeng from the Western District!¡±


    After a brief silence, the man replied, ¡°Fuck, I¡¯m also the Yan Linfeng from Western District...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    So it turned out it was not everyone who liked introducing themselves, but that he was always encountering those who did. And they were always fucking called Yan Linfeng too. It was no wonder the voice sounded so familiar!


    With a click, Ren Xiaosu hung up the phone. When Yan Linfeng came to see the doctor, Ren Xiaosu was already a little unhappy with him. He was thinking that if he used this name over the phone, he could let those people fight among themselves. But he never expected to encounter the same person.


    Yan Linfeng probably did not know who he was calling, right? Even if he knew who it was, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid of him. Ren Xiaosu already knew that guns were prohibited in the stronghold. In the entire stronghold, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid of anyone other than the Li Consortium¡¯s troops.


    ¡°Actually, we should work on our rtionship with a local like him.¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°It seems that Yan Linfeng is involved in some shady business and has underlings working for him. I think it¡¯s helpful to know such people no matter where we are.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°If hees here to see the doctor again, you can have a longer chat with him.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Wang Fugui agreed. ¡°News of the effectiveness of our ck medicine should start spreading after tonight. We won¡¯t even have to promote it and can just rely on word of mouth to create a market!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt somewhat ufortable. After tearing up the Pyro Company¡¯s pamphlet, he said, ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t tell anyone that Chen Wudi and I are supernatural beings. Keep a close eye on Chen Wudi and don¡¯t let him run around outside unnecessarily in the short term, in case he gets into trouble.¡±


    He assumed Luo Lan would not disclose the fact that Chen Wudi was a supernatural being to the stronghold. However, there was no guarantee that Jiang Wu¡¯s group of students could keep it a secret, so they should be prepared for all possible scenarios.


    Ren Xiaosu remembered the small note left by Yang Xiaojin. It seemed she was right after all. The presence of the multiple powers had turned Stronghold 109 into a chaotic ce. He didn¡¯t know why or how many other powers were involved. So the best he could do was protect Yan Liuyuan and the others.


    ¡°Old Wang,¡± Ren Xiaosu ordered, ¡°I¡¯ll write a list for you. Go and see if you¡¯re allowed to buy these items. Remember not to buy them together, but separately.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had to prepare an escape route. He would use it as ast resort.


    Ren Xiaosu had stolen something very crucial from Yang Xiaojin while they were in the Jing Mountains: Advanced Bomb-making.

 Chapter 140 - In the name of justice

    <h4>Chapter 140: In the name of justice</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The items Ren Xiaosu needed Wang Fugui to prepare were actually not that difficult. Although a lot of them were everyday necessities, he would have to be careful if he bought them all at the same time. Because, by buying these items together, it might catch some people¡¯s attention. After all, it was no secret that these items could be used to make a bomb.


    The next morning, Wang Fugui went out. He did not ask Ren Xiaosu what he needed those items for. If Ren Xiaosu needed them, he had to go out and get them.


    Currently, Wang Fugui saw himself as the shopkeeper of the group. All he needed to do was to perform his duty as required of him.


    Ren Xiaosu had been afraid that Wang Fugui would mess up with this task. In the end, he realized Wang Fugui was even more careful than he had expected him to be.


    Wang Fugui had spent the entire day taking the streetcar to the North, South, East, and West Districts, making four separate purchases in each of them in order to gather all of the items for Ren Xiaosu.


    When he got home at night, Ren Xiaosu could see that he was wiped out.


    Xiaoyu had already bought some new clothes for Ren Xiaosu and the others. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan, Ren Xiaosu, and Wang Dalong¡¯s school admission procedures had been processed. Furthermore, Xiaoyu helped them find out the schools in the stronghold had two intersession breaks each year. It was winter now, so the first semester of school wasing to an end. Ren Xiaosu and the others would not have to attend school for long before the semester break began.


    Of course, this was in line with what Ren Xiaosu wanted. The beginning should be an adaptation phase, so having a vacation break would certainly take the pressure off a little.


    But in the end, they would still have to go back to school. Ren Xiaosu was suddenly looking forward to it. He wondered if the stronghold¡¯s school taught simr things as what Mr. Zhang had taught them.


    After dinner, Wang Fugui found Ren Xiaosu and said to him quietly, ¡°When I was buying these items today, one of the shopkeepers mentioned something that¡¯s scared me even until now.¡±


    ¡°What was it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The shopkeeper let slip his wondering about why everyone was buying these things.¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°So I asked him who else was buying them? He then told me that a girl had gone to his shop yesterday to buy the same things, and that he had fortunately restocked the items today. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have had anything for me to buy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. Out of nowhere, he thought the girl might just be Yang Xiaojin!


    Their two bomb-making skills were exactly the same. So when considering how to create a bomb, the items they would require were probably going to be the same as well.


    Yang Xiaojin was probably not expecting Ren Xiaosu to be doing the same exact thing as her.


    Just what was Yang Xiaojin nning? Surely this girl wouldn¡¯t be thinking of blowing up the stronghold, right?


    Of course, it wasn¡¯t practical to blow up the stronghold with just a bomb of this magnitude. Ren Xiaosu felt that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s target might just turn out to be the Pyro Company¡¯s branch office in Stronghold 109. After all, he already felt Yang Xiaojin had some kind of feud with the Pyro Company.


    The next morning, Ren Xiaosu and the others took the streetcar and hurried on their way to 13th High School. When they were on the streetcar, they noticed some other students on it as well. It was easy to recognize who were the students since they all wore blue and white uniforms.


    When Tang Zhou handed over the application procedures to them, they were told the school uniforms would only be issued when they reached school since it was given out based on their measurements. Jiang Wu¡¯s students had already been issued theirs, so only Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and Wang Dalong were not wearing it.


    Currently, Jiang Wu was living in the faculty dormitory with her students. From now on, these students had to work hard and depend on themselves since their parents were no longer around.


    But what Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t expect was that these students were exceptionally united. Having nearly died, and without any more family around, they instinctively started treating each other as family.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard the students at the front of the streetcar discussing, ¡°Did anyone tell you guys yet? There are some refugees who came into the stronghold recently. I heard someone fell sick the moment they got home after taking the same streetcar as them. My mother said it¡¯s because refugees carry germs from the outside.¡±


    Another student said, ¡°My dad told me to stay away from the refugees if I encounter them.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel that serious to me,¡± a female student said softly.


    ¡°Who knows? My mum said the germs brought in by the refugees to the stronghold several years ago infected a lot of people and killed dozens more. Why else do you think everyone does not want them inside the stronghold?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he frowned. Why had the news spread so far in just one night? Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu had really not thought refugees would be ostracized so badly beforeing into the stronghold. Besides, even if they had been ostracized before, it was more for reasons such as being poor.


    He wouldn¡¯t have expected it to be over something like them being carriers of ¡°germs.¡±


    It was not like the town was considered a quarantine zone. Ren Xiaosu was very disdainful of any talk of the refugees being germ carriers. He had been in contact with a lot of people from strongholds, such as Luo Lan, Tang Zhou, Yang Xiaojin, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and the private troops who had gone on the expedition.


    It wasn¡¯t like any of those people had died of an illness, right?


    Who could have purposely said the refugees were spreading diseases in the stronghold? This was making Ren Xiaosu and the others seem like they were some kind of terrible disease carriers.


    Wang Dalong was transfixed on a girl in the streetcar. It was as though the conversation the others were having was none of his business.


    However, Yan Liuyuan was a tad more sensitive. He frowned and whispered, ¡°Bro, are we really carrying germs on us?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head.


    ¡°Then why are they saying that? Shouldn¡¯t we be refuting them?¡± Yan Liuyuan¡¯s previously good mood after getting into the stronghold was spoiled by what was going on around them.


    ¡°It¡¯s no use refuting them,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    ¡°Why? They¡¯re vilifying us.¡± Yan Liuyuan could not understand.


    ¡°Liuyuan, if ten people say we¡¯re in the wrong, does that count as vilifying us?¡±


    ¡°Yes, why not?¡± Yan Liuyuan answered.


    ¡°Then if a 100 people say that we¡¯re at fault, does that count as vilifying us?¡± Ren Xiaosu continued to ask.


    ¡°...I guess so.¡± Yan Liuyuan gave it some thought before answering.


    ¡°Then what if 10,000 people are saying something bad about us?¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°That wouldn¡¯t be vilification but justice.¡±


    ¡°Bro,¡± Yan Liuyuan said softly, ¡°although I¡¯m not as philosophical as you, if 10,000 people vilified us, I wouldn¡¯t call it justice as long as I think it¡¯s wrong.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°You¡¯re right.¡±


    These students on the streetcar had all been influenced by their parents. They¡¯d been told not to foolishly stand up for others and to be more ¡°street smart¡± when they were outside. Their parents would also tell them not to mix with certain people.


    In reality, the students¡¯ mindsets were basically an extension of their parents¡¯ wills. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu understood that the majority of the stronghold¡¯s residents did not wee their arrival. But he wasn¡¯t really sure whether this situation would get worse.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had no time to care about this right now. When he learned Yang Xiaojin might also be purchasingrge quantities of bomb-making material, he got even more curious about what she was nning to do.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu felt that if he had a chance, it would be best to find out exactly where Yang Xiaojin was going to nt the bomb. That would save him the trouble of getting bombed himself....

 Chapter 141 - Silencing witnesses

    <h4>Chapter 141: Silencing witnesses</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    With Yang Xiaojin and the Qing Consortium both here in Stronghold 109, and the Pyro Company audaciously seeking to collect the blood of supernatural beings as well, Ren Xiaosu nearly forgot this stronghold was actually under the control of the Li Consortium. Ren Xiaosu was a little curious about what could have attracted all these people here and the events that might be unfolding soon.


    Until now, Ren Xiaosu had only met with the stronghold overseer whose name was Lu Yuan. There was no trace of anyone from the Li Consortium. Could the Li Consortium not know about what was going on in the stronghold? Surely that couldn¡¯t be possible!


    So why didn¡¯t the Li Consortium make an appearance to control the situation? With so many different powers gathered here, it felt like some kind of matchmaking session. As the host, why wasn¡¯t there any sign of the Li Consortium?


    It was at this moment that a student on the streetcar said, ¡°There¡¯s still half a year until exams. I wonder if we¡¯ll qualify for uni?¡±


    ¡°Haha, I¡¯ve already given up,¡± said a student dressed more casually than the others. His cored shirt was mostly untucked while his hair was pretty long. As he spoke, he kept brushing his bangs to the side. ¡°My dad already said he wants me to go to his factory and climb the ranks after I graduate from high school.¡±


    ¡°What does your family¡¯s factory produce?¡± someone asked.


    That studentughed and said, ¡°We make clothes. My family¡¯s factory processes 10% of the fabric brought in from the outside. A lot of the clothes we make are even exported to the other strongholds to be sold.¡±


    ¡°That sounds awesome!¡± the other student eximed. ¡°But it hasn¡¯t seemed like it¡¯s very safe outside the stronghold in recent times. Are the clothes your family make still going to get exported?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s true that it isn¡¯t safe outside the stronghold anymore. My dad says we won¡¯t be exporting anything out in the short term.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a look at them. Zhang Jinglin once said that the smokestack industries <sup>1</sup> were all outside the stronghold, while the industries that did not cause serious pollution were within it. Of course, it wasn¡¯t an absolute.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu thought the strongholds seemed to survive on the basis that the refugees had to suffer on the outside. Life outside was an abyss of suffering while everything on the inside was peaceful and prosperous.


    The refugees living on the outside were only allowed to get involved with the most basic production of raw materials, while all further processing was to be carried out inside the strongholds. This would mean that whatever items the refugees needed, they would have to buy it with money from the stronghold.


    In this way, whatever hard-earned money of the refugees would eventually flow back into the hands of the stronghold. To the big shots of the corporations, this was all but a simple game.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not feel that most people in the strongholds had any value at all. So why would the corporations find it necessary to support so many people?


    But unlike how Ren Xiaosu had imagined it, those who lived in the strongholds had always lived in one since the strongholds started. However, a consortium was not necessarily a consortium at the beginning.


    By the time the corporations started growing and gaining power, the masses in the strongholds had already formed a unique way of life. Even if the corporations wanted to change that, they would find it extremely difficult to do so.


    The difference between the majority of a stronghold¡¯s residents and a town¡¯s refugees was none other than that those who were born in the strongholds had won before the race had even started.


    The students in front of them looked like they were affluent second generations of the stronghold. Wang Dalong had been an affluent second generation in their previous town. But now, it seemed like Wang Dalong was doing much worse whenpared to these people.


    At this moment, one of the girls realized Wang Dalong was staring at her with an obsessive gaze. As such, she red back at Wang Dalong. But even so, Wang Dalong did not look away. He was extremely focused on her.


    Then Ren Xiaosu heard the students changing the subject. ¡°Have you heard about the new transfer student in ss 12-2 <sup>1</sup> ?¡±


    ¡°Are you talking about that girl?¡± The other boys suddenly became interested in this topic. ¡°I saw her from a distance two days ago. I heard she had transferred over from another high school.¡±


    ¡°But she¡¯s always wearing that cap, so I couldn¡¯t get a clear look at her face.¡±


    A girl who could provoke a group of boys into discussing her would definitely be pretty to a certain extent.


    However, when Ren Xiaosu heard this, he got an odd feeling...


    At this moment, the driver at the front of the streetcar shouted, ¡°We¡¯ve arrived at 13th High!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong out of the streetcar. As it only took them four stops to get from the shop to the school¡¯s entrance, Ren Xiaosu wondered whether they should walk to school in the future.


    Then Yan Liuyuan discovered Ren Xiaosu had abruptly stopped in his tracks. He turned around to where Ren Xiaosu was looking and was surprised to see a cap-wearing girl looking straight back at Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu had already made a guess on the streetcar, but he really had not expected to bump into Yang Xiaojin here! Instead of catching up with one another, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin both reached for their waists, ready to pull out their guns. However, both of them had a sudden, simultaneous realization that they were here to attend school.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gun was not holstered at his waist. He kept it in the storage space in his mental pce.


    Yan Liuyuan was confused. Wasn¡¯t this cap-wearing girl the person from before who was with the celebrity called Luo Xinyu? Why did she appear here then? Furthermore, she even caused Ren Xiaosu such panic?


    Instantly, Ren Xiaosu got a thought in his mind. He could sense that Yang Xiaojin seemed to be a little surprised and might even be thinking of silencing him.


    Ren Xiaosu could guess why Yang Xiaojin would have such a reaction. Clearly, Yang Xiaojin was the transfer student those students had mentioned.


    This girl hade straight to Stronghold 109 after getting out of the Jing Mountains. Furthermore, she was even allowed direct entry into the stronghold.


    Getting into the stronghold could easily be exined with Luo Xinyu¡¯s superpower. But surely that power wasn¡¯t going to help Yang Xiaojin enroll for school as well, right?! Who could possibly have such an awesome superpower?


    As such, her organization must have already infiltrated into this stronghold. By investigating how Yang Xiaojin¡¯s student application was handled, it might be possible to find out who was secretly backing her in Stronghold 109.


    Although they were once teammates and had been connected by a temporary alliance, their rtionship wasn¡¯t exactly that close, to be honest. So it was normal that Yang Xiaojin would react in such a way to protect herself and herpanion in the organization.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless. He hadn¡¯t expected to meet this cap-wearing girl here either. Perhaps this girl might not even know he already had an idea of who had left the note under the door.


    The two of them were caught in a deadlock outside the school¡¯s entrance. Quite a few students gave them strange looks as they passed by. Since Ren Xiaosu felt this wasn¡¯t going to lead anywhere, he initiated a reconciliatory action.


    He slowly brought his hand out from behind his waist to show he wasn¡¯t holding a gun. Yang Xiaojin looked at him calmly but did not put her hand down. Ren Xiaosu had a look at the pedestrians around them before attempting to talk about something else to ease the situation further. ¡°Return the dagger to me.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin raised an eyebrow. Honestly, she had not expected Ren Xiaosu to talk about this.


    At this moment, several students walked over. When they saw Yang Xiaojin, they greeted, ¡°Hey, why are you standing out here?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin calmly pointed at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°He¡¯s trying to rob me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu reacted, ¡°Huh?!¡±

 Chapter 142 - Transfer student, Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 142: Transfer student, Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When the group of students heard Ren Xiaosu was trying to rob Yang Xiaojin, they turned hostile. They even shouted for the other students to gather. It looked like they were about to turn him in to thew.


    More and more students came over to watch themotion. One of the reasons was that Yang Xiaojin got quite popr after her transfer, and the other reason was that people just loved watching amotion.


    Ren Xiaosu panicked on the spot. ¡°We know each other!¡±


    If he got into trouble for suspected robbery on his first day of school, that would be such an injustice. More importantly, Ren Xiaosu did not expect Yang Xiaojin to be so ruthless that she would bluntly use him of attempting to rob her! Besides, how could she say he was trying to rob her? The dagger was his in the first ce. He had traded food to her for it! ¡®I can let slide you taking back the dagger for yourself, but what¡¯s with your usation?¡¯


    The students had doubtful looks as they nced at Yang Xiaojin before casting their eyes to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You two know each other? It doesn¡¯t look like it.¡±


    ¡°We really know each other.¡± Ren Xiaosu hurriedly said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it just a misunderstanding? I¡¯m also a student of 13th High.¡±


    ¡°Since you say you know her, tell us what her name is,¡± a male student demanded.


    ¡°Yang Xiaojin!¡± Ren Xiaosu was amused. Yang Xiaojin¡¯s biggest w in her n was that he already knew her name.


    However, the male student sneered. ¡°How dare you pretend that you know her? Her name is Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt like he¡¯d been struck by lightning and nearly broke down.


    He looked at Yang Xiaojin in disbelief. But he realized Yang Xiaojin wasn¡¯t embarrassed at all. It looked like nothing to her as she focused on watching Ren Xiaosu make a fool of himself.


    ¡®But if your name on the student application is Ren Xiaosu, what the fuck should I be called? Are you not ashamed?!¡¯


    One student looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°You say you¡¯re also from 13th High, but why aren¡¯t you wearing a uniform? Which ss are you in and what¡¯s your name?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu calmed down a little by this time. He quieted his thoughts before saying, ¡°If I say that my name is also Ren Xiaosu, I doubt you guys will believe me...¡±


    At his side, Yan Liuyuan was almost tearing up withughter. It was at this moment that he made a careful assessment of Yang Xiaojin. It seemed like his brother had had quite a few run-ins with her.


    Yan Liuyuan felt this farce ying out in front of him wasn¡¯t really that big a deal. It was pretty interesting to see Ren Xiaosu getting upstaged like this. There were simply too few people who could get an edge over Ren Xiaosu like that. This cap-wearing girl was definitely not a normal person. Besides, normal people would never need to use a pseudonym either.


    While Ren Xiaosu was trying to exin himself to the others, Yan Liuyuan ran before Yang Xiaojin. ¡°Hello, big sis. I¡¯m Ren Xiaosu¡¯s younger brother, and my name is Yan Liuyuan.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin did not even blink when she was sabotaging Ren Xiaosu. But when she saw Yan Liuyuan, she turned pleasant and cheerful. She said in a soft voice, ¡°Mhm, hello. I¡¯m your big brother¡¯s good friend.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan turned around and took a look at Ren Xiaosu, who was caught inside the crowd. Was this really what a good friend would do?


    In the end,therge group of people forcefully brought Ren Xiaosu to the Academic Affairs Office. At the office, the teacher red up when he was told that someone had tried to rob a student. But when he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s admission papers, he became polite.


    He had received the notification yesterday that there would be a student admitted to the senior high section, and another two students to be admitted to the junior high section. He was informed of this news by the principal himself. Furthermore, he was reminded repeatedly that these three students were extremely important and were closely rted to Lu Yuan, the stronghold overseer.


    Although the actual controller of the stronghold was the Li Consortium, the daily running of the stronghold was presided over by Lu Yuan as long as it did not affect the consortium¡¯s interests. It could be said that he had power over the life and death of many people.


    Perhaps, the consortium had never thought much of Lu Yuan before. But to the everyday man on the streets, Lu Yuan was still the most admirable existence they needed.


    But what puzzled the teacher at the Academic Affairs Office was, didn¡¯t someone named Ren Xiaosu already get transferred into the school? When he saw the school application form in front of him, he felt a little confused.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that this matter between him and Yang Xiaojin was still not over!


    ¡°Teacher, which ss am I going to be in?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    The Academic Affairs teacher smiled and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go, we¡¯re going to ss 12-3. Come, let me introduce you to your new ssmates.¡±


    He called over another teacher to take Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong to the junior high section while he personally led Ren Xiaosu to the senior high section. It was at this moment that Ren Xiaosu remembered something. What was it that those students on the streetcar had said? The new transfer student was in ss 12-2?


    How lucky for him to not have been assigned to the same ss as Yang Xiaojin. Otherwise, if there were two Ren Xiaosus in a ss, the teachers would probably break down, let alone Ren Xiaosu.


    When Ren Xiaosu entered the ss, the teacher who brought him here said kindly, ¡°There¡¯s an empty seat in the third row from the back. You may sit there for now. In our school, we assign seats to the students based on their results. After the uing exams, you may choose where you wish to sit if you do well.¡±


    ¡°OK, thank you, Teacher,¡± Ren Xiaosu said politely. He had seen Yang Xiaojin on the way here when he passed by ss 12-2 next door, and she was sitting in the veryst row all by herself.


    The two of them exchanged a fiery look full of belligerence.


    That said, Yang Xiaojin seemed like she was truly unafraid that Ren Xiaosu would go and tell on her to the Qing Consortium. No, Ren Xiaosu felt he had better get Yan Liuyuan and the others to leave first. Who knew what kind of tricks Yang Xiaojin might try again?


    Ren Xiaosu sat at his desk. On his left was a female student simr in age to him. On his right was the hallway.


    ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Cao Yuqi. What¡¯s your name?¡± The female student greeted Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°I¡¯m Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    Cao Yuqi asked, ¡°Are you a transfer student?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. ¡°Uh-huh.¡±


    ¡°Which school did you transfer from?¡± Cao Yuqi followed up with, ¡°East City?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°I transferred from 5th High.¡±


    ¡°5th High?¡± Cao Yuqi was stunned. ¡°But there¡¯s no such school in our stronghold.¡±


    This time, it was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be stunned. ¡®There¡¯s a 13th High, so why wouldn¡¯t there be a 5th High?! How does the numbering in this stronghold work?¡¯


    Actually, there used to be a 5th High School in the stronghold, but it merged with 6th High Schoolter as they were too close to each other. In recent years, the poption in the stronghold had constantly been growing. As such, a residential building was built on the former site of 5th High School after it got demolished.


    But how would Ren Xiaosu know that? He was just making things up!


    ¡°You...¡± Cao Yuqi looked at Ren Xiaosu suspiciously. ¡°So which school did you really transfer from?¡±


    ¡°8th High?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Cao Yuqi would know something was wrong even if she were a moron. She was startled for a bit before asking, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re from outside the stronghold?¡± As Cao Yuqi said that, she inched further away from Ren Xiaosu. The rumors of refugees carrying diseases had been flying all over the ce for the past two days!

 Chapter 143 - Perverse

    <h4>Chapter 143: Perverse</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The entire stronghold was already fervently discussing the matter of the refugees. Some things might not sound too serious when it first started spreading, but it would get scarier and scarier as it passed on from one person to another.


    For example, some people who were worried about the refugees entering the stronghold at the beginning would say, ¡°Will the refugees bring in diseases from the outside or something? After all, there¡¯s a saying that all refugees are contaminated.¡±


    When it reached the next person, it would be: ¡°This is bad! The refugees have brought diseases into the stronghold!¡±


    When it spread to the third person: ¡°Several dozen people have already died from the disease the refugees are carrying!¡±


    As it spread: ¡°The refugees want to kill everyone in the stronghold with their disease!¡±


    Cao Yuqi put some distance between herself and Ren Xiaosu. But as fellow ssmates and deskmates, how far could she possibly distance herself?


    In the face of Cao Yuqi¡¯s questioning, Ren Xiaosu did not answer or lie. He did not say he was a refugee because he always believed there was nothing wrong with being one in the first ce. This wasn¡¯t up to him. Besides, it wasn¡¯t something disgraceful either.


    Ren Xiaosu might change into a new set of clothes and try to integrate into this society, but he would not deny who he was. If he did, he would have denied all 17 years of his life thus far.


    So at this moment, Cao Yuqi was looking at Ren Xiaosu in silence as she knew she had guessed correctly.


    ¡®He¡¯s a refugee!¡¯ Cao Yuqi was at a loss. Her new deskmate had turned out to be a refugee!


    Honestly, Cao Yuqi was even hoping to switch seats. But at this moment, a bent old man walked in. The old man ced his lesson n on the lectern and said slowly, ¡°The final exams will be here soon, so let¡¯s review trigonometric functions today.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. ¡®What are functions?¡¯


    Tang Zhou had asked Ren Xiaosu if he wanted to start with the 12th grade curriculum. At the time, Ren Xiaosu confidently said he had studied well during his time in town. When it came to learning, he said it would absolutely not be a problem for him. But now, Ren Xiaosu realized what Zhang Jinglin had taught him was quite different from what was being taught here in the stronghold.


    In reality, Zhang Jinglin could not be faulted for that. Zhang Jinglin himself wasn¡¯t a proper teacher either. Moreover, their ss consisted mainly of the younger boys and girls such as Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong, so there wasn¡¯t a need to follow a lesson n meant for higher grades.


    When a student got to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s age in town, they would usually stop schooling and start helping out at home. It was only Ren Xiaosu who had an abnormal thirst for more knowledge.


    All these reasons led to Ren Xiaosu unable to understand what was being taught in ss at this moment!


    The entire lesson felt like he was making his way through a fog. Ren Xiaosu had always been extremely attentive when attending sses. He wanted nothing more than to remember everything that was taught in Zhang Jinglin¡¯s lessons.


    But it was different this time. He also wanted to take in all of what had been taught for trigonometric functions, but he just didn¡¯t have the ability to do so. He couldn¡¯t make sense of it at all!


    When he hade to school to process his admission, the Academic Affairs Office issued him new textbooks. However, these textbooks were all for 12th grade sses. Even if Ren Xiaosu wanted to catch up on his knowledge, he would have to start with the 10th grade curriculum.


    During ss intermission, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s deskmate hurriedly left her seat. Several students gathered in the corner of the ssroom and started chattering. At times, some of the students in the group would let out a gasp, exim, or frown.


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t even have to wonder to know they were discussing his status as a refugee, and the harm he might bring to them as one.


    People in the stronghold did not treat refugees nicely. This was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s feeling after interacting with them. There were even times when he felt living in town was much freer. Of course, with the current threat of the Experimentals and wolf pack, it might not be safe to live in town.


    The refugees living in the town outside Stronghold 109 probably did not know the wilderness was filled with many things that could threaten their lives.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others could only bear with it for now. This was because they hadn¡¯t found a safe haven yet to rece the protection the stronghold offered them.


    After the ss intermission, it felt like every one of the students knew Ren Xiaosu was a refugee. Everyone¡¯s attitude towards him became colder.


    Some of the students who had wanted to reach out to get to know Ren Xiaosu were now left with aplex mix of emotions.


    More importantly, in order to strengthen their own social ss, the consortiums had inculcated into everyone the idea that refugees were of a lower ss. They would often intentionally or unintentionally spread the idea that refugees were ¡°contaminated¡± and used this as a reason to refuse entry to them into the strongholds. This also helped them to avoid getting caught in a moral outrage.


    ¡°I would like for the refugees toe into the stronghold too, but they¡¯ve been contaminated. If we allow them toe in, that would be irresponsible of us to everyone else.¡±


    The stronghold residents were used to hearing simr statements.


    However, Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t really bothered by it. Although he would like to get to know more people at school, he wouldn¡¯t force it if others weren¡¯t willing to make friends with him. After all, he and Yan Liuyuan had solely relied upon each other all these years. It didn¡¯t matter to him what others thought about them.


    After school ended on the same day, Ren Xiaosu grabbed his backpack and left the ss. It wasn¡¯t like he was anxious to get home. He just didn¡¯t want to lose sight of Yang Xiaojin.


    On that night in the Jing Mountains, Ren Xiaosu clearly remembered how terrifying it was when he saw Yang Xiaojin taking a sniper rifle out of thin air. If he allowed Yang Xiaojin to get a step ahead of him in locating amanding point, he would probably end up dead!


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, Yang Xiaojin was very likely looking to silence him.


    This was because Ren Xiaosu was very sure that if he told Luo Lan that Yang Xiaojin had been admitted into 13th High School, not only would Yang Xiaojin¡¯s n fail, something would also happen to the person who helped her with her school enrollment.


    Ren Xiaosu believed the Qing Consortium still had some hidden influence within this stronghold. If they knew about Yang Xiaojin¡¯s whereabouts, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan would definitely not miss this chance to exterminate a threat.


    When he left the ss, he happened to spot Yang Xiaojining out of the ss next door. A smile appeared on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s face under her cap. She did not make her way out of school but instead went in the opposite direction as she headed to the top floor of the school building.


    The rooftop became quiet and secluded after school.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he was unsure of what Yang Xiaojin was nning.


    After school, the students started pouring out of thepound. As it was only 5 PM, many students stayed behind at school to y basketball or ser.


    Ren Xiaosu got a thought when he saw this scene. He wondered how the refugees outside would feel if they knew the people in the stronghold were actively seeking enjoyment in their lives during a time when refugees were struggling to even fill their stomachs.


    Therefore, the walls of the strongholds not only stopped the dangers of the wilderness froming in, but also prevented the refugees from knowing what was going on inside. It didn¡¯t let them realize just howfortable it really was inside a stronghold.


    But Ren Xiaosu thought this seemed a little distorted. It felt like the recent disaster had caused humans to put on an even greater pretense of peace and prosperity.


    It was just like how an oppressed and poor person who got rich overnight would likely choose to splurge and squander without limits. This was a kind of psychological perverseness <sup>1</sup> that needed fulfilling.


    ...

 Chapter 144 - Each other’s secret

    <h4>Chapter 144: Each other¡¯s secret</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    In the crowd of those making their way out of school, the figures of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin going in the opposite direction to the roof stood stark. But since everyone was in a hurry to leave school, no one paid any attention to it.


    As Ren Xiaosu followed Yang Xiaojin, he realized she had a great figure, and she was tall as well.


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him when she was turning the corner at the stairs. Ren Xiaosu immediately looked away.


    Upon reaching the rooftop, Yang Xiaojin pushed open the rusty metal door and walked outside. Ren Xiaosu followed and suddenly felt as though his horizons were broadened as he stood outside on the rooftop overlooking the stronghold. This was the first time he was able to do so. Although the school building wasn¡¯t that tall, it was high enough to be able to see into the distance.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin threw something at Ren Xiaosu. It was the dagger she had stolen from Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°We¡¯re even now.¡± Yang Xiaojin sounded very calm. She did not exin why she had taken back the dagger, nor did Ren Xiaosu ask about it.


    The two of them stood on the rooftop and were locked in a stalemate.


    Suddenly, the sound of footsteps came from behind where Ren Xiaosu was standing. He turned around to look and was stunned to discover two students, a male and a female, holding hands as they came up via the stairway. It looked like they were a couple?


    When the couple saw there were others around, they did not seem to mind and continued heading up towards the roof. As a result, Ren Xiaosu shut the door leading to the rooftop.


    The couple was dumbfounded when they saw the door get shut in their faces.


    When Ren Xiaosu closed the door securely and turned back towards Yang Xiaojin, he discovered she was already pointing a small silver pistol at him.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately recognized the type of gun it was¡ªa SIG Sauer P238. This was once the most ssic model of SIG Sauer and was known as the ¡°prettydy¡± among handguns.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not panic. He said, ¡°If we wanted to kill each other, we would¡¯ve already done so. Aren¡¯t we both here because we want to reconcile?¡±


    If Yang Xiaojin had really intended to shoot, she wouldn¡¯t have gone through the trouble of throwing the dagger back to him. Ren Xiaosu was feeling unusually calm at this moment.


    Yang Xiaojin put away her gun again and said, ¡°How did you manage to escape from the Qing Consortium¡¯s defense perimeter?¡±


    ¡°I kept running all the way out.¡± Ren Xiaosu yed dumb.


    ¡°What happened in the Jing Mountains after we left?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Countless Experimentals came rushing out, and there was even a monstrous creature that appeared from the crater of the volcano.¡± Ren Xiaosu briefly mentioned, ¡°A lot of shocking incidents urred. You can¡¯t possibly imagine how terrifying that creature in the crater was.¡±


    ¡°I can imagine that,¡± Yang Xiaojin corrected him.


    Her answer stunned Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin sounded very firm. Could Yang Xiaojin also have seen something the size of that creature before?


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are you worried that I¡¯ll squeal on you to the Qing Consortium?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of that now.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Because you also have a secret you¡¯re afraid the Qing Consortium will find out about.¡±


    ¡°What secret?¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt as though something was off, and he had missed out on some details!


    Yang Xiaojin started smiling. There was even a hint of arrogance to it. ¡°When Luo Xinyu and I went back the way we took to the Jing Mountains, we discovered the wolf pack had been waiting at the mouth of the canyon all along. If it weren¡¯t for Luo Xinyu¡¯s ability to jump through the shadows, we would probably have had to take a detour to get around them. But calcting the time you took to get back, you must¡¯ve already reached the town before Stronghold 113 was destroyed. First, you couldn¡¯t have run that quickly if you were just a normal person with greater strength. Second, if you were really a normal person, you couldn¡¯t have gotten past the wolf pack for sure.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu tensed up. Yang Xiaojin continued, ¡°Therefore, you¡¯re also a supernatural being. It was just that you kept your powers more hidden than Luo Xinyu and me. It was no wonder you dared to join the expedition to head to the Jing Mountains. It was because you had a hidden trump card.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t meet any wolves on my way back.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I just ran through the canyon. The face bugs can¡¯t move fast either, so I had already run past them by the time they crawled out of their caves.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked seriously at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°I¡¯m not listening.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. There was nothing he could do about it. After all the exnation, all it took were three words for it to be refuted.


    But Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯m not saying all this to threaten you. I just want you to understand that everyone has secrets. So don¡¯t do anything stupid that¡¯ll make both of us suffer.¡±


    ¡°Deal!¡± Ren Xiaosu said. In fact, that was what he wanted as well. As long as everyone got along peacefully, everything would be fine.


    They had gotten along rather well in the Jing Mountains, so there was no need to fight to the death now just because they were out of the mountains.


    Moreover, if Yang Xiaojin and those working with her really wanted to make a move, he would be more handicapped since Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others were all normal people.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu knew he could not drop his guard just because of this temporary ceasefire. After all, Yang Xiaojin was someone who could even steal back a dagger she had given away, so what else could she be capable of?


    After the talk, Yang Xiaojin got ready to go downstairs. As she went past Ren Xiaosu, she noticed his grip on the dagger tightened.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why is the Pyro Company offering to buy the blood of supernatural beings? And why did you all make an attempt on Qing Zhen¡¯s life?¡±


    ¡°The danger in Stronghold 109 is greater than you think.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Do not recklessly provoke the Pyro Company, nor sell your blood to them. That¡¯s all I can say about it. As for the matter between us and Qing Zhen, you¡¯re still not fit to involve yourself yet.¡±


    ¡°What other danger is there?¡± Ren Xiaosu was startled. Could there still be other forces at y other than the Pyro Company?


    ¡°Don¡¯t be so nosy.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Besides, I doubt you have much free time to care about other matters. You might have underestimated how much the stronghold residents ostracize the refugees.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started pondering. It seemed like the refugeesing into the stronghold was still not over yet?


    He looked down at the school entrance. A girl wrapped in a scarf and wearing a pair of sunsses stood there. When the girl noticed him looking in her direction, she waved at him in greeting.


    Just by this familiar greeting, Ren Xiaosu knew it was Luo Xinyu...


    Ren Xiaosu decided to clear thest of his doubts. Or to be urate, this was something he wanted to know deep down. ¡°Why have supernatural beings started appearing?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin stood at the entrance of the rooftop and turned around to look at Ren Xiaosu. She pointed a finger at her head and said, ¡°Humans have always been weakening their physical attributes during evolution. You¡¯ve said this before when we were in the Jing Mountains, and so has that Mr. Zhang from Stronghold 178. That¡¯s the price to pay for wisdom.¡±


    ¡°I know that.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. At that time, Yang Xiaojin had also hinted that Zhang Jinglin was not a simple man. So she had already guessed his identity back then, but she wasn¡¯t sure about it yet.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that this conversation was extremely important. The girl seemed to be using what he already knew to help him uncover the truth of this world. Ren Xiaosu started to get serious.


    ¡°Therefore, if a price has been paid, it naturally means there¡¯s been a harvest,¡± Yang Xiaojin exined.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little taken aback. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    Yang Xiaojinughed. She pushed her cap down further and said, ¡°When a disasteres, mental strength bes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.¡±

 Chapter 145 - Bicycle

    <h4>Chapter 145: Bicycle</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    In the evening, when Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong back to the shop, he realized that something was off. Why were there so many people at the shop?


    After they took over the running of the shop, they had informed a lot of those who came to see the doctor that the shop would not be doing any more consultations in the future. As such, the poprity of the shop died down very quickly. For the past few days, he and Old Wang still hadn¡¯t decided about what to do with the shop.


    As Ren Xiaosu walked in, he noticed people crowding around Wang Fugui. Wang Fugui was exining something to them.


    ¡°Boss, you¡¯re finally back!¡± Wang Fugui¡¯s eyes gleamed when he saw Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Um, why are there so many people here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Wang Fugui pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and whispered, ¡°Didn¡¯t we sell off one dosage of the ck medicine the day before yesterday? As a result, people have already started finding their way here.¡±


    ¡°That can happen?¡± Ren Xiaosu was a little confused.


    ¡°Men always openly share such things over a meal.¡± Wang Fugui smiled and said, ¡°All you young men have such high libidos, you don¡¯t understand the pain of the middle-aged and older men. They¡¯re all in the same boat! Besides, our ck medicine does not have any side effects after taking it. That makes it so much better than the other medicines out there.¡±


    ¡°But we still can¡¯t sell too much of it.¡± Ren Xiaosu rejected the idea and said, ¡°Tell them that only one dosage will be sold per week. We can¡¯t sell any more than that.¡±


    Seeing that a great business opportunity couldn¡¯t bepleted, Wang Fugui was upset. If Ren Xiaosu could give him more of the ck medicine, he would guarantee their shop would be thergest healthcare product store in the stronghold.


    What sort of a concept was it to monopolize the healthcare products industry in a stronghold?


    But since Ren Xiaosu said no, there was nothing that he could do about it. Wang Fugui exined to the customers that if they wanted to buy the ck medicine, they would have to wait until next week.


    Suddenly, a customer said, ¡°I¡¯ll pay 800 yuan to reserve next week¡¯s medicine. Keep it for me until you have it ready!¡±


    Wang Fugui¡¯s eyes lit up. They could even do that?


    Even as a shrewd businessman, Wang Fugui did not realize there would be such a strong demand for the ck medicine from these middle-aged men in the stronghold!


    When the others heard someone offer 200 additional yuan to make a reservation, their interest immediately subsided. Although they wanted to buy it, they didn¡¯t want to be a sucker just to get it. So after the person who made the reservation paid the deposit, the others quickly dispersed.


    Then from nearby Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°We can¡¯t use that kind of simple porcin vial anymore. We¡¯ve got to hold the ck medicine in the best container so that it¡¯ll create hype! The more mysterious-looking this ck medicine is, the better!¡±


    ¡°Liuyuan is so smart!¡± Wang Fugui said excitedly, ¡°We probably won¡¯t need to sell anything else in the future. One dosage of the ck medicine per person will be enough to make us rich!¡± Wang Fugui seemed to have sensed a great business opportunity.


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Do as you deem fit. I don¡¯t know anything about doing business anyway. By the way, where¡¯s Chen Wudi?¡±


    ¡°He headed out as soon as y¡¯all went to school.¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°I don¡¯t know where he went, but I couldn¡¯t locate him. Don¡¯t worry, though, he¡¯ll definitely be back when it¡¯s mealtime. He¡¯s extremely punctual....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°He only remembers when it¡¯s time to eat?¡±


    Wang Fugui hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°It¡¯s not that. He doesn¡¯te back because he wants to eat.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused. ¡°Didn¡¯t you just say that he¡¯ll definitely be back when it¡¯s time to eat? If it isn¡¯t to eat, why else would he being back?¡±


    A next momentter, Chen Wudi walked in from the outside with his arms full. Wang Fugui looked at the figure of Chen Wudi in a daze and said, ¡°To bring us food...¡±


    He heard Chen Wudi shout at the top of his voice, ¡°Master, I¡¯m back from alms begging.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Ren Xiaosu saw a big bundle of food in his arms that included buns, Chinese burritos, and even a small bag of pickles. There was quite arge variety of food.


    But what Ren Xiaosu could not figure out was just how deeply immersed Chen Wudi was into his character.


    When Chen Wudi shoved all the food into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arms, Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. ¡°Where did you get so much food from?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had been worried that Chen Wudi would consume too much of their food. But taking a nce, he realized just how self-sufficient Chen Wudi was!


    ¡°I got it when I went begging for alms.¡± Chen Wudi chuckled.


    ¡°People just give food to you when you ask for it? Are they that generous?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t give it to me for nothing. I said that I would help them subdue evil,¡± Chen Wudi said.


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. ¡°Did you disy your powers?¡±


    ¡°No. Master, didn¡¯t you instruct me not to do so?¡± Chen Wudi exined.


    Finally, Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He was really worried Chen Wudi would get targeted by the other organizations. ¡°Then how did you manage to get the food from them?¡±


    Chen Wudi thought for a while. ¡°I took it by force.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Wait a minute! It seemed like this idea of begging for alms was also taught to Chen Wudi by him. At that time, Ren Xiaosu got Chen Wudi to seek out those refugees to beg alms from while they were escaping here.


    So Chen Wudi¡¯s definition of begging for alms was what Ren Xiaosu had taught to him back then?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried the police officers from the stronghold¡¯s Public Order Division would rush in and take Chen Wudi away. As he wasn¡¯t entirely sure of how Chen Wudi had begged for alms, he didn¡¯t know whether his attempts would constitute robbery or not.


    ¡°Um...¡± Ren Xiaosu said earnestly, ¡°You better not go out for the time being.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Chen Wudi asked.


    ¡°First, we are not running out of food yet.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Second, it¡¯s better that you keep a low profile for now.¡±


    ¡°Master, I can¡¯t. It¡¯s too boring at home. Pigsy and the others all have things to keep them busy with, but only I have nothing to do,¡± Chen Wudi said aggrievedly.


    Ren Xiaosu was caught in a dilemma. ¡°Then if you go out, you mustn¡¯t go around to beg for alms anymore, do you understand?¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Chen Wudi promised. He could ignore other people¡¯s words but not that of his master¡¯s.


    After Yang Xiaojin¡¯s reminder, Ren Xiaosu became even more worried the other organizations would target Chen Wudi, especially by that mysterious Pyro Company.


    It wouldn¡¯t be too bad if it were just the other organizations, but the Pyro Company seemed to be specifically targeting supernatural beings.


    But fortunately, this ce was not the Pyro Company¡¯s territory.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu walked in from outside. She waved at Ren Xiaosu toe over, saying, ¡°Xiaosu,e look at the present that Big Sis bought for you.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw it, he was stunned. No one knew where Xiaoyu had bought the bicycle from. But since she didn¡¯t know how to ride it, she had to push it back here with all her effort.


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, why did you buy this thing? It can¡¯t be cheap, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Big Sis still has some savings of her own. With this, it¡¯ll be easier for you to get to school in the future,¡± Xiaoyu said happily. It was as though she had received a gift herself.


    The moment she pushed the bicycle out into the backyard, Yan Liuyuan went up to her. ¡°How do you ride this thing? Wouldn¡¯t it be difficult to bnce on with only two wheels?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Does anyone know how to ride this?¡±


    As the group of people gathered around the bicycle, Wang Fugui and Xiaoyu both shook their heads.


    Ren Xiaosu tried riding on it several times but found that he could not grasp the concept. He thought that maybe he should ask Jiang Wu or Yang Xiaojin for some advice tomorrow.

 Chapter 146 - Helping out a classmate

    Chapter 146: Helping out a ssmate


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    The next day, Ren Xiaosu discovered that the atmosphere in the ssroom was a little strange the moment he walked in. The students who were in intense conversations fell silent.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over to his own seat, seemingly unaffected, and buried his head in a book. He was thinking that if he couldn¡¯t keep up with the lessons in ss, he would have to start learning from scratch. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu got Wang Fugui to purchase some 10th and 11th grade textbooks for him yesterday so that he could start self-studying today.


    While he was studying by himself, Ren Xiaosu had a hunch that his fellow ssmates seemed to know that something was about to happen. However, all of them tacitly chose to keep it from him.


    And whatever that was going to happen was definitely not going to be in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s favor.


    There were four periods scheduled in the afternoon, one for Chinese, one for geography, one for mathematics, and one for physics. The Chinese ss was still manageable, but Ren Xiaosu still couldn¡¯t understand anything that was taught in math and physics.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu felt the geography ss was a little odd. He was startled to discover that what was being taught in the lessons were totally different from what he knew. Moreover, the entire subject seemed to be very loosely strung together.


    There wasn¡¯t even aplete map to be found in the geography textbook, and the topics only touched on matters found in the vicinity of Stronghold 109, as well as some knowledge of economic geography 1.


    Ren Xiaosu guessed that some of the global information in this stronghold might have been lost. Just like how the Li Consortium would never share their topographical maps with the Qing Consortium, the other consortiums would maintain secrets from each other.


    Ren Xiaosu was different from most students. A normal student would only seek to learn whatever knowledge was presented in the textbooks. But when Ren Xiaosu read them, he would consider the geopolitics affecting the different consortiums.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu had a realization. He knew he could no longer look at problems from the point of view of a normal student.


    Ren Xiaosu inadvertently turned his head at this moment and saw Cao Yuqi looking pale. It was as though she were enduring some sort of pain while holding her belly with her left hand.


    At this moment, the long-awaited pce finally spoke again. ¡°Quest: Help out a ssmate.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was starting to find the voice from the pce to be very endearing. After all, the pce always gave him a great gift whenever it spoke.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before asking Cao Yuqi, ¡°Do you have a stomachache?¡±


    Cao Yuqi gave him a look but did not say anything, as though it were taboo to speak with him.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was paying full attention to any possible reactions from the pce in his mind. As long as the quest wasn¡¯tpleted yet, he wouldn¡¯t give up asking.


    ¡°My fellow ssmate, is it because you don¡¯t have toilet paper? I have some over here,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He was thinking that Cao Yuqi had an upset stomach.


    Cao Yuqi could not help but roll her eyes at him. ¡°It¡¯s not an upset stomach.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± This was beyond Ren Xiaosu¡¯s understanding. ¡°Then what¡¯s the matter? Are you sick? Why don¡¯t I send you to the hospital?¡±


    ¡°Stop asking.¡± Cao Yuqi said impatiently, ¡°What I have is incurable.¡±


    Incurable? Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡®Is it that serious?¡¯


    Honestly, Cao Yuqi was starting to regret being so hostile towards Ren Xiaosu. He was showing so much concern to her, yet she replied so harshly to him. As the saying goes, don¡¯t bite the hand that feeds you. They were ostracizing Ren Xiaosu due to his refugee status mainly because some of these ideas had been instilled in them by their parents or simply out of fear.


    However, just as Cao Yuqi was thinking of softening her tone, she suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu getting up to walk to the lectern.


    It gradually quieted down in the ssroom as everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu. They were all waiting to see what he was up to.


    Ren Xiaosu went up to the lectern and said to his ssmates with a face full of grief, ¡°Everyone, our ssmate Cao Yuqi has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I hope that since all of us are ssmates, we can offer her our support by donating some money.¡±


    Cao Yuqi was confused.


    The students in the ssroom were confused.


    All of the students¡¯ eyesnded on Cao Yuqi as she nearly broke down on the spot.


    ¡®What terminal illness are you talking about!? It¡¯s just my Aunt Flo visiting! Don¡¯t you have anymon sense?!¡¯


    Of course, she wasn¡¯t exactly sure if Ren Xiaosu really did not know, or if he was doing this on purpose.


    At this moment, the voice in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind pce said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. It waspleted just like that? And the reward was even a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll?!


    He really made a killing this time!


    He could copy skills from so many people in this stronghold. For instance, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu, both of them were supernatural beings with superpowers! No matter whose power he learned, it would be well worth it!


    But Ren Xiaosu did not really want to use this Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll on Yang Xiaojin. On one hand, he was much more interested in Luo Xinyu¡¯s power to travel through shadows. With it, he could easily take Yan Liuyuan and the others freely through the high walls of the stronghold.


    In that way, he would have the freedom of going in or out of the stronghold. This would be equivalent to him gaining the initiative to do whatever he wanted!


    Moreover, it would be really powerful to have a power that allowed him to cover distances in just one step when fighting battles. This would make enemies unprepared and defenseless.


    Also, Ren Xiaosu did not want to use this Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll on Yang Xiaojin because he knew she had many skills above master level, of which many were even nonsensical skills!


    If he randomly copied another skill like Nursery Rhymes Singing, Ren Xiaosu would have nowhere to cry.


    He had discovered the previous time when learning Xu Xianchu¡¯s power that if the other party did not have a master-level and above skill on them, the Skill Duplication Scroll would automatically choose to learn their superpowers instead. Therefore, from a risk-reward point of view, it was a better choice to learn from Luo Xinyu.


    During the next ss intermission, the incident that happened in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ss spread to the ss next door.


    Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin standing in the hallway when he went out for a breather. She was wearing a cap and leaning against the railings in the hallway while looking at Ren Xiaosu.


    Cool andposed initially, Yang Xiaojin started trembling uncontrobly.


    ¡°Go ahead andugh if you want,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    ¡°Hahaha,¡± Yang Xiaojinughed as she returned to her ssroom. Ren Xiaosu was left alone as he gazed out at the school¡¯s athletic grounds. This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had witnessed Yang Xiaojinughing so happily.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that instead of trying to get along with those ¡°ssmates,¡± he had been better off working together and guarding against Yang Xiaojin in the wilderness.


    When the bell rang, Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked back into ss. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps and chattering came from outside the ss. It sounded like a group of people were heading to their ssroom.


    Cao Yuqi revealed a joyful look as she seemed to know what was about to happen.


    The homeroom teacher of their ss appeared at the ssroom door. He waved to Ren Xiaosu, who was inside the ssroom, and said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu,e outside for a while.¡±

 Chapter 147 - Switching classes

    Chapter 147: Switching sses


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Ren Xiaosu walked out of the ssroom and was surprised to see arge group of middle-aged people standing behind the homeroom teacher.


    The homeroom teacher deliberated for a moment before saying, ¡°These are some of the parents of your ssmates. It¡¯s like this: Everyone has mentioned how you might have brought in germs from outside the stronghold, so it¡¯s everyone¡¯s wish that you consider transferring to another school.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Transfer? Transfer to where?¡± With this matter exposed, there probably wouldn¡¯t be another school willing to ept him, right?


    A male student¡¯s parent said, ¡°If no schools are willing to ept you, you should stop going to school. It won¡¯t be very nice if everyone¡¯s safety gets affected all because of one person.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. All of this was probably within Yang Xiaojin¡¯s expectations, so it was no wonder she said the stronghold held a subconscious ostracism of the refugees and that it would be even harsher than he could imagine.


    Only when he saw these parents appearing here that he realized why his ssmates had all kept quiet when they saw him. They had probably gone homest night and told their parents about this, resulting in the parents immediately deciding toe down to school together so they could force him to drop out of school.


    To these parents, Ren Xiaosu was nothing but a refugee. With so many of them stepping forward regarding this matter, the school would have no choice but to ede to their demands.


    Nowadays, as long as you dared to make a scene, there wasn¡¯t anything that couldn¡¯t be solved.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the parents and said, ¡°And if I don¡¯t want to transfer schools?¡±


    Honestly, these parents would¡¯ve been dead if this were the wilderness. The rules of the wilderness were much simpler than in here. It was much more direct!


    However, the parents did not care about Ren Xiaosu. They looked at the homeroom teacher and said loudly, ¡°If you people don¡¯t make him transfer schools, how are you going to answer for it when an epidemic spreads? Furthermore, all of the resulting medical expenses will have to be borne by you. If you don¡¯tpensate, we¡¯ll sue you in court!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was contemting this. He had once encountered the term ¡°court¡± while studying in the town¡¯s school and knew it was a ce that presided over justice and fairness. However, there was never a ce like that in town.


    He never could have expected that the first time a term like ¡°court¡± would get associated with him would be over a lousy matter like this.


    The students had quietly walked out of the ssroom as well. They were watching the conversation happening over here because they were also hoping to find out how this matter would get resolved.


    The 12th grade homeroom teacher was in a pickle. The teacher of the Academic Affairs Office yesterday had told him before that Ren Xiaosu was rted to Lu Yuan. Who could have thought that the student enrolled by Lu Yuan would turn out to be a refugee?


    The homeroom teacher thought that maybe he should pass the buck. He said softly to the parents, ¡°This student¡¯s admission was arranged for by Lu Yuan. Why don¡¯t you all go and speak to him instead?¡±


    The parents looked at one another. They did not know about this prior to being told. If they had known that Ren Xiaosu was enrolled in school by Lu Yuan, they probably wouldn¡¯t have taken on such a threatening tone.


    But before they thought of how to handle it, a person suddenly squeezed through the crowd of people. When Ren Xiaosu turned around to see who it was, he discovered it was Jiang Wu.


    Jiang Wu looked at the parents and said, ¡°What are you trying to do?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not trying anything.¡± A parent said, ¡°We can¡¯t possibly have our children attend school with a refugee, can we?¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± Jiang Wu got so angry her face flushed red. ¡°Aren¡¯t all of us people? Who says a refugee will definitely spread diseases? Did any of your children get sick after returning homest night?¡±


    The parents seemed to back off a little at the mention of this. ¡°They didn¡¯t, but I¡¯ve heard people in the stronghold fell sick.¡±


    ¡°You heard?¡± Jiang Wu raised her voice a little. ¡°Just because you heard about something gives you the right to destroy the future of a student?¡±


    ¡°What future does a refugee have?¡± The parents were also beginning to get angry. ¡°Who the hell do you think you are?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a teacher of this school!¡± Jiang Wu said.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s homeroom teacher had already stopped speaking. He was so happy someone had stepped in for him.


    A parent said, ¡°Since you¡¯re a teacher, why are you arguing with us over a refugee?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know about any refugees or stronghold residents.¡± Jiang Wu stood her ground and said, ¡°All I know is that he is a student!¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu watched, he suddenly felt that Jiang Wu was stubbornly cute and even a little silly.


    But if it weren¡¯t for this persistence and steadfastness, Ren Xiaosu would not have helped her when they were still wandering in the wilderness. If it weren¡¯t for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s help, Jiang Wu and her students would probably have died out there.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little touched, because he had finally seen something positive in someone in this troubled world.


    Before that, there was also Wang Fugui and Xiaoyu.


    Chen Wudi would probably count as half, while there was no need to mention Yan Liuyuan. What Yan Liuyuan and he had was as good as a sibling rtionship.


    A parent suddenly said, ¡°Since you¡¯re protective of him, why don¡¯t you let him go to your ss?¡±


    Jiang Wu said without any hesitation, ¡°That was what I came over for. I¡¯ll go and apply for Ren Xiaosu to transfer to our ss right away.¡±


    A voice sounded from the crowd. ¡°I¡¯m also going with you to apply to transfer to your ss.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned to look and was astounded to discover it was Yang Xiaojin who had spoken.


    When one of the parents heard Jiang Wu say that, they sneered. ¡°As a teacher, you¡¯re really irresponsible about what you say. You might be willing to let him into your ss, but will your students¡¯ parents allow it?¡±


    Jiang Wu hesitated for a moment before saying in a soft voice, ¡°My students no longer have parents. All I need to do is seek their consent.¡±


    This point hit Jiang Wu¡¯s soft spot. The happiness her students experienced after escaping from death had slowly turned into longing for their families. This was a pain that could never be separated from any disasters. All they could do was to hide it within themselves until the pain slowly lessened.


    Suddenly, a hubbub urred beyond the crowd. Twenty-something students walked next to Jiang Wu. ¡°Teacher, you don¡¯t need our consent to let Ren Xiaosu join our ss. We¡¯ll support you and support Ren Xiaosu as well.¡±


    The other students from the other ss muttered, ¡°Why are you guys siding with a refugee so much?¡±


    One of Jiang Wu¡¯s students said in a serious tone, ¡°Side with him? We¡¯re not siding with or helping him. And he doesn¡¯t need our help either. You people are utterly clueless about the outside world. I find it to be really sad.¡±


    In the eyes of Jiang Wu¡¯s students, they were merely standing up for Ren Xiaosu out of gratitude. If not for him, they would not even be here sitting in ss and attending school.


    The number of people who made the getaway was in the thousands. But how many of them made it to Stronghold 109?


    What they remembered most about the escape was what Jiang Wu had said to them, ¡°As long as we follow that young man, we¡¯ll definitely get there.¡±


    In the end, they did manage to survive.


    All of the students¡¯ parents standing in the corridor were stunned. This had turned out far too different from what they had imagined.

 Chapter 148 - Unrest in the stronghold

    Chapter 148: Unrest in the stronghold


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Be it Ren Xiaosu¡¯s own ssmates or these parents of the students, none of them could have expected anyone to stand up for Ren Xiaosu.


    Honestly, if their roles had been reversed and they were ced in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s position, they believed no one would bother to speak up for them.


    Yang Xiaojin folded her arms and stood in the hallway as she watched the situation with interest. She might have guessed this would happen, but little could she have expected such a conclusion.


    The parents were a little embarrassed. Right now, they did not know what they should do. Meanwhile, the students were all looking at Ren Xiaosu in a daze. All of them were wondering what kind of backing this teenager had.


    Jiang Wu looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s actual homeroom teacher and said, ¡°We¡¯ll have Ren Xiaosu transfer to our ss, so why don¡¯t you handle the paperwork with the school?¡±


    This was most wee to the homeroom teacher. He said with a smile, ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll get to it in a bit.¡±


    But before he could heave a sigh of relief, he heard Jiang Wu say coldly, ¡°A teacher who can¡¯t even protect his own students. I feel ashamed for you. You didn¡¯t even put in a good word for him.¡±


    The homeroom teacher choked until he turned purple, yet he couldn¡¯te up with a retort to what Jiang Wu said.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned to the ssroom to retrieve his belongings and got ready to change sses, he went over to Cao Yuqi. Cao Yuqi suddenly had an ominous feeling.


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and said earnestly, ¡°Get well soon.¡±


    ¡°Pfft.¡± Yang Xiaojin felt like she had never had such a goodugh in years as she did today. It was as though all of the funny moments over the years were concentrated on Ren Xiaosu. However, she did not hang around long and went to pack her belongings as well.


    On the way to the new ss, Jiang Wu said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°If you have any difficulties in your sses, you can let me know. I can give you remedial lessons on any subjects you don¡¯t understand.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu considered it for a moment before saying, ¡°There¡¯s indeed something that I would like to seek advice from Ms. Jiang.¡±


    ¡°Which subject?¡± Jiang Wu asked.


    Ren Xiaosu froze. ¡°Cycling?¡±


    Jiang Wu stopped in her tracks and looked quietly at him. She had thought Ren Xiaosu might ask her for help on things like math or other subjects, but never could she have expected that he would want to learn how to ride a bicycle. He was truly a young man who always surprised others.


    Yang Xiaojin walked beside Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°You bought a bicycle?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave her a look. ¡°What are you ying at? Shouldn¡¯t we be trying our best not to be in the same ss, Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smiled gleefully and said, ¡°I don¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°Who cares if you mind or not!¡± Ren Xiaosu wanted to curse at her.


    Due to switching sses, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin ended up bing deskmates. Even Ren Xiaosu had to ept this was probably fate at work.


    After afternoon sses, Jiang Wu went with Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and Wang Dalong to take the streetcar back to the grocery store. While on the way to meet them, Yan Liuyuan seemed to have heard about what happened in school as well, so he thanked Jiang Wu the moment he saw her.


    This was in gratitude to Jiang Wu for helping his brother out of a tight spot.


    Frankly, Yan Liuyuan was really starting to dislike the people in the stronghold more and more, with the exception of Jiang Wu and her students. Oh, and of course, not including Yang Xiaojin either.


    Back at the shop, Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t wait as he made Jiang Wu teach everyone how to ride a bicycle. Ren Xiaosu asked everyone to learn how to cycle since it was an extremely useful skill.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that if they had to travel between the strongholds, a motor vehicle would definitely be their first choice of transport.


    But the problem was that there was no way for them to get their hands on one. Besides, motor vehicles required gas to operate and had other limitations as well, while they also had no idea who they could learn driving from.


    So the next best avable option would be a bicycle as their first-choice mode of transport. It wasn¡¯t difficult to repair, could be used for a long time, and was also easy to learn!


    More importantly, it was something they could afford to buy right now!


    The bicycles cost around 3,000 yuan in the stronghold and were considered to be in the range of luxury goods. Therefore, it could be seen just how determined Xiaoyu was when she decided to gift one to Ren Xiaosu. Most people could not bear to spend so much money like that, and Xiaoyu was even the type who would often haggle for up to half an hour just to get a 20 cent discount on her grocery shopping trips.


    The group of them watched as Jiang Wu effortlessly rode the bicycle through the street in front of the shop. Chen Wudi even squatted down in front of the shop, looking extremely determined to learn how to cycle.


    Jiang Wu exined to them the basics of riding a bicycle. She said, ¡°To ride a bicycle, you first have to master your bnce. On top of that, your eyes must not be focused on what¡¯s in front of the bicycle, but what¡¯s ahead of you. Ovee your fear...¡±


    While Ms. Jiang Wu was demonstrating, she exhibited the unique charm of a mature woman.


    When Jiang Wu finished the demonstration, everyone went over one by one to get some hands-on practice. What surprised Ren Xiaosu was that Yan Liuyuan managed to learn it on the spot. This kid was able to ride the bicycle steadily after just seeing it get demonstrated once.


    And what surprised Ren Xiaosu even more was that he himself was unable to master it.


    To be precise, it wasn¡¯t that he couldn¡¯t master it. In reality, learning how to ride a bicycle was just a matter of time.


    The truth was, most people would take several days or even longer to learn how to ride a bicycle. So Ren Xiaosu¡¯s progress was considered normal.


    But what Ren Xiaosu could not ept was that even Chen Wudi the fool had sessfully mastered cycling.


    This made Ren Xiaosu look somewhat bad, but he was absolutely not going to admit it was his problem.


    Ren Xiaosu mused over it for a while before turning to Xiaoyu. ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, is there something wrong with the bicycle you bought?¡±


    Big Sister Xiaoyu covered her mouth and giggled. She wasn¡¯t angry at him. If both Liuyuan and Chen Wudi could ride the bicycle, what could be wrong with it? However, she seemed to have realized Ren Xiaosu had a habit of passing the buck 1 .


    Of course, she didn¡¯t know the previous person Ren Xiaosu had pushed the me onto was now carrying an invisible cauldron on his back and trekking through the wilderness.


    Jiang Wu smiled and said, ¡°Actually, it takes several days to learn how to ride a bicycle. You¡¯ll master it in a few days.¡±


    As Jiang Wu¡¯s voice trailed off, a loud explosion boomed in the distance. It sounded like a bomb had gone off in the stronghold. Could it have been Yang Xiaojin¡¯s doing?


    Ren Xiaosu subconsciously thought the bomb Yang Xiaojin had built might have been detonated. But upon analyzing the sound in greater detail, he realized it wasn¡¯t so!


    He ordered Chen Wudi and Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Arm yourselves with the pistols and close the shop¡¯s doors. Don¡¯t open them before I get back. Ms. Jiang, please stay and hide here for the time being in case anything happens.¡± Ren Xiaosu then proceeded to leave the shop. As a supernatural being, he couldn¡¯t stand on the sidelines. He had to go and see for himself to understand the situation firsthand. Only then could he make the right decisions. Only by doing so could he ensure that everyone could carry on surviving.


    The location of the explosion should be several kilometers where they were. But with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current speed, he should be able to get there in a matter of minutes.


    While Ren Xiaosu was making his way there, he noticed a building that was about a dozen stories tall. This was one of the tallest structures in the stronghold, and it looked like it would make a good spot for him to observe the battle that had broken out.

 Chapter 149 - A brewing storm

    <strong>Chapter 149: A brewing storm</strong>


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Explosions kept reverberating throughout the stronghold from time to time. However, it did not sound as intense as the first one. While hurrying there, Ren Xiaosu saw several stronghold residentsing out of their homes. Everyone started gathering and were apparently discussing what had just happened.


    Someone suggested that one of the factories might have caught fire, and the explosions were caused by the mmable substances within.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not think it was as simple as that, especially not during a tense period like this. As a matter of fact, Stronghold 109 was currently a gathering ce for arge number of dangerous people.


    When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the foot of the high-rise building, he saw the logo of the Li Consortium¡¯s bank pped on it. But he wasn¡¯t worried about that right now. He headed straight for the top by climbing up the fa?ade of the building.


    But when he got to the edge of the rooftop and was about to mber over, the dark muzzle of a gun pressed against his forehead. Ren Xiaosu froze. He never expected someone else would be up here! He looked up and saw the familiar figure of someone wearing a cap.


    Yang Xiaojin also looked surprised to see Ren Xiaosu up here. It had to be said she felt the two of them really seemed to have some sort of a strange unspoken understanding. The things they did and choice in locating amanding position coincided with each other.


    However, Yang Xiaojin had the absolute high ground at this moment. She smiled and said, ¡°What are you doing here at this hour?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t both of us get attracted by the sound of the explosion?¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly. He could be sure now that the explosion wasn¡¯t set off by Yang Xiaojin. After all, it was still quite a distance from here to where the explosion had urred.


    Ren Xiaosu tried to dodge away from the barrel of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s gun. But he was sure that based on her marksmanship, he would absolutely have no chance of avoiding it.


    Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, ¡°Let me ask you again: Is the dagger yours or mine?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu answered in seriousness, ¡°It¡¯s mine.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was speechless.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu hadn¡¯t expected Yang Xiaojin to still be thinking about the dagger at this time. Likewise, Yang Xiaojin never thought Ren Xiaosu would still im ownership over the dagger in such circumstances!


    ¡°Come on up then.¡± Yang Xiaojin holstered her gun away with a cold expression. She did not know how to deal with Ren Xiaosu anymore. She had only pointed her gun at him to scare him, but she wouldn¡¯t have pulled the trigger for real.


    Ren Xiaosu climbed onto the rooftop and patted the dust off himself. ¡°What happened? Why was there such a loud noise?¡±


    ¡°The Pyro Company is ying with fire.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°An awakened supernatural being approached them to sell his blood. He thought the Pyro Company was really some kind of a charity organization, but they made a move on him on the spot. They tried to capture him but didn¡¯t seed.¡±


    ¡°So the Pyro Company is really using the 1,000,000 yuan reward as bait?¡± Ren Xiaosu was really d he had not gone to sell his blood and had even stopped Chen Wudi from doing so. He sighed and said, ¡°But how did the Pyro Company fail in their attempt to capture that person?¡±


    For apany as powerful as them, would they really have attempted to catch a supernatural being without extreme preparation?


    ¡°Well, they seeded at first. They injected arge dose of anesthetics into the supernatural being, but they never thought he would have apanion with him.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°Those two supernatural beings must¡¯ve known each other beforehand and made a n to rescue the other person in case one of them got into trouble with the Pyro Company. You can call it a simple alliance of sorts.¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu understood. So even the supernatural being who went to sell his blood was prepared. He chuckled and said, ¡°Then the Pyro Company has fucked up. Isn¡¯t this a good opportunity to pull a heist on them?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t look down on the Pyro Company.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°The fighting force known as ¡®Dawn¡¯ that operates under thepany is extremely strong even if only five of their men show up in the stronghold. Those two supernatural beings have survived until now only because Fatty Luo from the Qing Consortium is also messing around out there.¡±


    ¡°Luo Lan?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°What does he have against the Pyro Company?¡±


    ¡°Qing Zhen set up an ambush and captured over a 100 members of the Pyro Companyst year.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°The Pyro Company and the Qing Consortium are actually adversaries, the type that will take it to the bitter end with each other.¡±


    This puzzled Ren Xiaosu a little. ¡°What has Qing Zhen got against them?¡±


    ¡°The Pyro Company used this method to bait one of Qing Zhen¡¯s soldiers who had been on leave. The operation was sessful, and it was so covert that Qing Zhen only discovered it after the Pyro Company had withdrawn their presence,¡± Yang Xiaojin exined. ¡°However, Qing Zhen managed to rescue that soldier during the ambush he conducted.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. What kind of a timeline was that? It was way too messy. Were the struggles between the corporations really that intense?


    Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°Then why did y¡¯all target Qing Zhen? You¡¯re obviously against the Pyro Company, so wouldn¡¯t that make the enemy of your enemy your friend?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. ¡°Enemies are enemies. We don¡¯t form alliances.¡±


    It was at this moment Ren Xiaosu realized that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s organization had very clear goals or principles. Whoever encroached on their interests would probably get added to their hit list.


    ¡°You¡¯re getting curious, aren¡¯t ya?¡± A big sniper rifle appeared in Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hands. Her cheek stuck to the side of the menacing rifle in her hands as she looked into the distance through a telescopic scope nearly as thick as her arms. ¡°The Pyro Company and Qing Zhen are both trying to control something they¡¯re absolutely incapable of controlling. Whether they seed or fail, it¡¯ll still be disastrous.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu finally understood. So the mission statement of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s organization was to spread love and peace.


    What nonsense! Ren Xiaosu absolutely did not believe anyone would be that selfless in this world!


    At this very moment, Ren Xiaosu saw countlessbat troops from the Li Consortium arrive at the battle site. They quickly closed off all the intersections and set up barricades and pillboxes around the area. Then, heavily armed toons infiltrated into the middle of the battlefield in an unusually cautious manner.


    Meanwhile, the location Yang Xiaojin had chosen happened to fall just outside of the lockdown perimeter. Ren Xiaosu knew he had been lucky in choosing this ce to watch the battle from, but Yang Xiaojin probably did not depend on her luck for this. Instead, she must have known about the standard operating procedures of the Li Consortium¡¯s troops before deciding on this spot.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°The Li Consortium seems to have arrived a littlete. Isn¡¯t this supposed to be their home field?¡±


    ¡°They have something more important to protect right now.¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°Anything that does not constitute a threat isn¡¯t going to bother them. Quiet now!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s breathing then became shallow.


    Ren Xiaosu looked where her rifle was pointing and was surprised to see that a manhole cover outside the Li Consortium¡¯s perimeter had been pushed open from underneath. The first person who climbed out of it happened to be Luo Lan!


    He saw Fatty Luo panting as he climbed out of the sewers, followed by Tang Zhou and the rest of their men. Tang Zhou was even carrying an unconscious person on his shoulder. They were running towards a vehicle that was parked nearby, and it looked like they were nning to use it to escape.

 Chapter 150 - Lunatic

    <strong>Chapter 150: Lunatic</strong>


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Looking at the situation, this escape route should have been nned by Luo Lan and his men. The only thing that puzzled Ren Xiaosu was why such an important figure of the Qing Consortium like Luo Lan would be so familiar with the sewer system of the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold.


    Could it be that the Qing Consortium had nted many spies inside this stronghold? Or could it be that the Qing Consortium had ideas about the Li Consortium since a long time ago?


    Yang Xiaojin took out a spotting scope from her pocket and passed it to Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu was startled. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m your spotter? Keep dreaming.¡±


    ¡°Distance.¡±


    ¡°...651 meters.¡±


    ¡°Wind speed.¡±


    ¡°Half value, 0.4 meters per second.¡±


    For a sniper, there were three types of wind 1: Full value, half value, and no value.


    A full value wind meant it would affect the bullet¡¯s trajectory. Such winds woulde from 2, 3, 4, and 8, 9, 10 o¡¯clock. But for winding from 1, 5, 7, and 11 o¡¯clock, the wind¡¯s effect on the bullet would be halved, thus being referred to as half-value wind. No-value wind was just as its name suggested. It did not have any effect on the bullet¡¯s trajectory. Such winds would blow from 6 and 12 o¡¯clock.


    As Ren Xiaosu finished speaking, he watched Yang Xiaojin make a rapid calction of thepensation required for the shot. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Do you intend to kill Luo Lan?¡±


    With a loud bang, Yang Xiaojin answered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s question. The unexpected sound of the gunfire cracked through the night sky and nearly made Ren Xiaosu jump.


    He looked at where Luo Lan was and discovered that Yang Xiaojin had not hit him. Instead, the shot hit the curbside off-road vehicle Luo Lan and his men had prepared.


    Did she miss?


    A momentter, the vehicle exploded. Ren Xiaosu realized Yang Xiaojin had not missed. She was aiming for the off-road vehicle¡¯s gas tank all along and had even used an incendiary bullet to do so.


    Only this special type bullet was capable of igniting a gas tank, and no sniper would be so bored as to use incendiary bullets to snipe individual soldiers.


    Luo Lan, who had yet to reach the vehicle, was furious. Who the fuck did that? He was so close to getting in the vehicle and making their escape, but it ended up getting blown up by someone instead! Who could be lunatic enough to do something like that?! Without a vehicle, how were they going to get away?! But he did not hesitate. Knowing that the noise here would quickly attract the Li Consortium¡¯s people, he decisively led Tang Zhou and the others back into the sewers.


    Yang Xiaojin stowed her rifle swiftly as Ren Xiaosu watched helplessly. He said, ¡°You came out at this hour of the night just to destroy Luo Lan¡¯s vehicle and make things difficult for them?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. ¡°That was so fun.¡±


    ¡®Fun?! What was so fun about that, you crazy woman!¡¯ Ren Xiaosu watched as the Li Consortium¡¯s troops started heading over here from afar to encircle the area. It was at this time that Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, ¡°Good luck.¡±


    A door then opened up in the shadows beside Yang Xiaojin. She held the hand that reached out of the Shadow Door and disappeared from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sight.


    That hand... was probably Luo Xinyu¡¯s, right?


    Ren Xiaosu did not feel that good anymore. Again?!


    Yang Xiaojin was not only making things difficult for Luo Lan and his men. After she revealed their location by firing that shot, she also implicated Ren Xiaosu as well!


    Right then, Ren Xiaosu heard someone shout, ¡°There¡¯s a sniper atop the bank!¡±


    Hur hur, how fucking fun!


    He immediately turned around and climbed down the building. If he didn¡¯t leave now, he would get surrounded by the Li Consortium in no time!


    ...


    When Ren Xiaosu arrived back at the shop, he was drenched in sweat. He had sprinted all the way back here. Even with his current fitness, he still found it quite unbearable.


    But he did not go in through the front door. Instead, he jumped into the backyard from the roof.


    Ren Xiaosu discovered Wang Fugui and the others were still waiting for him out in the yard. Yan Liuyuan was the first one toe and circle around Ren Xiaosu. He was only able to set his mind at ease after confirming that Ren Xiaosu did not get injured. ¡°Bro, what happened?¡±


    ¡°The Pyro Company shed with some supernatural beings. The Pyro Company¡¯s intentions are indeed bad. A supernatural being went there to sell his blood but fell into their trap,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined to them, simplifying the events.


    Jiang Wu, who was standing nearby, did not say anything at all. As someone who had fled to Stronghold 109 with Ren Xiaosu, she figured out that Ren Xiaosu was not a normal person at the very least.


    Moreover, since Chen Wudi imed Ren Xiaosu was his master, then the master of a supernatural being should also be a supernatural being.


    In reality, Jiang Wu did not know much about supernatural beings. She could only logic out the situation.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and said, ¡°Ms. Jiang, there shouldn¡¯t be any danger around here. Why don¡¯t I have Chen Wudi send you back first.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Jiang Wu nodded.


    But at this moment, someone knocked on the door to the store. Ren Xiaosu frowned. The store had been closed for two hours now, so who could be knocking on the door? He went up to the door and peeked through the peephole and discovered that the people outside were Luo Lan and his men. Ren Xiaosu opened the door. He looked strangely at Luo Lan. ¡°Why do you smell so bad?¡±


    Luo Lan led Tang Zhou and the others into the store. But he seemingly did not want to tell the truth. ¡°I tripped. Bring out your ck medicine, I have someone here who¡¯s injured.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pretended to ask, ¡°What injuries? I heard an explosion in the stronghold just now. Could it be rted to y¡¯all?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t spout nonsense.¡± Luo Lan nearly jumped. ¡°We just tripped over!¡±


    In fact, Luo Lan also knew what he said would not deceive anyone. For someone as smart as Ren Xiaosu, how could he possibly believe the lies he was making up?


    But Luo Lan had no other choice. He couldn¡¯t admit to it, right?


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. He purposely said to spite Luo Lan, ¡°Eh, did y¡¯all walk here? Where¡¯s your car?¡±


    Luo Lan felt persecuted. ¡°I sent it in for maintenance.¡±


    ¡°What does maintenance mean?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°Things like cars require maintenance after a period of driving.¡± Luo Lan gave him a look. ¡°You don¡¯t even know something like that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never driven a car before.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    Then Luo Lan gave a look to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Don¡¯t speak a word about what happened tonight. Otherwise, I¡¯ll reveal that Chen Wudi is a supernatural being.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in irritation as he took the ck medicine out. He scrutinized the unconscious person and wondered if it might have been one of the two supernatural beings involved in tonight¡¯s incident.


    Luo Lan did not dare bring this supernatural being to a hospital, so he had toe over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ce. The two of them had dealt with each other before. Even though Luo Lan was pissed off at Ren Xiaosu, he still found it more reliable to find Ren Xiaosu at this time.


    Suddenly suspicious, Luo Lan asked, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, why are you drenched in sweat? Were you outside just now?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu pointed at the bicycle in the yard and said, ¡°I was just learning how to ride a bike. Ms. Jiang came over specifically to teach us.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Luo Lan nodded. ¡°Ms. Jiang, you came over to teach them how to cycle?¡±


    Jiang Wu smiled and nodded. ¡°Yes, they¡¯ve never ridden a bike before.¡±


    Jiang Wu acted very natural, and there were no signs she was putting on an act.

 Chapter 151 - You don’t seem like a good person

    Chapter 151: You don¡¯t seem like a good person


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Luo Lan watched Xiaoyu and Ren Xiaosu from the side as they helped to clean the wounds on the injured and unconscious supernatural being. He even reminded them every now and again, ¡°Be careful, don¡¯t kill him.¡±


    Luo Lan became even more excited as he thought. After the supernatural being regained consciousness, Luo Lan would only need to stir his emotions with reasoning to touch his heart. Would he also end up with a supernatural being as his bodyguard, just like his younger brother, Qing Zhen?


    Thinking of this, Luo Lan nced at Chen Wudi. If this supernatural being turned out to be more powerful than Chen Wudi, that would really be great. It would make Ren Xiaosu so envious of him!


    Luo Lan still felt begrudged over how he had failed to recruit Chen Wudi...


    Xiaoyu went to get a towel to clean the bloodstains on the injured supernatural being¡¯s face. She said in surprise, ¡°It¡¯s actually a woman, and she looks to be around 27.¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    When he went closer to get a good look, he realized it really was a woman!


    Chen Wudi went over as well. ¡°Master, she looks like the White Dragon Horse.¡±


    Luo Lan got anxious. ¡°It¡¯s fine if you want to go around acknowledging someone as your master, but don¡¯t go bringing others into the picture as well!¡±


    To be honest, Luo Lan was fairly afraid the woman would follow Chen Wudi and the others to the Western Paradise to obtain Buddhist scriptures after she regained her consciousness...


    Wouldn¡¯t all of his hard work go down the drain after spending so much effort to rescue her?!


    Fortunately, Chen Wudi said after making a close inspection, ¡°No, I got it wrong. She¡¯s older than the White Dragon Horse.¡±


    When Chen Wudi said that, Luo Lan finally felt more at ease. He chuckled and said, ¡°It¡¯s good that she¡¯s not. I never expected you would fuss over something like age.¡±


    All of a sudden, Luo Lan felt he must also be fucking crazy. He took the lunatic Chen Wudi¡¯s words seriously?


    When Ren Xiaosu saw it was a woman, he stepped aside for Xiaoyu to apply the medicine on her.


    Xiaoyu sent everyone away. ¡°When a woman is getting medicine applied on her, men shouldn¡¯t look.¡±


    But the supernatural being regained consciousness at this moment. When she saw everyone around her, she sat bolt upright and asked, ¡°Who are you people?¡±


    Luo Lan was the first to go over. ¡°I¡¯m the one who saved you from the Pyro Company!¡±


    The woman scrutinized Luo Lan. ¡°You? You don¡¯t look it.¡±


    ¡°Who doesn¡¯t look it?!¡± Luo Lan nearly flipped the table. ¡°Why doesn¡¯t it look like I saved you?! I¡¯m really the one who saved you from the Pyro Company!¡±


    But the woman just got up and walked outside without saying a word of thanks. But before she could even take two steps, she fell to the ground. Although the ck medicine could help ease her pain quickly, it would not be so easy for her to recover from the injury she had suffered.


    Xiaoyu ran over to help her up. Sheforted her, ¡°Your injury hasn¡¯t healed yet, so you shouldn¡¯t move about.¡±


    However, tears started to fall from the woman¡¯s eyes. ¡°My big brother is still in the hands of the Pyro Company.¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned. The other supernatural being was her elder brother? So there were two supernatural beings in the same family?


    But this also made Ren Xiaosu understand why she had gone to his rescue.


    Next to her, Tang Zhou calmly said, ¡°Then he¡¯s definitely dead. While you were escaping with him on your back, the st from the RPG threw him off of you. We only had time to save you, but your big brother was not that lucky. Besides, the Pyro Company had always been after blood samples. They don¡¯t leave the donors alive.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. When he first heard of the Pyro Company, he thought their mission was to keep the embers of humanity alive by ensuring the continuation of the human species. He never expected the Pyro Company would resort to any means necessary to obtain the blood of a supernatural being. In that case, would someone like Yang Xiaojin, who was an enemy of the Pyro Company, be considered good? No, that wasn¡¯t right either. Ren Xiaosu always had the feeling the girl did not seem to be a good person either.


    In fact, the definition of a ¡°good¡± or ¡°bad¡± person was too limited. Theplexity of human nature had greatly surpassed those definitions.


    He suddenly asked, ¡°Fatty Luo, did you save her from the Pyro Company? You better not drag us into this affair.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry a whit. You won¡¯t get implicated.¡± Luo Lan snapped, ¡°And I won¡¯t make you save someone for nothing in return. I¡¯ll have Tang Zhou send 30,000 yuan over tomorrow morning.¡±


    The female supernatural being slowly returned to her senses. She knew she could not save her older brother anymore. The most important thing she should do now was to hide, then seek a chance to avenge him.


    Luo Lan squatted down next to her and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you join us? We happen to have a feud with the Pyro Company. We even killed more than a 100 of their members some time ago.¡± Luo Lan started contemting again. No matter what, she was still a real supernatural being, and she was even a woman....


    However, the woman red at Luo Lan. ¡°You don¡¯t seem like a good person yourself either!¡±


    Luo Lan got angry. ¡°Why are you biting the hand that fed you? I really did save you!¡±


    The supernatural being stood up at this moment and bowed to Ren Xiaosu and the others. She said, ¡°Thanks to all of you. My name is Dong Funan. If there¡¯s a chance in the future, allow me to repay the favor. For now, I can¡¯t stay here. Otherwise, I¡¯ll implicate all of you.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Dong Funan, +1!¡±


    Luo Lan said disconstely, ¡°Why?!¡±


    Why was she thanking Ren Xiaosu and the others when he was the one who saved her?


    Tang Zhou whispered, ¡°Boss, maybe it¡¯s because you don¡¯t look like a good person.¡±


    Luo Lan turned around and looked dumbfoundedly at Tang Zhou. ¡°Buddy, your skin¡¯s gotten really thick recently, eh!¡±


    But just as Luo Lan finished speaking, the supernatural being, Dong Funan, fainted again.


    ¡°What should we do now?¡± Xiaoyu looked to Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu said unsympathetically, ¡°Luo Lan, hurry up and take her away.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu even suspected Dong Funan might have pretended to faint so she could impose on them. At least her thanks was sincere.


    ¡°She¡¯ll stay here with you all for now. I¡¯ll pay for it.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°Take care of her for me and I¡¯ll send over the money tomorrow!¡±


    ¡°Deal.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, help her to your room. Chen Wudi, you¡¯ll stand guard at Big Sister Xiaoyu¡¯s room. Don¡¯t let this woman escape before Fatty Luo pays up.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master,¡± Chen Wudi said.


    This series of arrangements made by Ren Xiaosu dumbfounded Luo Lan!


    That very night, Luo Lan and his people waited until midnight before sneaking off. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu did not sleep a wink just to ensure that nothing untoward happened. The next morning, he led Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong to school.


    When they walked up to the school gate, they bumped into Yang Xiaojin. Yan Liuyuan greeted her in a polite and friendly manner, ¡°Hello, Big Sis.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said happily, ¡°Hello to you too. I¡¯ll bring some delicious food tomorrow and have your brother pass it to you.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded in response.


    Somehow, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was off as he watched their interaction from close by. When did their rtionship be so good?!


    Then Yang Xiaojin asked in curiosity, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, didn¡¯t you have Teacher Jiang Wu teach you how to ride a bike yesterday? Why didn¡¯t you ride it here today? You couldn¡¯t learn it?¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha, how could I possibly not learn something so simple!¡± Ren Xiaosuughed it off.


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you ride it here?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, ¡°I sent my bike in for maintenance.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was confused.

 Chapter 152 - The two Ren Xiaosus

    Chapter 152: The two Ren Xiaosus


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    ¡°You¡¯re saying you sent your bike in for maintenance?¡± Yang Xiaojin verified again with a strange look on her face.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied as he vaguely realized he might have said something wrong when he saw her expression. But he still did not know what he had said wrong.


    Then in broad daylight, Ren Xiaosu watch Yang Xiaojinugh so hard at the school¡¯s entrance she doubled over.


    ¡°What¡¯s so funny about that?¡± Ren Xiaosu walked into the school with a dark expression, leaving Yang Xiaojin behind as she continuedughing crazily outside the entrance.


    After Ren Xiaosu entered the ssroom, Yang Xiaojin followed close behind him. They sat in thest row and became new deskmates all of a sudden. At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was trying her best to restrain herself from looking at Ren Xiaosu. Otherwise, she would break out into a fit ofughter if she nced at him.


    ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°If you couldn¡¯t learn to ride a bike, just admit it.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Why did youe up with such a bad excuse?¡±


    ¡°But when I asked Luo Lan about his vehicle yesterday, he told me that he sent it in for maintenance,¡± Ren Xiaosu said puzzledly.


    ¡°He drives a car.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined throughughter, ¡°Maintenance for cars refers to changing the engine oil and filters, stuff like that. As if your bike has any oil filters!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood where he had gone wrong. So it turned out there wasn¡¯t a need to send bicycles in for maintenance. This was truly a case of being disadvantaged due to poverty!


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. ¡°So what if I didn¡¯t learn how to ride a bike? Did you master it on your first attempt?!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said in a serious tone, ¡°That¡¯s right, I did master it on my first attempt.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. He thought to himself if he should use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll to copy cycling from her. Judging from his past experiences, Yang Xiaojin would most likely be an advanced or even master cyclist.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had wised up by now. Before learning anything, he would first check with the pce. ¡°What¡¯s Yang Xiaojin¡¯s cycling proficiency?¡±


    The pce voice said, ¡°She doesn¡¯t have any bicycle-rted skills.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and stared at Yang Xiaojin in a daze. ¡®Then what are you bragging to me about! You might as well go to Heaven!¡¯


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized that this girl, Yang Xiaojin, did not even need to ¡°write a draft¡± 1 before lying. She just spoke irresponsibly!


    Ren Xiaosu had learned about this idiom in ss. Butter on, he found out that it should have been ¡°to speak daftly¡± 1 instead when checking through the old dictionaries that Zhang Jinglin kept. So he asked Zhang Jinglin why the idiom was written differently.


    However, Zhang Jinglin said that it might have been a rebus character 1 from the past and that it was written as ¡°draft¡± instead of ¡°daft¡± these days. It was basically an idiom that could be used to describe someone who spoke nonsensically.


    After the conversation about bicycles, Ren Xiaosu felt he had to synthesize any information he received from Yang Xiaojin.


    When the bell rang, the teacher who taught math to ss 12-3 walked into the ssroom. He stood at the lectern and said very slowly, ¡°I will temporarily be teaching math for you. Everyone, open up your books. Today, we¡¯ll be reviewing probability.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t understand any of the lessons that had not been taught in town. Therefore, he decided to start studying ording to his own study n in order to catch up with the ss as soon as possible.


    He heard from Jiang Wu that the final exams would be starting soon. He was bound to fail the uing exam and could only hope to do better on the next one. ording to Jiang Wu, he could finish studying the 12th grade curriculum within a year as long as he worked hard enough. If he was smart enough, it was also possible to finish it within half a year.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that if he could catch up with the required progress by the college entrance examinations, he might even be able to qualify for university and have a look around there.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu discovered that Yang Xiaojin had fallen asleep at the bench. He wrote a note and poked Yang Xiaojin¡¯s arm. The note read, ¡°Don¡¯t you have to study? Why are youing to school?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin got up and shot him a look. Then she replied on the note, ¡°I¡¯m here to sleep.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied on the note, ¡°Why are youing here to sleep instead of sleeping at home?¡±


    ¡°I can sleep better at school.¡±


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu had another purpose in writing the note. He wanted to verify that Yang Xiaojin was the one who had slotted the note under the threshold of their shop¡¯s door.


    However, it seemed like Yang Xiaojin knew of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s intention. Even though the two of them sat at the same table, they continued to test each other while ying dumb.


    Ren Xiaosu kept writing more notes to her, while Yang Xiaojin deliberately refrained from using her usual handwriting.


    Ren Xiaosu wrote, ¡°Any good eats around here?


    ¡°What vehicles can¡¯t be sent in for maintenance besides bicycles?


    ¡°What¡¯d you have for dinnerst night?¡±


    The notes they exchanged were basically nonsense. Ren Xiaosu refused to believe that Yang Xiaojin could keep on pretending!


    After passing back a series of notes filled with nonsense for a while, Yang Xiaojin frowned and switched her handwriting to the one she usually wrote in. ¡°I¡¯m the one who slotted the note into the shop, so just get to the point!¡± She decided to stop pretending andid all her cards on the table.


    Ren Xiaosu replied on the note, ¡°So you told me not to overstay in this ce because you were afraid that I might find out you stole my identity?¡±


    With that, Yang Xiaojinpletely ignored Ren Xiaosu.


    Suddenly, the math teacher who was standing at the lectern said, ¡°You two in the back, please stop passing notes back and forth.¡±


    All of the students in ss gave Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin ambiguous looks. They heard the math teacher ask, ¡°You two, what are your names?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m also Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    The math teacher got furious. ¡°Do I look gullible to you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt badly wronged...


    A student said softly to the math teacher, ¡°Teacher, both of them are really called Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°Um, Teacher, it¡¯s true....¡±


    The math teacher was dumbfounded. He went to the office to get the roster for ss 12-7 and discovered to his surprise that there were really two Ren Xiaosus. What the hell!


    After pondering it for a while, he realized it was indeed a misunderstanding. But he could not just leave it at that. ¡°The Ren Xiaosu wearing the cap, I want you to answer the question on the ckboard.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was ted. ¡®Serves you right, Yang Xiaojin!¡¯


    But a secondter, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He watched Yang Xiaojin take off her cap and put it on his head as though no one could see them. ¡®Is this even allowed?!¡¯ But Ren Xiaosu could not think about anything else at this moment. He was astounded by Yang Xiaojin¡¯s delicate and stunning face.


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu felt Yang Xiaojin might have only worn a cap to hide her beauty, not because she wanted to hide her identity.


    This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen her take off her cap, and he was absolutely astonished by how beautiful she was.


    All the students held their breath. Like Ren Xiaosu, they did not expect Yang Xiaojin to look so beautiful.


    In the entirety of the ssroom, only the old math teacher remained calm and collected. ¡°The Ren Xiaosu wearing the cap, stand up and answer the question.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pointed at himself after recovering from his shock. ¡°Me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you!¡± the math teacher said.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback again. ¡°Teacher, didn¡¯t you see that this cap was just ced on me?¡±


    The math teacher chuckled. ¡°She¡¯s such a lovely youngdy that I can¡¯t bear to make her answer the question, so hurry up and answer the questions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

 Chapter 153 - Copy! Shadow Door!

    Chapter 153: Copy! Shadow Door!


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Ren Xiaosu still greatly respected those in the teaching profession due to his rtionship with two teachers, Zhang Jinglin and Jiang Wu.


    He stood up and said honestly, ¡°Teacher, I don¡¯t know the answers to the questions on the ckboard since I¡¯ve never learned them in the town¡¯s school. I¡¯m starting to catch up from the 10th grade curriculum.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± The math teacher nodded. ¡°Stop passing around notes in ss. If there¡¯s anything you don¡¯t understand, you maye to the staff room and ask me. My office is on the third floor.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Teacher,¡± Ren Xiaosu said politely.


    ¡°Please sit down,¡± the math teacher said with a smile.


    In fact, many of those who attended school in the stronghold would stop studying after 12th grade, because the university in the stronghold was not that big and the number of admission spots was limited. 90% of the students in the stronghold had no chance to further their studies.


    After the students graduated from high school, they would immediately have to consider whether they wanted to find work or attend vocational schools to learn skills such as mechanics, agriculture, excavation, culinary arts, etc.


    After they finished their studies, they would be the foundation of this stronghold.


    There were high-end researchboratories in the stronghold, including the university that focused on research in various fields. University students in the stronghold were very valuable resources these days as they represented the knowledge structure of the stronghold.


    But aplete society could not only consist of a superstructure 1. The base was indispensable too.


    Just as the refugees needed to do basic work such as farming, mining, and simr menial tasks, most people in the stronghold were required to work basic jobs such as cleaning, greening 1, and so on.


    During second period, Jiang Wu came into the ssroom. The subject she taught was Chinese, but Chinese sses were generally held in third or fourth period. In this era, physics, chemistry, and mathematics were the most important subjects.


    Jiang Wu stood at the lectern and said, ¡°Settle down, everyone. You should know that our ss has just been set up. We¡¯re still missing a ss monitor, a student councilor, and representatives for the various subjects. So I¡¯d like to make use of this period to hold an election for those roles.¡±


    A student named Zhu Peiyuanughed and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to vote. Let¡¯s just appoint Ren Xiaosu as the ss monitor.¡±


    After the recent incidents, the rtionship between these students and Ren Xiaosu had gotten much closer, and everyone approved of him too. Therefore, if they were going to elect a ss monitor, everyone would choose Ren Xiaosu.


    At this moment, someone asked jokingly, ¡°Which Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°Haha, both of them should be elected. The guy will be the ss monitor, and the girl will be the student councilor. It¡¯ll be easier to differentiate them that way. We¡¯ll address them as Monitor Ren Xiaosu and Councilor Ren Xiaosu from now on,¡± one of the female ssmates named Bian Lingchen said wittily.


    ¡°So it¡¯s settled then?¡± Jiang Wu smiled at everyone.


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s settled!¡± the group of students echoed.


    In thest row, Ren Xiaosu wondered if the ss monitor would get more subsidies. They just made the decision without asking for his opinion.


    Yang Xiaojin had already put her cap back on. Ren Xiaosu looked at her and whispered, ¡°What are the ss monitor and student councilor for?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re responsible for ensuring that everyone studies hard,¡± Yang Xiaojin replied in brief. She felt it was meaningless to answer this question. In reality, the ss monitor and student councilor were rather unimportant roles, but she did not want to exin it to Ren Xiaosu in detail. However, she did not expect her remark to end up bing a disaster for her ssmates.


    Ren Xiaosu found that Yang Xiaojin did not seem to be attentive to any of today¡¯s lessons. He wondered why this girl was even attending school. Could it be that her target was hidden here in the school? But that couldn¡¯t be right either. If she wanted to assassinate someone in this school, she would just kill the target based on her straightforward character. It should not be that difficult for her. So Ren Xiaosu had some doubts about this matter.


    After school, Yang Xiaojin took the lead and headed out of ss first. Ren Xiaosu followed her silently.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu got an idea. He nned on finding out where Yang Xiaojin lived and if she was close to him.


    After all, this girl had also bought those materials to make a bomb with. If she shed with the Pyro Company, he would at least know where not to go.


    However, Yang Xiaojin was walking towards a more and more remote ce. When she came to a small alley, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw Yang Xiaojin turn around and smile at him. Right after, a door opened again in the shadow of the alley and a hand stretched out.


    Luo Xinyu must havee to pick Yang Xiaojin up!


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. This method could save him a lot of money used for taking the streetcar.


    When hest saw Luo Xinyu take Yang Xiaojin away from the rooftop, he did not have the time to react. After returning home, Ren Xiaosu regretted it a little. Why didn¡¯t he use the Skill Duplication Scroll on Luo Xinyu at that time?


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was not going to miss the chance again.


    He said in his mind, ¡°Use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll and Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had two Skill Duplication Scrolls in total right now. He used them both at once so that in case he failed to copy her superpower, he could at least attempt to copy one of her master-level skills.


    The pce voice intoned, ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s Advanced Nose Picking. Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Learn? My ass!


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. ¡®Can¡¯t you two have some normal skills?! Why would a reputable celebrity like you have such odd skills! Can you pick your nose cleaner with Advanced Nose Picking? Is that how it is?!¡¯


    However, he still had another chance. The result of the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll had not been determined yet!


    Then, right before Yang Xiaojinpletely disappeared¡ª


    ¡°About to copy the target¡¯s master-level skill or superpower. If you do not have the corresponding advanced-level skill after copying a master-level skill, you will not be able to learn it.¡±


    ¡°The target has many master-level and above skills. Randomly copied target¡¯s superpower: ¡®Shadow Door.¡¯ Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin, who had already left the ce, did not see Ren Xiaosu celebrating in ecstasy. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was drowning in an ocean of joy!


    Frankly, Luo Xinyu was sure to possess quite a few master-level skills, or even perfect-level skills. Hence, there was only a tiny chance of being able to copy her superpower. As such, Ren Xiaosu did not expect he would really acquire his second superpower!


    The power he got this time was going to be even more important for him, not to mention how incredible his first power, Shadow Clone, was.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately tried out this new power. Instantly, two Shadow Doors appeared in front of him. One was the entrance, and the other was the exit.


    The only w was that Ren Xiaosu still couldn¡¯t grasp the exact location of where to open the exit, possibly because he had only just acquired this power.


    The location of the exit in front of him was quite different from what he had imagined. He had wanted to open it on the left, but it ended up opening on the right.


    But this was not important!


    Ren Xiaosu was extremely delighted at the sight before him. With this, he also could take Yan Liuyuan and the others and travel through the stronghold at will!


    He attempted to go through the entrance of the door, but something unexpected happened. Ren Xiaosu discovered he could only get half his arm through the door!


    ¡°Wait a minute! Something¡¯s wrong!¡± Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded as he tried it multiple times in the space of a minute. But no matter how many times he tried, he could still only get one of his arms through the door!


    Was it because Luo Xinyu had only stretched out one of her arms when he used the scroll?


    Could the pce be any more unreliable than this? ¡®Why are the others able to travel freely through the door while I¡¯m only allowed to put one arm through? What if I want to escape when I encounter danger? Is my arm supposed to escape first?!¡¯

 Chapter 154 - Research results

    <h4>Chapter 154: Research results</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu was someone who knew how to be content. Having a superpower was better than having nothing at all. It was quite fortunate he did not randomly copy the master-level jumping rope skill.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Xinyu must have also possessed a very high level of proficiency at jump roping. After all, he thought it would be pointless for Yang Xiaojin to jump rope by herself...


    Although he was content, he still felt a little peeved when he thought about how he had the chance to copy Shadow Door in its entirety the previous time.


    The pce should have said so earlier if it couldn¡¯t fully copy the skill during the duplication process. What was the point of finding out it was wed only after the skill was copied over to him?


    Ren Xiaosu really wanted a power like Shadow Door when he thought of how Luo Xinyu had used it repeatedly to escape with Yang Xiaojin. If he could utilize Shadow Door fully, he would no longer have to worry even if he encountered the wolf pack again.


    In the end, he could only get one of his arms through it! What could he do with that? Steal?


    Moreover, he still couldn¡¯t open the Shadow Door wherever he wanted to. Just based on the earlier deviation, it seemed impossible for him to urately control the location of the door.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt he could improve on uracy through additional practice. There would definitelye a day when he could open the Shadow Door precisely where he wanted it.


    In reality, what Ren Xiaosu did not know was that Luo Xinyu had spent nearly a year just to practice opening the door. Only then was she able to manipte the Shadow Door at will.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned to the shop, he locked himself in his bedroom to practice. He tried to find out if there was a pattern to controlling the Shadow Door by opening it over and over again.


    Luo Xinyu would probably be shocked if she saw this, because when she started practicing at the beginning, she would get exhausted and dizzy after just one or two tries a day. Even now, she could only use the door within a one-kilometer range. Even if she did not expend all her mental strength, she still could open the door only three or four times a day.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had opened it more than a dozen times in just a short period.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu knocked on his door. Ren Xiaosu opened the door and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Big Sister Xiaoyu? Is it time for dinner?¡±


    ¡°No, not yet.¡± Big Sister Xiaoyu asked with a dark expression, ¡°I just wanted to ask you where Yan Liuyuan is. Did you forget to bring them back from school?¡±


    ¡°Huh?!¡± Ren Xiaosu finally came around. He should have gone to pick Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong up from the junior high section before heading home together in the first ce. However, he had forgotten all about them and left them behind at school just so he could find out where Yang Xiaojin lived. ¡°I¡¯ll go and fetch them immediately!¡±


    ¡°What kind of an older brother are you?¡± Xiaoyu grumbled. ¡°Pick them up ande home for dinner. I¡¯m almost done making it.¡±


    But a momentter, Jiang Wu walked in with Wang Dalong and Yan Liuyuan. She smiled and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say we were going to continue learning how to ride a bike today? Why did you leave by yourself after school?¡±


    Xiaoyu smiled and said, ¡°Ms. Jiang Wu, you¡¯re here? Quick, wash your hands and join us for dinner.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan gave Ren Xiaosu a cold stare. ¡°I stood in the school building and saw you and Yang Xiaojin leaving together with my own eyes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little embarrassed. ¡°Hahaha, I had something urgent to attend to!¡±


    Then they heard the rumbling of a car engineing from the outside. It sounded like it had stopped outside their doorstep.


    Eh? Ren Xiaosu wondered what was with today as people kepting to the grocery store in wave after wave.


    He heard Luo Lan¡¯s voicee from outside. ¡°Ren Xiaosu? Come and have a look at my new car. What do you think?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t help but roll his eyes. ¡®Look at how cocky you¡¯ve be after buying a new car. So what if you are rich?!¡¯


    But why did Fatty Luo suddenly likeing here so much? Wang Fugui had mentioned Luo Lan had already been here to deliver the money at noon.


    While he was thinking about that, Luo Lan and Tang Zhou walked in from outside. Tang Zhou was even carrying a lot of items in his arms. Luo Lan told Tang Zhou, ¡°Take these over to Miss Dong Funan. These tonics are all beneficial to her recovery.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sensed Luo Lan was in love.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Do you have to resort to all this? As a big shot of the Qing Consortium, why do you still keeping back here even after you¡¯ve been snubbed?


    Luo Lan said unhappily, ¡°What do you know? There used to be so many girlsing in and out of my life, yet I never once took a fancy to any of them. Now that I¡¯ve changed, I realize that only Miss Dong Funan is worthy of me!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve never taken a fancy to any of them?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°So you mean you gave the medicine that you bought from me to Tang Zhou?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you nder me. When have I ever bought any medicine from you!¡± Luo Lan looked downright indignant.


    Dong Funan had been recuperating in Xiaoyu¡¯s room. But when she heard Luo Lan¡¯s voice, she locked the door from the inside. With a click, Luo Lan could not look any more embarrassed.


    However, Luo Lan was not a normal person either. He pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and changed the subject. ¡°Can you lend Chen Wudi to me for some time?¡±


    ¡°What do you want Chen Wudi for? How can I lend a living, breathing human being to you? You can ask him yourself.¡± Ren Xiaosu washed his hands of the matter.


    ¡°These past two days, I found out that other powers areing into this stronghold as well.¡± Luo Lan whispered, ¡°It¡¯s said that there¡¯s research that¡¯s about to bepleted in the university of Stronghold 109, and many people are interested in getting ahold of the research results for themselves.¡±


    ¡°What kind of research is it?¡± Ren Xiaosu was starting to get interested but did not show it on his face.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure...¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°You¡¯re having ideas about something you don¡¯t even know?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. But considering the circumstances, the Qing Consortium¡¯s people had probably not infiltrated into that university yet. He wondered how Luo Lan had found out about it. Yang Xiaojin had also mentioned the Li Consortium was trying their best to protect this thing.


    This thing... was probably so important it would change the entire structure between the organizations. That was why all the different powers were cing a lot of emphasis on it.


    And on the night some supernatural beings fled from the site of the explosion, the Li Consortium only expelled the known members of the Pyro Company who were present in the stronghold, but did not conduct a thorough search to make any further arrests. It seemed like they did not want toplicate things further since most of their manpower was probably used to guard and protect the research results.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was curious about something. How could the Qing Consortium possibly not know what the research results were about? Others already knew, but only you were still in the dark?


    ¡°We never paid any attention to this university before.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°But it must have a very special value for so many powerful forces to be targeting it! How about this? Why don¡¯t you order Chen Wudi to protect me and I¡¯ll pay you for it!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Lan was lying through his teeth. He definitely knew what the research results were. He just didn¡¯t want to tell Ren Xiaosu!


    He shook his head and rejected Luo Lan. ¡°If you want Chen Wudi to protect you, you can talk to him yourself. I will not order him about.¡±


    Right at this moment, someone from the Qing Consortium walked in. He whispered a few words to Luo Lan before leaving in a hurry. As Ren Xiaosu watched the man from behind, sensing the Qing Consortium might be plotting something.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered what made the research results so important. Could he steal them using the Shadow Door if he could ascertain its location?


    Seeing that Ren Xiaosu was not nning to lend Chen Wudi to him, Luo Lan did not waste any more time on it. He just simply went over to talk to Dong Funan from the other side of the door. Before he could say much, Dong Funan said coldly from the bedroom, ¡°I¡¯lle out to see you after you¡¯ve slimmed down.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Then you¡¯ll probably never get to see him.¡±


    Luo Lan said angrily, ¡°Don¡¯t say such discouraging words. Isn¡¯t it just losing some weight? I¡¯ll slim down very soon!¡± Then Luo Lan whispered to Tang Zhou next to him, ¡°How can I slim down quickly?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯ll definitely slim down if you only eat one steamed bun each in the morning, at noon, and during the evening.¡±


    Luo Lan got lost in thought. ¡°...Do I eat them before or after my meals?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.

 Chapter 155 - A seedy shop selling black medicine

    <h4>Chapter 155: A seedy shop selling ck medicine</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Lan was getting too obsessed with supernatural beings.


    Chen Wudi had said that Benbo¡¯erba had tried to get him to defect to his side, but that attempt was immediately seen through by his ¡°discerning eyes.¡± As the Great Sage, how could he work for a demon? That definitely would not do since demons did not seek the Buddhist scriptures from the Western Paradise!


    Luo Lan had even risked his own life to save Dong Funan just so he could have a supernatural being as his bodyguard. Furthermore, he relentlessly courted her, but Dong Funan did not take a liking to him.


    In between, Ren Xiaosu even checked with Luo Lan to see if he might have set eyes on the wrong person. What if there were problems with Dong Funan?


    Moreover, by allowing Dong Funan to stay here, it was equivalent to having a ticking time bomb next to them if she turned out to be problematic.


    However, Luo Lan said there shouldn¡¯t be any problems since she looked so innocent.


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t a big shot like you do a background check on her?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped.


    ¡°It¡¯s not like this stronghold is under our control,¡± Luo Lan replied matter-of-factly.


    This made Ren Xiaosu feel that something was wrong. He would have to be warier of Dong Funan.


    All of a sudden, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Side quest: Take in someone in distress for seven days; one out of seven. After the quest ispleted, you will unlock a new product in the vending machine.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He thought there was only ck medicine to be bought from the vending machine. So it turned out he could also unlock new products bypleting quests the pce assigned to him?


    Then wasn¡¯t this quest going to be a cakewalk toplete?


    While they were eating dinner, Ren Xiaosu nonchntly asked Dong Funan, ¡°What¡¯s your superpower?¡±


    ¡°I have more strength than normal...¡± Dong Funan said softly.


    ¡°More strength?¡± Ren Xiaosu felt that such a superpower was rather useless. ¡°How much greater is itpared to the average person?¡±


    ¡°I probably have strength equivalent to two adult men.¡± Dong Funan said, ¡°But my strength is still increasing, and I might get even stronger in the future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Frankly, you couldn¡¯t have escaped without Luo Lan and his men¡¯s help with just your superpower alone.¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t have good intentions!¡± Dong Funan replied, ¡°His gaze and the way he speaks tells me that!¡±


    ¡°What ns do you have?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. To be honest, he did not really like this willful girl. Even if she did not like Luo Lan, she should at least thank him for saving her. Ren Xiaosu even thought of speaking up for Luo Lan.


    Dong Funan gave it some thought before saying, ¡°When my injuries heal tomorrow, I¡¯ll go and get revenge on the Pyro Company!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°You can¡¯t go.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± Dong Funan was taken aback.


    ¡°First of all, the Pyro Company has already been expelled from the stronghold. Even if some of their people are still hiding in the stronghold, you won¡¯t find them.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Second, you might reveal that we took you in before if you get caught and tortured by them.¡±


    Besides, Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®How am I suppose toplete my quest if you leave now!¡¯


    However, what he said was also true. What if the Pyro Company came to take revenge on them after Dong Funan was unable to endure the torture and confessed? This girl seemed very self-centered and wouldn¡¯t care about other people¡¯s safety. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu did not trust her at all.


    Dong Funan said stubbornly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t tell anyone that y¡¯all took me in.¡±


    ¡°Can you guarantee that?¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Wudi, you¡¯re in charge of keeping a close eye on her for the next few days!¡± But Ren Xiaosu then noticed Chen Wudi looked a little unhappy.


    Yan Liuyuan whispered a few words to Chen Wudi, and he immediately agreed in delight.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and asked him, ¡°What did you say to make him so happy?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s very easy to make him happy.¡± Yan Liuyuan said after eating a spoonful of porridge, ¡°Just address him as the Great Sage.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He realized Yan Liuyuan was fantastic at noticing what made others tick.


    Dong Funan attempted to run off while Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were talking. She was afraid she wouldn¡¯t be allowed to seek revenge. However, she was carried back by Chen Wudi before she could even get far.


    No matter how great her strength, it couldn¡¯t be greater than Chen Wudi¡¯s current strength.


    Next to him, Yan Liuyuan smiled at Chen Wudi and said, ¡°The Great Sage is amazing!¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± Chen Wudi said proudly.


    Yan Liuyuan had Chen Wudi dancing in the palm of his hand as he knew exactly how to stroke Wudi¡¯s ego.


    Chen Wudi escorted Dong Funan to Xiaoyu¡¯s room and even found a rope to tie her up with.


    Dong Funan was shocked. She had thought she was saved by a group of kind-hearted people. But why did it feel like she had been taken and kidnapped by a den of thieves? All that was missing was a phone call to her family to ask for a ransom!


    She roared, ¡°Why are you all refusing to let me go? What kind of shop are you all operating? This must be a seedy shop, right? And you must be selling ck medicine here too!¡±


    Everyone looked quietly at her in this moment. Xiaoyu smiled and said, ¡°We really do sell ck medicine here...¡±


    Dong Funan was confused.


    Before this, she had the impression that Xiaoyu was tender and gentle and thought she must be a good person. But at this moment, she realized Xiaoyu was also in a gang with those bad people.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect y¡¯all to be such people!¡± Dong Funan said angrily.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t expect you to be such a person either,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Dong Funan tried to shout for help, but Chen Wudi had already stuffed her mouth shut with a pillowcase.


    Ren Xiaosu sneered, ¡°It¡¯s already very courteous of us to let you stay here. Even if you don¡¯t spare a thought for yourself, you have to think about our entire family. If you try to run away again, I¡¯ll break your legs!¡±


    If Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t receive the quest or ept Luo Lan¡¯s money, he would probably have....


    It was the weekend the next day, and Luo Lan came over early in the morning to look for Dong Funan to speak with her. But no matter how long he called out to her at the door, he couldn¡¯t get any response from her.


    Previously, Dong Funan would scold him a little. But now she did not even bother scolding him.


    Luo Lan turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Has Dong Funan left already? Or did you people do something to her?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°No, she just doesn¡¯t want to speak with you.¡±


    Luo Lan wondered, ¡°But why doesn¡¯t she at least scold me a little?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it. ¡°She¡¯s probably sick of scolding you already.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Luo Lan nodded in understanding.


    ¡°Say, I doubt you can handle this girl.¡± Ren Xiaosu was thinking he could get Luo Lan to totally give her up. It would be easier to deal with Dong Funan after the seven days were up that way.


    Luo Lan said disconstely, ¡°Can¡¯t you see that I still haven¡¯t found my next target?¡±


    Alright! Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Lan was not such a devoted person after all. He might give up on Dong Funan after he found his next target. He said to Luo Lan, ¡°Good luck.¡±


    At this moment, Tang Zhou came over to look for Luo Lan. After that, Luo Lan left in a hurry as though he had something urgent to attend to.


    ¡°Bro.¡± Yan Liuyuan watched Luo Lan¡¯s receding figure as he left the store. ¡°Luo Lan must be nning something. I wonder if it¡¯ll involve us?¡±


    The few of them had only gained their stronghold resident statuses because of Luo Lan. If Luo Lan stirred up any trouble here, the Li Consortium would likely settle the score with them as one.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not worry about that.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°You¡¯ll keep watch at the room today. I¡¯m going to start building a bomb. It¡¯s gonna be our trump card... By the way, let¡¯s test something.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu then pulled Yan Liuyuan into a room. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ve gained a new power that allows me to open up a door in the shadows. Let¡¯s give it a try now and see if I can pull you into the door.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan did not ask Ren Xiaosu how he obtained this power or how he knew how to build a bomb.


    Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°Step back a little, I¡¯m going to open the Shadow Door in front of you.¡±


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu activated the Shadow Door in his mind. Yan Liuyuan stared nkly at the ceiling and said, ¡°Y¡¯know, Bro, can fully control this door?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu intended to open the Shadow Door in front of Yan Liuyuan, but it opened up across the ceiling.


    ¡°No, no, let me try it again. Trust me, I¡¯m very sure I can do it. A minor mistake isn¡¯t a big deal. Who doesn¡¯t make mistakes anyway?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in embarrassment. Then the door opened up across the floor.


    Yan Liuyuan quietly said, ¡°Bro, you¡¯d better not test it out on me first.... I¡¯m a little nervous.¡±

 Chapter 156 - That’s such a miracle

    Chapter 156: That¡¯s such a miracle


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Eventually, Ren Xiaosu abandoned the idea of using Yan Liuyuan to test out his new power due to safety concerns. After all, he still could not control the power all that well. What if something happened to Yan Liuyuan when he went through the Shadow Door?


    However, Ren Xiaosu thought of another idea. When he copied the Shadow Door from Luo Xinyu, the door stood at almost two meters tall.


    But since Ren Xiaosu could only get one arm through it, why would he need to open such arge door? Moreover, it would attract other people¡¯s attention too easily. As such, Ren Xiaosu wondered if he could make the door smaller so it would be just enough for him to put one arm through.


    When he thought of that, Yan Liuyuan, who was next to him, saw the Shadow Door reappear on the ceiling and start swaying. It was as though some kind ofw were resisting Ren Xiaosu¡¯s will.


    Ren Xiaosu noticed the Shadow Door¡¯s form seemed to be fixed from the very start and wasn¡¯t something that could be changed.


    This was going to be a sh of wills.


    But wasn¡¯t it the power that served the will? The power that surpassed the ordinary had originated from the will itself.


    Yan Liuyuan saw beads of sweat forming on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s forehead, but he did not dare interrupt him.


    A secondter, Yan Liuyuan saw the edges of the Shadow Door be unstable as it started shrinking!


    If Luo Xinyu were here, her jaw would probably drop to the floor, because even though she was the originator of Shadow Door, she had no way of adjusting its size!


    Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. By this point, the diameter of the Shadow Door had be only as thick as an arm. He closed the Shadow Door and opened it up again. This time, Ren Xiaosu discovered he could control the size of the door at will.


    His only regret was that no matter howrge the door was, he could still only get one arm through it.


    It didn¡¯t make any fucking sense at all!


    Since he hadpletely mastered the power, why was there still such a limitation?


    Ren Xiaosu asked his mind pce, ¡°Are you the one who did this?¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was annoyed. This time, he was quite certain the revolting condition of only being able to put one arm through the door was something that was decided by the rules of the pce.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Buy a live chicken when you and Big Sister Xiaoyu go grocery shopping tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Uh, OK,¡± Yan Liuyuan responded. ¡°Bro, what are the uses of this power of yours?¡±


    ¡°It couldn¡¯t be more useful.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°Even though I can only get one arm through it, I can still catch someone by surprise and give them a good beating. This way, no one will even know who the culprit is.¡±


    Although he hadn¡¯t perfected the power, it quite suited Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nature.


    ...


    The next morning, Yan Liuyuan went grocery shopping with Xiaoyu. Right as Wang Fugui finished raising the shop¡¯s roller shutter door, he saw a familiar face waiting at the entrance.


    It was Yan Linfeng from the Western District.


    He watched Yan Linfeng swagger on in. ¡°I heard you¡¯re selling a kind of wonder drug here?¡±


    Wang Fugui thought about how business had finally arrived at their doorstep. It had been nearly a week since someone had bought the medicine from here. Usually, the medicine¡¯s effectiveness would¡¯ve already been publicized. Yet no customers turned up even after such a long time.


    Wang Fugui had felt a little low on confidence. But with Yan Linfeng now here, it meant the word of the medicine¡¯s effectiveness had spread.


    However, Wang Fugui was not in a hurry. He replied with a smile. ¡°Yes, we¡¯re selling a wonder drug that¡¯s specifically used by men. But due to theplexity of the manufacturing process, we can only sell one dose a week.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Yan Linfeng remarked, ¡°How much does one dose go for?¡±


    ¡°2,000 yuan,¡± Wang Fugui said with a smile.


    ¡°Highway robbery!¡± Yan Linfeng was shocked at the price. ¡°Why did I hear that it was only 800 yuan per dose?¡±


    ¡°Because the raw materials needed for the form are getting harder and harder toe by. The ck medicine that can be made in the future will also decrease as a result,¡± Wang Fugui replied nonchntly. For a shrewd businessman like him who only had profit on the mind, wouldn¡¯t it be simple to find a reason to raise the price?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu strolled in from the backyard. He heard Yan Linfeng say after some consideration, ¡°Give me one dose.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, we only start selling this week¡¯s supply tomorrow. The sales time each week is fixed,¡± Wang Fugui said in a pompous manner, unmoved.


    Yan Linfeng said unhappily, ¡± Do you know who I am?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused since he knew him too well, but he didn¡¯t answer. Instead, he changed the subject and said, ¡°We also turned down Supervisor Chen from the Public Order Division when he came to inquirest week. It¡¯s not that we¡¯re ying hard to get, but that the ck medicine hasn¡¯t been made yet.¡±


    Yan Linfeng said with a dark expression, ¡°I need the medicine urgently. Aren¡¯t you a doctor? Is this what a doctor should say? I¡¯ll give you all a chance to change the way you speak to me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stupefied for a moment. What should a doctor say? He thought for a moment before answering, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but we tried our best.¡±


    Yan Linfeng was confounded. ¡®Is that what you should say?! Do I look like I¡¯m dying?!¡¯


    Then some other customers walked in from outside. Yan Linfeng looked back and was surprised to see it was Supervisor Wang from the nning Division.


    He saw two subordinates following Supervisor Wang, and they were even holding a banner in their arms.


    When Yan Linfeng saw him, he immediately bowed and said with a smile, ¡°Supervisor Wang, what are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Little Yan.¡± Supervisor Wang said with a haughty smile, ¡°I came to thank the doctor here.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the banner, he got an ominous feeling. Would it be something like ¡°magic hands restore spring¡± again? But when Supervisor Wang¡¯s subordinates unfurled the banner, he saw fourrge characters embroidered on it: ¡°Guanyin, Bringer of Children.¡± 1 ¡®Hey, wait a minute! What does this have anything to do with ¡°Guanyin, Bringer of Children¡±?!¡¯


    Nearby, Yan Linfeng was also dumbfounded by this sight. How could it have such an effect? But Yan Linfeng, who was about to create trouble, suddenly did not dare to make a move. He thought that if he caused trouble in the shop at this moment, he would likely offend Supervisor Wang.


    Supervisor Wang exined gleefully, ¡°The stronghold¡¯s No. 3 Hospital diagnosed me as infertile several years ago. It¡¯s always been bugging me that I couldn¡¯t conceive a child. Some time ago, someone passed the ck medicine to me to try it out. To my surprise yesterday, my wife told me she was pregnant the day after I used it!¡±


    The moment Supervisor Wang finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu asked his mind pce, ¡°Does the ck medicine also have the ability to treat infertility?¡±


    To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, the voice from the pce bluntly answered, ¡°No.¡±


    Even Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui were a little confused by this time. Ren Xiaosu asked to confirm, ¡°Are you sure your wife is pregnant?¡±


    They heard Supervisor Wang say happily, ¡°I¡¯m sure. We went to the hospital yesterday to take a blood test. Since the blood test cannot be wrong, she must be pregnant.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought as he looked at Supervisor Wang, then said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s such a miracle.¡±

 Chapter 157 - Dong Funan has issues!

    Chapter 157: Dong Funan has issues!


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    News about the ck medicine in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shop that could treat infertility had even caused a small stir in the stronghold, but Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui kept quiet about it.


    Although they were very eager to make money, they could not publicize an effect the ck medicine did not have.


    When it was time for school the next day, Wang Dalong rode the bicycle with Yan Liuyuan to school. Ren Xiaosu could only take the streetcar to school. It was not that he did not want to ride the bicycle, but rather that he still hadn¡¯t managed to learn how to ride it.


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu even repeatedly reminded Chen Wudi to watch over Dong Funan carefully. He had a feeling she would be a huge threat to them. For this reason, Ren Xiaosu even promised Chen Wudi he could go out and do as he liked for three days six dayster!


    Ren Xiaosu was finally able to go to school in peace when he saw Chen Wudi moving a small stool to sit right next to Dong Funan.


    When he arrived in ss, Yang Xiaojin was already lying on the table and sleeping. Ren Xiaosu wondered to himself if this girl was reallying to school just to sleep. Finals were gonna begin in a few days. Didn¡¯t she need to prepare?!


    Ren Xiaosu ignored her and sat down. But just as he took his seat, Yang Xiaojin got up and said, ¡°Luo Lan is nning something dangerous, so it¡¯s best you keep your distance from him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued. It happened that he also suspected Luo Lan was secretly up to something. ¡°What is Luo Lan nning?¡±


    ¡°We saw people from the Qing Consortium scouting outside No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital.¡± Yang Xiaojin said slowly, ¡°It seems like they n to rob that hospital.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard of people robbing jewelry shops and even the organizations¡¯ banks if they were desperate enough.¡± Ren Xiaosu reacted with a strange expression. ¡°But this is the first time I¡¯ve heard of someone nning to rob a psychiatric hospital....¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s something you don¡¯t know.¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°That¡¯s where all the supernatural beings arrested by the Li Consortium are detained. There¡¯s a very dangerous supernatural being who¡¯s held there. It¡¯s a blessing for everyone that he¡¯s willing to quietly stay in the psychiatric hospital without putting up a resistance. If Luo Lan released him, I¡¯m afraid all of Stronghold 109 would have an unpredictable future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that Luo Lan had turned his attention to the so-called No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital when he failed to win Dong Funan over. That said, Luo Lan had really spared no effort in trying to find a supernatural being to be his bodyguard.


    Unbeknownst to everyone, both Luo Lan and Qing Zhen had reached an agreement that supernatural beings were one of the most valuable resources in this wastnd. Arge amount of information and intelligence led them to understand that the evolution of supernatural beings was very fast, and that there were probably no individual weapons that couldpare to supernatural beings in the future ofbat. Of course, when it came to weapons of mass destruction, the Qing Consortium already had those in their arsenal.


    ¡°But the Qing Consortium here have such few people. Why would they rob the psychiatric hospital?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner.


    ¡°You underestimate the Qing Consortium.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Or should I say you¡¯re underestimating Qing Zhen.¡±


    The Qing Consortium must have nted quite a few of their people here in Stronghold 109, and they were currently all under themand of Luo Lan.


    ¡°But this is the Li Consortium¡¯s territory.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Isn¡¯t Luo Lan afraid that the Li Consortium will expel him after they find out about it?¡±


    ¡°You may not be aware of how much of a jerk Luo Lan is.¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°When he was in Stronghold 113, he was already behavingwlessly. But Luo Lan is a bold and careful person. He¡¯s just using the fact that the Li Consortium can¡¯t worry about him right now. Even if something were to happen, they would just get Qing Zhen to redeem Luo Lan with money. The Li Consortium would never dare to kill him.¡±


    Alright, so he still wasn¡¯t familiar enough with Luo Lan.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are y¡¯all also afraid of the person locked up in No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that we¡¯re afraid of him,¡± Yang Xiaojin corrected. ¡°We¡¯re only worried he will bring too much uncertainty to the situation.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s his superpower?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Hypnosis.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°He¡¯s beenpletely isted within the psychiatric hospital. Even the people who deliver food to him every day have to wear noise canceling headphones before sending in the food through the door.¡±


    ¡°Why do they have to keep it under wraps?¡± Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®How scary of a person is he to make the Li Consortium and the stronghold overseer so wary of him?¡¯ He asked, ¡°Why don¡¯t y¡¯all just kill him if you¡¯re so worried about him getting out?¡±


    ¡°Why should we kill him when he didn¡¯t do anything bad?¡± Yang Xiaojin replied in confusion. ¡°Your logic is very strange.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu calmly said, ¡°But how do y¡¯all judge between good and evil? The power of judgment is all in your hands, but what if y¡¯all¡¯re wrong? You said that both Qing Zhen and the Pyro Company want to possess something they can¡¯t control, but who¡¯s to decide?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin fell deep into thought before saying, ¡°The world was destroyed because of those things. We just don¡¯t want to see the world sink into despair again.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This was the result of a previous cause. Yang Xiaojin¡¯s organization was just clearing the world of the things that had destroyed it. He did not know how to answer her, because he sometimes felt the current him still knew nothing of this world.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°By the way, there¡¯s something up with that supernatural being Luo Lan saved. If she follows Luo Lan, you guys had better be careful.¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised that Yang Xiaojin was reminding him about so many things today and even told him a lot of undisclosed secrets. But was she referring to Dong Funan now? Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with that supernatural being?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin still did not know Dong Funan was lodging in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shop. Yang Xiaojin replied, ¡°We¡¯ve confirmed there¡¯s no rtionship between Dong Funan and the supernatural being that died. They had no blood ties, were not a couple, and did not have any dealings. We initially thought them to be allies but wereter informed they were not.


    ¡°Furthermore, there¡¯s been a string of strange murder cases in the stronghold recently. All of the victims were sucked dry of blood and turned into mummified remains. Right now, we think the supernatural being named Dong Funan is one of the prime suspects. Luo Xinyu witnessed the entire proceedings of the battle that night. After analyzing it, she felt that Dong Funan¡¯s motive for saving another supernatural being was probably... because she wanted to hide somewhere to suck the blood of that supernatural being. But as she was inexperienced in battle, she screwed up. To put it bluntly, she¡¯s just a newbie.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got a great deal of information from Yang Xiaojin. First of all, Dong Funan might only be acting out her current plight and was actually the one behind the string of murder cases. Second, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s contact in the stronghold likely held an important position. If not, they couldn¡¯t possibly have received such clear and detailed intel.


    ¡°Dong Funan is in our shop right now,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t you run back to check on her?¡± Yang Xiaojin frowned and said, ¡°I can get Luo Xinyu to send you back.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡± Composed, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°She¡¯s already been restrained by us.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked quietly at Ren Xiaosu. She thought for a while, then said, ¡°But she¡¯s a supernatural being.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. We have another supernatural being guarding her,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    ¡°Chen Wudi?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked. ¡°I know him. He was quite famous in Stronghold 113¡¯s psychiatric hospital. But aren¡¯t you worried he can¡¯t keep her under control? What if your family¡¯s safety getspromised?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m not worried about the safety of my family right now. I¡¯m just afraid that Chen Wudi will beat her to death.¡±


    After all, he would not be able toplete the quest if she got beaten to death.

 Chapter 158 - Three battles with the White Bone Specter

    <h4>Chapter 158: Three battles with the White Bone Specter</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Xiaoyu was busy washing and snapping apart vegetables in the backyard of the shop. Sincest night, she had not been near Dong Funan at all, because Ren Xiaosu had informed her that something was wrong with Dong Funan.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was wrong even before Yang Xiaojin told him about Dong Funan. Although he had received a sincere gratitude from her, what stood out to him was that she had rejected Luo Lan¡¯s approaches too readily.


    Moreover, she only said her strength was greater than normal when asked about her superpower.


    This made Ren Xiaosu a little suspicious. Was it really only her strength that was greater, or was she deliberately concealing her true power? So based on these suspicions, Ren Xiaosu had Xiaoyu stay away from Dong Funan to prevent any idents from happening.


    Thinking about it now, Dong Funan might have some kind of ability to distinguish who were supernatural beings. After she arrived at the shop, she immediately cast Luo Lan aside because she had discovered there were two supernatural beings here whose blood she could feed on.


    However, Dong Funan was still very cautious. She waited until she had fully recovered from her injuries and when Chen Wudi was alone before she decided to make her move.


    At present, Chen Wudi was sitting on a small stool next to Dong Funan andpletely absorbed in watched a row of ants marching on the ground.


    He still did not realize that Dong Funan, who was originally tied up behind him, had slowly freed herself from the binds.


    Her slim and extremely flexible body was just like a snake¡¯s, allowing her to distort her joints as she liked. This made the rope that was binding her look like a decoration of sorts.


    Xiaoyu shouted from outside, ¡°Wudi, it¡¯s time for lunch.¡±


    ¡°OK, Big Sister Xiaoyu,¡± Chen Wudi said obediently. But all of a sudden, Dong Funan¡¯s arm moved up towards Chen Wudi¡¯s neck. It was as though she had leaned her entire body against his back.


    Dong Funan whispered, ¡°Little boy, what are you looking at?¡±


    ¡°Almsgiver, please behave yourself,¡± Chen Wudi said in a startled manner.


    But just as he finished speaking, Dong Funan opened her scarlet mouth. The two canine teeth in her mouth grew rapidly as she bit down onto Chen Wudi¡¯s neck! With a crack, her teeth broke off.


    When Dong Funan bit his neck, a faint golden armor suddenly appeared under his skin on his shoulder. Then the armor even covered the entirety of his shoulder to his neck.


    Dong Funan could never have expected such a thing to happen. She did not even know what Chen Wudi¡¯s power was, but the armor was way too hard!


    But before she could react, a gust of wind stirred in the room. Chen Wudi immediately knelt and turned around,nding a heavy punch in Dong Funan¡¯s abdomen!


    In the dimly lit room, Dong Funan could even see Chen Wudi¡¯s veins protruding after his armor vanished. The punch made her splutter out a mouthful of blood as she nearly got killed by him!


    However, Chen Wudi did not hold back just because she was a woman. Hended yet another punch onto the left side of Dong Funan¡¯s face.


    By this time, Dong Funan hadpletely lost herbat capabilities and even the ability to think properly as her head buzzed, ringing.


    ¡°Don¡¯t...¡± When Dong Funan was about to beg for mercy, she noticed the iron fist had once again punched her on the right side of her face!


    When Dong Funan received the first punch, she knew she couldn¡¯t fight back. She was definitely not as powerful as Chen Wudi, so she thought of just lying on the ground and admitting defeat. But with Chen Wudi raining abo of punches on her, she did not even get the chance to lie on the ground.


    Chen Wudi straightened up and sneered, ¡°I had thought you were the White Dragon Horse, but I didn¡¯t expect you¡¯d turn out to be the White Bone Specter. However, you¡¯re still too weak to take a single punch from the Great Sage.¡±


    Dong Funan was nearly crying as sheid on the ground. ¡°Then just punching me once would be enough. Why did you have to punch me two more times?¡±


    Chen Wudi sneered. ¡°Because I have to fight three battles with the White Bone Specter.¡±


    Dong Funan was confused.


    In Chen Wudi¡¯s memory, there were many twists and turns in the plot of the ¡°three battles with the White Bone Specter.¡± For the first two battles, his master would misunderstand him, before getting convinced after the third battle that he had really defeated a demon. Hence, Chen Wudi thought that in order to avoid his master¡¯s misunderstandings, he would finish all three ¡°battles¡± at once. In that way, he could skip the misunderstandings that would happen in between each of them!


    Hehe, he really impressed himself by how quick-witted he was.


    ¡°Do you think I¡¯ve never read Journey to the West before? Are you implying that the ¡®three battles with the White Bone Specter¡¯ waspleted all at once?¡± Dong Funanid on the ground and started crying in pain.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu came into the room. She found that Chen Wudi had beaten Dong Funan to tears.


    When Dong Funan saw Xiaoyu, she immediately said, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, you¡¯re the kindest person here. Can you ask them to let me go?¡±


    But then, Dong Funan saw Xiaoyu hand Chen Wudi another rope. ¡°Tie her up more securely this time. After that,e and have lunch.¡±


    Dong Funan wondered what kind of people lived in this house. Why weren¡¯t they taking people¡¯s lives seriously?!


    She still did not know she had fallen into the hands of the most vicious family in Stronghold 109...


    Although Dong Funan had killed people before, she still grew up in the peaceful environment of the stronghold. To be honest, Yan Liuyuan had killed more people than her.


    She had wanted to wait in front of the Pyro Company in case someone went there to sell their blood. Then she would just wait for the seller toe out before she followed them home to feast on their blood.


    Dong Funan grew stronger each time she sucked on someone¡¯s blood. So she wondered if she would get stronger even faster if she sucked the blood of a supernatural being. She couldn¡¯t figure out how she ended up in this sorry state.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu thought that this woman¡¯s modus operandi was just like children ying a game. She had no ns at all. Just as Yang Xiaojin had said, she was indeed a newbie. She was unlike Ren Xiaosu and the others who were used to seeing people die all the time and who had a great deal ofbat experience.


    She was also not trained by an organization like Yang Xiaojin, who not only had a lot of messed up skills but also had a fully functioning organization behind to provide her with intel.


    Thus, Dong Funan was actually just a normal person who suddenly gained a superpower and was then corrupted by this strange and powerful ability.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned home with Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong in the evening, he saw Dong Funan tied up in the room with her face all bruised and swollen. While looking at them through swollen eyes, her eyes took on a look of despair.


    Frankly, Ren Xiaosu did not want to treat a woman like this. But in such times, were security risks differentiated by male and female?


    Bad people were not always men; they could also be women, elders, or even children. Anything was possible. That was just how it was in these wastnds.


    Kindness was precious, but if you were kind and unarmed, that would only be seen as weakness.


    Then, Dong Funan heard Xiaoyu say to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°What should we do now? Why don¡¯t we just kill her?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But lock the door properly. Don¡¯t let Luo Lan see her like this. Wudi, you did a very good job this time. Well done.¡±


    Wasn¡¯t he only doing this because he still had to ¡°keep¡± her for another six days toplete the quest? Ren Xiaosu was actually looking forward to the new product that would be unlocked in the vending machine.


    Next to him, Chen Wudi was really happy. He really managed to avoid the misunderstandings by finishing the three ¡°battles¡± all at once.

 Chapter 159 - Hypnosis

    Chapter 159: Hypnosis


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    ¡°Do y¡¯all feel like something¡¯s wrong?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked during dinner.


    ¡°It really does feel like something¡¯s wrong,¡± Wang Fugui said as he wiped his mouth.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°We¡¯re missing the noise that Luo Lan brings when he tries to get into Dong Funan¡¯s good books.¡±


    This was an unusual night. Luo Lan, who hade to the shop nearly three times a day for the past few days, did not even appear once today.


    Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Lan and his men were nning their heist on the No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital. Surely it wasn¡¯t going to happen tonight, was it?


    He asked, ¡°Do y¡¯all know where No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital is?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Xiaoyu asked in surprise. ¡°Liuyuan asked me to buy a map of Stronghold 109 just the day before. I¡¯ll go and get it. We should be able to locate No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital with it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan as he did not expect him to be so prepared.


    ¡°I just felt that we were unfamiliar with this ce. It¡¯s definitely right if we look at the map first when arriving at a new ce,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Yan Liuyuan probably developed this habit after getting influenced by Ren Xiaosu. It was the same with Ren Xiaosu when he went out into the wilderness. He would have to observe the environment and understand it first before there was any chance of survival.


    The six of them leaned over the map of the stronghold that covered the entire table and searched for the psychiatric hospital. Wang Fugui suddenly said, ¡°I found it, it¡¯s about ten kilometers from here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought the stronghold was way too big. Just the distance between two ces was greater than ten kilometers, and that was already considered close.


    He ordered Chen Wudi and Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Watch over Dong Funan closely. Be careful not to let her cause any trouble.¡± As he trailed off, he thought of something and pulled Yan Liuyuan aside. He whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t make any wishes if there¡¯s no danger.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded obediently. But in reality, both of them understood he would still make a wish if he had to.


    After Ren Xiaosu spoke, he left the shop.


    ...


    When it turned dark, the stronghold would usually be bustling as residents headed to teahouses in groups. During those times, the sound of people ying mahjong could be heard as it filled the entire streets.


    The more affluent residents could even enjoy hot pot, with the hot pots filled with delicious-looking red broth, fresh vegetables, and meat that were extremely appealing to the pte.


    In the current day, eating in a restaurant was a very prestigious affair. If a person often dined out at restaurants, it would mean they were very respected in the stronghold.


    The aunties were still performing their za dance in the park as though they were not afraid of the cold winter. Meanwhile, some nightclubs were already filled with lonely and single men and women.


    When the night sky turned pitch-ck, the crowd started to disperse and leave.


    A manhole cover outside No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital was suddenly pushed aside from below. Following, 30bat troops with loaded guns climbed out of it. Luo Lan was there with them as well.


    These men had attached silencers to their guns and even camouged their faces. All of them appeared to be exceptionally prepared.


    No one knew when Qing Zhen started making his arrangements in Stronghold 109, but he already had a proper understanding of the entire underground system of Stronghold 109. Not even the Li Consortium might have known how many people were hidden underground or what other things might be down there.


    Tang Zhou spoke into a simplemunication device, ¡°Split into three squads and get ready to infiltrate the building ording to the briefing.¡±


    The full toon quickly divided themselves up into three squads, headed towards No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital, and surrounded it.


    There were more than a 100 security guards guarding No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital, but the 30 members of the toon were unafraid. In their opinion, there was no need to fear the security personnel here as they were only private troops..


    Luo Lan followed them with a swagger as he saw the three squads swarm into No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital like three sharp, ck daggers.


    The moment the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops encountered the security personnel in the psychiatric hospital, the guards were eliminated.


    The three squads continued advancing until they finally reassembled as a full toon outside the psychiatric hospital¡¯s main building. Tang Zhou whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t keep lusting for a fight. Once Test Subject No. 2 is located, retreat immediately. Kill all targets on sight other than Test Subject No. 2.¡±


    ording to their intel, Test Subject No. 2 would be getting dissectedter tonight, which was why they chose to attack since they could not wait any longer.


    Only two supernatural beings were held in No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital. But ording to their intel, Test Subject No. 1 was far too dangerous. Therefore, Luo Lan decided to give up on the idea to abduct that person.


    As the toon broke through towards the top of the building, all of the psychiatric hospital¡¯s staff were surprised to see the hospital getting stormed. Importantly, it was still peacetime within the stronghold. Although there was that incident caused by the Pyro Company, their members had already been expelled from the stronghold.


    Luo Lan wasughing at the back of the toon as he said, ¡°Don¡¯t show them any mercy. There¡¯s absolutely nothing wrong with killing those who treat their own species asb rats.¡± Right now, Luo Lan¡¯s face was filled with bellicosity and excitement.


    Many people had the mindset that he was just a good-for-nothing, illegitimate child and would at most address him as ¡°Qing Zhen¡¯s older brother.¡± However, the people in Stronghold 113, as well as Qing Zhen and his men, all knew very well that Luo Lan was never a coward.


    Just his participation in the smaller battles alone was countless. Some people felt that Luo Lan had the same maniacal blood flowing through his veins as his younger brother.


    When they passed by the reference library, Luo Lan went inside and found the information rted to Test Subject No. 1. This included three bulky and old fashioned videotapes.


    He slowly inserted a videotape into the VCR in the reference library and turned on the television.


    There were three recordings on this videotape. He saw a handsome young man with fair skin sitting in the interrogation room and a doctor in a white coat sitting across from him.


    The young man suddenly asked, ¡°Did you see where ¡®I¡¯ went?


    ¡°I¡¯m asking you, did you see where ¡®I¡¯ went?


    ¡°What? Don¡¯t just open your mouth and say nothing.


    ¡°Hey, you there, did you see where ¡®I¡¯ went?¡±


    The doctor said nothing for a long time.


    The young man slowly lowered his head. ¡°Oh... I¡¯m sorry, ¡®I¡¯ can¡¯t be found anymore.¡±


    The young man sat there by himself with his head down. He had even lost himself.


    Luo Lan stood before the television and quietly watched the footage. For some reason, he felt that the young man seemed to be sitting in a corner of the world as he slowly became forgotten by others and himself until he had nothing left.


    This was what true loneliness felt like.


    ...


    In the second clip of the treatment records, the hospital¡¯s hypnotist was trying to hypnotize the young man. In this clip, the young man seemed much more normal than before.


    The hypnotist said to the young man, ¡°Close your eyes.... Rx... try to imagine you¡¯re walking along a tunnel as the world gradually fades into darkness....


    ¡°It¡¯s a tunnel you¡¯re familiar with. You¡¯re running towards the tunnel on the right, and there¡¯s a light at the end of it. When you get to where the light is... you will arrive at where you want to be. On the count of 3...


    ¡°...2...


    ¡°...1...¡±


    But at this moment, the young man opened his eyes. The hypnotist asked in surprise, ¡°Why have you opened your eyes?¡±


    The young man smiled and said, ¡°I ran in the wrong direction.¡±


    ...


    The third clip of the treatment records still showed the hypnosis process.


    This time, the hypnotist said to the young man, ¡°Close your eyes.... Rx... imagine being enveloped by warm seawater. While you¡¯re floating on the surface, breathe freely as you like. Once you submerge to the bottom of the sea, you¡¯ll arrive at where you want to be. On the count of 3...


    ¡°...2...


    ¡°...1...¡±


    However, a surprising turn of events happened. This time, it was the hypnotist who had fell asleep!


    Meanwhile, the clip was showing the profile of the young man as he revealed a smile.

 Chapter 160 - Tiger and pig

    <h4>Chapter 160: Tiger and pig</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The video ended abruptly during the third recording. It seemed like the follow-up research was either meaningless or could not be carried out any further.


    But after watching the three video clips, Luo Lan had a feeling the young man was guarding unspeakable secrets. Hemented, ¡°So it turns out this is the legendary Demon Whisperer? It seems like his superpower was awakened during the hypnotism process.¡±


    Tang Zhou asked, ¡°Should we bring him with us?¡±


    ¡°Bring him with us?¡± Luo Lan shook his head. ¡°I, Luo Lan, still know myself well enough to understand that I can¡¯t control someone like him. Moreover, we don¡¯t know what kind of trouble he¡¯ll cause if we let him out. You don¡¯t know how many people in this psychiatric hospital have died because of him.¡±


    ¡°Demon Whisperer¡± was a title given by the organizations to supernatural beings who possessed extreme hypnotism methods.


    Everyone was unsure about the level of hypnotism they possessed, but Luo Lan was surprised after watching the video. What made it even more scary was that the person in the video had probably only just awakened his superpower at the point the third video clip was being recorded.


    Tang Zhou said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just capture him and bring him back to do research on?¡±


    ¡°Qing Zhen and I do not do such things,¡± Luo Lan scorned. ¡°Don¡¯t bother about him, we will only take with us the No. 2 test subject.¡± Luo Lan then continued heading upstairs.


    By this point, the toon had already cleared the entire building. No one was alive other than Test Subjects No. 1 and 2.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s troops performed their tasks efficiently. The Pyro Company would not have been so badly battered by them otherwise. Of course, this was also because the Pyro Company had not expected Luo Lan and his men to suddenly appear there. Furthermore, force Dawn under the Pyro Company had also not participated in the battle.


    When Luo Lan passed by the soundproof room that Test Subject No. 1 was isted in, he subconsciously moved away from it. It was as though he were afraid some beast would suddenly jump out of there.


    Luo Lan and Qing Zhen¡¯s father had passed away many years ago. He had died of lung cancer and could not be saved. At that time, their old man called them to his bedside and told them he was actually not worried about Luo Lan. He was more worried about Qing Zhen.


    Because of the pride ingrained into Qing Zhen¡¯s bones, it made him a very showy person. If the first half of his life was not smooth sailing, thetter half might not end well.


    But Luo Lan was different. As an illegitimate child, he was extremely adaptable to circumstances. Even if someone threw mud on his face, he would not take it up against those he could not afford to mess with.


    The younger and older brothers were like a tiger and a pig, respectively.


    The younger brother was obviously stronger, but their old man kept reminding Luo Lan to protect his younger brother before passing away. No one could understand what the old man was thinking.


    By this time, the toon had carried Test Subject No. 2 off the operating table. Luo Lan took a look at her, then he curled his lips and said, ¡°She¡¯s too young. She must only be 10 or 11 at most? She could even be my daughter, so how is she supposed to help fight in the battles?!¡±


    ¡°Boss, the Li Consortium¡¯s fighting force has been deployed. We¡¯ve got to hurry and leave now.¡± Tang Zhou said, ¡°The vehicle is standing by.¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, Luo Lan and Tang Zhou heard a few rumbling sounds outside. They looked out of the operating room¡¯s windows and were surprised to see that the vehicle standing by in the secluded area had exploded. It was as though they were watching a brilliant fireworks show in the middle of the night.


    Luo Lan flew into a rage. ¡°Who the fuck is destroying my new vehicles every day for no apparent reason?! I¡¯ll take this to the bitter end with them!¡±


    ¡°Boss, stop yelling. We have to quickly get down into the sewers.¡± Tang Zhou dragged Luo Lan along as they ran out.


    ...


    It was the wee hours of the morning. When Ren Xiaosu returned to the shop, everyone was still awake as they were worried about his safety. No one could sleep even if they wanted to. As Ren Xiaosu was now the mainstay of the entire family, no one would feel at ease if he wasn¡¯t back.


    However, Dong Funan was the one who suffered the most. She really wanted to sleep, but Chen Wudi said that she had to pray for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s safe return together with them.


    Dong Funan was dumbfounded. ¡®Isn¡¯t it good enough that you people are praying for his safe return? Why should I have to pray as well?! Are you all still human?! Never mind that I¡¯ve been tied up and beaten, you¡¯re even refusing me sleep now?!¡¯


    After Ren Xiaosu returned, he sat in the shop and waited quietly, because he reckoned... Luo Lan would probablye overter.


    Right as Luo Lan and his group were about to leave the site, a battle ensued between them and the Li Consortium. Ren Xiaosu believed some people in Luo Lan¡¯s group would get injured. If they needed any treatment, his first choice would definitely be to head to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ce.


    Luo Lan and his group got caught up in the battle because Yang Xiaojin had blown up their vehicle again. This girl was really good at sabotaging others, and her mind was probably filled with all kinds of trickeries.


    Indeed, it wasn¡¯t long before Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of a manhole cover being lifted up outside the roller shutter door.


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was a little curious. How did these people urately locate the manhole cover that was outside their shop¡¯s door?!


    Ren Xiaosu raised the roller shutter door and let them in. Luo Lan whispered, ¡°Hurry up and give treatment to these two brothers of mine. I¡¯ll pay you!¡±


    ¡°Mhm, it¡¯s easy since you¡¯re paying,¡± Ren Xiaosu said slowly. He had a look at the injuries of the soldiers and then said to Xiaoyu, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, remove the bullets from them before you suture their wounds and apply the medicine.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu looked at the girl in Tang Zhou¡¯s arms and asked, ¡°Who is this?¡±


    Seeing that the girl was still in aa, Tang Zhou exined, ¡°This is our boss¡¯s younger cousin.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nearly burst outughing. ¡®How shameless are y¡¯all to lie like this?¡¯


    Chen Wudi also came over to have a look. He scrutinized the girl for a long while. Suddenly, he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Master, she looks like...¡±


    Everyone in the room fell silent.


    Luo Lan got so angry heughed. ¡°What? Does everyone look like the White Dragon Horse to you now?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Chen Wudi shook his head and said, ¡°She¡¯s not the White Dragon Horse but a carrying pole.¡± <sup>1</sup>


    Luo Lan was confused. Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Luo Lan got really irked this time. ¡°How can such a cute and beautiful little girl be a pole? Even the carrying pole has achieved spiritual awareness?!¡±


    The girl was still unconscious from the anesthesia she received during the operation earlier in the night. Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could not understand. How could the people in the stronghold do such a thing to a little girl? Even if she were a supernatural being, they still shouldn¡¯t do something like that, right?!


    Luo Lan red at Chen Wudi. ¡°It¡¯s fine if you want to go seek the scriptures yourself, but why are you always eyeing the people I bring back?¡±


    Chen Wudi said patiently, ¡°Like you¡¯d understand anything, Benbo¡¯erba!¡±


    Luo Lan sneered. ¡°If you im that she¡¯s a carrying pole, does that make her a carrying pole? Would she agree to that?¡±


    All of a sudden, the girl snorted and slowly regained consciousness. She looked around at the strangers around her, and then her gaze fixated onto Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi.


    Chen Wudi tested her by saying, ¡°Carrying pole?¡±


    The girl stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Senior Apprentice Brother?!¡±


    Luo Lan was confused. Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    ¡®What¡¯s with a carrying pole like you randomly addressing someone as your senior apprentice brother?!¡¯


    Luo Lan felt like his intelligence had been insulted again. How could these two lunatics figure out the secret signal?! Just who were the ones going crazy?!

 Chapter 161 - Li Shentan, the abandoned son of the Li Consortium

    <h4>Chapter 161: Li Shentan, the abandoned son of the Li Consortium</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The atmosphere in the room stiffened for a while. Honestly, not even Ren Xiaosu expected such a reversal. The strange frequency the two mental patients weremunicating on actually connected.


    How... unexpected.


    As a matter of fact, the scriptures seeking group was bing more and moreplete. Chen Wudi had not only gathered his master and his three disciples, he even considered they would need the carrying pole as well.


    Ren Xiaosu thought all that was needed now were the two baskets <sup>1</sup> and the White Dragon Horse to join the group.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan looked at the girl and said with a smile, ¡°Little girl, what are you called in this life?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Si Liren,¡± the girl replied.


    ¡°What¡¯s your superpower?¡± Yan Liuyuan continued asking.


    ¡°I have extraordinary strength,¡± Si Liren said proudly.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he felt a little hesitant. Thest person who said something like that was still tied up and held in a bedroom...


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt he could not be too arbitrary. She had sessfully reunited with Chen Wudi after all...


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°How strong are you? Can you show us?¡±


    Si Liren made a noise of agreement as she casually lifted Wang Dalong. Wang Dalong was so frightened he kept screaming.


    Yan Liuyuan said with a sigh, ¡°Looks like Friar Sand is the one who¡¯s getting carried around by the carrying pole in this reincarnation.¡±


    Next to them, Xiaoyu smiled and said, ¡°Liren, are you hungry? Do you want Big Sis to cook something for you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not hungry,¡± Si Liren said cutely.


    Luo Lan could not ept this. He just could not understand why the people he worked so hard to rescue always ended up joining the Western Paradise scriptures seeking group.


    After so many days of nning, Ren Xiaosu got the better end of the deal? Why did all the supernatural beings keep flocking to Ren Xiaosu?!


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe it. This little girl must have taken a blind guess!¡± Luo Lan shouted.


    ¡°But no one colluded with her beforehand or anything...¡± Ren Xiaosu said awkwardly. ¡°She was brought here by you and hasn¡¯t left your line of sight either.¡±


    ¡°Chen Wudi mentioned the White Dragon Horse earlier,¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°so she might have guessed something from that.¡±


    In Luo Lan¡¯s view, how could there be such a coincidence in this world? ¡®If you shouted out ¡°carrying pole,¡± I would shout out ¡°senior apprentice brother?¡± Who are you fucking trying to bluff?! Is this some kind ofedy?!¡¯


    Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu immediately said, ¡°Why are you looking at me? I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on either.¡±


    It would be justifiable to say that one person was acting crazy, but two people acting crazy together? That was just too strange. At some point, Ren Xiaosu started to believe he might really be the reincarnation of Tripitaka.


    Of course, he was very sure this was impossible.


    Suddenly, Yan Liuyuan pointed at Luo Lan and asked the girl, ¡°Who is he?¡±


    The girl looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Benbo¡¯erba.¡±


    Luo Lan was confounded and nearly broke down. Ben? Ben, my ass! How could she have also gotten this right?


    Yan Liuyuan then pointed at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Who is he?¡±


    ¡°Master!¡± the little girl said with a sweet smile.


    ¡°Who am I?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked the girl while watching her closely.


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re Little White Dragon,¡± <sup>1</sup> the girl answered matter-of-factly.


    It was Yan Liuyuan¡¯s turn tough. ¡°Sadly, I¡¯m not.¡±


    The girl was stunned. She was at a loss. At this moment, they heard ppinge from outside the shop. A handsome young man walked in with a smile on his face. ¡°Sure enough, we can¡¯t fool everyone. Liren,e back over here.¡±


    In that instant, the atmosphere in the room became tense. Ren Xiaosu did not even notice when the young man had stepped in.


    Simultaneously, Luo Lan, Tang Zhou, and his men raised their guns and aimed at that young man as though they were facing a formidable foe.


    It was not that Luo Lan was getting nervous, but that he knew of his identity as a Demon Whisperer!


    Luo Lan clearly had not bothered rescuing this young man, so how did he escape from that room? Or was it...


    Suddenly, Luo Lan understood. It was likely this young man was not under the control of the psychiatric hospital and had already gained control over everyone in it.


    That magical hypnotism was able to control others silently. Although the staff of the psychiatric hospital had been wary enough of him, they might not have even known they were already under his control.


    This Demon Whisperer was not released by Luo Lan. He was capable of freely passing through the hospital doors since a long time ago.


    Hypnotism like this was truly enough to make all of the powers that be afraid.


    Stronghold 109 was probably going to be even more chaotic.


    They saw the young man smiling while being held at gunpoint. He said, ¡°Let me introduce myself. My name is Li Shentan, the abandoned son of the Li Consortium. I don¡¯t have any malice towards you all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. This guy was actually with the Li Consortium? Ren Xiaosu realized who this person was. He was probably that very dangerous person Yang Xiaojin had talked about. However, she had not mentioned he was from the Li Consortium.


    Luo Lan whispered, ¡°He¡¯s a Demon Whisperer, and he¡¯s extremely dangerous.¡±


    Actually, Luo Lan was also very puzzled. Even he was unaware that Li Shentan was actually with the Li Consortium. But why did someone from the Li Consortium get locked up in the psychiatric hospital? Wasn¡¯t this the Li Consortium¡¯s own territory?


    It seemed like there was much more behind this ¡°abandoned son¡± phrase he mentioned.


    The girl named Si Liren had already returned to Li Shentan¡¯s side. It seemed he had purposely allowed the girl to get saved by Luo Lan. But what was their motive in doing that? Was it just for the sake of locating where they stayed?


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly had a feeling of being exposed. Li Shentan knew about Chen Wudi and knew what he had said before. He even knew Chen Wudi identified Luo Lan as Benbo¡¯erba!


    What a terrible feeling this was. It felt as though everything was in his control.


    But how did he know about all that? Did the Qing Consortium get infiltrated? With his power, it would be a piece of cake for him to obtain intel from members of the Qing Consortium.


    Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, ¡°What do you want?¡±


    Li Shentan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s just that the two of us are getting a little lonely in this stronghold. Now that so many friends have gathered here, I feel we shoulde out to greet everyone.¡±


    ¡°Alright, the introductions are over.¡± Ren Xiaosu prepared to see them out. He did not have any intention of crossing paths with this Demon Whisperer.


    But for some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt like a huge burden had been lifted off his chest after learning that Si Liren was not really a ¡°carrying pole.¡± He truly did not want to be Tripitaka.


    Li Shentan seemed quite surprised about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attitude, but he wasn¡¯t particrly bothered.


    He suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°Somehow, I get the feeling there¡¯s something very special about you.¡±


    It was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be surprised. ¡°I¡¯m super handsome?¡±


    ¡°No, no, no.¡± Li Shentan pointed at his head and said with augh, ¡°You¡¯re very special here, so... let¡¯s meet again if fate allows. On top of that, Boss Luo, I didn¡¯t hypnotize any of your subordinates, so don¡¯t worry too much.¡±


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you leave the psychiatric hospital before now?¡±


    Li Shentan gave it some thought and said, ¡°Because it wasn¡¯t the right time toe out.¡± Li Shentan then led Si Liren out and walked off into the darkness.


    Before they left, Si Liren even turned around and waved to everyone. ¡°Bye bye, everyone. I¡¯m very happy to have met you all!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized from Li Shentan¡¯s words that he must have something he needed to do since he decided to leave the hospital. Could it also have something to do with the Li Consortium¡¯s research results?


    Luo Lan let out a sigh beside him. ¡°It was all for naught in the end. I had better keep chatting up Dong Funan. I think she¡¯s still the more reliable one.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remained speechless as he stared at Luo Lan. He hesitated over whether he should tell Luo Lan that Dong Funan was actually not reliable either.

 Chapter 162 - Rebuilding Stronghold 113

    Chapter 162: Rebuilding Stronghold 113


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu did not tell Luo Lan the truth about Dong Funan. He thought it would be better to wait for the seven-day deadline to pass before saying anything to him. What if Luo Lan caused a ruckus when he saw Dong Funan with a bloody nose and bruised face?


    At this moment, Dong Funan, who was locked up in the room, wanted nothing more than to get married to Luo Lan on the spot as long as he could take her away. But Chen Wudi had tied her up too securely this time. Moreover, Wang Fugui even found some medicinal herbs and stuffed them into her mouth. It numbed her mouth so much so that she could not make a sound!


    There were plenty of medicinal herbs in the shop to spare. However, what Dong Funan couldn¡¯t understand was why everyone in this family was so proficient at what they did!


    Even though Wang Fugui was a kind person, he had lived as a refugee for a long time. So he definitely had a few tricks up his sleeve.


    The refugees were different from the stronghold¡¯s residents as they faced imminent danger the day they were born.


    Luo Lan chatted with Dong Funan for a while through the door but found that it was meaningless to keep talking by himself. He got bored after a while.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled, ¡°Drink some water if you¡¯re thirsty.¡±


    Luo Lan sat in a chair in the yard and sighed. ¡°It¡¯s a little surprising that Li Shentan broke out of the psychiatric hospital. I was trying to be really careful when I went there since I was afraid he would get out and cause trouble.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m curious about something.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t y¡¯all know that he¡¯s from the Li Consortium?¡±


    At this moment, Luo Lan carefully recalled the past records he had read about Li Shentan. He confirmed there was no mention of the Li Consortium in the intel he received. However, he suddenly remembered the three video clips he watched. At that time, he could even feel the person¡¯s sense of loneliness and abandonment through the television screen.


    Luo Lan said, ¡°Did you hear him describing himself as the abandoned son of the Li Consortium? Could it be possible that he was institutionalized by the Li Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Why would the Li Consortium imprison one of their own?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°How would I know?¡± Luo Lan said disconstely, ¡°The inner workings of an org aren¡¯t as perfect as you think. Infighting and plotting can be found everywhere. If you want toe out on top within the ¡®family,¡¯ you have to sacrifice brothers and sisters to advance.¡±


    ¡°Then how many brothers and sisters have you and Qing Zhen sacrificed?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.


    Luo Lan replied in a suddenly solemn voice, ¡°Qing Zhen and I don¡¯t have any other choice. He was born to be a leader, so he should get to the top of the mountain to view the scenery from up there.¡±


    ¡°What about you then?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, slightly stunned. He realized just how protective Luo Lan was of his younger brother.


    Luo Lan had said his life was not worth a thing when Wang Fugui requested to get rewarded for their lifesaving favor to them. But when Qing Zhen¡¯s name was brought up, Luo Lan immediately turned generous.


    ¡°Me?¡± Luo Lan smiled. ¡°All I have is this worthless life. I¡¯ll live no matter what happens.¡± Luo Lan did not sound indignant at all. It was as though he thought it was right and proper of him to do so. His younger brother should be regarded as high and mighty, while he was just a worthless person.


    ¡°Oh, yes.¡± Luo Lan nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Don¡¯t be too conspicuous these days. Even the Yang Consortium has arrived in this stronghold, and there are still people from the Pyro Company hiding somewhere as well. Now that the Demon Whisperer hase out to make trouble, who knows what¡¯s going to happen?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at him. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s right for you to say this to me? Aren¡¯t you the most conspicuous person in the stronghold right now!¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha, is that so?¡± Luo Lan startedughing. ¡°Am I that outstanding?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡®Why are you so proud of that!¡¯


    ¡°By the way, the people from the Saboteurs are here too.¡± Luo Lan got furious. ¡°Someone targeted and destroyed two of my two vehicles from a distance. It must be those people from the Saboteurs since they¡¯re the only ones who would do such things with no apparent reason!¡±


    It was at this moment that Ren Xiaosu finally found out that Yang Xiaojin might be a member of the Saboteurs. But he thought of a question. Luo Lan had mentioned earlier that the Yang Consortium was also here, so could Yang Xiaojin have anything to do with the Yang Consortium too?


    ¡°What about your Qing Consortium?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Has the Qing Consortium sent you alone?¡±


    ¡°Who are you looking down on?¡± Luo Lan snapped, ¡°So what if it¡¯s only me? I can take on 1,000 people, alright?¡±


    ¡°Sure, sure, I meant to say, didn¡¯t the Qing Consortium send anyone to support you?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No, they¡¯re busy dealing with matters in Stronghold 113 and the Jing Mountains.¡±


    ...


    The terrain of Stronghold 111 was neither t nor regr. Thendscape¡¯s topography was higher in the west and got lower towards the east, with the entire stronghold built next to a mountain. The mountain at Stronghold 111 was called Mt. Ginkgo. When the ginkgo leaves turned yellow in autumn, the entire mountain would turn golden. The Qing Consortium¡¯s headquarters were located here on the mountainside.


    At this moment, arge convoy set off from the city towards Mt. Ginkgo. The pedestrians in the stronghold pushed and shoved to get to the front to have a look. They knew these big shots of the Qing Consortium were members of the board of directors.


    At this time each month, these executives of the Qing Consortium would usually drive to Mt. Ginkgo to attend a meeting. They would discuss matters that determined the life of the organization.


    By evening, the huge manor atop Mt. Ginkgo was brightly lit. There were 13 men, made up of the young, middle-aged, and old, seated quietly within the conference room.


    A huge tiger head made into a specimen from a dead tiger hung above them on the wall of the conference room. Humans had always enjoyed such repulsive hobbies. Before it died, the tiger was considered the king of beasts. However, it ended up bing humanity¡¯s ything after its death. This was the power of humanity.


    The entire conference room looked magnificent and grand. It was as though this ce was never affected by The Cataclysm, and those who were here had always held authority in their hands.


    The elder seated in the seat of honor was tapping his fingers on the table. ¡°How is Qing Huai¡¯s progress?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ve went around the Jing Mountains two days ago, and it¡¯s estimated they¡¯ll reach Stronghold 113 by today.¡± A middle-aged man said, ¡°When the post-disaster rebuilding team arrives, they¡¯ll head with them to the Jing Mountains to locate the creature that appeared in the volcano¡¯s crater. Now that the creature has fallen back into a slumber, it seems like it doesn¡¯t intend to leave the crater anymore. We suspect it has some sort of reliance on the temperature within the volcano.¡±


    ¡°Can Qing Huai handle it?¡± the elder in the seat of honor asked calmly. ¡°The coal mines near Stronghold 113 are extremely important, so they must be rebuilt as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Qing Huai has already gone there with abat brigade. It shouldn¡¯t be a problem dealing with a few hundred Experimentals,¡± the middle-aged man replied.


    ¡°Since the resources near Stronghold 113 are extremely important, the post-disaster rebuilding work must bepleted as quickly as possible. Qing Yun, coordinate with them to allocate some refugees to work over there,¡± the elder said.


    A young man who was sitting at the end of the table smiled and said, ¡°Alright, I understand.¡± The young man¡¯s hair was neatly slicked back. Under the lighting, his smooth hair appeared elegant and crystalline.


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to adopt a cautious attitude when handling this matter. If anything goes wrong, you won¡¯t be sitting here in the future.¡± The elder frowned.


    The young man lowered his head. ¡°I understand.¡±


    Someone nearbyughed and said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to be that harsh on the young ones.¡±


    The elder did not answer. Instead, he switched topics and asked, ¡°What is Qing Zhen doing now?¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t have anything to do other than go to the theater to listen to songs every day,¡± someone replied. ¡°He listens to random songs with nothing specific in mind, nor does he have a favorite performer he watches.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± The elder nodded calmly. ¡°Let¡¯s leave him out to dry for now. That young man is getting too arrogant and needs to be suppressed. He needs to learn that the power of money mighte from an exchange system, but the power of authority is given by the consortium. Without a home, there will be no rules, nor will there be any authority to speak of.¡±


    The others did not express their views on this. But at this moment, someone knocked on the door of the conference room.


    The elder said softly, ¡°Come in.¡±


    The person who walked in was a secretary. The elder¡¯s frown deepened as the secretary whispered something into his ear. He looked up at the others present in the meeting and said, ¡°The 7th Combat Brigade led by Qing Huai was attacked by the Experimentals. They¡¯re currently retreating with more than half of their force having taken casualties.¡±

 Chapter 163 - A series of strange happenings

    <h4>Chapter 163: A series of strange happenings</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    All of the Qing Consortium¡¯s executives were talking andughing in the conference room a moment ago. But now, all of them fell silent.


    Qing Huai was considered the best candidate of the middle generation to lead soldiers into battles. The troops under him were also more elite. Everyone had thought the 7th Combat Brigade would definitely head into Stronghold 113 and eliminate the Experimentals. But they did not expect there to be bad newsing back from the front line before the meeting was even over.


    ¡°How could the 7th Combat Brigade, made up of several thousand people, get ambushed by a few hundred Experimentals?¡± someone wondered. ¡°Could this information be false? We all know the 7th Combat Brigade is equipped with the best gear, and itsbat capability is the strongest as well.¡±


    Naturally, the person who spoke knew the most powerful units in the Qing Consortium had been the 5th Combat Brigade under Qing Zhen and the 6th Combat Brigade under Luo Lan. But those brigades didn¡¯t exist anymore.


    The 5th Combat Brigade had already been disbanded, and all of their soldiers had been separated and reassigned to other brigades, whereas the 6th Combat Brigade had perished in the earthquake.


    In reality, everyone had been reluctant to make a move on Qing Zhen because he and Luo Lan each possessed a rtively stronger military force that they dreaded. But now that something had happened to Luo Lan, Qing Zhen would be left to fend for himself.


    However, they were unaware that not all of Luo Lan¡¯s soldiers had perished in the disaster at Stronghold 113. The earthquake only split the military base in two, forcibly separating thebat troops and making it impossible for them to join up with the other.


    At present, the discement in the ground that stretched from the Jing Mountains was known as the Stair of the Jing Mountains. It was as though the stairs had been forcefully squeezed out of the ground like a crease in the ins.


    It was almost foreseeable that this ce would be a new mountain range within the next few centuries or millennia.


    But the Qing Consortium would not give up on this ce until they discovered new coal mines.


    That elder in the conference room calmly said, ¡°The number of Experimentals has exceeded our estimation. There are probably close to a thousand of them. When Qing Huai and his men were setting up camp, the Experimentals attacked them with lightning speed. Qing Huai hadn¡¯t expected that the Experimentals would initiate the attack. Right now, I suspect that a new life form has emerged from the hordes of Experimentals... one that has intelligence.¡±


    ¡°It seems Stronghold 113 has be theirir.¡± Someone sighed. ¡°Why don¡¯t we get Qing Zhen to deal with those Experimentals? He¡¯s a veteran, after all.¡±


    When the elder looked at the person who suggested that, a kind of inexplicable pressure descended on the conference room. The elder said, ¡°Qing Yun, take the 1st Combat Brigade with you. How can the will of the organizationpromise with an individual? From today onwards, Qing Zhen is not allowed to take a single step out of his vi.¡±


    The other executives in the conference room began to have their own considerations. Qing Zhen had proven his capabilities to the organization over the years. But with the will of the organization changed, this capable young man could only end up a dignified prisoner.


    But they felt that if Qing Zhen had been the one sent to Stronghold 113, the oue of the mission would bepletely different.


    Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had suffered a terrible loss in the incident in the Jing Mountains. But who could have expected natural disasters like an earthquake and volcanic eruption to happen? This was an act of nature.


    ...


    At this moment, a convoy of vehicles carrying goods and supplies were driving slowly towards Stronghold 109. A ck figure was clinging to the undercarriage of arge truck. This person was Xu Xianchu, who had traveled on a long and arduous journey to Stronghold 109.


    Xu Xianchu clenched his teeth and persisted. It was not easy to cling to the undercarriage, but he was determined to sneak into Stronghold 109. At a time like this, who would expect Xu Xianchu to enter Stronghold 109 like this?


    In reality, no one in Stronghold 109 was particrly interested in arresting Xu Xianchu like he had anticipated. After all, this ce was not controlled by the Qing Consortium. Even if Lu Yuan was diplomatic towards them, he was not going to actively follow up on this case.


    Moreover, everyone felt Xu Xianchu would not attempt to get into the stronghold by force. Hence, Ren Xiaosu discovered that even though the Public Order Division had put up a wanted poster of Xu Xianchu when he visited the jewelry shop, they only instructed the shop owners to report to them should someonee to sell unknown sources of gold. If they wanted to carry out stringent checks, it would probably be much stricter than this.


    This was why Xu Xianchu went with the most correct judgment based on hismon sense.


    The private troops on guard duty would be changing shifts soon.


    Xu Xianchu knew exactly what the private troops¡¯ behavior was like. This applied to almost all of the private troops in the world since all the organizations in the world were almost the same.


    When he was still at Stronghold 113, he had observed that the private troops would usually check the cargo trucks very carefully when they were passing through. But their inspection would get a lot cker during the shift change at night. In fact, many contraband items were transported into the stronghold during that time frame. Some people would even purposely bribe the private troops in hopes that they would turn a blind eye to their activities.


    Xu Xianchu had guessed that it would be the same for the private troops in Stronghold 109. Of course, he was not a 100% sure of that. But if he wanted to infiltrate the stronghold, this was the only time he could do it. If he could not get in, he would just be forced to run away again. It was not like those private troops could stop him anyway.


    Sure enough, it was just as Xu Xianchu had predicted. This goods and supplies convoy was not even given the most basic of inspections as it entered the stronghold.


    This made Xu Xianchu both relieved and suspicious at the same time. It seemed to him like the management of the private troops in Stronghold 109 was cker than that of Stronghold 113.


    After the convoy drove noisily into the stronghold, Xu Xianchu climbed into the cargo container from underneath the truck. These vehicles were simr to coal trucks, with an open-air hauler.


    Xu Xianchu sat in the container and thought about the next phase of his n. As he was exhausted from fleeing, all he wanted was to find a secluded ce where he could eat something and get some rest.


    When he looked at the goods in the container, Xu Xianchu suddenly had some doubts. Everything here was sealed in wooden boxes, so he could not see what was in them.


    Xu Xianchu took out his dagger to pry open a wooden box. He was stunned when he saw the goods, because they were all filled with guns and ammunition!


    All of a sudden, the truck deviated from the convoy. The rest of the vehicles continued driving forward, but the truck he was in had separated from the main group and was headed for who knew where.


    Xu Xianchu immediately knew something was wrong. This truck was not delivering the firearms to the Li Consortium. If it were, it would not have to do it in secret. Someone must be smuggling all of these weapons in!


    Before he could figure it out, the truck came to a halt. Then he heard a voicee from outside the truck, ¡°Hurry up, unload the goods and ce them in the warehouse. Find an opportunity tomorrow to distribute them.¡±


    The side door of the container opened up with a rumble. Right after, Xu Xianchu and Luo Lan stared at each other.


    As it was in the wee hours of the morning, Luo Lan looked into the container while shining a shlight. He wanted to have a clearer look at the person inside the container. Then¡ª


    Luo Lan shouted, ¡°The fuck! Xu Xianchu?¡±

 Chapter 164 - The Qing Consortium is too petty!

    <h4>Chapter 164: The Qing Consortium is too petty!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Luo Lan was still quite famous in Stronghold 113 and would often attend public events such as ceremonies and gs. The private troops would then assume the role of security personnel at such events. So Xu Xianchu had seen Luo Lan before.


    But Xu Xianchu was a little stunned. He could never have expected to encounter Luo Lan at this ce! But he quickly realized there was an inevitable connection behind this seeming coincidence.


    The time Xu Xianchu chose to infiltrate Stronghold 109 was when the private troops wereziest in carrying out their inspection duties. Hence, many people usually chose this time frame to smuggle items into the stronghold.


    Currently, the Qing Consortium could only rely on smuggling to transport firearms into the stronghold controlled by the Li Consortium. So by stowing away in a vehicle that was used for smuggling, he ended up meeting Luo Lan, who was just receiving a batch of smuggled firearms.


    But surely this truckload of firearms would be enough tounch a small-scale battle, right? Was the Qing Consortium going to attack Stronghold 109?!


    The most difficult thing for Xu Xianchu to ept was that he got recognized at a nce even when his face had already be so dirty!


    In that instant, Xu Xianchu jumped out of the container. He kicked Luo Lan in the chest and ran out onto the street. The Qing Consortium¡¯s troops would not be able to react yet. If he did not get away at this moment, he might not be able to escape from themter on.


    After getting kicked, Luo Lan groaned and fell to the ground. He did not forget to yell to the people around him as hey on the ground, ¡°Hurry up and catch him! We must capture him no matter what! That¡¯s Xu Xianchu!¡±


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s troops immediately unholstered their guns that were already fitted with silencers and chased after him like a pack of hunting dogs!


    Xu Xianchu, who was fleeing up ahead, was frightened to death when he looked back. Although he had a shadow clone that could shield him from bullets, it would not work if too many shots were fired at him!


    Xu Xianchu was very puzzled. He had only been a little curious about the secret of the Jing Mountains back then. However, he had not trespassed into the perimeter the Qing Consortium had set up. Could they get any pettier than this?!


    As they made a mad rush through the streets, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops did not dare to shoot freely. Even if their guns were equipped with silencers, they would still cause quite a bit of noise if the bullets hit any surface. They would probably have to retreat into the sewers again if the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops were alerted.


    The position where Luo Lan and his men were stationed was not too far away from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shop. So Xu Xianchu and his pursuers arrived at the door of the shop after running for just a few kilometers.


    Ren Xiaosu had been rmed by themotion outside. He furtively raised the roller shutter door and watched what was going on. But suddenly, a figure ran past the door. Ren Xiaosu looked in the direction of where it came from and was surprised to see more than ten troops in their ck uniforms chasing after whoever had just run past.


    Wait a minute, weren¡¯t those troops from the Qing Consortium?


    After the troops had also run past the shop, Ren Xiaosu raised the roller shutter door and saw thest person, Luo Lan, running over while panting. Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°Who are you chasing after?¡±


    ¡°Xu, Xu Xianchu!¡± Luo Lan panted as he said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, I will pay you 100,000 yuan if you get Chen Wudi to help me capture Xu Xianchu!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze. So that was fucking Xu Xianchu earlier? Why did hee to Stronghold 109?!


    He asked with a strange expression, ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s Xu Xianchu?¡±


    ¡°Yes! It¡¯s definitely him!¡± Luo Lan confirmed.


    Ren Xiaosu was put in a difficult position. He would have to help, but it was not the Qing Consortium he should be helping. In fact, it was Xu Xianchu he wanted to help escape right now! After all, if Xu Xianchu were caught by the Qing Consortium, Ren Xiaosu would probably be in deep fucking shit!


    So he had to help Xu Xianchu...


    Suddenly, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Quest: Help someone in dire straits escape.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered why the pce had already judged Xu Xianchu to be someone who was in dire straits. That somehow made it sound like he was in quite a pathetic state right now.


    He said to Luo Lan, ¡°You can carry on pursuing Xu Xianchu as you wish, but I will not get involved in matters between you two.¡± He then lowered the roller shutter door while ignoring whatever Luo Lan was cursing from outside. Ren Xiaosu immediately went to the backyard and climbed over the wall. He ran along the roofs in the direction Xu Xianchu had fled.


    In reality, the most important thing to Ren Xiaosu right now was to not let Xu Xianchu fall into the hands of the Qing Consortium...


    Chen Wudi also wanted to go out to have a look. However, Yan Liuyuan looked at him and said, ¡°Your master asked you to keep a close watch over the White Bone Specter. If you allow her to escape, I¡¯m guessing he¡¯ll have to recite the headache spell for three days and nights once he gets back...¡±


    Chen Wudi became obedient as soon as he heard that. Dong Funan¡¯s hopes were raised only to be dashed again. In fact, she was still capable of escaping from here. Although she was securely tied with rope, she could still break free of them with some effort. But what was the use of freeing herself from the rope? She couldn¡¯t defeat Chen Wudi! Dong Funan even suspected Chen Wudi might be the strongest supernatural being around at the moment.


    Frankly, Dong Funan wanted her freedom back. To hell with sucking blood. She would be a vegetarian for the rest of her life if it meant she could get her freedom back.


    Earlier tonight, Ren Xiaosu had a good, long chat with her, during which he essentially let her know that the ck medicine used to treat her wasn¡¯t for free and that she had to work to pay it off.


    As for how she was going to pay it off? The arrangement would be for her to wash the dishes under the supervision of Chen Wudi...


    Dong Funan was really driven to despair. Just based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ferocity, it was no different from how the organizations exploited the refugees! She would like to have asked what he did with the money Luo Lan paid him. However, her mouth was still so numb she could not speak a word. Ren Xiaosu told her that if she did not say anything, he would consider her to have given him her consent.


    At this moment, Dong Funan was hungering for freedom more than anything else. It would be fine if she only had to face Chen Wudi. But right now, the one she was most worried about was actually Yan Liuyuan.


    It was easy to fool Chen Wudi as he was so simple-minded. If she were alone with Chen Wudi, she could probably coax him to let her go. However, Yan Liuyuan would have his eye on her at all times and was an extremely clever and alert person. She could not deceive him a whit.


    By this time, Ren Xiaosu had pushed his speed to its limits as he leaped and bound over the roofs. In just a few short minutes, he could already hear the footsteps of the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops.


    He nced at Xu Xianchu, who was up ahead, and was surprised to see he was running with all he had while Luo Lan and his men chased him from behind. However, Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled by this. Logically speaking, Xu Xianchu¡¯s current physical fitness should have exceeded that of ordinary humans. So why was he running so slow?


    Ren Xiaosu did not know that Xu Xianchu was famished. Why else would he be running so slow?


    As Ren Xiaosu kept up with them, he wondered what he should do to save Xu Xianchu without offending Luo Lan at the same time. ¡®Wait a minute, don¡¯t I have a godlike power for hitting someone in secret?¡¯


    A momentter, Luo Lan suddenly saw a hand stretching out from the shadows of the roof¡¯s eaves next to him. It pped his forehead, making him tumble to the ground.


    Luo Lan realized this was the power used to open doors in the shadows. But wasn¡¯t this power unique to Luo Xinyu? He shouted in fury, ¡°Luo Xinyu, fuck your grandpa! Aren¡¯t you people from the Saboteurs done yet!¡±

 Chapter 165 - Ren Xiaosu, you’re a good guy

    <h4>Chapter 165: Ren Xiaosu, you¡¯re a good guy</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not mean to p Luo Lan¡¯s forehead. His intention was just to open a Shadow Door next to Luo Lan and pull him to a stop. After all, they had a good rtionship going. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu also felt a vague sense of respect for Luo Lan and his soldiers. Even though he wanted to save Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu did not want to cause them too much trouble.


    It was purely just a slip of the hand that he pped Luo Lan¡¯s forehead. It was because he still didn¡¯t have full control of the Shadow Door.


    However, it was wonderful that it made Luo Lan think it was Luo Xinyu who did it. This girl and Yang Xiaojin had already sabotaged him so many times in the past. If Ren Xiaosu could make the Qing Consortium pay more attention to them, he really would not mind pping Luo Lan¡¯s forehead a few more times.


    Ren Xiaosu kept closing and reopening the Shadow Door. In an instant, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops felt insecure. They were all afraid the Shadow Door would suddenly open next to them.


    All of a sudden, the mysterious Shadow Door caused the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops to fall into disarray. All of them were left wondering where the hand would appear next!


    But it wasn¡¯t only them who thought this way. Even Ren Xiaosu himself was unsure of where the Shadow Door would open next.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. By not even knowing where the Shadow Door would appear, he had achieved the highest realm of mystery!


    The Shadow Door superpower was really useful since it was impossible to defend against.


    In fact, even if Luo Xinyu, who was the originator of the power, used it, she might not be able to use it as effectively as Ren Xiaosu, because she could not open the door as many times as he could. As such, she had always used Shadow Door sparingly.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not know that. He thought Shadow Door would not tap into his willpower at all.


    Tang Zhou looked at Luo Lan and asked, ¡°Boss, what should we do now?¡±


    Luo Lan said resentfully, ¡°Did you see that? We¡¯re at a huge disadvantage without a supernatural being on our side. Why are all of you so weak? Shouldn¡¯t at least one of you have had your superpowers awakened?¡±


    Tang Zhou replied, ¡°Yes, yes, we¡¯ll try our best to do so...¡±


    Although Luo Lan was disgusted by them, nobody minded it. Boss Luo had always been a jerk anyway.


    Luo Lan sighed. ¡°Let¡¯s retreat for now. If we continue chasing him, who knows if monsters might start appearing as well.¡±


    ¡°Boss,¡± Tang Zhou wondered, ¡°is Xu Xianchu a member of the Saboteurs as well? Why did Luo Xinyu suddenly appear the moment we started pursuing him?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible,¡± Luo Lan refuted. ¡°Seeing how pathetic Xu Xianchu looked just now, he¡¯s definitely not a member of the Saboteurs.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Tang Zhou nodded.


    Ren Xiaosu finally felt relieved when he saw Luo Lan and his men giving up the chase. As long as Xu Xianchu did not get caught by them, everything else would be easy to handle. He nced in the direction Xu Xianchu had escaped and carefully considered things for a moment before chasing after him.


    Ren Xiaosu still felt a little bad for making Xu Xianchu the scapegoat when he was in the Jing Mountains. After all, Xu Xianchu had be the Qing Consortium¡¯s most wanted criminal without even offending anyone. Although Ren Xiaosu had been forced to do so, it did not mean he felt good about it.


    Xu Xianchu would have to continue taking the me, but Ren Xiaosu should still repay him for being the scapegoat, right?


    Ren Xiaosu kept looking out for Xu Xianchu¡¯s whereabouts as he made his way forward on the roofs. When he spotted Xu Xianchu, he was surprised to find him hiding on the rooftop of a ranch-style house and gasping for breath. He looked utterly exhausted.


    He whisper shouted, ¡°Xu Xianchu!¡±


    Xu Xianchu sprang to his feet and put his guard up. Ren Xiaosu quickly said, ¡°It¡¯s me! Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    Xu Xianchu was stupefied. Then he looked like he had met a family member again. ¡°Ren Xiaosu, what are you doing here!¡±


    ¡°Um, it¡¯s a long story. Stronghold 113 copsed not long after I got back there, so I had no choice but to flee here.¡± Ren Xiaosu jumped over to the roof Xu Xianchu was on and asked, ¡°Why did youe here too?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t bring it up.¡± Xu Xianchu said miserably, ¡°I nned to go to Stronghold 112 at first, but that ce copsed as well. Then I headed to Stronghold 111 only to discover the Qing Consortium had already marked me as a most wanted fugitive.¡±


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu felt a bond of friendship when he saw Xu Xianchu. After all, they had traveled together while they were in the Jing Mountains. Although their time spent together was very short, the adversity they went through got them to know each other better and deepened their rtionship.


    He said to Xu Xianchu, ¡°So you fled here from Stronghold 111? But how did you bump into Luo Lan?¡±


    Xu Xianchu was speechless. ¡°I was hiding in a smuggler¡¯s truck that just so happened to be used by that Fatty Luo to traffic firearms. Eh, were those firearms brought here to deal with you?! I didn¡¯t expect Luo Lan would actuallye here just to arrest you. You should be careful. He¡¯s brought in a lot of firearms!¡±


    From Xu Xianchu¡¯s perspective, he would not know why Luo Lan had brought so many firearms into the stronghold. Since Stronghold 113 had copsed, Luo Lan, as a member of the Qing Consortium, should have returned to Stronghold 111.


    Xu Xianchu was unaware that Luo Lan couldn¡¯t return to the Qing Consortium for now. He would be ced under house arrest like Qing Zhen if he returned there.


    Xu Xianchu was also unaware of how great a mess Luo Lan had already caused in Stronghold 109, as well as how he was preparing to deal with the remaining people from the Pyro Company who were still hiding in the stronghold.


    He had overheard Luo Lan cursing at Luo Xinyu, so he kind of knew it was probably because of Luo Xinyu that he managed to escape so easily. Before this, Xu Xianchu did not know Luo Xinyu was also a supernatural being. After all, he did not go into the Qing Consortium¡¯s perimeter in the Jing Mountains. But now he realized Luo Xinyu might not be that easy to figure out either.


    So Xu Xianchu thought Luo Lan had smuggled in the firearms so he could arrest Ren Xiaosu and Luo Xinyu with them.


    Worried, Xu Xianchu said, ¡°It must¡¯ve been hard for y¡¯all to escape the pursuit of the Qing Consortium, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Yeah, it was really difficult....¡±


    ¡°Why do you think the Qing Consortium is sparing no effort to pursue us?¡± Xu Xianchu brought up the biggest question weighing on his mind.


    Ren Xiaosu reacted with a strange expression. ¡°I¡¯m not sure either....¡±


    Now, Xu Xianchu took out half a loaf of cornbread and asked, ¡°Are you hungry?¡±


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu choked up with emotion. ¡°I¡¯m not hungry. Xu Xianchu, you¡¯re a good guy.¡±


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu even thought of surrendering himself to the Qing Consortium. He took out a letter and a stack of money from his pocket. ¡°Take this with you.¡±


    Xu Xianchu was taken aback. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s 5,000 yuan here and a letter.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Take this letter to Stronghold 178 and look for a man named Zhang Jinglin. He¡¯ll see to your future prospects.¡±


    This was something Zhang Jinglin had promised Ren Xiaosu. But now Ren Xiaosu was going to give it to Xu Xianchu.


    When he thought about Mr. Zhang, Ren Xiaosu felt that a person like Xu Xianchu would definitely have a chance to shine when he got to the Northern Frontier.


    In the first ce, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group did not have much money to speak of. Although their business was slowly getting on track, they had not really made much.


    Although he had smelted quite a few gold bars, he could not give them to Xu Xianchu. Otherwise... Xu Xianchu would guess what had happened...


    Xu Xianchu asked, ¡°Stronghold 178? I was just thinking of trying my luck there. Although I don¡¯t know who Zhang Jinglin is, let me thank you in advance! Ren Xiaosu, you¡¯re a good guy!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Xu Xianchu, +1!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the gratitude token, he got mixed feelings.


    But at this moment, a few dark figures on a roof were slowly approaching them in the distance. Ren Xiaosu looked around and was surprised to find that they had already been surrounded by those people. However, he had nevere across any of them before.


    When those people got closer, Ren Xiaosu noticed the logo of a small me on the bosom of their shirts.

 Chapter 166 - The price of freedom

    <h4>Chapter 166: The price of freedom</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the Pyro Company¡¯s logo emzoned on their chests, he was startled.


    During this recent period, Ren Xiaosu had gotten a rough idea of the type of organization the Pyro Company was. Their lust for the blood of supernatural beings had ced them way high on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s to-be-wary-of list. Ren Xiaosu was relieved when he heard the Li Consortium had expelled the members of the Pyro Company from the stronghold, because he was worried Chen Wudi would attract their attention after his identity was exposed.


    Later, both Luo Lan and Yang Xiaojin mentioned there were still some of the Pyro Company¡¯s members hiding in the stronghold. And tonight, they had targeted him and Xu Xianchu.


    Xu Xianchu asked in a whisper, ¡°They¡¯re from the Pyro Company?¡±


    Xu Xianchu was obviously not as knowledgeable as Ren Xiaosu about the outside world. Ren Xiaosu made a sound of affirmation. ¡°Be careful, they¡¯re not good people. They specialize in catching supernatural beings.¡±


    Taken aback, Xu Xianchu said, ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Xu Xianchu then unholstered the gun he had brought from Stronghold 113. On his journey thus far, he had not used it much at all.


    Although firing the gun might attract more trouble, they couldn¡¯t worry about that at this time.


    Ren Xiaosu observed theyout of their surroundings and noticed the roofs were mostly even in height. The four members of the Pyro Company were each standing in the north, south, east, and west and looked like they were going to beleaguer Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu. It didn¡¯t look like they were nning on letting either of them off. They might have to fight to the death tonight. However, Ren Xiaosu did not want to show that he had the power to summon a shadow clone in Xu Xianchu¡¯s presence.


    One of the young menughed and said, ¡°We have never failed when ¡®Midnight¡¯ strikes. Why don¡¯t the two of you just surrender and save us the trouble?¡±


    Xu Xianchu hesitated before saying, ¡°Midnight? But dawn¡¯s breaking. Something might be wrong with your watch.¡±


    The young man from Midnight was visibly taken aback. He suddenly realized Xu Xianchu might not even have heard of the team called Midnight before.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered where this dumb person hailed from. ¡®If you want to fight, just fight! What are you being all cocky about?¡¯


    But at this moment, Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu suddenly raised their guns and fired. It was as though they had discussed this beforehand and did so without any hesitation!


    The loud and clear gunshots cracked through the night, as if trying to scare awake the sleeping stronghold.


    Being in a battle meant fighting to the death without the need for superfluous words. You didn¡¯t need to attach any meaning to it or consider the consequences. The moment you ced yourself in a battle, the only consideration was to win!


    But the moment Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu raised their guns and fired, their respective targets dodged the bullets by tilting their heads to the side at the same time. They had calcted the trajectory of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s and Xu Xianchu¡¯s shots in an instant, and their reactions were so fast they could move at will.


    They barely budged, only tilting their heads to the side to dodge the iing bullets.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart slowly sank. No wonder they were bbering on and on. They were actually this formidable?


    In fact, he could also judge the short-range trajectory of a shot based on the angle the shooter was aiming at. But if their opponents were all at this level, he realized he and Xu Xianchu might not be able to defeat them.


    Although Xu Xianchu had Shadow Clone, his current strength was quite weak and would probably end up bing a hindrance between the two of them.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Midnight members and remembered what Yang Xiaojin had mentioned to him about how the Pyro Company¡¯s ns had only been messed up by Luo Lan because Midnight was not there. It seemed like she was serious about that.


    He silently examined his options on how to deal with this tough situation before him in his mind. But the four Pyro Company members around him seemed very calm and not in a rush. This put a tremendous amount of pressure on Ren Xiaosu.


    If they tried to run away, it might work out for Ren Xiaosu. However, it would be rather difficult for Xu Xianchu to get out of here safely.


    Moreover, since he had been targeted by them, could he really avoid future trouble?


    They likely targeted Xu Xianchu due to Luo Lan¡¯s pursuit. However, it looked like they had now made a spontaneous decision to capture Xu Xianchu. If Ren Xiaosu departed now, the Pyro Company would probably start searching all over the stronghold for him.


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°What are y¡¯all nning to do by taking us away?¡±


    ¡°Contribute to the survival of mankind.¡± The young man who was the leader of the group smiled and said, ¡°Just think about it. How glorious will it be for your genes to be thestmon ancestor of mankind as it survives in the poption with the breakthrough of gic modification. All of humanity will remember you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°So are y¡¯all also the beneficiaries of gic modification?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± The young man smiled and said, ¡°It will be such a great achievement to go down in the annals of history, and the price for that is nothing more than the loss of freedom.¡±


    ¡°What if I choose freedom instead?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. Then he tore off a piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt. He was thinking of tying it around his hand to let it flutter in the wind.


    The young man looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°If you choose freedom, I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to pay a price you can¡¯t afford.¡±


    The nearby residents seemed to have been awoken by the gunshots. In the dark of the night, many of the households suddenly turned on their lights. Ren Xiaosu believed the Li Consortium or other major powers would start arriving soon.


    Ren Xiaosu calmed downpletely. He looked at the young man and said, ¡°The price of freedom is what makes freedom even nobler.¡±


    The cloth that had been fluttering stopped moving. The atmosphere seemed to solidify as the wind stopped.


    Ren Xiaosu muttered silently in his mind, ¡®Now!¡¯


    In that instant, killing intent struck like lightning from afar.


    The young man who was speaking suddenly saw his chest burst apart as his blood sprayed out in a fan shape and sttered onto the roof.


    A bullet had rifled in from several hundred meters away. It wasn¡¯t until Ren Xiaosu saw the blood spraying into the air that he heard the gunshot.


    The crimson blood contrasted starkly with the dark of the night.


    ¡®Thanks.¡¯ Ren Xiaosu gave a brilliant grin. He said to Xu Xianchu, ¡°Go and handle the left side.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu jumped to the roof on his right. An opening had appeared in the perimeter formed by the four people. This was the way out created by Yang Xiaojin!


    There would not be another shot from the sniper. Ren Xiaosu knew that even with Perfect Firearms Proficiency, it would be impossible to hit a fast-moving supernatural being over several hundred meters. Unless, of course, Yang Xiaojin was a god! As such, Ren Xiaosu could only rely on himself.


    Because of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s actions, the battlefield was suddenly split into two. Of the three remaining Midnight members, one stayed behind to deal with Xu Xianchu while the other two chased after Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu did not stay put on the roof because he was nning to go all out. He needed to find a ce where he would not be seen by others. It was his trump card in this battle!


    When Ren Xiaosu jumped down into a small alley, the two members of Midnight following and jumping down as well. But just as they were about to pursue him, they discovered that Ren Xiaosu did not continue running. He stood there alone and trapped them in the alley!


    They looked at each other and wondered where this young man¡¯s confidence came from. He dared to challenge the two of them all by himself?!

 Chapter 167 - Dead end

    <h4>Chapter 167: Dead end</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    The alley was only wide enough for about three people to pass through, and it was a dead end.


    Ren Xiaosu sized up the two supernatural beings from Midnight as they stood in the dead end. To be honest, he had not seriously fought other supernatural beings before, so he would like to see how he measured up to them. Only by fighting them would he have any idea.


    Ren Xiaosu was never a coward. If he were, he would never have survived in the wilderness for such a long time.


    Since he could not ignore the problem, he would kill those who caused it. Such was thew of the wilderness.


    The two supernatural beings looked at each other and opened fire on Ren Xiaosu in unison. They had already failed once tonight. If they failed again, they would most likely face the fate of obliteration as well.


    The walls on either side of the alley were made up of te-gray bricks, and Ren Xiaosu had no space to avoid being shot. But in that instant, the shadow clone in the pce separated from Ren Xiaosu and appeared in front of him.


    Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone were standing in a perfectly straight line. When the bullets hit the shadow clone, it was as though they had been fired into the deep sea. The bullets could not prate it to cause any damage to Ren Xiaosu whatsoever.


    But as the bullets hit the shadow clone¡¯s body, Ren Xiaosu felt like they were directly hitting him. He could only frown and endure the pain for now.


    The intense pain continued to spread through his limbs and bones. But the more the pain, the more sober Ren Xiaosu felt.


    It seemed like the two supernatural beings from Midnight had not expected that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower could summon a shadow clone. The reason they had been hunting them was so they could capture Xu Xianchu. The Qing Consortium issuing an arrest warrant for Xu Xianchu, as well his appearance and superpower, was no longer a secret. It made the Pyro Company extremely interested in Xu Xianchu.


    They had thought the man Luo Lan had been pursuing was Xu Xianchu, but they did not expect it would turn out to be this person in front of them!


    They sneered and threw their pistols to the ground. Then they each drew a long sword from their waists. When it came to hunting supernatural beings, they were the best at it.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw one of them taking off his ck leather gloves. What were supposed to be hands under the gloves had turned out to be ck ws? Was he still human? Could this be a result of their gic modifications?


    One of the Midnight membersughed and said, ¡°Your courage is admirable.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the two supernatural beings in silence. He simply lifted his hand into the air and grasped something. Then he yanked it out!


    The two supernatural beings saw Ren Xiaosu draw a mysterious ck saber out of thin air. What kind of power was that? The two of them frowned as they had never seen a supernatural being with twopletely different superpowers before.


    ¡°Why do you have two types of superpowers?¡± one of the Midnight members asked as he frowned.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Not two types, but three types.¡±


    During the conversation, Ren Xiaosu activated a tiny Shadow Door next to his wrist. He raised his saber and stabbed it through the Shadow Door.


    Shink! The man he was speaking to stared nkly at the saber¡¯s tip that poked out of his chest as blood flowed out. What kind of devious superpower was this?! He could stab him in the back from right in front of him!


    The remaining Midnight member was stunned at the sight. He could never have expected that two of their members would get killed so easily!


    Not a momentter, the shadow clone rushed him fierce as a train. The remaining supernatural being from Midnight jumped into the air, intending to bypass the shadow clone and kill Ren Xiaosu!


    But before he could leap over the shadow clone¡¯s head, the supernatural being saw the shadow clone leap up from the ground as well. He kicked the shadow clone with one of his feet, but the shadow clone took the kick without any fear and grabbed his ankle.


    The excruciating pain spread from the supernatural being¡¯s ankle and swept through his consciousness. The shadow clone¡¯s hands were crushing his ankle like a pair of pincers.


    With a crack, he was shocked to discover his ankle had really been crushed!


    Importantly, their bones and muscles were much tougher than that of most other supernatural beings. In normal battles, they were the ones who could withstand the most attacks. But now the tables had been turned!


    Never mind the fact the ghostly shadow clone could block bullets, it could even crush his ankle with its bare hands too? Just how terrifying was its strength!?


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, who was initially on high alert, was stunned. Why were these people so weak!


    The shadow clone did not stop after crushing its opponent¡¯s ankle. It grabbed his broken ankle and ruthlessly pulled him down towards the ground. As they fought in midair, their movements were so fast that afterimages could be seen. Their powerful moves even felt like it was causing the air around them tobust and explode.


    The shadow clone and the supernatural being were trading blows. But the supernatural being suddenly realized that while he was nearly beaten to a pulp, his opponent was still acting like it suffered no damage. During this time, he did not even have the chance to use his power.


    When the two of themnded on the ground, the shadow clone¡¯s feet touched the floor first. However, it did not stop there as it immediately sprinted at the supernatural being again, grabbing him with its hands and mming his body into the wall of the alley. With a boom, cracks formed on the wall.


    The cracks were like a horrible spiderweb that appeared on the wall. The supernatural being who was stuck in it looked like a picture that had been hung on it!


    Before he could recover from the shock, he saw the shadow clone take a small step backwards. The shadow clone bent forward with one foot in front. When it moved again, it charged ruthlessly at him like a cannonball, leading with its shoulder to deal maximum damage.


    The supernatural being¡¯s abdomen caved in rapidly. It was evident just how terrifying the force of collision was!


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to heave a sigh of relief, he felt the air behind him ripple like water.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately looked behind himself and barely spotted the outline of a supernatural being charging at him with a sword. It turned out Midnight did not only have four members. There was another one lurking in the shadows with his superpower.


    ¡°Are they done yet?¡± Ren Xiaosu sneered.


    His abdomen muscles tightened as he twisted his body around and shed his saber.


    His iron will roared through the air. No one knew what would happen in the next moment except for Ren Xiaosu.


    With a ng, the supernatural being was shocked to find the sword he usually relied on to fight had broken upon impact with the mysterious ck saber like it was made of paper. Right after, he saw his arm separating from his body, and the severed arm was spurting blood like a pump!


    His previously transparent body revealed itself in midair, leaving him with nowhere to hide!


    Ren Xiaosu already knew the ck saber was extremely sharp when he used it to kill the Experimentals. The items his mysterious mind pce gave him had never disappointed him before.


    Then Ren Xiaosu tensed his legs as he rushed forward, exuding a huge aura of pressure. Before his opponent coulde back to his senses, Ren Xiaosu had taken his enemy off the ground and nailed him to the brick wall at the end of the alley with his ck saber!


    Ren Xiaosu pulled the ck saber out from the wall and corpse, letting it fall awkwardly to the ground because it had lost its support.


    Right now, the entire alley seemed to be stained with blood. Ren Xiaosu stood there in silence with only one thought in mind: ¡®These people from Midnight don¡¯t seem strong at all.¡¯


    As the saying went, it looked like they were heroes, but they turned out to be zeroes.


    The supernatural beings were so weak they got defeated even though they had fought three against one. He wondered why they were so cocky in the first ce.

 Chapter 168 - Gaining a new understanding of Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 168: Gaining a new understanding of Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu recalled his shadow clone and climbed back up onto the roof. Xu Xianchu was sitting up there and gasping violently for breath. His opponent was already dead, his neck snapped like a pastry twist. <sup>1</sup>


    Ren Xiaosu looked at a tall building in the distance and waved at it. Then he said to Xu Xianchu, ¡°Let¡¯s go to where I live first so that you can take a bath and change clothes. If you wanna get to Stronghold 178, you¡¯ll have to fill your belly before you set off.¡±


    Xu Xianchu said emotionally, ¡°Thank you!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Xu Xianchu, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was seriously considering if he should persuade Xu Xianchu to stay behind just so he could say ¡°thank you¡± to him every day.


    However, Xu Xianchu continued, ¡°But I can¡¯t stay around any longer. After tonight¡¯s battle, they might lock down the entire stronghold even more securely. It¡¯ll be impossible for me to leave when that happens, so now is the best opportunity to ;leave.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with some regret, ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna wait a bit more?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll only implicate you if I stay any longer.¡± Xu Xianchu said sincerely, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, if we¡¯re fated to meet, we¡¯ll meet again!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll probably see each other again at Stronghold 178, so take care!¡±


    After this exchange, Xu Xianchu left without even looking back. As for how he was nning to leave, it didn¡¯t seem like it was going to pose a problem to Xu Xianchu since he was a former private army officer.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu could hear shuffling footsteps on the streets in the distance. It seemed that the troops from the stronghold were almost here. Ren Xiaosu was really hoping all of the other major powers in the stronghold would fight among themselves. Then no one would have the energy to worry about him once everyone started fighting for their lives.


    After Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu left, a security team from the stronghold¡¯s Public Order Division finally arrived. They quickly sealed off the scene and sent their men to inform the Li Consortium.


    They could tell something was wrong just by looking at the battle that had taken ce here. This was not a fight between normal people; it was a sh involving supernatural beings. Furthermore, the people from the Public Order Division realized that this was not something they could interfere with when they saw the Pyro Company¡¯s logo on the clothes of the dead victims.


    In reality, the Public Order Division also knew something was stirring in the stronghold. There was the massacre at No. 4 Psychiatric Hospital, and the explosion set off by the Pyro Company when they were attempting to capture some supernatural beings. With these cases put together, even a fool would know it was better not to get embroiled in whatever was going on if they wanted to live.


    As a matter of fact, the Public Order Division was made up of average people, and they were only equipped with small-caliber firearms that could be used to deal with run-of-the-mill thieves. But if they encountered a supernatural being, they would definitely end up getting ughtered.


    On the rooftop of a high-rise building in the distance, Yang Xiaojin had just stowed her gun. Beside her, Luo Xinyu was holding the railing and wondering, ¡°Don¡¯t you find it strange? Although that wasn¡¯t the main force of the Midnight task force, that kid still killed them too easily. Did we underestimate him too much?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin was thinking about something as she looked out at the battlefield in the distance. ¡°True, it was a little unexpected. I used to think hisbat strength was not that high, so I didn¡¯t expect him to take on three opponents at the same time. Although I didn¡¯t exactly see what happened in the alley, Ren Xiaosu must¡¯ve faced three opponents if Xu Xianchu only took on one of them.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s standard for Midnight to have five members per team when conducting missions. They¡¯ve always liked outnumbering their opponents, after all,¡± Luo Xinyu said in a bored voice. ¡°Somehow, they managed to screw it up this time. After this incident, I reckon they¡¯ll finally understand the principle that numbers mean nothing in the face of absolute power when dealing with a supernatural being.¡±


    ¡°I had wanted to carve out an escape path for him.¡± Yang Xiaojin was also quite surprised. ¡°But I never imagined he¡¯d end up massacring all of the Midnight members.¡±


    ¡°Thatd¡¯s really bloodthirsty.¡± Luo Xinyu said, ¡°It was so apparent in his eyes when we were making our way into the Jing Mountains. Once there are any signs of a threat, he tries to rid the problem. A supernatural being born of the wilderness has always been more ruthless than those who had their powers awakened in a stronghold.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°It was probably caused by the environment he lived in. He¡¯s only trying to survive, that¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°Why are you so eager to exin him on his behalf?¡± Luo Xinyu said in amusement, ¡°Thisd¡¯s already powerful enough by himself, and he even has that Chen Wudi, whosebat strength is unknown, on his side too. That already makes their small group quite powerful. Should we draw both the Li Consortium and your Yang Consortium¡¯s attention onto them so the focus won¡¯t be on us?¡±


    ¡°They just want to live a stable life in the stronghold. Don¡¯t give them any unnecessary trouble,¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly.


    ¡°Hahahahaha,¡± Luo Xinyu burst outughing. In reality, she didn¡¯t intend to do anything and just wanted to see Yang Xiaojin¡¯s reaction.


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°It¡¯s a little strange. Even now, no one¡¯s discovered what kind of superpower he has.¡±


    Luo Xinyu asked in surprise, ¡°Don¡¯t you know what his superpower is?¡±


    ¡°And why would I know it?¡± Yang Xiaojin nced at Luo Xinyu.


    ¡°You two have such a good rtionship, so I thought he would tell you about it.¡± Luo Xinyu chuckled. ¡°You two are deskmates, with one being the student councilor and the other the ss monitor...¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at her. ¡°The Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops will get here soon. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright.¡± Luo Xinyu activated Shadow Door and led Yang Xiaojin away from the rooftop in a sh.


    Tonight, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had both updated their understanding of Ren Xiaosu. They had guessed he was a supernatural being, but they never expected him to be so strong.


    Something kept bugging Ren Xiaosu during his battle with Midnight. He felt that Midnight¡¯s effectiveness had been exaggerated as they were obviously not that strong, yet they acted as though they were the best.


    But in fact, there was a misunderstanding since Midnight was quite well-known. As a matter of fact, this fighting force had sessfully captured three supernatural beings in the past.


    On most days, this unit would be considered the second echelon <sup>1</sup> to the Pyro Company¡¯s main force.


    ...


    On the same night, the Li Consortium acted out of the norm and imposed martialw across the entire stronghold. During this critical period, they even ordered a curfew on all residents. Those who went out after 10 PM would be treated as criminals and arrested!


    At first, the Li Consortium did not want to split up their forces as they wanted to focus all their manpower on protecting the research results. After all, that was their utmost priority right now.


    But the frequency of incidents happening in the stronghold was increasing. No matter how good they were at enduring it, they couldn¡¯t sit idle this time.


    In fact, the reason Luo Lan¡¯s group kept causing trouble everywhere was so the Li Consortium would be busy up to their ears. Finally, it would get to the point where they would have no choice but to split up their manpower.


    And after Ren Xiaosu¡¯s battle with Midnight tonight, the Li Consortium simply could not hold back anymore.


    Even before the sun came up, a regiment of soldiers were patrolling the streets. When they discovered any suspicious persons, they would go up and interrogate them.


    The private troops and Public Order Division had cut short their leave, with one-third of the Li Consortium¡¯s ORBAT also mobilized for this operation. All of a sudden, it felt like a war was about to break out in the stronghold. The loose strings had all tightened.


    Ren Xiaosu could feel the tension outside the shop as a storm brewed in the stronghold.

 Chapter 169 - Reforming Dong Funan

    <h4>Chapter 169: Reforming Dong Funan</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu reexamined his mind pce to discover the quest to help someone in dire straits to escape had beenpleted.


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.¡±


    This was a long-awaited fitness improvement reward. During the night battle with Midnight, Ren Xiaosu had realized the importance of having a good fitness.


    During a battle, the most important and essential traits were strength and speed. When he had overwhelming strength and speed, his opponent might not even get a chance to use their superpower.


    Furthermore, the fitness of the shadow clone was double that of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s own physical fitness. This meant it was a multiplier of his strength and speed. The greater Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fitness was, the stronger and faster the shadow clone would be! When Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength increased by one, the shadow clone¡¯s strength would increase by two.


    Currently, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Strength attribute had reached 8.5, and his Dexterity was 5.1. If he faced the two supernatural beings from Midnight again, he would probably have it easier.


    However, he clearly remembered the quest was still iplete when he parted ways with Xu Xianchu yesterday. It looked like Xu Xianchu had finally left Stronghold 109. As such, the pce passed its judgment and decided the quest waspleted at this moment.


    But didn¡¯t the quests used to be consideredplete as long as he showed the attitude to finish it? Why was it different this time? Could the pce feel bad about the fact Ren Xiaosu had been making Xu Xianchu the scapegoat all this while?


    But Ren Xiaosu was d Yan Liuyuan did not fall sick after making a wish this time. In fact, Yan Liuyuan had made a wish as usual against night. This was not something Ren Xiaosu could stop him from doing as Yan Liuyuan had a mind of his own regarding such matters.


    So Ren Xiaosu could have actually tried dodging the bullets instead of using his shadow clone to block the bullets in the alleyst night. However, as he was worried the luck factor would cause Yan Liuyuan to suffer, he didn¡¯t depend on that. And since nothing happened to Yan Liuyuan, it meant Yang Xiaojin¡¯s presence on the battlefield was not due to his wish.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Dong Funan, who was washing dishes in the kitchen. He was in a bind regarding how to handle this woman.


    Wang Fugui asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Will Chen Wudi be fine by himself when y¡¯all go to school?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before asking, ¡°You¡¯re worried he¡¯ll kill her, ain¡¯tcha?¡±


    Wang Fugui chuckled, ¡°Never you mind.¡±


    After breakfast, Ren Xiaosu took the streetcar to school alone while Wang Dalong and Yan Liuyuan rode the bicycle to school together. In the morning, Ren Xiaosu had instructed Wang Fugui to purchase as many bicycles as he could once the week¡¯s allocated dose of ck medicine has been sold for a high price. Furthermore, he wanted everyone to learn how to ride a bike.


    Who knew when the day woulde when they would need to escape? Those bicycles woulde in handy at that time.


    They not only had to buy the bicycles but also maintenance tools to repair the bicycles and mend the tires. This was in case the bicycles broke down and became unusable while they were escaping.


    Ren Xiaosu got rather excited when he imagined the sight of a group of people riding on bicycles to escape.


    ...


    When Ren Xiaosu arrived in ss, Yang Xiaojin was already at her seat. She looked up at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Did anything strange happen other than the battle with Midnight yesterday?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Last night, the Qing Consortium suddenly upped the reward for the capture of Luo Xinyu for some reason.¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°But the Qing Consortium definitely wouldn¡¯t adjust the reward for no reason. There must be something that happened that we¡¯re unaware of.¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°I don¡¯t know about that. All I did was save Xu Xianchu. Luo Lan¡¯s group was initially chasing after him, but they couldn¡¯t catch up to him in the end.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin stayed silent for some time. She wasn¡¯t actually expecting an answer from Ren Xiaosu. It was just that she and Luo Xinyu were a little perplexed by this.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Ren Xiaosu thanked her sincerely. Whether or not he could defeat Midnight by himself, he still had to thank Yang Xiaojin foring to his rescue.


    Yang Xiaojin acknowledged him as though it was no big deal. ¡°Why did you save Xu Xianchu? Do you have some other motive for doing so?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said righteously, ¡°What other motives could I have? We¡¯re friends, after all, and traveled as a group while we were in the Jing Mountains. No matter what, we¡¯re teammates. If something were to happen to you, I¡¯d also risk my life to save you!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin cast him a nce. ¡°OK.¡±


    And so the matter was considered wrapped up. Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He was starting to make more and more people his scapegoats now.


    Then Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°What are you nning to do with Dong Funan?¡±


    When Yang Xiaojin had previously brought her up to Ren Xiaosu, she realized he was not fearful of Dong Funan at all. At the time, she even wondered where Ren Xiaosu¡¯s confidence came from. But now it seemed like Ren Xiaosu had more secrets than she had imagined. Moreover, Chen Wudi was likely to be very powerful as well.


    ¡°I was just thinking about it.¡± Ren Xiaosu felt a little speechless when this was brought up. ¡°I can¡¯t keep her with us forever.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you hand her over to us then?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Why? Are y¡¯all doing studies on supernatural beings as well?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. To be honest, he did not have a good impression of organizations that conducted research on supernatural beings.


    ¡°We don¡¯t do studies on supernatural beings.¡± Yang Xiaojin said slowly, ¡°We only reform them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at her in a daze. They could be reformed? How would they reform them? By forcing them to go through physical therapy? He said, ¡°I can hand her over to you, but not just yet.¡± He counted on his fingers. ¡°In four days.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Yang Xiaojin agreed.


    At first, Ren Xiaosu intended to ask Yang Xiaojin if there was anypensation for selling Dong Funan to them. But when he thought about how Yang Xiaojin hade to his rescuest night, he did not say anything about receivingpensation.


    At this moment, Jiang Wu walked in from outside the ssroom. She stood at the lectern and said, ¡°Final exams will officially start tomorrow. I¡¯ll announce everyone¡¯s examination room and number in a while. Your exam numbers are sorted alphabetically byst name, so you don¡¯t have toe to ss tomorrow and can head straight to your stated exam room. I wish all of you luck on your exams.¡±


    During this period, the entire ss had been studying very hard, except for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, who did not really pay any attention to the lectures. There were a lot of debates and controversies from outsiders about their ss, especially regarding Jiang Wu, who was often ostracized by the faculty.


    Therefore, these students who had a close brush with death were very motivated to do well for themselves. Speaking of which, it was quite hrious too. In the entire ss, they were all good students except for the ss monitor and student councilor, both of whom did not study hard at all.


    Jiang Wu stood at the lectern and said, ¡°Some of you have asked about the university¡¯s admission criteria, so I went to check it with the university in Stronghold 109...¡±


    The ssroom fell silent. These days, as long as you were an aspiring student, you¡¯d be ambitious enough to attend university, because being a university student in the current day meant having knowledge, status, and money.

 Chapter 170 - Straight-A student, Yang Xiaojin

    <strong>Chapter 170: Straight-A student, Yang Xiaojin</strong>


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin quietly, ¡°What¡¯s university life like?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave it some thought and said, ¡°sses are rather flexible, but the exams can be extremely strict. There are rtively fewer students admitted into universities, and most of them will continue research with their advisers after graduation. It¡¯s said that universities were very lenient with their admissions in the past, but now they¡¯re recruiting fewer and fewer students over time. They¡¯ve be more like a research base these days, and there are only around 20 universities scattered across the hundreds of strongholds in existence. The heads of these universities have already begun to streamline their student recruitment and organizational structures. They go all-out to make breakthroughs in their identified fields of research.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Do the students get any subsidies?¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Yang Xiaojin realized her words had fallen on deaf ears. After talking so much, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s only focus was on whether the students would get any subsidies? She said calmly, ¡°No, there are no subsidies.¡±


    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not believe her.


    Yang Xiaojin said lightly, ¡°You are not suited for scientific research, so don¡¯t go and be a burden to the other university students.¡±


    ¡°How can you say that!¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Why am I a burden?!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin ignored him. Jiang Wu, who was standing at the lectern, said, ¡°If you want to qualify for the university in Stronghold 109, there are only four subjects you¡¯ll be tested on: math, physics, chemistry, and biology. Each subject has a maximum score of 150 points, and the cutoff point for admissionst year was 560 points. That is to say, if you want to qualify for university, you¡¯ll have to score above 140 points in each subject.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gasped. He had taken a mock exam the day before and could only manage to score 140 points in total on four subjects...


    He looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, ¡°How can I get 140 points in every subject?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. ¡°You can get that by skipping a few multiple-choice questions per section.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He couldn¡¯t understand it at all. Was a hopeless student like her who paid no attention in ss qualified to act as though she were a model student?! ¡®We aren¡¯t that different!¡¯


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that something wasn¡¯t right. He decided to ask his mind pce, ¡°What is Yang Xiaojin¡¯s proficiency in math?¡±


    ¡°Intermediate.¡±


    He was very happy when he heard that from the pce. Although her intermediate proficiency in mathematics was definitely better than his, she still wouldn¡¯t be considered a model student.


    Eh, wait a minute!


    Ren Xiaosu rephrased his question. ¡°What is Yang Xiaojin¡¯s proficiency in math at the senior high level?¡±


    ¡°Perfect.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized that by adding in the two words ¡°senior high,¡± the assessment waspletely different! Fuck! In fact, senior high math was considered the most basic level of mathematics.


    ¡°What¡¯s Yang Xiaojin¡¯s proficiency in physics at the senior high level?¡±


    ¡°Perfect.¡±


    ¡°What is Yang Xiaojin¡¯s proficiency in chemistry at the senior high level... Forget it, I¡¯m not asking anymore.¡± Ren Xiaosu sulked. When a hopeless student like him saw Yang Xiaojin sleeping in ss every day, he felt a warmth in his chest, knowing that someone else would be apanying him at the bottom of the ss.


    But at this moment, he realized he was the only hopeless student in ss.


    When does one feel the loneliest? Times like these are when one feels loneliest.


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him and then asked, ¡°Are you aiming to go to uni?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°I¡¯m not qualified.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was surprised.


    ...


    For the following day¡¯s exams, Ren Xiaosu went to the examination room after locating it. When he looked around, he found no one he knew in the entire ssroom. For today¡¯s exams, Ren Xiaosu hade with the mindset of just participating. The results were not as important as the fact that he attempted it.


    In the past, examinations were also held in the town¡¯s school, but they were all conducted by Zhang Jinglin in the form of an oral test. In contrast, the examinations here were conducted on test papers.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Zhang Jinglin was just trying to save money on buying paper, so he tested the students by asking them questions one by one. After all, paper was not exactly cheap these days.


    How would Zhang Jinglin feel If he learned his image in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind was like this?


    At this moment, a girl who was seated behind Ren Xiaosu patted him on his back. ¡°Student?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the girl. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Um, how are your grades? Can you let me copy your answers?¡± This girl was rtively good atmunicating, so she started a conversation with Ren Xiaosu.


    The school had segregated the students to prevent those who knew each other from cheating. However, that would not stop everyone¡¯s enthusiasm to cheat.


    All of a sudden, the voice from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind pce said, ¡°Quest: Help your fellow studentplete her exam.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked on the spot. He wondered whether the pce had positive or negative fundamental values. How could it even encourage him to aid someone in cheating?


    But for Ren Xiaosu, nothing else mattered as long as there was a quest for him to do.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the girl and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll let you copy mine!¡±


    The girl beamed with joy. ¡°Thank you so much!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Li Mo, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®This is killing two birds with one stone. Not only can Iplete the quest, but I also earned a gratitude token.¡¯


    When the exams began, Li Mo was surprised. She observed Ren Xiaosu from behind and discovered he was writing diligently and answering the test questions. What a good student!


    Halfway through the examination, Ren Xiaosu shifted his body to the side and allowed Li Mo to copy his answers.


    When she finished copying and felt satisfied, the bell finally rang. Then the teacher went around to collect the tests.


    Li Mo looked at Ren Xiaosu happily and said, ¡°I never expected you would answer all the questions. You¡¯re amazing. Did you know how to do all of them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°No, I don¡¯t.¡±


    Li Mo was confused.


    It didn¡¯t matter whether he knew the answers or not. He just had toplete the quest. The pce¡¯s quest required him to help a fellow student plete¡± the test, so Ren Xiaosu could not leave any questions nk. What would he do if the pce judged him to have failed the quest if he did not answer a question?


    To be honest, it was really quite tiring to fabricate answers for every question on the test.


    On his way back home at night, Ren Xiaosu saw Xiaoyu waiting at the door of the shop. When she saw Ren Xiaosu, she reacted as though her savior had arrived. ¡°Xiaosu, you¡¯ve finally returned. Old Wang has been arrested.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Tell me all the details.¡±


    ¡°Many people from the Public Order Division came over today.¡± Xiaoyu exined, ¡°They said we didn¡¯t obtain a license from the stronghold to sell the drugs and that the in-house doctor did not have any medical qualifications. So they arrested the person in charge here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh of relief. Although Old Wang getting arrested was a serious matter, it was fine as long it wasn¡¯t rted to supernatural beings.


    He was most worried that his secret would get exposed and lead to the Li Consortium targeting him. If that happened, it would truly be a serious matter.


    ¡°Did they say anything before they left?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Those people from the Public Order Division said that you¡¯d have to make a trip down to their office once you got back.¡± Xiaoyu said.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, ¡°There¡¯s no hurry. Fatty Luo should being over to the shopter. I¡¯ll ask him about what¡¯s going on first.¡±


    He also wanted to get Wang Fugui out quickly, but he could not be rash when dealing with this matter. He had to check out the situation with Luo Lan first before deciding on the most suitable way to handle it.

 Chapter 171 - There’s no such place as Heaven in this world

    Chapter 171: There¡¯s no such ce as Heaven in this world


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    ¡°But this ce isn¡¯t the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory.¡± Xiaoyu said in worry, ¡°Will approaching Luo Lan be useful?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°He even had the power to help us get legal resident statuses in the stronghold, so it shouldn¡¯t be difficult for him to handle a small matter like this. I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be an issue at all.¡±


    ¡°What if he doesn¡¯te over?¡± Xiaoyu asked.


    Yan Liuyuan, who was close by, said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Dong Funan is still in our hands.¡±


    As he finished speaking, he heard the sound of a vehicle approaching in the street. Ren Xiaosu turned his head and had a look. Wasn¡¯t that Luo Lan sitting in the passenger seat and looking all cocky?


    When the car came to a stop in front of the shop, Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. ¡°You¡¯ve gotten yourself another new car?¡±


    Apparently, Luo Lan was really rich. Xiaoyu had mentioned she had gone to a car dealership to ask about the prices. But whether the cars were branded or not, all of them were being sold at astronomical prices.


    Meanwhile, Luo Lan had changed cars several times over the span of a few days.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not know that these cars that were sold at ¡°astronomical prices¡± were just like toys when it came to the financial might of an organization.


    Luo Lan jumped out of the car and chuckled, ¡°Why are you all standing at the door?¡±


    ¡°Wang Fugui has been arrested by the Public Order Division.¡± Ren Xiaosu got straight to the point.


    Luo Lan was taken aback. ¡°What happened?¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu exined the situation, Luo Lan frowned. ¡°It seems like some people have set their eyes on your ck medicine, probably because it¡¯s so effective. As a result, it made some of the people in this stronghold want to monopolize it for themselves. I¡¯ve seen a lot of such schemes before. First, they¡¯ll resort to all kinds of ways to stop you from selling it before getting someone to approach you with an offer to acquire the form.¡±


    ¡°Acquire the form?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked sullenly. Whoever was capable of getting the ck medicine¡¯s form from him hadn¡¯t been born yet, right? After all, even he himself did not know the form.


    ¡°This is definitely not over.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°There¡¯ll be even more troubleing your way. Even if you can handle one of them, others will keeping. They¡¯ll make you tond in dire straits and try to buy the ck medicine¡¯s form off you for a very low price.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about what might happen.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and asked, ¡°Do you have someone from the Qing Consortium in the Public Order Division?¡±


    Luo Lan said, ¡°Yeah, two of our men were arrested and put in there two days ago...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He was so angry he almostughed. ¡°Damn you, that¡¯s not what I was asking.¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, I¡¯m just joking with you.¡± Luo Lan chuckled.


    ¡°So even people from the Qing Consortium have been arrested?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner. He had been thinking of using Luo Lan to help him get Wang Fugui out of the Public Order Division, but to his surprise, the Qing Consortium also had some of their people arrested.


    ¡°You¡¯ve misunderstood.¡± Luo Lan replied, ¡°I¡¯ll go and talk to Lu Yuan about this. Wang Fugui will be released tonight.¡±


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you getting your own people out first?¡± Ren Xiaosu was puzzled.


    A little embarrassed, Luo Lan said, ¡°They can¡¯t reveal their identities yet.¡±


    When he said that, Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that both of Luo Lan¡¯s men who had been arrested must have been carrying out illicit activities under Luo Lan¡¯s orders. Therefore, Luo Lan could not show up as of yet to bail them out of trouble. However, he could still help with Wang Fugui.


    But before he finished talking to Luo Lan, he saw Wang Fugui entering the shop from outside. Ren Xiaosu was astounded. ¡°Old Wang, didn¡¯t you get arrested by the Public Order Division?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Wang Fugui exined, ¡°As soon as I got to the Public Order Division, they apparently received some orders from their superiors. After that, they sent me back here.¡±


    ¡°Who did they get their orders from?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. ¡°Did they do anything to you?¡±


    ¡°No, no. Someone told me that it was the stronghold overseer, Lu Yuan, who ordered them to release me,¡± Wang Fugui said with a smile as though nothing had happened.


    Next to them, Luo Lan started getting cocky. ¡°So what do you think? They still have to respect me. That Lu Yuan is really sensible.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was off. No matter how much Lu Yuan respected Luo Lan, they could not possibly have released Wang Fugui when Luo Lan had not even looked for him yet. Could there be any other reason for this? But Ren Xiaosu did not know what kind of rtionship Lu Yuan had with the Qing Consortium. As such, he was unable to make a judgment on this.


    In any case, it was good that Wang Fugui had been released.


    ¡°Alright, you two continue chatting. I¡¯ll go and talk to Dong Funan.¡± Luo Lan said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯ll definitely still be problems, but I¡¯ll handle them for you if youe to me.¡±


    ¡°Will those people still continue to pester us now that Lu Yuan has intervened?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°People are motivated by money.¡± Luo Lan exined, ¡°As the saying goes, the lower ranked they are, the harder it is to get past them. Moreover, Lu Yuan is not the true authority of Stronghold 109. Who knows if it¡¯s the Li Consortium that¡¯s set their eyes on your ck medicine? Or it could even be someone who has links with them. Such people can cause you a lot of misery just by constantly harassing you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. This was his first time facing such nasty people in the stronghold. If people in the wilderness mugged others with a knife, people in the stronghold did so with a blunt knife.


    But ultimately, weren¡¯t they all still robberies however you looked at it?


    Wearing a suit would not change the nature of these bandits.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Thanks in advance. If something else happens, I¡¯ll look for you immediately.¡±


    Luo Lan said with a smile, ¡°Now that you¡¯re in the stronghold, you¡¯ll have to adapt to the stronghold¡¯s environment. You can¡¯t just rely on fighting and killing all the time. Tang Zhou, give them the phone number to our ce.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered, ¡°But aren¡¯t you the one who¡¯s been doing all the fighting and killing recently?¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha, is that so? Luo Lan smiled in embarrassment and said, ¡°That¡¯s also a strategy of mine!¡±


    ¡°And what strategy is that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, curious.


    ¡°You see, the Li Consortium guarded their research results like they were treasure and used all of their military might to protect it.¡± Luo Lan said proudly, ¡°But as you can see, they can¡¯t sit idle with so many incidents happening. They¡¯ve been forced to split up their manpower. As a result, won¡¯t their defense forces at the university get weakened?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°You even have the brains for that? Why do I get the feeling that you¡¯re just making up a reason?¡±


    Luo Lan said unhappily, ¡°Who are you looking down on? I can¡¯t be bothered to talk with you anymore. What a waste of my affection!¡±


    After Luo Lan walked into the backyard, Ren Xiaosu told Wang Fugui and the others, ¡°It¡¯s better to be more careful for the time being.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t there a more direct way to solve this problem?¡± This was also Wang Fugui¡¯s first time encountering something like this. ¡°What kind of people are these? Such disgusting behavior is not seen even in the wilderness.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, ¡°We used to think that the stronghold was a ce that all refugees wanted so badly to get into. But it¡¯s only after we got here that I realized there isn¡¯t such a ce as Heaven in this world.¡±

 Chapter 172 - Rules of the wilderness!

    Chapter 172: Rules of the wilderness!


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Just as Luo Lan had predicted, the people who coveted the ck medicine Ren Xiaosu¡¯s controlled did not give up easily just because of Lu Yuan¡¯s intervention.


    As news of the ck medicine¡¯s effect circted through the stronghold, a constant stream of people starteding to the shop to ask about it each day. If it were just for the intended effect of the ck medicine, that would have been fine as people would not be as crazy as they were now. But it became magical when news spread that it could treat infertility.


    Although Wang Fugui never admitted that the medicine had such an effect, those who came to their shop sought it for this purpose.


    Nobody knew if it was an aftereffect of The Cataclysm, but infertility in humans had be increasinglymon in recent times. That was where the market for the ck medicine came in.


    If it were only one stronghold, the market size would be considered rtively small. But many of the medium-sizedpanies in this stronghold had already gained the ability to sell medical drugs to the other strongholds. At the very least, it would not be a problem to export them to the dozen or so strongholds controlled by the Li Consortium.


    If they could seize the form of this ck medicine, their pharmaceuticalpanies would possess a cash cow that would provide them with a steady stream of ie.


    Who would ever think they had earned enough money?


    Ren Xiaosu headed to school early in the morning to continue taking his exams. Meanwhile, Wang Fugui thought that since it was not yet time to sell the week¡¯s allocated dose of the ck medicine, he¡¯d go out to check the bicycle market. Since Ren Xiaosu had told him to purchase some bicycles, he¡¯d have to take a look around.


    Since the boss had spoken, the shopkeeper would definitely get down to it.


    Xiaoyu also told Chen Wudi to watch over the shop before she went out to buy some groceries. She was nning to cook some pork rib soup for Ren Xiaosu and the others in the evening. After all, many members of the family were still growing, so she wanted to make some nutritious food for them.


    But in the morning, several people wearing red uniforms suddenly came down to the shop. When they walked in, they saw Chen Wudi sitting with his legs crossed. ¡°Who is Wang Fugui?¡±


    Chen Wudi nced at them and asked, ¡°What are you looking for him for?¡±


    ¡°My name is Chen Bohan. We¡¯re from the stronghold¡¯s Legal Division. Someone used Wang Fugui of unfair business practices, so we¡¯re here to issue him a subpoena,¡± a man in red said.


    Chen Wudi was stunned. ¡°What do you mean by unfair business practices?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll know when you attend court at our Legal Division.¡± Chen Bohan looked at Chen Wudi and said, ¡°You aren¡¯t Wang Fugui, right? You can also sign on his behalf, but this subpoena has to be signed by an adult member of his immediate family. Are you his immediate family?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am,¡± Chen Wudi answered.


    ¡°Oh, then you can sign it.¡± Chen Bohan handed a pen to Chen Wudi and asked, ¡°What¡¯s your rtionship with the defendant?¡±


    Chen Wudi said, ¡°I¡¯m his Senior Apprentice Brother.¡±


    Chen Bohan was confused. Immediately, he snatched the subpoena back and said, ¡°How does a senior apprentice brother count as immediate family? Are you trying to mess with us?¡±


    Chen Wudi was not happy to hear that. ¡°What do you mean I¡¯m mess with you? Our master and us three fellow disciples are like family, so how am I not his immediate family?¡±


    Chen Bohan from the Legal Division was left speechless for a while. Then he exined, ¡°The meaning of immediate family is not what you defined. Wang Dalong is the immediate family of Wang Fugui. You are not.¡±


    Chen Wudi thought for a while and got even more confused. ¡°What¡¯s the difference? Wang Dalong is our Third Junior Brother. So if Third Junior Brother is his immediate family, why wouldn¡¯t I, as Senior Apprentice Brother, be considered his immediate family?¡±


    Chen Bohan did not know how to react. What sort of nonsensical crap was this?!


    Chen Bohan was so frustrated by him that he straight-up turned around and left. He felt he could notmunicate with Chen Wudi at all.


    When Ren Xiaosu came back in the evening, he frowned after hearing about the event. All of a sudden, he felt he could not fit in with this prosperous stronghold.


    When they just arrived in the stronghold, the people on the streetcar got off when they realized that they were refugees.


    When he started attending school, the students¡¯ parents wanted him to transfer away because he was a refugee.


    Now that their shop was just starting to get popr, people wanted to enforce thews in the stronghold to deal with them and force them to hand over the ck medicine¡¯s form. If they didn¡¯t do so, they would be imprisoned and their family torn apart.


    Ren Xiaosu had yearned to live in the stronghold, but at this moment, he also started having thoughts of leaving like Yan Liuyuan.


    The longer he stayed in the stronghold, the more he felt that it was not asfortable as living in the wilderness.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡®Is it possible to create a home I truly belong to?¡¯


    No, he still did not have that power.


    But Ren Xiaosu had never been one to run away in the face of problems. Since he knew nothing about the rules of the stronghold, he could only resort to applying his own rules to solve the problem.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Fugui, ¡°If theye to deliver the subpoena again, receive it. After that, go to the Legal Division to find out exactly what¡¯s going on and who¡¯s behind it. I¡¯ll handle the rest from there.¡±


    ¡°Nothing will happen right?¡± Wang Fugui asked worriedly.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t Luo Lan mention that the Li Consortium has no time to worry about these small matters at the moment?¡±


    In the eyes of the rich, Wang Fugui, Ren Xiaosu, and the others from this shop were just a group of refugees who had recently arrived in the stronghold. Although they had the backing of Lu Yuan and Luo Lan, this was their Li Consortium¡¯s home turf!


    But what they did not know was that the person who massacred the Midnight teamst night was the owner of this shop.


    Right now, news of the Midnight team¡¯s massacre was causing a stir at the highest levels of the Li Consortium. The field survey showed there were only two people who battled against Midnight at night, and one of them had taken on three members of Midnight alone.


    Even though Midnight itself was already pretty well-known, there was a supernatural being who could crush them single-handedly? But more importantly, everyone was still in the dark as to who this person was.


    Currently, the Demon Whisperer, Li Shentan, was eating noodles in a small shop with Si Liren. Some people around them were discussing what had happenedst night.


    The Public Order Division did not keep this matter a secret, so the news spread extremely quickly. In the past, the public was still a little unfamiliar with supernatural beings. But after tonight, that gap seemed to have closed by quite a bit.


    An uncle sitting next to them was drinking and saying mysteriously, ¡°I told you they don¡¯t know who did it. There were no traces of the murderer.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s way too cruel. So many of them got killed just like that,¡± someone said with a sigh.


    ¡°Don¡¯t talk like you know anything. Those people from the Pyro Company are not good either,¡± the uncle scorned. ¡°A friend of mine told me they were the ones who caused the explosion some time ago.¡±


    Li Shentan smiled and said to the girl, ¡°It¡¯s probably that Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°How do you know it¡¯s him?¡± Si Liren asked as she blinked.


    ¡°There are only so many supernatural beings in this stronghold, and he¡¯s the only one I have no idea of what kind of superpower he has.¡± When Li Shentan smiled, he looked warm and inviting. No one would guess that he was the Demon Whisperer who was making the organizations feel a little on edge. He continued, ¡°I told you, I knew he¡¯s really powerful.¡±


    ¡°Is it because you weren¡¯t able to hypnotize him?¡± Si Liren asked curiously.


    ¡°No, no, no, I haven¡¯t tried to hypnotize him,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°because my intuition tells me that if I try to hypnotize him, I could end up being hypnotized instead. Of course, that¡¯s just my intuition.¡±


    ¡°Do you want me to kill him?¡± Si Liren asked. There didn¡¯t seem to be any trace of good or evil in her innocent tone. The malicious words of murder were a huge contrast to her lovely little face.


    Li Shentan shook his head. ¡°Why would we kill him? Have you forgotten? We just became friends with him.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right.¡± Si Liren nodded. ¡°We¡¯re friends now.¡±


    ¡°Besides, you might not be his match either.¡± Li Shentan sighed.

 Chapter 173 - The disappearing Experimentals

    Chapter 173: The disappearing Experimentals


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Stronghold 113 had been reduced to a huge pile of ruins. The prosperous city that once represented human civilization had been destroyed. Rats, feral dogs, and feral cats could be seen lingering around as they searched for food in the ruins. In just a matter of weeks, weeds had already appeared out of the cracks in the concrete ground.


    But the rats, dogs, and cats still had to move around cautiously. It was as though they were avoiding something terrible yet unknown.


    Suddenly, a toon of the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops wearing their ck uniforms appeared out of a small pathway. They were on high alert and were heavily armed in addition to the firearms in their hands.


    The huge feral cats and dogs ran away in a hurry when they spotted them. When the toon leader made a tactical hand signal, two members of the toon rushed forward to check out the situation behind a huge obstacle up ahead.


    That obstacle was a copsed building.


    Their operation was being carried out stealthily. The two pointmen signaled to the advance party: No target spotted.


    The toon pushed forward once again. If someone looked down on them from above, the 30-man toon would be seen snaking up bit by bit as they moved forward on the battlefield.


    After they passed the obstacle, groups of full-strength toons would immediately fill their positions from behind. Some of the toons were even armed with arge number of heavy weapons, while others were responsible for building defensive bunkers whenever it was called for.


    There were many other simr formations infiltrating in this manner at the northwest of the stronghold. This was the 1st Combat Brigade led by Qing Yun of the Qing Consortium, and the remaining troops from the 7th Combat Brigade that was previously led by Qing Huai had been incorporated by him.


    Qing Huai was dead from the previous ambush by the Experimentals. Currently, the 7th Combat Brigade existed in name only. Qing Yun was nning to take full control over this brigade to expand his strength.


    As long as this operation was sessful, he would be able to rece Qing Zhen¡¯s previous ce in the hearts of the Board.


    The reason why arge organization never gave in to an individual was because the organization itself had a strong ability to nurture talents. The Board believed the influence of an individual in the entire organization was as good as negligible. If such argemunity with shared interests wanted to survive in the long run, it had to believe in the power of the organization, not that of individuals.


    Qing Yun was staring coldly at a screen in themand vehicle that was on the furthest end of the ORBAT. At this moment, the dozen-odd screens in the vehicle were each disying the operational progress of the dozen-odd toons.


    Right now, everything was proceeding smoothly, but Qing Yun couldn¡¯t help but feel a little strange. It was too quiet in the stronghold ruins.


    Qing Yun looked at a middle-aged man beside him. ¡°Adjutant Li, was this where you guys were ambushed?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Adjutant Li nodded and said, ¡°The Experimentals suddenly cut the infiltrating ORBAT right through the middle and split the entire battlefield in two. They¡¯re very familiar with the terrain here, and theirbat prowess is shocking. Ordinary bullets can¡¯t deal fatal damage even when they get hit in vital areas. You must be extremely careful to avoid getting ambushed by them again.¡±


    Qing Yun nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not Qing Huai. I¡¯ll be waiting right here for them toe out.¡±


    However, as therge ORBAT advanced, they did not see any signs of the Experimentals. The city was so quiet that it felt a little eerie.


    Human remains could frequently be seen littered along on either side of the road. It was obvious just how much damage the disaster had caused here.


    The face bugs were no longer around after their attack in the aftermath of the disaster. Based on the Qing Consortium¡¯s intel, this ce had be the Experimentals¡¯ territory.


    But where were the Experimentals?


    Suddenly, someone said on thems channel, ¡°A huge crevasse has been discovered in the ground, and there are signs indicating Experimental activity around here. It¡¯s suspected that they might be hiding underground.¡±


    ¡°Send two toons in to have a look,¡± Qing Yun said.


    The frontlinemander hesitated for a moment before saying on thems channel, ¡°I¡¯m afraid no one will survive if they encounter any Experimentals belowground.¡±


    Qing Yun frowned. ¡°You don¡¯t need to question orders. All you have to do is to execute mymands.¡±


    ¡°Roger.¡± The voice on the other end seemed to have calmed down.


    Next to him, Adjutant Li did not dare speak out. He wondered who would be the unfortunate ones to get sent down into the crevasse.


    All he knew was that he would get summoned to be court-martialed when he returned to Stronghold 111. Instead of sympathizing with others, he might as well sympathize with himself. It was either that or try to make amends in this operation. If Qing Yun could speak up for him when they returned to the stronghold, Adjutant Li would have a chance to push all responsibility onto the dead Qing Huai.


    At first, everyone thought they would hear the screams of the troops and gunfire reverberating from inside the crevasse. However, there wasn¡¯t anymotion at all as it remained peaceful throughout.


    Suddenly, someone on the front lines spoke on thems channel. ¡°This likely used to be the Experimentals¡¯ir. A huge cave has been dug out in here by force. However, there are no signs of Experimentals down here!¡±


    Qing Yun frowned. Where had those Experimentals gone to?!


    Right after, someone said on thems channel, ¡°There¡¯s some sort of a mini researchb in here. It looks like the Experimentals shifted someb equipment into this ce. There¡¯s even used syringes lying on the ground!¡±


    All who heard this were stunned. Based on everyone¡¯s knowledge, the Experimentals were just like wild beasts. No one would associate the Experimentals with performing experiments.


    Qing Yun said coldly, ¡°Everyone, retreat. There are probably no more Experimentals left here. Bring all the syringes andb equipment back to Stronghold 111 for sampling and research. I want to know what on earth they were injecting themselves with!¡± He then disconnected from thems channel and picked up the satellite phone to report the situation to the Board located far away in Stronghold 111. Now that Stronghold 113 had be an empty city, no one knew where the thousands of Experimentals had disappeared to.


    However, when the soldiers heard the Experimentals could conduct their own research and experiments, as well as inject themselves with drugs, they were shocked and rmed.


    The Board was also lost in thought after receiving the news. They had no idea what it meant.


    Then a secretary walked into the conference room and said, ¡°Qing Zhen has gone missing. A convoy was spotted leaving the stronghold just a moment ago. We suspect Qing Zhen is in that convoy.¡±


    A member of the Board frowned and reprimanded, ¡°You can¡¯t even watch over Qing Zhen?!¡±


    Someone else said, ¡°We must thoroughly investigate how Qing Zhen managed to escape the surveince we put on him. There must be someone helping him in secret. How else could he have escaped from the stronghold without getting detected?¡±


    ¡°It looks like Qing Zhen hasn¡¯t been idle either,¡± someone sighed.


    The elder asked calmly, ¡°Which direction is the convoy headed?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re heading in the direction of Stronghold 109,¡± the secretary replied.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that stronghold under the control of the Li Consortium? Is Qing Zhen nning to defect?¡± someone wondered. ¡°I suggest we chase after him immediately. Qing Zhen knows too many of our consortium¡¯s secrets. If he defects to the Li Consortium, it will likely cause us enormous losses.¡±

 Chapter 174 - Qing Zhen’s defection

    <h4>Chapter 174: Qing Zhen¡¯s defection</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Defection?


    The board of directors in the conference room fell silent. That was a grave crime.


    There used to be defections from the Qing Consortium, but it had be a much rarer urrence in recent years. That was because the price to pay for defection was simply too great, and the organization never let any defectors off.


    Someone asked the secretary, ¡°Did Qing Zhen leave any information behind?¡±


    ¡°He left a letter on the table in his vi.¡± The secretary said, ¡°He said he was going out to take a break from things.¡±


    Everyone in the conference room was stunned. Did Qing Zhen treat the Board¡¯s decision as a game? He was ordered not to take a single step out of his vi, yet he just left the stronghold!


    The elder thought for a moment and said, ¡°He wouldn¡¯t go so far as to defect to the Li Consortium. I suspect he must have received news of the disappearing Experimentals from someone. There should be some connection between these two matters. Otherwise, there wouldn¡¯t be such a coincidence.¡±


    Someone wondered, ¡°Are you saying that Qing Zhen left the stronghold because he received news that the Experimentals have disappeared?¡±


    ¡°It seems like it,¡± the elder said with a sullen face.


    When the board of directors in the conference room heard that, they got a little confused. ¡°But what does the news of the Experimentals disappearing have anything to do with Qing Zhen? Why did he have to escape?¡±


    ¡°It seems that Qing Zhen has concluded that therge number of Experimentals have probably started heading towards Stronghold 109.¡± The elder said, ¡°Qing Zhen went to Stronghold 109 because he wants to save his older brother, Luo Lan.¡±


    It was no secret that Luo Lan was at Stronghold 109. The consortium did not order him to return only because they could not be bothered with an illegitimate son of the family.


    Everyone knew that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had a great rtionship. However, they did not expect that Qing Zhen would be willing to risk being branded a defector to escape from Stronghold 111 for Luo Lan¡¯s sake.


    ¡°But what¡¯s the use of Qing Zhen going to Stronghold 111 by himself?¡± someone wondered. ¡°He no longer has anyone under him.¡±


    Someone asked the secretary, ¡°Have there been any movements from the soldiers recently assigned to the other troops?¡±


    ¡°No, they¡¯re all very obedient. Everyone is still holding at their respective military bases,¡± the secretary said.


    With that, everyone went quiet. Based on Qing Zhen¡¯s character, how could he possibly have gone to Stronghold 109 without bringing some people with him?


    In that case, there could only be one exnation left. Qing Zhen still had some secret troops under his control that even the Board did not know about.


    Actually, wasn¡¯t this exactly the reason the Board had seized Qing Zhen¡¯s power back from him? The most famous Shadow in the organization was about to get out of control.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu kept feeling like something was off for the past few days. The entire stronghold seemed to have suddenly be peaceful.


    No one was stirring up any trouble, and there were no more fights breaking out. It was as though all the different major powers had tried so hard to get into Stronghold 109 just to enter and sightsee.


    Ren Xiaosu did not see Yang Xiaojin at the end-of-the-year ceremony after finals finished. ording to tradition, students would have homework assigned to them over break during the ceremony, and the exam results would be announced as well. The teachers would also take the opportunity to go over the tests with the students.


    However, Yang Xiaojin seemed to have disappeared.


    The only thing Ren Xiaosu was not surprised about was that Yang Xiaojin had scored exactly 140 points for each subject in the final exams.


    When Jiang Wu was handing back tests to the students, she asked which set of tests belonged to Monitor Ren Xiaosu and which one belonged to Councilor Ren Xiaosu. As a result, Ren Xiaosu took advantage of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s absence and shamelessly imed the papers with the higher score.


    Jiang Wu was a little puzzled as she said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°The handwriting on that set of tests is very elegant and doesn¡¯t look like yours at all.¡±


    However, she suddenly noticed that the name written on the paper was ¡°Ren Xiaosu, monitor of ss 12-7.¡± Jiang Wu heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°It¡¯s really your exam. I didn¡¯t expect you to achieve such a high score on the exams.¡±


    Now it was Ren Xiaosu who did not know what to.


    Rumor had it that a girl from another 12th grade ss hade to look for Ren Xiaosu in the afternoon. She had gathered her ssmates to beat him up, but when therge group of them arrived at the door of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ss, they were stopped by his ssmates.


    The students from the other ss were a little puzzled. This ss might be wholly united, but could they guarantee he would never be left alone?


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ssmates earnestly said to them, ¡°We¡¯re actually protecting you by stopping you here, understand?¡±


    Li Mo was having none of it. ¡°Ren Xiaosu is clearly witless, yet he deliberately allowed me to copy his papers and caused me to score only 40 points total throughout all the subjects. How can someone do something like that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not in the ss at this time. His ssmates looked at each other and eximed, ¡°Did you get it wrong? Ren Xiaosu scored 560 points on his exam!¡±


    Li Mo was confused. Surely this was not something someone could do, right?!


    At present, Ren Xiaosu was not in the mood to go to school, nor did he pay any attention to what was happening in school.


    That was because he knew that something major was going to happen over the next few days. The present was the calm before the storm.


    After he became a supernatural being, he was destined to have a different way of thinking from other students. Those students were still thinking about how to spend their vacation, but Ren Xiaosu had already started thinking about how to survive through theing chaos.


    After hepleted the quest in which he¡¯d let Li Mo copy his test, Ren Xiaosu was rewarded with a 1.0 Dexterity increase. As of now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Strength was 8.5 and his Dexterity was 6.1. But this small increase in dexterity would probably not make a big difference for theing crisis.


    What Ren Xiaosu was really looking forward to was the reward the pce would give him afterpleting the quest rted to Dong Funan. The reward for the previous side quest was a ck saber. So to Ren Xiaosu, the side quest represented a chance of getting a high-quality reward.


    Actually, it was not only Yang Xiaojin who had suddenly disappeared. Luo Lan had also not been to the shop for many days. The number of LI Consortium troops on the street had decreased little by little. Eventually, only the private troops and the Public Order Division remained.


    Everything felt unusual, bizarre, yet the atmosphere became even more peaceful than normal.


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the entrance to the shop and watched pedestrians walk past. Suddenly, a man passed by and stuffed a man envelope into his hands.


    After going back into the shop and opening the envelope, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see a faded yellow ginkgo leaf inside apanied by a short letter. Was this information sent to him by Luo Lan? Why was there a need to be so mysterious about it?


    Ren Xiaosu opened it up and read the letter: ¡°Arge number of Experimentals have disappeared from Stronghold 113. It¡¯s suspected that they¡¯re on their way to Stronghold 109. Find a way to leave the stronghold within three days.¡±


    The letter did not mention how they were supposed to leave, but it was kind enough of Luo Lan to issue him a timely reminder. After all, their friendship was not as deep as everyone had imagined.


    But what gave Ren Xiaosu a frown was the information that was contained in the letter. It seemed like the Qing Consortium was not very optimistic about the situation of the Experimentals arriving.


    Had the Experimentals gone mad? Why were they suddenly attacking Stronghold 109?


    No matter what, there were probably going to be major changes in the stronghold within three days. The people who coveted the research results would definitely make a move within these three days.


    None of them had any time to waste. The only question was who would be the first to make a move and unveil the curtain to the chaos.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to Wang Fugui, Xiaoyu, and the others, ¡°It¡¯s time to leave. Start packing.¡±


    Wang Fugui touched the counter he had cleaned earlier and said with some regret, ¡°This is such a nice shop. I never expected we would have to flee again.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Why? Can¡¯t bear to leave this ce?¡±


    ¡°Not really.¡± Wang Fugui said with a wry smile, ¡°Xiaosu, have you realized that even though these hundreds of strongholds have stood intact in these wastnds for so many decades, or even centuries now, sessive incidents have happened in this one year alone? This isn¡¯t just some random urrence. It¡¯s real chaos that¡¯s starting to make aeback.¡±

 Chapter 175 - A new item in the palace!

    <h4>Chapter 175: A new item in the pce!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    None of the residents in the stronghold seemed to have heard the news that the Experimentals had disappeared from Stronghold 113. Everyone behaved no differently on the streets from before, as they continued heading out to work, did grocery shopping, or attended za dancing as they used to do.


    At night, Ren Xiaosu delegated tasks to Wang Fugui and the others. An unexpected incident had happened this morning. A ck off-road vehicle stopped outside the shop¡¯ entrance, and out came two young men who said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°We¡¯re here to take away the goods. Yang Xiaojin said she already mentioned it to you.¡±


    The goods these two people were referring to was probably Dong Funan. Ren Xiaosu did not suspect them since only Yang Xiaojin and he knew of this matter.


    Curious, he asked, ¡°Are you two Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu¡¯s colleagues?¡±


    The two young men gave each other a look andughed. ¡°We¡¯re not qualified. There¡¯s no need to ask further questions.¡±


    What was with that? Ren Xiaosu was starting to wonder about the structure of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s organization and how many ranks there were.


    But it wasn¡¯t time yet. The pce had still not informed Ren Xiaosu about thepletion of the quest. He nced at his watch and saw that it was still about half an hour before the full seven days would be up.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the two young men and said, ¡°You can¡¯t bring her away yet. You¡¯ll have to wait a while.¡±


    Suspicious, the two young men asked, ¡°Why do we have to wait? Is there still something important you need to do?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®It¡¯s not like I can tell you two that my quest hasn¡¯t beenpleted yet.¡¯ He gave it some thought before saying, ¡°Yes, there¡¯s still something important that I need to do. You two can go and wait in the backyard while I speak to her about something.¡±


    Less than five minutester, the two youths saw Dong Funan whose swelling had already started going down sitting on a small bench obediently in the backyard. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was speaking in a serious tone in front of her, ¡°I believe you¡¯ve recognized your mistakes after your hardbor reform? So, I¡¯m going to hand you over to someone else today, so I hope you can be a good person when you get there. Be someone who contributes to society, be a supernatural being who contributes to society...¡±


    His talk with her went on for over half an hour.


    The two young men from the Saboteurs were shocked. How the heck was this a while?!


    They had thought Ren Xiaosu was only going to say a few words, but little did they expect he could go on for so long.


    What atrocities had this Dong Funanmitted that she would need such a lengthy ideological reeducation?


    When Ren Xiaosu noticed Dong Funan gradually breaking down, he finally heard the pce say, ¡°Side questplete. A new product has been unlocked for purchase in the vending machine!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. He managed to dy the handover of Dong Funan until now. When Dong Funan saw that Ren Xiaosu had finally stopped talking, she nearly burst into tears. Previously, she still had some disbelief when Chen Wudi mentioned that his master was Ren Xiaosu. But to her surprise, Ren Xiaosu truly turned out to be as naggy as Tripitaka! <sup>1</sup>


    Ren Xiaosu happily said to the two young men, ¡°Alright, you can take her away now.¡±


    The two young men looked at the anticipatory expression on Dong Funan¡¯s face and thought they might not even have to carry out any further reforms on her. They felt that as long as they could get Dong Funan away from Ren Xiaosu, she would be more than touched by their actions.


    Ren Xiaosu finally had the opportunity to have a look at the vending machine inside his mind pce after Dong Funan was taken away. He saw a new transparent window slot had appeared in it.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the item inside the window and felt a little confused. It looked like a set of poker cards? ¡®After going through so much trouble toplete the quest, what is the meaning of giving me a set of poker cards? Do you intend to have me y ¡°Fight the Landlord¡± <sup>1</sup> with Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, and the others?¡¯


    As poker was also a form of entertainment in this era, Ren Xiaosu was a little confused when he saw the new vending machine item had turned out to be a deck of cards. Though there was a title written at the bottom of the slot: Explosive Poker!


    Ren Xiaosu gave it a try by slotting in a gratitude token. As a result, the vending machine dispensed a ¡°three of clubs¡± card.


    Wait, but there was nothing special about this card when he held it in his hand. ¡®What¡¯s so explosive about this? And people sell cards by the deck, yet you¡¯re fucking selling one card per gratitude token?!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu did not believe it and proceeded to put another gratitude token in. This time, out came a ¡°five of diamonds.¡± He looked up and shot that vending machine a look of surprise.


    Having thought of something, apparently, he quickly slotted in over a dozen gratitude tokens in a row. Even more cards were dispensed.


    Ren Xiaosu had a look at the words ¡°Explosive Poker¡± written above the vending machine slot, then had a look at the four ¡°threes¡± he had just gotten his hands on and sank deep into thought.


    ...


    The next day, Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui headed out separately for their tasks. There were two gates in Stronghold 109, one in the east, the other in the west.


    Stronghold 113 was located northeast of Stronghold 109. If the Experimentals were to arrive here, they would definitely reach the west gate first. Ren Xiaosu had Wang Fugui rent a courtyard house at the east gate. They would move over there tonight.


    This way, if anything happened, they could at least escape easily from the east gate.


    Now, all there was left to do was to purchase supplies!


    Knowing in advance that a disaster wasing, Ren Xiaosu definitely wouldn¡¯t be unprepared for an escape like the previous time. This time, they could not leave anything out as they prepared supplies for their journey.


    But before that, what they needed to prepare most of all was... cash.


    In fact, nobody had much money on them. The ck medicine had not been sold for long, and there was also no time to trade in Old Wang¡¯s anti-inmmatory medicine for cash either. Therefore, the most urgent task that Ren Xiaosu had to get done was to sell the gold for money!


    He had been worried he would reveal his identity and get investigated by the Public Order Division if he went to cash in the gold. So he kept dying it.


    After all, what would he do if Luo Lan started suspecting him?


    But Ren Xiaosu did not have to worry anymore. Since he was going to leave this stronghold, what was there to worry about?


    Besides, Xu Xianchu had shown up at this stronghold as well. So wouldn¡¯t it be expected that he would trade the gold for cash in Stronghold 109?


    In the span of a day, Ren Xiaosu wore a baseball cap and went around visiting over a dozen gold shops. The gold he sold at each shop was in the form of a gold bar that weighed about a 100 grams. Based on the gold prices in the stronghold, that would amount to roughly 40,000 yuan.


    One gold bar weighing about a 100 grams was not exactly much to the gold shops and shouldn¡¯t attract much attention either.


    But such unbranded gold bars would definitely stand out. Who would have the free time to smelt gold to make them into gold bars? Most people who came to sell their gold would just sell it in its jewelry form.


    But what other choice did Ren Xiaosu have? If he didn¡¯t smelt the gold into gold bars, the oxidized jewelry would be even more eye-catching than this.


    So when he left the shops, some of the gold shop owners immediately reported him to the Public Order Division. When thest gold shop owner that Ren Xiaosu visited saw the gold bars, he got a little hesitant. ¡°You¡¯re... Xu Xianchu?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu acted shocked. ¡°How did you know!¡± Then he turned around and ran out of the gold shop, looking disconcerted and flustered.

 Chapter 176 - Getting ready to flee

    <h4>Chapter 176: Getting ready to flee</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    When Ren Xiaosu finished visiting the dozen-odd gold shops, the cash he had on hand reached 430,000 yuan. Honestly speaking, the money he had earned today was probably more than all of what he had earned in the 17 years of his life.


    It was the first time he felt so wealthy. This sum of money was probably what the majority of the households in this stronghold would have saved up, or perhaps they wouldn¡¯t even have as much as what he had now?


    Suddenly, the voice from the pce said, ¡°It has been detected that the host is carrying an amount of money exceeding what is required to unlock further storage rights. Confirm unlock?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze. He had already unlocked storage rights once when he was in the Jing Mountains. At that time, he used 20,000 yuan in exchange for one cubic meter of storage space.


    Back then, Ren Xiaosu already knew more storage space could be unlocked. However, as he did not know how much it would cost to unlock the next tier of storage rights, he could only wait until the pce informed him the next time.


    Now it finally happened.


    No matter how much Ren Xiaosu loved money, he still understood that having storage space was more important than having money.


    Furthermore, they were nning to flee from the stronghold, so he could easily store more supplies and clean water if he had a bigger storage space. If he somehow stumbled upon another ruined city, he could start searching for more gold there.


    But what Ren Xiaosu could not figure out was why the pce would ept any kind of currency, be it the Qing Consortium¡¯s currency or the Li Consortium¡¯s currency. ¡®What would you as a pce even want money for?!¡¯


    ¡°Can you tell me what you want the money for?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in his mind.


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just jealous that I have money, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in curiosity.


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°...Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu mulled over it for some time. ¡°Then do you ept spirit money? <sup>1</sup> ¡±


    This time, the pce chose not to answer at all.


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°So money issued by the Underworld¡¯s bank is not considered currency? Aren¡¯t you looking down on the Underworld?¡±


    He wondered if he would have hit the highest tier of storage rights if the pce epted spirit money.


    What a pity...


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated no more as he said in his mind, ¡°Unlock!¡±


    A momentter, he saw the original one cubic meter of storage space spread outward on the wall. Afterwards, Ren Xiaosu saw his 430,000 yuan turn into just 150,000 yuan!


    Wait! Ren Xiaosu was shocked. ¡®Why did my money drop by so much?!¡¯


    He scrutinized the storage space and estimated it had expanded 15 times.


    Making a mental calction, Ren Xiaosu now understood that the rtionship between the amount of storage space and cost was basically equivalent.


    Unlocking one cubic meter of storage space: 20,000 yuan.


    Unlocking two cubic meters of storage space: 40,000 yuan.


    Unlocking four cubic meters of storage space: 80,000 yuan.


    Unlocking eight cubic meters of storage space: 160,000 yuan.


    Therefore, having spent 280,00 yuan this time, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s storage space had expanded to a total of 15 cubic meters!


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips in satisfaction. Not bad!


    As of now, he still had 150,000 yuan on him. Ren Xiaosu felt that if he only had to stock up on supplies for their escape, it would be more than enough!


    ...


    They were extremely prepared this time for the journey. If a person wanted to survive in the wilderness, what would they need?


    Ren Xiaosu went into a grocery store and bought several dozen bags of salt all at once. The remaining supplies of sugar, hardtack, and other items he bought were also countless. When the shop owner saw this, he was overjoyed to have such a big spender.


    The shop owner smiled and said, ¡°Why are you buying so much salt, sugar, and food? Most people don¡¯t buy that many of these items.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°There¡¯s no harm in being prepared.¡±


    The shop owner was amused. ¡°Some years ago, there were some people who were just like you. They kept saying it wasn¡¯t safe anymore in the stronghold and that it was necessary to stock up on supplies to be prepared. In the end, all of the items went bad, and still, nothing happened to the stronghold. Can¡¯t you see? It¡¯s been decades and the stronghold is still doing well, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just preparing for danger in times of safety.¡± Ren Xiaosu gave the shop owner a look.


    ¡°Boy, I¡¯m seriously advising you not to buy too many of these supplies,¡± the shop owner advised. ¡°What will you do if they turn bad at home?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this shop owner must be really kind. Instead of trying to get people to buy more, he was persuading them not to? However, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly tell him that something was going to happen to the stronghold in the next few days, right? They would have to believe it in the first ce.


    When the shop owner saw that Ren Xiaosu was still as determined, he did not keep trying. After Ren Xiaosu paid the bill and left, the shop owner said to his shop assistant with augh, ¡°I guess that boy is crazy. Just watch, nothing will happen to the stronghold even after he keeps those supplies at home for decades.¡±


    Such a scene did not only take ce in the grocery store. It happened when Ren Xiaosu went to the pharmacy to buy medicine as well. The shopkeeper could not understand when he saw Ren Xiaosu buying so many medicinal supplies.


    The medicine Ren Xiaosu bought was actually specific to their needs. There was definitely no need for any anti-inmmatory medicine, but antivirals like ribavirin were definitely going to be useful. The same went for antifungals like ketoconazole and antidiarrheal agents like diosmectite, which were considered necessities when heading into the wilderness.


    Antidiarrheal remedies were especially important. If you didn¡¯t pay close enough attention to your dietary intake, you might get the runs up to 20 times a day and could even die from it.


    The remaining items he needed to get were tools such as hammers, saws, shovels, pliers, ropes, stic buckets, toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap...


    And several backpacks, several dozen matchboxes,passes, and nkets.


    Ren Xiaosu spent the entire day shopping for supplies that only a wilderness survivalist would know to get. If a person had never lived in the wilderness before, the only things they would think of bringing with them would be food, water, knives, and some other very general items. Once they got to the wilderness, they would descend into panic.


    In just this one day, Ren Xiaosu experienced a lot of suspiciousness from others due to therge quantity of purchases he made. However, he did exin himself once.


    He did not return to their own shop, instead taking the streetcar straight to the courtyard house located in the most western part of the stronghold. Yan Liuyuan and the others were already waiting there.


    While taking the streetcar, he even overheard a young man talking about a small music festival that would be taking ce in a few days. ording to him, a certain Prince Charming and a certain goddess would being to perform.


    Someone else was gossiping about celebrities in whispers. They were talking about a female celebrity named Cicada and how she liked cooking, and how another female celebrity named Fang Yujing used to study Chinese medicine.


    As the streetcar trundled down the track toward the sunset, yellow light pirs on the horizon projected into the sky and through the gaps in the clouds and back down. Ren Xiaosu suddenly started feeling somewhat out of ce when he heard words like ¡°music festival¡± and the likes.


    The bustle and peace that was taking ce was about to get destroyed before his eyes.


    Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t someone who passed his days without an awareness of his surroundings. He knew the Experimentals wereing, and he knew the various major powers that had gathered here would be dering war on the Li Consortium within the next three days. So he made preparations.


    The entire stronghold might plunge into an abyss of misery at that time, but Ren Xiaosu was confident he would have an advantage over others.


    But thinking about how so many people would die, Ren Xiaosu realized this was probably not something to be happy about.


    After all, this era was already tinted with the color of sorrow.


    When he arrived at the rented courtyard house, Ren Xiaosu froze, because Jiang Wu was also here.


    Yan Liuyuan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I brought Ms. Jiang Wu here. We can ignore other people, but we had to warn Ms. Jiang and her students, right?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu ruffled Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hair. ¡°You weren¡¯t wrong in doing so.¡±

 Chapter 177 - New neighbor, Yang Xiaojin

    <h4>Chapter 177: New neighbor, Yang Xiaojin</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Actually, even if Yan Liuyuan had not gone to warn Jiang Wu, Ren Xiaosu would still have done so the next day.


    However, he had to make it clear to Jiang Wu. ¡°Ms. Jiang, I¡¯m afraid that the stronghold is no longer a safe ce. We rented a courtyard house here to facilitate our escape.¡±


    Jiang Wu tucked her hair behind her ear and said gently, ¡°Mhm, I understand.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you have any questions for me?¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious. ¡°Like what kind of danger ising, and why it¡¯s so important that we have to escape?¡±


    Jiang Wu smiled and said, ¡°You must have your reasons for doing so. Back then, we only managed to survive because we followed you. Since you judge that it¡¯s getting dangerous, there isn¡¯t any reason for us to distrust you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had been doubted the entire day while he was running errands. Now that someone believed him, he was rather surprised. ¡°Ms. Jiang, you can bring your students here to the courtyard house to live temporarily. But lemme tell you beforehand, there isn¡¯t enough space inside the house, so y¡¯all¡¯ll have to make do and sleep out here in the courtyard. Furthermore, we won¡¯t be providing y¡¯all with any food while we¡¯re making our escape. We¡¯ll each flee separately.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I understand.¡± Jiang Wu nodded.


    Although Ren Xiaosu would have liked to help Jiang Wu out of the goodness of his heart, he was absolutely not going to risk having anyone hold back the speed of their escape.


    If the Experimentals could even cause Luo Lan to prepare to flee, they must be extremely terrifying. Ren Xiaosu wondered if there might be a lot more Experimentals than they had previously imagined.


    At this moment, Jiang Wu looked to the many bicycles Ren Xiaosu and the others had parked in the yard. ¡°Are you all nning on leaving on these bicycles?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°It¡¯s so we¡¯ll be faster when it¡¯s time for us to go. Y¡¯all might not be able to keep up with us.¡±


    In this stronghold, bicycles cost at least several thousand yuan each. Anything made of metal these days was considered a luxury.


    Although the school had already paid Jiang Wu her sry, and the students also received their subsidies for attending school, it was only going to be enough for them to buy some supplies for the journey and wouldn¡¯t be enough to purchase a bicycle.


    Jiang Wu hesitated for a long while. She had wanted to borrow some money but couldn¡¯t bear to ask no matter how she thought about it. After all, what reason did she have that would make Ren Xiaosu want to lend her the money to buy bicycles?


    Ren Xiaosu inadvertently mentioned, ¡°Actually, there¡¯s a bicycle shop just a few dozen meters down from where we are. You can always go and look for the owner to borrow his bicycles when trouble breaks out in the stronghold...¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. ¡°Bro, are you sure you meant to say ¡®borrow¡¯? Do you even intend to return them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He knew this was wrong.


    Jiang Wu shook her head. ¡°That wouldn¡¯t set a good example to the students.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He thought there was nothing wrong with Jiang Wu having such a sense of justice. After all, didn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu help her previously because she had this ¡°glow¡± to her?


    But since this was the case, there was really nothing that Ren Xiaosu could do about it.


    Jiang Wu said, ¡°But I know there¡¯s a ce in the stronghold where we can rent bicycles from. It costs 90 yuan a month to rent one, and all we have to do is to submit our ID cards and 300 yuan as an initial deposit. I can just rent the bicycles for now.¡±


    300 yuan was definitely not enough to cover the cost of a bicycle, but with the renter¡¯s ID card withheld, there wouldn¡¯t be any fear they would run off with the bicycles. After all, the stronghold was locked down at all times, so there wouldn¡¯t be a chance for anyone to escape. And Jiang Wu¡¯s students had received 600 yuan each for their education subsidy, so that would leave them with enough money to buy supplies for their escape after renting a bicycle.


    Besides, their Stronghold 109 ID cards were going to be useless soon.


    However, Ren Xiaosu asked out of curiosity, ¡°What¡¯s the difference between borrowing and renting the bicycles if that¡¯s the case? We all know that those bicycles won¡¯t be returned anyway.¡±


    Jiang Wu said softly, ¡°Surely we should at leastpensate the shop a little, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was still curious, ¡°But that will also set a bad example to the students, won¡¯t it?¡±


    Jiang Wu suddenly said determinedly, ¡°Then I¡¯ll just not tell them.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and Wang Fugui were speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and wondered whether she was sincere or hypocritical.


    When this female teacher spoke, Ren Xiaosu could see the internal struggle she was going through.


    Jiang Wu was someone who practiced what she preached. Back when they were escaping to Stronghold 109, her students would not have survived if she hadn¡¯t been so hellbent on saving them.


    But right now, Jiang Wu was bending her principles just so she could let her students gain a tool to facilitate their escape.


    She couldn¡¯t tell this to them, so she decided to bear the burden of the sin herself. She wanted her students to keep the correct fundamental values in life.


    Ren Xiaosu found it very difficult to judge whether this behavior was mean or admirable, but he wasn¡¯t qualified to do so.


    Then a crispugh cut through the air. ¡°Isn¡¯t it just 20 or so bicycles? The Saboteurs are admirers of Ms. Jiang as a person, so we¡¯ve decided that we¡¯ll be sponsoring you guys with those bicycles!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked as he turned his head to where the voice came from. The courtyard house they were in was not an independent structure but sat side by side with other courtyard houses. Therefore, there was another house¡¯s backyard right next to the one that they were in.


    Then Ren Xiaosu spotted Luo Xinyu leaning over the divider wall. She said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, aren¡¯t you happy and surprised to see me?¡±


    ¡°Hah.¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression darkened. What a fucking surprise, alright! This courtyard house they had rented was right next to Luo Xinyu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s ce? How could it be so coincidental?


    But Ren Xiaosu knew they must have moved in here first, because Old Wang had wanted to rent the ce next door, but thendlord informed him that it had already been rented out a day earlier.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized this might not have been a coincidence at all. This was because most of the major powers present in this stronghold probably knew the Experimentals were headed here. That was why everyone hade here to where it was most convenient to escape from.


    They were all thinking the same thing!


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Luo Xinyuughed but did not answer.


    Herugh made Ren Xiaosu nervous. ¡®Why are youughing so strangely!¡¯ Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How many others are staying in this area?¡±


    ¡°Luo Lan and his men are also staying nearby.¡± Luo Xinyu made a mental note and said, ¡°Those from the Pyro Company have already been killed by you, so you won¡¯t see them around anymore. As for the Yang Consortium, they¡¯re all staying on the next street.¡±


    As expected, everyone was here.


    All of a sudden, Luo Xinyu asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you mention that you broke Dong Funan¡¯s teeth off?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°She tried to bite someone, but her teeth weren¡¯t strong enough, so who can she me? Why? Are they not going to grow out again?¡±


    Luo Xinyu snapped, ¡°Can your teeth still grow out after they¡¯ve fallen out? She¡¯ll have to be a vegetarian from now on!¡±


    Vegetarian? Ren Xiaosu pondered it and said, ¡°Vegetarian... do you mean she can only suck the blood of someone who¡¯s in a vegetative state?¡±


    Luo Xinyu raised her eyebrows. ¡®The fuck you mean by someone who¡¯s in a vegetative state!¡¯ ¡°What I mean is, she can only consume blood that¡¯s been transfused out and not by biting someone.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu really did not feel bad about it. He chuckled. ¡°If that¡¯s how it is, she can even try out different vors of blood by consuming cow¡¯s blood or pig¡¯s blood. If she consumes pig¡¯s blood, maybe she¡¯ll grow as strong as a pig!¡±


    In fact, Luo Xinyu did not have much sympathy for Dong Funan before this. After all, Dong Funan was not exactly a good person to begin with. But with Ren Xiaosu saying that, she began to pity her a little.

 Chapter 178 - Li Shentan’s present

    <h4>Chapter 178: Li Shentan¡¯s present</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    Yang Xiaojin wasn¡¯t at home in the rented ce, and only Luo Xinyu had free time to keep chatting with them in the backyard. Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Xinyu was just killing time with them as she had nothing better to do.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought Yang Xiaojin would return at night, but she was still nowhere to be seen even after it turned dark. Rather, it was Luo Xinyu who went out.


    He felt that something was wrong. This must surely be a sign that trouble was about to begin.


    Soon after, someone sent over the bicycles Luo Xinyu had promised them. Then Ren Xiaosu went out as well after informing the family about it. He suspected the various powers might start taking action against the Li Consortium tonight!


    While Ren Xiaosu was heading out, he thought about where the action would take ce if it was really going to happen. At the university?


    Before it turnedpletely dark, he hurried off to where the university was. Someone had once described the university to Ren Xiaosu as a park with lots of greenery where the students could live and take strolls in. The university was like a utopia that felt peaceful and tranquil to be in.


    But when Ren Xiaosu saw the university with his own eyes, he felt he had been deceived. He saw protruding anti-armor barricades set up outside the college¡¯s entrance, and countless bunkers and fortifications were being constructed on the campus grounds as well. The Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops were patrolling on the inside, and all of them were constantly looking warily around their surroundings with stern expressions.


    How was this like a park? This was clearly more like a military base!


    It was no wonder the Li Consortium did not bother with the antics Luo Lan had kicked up. So it was because all of their troops stationed in Stronghold 109 were concentrated here.


    Just how important were research results that the Li Consortium wanted to protect them this much?


    This university¡¯s campus was not located in a secluded ce at all. There were still a lot of stronghold residents walking around the nearby streets, while it was business as usual for the street vendors.


    But it was at this moment that a tough-looking man in in clothes came up to Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu could see this man was concealing a gun with the side of his body.


    The man seemed to have noticed Ren Xiaosu constantly looking at the campus, so he questioned, ¡°Boy, what are you doing here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this person was probably someone from the Li Consortium. He never expected the defensive perimeter to be so tight. He exined himself, ¡°So this is the university? I came here for research.¡±


    The manughed. ¡°Do you think you look like a university student in research?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not happy. ¡°I¡¯m going there to get researched on. Is that not allowed? Who are you to look down on me!¡±


    The man was surprised. Then he signaled to his surroundings. Out came several inclothes personnel who gathered together.


    But right at this moment, a pedestrian who happened to be passing by suddenly took out a hand grenade from his pocket and threw it at the school gate. After throwing it, he did not escape but fished out a pistol to fire at random around him. It was as though he were trying to create chaos.


    Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the disturbance and quickly found a bunker to hide behind. He wondered who the fuck that was and why he was being so reckless!


    The gunfire intensified outside the school gate, sounding like a pot of ice-water boiling. The street vendors who were going about their business suddenly rushed up and shot all of those inclothes personnel dead!


    However, the chaos did not stop here. These killers briefly retreated after killing the inclothes personnel before several cargo trucks turned the corner at the end of the street and headed straight for the school gate!


    If it were just several cargo trucks alone, they would not have had much impact on the heavily fortified school gate. Ren Xiaosu leaped to his feet and turned and ran. He suspected the trucks were loaded full of explosives!


    Several of the killers noticed Ren Xiaosu, and one of them happened to be where Ren Xiaosu was retreating towards. He raised his gun and took aim. However, just as he pulled the trigger, Ren Xiaosu shifted his weight as quickly as a ghost, making the bullet miss its target!


    At the moment, every muscle fiber in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body stretched to its extreme. A great amount of strength was spread across every inch of his body!


    The killer was stunned. How could someone be so fast that they could even dodge a bullet?!


    Before this killer could fire another shot, he suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu rocketing toward him with a punch!


    This punchnded right on the killer¡¯s neck. He did not even have the chance to dodge it as he heard the bones in his neck crack!


    With a single punch, Ren Xiaosu instantly killed one person!


    When the killers nearby witnessed this scene and tried to shoot in response, they found themselves in a mist of blood that sprayed out of them after getting fired upon from an unknown position. They did not even manage to raise their guns.


    The scent of blood filled the air. When the wind blew, mists of blood floated through in the air like a crimson cloud.


    Only a sniper rifle would have such power.


    Ren Xiaosu jerked his head up at a high-rise building in the distance. He saw a young woman holding arge sniper rifle and standing atop the building. The moon that had just risen was hanging right above the high-rise building and next to Yang Xiaojin.


    The narrow and delicate crescent moon acted like a foil to her presence.


    Suddenly, the ringing of the bell reverberated through the night from the center of the stronghold, gong after gong.


    But Ren Xiaosu froze at the sound. This was because there shouldn¡¯t have been any sounding from the bell after 6 PM!


    ...


    Moments before the bell was sounded.


    Li Shentan was standing in the street far away from the middle of the stronghold in a magician¡¯s costume. In front of him was a hat, and in the hat was some loose change.


    He opened his mouth and said to the stronghold residents who had gathered around, ¡°The magic of hypnotism lies in its ability to help everyone take control of their subconscious. Are there any of you who asionally wake up from your sleep punctually at 3 AM even though you didn¡¯t set an rm?


    ¡°Have you heard of any seniors who can catch a child falling from seven stories up with their bare hands?¡±


    Li Shentan paused for a moment before saying, ¡°What is the subconscious? The human brain is made up of 14 billion brain cells and can actually store information amounting up to five billion books. Yet you¡¯ve already forgotten whatever you remembered a moment ago.¡±


    ¡°Someone is managing your body for you, yet you can¡¯t control that ¡®person.¡¯¡± Li Shentanughed and said, ¡°How dangerous is that?¡±


    Someone in the crowd suddenly asked, ¡°So what¡¯s the point of managing one¡¯s subconscious?¡±


    Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°Have you ever thought about how, when you gain control over your subconscious, you¡¯ll stand a chance of bing a supernatural being? No, it¡¯s more like bing a god!¡± Li Shentan then gently lifted a car on the side of the road. It was as though the car were made of paper!


    When the spectators saw this, they were stunned. Someone started throwing money into Li Shentan¡¯s hat while others were checking if there was any trickery with the car.


    It was at this moment that the bell rang in the night. Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°Let the games... begin.¡±


    When the soundwaves of the bell started reverberating outward, countless residents in the stronghold suddenly stood still in a trance. Then they began to slowly walk in the direction of the university like they were zombies.


    At first, they walked very slowly. But gradually, they picked up speed to the point where everyone was sprinting!


    Their speed even exceeded that of a normal human being¡¯s sprint record. All of these people who were sprinting even seemed like they were drawing energy directly from their life force.


    A fat resident started to visibly get thinner as he sprinted, while those who were thin to begin with were now starting to look like skeletal figures of their former selves.


    They kept sprinting without a care, as the instructions that Li Shentan left for them were all they cared about after the ringing of the bell acted as the trigger for the hypnosis. It was as though they were guided by a god.


    Li Shentan bent over to pick up the magician¡¯s hat from off the ground and spilled the money in it all over the ground. But he didn¡¯t care about that.


    This young man walked down the now silent street while his surroundings became an infernal hell.


    Tonight, the abandoned son of the Li Consortium had presented it with a gift.

 Chapter 179 - The ratlike Qing Consortium

    Chapter 179: The ratlike Qing Consortium


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Ren Xiaosu hid at the entrance of the university and watched.


    The entire Western District of Stronghold 109 had suddenly fallen into inexplicable madness due to the uncertainty that Li Shentan¡¯s appearance brought.


    Yang Xiaojin, who was standing at the highest point, could clearly see the entire situation. During this early evening period, she saw nearly one-fifth of all the people in the district start rushing to the university. The people on the ground were like moths circling a light source, and all of them were swarming and sprinting. It was as though they were a group of uncontrolled, wild beasts.


    In the past, she had said to Ren Xiaosu that if the Demon Whisperer were released, the fate of the stronghold would be unknown. No one could predict whether it would head in a good or bad direction.


    And now, the oue was without a doubt the worst of the spections they had. In fact, many people could not imagine that the enemy could create such widespread chaos single-handedly.


    This was the age where supernatural beings would rise, but many of the organizations were still ignoring the changes that supernatural beings could bring to the era.


    On the other hand, Li Shentan took practical action to inform the major powers on all sides just how shockingly destructive supernatural beings could be.


    Powerful individuals were gradually transcending the strength that groups of people had.


    The people in the crowd ran even faster when they got closer to the university. Some of those whose physical fitness was worse fell to the ground when their bodies could no longer take the stress.


    But the others behind them continued rushing forward as though they did not see the others drop to the ground before them.


    At the university, the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops who were in charge of defending the ce were stunned by the sight. It wasn¡¯t that their mental fortitude was weak, but that they had never imagined they would witness such a hellish scene here on earth.


    Themanding officer of the defensive forces was the first to react. He immediately issued a preliminary warning that they would fire at the crowd if they got any nearer.


    As someone from the Li Consortium, he subconsciously chose to give a warning first instead of shooting to kill. This was because the people running amok were all residents of the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold. If they were to mercilessly fire into them, he could end up getting severely med and criticized. At that time, when the Li Consortium faced the wrath of the residents, he would definitely be singled out and made the scapegoat for giving the order to shoot at them!


    But more importantly, he thought that if he gave a warning before opening fire, the people would stop in their tracks in fear of their weapons.


    s, he couldn¡¯t be more wrong!


    The mindless residents had absolutely no sense of fear, having lost all control of themselves.


    The ¡°essence¡± of hypnotism was to let those who were hypnotizedpletely surrender their consciousness!


    It was precisely because of this officer¡¯s wrong call that the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops lost their best opportunity.


    Actually, there wasn¡¯t anything wrong with this officer¡¯s decision. He was faced with a terrifying opponent he had never encountered before.


    By the time they realized the warning had served no purpose and got ready to fire at the residents, the lunatics were only a few dozen meters away from the university¡¯s entrance.


    ¡°We can¡¯t wait any longer! Shoot to kill!¡±


    Intense gunfire rang out as the soldiers from the Li Consortium pulled their triggers in fear.


    But after killing the first wave of cannon fodder, those behind them stepped over the bodies of the fallen and rushed forward. They kepting wave after wave without any fear!


    In just one short minute, the seemingly heavy fortifications at the entrance of the university had been broken through. The rush of people flowing in swept aside the entire defensive line that had looked imprable at first nce and tore it to pieces.


    Not only that, there were still plenty more residents who fearlessly climbed the electrified wireting on the sides of the walls.


    One of the walls fell!


    When Ren Xiaosu saw that, he was terrified. Had these people gone mad?!


    All of a sudden, the ground below his feet moved.


    Ren Xiaosu looked down and discovered he was standing on top of a manhole cover.


    It felt like someone was pushing the manhole cover aside from below, but whoever was doing so did not seed in moving it even after a long time. Then Luo Lan¡¯s irritated voice sounded from underneath it. ¡°Those bastard fuckers from the Li Consortium actually sealed the manholes? C¡¯mon, let¡¯s go to a different spot and try again.¡±


    A strange look appeared on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face. He walked a few dozen meters away and stood on top of yet another manhole cover. As a result, Luo Lan¡¯s voice sounded out again, ¡°Fuck! This one has been sealed too!¡±


    But before Ren Xiaosu could feel amused, he heard Fatty Luo shout below, ¡°Fucking st this manhole cover apart!¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu hurriedly said, ¡°Come on up. There¡¯s no need to blow up anything...¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu stepped aside, the manhole cover quickly opened a little. Luo Lan¡¯s eyes locked on to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes through the small seam that had opened up.


    ¡°So it¡¯s you, kid,¡± Luo Lan snapped as he climbed out from below. His rotund body would have gotten stuck in the manhole if not for the people below him pushing him out.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Were you born in the year of the rat? Why do you keep scuttling around in the sewers?¡±


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Luo Lan said disdainfully, ¡°We¡¯re just prescient. Back when they were constructing this stronghold, our people infiltrated their architectural design team. There are no Li Consortium strongholds we¡¯re not familiar with. Don¡¯t you think that it¡¯s awesome to be able to navigate around the ce from below and not get discovered by anyone?¡±


    ¡°Sure is.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Except it¡¯s also a little stinky.¡±


    Then he saw the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops crawling out of the sewers one after another, until over a 100 people hade out. They were all in full battle gear, with one soldier even carrying an RPG!


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Are y¡¯all getting ready to attack the university campus too?


    ¡°But of course. For something so precious to the Li Consortium, we¡¯d definitely like to know what it is,¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°Say, why are y¡¯all getting so excited over something that you don¡¯t even know about?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°We have an idea of what it might be.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°It could be nanomachines.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Can you sound surer?¡±


    Luo Lan said unhappily, ¡°The Li Consortium has done a very good job of keeping it a secret. Everyone else is also just guessing at what it might be. But the thing is, the Li Consortium is at the forefront of the nanorobotics field. We are still stuck in the experimentation phase, but their nanomachines have already been put into use in medicine.¡±


    Fatty Luo continued, ¡°In the early years, the nanomachines they created from DNA could already clear blood clots and other things like that. Back then, some of the executives from the other organizations would even go to the Li Consortium¡¯s hospitals to get their illnesses treated when they got older. The Li Consortium even have nanozymes 1


    that are used to treat hepatitis C. All of these are the main research fields the Li Consortium led.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered the mention of the hepatitis virus. ¡°What, is the Qing Consortium thinking of venturing into the medical industry?¡±

 Chapter 180 - They’re all guilty

    <h4>Chapter 180: They¡¯re all guilty</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°No.¡± Luo Lan shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re only guessing what it might be. In the past, nanomachines could only perform extremely simple and basic operations as it was too difficult for the Li Consortium to implementplex programming into them. So we paid no further attention to this matter after that. But it seems like they might have had a breakthrough in the field.¡±


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought it was some extraordinary result from the research of supernatural beings. In the end, it turned out to be something about some nano thingy. When he heard that, his first thought was to leave.


    Such scientific research results might be useful to therge organizations, but it wasn¡¯t worth a hoot to Ren Xiaosu. A hopeless student like him had not even fucking heard of nanomachines before, much less knew what they were.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu also had his own understanding of science. But whatever he did not hear of before would get treated as superstition.


    Moreover, if people like Luo Lan were still just guessing and could not even be sure of what it was after so much guessing, all the more Ren Xiaosu would not waste his time on something so uncertain.


    Luo Lan said, ¡°How about this? You¡¯ll help me to steal the research, and I¡¯ll pay you for it.¡±


    ¡°Since y¡¯all like guessing so much, why don¡¯t you guess if I will help you?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a chuckle.


    ¡°My guess is that you will!¡± Luo Lan said excitedly.


    ¡°Guess again!¡±


    Luo Lan was silent, then said, ¡°Look here, I was the one who told you the Experimentals wereing.¡±


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said sincerely.


    ¡°Forget it.¡± Luo Lan waved his hand in frustration. ¡°It¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t wanna help. I might as well tell you something else. There could be the existence of an intelligent being among the Experimentals, as we found out they¡¯ve actually been performing experiments on themselves. Can you imagine how scary that is?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little taken aback. ¡°What else are the Experimentals supposed to do if they don¡¯t perform experiments?¡±


    Now it was Luo Lan¡¯s turn to be taken aback. ¡°That¡¯s quite logical.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ignored Luo Lan and nned to return to their rented courtyard house immediately. Currently, Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others were waiting there for him.


    When he left, Ren Xiaosu even turned back to have a look. He realized Yang Xiaojin was still on top of that building. It was as though she were providing cover for someone.


    Then he suddenly saw a familiar face appear in the distance. It turned out to be the Stronghold 109 overseer!


    He saw Lu Yuaning over. Anyone who attempted to stop him ended up with a mist of blood spraying out of their bodies. So... Lu Yuan was actually a member of the Saboteurs?!


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt that many of the questions that had puzzled him just got answered.


    No wonder Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu had gotten their stronghold resident statuses so easily. No wonder Yang Xiaojin could enroll in school so easily. No wonder that when Old Wang got arrested by the Public Order Division, Lu Yuan immediately called them to have him released. No wonder Yang Xiaojin had wanted to make things difficult for Luo Lan. It was because Luo Lan had pped Lu Yuan, and Yang Xiaojin wanted to get back at him for her colleague.


    When Lu Yuan saw Ren Xiaosu, he smiled and waved to him. Lu Yuan appeared much more cheerful than before. He looked to be much happier after shedding the false identity.


    But what Ren Xiaosu could not figure out was that his school enrollment should also have been handled by Lu Yuan, while Yang Xiaojin had enrolled for school two days earlier than him, so wouldn¡¯t that mean she already knew he would be attending school as well? And she even knew which school he would be going to?!


    Ren Xiaosu had always been suspicious of Yang Xiaojin as she did not really have any reason for attending school. Why was she going to school? As it turned out, he was actually the target the entire time! Was it so she could observe him at a closer distance, or were there other reasons?


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered if these people were thinking of recruiting him into the Saboteurs as well. But Ren Xiaosu had no time to wonder about these things. He immediately turned and left.


    The courtyard house Old Wang had rented was not far from the university. So Yan Liuyuan and the others had also heard the gunfire. When Ren Xiaosu pushed open the door and entered, everyone heaved sighs of relief.


    The entire courtyard was filled with people. The students, Jiang Wu, and a whole lot of bicycles were all there.


    Xiaoyu asked, ¡°Xiaosu, what was with the gunfire? Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Everyone, get on your bikes. We¡¯ve gotta leave right away!¡±


    No matter what was about to happen in this stronghold, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s top priority would to lead everyone to safety, not to try to get his hands on something!


    With so many lives at stake, Ren Xiaosu could not be selfish.


    When the group saw Ren Xiaosu rushing out the door, everyone wore their backpacks that were filled with their personal supplies.


    After everyone got on their bicycles, Yan Liuyuan hesitated before asking, ¡°Bro, why are you carrying your bike?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°¡®m afraid that I¡¯ll damage the bike. Enough nonsense, hurry to the stronghold¡¯s gate!¡±


    ...


    Li Shentan was walking the streets of the Western District. The people in the other districts were likely still unaware of what had happened here. The little girl whose name was Si Liren suddenly floated over from behind him. Neither of her feet were touching the ground.


    ¡°I was afraid the bell wasn¡¯t loud enough, so I struck it a few more times,¡± the little girl said with a smile.


    ¡°Well done.¡± Li Shentan smiled dotingly and said, ¡°That should be enough of a surprise for the Li Consortium¡¯s people.¡±


    ¡°But why did we do that?¡± Si Liren asked curiously.


    Li Shentan stood still and looked at both sides of the street. It all looked familiar yet strange to him. He said, ¡°My mother married into the Li Consortium a long time ago to counteract my ill father¡¯s bad luck. At the beginning, his sickness did improve. But it didn¡¯tst long before he passed away a few yearster.


    ¡°My mother brought me up in the Li Consortium. When she fell in love with a young teacherter on and wanted to marry him...¡± Li Shentan sighed. ¡°Actually, all that is human nature. However, the Li Consortium believes that any woman who married into the Li Consortium belongs to the organization for life. If my mother married someone else, they would see it as disgracing the Li Consortium.¡±


    Si Liren quietly listened. ¡°What happened afterwards?¡±


    ¡°Afterwards?¡± Li Shentan thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Afterwards, the Li Consortium dragged her out of the stronghold on this very street we¡¯re treading on and buried her alive. I don¡¯t even know where she was buried.¡±


    All of a sudden, a Shadow Door appeared not far behind Li Shentan. Luo Xinyu asked from behind the Shadow Door, ¡°Then what are the other residents in this stronghold guilty of?¡±


    Li Shentan looked at the Shadow Door and said with augh, ¡°Why are you hiding behind the door? Aren¡¯t you gonnae out and say hi to your friend?¡±


    Luo Xinyu snapped, ¡°I know you can hypnotize people with just a look, so don¡¯t try that with me. You still haven¡¯t answered the question I posed to you.¡±


    Li Shentanughed and said, ¡°On that day, I cowardly hid on the side of the street and watched as the vehicle escorting my mother passed by. On that day, the entire poption of the Western District came to watch. There were people who made fun of her and jeered at her, but none stepped forward to plead for her life. Therefore, they¡¯re all guilty.¡±


    After that, Li Shentan went crazy and was sent to the psychiatric hospital.


    While in the psychiatric hospital, he briefly lost his identity before bing a legendary Demon Whisperer. It was as if he had be the representative of the Underworld on earth.


    It was no wonder no one could find out the identity of Li Shentan. It seemed like the Li Consortium had also thought of him as a disgrace and decided to erase all traces of mother and son.

 Chapter 181 - Wait for me

    Chapter 181: Wait for me


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    But Li Shentan suddenly smiled and said, ¡°I know something very terrifying is making its way towards Stronghold 109 as we speak. The main defensive forces of the stronghold supposedly made up of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops are now holed up in a university because of you people. When those terrifying things arrive, who will defend the city? Guess how many people will die to the hands of those things. And who is going to take responsibility for that?


    ¡°The Saboteurs, the Qing Consortium, the Yang Consortium, or the Pyro Company?¡± Li Shentan questioned, ¡°Which of you are qualified to throw stones at me?¡±


    Luo Xinyu stayed silent.


    ¡°We¡¯re all sinners,¡± Li Shentanmented.


    ¡°Since you¡¯ve already gotten your revenge, isn¡¯t it time to reel it in?¡± Luo Xinyu said, ¡°You have to trust that even though justice may be dyed, it won¡¯t be denied.¡±


    Li Shentan reacted like he had heard a hrious joke. ¡°That isn¡¯t the original version of the saying. The original goes like this: ¡®Justice dyed is justice denied.¡¯¡±


    Luo Xinyu suddenly asked, ¡°What do you think is the essence behind turning supernatural?¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it already summed up in the mission statement of your Saboteurs organization?¡± Li Shentan chuckled. ¡°When a disasteres, mental strength bes the best weapon humanity has in the face of danger. But my understanding of mental strength is based on... furthering the development of the brain.¡±


    Luo Xinyu calmly said, ¡°But studies about furthering the development of the brain have been refuted since before The Cataclysm.¡±


    ¡°Anything that hasn¡¯t been rigorously argued over can only be taken as rumors. Even now, humanity still hasn¡¯t fully discovered which part of the brain corresponds with the human emotion, so how dare they say they¡¯vepletely understood it?¡± Li Shentan said in seriousness, ¡°But I still can¡¯t be sure if supernatural beings have unlocked a new area in their brains or whether they¡¯ve just achieved an increase of their brain¡¯s potential to a 100%. I guess it¡¯s better to just call it something like mental strength for now.¡±


    ¡°Then ording to your logic,¡± Luo Xinyu said, ¡°does it mean that the more powerful a supernatural being is, the closer they are to destroying themselves?¡±


    ¡°Theoretically, yes.¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°The moment the brain¡¯s potential reaches a 100% capability, humanity might evolve a will that¡¯s equivalent to that of a god. Their bodies could also disintegrate as a result of not being able to handle this extremely vast will. This might even start happening once the brain reaches 70% capability.¡±


    Li Shentan was suddenly reminded of a youth he knew and seemed a little unsure as he said, ¡°But I think there are also exceptions to that. So whatever we¡¯re discussing right now is pointless. It¡¯s only when humans evolve to that level that we¡¯ll know the answer.¡± Li Shentan then ignored Luo Xinyu. He continued walking with Si Liren towards the university to see for himself the destruction of Stronghold 109¡¯s Li Consortium troops.


    Luo Xinyu did not bother questioning him any further as she had something more important to handle. Time was running out.


    Even for an organization as powerful and well-connected as the Saboteurs, they couldn¡¯t gain ess to all the secrets of this world. Whatever had been discussed here today, Luo Xinyu would have to write up a report detailing every single word that was said so the others in the organization could readjust their research direction.


    But at this moment, the other districts of the stronghold that had been peaceful burst into an uproar. It was as though something extremely rming had happened. Those who were in the know shuddered in their hearts as they knew the Experimentals must have arrived in advance!


    Luo Xinyu ignored this and just stood outside the university. She closed the Shadow Door she had opened up next to Li Shentan. When she opened the Shadow Door again, she walked right through it.


    Step by step, she went from where she was to an enclosed researchboratory that looked very technologically advanced. Luo Xinyu examined her environment.


    Whatever she was looking for was in here.


    Luo Xinyu held a gun in her hand and kept her guard up in case any security personnel inside theb became a threat. However, no one seemed to be in theb anymore. It looked like everyone might have already escaped due to the unrest that was happening outside.


    The entireb was empty.


    At this moment, she noticed a portable hard drive that was locked inside a bulletproof ss case. Luo Xinyu raised her gun and fired continuously at the ss to break it open. She then got ready to take the hard drive out and leave through the Shadow Door.


    But a secondter, theb¡¯s ceiling lit up brightly. The entire interior of theb turned bright as day. There were no blind spots where the light could not reach!


    Luo Xinyu attempted to open the Shadow Door to leave, but it could not be formed in this ce where no shadows could be cast. The Shadow Door she tried to conjure up materialized as a dull shadow that quickly dissipated after swaying a couple times.


    Thisb was actually fitted with anti-theft measures specific to her ability!


    Luo Xinyu frowned as she decided to go and open theb¡¯s door instead. However, she discovered she did not even know how to open the steel door several centimeters thick.


    Frankly, Luo Xinyu felt a little powerless now. This was the first time she had encountered a measure that was specially tailored to her!


    However, she was not worried for herself but Yang Xiaojin, who was currently waiting for her on the rooftop of the high-rise building.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu carried his bicycle and ran ahead of the group. Along the way, they saw several residents who had been hypnotized by Li Shentan sprinting past them. None of those residents gave them a second look.


    When the students saw the crazy looks on those people, they felt a little scared. Ren Xiaosu tried tofort them. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid, the entire Western District has be like this. They won¡¯t attack us.¡±


    When the students heard what the entire Western District had be, they got even more frightened.


    Within two minutes, Ren Xiaosu and the group arrived at the stronghold¡¯s gate. Right now, rms were going off everywhere inside the stronghold, as if to say that something terrifying wasing to attack the stronghold.


    Or rather, those terrifying things had arrived a while ago. However, they only started a full-scale attack after the chaos broke out.


    The Experimentals had broken into the stronghold through the sewer system. However, they were not in a hurry to attack and had chosen to set up an ambush instead.


    And now, they felt it was time.


    Luo Lan should count himself lucky that he had only gone a short distance underground today. Otherwise, he might have gotten a nasty surprise if he bumped into therge group of Experimentals.


    At this point, the private army¡¯s soldiers that were assigned to guard the stronghold¡¯s gate had also rushed over to the university upon hearing the rm. This ce was now void of people.


    Yan Liuyuan frowned and said, ¡°Bro, how do we open the gate?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, I have bombs.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu with anticipation. Then their eyes grew wide when they saw him taking out four poker cards with the number three.


    Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, and Chen Wudi were confused.


    Were these the legendary bombs he was talking about? How the hell could they possibly blow the gate up with that?


    What? Are you going to throw out four threes 1 at the gate, then let it say ¡°pass¡± before opening up the gate for you?!


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Bro, can you be a little more serious at a time like this?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t panic, it¡¯s not a big problem!¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he waved for everyone to step back. Then he stuck the four cards onto the gate and also ran far away to take cover.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, ¡°Detonate!¡±


    Suddenly, those four poker cards stuck on the gate exploded with a shocking amount of power and a fiery glow. Afterwards, there was a lot of dust and smoke around where the gate used to be.


    After the st, the powerful explosion lifted arge cloud of dust and smoke in the opposite direction. Debris from the remnants of the gate scattered everywhere while Yan Liuyuan and the others all felt the ground tremble below them!


    Ren Xiaosu looked over to check. ¡°It¡¯s done!¡±


    The gate had a huge hole blown through it!


    Wang Fugui was shocked. So it was actually that dangerous to y ¡°Fight the Landlord¡±?!


    ¡°Everyone, get out of the city. We¡¯re going to head north.¡± Ren Xiaosu was nning on leading the way. As for whatever was happening in the stronghold, it really had nothing to do with him anymore.


    But when he turned around to have another look at the stronghold, he saw Yang Xiaojin standing on top of that building far off in the distance. There were over a dozen Experimentals crawling up towards her like spiders. Ren Xiaosu froze for a moment. Why hadn¡¯t Luo Xinyu gone to fetch Yang Xiaojin yet?!


    This wasn¡¯t how he had imagined it would be. Based on past experience, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu should have made the mostfortable retreat of all.


    But as it stood, Yang Xiaojin was still ten stories high on that building¡¯s rooftop. She was a lone boat in the dark ocean. She could capsize at any moment.


    Ren Xiaosu only hesitated for a moment before he turned to Wang Fugui and the others and said, ¡°You guys, leave first. I need to make a trip back to the stronghold! Chen Wudi, make sure you protect everyone!¡±


    Wang Fugui panicked. ¡°Xiaosu, no one¡¯s gonna survive in that stronghold.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at them and said firmly, ¡°Head north, and don¡¯t turn back! I¡¯ll catch up to y¡¯all!¡± Ren Xiaosu then turned around and headed back to the city that had now turned into a hell.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu was unsure why he had chosen to turn around. Perhaps it was because of the familiarity of facing those wild beasts that led him wanting to be among them again. Or perhaps it was because he liked the night sky in this city that he wanted to take in more of the scenery here. Or even perhaps he had forgotten to grab his wallet?


    Well, alright! Ren Xiaosu knew all those were poor excuses for turning back. Perhaps it was only because he didn¡¯t want that girl to die here.


    Ren Xiaosu started running faster and faster, with his clothes pping loudly in the wind. He was a male lion on the hunt.


    He looked at the top of the high-rise building, while the girl at the top also seemed to quietly look back at him.


    The chaotic gunfire around him and the Experimentals that were choosing who to eat, all of those things made this world feel a little absurd right now.


    The dark sky even felt like it was about to split apart in the middle.


    But none of that was important.


    Wait for me.

 Chapter 182 - Against the current

    Chapter 182: Against the current


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Wang Fugui and the others stood at the gate and watched as Ren Xiaosu headed back into the dangerous stronghold. Sometimes, Wang Fugui felt that Ren Xiaosu was way too brave. He just had to head back into a ce everyone was trying their best to run away from.


    Though, Wang Fugui felt he had made the wisest decision of his life when he chose to bring Wang Dalong with him and follow Ren Xiaosu in their escape. If it weren¡¯t for that, he would probably have perished in another disaster even if he were fortunate enough to survive the one that happened at Stronghold 113.


    The world today was simply too dangerous a ce.


    The past couple days, Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui had both been doubted countless of times by the stores they bought their escape supplies from. It even caused Wang Fugui to sometimes feel that if it weren¡¯t an earthquake or some other natural disasters urring, no harm would befall the stronghold.


    But as the facts had proven, Ren Xiaosu was correct after all.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan could only watch helplessly as Ren Xiaosu headed back in. Xiaoyu sighed and said, ¡°Liuyuan, are you worried about your brother?¡±


    Everyone knew how close these two brothers were, so it was only natural that Yan Liuyuan would be worried about Ren Xiaosu. However, Yan Liuyuan shook his head and said, ¡°No, I¡¯m just thinking if I should go over to remind him that he¡¯s still carrying his bike around.¡±


    Xiaoyu was surprised.


    It was only at this moment that everyone realized in shock that Ren Xiaosu still was carrying his bicycle with him when he turned back to the stronghold.


    But the earlier situation was simply too pressing, and with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shocking decision to head back into the stronghold, they couldn¡¯t get a handle on the situation.


    Wang Fugui felt that the mighty presence and image Ren Xiaosu had built up in their minds had all but poofed.


    Yan Liuyuan got onto his bicycle and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go! My brother naturally knows what he¡¯s doing if he dares to go back in there. We¡¯ll head north!¡±


    Chen Wudi looked at the stronghold and said in a sad voice, ¡°Master will probably elope with the ruler of Womand 1 now. How can we go and seek the Buddhist scriptures from the Western Paradise?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan consoled, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll just bring the ruler of Womand with us.¡±


    Chen Wudi mulled over this for a long time before saying reluctantly, ¡°Well, alright.¡±


    ...


    The high-rise building Yang Xiaojin was on was only about a kilometer away from the stronghold¡¯s gate. Ren Xiaosu nced at the building, then sighed as he put the bicycle down by the road. How careless of him to have forgotten to hand it to Yan Liuyuan for safekeeping first.


    The 15 cubic meters of storage space he had was already stuffed full of supplies. Actually, he could just take some of the supplies out and put the bicycle in, but there was no time to fiddle around with it now.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw many people in front of him fleeing toward the stronghold gate near him. Behind them, several Experimentals were frantically chasing after them.


    The Experimentals were so terrifying that the stronghold residents cried with fear. Some people even lost their shoes as they ran, while others were fleeing wearing only a thin pair of pajamas. From the looks of it, they must have run straight out of their homes.


    These stronghold residents who had recently been talking about music festivals and fashion trends finally understood just what the world outside the stronghold was like.


    When Ren Xiaosu first came into the stronghold, he had a thought: Everything in the outside world seemed to be changing at an extremely rapid pace, but the strongholds remained the same throughout. These people were enjoying a false sense of peace and prosperity behind the stronghold walls that seemed to be protecting them but were actually shackling their progress.


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at the high-rise building Yang Xiaojin was on. He saw an Experimental climb almost to the top. However, just as it was about to leap over onto the rooftop, it was greeted by therge muzzle of a gun.


    The Experimentals were not afraid of bullets. Even bullets fired by an automatic rifle from 50 meters away would get lodged in the surface of their skins due to their tough muscles.


    However, that did not include being fired upon by a sniper rifle.


    Yang Xiaojin had such great strength that she was actually able to use the sniper rifle as a close-range artillery weapon. With a ringing shot, the Experimental that was the first to reach the rooftop had its entire head blown off!


    The recoil from the sniper rifle packed a punch. If a normal person were wielding this weapon, they would probably have been thrown back by the recoil after firing one shot.


    But Yang Xiaojin looked like she wasn¡¯t affected at all. Very quickly, she fired at another Experimental.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu always felt an extreme amount of contradiction seeing Yang Xiaojin¡¯s petite figure wielding that sniper rifle. Yet this contradiction exuded a unique aesthetic of violence.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu had originally been worried about if he would get there in time. Ren Xiaosu knew that if nobody went to support her, Yang Xiaojin would definitely reach a point where she would get overwhelmed. After all, there were simply too many Experimentals.


    But now he was a little relieved. At least he still had some time to get there!


    Or rather, Yang Xiaojin was buying time for herself!


    Ren Xiaosu picked up his pace and elerated forward. But with everyone else heading toward the stronghold gate, Ren Xiaosu was going against the current.


    When the fleeing people passed Ren Xiaosu by, even in this life and death situation, every one of them could not help but look at him in amazement. How could someone be going in the opposite direction, towards the Experimentals? All of them wanted nothing more than to get away from those creatures right now!


    At this moment, everyone in the city was fleeing for their lives and were being driven towards the stronghold¡¯s gate by the Experimentals. On these streets, only one person was heading in the opposite direction of everyone else.


    Yang Xiaojin was watching this scene from the building in the distance. When she saw Ren Xiaosu making his way back towards the stronghold, she suddenly felt that the current Stronghold 109 was not that scary anymore.


    Then an old man recognized Ren Xiaosu in the crowd. Wasn¡¯t that the boy who had bought a lot of food supplies from his store?


    This old man was the grocery store owner from before. Yesterday, he was still making fun of Ren Xiaosu for worrying too much. But now he finally realized just how great of a fool he was.


    How did this young man know there would be danger?


    Moreover, since he already knew there would be danger, why hadn¡¯t he fled in advance? Why was he still heading in the opposite direction from them at this time?


    Those two questions kept swirling around in the grocery store owner¡¯s mind. As he continued running, he kept wondering why. But as soon as he passed Ren Xiaosu by, screams burst from the front of the fleeing crowd!


    At the far end of the street, many Experimentals suddenly rushed out from the left side of the intersection in front. These Experimentals had actually taken another path to outnk them!


    However, only Ren Xiaosu, who was going in the opposite direction, was not surprised by this. This was because, having taken on the Experimentals before, he knew well that their hunting style was to leave no survivors.


    If they were not fully prepared, there was absolutely no way they would have waited so patiently underground in ambush.


    The intelligent being that helmed these Experimentals surely had greater ambition!


    Footnotes:


    Ch 182 Footnote 1


    The Tang priest and his three disciples, Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy, journey through Womand on their way to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures. In Womand, the priest is horrified when the Queen decides she will marry him and make him king of Womand and father to future kings. Monkey has a n to extricate the travellers, but things start to go wrong when the priest is carried off in a whirlwind by an unknown woman. | https://books.google.sg/books/about/The_Womand_of_Western_Liang.html?id=AVEXHAAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

 Chapter 183 - Running out of time!

    Chapter 183: Running out of time!


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Soon, Ren Xiaosu arrived at the back of the crowd as he made his way through them in the opposite direction. Here, three Experimentals chased after over a 1,000 people and ughtered anyone they could get their hands on. When they realized Ren Xiaosu was heading straight for them, one of the Experimentals gave up on its target and pounced at Ren Xiaosu instead!


    But before they could even get in front of Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu had already pulled a saber out of thin air. Even at this moment, Ren Xiaosu did not stop moving. He ran even faster, leading with shoulder forward, brushing past the Experimental that had pounced at him.


    Ren Xiaosu gripped the handle of the extremely sharp saber firmly as he felt it going through the Experimental¡¯s body. Its gray skin was sliced open by the de.


    The muscle fibers within the gray skin ruptured thread by thread. Following, the bones were cleanly cut through. Finally, the gray body was split in two asrge amounts of pale yellow blood spurted out of it.


    All of a sudden, the crowd that was fleeing toward the stronghold¡¯s gate was blocked off by some Experimentals up ahead. Everyone instinctively turned around and ran back to where they came. Turning around didn¡¯t mean they would survive, but they did not know what else they could do!


    The despairing crowd had lost all sense by now. They had not received any evacuation training, nor faced the wilderness before. As such, even if they had a strong desire to live, their survival instinct was unable to guide them on where to go.


    The instant they turned around, they saw the sight of an Experimental getting sliced in half. The ck saber, the youth who was bursting with strength and power, and the Experimental that looked so vulnerable in the face of the de.


    A girl discovered to her surprise that the youth who did this was the Ren Xiaosu who had once been asked by their ss to drop out of school. Back then, they were all afraid that Ren Xiaosu would bring disease and death to them since he was a former refugee. But what did that student who spoke up for him say at that time?


    On that day, one of Jiang Wu¡¯s students had said to them and their parents, ¡°Side with him? We¡¯re not siding with or helping him. And he doesn¡¯t need our help either. You people are utterly clueless about the outside world. I find it to be really sad.¡±


    No one knew what that student was trying to say at the time. But now she realized what it meant.


    So this world had be this dangerous. The students who escaped in the wilderness to Stronghold 109 had clearly gone through life and death with Ren Xiaosu. As a result, they knew exactly what he was capable of.


    Such capabilities might not mean much inside the stronghold. Butpared to therger world, these strongholds were just a mere speck.


    The girl tugged at a middle-aged woman next to her and shouted, ¡°Mom, that¡¯s Ren Xiaosu! He¡¯s the refugee who was forced to switch sses by you all!¡±


    Aplicated look appeared on the woman¡¯s face. But in this life and death situation, was there a need to have other considerations? She said, ¡°Do you know him? Ask him toe back and save us!¡±


    At this moment, when the fleeing crowd that had been forced to turn back by the Experimentals saw that Ren Xiaosu could y these creatures, someone shouted, ¡°Follow him, follow him closely!¡±


    It was as though they had found their savior and thought they could survive just by following Ren Xiaosu.


    But after ying one of the Experimentals, Ren Xiaosu did note to a stop. He immediately hurried away from the battle site so the other two Experimentals would not have a chance to close in on him and cause any further dys.


    His objective was to save someone, not stay behind to kill these Experimentals!


    With just a moment¡¯s effort, Ren Xiaosu left the Experimentals and the fleeing crowd far behind.


    Seeing they could not catch up to Ren Xiaosu, the Experimentals turned back around to the frightened crowd. When the girl saw Ren Xiaosu running further and further away, and just as she was about to call out to him toe back and save them, the Experimental in front of her pounced and bit down on her throat!


    The girl¡¯s cry for help did not even manage to make it out of her mouth, and only despair remained in her eyes.


    Ren Xiaosu was never a savior of others. There was only one person¡¯s life in this stronghold he cared about right now.


    Then the pce suddenly said, ¡°Quest: Save the stronghold¡¯s residents.¡±


    But even so, it did not make Ren Xiaosu turn his head.


    He definitely needed toplete the quest. But Yang Xiaojin was also a resident of the stronghold, so wouldn¡¯t saving her also allow him toplete the quest? Ren Xiaosu always had a unique understanding of the quests assigned by the pce.


    While he was running with everything he had, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see an Experimental crouched next to a man who had fainted. The man did not have any visible injuries on his body and seemed to have only been knocked unconscious.


    Ren Xiaosu kept his distance from this Experimental as he continued running towards the building. However, he couldn¡¯t help but keep noticing its odd behavior.


    Usually, the Experimentals would pounce when they noticed a living being like him. However, this Experimental apparently had something more important it needed to do.


    The Experimental suddenly opened its mouth wide and stuck out its tongue. Ren Xiaosu thought it was going lick its ¡°food¡± before devouring it. However, he noticed there was a small syringe wrapped around the end of its tongue. Then the Experimental took the syringe and held it in its hand. It attempted to inject the syringe filled with a gray liquid into the man¡¯s neck!


    Ren Xiaosu felt a chill run up his spine. What was this Experimental trying to do?


    Luo Lan had already reminded Ren Xiaosu that these Experimentals were known to conduct experiments. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was wondering what else would the Experimentals do if not experiments? But at this moment, he was shocked.


    The normal skin color of the man suddenly started to visibly turn gray. His muscles that couldn¡¯t be counted as particrly lean also started bulking up rapidly.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu thought the Experimentals¡¯ goal was to ughter all living things. But right now, he realized they were not actually looking to kill everyone.


    What exactly was the liquid that had been injected into the man?


    To tell the truth, when Luo Lan mentioned the ¡°nanomachines¡± and ¡°Experimentals performing experiments¡±, Ren Xiaosu reacted quite scornfully to it. After all, a break in human civilization had urred, so technology should still be in its preliminary stage of revival, right?


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of what Zhang Jinglin had said to him before. Technology had not really been fully disced.


    Zhang Jinglin¡¯s original words were: ¡°They are in the possession of a minority of the people.¡±


    That should be the reason for the organizations rise to be what they were now.


    Ren Xiaosu realized why the Experimentals¡¯ numbers were increasing.


    It was no wonder the Experimentals were attacking another stronghold. It was because they were trying to increase their food sources and expand theirmunity, so they had to take over new strongholds in order to get them.


    If Stronghold 113 had not copsed from an earthquake, the Experimentals would not have been able to expand in numbers so rapidly. It was because they didn¡¯t have enough numbers to attack and take down a stronghold before that event.


    But ever since they increased their numbers at Stronghold 113, they had raised a big enough army to devour a stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu knew he was running out of time. He needed to get Yang Xiaojin out of this ce pronto.

 Chapter 184 - Rescuing Yang Xiaojin

    Chapter 184: Rescuing Yang Xiaojin


    Trantor: Legge Editor: Legge


    Finally, he arrived at the entrance of the tall building.


    The firing of the sniper rifle had stopped. It was quite likely that the Experimentals were already up on the roof, and Yang Xiaojin had given up on using the sniper rifle and switched to closebat.


    Ren Xiaosu did not choose to take the stairs. He called upon his shadow clone and hopped on its back as it started climbing to the top of the building from the exterior.


    Between here and the top, the shortest route was a straight line. If he took the stairs up, Yang Xiaojin would probably already be dead by the time he got up there!


    Ren Xiaosu felt some regret. If he hadpletely copied Luo Xinyu¡¯s power, would he have to spend so much effort now?


    When he first copied Shadow Door, he got Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu to buy a live chicken back from the market for him. It wasn¡¯t because he wanted to eat meat but that he wanted to try and see if he could pull someone through the Shadow Door like Luo Xinyu did.


    But as it would be too dangerous to test it on Yan Liuyuan, he could only try it out on an animal.


    After testing it out, Ren Xiaosu gave up. Even when the target he was trying to bring through the Shadow Door was a chicken, he could only manage to get one of its legs through. It couldn¡¯t be pulled any further than that.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu still got a little angry about it.


    Suddenly, perhaps alerted by the sound of him climbing up the building, two Experimentals crashed through the windows on the seventh story and climbed out. They were forcefully blocking Ren Xiaosu¡¯s path to the roof.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Just the two of you and you want to block me? Do y¡¯all know how many Experimentals I have killed? Do y¡¯all know...¡±


    However, the two Experimentals simply hung upside down on the fa?ade and kept their eyes on Ren Xiaosu without flinching.


    Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°Alright, it seems like I couldn¡¯t scare you.¡±


    As soon as his voice trailed off, his shadow clone pushed off from the exterior with all of its limbs and leaped up. The fuzzy outline of the shadow clone solidified into steel.


    Ren Xiaosu and his shadow clone separated in midair, and both of them drew a ck saber out of thin air at the same time, their actions in unison.


    The two Experimentals above him growled and pounced down. But before they could finish, the two ck sabers cut through their necks.


    The shadow clone kicked one foot off of a falling Experimental¡¯s body and used this change of direction to regain its grip on the steel frame of the building with one of its hands. The other hand grasped tightly onto Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wrist.


    In the blink of an eye, the two Experimentals did not even make a ripple when facing Ren Xiaosu and his shadow clone.


    The coordinated move of Ren Xiaosu and his shadow clone was wless.


    Without any obstacles between him and the roof, his shadow clone took him to the top in a single bound.


    When the Experimentals that had surrounded Yang Xiaojin saw another human being jump onto the rooftop, all of them turned to look at Ren Xiaosu ferociously.


    Ren Xiaosu stood on the edge of the roof and scrutinized his surroundings. There were seven Experimentals in all, but one of them was already immobilized on the ground. Yang Xiaojin, who was injured and stained with blood all over, had her back facing the parapet walls of the roof as she gasped violently for breath. She was holding a new dagger that did not look like it was cast from normal steel.


    This was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s first time face to face with so many monsters. If it weren¡¯t for his shadow clone, Ren Xiaosu would probably have to die here as well.


    Seeing the suspicious look on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s face, Ren Xiaosu said to his shadow clone, ¡°Old Xu, let¡¯s get all of them!¡±


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that Yang Xiaojin was hiding a slight smile in her eyes despite looking really pathetic at this moment.


    Yang Xiaojin said weakly, ¡°Xu Xianchu is already a few hundred kilometers from here.¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha, is that so?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed in embarrassment.


    Yang Xiaojin did not bother arguing with him and slowly sat on the ground. Every wound on her body was giving searing pain. Having lost a lot of blood, she was almost in a state of shock as well.


    Ren Xiaosu calmly said, ¡°You rest for a bit. I¡¯ll get you out of here.¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Yang Xiaojin responded softly.


    ...


    Luo Xinyu burning with anxiety in theb as the seconds ticked away. Before she came in here, she already knew the Experimentals were about to start their attack on the stronghold. If she didn¡¯t go and bail her out now, Yang Xiaojin would be in great danger.


    But in this enclosedb where light encroached upon every corner, there was nothing she could do.


    Luo Xinyu tried shooting at the ceiling, but even the ss roof was bulletproof. She could try to use her coat to create a faint shadow, but that wouldn¡¯t be big enough for her to activate the Shadow Door.


    This was where Luo Xinyu was different from Ren Xiaosu. Although Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Shadow Door only allowed him to put an arm through it, he could adjust the size of his Shadow Door at will. Luo Xinyu¡¯s Shadow Door could only be conjured at the standard size she had no control over.


    Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot rang out from outside. Then she heard a voice yelling, ¡°Hehe, if it¡¯s something I want, you can bet I¡¯ll get my hands on it!¡±


    Luo Xinyu¡¯s eyes lit up. Who could have expected Luo Lan toe barging in at this moment? As soon as Luo Lan opened the door and came in, the light source would turn off. At that time, she might have the chance to immediately leave through the Shadow Door.


    Luo Lan¡¯s voice sounded from the outside, ¡°Hurry up and key in the password for the door to open. Otherwise, I¡¯ll finish you off where you stand.¡±


    It sounded like Luo Lan had taken an employee hostage and was ordering them to open theb¡¯s door.


    With a rumble, the door slowly started lifting. The employee had apparently inputted the correct password, but a gunshot still rang out. Theb employee screamed in fright. But after screaming for a while, he realized he was not dead.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to kill me?¡± theb employee asked, trembling.


    Luo Lan chortled and said, ¡°When have I ever gone back on my word? Do you think your wretched life or my reputation is more important? Now get lost!¡±


    Luo Lan waited for the door to raise halfway before bending down to get in. When he saw Luo Xinyu on the inside, he froze.


    By this moment, the bright lights in theb used to drown out any shadows had already turned off. Meanwhile, Luo Xinyu¡¯s Shadow Door had already vaguely formed.


    But when Luo Lan saw this sight, he immediately took out a powerful shlight from his waist pocket and shone it at Luo Xinyu¡¯s Shadow Door. With that, the Shadow Door disappeared again.


    He bellyughed. ¡°I haven¡¯t even gotten my revenge for getting pped on my forehead by you, so how dare you take what I want and try to escape? It was a good thing I brought along a shlight just in case!¡±


    After Luo Lan was pped by Ren Xiaosu on his head, he started carrying around a powerful shlight for defensive purposes. However, Luo Xinyu was confused by what Luo Lan said. ¡°What did I p?¡±


    Luo Lan did not banter with her. ¡°Hand over the information and I¡¯ll let you go.¡±


    Luo Xinyu sneered, ¡°Do you think I¡¯ll believe you? Step back, or I¡¯ll destroy this hard drive!¡±


    Luo Lan startedughing. ¡°Your partner should still be on top of that building, right? The Experimentals have already gotten into the stronghold. If you don¡¯t hurry up and rescue her, she probably won¡¯t make it out of here. How about this? Hand the hard drive to me and I¡¯ll let you go rescue her.¡±


    Honestly, Luo Xinyu did not believe that Luo Lan would let her go. However, if she did not go and rescue Yang Xiaojin now, it might really be toote.


    So Luo Xinyu decided to take a gamble.


    She threw the hard drive over to Luo Lan, then went on guard against him.


    In the end, Luo Lan caught the hard drive and turned around to leave. ¡°Hurry up and rescue her. I, Luo Lan, will never break a promise. Don¡¯t start guarding against me like you would a petty criminal. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn¡¯t have said so much already.¡±


    Luo Xinyu looked at him, then opened a Shadow Door to leave. In a single step, she arrived at the rooftop she and Yang Xiaojin had agreed to meet at.


    But what she saw stunned her. All she could see were the scattered, torn pieces of Experimentals¡¯ bodies here, but Yang Xiaojin was nowhere to be seen.


    Who had rescued Yang Xiaojin?!


    Luo Xinyu looked around from on the high-rise building at her surroundings. All she could see were gray Experimentals traversing the streets as they hunted their prey. She was a little worried. Even if someone had saved Yang Xiaojin, they couldn¡¯t possibly have escaped from the stronghold, right?


    That person must have taken her somewhere to hide.

 Chapter 185 - Exposing each other

    <h4>Chapter 185: Exposing each other</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    In the wide and gloomy sewers, footsteps echoed clearly. Compared to the narrow space Ren Xiaosu had imagined, the sewer system in Stronghold 109 seemed more like it was designed based on the specifications of a bomb shelter.


    When the strongholds were built many years ago, people were still living in the shadow of The Cataclysm. That led to their designs being influenced by the possibility of war breaking out again. So when Stronghold 109¡¯s sewer system was designed, it was done so that the sewer pipes were constructed as wide as a bomb shelter. But of course, only the main sewer pipes were designed this way.


    The ck shadow clone was walking in the sewers and carrying an unconscious Yang Xiaojin on its left shoulder. Ren Xiaosu, who was enduring its pain, was being carried on its right shoulder.


    Ren Xiaosu had also been injured, and blood was dripping down into the murky sewage from his dangling arm.


    Seemingly attracted by the blood, huge sewer rats watched the shadow clone as it walked by in the darkness as well as the two wounded people it was carrying on its shoulders.


    But for some reason, the rats did not dare toe out to attack them.


    Ren Xiaosu was not only dealing with his own injuries but also enduring the pain from the bites the shadow clone had received during the battle that were in turn transmitted to him.


    This was probably Ren Xiaosu¡¯s toughest battle to date. At first, he thought he would only have to face six Experimentals. But once they started fighting, he discovered that another five Experimentals in the building had been attracted by the noise.


    During the fight, several Experimentals had been kicked off the building and died on impact. As their corpses were not on the roof, Luo Xinyu misjudged the state of the battle when she arrived at the scene.


    Based on Luo Xinyu¡¯s understanding, a supernatural being who could attack and kill six Experimentals at the same time was already very terrifying. In fact, she would not even have dared think beyond that scenario.


    In this era when supernatural beings had just started rising up, everyone was slowly feeling their way forward as they advanced in the realm of the supernatural. Unless it was a natural-born evil like Li Shentan, an individual would still find it difficult to use their power to ovee the masses.


    That was to say, no single person today would be strong enough to ignore the number of their enemies. Supernatural beings were not powerful to that extent. Why else would they be hunted by the organizations to the point they had to remain hidden all around the world?


    But there was a consensus among all the supernatural organizations. A supernatural being powerful enough to ignore the masses would definitely be born sooner orter.


    As the shadow clone continued walking forward in the sewers, Yang Xiaojin suddenly regained consciousness. At this moment, all of her body ached so badly that she could not even lift herself up. ¡°Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Her voice was oddly abrupt in the empty sewers. Ren Xiaosu said dejectedly, ¡°Hm?¡±


    ¡°Where are we?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Good question.¡± Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°Broadly speaking, we¡¯re in the sewers. But if you want to be more specific, I have no clue where we are.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin instantly realized Ren Xiaosu might also be injured. But from the way he was still speaking nonsensically, his injuries shouldn¡¯t be too bad.


    The shadow clone finally came to a stop when it found a dry tform to ce Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu down on.


    Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu both leaned against the wall and sat down. Ren Xiaosu took out a candle and lit it before cing it on the ground. He asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t Luo Xinyu take you away this time?¡±


    ¡°Probably because something happened.¡± Yang Xiaojin had recovered a little. ¡°If something hadn¡¯t, she would havee for me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu still did not give up on trying to hide his powers even at this time. He said to the shadow clone, ¡°Thanks, Old Xu.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin chuckled. ¡°My injuries hurt a lot, so please don¡¯t make meugh.¡±


    ¡°Old Xu ran from over a hundred kilometers away just to rescue us. Are you really not going to thank him?¡± Ren Xiaosu said righteously.


    ¡°We secretly nted a tracker on Xu Xianchu.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°He just crossed over the Tungsten Mountains this morning and was continuing to head northwest to Stronghold 178. It was you who told him to go that way, wasn¡¯t it? I remember you mentioning Zhang Jinglin before. I didn¡¯t think much of it at that time, just that the name sounded familiar, but I wasn¡¯t sure if it was the same one I knew.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got angry. ¡°What right did y¡¯all have to nt a tracker on Old Xu!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t change the topic.¡± Yang Xiaojin said softly, ¡°So I used to have a question I couldn¡¯t figure out an answer to. I clearly saw you in the Jing Mountains, yet the Qing Consortium never put you on their wanted list, instead cing a huge bounty on Xu Xianchu¡¯s head.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, feeling guilty, ¡°That has nothing to do with me. Don¡¯t try to use me of anything.¡±


    ¡°So your superpower is to copy others¡¯ superpowers, right?¡± Yang Xiaojin said in a soft voice, ¡°You also copied mine. I carefully studied the angle you raise your gun at, and it¡¯s exactly the same as mine. There¡¯s no difference.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin had always felt that Ren Xiaosu raised his gun in an awfully familiar way, as though she were looking at a male version of herself. It wasn¡¯t until now that she finally figured it out.


    Yang Xiaojin did not know how she should gauge Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power. The consensus among supernatural organizations was: A supernatural being cannot have more than one superpower at the same time.


    But Ren Xiaosu was different. He had already exceeded it having two superpowers since some time ago.


    All supernatural beings only managed to awaken their superpowers after going through tough times, yet this superpower of theirs could now easily be copied by someone else. In fact, the replicated superpowers were even stronger than the originals. How frustrating.


    For example, Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone was not as strong as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s.


    As such, Yang Xiaojin felt... Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power ced him above all of the other supernatural beings.


    Yang Xiaojin continued, ¡°So when Luo Xinyu¡¯s bounty was raised the other day, that was also because of you, huh?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu really could not admit to it. ¡°Not at all! I refuse to ept that!¡±


    It was not like he was worried that other people would find out he had framed Luo Xinyu, but rather, he really did not want Yang Xiaojin to know that the power he had copied from Luo Xinyu had actually diverged from the original. She could bring someone through the Shadow Door, but he could at most put an arm through it.


    Wouldn¡¯t it be embarrassing if he admitted to that?


    ¡°So you own up to everything else, right?¡± Yang Xiaojin giggled.


    Ren Xiaosu felt he couldn¡¯t just let Yang Xiaojin have her way and keep exposing his secrets. He needed to counterattack, so he suddenly said, ¡°Let¡¯s first consider how to escape from this stronghold. I have a n. Even if we can outrun the Experimentals, we don¡¯t have the stamina to run at full speed for a long distance, so we need a mode of transportation. I know where there¡¯s some bikes. Don¡¯t you know how to ride a bike? When you¡¯ve recovered, you can ride lead and get us both out of here.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. Then she calmly said, ¡°OK, OK, stop probing me. I don¡¯t know how to ride a bike either.¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha.¡± Ren Xiaosu stifled hisughter. ¡®Yang Xiaojin, serves you right!¡¯


    ¡°That¡¯s enough,¡± Yang Xiaojin calmly said.

 Chapter 186 - An unfinished quest

    <h4>Chapter 186: An unfinished quest</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge <strong>Editor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Lu Yuan is also a member of the Saboteurs, right? So you already knew that I would be going to that school, yet you pretended not to know anything about it?¡± Ren Xiaosu questioned.


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu, you should know when to stop...¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu keptughing for a long time. It made Yang Xiaojin startughing as well. It was infectious.


    Inside the dark sewers, the only light source was the faint candlelight where Ren Xiaosu was. Even though the ground above them was likely very dangerous and teeming with Experimentals, both of them still found some joy to cherish in this difficult moment.


    Yang Xiaojin started coughing as sheughed. When she finally got her breathing under control again, she suddenly asked, ¡°Why did youe back to save me?¡±


    ¡°I forgot my wallet,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered matter-of-factly.


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Yang Xiaojin acknowledged.


    They both knew this reason wasme beyond belief, but neither said anything about it.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I won¡¯t tell anyone about your secret. You probably haven¡¯t realized this yet, but you¡¯re already considered very strong even among supernatural beings.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin recalled the the battle.


    In fact, she wasn¡¯t sure at the time if Ren Xiaosu could take on six Experimentals and beat them. This was because based on what she knew, there were not many supernatural beings who could take on six Experimentals at once.


    In the current era, supernatural beings had started sprouting up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. However, their powers were not strong enough to break past a certain threshold yet. The Saboteurs defined this threshold as: Is the supernatural being capable of ignoring the power of the masses?


    Inyman¡¯s terms, it just meant whether a supernatural being was capable of destroying an organization¡¯s fighting forces alone.


    Li Shentan could be considered halfway there because his power depended on hypnotizing his targets, so he would be considered as using the masses against the masses. As for his own strength, it might not be that great.


    But there would surely be a day when a truly strong individual emerged from the world of the supernatural beings.


    The Saboteurs termed this the ¡°Dawn of Gods.¡±


    Back on the roof, Yang Xiaojin had witnessed the power of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone. It had a strength and speed that crushed the existence of the Experimentals. Moreover, even when a hoard of Experimentals attacked it at once, they still couldn¡¯t bring it downpletely.


    But what surprised Yang Xiaojin most of all was that both Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone were able to wield their own sabers.


    Honestly, Yang Xiaojin had never seen a weapon that was capable of slicing through the Experimentals like that. It didn¡¯t even feel like it was something that modern civilization was capable of producing. As such, it could only be attributed as a kind of power.


    At that time on the roof, Ren Xiaosu disyed strongbat awareness. This bat awareness¡± did not refer to technique but an instinct.


    Instinct was not something that could be trained.


    Training could allow a person to increase their reaction speed, gain greater strength, be faster, and even learn cleverer ways of generating power, but none of that could rece instinct.


    Some people said that hard work could make up for it, but only a true elite would understand that hard work could never rece talent.


    And Ren Xiaosu had this talent forbat.


    If it weren¡¯t for thest Experimental that had crawled up and sneak attacked, Ren Xiaosu would not even have gotten injured.


    At this time, Ren Xiaosu took out two pieces of hardtack and handed one to Yang Xiaojin, leaving one for himself in his other hand.


    Yang Xiaojin did not stand on ceremony and simply took it from him. They were both injured and had lost a lot of blood, so they needed to replenish whatever necessary energy they could get.


    She looked at the candle on the ground next to them and suddenly realized that this might be the first candlelit dinner she had eaten in her life. ¡°Does this count as a candlelit dinner?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and asked, ¡°What¡¯s a candlelit dinner?¡±


    Yang Xiaojinughed. ¡°Never mind.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°I heard you mention Zhang Jinglin earlier? Just what kind of a person is Mr. Zhang?¡±


    This question seemed to have stumped Yang Xiaojin a little. She even had to carefully search for the right word in her mind but was unable to think of something that urately described Zhang Jinglin. ¡°You can say he¡¯s the most ¡®enlightened¡¯ person in our current times.¡±


    This answer truly stunned Ren Xiaosu. ¡°What kind of an appraisal is that? What is his identity in Stronghold 178, really? And what exactly is Stronghold 178 protecting?¡±


    ¡°Whether it be the strongholds or the towns, the organizations will try to tell you that there are extremely powerful beasts and terrifying creatures, as well as scary insect swarms beyond the outermost perimeter of the strongholds,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that true?¡± Ren Xiaosu was slightly taken aback.


    ¡°It¡¯s not.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Stronghold 178 in the northwest and Stronghold 169 in the northern ins are not really there to stop the wild beasts froming in, but humans. The humans who try to invade into the interior every now and then.¡±


    ¡°Like the Experimentals?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°No, they¡¯re people just like you and me.¡± Yang Xiaojin said softly, ¡°Even after the disaster, wars between humans have not stopped at all. That¡¯s probably about the most ironic thing that has happened.¡±


    This was a secret Ren Xiaosu had never known about. So there were still humans who lived beyond the outermost perimeter of the ring of strongholds!


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Zhang Jinglin was the originalmander of the fighting force at Stronghold 178, the true controller of that ce. He suddenly disappeared more than a decade ago, leading to many people saying he had grown tired of war. But no one knew the real reason behind his disappearance. However, everyone at Stronghold 178 is waiting for him to return. That ce is an independent force by itself that falls outside the control of the Alliance of Strongholds. In recent years, the Zong Consortium, which is active at the frontier, has been trying to gain control of Stronghold 178, but now that Zhang Jinglin is going back, the Zong Consortium¡¯s ns have alle to nothing. Those bastards only recognize Zhang Jinglin. Not even money moves them!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was doubtful of this. Zhang Jinglin did not even look like a soldier as he was so weak. How could someone like that have such a powerful background?


    But this also reassured Ren Xiaosu. Xu Xianchu would definitely get special treatment by bringing that rmendation letter there, so he didn¡¯t feel as bad anymore.


    Wait! Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of a problem. Why wasn¡¯t his quest that required him to save a stronghold residentplete yet? Didn¡¯t he already save Yang Xiaojin?


    Could it be that he needed to get her out of the stronghold before the quest requirements were met? That couldn¡¯t be! Ren Xiaosu kept thinking that something must be wrong somewhere. He looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, ¡°Do you hold a Stronghold 109 ID card?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was taken aback, as though she couldn¡¯t wrap her head around why Ren Xiaosu was asking this question. ¡°No, why would I need one? If anything crops up, I can just look for Uncle Lu to settle it. We don¡¯t need any ID cards here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Oh, so Yang Xiaojin wasn¡¯t really a resident of this stronghold?!


    It was no wonder the pce had specifically stressed Ren Xiaosu save the stronghold¡¯s residents. So it seemed like the pce was also afraid that Ren Xiaosu would only attempt to save Yang Xiaojin and not the others. However, Ren Xiaosu did not realize the intention of the quest at that time!


    Yang Xiaojin wondered aloud, ¡°I found it weird at the time. There were clearly so many people who were still running for their lives on the streets, so why did so many of the Experimentals split up from the rest ande to attack me instead?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before answering, ¡°Probably because you¡¯re not a resident of the stronghold.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was confused.

 Chapter 187 - I’ll carry you

    <strong>Chapter 187 I¡¯ll carry you</strong>


    Yang Xiaojin just looked at Ren Xiaosu. They had attacked her because she wasn¡¯t a resident of the stronghold? What kind of nonsense was that!


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°This particr group known as the Experimentals have been growing stronger and stronger. When I was on my way to rescue you, I saw an Experimental inject a normal human being. When the gray liquid was injected into that person¡¯s body, he somehow turned into an Experimental as well.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was hearing this for the first time. She said in shock, ¡°So if they inject all of the stronghold¡¯s residents with that drug, wouldn¡¯t there be hundreds of thousands more Experimentals? No, wait, they¡¯re probably selective about who they inject it into.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°They probably selected specific individuals to inject the drug with, but we don¡¯t know what kind of conditions they must meet. I think as long as we can figure out the origins of the Experimentals, we should be able to understand how they select their candidates. There had to have been thousands and thousands of survivors in the aftermath of the disaster at Stronghold 113, but the number of Experimentals only increased by around a 1,000 or so in the end.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, ¡°We received intel about the Pyro Company, and it seems like thatb in the Jing Mountains is rted to them. They were using it before The Cataclysm, and it became lost after that. They had no choice but to give up on that portion of their research, so the rted studies were also lost as a result.¡±


    ¡°Then do y¡¯all know what kind of experiments they used to carry out in there?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know. All we know is that they experimented on cancer patients. The cancer patients knew they wouldn¡¯t live for much longer, so they decided to sell themselves to the Pyro Company in order to leave behind a lump sum of money for their families,¡± Yang Xiaojin replied.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wounds seared with pain again. He retrieved the ck medicine from the pce and applied some on himself. ¡°You should apply some medicine on your wounds as well. Where are you hurt?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Give me the medicine. I¡¯ll apply it myself.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu handed a bottle of the ck medicine to Yang Xiaojin. He had wanted to inform her of the price but managed to hold back from doing so.


    Then he watched Yang Xiaojin blow out the candle before she started applying the ck medicine on her wounds in the dark. ¡°I¡¯ve long heard about how miraculous this ck medicine of yours is, but I really didn¡¯t expect it to be this effective.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu said curiously in the darkness, ¡°Do you have any wounds that you can¡¯t reach? Let me...¡±


    With a striking sound, Yang Xiaojin used a match to relight the candle. Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and continued applying the medicine on his wounds.


    Yang Xiaojin watched Ren Xiaosu lift up his shirt to reveal four very deep and bloody wounds around his abdomen. They were probably inflicted by the ws of an Experimental. It was fortunate that his organs were not wounded. She said in surprise, ¡°Didn¡¯t you find it painful just now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had been speaking with her like everything was fine for a long while. It didn¡¯t look like there was any indication of pain on his face.


    As he applied the medicine on his wound, Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m used to it.¡±


    ¡°Used to it.¡± These three words seemed to have a kind of quiet strength. Over a decade of bitterness and suffering were harbored within these three words.


    Used to the pain.


    Used to getting injured.


    Used to enduring it.


    In the candlelight, Yang Xiaojin noticed that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s forehead was dripping with sweat. Moreover, his lips had turned pale. He was clearly suffering from very serious injuries.


    She took the ck medicine from Ren Xiaosu and lifted his shirt up. She was greeted by the sight of more than a dozen wounds everywhere. Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I¡¯ll apply it for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say a thing and just let Yang Xiaojin¡¯s finger go over his wounds.


    This skin of the girl¡¯s hand was not delicate at all. In fact, her hand was covered with callouses, clearly demonstrating she had been through some very tough training


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu already knew while in the Jing Mountains that Yang Xiaojin wasn¡¯t delicate and fragile like most other girls.


    ¡°Is it painful? Tell me if I¡¯m too heavy with the application.¡± Yang Xiaojin said softly, ¡°Turn the other way. You have injuries on your back as well.¡± Yang Xiaojin sounded very firm.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before saying, ¡°The ce above where we were earlier should be filled with Experimentals. Now that we¡¯ve walked quite far away, we should be getting close to the stronghold¡¯s gate. However, I¡¯m not sure if we can escape from there.¡±


    It would be very simple to get from underground to the surface, but how could they avoid getting hunted down by the Experimentals afterwards?


    If they bumped into the Experimentals the moment they went up to the surface, they could be chased for up to several hundred kilometers from the stronghold and still end up dying!


    Ren Xiaosu could feel the soothing effects of the ck medicine. The pain of his wounds was relieved, leaving him in much better spirits. ¡°But I think these Experimentals definitely need to rest during the day. So if we wait here quietly until daylight when it¡¯s time for them to hide, we can make use of that time to flee. We should just rest and conserve our strength for now.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin replied, ¡°It¡¯s no secret they¡¯re afraid of daylight, so your deduction is correct. They¡¯ll be certain to go into hiding to sleep when it¡¯s daytime.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded at her affirmation. He thought, ¡®Great minds think alike.¡¯


    The two of them sat in the dark sewers and fell into a brief silence. Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, ¡°Actually, not even a close friend woulde back to save me in that kind of a situation. I¡¯ll skip the thanks and just-¡°


    But Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°You should still thank me.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. ¡°Thank you...¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Yang Xiaojin, +10.¡±


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu was startled. He had only gotten Yang Xiaojin to thank him because he thought that since the quest could not bepleted, he should at least earn a gratitude token to make up for his loss. As a result, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s thanks actually earned him ten gratitude tokens!


    What made Yang Xiaojin so special?!


    But at this moment, the manhole cover above them suddenly moved. Then an Experimental jumped down from above. However, the Experimental did not expect to see anyone down here either, so both parties were equally surprised by this encounter!


    Whatever happened to making their escape at daylight? Why had this Experimental suddenlye down into the sewers? It was almost daybreak now. Shouldn¡¯t it be looking for a ce to get some rest?


    Yang Xiaojin said softly, ¡°I suddenly thought of a problem. Where do you think they¡¯ll retreat to during the day?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu considered the question for a moment. ¡°The sewers?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt terrible. He had wanted them to make their escape when it was daylight, but it looked like they had to quickly run now. Otherwise, they might end up having to sleep with the Experimentals. Who knew if the Experimentals would wee them?


    In an instant, the Experimental roared and pounced at the two of them. Ren Xiaosu did not even need to move as his shadow clone rushed forward with the ck saber in its hands. The shadow clone choked the Experimental with one hand and raised the ck saber with its other hand before plunging it through the Experimental¡¯s heart. The Experimental was pinned against the sewer wall on the opposite side.


    But an even greater cmity was toe. This Experimental¡¯s roar had alerted all of the other Experimentals aboveground. Two other Experimentalsid on the road next to the manhole and popped their heads down to have a look. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Run, I¡¯ll carry you!¡±


    He couldn¡¯t let his shadow clone carry Yang Xiaojin since he needed it to fight!


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not realize that his body could hardly hang on any longer. After the intense battle during the night and getting injured, he was finding it difficult to even remain standing.


    Right at this moment, Yang Xiaojin knelt down in front of him and said, ¡°I¡¯ll carry you.¡±


    Before Ren Xiaosu could react, Yang Xiaojin had already ced him on her back and started running.


    Yang Xiaojin was quite tall, but her body frame was small. Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward when he was being carried by her, because he had never ever relied on anyone else before even in the most difficult of times.


    He hade back to the stronghold to rescue someone. But right now, the person he wanted to rescue was carrying him instead.

 Chapter 188 - Experimentals in the sewers

    <strong>Chapter 188 Experimentals in the sewers</strong>


    In the dark sewers, danger lurked behind every corner. While Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were making their escape, the manhole covers above them were constantly flipped opened by new groups of Experimentals that had rushed over. Following that, these Experimentals would join in and chase after them.


    The saber-wielding shadow clone was surprisingly lethal, but this was not the moment to savor that. The shadow clone battled with the Experimentals while slowly making its retreat as well, because there would only be more and more Experimentalsing down into the sewers from here.


    Yang Xiaojin piggybacked Ren Xiaosu and kept running in the sewers. There was the sound of sshing with every step she took in the dirty water. Ren Xiaosu could even hear Yang Xiaojin breathing heavily. He knew Yang Xiaojin was already at her limit, so it had to have been taking a heavy toll on her to carry another person on her back at this time.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you put me down¡ª¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Yang Xiaojin stubbornly said before he could finish. Just like in the Jing Mountains, the girl¡¯s character had always been tougher than a man¡¯s.


    The shadow clone kept colliding with the sewer walls to prevent the Experimentals from locking it down with their limbs. When one of the Experimentals pounced onto its back, the shadow clone rammed the sewer wall with its back and crushed the Experimental.


    In just a moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone had blocked five or six of the Experimentals that had just crawled into the sewers behind it. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were now getting further and further away from the Experimentals.


    However, the number of Experimentals that were attracted into the sewers by the noise kept increasing. Ren Xiaosu did not know how long his shadow clone could hold them off for.


    ¡°It¡¯d really be quite an injustice if we died in here,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°We won¡¯t die here. I¡¯ll definitely get you out of this ce.¡±


    Suddenly, a rough voice boasted from ahead of them, ¡°Haha, these stupid Experimentals must not be expecting their Uncle Luo to be hiding right under their noses in here.¡±


    Right after that, Tang Zhou said in a perfunctory tone, ¡°That¡¯s right, Boss is absolutely right.¡±


    All of a sudden, Luo Lan sounded a little uncertain. ¡°Uh, did you all hear that?!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin hooked a left at one of the intersections and ran right into Luo Lan¡¯s dumbfounded group.


    Luo Lan, Tang Zhou, and their men were all on guard and holding their guns up cautiously. The moment they shone their shlights on Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, Luo Lan was amused. ¡°You¡¯ve gotten youreuppance too, eh, Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t care less and weakly called out, ¡°Run!¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned, not understanding the situation. ¡°Run? Why?¡±


    Then the roars of the Experimentals reverberated behind Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Luo Lan nched as he turned tail. ¡°Fuck! Why does nothing good evere out of meeting you!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, ¡°Luo Lan, you¡¯re familiar with the sewers! Bring us to the courtyard house we rented!¡±


    Luo Lan said guiltily while running, ¡°Like I know where your rented courtyard house is! It¡¯s not like I¡¯ve been monitoring you all!¡±


    When Yang Xiaojin saw that Luo Lan was still acting dumb at a time like this, she sneered, ¡°Do you want to live or die?!¡±


    Luo Lan turned his head and saw the Experimentals getting closer and closer. ¡°Turn left!¡±


    As they ran for their lives in the sewers, the well-trained Qing Consortiumbat troops fell to the back of the group. asionally, they would stop and rake the Experimentals with gunfire in an attempt to dy them so Luo Lan could escape. As their shots were not aimed, however, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone got hit by the random gunfire as well.


    This had nothing to do with purposeful friendly fire. Ren Xiaosu understood that no one cared to carefully take aim at their targets at a time like this. But more importantly, he could feel pain when those bullets hit his shadow clone! The continuous firing from the guns left Ren Xiaosu in extreme pain. He was already sweating, but there was nothing that he could do about it.


    When Luo Lan happened to turn back and saw the shadow clone, he muttered as he ran, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect Xu Xianchu to still be in the stronghold. Where is he in person? I¡¯ve heard this shadow clone isn¡¯t afraid of bullets, but I didn¡¯t expect it to be true.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu expressionlessly looked at the rotund figure of Luo Lan from behind and made a note to remember what happened here today.


    At this moment, Luo Lan checked their position with a nce and roared, ¡°We¡¯re here, climb up!¡±


    With that, the group climbed up to the surface via a rustydder that extended into the sewers as over a 100 of the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops remained below where they formed a simple intercepting line of fire.


    They knelt on one knee in the dirty sewage water and took turns firing their guns. When the first row of soldiers ran out of bullets, the second row of soldiers immediately reced them in the firing line. Only by doing this could they hold off all the Experimentals in the sewers. Even these creatures that were not afraid of bullets, they still wouldn¡¯t dare to rush into such an intense hail of fire.


    Ren Xiaosu controlled his shadow clone to force its way back to his side. The pain he felt from the gunfire nearly caused him to pass out. By this point, his shadow clone was no longer shouldering the responsibility of holding back the Experimentals. Therefore, he made it carry himself and Yang Xiaojin on its shoulders again. Ren Xiaosu knew that Yang Xiaojin was also nearing her limits. She had purely been running on willpower while she carried Ren Xiaosu all the way here.


    The group took turns to climb up to the surface while the Experimentals were kept at bay by the Qing Consortium¡¯s suppressive fire. But as everyone started climbing up to the surface, the number of people who were holding the firing line decreased. In the end, some people would have to remain behind in the sewers, because they had to hold the Experimentals back for the others, and no one would be able to do it for them.


    The Experimentals in the sewers had realized the firepower was getting weaker, so they got ready to pounce forward again!


    Luo Lan shouted out into the sewers from above, ¡°Hurry up and get up here!¡±


    However, the remaining five soldiers belowground detached the grenades from their uniforms and said with a smile on their faces, ¡°Boss, it¡¯s toote now. After you escape, remember to drink more on our behalf.¡±


    ¡°Fucking stop uttering nonsense. Do you all want me to drink myself to death?¡± Luo Lan cursed down into the sewers.


    As he said that, he looked like he was about to go back down into the sewers. However, he was firmly held back by Tang Zhou. ¡°Boss, you¡¯ll die if you go back in there!¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? At most, we die together!¡± Luo Lan said angrily, ¡°Get your fucking hands off me!¡±


    However, after Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone ced the two people it was carrying onto the ground, it jumped right back into the sewers. Then the dark shadow clone wielded the ck saber in its hands and stood in front of the five Qing Consortium soldiers. In front of it, the Experimentals were surging forward.


    The shadow clone looked back and signaled to the five Qing Consortium soldiers: Go.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers looked at one another. They had not expected such a twist. They all softly gave thanks and hurried up thedder to the surface. Meanwhile, the shadow clone was instantly overwhelmed by the Experimentals!


    The Experimentals scuttled like spiders and nketed the shadow clone¡¯s body. Even with the physical fitness of the shadow clone, it found it difficult to put up any effective resistance.


    Ren Xiaosu said ruthlessly, ¡°Blow them up!¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned. ¡°But Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone is still down there.¡±


    Even though he hesitated, Yang Xiaojin did not. She knew Ren Xiaosu must have said so for a reason. As for what reason that was, she didn¡¯t have to consider it.

 Chapter 189 - The gratitude tokens that disappeared

    <strong>Chapter 189 The gratitude tokens that disappeared</strong>


    Yang Xiaojin seized two grenades from one of the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers with lightning speed. The Qing Consortium soldier unconsciously tried to avoid her attempt since protecting one¡¯s weapons was the instinct of every solder. But in the end, all he felt was a numb sensation in his hand, the grenades gone.


    Yang Xiaojin resolutely and decisively pulled out the safety pins and threw the grenades into the sewer. With a thunderous boom, the stone bricks on the streets flew up with the explosion.


    The Experimentals confined in the tight space of the sewers couldn¡¯t withstand the destructive power of two grenades going off at once. They were blown away and dropped to the ground with blood oozing from all orifices.


    But even so, everyone discovered that several of the Experimentals were actually unaffected by the st. Ren Xiaosu said in a cold voice, ¡°Blow them up again!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin seized another two grenades and threw them down into the sewer. It was only at this time that the remaining Experimentals that were still mobile started retreating and letting go of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone!


    Ren Xiaosuid on the ground with his head throbbing. He was finding out for the first time just how powerful grenades were.


    The feeling was like 10,000 knives cutting into his flesh. The shrapnel from the explosion was even more powerful than he imagined.


    However, he had the bravery to let Yang Xiaojin throw the grenades in because he knew he could bear with the pain from the sts, and his shadow clone would not be affected by it.


    But after this was over, Luo Lan would owe him a great big favor!


    When the shadow clone crawled out of the sewers, Luo Lan teared up and held its hand. ¡°Xu Xianchu, I¡¯ve really got to thank you for this.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®This has nothing to do with Xu Xianchu.¡¯ But he couldn¡¯t exin it to them yet.


    In the past, he had always made his shadow clone his scapegoat. But now that he had done something good with it, Ren Xiaosu was unused to it.


    Luo Lan suddenly said, ¡°Go on, everyone, thank him. If it weren¡¯t for Xu Xianchu, five of our men would have died in the sewers.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Xu Xianchu!¡± Seeing this big group of people thanking his shadow clone in unison, Ren Xiaosu did not receive one single gratitude token!


    Ren Xiaosu immediately felt his heart ache. Over a 100 gratitude tokens had slipped through his hands just like that!


    As a matter of fact, he was still around 800 gratitude tokens away from unlocking the next weapon in his Side Quest #2. If Luo Lan had his men to give thanks a few more times, wouldn¡¯t the weapon be unlocked with just a snap of a finger?


    A 100 gratitude tokens were all that was needed to give him a powerful weapon like the ck saber. If it weren¡¯t for the ck saber, Ren Xiaosu would have died several times over. So Ren Xiaosu was really anticipating what kind of weapon a 1,000 gratitude tokens could get him. But instead, he had lost the opportunity to gain over a 100 gratitude tokens just like that!


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu even considered admitting to all of the deeds he hadmitted. As long as there were gratitude tokens to be earned, to hell with being wanted!


    Then Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Xu Xianchu carried and helped both of you to escape. Shouldn¡¯t you two also thank him?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°... Thank you.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin stifled herughter as she also expressed her gratitude to the shadow clone. She was quite amused by this sudden turn of events, but this was not the time to tease Ren Xiaosu about it. She said, ¡°The sound of the explosions here will be sure to attract many Experimentals. Everyone, gather up all the bombs you can from inside the courtyard!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin then pushed open the courtyard house¡¯s door. Everyone was stunned on the spot when they saw the entire courtyard filled with cluster bombs. Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought about how Yang Xiaojin was always sleeping in ss and wondered if she had been staying upte every night just to finish making all these bombs.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There¡¯s also bombs at my ce next door.¡±


    The 100 or so soldiers from the Qing Consortium looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin in silence. Everyone was thinking about how young these two looked yet the things they did were all so violent.


    Luo Lan roared, ¡°What are you all standing there for! Hurry up and gather the bombs, then quickly find a ce to nt them along our escape route. Let¡¯s bomb the fuck out of those bloody bastards!¡±


    They had bombs now. As for how they should be used, Yang Xiaojin didn¡¯t need to teach them. These Qing Consortium soldiers under Luo Lan were all elite troopers, so they couldn¡¯t be more familiar with how to use the devices.


    Luo Lan had also smuggled in a lot of explosives from outside the stronghold. But during the conflict with the Li Consortium, they had used up all of them. Now that they could rearm themselves with more ammunition, everyone couldn¡¯t look more eager.


    They had all been pushed around by the Experimentals for far too long, so of course they would have to kill some of them to appease the hatred inside.


    Just as expected, the explosion from the four grenades thrown into the sewers had attracted a 100 other Experimentals from the surrounding areas. While Luo Lan was escaping, he looked back at them. He was shocked to discover those Experimentals were scurrying between the uneven buildings like they were on t ground.


    Suddenly, mes shot into the air behind them as explosions rang out.


    The Experimentals that happened to pass by the bombs were sent flying by the massive force of the explosion.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers who were responsible for setting up the bombs looked at one another. They had thought that the bombs would not be powerful since they were homemade. But as it turned out, these bombs were far more powerful than they had imagined. They couldn¡¯t help but look at Yang Xiaojin. These bombs were actually built by a girl?!


    A number of Experimentals were blown to smithereens by the explosions. However, this did not frighten the other Experimentals at all. Instead, it turned them even more savage and ferocious!


    More explosions boomed behind Ren Xiaosu and the others as they made their escape. But even as the bombs went off one after another, the number of Experimentals pursuing them did not seem to lessen. It was not that the Experimentals did not die from the sts but that new Experimentals kept joining in the chase.


    These Experimentals had seemingly be even more aggressive like they wanted nothing more than for this group of people to die!


    Luo Lan covered his head with his hands and said through clenched teeth, ¡°Even though we have a lot of bombs, they¡¯re not enough to hold back the more numerous Experimentals. Even if we manage to flee from the stronghold, we won¡¯t be able to escape their pursuit!¡±


    When they saw the stronghold¡¯s gate appearing in their field of vision, nobody let down their guard. The Experimentals were not simpletons with predictable behavior. Getting out of the stronghold didn¡¯t mean they would give up on chasing them.


    Even after getting past the gate, it wouldn¡¯t necessarily mean they were saved.


    But at this moment, an armored vehicle crashed through the already half blown up stronghold gate and sent debris flying everywhere. Luo Lan noticed the ginkgo leaf logo on the bulky armored vehicle. The ck armored vehicles acted like a giantnd beast as it barged its way forward. One by one, more and more of the Qing Consortium¡¯s armored vehicles came roaring into the stronghold. Ren Xiaosu estimated the number and thought there could be several dozen of them in total!


    Could the Qing Consortium have sent an entire army here?!


    Luo Lan suddenly stopped running and stood still at the end of the street. He startedughing hysterically at the iing wave of Experimentals and said, ¡°Little bastards, Grandpa¡¯s backup has arrived, hahahaha!¡±


    This fatso who had been covering his head in fear turned cocky the moment his support arrived.


    The convoy of armored vehicles whizzed past the escaping group of people and came to a stop between the Experimentals and them. Qing Zhen emerged and got out of one of the vehicles, and a vast number of the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops followed him out.

 Chapter 190 - The Mountain Obliterator

    <strong>Chapter 190 The Mountain Obliterator</strong>


    These Qing Consortium troops took their positions behind the heavy machine guns mounted on top of the armored vehicles. When Qing Zhen gave the order, the heavy machine guns started spitting out a barrage of thunderous fire. Countless bullets within their sight range could be seen interweaving like a of fire as it forcefully subjected the Experimentals to a terrifying metal storm!


    Spent shell casings were spat out continuously in great numbers from the top of the armored vehicles. In just half a minute, the ground around these armored vehicles turned a yellowish hue as the roads got filled with empty bullet shells.


    The Experimentals that were unafraid of bullets were swept up by this metal storm, and their tough bodies were prated by the bullets. The force at which the bullets hit them even sent them flying into the air. But before they could hit the ground, an even greater torrent of bullets raked over them again until they became mincemeat.


    There used to be a lot of houses over there. But when the metal storm hit, the rows of walled structures got utterly destroyed and pulverized into a fine powder.


    The housing structures copsed like a mountain from the intense hail of bullets.


    Some of the Experimentals had taken shelter behind the houses, but none of them could have expected that this torrent of bullets could even bring down buildings.


    Ren Xiaosu did not continue fleeing anymore. He just watched this violent and bloody scene y out before him. This was probably why humanity once controlled the world. The grand civilization could even create weapons so terrifying that the supernatural would fear them.


    The roaring armored vehicles were the true ferocious beasts, while the bullets were like a sea of arrows whose might was even greater than a tsunami.


    Only the Qing Consortium had these heavy machine guns in their arsenal. The entire structure of the gun was like a heavy iron case, and this heavy machine gun earned the nickname of the ¡°Mountain Obliterator,¡± meaning that it could even be used to destroy a mountain.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu noticed that the interior of the armored vehicles seemed to have several metal pipes linking out to the main gun structure. Each of the armored vehicles were actually equipped with cooling equipment to prevent the heavy machine guns from overheating.


    Qing Zhen stood in the middle of the road and quietly watched as the Experimentals slowly retreated in the face of human civilization¡¯s firearms. The fearless Experimentals were finally starting to feel afraid.


    All of a sudden, someone discovered an Experimental standing upright atop a building in the distance staring at them. However, Qing Zhen looked right back at it undaunted.


    Luo Lan said to Ren Xiaosu with augh, ¡°See that! Half of the forces here are my old troops from Stronghold 113. Aren¡¯t they amazing!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not reply. So this Qing Zhen had already assembled all of Luo Lan¡¯s troops that had gone missing during the earthquake? These two brothers must have still been keeping in contact all this while. Otherwise, Luo Lan wouldn¡¯t have be fearless the moment he saw the ginkgo leaf logo.


    The Experimentals began retreating. Qing Zhen said coldly, ¡°Don¡¯t pursue them.¡±


    Everyone understood that if they maintained their positions and kept fighting, their heavy machine guns would definitely be more powerful. But the moment they started going after the enemy and headed into urban warfare, there wouldn¡¯t be enough people to fight just based on the numbers that the Qing Consortium had here.


    Moreover, this stronghold was also under the control of the Li Consortium. There was absolutely no reason why the Qing Consortium would want to help the Li Consortium clear out the Experimentals from this ce. It was better to leave this headache of a mess to the Li Consortium themselves.


    The Qing Consortium previously controlled 21 strongholds, but ever since the earthquake in the Jing Mountains, only 19 remained. Under these circumstances, the Qing Consortium¡¯s people couldn¡¯t wish more for the other organizations to lose a few of their strongholds as well. It would only be fair.


    When the Experimentals retreated deep into the city, Luo Lan plopped onto the ground. ¡°Hurry up and get me some water.¡±


    Several soldiers carried a few buckets of clean water out of the armored vehicles before handing out some cups to the refugee-like people who¡¯d fought together with Luo Lan.


    Qing Zhen looked at him and said with augh, ¡°I told you to leave this ce earlier, yet you insisted on getting your hands on the Li Consortium¡¯s research results first. It¡¯s not worth getting pinned with the me for that stuff.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know this¡±¡ª Luo Lan took a sip of the water¡ª¡±but the Li Consortium has discovered a way to connect directly to the neurons in your brain. In the future, they won¡¯t need to program the nanomachines anymore. The human brain itself will act as the interface of the program. This is a very important technology. Just think about how scary nanomachines will be if they can executeplex operations.¡±


    Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°There are a lot of important technologies in this world, but this isn¡¯t what we need. Without the breakthrough we require in the field of nanorobotics, it¡¯s practically useless to get our hands on this technology.¡±


    ¡°But we can sell it to the other organizations.¡± Luo Lan said angrily while pointing at Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Just look, their Yang Consortium is also thinking of getting their hands on this tech, so why not we just sell it to them?¡±


    Qing Zhen¡¯s gaze shifted to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. He said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You saved my brother before, so I promised you a favor.¡±


    ¡°That favor has already been returned.¡± Luo Lan hurriedly said, ¡°I¡¯ve already returned it for you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not happy to hear that. ¡°But I¡¯ve saved so many soldiers again this time.¡±


    Luo Lan was also unhappy to hear that. ¡°It was Xu Xianchu who saved us. What has it got to do with you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He realized he could not refute that.


    Suddenly, Luo Lan said startled, ¡°Eh, where¡¯s Xu Xianchu? Wasn¡¯t his shadow clone around a moment ago?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°He¡¯s afraid you all will arrest him, so he¡¯s already fled.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu echoed, ¡°That¡¯s right, he¡¯s already fled.¡±


    Qing Zhen said to those around him, ¡°Xu Xianchu is no longer wanted starting from today. Our Qing Consortium and him are even now.¡± Qing Zhen then looked at Yang Xiaojin and asked, ¡°Why have the Saboteurs made me a target?¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you know all about the nuclear test site you set up?¡± Yang Xiaojin said coldly.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®Girl, they have so many people on their side right now. Should you really be arguing with them at a time like this?¡¯


    As a result, Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°Not even the Board of our Qing Consortium knows about the site, yet you all actually found out about it? So just for that, I have to die?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him calmly. ¡°You¡¯re trying to control something that humans can¡¯t control. The world has already been destroyed once because of it. You¡¯re ying with fire.¡±


    Qing Zhen shook his head. ¡°Was that the fault of nuclear technology? It was the fault of humanity. You don¡¯t even know how beautiful that blue glow inside a nuclear reactor is. It¡¯s literally a gift from the world.¡±


    ¡°Humanity should never have even tried controlling a power that could destroy themselves,¡± Yang Xiaojin said stubbornly.


    ¡°Should we not eat just because we fear choking?¡± Qing Zhen said earnestly, ¡°If we have a nuclear reactor, do you know how much energy we can save?¡±


    Then Qing Zhen had someone bring over some lighting equipment. ¡°This is our radioluminescent light. If there are no idents, it can retain its brightness for as long as 20 years without any external help. This is the power of nuclear technology.¡±


    ¡°What if nuclear technology is used for war again?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked calmly.


    Qing Zhenughed. ¡°It can also be used to end wars. Actually, we won¡¯t be able toe to an agreement on this no matter what. Facing the Experimentals today, we¡¯re brothers in arms. But I¡¯ll still wee the Saboteurs anytime after today. Let¡¯s not hold back or show mercy to each other.¡±


    He then took a hard drive from Tang Zhou and threw it to Yang Xiaojin. ¡°This is the thing your Yang Consortium is after. Have you ever thought what it¡¯ll be like if you all can link your nanotech, which is still only being used in the medical field, with neurotech andmission it for military use? Are you saying the Yang Consortium is not trying to get its hands on this technology for war?¡±

 Chapter 191 - Look at how big and round this cauldron is

    <strong>Chapter 191 Look at how big and round this cauldron is</strong>


    Actually, Qing Zhen was not wrong. If they were to debate this subject, neither Qing Zhen nor Yang Xiaojin could convince the other. Both parties wereing from a different standpoint, and there was no way to distinguish who was right or wrong. This was because ¡°right¡± and ¡°wrong¡± were just judgments imposed by others.


    But be it the matter of nuclear technology or nanorobotics, Ren Xiaosu felt that there was indeed no right or wrong regarding these two matters. However, what motives did those who wanted to use them have?


    While they were deadlocked, Ren Xiaosu suddenly raised his own doubts. ¡°I have a question. Are those nanomachines really that great?¡±


    ¡°They weren¡¯t in the past.¡± Luo Lan gave a simple exnation. ¡°They used to only be deployed for angiosty through some basic programming, but it¡¯d totally be different if they could directly interface with neurons in the brain and be put to military


    use.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Different in what way?¡±


    ¡°Just think about what if those tiny yet extremely tough nanomachines could be your new skeletal structure and muscles? What¡¯s more, after interfacing with your neurons, they¡¯ll fully be under your control like how you control your fingers. There wouldn¡¯t be a need to give them any specific instructions. Just use them like how you would use your hands,¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°It still sounds rather normal to me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Forget it, you won¡¯t understand!¡± Luo Lan scorned, ¡°There¡¯s no way tomunicate with an uneducated person.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grew unhappy. ¡°I scored 560 points on my final exams, so who are you calling uneducated? How much did you score on your exams?¡±.


    Luo Lan was embarrassed. ¡°Hahaha, why would you bring that up!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin calmly lwatched Ren Xiaosu and felt he was really thick-skinned. He could even deceive himself like that?


    At this moment, Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°No matter what, we¡¯re still brothers in arms today. Whatever happens in the future, let time be the judge. We don¡¯t have any use for the hard drive, so feel free to take it back with you.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly asked, ¡°The Experimentals you people caught, are the results of the study you did on it out yet? Just what are those things?¡±


    Qing Zhen thought for a moment before saying, ¡°You might not believe it even if we tell you. Those things are full of cancer cells. No, to be more precise, they¡¯re full of cancer cells that seemed to have reached a state of equilibrium.


    ¡°It¡¯smon knowledge that cancer cells are a heterogeneous poption, with giant nucleated, binucleated, and heteromorphic nucleated cells. However, the cancer cells found in the Experimentalsprise only of a single binuclei[1] poption, and they¡¯re even uniformly divided as normal human cells are.


    ¡°I suspect the Pyro Company attempted to search for a way to live forever. There was once a woman who, after her death, had her cancer cells taken and cultured. Later, those cancer cells were used to propagate into tens of thousands of generations of cancer cells became known as the HeLa cell line[2].¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Has that already been verified, or was it just your guess?¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°it was just my guess. After all, we haven¡¯t started our research on the Experimentals for long, so don¡¯t take it too seriously.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®If you were only guessing, please don¡¯t sound so certain when you are rting it to us.¡¯


    ¡°Wait.¡± Yang Xiaojin suddenly also conjectured, ¡°They were selectively injecting drugs into humans, so does that mean they¡¯re selecting people with cancer cells?¡±


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°But I think, since cancer cells are derived from a mutation in normal cells, if you¡¯re trying to define it, you can also say it¡¯s uncontrolled evolution. But in my opinion, such evolution will always be an inferior product.¡±


    Today, Ren Xiaosu came into contact with various kinds of spections, and some of these spections were not even ideas he knew before. For a moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a little envious of these people for having received aplete education. It meant that these people were able to have aplete understanding of the previous world.


    ¡°Let¡¯s part ways here.¡± Qing Zhen smiled and said, ¡°Speaking of which, I¡¯m still under house arrest.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried about the threat that they pose to this world?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Qing Zhen waved it off as he stepped into an armored vehicle. ¡°They¡¯re not enough to cause me any worry yet. It¡¯s only the kids who find them scary.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Yang Xiaojin and thought that it was no wonder she wanted to shoot him with her rifle. What a pity it was to not shoot a show-off like him.


    However, his rtionship with the Qing Consortium had suddenly turned from enemies into something much more ambiguous. At least when he encountered Luo Lan next time, they wouldn¡¯t have to immediately fight it out to decide a victor.


    Actually, there wasn¡¯t really a conflict between Ren Xiaosu and the Qing Consortium. He was just a typical supernatural being who wanted to survive in this post-apocalyptic wastnd.


    Ren Xiaosu watched as the armored vehicles drove off. He then summoned the shadow clone to carry him and Yang Xiaojin on its shoulders, before getting it to start running. The Experimentals had only retreated because they were afraid of the armored vehicles¡¯ firepower. Now that they had driven off, Ren Xiaosu would have to quickly get them both out of here.


    ¡°What ns do you have now?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked during the bumpy ride on the shadow clone¡¯s shoulder.


    ¡°I¡¯m going back to Stronghold 88,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°Stronghold 88? That sounds really far,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, as there was such a big difference between the strongholds¡¯ numbers.


    ¡°It¡¯s not exactly that far.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°It¡¯s only two strongholds away.¡±


    ¡°Eh? Then why is its number so distant?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°It used to be called Stronghold 101,¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°but the consortium thought it¡¯d be luckier to call it Stronghold 88, so they changed it. The previous Stronghold 88 has been renamed to Stronghold 101.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for such a long time that he could not say anything. It could even be done that way? Wasn¡¯t that such a feudal form of superstition?


    ¡°How about you, what ns do you have?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to find Yan Liuyuan and the others first. I told them to head north.¡±


    At this time, the sky was just starting to turn bright. The two of them were being carried on the left and right shoulders of the shadow clone and chatting without a care as it ran into the distance. The eerie stronghold city behind them that had been destroyed got further and further away from their sights.


    If anyone came here in the future, they would probably not expect this ce to have a glorious past.


    Meanwhile, Xu Xianchu was trekking in the wilderness. As he was already very far away from any Qing Consortium-controlled territory, he was no longer worried they could do anything to him anymore.


    When he passed by the Zong Consortium¡¯s town yesterday, he even used the money Ren Xiaosu had given to him to purchase quite a few supplies. As a matter of fact, the Qing Consortium¡¯s banknotes were really quite useful out here. Other than having to pay some administrative fees, there was no need to worry about it not being epted.


    In this era, people who often traveled between strongholds would always have to bring along different corporation-issued currencies, which made it very inconvenient.


    The further northwest Xu Xianchu traveled, the more deste the scenery became. Sometimes when a gust of wind blew, yellow dust and sand would get swirled up into the air.


    All of a sudden, Xu Xianchu stopped in his tracks. He was surprised to see a group of people on motorcycles speeding towards him. Sensing danger, Xu Xianchu immediately summoned his shadow clone.


    The refugees at the Zong Consortium¡¯s town had cautioned him beforehand to be careful of bandits when he headed further north.


    But in the instant he summoned his shadow clone out, he froze. For some reason, arge ck cauldron floated in front of him before his shadow clone came out.


    The iing group of people started indiscriminately shooting at Xu Xianchu from afar. But the bullets did not even leave any marks on the ck cauldron as they hit it!


    Xu Xianchu was very happy. Could his superpower have evolved to be even better?


    As for these bandits, would a supernatural being need to be afraid of them? Xu Xianchu grinned. He would have to test out his new power on someone!

 Chapter 192 - I’m giving you an out

    Chapter 192 I¡¯m giving you an out


    News of Stronghold 109 getting destroyed and taken over by the Experimentals had quickly spread to the rest of human civilization under the Alliance of Strongholds.


    If Stronghold 112 and 113 were destroyed by acts of nature, there was nothing that humans could do about it. But for Stronghold 109¡¯s destruction, the shadow of a nonhuman species challenging the survival of mankind hung over the incident.


    That was because Stronghold 109 was not destroyed by an act of nature. This threat came from a new species that also happened to be extremely aggressive.


    The strongholds had been standing in this world for hundreds of years now, while some of the most powerful empires in the history of human civilization onlysted 200 years at most. Therefore, humans had almost be ustomed to the safe lives they knew in the strongholds.


    But now, the appearance of the Experimentals was telling humanity they had to reexamine this world.


    The road from Stronghold 109 to Stronghold 111 was mainly t. The armored vehicles had already left, leaving only two off-road vehicles speeding their way through the vast wilderness. Behind the off-road vehicles, arge cloud of dust was left in their wake. This was a grand sight to behold from afar.


    Qing Zhen sat in the back of the vehicle with his eyes closed and seemed to be thinking of something. Next to him, Luo Lan kept eating. Every now and then, he would say a few words to Qing Zhen.


    ¡°Are we really just going back to Stronghold 111 without putting up a fight?¡± Luo Lan said indignantly. ¡°Does the Board really intend to kill the donkey the moment it leaves the millstone? We have done so much for the Qing Consortium, yet they¡¯re cing us under house arrest just like that?¡±


    Qing Zhen opened his eyes and looked at Luo Lan. ¡°You can call yourself a donkey if you want, but don¡¯t drag me in.¡±


    ¡°Oh, oh, I used the wrong idiom,¡± Luo Lan corrected himself. ¡°But you get what I mean anyway.¡±


    ¡°The Qing Consortium is our home. If we don¡¯t go back there, where do we go?¡± Qing Zhen said, sounding bored, ¡°Since you¡¯re going back with me this time, it¡¯s going to be safer for you. By cing you in someone else¡¯s stronghold, who knows what kind of trouble you¡¯ll cause again.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t cause trouble for nothing though.¡± Luo Lan was unhappy. ¡°Didn¡¯t I sessfully get my hands on the Li Consortium¡¯s research results? But who knew you¡¯d go and give it away just like that? Speaking of which, why¡¯d you give it to that little girl from the Yang Consortium? Even if our nanorobotics tech hasn¡¯t had any breakthroughs yet, what if we do get a breakthroughter on? Just think, we¡¯re both normal humans, but we can be superhuman with this nanorobotics tech!¡±


    Qing Zhen didn¡¯t care to exin. ¡°I don¡¯t like all that fighting and killing.¡±


    ¡°But all you¡¯ve been doing is fighting and killing.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°Isn¡¯t that what everyone thinks you¡¯re best at?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m best at growing flowers.¡± Qing Zhen said in seriousness, ¡°I¡¯m warning you. Don¡¯t you dare touch the flowers I grew when we get back.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Luo Lan curled his lips. ¡°Why would I touch your flowers when I can touch women instead? But anyway, I still find it such a waste that we gave that hard drive away to the Yang Consortium.¡±


    Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°It¡¯s not a waste. One of the Li Consortium¡¯s strongholds has been destroyed and their research results were even stolen. To resolve their internal conflicts, they¡¯ll be sure to pin the me on an external party. The Yang Consortium will be that target. With our two neighbors fighting, we can rest easy.¡±


    ¡°As if they would start fighting so easily. There hasn¡¯t been a real war in such a long time,¡± Luo Lan said.


    Qing Zhen looked out of the window and said calmly, ¡°That¡¯s where the problem is. There hasn¡¯t been a war in such a long time among mankind. If we human beings don¡¯t start a war, can we still be called greedy humans?¡±


    ¡°Look at you, putting down humanity like that. Well, I dislike wars, but that¡¯s just how life works.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°But now that the Saboteurs have discovered your secret base, you should increase the defenses around it.¡±


    Qing Zhen said calmly, ¡°They haven¡¯t found where it is yet. They¡¯re only guessing it exists.¡±


    ¡°How do you know that?¡± Luo Lan was taken aback.


    ¡°Based on how the Saboteurs operate,¡± Qing Zhen chuckled and went on, ¡°they would have already blown up the ce if they discovered our nuclear test site.¡±


    All of a sudden, Luo Lan shouted, ¡°Eh, look up front.¡±


    On the road ahead, a convoy of heavily armed vehicles were blocking their only path to Stronghold 111. There was the logo of the ginkgo leaf on the vehicles. Luo Lan was amused. ¡°The Board seems to think rather highly of you.¡±


    Qing Zhen waited for their own vehicles toe to aplete stop before getting out. A man dressed in a suit and wearing sunsses approached them from the vehicle convoy opposite. ¡°Qing Zhen, do you know you¡¯re still under house arrest?¡±


    Qing Zhen sincerely stated, ¡°Secretary Zhou, please let me exin. Weren¡¯t you all thinking of capturing that fatty, Luo Lan, to ce him under house arrest? I¡¯ve done that for you!¡±


    Luo Lan echoed from the side, ¡°That¡¯s right. He captured me after such great efforts since I was really resistant to the idea ofing back.¡±


    Secretary Zhou, who was d in a suit, was taken aback. He had thought there would be a sh between him and the two brothers, so much so that he even brought troops over for this confrontation. But who knew that Qing Zhen woulde up with that reason? He was a bit confused.


    Secretary Zhou sneered, ¡°Don¡¯t think I don¡¯t know why you went to Stronghold 109. Where are those troops of yours? Qing Zhen, as a member of the consortium, how dare you raise personal troops!¡±


    Qing Zhen said sadly, ¡°The troops were all killed during the capture of Luo Lan!¡±


    Luo Lan hooted, ¡°That¡¯s right, do you think it¡¯s so easy to capture me?¡±


    Secretary Zhou was so angry heughed. ¡°What are you two putting on a crosstalk in front of me for?!¡±


    Calm spread on Qing Zhen¡¯s face. ¡°I¡¯m giving you an out here, so just take it.¡±


    In that instant, Secretary Zhou felt the hair on the back of his neck stand. It was as though the party in front of him was a tiger. Even though he was only standing quietly, he was like a ferocious beast that would make anyone tremble with fear.


    Qing Zhen walked over and took off Secretary Zhou¡¯s sunsses to put them on himself. ¡°The sun¡¯s really harsh, and I just so happen tock a pair of sunsses. Secretary Zhou, I¡¯m afraid you¡¯re still not qualified to ask me about those troops. The Board will have to personally question me.¡±


    Secretary Zhou turned around and went back to his vehicle. ¡°Let¡¯s see if you can still keep up the bluster after we get back to the stronghold!¡±


    Then the convoy of vehicles started moving towards Stronghold 111. Secretary Zhou, who was in his car, could feel his hands trembling.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s injuries had gotten much better. They kept heading north, albeit not at a fast pace.


    Yang Xiaojin raised her head and nced at the scorching sun in the sky. She asked, ¡°We aren¡¯t going in the wrong direction, are we? Why can¡¯t we see Liuyuan and the others yet?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°identifying directions is a basic skill in wilderness survival. However, I can¡¯t say if Yan Liuyuan and the others might have gone the wrong way.¡± ¡°That can¡¯t be. We saw so many campfires still around yesterday. It looked like there were quite a few people who managed to escape out of Stronghold 109, so they should be together with the rest of the escapees,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.

 Chapter 193 - Parting ways

    <strong>Chapter 193 Parting ways</strong>


    ¡°I have a question.¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Did y¡¯all really discover Qing Zhen¡¯s nuclear test site?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him. ¡°No, I was just bluffing Qing Zhen. His people had been in contact with several particle physicists. But soon after their meeting, those physicists all went missing, including their family members. However, the Qing Consortium has never made any foray into this field of research, so we suspect it¡¯s Qing Zhen¡¯s own private dealings. He must have his own private nuclear test site.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t he part of the Qing Consortium? Why does he have to defend against his own people in that case? He even set up an independent base of his own?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not understand.


    Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°Because he knows very well that in the past hundred years or so, almost none of the Qing Consortium¡¯s Shadows havee to a good end. A Shadow... will always remain as just a Shadow.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. So Qing Zhen was probably doing this for self-preservation?


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°When we exin it to the others, we¡¯d better say it was Xu Xianchu who saved us both. Otherwise, your superpower will get revealed very easily. I¡¯m seriously advising you this time. You must not let anyone know you have the ability to copy someone else¡¯s powers. It¡¯d be too dangerous if anyone found out.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Wait, but don¡¯t the Saboteurs already know that Xu Xianchu isn¡¯t at Stronghold 109 anymore? So how are we supposed to say it was him who saved us?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Well, that was a bluff as well.¡±


    ¡°Ha, ha.¡± In reality, Ren Xiaosu had many unanswered questions on his mind and was slowly answering them with Yang Xiaojin. ¡°Is Lu Yuan also a member of the Saboteurs? I saw you providing him with cover earlier.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s not a member of the Saboteurs.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°He¡¯s from the Yang Consortium. The Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium have been carrying out research and development on nanotech all this while, because they believe nanotech will provide a breakthrough in terms of individualbat prowess. Actually, Qing Zhen was right. The Yang Consortium is also nning to use nanotech to prepare for war.¡±


    ¡°Then how are the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium rted?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°The Saboteurs were created by the first supernatural being of the Yang Consortium.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°Actually, the Saboteurs have aplicated rtionship with the Yang Consortium. Currently, the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium do not agree on their ideals and have gradually started moving in their own directions. It¡¯s just that the rtionship between both parties is a little difficult to make clear. Actually, the Saboteurs were not called such in the beginning. But since that was what everyone called us, we just went with it and took up that role in this chaotic world.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not probe too much into the current rtionship between the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium. After all, it seemed like that was Yang Xiaojin¡¯s family affairs. However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little ufortable. After all, he was just a refugee.


    Yang Xiaojin came to a stop in front of a rock that had a strange symbol etched into it. From her pocket, she took out a finger-length metal stick and activated one end of it, shooting a re into the sky.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly watched and thought that Yang Xiaojin must¡¯ve discovered a sign that her fellow Saboteurs had left for her to send them a signal.


    Suddenly, an off-road vehicle rushed out of a narrow pathway with Luo Xinyu waving out of the window from the backseat. ¡°Xiaojin, I¡¯m so d you¡¯re fine.¡±


    The off-road vehicle, being driven by Lu Yuan, came to a stop in front of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Lu Yuan got out of the vehicle and said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Let¡¯s go back home. This mission was a failure. The hard drive Xinyu managed to procure was taken from her by that Fatty Luo.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin took the hard drive out of her pocket. ¡°Qing Zhen¡¯s giving it to the Yang Consortium, but I think he¡¯s just trying to deepen the conflict between the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium. Doesn¡¯t really matter anyway. It¡¯s not like our two families had a good rtionship in the first ce.¡±


    Luo Xinyu cheered. However, they were both more concerned about how Yang Xiaojin had managed to get out of trouble. Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°Xu Xianchu and Ren Xiaosu teamed up and saved me. Xu Xianchu is very powerful now, so we had better keep a close eye on him.¡±


    Luo Xinyu was startled. ¡°I went to the site of the battle and looked around. How did the two of thembined manage to be such a lethal force?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s mainly Xu Xianchu¡¯s credit. But he¡¯s already heading to Stronghold 178,¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly.


    ¡°Oh, we can return home then.¡± Luo Xinyu quipped at Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Hey, Ren Xiaosu, do you want toe with us to Stronghold 88?¡±.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned before shaking his head and saying, ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. I still have to search for my brother.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him. ¡°I¡¯ve got to go now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu made a noise in acknowledgment.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°After you find Yan Liuyuan and the others,e to Stronghold 88. I¡¯ll wait for you there.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡±


    Then Yang Xiaojin hopped into the off-road vehicle. Lu Yuan stepped on the elerator and the off-road vehicle roared into the distance.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu knew the two of them would eventually have to bid each other farewell. But when adults parted ways, it was always an easy thing to do. Sorrowful goodbyes were only reserved for poets.


    If they wanted to meet again, they¡¯d definitely be able to.


    Ren Xiaosu watched as the vehicle got further and further away. He suddenly remembered and shouted, ¡°Hey, give me a ride if y¡¯all¡¯re going north!¡±


    However, the off-road vehicle was too far away.


    Snowkes suddenly drifted down from the sky. This was the first snow of winter this year and it looked heavier than usual. The snowkes fluttering down from the sky seemed almost like they were here to clean off the bloodstains from this wastnd.


    ...


    There were already quite a few campfires burning at a campsite in the north. Thousands and thousands of people were shivering in the cold wilderness. The campfires in front of these people were the only thing that provided them some warmth.


    Even though the Experimentals had broken into the city and gone on a killing spree, there were still only slightly over a 1,000 of them. Meanwhile, the number of residents living in the stronghold was in the hundreds of thousands, so there were quite a lot of people who managed to escape the siege.


    Furthermore, the little girl next to Li Shentan had also participated in the battle and opened up a path of escape for a group of residents.


    Li Shentan and that little girl named Si Liren had gone off to somece unknown. The escapees had begged for the two to bring them along, so Li Shentan told them to head north and find a group of people who rode on bicycles so that their survival would be ensured.


    From the sounds of it, Li Shentan was ying a little joke on Ren Xiaosu.


    The escapees revered Li Shentan like a god who had saved them, but they didn¡¯t know he was actually one of those who had brought this disaster upon them. After getting his revenge on the Li Consortium in Stronghold 109, Li Shentan did not make any further moves there. Instead, he headed off to the other stronghold cities that were under the control of the Li Consortium. He seemed to be nning on bringing down the entire Li Consortium all on his own.


    Eventually, the escapees located the cycling group, who happened to be fixing their bicycles after heading north. Compared to Yan Liuyuan and the others who were riding on bicycles and carrying backpacks, the escapees appeared to be in a much more miserable state.


    At this moment, Wang Fugui said mysteriously, ¡°Liuyuan, I found something good that might be of great use.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Wang Fugui and asked, ¡°Uncle Fugui, what¡¯d you find?¡±


    Wang Fugui carefully took out a deck of cards. ¡°See this? It¡¯s a pack of explosives!¡±

 Chapter 194 - Zixia

    <strong>Chapter 194 Zixia</strong>


    Yan Liuyuan looked at the old deck of cards in Wang Fugui¡¯s hand. He exined to him earnestly, ¡°In my brother¡¯s hands, the cards would be bombs. But in your hands, they can only be used to y Fight the Landlord.¡±


    Off to the side, Wang Dalong said, ¡°Can¡¯t we y three-card brag[1] instead?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan paused for a moment. ¡°Well, you can.¡±


    Wang Fugui might have been surprised by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s four ¡°threes¡± thest time around, so he still had some lingering thoughts. When he found a pack of cards that someone had dropped, he was quite happy about it. They were ammo to him. However, when Yan Liuyuan told Wang Fugui he could not use it, he smacked his lips and said, ¡°I¡¯ll keep it for Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan didn¡¯t know whether tough or cry. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cards might seem like ordinary cards, but they were really conjured up by his superpower.


    As all the other refugees cried in misery, Yan Liuyuan andpany were caught in a heated discussion about card games. It even seemed like they might start ying Fight the Landlord at any moment now.


    Truly, there was a difference between being prepared and unprepared. Although it was very cold outside in the wilderness and would be quite difficult to bear even if you were prepared, people usually lived inparison to others. When you saw other people in a miserable state, you wouldn¡¯t think you had it that bad anymore.


    Chen Wudi mumbled from off to the side, ¡°Master will get abducted by the ruler of Womand soon, and y¡¯all are still in the mood to y cards?!¡±


    Wang Fugui chuckled heartily and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Master will definitely not ditch us.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Chen Wudi¡¯s eyes lit up.


    ¡°Of course!¡± Wang Fugui said with a smile.


    Chen Wudi said, ¡°Then let¡¯s y three-card brag, I¡¯m pretty damn good at it.¡±


    All of a sudden, a cry rang out from the crowd in the distance. Chen Wudi immediately stood up and turned his attention to them. He saw a man trying to snatch a scarf from a plump woman.


    Snow nketed the ground with white. The man must have been unable to bear the cold since he was only wearing his fall clothing. However, he didn¡¯t dare snatch the other men¡¯s clothing, so he could only snatch some from a woman. A woman¡¯s clothes wouldn¡¯t fit him, but a scarf would still be useful.


    It can be difficult to imagine how despicable some people can get in the face of adversity. The man was willing to resort to any means necessary as long as it meant survival for him.


    But this was only the beginning of their escape. For refugees like Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others, all of them knew quite well that things would only get worse for this group of escapees.


    During their previous escape, the weather was not this cold. As such, human nature did not get pushed to such desperate straits. There wasn¡¯t ack of food either at that time since they managed to locate a field full of sweet potatoes.


    But it was different this time. The evil side of human nature thoroughly surfaced at this moment, baring its fangs.


    Chen Wudi stood up and strode over. ¡°Get your hands off her!¡±


    That man looked at Chen Wudi. ¡°Mind your fucking business!¡±


    Chen Wudi was tickled pink by this man. ¡°As the Great Sage reborn, I have to poke my nose into the injustices of this world. If you don¡¯t let her go, this punch of mine might just kill you!¡±


    By the campfire, Yan Liuyuan and the others quietly watched this unfold. They all knew Chen Wudi¡¯s character. In the past, everyone had suspected that Chen Wudi might be putting on an act. But they realizedter that he was simply a guy who imagined himself a hero.


    Actually, when Yan Liuyuan followed Ren Xiaosu to the bar to listen to the storyteller¡¯s stories when he was younger, he also had fancied himself bing a hero in the future. But Ren Xiaosu told him at that time that other than tears, this world did not believe in heroes.


    Back then, Yan Liuyuan felt that Ren Xiaosu was lying, since he was clearly very inspired by the stories too. So Ren Xiaosu must also have had dreams of bing a hero. It was just that he had suppressed the thought of it.


    If giving up on physical strength was the price humans paid for gaining intelligence¡ªthen crushing his dreams would be the price Ren Xiaosu paid for survival.


    However, Yan Liuyuan felt that the fact that since Ren Xiaosu chose to help Jiang Wu and bring Chen Wudi along with them on their escape, it showed Ren Xiaosu had notpletely given up on his dream of bing a hero.


    At this moment, the man who snatched the woman¡¯s scarf threw a punch at Chen Wudi. However, Chen Wudi didn¡¯t even dodge and just let the punchnd on his face. With a crack, the man¡¯s wrist apparently broke while Chen Wudi looked totally unaffected.


    Yan Liuyuan shouted from afar, ¡°Don¡¯t kill him.¡±


    Chen Wudi said, ¡°OK!¡±


    After that, Chen Wudi lightly punched the man¡¯s stomach. The man slowly tumbled to the ground as his entire body turned numb from the attack.


    Chen Wudi said, ¡°That¡¯s a small lesson for you as an example to everyone else.¡±


    The woman whose scarf had been snatched stood up and came over to retrieve it. Then she hurried over to Chen Wudi and said, ¡°Thank you, thank you so much.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s no big deal.¡± Chen Wudi was about to turn and leave.


    But the woman suddenly seemed like she wanted to get closer to Chen Wudi. She said, ¡°It seems like we were fated to meet!¡±


    In this wilderness, there would always be a greater chance of survival with help from others. Chen Wudi andpany, who were riding on bicycles, stood out too much, so everyone else knew they were well-prepared for the escape and even had food with them. As such, this woman was looking to cotton up to Chen Wudi.


    Chen Wudi turned his head. ¡°Huh? Fated?¡±


    The woman shyly twirled her hair. ¡°Aren¡¯t you the Great Sage? My name is Zixia, Zhao Zixia!¡±


    Chen Wudi looked like he had been struck by lightning. ¡°You¡¯re Zixia?! But you don¡¯t look that age!¡±


    Zhao Zixia joked, ¡°I might have been reborn a few years before you.¡±


    Chen Wudi despaired a little. ¡®How is that a few years? It¡¯s more like a decade, at least! Aren¡¯t you jumping the gun?!¡¯ However, Chen Wudi calmed down and said, ¡°Big sis, I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯m not your version of the Great Sage.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and the others wereughing themselves silly over at the campfire. When Chen Wudi came back, no one held back from teasing him. Previously, Chen Wudi had said that he was searching for Zixia, a fairy immortal, but no one thought he would suddenly change the version of the Great Sage now that he had finally found her? He could even switch the version of the Great Sage? That was probably Chen Wudi¡¯sst route of retreat he had left for himself.


    At the beginning, Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu thought Zixia was just a rtionship setback trope Chen Wudi had created for himself. Now that Zixia had personally appeared and met him, she helped Chen Wudi cut himself off from all mortal desires.


    Right at this moment, Yan Liuyuan caught sight of a figure of a person slowly making their way over in the snowy weather. The escapees started whispering among themselves as they never expected someone to still being from the direction of Stronghold 109 at such a time.


    Before everyone else could react, Chen Wudi and the others stood up. Yan Liuyuan waved his hands excitedly and shouted, ¡°Bro! Over here, over here!¡±


    Although Yan Liuyuan knew Ren Xiaosu was definitely fine, he could only feel truly at ease after seeing him again. For Yan Liuyuan, there wasn¡¯t a point in livingfortably if Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t around to apany him.

 Chapter 195 - Respect the old and care for the young

    <strong>Chapter 195 Respect the old and care for the young</strong>


    When Yan Liuyuan shouted to Ren Xiaosu, some people who did not notice Ren Xiaosu turned to look at him as well.


    The escapees did not quite understand why Yan Liuyuan¡¯s group had not ridden their bicycles when they clearly had them. Instead, they just pushed their bicycles along with the crowd without any panic. But now, everyone realized this group of people did not escape as quickly as possible by cycling because they had been waiting for someone.


    But where had this young man who just walked over from the frozen, snowynd outside gone before this? Surely he could not have just escaped from the stronghold, right? After all, the stronghold was filled with terrifying Experimentals, so who could possibly escape from there? They should be thest wave of people who¡¯d fled from there.


    Suddenly, a girl in the crowd realized she knew Ren Xiaosu. Wasn¡¯t that the scoundrel who deliberately caused her to score badly on her exams?! This girl was Li Mo, and she had sat behind Ren Xiaosu during the final exams. After the exams were over, she had gone to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ss to seek revenge on him. However, she did not even manage to confront him. Furthermore, the students in ss 12-7 really pissed her off when they imed they were actually protecting her by stopping her from taking her revenge!


    Amid the escaping crowd, she saw Ren Xiaosu walking over from the wilderness. For some reason, she felt those students might have been telling the truth and had not deliberately been trying to piss her off.


    As Ren Xiaosu passed through the crowd, he knew a lot of people were looking at him. However, he was not exactly bothered by it. He had been walking in the frozen, snowynd for a long time and almost lost his way. It was not that he had bad wilderness survival, but that he could not even getndmarks to use as a reference in the heavy snowfall. He only found Yan Liuyuan andpany because of his strong sense of direction!


    He really should have been smarter and hitched a ride with Yang Xiaojin¡¯s group. If he had, he wouldn¡¯t have had to go through all this trouble.


    When Ren Xiaosu sat down next to the campfire, Yan Liuyuan immediately handed him some hot water and porridge. ¡°Bro, did you manage to save the ruler of Womand?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Who¡¯s the ruler of Womand?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan chuckled. ¡°Big Sister Xiaojin.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused. ¡®Wait, when did Yang Xiaojin be the ruler of Womand?!¡¯ He looked at Chen Wudi. ¡°Did you give her that nickname? Stop talking nonsense!¡±


    Chen Wudi smirked. ¡°Only names can be given wrongly. How can nicknames be called wrong?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan kept a straight face and told Ren Xiaosu about the ¡°Zixia¡± incident that happened earlier. Ren Xiaosu was also amused. ¡°Wudi, will you still look for Zixia in the future?¡±


    Chen Wudi froze. ¡°Zixia? Who?¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you¡¯ve already forgotten about her.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, ¡°How amazing that you can switch versions of yourself. Hey, didn¡¯t you used to insist on looking for Zixia?¡±


    Chen Wudi said in seriousness, ¡°Master, I¡¯m crazy, not stupid.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered what he just said but couldn¡¯t figure out the difference even after a long time.


    At this moment, an olddy walked towards them with a child in hand. Ren Xiaosu turned around and had a look at them. He thought that if they wanted to share the campfire to keep themselves warm, he could make some space for them. It was really cold out, after all, and they were an elder and child.


    But when the olddy came up to them, she said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You people should take the initiative to share your food with the elderly and children. I¡¯ve been observing you all for some time. But as a group of young people, you all aren¡¯t even virtuous enough to respect the old and care for the young. How did your parents teach you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. To be honest, he had not expected such a twist. No one in town had ever mentioned anything about respecting the old and caring for the young before. Like refugees would be so free to discuss virtues and whatnot! So he didn¡¯t expect someone would act so righteous to get them to share their food with the elderly and children.


    It was gettingte into the night, and the temperature dropped rapidly again. It was really not easy for an elderly person to take care of a child while escaping. If this olddy had just asked nicely for some food to be shared with them, Ren Xiaosu would have given it to her. But since she spoke with that attitude, Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t help feeling disgusted. To be honest, he could not understand how someone like her managed to escape from the stronghold.


    The child pointed to the golden circlet on Chen Wudi¡¯s head and said, ¡°Grandma, I want that.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan mischievously exined, ¡°That can¡¯t be removed.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care, I want it!¡± the child said selfishly.


    The olddy looked at Chen Wudi. ¡°What¡¯s the big deal with letting my grandson y with your hairband for a while? And why is a grown man like you even wearing a hairband?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wanted tough aloud. Then a woman next to them said, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you people? Can¡¯t you let the child y with it?¡± Saying that, she removed a hairpin from her hair and gave it to the child. ¡°Here, y with Auntie¡¯s hairpin instead.¡±


    However, the child pped the hairpin to the ground and started crying. ¡°I don¡¯t want yours, I want his.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu threw another two pieces of firewood into the campfire and said with a smile, ¡°Y¡¯all better get lost while I¡¯m still in control of myself. In a world like this, you still dare to boss people around? I feel that you might not get to the next stronghold.¡±


    The olddy said with a stuck-up look, ¡°I¡¯m an anciry family member of the Li Consortium. Even though one of our strongholds has been lost, the Li Consortium¡¯s forces from the other strongholds will definitelye to our rescue soon. So don¡¯t think you can behave as you like, allwlessly.¡±


    ¡°Get lost,¡± Ren Xiaosu calmly said.


    The child got afraid when he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s calm expression. He hid behind the olddy and said, ¡°Grandma, let¡¯s go. I¡¯m scared.¡±


    After saying that, he dragged the olddy back into the crowd. It was as though he wanted to get as far away from Ren Xiaosu as possible. Even while the olddy was leaving, she was still scolding and swearing at them.


    Chen Wudi wondered, ¡°Master, why are there people like her in this world?¡±


    She was clearly in the wrong, yet she acted as though she were the righteous one and took advantage of her seniority by emphasizing ¡°respecting the old and caring for the young.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Wudi, I know that you want to be a hero and uphold justice. But if you think that everyone in this world has goodness in their hearts, then you haven¡¯t met everyone yet.¡±


    ¡°Bro, where are we headed next?¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°If we keep going north, we¡¯ll end up in the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory. These Li Consortium residents probably don¡¯t even know where they are right now. Even if the Li Consortium really sends reinforcements over, they won¡¯t bump into them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and replied, ¡°Let¡¯s go to Stronghold 88.¡± ¡°Stronghold 88?¡± Yan Liuyuan was stunned. ¡°Whose territory is that? Why should we go there?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, ¡°Uh, I have an acquaintance there. If we go to Stronghold 88, it¡¯ll be easier for us to obtain legal resident statuses and whatnot. You can even attend school.¡±


    After chatting with Qing Zhen, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Lan, Ren Xiaosu really wanted to learn more about this world through education. He might not even need to go to school since Yang Xiaojin mentioned there was a huge library in Stronghold 88.


    ¡°OK, whatever you say.¡± Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°But where is Stronghold 88?¡±


    A bolt of lightning struck Ren Xiaosu. ¡®Oh, right! Where is Stronghold 88?!¡¯

 Chapter 196 - Stealing bicycles

    <strong>Chapter 196 Stealing bicycles</strong>


    In current times, maps of the areas that were under the control of an organization were rarely made avable to the public. As such, most people did not really have a clear concept of the geography. Usually, people would just describe the location of the next stronghold with terms like in front, behind, to the left, to the right, up north, or down south. As for the exact distance and where they were precisely located, no one really knew.


    Ren Xiaosu thought about how all those strongholds were actually a huge alliance, yet no one came up with aplete map of thends. The organizations were all guarding against each other as though they were thieves. Of course, he felt that the various organizations would probably have more detailed maps but kept them secret.


    This led to... Ren Xiaosu feeling embarrassed when he discovered he did not know where Stronghold 88 was even though he suggested going there.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. ¡°It¡¯s not a big deal. It should be somewhere to the north. We should be able to get there with a bit of walking.¡±


    ¡°Bro, why do I feel like you¡¯re also uncertain about what you said?¡± Yan Liuyuan said. He checked with Jiang Wu, who was beside him, but realized she also did not know where Stronghold 88 was.


    ording to Yang Xiaojin, there were two strongholds between Stronghold 88 and Stronghold 109. The entire distance of the journey should be between 500 to 1,000 kilometers, so it might be quite difficult to get there just by walking.


    When normal people looked to travel to another stronghold, they tended to head to the nearby ones. It was impossible to get to those that were too far away. It was only the organizations that were capable of traveling across the wastnd.


    So it wasn¡¯t a surprise that Jiang Wu did not know where Stronghold 88 was.


    ¡°Bro, are we going to ride a 1,000 kilometers on our bikes?¡± Yan Liuyuan felt despair when he thought about it.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. ¡°Why don¡¯t we try to get our hands on a car after we get to the next stronghold? We can then drive to Stronghold 88!¡±


    ¡°Get our hands on a car? Bro, why don¡¯t you just say we¡¯re stealing one? You don¡¯t need to mince your words.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Currently, the Qing Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 111 is the closest to us. If you¡¯ve already decided on stealing a car, I suggest that we go there to steal one.¡±


    ¡°Qing Zhen and Luo Lan should be on their way back to Stronghold 111.¡± Ren Xiaosu pondered and said, ¡°I think it would be best to avoid going there. After all, those two are bellicose people, so it¡¯s not good to be interacting with them too much.¡±


    ¡°Bro, seeing as you¡¯re so insistent on going to Stronghold 88, that acquaintance you mentioned should be Yang Xiaojin, right?¡± Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked.


    ¡°You always have so much to say.¡± Ren Xiaosu red at him. ¡°Rest early. We¡¯ll start pushing faster tomorrow and go north first. If we encounter a stronghold along the way, we can stop at the town outside of it for a while. Once we find out where Stronghold 88 is, we can continue there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt it was better to stay away from the Qing Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 111, as well as the Li Consortium. Otherwise, they might just get involved in the wrath of Li Shentan¡¯s vengeance. When he thought of Li Shentan, he sensed the only interest the young man had after getting out of the psychiatric hospital was revenge.


    But then, the howling of wolves came from the distance. Following, more howling sounded in the quiet wilderness, scaring people.


    Some of the escapees who had fallen asleep jolted awake. They looked around in a panic and wondered why they had to encounter the wolves so soon after escaping from the ws of the Experimentals. So it was actually that dangerous in the wilderness?!


    Someone said softly, ¡°Everyone, look at the hilltop over there!¡±


    Everyone looked over and saw several hundred white wolves asrge as bison standing atop a hill and staring at them quietly. The size of the white wolves was utterly different from what the stronghold residents had been taught. The wolves they learned about in the textbooks were not this big!


    If these wolves attacked the escapees¡¯ campsite, more than half of them would likely get killed or injured tonight. On top of that, the remaining survivors would find it hard to escape the pursuit of the wolves.


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything as he knew the wolves would not attack the escapees¡¯ campsite. That was because if these wolves would¡¯ve attacked a campsite, his group would have died during theirst escape from Stronghold 113.


    But he could not understand why these wolves kept following them everywhere. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s intuition told him the wolves were here because of their small group, not because of other escapees. However, he was not a 100% sure of that.


    But the escapees did not know this. When they saw wolves had arrived, they leapt up and continued fleeing north. When Ren Xiaosu saw the escapees were starting to move again, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s keep up with the bigger group for now!¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice trailed off, Jiang Wu started waking up her students who were still asleep. They did not ask why and just followed wherever Ren Xiaosu went.


    A group of people were riding bicycles and blending into the right side of the escapees¡¯ group. As the road here was not that bumpy, it was much easier to escape on their bicycles than running on foot. The physical exertion between the two waspletely on a different level.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to ride too fast. Just keep up with the pace of the crowd,¡± Ren Xiaosu instructed.


    Yan Liuyuan happened to turn around at this moment and saw Ren Xiaosu sitting on the back of Chen Wudi¡¯s bicycle and giving out instructions in high spirits.


    ¡°Bro, you still haven¡¯t learned how to ride a bike?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    Ren Xiaosu kept a straight face and said, ¡°I learned how to ride it, but I¡¯ve lost my bike.¡±


    ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t you take my bicycle while I get a ride from you instead?¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly, ¡°Liuyuan, you¡¯re already an adult, so you should be riding your own bike.¡±


    Yan Liuyuanmented, ¡°Bro, you¡¯re the most shameless person I¡¯ve ever met. No one elsees close.¡±


    Jiang Wu and her students were cycling behind Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group. As they rode along, they felt they really could survive longer just by following Ren Xiaosu.


    Suddenly, two escapees who saw the students riding bicycles came over and tried to take them away from them!


    Everyone knew they would escape faster with a proper mode of transportation. Besides, Jiang Wu¡¯s students looked like clear pushovers, so some of these people started getting ideas about the bicycles!


    The two escapees grabbed hold of a student¡¯s shirt and shouted, ¡°Get off!¡± They then proceeded to push the student off the bicycle.


    Chen Wudi jumped off his bike and leaped in front of the two escapees in a single bound. ¡°How dare the two of you behave so insolently in front of the Great Sage!¡±


    Chen Wudi sent them flying backwards in an instant with a punch and a kick. One of them even had their leg twisted unnaturally!


    Chen Wudi picked up the bicycle and handed it back to the student. ¡°Keep your guard up. Shout for me if anyone else dares toe and steal your bicycle


    again!¡±


    That female student looked at Chen Wudi and said in a daze, ¡°Th-Thank you!¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to thank me! You should thank my master instead!¡± Chen Wudi said as he waved it off.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was the one who felt most downcast.


    Ren Xiaosu had only sat behind Chen Wudi on his bicycle as he thought he was stronger, so would not be burdened by his weight and get too tired. He could never have expected Chen Wudi to actually jump off the bicycle while it was still moving.


    With a loud crash, Ren Xiaosu fell to the ground together with the bicycle!

 Chapter 197 - The Wolf King’s act of goodwill

    <strong>Chapter 197 The Wolf King¡¯s act of goodwill</strong>


    With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s physical fitness, he would not get injured from just falling off a bicycle. He dusted off the dirt and snow on him and got back on his feet. ¡°Wudi, if you see any injustice in the future, just let me handle it. You should focus on riding the bike, alright?¡±


    ¡°Oh, sure thing, Master!¡± Chen Wudi hurriedly picked the bicycle up and continued riding with Ren Xiaosu as he caught up to the group.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the wolves on the hilltop. The white wolves were not rmed by the sight of the escapees running away and stood there motionlessly in the snow. It was as though they had nothing better to do and were only here to take a gander. But Ren Xiaosu could not understand what their motives were.


    In front of him, Chen Wudi was pedaling hard and saying, ¡°Master, why are there always people in this world who think nothing of hurting others to achieve their goals?¡±


    ¡°Humans are self-serving,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied nonchntly.


    ¡°What about people who try to get something without making any effort for it?¡± Chen Wudi asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s also because humans are self-serving,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    Chen Wudi suddenly sounded a little depressed. ¡°Master, do you think I should still fight against injustices in the future? There are so many bad people out there. What if the people I save turn out to be bad as well?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could feel the contradiction inside of Chen Wudi. It seemed like his dream of bing a hero was starting to waver. Although Ren Xiaosu did not want to be a hero himself, he found this quality in Chen Wudi¡¯s nature to be praiseworthy.


    Ren Xiaosu patiently exined to Chen Wudi, ¡°You can continue saving others if you wish to save them. But if you discover that they¡¯re bad people after you¡¯ve saved them, you can just beat them to death.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Chen Wudi nodded vigorously in response.


    All of a sudden, a scream came from the fleeing crowd. A woman shouted, ¡°Someone has taken my belongings! Everyone, please help me! He snatched my bag!¡±


    Immediately, Ren Xiaosu jumped off the bicycle in anticipation of what might happen. By the time hended on the ground, he saw that Chen Wudi had already rushed to that woman to help her and left the bicycle behind with no one to control it.


    Ren Xiaosu felt sad. It was still better for him to learn how to ride a bicycle. It wouldn¡¯t do if he had to keep depending on others like this. After a while, Chen Wudi ran back after beating up another man. When he saw the bicycle lying on the ground, he was a little embarrassed. ¡°Master, I¡¯m sorry. I forgot you were on the bike again.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu had no alternative but to dismiss it. ¡°But with so many people here, you can¡¯t possibly handle everything, right? I¡¯m afraid that you will exhaust yourself to death if you continue dealing with every little matter.¡±


    Moreover, this was just the beginning of their escape. There would probably be many more instances of such bullying among the escapees in the future.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll just handle them one at a time.¡± Chen Wudi said hesitantly, ¡°I can¡¯t possibly just ignore them.¡±


    After fleeing for a while more, Ren Xiaosu suddenly called out to his group, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s stop here. The wolves aren¡¯t pursuing us. Besides, if they were really chasing after us, none of us could get away.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and the others came to a stop. When the other escapees saw them stopping, they also slowly stopped in their tracks. Everyone was weary to the bone now.


    The only good thing that came of this was that they did not feel as cold after some exercise.


    Now that they had fled to a new location, they would have to rebuild their campfires and collect more firewood to burn. Some people who were toozy to go around doing all that again justid in the snow. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan led the group of students who did not mind the trouble of restarting their campfire.


    This was what Ren Xiaosu had requested of them. No matter how cold or tired they were in the snowy wilderness, they were required to make a campfire. Otherwise, they would pay a hefty price.


    ¡°Bro.¡± Yan Liuyuan asked, puzzled, ¡°Did you sense anything strange about those wolves?¡±


    ¡°You sensed it as well?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°I keep having the feeling that the Wolf King is constantly watching me from afar. It¡¯s like I can feel its gaze on me all the time.¡±


    This was something new to Ren Xiaosu since he did not feel that he was being watched.


    When it waste at night and Ren Xiaosu saw that everyone around them had fallen sleep, he reminded Chen Wudi and Yan Liuyuan, who were keeping watch, to be careful. He needed to go somewhere for a while.


    Ren Xiaosu walked into the wilderness with great doubts on his mind. He was going in the direction of where the wolves had appeared.


    The snow was very deep. Ever since The Cataclysm, the winters would get exceptionally cold, and the snowfall also became much heavier.


    He walked towards the wilderness with some difficulty in the snow. Some escapees who were still awake were shocked when they realized someone was brave enough to venture into the wilderness at such time.


    ¡°Is he going for a potty break?¡± ¡°Maybe, but wasn¡¯t he the one who came from the wilderness alone and joined us?¡±


    ¡°Look at how well-prepared their group is. They probably knew something was going to happen to the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°How did they know?!¡±


    A woman who had her face concealed behind a scarf was secretly watching Ren Xiaosu¡¯s receding figure. Suddenly, someone beside her said in surprise, ¡°Aren¡¯t you... Fang Yujing?¡±


    Even though she had concealed herself very well, someone still recognized her. The person said happily, ¡°It¡¯s really you! I¡¯m your fan! I heard you were going to be participating for a couple days in the music festival, but I never thought something like this would happen.¡±


    Fang Yujing forced a smile. ¡°It¡¯s good enough that we¡¯re all still alive.¡±


    When she turned her eyes back to Ren Xiaosu, she discovered he had disappeared into the distance.


    Ren Xiaosu crested a tiny hillock and was surprised to see the wolves ying in the snow. Several of the females even had a dozen little wolf cubs with them. The wolf cubs seemed unafraid of Ren Xiaosu as they looked over from afar.


    Ren Xiaosu did not dare go any closer as he was worried the wolves would suddenly attack him.


    He just wanted to see what was going on with the wolves here. But before that, he would have to ascertain if the wolves saw him as prey.


    The strong and powerful males in the wolf pack stood still in the snow and observed him. Then they moved aside for the Wolf King as it made its way over from the rear with arge rabbit dangling from its mouth. The rabbit was still warm and dripping with blood.


    Ren Xiaosu stood still. He wanted to see what the Wolf King was nning to do, while the ck saber was getting restless as it kept buzzing in the pce.


    The rabbit was asrge as a bicycle tire. Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know what it ate to grow to this size. He could see condensationing from the rabbit¡¯s warm blood as it dripped onto the snow.


    The Wolf King stopped not far from Ren Xiaosu and ced the rabbit on the ground. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Are you giving that to me?¡±


    But the Wolf King did not respond. It just turned around and left with its pack. Ren Xiaosu could only watch as they padded away.


    This confused Ren Xiaosu even more. Had the wolf pack gotten so sociable that they even sent food to humans? But what astonished him was that the number of wolves seemed to have increased by a lot this time. It looked like the Wolf King had been tirelessly epting new wolves into its pack.

 Chapter 198 - The escapees attempt robbery

    <strong>Chapter 198 The escapees attempt robbery</strong>


    In the middle of the night, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sudden walk into the wilderness by himself shocked many people. No matter what he intended to do, the fact that someone would venture out alone was very surprising to the escapees. After all, the wolves were still out there.


    But now Ren Xiaosu returned carrying arge rabbit in tow. Did he go hunting just now?


    Seeing as the weather was freezing as snow continued falling heavily from the sky, a lot of people were worried they would get buried under the snow when they woke up. But even in such bad weather, someone still went out to hunt and returned with such arge rabbit.


    When the Wolf King dropped the rabbit, the snow was already very deep. Ren Xiaosu watched quietly as the Wolf King cleared a path through the snow by walking in front while the other wolves followed behind it. That would make the walk much easier in the snow.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know what the Wolf King¡¯s intention was when it left him a rabbit. But he found it a little odd.


    On the way back to the campsite, he noticed many people staring at him in surprise. However, Ren Xiaosu would never exin to them that the wolves gave him the rabbit.


    When he got back, Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Bro, did you hunt the rabbit yourself?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°The wolves gave it to me. That Wolf King doesn¡¯t seem to have any malice towards us. For now, we won¡¯t have to worry too much. At the very least, we don¡¯t have to worry about the wolves attacking us.¡± If the wolves had any malicious intent, killing Ren Xiaosu just now would definitely have been the best opportunity they had. After all, the distance between them earlier was just a leap away.


    Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to eat the rabbit. Since everyone was already asleep and ate dinner in the evening, they definitely would not feel too hungry yet.


    The escapees around them were so hungry their eyes gleamed upon seeing the rabbit. After all, some of them did not have anything to eat as they fled over the past two days. If it hadn¡¯t snowed today, they would not even have replenished the water lost from their bodies.


    The snow may have looked white, but it was not as clean as you would think. Ren Xiaosu knew the escapees would pay the price for casually putting things in their mouths when they woke up the next morning


    Currently, only a miniscule number of escapees still had any food left on them, while most of the others were famished with nothing to eat. When some people saw Ren Xiaosu bringing such arge rabbit back, their eyes lit up.


    Some of those people were whispering among themselves, apparently discussing something. Yan Liuyuan nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Bro, you¡¯d better make an example of some of them quickly so that the others won¡¯t get any ideas.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at those escapees. ¡°Upon identifying the ringleaders, we¡¯ll kill them off. Wudi, make sure to protect everyone when it gets chaoticter. I¡¯ll handle the killing.¡± When Ren Xiaosu mentioned killing people, his expression didn¡¯t change.


    Then he noticed Jiang Wu had also woken up. Jiang Wu said, ¡°Xiaosu, do you have any weapons to spare? Can you lend one to me?¡± Jiang Wu and her students had also brought a lot of food with them. Although the escapees looked like they were only interested in the rabbit for now, Jiang Wu¡¯s group was also in danger of being targeted.


    However, Jiang Wu did not request Ren Xiaosu to protect them as well. Instead, she wanted to borrow a weapon from him so they could protect themselves. Because Jiang Wu and her students had a separate campfire, it looked like they were two separate groups of people. Ren Xiaosu had also mentioned to Jiang Wu before that they would have to depend on themselves once they had escaped into the wilderness.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and quietly handed a gun to Jiang Wu. After the events of Stronghold 109, he had amassed quite a few firearms in his storage space. At the very least, he had enough to issue one to each person in their group.


    When the Li Consortium¡¯s troops were attacked by those under the control of Li Shentan, many soldiers had died and a lot of their guns went missing. Ren Xiaosu was there at the scene.


    ¡°Ms. Jiang, do you know how to use a gun?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Jiang Wu shook her head. ¡°No.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Then have you killed a person before?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Jiang Wu shook her head again. However, her tone soon became determined as she said, ¡°For the sake of my students, I can do it.¡±


    ¡°Why not you give the gun to a male student to hold? Wang Yuchi looks quite strong. He can learn how to do this,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°No.¡± Jiang Wu said, ¡°Their responsibility right now is to learn, not kill people. I know it¡¯s not good to be so protective of them in times like these, but I know people change after killing someone. As long as I can protect them for one more day, I don¡¯t need them shouldering such sins.¡±


    Chen Wudi, who was next to them, suddenly said, ¡°If I don¡¯t descend into the Underworld, who will?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu told Chen Wudi, ¡°With a teacher like Jiang Wu around, you being a hero will have meaning.¡±


    At this moment, someone within the escapees¡¯ group stood up and led others towards Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group. Ren Xiaosu smiled at Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Remember the faces of these people.¡±


    As the escapees walked over aggressively, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to discover the olddy who tried using her seniority to her advantage also within the crowd.


    But Chen Wudi¡¯s expression seemed a bit strange. ¡°Master, there¡¯s someone in that crowd I¡¯ve helped before.¡±


    A man had his jacket taken by someone else, but Chen Wudi managed to prevent the robbery in time. But now, that man ended up joining forces with others to rob Chen Wudi and his group.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know what to say.


    The group of escapees walked up to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group and said, ¡°I¡¯m sure you all knew beforehand that something would happen to the stronghold, right? Did you people have anything to do with what happened at Stronghold 109?¡±


    ¡°Why? Are y¡¯all trying to gain the moral high ground?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°The Li Consortium, the Qing Consortium, and the Yang Consortium all knew that something was going to happen at the stronghold, yet none of you knew a thing.¡±


    The people in their group looked at one another as this was their first time hearing about this. But soon, someone raised their voice and snapped, ¡°There¡¯s so few of you here. Can you even finish eating so much food? Also, you are so well-prepared with supplies, so why can¡¯t you just help everyone?¡±


    As that person spoke, one of them came over in an attempt to take therge rabbit away!


    Ren Xiaosu sneered as he took out his pistol and fired it into the air. The crowd of people were stunned. They did not expect Ren Xiaosu to have a gun on him!


    The crowd started retreating quietly. Some of them even pulled others in front of them to shield themselves. They were hoping they would not be the ones to die when the bullets flew.


    ¡°Who were the ones who suggested you rob us?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.


    Noisy chatter filled the escapees¡¯ group. ¡°It wasn¡¯t me! I think it was that guy in blue!¡±


    The man in blue said in panic, ¡°It wasn¡¯t me, don¡¯t lie! I said not toe over, yet you people insisted on doing so!¡±


    ¡°Enough with the arguing.¡± Ren Xiaosu calmed down. ¡°I know who they are.¡±


    He raised his hand and shot the instigators that were standing at the front. In a mere two seconds, Ren Xiaosu had already identified and shot the three masterminds dead.


    Everyone in the crowd started screaming and retreating. Not only did they not expect Ren Xiaosu to have a gun, they did not expect he would open fire on them!


    This was what you would call a mob. They did not have any goals nor considered the consequences before doing things.


    When something really happened, they would be easily scared off by just one person.


    The man Chen Wudi had helped fell to the ground after losing his bnce and got trampled by the crowd. He could not stand up again.


    All of a sudden, someone whisper-shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s take the food from those students since they can¡¯t fight back!¡±


    They shifted their attention to Jiang Wu and her students immediately. The escapees all knew that Jiang Wu¡¯s group also had food on them!

 Chapter 199 - Jiang Wu turns superhuman!

    <strong>Chapter 199 Jiang Wu turns superhuman!</strong>


    The escapees who had gone hungry for two days acted as though they were under a spell. When they heard the word ¡°food,¡± everyone made a mad dash to Jiang Wu¡¯s group.


    They had long since noticed this group of people. Although Jiang Wu and her students were on good terms with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group, there was still a separation between them. Didn¡¯t the two groups also sit separately while eating?


    But they did not understand that Jiang Wu was only trying to be independent so they would not be a burden to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group.


    Just as the crowd was about to make a rush for Jiang Wu and her students, Chen Wudi stepped forward to get between them. Since he had been instructed by his master to protect the campsite, he would have to do it even if a million troops descended down on them!


    To Chen Wudi, the people in front of him were no longer escapees but heinous demons. From his point of view, their faces had turned to dark, smokey appearances, and their hands and feet had be animalistic ws.


    But... before Chen Wudi could get in front of Jiang Wu, he saw her resolutely raise her pistol and shoot it into the crowd.


    The people who bounded at her had shocked expressions on their faces. Someone fell to the ground after unexpectedly getting shot, and there was even an incredulous look on his face as he dropped to the ground. After the victim¡¯s heart got shot, his blood sttered out from the gunshot wound and stained Jiang Wu¡¯s fair cheeks blood red.


    However, the students did not feel scared at the sight of this. Rather, they thought the bloodstains resembled plum blossoms in the snow.


    The crowd got frightened off after hearing the second gunshot and retreated. Jiang Wu did not lower her pistol and panted heavily, as though dazed.


    From the side, Ren Xiaosu watched the scene unfold. This world had even forced someone as nice as Jiang Wu into shooting and killing others?


    Xiaoyu walked over and slowly removed the pistol from Jiang Wu¡¯s hand. Only then did Jiang Wue back to her senses. Xiaoyuforted, ¡°Everything¡¯s going to be fine. Don¡¯t worry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and asked, ¡°Are you scared?¡±


    In the frozen, snowynds, the flickering, red-orange campfire illuminated Jiang Wu¡¯s face very gently. Jiang Wu turned to Ren Xiaosu and said tearfully, ¡°If I don¡¯t descend into the Underworld, who will?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see the bloodstains that had been sttered on Jiang Wu starting to move involuntarily towards her hand. When they finally finished gathering in her hand, a crimson plum blossom was produced. It had formed into a single stalk of a single plum blossom in her hand, the petals of the flower all sharp as knives.


    Following, all five plum blossom petals detached from the stalk and started hovering around Jiang Wu as though they were protecting her.


    A faint breeze circted around Jiang Wu as it made her soft hair flutter ande alive.


    Ren Xiaosu threw a dry log at Jiang Wu as he had thought of something. The plum blossom petals apparently perceived it and crushed the log into pieces.


    This time, it was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be stunned. He had never expected that Jiang Wu would be a superhuman with one shot from a gun.


    Her students went over and looked at Jiang Wu happily. When they approached her, the plum blossom petals reattached themselves to the stalk in a way that resembled a bud waiting to bloom.


    ¡°Teacher, you¡¯ve also be a supernatural being,¡± the students said in tion.


    Wang Fugui took out the pistol Ren Xiaosu gave him a long time ago. He looked at the pistol, then at the crowd who was fleeing. He was caught in a dilemma.


    Ren Xiaosu snapped at him, ¡°It has nothing to do with guns or killing others. It happened purely because her willpower has reached a transition point.¡±


    ¡°Then can I reach my transition point as well?¡± Wang Fugui said with anticipation. Seeing how Wang Dalong kept doubting his family bloodline, Wang Fugui was really eager to prove himself.


    Ren Xiaosu was tickled pink by Wang Fugui. ¡°Don¡¯t think about all that irrelevant stuff. It¡¯s not like everyone can be a supernatural being. Even if you¡¯re not one, you can still live a good life.¡±


    At this moment, the escapees¡¯ group was keeping their distance in fear that Ren Xiaosu would seek them out to settle the score. It wasn¡¯t until this moment that they understood that the moral coercion and societal pressure that were effective in the stronghold were no longer effective here.


    These were the wastnds, not the stronghold.


    In the past, they believed that as long as they had more people on their side, and as long as they dared to kick up a fuss, they could definitely get things their way. They believed that as long as they had the moral high ground, others would have to yield to them. But that was not the case out here in the wilderness, and Ren Xiaosu had fired a shot to make them learn.


    Now that everyone was awake, Ren Xiaosu decided to gut the rabbit and roast it for everybody to have a taste of meat.


    Some time ago, Xiaoyu discovered that meat sold in the stronghold was extremely expensive after first arriving there. Even imitation meat[1] was extremely expensive too. So they ended up having less meat to eat than before while living in the stronghold.


    Since Ren Xiaosu knew how to hunt, he caught more wild animals in the wilderness to make up for theck of meat in their diet.


    In the earlier years, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hunting targets were limited by his physical fitness and skills even if he knew how to hunt. But now, he was no longer constrained to just hunting for sparrows.


    As the fatty meat of the plump rabbit roasted over the fire, Ren Xiaosu brought out some honey from his storage space. He made some cuts on the rabbit and applied honey to it. Very quickly, fats from the meat started dripping down bit by bit into the campfire.


    The sight of this made the students on the other side salivate. But since Ren Xiaosu did not say they could eat it, they could only watch quietly as the rabbit cooked.


    During their escape, Jiang Wu had been constantly reminding them that they would have to depend on themselves for everything and not rely on others for help.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Y¡¯all cane over and have some too.¡±


    The students looked towards Jiang Wu with anticipation. ¡°Teacher, can we?¡±


    Jiang Wu smiled and nodded. ¡°Go ahead, but remember to give thanks.¡±


    With just some barbecued meat, Ren Xiaosu managed to gain more than 40 gratitude tokens without much effort. Some students even thanked him several times in a single breath and were always sincere each time they said it.


    Ren Xiaosu thought these well-educated students were way too well-mannered. ¡°Hahaha, eat up, eat up!¡±


    The group of students surrounded the campfire in great anticipation. Ren Xiaosu saw them holding their knees together as they sat by the side and swallowed hard.


    When he saw the meat on the surface browning, he cut out a small piece of it for everyone to share. However, the students were all showing humility to each other and only cut a small piece from the shared portion for themselves before handing it to the next person.


    Ren Xiaosu felt Jiang Wu had really taught them well.


    The aroma of the meat drifted towards the escapees when the wind blew. The escapees could only sit there in a daze in the snow and smell the aroma but not eat the meat.


    Not once had they thought about how if all of them worked together, they could easily catch some wild goats, wild pheasants, or wild ducks with the number of people they had. These creatures in the wilderness had multiplied to great numbers without any human interference. But the thought of gaining something for themselves through their own efforts had never crossed their minds.


    One of Jiang Wu¡¯s students suddenly asked Ren Xiaosu while eating, ¡°Can you please teach us how to hunt? Or how to use a gun? We would also like to rely on ourselves to find food so we can protect our teacher in the future.¡±


    [1] Restructured steak is a catch-all term to describe a ss of imitation beef steaks made from smaller pieces of beef fused together by a binding agent.

 Chapter 200 - It wasn’t my fault

    <strong>Chapter 200 It wasn¡¯t my fault</strong>


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Your teacher just wants y¡¯all to study hard so you can work in research or simr fields in the future. Wouldn¡¯t that be better?¡±


    A student said, ¡°But we can¡¯t always depend on others.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Jiang Wu. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll teach y¡¯all tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Thank you,¡± the students said earnestly.


    With this wave of thanks, he received another 20-odd gratitude tokens. Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that his decision to bring these students along was one of the wisest decisions he had ever made!


    Meanwhile, someone among the escapees asked in a soft voice, ¡°Why don¡¯t we go and apologize to them?¡±


    ¡°How would that help?¡± someone wondered.


    A middle-aged woman said, ¡°If so many of us apologize to him, what more could he ask for?¡±


    But in the end, still no one dared to say anything to Ren Xiaosu andpany. They did not even have the courage to apologize.


    However, the other escapees who were not involved in the attempts to take the rabbit for their own also kept a distance from the group that did. They feared they would end up bing coteral damage if those people got punishedter. But only a minority of the escapees were not involved, and they probably only made up 20% of the entire group. At that time, they maintained their rationality and stuck to their morals.


    As it turned out, they were right. Although Ren Xiaosu had killed the perpetrators, he was still a little angry about the incident. In the middle of the night, he was still thinking about whether he should open up some Shadow Doors and drop snowballs over the campfires of those escapees to extinguish them.


    However, the person whose fundamental values were rocked most was actually not Jiang Wu and her students, but Chen Wudi.


    While divvying up the meat, Chen Wudi kept hold of a small stick as he sat on the edge of the campfire.


    When Ren Xiaosu handed him some meat, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Chen Wudi thought for a little and said, ¡°That group of people felt like a cloud of darkness trying to devour me.¡±


    The long-awaited pce finally spoke at this time. ¡°Quest: Help Chen Wudi stabilize his mental state.¡±


    In fact, even if the pce did not say anything, Ren Xiaosu would still do it. However, the pce probably also recognized Chen Wudi¡¯s current state of mind and did not want him to be defeated by reality. Therefore, it assigned Ren Xiaosu a quest to help him.


    But wasn¡¯t there something wrong with how the pce had phrased its words? By stabilizing his mental state... did it mean that it did not wish for Chen Wudi to get better?!


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a long while before saying, ¡°Humans are always being attacked by reality and the ugliness of their own species. Everyone will slowly begin to think that everything is meaningless. When that happens, they try to seek the light in the dark.¡±


    Chen Wudi was somewhat confused. ¡°Master, what¡¯s wrong with this world?¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°But, Wudi, try to think about it differently. If you constantly feel that you¡¯re devoured by the darkness, wouldn¡¯t it mean that you are that light?¡±


    Chen Wudi¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Is that true, Master?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.¡±


    Currently, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s physical attributes reached 9.5 Strength and 6.1 Dexterity. He was still unable to urately gauge how strong his punches were, but it became an even more terrifying power when they were amplified through his shadow clone.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not wish to gain any further Strength right now. He preferred having a few Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls so he could learn other people¡¯s cycling.


    When the sky turned bright, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group quickly packed up and prepared to set off. They had followed therge group of escapees because they were afraid of the wolves. But now that Ren Xiaosu realized the wolves were not going to attack them, he decided to speed up their journey. The earlier they could locate a new human settlement, the easier it would be for them to determine which direction Stronghold 88 was and readjust their route.


    Ren Xiaosu did not intend to enter a new stronghold yet. He only wanted to ask around for directions in the town outside the stronghold so they could avoid getting into any conflict with the authority of the stronghold.


    After all, there were a few too many supernatural beings in their group, so it was inevitable that the stronghold overseer would regard them as enemies.


    It was only they who had eaten meat for their meals and had nkets to cover themselves with on this escape so far. The other escapees did not have suchforts at all.


    Some of the escapees even had to resort to eating ice to quench their thirst. In the morning, a minority of the escapees¡¯ faces were flushed and their temperatures went up. In their current condition, they most probably would not get up anymore.


    Ren Xiaosu knew that even the cleanest-looking snow in the wilderness had to be boiled for at least 15 minutes before it was safe for drinking.


    Bacteria is one of the most deadly things in the wilderness. Just because they could not be seen, some people would ignore their existence.


    A man whose face was flushed stood in front of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group and blocked them from leaving. He begged, ¡°Since you¡¯re all so well-prepared, you must have brought along some medicine like antibiotics or something, right? Please, give me some of it. Otherwise, I definitely won¡¯t survive for much longer.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. Then Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°He was one of the troublemakers.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu ignored the man and left him pleading behind them.


    The man realized Jiang Wu would be kinder, so he turned to her and begged for help.


    However, Jiang Wu was no longer the young and na?ve teacher. She said to her students, ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up and keep pace with the group. Remember this person. He tried to rob us of our things yesterday.¡±


    Along the way, Ren Xiaosu taught some wilderness survival techniques to the rest of the group. He said in a loud voice, ¡°Right now, it¡¯s not the season for harvesting wild berries. But when you do encounter them, remember that 90% of the purple, blue, and ck berries are edible, while 50% of the red, green, and yellow berries are edible. So if you¡¯re extremely hungry, it¡¯s better to find the purple, blue, and ck berries to eat first...¡±


    While the students rode on their bicycles, they felt that even though this young man was being ferried on the back of a bicycle, his back had berger than life.


    A little kid among the escapees shouted to an olddy next to him, ¡°Grandma, I want to ride on a bike too. Get a bike for me!¡±


    His grandmother, who had still been ordering people around, was stumped by her grandson¡¯s request. Her grandson shook off her hand and started crying, ¡°You¡¯re not a good grandma. I want my mommy and daddy.¡±


    When the other escapees walked past them, nobody cared about what was happening. No one had any sympathy for them nor were they going to offer any help.


    Along the frontier in the heavy snow, Xu Xianchu was slowly advancing against a violent blizzard with a ck cauldron floating in front of him. The snow was so deep that it had alreadye up to his waist. If it weren¡¯t for his shadow clone carrying him, he probably wouldn¡¯t have walked any further.


    Suddenly, a dozen-odd people camouged in white cloth got up out of the snow. While pointing their guns at the big ck cauldron, one of them shouted into the wind, ¡°We¡¯re the 3rd Combat Brigade of Stronghold 178! State your name and purpose!¡±


    When Xu Xianchu heard the words ¡°Stronghold 178,¡± he couldn¡¯t be more overjoyed. He shouted, ¡°I¡¯m Xu Xianchu from Stronghold 113! I have a rmendation letter from Zhang Jinglin!¡±


    The soldiers were stunned when they heard Zhang Jinglin¡¯s name. As they cautiously approached Xu Xianchu, one of them went over to take the letter from him while the others stood by for further instructions. Their guns were still pointed at Xu Xianchu¡¯s figure. It was just that the ck cauldron and shadow clone felt a little strange to them. ¡°Brother, you¡¯re a supernatural being, right? Why do you have two types of superpowers?¡±


    The soldiers from the observation post buried under the snow seemed to understand supernatural beings very well. Xu Xianchu was stunned by that question. ¡°I¡¯m not sure either. But can¡¯t I have two superpowers?¡±


    The person who questioned him read the letter and said to the person next to him, ¡°It¡¯s really Commander Zhang¡¯s handwriting. The secret code in the letter is also correct.¡±


    Everyone nodded. ¡°Brother,e with us!¡±


    They then led him towards Stronghold 178 in the distance. Currently, the walls of Stronghold 178 were white. It looked like it was encased within a wall of solid ice, giving it a sense of time-worn dpidation. But it still looked exceptionally magnificent nheless.


    While they walked against the blizzard, someone asked, ¡°Brother, did youe from Stronghold 113? That ce is so far away!¡±


    Xu Xianchu shouted into the wind, ¡°I came out of Stronghold 113 and went to Stronghold 112. Then I was forced to go to Stronghold 109 before finally heading here.¡±


    The person next to him was stunned. ¡°Brother, those strongholds you¡¯ve been to are all gone now....¡±


    Everyone around Xu Xianchu stopped in their tracks. It seemed like they were seriously considering whether they should still take him to Stronghold 178.


    Xu Xianchu hesitated for a while before saying, ¡°It wasn¡¯t my fault.¡±


    Creator¡¯s Thought


    Dear readers,


    Regarding the East/West Gate matters that affected which direction the Experimentals would attack from.


    -Stronghold 113 is in the northeast of Stronghold 109.


    -Experimentals attacked from the east gate.


    -Ren Xiaosu¡¯s family moved from the east to the west of the stronghold.


    -Li Shentan wreaked havoc in the Western District.


    The wrong directions have been rectified.

 Chapter 201 - Escapees form cliques

    <strong>Chapter 201 Escapees form cliques</strong>


    By evening, it stopped snowing.


    As far as could be seen, there was snow everywhere in front of them. It felt like they had ventured out into another world.


    Arge field mouse crawled out of the ground and scurried through the snow, looking for food. It could smell the grains while it was still in its burrow. During winter, the animal¡¯s fur had grown much denser and made this field mouse look just like a furball.


    However, before it could scurry far from its burrow, Ren Xiaosu, who was hiding in the snow behind it, suddenly pounced. Having been lying in the snow for a long time, the snow that fell on him had concealed the outline of his body and his breathing.


    The plump field mouse was so shocked it instantly puffed up its fur. But it was toote for it to get back to its burrow.


    Nowadays, field mice in the wilderness were extremely quick. If it were the average person, it would be impossible for them to catch it. However, a dagger came stabbing at the field mouse as though it knew beforehand where it was going, pinning the field mouse dead to the ground on the path leading back to its burrow.


    Cheers broke out in the distance. Jiang Wu and her students were rubbing their hands in the cold weather and cheering with joy. They were going to have meat for dinner again tonight!


    Ren Xiaosu walked over holding the field mouse by its leg. ¡°It takes patience to hunt in the wilderness. The wild animals these days have be smarter. They won¡¯t fall for it if you just ce some bait out there. If you do not have more patience than them, you¡¯ll end up going hungry.¡±


    It had just stopped snowing, but Ren Xiaosu hadin in the snow for several hours. Although he and Chen Wudi could go out to hunt for wild boars instead, that would not be a suitable hunting method to teach these students.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s main purpose was still to teach and... earn their gratitude tokens.


    After Ren Xiaosu finished sharing his experience, the students quickly thanked him with smiles on their faces. In just the short span of a day, Ren Xiaosu had gained more than 400 gratitude tokens by relying on the idtry of these students.


    He had always been trying his best to gain as many gratitude tokens as he could ever since he was assigned the side quest. In the end, Ren Xiaosu discovered that students were still the more gullible ones.


    Ren Xiaosu had been worried that Jiang Wu had brought along too many students and it would dy their escape. But now he felt she had brought along too few students, resulting in him unable to earn more gratitude tokens at a faster rate.


    Ren Xiaosu would patiently go out and teach the students how to hunt, set up traps, and raid squirrel nests every day. With everyone so well-fed during the escape, they looked much healthier, with rosy glows on their faces.


    As he led the students back to their campsite, he said, ¡°If you manage to find a squirrel nest during winter, it¡¯s a really great harvest. It¡¯s filled with all kinds of food that the squirrel has stockpiled for winter, so it¡¯ll definitely be enough tost you several meals at least. Furthermore, there isn¡¯t any worry of being poisoned by food that a squirrel would eat.¡±


    One of the students asked, ¡°If we clear out the squirrel¡¯s food, how is the squirrel supposed to survive through the winter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuforted, ¡°If you just eat the squirrel as well, it won¡¯t have to survive through the winter.¡±


    When the students heard that, it made sense to them.


    When Jiang Wu, who was slowly following them, heard how Ren Xiaosu was teaching her students, she was a little conflicted.


    At the campsite, Yan Liuyuan andpany had already set up a campfire. Meanwhile, the students were carrying more firewood over. With the fire able to burn for longer, they wouldn¡¯t have to feel so cold tonight.


    Therge group of escapees set up their campsite not far away. Now the escapees just followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group wherever they went. However, they did not dare approach them. Butpared to the initial number of escapees who had escaped from the stronghold, only slightly less than half of them were still able to keep up with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group.


    Xiaoyu took the dagger from Ren Xiaosu and skillfully prepared the field mouse meat. After that, she cleaned off the blood on her hands with some snow.


    Yan Liuyuan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°The escapees have already started forming cliques. Just today, I discovered some people ordering others to do their work for them while they enjoyed the fruits of theirbor.¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Ren Xiaosu grunted as he sat at the edge of the campfire and tried to make the fire burn stronger by prodding it with a stick. He added some pine twigs to the fire and heard them crackle. He said, ¡°Ignore them. Such things can¡¯t be avoided. At the beginning of an escape, everyone will constantly be on the run. But soon after, some of the smarter and more ruthless people will start making use of others. Such is human nature.¡±


    ¡°In the past, they could live a proper life inside the stronghold by just following the rules and working daily. There were also many types of entertainment outlets for them to spend their money on. Although they worked, they couldn¡¯t save much money. They would just repeat their lives day in, day out and have no time to think about other things,¡± Ren Xiaosu continued. ¡°But once theye out into the wilderness, they understand what this world is really like.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Those strongholds are like a world that the organizations have carefully designed for the residents.¡±


    Right at this moment, a fracas broke out in the escapees¡¯ group. Ren Xiaosu looked up and was surprised to see a few of the men attempting to catch a lone escapee.


    That escapee broke free from their grasp and ran over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group.


    ¡°Bro, what should we do?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see how it turns out.¡± Ren Xiaosu took the field mouse meat and roasted it over the fire.


    The men ran over as they chased down the escapee. But halfway through, they came to a halt when they saw Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting next to the campfire.


    The escapee had concealed herself very well. Although the people behind her had already stopped in their tracks, she continued running and stumbling around in the snow. Finally, she fell into the snow not far from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group and stopped moving


    That escapee seemed to think that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group would get rmed by the disturbance, and someone would go over to help her up. But as it turned out, she ended up lying there for over an hour.


    After some time, Chen Wudi, who was sitting at the edge of the campfire, couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°Master, someone¡¯s over there.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯s just sleepy. Let her sleep for a while and don¡¯t disturb her,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. The others might not know, but he could sense that the person lying in the snow had an irregr breathing rhythm.


    An unconscious person wouldn¡¯t breathe that way. Furthermore, she even surreptitiously adjusted her posture just now when she apparently felt a little bit ufortable in that position.


    A momentter, the person lying in the snow slowly got back up. She acted as though she had just regained consciousness. Then she removed the scarf on her head to reveal a beautiful face. Yan Liuyuan whispered, ¡°It¡¯s a woman.¡±


    That woman stared nkly at Ren Xiaosu and the others. ¡°Oh, how did I pass out here? Hello, I¡¯m Fang Yujing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at her. ¡°Since you¡¯ve regained consciousness, please go back to your side.¡±


    He was really not interested in a scheming person like her. Although she was beautiful, she was still not the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you guys know who I am?¡± Fang Yujing was stunned.


    Everyone in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group speechlessly looked at each other next to the campfire. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You might not believe it when I say this, but we really don¡¯t know who you are....¡±

 Chapter 202 - The Li Consortium’s army

    <strong>Chapter 202 The Li Consortium¡¯s army</strong>


    While Ren Xiaosu was still at Stronghold 109, he had heard of Fang Yujing and Cicada¡¯s names on a streetcar. At the time, he wondered if the celebrities of this stronghold were also members of the Saboteurs based on the situation with Luo Xinyu.


    Butter on, he felt that he was wrong to think that way. When the great disaster struck Stronghold 109, Luo Xinyu and Lu Yuan had specially waited for Yang Xiaojin in the wilderness for some time. However, no one else was in the vehicle. If these two celebrities were also members of the Saboteurs, they would have been taken by them back then.


    Moreover, if Fang Yujing were a member of the Saboteurs, she would not need to approach him in such a manner. It would be just as how Luo Xinyu had greeted Ren Xiaosu openly after discovering he was her neighbor.


    Right now, it seemed like the escapees who had started forming cliques had somehow learned of Fang Yujing¡¯s identity and wanted to get their hands on her. As a result, she approached Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group in a roundabout way to get his help.


    No matter whether his deduction was right or wrong, Ren Xiaosu did not actually intend to bother with Fang Yujing¡¯s plight. If someone made immoral advances on the celebrity again after she went back, Chen Wudi would naturally give them a thrashing...


    By this point, Ren Xiaosu fully entrusted Chen Wudi with doing all the good deeds. However, Ren Xiaosu still reminded Chen Wudi over and over to try his best not to reveal his superpower. He also told this to Jiang Wu as well.


    When Jiang Wu awakened her power yesterday, no one noticed since the escapees were busy fleeing in panic. Therefore, they were just a group of normal people with guns in the eyes of the other escapees. This way, they would not attract any special attention from the corporations when they reached the next stronghold together. This was also the reason why Ren Xiaosu would rather use a gun instead of depending on his powersst night. After all, most of the organizations were not really friendly towards supernatural beings nowadays.


    Then the faint rumbling of vehicles came from ahead of them. Ren Xiaosu looked up at the sound and was surprised to see a convoy of vehicles approaching them. On the sides of the vehicles, the logo of the Li Consortium¡¯s white spider could be seen.


    In reality, it wasn¡¯t exactly a white spider. It was just a logo in the shape of a nanomachine that resembled a spider drawn with well-defined edges.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. Thest thing he wanted to see now was the Li Consortium¡¯s people.


    Hundreds of military transport trucks slowly came to a stop in front of the escapees, and all of their tires were fitted with snow chains.


    A dozen or sobat toons jumped out of the vehicles and slowly approached the group. The escapees were crying and shouting for help like their saviors had arrived. It was as though they had finally met their family members again.


    The officermanding the toons asked coldly, ¡°Where have you alle from?¡±


    With tears streaming down his face, an escapee said, ¡°Sir, we¡¯re residents of Stronghold 109. We escaped from there.¡±


    Another escapee said in tion, ¡°Didn¡¯t I say? The rescue troops would definitely find us. The Li Consortium hasn¡¯t forgotten about us. Sir, do you have any food? We¡¯re on the verge of starving to death.¡±


    But the officer sneered, ¡°I¡¯m not here to save you all. We¡¯ve been ordered toe to Stronghold 109 to annihte the invaders. We were instructed to send everyone back to town at Stronghold 108. We aren¡¯t responsible for providing any meals to you.¡±


    The escapees were taken aback. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to give us any aid?¡±


    The officer looked at the escapees and told the adjutant next to him, ¡°Do a headcount of the escapees.¡±


    These armed troops of the consortium quickly did a headcount of everyone. But during the process, their guns remained pointed at the escapees to prevent them from rioting.


    When the escapees who had been thinking of protesting against being treated like this saw the guns, they suddenly became as obedient as quails and did not dare say anything more.


    When everyone saw the army arriving, they were overjoyed, like they had been reunited with their family members. But now they realized these people did not even care about them!


    Someone finally could not hold back anymore. A young man walked to the front of the crowd and said, ¡°My brother-inw is a supervisor at Stronghold 108¡¯s Public Order Division. Kind sirs, please take me back with you. My brother-inw will definitely reward all of you handsomely.¡±


    The officer said with a smile, ¡°All civilians are strictly forbidden to pass through the strongholds now. Even if you all came back with us, you wouldn¡¯t be allowed to enter the stronghold. So it¡¯s better not to speak all those empty words. I hope you can recognize the situation you¡¯re in. You¡¯re all refugees from now on and no longer residents of a stronghold. Moreover, iming that a lowly supervisor at the Public Order Division could reward those of us from the Li Consortium¡¯s army, isn¡¯t that too much of a brag?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he realized the Li Consortium had probably decided to implement stricter controls on people passing through the stronghold after the lesson at Stronghold 109. This was to prevent any further dangerous elements from getting into their strongholds.


    However, this was exactly what Ren Xiaosu wanted as he did not intend to enter a stronghold that was controlled by the Li Consortium. Who knew what kind of dangerous ns Li Shentan was up to?


    From the conversation, Ren Xiaosu could tell that soldiers who were under the direct jurisdiction of the Li Consortium had never thought much of the stronghold¡¯s management. This alone was enough to show just how important the army was to the entire consortium.


    A man wondered, ¡°Then what should we do when we go back? Are we only allowed to be refugees in town? We really are the stronghold¡¯s residents!¡±


    The officer smiled. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about having nowhere to go. Our Li Consortium has already started a new round of conscription. All of those who are of suitable age will be required to join the military. Who knows, some of you might end up working under me in the future. As for the women, they¡¯ll be sent to the factories to make military uniforms for the new recruits. Since it¡¯s wartime, there¡¯s no need for me to exin anything to you people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. The Li Consortium was actually nning to draft soldiers? Surely he wasn¡¯t fucking going to get conscripted, right?! After the stronghold had been destroyed, the Li Consortium had lost an entire stronghold ofbat troops. In order to face an increasingly dangerous world, it would only be natural for them to recruit more soldiers.


    Moreover, several organizations were responsible for the destruction of Stronghold 109. If the Li Consortium wanted to seek revenge, they had to first expand their military strength.


    However, Ren Xiaosu could never have expected that he would really get conscripted!


    ¡°Bro, what should we do?¡± Yan Liuyuan muttered.


    At this moment, the officer said to the adjutant, ¡°Call the private troops and tell them we¡¯ve located the escapees. Get them over here to escort the escapees back, and make sure to watch over them carefully.¡±


    After a while, another dozen-odd military transport trucks arrived from behind them. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do now. Let¡¯s follow them to the town at Stronghold 108 first. We¡¯ll try to find a way to leave when there¡¯s a chance.¡±


    At this moment, it was definitely not practical for them to force an escape from here. If Ren Xiaosu was by himself, he could just leave as he wished. But if he were to go, what would be of Yan Liuyuan and the others?


    The men and women boarded separate vehicles with the private army soldiers pointing their automatic rifles at them and keeping a close watch. It was as though they were afraid they would try to escape.


    Before they went their separate ways, Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Wu and said, ¡°It¡¯s your turn now to protect Xiaoyu while I protect the male students on my side. I¡¯ll leave the rest to y¡¯all to watch out for your own safety.¡±


    Jiang Wu looked at him and said in a serious tone, ¡°I will. You be careful as well.¡±


    After that conversation, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, Chen Wudi, and all the men boarded one of the trucks, while Xiaoyu, Jiang Wu, and the women boarded another.

 Chapter 203 - Exemption from military service

    <strong>Chapter 203 Exemption from military service</strong>


    As the military transport truck rumbled along noisily, a cold, piercing wind blew through the exposed cargo bed, the knife wind cutting the passengers¡¯ faces.


    At the beginning, what worried Ren Xiaosu the most was that these military transport trucks would transport the men and women to separate ces, with the women being directly transported to the factory to work as female workers. However, that situation did not happen, and it allowed him to let out a temporary sigh of relief.


    Wang Fugui said with a frown, ¡°We couldn¡¯t bring our bicycles with us.¡±


    The moment he said that, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face turned gloomy.


    This was probably the first time their group had suffered such a significant loss since leaving Stronghold 113.


    This was the wastnd. All belongings were but worldly possessions, where things got discarded at a whim. If that saying applied to human lives, it was even more so for bicycles!


    In the current situation, even though Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi were both supernatural beings, it would still be extremely difficult for them to take on an entire unit.


    Watching the Li Consortium¡¯s troops heading towards Stronghold 109, Ren Xiaosu felt that he might not see them anymore in the future. That was because he did not think those troops were a match for over a 1,000 Experimentals in urban warfare. Unless, of course, the Li Consortium resorted to using heavy weaponry to tten the stronghold.


    But a stronghold was built precisely for the resources around it. Would the Li Consortium be willing topletely give up on an entire stronghold just like that? They definitely would not. The price to pay was simply too great if they had to blow up an entire stronghold and rebuild it from scratch.


    The trucks drove through the snow for seven to eight hours straight. During this period, some of the trucks in the convoy broke down several times. It was only at such times that the people in the trucks were allowed to get out to stretch and relieve themselves.


    The private troops kept an eye on the escapees as though they were supervising prisoners. Ren Xiaosu exchanged nces with Xiaoyu and Jiang Wu from a distance, but they had no idea what the other party was trying to say.


    After the trucks were repaired, the convoy continued on with its journey. During this time, Wang Fugui was striking up conversations with the soldiers, which was what he was best at. In just a short while, he was on very familiar terms with the soldiers who were assigned to watch over them.


    When they got back into the truck, Wang Fugui whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°It seems that we¡¯re heading straight for the town outside Stronghold 108. I¡¯m sure we all know what these soldiers are like. Once we get there, I¡¯ll see if I can get them to secretly exempt us from military and manualbor by offering them some money and antibiotics.¡±


    The ¡°manualbor¡± was referring to the female escapees getting recruited to work in the factories.


    With someone like Wang Fugui in the group, any news would not be too inessible for them. Ren Xiaosu and the others were not good at dealing with people, so Wang Fugui had to be the one to do


    Ren Xiaosu asked in a whisper, ¡°Did you ask them what the situation at the other Li Consortium strongholds is right now?¡±


    ¡°I asked, and everything is fine for now,¡± Wang Fugui replied. ¡°However, they¡¯re on full alert now. The Li Consortium has announced to the world that they¡¯re on wartime alert. It seems like war will be breaking out soon.¡±


    ¡°It looks like they¡¯re not only gonna be dealing with the Experimentals this time.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. If it were only about handling the problem of the Experimentals, there wouldn¡¯t be a need to raise the alert across a dozen-odd strongholds at once.


    But where did the Li Consortium find the confidence to start a war? Surely they didn¡¯t intend to rely on their nanomachines, right?


    Yang Xiaojin had mentioned that even though the research results that everyone had been trying to get their hands on did not get destroyed in time by the Li Consortium, they must have already transferred the research data through their own satellitework. So the Li Consortium¡¯s research was definitely not for nothing.


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu even raised some doubts regarding the matter. If that were the case, the portable hard drive was probably left behind on purpose. If the Yang Consortium decided to use it, it would be better for them to inspect it first. Otherwise, it might turn out to be a trap.


    Such was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nature. While other people might not overthink things, he would be extra careful and alert as long as he felt there was something unusual.


    As of now, the best solution was for them to use money to get an exemption from having to serve in the military and perform manualbor. The soldiers were swearing in the truck at having toe out to work in such cold weather. They were quite simr to the private troops in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s memory.


    These troops were also very greedy and always thinking about money. In the truck, Wang Fugui quietly swapped the most valuable items to Ren Xiaosu so he could stuff them into his storage space. That would prevent the soldiers from getting any ideas in case they saw the valuable items they had.


    The escapees in the truck had ashen looks on their faces. They thought they would be rescued once the Li Consortium¡¯s troops arrived. No one expected it would turn out like this. Going from a stronghold resident to a refugee¡ªthey were rather unable to ept such a fall from grace.


    Just as they were about to arrive at the stronghold, the private army¡¯s convoy suddenly came to a halt. Then an officer who did not even bother wearing his beret properly said while tucking his thumbs in his belt, ¡°Look, we also don¡¯t wish for all of you to suffer as soldiers or manualborers, but it¡¯s not up to us since these orders came from above.¡±


    An escapee begged, ¡°Sir, I¡¯ve got problems with my knee. I really can¡¯t be a soldier.¡±


    A woman also begged, ¡°We really don¡¯t know how to sew. We¡¯ve never done anything like that before.¡± With a smile, the officer of the private army said politely, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll be easy to pick up. However, I have another solution. I¡¯m very familiar with Commander Li, who¡¯s in charge of the draft. If any of you have any ideas, I can put in a word for you. But it¡¯s certainly not enough to just talk about it. Let me make this clear: I do not stand to gain anything from this. All I¡¯m trying to do is to plead on everyone¡¯s behalf.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately knew that he was hinting at getting some bribes.


    Someone immediately took off his wristwatch. ¡°Sir, this watch is a Soaring Bird. I just bought itst year.¡±


    The officer immediately beamed and said, ¡°Note his name... Is there anyone else who wants to be exempted from military or manualbor?¡±


    Wang Fugui immediately went over and pulled the officer aside. ¡°Sir, my name is Wang Fugui. I¡¯ve got a 100 antibiotics and five branded watches over here. However, there are quite a few of us who would like to get exempted.¡±


    When the officer heard that he had a 100 antibiotics, his eyes popped out of their sockets. When he heard he was being offered five watches as well, his eyes shone brightly!


    Wang Fugui said softly, ¡°The thing is, we have more than 20 students in our group. Just think about it, what are students capable of doing? They won¡¯t be able to contribute at all. Besides, students are the foundation of our future. Wouldn¡¯t it be such a waste for them to be soldiers or female workers?¡±


    The officer looked at Wang Fugui. ¡°The female students can be exempted but the male students can¡¯t. To be honest, the bottom line is that all men of the right age must be conscripted. If I dare to overstep this line, I¡¯ll get executed tomorrow.¡±


    When Wang Fugui heard this, he started panicking. He couldn¡¯t care less about other people, but Ren Xiaosu definitely couldn¡¯t be conscripted. He pointed to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you just exempt someone from military service?¡±


    ¡°To be honest with you, the person who was exempted is too old and not within the conscription requirements at all,¡± the officer said with a smile.


    Old Wang couldpletely understand that manualbor could be exempted, but military service was unavoidable. The middle-aged man who handed over his watch had purely been taken for a sucker. He rephrased his words and said, ¡°Look at that person over there. He might look young, but it¡¯s only because he has kept his face well-maintained. I hope this won¡¯t make it sound like a joke, but he¡¯s actually my uncle.¡±


    ¡°Fuck.¡± The officer was chuckled. ¡°Old Wang, can you be any more shameless than this? No means no. With these antibiotics and watches, I can only exempt the girls from their manualbor. But the men are all of suitable age, so they won¡¯t be exempted from military service.¡±


    Wang Fugui sighed. Wang Dalong and Yan Liuyuan did not have to be conscripted as they were too young. But based on the current situation, it was certain that Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and all eight of Jiang Wu¡¯s male students would have no choice but to serve in the military.

 Chapter 204 - Master, don’t get too upset

    <strong>Chapter 204 Master, don¡¯t get too upset</strong>


    Knowing the opportunity was hard toe by, Wang Fugui did not hesitate any further. He would have to handle the exemptions for Li Xiaoyu, Jiang Wu, and the rest of the female students from their manualbor first.


    He went back over to Ren Xiaosu and told him about it. Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°It¡¯s already quite good that we can get an exemption from manualbor. You¡¯ll need to settle them in town after we get conscripted. If we decide to escape one day, it¡¯ll be easier for us to meet up when that timees.¡±


    Right now, only ten people in their group were required to serve in the military. This consisted of Chen Wudi, Ren Xiaosu, and the eight male students. The remaining people would be allowed to stay in town for the time being.


    Who could have everything go their way in a chaotic world like this? This was already a very good oue.


    After the soldiers finished receiving their bribes, they continued on their journey. After an hour, they finally arrived at the outside of Stronghold 108. To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, the town outside the stronghold was much livelier than the other towns he had been to.


    Construction vehicles could be seen shuttling back and forth. There was even a huge military base stationed just outside the town. It seemed that the Li Consortium had already gathered a lot of its military forces outside Stronghold 108.


    Although it was early morning, it was extremely busy outside the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Even if Stronghold 108 was the closest to Stronghold 109 where the Experimentals now were, was it really necessary to gather so many troops here?


    When they got out of the vehicles, the officer in charge of escorting them immediately instructed those who had paid bribes to run into town via a narrow trail to avoid getting drafted into manualbor. The remaining people were made to stay there to await further instructions.


    The officer chuckled and said, ¡°Let me introduce myself. My name is Li Qingzheng, and I¡¯m going to bring you all over to the conscription office now for a physical examination. I¡¯ll secretly share some good news with you all. As long as you pass the test, you stand a chance of returning to the stronghold. In any case, I¡¯m not that fortunate. But for you all, it¡¯s all up to your own luck.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Was this a normal physical? It could even decide whether a person would end up bing a refugee or a stronghold resident?


    They followed Li Qingzheng and came to arge military tent. At this moment, a group of people happened to being out of the tent. One of them said excitedly, ¡°I can get into the stronghold! I can go live in the stronghold!¡±


    Li Qingzheng was watching that man¡¯s excitement with a grimace. ¡°What a lucky man. A refugee has been elevated in status just like that.¡±


    He looked at Ren Xiaosu and the others while exining, ¡°That person was previously a refugee from Stronghold 107¡¯s town. However, he¡¯s be a stronghold resident after being sent here and taking the physical. Interesting, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu stood outside the tent and looked at that man from behind. He suddenly felt that this physical examination was likely to be rted to the Li Consortium¡¯s new technology.


    Everyone stood in line and waited for their turn to enter the tents. Currently, the physical examination was being carried out in more than a dozen tents within the military base at the same time. Not only were there refugees undergoing the physical examination, but even the active servicemen of the Li Consortium were required to go through the physical examination again!


    Ren Xiaosu went into one of the tents. However, the physical examination being carried out on the inside was not what he had expected. There were only several people dressed in white coats standing in front of an apparatus. The person undergoing the physical examination was required to sit on a stool that was attached to the apparatus. He was also wearing a metallic ring that was connected to some wires on his head.


    A person in a white coat read the data and said, ¡°Synchronization rate at 3%, fail.¡±


    The staff member next to him dismissed the person who was undergoing the physical examination. ¡°You did not pass.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu slowly moved all the way to the back of the line. He kept having a feeling that something was off about this.


    Li Qingzheng chuckled, ¡°What, don¡¯t you want to get back into the stronghold? I heard you used to be a stronghold resident.¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°Aren¡¯t you a stronghold resident?¡±


    ¡°No, I only became a toonmander because the private army¡¯s strength increased. But I was also a refugee before,¡± Li Qingzheng said with a smile.


    So it turned out that the Li Consortium was increasing its military strength all across the board. Even refugees were being recruited into the private army now.


    At this moment, one of the people in the white coats said, ¡°Synchronization rate at 81%, pass. Record this person¡¯s details into the personnel database.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What does this ¡®synchronization rate¡¯ mean?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure either.¡± Li Qingzheng said, ¡°Anyway, if you can pass the test, you¡¯ll be allowed into the stronghold. But if you fail it, you¡¯ll be one of my men.¡±


    The man who passed the test was an escapee who had fled together with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group from Stronghold 109. He asked the doctor in disbelief, ¡°Am I allowed to enter the stronghold?!¡±


    The doctor in the white coat nced at him and said indifferently, ¡°Congrattions. Your name?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, I can finally enter the stronghold!¡± the escapee said excitedly.


    The doctor said impatiently, ¡°Name, please?¡±


    ¡°Lin Qi! My name is Lin Qi!¡± the escapee answered excitedly.


    Then someone took him away. One by one, the people in their group stepped forward for the physical examination. The synchronization rates of the eight male students basically fell between 40% and 60%, but the passing requirement was apparently much higher than that.


    When it came to Chen Wudi¡¯s turn, the doctor frowned. ¡°Synchronization rate at 1%. Why is it so low?¡±


    But Chen Wudi seemed unaffected by the result. When the doctor asked him to leave, he asked Ren Xiaosu in a whisper, ¡°Master, why is my synchronization rate only at 1% and so much lower than theirs?¡±


    ¡°It might be a test of whether your brain is functioning properly or not.¡± Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before replying. ¡°It¡¯s only because there¡¯s something wrong with your brain that you scored 1%.¡±


    At this moment, the doctor urged Ren Xiaosu toe forward for his turn.


    At one point in time, Ren Xiaosu felt that his synchronization rate would somehow turn out to be surprisingly high. But what if he got selected to enter the stronghold? He wasn¡¯t keen on entering the stronghold at all!


    When Ren Xiaosu ced the metallic ring over his head, he felt like there were some barely discernible strands of silk threads trying tomunicate with his mind. They felt like a physical presence in his mind, but before those threads could connect with the pce, they started snapping in quick session!


    A secondter, the doctor opposite him said in a surprise, ¡°Synchronization Rate at 0%?!¡± How can that be?¡±


    Nearby, Chen Wudi said with a look of sarcasm, ¡°Master, don¡¯t get too upset.¡±


    Ha ha...


    Ren Xiaosu was confused. Was it because of the pce that his results were 0%?


    Then the doctor said, ¡°Record it. Neuron interfacing was aplete failure.¡± He called out to the person after Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Next.¡±


    If Ren Xiaosu had not said those words to Chen Wudi, he would definitely have been epting of this result. But now, he found it really hard to swallow. Although he did not wish to pass this test, his score should at least be higher than Chen Wudi¡¯s, right?!


    ¡°Doctor,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°I think I can get a better result than that. There must be something wrong with the machine. How else could I have scored so low?¡±


    The doctor shot him a look. ¡°Don¡¯t waste the stronghold¡¯s resources. Next!¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu got dragged out of the tent by Li Qingzheng and the others, he kept shouting, ¡°Doctor, please give me another chance!¡±


    The doctor in the tent said coldly, ¡°I¡¯ve seen loads of people like that. It¡¯s going to be the same no matter how many times they get tested. What a bunch of good-for-nothings.¡±


    However, when the next person sat down on the apparatus, the doctor froze. ¡°Why is there no reaction? It¡¯s not disying any data at all.¡±


    ¡°Could the machine be faulty?¡± someone asked softly.


    The doctor keyed in a 16-digit PIN on the apparatus to unlock the refrigerated chamber in the middle where a bottle of silvery, liquidlike substance could be seen.


    The doctor puzzledly took another bottle of the ¡°liquid¡± and reced the one in the chamber. The machine was immediately restored back to normal.


    He handed the bottle of ¡°liquid¡± he took out of the machine to his assistant. ¡°Send this back to the stronghold for checking. There might be some problems with this bottle of nanomachines.¡±

 Chapter 205 - The outpost’s new recruit, Ren Xiaosu

    <strong>Chapter 205 The outpost¡¯s new recruit, Ren Xiaosu</strong>


    The synchronization test was being carried out across the entire Li Consortium. Not only were Ren Xiaosu and the others tested, but even the Li Consortium¡¯s ownbat troops were also involved.


    Looking in from outside the tent, Ren Xiaosu watched as those soldiers lined up and entered the tent. Whenever someone passed the synchronization test and got selected, others woulde forward to congratte them.


    These troops from the Li Consortium should know exactly what they were being screened for. So seeing how they were all congratting theirrades upon passing the test, it must be a matter that was extremely worth being happy about.


    ¡°Monitor, what is this synchronization screening about?¡± a student asked.


    As they were all ssmates, they continued addressing Ren Xiaosu as their ss monitor, even calling him ¡°teacher¡± sometimes.


    Ren Xiaosu did not hide it from them. He gave it some thought before sharing his assumption with them. ¡°The Li Consortium has made a breakthrough in nanorobotics and neurotechnology. It seems like they¡¯re selecting suitable candidates as hosts for the nanomachines.¡±


    Indeed, the Li Consortium had immediately put their nanorobotics technology into military use after they saw a breakthrough in their research. If it were really as Luo Lan had said, nanomachines could help humans gain a stronger skeletal structure, muscles, and even achieve other improvements. At that time, the Li Consortium would probably try to build an elite unit that was assisted by nanomachines.


    However, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that it would be extremely ufortable to have machines ced into his body.


    The officer named Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and the others with a smile. ¡°Everyone, follow me. We¡¯ll go and handle the registration first. After that, you¡¯ll all be my men starting from today. Stick with me, and we will have good food and wine together!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him. At present, Li Qingzheng still wore his beret crookedly, while his cor was also unbuttoned. It was like he was just some ruffian. No, he was exactly what a real ruffian would look like.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over and shook Li Qingzheng¡¯s hand. At the same time, he stuffed two banknotes into his hand and said, ¡°Pleased to meet you, toon Commander Li.¡±


    Seeing how Ren Xiaosu understood the ¡°rules,¡± Li Qingzheng beamed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, everyone. I just be an officer, so let¡¯s not have any bureaucracy between us. Let¡¯s all be brothers from now on!¡±


    With just two banknotes, their superior-subordinate rtionship had now changed to a brotherly rtionship. Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Where are we heading now?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s get all of your registrationspleted first. Then we¡¯ll head to an outpost at the front after getting your uniforms. The entire outpost will be all ours!¡± Li Qingzheng said in high spirits.


    Ren Xiaosu had some doubts about this. Wasn¡¯t Li Qingzheng just a toonmander in the private troops. How could he possiblymand an entire outpost?


    ¡°Aren¡¯t we going to be carrying out our duties nearer to the stronghold?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°There are still some factories out there. We need to protect those factories from being attacked,¡± Li Qingzheng exined. ¡°We¡¯ll be fine. Y¡¯all don¡¯t have to worry at all. I¡¯ve been practicing martial arts with the cksmiths in town since childhood. I¡¯m proficient in many types of boxing now.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he did not exactly feel better. It was fine that he had to serve in the private army, but how did he end up getting drafted into such a haphazardly assembled group of soldiers?


    Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Although you look a little skinny, have a really low synchronization rate, and don¡¯t look to be much of a soldier, you can rest assured that Big Brother Li here will protect you!¡±


    ¡°Mhm. Thanks, Big Brother Li,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. After his Dexterity went up, he did look a little on the skinny side.


    The students beside them all looked at one another, not knowing what to say. To them, it looked more like Li Qingzheng¡¯s brains would get smashed out of his head with just a single punch from Ren Xiaosu.


    At this moment, seven other escapees in the group were also required to perform military service. These escapees looked grief-stricken. They had thought that refugees were the most inferior humans in the world and were only born to serve the stronghold residents. But they could never have expected they would end up bing refugees themselves one day!


    Since Ren Xiaosu was the one who paid the money, he was Li Qingzheng¡¯s brother. But these other escapees did not have any money on them to pay him with. Li Qingzheng looked at them with a different expression. ¡°You people over there, hurry it up. Who are you trying to gain sympathy from with your crying? You¡¯ll feel better once we get to the outpost.¡±


    Originally, Li Qingzheng only had about a dozen soldiers under him. But now he had finally gathered up to a total of 30 soldiers to make up a full toon.


    Ren Xiaosu learned from Li Qingzheng that they were going to be serving under Eighth toon, the Iron Second Battalion of the private army.


    At this moment, Li Qingzheng was still unaware of what kind of people had joined his unit.


    Their group went and registered. When they were collecting their uniforms, the soldiers of the Logistics Division informed them there was a shortage of uniforms, and they would be issued at ater date.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered just how big of an expansion the military was undertaking that they could not even afford to issue them with uniforms. Were they going to guard the outpost in their current attire?


    Wasn¡¯t the conscription carried out too fucking hastily?! Even though the stronghold had expanded the size of the private army, they did not give them any priority. When it was time for them to collect their weapons, they were not even issued with firearms!


    Along the way, he suddenly saw Yan Liuyuan standing outside the military base. Neither of them spoke, and Yan Liuyuan simply threw a note over the wooden fence. Ren Xiaosu opened it up and read: We¡¯ve settled down in town. Everything is fine.


    Ren Xiaosu could finally feel relieved.


    At this moment, Li Qingzheng shouted from a military transport truck not far away, ¡°Brothers, get in! We¡¯re setting off to the outpost!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu walked to the truck after giving a nod to Yan Liuyuan. He was unsure of what kind of outpost he would be assigned to. The moment he figured out his situation, he would take Yan Liuyuan and the others away.


    Meanwhile, the bottle of silvery, liquidlike nanomachines was being sent into the stronghold. A researcher draped in a white coat was standing in front of the stronghold¡¯s gate and having his ID checked. When the garrison guards saw his special identification papers, they immediately let him through. They even prepared an exclusive car for him to send him to Research Facility 613, located on the inside of the stronghold.


    As the researcher sat in the car, he thought about something. Since their nanorobotics technology had be mature, it would still be justifiable if only one or two of the nanomachines were defective. But for an entire bottle to be defective was a little strange. The number of nanomachines contained within this bottle of silvery liquid was simply astronomical. They couldn¡¯t possibly all be defective, right?


    Nanomachines were not exactly smaller than a nanometer. They would just have to ensure that their operating tentacles were in the range of nanoscale levels, with the individual body size of each nanomachine at approximately four nanometers.


    What is a nanometer? A nanometer is equivalent to 0.000000001 meters. If this entire bottle of nanomachines were defective, then it would definitely not be due to a technical issue but some other reason.


    He was extremely confused and also highly suspicious.


    When he arrived at Research Facility 613, he walked straight into the research building and said to the secretary, ¡°I would like to see Mr. Li!¡±


    The pretty secretary adjusted her sses. ¡°If you have anything, just tell it to me. Mr. Li is very busy.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve encountered a minor problem with this thing here.¡± The researcher said, ¡°Please let Mr. Li know immediately.¡±


    ¡°You can ce it here with me and write down your contact information. I¡¯ll inform you when we get results. Multiple cases of defective nanomachines due to operational error have urred across the various strongholds today. Mr. Li is busy handling all that right now,¡± the pretty secretary said nonchntly.


    The researcher was stunned. The nanomachines were damaged due to operational error? But why did he somehow feel that their situation here was different? He clearly remembered that there was no mistake in the way he operated the machine!


    He said in earnest, ¡°I¡¯ll go back and wait for your news. But please make sure to exin to Mr. Li that there was no operational error with our bottle of nanomachines. The circumstances surrounding its failure were extremely suspicious!¡±


    The secretary gave him a look and then pasted an ¡°urgent¡±bel on that bottle of nanomachines right before his eyes. Only then did the researcher give a sigh of relief. ¡°Thank you!¡±


    But what he did not know was that there were already hundreds of bottles of samplesbeled ¡°urgent¡± that had been sent into theboratory.

 Chapter 206 - Middle of nowhere

    <strong>Chapter 206 Middle of nowhere</strong>


    The military transport truck slowly drove through the vast wilderness towards a mountainous region. Here, the mountains were not very high.


    While the toon sat in the back, Ren Xiaosu silently took note of their current position. This should be a ce several dozen kilometers away from Stronghold 108.


    When they passed by several factories along the way, Li Qingzheng introduced the ce to them. ¡°These are the Li Consortium¡¯s oil refineries, and our outpost is just up front. Our daily responsibility will be to observe any signs of approaching enemies. If there are, we have to report it immediately through the satellite phone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What do we do after reporting


    it?¡±


    This question stumped Li Qingzheng. The higher-ups had not mentioned what actions to take after reporting an intrusion. Were they supposed to defend the ce until reinforcements arrived or should they retreat?


    It seemed like their task was just to keep watch and function as an early warning system.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt they would be risking their lives by keeping watch here.


    They were not issued with any uniforms or firearms. An entire toon consisting of 30 people only had 11 automatic rifles and just over 20 magazines with them. What else could they be other than cannon fodder?


    However, Li Qingzheng was not too worried about that. ¡°Just think about it. Arge contingent of soldiers from thebat troops have already been deployed to Stronghold 109. If there¡¯s any danger, they¡¯ll be the ones to handle it. What do we have to worry about?¡±


    ¡°What if other organizations start a war?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That won¡¯t happen.¡± Li Qingzheng waved it off and said, ¡°How can there still be wars in this era? I¡¯ve never witnessed a real war since the day I was born!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he did not say anything more. Even the refugees were used to living in these peaceful times. Everyone always thought that war was something very far away from them, and even Ren Xiaosu also had such thoughts.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that something was not right. What if the Li Consortium initiated an attack on others? What if those frontline troops of the Li Consortium couldn¡¯t beat back the Experimentals?


    If war was noting, the Li Consortium would have no reason to mobilize so many troops. Moreover, the various organizations would also have spies nted inside the other strongholds. If the Li Consortium started ramping up its war preparations, that would make the other organizations nervous as well.


    It was like they were all tied together by a single rope. If someone pulled too hard, it would tighten around the others. Once the rope snapped, war would break out.


    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived!¡± Li Qingzheng shouted excitedly, ¡°This will be our outpost from now on!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu jumped out of the truck, he was stunned after looking around at the ce. He could only see a row of small, one-story houses standing on the hilltop in front of him with a big mountain behind. This was the middle of nowhere.


    No one was in the outpost. It seemed like Eighth toon of the Iron Second was going to have this outpost all to themselves. It was no wonder Li Qingzheng could speak so pompously back then.


    Li Qingzheng pointed at the top of the mountain as he stood on the t ground of the outpost. ¡°Every day, five of you will be on sentry duty on a rotating basis in the watchtower up there where you¡¯ll check for any signs of the enemy. If a situation crops up, report it immediately to the higher-ups.¡±


    ¡°Is that all?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Right, there¡¯s nothing else.¡± Li Qingzheng said with a smile, ¡°Supplies will be delivered to us regrly, so we don¡¯t have to worry about anything at all. All we need to do is to keep a close eye on this direction.¡±


    ¡°Who wille from this direction?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°How would I know?¡± Li Qingzheng was amused. ¡°No one goes into those mountains, and neither will anyonee out from there. So we can all just rest assured that no one will attack us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu made a rough guess of their current position. They should be situated at one of the northernmost outposts in the area controlled by the Li Consortium. Which organizations were to the north? The Qing Consortium or the Yang Consortium?


    Ren Xiaosu asked him, ¡°Do you know where Stronghold 88 is?¡±


    Li Qingzheng was surprised. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    Alright, Ren Xiaosu would just have to ask someone else when there was an opportunity. He should have asked Yang Xiaojin back then...


    After everyone unloaded the supplies from the military transport truck, Ren Xiaosu estimated their supplies would onlyst the 30 of them seven days at most. He wondered if the subsequent resupply would be delivered on time. Seeing as the Li Consortium was busy on all fronts, who knew if they would forget about them over here.


    When Li Qingzheng saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression, he said with a smile, ¡°Bro, I know y¡¯all are looking to leave this ce. But in the current circumstances, even if you escape back to town, you might not be able to leave with the others. There are many military bases stationed all over town, and there¡¯s so many of you as well, so how are you going to leave? Y¡¯all will probably get caught and interrogated before you can even step out of there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized that even though Li Qingzheng looked rather stupid, he was well aware of the situation. He clearly knew that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind was not present.


    Li Qingzheng added, ¡°I suggest you just stay here for now. If there¡¯s an opportunity in the future, I¡¯ll try to transfer you back to the town. Then you can get together more often with your rtives and friends.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu knew Li Qingzheng was hinting at more money, but he still thanked him anyway. ¡°OK, I¡¯m counting on you then, toon Commander Li.¡±


    ¡°Haha, no need to be polite.¡± Li Qingzheng said with a smile, ¡°You can just stay at this outpost with no worries. If enemies really doe, I¡¯ll chase them away with my boxing. There¡¯s nothing for y¡¯all to be afraid of.¡±


    Li Qingzheng had also found out that Ren Xiaosu and his group used to be students from Stronghold 109 and that Ren Xiaosu was the ss monitor of the group. To him, it was normal that a group of students would feel afraiding to such a ce. As a big brother, he had tofort them a little.


    The students beside them did not say anything as they unloaded the supplies. They did not know what expression to make when they heard Li Qingzheng¡¯s words.


    Right at this moment, Li Qingzhengughed, ¡°Y¡¯all don¡¯t have to do this work. Just let the stronghold residents do it. Didn¡¯t they used to despise us refugees? It¡¯s time we let them experience the life of a refugee.¡±


    The students looked at Ren Xiaosu, who said to Li Qingzheng with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s work together instead.¡± Although he also did not really like the stronghold residents, it was not enough to make him want to order the seven escapees around.


    Li Qingzheng said with a smile beside him, ¡°You students are really kind, but it¡¯s a shame you didn¡¯t pass the synchronization test. I heard that those who passed the test will be true elite troopers who can fight against a 100 opponents.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was still skeptical about the idea of one person fighting against a 100. To be honest, he had his own path to follow. So he was not envious of those who had passed the test. The only problem was that he felt a little ufortable when he saw thepassionate look in Chen Wudi¡¯s eyes.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu looked up and saw the majestic Wolf King standing on the summit of a mountain and watching him quietly. He was shocked to realize the wolves were still following him.


    When the Wolf King saw that Ren Xiaosu had noticed it, it did not avoid his eyes. After a while, it disappeared into the mountains. Li Qingzheng followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze and looked at the mountain as well, but he saw nothing there. ¡°What are you looking at?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Just enjoying the scenery.¡±


    Suddenly, wolves howled. Everyone jumped up in shock. Li Qingzheng said in panic, ¡°There¡¯s actually wolves in those mountains?!¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu did not feel any fear this time.

 Chapter 207 - Birth of the Lord of Wolves

    <strong>Chapter 207 Birth of the Lord of Wolves</strong>


    The howling of wolves seemed to have struck some fear into the recruits at the outpost. A soldier asked, ¡°toon Commander, what should we do? Why don¡¯t we run away!¡±


    Li Qingzheng was in a dilemma. ¡°But we¡¯ll be deserters if we run away now.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s better than getting eaten by the wolves.¡± An escapee said, ¡°You haven¡¯t seen how huge those things are, but we encountered them when we were escaping. They¡¯re even bigger than bison!¡±


    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Li Qingzheng had not seen any wolves in a long time. When he heard about how big the wolves were, he couldn¡¯t help feeling a little nervous. But as the toonmander, he had to reassure everyone. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid. I did not train in martial arts for nothing. Besides, aren¡¯t we also equipped with guns?¡±


    When the escapees heard the word ¡°guns,¡± they suddenly remembered that Ren Xiaosu and his group also had guns on them while fleeing from Stronghold 109. Moreover, their group was extremely intimidating at that time too.


    Just as they were about to say something, they noticed Ren Xiaosu staring at them with an ambiguous smile. The escapees realized if they snitched on him, they would have nowhere to escape to! So they held back from speaking.


    Furthermore, Li Qingzheng obviously disliked them as they used to be stronghold residents, so there were also no obligation for them to remind him.


    For some reason, the escapees suddenly did not feel so scared anymore when they realized they were in the same outpost as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group.


    Eventually, Li Qingzheng and his original batch of soldiers were the only ones who were still afraid.


    Li Qingzheng and his men held their guns for a long time and waited, but the wolves did not show up. He slowly felt more at ease and said, ¡°Let¡¯s clean up the ce first. I think those wolves are also afraid of us since we have more people and guns as well, so they don¡¯t dare toe here.¡±


    It looked like the outpost had been abandoned for a very long time. The pots and pans inside were all covered with a thickyer of dust. It would require a great deal of effort for them to clean up the ce if they wanted to live in it.


    The escapees did their chores in a trance. Li Qingzheng¡¯s attitude towards them made them feel inferior to refugees. It felt like they had be the lowest ss of humanity in this world.


    Ren Xiaosu had no sympathy for them, but he would not deliberately ostracize them either. The escapees knew he was a ruthless person, and they subconsciously wanted to get on better terms with him. Since Li Qingzheng did not like them, they would have to find another backer somehow.


    Everyone was harboring their own thoughts in this small outpost out here. Only the students were busy working with great enthusiasm and performing their tasks with great efficiency.


    Li Qingzheng was still a little unsettled because of the howling from the wolves. He kept considering whether he should call the private army¡¯s headquarters to ask for reinforcements. But when he finally made the call, he did not receive any help he was expecting even after being ridiculed by them. The person on the other end of the line also warned him not to make false reports of the enemy. Otherwise, they would court martial him.


    When Li Qingzheng saw Ren Xiaosu continue cleaning with the students like nothing had happened, he asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t y¡¯all scared?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Oh yes, I¡¯m so scared.¡±


    The students nodded quickly in unison. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re really scared.


    Li Qingzheng felt that Ren Xiaosu and the students were just mollifying him. In reality, Ren Xiaosu had already told the students in private while they were escaping that the wolves would not attack them. Although the students did not know why Ren Xiaosu said that, Ren Xiaosu was proven right.


    Since Ren Xiaosu was not worried, what was there for them to be worried about?


    Ren Xiaosu asked Li Qingzheng, ¡°toon Commander, why did you choose to be a soldier?¡±


    ¡°For the pay, of course!¡± Li Qingzheng exined, ¡°If I were rich, who would be willing toe to this godforsaken ce and be a soldier? Have you heard yet? The Pyro Company is offering to buy the blood of supernatural beings. You can get 1 million yuan in exchange for a drop of blood! If I were a supernatural being, I would sell my blood every day until the Pyro Company goes bankrupt!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. Who in the right mind would risk selling their blood just to earn some money after bing a supernatural being?


    After cleaning up the ce, everyone stared at each other nkly, as they were unsure of what to do next. But in actual fact, this was just how it was in a remote outpost like this. Boredom was simply a part of their daily lives.


    At this moment, Li Qingzheng let out a sigh and said, ¡°To be honest, it¡¯s such a pity for you stronghold students toe here to be sentries. With all the knowledge that you have, there¡¯s nowhere you can apply it to. Y¡¯all have studied for over a decade for nothing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He had heard from Jiang Wu before that she hoped the students could further their studies in the future, and that these children were all fine saplings who studied very hard and were also very smart.


    He looked at the remaining eight students and suddenly said, ¡°I have some textbooks with me. Starting from today, y¡¯all can study by yourselves whenever you have free time. If there¡¯s a chance, I¡¯ll buy some advanced textbooks from town for y¡¯all. Even though we¡¯re now in a ce like this, you can¡¯t fall behind in your studies.¡±


    The students were stunned. ¡°We¡¯re going to self-study here?¡±


    They were more interested in learning how to hunt, how to protect themselves, and how to protect others now, rather than continue their education.


    After experiencing the cruelty of this world, the students¡¯ thoughts on education had started to waver. Sometimes, they would wonder if education was even useful at all.


    Ren Xiaosu exined patiently, ¡°I¡¯m your ss monitor. Back then, the student councilor said that it¡¯s the duty of the monitor to ensure that everyone studies hard.¡±


    The students could not find any words to refute him with. Then Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°In life, your friends might betray you one day, or your lover could betray you; but math, physics, and chemistry will not.¡±


    The students were dumbfounded. What kinda nonsensical crap was that!


    Ren Xiaosu whispered to them a promise. ¡°Study hard, and I¡¯ll take y¡¯all to the mountains to practice shooting firearms tomorrow!¡±


    This time, the students broke out with smiles.


    Looking at these students, Ren Xiaosu got the thought that the Yang Consortium was probably also making use of this time to research the nanomachines. If there were no repercussions from its usage, it might be a good idea to give these students some self-protection abilities using the nanomachines.


    The next morning, Ren Xiaosu was still sleeping in the house when he heard Li Qingzheng shout from outside, ¡°Quick,e out and have a look!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu put on his clothes and went outside to have a look. He saw a goat lying at the door of one of the houses in the outpost. He also noticed some packed snow in front of the door where a neat row ofrge wolf prints could be seen.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately looked around and saw the Wolf King up on the summit of the mountain again. When it saw Ren Xiaosu looking over, it turned around and disappeared into the wilderness. It was as though it had stood there just to greet him.


    This goat was asrge as a domesticated cow, and it would probably take several days for everyone at the outpost to finish eating it.


    Even though there were some changes to domesticated animals nowadays, they were not as great as the changes seen in the wild. The wolves must have hunted this goat in the mountains.


    While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about that, Li Qingzheng was bellyughing. ¡°I never expected the wolves would offer tribute and bow down before me after I arrived at this mountain. Don¡¯t address me as toon Commander Li anymore. Call me the Lord of Wolves instead!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes twitched. This fellow was too good at elevating his own status.


    Off to the side, Chen Wudi was wondering if he should beat up Li Qingzheng since the title ¡°Lord of Wolves¡± sounded like a demon name.

 Chapter 208 - Don’t believe in superstitions

    <strong>Chapter 208 Don¡¯t believe in superstitions</strong>


    ¡°toon Commander, what should we do with the goat?¡± someone asked.


    Li Qingzheng cut in, ¡°Don¡¯t address me as toon Commander, call me the Lord of Wolves! What is the name of the mountain we¡¯re at? Oh yes, it¡¯s Mount Kun! I shall be known as the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun from now on!¡±


    Off to the side, Chen Wudi asked, ¡°Master, should I subdue this demon?¡±


    ¡°Not for now, no,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    Chen Wudi understood that Ren Xiaosu meant that Li Qingzheng might have to be subdued at someter point. ¡°Master, when can we eat some goat?¡± He slurped.


    ¡°How about now?¡± When Ren Xiaosu heard Chen Wudi slurping, his expression nearly turned dark.


    As the group prepared to cut the goat up and make the campfire, the male student named Wang Yuchi looked at Ren Xiaosu curiously. He lowered his voice and asked, ¡°Monitor, when the wolvesst appeared, you brought back such arge rabbit so quickly in the heavy snow. When the wolves appeared this time, they took the initiative and gave us a goat. Isn¡¯t that too much of a coincidence?¡±


    Chen Wudi and the students all looked at Ren Xiaosu. Wang Yuchi had spoken quietly enough that only their group heard it.


    Ren Xiaosu could only look at them and say with augh, ¡°Haha, it truly is a coincidence.¡± Since the situation hade to this, he could only im it was a coincidence.


    Wang Yuchi wondered, ¡°Monitor, did the wolves present you with the rabbit as well? Was that why you said we didn¡¯t have to worry about them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these students were indeed smart. They could figure out the truth with so few details. He whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t say that to anyone else.¡±


    After all, it would cause somewhat of a sensation if there were any mention of his interaction with the wolves. Since Li Qingzheng was willing to be the scapegoat, Ren Xiaosu was more than happy to let him do it.


    But Wang Yuchi said, ¡°Do we need to give anything in return?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°We don¡¯t really have anything that we can give them anyway.¡±


    On the same night, the entire toon sat down beside the campfire at the entrance of the outpost. With the aroma of the roasted goat attacking their nostrils, the escapees started tearing up as they bit into the meat. These people had been starving for many days, and no one gave them any food even after they were conscripted into the military.


    Li Qingzheng and his soldiers were refugees who had been recruited during the expansion of the private troops and were also unable to afford meat for their past meals. Hemented, ¡°Actually, I felt terrible when I first learned I had been assigned to the outpost. After all, this is such a nowhere ce that it feels like we¡¯re being exiled. If we encounter any danger out here, we¡¯ll just end up bing cannon fodder.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. He didn¡¯t expect Li Qingzheng to understand their situation so well, and that he was actually just not showing it.


    Li Qingzheng continued toment, ¡°But thinking about it now, it¡¯s really quite nice if we could have meat for all of our meals. The smell of goat meat is really great!¡±


    ¡°We can go out and hunt since we have guns,¡± Ren Xiaosu suggested.


    ¡°But we¡¯ll need our guns to fight against the enemy.¡± Li Qingzheng rejected his suggestion.


    Ren Xiaosu analyzed, ¡°Look, we only have a dozen guns or so. What can we do with a dozen guns when the enemy arrives?¡±.


    ¡°That really seems to be the case,¡± Li Qingzheng replied after some thought.


    The students next to them realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to have a unique ir in persuading others.


    Li Qingzheng was gnawing on goat leg and said with a smile, ¡°I heard that the big shots in the stronghold can have barbecue for every meal. They even prepare lemons and onions before barbecuing the meat, only cooking it to medium rare so that the original juices are retained!¡±


    Although lemons were umon these days, everyone had heard of this type of fruit. They never ate it before, but they heard that lemons were extremely sour. Onions, on the other hand, were stillmonly seen.


    Chen Wudi asked in a soft whisper, ¡°Master, why do you need lemons and onions for a barbecue?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it before saying, ¡°So that you can squirt the lemon juice or rub the onions into other people¡¯s eyes to get dibs on the meat?¡±


    Chen Wudi was confused.


    The people around him looked over with expressionless faces. Li Qingzheng said, sounding rather surprised, ¡°Are you serious...¡±


    But all of a sudden, Li Qingzheng noticed the light from a vehicle heading up the mountain. He stood up immediately. ¡°Why would anyonee to this remote ce at this hour of the night?¡±


    A lone off-road vehicle was approaching them. Venturing out in this current wilderness with so few people was usually not too confidence inspiring. Under normal circumstances, most people would choose to travel in convoys. So the appearance of this lone off-road vehicle made the situation seem even stranger.


    Everyone at the outpost stood at the entrance. Li Qingzheng and other soldiers who were issued with guns were even carrying them on their backs.


    When the off-road vehicle arrived at the entrance of the outpost, the dazzling headlights of the vehicle shone directly in the faces of Ren Xiaosu and the others. It was as though they did not care about how they felt.


    When two people jumped out of the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu saw they were both wearing the Li Consortium¡¯s military uniforms. But from the looks of it, the fabric was much more exquisite than the ones he hade across in the past.


    No. Actually, he had seen it once before. Themander of thebat brigade was dressed just like the two of them.


    But when Li Qingzheng saw the colonel epaulets on their shoulders, he saluted. ¡°Sirs, we wee you to our outpost for inspection.¡± The two officers had fairplexions and looked dignified. When they stepped onto the snow in their leather boots, they made crunching sounds. They were even wearing ck leather gloves. However, the two men looked exceptionally young. When one of them saw the roasted goat, he said with a smile, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you all to be enjoying this so much. After inspecting several dozen outposts, we noticed all of them were having difficulties just getting by. It¡¯s only you guys here who are living sofortably. Bring two chairs over for us.¡± After he said that, he walked into the outpost with the other officer. Li Qingzheng got someone to bring out two chairs for these two officers while he prepared to sit on the ground.


    But just as his buttocks touched the ground, that officer suddenly frowned and said, ¡°Did we say you could sit? Stand to the side!¡±


    He took off his gloves and started cutting some meat from the goat. After taking a bite, he frowned and said, ¡°You didn¡¯t even season it properly! This tastes horrible. Ptui!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched this guy spit out the meat in his mouth along with some saliva onto the roasted goat. How were the rest of them supposed to eat it now?!


    But his first reaction was... to stop Chen Wudi. Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t be rash. I¡¯ll kill themter when no one is around.¡±


    With the illumination of the campfire, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a silvery gleam underneath the officers¡¯ eyes. He thought they might have something to fall back on. Why else would the two of them venture out thiste at night? It didn¡¯t even seem like they had brought any heavy weapons with them.


    The two officers wiped their hands on the snow and put their leather gloves back on. The lead officer said calmly, ¡°Keep a careful watch at the outpost. If you see any enemies approaching, remember to report it immediately. If there is any dy, all of you will be brought in for a court martial. There can only be one oue then, execution!¡±


    Li Qingzheng bowed slightly as he nodded and said, ¡°Yes, yes, we¡¯ll keep a careful watch here at the outpost.¡±


    As the two men spoke, they got back into the vehicle. With a roar, the vehicle moved off and left behind deep tracks in the snow with its snow chains.


    The two of them had trashed the originally good mood everyone was in. Someone asked, ¡°Are we going to let them leave just like that?¡±


    Li Qingzheng could only helplessly wave if off. ¡°Put out the fire and go to bed. What else can we do if we don¡¯t let them leave? Just me it on our shitty lives. They¡¯re family members of the Li Consortium, after


    all!¡±


    ¡°What about the goat?¡± someone asked.


    ¡°We can still eat it after cutting off the parts they spat on,¡± Li Qingzheng replied. As refugees, they had had a certain submissiveness hammered into their characters. So what if they were angry and feeling wronged? Life would still go on.


    He then walked into his house. Ren Xiaosu looked at the others and said, ¡°Y¡¯all can go to sleep first. We¡¯ll tidy up the ce.¡±


    By ¡°we,¡± he was referring to their smaller group consisting of himself, Chen Wudi, and the students, which they themselves were fully aware of. But since the students were always diligent at doing their work, no one thought anything of it.


    When everyone else returned to their houses to rest, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Y¡¯all take your time to tidy up. I¡¯ll head out for a while.¡±


    When the students heard that, their eyes lit up. ¡°Good on you, Monitor!¡±


    The off-road vehicle was moving slowly along the mountain road. Even though the vehicle was equipped with snow chains, they could not drive too fast in the snow, especially not when they were driving downhill.


    Jazz music was ying inside the vehicle while the officer in the front seat chuckled as he put in another cassette. ¡°You can really feel the control the Li Consortium has over thesends when you see the fear in those people¡¯s eyes.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s really quite interesting to see them angry but not dare to show it.¡±


    ¡°After we get back this time, we should be able to step up for the second stage of synchronization. By then, even more nanomachines can be injected into our bodies. Apparently, a family member of the Li Consortium in Stronghold 107 has already gone on to the second stage of the process.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no hurry. We¡¯re only just beginning.¡± The family members of the organization were all outstanding and intelligent. They received the best education and understood the truest face of the world. If all the roads in the world led to Rome, they would be born in Rome.


    But since the Li Consortium could even produce a demon like Li Shentan, they could create even more of such demons. The only difference was that one of them was lonely while the others were not.


    During their conversation, something suddenly dropped down from above. They looked astounded but managed to react quickly enough to open the door and jump out at the same time!


    With a loud bang, the shadow clonended on the off-road vehicle from above and smashed right through the middle. The sparks from the ck saber cutting through the vehicle were extraordinarily striking in the darkness!


    Ren Xiaosu watched this scene quietly from the hillside. But to his surprise, the reactions of the two officers were much quicker than he expected. Furthermore, they should be showing signs of fractures and other injuries after jumping out of the vehicle into the hilly terrain. However, they were unscathed!


    The two officers got up from the ground and dusted off the snow on their bodies. One of them sneered, ¡°Could it be someone from the outpost?¡±


    They were not stupid. Anyone who would attack them in a ce like this would definitely have to be from the outpost. But they could never have expected there to actually be a supernatural being posted to that shabby outpost back there.


    As an officer took off his gloves, he could feel a silver torrent gushing through his veins. The new nanoforms followed his will and gathered within his body until even his blood turned silver.


    ¡°You¡¯re the first supernatural being to face our newfound strength, so you should feel honored¡ª¡±


    His voice stopped abruptly. He only had enough time to see the ck shadow clone suddenly disappear from above the vehicle before a menacing hand grasped him by the neck. With a slight twist, his neck was broken.


    Ren Xiaosu found it a shame that Luo Lan was not here to see this. Didn¡¯t he tell him to not believe in superstitions?


    When the shadow clone disappeared from sight again, the other officer turned around and tried to escape into the wilderness. However, he was immediately chased down by the shadow clone from behind.


    The shadow clone punched the spine of its opponent, making a cracking sound. Ren Xiaosu felt some sort of special energy surrounding the spine that was trying to disperse the weight of the punch with an intense, regr motion. However, the strength of the shadow clone was simply too great! Before the opponent could build up his defense, it had already started to break apart.


    Ren Xiaosu slowly made his way out of the forest. He had noticed ake on the hillside that was suitable for discarding the corpses and vehicle in. It was just that it would be a bit tough on the shadow clone to carry the vehicle over. After all, it did weigh more than a ton.


    Ren Xiaosu did not use his saber throughout the battle because he was worried about leaving bloodstains behind. In the end, his opponents turned out to be surprisingly vulnerable. At the beginning, the arrogance of these two people made Ren Xiaosu very cautious of them. He did not expect that his punches would be so strong against them.


    Just like his encounter with Midnight back then, he had nned on giving it his all in an earth-shattering battle. But before he could even get to that point, his opponents had already been killed. With the oue like this, it seemed like he had gotten all stoked for nothing...


    But a momentter, Ren Xiaosu saw a silvery glow seeping out from under the skin of the two bodies. It was as though it was being guided by his will. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to discover that he seemed to be able to... control them.

 Chapter 209 - Returning the favor

    <strong>Chapter 209 Returning the favor</strong>


    When Ren Xiaosu battled the two officers, he had observed a fine, silvery glowing from the blood vessels on the backs of their hands. As the blood vessels of an ordinary human should look bluish on the outside, it was obvious there was some kind of special energy flowing within their bodies during the time their hands glowed from the inside. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was guessing it was caused by the nanomachines. And from the looks of it now, it was just as he had thought.


    The silvery radiance emanating from the two officers¡¯ bodies right now was like a stream converging into a river as it started building up on the surface of their skins. Ren Xiaosu was hesitating, approaching it warily, not knowing if he should try to acquire this unknown power.


    He had always been cautious about the unknown.


    ¡®If I end up using it after saying to not believe in superstitions, would that be a little hypocritical?¡¯ Ren Xiaosu was in a dilemma.


    During the physical examination at the military base, he discovered that the nanomachines were trying to interface with his neurons via an external controller. But now that no one was controlling them, he realized he had natural control over these things.


    Nanomachines did not have a mind of their own and were only machines. In the early days, nanomachines could not be put into military use because they were too small to be loaded in with overlyplex instructions.


    After gaining a breakthrough in neurotech, the human brain ended up bing a processor, while the nanomachines were just an execution terminal. To put it simply, they were purely tools to be used.


    But nanomachines needed to be paired with a specific DNA sequence before they could be used. Each person¡¯s DNA was just like a unique password that could only be used to pair with their own nanomachines. The nanomachines would determine whether they were in an operable state via an authorization process. The paired nanomachines were a safe locked with a password. Without the password, they would stop working and refuse any unfamiliar consciousness from trying to ess them. Therefore, the two officers were unable to control each other¡¯s nanomachines, and neither could anyone else ess theirs.


    But when Ren Xiaosu¡¯s willpower tried to initiate contact with the nanomachines, he detected them to be in an idle state. It was as though there were some sort of a barrier denying him from syncing with those nanomachines.


    But after his willpower swept over them, the typewriter in the pce suddenly typed several lines of small words.


    ¡°Reloading system...


    ¡°Resetting to factory settings...


    ¡°Reinstalling applications...


    ¡°Pairing sessful.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu found he had actually taken control of these little machines.


    The silvery ¡°river¡± started flowing towards him across the surface of the snow. They moved up along his legs and finally gathered in his hands. The nanomachines extracted from these two officersbined only amounted to the size of a fist.


    It was no wonder they were so weak. So it turned out they had this few nanomachines inside their bodies?


    After the nanomachines lost their owners, their ports reopened to wait for a new pairing. Under normal circumstances, they should have been sent back to the factory to be paired again. However, the pce had bypassed all of those steps and helped Ren Xiaosu interface with these nanomachines.


    If the ports had not been reopened, the pce could not have proceeded with the pairing process.


    The silvery, liquid-metal ball cycled through various strange forms within Ren Xiaosu¡¯s palm. Then it turned into a metallic gauntlet that wrapped around Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. After interfacing with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s neurons, they became just like a part of his body and did not make him feel ufortable at all.


    When he threw a punch at the body of the off-road vehicle, he watched the steel body creak and then copse. Meanwhile, the nanogauntlet on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand did not seem damaged at all.


    When Luo Lan mentioned the nanomachines, Ren Xiaosu disdained them greatly. But now his opinion had changed a little.


    If he could create body armor with the nanomachines, did it mean he wouldn¡¯t have to use the shadow clone to shield himself from bullets? After all, that method was still rather painful for him.


    Of course, it had only changed his opinion a little for now. As for whether it would really prove to be useful, Ren Xiaosu felt that he would only find out after extracting more nanomachines from the other members of the Li Consortium.


    Someone would surelye and investigate after two elite members of the Li Consortium disappeared while they were out on inspection. Ren Xiaosu wondered if those who came to investigate would also have nanomachines in them.


    Ren Xiaosu ordered the shadow clone to ce the two corpses in the vehicle and carry it to the location of theke as per his memory. He had to be extremely careful when it came to dumping these corpses since he still needed more people with nanomachines toe out here in the future.


    When he killed them, he did not use the saber as he was afraid of leaving behind any traces of blood. Right now, he was being even more careful for fear of leaving behind any evidence.


    As Ren Xiaosu led his shadow clone forward, he asked, ¡°Old Xu, do you think the amount of nanomachines in the body varies from person to person?


    ¡°Since the synchronization rate goes from low to high, there must be a difference in the amount of nanomachines one can control, right?


    ¡°Do you think that the next group of people to arrive will be even stronger? That would be good. Who knows, they might have even more nanomachines in their bodies... ¡°Aren¡¯t you being a little shy? Why aren¡¯t you talking?¡±


    People always said that small details make a big difference. So, in order not to expose his own identity, Ren Xiaosu decided to name his shadow clone ¡°Old Xu.¡±


    Before Ren Xiaosu threw the vehicle into theke, he removed the two officers¡¯ uniforms and put them away in his storage space. Who knew if they would be of any useter? These were the Li Consortium¡¯s colonel uniforms, after all.


    After he filled the vehicle with stones and threw it into theke, he returned to the outpost. When the students saw himing back, they went up to him and asked, ¡°Monitor, how¡¯d it go?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been taken care of,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered simply andprehensively. ¡°Go back to sleep. We still have to get up early tomorrow.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu noticed the Wolf King standing on the summit of the mountain way in the distance. He thought for a while before heading out into the mountains.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu also did not know why he was so eager to interact with the Wolf King. As he walked on the mountain path, he suddenly felt it was sometimes easier to get along with the wolves than with people.


    Before Ren Xiaosu could get far, he saw the Wolf King slowlying down from the mountain ridge. He had nned on chatting with the Wolf King, but he did not know what to say after he saw it.


    As the Wolf King looked calmly at him, Ren Xiaosu thought about how it was still chasing him all over the wilderness just one and a half years ago.


    He suddenly remembered the student who mentioned giving the wolves something in return for their favor. Ren Xiaosu opened his mouth and broke the deadlock. He said, ¡°Um... since you gave me a rabbit and a goat, shouldn¡¯t I also give you something in return?¡±


    The Wolf King did not say anything, but Ren Xiaosu could feel it rxing its muscles slowly. This meant the Wolf King was also putting down its guard.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw no response, he prodded, ¡°Since you can¡¯t speak, why don¡¯t I let you choose from a few gifts that I have? Look at you, you¡¯re always running around by yourself in the mountains. I can understand that a king is always lonely, so why don¡¯t I present you the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun? He can chat with you since both of you are considered ¡®kings¡¯ of the wolves. Who knows, you two might have something inmon.¡±


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt the Wolf King understood him! Because, when he mentioned the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun, the Wolf King immediately gave a look of disdain. Ren Xiaosu wondered how the Wolf King was even able to make such an expression!

 Chapter 210 - Trade complete

    Chapter 210 Tradeplete


    When Ren Xiaosu looked at the Wolf King¡¯s strange expression, he said, ¡°If you don¡¯t want the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun, I still have other things that I can offer you.¡± He took out a pistol and asked, ¡°Do you want this?¡±


    The Wolf King kept quiet as it reverted back to its calm expression.


    Ren Xiaosu put away the gun. A man and a wolf were sitting next to each other on this mountain path with the moonlight shining down upon them. It was an atmosphere that could only be described as exceptionally harmonious.


    ¡°Do you want this?¡± Ren Xiaosu took out a bottle of antibiotics Old Wang gave him before they parted ways. Although he did not fall sick as often now, he could use it to save the students in case they fell ill.


    However, the Wolf King still did not respond.


    Ren Xiaosu pulled out a dazzling array of items like a hammer, shovel, pot, etc., but the Wolf King still remained unmoved. Ren Xiaosu sighed, ¡°If you are gonna be so picky, I won¡¯t be able to return your favor.¡±


    Wait a minute! He still had one item he didn¡¯t take out. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu brought out a vial of ck medicine from his storage space. ¡°Do you want this?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu said this, he did not hold any high hopes while pulling the stopper off the vial. But when the Wolf King sniffed and caught a whiff of the smell in the air, it suddenly nodded to Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu was momentarily taken aback as he did not expect the Wolf King to really understand humannguage.


    He threw the vial over and the Wolf King picked it up with its mouth as it got up. Ren Xiaosu could finally let out a sigh of relief. It looked like they were not going to becking any meat from now on. ¡°I never expected that you¡¯d need something like this while in the prime of your life.¡±


    When the Wolf King heard that, it looked a little confused. It didn¡¯t seem like it realized what Ren Xiaosu had just given it. It was just that there was an inexplicably attractive smell emanating from the vial into the air. It was not the smell of the medicine that attracted it, but a smell of mystery that originated from the pce.


    Then the man and the wolf parted ways. After a brief exchange, Ren Xiaosu felt that his rtionship with the Wolf King had be a little closer. At the very least, they were now trading partners or something like that. As long as they were not enemies, anything was fine.


    In the wee hours of the same night, everyone at the outpost was jolted awake by the noisy howling of the wolves. Everyone put on their clothes as they walked out of their houses and looked towards the mountains. They could not tell where the howling wasing from.


    Li Qingzheng was wearing a military overcoat and wondered, ¡°What¡¯s the matter with those wolves in the middle of the night? They¡¯ve been howling for over an hour already. Are they out on a hunt?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little guilty. ¡°They probably are. Who knows?¡±


    ¡°Could they be gathering their allies to attack the outpost?¡± someone wondered.


    ¡°That¡¯s unlikely. They wouldn¡¯t need to gather their allies to attack our outpost. We¡¯ll all be dead if just a few hundred of them came to attack us,¡± someone said.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t we putting ourselves down too much by saying that?¡± a soldier said.


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°That¡¯s what you call self-awareness....¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt a little guilty because he suspected it might have something to do with the ck medicine he had given the Wolf King that caused the wolves to behave so abnormally.


    For the next two days, the Wolf King did not send any additional game from their hunts to the outpost. After they cut off the dirtied part of the roasted goat, Li Qingzheng and the others continued eating it with relish. However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any appetite for it anymore.


    It was not a matter of whether the meat was dirtied or not, but in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, that spit represented an insult from the high and mighty family members of the organization.


    But of course, it was mainly because he was not hungry.


    Li Qingzhengmented as he sat at the edge of the campfire and looked at what remained of the goat, ¡°I wonder what happened to the wolves. Why aren¡¯t they sending us food anymore?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re probably exhausted.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. He was thinking about if he should have clearly exined the effects of the medicine to the Wolf King. After all, there was quite a difference between using it externally and internally.


    Seeing how the Wolf King did not send them any more game after taking the medicine, could it bear a grudge against him now?


    But when Ren Xiaosu was sleeping that night, he suddenly heard something that sounded like goods being unloadeding from outside the house. When Ren Xiaosu looked out the window, he saw the wolves dumping several goats, boars, pheasants, and whatnot on the ground! It was quite a selection of different wild animals!


    Just looking at the quantity, they not only made up for not bringing any game over for the past two days, but they also brought a lot more than that! After the wolves left, everyone at the outpost was in shock. A soldier looked at Li Qingzheng and said, ¡°Are you really the Lord of Wolves?¡±


    Even Li Qingzheng was also shocked at this. ¡°Could I really be the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun?¡±


    Those who did not know the truth felt a sense of respect for Li Qingzheng. But the students who knew better all looked at Ren Xiaosu withplicated expressions on their faces.


    A student asked, ¡°Monitor, how did you manage to do that?¡±


    ¡°The Wolf King probably knows that my master is ill, so it decided to send over more game for his recuperation,¡± Chen Wudi said with a sigh.


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with my brain,¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped at him.


    He reckoned the Wolf King had sent over all this game mainly because it wanted to thank him. He could have never expected that the Wolf King had an underlying condition.


    At this moment, someone said, ¡°How long will it take for us to finish eating all this? Fortunately for us, it¡¯s winter now, so we can store them for a longer time.¡±


    ¡°But we can¡¯t just leave it there like that. Why don¡¯t we make it into cured meat?¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°If we make it into cured meat, it wouldn¡¯t even be a problem to keep them until the start of spring.¡±


    The group started busily skinning and cutting up the meat. However, they did not have enough salt to start curing the meat, nor were there any seasonings and spices.


    Cured meat was usually made by cutting the meat into strips before rubbing the surface with salt and drying it. There wasn¡¯t a need to worry about wasting salt, since the salt needed by the human body would be present in the cured meat. By eating it, it would be as good as replenishing the body¡¯s salt content.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°In another two days, we can trade for some salt and seasonings with the meat we have during the supply run. We won¡¯t be able to finish this much meat anyway.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t do that.¡± Li Qingzheng said softly, ¡°You¡¯ll suffer a huge loss if you barter with those ruffians. We might as well sell them in town. Not only can we buy more salt that way, but we can also earn quite a bit of money. We can then afford to buy more things so that it won¡¯t get too miserable in the mountains during winter.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng, who seemed to be very familiar with the private troops¡¯ behavior. He heard Li Qingzheng say, ¡°We¡¯ll sneak back to town in another two days. Don¡¯t you still have some friends in town? We can bring some of the cured meat to them. It can be a little difficult to get by winter without having some meat to eat.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded in response. This would also be his chance to go back to town to visit Yan Liuyuan and the others. If they¡¯d encountered any difficulties, Ren Xiaosu would be able to help them to resolve them as well.


    Everyone was working outside in the open ground in front of the outpost. Li Qingzheng weighed the fleshy meat in his hand and said with a sigh, ¡°This feels more blissful than the days I spent in town.¡±


    ¡°Master, what does ¡®blissful¡¯ mean?¡± Chen Wudi asked Ren Xiaosu.


    Li Qingzheng was amused. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t having meat to eat already count as blissful?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave Li Qingzheng a look and said softly to Chen Wudi, ¡°Everyone¡¯s definition of bliss is different. Are you happy when you¡¯re subduing demons and monsters?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am!¡± Chen Wudi said.


    ¡°Well then, that¡¯s what bliss means to you.¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°I get it!¡±

 Chapter 211 - Investigation Division

    <h4>Chapter 211: Investigation Division</h4>


    <b>Trantor:</b> Legge <b>Editor:</b> Legge


    They barely managed to turn a goat into cured meat with all the salt avable at the outpost. Li Qingzheng was a little excited as he seemed to have discovered a new business opportunity.


    ¡°It¡¯s almost the Lunar New Year, right? Every household, including the refugees, will want to enjoy themselves for a few days. Since we get our meat for nothing, we can keep selling them in town as long as the Wolf King continues sending their game to us,¡± Li Qingzheng said. Thinking of this, Li Qingzheng seemed to already be dreaming of bing an esquire in town.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him as he rubbed the salt onto the meat. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t the Li Consortium¡¯s forces do something if you try that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll sell them secretly,¡± Li Qingzheng said with a chuckle.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are you familiar with any of the shops?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Li Qingzheng said, ¡°But since meat is quite scarce, I think it should be easy to sell.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed, ¡°Have you ever eaten meat during the Lunar New Year before? Everyone just makes do with somerd in their cooking and considers that a New Year celebration. The meat will only be valuable if you can sell them in the stronghold. I¡¯ll introduce you to a friend of mine. He¡¯s called Wang Fugui, and it won¡¯t be difficult to get to know some people in the stronghold with his skills.¡±


    Li Qingzheng¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Really?¡±


    He also knew what Ren Xiaosu said was true. All of a sudden, this outpost had be a wholesale market for meat. However, the town¡¯s purchasing power was too low for them to make much of a profit, and they might not be able to sell the meat off easily unless he was willing to reduce the price. Therefore, it was extremely important to have a qualified distributor.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu still needed to stay undercover in this outpost and wait for more opportunities to get more nanomachines... so he needed Li Qingzheng to front the dealings.


    By acting as the intermediary between Li Qingzheng and Wang Fugui, he could travel frequently between the outpost and town. Moreover, they would also be able to rake in the majority of the profits.


    Old Wang was still quite capable in this aspect.


    But at this moment, Li Qingzheng felt a little puzzled. ¡°Aren¡¯t you a student from the stronghold? How did you know about life in town?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him and said, ¡°I¡¯m a refugee too.¡±


    When it came to the day for the supplies to be delivered, Li Qingzheng instructed everyone to hide the cured meat and everything else in case the ruffians delivering the supplies got any ideas. ¡°We must hide everything. If not, those bastards will for sure seize a lot of the meat when they see them.¡±


    The truck carrying the goods and supplies came up via the mountain road. But they only unloaded a bag of rice and a bag of noodles without giving them any salt. Li Qingzheng was stunned. He asked, ¡°What about the salt?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re already very fortunate to have rice and noodles.¡± The two soldiers said as they smoked their cigarettes, ¡°Hurry up and sign for it. Otherwise, you won¡¯t even get rice and noodles.¡±


    ¡°You should at least give us some salt,¡± Li Qingzheng said after hesitating for a moment.


    ¡°Do you want it or not? If you don¡¯t, we¡¯ll bring it back with us,¡± said one of the soldiers delivering the supplies.


    Li Qingzheng said through his teeth, ¡°Yes, I want it!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re still so picky, huh? Do you know how many refugees don¡¯t even get to eat?!¡± After he said that, they got back into the truck and left. Li Qingzheng did not dare say anything else in front of them.


    After the truck left, he cursed out loud, ¡°Those bastards must have embezzled our provisions for themselves. Are they trying to force us to dig for wild vegetables in the mountains to pair with rice and noodles?¡±


    When they opened up the bags of rice and noodles, they were shocked to discover that sand had been mixed into them!


    ¡°They are not treating us as people!¡± someone said indignantly.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed to the students, ¡°This is the world that y¡¯all have nevere into contact with before.¡±


    Just after the resupply truck departed, another military transport truck drove up from the bottom of the mountain. Everyone watched quietly as they waited for the vehicle to arrive without knowing what they were here for.


    When they saw a toon with loaded guns getting out of the truck, everyone realized this was probably thebat troops of the Li Consortium. Li Qingzheng calmed himself down and put on a cating smile. ¡°Sirs, may I know the purpose of youing to our outpost?¡±


    The officer in charge sneered, ¡°Did anyonee by to inspect the outpost a few days ago?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was thrilled. He had been waiting for the past few days for these people toe and investigate the incident, and they had finally arrived!


    At first, he wondered if he could bait a few more people who had these nanomachines toe to the outpost through this incident. But he never expected that they were not stupid either as they sent over a full-strength toon.


    Of course, this was reasonable. After all, two elite members of the organization had mysteriously gone missing, so they would definitely have to take extra precautions.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that this officer would probably be carrying nanomachines as well, but he could not possibly take such a big risk as attacking them now.


    Li Qingzheng exined, ¡°Yes, they¡¯ve been here. The two of them were very young officers, but they just stayed for ten minutes before leaving.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± The officer paced around the front of the outpost when he suddenly asked, ¡°I can smell the scent of blood. Did a battle break out here?¡±


    Everyone was stunned as they did not expect this guy to have such a keen nose. After all, several days had passed since they had skinned and cut up the meat. The scent of blood should have already dissipated from around here.


    Immediately, all the soldiers behind the officer cocked their weapons and pointed them at Ren Xiaosu and the others. Li Qingzheng quickly put on a cating smile and said, ¡°We hunted some game with our guns, and we haven¡¯t had the time to take the cured meat we preserved out to dry.¡±


    Then Li Qingzheng hurriedly went to open the kitchen door and revealed the cured meat on the kitchen stove.


    The officer raised his eyebrows and said, ¡°It¡¯s no wonder there¡¯s the gamy smell of goat in the air.¡± Then the officer said, ¡°Search the outpost.¡±


    Five soldiers stayed behind while the rest swarmed into the houses to conduct a search. Ren Xiaosu and the others did not dare move.


    After a while, the soldiers trickled back to report, ¡°We found nothing out of the ordinary.¡±


    The officer said coldly, ¡°It¡¯s just a routine inspection. Please do not mind, my fellow colleagues.¡±


    Actually, he did not feel that anything was off with this outpost. Hunting was alsomon at several of the other outposts, except they did not have as abundant a harvest as here.


    He was mainly concerned with finding the vehicle, corpses, and belongings of the two officers. After all, it would not be easy to hide the vehicle after killing them. If anyone coveted the belongings of the two missing officers, they would surely leave behind some clues.


    As he had not found any signs of a battle taking ce or an abandoned vehicle on the road, he had already lowered his guard.


    Based on the two officers¡¯ patrol route and schedule, they should have been in the vicinity of these few outposts located nearby when something happened to them. However, the officer in charge of the search did not find anything unusual here.


    While he questioned the outpost¡¯s soldiers one by one, someone would make detailed notes next to him. During the questioning, he did not even notice any unusual behavior from anyone.


    After questioning for a long time, he found that the people here were either obedient students who had escaped from a disaster or former refugees and hooligans. They did not even have enough sets of uniforms and weapons, so how could they possibly kill two elite soldiers?


    The officer said coldly, ¡°Let¡¯s head to the next outpost.¡± He decided to have a look nearby at the other outposts first.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little sorry when he saw this great harvest of nanomachines leaving.


    However, he knew the investigation would not end so easily. They would definitelye back with a more rigorous investigation, especially when the two people who had died were... the family members of the organization.


    But as the military transport truck started driving down the mountain, everyone saw some wolves lurking in the forest. It seemed like the wolves were nning on following the truck.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Were the wolves nning to kill the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops?

 Chapter 212 - Attacking an outpost

    <strong>Chapter 212 Attacking an outpost</strong>


    Ever since the wolves arrived at this mountain, they had not shed with humans. Without the threat of humans in the wilderness, the resources of the natural world were able to grow abundantly. As such, the wolves did notck any food here.


    So, for a time, Ren Xiaosu thought the wolves were nonviolent and peace-loving animals.


    But at this moment, he remembered the reason he managed to acquire the first gun in his life some time ago was because the wolves had attacked the factory outside town, as well as Stronghold 113¡¯s private troops.


    Ren Xiaosu had already known there was a long-standing feud between the wolves and Stronghold 113¡¯s private troops. But he never expected the wolves would actually seek to attack the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops as well.


    It seemed like the soldiers in the truck driving slowly down the mountain did not realize danger was approaching. Even though Li Qingzheng and the others saw the wolves, none of them dared to act rashly. On one hand, they were worried the wolves would wipe out everyone at their outpost. But on the other hand, since the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun had not said anything yet, they did not know what to do either.


    Li Qingzheng said, ¡°It¡¯s none of our business and there¡¯s nothing much we can do about it anyway, so let¡¯s just pretend that we never saw anything.¡±


    Seeing that the wolves did not seem to be interested in their outpost, Li Qingzheng decided to bury his head in the sand. The soldiers of the Li Consortium had never treated them nicely before anyway, so why care about their lives?


    Li Qingzheng sent everyone back into their houses. ¡°Stop watching. This pack of wolves might be justing out for a stroll?¡±


    Then Li Qingzheng went back to his house first and shivered in fear while holding his automatic rifle close to him. With so many wolves out there, it would be too easy for them to wipe out the outpost.


    He suddenly felt that it couldn¡¯t be more stimting than to have been deployed to this outpost. They could eat meat with their meals every day, yet had to live in constant fear as well. Who knew when it would be before the wolves came to attack them and carry them away in their mouths?


    Ren Xiaosu also pretended to be afraid as he walked back to his house. But taking a sweeping nce, he realized there were not as many wolves as he had thought. It looked like only a portion of them were roaming around now.


    Back in the house, Ren Xiaosu said to Chen Wudi, ¡°Wudi, watch over everyone for me. Don¡¯t let anyone into the house before I get back. If anything unexpected happens, just say that I have diarrhea and needed to go to the toilet.¡±


    As a result of their smaller group of ten, one-third of the entire toon at the outpost were their people. Therefore, all of them had been grouped together when they were assigned their living quarters. This was also what Ren Xiaosu fought for at the beginning, because it would be more convenient for him to go out on his own with this arrangement, and it would only work if he was surrounded by people he could trust.


    The students were already used to this since their ss monitor was always able to take care of himself anyway. Although Li Qingzheng kept proiming himself the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun, Ren Xiaosu was actually the true Lord of Wolves to them.


    Ren Xiaosu jumped out the window and ran all the way to the foot of the mountain. He did not have a specific purpose and just wanted to see how things would turn out. Along the way, he would also try to get his hands on some nanomachines.


    In a world like this, Ren Xiaosu was interested in anything that could enhance his strength further. Who cared if they were superstitions?


    After acquiring some nanomachines, Ren Xiaosu could not help but summon them for testing while performing his sentry duty alone atop the mountain. In the process, Ren Xiaosu discovered that even if he did not let the nanomachines enter his body to strengthen his muscles and skeletal structure, they were still powerful enough to be used as an external suit of armor. Perhaps he could really achieve a state of invulnerability when this suit of armor covered his entire body.


    What were the things that supernatural beings were most afraid of at the start? It was not the threat of other supernatural beings, but the individual firearms currently in the possession of human civilization! No matter how powerful supernatural beings were, they would still die after getting shot a few times.


    The soldiers in the military transport truck were chatting happily as the truck made its way down the mountain. Since the officer was not sitting with them in the back, they started talking without restraint.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be returning to the stronghold next week for my shift off of leave. I wonder if the mistress I keep misses me yet,¡± a soldierughed as he leaned against the wall of thepartment. Although life as a private army soldier was very miserable, the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops had always been treated very well.


    The Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops lived in the stronghold while they were not on duty. When the members of the Public Order Division and private troops saw them, they would always detour around them.


    However, discipline within the organization had always been upheld very strictly, and they were forbidden from disturbing others.


    ¡°Debauchery is forbidden in the military. You should be careful not to let anyone know about her,¡± one of the soldiers reminded him.


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± The soldier said disdainfully, ¡°Even the Li Consortium¡¯s officers themselves don¡¯t refrain from doing that, so as if they would care about such things.¡±


    In any organization, the higher-ups would set the example for their subordinates to follow. If the higher-ups were religious, the subordinates would also have to be religious. Even if they did not believe in it, they would have to pretend like they did.


    If the higher-ups behaved themselves, the subordinates would also conduct themselves with restraint.


    With arge number of the Li Consortium¡¯s residents conscripted into the army, an extravagant and impetuous air had spread through the ranks of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops over the past two years.


    Ultimately, the Li Consortium had expanded its strength too quickly as the foundation was not yet properly established.


    As the group chatted, they did not notice the approaching danger.


    However, the wolves did not choose to attack immediately as they just followed the truck quietly in the wilderness. Only Ren Xiaosu knew that wolves were one of the most patient species among the animals in the wilderness.


    As the wolves followed the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops, Ren Xiaosu tracked the wolves. They kept moving slowly for dozens of kilometers until the Li Consortium¡¯s toon arrived at the next outpost.


    At this moment, the wolves suddenlyunched an attack as fast as lightning just as the military transport truck entered the outpost!


    Ren Xiaosu silently observed from a distance as the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops responded rapidly. In a mere three seconds, they had already formed an effective defensive formation. The entire outpost was filled with loud gunshots while the private troops at the outpost were dumbfounded. They had no inkling of what was going on!


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was watching the entire attack by the wolves as an onlooker. During the shootout, some of the wolves acted as the advance party to draw the opponent¡¯s firepower onto them while making high-speed movements to avoid getting shot. Simultaneously, some of the other wolves had circled around and arrived at the rear of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops while everyone was distracted.


    During this time, the Wolf King discovered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence on multiple asions. But it did not seem bothered by him as it continued its hunt. Under normal circumstances, the wolves would give up hunting as a precaution upon encountering any external interference.


    The Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops were only here because they had to investigate the disappearance of the two officers and had not expected such a fierce battle to break out. Although they were verybat oriented, the wolves had an overwhelming advantage over them in terms of strength and numbers.


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was not surprised to see that the wolves were able to quickly recover after getting shot. Their physical fitness was simply too good

 Chapter 213 - Acquiring even more nanomachines

    <strong>Chapter 213 Acquiring even more nanomachines</strong>


    This battle started and ended in a sh. When the wolves that had gone to the rear of the Li Consortium¡¯s toon started their attack, the tight defensive formation began to crumble.


    The remaining officer was still dodging the attacks with great speed and agility, but he wasn¡¯t going tost for much longer. When Ren Xiaosu saw the officer¡¯s blood vessels that were glowing silver from the use of nanomachines starting to dim, he knew that the nanomachines were running out of power.


    All of a sudden, the Wolf King bit into the officer¡¯s waist from behind. Right after, it swung its head violently and sent the officer flying like a ragdoll.


    Even for a wild animal as strong as the Wolf King, it still resorted to sneak attacks as a tactical priority. There was no fairness to speak of in any battles in this world. The result was the only thing that mattered.


    Ren Xiaosu could not help but call out, ¡°Hey... I have something to say, but I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s appropriate!¡±


    The Wolf King was a little puzzled as it turned around and looked at him. Ren Xiaosu pointed to another wolf who now had the officer dangling from its mouth and took out a vial of ck medicine. ¡°Let¡¯s trade.¡±


    With a look from the Wolf King, that wolf immediately ced the officer in its mouth down. That officer still had a few breaths left as the injuries he suffered were not lethal. However, he was already on the verge of death.


    When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he was shocked. He did not expect this young man to appear here, nor did he expect Ren Xiaosu to be making deals with the wolves!


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if he had betrayed humanity by making deals with these killer wolves.


    After ughtering the entire outpost, the wolves reorganized themselves on the spot. They picked up the corpses from the ground with their mouths and prepared to head back into the mountains.


    The wolves did not stay around any longer. Ren Xiaosu saw the white fur on several wolves stained red with blood, and it seemed like they urgently needed to go back to deal with their injuries.


    After the wolves left, Ren Xiaosu squatted down beside the officer. ¡°Gonna ask you something. How do you usually recharge the nanomachines?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had already operated the nanomachines multiple times. But in the process of operating them, Ren Xiaosu realized the energy source of the nanomachines waspletely dependent on the bioenergy of the human body.


    However, the disadvantage was that the nanomachines needed to be ¡°recharged¡± in the body for a very long time after each usage. However, the subsequent usage duration would notst for long.


    So Ren Xiaosu felt that the Li Consortium¡¯s nanomachines still had some ws after he gained a better understanding of them. If they could not solve the energy source issue, these nanomachines would likely be of little value when encountering a high-intensity fight on a real battlefield.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu spected that there had to be other methods within the inner circle of the Li Consortium¡¯s forces to quickly recharge these nanomachines.


    Wait! Right now, it seemed like Qing Zhen was the one who had researched the most on the subject of energy. After all, nuclear power was one of the most efficient energy sources in the world.


    The officer paled, but he remained tight-lipped. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Look, your injury isn¡¯t fatal. Who knows you might still be saved if you answer my question?¡±


    ¡°If you let me go back, do you think you can survive?¡± The officer clenched his teeth and sneered, ¡°Would you dare let me go?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Goading doesn¡¯t work on me.¡± He realized this Li Consortium officer was quite unyielding and very different from the private troops he knew. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s too slow to use bioenergy to recharge the nanomachines. Y¡¯all should have some sort of special charging method, right? How else could you sustain yourselves in high-intensity battles?¡±


    The officer closed his eyes and refused to say anything ¡°You were probably running out of power by the end of the battle, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu said slowly, ¡°You were only able to fight for about ten minutes or so, but how could there be such quick battles on the real battlefield?¡±


    At this moment, the soldier opened his eyes in surprise and said, ¡°Why are you so interested in the nanomachines? And you even know so much? You¡¯re just an ordinary soldier in the private army!¡±


    At this moment, he realized that something was off. He even suspected that Ren Xiaosu had nanomachines in him. Wait a minute, they had indeed lost some nanomachines, and it was that very batch of nanomachines that the two missing officers were carrying that they were currently investigating!


    But how could this be? Regardless of whether this young man in front of him could kill two elite soldiers with nanomachines in them, even if he could, their nanomachines would have to be sent back to headquarters for unlocking before they could be paired once again! Hence, the young man in front of him could not possibly use the nanomachines even if he had acquired them!


    But why? Why did he keep thinking something was wrong? He was really hoping to report this back to the General Staff[1], but he did not have the chance to do so!


    ¡°Don¡¯t expect me to breach confidentiality,¡± the officer struggled to say.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Forget it, I¡¯ll respect you as a brave person.¡±


    He realized he still could not underestimate thebat troops of the organizations. It wasn¡¯t only the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops that were powerful, but every organization in the world had to rely on them as well.


    Without a strong military, those organizations would not be able to tower over these wastnds.


    After Ren Xiaosu waited for the officer to take hisst breath, he quietly watched as the silvery liquid in the officer¡¯s body started seeping out through his skin. He was pretty familiar with this process and waited patiently for the pce to restore the batch of nanomachines to their factory settings and execute a series of other operations.


    The harvest was not exactly a lot this time. After all, it was only one person carrying the nanomachines, so the amount only equated to half of what he had acquired previously.


    The gauntlet still remained a gauntlet without much change to it. However, Ren Xiaosu was not in too much of a hurry now. After all, there still had to be a lot more officers with nanomachines within the ranks of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops he could slowly farm.


    Ren Xiaosu got an idea. Since he could reset the nanomachines with the help of the pce, did that mean he could share some of them with the students if he had excess nanomachines in the future?


    Chen Wudi would certainly not require these machines. To be honest, Ren Xiaosu could not figure out exactly how strong Chen Wudi was. If he really fought him at his full strength, it was difficult to say if he could even defeat his disciple.


    However, Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t too bothered by this. After all, the master in Journey to the West was also no match for his disciple. When he thought of this, he felt much better.


    Ren Xiaosu manipted the shadow clone to carry the officer¡¯s corpse and was ready to sink it into theke as well. After all, he could not just leave the corpse lying in the wilderness. There wouldn¡¯t be a way to exin why the wolves chose to take everyone away except for the officer.


    Furthermore, if those who came to investigate the incident discovered that the nanomachines in this officer¡¯s body had disappeared, that would pose a humongous problem for him.


    No matter what, Ren Xiaosu was not willing to risk the Li Consortium finding out that he could restore the nanomachines to their factory settings. Otherwise, they would surely hunt him to the ends of the Earth.


    An hourter, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried as he stood by the smallke in the mountain. Seeing that theke itself was not thatrge, would the water level get higher if he started dumping more things into it in the future?


    It waste at night after he finished disposing of the corpse. But instead of rushing back to the outpost, Ren Xiaosu headed into the mountains.


    As there was no howling from the mountains tonight, Ren Xiaosu wanted to check on the wolves to see if they had suffered any serious injuries.

 Chapter 214 - Chen Wudi’s adaptability

    <strong>Chapter 214 Chen Wudi¡¯s adaptability</strong>


    After several days of the Wolf King¡¯s fornication, Ren Xiaosu suspected theirmunity would expand even more after the next two months.


    When the wolves went out hunting today, he realized that their numbers were much lower than usual. Perhaps it was all female wolves that were missing.


    Based on the known gestation period, it would take about 63 days for a female wolf to give birth after getting pregnant, which was a duration that was too fast for humans. Furthermore, no one knew if there were any changes to this natural cycle after the evolution of these wolves.


    He followed the tracks left behind by the wolves into the mountains. Ren Xiaosu deduced that the wolf den should not be located too far away from the outpost since the howling he heard the other night sounded like it hade from nearby.


    But before Ren Xiaosu could walk far, the Wolf King suddenly appeared at the end of the mountain path and blocked his way.


    Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that the Wolf King had alsoe out to look for him.


    When he heard the Wolf King letting out a whimper, Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment. ¡°Are you looking for me to help you treat the wounds of your packmates?¡±


    Animals in the wild were extremely cautious when they were hunting. That was because they could easily die from an infection caused by a small wound. Even the most powerful species would find it difficult to survive a bacterial infection. It had been proven that bacteria was one of the toughest living organisms in the world.


    Even after the world went through repeated cycles of destruction and rebirth, some types of bacteria still managed to survive each time.


    When Ren Xiaosu finished asking, the Wolf King actually nodded in response.


    Ren Xiaosu took out the ck medicine and said, ¡°This medicine can treat wounds. I know that some of your packmates have gotten injured, but I can help you treat their wounds.¡±


    The puzzled expression on the Wolf King seemed to be suggesting, ¡°This thing can even be used to treat wounds?!¡±


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu was thinking that humans could just use their fingers to apply the medicine on their wounds, but what about wolves? Wolves usually treated their wounds by licking them. So if the wolves relied on their tongues to apply the ck medicine, wouldn¡¯t there be trouble?


    The Wolf King seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then it turned around and led Ren Xiaosu into the mountains.


    When Ren Xiaosu arrived at a valley downwind, he saw dozens of wolf cubs rolling around on the grass. They were not afraid of him as they had seen him when he was escaping. Though now the number of wolf cubs had increased by quite a bit. It looked like the wolves had not been idle either along the journey.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu understood. After all, the wolves had such a readily avable source of food, and they couldn¡¯t read books, y cards, or do any other recreational activities.


    When the wolves saw that Ren Xiaosu was here, they slowly made way for him. Ren Xiaosu was terrified as he walked through the wolf pack, but he endured his fear as he continued moving forward.


    He was a daredevil. If it were someone else, they wouldn¡¯t have ventured so deep into a wolf den. It was not without reason that he could live such afortable life in town by relying on hunting.


    As Ren Xiaosu walked further in, he saw seven wolves lying on the ground and gasping for their lives. The scent of blood filled the air around them.


    Although the bullets that passed through their muscles were not enough to cause them fatal injuries, the long-term pain and bleeding would slowly drag them into the abyss.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the Wolf King beside him and said, ¡°I have to remove the bullets from their wounds first. It will definitely be very painful, so I¡¯ll need you to tell them not to bite me...¡±


    The Wolf King swung its head in the direction of the wounded as though to say, ¡°Hurry up!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu crouched down next to a wounded male wolf and took out a pair of pliers from his storage space. He didn¡¯t have the luxury to worry about sterilization in this moment. In any case, the wolves would not understand what sterilization was.


    Honestly, this was his first time attempting something like this. As Ren Xiaosu used the pliers to probe the wound, he kept an eye on that wolf next to him in case it reacted to the pain and tried to bite him.


    But Ren Xiaosu was surprised that the wolf did not make a single sound even though it was rolling its eyes in pain.


    ¡°What a brave wolf.¡± Ren Xiaosu felt a little emotional when he saw this. He located the position of the bullet with the pliers. He found the bullet in a much shallower position than he thought it would be. This meant the muscle density of these wolves was even greater than he had imagined. Ren Xiaosu threw the bullet he removed from the wound at a nearby rock, and itnded with a clink. All that was left was just to apply some ck medicine to the wound.


    The moment Ren Xiaosu applied the ck medicine to the wound, he noticed the wolf whose muscles were trembling from pain start to rx slowly.


    At this moment, the way the Wolf King was looking at the ck medicine in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands changed!


    After Ren Xiaosu finished treating the seven wolves, he was sweating profusely. He had also ovee his fear of wolves. Ren Xiaosu wiped his sweat away and remarked, ¡°Remember to send us more meat after they¡¯ve recovered from these injuries. We¡¯re nning to sell some of it in the stronghold and make some money so that we can enjoy the Lunar New Year. It¡¯s also time to buy some new clothes for Big Sister Xiaoyu and Liuyuan...¡±


    Next to Ren Xiaosu, the Wolf King listened quietly without interrupting as both human and wolf walked out of the wolf den.


    Ren Xiaosu had never imagined that one day, he would pass through a wolf¡¯s den at will, especially as he regarded wolves as enemies some months ago.


    ¡°Alright, you don¡¯t have to see me out,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he walked outside. ¡°Remember not to let them eat any spicy food, onions, ginger, garlic¡ª¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly stopped mid-sentence. He stared into the snowyndscape of the wilderness andmented being too professional. Like the wolves would eat spicy food!


    He had barely been a doctor for more than a few days, yet he thought he really was one now...


    Back at the town outside of Stronghold 113, he was the only doctor in the entire town. That somehow made it sound like he was the ¡°hope of the entire vige.¡± But as he kept performing his physician duties, he somehow turned into a vet.


    ¡°But the wounded wolves should eat as little goat meat as possible. You have to listen to a doctor¡¯s advice, OK?¡± Ren Xiaosu then took a deep breath while looking at the Wolf King and said, ¡°Remember to send over more of those pheasants that have green tail feathers. Those are much more delicious than goat meat. They¡¯re delicious!¡±


    The Wolf King was getting disinterested in what this chatterbox was saying. It turned around and padded back to the wolf den.


    While on the way back, Ren Xiaosu thought that living such a life was actually quite nice. At least it was much better than receiving cold looks from residents inside the stronghold.


    But when Ren Xiaosu almost reached the outpost, he suddenly heard something at the outpost that sounded off. At this time, everyone should be asleep, so why was such a strong campfire still burning?


    When he went over to have a look, he saw everyone sitting around the campfire and barbecuing some meat. An old man with gray hair stood out among the crowd.


    When the old man saw Ren Xiaosuing back, he said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re Ren Xiaosu, aren¡¯t you? They told me that you were suffering from diarrhea. It looks like you were taking a really long time to clear your stomach, eh?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s instructions to Chen Wudi earlier was to improvise if an unexpected situation arose. He could deal with it by saying that Ren Xiaosu had diarrhea or something and try his best not to say anything conflicting.


    From the looks of it, Chen Wudi was quite adaptable at making up excuses. Ren Xiaosu called Chen Wudi over and asked him, ¡°How long have I had the runs?¡±


    Chen Wudi counted on his fingers. ¡°Six hours.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded and did not know how to carry on the conversation. He asked Chen Wudi again, ¡°And who is that?¡±


    Chen Wudi thought for a moment before saying, ¡°He¡¯s the Earth Deity[1]!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt he was very stupid to have asked Chen Wudi such a serious question...


    At this moment, Li Qingzheng hurried over to get Ren Xiaosu to sit down when he saw him still standing there. At the same time, Li Qingzheng whispered, ¡°He¡¯s from the Li Consortium and is also here to investigate the disappearance of the two officers. We didn¡¯t mention that we saw wolves during the day, so don¡¯t bring it up.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows slightly. An old man dared toe here by himself to investigate the case?


    [1] A tutry deity of a locality and the humanmunities who inhabit it in Chinese folk religion.

 Chapter 215 - A new member for the outpost

    <strong>Chapter 215 A new member for the outpos</strong>t


    When Ren Xiaosu learned the old man was here to investigate the disappearance of the Li Consortium¡¯s officers, he immediately went on full alert. However, he did not show it outwardly.


    When Ren Xiaosu sat down beside the campfire, a student next to him handed him a roasted chicken drumstick.


    The old man smiled at Ren Xiaosu as he ate. ¡°Young people these days don¡¯t pay much attention to their health. When you all get to my age, you¡¯ll realize that having a good appetite is a blessing.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at him. It was definitely not logical for him to have the runs for six hours. He had been mentally praising Chen Wudi for being so adaptable, but thinking about it now, it looked like he had overestimated him.


    If Chen Wudi said he had the runs for six hours, it meant the old man had already been here for six hours.


    However, this old man did not even ask him where he had gone. He just went with diarrhea as the reason like he did not intend to delve any deeper into his disappearance from the outpost.


    Ren Xiaosu did not believe that someone in charge of investigating a case could overlook such a simple,mon sense problem. He felt that he was just ying the fool and feigning ignorance.


    ¡°Since you¡¯re here to investigate the case, have you found any clues yet?¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly.


    ¡°Although I¡¯m here for the investigations, what do those missing people of the Li Consortium have anything to do with me?¡± The old man smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m already so old, yet they still made mee out to work in such bad weather. How can they do something like that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu scrutinized him and asked, ¡°May I ask how old are you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m 73 this year.¡± The old man said with a smile, ¡°I haven¡¯t had the chance to introduce myself yet. Hello, everyone, my name is Hu Shuo[1].¡±


    Everyone looked at each other as this name sounded really strange. However, Ren Xiaosu was more concerned that his surname was not Li.


    In this region, Ren Xiaosu paid extra attention to anyone with the surname of Li. Up until now, nearly everyone Ren Xiaosu met with the surname Li were the middle and higher-ranking officers of the organization¡¯s military. The only exception was Li Qingzheng, who was the Lord of Wolves of Mount Kun.


    ¡°Why did you take on the case then?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t n on epting it either,¡± Hu Shuo said with a smile while scratching his head with his pinky finger. ¡°But the Li Consortium gave the order that I would not get my pay if I didn¡¯t investigate this case, so I had no choice but toe here to handle it. But I didn¡¯t expect that I would get to eat so much exotic meat at your outpost. It¡¯s really my lucky day!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt this matter was unlikely to be as simple as the old man had exined. For a 73-year-old man toe all the way here, how could he be a normal person? There had to be a reason for why the Li Consortium would send him over to investigate after something had happened here.


    But at this moment, Hu Shuo stood up and dusted off his pants. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve had my fill.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°How many outposts have you visited today?¡±


    Hu Shuo chuckled, ¡°Only yours.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt the old man might already have a clue about the situation. That was why he came here directly. In an instant, Ren Xiaosu was even contemting whether he should quickly chase him away from here.


    But Hu Shuo suddenly said, ¡°Well... which house can I stay in?¡±


    Everyone was stumped by this question. Ren Xiaosu was still wondering if he should chase the old man away, but little did he expect that the old man was already nning on living here.


    Li Qingzheng, who was beside him, gave a cating smile. ¡°We¡¯ll get a house cleaned up for you immediately.¡±


    There were seven one-story houses in the outpost, and one of them was originally used as a storage space, although it was quite empty. Since Hu Shuo now intended to stay the night, Li Qingzheng, as the toonmander, was willing to strike up a rtionship with this old man he suspected of being a big shot.


    Most of the refugees had the instinctive thought that they could make their lives easier by rubbing elbows with the big shots in the stronghold. They blindly believed in this kind of rtionship.


    However, this left Ren Xiaosu in a tight spot. He decided to observe the situation for the time being until he could be sure of the old man¡¯s motives. It would not be toote to decide what to do then.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Hu Shuo had already found some evidence, but he could not understand why he would dare to remain behind.


    But something that surprised Ren Xiaosu even more happened. Hu Shuo was not only going to stay here for one night. He did not intend to leave... at all!


    The next morning, the Wolf King sent a lot of pheasants over as promised. The pheasants were all stacked up at the entrance of the outpost.


    But this strange sight did not arouse Hu Shuo¡¯s suspicions. He just praised this location as a really good ce to eat meat and acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.


    Ren Xiaosu examined the old man¡¯s expression closely. Everyone clearly knew this was an abnormal situation, but Hu Shuo did not even ask about it and just practiced tai chi at the entrance of the outpost. After that, he would have Li Qingzheng and the others prepare meals as he still wanted to eat meat.


    Thus, everyone started barbecuing meat early in the morning until Ren Xiaosu felt like his whole body was full of the smoky smell of barbecue.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you ask where we got all this game from?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked as they ate the meat.


    Hu Shuo chuckled and said, ¡°Why should I care about where the food came from as long as there¡¯s something to eat? Surely it wasn¡¯t brought here by wolves, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was temporarily rendered speechless. He was getting more and more confused by Hu Shuo¡¯s intentions.


    On the morning of the third day, Hu Shuo still continued to practice tai chi after waking up. After that, he would get everyone to prepare meals. However, it was slightly different today. Another truck drove up the mountain, but the soldiers who came this time were a little different. They actually brought along bedding, a teapot, and some other daily necessities. Then they even cleaned up the house a second time for Hu Shuo.


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked to discover that Hu Shuo seemed to be nning on living here for an extended period.


    While the soldiers were cleaning the house, Ren Xiaosu carefully watched to see if Hu Shuo gave any strange instructions to the soldiers, like hinting at them toe and encircle the outpost with arger force or something simr. However, he did not do anything like that.


    When the soldiers reported about some matters to Hu Shuo, they also did not purposely avoid doing so in the presence of Ren Xiaosu and the others. What the soldiers reported on was also rted to Ren Xiaosu: An outpost on another hill had been attacked by wolves. Traces of wolf blood and fur were found there. The military was paying close attention to this matter and was nning on sending troops to eliminate the wolves in the mountains.


    Ren Xiaosu observed Hu Shuo¡¯s reaction, but Hu Shuo justughed and said, ¡°The wolves have nothing to do with our case, so let¡¯s not interfere.¡±


    Right from the beginning, the old man seemed not to have linked the pheasants at the entrance of the outpost to the wolves.


    But Ren Xiaosu knew he was just ying dumb.


    At this moment, Li Qingzheng whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°The officer who sent over this old man¡¯s things is a senior colonel!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. How highly ranked would a person have to be in the Li Consortium to order a senior colonel around like that?


    After that, no one came to the outpost again. Hu Shuo ended up staying there for the entire week. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt he might even be nning to spend the Lunar New Year together with them.


    [1] Hu Shuo also means ¡°speaking nonsense¡± in English.

 Chapter 216 - The teacher of the outpost

    <strong>Chapter 216 The teacher of the outpost</strong>


    It was getting closer and closer to the Lunar New Year. Hu Shuo would practice tai chi and enjoy his barbecue at the outpost every day as there wasn¡¯t really anything else he could do here.


    Normally, a person in their seventies should have difficulties eating barbecue due to their aging teeth. However, the old man seemed to find everything delicious, and nothing could hinder him from eating.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°So aren¡¯t you going back home?¡±


    During this period, the Wolf King sent over additional game to them on more than a few asions. However, Hu Shuo did not ask about it and only cared about eating.


    Hu Shuo answered, ¡°Since I don¡¯t have any children, there¡¯s no point in going home. I¡¯m much happier living here.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have any children?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Did Hu Shuo remain single all his life or was he infertile?


    However, Hu Shuo watched the campfire in front of him as he said, ¡°I had a daughter. In my earlier years, I left her in someone¡¯s care without anyone knowing so she wouldn¡¯t be at risk. But to my surprise, she still got into trouble in the end. It was already toote by the time I learned of it. All I have left now is a grandson who doesn¡¯t want to live with


    me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not expect this answer from him. However, the old man did not mention his son-inw whatsoever and what kind of trouble his daughter got into. But it would be inappropriate for everyone to ask for too much detail.


    ¡°Are you nning on spending the Lunar New Year here?¡± Ren Xiaosu next asked.


    Hu Shuo thought for a moment and answered, ¡°It¡¯s not like I can¡¯t, but since you all are inviting me to stay, I can only ept your hospitality.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. ¡®Who¡¯s inviting you?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu had been guarding against the old man every day since the start in case he called upon his soldiers to wipe out the entire outpost after discovering some evidence. However, nothing happened even after such a long time had passed.


    Was he really here to investigate the case? No, it felt more like he was here on vacation!


    And he was even freeloading with no intention of paying at all!


    If they were to sell this exotic meat in the stronghold, it would surely fetch a high price for them.


    In fact, even though the big shots in the stronghold had ess to a supply of meat, they were more interested in exotic meats. Whoever had the chance to taste exotic meat would definitely be able to show off to their friends.


    Ren Xiaosu got the feeling that this old man who imed to be here to investigate the case was starting to look rather suspicious.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°The Li Consortium has sent you to investigate the case, but you haven¡¯t even conducted any investigations. Won¡¯t the Li Consortium be unhappy with you?¡±


    ¡°At my age, it¡¯s not like they care about me anymore,¡± Hu Shuo said matter-of-factly. ¡°Moreover, the younger generation of the Li Consortium are all brats. It wouldn¡¯t make a difference if any of them went missing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He did not know how he should assess this old man.


    Slowly, everyone started getting used to the fact that there was an additional person at the outpost. In addition, they slowly realized Hu Shuo did not have any airs to him and was extremely easy to get along with.


    A few dayster, Hu Shuo suddenly expressed his embarrassment at being a freeloader and that he could help out with some work.


    The moment he said that, nobody would dare to allow him to do so. He was too old. What if something happened to him after they made him perform some menial work like splitting logs or doing the dishes? Who could they approach to clear the air with if that happened?


    But Ren Xiaosu thought that since Hu Shuo held a very high position within the Li Consortium, he should also be very rich. ¡°It¡¯s definitely not suitable for you to perform menial work, so why don¡¯t you just pay?¡±


    Li Qingzheng was startled when he heard Ren Xiaosu say this. He did not expect Ren Xiaosu to actually ask for money from Hu Shuo.


    Hu Shuo gave it some thought and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t there eight of you who are students? I¡¯ve been seeing you all studying by yourselves every day, so why don¡¯t I be your teacher instead? That way, I won¡¯t be considered a freeloader anymore.¡±


    Hah! Ren Xiaosu realized the old man was just reluctant to pay up!


    After Li Qingzheng, Ren Xiaosu, and the others held a discussion, they deemed this as giving Hu Shuo something to do. Although, Ren Xiaosu wanted to see just how well he could teach.


    Ren Xiaosu had been rather mncholic recently. He knew it wouldn¡¯t do for the students to keep studying by themselves. Whenever they encountered problems, no one could help them resolve their queries. Sometimes, the students would ask him questions. But as the ss monitor, he was totally clueless.


    The students were also a little curious regarding that. ¡°Monitor, didn¡¯t you score 560 points during finals? Why does it seem like you don¡¯t know anything?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know how to answer them when faced with the question.


    But since Hu Shuo had taken the initiative to be the teacher here, Ren Xiaosu was d to see it happen. However, he said, ¡°It¡¯s not eight students, it¡¯s nine. I¡¯m a student as well, and I want to be in the ss too.¡±


    It was Hu Shuo who was stunned this time. ¡°You¡¯re a student?


    When Hu Shuo was chatting with everyone, no one mentioned anything about this. Although the students kept addressing Ren Xiaosu as their ss monitor(1), Hu Shuo thought they were actually calling him toonmander. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu did not look like a student either.


    He thought for a while and said with a smile, ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll teach the nine of you then.¡±


    Hu Shuo was a person who did things in a crisp and efficient manner. On the very same day, he held a lecture for Ren Xiaosu and the eight male students. This way, everyone could finally be busy. Ren Xiaosu also came to realize that Hu Shuo seemed rather fond of being a teacher.


    During the break, the students would discuss in private. ¡°Mr. Hu is able to make his lessons easy to understand and further expand our knowledge. He¡¯s much better at teaching than the previous math, physics, and chem teachers.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, I didn¡¯t expect Grandpa to be so knowledgeable,¡± Wang Yuchi said.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu also realized the examples brought up by Hu Shuo during the lectures were extremely easy to understand, and he could also talk endlessly without even looking at the textbooks.


    The knowledge he imparted always revolved around the key points in the textbooks, but he was able to bring it to a further level.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still had some difficulties in understanding the lessons as his foundation was missing. He would have to ponder over the things taught in ss for a long time while the other students understood immediately.


    At the end of the lesson, Hu Shuo said to the students, ¡°You can ask me in private if there¡¯s anything you still don¡¯t understand. In times like this, it¡¯s not easy to encounter such studious students like you. It¡¯s a pity that you can¡¯t attend university in the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold and further your studies.¡±


    As the other students could understand what was taught during the lesson, they had no more questions after ss ended. As it was evening by the time ss was dismissed, Hu Shuo was about to gather everyone for a barbecue party.


    But before Hu Shuo could walk out of the house, he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu. Although the others did not have any questions, he had plenty of questions to ask.


    Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu amiably and said, ¡°As the ancients said, ¡®If you know, recognize that you know. If you don¡¯t know, recognize that you don¡¯t know.¡¯ Your attitude of seeking knowledge is very courageous. It¡¯s really admirable!¡±


    But when Ren Xiaosu got started with his questions, the exchange went on until nearly midnight. Hu Shuo could see everyone else eating barbecue outside while he was busy clearing Ren Xiaosu¡¯s doubts to the point of feeling thirsty. He did not even have a chance to take a sip of water.


    Finally, he could not help but say, ¡°Look, Ren Xiaosu, why don¡¯t I pay for the food instead? I¡¯ll continue to teach the other students, but as for you, you should do some self-study first to catch up on the progress-¡°


    ¡°No!¡± Ren Xiaosu firmly said.

 Chapter 217 - Reunited with Liuyuan

    <strong>Chapter 217 Reunited with Liuyuan</strong>


    At this moment, Hu Shuo felt a little wistful. There was an old saying that went, ¡°hoist with one¡¯s own petard,¡± and Ren Xiaosu turned out to be an especially heavy petard. 1


    Hu Shuo couldn¡¯t help but ask, ¡°You were able to lead quite afortable life even with your limited knowledge, so why do you still hunger for more knowledge? Are you aiming to qualify for the university in the stronghold?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before answering, ¡°I¡¯m not nning to get into the university. I just want to understand the truth of the world.¡±


    Hu Shuo was stunned by this answer. He went deep into thought before saying with a sigh, ¡°You can stille and ask me anytime in the future if there¡¯s something you don¡¯t understand.¡±


    Hu Shuo¡¯s previous daily routine was to wake up at 6 AM to practice tai chi until 7 AM before eating breakfast. Then he would bask in the sun, chat, eat lunch, eat dinner, and finally go to bed at night.


    Now, he would still wake up at 6 AM to practice tai chi until 7 AM before eating breakfast. But then he would start ss, eat lunch, resume teaching again, and get so annoyed with Ren Xiaosu that it made him lose his appetite for dinner and be unable to fall asleep at night.


    Throughout this, Ren Xiaosu kept wondering why on earth this old man came to their outpost.


    During this period, a group ofbat troops from the consortium came to the outpost to investigate the wolf attack on the other outpost. They wanted to ask if any suspicious activities were seen around the vicinity but were sent away the moment they stepped into the outpost.


    It seemed like the officers all knew who Hu Shuo was, so they just left the ce without further questioning. It didn¡¯t look like they found it strange that he was living here.


    This surprised Ren Xiaosu a little. Who on earth was this old man?!


    However, he made a trip to the mountains that very night to inform the Wolf King that the wolf pack would need to go even deeper into the hintends of the mountain to settle down. That was because the Li Consortium would probably send troops to eliminate them.


    During his stay, Ren Xiaosu thought of asking Hu Shuo where Stronghold 88 was located since he felt Hu Shuo would definitely know. However, he was worried that if he asked Hu Shuo, Hu Shuo would think he was colluding with the enemy based on the current rtionship between the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium.


    Although they had been getting along rather well, Ren Xiaosu felt his rtionship with Hu Shuo had still not reached the stage where they could trust each other.


    Seeing that the Lunar New Year was approaching, Li Qingzheng pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and whispered, ¡°We¡¯ve run out of salt, so we have to make a trip to town. We¡¯ll also need to purchase some New Year supplies as well.¡±


    People at the other outposts were so poor they did not have enough to eat, and the supplies delivered to them were starting to lessen as well. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu and the others at this outpost were all looking energetic and in high spirits. They had even gotten sick of having meat every day and wanted to get some vegetables in their diet for a change.


    There was a small plot ofnd behind the outpost where they could grow vegetables. But if they wanted to grow vegetables in this weather, they would have to build a canvas shed to house the vegetables. However, they did not have any canvas to build the shed with.


    So Li Qingzheng had a discussion with Ren Xiaosu about making a trip to town.


    This was what Ren Xiaosu thought as well. He had been waiting for this day for a long time.


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu ordered Chen Wudi to not let Hu Shuo leave the outpost. If he left the outpost, Chen Wudi would have to follow him and find out what he was up to.


    When Hu Shuo heard Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng were going back to town today and might have to stay there for a night, he was nearly moved to tears.


    Honestly speaking, it was not easy for Hu Shuo to be moved at his age. After all, he had been through so much in life, so what kinds of situations had he not seen before?


    But today, he really felt a lingering sense of emotion. Hu Shuo said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Purchase a lot of New Year supplies. There¡¯s no rush toe back too soon.¡±


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu found it a little surprising that everyone had gotten used to having this strange old man living at the outpost, and even Hu Shuo himself seemed like he had gotten used to it too.


    How did all of these changes happen...


    It would take more than three hours to drive from the outpost to town. The distance was neither near nor far. The factory nearby was still operatingte into the night as the vast and sophisticated war machine that was the Li Consortium ran at full gear, though no one knew where its chariots of war were headed.


    Throughout the journey, Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng saw supply trucks frequently driving between the stronghold and the factories, all bustling with activity.


    Although the vehicle broke down once during the journey, Li Qingzheng was really good at fixing vehicles. He simply lifted the hood and tinkered around for a while before the run-down military transport truck was running smoothly again.


    Ren Xiaosu had been separated from Yan Liuyuan and the others for more than a fortnight. Right now, he just wanted to quickly find Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others in town and get an update on their recent situation to see if they had encountered any difficulties.


    Li Qingzheng was even more excited. It was as though he was an exiled prisoner who was finally returning to a prosperous city. He kept mumbling during the journey, saying he would definitely look for his old me for a rendezvous in town tonight after they sold off the meat.


    When they arrived in town, Ren Xiaosu saw some refugees heading home after buying some pork rind and fatty meat from a butcher¡¯s shop. When he saw some children receiving some cheap sweets from the adults, he could feel the air of festivity approaching.


    Even the people who could barely survive by working hard every day in these wastnds would still try their best to get some new clothes, buy a handful of sweets, and make some delicious dumplings for their children during the holiday.


    Although the world had been destroyed before, it did not mean that people in the wastnds did not have a right to be happy.


    Humans were always the best at finding joy amid hardship among all living things as they were a tough and tenacious species.


    The people who had predicted that humans would descend into apletely cold and cruel world after the apocalypse did not actually understand humanity at all.


    Of course, it was still unsafe in town at night. There would always be people who wanted to get something without putting in the effort for it, but this was not something that was contradictory to happiness.


    When they arrived at the entrance of the town, Ren Xiaosu saw Yan Liuyuan crouching there with a nk stare. He quickly leaned out of the window and called out to him, ¡°Liuyuan! Why are you crouching there?!¡±


    When Yan Liuyuan saw Ren Xiaosu, his eyes lit up. ¡°Bro, you¡¯re finally back. Haha, when a magpie flew into the yard this morning, I had a feeling[1] that you would definitelye back to town. That¡¯s why I was waiting for you here.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that probably wasn¡¯t the truth. To hell with the magpie¡ªas if there were really such coincidences in the world like that!


    Yan Liuyuan must have been waiting here every day since he left for the outpost, so that was probably why there was such a ¡°coincidence¡± today.


    Ren Xiaosu opened the door and pulled Yan Liuyuan up into the passenger seat. As the passenger seat in the truck was very wide, it wouldn¡¯t be an issue for three people to fit in it.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Where are y¡¯all living now?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan beamed and said, ¡°We bought two brick townhouses near the gate of the stronghold, so we¡¯re currently living there. Uncle Fugui also reopened his grocery store. He said that he¡¯s already found some business contacts in the stronghold and has also struck up a good rtionship with the town¡¯s administrators.¡±


    ¡°Old Wang is so talented.¡± Ren Xiaosu was really d to hear that and his praise was sincere. No matter where Wang Fugui went, he could always strike up good interpersonal rtionships and bring great convenience to their lives.


    [1] A Chinese saying goes: When the magpie arrives, good fortune will follow. It is regarded as a happy messenger.

 Chapter 218 - Yan Liuyuan

    <strong>Chapter 218 Yan Liuyuan</strong>


    Li Qingzheng was a little puzzled as he drove the truck towards town based on the directions given by Yan Liuyuan. How could this group of refugees from another town gain a foothold in this town so quickly? They managed to buy a brick townhouse nearest to the stronghold gate? 1


    And they even bought two of them!


    But he remembered when Wang Fugui bribed him, he was offered a 100 antibiotics and several watches in one go. These things were still in Li Qingzheng¡¯s bag, and he had not sold them for cash yet. How could a normal person possibly afford to fork out such arge sum of money as bribery?


    Li Qingzheng was thinking that since he and Ren Xiaosu were now friends, and that they were also leading a legitimately good life at the outpost, maybe he should return the bribes he collected from them back to Ren Xiaosu? However, Li Qingzheng still felt a little reluctant upon realizing he would have to give up such arge sum of money at once....


    Along the way, a woman saw Yan Liuyuan through the truck¡¯s window and said cheerfully, ¡°Liuyuan, is that boy next to you your brother that you¡¯ve always been talking about? You haven¡¯t waited in vain by crouching at the entrance of town for so many days. He¡¯s finally back. Here are three eggs for you. You can cook them for your brother when you get back home this evening.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan epted the eggs with a smile. However, he handed one egg back to her and only kept two of them. ¡°Yes, this is my brother, but the one driving is not, so there¡¯s no need to give him an egg.¡± Li Qingzheng was speechless. ¡°Am I not a person? Why am I the only one who doesn¡¯t get an egg!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°You seem to be quite popr in this town.¡±


    In truth, Yan Liuyuan was especially popr with the women when they were living back in the town of Stronghold 113. Now that his face was always clean, he looked handsome and smart. It became natural that he would be a friend of the women.


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ve asked around with the townspeople and found out a lot of informationtely. After getting here, Uncle Fugui has done a lot of small favors for many people and gained a foothold in town. That¡¯s why we are quite popr around here. Of course, there are still many ungrateful people around as well.¡±


    The ¡°small favors¡± were things like helping others repair their furniture, giving away snacks and sweets, and paying a slightly higher price when receiving goods. Wang Fugui did all of those in moderation and never went beyond doing small favors.


    In Wang Fugui¡¯s opinion, doing big favors would not only make it hard to make friends, but it would also offend people easily. Furthermore, it was pointless to do big favors for others. If he were really in danger, most would not return the favor. Instead, they would more likely kick him while he was down.


    Wang Fugui was only doing so for the sake of getting things easily aplished in town and was not expecting anyone to give him any assistance when he got into trouble. It was better to rely on oneself than on others... no, it was better to rely on Ren Xiaosu than on others.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that Yan Liuyuan had gathered a lot of information, he asked curiously, ¡°What have you found out?¡±


    Currently, there were military camps stationed all around the area not far outside of town as different troops continually rotated shifts between themselves.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°I heard that the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops that went to Stronghold 109 to eliminate the Experimentals had failed in their mission. The initial batch of troops has been recalled and at least half of them had died.¡±


    ¡°How did you know about that?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned.


    ¡°The soldiers stationed near town can¡¯t help themselves from seeking thrills, and those single women were also happy to have a soldier from the organization as their backer.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°They would sometimes share with their women these matters and said that their assault went very smoothly at the beginning. However, they were immediately defeated once the Experimentals dragged it out into urban warfare. Furthermore, the forward operating base was destroyed by the Experimentals. Now they n to continue sending troops over there and resort to using heavy weapons in battle. Even if they destroy the stronghold, they have to eliminate the Experimentals.¡±


    This oue was quite in line with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s prediction. When he saw thebat troops deployed to Stronghold 109 in a hurry had not brought any heavy weapons with them. It seemed like they wanted to keep the buildings in the stronghold as intact as possible so they could avoid spending too much on rebuilding.


    But if they engaged something like the Experimentals in urban warfare, it would be as good as digging their own graves. Their speed and strength, several times that of the average person, gave them a huge advantage when fighting in built-up areas. Unless the organization fought against the Experimentals with troops consisting of supernatural beings, using automatic rifles at close range would not be effective. It resulted in thebat troops made up of normal humans suffering a devastating defeat.


    But now that the Li Consortium was extremely determined to eliminate the Experimentals, Ren Xiaosu felt those creatures were likely going to face a tough battle soon. As a human, Ren Xiaosu certainly hoped the Li Consortium could wipe out a tumor like the Experimentals.


    No matter how evil a person was, they would still have some humanity in them. The Experimentals had none left.


    ¡°There¡¯s something else.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°When the school in town learned of Ms. Jiang¡¯s identity, they wanted to ask her to be a substitute teacher at the school. However, she rejected the offer because she said that as the only supernatural being at home, she had to take care of the family.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. From this point alone, it seemed Jiang Wu was still worthy of their trust. ¡°Any other news?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan thought for a moment and said, ¡°Oh yes, it seems like there are also members of the Pyro Company lurking around here. Although I don¡¯t know where they are, there¡¯s usually leaflets scattered around town overnight. They¡¯re the same ones we saw in Stronghold 109.¡±


    The Pyro Company? Ren Xiaosu frowned. They could not get into too much detail as Li Qingzheng was around.


    But he had witnessed the Pyro Company¡¯s behavior before, and if they knew there was a supernatural being nearby, they would definitely spare no effort in catching them.


    However, he wasn¡¯t too afraid of that. After all, he felt the Pyro Company was really quite weak after crossing swords with them... but it would be dangerous if Jiang Wu exposed her identity.


    ¡°Here we are,¡± Yan Liuyuan shouted cheerfully while pointing at two stone courtyards. ¡°This is the ce.¡±


    When the truck came to a stop, Yan Liuyuan jumped out and rushed off. ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, Ms. Jiang, look who¡¯s back.¡±


    With this shout from Yan Liuyuan, everyone came rushing out into the courtyard, including Xiaoyu, Jiang Wu, and the female students before Ren Xiaosu could even get out of the truck.


    Li Qingzheng stared at the sight of this. He felt that Ren Xiaosu was a blessed man and a role model for other men!


    Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Fugui with a smile, ¡°We brought some game down from the mountains. They¡¯re loaded in the back of the truck. Calcte the prices and settle the bill with toon Commander Li. A portion of it is free as I brought it as a gift to y¡¯all for the New Year.¡±


    Wang Fugui and the others froze for a moment. As expected of Ren Xiaosu. Although he was now a sentry at a faraway outpost, he still managed to bring back meat for them on his return.


    Wang Fugui smiled and said, ¡°It happens that there are many troops stationed nearby and they have a shortage of meat as well. I can definitely sell this meat for a good price.¡± Wang Fugui then walked to the back of the military transport truck and looked inside. When he saw everything, he was stunned. ¡°There¡¯s this much meat?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu handed him a list. ¡°These are the items that we need. Help us get them, as well as salt, seasonings, and clothes!¡±


    ¡°OK, you can count on me. Go inside and rest up.¡± Wang Fugui said with a smile, ¡°You don¡¯t have to personally worry yourself over such things.¡±


    Li Qingzheng, who was beside them, was watching the entire conversation. He had thought that Wang Fugui was the backbone of this group. But now it seemed like everyone was under themand of Ren Xiaosu.


    How old was this young man? Why would a shrewd businessman like Wang Fugui even listen to him?

 Chapter 219 - Li Shentan’s gift

    <strong>Chapter 219 Li Shentan¡¯s gift</strong>


    When they entered the courtyard, Xiaoyu circled Ren Xiaosu and took a careful look at him. She had wanted to say things like ¡°Ren Xiaosu, you¡¯ve gotten thinner.¡± But when she looked at him, she realized he seemed to have put on some weight instead.


    She pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and said, ¡°I¡¯ve made a lot of delicious food for y¡¯all and new clothes for everyone for the New Year as well. It¡¯s getting cold these days, so y¡¯all should switch to heavy quilts. There¡¯s no need to worry about us. We don¡¯tck anything here...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled as he followed her and did not say anything in response. Actually, Xiaoyu was the most soft-spoken person in the group and did not usually have much of a presence in the family. However, it would be less warm at home if she wasn¡¯t around.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did anything happen at home recently? Anyone give you any trouble?¡±


    Now that Ren Xiaosu was back, he thought that if Yan Liuyuan and the others had encountered any trouble, he would handle it for them before leaving again.


    ¡°There isn¡¯t too much trouble. It¡¯s currently very chaotic in town, and the organization¡¯s soldiers are keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings. So it¡¯s usually only Old Wang who heads out to handle any matters. The rest of us don¡¯t go out at all,¡± Xiaoyu exined. ¡°We can also prevent any bad guys from getting ideas about us this way.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I suppose that¡¯s the only way now.¡± Ren Xiaosu realized Xiaoyu and the rest of the group were still quite cautious. He also told the female students around him, ¡°Y¡¯all should learn from Big Sister Xiaoyu. Equip yourselves in the next few days with a knife each so that y¡¯all can defend yourselves. If anyone harasses you, just stab them with the knife.¡±


    A female student hesitated before saying, ¡°But we¡¯re girls...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had to give this some thought before saying, ¡°I¡¯ll get Old Wang to paint the knives pink for y¡¯all then.¡±


    The female students were taken aback for a bit before breaking out intoughter. They said, ¡°Alright, Monitor!¡±


    But at this moment, someone knocked on the door. Xiaoyu muttered, ¡°Who could be knocking on our door at this time?¡±


    But when she went to open the door, she heard a sonorous male voice say from outside, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m looking for Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately turned his head to the door. Only a handful of people would know to find him here at this time. Furthermore... this person¡¯s voice sounded extremely familiar!


    It was Li Shentan!


    Li Shentan was smartly dressed in the Li Consortium¡¯s military uniform as he stood at the door. Ren Xiaosu hesitated, so Li Shentan smiled first and said, ¡°What¡¯s up? Am I not wee here?¡±


    ¡°Pleasee in.¡± Ren Xiaosu signaled to Xiaoyu, who was blocking the door, to let him in. Following which, he whispered to the others, ¡°Everyone, go inside the house.¡±


    Everyone noticed that something was wrong and knew this was an uninvited guest. Fortunately, Old Wang and Li Qingzheng were still outside tallying the goods. Otherwise, it would be difficult for Ren Xiaosu toe up with an excuse to send Li Qingzheng away.


    Li Shentan walked into the courtyard and looked around his surroundings curiously. Then he sat on the stone bench in the courtyard and said, ¡°What a warm and homey ce this is.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at his uniform and asked, ¡°How did you learn I¡¯m here?¡±


    ¡°Ah!¡± It was as though Li Shentan recalled something at this moment. ¡°I hypnotized the residents in the surrounding area so they would inform me when they saw an unfamiliar young man entering the courtyard here.¡±


    Li Shentan did not avoid the topic of hypnosis when he spoke. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s inappropriate to do something like that?¡±


    ¡°Superpowers are meant to be used.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s not like I hindered their day-to-day lives anyway.¡±


    Wearing the military uniform, Li Shentan looked just like a handsome, young, and promising boy next door. However, others would definitely not be able to imagine the disaster he had wrought upon Stronghold 109.


    ¡°Then what are you looking for me for?¡± Ren Xiaosu gave him a look.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu came out of the house and ced a pot of tea and two cups on the stone table. Li Shentan smiled and said graciously, ¡°Thank you, Big Sister Xiaoyu.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m warning you. Don¡¯t you dare hypnotize the people around me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in an unfriendly manner.


    ¡°I won¡¯t.¡± Li Shentan held up a teacup and said with a smile, ¡°We¡¯re friends, after all. How can I possibly hypnotize my friend¡¯s friends?¡±


    He gently held the teacup and warmed his hands. As steam wafted up from the teacup, the scene in the courtyard was exceptionally harmonious and peaceful.


    ¡°I heard you were sent to a faraway outpost, so how have you beentely?¡± Li Shentan said with a smile. His tone sounded like he really was an old friend of Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°Not too bad, I guess.¡±


    But in the next moment, Li Shentan said, ¡°I heard two nanosoldiers went missing out there, and they were even the family members of the Li Consortium. When I checked the list of that outpostter and saw your name on it, I knew you must¡¯ve been the one behind it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned but did not answer him. There was no need for any exnation between intelligent people, and no evidence was necessary to prove their suspicion either. Ren Xiaosu only wanted to know now what Li Shentan was nning.


    Then Li Shentan continued, ¡°When we parted ways at Stronghold 109, I thought we would only get to see each other again in another few years. I didn¡¯t expect to meet you again so soon. I also heard a neighboring outpost near yours was attacked by the wolves and another nanosoldier went missing. I thought that might have been done by you. I have control over humans while you can control wolves. It seems like we were really fated to meet after all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°Why don¡¯t you just state your purpose? There¡¯s no need to beat around the bush.¡±


    He knew there was no point in defending himself. There was nothing wrong with Li Shentan¡¯s reconstruction of events. If the Li Consortium found out there was an extremely dangerous supernatural being over there, they would probably focus their attention on him immediately.


    For example, Hu Shuo had probably discovered something about him.


    But now Li Shentan turned serious. ¡°You¡¯re probably still a little misunderstood. I actually came here today to catch up with an old friend. After all, I¡¯ve got too few friends to go around.¡±


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why do you always think that I¡¯m your friend?¡±


    Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°Because I always feel a sense of endearment whenever I see you.¡±


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and asked, ¡°Why are you dressed in military attire?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m an active serviceman of the Li Consortium now.¡± Li Shentan appraised his military uniform. ¡°Does it look fitting? Our 4th Brigade will be heading to the front line of Stronghold 109 tomorrow. There are still many Experimentals active over there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought the Experimentals were doomed after the Li Consortium decided on using heavy weapons against them. However, Li Shentan¡¯s appearance had put huge uncertainty on this battle. Ren Xiaosu could already sense that the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops heading to Stronghold 109 this time would probably perish.


    Right from the beginning, Li Shentan had never intended to target any particr stronghold. He sought to destroy the entire Li Consortium. Even if he were to perish with everyone, he would not hesitate to do it.


    Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. There really was nothing wrong with the Li Consortium¡¯s previous decision to send this guy to a psychiatric hospital. Comparing Chen Wudi to him, Chen Wudi was just like a normal person.


    Li Shentan stood up and walked to the door. ¡°It¡¯s time to say goodbye now. After this farewell, I¡¯m afraid it will be a really long time before I see you again. Please take care of yourself. The people in this neighborhood who harbor dirty thoughts on thedies living here willmit suicide after you leave town tomorrow. You won¡¯t need to worry about that. Please consider it a small gift from me and ept it kindly.¡±

 Chapter 220 - Encountering the Pyro Company again!

    <strong>Chapter 220 Encountering the Pyro Company again!</strong>


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised by this gift of Li Shentan¡¯s. When he previously asked Xiaoyu whether they had any trouble, she said no. But he knew well that she must have been lying to him. How could there be no one in town getting any ideas on a house with over a dozen women in it?


    This was also the reason why Ren Xiaosu was worried about Jiang Wu exposing her identity as a supernatural being. If someone started getting ideas about them, it was very likely that Jiang Wu would be forced to use her superpower. It would be a major crisis if she attracted the attention of the Pyro Company.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Shentan. ¡°I¡¯m grateful for your gift.¡±


    Li Shentan dismissed it with a smile. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so polite. There¡¯s one more thing, though. The Li Consortium is nning to send their elite nanosoldiers to eliminate the wolves. They¡¯re also considering it a training exercise using the wolves as opponents. You should have your wolf buddies lie low. Some of the nanosoldiers can be... really strong.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. He could collect more nanomachines!


    Suddenly, Li Shentan was unsure of if he had seen a look of anticipation in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°Do you know where the Pyro Company¡¯s members around here are hiding?¡± Ren Xiaosu switched the topic.


    Li Shentan said, ¡°They just left this afternoon, but I don¡¯t know where they were heading. Maybe they went off somewhere to try their luck at catching supernatural beings? Don¡¯t worry, they don¡¯t know about you.¡± He then walked out the door.


    This demon was about to head for the front lines with the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops. Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that if there were more people like Li Shentan in this world, war really might not be too far off.


    There was always a state of bnce between the organizations as everyone slowly plundered resources to strengthen themselves. This was a process of gaining power as part of arger group. But if a crack suddenly appeared in one organization, the others would definitely be more than happy to get a greater share of the spoils, right?


    After Li Shentan left, Xiaoyu came out of the house and said in curiosity, ¡°That¡¯s Li Shentan, right? I saw him at the shop back in Stronghold 109.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned as he thought about something else. He suddenly said, ¡°I might have to go back now. I feel like there¡¯s a hidden meaning to Li Shentan¡¯s words.¡±


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu had nned to stay in town for the night. After all, they hadn¡¯t seen each other in a long time, and many things still needed to be discussed. But when he asked for news of the Pyro Company, Li Shentan told him that they had left that afternoon. This made Ren Xiaosu a little uneasy.


    Yan Liuyuan asked in a stunned manner next to him, ¡°You¡¯re leaving already?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Since there¡¯s still a month before the Lunar New Year, I¡¯ll definitely have a chance toe back again. Or... I can take y¡¯all to the outpost to celebrate the New Year?¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up as he wanted to have a look at what the ce Ren Xiaosu went to be a sentry looked like.


    With that, Ren Xiaosu went outside. By this time, Wang Fugui and Li Qingzheng were just about wrapped up with handing over the money and goods to each other. Looking at their expressions, they both seemed happy with the deal.


    ¡°Lord of Wolves, we have to leave now. Something urgent came up, so we have to go back immediately,¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Li Qingzheng.


    Li Qingzheng wondered, ¡°We have to leave now? Aren¡¯t we gonna stay a little longer? I still haven¡¯t-¡°


    ¡°We have to go now,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone.


    Li Qingzheng thought for a moment and said, ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s head back


    now.¡±


    When Li Qingzheng and Ren Xiaosu got into the truck, Wang Fugui said, ¡°Xiaosu, you must take care of yourself. The whole family is depending on you now, so nothing must happen to you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a low voice, ¡°Nothing has happened to me even after two strongholds were destroyed. I¡¯m hardy.¡±


    Wang Fugui said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s true. As long as you¡¯re here, our days will definitely get better and better.¡±


    After that exchange, Li Qingzheng started the truck and drove out of town.


    There were two grocery stores near the gate. One of them belonged to a woman, and the other was recently opened by Wang Fugui. Ever since Wang Fugui arrived, business at the grocery store next door plummeted and caused the neighbor to despise him.


    While Wang Fugui was seeing Ren Xiaosu off, the fat woman next door leaned against the doorframe of her shop and munched on sunflower seeds while looking at Wang Fugui scornfully. After Ren Xiaosu left, she suddenly shouted at Old Wang, ¡°Why? Is that one of your family members?¡±


    Wang Fugui smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s our boss! He¡¯s the greatest!¡±


    The woman spat out the sunflower seed hull at the entrance of her shop with disdain. ¡°What¡¯s the big deal about a crappy soldier from the private army?¡±


    In the eyes of the town¡¯s refugees, the private troops were no longer worth much in the present day. It was still the organization¡¯s own soldiers who were more powerful. It wasn¡¯t only this woman who thought this way. Some people also used to believe there was an influential man in Wang Fugui¡¯s family backing him. But now they were a little disappointed when they found out he was just a private soldier.


    Wang Fugui just smiled without saying a word. They were from two different worlds, and it was impossible to speak with someone who had limited experience.


    As Li Qingzheng drove on the road, he did not ask Ren Xiaosu why he wanted to return to the outpost so urgently. Ren Xiaosu also discovered at this moment that Li Qingzheng might have realized something based on his attitude.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng and said, ¡°You¡ª¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know anything,¡± interrupted Li Qingzheng.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. Thinking back to the time the wolves attacked the military transport truck, Li Qingzheng took the initiative to get everyone to go back into their houses. At that time, Li Qingzheng might have realized something.


    He heard Li Qingzheng say, ¡°When I was still a child, my father took me to a fortune teller in town. When he said that my entire life would be a tough one, my father almost beat him up. But he also added that I had one chance to turn things around in this life.¡±


    ¡°What was the chance?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°He said I would meet my benefactor at the age of 29, and I turned 29 on the day I met you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Superstitions can be really harmful.¡±


    The journey back only took three hours since Li Qingzheng drove a little faster as Ren Xiaosu said it was urgent. When they arrived at the beginning of the mountain road leading to the outpost, Ren Xiaosu noticed some tire tracks on the ground. His face turned to one of rm. ¡°Hurry up! Trespassers have gone up!¡±


    This dirt road was the only path to the outpost. The snow had just melted and the ground had be muddy. If a vehicle drove on it, its tires would definitely leave marks on the ground. This sight set off rm bells in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s head.


    Based on what Li Shentan had said, the Pyro Company was onlying out to try their luck. Perhaps they thought the disappearance of the two officers might have something to do with a supernatural being when they learned about it. So they came to the nearby outpost to see if they could find any supernatural beings hiding here.


    The truck drove all the way up to the outpost. But when Ren Xiaosu, who was initially extremely anxious, was greeted by the sight of the open space in front of the outpost, he froze.


    He saw Hu Shuo sitting in a rxed position next to the campfire and eating barbecue with the others. Five strangers knelt next in a row to them with injuries covering their bodies. One of them was even coughing up blood as he knelt there.


    The moment Hu Shuo saw Ren Xiaosu, his expression shifted. ¡°Why are you back so soon?!¡±

 Chapter 221 - Hu Shuo’s true strength

    <h4>Chapter 221 Hu Shuo¡¯s true strength</h4>


    It was a really strange sight at the campfire next to the outpost¡¯s entrance. On one side, there were people barbecuing meat and enjoying themselves. On the other side, five people were kneeling in a row and too afraid to move a muscle.


    How pathetic! These five people were way too pathetic.


    When Ren Xiaosu got out of the truck and went over to have a look, it was just as he had expected. Those five people all had a small logo of the Pyro Company embroidered on their clothes.


    In reality, there wasn¡¯t any problem with the direction of the Pyro Company¡¯s investigations. They spected that the disappearance of those two nanosoldiers might have something to do with supernatural beings, so they came here to try their luck to see if they could find that person. This spection was extremely urate.


    Ren Xiaosu was not wrong either. After Li Shentan informed him about the situation with the Pyro Company, he rushed back during the night as he was worried they would harm the students at the outpost. There wasn¡¯t anything wrong with that either.


    The only surprise that neither the Pyro Company nor Ren Xiaosu had expected was that Hu Shuo was powerful beyond measure.


    The reason Hu Shuo was surprised when he saw Ren Xiaosu was because he would have to teach Ren Xiaosu again now that he was back. It was just like how office workers finally had the weekend off only for their bosses to suddenly demand they work overtime. This immediately spoiled the mood.


    Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°Can¡¯t you see that I really missed all of you? That¡¯s why we rushed back to the outpost. So what¡¯s going on here?¡±


    In truth, Ren Xiaosu already knew Hu Shuo was definitely not a simple person from the beginning. How could a normal old man head up to the mountains alone in the middle of the night to investigate a case? Wasn¡¯t he afraid of getting killed by the criminal as well? So he must have had something that gave him the confidence.


    Moreover, Chen Wudi mentioned he was the Earth Deity. Based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s deductions, what Chen Wudi probably meant was: This man has a superpower.


    Perhaps mental patients possessed some sort of unique perception that enabled Chen Wudi to identify the true nature of someone simply by their appearance, as he was spot on in his observations.


    Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Quicklye and have some meat.¡±


    All five of the Pyro Company members looked back at Ren Xiaosu, but none of them dared to speak. Hu Shuo said, ¡°They¡¯re from the Pyro Company. I was searching for them some time ago, but they managed to hide themselves really well. As some other disturbances were going on at that time, I haven¡¯t been able to locate them at all. Who knew they would actually send themselves to our doorstep just as I was nning to spend the New Year here....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®So you are really here to spend the New Year! You really don¡¯t consider yourself an outsider, do you?¡¯


    However, now was not the time to think about that.


    Ren Xiaosu had realized most people would usually be afraid or disgusted if they encountered members of the Pyro Company. But when Hu Shuo encountered these five members of the Pyro Company, he got a vague sense of surprise.


    ¡°What are they doing here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Hu Shuo smiled ambiguously at him and said, ¡°These are probably the main culprits in the killing of those two Li Consortium officers.¡±


    When the members of the Pyro Company heard that, they started panicking. ¡°We¡¯re also here to investigate this case. They weren¡¯t killed by us!¡±


    ¡°Did I say that you all could speak?¡± Hu Shuo said as he stared at them.


    The five Pyro Company members quickly shut their mouths. Ren Xiaosu asked the people around him in a whisper, ¡°Who witnessed their fight?¡±


    The students shook their heads and said, ¡°Only Big Brother Wudi was outside at the time. We were all studying by ourselves in our houses.¡±


    As such, Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Wudi, ¡°What happened between them just now? Can you describe it to me?¡± He was trying to deduce how strong Hu Shuo was based on the description of the battle with this question,


    When Chen Wudi recalled the battle, he could only say, ¡°Holy shit!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. As Ren Xiaosu waited for him to rte the rest of the incident, he realized Chen Wudi had already lowered his head back down to eat. So Chen Wudi¡¯s description of the entire battle was simply ¡°Holy shit!¡±? ¡®Can¡¯t you be more cultured!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu was saddened. How could he judge the strength of Hu Shuo through a description like that? However, the little information he could get from this was that when Hu Shuo made his move, his strength even surprised Chen Wudi.


    ¡°Is he stronger than you?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Wudi.


    Chen Wudi thought for a while. ¡°No, he¡¯s not.¡±


    ¡°You seem quite confident in yourself,¡± Ren Xiaosumented. Asking Chen Wudi about such serious matters would probably just make himself even more confused.


    During this recent period, he had always seen Hu Shuo getting up early to practice tai chi. Could his boxing really be that powerful?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked at Hu Shuo and asked, ¡°They were the ones who murdered those two officers?¡±


    Hu Shuo said earnestly, ¡°That¡¯s right. The Li Consortium has given me until tomorrow as the deadline to investigate the case. Since we¡¯ve been searching extensively for the murderer and were still unable to capture anyone even though we have been working so hard, they must be considered the murderers.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised. When did Hu Shuo ever work hard while he was here? He was obviously just here on vacation to eat meat. This old man had never seriously gone after the murderer at all!


    However, Ren Xiaosu was definitely d this Pyro Company team would be made the scapegoat. It was fine as long as he did not get himself caught.


    But Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that Hu Shuo had already made some discoveries. Neither of them were fools. Just the fact that he had the runs for six hours when Hu Shuo first arrived was uneptable. Moreover, the Wolf King had been sending all that game to them. Even an idiot would notice that something was going on between this outpost and the wolves.


    Ren Xiaosu was not going to assume he had gotten lucky. The two of them just had a tacit agreement with each other for now.


    But when Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he suddenly wondered what Hu Shuo¡¯s motives were. Was it just so that he could eat all the meat he wanted without worry? But how could that be!


    ¡°But there should definitely be an interrogation process, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What if they would rather die than admit to the crime?¡±


    ¡°If they die, they wouldn¡¯t be able to not admit to it.¡± Hu Shuo said calmly, ¡°Isn¡¯t that what ¡®rather die than admit to it¡¯ really means?¡±


    When the soldiers of the Pyro Company heard that, they knew they had no chance to survive! How could they be willing to stay here and wait for their deaths when they possessed strength that surpassed normal humans?!


    In that instant, those five people got up at the same time and fled down the mountain. They had never thought about fighting against Hu Shuo and Ren Xiaosu. They couldn¡¯t even defeat Hu Shuo alone, and now, there was another unknown factor in Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, their only way to survive was to escape.


    While the Pyro members escaped, Hu Shuo sat there without moving. When Ren Xiaosu saw that Hu Shuo did not make a move, he also stayed still.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna pursue them?¡±


    Hu Shuo was amused. ¡°How can I pursue them with these old limbs of mine? Why don¡¯t you go after them instead?¡±


    ¡°The members of the Pyro Company are all supernatural beings. Why would I go after them when I¡¯m just a normal person?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a grimace.


    They watched as the members of the Pyro Company got further and further away.


    The two of them sat there with neither giving chase. When the members of the Pyro Company turned around and saw this, they were overjoyed. They were so surprised no one was pursuing them!


    When they ran down to the hillside, a part of the turf on the mountain path suddenly shifted. In the blink of an eye, an entire toon rushed out from the shadows of the forest as gunshots rang out from trenches. The five exhausted people were caught off guard!


    When Ren Xiaosu heard those gunshots on the hillside, he realized he didn¡¯t even know when the ambush wasid.

 Chapter 222 - Rather die than admit to it

    <strong>Chapter 222 Rather die than admit to it</strong>


    Hearing the gunshots ring out on the hillside, the rest of the group was unable to sit still any longer. They ran to the far edge of the outpost and looked down. Meanwhile, Hu Shuo was still sitting there calmly and enjoying the meat. He asked, ¡°Did you get enough seasonings and other supplies since you came back in such a hurry? Although this exotic meat is delicious, it gets too salty if we only use salt on it. What we need is a greater variety of seasoning options!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we bought everything that we needed.¡±


    This time, Li Qingzheng had made a rather sessful deal with Old Wang. He not only managed to bring back enough salt to preserve the rest of the meat, but also procured rice vinegar, star anise, Sichuan peppercorn, and some other spices too. Although, they could just grab a handful of Sichuan peppercorns from the wilderness since they weremonly found there.


    While conducting the trade, Li Qingzheng realized it was much easier to do business with Old Wang than to slowly sell the cured meat by himself.


    At this moment, someone from the other toon walked over and said to Hu Shuo, ¡°We¡¯ve gunned down all five of them.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Hu Shuo nodded. ¡°Take them back to the stronghold and report the mission status to the higher-ups. Tell them to be careful and stay wary of the Pyro Company. There is absolutely no mistake in killing anyone who is from the Pyro Company.¡±


    ¡°Roger.¡± After the soldier received the order, he led his men away.


    But Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled as he looked at this group of people. They were not wearing thebat uniform of the Li Consortium, yet they were much stronger than the private troops. Which fighting force did they belong to?


    Hu Shuo said with a smile as he ate, ¡°I feel so relieved now that I¡¯ve finallypleted the assignment. You all might know, but I was so worried about this matter for the past few days that I couldn¡¯t eat or sleep well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked the students next to him, ¡°What did the teacher talk about today? Let me have a look at your notes so that I can catch up with the lectures and rify my doubts with Mr. Hu before he goes to bed.¡±


    But when he said this, Hu Shuo immediately stood up and said, ¡°Hahahaha, I¡¯m sleepy. I¡¯m off to bed!¡±


    After Hu Shuo went back into his house, Ren Xiaosu had the students unload everything from the truck into the house. He also distributed to them the winter clothing that Xiaoyu had procured.


    Chen Wudi went back into the house and happily put on his new clothes. These things were all provided for Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and the eight other students. When Li Qingzheng saw this, he felt sad. ¡°How nice it is to have a family.¡±


    When it gotte into the night, Ren Xiaosu quietly headed to the depths of the mountains. He wanted to give the wolves another reminder to not get ambushed by the nanosoldiers that were going to be sent in.


    After all, the wolves were burdened with their young right now. It would be upsetting if the Li Consortium¡¯s elite soldiers attacked them and the wolves did not have enough time to bring their wolf cubs with them when they fled.


    Before he could get deep into the mountains, he saw the Wolf King waiting for him on the mountain path. When the Wolf King saw Ren Xiaosu, it led him straight to the wolf den without having tomunicate it to him.


    Ren Xiaosu kept muttering, ¡°Have they fully recovered from their injuries yet? Did they eat their food ording to my advice as a doctor?¡±


    The Wolf King did not even bother replying to his questions. When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the wolf den, the wolves seemed to be much friendlier towards him thanst time. Ren Xiaosu first checked on the wounds of the injured wolves and only felt at ease after seeing they had already healed.


    He sat on arge rock and said, ¡°Seems the Li Consortium is sending their elite soldiers to ¡®spar¡¯ with y¡¯all. Are you confident with handling them?¡±


    The Wolf King looked at him with apparent disdain. Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°But those are supersoldiers with nanomachines. They¡¯ve been specially assigned to eliminate y¡¯all. The Li Consortium isn¡¯t stupid either. If they¡¯re willing to attack you, they must have a certain confidence in their n.¡±


    The Wolf King was still giving him a disdainful look.


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°But you better not eat them after they¡¯re dead. They have nanomachines in them, so y¡¯all might get diarrhea if you eat them. When the timees, hide their corpses for me. I¡¯ll use the ck medicine to make a deal with you.¡±


    When the Wolf King heard the words ¡°ck medicine,¡± its eyes seemed to light up.


    ¡°But you definitely have to move your wolf den further away.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°After all, your wolf cubs can¡¯t run fast enough. If a stray bullet hit them, that¡¯d be bad.¡±


    On his way back, Ren Xiaosu was wondering if he could get his hands on the nanomachines at a faster rate with the wolves¡¯ assistance. Ren Xiaosu was even starting to get a little excited at the thought.


    The next morning, everyone was busy taking out the meat they had hidden away to continue curing the meat. They had to stop the process temporarily due to theck of salt.


    The group of men set up several tables at the entrance of the outpost and worked tirelessly, sweating profusely. But when they thought about how this was the source of better food, everyone felt exceptionally aplished.


    If those who did not know the truth went up the mountain and saw this ce, they would probably mistake it for a cured meat delicatessen and not an outpost. Everyone had left their guns inside the houses, and some of them had not even touched them for several days.


    To be honest, no one would be willing to be a soldier in a godforsaken ce like this if it weren¡¯t for survival. These people did not feel a sense of belonging to the Li Consortium anyway. In the present day, nobody had any faith or feelings to speak of. It would be good enough to survive. So having meat to eat was far more important than anything else.


    Someone said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s almost the start of spring. We should find some grape seeds in the mountains and nt them here in the open space behind the outpost. When we harvest the grapes in summer, we can even make our own wine.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s build a grape trellis. We can also nt some garlic, onions, cucumbers, and carrots next to it. During summer, we can mix the cucumber with minced garlic and some shredded carrots to pair with the wine. That will truly be afy life!¡±


    With all theughter at the entrance of the outpost, the cold of the winter seemed to be more bearable. Everyone¡¯s mentality was different with the Lunar New Year approaching, and they were only thinking about how to celebrate the joyous asion.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There¡¯s something that I want to announce. I still have some family members who are staying in town that I was thinking of bringing over with the truck for the New Year. But we definitely don¡¯t have enough houses for all of them to live in. Let¡¯s work a little harder for the next few days so we can build another wooden house for them. Is anyone here good at carpentry?¡±


    ¡°Me!¡± Li Qingzheng said with a smile, ¡°I worked as a carpenter for two years. I¡¯m really good at it.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s help Ren Xiaosu build a house once we finish curing the meat,¡± a man said with a smile.


    This man was an escapee who had fled with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group here. He was constantly bullied by Li Qingzheng when he first arrived at the outpost. But after everyone integrated into the group, the animosity faded.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu thought it was actually quite good for the group to live here in the mountains and be self-sufficient.


    All of a sudden, the voice from the pce said, ¡°A side quest has been unlocked. Ensure there are no deaths within the wolf pack for seven days to unlock a new product in the vending machine: seeds.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he froze for a second. Did the pce unlock the side quest with seeds as the reward because he thought about wanting to be self-sufficient in the mountains?


    But the pce didn¡¯t mention what the seeds would grow into. Could they have magical effects?

 Chapter 223 - Encircling the wolves!

    <strong>Chapter 223 Encircling the wolves!</strong>


    The quest rewards given by the pce had always been extraordinary. The first quest reward he received was the ck saber, while the second one was Explosive Poker. By now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gratitude tokens had slowly increased to 460 coins. However, he had exchanged some of them for Explosive Poker cards in between, although nobody knew how many of those handy explosives he now carried.


    And now that the pce issued yet another quest to him, the quest reward did not seem rted to any type of lethal weapon. It was just some small ¡°seeds.¡± However, Ren Xiaosu ced a great deal of importance to it.


    These ¡°seeds¡± represented a dream, and Ren Xiaosu could only hope that it would live up to the rewards the side quest gave.


    If these seeds turned out to be something magical, Ren Xiaosu could find a plot ofnd and be self-sufficient!


    The only problem was that it might not be so easy to ensure that there would be no deaths in the wolf pack over the next seven days.


    It looked like Ren Xiaosu would have to pay extra attention to the Li Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers. If he couldn¡¯tplete this quest, what should he do if the pce decided not to issue another seeds-rted side quest to him?


    While everyone was processing the cured meat, Hu Shuo was practicing tai chi off to the side. Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something, so he asked, ¡°Are you practicing tai chi as a form of cultivation?¡±


    ¡°Cultivation?¡± Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with augh, ¡°I¡¯m only doing it as a form of exercise and discipline, so don¡¯t be overthinking things.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu really wanted to know what powers Hu Shuo had. In fact, Hu Shuo didn¡¯t dodge any questions, but the one who witnessed Hu Shuo fight was Chen Wudi. This rendered Ren Xiaosu speechless.


    When Li Qingzheng mentioned he had been learning boxing styles since he was a child, Ren Xiaosu brushed it off like it was some kind of superstition. But seeing Hu Shuo practice tai chi every day with so much vigor, Ren Xiaosu could not help but think that Li Qingzheng also knew a powerful boxing style.


    Right at this moment, over a dozen off-road vehicles suddenly roared up from the foot of the mountain. When everyone here saw the off-road vehicles, they immediately stopped working


    ¡°Put everything away,¡± Li Qingzheng instructed quietly.


    The cured meat they were making was definitely not going to be considered official business around here. After all, their primary duty was to keep a lookout for enemies. If those people were here for an inspection, they would definitely fail them.


    However, Ren Xiaosu already knew they couldn¡¯t be the inspection personnel.


    The dozen off-road vehicles arrived in such a hurry with an overbearing manner.


    It looked like it was going to get really busy at this outpost.


    Everyone had thought they wouldn¡¯t have much contact with people after getting posted to this faraway outpost. But in the end, all these different people came here every few days.


    What was going on here?


    Ren Xiaosu quietly observed the situation. He realized Hu Shuo had gone into a house at some point. It was as though he didn¡¯t want toe face to face with these people.


    When the off-road vehicles came to a stop at the entrance of the outpost, four people stepped out from each of them. They were all dressed inbat uniforms and held the rank of officer.


    On this topic, Ren Xiaosu and the others were soldiers as well, but they were all irregrly dressed with only a few of them in their military uniforms. On the other hand, the soldiers who had just arrived were all smartly dressed, resulting in a stark contrast between the two sides.


    From appearances alone, Ren Xiaosu and the others looked more like they were on chow duty. All they werecking were some aprons.


    But what surprised Ren Xiaosu and the others was that there was actually someone they knew among these officers!


    To be precise, it was someone the refugees knew. Back when these randomly assembled soldiers were undergoing their physicals, one of them in the group managed to pass the synchronization test!


    But now, that person had moved on up to be a proper officer of the Li Consortium. Ren Xiaosu vaguely remembered that this refugee who had been elevated in status was called Lin Qi.


    When Lin Qi got out of the vehicle, he was taken aback when he saw Ren Xiaosu and the other refugees. But right after, heughed. ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t expect to see these familiar faces.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and the others did not say anything. Lin Qi¡¯s dignified look today would not give away the awful state he was in while fleeing from Stronghold 109. His polishedbat boots fit him very well, as did his uniform.


    Someone behind Lin Qi asked, ¡°You actually know these people?¡±


    Lin Qi hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°We came together to Stronghold 108 from Stronghold 109. Now that I¡¯ve met them again at this remote outpost, I¡¯ll definitely need to take care of these little brothers of mine.¡±


    Coming from Lin Qi¡¯s mouth, Ren Xiaosu and the others had suddenly be his little brothers.


    Lin Qi was feeling a great sense of superiority. During their escape, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group had it so easy the entire journey. But look at how the tables had turned. Ren Xiaosu could only remain as a refugee while he had be an officer of the Li Consortium. He was even a first lieutenant!


    The gulf that was the stronghold separated Lin Qi from Ren Xiaosu at this moment. Their statuses were as different as that of the heavens and the Earth.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group did not really find Lin Qi to be that great. In the past, Ren Xiaosu might be envious of the stronghold residents. But now, he wasn¡¯t the least bit envious at all.


    But the other refugees who used to walk alongside Lin Qi were feeling somewhat embarrassed. When they saw Lin Qi in his uniform, they did not even dare toe forward to speak with him.


    Lin Qi was getting conceited. Heughed and said, ¡°How are you doing here at the outpost? It must be really difficult, right? If I had known that all of you were here, I would have brought over the pound of pork allocated to me by the troops so that you can have a taste of some meat. After all, it¡¯s not easy for you all to get any meat in a ce like this, unlike me who gets to have it every day.¡±


    If he had mentioned anything else but this, it would have been fine. But when it came to the topic of having meat to eat, Ren Xiaosu and the others started looking a little funny. Honestly speaking, they would prefer having more vegetables in their diets right now. Having too much meat really did not help with their digestion.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that if Lin Qi were really willing to share some meat with them, it would mean he was still kind at heart even though he was a little showy. They would just treat it as someone giving thempensation so they could look good, something that wouldn¡¯t hurt them at all.


    But Lin Qi¡¯s tone took a turn at this moment. ¡°Forget it, it wouldn¡¯t be good if I brought meat for you refugees. If I let you have a taste of meat, I¡¯d be bringing harm to you if you don¡¯t have the appetite for anything else in the future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nearly burst outughing. Beside him, Li Qingzheng stood up andughed along humbly. ¡°Dear sirs, to what do we owe your distinguished visitation?¡±


    Lin Qi¡¯s expression turned a little dark when his words were cut off by Li Qingzheng who changed the topic. However, he still answered very quickly, ¡°We¡¯re here to offer fire support to ourrades to rein in the threat of the wolves in these mountains. But this area is not going to be the main battlefield. That will be the next outpost where even more troops are currently waiting.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. Surely there was a problem with the intel the Li Consortium received, right? But he soon understood. The previous wolf attack had taken ce in the vicinity of the next outpost, which was why the Li Consortium¡¯s troops thought the wolves¡¯ area of activity was closer to the mountain range over there.


    It was no wonder more than 40 nanosoldiers had gathered here. Based on his fight with the nanosoldiers, and assuming these nanosoldiers here were at the same level as those he had faced, he felt they wouldn¡¯t amount to any threat to the wolf pack.


    However, he could not dismiss these nanosoldiers either, because he had recently realized the nanomachines might still have a lot of functions he hadn¡¯t discovered yet. He was using it purely as external armor right now.


    This was the perfect opportunity for him to observe how these nanosoldiers did battle.

 Chapter 224 - Meat is our staple food

    <strong>Chapter 224 Meat is our staple food</strong>


    When normal soldiers came to this outpost, they would be ferried in military transport trucks. But these nanosoldiers who were all at least first lieutenants had arrived in over a dozen off-road vehicles.


    Ren Xiaosu checked out how many of them there were and counted 48. If this number of nanosoldiers who had gathered here was only serving as support for those at the next outpost, then how many people were in the main force over there?


    The outpost¡¯s soldiers stood at the side, not daring to utter a word. Only Li Qingzheng went over to the officers to ask if they needed any assistance and if they wanted to eat lunch here.


    However, Lin Qi proudlyughed and said, ¡°We¡¯re on official duty here, so how could we have time to eat lunch here? We usually carry our own rations when we¡¯re out on a mission. If we eat anything unhygienic here at your ce and get the runs, none of you will be able to answer for it.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± Li Qingzheng pretended to smile and said, ¡°You¡¯re absolutely correct.¡±


    In reality, Lin Qi¡¯s resentment was mainly focused on Ren Xiaosu. After all, he did not have anything against the rest of the refugees. Just based on the difference of their statuses, he was quite satisfied.


    But during their escape, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group really had it too easy while the rest of them had to endure starvation. Now that he was elevated in status, he naturally wanted topare.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu could also understand this.


    At this moment, Lin Qi said, ¡°I heard that the rice supply sent here was mixed with sand. I had heard about how the living conditions of those of you who were recruited by the private army during the expansion isn¡¯t too good. Do you usually have enough to eat?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not too bad.¡± Li Qingzheng said with a smile, ¡°We¡¯re still able to pick some wild vegetables to add to our meals sometimes.¡±


    He couldn¡¯t possibly tell them that they had meat to eat, right? There was no such thing as not having enough to eat around here, but it would definitely intensify the conflict if he said that now.


    However, Lin Qi continued, ¡°You won¡¯t have enough strength if you just eat wild vegetables and not have a staple food. Don¡¯t let it get in the way of performing your sentry duty.¡±


    Chen Wudi asked Ren Xiaosu at the side, ¡°Master, what does a staple food mean?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before giving him a short answer. ¡°Food that you always eat.¡±


    When Lin Qi heard the conversation between Chen Wudi and Ren Xiaosu, he said to Chen Wudi with augh, ¡°You¡¯re such a crazy fool. A staple food refers to food like rice and noodles.¡±


    Chen Wudi shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s not right, our staple food is meat.¡±


    Lin Qi: ¡°???¡±


    Li Qingzheng and Ren Xiaosu realized this was going to be bad. That fool of a kid had somehow spilled the beans. However, they then discovered that Lin Qi did not seem to believe what Chen Wudi had said. They heard Lin Qi say with a sigh, ¡°You¡¯re even turning to lying in order to boost your pitiful self-esteem, I see.¡±


    But even though Lin Qi did not believe it, the other officers started getting suspicious. ¡°You all have meat here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart sank. Some of these people were quite astute. Li Qingzhengughed and replied, ¡°Haha, he was just kidding. How could we possibly have any meat here?¡±


    But that soldier did not let go of the matter just because of Li Qingzheng¡¯s exnation. He went towards outpost. ¡°There¡¯s something off about your outpost.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°So you¡¯ve found out?¡± Ren Xiaosu then headed to one of the houses in the outpost. He opened the door of that house with everyone looking... only to reveal Hu Shuo inside!


    It was obvious that Hu Shuo was a high-ranking official in the stronghold. How else could hemand a group of elite soldiersparable to those the consortium had?


    Since this old man was nning to spend the Lunar New Year here, Ren Xiaosu brought him out to shield them from any further trouble during a crisis!


    Hu Shuo looked calmly at Ren Xiaosu, and Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at Hu Shuo as well. Hu Shuo got so angry he almostughed. He had specifically gone into the house to avoid meeting these people!


    One of the officers said in surprise, ¡°S-Sir, what are you doing here?¡±


    Hu Shuo slowly stepped out. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m here to investigate something, so my little friends here at the outpost are providing me with some assistance.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, we didn¡¯t expect you to be here. I¡¯m a soldier of the 7th Brigade and have been assigned to the Divine Arms Battalion,¡± the soldier said humbly while bowing deeply.


    For a refugee like Lin Qi who had only recently been recruited into thebat troops, he definitely would not know who Hu Shuo was. But this officer had been a soldier of the Li Consortium for a while and recognized Hu Shuo immediately.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this unfold, he nearly gasped. Just who was this Hu Shuo supposed to be? This nanosoldier was behaving so arrogantly just now, so what made him be so humble all of a sudden?


    If only Chen Wudi could exin it more clearly; then Ren Xiaosu could have at least figured out how strong this Hu Shuo was.


    Hu Shuo smiled amiably at the officers and said, ¡°You guys have work to do, so I won¡¯t waste your time.¡±


    That soldier immediately stood to attention. ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Then he ordered the others to quickly unload their gear from the vehicles and wear it.


    Ren Xiaosu observed them and discovered there wasn¡¯t much of a difference between these nanosoldiers¡¯ gear and what the ordinary soldiers wore. They were all standard-issuebat uniforms and individual weapons of war, while one of the officers was carrying a portable radio transceiver. After all, the distance between the outposts were some dozens of kilometers away from each other, so they needed to use the radios tomunicate and share intel.


    The only difference was that these soldiers were each equipped with a long saber that was sheathed in a ck leather scabbard. Ren Xiaosu could not tell what kind of material this sword was made of. But if it was something the nanosoldiers carried, it probably wasn¡¯t any ordinary weapon.


    Someone asked that soldier while they were donning their gear, ¡°Who¡¯s that old man?¡±


    That soldier¡¯s expression changed. ¡°Don¡¯t ask. Let¡¯s head into the mountains and get out of here.¡± He sounded terrified of Hu Shuo.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he couldn¡¯t figure out what was so scary about Hu Shuo.


    Everyone at the outpost watched as these officers fell silent en masse before hurrying off deep into Mount Kun. After they left, Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°I won¡¯t ask you any questions for the next three days.¡±


    When Hu Shuo heard this, the annoyance of getting ¡°betrayed¡± by Ren Xiaosu lessened a little...


    Ren Xiaosu followed up with a smile and said, ¡°You see, it can¡¯t get out that we have all this meat here. Otherwise, you¡¯re not going to have a peaceful New Year either.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t take this undeserved gain for granted,¡± Hu Shuo snapped at him.


    ¡°But I¡¯m curious about something.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°I know that Lin Qi too, and he didn¡¯t used to be a soldier. He only joined the army for a few days, but they¡¯re already sending him out on a mission?¡±


    Hu Shuo shot him a look. ¡°What are you trying to ask?¡±


    ¡°Soldiers are required to train for a long time before being deployed.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°Whether it be their discipline orbat skills, those are not qualities that can be instilled quickly. So I¡¯m curious why the Li Consortium is so anxious to deploy them. They can¡¯t even be considered recruits, right?¡±

 Chapter 225 - Ren Xiaosu, the snake catcher

    <strong>Chapter 225 Ren Xiaosu, the snake catcher</strong>


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, whether a soldier was capable of going intobat was absolutely not only dependent on their capability. There was also the instinctive sense forbat they had and their skills.


    If a normal person gained newfound strength, that person might not even know how to wield or control it.


    Even though Lin Qi and the other officers were fully geared and were even equipped with special close quartersbat weapons, did they really know how to use them?


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu felt that if he could anticipate such a problem, the Li Consortium would definitely have also thought of it.


    ¡°Because they need to gather actualbat data and collect the data of nanomachine use in battle.¡± Hu Shuo did not hide it from Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Ever since the breakthrough in neurotech that made it possible for nanomachines to interface with neurons, there hasn¡¯t been any actualbat testing by the Li Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers. So they¡¯re curious about how effective these nanosoldiers are.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t they afraid of taking huge losses?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°What losses?¡± Hu Shuoughed. ¡°It¡¯s only a few lives, that¡¯s all. The ratio of nanosoldiers selected from the screening isn¡¯t as low as you might imagine. Don¡¯t tell me you haven¡¯t realized that, other than the one experienced soldier leading the group, the rest of the troops were made up of refugees? To them, soldiers trained with their money are like gold, while refugees only serve as a tool. Did you really think theyck candidates with high synchronization rates?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So these people... they were all sent here to die for the sake of collecting data! Was the Li Consortium that vicious?!


    ¡°Wait, isn¡¯t a requirement of 80% synchronization very high?¡± Ren Xiaosu could not understand this. ¡°What exactly does this synchronization rate refer to?¡±


    ¡°The synchronization rate is the degree to which you can perfectly control the nanomachines.¡± Hu Shuo exined, ¡°But this isn¡¯t set in stone. By undergoing physical training and responsiveness coaching, it can be steadily improved. Of course, there¡¯s also a limit to everyone¡¯s improvement potential. It¡¯s just like how some people naturally have better athleticism than others. It¡¯s also down to one¡¯s talent as well.¡±


    That meant that even those with a low synchronization rate might still be able to control the nanomachines. It was only a matter of how efficiently they could do it. For example, even though you might order it to turn into external armor now, it only turned into external armor a yearter.


    If that was the case, then what was the point of having the nanomachines turn into armor?! Wouldn¡¯t it be more efficient to turn it straight into a coffin instead? The user would have already died anyway!


    However, even though Ren Xiaosu¡¯s synchronization was 0%, he sensed that the nanomachines were very obedient to hismands. They would do whatever he needed them to do without any dy.


    He asked, ¡°Then what does having an extremely low synchronization rate mean? Does it mean that the user is a vegetable?¡±


    Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu meaningfully and said, ¡°There are special cases too. After a person bes a supernatural being, their independent consciousness will reject the nanomachines, thus leading to a low synchronization rate. That means that person has an extremely powerful consciousness.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze at the words. However, he soon got around it when he realized Hu Shuo was bluffing!


    If the Li Consortium already knew this from the research, he and Chen Wudi, who had gotten a synchronization rate of 0% and 1% respectively, would have been targeted by the Li Consortium! Hah! Who would have thought Hu Shuo was quite cunning!


    However, Ren Xiaosu still had doubts about the Li Consortium¡¯s decision to send in recruits like Lin Qi and the others to take on the wolves. ¡°Don¡¯t the nanomachines cost anything? The nanomachines they have in them should be worth a lot of money too,


    right?¡±


    ¡°Nanomachines can be recycled.¡± Hu Shuo said calmly, ¡°Even if the soldiers die, the nanomachines won¡¯t die. When the real elite troops get here, they¡¯ll be able to retrieve all the nanomachines scattered in the wilderness.¡±


    That did sound quite logical. And thus, Ren Xiaosu had nothing more to say.


    However, he did not think that Hu Shuo was totally correct. At the very least, this group of soldiers¡¯ nanomachines were not going to be retrievable by the Li Consortium anymore.


    The snowy mountain was covered in fog.


    Lin Qi and the rest of the troops were walking in the wilderness at this time and using the radio to maintainmunications with the main force at the neighboring outpost. This coordination made it feel like it was a military exercise.


    The main man of the group was the soldier who spoke to Hu Shuo, while the rest of the troops were just as Hu Shuo had said, recruits who had just joined the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops.


    They had thought that after joining the army, they would be subject to very rigorous training as recruits, as well as undergo military-style training on how to operate the nanomachines. But that wasn¡¯t the case at all. After undergoing just some brief training, they were immediately assigned on their first ever mission.


    But of course, no one rejected this. After all, they heard of how tough the training was for recruits, so it was best that they did not have to suffer through any of that.


    No one felt suspicious of anything. The joy of having their statuses elevated had blunted their judgment. Even though there was a mismatch in the information they knew, it left them with no opportunity to be judgmental.


    Lin Qi only thought that since they met the synchronization standard, it meant they were special.


    ¡°Captain Zhou, who was that old man?¡± Lin Qi asked.


    ¡°Don¡¯t ask,¡± Captain Zhou answered. ¡°Just don¡¯t provoke him. In the entire Li Consortium army, he¡¯s one you should not offend most of


    all.¡±


    ¡°What should we do next?¡± someone asked.


    Captain Zhou thought for a bit before saying, ¡°Scout ahead!¡±


    One of the officers suddenly stepped forward. A silvery liquid metal started seeping out from underneath his skin andnded on the ground.


    In an instant, that silvery liquid metal suddenly turned into five small, silvery snakes that slithered towards the depths of the mountain.


    Captain Zhou asked, ¡°What¡¯s the furthest range of your control?¡±


    ¡°It was assessed at 418 meters during the previous test,¡± the toon member replied.


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s good enough for our purposes.¡± Captain Zhou said, ¡°Keep a careful lookout on the surroundings and maintain the range so you don¡¯t lose control of the nanomachines. The key is to not be careless. Once you discover anything odd with the nanomachines, inform me.¡±


    ¡°Roger,¡± answered the toon member.


    Lin Qi suddenly said, ¡°But Captain, this isn¡¯t where the wolves were active. Besides, we have five squads conducting a simultaneous search. There shouldn¡¯t be any danger, right?¡±


    Honestly, if a battle were to break out, it would be really difficult to depend on Lin Qi and the others even if they had nanomachines in them, because they did not have any actualbat experience.


    Captain Zhou looked at him and said, ¡°Just listen to my orders and everything will be fine.¡±


    But right at this moment, the soldier controlling the nanorobotic, silver snakes suddenly eximed, ¡°This is bad!¡±


    Captain Zhou was startled. ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Is it the wolves?¡±


    ¡°No... I don¡¯t think so.¡± The soldier hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°A shadow just shed by up ahead and stole away one of my silver snakes.¡±


    Captain Zhou froze for a moment. ¡°It didn¡¯t do anything else and only took your silver snake away?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. It ran off after catching it.¡±


    Everyone was starting to get suspicious. What the fuck just happened?!

 Chapter 226 - Stealing nanomachines for fun!

    <strong>Chapter 226 Stealing nanomachines for fun!</strong>


    Was it the wolves? No.


    The soldier¡¯s silver snakes were fitted with extra camera equipment that could send back an image feed via the nanomachines¡¯ neural connection. So even though that shadow was extremely fast and the image was blurry, the soldier was very sure it wasn¡¯t a wolf.


    Captain Zhou looked at him and wondered, ¡°If it¡¯s not a wolf, what is it?¡±


    ¡°It looked more like a... shadow,¡± the toon member said. But at this moment, he eximed again, ¡°Oh no, my silver snake is getting out of my range!¡±


    He then chased after it and tried to keep within the control range of the nanorobotic, silver snake. However, his speed was way lower than his opponent¡¯s. Before he could even cover two steps, his neural connection to that silver snake waspletely cut off!


    Captain Zhou¡¯s expression sank. He had not believed they would encounter any danger out here. But who could have thought they would lose a portion of their nanomachines less than three hours after entering the mountain!


    And they didn¡¯t even know who did it! And for what motive!


    If the opponent were a human, why did they want to steal the nanorobotic snake? As if they could use it after stealing it?!


    ¡°Captain, what do we do now?¡± someone asked.


    Captain Zhou said with a cold expression, ¡°Where did he run off to?¡±


    ¡°To the southwest!¡± that toon member said.


    ¡°Give chase!¡± Captain Zhou said, ¡°It¡¯s only one person, isn¡¯t it? Make a call to the next outpost with the radio. Tell them we¡¯ve discovered a new target that might be even more important than the wolves. Let them know we¡¯ll be pursuing this target with everything we¡¯ve got and will be disengaging from Operation: Wolf Encirclement.¡±


    In truth, this Captain Zhou was the only person in the toon who knew why they had been deployed to the mountains. There was no hurry in trying to encircle the wolves. What was more important was to ensure they did not lose the nanomachines.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had just received the nanorobotic snake, already in an idle state, from his shadow clone. He had thought it would take a nasty battle for him to get his hands on the nanomachines. But that would not have been worth it at all, and he still preferred picking them off the nanosoldiers who had gotten separated from their groups...


    But sometimes, luck could even make a person hand you a pillow right when you were feeling sleepy. Someone had actually volunteered to send some nanomachines his way.


    In just two seconds, the pce reset the nanomachines back to their factory settings by clearing the remote ess protocol and executing a series of other instructions. The tiny, nanorobotic silver snake transformed back into liquid metal and melded together with the rest of the nanomachines within Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body.


    It was like the newly gained nanomachines had been handed to him on a silver tter.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was sad. The size of this silver snake was too small. It wasn¡¯t easy for him to control the shadow clone before finding this one snake. If he had to go and continue searching for more of them, how many years would that take him?


    No! A glimmer suddenly appeared in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes!


    Lin Qi and the others kept going deeper and deeper into the forested mountains. However, they did not head up and were instead walking along the mountain pass down towards the valley.


    ¡°Captain, why don¡¯t we give up on the chase?¡± Lin Qi said, a little worried. ¡°It¡¯s only a silver snake. I¡¯m afraid something bad will happen if we walk too far.¡±


    Captain Zhou shot him a look and said, ¡°If you¡¯re so afraid of death, why be a soldier? The wolf pack isn¡¯t in our direction, so what¡¯s there to be afraid of? Keep marching!¡±


    As that was being said, a toon member whisper-shouted, ¡°Captain, look over there in the valley!¡±


    Everyone turned to look at the valley and noticed a shadow dash by. That ¡°person¡± looked like he had been resting over there and wasn¡¯t expecting Captain Zhou and the others to chase him all the way here!


    ¡°Don¡¯t let him get out of our pursuit range!¡± Captain Zhou ordered ruthlessly.


    In an instant, the remaining four nanorobotic snakes slithered towards where the shadow had disappeared. Simultaneously, the other soldiers rushed towards the forested wilderness as a silvery glow emanated from the blood vessels in their skin.


    Could the nanomachines be constantly running in their bodies and only needed a thought from their owners to instantly form into sophisticated support machinery that could aid them in achieving an even greater strength? Strictly speaking, these nanosoldiers¡¯ strength and speed had already exceeded that of normal people. They were basically superhumans created through technology!


    These nanosoldiers rushed across the uneven terrain as though it was t ground. There were even some people who could leap across distances of more than ten meters with a single leap!


    Endless gunfire rang out as they chased the shadow clone while concentrating their firepower on it. It was as though they were attempting to st the shadow clone to shreds with their overwhelming firepower.


    But even if they were physically strong, they were still recruits who had not gone through firearms training. While moving at a high speed, they could not even manage the most basic of aiming.


    ¡°Don¡¯t waste your ammo.¡± Captain Zhou sneered. ¡°Catch him first and take it from there.¡±


    But during the pursuit, only the soldier controlling the nanorobotic snakes had suspicions. It felt like this shadow¡¯s speed was slower than when it escaped after taking away the snake.


    But since he had precious littlebat experience, he wasn¡¯t willing to casually pass judgment on the situation.


    As they were closing the distance between themselves and the shadow clone, the silver snakes had already closed the gap. However, the shadow clone suddenly reached behind and took a swipe. No one knew what it was swiping at, but the shadow clone immediately picked up its pace and disappeared!


    The speed at which it ran off stunned Captain Zhou and the others. ¡®How can that be a fucking human?! Just what are you after? If you¡¯re so good at running, why didn¡¯t you run faster just now?¡¯


    But a secondter, the nanosoldier controlling the silver snakes caught up to the rest. He panted out, ¡°This is bad!¡±


    His nanomachines had been used to form the nanorobotic snakes for scouting ahead, so when the group gave chase with all their might, he fell behind their pace.


    Captain Zhou frowned and said, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    The nanosoldier said, sounding devastated, ¡°The silver snakes have all been taken away....¡±


    It was only at this moment that everyone realized it. Their supernatural opponent had only used this as a tactic to slowly pull the silver snakes closer to him so he could capture them all at once.


    Their opponent had been targeting the nanorobotic snakes from the very beginning!


    What the hell? Was he unsatisfied with how long it took to capture them one by one? Was that not enough to satisfy him?


    Captain Zhou stood atop a rock looking resigned


    At present, before they even encountered any of the wolves, one of the nanosoldiers had already had their nanomachines forcefully taken away. Was it even eptable for a nanosoldier to not have any nanomachines in them?


    Previously, he felt that using the nanomachines as external scouting equipment was a really good idea since it could vastly raise the efficiency of their reconnaissance.


    After this incident, Captain Zhou felt he would have to go back to the general staff to report to them that this method wasn¡¯t going to work anymore. There was someone who specialized in stealing nanomachines for fun.


    ¡°Let¡¯s retreat.¡± Captain Zhou said coldly, ¡°We can¡¯t continue chasing him.¡±


    After weighing the pros and cons, he felt they might suffer even greater losses if they continued the chase. They were obviously not on the same level as their opponent, so it was necessary to cut their losses as soon as possible.


    But right at this moment, wolves howled from a hillside not far from them. Captain Zhou¡¯s face turned gloomy.

 Chapter 227 - Well, I don’t care!

    <h4>Chapter 227 Well, I don¡¯t care!</h4>


    When the howling sounded, Captain Zhou, Lin Qi, and every one of the officers could feel their hearts sink. During the chase, none of them had considered the wolf pack a threat.


    To them, the wolf pack should have been very far away, near where most of the troops had gathered to encircle them. But they realized now to their horror that the wolves¡¯ area of activity was actually close to them!


    How did it turn out like this? The outpost the wolf pack attacked was very far from here. If this was where the wolf pack was active, then why was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s outpost unharmed?


    Captain Zhou thought about it for two seconds before saying coldly, ¡°I¡¯m afraid the scale of the operation at the neighboring outpost must¡¯ve been too big. That¡¯s why the wolves were rmed and came over here. We underestimated how strongly they can smell danger and keep clear of it.¡±


    ¡°That could be possible.¡± Lin Qi said, sounding afraid, ¡°So what should we do now?¡±


    ¡°What else can we do? Rapidly retreat!¡± Captain Zhou whisper-shouted, ¡°If you don¡¯t want to die, hurry up and get out of here. We¡¯ll head to the outpost. Who knows, the wolves might get attracted to those people. That¡¯s our only hope of survival!¡±


    As they were talking, Captain Zhou reactivated his nanomachines and became as quick and powerful as a mech. When the others saw this, they stopped caring about other things and hastily followed suit.


    But not everyone in the toon was equipped with nanomachines. The soldier who had been controlling the nanorobotic snakes roared from behind them, ¡°Take me with you!¡±


    Without any nanomachines, he was just a normal person. He had absolutely no chance to escape the pursuit of the wolves. As such, he required someone to help him if he did not want to die.


    But hisrades who had been addressing each other as brothers did not even turn around to look at him when they heard his shouts.


    This was the result of not having undergone any formal military training. In the face of danger, they were no different from refugees!


    Looking at his toon mates running further and further away, this abandoned nanosoldier started getting desperate. He could already hear the wolves moving in the forested hill behind him!


    For some reason, he regretted bing a nanosoldier. Although he would have be a refugee if he didn¡¯t be a nanosoldier, he might have been able to live a little longer. But right at this moment, he looked back and was stunned, because he saw not only the wolf pack; a young man was with them as well!


    The young man and the wolves wereing towards him together. The young man and the Wolf King were walking side by side while the rest of the wolves followed them. It looked like his standing in the group was very high.


    But wasn¡¯t this young man that Ren Xiaosu they met earlier at the outpost?


    Then Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about them getting away. I¡¯ve already calcted their speed and used the shadow clone to lead them here into the depths of the mountain. They¡¯re running for their lives right now with everything they have, but those nanomachines will run out of power in approximately ten minutes. After that, those few dozen people will revert back to normal humans.¡±


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had spected, the most lethal limitation the nanomachines had right now was its energy source. By depending on a bioenergy source to charge, they were utterly unable to keep up with the rate of power consumption. Therefore, nanosoldiers were best suited for blitzkrieg, not conventional warfare. Of course, Ren Xiaosu was unsure if the Li Consortium had solved this problem internally yet.


    The Wolf King and Ren Xiaosu came before that nanosoldier, and the two of themmunicated by guessing each other¡¯s intentions. That nanosoldier suddenly felt like he had already been forgotten by them at this moment. ¡®Aren¡¯t you two looking down on me too much?¡¯


    But why was this young man in front of him able to stand with the wolf pack without being harmed? Wasn¡¯t this unbelievable? Wait! Could the attack on the neighboring outpost have something to do with this young man?


    Suddenly, the Wolf King took a look at this nanosoldier and then raised its paw to prod at Ren Xiaosu like it wanted something.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression changed. ¡°He doesn¡¯t have any more nanomachines in him, so I¡¯m not going to trade him to you. Besides, I took the nanomachines that he used to have with my own method!¡±


    The nanosoldier was stunned as he listened to Ren Xiaosu. He realized the shadow was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s doing. So that meant this young man was also a supernatural being!


    However, the Wolf King shook its head. ¡°Well, I don¡¯t care!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out a vial of ck medicine and handed it to the Wolf King unhappily. ¡°Whatever, I¡¯m not going to argue with a wolf.¡±


    When the Wolf King saw the ck medicine, it became happier. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go on ahead to give chase. Come to me after you¡¯ve dealt with him.¡± Ren Xiaosu then got ready to leave.


    The nanosoldier who was about to get left behind was terrified. ¡°Don¡¯t go, we¡¯re both humans. How can you let the wolves eat me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯d rather dance with wolves than associate with people like you.¡±


    After saying that, Ren Xiaosu left and headed into the forested hills. The nanosoldier could see the solitude and determination on the young man¡¯s back. In this moment, the nanosoldier figured out a lot of things. So when they said their staple food at the outpost was meat, they weren¡¯t actually lying about it.


    So the wolf pack had not attacked the outpost over here because Ren Xiaosu was there. That was all there was to it!


    And he noticed this person called Ren Xiaosu knew a great deal about the nanomachines.


    They had been wondering why that shadow was trying to steal the nanomachines. It wasn¡¯t like it could use them anyway.


    But he wasn¡¯t so sure anymore!


    As Ren Xiaosu walked forward, he heard a screaming from behind him. However, his expression did not change much.


    Including the five silver snakes, they were enough to allow his hand to be covered with the nanomachines up to his wrist. There was still a long way to go before he could gather enough nanomachines to piece together a full set of armor.


    Lin Qi and the others were running with all their might through the forested hill. They didn¡¯t even care about their faces getting cut by protruding tree branches anymore. The nanomachines they had in their bodies were still not enough to support the entirety of their structure. So their skin was not that different from that of normal people.


    As they ran, Captain Zhou slowed down a little. ¡°Seems like the wolf pack isn¡¯ting after


    US?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Lin Qi said with a look of consternation, ¡°Could it be that they didn¡¯t realize we were there?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± Captain Zhou coldly rebuked. ¡°There must be some other reason for it.¡±


    A hypothesis came to Captain Zhou at this moment. He wondered if the wolf pack somehow knew the nanomachines had a limited duration of charge and was waiting until their power ran out before making their move.


    However, he immediately brushed off this idea. After all, how could the wolves possibly know something like that? There were not even many people within the Li Consortium¡¯s military that knew about this other than the nanosoldiers themselves.


    Lin Qi and the others had already discarded some of their supplies. They were not so stupid as to throw away their weapons. Instead, they got rid of theirbat rations.


    But Lin Qi suddenly realized something. Right from the beginning, Captain Zhou had never opened his backpack. Currently, the silvery glow from everyone else¡¯s blood vessels was starting to dim. But that was not the case for Captain Zhou¡¯s blood vessels.


    Lin Qi asked, ¡°Captain, is there some sort of charger in your backpack?¡±


    Captain Zhou gave him a look. ¡°Don¡¯t ask if it¡¯s none of your business.¡±

 Chapter 228 - The wolves turn intelligent

    <strong>Chapter 228 The wolves turn intelligent</strong>


    It wasn¡¯t until when Lin Qi and the other soldiers noticed a problem with Captain Zhou that they finally realized he might be carrying a wireless charging pack for his nanomachines.


    It was precisely because of this equipment that Captain Zhou¡¯s nanomachines were still at full power while everyone else¡¯s nanomachines were close to dying.


    In this time of danger, Lin Qi and the others were all hoping to charge their nanomachines as well. If they could, their chances of survival would be higher. So Lin Qi and a few others decided to ask Captain Zhou for his backpack after exchanging looks with each other.


    But before they could ask, chaos broke out in the forest behind them. Huge beasts seemed to be moving within it.


    ¡°Damn, the wolf pack has caught up!¡± Captain Zhou shouted, ¡°Run!¡±


    Who could have the chance to say anything at such a time? They could only continue fleeing for their lives!


    But when they realized the wolves had caught up to them and were already nking them, everyone forced themselves to run even faster at the sight of this in fear of getting caught by the wolves.


    Several nanosoldiers whose nanomachines were almost dead started falling behind. However, none of theirrades intended to help them.


    They just got more and more desperate as they ran, to the point that some even forgot they had guns they could use to protect themselves with from the wolves¡¯ attacks.


    Ren Xiaosu hid somewhere on the hillside and watched, sighing. The Li Consortium had indeed sent them out here to die. If this group of nanosoldiers were made up of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops, there would have at least been some order even if they were retreating, not a total rout like what was happening


    At the end of the day, these were just normal people who happened to be able to control the nanomachines.


    Some of them might not even have willpower on par with most people.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was actually more curious about what an elite nanosoldier of the Li Consortium was like.


    ¡°Eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu noticed something different about Captain Zhou. He discovered the power of his nanomachines did not seem to be weakening.


    Why was that?


    A momentter, the wolves suddenly converged from both nks for the attack. They forcefully separated the group of fleeing nanosoldiers in two. Only now did the nanosoldiers who were under attack finally remember that they were still carrying guns. They immediately thought to shoot the wolves. But they turned out to be so stupid they even forgot how to disengage the safety on their guns!


    Some of them drew their sabers from their waists. The sword was a melee weapon the Li Consortium had specially issued the nanosoldiers so they could make use of their superstrength when it became necessary.


    To these nanosoldiers, a sword was far more useful than a gun when the battle became a close quarters fight.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the saber in their hands from nearby and saw the de was orange. However, the edge of the de was silver just like the nanomachines.


    When the de was swung at the wolves, the silver edge of the de pulsed and felt like a ripple spreading outwards.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if the edge was alsoposed of nanomachines.


    When one of the soldiers¡¯ sabers cut into a wolf¡¯s body, that wolf¡¯s abdomen was split open like it encountered a burning de!


    When the wolf pack saw the power of this weapon, they stopped pushing for a frontal assault. Rather, they went in from behind to sneak attack!


    Captain Zhou, Lin Qi, and the others did not even turn around and continued fleeing for their lives. If they didn¡¯t think of something, they would die as well. This was also the case for Captain Zhou whose nanomachines were still at full power as he wouldn¡¯t be able to outrun the wolves!


    ¡°Who has the cluster grenades? Hand them to me!¡± Captain Zhou roared. His life dangling by a thread, hismanding voice was even starting to sound a little hoarse.


    Someone¡¯s expression changed when he heard that. ¡°But ourrades are still behind us!¡±


    Some people were still firing their guns within the wolf pack. This indicated that some of the people surrounded by the wolves were still alive!


    Captain Zhou sneered, ¡°If you want to sympathize with them, go ahead and save them. Otherwise, don¡¯t put on a false front with me. Didn¡¯t we already leave our otherrades behind to escape?¡±.


    No one made a sound. Still, someone could not help butment, ¡°You¡¯re trying to blow up ourrades.¡±


    ¡°Comrades?¡± Captain Zhou gave a snort of disgust and said, ¡°You people are not fit to be called myrades! Our toon still has ten cluster grenades. Hand them all over.¡±


    With that, a few people took out several grenades from their backpacks.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this from a distance, he looked disturbed. These people had actually brought cluster grenades with them?!


    Although the wolves could withstand bullets pretty well, they wouldn¡¯t stand a chance against these grenades. If some of the wolves got blown up, wouldn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu fail his side


    quest?


    When he thought about that, he ordered his shadow clone into the battlefield. Ren Xiaosu also rushed towards the Wolf King at the back and whisper-shouted, ¡°Stop giving chase! It¡¯s too dangerous!¡±


    The majority of the wolves immediately stopped in their tracks. However, one of the wolves was in bloodlust mode. After biting several of the nanosoldiers dead, it was about to rush forward again. This wolf¡¯s social standing was second only to that of the Wolf King, and Ren Xiaosu often saw it standing guard by the Wolf King as well. It was basically the second-inmand.


    As a result, the shadow clone rushed in front of the wolf just as it tried to charge forward. The shadow clone picked it up and ran back to the wolf pack. That wolf got angry and kept roaring frantically. However, the shadow clone did not even care and just carried it away!


    The Wolf King¡¯s appearance changed when it saw the shadow clone carrying the wolf. This thing was that strong?!


    Captain Zhou and the soldiers pulled the safety pins out of the cluster grenades all at once and were about to throw them at the wolf pack behind them. However, they were shocked to discover the wolves had already stopped in their tracks and were no longer chasing them. In addition, one of the wolves that had been bounding towards them was being carried away in the opposite direction by the corporeal shadow.


    Lin Qi and the others were all dumbfounded by the sight. What was the meaning of this? Why had they given up the chase?


    And why was that shadow stopping that wolf from charging?


    It wasn¡¯t that they were inexperienced and had not seen the world yet, but this sight before them was too ridiculous. Some of the soldiers were looking at the cluster grenades with smokeing out of them and asked, ¡°Should we still throw them?¡±


    ¡°Throw them!¡± Captain Zhou then tossed the grenade in his hand at the wolves. If they didn¡¯t, they would blow themselves up.


    But by throwing the grenades, they couldn¡¯t even blow up any of the wolves! Had these wolves turned intelligent?


    Loud booms thundered through the wilderness of the mountains, and birds scattered into the sky like a spiraling, dark cloud.


    The Wolf King silently watched as smoke, branches, and leaves were sent flying by the sts. It knew about the firearms and explosives humans used and wasn¡¯t all that surprised.


    It looked at Ren Xiaosu and nodded its head at him as though to convey its gratitude. If not for Ren Xiaosu stopping them just in time, the wolf pack would probably have suffered major casualties.


    But of course, Ren Xiaosu could not say he had interfered only because of the quest. But actually, even without it, Ren Xiaosu would still not have stood by and watched. They were partners, after all.


    He looked at the nanosoldiers who had already been killed by the wolf pack. The silvery nanomachines were already starting to seep out from under the skins of the bodies. Ren Xiaosu counted up nine nanosoldiers who¡¯d died from the encirclement by the wolves in what was a fairly efficient attack. It was just a pity that they had allowed Lin Qi and the rest of the soldiers to get away due to the cluster grenades being thrown.

 Chapter 229 - Chen Wudi’s question

    <strong>Chapter 229 Chen Wudi¡¯s question</strong>


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Wolf King and said, ¡°Don¡¯t continue giving chase. We¡¯re not far from the outpost anymore. Besides, they still have some cluster grenades left. I saw them take out eight, but they only threw three at us.¡±


    The Wolf King nodded and expressed that it wouldn¡¯t be giving further chase.


    Ren Xiaosu took out nine vials of the ck medicine for the Wolf King and said in a serious tone, ¡°Don¡¯t use it too frequently.¡±


    The Wolf King was silent.


    ¡°It¡¯s time to go. Head deeper into the mountains this time. After this group of people get back, there will be arge number of troopsing here. When that happens, there will be real danger,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The wolf pack would only be safe if they hid deep in the mountains. Beyond the quest, Ren Xiaosu was also hoping that no harm would befall the wolves.


    Although the nanomachines were a priority, he believed he would still find a lot of chances to get his hands on them.


    On top of that nanosoldier who had been killed earlier, a total of ten nanosoldiers had died this time. Ren Xiaosu took their sabers and put them away in his storage space. He was in no hurry to inspect them since he had to run back to the outpost.


    When Ren Xiaosu took a detour and returned to the outpost, everyone there had already been startled by the explosions caused by the cluster grenades. They were all standing out in the open space in front of the outpost and discussing what might have just happened. Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the chaos and went over to the group to join the discussion with everyone else.


    By the time Ren Xiaosu got back, Lin Qi and the other officers had still not made it back to the outpost yet. The off-road vehicles they arrived in were still parked there quietly.


    But it wasn¡¯t long before the originally dignified-looking nanosoldiers sprinted out of the mountain path. They all looked miserable and pathetic.


    They saw the outpost¡¯s soldiers chatting, and Ren Xiaosu was the first to rush over and ask, ¡°What happened in the mountains just now? Are you all OK?¡±


    Although Ren Xiaosu looked extremely sincere, why would Lin Qi and the officers care to answer a refugee like him?


    ¡°Make way.¡± Lin Qi sneered as Ren Xiaosu stepped aside for him.


    The outpost¡¯s soldiers watched as these nanosoldiers got back into their off-road vehicles and drove back down the mountain. Even though they didn¡¯t show it on their faces, people like Li Qingzheng could still sense the fear in them.


    ¡°There were more of them when they went into the mountains.¡± Wang Yuchi said, ¡°I counted 48 of them earlier when they went in, but they only have 38 people now.¡±


    Li Qingzheng nodded and said, ¡°It looks like a battle broke out after they headed into the mountains. Was it with the wolf pack? Everyone, remember this carefully. We don¡¯t know anything about the wolf pack lurking around here, understand? All of us ate the meat the wolves brought to us, so it won¡¯t do any of us any good if this gets out.¡±


    ¡°Understood!¡± everyone at the outpost said in unison. They had somehow be a group that shared a secret.


    In fact, psychologists had conducted studies into this a long time ago and came to the conclusion that people got closer if they shared amon secret.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized Hu Shuo had not stepped out of his house all this while. It was as though he wasn¡¯t interested in the goings-on of the outside world.


    But of course, there could also be another possibility, and that was Hu Shuo not wanting to break the status quo with everyone at the outpost.


    Actually, any smart person who stayed here for a few days would surely know there was something fishy about this outpost. How else could the matter of the wolves sending meat over be exined?


    What? Did the wolf pack have to pay a property tax to the outpost? That wouldn¡¯t be believable at all!


    But Hu Shuo did not seem too concerned about this and looked like he just wanted to spend the Lunar New Year here in peace.


    After Lin Qi and the officers left, no one else came to the outpost again for the next two days. If it was really as Hu Shuo had said about the Li Consortium wanting to gather realbat data. The Li Consortium¡¯s researchboratory was most likely working around the clock to analyze Captain Zhou and his toon¡¯s data.


    But Ren Xiaosu knew that whatever woulde could not be avoided. It was just a matter of time. He only hoped that the wolves had already taken the rest of their pack far away from here.


    Hu Shuo continued holding sses as usual for Ren Xiaosu and the others during these two days. Everything was calm, as though nothing at all had happened. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu also kept his promise to not ask any questions in ss for three days. This made Hu Shuo feel like there really was an air of festivity.


    As for what this air of festivity was, it was probably beingfortable in both mind and body, the feeling of not having to work.


    During dinner, Hu Shuo reminded Ren Xiaosu, ¡°When you say you won¡¯t ask questions for three days, that doesn¡¯t mean you can save three days¡¯ worth of questions to ask me on the fourth day. Don¡¯t try any tricks, understand? It won¡¯t work!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He had not expected Hu Shuo to anticipate this and shut down his n. Experience really dide with


    age.


    At this moment, Chen Wudi, who was eating next to them, asked, ¡°I have a question I¡¯d like your help with.¡±


    Hu Shuo looked to Chen Wudi and said kindly, ¡°You¡¯re different from Ren Xiaosu, so ask


    away.¡±


    Chen Wudi nodded and said, ¡°The height and diameter of a cone, SC, are equal, and the radius of SC and a cylinder, OM...¡± Chen Wudi then looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Master, I don¡¯t remember the rest of the question.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu patiently reminded him, ¡°And the radius of SC and a cylinder, OM, are also equivalent, as are their volumes. What is the ratio of the curved surface area of SC and OM?¡±


    Hu Shuo looked up into the starry sky and said with a sigh, ¡°You¡¯re... just... great...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°If you don¡¯t want to answer this question, then fine, I can ask a different question.¡±


    When Hu Shuo saw Ren Xiaosu being so serious, he turned around and looked at him. ¡°Let me hear what you have to ask first.¡±


    ¡°Who exactly are you?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Hu Shuo was a little taken aback. He suddenly realized this question was much simpler to answer than the other questions Ren Xiaosu had. Besides, he had not shied away from anything either. It wasn¡¯t like he couldn¡¯t say


    it.


    ¡°I, Hu Shuo, served as director of the Li Consortium¡¯s 1st Army Group¡¯s Office of Special Investigations. My rank is lieutenant general, and I¡¯m the interim overseer of Stronghold 108,¡± Hu Shuo answered.


    Ever since the incident at Stronghold 109, the Li Consortium quickly took over control of all the strongholds under them. The original stronghold overseers outside the organization had only remained in power because of an agreement between the corporations.


    At that time, the organizations had only just started out and were not as powerful as now. They tried all sorts of ways to infiltrate into the strongholds and slowly grew their own armies. It wasn¡¯t until several decadester that the consortiums slowly became the true controllers of the various strongholds. But even after that happened, no one was willing to break the status quo.


    Now that the Li Consortium had taken over all their various strongholds, they became the official owners of 11 strongholds. Moreover, the banks in these 11 strongholds startedpletely rejecting the currencies of the other organizations. All of a sudden, the other organizations¡¯ currencies depreciated within these 11 strongholds.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like he understood why Hu Shuo had maintained his neutrality all this while. Could it be that, as the current overseer of Stronghold 108, Hu Shuo was thinking of using other forces to weaken the Li Consortium¡¯s grip on power and achieve the goal of true authority for himself?


    However, Hu Shuo looked at him and said with a smile, ¡°I can guess what you¡¯re thinking. But the truth is that what you¡¯re looking at is just the surface. Perhaps you¡¯lle to understand it one day. I¡¯m looking forward to seeing your face when that happens.¡±

 Chapter 230 - Another image down the drain

    <h4>Chapter 230 Another image down the drain</h4>


    Based on the organizations¡¯ understanding of this world, superpowers were unique abilities that were like the DNA of each supernatural being. By matching superpowers, they could identify which supernatural being the power belonged to.


    As a result, following the rescinding of the arrest warrant issued by the Qing Consortium, the Li Consortium had put Xu Xianchu on its wanted list.


    Xu Xianchu¡¯s power was no secret, after all. Besides, back when Luo Lan was at Stronghold 109, he even enlisted Lu Yuan¡¯s help specifically to capture Xu Xianchu. As such, when Captain Zhou, Lin Qi, and the rest of the toon returned to Stronghold 108 and debriefed, the head of the Li Consortium¡¯s army immediately realized that all of what had happened in the mountains must have been caused by Xu Xianchu!


    As for why the wolf pack had moved from their original location, it was obvious that they must have sensed danger and shifted elsewhere in advance!


    Furthermore, they could have been originally targeting the outpost Li Qingzheng wasmanding, but it just so happened that the nanosoldiers inadvertently protected the outpost from disaster.


    Thinking of it that way, everything started to make sense.


    However, some officers inmand of the Li Consortium¡¯s fighting forces realized from Captain Zhou¡¯s written statement that ¡°Xu Xianchu¡± seemed to be gathering their Li Consortium¡¯s nanomachines!


    The higher-ups of the organization were very clear about one thing. If anyone wanted to use the nanomachines, an encrypted pairing process would have to be carried out internally by the organization first. So why would Xu Xianchu, a supernatural being, want to get his hands on the nanomachines?


    At this time, the powerful think tank of the organization began to analyze the situation. ording to the existing intelligence they had, the Qing Consortium had issued arrest warrants for the trio of Xu Xianchu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu. Yang Xiaojin was confirmed as belonging to the Yang Consortium and the Saboteurs. She was from the bloodline of the Yang Consortium, while her status was that of a Saboteurs¡¯ member. The issue surrounding her status was slightly moreplicated.


    Since Xu Xianchu was wanted at the same time as Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu, there was a high chance that Xu Xianchu was also affiliated with the Yang Consortium or the Saboteurs. However, all of the identified members of the Saboteurs so far were females. As such, Xu Xianchu was tentatively identified as a field agent of the Yang Consortium.


    This information was very important as the Li Consortium had intel that proved their neurotech had fallen into the hands of the Yang Consortium after Stronghold 109 was brought down. That meant the Yang Consortium was also conducting full-scale tests and coordination on the usage of nanomachines on their end.


    Now that Xu Xianchu had suddenly appeared in the vicinity of the Li Consortium¡¯s controlled area and was stealing their nanomachines, what did that entail? It meant the Yang Consortium might start a war against their Li Consortium!


    In the vast room of themand center, dozens of the Li Consortium¡¯s officers were standing by and listening. When this conclusion came to light, everyone looked somber.


    Seated at the round table was a middle-aged general. ¡°We intended to strike first, but who could¡¯ve guessed the Yang Consortium had even more urgency? Gentlemen, you represent the glory of the Li Consortium, so go back to your respective posts and prepare yourselves.¡±


    Someone asked, ¡°What do we do about Xu Xianchu and the wolf pack?¡±


    ¡°Xu Xianchu probably ran far away from here after the previous attack. They¡¯re only after the samples of the nanomachines, so it isn¡¯t necessary for them to hang around after getting their hands on some,¡± another person said. ¡°The most important thing for us is still to clear out the Experimentals from Stronghold 109. Only by doing so can we stabilize the region behind us.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s thebat brigade that was recently deployed there?¡± asked a white-haired general of the Li Consortium.


    ¡°They just arrived at the newly established forward operating base yesterday. But they haven¡¯t checked in with us yet today,¡± a staff officer said.


    ¡°Get in touch with them,¡± the general calmly ordered.


    That staff officer immediately went out. But ten minutester, he suddenly came running back and pushing open the door of themand center. ¡°We¡¯ve lost contact with the entire 4th Combat Brigade. We haven¡¯t been able to contact them since they left the FOB.¡±


    It fell silent in themand center. How could 4,500 people just disappear like that?


    Ren Xiaosu, far away at the outpost, did not know anything of what had happened. Meanwhile, Xu Xianchu, further away at Stronghold 178, was even more unaware of the developments.


    There was an air of joy at the outpost currently. As the Lunar New Year approached, the former refugees who did not even know when their next meal woulde were suddenly treated with an abundance of meat every day. This was probably the best Lunar New Year every one of them had had.


    After Lin Qi and the officers left, Ren Xiaosu thought arge force woulde up the mountains toy siege on the wolf pack again. But in the end, there were no signs of them at all.


    However, there was a small group that headed into the mountains to try to recover the lost nanomachines. But just as the Li Consortium had expected, they discovered that the nanomachines were most likely already taken away by ¡°Xu Xianchu.¡±


    The only other people who came up to the mountains were Hu Shuo¡¯s men. These people had note here to report about work to him but to deliver some red paper, ink brushes, and ink.


    When everyone first talked about putting up couplet decorations for the New Year, Hu Shuo had refused to write any, saying he had never written couplets before.


    But surely they had to put up some couplets, right? There wouldn¡¯t be any New Year festivities if there were no couplet decorations!


    In the past, people would always put up couplets to celebrate the Lunar New Year. In the entire town, there were probably only one or two people who knew how to do calligraphy, or rather, only one or two people could get their hands on an ink brush.


    Whenever the Lunar New Year rolled around, almost everyone in town would buy their own red paper and approach these ¡°calligraphers¡± to help them write a couplet. It wasn¡¯t expensive to do so, and payment would probably amount to only enough to buy one meal.


    In this season, no one cared about such a small amount of money no matter how poor they were.


    Here in the outpost, Hu Shuo was the only one who looked like a cultured person. If they didn¡¯t get Hu Shuo to write the couplets, who else could they ask?


    In the end, Hu Shuo could not refuse their constant requests. Thus, he ordered his men to send over some items that were used for writing couplets.


    Hu Shuo set down a table in front of the outpost and put a precut piece of red paper on it. Everyone in the outpost surrounded the table to watch. For the refugees, an ink brush felt really distant to them.


    Next to Hu Shuo, someone said with augh, ¡°Sir, you won¡¯t charge us to write this couplet, right?¡±


    Hu Shuo shot him a nce. ¡°There¡¯s no need to pay.¡±


    ¡°Your writing must look really nice,¡± someone ttered. Hu Shuo¡¯s image on most days was a sagacious demeanor, and he looked like someone who excelled in the four arts[1].


    Hu Shuo did not respond. He deliberated in front of the table for a very long time before writing: ¡°To get rich, / Build roads first.[2]¡±


    Ren Xiaosu silently looked at the ugly cursive words on the paper andmented, ¡°Never judge a book by its cover. These words you wrote and the image you portray don¡¯t match


    at all.¡±


    Hu Shuo was unhappy to hear that. ¡°I already said that I didn¡¯t want to write, but you all still made me do it. I¡¯m already not charging for this. What more do you want?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°If you wrote this and wanted to put it up in my previous town, you¡¯d have to pay others to do so.¡±


    Hu Shuo stared at him. ¡°All you know is how to criticize. Would it kill you to not speak?¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu was very puzzled. ¡°You¡¯re pretty learned and can teach rather well in math, physics, and chemistry. At the least, you¡¯re much better than that Mr. Zhang in my previous town. But who would write something like ¡®To get rich, / Build roads first¡¯ for a couplet? What¡¯s more, your handwriting... looks a little crooked!¡±


    Hu Shuo felt wronged and speechless. His image had gone down the drain!


    [1] zither, weiqi (Go), calligraphy, and painting


    [2] A Chinese proverb. This is a fair way of representing China¡¯s 30 years of economic development: invest in infrastructure by building roads and railroads to power GDP growth

 Chapter 231 - Captain Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 231 Captain Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    Even though they despised it, everyone still felt obligated to put up the couplets since they had begged Grandpa Hu Shuo to write them, and this was especially so after he had already written them down.


    Actually, couplets were only a representation of hopes for the New Year. It didn¡¯t matter what they were as long as everyone was happy.


    A basic wooden house had already been built. To keep the inside of the house warm, everyone skinned the wild animals the wolves had sent over and washed them clean. They then line the outside wall of the house with the skins after drying them so the wind wouldn¡¯t get in.


    After the house waspleted, the duo of Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng wanted to drive back to town. They were going there to bring Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, Jiang Wu, and the rest over to the outpost.


    But Hu Shuo stopped them this time. ¡°It¡¯s no longer the same outside of town. If you two go back there to bring your friends back, something could go wrong. Wait another two days before going.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. ¡°Did something bad happen?¡±


    ¡°The Li Consortium lost an entirebat brigade,¡± Hu Shuo replied.


    This time, everyone else at the outpost was startled. ¡°There should be several thousand people in abat brigade, right? How could they be lost just like that?¡±


    Hu Shuo was amused. ¡°But they really were lost just like that. Therefore, full martialw has been enforced outside of Stronghold 108, and even trenches have been dug too. If you two go back at this time, you might not be able to get out of the town even if you got in.¡±


    in eve


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Then what can we do?¡±


    ¡°Wait a day.¡± Hu Shuoughed. ¡°I¡¯ll handle things for you.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he did not say anything else. He was curious to see how Hu Shuo would resolve this matter.


    As it got closer to the New Year during these two days, Hu Shuo started speaking less.


    Everyone would often see Hu Shuo sitting on the cliff next to the outpost all day without doing anything other than looking out into the distance.


    Ren Xiaosu walked up to Hu Shuo and asked, ¡°Are you thinking of your family?¡±


    Hu Shuo ignored him, but Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Other than that grandson of yours, don¡¯t you have any other family?¡±.


    Hu Shuo gave him a look. ¡°No, why?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen you in a strange mood of mncholy these past few days.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in worry, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, we can be blood brothers. Since I have another younger brother, we can recreate something along the lines of the Oath of the Peach Garden[1].¡±


    ¡°Get lost!¡± Hu Shuo snapped at him. ¡°Are you trying to take advantage of me? My grandson is older than you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said rather sadly, ¡°It¡¯s almost the New Year, but he isn¡¯t reuniting with you?¡±


    ¡°He has something more important to handle,¡± Hu Shuo said.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt that Hu Shuo could be nning something big. That grandson he was talking about was probably a key figure in this entire n. ¡°Wait, is your grandson a Li?¡±


    Hu Shuo looked at him with a half-smile. ¡°Lots of people share the surname Li. Which one are you talking about?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze. He should have thought of this long ago. If that grandson was the person he was guessing it to be, much of Hu Shuo¡¯s behavior would be exinable.


    The next morning, an off-road vehicle drove up to the outpost. Ren Xiaosu guessed it was probably here to look for Hu Shuo.


    But when two officers got out of the vehicle, they were holding two additional sets of military uniforms in their hands. Hu Shuo, who was sitting in the front yard, pointed them to Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng and said, ¡°Give them to the two of them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°If you wish to go through town, you¡¯ll have to don this uniform,¡± Hu Shuo said.


    ¡°But this is the Li Consortium¡¯s military uniform!¡± Ren Xiaosu said in shock. ¡°Won¡¯t they require IDs when passing through town? If we get caught, won¡¯t we get into big trouble?¡±


    However, those two officers said, ¡°We¡¯ve prepared for that as well.¡± They then handed Ren Xiaosu a blue booklet.


    Ren Xiaosu opened it up immediately and saw an officer¡¯s ID of the Li Consortium. There was a serial number, a stamp, and even Ren Xiaosu¡¯s photo in it. He did not even know when his picture had been taken without his knowledge!


    Hu Shuoughed and said, ¡°The negatives have already been destroyed, so don¡¯t worry The serial number is real, the rank of captain is also real, all of it is real. You¡¯re now my subordinates, so whoever checks on you won¡¯t be able to find any trouble with you at all. But I doubt that anyone would dare to stop our staff for checks anyway. After all, normal soldiers are all pretty afraid of the Office of Special Investigations.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. This old man¡¯s influence within the Li Consortium seemed huge. Reaching the status of regr Li Consortium soldier was such a sought after dream by many people. But in this person¡¯s hands, it was nothing more than a small gift he could present to anyone he wanted.


    Besides, this man probably had some other motives by granting him this status, right? Why would a sly old fox like Hu Shuo do so much for him? If he had to go through all this trouble to make him a Li Consortium officer, he might as well just send some of his own people to bring Xiaoyu and the others over.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that I¡¯ll use this position to do other stuff?¡±


    Hu Shuo was amused. ¡°You? What could you possibly do?¡±


    After lunch that day, Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng drove back to town in their Li Consortium military uniforms. Li Qingzheng looked very excited. ¡°So I¡¯ve be a regr officer of the Li Consortium just like that? I can get into the stronghold now?¡±


    ¡°Are you that desperate to get into the stronghold?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    Li Qingzhengughed and said without any hesitation, ¡°Who doesn¡¯t? I heard you don¡¯t even need to close the doors at night in the stronghold. There aren¡¯t even any burrs around.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯m afraid that I¡¯ll have to disappoint you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said while looking out of the window. ¡°I don¡¯t find it that great in the stronghold. In fact, I think it¡¯s much nicer living in town.¡±


    Li Qingzheng responded, ¡°I don¡¯t believe you. You must be lying. In any case, the fortune teller told me I would get into the stronghold when I met my benefactor, and I¡¯ll only believe that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu just smiled but did not say anything. If you chose to believe in fortune telling, you might as well depend on yourself.


    When they reached the town¡¯s checkpoint, the two of them produced their IDs. When the sentry guard saw the words ¡°Military: Office of Special Investigations,¡± he looked astounded, and he hurriedly let Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng through.


    Meanwhile, Wang Fugui and the others had already packed their belongings and were waiting for Ren Xiaosu to arrive.


    When Ren Xiaosu said he was going to take them to the outpost to spend the New Year, no one doubted if Ren Xiaosu could do it. Now that Ren Xiaosu had reallye to pick them up, they were all carrying big and small bags like they were going on an outing. It was inplete contrast with the tense atmosphere in town.


    When the woman from the grocery store next door saw Ren Xiaosu dressed in a military uniform, she froze. ¡®Since when did he be a soldier of the Li Consortium? Wasn¡¯t he still just a private army soldier thest time?¡¯


    At that time, she treated Ren Xiaosu with derision due to his status as a private army soldier. As a matter of fact, her lover was a true blue soldier of the Li Consortium.


    She knew how difficult it was to enter into regr service as a soldier of the Li Consortium¡¯s army. During this time, her business at the grocery store had plunged due to Wang Fugui¡¯s grocery store opening next to hers. In the past, people would beg her to sell things to them. But now, Wang Fugui would kindly do business with anyone, so of course everyone was more willing to buy from his shop instead. So she became angrier and angrier by the day seeing how busy it had be over at Wang Fugui¡¯s shop.


    While Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others were packing their things, this woman secretly ran towards the military base stationed just outside of town.


    [1] A fictional event, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei took an oath of fraternity in a ceremony in the Peach Garden (believed to be in present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei) in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and became blood brothers. |

 Chapter 232 - Complications arise

    <h4>Chapter 232 Complications arise</h4>


    Other people might not have noticed that woman leaving her shop, but Yan Liuyuan noticed. Of their entire family, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were the wariest of their surroundings. Ren Xiaosu could feel most reassured of Yan Liuyuan on this aspect.


    He quietly said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Bro, I think that woman next door might be up to no good.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the woman¡¯s receding figure. He thought for a moment before saying, ¡°It¡¯s alright, there¡¯s nothing to be afraid of.¡±


    While they were packing, Wang Fugui cheerfully brought over the store¡¯s ledger to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Our grocery store¡¯s ie has been really steady. The town¡¯s residents from near and far are alling to our ce to make their purchases. Here, Xiaosu, please check the transactions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and shot Old Wang a nce. ¡°Hey now, it¡¯s the New Year! Why are we checking the ounts? I have nothing to worry about with you taking care of things here. Get in the truck already. I¡¯ll take all y¡¯all to the outpost to have a look-see and then take y¡¯all back on the eighth day of the New Year.¡±


    Although the outpost was a nice ce, it was still a location with defensive duties. There shouldn¡¯t be any inspections during the New Year, but if anyone discovered they had brought over their family members when the festivities finished up, it could get pretty troublesome.


    Besides, Wang Fugui and the others were also living good in town now. The impish Yan Liuyuan had even be a friend of the women and used those rtionships to find out a lot of information.


    Yan Liuyuan whispered from next to him, ¡°Bro, why has the Li Consortium also issued an arrest warrant for Xu Xianchu? Was it you


    again?¡±


    ¡°Ahem!¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded cleverly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, my lips are sealed.¡±


    Right at this moment, the woman from the grocery store next door led a group of soldiers in a hurry back to the store. Even from far away, she was already pointing at Ren Xiaosu and shouting, ¡°It¡¯s those two. When they came to townst month, that older guy was still wearing the uniform of the private army. But this time around, he¡¯s dressed in the military uniform of the Li Consortium. What¡¯s more, he¡¯s even a captain!¡±


    Most people would not recognize what ranks the soldiers were from their shoulder marks. But anyone who ran a grocery store at the entrance of the stronghold would definitely be observant of people, so how could she not know about such things?


    That group of soldiers surrounded Ren Xiaosu andpany. A lieutenant walked forward and faced Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Which division are you two from? Produce your military IDs.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng exchanged a nce. When Ren Xiaosu reached for his military ID, the sound of guns being cocked rang out and more than a dozen ck barrels were suddenly pointed at them.


    The woman from the grocery store smiled joyfully. If there were any problems with this young man¡¯s military ID, Wang Fugui¡¯s shop would surely not be able to continue operating, right?


    Ren Xiaosu smiled as he produced his military ID from his pocket and handed it to these soldiers before him. He said calmly, ¡°Not too many people dare conduct a spot check on those of us in the Office of Special Investigations these days.¡±


    Li Qingzheng gasped at this. He realized Ren Xiaosu was not panicking one bit. Moreover, he even learned to speak in the same condescending tone Hu Shuo used when he spoke. It was way too simr.


    When the officer facing Ren Xiaosu heard the words ¡°Office of Special Investigations,¡± he frowned. He opened up the military ID book and was indeed greeted by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s photo, the stamp, the serial number, as well as the striking words that said ¡°Military: Office of Special Investigations.¡±


    If these were normal times, he would definitely be panicking by now. If anyone were hauled to the Office of Special Investigations, they would never be seen again!


    But after considering everything, there were far too many suspicious aspects to Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng. Regrs had a different bearing and posture while standing after they went through training. The sloppy way Li Qingzheng was wearing his uniform made it seem like they were imposters.


    The officer said coldly, ¡°We need to verify it first before we can confirm whether you¡¯re really from the Office of Special Investigations.¡±


    He then ordered his subordinate to take out a palm-sized device. That soldier inputted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s military identification number into it, and a picture of Ren Xiaosu was disyed.


    The officer gasped, spun around, and gave that grocery store woman a p that sent her flying to the ground. Following this, he turned around and bowed to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°My apologies, sir!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took back his military ID and examined him. ¡°I now suspect that you¡¯re a double agent who¡¯s trying to persecute our Li Consortium¡¯s officers. Is that watch on your wrist ams device you use with other spies?¡±


    In response, the officer immediately removed his watch and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Sir, please take this back for investigation. Consider it a little souvenir from me.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze swept over the others. ¡°Are there any suspicious items on the rest of you? I suspect you might be smugglers.¡±


    This time, one of the soldiers said hesitantly, ¡°Sir, I don¡¯t think the Office of Special Investigations covers smuggling, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent for a moment. ¡°We¡¯re going to start investigating that now!¡±


    When Li Qingzheng witnessed this from nearby, he remembered how he was the one who was recently receiving bribes. But from the looks of it, Ren Xiaosu was even better at


    it.


    This group of soldiers had approached them so aggressively at the beginning, but they were now standing in a row with their heads down. All of the money in their pockets had been confiscated by Ren Xiaosu for evidence.


    ¡°Alright,¡± Ren Xiaosu waved them off. ¡°You may go back now. I suddenly think that you do not look suspicious anymore.¡±


    Truly, this position Hu Shuo arranged for them was really useful.


    The woman who had been smacked to the ground was still a little dizzy. Aftering back around, the officer pped her again. ¡°Bring this insolent woman back with us!¡±


    The group of soldiers carried the woman away. When Ren Xiaosu saw them leaving, he said with a sigh, ¡°How nice of them to bring us so many souvenirs. They¡¯re such honest people!¡±


    With that, he handed the watches to Wang Fugui. Wang Fugui had given away his own watch to Li Qingzheng in order to waive the manualbor obligations of the girls.


    Li Qingzheng hesitated for a long time before saying, ¡°I already sold off the watches you guys gave me. Why don¡¯t I pay y¡¯all back?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t you have helped us for nothing? Just keep it for yourself. We¡¯re not that petty.¡±


    ¡°Oh, alright!¡± Li Qingzheng said happily. However, why did something feel wrong? Why did it suddenly feel like Ren Xiaosu was the toonmander instead of him?


    On the way back to the outpost, Yan Liuyuanid down in the back of the truck and said excitedly, ¡°Bro, is it any fun at your outpost?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s pretty fun,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°What do y¡¯all do every day?¡±


    ¡°We get to attend sses and eat meat daily. asionally, we¡¯ll take a stroll into the mountains where we can pick wild vegetables and mushrooms or catch some rabbits.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There are a lot of rabbits in the mountains. When we get there, I¡¯ll teach you how to build snares to catch some.¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought of something. Even though Yan Liuyuan was also a supernatural being, he did not have any skills to defend himself with. He thought that maybe he should also gather some nanomachines for Yan Liuyuan to use.


    When they got back to the outpost, Ren Xiaosu saw Hu Shuo cradling a satellite phone and exining into it, ¡°Our Office of Special Investigations does not investigate smuggling. Yes, yes, that¡¯s right, we really do not investigate that. It must be a misunderstanding. We don¡¯t intend to seize authority from the Audit Department...¡±

 Chapter 233 - On the brink of war

    <strong>Chapter 233 On the brink of war</strong>


    Hu Shuo had been pretty joyful all day. He practiced tai chi in the morning before holding sses for the children. Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t around then, and oh boy, was it afortable


    day.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, Hu Shuo could have sent someone else to fetch Yan Liuyuan and the others instead. If he had done that, it would have saved him a great deal of trouble. But of course, he had his motives for doing it this way.


    If he had brought back Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the rest of them himself, how could he have sent Ren Xiaosu away with an excuse?


    All other reasons aside, it was totally worth the effort to grant Ren Xiaosu the status of officer of the Li Consortium if he could send him away from the outpost for the rest of the day.


    As expected, Ren Xiaosu was busy almost all day. The return journey to town alone already took six hours and could even go up to eight hours if there were any dys.


    This was as good as being given a day off!


    But he couldn¡¯t have expected that someone would bring a satellite phone to him by the afternoon, saying that there was a call from the head of the Audit Department who was stamping with fury.


    At first, Hu Shuo did not understand the issue. But after he took the call, he realized Ren Xiaosu had involved himself with investigating smuggling in town! Within a system, there was a clear division of duty. If you encroached on other people¡¯s authority, that wouldn¡¯t be eptable at all.


    Hu Shuo was shocked to hear that. ¡®Didn¡¯t you go back to town to fetch your family? So why did you get yourself involved in investigating smuggling?!¡¯


    When he hung up, he looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Did you investigate smuggling?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°I was just helping your department expand into new areas. Aren¡¯t I great?¡±


    Hu Shuo said bitterly, ¡°When did I ask you to help us expand our area of activity? Why didn¡¯t you take on the duties of the Public Order Division as well then!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not happy to hear that. ¡°You didn¡¯t say that I couldn¡¯t do that. Before I departed, what did I ask you? You even asked me what I could possibly be capable of doing when I asked if you were afraid that I would abuse the position.¡±


    Hu Shuo¡¯s eyes looked like he was about to fly into a rage. But at this moment, Yan Liuyuan came over and smartly said, ¡°Hello, Grandpa Hu Shuo, nice to meet you.¡±


    When Hu Shuo saw a clean-cut Yan Liuyuan speaking to him, he held back his anger and said with a smile, ¡°Hello, nice to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°I¡¯ve heard about you from my brother. He said that you¡¯re a really great man who is so learned that you can tackle any questions that they pose to you during sses. When I grow up, I wanna be as educated as you!¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha, is that so?¡± Hu Shuo¡¯s anger immediately dissipated. ¡°Did that kid really say that?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°so please don¡¯t be angry anymore. He didn¡¯t do it on purpose anyway.¡±


    ¡°Forget it then, I won¡¯t be angry.¡± Hu Shuo said with a cheerful smile, ¡°Hurry up and bring your belongings into the house. We¡¯re going to start preparing meals for everyone. Oh, there are so many youngdies here as well?¡±


    ¡°Then let me thank you first, Grandpa Hu Shuo,¡± Yan Liuyuan said as he turned around and gave Ren Xiaosu a wink. The argument was resolved just like that. Ren Xiaosu did not even know whether tough or cry at this. That Yan Liuyuan was able to be a friend of the women in town was really a testament to his talent.


    Then Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Your younger brother is much smarter than you. Go and clean up the house. I don¡¯t want to see you right now!¡±


    Meanwhile, Chen Wudi took Xiaoyu and the others around on a tour of the outpost. It wasn¡¯t a big ce, and after Xiaoyu had seen all of their houses, she said with a frown, ¡°Why is it so dirty in the houses? Don¡¯t you big boys know to clean the ce on most days?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan whispered, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu has been particrly fussy about cleanliness recently. All of us at home are quite afraid of her and we would never think to start eating without washing our hands first. Even Uncle Fugui feels the same.¡±


    ¡°C¡¯mon, girls, get your hands on some cleaning tools. We¡¯ll get these houses cleaned up first.¡± Xiaoyu coordinated the female students like a steward would. The female students were also particrly obedient to her.


    This outpost was upied by a group of men. Half of them were even former refugees who had not gone through any military training and had no concept of how to keep their quarters clean. But half an hourter, the entire ce looked like new again. Even Li Qingzheng and his men could not believe this was where they used to live.


    Xiaoyu and the female students had even cleaned the ss windows, which led to the inside of the houses bing brighter. Everything was in perfect order.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Xiaoyu was bing more and more like a housewife.


    When Li Qingzheng and his men saw this group of women walking in and out of their houses to clean them up, they couldn¡¯t take their eyes off them.


    Meanwhile, the female students kept showing sweet smiles whenever they saw Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.


    As the group of men sat around the campfire to barbecue the meat, Li Qingzhengmented, ¡°Brother Xiaosu is really too capable!¡±


    Their eyes were brimming with tears of envy.


    At this time, Xiaoyu stood in a doorway and exhaled. ¡°We¡¯re finally done cleaning.¡± She looked at the campfire. ¡°How can y¡¯all only eat barbecue? Let me cook some veggies for y¡¯all.¡±


    Wang Fugui said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°Our entire family is tied together by Xiaoyu now. Without her, it would be such a mess. Xiaosu, it looks like the Li Consortium is preparing for war. Will it affect us badly?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Have you found out where Stronghold 88 is yet?¡±


    ¡°Not yet.¡± Wang Fugui shook his head and said, ¡°But why don¡¯t you ask that elderly man? It seems to me that he should know a lot.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Hu Shuo. He used to be worried that Hu Shuo would believe him to be an enemy if he asked that question. After all, he thought that since Hu Shuo was a high-ranking officer of the Li Consortium, he would definitely take their side. But since Ren Xiaosu had obtained more information that he could judge him with, he thought he could safely ask Hu Shuo the question.


    Ren Xiaosu beckoned everyone else to the campfire. Then he sat down beside Hu Shuo and asked, ¡°Do you know where Stronghold 88


    is?¡±


    ¡°The Yang Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 88?¡± Hu Shuo gave Ren Xiaosu a look. ¡°Why¡¯re you asking?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll get straight to the point. We were actually heading to Stronghold 88 at first, but we got conscripted and ended up here instead,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.


    ¡°My advice to you is not to think so much for now.¡± Hu Shuo said, ¡°Stronghold 88 is northeast of Stronghold 108. The Li Consortium has already stationed arge force in that direction, the Yang Consortium as well. Three other strongholds lie between Stronghold 88 and Stronghold 108. If you¡¯re thinking of going there alone, you might be able to do so. But what about those with you? How are they going to make it there? This something you can rely on with your status as a member of the Office of Special Investigations.¡±


    ¡°Is there really going to be a war?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Not only that, even the Qing Consortium has deployed their troops to the borders of the three corporations.¡± Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°The Li Consortium is trying handle the Experimentals at Stronghold 109, but we¡¯re already on the brink of a massive war. If you want to cross the battlefields and get to Stronghold 88 at this time, you had better be prepared for the death of yourpanions. Stray shells and bullets on the battlefield have no eyes. They couldn¡¯t care less about who you are.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Then will we be safe at the outpost? We can hide out here until it¡¯s over.¡±


    Hu Shuo sighed and said, ¡°The Li Consortium does not have enough military strength yet and could deploy the private troops at the outposts to the front line as cannon fodder.¡±

 Chapter 234 - Each other’s secret

    <strong>Chapter 234 Each other¡¯s secret</strong>


    The outpost that Ren Xiaosu was at was somewhat cut off from outside news. Even if Yan Liuyuan had been constantly going around to gather information, the news he could find out was still only the tip of the iceberg. So they had no idea that war was on the verge of breaking out between the Li Consortium, the Qing Consortium, and the Yang Consortium.


    There hadn¡¯t been a war for a long time in these wastnds. Humanity had been struggling along in an increasingly difficult world and finally got a chance to recover a little, but war was descending upon them again.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu would wonder why everyone kept trying to kill one another even though they had clearly survived against the odds during the Post-Cataclysm.


    Based on Hu Shuo¡¯s exnation, the Li Consortium intended to clear the Experimentals from Stronghold 109 before they began the war. They had even sent abat brigade over to carry out that mission. However, time would not wait for the Li Consortium, and neither would the Yang Consortium and the Qing Consortium wait for them.


    Not only were the Experimentals at Stronghold 109 a threat to the Li Consortium, but they were simrly close to the Qing Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 111. Therefore, since war was about to break out, the two consortiums might as well make a bet on which way the Experimentals might go.


    And now, the most dangerous thing that could happen was that Ren Xiaosu andpany might also get sent to the battlefield. As they had too many things that hadn¡¯t been taken care of yet, they couldn¡¯t just drop everything and leave for good.


    Even if they hid deep in the mountains, it would be equally dangerous, because the forested hills were a path the Experimentals would definitely take if they wereing here. Why else would the Li Consortium waste all that manpower by sending troops to these outposts?


    ¡°What if the Experimentalse and attack the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Actually, there isn¡¯t much danger around Stronghold 108. You can even consider sending your family into Stronghold 108 first. If there are defenses in ce, the Experimentals won¡¯t be able to force their way into the stronghold. What happened at Stronghold 109 was due to apse in its defense.¡±


    Although Stronghold 109 was destroyed, the Experimentals would still find it hard to get close to Stronghold 108 if the Li Consortium installed heavy weapons atop the stronghold walls.


    After all, the Experimentals were still flesh and blood. Their muscles might be able to block normal bullets, but they wouldn¡¯t stand up to artillery fire. Even the metal storm ¡°Mountain Obliterator¡± that Qing Zhen brought was enough to make them retreat.


    It was just as Qing Zhen had said. Only a child would be afraid of these Experimentals. Qing Zhen understood full well how terrifying humanity¡¯s firearms and explosives were.


    So the only worry everyone had was if the Experimentals ambushed them in these wastnds during a battle. But there wasn¡¯t much to worry about if it were just a stronghold defense.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Hu Shuo, ¡°Can you help me send them into the stronghold? I¡¯d like for them to live there temporarily.¡±


    Hu Shuoughed. ¡°That¡¯s something you can also do now. A captain of the Office of Special Investigations has... great authority...¡± All of a sudden, Hu Shuo added, ¡°Make sure you don¡¯t abuse your authority, though....¡±


    ¡°Uh-huh, don¡¯t worry. I won¡¯t be investigating smuggling anymore.¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find out that the Office of Special Investigations could actually send people into the stronghold. That really was a lot of authority.


    However, it seemed like this old man was not on the Li Consortium¡¯s side on this matter. He wondered how the higher-ups of the Li Consortium would feel if they knew the truth.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that I¡¯ll snitch?¡±


    Hu Shuo gave a half-smile and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll tell the Li Consortium that you¡¯re hunting down their nanosoldiers?¡±


    The two of them fell silent. Ren Xiaosu knew Hu Shuo was a sly old fox and that his odd behavior must have been noticed by him. However, he had not expected Hu Shuo toy it all bare so abruptly.


    But since they both knew each other¡¯s secret, no one could snitch on the other.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, Hu Shuo was more trying to establish a friendship or alliance with him. The foundation of this trust would be based upon their knowledge of each other¡¯s secret, as well as the fact that the other party¡¯s grandson was... Li Shentan.


    Hu Shuo had always been a high-ranking officer in the Office of Special Investigations all these years. In order not to implicate his family back then, he had kept the fact that he had a daughter a secret. Furthermore, he did not even concern himself with her. However, the Li Consortium forced his daughter to her death many yearster.


    The Li Consortium was too powerful. It was so powerful he could do nothing about it even though he was a supernatural being, as well as a high-ranking officer within the Office of Special Investigations. After all, his subordinates were all loyal to the Li Consortium, not him. But this situationpletely reversed after Li Shentan became a Demon Whisperer. The young man who had escaped from the psychiatric hospital had an incredibly destructive power.


    The female students started singing by the campfire while the group of roughnecks did not even dare to make a sound as if afraid of ending the girls¡¯ dulcet singing.


    Xiaoyu was wearing an apron and stir-frying some vegetables in the kitchen. When they made the trip here, they had brought along quite a bit of supplies for the New Year. Old Wang had even managed to get ahold of a box of fish and shrimp from someone in the stronghold.


    Suddenly, Li Qingzheng emotionally said, ¡°This is probably the most proper Lunar New Year I¡¯ve celebrated in the 29 years of my life.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look andughed. ¡°To be honest, we also spent our Lunar New Years very miserably in the past.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not true.¡± Yan Liuyuan giggled and said, ¡°We were clearly very happy. We used to run off to a hill somewhere far away where we would view the fireworks set off from the stronghold. The fireworks were beautiful to watch.¡±


    But at this moment, an off-road vehicle drove up to the outpost. An officer came over to Hu Shuo and whispered something to him for a while. Hu Shuo¡¯s expression grew even more solemn than before.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Hu Shuo and asked, ¡°What is it?¡±


    Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and replied, ¡°Get ready to send your family back to the stronghold after the New Year has passed. War has broken out.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised to hear that. It was just another hour until the Lunar New Year. Who would have thought a war would erupt on New Year¡¯s Eve?


    Hu Shuo said, ¡°The Li Consortium¡¯smander has already given the order to start the assault. The frontline troops have already started advancing towards the area controlled by the Yang Consortium. In another few hours, it will be nketed by the mes of


    war.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to eat before you leave?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked calmly.


    Hu Shuoughed. ¡°I¡¯d thought we could celebrate the New Year, but we didn¡¯t even get to eat the reunion dinner. What a pity, the thing I was most afraid of still arrived.¡±


    In this world, things never turned out the way people wanted them to.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu came out of the kitchen with several boxed meals in her hands. ¡°Uncle Hu Shuo, I¡¯ve filled these up with dinner. Eat them while y¡¯all are on the road.


    Hu Shuo was taken aback. He broke out into a smile and said, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Suddenly, Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, have you ever heard of Murphy¡¯s Law? Anything that can go wrong, no matter how unlikely, will go wrong. To put it simply, that just means that whatever we¡¯re afraid of will somehow happen.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze for a moment. ¡°Why are you talking about this?¡±


    ¡°Do you think we¡¯re in a dream right now or living in reality?¡± Hu Shuoughed and said.


    ¡°We¡¯re definitely in reality. If you don¡¯t believe me, I can pinch you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°But isn¡¯t reality based on probability? It¡¯s only in dreams that things you¡¯re most afraid of will somehowe true, isn¡¯t that so?¡± After that, Hu Shuoughed and turned around to leave. ¡°I¡¯d rather this be a dream.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could sense a hint of sorrow within this old man.

 Chapter 235 - Qing Zhen’s crosstalk performance

    <h4>Chapter 235 Qing Zhen¡¯s crosstalk performance</h4>


    The Qing Consortium, Stronghold 111.


    At the stroke of midnight, the copper bell in the middle of the stronghold was struck by someone working for the Qing Consortium


    The sound of the bell that symbolized peace in the new year resonated across the stronghold. Soon after, firecrackers, of which many of the rich could afford, started popping in front of their houses. The children had alsoe out onto the streets and were excitedly taking in the sights. They were all wearing their new clothes and even holding little firecracker tubes that they picked off from the main bunch.


    Qing Zhen was standing out in the yard of his vi. His hair had grown much longer since he wasn¡¯t even able to get a barber toe over after being put under house arrest here with


    Luo Lan.


    Suddenly, a crow flew over in the dark of the night. It soared between the sound of the firecrackers going off and did not seem one bit affected by it.


    Qing Zhen raised his hand, and the crow shrewdlynded on his arm. Qing Zhen picked up a tiny piece of bread and said with augh, ¡°I hope you won¡¯t mind this. We don¡¯t have much food around here either. Luo Lan has almost been starved thin as well.¡±


    The crow lowered its head and pecked the bread into its mouth. Qing Zhen helped it ruffle its feathers straight with a smile.


    The ck crow was always an ominous symbol in the eyes of many people, because it loved flying to wherever there were dead people. But Qing Zhen did not shy away from the crow at all. Rather, he seemed to love it.


    His gaze shifted to the crow¡¯s legs where a tiny bamboo tube was attached. Qing Zhen detached it and removed a slip of paper from it. The more he read it, the bigger his smile grew.


    ¡°Alright, I got the letter. You may return to your owner and have him feed you something nice. It¡¯s the New Year, but he didn¡¯t let you get any rest,¡± Qing Zhen said as he threw his forearm up and released therge crow that spread its wings and flew into the night sky.


    When Qing Zhen walked back into the vi, Luo Lan was lying down on the sofa and saying, ¡°Don¡¯t you agree that those old fogeys of the Qing Consortium are too much? It¡¯s the New Year, but they won¡¯t even give us a full meal to eat, let us get a haircut, and our water and electricity keep getting cut off as well. We¡¯re aplished servants of the Qing Consortium. How can they do this to us!¡±


    Qing Zhen smiled and said, ¡°You can have my share of the bread. I guess we can only me it on ourselves for losing the strongholds we were put in charge of.¡±


    ¡°Was that our fault?¡± Luo Lan said unhappily, ¡°Who could have predicted that there would be an earthquake? Besides, it¡¯s the New Year now. Surely they can¡¯t make us go hungry during the New Year, right?!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Qing Zhen smiled and said, ¡°These days will be over soon.¡±


    At this moment, the doorbell rang. Luo Lan stood up from the sofa, his fat rolls bouncing. ¡°Could they be sending us food?¡±


    ¡°That uncle of yours isn¡¯t that kind. He did everything in his power to ride on the coattails of the Qing Consortium, so why would he risk all of that to help us?¡± Qing Zhen said calmly, ¡°This is an especially good time to draw the line against us.¡±


    The infighting of the consortiums had always been downright dirty and nasty.


    The Qing Consortium had not only imprisoned Qing Zhen and Luo Lan in this isted vi, it even sent Luo Lan¡¯s uncle to watch over them.


    Perhaps it was because the directors of the Board suspected that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had betrayed the n, so they decided to let the two of them have a taste of being betrayed by their own family as well.


    Luo Lan and Qing Zhen shared the same father but different mothers. This uncle of Luo Lan¡¯s had obtained some status within the consortium with Luo Lan¡¯s aid in the past. And now he had been sent to watch over Luo Lan.


    However, this uncle was not one for old times¡¯ sake. Instead, he was even harsher when it came to watching over the two. He even tried to express his stance and drew a line between Qing Zhen and Luo Lan by persecuting them.


    Cutting their food rations, cutting off their water and electricity, refusing Qing Zhen and Luo Lan¡¯s demands, all of that was done by Luo Lan¡¯s uncle.


    Sometimes, people found it hard to imagine what a person would do to y up to those in power.


    Luo Lan went to open the door while mumbling, ¡°My rtionship with him isn¡¯t good either, so don¡¯t keep ridiculing me with those words of yours. The same goes for that uncle of yours...¡±


    He opened the door and saw a middle-aged man standing at the entrance. He was holding a te in his hand and smiling as he looked at Luo Lan.


    Behind this middle-aged man were two rows of soldiers. Ever since Qing Zhen slipped away thest time, the consortium had deployed even more troops in the vicinity surrounding the vi. Even on New Year¡¯s Eve, they did not let their guard down.


    Luo Lan looked at the middle-aged man at the door and said, ¡°Is something the matter?¡±


    The middle-aged man smiled and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna greet your uncle?¡±


    Luo Lan said disdainfully, ¡°Are you fit to be my uncle?¡±


    But the middle-aged man was not bothered. He smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s New Year¡¯s Eve. I came to see you two and also brought along some food.¡±


    ¡°What food?¡± Luo Lan asked.


    The middle-aged man smiled and said, ¡°I had some leftovers from my dinner at home, and I knew that you two would definitely be hungry, so I quickly sent it over for you.¡±


    Luo Lanughed. ¡°Am I, Luo Lan, someone who would eat leftovers?¡±


    The middle-aged man threw the te in his hand onto the floor. ¡°Since you don¡¯t want to eat it, I won¡¯t force you.¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s face turned dark. He kept staring at the middle-aged man who was a blood rtive.


    Qing Zhen suddenly said to the middle-aged man, ¡°Hey, go outside and wait for a while.¡±


    The middle-aged man was startled. But it was Qing Zhen who had spoken. Whatever influence this silent tiger of the Qing Consortium had left was still enough to strike some fear in him. The middle-aged man stayed silent for a long while before finally stepping out of the vi in the end.


    As he stood outside and watched the fireworks bursting above the stronghold¡¯s sky, he was overjoyed.


    But at this moment, the two rows of soldiers raised their guns when the vi¡¯s front door opened and took aim at it. They watched Qing Zhen lead Luo Lan out of the vi and stand still.


    Qing Zhen said to everyone with a smile, ¡°Because of us two, we¡¯ve made it so that everyone can¡¯t go home to spend time with your families on New Year¡¯s Day. As such, we would like to extend our condolences to you.¡±


    Luo Lan said, ¡°That¡¯s right, we just want to extend our condolences.¡±


    Qing Zhen smiled and said, ¡°Let me introduce myself. I¡¯m Qing Zhen, and standing next to me is Teacher Luo.¡±


    ¡°Right, that¡¯s who I am.¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at Luo Lan and said, ¡°Since we¡¯re expressing our condolences, we definitely have to put on a performance for everyone.¡±


    ¡°What are we going to perform then?¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at the middle-aged man and said, ¡°Let¡¯s perform... a haircut on the first day of the New Year where the uncle dies!¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡±


    The middle-aged man was so angry that heughed. ¡°Are you two still kids? What kind of dumbass games are you still ying?¡±.


    ¡°Shh...¡± Qing Zhen put his index finger over his lips. Then he raised his right hand that was holding a pair of scissors and snipped off a bit of Luo Lan¡¯s hair.


    The middle-aged man sneered. ¡°Arrest them and lock them up!¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at him and said with a smile, ¡°Happy New Year.¡±


    A bright firework suddenly shot up into the sky above the stronghold. That shining, bright light illuminated Qing Zhen¡¯s smile as a sniper¡¯s bullet fired out of a gun several hundred meters away. In an instant, a bloody mist burst from the middle-aged man¡¯s chest in front of Qing Zhen. His body was even sent flying back by the inertia of the bullet!


    Qing Zhen¡¯s gaze turned from the fireworks back to those two rows of soldiers. He smiled and said, ¡°Did you all... enjoy this performance?¡±


    Everyone was frightened. They had thought Qing Zhen was only trying to provoke them. But they never expected him to really do as he said he would


    A soldier trembled as he said, ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen, aren¡¯t you afraid the Board will mete out punishment on you?!¡±


    Qing Zhen stood still and said with a sunny disposition, ¡°They won¡¯t. After all, they need me now.¡±


    Right at this moment, a car whizzed down from the end of the street, with the white ginkgo leaf symbol bing visible under the glow of the fireworks.


    The car came to a stop outside the vi, and Secretary Zhou from the Board jumped out. When he saw Qing Zhen, he said coldly, ¡°The Board has ordered that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan immediately head for the front lines to serve as military advisors!¡±


    After saying that, he noticed the bloodstains in front of the vi¡¯s door. He looked at the soldiers and asked, ¡°What happened here?¡±


    The soldiers said, ¡°They killed themander.¡±


    Secretary Zhou looked at the broken corpse on the ground and said in contempt, ¡°Dumbass.¡±

 Chapter 236 - The beginning of a disagreement

    <strong>Chapter 236 The beginning of a disagreemen</strong>t


    In these wastnds, there stood 178 strongholds. Stronghold 178 in the northwest was the westernmost one in all the territory controlled by the strongholds. The weather was extreme in that locale.


    If you stood on the rampart walls of Stronghold 178 and looked into the distance, all you would see would be an endless stretch of devastated loess, and even the river that ran east was murky yellow too.


    The Qing Consortium, the Li Consortium, and the Yang Consortium were situated in the southwest of the territory. Due to their geography, these three organizations were always the most intricately linked in the southwest. As for the territories of the other organizations, they had always found it difficult to expand southwest due to the region being inessible to them.


    Of the southwestern region, the Li Consortium was farthest south. Reportedly, if you headed south from there, you would reach a rainforest you would very likely get lost in. In it were countless venomous insects, and legend had it that no one had ever managed to trek through this forest to get even further south.


    But due to the effects of tectonics, the weather in the region of these three organizations was bing much colder. In recent years, the rainforest¡¯s ecology had also changed dramatically. The Li Consortium had even once nned to draw this rainforest into its own territorial lines and build a new stronghold within it.


    The Qing Consortium was northeast of the Li Consortium on terrain that was easy to defend but difficult to attack. Stronghold 111 was even hailed as a mountain city due to it being built next to a mountain, and it acted as an extremely importantnd and water hub in the southwestern region.


    The Yang Consortium was inside a huge basin with Longnan¡¯s[1] Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178 to its north. But in recent years, the Zong Consortium had been constantly plotting to usurp the northwestern territory that was controlled by Stronghold 178, although they didn¡¯t have much of a conflict with the Yang Consortium.


    This geography meant the southwestern region was a tripartite division where a power struggle was ongoing. The three organizations did not share their resources, and whatever the Li Consortium had, the Yang Consortium didn¡¯t. Whatever the Yang Consortium had, the Qing Consortium didn¡¯t.


    There would always be a reason for war, and resources tended to be the true motivation.


    But there used to be people who said they had visited the Central ins to the east before and described it as a very prosperous ce. There were evenrge human settlements that existed outside of strongholds too.


    But in the Post-Cataclysm world, the world they knew was no longer around.


    As New Year¡¯s Eve passed, Hu Shuo probably arrived back inside Stronghold 108. The three war machines of the consortiums had already deployed their forces to hold their borders, where they waited within dozens of kilometers of each other for the real war to break out.


    Yan Liuyuan and the others were very excited at first. But as it gotter, they couldn¡¯t endure anymore and fell sleep. Ren Xiaosu was sitting by the campfire alone as he thought about their future ns. He was thinking of what he could do to ensure that everyone would survive the ravages of war this time.


    ording to Hu Shuo, he could send Yan Liuyuan and the others to live in Stronghold 108. Even if the Experimentals attacked, they wouldn¡¯t be able to break through the tight defenses of a stronghold. Besides, the effects of the war between the three consortiums wouldn¡¯t affect the stronghold so quickly either.


    Fighting a war was like ying a game. Nobody smart enough would go all-in at the very beginning


    It started snowing. One of the house¡¯s doors suddenly opened, and Yan Liuyuan came walking out wearing a coat. He sat down beside Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Bro, are you worried about the war?¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Ren Xiaosu acknowledged.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we leave this ce?¡± Yan Liuyuan whispered, ¡°Even if we have to head deep into the forested mountains, we could live very well there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look and said, ¡°And not have any more contact with the outside world ever again?¡±


    ¡°Bro, I know that you want to go to Stronghold 88 to look for Big Sister Xiaojin. But why didn¡¯t shee and look for you instead?¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve already found out where Stronghold 88 is, but I don¡¯t want to tell you. That¡¯s because I don¡¯t think it will be any different for us there. She¡¯s an important figure of the Yang Consortium and we¡¯re just refugees.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. They often had disagreements in the past as well, for instance, when Yan Liuyuan did not want to attend school and learn how to hunt instead. Ren Xiaosu used to reject his requests, and it led to them quarreling.


    But this time, Ren Xiaosu realized Yan Liuyuan was really resistant to the word ¡°stronghold¡± from the bottom of his heart. This made him hate those who lived in the strongholds as well.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Bro, the stronghold doesn¡¯t wee people like us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°It looks like you were lying to me when you said that you were getting along with your ssmates quite well back at Stronghold 109.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded and said, ¡°No one wanted to talk to me and Wang Dalong. In fact, they even avoided us like the gue. Their parents were always nagging them as though they were afraid their children would make friends with us. When the teacher asked a question in ss and I couldn¡¯t answer it because I¡¯d never learned it before, the teacher would say that it was only normal that we refugees did not how to study and that we were stupid. Once, a ssmate of mine lost something, and everyone immediately suspected me and Wang Dalong of stealing...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was silent. That was the stereotype the people in the strongholds had of refugees. It was a mindset that had built up within them over several decades.


    Yan Liuyuan continued, ¡°They searched both our desks and found nothing in the end. But at that time, Big Sister Xiaoyu often gave me pocket money for school, and it was a lot too, much more than what the other students would get. When the teacher saw the money, I was used of stealing it, because they felt that a refugee couldn¡¯t possibly have so much money.


    ¡°I tried to exin it to them, but it was of no use. Wang Dalong was so scared that he cried. But, Bro, don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t cry. You¡¯ve mentioned before that this world doesn¡¯t trust tears.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Bro, I don¡¯t like it in the stronghold, nor do I like those who live inside of it. Maybe Big Sister Yang Xiaojin is different, but what about her family and friends?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°So, Bro,¡±¡ªYan Liuyuan suddenly sounded resolute¡ª¡±wait for her toe and look for you instead. If she doesn¡¯te, then it¡¯s meaningless for you to travel all the way north to Stronghold 88. You once told me not to let the sorrows of our era be my sorrow as well, but this era¡¯s sorrows have already be a cancer that¡¯s ingrained within the stronghold¡¯s residents.¡±


    ¡°You should have let me exin it to the teacher on your behalf,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°How would you have dealt with it?¡± Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°I¡¯d kill whoever dared to wrong you.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with augh, ¡°We can¡¯t go the north now anyway, so I¡¯ll send y¡¯all back to Stronghold 108 early tomorrow morning. You don¡¯t have to attend school anymore. Just get Ms. Jiang to teach you. She might be a Chinese teacher, but she¡¯s had formal training in education. That should be more than enough to teach y¡¯all math, physics, and chemistry.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up at the words. ¡°I like Ms. Jiang Wu. I think she¡¯s quite suitable for


    you.¡±


    ¡°You little rascal!¡± Ren Xiaosu shot him a look.


    Then Yan Liuyuan suddenly looked up at the hill. Ren Xiaosu followed his gaze and looked as well. He discovered the Wolf King standing there alone and looking straight back at Yan Liuyuan.


    Ren Xiaosu was very certain the Wolf King was not looking at him but Yan Liuyuan. This was an event that had happened before when they were fleeing the previous time. However, Ren Xiaosu had some doubts in this moment. The Wolf King should have already led the wolf pack deep into the mountains. But on this night when Yan Liuyuan came to the outpost, it actually risked its own safety and came out just to have a look at Yan Liuyuan?


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Have you ever crossed paths with the Wolf King?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head.


    [1] Longnan Prefecture in south Gansu (bordering Shaanxi and Sichuan)

 Chapter 237 - Massing for war

    <strong>Chapter 237 Massing for war</strong>


    ¡°Bro, can I go and see the Wolf King in the mountains?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked. ¡°It somehow feels like it knows me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had already told Yan Liuyuan in private of the dealings he had with the wolf pack. So Yan Liuyuan was also privy to the fact that Ren Xiaosu and the wolves were cooperating in some way. They had even joined forces to hunt and kill the nanosoldiers. While it might sound bizarre, Yan Liuyuan was used to the strange things that happened with Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Sure, but you have to stay behind me.¡±


    Although he had been working with the wolves for a long time, Ren Xiaosu was still a little worried. What if the Wolf King suddenly went crazy and decided it wanted to hurt Yan Liuyuan?


    With that, the both of them decided to head into the mountains. But all of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw the headlights of a vehicle speeding up the mountain. He frowned and said, ¡°Go back into the house first. Wake Li Qingzheng and get him out here.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yan Liuyuan went to wake Li Qingzheng up.


    Shortly, Li Qingzheng walked out of the house wearing a military overcoat. ¡°Xiaosu, you called for me?¡±


    ¡°Someone¡¯s heading up the mountain. It should be the Li Consortium¡¯s people.¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°It¡¯s the New Year now. Who has the time to head up here into the mountains?¡± Li Qingzheng was surprised to hear that. The two of them stood at the entrance of the outpost and waited. An off-road vehicle came to a stop at the outpost entrance. Then a soldier got out and tossed a man envelope to them. ¡°We¡¯re massing the private troops. This is the paperwork stating that you all must gather by 0700. Anyone who turns up with less than a full toon will be investigated and held liable as deserters.¡±


    The punishment for deserters was extremely harsh within the Li Consortium¡¯s military. Not only would the person be arrested and charged with a crime, but their families would also get implicated as well and lose their eligibility to receive their portion of potable water as refugees of the town. In this era, not having a source of potable water meant certain death.


    Some people might be able to find water in the wilderness, but there were still risks attached to that.


    The soldier who came to send the documents got ready to get back into the vehicle to leave. But Li Qingzheng calcted that since it was already 2 AM, that meant they had five hours to gather and report to the outside of the stronghold. Otherwise, they would be treated as deserters.


    He looked at that soldier and said, ¡°We¡¯re guarding the outpost here. What will happen to it if we leave? Can¡¯t you make an exception for


    us?¡±


    The soldier sneered as he got back into the vehicle. ¡°It¡¯s useless telling me that. If you don¡¯t wish to assemble, you can choose not to.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng. ¡°Do you have any family in town? If you don¡¯t, you can choose to run away.¡±


    Li Qingzheng said bitterly, ¡°How can I? I might not have any family left, but more than a dozen people in our toon still have family members living in town. If a single person runs away from our toon, the entire toon will be subjected to the same punishment.¡±


    This was the Li Consortium¡¯s cruel way of meting out punishment. It was done this way to makerades watch over each other so that they wouldn¡¯t run away. As long as a single person ran away, the entire toon would be done for.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng in surprise. Even though he knew they were going to end up as cannon fodder, he still chose not to run away for other people¡¯s sakes.


    Hu Shuo had already said before the reunion dinner that they all might end up bing cannon fodder in the war.


    Everyone also had their own verdict regarding this. What other reason could there be for sending private troops to the front line? Could they tackle the tough situations? No, they would only be fit enough to serve as cannon fodder.


    But this Li Qingzheng was also quite a strange one. Before getting to know him, he would look to take as much advantage of someone as possible. But once they became friends, he became someone who was extremely loyal and dependable.


    The regr officer status Hu Shuo had gotten for them was basically a permanent role. If Li Qingzheng made use of this status to run away, it wouldn¡¯t take any effort at all.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu had initially nned on bringing Yan Liuyuan and the others into the stronghold with him. After all, it would be incredibly easy to get that done with his status as an officer of the Office of Special Investigations.


    But from the looks of it, the toon would be done for if he brought his family into the stronghold and hid with them.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before sighing, ¡°Then let¡¯s wake everyone up. We have to set off now, but let me send my family back to town first. After that, we¡¯ll go and assemble.¡±


    ¡°Deal,¡± Li Qingzheng said.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. ¡°Can you teach me how to drive?¡±


    If they were to leave the Li Consortium¡¯s territory in the future, whether it be for Stronghold 88 or Stronghold 178, driving there would be the mostfortable option. So Ren Xiaosu started thinking about learning how to drive.


    Besides, after the troops assembled this time, they would definitely have to head north. If it were only Li Qingzheng who could drive, he would definitely be worn out driving all the way there.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that since he couldn¡¯t master the bicycle, why not just jump straight to learning how to drive a car.


    It wouldn¡¯t be worth wasting a Skill Duplication Scroll to learn a life skill like that. Moreover, he did not have any Skill Duplication Scrolls right now either. Even if he had one, he would definitely be better off using it on someone like Hu Shuo.


    Li Qingzheng was taken aback. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll teach you along the way. We still have enough time! Driving isn¡¯t difficult at all, although you shouldn¡¯t drive on the mountain paths. Once we descend down the mountain and get onto the straight roads, you¡¯ll pick it up very quickly.¡±


    That was exactly how it was. For driving, if you didn¡¯t need to follow the traffic rules like within the stronghold, you could quickly understand it if you just drove around for a bit.


    The people at the outpost all looked bleary-eyed when they got awoken. Li Qingzheng shouted at the top of his voice, ¡°Stop fucking sleeping. Hurry up and pack all of the supplies we have at the outpost into your personal field packs. Don¡¯t load them up onto the truck. If they discover we¡¯re carrying all that cured meat during an inspection, we¡¯ll bear consequences.¡±


    Someone asked, ¡°Lord of Wolves, what are we packing up for?¡±


    Li Qingzheng swept his eyes over them and said, ¡°To get ready to join the war...¡±


    Everyone was stunned. ¡°Now? Aren¡¯t we going to wait until the Spring Festival is over?¡±


    ¡°As if a war would wait for you to celebrate the New Year first.¡± Li Qingzheng sighed and said, ¡°Go and pack your stuff. We¡¯ll gather out here again in 15 minutes.¡±


    The outpost¡¯s troops¡¯ faces fell. Everyone had been getting on with each other like family recently and talking about living at the outpost from now on. But all of a sudden, they were about to be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder.


    ¡°Can we not go?¡± someone asked. ¡°It¡¯s much better here at the outpost.¡±


    When they first got here, everyone felt working at the outpost was a really tough job. But as time passed, they discovered it wasn¡¯t difficult living here at all. In fact, it was even morefortable than living in town.


    Li Qingzheng turned strict at this moment and said, ¡°If we don¡¯t assemble, some of ourrades¡¯ families in town will not survive. Moreover, the Li Consortium will definitely arrest us, so we won¡¯t be able to run away.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was observing this group of people from off to the side. There were only a total of 11 automatic rifles in the entire outpost and not even a single grenade, much less improvised mortars, anti-personnel mines, etc. They also did not have the most basic radio set formunication purposes. If they actually fought in the war, they wouldn¡¯t even be able to call for support in therge battlefield that could span two mountain ranges.


    At that time, their enemies on the battlefield would learn these private troops were the weakest point where they could easily breach the defense.


    Of course, if the enemies thought the toon that Ren Xiaosu was in would be the same as the other private troops, Ren Xiaosu alone would be enough to teach them all a lesson.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if the wolf pack would follow as well. He turned around to look at the top of the hill and saw that the Wolf King was no longer there.


    At this moment, Chen Wudi came over to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Master, are we also going to join the war?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s observe the situation before deciding whether to take part in the war or not.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Go and help everyone carry their belongings. I¡¯ll go and get ready as well.¡±


    ¡°Sure!¡± Chen Wudi replied.

 Chapter 238 - Treachery

    <h4>Chapter 238 Treachery</h4>


    After Ren Xiaosu ordered Chen Wudi to go and pack up, he went inside an unupied house by himself. He was nning on dismantling the nanosoldiers¡¯ weapons he had gained to retrieve the nanomachines within them.


    Ever since hunting down the nanosoldiers with the wolf pack, the amount of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nanomachines had increased severalfold. In fact, he was already able to cover both hands up to his biceps with the suit of armor. So he had been wondering all this while whether he should dismantle the weapons to get his hands on the nanomachines.


    The principle behind how these weapons worked was probably by using a program to set the nanomachines to create an incision effect through high-frequency particle cutting action. Even though this concept sounded difficult to grasp, it was actually simr in logic with waterjet cutting.


    Most high-frequency particle cutters tend to be heavy machineries. Due to the ¡°de¡± not having sticity[1], these cutters couldn¡¯t be molded into swords.


    But the nanomachines allowed the Li Consortium to ovee this problem, and they were able to create even sharper melee weapons for close quartersbat.


    This weapon was definitely not better than the ck saber for Ren Xiaosu. But if the students could be equipped with the nanoarmor in the future, it might prove useful for them.


    But Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t afford to think that much about the future right now. He wasn¡¯t retrieving these nanomachines for his own use. They were going to be for Yan Liuyuan!


    After resetting the nanomachines, Ren Xiaosu called Yan Liuyuan into the house. Yan Liuyuan asked curiously after closing the door behind him, ¡°Bro, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Put your hand out,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Yan Liuyuan stuck his hand out and watched as Ren Xiaosu grabbed his arm tightly. Following that, a silvery stream permeated out of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s skin and spread over to Yan Liuyuan.


    ¡°These are the Li Consortium¡¯s nanomachines. Since you¡¯re slightly smaller in build, this amount of nanomachines might already be enough to form a thinyer of armor around you. It can also help to increase your musculoskeletal strength when it resides in your body. I¡¯m giving it to you so that you may use it to keep yourself alive. Don¡¯t ever reveal them to anyone under normal circumstances.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If the situation bes dangerous, you can use it to kill your opponents.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu in a daze. ¡°Bro, what are you going to do if you give all of your nanomachines away to me?¡± He wanted to retract his hand to stop the nanomachines from transferring over to him. However, he couldn¡¯t pull his hand away as he was much weaker than Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu held Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hand tightly, gripping him so hard his arm ached. He enunciated each and every one of his words to Yan Liuyuan. ¡°When it bes necessary, you can use these nanomachines to protect everyone.¡±


    There wasn¡¯t any sentimental talk as Ren Xiaosu only spoke about the most practical of matters at this moment.


    Just like Yan Liuyuan was willing to sacrifice his life to make a wish for Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu was also willing to give away all of his hard-earned nanomachines to Yan Liuyuan in one fell swoop. It was also precisely because of this that they made it through hard times in the past.


    Ren Xiaosu did not have a habit of depending on these nanomachines, anyway, since he was already strong enough by himself. Besides, Ren Xiaosu believed there would be plenty more nanomachines waiting for him on the battlefield ahead. After all, the Li Consortium was pretty generous in that sense. He might even assemble enough nanomachines for the eight students after he got to the front lines.


    Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, ¡°Pce, pair the nanomachines again.¡±


    The pce replied, ¡°A fee of 20,000 yuan will be charged.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Didn¡¯t he have exactly 20,000 yuan on him right now? Why was the pce even charging a processing fee to newly pair the nanomachines?!


    But Ren Xiaosu could only eat the loss at this time. ¡°Hurry up and pair. You can collect the money whenever.¡±


    After he finished speaking with his mind pce, the 20,000 yuan in his storage space disappeared. Meanwhile, the nanomachines that were originally connected to his neurons started disconnecting from him. Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Allow the nanomachines to pair with you, then try to see if you can control them.¡±


    When the nanomachines fully integrated into Yan Liuyuan¡¯s body, the veins and arteries in his body turned silver. Yan Liuyuan said with some uncertainty, ¡°They¡¯re really easy to control and seem very obedient to mymands. It feels the same as controlling my fingers.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh of relief. He was most worried that Yan Liuyuan¡¯s synchronization rate would be too low and that he would be unable to put the nanomachines to good use.


    But from the looks of it now, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s synchronization rate seemed really high.


    ¡°Don¡¯t use them in normal circumstances.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If you use them recklessly, it will definitely attract the attention of the Li Consortium.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded in agreement.


    All of a sudden, a cry came from outside. ¡°Where¡¯s Liu Zhaojiang?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pushed the door open and went out. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu with a terrified expression and said with great difficulty, ¡°Liu Zhaojiang took some salt and cured meat and disappeared. He even took a rifle and half of the ammo we had.¡±


    ¡°He disappeared?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. This outpost was on top of the mountain, and there was only one path leading to the bottom. If Liu Zhaojiang had disappeared, then it could only mean that he had gone into the mountains.


    Liu Zhaojiang was formerly a refugee who had escaped to Stronghold 109 with Ren Xiaosu and the others. As he had no rtives here, he started getting thoughts of running away when he realized he would be going into battle as cannon fodder.


    Not only did Liu Zhaojiang run away, he even took some supplies with him for his own survival.


    Li Qingzheng turned ashen. ¡°How could he run away! What will happen to the rest of us now that he¡¯s fled!¡±


    Li Qingzheng had only stayed behind because he regarded the soldiers at the outpost as his brothers. But he ended up getting betrayed by one of them.


    Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Master, why are there such people in the world?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°They¡¯re the darkness that¡¯s trying to devour the light that you are.¡±


    ¡°What should we do now?¡± Li Qingzheng mumbled, ¡°With one less person, all of us are going to get punished.¡±


    Someone suddenly said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we flee as well? We¡¯ll die on the battlefield anyway.¡±


    But someone else started pleading with everyone else. ¡°My wife and daughter are still in town. Please, we mustn¡¯t flee. Who knows, we might escape being punished with only one soldier missing?¡±


    Another man also begged, ¡°Please, everyone, we can¡¯t run away. If you run away, what are those of us with families here going to do?¡±


    Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu, and everyone else¡¯s gaze followed his. In reality, everyone understood that the decision maker in the toon was Ren Xiaosu, not Li Qingzheng.


    Ren Xiaosu met their eyes and considered it for a couple seconds before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s go and assemble. I have a n.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Someone asked, ¡°toon Commander, you aren¡¯t joking, right?¡±


    Li Qingzheng felt reassured by Ren Xiaosu. ¡°When has our toon Commander Xiaosu ever not been serious? It won¡¯t go wrong as long as we listen to him!¡±


    Finally, Ren Xiaosu became the real leader in everyone¡¯s hearts.


    [1] sticity: the quality of being easily shaped or molded. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic _machining

 Chapter 239 - Ren Xiaosu’s plan

    <h4>Chapter 239 Ren Xiaosu¡¯s n</h4>


    As they drove down the mountain, Ren Xiaosu realized Chen Wudi was a little sullen. Actually, whenever such betrayals happened in the past, Chen Wudi¡¯s inner world would always be rocked to the core.


    He was like a na?ve, kind, and innocent child who was more than happy to help others. But slowly, he discovered that the kindness he had for this world was just like a triangle within his heart. Whenever this triangle turned, it would hurt his heart and cause him a lot of anguish.


    Until the triangle¡¯s edges were milled round.


    Ren Xiaosu did not try to enlighten Chen Wudi anymore. He had to experience for himself his inner demons and think it through before he would be able to step out of his predicament.


    The military transport truck did not head straight for town after it arrived at the bottom of the mountain. The journey to town would only take three hours, or even two and a half hours if they drove a little faster. They still had about two hours or so now to burn.


    Ren Xiaosu took them by another route, to which Li Qingzheng wondered, ¡°What are we doing?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°You¡¯ll know when we get there.¡±


    On the side of the road, Ren Xiaosu had Li Qingzheng set up an ambush. He also requested that Li Qingzheng change into his Li Consortium military uniform and have his Office of Special Investigations identification with him.


    At this moment, a military transport truck drove over from afar. Ren Xiaosu calmly walked to the middle of the road and blocked the path of the vehicle.


    When the people in it saw Ren Xiaosu in his Li Consortium military uniform, they came to a stop. This truck was filled with the full toon of another outpost. Their toonmander jumped out and said with a fawning smile, ¡°Sir, what is the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shed his ID and said, ¡°The Office of Special Investigations is conducting an investigation. I suspect that there¡¯s a spy in the truck. Get everyone out.¡±


    The toonmander was startled. He hurriedly imed innocence and cried out, ¡°Sir, could there be a misunderstanding? We¡¯re only soldiers of the private army.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t fucking bullshit me!¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a cold expression, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re the spy?¡±


    The toonmander immediately shut his mouth and beckoned for the other soldiers to get out of the truck. ¡°Hurry up and get out. Cooperate with this officer¡¯s investigation.¡±


    After the group of soldiers stepped out of the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who still has family back in town?¡±


    A man raised his hand weakly. ¡°Sir, my family is still in town.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said to that toonmander, ¡°It¡¯s him,e with me!¡±


    Li Qingzheng led a group of soldiers over and tied that man up before taking him back to their own truck.


    Li Qingzheng was startled when he realized that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s so-called n was to actually kidnap someone into their group!


    Actually, the Li Consortium was only worried that there would be deserters. As long as they showed up with a full-strength toon of 30 soldiers, they would definitely not say anything about it. However, Li Qingzheng never expected that Ren Xiaosu woulde up with something like that!


    How ruthless!


    But better you than me! As if Li Qingzheng and the others cared about the life and death of another toon. In these times, it was already great to survive. It didn¡¯t matter how they did it!


    When the toonmander saw the uniforms of the soldiers beside Li Qingzheng, he felt that something was wrong. Why were some of them dressed in casual wear and others dressed in the uniform of the private army?


    The toonmander asked suspiciously, ¡°Sir, are your men in the private army?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. ¡°That¡¯s right, I¡¯ve been hiding with the private troops for a very long time to find the spy!¡±


    The toonmander did not dare say anything. After all, the Office of Special Investigations had a reputation. Without any blood rtions to the Li Consortium, no one would dare to offend the Office of Special Investigations.


    Ren Xiaosu cast him a nce before saying to Li Qingzheng, ¡°Set off!¡±


    After he said that, their military transport truck turned around in the direction of town and drove off. Ren Xiaosu was looking at that man who had been tied up. He said to Chen Wudi, ¡°Untie him¡±


    The man nearly cried from fear. ¡°Sir, I¡¯m really not a spy.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Starting from today, you¡¯re now a part of this toon.¡±


    That man was stunned. ¡°But, sir, I¡¯m not from your toon.¡±


    All the private soldiers next to him pointed their guns at him. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You are now!¡±


    It was also at this moment that the dazed toonmander behind them managed to react. ¡°Fuck, they were here to steal our people! What fucking Office of Special Investigations? How despicable!¡±


    The soldiers beside him were panicking a little. ¡°toon Commander, what do we do now?¡±


    That toonmander clenched his teeth. ¡°I doubt we¡¯ll be able to chase after them. Besides, I also can¡¯t be sure whether his Office of Special Investigations identity is real or not. Let¡¯s... go and steal someone from the other toons!¡±


    There were several dozen outposts around the area, which meant there were several dozen toons as well.


    Ren Xiaosu was still unaware of what he had sparked. All of these toons were about to tussle trying to steal soldiers from each other to fill up their rosters.


    Some of the toons were at full strength and did not consider the possibility of something like this happening. But there were a lot more toons that had a person missing just like Ren Xiaosu¡¯s toon. All of them were still wondering what they should do, but with Ren Xiaosu doing what he just did, it was as though a new world had opened up for them.


    After the toons from the outposts got out of the mountains and headed for town, there were only two or three major roads that they could take. As such, this scenario would probably be best described with the saying, ¡°The brave win when rivals cross paths.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group sped towards town, the sun was rising. Then they were surprised to see several military transport trucks of the Li Consortium driving in the direction they hade from.


    When those vehicles saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group, they stopped. One of the drivers in the Li Consortium group rolled down his window and shouted, ¡°Are you all the private troops that came from the outposts?¡±


    Li Qingzheng was taken aback. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡°Did you see any groups fighting on your way here?¡± the driver asked.


    ¡°No, we set off very early,¡± Li Qingzheng said calmly.


    The driver cursed as he rolled the window back up, ¡°Fuck, I heard a riot broke out over there! It¡¯s so troublesome to have to go out there to look at what¡¯s happening!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng sat in the front of the truck without saying a word. However, they could guess what had happened.


    Li Qingzheng asked softly, ¡°It should be fine,


    right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also felt a little guilty. ¡°I guess it won¡¯t really be much of a problem....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sent Yan Liuyuan and the others back to town and instructed them to be cautious of the circumstances before heading to the assembly point to report in.


    In the morning, Hu Shuo had just finished a short meeting at the Office of Special Investigations when he received a satellite call from a deputy of his. ¡°Lieutenant General, themanding officer of the private army forces is looking for you.¡±


    Hu Shuo was taken aback for a moment. ¡°Why¡¯s he looking for me?¡±


    Hu Shuo then answered the phone. ¡°This is Hu Shuo speaking.¡±


    As a result, he was met with a barrage ofints on the other end of the call. Although the private troops were made up of refugees, theirmanding officer was still a family member of the Li Consortium. The person on the other end of the line wasining so much that it made Hu Shuo unhappy. ¡°Why the fuck would I want to meddle in the affairs of your private troops? Even if you gave those lousy troops of yours to me for free, I wouldn¡¯t take them in. Stop trying to use me of something!¡± And with that, Hu Shuo hung up.


    However, he immediately got a headache over this matter. He was quite certain Ren Xiaosu caused trouble for him again!

 Chapter 240 - The law is unenforceable when everyone is a criminal

    <h4>Chapter 240 Thew is unenforceable when everyone is a criminal</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had thought there wouldn¡¯t be too many soldiers in the private troops, but he was wrong. After assembling, the soldiers even outnumbered abat brigade of the organization. Li Qingzheng asked around and discovered that all of these private troops were actually gathered from the various Li Consortium strongholds.


    The private troops of the various strongholds were currently under themand of an officer named Li Anjun. He was a family member of the Li Consortium and was also concurrently serving as the overseer of Stronghold 107. And the officer in charge of Stronghold 108¡¯s private troops was called Liu Taiyu.


    By this moment, the private troops of the other strongholds had fully assembled. Liu Taiyu was looking disconstely at the sole toon in front of him that was made up of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group. The rest of his soldiers were nowhere to be seen.


    Liu Taiyu looked at Li Qingzheng. ¡°Did anything happen on your way here?¡±


    Li Qingzheng stood to attention and answered, ¡°Sir, there were no incidents along the way. Our Eighth toon of the Iron Second Battalion has assembled on time. Awaiting your instructions, sir! I¡ª¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough.¡± Liu Taiyu waved his hand in frustration and dismissed him. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s not chaotic enough? Just stand right here and be quiet!¡±


    With that, Liu Taiyu left. No one knew where he went.


    Someone in the toon whispered, ¡°Did everyone else that was behind us get into a


    spat?¡±


    ¡°Seems so. They¡¯re probably stealing from each other¡¯s toons,¡± Li Qingzheng said in embarrassment.


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°That could turn out to be a good thing. As y¡¯all should know, they can¡¯t enforce thew on us if everyone is a criminal. If a fight breaks out between all of the outposts, there won¡¯t be a need for any punishment.¡±


    Actually, the soldiers from other outposts only dared to do so because they also understood this fact. Since the Li Consortium needed people to fight the war now, surely they wouldn¡¯t waste their efforts to hold them all ountable, right?


    At this moment, someone looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°toon Commander, could you have expected this too? So you only wanted to create chaos that would lead to a situation where thew would not apply to all those in the wrong?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu cleared his throat. ¡°Not bad, right? Everything is well within my control.¡±


    But at this moment, Chen Wudi said, ¡°My master is not that smart.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi speechlessly.


    Actually, the management of the private troops had always been a mess. It became even more chaotic now that the private troops had recently expanded.


    Ren Xiaosu and his group had never been to other outposts before. If they had, they would know that many of the outposts did not have the required full strength. The toonmanders of the toons would even deliberately lie about the number of soldiers under them as they wanted to freeload off of the consortium¡¯s supplies. But in the end, they were all caught off guard when they were suddenly requested to assemble for war.


    If the higher-ups knew they were freeloading off them, they wouldn¡¯t be let off with just a simple punishment. Perhaps some people would even get executed as a warning to the others. So some people deliberately continued stirring up the pot even further amid the chaos.


    While Liu Taiyu personally went to bring the rest of the private troops back, the other strongholds¡¯ private troops set out. Only Stronghold 108¡¯s toons remained behind.


    They were supposed to assemble and report at 7 AM, but it was almost evening now.


    During this period, no one bothered with Ren Xiaosu and his group. Their entire toon was allowed to roam freely like grazing sheep. Ren Xiaosu even had time to take everyone to town where he bought an egg-stuffed tbread for each of them. This was a treat from Li Qingzheng.


    In the evening, Liu Taiyu returned with arge number of troops. These private soldiers all had bruised and swollen faces. But the most shocking thing was that several of the established toons hadpletely disappeared.


    Many of them had their clothes torn, and some even lost their shoes. Only Ren Xiaosu¡¯s toon was still looking somewhat dignified.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group was the Eighth toon of the Iron Second. There should have been seven toons ahead of them. However, the Sixth toon ceased to exist, with all of their soldiers stolen away by the other toons. Even the toonmander himself had been taken away.


    At this time, Liu Taiyu no longer talked about meting out punishment. On normal days, he would also do all he could to embezzle everyone¡¯s provisions and never really cared about his military responsibilities. This time, he was getting a taste of his own medicine.


    Ren Xiaosu did a rough count. Currently, there were still 33 full-strength toons of the private army remaining. In effect, the number of soldiers here was around 1000 or so.


    Liu Taiyu stood before everyone and said, ¡°You¡¯ve all been taken care of by the organization during peacetime. As the saying goes, armies are trained for a 1,000 days only to be used for a single battle. Now is the time for you to serve the organization. We¡¯ll advance to the front lines at Mt. Tantou, Mt. Fengyi, and Mt. Shuanglong where we¡¯ll construct bases on the high ground to prevent an invasion by the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Getting the private troops to construct bases on the high ground? They really intended to send them to their deaths.


    Although there were still huge advantages in selecting the right terrain to fight on, artillery shells that could impact with extremely high uracy over a very long range were a problem. Even if they managed to upy the high ground, their enemies could simply bombard the entire area with artillery shells if they had enough funding.


    In a time like this, anyone guarding the high ground would surely die.


    Generally, such situations required the construction of extremely strong defensive fortifications that would help y a strategic role on the high ground. But was there time for Ren Xiaosu and the others to build any defensive fortifications?


    Everyone in the private troops burst into an uproar since no one was willing to give up their lives for nothing. But even as they protested, no one dared to run away.


    Liu Taiyu was surrounded by a reinforcedpany made up of his trusted troops. There were 180 of them in total, and their weapons and equipment were much better than those that Ren Xiaosu and the others carried.


    But these troops were not used to fighting in battle. On one hand, they were responsible for the security of Liu Taiyu. On the other hand, they were to supervise the toons of the private troops and ensure that they carried out their orders properly.


    Liu Taiyu said with a smile, ¡°However, there¡¯s a big reward for taking on a responsibility as great as this. Those who perform well at the end of the war can gain direct entry into the Li Consortium¡¯s troops. Not only that, but you¡¯ll also be handsomely rewarded as well. At the very least, you¡¯ll be ensured the status of legal resident and get to live in the stronghold.¡±


    Some of the soldiers became excited and eager on the spot. ¡°We can get into the stronghold and be recognized as legal residents?¡±


    ¡°Are you serious?¡±


    Liu Taiyu smiled and said, ¡°As themander of the Iron Second, would I make such jokes with you? The higher-ups of the organization have already issued an official notice. You can rest assured.¡±


    A lot of people were moved by the thought of that as most refugees were not knowledgeable. Historically, this group of people were always cheated by others. Now that they were in a group together, it was even easier to fool them all.


    But Ren Xiaosu knew exactly why Liu Taiyu dared to make such a grand promise. It was because he thought that none of these close to a 1,000 private soldiers would make it back alive!


    Many others among the troops were well-aware of this too, but they did not dare speak out. They could only leave theirrades to discuss it excitedly.


    Suddenly, Liu Taiyu pped his hands and signaled for everyone to be quiet. ¡°Get into the trucks. It¡¯s time to set out!¡±


    Liu Taiyu¡¯s off-road vehicle and the reinforcedpany¡¯s military transport trucks did not drive at the front but stayed in a supervisory role at the back of the convoy. They were watching to see if anyone would try to escape midway.


    Ren Xiaosu was watching this through the rearview mirror of the truck and said to Li Qingzheng, ¡°That Liu Taiyu is a coward. When the timees, he¡¯ll definitely be too scared to get onto the battlefield personally. Since that¡¯s the case, we¡¯ll have more leeway to do what we want.¡±


    Li Qingzheng was taken aback. ¡°What are you ying at? Xiaosu, don¡¯t be rash.¡±

 Chapter 241 - Encountering the nanosoldiers

    <strong>Chapter 241 Encountering the nanosoldiers</strong>


    When Ren Xiaosu said they would have more leeway to do what they wanted, he did not actually mean to cause any trouble. But if no one was there to watch over them daily, no one would know whether they were truly guarding the high ground.


    With Liu Taiyu staying in the rear, they could easily find somewhere to hide or move from their original positions on the front line.


    Someone leaned forward and asked through the gap between the driver¡¯s cabin and truck bed, ¡°toon Commander, toon Sergeant, what if we really end up as cannon fodder on the battlefield?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, Liu Zhaojiang took half of all our ammo with him. When we defend the strategic high ground, we¡¯ll definitely run out of ammo in no time. Surely we aren¡¯t gonna have to resort to biting the enemy with our teeth, right?¡±


    Even now, everyone was still resenting Liu Zhaojiang. They could understand why he chose to be a deserter since all of them had thoughts of running away as well. But by taking away so much cured meat and ammunition when he left, that was as good as condemning everyone else to their deaths.


    The current situation for their toon was almost no different from having to fight barehanded.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng and asked, ¡°If you knew that someone would run away, would you still have stayed behind?¡±


    ¡°Yes, there are still others in the toon who have families to protect, after all,¡± Li Qingzheng said.


    What upset Li Qingzheng the most was that he had treated everyone like brothers, yet one of them ran away with his weapon and provisions without even saying a word of goodbye. Fortunately for them, there were enough provisions left for the rest, and they would not have to go hungry as a result.


    Li Qingzheng sighed. ¡°If someone offers y¡¯all a 1,000,000 yuan, would any of you sell me out?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t think too much.¡± Ren Xiaosuforted him, ¡°You aren¡¯t worth that much. We won¡¯t ept the money if it goes against our conscience.¡±


    Li Qingzheng was speechless.


    The soldiers at the back of the truck startedughing at this. However, someone still said worriedly, ¡°Jokes aside, what if we really end up bing cannon fodder?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯lle up with something when we get there.¡±


    Everyone felt relieved by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s answer. If Ren Xiaosu coulde up with a n, they would not have to end up bing cannon fodder.


    When they arrived at the forward operating base in the afternoon, all vehicles passing through here were required to get refueled. Otherwise, they would not be able to continue the long-distance journey.


    However, this forward operating base was not required to provide meals and provisions to the private troops. Some of the private troops were starving since the beginning and thought they would surely be fed first before heading out to the battlefield. After all, superiors should not let their soldiers go hungry in the face of battle.


    But who could have thought the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops wouldn¡¯t treat the private troops as human beings!


    However, these private soldiers of Stronghold 108 were unaware that the other private troops were still entitled to the usual military benefits. It was just that those benefits for them had been stopped by Liu Taiyu.


    When it was mealtime, the soldiers in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group hid in the military transport truck and secretly ate their rations they had brought from the outpost. Although Liu Zhaojiang took away quite a lot of cured meat, Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng had bought a lot of wheat flour to make into buns and tbread.


    When the soldiers under Ren Xiaosu hiding in the back of the truck saw the other private soldiers enduring starvation, they suddenly felt they had followed the right leader.


    After refueling the truck, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°toon Sergeant, teach me how to drive.¡±


    Li Qingzheng was taken aback for a moment. ¡°Alright.¡±


    Currently, Liu Taiyu was at the FOB eating his meal. Officers like him were all served good food, and there would be people fawning upon him and showing him good hospitality upon reaching the FOB. As such, these officers didn¡¯t usually resume their journey quickly.


    As for addressing him as ¡°toon Sergeant,¡± even Li Qingzheng himself did not feel anything wrong with it.


    Li Qingzheng was teaching Ren Xiaosu how to drive in the open area. ¡°You just need to remember to step on the clutch when you change gears when driving stick. It¡¯s not that difficult to change gears once you reach a certain speed.¡±


    About an hourter, Ren Xiaosu could somewhat manage to drive on the road. As long as he did not have to shift gears, he could drive very smoothly.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt bad. He hadn¡¯t been able to learn how to ride the bicycle no matter how hard he tried. At the time, he kept ming the pce. He thought it could be due to his ability to copy other people¡¯s skills that made him unable to learn a skill through his own means.


    After all, he had to make some sacrifices in order to gain something, right? Ren Xiaosu understood this very well. So it urred to him that it was not because he was stupid that he couldn¡¯t master the bicycle, but that the pce had limited him. But right now, it seemed like... not being able to master the bicycle had totally nothing to do with the pce! It was just him!


    Ren Xiaosu found this difficult to ept.


    In the afternoon, Liu Taiyu even secretly had some wine at the FOB before setting off again. Ren Xiaosu thought that if even the officer in charge of the private army was drinking during the wartime, what kind ofbat effectiveness would the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops be capable of?


    Upon setting off again, Ren Xiaosu insisted on driving the truck. As the saying went, ¡°Strike while the iron is hot.¡± He was determined to master this skill while he had the chance.


    When they got here in the morning, everyone was stillughing happily in the truck bed. But by the afternoon, no one spoke as they were all trembling in fear in the back of the truck. All of them were tightly grasping the handrails in the bed.


    Ren Xiaosu was driving so fast that he reached the front of the convoy in just a short while. He sat in the cab while controlling the steering wheel in high spirits. This was the first time in his life that he was driving a vehicle. It was a wonderful feeling.


    Li Qingzheng who was next to him had already turned pale. He said, ¡°toon Commander, the road is slippery during winter. If you drive so fast, the truck might flip over when you step on the brakes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°Then won¡¯t it be fine as long as I don¡¯t step on the brakes?¡±


    Li Qingzheng was speechless. After Li Qingzheng took five minutes to calm himself down, he said in seriousness, ¡°toon Commander, why don¡¯t I drive instead? I¡¯m worried that you¡¯ll exhaust yourself.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was finally persuaded to sit in the front passenger seat after the rest of hisrades on board strongly expressed their concerns. However, he was still very happy. After all, knowing how to drive in these wastnds was also considered as having a life-saving skill.


    Ren Xiaosu said to the pce in his mind, ¡°What¡¯s the proficiency of my driving? It should be at advanced or intermediate level since I can drive so well, right?¡±


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°It has been detected that the host does not possess any driving skills.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was unhappy to hear that. ¡°Who are you bluffing here? How can I not have any driving skills when I¡¯ve already driven on the road? Can you at least have some logic in your judgment.... It¡¯s fine even if you just judge that I¡¯m at a basic level!¡±


    All of a sudden, Li Qingzheng said, ¡°toon Commander, there¡¯s a situation up ahead.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked and saw some officers wearing the Li Consortium¡¯s military uniform standing in their way. It looked like there were quite a few of their soldiers there.


    ¡°Just stay in the vehicle.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let Liu Taiyu handle them since we¡¯re just normal soldiers.¡±


    Liu Taiyu¡¯s off-road vehicle sped over from behind. The officer in front of Liu Taiyu maintained his high and mighty attitude as he said, ¡°All of your trucks have beenmandeered. Have all of the men in the vehicles get out.¡±


    Liu Taiyu was dumbfounded. ¡°We were ordered to quickly head to the front lines at Mt. Fengyi. If we hand over all of our military transport trucks to you, how are we supposed to get there?¡±


    ¡°Why should I care?¡± The officer sneered. During their conversation, the blood vessels in his face became silvery strands. It was as though something was glowing inside his blood vessels. ¡°All of you, get out of the trucks now!¡±

 Chapter 242 - Triple identity, Ren Xiaosu!

    <strong>Chapter 242 Triple identity, Ren Xiaosu!</strong>


    When the silvery strands appeared on the officer, the Iron Second Battalion¡¯smander, Liu Taiyu, froze. He lowered his head and did not dare to refute him further. Because he knew this was the most elite unit of the Li Consortium. They were the nanosoldiers of the organization!


    The Li Consortium¡¯s main battlefield was divided into two areas, with one at the front line at Mt. Fengyi facing the Qing Consortium, and the other at the front line at Mt. Ping facing the Yang Consortium. The distance between the two battlefields was several hundred kilometers.


    Liu Taiyu received news earlier that those nanosoldiers were already heading towards Mt. Ping because the Yang Consortium was the Li Consortium¡¯s main opponent, while the Qing Consortium was just here to take advantage of the situation. However, Liu Taiyu was not expecting the nanosoldiers to appear here.


    Did they intend to catch the Qing Consortium off guard? Was that why the organization had even withheld this information internally?


    Liu Taiyu grew cold with fear when he realized the situation was worse than he had expected. The front line at Mt. Fengyi where he was being deployed to would definitely end up as ground zero for this war!


    But how could the nanosoldiers not have their own vehicles? The nanosoldiers were always given the best equipment. They did not even need to take military transport trucks as they were all issued with off-road vehicles.


    Liu Taiyu asked in a whisper, ¡°Sir, where are your vehicles?¡± While saying that, he took a look at the officer¡¯s shoulder patch that disyed the words ¡°Divine Arms Battalion.¡± There was also the white logo of a nanospider on it.


    This was the legendary Divine Arms Battalion of the Li Consortium.


    The Divine Arms officer looked at Liu Taiyu out of the corner of his eye and said, ¡°Our vehicles are parked right up ahead. I want your soldiers to get out of the trucks and take our off-road vehicles instead. On top of that, have all your private troops take off their uniforms.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll freeze to death if we take off our clothes in this cold weather,¡± Liu Taiyu said anxiously.


    In response, the officer of the Divine Arms Battalion lunged over and punched Liu Taiyu in the abdomen. He left Liu Taiyu in such pain that heid on the ground in the fetal position and could not even make a sound!


    The Divine Arms officer said calmly, ¡°Why must you speak so much?¡±


    The truck Ren Xiaosu¡¯s toon was in was the closest to the Divine Arms officers, so he could hear their entire conversation. When the officer said they wanted the private troops to take off their uniforms, Ren Xiaosu realized these nanosoldiers might be nning to pose as private troops on the march.


    The Li Consortium¡¯s nanotechnology had always been the subject of much attention. Now that it had been fully put into practical use on the battlefield, it would definitely be regarded as a great threat by the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium.


    The Li Consortium knew there were spies in their military. Therefore, the Divine Arms Battalion would have to hide their whereabouts if they wanted to spring a surprise on the Qing Consortium.


    As the soldiers of the Divine Arms Battalion walked over to the trucks, the lead soldier shouted to Ren Xiaosu and his toon, ¡°Get out here and change out of your uniforms¡ª¡± The person speaking froze when he realized Ren Xiaosu and his toon were not in uniform.


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. Wasn¡¯t this such a coincidence? They had not even been issued with uniforms.


    The Divine Arms officer wondered, ¡°Where are your uniforms?¡±


    Disgruntled, Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°We were never issued with uniforms. Not only that, we weren¡¯t even equipped with guns.¡±


    The Divine Arms officers were stunned for a while. Since they did not have much contact with the private troops before, this problem never once crossed their minds!


    The officer who beat up Liu Taiyu got so angry heughed. He looked at Liu Taiyu, who was lying on the ground, and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you too rampant with your embezzlement of their pay and equipment?! Do you think our Li Consortium is raising you all as parasites?¡± He then angrily kicked Liu Taiyu¡¯s head so hard that Liu Taiyu fainted.


    To be honest, thismander of the Divine Arms Battalion believed his n was well thought out. They would first pretend to be private troops and get close to the battlefield while avoiding the spies¡¯ attention. Afterwards, they would head into the mountains and nk the Qing Consortium to deal them the fatal blow.


    The fitness of these nanosoldiers was fantastic, and they could take routes that normal soldiers couldn¡¯t. So they could reach ces the Qing Consortium wouldn¡¯t expect.


    This n was also approved of by Headquarters. They felt that everyone would think they would target the Yang Consortium now, so sneak attacking the Qing Consortium would catch them by surprise and lead to a victory.


    If any weak points appeared in the Qing Consortium, the Yang Consortium would also be very happy to seize any gains from them.


    Ultimately, the reason for the war between the three organizations was mainly influence. Whoever became the weakest link on the battlefield first would definitely end up facing the most violent attacks from the other sides.


    So even though this n was not considered perfect, it was still a great n. But the Divine Arms officer never expected their n would be screwed up right off the bat.


    By looking at their uniforms, everyone could tell they were from the Divine Arms Battalion. Even if they drove the private troops¡¯ vehicles, they would not be able to hide that fact from the more observant people.


    ¡°What do we do now then?¡± one of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion asked.


    Themander of the Divine Arms Battalion clenched his teeth and said, ¡°Let¡¯s put on their civilian clothes and have them wear our uniforms instead. Let them continue advancing to the front line at Mt. Fengyi and have the enemy¡¯s spies in our military focus on them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. At this moment, he was considered to be holding three different identities¡ªthat of a private soldier, a member of the Office of Special Investigations, and a member of the Divine Arms Battalion-all at the same time! However, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid of taking on too many identities. After all, it would be easier for him to get things done with these identities.


    When the Divine Arms soldiers pped Liu Taiyu awake, one of them whispered to him, ¡°Continue marching to the front line at Mt. Fengyi and get there within ten days. If you don¡¯t get there in ten days, you¡¯ll be brought in for a court martial. I¡¯ll send five nanosoldiers with you, so don¡¯t try any tricks.¡±


    Themander of the Divine Arms Battalion even ced an electronic ankle monitor on Liu Taiyu. A red light was shing on the shackle, and it seemed like it would be used for tracking Liu Taiyu¡¯s location. But its functionality was probably not just as simple as tracking him. Why else would they rest easy that Liu Taiyu would carry out their orders ordingly?


    They not only had surveince equipment on him, but also sent their nanosoldiers to follow the private troops as they headed to the front line at Mt. Fengyi together. This could be considered as a dualyered security measure for the n.


    The Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s decision to temporarily take over the role of the private troops was also a part of the n. Everyone in the organization knew what the private troops¡¯ behavior was like, so most people would not generally care to nt spies within the private troops.


    Besides, even if they were to abruptly disrupt the battle ns of a battalion of private troops, it would have little impact on the big picture.


    Themander of the Divine Arms Battalion said coldly, ¡°All of you will camp here for the day before setting off again tomorrow.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu was very curious. This group of people in front of him were definitely not the entire strength of the Divine Arms Battalion. After all, he had not even seen Lin Qi and that Captain Zhou around. He wondered if there would be a chance to collect some more of the nanomachines.


    At this moment, Li Qingzheng asked, ¡°So are we going to change into the uniform of the Divine Arms?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing.¡±


    Li Qingzheng saw the enthusiastic look in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes. ¡°Xiaosu, did you think of a n? Tell us about it.¡±


    ¡°After we change into the uniform of the Divine Arms,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°let¡¯s first go back to the FOB that we just left from and have a good meal there!¡±


    Everyone was shocked. So the first thing to do after changing into the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion was to return to the forward operating base to steal their meals?!


    Li Qingzheng realized that no matter what identity Ren Xiaosu was given, he could always make use of them like it was fully within his rights to do so...

 Chapter 243 - Mooching

    <h4>Chapter 243 Mooching</h4>


    ¡°Xiaosu, is it really OK to do that?¡± Li Qingzheng asked flusteredly in a low voice.


    Ren Xiaosu led the way as they walked off into the wilderness. They had already changed into the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion while the nanosoldiers had already left the campsite for some time. Only five of the nanosoldiers stayed behind to supervise the private troops to ensure they reach the front line at Mt Fengyi on time.


    All of the private troops had changed into the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion. However, the five nanosoldiers put on the maintenance uniform of the private troops and blended into the group. These uniforms were originally made for mechanics and were also standard issue for every formation of the private troops of the organization.


    The wages of the maintenance personnel had always been rtively higher, and since some soldiers within the troops were also slightly skilled in repairing vehicles, Liu Taiyu chose to direct the sry for this job into his own pockets. As the uniforms were issued by the organization, there was no need to pay for them. But if they were sold separately, Liu Taiyu would probably embezzle the soldiers¡¯ allowance for it as well.


    The private soldiers had already umted a lot of resentment for Liu Taiyu. After all, they could not even afford to eat enough to fill their stomachs. Back when the soldiers were still at the outposts, wasn¡¯t it Liu Taiyu who ordered his subordinates to mix sand into the bags of rice?


    As Ren Xiaosu led Li Qingzheng and the others to the forward operating base, he said, ¡°What are you afraid of?¡±.


    ¡°We still have those Divine Arms soldiers back at the campsite. What if they find out that we left the ce without permission?¡± Li Qingzheng said in a halting fashion.


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± Ren Xiaosu said totally unafraid. ¡°How do you expect five people to watch over nearly a thousand people? It¡¯s only possible if we¡¯re in a dream. Since they still can¡¯t recognize everyone at the moment, it¡¯s a good opportunity for us to move around on our own. Once they understand the private troops¡¯ situation better after some time, it won¡¯t be that easy to move around on our own.¡±


    Li Qingzheng realized that Ren Xiaosu was really ballsy. But Ren Xiaosu¡¯s analysis was quite reasonable.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°And think about it, we¡¯re just going for a meal. Since there¡¯s no rations back at our campsite, why aren¡¯t we allowed to find food for ourselves? We¡¯re helping the officers relieve their burden!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Li Qingzheng echoed, ¡°But what if the people at the FOB discover our identities?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll be fine. Don¡¯t say anythingter and just let me handle them.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    All of his teammates next to him looked at Ren Xiaosu in silence and remembered that they had really never seen him afraid of any situation before...


    The private troops¡¯ campsite was only several kilometers away from the FOB. They had encountered the Divine Arms Battalion not long after they left the FOB. If it weren¡¯t for the close distance, Ren Xiaosu would not have decided to take them there for a free meal.


    When Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group arrived at the FOB, the person at the sentry post immediately stopped them. Just as Li Qingzheng was about to step forward to negotiate peacefully, he watched Ren Xiaosu go up to him and kick him aside. ¡°How dare you stop the Divine Arms Battalion? Getting ballsy, eh?¡±


    Earlier in the afternoon, they had also thought of eating at the FOB. However, they ended up getting mocked by the FOB¡¯s staff who said that refugees were not fit to eat here.


    Now that Ren Xiaosu had the opportunity to return the favor, he would not pull any punches.


    When the soldier at the sentry post saw the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s shoulder patch on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arm, he didn¡¯t even dare to lodge a protest. Ren Xiaosu swaggered straight into the base.


    Li Qingzheng and the others were still a little afraid at the beginning. But as they walked in, they also started swaggering like Ren Xiaosu.


    When they entered the FOB¡¯s chow hall, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group immediately smelled the aroma of food.


    Many of the Li Consortium¡¯s troops were heading to the front lines. But they weren¡¯t the only ones, as there were also troops returning from the front lines. So meals at the FOB were served around the clock, and even the hot water supply in the barracks was avable throughout the day.


    While a group of cooks were busy cooking in the kitchen, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group casually went to collect their food with stainless steel meal trays.


    The manager of the chow hall came over when he saw this. He said cautiously, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but we haven¡¯t received advance notice of your group¡¯s arrival.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned as he did not understand military regtions. As a result, he did not know that troops needed something like advance notice to enter the FOB. In that instant, Li Qingzheng and the others started sweating.


    However, Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°Our Divine Arms Battalion is just here to eat. Why is there a need to give you all advance notice? Are you looking down on our Divine Arms Battalion?¡±


    The group of soldiers around Ren Xiaosu looked at him in adoration. No one knew how Ren Xiaosu could say something like that so confidently.


    The manager of the chow hall said humbly, ¡°No, I wouldn¡¯t dare. But can I have a look at your military ID?¡±


    Sporadic groups of soldiers were already starting to gather around them amid themotion. Ren Xiaosu sneered and took out his Office of Special Investigations military ID. He went up to the manager of the chow hall and said, ¡°You¡¯re the only one who can see this. Feel free to check the ID number, but watch out if you dare to leak it.¡±


    When the manager of the chow hall read his military ID, he was stunned. Why was this person showing a military ID of the Office of Special Investigations while dressed in the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion? This was getting too strange. He surreptitiously got his subordinate to do a quick check on the ID number. However, all the details disyed on the machine turned out to be genuine.


    The manager of the chow hall was dumbfounded. He went to inform themander of the FOB of this matter. However, his superior was also dumbfounded. They thought this might be a very special situation, so it was better to not provoke him. Since it was just a meal, wouldn¡¯t it be better to let them finish and wash their hands of this matter?


    Ren Xiaosu sighed as he ate. He felt that his dual identity as member of the Divine Arms Battalion and Office of Special Investigations was really quite useful.


    The food in the chow hall was sumptuous and delicious. Just counting the meat dishes alone, there were more than ten varieties. After eating and before they left the ce, they even stuffed more than ten buns into their arms. The sight of this left the chow staff in a daze. This was the fucking Divine Arms Battalion? Didn¡¯t people say the Divine Arms Battalion was treated very well?


    The manager of the chow hallforted himself, ¡®It¡¯s only 30 of them. Surely they won¡¯t take away much even if they can¡¯t finish their food, right?¡¯


    As Ren Xiaosu led toon back to the campsite, Li Qingzheng and the others were burping from the feast. ¡°There should be another four or five FOBs ahead of us, so we definitely won¡¯t have to go hungry anymore.¡±


    ¡°toon Commander is almighty. The buns that we took are enough for us to eat for several days.¡± With the soldiers in his toon ttering him nonstop, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s vanity shot through the roof.


    When they got back to camp, they happened to bump into the other soldiers. When those soldiers from the other toons saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group looking all energetic and in high spirits with their arms stuffed full of buns, a toonmander got so envious he almost cried. ¡°Can you share some of your buns with us? We¡¯ve not eaten all day.¡±


    Suddenly, the pce assigned a quest: Help arade ease their hunger pangs.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He looked at the toonmander before him and said kindly, ¡°Let me rmend you a good ce where I guarantee you can eat your fill...¡±

 Chapter 244 - An excellent harvest of gratitude tokens

    <h4>Chapter 244 An excellent harvest of gratitude tokens</h4>


    The toonmander was stunned. ¡°What ce is that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and said to him, ¡°The FOB. It¡¯s at most four kilometers away from us. Not only can you eat your fill while in this uniform, but you can also take some food back with you as well.¡±


    When the toonmander heard Ren Xiaosu telling him that he could eat at the forward operating base, he hesitated for a moment. What if someone at the FOB discovered their true identity?


    But when he looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group again, he thought, ¡®Isn¡¯t this a sessful example right in front of me?¡¯ If Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group already had their fill, anyone else wearing the Divine Arms uniform would also be able to do the same.


    The toonmander said sincerely, ¡°Thank you, my brother!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Wang Dingguo, +1!


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu received this gratitude token on top of the notification from the pce for the quest¡¯spletion, an idea suddenly came to him!


    Just as that toonmander was about to take his men to get food, they were stopped by Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°Aren¡¯t the rest of you going to thank me?¡±


    The toonmander was stunned at first, but he hurriedly got his men to thank Ren Xiaosu. The private soldiers were starving badly. As the information provided by Ren Xiaosu really helped with their survival issues, most of their gratitude was expressed sincerely.


    It was so sincere that it could not get any more sincere than this!


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu received a total of 18 gratitude tokens!


    As a matter of fact, he had more than 400 gratitude tokens as of this moment. If he could make the others in the camp thank him as well, this new weapon might just be unlocked in the blink of an eye!


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Li Qingzheng. ¡°You guys head back to the tent first and rest. There¡¯s something I need to do.¡±


    Li Qingzheng wondered, ¡°toon Commander, what are you gonna do?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said righteously, ¡°Although we¡¯ve had our fill, many people in our Iron Second Battalion are still hungry. We can¡¯t be this selfish. We have to let them know about this!¡±


    Li Qingzheng was a little ashamed when he heard that from Ren Xiaosu. He suddenly felt that he couldn¡¯tpare to Ren Xiaosu as he wasn¡¯t as noble as him!


    Li Qingzheng took the initiative and said, ¡°Then let¡¯s split up so that we can inform everyone a little quicker.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression immediately changed. ¡°No, y¡¯all¡¯ve been working hard all day, so you should get some rest quickly! Hurry up and go to sleep. Don¡¯t tire yourselves out further!¡±


    The soldiers in the toon were almost moved to tears. They didn¡¯t realize in the past that Ren Xiaosu actually cared this much about them. Li Qingzheng thought the reason he had been relegated to the role of toon sergeant was because he wasn¡¯t as enlightened as Ren Xiaosu was.


    After Ren Xiaosupelled Li Qingzheng and the others to quickly go and rest, he started going around to each tent to inform the other toons. The tents issued by the Supply Division were allrge tents and were big enough for a toon to sleep in.


    Ren Xiaosu went around patiently to inform the rest of the private troops. Everyone was still quite doubtful at the beginning, but when Ren Xiaosu showed them the buns in his arms, they were convinced!


    The toons informed by Ren Xiaosu felt that he was such a good person...Although, they did find it a little strange that he insisted they thank him.


    As Ren Xiaosu counted his gratitude tokens, he saw they had increased to over 900 in just an hour. This harvest of gratitude tokens was much greater than he had ever received in the


    past!


    Sure enough, in times of hunger, people¡¯s feelings for food would be especially sincere...


    Ren Xiaosu lifted the next tent¡¯s p and asked, ¡°Are you all hungry? I know a ce¡ª¡±


    The five nanosoldiers in the tent quietly looked to Ren Xiaosu. Then Ren Xiaosu calmly replied with a smile, ¡°Haha, sorry for the disturbance.¡±


    He had been too careless!


    Every tent at this campsite looked identical to Ren Xiaosu, so how could he could tell who was in them?


    Immediately, the nanosoldiers rushed out of the tent and shouted, ¡°Stop right there! What was the meaning of that?!¡±


    But as they had finished speaking, they discovered that many of the tent ps on the outside were open with no one inside them.


    The nanosoldiers quickly went around the camp to check before gasping at the discovery that they had not even noticed that the camp was already half empty!


    Just then, the private soldiers who had finished eating their fill returned from the FOB in groups, and some of them were even picking their teeth with toothpicks. Not only that, it was clear at a nce that they were carrying a lot of things in their arms.


    But the returning private soldiers were all petrified when they saw the nanosoldiers walking up to them. A nanosoldier from the Divine Arms Battalion asked coldly, ¡°Where have you all been?¡±


    One of them answered while trembling, ¡°We went to the FOB to eat.¡±


    The nanosoldier was stunned by his answer. ¡°Was it as simple as just eating?¡±


    Gradually, more and more people returned after eating at the FOB. In the end, all of them were punished to stand at attention in the camp.


    The nanosoldiers paced around these people and sneered, ¡°Do you know what the crime is if you leave the barracks without permission?¡±


    He then pped some of the private soldiers¡¯ buns they were carrying in their arms onto the ground, and stomped on them. ¡°You, you,


    you!¡±


    The nanosoldier pointed at three of the private soldiers. ¡°Eat the buns on the ground!¡±


    The private soldiers who were singled out were afraid to backtalk. They immediately picked up the ttened buns and stuffed them into their mouths.


    The nanosoldier looked at them. ¡°Who said you all could go to the FOB to eat?¡±


    As soon as he finished saying that, he was shocked to find that almost everyone¡¯s gaze hadnded on Ren Xiaosu. Not only that, someone even pointed out Ren Xiaosu.


    So did this mean that all the soldiers at the camp who went to the FOB to eat were all told to do so by Ren Xiaosu?


    This should be easy to handle then. By punishing Ren Xiaosu alone, that would help avoid a mutiny.


    Actually, the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion felt helpless. If only one or two people had broken thew, they would be severely punished for it. But too many hadmitted the crime. What if they punished too many people and that resulted in a mutiny breaking out at the camp? Hence, the best thing to do would be to punish only one person as a warning to the others.


    But one of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion could not figure out something. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered, ¡°Why did you tell the others they could eat at the FOB?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it a bit of thought. ¡°Because the braised chicken cuts at the FOB are delicious.¡±


    The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion was speechless.


    While Ren Xiaosu spoke, the expression of one of the Divine Arms officers changed. He decided he would use Ren Xiaosu as a warning to the others tonight!


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu whispered to one of the Divine Arms nanosoldiers, ¡°Can we step aside to have a word?¡±


    Puzzled, the nanosoldier went with Ren Xiaosu a ways away where Ren Xiaosu shed his Office of Special Investigations¡¯ military ID without hesitation. ¡°I suspect that there¡¯s a spy from the Qing Consortium within our ranks, so y¡¯all will have to cooperate with me to identify him. However, I have no clue who it might be. No one else can know about this other than the two of us.¡±


    The nanosoldier stayed silent.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that since Hu Shuo and Li Shentan were plotting something major, they would definitely be more than OK to help him resolve a small matter like this. If that were the case, he might as well just pass the buck since he could do it.


    Tonight¡¯s turn of events upset the nanosoldier. He felt that he had to give it more careful thought.


    A captain of the Office of Special Investigations telling everyone to go to the FOB to eat in order to flush out the Qing Consortium¡¯s spy?


    That didn¡¯t make any fucking sense!


    The Office of Special Investigations was a military unit that even the Divine Arms Battalion was afraid of. After all, not even the Divine Arms Battalion was confident enough to proim that no spy could infiltrate their ranks.


    Meanwhile, espionage was one of the most serious crimes that could happen in wartime.

 Chapter 245 - Abandoning vehicles and entering the mountains on foot!

    <h4>Chapter 245 Abandoning vehicles and entering the mountains on foot!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu asked pleasantly, ¡°What¡¯s your name and rank?¡±


    The nanosoldier answered, ¡°I¡¯m First Lieutenant Dong Mingshuai.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu patted the nanosoldier on his shoulder and said, ¡°Well, I¡¯m a captain. You¡¯ve performed pretty well. Hurry back and get some rest quickly.¡±


    The nanosoldier nodded in a daze. He silently memorized Ren Xiaosu¡¯s military ID number and nned on checking it after returning to his tent. He wanted to know if this guy was really from the Office of Special Investigations.


    Meanwhile, themander of the FOB was speechless when he saw the mess in the chow hall. The manager of the chow hall broke the silence. ¡°Sir, there is something off about this Divine Arms Battalion. Their appetite is a little toorge.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t only their appetite that was a little toorge, but that their habit of taking some food away with them when leaving made the chow staff a little ufortable.


    When Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group came to eat, they felt a group of 30 people wouldn¡¯t eat much anyway, so they just let them have what they wanted. However, a strange turn of events happened after that. Weren¡¯t they just here to have supper? How did it end up with all their friendsing over for supper as well?


    Suddenly, a soldier ran into the chow hall from outside. Themander of the FOB asked, ¡°Have you found out what happened yet?¡±


    That soldier hesitated before saying, ¡°I¡¯ve reported the matter to both the Divine Arms Battalion and Office of Special Investigations. As it turns out, both sides said... We have no right to question whatever goes on here.¡±


    If they were told they couldn¡¯t question the matter, then it was as good as tacitly admitting to it. If the people who came to eat were really imposters, the higher-ups would have already kicked up a fuss and demanded them to investigate thoroughly.


    Themander of the FOB was unaware that the Divine Arms Battalion immediately knew upon receiving their information that the people who went to eat were only the private troops in disguise. But in order not to expose their ns, they had no choice but to admit they were their people.


    As for Hu Shuo, he was used to it.


    Actually, themander of the Divine Arms Battalion did not care how much food these private soldiers had eaten since they were not eating into their battalion¡¯s quota of rations anyway. What they were more bothered about was the fact that the Office of Special Investigations was actually investigating if there was a spy within their battalion¡¯s ranks.


    Hu Shuo had also gotten used to this.


    When Ren Xiaosu and the others returned to their tents, everyone wondered why he did not receive any punishment. However, no one dared to ask him about it.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu had been very kind to inform them of where they could go to eat at, but they ended up betraying him in return. This made everyone feel somewhat guilty.


    Chen Wudi sat down in the tent and asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Master, don¡¯t you me them? You clearly helped them eat their fill, yet no one was willing to step forward and speak up for you.¡±


    At the time, Chen Wudi was prepared to fight their way out together with Ren Xiaosu. But in the end, Ren Xiaosu used his Office of Special Investigations identity to defuse the situation.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Of course I me them, but I also expected


    it.¡±


    ¡°But, Master, I couldn¡¯t feel any anger from you.¡± Chen Wudi said softly, ¡°I was infuriated, and I¡¯m still infuriated. I¡¯ll probably still get infuriated whenever I think about this in the future. And those things that happened in the past too and those evil people as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s alright, they can¡¯t hurt us.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Chen Wudi nodded. ¡°Master, please sleep. I¡¯ll keep watch for the first half of the night.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu went straight to sleep. He did not have to worry about getting attacked with Chen Wudi keeping watch. In this tent, he only trusted Chen Wudi and the eight students. Not even Li Qingzheng was trustworthy to him.


    The trust between him, Chen Wudi, and the students had built up little by little over time. None of them had betrayed him since the time in Stronghold 109. Of course, the most trustworthy person was still Chen Wudi.


    Li Qingzheng and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered how he could remain so calm. After all of tonight¡¯s events, he could still fall asleep so quickly?


    Chen Wudi sat cross-legged next to Ren Xiaosu and forbade anyone from approaching him. He did not allow anyone to get close to him.


    After daybreak, the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion continued on their journey with the entire battalion of private troops as though nothing had happenedst night.


    The front lines at Mt. Fengyi, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Shuanglong were very deep. If a battle really broke out, there was a mountain path there the Qing Consortium would have to pass through to invade the heart of the Li Consortium. Therefore, the Li Consortium had sent arge number of private troops there to fill their defensive gap and act as cannon fodder.


    It was said that there used to be a city north of Mt. Shuanglong in the Pre-Cataclysm times. It was located at the intersection of three rivers where a dam used to exist upstream.


    However, that dam was neglected after The Cataclysm. As a result, no one opened the floodgates to release the excess water until it finally burst its banks. That caused the river to change its course, turning the once prosperous city into a floodin.


    In summer, the entire area would get covered by clouds and experience continuous rain due to the water cycle.


    Fortunately, it was winter right now. Winter had gotten colder over the days, causing some of the smaller tributaries to freeze as a result.


    But upon setting off, they encountered yet another problem.


    The real Divine Arms Battalion had already driven off in all of their military transport trucks. They had only thought about switching their vehicles and forgot the private soldiers were not trained to drive. The private soldiers here who could drive were the minority.


    While they were traveling by the truck, 30 of them could get in at once. If there were others on board who could drive, they could asionally take turns at the wheel.


    But now that they had switched to the off-road vehicles... there were not enough drivers to go around.


    One of the Divine Arms officers was a little dumbfounded as he stood in front of the numerous off-road vehicles. Why were problems constantly messing up his n?


    However, this Divine Arms Battalion officer was also a decisive guy. He resolutely said, ¡°Abandon the vehicles. We¡¯ll enter the mountains on foot. Don¡¯t take the main road so that it¡¯ll look like we¡¯re trying to cover our tracks on purpose!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood this decision. By trekking through the wilderness of the mountains, it would create a sense of secrecy. If a spy discovered these troops wearing the uniform of the Divine Arms Battalion were trying to move under the cover of the wilderness of the mountains by deliberately avoiding the main road, they might get more interested in tracking their whereabouts.


    But didn¡¯t he just learn how to drive? And now they were just going to abandon the vehicles on the side of the road and not use them anymore?


    Moreover, based on the physical fitness of these private soldiers, at least half of them were probably not going to make it to the specified destination if they really had to walk there via the wilderness of these mountains.


    At this moment, Chen Wudi asked, ¡°What if we don¡¯t get discovered by the spy when we go into the wilderness of the mountains?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nearly apuded that. ¡°That¡¯s a good question.¡±


    A spy would not wander into the mountains for no good reason. They would definitely travel on the main road with the main force, so the other possibility would be that the spy could be unaware of troops marching secretly in the mountain wilderness... due to them being too well-hidden....


    The officer of the Divine Arms Battalion was speechless for a while. ¡°Just do as I say!¡±


    Even if Ren Xiaosu were from the Office of Special Investigations, he could not influence the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s battle ns. He could investigate the spy, but they would still have the final say on how to fight the war!


    Even though the Divine Arms Battalion did not wish to offend the Office of Special Investigations, if something made their n to fail, should the me fall on the Office of Special Investigations or the Divine Arms Battalion?


    Naturally, Ren Xiaosu did not actually care about whether the Office of Special Investigations would take the me or not.

 Chapter 246 - The Qing base

    <h4>Chapter 246 The Qing base</h4>


    Countless Qing Consortium troops were already garrisoned on the front lines at Mt. Daping and Mt. Xianlin, and ck tents could be seen scattered throughout the clearings in the valley. This ce had be the internal transportation hub of this entire mountain range.


    The roads in the mountains were no longer dirt roads but concrete surfaces that the Qing Consortium had constructed beforehand. Just by looking at the structure of the roads, it was clear that the Qing Consortium had been operating here for a long time.


    This was the only path to reach the Li Consortium in the south. If they wanted to attack the Li Consortium, they would definitely have to pass through here.


    The conflict between the three organizations in the southwestern region was not something new at all. The Qing Consortium was extraordinarily well-prepared as they had constructed a forward operating base and defensive fortifications in the mountains way in advance.


    Two off-road vehicles were driving over from northeast of the mountains. Qing Zhen and Luo Lan sat in one of the vehicles and looked at the scenery outside. Qing Zhen said with a smile, ¡®This ce has to be defended well. If we lose our position here, the roads will have been built for nothing. Our enemies can simply drive straight in without any obstacles.¡±


    ¡°Rest easy, we won¡¯t lose this ce.¡± Secretary Zhou sat in the front passenger seat and said coldly, ¡°Qing Zhen, you can say we¡¯re letting you atone for your crimes by having you act as a military advisor. I hope that you will carefully consider the Board¡¯s decision and stop acting recklessly.¡±


    Qing Zhen said calmly with a smile, ¡°Atone for my crimes? What crimes have Imitted?¡±


    The soldier driving the vehicle acted as though he were deaf. He only focused on driving and did not dare to react unusually. Meanwhile, Secretary Zhou frowned, thinking about something.


    After the off-road vehicle traveled for dozens of kilometers in the mountains, it finally arrived at a huge base. When they came to the sentry post, Secretary Zhou shed his ID, and they were allowed to pass through.


    Qing Zhen looked at theyout of the surrounding barracks andmented, ¡°The security here is a littlex.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived. Get out.¡± Secretary Zhou looked at Qing Zhen and said, ¡°You probably know thebatmander here. I think he can be considered a younger brother of yours? His name is Qing Yun.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Qing Zhen nodded. ¡°That snotty brat? He cried a lot when we were young.¡¯


    Qing Yun was the person who discovered the Experimentals had disappeared from Stronghold 113.


    After getting out of the vehicle, Qing Zhen started walking towards themand post tent. ¡°Since I¡¯m here as a military advisor, what happens if Qing Yun does not heed my advice? Have you ever considered this problem? If he insists on doing things his way, am I supposed to take the fall along with him?¡±


    Secretary Zhou¡¯s frown grew deeper as he said, ¡°Don¡¯t try anything, Qing Zhen. Since he¡¯s themanding officer of the troops, he¡¯ll definitely bear the main responsibility if something goes wrong. But as the military advisor, would you dare say that you won¡¯t be liable if any battles are lost? Both of you are working for the Qing Consortium, so I hope you can be more serious and not deliberately y a passive role.¡±


    Actually, this was the most worrisome matter for the Qing Consortium Board of Directors. They felt uneasy in letting Qing Yun face the other two organizations by himself. After all, Qing Yun¡¯sbat experience was far less than Qing Zhen¡¯s. Moreover, no one in the entire Qing Consortium could match Qing Zhen when it came to wisdom in warfare.


    For an organization thatrge and filled with so many people, it was natural to think that powerful leadership figures abounded. But even throughout history, only a handful of famous leaders had ever existed in this world. And sometimes, some people were really just that exceptionally talented.


    But what they were more worried about was that they had been suppressing Qing Zhen too much recently. If Qing Zhen just showed up at the front lines and did not put in any effort for the war, that would also affect the overall situation.


    It was not that the Board was being stupid by insisting on suppressing skilled people, but that they had long been ustomed to skilled people yielding to the huge machine that was the organization. An arrogant Shadow had wanted to ce himself above the organization. But what happened to him in the end? Didn¡¯t he also be a tool for the Board after admitting defeat?


    But the Qing Consortium Board could never have expected Qing Zhen to be so unyielding!


    Qing Zhen walked into the tent with a smile. Officers were trotting back and forth within themand post tent. They were all either holding intel of thetest military updates in their hands or about to carry out orders issued by Qing Yun.


    Everyone in the tent was stunned for a moment when they saw Qing Zhen walk in. It was like the air in themand post solidified the instant he went in.


    Qing Zhen greeted everyone, ¡°There¡¯s no need to get nervous. Just get back to whatever you were doing. Luo Lan and I are just here to see all of you.¡±


    When Qing Yun, who was standing next to the sand table[1] in themand post, saw Qing Zhen, his expression darkened. He looked at Secretary Zhou. ¡°Why did you bring him here?¡±


    Secretary Zhou said calmly, ¡°Your Second Uncle wanted him toe and assist you.¡±


    ¡°Assist me?¡± Qing Yun sneered, ¡°I don¡¯t need a prisoner to assist me.¡±


    Luo Lan smiled and said, ¡°Qing Yun, do you still remember the days when you used to stick to our behinds and y in the dirt? When I was out on campaign, you were probably still wetting the bed.¡±


    Secretary Zhou said angrily, ¡°That¡¯s enough! A great change will be sweeping over the southwestern region soon, and you¡¯re still in the mood to quarrel like children here? Qing Yun, the two of them will serve as your military advisors. Brief them first, then hold a military meeting.¡±


    Qing Yun gave them a look and said to his second-inmand next to him, ¡°Inform all themanders of the fighting forces to attend the meeting!¡±


    Ultimately, Qing Yun still did not dare to disobey the Board¡¯s order. Since the Board sent Qing Zhen here as the military advisor, he would have to somehow cooperate with him on the surface. This way, no one could point their fingers at him even if something went wrong.


    During the meeting, Qing Zhen sat at the table with his eyes closed throughout. No one knew whether he was listening to the updates given by themanders of the fighting forces. Meanwhile, Luo Lan sprawled out on the table and openly slept.


    An officer said, ¡°We¡¯re currently garrisoned on the front lines at Mt. Daping and Mt. Xianlin. The Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium won¡¯t be so reckless toe and attack us since this war is still mainly a conflict between their two organizations-¡°.


    ¡°How stupid!¡± interrupted Qing Zhen as his eyes shot open.


    Themand post fell silent. Qing Zhen bluntly said, ¡°The philosophy on this battlefield is that anyone involved in the war is an enemy, other than our own. Why do you think the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium won¡¯t take the initiative and attack us just because their grudge is with each other?¡±


    Qing Yun said coldly, ¡°Because the Yang Consortium stole the Li Consortium¡¯s¡ª¡±


    Qing Zhen was guffawed. ¡°That was not stolen by the Yang Consortium. It was I who stole it and gave it to the Yang Consortium. Mark my words, since we¡¯ve alreadye all the way out here, we¡¯ll certainly be targeted by the Li Consortium. If our defenses slip up, we could very well end up bing the priority target of the other two organizations. When that happens, they might even be willing to put aside their feud temporarily. The possibility of gaining the Qing Consortium¡¯s interests for themselves would be more than enough to tempt them.¡±


    Qing Yun red at Qing Zhen as he had been living in Qing Zhen¡¯s shadow for more than 20 years now. When he was in preschool, everyone said there was a person better than him, and that person was called Qing Zhen. When he got to elementary school, high school, or university, it was still the same. Even after entering the military, everyone was still saying that Qing Zhen was better at waging war than anyone else in the organization.


    But even if he hated Qing Zhen to the core, he would still sit at the same table with Qing Zhen to discuss the war as he wanted to let the Board know that he was more obedient than Qing Zhen.

 Chapter 247 - Qing Zhen seizes command

    <h4>Chapter 247 Qing Zhen seizesmand</h4>


    Qing Yun looked at Qing Zhen. ¡°I hope you can understand that I¡¯m themanding officer here. You can offer advice, but don¡¯t think you¡¯re the only smart one at themand


    post.¡±


    Qing Zhen nced at Qing Yun, startled. ¡°I never imed I was the only smart one around. Luo Lan is also quite smart as well.¡±


    Luo Lan was awoken by the noise. He asked sleepily, ¡°What? What¡¯d you say?¡±


    Qing Zhen smiled and said, ¡°I was saying that other than you and me, everyone else in thismand post is stupid.¡±


    Luo Lan sat bolt upright. ¡°Qing Zhen is right!¡±


    Qing Yun¡¯s face grew ugly in an instant. ¡°Smartass. But aren¡¯t you still just a prisoner?¡±


    But as soon as he finished speaking, Qing Zhen smiled at him and said. ¡°If you¡¯re allowed to continue being themanding officer here, the Qing Consortium will be done for. With immediate effect, I shall take overmand of all the fighting forces on the front lines. Secretary Zhou, you can go back and tell those old fogies to wait until after the war has ended if they have any opinions on this.¡±


    As his voice trailed off, the second-inmand next to Qing Yun suddenly unholstered his pistol and pulled the trigger while pointing it at Qing Yun¡¯s head.


    The gunshot was so loud that the other officers in the tent nearly screamed in fright! However, their screams didn¡¯t even make it out of their mouths before they swallowed them down.


    Qing Yun¡¯s trusted aides immediately unholstered their pistols to fight back, but they realized five people in the tent had already drawn their pistols at the same time and were pointing them at them!


    Everyone in the tent fell silent. At this moment, they remembered the atrocities Qing Zhen hadmitted in the past.


    This was the craziest person of all in the Qing Consortium!


    Qing Yun had carefully yed his every card on the table to earn the appreciation of the Board.


    But he could never have expected that Qing Zhen would just flip the table.


    The silent tiger of the Qing Consortium had finally returned to the mountains.


    Secretary Zhou was in shock. ¡°Qing Zhen! How dare you murder themanding officer of the fighting forces? And how dare you nt your people around Qing Yun!¡±


    Qing Zhen grinned and remarked, ¡°Secretary Zhou, I might have nted some of my people around you too.¡±


    Secretary Zhou was so frightened he ran out of themand post and jumped into the off-road vehicle. He did not even dare to take his driver with him and just drove off by himself.


    ¡°It¡¯s peaceful again.¡± Luo Lan stretched andughed heartily. ¡°So how are we going to fight this war?¡±


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°Let¡¯s straighten out our internal affairs first.¡± After taking a look at the sand table, he said, ¡°Concentrate the defensive lines and don¡¯t scatter our troops out to Mt. Daping. The recon forces are to continue doing their job on the battlefield to prevent any ambushes by the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium. Heavy weapons will not be of much use if their usage is restricted to the mountains, and they¡¯re not as good as us when ites to paving roads. However, we should still be careful of the nanosoldiers these two organizations have.¡±


    Qing Zhen continued giving out instructions. ¡°Although we haven¡¯t seen what a nanosoldier looks like, we¡¯re likely going to be considered a vulnerable target since we¡¯re the onlybatant among the three organizations without nanosoldiers. If we reveal any signs of weakness first, this war could get a little tricky. So what we should do now isn¡¯t to invade the others; rather, don¡¯t make any mistakes.¡±


    As this chessboard was too big, only the yers that made the least mistakes wouldst until the end.


    Qing Zhen looked at Luo Lan. ¡°I want you to go to the Yang Consortium tomorrow and negotiate with them. Tell them we¡¯ll be eliminating the Li Consortium first.¡±


    Luo Lan nodded, but he heard Qing Zhen say to another person, ¡°I want you to go to the Li Consortium and negotiate with them. Tell them we can help them take out the Yang Consortium¡¯s defenses at Mt. Ping. You¡¯ll have to set off immediately. If you¡¯re sessful in the negotiations, I¡¯ll make sure you get recognized for your meritorious service upon returning.¡±


    Although this person was Qing Yun¡¯s trusted aide, Qing Zhen did not kill him and even entrusted him with an important responsibility.


    After this person left, Luo Lan lowered his voice and asked curiously, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you have me approach the Li Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Because the Li Consortium is already out of their minds.¡± Qing Zhen said softly, ¡°Besides, they do have a real lunatic there, so anyone who goes will die.¡±


    Luo Lan finally understood. It turned out Qing Zhen knew right from the start they would not be able to join forces with the Li Consortium. By sending Qing Yun¡¯s trusted aide to the Li Consortium, it was as good as sending him to his death.


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°Furthermore, he¡¯s probably scared to the bone right now, so the forces he took with him will definitely be those he trusts most and are likely to be a part of Qing Yun¡¯s inner circle. By sending them to the Li Consortium, the problem will take care of itself.¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Brilliant!¡±


    Qing Zhen suddenly said with a sigh, ¡°I was wrong just now.¡±


    Luo Lan was taken aback. ¡°What were you wrong about?¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Actually, I¡¯m the only smart one around here. You don¡¯t count.¡±


    Luo Lan was confused.


    Then Qing Zhen looked at the other officers and said, ¡°Start thinking about how we should concentrate our defensive lines. I want to see a new strategy in ce on the sand table tomorrow morning.¡±


    Someone hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°An elite troop of soldiers have already been sent to the Li Consortium¡¯s territory. Qing Yun was nning on intercepting the Li Consortium¡¯s Divine Arms Battalion based on the intel they ryed back. This Divine Arms Battalion is being too careless by acting independently without coordinating with their other fighting forces. Therefore, Qing Yun thought this would be an opportunity to nip the threat in the bud.¡±


    Qing Zhen was taken aback. ¡°When did he send our troops out? And where are they now?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s been a week since they set off. They were headed to the front lines at Mt. Fengyi and Mt. Shuanglong,¡± that officer said.


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°Recall them. There¡¯s no need for such an unnecessary move at this moment.¡±


    That officer hesitated before saying, ¡°I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s toote.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and the others were trekking in the mountains on foot at this moment. The snow on the ground had not melted yet because of the low temperatures in the mountains. It was very difficult for them to march in such conditions, yet it started snowing yet again.


    Sniffing back mucus, Li Qingzheng said, ¡°If I knew it would be like this, I would¡¯ve gone into hiding back then. I thought I could enjoy my days after joining the private army, but life now is even worse than before.... I really miss the days when we were at the outpost where we led a carefree life!¡±


    Next to him, a soldier from another toon asked curiously, ¡°Was it veryfortable at the outpost for y¡¯all? Why did it feel so miserable for us?¡±


    Li Qingzheng immediately shut his mouth after hearing someone else chip in with this question. He couldn¡¯t possibly tell them they had wolves sending all that game to them at their outpost, right?


    As the snowstorm got heavier, Ren Xiaosu looked up at the sky. ¡°When snowfall bes this heavy in the wilderness of the mountains, it tends to keep snowing for at least a week. We can¡¯t march any further. I¡¯m afraid that if we keep moving, we¡¯ll end up losing our way.¡±


    The Divine Arms officer in front turned around and said, ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? We¡¯re equipped with GPS devices, so we won¡¯t lose our way! Everyone is to obey our orders right now! We¡¯re going to keep marching forward!¡±


    After Liu Taiyu, themander of the Iron Second Battalion, was punched and kicked, he fell into aa and then started running a high fever. Without him, no one in the Iron Second could call the shots. So everyone had no choice but to follow the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s orders and continue marching.


    Although Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity was very unique, the soldiers from the Divine Arms Battalion had spoken to him about this before. If their ns were affected, no one would be able to bear the consequences. In such situations, even being a member of the Office of Special Investigations would not allow him to vite this military order. For a moment, Ren Xiaosu even wanted to convince himself that since he had already infringed on the Custom Division¡¯s authority by investigating smuggling, it wouldn¡¯t be a big deal if he also took over the role of the Divine Arms Battalion.


    However, this was still not the right time.

 Chapter 248 - The Office of Special Investigations guards against spies!

    <h4>Chapter 248 The Office of Special Investigations guards against spies!</h4>


    ¡°The snow¡¯s getting even heavier.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed as he observed the weather.


    ¡°It¡¯s said that it was even colder than this right after The Cataclysm urred.¡± Li Qingzheng was panting as he trudged through the snow. ¡°Some of the older people said they had to store enough food tost them the entire winter during those years. If there wasn¡¯t enough food, they would even resort to stocking up with tree roots. No one could go outside in the winter at all.¡±


    The snow in the mountains gradually reached their feet, then their ankles, and finally, their knees.


    This heavy snowfall came so fast and unexpectedly that the Divine Arms officer even started to waver on whether they should continue marching. When he looked at his GPS device and saw it was still functioning normally, he felt a little reassured.


    However, there was only a narrow dirt road in the mountains, and it was currently covered in snow. Someone who was not careful enough sprained their ankle when they identally stepped onto a rock. Fortunately, the sprain was not too serious as the snow was rtively soft.


    Ren Xiaosu walked against the blizzard to get to the front of the troops and shouted to the officer of the Divine Arms Battalion, ¡°We can¡¯t walk any further. The snow is too deep for everyone to move.¡±


    But that Divine Arms officer didn¡¯t care. Since the nanomachines in their bodies were constantly providing them with powered assistance, they did not have much difficulty walking in the snow. Besides, the nanomachines¡¯ battery life would definitely be sufficient to support them for the entire way if they were going to slowly walk like this. Moreover, they were carrying wireless chargers on their backs.


    The wireless chargers were standard issue for thebat troops of the Divine Arms Battalion and had to be carried around during a war.


    Awhile ago, the Divine Arms officer was adamant about marching even though it was snowing heavily. If he suddenly changed his mind, wouldn¡¯t he be embarrassing himself?


    One of the other Divine Arms officers said coldly, ¡°If we can¡¯t get to the specified destination on time, are you going to shoulder the responsibility?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not bother contending with them and just said, ¡°Have y¡¯all seen how a wolf pack moves in the snow? We need to keep rotating the people at the front to create a trail so that it¡¯ll be much easier for those at the back to walk. It¡¯ll be easier to advance if every toon takes turns creating a path in the


    snow!¡±


    After hearing this, the Divine Arms officers turned around and looked at the exhausted private soldiers behind them.


    The officers looked at one another until one of them said, ¡°We¡¯ll do as you described. Every toon is to walk at the front for 15 minutes each. No one is allowed to ck off!¡±


    After the order was passed down, the entire group of marching troops went from moving in a swarm to forming a single long and narrow file in the snow.


    Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. By doing this, it would at least relieve some of their burdens and help the troops march in a more orderly fashion.


    Suddenly, the voice from the pce in his mind said, ¡°Quest: Help yourrades who have fallen behind keep up with the troops.¡±


    This quest dumbfounded Ren Xiaosu as no one had fallen behind yet. Besides, these bastards had betrayed him before, so why should he help them?


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw someone in the troops behind him run off towards the mountain. He knew something was not right. This was a deserter who could no longer bear it and was trying to run away!


    Before now, Liu Taiyu had the support of the reinforcedpany to help him oversee the private troops and prevent anyone from bing deserters. But now that Liu Taiyu was in aa, the soldiers of the reinforcedpany couldn¡¯t care less about maintaining order. Furthermore, they still had to take turns carrying Liu Taiyu. Ren Xiaosu felt that these people might even abandon him along the way and be deserters themselves.


    As Ren Xiaosu watched that man run off to the nearby mountains, he could only think of one thing. ¡®Would a deserter count as someone who¡¯s fallen behind?¡¯


    Of course it fucking would!


    A lot of people noticed that deserter as well. Before the others felt tempted to follow suit, they saw Ren Xiaosu dash over. His speed in the snow was unhindered and as fast as running on t ground!


    Within half a minute, Ren Xiaosu caught the deserter and even took his weapons away from him.


    As Ren Xiaosu dragged this deserter back by his legs, he earnestly tried tofort him. ¡°It¡¯s not safe in the mountains. What if something happens to you after you¡¯ve escaped into the mountains?¡±


    The deserter was in despair. ¡°I won¡¯t try to escape anymore, so please let go of me. I¡¯ll stand up and walk by myself!¡±


    A deep trail was carved out in the snow when Ren Xiaosu dragged the deserter back by his legs. Actually, Ren Xiaosu had not meant to get rough with him. Although the deserter had outed him yesterday, it wasn¡¯t worthwhile for Ren Xiaosu to do anything to him.


    And there was nothing wrong with being a deserter either. All the soldier wanted was to live!


    So Ren Xiaosu only took away the deserter¡¯s weapons when he caught him and did not hit him at all.


    But was Ren Xiaosu in the wrong for wanting toplete his quest? He wasn¡¯t in the wrong either!


    There was another point that Ren Xiaosu was not lying about. If anyone ventured into the mountains alone in such heavy snowfall, they would die. At the very least, he would never have ventured into the mountains during a violent blizzard.


    Ren Xiaosu said to the others, ¡°Everyone, keep walking. Don¡¯t be a deserter, ya hear me!¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu went over to the reinforcedpany and said, ¡°Although the Iron Second¡¯smander is in aa, y¡¯all have to assume your duties, understand?¡±


    The soldiers of the reinforcedpany who were carrying Liu Taiyu were a little dumbfounded. Why had this refugee taken control of them?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Divine Arms officer and said, ¡°If anyone escapes at this time and your ns get discovered by enemy troops, all that you¡¯ve done up til now will have been for naught.¡±


    The Divine Arms officer also thought what he said was true. They turned to the reinforcedpany¡¯s soldiers and said, ¡°Go keep an eye on the troops. If anyone attempts to desert, shoot them on the spot!¡±


    Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back and said with emotion, ¡°Although I don¡¯t know what our toonmander is up to, his ability to sway people is amazing.¡±


    But at this moment, someone in the troops suddenly fell down in the snow looking utterly exhausted. The people who passed by did not even bother looking at him. Even hisrades from the same toon were not nning on helping him.


    Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. He had thought his quest would bepleted after he had caught the deserter, but he had not expected this quest to turn out more difficult than the ones he had before.


    Before he could finishmenting, another person in the troops fainted.


    These people were not pretending. After all, the Divine Arms Battalion had just given the order that if anyone deliberately tried to dy the mission, they would be shot.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over and fireman-carried the man who had fainted. He said to Chen Wudi, ¡°I guess we¡¯re helping people in need. Piggyback the other person and walk ahead.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had been waiting for the pce to confirm that he hadpleted the quest, but it did not say anything even after a long time.


    However, Chen Wudi appeared to be quite happy. Doing good deeds together and being a hero with his master felt quite good and fun to him.


    After a while, Chen Wudi was even carrying two people on his shoulders. Ren Xiaosu could only exin to the others that his friend was born with great strength.


    Although it was rare to see people who could carry two people at once, quite a few refugees at the coal mines outside the stronghold could do it, so it was still exinable.


    But if he carried more than that, Ren Xiaosu would probably not be able to exin it.


    When the lead officer of the Divine Arms Battalion saw this, he said in surprise, ¡°The Office of Special Investigations is really doing all it can just to guard against spies. No wonder all the other fighting forces in the military are afraid of them!¡±

 Chapter 249 - Standing up for Chen Wudi

    <h4>Chapter 249 Standing up for Chen Wudi</h4>


    At noon, the group found a slope downwind and decided to take a short break there. The buns everyone was carrying had frozen hard. But they had no other choice as this was what it was like in the wilderness.


    Based on what the private soldiers were saying, it was quite good that they had buns to eat at all.


    While the soldiers ate their field rations, someone suddenlyined, ¡°They¡¯re really inhumane for making us march in such ursed weather!¡±


    ¡°But what can you do ¡¯bout it?¡± One of the soldiers took a bite of the cold, hard bun and said, ¡°If I hadn¡¯t stocked up on some bunsst night, I would¡¯ve starved to death along the way today. It¡¯s impossible to keep moving in this weather if we have no food to eat.¡±


    ¡°Hey, you don¡¯t say! Seeing Liu Taiyu¡¯s current plight can¡¯t make me any happier.¡± Someone said, ¡°All of our pay and entitlements must have been embezzled by that bastard, Liu Taiyu!¡±


    ¡°But I still feel like it isn¡¯t enough. Why didn¡¯t that Divine Arms officer just kick him to death?¡± one of the soldiers said angrily.


    ¡°We¡¯re still dozens of klicks away from the nearest mountain, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Fengyi and Mt. Shuanglong are even further north. I wonder when we¡¯ll reach our destination since it¡¯s snowing so heavily now,¡± someone said in total despair. ¡°Moreover, those bastards from the reinforcedpany are even starting to keep an eye on us now, so there¡¯s no chance that we can escape.¡±


    ¡°Forget about it,¡± one of them said. ¡°Escape? It requires tremendous courage in this weather just to head into the mountains alone to seek a quick death. There¡¯s still a chance of survival if we stick with everyone. But once you be a deserter, death is certain.¡±


    ¡°Let me give y¡¯all a suggestion.¡± Someone chuckled. ¡°When we set off againter, just pretend you¡¯ve fainted. As soon as you faint, that idiot called Chen Wudi wille over and carry you. We can walk much less that way!¡± But as soon as he finished speaking, he felt a chill creep up behind his back, causing him to shudder even more in this already cold weather. But when he turned around to look, everything seemed perfectly normal. ¡®That¡¯s strange! What¡¯s going on?¡¯


    As Ren Xiaosu was furtively cutting pieces of cured meat to share with Chen Wudi and the students, he noticed Chen Wudi looked dismayed. ¡°Wudi, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Chen Wudi whispered, ¡°Master, I¡¯ve regained my super hearing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°But Wudi, the Great Sage doesn¡¯t have that power.¡±


    Chen Wudi replied, ¡°Well, the version of the Great Sage that I am does.¡±


    ¡°Hm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡®Alright, whatever you say.¡¯ Honestly, Ren Xiaosu did not even know which version of the Great Sage Chen Wudi was anymore. How amazing it was to be able to ¡°patch¡± oneself like that.


    ¡°Master,¡± Chen Wudi said dejectedly, ¡°I don¡¯t want to help them anymore.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What did you hear?¡±


    ¡°They said that they¡¯re going to pretend to faint when we set off again so that the idiotic Chen Wudi will carry them,¡± Chen Wudi answered.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes narrowed at the answer. ¡°Who said that?¡±


    Chen Wudi did not mention the man. ¡°Master, you¡¯d kill the man if I told you.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the big deal with killing some people?¡± Ren Xiaosu sneered.


    ¡°Master,¡± Chen Wudi said, ¡°I just don¡¯t understand why some people in this world are so evil?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll get theireuppance,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at the private soldiers around him with a dark expression. For the first time in recent days, he was keen to kill someone.


    When they resumed their journey in the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu was silent as he walked along with the troops. Suddenly, five people dropped to the ground at the same time. Ren Xiaosu slowly walked up to these people and seemingly stepped on the back of a person¡¯s hand identally. The man trembled in pain but pretended to remain unconscious and did not open his eyes no matter what.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Li Qingzheng with a smile, ¡°Get me a rope. We have some in our field


    packs.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Li Qingzheng did not know why Ren Xiaosu wanted a rope, but he still got it for him.


    He watched Ren Xiaosu tie the rope around the calves of these five people who were on the ground. Then, he started dragging them forward in the snow!


    When one of those people on the ground sensed something was wrong, he wanted to quickly get up and say that he had regained his consciousness. But as soon as he got up, Ren Xiaosu kicked his chest. The man coughed up blood on the spot!


    Everyone turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back as he stood in the snow. Snowkes in the air swirled around him, and he was full of killing intent.


    He said calmly, ¡°Did I say that you could get


    up?¡±


    In response, someone on the ground got up and shouted, ¡°We¡¯re going to die if we get dragged like this in the snow by him. Let¡¯s fight him!¡±


    But when they tried to stand up, Ren Xiaosu kicked all of them back into the snow. These people could only feel a foot as hard as steel when the kicksnded on their chests, while the people watching could not even see how fast Ren Xiaosu¡¯s movements were. But they only thought the snowfall blurred their vision.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and grinned at the others. ¡°You¡¯re all adults, so walk on your own, got it?¡±


    Chen Wudi stared dumbfoundedly at Ren Xiaosu while standing in the snow. ¡°Master...¡±


    As the young man¡¯s figure faced the blizzard in the wilderness of the mountains, he smiled at Chen Wudi and said, ¡°Master will help you get back at them.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu dragged the five of them behind him through the snow with the rope. Li Qingzheng went up to him. ¡°I¡¯ll help you


    pull.¡±


    Jiang Wu¡¯s eight students also came over. ¡°Monitor, we¡¯ll help too.¡±


    In this moment, no one in the troops dared to speak up for these five men. Those in the know all knew Ren Xiaosu had probably realized the five of them were deliberately trying to take advantage of Chen Wudi¡¯s kindness.


    Sometimes, there were just some people who stood head and shoulders above millions of others. Before Ren Xiaosu had revealed himself, everyone thought he was just a normal young man. But in this moment, his ruthlessness made everyone terrified of him. They knew Ren Xiaosu was going to drag all five of them through the snow until they died!


    When the Divine Arms officer standing furthest ahead of the troops watched this ur, he was a little dumbfounded. ¡°I heard there were many ruthless people in the Office of Special Investigations. I didn¡¯t believe it before, but I do now.¡±


    Another Divine Arms officer muttered, ¡°When we meet up with the others after the war ends, we must tell them not to ever mess with those from the Office of Special Investigations. Their ways are extremely cruel.¡±


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu had never openly admitted to his master-disciple rtionship with Chen Wudi. After all, he had never taught him anything before, and the way he became his disciple was also inexplicable.


    But Ren Xiaosu really liked Chen Wudi addressing him as master. Chen Wudi was just like a pure, wless crystal. Who wouldn¡¯t enjoy getting along with someone like that? As a result, Ren Xiaosu had long since acknowledged this master-disciple rtionship in his mind.


    But today, Ren Xiaosu was not actually that insistent on standing up for Chen Wudi. All he wanted was to help Chen Wudi hold on to hisst ray of light.

 Chapter 250 - Side quest unlocked: Seeds!

    <h4>Chapter 250 Side quest unlocked: Seeds!</h4>


    On the same afternoon, the blizzard had be so heavy that even the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion were finding it unbearable. The private soldiers with the responsibility of forging a path in the snow had to lift their legs high each time they took a step forward.


    In this ursed weather, even though everyone was taking turns to create a path in the snow, it was still extremely taxing, even though the terrain was t.


    However, no one else dared to faint for the rest of the afternoon as they were all afraid they would get dragged to their deaths in the snow by Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Let¡¯s set up camp here.¡± One of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion said, ¡°We¡¯ll continue on our march after the snow has stopped.¡±


    It was not the time to think about saving face. If they continued marching, all of them might just end up dying in the snow.


    If that happened, they would simrly not be able to aplish their mission since they wouldn¡¯t even be able to get to Mt. Shuanglong.


    That officer of the Divine Arms Battalion felt he could still keep marching, but the private soldiers were simply not fit enough to go on.


    When they learned they could finally set up camp and get some rest, all of the private soldiers seemed like they had been injected with a new lease on life. They were trembling in the cold weather and even wanted to sit down in the snow, but Ren Xiaosu roared at them, ¡°Get up and set up your tents. How can y¡¯all think of resting when you don¡¯t have a tent to take shelter in? Do you want to die out here in the snow?¡±


    Actually, they could also rest in the snow without setting up a tent. All they had to do was dig a snow pit and bury themselves in it. This wasn¡¯t some derisive suggestion but a genuine solution if tents were not avable while trekking through deep snow. Most people would think it would be colder in a snow pit, but being in one actually helps keep a person warm, because the surroundings outside of a snow pit are even colder than the inside.


    Ren Xiaosu had heard from Zhang Jinglin that some human settlements in the far north would build igloos to keep themselves warm in the winter.


    Everyone struggled to get up and were using theirst bit of strength to set up their tents when faced with the threat of death. However, some of the toons were in terrible shape. In order to conserve their energy along the way, they had even thrown away their tents at some point. If they could manage to squeeze into other people¡¯s tents, it wouldn¡¯t be so bad. But if the others did not share their tents, they would have to dig snow pits and gamble on whether they would be able to endure the cold in there.


    Ren Xiaosu ordered Li Qingzheng and the others, ¡°I¡¯ll set up the tent while y¡¯all go and gather some firewood from the ground. If you can¡¯t find any, tree branches will do too. We have to get a campfire going so that we can keep ourselves warm. Have a bowl of hot porridge, each of you. Otherwise, we won¡¯t be able to bear it for much longer.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Li Qingzheng¡¯s face was flushed from the cold. ¡°Leave it to me. Follow me, brothers. Let¡¯s go and collect some firewood.¡±


    Branches that were collected from trees would produce a lot of choking smoke when burned. But this was nothingpared to having a campfire to warm themselves with.


    At this moment, the voice from the pce in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t until this moment that his quest was finallypleted. This was probably the hardest standard quest he had ever done.


    At present, Ren Xiaosu had two Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls on him. But he didn¡¯t intend to use them since there was no target nearby for him to learn from. But if he met Hu Shuo again, he could probably give it a try. Although the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll couldn¡¯t copy superpowers, Hu Shuo must have some skills that would prove useful for Ren Xiaosu. Even if he was just trying his luck, he could probably still get something good from him.


    But the pce was not finished as it continued, ¡°Side questplete. A new product, Seeds, has been unlocked for purchase in the vending machine!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. His patience for this side quest had finally paid off. It felt like it had taken such a long time for it to bepleted. But upon recounting the days carefully, he realized it was only the second day of the new year today.


    He had a look inside the pce and saw the vending machine standing quietly within it. A new transparent window had appeared next to the Explosive Poker slot.


    There were some seeds scattered within the window. But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, they all looked somewhat different from each other. Could it be that different nts would grow from different seeds?


    The newly unlocked window slot was just like a candy box in a grocery store. The colorful packaging represented different vors while different colors of seeds represented different


    uses.


    He ced a gratitude token into the slot and watched a crimson seed about the size of a thumb get dispensed into the pick-uppartment at the bottom. As Ren Xiaosu held it in his hand, the pce did not exin what this item was for.


    ¡°Do I have to nt it before I know what it does?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. ¡®But more importantly, shouldn¡¯t the pce at least tell me what kind of environment it grows in?¡¯


    It had to have magical properties since it was a product of the pce. However, he would have to test it for himself.


    For example, Ren Xiaosu also had to discover how to activate Explosive Poker by himself. If he had not managed to do so, they would have remained bog-standard ying cards.


    What should he do now? Should he try nting it in the ground? What if this seed could germinate and sprout immediately? In this winter weather, how great would it be if the nt that grew from the seed bore fruit or something immediately?


    Ren Xiaosu had always had great expectations of the side quest rewards awarded by the pce. They were items that basically ignored thews of nature!


    Ren Xiaosu said to Chen Wudi, ¡°Keep watch here at the tent. When they get back, tell them that I spotted a small wild boar and that I¡¯m nning to catch it for our dinner tonight. If Ie backte, just improvise and make up an excuse.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Chen Wudi nodded.


    Ren Xiaosu headed out into the snow alone. As he walked further and further, he felt that he might have been too hasty to tell Chen Wudi to improvise a reason for his disappearance.


    He headed further north to look for a suitable location to experiment with the seed and find out just how magical it was.


    He kept heading north until he found a spot that was slightly downwind. Then he started digging up the snow and soil before nting the crimson seed.


    SOOV


    As Ren Xiaosu patiently waited, he saw the seed he had just nted suddenly sprout. Bramble grew outwards as the thorny vines spread out dozens of meters across the snow before gradually stopping.


    If Ren Xiaosu cleared away the snow on the ground, he would see the red bramble spread out on the ground like a spiderweb where itid in wait for its prey.


    At this moment, the nt connected with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s consciousness like it did for Explosive Poker. Ren Xiaosu was shocked when he realized that this nt was extremely aggressive. If it were not controlled by him, it would attack any creature that came near to it!


    What was this? Ren Xiaosu had thought this nt could bear fruit that could be eaten, but it turned out to be an attack nt.


    No, rather than an attack nt, it was more appropriate to call it a defensive type.


    If Ren Xiaosu and the others went and lived in the forested mountains in the future, they would not have to be afraid of any wild animals as long as he nted this thing in their surroundings.


    As Ren Xiaosu looked at the other colored seeds in the pce, he wondered what kind of abilities they had. Surely one of them had to be edible, right?


    After some thought, he ced an additional five gratitude tokens into the vending machine to trade for five seeds all at once. Then he nted them in the soil at long distance from each other.


    As Chen Wudi sat in the tent and waited, Li Qingzheng asked, ¡°Wudi, where did your master go?¡±


    Chen Wudi thought for a moment and said, ¡°My master went out to catch a wild boar for our dinner.¡±


    Li Qingzheng asked, ¡°Then why isn¡¯t he back


    yet?¡±


    Chen Wudi gave it some thought. ¡°The boar probably doesn¡¯t agree to it.¡±

 Chapter 251 - Crazy plants!

    <h4>Chapter 251 Crazy nts!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu was squatting in the snow. The blizzard had be terrifyingly heavy. However, he did not at all care because he was fully focused on the seeds he had just nted into the ground.


    After nting the Bramble, Ren Xiaosu had traded for another five seeds.


    There were about ten different types of seeds in the window slot of the vending machine. But after inserting the gratitude tokens, the vending machine dispensed another four Bramble seeds and one khaki-colored seed.


    It seemed that Seeds was simr to the Explosive Poker item that he had. It was easier for him to get his hands on the moremon seeds. When he traded for Explosive Poker, three and four were the mostmon cards dispensed by the vending machine. asionally, it would also dispense out one or two 5s, but Ren Xiaosu had never seen any higher-numbered cards than that.


    The Brambles behaved in a very aggressive manner. Ren Xiaosu reckoned that if supernatural beings entered its attack range, few people would survive an attack. So Ren Xiaosu was still quite satisfied with this new product.


    But what use did this khaki-colored seed have?


    After this seed was nted, it sprouted at a much slower rate. It wasn¡¯t until ten minutester that green buds started sprouting out of the ground.


    He could see the buds starting to grow. But even at this point, the nt did not seem like anything special.


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He watched a pocketlike structure form at the top of the nt. His mental consciousness then connected with it.


    When Ren Xiaosu focused his mind, a potato about the size of a fist shot out at high speed from the pocketlike structure of the nt. It was just like firing an artillery shell.


    This was... a potato shooter!


    What the hell! Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He already understood how this nt worked through its connection with his consciousness. It turned out to be an automatic rifle of the nt kingdom that could shoot up to 30 potatoes each day.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that it couldn¡¯t get any more useless than this. Any automatic rifle would be more powerful than this thing, alright? Guns could not only shoot faster, they were also more lethal than this.


    It seemed like other than being automatically alert to its surroundings, there was nothing else good about it.


    Moreover, wouldn¡¯t it be a waste to spit out all those potatoes? They were food after all!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly looked at the Potato Shooter: ¡°Spit out the potatoes for me.¡¯


    The Potato Shooter spat out the remaining 29 potatoes that it had stored underground. Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips. ¡°High-speed food production, that¡¯s pretty useful. We can have potatoes for dinner tonight.¡±


    Even the pce did not expect Ren Xiaosu to use an offensive nt like this as a food crop.


    But all of a sudden, he heard the crunching of snowing from across the way. Ren Xiaosu immediately raised his guard. Someone was walking over from the opposite side!


    Currently, the rest of the Li Consortium¡¯s regr forces were garrisoned at the front line at Mt. Fengyi. What regr force would venture out into these mountains for no apparent reason? Everyone would travel by the main roads, and only special forces like the Divine Arms Battalion would trek through mountains and rivers.


    Could they be from the Divine Arms Battalion as well? But they were not moving in the same direction.


    If so... they must be enemies!


    Ren Xiaosu quietly withdrew. When he stepped on the snowy ground, he used the tiptoes so he would not make a sound.


    He retreated to a distance far away and hid behind arge tree. There shouldn¡¯t be that many enemy troops and they were most probably just a scouting party. The only thing he did not know was whether they were from the Qing Consortium or the Yang Consortium.


    He saw 30 people walking cautiously in the snow in a long single file. They had people taking turns to forge a path in the snow as they moved along like wolves.


    Ren Xiaosu waited for them to enter the range of the Brambles. This way he could also observe how the nt actually worked.


    But the enemy was pretty astute too. The snowfall was not heavy enough to conceal Ren Xiaosu¡¯s footprints in the time it took for him to hide. So the advance party immediately stopped in their tracks when they saw his footprints.


    The entire troop immediately fanned out in the snow so they could take control of their surroundings.


    ¡°Be careful, someone was here just now!¡±


    ¡°Judging by the tracks in the snow, they must have decided to leave after hearing our footsteps.¡±


    ¡°Did our n get leaked?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but look for the tango¡¯s trail. It should only be one person!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little disappointed. They just needed toe a little closer and they would have stepped into the attack radius of the Brambles. The Brambles had an attack range of dozens of meters.


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. Although the Brambles were in a fixed spot, he could control the Potato Shooter to initiate an attack!


    Ren Xiaosu focused his mind and controlled the Potato Shooter to attack in an attempt to test its power, but he found it did not respond to him.


    Was this a fucking fake? Why wasn¡¯t it shooting any potatoes?


    Oh wait, he had already taken all the potatoes and put them into his backpack. So it wasn¡¯t the Potato Shooter that was to me...


    Ren Xiaosu was certain by now that these were thebat troops of the Qing Consortium after watching them from afar. Although he was on familiar terms with Fatty Luo, neither of them would hold back if they bumped into each other on the battlefield. War is war.


    Furthermore, weren¡¯t Qing Zhen and Luo Lan under house arrest now? So these soldiers wouldn¡¯t have anything to do with them, right?


    Suddenly, the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops switched on the shlights attached to their automatic rifles. With the light illuminating the snow, they followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s footprints and locked onto arge tree he was taking cover behind.


    In the deep snow, there was no way of hiding those footprints. Unless Ren Xiaosu could fly.


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu did not expect the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops to be so careful and vignt. The Qing Consortium¡¯s troops looked at one another and said, ¡°Affirmative, it¡¯s only one person.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t let him escape in case he exposes our whereabouts by reporting it,¡± the toonmander said calmly. As long as they were certain it was only one person, it would be easy to handle.


    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot yet. There might be troops nearby. This isn¡¯t a ce where refugees would appear. It could be a nanosoldier from the Divine Arms Battalion that we¡¯re facing.¡±


    The Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops carefully analyzed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s possible identity and motives in order to determine their next course of action.


    They only came here after receiving intel that suggested the Divine Arms Battalion had disappeared shortly after setting off for this location. They expected the enemy would appear in these forested mountains.


    As they discussed, someone attached a silencer to their muzzle. As the advance party, they couldn¡¯t alert their enemies. The battle would have to be fought quickly in secret.


    ¡°Advance!¡± The toonmander said, ¡°Adopt Offensive Approach Formation.¡±


    Under normal circumstances, the advance guard would generally only adopt three types of battle formations. One was the basic approach formation where the entire toon would stand in a straight line with the lead person holding his gun up at full alert and aiming ahead, while the rest of the rear toon members would keep their guards up and point their guns at the left and right nks. The other was the defensive approach formation where onebatant would guard the toon¡¯s rear by aiming their rifle in the opposite direction of advance.


    Meanwhile, the offensive approach formation would have all the members advance in a staggered manner where the first, second, and thirdbatants would be at full alert and aim ahead. The second and third members would stand at staggered positions to the left and right rear behind the first member to provide covering fire.

 Chapter 252 - An old friend, Tang Zhou!

    <h4>Chapter 252 An old friend, Tang Zhou!</h4>


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s troops advanced in a tactical formation. However, Ren Xiaosu still did note out from behind therge tree as he was waiting


    Although the campsite was about 500 meters to his rear, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t want to go back to call for reinforcements. After all, there was no one there he could count on other than Chen Wudi.


    Jiang Wu¡¯s students would definitely be more than willing to help him, but the key thing was that the eight of them were intellectuals and they might not even know how to hold a rifle.


    As for a group like the private troops, how could he possibly count on those ipetent people?


    But what Ren Xiaosu was waiting for was for the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops toe a little closer!


    When the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops stepped into the range of the Brambles, Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to make the vines attack. Instead, he waited quietly for this entire toon to get into range.


    Other than the spot Ren Xiaosu had dug up for the seed to sprout, the rest of the vines were concealed under the thick snow.


    Just as the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops entered the attack radius, someone realized something was wrong. ¡°Hang on, it feels like we¡¯re stepping on something.¡±


    Someone crouched down and cleared away the snow to reveal the brambles on the ground. ¡°These crimson brambles look a little strange. I¡¯ve never seen a nt like it before.¡±


    ¡°Strange nts like this one are increasing by the day, so nothing is surprising about them. Don¡¯t tell me they can even attack people?¡± a soldier said as he cast a nce at it before resuming his watch on the surroundings.


    However, the toonmander frowned. ¡°There¡¯s something odd about this. Don¡¯t move any further. We¡¯re withdrawing!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised while hiding behind a tree that was a few dozen meters away. He did not expect the Qing Consortium troops to be so careful. Weren¡¯t they being overly cautious? Weren¡¯t they just some nts found in the wilderness? ¡®What are y¡¯all so afraid of!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu found it a little pitiful. The enemies had presented themselves to him, yet he did not even manage to kill a single one of them.


    But what Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know was that these were the elite troops sent by Qing Yun to intercept the Divine Arms Battalion and that they were also very well-known throughout the entire Qing Consortium. These were just the scouting party, while the main force behind them were currently reorganizing.


    How could a fighting force confident enough to inflict heavy damage upon the Divine Arms¡¯ nanosoldiers fall for a trap so easily?


    If he had not incapcitated the Potato Shooter, he could have tested its capabilities.


    Themander of the toon suddenly said, ¡°Friend, are you part of the Li Consortium¡¯s troops?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this voice, he was stunned. ¡°Tang Zhou?!¡±


    The toonmander was stunned as well. ¡°Ren Xiaosu?!¡±


    If there had been no interaction, then so be it. But now that the enemy had said something, it turned out to be someone he knew?


    Previously, Tang Zhou had sent Qing Zhen and Luo Lan back to Stronghold 111 with the off-road vehicle. As soon as they got back there, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were ced under house arrest by the Board. Meanwhile, Tang Zhou was deployed to the frontline troops where he reported directly to the forward operating base at Mt. Daping.


    After he was reassigned to work under Qing Yun¡¯s troops, Qing Yun knew he still remained loyal to Luo Lan. So Qing Yun demoted him from the rank of captain to toonmander and sent him to this elite force as a scout.


    Many of the soldiers in this force used to be under Qing Zhen¡¯smand. Qing Yun had sent them here on the pretext of ¡°intercepting¡± the Divine Arms Battalion, but how were they supposed to retreat from this ce after sessfully intercepting the Divine Arms Battalion?


    Importantly, the Li Consortium had stationed theirbat troops at the front lines of Mt. Fengyi, Mt. Shuanglong, and Mt. Tantou. Once the Divine Arms Battalion got involved in a battle there, the entire Li Consortium wouldunch an unbridled counterattack on these troops of the Qing Consortium.


    Even if they ended up bing heroes in the Qing Consortium¡¯s history books, they definitely wouldn¡¯t walk out of this mountain range alive!


    So Qing Zhen immediately sent Qing Yun¡¯s trusted troops to negotiate with the Li Consortium after seizingmand from him. What everyone was doing was essentially the same thing: removing dissidents from around them.


    It was not to say that it was a cruel thing to do, but that war itself was very cruel anyway. If they could not maintain control of their leadership over the military, they could not win the war.


    At this moment, Tang Zhou was still unaware that Qing Zhen had seizedmand of the military. When they were sent out here, Qing Yun did not even equip them with satellite phones or radio sets formunicating with headquarters. That was why when Qing Zhen asked if he could recall this toon, the second-inmand had said, ¡°It¡¯s toote.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Tang Zhou were on pretty good terms when they were still at Stronghold 109, and Tang Zhou also helped them out a lot. Since it was Tang Zhou who was here, this created an immediate opportunity for negotiations to ease the current situation.


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu was wondering why this toon was so difficult to deal with. Just a few brambles on the ground was all it took to attract their attention? Now that he realized they were Luo Lan and Qing Zhen¡¯s troops, he suddenly felt ¡°enlightened.¡±


    In his opinion, the men under Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were all elite soldiers with no cowards among them.


    Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Come over here alone, let¡¯s talk!¡±


    He wasn¡¯t willing to go over. After all, Tang Zhou was not the only person on their side. What if the others decided to shoot at him indiscriminately?


    When Tang Zhou heard that, he was ready to step over the brambles to Ren Xiaosu when someone next to him whisper-shouted, ¡°toon Commander, you mustn¡¯t go over! What if he¡¯s tricking you to get you over there?¡±


    Tang Zhou shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re old friends.¡±


    ¡°Even old friends can change,¡± someone reminded him anxiously. ¡°Don¡¯t believe him so easily.¡±


    Tang Zhou smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I trust him. Didn¡¯t I tell you guys before that Boss Luo and I were saved by someone while escaping from Stronghold 113 after it copsed? He¡¯s the person who saved us. He and Boss Luo are good friends too... uh, I¡¯m not exactly sure if they can be considered good friends.¡±


    Everyone around him was stunned by the impact of this twist as it proved a little too much for them to handle. So the other party was Tang Zhou¡¯s savior? But the real question was, why had he appeared at this ce? What was he doing here squatting in the snow in the middle of the night by himself? ying in the snow?


    Tang Zhou carefully avoided stepping on the brambles and walked towards therge tree where Ren Xiaosu was. Ren Xiaosu got a little emotional as it felt rather nice to be trusted by others. Tang Zhou actually dared toe over by himself!


    ¡°Long time no see, what are you doing here?¡± When Tang Zhou reached the tree, he saw Ren Xiaosu standing there. He chuckled. ¡°Is that the Divine Arms uniform you¡¯re wearing?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him. ¡°Let¡¯s sit down and talk.¡±


    Tang Zhou and Ren Xiaosu sat down crossed-legged on the snow. Tang Zhou ced his rifle aside and said, ¡°Does this mean you¡¯ve joined the Li Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Join them? My ass!¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I fled with the escapees from Stronghold 109 and ended up getting conscripted into their military.¡±


    ¡°Hahaha,¡± Tang Zhouughed. ¡°But you¡¯re not yet as miserable as me. I¡¯ve been sent here to die.¡±


    ¡°Sent here to die?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Currently, someone called Qing Yun is in charge of our military forces. Mr. Qing Zhen and Boss Luo have been ced under house arrest at the vi in Stronghold 111 and are stuck there for the time being. I was immediately demoted after transferring to Qing Yun¡¯s forces, and he also ced many of Mr. Qing Zhen¡¯s former men in the force and made use to intercept your Divine Arms Battalion.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu reacted with a strange expression. ¡°Then y¡¯all are heading in the wrong direction. I¡¯m not from the Divine Arms Battalion; I¡¯m just a part of the private troops...¡±

 Chapter 253 - Quadruple identity, Ren Xiaosu!

    <h4>Chapter 253 Quadruple identity, Ren Xiaosu!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu exined patiently to Tang Zhou, ¡°I was conscripted into the private army. On the way here, those bastards from the Divine Arms Battalion suddenly stopped us and demanded to exchange their uniforms with us. They even took the trucks we were traveling in, leaving us with no choice but to trek through the wilderness of the mountains on foot. They¡¯re also making us hurry on with the journey in such heavy snowfall...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu rted all that had happened, dumbfounding Tang Zhou. ¡°So it was like that? It seems like the intel we received was wrong. But it¡¯s already a little toote to pursue them now. We¡¯d have to cross several military zones to get to them, but we can¡¯t possibly get past those ces.¡±


    ¡°Why do you still want to go there then?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you already know that even if you manage to intercept the Divine Arms Battalion, you¡¯re unlikely to return alive regardless of whether y¡¯all can emerge victorious against them?¡±


    Tang Zhou said with a serious look, ¡°It¡¯s my duty to obey orders. As frontline soldiers, we can¡¯t have such thoughts. We might not return alive, but as long as it¡¯s for the sake of victory in war...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°I can¡¯t understand this sense of belonging that you have, but it isn¡¯t like the Qing Consortium is treating you that well either.¡±


    ¡°No, it would be humiliating for Boss Luo if I suffer a defeat at the front line and news gets out that it was his soldiers who messed up the mission.¡± Tang Zhou said, ¡°Since they have been confined in Stronghold 111, I have to do well on their behalf.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°It looks like your rtionship with Fatty Luo is pretty sincere. But since there¡¯s no way to attack the Divine Arms Battalion, why don¡¯t you just withdraw from here? Go back and talk to the Qing Consortium¡¯smanding officer. Tell them not to send over any more of the remaining troops to Mt. Fengyi, lest I get hurt.¡±


    Tang Zhou was stunned. ¡°We can¡¯t get in contact with HQ right now. When we came out here, we were prepared to die. If we can¡¯tplete the mission, we won¡¯t have the dignity to go back.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that if there were more people like Tang Zhou in the Qing Consortium, they would probably win any battle they participated in.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How many people are there in your force?¡±


    ¡°300 or so.¡± Tang Zhou said, ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be convenient to move around in the mountains if we had too many people. Otherwise, we could easily get discovered by enemies.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°Then why the fuck are y¡¯all even nning to fight the Divine Arms Battalion? They have over a 1,000 people there!¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be right.¡± Tang Zhou was stunned for a while. ¡°Didn¡¯t they say the Divine Arms¡¯ main force has been deployed to the front line at Mt. Ping to face the Yang Consortium? Our intel says there¡¯s only over a 100 of them out here.¡±


    ¡°I think that was also part of their ns. Themander of the private troops was also surprised by this fact.¡± Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°Your intel is definitely not urate. I¡¯ve seen them with my own eyes, so I¡¯m certain.¡±


    ¡°Then we¡¯re done for.¡± Tang Zhou sighed and said, ¡°We can¡¯tplete our mission.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt a tinge of regret as he chatted with Tang Zhou. He had been harping on how he was here to investigate spies as a part of his Office of Special Investigations duties, but in the end, he was the one who exposed the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s ns in an instant...


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this. From the Li Consortium¡¯s point of view, wasn¡¯t he doing what a spy would do?


    He could not have expected he would have to bear the burden of all these unwanted identities at his young age. He was a member of the Divine Arms Battalion, the private army, the Office of Special Investigations, and also a spy of the Qing Consortium...


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Can everyone in your toon be trusted?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Tang Zhou whispered, ¡°They¡¯re all our people. It¡¯s not only this toon, but all of the elite troops who¡¯re on our side, other than themander, second-inmand, and a few of their men. Besides, themander was also sent here just because Qing Yun doesn¡¯t like him.¡±


    ¡°Our people¡± was probably referring to those who were loyal to Qing Zhen and Luo Lan.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we do it this way? Y¡¯all wait and take cover here in the mountains. I¡¯ll lead some of the Li Consortium¡¯s troops over when I encounter those who I think you might be capable of defeating.¡±


    Tang Zhou¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°You can do that?¡±


    Currently, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s n was to see whether the Divine Arms Battalion could be beaten to retreat from the main battlefield to reorganize if the Qing Consortium knew their whereabouts. If the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s numbers were abruptly reduced after suffering heavy casualties, he could have a chance at collecting their nanomachines.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Tang Zhou. ¡°If you have a satellite phone, can you get in touch with HQ and ry the intel?¡±


    Tang Zhou hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Yes, but we don¡¯t have one.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s fine, I have one.¡±


    To be exact, Ren Xiaosu was not saying that he had one, but that the five officers from the Divine Arms Battalion had one.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that he was really going further and further down the path of colluding with the enemy this time.


    At night, it was quite lively at the private troops¡¯ campsite. Li Qingzheng and the others took quite a bit of effort to start the campfire. Although a lot of smoke was produced at the beginning, it was nothingpared to keeping themselves warm.


    If no one started a campfire, the entire campsite would have just gotten through the night as it was. But after Li Qingzheng andpany set up a campfire, the others got so envious they also went to build one. Suddenly, the entire campsite began to light up.


    Not only could they keep themselves warm with the campfire, but they were also able to roast the buns they had brought with them. If they still continued to eat their food cold in this sort of weather, it would really make them feel cold on both the inside and outside.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned, Li Qingzheng and the others were chatting by the campfire. Li Qingzheng¡¯s first reaction when he saw Ren Xiaosu was to ask, ¡°Xiaosu, where¡¯s the wild boar? You didn¡¯t manage to catch it?¡±


    ¡°Wild boar?¡± Ren Xiaosu then recalled the reason he had given Chen Wudi. ¡°Oh, right, I didn¡¯t manage to catch it. It was too fast and I didn¡¯t want to venture out too far.¡±


    ¡°Here, have a bite.¡± Li Qingzheng handed Ren Xiaosu a burnt bun and said, ¡°Earlier on, the people from Divine Arms said we¡¯ll be setting up camp here. We¡¯ll resume our journey northwards to Mt. Fengyi after the snow stops falling.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Ren Xiaosu acknowledged absentmindedly. The thing going through his mind right now was how to get his hands on the satellite phone from the Divine Arms Battalion. It wouldn¡¯t be easy to obtain it from them. The Divine Arms soldiers kept the satellite phone close to them and never let it out of their sights.


    It looked like there was no other choice but to kill these officers of the Divine Arms Battalion. It wouldn¡¯t be a bad solution since he had been eyeing the nanomachines in their bodies for some time now. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu felt these regr troops of the Divine Arms Battalion would have more nanomachines in them than Lin Qi¡¯s group!


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu called some of Jiang Wu¡¯s students over to the side and asked, ¡°What have y¡¯all been studying recently? Have you learned anything rted to mechanics? If ¡ªand I¡¯m just saying if-y¡¯all are required to design some simple armor, could you do it?¡±.


    Ren Xiaosu disliked the idea of having nanomachines inside his body to support himself like the Divine Arms soldiers did. His own body was strong enough, but hecked a defense system. So he only used the nanomachines in his body to form a simple armor that covered his body. There were noplexities he adopted for the structure of the armor. But now Ren Xiaosu was wondering if he should start relying on the power of knowledge.


    Didn¡¯t Zhang Jinglin always used to say that knowledge could change one¡¯s fate?


    The student named Wang Yuchi gave it some thought before saying, ¡°It¡¯s a little beyond what we know since it could involve mechanical belt drives, screw drives, chain drives, worm drives, hydraulic drives, pneumatic drives¡ª¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me what I can¡¯t understand,¡± interrupted Ren Xiaosu.¡±All I¡¯m asking is whether y¡¯all know or not?¡±


    Wang Yuchi said calmly, ¡°Yes.¡±

 Chapter 254 - Hunting nanosoldiers

    <h4>Chapter 254 Hunting nanosoldiers</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu knew Wang Yuchi and his ssmates were all top students. In order to get into university, they had long since started picking up knowledge beyond their level. But he constantly wondered what a few high school students were capable of. However, Ren Xiaosu realized now that he had underestimated Jiang Wu¡¯s students. Jiang Wu had used her life, dignity, and principles to protect them, and they had not embarrassed her.


    Wang Yuchi thought for a moment and said, ¡°It¡¯s impossible to ask us to design something too intricate. All we can do is try to reduce drag as much as possible and do our best to further improve on the design of the mechanical transmission structure¡ª¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to exin it, that¡¯ll be enough!¡± Ren Xiaosu gave a wave of his hand. ¡°Design a rough draft first, then improve on it after y¡¯all get the chance to further your studies!¡±


    ¡°But, Monitor, I don¡¯t really understand you. Why do you want such a thing?¡± Wang Yuchi raised his doubts, ¡°First, we don¡¯t have the materials. Second, the power source of this armor¡ª¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave another wave of his hand. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. We¡¯ll definitely have it!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu knew very well that the problems raised by Wang Yuchi were actually solvable with the use of the nanomachines. However, he could not tell Wang Yuchi the truth as of yet.


    Wang Yuchi and the other students just stared dumbfoundedly at Ren Xiaosu. Forget it, there was no need to exin any further.


    The students could guess their ss monitor had probably discovered something good again. Was he going to take advantage of someone again?


    When Ren Xiaosu looked at the nearby officers of the Divine Arms Battalion again, it felt as though he was looking at his brand-new armor.


    Ren Xiaosu had alreadye up with a new n. If Tang Zhou could ry the news back sessfully, there would only be a few routes from the main battlefield that the Divine Arms Battalion could retreat by. He would need to figure out the situation in theseing days before making his move so that he could sessfully collect enough nanomachines for his armor. But he wondered how strong Tang Zhou and his men¡¯sbat capabilities were. They shouldn¡¯t be too weak, right?


    The heavy snow had been falling nonstop in the forested mountains. It wasn¡¯t only snowing on the Li Consortium¡¯s side; all three organizations were stranded in their various battlefields by the heavy snowfall.


    As the roads were blocked by the deep snow, no vehicles could pass through. In some ces, the snow even reached crotch level on the soldiers. It was impossible to fight a war in these conditions.


    The snow was the true weapon of mass destruction here.


    The impasse on the battlefield that had been like the hot barrel of a just fired machine gun was suddenly cooled down by the snow.


    Ren Xiaosu and everyone else at the campsite were taking shelter in their tents. No one was willing to go outside to make a trail in the snow, not even the Divine Arms officers.


    Ren Xiaosu was the only person who went out every night until the morning when he came back to sleep. While he slept, Chen Wudi would keep watch by his side. No one was able to get close to him.


    Over the past few days, many people eat all their rations of buns. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu would return carrying a lot of potatoes with him every day. He would bring back 28 or 29 potatoes each time. In any case, their group would definitely have something to eat every day. However, no one knew where Ren Xiaosu had dug the potatoes up from.


    As a matter of fact, their toon did not seem like they had evercked any food.


    When Ren Xiaosu woke up, Li Qingzheng asked curiously, ¡°Xiaosu, what have you been busy with for the past few days? Why are you always going out when eveninges?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said tiredly, ¡°I¡¯ve been digging for potatoes for y¡¯all. We can¡¯t just rest on oururels, now can we?¡±


    When he said that, the entire toon of soldiers was moved to tears. ¡°toon Commander, you are such a good person! Thank you, toon Commander!¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu watched his number of gratitude tokens increase again, he knew he was getting closer to unlocking his new weapon.


    In reality, he had not been going out to dig up potatoes. Instead, he was meeting up with Tang Zhou every night to discuss their uing ns.


    Tang Zhou and his men had a detailed map of the battlefield, which saved Ren Xiaosu a lot of trouble. But after looking at the map, Ren Xiaosu still thought it would be safer if he personally made a trip to check out the locations. As such, he had been going around for the past two days to the best ambush sites located near two routes they identified the Divine Arms Battalion would retreat by.


    This action moved Tang Zhou to tears. ¡°Xiaosu, you¡¯re really a good friend of our Qing Consortium!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Tang Zhou and said, ¡°I¡¯m going to steal the satellite phone for y¡¯all tomorrow. Do you think Qing Zhen and Luo Lan still stand a chance of making aeback? I found that it was pretty nice being friends with Luo Lan.¡±


    ¡°They will.¡± Tang Zhou replied decisively, ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen and Boss Luo definitely won¡¯t remain under house arrest for long. We¡¯re all waiting for that day.¡±


    ¡°Fatty Luo will be very touched if he hears you say that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°We¡¯ll meet here again tomorrow evening. I¡¯ll give you the satellite phone then.¡±


    The meeting ce they had chosen was a little further away from where Ren Xiaosu had nted the Brambles as he feared he would get seen.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say there¡¯s five of those nanosoldiers?¡± Tang Zhou asked, ¡°Do you need us to assist you?¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu turned to leave, he said, ¡°No need, I have Chen Wudi by my side.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not actually nning on letting Chen Wudi do anything this time, but he had to say that to Tang Zhou. After all, it would not be easy to deal with five nanosoldiers. Even though he had a good rtionship with the Qing Consortium, he still did not want them to gain a clear idea of his powers.


    When the next morning arrived, Ren Xiaosu walked back to the campsite with a rabbit held tightly in his arms. Everyone could see Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure from afar.


    Someone stood at the entrance of the campsite and eximed, ¡°Where did he catch that rabbit? It¡¯s so big!¡±


    The Divine Arms officers were also starting to run out of field rations. Besides, how could eating field rations every day be better than barbecue? So when these officers saw the rabbit in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arms, their eyes popped out of their skulls.


    But all of a sudden, the huge rabbit in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arms started struggling. Then Ren Xiaosu fell to his ass in the snow as though overwhelmed by its struggle. The rabbit leaped and bounded away!


    A Divine Arms officer said anxiously, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you hold it more tightly!?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu anxiously said, ¡°Chase after it, quick! If you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll have caught it in vain!¡±


    When the five officers of the Divine Arms Battalion heard that, they didn¡¯t think too much and just activated the nanomachines in their bodies. Their explosive speed was even faster than that of the rabbit!


    Ren Xiaosu watched from behind with eyes narrowed. These troops truly had more nanomachines in their bodies, judging by the fact that Lin Qi could not even reach such a speed.


    Arge group of people at the campsite pursued in the direction of the fleeing rabbit against the falling snow. But at this moment, a surprising turn of events took ce. They saw a big, red of brambles suddenly enclosing on the spot where the five officers were standing and trapping them!


    The thorns of the brambles immediately pierced their skin. But more terrifying was the officers seemingly having their blood sucked out by the thorns into the vines!


    The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion gave their all and tore through the red. The five of them fell out of it and gasped violently for air. But before they could recover from their shock, another wave of crimson vines on the ground attacked!


    There was seemingly no end to the number of crimson vines!


    All of those who were following in pursuit behind them retreated in fright when they saw this terrifying sight!

 Chapter 255 - Cooperating for a win-win situation

    <h4>Chapter 255 Cooperating for a win-win situation</h4>


    The crimson vines were savage and horrifying. These Divine Arms nanosoldiers were resorting to using the strength of their nanomachines to tear themselves out of this terrifying nt¡¯s grasp. But every time they broke free from some of the vines, new ones would wrap around them again. The sharp thorns on the vines pricked into these officers¡¯ bodies and attempted to suck out everyst drop of blood from them.


    But the most frightening thing about these brambles was the endlessness. It felt as though there was no end to them regardless of how they tried to tear through it all.


    None of the private soldiers who caught up dared to go forward and rescue them. The moment they saw those brambles, they started to back off together. Some of them even fell into the snow in their panic.


    Only Ren Xiaosu knew that these Brambles were not as strong as they looked. Although they were weakening the Divine Arms officers by drawing out their blood, they didn¡¯t have an infinite number of branches.


    At this moment, one of the Brambles had all of its branchespletely torn away.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had nted four seeds all in the same location just for assurance.


    When the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion felt their strength getting sapped, they shouted to the private soldiers, ¡°Come and save us!¡±


    But how would a mob like the private troops be willing to go forward to help? It was more likely they would run away than help!


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he heaved a sigh of relief. He was most worried that some of the private troops would go and attempt to save them. After all, no matter how strong the four Brambles were, they couldn¡¯t possibly stand up to nearly a 1,000 people ripping at them.


    The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion only had themselves to me as they did not once help the private troops during the entire journey. So everyone watched from the sidelines when they saw the officers in distress. Some people were even gloating in their fear.


    Ren Xiaosu blended into the crowd and watched impassively. This incident could be considered a test of the Brambles¡¯ power. He believed they would definitelye out on top if facing a single, lone nanosoldier.


    Although the Brambles were effectively fixed to a spot and could only be used as a trap, it was cost-effective enough since it only took one gratitude token to get a chance at finishing off a nanosoldier.


    The only thing that Ren Xiaosu was unsure of was whether there were even more powerful nanosoldiers within the ranks of the Li Consortium¡¯s military.


    Yes, there would certainly be more.


    But in terms of their ranks, these five officers were not high ranking at all. As such, there had to be even stronger nanosoldiers in the Li Consortium.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu whisper-shouted within the crowd, ¡°Run! Head back to the campsite and take cover!¡±


    Although he did not shout very loudly, it seemed like the ¡°run¡± he uttered had some sort of a magic to it. It made everyone run back to the campsite as fast as they could, as though they would be safe if they just hid there.


    Ren Xiaosu did not hang around since he would have plenty of time to collect the nanomachinester on in the night. As of this moment, he didn¡¯t need to rush things. It would be bad if he somehow revealed his intentions here.


    Meanwhile, the GPS device and satellite phone were also being held onto by one of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion. When Ren Xiaosu collected the nanomachinester, he could take them together and give them to Tang Zhou.


    When they got back to their tent, Li Qingzheng was still in a state of shock. ¡°Xiaosu, what the hell was that? It was way too scary!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu panted, ¡°Yeah, I was scared to death too!¡±


    ¡°Do you think those Divine Arms officers will survive?¡± Li Qingzheng asked.


    ¡°I think it unlikely. When I was running back here, I saw them already running out of strength when I turned around to look. It won¡¯t be possible for them to break free from those vines,¡± a member of the toon said.


    At this moment, everyone was not really concerned about whether the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion survived. Or rather, most people at the campsite couldn¡¯t wish more for the Divine Arms officers to get killed by the brambles. Their rtionship had started on bad terms. Furthermore, if the officers managed to survive, they would definitely me them for not trying to rescue them.


    Everyone at the campsite was sticking their heads in the sand. When night fell, some soldiers from the reinforcedpany went to everyone¡¯s tents to force collusion.


    The soldiers from the reinforcedpany came to Ren Xiaosu and his toon¡¯s tent and threatened, ¡°When the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion went chasing after the rabbit, they were so fast that we couldn¡¯t catch up to them. After we arrived at their location, it was toote.¡±


    This group of people were afraid of getting punished by the Li Consortium. As such, they chose to collude with nearly a 1,000 other people in grand fashion. Not only that, the soldiers of the reinforcedpany even threatened them by saying, ¡°If anyone mentions a word about this, it will not end well for everyone here. So if you¡¯re smart, you better keep your trap shut!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to thank the soldiers of the reinforcedpany.


    The Divine Arms officer who knew Ren Xiaosu¡¯s true identity as a member of the Office of Special Investigations was dead, but the soldiers of the reinforcedpany were unaware. Otherwise, they would not have dared to threaten him like this.


    On the very same night, Ren Xiaosu secretly went to where the Divine Arms Battalion soldiers had died. This time, the amount of nanomachines he harvested was far beyond his expectations. Just from the five of them, he gathered enough nanomachines toplete the armor on two of his arms.


    Indeed, the regrs of the Divine Arms Battalion were iparable with Lin Qi and his group of cannon fodder.


    When Ren Xiaosu headed north with the satellite phone, Tang Zhou was waiting there for him. The first thing Ren Xiaosu did when he saw Tang Zhou was to remind him, ¡°Remember to only talk about the Divine Arms Battalion after getting in touch with your HQ. Don¡¯t mention anything about me. I¡¯ll be in deep trouble if the Li Consortium has a spy nted on your Qing Consortium¡¯s side!¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes.¡± Tang Zhou nodded happily and said, ¡°I definitely won¡¯t reveal anything about you. I still know about the principles of protecting our spies.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that something was wrong with his wording. When did he be a spy of the Qing Consortium?


    He reminded again, ¡°Remember to tell your HQ to not kill all of the Divine Arms soldiers. Otherwise, our cooperation ends here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could not handle the Divine Arms Battalion by himself. After all, they had a 1,000 people in total. Therefore, if he wanted to get his hands on more nanomachines, he would have to first wear down the entire formation of the Divine Arms Battalion with the help of the Qing Consortium.


    This was his true purpose in cooperating with Tang Zhou. As for whether they could continue cooperating in the future, that would have to depend on whether the cooperation with the Qing Consortium goes well this time.


    At this moment, Tang Zhou said with some hesitation, ¡°You know that I was banished out here, so Qing Yun might not listen to me. He would wish for nothing more than to kill the entire Divine Arms Battalion since that would bring him great honors. It¡¯s a good opportunity for him to establish his credibility in the military.¡±


    ¡°Then can we lie to him a little?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can¡¯t we just tell him that there are only a 100 people in the Divine Arms Battalion?¡±


    Tang Zhou shook his head and said, ¡°If I said it in that manner, there would be Qing Consortium soldiers who would die for nothing. Those soldiers are innocent. And if Boss Luo and Mr. Qing Zhen learned of this, they certainly wouldn¡¯t spare me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this before saying, ¡°Or you can just tell me where the Divine Arms Battalion will meet their end in battle?¡±


    Tang Zhou was stunned. ¡°Why do you want to know?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Asrades, I would like to mourn their deaths.¡±


    Tang Zhou was speechless. What nonsense was this? Mourning for hisrades after sending them to their deaths? Tang Zhou was not convinced by what Ren Xiaosu just said at all. He was not stupid!

 Chapter 256 - Ambushing the Divine Arms Battalion

    <h4>Chapter 256 Ambushing the Divine Arms Battalion</h4>


    After agreeing on what time to meet the next day, they went their separate ways.


    Some people at the private troops¡¯ campsite did not even dare to step out of their tents after seeing how the Divine Arms officers were killed by the Brambles. None of them were willing to go out and look for food even though they were starving.


    At this moment, the ground was covered with a thickyer of snow. They did not know whether there were still more of the Brambles buried under it. If they took a wrong step, it would result in their deaths.


    But this was exactly what Ren Xiaosu wanted so it would be more convenient for him to act alone.


    When Ren Xiaosu went out to meet Tang Zhou the next night, Tang Zhou said ecstatically the moment they met, ¡°Boss Luo and Mr. Qing Zhen have seeded in seizingmand of the military. They¡¯re the ones calling the shots in the military now!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say they were under house arrest at Stronghold 111?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s like this,¡± Tang Zhou exined, ¡°Boss Luo and Mr. Qing Zhen were sent to serve as military advisors. When they got there, they killed Qing Yun, and Mr. Qing Zhen took over asmanding officer of the Qing Consortium¡¯s military on the front lines.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°That can happen? Is no one going to oppose them?¡±


    ¡°If they send someone else to rece Qing Yun at this time, the Qing Consortium would probably not be able to take part in the war anymore,¡± Tang Zhou analyzed. ¡°If the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium take advantage of the situation, the entire Qing Consortium will be in grave danger.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu believed Qing Zhen had probably been eyeing this opportunity before he dared to act so recklessly. But still, Qing Zhen was... really ruthless.


    Tang Zhou said, ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen agreed to cooperate with you. Their fighting forces have already gone on ahead to the ambush location to wait for the arrival of the Divine Arms Battalion. Furthermore, Mr. Qing Zhen has expressed that he will not wipe out the Divine Arms Battalion as agreed and hopes that our cooperation will proceed smoothly.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. Qing Zhen was quite a dependable person. At least he was better than that Qing Yun Tang Zhou had mentioned. However, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t just tell me all that. Shouldn¡¯t the Qing Consortium be promising me something more practical?¡±


    Tang Zhou was stunned for a moment. ¡°I didn¡¯t bring that up, but I can tell Mr. Qing Zhen about it. He¡¯s never been petty about such things before.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡± Ren Xiaosu broke into a smile.


    But Tang Zhou asked in wonder, ¡°Why are you stopping us from killing everyone in the Divine Arms Battalion? After all, there shouldn¡¯t be much of a rtionship between you and them since you were conscripted into their military.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu patiently exined, ¡°I want to help the Yang Consortium collect some samples of the Li Consortium¡¯s nanomachines.¡±


    Tang Zhou seemed to figure something out and smiled ambiguously. ¡°Oh, I see. When I left Stronghold 109, I felt like there was something special between you and Yang Xiaojin. She even carried you on her back back then. Say, why didn¡¯t you go to the Yang Consortium then? Although you were conscripted, there should¡¯ve been opportunities for you to leave. Our intel tells us the Li Consortium does not enforce strict controls at the beginning.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not exin much and let Tang Zhou assume whatever he wanted...


    Tang Zhou would never figure out that the reason he did not go to Stronghold 88 was because he did not know where it was.


    ...


    The next day, the expected time of the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s surprise raid against the Qing Consortium wasing. Although the roads had been sealed off by the heavy snow, the Divine Arms Battalion was still pushing on with their journey.


    In the eyes of the Divine Arms Battalion, their purpose here was to sneak attack their enemies.


    People outside did not know how mobile the Divine Arms Battalion was, nor how their soldiers¡¯ physical fitness was greatly enhanced with the use of nanomachines. Therefore, if no one expected them to be able to continue trekking in the heavy snowfall, it would be their best opportunity to strike.


    The Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s major looked at his GPS as he led his troops in forging a path in the snow. He said, ¡°We¡¯ll be arriving at the Qing Consortium¡¯s logistics base in half a day. I want everyone to be extremely careful. After we destroy the Qing Consortium¡¯s baggage train, we¡¯ll evacuate from there immediately. We¡¯ll then wait for our nanomachines to recharge before weunch another surprise attack on their other forces!¡±


    But as he finished, a loud explosion boomed in the distance. After getting stunned for a moment, the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s major shouted, ¡°Retreat! Avoid the arty fire!¡±


    The major of the Divine Arms Battalion had immense amounts ofbat experience. In an instant, he realized they had been ambushed by the Qing Consortium and that the loud explosion was from the Qing Consortium¡¯s artillery fire!


    The first thing he shouted was for his troops to retreat, not throw themselves prone, because the Divine Arms Battalion was an ultra mobile force. If they retreated immediately, they would still have a chance to outrun the range of the artillery fire. But if they went prone here, only death awaited them.


    Since the Qing Consortium hade prepared, could they escape these attacks by just going prone?


    But still, his words were toote.


    They could hear the faraway artillery fire crackling like firecrackers followed by sessive explosions within the forested mountain!


    The snowy ground around the Divine Arms troops was breaking apart as artillery shells plowed down on them. Qing Zhen wasn¡¯t nning on giving them a chance to get close.


    The Divine Arms soldiers traveled within the forested mountains at high speed. Some of them were even quick enough to avoid getting caught in the trajectory of the artillery shells and got clear of the maximum kill radius of howitzers.


    But the barrage of artillery fire was too numerous. With just a single volley of artillery fire, more than half of the Divine Arms soldiers got killed or wounded! Even if they had the nanomachines, it didn¡¯t mean they could withstand shelling. When a 120 mm HE shell containing 3.5 kilograms of TNT wasunched out of a howitzer, it could wipe out all life within a four-meter radius in a sh! In addition, all of the Divine Arms soldiers within a 25-meter radius of an artillery shell¡¯snding spot would get hit by a huge st wave and shrapnel, resulting in an effective kill zone!


    The gods had never once bestowed weapons on humans, but humans still forged their own sword that could even kill gods.


    Fortunately for the Divine Arms major, he did not die from the bombardment. But all he felt was despair. No matter how well-trained they were, they still could not match the Qing Consortium¡¯s preparedness in this battle. But the Divine Arms major could not understand why the Qing Consortium would be waiting here in ambush.


    They had been very cautious in their movements. At the start, they pretended they were heading for the Yang Consortium¡¯s front line before secretly rerouting to here. They even swapped their uniforms and vehicles with the private troops.


    After changing their identities, they had not met any friendly forces, but disaster still struck in the end.


    Just how was the news leaked?!


    Seeing that fewer and fewer soldiers were still alive around him, the Divine Arms major knew they were done for. Even his status as a family member of the Li Consortium would not protect him from punishment for losing this battle.


    At this moment, Qing Zhen was standing in front of the Qing Consortium¡¯s defensive line and looking calmly in the direction of the Divine Arms Battalion. He put up his hand. ¡°Alright, stop firing.¡±


    The soldiers around him did not inquire why. At a time like this, they should have obviously been pursuing their enemies in victory.


    Besides, Qing Zhen had even specifically had them change the 152 mm shells to the 120 mm ones. No matter how they looked at it, it seemed like he was showing mercy to their enemies. However, the soldiers under Qing Zhen¡¯smand would never doubt his decisions.


    But nobody understood how Qing Zhen had managed to find out the Divine Arms Battalion would being here. Could it be that Qing Zhen¡¯s moles had already infiltrated deep into the Li Consortium? He even knew the whereabouts of the most mysterious Divine Arms Battalion? That was too terrifying!


    Suddenly, Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°I think the Li Consortium has not fought a war for too long. They don¡¯t even know how to take advantage of the good weapon they have in their hands. Even when dealt good cards, they all go to waste in their hands.¡±

 Chapter 257 - Finding the spy within three days!

    <h4>Chapter 257 Finding the spy within three days!</h4>


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers were getting pumped up from having just defeated the legendary Divine Arms Battalion of the Li Consortium. However, Qing Zhen immediately gathered from this ambush that the nanosoldiers were actually not that weak. If they hadn¡¯t received the intel in time, the Li Consortium would have really caused them a great deal of trouble.


    Qing Zhen did not underestimate the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s nanosoldiers and ced an unusual amount of emphasis on them.


    Next to him, Qing Zhen¡¯s trusted aide asked, ¡°Do you mean the nanosoldiers shouldn¡¯t be deployed in such a fashion?¡±


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°If these nanosoldiers weremanded by me, I would deploy each toon separately to infiltrate through the forested mountains. They only need the intel supplied by personnel nted within the Li Consortium to easily coordinate a decapitation strike[1].¡±


    His aide nodded and said, ¡°I see. Sir, you are indeed wise.¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at him calmly. ¡°I¡¯m not telling you this so you can suck up to me but to arrange for more people to protect me.¡±


    ¡°Ah?¡± The aide was taken aback and could not understand why Qing Zhen was saying this.


    Qing Zhen sighed and said, ¡°The Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers might be arriving soon. They¡¯re much smarter than the Li Consortium, so we have to strengthen our defense forces immediately.¡±


    Then Qing Zhen looked out into the distant snowynds that had just been plowed by the artillery fire. He wondered, ¡°Why is he everywhere?¡±


    The soldiers around him were even more confused by this. Who was he referring to?


    The atmosphere in the Li Consortium¡¯smand center was extremely depressing. A middle-aged general sat at the end of the long table in the room with a somber and sullen expression. Although all the seats at the table were filled, no one was saying anything.


    ¡°The Divine Arms Battalion has suffered a crushing defeat.¡± The middle-aged general said, ¡°All I want to know is why the Qing Consortium was aware of our Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s operations beforehand.¡±


    Still, no one spoke.


    In reality, a lot of the others were also puzzled by this. The Divine Arms Battalion had to keep themand center updated every day of matters like their battle ns¡¯ execution and current location. Everything had been proceeding smoothly, but a disaster still happened when they got close to the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory.


    Based on the description of the Divine Arms officer, the Qing Consortium clearly knew which direction the Divine Arms Battalion would approach from, so they set up an ambush in advance. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have been able to inflict such arge number of casualties on the Divine Arms Battalion.


    The Li Consortium had been concealing their strength and biding their time over the years. But now that war had suddenly broken out, everyone was looking forward to seeing the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s capabilities. In the end, they were almost wiped out by the Qing Consortium even before the battle had begun!


    Why? Where did it all go wrong!


    The middle-aged general looked to Hu Shuo on his left and said, ¡°A spy must have leaked the information. As Director of the Office of Special Investigations, you did not sniff out the spy in time. So you¡¯ll be bearing the main responsibility. However, this isn¡¯t the time to mete out punishment. You must sort out the issues in your Office of Special Investigations to make amends for your mistakes.¡±


    Hu Shuo kept quiet as he looked calmly at the table in front of him. Honestly speaking, he was very puzzled as well.


    Although he had other motives for staying in the Li Consortium, the Office of Special Investigations had always been functioning normally. An espionage battle would prove to be the most criticalponent during wartime. Sometimes, having the right intelligence could even influence the oue of a war.


    Although Hu Shuo had sniffed out quite a few spies recently in his course of duty, he kept some of them around in preparation for his future ns. But keeping them around did not mean he did not care about them. The identified spies remained under the surveince of his Office of Special Investigations and were earmarked for greater use in the future. However, none of these spies could gain ess to the secrets of the Divine Arms Battalion.


    Suddenly, someone said, ¡°The private troops who swapped uniforms and vehicles with the Divine Arms Battalion haven¡¯t arrived at the assigned strategic location yet. I suspect this incident could be rted to them.¡±


    The middle-aged general frowned. ¡°Why didn¡¯t anyone report about an important matter like this earlier?¡±


    ¡°Previously, the Divine Arms officers who were assigned and traveled together with them would report their whereabouts daily. However, we suddenly lost contact with them yesterday,¡± the officer said.


    ¡°Search for this group of private troops immediately and confirm their location within the next three days!¡± the middle-aged general ordered.


    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± the officer answered.


    The middle-aged general said, ¡°Meeting adjourned. The strategy must be put into ce ASAP. The news of the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s heavy losses will spread to the Yang Consortium very soon. We have to be prepared for the Qing Consortium¡¯s and the Yang Consortium¡¯s counterattacks. General Hu, remain behind.¡±


    After everyone else dispersed, only Hu Shuo remained seated. The middle-aged general said, ¡°The leaking of the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s operations is of great importance. The spy is likely to hold a high rank within the organization, so I¡¯ll give you three days to find out who it is!¡±


    Hu Shuo looked up and said, ¡°OK.¡±


    The middle-aged general did not bring this up earlier because he suspected the spy was among those attending the meeting. The reason why he did not punish Hu Shuo was that, first, he was the Director of the Office of Special Investigations and had been working for the Li Consortium for decades with few mistakes made, earning merit and toiling hard for the organization. Second, this war was intricately linked with Hu Shuo as well. If they reced the Director of the Office of Special Investigations at this time, chaos would probably be caused down the road.


    But the middle-aged general was probably not expecting that trouble would originate from Hu Shuo himself.


    Two dayster, Ren Xiaosu, the perpetrator of the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s defeat, was hidden somewhere in an ambush in the snowy ground. There was a dirt road beside him that was paved by the Li Consortium just before the war broke out.


    After Qing Zhen had driven the Divine Arms Battalion to retreat, he not only informed Tang Zhou of their victory, he also told him which route of retreat the Divine Arms Battalion was taking


    Ren Xiaosu used this information for basis that the Divine Arms Battalion would likely use the road in front of him.


    As the Divine Arms Battalion had suffered heavy losses, they would definitely need to retreat to the forward operating base behind them to reorganize. That would then be a chance for Ren Xiaosu.


    He did not include Tang Zhou in his n. On one hand, there were too many people on Tang Zhou¡¯s side and their presence would easily be sensed. On the other hand, Ren Xiaosu did not want Tang Zhou to know what actions he would take and his true reason for keeping some of the Divine Arms Battalion alive.


    Ren Xiaosu went through the n in his mind. Since the Divine Arms Battalion was in such a pathetic state, the trump cards he left behind should be enough to deal with the remaining defeated soldiers, right?


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of footsteps on snow and got excited. Here theye!


    As Ren Xiaosu hid in the thick snow next to the road, he nearly stopped breathing.


    He left a tiny hole in the surface of the snow to observe the outside world. But a momentter when Ren Xiaosu saw the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s soldiers, he was shocked!


    He saw two of the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s soldiers limping towards the ambush site he had set up. Ren Xiaosu felt unwell at the sight. He had requested Qing Zhen leave some of the Divine Arms Battalion alive, but he only left two of them for him in the end?


    Ren Xiaosu was a little confused by this. Why didn¡¯t he just leave one soldier alive then? Was he purposely trying to gross him out?


    Eh?


    Ren Xiaosu had been lying in the snow for the past two days. Probably, few people in this world had as much resolve as him. But Ren Xiaosu realized this was what he had been waiting for after lying in the snow for the past two days.


    ¡®No, that can¡¯t be right.¡¯ Ren Xiaosu thought that something else unexpected must have happened. Qing Zhen couldn¡¯t possibly have spared only two of the Divine Arms soldiers.

 Chapter 258 - A mysterious sniper

    <h4>Chapter 258 A mysterious sniper</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu carefully recalled the information Tang Zhou had told him. Tang Zhou mentioned that the Qing Consortium defeated the Divine Arms Battalion two days ago, but he did not say how many of them were pushed back in defeat.


    But since their cooperation was going so well, there was no reason for Qing Zhen and Tang Zhou to trick him. And even though Qing Zhen was arrogant, he had always been reliable and trustworthy. Something must have gone wrong in between this period.


    As Ren Xiaosu watched the two nanosoldiers walking towards him, he was surprised to see them looking all out of sorts. This didn¡¯t make any sense.


    They were back in the farthest stretches of the Li Consortium¡¯s territory where different groups of Li Consortium troops were stationed every dozen or so kilometers apart. So the Divine Arms Battalion should not be this frightened when they had already made it back to here.


    Could they have encountered other enemies along the way?


    Wait a minute, could it be Li Shentan? Ren Xiaosu knew that Li Shentan had led an entirebat brigade and disappeared with them, and that he also held a grudge against the Li Consortium. He might have really led thatbat brigade to the battlefield and in the Divine Arms Battalion from the rear.


    The moment these two wounded soldiers of the Divine Arms Battalion walked onto the Brambles, Ren Xiaosu wrapped the vines around them tightly. The two wounded soldiers of the Divine Arms Battalion were already severely injured and couldn¡¯t put up a fight.


    When Ren Xiaosu was sure that no one else was around, he jumped out of the snow. The two Divine Arms officers were shocked to see someone emerge from the snow. The terrifying Brambles seemed to have been manipted by someone!


    Ren Xiaosu did not kill them immediately but came up to them with a frown and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s the rest of the Divine Arms Battalion?¡±


    One of the officers of the Divine Arms Battalion endured his pain and said through clenched teeth, ¡°Who are you! Who on earth are you! Why are you wearing the uniform of our Divine Arms Battalion?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the uniform he was wearing, then snapped, ¡°Weren¡¯t y¡¯all the ones who forced us to swap?¡±


    The two Divine Arms officers were stunned. What did he mean? Wait, they suddenly remembered this. So this young man standing before them was actually a soldier from the private army?! But why was there someone hidden among the private troops who could control these terrifying nts? He had to be a spy! This young man had to be a spy!


    The two Divine Arms officers realized something. One of them roared, ¡°The Qing Consortium only ambushed us because you revealed our whereabouts to them!¡±


    ¡°Ahem, what are you talking about? Why can¡¯t I understand what you¡¯re saying?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Let me ask again, where¡¯s the rest of the Divine Arms? Were they attacked by a strange force? If no one wants to answer, I¡¯ll ask againter.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re about 20 kilometers behind us. If you have the balls, go and look for yourself,¡± one of the Divine Arms officers said fiercely.


    Ren Xiaosu acknowledged them before decisively killing them with the Brambles. He was rather suspicious about why these two men were acting alone. He would probably have to head further north before he could finally learn what had happened.


    He collected the nanomachines from the two men, looted the belongings in their pockets, and ced the rifles into his storage space.


    His storage space was emptier now after much of the food had been consumed during the time they were back at the outpost.


    However, Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t in a hurry to leave yet. He dug around in the snow for some time before he found the dozen or so ying cards he had hidden.


    He had thought that many of the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s soldiers would pass by on this route, so he even resorted to using the Explosive Poker cards. But as it turned out, he had wasted all his efforts and also wasted quite a few gratitude tokens by nting more than ten Bramble seeds in the area.


    Although he could retrieve the Explosive Poker cards, he could not pull the Brambles out of the ground after they had been nted.


    After Ren Xiaosu recollected all of his Explosive Poker cards, he headed north. He was still in the area of Mt. Tantou and would reach the boundary of Mt. Fengyi by heading further north. Walking in the snow was not exactly difficult for him, but he had to be careful in case he revealed his presence.


    When Ren Xiaosu set off, it was morning. By the time he arrived at Mt. Fengyi, it was already afternoon. But soon after cresting a hill, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He saw an officer of the Divine Arms Battalion lying on the ground in front of him. Arge area of the snow was tainted pink by his blood. The blood did not look like it had flowed out of him but sttered instead!


    Ren Xiaosu finally understood the strangeness of this. As the Divine Arms officers were retreating, they encountered a sniper. Everyone else in the Divine Arms Battalion was dead except for the two he saw earlier!


    Before they died, the two Divine Arms officers had even wanted to dupe Ren Xiaosu, who they realized was a spy, into heading to the battlefield where a sniper was lying in ambush. Because Ren Xiaosu was wearing the Divine Arms uniform, he would also end up as a target for the sniper bying here.


    These Divine Arms officers were pretty unrelenting. The first thing they wanted to do before they died was not to beg for mercy but to lure Ren Xiaosu here into a trap.


    But the sniper should have already left. The time that Ren Xiaosu spent here in the snow concluding what had happened was definitely enough for a skilled sniper to kill him. However, no one opened fire at him even after so much time had passed.


    And it should have already been a while since the sniper conducted his mission here. There was no reason why the sniper would stay around when the mission to eliminate the Divine Arms Battalion waspleted.


    But why would a sniper mysteriously appear here? Could it be a Qing Consortium sniper? No, it shouldn¡¯t be. The only Qing Consortium soldiers behind enemy lines were Tang Zhou and his men, which Tang Zhou had confirmed.


    Then who else could it be? The Yang Consortium!


    Ren Xiaosu searched around in the snow for some time, but he was a little disappointed when he found the sniper¡¯s bullet. It wasn¡¯t the silver-gray bullet the Saboteurs used. This bullet also did not have the special pattern engraved on it that the Saboteurs carried around.


    But of course, this was to be expected. There had to be a lot of troops and snipers from the Yang Consortium out on the front lines. Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin, who was also a family member of the organization, had only just returned to the organization to recover, so how could she possibly return to the battlefield so soon?


    Yang Xiaojin should still be at Stronghold 88.


    Ren Xiaosu went around to look for any traces of the Divine Arms officers. He could gather a few more nanomachines for every one of them he found.


    It was a fantastic harvest this time around, seeing how his armor was near topletion.


    But then he heard the sound of enginesing from the mountain roads in the south before he could locate all the corpses of the Divine Arms officers. Ren Xiaosu frowned as the sound grew closer. It had to be the Li Consortium¡¯s people if they were heading north at this time. They must have seen the Brambles and the two dead Divine Arms officers.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately tossed greed aside and ran towards the snowy mountain. He would still have many opportunities to collect nanomachines in the future. But if his identity were exposed, that would be very troublesome.


    One of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s greatest strengths was that he could always maintain his rationality when faced with huge temptation, like the time when he had to give up on the gold back in the Jing Mountains.


    The ambush on the Divine Arms Battalion went much smoother than Ren Xiaosu had expected. He did not even have to do much since the mysterious sniper had already helped him kill 99% of his enemies.


    But the sudden appearance of this mysterious sniper had also made the situation weirder.

 Chapter 259 - The Office of Special Investigations’ probe

    <h4>Chapter 259 The Office of Special Investigations¡¯ probe</h4>


    While running towards the mountain, Ren Xiaosu roughly estimated that even though he only had time to gather 14 of the Divine Arms officers¡¯ nanomachines, it was more than what Lin Qi and his group had. If he created an armor to protect himself now, he would have enough nanomachines to cover every part of him except for an area the size of one of his calves.


    In a battle, he would definitely not fuss over the form of the armor and just aim to protect his vital parts as much as possible. But by estimating this way, it would facilitate his understanding of how many nanomachines he had obtained so far.


    As Ren Xiaosu fled from the battlefield, there was something on his mind. While collecting the nanomachines just now, he saw many dead Divine Arms officers lying in the snow. He had counted several dozen dead Divine Arms officers. If it were a normal sniper who killed them, surely they wouldn¡¯t be so incredibly lethal, right?


    Furthermore, once the sniper fired a shot at these nanosoldiers, the rest of the Divine Arms officers would have quickly moved away. Judging by the speed of the Divine Arms officers, it would be impossible to kill so many of them if the sniper was not a crack shot.


    Ren Xiaosu was certain these people had attacked the sniper¡¯s position just by observing the way they died. They had tried to dodge the sniper¡¯s bullets with their speed and attempted to locate and kill the sniper. They failed, however.


    Meanwhile, the two Divine Arms officers who had fortunately survived were probably already wounded in the first ce, so the others allowed them to retreat first. This was why they managed to survive while the others were all killed!


    These were the Divine Arms soldiers, after all. Even if they were demoralized after their strategy failed, and they were defeated by the Qing Consortium, they were still a highly regarded unit of the Li Consortium. How could a sniper kill over a 100 of them so easily as they retreated?


    Could the sniper also possess a Perfect Firearms Proficiency like Yang Xiaojin? But how could there be so many expert marksmen in the world?


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that the sniper could very well be Yang Xiaojin. However, the evidence proved otherwise. Moreover, there was no reason why Yang Xiaojin would appear here.


    Ren Xiaosu went to look for the Potato Shooter and collected the allocated quantity of potatoes for the day before returning to camp.


    ¡°Xiaosu, you¡¯re back?¡± Li Qingzheng happily took the potatoes from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arms. ¡°We¡¯ve got to be careful when we make our meals. I heard that those in other tents have already run out of food. Some of them are so hungry they went out to look for food even though they¡¯re afraid.¡±


    ¡°They should have done so earlier.¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he dusted off the snow from his body, ¡°Now that their physical strength and energy have reached their lowest points, I¡¯m afraid they won¡¯t even have enough strength to look for food.¡±


    Chen Wudi went to Ren Xiaosu and helped him dust off the snow he couldn¡¯t reach. He even handed him a piping hot potato and said, ¡°Master, have some.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a look at the sky outside. ¡°We¡¯ve already camped here for four days. I¡¯m afraid that everyone has already run out of food except for us. If we continue wasting our time here, everyone will die.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not only us.¡± Li Qingzheng sighed and said, ¡°We have only a 1,000 of us here, but more than 20,000 private soldiers are starving across the entire battlefield, and they were all done in by the private troops¡¯mander. If everyone had enough to eat, it wouldn¡¯t be so difficult to endure this. But it¡¯s different now since thousands of people might die of starvation once the blizzard passes.¡±


    Then amotion broke out in the camp. Ren Xiaosu lifted the tent p to see what was going on. But he could not see what was happening due to the tents blocking his view.


    ¡°Y¡¯all remain in the tent. I¡¯ll go and have a look outside.¡± Ren Xiaosu then walked out of the tent. He noticed many of the others in the camp had alsoe out of their tents. It seemed like amotion had broken out at the southernmost side of the camp behind them.


    ¡°What is going on?¡± someone asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I just came out here after hearing themotion. Could a fight have broken out over there?¡±


    Someone said indifferently, ¡°They still have the energy to fight when everyone is starving?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ignored them and continued walking south. When he almost reached the end of the camp, he saw others not from the private army!


    An unusual-looking toon was standing there and questioning someone at the border of the camp. As Ren Xiaosu approached, he heard their conversation. ¡°Why¡¯re you all stationed here? Why didn¡¯t you reach the strategic location at the indicated time? Where is themanding officer? Get him out here to answer our questions!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. These people were not wearing the uniforms of thebat troops but the Office of Special Investigations¡¯ uniforms!


    He quickly realized they were probably here to investigate the incident involving the Divine Arms Battalion. A series of chain reactions must have started after the Divine Arms Battalion was ambushed by the Qing Consortium.


    Since their group of private troops had swapped vehicles and uniforms with the Divine Arms Battalion, they would definitely be the prime suspects of the Office of Special Investigations¡¯ probe.


    After Ren Xiaosu figured the situation out, he blended back into the crowd as he did not wish to interact with the Office of Special Investigations yet.


    Themander of Liu Taiyu¡¯s reinforcedpany came over and said, ¡°Ourmander is still semiconscious after getting kicked by one of the Divine Arms officers. When he regained consciousness, he started running a fever. It was also the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s decision to encamp here.¡±


    Themander of the reinforcedpany practically pushed all responsibility to the Divine Arms Battalion. After all, dead men tell no tales.


    A person from the Office of Special Investigations frowned. ¡°Where are the Divine Arms? Tell them toe out for questioning.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he thought that the Office of Special Investigations¡¯ tone was way too arrogant. He was yelling for the Divine Arms Battalion as though he were ordering his subordinates around. It was no wonder no one thought it was unfair when he used his identity as a member of the Office Special Investigations to reprimand others.


    However, thepanymander exined, ¡°The officers of the Divine Arms Battalion stubbornly chased after a rabbit in a hunt two mornings ago. In the end, they got attacked by some unknown vegetation. All five of the Divine Arms officers died as a result. If you don¡¯t believe it, go ahead and question the others.¡±


    The people from the Office of Special Investigations looked around, bewildered. The private soldiers surrounding them quickly nodded and said, ¡°We couldn¡¯t catch up no matter how hard we chased after them. When we finally got there, we saw them already dead.¡±


    These people had agreed to collude on this event as they felt a little guilty for not attempting to rescue those officers.


    The toonmander of the Office of Special Investigations frowned and said, ¡°Bring me to yourmander. After that, we¡¯ll head to the ce where you said the Divine Arms officers died!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not exactly panicking at this moment. Since all of the private soldiers here were trying so hard to cover up for him, what did he have to worry about?


    Themander of the reinforcedpany led the Office of Special Investigations into the camp. They first checked on Liu Taiyu¡¯s condition and the person charged with inspecting him nodded to the toonmander and said, ¡°He does still have a high fever. His body probably got inmmation after suffering internal bleeding from the kick.¡±


    The toonmander of the Office of Special Investigations said to the reinforcedpany¡¯smander, ¡°Hand over the private troops¡¯ roster to me. We¡¯ll head over to the spot where the Divine Arms officers met their demise right now.¡±

 Chapter 260 - Gaining yet another identity

    <h4>Chapter 260 Gaining yet another identity</h4>


    Upon reaching the location of the trap, the Office of Special Investigations¡¯ people frowned. They saw the Divine Arms officers tangled up and dead in the vines. ¡°They were attacked by this strange nt after pursuing the rabbit here?¡±


    They had wanted to check their wounds to see if there was anything unusual about the deaths. After all, this was the first time they¡¯d heard of nts attacking humans. At the beginning, they didn¡¯t quite believe it.


    But when they saw the brambles, they all believed it as the nt looked savage and ferocious. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu was controlling the Brambles and moving them in a threatening manner the moment they approached a little. It looked extremely terrifying!


    Someone from the Office of Special Investigations said, ¡°You all will continue to encamp here. Do not act without permission.¡±


    After giving those orders, they left. In truth, they did not have a better way of handling this either. They could not go around and question over a 1,000 private troops as that would take too much time and effort.


    Furthermore, they were just here to find out the private troops¡¯ location. As for investigating the spy, that would be left forter. Right now, they needed to quickly ry the situation back to the Office of Special Investigations.


    Ren Xiaosu looked on as they left. It seemed like the Li Consortium was also aware there was a spy among them, but they didn¡¯t know how to approach the investigation.


    After the people from the Office of Special Investigations left, Ren Xiaosu went out at night to meet Tang Zhou as previously agreed. When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the meeting ce, he bluntly asked, ¡°Did the Qing Consortium send out any snipers here?¡±


    Tang Zhou was taken back. ¡°No, and we don¡¯t even have a sniper in our troops either.¡±


    ¡°Something is odd.¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°When I went to search for what was left of the Divine Arms Battalion, I discovered roughly several dozen of them killed by the same sniper.¡±


    ¡°Are you exaggerating? There aren¡¯t too many snipers who¡¯re capable of that.¡± Tang Zhou gave his analysis. ¡°Your friend, Yang Xiaojin, possesses such an ability. Could it be her?¡±


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s probably not her since the bullets aren¡¯t marked as Saboteurs. Are there any even more skilled snipers in the Yang Consortium?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Tang Zhou shook his head. But then he remembered something. ¡°Eh, that¡¯s not right. Over a decade ago, there was precisely someone that skilled. Yang Xiaojin probably learned her marksmanship from him too, but I think he¡¯s quite old now. I think he might be Yang Xiaojin¡¯s uncle based on their rtionship? He¡¯s no longer as physically able to move around freely as he likes on the battlefield, so I doubt it would be him.¡±


    ¡°Could there be other forces that have joined in the war as well?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Unlikely.¡± Tang Zhou thought for a while and said, ¡°There¡¯s no reason why other forces would get involved in this war. It¡¯s very difficult for foreign forces to reap any benefits here in our southwestern region. Only the Pyro Company would take advantage of this event to seek out any supernatural beings under the guise of acquiring their blood.¡±


    ¡°Is no one going to do anything about them?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Of course they will. The three organizations in the southwestern region have already reached a consensus to kill anyone from the Pyro Company when they encounter them. However, the Pyro Company has resorted to conducting their business secretly and will only distribute leaflets to normal people wherever they can,¡± Tang Zhou replied.


    ¡°Have they caught any supernatural beings yet?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°There¡¯s a few. Most supernatural beings who have just gained their superpowers haven¡¯t experience a change in their mindsets yet. Since they want to make money, the Pyro Company¡¯s offer is the fastest way for them to get rich.¡± Tang Zhou said, ¡°The Pyro Company is specifically targeting the sort of person who has just awakened their powers but have zero experience inbat.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°I guess there really are idiots like that.¡±


    ¡°But the Pyro Company won¡¯t join the battlefield for sure. They will only hide behind the stronghold walls,¡± Tang Zhou said.


    Ren Xiaosu was starting to feel that it was very likely that Yang Xiaojin was the sniper. Everything but the bullet seemed to suggest it was her who did it.


    Although many snipers existed in this world, only a few were capable of killing that many Divine Arms officers.


    But what was Yang Xiaojin doing behind enemy lines by herself? Was it just for the sake of destroying the Divine Arms Battalion?


    Suddenly, Tang Zhou said, ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen called me to say that he¡¯s sent over a group of Qing Yun¡¯s people as envoys to discuss an alliance with the Li Consortium, and that if you are interested, you can finish them off.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu kept quiet for a long time. So after the Qing Consortium helped him defeat the Divine Arms Battalion, he was supposed to help Qing Zhen get rid of his dissidents in


    return?


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Isn¡¯t Qing Yun already dead? Why does he still want to kill this group of people?¡±


    Tang Zhou exined, ¡°After ourbat brigade was disbanded, many of our men were assigned to various different forces and ended up getting bullied by Qing Yun¡¯s troops very often. Moreover, the methods they used to push our people around were horribly mean. So Mr. Qing Zhen doesn¡¯t want these people to return to the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory. Even if you don¡¯t want to kill them, Mr. Qing Zhen would still have them killed.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remarked, ¡°Then just let him kill them.¡±


    ¡°We were thinking the Li Consortium would consider it your merit if you killed them instead. The higher your position in the organization is, the more beneficial it¡¯ll be to all of us,¡± Tang Zhou said with a smile.


    ¡°How many of them are there?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°400,¡± Tang Zhou replied.


    ¡°Then how am I suppose to fight them?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner, ¡°Headbutt them? Never mind that our private troops have hardly anybat strength, I¡¯m also not theirmander either.¡±


    Tang Zhou suddenly whispered, ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen said that as long as you¡¯re willing, he can help you be the private army¡¯smander. The management of the private army has always been extremelyx and promotion within is always based on how much one can pay.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu kept getting the feeling that the battlefield was about to get more chaotic. What the hell was even going on anyway?


    But it seemed that Qing Zhen already had a high-ranking spy within the Li Consortium who could actually manipte the appointment and removal of officers within the private troops!


    This was not going to be as simple as Tang Zhou had proposed. No matter howx the management of the troops was, it wouldn¡¯t be possible to simply use money to buy such a high-ranking position. The Qing Consortium had to have a very influential person inside the Li Consortium before he dared to make such boastful ims. At the very least, this person was able to make changes to the private army¡¯s database of officers.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that I¡¯llpromise your secret agent?¡±


    ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen said that you¡¯re much more important than the agent now.¡± Tang Zhou said, ¡°Of course, we¡¯ll arrange for him to leave the Li Consortium secretly to avoid any potential issues if something happens to you.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu epted it reluctantly.


    Tang Zhou said, ¡°However, his evacuation is going to be difficult as well. Since the Office of Special Investigations is investigating the spy now, he might not be able to escape.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu reacted with a strange expression. ¡°Why not let me take care of that?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Tang Zhou was stunned.


    ¡°You might not believe it when I tell you this,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly. ¡°I¡¯ve only told you about my identity as a private soldier. However, I¡¯m actually also a captain in the Office of Special Investigations.¡±


    Tang Zhou was dumbfounded right then and there. Weren¡¯t you supposed to be helping the Yang Consortium collect samples of the nanomachines from the Divine Arms Battalion? How did you be an Office of Special Investigations officer as well?! Could the Yang Consortium have already infiltrated the Office of Special Investigations?!


    Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°I can¡¯t go into too much detail with you as the current state of affairs is a littleplicated.¡±


    Honestly, even Ren Xiaosu thought he had too many identities. And the way he got them was very strange as well.

 Chapter 261 - Ren Xiaosu’s promotion

    <strong>Chapter 261 Ren Xiaosu¡¯s promotion</strong>


    After the Office of Special Investigations located the private troops, they went back to make a report. On their way back, they heard others say that some problems had been encountered at the front line. The Divine Arms soldiers that were retreating had been killed at the front line of Mt. Fengyi by a sniper.


    While heading back, they even saw the corpses of the Divine Arms officers being transported back to Stronghold 108. However, this had little to do with them. Their mission was consideredplete since they had already located the whereabouts of the private troops.


    Themand center was constantly being shifted further north since nothing could be done if the generals kept remaining behind at the rear.


    Currently, themand center was located 30 kilometers behind Mt. Tantou and was only around 80 kilometers from where Ren Xiaosu and the private troops were stationed.


    When they got to themand center to look for Hu Shuo, they handed over the private troops¡¯ roster before reporting on the current situation of the private soldiers. They also expressed their doubts over how the five Divine Arms Battalion officers were supposedly killed by nts.


    Hu Shuo sat in the tent and flipped through the roster. But after flipping through just a few pages, he noticed a familiar name. He instantly figured out a lot of things. He did not have to reason or think it through since that name was as good as the answer.


    Hu Shuo let out a sigh. As it turned out, the Divine Arms Battalion had swapped their uniforms and vehicles with the private troops that guy was in.... In that case, they could only me themselves for being unlucky. If they had exchanged their vehicles with any other private troops, an incident like this would have been avoided.


    A Special Investigations officer asked when he saw Hu Shuo frowning, ¡°Sir, what¡¯s the matter? Is there a problem with the roster?¡±


    Hu Shuo came back to his senses and said with a smile, ¡°No, I was thinking of something else.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± The Special Investigations officer heaved a sigh of relief. He thought he had missed out on some details. ¡°Then should we conduct a thorough investigation of these private troops again? I feel like there¡¯s something off about them.¡±


    Hu Shuo said sternly, ¡°These private troops already have their wages and benefits mostly withheld from them, and they don¡¯t have any means ofmunication with the outside world, so the problem shouldn¡¯t lie with them. There aren¡¯t too many people who know about the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s secrets either, so we should still start investigating from the higher-ups.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± The Special Investigations officer replied, ¡°We¡¯ll focus on investigating the spy among those in the higher-ups then.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Hu Shuo nodded. ¡°But don¡¯t touch anyone from the Li Consortium.¡±


    With the tone set, they would thoroughly investigate all higher-ups and leaders, except those who were family members of the Li Consortium.


    Thinking about this, Hu Shuo couldn¡¯t help feeling somber. Who knew what other trouble Ren Xiaosu would cause?


    At this moment, another Special Investigations officer came in from the outside and walked up to Hu Shuo. He reported in a whisper, ¡°Sir, we found something unusual.¡±


    ¡°What did you find?¡± Hu Shuo was taken aback.


    meo


    ¡°An officer from the Supply Division has suddenly nominated someone for a promotion. It¡¯s like he¡¯s skipping the chain ofmand to promote a private soldier,¡± the Special Investigations officer said.


    Hu Shuo paused. ¡°What¡¯s the name of the soldier who was nominated?¡±


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu.¡± The Special Investigations officer asked, ¡°Should we investigate them?¡±


    Mncholic, Hu Shuo waved it off. ¡°There¡¯s no need. Our Office of Special Investigations has to follow up on the big case that¡¯s the Divine Arms Battalion, so there¡¯s no need to trouble ourselves with such a trivial matter. There will definitely be issues of bribery and corruption within the private troops, so don¡¯t waste your energy on such matters.¡±


    The Special Investigations officer bowed his head. ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    After all the officers of the Office of Special Investigations left, Hu Shuo almost flipped the table. Ren Xiaosu was fucking running rampant! He had to be doing whatever he liked because he was banking on Hu Shuo not daring to touch him!


    The private troops Ren Xiaosu was with were still encamped at the same spot. Even though a lot of them were close to starving to death, none of them dared to move outside in the face of a threat like the Brambles.


    In the evening, a group of officers from the Personnel Division suddenly came to the camp. On the way here, they were grumbling, ¡°We had to travel all the way here into these forested mountains just so that we could appoint an officer? Does this private troops¡¯ officer have no conscience? How dare he sell thems radio in exchange for money!¡±


    When they arrived, the private soldiers lifted the ps of their tents and sized them up. ¡°You people are?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Tang Wanyi from the Personnel Division. Everyone, gather over here,¡± Tang Wanyi said.


    The private soldiers all lined up in front of Tang Wanyi with confused expressions on their faces.


    Tang Wanyi asked, ¡°Who is Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu walked out of the formation and said, ¡°Reporting in, sir. I¡¯m Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Tang Wanyi nced at Ren Xiaosu out of the corner of his eye. ¡°Congrattions. As Liu Taiyu, themander of the Iron Second Battalion, is still injured and unconscious, we are specially appointing Ren Xiaosu as the actingmander of the Iron Second Battalion to lead the troops and carry out operational orders.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said excitedly, ¡°Really, sir?¡±


    ¡°Why would I be lying? Come and sign your appointment letter,¡± Tang Wanyi said disdainfully.


    Ren Xiaosu hurried over to sign it and prepared to go back into camp after that. However, Tang Wanyi suddenly pulled him back. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to celebrate with us?¡±


    ¡°Celebrate?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°How should we celebrate? Why don¡¯t I do the splits for you, sir?¡±


    Tang Wanyi was dumbfounded. ¡®Why would I want to watch you do the splits?¡¯


    Actually, this was something the private army practiced. Promoted officers were required to reward those from the Personnel Division with some kickbacks as a form of celebration. Tang Wanyi was aware that someone had spent more than 100,000 yuan just so that Ren Xiaosu would be promoted. It was obvious how much of a cash cow Ren Xiaosu was!


    Why else would Tang Wanyi be willing to run all the way here? His legs were almost broken from traveling here!


    If a promoted officer was not sensible and did not know how to honor his seniors, he could forget about getting promoted again in the future.


    Naturally, Ren Xiaosu knew about this. However, he didn¡¯t n on giving a single cent to this guy in front of him. Who knew if he would have an opportunity to run away from here soon? In that case, how could he possibly waste money on something like that!


    Tang Wanyi said coldly, ¡°Think about it carefully.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu yed dumb. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    If there were not so many people around, Ren Xiaosu would have used his identity as a member of the Office of Special Investigations to arrest Tang Wanyi for being a spy. But thinking about it carefully, he knew that he shouldn¡¯t always be causing trouble for Hu Shuo. What if Hu Shuo really got annoyed?


    Tang Wanyi was livid as he led his men away. This was the first time in many years that the Li Consortium¡¯s Personnel Division had encountered such a blockhead. He ordered those around him, ¡°After we get back, put this Ren Xiaosu on the cklist. Make sure he never ever gets promoted again in this life. When the war ends, I want him stripped of his rank!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi and asked softly, ¡°Wudi, what are they muttering about?¡±


    Chen Wudi lowered his voice and said, ¡°Master, they said they want you stripped of your rank at the end of the war.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The Li Consortium was so confident of themselves that they kicked off the war, yet the men under them were all a bunch of good-for-nothings. They were definitely not going to be a match for Qing Zhen.


    In addition to that, the Yang Consortium¡¯s soldiers were also biding their time at the border while Li Shentan and Hu Shuo were stirring up trouble internally. It would be really difficult to say what would be of the Li Consortium at the end of the war.


    Besides, it wasn¡¯t like Ren Xiaosu was nning on living here under the Li Consortium¡¯s rule anyway, so as if he cared about what happened to them after the war!

 Chapter 262 - Leading the troops out of a predicament

    <h4>Chapter 262 Leading the troops out of a predicament</h4>


    After Tang Wanyi and the others left, Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to everyone in the private troops, ¡°I was fortunate to be promoted tomander of the Iron Second Battalion. I won¡¯t use empty talk, but some of you probably already know about my capability. I¡¯m the best at surviving in this wilderness. None of you will starve to death or end up getting killed by the nts for no reason if you follow me!¡±


    Everyone looked at one another. How could he make such boastful ims the moment he got appointed as the newmander? Everyone knew that Ren Xiaosu was just a normal soldier. But now that he had gained such a huge promotion, everyone couldn¡¯t ept it.


    Naturally, no one dared protest either. The sight of Ren Xiaosu dragging people around in the snow awhile ago was still fresh in everyone¡¯s mind. Their impression of Ren Xiaosu was that he was a relentless person.


    But even though he was unrelenting, they did not believe the words he just said.


    Everyone had already been starving for several days, and they also faced the threat of the Brambles outside. Some people felt that Ren Xiaosu bing the battalionmander at this moment was no different from asking for trouble.


    Someone from the reinforcedpany couldn¡¯t help but ask coldly, ¡°Since you say that, and we¡¯ve been starving for several days already, how are you going to help everyone look for food? We¡¯ll believe you if you can get us out of here alive and find food as well.¡±


    As these people from the reinforcedpany were originally Liu Taiyu¡¯s cronies, the sudden change in leadership was definitely going to be a little ufortable for them.


    But anyone here could be the leader as long as they were capable enough.


    Someone added, ¡°Yeah, we don¡¯t even dare to walk too far. What if we encounter that nt again?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he gave an impassioned speech. ¡°Since I¡¯ve promised all y¡¯all, I¡¯ll definitely bring everyone out of this ce. How about this? I¡¯ll walk ahead, and y¡¯all can follow behind me. As long as I remain unharmed, nothing will happen to you guys behind me, right?¡±


    Everyone was at a loss for words. Some people were instantly moved when Ren Xiaosu said he would lead the way personally. They didn¡¯t expect he would have such courage!


    If there really were those terrifying nts along the way, Ren Xiaosu would surely suffer the misfortune first since he would be walking ahead. If Liu Taiyu had been conscious, he would probably have ordered other people to lead the way instead of himself. He would definitely not lead by example like Ren Xiaosu!


    Although none of them believed someone this good still existed in these wastnds, wasn¡¯t there a living example standing right in front of them?


    Ren Xiaosu said righteously, ¡°Everyone, pack up all of your belongings and tents quickly. We¡¯ll set off in an hour. I¡¯ll walk ahead while you follow me! I¡¯ll help everyone search for something to eat!¡±


    The private troops who were all made up of refugees were not cultured people. History had proven that the less cultured a person was, the less likely they would question people and matters around them. Once they got herd mentality, they ould be more prone to blindly following orders.


    They could never have guessed the nt was actually nted there by Ren Xiaosu...


    If it were other people leading the way, they might really end up getting into trouble with the nt. However, Ren Xiaosu would definitely be safe doing so.


    After the troops set off, Ren Xiaosu led them northwards and avoided all of the Brambles. Some of the vines suddenly emerged from under the snow and started moving threateningly at Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu just stood clear of its attack range.


    In the eyes of these private soldiers, it was as though Ren Xiaosu was imbued with the power of the gods!


    Someone shouted from behind for him to be careful, but Ren Xiaosu just turned around and saidpassionately to them, ¡°In order to lead you to safety, my sacrifice is nothing in the big picture.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that he was a great person. He was actually leading these private troops out of the predicament he had created!


    Tears were streaming from someone behind Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Thank you, Battalion Commander!¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Battalion Commander!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu continued advancing while counting the gratitude tokens he received. Good, he had gained yet a few more gratitude tokens. Although there were several dozen private soldiers thanking him, only a few people¡¯s gratitudes were sincere.


    Someone from the reinforcedpany whispered, ¡°It looks like he really ispetent. It might be a good idea if we follow a good leader like him in these current times.¡±


    Thepanymander said calmly, ¡°Let¡¯s observe the situation for now. It isn¡¯t such a big deal if he just gets us out of here. I¡¯ll only be convinced if he can sessfully lead us to some food as well.¡±


    In reality, it did not matter to Ren Xiaosu whether he could convince them since he wasn¡¯t nning on doing so in the first ce. His priority was to bring them to the designated location he had discussed with Tang Zhou.


    The people behind him were not even sincere when they thanked him. He had helped them find a way to sneak into the forward operating base to dine, but he was still immediately betrayed by them. Chen Wudi, who was kind-hearted enough to help someone in need, was described as a fool as well.


    Ren Xiaosu neither sympathized with these people nor did he intend to be truerades with them.


    By this time, they had left the Brambles ¡°ntation.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to everyone, ¡°Those vines very likely only grew in that small patch there, so there¡¯s no need to worry about them anymore.¡±


    Everyone heaved sighs of relief in response. Someone said, ¡°Then can we rest now?¡±


    Some of them were about to sit right down in the snow. The private troops werezy like that.


    But Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°We still can¡¯t rest. I promised that I¡¯d search for food for y¡¯all, so let¡¯s ovee the difficulties ahead of us first! And I have alreadye up with a good n!¡±


    When they heard they might get something to eat, everyone became excited. Even the reinforcedpany¡¯s soldiers had run out of food a day ago. Everyone was so hungry they were lightheaded.


    Ren Xiaosu headed into the mountains. But before he could even take two steps, he saw a hollow high in a tall tree next to him. He climbed the tree and reached into the hollow.


    Everyone was wondering what Ren Xiaosu was doing. But when Ren Xiaosu withdrew his hand from the inside, a squirrel escaped from within in a flurry while Ren Xiaosu held a fistful of pine nuts and dried fruits they had never seen before!


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Everyone, go around and look for simr hollows in the trees like this one. There should be enough food for everyone to fill their stomachs a little. Tell me if anyone discovers a cave or a rock cleft. That¡¯s where our dinner for tonight is going to be!¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s going to be in the cave?¡± someone asked curiously.


    Ren Xiaosu jumped down from the tree. As he stuffed a pine nut into his mouth, he said, ¡°After snakes store enough fat in the bodies, they start hibernating(1) for the winter. When that happens, they be very vulnerable to humans. Also, they prefer to be in groups when they hibernate. If we can find a cave, we¡¯ll basically have found a den of snakes, and we can eat roasted snake for our dinner tonight!¡±


    A ton of venomous snakes, bugs, and ants could be found in the southwestern region. Whenever Ren Xiaosu ventured into the wilderness in the past, he would always be exceptionally alert to this.


    But most snakes usually ended up as food during their hibernation process. This was further helped by the fact that snakes preferred hibernating in groups. They did this to coil together to keep warm and reduce water loss in their bodies.


    30% of snakes that did not hibernate in groups did not survive the winter.


    So some of the braver refugees would head into the mountains to search for snake dens during the winter. If they found one, it would be a great harvest for them, and they would be able to live morefortably for the entire winter.


    And Ren Xiaosu was the bravest person in this group of refugees.


    [1] Snakes do not actually hibernate. The term for cold blooded animals that ¡°hibernate¡± is brumate (brumation).

 Chapter 263 - Ren Xiaosu’s first battle!

    <h4>Chapter 263 Ren Xiaosu¡¯s first battle!</h4>


    Under Ren Xiaosu¡¯s leadership, therge group of private troops swept through the forested mountains like a swarm of locusts. As long as there was something edible, they did not miss any of it.


    During this period, Ren Xiaosu found three snake dens and caught over 200 hibernating snakes. In addition, some of the snakes were particrly fat. Ren Xiaosu and his men killed all of them before they could even wake up.


    This time, everyone was convinced they would get fed as long as they followed this Iron Secondmander. This had essentially be a conviction in all of their hearts.


    Li Qingzheng chuckled and said, ¡°Xiaosu, you¡¯re really resourceful. There¡¯s nock of food wherever you go.¡±


    In this wilderness, it was an incredibly exceptional skill to be able to find food wherever one went.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu turned around to the reinforcedpany and was taken aback. ¡°Eh? Where¡¯s Liu Taiyu?¡±.


    The reinforcedpany¡¯s soldiers had been taking turns to carry Liu Taiyu. But as they walked on, Liu Taiyu suddenly disappeared.


    Li Qingzheng said softly to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I saw them secretly dump Liu Taiyu on the side of the road just now. I think they¡¯re finding you more reliable than Liu Taiyu, so they¡¯re pledging their loyalty to you now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu found this rathermentable. As the former Iron Second Battalionmander, Liu Taiyu had been ¡°dumped¡± just like that. If the reinforcedpany could dump Liu Taiyu today, they could also dump Ren Xiaosu tomorrow in the same manner. Who would dare to desire such ¡°loyalty¡±?


    This incident reminded Ren Xiaosu once again that hardly anyone in the Iron Second was good. So he should not take his role as battalionmander too seriously.


    Themander of the reinforcedpany walked up to Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Battalion Commander, why don¡¯t we set up camp here tonight? I think we already have more than enough food.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s been hard on you guys, but we still have to walk a little further since it isn¡¯t safe here.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll get everyone to endure it a little more.¡± The reinforcedpany¡¯smander walked away with a smile. As long as they had food to eat, everything else could be discussed.


    The reason why Ren Xiaosu did not want to set up camp here was not that it was unsafe, but that he still had not led the private troops to the designated location yet.


    The troops continued marching. Although they still had not eaten yet, everyone was very energetic and motivated.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw some smoke spiraling up in the valley ahead of them. He called the reinforcedpany¡¯smander over and said, ¡°Could friendly forces be up ahead? Let¡¯s go and have a look. We can say hi to them and ask for directions to see if we¡¯re heading the right direction to Mt. Fengyi.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± the reinforcedpany¡¯smander replied.


    Then Ren Xiaosu quietly ordered Li Qingzheng and the rest of the toon, ¡°I want all of you to head to the back of the troops. Watch the others and ensure that no one leaves the group. If anyone attempts to run away, deal with them as you would with deserters and shoot them on the spot. If a fight breaks out, I want all of you to take cover somewhere in case you get hit by stray gunfire.¡±


    Li Qingzheng was stunned. Since Ren Xiaosu was saying this, it was clear he already knew who was in the mountains on the opposite side. He was deliberately trying to lead these private soldiers over there! Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu seemed absolutely sure that an intense battle was going to take ce!


    What was going on? Why did Ren Xiaosu know that?


    Li Qingzheng suddenly remembered that Ren Xiaosu had been going outside very often during the past few days. Could something have happened over that period?


    After another half an hour¡¯s walk, the private troops arrived at the entrance of the valley. The reinforcedpany¡¯smander said with a smile as he walked in, ¡°I wonder what troops would camp in a ravine like this. They could be another group of private soldiers just like us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I guess so.¡±


    In reality, Qing Yun¡¯s trusted troops could easily travel on the main mountain paths here. As long as they were willing to ce their weapons down when negotiating with the Li Consortium, no one would have them killed. However, Qing Zhen requested for them to keep their movements a secret in case a spy from a third party found out about their negotiations.


    After all, it wouldn¡¯t be good if either of the other two organizations found out that the Qing Consortium was negotiating with both of them at the same time.


    Therefore, the troops who had been sent here to negotiate could only make their way over in secret. When they reached the designated location, Qing Zhen would get in touch with the Li Consortium¡¯s higher-ups and arrange for a meeting where they would personallye down into the mountains for secret negotiation talks.


    However, Qing Zhen had no intention of negotiating with the Li Consortium. Right from the beginning, he was only thinking of leaving Qing Yun¡¯s trusted troops here to die in the Li Consortium¡¯s territory.


    When the private troops went into the mountains, themander of the reinforcedpany stunned. He saw the other party dressed in the Qing Consortium¡¯s ck military uniform and instantly realized they were not the Li Consortium¡¯s private troops at all. So the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops had infiltrated their territory!


    When the Qing Consortium soldiers saw the soldiers of the Divine Arms Battalioning over, their instincts were to raise their hands. ¡°We¡¯re the representatives of the Qing Consortium who havee to negotiate!¡±


    Hundreds of others gradually walked over from the Qing Consortium¡¯s camp as well. Ren Xiaosu saw they had already raised their guns and were ready to shoot at any moment.


    However, they remained very suspicious of the situation. Were these a thousand of the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s soldiers in front of them? Why would they encounter the main force of the Divine Arms Battalion here?


    Ren Xiaosu asked suspiciously, ¡°How can you prove that you¡¯re here for negotiations? Why haven¡¯t we received any notification?¡±


    ¡°Our frontlinemander, Qing Zhen, is currently in talks with your higher-ups. If you don¡¯t believe it, you can check with them,¡± the Qing Consortium soldier said.


    Ren Xiaosu sneered, ¡°Put down your weapons to express your sincerity. Don¡¯t worry, our Divine Arms Battalion won¡¯t harm any unarmed troops.¡±


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers looked at one another while their officer clenched his teeth and considered the proposal. To be honest, he didn¡¯t expect to encounter the Divine Arms Battalion here, and he knew very well that they would not stand a chance against a 1,000 of their soldiers with only 400 of them.


    Since they were here to negotiate, they would only return alive if the talks proceeded smoothly. Even if they managed to defeat them and run away at this moment, could they escape the Li Consortium¡¯s territory? But even So, would a proper military unit like them just ce down their weapons after a few words from their enemies?!


    The atmosphere got even more tense!


    The reinforcedpany¡¯smander was already trembling. It was not only him; all the private soldiers were also feeling the same.


    How could any of them imagine that their Iron Secondmander would be so ballsy as to even impersonate the Divine Arms Battalion to force the enemy to capitte! So what if they were wearing the uniforms of the Divine Arms Battalion?


    While they were stuck in a stalemate, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we each take a step back? I¡¯ll hand over our reinforcedpany¡¯smander to you as hostage to show our sincerity.¡±


    The reinforcedpany¡¯smander was speechless. When did he be an offer of sincerity?! Whoever wanted to volunteer could go instead!


    But before he could react, he was pushed out by Ren Xiaosu and stumbled across to the Qing Consortium¡¯s camp. When a group of their people pointed their guns at him, he was dumbfounded!


    Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°If y¡¯all still think that¡¯s not enough, I suspect that you aren¡¯t sincere at all and that you aren¡¯t here to negotiate!¡±


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s officer slowly replied, ¡°Attention, put down your weapons!¡±


    But while the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were putting down their weapons, Ren Xiaosu took out a pistol and shot the Qing Consortium¡¯s officer dead. Everyone was dumbfounded as the crack of the gunshot reverberated through the valley!


    How could he go back on his words?!


    Ren Xiaosu roared, ¡°They¡¯re defenseless now! Those who kill the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops will have rendered a great service. Follow my lead!¡±


    The people behind him were dazed. Some of them followed right after him and rushed forward as well. Although some of the soldiers tried to run away, Li Qingzheng¡¯s group was watching them from behind with their guns. Li Qingzheng raised his firearm and said with a grin, ¡°Let¡¯s see who dares to escape!¡±


    .


    Their entire group was suddenly forced to fight as they rushed forward with their guns The battle descended into chaos and some people did not even know what was going on.


    Seeing Ren Xiaosu rushing forward so fearlessly, they subconsciously followed him and started shooting mercilessly!


    When the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers saw this, they immediately pulled out the pistols they had hidden up their sleeves. In fact, they were only willing to put down their weapons earlier because they still had guns hidden. They were not really unarmed!


    When Ren Xiaosu who was furthest in front flicked his wrist, a reinforcedpany soldier went in front of Ren Xiaosu and shielded him.


    The wrist flick was so concealed it looked like the soldier had decided to block the bullet for Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu shouted in distress, ¡°Don¡¯t!¡±


    At this moment, the reinforcedpany¡¯smander was lying on the ground with blood oozing from his mouth. He was the only person who saw what Ren Xiaosu did.


    He mumbled, ¡°What the fuck...¡±


    No one heard what thepanymander said amid the intense gunfire.

 Chapter 264 - Heroes

    <h4>Chapter 264 Heroes</h4>


    ¡°What? A battalion of private troops has wiped out a group of troops from the Qing Special Forces?!¡± a general eximed in amand center. ¡°You aren¡¯t joking, right? Has it been confirmed yet?¡±


    The staff officer in front of the general said, ¡°It¡¯s absolutely true. It just happened yesterday. We had our people rush to the scene to confirm it after getting the news from a soldier called Chen Wudi they sent back to give a sitrep. The soldiers they killed should be from the Qing Special Forces. It¡¯s just that we do not know why this group of Qing troops would enter our military¡¯s hintends or how they got in.¡±


    ¡°How could you allow our enemies to infiltrate so easily? You might as well wait until they arrive at our HQ¡¯s doorstep before you realize they¡¯re here!¡± the general roared.


    The staff officer hemmed and hawed before saying, ¡°We suspect they were sent here to carry out a decapitation strike, so they deliberately traveled in the mountains. They did not bring a full-strength force with them because they wanted to travel quickly and quietly to avoid detection.¡±


    ¡°How did all of them get wiped out then?¡± the general asked in aposed voice after calming down.


    ¡°We have written statements from the private troops who mentioned they were from the Iron Second Battalion. They said they were able to wipe out their enemies this time because their battalionmander is wise and courageous. He took advantage of the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s uniforms they were wearing to fool the Qing Consortium soldiers into believing him and then immediatelyunched an assault after forcing them to disarm,¡± the staff officer said.


    ¡°Why does this ount sound so weird?¡± the general wondered. He felt that something was amiss, but he did not know where the problemy.


    ¡°I also find it quite weird. However, it does make sense that the Qing soldiers were aware they wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat the Divine Arms Battalion.¡± The staff officer said, ¡°How should we handle this matter?¡±


    ¡°How many people from this battalion of private troops died in the battle?¡± the general asked.


    ¡°400. It¡¯s equivalent to the number of deaths our enemies suffered,¡± the staff officer said.


    The general said with heartfelt emotion, ¡°A battalion of private troops was actually able to wipe out the Qing Special Forces and their casualties did not even exceed our expectations? This is a great triumph! This is exactly the triumph we need now!¡±


    The staff officer immediately understood what the general meant. Everyone had been very optimistic about the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s mission and hoped they would lead them to their first victory in the war. It would have boosted the morale of the military.


    However, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. The Li Consortium¡¯s higher-ups and generals were crestfallen at the defeat of the Divine Arms Battalion. In thebat meetings held over the past two days, everyone in themand center seemed overwhelmed by a sense of defeat. Thebat staff officers did not even dare to cough openly in fear of getting reprimanded.


    But now it was great news that they heard a battalion of private troops had wiped out the troops of their enemy¡¯s Special Forces.


    At their level, they did not actually care about how many soldiers died in the battle. All they were concerned about was how this result would affect the overall situation!


    The general said, ¡°Report this to the Board immediately, and request for the battalion of private troops involved to bemended. I want to rename the Iron Second Battalion to the Heroes Battalion. The active battalionmander will be officially appointed as a major as part of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops. On top of that, I want them to be equipped with the best gear we have.¡±


    The staff officer was stunned for a moment. This was going to set a precedent for their entire military organization!


    Even though there were military ranks in the private army, their soldiers were never officially appointed any rank. Therefore, the officers of the private army were just like regr employees, and they could even pay bribes to get appointed to certain positions in the organization. However, the Li Consortium had never considered the private soldiers as their people before.


    But with an official appointment now, everything was going to be different. Someday Ren Xiaosu might even get transferred to the Li Consortium¡¯s regr troops and hold an important position!


    As for reporting to the Board, that was only standard protocol. At a time like this, the Board would not interfere with decisions regarding the appointment or removal of an officer. As long as the move was beneficial to the war, they would not stop it from happening


    But suddenly the general said, ¡°After these private troops have been equipped with their gear, deploy them to our most impregnable defensive line. I¡¯ve received intel that the overallmander of the Qing Consortium military has changed to Qing Zhen.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡± the staff officer asked after a slight hesitation.


    ¡°Qing Zhen is an extremely prideful man. It would be really embarrassing if word of his Special Forces getting wiped out by our private troops got out. How could a proud person like him possibly tolerate a failure like that?¡± The general tapped his fingers on the table and sneered, ¡°Send these private troops to our most impregnable defensive line to let Qing Zhen fight them. Let¡¯s wear out his military forces!¡±


    The staff officer finally understood that the general was nning on using these private troops to lure Qing Zhen into a battle at their most robust position on the battlefield.


    The battlefield was arge chessboard, and the yers involved could not show any emotion. So what if they were the Heroes Battalion? They were still just chess pieces. The sacrifice of the Heroes Battalion would make them martyrs for others.


    When the staff officer left, he suddenly thought of a saying: ¡°The merciful cannot control the military; the fair cannot manage wealth.¡± The ancients had always been right in such regards.


    Full of pent-up anger towards Ren Xiaosu, Tang Wanyi of the Personnel Division had just returned to themand center. When he came back, he was ready to write up some dirt about Ren Xiaosu so that he could deal him a fatal blow at a critical point in the future. Heh, how could he expect to survive in the military after offending someone in the Personnel Division? How nonsensical!


    But at this moment, someone lifted the Personnel Division¡¯s tent p. Abat staff officer came in with a document tucked under his arm and said, ¡°Who¡¯s in the Personnel Division?¡±


    Tang Wanyi immediately put on a cating smile and said, ¡°Over here!¡±


    Everyone used to say that other than the chief of staff, normal staff officers held no real authority. But in wartime, these staff officers had the most presence around the generals. If any of them badmouthed you in front of the higher-ups, you would probably not survive the bacsh. And it would be even worse if the staff officer was a favorite of the leaders!


    Although the staff officer was submissive before the generals, he was not so polite with those in the Personnel Division. ¡°Execute the order on this appointment document. The private troops¡¯ Iron Second Battalion will be renamed the Heroes Battalion, and Ren Xiaosu will be appointed with the rank of major. Equip the battalion with supplies and then deploy them to the designated battlefield at the indicated time.¡±


    Tang Wanyi was stunned. ¡°What? Ren Xiaosu? Appointed to major?¡±


    Tang Wanyi was a smart person and knew what was going on!


    The staff officer gave Tang Wanyi a look from the corner of his eyes and said, ¡°What? You have a problem with that?¡±


    ¡°No, I wouldn¡¯t dare. I¡¯ll get to it immediately,¡± Tang Wanyi said bitterly. What the fuck? He had to travel all the way back there again after just returning?!


    Before the staff officer left, he said, ¡°It seems like you have a grudge against this Ren Xiaosu. But let me remind you, his rank is higher than yours now. Besides, he¡¯s now a war hero who will be the role model for our entire military. If you¡¯ve offended him before, you had better reconcile with him quickly. Know what your priorities are.¡±


    Tang Wanyi even wondered if Ren Xiaosu and him were destined to be at odds with each other!


    On that very night, Tang Wanyi arrived at the private army¡¯s camp once again. This time, his attitude was much better. He not only brought the appointment document but also five truckloads of food rations and another five truckloads of weapons!


    But that was not all. Even the trucks were left behind for Ren Xiaosu and his men so they could use them to get to the front line quickly.


    Tang Wanyi looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Sir, I¡¯m sorry if I offended youst time. You¡¯re a magnanimous person. If there¡¯s anything else about me you¡¯re unhappy with, please tell me clearly. Tell me, what can I do to get your forgiveness?¡±.


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. ¡°Why don¡¯t you do the splits for me?¡±


    Tang Wanyi was speechless.

 Chapter 265 - Previously kept secret

    <h4>Chapter 265 Previously kept secret</h4>


    The pedestrians in Stronghold 108 were all rapidly walking down the street. There were no signs of prosperity in this ce anymore. Instead, a depressing atmosphere had set in.


    Some noodle shops on the sides of the streets were already closed for the night. A lot of people were lining up in jewelry shops to purchase gold bars. However, the price of gold in the stronghold was already skyrocketing.


    Military vehicles often drove past on the roads, as if the atmosphere of war was still not distinct enough.


    A curfew had already been implemented in the stronghold. After 10 PM, any pedestrians found on the street would get sent to the Public Order Division to be detained without room for negotiation.


    In peacetime, the stronghold residents liked relying on ¡°connections¡± to get things done. If someonemitted a misdemeanor, everything would be alright if they could find an acquaintance to sort out the matter.


    But it was different now. It would be tough for those who got sent the Public Order Division to get out until after the war was over.


    Connections had suddenly be useless.


    Before the curfew time, a thin girl wearing a cap went into a hardware shop. As her hair was short, her long and beautiful neck could glimpsed under her shoulder-length hair that covered it. She was dressed in well-fitting athletic wear. When she raised her arm, the attire emphasized the outline of her slim waist.


    She gently knocked on the roller shutter door six times in a row, then paused for two seconds before rapping harder once more.


    Someone immediately raised the roller shutter, and the girl bent down to get into the shop.


    The owner of the shop was balding. He smiled and said, ¡°You came from the north?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± The girl said, ¡°Update me on the current situation.¡±


    ¡°Nothing special has happened. It¡¯s rumored that the Divine Arms Battalion suffered a disaster while retreating from the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory. They were attacked by a mysterious sniper on their way back,¡±


    ¡°Next piece of news, I already know about this incident,¡± interrupted the girl before the shop owner finished.


    The shop owner was surprised to hear that but did not probe further. ¡°There¡¯s something else. A battalion of private troops wiped out the Qing Special Forces at Mt. Tantou¡¯s front line yesterday. That was quite sensational news. After all, everyone knows what the private army is capable of. Who would have expected them to defeat the Qing Special Forces? And there¡¯s something else. I haven¡¯t gotten my hands on the Li Consortium¡¯s defensive deployment map yet. Once I have it, I¡¯ll send it in to the higher-ups immediately.¡±


    Half of the girl¡¯s face was hidden under the shadow of her cap. She replied, ¡°There¡¯s no need to update me about things like the defensive deployment map, I won¡¯t be participating in this war. Right now, I need you to help me look for a young man called Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°OK, I¡¯ll keep it in mind.¡± The owner said softly, ¡°Do you have any clues on where to start looking?¡±


    The girl thought for a moment before answering, ¡°You can start with wherever something unusual has happened.¡±


    ¡°Unusual?¡± The owner said, ¡°Nothing unusual has happened recently.¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be.¡± The girl seemed to remember something and said, ¡°Bring me the list for that group of private soldiers.¡±


    The shop owner was stunned. Did this girl suspect that the young man named Ren Xiaosu was among these private soldiers? Because it was somewhat unusual that these private troops were able to defeat the Qing Special Forces? Who was that young man? Why was this girl cing such a great deal of importance on him?


    Concurrently, in the Li Consortium¡¯s Research Facility 613, a middle-aged man in a white coat came out of a researchboratory. He said, ¡°Bring in the next batch of samples.¡±


    With those words, the pretty secretary immediately called the sample storage room to inform them. Then the manager of the sample storage room checked on the time the samples were delivered here. He counted out a 100 bottles of nanomachine samples before sending them over to theb.


    One of the bottles wasbeled with a note: ¡°Nanomachines started behaving abnormally after tested on a candidate with 0% sync rate.¡±


    Elsewhere, several operators were looking at the corpses of some nanosoldiers in a nanomachine remation factory. They were preparing to reim the nanomachines in these corpses before proceeding to unlock and reset them.


    Huge robotic arms hovered over the bodies as the operators controlled them. The operators were already numb from facing corpses like these all day long.


    Outsiders might not know what experiments the Li Consortium was carrying out, but the staff here had been doing the same remation operations on arge number of corpses every day. They were not concerned about how these corpses came about, where they came from, or where they would go.


    They were only concerned about whether too many corpses would get delivered here tonight and affect the time they finished their shift.


    Of course, they were only allowed to return to their closed-door dorms after work since this was a top-secret job. There was even an entirepany of soldiers that watched over them.


    But it was still much better than having to face these corpses. At the very least, they could still drink free beer or watch videotapes or the like after returning to their dorms. In a way, their daily lives were not exactly that boring.


    At this moment, the robotic arm buzzed and vertically descended to a corpse lying t on a stainless steel bed. There was a needle-like catheter attached to the front of the robotic arm that could be inserted under the skin.


    The operator pressed a key on the control panel. But a secondter he was stunned. ¡°Why isn¡¯t it reiming the nanomachines?¡±


    A coworker next to him said calmly, ¡°There could be some problems. Try again.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± After that, the operator on the control panel tried to extract the nanomachines again. But still, nothing happened. ¡°Should we manually operate it? Team leader, please authorize me. I need permission for the manual operation process.¡±


    A middle-aged man came over and entered a long password into the control panel. He instructed, ¡°Try using the C2 remote ess protocol.¡±


    When the robotic arm remained motionless, the middle-aged man frowned and said, ¡°It¡¯s still not working? There¡¯s only the C1 remote ess protocol left to try? But I don¡¯t have the permissions to ess it. I¡¯ll need to seek approval from the Board first.¡±


    But the operator froze. ¡°Team leader, nothing¡¯s gonna work. The nanomachines in his body... are gone!¡±


    The military trucks were humming noisily as they made their way north on the mountain roads. Li Qingzheng sat in the driver¡¯s seat and roared in high spirits, ¡°Xiaosu, you¡¯re amazing. How did you end up bing a major in the Li Consortium¡¯s regr troops in the blink of an eye? You¡¯re gonna have such a bright future! Do you know that being a regr soldier of the Li Consortium ispletely different in status from being in the private troops?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pulled a long face next to him. ¡°Enough bullshit, I¡¯ll take over driving for a while...¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do. There are still other soldiers in the back of the truck, and we¡¯re driving next to a cliff as well.¡± Li Qingzheng turned down his battalionmander¡¯s request as he was really afraid of an ident happening. It would be alright to let Ren Xiaosu drive on a t road, but he did not dare to let him touch the steering wheel while they were traveling on a mountain road. This was even after Ren Xiaosu had been promoted to battalionmander.


    Their lives were more important!


    The private troops had had their weapons upgraded. Although their total strength had been reduced to 511 people after the previous battle, everyone was now equipped with automatic rifles. Moreover, they were also given plenty of ammunition and even had four heavy machine guns attached to the battalion.


    Although their equipment was still inferior to the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops and they were not even given any rocketunchers, it was much better than what the other private troops had.


    Li Qingzheng rubbed the steering wheel as he said with a chuckle, ¡°It wasn¡¯t until today that I finally feel kinda like a soldier! This feels just like a dream. I never could¡¯ve expected we¡¯d wipe out the Qing Special Forces!¡±

 Chapter 266 - Live targets on the battlefield

    <h4>Chapter 266 Live targets on the battlefield</h4>


    Li Qingzheng was in a joyous mood. Not only did they upgrade their gear, but they were also given a resupply of rations. More importantly, Ren Xiaosu had immediately promoted him tomander of the reinforcedpany after being appointed major. As such, Li Qingzheng had even more soldiers under hismand now.


    180 people used to be in the reinforcedpany. But after the battle, the entire reinforcedpany had nearly been wiped out by the Qing Consortium.


    That was mainly because Ren Xiaosu had deliberately arranged for the reinforcedpany to follow close to him and made them the main fighting force in that battle. How could there be no casualties in a war? After all, bullets are blind!


    At the time, everyone realized that Ren Xiaosu had also rushed out furthest to the front. So why had all the people around him died, yet he was left unscathed?


    After the battle ended, Ren Xiaosu even led everyone to mourn for their deadrades. He said with a very sorrowful look, ¡°Our brothers in arms led a great life and died such a glorious death. Some of them fought bravely, and others even died saving me...¡±


    How could those soldiers from the reinforcedpany possibly give up their lives to save Ren Xiaosu? The others might believe it, but Li Qingzheng and Jiang Wu¡¯s students were not convinced.


    But nobody minded. In this era, the living had no time to grieve for the dead.


    Besides, it wasn¡¯t like they had a foundation of friendship with them to begin with.


    This time, they were under orders ofmand headquarters to head northwards and had been requested to join up with the garrison at Position 313 where arge group of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops were also stationed.


    Usually, private troops would not get deployed to important strategic locations like Position 313 to provide support. But the situation with the Heroes Battalion was a little different. No one could say for sure if they were still considered as private troops or not.


    After all, none of the battalionmanders in the private army had been given official appointments before, and no private army had ever defeated any of the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops either.


    Let alone the private troops, not even the Li Consortium¡¯s regr troops were a match for the Qing Consortium¡¯s regr troops.


    On their way there, they passed two forward operating bases. The treatment they received when they entered the FOBs was different this time. Themanders of the FOBs even weed them with great hospitality when they arrived, and they were served good food that included delectable meat dishes.


    Not only did they have food to eat when they arrived, but they also found it unnecessary to pack some buns to take with them on departure. The people from the FOBs would load up baskets of buns onto the vehicles and even gave them beef jerky to bring along!


    This made Ren Xiaosu feel somewhat ufortable. There was no room for him to make use of his street smarts!


    When themander of the FOB sent them off, he said with a smile, ¡°I wish you all the best going forward. When you get to Position 313, we hope to hear about the glory of our Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops again...¡±


    He took 20 minutes just to bid farewell to them. It was undeniable that he was fawning upon them.


    Actually, this was just how the Li Consortium¡¯s system was structured. When a new star rose, the sycophants would always think this would be a good opportunity to pander to those above them. If they did not do it now, it would be toote when the new star reached the top!


    But after they resumed their journey, even Li Qingzheng noticed something was off. ¡°Xiaosu, I¡¯ve realized that everyone seems to know we¡¯re heading to Position 313. Something doesn¡¯t feel right.¡±


    The movement of a fighting force was generally kept confidential, and it was the same even for the private troops. Friendly forces were not allowed to ask about each other¡¯s battle ns without authorization from the higher-ups!


    But it was really odd this time. It seemed that someone was deliberately telling everyone that the Heroes Battalion was headed for Position


    313!


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°What do you think is the reason for that?¡±


    ¡°Are they using us to bait the Qing Consortium?¡± Li Qingzheng wondered. He was taking a shot in the dark as he wasn¡¯t certain about it either. After all, his views were the same as any other refugee¡¯s. It was very sharp of him that he was able to guess this.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°So that¡¯s how the Li Consortium treats their heroes. I suppose they¡¯re too smart for their own good.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Li Qingzheng asked curiously.


    Next to them, Chen Wudi piped up, ¡°What my master meant was, how could anyone not have guessed it when even you were able to think of it?¡±


    Li Qingzheng was speechless.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was also aware that this was a very obvious move. The Li Consortium was openly telling the Qing Consortium that the private troops who had humiliated them would be at Position 313 and was challenging them to go there.


    If they did not dare to go, it would also be considered a blow to the Qing Consortium¡¯s morale. But if they did, they would have a fierce battle on their hands.


    Actually, the Heroes Battalion was only a pawn on the overall battlefield. They were a drop in the ocean.


    Position 313 was located on the sunlit slope of Mt. Shuanglong. Tens of thousands of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops were garrisoned on the front lines that stretched all the way from Mt. Tantou to Mt. Shuanglong, passing through Mt. Fengyi in the middle.


    Meanwhile, the front line at Mt. Qingsheng in the west that faced the Yang Consortium was even more heavily garrisoned with soldiers. Just at this location alone, tens of thousands of soldiers were traveling to and from the front line on a daily basis.


    So their 500-strong battalion was nothingpared to that!


    But fighting a war would never be as simple as solving an equation. The generals needed to y every move carefully and fight for every point that was up for grabs.


    But the general who made this strategic decision could never have expected that Ren Xiaosu had already discussed matters with the Qing Consortium.


    Li Qingzheng was getting extremely worried, but Ren Xiaosu was not one bit worried. He acted like he was just heading north for a holiday getaway.


    Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Xiaosu, aren¡¯t you worried?¡±


    Chen Wudi corrected, ¡°It¡¯s ¡®Battalion Commander!¡¯¡±


    Li Qingzheng snapped, ¡°You¡¯re really worthy of being your master¡¯sckey!¡±


    By now, everyone knew that Chen Wudi was a little mentally ill. He called himself the reincarnation of the Great Sage while Ren Xiaosu was the reincarnation of Tripitaka.


    However, they did not have any issues with him. If anyone in the troops had any difficulties, Chen Wudi would definitely help them as long as they were sincere in asking for help.


    It was really rare for a good person like that to appear in a world like this.


    When they thought about it sometimes, it was really ironic how only those who were mentally ill were willing to be good people.


    Ren Xiaosu, who was resting next to Li Qingzheng, opened his eyes and looked at him. ¡°You can rest easy. With me around, nothing will happen.¡±


    He could not just say to Li Qingzheng, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m the Qing Consortium¡¯s head spy nted in the Li Consortium. They won¡¯t attack the ce I¡¯m at.¡±


    He could only beat around the bush.


    Although Li Qingzheng admired Ren Xiaosu a lot, he still could not help but ask, ¡°What if they focus their forces on attacking us for the sake of getting revenge?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got impatient. ¡°If you let me drive for a while, I¡¯ll answer you right away!¡±


    Li Qingzheng immediately gripped the steering wheel tight. ¡°In that case, I don¡¯t want to know.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was annoyed.


    Suddenly, a hawk skimmed over their vehicle at low altitude. Ren Xiaosu looked out of the window and saw the bird probably had a wingspan of more than four meters. What an awe-inspiring sight!


    These days, it would be challenging for any air forces to engage in aerial activities with those ferocious flying beasts up in the skies. The main difficultyid in taking off since they would easily be targeted by these flying beasts.


    Wars between humans in the past were a little more diverse than this current era. Then was a time when ¡°those that could fly were not necessarily birds, and those that could swim were not necessarily fish.¡±


    But now armored brigades and artillery units were the keys to victory since onlynd battlefields were left to fight on. Meanwhile, nanomachines had be the most significant variable in current wars.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade quietly arrived at the front line of Mt. Ping at this moment.


    In the Yang Consortium¡¯s battle ns, the armored brigade would work with two infantry brigades to tear apart the Li Consortium¡¯s defensive line with a 40-kilometer-wide breach within three days once the war broke out. That would leave all of the Li Consortium¡¯s defensive anchor points at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng ineffective.


    But of course, the Li Consortium were not sitting ducks either.


    Since everyone still had their trump cards hidden, no one would know what the oue would be until after the curtain was lifted.

 Chapter 267 - No harm in having more skills

    <h4>Chapter 267 No harm in having more skills</h4>


    Li Qingzheng had expected soldiers to wee them when they arrived at Position 313. He even thought they would volunteer to serve them warm meals. After all, that was always the treatment they were getting throughout the journey.


    But when Ren Xiaosu led the private troops and arrived at Position 313, Li Qingzheng realized that the soldiers in this military camp did not seem weing of them. Their attitude was clearly different from those at the FOBs they had stopped by beforeing here.


    The soldiers in the transport trucks passing by were looking at them coldly. When the private troops reached the camp, not even a single person was there to wee them.


    Li Qingzheng scratched his head at the entrance of the camp. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Are we not wee here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Anyone but the soldiers at Position 313 would be weing of us. Just as Chen Wudi mentioned earlier, if even you could guess that we got sent here to be live targets on the battlefield, surely themanding officer at Position 313 also reached the same conclusion.¡±


    Li Qingzheng finally realized why they were so weed at the FOBs. It was because everyone was looking forward to their uing performance here on the battlefield. But they were not wee at Position 313 because their arrival meant that Qing Zhen would most likely send arge force here.


    How could the soldiers at Position 313 be in a good mood when they knew they would probably have to fight their toughest battle soon?


    But Ren Xiaosu did not care about this in the slightest. He went straight through the camp entry procedures at the sentry post and strolled in with his force of 500-odd private soldiers.


    At this moment, an officer blocked Ren Xiaosu¡¯s path. When he looked at the soldiers behind Ren Xiaosu, he saw them all standing ungainly and without proper bearing. How was this supposed to be a unit capable of participating in a battle?


    Although Ren Xiaosu and his men had defeated the Qing Special Forces, the nature of the refugees in the troops remained unchanged. Not only were their postures unsightly, but they were also wearing their uniforms sloppily.


    Initially, the officer at Position 313¡¯s campsite had been thinking, ¡®Since they¡¯re alreadying over, so be it. It¡¯s not so bad if a group of truly elite troops got deployed here anyway.¡¯


    But from the looks of it now, this ¡°Heroes¡± Battalion must have gotten really lucky in their previous battle!


    The officer frowned at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°You¡¯re Ren Xiaosu, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°How do you lead your soldiers?¡± The officer sneered. ¡°They aren¡¯t even standing in an orderly fashion. Don¡¯t you normally drill?¡±


    ¡°Who are you?¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Are you looking down on our Heroes Battalion?¡±


    The officer choked a little before saying, ¡°I¡¯m Ma Kai, themanding officer at Position 313. I¡¯m a senior colonel! I personally oversaw Position 313 getting built from the ground up, so I know the defensive fortifications here like the back of my hand!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quickly grabbed his hand tightly and said, ¡°Great job. You¡¯re exactly the kind of down-to-earth person who can get things done that the organization needs!¡±


    Ma Kai was speechless. The reason why Ma Kai had said that was to make Ren Xiaosu understand that he was the one who called the shots at Position 313. Even if the fucking Heroes Battalion had toe here, they would still have to listen to hismand. So how did it end up with Ren Xiaosu extending his regards to him?!


    Ma Kai said with a dark expression, ¡°Don¡¯t y dumb with me. I don¡¯t know how you managed to defeat the Qing Special Forces, but in my eyes, you people are just pieces of dog shit sent here by the higher-ups to implicate us. I hope that you all will know your ce and don¡¯t think that you are really heroes. Adjutant Zhang, bring them to where they will be holding. Don¡¯te out here and make trouble for us if it¡¯s no business of yours.¡±


    No one in the private troops dared to say a word. Although they had been basking in glory on their way here, they were immediately brought back down to earth once they arrived at this ce. But Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He just observed the surrounding terrain as he followed Adjutant Zhang and walked north.


    Position 313 was the general name given to this defensive front. It was a defensive anchor point for the entire front line at Mt. Shuanglong and was located in the northernmost part of the whole battlefield. It was also the closest to where the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops were.


    The entire defensive front covered an area of over 66 hectares[1] and extended into the hintends of Mt. Shuanglong. In modern-day battles, it wouldn¡¯t be enough to just defend the high ground. If anyone were foolish enough to only do that, they would easily die to an enemy¡¯s artillery bombardment.


    However, it would be a huge mistake if anyone thought that a defensive front was helpless in the face of modern-day artillery attacks.


    Sometimes, normal people in the stronghold would often have conversations over drinks about the ¡°Theory of the Omnipotence of Missile Weapons.¡± But only those who had actualbat experience would understand that for a missile to hit its target urately, it would require the sacrifice of many human lives in order to pinpoint the precise location of the enemies.


    Additionally, there were also vehicle-mounted short-range air defense (SHORAD) systems deployed at strategic defensive positions that worked very well against subsonic missile weapons such as grenades, mortars, and rockets, which were not guided and would not be able to get past these air defense systems.


    Humans did not purely focus on studying the different means of attacks. In the current day, whoever possessed a more advanced defense system would gain a greater advantage with the same level of firepower.


    It might be possible for the Qing Consortium to bombard the area with artillery fire, but who could afford to shell an area asrge as the whole battlefield? Every single artillery shell cost money!


    The purpose of war is to plunder benefits. If the expenditure outstretched the benefits gained at the end of this war, it would not be considered a victory at all.


    As Ren Xiaosu kept walking, he looked at the unfamiliar-looking midsize military trucks. They were parked behind the bunkers, but he did not know what their purpose was.


    After all, he did not gain any knowledge in this area back when he copied Yang Xiaojin¡¯s skills. As Ren Xiaosu still had an unused Skill Duplication Scroll on hand, he was considering whether he should use it on Colonel Ma Kai to gain some solid war expertise.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, ¡°Use the Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    The voice from the pce in his mind intoned, ¡°One of the target¡¯s skills will be randomly copied.¡±


    ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s amateur Morra skill. Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded on the spot. What the fuck is this Morra skill about?


    The Five Greats, the Six Obediences!?[2]


    Ren Xiaosu felt a pinch in his heart. The Li Consortium¡¯s prohibition of alcohol was not being seriously enforced at all. They even had a Li Consortium officer that yed Morra? Was no one going to do anything about that?


    Never mind that he ended up copying something like the Morra skill, but it was even an amateur skill? If he were going to depend on this skill in a drinkingpetition, he would probably end up losing really badly!


    However, Ren Xiaosu was already aware that the probability of learning something useful was rtively low when using the Skill Duplication Scroll. Sessfully copying and learning Luo Xinyu¡¯s superpower most probably exhausted all of his luck in recent years. So he was not particrly disappointed about not learning any useful skills this time.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu asked the pce, ¡°What is Ma Kai¡¯s proficiency in leadershipmand?¡±


    ¡°This information can be revealed if it¡¯s for a former target you¡¯ve attempted to learn from. He has advanced proficiency in Army Warfare Leadership,¡± replied the voice from the pce.


    Ren Xiaosu was rather startled to learn that he was actually an expert in this field. It was no surprise then that he was appointed as themanding officer of Position 313.


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu still went ahead and learned the Morra skill.


    After all, it would be a waste not to learn it. There was no harm in having more skills.


    He had even learned the jumping rope skill, so would it harm him to learn an amateur Morra skill? After all, there was no disgrace in being passionate about wanting to learn something!


    [1] 1 hectare is roughly equivalent to a rugby union field.


    [2] Instead of calling out pure numbers, they are expressed with longer phrases matching the numbers. | /2010/06/you -can-be-my-lucky-scar.html

 Chapter 268 - On the verge of war

    <h4>Chapter 268 On the verge of war</h4>


    As Position 313 Covered a veryrge area, those who were unfamiliar with the ce might even get lost here.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Adjutant Zhang, who was leading the way, ¡°Um... can you bring us a map so we can choose where to establish our defensive position?¡±


    Adjutant Zhang turned back around and looked at him. He said, ¡°Themander has already chosen a spot for you all. All you need to do is to defend your position well. Soldiers on the battlefield only have to obey their orders and shouldn¡¯t be questioning them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu curled his lips but did not say anything. In truth, it did not really matter to him. Since Tang Zhou had already informed Qing Zhen that he would be deployed to Position 313, the Qing Consortium would attack anyone but him now.


    He had only made that remark as he wanted to see if he could choose a convenient spot to leave the camp from to get in contact with Tang Zhou.


    It didn¡¯t matter even if he was not allowed to. That was not a big issue.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that Chen Wudi had been rather quiet. He asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Chen Wudi said, ¡°Master, I heard a lot of people in the camp saying that they want to send us to our deaths.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that?¡± Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, even if all of them get wiped out, we¡¯ll still be fine.¡±


    Chen Wudi had already awoken his super hearing. Ren Xiaosu tested it out with Chen Wudi before and discovered that he could hear what was being said even if he was just speaking in a whisper from a kilometer away.


    But this power had its effects on Chen Wudi, because he could hear the ¡°evilness¡± in this world.


    The ancients were particr about being straitced. As the saying went, one should pay restrain themselves even while in private.


    But most people couldn¡¯t conduct themselves that way. People were used to talking behind others¡¯ backs as dark sides got amplified when in private. The opinions they could not express openly intensified in the shadows.


    And Chen Wudi could hear all of those things now.


    If Ren Xiaosu had this power, he would definitely not be burdened by it. After all, he was not innocent himself.


    But it was different for Chen Wudi.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi and asked, ¡°Can you ignore it?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Chen Wudi shook his head and said, ¡°They¡¯re saying the troops here have already chosen the most dangerous position for us to guard. As long as Qing Zhen¡¯s troopse attacking, we¡¯ll be the first to die.¡±


    ¡°What else did they say?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°They also said that we deserve to die as it would save them from getting roped in.¡± Chen Wudi said dejectedly, ¡°But it wasn¡¯t our decision toe here. We didn¡¯t even offend them.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°They¡¯re the ones at


    fault.¡±


    ¡°Master, what is our purpose in seeking scriptures from the Western Paradise?¡± Chen Wudi asked.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered the question for a moment. ¡°So that we can lead afortable life?¡±


    Chen Wudi was stunned for a moment. ¡°Master, are you being serious? Shouldn¡¯t it be for the deliverance of all living creatures?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu patiently advised, ¡°You must save yourself before you can save others. Isn¡¯t there a saying that goes ¡®don¡¯t judge others by your own metric¡¯? In simple terms, that means you should get rich first before helping others get rich with you. Only by doing it first can you¡ª¡±


    Chen Wudi put his head in his hands and interrupted, ¡°Master, can you stop exining for a moment? Let me process this for a moment...¡±


    On the same night Ren Xiaosu arrived at Position 313, Luo Lan secretly arrived at the Yang Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 88. Furthermore, Luo Lan was also being unusually low-key as he only brought two orderlies with him this time.


    Although the Yang Consortium¡¯s higher-ups held secret talks with Luo Lan, no one in the outside world even knew he had gone there or what they discussed.


    But at midnight that night, the Yang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade and two infantry brigades suddenly started pushing south and were expected to arrive at the Li Consortium¡¯s front line at Mt. Qingsheng within the next two days. They had actually taken the initiative to kick off the war.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade moved out from the front line of Mt. Ping and led the advance. Meanwhile, the infantry division on the nk closed down on Mt. Qingsheng from the north with the intention of containing the enemy¡¯s firepower. As long as this defensive line was broken, the Li Consortium¡¯s defenses in the west would no longer be effective.


    Meanwhile, the Qing Consortium also made a move on their side. It was as though they had discussed it beforehand. That night, a group of mechanized infantry suddenly rolled in from the north.


    As the long stretch of mechanized infantry column meandered along on the mountain paths, the lights on the vehicles looked like torches shining in the night. Several engineering battalions were quickly building bridges and paving roads as they moved on the paths. Their speed was so fast it was unbelievable.


    Meanwhile, special forces had already been deployed onto the battlefield to scout ahead for enemies.


    Some of the Li Consortium¡¯s troops had still been holding at the FOBs to reorganize their forces, but all of them got deployed to the front lines by the evening.


    The 13 defensive positions at Mt. Qingsheng were brightly lit as the entire camp was illuminated by huge spotlights. Meanwhile, the military camp was filled with the angry voices of the Li Consortium¡¯s officers shouting.


    When a military truck drove in, the soldiers jumped out from the back of the vehicle and rushed to their assigned spots without stopping


    Ren Xiaosu was sitting on a hill and looking behind him. The spot their battalion was assigned to was at the northernmost area of Position 313. Just as Chen Wudi had heard, it was Colonel Ma Kai who had arranged for them to guard this position and send them to their deaths.


    All they had were four machine guns. They were not even issued a rocketuncher, much less being given any mortars. It would be a miracle if they could defend their position with the weapons they had.


    So when the soldiers at Position 313 met Ren Xiaosu and his men, they looked at them as though they were looking at the dead. No one believed they would survive.


    When Chen Wudi sat down next to Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu said to him, ¡°Immediately let me know if you hear anything unusual. We should also have our guards up against Qing Zhen in case he goes back on his word.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Chen Wudi nodded vigorously.


    While sitting at this rtively elevated position, Ren Xiaosu could vaguely spot the soldiers at the camp running back and forth a kilometer or two behind them. There were people directing the vehicles with glowing red batons. People were also constantly walking in and out of themand center at the rear.


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something was odd about the three huge tents that were standing quietly in the camp. While there were people busily going in and out of the other tents, those three tents remained idle, undisturbed by anyone. There weren¡¯t even any soldiers who went near it.


    What was with this? Could it be the Li Consortium¡¯s ssified zone?


    At this moment, Li Qingzheng walked up with an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder. ¡°Xiaosu, I¡¯m feeling a little panicky...¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t panic, there¡¯s nothing to panic about.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°At most, we¡¯ll just run away when the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops start attacking us.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re taking it so lightly. How can we run away just like that?¡± Li Qingzheng shrugged as he sat next to Ren Xiaosu and whispered, ¡°A group of scouts have just been deployed from here. I heard them saying that it seemed like the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops areing here to get their revenge.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started frowning. Could there be a change of ns?


    He turned around and looked at the camp behind him. Suddenly, he had an inkling that a lot of people there were subconsciously looking at them at this moment.


    As the war was on the verge of breaking out, everyone at the camp bore a grudge against this ¡°Heroes¡± Battalion. Even the rearguard troops who had just arrived at Position 313 were horrified when they heard the Heroes Battalion was here. Everyone had the feeling that the Qing Consortium would definitely attack this ce first.


    Although it was difficult to predict who would win the war, no one felt that the Heroes Battalion could survive this battle.

 Chapter 269 - The Heroes Battalion requests battle!

    <strong>Chapter 269 The Heroes Battalion requests battle!</strong>


    Ren Xiaosu had tasked Li Qingzheng and Chen Wudi with setting up the defenses. The Qing Consortium¡¯s troops would definitely have to construct some basic defensive fortifications first after arriving here and would not attack immediately.


    The attackers would need to build up their defensive front as well. After all, retreating soldiers would still have to have somece to treat their wounds and rest at.


    Ren Xiaosu had been observing the three suspicious tents and even had Li Qingzheng bring a pair of binocrs to him. The binocrs thing hade with their newly issued equipment, and Ren Xiaosu found it extremely handy.


    After all, a supernatural being¡¯s hearing and vision did not improve significantly after awakening their powers. The change to their vision was mainly in how it processed movement, not the distance they could see up to.


    But that general who was so determined to appoint Ren Xiaosu could probably not have expected him to use it to observe their Li Consortium rather than the Qing Consortium.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw a small group of people emerging from one of those tents. However, these people were keeping a very low profile. They were dressed in the uniforms of normal soldiers and did not interact with anyone.


    But Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find he actually knew someone from this group. Wasn¡¯t one of them that posturing Lin Qi who had been to their outpost previously? Wait, so were these three military tents all hiding the nanosoldiers from the Divine Arms Battalion?!


    Ren Xiaosu had found it a little regrettable that one of the ¡°legs¡± of his armor was still missing. However, it looked like it had shown up when he least expected it.


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and headed into the mountains alone when he noticed no one was paying attention to him. The soldiers at Position 313 were all avoiding their location like the gue. But it also made it more convenient for Ren Xiaosu to head out.


    He had just trekked a kilometer west when someone suddenly whispered from behind arge tree in front of him, ¡°From the northes a monk.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°From the southes a mute. Come on out.¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu said that, Tang Zhou emerged from behind the tree.


    Tang Zhou asked, ¡°Have you all settled down at Position 313 yet? I can only move around on my own for now. There are scouts patrolling the vicinity, so we¡¯ll get discovered if we move inrger groups.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°So are y¡¯all nning to attack Position 313?¡±


    Tang Zhou said frankly, ¡°Actually, it might look like we¡¯re preparing tounch an aggressive attack on this ce, but we¡¯re just trying to attract the main forces of the Li Consortium from the front lines of Mt. Shuanglong and Mt. Fengyi to here. We aren¡¯t nning on sacrificing too many of our people here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. From the looks of it, the Li Consortium and the Qing Consortium would get caught in a deadlock here for quite a while. Even if they were going to engage in a battle, it wasn¡¯t going to get serious. But why did they want to attract the Li Consortium¡¯s main forces over? He could not understand what was going on.


    Qing Zhen had to have some other ns.


    Tang Zhou continued, ¡°But we¡¯llunch an attack on Position 313 and Position 319 at the same time after midnight. The Li Consortium¡¯s main forces at the rear will onlye over if we attack more aggressively. Of course, we¡¯ll definitely only be feinting an attack on your Position 313. We¡¯ll be sending some of Qing Yun¡¯s remaining soldiers your way too. They aren¡¯t well-equipped and will not pose any threat to the defensive front you¡¯re guarding.¡±


    Tang Zhou said this in order to dispel Ren Xiaosu¡¯s concerns. After all, they still had opportunities for further cooperation.


    But Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°Y¡¯all can justunch an attack on Position 313 without worrying about me. Attack it to your heart¡¯s content. I¡¯ll draw a simple map of our defensive deployment for you, but go easy on our Heroes Battalion when you attack us!¡±


    The defensive deployment map was very crucial. Without it, the Qing Consortium would have to pay the price of an infantry brigade if they wanted to figure out how the heavy firepower was distributed at Position 313.


    But Tang Zhou became very confused by this. What had gotten into Ren Xiaosu? He was even requesting a battle now?


    ¡°Did we seed?¡± Ma Kai asked as he knitted his eyebrows in themand center.


    Abat staff officer said, ¡°We attempted to blow up the temporary bridge they had constructed, but our men were discovered by them before they could even get close to it. As our spies have been thoroughly cleaned out from the Qing Consortium, we can only hold our ground for now. Based on the intel ryed by the scouts, the Qing Consortium has divided their troops to head in separate directions.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯reing in separately?¡± Ma Kai asked, ¡°Where are they headed?¡±


    ¡°One of them is headed here to Position 313, while the other is headed to Position 319.¡± Thebat staff officer said, ¡°But we can¡¯t ascertain how their forces are distributed.¡±


    Position 313, where they were located, and Position 319 were the defensive anchor points of the entire battlefield¡¯s front line. These two locations closely supported each other, and as long as they remained standing, the entire battlefront would be stable.


    Hence, the Qing Consortium would not be able to avoid these two fronts if they wanted to break through the defensive lines at Mt. Shuanglong.


    Thebat staff officer said, ¡°The only weakness that Qing Zhen has is that he bears grudges and values the morale of his army too much. That¡¯s also the reason why the higher-ups have sent the fucking Heroes Battalion to Position 313. Therefore, I feel that he will still send his main forces here to Position 313.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Colonel Ma Kai shook his head and said, ¡°You¡¯re wrong about that. I¡¯ve studied the intelligence of the battles that Qing Zhen has waged. Although his military strategy on the battlefield might look like it varies a lot, which in turn confuses people, he will never take risks or be greedy for sess. A few years ago, Qing Zhen faced the Pyro Company at Mt. Taifu when he was still an inexperiencedbatmander. He could obviously chase victory by pursuing his enemies, but he suddenly chose to retreat. It requires a lot of courage and wisdom for a young man in his early twenties to do that. It was also proventer that the Pyro Company indeed had a backup n at that time, but they couldn¡¯t do anything when the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops started retreating.¡±


    Everyone seemed to think that Qing Zhen¡¯s behavior was unpredictable and full of tricks. He tended to like using unconventional methods to fight his battles. But Ma Kai felt that Qing Zhen was projecting a false image.


    Thebat staff officer was taken aback for a bit. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°I think that it¡¯s very likely they will feint an attack here at Position 313 to throw us off before focusing their attacks on Position 319.¡± Ma Kai analyzed, ¡°Qing Zhen is not someone who is blinded by hatred. Moreover, he only lost a group of his Special Forces this time, so it shouldn¡¯t even be tantamount to him seeking vengeance.¡±


    Thebat staff officer echoed, ¡°Colonel Ma Kai, you¡¯re really discerning of the situation on the battlefield. I¡¯m in agreement with your opinion.¡±


    Ma Kai said, ¡°Tell our fighting forces to get ready. Once we confirm that the Qing Consortium is only faking an attack on Position 313, we¡¯ll have to be ready to support Position 319 at immediate notice.¡±


    Thebat staff officer nodded and said, ¡°Any further instructions?¡±


    Ma Kai replied, ¡°The position where the fucking Heroes Battalion is defending is unimportant to the overall situation, so if the Qing Consortium does feign an attack here, I don¡¯t want the other fighting forces to give them any support.¡±


    Thebat staff officer was shocked. Was he thinking of just leaving the Heroes Battalion to die?!


    Boom!


    Boom!


    Boom!


    A few consecutive explosions sted and shook the ground. Everyone in themand center was stunned. That was the sound of artillery fire!


    Immediately after, intense gunfire rang out through the night sky as war broke out in an instant!


    What was going on? Why did the Qing Consortium suddenlyunch an attack?! Had they gone crazy?


    A soldier rushed in from outside and shouted, ¡°The Qing Consortium¡¯s main forces are approaching Position 313! Although our vehicle-mounted SHORADs have managed to intercept their mortar shelling, it seems like they¡¯ve gotten their hands on our defensive deployment map and are concentrating their firepower on where our heavy weapons are deployed!¡±


    Ma Kai wore a solemn look. Wasn¡¯t this p to the face delivered a little too quickly?!

 Chapter 270 - Qing Zhen set me up!

    <h4>Chapter 270 Qing Zhen set me up!</h4>


    Sometimes when enemies made their attacks, they would have to rack their brains for several days just to find a breakthrough point. Even with heavy firepower, they still would not know where to start attacking. Even if they wanted to carry out a full coverage attack, they would not be able to do it.


    In normal circumstances, the more ruthlessmanders would just send in cannon fodder to get an understanding of the actual situation. Thousands of lives would be wasted just to find out where the heavy weapons were located on the defensive grounds.


    But it seemed like the Qing Consortium was fully aware of that right from the beginning. They even knew where the SHORADs at Position 313 were deployed. The SHORADS were very expensive and should only be deployed at strategic locations in case the front got bombarded with artillery fire.


    But the moment Qing Zhen began his attack, he ordered a barrage of mortars to be fired at the strategic locations like they didn¡¯t cost money, effectively making a ¡°one-for-one exchange¡± by destroying the Li Consortium¡¯s SHORADs with his cheap mortar shells.


    If Ma Kai and his men had known their defensive deployment map had been leaked, they would have been more conservative in their deployment of the SHORADs. But they didn¡¯t know!


    How could they have known that the so-calledmander of the Heroes Battalion would turn out to be the most important spy of the Qing Consortium? He even gave away the defensive deployment map just like that.


    Just one round of unexpected mortar bombardment had nearly destroyed all the SHORADs at Position 313!


    This move by Qing Zhen was disgustingly effective.


    The defensive deployment map was simply too important. Qing Zhen had intended to break through the defensive line at Position 319. But with the emergence of this deployment map, he immediately changed his strategy.


    If Qing Zhen did not have the defensive deployment map, arge quantity of those mortar shells would have been wasted. But with it, he could achieve a closer and more urate strike, forcing the SHORAD forces to be up to their ears in work.


    Although the Li Consortium¡¯s development of armaments had been going well and their talent pool was bulging, they had basically not fought in anyrge-scale battles in recent years. Even a talent like Ma Kai, who had a thorough understanding of warfare, was nothing but a novice.


    No matter how much theoretical knowledge a person had, it would still take some time to put this knowledge into practice and gain valuable lessons.


    It was unfortunate that they were facing Qing Zhen who did not have any intention of affording them time to grow.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu led the Heroes Battalion to their position located on a small hill on the mountain. There was a small bunker with heavy fortifications around it, while a 43-degree slopeid in front of them.


    As Ren Xiaosu looked down from up here while lying prone behind the defensive fortifications, the soldiers of the Heroes Battalion were trembling next to him while holding their guns.


    Listening to the continuous artillery fire that was booming in the distance, Li Qingzheng asked in a quavering voice, ¡°Battalion Commander, will the Qing Consortium bombard us with their mortars? We won¡¯t be able to hold them off!¡±


    ¡°What are you afraid of?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s not like they¡¯ve started bombarding us!¡±


    At this moment, the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers could faintly be seen approaching at the foot of the mountain where their battalion was positioned. Ren Xiaosu roughly estimated there to be over a 1,000 of them. This was an infantry regiment!


    ¡°Are we going to fight them?¡± Li Qingzheng asked.


    ¡°Yes, of course we¡¯re going to fight. Why shouldn¡¯t we fight when we have the terrain advantage?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let¡¯s wait for them to get a little closer!¡±


    ¡°Any closer and they¡¯ll be within distance of hurling their grenades over,¡± Li Qingzheng said anxiously.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to panic. Everything is well within my control,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    When the Qing Consortium¡¯s infantry regiment got halfway up the mountain, Ren Xiaosu suddenly shouted, ¡°Open fire!¡±


    The four heavy machine guns in the bunker spewed tongues of me. The machine gun bullets hit the mountainside and sshed mud all around. When one of the soldiers got hit by a bullet in the arm, his arm broke!


    Although the Qing Consortium soldiers wanted to rush up, they could not do so. They tried shooting at Ren Xiaosu and his men¡¯s location, but the advantage of the defensive fortifications was simply too great.


    In order to tackle this kind of high ground in modern warfare, the mostmon method was for troops to charge forward until they were within distance of the enemy. Then they could choose to bombard the target urately with artillery fire using precisionser guidance.


    Thisser guidance was used to point out the target¡¯s location urately so that the supporting troops could send in missiles from the rear.


    They had already tried their best to charge up the mountain. A soldier was holding up aser guidance device, but no supporting fire came from behind even after he pointed it at the bunker for a long time.


    The regimentalmander lost all hope andmented, ¡°Qing Zhen set me up!¡±


    Actually, he understood that Qing Zhen definitely wanted to get rid of him quickly since he was in Qing Yun¡¯s camp and was not cooperative with Qing Zhen in his battle ns either.


    But he did not expect Qing Zhen to be this treacherous. He was brave enough to use the oue of the war to trap him? If they could not secure this front, what would happen if it affected the big picture?


    But what he did not know was that Qing Zhen had absolutely no intention of securing this front, because he had already made a deal with Ren Xiaosu!


    ¡°Regimental Commander, what should we do now?¡± a soldier shouted out amid the heavy fireing from the mountain.


    ¡°Use the rocketuncher!¡± the regimentalmander roared.


    With a loud boom, a soldier who was carrying the rocketuncher was blown away by an explosion. The rocket had exploded before it could even beunched!


    ¡°Regimental Commander, what are we gonna do now?!¡±


    ¡°Charge!¡± The regimentalmander clenched his teeth and said, ¡°After we charge up, we¡¯re gonna blow up this position with our grenades. That¡¯s the only way we can survive. There shouldn¡¯t be too many soldiers defending this position, so we still have hope!¡±


    A stupid way to storm high ground was by throwing hand grenades. After the attacking soldiers advanced to a close enough distance, they would throw the grenades to blow up the defensive position. When that was sessful, the soldiers at the defensive position would no longer be able to stand.


    So grenadiers in the military used to y an extremely important role. Whoever could throw grenades most urately would survive and enjoy the spoils of war.


    Of course, this method was gradually eliminated with the advancement in firepower. Unless it was a desperate situation, no one would do it this way anymore.


    They had been issued with an unserviceable rocketuncher, and after charging halfway up the mountain, they realized they had no supporting fire.


    This left the regimentalmander in despair. Qing Zhen had even pushed him to the point where he had to resort to such an obsolete tactic.


    Several of the brave grenadiers in the troops immediately continued to advance. After they got to the designated distance, they threw their grenades over!


    Everyone midway up the mountain became quite excited. It seemed like the troops who were guarding this position on the mountain were quite inexperienced for them to get close enough to throw their grenades!


    After waiting for a short while, the grenades that were thrown over detonated. However, the explosion sounded very soft.


    The regimentalmander was a smart person. So when he heard the sounds of the explosions, he growled, ¡°Qing Zhen, you treacherous fool, you¡¯ve gone too far! How could you issue us with dummy grenades!¡±


    Although the training grenades were not dummy grenades, their explosive power was extremely weak. The explosions would only produce a sound but were not enough to kill anyone. Moreover, they looked exactly the same as a real grenade.


    The regimentalmander was nearly in tears. It was only then that he realized how unscrupulous Qing Zhen really was. He did not even leave a way out for them!


    As Ren Xiaosu kept firing on the hill, he was treating this as practice for his Advanced Firearms Proficiency. He was using the automatic rifle in such a way that it felt like a sniper rifle in his hand. One shot, one kill, that was how urate he was!


    Ren Xiaosu said to Li Qingzheng at this moment, ¡°See, we¡¯re the Heroes Battalion after all. The opposing Qing troops are not a threat to us at all.¡±


    Li Qingzheng believed it immediately. That was because he also felt very rxed when dealing with the enemy.


    At this moment, the other soldiers of the Heroes Battalion also realized that war did not seem that terrifying after all.

 Chapter 271 - The lifesaving Heroes Battalion!

    <h4>Chapter 271 The lifesaving Heroes Battalion!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu and his men had expended their ammunition very quickly. The main reason for this was that everyone was inexperienced in fighting a battle. They had only fought once during the battle with the Qing Special Forces, and it even ended chaotically.


    They did not even know how they had won against them. The post-battle conclusion was that the battalionmander was wise and outstanding enough to dupe their enemies to put down their weapons.


    Now that they were in yet another battle, it was against a full-strength infantry regiment of 1,500 soldiers. Meanwhile, they only had around 500 people on their side.


    No one other than Ren Xiaosu was aware that this infantry regiment was actually sent here to their deaths by Qing Zhen. So everyone would definitely feel a little flustered at the sight of them.


    In their panic, their hands trembled, and they fired off their ammunition like it didn¡¯t cost a thing. They just kept their fingers on the trigger without letting go.


    The troops at the other positions on the defensive front could only hear continuous gunfire and loud explosionsing from this side of the battlefield, but they did not know the actual situation of the battle over here.


    Gradually, the infantry regiment below got so overwhelmed they lost all morale. When Ren Xiaosu noticed the barrels of the heavy machine guns turning red-hot, he scolded, ¡°Why are all y¡¯all so fucking stupid? Piss on the gun barrels to cool them!¡±


    When the soldier who was responsible for feeding more ammunition into the heavy machine guns heard that, he immediately took off his pants and peed on a gun barrel. However, the heavy machine gunner ended up swearing, ¡°Fuck, it¡¯s sshing all over my face!¡±


    With the help of the Qing Consortium, a group of panicky amateurs had sessfully defended the Li Consortium¡¯s high ground.


    Many people would y down the power of heavy machine guns as they felt that it was just a gun no matter what. How could it be as powerful as artillery?


    But war was never about specifications alone. The role of heavy machine guns in positional warfare was even more significant than one could imagine. In the history of humanity¡¯s wars, there was someone who had killed 3,200 people in a single day using only a heavy machine gun!


    Seeing that the infantry regiment had been badly battered, Ren Xiaosu could finally use his binocrs to observe the other defensive positions.


    But he was surprised by what he saw. Some of the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers had already prated the other elevated locations with the support of artillery fire. Meanwhile, the majority of the Li Consortium¡¯s Position 313 had been bombarded into a mess, and the heavy fire positions deployed on the high ground were forcefully broken through by the Qing Consortium. This was a situation no one had expected before the battle began.


    The camp¡¯s ground at the rear was no longer smooth but looked like it had been bombarded quite heavily as well.


    However, it seemed that the Qing Consortium did not want to take out Position 313 in its entirety. Qing Zhen was well-versed in military tactics and knew well that they would definitely face the Li Consortium¡¯s frenzied counterattack if they seized Position 313.


    The upation of some hills often changed hands hundreds of times during a war. By the end of the war, the slopes would even get painted crimson red. Some people would even slip and fall when they stepped on the slopes as blood seeped deep into the ground.


    Therefore, it did not mean a battle would end after the high ground was seized sessfully. Immediately after the Qing Consortium upied one of the hills, the Li Consortium would bombard them back with heavy artillery fire. At that moment, arge number of the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers who had just charged up would perish in an instant.


    War is cruel. It doesn¡¯t care whether you have parents to support or if your son is waiting for you at home.


    Everything that happened in war was to determine the final victory.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his binocrs and gazed at the rear. His only focus was on the three mysterious tents. Or to put it better, he only cared about the movements of the nanosoldiers.


    The defensive deployment map he had given away earlier was not considered particrly detailed. After all, Ren Xiaosu did not get to fully walk around Position 313, so he could only draw whatever he had seen.


    But he had specially marked the tents the nanosoldiers were in and reminded Tang Zhou that they must bombard the area there with their artillery fire.


    Naturally, it wouldn¡¯t be realistic to expect an urate attack on the rear without anyser-guided weapons or detailed mapping. But as per their agreement, Qing Zhen put in even more money in order to fully bombard the area where the three tents were located.


    Ren Xiaosu saw that the three tents no longer stood. There was only a pile of corpses and a pool of fresh blood on the ground. Seeing that, Ren Xiaosu got all excited.


    Suddenly, the voice from the pce in his mind said, ¡°Quest: Save a 100 people. You will receive five allocatable attribute points.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He was wondering what excuse he could make to return to the rear. However, the pce immediately came up with a reason for him.


    He took a look at the remaining few soldiers of the infantry regiment below them before shouting to Chen Wudi, ¡°Wudi, follow me back to the camp to save the others. There are many wounded soldiers there!¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu even pointed to thebat toon that included Jiang Wu¡¯s students to go with him.


    Chen Wudi¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°OK, Master!¡±


    The two of them turned around and rushed back towards the rear. Li Qingzheng was nearly scared out of his wits and said, ¡°Battalion Commander, don¡¯t go! How are we going to handle this if you leave now!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, just keep a careful watch on our position. The remainder of the infantry regiment won¡¯t be able to cause any trouble to us now!¡± Ren Xiaosu did not even turn around as he shouted to Li Qingzheng.


    Li Qingzheng was dazed for a moment. He had thought they would have a tough fight here. But as it stood, they still had enough energy to go back to save the wounded.


    Before this, everyone at Position 313 felt that Ren Xiaosu and his men were doomed.


    But so far in this battle, even after some of the troops had entirely perished, the Heroes Battalion only suffered around a 100 casualties.


    Although this number of casualties ounted for one-fifth of their total strength, there had been bullets and artillery shells flying all around on the battlefield. It was a miracle they had taken so few casualties!


    With only a 100 casualties, they were able to annihte the enemy¡¯s infantry regiment of 1,500. If news of this spread back to the Li Consortium¡¯s generals at the rear, they would be shocked!


    Of course, saying that it was an annihtion would definitely be an exaggeration. But Ren Xiaosu would definitely brag like that.


    Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and his men rushed all the way back to the rear of Position 313. At this moment, the camp was a mess. Themand center¡¯s tent had copsed and no one knew the whereabouts of Ma Kai.


    Medics were running around in a bid to save the injured, but there were just too many casualties. How could they possibly save everyone?


    But Ren Xiaosu¡¯s goal was clear. When he rushed back to the camp, he led Chen Wudi and the others to where the nanosoldiers used to be. Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Wudi, bring the others along and carry the wounded to get them treatment!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was already looking for any nanosoldiers who¡¯d died. As smoke was lingering over the battlefield, he could not clearly see where the dead nanosoldiers were.


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sense of direction was pretty good, so he quickly located the spot where the three tents were. Each time he encountered a nanosoldier, he would immediately get the pce to unlock and reset the nanomachines in them. After the process waspleted, he quickly stored the nanomachines in his storage space.


    There was a limit to the number of nanomachines a human body could hold. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had harvested so many nanomachines by now that he could not hide them in himself anymore. He could only store them in his storage space.


    The wounded were wailing in agony on the ground. Someone tried to pull Ren Xiaosu to a stop as he passed by, but he didn¡¯t even look at the person.


    The wounded soldier was dumbfounded. ¡®Aren¡¯t you here to rescue the injured?¡¯


    Wait a minute. The wounded soldier recognized Ren Xiaosu and called out to him, ¡°Ren Xiaosu! You¡¯re Ren Xiaosu! Save me, quickly!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu, who had already made a circuit and collected all the nanomachines he could find, was still a little unsatisfied. When he turned around and heard the cry for help, he was stunned. ¡®Eh, isn¡¯t that Lin Qi lying on the ground?!


    He chuckled and said, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I didn¡¯t notice you just now. How¡¯s your injury?¡±


    Lin Qi struggled to say, ¡°It¡¯s not the time to reminisce. You-¡°.


    But before he could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu picked up a piece of shrapnel from the ground and stabbed it into Lin Qi¡¯s neck. Lin Qi looked up at Ren Xiaosu and only saw a stone-cold look in his eyes.


    Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°When I think back, it¡¯s such a pity the wolves failed to kill youst time.¡±


    Lin Qi¡¯s eyes widened, but he could not make a sound. So the wolves also had something to do with Ren Xiaosu? He fully understood now that this Ren Xiaosu was actually much stronger than he had thought at the beginning.


    This was thest conscious thought Lin Qi had in this world before he sumbed to endless darkness.

 Chapter 272 - Quest complete!

    <h4>Chapter 272 Questplete!</h4>


    The Li Consortium was really unlucky. Even with a hidden trump card like the nanomachines, they were unable to use it to maximum effect.


    The Li Consortiumcked war experience, which resulted in some mistakes on the usage of the nanomachines. As Qing Zhen had mentioned before,bat troops like the nanosoldiers who possessed great strength and mobility should be deployed separately so that they could infiltrate the enemy¡¯s rear and carry out precision strikes.


    For example, they could execute attacks on the enemies¡¯ power stations and arsenals or perform decapitation strikes. They should have used the Divine Arms Battalion separately so that the nanosoldiers would be more effective in their might.


    But actually, it wasn¡¯t impossible to deploy the nanosoldiers together. If not for the existence of Ren Xiaosu, who was also the head spy of the Qing Consortium, the Divine Arms Battalion would still trouble the Qing Consortium greatly even if they were not at their full strength.


    However, they were all killed.


    Meanwhile, the situation at Position 319 right now was a little better. The Qing Consortium was only nning on feigning an attack there, so they were a little surprised when concealed nanosoldiers suddenly appeared at the rear of the battlefield. It caught the Qing Consortium off guard and the nanosoldiers nearly even destroyed their heavy firepower in the rear.


    But it was different at Position 313. The Li Consortium¡¯s secret weapon would remain a secret since the nanosoldiers were all dead before they could evene out of their tents.


    In addition, the greatest advantage of the nanomachines was that they could be recycled. The first batch of nanosoldiers did not matter at all as the nanomachines in them could be recycled by the organization after they died. The recycled nanomachines would then be used to put together another group of nanosoldiers.


    But after Ren Xiaosu came to the Li Consortium, there were fewer and fewer nanomachines that could be recycled. Ren Xiaosu had single-handedly turned a renewable weapon into an expendable weapon.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu had harvested a considerable amount of nanomachines. Not counting the external armor for his leg, he might even be able to share the remaining nanomachines with Jiang Wu¡¯s students after giving some of them to Yan Liuyuan.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw some of the nanosoldiers¡¯ field packs scattered on the ground. He opened one of them and found a heavy, metallic, ck box inside. He wondered what it was used for.


    Eh? Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. Could it be possible that this thing was used for wireless charging?


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu picked up three of the intact boxes and stuffed them into his storage space. Whether they were useful or not, he would just take them.


    He wasn¡¯t going to take any chances!


    Today, Ren Xiaosu had given the defensive deployment map to the Qing Consortium that enabled them to take out Position 313 sessfully while eliminating Qing Zhen¡¯s dissidents at the same time.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was also able to harvest a lot of nanomachines thanks to the Qing Consortium. It could essentially be described as a win-win scenario.


    Only the Li Consortium ended up as the loser.


    At this moment, the Li Consortium troops stationed at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng was up against the Yang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade and infantry division. The battle over there was even more intense than the battle here between the Qing Consortium and the Li Consortium. The Yang Consortium had yet to breach the Li Consortium¡¯s defensive line because there wasn¡¯t a character like Ren Xiaosu over there.


    Chen Wudi and the others had already located quite a few wounded and were carrying them towards the medical center. Ren Xiaosu casually picked up a wounded soldier in the camp and ced him over his shoulder before catching up with the rest of the group.


    When they arrived at the medical center, the nurses and doctors were all covered in blood. Ren Xiaosu spotted Colonel Ma Kai lying here as well, but he was unconscious.


    When the nurses saw Ren Xiaosu and his men, they were all stunned. These people were not medics, so why were they helping to carry the wounded here?


    The doctor asked, ¡°Which ORBAT are you


    from?¡±


    Chen Wudi said proudly, ¡°We¡¯re from the Heroes Battalion!¡±


    When one of the wounded soldiers heard that, he was stunned. ¡°Weren¡¯t y¡¯all at the front line? Why do you look totally unaffected?¡±


    Ma Kai was awoken by the noise. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he flew into a rage. ¡°Did you abandon your posts?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°How can you say that? Our Heroes Battalion is an honorable unit, so how could we do something like abandoning our posts? We¡¯ve already wiped out the enemy¡¯s infantry regiment. That¡¯s why we can help out our fellowrades!¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Ma Kai eximed. ¡°Even if you want to lie, you should at least make up something sensible. How could you have wiped out the infantry regiment with only fucking refugees in your troops!¡±


    Ma Kai had studied the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops a lot. He knew the infantry regiment was not only made up of infantry troops. Without mentioning their heavy weapons like RPGs and mortars, the defensive front would still have crumbled once the enemy broke through and deployed theirser-guided weapons!


    The fucking Heroes Battalion was made up of refugees and issued with only four heavy machine guns, yet they imed to have wiped out an entire infantry regiment? Were they dreaming or something?


    Everyone thought the Heroes Battalion would get annihted on the battlefield. But they were all still alive and kicking by the end of the battle. It was as though they werepletely unaffected by the attack!


    Everyone in the medical center found this oue uneptable!


    Ren Xiaosu giggled. ¡°You¡¯ll understand if you go outside and have a look at the battlefield. I don¡¯t have time to waste with you now. There are still other people waiting to be saved by


    me.¡±


    Since Ren Xiaosu had finished collecting the nanomachines, he would have to start doing the quest seriously. As the requirement of the quest was to save a 100 people, he was still far frompleting it, having only saved one person just now.


    This was the first time the pce had informed him in advance about the reward when assigning him a quest. Furthermore, the reward this time was for five allocatable attribute points.


    Previously, the quests only rewarded him with either 1.0 Strength or 1.0 Dexterity each time. But for this quest, he could choose the allocation of the points himself and would even be awarded with five points. It could be said that the reward this time was rather generous.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu rushed outside. Two medics happened to just be carrying a stretcher back. When Ren Xiaosu saw them, he immediately shouted, ¡°Put that down, I¡¯ll carry it!¡±


    The medics were startled. ¡°It¡¯s fine, you don¡¯t have to. We can carry it by ourselves.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression darkened. He pointed his pistol at the medics. ¡°I said let me carry it. Don¡¯t you understand what I¡¯m saying?!¡±


    Chen Wudi sighed from behind. ¡°Master¡¯s killing intent is so strong even when saving people.¡±


    All of a sudden, reinforcements sent from the rear arrived at Position 313. Just as Qing Zhen had predicted, additional troops would be deployed here from the rear to engage in a seesaw battle with the Qing Consortium after Position 313 and Position 319 were subjected to fierce attacks.


    And this was exactly what Qing Zhen wanted to see.


    Ren Xiaosu carried the wounded soldier into the medical center and watched the newly arrived troops at the same time. He discovered a very strange group of soldiers among them. The soldiers were extremely disciplined and orderly in their movements and gave Ren Xiaosu an odd feeling.


    But he had no time to care about this as he carried on fulfilling his quest requirements by snatching even more wounded soldiers to save.


    This quest alone dyed Ren Xiaosu for about an hour. When Ren Xiaosu heard the pce informing him he¡¯dpleted the quest, he immediately allocated 4.0 points to his Dexterity and 1.0 point to his Strength.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current Strength was now as high as 10.5, and even his Dexterity had reached the level of 10.1. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s muscles were further refined once more, and his entire body became leaner again. He now looked like a young man who did not exercise much, but he actually possessed amazing strength.


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°Due to your Strength and Dexterity attributes exceeding the threshold...¡±


    Just as Ren Xiaosu tried to listen to what the pce had to say, a surprising turn of events urred in the medical center. As such, he lost interest in what the pce was saying and looked at the medical center instead.


    He saw someone in the medical center yelling angrily at Chen Wudi, ¡°Get lost! If not for the presence of your Heroes Battalion here at Position 313, would Qing Zhen deploy his main forces to attack us? I don¡¯t need your hypocritical help to save people here!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi, he saw Chen Wudi walking out of the medical center quietly without saying a word.


    Ren Xiaosu patted him calmly on the shoulder. ¡°Let¡¯s go, we¡¯ll head back to our position for now.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Chen Wudi replied in a low voice.


    ¡°I wonder if the infantry regiment attacking our position has been fully defeated yet.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If they¡¯re all dead, we can go and loot some equipment off them or something.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Chen Wudi still replied simply.


    ¡°What do you want to eat tonight?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Master, can we have some fried rice with sausage?¡±


    Everyone in the medical center watched as the two walked away. They didn¡¯t even know what to say.

 Chapter 273 - A thorough investigation of the missing nanomachines

    <h4>Chapter 273 A thorough investigation of the missing nanomachines</h4>


    The battle was not over yet. After Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi made their way back from the rear, the intense battle at the front line was still ongoing. But once the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers charged the high ground, the battle reached an impasse.


    While the soldiers at the other positions battled for their lives, Ren Xiaosu lit a fire and got ready to cook after returning to their elevated position. It was time for dinner, and he had brought along pots and pans, after all.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that they could not skip meals even though they were fighting a war. Furthermore, Chen Wudi was even craving fried rice with sausages.


    Hearing artillery fire sting the high ground next to them, Li Qingzheng hesitated before asking, ¡°Is it really alright for us to start eating at a time like this?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with that?¡± After Ren Xiaosu lit the firewood, he ced the metal pot over it. ¡°Didn¡¯t we alreadyplete our mission? Besides, we¡¯re still fighting the battle anyway. We¡¯re still pinning down that infantry regiment halfway up the mountain.¡±


    Even though the regimentalmander was still alive, he no longer wanted to attack this high ground. More importantly, they had rushed halfway up the mountain in a single breath all for the sake of providingser guidance for a missile attack from the rear. In the end, Qing Zhen stranded them here where they could see bullets whizzing past their heads whenever they looked up. Without any supporting firepower from the rear to cover them, they could not escape even if they wanted to!


    This battle made the regimentalmander want to give up!


    At this moment, Li Qingzheng said, ¡°There aren¡¯t many soldiers still standing in that infantry regiment. Why don¡¯t we charge down and surprise attack them?¡±.


    Ren Xiaosu decisively rejected his suggestion. ¡°Our mission is to defend this high ground properly, and that¡¯s all we have to do!¡±


    Regardless of whether they would suffer any casualties from charging down at the enemy, Ren Xiaosu was unwilling to take this risk. After all, Ren Xiaosu was already annoyed and unhappy about the fact that they had been deployed to the most dangerous position of all.


    When Chen Wudi got scolded at the medical center, did they stop to think for a moment if it was the Heroes Battalion¡¯s decision toe to the front line?!


    Even without Ren Xiaosu, the Qing Consortium would still have made a feint attack on Position 313. But even a feint attack would still be carried out with real bullets, albeit with a little less firepower. A lot of people would still have died in the end.


    It was not as though everyone would just be standing there and taunting during a feint attack!


    As they were discussing this, Ren Xiaosu was cooking the rice and dicing the sausages.


    A group of soldiers from the Heroes Battalion went to defend the high ground while another group squatted down beside therge pot and waited to eat.


    Ren Xiaosu split his focus while cooking and looked into the pce at the same time. He remembered that the pce was trying to exin something earlier on, but as Chen Wudi was getting yelled at then, he did not manage to hear the exnation.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback when he read the record of what was typed on the pce¡¯s brass typewriter. The line of words was written as such: ¡°Strength and Dexterity attributes have exceeded the threshold point. ¡®City Buster¡¯ has now been enabled. Upon activation, the ability will double the host¡¯s Strength and Dexterity for 30 seconds. There will be a cooldown time of one day before the next usage.¡±


    What was this about?


    Why would an ability like that appear all of a sudden? Although the duration of usage seemed a little short, Ren Xiaosu would have an equivalent of 21.0 Strength and 20.2 Dexterity after activating it.


    If this ability were used well, it would be extremely effective. He might even be able to catch his enemies off guard with it.


    But what was the threshold point the pce was talking about? Was it reaching 10 points in his attributes? Did it mean that he would gain another ability every time he exceeded 10 attribute points?


    So it turned out that there would be additional rewards whenever his physical fitness surpasses a certain level!


    Thinking of all this, Ren Xiaosu added the sausages into the pot and gave it a few stirs with adle.


    Li Qingzheng was watching from close by. The fried rice was still not ready yet, but the high ground next to their position had already changed hands twice in this period. Such an intense battle was going on over there.


    But something felt strange. The Qing Consortium was no longer sending any more troops to attack them at this position.


    When the fried rice with sausages was done, Ren Xiaosu immediately scooped out a bowl for Chen Wudi. This bowl of fried rice was scooped in a particr way for him. After Chen Wudi took it from Ren Xiaosu, he realized the bottom of the bowl was full of meat!


    Ren Xiaosu left thedle into the pot and said, ¡°Alright, you guys help yourself. The battalionmander isn¡¯t going to serve you all!¡±


    After saying that, Ren Xiaosu went and sat next to Chen Wudi. ¡°How does it taste?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s delicious.¡± Chen Wudi smiled brightly, his lips glistening with oil. ¡°Master, why do you treat me so well?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu already realized that the more Chen Wudi came into contact with the evilness of this world, the more clearheaded he became.


    Chen Wudi no longer addressed Luo Lan as Benbo¡¯erba like before when he saw him and would often keep silent and even remain so for long periods. As a result, Chen Wudi was now beginning to sound more like a normal person whenever he spoke.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether it was a good or a bad thing. He sighed and said, ¡°When I listened to Mr. Zhang¡¯s lessons in the past, I once thought about being a good person. But I gave up after realizing that it was not easy to be good.¡±


    When Chen Wudi heard that, he got back to eating and did not say another word.


    Ren Xiaosu continued toment, ¡°Sometimes, I feel a little ashamed whenever I see you. That¡¯s because the light in my heart has probably already been extinguished. So even though I¡¯m clearly not a good person, I still hope that you¡¯ll be a good person. Perhaps that makes me a little hypocritical. But it¡¯s only when I¡¯m trying to protect you that I get this misconception. It¡¯s like the light in me hasn¡¯t been snuffed out yet.¡±


    Somewhere in Stronghold 108, there was a huge secret base deep in the basement of a garment factory. Hu Shuo had attempted to thoroughly investigate this ce, but his people had never been able to infiltrate it.


    This ce was under the direct jurisdiction of the Li Consortium¡¯s Board of Directors, and it was only responsible for matters rted to the nanomachines.


    Very few people knew there was still a small armed force here in the basement of the garment factory.


    An incandescent white light was hanging from the ceiling in a room underground. A middle-aged man was sitting in front of a ckboard and thinking about something. He was holding a dossier regarding the recent theft of the nanomachines.


    The middle-aged man¡¯s name was Li Dingding, and very few people knew of his existence. He was a Li Consortium Shadow, and like Qing Zhen, carried out all shady business dealings for the organization.


    But unlike Qing Zhen who always put himself out in the open and even had control of the military, Li Dingding always remained hidden in the shadows.


    Li Dingding was going through the dossier at this moment. A lot of the evidence in it was pointing to a supernatural being named Xu Xianchu, a suspected spy of the Yang Consortium, who had probablye here to gather nanomachine samples for the Yang Consortium.


    However, Li Dingding felt that something was amiss after reading the file. If he was just collecting some samples, why did he end up obtaining so much?


    Importantly, the nanomachines were stolen from dozens of corpses that had been recovered by the organization. This was not just about stealing samples! He wondered what the hell the previous investigator had been doing


    Li Dingding sneered, ¡°Buncha fools.¡±


    The dossier in his hands was very detailed, and it even included the entire timeline from when Lin Qi and his group entered the mountains, to the Divine Arms Battalion¡¯s preparations for the attack on the Qing Consortium, as well as the daily updates given by the Divine Arms Battalion, etc.


    But even after browsing through the documents for a long time, he still couldn¡¯t figure out anything.


    At this moment, someone knocked on the door. Li Dingding said, ¡°Come in.¡±


    The person handed him a new set of documents. ¡°Sir, the higher-ups have assigned us a new case. There¡¯s been a batch of nanomachines that were damaged, and it seems that it was caused by someone whose synchronization rate was 0%.¡±

 Chapter 274 - Separately interrogated

    <strong>Chapter 274 Separately interrogated</strong>


    The nanomachines were damaged?


    Li Dingding frowned and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on? That person with the 0% synchronization rate couldn¡¯t be found?¡±


    ¡°No, there were a lot of people who did the synchronization test that day. Many of them were even refugees¡ªthat¡¯s why theb staff didn¡¯t record everyone¡¯s test results other than those who scored above 80%.¡± The subordinate said softly, ¡°However, we have the roster of the troops who did the test that day. Here it is...¡±


    Li Dingding got so angry he almostughed. Looking at the thick roster in his hand, he said, ¡°What a fucking bunch of ckers! How can they be sozy about such matters? But why did a case like that get transferred to me? Can¡¯t you all handle it yourselves?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like that.¡± The subordinate lowered his head and said, ¡°The Board has specifically instructed for you to handle the case. They said the nanomachines have had their installed protocols removed.¡±


    Li Dingding was stunned by the words.


    He knew all about these nanomachines because he mainly dealt with matters rted to them in his usual work. But as far as he knew, it was impossible for an installed protocol on the nanomachines to be removed. This kind of operation could only be done after the nanomachines were reimed at the factory for confidential processing, and that even required authorization from the board to grant ess to the C1 remote ess protocol.


    It was no wonder the Board was entrusting this matter to him. It was a case that involved the Li Consortium¡¯s top secrets!


    Li Dingding said, ¡°Alright, you may leave.¡±


    He then browsed through the files alone. He had not expected he would need to handle another case when the previous case was still not finished.


    vas ro


    After he was read through a file, Li Dingding started getting a headache. Other than the thick roster, there was nothing here that could provide him with any useful clues.


    Li Dingding picked up another file and read through it quickly. But about 10 minutes after he started, he was stunned. ¡®No, that¡¯s not right! Something is fishy here!¡¯


    He promptly picked up the previous file and read it quickly and thoroughly. Within two minutes, Li Dingding broke into a smile.


    He had noticed something unusual while looking through the roster: repeated names.


    Li Qingzheng, Ren Xiaosu, Chen Wudi, and Wang Yuchi...


    The names of those people in this toon had appeared three times in these two sets of documents!


    The first instance was in the roster of the outpost.


    The second instance was in the roster of the private troops that switched uniforms with the Divine Arms Battalion.


    The third instance was in the roster of the physical examination that day.


    Li Dingding always believed frequent coincidences could turn out to be the answer.


    Something was fishy about this toon. Or at least, there was something off about those who belonged to this toon.


    Li Dingding picked up the phone and said, ¡°Arrest Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng¡¯s Eighth toon from the private army¡¯s Iron Second Battalion.¡±


    But the person on the other end of the line said, ¡°Are... you sure you want to arrest them?¡±


    Li Dingding frowned and said, ¡°Do my words not hold authority anymore?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that.¡± The person on the other end of the line said, ¡°I know those people. Ren Xiaosu is now the role model for the entire military. The Iron Second Battalion has also been renamed to the Heroes Battalion, and Ren Xiaosu is even its battalionmander....¡±


    Li Dingding was dumbfounded. What kind of a fucking twist was this?!


    The person in the call continued, ¡°If you¡¯re sure he¡¯s guilty, we¡¯ll arrest him right away. But if you only suspect him, we have to keep a low profile. Currently, they¡¯re the only ones in the military who have won a battle and wiped out the Qing Special Forces. Furthermore, they¡¯re fighting in the battle at Position 313.¡±


    In fact, being hailed as an example for the military had created a really good protective umbre around those in the Heroes Battalion. Normal people would not dare toy a finger on role models like them so easily. Besides, they were engaged in battle as well. If something happened to these role models, who would be responsible for the morale of the troops?


    Even Li Dingding wouldn¡¯t say he could bear the consequences.


    Li Dingdingughed. ¡°I¡¯ll personally make a trip to Position 313 and handle this matter in secret.¡±


    By nightfall, the battle at Position 313 stopped. After the arrival of the Li Consortium¡¯s reinforcements, they immediately recaptured the positions on the high ground they lost earlier. It was almost as though they were doing whatever it took to push back the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops.


    In the evening, a wave of cheers reverberated across Position 313. However, Ren Xiaosu felt that the Li Consortium was celebrating their victory too early.


    Although he did not know why Qing Zhen wanted to attract all of the Li Consortium¡¯s frontline troops here, the Qing Consortium¡¯s temporary retreat was not proof of who had won.


    War had never been this simple.


    In the night, a convoy of off-road vehicles suddenly drove to Position 313. After a brief interaction with the highest-ranking general at Position 313, they headed straight for the defensive position where Ren Xiaosu and his men were.


    Ren Xiaosu had been constantly observing the rear with his binocrs. As such, his attention was already on these noteworthy vehicles when they drove in earlier. Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling about this. He even had the feeling that they were specifically here for him.


    When the convoy got to the high ground, none of their people mentioned what they were here for. Instead, an officer holding a list of names called out, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, Li Qingzheng, Chen Wudi... all 16 of you, get in the vehicles and follow us back Position 313¡¯s camp!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng looked at each other. He was startled as he realized the names the officer called out were all the members of their toon.


    Before they assembled for the war, the outpost¡¯s toon strength was at 30 soldiers. One of the soldiers was even forcibly taken from another toon.


    But now, there were only 16 members left in their toon after fighting two battles.


    Ren Xiaosu was tempted to force his way out of this situation. But since they had already named him explicitly, it would be too easy for them to locate Yan Liuyuan and the others in the stronghold by following the clues. If Yan Liuyuan got caught, the situation might turn out even worse than it already was.


    Right now, the soldiers around them were lowkey aiming their guns at them. If Ren Xiaosu ran away at this time, all eight of Jiang Wu¡¯s students would probably perish here.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu realized that the 30 soldiers who tried to surround them all looked like nanosoldiers.


    Li Qingzheng whispered, ¡°Xiaosu, what¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let¡¯s go with them for now.¡± Ren Xiaosu decided to follow these people back to the camp at Position 313 first. He needed to wait for an opportunity, but he could not tell the others about his n yet!


    Back at Position 313¡¯s camp, two military tents had been specially vacated. It seemed like those who had just arrived were very high-ranking officials of the organization. Even Position 313¡¯s recently assigned general behaved very politely to them.


    After these people arranged for Ren Xiaosu and his men to sit in a tent, a middle-aged man smiled and introduced himself. ¡°Good evening, everyone. My name is Li Dingding. I¡¯m just here to investigate some matters, so please don¡¯t panic too much. After all, you¡¯re our Li Consortium¡¯s war heroes. If there are any misunderstandings during this period, please forgive me.¡±


    Even though Li Dingding spoke in a polite manner, Ren Xiaosu felt that his intentions were not good. Furthermore, he had singled out their toon for the investigation, so there was a high chance they had already found out something. It was just that Ren Xiaosu did not know how much information had already been revealed.


    But that didn¡¯t matter to him. Ren Xiaosu was just waiting for an opportunity.

 Chapter 275 - Treachery and loyalty

    <h4>Chapter 275 Treachery and loyalty</h4>


    Li Dingding nced at the roster and said, ¡°Wei Jiangyu, pleasee with me to the other tent. I have some questions for you.¡±


    More than 10 soldiers armed with guns were keeping guard inside the military tent Ren Xiaosu and the others were in. Although Li Dingding had expressed that he was just going to ask some questions, he had actually confined all of them in here. Furthermore, these soldiers might even be nanosoldiers.


    Li Qingzheng asked softly, ¡°Xiaosu, will we get betrayed?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head calmly. Although he did not know what Li Dingding was trying to investigate, he wasn¡¯t sure if anyone would betray him even though all of them had supported each other so far along the way.


    Wei Jiangyu was taken to the other tent where a table and chairs had already been set up.


    Li Dingding asked, ¡°Has anything strange happened in your toon recently?¡±


    Wei Jiangyu shook his head. ¡°No, sir.¡±


    ¡°Let me refresh your memory a little,¡± Li Dingding smiled and said, ¡°The wolf pack, the nanosoldiers, Li Qingzheng, Ren Xiaosu...¡±


    At this moment, something interesting happened. Li Dingding was only testing him by throwing out some unrted words. But when he brought up ¡°the wolf pack,¡± Wei Jiangyu¡¯s pupils constricted. When he mentioned ¡°the nanosoldiers¡± and ¡°Li Qingzheng,¡± his pupils went back to normal. Then when he said ¡°Ren Xiaosu,¡± his pupils constricted again.


    Pupiry response is usually caused by a reaction to light. When there is a greater intensity of light, the pupils constrict to decrease the amount of light entering the eye to protect it from damage.


    But pupiry constriction can also be affected by one¡¯s emotions. When a person is nervous, the pupils will shrink in size. Simrly, the pupils will dte if a person gets excited.


    As for pupils that became fully dted, that would mean the person died.


    Just like Li Shentan had said, the subconscious was in control of too many secrets of the human body, yet the subconsciousness could not be controlled by humans.


    Li Dingding smiled as he switched to afortable sitting position and said to Wei Jiangyu, ¡°How about this? I¡¯ll put it another way. If you can tell me about all the strange goings-on in your toon, I¡¯ll reward you with a 100,000 yuan and a stronghold resident status as well. I can even find a job for you so you¡¯ll have nothing to worry about for the rest of your life.¡±


    Wei Jiangyu covered his mouth and refused to say anything. How could he know whether Li Dingding was speaking the truth?


    Li Dingding called for someone to bring in a bag of items. ¡°I¡¯ve already prepared a 100,000 yuan in cash and a stronghold ID card for you. Check for yourself.¡±


    Wei Jiangyu was stunned for a moment. This was the real thing! This person must have quite the authority if he could even create the ID card!


    All of a sudden, Li Dingding grabbed the bag back from Wei Jiangyu¡¯s hands. ¡°You¡¯re really fortunate. Since you¡¯re the first to be interrogated, you can seize on this opportunity. If you tell the truth, those thate after you will not be as lucky. But even if you don¡¯t speak, I¡¯m sure someone else will be willing to. When that happens, not only are you not going to get the money, but you¡¯ll also face jail time.¡±


    Li Dingding was already prepared with the carrot and the stick.


    Wei Jiangyu said in a low voice, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll talk. Ren Xiaosu secretly left the outpost on many asions. After we got deployed here to Position 313 in the north, he would also always go out during the night before returning in the morning. Wang Yuchi and the other students all knew Ren Xiaosu from before as they had escaped from Stronghold 109 together, and Chen Wudi is also Ren Xiaosu¡¯s disciple...¡±


    In the other tent, Chen Wudi suddenly sighed and whispered, ¡°Master, we¡¯ve been betrayed.¡±


    ¡®Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu expressed that this was within his expectations.


    ¡°Should we force our way out now?¡± Chen Wudi asked quietly.


    ¡°Wait awhile longer.¡±


    At this moment, Li Dingding had a broad smile on his face. It was simply too easy to gain a breakthrough when it came to these refugees. Money and status as a stronghold resident had always been his go-to weapons when it came to interrogating them!


    With this breakthrough, he was no longer afraid the others would not speak.


    After Wei Jiangyu left the tent, Li Dingding called for another person to get interrogated. As a result, he received even more information!


    ¡°When we were at the outpost, the wolves would send food over.¡±


    ¡°I saw Ren Xiaosu leaving the outpost secretly on the night before the disappearance of the two officers.¡±


    ¡°Before those five Divine Arms Battalion officers leading the private troops died, Ren Xiaosu was also always leaving the campsite.¡±


    ¡°Before the Qing Consortium¡¯s attackst night, Ren Xiaosu also left the defensive position that we were guarding.¡±


    All of the ims were pointing at Ren Xiaosu, themander of the Heroes Battalion. Li Dingding did not need to have any evidence. Since he was not a judge, it would be unnecessary for him to gather evidence to prove something.


    The people around Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi were called away one after another. Li Dingding looked at Li Qingzheng in front of him. ¡°The others have already confessed, so you might as well confess too. If you do, you can even get some money...¡±


    Li Qingzheng said with an obsequious smile, ¡°I can even get some money? Sir, I love money the most.¡±


    Li Dingding smiled even more. ¡°Alright, start speaking then.¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t know anything. There¡¯s nothing strange about our toon. Don¡¯t listen to their lies.¡± Li Qingzheng said, feeling insulted.


    ¡°I¡¯m warning you, don¡¯t force my hand.¡± Li Dingding sneered. ¡°Do you think I really need your statement? I suppose you prefer going to prison for the rest of your life, huh?¡±


    Li Qingzheng took a deep breath and said in seriousness, ¡°It doesn¡¯t sound too bad. At least I¡¯ll have my meals provided for me.¡±


    Li Dingding started pping. ¡°I¡¯ve finally met a brave man. Not bad, not bad at all. You probably don¡¯t even know what fate is awaiting you. Take him back and bring the eight students over together.¡±


    Throughout the interrogation, Ren Xiaosu had been all smiles. Meanwhile, Chen Wudi would whisper things to him from time to time. However, Chen Wudi was not as happy as him because he had thought that everyone would be better than this having beenrades for such a long time.


    After Li Qingzheng returned to the tent, he remained silent. Ren Xiaosu did not say anything to him either and just smiled at him. When the eight students returned, Wang Yuchi stood inside the tent and sneered at his otherrades. ¡°Even dogs are more loyal than you people, you buncha garbage!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough, sit down,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. What did not disappoint him ultimately was still how Jiang Wu¡¯s students were as tough as they appeared to be. Jiang Wu had not made her sacrifices for them in vain.


    Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi were the only two people who were not interrogated yet. Li Dingding seemed to have deliberately arranged for them to be interrogatedst.


    Li Dingding already knew where the problemy.


    Suddenly, Li Dingding lifted the tent p and came in. Looking at Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi, he said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re the only two left. Is there anything you wish to say?¡±


    ¡°Wait awhile more,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°What are you waiting for?¡± Li Dingding was stunned.


    As he finished speaking, a sharp and ear-piercing noise rang out in the air. Then a loud explosion shook the ground.


    It was the sound of artillery fire. In the early morning, the war had been escted again! The Qing Consortium was back!


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu sprang into action and charged at Li Dingding. ¡°It¡¯s time!¡±


    If he had made his move earlier, themotion here would have attracted the many soldiers who were guarding Position 313. So Ren Xiaosu was waiting for an opportunity when no one would notice what was going on here, and that opportunity was when the Qing Consortium restarted the attack!


    At this moment, the soldiers at Position 313 could hardly even look after themselves. Who would have the time to pay attention to them?


    ¡°Die!¡± Ren Xiaosu roared.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor immediately covered his entire body as he grabbed Li Dingding by the neck with one hand and mmed him into the ground.


    A silvery glow red up all over Li Dingding¡¯s body in his blood vessels. He already had his guard up against Ren Xiaosu as he had guessed that he was a supernatural being!


    But the moment the two of them exchanged blows, Li Dingding realized with despair that Ren Xiaosu seemed to have an overwhelming advantage over him!

 Chapter 276 - City Crusher!

    <h4>Chapter 276 City Crusher!</h4>


    Li Dingding hade prepared. Unlike Lin Qi, the test subject, he was one of those in the Li Consortium with thergest amount of nanomachines in their bodies. His synchronization rate was as high as 94%!


    Although there were a lot of people with a synchronization rate above 80%, only a rare few woulde close to a 100% synchronization rate.


    Besides that, Li Dingding had also brought 30 elite nanosoldiers with him, and these people were much stronger than the average nanosoldier of the Divine Arms Battalion.


    But when Ren Xiaosu jumped in front of him, Li Dingding suddenly found that he did not even have time to dodge. It was not because he was too slow, but that his opponent was too fast!


    Moreover, the appearance of the armor really shocked him. Although Li Dingding knew it was made of nanomachines, he wondered just how many nanomachines were needed in order to create a strong armor like it?


    Previously, he could not figure out where all the nanomachines had disappeared to. But now he finally understood. Just how many nanosoldiers did he have to kill to get them? Could it be that all the dead nanosoldiers were killed by Ren Xiaosu right from the beginning?


    Just as expected, the answer hadid in the many coincidences!


    But what shocked him the most was the time it took for Ren Xiaosu to finish covering his body with the armor. It had only taken him a moment!


    The insiders of the Li Consortium knew well that since the synchronization rate went from low to high, it meant there was a difference in the efficiency of controlling the nanomachines. The lower the synchronization rate, the slower the nanomachines could be operated after receiving amand.


    But for Ren Xiaosu?


    The time it took for his opponent¡¯s armor to be formed was remarkably fast. Even Li Dingding knew he would absolutely not be able to achieve such a speed.


    But he was already at a synchronization rate of 94%. If even he could not achieve that, then just how high could Ren Xiaosu¡¯s synchronization rate be?!


    It was already toote to think about that. Ren Xiaosu had Li Dingding¡¯s neck firmly in his hands through the cold and menacing armor. Li Dingding could feel his entire body being lifted up into the air. Then that hand tightened its grip and mmed him right into the hard ground. In that instant, Li Dingding felt like he was being wrapped in a strange sense of weightlessness!


    He attempted to break free from the grasp but found that the nanomachines he was so proud of were totally useless in the face of his opponent¡¯s strength!


    All his struggles were in vain. His opponent was simply too fast and too strong!


    How could a human being reach a speed like that?!


    With a loud crash, Li Dingding¡¯s head, neck, and back were mmed into the ground. He could even feel all his bones getting utterly smashed while the nanomachines that were being used to strengthen his musculoskeletal frame were disintegrated.


    Li Dingding was sprawled out on the ground facing up. The empty gaze in his eyes could only see Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face hidden behind a mask of armor. He was exuding a look of menace and resolve.


    It only took a split second for all this to happen, and the surrounding nanosoldiers that were standing guard did not even have time to react. They had not expected Ren Xiaosu to actually try to kill someone with so many of them surrounding him!


    Furthermore, they had not even seen anything like that menacing armor before! The Li Consortium had only taught them how to use the nanomachine as an assistive tech, but they never told them the nanomachines could be used that way!


    The nanosoldiers raised their guns and started shooting at Ren Xiaosu. Wang Yuchi shouted in a low voice to the other students, ¡°Get down!¡±


    It was as though they had discussed this beforehand as Wang Yuchi, Li Qingzheng, and the students all dropped to the ground at the same time. The bullets that hit Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor only making clinks on impact. They did not cause any effective damage at all!


    As the nanosoldiers fired their weapons, a gold-and-ck staff suddenly came swinging in. Chen Wudi yelled, ¡°Whoever dares hurt my master shall die!¡±


    The front end of the Golden-Hooped Rod suddenly grew in size and length. It hit the three nanosoldiers right in the waist like a club. When the cudgel was swinging in the air, it made a terrifying whooshing sound and created a vortex of air behind it!


    Based on previous tests, nanosoldiers were definitely enough to deal with typical supernatural beings. However, Li Dingding and his men had not expected that the two supernatural beings in this tent were not the usual supernatural beings!


    Li Qingzheng was lying on the ground with his hands protecting his head and muttering, ¡°I knew it... I just knew it...¡±


    In the blink of an eye, the nanosoldiers lost the rhythm of their attacks. As they had too littlebat experience against supernatural beings, they couldn¡¯t tell who the bigger threat was between Chen Wudi and Ren Xiaosu.


    Moreover, as the tent was not that big, this environment ended up being even more suited for Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi to unleash their superpowers in.


    Some of the nanosoldiers turned their guns on Chen Wudi. But after firing half a magazine of bullets at him, Chen Wudi was still totally unscathed!


    A golden glow kept shimmering around Chen Wudi¡¯s body. When a bullet hit his shoulder, traces of the golden armor would be visible there before disappearing again. When the other nanosoldiers concentrated their firepower on him, a wave of bullets rained down on Chen Wudi and caused his golden armor to bepletely visible.


    It was the toughest armor in the world, so tough that not even a 100,000 lightning strikes from the Heavenly Pce could destroy it. Chen Wudi said calmly, ¡°Are you all done shooting? It¡¯s my turn now!¡±


    Then Chen Wudi disappeared from the nanosoldiers¡¯ view. Only Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice could be heard in the tent. ¡°Cover the left while I take the right!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu charged over and rammed into the nanosoldiers without any fanciful moves. It was as though a mountain had hit them. Two totally helpless nanosoldiers were sent flying out of the tent, and they even tore arge hole in the tent as they flew out!


    In a normal situation, other people would probably have already noticed that something strange was going on here. However, with the Qing Consortiuming back for another attack, it had created an excellent opportunity for Ren Xiaosu.


    The nanosoldiersnded on the ground outside and couldn¡¯t get up anymore. It felt like all of their bones were broken.


    If they only suffered a few broken bones, the nanomachines in their bodies could have filled the fractures and mended them quickly.


    But they had broken too many bones!


    The artillery fire outside was even more intense than the earlier wave the Qing Consortium had carried out. The tent with a hole in it was pping hard in the strong winds created by the bombardment.


    Ren Xiaosu stood next to the hole and looked behind him. Only these 20 nanosoldiers remained standing in front of him, while the night sky behind him was abuzz with noise.


    The nanosoldiers knew their guns were useless against this armor. One by one, the nanosoldiers discarded their guns and drew their nanoswords from their waists!


    Ren Xiaosu drew his ck saber from out of thin air and broke into a smile with the pattern on the face armor also seemingly revealing a smile. ¡°Whatever you have, I have too. But whatever I have is much more than all of youbined! Let¡¯s start counting down: 30 seconds!¡±


    ¡°What do you mean, ¡¯30 seconds?¡±¡± The nanosoldiers got even more uneasy when they heard that. They did not even dare to take the initiative to attack him now.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Thest 30 seconds of your lives.¡±


    The next moment, he muttered silently in his mind, ¡°City Crusher!¡±


    His pupils hidden behind the face armor turned crimson in color.

 Chapter 277 - I don’t have a choice

    <strong><i>Chapter 277 I don¡¯t have a choice</i></strong>


    When strength was like the magma in a volcano¡¯s crater, any creature that fell into it would melt straight away in its scarlet mes.


    Humans had never stopped yearning for power. Otherwise, the Li Consortium would not have created something like the nanomachines and put them to military use.


    Ren Xiaosu could feel a raging fire in his body. As he raised his saber and stepped forward, the nanosoldiers could only watch him move past them with shocked expressions on their faces. They had wanted to raise their nanoswords and sh Ren Xiaosu, but his overwhelming speed at this moment made them feel like they were moving in slow motion.


    When that ck saber shed across one of the nanosoldier¡¯s chest, it smoothly cut through the nanosword he was holding in front of him, and his body was also cleanly severed in two.


    One of the nanosoldiers couldn¡¯t dodge in time and was rammed into by Ren Xiaosu with his armor. The nanosoldier could feel his chest copsing, and his blood felt like it was beingpressed inside with no outlet of escape. As a result, it ruptured out of his blood vessels.


    Over a dozen nanosoldiers had surrounded Ren Xiaosu. When a nanosword shed his back, it only left a scratch on the armor without causing any damage to his skin.


    The scratch on the armor rippled outwards in a horrifyingly hideous fashion.


    In this instant, the nanosoldiers realized this was how the nanomachines should be used!


    When Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strong physical fitness was paired with the armor, it made him into a battering ram as he barged his way around intimidatingly.


    One of the nanosoldiers was beginning to feel scared. He did not know what he could do to defeat this strong and powerful ¡°machine¡± in front of him. He was overwhelmed with a sense of powerlessness!


    He picked up a gun from off the ground and began shooting indiscriminately within the tent while shouting, as though that would eliminate the fear he was feeling.


    But a secondter, his shouts abruptly stopped. The ck saber Ren Xiaosu had plunged into his chest caused his lungs to quickly fill up with bloody foam.


    Ren Xiaosu slowly pulled the ck saber out. ¡°Wudi, how you doing?¡±


    Chen Wudi swung the Golden-Hooped Rod over his shoulder. ¡°Done!¡±


    Only then did Ren Xiaosu return his armor and store the ck saber back into the pce. He looked at the mess he had created around him, though the tent remained standing.


    However, it seemed like the situation was not good. Ren Xiaosu looked over at his rades¡± lying on the ground. Some of them had been shot dead when the nanosoldiers started firing wildly, while others were crying with their heads in their arms.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not care about how they were doing. He looked at Li Qingzheng, Wang Yuchi, and the others. ¡°Anyone hurt?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned when he discovered bloodstains on Wang Yuchi¡¯s leg. Several of the students were also wounded, but Li Qingzheng was fine.


    Wang Yuchi¡¯s face was covered in sweat. ¡°My leg got hit by a bullet. I think it might be broken. Monitor, go and check on others. I think they¡¯re also injured.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu counted them. Five students were injured, and they were even injured quite badly. He would have to remove the bullets in their bodies first.


    ¡°We can¡¯t stay here any longer.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let¡¯s grab a truck and escape from here. We¡¯ll take this chance to head back to Stronghold 108 while the others are busy with the battle out there!¡±


    This crisis made Ren Xiaosu realize there were already people who could link together all of what had happened so far. It would be even more dangerous if he continued to stay in the Li Consortium¡¯s territory.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Chen Wudi, ¡°Carry the wounded out and wait for me there.¡±


    Li Qingzheng automatically helped to carry the wounded out as well. After everyone was outside, Ren Xiaosu broke the necks of the remaining rades¡± one by one. He could not keep them alive as they knew too many of his secrets.


    He took out everything like pots and pans, shovels, hammers, and whatnot from his storage space, leaving only the gold and food. Then he ced all of the nanomachines he had gathered from the nanosoldiers into the storage space.


    After doing so, Ren Xiaosu walked out of the tent and carried the wounded together with the others.


    Position 313 had descended into chaos by now. No one would notice them, as the Qing Consortium¡¯s artillery fire was so intense it was unimaginable. Even the other fighting forces that passed them by had thought they were the wounded returning from the front line.


    ¡°There¡¯s a vehicle over there!¡± Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°The driver is still in it, so we¡¯ll have to steal it!¡±


    They were now very close to the entrance of the camp at Position 313. As long as they could grab a vehicle, they would be able to get out of here. No one would discover their whereabouts in this chaos.


    But at this moment, a group of strange soldiers ran in from outside the camp. Ren Xiaosu got a bad feeling as these soldiers were moving too orderly, and their eyes looked unfeeling.


    This was a full-strength battalion that consisted of 500 people!


    Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and tried to lead Chen Wudi and the others past this battalion of troops quietly. However, the officer at the very front called out to them, ¡°Which ORBAT do you all belong to?¡±


    His voice was mechanical and calm. Li Qingzheng immediately went up and exined, ¡°We¡¯re from the 7th Infantry Regiment. We¡¯ve just returned from the front line after getting injured, and we¡¯re heading to the medical center.¡±


    The officer nced at Ren Xiaosu and the others before saying, ¡°Bring me to the location the Heroes Battalion is guarding.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu clenched his fists tightly. These people were also targeting him?!


    What could he do? If there were really 500 nanosoldiers here like Ren Xiaosu had thought, he and Chen Wudi would not be able to defeat them even if they were demigods.


    Moreover, it would be too eye-catching if they fought out here in this open area!


    While Ren Xiaosu was urgently trying toe up with something, he heard Li Qingzheng say with augh, ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll bring you all there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Then he watched Li Qingzheng turn around and smile wryly at him. ¡°Quickly get to the medical center and don¡¯t dy your treatments. I¡¯ll join up with you guys after I bring these officers to the Heroes Battalion.¡±


    Dumbfounded, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You...¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me.¡± Li Qingzheng said with a smile, ¡°I couldn¡¯t be happier to do this. Enough, go on ahead.¡±


    Then Li Qingzheng turned around and headed resolutely for the high ground where the Heroes Battalion was located without looking back.


    It was the same for life as in war. There wouldn¡¯t usually be time to give a heroic speech or have any sentimental talks since unexpected things could happen at any moment. And then familiar people and familiar smiles would get taken away from you.


    Ren Xiaosu decisively turned and walked towards the truck. ¡°Don¡¯t anyone look back.¡±


    Wang Yuchi struggled to say, ¡°Monitor...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu whisper-shouted, ¡°I¡¯ve already said that I¡¯m not a good person! That light of mine has already fucking gone out!¡±


    Wang Yuchi and the others were at a momentary loss for words. They did not even know what light Ren Xiaosu was referring to.


    Only Chen Wudi understood what he was talking about. He remembered what his master had said to him in the afternoon: ¡°If I¡¯d had the option, I¡¯d¡¯ve liked to be a person with a light in his heart, but I don¡¯t have a choice.¡±


    It was not that he did not want to choose, but rather that life had never given him this option before. He could only see two ways forward. One was to live, the other was to die.


    This was what the wastnds were.

 Chapter 278 - The depreciated Qing Consortium currency

    <i><strong>Chapter 278 The depreciated Qing Consortium currency</strong></i>


    As the rear of Position 313 was a vast emptiness, Ren Xiaosu drove all the way south to Stronghold 108 without having any trouble after stealing the truck.


    When they were going the other way earlier, it had taken them half an hour just to get their identities verified. Now that all of the soldiers had been deployed to the front lines, only the sentries guarding the firearms and logistics remained behind to prevent spies from sneaking in.


    However, this frontline head spy of the Qing Consortium was about to leave instead. He did not even have time to inform Tang Zhou about it.


    It was all quiet in the truck. Ren Xiaosu just stepped on the gas the entire way while Chen Wudi, Wang Yuchi, and the others said nothing


    On the road back to Stronghold 108, Ren Xiaosu nearly broke into a cold sweat when they arrived at a checkpoint, in fear that the soldiers here would stop them.


    He straight-up shed his Office of Special Investigations ID at them. With that, no one dared to stop him from passing through.


    Ren Xiaosu realized that his arrest warrant was still under wraps. Otherwise, Li Dingding would not have had to keep his investigations so secretive.


    What he wanted to do now was to quickly rush back to the stronghold before the Li Consortium issued orders to go after him. Then he would find an opportunity to take Yan Liuyuan and the others away!


    As for where they could go, they could think about itter.


    Currently, the mes of war had also engulfed the roads in the north leading to the Yang Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 88. Although the Yang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade had just made headway at Mt. Qingsheng¡¯s front line during the night, they were cut off from the rear by a mysterious group of nanosoldiers before they could stabilize the battlegrounds. This made the battle reach even more of an impasse.


    Therefore, even if Ren Xiaosu were to head north, it wouldn¡¯t be feasible for him to go either to the Qing Consortium or the Yang Consortium.


    But if there were really no other way, Ren Xiaosu would just have everyone hide out in the wilderness. Although wild animals and poisonous bugs in the southwestern region were rampant, he had the Brambles in his possession now. Who knew if he could trade for other types of seeds someday? If that happened, they would not have to face such tremendous pressure while living in the wilderness.


    It only took Ren Xiaosu about four hours to return to the stronghold. If not for the uneven mountainous terrain that was difficult to travel through, he could have driven even faster.


    Ren Xiaosu shed his ID when he reached the stronghold gate. He kept an eye on the guards¡¯ expressions in case something unexpected happened.


    However, the garrison soldiers did not say anything. They were very polite and just let them through, and there was nothing unusual about their expressions.


    Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief. The Li Consortium would probably not have expected that the person they wanted to arrest would actually return to the stronghold at such a time.


    But they needed to be even more careful here. If the Li Consortium discovered them, they would have nowhere to escape to.


    After getting into the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu parked the truck. ¡°Change into your own clothes and get some rest. I¡¯ll think about how to locate Liuyuan and the others.¡±


    Chen Wudi calmly got out of the truck. ¡°rgh!¡±


    ¡°Wudi, what¡¯s the matter?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.


    ¡°Master, I¡¯m OK... rgh!¡± Chen Wudi, the self-proimed reincarnation of the Great Sage, had boasted he was not afraid of anything was now only fearful of his master¡¯s driving!


    Bullets and whatnot were only physical attacks; his master¡¯s driving was a magical attack. It was different.


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Wudi, this won¡¯t do. How can you get motion sickness so easily? Look at the others, they¡¯re all fine.¡±


    He turned around to look and saw one of the students vomiting so hard he almost fainted. With that, Ren Xiaosu did not continue speaking. He asked the pce, ¡°What¡¯s my driving proficiency?¡±


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°Unable to detect any driving skills.¡±


    ¡°...Alright...¡±


    Their n was to locate Yan Liuyuan first. But after thinking for a long time, Ren Xiaosu still couldn¡¯te up with any ideas. After all, this was such a huge stronghold. When they were hurrying to the front line, they did not talk about how to contact each other again. So now the only way was to get Hu Shuo to solve that problem for them.


    But how was he supposed to find Hu Shuo?


    When Ren Xiaosu started asking around for directions on the streets, he t-out asked how to get to the Office of Special Investigations. However, no one was able to answer. It seemed that the Office of Special Investigations was a really secretive unit.


    At this moment, Chen Wudi said, ¡°Master, even though the bullets in them have already been taken out, we don¡¯t know how to set their bones. If we drag this out any longer, they likely aren¡¯t gonna be able to walk normally again.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. All of Wang Yuchi and the others¡¯ injuries were gunshot wounds. Although Chen Wudi had already helped them remove the bullets and applied the ck medicine to their wounds, anyone could easily recognize these as gunshot wounds if they were sent to the hospital. It would be even more troublesome if they attracted the attention of Stronghold 108¡¯s garrison troops!


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. Since they could not find Hu Shuo, they had to make Hu Shuo find them.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard someone quarreling in a provisions store nearby. ¡°We don¡¯t ept the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium¡¯s currency here. Their money is as worthless as paper now. If you don¡¯t have our Li Consortium¡¯s currency, don¡¯te here and shop.¡±


    A woman got down on her knees in the provisions store and started crying. ¡°My family hasn¡¯t had anything to eat for the past two days. Can¡¯t you just sell me some rice? This is the money my family used for their investments in the past. It¡¯ll definitely appreciate again after the war is over!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched all of this quietly. However, he did not say anything.


    After the war broke out, all provisions would get supplied to the military with priority. This led to the shortage of food in Stronghold 108, which was closest to the front lines.


    Ren Xiaosu realized that even the stronghold residents would not get to lead afortable life when there was a war.


    Suddenly, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Quest: Help 10 stronghold residents who are suffering from the war.¡±


    Hardy har har. Ren Xiaosu ignored it when he saw this quest. As he was still on the run, how the fuck would he have the capacity to help others?!


    But Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He turned around and said to Chen Wudi, ¡°Let¡¯s go, I got an idea.¡±


    After he said that, he got in the truck. He stepped on the gas pedal and started driving around the stronghold. He only came to a stop when he found a gold shop. Ren Xiaosu entered the gold shop and bluntly asked, ¡°Do you ept gold?¡±


    The shop owner¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Sir, how much gold would you like to exchange?¡±


    Since the war was still ongoing, the most valuable item was gold. Moreover, gold was still appreciating in value. It used to go for several hundred yuan per gram in the stronghold, but the price of a gram now had almost appreciated to over a thousand yuan.


    ¡°Don¡¯t ask me how much I want to exchange.¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at the shop owner, ¡°Let me ask you this: Do you have any Yang Consortium currency here?¡±


    ¡°Ah?¡± The boss got overjoyed. The gold shops in the stronghold usually performed some financial services as well. For example, they used to allow businessmen to convert currencies of the various organizations. Some businessmen were willing to convert them here as long as the transaction fee was lower than what the Li Consortium¡¯s banks charged.


    Unfortunately, a war had broken out, and he was holding both the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium currencies with him. Their money was currently even more worthless than paper!


    But the young man in front of him actually wanted to trade for the Yang Consortium¡¯s currency at this juncture? Had he lost his mind?


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Do you want to exchange it or not?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Of course I want to! Why wouldn¡¯t I want to exchange it!¡± The owner of the gold shop had been holding onto the Yang Consortium¡¯s currency for some time now and hadn¡¯t been able to get rid of it. If someone wanted to trade for it now, of course he would dly ept it.


    He did not care whether Ren Xiaosu would suffer a great loss because of this. How many people were already suffering because of the war? One more person wouldn¡¯t make a difference at all!

 Chapter 279 - Make money, make money, make money!

    <strong>Chapter 279 Make money, make money, make money!</strong>


    What the owner of the gold shop did not know was that Ren Xiaosu did not care whether the Yang Consortium¡¯s currency had depreciated here or not. That was because the pce only required officially issued currencies. It was all the same no matter which organization¡¯s currency it was!


    It could be said that the currently devalued Yang Consortium currency was just right for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s requirements. Moreover, the money he traded for would also be useful if he really went to the Yang Consortium¡¯s territory in the future.


    After all, the Yang Consortium¡¯s currency would not depreciate in its own territory. Only the Qing Consortium and the Li Consortium currency would depreciate there.


    Ren Xiaosu had not expected that the war would still bring him a windfall like that when they came back to the stronghold. He did not even know how he should thank the Li Consortium for this.


    With the chaos going on outside during the war, no one would really care if he was just selling off a little bit of gold. So this was a good opportunity to get some of it off his hands.


    It was no wonder some people often said that those who made money during a war were filthy rich. Ren Xiaosu could deeply understand the meaning of this now. When war broke out, much of the order that was in ce would get disrupted.


    The shop owner said with a smile, ¡°Young man, how much gold do you have? I¡¯ll take however much you have.¡±


    He asked the owner, ¡°How much of the Yang Consortium¡¯s currency do you have! I¡¯ll trade for however much you have!¡±


    He was that generous!


    The shop owner lowered his voice and said, ¡°I have 240,000 yuan here. Right now, a gram of gold can be exchanged for 8,000 yuan of the Yang currency!¡±


    ¡°240,000 yuan is kinda low...¡± Ren Xiaosu was already so rich that 240,000 yuan no longer interested him.


    After all, his gold stash would hardly look any different if he took out 30 grams of gold to exchange for this amount.


    No, Ren Xiaosu felt he had missed out on something very important.


    He suddenly thought of something and asked, ¡°How much of the Qing currency do you have then? I¡¯ll trade for both of them!¡±


    The shop owner was ecstatic. ¡°Young man, you¡¯re doing a good deed. I really have you to thank! I still have 310,000 yuan of the Qing currency!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Liao Yizhong, +1!¡±


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°Quest is 10%plete.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. The pce had mentioned a quest to help ten stronghold residents who were suffering from the war. As it turned out, the owner of the gold shop fell under this category as well.


    After thinking about it carefully, it did seem like that was the case. With all that money stuck on hand, this fellow had been suffering from insomnia for several days.


    With that, Ren Xiaosu knew how he shouldplete the quest.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately convinced himself from the bottom of his heart that he was not a war profiteer. He was only helping out the stronghold residents that were suffering in the war!


    Ren Xiaosu knew that he was twisting words and logic, but how else could he make himself feel better?


    Well, he could just convince himself!


    Ren Xiaosu did not immediately head to the other gold shops but went back to the military truck first. He pulled down the tarp to cover the back of the vehicle so that no one outside could see what was going on within.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yuchi and the others and said, ¡°What I¡¯m about to do is absolutely confidential. You cannot tell anyone about it, including your female ssmates.¡±


    ¡°Can we tell Ms. Jiang, though?¡± Wang Yuchi asked. Wang Yuchi still hadn¡¯t recovered from his injuries. But his pain went away after the ck medicine was applied.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°Yes, you may.¡±


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu had thought of a way to treat the broken bones Wang Yuchi and the others had gotten. The method was to distribute some of the nanomachines to them so they could use them to help set and mend their broken bones.


    That would be the best way for now. It was better than having to go to the hospital.


    Ren Xiaosu was willing to escape with these students because they had not betrayed him during Li Dingding¡¯s interrogation. Since Chen Wudi had super hearing, he couldn¡¯t be wrong about this.


    If this were the past, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not have revealed to them the nanomachine secret. But now, the situation had changed. Ren Xiaosu was willing to share more about it with them.


    Furthermore, he had a few too many nanomachines in his storage space now and couldn¡¯t use all of them on himself. If the Li Consortium found out about this, they would probably be grossed out by it as many of their soldiers still hadn¡¯t been allocated any nanomachines. However, this guy had robbed them of so many nanomachines, and he could even reset, unlock, and pair them again all by himself!


    However, he was required to pay 20,000 yuan as a processing fee to the pce in order to transfer the nanomachines to Wang Yuchi and the others. That was why Ren Xiaosu had to go straight to the gold shop to exchange his gold for money. Otherwise, he couldn¡¯t have afforded the fee.


    Wang Yuchi and the others looked at each other and said, ¡°Monitor, don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll never tell anyone about the secret we¡¯ll hear today.¡±


    ¡°Put out your hands.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m giving y¡¯all some nanomachines!¡±


    Wang Yuchi and the rest were stunned. Although they did not understand much about nanomachines, was it really possible to just give it to them like that? Shouldn¡¯t there be some encryption or something like that?


    But when they looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression, it seemed to suggest it wouldn¡¯t be a problem.


    But as the nanomachines were too precious, Wang Yuchi pulled his hand back. ¡°Monitor, the nanomachines are more useful for you. What will you have if you give those nanomachines to us?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was getting impatient. He grabbed Wang Yuchi¡¯s hand and said, ¡°Why are you so slow? I have plenty!¡±


    Wang Yuchi and the others were stunned. Since when did their ss monitor be so generous?


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu had already estimated the amount of nanomachines he had in his storage space. Even if he gave away some of them to these eight students, he would probably still have more than enough left for Yan Liuyuan.


    Although Yan Liuyuan already had enough nanomachines to cover his entire body, he was still young. He would still grow in the future.


    It almost felt like how parents would think when getting new clothes for their children. As they would always n for the long term, parents tended to choose loose-fitting clothes for their children so they could wear them for a longer time.


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°Total: Eight people. A fee of 160,000 yuan will be charged.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt the pinch in his heart. He said in his mind, ¡°Don¡¯t use the Yang currency. Charge it to the Qing currency instead.¡±


    After all, they might be going to the Yang Consortium after this, so it would be better to use the Qing Consortium¡¯s currency first and save the Yang Consortium¡¯s currency for the future.


    The nanomachines started moving from Ren Xiaosu to Wang Yuchi through their connected hands.


    After the transfer finished, Wang Yuchi and the others were already attempting to control their nanomachines. Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can y¡¯allmand them at will?¡±


    Wang Yuchi shook his head. ¡°Every time I try to control them, there¡¯s a dy of about half a second before it executes mymand. It feels very awkward.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, that¡¯s because your sync rate is a bit low.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°But y¡¯all should keep exercising and training your reaction speed. That should help to decrease the time dy. As long as it¡¯s within point-two seconds, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll have many problems when dealing with normal supernatural beings.


    ¡°OK.¡± Wang Yuchi nodded. He then started to use the nanomachines to heal his bones, but the process was excruciatingly painful. The nanomachines had to piece the fragmented bones back to their original position.


    However, Ren Xiaosu watched these students not even make a sound while they were setting their bones back in ce.

 Chapter 280 - Encountering Hu Shuo again

    <strong>Chapter 280 Encountering Hu Shuo again</strong>


    Ren Xiaosu got back into the driver¡¯s seat and continued to look for the next gold shop. Of course, he was not entirely doing this for money. There was something more to his n.


    When Ren Xiaosu entered the gold shop this time, he bluntly asked to sell his gold for the inted banknotes with a sense of familiarity. As these gold shops did not have that many bills on hand, Ren Xiaosu could only trade for an average of 500,000 yuan per shop with a mixture of Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium currency.


    But since he could exchange for the currencies, receive gratitude tokens, and even help out the stronghold residents that were suffering because of the war, it was basically killing three birds with one stone. So why not?


    When Ren Xiaosu finished visiting the tenth gold shop, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little disappointed. He was hoping he could get a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll to use on Chen Wudi. After all, his disciple¡¯s superpower looked really strong.


    Unfortunately, it would be pointless to use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll on Chen Wudi. This disciple of his had no other outstanding abilities other than his superpower.


    The moment the quest waspleted, Ren Xiaosu counted that he was left with 5.41 million yuan. The piles of money he hoarded in the storage space dazzled him a little. The money seemed to glow.


    In the past, he could never have imagined he would have so much money.


    ¡°C¡¯mon, Wudi, let¡¯s find a restaurant to eat at.¡± Ren Xiaosu said generously, ¡°It¡¯ll be my treat, so please eat whatever you want. Those of you who aren¡¯t injured cane along as well, but those who are injured will have to bear with it. We¡¯ll bring back some food for y¡¯all after dining.¡±


    However, they could not find a restaurant even after looking around for a while. When they came to a sit-down restaurant, Ren Xiaosu went in after looking at the menu and said, ¡°I want everything on the menu except for this, this, and this!¡±


    Chen Wudi said, sounding worried, ¡°Has Master¡¯s sickness gotten worse?¡±


    But at this moment, the voice from the pce suddenly said, ¡°It¡¯s been detected that the host is carrying arge amount of money. Confirm unlock of higher tiers of storage rights?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt the pinch. The pce was really seizing every opportunity to use up his money. But he still stuck by what he had said before, that money was meant for purchasing things to strengthen himself with. After all, there was nothing else that he could use the money on for now. In that case, how could money that couldn¡¯t be used be worth more than having a portable storage space?


    Currently, he only had 15 cubic meters of storage space, which wasn¡¯t even enough to store his supplies sometimes.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Unlock! Wait...¡±


    However, he saw more than half of the money he had in his storage space suddenly disappear. Meanwhile, the storage space expanded rapidly. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s soul ached as he asked, ¡°How many storage tiers did you unlock in one go?¡±


    He had wanted to tell the pce not to unlock so many tiers of storage space, but it was toote! Ren Xiaosu even suspected that the pce was deliberately doing it quickly so that he would not have the chance to save any money!


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°240 cubic meters have been unlocked at a total cost of 4.8 million yuan. On top of the original storage space, the host now has ess to a total of 255 cubic meters.¡±


    Unlocking 16 cubic meters of storage space: 320,000 yuan.


    Unlocking 32 cubic meters of storage space: 640,000 yuan.


    Unlocking 64 cubic meters of storage space: 1,280,000 yuan.


    Unlocking 128 cubic meters of storage space: 2,560,000 yuan.


    After unlocking a total of four storage tiers, the cash Ren Xiaosu had left on hand was only 610,000 yuan.


    C17


    Then he heard the pce say, ¡°Confirm unlock of the vacuum preservation function? A vacuum preservation area will be zoned out at a cost of 200,000 yuan.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression darkened in response. ¡°Hah, unlock.¡±


    ¡°Confirm unlock of the nt cultivation function? A¡ª¡±


    ¡°Unlock, unlock, unlock!¡± Ren Xiaosu retorted, ¡°Is money the only thing you fucking know? Don¡¯t you think you¡¯re charging for way too many items?!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized he only had 10,000 yuan left. The nt cultivation function actually cost him 400,000 yuan?!


    What do you call being knocked back to square one? This was what you call being knocked back to square one!


    Chen Wudi looked at Ren Xiaosu sitting quietly at the table with his face flushing and nching. Then he asked, ¡°Master, are you feeling unwell?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Chen Wudi before turning around and shouting to the shopkeep, ¡°Boss, I was just joking when I ordered the dishes just now, please don¡¯t mind. We¡¯ll just have a bowl of white rice each.¡±


    Chen Wudi was confused.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu could not be so stingy either. In the end, he still ordered some dishes.


    But halfway through their meal, several people wearing the uniforms of the Public Order Division suddenly entered the restaurant. One of them said loudly, ¡°Who does that military truck parked outside belong to? Someone has reported you for exchanging arge sum of other organizations¡¯ currencies and are in uwful possession of oxidized gold. Your gold must have been obtained illegally, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®They¡¯re finally here.¡¯ He held up his Office of Special Investigations ID and said to the people from the Public Order Division, ¡°Come here.¡±


    The people from the Public Order Division were dumbfounded right then and there. How unlucky could they be to bump into the Office of Special Investigations here?!


    The three of them walked over fearfully. ¡°Please don¡¯t take it wrong, it¡¯s just a misunderstanding...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said as he ate, ¡°You guys from the Public Order Division are really trying to ckmail me for my gold, huh?¡±


    The people from the Public Order Division were shocked. They had indeede here in an attempt to get the gold for themselves upon finding out about it. When one of the gold shop¡¯s owners reported the matter to them, he mentioned the young man must still have a lot of gold in his possession.


    But they had not expected to sh with a member of the Office of Special Investigations.


    However, one of the Public Order Division¡¯s people exined with an obsequious smile, ¡°You¡¯ve misunderstood, we¡¯re only carrying out our duty.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Y¡¯all don¡¯t have to worry yourselves over such matters in the future. Our Office of Special Investigations will be taking over from here on out.¡±


    ¡°Is the Office of Special Investigations in charge of that?¡± The people from the Public Order Division were dumbfounded.


    ¡°Yes, from now on, anything that your Public Order Division cannot handle will be handled by our Office of Special Investigations. Anything that your Public Order Division might be able to handle will also be handled by our Office of Special Investigations.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Go back and repeat word for word what I just said to your superior.¡±


    The three members of the Public Order Division turned around and left. This was a big deal. The Office of Special Investigations was attempting to seize their authority!


    Half an hourter, someone pushed open the restaurant¡¯s door again. When Ren Xiaosu saw the personing in, he was amused. It turned out to be Hu Shuo!


    Hu Shuo sat down across from Ren Xiaosu with a dark expression. When he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rxed look, he said angrily, ¡°I¡¯ve only just gotten back to the stronghold, so what¡¯s this I hear about my Office of Special Investigations taking charge of the Public Order Division?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m just expanding our business!¡±


    ¡°You must be looking for me, right?¡± Hu Shuo snapped, ¡°What do you want from me? You¡¯re still in the mood to eat now? Do you know that the covert unit has already arrested Li Qingzheng and is on the way back to the stronghold?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment in response. ¡°When will he reach the stronghold? Where will he be held? And what¡¯s with those mysterious troops you¡¯re talking about?¡±


    ¡°The Li Consortium has gone crazy.¡± Hu Shuo let out a sigh. ¡°Those mysterious troops are very likely to be soldiers fully under the control of the nanomachines and have extremely strongbat capabilities. When the same group of mysterious troops were deployed to the battlefield at Mt. Qingsheng¡¯s front line, the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops there were immediately defeated. This group of soldiers is fearless and unafraid of death.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°The nanomachines actually have an effect like that?¡±

 Chapter 281 - An explosive rescue

    <strong>Chapter 281 An explosive rescue</strong>


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu recalled that every time the pce reset the nanomachines, it would always say ¡°removing remote ess protocol¡± while doing so. Could the problem lie with the remote ess program?


    The soldiers who were hell bent on bing nanosoldiers could never have expected they would end up like this, right?


    It was no wonder Hu Shuo said the Li Consortium were out of their minds. They were so cruel to treat their own soldiers this way!


    Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Your brother, Yan Liuyuan, and the others are living on Baoyuan Alley. It¡¯s about 10 kilometers away from here. Go and look for them, then get out of this ce.¡±


    ¡°You haven¡¯t answered my question yet.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°When will Li Qingzheng be escorted back to Stronghold 108, and where will he be held?¡±


    Hu Shuo seemed a little surprised. ¡°You want to save him? You¡¯re that type of person?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°It¡¯s true that I¡¯m not a good person, so I¡¯ll have to think about it a little more. But I don¡¯t deny the possibility exists.¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t get a chance to save him while they¡¯re on their way back here.¡± Hu Shuo said while looking at Ren Xiaosu, ¡°But I know where he¡¯ll be detained to be interrogated. However, you better think it over carefully. That ce is heavily guarded, so I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll stand much of a chance.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about me.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If I¡¯m not confident, I won¡¯t sacrifice myself for nothing since I¡¯m not that kind of person. Just tell me when he¡¯ll be escorted back and where he¡¯ll be held.¡±


    ¡°The basement of the garment factory.¡±


    Hu Shuo did not take back Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Office of Special Investigations ID. Although Ren Xiaosu had caused him quite a bit of trouble, he was still willing to continue helping out this kid a little.


    Before leaving, Hu Shuo even had someone send over a drawing of the Li Consortium¡¯s secret hideout below the garment factory.


    ¡°Master, are we going to save the Lord of Wolves?¡± Chen Wudi asked curiously.


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything and sat there in silence. After a while, he sighed and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go and locate Yan Liuyuan and the others first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started the truck after paying the bill. Chen Wudi followed and said, ¡°Master...¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t try to persuade me. I have to think about it more.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned as he clearly knew it would not be easy to save Li Qingzheng, and he might even end up dying. Was Ren Xiaosu someone who would do something like that?


    Chen Wudi said, ¡°It¡¯s not that, Master. I just want to say that I¡¯m not full yet...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°...It¡¯s alright, we¡¯ll have Big Sister Xiaoyu make you some food when we get to Baoyuan Alley.¡±


    Chen Wudi got into the truck happily. He sat in the passenger¡¯s seat and hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Master, you actually wish to be a good person too, right?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t talk about that anymore. I¡¯m not suited to be a good person,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, peeved. When he stepped on the gas, Chen Wudi nearly threw up the lunch he just had!


    While driving, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°I doubt Li Qingzheng has spilled the beans on us yet, dontcha think? Otherwise, everyone in the stronghold would¡¯ve alreadye after us by now.¡±


    Chen Wudi was not sure what point his master was trying to make. ¡°Mhm.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself, ¡°Li Qingzheng is also quite pitiful. He could¡¯ve run away, but he still chose to help us lure those fucking mysterious troops away when they suddenly appeared.¡±


    Chen Wudi nodded. ¡°Mhm.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got more frustrated the more he thought about it. With a sudden spin of the steering wheel, therge truckpleted a beautiful drift on the streets of the stronghold. Wang Yuchi and the others were nearly thrown out of the truck.


    The truck made a U-turn and headed back from where they came. Everyone in the truck was wondering where they were speeding to.


    Five trucks were zooming back down from Position 313 in the north like a violent storm. Along the way, not one single checkpoint dared to stop them from passing.


    Li Qingzheng was sitting in the back of the truck that was traveling in the middle of the convoy. These mysterious troops had not even cuffed him. It was like they were not afraid that he¡¯d try to escape.


    Li Qingzheng looked at the officer sitting opposite him and said with a smile, ¡°Sir, where are we heading?¡±


    ¡°The stronghold.¡± The officer said with an impassive expression, ¡°I suggest you quickly tell us about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts and everything strange that¡¯s going on around him. Otherwise, you¡¯ll regret not cooperating with us when we get back to the stronghold.¡±


    Li Qingzheng faked a smile and said, ¡°I really don¡¯t know anything. That Ren Xiaosu is such a jerk. He didn¡¯t even tell me, the toonmander, about anything when he got into trouble. Let me go. I¡¯ll definitely give him a good scolding for you all when I see him!¡±


    The officer still looked at Li Qingzheng expressionlessly but did not waste any more time talking to him.


    While sitting in the back of the truck, Li Qingzheng saw the view of the outside slowly recede from his sight. The snow-capped mountains were beautiful and magnificent. A giant hawk was hovering near the distant mountains. However, he was not in the mood to enjoy it.


    ¡°A fortune teller said I would get into the stronghold after meeting my benefactor this year, and I was told I would be a sessful and well-known person in the future too.¡± Li Qingzheng said with a wry smile, ¡°At the time, my father was extremely delighted and specially went out to the market to buy me some meat to eat. I even remember that he drank a little that night. He was really proud that his son was going to be a brave person with a bright future.¡±


    Li Qingzhengmented, ¡°But I didn¡¯t expect to being into the stronghold under such circumstances.¡±


    All of a sudden, a young officer who was sitting diagonally across himughed. ¡°Where is this fortune teller now? Can I look for him to have my fortune told?¡±


    Li Qingzheng was stunned by his question. ¡°The fortune teller left town long ago. No one knows where he went.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± The young officer did not seem to be particrly disappointed. ¡°I thought of finding out my fate after my revenge is done. Let¡¯s get to know each other. I¡¯m Li Shentan, a friend of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s. Pleased to meet you.¡±


    ¡°You...¡± Li Qingzheng was at a loss. He still could not understand what was happening, nor did he know who the hell Li Shentan was. But he realized the officers around him did not seem to have heard Li Shentan¡¯s words as all of them sat there unmoving.


    Li Shentanughed happily and said, ¡°I was just kidding with you. I really envy Ren Xiaosu for having a friend like you. You must also be very envious of Ren Xiaosu for having a friend like me, right?¡±


    Li Qingzheng was confused by Li Shentan¡¯s words. Was this young man named Li Shentan acting confident or being narcissistic? What sort of crap was that?


    Li Shentan said, ¡°Right now, Ren Xiaosu believes you¡¯re going to be sent to the garment factory in Stronghold 108. To be clearer, it¡¯s the Li Consortium¡¯s secret hideout located under the garment factory. He¡¯s still hesitating about going there to rescue you.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Li Qingzheng was even more confused now. ¡°Don¡¯t try anything stupid! Aren¡¯t you his friend? Why would you want to lure him to the secret hideout?¡±


    ¡°Because... it¡¯s fun.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°I want to find out how that friend of mine treats his friends.¡±


    Behind that smile seemed to be a crazy and restless soul that had no ce to call home. It was chaotic and temperamental.


    But when all of thoseplexities came together, they suddenly became calm.


    If Ren Xiaosu were here, he would have realized it was actually Li Shentan¡¯s idea for Hu Shuo to deliberately reveal all that information to him.


    The troops who captured Li Qingzheng were not the Li Consortium¡¯s mysterious nanosoldiers but the troops Li Shentan controlled. However, no one knew where the remainder of the forces were hiding as there were only 500 of them here.


    This was a game. Li Shentan had decided to let Ren Xiaosu lift the curtain in what would be the destruction of the Li Consortium.


    But at this moment, a shocking explosion erupted at the head of the convoy. It was as though an extremely powerful bomb had been detonated!


    Immediately after, Li Shentan¡¯s expression changed. ¡°How careless of me. He¡¯s actuallye to intercept the convoy!¡±


    He grabbed Li Qingzheng and jumped out of the truck, but a shout echoed in the wilderness, ¡°Old Li, your old bro is here to save you!¡±


    When Hu Shuo ryed the information to Ren Xiaosu, he mentioned the armed forces escorting Li Qingzheng were extremely powerful, so it would be unrealistic to intercept the convoy along the way.


    He had said that because he wanted to lure Ren Xiaosu to the underground hideout and make him believe it would be impossible to intercept the convoy.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that something was wrong the more he thought about it. There was a logical problem somewhere. If he could not intercept them along the way, how could he possibly save Li Qingzheng after he was brought to a ce with even tighter security?


    Furthermore, Hu Shuo had even prepared a drawing of that hideout for him. This caused Ren Xiaosu to suspect that the old man didn¡¯t have good intentions!


    That was why Ren Xiaosu suddenly drove out of the stronghold after having lunch and ended up rushing all the way here into the wilderness!


    After Li Shentan jumped out of the truck, he rolled twice on the ground. When he looked up with his face covered in dirt, he saw Ren Xiaosu dashing towards him while covered fully in his armor.


    Li Shentan was in a pathetic state. But for some reason, he wasughing very happily. ¡°Interesting! Hahaha, how interesting!¡±

 Chapter 282 - Nearly beaten up!

    <h4>Chapter 282 Nearly beaten up!</h4>


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu still came to rescue Li Qingzheng. However, the process was much easier than he had imagined.


    He had nned to blow up the lead truck and throw the entire convoy into disarray by using the Explosive Poker cards he had buried in the ground beforehand.


    He and Chen Wudi would then rely on their overpowering individual strength to snatch Li Qingzheng back from the mysterious troops. After that, he would quickly create chaos again with the Explosive Poker cards and escape from the battlefield before luring their enemies to where he had nted the Brambles in order to finish them off!


    Although this n was not very well thought out, he could only make do with it in their haste.


    However, he was met by Li Shentan instead of the nanosoldiers he had anticipated seeing!


    Ren Xiaosu realized what was going on. The so-called rescue of Li Qingzheng from the secret hideout was just a trap set up for him by Hu Shuo and Li Shentan.


    The troops who had arrested Li Qingzheng were not mysterious at all. They were from thebat brigade Li Shentan had abducted!


    Although Ren Xiaosu did not know what Li Shentan¡¯s motives were, he heaved a sigh of relief. It was still much better than having to face 500 nanosoldiers!


    However, it did not feel good to be set up by others. Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the moment Li Shentan was still lying on the ground. His legs tensed up as the heavy armor cracked the ground. He jumped a distance of over 20 meters like he was leaping over a mountain,ing to a rest in front of Li Shentan.


    Ren Xiaosu clenched his fists and punched hard at the young man who was smiling at him.


    But at this moment, a little girl descended rapidly from the sky. Before Ren Xiaosu could hit Li Shentan, she was already standing in front of him.


    She raised her delicate fist and collided it into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s metallic fist. When the force of the collision erupted, arge cloud of dust swept up around them!


    Ren Xiaosu had no choice but to take a step back. In the cloud of dust, Li Shentan¡¯s voice could be heard as he spat on the ground. ¡°I ate a bunch of dust!¡±


    When the dust cloud dissipated, Li Shentan was standing and smiling at Ren Xiaosu with a dirty face. ¡°My friend, long time no see.¡±


    ¡°Is this how friends get along?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a frown. He looked at Chen Wudi next to him and thought of beating this guy to death with him.


    Although Si Liren just took a powerful punch from him, Ren Xiaosu hadn¡¯t wanted to kill just now. So he had not used all his strength.


    But the problem was that even though Ren Xiaosu had already encountered quite a few supernatural beings, this little girl was the only one who could fly. Therefore, uncertain of how strong this little girl was, he would have to join forces with Chen Wudi and attempt to kill them.


    The soldiers under the control of Li Shentan did not attack them and just stood in a trance in the same spot as they waited for Li Shentan¡¯smands.


    Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°You badly want to beat me up to vent, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Seems like you¡¯re quite good at fortune telling yourself, arentcha?¡± Li Qingzheng had just gotten off the ground. As his physical fitness was not as good as Li Shentan¡¯s, he almost broke his leg from the fall.


    When Li Qingzheng saw Ren Xiaosu, it was as though he had reunited with a family member. ¡°Xiaosu, give him a good beating!¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s smile turned even broader. ¡°I think you may not have the time to beat me.¡±


    ¡°Whaddya mean?¡± Ren Xiaosu got a bad feeling


    ¡°The Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers who are responsible for infiltration, carrying out decapitation strikes, and destruction at the rear, are about to reach Stronghold 108. They might even have arrived already. Meanwhile, my troops will start attacking Stronghold 108 in an hour too.¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°No matter which side starts attacking first, the entire stronghold will be caught in the ravages of war soon. Your friends are still in the stronghold, right? I wonder if they can survive without your help.¡±


    ¡°If I just kill you, wouldn¡¯t your troops stop attacking?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It seems that you don¡¯t understand what hypnosis is. Once the hypnoticmand is formed in the subconsciousness, the hypnotized subject will still carry out the order even if the hypnotist is no longer around,¡± Li Shentan exined with a smile. ¡°Furthermore, the Yang Consortium is going to attack even without me. I actually came up with my n based on their ns.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent. He was calcting the time frame!


    Li Shentan asked, ¡°Do you still want to fight me?¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu decisively turned around to leave. ¡°Wudi, Old Li, let¡¯s go!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had to find Yan Liuyuan before the war reached the stronghold!


    Li Shentan watched as Ren Xiaosu left. After Ren Xiaosu walked away, Li Shentan heaved a long sigh of relief. ¡°What a close shave! I was nearly beaten up.


    Si Liren floated beside Li Shentan and asked, ¡°Brother Shentan, didn¡¯t you say your troops would arrive two hourster?¡±


    ¡°If I had said that, I would really have been beaten up just now. Since we aren¡¯t sure we can defeat him and Chen Wudi, we had to lie to make him leave,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile.


    Si Liren wrinkled her nose. ¡°I can defeat him though.¡±


    Li Shentan patted Si Liren on her little head and said, ¡°When a battle is being fought to its most dangerous point, the winner is not decided by who has more power.¡±


    ¡°What decides it then?¡± Si Liren asked curiously.


    ¡°It depends on a person¡¯s will to survive, the rage that stems from the unwillingness to die, the desire to protect one¡¯s family, and the instincts umted in the face of the dangerous world. All of that will give him strength.¡± Li Shentan sighed.


    ¡°Bro, you seem to be a little unhappy,¡± Si Liren asked.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Li Shentan said as he looked in the direction of where Ren Xiaosu and the other two were going, ¡°Back when I was hiding in the crowd and while I was in the asylum, I kept thinking what if someone were to shout to me, ¡®Li Shentan, your old bro is here to save you...¡¯


    Li Shentan said calmly, ¡°How great would that be.¡±


    Si Liren blinked at him and said, ¡°I can say that too in the future.¡±


    Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°But you¡¯re a girl, so you can¡¯t address yourself as old bro.¡±


    ¡°Then I shall address myself as old sis,¡± Si Liren said in seriousness.


    ¡°But you¡¯re still young!¡±


    At a vi in the stronghold, blood was flowing all the way from the yard to the road. Someone in the yard had just cried out for help, but no one came to their rescue. That was because the guards standing outside had already been killed by someone.


    Hu Shuo was standing quietly in the living room of the vi and looking at the magnificent decorations in the house. It was as though he had not noticed an injured old man struggling to crawl away. As the old man slowly crawled his way over, the pool of blood seemed to make the marble floor a little more slippery.


    But the old man did not give up because a gun was hidden under the couch in front of him!


    Hu Shuo said, sounding preupied, ¡°What has my daughter done wrong? She only wanted to marry another person, that¡¯s all.¡±


    The old man who was crawling on the ground roared, ¡°How would I know she was your daughter?! Hu Shuo, if you kill me, the entire Li Consortium will not tolerate you!¡±


    At this moment, the old man finally got his hands on the pistol under the couch. He desperately pulled the pistol out and pointed it at Hu Shuo. But when he pulled the trigger, he could only hear the click of an empty chamber. There were no bullets in it.


    Hu Shuo looked at him and said, ¡°The Li Consortium? The Li Consortium will cease to exist very soon.¡±


    Hu Shuo had been waiting for this day for nine years.


    His daughter was paraded through the streets while his grandson was sent to a psychiatric hospital!


    That rage in him would not be satisfied by sacrificing just a few dozen lives. He wanted everyone from the Li Consortium to go down to the Underworld to apologize to his daughter.

 Chapter 283 - Breaking in

    <h4>Chapter 283 Breaking in</h4>


    As they drove back to the stronghold, Wang Yuchi and the others could finally let out sighs of relief. That was because Li Qingzheng was the one driving now.


    Previously, everyone did not realize how important Li Qingzheng was. It wasn¡¯t until they were tortured by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s crazy driving that they began to miss Li Qingzheng.


    Upon thinking about it carefully, everyone felt that it was truly necessary to rescue Li Qingzheng. With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wild driving, who knew when they would get into an ident.


    Ren Xiaosu calcted the time and said to Li Qingzheng, ¡°It should take us about 40 minutes to return to the stronghold. That was how long it took for us to get here. But since your driving isn¡¯t as good as mine, you¡¯ll definitely take longer.¡±


    Li Qingzheng turned his head and looked at Ren Xiaosu nkly. He wondered where Ren Xiaosu found the confidence to even say such words.


    He heard Ren Xiaosu add, ¡°Li Shentan said that his troops will attack in an hour. We should be able to get back to the stronghold by then.¡±


    When Li Qingzheng heard that, he stepped harder on the elerator and asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you dissuade that lunatic from attacking the stronghold?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. Yang Xiaojin had mentioned Li Shentan¡¯s background to him after they escaped from Stronghold 109. He knew very well why Li Shentan was so against the Li Consortium.


    Ren Xiaosu rted the entire story to Li Qingzheng and then said, ¡°If I could¡¯ve dissuaded him, I¡¯d¡¯ve already done so. However, no one can stop him since he¡¯s really determined to have his revenge. Besides, his mother died because of the Li Consortium, so who has the right to persuade him to stop his revenge? Putting myself in his shoes, if the situation had happened to me, I would¡¯ve destroyed the Li Consortium a long time ago.¡±


    What Li Shentan wanted to achieve was not only getting his revenge. He wanted to drag the entire Li Consortium down into Hell.


    Although Ren Xiaosu did not agree with Li Shentan¡¯s approach, nor was he on the same side as Li Shentan, he understood how he felt.


    ¡°But no matter what, I¡¯ll still beat him up if I get a chance,¡± Ren Xiaosu added seriously.


    The truck arrived back in the stronghold 50 minutester. Just as Ren Xiaosu had predicted, Li Qingzheng¡¯s driving was a little slower than his.


    After getting into the stronghold, it would take at least another 40 minutes to drive from the north gate to Baoyuan Alley where Yan Liuyuan and the others were staying.


    Ren Xiaosu kept urging Li Qingzheng to drive faster. ¡°Hurry up, or we¡¯re not going to make it in time!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was getting really worried. If they could not get to Baoyuan Alley when the stronghold descended into chaos, it would be even more difficult to find Yan Liuyuan and the others.


    Even though Ren Xiaosu knew that it was already toote, he was still unwilling to give up.


    But as the truck sped through the streets, Ren Xiaosu suddenly started wondering about the time. ¡°This isn¡¯t right! It¡¯s already been an hour, but why has nothing happened yet?¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized something. ¡°Fuck, that bastard lied to me!¡±


    If it were really as Li Shentan had said regarding the will of the hypnotized subjects not getting disrupted by anything after hypnosis, Li Shentan¡¯sbat brigade should have alreadyunched their attack. However, they did not.


    ¡°It seems that time isn¡¯t as tight as we thought.¡± Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief and said, ¡°But we still have to quickly get Liuyuan and the others out of this ce. Stronghold 108 has be a dangerous ce, and who knows when it will turn into purgatory?¡±


    Since they were new to Stronghold 108, they did not know the way around very well. Fortunately, a student had bought a map of the stronghold from the grocery store next door when they were eating lunch. Ren Xiaosu gave directions from the passenger seat while Li Qingzheng drove without any distractions.


    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived, this is the ce!¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted. After the truck came to a stop, he immediately jumped out and went into Baoyuan Alley to look for them. He saw a sign in a yard that had a ¡°Ren¡± and a ¡°Yan¡± written on it. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that Yan Liuyuan had made the sign so he could find them easily.


    Knock, knock, knock. Ren Xiaosu knocked on the door worriedly while shouting, ¡°Open the door, it¡¯s me!¡±


    He heard someone in the yard trot over to open the door. When it opened, Ren Xiaosu saw Yan Liuyuan standing inside. But before he could step in, Yan Liuyuan calmly said, ¡°Who are you looking for?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not stupid. It was impossible that Yan Liuyuan did not recognize him. Unforeseen circumstances must have caused him to say that. There were enemies around!


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Is there anyone home? I¡¯m looking for a friend called Xinfeng.¡±


    ¡°You must have gotten the wrong ce. We don¡¯t have anyone by that name here. Maybe you can try next door,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Ren Xiaosu was trying to ask if there were enemies around in the yard by asking if there was anyone at home, and Yan Liuyuan expressed they were not here but next door!


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll go next door and ask.¡±


    He then went to the yard next door and knocked on the door. The door immediately opened, as though the person behind it had been standing there all along.


    The moment it opened, Ren Xiaosu reached in and grasped the person by the neck through the gap. He tightened his grip and heard a loud crack!


    In that instant, the enemy had probably not expected Ren Xiaosu to not give him any time to react. He was simply too efficient with his actions.


    The sound of guns being cocked could be heard from the yard. Ren Xiaosu immediately covered his whole body with his armor. Concentrated gunfire rang out as the wooden door in the yard got shattered by the bullets!


    Ren Xiaosu charged the gunfire and saw three people inside. All of them were nanosoldiers, and there were a man and a woman tied up in a corner as well. Those two were probably the rightful owners of the house.


    Ren Xiaosu barged his way forward and mmed into a nanosoldier, sending him flying into the wall and shattering it with just a single motion!


    One of the nanosoldiers pulled out his sword and shed at Ren Xiaosu. The other nanosoldier shouted into his radio, ¡°Reinforcements! We request reinforcements!¡±


    They were not dumb. When they saw a beast covered in mechanical armor barge in, the nanosoldiers immediately knew it was not a situation they could handle!


    Although they had sent out a request for help, it was a little toote for them to be saved. With his ck saber in hand, Ren Xiaosu went forward and cut the oing nanosword in half. Right after, he pierced the saber through the chest of the nanosoldier in front of him.


    When he exerted more power in his feet again, Ren Xiaosu even saved on the action of pulling out the saber from the body. He forcefully charged forward with the saber in the corpse and stabbed thest nanosoldier dead, pinning him to the wall.


    Ren Xiaosu stowed his armor and let out a sigh of relief. When he turned around, he saw Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others had quietly watched him kill all the people from behind the crumbling walls of the yard.


    Everyone was surprised by what was going on with this armored man in front of them. But a secondter, they realized it was actually Ren Xiaosu. In fact, not even Yan Liuyuan had seen him in that armor before.


    But the way Ren Xiaosu had just killed those people was so slick. During the battle, he showed off a strength that shocked everyone.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Stop watching and pack your belongings! We must leave Stronghold 108 immediately!¡±

 Chapter 284 - The stronghold gets destroyed

    <h4>Chapter 284 The stronghold gets destroyed</h4>


    ¡°Bro, what the hell is going on?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    During the period they were living in the stronghold, they did not really have any ess to news from the front lines. There was a mpdown on information across the entire stronghold as the radios stopped broadcasting, while the newspapers also did not mention the war.


    But Yan Liuyuan realized the tenants next door changed. Usually, the man and the woman who owned the house would head out to work at 7 AM every day, but they did not do so today. This aroused Yan Liuyuan¡¯s suspicions. It was not that he was overly paranoid but that they were currently living in an environment that required them to be cautious. They had to pay attention to all ¡°irregrities.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not have the time to exin. As the nanosoldiers had already sent a request for help, the ¡°mysterious troops¡± would probably be arriving very soon. He beckoned to Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°I don¡¯t have time to exin. Quick, get in the truck.¡±


    The truck was currently parked on the side of the road. No one in the yard said another word and just followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s instructions. Their luggage were already packed, as though they were expecting to leave at any moment.


    Ren Xiaosu jumped into the truck and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s the garment factory?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s in the west,¡± Wang Yuchi shouted.


    ¡°Then we¡¯ll drive east!¡±


    Li Qingzheng stomped on the gas, and the truck¡¯s engine roared as they sped eastward. Usually, no one drove at such speeds inside the stronghold, so the pedestrians could not help but turn their heads to look when the truck passed by.


    Someone muttered, ¡°Are they rushing to get reincarnated?¡± He then headed home as usual after knocking off. He was wondering if he should buy a bit more rice this evening since the grains in the porridge he boiled for the past two days were so tiny they were almost invisible.


    While in the truck, Ren Xiaosu paired a batch of nanomachines for Yan Liuyuan once again. Wang Fugui was holding arge backpack as he asked, ¡°Xiaosu, what¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°A battle is going to break out in the stronghold soon. We have to leave this ce quickly.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°How have y¡¯all been recently?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve been doing pretty fine. A lot of people have already run out of food to eat, and since they don¡¯t have much savings, they can¡¯t afford to get any food the moment prices go up. However, our family still has quite a bit of money left.¡± Wang Fugui said with a chuckle, ¡°So where are we going this time?¡±


    Of the refugees who entered the stronghold, Wang Fugui andpany were probably the ones who led the mostfortable life since they were rich.


    But for some reason, Wang Fugui felt that he had already gotten used to running around. In order to survive in this chaotic world, it seemed like they would have to keep escaping over and over again.


    But they would eventually get tired of running like this. Sometimes, Wang Fugui thought of asking Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just find a ce to settle down in the wilderness so that we don¡¯t have to get involved with all the troubles of the outside world?¡±


    Meanwhile, Xiaoyu only wanted to make sure that Ren Xiaosu was alright by checking up on him. She was only able to set her mind at ease after confirming he was not injured anywhere. ¡°Did y¡¯all run into any danger while fighting the war on the front lines?¡±


    Chen Wudi chuckled and said, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, my master is the ¡®danger.¡¯ Wherever we go, there will be great danger there.¡±


    Xiaoyu broke into a smile. ¡°Everything¡¯s good as long as y¡¯all¡¯re fine.¡±


    To Xiaoyu, everything would be fine as long as nothing happened to Ren Xiaosu and the others. As for what happened to the rest of the people, that wasn¡¯t her business. A refugee¡¯s most basic thought would only be how to take care of themselves.


    But at this moment, a shocking explosion suddenly went off somewhere in the stronghold. Following that, huge plumes of ck smoke filled the sky like a big fire had broken out there.


    Ren Xiaosu looked outside from the back of the truck and wondered if it was the Yang Consortium or the Li Consortium¡¯s troops that did it. As of now, he couldn¡¯t determine who the culprit was.


    The stronghold residents on the streets all stopped in their tracks and looked into the distance. They still did not realize this disaster was rted to the war. Most of the people were still thinking it might have been a boiler or transformer that had exploded somewhere.


    Although it was wartime, the residents in Stronghold 108 had not been affected by the mes of war. Only the prices of food had gone up.


    On most days, the radio and the newspapers would not mention the situation at the front lines either. As such, the stronghold residents thought they would not be affected by the war.


    But following the explosion, gunshots rang out. It wasn¡¯t until this moment that the stronghold residents started panicking. Was the waring here?


    Before they could react, they saw a missile with a long trail of smoke flying towards the stronghold from the southern sky. The long and thin missile was zooming through the air and heading east.


    As it plunged, another explosion came from the east of the stronghold. That was the direction Ren Xiaosu and the others were heading. Cracks started appearing in the stronghold walls, and arge amount of smoke billowed up into the sky. Someone was bombarding the stronghold walls with artillery fire from outside!


    It had to be Li Shentan¡¯s troops. Ren Xiaosu did not expect that Li Shentan had even nned on destroying all of Stronghold 108 as well.


    Simr scenes were happening throughout the stronghold. The walls that the stronghold residents had relied upon for survival were starting to get attacked with firearms and explosives. Ren Xiaosu made a mental note of the direction of the artillery firing and determined they should being from three different directions.


    A secondter, the city walls in the east suddenly started to copse. Large pieces of debris from the stronghold walls came crumbling down. All of the stronghold residents on the streets looked over there in a daze with horror in their eyes.


    They were dazed not because they did not care about the walls but because their nerves could not bear the intensity of this event. They did not know how to react when faced with such a great shock.


    Everyone looked at the crumbling walls at almost the same time. The people on the streets were petrified like statues. Some people were looking out of their windows while their homes were plunged into an eerie silence.


    The wall was a protective circle that the stronghold residents relied upon for survival, and it was the source of their innate sense of superiority and belief. Most of these people were born in the stronghold, so the world they lived in had always been surrounded by a wall.


    This was where they lived and worked, and got married and had children as well. Most of them had not even thought about what would happen if the wall were to copse.


    Now that the wall had copsed, the fundamental values that existed in their lives also crumbled along with it.


    Ren Xiaosu yelled in the truck, ¡°Just keep driving east. Since the wall has copsed, it makes it easier for us to escape. It¡¯s no wonder Li Shentan dared to attack the stronghold with just a singlebat brigade. It¡¯s because he¡¯s fucking controlling the artillery!¡±


    But since the east had already been breached, that saved Ren Xiaosu the trouble of blowing up the stronghold gate there.


    But when the vehicle drove east, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something was wrong, because the residents from the east were fleeing in their direction!


    ¡°No, something¡¯s not right. I must¡¯ve missed something.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought that even if the stronghold was copsing, these people should not be running so far away from the walls!


    As they were still very far from the east end of the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu could not see what was happening behind the crowd.


    The east! What was in the east?


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu yelled at Li Qingzheng, ¡°Turn around! Fuck, I¡¯ve forgotten all about the Experimentals. How could they possibly be absent from this big mess that¡¯s happening here!¡±


    As per Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expectations, the Experimentals hadid an ambush around the stronghold. Now that the humans were infighting, this was their best opportunity to strike.

 Chapter 285 - My reinforcements have arrived!

    <h4>Chapter 285 My reinforcements have arrived!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu initially fled east as the Li Consortium¡¯s mysterious nanosoldiers were chasing after them from the west. Furthermore, the eastern wall had been breached by missiles just now.


    But he felt something amiss when he fled here. Judging by the size of the fleeing crowd, something terrifying had to be chasing after them.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Wudi, ¡°Can you hear themotion ahead of us? Are there any strange roars there?¡±


    Chen Wudi nodded. ¡°Yes, I hear some!¡±


    ¡°Sounds like it¡¯s really the Experimentals. Old Li, hurry up and turn around!¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted.


    Ren Xiaosu and his group had to turn back now. If they could find any main road leading in any other direction, they would have to take it and see whether they could shake off the mysterious troops that were pursuing them.


    Ren Xiaosu would much rather face the Li Consortium¡¯s troops than the vast number of Experimentals.


    When they were at Stronghold 109, the number of Experimentals had already reached over a 1,000. Now that they had absorbed even more people into their ranks from Stronghold 109, Ren Xiaosu would believe it even if someone said there were 3,000 of them!


    There were probably only several hundred nanosoldiers pursuing them, so it really wasn¡¯t too difficult to choose between several hundred and several thousand.


    ¡°When it rains, it pours.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. This huge stronghold had suddenly be a cage filled with desperate stronghold residents fleeing for their lives.


    Ren Xiaosu was not surprised that the stronghold¡¯s air defense system did not y any effective role this time. After all, even someone like Hu Shuo had rebelled against the organization, so it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if the defense system of the Li Consortium had be as fragile as paper.


    The Li Consortium had originally been guarding against the Experimentals, but how could they have expected missiles to descend down on their walls and destroy the stronghold!


    A couple was strolling on the streets at this time. When they saw the ferocious Experimentals behind them, they started running desperately with the crowd.


    As they ran, the girl suddenly fell down. The boy who had promised to protect her for the rest of his life suddenly let go of her hand and continued running ahead by himself.


    The girl screamed her boyfriend¡¯s name but he still did not turn around.


    A middle-aged man was pushing his father in a wheelchair in the streets. Some years earlier, his lower body had been paralyzed due to a construction ident.


    When the Experimentals arrived, the middle-aged man suddenly abandoned his father in the wheelchair and escaped by himself. The old man who was left behind sat there calmly and looked at the ferocious faces of the Experimentals. In reality, this old man wasn¡¯t keen on living anymore either. He had been getting scolded quite often by his own family members over the years, and even his daughter-inw called him an old coot right to his face.


    The ugliness that existed in the belly of the stronghold and the indifference concealed within the prosperous city had suddenly been exposed.


    But in this crowd, there was also a mother who suffered a sprain who pushed her child away. ¡°Go on ahead, darling! Don¡¯t look back! Mommy will catch up with you soon!¡±


    The child kept crying and refused to leave. The mother broke into tears and cried, ¡°Will someone save my child?¡±


    Some people were shivering in fear as they hid inside their houses. It was as though they thought they could escape the pursuit of those humanoid monsters by doing so. When they realized the monsters did not break into their houses, they felt a sense of exaltation. It was only a matter of time before the Li Consortium¡¯s troops would eliminate these monsters.


    Then they would be saved.


    What they did not know was that these Experimentals were only letting them off for the time being. Prey that did not run away would not need to be hunted down immediately. They could slowly seek them out afterwards.


    As for the Li Consortium¡¯s troops, they would not being to save them.


    Less than two minutes after Ren Xiaosu¡¯s truck had turned around, and before they could even find a road to turn off into to escape, he could already see the mysterious troops approaching! Even with the most conservative estimate, there were still over a 100 of them!


    It was toote! This battle was unavoidable!


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Wudi, follow me! Cover me!¡±


    As he spoke, Ren Xiaosu jumped off from the back of the truck. In that instant, he covered his entire body with his armor. When hended, the entire ground seemed to shake.


    When jumping out of a moving vehicle, people tend to lose their bnce easily due to inertia. But as soon as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s foot armor touched the ground, he kicked forward and shot out like a cannonball.


    With this kick, his speed momentarily allowed him to get ahead of the truck that Li Qingzheng was driving. By the time the mysterious troops came face to face with them, Ren Xiaosu was already charging diagonally into the front of the enemy¡¯s vehicle with his body. ¡°Fuck off!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu met the vehicle head-on using his shoulder and knocked it onto its side in an instant!


    Even though Ren Xiaosu was wearing his armor, his physique still appeared minute in front of the military transport truck. But it was exactly this minute figure¡¯s strength that somehow toppled the vehicle!


    The nanosoldiers in the vehicle were not expecting such a turn of events. Then Ren Xiaosu flung his hand out and threw out four Explosive Poker cards at the next vehicle in an instant.


    Time seemed to slow down.


    The driver in the other vehicle saw the exquisite ying cards spinning in the air and flying towards his windshield. When they were almost touching it, he saw the cards emit a golden glow resembling the burning sun!


    With a loud boom, the four ¡°threes¡± exploded with such force that it sent half of the truck¡¯s hood flying off! The entire vehicle tilted and rammed straight into a building next to the road!


    The passersby were stunned. They had not expected to see such a shocking sight while they were fleeing. The armor-wearing ¡°robot¡± was like a godly presence as the stronghold residents had nevere across such individual power that went beyond theirmon knowledge and understanding!


    It was as though they were living in the future.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu did note out unscathed. Although his armor could dampen the collision force, it still proved quite unbearable for him. His entire shoulder was in


    pain.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu knew that even though the overturned truck could cause some damage to the nanosoldiers inside, it would not be enough to kill them. After this, he would be facing an attack from over a hundred nanosoldiers.


    Ren Xiaosu took a quick breather. He did not know if he could defeat them, but Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and Wang Fugui were behind him.


    Between life and death, he had no other choice!


    Dozens of nanosoldiers got out from the overturned military transport truck and surrounded Ren Xiaosu in only three seconds. They were all holding brand-new nanoswords in their hands. If Ren Xiaosu were not careful, he could get shed by them.


    When a nanosoldier shed his nanosword at Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s right hand suddenly reacted and grabbed the spine of the de. Then he shed his ck saber at the nanosoldier, cutting across from the right of his neck to his chest. The nanosoldier¡¯s life was over.


    However, there were too many of them. When Ren Xiaosu attacked, someone took advantage and sneak attacked him from behind. The edge of the nanosword suddenly pulsated with a rippling effect.


    This sh left arge crack in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor.


    Chen Wudi bravely opened up a path from the rear and came to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side. But there were still another two military transport trucks that were speeding towards them from behind.


    What could he do now? Ren Xiaosu was panting heavily. If any more of these nanosoldiers arrived, he would have to seriously consider running away.


    But all of a sudden, the fuel tank of a truck behind them exploded. The entire truck congrated into a huge fireball that burned up together with the nanosoldiers in it.


    Ren Xiaosu froze for a moment. It was only at this moment that he heard a sniper rifle going off.


    He looked into the distance in surprise. A girl with a cap was waving at him from a tall building as though she were saying, ¡°Since you didn¡¯te and look for me, I had toe and look for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and charged the nanosoldiers on the outside edge of the encirclement at high speed. The nanosoldiers who were just getting ready to establish an effective defensive perimeter were immediately thrown into disarray by the collision.


    Whenever anyone tried to deal an effective blow to Ren Xiaosu, a sniper¡¯s bullet could be expected to fly in from the sky and deal devastating damage!


    Ren Xiaosu was violently gasping as he fought his enemies. Although he had no choice, at least his reinforcements had arrived!

 Chapter 286 - Will of iron!

    <h4>Chapter 286 Will of iron!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Strength was at 10.5, while his Dexterity was at 10.1. Honestly, these stats weren¡¯t that high.


    But since he gained the external armor, he had turned into an utter nd beast¡± in the eyes of others. He did not even need to use any fanciful moves to kill his enemies. He only needed to use his absolute strength to have an overwhelming advantage over them.


    But even so, he would still get drained if he had to deal with over a 100 nanosoldiers. After all, when his strength was used up, even the power of the armor would be extremely limited.


    Fortunately, Yang Xiaojin was here. With her Perfect Firearms Proficiency, she did not miss any of her shots from hundreds of meters away, even if Ren Xiaosu and the nanosoldiers were moving around at high speed!


    Sniper rifles had an extremely high standing in infantrybat operations. It represented a super frightening destructive power that all enemies had to be afraid of, and its existence was the absolute authority in a war between infantry.


    Usually, snipers would choose to fire a single shot when carrying out a decapitation strike. But at the moment, Yang Xiaojin was using her sniper rifle like a long-distance artillery cannon that she kept firing.


    With a sniper supporting Ren Xiaosu, his attacks became even stronger. This gave him more confidence to effectively kill and cut open a path past the nanosoldiers. The nanosoldiers were trying to surround them, but all their efforts turned out to be futile in the face of Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cooperation.


    One of the nanosoldiers raised his nanosword and went to sh at Ren Xiaosu from behind. But just as he raised his arm, he was killed by a powerful shot from the sniper.


    Whenever anyone tried to attack from behind, the sniper¡¯s bullets were bound to arrive. All of a sudden, none of the nanosoldiers dared to stand behind Ren Xiaosu!


    Meanwhile, Chen Wudi was swinging his Golden-Hooped Rod next to Ren Xiaosu at their enemies. No one knew how heavy it was, but every hit the nanosoldiers took from it would leave them with broken bones and tendons!


    All the fleeing stronghold residents were extremely shocked when they saw this. It was a fight that only existed in their imaginations. When the ¡°mechanical beast¡± moved, even the ground under it crumbled.


    But all of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized the Experimentals behind them were about to catch up!


    He noticed in his peripheral vision that there were also Experimentals scrambling up the building Yang Xiaojin was on. Suddenly, a Shadow Door opened in the shadows of the rooftop.


    Yang Xiaojin wielded the sniper rifle and continued shooting. Luo Xinyu¡¯s voice came through the Shadow Door, ¡°Xiaojin, hurry up. Stop trying to save him. It¡¯s gonna be toote if you don¡¯t leave now!¡±


    But Yang Xiaojin did not say anything and just kept shooting, reloading, cocking the rifle, and continuously firing at the enemy. Even with her strong physical fitness, she was starting to get hurt by the sniper rifle¡¯s recoil. But she could not stop shooting. If she stopped, what would happen to Ren Xiaosu?


    Luo Xinyu was freaking out. ¡°Hurry up, the Experimentals have almost climbed to the top of the roof. Girl, I¡¯m begging you, time is running out!¡±


    ¡°Hold on.¡± Yang Xiaojin calmly tossed aside another magazine and reced it with a new one. She had already discarded a lot of expended mags around her, though she still had about a dozen mags left in her backpack.


    What normal sniper would carry so many bullets like her? No other sniper would do that. Only a Perfect Firearms Proficiency wielder could turn a sniper rifle into a 100% effective fire support control weapon.


    Luo Xinyu was burning with worry. She did not know what had gotten into Yang Xiaojin for her to disregard her own safety!


    Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin continued looking through the scope as she wanted to help Ren Xiaosu eliminate any potential threats!


    The next moment, the Experimentals climbed onto the rooftop and pounced at Yang Xiaojin!


    Even while the Experimentals were in midair, Yang Xiaojin was still pulling the trigger!


    Just as the tip of the w of an Experimental was about to touch Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hair, she grabbed Luo Xinyu¡¯s hand and disappeared in a sh!


    Several Experimentals collided midair on the rooftop with angry roars!


    Without any covering fire from the sniper, Ren Xiaosu gradually found it very strenuous. The nanosoldiers also realized the sniper had retreated, so they immediately formed a circle to kill Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi in this spot.


    Ren Xiaosu noticed the power for his armor was about to run out, and the distance between them and the Experimentals was only several hundred meters. He let out a sigh when he saw there was no way out for them.


    But just as Li Shentan had said, in the moment between life and death, the rage and strength that stemmed from the unwillingness to die decided whether one would survive or not!


    Although Ren Xiaosu was exhausted, he still had a trump card.


    Even though 10.5 Strength was not all that high, it would be a whole new world with ¡°City Crusher¡± activated.


    The City Crusher power-up could onlyst 30 seconds. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu regarded it as his greatest trump card. Ren Xiaosu ced a great deal of importance on it. It wasn¡¯t how great a change City Crusher could give him, but how significant a change it could give the shadow clone!


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes turned crimson and the world seemed to tint red. With the arrival of a new world, the old one was about to get destroyed.


    Immediately after Ren Xiaosu activated City Crusher, he summoned his shadow clone!


    The form for calcting the power of the shadow clone was very straightforward. It was twice as strong as Ren Xiaosu, so after he activated City Crusher, the shadow clone would be four times as strong as him!


    The moment the shadow clone separated from Ren Xiaosu, it jumped into the air and leaped towards the group of nanosoldiers in front of it. It shed at them with its ck saber, moving as gracefully as a dancer.


    The nanosoldiers were dying off one by one in front of the shadow clone.


    When one of the nanosoldiers raised his nanosword and shed at the shadow clone, he did not know the shadow clone had already moved past him. The ck saber also cut through the nanosoldier, and his body was split in two.


    This so-called City Crusher was a power that could really rock the entire city!


    The shadow clone held a nanosoldier up by his neck and used him as a human shield. As it dashed forward, the buildings copsed upon collision and cracks appeared in the ground with every step it took.


    The dense ck figure was like a swimming dragon that had descended onto the world.


    The shadow clone of the young man was killing people within the panicking crowd in the boundless streets of the stronghold!


    When the ck saber, City Crusher, and shadow clone were used together, it became a real power that could surpass the ordinary.


    Even if it could onlyst 30 seconds!


    Ren Xiaosu was panting heavily.


    None of the dozens of nanosoldiers could hold out for even half a second when facing the shadow clone.


    The shadow clone stood at the far end of the street, surrounded by neon lights and a prosperity that was about to be shattered. This was a world that was going to be destroyed.


    The shadow clone stood there quietly and pointed at the nanosoldiers in front of it with its ck saber, as though to convey its iron will to the world.


    The nanosoldiers would still have the heart to fight if the difference in strength was not that great, but the shadow clone was simply too terrifying. They felt that it would be very difficult to take on a power like it even if the armored forces were here.


    Of course, they were unaware that City Crusher would onlyst for 30 seconds.


    The nanosoldiers began to retreat at this time. They had also noticed the Experimentals closing in. Since they couldn¡¯t defeat Ren Xiaosu, they could only retreat.


    Ren Xiaosu was relieved when he saw them retreating. The effective duration for City Crusher was almost over. His strength was running out as well. Even the battery of his armor had nearly been used up.


    He was at his limits.


    All of a sudden, a nanosoldier carrying a rocketuncher pulled the trigger from the shadows!


    However, he had aimed it at Chen Wudi instead of Ren Xiaosu!


    ¡°Wudi!¡± Ren Xiaosu roared.


    ¡°Ah?¡± Chen Wudi, who had just killed a nanosoldier, turned around when he heard his master calling his name.


    But when he turned around, he saw Ren Xiaosu leaping towards him. His master who always imed that he was not a good person was like a hero who had descended from above to protect a mentally ill child¡¯s fragile dreams. That was because the child¡¯s dream was to be a hero and a good person.


    ¡®But, Master, you¡¯re clearly a good person, the best in the world.¡¯


    All of the armor on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body formed up in front of him. It was like he was holding up a shield bestowed by the heavens as he stood in front of Chen Wudi!


    He attempted to block the RPG with all the power the nanoarmor could give!


    With a boom, Ren Xiaosu and Chen Wudi were sent flying by the massive shockwave while the armor was blown to pieces by the explosion.


    Chen Wudi got up from the ground and shouted, ¡°Master!¡±


    The scattered armor suddenly liquefied and gathered back towards Ren Xiaosu, who was lying unconscious on the ground.

 Chapter 287 - A world without the Great Sage

    <h4>Chapter 287 A world without the Great Sage</h4>


    Chen Wudi rushed over frantically when he saw that Ren Xiaosu had be unconscious. He checked Ren Xiaosu¡¯s breathing and found that his master was still alive. Come to think of it, the armor had borne the brunt of the damage for his master, so it probably did not cause any fatal injuries to him. But it still proved a bit too much for Ren Xiaosu to withstand an RPG attack as the huge st left him unconscious.


    Firearms were one of the essences of humanity¡¯s intelligence over thousands of years as human civilization developed. It was strong enough to even kill gods.


    Chen Wudi thought of carrying Ren Xiaosu, but the Experimentals behind them were approaching. He shouted to Li Qingzheng, ¡°Get over here and help carry Master onto the truck!¡±


    However, Li Qingzheng said bitterly, ¡°The front side engine of the truck was hit by a stray bullet just now, so it¡¯s no longer drivable!¡±


    Seeing that the Experimentals were approaching, they were now faced with more and more difficulties. Yan Liuyuan suddenly said, ¡°Everyone, help carry the injured students. Ms. Jiang, you and I will each take turns carrying my brother.¡±


    Although Yan Liuyuan had nanomachines in his body now, there wasn¡¯t enough power for them tost long. So he couldn¡¯t carry Ren Xiaosu by himself for too long. He needed Jiang Wu¡¯s help.


    As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Fugui was the first to act and carried an injured student out of the truck. Wang Yuchi and some of the other students had still not recovered from their injuries yet. There were five students who were injured, and now, Ren Xiaosu was added to the list as well.


    The dozen or so female students were helping out on the side. They frantically carried the wounded students and continued moving forward. Everyone was at a loss. What should they do now that Ren Xiaosu had fallen unconscious?


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu was the backbone of the group when he was around. Even if the sky were to copse, Ren Xiaosu would be there to hold it up.


    But now, Ren Xiaosu was in aa and needed to be taken care of by the others!


    This huge stronghold city was going to perish in the war along with the people in it. Prosperity would cease to exist, and the civilization here would be a thing of the past.


    As a fleeing crowd of people passed them by, the neon lights in the distance fell one by one.


    Even the sky looked like it was falling.


    They had no way out. No one could survive this gray tide of Experimentals that were chasing after them.


    The Experimentals started getting closer and closer. But Yan Liuyuan acted as though he did not see them and carried Ren Xiaosu on his back!


    It would be impossible to escape the Experimentals if they had to carry the wounded with them. That was without a doubt.


    But they could not defeat several thousand Experimentals either.


    Looking at the oing crowd of ferocious Experimentals, everyone was faced with a choice: leave, or stay behind and die together.


    When Yan Liuyuan saw the hesitation on the others, he said coldly, ¡°If y¡¯all want to leave, you can leave now.¡±


    However, Yan Liuyuan was going to stay together with Ren Xiaosu even if he had to die.


    Seeing how the Experimentals had alreadye within a 100 meters of them, a girl cried out and bowed to Jiang Wu. ¡°Teacher, I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    She then ran ahead by herself and left everyone behind.


    Chen Wudi silently watched her disappear. He opened his mouth and tried to say something but did not manage to utter a sound.


    No one med the girl. In the face of death, there was no other choice.


    Jiang Wu silently took Ren Xiaosu from Yan Liuyuan¡¯s back. ¡°We¡¯ve tested it out before. Your nanomachines won¡¯tst for long. Since I¡¯ve got more strength now, let me carry him.¡±


    Then another two girls ran away after apologizing to Jiang Wu, but she did not me them. As of now, she only needed to answer to herself.


    The injured Wang Yuchi fell to the ground because no one was supporting him. He said with a wry smile, ¡°You all can go ahead, take the monitor with you. I won¡¯t be able to get away. Old Li, pass me a grenade. I know that you still have two left.¡±


    Another student smiled and let go of his ssmate who was supporting him. ¡°That¡¯s just as well, give the other one to me. You guys, go ahead.¡±


    These students were supposed to be sitting in a ssroom with transparent windows while their teacher lectured to them. They should also be secretly passing around notes under their desks. After their sses, they would y basketball in the schoolyard, then stroll along in the sunset with their backpacks after school.


    If they could qualify for university in the future, they might even get to gain more knowledge. There, they would meet the girl of their dreams and then live happily ever after.


    But the life they were supposed to live was suddenly interrupted at the age of 18. There was no future for them.


    This ¡°long street¡± that stretched into the future seemed to have no end to it. That ¡°schoolyard¡± where young men should be sweating it out also copsed into the abyss.


    A determined will that was ready to die manifested itself in Wang Yuchi. He said with a smile, ¡°Remember to live well, guys.¡±


    Chen Wudi looked back at the pursuing Experimentals, then looked at Wang Yuchi and said, ¡°None of you are going to die. I¡¯ll cover everyone while you all retreat.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Li Qingzheng said anxiously, ¡°Let¡¯s leave together.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡± Chen Wudi said with a smile, ¡°Have you all forgotten that I¡¯m the reincarnation of the Great Sage?¡±


    Everyone fell silent. But even if the Great Sage was here, he couldn¡¯t defeat this many Experimentals, right?


    Chen Wudi said, ¡°Other disciples always protect their masters, but my master has been protecting me ever since I joined him.¡±


    ¡®Master, you always lied and pretended to be the bad guy to protect me, so let it be my turn to protect you. I¡¯m the Great Sage after all! How can the Great Sage be afraid of monsters? Even if I am to die, I have to drag those monsters down with me!¡¯


    Chen Wudi walked step by step towards the countless Experimentals. His tiny figure among the gray tidal wave made him look like a lone ind facing a towering tsunami.


    The afterglow of the sunset suddenly cast a ray of light through the clouds, and it somehow shone down on Chen Wudi.


    His master had mentioned before that he was that ray of light!


    He was the brightest, the most brilliant, and the most invincible ray of light in this world!


    All of a sudden, Chen Wudi sprinted towards the Experimentals as fine beads of blood started seeping out from all over his body. That was the price to pay for his life force being set ame.


    Hints of the golden armor appeared on Chen Wudi, but he was unsessful in materializing it fully.


    Chen Wudi roared, ¡°That¡¯s not enough! More!¡±


    ¡°I said! More!¡±


    His life force started burning so strongly it was draining his life away!


    His soul bent on achieving ruling the world was turbulent, as if fluctuating between past and present!


    Who was I in my previous incarnation?


    Handsome Monkey King of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit?[1]


    No.


    Keeper of the Horses of the Heavenly Pce? [2]


    That¡¯s not it either.


    Yes, I¡¯m the Great Sage.


    I¡¯ve already been to the Western Paradise.


    I¡¯m the invincible ¡°Victorious Fighting Buddha¡± of this world!


    I¡¯ve already been to the Western Paradise!


    I¡¯ve already been to the Western Paradise!


    A momentter, Chen Wudi¡¯s phoenix-feather cap appeared on his head out of thin air. The two striped feathers pointed skyward and touched the clouds. Another momentter, his golden armor also appeared out of thin air. The golden glow was like the burning sunpeting for glory with the Heavens. His cloud-walking boots also appeared at the same time, trampling thends under his feet.


    Chen Wudiughed heartily in the shimmering twilight. ¡°The Great Sage is here, who dares fight me?!¡±


    The gray tsunami finally reached him, but Chen Wudi plunged his Golden-Hooped Rod into the ground, then flipped it upwards. The power of the staff raised a wave of earth over 30 meters high and buried the Experimentals at the very front alive!


    The mighty wave of earth was like the wrath of an angry god. The Experimentals buried under the ground struggled as they tried to climb out of it, but the earth had be as hard as metal, and those Experimentals suffocated alive underneath it!


    The Experimentals at the back continued rushing forward fearlessly!


    Chen Wudi plucked a handful of hairs from behind his ear and blew lightly on them. ¡°Where are you, my little monkeys!¡±


    Hundreds of monkeys appeared in the blink of an eye. ¡°We¡¯re here!¡±


    ¡°Subdue the demons with me.¡± Chen Wudi bellyughed as he charged towards the Experimentals.


    The monkeys pounced at the ferocious Experimentals and smashed them with their staves!


    The originally ferocious Experimentals were unable to stand up to the monkeys. When the staves were smashed into them, their flesh and bones shattered!


    Earlier, Chen Wudi had said he would stop the iing gray tide and cut off their path so that everyone could retreat.


    This was what he meant by cutting their path off!


    Chen Wudi suddenly felt that the Experimentals in front of him had turned into fiendish demons that attacked from all directions. His entire world was filled with ck smoke as evil spirits enveloped the sky!


    The intelligent being behind the Experimentals remained hidden throughout. Itmanded therge number of Experimentals and attempted to surround Chen Wudipletely. He was the most powerful enemy it had encountered since it ventured out of the Jing Mountains, and it had not expected such a powerful and invincible enemy among the humans.


    There were still some humans hiding in the building next to the road. When they heard themotion, they quietly looked out their windows and saw Chen Wudi dressed in shining golden armor, fighting like an unparalleled hero!


    But the Experimentals had already surrounded him!


    Chen Wudi spat out a mouthful of blood, but he wanted to ask his master with a smile, ¡°Master, do you think I¡¯m powerful? Master, you should hold on to your ray of light and protect it from now on. It hasn¡¯t gone out yet.¡±


    In that instant, he raised the Golden-Hooped Rod and pointed it to the sky. ¡°Sky Breaker!¡±


    Then he plunged the Golden-Hooped Rod into the ground with a furious roar. A circle of golden light emitted outwards from the epicenter of the Golden-Hooped Rod.


    The golden light was a ripple, thends ake, and the Experimentals mosquitoes. In an instant, all the mosquitoes near the center of theke were reduced to dust!


    After that, none of the Experimentals dared to attack Chen Wudi anymore. The gray tsunami of Experimentals quickly fled the stronghold and ran madly for their lives!


    This was the first time the Experimentals had been defeated since they headed out of the Jing Mountains!


    By burning up his life force, Chen Wudi had reversed an overwhelming situation of adversity. It was like preventing a gigantic building from copsing at thest critical moment!


    But at this moment, Chen Wudi¡¯s life also reached its end. He slumped to the ground and sat there with a stupid grin without any hint of sadness in his eyes.


    He was thinking that if his master was here, he would definitely praise him, right? Thinking of this, Chen Wudi became even happier. He might even prepare a bowl of fried rice with sausage for him, one that had a lot of meat bits hidden at the bottom of the bowl.


    At this moment, the stronghold residents who were hiding in the nearby building came running out. ¡°Hero, are you alright?¡±


    Chen Wudi ignored them as he was already at the end of his life. He was recalling the beautiful moments he had with his master.


    He had been sent to a psychiatric hospital as a child. He heard his mother ran away with someone because of his mental illness, and that his father went missing as well.


    He did not have any friends there and had nothing to look forward to most of the time. He felt that life was always gloomy.


    Actually, Chen Wudi¡¯s memories had always remained in the summer when he was eight years old. In that summer, he had vowed to be the Great Sage.


    But many interesting things happened since meeting his master, and he even got the chance to eat delicious food too. Everyone protected him and no one called him a fool anymore.


    He really wanted to tell his master, ¡°You¡¯re such a bad driver. Can you please never drive again? Master, you look like a cow when you wear that armor. Can¡¯t you make it look better? Master, is that cap-wearing girl at the top of the tall building the girl you like? She¡¯s much better than that Zixia. Master, your cooking is delicious. Master, you¡¯re the one who is that ray of light.¡±


    Chen Wudi started grinning.


    But then he turned his head and looked to his side. He saw a middle-aged man secretly grabbing a handful of soil stained with Chen Wudi¡¯s blood.


    Startled, Chen Wudi asked, ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    The middle-aged man hemmed and hawed but was too afraid to speak. Chen Wudi shouted, ¡°I¡¯m asking you, what are you doing?¡±


    The middle-aged man got so scared he almost cried. When he saw he had been discovered by Chen Wudi, he immediately knelt down. ¡°The Pyro Company is purchasing blood samples of supernatural beings...¡±


    The Pyro Company¡¯s far-reaching advertisements had proven to be effective. Since he was not a supernatural being, he could not sell his blood. All he needed to do was to sell the blood of someone who was one.


    As long as he managed to sell a blood sample one time, he would be a millionaire. Then he would lead a veryfortable life.


    Chen Wudiughed silently. So this was what the world was really like.


    He remembered the middle-aged person who had incited others to steal his food even though he had saved him along the way while escaping from Stronghold 109. He remembered Liu Zhaojiang, who had secretly run away with everyone¡¯s food supplies even though they had spent their days together and helped each other back at the outpost. He remembered that soldier who said that the idiot would offer to carry them if they deliberately acted like they had fainted. He remembered the soldiers who cursed at him even though he helped bring them to the medical center.


    Chen Wudi suddenly remembered everything that happened in this world andughed silently.


    He gripped his Golden-Hooped Rod again, and the golden light rippled out around him once more. This time, he reduced all of the stronghold residents who tried to obtain his blood into dust.


    Even as the middle-aged man slowly turned to dust, he still held the bloody soil in his hand tightly and did not let go.


    This was the first time Chen Wudi had taken the initiative to kill someone, and it would also be thest time.


    He remembered his master¡¯s words: If you constantly feel like you¡¯re being devoured by the darkness, wouldn¡¯t it mean that you¡¯re the light?


    ¡®But, Master, this world is full of darkness. And now, my light has been extinguished.¡¯


    Chen Wudi sat cross-legged and gently ced the Golden-Hooped Rod between his knees. The striped feathers on his head dazzled like new and the golden armor on him shone as brightly as before.


    Then Chen Wudi started turning into stone bit by bit from his feet. The petrification process moved up his legs like two dragons climbing up towards his neck, until his entire person turned into a statue.


    When Chen Wudi first arrived at the psychiatric hospital, his mental illness was still not that severe. He would always ask the nurse there, ¡°Sister, where are my parents?¡±


    The nurse said coldly as she carried the medicine tray, ¡°You don¡¯t have any parents since you were born from a rock.¡±


    Since he was born from a rock, he should go back to being a rock.


    The monkeys gathered around him and vanished after bowing to him. The clouds in the sky scattered and a rainbow emerged.


    It was so dazzling it could be seen from ten kilometers away, like a huge rainbow forming after the rain.


    A smile touched the corners of Chen Wudi¡¯s mouth for thest time.


    ¡°Master, I¡¯m leaving now.


    ¡°This world no longer needs the Great Sage.¡±


    [1] ording to Journey to the West, the Monkey King is born from a magic stone that sits atop the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. |


    [2] After angering several gods anding to the attention of the Jade Emperor, Sun Wukong was given a minor position in heaven as the Keeper of Horses (37559) so they can keep an eye on him.

 Chapter 288 - A glass of wine

    <strong>Chapter 288 A ss of wine</strong>


    The destruction of Stronghold 108 had far-reaching effects. Over the widespread battlefield, this spacious stronghold itself was thergest forward operating base of the Li Consortium¡¯sbat troops.


    The troops from the other Li Consortium strongholds in the rear that were heading to the front lines would resupply at Stronghold 108 before continuing to advance northwards. This was also the reason for the sudden shortage of food in Stronghold 108.


    The Li Consortiumcked experience as they have never fought anyrge-scale wars before. Many generals even thought that war was a very simple matter, and all they needed to do was to ensure that the war machine kept operating smoothly. For this, they had been nning for all kinds of possible scenarios and drawing up backup ns over the years.


    But the moment war broke out, they realized warfare was unpredictable, with no constant shape or constant conditions. Unexpected situations were the mostmon events in wartime.


    After Stronghold 108 was destroyed, the frontline troops of the Li Consortium immediately lost an entire supply line. The Yang Consortium¡¯s armored forces continued to attack Mt. Qingsheng so that they could force an opening for their infiltration troops, and this was undoubtedly a massively sessful strategy.


    After the Experimentals retreated, the Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers continued to carry out their demolition missions at the enemy¡¯s rear and destroyed their main strategic facilities.


    However, Yang Xiaojin had already disappeared. As one of the Yang Consortium¡¯s core figures, she did not seem to be interested in the war itself, and even the nanosoldiers were unaware that she had arrived.


    It was rumored that the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium were at odds, but no one knew what the truth was.


    Major differences wouldn¡¯t be felt for a short while after the Li Consortium¡¯s supply line has been cut off. But if their rear troops couldn¡¯t rebuild the supply line, it would definitely prove to be a disastrous blow


    But after the Li Consortium was dealt such a disastrous blow, they decided they would unleash a full retaliation against the Yang Consortium at all costs.


    In the southwestern battlefield, the warbatants cared more about things like the supply line and whatnot. But for the supernatural realm, Chen Wudi¡¯s appearance could be considered a milestone event.


    The Saboteurs had previously termed the current era ¡°The Dawn of Gods.¡± That was because no being in the entire supernatural realm had really surpassed the ordinary yet.


    They were all still afraid of firearms and explosives, and everyone preferred remaining hidden in the shadows of the organizations. The power of the ordinary was constraining the entire supernatural realm.


    However, the emergence of Chen Wudi put an end to that era. Those who waited silently in the supernatural realm termed the era after Chen Wudi¡¯s appearance as ¡°The Rise of Gods.¡±


    This was because they could already see the upper limits of a supernatural being reached, and hoped they themselves could get to that level as well.


    But throughout the ¡°Dawn¡± era, Li Shentan was the only person who could be considered a demigod. And Chen Wudi seemed to be the only one who could reach the threshold to be considered a god. He possessed what one would call, in the true sense of the meaning, a power that only gods could possess.


    On the empty and run-down streets of Stronghold 108, old newspapers that were scattered on the ground swirled into the air when a cold gust of wind blew.


    Dead leaves littered the ground. In the past, cleaners would be working in the stronghold. But now, every stronghold resident had fled from here. Only a few people remained hiding in their houses as they waited for the Li Consortium toe and rescue them. However, Li Shentan¡¯s artillery troops had already intercepted all of the Li Consortium¡¯s rear troops in the south, so they would not get here for a while.


    Li Shentan was walking down the boulevard alone. As he looked at the depressing scene around him, his eyes were calm.


    The little girl, Si Liren, hovered next to him in a white robe. She did not say anything and could feel the sadness and loneliness in Li Shentan.


    Li Shentan came to the ce where Chen Wudi had battled the Experimentals earlier. He quietly looked at Chen Wudi¡¯s body that had turned into stone and sat down cross-legged across from him with a sigh.


    He sat there for an entire day and night as though he no longer cared about everything that was happening in the rest of the world. He evenid aside his hatred for a brief moment.


    The artillery fire in the south and north was still continuing. Meanwhile, the buffer zone of Stronghold 108 had suddenly be a quiet and peacefulnd.


    As Li Shentan sat there, Si Liren stayed put and waited by his side quietly.


    Suddenly, Li Shentan said with a sigh, ¡°I¡¯m a little envious of Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    Si Liren asked, ¡°Bro, do you feel guilty?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not.¡± Li Shentan shook his head and said in a firm voice, ¡°And I wasn¡¯t wrong either.¡±


    How could someone like a Demon Whisperer with such a strong personality show any signs of wavering? Since he began his revenge, he¡¯d never wanted to have any discussion of what was right or wrong with anyone.


    Even if he was in the wrong, so what?


    Li Shentan looked at Chen Wudi and said, ¡°We both came out of an asylum.¡±


    What he was trying to say was that among those who came out of a psychiatric hospital during times like these, he and Chen Wudi represented two extremes. One of them was pure of heart and always did the right things, while the other willingly sank into Hell.


    Li Shentan loved being called the Demon Whisperer. That was because the demons in him were enough to devour this entire world.


    But when Chen Wudi died, Li Shentan was a little moved as well.


    He wanted to jump off from the edge of the dark and endless abyss where he stood, but someone always seemed to be calling his name from behind. When Li Shentan turned around, he could not see anything at all.


    Li Shentan said as he sat across from Chen Wudi, ¡°I don¡¯t seem like I¡¯ll have goals after getting my revenge. If I¡¯m still alive by then, I¡¯ll protect your master on your behalf.¡±


    But then Li Shentan froze. He turned around and looked at Si Liren, who was dozing off in midair.


    He suddenlyughed and said, ¡°Stop sleeping. The Li Consortium still has several strongholds standing. Those old fogies must¡¯ve gone into hiding, so we¡¯ll have to seek them out.¡±


    <b>...</b>


    Inside Stronghold 88, Luo Lan was feasting. After all, he was fully hosted by the Yang Consortium, so it wasn¡¯t like he had to pay for it.


    Before the alliance between the Yang Consortium and the Qing Consortium ended, he would not be allowed to leave Stronghold 88. The reason why the Yang Consortium was willing to establish a tform of trust and cooperation with Qing Zhen was that Luo Lan had personally offered toe into their territory, which showed the sincerity of Qing Zhen and Luo Lan.


    Any organization with sophisticated enough intelligence gathering knew that as long as Luo Lan were here, Qing Zhen would not rip up the alliance between the two sides without a valid reason.


    Of course, Luo Lan knew he was a hostage. However, he remained very calm since he had already decided that he would be freeloading off them.


    Although he couldn¡¯t leave Stronghold 88, the Yang Consortium had given him the highest form of treatment.


    But at this moment, a crow suddenlynded on the dining table in front of him. Luo Lan untied the small bamboo tube on the crow¡¯s leg and extracted the slip of paper from the tube.


    Luo Lan unfurled the rolled-up paper with his stubby fingers and was dumbfounded when he read the contents.


    Luo Lan¡¯s trusted aide asked, ¡°Boss, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Luo Lan sighed as he poured the wine in his ss onto the ground in memoriam. The friend who had saved his life before and always used him of being Benbo¡¯erba was no longer around.

 Chapter 289 - Humans do not relate to each others’ joys and sorrows

    <strong>Chapter 289 Humans do not rte to each others¡¯ joys and sorrows</strong>


    When Ren Xiaosu first heard of the term ¡°The Dawn of Gods,¡± he felt that the Saboteurs had decided on using this name too hastily.


    Most people would inextricably link the term ¡°The Dawn of Gods¡± to ¡°The Twilight of Gods,¡± but that made it sound a little inauspicious. But that raised the question of how it should be named to make it sound better.


    By calling it the ¡°The Early Morning of Gods¡±? That sounded really unsuitable.


    ¡°The Noon of Gods¡±? Didn¡¯t sound right either.


    And whates after ¡°The Twilight of Gods¡±? ¡°The Latter Night of Gods¡±?


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan first started discussing this topic seriously, they were still operating a clinic in Stronghold 109 while Luo Lan was scurrying around in the sewers.


    When Yan Liuyuan heard Ren Xiaosu say those words back then, he almost died from the hriousness of it. But now, the young man who used to crackme jokes with Yan Liuyuan remained unconscious on Jiang Wu¡¯s back. He did not even have any awareness of where he was.


    Yan Liuyuan led the group and blended in with the fleeing crowd as they left Stronghold 108. Now that Ren Xiaosu was in no condition to lead them, it was only natural that he, as his younger brother, would step forward.


    T


    They had to leave since the Li Consortium¡¯s forces in Stronghold 108 had not beenpletely wiped out yet. Currently, the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers were fighting each other out in the wilderness. The Yang Consortium¡¯s troops had wanted to withdraw afterpleting their mission, but it was not going to be that easy.


    But if they waited here until the battle was over, they might end up having to face a pursuit by the reorganized Li Consortium forces.


    Ren Xiaosu had not held back when he used his shadow clone in battle. Therefore, there was the danger that some of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s secrets might have been exposed. After all, some of the nanosoldiers managed to flee from the scene.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was covered entirely with the armor and did not even show his face when they were fighting. It would still be justifiable if they said it was Xu Xianchu.


    Although he had reformed the entire armor into a shield at the end, the Li Consortium had no time to pay any attention to who Ren Xiaosu was amid the chaos, nor did they have any visual references to identify him with.


    Furthermore, the Li Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers that participated in that battle might not have survived. When Yan Liuyuan and the others fled from the scene, the Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers arrived and immediately engaged in battle with the Li Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers.


    Of course, that was only what Yan Liuyuan thought. Whether anyone discovered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s secret was still yet to be confirmed. But for now, the most important thing that Yan Liuyuan had to consider was not Ren Xiaosu¡¯s secrets. What he needed to think about was how to stabilize Ren Xiaosu¡¯s injury and lead everyone to safety.


    As the truck had broken down, they could only travel north on foot with the other escapees. Along the way, Yan Liuyuan was also hoping to get his hands on a vehicle, but any vehicles that they found by the roadside were damaged and could not be operated.


    <b>W</b>


    Without Ren Xiaosu leading them, they did not even have enough food prepared this time. It was quite different from the previous times when they were always prepared for their escape. This time, Yan Liuyuan andpany were just as pathetic as the other escapees.


    Even though Xiaoyu had made a lot of preparations, they had six members, including Ren Xiaosu, who were wounded. Just taking care of the wounded was enough to overwhelm them, but they even had to take turns to carry them as well. Therefore, they abandoned some of their supplies along the way and only kept some basic food and necessities like matchsticks for survival in the wilderness. It was not to say that those supplies were not essential, but they felt that their lives were more important.


    Yan Liuyuan wore a pair of gloves and concealed himself everywhere below the neck. That was because the entire group would have to rely on Yan Liuyuan¡¯s nanomachines in case they fought with the escapees.


    Wang Fugui, Li Qingzheng, and Xiaoyu had nobat capabilities at all, so they could only rely on their handguns for the time being. As for the rest, needless to say, all of the nanomachines the few male students had were even less than what Yan Liuyuan had.


    Furthermore, they would still experience a dy of about half a second when trying to control the nanomachines. If they got in a fight, their opponents¡¯ fists would have alreadynded onto their faces before the nanomachines could even react.


    However, Yan Liuyuan was quite talented at controlling his nanomachines. He could even gather the nanomachines to cover specific parts of his body. As long as he wore gloves while fighting, the silvery strands would not appear on his face.


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu was always the one responsible for leading the way within the group of escapees. This was to ensure that the rear of his group would not get lost in the crowd. However, Yan Liuyuan became the person to lead the way this time.


    ¡°Liuyuan,¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°why don¡¯t you rest for a while? Li Qingzheng and I will take over from you.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked back and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to. However my brother did it in the past, I¡¯ll do the same as well.¡±


    The group of escapees continued heading north. As it was a cold winter with snowdrifts on the ground, they could not travel far in a day.


    But they did not dare to turn back around. Who knew if those terrifying Experimentals could still be following them? Although themotion in the stronghold was rather big, most of the escapees who fled did not even know what actually happened there, nor did they know who saved them.


    A minority knew the monsters might have been driven away by someone, but wasn¡¯t that person dead? What if those monsters came back again?


    On that same night, the escapees stopped at a spot that was not too far north of the stronghold. They stared nkly into the distance at the destroyed stronghold.


    Yan Liuyuan headed into the wilderness alone with a pot, a rope, and some dried buns brought by Xiaoyu.


    They only had enough food tost them two days. If they wanted to survive longer, Yan Liuyuan would have to go hunting like Ren Xiaosu. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was injured and needed meat instead of only dried food.


    Yan Liuyuan recalled that Ren Xiaosu only taught him how to catch sparrows. That was because catching sparrows was considered the most basic hunting skill.


    Sparrows were not migratory birds. So some sparrows would have already run out of food for some time by winter. That made this the best time to catch them.


    But after Yan Liuyuan set up the trap with therge pot, he did not even see any sparrowsing to peck at the crumbs below the pot after lying in the snow for four hours.


    During this time, Yan Liuyuan did see several sparrowsnd on the snowy ground. But each time there was a slight change in his breathing, the sparrows would get frightened off.


    Birds were one of the most alert animals. After The Cataclysm, the birds became even more alert to their surroundings.


    But Yan Liuyuan was not discouraged as he readjusted his breathing. In the past, Ren Xiaosu would always share with him how easy it was to catch sparrows after he got home. But now that it was his turn to try, he realized Ren Xiaosu had only pretended it was easy.


    It was extremely tough for a person to lie in the snow like this. Keeping his body hidden in the snow, the bone-chilling wind prated through the gaps in his clothes and cut his skin like knives.


    Furthermore, with no one around him out in the wilderness, he could not talk to anyone, nor did he have any forms of entertainment. All he had was the feeling of loneliness.


    Throughout the night, Yan Liuyuanid prone in the snow without moving until his hands and feet went numb.


    One time, when a sparrow dide and peck on the crumbs under the pot, Yan Liuyuan wanted to pounce on it only to realize that he had lost his ability to move. By then, therge sparrow had already tipped over the metal pot and flown away.

 Chapter 290 - Yan Liuyuan the hunter

    <h4>Chapter 290 Yan Liuyuan the hunter</h4>


    As it turned out, he could not just lie there and not move an inch. He still had to adjust his posture from time to time to prevent his joints from going stiff.


    It wasn¡¯t until early next morning that another sparrow flew under the pot. This happened when Yan Liuyuan was getting so sleepy that his eyes were about to close!


    Yan Liuyuan immediately pulled on the rope, and the metal pot held up by a stick fell to the snowy ground with a thud.


    Yan Liuyuan could feel that his joints were all stiff as he clenched his teeth and pounced on the pot. Fortunately for him, he had the nanomachines.


    He pinned the metal pot with his entire mass and only dared to put his hand in after he was sure that the sparrow was not struggling anymore. But when he put his hand in, he got nipped by the sparrow so hard he could feel a searing pain!


    This was different from what Ren Xiaosu had told him! Yan Liuyuan let out a low growl. After much effort, he finally wrung the sparrow¡¯s neck and broke it.


    But after breaking its neck, he was left with three bloody punctures on the back of his hand! Yan Liuyuan sat down on the ground with the sparrow in his arms and immediately started crying. With no one around in the vicinity, he cried even harder.


    He did not feel grief for himself but rather for Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu had always told him how fun the wilderness was and that hunting was extremely easy. Yan Liuyuan knew all along that he was lying.


    But humans could not rte to other people¡¯s joys and sorrows. Yan Liuyuan initially thought he could understand how much hardship Ren Xiaosu had suffered during the most challenging time of their lives. But he didn¡¯t expect to realize that Ren Xiaosu had actually suffered much more at that time than he could imagine.


    He finally realized the burden that Ren Xiaosu had to bear for him all those years after his own experience, and why Ren Xiaosu never allowed him to go out and hunt in the wilderness.


    The young man who was his brother did not even have any nanomachines or gloves he could use during those times.


    Yan Liuyuan wiped his tears and headed back towards the campsite. When Xiaoyu saw the blood flowing down his hand, she quickly dressed his wounds with her heart aching.


    ¡°Is my brother awake yet?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    Wang Fugui frowned and shook his head. ¡°Since there¡¯s no doctor around, we don¡¯t even know where he¡¯s hurt. We can only deduce that some parts of his body are fractured. But we don¡¯t know what other internal injuries he might have sustained.¡±


    Earlier, Xiaoyu had crushed some antibiotics and mixed it into a solution before feeding it to Ren Xiaosu. This would prevent his wounds from getting inmed, or stop him from getting a fever, cold, or cough if his immune system resistance dropped.


    At first, everyone was worried about Ren Xiaosu being unable to open his mouth for them to feed him the medicine. They thought of having Jiang Wu feed him mouth-to-mouth, and she had no objections either. After all, saving his life was the priority.


    Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu did not close his mouth tightly. He swallowed the solution from the spoon when it was ced in his mouth.


    Yan Liuyuan handed the sparrow to Xiaoyu and said, ¡°Big Sis, can you boil some soup for my brother?¡± He then sat down in a daze next to Ren Xiaosu.


    Wang Fugui said to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry too much, your brother¡¯s hardy, so he¡¯ll be alright.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan also firmly believed that. Since Ren Xiaosu had the physical fitness of a supernatural being, he would not get tortured to death by an illness as long as he did not suffer a fatal injury. Besides, he also made a wish for Ren Xiaosu to recover. For now, he could only wait and see what bacsh he would suffer. Usually, Yan Liuyuan would determine whether Ren Xiaosu was safe based on the severity of the bacsh he suffered.


    Xiaoyu finished plucking off the sparrow¡¯s feathers and even ced the offal off to the side. When this woman first started living together with Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, she would scream in fright when she had to kill a chicken, and Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan kept making fun of her for it.


    But these days, she had be very proficient in handling food. Life really made one grow up. Xiaoyu was willing to change herself for Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.


    After the water boiled, she ced the sparrow into the pot. As soon as the sparrow was inside the pot, the aroma wafted out, carried by the boiling steam.


    As it was early in the morning, many of the escapees were suddenly awakened by the smell. They looked over with surprised looks on their faces.


    When these escapees fled the stronghold, they only thought of bringing their valuables, such as watches, jewelry, gold and silver, as well as cash.


    On the other hand, Xiaoyu andpany were very experienced in escaping. They knew exactly what they needed most in the wilderness. Old Wang had already exchanged his money for medicine that was easier to exchange for cash and only had a small amount of gold and cash on him.


    In war, gold was not as precious as medicine.


    At this moment, someone strolled over to Xiaoyu and her group. The escapees had been hungry for the whole day, so their stomachs were rumbling now.


    The middle-aged man said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you give me a bowl of soup too?¡±


    The man did not even bother asking nicely. Xiaoyu shot him a nce and said, ¡°Get lost.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan stared coldly at the stronghold residents as he knew well the kind of people they were. All who dared to approach their group were shameless people. The honest and kind would remain seated where they were, because they knew how precious the soup was at this time, and they would be too embarrassed to ask for some.


    A plump, middle-aged man came over with some other people following behind him. When he saw Jiang Wu and the others, his eyes lit up. Jiang Wu was a beautiful woman, and those around her were all her female students.


    Furthermore, the people in this group were either old men like Wang Fugui or the wounded like Wang Yuchi and Ren Xiaosu. Since Yan Liuyuan looked really young, their group looked like pushovers.


    The fatso said haughtily, ¡°I¡¯m a director at Stronghold 108¡¯s Logistics Division. My name is Xu Shiduan.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan sneered as he stood up and walked over to Xu Shiduan. ¡°You aren¡¯t wee here.¡±


    Xu Shiduan got so angry heughed. ¡°Where did this little kide from? Get out of the way. We¡¯re under wartime regtions, so your food has been expropriated ¡°


    Before he could finish speaking, Xu Shiduan stared nkly at the dagger in his chest. He had not expected this young man before him to stab him without any warning.


    Yan Liuyuan slowly pulled the dagger out and let the blood from Xu Shiduan¡¯s wound stter onto his face. Everyone around him was stunned, then they retreated in fear.


    Yan Liuyuan said calmly, ¡°I¡¯ll only say it once. No one else is toe near us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu once told him not to be afraid of causing trouble while they were still living back in town. In this wilderness, you could only live longer if everyone was fearful of you. But he also needed to have some discretion when making trouble. He should identify the culprit first and not get too many people involved. In that way, the culprit would be abandoned by the others, and they would not take revenge on him either.


    The nature of people was such that they cherished their lives. When the residents who were used to leading afortable life in the stronghold realized that some people were capable of killing others and were more ruthless than them, they would subconsciously choose to step back.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu was the one to do such things. Now that he was unconscious, Yan Liuyuan would do the same on his behalf, just like what Ren Xiaosu did for him.


    The escapees started retreating far away. Xiaoyu walked up to Yan Liuyuan and helped him wipe the bloodstains off his face with her sleeve.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly sighed and said, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, today has made me fully understand the burden that my brother has been shouldering all along.¡±

 Chapter 291 - Regaining consciousness

    <h4>Chapter 291 Regaining consciousness</h4>


    Although the sparrow wasrge in size, its meat was not enough for 30 people to share.


    Jiang Wu had originally brought along 28 students with her, but now that three of them had left, only 25 remained.


    Including Wang Fugui, Wang Dalong, Yan Liuyuan, Li Xiaoyu, and Ren Xiaosu, how could the sparrow be enough for all of them? While Xiaoyu cooked the sparrow, she counted their supplies. Then she sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that our dried food will onlyst us another two days.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan pursed his lips. If Ren Xiaosu were conscious right now, would they have to worry about such problems?


    At this moment, someone whispered, ¡°I saw them...¡±


    That person who spoke was a student. Yan Liuyuan froze for a moment before asking, ¡°Who did you see?¡±


    ¡°Our ssmates.¡± Wang Yuchi said gloomily, ¡°They must have seen us too, but they¡¯re probably too scared toe over.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan finally realized they were talking about the three female students who had left them behind.


    Yan Liuyuan turned around and looked at Jiang Wu. However, he found her sitting in a daze next to Ren Xiaosu and not saying anything.


    ¡°Ms. Jiang?¡± Yan Liuyuan called out.


    Jiang Wu smiled bitterly and said, ¡°I don¡¯t me them, let them be.¡±


    It seemed like Jiang Wu never thought about getting those three female students toe back either. Yan Liuyuan saw Jiang Wu clenching her fists so tightly that her fingernails dug into her palms until she was nearly bleeding. Suddenly, Jiang Wu said, ¡°Can I give them my share of the dried food? I don¡¯t mind going hungry instead.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan had a realization at this moment. Even though he was reluctant, this was probably the reason why his brother was willing to save Jiang Wu, wasn¡¯t it? If Ren Xiaosu were awake, what would he do?


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a sigh, ¡°But, Ms. Jiang, you don¡¯t have to go hungry. Since you¡¯ve made the decision, everyone in the group will bear this together.¡±


    With that, Yan Liuyuan had a male student take a small bag of dried food over to their female ssmates. The male student stuffed the bag into a female ssmate¡¯s hands and walked off without saying a word to them.


    The three girls sat on the ground-hugging their knees and wailed. Yan Liuyuan turned his head back and didn¡¯t look at them anymore.


    Right now, no one med them for what they did. When facing the threat of the Experimentals in these wastnds, and with Ren Xiaosu unconscious, it was only natural for them to make that decision at that time.


    Although everyone was very upset, those female students did not exactly do any wrong. What was more important in this world than their own lives?


    But even though they understood why they did that, it was impossible to ept them back into the group.


    ¡°Just leave them be,¡± Yan Liuyuan said calmly.


    Those female students had made their choice, and there was nothing that they could do about it. Furthermore, the group was in a rather bad state themselves and could face the Li Consortium¡¯s threat again at any moment. So it was better for the two groups to go their separate ways.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu reminded, ¡°Since there are so many escapees here, could there be a doctor among them? If there is one, we could get them to check on Xiaosu and see how his condition is.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan jolted upright. ¡°That¡¯s right!¡±


    Then Yan Liuyuan walked into the group of escapees with a dagger and shouted, ¡°Is anyone here a doctor? Step forward now! You¡¯ll be given a bun to eat after treating my brother!¡±


    Immediately, several people in the group of escapees raised their hands. That was mainly because it was too tempting when they heard they would be given a bun to eat!


    Having food in the wilderness was as precious as having gold. As this was just the beginning of their escape, it could even be possible to use a bun in exchange for a beautiful woman in two more days.


    Yan Liuyuan swept his gaze over them and said in a cold voice, ¡°Don¡¯t im to be one if you¡¯re not. If I find out that someone is impersonating a doctor and causes a dy in the treatment of my brother¡¯s injury, don¡¯t me me for hurting you.¡±


    Several people immediately put down their hands. After all, they could still remember how Yan Liuyuan had just killed a person. Who would dare to go against him after the director of the Logistics Division had died by his hands a short while ago?


    Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°What kind of medicine do you practice?¡±


    A middle-aged man with a pair of gold-rimmed sses walked forward and said, ¡°I¡¯m from the stronghold¡¯s orthopedic hospital. I¡¯ve noticed your brother¡¯s condition earlier. He should have fractures.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. ¡°Quicklye and attend to my brother then.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was amused when the middle-aged man remained standing there. Only when he stuffed a wrinkled bun into the doctor¡¯s hands did the doctor start moving again.


    The doctor went to Ren Xiaosu and squatted next to him. Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°If it¡¯s just fractured, why is my brother still unconscious?¡±


    The doctor briefly checked Ren Xiaosu with his fingers. Then he said, ¡°He has too many fractures. Did he receive a strong impact to his body?¡±


    ¡°Take a look at the wounds first,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    After a while, the doctor said, ¡°I can estimate more than ten areas where he has fractures, and some of them are evenminuted fractures. Having received such a huge impact, it must have affected his brain as well. Therefore, he won¡¯t being around anytime soon.¡±


    ¡°Then can you set his bones first?¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    The doctor shook his head. ¡°I can only correct the fracture-dislocation at the joints of the limbs. As for the other affected parts, I need professional auxiliary equipment to deal with it and might even have to drive steel nails into the bones to ensure that he recovers. But even so, he definitely won¡¯t be able to recover fully. I¡¯m afraid that his quality of life will bepromisedpared to other people.¡±


    The doctor was trying to be as euphemistic as he could. To put it bluntly, he was not confident of perfectly fixing Ren Xiaosu¡¯s condition. Moreover, how was he supposed to set his bones when he was showing signs ofminuted fractures? He did not even have ess to any X-rays right now, but even if he did, he still wouldn¡¯t be able to fix Ren Xiaosu.


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s expression turned dark. Was Ren Xiaosu going to end up disabled? He refused to believe it! He wasn¡¯t going to ept that!


    At this moment, Xiaoyu asked with a frown, ¡°Is his brain going to be OK? Will he suffer from amnesia?¡±


    The doctor exined, ¡°Although I¡¯m not a neurologist, I¡¯ve note across too many cases of amnesia in such situations. So we don¡¯t have to consider the possibility of that for the time being. But if his broken bones do not get set soon, it will likely lead to necrosis. When that happens, it will be impossible to save him. Or at least, it will be impossible here in this wilderness.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan stayed silent. To be honest, he would rather that Ren Xiaosu forget about some people and some events.


    He knew that Ren Xiaosu ced a lot of importance on friendship. Otherwise, he would not have epted Chen Wudi into the group or gone to save Li Qingzheng. As such, Yan Liuyuan wondered how sad Ren Xiaosu would be when he woke up.


    If Ren Xiaosu came around and realized that Chen Wudi was no longer around, what would be his reaction? In that case, Yan Liuyuan would rather Ren Xiaosu suffer from amnesia.


    Suddenly, a weak voice spoke up. ¡°Have him leave. I don¡¯t need anyone to treat my injuries.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan turned around in surprise and found that Ren Xiaosu had opened his eyes. However, there was a deep fatigue in his eyes.


    ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t you let the doctor set your bones?¡± Yan Liuyuan whispered.


    ¡°No, I can do it myself.¡± Ren Xiaosu forced a smile with some difficulty. He tried to look around and realized that even moving his neck was difficult. But then he froze. ¡°Where¡¯s Wudi? Have y¡¯all seen Wudi?¡±

 Chapter 292 - Self-treatment and setting of bones

    <h4>Chapter 292 Self-treatment and setting of bones</h4>


    Everyone around him fell silent. They did not know how to exin it to Ren Xiaosu, nor did they even want to exin it to him. They only hoped that he could be kept in the dark forever.


    Wang Fugui said, ¡°Senior Apprentice Brother said that he has something to attend to and had to leave for a while....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui in a daze. He was not an idiot, or rather, he was a little smarter than most people. There was no need to say anything else. He could guess the truth.


    So when Wang Fugui said this, Ren Xiaosu, who was lying down, started tearing up. ¡°How did he depart?¡±


    After Yan Liuyuan got the doctor to leave, he sat down beside Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°When Big Brother Wudi departed, he totally drubbed those demons and monsters all around him. He trampled over a million of them with clouds of rainbow blooming in the sky. A bright light shone down upon him from the sky like it was opening the heavenly gates for him. I guessed that someone from the Heavens must havee to pick him up.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything, and everyone around him fell silent again.


    However, Yan Liuyuan realized that Ren Xiaosu was trembling all over, and even his face was turning red. Yan Liuyuan pulled up Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pants and sleeves and saw that the blood vessels in his legs and arms had turned silver.


    Yan Liuyuan also had the nanomachines, so he knew what was going on. Ren Xiaosu was forcibly using the nanomachines to straighten his bones without any use of anesthetics.


    There were always people who would describe their pain to be down to the bone, but that was mostly an exaggeration on their part.


    However, it would not be an exaggeration to describe Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pain to be deep within his bones at this moment.


    His bones had been shattered to pieces and were stuck within his flesh. He needed to use the nanomachines to constantly remove the fragments of bones and reattach them onto his broken bones.


    It was just likepleting a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes, the fragments would have to be removed and reattached again if they were fitted back wrong.


    With that kind of pain, Ren Xiaosu fainted right after he finished fixing an arm.


    After a while, Ren Xiaosu woke up again. Aftering to, he continued to use the nanomachines to set his bones without anyints.


    Next to him, Yan Liuyuan was sobbing so hard he could not speak properly. ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t you rest for a bit? I beg of you, please stop for a while.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth and did not say anything.


    He could not stop now. He had to set his bones as quickly as possible, then fix them securely with the nanomachines so that he would not have anyplications in the future


    It was simply too dangerous in these wastnds. If he became disabled, how was he going to face unknown danger?


    After falling in and out of consciousness for an umpteen number of times, Yan Liuyuan suddenly understood that Ren Xiaosu was using the physical pain to suppress his mental anguish. The anguish was like getting stabbed in the heart by someone, and there was a sense of emptiness within.


    When Wang Fugui and Li Qingzheng realized what Ren Xiaosu was doing, they were shocked. If they did not witness it with their own eyes, they would find it very difficult to believe that someone could actually bear the pain of fixing their own bones.


    Normal people would probably cry out in pain even if they were shed just once. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was performing countless cuts on his own body. Only by doing so could he retrieve the fragments of bones stuck within his flesh.


    It wasn¡¯t until Ren Xiaosu had finally repaired all his broken bones and secured them with the nanomachines that he fell asleep groggily. His clothes werepletely drenched with sweat.


    Xiaoyu dried her tears while wiping off his sweat at the same time. Yan Liuyuan suddenly said, ¡°When my brother did not know how to hunt in the past, we would just eat some wild vegetables.¡±


    The others were stunned. They did not know why Yan Liuyuan was saying this.


    Yan Liuyuan continued, ¡°No one taught him which type of wild vegetables were inedible and which were edible. Some wild vegetables can taste super bitter, while some are slightly poisonous. How do you think he knows which type can be eaten? He left the edible ones for me after tasting them himself. Uncle Fugui is right about my brother being hardy. If he weren¡¯t, he would¡¯ve already been poisoned to death in the wilderness.¡±


    For the moment, the escapees decided to stay put at the campsite and wait for the Li Consortium toe rescue them, because they felt they were no longer in any danger. They firmly believed the Li Consortium woulde to save them since they were legal residents of the stronghold, after all.


    During the day, Yan Liuyuan took a short nap. There were no stronghold residents who dared to approach them again during the day.


    Furthermore, the refugees who escaped from Stronghold 108¡¯s town noticed a sense of familiarity for Yan Liuyuan. It was the same ferocity they used to have while trying to earn a living in the wilderness.


    In the evening, Yan Liuyuan stayed by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side without stepping away once. In the past, he used to keep watch for them during the night, and he still did the same now.


    In the middle of the night, everyone was jolted awake by a scream. They looked in the direction of the sound and saw Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hands covered in blood as he stood next to Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, two adults were lying at his feet, and one of them looked like he was barely clinging to life.


    Yan Liuyuan grabbed the man by his hair and lifted him. He calmly sliced his neck with the dagger and said, ¡°This is the oue you¡¯ll suffer if you try to sneak up on us again. If you want to find food, go and look for it yourselves in the wilderness!¡±


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan wondered why Yan Liuyuan¡¯s physical strength did not seem to have increased much even though he was also a supernatural being.


    Based on the progression of other supernatural beings who had awakened their powers for some time, their physical fitness should be much better than the average adult¡¯s. But Yan Liuyuan was different. It was as though his identity as a supernatural being was not real since he could not even withstand the simple bacsh of his power.


    But now, Ren Xiaosu had helped him mitigate his shorings with the nanomachines.


    The stronghold residents looked at Yan Liuyuan in fear when they realized the child was about to go crazy. He would not hesitate to kill as long as someone might pose a threat to the unconscious young man next to him. Moreover, they could feel Yan Liuyuan¡¯s deep-seated hatred for them.


    Someone who was standing very far away whispered, ¡°When the troops return, let¡¯s report all their evil deeds. Severe punishments will await them!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, the Li Consortium¡¯s troops should be here soon!¡±


    But even as they said these words, they felt a little unsure. Why wasn¡¯t the Li Consortium¡¯s troops here yet even though a day had already passed?


    Even if there was a war going on at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng, there should still be some troops at the strongholds in the rear. So why didn¡¯t anyonee?


    But at this moment, the lights from some vehicles in the north could vaguely be seen approaching. All the escapees got excited at the sight. ¡°The Li Consortium¡¯s troops have finally arrived!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re saved!¡±


    However, as the convoy approached, they did not look like they were going to stop even after the soldiers saw the escapees. The long convoy of vehicles just continued heading straight for the south!


    By the time the rearmost infantry units passed by, someone finally stopped one of the soldiers and shouted, ¡°Sir, where are you heading? Please help us!¡±


    ¡°Please save us! Give us some food!¡±

 Chapter 293 - The Yang Consortium’s refugee camp

    <strong>Chapter 293 The Yang Consortium¡¯s refugee camp</strong>


    The soldier sneered, ¡°Save you? Then who wille and save us? The front line at Mt. Qingsheng in the north has already fallen. The Yang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade and infantry division will arrive soon. We¡¯re retreating to Mt. Guangying at the rear!¡±


    ¡°Then what about us? There¡¯s someone here who hasmitted a crime...¡± someone choked out


    But at this moment, an officer of the Li Consortium¡¯s troops shouted, ¡°Raise your guns and keep your guard up. Have you all forgotten what you should be doing just because we¡¯ve been defeated in a battle? Ensure that no spies have sneaked into their group and forbid them from getting near us!¡±


    The sound of guns being cocked rang out. The Li Consortium¡¯s troops pointed their weapons at the escapees and forced them to retreat by shouting at them.


    The escapees could never imagine the Li Consortium troops they had been waiting for the entire day would treat them like this!


    They said anxiously, ¡°You can¡¯t treat the legal residents of the stronghold like this. I¡¯m going to lodge aint against you!¡±


    But when the Li Consortium troops heard this, someoneughed and said, ¡°Aint? Who are you going toin to? We¡¯ll see about that if you manage to survive!¡±


    Then the Li Consortium¡¯s troops continued to retreat. Some of the escapees tried to chase after them, but they heard a gunshot ring out. The Li Consortium¡¯s troops had fired a bullet at their feet to warn them not to move!


    Some of the escapees broke down on the spot. When the stronghold copsed, their fundamental values in life had been impacted once. Now came another severe blow to them when the rescuers they had been expecting abandoned them.


    Yan Liuyuan and his group had a different thought from the rest of the escapees. At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was actually more worried that the Li Consortium¡¯s troops would take them away. Thest thing he wanted was to have any contact with the Li Consortium¡¯s troops.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current identity was somewhat awkward.


    In the evening, Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness again eight hours after the Li Consortium¡¯s troops had left.


    This time, there was a calmness in his eyes. ¡°Let¡¯s head to the mountains. We should not stay here any longer.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu had a vague idea of retreating into the forested mountains. Of course, it was also because of the Seeds that he had the confidence to bring everyone to live in the forested mountains.


    The Seeds would be enough for him to establish a simplend in the wilderness where they could live in peace and quietness.


    The only bad thing was that it would require a 100 days for his injured muscles and bones to heal. Even though Ren Xiaosu possessed a physical fitness that was totally different from normal people, it would probably still take him several weeks to recover.


    But suddenly, the unique sound of armored vehicles driving in the forested mountains came from the north. As the armored vehicles moved across the snowy ground, their tracks would flip over pieces of soil to expose the ckyer of earth below.


    Ren Xiaosu justid there and could not move. He frowned and said with a sigh, ¡°Toote.¡±


    It was all because he had been in aa for too long. It had dyed their best opportunity to get away.


    They saw the Yang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade and infantry division quickly arriving. The escapees forced themselves to calm down and said, ¡°The Yang Consortium will not do anything to us since we¡¯re just civilians. We didn¡¯t even participate in the war.¡±


    Someone said, ¡°That¡¯s right, the war was initiated by the Li Consortium and had nothing to do with us. Even if the Yang Consortium upies Stronghold 108, we¡¯re still the legal residents of Stronghold 108.¡±


    When the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops arrived, an officer in an armored vehicle frowned as he looked at the escapees. He signaled for the soldiers to stop. ¡°These people should be from Stronghold 108. Keep your guard up in case they attack our troops! Send out two reinforcedpanies and seize all of their weapons!¡±


    As the officer jumped down from the armored vehicle, two of the Yang Consortium¡¯s reinforcedpanies rushed into the crowd. Upon meeting resistance from the escapees, they would fire off warning shots or use their rifle butts to knock them over.


    ¡°Are you all escapees from Stronghold 108?¡± The officer clearly knew what had happened to Stronghold 108, so he understood what was going on when he saw them.


    One of the escapees replied, ¡°Yes, we¡¯re the residents of Stronghold 108. Sir, we will submit to the Yang Consortium¡¯s orders unconditionally and support the Yang Consortium wholeheartedly in the upation of Stronghold 108. But, sir, can you help us eliminate the threats in Stronghold 108 so that we can return to our homes?¡±


    The escapees immediately switched their allegiance without any struggle. Deep down, they did not have any sense of belonging to any organization, so they just listened to whoever was in charge.


    However, the officer did not appreciate it. ¡°Return to Stronghold 108? Who knows if there are spies hidden among you people? What if you all make trouble at the rear while we¡¯re battling at Mt. Guangying?¡±


    Then the officer told the deputymander next to him, ¡°Have the two reinforcedpanies stay behind here. Let these escapees build a refugee camp here. Keep a close eye on them.¡±


    Every organization required people. With people, there would be productivity. Who else would mine or be responsible for ensuring production in the factories? Therefore, people were also considered a type of resource to the organizations. So of course they would not kill them indiscriminately.


    But before the war ended, none of these people would be able to leave the refugee camp.


    The Li Consortium¡¯s troops had already been defeated at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng by the Yang Consortium. They had also lost to the Qing Consortium at the front lines of Mt. Shuanglong, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Fengyi in the east. With the Li Consortiumpletely defeated, they could only retreat to the farthest south point to defend theirst bit of territory by relying on their natural defenses.


    The three organizations would still have to fight a fierce battle at that ce.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s troops continued advancing south while the two reinforcedpanies armed with loaded guns remained behind to supervise the construction of a refugee camp.


    The reinforcedpanies¡¯mander said, ¡°I¡¯ll be assigning everyone the work you¡¯ll need to perform every day and the workload you¡¯ll need toplete. If you can¡¯t meet the quotas, don¡¯t me me for being harsh with


    you.¡±


    To build a refugee camp, they first had to chop down the trees in the area. Then they would use the harvested wood and tools supplied by the reinforced troops to construct some barracks. The two reinforcedpanies happened to be from the engineering battalion that was specially tasked to build roads for the armored troops.


    But now the engineering battalion would not have much work to do since most of the road ahead was t terrain. So they were able to split off two reinforcedpanies to remain behind here.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s troops were extremely efficient. It only took them an hour to count the number of escapees and assign tasks to every one of them.


    But Yan Liuyuan realized that even the wounded were assigned tasks to perform, and they would have toplete their share of the workload as well.


    Ren Xiaosu had not recovered from his injuries yet and would still fall unconscious from time to time. How could he meet his quota in his state? If he had recovered from his injuries, they could have forced their way out of the refugee camp. With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor, these normal soldiers couldn¡¯t have stopped him. However, there were no ¡°what ifs¡± to speak of in their situation.


    ¡°What should we do now?¡± Wang Fugui looked at Ren Xiaosu, who had passed out again.


    ¡°We can only hide here for now.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Fortunately, we aren¡¯t wanted by the Yang Consortium.¡±


    ¡°But we have six injured people.¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°We won¡¯t be able toplete all the work assigned to us.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan frowned as he walked up to the reinforced troops¡¯mander and said politely, ¡°Sir, do you know Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    The reinforced troops¡¯mander barked at him, ¡°Don¡¯t try to ck off by pulling some random connection. I don¡¯t know the person you mentioned. Hurry up and get to work! And those friends of yours who are lying on the ground, no cking!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan stared at him coldly, but he did not argue with him. Then he said, ¡°Are we allowed to help themplete their workload?¡±


    Themander said, ¡°Of course you can! Why not? As long as you canplete it!¡±

 Chapter 294 - Liuyuan has matured

    <strong>Chapter 294 Liuyuan has matured</strong>


    Yan Liuyuan stood there quietly. They currently had six people who were wounded, so it would be an extremely terrifying amount of work if he had toplete it for the six of them all by himself.


    When the reinforced troops assigned the tasks to everyone, they would definitely set it after ounting for the maximum workload a person could perform. That would mean it was already not going to be easy toplete one¡¯s own task, so how could they possiblyplete the tasks for the others as well?


    At this moment, Wang Fugui and Li Qingzheng came over to him and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll share the burden with you. Let¡¯s work together to ovee this difficult situation.¡±


    The three other male students who were not injured also stood up. ¡°There¡¯s us as well.¡±


    Even the female students raised their hands. ¡°We can share some of the workload too.¡±


    The injured Wang Yuchi also stood up while struggling. ¡°I¡¯ve almost recovered from my injuries, so I can start working as well.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled. ¡°Sit down. I don¡¯t want you to end up bing disabled. You don¡¯t have to make it sound so noble. It¡¯s only a bit of work, that¡¯s all.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan felt rather warm inside. The people around him had gone through the test of time and wererades who would go through thick and thin for each other. They had built a foundation of trust.


    Looking at the other escapees around them, they did not even have anyone they could mutually depend on.


    In the past, Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu had always been on their own. But now, Yan Liuyuan felt a sense of unity.


    Xiaoyu took a handful of mud and smeared it onto the faces of the female students and Jiang Wu. ¡°In this wilderness, we have to guard against others who might be eyeing us since Xiaosu isn¡¯t around. All of you have such beautiful and fair skin, so there will definitely be some people with dirty thoughts. Find an empty spotter to change clothes. Put on some loose-fitting clothes so that you won¡¯t have to show your figures.¡±


    The female students were caught in a dilemma. Wouldn¡¯t smearing mud on their faces make them look really ugly? But the female students who¡¯d survived until now were not stupid either, so they let Xiaoyu apply the mud on them.


    After being smeared with mud, they all looked at each other and giggled upon realizing that they looked equally ugly.


    Then Xiaoyu said, ¡°Remember to carry a rock in your pockets. If someone is truly up to no good, you can hit them with it. Remember to hit them on the back of their head one inch below the eyebrows. If you use enough strength, you can even kill them. That¡¯s what Xiaosu taught me.¡±


    This was the philosophy of survival that Xiaoyu had learned from Ren Xiaosu. They wouldy low and only kill if they could not keep a low profile anymore.


    Building a refugee camp was no small task. The process involved tamping the ground, excavating the earth, cutting down trees, and building the barracks. All of these processes required plenty of manpower toplete.


    If a group of well-trained troops built the refugee camp, they could probably finish it in just a few days.


    But it was clear that the reinforced troops were only nning on supervising the escapees and did not intend to build it themselves.


    When they found someone cking off, they would even mercilessly hit them with the butt of their rifles. An old man was hit in the waist by a soldier until he couldn¡¯t stand anymore.


    Some of the Stronghold 108 residents who wanted to protest ended up getting beaten to the ground by the soldiers as soon as they tried.


    All of the escapees were performing their tasks in a trance. They realized that when war broke out, their fates would change.


    In a war, no one was unaffected.


    In reality, the Yang Consortium had another purpose for building the refugee camp. They wanted the escapees to expend all of their energy in the process of building it so they would be too exhausted to cause any trouble.


    This was their usual way of dealing with their veterans. When a batch of veterans were close to retiring, the officers would have them nt trees to prevent them from causing trouble.


    They would have to dig countless nting holes for trees and then cover them again every day until they worked themselves to the bone. Afterwards, no one had the energy to make trouble.


    Yan Liuyuan and his group were assigned to carry logs. Their daily task was to transport ten wooden logs each. Two people had to carry a log that was as thick as a thigh.


    The logs were extremely dense and heavy, especially for Yan Liuyuan who was a little short. Whenever the log tilted down on his side, it felt like most of the log¡¯s weight was pressing down on him.


    At first, they thought it would not be a big deal to carry ten logs every day. But when they actually started carrying them, they discovered the logs were way heavier than they imagined.


    Fortunately, Yan Liuyuan could use the nanomachines. He concentrated them at his shoulders, arms, and legs, which made it easier for him.


    Not only did he have to carry ten logs, but he also had toplete the task for Ren Xiaosu and the wounded members. Gradually, the nanomachines started running out of power. The area around his shoulders was hurting from abrasions, and blisters also formed on his hands.


    Other people could take a short break after transporting a log back, but Yan Liuyuan¡¯s group could not. The Yang Consortium¡¯s troops had created a register in which the refugees had to write their names on whenever they carried a log back. Only by doing so could they avoid getting punished, and there were no shortcuts around it.


    Moreover, these troops did not care if they were men, women, the elderly, or children. Everyone was assigned the same heavy workload and would get beaten up if they failed to meet their quota.


    Yan Liuyuan once told Ren Xiaosu that he hated the strongholds, the organizations, and the stronghold residents.


    He even told Ren Xiaosu that if Yang Xiaojin did note and look for them, they should not go to Stronghold 88.


    When Yang Xiaojin hade to Stronghold 108, Yan Liuyuan felt a little happy on the inside. He always felt that Yang Xiaojin was different from the others who came from the strongholds.


    Furthermore, Yan Liuyuan hoped that the Yang Consortium that Yang Xiaojin was from would be different from the others and not treat human lives lightly.


    But it turned out the organizations in this world were all the same. There was essentially no difference between them.


    The only difference was Yang Xiaojin.


    In the afternoon, Xiaoyu and the girls were exhausted afterpleting their workload. However, Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the other guys still had to continue carrying logs.


    Poor Wang Fugui, who was already an old man, felt like half his life had been taken away after working all day.


    Xiaoyu and the girls took a short break before standing up to help Yan Liuyuan and the men with their remaining workload. However, Yan Liuyuan persuaded them to go back since the girls were more limited in physical strength.


    When Yan Liuyuan came back again in the evening, Xiaoyu said anxiously, ¡°Liuyuan, get some rest! You don¡¯t look too good!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face was pale, and his lips had turned slightly purple.


    Yan Liuyuan put the log down. Xiaoyu quickly pulled aside his clothes at the shoulder and saw it was badly bruised.


    Xiaoyu said softly with heartache, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you make use of the nanomachines to help?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re dead,¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a sigh. He would have liked to use them too, but the workload for an entire day was simply too much. Other people only had to carry ten logs, but he, Wang Fugui, and the rest of the guys had to carry more than 20 logs daily.


    ¡°Go back and get some rest.¡± Xiaoyu said, ¡°How many more logs do you have left to transport? Let me carry them instead.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan tugged on Xiaoyu¡¯s arm and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s fine, I can still endure it. Comparing my minor injuries to my brother¡¯s injuries, it¡¯s no big deal at all.¡±

 Chapter 295 - Yan Liuyuan’s Curse Manipulation power

    <strong>Chapter 295 Yan Liuyuan¡¯s Curse Maniption power</strong>


    Today, Yan Liuyuan realized that physical pain could really mask mental anguish. He began to wonder just how distressed Ren Xiaosu was if he needed the pain of his broken bones to suppress his sadness.


    Nearby, some refugees who had just finished their work wereughing at Yan Liuyuan. These refugees had thought that Yan Liuyuan¡¯s group was very tough, but look at the state they were in now.


    When faced with the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops, didn¡¯t they still have to work all the same? And with injured people among them, they even had to perform a greater workload than normal.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at a middle-aged man who was gloating at their misfortune. He said to Xiaoyu, ¡°How I wish I had my brother¡¯s power so I could kill these people.¡±


    Xiaoyu wiped the sweat off his forehead and smiled. ¡°When I disliked someone in the past, I cursed them to suffer a horrible death in my mind. Sometimes, I would even imagine several ways for them to die. Some would fall to their deaths while walking and others would get torn to pieces by wolves. It blows off a lot of steam just thinking about it. Maybe you can try that as well?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan forced a smile and said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll try it.¡±


    Right at this moment, the middle-aged man stood up to go relieve himself. However, before he could even take two steps, he slipped on some packed snow and fell forwards. The middle-aged man lost his bnce and iled his arms in the air helplessly. If he had just fallen down, he would have been fine. But to his dismay, he noticed a small rock in front of him. The moment he fell down, his head hit a protruding rock that made him bleed profusely!


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. It wasn¡¯t like he hadn¡¯t cursed others before, but just that he never did it so specifically in the past.


    But this time, he had cursed the middle-aged man to fall and hit his head on a rock just as Xiaoyu had told him to. As a result, the middle-aged man really fell and hit his head on a rock!


    However, Yan Liuyuan did not curse him to die. After a while, the middle-aged man slowly got up and swore, ¡°Fuck, how did I slip?!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan did not say anything and just went back to carrying the logs. Xiaoyu didn¡¯t say anything either and went back to caring for Ren Xiaosu.


    Both of them guessed what the problem was. Xiaoyu had figured out a while ago that Yan Liuyuan might also be a supernatural being. But since he and Ren Xiaosu never spoke about it explicitly, she never asked either.


    Whenever Ren Xiaosu went away for a long time, Yan Liuyuan would always get a high fever. Xiaoyu suspected it was too much of a coincidence. And now the ident that befell this middle-aged man confirmed some of Xiaoyu¡¯s thoughts.


    But what she did not know was that even Yan Liuyuan himself was very surprised. How could there be such a coincidence?


    That couldn¡¯t be right. It wasn¡¯t a coincidence at all!


    So his power did not only allow him to make wishes to increase Ren Xiaosu¡¯s luck, but he could also use it to curse others and kill them!


    The power in itself could be used in two different ways. It was just that he had never used it to curse others specifically before, so he didn¡¯t realize it. But now he discovered another way to use his superpower.


    Yan Liuyuan stepped onto some packed snow at this moment as well. However, he lost his bnce and fell forwards.


    In that instant, Yan Liuyuan felt that something was not right. He quickly activated the recently charged nanomachines in his body to change the direction of his fall with the tip of his toes andnded in the snowy ground on the side.


    Yan Liuyuan was a little shaken. He realized with shock that there was also a bacsh when cursing others!


    If he didn¡¯t have the nanomachines Ren Xiaosu gave to him, he would probably have gotten badly injured as well.


    This power was too strange. It could even cause him to suffer a simr bacsh after cursing others!


    Eh? Yan Liuyuan looked over at the spot where he was supposed to have fallen down and saw there were no rocks there.


    When he was falling over, he thought he would end up with the same fate as that middle-aged man. However, it seemed to him that the bacsh was not exactly the same but a reduced effect of the curse.


    The difference was that the middle-aged man had rocks in front of him when he fell while Yan Liuyuan did not. The danger of the situation was greatly reduced as a result.


    Although cursing people had its bacsh, the result seemed to be rather eptable to him. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had already helped him mitigate his shorings, so his capacity to take risks was higher than the average person¡¯s.


    For example, he could curse someone to get shot in the third rib by a stray bullet from the southwest. If he was prepared, he could easily use the nanomachines to shield himself in advance.


    Of course, it would take too much effort to kill someone like that. But it was practically undiscoverable if he did it that way!


    When someone died in an ident, who could possibly link it to him? Who would believe that even curses could kill in this day and age?


    Yan Liuyuan was unlike other supernatural beings in that he was not blessed with a strong physique. It was as though the world had chained his power to prevent him from using it recklessly. But the nanomachines Ren Xiaosu gave him helped him change his fate.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly realized that his power might have even more uses than he knew. It was just that he hadn¡¯t discovered them yet.


    At night, Yan Liuyuan came back to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side exhausted. Ren Xiaosu, who hade around once again, asked, ¡°Are you tired?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled. ¡°No.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could see blood seeping out of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s clothes at his shoulders, so he said, ¡°I have three wireless chargers here that I took from the Li Consortium, but I don¡¯t know how much longer they can be used for. It would be too conspicuous if you carry it around with you, so starting tomorrow,e back here when your nanomachines die and charge them before going outside. It should be enough tost you a few days.¡±


    These devices were picked up from the front line at Position 313. At that time, the tent that Lin Qi and the other nanosoldiers were in had been blown up and only these three were still in working condition.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his hand with difficulty and handed Xiaoyu two vials of ck medicine. ¡°Apply this on those of us who are wounded, and their injuries will heal very quickly.¡±


    Everyone was sitting next to the campfire and breathing in the cold air. The injuries on their shoulders and hands would hurt the moment they touched them, but no one seemed to know what to do about it.


    Now that Ren Xiaosu hade around, he helped them solve their biggest problem.


    Everyone was hoping Ren Xiaosu would get better quickly. Without him in the group, it was really difficult for them to get by.


    Yan Liuyuan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Bro, I¡¯ve discovered my new power. I can manipte curses.¡±


    A wish and a curse were two sides of the same coin. One of them could be used to bless others while the other could be used to bring mishap unto others, and these two powers were embodied within Yan Liuyuan. Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Exin it in detail.¡±


    ¡°When I¡¯m trying to curse others, I have to think of it quite specifically in my mind. For example, I have to describe how certain factors create a certain oue, and they have to be logical as well.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°The logic has to be clear enough for it to work.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°Then try this. Curse me to cough after choking on some potatoes.


    Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. ¡°But we don¡¯t have any potatoes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Just try it.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan closed his eyes and cursed Ren Xiaosu. Then someone a distance away eximed, ¡°Someone dug up a lot of potatoes! I think they might have stumbled onto a potato field!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. ¡°It can even be used like that?¡±


    ¡°What are you waiting for? Go dig up some potatoes!¡± Ren Xiaosu urged.

 Chapter 296 - Willpower

    <h4>Chapter 296 Willpower</h4>


    In the evening, all of the refugees gathered around the campfire and waited for the potatoes to be roasted. The smell of roasted potatoes was emanating from the fire. When the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops saw this, they said in surprise, ¡°These people are pretty lucky. How did they manage to stumble upon a patch of potatoes?¡±


    Only Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu knew this was probably due to Yan Liuyuan¡¯s Luck and Curse Maniption power. As for the specific principles behind it, neither of them knew anything


    Other people¡¯s powers were much more concrete to speak of. For example, Ren Xiaosu could see the pce in his mind and could even take the Seeds, the ck medicine, the ck saber, and the Explosive Poker cards out of it.


    Xu Xianchu¡¯s power was also very concrete in that he could summon a physical shadow clone. Even Luo Xinyu¡¯s power allowed her to open up a visible Shadow Door.


    Only Yan Liuyuan¡¯s power was something that could not be seen or touched. If it weren¡¯t for the many times they had tested it, they wouldn¡¯t even know what exactly his power could do. Furthermore, this power could not be used on himself, and that made it extremely strange.


    Therefore, this power could only be slowly studied. But even the direction to try to understand it from was difficult to identify.


    But now, Ren Xiaosu had used a reverse method of this Curse Maniption to help them find a potato field. It essentially solved their problem of having something to eat.


    For the past two days, Xiaoyu and the rest had to try to eat as little as possible because their food supply was not going tost them much longer.


    But after Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness, all of them could have something to eat again, and it was even a lot of food!


    Yan Liuyuan was feeding Ren Xiaosu and saying, ¡°Bro, try to get better soon. Without you around, we¡¯re all a mess.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu checked on how much his bones had healed, then thought for a moment before saying, ¡°I¡¯ll need another 20 to 30 days to recover.¡±


    Most people would have to wait at least 90 days for their bones to heal, but Ren Xiaosu, whose physical fitness was three times that of the average person, seemed to also be able to heal three times as fast.


    Yan Liuyuan heaved a sigh of relief. They would only have to endure for another twenty days or so at this refugee camp before they could leave.


    Then Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Bro, it doesn¡¯t seem like the Yang Consortium is any different from the other organizations at all. Their soldiers also treat human life really lightly, so I doubt the residents in their strongholds are any better than those at the Li Consortium.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s good and bad people everywhere.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, ¡°Just take a look at these refugees here. Lots of them don¡¯t have any hate for us and have resigned themselves to the hardship we¡¯re facing.¡±


    ¡°I still don¡¯t like the strongholds,¡± Yan Liuyuan muttered.


    ¡°Actually, what you dislike are not the stronghold residents,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°but the rules that exist within the strongholds. The organizations have ced everyone inside that cage and then used their rules to restrain the people living in it. You yearn for freedom, so of course you wouldn¡¯t like living under such rules.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan grunted. Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°Well, I dislike it too.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Then after your injuries heal, we won¡¯t have to go to the Yang Consortium¡¯s stronghold?¡±


    The roads leading to the north had been won by the Yang Consortium¡¯s forces. However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group did not have the proper IDs that would allow them to travel there. Surely they could not say to the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops that they had the head spy of the Qing Consortium with them and that they wanted to travel to the Yang Consortium¡¯s stronghold to have a look, right?


    That wouldn¡¯t convince anyone!


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. ¡°Let¡¯s wait until my injuries get better before deciding on that.¡±


    He ate some potato just as a cold wind started blowing. That cold air flowed into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mouth and made him choke for a long while on a piece of potato that got stuck in his throat before he finally swallowed.


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°I guess that was your Curse Maniption, right?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan chowed down on a potato and choked on it as well. But he was fine after drinking some water.


    Be it a wish or a curse, the bacsh would always be slightly less adverse than the original. That was probably a concession given to the user. However, the power had to be used carefully as the bacsh could not be controlled.


    But in any case, Ren Xiaosu was still very happy. That was because the stronger his and Yan Liuyuan¡¯s powers were, the less rocky their future paths would be.


    At night, Yan Liuyuan continued testing out his powers by the campfire. From time to time, there would be people either shouting or slipping and falling down at the campsite Yan Liuyuan suffered quite a bit from the bacsh as well. The curses were made on those who hade to ask them for food, though the curses themselves were insignificant. As such, there was nothing to fear about the bacsh.


    Gradually, Yan Liuyuan became familiar with his newfound power.


    He stayed by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side and said, ¡°Everyone has suffered a lot today toplete the workload required due to our injured members. I feel that the others in the group can be trusted.¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Ren Xiaosu acknowledged softly as though he had thought of something.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly sensed that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart was still aching. However, Ren Xiaosu seemed to be hiding the pain deep down inside him.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu called over the other students and asked, ¡°Y¡¯all¡¯ve been training for a day now. Has your control over the nanomachines improved yet?¡±


    The students were taken aback by the question. They then attempted to manipte their nanomachines before Wang Yuchi said, ¡°It seems to be responding a tad faster now, but if we don¡¯t get a good feeling for it and try it out a few more times, the difference can¡¯t really be detected.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯ve only trained for a day. This is something that will require a lot of time and effort to improve.¡±


    Hu Shuo had said there were actually a lot of the Li Consortium¡¯s regr troops who had a synchronization rate above 80%. For the average person, the rate was slightly lower.


    This made Ren Xiaosu realize that the synchronization rate might not be set in stone for everyone and could still change. How else could there be such a special phenomenon within a specific group of people? So what was the difference between the regr troops and other people?


    Regr soldiers would have received systematic training within the military. They were not only trained in military duties but also physical exercise. Soldiers dying during cross-country training was also not unheard of. Although the culture within the Li Consortium¡¯s army had been declining over the past two years, their training standards did not drop.


    The reason for the decline in culture was due to the military expanding too fast, with too many family members of the Li Consortium entering the ranks without getting properly trained.


    So Ren Xiaosu wondered if the synchronization rate had anything to do with the physical exercise that was conducted in the military.


    Of course, it could also be due to one¡¯s willpower.


    For example, a lot of high-intensity training would depend on a person having enough mental strength to get through it. So after such training, the regr soldier¡¯s willpower would also be stronger. That in turn would determine whether their synchronization rates were high.


    Be it their physical fitness or their willpower, Ren Xiaosu felt that these students would definitely be able to increase their synchronization rates through hard work. That included Li Qingzheng, Wang Dalong, and Wang Fugui as well.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something Yang Xiaojin once said to him. ¡°When a disasteres, mental strength bes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.¡±

 Chapter 297 - Family

    <h4>Chapter 297 Family</h4>


    Manipting the nanomachines with a dy was a very frustrating experience. Sometimes, even when the brain¡¯s thoughts were clearly ahead, the nanomachines would still have a moment¡¯s dy before they reacted to themands.


    The hands would not listen to the head, and that made Wang Yuchi and the other students feel like they were mentally impaired.


    If they could control the nanomachines better, they would probably be of great help to the group. But in reality, they were powerless.


    So when Ren Xiaosu told them that physical exercise could help increase their synchronization rates, the students who were not injured started taking the initiative to do more work, while those who were injured thought of ways to train themselves. For example, those who had leg injuries would train their upper limbs, while those whose arms were injured would train their abdominals. If a person really wanted to seed, they would think of a thousand ways to achieve it.


    Yan Liuyuan was initially under a lot of pressure due to the workload he had toplete. Even with Wang Fugui and Li Qingzheng helping out, they were but normal people. As such, there was a limit to how much of the burden they could share.


    But now, when the students heard what Ren Xiaosu said, they all started thinking of ways to break past their limits in the hope that they could help the group out in the future.


    Their group had been through a lot of ups and downs together. Those who remained with the group despite all the cmities could be considered precious team members. They all knew exactly how difficult it was to survive in these wastnds.


    But outsiders would think this group of people were on steroids or something.


    Ren Xiaosu had constantly been waiting for a chance to leave this ce. The first opportunity he was hoping for was for the wolves to show up. However, it had already been several days, and with the refugee camp almostpleted, the wolves still did not appear.


    At this time, Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered something. Wasn¡¯t it about time for the female wolves to give birth?


    Back when they were at the outpost, many of the female wolves became pregnant. A wolf¡¯s gestation period was 63 days, and counting the days, that seemed to be around now.


    Thus, it would be most logical for the wolf pack to hide away while they waited for their pack to grow stronger and bigger. They would have to raise the cubs to be the main force of the pack.


    At such times, it wouldn¡¯t be possible for the wolf pack to still be wandering around. The Wolf King would even start stocking up on food for them in case any idents happened while hunting


    What a pity! If the wolf pack were here, these two reinforcedpanies of the Yang Consortium would definitely not be a match for them.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group could only wait for him to fully recover.


    The fences around the refugee camp were nearlyplete and were a full two meters high. The perimeter of the refugee camp even had wooden watchtowers erected and fitted with searchlights too.


    Soldiers from the Yang Consortium¡¯s reinforced troops were patrolling around the campsite. There were also troops working in shifts who stood guard near the construction site. All of them were equipped with live ammo in case anyone tried to escape. These soldiers were also acting as supervisors to the refugees and were responsible for teaching them how to build the barracks with lumber.


    The two reinforcedpanies were rotating shifts, so those who were off-duty could head back to their own tents to y cards. But those who were on active duty were neverckadaisical. They were not going to give anyone a chance to escape.


    If Ren Xiaosu andpany were nning on leaving this ce, they would have to first consider how to get through the blockade set up by these two reinforcedpanies.


    During this period, Wang Fugui would take the opportunity to get close to the reinforced troops by sending things to them during his evening rest hours. He sent over many gifts, with things like watches, jewelry, and so on. This eagerness suited his refugee image very well.


    When the troops were ying cards and chatting, he would be there to serve them drinks. But even though he showed so much sincerity, the reinforced troops still ordered him around as they liked and even hurled insults at him. But Old Wang did not get angry and kept a smile on his face.


    When it was time to eat, the Yang Consortium soldiers would not even head out to pack their meals and let Wang Fugui run their errands for them. After eating, Wang Fugui would still have to wash their crockery for them. He couldn¡¯t get any more lowly than that.


    While the reinforced troops were ying cards at night, Wang Fugui brought over several cups of hot water for them. As a result, one of the soldiers who was not paying attention took an immediate sip and scalded his tongue.


    He flew into a rage on the spot and pushed Wang Fugui over. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you at least remind me that the water is hot?¡±


    Wang Fugui let him pour the water over him before jumping back on his feet. He smiled and said, ¡°It was my fault. I¡¯ll go and pour you some warm water right away.¡±


    Gradually, Wang Fugui turned into the representative of the refugees in the eyes of the reinforced troops. Whatever instructions they had for the refugees would be ryed through him.


    When the first barrack in the refugee camp waspleted, Wang Fugui immediately arranged for Ren Xiaosu and the others to move in first. The reinforced troops did not say anything even though they knew about it. This was the oue that Wang Fugui had been striving for.


    Although the barrack was pretty badly constructed, it was not easy to have a ce where they could take shelter from the winter weather. Since their group had so many wounded, they definitely had to think of ways to move in here.


    After the reinforced troops left, some of the escapees stood outside the barrack and started scolding, ¡°Does it feel good to be at the beck and call of the Yang Consortium¡¯s people? What gives you the right to move into the barracks first? We all finished building it together!¡±


    But then Yan Liuyuan rushed out of the building. He kicked the person who had been speaking and stomped on him, making him cradle his stomach and cry out in pain.


    How could anyone put up a resistance against Yan Liuyuan who was equipped with the nanomachines? Yan Liuyuan was holding a dagger in his hand and looking around coldly like he could kill someone at any moment.


    Xiaoyu stood behind him at the barrack door and pointed at the crowd while scolding them, ¡°If anyone dares to make up stories about Old Wang behind his back again, don¡¯t me us for not being polite. We¡¯ll make sure you die for it!¡±


    All of a sudden, the escapees remembered that this group of people were really ruthless and cold-blooded!


    While resting at night, Ren Xiaosu called Wang Fugui over and said to him, ¡°Old Wang, you don¡¯t have to do this. It¡¯s fine even if we have to sleep outside in the wilderness. You don¡¯t have to put yourself down like that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had already spoken to Wang Fugui about this several times. However, no one could stop him.


    At night, Wang Fugui would agree not to do so anymore, but he would still go to the Yang Consortium¡¯s soldiers again the next day and subserviently pour drinks for them.


    Ren Xiaosu clearly sensed that Wang Fugui was suffering on the inside, but Wang Fugui did notin once about it.


    Wang Fugui smiled cheerfully and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, this is what I¡¯m good at.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s not a matter of you being good at it or not. Although we have been through a lot of hardship together, we don¡¯t need anyone sacrificing their dignity like that.¡±


    Wang Fugui said calmly, ¡°In order to escape, all of you ended up getting hurt so badly. Back when we were fleeing, even the students were willing to step forward with grenades to fight the Experimentals. But I treasure my life too much since I can¡¯t die as I still have Dalong to take care of. So then, what can I do? In our group, I¡¯m the only one who can do the things I did. Xiaosu, you don¡¯t have to feel bad about it, I¡¯m only doing what I have to. I can¡¯t do the things that y¡¯all did for the group. So in turn, let me do what y¡¯all can¡¯t do.¡±


    There was silence in the barrack. Everyone suddenly had the same thought at the same time. They were all thinking this was a family.

 Chapter 298 - A unique way of using curses

    <h4>Chapter 298 A unique way of using curses</h4>


    Construction work at the campsite still went on. Yan Liuyuan and the others who had been carrying logs during the day returned to the barracks exhausted again.


    After several of the students that went to work returned, the first thing they did was to check how well they could control the nanomachines. As a matter of fact, physical exercise could really raise their synchronization rate. It might not be possible to see it after one or two days of exercise, but now that a week had passed, the difference was much more obvious.


    And in just a week, their bodies had gotten much stronger as well.


    Yan Liuyuan said while lying in the barracks, ¡°Bro, although physical exercise can help us raise our synchronization rates, there¡¯s simply too much work for us to perform. It won¡¯t be good if we break down from fatigue either, so please help us think of a solution. The potatoes from the field ran out yesterday Meanwhile, the grains the Yang Consortium have provided are only enough to cook a very thin porridge. If we don¡¯t have enough food, it¡¯s gonna be really dangerous for us.


    The rations at the refugee camp were provided by the Yang Consortium. But how kind could the Yang Consortium be? It was enough that they allowed everyone here to cook their own porridge.


    Fortunately, they had discovered a potato field a while ago, or the majority of the escapees would have already died of hunger.


    But now, the potato field had also been fully harvested, as there were several thousand people in this refugee camp. All it took was two days for them to clear out an entire potato field. Many of the escapees started starving again yesterday.


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°When you get to the construction site tomorrow, curse Li Qingzheng to get hit in the face by squirrel shit.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. ¡°Bro, what¡¯s the point?¡±


    ¡°Then follow the squirrel and empty its nest out. I believe that will be enough for us to eat for a while.¡± Ren Xiaosu patiently guided Yan Liuyuan on how to phrase his curses. ¡°Remember, this curse of yours will definitely have bacsh, so there will be two squirrels. You can empty the nest of two squirrels.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan went out to the site to work the next day feeling skeptical. But after he made the curse, a squirrel really shat onto Li Qingzheng¡¯s head two hourster.


    Then another squirrel¡¯s feces dropped down towards Yan Liuyuan, but he managed to dodge it.


    Li Qingzheng swore at the tree trunk while Yan Liuyuan activated his nanomachines and chased after the squirrels.


    When he located the two squirrels¡¯ nests, he knew they wouldn¡¯t have it too difficult for the next two days. Squirrels stored arge amount of food for winter.


    In the wilderness, nts and animals were all evolving. Gifts from nature often surpassed what humans were capable of imagining. With luck, one could even find peanuts that grew as long as two adult fingers.


    Yan Liuyuan even wanted to catch the squirrel as well, but it got away as he was too inexperienced at hunting.


    He took his jacket off and bundled up the dry fruit and carried it back to the construction site.


    A woman immediately came over and said, ¡°Handsome young man, can you share some of it with me? Let me have some to eat and I¡¯ll do whatever you want me to.¡± She leaned towards Yan Liuyuan as she spoke.


    However, Yan Liuyuan avoided her advances. Yan Liuyuan said coldly, ¡°You¡¯ll do whatever I want?¡±


    The woman smiled. ¡°Of course!¡±


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Yan Liuyuan said. ¡°Go and carry the wooden logs for us. When you carry them back to the campsite, register it under Wang Yuchi¡¯s name. After that, you cane back here to collect the peanuts.¡±


    The woman was confused.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan said loudly, ¡°Whoever helps us carry one log can collect fiverge peanuts from me! There¡¯s limited stocks, so firste, first served!¡±


    This was the n Ren Xiaosu thought up for them. Since the workload was too great, they should let others do the work for them.


    At times like this, the escapees would do anything just to have something to eat.


    In this wilderness, whoever had food could do as they pleased.


    But Ren Xiaosu specifically instructed that they were only allowed to reduce their workloads and could not take the opportunity to ck off. It might be possible that all of them would need to depend on the nanomachines in the future, so increasing their synchronization rates was a very important task.


    As a result, Yan Liuyuan strictly implemented Ren Xiaosu¡¯s orders. Xiaoyu was smiling from nearby. ¡°You two brothers still have the best solutions.¡±


    Ever since Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness, everyone¡¯s lives got better again. This was probably why a head of the family needed to exist.


    Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan had helped Ren Xiaosu endure through the most difficult days when he was unconscious.


    Only under great pressure would there be growth.


    Some people came over to Yan Liuyuan and tried to pull a fast one on him for some peanuts. But for a person as clever as Yan Liuyuan, how could he possibly get tricked so easily?


    Some people came over and tried to snatch the peanuts from Yan Liuyuan only to find out that although Yan Liuyuan looked rather young, he could get extremely ruthless, and no one could beat him!


    Anyone who tried to steal his food would be left lying on the ground for a long time. These people probably had the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops to thank for their supervision. Otherwise, they would probably have died.


    Every night, Yan Liuyuan would go back to seek advice from Ren Xiaosu on how to curse his teammates the following day.


    Ren Xiaosu also patiently guided him. ¡°Just curse Li Qingzheng to trip over some radish leaves while walking.¡±


    ¡°You can curse Li Qingzheng to get hit on the head by wild dates falling from trees while peeing.¡±


    ¡°Curse Li Qingzheng to...¡±


    In any case, nobodycked food to eat since Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness.


    Moreover, their heavy workload problem was also dealt with. Theborious work they did had now be a way for them to train their bodies. They no longer needed to toil away toplete their quota.


    However, while the girls did not have to work as hard anymore, the students insisted on not reducing their work. They felt they might be able to increase their willpower by pushing themselves to a certain extent.


    The refugee campsite was being constructed very fast. Several dozen barracks would get built in the matter of a day, and it was also during this process that the escapees started forming cliques.


    After all, were several dozen barracks enough for all of them to live in? There were still many more of them who could not be housed.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group had kicked off the practice of calling dibs on moving into the barracks. After the first barrack waspleted, the rest of the barracks that were finished would go to those who were more ruthless and had more power.


    The reinforced troops would watch from the sidelines as two groups of escapees started fighting. They would even start betting among themselves on which side would end up getting the barracks.


    For a while, these reinforced troops found a new source of entertainment.


    After all, if the escapees started fighting among themselves, they wouldn¡¯t have the energy to cause any more trouble, and that was something the Yang Consortium¡¯s soldiers felt was good.


    Yan Liuyuan said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°The escapees are now split between several groups of people. One group consists of those who are more ruthless, so they managed to gain a foothold rather quickly and the other escapees are all afraid of them. Another group consists of those who were former officials in the stronghold. Many of the escapees think that as long as they support them, they¡¯ll stand to gain something once the Li Consortiumes back into power. Thest group is made up of normal refugees who are just honest people sticking together for their own safety.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to be afraid of them, but don¡¯t go around picking on them either.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan mumbled quietly, ¡°They¡¯re all from the stronghold, so why can¡¯t we pick on... Alright, alright, I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡±

 Chapter 299 - The might of poker!

    <h4>Chapter 299 The might of poker!</h4>


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s Curse Maniption had somehow been turned into a unique production method by Ren Xiaosu. That caused Yan Liuyuan to subconsciously get the idea that he had to arrange for some food to be found whenever he wanted to curse the other refugees.


    Under these circumstances where everyone else was unaware of what was really going on, Li Qingzheng had suddenly be their group¡¯s mascot.


    Regarding Yan Liuyuan¡¯s power, Ren Xiaosu decided that it was still better to keep it from everyone for now, because this power was simply too strange. Even he couldn¡¯t understand it.


    Sometimes, such abstract powers would make people even more fearful. So Ren Xiaosu reminded Yan Liuyuan to keep it a secret. This matter would only be known to Yan Liuyuan, Ren Xiaosu, and Xiaoyu.


    As such, Li Qingzheng was rather puzzled. Could he really be the legendary lucky charm of the group? How else could he always end up getting associated with finding food after suffering from some bad luck events?


    Logically speaking, if a supernatural being discovered they could manipte curses, they would definitely use it offensively.


    Even Yan Liuyuan thought so, as that was only logical. However, he had underestimated Ren Xiaosu¡¯s way of thinking...


    When he returned to the barracks after work at night, a leader of the refugees came around to look for Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°You¡¯re very good at finding food. Have you considered joining us?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan became unhappy right there and then. ¡°You¡¯re the fucking one who¡¯s good at finding food!¡±


    What he had was clearly a terrifying power to manipte curses, alright? So how did it suddenly turn into a wilderness survival skill instead?


    That leader of the refugees choked in shock. If it were any of the stronghold¡¯s escapees, they would definitely choose to avoid Yan Liuyuan. However, the refugees were different. They had been fighting for survival all their lives, so they could feel that Yan Liuyuan was one of them when they saw him and were not really afraid to approach him. In fact, this leader of the refugees was famous for his ruthlessness back in town.


    The refugee leader smiled and said, ¡°I am Cao Junpeng, so you can call me Brother Cao. In times like these, we have to stick together in order to survive. You have so many women in your group, and you¡¯re even saddled with wounded as well, so how long do you expect you can keep going on for? Surely they¡¯re not going to rely on you alone to get through everything, right?¡±


    To outsiders, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group seemed to be relying on Yan Liuyuan for support. This was because Yan Liuyuan was the one handling all the dirty work that required him to be ruthless.


    However, Yan Liuyuan sneered and said, ¡°Brother Cao? Do you think you¡¯re worthy of me calling you that? There¡¯s only one person in this world who is fit to be my brother.¡±


    Cao Junpeng said calmly, ¡°You¡¯re talking about that crippled brother of yours? He might have been very strong in the past, but I heard from the doctor that there are several ces where his bones are fractured. Do you still expect him to stand up in the future? Even if he does, he will still be a good-for-nothing in life. Listen to me, you can¡¯t be impulsive in a world like this. You will get dragged down by him.¡±


    Then Cao Junpeng jumped five or six steps back when he saw Yan Liuyuan pull out a dagger from his sleeve.


    Yan Liuyuan calmly said, ¡°Bastard, how can you be so ignorant? You don¡¯t look like a good person anyway. Don¡¯t think that just because the refugees look up to you it means that you¡¯re really some important person!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan hated hearing others badmouth Ren Xiaosu the most in his life. In his mind, he had already sentenced Cao Junpeng to death. Ren Xiaosu was inside the barracks all this while, so he could definitely hear what Cao Junpeng said. So how could Yan Liuyuan allow others to speak badly of Ren Xiaosu like that?


    Everyone knew that Ren Xiaosu was Yan Liuyuan¡¯s brother. The doctor who had treated Ren Xiaosu was a gossip, so the other refugees were probably aware that Ren Xiaosu was going to be crippled.


    But only Ren Xiaosu and the others knew who the actual person in charge of their group was. Would Ren Xiaosu be disabled? Of course not!


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said from inside the barracks, ¡°Liuyuan, how can you speak to others like that? Apologize.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled at Cao Junpeng and said, ¡°Sorry, I shouldn¡¯t have said that you don¡¯t look like a good person. You look pretty


    good.¡±


    But just as he finished saying that, he heard Ren Xiaosu say, ¡°I told you to apologize; I didn¡¯t ask you to lie.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°I was mistaken.¡±


    Cao Junpeng sneered. ¡°How many of you are there? Do you really think we won¡¯t dare to touch you? You¡¯re already behaving so disrespectfully at such a young age. We¡¯ll see each other on the construction site tomorrow. After you¡¯re dead, let¡¯s see what happens to your brother. And those girls in your group?


    They¡¯ll probably lead a life worse than death when the timees!¡±


    Although the troops did not intervene with fights that took ce at the campsite, killing people was prohibited. If anyone killed someone, they would be severely beaten up and have their workload doubled as a punishment. But there was no such rule at the construction site!


    When Yan Liuyuan returned to the barracks, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll handle it.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was taken aback for a moment. He knew the other party¡¯s threatening words had crossed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bottom line. If it were the past, Cao Junpeng would have died on the spot. But how was Ren Xiaosu going to solve this matter?


    Ren Xiaosu moved his hands and feet to loosen up a little. Although it had only been less than ten days, his fractured bones had already started healing. While he could not exercise vigorously yet, he could just barely walk with assistance from the nanomachines.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°When I cause some chaoster tonight, we¡¯ll find an opportunity to leave this ce. Liuyuan, keep an eye on the situation outside.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Sure!¡±


    During the night, Cao Junpeng and the others were plotting something. A few refugees were seated together and ying Fight the Landlord with ying cards handed down to them by the reinforced troops. It was unknown how long the reinforced troops had been using the cards as they were in a very tattered state.


    But to the refugees, it was good enough that they could y cards during such times.


    If they wanted to form an alliance within the refugee camp, they had to first have a good rtionship with the Yang Consortium¡¯s soldiers. Otherwise, it would be considered an uwful assembly and they would be punished for causing trouble. A few days ago, Cao Junpeng had caught two pheasants and sent them to the reinforced troops as a tribute. That was why he was allowed to form his own group, while the ying cards were also given to him at that time. It was like he was bestowed a gift by them.


    Cao Junpeng said, ¡°When we get to the construction site tomorrow, we¡¯ll drag that kid into the forest and kill him while the soldiers aren¡¯t paying attention. Remember, cover his mouth and don¡¯t let him call for help. Wang Fugui is on very good terms with the soldiers too, so we don¡¯t want any trouble.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that Wang Fugui just ackey who serves tea to the soldiers? What¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± A man shouted out loudly, ¡°One ¡®three¡¯!¡±


    Only three people could y at once, so the rest of the followers sat around to watch and listen to them. The inside of the barracks was filled with the stench of feet.


    ¡°One ¡®four.¡¯¡± Cao Junpeng drew a card and yed it onto the table.


    But at this moment, a hand suddenly reached in from the side and threw out four ¡°threes¡¯ onto the table.


    Cao Junpeng immediately cursed. ¡°I only yed a four, but you actually yed four ¡®threes¡¯?! Do you even know how to y? Huh? And didn¡¯t three already get yed? So where did these four ¡®threes¡¯e from? You¡¯re freaking cheating!¡±


    ¡°Eh, something¡¯s not right. I wasn¡¯t the one who yed these cards,¡± someone said.


    Cao Junpeng looked around and asked, ¡°Who threw out these four ¡®threes¡¯?¡±


    But at this moment, the four ¡°threes¡± on the table suddenly turned brighter and hotter as well!


    With a loud boom, the newly built wooden barracks had its ceiling blown sky high. It was like they were chicken casserole baking in a pot. No one could get away from the explosion!


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the voices outside, he suddenly said to Wang Fugui and the others around him, ¡°Get ready to run!¡±

 Chapter 300 - We were only playing Fight the Landlord!

    <h4>Chapter 300 We were only ying Fight the Landlord!</h4>


    ording to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s n, he would create some chaos on the refugees¡¯ side while they took the opportunity to escape.


    After all, it was no longer safe to stay at this ce. Ren Xiaosu had already nned on leaving the moment he could start walking again.


    They could not head north now since they did not have any status. With the roads to the north full of the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops, they would not be able to pass through the checkpoints for sure. They couldn¡¯t head east either as the Experimentals were still there. It was even more impossible to go south. That ce had now be the main battlefield for the Yang Consortium, Li Consortium, and Qing Consortium!


    After the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium sessfully broke through the firstyer of defense, they immediately joined forces and closed down on the south. That left the Li Consortium in a sorry state.


    Therefore, they could only head west where there was a mountain range that stretched for hundreds of kilometers. It was said that very few people could pass through it, and no one knew what was in there. But that was the only direction left for Ren Xiaosu andpany to take. At least, they should be able to rely on the power of the Brambles and survive there for a few years.


    But when the sound of the explosion rang out, the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops arrived at the scene too quickly. The two reinforcedpanies seemed to have already prepared a contingency n for such situations. The perimeter spotlights instantly lit up around the entire camp, and the soldiers that were patrolling immediately ced the campsite under strict lockdown.


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the door and frowned. The Yang Consortium¡¯s military standard was much better than he had imagined. It was no wonder they could win against the Li Consortium head-on in battle.


    It looked like the Yang Consortium had been preparing for this war for a long time.


    At this moment, the Yang Consortium¡¯s officers arrived at the site of the explosion. Ren Xiaosu quietly observed from the periphery while the other refugees stood far away and did not dare to get close. It had been very peaceful at the campsite, so who could have expected such an ident to suddenly ur?


    However, what surprised Ren Xiaosu was that not all of the people in their barracks had died. There was still one person who was lying on the ground gasping and shouting for help!


    It seemed that the power of the four ¡°threes¡± was still somewhat limited. Ren Xiaosu sighed. However, he was not worried about anyone linking him to the incident just because there was a fortunate survivor who might be able to offer some clues.


    Thebination of the Shadow Door and Explosive Poker cards was simply a super stealthy explosive weapon. Within a radius of a kilometer, he could cause an explosion to whoever or whatever he disliked.


    The precision of which the Shadow Door could be controlled had been reduced to a distance of less than a meter by Ren Xiaosu, so there was practically no margin of error anymore.


    Counting all the powers that he had now, thebination of his shadow clone and the City Crusher would allow him to execute head-on attacks. The Shadow Door and the Explosive Poker cards were useful for carrying out long-distance sneak attacks. Then there was the technique of stabbing people in the back too. On the whole, there were no obvious shorings.


    A Yang Consortium officer stood next to the survivor and asked, ¡°Why was there an explosion? Were you all secretly hiding weapons from us? Out with it, are you all enemy spies?¡±


    The power of the explosion just now wasparable to two hand grenades. Although the explosion did not sound like it, it could mean that it was some other explosive weapon.


    Since this was wartime, the Yang Consortium soldiers linked the incident to foreign spies, although they did not understand why the bomb would explode.


    The survivor shouted, iming innocence, ¡°Sir, we¡¯re not spies. I was just watching them y Fight the Landlord just now. But suddenly, someone yed a ¡®bomb¡¯ made of four ¡®threes¡¯ and it ended up exploding.¡±


    The survivor felt like something was not right with the officer¡¯s expression. The officer got so angry heughed. ¡°You¡¯re saying you were watching the others y Fight the Landlord, and then a ¡®quad three¡¯ bomb was yed and it ended up exploding?¡±


    The survivor nodded frantically. ¡°Yes, yes, yes! That¡¯s exactly what happened. In fact, someone already yed a three earlier, so I don¡¯t know where the four ¡®threes¡¯ came from....¡±


    ¡°Would you like to tell me all the cards that were yed?¡± the officer said expressionlessly.


    ¡°I can¡¯t remember...¡±


    ¡°Hah!¡± The officer said with a dark expression, ¡°Do you think I¡¯m easy to bluff? Drag him away and interrogate him through the night. Find out if he still has aplices in the camp! As for all of the other refugees, get them toy where the sentries can see them and have them start doing push-ups!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened to everything from the sidelines. He knew what the survivor had said sounded absurd, but it was truly what happened.


    ¡°Bro,¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°what should we do?¡±


    ¡°If there¡¯s no chance, we¡¯ll just have to wait for one. You should also make observations of the terrain around the construction site these next few days.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There might be an opportunity if we go through there.¡±


    The construction site was in the wilderness. If it were only Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, they would have fled long ago. But many more others were in the group, with over 30 of them in total. If they were to escape together, the size of their group would be too noticeable, while the girls and the wounded might also get caught at any moment.


    Yan Liuyuan thought for a moment and said, ¡°The chances of escaping through the construction site are slim as well. That is, unless you fully recover; then we can kill our way out with everyone.¡±


    ¡°That will be ourst resort,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. Ren Xiaosu then went back to the barracks and continued lying down pretending to be injured. Well, it wasn¡¯t actually pretending since he was really injured.


    Although they couldn¡¯t get a chance to escape this time, it was still good that they got rid of atent problem. After all, those refugees were wild in nature and had developed an aggressiveness brought on by the wilderness, so there was really a chance they could threaten the people around Ren Xiaosu.


    Then that survivor was taken away by the Yang Consortium¡¯s soldiers to see the reinforcedpanies¡¯mander. The survivor suddenly shouted, ¡°Sir, I suspect that it was Yan Liuyuan and the others who did it. Our boss got into an argument with him earlier tonight and was thinking of killing them at the construction site tomorrow, but we allowed them to gain the upper hand in the end. That must be what happened.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment in the barracks. That guy was not stupid since he managed to guess the truth. Oh, that shouldn¡¯t be it. It must have been his fear kicking in that caused him to senselessly start using others, while Ren Xiaosu andpany were indeed the prime suspects for this matter.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s officer looked suspiciously at Yan Liuyuan and the others. When he saw Wang Fugui, he froze and said, ¡°So you all did it?¡±


    Wang Fugui quickly faked a smile and said, ¡°Sir, he¡¯s ndering us. We didn¡¯t even leave the building. You can ask those around us. We¡¯re so far away from their barracks, so if it was us who did it, we would¡¯ve been seen moving around there.¡±


    The officer looked around and said, ¡°Did anyone see them near the explosion? Be honest and you¡¯ll be rewarded. You won¡¯t have to perform hardbor in the future!¡±


    However, the offer was met with the sound of silence all around, although someone did say that they only saw Wang Fugui and the othersing out of their barracks when the explosion happened.


    Wang Fugui was someone the soldiers were familiar with. No matter how cold they were, they would still trust a person they knew. Furthermore, others also testified for him, so Wang Fugui¡¯s credibility greatly increased.


    The officer sneered at the survivor. ¡°I don¡¯t care how many lies you¡¯re telling right now. There¡¯ll be plenty of ways to make you tell the truthter!¡±


    The survivor was almost in tears. All he had done was to watch others y Fight the Landlord!


    However, after the officer brought the survivor back, he gave the matter a bit more thought and instructed, ¡°Keep a closer eye on Wang Fugui and his group. Inform me immediately if there¡¯s anything suspicious.¡±

 Chapter 301 - Creating chaos

    <strong>Chapter 301 Creating chaos</strong>


    The interrogation of the survivor got very intense right off the bat. That refugee insisted that someone had thrown out a ¡°quad three¡± bomb that caused the explosion in the barracks.


    But how could anyone believe that? After the soldiers in charge of the interrogation finished, they felt their intelligence had been insulted and became even more aggressive with the questioning.


    Slowly, confusion started setting in and the refugee admitted to being a spy.


    Most people in this world would not be able to endure an interrogation where they would force a confession from the suspect. The Public Order Division was actually the department that specialized in this area. ording to them, unless one had the belief, no one would be tough enough to withstand the use of torture and force.


    After the refugee admitted he was a spy, the Yang Consortium¡¯s soldiers and officers could finally put their minds at ease knowing they had found the spy. But during this entire process, they could also vaguely feel something was not right.


    At first, the officer had instinctively judged by the explosion that a spy could possibly be among the refugees. But it wasn¡¯t like he was stupid. After he calmed down, he could naturally tell that something was amiss.


    The officer asked, ¡°But if the refugees were really spies, why would they blow themselves up? That doesn¡¯t make sense at all. Besides, spies shouldn¡¯t be gathering together like that.¡±


    A soldier asked doubtfully, ¡°Those refugees might have found something out about the spy¡¯s n, so they got silenced?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s very possible.¡± The officer said, ¡°I asked you to keep a close eye on Wang Fugui and the others. Did you notice anything about them yet?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s really something about them.¡± The moment the soldier spoke about Yan Liuyuan and the others, he got excited. ¡°I realized that there¡¯s something wrong with one of their members.¡±


    ¡°Who?¡± The officer looked over.


    ¡°It¡¯s a refugee called Li Qingzheng.¡± The soldier said excitedly, ¡°Hahahaha, he¡¯s too unlucky. Once he starts moving around... hahahaha...¡±


    The moment he started, he couldn¡¯t stop himself fromughing for more than ten minutes. The officer¡¯s face darkened as he pped the soldier. ¡°Are you doneughing?¡±


    The soldier stoppedughing abruptly. He realized the officer was starting to get a little angry, so he quickly added, ¡°This Li Qingzheng is really unlucky, but he¡¯s also very lucky at the same time. The unfortunate things that happen to him are trivial, but he always stumbles upon some food sources after suffering from his bad luck.¡±


    This was not what the officer wanted to hear. There was already someone who inexplicably found a potato field anyway. Anything that happened in the wilderness wouldn¡¯t be considered strange.


    Then the officer asked, ¡°Anyone else acting strangely in that group?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes.¡± The soldier said, ¡°The strange thing about them is that their group has a lot of injured people.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s so strange about that?¡± the officer asked puzzledly.


    ¡°Actually, there aren¡¯t that many injured people among the refugees at our campsite.¡± The soldier exined, ¡°That¡¯s because those who were injured back then could not get out of the stronghold. But as these people were quite united, they managed to bring all of their injured along and escaped. I¡¯ve checked with the others. They said this group¡¯s members were already wounded when they left the stronghold. They took turns carrying the injured and ended up bringing them all the way here.¡±


    ¡°That just means they¡¯ve got a good rtionship with each other in their group.¡± The officer said, ¡°I¡¯ve heard that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s injuries are quite serious?¡±


    The soldier said, ¡°That¡¯s right. The doctor said he has fractures in more than a dozen ces, and they¡¯re evenminuted fractures. He was previously in aa until recently.¡±


    ¡°Wait!¡± The officer was stunned. ¡°Fractures in more than a dozen ces? But there aren¡¯t any gunshots on his body. There¡¯s no signs of his hair being burnt or any other external injuries either, so how did those fracturese about?¡±


    The soldier was also taken aback. For fractures as serious as that without any signs of any external injuries, how could that be possible?


    ¡°Go,¡± The officer said, ¡°Check on the wounds of those people and see if they have any gunshot wounds! I want to reinterrogate that survivor. Bring him to me!¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the soldier led a toon over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group and pushed open the door to their barrack.


    Wang Fugui went up and tried to make conversation with them but got pushed away by a soldier.


    The soldiers came to the front of Wang Yuchi and lifted his pants at the ankle, only to find some shallow bruises on his legs. There were still some wounds that were oozing blood.


    The soldier was taken aback and thought for a moment before getting someone to bring over a pen and paper. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu and the others, ¡°Withoutmunicating with each other, write down the reason for your injuries.¡±


    In the end, after the six of them finished writing, including Ren Xiaosu, the soldier collected the paper and had a look at them. Although the descriptions were different, they all said they had been knocked down by other vehicles while trying to escape from the stronghold.


    The soldier frowned as he lifted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shirt. However, he discovered that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s injuries were also mainly bruises and some external wounds. It just looked more serious than the injuries Wang Yuchi and the others had.


    The soldier said nonchntly, ¡°So it was a car ident. Rest well then.¡±


    With that said, he led his toon away. Indeed, he had no other questions for them.


    Ren Xiaosu watched calmly as the soldiers left. Wang Yuchi whispered, ¡°Monitor, how did you know that they woulde and check on our wounds?¡±


    Originally, Wang Yuchi and the others had suffered gunshot wounds. But after using the ck medicine, they recovered within three days, so the soldiers were unable to find anything suspicious.


    And the bruises on their bodies were purposely inflicted by Ren Xiaosu a few days ago, including those on his own. This was so that it would prevent anyone from suspecting them if they checked.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I wasn¡¯t sure either. It was just a precaution.¡±


    Wang Yuchi and the others were stunned. They had thought that Ren Xiaosu was too cautious. Two days ago, when Ren Xiaosu forged those injuries on himself, they were wondering if he had overthought things. After all, the bruises he had created would still be quite painful.


    But from the looks of it, Ren Xiaosu was right. There was nothing wrong with being more cautious.


    ¡°Bro, they¡¯re starting to suspect us,¡± Yan Liuyuan said in a low voice.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not a big problem. Everything is still under control.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu gave a sigh. It looked like he would have to resort to his trump card.


    That night, the officer interrogated the refugee again. ¡°Tell me, how did Cao Junpeng and Yan Liuyuan¡¯s feud start?¡±


    ¡°Cao Junpeng felt that Yan Liuyuan was very good at finding food, so he wanted to take the kid in and use him. But Yan Liuyuan scolded him instead.¡± The refugee prisoner said, ¡°Before y¡¯all arrived and subjugated us, Yan Liuyuan had already killed several people because of his brother. He was extremely ruthless and fierce, so Cao Junpeng decided that he would just kill the kid if he didn¡¯t want to join us.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± The officer nodded. ¡°Then something happened to you all that night? Where did those ying cardse from?¡±


    The refugee said, ¡°Sir, we got the cards from y¡¯all as a hand-me-down...¡±


    The officer raised his eyebrows. ¡°So you¡¯re saying that I was the one who blew you all up?¡±


    ¡°No, no.¡± The refugee shook his head and said, ¡°The four ¡®threes¡¯ were very new and looked different from the cards that you all gave us¡ª¡±


    And then at this moment, a hand suddenly threw out four ¡°threes¡± onto the table between the two of them before disappearing.


    The officer froze. ¡°Were they cards like these?¡±


    The refugee hurriedly nodded. ¡°Yes, yes,


    yes!¡±


    The officer said, ¡°Fuck...¡±


    With a loud boom, the reinforcedpanies¡¯mander¡¯s tent was sent flying into the sky. At the same time, loud explosions rang out from many ces in the refugee camp. The refugees were all screaming and fleeing outwards!

 Chapter 302 - A dangerous situation, a rescue by Yang Xiaojin

    <h4>Chapter 302 A dangerous situation, a rescue by Yang Xiaojin</h4>


    The escapees were a group scarred by their recent experiences. Some of them would even get nightmares and wake up with night terrors.


    So when the explosions went off, someone among the escapees thought that war was breaking out again and cried out for everyone to quickly run. As such, all of the other escapees mindlessly followed suit.


    They could not even tell where the explosions wereing from!


    Truly, the Shadow Door and Explosive Poker was a really stealthybination that could catch people by surprise. No one knew where the next explosion was going to happen.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu could have used this method to cause chaos long ago. It was just that he had always felt a little unwilling to part with his gratitude tokens and could not bear to use them like this.


    His gratitude tokens had reached more than 900 coins and he was so close to unlocking the new weapon.


    But now his gratitude tokens slipped back down to slightly over 800 coins.


    Ren Xiaosu threw out the Explosive Poker cards consisting of more than ten sets of ¡°quad threes¡± in one go. As for the more powerful sets, he kept them on hand.


    While he was preparing to throw them out, he nned to throw them at random ces to cause some casualties. That way, more chaos could be created. But Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of Chen Wudi for some reason and decided to throw the ¡°bombs¡± into the uninhabited areas and near the Yang Consortium¡¯s guard post as well.


    If it were the past, would Ren Xiaosu have hesitated for even half a second?


    At the end of the day, that beam of light still shone.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group blended into the crowd and tried to head westward. Meanwhile, the Yang Consortium¡¯s soldiers were all rushing back to their tents to save their own people and did not have time to care about where the escapees were fleeing.


    When the escapees rushed out of the refugee camp, the soldiers on guard duty only fired a warning shot or two before giving up. They knew they wouldn¡¯t be able to stop the escapees who had already lost all control due to their fear of death.


    Yan Liuyuan stayed by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side throughout as Ren Xiaosu was still very weak. He had to make sure that no one would knock him down identally.


    It was not easy for Ren Xiaosu to fix his bones. If they were to get broken again, it would be much more painful to have to set them again. So whenever anyone came near to Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan would push them away.


    ¡°Bro, where are we going?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°The forested mountains in the west.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°We will hide in the forest.¡±


    But at this moment, engines roared from the south. Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks and looked in that direction to see dozens of military transport trucks returning from the front lines.


    This convoy was definitely not here for them. Although the soldiers had called for reinforcements after the explosions went off at the refugee camp, they couldn¡¯t have arrived this quickly no matter how well-trained they were by the Yang Consortium. Hence, this was the Yang Consortium troops that were returning from the front lines of the battlefield!


    ¡°How damn unlucky!¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    He had wasted so many gratitude tokens just to create a chance for them to leave. But unfortunately, the n did not go ording to his wishes and he had to encounter the Yang Consortium troops who happened to be returning from the front lines!


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and led his group back since it would be impossible for them to go head-to-head against the Yang Consortium¡¯sbat troops.


    They noticed the convoy had discovered the chaos going on in the refugee camp, and their troops immediately split up into several groups to intercept the escapees from fleeing by stopping them in their tracks.


    These escapees were just like docilembs that had been tamed. When they saw the shepherd arriving, they subconsciously obeyed him.


    The soldiers who jumped out of the vehicles forced the escapees back into their barracks with their guns. ¡°Go back to your own barracks! Those who disobey orders will be executed!¡±


    The escapees turned back. At this moment, they realized the explosions had stopped.


    An officer wearing the rank of lieutenant colonel said loudly, ¡°Who¡¯s the one in charge of the refugee camp? Why was there a riot happening?!¡±


    A soldier from the reinforcedpany ran out and reported, ¡°Sir, I don¡¯t know what happened, but explosions suddenly went off everywhere in the refugee camp. The escapees were fleeing only because they got frightened. Ourmander died in the line of duty.¡±


    The lieutenant colonel was stunned. ¡°Didn¡¯t you all make sure to seize all of their weapons? You should know that you¡¯ll have to be careful of spies mixed among these people, right?¡±


    ¡°We made sure we seized all of their weapons, but we don¡¯t know where the bombs came from.¡± The soldier replied, ¡°I think there¡¯s something fishy about this. There was also an explosion I suspect has something to do with this matter.¡±


    ¡°Tell me what happened,¡± the lieutenant colonel said.


    The escapees stood in a trance outside the barracks and listened to the exchange. There was dust everywhere in the refugee camp, and some of the barracks had caught fire. Fortunately, the distance between the barracks was not too close, so there wasn¡¯t too big of a fire.


    The soldier looked around and said, ¡°There was a group of escapees who were suddenly blown up inside their barracks, so we were investigating their murderer. But in the end, even we got blown up as well. Although we don¡¯t know how they managed to do it, I can¡¯t help but feel that the two incidents are rted.¡±


    ¡°Have you all identified any suspects?¡± the lieutenant colonel asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± The soldier said, ¡°We only got targeted after we started investigating this group of suspects.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nanomachines were buzzing in his body as he quickly prepared himself for a fight.


    If the situation really got out of hand, he would have to kill his way out. His life was saved by someone who gave up his, so no one was going to just take it away like that!


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Actually, this was my fault.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was good at self-reflection. From when he first killed the refugees to the chaos he had just created, even though it might look like he had been very cautious and well-prepared, it was not actually the case upon further consideration.


    Even if the refugees wanted to kill Yan Liuyuan and threatened the safety of the women in their group, or the fact that Yan Liuyuan might get ambushed at the construction site a dayter, Ren Xiaosu should still have used a more stealthy method to resolve the matter instead of resorting to using the Explosive Poker cards.


    But of course, he had only chosen to do so due to the inconvenience of his immobility. If he had been able to go to work at the construction site, he would have a 1,001 ways to make sure the refugees died outside in the wilderness. That way, they wouldn¡¯t be in such a tight spot right now.


    He would have to be more careful in the future. Ren Xiaosu was not thinking about whether or not he should kill anyone, but rather, how to be more cautious when killing them.


    ¡°Bro,¡± Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°what should we do?¡±


    ¡°Return to the barracks and stay put there. Don¡¯t go out!¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    Wang Fugui and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back. When the critical moment arrived, it was still Ren Xiaosu who had to bear the pressure for everyone.


    ¡°Bro...¡± Yan Liuyuan said anxiously. He knew well that with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s injuries, he would not be able to sustain himself in such an intense battle.


    ¡°Liuyuan,¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°curse me


    But before he could finish speaking, an off-road vehicle drove in from outside the refugee camp. It looked like that vehicle was driven here from the north.


    The vehicle came to a stop in front of the crowd. A girl wearing a cap jumped out of it and said, ¡°Where is the person-in-charge? Have hime and see me.¡±


    That lieutenant colonel frowned and walked over. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    The lieutenant colonel had already seen the license te of the other party¡¯s vehicle. It was ck with red lettering, and such license tes were only used by the core members of the Yang Consortium. Thus, his tone became more polite.


    The girl shed her ID, and the lieutenant colonel said respectfully, ¡°So it¡¯s you. I¡¯ve only heard about you but never had the chance to meet you until now.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± The girl nodded calmly. ¡°Have you all seen a young man named Ren Xiaosu around here? I¡¯m looking for him.¡±

 Chapter 303 - Heading north to Stronghold 88

    <h4>Chapter 303 Heading north to Stronghold 88</h4>


    Nobody in the refugee camp could understand what had just happened. Why did a girl suddenlye here looking for someone? Moreover, it even looked like that Yang Consortium lieutenant colonel had to speak politely to her. This seemed to subvert allmon sense. Could she be the core member of the Yang Consortium? But what was the name that the girl mentioned just now? Ren Xiaosu?


    Then they heard Yang Xiaojin repeat, ¡°Do you have someone here named Ren Xiaosu or Yan Liuyuan? I¡¯m here to take them away.¡±


    The escapees could only feel envy. She was actually here to take those people away? From the way she spoke, it seemed like it would be a good thing to get taken away by her.


    Hold on a minute! The escapees were not familiar with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name because he had been lying down and recuperating from his injuries all this while, so he did not have much of a presence in their minds. But they were all too familiar with Yan Liuyuan¡¯s name!


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaojin, we¡¯re here,¡± Yan Liuyuan shouted and raised his hand.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s eyes lit up. She did not really expect to find Ren Xiaosu and the others here.


    Yang Xiaojin had no choice but to follow Luo Xinyu and leave the battlefield when she got surrounded by the Experimentals in Stronghold 108. When she went back to look for Ren Xiaosu, she couldn¡¯t find him anymore. She didn¡¯t know where Ren Xiaosu and the others had fled to.


    After traveling north for some time, Yang Xiaojin was still indignant about the matter. When she heard that there was a refugee camp being built here, she decided toe over to try her luck.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and asked in a low voice, ¡°You didn¡¯t make the wish or curse, right?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head.


    At a critical moment like this, Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu suddenly arrived here after driving through the darkness of the night in an off-road vehicle.


    A lot of people were in between Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. But when Yang Xiaojin walked over to Ren Xiaosu, the escapees parted like the sea. It was like this was a stage, and the two individuals at both ends of the stage were the stars of the night.


    Yang Xiaojin walked up to Ren Xiaosu and sized him up from top to toe. She was still wearing her cap as usual, and the form-fitting sports outfit remained unchanged as well. ¡°You¡¯re injured?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°I identally took a st from an RPG that was fired by the Li Consortium.¡±


    The lieutenant colonel¡¯s jaw dropped. He thought to himself, ¡®You must be bragging, right? How could anyone still be standing after taking damage from an RPG? Who do you think you are?¡¯ However, he reminded himself of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s identity, so Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ount sounded somewhat understandable.


    Then Yang Xiaojin said to the lieutenant colonel, ¡°I want to take these people away. Please process the paperwork.¡±


    The lieutenant colonel said, ¡°We¡¯re currently investigating a case of spying, and these people are the main suspects.¡± Although he was very polite to Yang Xiaojin, business was still business.


    Yang Xiaojin calmly asked, ¡°Are you implying that my friend is a spy? Then what does that make me? They¡¯re from the Yang Consortium as well. It¡¯s just that you don¡¯t know about it at your level. So are you still going to arrest them?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dare.¡± The lieutenant colonel¡¯s tone softened. He turned to the soldier beside him and said, ¡°Release them!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. Well, it looked like he had gained yet another identity as part of the Yang Consortium. He hadpleted the full set.


    He reckoned that his identities were just like a top-secret file. In 50 years when the confidential records of the Yang, Li, and Qing consortiums were dessified, everyone would definitely be astonished.


    Of course, the Li Consortium wouldn¡¯t exist anymore by then.


    The nearby refugees were all shocked. Who was this big shot from the Yang Consortium? Their jealousy of Ren Xiaosu was reaching a fever pitch. Weren¡¯t they all supposed to be refugees? So why had he suddenly be a core member of the Yang Consortium? There was even a beautiful youngdy who specially came to pick him up in the middle of the night!


    While they were fleeing, the escapees were already very jealous of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group for having food to eat. Later on at the refugee camp, that jealousy was alleviated when they thought about how they were all fellow captives. But everyone realized at this moment that that had not been the case at all!


    Yang Xiaojin counted the number of people in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group and then said to the lieutenant colonel, ¡°I¡¯ll be taking one of your transport trucks.¡±


    The lieutenant colonel hurriedly said to a soldier next to him, ¡°Go and drive a truck over!¡±


    Then the lieutenant colonel asked, ¡°Where do you n on going?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin replied, ¡°Stronghold 88.¡±


    The lieutenant colonel shouted, ¡°Fuel the tank to full!¡±


    Apparently, the journey from here to Stronghold 88 was a long distance, so much so that they had to fill the gas tank all the way up for the trip.


    Yang Xiaojin did not take the off-road vehicle but followed Ren Xiaosu and the others onto the military transport truck. Luo Xinyu pouted as she sat in the driver¡¯s seat of the off-road vehicle alone. However, she did not say anything in the end.


    In the back of the truck, Yang Xiaojin asked again, ¡°Are your injuries serious?¡±


    Beside them, Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°He suffered 17 fractures all over his body, and four areas are evenminuted fractures.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was stunned. She had thought that Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t too seriously injured when she saw that he was able to move about freely. But upon taking a closer look, she realized his forehead was covered in sweat.


    Although Ren Xiaosu used the nanomachines to set his broken bones and had already healed a little, it still hurt to move. This was unavoidable.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°I¡¯m fine. I¡¯ll recover in another 20 days or So.¡±


    Of course, what Ren Xiaosu did not say was that even after a hundred days, broken bones would still be a little more brittle than other ces. Therefore, he would still have to recuperate for another month or two before he would fully recover.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°There won¡¯t be any danger in heading north, so just rest well and recuperate.¡±


    Silence fell, as nobody knew what to say.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°What¡¯s the rtionship between the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium?¡±


    This matter had puzzled Ren Xiaosu for a very long time. Yang Xiaojin had said that Lu Yuan was not from the Saboteurs but was a member of the Yang Consortium. However, the Saboteurs and Lu Yuan had carried out a mission together. Furthermore, Yang Xiaojin herself was also from the Yang Consortium. So it seemed like there was nothing wrong with saying that the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium originated from the same group.


    However, the problem was that the Saboteurs did not seem to have any intention of interfering with this war. He had never heard any news that the Saboteurs had appeared on the battlefield based on what Tang Zhou shared with him.


    Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°The founder of the Saboteurs is my aunt. However, with the Yang Consortium¡¯s intent to invade foreignnds getting stronger and stronger in recent years, the ideological differences between the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium have splintered even further. There are those within the Yang Consortium who are supportive of the Saboteurs¡¯ cause, but there aren¡¯t many. So the Saboteurs no longer have any involvement with the internal affairs of the Yang Consortium, nor do we take part in their wars.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood something with this exnation. The Saboteurs had probably been set up after Yang Xiaojin¡¯s aunt became a supernatural being. Meanwhile, the Yang Consortium also gave her some support in the setting up of the Saboteurs.


    But now that the main faction of the Yang Consortium had expanded their influence, the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium had reached the point where they would have to part ways.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Is the ideology behind the Saboteurs really to uphold peace?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°We¡¯re not looking to uphold peace but to prevent anything that can destroy the world from reemerging in society. Over the years, we¡¯ve destroyed 17 nuclear test sites, but we¡¯ve not been able to locate any of those controlled by Qing Zhen.¡±

 Chapter 304 - Cast aside

    Chapter 304 Cast aside


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized he had misunderstood. Before the war, he was wondering why the Saboteurs did note forward to stop the war or sabotage it. However, he now realized the Saboteurs were merely targeting the nuclear test sites and did not involve themselves with other matters.


    It was probably just as Yang Xiaojin had said. The apocalypse had struck the world because of nuclear technology, so humans should not be trying to control it again.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But I think what Qing Zhen said makes sense. It¡¯s the fault of humanity, not the fault of nuclear technology.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°That¡¯s what I thought at the beginning too, but the 17 nuclear test sites that were destroyed had all been performing military research. And then gradually, people stopped questioning the motivation behind such research.¡±


    ¡°But the Qing Consortium was the one who started the war this time. If Qing Zhen really had such a weapon in his arsenal, the Li Consortium would probably have already been decimated, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head.


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu did not take any side on this matter. This ¡°important¡± issue just did not seem to have anything to do with him since he was only a refugee trying to survive.


    Qing Zhen had his reasons, while the Saboteurs also made their judgment based on facts. Until the very end, who was to decide who was right or wrong?


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°17 nuclear test sites? Where are they? Do they all belong to the Qing Consortium?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head again. ¡°Actually, the main focus of the Saboteurs¡¯ activities has already shifted to the Central ins in recent years. The 17 nuclear test sites were also destroyed there. Very few members of the Saboteurs are still in the Southwest. It¡¯s a much bigger world over there in the Central ins.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This was the second time he heard others mention the term ¡°Central ins.¡± After The Cataclysm, human society was kept within the strongholds while information and traffic flow got shut down.


    So ever since Ren Xiaosu was young, he had always thought that the world was only this big. In the northeast was the Qing Consortium, while the Yang Consortium was in the north, Stronghold 178 was in the northwest, and the Li Consortium was in the south.


    This used to be the entire world map that existed in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind. However, heter realized this was not the case. Zhang Jinglin had mentioned it before but did not get into a deep discussion about it. He only said that it would not be easy to get from the Southwest to the Central ins. After tectonic activity destroyed the roads and mountain paths and elevated entire territories, the events had formed into natural barriers for the Southwest.


    Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, ¡°What do the Central ins look like?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ve never been there either. I heard from my aunt before that it¡¯s much more prosperous and glorious over there. There are even roads connecting the strongholds that allow residents to travel freely between them while some people drive to faraway ces for vacation. The stronghold gates are kept open during the day and only close at night. She once said that Stronghold 1 is like a miracle of human civilization. When night falls, that ce bes a permanently lit gxy.¡±


    ¡°Do you want to go to the Central ins?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, ¡°No.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised. Based on what Yang Xiaojin had said earlier, the Saboteurs¡¯ activities were localized to the Central ins. Logically speaking, Yang Xiaojin would have to be there as well, so why didn¡¯t she go?


    ¡°Oh, right,¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Luo Lan should be leaving Stronghold 88 soon. If everything goes well on our way there, you should still be in time to meet him.¡±


    ¡°Luo Lan is leaving Stronghold 88 already?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback when he heard that. He knew from Tang Zhou that Luo Lan had been sent to Stronghold 88 by Qing Zhen and that this arrangement was due to the cooperation between the two organizations. As such, Luo Lan headed there as a representative of the Qing Consortium.


    But now that Luo Lan was leaving, it meant that the cooperation between the two consortiums was about to end.


    After these two consortiums had weakened the Li Consortium to a certain extent, the alliance between them would start losing meaning.


    ...


    At this moment, Luo Lan was instructing his subordinates to pack up their things in Stronghold 88. ¡°Be gentler, take good care when moving the items onto the vehicle. These are all souvenirs that I spent a lot of money on. If they break, you won¡¯t be able topensate for them!¡±


    The subordinate chuckled and said, ¡°Boss, are we going back now? Did Mr. Qing Zhen win?¡±


    ¡°Listen to what you¡¯re saying!¡± Luo Lan said with a smile, ¡°How can there be any battles that Qing Zhen can¡¯t win? Those old fogeys from the Li Consortium are doomed for sure!¡±


    In this war, other than negotiating with the Yang Consortium, Luo Lan had basically done nothing else. All he did was stay at the Yang Consortium to eat and drink, and eat and drink some more.


    Now that he was going back, he might even be able to make it in time for the final round of battles with the Li Consortium. When he thought of this, Luo Lan became excited. For some reason, he liked fighting in battle a lot. Although fighting in battle meant hard days, and he would not get to eat or sleep well, he still liked it very much.


    But right at this moment, the sound of a car engine came from the streets of the stronghold. The soldiers beside Luo Lan wanted to pick up their weapons. However, Luo Lan waved his hand and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, who would dare to touch us here in Stronghold 88? They¡¯re probably here to send us off.¡±


    Then they saw three military transport trucks approaching them. When the convoy stopped in front of Luo Lan and the others, arge group of soldiers jumped out of the vehicle. Luo Lan mumbled, ¡°This doesn¡¯t look like a fucking send-off....¡±


    As he said that, an officer came up to Luo Lan and calmly said, ¡°No one is to leave yet.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± Luo Lan was taken aback. ¡°Has your Yang Consortium gone crazy?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not us who¡¯s crazy.¡± The officer sneered and said, ¡°It¡¯s your Qing Consortium that has gone crazy. Or, to be precise, Qing Zhen is the one who¡¯s gone crazy!¡±


    ¡°What happened?¡± Luo Lan frowned.


    ¡°We were supposed to attack the front line at Mount Guangyingst night based on the agreement made between both us and the Qing Consortium. However, when our Yang Consortium arrived at the battlefield, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops suddenly retreated and left us to face the Li Consortium¡¯s firepower alone. We suffered heavy casualties as a result!¡± The officer sneered. ¡°Since you all can back out of an alliance, there won¡¯t be a need for you all to leave this ce. Men, ce them under house arrest and guard them 24/7!¡±


    Luo Lan was taken aback. ¡°Is that news true?¡±


    The officer said, ¡°It seems that your brother doesn¡¯t really care about your life.¡±


    A group of soldiers raised their guns and forced Luo Lan and his men back into the house. Luo Lan raised his hands and said, ¡°Don¡¯t push, don¡¯t push. We¡¯ll go in by ourselves. Everything can be talked about calmly.¡±


    When he retreated into the house, hisrge body even crashed into the door as he stepped back inside.


    A soldier whispered to Luo Lan, ¡°Boss, has Mr. Qing Zhen given up on us?¡±


    ¡°What a fucking load of bullshit.¡± Luo Lan snapped, ¡°Qing Zhen would never do something like that!¡±


    ¡°Then this is...¡± the soldier said hesitantly.


    Luo Lan sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid Qing Zhen is no longer the person with the final say in our military.¡±


    Luo Lan understood Qing Zhen the best. He knew Qing Zhen would never walk out on him. In that case, there was only one possibility left: The person who made the decision to withdraw the troops was not Qing Zhen.


    Previously, the Qing Consortium had not done anything to Qing Zhen because they were unwilling to amodate anyst-minute change in the military leadership so as not to dy their war opportunities.


    But now that the Li Consortium had been defeated, Qing Zhen naturally was of no use anymore. He had served his purpose and was cast aside.

 Chapter 305 - A 21-kilometer-long mountain road

    Chapter 305 A 21-kilometer-long mountain road


    The troops that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan controlled were only two brigades originally. But with Luo Lan¡¯s troops hidden where nobody knew, the Qing Consortium couldn¡¯t incorporate them into their own forces.


    As such, for the entire frontline troops, there were not many true supporters of Qing Zhen as one would imagine. A portion of the troops supported Qing Zhen while a portion supported Qing Yun. Most of them were neutral and only followed orders and fought battles.


    This was also the reason why Qing Zhen wanted to get rid of Qing Yun¡¯s supporters in the organization. If he didn¡¯t chase away the people who harbored other motives, his orders could end up getting secretly disobeyed.


    But even after Qing Zhen finished ¡°cleaning up¡± those elements, he still could not defy the orders of the Qing Consortium¡¯s Board of Directors. They were the true core of the Qing Consortium, after all.


    If they gave Qing Zhen more time, he might even be able to turn the entire frontline army into his own people. However, the Qing Consortium¡¯s Board would definitely not give him that time.


    As a matter of fact, the timing of the Board was just right. There would not be too much of an adverse effect if they changed the leadership at the front lines at this time. And Qing Zhen had fulfilled his final role for them.


    It was still Secretary Zhou who hade to escort Qing Zhen. Secretary Zhou stood at the entrance of the camp while Qing Zhen turned around and looked at the snowy mountains behind him.


    Some of the soldiers wanted to stage a mutiny to save Qing Zhen, but they were stopped by him with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t be rash. Your families are still in the stronghold.¡±


    This was also the reason why the Board still had control over the military. If the entire military camp were to act rashly at this time, their families would probably die horrible deaths on that very night. So even though Qing Zhen had Qing Yun killed, the Board remained fearless of him. In their opinion, Qing Zhen was not so charismatic that he could make these soldiers abandon their families and children. But even if he did, Qing Zhen would not allow it.


    It seemed like the Board already had Qing Zhen in the palm of their hands.


    ¡°Sir,¡± an officer said, ¡°let us return together with you.¡±


    Qing Zhen was amused. ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. Fight the war well with Qing Yi. I¡¯ll still say the same thing: Don¡¯t embarrass me.¡±


    All the frontline troops had been taken control of by amander named Qing Yi. This Qing Yi was also a core member of the Qing Consortium. However, as he had still been being groomed for a leadership post, the Qing Consortium had not really allowed him to step onto the battlefield yet.


    ¡°What about Mr. Luo Lan? He¡¯s still at the Yang Consortium,¡± the officer said. ¡°Last night...¡±


    Qing Zhen waved it off and said, ¡°I¡¯m already prepared for that, don¡¯t worry.¡±


    After saying that, Qing Zhen followed Secretary Zhou into the car. Secretary Zhou ordered someone to put Qing Zhen in handcuffs. Qing Zhen smiled and said, ¡°Are you that afraid of me? I¡¯m not a supernatural being, so I won¡¯t do anything to you.¡±


    Secretary Zhou snorted in disgust and did not say anything. This time, he had even brought along many troops with him to escort Qing Zhen.


    If Secretary Zhou had not been ordered by the Board toe, he would not have been willing toe here and face Qing Zhen, to be honest. The previous time when Qing Zhen killed someone at themand center without warning seemed to have given him bad trauma.


    Secretary Zhou sat in the car and said calmly, ¡°Qing Zhen, should I praise you for being smart? Or should I say that you¡¯re stupid?¡±


    Qing Zhen smiled. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    The driver in the car did not dare to even blink and just stared straight ahead at the road.


    Secretary Zhou said, ¡°Well, you¡¯re really smart; there¡¯s no argument about that. A war that Qing Yun wasn¡¯t able to win was turned around the moment you joined forces with the Yang Consortium at the front lines and destroyed the Li Consortium. Even I admire you. You¡¯re truly a genius.¡±


    Qing Zhen smiled. ¡°You tter me.¡±


    ¡°But if I say that you¡¯re stupid, it¡¯s not wrong either. If you didn¡¯t attack the Li Consortium, the Board wouldn¡¯t have dared to make their move on you so quickly. That¡¯s why you¡¯re only good at military affairs and don¡¯t know how to handle politics.¡±


    Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°Then is Secretary Zhou implying that I should have allowed the Li soldiers to live and made them into my own mercenary troops at the front line?¡±


    Secretary Zhou looked at the driver. ¡°I didn¡¯t say that.¡±


    ¡°Look at how cowardly you are. You dared to say that but you won¡¯t admit it?¡± Qing Zhen said, ¡°Even if I didn¡¯t attack the Li Consortium, they would havee and attacked us all the same. When that happens, would I have to sacrifice my troops¡¯ lives just to carry on with the act? That¡¯s something that I, Qing Zhen, cannot do.¡±


    On the battlefield, putting on an act would require people to sacrifice their lives.


    And what Qing Zhen wanted was to incur the least casualties possible and fight the perfect battles. Then the surviving soldiers would be able to return home.


    Secretary Zhou asked hesitantly, ¡°Have you not considered yourself before?¡±


    ¡°Consider what?¡± Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°Isn¡¯t this just about going back and being ced under house arrest?¡±


    ¡°Did you think you¡¯d still be ced under house arrest after killing Qing Yun? This time... it¡¯s not going to be as simple as that.¡± Secretary Zhou sneered.


    ¡°I see.¡± Qing Zhen sighed.


    ...


    The vehicle escorting Qing Zhen was speeding northwards. Following the off-road vehicle were many other soldiers also escorting it. From this, it was clear that the Qing Consortium¡¯s Board thought very highly of Qing Zhen. They were worried that something would happen during the process of escorting him back.


    When the convoy drove back into Stronghold 111 two dayster, Qing Zhen rolled down the window with his handcuffed hands. ¡°Such a familiar smell. I¡¯m finally home.¡±


    Secretary Zhou looked a little tired. As a civilian employee, he had been sitting in a car for two straight days and had barely gotten any shut-eye. He could not take it anymore.


    On the other hand, Qing Zhen still looked very energetic. He wasn¡¯t even like a prisonering back to stand trial.


    Secretary Zhou yawned and said, ¡°You¡¯re still in the mood to appreciate all this?¡±


    ¡°Wait, why are the theaters all closed?¡± Qing Zhen suddenly asked.


    When the convoy passed by a few theaters, Qing Zhen was surprised to find that all of them had been sealed shut.


    Secretary Zhou looked out the window and said, ¡°These are the theaters you usually enjoy going to. Since they don¡¯t know which singer you actually like, they just arrested all of thedies.¡±


    In the past, when Qing Zhen visited the theaters, he would never go to a fixed ce, nor did he ever reveal which singer he liked. It was precisely because he was worried that he would implicate the other party.


    However, Qing Zhen did not expect the Qing Consortium to be so ruthless.


    Qing Zhen looked out the window and fell silent. No one knew what he was thinking.


    Secretary Zhou asked, ¡°Why aren¡¯t you saying anything?¡±


    Qing Zhen suddenly said, ¡°The flowers I¡¯ve been cultivating at home should probably have withered by now, right? I wonder if anyone has been caring for the vegetables I nted in the backyard.¡±


    Secretary Zhouughed in anger. ¡°You¡¯re still in the mood to talk about this?¡±


    ¡°What else should I talk about then?¡± Qing Zhen said calmly, ¡°If this were a peaceful and prosperous era, I would probably have be a flower farmer instead. The military and politics can¡¯t be more interesting than cultivating flowers.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a pity this isn¡¯t a peaceful era then,¡± Secretary Zhou said calmly.


    At this moment, the car came to a stop.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s headquarters were halfway up the mountain, and the vehicle was parked at the entrance to the winding, switchback road.


    Secretary Zhou got out of the car and said, ¡°The Board has ordered that you make your way up the mountain on foot.¡±


    Qing Zhen nced at him. ¡°This mountain road is 21 kilometers long.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Secretary Zhou adjusted his sses and said, ¡°The Board wants you to think carefully when you¡¯re walking up. Who gave you everything you have today? Take off your shoes and get moving.¡±


    There were soldiers standing guard on both sides of the mountain road. When they heard this, they could not bear to look at Qing Zhen anymore.


    A lot of people probably would not expect that the Qing Consortium¡¯s silent tiger would actually end up in this state.

 Chapter 306

    Chapter 306 The Qing Consortium changes hands .


    The mountain located in Stronghold 111 was known as Mt. Ginkgo. In autumn, the mountain would shimmer golden. But in winter, the ginkgo leaves would fall and litter the valley, leaving behind only naked tree branches.


    The prosperity wasing to an end and would be buried in mud.


    Qing Zhen stood in his spot and looked at the withered scenery in the valley. He suddenlyughed and said, ¡°What a pity.¡±


    These were probably the three words that Qing Zhen liked to utter the most.


    Next to him, Secretary Zhou frowned and said, ¡°Men, remove Qing Zhen¡¯s shoes and escort him up Mt. Gingko!¡±


    But the soldiers responsible for guarding Mt. Ginkgo¡¯s mountain roads did not move. Secretary Zhou was enraged. ¡°How dare you disobey my orders.¡±


    However, the two soldiers remained still. It was as if they could not bear to do what they were told.


    Qing Zhen smiled as he looked at the slightly younger soldier and said, ¡°I remember you. You¡¯re Zhang Yuge, and you used to be under me. After you killed a member of the Pyro Company, you were recognized and awarded for your contribution.¡±


    The soldier named Zhang Yuge got excited. He stood to attention and shouted, ¡°I am Zhang Yuge from the 5th Combat Brigade. I didn¡¯t expect you to still remember me, sir.¡±


    Qing Zhen turned to look at the other soldier and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re Wang Hang, one of my soldiers as well. Is your mother feeling better yet?¡±


    Wang Hang¡¯s eyes reddened. ¡°Thank you, sir. I didn¡¯t expect you would still remember a small matter like that.¡±


    Qing Zhen sighed to Secretary Zhou and said, ¡°They¡¯re all elite soldiers and should be out fighting the war, but due to their rtionship with me, they were left behind here to act as watchdogs for the organization. What a pity. Let¡¯s not make things difficult for them. I¡¯ll head up myself.¡±


    Secretary Zhou said coldly behind Qing Zhen, ¡°Do you know that no Shadows in the history of the Qing Consortium have ever acted like you? All of them have bowed their heads to the organization!¡±


    Qing Zhen smiled and said, ¡°But I¡¯m Qing Zhen.¡±


    It was as if Qing Zhen¡¯s name was supposed to have some magical ring to it. He had a pride that was embedded to the bone, and he would never yield to anyone.


    Then Qing Zhen took off his shoes and socks and started walking up the mountain road littered with dead ginkgo leaves.


    The cold winter wind howled down the mountain road, making the ground as cold as steel.


    However, no one could see any pain or frustration on Qing Zhen¡¯s face. After walking for a while, Qing Zhen suddenly pointed to a ridge on the mountain and said, ¡°When I was young, I used to y in the mud there with Luo Lan. Back then, the river was very cold, so we would dip the persimmons we stole into the icy waters. It¡¯s delicious to eat them after taking them out of the river. Back then, Qing Yun was always following us around, but I always had the feeling he hated me.¡±


    Following him, Secretary Zhou remained silent. No one expected Qing Zhen would still be so carefree when he was on the brink of death.


    ¡°But there¡¯s a hidden guard post over there now, so that ce is probably sealed off, right?¡± Qing Zhen said with a smile.


    Snowkes suddenly floated down from the sky. Qing Zhen¡¯s clean feet stepped on the thinyer of snow and left a line of footprints on the mountain road.


    At the beginning, the snow was white while the footprints were ck. Every step revealed the ground beneath the snow.


    Secretary Zhou shouted from behind him in the snow, ¡°Have you thought it through?!¡±


    The snow gradually fell heavier, and Qing Zhen turned a deaf ear on him.


    As he walked, the footprints in the snow on the mountain road started turning red. As he walked up step by step, it was as if he could not see the end of the road at all. However, Qing Zhen¡¯s posture was still straight.


    As Qing Zhen walked past the sentry guards along the way, they all turned away to look beyond the mountain.


    As he walked, Qing Zhen¡¯s feet numbed. He could not remember how far he had been walking. With every step he took, he seemed to be thinking about something.


    From beside him, Secretary Zhou suddenly asked, ¡°Why did you withdraw the troopsst night and leave the Yang Consortium hanging?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re talking about that?¡± Qing Zhen said with a smile.


    ¡°Back then, Qing Yi clearly had not taken over the power of the military yet. You clearly know that Luo Lan is still in the hands of the Yang Consortium.¡± Secretary Zhou frowned and said, ¡°The Yang Consortium must have ced Luo Lan under arrest now. A lot of people must also have caught wind of you being summoned back to Stronghold 111 by now, so they¡¯ll probably think it was Qing Yi¡¯s order to withdraw the troops.¡±


    Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°That¡¯s because I knew you all were gonnae after me.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°When our father passed away, he insisted on having Luo Lan protect me. But you should also know what kind of person he is.¡± Qing Zhen chuckled. ¡°He¡¯s always eating and sleeping, and really rash as well, so why would I need him to protect me? It is likelier that I¡¯d have to protect him instead.¡±


    ¡°So you allowed the Yang Consortium to arrest him then?¡± Secretary Zhou frowned and said. He actually did not understand the logic behind this, but Qing Zhen¡¯s nning had always been a little more effective than other people¡¯s.


    ¡°If I didn¡¯t get someone else to arrest him, he would probably have rushed up Mt. Ginkgo to fight the old fogeys.¡± Qing Zhen sighed and said, ¡°The Yang Consortium will not kill him. A fatty that¡¯s alive is worth more than a dead one. Before they get anything valuable out of him, the Yang Consortium won¡¯t take his life. It¡¯s better than having hime charging back here.¡±


    ¡°But they¡¯ll still kill him in the future,¡± Secretary Zhou said calmly.


    ¡°I¡¯ve already prepared a way out for him,¡± Qing Zhen said.


    Qing Zhen had turned on the alliance with the Yang Consortium, not for anything else, but so that he could make Luo Lan stay in Stronghold 88 and note back here to die. That was because even Qing Zhen himself was not confident he could survive today.


    Qing Zhen stood barefooted near the cliff of the winding, switchback road and looked out at the drifting snow. He said, ¡°That fool, Luo Lan, if I were to die today, he would definitely weep his heart out for me. Our damned old man always said that a family needs to be harmonious. We can only exist if our family remains around.¡±


    Secretary Zhou asked, ¡°Then why are you still going against the Qing n¡¯s patriarch?¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at the mountains in the distance, having figured out something. He said, ¡°Now that I think about it, our family consists only of Luo Lan and me. The others don¡¯t count.¡±


    Then Qing Zhen turned back around and looked up in front of him. He suddenlyughed and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t even notice, but we¡¯re almost there! Come on, let¡¯s go!¡±


    Qing Zhen walked in front with Secretary Zhou asking loudly again from the back, ¡°It¡¯s almost time! Have you seriously thought it through yet?!¡±


    The snow fell heavy as the wind howled.


    Qing Zhen said softly in the snowstorm, ¡°I¡¯ve thought it over.¡±


    In front of him, he could see the Qing Consortium¡¯s manor on the mountainside of Mt. Ginkgo. This ce was still as brightly lit as he remembered. Qing Zhen stood outside the vermillion gate and said with a smile, ¡°Now that I think about it, I haven¡¯t been here but a few times.¡±


    Secretary Zhou escorted him into the main lobby. Qing Zhen¡¯s feet left bloodstains on the clean and extravagant marble floor. The servants in the hallway remained silent, and no one dared to go over to clean off the bloodstains.


    Qing Zhen walked further inside. The door to the conference room was already open, and the Qing Consortium¡¯s board members were all seated inside.


    Qing Zhen walked down the long hallway and past a long hall. He walked by himself in front while the others behind him followed from afar.


    Suddenly, someone realized that Qing Zhen¡¯s back had remained straight even until now. Not once did he ever slouch.


    When Qing Zhen walked into the conference room, he headed straight to the end of the table and sat down.


    There was no one next to Qing Zhen. All the members of the Board were seated across from him, as though he were taking on the entire Qing Consortium.


    The elder in the seat of honor said calmly, ¡°Do you know what you did wrong?¡±


    Qing Zhen also said calmly, ¡°What wrong did I do?¡±


    The elder¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. He never expected that the 21-kilometer-long mountain road would be unable to make Qing Zhen lower his head.


    ¡°Murder, mutiny, privately raising an army, and being disrespectful.¡± The elder said, ¡°All of these crimes are enough to sentence you to death.¡±


    Qing Zhen asked, ¡°And I must die for that?¡±


    ¡°If you don¡¯t die, I will not be at ease.¡±


    These words were the true thoughts of everyone on the Qing Consortium¡¯s Board. This Shadow who never respected the rules was starting to make them afraid.


    They had never been so afraid of a Shadow before, so this Shadow had to die.


    ...


    Qing Zhen¡¯s troops had already been disbanded. Some of them had been tamed after getting incorporated into the various fighting forces, while others who were stubbornly loyal were chained up like dogs in the stronghold. As such, Qing Zhen¡¯s influence in the military seemed to have been weakened to almost nothing.


    Luo Lan had been ced under house arrest in Stronghold 88.


    It seemed like Qing Zhen had even lost hisst beam of support.


    So when the n was revealed, the Board was confident of their victory. They were pulling out all stops to ensure Qing Zhen¡¯s death.


    Qing Zhen got up and walked to the window on one side of the conference room barefooted. Someone shouted angrily, ¡°Qing Zhen, how dare you still act so arrogantly at this time!¡±


    But Qing Zhen whirled around and asked Secretary Zhou loudly, ¡°Zhou Qi, I¡¯ve already thought it through. How about you?¡±


    While on the 21-kilometer-long mountain road, Secretary Zhou had asked Qing Zhen twice in a loud voice. But now, it was Qing Zhen who was asking him back.


    The world outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was vast and wide!


    He did not want to be a Shadow anymore. He wanted to be the CEO of the Qing Consortium. ¡®Breaking custom, I¡¯ll shatter positions and destroy countries for me; without the turning of the world, there is no recovery!¡¯


    Qing Zhen asked again loudly, ¡°Have you thought it through yet?!¡±


    Secretary Zhou smiled. ¡°I¡¯m d to be of service to you.¡±


    Secretary Zhou, who had at some point ced himself behind the elder, grabbed a stream of thin air. The transparent stream split and flowed towards the necks of the members of the Board.


    A cry of surprise from someone startled the security troops stationed outside the conference room, but Secretary Zhou was already prepared. The transparent stream further split itself and shot through the conference room¡¯s solid wood door. Screams came from outside and then it went silent.


    Continuous gunfire rang out on the mountainside as though to suggest an intense battle was taking ce.


    At the foot of the mountain, the soldier named Zhang Yuge shouted, ¡°Everyone, today is the day we seed!¡±


    With that, arge group of soldiers emerged from the wilderness. Although he rushed up with them, the blood he spilled in battle flowed down the mountain road and melted away the thinyer of snow.


    Meanwhile, in Stronghold 111, the manhole covers on the street were suddenly pushed up as troops dressed in ck rushed out and headed for all the key military zones in the stronghold. When they encountered the regr troops of the stronghold, this army dressed in ck was surprisingly brave and fearless in battle!


    One of the soldiers in ck sat down on the ground slowly after being shot. One of hisrades tried to help him up, only for him to grab hisrade¡¯s hand and say with a smile, ¡°The day has finally arrived. Don¡¯t worry about me. Tell ourmander that we¡¯ve been waiting for this day for too long!¡±


    ...


    Secretary Zhou smiled at Qing Zhen and said, ¡°Was it because you weren¡¯t sure about me that you didn¡¯t want Luo Laning back here? We were friends who yed in the mud together when we were young. You¡¯ve made me really sad.¡±


    On the mountainside, Qing Zhen had said he and Luo Lan used to y in the mud next to the river and ate frozen persimmons. But what he didn¡¯t say was that Zhou Qi was also among those that yed together with them.


    Many people thought that Secretary Zhou had always treated Qing Zhen as a thorn in his side. This was also why the Qing Consortium¡¯s Board liked to get Secretary Zhou to target Qing Zhen.


    However, Qing Zhen and Zhou Qi had never been on bad terms. In the early years, they already had thoughts of changing the world.


    After being questioned by Zhou Qi, Qing Zhen also smiled. ¡°I really was a little worried about you. After all, when you were young, a fortune teller once said you had rebelliousness written in your stars.¡±


    Zhou Qi choked. ¡°Fuck that bullshit!¡±


    The previously cultured and respectable Secretary Zhou suddenly did not look that cultured and respectable anymore.


    The elder in the conference room said coldly, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that Qing Yi will deploy the troops back here and kill you?¡±


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°What a coincidence. Qing Yi is also one of mine.¡±


    ¡°What do we do now?¡± Zhou Qi asked, ¡°We¡¯ve revolted, so we can¡¯t leave any loose ends.¡±


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°Just kill them all. I was nning on making them walk that 21-kilometer-long road in the snow. But now that I think about it, there¡¯s no need to be angry with them anymore.¡±


    Victors should be magnanimous.


    As soon as he finished speaking, the ¡°fluid rope¡± on the necks of the board members tightened. They were shackled to death.


    Zhou Qi looked at Qing Zhen, who was standing in a trance by the window, and asked, ¡°What are you thinking about?¡±


    Qing Zhen came back to his senses. ¡°Oh, I was just thinking that I might not have time to cultivate flowers anymore in the future.¡±


    Zhou Qi listened to the gunshotsing from the mountainside and adjusted his sses. ¡°You and your flowers...¡±


    The board members did not die immediately. They wanted to rip off the ¡°rope¡± around their neck but realized they couldn¡¯t do anything about a supernatural being¡¯s powers. The fluid rope felt just like a physical cable.


    Winner takes all!


    The Qing Consortium had changed hands!

 Chapter 307 - Arriving at Stronghold 88!

    Chapter 307 Arriving at Stronghold 88!


    A civil war had erupted within the dozen or so strongholds controlled by the Qing Consortium. It hade without any warning, and there were no precautions against it.


    At this moment, the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops and soldiers were all thinking that war would only be happening externally. They never expected that in just one night, there would be a changing of the guard and the Board would get taken down entirely.


    Qing Zhen¡¯s supporters, who had been scattered across the various fighting forces, had either sessfully rebelled against the leaders of their troops or carried out decapitation strikes against them. This left the military without any leaders and created a situation of chaos.


    Many people sacrificed themselves that night. They were all willing to die for Qing Zhen¡¯s glory. Meanwhile, Qing Zhen had sent out arge number of people to take control of the strongholds, as well as amalgamate the fighting forces.


    New political orders were starting to be issued from Stronghold 111. It took Qing Zhen a fortnight toplete the cleaning up and purging of the previous regime¡¯s elements.


    Many of the Qing Consortium¡¯s supporters had no choice but to escape out into the wilderness, but what awaited them was a harsh winter and extreme hunger.


    Inside the manor on the mountainside of Mt. Ginkgo, Zhou Qi asked, ¡°Where¡¯s the money you promised me? Pay up! Pay up! Pay up!¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at him in amusement and wrote him a check. ¡°Go cash it at the Qing Consortium¡¯s bank. It¡¯s enough tost you a lifetime.¡±


    Zhou Qi happily held the check in his hand. ¡°Look, you just don¡¯t trust me. And see what happened? Luo Lan has been locked up in Stronghold 88 as a bargaining chip as a result. Let¡¯s see how you¡¯re gonna deal with that!¡±


    ¡°You want me to trust you?¡± Qing Zhen snapped, ¡°You¡¯re already asking for your payment as soon as this episode ended, so how can I trust someone like you?¡±


    Zhou Qi was unhappy to hear that. ¡°Although I like money a lot, I could have gotten some from the Board too. So why did I choose to ept your money instead of taking it from the Board? It¡¯s all down to our rtionship!¡±


    ¡°Like hell I¡¯d believe you.¡± Qing Zhen sat calmly in his seat. The reason for his worries was because he was afraid that Zhou Qi would turn against him at thest minute.


    Outsiders would only think that this was Qing Zhen¡¯s nned move, but Qing Zhen himself was also sweating over it.


    In reality, it was still unknown whether he or the Board would end up as the victor that night. It was indeed a very risky decision to ce a portion of the bet on Zhou Qi because Zhou Qi loved money way too much ever since childhood.


    Qing Zhen understood very well that a portion of the reason Zhou Qi was on his side was that his money was easier to earn and safer as well.


    If he epted any money from the Board, it might be possible that they would get even with him at ater time.


    Of course, a portion of it also involved someplicated rtionships. This group of people who had known each other since childhood would still consider the friendship they had.


    Zhou Qi said, ¡°Then what do we do about Luo Lan now? Why don¡¯t you pay me some money and I¡¯ll go rescue him?¡±


    Qing Zhen looked up at him. ¡°There¡¯s no need to. I have my own ns.¡±


    ...


    At this moment, a military transport truck was speeding towards Stronghold 88. Suddenly, Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°We¡¯re here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up ahead through the windshield and saw a towering stronghold located in the wilderness. This stronghold was extremelyrge. It was wayrger than Stronghold 108, 109, and 113.


    Stronghold 88¡¯s location was very special. To the north were the Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178, while the Qing Consortium was to its west, and the Li Consortium was to the south. Some years ago when it was still possible for independent merchants to freelye to the stronghold, this ce was a very important distribution center of goods. This was also how the Yang Consortium started.


    While in the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu could already see the town of Stronghold 88 from afar. At this moment, a group of refugees were returning home from work. Some of them had cigarettes dangling from their mouths and looked extremely satisfied.


    Just as Yan Liuyuan had said, the Yang Consortium was no different from the other organizations. It was only Yang Xiaojin who was different.


    When their vehicles drove past, the refugees hurriedly made way for them. They were all afraid that they would be the unlucky ones to get picked on by whichever big shots were in the vehicles.


    When Yan Liuyuan saw the town, he got very excited. ¡°Bro, why don¡¯t we just settle down in town?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°Let¡¯s head into the stronghold and have a look first.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Alright!¡±


    In front of them, Luo Xinyu shed her identification documents to the guards from inside her off-road vehicle. The soldiers opened the gate respectfully and let them through.


    Stronghold 88 had something unique about it. After entering the gate, there was actually another circr wall on the inside. The Yang Consortium had actually built a barbican for Stronghold 88! This was a structure that was specially used to add to its defensive capabilities. The Yang Consortium actually prioritized its defenses at Stronghold 88 this importantly.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Luo Lan was supposed to leave the stronghold at this time, but the Qing Consortium suddenly broke the alliance, so the people from the Yang Consortium ced him under house arrest. I heard there¡¯s already been a major change in the Qing Consortium. After Qing Zhen was taken back to Stronghold 111, they started a coup, and Qing Zhen has be the head of the Qing Consortium.¡±


    Therefore, it was even more important that the Yang Consortium did not let Luo Lan leave. He was the elder brother of the Qing Consortium, after all. With such an important bargaining chip in their hands, the Yang Consortium Board of Directors would be so happy they wouldn¡¯t be able to sleep.


    Ren Xiaosu sensed from Yang Xiaojin¡¯s words that she somehow felt a sense of detachment from the Yang Consortium. For example, whenever Yang Xiaojin mentioned the Yang Consortium, she would refer to them as ¡°the people from the Yang Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How¡¯s the war at the front lines now?¡±


    ¡°The Qing Consortium¡¯s forces have returned to the front line again.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°The war shouldn¡¯t have gone so smoothly at first, but it was said that a really big case of espionage happened at the Li Consortium¡¯s front line. A very capable spy leaked all of their defensive ns at the front line, and even the whereabouts of the Divine Arms Battalion were revealed by this spy.¡±


    Upon hearing that, Ren Xiaosu did not say a word anymore. Wang Yuchi and the others were all staring at their toes, afraid they wouldugh out loud.


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on with you all?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Please continue speaking.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin sighed. ¡°The Yang Consortium¡¯s losses at the front lines are still pretty big since two of their three armored brigades have been taken out. If the Yang Consortium also had such a spy to support them, it would definitely not have ended up like this.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Ren Xiaosu also sighed and said, ¡°That spy is amazing.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes and said, ¡°You¡¯ve really been praised to the skies, haven¡¯t you? I know that the spy was you. Other than you, no one else would be able to do it! The ce I¡¯ve arranged for you guys to stay at is right next to Luo Lan¡¯s house. That¡¯s where the Yang Consortium hosts their foreign guests. The condition of the ce is still pretty good. If you guys have any other requests, you can ask me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°Is there a university in Stronghold 88?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°Why? Are you guys thinking of attending university?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had been thinking about something all this while. He wanted Wang Yuchi and the others to further their studies so that they could perfect the armor.


    The armor he was using now was a little ¡°unfashionable,¡± be it its appearance or structure, so it still needed to be improved upon.


    Wang Yuchi and the others had said they could try to improve on it, but some things were easier to imagine than to do. Therefore, Wang Yuchi and the others needed to further their studies a little.


    Ren Xiaosu estimated they would have to stay at Stronghold 88 for at least a few years before considering their future ns. So, instead of wasting time, they might as well start preparing for it now.


    If the shield he had formed with the nanoarmor had a better shock-absorbing mechanism, it could have led to a vastly different oue.

 Chapter 308 - Encountering Luo Lan again

    Chapter 308 Encountering Luo Lan again


    When Yang Xiaojin heard that Ren Xiaosu wanted to make arrangements for Wang Yuchi and the other students to attend university, she thought for a moment and said, ¡°Even I can¡¯t directly approve their admission into school. However, I can arrange for them to take the entrance exams in three months¡¯ time.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine too,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Wang Yuchi asked, ¡°Monitor, aren¡¯t you also going to attend university?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°You guys can attend first.¡±


    Although he was very eager to learn, he knew what he was capable of. Even if he studied with all his might for the three remaining months until the exams, it would be impossible for him to qualify for university!


    Unless he grinded his quests every day after getting into the stronghold and got his hands on more Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls, he would not be able to copy Yang Xiaojin¡¯s knowledge of mathematics, physics, and chemistry.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of those messed-up skills that Yang Xiaojin had, he felt that it would definitely be a tedious process.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu noticed a gold shop on the side of the street in the stronghold and wondered if the Li and Qing currencies had also depreciated here. If that were the case, he could do that thing again.


    Even though he could not spend it outside, he could still keep it and use it to pay for items from the pce in the future.


    Along the way, Ren Xiaosu heard the cking of mahjong tiles being shuffleding from the buildings next to the street. He was stunned. ¡°What¡¯s that sound?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin replied, ¡°Oh, they¡¯re ying mahjong.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s that many people ying mahjong?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised.


    When they arrived at the ce Yang Xiaojin had prepared for them, she excused herself as she had a lot of matters to deal with after being away from the stronghold for so long.


    Before she left, Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Please bear with this ce for the time being. I¡¯ll help you get another residence as soon as possible.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was quite satisfied when he saw the house came with a yard. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I find it pretty nice here.¡±


    As soon as Ren Xiaosu and the others entered the yard, they saw Luo Lan¡¯srge head peeking out over the wall and observing them secretly. Ren Xiaosu was tickled. ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    Luo Lan eximed when he realized it was Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You all got arrested too?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°You¡¯ve misunderstood. We aren¡¯t in the same situation as you.¡±


    Someone was even whispering behind the wall, ¡°Boss, who did you see? Can we also take a look?¡±


    Luo Lan snapped, ¡°What¡¯s there to look at? Keep holding me up!¡±


    ¡°Boss, you¡¯re really too heavy....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes twitched a little. So Luo Lan was able to lean over the wall because he had someone holding him up.


    However, it seemed that Luo Lan and his men were still in quite a good state of mind. Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you being confined right now? But you don¡¯t look depressed at all.¡±


    Luo Lan said without a care, ¡°The Yang Consortium won¡¯t do anything to me. A fatty that¡¯s alive is worth more than a dead one. Besides, I¡¯m used to being confined because of Stronghold 111.¡±


    ¡°You sound rather optimistic.¡± Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. ¡°Have you heard about it yet? Qing Zhen has sessfully taken control of the Qing Consortium. Congrattions.¡±


    Luo Lan nearly burst into tears at the words. ¡°Fuck, I¡¯m fucking done for this time. The Yang Consortium will definitely not let me go anymore.¡±


    In an instant, Luo Lan understood his value. As the elder brother of the Qing Consortium¡¯s CEO, he would probably be worth more than a stronghold. Thinking of this, Luo Lan even started feeling a little excited for some reason. Had he really be this valuable?


    ¡°Come,e, lift me up a little higher.¡± Luo Lan said to the people below him, ¡°Let me go to the yard next door to catch up with Brother Xiaosu.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pressed Luo Lan¡¯s head down and refused to let hime over. ¡°As a prisoner, don¡¯t you run over here like that. What if you implicate us?¡±


    Luo Lan said unhappily, ¡°Look, I¡¯m already addressing you as brother. As the saying goes, ¡®p not an apologetic, smiling face.¡¯ How can you treat me like this!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a nce. ¡°But I¡¯m allowed to p someone with a fake smile.¡±


    ¡°I have money!¡± Luo Lan shouted.


    It was only then that Ren Xiaosu let go of his hand. ¡°It¡¯s not about the money. I just wanted to invite you over.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu watched Luo Lan climb over the wall in the yard clumsily. If he didn¡¯t catch him from below, Luo Lan would have probably crashed to the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Since you can freelye into the yard next door, why didn¡¯t you just make your escape from there?¡±


    ¡°The people who originally stayed here at your ce were inclothes cops instructed to keep watch on me.¡± Luo Lan dusted off the dirt on his backside and said, ¡°I didn¡¯t know why they left this morning, so I leaned over the wall to have a look. But that doesn¡¯t mean that they aren¡¯t keeping watch on me anymore. The entire street is filled with the Yang Consortium¡¯s inclothes cops. If I take a step out of here, I¡¯ll probably get turned into Swiss cheese!¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So that was what happened.


    ¡°In the morning, someone even specially came over to clean the house for you all,¡± Luo Lan said as he paced around the yard. When he saw the female students standing behind Jiang Wu, he couldn¡¯t take his eyes off them. ¡°Beautifuldies, let me introduce myself. My name is Luo Lan, and I¡¯m the elder brother of the Qing Consortium¡¯s current CEO!¡±


    But at this moment, no one really wanted to bother with him. Ren Xiaosu was also considering their current situation. Since the entire street was under the Yang Consortium¡¯s surveince, why did Yang Xiaojin bring them here? Was it because she was left with no other choice, or did she want to ce them under surveince as well? Did Yang Xiaojin know about this?


    Wait a minute. It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin told them to bear with this ce for the time being before she left. She must have known about this matter as well, but it was just that she could not do anything about it.


    It seemed that the conflict between the Saboteurs and the Yang Consortium had already affected Yang Xiaojin¡¯s status in the Yang Consortium.


    Yan Liuyuan whispered next to him, ¡°An organization¡¯s attitude will not be changed just because of Big Sister Xiaojin alone. So, Bro, have you thought about what we¡¯ll be facing next?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu patted his head and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. When I recover, the Yang Consortium won¡¯t be able to stop us. When the timees, we¡¯ll head to the north to be bandits. I heard that the area between the Yang Consortium, the Zong Consortium, and Stronghold 178 is an unincorporated zone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was right about that. Even Xu Xianchu had encountered the bandits that tried to attack him when he was on his way to Stronghold 178.


    The bandits had ties with the Zong Consortium when free trade was still active some years ago. Some of them were even the Zong Consortium¡¯s own regr troops in disguise, all so they could plunder and steal goods.


    But over the years, the Zong Consortium had raised a tiger that brought them cmity. Many of the bandits got out of control and lived their carefree andfortable lives in the unincorporated zone.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that living in a ce without rules could actually be quite good, and that he should be able to gain a foothold there with his skills.


    Therefore, he would stay in the stronghold for the next few days to recuperate and observe the situation. If they realize that Stronghold 88 was really not a viable ce to live in, they could just head north and be kings in the mountains.


    But at this moment, someone knocked on the door. Wang Fugui went to open it and was surprised to find a group of people waiting outside with some food.


    A middle-aged man at the door said with a smile, ¡°Hello, everyone, I have instructions from the higher-ups to send you all some food.¡±


    Luo Lan gasped. Why was the difference in treatment so great?

 Chapter 309 - The Bronze Ram of the Yang Consortium

    Chapter 309 The Bronze Ram of the Yang Consortium


    The middle-aged man who came to deliver the food greeted Ren Xiaosu and was about to leave after putting down the food. Luo Lan grumbled for a bit in the yard, ¡°Stop right there! As the elder brother of the Qing Consortium¡¯s CEO, shouldn¡¯t I get some respect too? Why didn¡¯t you all deliver any food to us?! I¡¯m Qing Zhen¡¯s elder brother!¡±


    But the middle-aged man ignored him.


    Luo Lan stopped yelling when he saw them leaving. Then he took a closer look at the food delivered by them. ¡°Wow, these are ingredients for hot pot. The beef slices are already marinated, the tripe is served on ice, and there¡¯s even a broth!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and the others looked at each other. They had also eaten hot pot before, but they never really had any meat dishes in the past.


    The refugees would always have their hot pot in a nine-sectioned pot. In this case, the nine grids were not used for separating the ingredients while cooking, but rather because everyone was poor. Therefore, those who gathered together to eat in one hot pot would get a grid each so that no one would be able to take advantage of the other.


    But back then, the grids were not fixed and were actually only bamboo strips. Therefore, there would always be some who liked stealing other people¡¯s food through the bottom of the pot.


    Even though there were inclothes cops outside keeping watch, they were finally able to get some good rest now that they had arrived at this new ce. Besides, they even got food delivered to them.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, the most important thing for them now was to wait for him to recover rather than cause any further trouble.


    Several tables had been set up in the spacious yard that had three entrances. Up to 100 people could sleep in here. 30 people could easily live here.


    When the broth in the hot pot started boiling, Luo Lan said as he started eating, ¡°Did Yang Xiaojin get you all into Stronghold 88? Why didn¡¯t you head to the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory to look for my brother instead?¡±


    ¡°Why should we go to the Qing Consortium?¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°Your Qing Consortium is in utter chaos at the moment. We might even get implicated if we head there.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s better thaning here to the Yang Consortium at this time, especially since you¡¯re with the Saboteurs,¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°Why do you say that?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Do you know that most of the Saboteurs have already left the Yang Consortium?¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    ¡°Now that the main faction is holding power, the Saboteurs are a marginalized group. Furthermore, the Saboteurs have always been isted from the organization and became an independent force of its own, so that made the Yang Consortium¡¯s Board extremely upset. As such, they ended up parting ways with each other!¡± Luo Lan said with a chuckle, ¡°I must say that I¡¯m really impressed with the Saboteurs since the entire Yang Consortium could not even do anything about them. This is something that can only be done by a group of supernatural beings.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re still praising them when the Saboteurs are trying to destroy your nuclear test site?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Hehe, there¡¯s no contradiction at all.¡± Luo Lanughed and said, ¡°I¡¯m just telling the truth. I don¡¯t have to belittle others to make myself look good. Besides, they won¡¯t be able to find our site. No one can find it!¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Only now did Ren Xiaosu realize the Saboteurs were actually disliked within the Yang Consortium. ¡°By the way, how are you going to leave the Yang Consortium? They probably won¡¯t let you go anymore, right?¡±


    Luo Lan suddenly changed the subject. ¡°Hahaha, have some tripe. Y¡¯know, there¡¯s a particr way to eat tripe. I¡¯ll teach you, after you dip it into the broth¡ª¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly grabbed Luo Lan¡¯s wrist tightly. ¡°There¡¯s no need to teach me. You¡¯ve already taught us using half a te of tripe. We can handle it ourselves.¡±


    ...


    The north of Stronghold 88 was the rich side of the stronghold. The entire area was covered in greenery, a stretch of garden manors.


    In a 3,210-square meter vi, servants were bustling in and out of the dining room. Two steel knives with jewels mounted in their hilts were hanging from the wall in the dining room. They looked extremely valuable. But this exquisitely crafted melee weapon was just a decoration in the era of firearms and explosives. They would only be touched when the servants were cleaning them.


    There was also the symbol of a bronze ram that was exclusive to the Yang Consortium on the hilts. It was said that the founder of the Yang Consortium had almost starved to death in the wilderness a very long time ago. But before he could die from starvation, a ram came up to him and knelt down in front of him, willingly offering itself to be eaten.


    If Ren Xiaosu learned about this story, he would probably flip the table.


    The servants ced all kinds of dishes onto the table, while there were only three people seated at the long table. They were Yang Xiaojin and a middle-aged couple.


    The middle-aged man rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and said, ¡°Xiaojin, I heard that you brought some refugees back?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin stayed silent for a moment before answering, ¡°That¡¯s right, Third Uncle.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not a good habit to be making friends with refugees.¡± Yang Xiaojin¡¯s third uncle picked up his chopsticks. ¡°The ss of a person¡¯s friend determines the ss of said person as well. You¡¯re allowed to go outside because we don¡¯t have to worry about you and so that you can broaden your horizons. But don¡¯t let yourself get carried away, and don¡¯t you pick up those bad habits from your aunt either.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°They¡¯re different.¡±


    Currently, the head of the Yang Consortium¡¯s Board was very old. So half of the organization¡¯s affairs had been handed over to Yang Xiaojin¡¯s third uncle, Yang Yu¡¯an.


    The woman seated across from Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Your third uncle is also doing this for your own good. If your parents were still around, they would say the same too. Refugees aren¡¯t educated, and they don¡¯t have any manners. There are also no topics inmon to discuss when dining together. Therefore, it¡¯s better not to have any close interactions with them. If you want to help them, you should just offer them an appropriate amount of help.¡±


    When the woman said to offer help to the refugees, her expression looked like she meant it as performing charity.


    To Yang Xiaojin, she somehow felt that the vision of her third uncle, Yang Yu¡¯an, and her third aunt, Meng Rong, was still stuck at the level of normal people. However, this world had changed. The quality and strength disyed by that young man had already surpassed most supernatural beings.


    However, that was not the most important issue here.


    Yang Xiaojin put her chopsticks down. ¡°I¡¯m full.¡±


    ¡°I still have some important matters to discuss with you.¡± Yang Yu¡¯an said, ¡°Currently, there shouldn¡¯t be any issues with the battles at the front lines. The opponent we¡¯re facing next will be the Qing Consortium. Qing Zhen is an ambitious man, so it¡¯s not a good thing for our Yang Consortium that he seeded in seizing power. Have the Saboteurs located the Qing Consortium¡¯s test site yet?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°But I doubt they¡¯ll resort to using that kind of weapon in this war.¡±


    ¡°We still have to guard against it nheless,¡± Yang Yu¡¯an said. Currently, the Yang Consortium still supported some of the Saboteurs¡¯ activities. Actually, the reason he was willing to let Yang Xiaojin go out previously was that he was hoping that the Saboteurs could locate the Qing Consortium¡¯s test site so they could destroy thest unknown factor of their expansion ns.


    Yang Yu¡¯an continued, ¡°There¡¯ll be a lengthy conflict with the Qing Consortium in the future, so we should also n ahead and make the Zong Consortium in the north our ally before the Qing Consortium does so. On one hand, it will help cover our rear. On the other hand, ourbined forces will act as a deterrent to the Qing Consortium. It¡¯s not only him who can form alliances. Our Yang Consortium is capable of that as well.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Yang Yu¡¯an. ¡°Third Uncle, what are you getting at?¡±


    ¡°Someone from the Zong Consortium will be arriving in a few days. I want you to go and wee them,¡± Yang Yu¡¯an said.

 Chapter 310 - The northern land’s Zong Consortium

    Chapter 310 The northernnd¡°s Zong Consortium


    The Zong Consortium was located at a corner in the north. The northernnds were barren, and plenty of natural disasters happened there. Therefore, the overall strength of the Zong Consortium had always been inferior to the Yang Consortium¡¯s and the Qing Consortium¡¯s, and they never dared to cause any significant troubles for the organizations to the south.


    Although they did not make any big moves, they still resorted to many cheap tricks. For example, the Zong Consortium was the one who created the problem of the bandits.


    Yang Yu¡¯an¡¯s evaluation of the Zong Consortium was that they were ambitious but did not have the ability to support it. This was also the reason why the Zong Consortium kept getting ideas of infiltrating into Stronghold 178. If that damn group from Stronghold 178 were to attack south, the Yang Consortium and the Qing Consortium would surely get a headache.


    The Zong Consortium had thought of taking advantage of the period when Zhang Jinglin was not around toplete their ¡°Peaceful Evolution¡±[1] strategy on Stronghold 178. However, they underestimated the belief of that damn group of people from Stronghold 178.


    After Zhang Jinglin returned to Stronghold 178, all of the ns the Zong Consortium made over a decade went up in smoke. At that moment, everyone realized Stronghold 178 had borne the name of Zhang all this while.


    If Yang Yu¡¯an were aware of the friendship between Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin, he would probably treat Ren Xiaosu as an honored guest immediately. That was the most terrifying power in the northwestern borders. They were all brave warriors shaped by the harsh environment who were not afraid of death.


    But it wasn¡¯t only Yang Yu¡¯an who was unaware of that. Even Ren Xiaosu did not know who exactly Zhang Jinglin was. But he had never thought of relying on him either, even handing the rmendation letter from him to Xu Xianchu.


    At this moment, Yang Yu¡¯an said, ¡°The young man from the Zong Consortium who will being is called Zong Cheng, and he¡¯s in charge of the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive strategies. Although he¡¯s very young, he alreadymands an important position. We¡¯re getting old, and the world belongs to the younger generation now. I heard that a young officer named Xu Xianchu has also risen through the ranks at Stronghold 178 recently, and he¡¯s highly regarded by Zhang Jinglin. I find the name quite familiar. Isn¡¯t he that Xu Xianchu you¡¯ve crossed paths with before? Do you know him well?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was stunned. She was not on familiar terms with Xu Xianchu. Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu who had a great rtionship with Xu Xianchu.


    All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin found it a little funny. How did the currently famous figures at Stronghold 178, people like Zhang Jinglin and Xu Xianchu, have such a close friendship with Ren Xiaosu? Thinking of this, Yang Xiaojin felt that Stronghold 178 also seemed to have be a little bit closer to her for some reason.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I don¡¯t know him well. We¡¯ve traveled together before, but I¡¯m not really friends with him.¡±


    Yang Yu¡¯an said, ¡°Hm, you should still be friends. From now on, you can work on forming a rtionship with Stronghold 178. If we can get their support, even Qing Zhen will have to back off.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin did not say anything. Stronghold 178 would never be willing to deal with the interior organizations. The people from Stronghold 178 were bloodthirsty, so if the Yang Consortium really wanted to get close with Stronghold 178, she would probably need Ren Xiaosu to show up in order to deal with them.


    Then Yang Yu¡¯an continued, ¡°That Zong Cheng is about the same age as you, and I heard he¡¯s also a supernatural being. This will be a great opportunity.¡±


    It was evident what he meant. Yang Xiaojin frowned. When her third aunt, Meng Rong, noticed, she said, ¡°Don¡¯t you try to snipe him on the road. Thest time, you...¡±


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s fine eyebrows hidden under the shadow of her cap raised slightly. ¡°Alright, I understand.¡±


    ...


    It was the next morning when Yang Xiaojin came to Ren Xiaosu and his group¡¯s residence again. When Yan Liuyuan heard the sound of knocking on the door, he knew it had to be Xiaojin. As it turned out, it was her.


    Ren Xiaosu was squatting on the ground and brushing his teeth. He spat out a mouthful of toothpaste and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re here this early?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin got straight to the point. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that Wang Yuchi and the others won¡¯t be able to sit for the entrance exams.¡±


    Yesterday afternoon, she contacted the relevant departments about this matter. But when her third uncle heard about it, he immediately stopped her.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Was there a problem?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s because you guys aren¡¯t residents of the stronghold.¡± Yang Xiaojin said in a low voice, ¡°Furthermore, the university is conducting some confidential research. So you aren¡¯t allowed to get involved.¡±


    To put it simply, they were not from the Yang Consortium and neither did the Yang Consortium have any intention of letting them be one of their own. That was because Yang Yu¡¯an did not like refugees and did not think they could be useful.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not dwell on this matter. He asked again, ¡°What about Liuyuan and Dalong? They¡¯ll only be attending junior high.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan stepped forward. ¡°But I¡¯m not a stronghold resident either!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, ¡°Both of them can attend school, and enrollment has already been handled as well.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong nearly cried upon hearing that. ¡°We really aren¡¯t residents of the stronghold. We¡¯re just refugees! Refugees do not deserve to attend school!¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough, you two.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at them in amusement. ¡°You¡¯re just going there to gain knowledge and learn how to solve problems. You¡¯re making it sound like you¡¯re going to jail. Stop crying about it already.¡±


    ¡°But even though Wang Yuchi and the others aren¡¯t allowed to sit for the entrance exams, I still made library cards for you all. There¡¯s a library at the center of the stronghold where you can borrow books,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Wang Yuchi was stunned. ¡°We can do that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you can,¡± Yang Xiaojin said with a nod.


    As civilization progressed, a lot of people abandoned the pursuit of knowledge. However, some people were still determined to fill in the missing gaps.


    Human technology had never beenpletely lost, but that only referred to the overall state of technology. A portion of it had still been lost with time. As such, the current developmental direction of technology varied greatly from the times before The Cataclysm.


    This was not determined by what humans needed but on what kind of technology was left behind and what resources were suitable for development.


    Someone once found a researchboratory of a civilization from before The Cataclysm, and the information found there had been auctioned at a certain stronghold in the Central ins. The price it was sold at was unbelievably astronomical.


    And how did civilization pass on its legacies? It depended on words and symbols passed down in writing.


    Although the various organizations also had their own libraries, one had to be of a certain status to use them. When Wang Yuchi and the other students attended school in the stronghold, they were not allowed to enter the library because they were not qualified.


    Thinking about it, Yang Xiaojin must have spent quite a bit of effort to help them apply for the library cards.


    Ren Xiaosu was very happy. ¡°OK, it¡¯s not a bad idea to go to the library to study by yourself. Thanks a bunch.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Is there anything else you need?¡±


    ¡°Uh...¡± Ren Xiaosu thought carefully and said, ¡°Are there any teachers in this stronghold who teach hand-to-handbat? I would like to learn it systematically.¡±


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu had always fought ruthlessly in the wilderness by relying on his instincts he had achieved after long periods of training. Whether it was power generation or hitting weak spots, all of that was slowly umted through experience. So his martial skill had always remained at the intermediate level as he only relied on his ferocity.


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment. ¡°I¡¯ll think of something!¡±


    Next to them, Yan Liuyuan suddenly realized that as long as it was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s request, Yang Xiaojin would not reject it. He knew Ren Xiaosu had saved Yang Xiaojin¡¯s life before, so it seemed to make sense to think that way.


    Suddenly, Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°There¡¯s something...¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°People from the Zong Consortium in the north might being to Stronghold 88 soon. Can youe with me to wee them when they get here?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°OK.¡±


    [1] The ¡°Peaceful Evolution¡± theory in international political thought refers to the alleged attempt to effect a political transformation of the Chinese socialist system by peaceful means, primarily by the United States. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_Evolution_theory

 Chapter 311 - The young man in the library

    Chapter 311 The young man in the library


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life suddenly became peaceful. Every morning after breakfast, he would lead Wang Yuchi and the other students in their physical training. He would practically push them to their limits before stopping.


    While they were training, Luo Lan leaned against the wall andmented, ¡°You guys are too reckless training like that. It¡¯s neither methodical nor scientific.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu remembered Luo Lan was a capable military leader, so he would definitely be proficient at this. He looked at Luo Lan and said, ¡°Don¡¯t just mouth off like that. If you say that my methods aren¡¯t scientific, how ¡¯bout you show us how to do it then?¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Luo Lan¡¯s eyes narrowed and revealed a shrewdness in him. ¡°Don¡¯t try to goad me into training them for you. No way!¡±


    ¡°I can share our food with you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly.


    ¡°Are you that nice?¡± Luo Lan didn¡¯t quite believe it.


    The difference in their meals had be apparent. The food the Yang Consortium provided for Luo Lan and his men were steamed buns, napa cabbages, and pickled vegetables, while Ren Xiaosu andpany were given lots of meat to eat. Ren Xiaosu had never lived sofortably before. He even had drumsticks to eat every day without fail!


    When the drumsticks and braised pork were ced onto the table, the aroma even wafted over the wall to the other side. Luo Lan, who was next door, almost cried from craving it!


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You are responsible for drawing up training ns for them and supervising their training. Then you and your men cane over and eat together every day.¡±


    There were only four people next door, including Luo Lan himself. Fatty Luo hade here as the representative of the Qing Consortium for negotiations, so he could not bring too many people with him. As such, Ren Xiaosu estimated it and felt it shouldn¡¯t be much of a problem to share some food with them.


    Luo Lan rubbed his hands gleefully and said, ¡°I feel so bad about it, but I¡¯m not doing this for your food. As the elder brother of the Qing Consortium¡¯s CEO, would Ick that little bit of food? I just wanted to help you all because I thought your training n was not methodical at all!¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, yes, you¡¯re absolutely right,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he did not have time to argue with him.


    ¡°But I¡¯m a little curious. What are you training them for?¡± Luo Lan asked. ¡°If you¡¯re not nning on letting them join the military, this strength training won¡¯t be useful for them at all. Without a proper system to train in, an individual¡¯s strength will never be able to stand up to a supernatural being¡¯s strength.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ignored him. He couldn¡¯t possibly say it was so Wang Yuchi and the others could take more nanomachines into their bodies in the future, right?


    Indeed, the significance of their training would not be that great if they didn¡¯t have the nanomachines. But the reason why Ren Xiaosu made them train was so they could gain better control of the nanomachines in the future. They would have to at least reduce the dy to less than 0.1 seconds so they could bebat effective.


    If he had the support of eight ¡°nanosoldiers,¡± it would be a considerable level ofbat strength. Besides, there would be more than eight of them if he included Yan Liuyuan, Li Qingzheng, and the others. Even the female students were starting to train themselves spontaneously.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu had not nned to let the female students participate in battle. But after going through so much hardship, they had also grown up a lot.


    As for where the nanomachines woulde from, Ren Xiaosu would have to find a way to get them. Wasn¡¯t the Yang Consortium manufacturing nanomachines as well? Since the pce could reset the Li Consortium¡¯s nanomachines, it could definitely reset the Yang Consortium ones as well.


    Ren Xiaosu, who had beenpletely set free, would head to the library every morning. The first time he arrived at the entrance of the library, he realized it was not open yet. It wasn¡¯t until 10 AM that he finally saw a middle-aged man with unkempt hair arrive.


    When the man saw Ren Xiaosu waiting at the entrance, he was taken aback. ¡°You¡¯re here to read?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Doesn¡¯t the sign here state that the library opens at 8.30 AM?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± The man said, ¡°People usually only starting in the afternoon, and there are very few visitors to the library as well. So it doesn¡¯t really matter if Ie in a littlete. How about this? If youe early in the future, call me in advance and I¡¯ll be here to open the door for you.¡±


    Then the uncle wrote a string of numbers for Ren Xiaosu. It was his home telephone number.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Why was this so different from what Wang Yuchi had described? It seemed like anyone could just walk in and read whatever books they wanted with the library¡¯s current level of security. Was there even a need for a library card?


    Meanwhile, the man wondered where this kid hade from. Did he suddenly vow to study hard now that it was winter break, in the hopes he could strive to be a useful pir of the stronghold in the future? His enthusiasm would probably subside after a few days, right?


    This was what happened to his neighbor¡¯s child. During the holidays, he woulde up with plenty of lesson ns for himself. If everything proceeded ording to n, the child would definitely be an academic expert of his generation and contribute to humanity¡¯s improvement.


    However, a n was ultimately just a n.


    When the library was first built, the Yang Consortium would even deploy soldiers to guard it. This was to prevent people from stealing the books. Butter on, they realized the stronghold residents were not even interested in reading books after they graduated from high school. On the contrary, when a small-time celebrity released a new song in the stronghold, swarms of people would gather to attend the press conference.


    With time, only a middle-aged man was left here to look after the library.


    The next day, Ren Xiaosu woke up at 7 AM and gave the man a call to have him open the library so as to prevent yesterday¡¯s situation from happening again.


    On the third day, it was the same.


    By the tenth day, the man thought something was strange. After opening the library in the morning, he pulled Ren Xiaosu back. ¡°Hold on!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    The man, who had dark eye circles after ying mahjong all night, sucked his teeth and said, ¡°You¡¯ve beening here every day. Don¡¯t you need to rest?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like reading books makes me tired.¡± Ren Xiaosu was confused. ¡°So why would I need to rest?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be honest with you.¡± The man said, ¡°It wasn¡¯t easy for me to save up some money to buy this job in the civil service. I heard that a librarian¡¯s job is easy, and I wouldn¡¯t have to work from dawn til dusk. But since you arrived, it feels like I have to slog as hard as I used to ten years ago!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian with surprise. ¡°Then what can I do?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think you should treat me to breakfast?¡± An Yuqian said with a dark expression.


    Ren Xiaosu scrutinized An Yuqian. ¡°Are you so poor that you don¡¯t even have money for breakfast?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha,¡± An Yuqianughed long and hard. ¡°Kid, how dare you say I don¡¯t have enough money for breakfast? Although, you couldn¡¯t be more right about that....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pped a ten-yuan bill into An Yuqian¡¯s hand. ¡°Go and eat breakfast. I won¡¯t join you since I still have a lot of books I want to read.¡±


    Wang Yuchi and the other students woulde to the library every afternoon to study from 1 to 6 PM. Since they could not borrow the books out of the library, they could only read them here.


    Ren Xiaosu felt he was worse at studying than Wang Yuchi and the other students, so he had to spend twice as much time trying to make up for it.


    When An Yuqian returned to the library after breakfast, he deliberately went to check on Ren Xiaosu. In the huge library, Ren Xiaosu was the only person sitting quietly at a table. The flipping of pages from time to time was the only sound that could be heard in the entire library.

 Chapter 312 - The librarian

    Chapter 312 The librarian


    In the morning, Ren Xiaosu was doing some reading in the library. Meanwhile, An Yuqian was snoring loudly as he slept in his chair at the entrance.


    When the sun shone onto An Yuqian¡¯s face from the outside, he would even cover his face with a book to shield himself from the light.


    Every morning, when Ren Xiaosu arrived, he would automatically give ten yuan to An Yuqian. Moreover, there was no need for Ren Xiaosu to keep calling An Yuqian anymore as he would be waiting at the door every day at 8.30 AM sharp while yawning.


    Gradually, An Yuqian found it extremely ufortable that he had to always sleep like that. He used to always y mahjong throughout the night before heading home to sleep well during the morning. But since Ren Xiaosu starteding to the library, he could only sleep while sitting in his chair at the library.


    How could sleeping in a chair be morefortable than sleeping in a bed?


    As no one else was using the library, An Yuqian purposely observed what Ren Xiaosu was reading. However, he diedughing when he saw that Ren Xiaosu was actually reading the tenth grade textbooks for math, physics, and chemistry!


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s persistence ining to the library for so many days finally made An Yuqian change his opinion of him. He had thought that for once, a studious kid had finallye to the library. But to his surprise, this studious kid could only read tenth grade textbooks.


    Judging by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s age, shouldn¡¯t he be in 12th grade at the least? So it turned out he was just a weak student who was starting to study from scratch?


    An Yuqian counted on his fingers and realized the college entrance exams were only three months away. How could he make it in time if he was still only studying the tenth grade curriculum?


    Even though An Yuqian was pacing around him, Ren Xiaosu did not bother looking at him.


    An Yuqian could not help saying, ¡°Isn¡¯t it a little toote to study now? The college entrance exams are only three months away!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at him. ¡°I¡¯m not sitting for the entrance exams.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not sitting for the entrance exams? Then why are you studying tenth grade math, physics, and chemistry?¡± An Yuqian asked in surprise. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you start working at a factory after you graduate from high school? What¡¯s the point of learning all this stuff?¡±


    ¡°Knowledge will always be useful, and whatever I learn belongs to me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    An Yuqian shrugged and turned around. ¡°Just don¡¯t forget to pay for my breakfast every morning. If not for you, I wouldn¡¯t need to eat breakfast. This expenditure is incurred only because of you.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    However, An Yuqian suddenly realized that other than Ren Xiaosu, there was another group of students who came to study in the afternoon. There were over 20 male and female students, and they had been sitting in the library all afternoon for several days in a row.


    Even though there were also others who came to study in the afternoon, it would not be so frequent and scheduled. Furthermore, their numbers were always the same. This group of students... actually sat next to Ren Xiaosu in an organized and disciplined manner.


    After waking up in the afternoon, An Yuqian got closer to have a look and realized Wang Yuchi and the others were reading books rted to mechanical engineering. This topic exceeded the sybus of high school.


    When the library was about to close, Wang Yuchi suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Monitor, should we go home now since it¡¯s closing time?¡±


    An Yuqian was stunned. The young man who paid for his breakfast every day was actually the ss monitor of this group of students? These normal students were learning knowledge beyond their years while the monitor was still studying tenth grade textbooks? What sort of nonsensical crap was this.


    Ren Xiaosu took a look at the sky and said, ¡°Y¡¯all can head back first. I wanna read a little while longer.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± An Yuqian could not sit still anymore. ¡°Dontcha know it¡¯s time for me to leave too?!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give you 50 yuan,¡± Ren Xiaosu said without even raising his head.


    An Yuqian said unhappily, ¡°That won¡¯t do. I have to leave now to y mahjong. Who knows if I¡¯ll recover my losses tonight!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quietly put the book back onto the bookshelf before turning to leave.


    The first thing Ren Xiaosu said when he saw An Yuqian the next morning was, ¡°So did you recover your losses?¡±


    ¡°Kid, why are you so annoying?¡± An Yuqian was upset. ¡°Should you even be asking something like that?¡±


    ¡°Then you must have lost.¡± Ren Xiaosu pped a ten-yuan bill into An Yuqian¡¯s hand. ¡°Go on, get your breakfast.¡±


    As An Yuqian held the ten-yuan bill, he felt insulted.


    In the afternoon, when Wang Yuchi and the others came to the library again, An Yuqian suddenly sat down across from Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu looked up at him in surprise. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±


    An Yuqian said, ¡°You guys must be trying to learn more about mechanical engineering, right? However, you¡¯re all reading the wrong books!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. He nced at the books Wang Yuchi and the other students were holding. ¡°Then what books should they be reading?¡±


    Without a teacher¡¯s guidance, they had to learn everything by themselves. It was like crossing a river while holding a stone in their arms. Their progress was extremely slow.


    Although Jiang Wu was a teacher, she was only anguage teacher.


    An Yuqian replied, ¡°For 500 yuan, I¡¯ll tell you all what books you should read!¡±


    In response, Ren Xiaosu threw 500 yuan over. Wang Yuchi whispered from beside him, ¡°Monitor, why do I get the feeling that he¡¯s a scammer?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°A scammer can¡¯t possibly not even have any money for breakfast.¡±


    An Yuqian wanted to curse out loud. Ren Xiaosu was insinuating that he was not even qualified to be a scammer!


    An Yuqian said with a sneer, ¡°If you want to properly study mechanical engineering, don¡¯t try to run before you learn how to walk. You have to first learn math and physics!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu leaned back in his chair and listened quietly. Meanwhile, Wang Yuchi and the others opened their notebooks and were preparing to take notes.


    ¡°I suggest you all first read Chen Jixiu¡¯s Mathematical Analysis as an introduction, then learn linear algebra. You won¡¯t have learned enough about this topic in high school.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to read General Physics.¡± An Yuqian threw a book onto the table. ¡°Just read The Feynman Lectures on Physics.¡±


    ¡°True Analysis... Forget it, you don¡¯t have to read that yet.¡±


    ¡°As for the Methods of Mathematical Physics, you can have a look at Wang Dexin¡¯s books. All the books cover real functions, special functions, equations, and so on. There isn¡¯t much of a difference between them.


    ¡°You should also read up on thermodynamics.¡±


    An Yuqian kept talking for half an hour. Ren Xiaosu started to get the feeling that it would take several years to learn everything. But at this moment, An Yuqian smacked his lips and said, ¡°And that¡¯s just the beginning. If you really want to gain a deeper understanding of mechanical engineering, you¡¯re all seriouslycking!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu finally understood. So this guy was just rambling and trying to let off some steam. However, Ren Xiaosu also realized that An Yuqian was not an ordinary person. Even a scammer would probably not recite all that just to earn 500 yuan. Most importantly, no one could possibly teach him how to say what he just said.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian and said, ¡°If you teach them, I¡¯ll pay you 500 yuan for each lesson.¡±


    An Yuqian¡¯s eyes lit up, but he immediately held himself back. ¡°But my time is very precious.¡±


    ¡°400.¡±


    ¡°Hey, why is the offer getting lower?!¡±


    ¡°300.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll teach! 500 yuan! And not a cent less!¡±


    Only then did Ren Xiaosu smile. ¡°If you don¡¯t teach them well, I won¡¯t pay you.¡±


    ¡°How can I not teach them well?¡± An Yuqian¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°I... Forget it, you wouldn¡¯t understand even if I told you!¡±


    But An Yuqian suddenly felt there was much more about this young man before him than he had thought. Would a normal student pay 500 yuan just to attend a lesson?

 Chapter 313 - Under watch

    Chapter 313 Under watch


    As soon as An Yuqian received the payment from Ren Xiaosu, he went to a second-hand market and purchased a ckboard. After he brought it back to the library, the venue was all set for teaching.


    At first, he thought the teaching process would be very tedious based on what he knew of Ren Xiaosu. After all, if the ss monitor was still studying the tenth grade curriculum, how much better off would the other students be?


    At most, they should only be slightly better than Ren Xiaosu, right? Although they had been reading up on mechanical engineering books beyond their level, this gave An Yuqian the negative impression they were trying to run without learning how to walk first.


    But when he started teaching them, An Yuqian realized Wang Yuchi and the others had a really good foundation.


    Although he was giving a lecture on the advanced foundation of math and physics, not things a high school student could easily grasp, Wang Yuchi and the other students picked it up with ease in ss.


    Regardless of which student, they would all be considered top students at any of the high schools around. They were the type of students who stood a chance of getting into university!


    An Yuqian frowned and asked, ¡°Are you all nning on getting into university? You don¡¯t have to learn these things to qualify, though.¡±


    Wang Yuchi answered, ¡°We¡¯re not nning to attend uni.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± An Yuqian did not say anything else. It was quite a pity that these fine young students were not thinking about attending university.


    But if these students were not nning to do that, why would they still want to learn all this? However, that had nothing to do with An Yuqian. He only had to teach them and collect his pay.


    However, An Yuqian realized Wang Yuchi and the others were always drenched in sweat every afternoon when they came over to the library. It was as though they had just finished exercising.


    He asked, ¡°What have you guys been doing?¡±


    ¡°Fitness training,¡± Wang Yuchi answered simply.


    This confused An Yuqian even more. ¡°Why do you have to do fitness training? Are you nning to enlist in the military?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then what are you doing the exercises for?¡± An Yuqian was still confused.


    ¡°What are you asking that for?¡± Wang Yuchi became wary. ¡°We will just train if our ss monitor tells us to do so.¡±


    As An Yuqian was their teacher now, Wang Yuchi would still be respectful towards those who imparted knowledge to them. But if An Yuqian kept questioning them on matters unrted to learning, he felt he would have to be a bit more cautious.


    An Yuqian felt that something was off. ¡°He¡¯s only your ss monitor, so why do you listen to him so much?¡±


    Why were they so obedient that they did whatever Ren Xiaosu asked of them, be it learning new knowledge or fitness training?


    As a matter of fact, An Yuqian was also the monitor of his ss back in the days when he was still in school. Did anyone take him seriously back then? Why was there such a huge difference even though they were both ss monitors?


    ...


    These days, Ren Xiaosu would go out by himself every morning and return home only at night.


    Such peaceful days were really rare for him.


    Ren Xiaosu really enjoyed days like these. It would be even better if no one were tailing him.


    Although someone imed the inclothes cops who were watching over them had already left, Ren Xiaosu found out by the third day that there were different people following him around every day whenever he went out.


    In order to tail him, they even switched personnel at intervals while following him. Whenever an intersection appeared, the lead person tailing him would walk off in a different direction and let the next person take over the tailing.


    This group of people were quite professional in their methods. If not for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s keen sense of observation he developed in the wilderness, he would probably not have noticed their presence.


    Who wanted to follow him? And why would they follow him?


    Ren Xiaosu was quite sure that some of his identities were not known to these people yet, so in the eyes of many, he should only be a normal refugee.


    Furthermore, Yang Xiaojin was definitely not in the know. If she had arranged for this, she should have known that if Ren Xiaosu really wanted to run away, these normal people would not be able to catch up to him.


    As these people continued tailing him day after day, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fractures healed. Many of his fractures no longer required the nanomachines to hold them together anymore.


    After he fully recovered from his injuries, he could set aside some time to take thebat sses. He was looking forward to the ss a lot.


    An Yuqian would always see Ren Xiaosu sitting quietly in the library. Unless he got up to get a different book to read, he would not move at all.


    On one hand, Ren Xiaosu was really quite focused when he read. On the other hand, he felt pain whenever he made any movements. Therefore, he would not make any unnecessary movements unless he was required to.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was on his way to the library. He didn¡¯t n to alert the people who were keeping watch on him. Although he did not know what their motives were, it would be best to let them think that he was just a normal person.


    Zhang Jinglin had offered him a little tip about what to do when he suspected he was being followed. In that scenario, he should stop and look at his watch. When he did that, the person tailing him would also subconsciously take a look at their own watch.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not do so because he did not have a watch.


    ...


    In the Yang Consortium¡¯s manor, Yang Yu¡¯an was carefully going through a document. As he was a little nearsighted, he would put on his sses whenever he went through any documents.


    But he did not usually wear sses when he was outside. That was because his nearsightedness was not particrly severe. It was probably only in the range of 200 to 300 degrees.


    At this moment, a housekeeper came in and said, ¡°Sir, someone from the Intelligence Service is here to see you.¡±


    Yang Yu¡¯an thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Show them in.¡±


    A woman walked in. She was very young and probably only in her early twenties. She wasn¡¯t particrly beautiful, but she had an air of elegance to her. Ignoring her identity as a secret agent, she would look just like any other young woman with a charming demeanor if she were out on the streets.


    She came over to Yang Yu¡¯an¡¯s table and said respectfully, ¡°Boss, I¡¯ve been monitoring that kid for some days, but I haven¡¯t discovered anything unusual yet. Apart from heading to the library and returning back home day in and day out, he doesn¡¯t go anywhere else.¡±


    ¡°Great work, Yingxue. Have you ever lost track of him before?¡± Yang Yu¡¯an asked.


    ¡°No.¡± The girl whose name was Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°He¡¯s really stupid and didn¡¯t even realize we were tailing him. As you know, this is what I¡¯m best at, so I believe in my judgment.¡±


    ¡°Very good,¡± Yang Yu¡¯an said. He was starting to wonder if Ren Xiaosu might really just be a normal refugee after all.


    He heard of the name Ren Xiaosu back when he was wanted by the Qing Consortium, but he was quickly taken off the list. The Qing Consortium had removed his name after confirming internally that he was just a refugee.


    Yang Yu¡¯an had also asked Lu Yuan about Ren Xiaosu, but Lu Yuan told him he had not heard of this person before. Yang Yu¡¯an asked him whether it was Yang Xiaojin who asked him to say that, but Lu Yuan denied it.


    Yang Yu¡¯an frowned. Could it be that he was really just a refugee? He somehow felt that someone was hiding something from him, but he had no evidence. But from the looks of it, Ren Xiaosu really did seem like just a refugee.


    Yang Yu¡¯an looked at Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°Do not take the investigations lightly. I still feel that something is wrong. How could a normal refugee possibly attract Xiaojin¡¯s attention? If and when necessary, you can go and test him.¡±

 Chapter 314 - Spare Me, Great Lord

    Chapter 314 Spare Me, Great Lord


    Ren Xiaosu continued heading to the library as usual every day. In recent days, he discovered the library would already be open by the time he arrived, and An Yuqian would be snoring loudly in his chair at the entrance. It was clear that he had yed mahjong all night again.


    By rights, earning 500 yuan each day would be enough for An Yuqian to make a living. The monthly ie for an average family of three in the stronghold was only 4,000 to 5,000 yuan. With a monthly sry of 15,000 yuan, he should be living a veryfortable life. But An Yuqian just had to use this money to y mahjong.


    Even though Ren Xiaosu was footing all of the tuition, he had to get Wang Fugui to secretly trade a small amount of gold for cash. After all, they did not have any sources of ie right now.


    Fortunately, he still had quite a lot of gold left. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu hoped he coulde across the ruins of another civilization again or something simr in the future. Human civilization before The Cataclysm was full of gems.


    If it were really as Yang Xiaojin had said, any single item from a researchboratory could be exchanged for an inexhaustible amount of money. That would absolutely be a godsend.


    It was no wonder Qing Zhen had spared no effort in trying to excavate that researchboratory in the Jing Mountains.


    Cigarettes could go bad and wine could vtilize, but paper documents stored away in enclosed areas were simply priceless.


    Of course, some people had found wine that hadn¡¯t vtilized yet, but that was wine that had been stored in specially sealed packaging. If that were sold, the seller would earn a vast fortune overnight.


    Ren Xiaosu knocked on the table in front of An Yuqian. ¡°Have you eaten breakfast yet?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± An Yuqian looked at Ren Xiaosu and said sleepily, ¡°Not yet. I was waiting for you to hand me the money for breakfast. When I passed by the stuffed bun shop this morning, the smell was heavenly.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pped a ten-yuan bill onto the table and said peeved, ¡°Go and eat breakfast, I¡¯ll help you look after the library.¡±


    ¡°Haha.¡± An Yuqian pocketed the ten-yuan bill and said, ¡°You¡¯re such a good person!¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why must you spend all your money on ying mahjong?¡±


    In his opinion, An Yuqian was definitely not ordinary. How could someone who came up with a proper lesson n in such a short time to teach math and physics in logical steps be an ordinary librarian?


    The basic knowledge might seem very simple on its own, but to form them into a systematic lesson n was a truly remarkable ability.


    An Yuqianughed and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Then let me ask you: What can I do if I don¡¯t y mahjong?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stumped as he really could note up with an answer.


    As An Yuqian walked out of the library, he waved. ¡°Since the world is so boring, isn¡¯t it better to just y mahjong all day and sit around while we wait to die?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. Well, sounded about right.


    After a while, An Yuqian came back. He even had a bag of stuffed buns for Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Try some. The buns from this shop are incredible. You don¡¯t look like a local, so I bet you haven¡¯t tried the buns from this shop before. You know, the proprietress of this bun shop is gorgeous. Her nickname is ¡®Bun Beauty¡¯!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. After he saw Yang Xiaojin¡¯s looks when she took off her cap, he felt he had already encountered what humans would define as true beauty.


    As for that bun shop¡¯s proprietress, Ren Xiaosu had seen her before. She was definitely not as beautiful as An Yuqian had imed. It could also be because the Bun Beauty had chopped scallions sprinkled all over her face when he passed by the shop, leading him to subconsciously think she was not that pretty after all.


    An Yuqian nced at the book Ren Xiaosu was holding. ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve also read this novel titled Spare Me, Great Lord. It¡¯s quite a good book, but unfortunately, only the first two volumes have been preserved after The Cataclysm. No one knows where the rest of the volumes are.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°I was just browsing.¡±


    ¡°The books you read are quite random.¡± An Yuqian said, recalling, ¡°Each morning, you read a variety of different books before switching to reading textbooks in the afternoon. If I remember correctly, you¡¯ve read books on economics, literature, history, science, geography, and evenics.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    ¡°So what do you really want to read?¡± An Yuqian asked, ¡°There must be a purpose, right? I can divide reading into three categories. The first category is entertainment and is done purely because one simply likes reading books. The second category is information. For example, you can read a recipe if you want to learn how to cook. The third category is knowledge. For example, reading textbooks because you¡¯re taking the entrance exams and doing problem sets.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯m probably reading for entertainment,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°But what are you trying to find out from the books?¡± An Yuqian asked.


    ¡°I want to know what this world is really like.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°In the past, I didn¡¯t have many opportunities to read books nor had the chance to systematically learn about the world. So I want to cherish the opportunities that I have now.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± An Yuqian nodded. ¡°But there are still two types of books you haven¡¯t read yet.¡±


    ¡°Which are they?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had not really taken note before.


    ¡°You don¡¯t read books on philosophy. I saw you take out a book the day before, but you ced it back after reading two pages,¡± An Yuqian said.


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. He had not expected An Yuqian to be observing him so closely. ¡°I just didn¡¯t feel like reading it.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s philosophy. It¡¯s such an interesting topic.¡± An Yuqianmented, ¡°How can you not want to read it?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want to torture myself,¡± Ren Xiaosu said and smiled.


    This time, it was An Yuqian¡¯s turn to be stunned. He fell silent for a while and then said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re interesting. The meaning of philosophy is to understand the world through self-reflection, but they¡¯re written based on the understanding of others, so it¡¯s fine not to read it. But why didn¡¯t you read political books?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Because the world itself is much more interesting than politics.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± An Yuqian smacked his lips. ¡°I suddenly feel like we might have a lot inmon.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned serious again and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡±


    Just as An Yuqian was about to fly into a rage, a voice suddenly came from the entrance. ¡°Hello, is anyone around? I¡¯d like to enter the library to read.¡±


    The voice was pleasant and melodious. When An Yuqian turned around to have a look, his eyes lit up. ¡°Coming,ing.¡±


    A charming woman was standing at the door with a head of wavy, long hair. Ren Xiaosu could just make out her earrings dangling down to her cheeks, as though they were secretly trying to seduce him.


    The woman, wearing a pair of delicate high heels, waited for An Yuqian to check her library card. An Yuqian said, ¡°You¡¯re Ms. Zhou Yingxue, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Zhou Yingxue nodded.


    ¡°OK, that¡¯ll do.¡± An Yuqian followed the script. ¡°You aren¡¯t allowed to borrow any books out of this library. If there¡¯s any damage to the books, please contact me immediately. I hope you take good care of the books here. After all, many of them can¡¯t be found anywhere else anymore.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, thank you,¡± Zhou Yingxue said with a gentle smile.


    An Yuqian was mesmerized by her. ¡°Please let me know if you need anything.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue slowly walked towards Ren Xiaosu and sat down across from him. She looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Hello.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up and said, ¡°Hello, auntie.¡±


    From his desk, An Yuqian got anxious when he heard that. How could the kid talk this way? ¡®Even if Yue Lao[1] used rebar to unite your destinies, you would probably snap the bar with a response like that!¡¯


    [1] Yue Lao (Chinese: ÔÂÏÂÀÏÈË; pinyin: Yu¨¨ Xi¨¤ L¨£or¨¦n; literally: ¡®old man under the moon¡¯) is a god of marriage and love in Chinese mythology. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_Lao

 Chapter 315 - Controlled fusion

    Chapter 315 Controlled fusion


    When Zhou Yingxue heard Ren Xiaosu address her as ¡°auntie,¡± she couldn¡¯t hold it in any longer. Thinking of how she was only 25 years old and still in her prime, how did she end up being called an auntie?


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu did not really think that Zhou Yingxue was old. It was just that he had seen her outside before.


    The people from the Intelligence Service who were watching Ren Xiaosu thought their tailing operation was wless. They even believed that Ren Xiaosu was extremely stupid to not have noticed them.


    But actually, Ren Xiaosu purely didn¡¯t care about them as he just wanted to heal from his injuries.


    Besides, it would have been better if they had gotten some nanosoldiers toe and keep watch on him. Normal people were not able to arouse Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest in the slightest.


    However, Zhou Yingxue was not an average person either. She said with a smile, ¡°At my age, it¡¯s more appropriate if you address me as big sister. Are you familiar with the library?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head.


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. He had beening to the library every single day for almost half a month now, yet he was saying he was not familiar with it?


    She continued with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m looking for a book titled The Theory of Time. Do you know where it is?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at her. He had already given an attitude, trying to distance himself from her, yet she still persisted in striking up a conversation with him.


    But at this moment, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Quest: Help the knowledge seeker determine the correct location of the book.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Why did this quest have to be assigned to him now of all times? Moreover, the quest even specifically stated it had to be the correct location, so he could not just point to a random spot. However, he really did not know where the book was.


    He would have to do the quest no matter what. He looked at Zhou Yingxue and tried his luck by saying, ¡°The Theory of Time must be in this library. Why don¡¯t you look for it yourself?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was taken aback by the answer. ¡®You might as well say that the book is inside Stronghold 88! Of course I know it¡¯s in this library!¡¯


    However, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t care about that. He thought that since the pce was just asking him to pinpoint the correct location, it wouldn¡¯t be wrong to say that the book was right here in the library, right?


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded Basic Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to give his own ingenuity a thumbs up. There was probably no one else who could match him in terms of exploiting loopholes when it came to doing quests!


    Seeing how awkward it was, An Yuqian quickly found the book titled The Theory of Time and handed it to Zhou Yingxue. Zhou Yingxue got very frustrated but could not vent.


    At this moment, a group of people came into the library from outside. It was Wang Yuchi and the others.


    When they came to the table where Ren Xiaosu was, they were a little taken aback when they saw Zhou Yingxue sitting there as well. They were used to sitting together at this table to study by themselves.


    If Zhou Yingxue was seated here, they would have a stranger in between them. That would make it very awkward, and they would have to be very careful with their words.


    They would often discuss some secretive topics during their conversations. After all, they knew too much, so they would unintentionally bring it up while talking.


    Zhou Yingxue knew these people wanted to sit together with Ren Xiaosu, but she just pretended to focus on her book and sat there without any intention of excusing herself.


    Someone wanted to ask Zhou Yingxue if she could change seats but was stopped by Wang Yuchi. ¡°The library is a public ce, so we have no reason to disturb others from reading where they want.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gathered the books in front of him and said, ¡°Let¡¯s switch tables.¡±


    The library was veryrge, and there were a lot of tables other than this one. As such, their entire group went to another table and left Zhou Yingxue there to continue reading by herself.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue sat there for the rest of the entire afternoon reading The Theory of Time. She had to do so in order to portray that she was really here to read so as not to arouse Ren Xiaosu¡¯s suspicions. No one really knew whether she could even absorb what she was reading.


    Zhou Yingxue was a little frustrated. She did notck suitors! How could she not even have enticed the young man in front of her one bit?! Something must be wrong with him, right?!


    After that day, Zhou Yingxue never appeared before Ren Xiaosu again. The frequency of him being watched also lessened. Sometimes, they would only keep watch on him once every few days.


    Meanwhile, An Yuqian¡¯s lectures were starting to progress much quicker. He even sighed, saying how he had never thought it would be this easy to teach students. When he used to teach, he always felt the students were really stupid.


    Ren Xiaosu realized An Yuqian could have been in research in the past. Later, he somehow became a librarian. When he had time, he thought that maybe he could ask Yang Xiaojin about it. She might just know something regarding this.


    As they learned more, Wang Yuchi and the other male students would asionally sketch the armor¡¯s blueprint from imagination during their breaks. Now that the dy in their control of the nanomachines had been reduced to less than 0.2 seconds, they would sometimes imagine how they would look with the armor on. It was really exciting just thinking about it.


    After they sketched out the designs for the arms and hands, An Yuqian caught a glimpse and said with augh, ¡°So you¡¯d wanted to design something like that? Y¡¯know, it¡¯spletely unachievable!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at An Yuqian. ¡°Why?¡±


    An Yuqian replied, ¡°A lot of people are looking to design ¡®mechanical armor¡¯ and think that these individualbat systems can y a significant role on the battlefield. However, there¡¯s too many challenges to ovee.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked with great interest, ¡°What kinds of challenges?¡±


    ¡°First of all, you can¡¯t solve the issue of the propulsion system.¡± An Yuqian sneered, ¡°How could there be such a powerful and portable power source in this world? There¡¯s only one kind of power source like this, and it¡¯s achieved through controlled nuclear fusion!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Yang Xiaojin was from the Saboteurs, an organization that hated nuclear technology the most. If he were to fit a controlled fusion reactor on his armor, wouldn¡¯t all of the Saboteurse after him?


    ¡°Are there any other potential power sources?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    An Yuqian said firmly, ¡°No! At least not within the limits of known technology! The raw materials for fusion are deuterium and tritium. If the technology is advanced enough, just deuterium alone can be used. An abundant amount of deuterium already exists in water. But the existing methods of controlled fusion, such as the ¡®tokamak,¡¯[1] present a very difficult problem to solve. The question remains on how to shrink the size of the device so it can be fitted easily on a human body. Therger the visible radius of the device, the better the energy confinement!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not impossible if you want to shrink it, but it will be difficult.¡± An Yuqian looked at Ren Xiaosu and the others with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s just a dream for the several of you to achieve it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. He had also been struggling with the power source for the nanomachines all this while. After all, if he only depended on his bioenergy to charge them, he would only be able to use it for two minutes with every two hours of charging. It would not be enough to sustain the nanomachines in a high-intensity battle.


    ¡°Are there any other challenges that can¡¯t be ovee?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    An Yuqian said, ¡°How would youmand the full body of armor to listen to your orders? Howplicated a procedure would it take in order to¡ª¡±


    ¡°That seems rather easy to solve,¡± interrupted Ren Xiaosu.


    An Yuqian was confused. ¡®What are you bragging for?!¡¯


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to say any more than that. Be it the Yang Consortium or the Li Consortium, no one would possibly use the nanomachines as armor for now. That was mainly because it would be a little too extravagant to use them like that.


    [1] A tokamak is a device which uses a powerful maic field to confine a hot sma in the shape of a torus. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawson_criterion | http://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/283636/files/Koslowski_EI-3.pdf

 Chapter 316 - Encountering Lu Yuan again

    Chapter 316 Encountering Lu Yuan again


    An Yuqian could not ept Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bragging. ¡°Do you really know what programmable matter[1] entails?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian. ¡°What?¡±


    An Yuqian raised his voice and said, ¡°Programmable matter is a type of ¡®intermediary matter¡¯ that changes its physical properties based upon user input or autonomous sensing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a second. ¡°Real words, please.¡±


    ¡°In short,¡± An Yuqian said, ¡°if you want to build this kind of armor, itsponents must at least have the ability to shapeshift and self-reconfigure. Without programmable matter, you can¡¯t create flexible selfbination and separation processes.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°No worries about that.¡±


    An Yuqian nearly went crazy. ¡°Don¡¯t you understand what I am saying? How can you not be worried about something this important!¡±


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu could solve all the problems An Yuqian brought up, other than the problem with the power source. As for the ¡°programmable matter,¡± the nanomachines were better performing than that.


    Ren Xiaosu realized An Yuqian definitely had not specialized in the field of nanotech research. Otherwise, he couldn¡¯t possibly be unaware of the current progress that nanomachines were making. Furthermore, he was certainly not a core member of the Yang Consortium.


    But how did An Yuqian end up in this state? Although Ren Xiaosu¡¯s knowledge was still quite far from allowing him to be an academic, he could feel An Yuqian¡¯s stubbornness and pride in the face of science. Why was An Yuqian willing to be a mere librarian here?


    In the following days, An Yuqian focused on teaching and ying mahjong, no longer bothering with the so-called power source and programmable matter.


    Ren Xiaosu urged Wang Yuchi and the other male students toe up with designs for the armor after they got home and to approach An Yuqian for help during their breaks during the day to resolve any technical difficulties. For some reason, An Yuqian was willing to help them out.


    From An Yuqian¡¯s point of view, if he helped Ren Xiaosu solve all of his current difficulties and led him to the issues he mentioned, Ren Xiaosu woulde to realize how wise he was.


    He felt that Ren Xiaosu was not bothered by the state of programmable matter technology only because he wasn¡¯t at that level and had yet to encounter the bottlenecks of the technology! After all, An Yuqian did not think that a tenth grader could possibly understand his vision and previous position in the academic field. Thinking of this, An Yuqian even wanted to bug Ren Xiaosu to teach him remedial courses so Ren Xiaosu could quickly understand just how awesome he was.


    One day, when Ren Xiaosu wanted to resume studying a textbook from the day before, he found a notebook ced next to it. This was something he had not seen before.


    Ren Xiaosu opened the notebook and saw someone had carefully sorted the learning order and key points of knowledge. With just a nce, he knew exactly who had written it. It was definitely An Yuqian!


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at An Yuqian in amusement. Was that guy trying to act mysterious? ¡°Is this your notebook?¡±


    An Yuqian was a little embarrassed. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just something from the past I stumbled upon and thought would be useful for someone else. You can have it if you think it¡¯ll be useful. It¡¯s pretty suitable for you. Some topics are deliberately simplified in high school. If you follow the curriculum, you¡¯ll end taking a lot of repetitive steps. So why don¡¯t you just follow the method I used to learn?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Thank you, how much is it?¡± He was about to pay for it.


    However, An Yuqian flew into a rage. ¡°I didn¡¯t give you the notebook for money!¡± Then An Yuqian angrily went back to the entrance to watch the door.


    Ren Xiaosu returned to his seat with a grin.After getting guidance from An Yuqian, the outlook for the armor was bing better and better. In An Yuqian¡¯s words, ¡°Science is an extremely mysterious subject. When a design moves closer to rationality, it will have an even more special charm to it.¡±


    It was a charm that could truly conquer the mind.


    Wait. Ren Xiaosu remembered he¡¯d just received a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll. Although it could not be used to copy superpowers, it was still very useful for learning normal skills.


    He had wanted to use it when he saw Yang Xiaojin again, but Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized he did not have to copy Yang Xiaojin¡¯s skills by all means. Couldn¡¯t he just copy from An Yuqian, who was right in front of him? Yang Xiaojin¡¯s knowledge of mathematics and physics would definitely not be as good as a professional academic¡¯s like An Yuqian.


    It was not that Yang Xiaojin was not smart, but that people specialized in different professions. There was no need topare an amateur to a professional.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, ¡°Use the Skill Duplication Skill.¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s skill: Master-level mahjong ying. As the host does not have the corresponding advanced-level skill, the host will only be able to learn it up to the advanced level. Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately looked at An Yuqian. Why would he still lose money every day when he clearly had a master-level skill in ying mahjong? There had to be something wrong! Could it be that someone set up a scam for him? Or did the opponents cheat?


    An Yuqian noticed Ren Xiaosu staring at him. ¡°What are you looking at me for?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu replied to his mind pce, ¡°Yes.¡±


    By now, Ren Xiaosu had almost recovered from his injuries. As long as he did not exercise vigorously, he would be alright. He did not find it painful anymore even if he moved around.


    Finally, it was time for him to learn about hand-to-handbat. He wondered who Yang Xiaojin had arranged for him to learn hand-to-handbat from.


    Yang Xiaojin had given him an address not far from the library. When he felt that his injuries had healed, he could go there by himself. A martial arts school stood there.


    During the day, he would spend his time in the library. In the evening, he would head to the martial arts school. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life had never been more fulfilling.


    He went to look for the ce based on the address Yang Xiaojin had given him. It seemed that the martial arts school was located inside a small alley, so it didn¡¯t look well-known at all.


    ¡°Nangeng Alley. Here we are!¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    It really was a small alley. Ren Xiaosu felt that whoever ran a martial arts school in this alley was likely losing money. They probably could not even cover their overheads.


    But when he got to the entrance of the martial arts school, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see a lot of students inside. Several dozen students were standing in a yard slightly over 200 square meters. Many parents were waiting outside the martial arts school to pick up their children after ss ended.


    When he looked up, he was surprised to see the door frame and school signboard were carved out of a solid piece of wood. From the look of it, it was quite old. Rainwater had eroded the surface, creating white stains.


    He saw the words ¡°Lu Family¡± written on the sign.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if he might actually know the owner of the school. He went in and said to an instructor, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m looking for the owner.¡±


    The instructor shouted to the inside loudly, ¡°Old Lu, someone¡¯s looking for you!¡±


    Lu Yuan walked out. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he said with a kind smile, ¡°Quick,e in. We haven¡¯t met in a while!¡±


    The parents standing at the entrance were stunned. When they saw Ren Xiaosu earlier, they thought he was just a normal young man. But they could not have expected Lu Yuan would personallye out to meet him.


    [1] Programmable matter is matter which has the ability to change its physical properties (shape, density, moduli, conductivity, optical properties, etc.) in a programmable fashion | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_matter

 Chapter 317 - A precious quality

    <h4>Chapter 317 A precious quality</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the two words ¡°Lu Family,¡± he thought the hand-to-handbat teacher Yang Xiaojin had found for him might be Lu Yuan.


    When they were in Stronghold 109, Lu Yuan had walked leisurely through the chaos while Yang Xiaojin protected him from afar atop a tall building. At that time, Ren Xiaosu still did not know Lu Yuan was from the Yang Consortium.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was still unclear about Lu Yuan and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s rtionship.


    Currently, there was an intense war going on at the Yang Consortium¡¯s front line. Although it looked like victory had already been secured, the question was why didn¡¯t Lu Yuan get deployed to the front line when he was a known supernatural being in the organization?


    Even though it was difficult for supernatural beings to do much on the main battlefield, it was still better than having none deployed at all. It would also be quite good to have some supernatural beings apanying and protecting the generals.


    Therefore, when Ren Xiaosu saw Lu Yuan in the stronghold, he realized the rtionship between Lu Yuan and Yang Xiaojin might be a little closer than the rtionship between Lu Yuan and the Yang Consortium.


    Lu Yuan led Ren Xiaosu to the backyard. As he walked, heughed and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for any formalities. I used to be the housekeeper of Xiaojin¡¯s family, and she grew up under my care, so you can address me as Uncle Lu. I served the Yang Consortium in the past, but I was able to regain my freedom and enjoy retirement because of that hard drive.¡±


    Lu Yuan was also an understanding person. Since Yang Xiaojin trusted Ren Xiaosu, he might as well be open with his identity and introduce himself.


    ¡°Hello, Uncle Lu.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Luo Lan is also here in the stronghold. Why didn¡¯t you go and beat him up? He¡¯s freeloading off our family right now.¡±


    ¡°Haha,¡± Lu Yuan startedughing. ¡°When I¡¯m in character for my missions, I have to be immersed in my role. But after that, I need to get out of character. Otherwise, I¡¯ll get embroiled in many difficult situations. Since I¡¯m no longer Stronghold 109¡¯s overseer, whatever had happened before has nothing to do with me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought he was such a forgiving person. It was no wonder he could leisurely retire here and even open a martial arts school. ¡°Xiaojin rmended me to learn hand-to-handbat from you. What time should I usuallye?¡±


    ¡°Xiaojin told me you always spend the day reading in the library until evening, so juste at night.¡± Lu Yuan said, ¡°Have you trained before?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°I¡¯ve never learned it systematically before. But I did wonder about it while living in the wilderness.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll teach you systematically from how to generate power to the actual execution of techniques when inbat. Afterwards, we¡¯ll train your reaction speed and your awareness of your opponent,¡± Lu Yuan said.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I be learning some boxing styles? The type they¡¯re practicing outside...¡±


    Right after he came into the school, he had seen a lot of children practicing boxing techniques. The way they were practicing was rather fascinating.


    However, Lu Yuan said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s something only children will learn. It¡¯s used to cheat parents of their money. Parents nowadays get distressed the moment their children suffer a little, so how can they possibly practice boxing that way?¡±


    ¡®How honest of him to tantly admit that he¡¯s cheating others of their money,¡¯ Ren Xiaosu thought to himself.


    Lu Yuan said, ¡°The technique to generate power needs to be practiced. You¡¯ll have to suffer first and learn through hardship before you can master control of your body.¡±


    The technique to generate power while throwing a punch was that you had to punch while twisting your hips. If not, the resulting punch would be extremely weak.


    Lu Yuan continued, ¡°The actual skill inbat is the technique in which you use to kill. It¡¯s veryplicated to exin but will help you know what you should think about when attacking someone, and what others might be thinking as well, stuff like that.¡±


    ¡°Then what are reaction speed and awareness of the opponent about?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Reaction speed varies from person to person.¡± Lu Yuan said, ¡°Everyone¡¯s reaction speed can improve with some training. But of course, everyone also has a ¡®ceiling.¡¯¡±


    ¡°In other words, you¡¯re saying that everyone¡¯s potential is different?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes. Take Xiaojin for example. If she has to fire a shot at a fast-moving target with only one chance of hitting it, the window avable for her is a mere 0.06 seconds. If that were the upper limit you were born with, that¡¯s what you have. But if you don¡¯t, you can¡¯t master it no matter how much you train. Not even a supernatural being can do that.¡±


    ¡°0.06 seconds?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise. He had never calcted time down to two decimal ces before. So Yang Xiaojin¡¯s reaction speed was that terrifying?


    What Lu Yuan was currently talking about was the theory of talent. When everyone worked hard and put in the same amount of effort, they could all reach a certain standard, such as achieving the master skill level.


    But if one wanted to break through that ceiling and advance further to the perfect skill level, they would need to have a real talent for it. That was something they were born with.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward when he remembered his one and only perfect-level skill was to ¡°annoy people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can I test my reaction speed?¡±


    Lu Yuan said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s do this step by step and not get too ambitious so early on. Since you haven¡¯t received training before, you should first properly master how to generate power.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not argue with him. Since he came here with the attitude to learn, he had to do his best to learn properly. He could not get conceited just because he felt very powerful already.


    The two of them came to the backyard where Lu Yuan pointed to a sandbag hanging in the middle of the yard. He said, ¡°Hit it with all your might and let me see how strong you are.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± When Ren Xiaosu walked up to the sandbag, Lu Yuan watched him bend his knees a little. Then he channeled all his strength into the punch and tore straight through the sandbag!


    Lu Yuan was stunned. This was a sandbag specially prepared for supernatural beings to use!


    But what surprised him was not Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength. The strength of supernatural beings ranged from high to low, and the power disyed by Ren Xiaosu was not particrly rare. It could at most be regarded as extremely strong but still shouldn¡¯t really surprise anyone. Of course, this was before Ren Xiaosu activated his City Crusher.


    What surprised Lu Yuan was that all of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s muscles seemingly acted as one at the point he generated power. It was wless. Especially the slight bending of his hind leg, which was extremely important. Most people couldn¡¯t exert their strength because they did not make use of the power in their legs.


    Had he really not trained before?


    Moreover, he could tell that Ren Xiaosu had not exerted all his strength yet. His left hand and arm remained in a semi-rxed state throughout, and he could still pull back his punch at any moment.


    It was much harder to control strength than to fully exert it.


    Lu Yuan asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you put in your best effort?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°Probably just a force of habit. I always encountered wild animals in the wilderness, and sometimes, I don¡¯t know how they¡¯ll attack. So I have to guard against them.¡±


    Lu Yuan said, ¡°Let¡¯s see your kicking this time. Do a side kick.¡±


    However, Lu Yuan still couldn¡¯t find any ws in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s performance. This was probably also some kind of talent. Lu Yuan sighed. ¡°It seems you¡¯ve led a rather difficult life.¡±


    If he had led a carefree and easy life before this, he couldn¡¯t possibly be so good at generating power.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s mainly because I¡¯m afraid to die.¡±


    Lu Yuan also smiled. ¡°You don¡¯t have to learn how to generate power since you¡¯re already so adept at it. Let¡¯s start with learning practicalbat techniques.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    After waiting for a long while, Lu Yuan thought Ren Xiaosu would ask him again if he could test his reaction speed, especially after he had praised him. However, Ren Xiaosu did not even mention a word and slowly learned what he was taught with a patient attitude.


    This was not talent but a precious quality that existed in a person.

 Chapter 318 - Get over here and help me!

    Chapter 318 Get over here and help me!


    ¡°The thing about the ¡®calf slicer¡¯ move is that you have to grab hold of your opponent¡¯s ankle as soon as they lose bnce. You then have to use that opportunity to grab hold of their calf and create a pinch point with the back of your knee to exert force onto their calf. That way, you can apply a pressure of a few hundred kilograms on your opponent¡¯s tibia and fib. Although the tibia is one of the strongest bones in the human body, you can break it easily by using this type of lock.¡± After Lu Yuan spoke, he called for an instructor to spar with Ren Xiaosu.


    Such a technique would have to be tried out in actualbat. Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t grasp the concept by just looking at it.


    The instructor looked at the scrawny Ren Xiaosu in front of him and felt that he should be rather weak. As such, he said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s go through the motions.¡±


    He thought Ren Xiaosu must have been sent here by some family member of the Yang Consortium. Why else would the owner offer to train him personally? So it would be better not to injure someone like him. If his parents came to seek answers, he would be in deep trouble for sure.


    Lu Yuan said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Although it¡¯s only practice, it¡¯s still necessary to make you understand that even though you might have an idea of how to execute a move, if you¡¯re not fast and steady enough, the idea will just remain an idea.¡±


    Then Lu Yuan said to the instructor, ¡°Do your best and don¡¯t allow him to immobilize you.¡±


    ¡°Alright,¡± the instructor responded.


    After the two of them got in position, Lu Yuan suddenly told them to start. The instructor was just about to turn around to put Ren Xiaosu in a lock, but he found out that Ren Xiaosu had already grappled his leg!


    Before the instructor could react, he felt his entire body being shoved to the ground and his leg being firmly locked in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arms. Not only that, after Ren Xiaosu had him immobilized, he unconsciously tried to strike the instructor¡¯s ribs with his free hand. Ren Xiaosu was going to terminate his opponent¡¯s ability to fight.


    The instructor started sweating. It was as though he was about to experience something terrifying.


    Lu Yuan hurriedly shouted, ¡°Stop, stop, stop!¡±


    Everything happened so quickly that the instructor could not react. He had nearly died from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s punch.


    Only Lu Yuan had seen it clearly. If Ren Xiaosunded his punch, the instructor would probably be disabled. That punch might have even caused his organs to rupture and lead to his death.


    The instructor got back up on his feet in a daze and heard Lu Yuan say seriously to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Why were you trying to kill him?¡±


    When the instructor heard that, sweat started rolling down his back.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Actually, I wouldn¡¯t have punched him for real. But I thought that if I only immobilized my enemy, I would appear weak.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re saying it¡¯s a sign of weakness if you just make your opponent vulnerable but not kill him?¡± Lu Yuan had a strange look on his face.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The enemies that I encountered in the wilderness would all fight to their deaths. There¡¯s no other oue. So I thought that it wouldn¡¯t be enough to just break one leg. What if the opponent has a gun in his hand and fires it at me? I¡¯ll definitely die!¡±


    Lu Yuan went silent for a while. As he had grown up in the stronghold, the civilization here had taught him to show mercy to others and resolve conflicts peacefully.


    However, the philosophy of life that Ren Xiaosu had gained from living in the wilderness was that kindness was the same as weakness.


    Next to them, the instructor suddenly felt a little ashamed that he got beaten to the point of no retaliation by such a scrawny young man. ¡°Sir, I¡ª¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± Lu Yuan smiled and waved it off. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. Let me train with him instead. That way, everything will be fine. You can also take the opportunity to observe from the sidelines and witness the power of supernatural beings.¡±


    After he said that, Lu Yuan went to spar with Ren Xiaosu. After all, normal instructors would just be like toys in the face of Ren Xiaosu. They were not qualified to spar with him at all.


    The instructor finally heaved a sigh of relief. So this young man was a supernatural being. It was no wonder he was not his match. It looked like he could only let the owner spar with him personally.


    Ten minutester, Lu Yuan pped the floor. ¡°Let go, let go! I lost, I lost! That hurts, that really hurts!¡±


    The instructor was dumbfounded. When Lu Yuan got up from the ground, he said to Ren Xiaosu in seriousness, ¡°You need to learn how to control your strength. Remember, we¡¯re just helping you fully understand the weaknesses of the human body¡¯s joints by showing you these techniques. There¡¯s no need for you to exert so much strength.¡±


    Lu Yuan had thought that since he was a supernatural being too, his strength should be more or less equal to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s. But to his surprise, he had overestimated himself and underestimated Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°Alright, I won¡¯t exert too much strength.¡±


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll end today¡¯s lesson here then.¡± Lu Yuan said, ¡°Remember toe every night. If you have something else to do, call me and tell me. Little Li, please jot down our phone number for him.¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu left, Lu Yuan grabbed his own waist and said, ¡°Get over here and help me.¡±


    The instructor asked softly, ¡°Sir, who is that young man?¡±


    After thinking about it for a while, Lu Yuan did not know how he should describe Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity.


    It was still quite early when Ren Xiaosu went home at night. The sound of people ying mahjong could still be heard on the streets. It seemed like the stronghold residents were not bothered by the war outside since they had already won.


    Along the way, he also saw some workers who had just knocked off from work. Although the stronghold stipted they could only work eight hours a day, no one ever oversaw or upheld this rule at the factories. As a result, many of the stronghold residents did not lead a happy life.


    The social circle of these stronghold residents was simr to a city structure, and most of them had never ventured outside either. Ren Xiaosu felt that these people were more like a higher ss of refugee, as everyone still had to serve the organization in some way and led busy lives every day. It was just that one group had to earn a living in the wilderness while the other had to do so within the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu used to think that people living in the stronghold would leave their doors open at night and no one would steal their belongings as everyone trusted one another. But after getting into the stronghold, he found that it was not true.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard a familiar voiceing from a small alley. ¡°Nine bamboo!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu walked into the alley, he found An Yuqian seated inside a small yard. He was ying mahjong with two olddies and an old man, and they were allpletely absorbed in the game.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little confused. He had thought that An Yuqian might have been scammed by someone in a gambling den, so he could not win even with his master-level mahjong ying. However, that wasn¡¯t the case at all.


    After observing them from a distance for a while, he noticed the old man and the olddies were secretly switching tiles under the table. But it didn¡¯t look like An Yuqian had noticed anything.


    Just how stupid could he get?


    If anyone were to switch tiles like this when ying mahjong with Ren Xiaosu, he would flip the table in his opponent¡¯s face.


    An Yuqian was stunned when he saw Ren Xiaosu. He said to the old man and the olddies, ¡°Please wait for me a little. My friend is looking for me.¡±


    Then An Yuqian stood up and went over to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°With that loud voice of yours,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I could hear you shouting ¡®nine bamboo¡¯ even from two streets away!¡±

 Chapter 319 - The only thing that can destroy humanity is humanity itself

    <h4>Chapter 319 The only thing that can destroy humanity is humanity itself</h4>


    If it weren¡¯t for An Yuqian¡¯s loud voice attracting him, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not have found his way over.


    ¡°Was I that loud?¡± An Yuqian was a little taken aback. Then he looked at the sky. ¡°Are you going home now?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked into the yard and saw the old man and olddies looking quite happy. He asked An Yuqian curiously, ¡°So they were the ones who won your money?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± An Yuqian said with a smile.


    ¡°Did you know that they secretly switched their tiles?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    An Yuqian fell silent and quickly dragged Ren Xiaosu out of the alley. Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood and said, ¡°Then you deliberately lost your money to them?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± An Yuqian said with a sigh.


    Ren Xiaosu realized the reason behind this might also be rted to why An Yuqian was living such a dejected life. After all, Ren Xiaosu had asked the pce about An Yuqian¡¯s proficiency in mathematics and physics. The pce told him he was at the master level. Ren Xiaosu initially thought An Yuqian¡¯s proficiency would be at the perfect level, but the pce said there was no perfect rating for science subjects. Therefore, everyone could at most be at the master level.


    Ren Xiaosu understood what the pce was trying to say. After all, humans were still exploring the realm of science, so of course they couldn¡¯t reach perfection.


    But for a person with mastery in math and physics, he ended up bing a librarian? If there wasn¡¯t some sort of a story behind this, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not be convinced.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s their rtionship with you?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re the family members of two former good friends of mine who were also my students.¡± An Yuqian said, ¡°During an experiment, an explosion happened in ourboratory due to my negligence. As a result, both my assistants perished.¡±


    ¡°What type of experiment?¡± Ren Xiaosu guessed, ¡°Was it a nuclear experiment?¡±


    ¡°If it was, you wouldn¡¯t be seeing Stronghold 88,¡± An Yuqian snapped.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu had thought An Yuqian worked in nuclear physics. ¡°Then what happened after that?¡±


    ¡°Afterwards, I got sacked and lost my job. Even my girlfriend broke up with me. Before she left, she also took away the pet tortoise we had at home.¡± An Yuqian sighed.


    ¡°So was that why you got depressed?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand.


    ¡°What do you think? What would you have done if it were you?¡± An Yuqian asked.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°At least halve the tortoise so you can put it in your own separate wines[1].¡±


    An Yuqian was confused. Weren¡¯t they just talking about his sorrowful past? Why the sudden mention of halving the tortoise then?


    He did not know that for refugees like Ren Xiaosu, even if their loved ones had died, they would still have to live on as usual. Who had the time to be sentimental?


    Ren Xiaosu hade across so many townspeople whose family members had passed away the day before and would still show up at work the very next day.


    As the two of them walked down the street, An Yuqian cut a bleak figure under the dim yellow streetlights.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Then you deliberately lost money to them so that they can have a better life?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± An Yuqian nodded. ¡°I¡¯m fine with it since I can survive no matter what. But they¡¯re different. Without their children, nobody will support them.¡±


    ¡°Alright,¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°You¡¯re quite the loyal person.¡±


    ¡°They died because of me, after all,¡± An Yuqian said.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll see you tomorrow morning!¡± Ren Xiaosu waved and parted ways with An Yuqian. Although he could not sympathize with An Yuqian, he still respected him.


    An Yuqian suddenly called out to Ren Xiaosu, asking, ¡°Why do you seek knowledge?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and said on the long street in the dark, ¡°I¡¯ve answered this question before.¡±


    ¡°But do you know where the end of the road lies for science?¡± An Yuqian asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head.


    ¡°There¡¯s no end!¡± An Yuqian said, ¡°That¡¯s what makes people despair!¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to despair about?¡± Ren Xiaosu could not understand.


    An Yuqian no longer seemed to be talking to Ren Xiaosu. He was saying to himself, ¡°There were creatures that lived on thesends for a 165 million years, but the Homo genus has only been in existence for about 3 million years. We don¡¯t have to consider whatever natural disasters or mutations that might ur, nor will we even get to witness an apocalypse brought on by a natural disaster within our lifetimes.... The only thing that can destroy humanity is humanity itself!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little lost. He did not know why An Yuqian would say this to him and wondered what had gotten into him. He asked An Yuqian, ¡°Then how do you think humanity will destroy itself?¡±


    ¡°Science.¡±


    This word crashed through the backdrop of the night. It was like a fate that awaited humans at the end of a long road.


    ¡°You¡¯re crazy.¡± Ren Xiaosu waved it off and headed home.


    ...


    When Ren Xiaosu returned home, he found everyone waiting for him out in the yard. He looked at everyone¡¯s expression. ¡°Why do I have a bad feeling about this?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan walked over and handed him an invitation that came with gold embossed letters and decorative patterns at the corners. There was also an ornamental tassel extending down the middle of the invitation.


    The invitation was sealed with wax that had an exquisite design of a bronze ram on it. This was the Yang Consortium¡¯s symbol.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Someone delivered it here this evening. They told us that the Yang Consortium has invited the two of us to their manor and even reminded us to wear something formal since a lot of distinguished guests will be present that night.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu opened the invitation. Although it was written very politely, everyone knew the reason an organization like the Yang Consortium would suddenly invite two refugee kids was definitely not as simple as wanting to get to know them.


    ¡°Should we go or not?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked in a whisper, ¡°I feel that the Yang Consortium has a more sinister motive.¡±


    ¡°A Feast at Hongmen?¡±[2] Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Surely there won¡¯t be 300 assassins rushing out of the shadows when a cup gets smashed, right?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that will happen.¡± When Yan Liuyuan saw Ren Xiaosu taking it easy, he also startedughing. ¡°But this matter is definitely not so simple.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s not think too much about it.¡± Ren Xiaosu patted Yan Liuyuan¡¯s head. ¡°I¡¯ll bring you out to shop for some clothes tomorrow morning. We should also go and have a look for ourselves at what the feast held by the organization is all about.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Yan Liuyuan replied obediently.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Did you face any problems at school?¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s been pretty good,¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile.


    ¡°When you tell a lie, you always smile like this.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Are you and Dalong getting ostracized by your ssmates?¡±


    ¡°No, no, you should quickly go and get some rest. You still haven¡¯t fully recovered from your injuries,¡± Yan Liuyuan said as he pushed Ren Xiaosu into the house.


    Wang Fugui came up and said, ¡°I went out to trade some of the gold for money today. I didn¡¯t trade too much to avoid attracting attention....¡±


    ¡°Why are you talking about money at this time of night? Xiaosu is tired, so let him get some rest first.¡± Xiaoyu rattled off at the back, ¡°Xiaosu, have you eaten yet? I¡¯ll heat up some dishes and make some scrambled eggs with stir-fried tomatoes for you. There¡¯s chicken soup in the pot as well...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. This was what home felt like.

 Chapter 320 - A gulf and a natural divide

    <h4>Chapter 320 A gulf and a natural divide</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu was asleep, Xiaoyu suddenly pulled Yan Liuyuan aside and asked, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell your brother what happened at school?¡±


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, keep your voice down.¡± Yan Liuyuan said as he dragged her out, ¡°I can¡¯t tell him.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t you tell him? You should let your big brother teach those little bastards a lesson. What gives them the right to call you and Dalong names and ransack your belongings?¡± Xiaoyu said furiously.


    Yan Liuyuan whispered, ¡°If they need to be taught a lesson, I can do it myself. But it wasn¡¯t easy for my brother to decide toe here for Big Sister Xiaojin¡¯s sake, so how can I trouble him at a time like this?¡±


    After Yan Liuyuan started attending school, his ssmates immediately figured out he was a refugee. That was because he had a different understanding of how daily lives went.


    Yang Xiaojin had selected the best school in Stronghold 88 for Yan Liuyuan to attend. The students there were not ordinary people, and many of the students¡¯ parents were extremely well-connected. So they already knew about these refugees enrolling into the school.


    At the beginning, the students bluntly called Yan Liuyuan a refugee. Later on, as the others started joining in on the name calling, someone even called him and Wang Dalong riff-raff. After all, there was only a syble[1] of difference between the two.


    The teacher forced Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong to sit in thest row and even deliberately left the seats next to them empty.


    But from the beginning to the end, Yan Liuyuan did not show any retaliation. Ren Xiaosu had already done a lot for Yan Liuyuan, so it was not a big deal to make some sacrifices for Ren Xiaosu.


    Early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu brought Yan Liuyuan out to shop for clothes. Since they had been invited and there were also instructions for them to be dressed formally, he wouldn¡¯t be deliberately contradictory.


    For this reason, Wang Fugui specially handed all the money he had recently exchanged to Ren Xiaosu. Although he did not know where Ren Xiaosu had gotten his gold from, Old Wang knew Ren Xiaosu still had a lot left in his possession. And it was much more than he could imagine.


    Xiaoyu even reminded Ren Xiaosu repeatedly to not be thrifty and to make sure they dressed nicely.


    But when they arrived at a well-known tailor shop in the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu realized they did not have any formal clothes here.


    ¡°Bossman,¡± Ren Xiaosu called the owner over, ¡°do you have any formal wear? We¡¯d like to try them on.¡±


    An old man came out with a measuring tape dangling around his neck and two sleeves hanging off his arm. ¡°You wish to buy formal wear?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Do you have anything suitable for us?¡±


    The old man examined Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan and then said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I can¡¯t sell you any suits.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°Why not? I have the money!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not really about money.¡± The old man exined patiently, ¡°The stronghold regtions state that only people in public office can buy formal wear. Moreover, the suits have to be custom-made here at our shop. Both of you must have an event to attend tonight, right? A custom-made suit will take more than 20 days to be ready. Even if you order one now, you won¡¯t be able to wear it tonight.¡±


    The old man sounded very polite and did not portray himself in a high and mighty way. However, the objective facts he stated made Ren Xiaosu feel very helpless.


    At first, he thought the Yang Consortium wanted to flex their financial might by inviting him and Yan Liuyuan to the function. They might have thought that as a refugee, he couldn¡¯t afford a suit. But it wasn¡¯t until now that he realized the Yang Consortium was just trying to flex their status.


    Ren Xiaosu led Yan Liuyuan out of the shop. He went to look at the route information at the streetcar station to find out if any streetcars went to the Yang Consortium¡¯s manor.


    However, he couldn¡¯t find a streetcar that stopped at the Yang Consortium¡¯s manor even after looking at the information board for a long time.


    Ren Xiaosu asked a pedestrian next to him, ¡°Hi, do you know which streetcar goes to the Bronze Ram Manor?¡±


    That pedestrian was slightly taken aback. ¡°The Bronze Ram Manor? You guys are going there? Why are you two going there?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°We¡¯re attending the g organized by the Yang Consortium tonight.¡±


    ¡°Haha.¡± The pedestrianughed and said, ¡°You¡¯re really funny. Anyone who attends a g there should be chauffeured to the event. Why would anyone take the streetcar there? Those who live there don¡¯t need to squeeze into streetcars like us every day!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood no streetcars could bring them there. If they wanted to get there, they would have to take a streetcar to the vicinity of the manor and then walk for more than ten kilometers before they could reach the ce.


    The custom-made suits and cars that were a prerequisite to attend the gs were essentially the difference between the refugees and those from the consortiums.


    Under that stronghold regtions, the differences in the hierarchy of humans was like a natural divide that even money couldn¡¯t surmount.


    In the eyes of an organization, money flowed through their hands like quicksand, while power was a fortress that guarded their wealth.


    ¡°Bro,¡± Yan Liuyuan said gloomily, ¡°they must be doing this on purpose, right?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    The Yang Consortium had probably anticipated that they would not be able to get a fitting suit for the g. The organization used their brains to suppress the people. This was akin to cutting meat with a blunt knife.[2]


    Yan Liuyuan thought the stronghold would slowly start to ept them now that Yang Xiaojin had brought them here. So he didn¡¯t mind bearing with it for the time being even if he felt oppressed, thinking that things might improve after a while. But he realized the people in the stronghold were only going to get more unreasonable. Yan Liuyuan asked in a whisper, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just skip the function?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°No, why should we skip it? Before we leave the stronghold, we should go and have a look at the feast of the organization.¡±


    At noon, they made a trip back home where they saw Luo Lan feasting in the yard. When Luo Lan saw them, he was amused. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you¡¯d be attending the dinner party? Why are you back so soon?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was also amused. How did a proper g event end up sounding so crass when it came out of Luo Lan¡¯s mouth?


    Ren Xiaosu was not embarrassed and said, ¡°We went out to buy suits this morning. But when we got there, we were told the suits had to be custom-made in advance and only people in public office in the stronghold could buy them. Also, there¡¯s not even a streetcar that goes there.¡±


    Luo Lan frowned in response. ¡°They didn¡¯t invite you in advance or send a car to pick you up?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head.


    ¡°Those bastards must be deliberately making trouble for you.¡± Luo Lan banged on the table and stood up. ¡°This is too outrageous. I¡¯ll go with you allter. We¡¯ll dress in our casual wear, take the streetcar, and then walk our way in! Let¡¯s see which bastard dares to talk behind our backs! I received the invitation too, but I wasn¡¯t nning on going!¡±


    Then Luo Lan shed an invitation that looked the exact same as theirs out of his bosom.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan with a smile. ¡°What are you up to this time?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t just keep freeloading off of you, right?¡± Luo Lan wiped his mouth. ¡°Besides, we¡¯re friends, really good friends!¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that you¡¯ll be looked down on if you¡¯re seen with us?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    ¡°Hehe,¡± Luo Lanughed. ¡°Even though I¡¯m a hostage right now, I¡¯m the most valuable hostage in the entire Southwest. Everyone knows what kind of person Qing Zhen is. It¡¯s understandable why the Yang Consortium would take me as a hostage, but if some insignificant characters try to put me down, they still have to be qualified enough to do so. Even if I kill someone in this stronghold, they won¡¯t dare to do anything to me. The current head of the Qing Consortium is Qing Zhen, the vengeful Qing Zhen! And he¡¯s my little brother!¡±


    [1] Refugee in Chinese is Á÷Ãñ (Li¨² m¨ªn), and riff-raff in Chinese is Á÷Ã¥ (Li¨² m¨¢ng)


    [2] Causing imperceptible harm to people, psychologically.

 Chapter 321 - The guest from Stronghold 178

    <h4>Chapter 321 The guest from Stronghold 178</h4>


    In the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan, and Luo Lan swaggered out of the house. Initially, Yan Liuyuan was a little worried. But after Luo Lan joined them, he felt much more rxed. The fatso who could eat a lot was still a pretty loyal person at times.


    After eating lunch, the three of them set off for the function. They first took a streetcar to Resurgence Road where they transferred to another streetcar that traveled north.


    They were dressed in casual attire but did not feel embarrassed one bit.


    After they arrived at the terminal station, they had to continue walking further north. Luo Lan suddenly said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, why don¡¯t you follow me back to the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory in the future?¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°I know you aren¡¯t an average person. The average person couldn¡¯t survive after going through the destruction of three strongholds. Of course, I¡¯m not trying to make use of you. You can do as you wish after we return to the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory.¡± Luo Lan remarked, ¡°Of course, if you¡¯re willing to help us, I can also get Qing Zhen to pay you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need. I¡¯m not used to living in a stronghold.¡±


    When he said this, it was Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes that lit up. He realized Ren Xiaosu had already made his decision to leave, but he still did not know where Ren Xiaosu had decided on going.


    However, it was not a big deal for Yan Liuyuan no matter where they were headed. He was fine with following Ren Xiaosu to the mountains where they could reign as kings.


    Of course, this would all still have to wait until Ren Xiaosu had fully recuperated, as well as for the right opportunity to arise. The Yang Consortium would probably not let them go for now.


    Luo Lan replied, ¡°If you aren¡¯t used to living in a stronghold, I can have you all live in town. Since you¡¯ve all lived in town before, this shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little tempted by his words. Humans were social beings. If he made friends with Luo Lan and Qing Zhen, that would probably solve many problems.


    Ren Xiaosu did not answer the question directly. He said with a smile, ¡°You might as well think about how you¡¯re going to leave this ce. I don¡¯t think the Yang Consortium will release you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± Luo Lan said nonchntly, ¡°Qing Zhen will definitely arrange for someone toe and save me. I¡¯ll just wait patiently until that happens. When the timees, you all cane with me if you want to leave the Yang Consortium¡¯s stronghold!¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu felt that the information revealed by Luo Lan was very crucial. Qing Zhen would definitely save Luo Lan, and Ren Xiaosu could take Xiaoyu and the others to leave with Luo Lan at that time.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Luo Lan and Qing Zhen were just as close as Yan Liuyuan and him. They did not need to explicitly convey their thoughts to each other, as Luo Lan firmly believed Qing Zhen would do things for him.


    It was a kind of tacit understanding and trust to ce their lives in the hands of the other. Just like back at Stronghold 108, even though the Experimentals almost caught up to them, Yan Liuyuan still stayed together with Ren Xiaosu even though he could have died.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he empathized a little more with Fatty Luo.


    All of a sudden, several cars drove past them. They would arrive at the Yang Consortium¡¯s Bronze Ram Manor if they headed a little further to the north. It seemed like those people were here to attend the g as well.


    Luo Lan noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze and exined with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t be jealous of them driving those expensive cars and being able to attend such a grand g. The people who attend these functions are generally called socialites. For example, they could be the director of the Logistics Division or the director of the Commerce Division. They pretend to lead morous lives, but once they get into trouble, they will probably be much worse off than a dog.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Didn¡¯t Yan Liuyuan kill a director from the Li Consortium¡¯s Logistics Division while they were escaping? When he thought of that, Ren Xiaosu despised them even more.


    In this era where supernatural beings were starting to rise, absolute power was beginning to have an impact on the social order that was in ce. Ren Xiaosu realized he was gaining a condescending mentality when he looked at these people. Ren Xiaosu shook his head. This was the mentality that came with the increase of his strength. He had to remain clear-headed as it was not the time to get arrogant yet.


    Meanwhile, Luo Lan, who used to be the true controller of Stronghold 113, would naturally look down on these so-called socialites who were part of a stronghold. When the fatty returned to the Qing Consortium safe and sound, he would likely be one of the most powerful people in the world.


    Of course, whether he could return or not was another matter...


    As the luxury cars drove past them, no one deliberately stopped to mock them for walking in. Everyone was very busy, and they were not expecting Ren Xiaosu andpany to be attending the g as well.


    In contrast, the well-dressed celebrities were sitting in luxury cars to attend the g, while Ren Xiaosu andpany had to walk inside dressed in their casual wear.


    The person from the Yang Consortium who invited them here seemed to be telling Ren Xiaosu in a direct way that the refugees did not stand a chance of integrating into their social hierarchy.


    When they arrived at the gate, the security guard immediately came to check their invitations. After Luo Lan handed over the invitations, Ren Xiaosu could see that the security guard was taken aback. Then he politely opened the gate and let them through.


    Luo Lan said with a smile as he walked in, ¡°The watchdogs who work for the rich families are all very clever people. As long as you have an invitation, they won¡¯t dare to offend you regardless of how you¡¯re dressed. It¡¯s because his master was the one who invited you.¡±


    A lot of people were already standing on thewn in the manor. All of them were holding crystal wine sses in their hands as they toasted one another.


    If he had not seen this with his own eyes, Ren Xiaosu would not have believed the people here ledpletely different lives from the refugees.


    Luo Lan stopped a servant and took three sses of wine from his tray and handed one each to Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan.


    But before Yan Liuyuan took the ss from him, Ren Xiaosu snatched it out of his hand. ¡°You¡¯re still too young to drink.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu ced the ss down on the table next to him.


    All of a sudden, he heard someone say, ¡°I heard a VIP from the Zong Consortium will be here tonight.¡±


    Someone asked, ¡°Do you know who it is?¡±


    Someone said, ¡°I heard it¡¯s an up-ander who alreadymands an important position in the Zong Consortium. He¡¯s in charge of the entirety of Stronghold 141¡¯s garrison troops. And Stronghold 141 is the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters.¡±


    Luo Lan whispered to them, ¡°The garrison troops are usually where the family members of an organization are posted. It¡¯s a ce where worthless people gather together.¡±


    However, someone else said, ¡°But I heard today¡¯s main guest is not from the Zong Consortium.¡±


    ¡°Ah? It¡¯s not the Zong Consortium¡¯s people?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it seems like someone from Stronghold 178 hase as well. Apparently, the most favored current subordinate of Zhang Jinglin hase to discuss a joint defense n with the Yang Consortium and the Zong Consortium,¡± the person answered.


    ¡°I heard it¡¯s not about a joint defense n. It seems they¡¯ll be working together to exterminate the banditry happening out there in the unincorporated zone between the Yang Consortium, the Zong Consortium, and Stronghold 178. They¡¯re looking to reopen the trade routes between the three organizations.¡±

 Chapter 322 - Dumbfounded

    <h4>Chapter 322 Dumbfounded</h4>


    Listening to the discussions around him, Ren Xiaosu had not expected today¡¯s g to be so important. This was the beginning of a rtionship between the Yang Consortium, the Zong Consortium, and Stronghold 178.


    Meanwhile, Luo Lan, who was next to him, cursed in a low voice, ¡°Fuck, this Yang Consortium¡¯s old fogey is ganging up with the Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178 to put pressure on our Qing Consortium.¡±


    The seemingly clueless Luo Lan immediately understood what the Yang Consortium was trying to achieve. Currently, the Li Consortium had no chance of winning the war and the oue would be decided soon. But before the end of the war, the Yang Consortium was already starting to plot against the Qing Consortium.


    As the saying went, those who did not think and n ahead would find trouble right on their doorstep. Yang Yu¡¯an had already nned far ahead in the buildup to this war. At the moment, he was seeking an immediate alliance with the Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178 to exert pressure on the Qing Consortium once the Li Consortium fell.


    The Yang Consortium could join forces with the Zong Consortium and Stronghold 178 in the north, while the Qing Consortium would be left to battle alone by themselves in the corner.


    Actually, the eastern region of the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory was quite near the Central ins. However, the natural barrier of the mountains not only protected the Qing Consortium from external threats, it also stopped them from forming alliances with other forces.


    If the Yang Consortium seeded in forming their alliances, the Qing Consortium would probably be the lone chess piece on the chessboard. If everyone in the Northwest were to target them, the Qing Consortium would end up bing the next Li Consortium!


    While they were fighting the Li Consortium, Qing Zhen sent Luo Lan to form an alliance with the Yang Consortium. But in the end, the Yang Consortium turned around and used the same strategy against Qing Zhen.


    But Luo Lan was more concerned about himself. ¡°These old fogeys even invited me to such a g? It looks like they¡¯re fucking not nning on letting me go back.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him. ¡°Then what will you do?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. Qing Zhen will think of a way.¡± Luo Lan drained the ss of wine and said, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m a hostage right now. This group of hillbillies won¡¯t be able to deal with Qing Zhen, but we will have to be wary of Stronghold 178. I¡¯ve already told him to finish off Zhang Jinglin secretly, but he wouldn¡¯t listen to me! See what happened now!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Is it possible that Qing Zhen has made more considerations than you?¡±


    Luo Lan was taken aback. ¡°That¡¯s possible too. After all, my little brother is much smarter than I am.¡±


    It was at this time that Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Lan had a subconscious habit of praising his little brother no matter where he went.


    Then Ren Xiaosu wondered if Xu Xianchu had gone to Stronghold 178 or not after handing the letter of rmendation to him. He also wondered how Xu Xianchu was doing since no one made any mention of Xu Xianchu so far.


    Although he always made Xu Xianchu his scapegoat, it was only because his hand was forced by the circumstances. He really liked Xu Xianchu because the guy was very sincere to his friends.


    Back when Xu Xianchu fled to the stronghold and met him there, he even asked Ren Xiaosu if he wanted something to eat when he only had half a cornbread left.


    So Ren Xiaosu sincerely hoped that Xu Xianchu could seed and do well at Stronghold 178.


    Luo Lan suddenly looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Aren¡¯t you on good terms with Zhang Jinglin? Go and tell him that our Qing Consortium will join forces with Stronghold 178 to eliminate the Yang Consortium and the Zong Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°We¡¯re not that close, so don¡¯t even think about it.¡±


    ¡°Haha, I¡¯m just saying,¡± Luo Lan said with augh.


    The public figures around them were giving toasts to those they knew. Some of them even introduced their friends to other friends of theirs. This was probably how the smaller social circles were formed. The people here were mostly only making friends with those who would benefit their own interests and thene together as they aligned their interests for even greater benefits.


    At this moment, some people noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group and chuckled, ¡°Look at those three wearing casual clothes. While I was on my way here, I saw theming in on foot. I wonder how they got past the gate.¡±


    ¡°Haha, I saw them too. Those who cane in definitely have an invitation, but I¡¯m not sure who invited them.¡±


    These people were speaking in whispers. Although Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group could not hear what they were saying, Ren Xiaosu was pretty sharp. He could tell they were discussing them by their gazes. As for what they were discussing, he could think of it even with his toes.


    Gradually, more and more people around them shifted their attention to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group. They were whispering among themselves like they had found a good conversation topic. But they kept their voices low so it wouldn¡¯t get awkward if Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group heard them. This was what their ¡°demeanor¡± and ¡°culture¡± were really like.


    Beautiful lights around the manor shone down upon thewn as Yan Liuyuan found himself amid the grand and morous affair. If it were up to him, he would rather gaze down on the g from above than be part of it where he had to hear this gossip. The people around him wore hypocritical masks as they mockingly criticized them behind smiling faces.


    He had previously dreamed of getting into the stronghold with Ren Xiaosu, but that dream felt so ridiculous now when he recalled it. Actually, the stronghold wasn¡¯t that great either. Rather, it was not a world that he liked.


    Luo Lan looked around them and then saw Yan Liuyuan¡¯s sad eyes. He suddenly shouted, ¡°Who the hell are you all looking at! Who says we must wear suits to attend the g? Can¡¯t I dress as casually as I like?¡±


    A middle-aged man frowned and said, ¡°Please be more civilized. This is an event held for the upper ss. We don¡¯t condone your atrocious behavior here.¡±


    Luo Lan got so angry heughed. He went up to the man and pped him. Then he snarled, ¡°How can you speak to me in that manner? I noticed you just now. You were the one whoughed the hardest!¡±


    Everyone nearby looked dumbfounded by Luo Lan¡¯s p. They had not expected someone would actually hit others at such a morous event!


    That middle-aged man held his face in pain and said dumbfoundedly, ¡°Do you know who I am?¡±


    Luo Lanughed. ¡°You wanna talk about who we are now, do you? Why? A man like you who¡¯s too afraid fight back after getting pped? Where are your balls! You¡¯re acting like a sissy!¡±


    The middle-aged man retorted, ¡°I¡¯m the director of Stronghold 88¡¯s Public Order Division!¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Do you know who I am then?¡± Luo Lan looked around like a dangerous tiger.


    Everyone knew Qing Zhen was the silent tiger of the Qing Consortium. But they did not know about how Luo Lan had restrained himself so Qing Zhen could stand out even more brilliantly.


    He said that his life was worthless, so everything good deserved to be given to Qing Zhen instead of him.


    But a tiger was still a tiger. Something inherent would eventually reveal itself to the world.


    Luo Lan said with a sneer, ¡°Listen up, my name is Luo Lan. Let¡¯s see who dares challenge me.¡±


    The crowd erupted into a furor. Who in Stronghold 88 did not know that Luo Lan was here? Although the Yang Consortium had ced him under house arrest in the stronghold, Qing Zhen was now the head of the Qing Consortium. If Luo Lan remained alive, it would be fine. But if he died, who would bear the wrath of Qing Zhen?


    Then the crowd fell silent. It sounded like a 1,000 flies had suddenly stopped buzzing.


    The crowd looked at the end of thewn where a young girl stood, sporting a simr attire to the boy.

 Chapter 323 - Two weeds

    <h4>Chapter 323 Two weeds</h4>


    Under everyone¡¯s gaze, the cap-wearing Yang Xiaojin walked up to Ren Xiaosu. All of the well-known public figures of Stronghold 88 knew of her status.


    Meanwhile, the young man who was simrly dressed stood in a daze out on thewn. It was as though he had not expected to witness such a twist today. He had thought she would make her appearance in a stunning gown, shining bright as the stars. At the moment of her appearance, even the stars in the night sky would have paled inparison. He hade here today because he had wanted to enjoy that sight.


    But what happened here blew Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind. Not only was Yang Xiaojin not dressed formally for the function, she even deliberately wore white sportswear with red wording on it that matched well with his that had blue wording.


    The young man had many fantasies that made him the hero saving a damsel in distress. But the entire world was apparently ying a joke on Ren Xiaosu. He had only saved her once, yet she stood by him on so many asions after that, ready to pull him out of any sticky situations he got himself into.


    At the venue of the g, everyone was holding their champagne flutes with stunned looks. They were staring in shock at the two like spectators would.


    It might have been an illusion, but Ren Xiaosu felt that everyone around him had turned into statues. The world was no longer bustling, while time also stopped briefly.


    The two of them were simr in that they were somewhat out of ce with the neatly mownwn, the smooth stone steps, and the tasteful decorations found around the manor.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized he had been mistaken. Yang Xiaojin was never a princess of the organization like he had imagined her to be, but a weed willing to grow freely in the wilderness just like him.


    Ren Xiaosu said in a stunned manner, ¡°Why are you dressed in such¡ª¡±


    Yang Xiaojin leaned forward and grabbed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand with everyone watching. ¡°C¡¯mon, it¡¯s pretty boring here. Let¡¯s go out for a walk.¡±


    The young girl led Ren Xiaosu out and disappeared from everyone¡¯s sight. It was only then that the cier cold atmosphere started thawing.


    Someone asked in a whisper, ¡°Who is that young man?!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan watched quietly as Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin left the manor. He had wanted to go after them, but he thought they were like the stars on the stage, and that he should just stand quietly in the audience and watch in the darkness.


    He knew how much hardship Ren Xiaosu had suffered. During the period Ren Xiaosu was injured, Yan Liuyuan got a sense of it. So when Ren Xiaosu¡¯s happiness arrived after all the suffering he had gone through, Yan Liuyuan knew not to disturb Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hopes.


    He had told Ren Xiaosu that if Yang Xiaojin did note look for them, they should not head to Stronghold 88.


    But now Yang Xiaojin had used her actions to prove she could do a lot more for them.


    Since it was that way, Yan Liuyuan had nothing more to disagree with. He was willing to sacrifice his personal inclinations for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s happiness. Wasn¡¯t it just suffering some grievances in the stronghold? That wasn¡¯t a big deal to him.


    If Luo Lan was willing to act like a silly fatso whose life was worthless for Qing Zhen¡¯s sake, Yan Liuyuan could do likewise for his brother.


    When he thought of that, Yan Liuyuan felt like Luo Lan had suddenly be much more affable. ¡°Hey, fatty, let¡¯s head back first.¡±


    Luo Lan scolded, ¡°Brat, who are you calling a fatty? Come on, I¡¯m taking you home.¡±


    ...


    When they walked out of everyone¡¯s sight, Yang Xiaojin suddenly let go of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. She hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Just now...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Thanks for bailing us out.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin seemed relieved. ¡°You don¡¯t have to care about them since they¡¯re still obsessed with the world they¡¯ve built and arecent about things. But you and I know this world is about to change.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    ¡°You still haven¡¯t eaten yet, right?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°I discussed beforehand with Luo Lan to scrounge off your family tonight, but we ended up leaving before I could do that.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll take you to a diner that serves delicious wontons.[1]¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°There¡¯s also something I want to tell you about. We¡¯ll be setting off to the northwest in seven days.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What¡¯s in the northwest? Are we going to Stronghold 178?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°We¡¯re going to exterminate the bandits with the Zong Consortium. It¡¯s going to be a joint operation by the Yang Consortium and the Zong Consortium this time. We¡¯re not going to exterminate the banditrypletely, so we¡¯ll return once we¡¯ve killed enough of them.¡±


    ¡°Who else will be going with us?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°The Zong Consortium¡¯s people.¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°We have to be careful along the way. Don¡¯t trust anyone besides me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. He suddenly recalled the time they were on the expedition to the Jing Mountains. Although they did not trust each other at the time, they still formed a temporary alliance. Now that he thought about it, that alliance felt rather nice.


    Neither of them mentioned holding hands. The stars were shining brightly in the night sky, and it was the perfect time to have supper.


    ...


    The uproar at the g did not subside even after Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had departed. Everyone seemed to have found a new topic to gossip about.


    Many of the higher-ups knew the purpose of the g tonight. A young and promising man from the Zong Consortium who was known to be a supernatural being would be here for the function. In addition, Yang Yu¡¯an had arranged for Yang Xiaojin and Zong Cheng to exterminate the bandits together. His intention could not be any more straightforward than this. It was not like the higher-ups were stupid.


    The g had not even started yet. Yang Yu¡¯an, the representative of Stronghold 178, and the young man from the Zong Consortium were still discussing some matters inside the vi. The g would only officially begin when they were done with the discussion and after they walked out of the vi. But before the function even began, one the stars for the night had already run off with someone else. In fact, she was the one who made the other person run off with her!


    At this moment, Yang Yu¡¯an and two young men stepped out of the vi. As he smiled at the guests, Yang Yu¡¯an calmly took a ss of champagne and said, ¡°Honored guests, what¡¯s going on here? Is there something interesting you¡¯re discussing?¡±


    Someone hesitated before saying, ¡°Your niece left with a young man....¡±


    Yang Yu¡¯an¡¯s expression remained unchanged. He maintained his smile and said, ¡°Oh? Which young man?¡±


    Some people secretly sighed at how shrewd Yang Yu¡¯an was. He could still keep such a straight face at a time like this.


    Someone replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know where he popped out from. But he came here with Luo Lan and was dressed in casual attire.¡±


    Yang Yu¡¯an took a deep breath and said with a smile while looking at Zong Cheng and Xu Xianchu next to him, ¡°Zong Cheng, Brother Little Xu, I¡¯m sorry about this, but I have to deal with some family matters first.¡±


    Xu Xianchu did not mind and said with a smile, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Who ran off with your niece?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just a refugee called Ren Xiaosu. There¡¯s nothing worth mentioning about him,¡± Yang Yu¡¯an answered.


    But Xu Xianchu was stunned. He suddenly asked the others around him, ¡°Where did Ren Xiaosu go? Which direction did he head off to?¡±


    The people at the g were dumbfounded. What the hell was going on?! The situation was such a mess. ¡°I think they took off towards the south.¡±


    Xu Xianchu bade farewell to Yang Yu¡¯an, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Chairman Yang. Ren Xiaosu is a good brother of mine. We haven¡¯t seen each other in a long time, and he¡¯s also my benefactor. I¡¯ll go look for him first, so let¡¯s discuss the other matters tomorrow.¡±


    Then Xu Xianchu ran out and chased after Ren Xiaosu.


    [1] A type of Chinese dumplingmonly found across regional styles of Chinese cuisine. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonton

 Chapter 324 - Commander Zhang

    <h4>Chapter 324 Commander Zhang</h4>


    The previously bustling g fell silent as everyone held their breath. It was as though they were waiting for someone to break the silence.


    A servant identally knocked down a champagne tower on a table due to his nervousness and broke the silence with the shattering of ss. A group of servants frantically cleaned up the area while the guests heaved sighs of relief.


    With the copse of the champagne tower, the tense atmosphere was finally broken.


    Someone asked, ¡°Third Uncle, was that the representative from Stronghold 178 just now?¡±


    Yang Yu¡¯an handed the champagne in his hand to a subordinate beside him. He was no longer in the mood to drink. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s Xu Xianchu.¡±


    Everyone knew the main guest tonight was actually Xu Xianchu. The war in the Southwest was very intense, yet Stronghold 178 remained standing amid the fighting. It was as though they were not the least bit interested in the war happening in the Southwest.


    But while they remained quiet, it did not mean others could disregard them.


    As the older people knew, there was a group of ferocious beings hiding behind the walls of that fortress.


    The other strongholds were all simply known as strongholds. Only Stronghold 178 was sometimes referred to as a fortress by people in private. It also seemed like it was the only stronghold that was qualified to be named as such.


    When an all-out war arrived, that magnificent fortress would turn into a sophisticated war machine. With its gigantic and strong gears working together, it could destroy any targets that were a threat to the fortress.


    Of course, a lot of people had not seen it for themselves. Stronghold 178¡¯s status in the Northwest had long be a thing of legends.


    Therefore,pared to the Zong Consortium¡¯s Zong Cheng, Yang Yu¡¯an was far more concerned about Stronghold 178¡¯s stance. But the problem now was that Stronghold 178¡¯s representative had left before the function could even begin.


    ¡°That young man called Ren Xiaosu, were you the one who invited him?¡± Someone asked, ¡°What¡¯s his background, and why does that Xu Xianchu care so much about him?¡±


    Yang Yu¡¯an frowned. He knew from the intelligence reports that Ren Xiaosu had traveled alongside Xu Xianchu on an expedition to the Jing Mountains. But as Ren Xiaosu was just a refugee, he didn¡¯t think much of him. He only treated that young man as a refugee who had been identally embroiled in the situation.


    But to his surprise, his niece had a different view of Ren Xiaosu, and even Xu Xianchu saw him as a good friend.


    He must be a very important friend, a best friend he really wanted to see. Why else would Xu Xianchu leave such an important g just to go and meet him?


    However, Yang Yu¡¯an did not say anything else. He smiled at the guests and said, ¡°There¡¯s been a small incident at the function, but I hope this matter will not affect everyone¡¯s mood. Please continue to enjoy yourselves here.¡± His words meant he did not want to continue talking about the matter.


    The guests were very understanding. After all, everyone worked for the Yang Consortium, and Yang Yu¡¯an was now the second most important person of the entire Yang Consortium. As such, no one would want to set themselves against him for the sake of some gossip.


    However, after tonight, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name would probably be widespread. Some people would even add their own narratives of what happened here and make the story even more bizarre than it really was.


    Yang Yu¡¯an looked at Zong Cheng beside him and said, ¡°I was nning on introducing you to Xiaojin tonight, but unfortunately, she left with her friend first. I think she must have something important to attend to. However, there¡¯s no need to rush things. After all, you two will be heading northwest next week. There will be more opportunities for you to get to know her.¡±


    Zong Cheng had good facial features with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes and exuded a strong aura from head to toe. He smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Uncle Yang. I¡¯ll get along great with Xiaojin.¡±


    ...


    When Ren Xiaosu returned to his residence at night, he saw Xu Xianchu standing at the doorstep like he was waiting for something. Ren Xiaosu understood the moment he saw Xu Xianchu here. So the representative sent by Stronghold 178 to the Yang Consortium was him!


    When Xu Xianchu saw Ren Xiaosu, he got excited. He raised his arm and waved. ¡°Xiaosu! Xiaosu!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you go in and have a seat? How did you find out where I¡¯m living?¡±


    ¡°I actually chased after you from the g but couldn¡¯t catch up, so I had no choice but to go back and ask for where you lived before I could make my way here,¡± Xu Xianchu said and smiled.


    ¡°Go on,e in and have a seat.¡± Ren Xiaosu pulled Xu Xianchu into the house. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of familiarity for Xu Xianchu. Perhaps the way he treated others sincerely could be sensed, so no one would want to reject such a friendship. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu made up his mind to not let Xu Xianchu take the me for himself anymore in the future.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°So you went to Stronghold 178? How are you doing there?¡±


    ¡°I still have to thank you for the rmendation letter,¡± Xu Xianchu said while he sat on a stone bench in the yard. Xiaoyu brought a cup of tea over to him. Xu Xianchu smiled at Xiaoyu and said, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did you get to meet Zhang Jinglin?¡±


    ¡°Only you would directly address him by name.¡± Xu Xianchu was amused. ¡°We all call him Commander Zhang.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. It seemed like Zhang Jinglin really called the shots at Stronghold 178. He asked again, ¡°What did he say after he saw the letter?¡±


    ¡°Nothing much.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°After he found out that I¡¯m a supernatural being, he assigned me an entry-level role at the lowest level so that I could get to know the other brothers. Then he realized I was quite capable and quickly promoted me.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s Stronghold 178 like?¡± This was one of the questions Ren Xiaosu most wanted answered.


    ¡°The people there are all very talented. I really get along with them, so I really like it there.¡± Xu Xianchu chuckled and said, ¡°Oh yes, Xiaosu, why don¡¯t you go to Stronghold 178? Commander Zhang has been asking about you a lot.¡±


    ¡°If there¡¯s a chance in the future, we might go and see what¡¯s there,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Then a voice floated over the wall. ¡°Xiaosu, ask him if he¡¯s here to form an alliance with the Yang Consortium to attack our Qing Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled for a moment. That was clearly Luo Lan¡¯s fucking voice.


    Both Xu Xianchu and he turned their heads to have a look and were greeted by Luo Lan¡¯srge head slowly rising up from behind the wall. It was a really weird sight to behold.


    Xu Xianchu was taken aback. He knew Luo Lan too well. ¡°Xiaosu, why are you and him neighbors?¡±


    ¡°Ignore him. He was ced under house arrest here, but I¡¯m not,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Hey, Xiaosu, ask him for me,¡± Luo Lan said anxiously.


    But before Ren Xiaosu could respond, Xu Xianchu answered first. ¡°I¡¯m not here to form an alliance with the Yang Consortium. Our Stronghold 178 does not form alliances with any organizations.¡±


    Luo Lan let out a sigh of relief. ¡°That¡¯s good! Back then, I personally sent Zhang Jinglin away, so don¡¯t forget the friendship!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself about how shameless Fatty Luo was. Earlier in the evening, he said that he had tried to persuade Qing Zhen to kill Zhang Jingling.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Xianchu. ¡°Then why are you here at Stronghold 88?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just here to discuss bandit extermination in coboration with the Yang and Zong ns. Commander Zhang wants to open up the trade routes again.¡±

 Chapter 325 - Look at this cauldron, it’s so big and round

    <h4>Chapter 325 Look at this cauldron, it¡°s so big and round</h4>


    ¡°What do y¡¯all have to sell?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Isn¡¯t Stronghold 178 said to be a very deste ce?¡±


    ¡°The area around us is indeed very deste,¡± Xu Xianchu replied. ¡°But there are still many things that I can¡¯t talk about for now. It¡¯s a secret.¡±


    At the mention of it being a secret, Ren Xiaosu felt it could be something very important. Otherwise, Xu Xianchu would not be so serious about it.


    ¡°Oh, is the Northwest safe?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Sometimes it¡¯s safe, sometimes it¡¯s not.¡± Xu Xianchu smiled and said, ¡°It really depends on the situation. But recently to the north... forget it, I can¡¯t talk about that either¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu had a feeling that Stronghold 178 was keeping a secret and that secret had something to do with Zhang Jinglin¡¯s departure from Stronghold 178. But what exactly was it that made Zhang Jinglin feel like it was meaningless for him to stay behind in Stronghold 178?


    Zhang Jinglin had once said to Yan Liuyuan that war would not save humanity.


    What did he really mean when he said that?


    However, that didn¡¯t really have anything to do with Ren Xiaosu. He looked at Xu Xianchu and said, ¡°Hmm... have you heard of anything recently?¡±


    Xu Xianchu was taken aback. ¡°Hear about what?¡±


    ¡°Haha,¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°It¡¯s nothing important.¡±


    Then, Xu Xianchu said, ¡°Oh yes, I have some big news to share with you. My original power was to summon a shadow clone, y¡¯know?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I know.¡±


    ¡°The shadow I summon has gained an additional cauldron!¡± Xu Xianchu said excitedly, ¡°This cauldron is so strong it can even block an RPG!¡±


    Xu Xianchu then summoned his shadow. It stood quietly in the yard with arge ck cauldron floating behind it.


    It was extremelyrge, sorge that it could even envelop an entire person.


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at the cauldron. ¡°Damn...¡±


    Xu Xianchu looked particrly excited. ¡°Don¡¯t look down on this ck cauldron. Y¡¯know, it can be used as a shield against bullets and also to smack people. It¡¯s infinitely powerful and there are many wonderful uses for it as well. I can even use it to stir-fry vegetables! When I lead troops out to the Gobi, we don¡¯t even have to bring along a mess kit. How convenient!¡±


    ¡°Mhm, it is convenient,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that the cauldron looked very familiar. Wasn¡¯t it arger version of the ck iron cauldron he had used for catching sparrows?


    Wait a minute! When Ren Xiaosu took a more careful look, he suddenly felt very ufortable, because he noticed a small crack in Xu Xianchu¡¯s cauldron. Back then, his metal cauldron had formed a small crack when he identally knocked it over. However, it did not really affect the functionality. This was a power the shadow formed on its own. So how could there be a crack?


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression grew concerned and weirder. Meanwhile, Xu Xianchu was still showing off his power. ¡°It might be because my power is getting stronger, so the cauldron is also bing bigger. I wonder how big it can get in the future. If I can even use it to block an artillery shell, that would be even better!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with mixed feelings, ¡°Yeah, it will grow bigger....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized Xu Xianchu¡¯s cauldron must have appeared after he pushed the me onto Xu Xianchu. And as he pushed even more me onto Xu Xianchu, the cauldron would just get bigger and bigger. He did not know why, but since Xu Xianchu wanted the cauldron to grow bigger, he would naturally have to help him fulfill his wish as a friend.


    But as for why? Ren Xiaosu could not understand it at all. So as long as he pushed the me onto Xu Xianchu, it would result in Xu Xianchu conjuring up a cauldron?


    What was the principle behind that? There was absolutely no logic!


    From the other yard, Luo Lan suddenly said, ¡°Oh yes, Old Xu, thank you.¡±


    Luo Lan was leaning against the wall and seemed like he was about to say something. However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly roared, ¡°Can¡¯t you go back and sleep already? I¡¯m talking with my friend here, so don¡¯t keep bringing up your Qing Consortium¡¯s matters and interrupting us. Isn¡¯t it already clear that they aren¡¯t gonna form an alliance with the Yang Consortium?¡±


    Luo Lan cursed as he retracted his head back down. The soldiers who were charged with carrying him behind the wall let out sighs of relief.


    It was only when Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Lan leave that he heaved a sigh of relief. He was a little worried Luo Lan would suddenly mention how ¡°Old Xu¡± had saved his life back at Stronghold 109.


    If he brought that up, Xu Xianchu would definitely understand everything!


    Xu Xianchu looked utterly confused. ¡°Why did he thank me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Maybe he¡¯s thanking you for not forming an alliance with the Yang Consortium. Don¡¯t worry about the details.¡±


    ¡°Hm, alright.¡± Xu Xianchu suddenly whispered, ¡°Xiaosu, why don¡¯t you follow me back to Stronghold 178? The people there are really nice. I¡¯ve lived in the stronghold before, so I know how the people in Stronghold 178 are different.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and asked, ¡°How many people can you bring?¡±


    ¡°How many of you are there?¡± Xu Xianchu asked.


    ¡°30,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    ¡°Then I can¡¯t make that decision.¡± Xu Xianchu frowned and said, ¡°I¡¯m mainly here to negotiate with the Yang Consortium. Why don¡¯t l go back to Stronghold 178 next week and inform Commander Zhang about this.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu considered it seriously and said, ¡°Sure.¡±


    But after tonight, once Yang Yu¡¯an realized how important Ren Xiaosu really was, he would most probably not allow him to leave so easily. However, Ren Xiaosu was well-prepared now. One n was to follow Luo Lan when Qing Zhen came to rescue him, while the other n was to rely on the sessful negotiations between Xu Xianchu and Zhang Jinglin and the Yang Consortium.


    No matter which n seeded, he would have to seize the opportunity. Only one thing made Ren Xiaosu hesitate. But it didn¡¯t matter as he still had time.


    ...


    Xu Xianchu¡¯s arrival seemed to have added some small episodes to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life, and it also gave him another possibility to consider for his future.


    However, Xu Xianchu did not stay at Stronghold 88 for too long. After he, the Yang Consortium, and the Zong Consortium had agreed to eradicate the bandits, he immediately headed back to give his report.


    Someone found the opportunity to ask him about his rtionship with Ren Xiaosu. In the end, Xu Xianchu only said he was indebted to Ren Xiaosu, and that it was Ren Xiaosu who hooked him up with Stronghold 178.


    With that revtion, a lot of people were stunned. What was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s background? He could even rmend people to go to Stronghold 178?


    As a matter of fact, it was quite difficult for someone living in the stronghold to arrange a job for their rtives. But somehow, Ren Xiaosu could leapfrog the chain ofmand of the stronghold and promote someone to officer?


    However, as Xu Xianchu did not mention the details, everyone did not know how Ren Xiaosu managed to do it.


    After Xu Xianchu left, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life returned back to normal. It was not yet time for Yang Xiaojin and him to go out to exterminate the bandits, but he was still very happy to study and practice hand-to-handbat every day.


    The only surprise was that the woman named Zhou Yingxue appeared again after disappearing for a week. Moreover, the woman seemed to have made up her mind to follow Ren Xiaosu all the time. She would be at the library whenever Ren Xiaosu went there.


    Ren Xiaosu guessed it must have been Yang Yu¡¯an who had ordered her to get close to him again to fish for some useful information.

 Chapter 326 - New rules

    <h4>Chapter 326 New rules</h4>


    When Zhou Yingxue appeared again, she did not deliberately try to make conversation with Ren Xiaosu. She would wear different outfits every day despite the winter weather and also put on borate makeup. Then she would sit quietly in the corner of the library and flip through her books.


    If anyone passed by, she would not turn to look at them, not even if it was Ren Xiaosu.


    When it got slightly more crowded in the library in the afternoon, there would be youths going over to hit on her, only to get rejected gently.


    As time passed, it seemed as though she were really here because she wanted to read. She was just like a quiet beauty who had be a unique scene for others in the library.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that if the other party were really willing to get along peacefully with him, he would be fine with it. After all, he wasn¡¯t doing anything illegal here, so there was no reason he should be afraid of being monitored. Although he had hired An Yuqian to teach Wang Yuchi and the others, there was nothing out of ce with the lessons. At most, they would have to be more careful when discussing how to design the armor. So Ren Xiaosu simply ignored Zhou Yingxue¡¯s presence.


    However, Ren Xiaosu realized An Yuqian kept getting distracted with staring at Zhou Yingxue. That was especially so today after Zhou Yingxue entered the library and actually took off her coat to reveal a qipao underneath.


    The hem of the qipao had a slit that almost went up to her hips. As Zhou Yingxue sat quietly, An Yuqian stared straight at her.


    Ren Xiaosu felt helpless. He wondered if Zhou Yingxue might be a supernatural being too. Why was she not afraid of the cold?


    At this moment, Wang Yuchi asked, ¡°Teacher An, about this question...¡±


    An Yuqian came back to his senses and said, ¡°Ah, this question is really fair... no, I meant this question is really slender. I don¡¯t mean that either....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at An Yuqian. ¡°Say, shouldn¡¯t you focus on your ss? We paid you for it.¡±


    An Yuqian was a little embarrassed. ¡°Don¡¯t you think she looks really elegant sitting there quietly?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. He went to the bookshelf and found three books before walking over to Zhou Yingxue. An Yuqian was thinking how ballsy Ren Xiaosu was to try to hit on her in such a direct way.


    Zhou Yingxue pretended not to see Ren Xiaosu. When Ren Xiaosu walked up to her, she finally looked up. ¡°Hello, is something the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ced the Spare Me, Great Lord novel in his hand in front of Zhou Yingxue. ¡°I think this book is quite interesting. You should read it.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu went back to sit down and continued with studying by himself. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue flipped open the book in front of her curiously, hoping to find out more about the book Ren Xiaosu liked.


    Eventually, while Ren Xiaosu and the students were getting their afternoon lessons, Zhou Yingxue wasughing so hard in the corner of the library she was curling into a ball. Her face went numb fromughter. The quiet and demure image she had painstakingly built up waspletely ruined.


    Zhou Yingxue did not do anything for the entire afternoon other thanugh like a lunatic.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian. ¡°Do you think she¡¯s still elegant now?¡±


    An Yuqian took a deep breath and said, ¡°Not anymore.¡±


    ¡°Then focus on teaching,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not expect Zhou Yingxue to start pestering him ever since then. Every day, she would ask him what books were good reads and would even go over to discuss what she thought of the books he rmended.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this woman was indeed someone who specialized in getting close to someone. She could really make the best of a given situation.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not reject Zhou Yingxue too obviously either and would still rmend some extremely boring books to her every day. In the end, Ren Xiaosu realized she would still finish reading them no matter how boring they were. Afterwards, she would go over and chat with him.


    Actually, if he were qualified enough, Ren Xiaosu could have rmended Zhou Yingxue some very high-level math texts. This way, even if Zhou Yingxue had to force herself to read it, she wouldn¡¯t understand anything. However, he wasn¡¯t qualified enough. In fact, Ren Xiaosu might not even be as good at math as Zhou Yingxue. He was too severely limited by his knowledge to even use this method against her.


    An Yuqian went up to Ren Xiaosu and suddenly said, ¡°Bro, I can tell that girl named Zhou Yingxue really likes you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡®Like me? She¡¯s a fucking spy!¡¯


    Even if he had not spotted Zhou Yingxue among the spies previously, Ren Xiaosu could still sense there was something wrong with her based on his intuition built up in the wilderness. One who was unountably solicitous had to be hiding evil intentions.


    Zhou Yingxue thought it would be very easy for someone of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s age to get seduced by her beauty. Would a 17-year-old boy have much experience? Any extortionist in the game[1] would prefer boys of this age.


    As a matter of fact, Zhou Yingxue was not wrong. If it were Wang Yuchi and the others, they might have already fallen into the trap. However, Ren Xiaosu was different.


    At night, Ren Xiaosu bade farewell to Wang Yuchi and the others. He told them to go home first while he headed off to Lu Yuan¡¯s ce to learn hand-to-handbat. But when he left the library, he saw Zhou Yingxue standing at the entrance.


    Ren Xiaosu pretended not to see her as he walked out. Zhou Yingxue called out to him, ¡°Do you have time? There¡¯s something I¡¯d like to talk to you about.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Suddenly, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Quest: Help the woman asking for help.¡±


    This quest appeared too suddenly and caught Ren Xiaosu off guard. ¡°I suddenly have time now. How can I help you?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue froze for a couple seconds but quickly adjusted her emotions and smiled. ¡°It¡¯s my birthday today, but I don¡¯t have any rtives in the stronghold anymore. Can you apany me tonight?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was at a loss. ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go to my ce. We can y some games.¡± Zhou Yingxue smiled.


    ¡°y what games?¡± Ren Xiaosu was already starting to feel like giving up on this quest.


    ¡°A game that can¡¯t be yed alone.¡± Zhou Yingxue winked at Ren Xiaosu.


    What kinds of games were there that could not be yed alone?


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°Do you mean jump rope? I¡¯m really good at that!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was confused. She said, ¡°We can¡¯t jump rope with just two people.¡±


    At this moment, An Yuqian walked out of the library. Seeing that the library was about to be closed, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There! We have enough people!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue smiled awkwardly. ¡°Forget it, I don¡¯t want to y anymore.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu checked the pce¡¯s quest and said, ¡°No, we have to y!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was speechless. What kind of fucking person was this?!


    Half an hourter, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll that came out of nowhere nearly made him jump for joy. After all, it was a really rare item.


    Perhaps with this one Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll, he could gain another new power.


    Even if he did not manage to learn a superpower, he could still gain a master-level skill.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°What if I copy someone else¡¯s master-level skill without having the corresponding advanced-level skill?¡±


    ¡°Invalid,¡± the pce said coldly.


    ¡°That isn¡¯t fair!¡± Ren Xiaosu protested.


    The pce exined, ¡°A Basic and Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll can be used at the same time topletely learn a master-level skill in the event you do not have the corresponding skill set.¡±


    [1] The badger game is an extortion scheme or confidence trick in which the victim is tricked into apromising position to make them vulnerable to ckmail. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badger_game

 Chapter 327 - The special Yan Liuyuan

    <h4>Chapter 327 The special Yan Liuyuan</h4>


    In the past, when Ren Xiaosu was learning the duplicated skills, they would be categorized into five levels¡ªbeginner, intermediate, advanced, master, and perfect.


    The Basic Skill Duplication Scroll could only learn a skill up to the advanced level. Even though Yang Xiaojin¡¯s firearms proficiency was perfect, Ren Xiaosu only managed to learn it to the advanced level. It also did not allow the user to learn any superpowers.


    If he wanted to continue learning, he had to use the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll after his firearms proficiency reached the advanced level.


    Meanwhile, the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll would allow the user to randomly copy the target¡¯s master-level skill or superpower. If he had duplicated Yang Xiaojin¡¯s Perfect Firearms Proficiency and did not have the corresponding Advanced Firearms Proficiency, then this Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll would have been useless.


    Thus, the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll was not without its risks. However, the pce had now given him an easier choice. When paired with a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll, the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll enabled him to learn anything in one shot.


    Now that Ren Xiaosu had obtained the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll through his quest, he definitely had to learn some superpowers with it. So it was better to use it on someone who had superpowers.


    But after thinking for a long time, he realized there was no one around him he could learn any powers from.


    No, he could learn from Yan Liuyuan!


    Although a selfish person like him had no use for a power such as making wishes, if he gained the ability to manipte curses instead, that was something he could really y around with. Moreover, it didn¡¯t seem like Yan Liuyuan had any other master-level skills. That way, the pce would automatically decide to learn his superpower!


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu ran back home excitedly. He did not even go over to Lu Yuan¡¯s ce.


    Both An Yuqian and Zhou Yingxue were left dumbstruck.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned home, he called Yan Liuyuan into the house. He immediately said to the pce, ¡°Use the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    However, something Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t expect happened. The pce answered, ¡°Unable to use the Skill Duplication Scroll on the target.¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He never expected this oue.


    This had never happened before when he used the Skill Duplication Scroll on anyone else. Moreover, based on the pce¡¯s answer, he couldn¡¯t even use the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll on Yan Liuyuan either.


    Ren Xiaosu scrutinized Yan Liuyuan. Why was Yan Liuyuan an exception to the pce? After all, the pce was a power that could even reset nanomachines.


    Yan Liuyuan was not a refugee, or rather, Ren Xiaosu was not sure if Yan Liuyuan was a refugee in the past. That was because... he picked Yan Liuyuan up in the wilderness.


    That winter, he had found Yan Liuyuan unconscious out in the wilderness. Initially, Ren Xiaosu wanted to leave Yan Liuyuan there and not do anything about it. But in the end, he started feeling uneasy after leaving him there for some time before going back to bring Yan Liuyuan to the town. Back then, he asked many people while carrying Yan Liuyuan on his back if they knew whose child it was. In the end, no one was able to answer him.


    After Yan Liuyuan woke up, he could not remember anything and only addressed Ren Xiaosu as his brother. But it was at that moment that Ren Xiaosu was touched, because he had never felt anything like having a family before.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was a ruthless guy. If he could not even support himself at that time, how was he going to support others? He had thought of chasing Yan Liuyuan away when he regained consciousness.


    But Yan Liuyuan kept staying outside his shack the entire day while in tears. At that time, Ren Xiaosu hardened his heart again and asked him, ¡°Can¡¯t you go to someone else¡¯s house and cry? I can¡¯t support you!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan replied in confusion, ¡°But you¡¯re my brother.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart softened for the first time ever. ¡°If you want to survive in this wilderness, you have to at least have one skill, right? Tell me, what can you help me with?¡±


    In truth, Ren Xiaosu was trying to find an excuse to keep him. If the child in front of him could help him out a little, even if it was just doing some simple chores for him, he would grit his teeth and keep Yan Liuyuan with him.


    But Yan Liuyuan cried for a long time and was not able to say what skills he had. All he did was say he could make wishes.


    At first, Ren Xiaosu did not believe it. He thought that having this ability was as good as having nothing. He could also make wishes, but they could not be fulfilled!


    But after testing it out with Yan Liuyuan twice, Ren Xiaosu realized what Yan Liuyuan said was true!


    All these years, Ren Xiaosu had never bothered to investigate Yan Liuyuan. After all, who had the time to delve into such matters these days?


    But now that even the pce couldn¡¯t duplicate Yan Liuyuan¡¯s power, it left Ren Xiaosu deep in thought. Why had Liuyuan appeared outside in the wilderness alone? Was he abandoned by his parents?


    Thinking about it carefully, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s power to make his wishese true and manipte curses seemed like a power only gods should possess.


    All mortals wanted to be gods since only gods could get whatever they desired.


    Yan Liuyuan blinked at Ren Xiaosu and thought for a long time. ¡°Bro, what¡¯s wrong with you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pinched Yan Liuyuan¡¯s cheeks like how he would knead dough andughed. He said, ¡°Just where did youe from, kid?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s voice was distorted from his face being pinched. ¡°If you continue doing this to me, I won¡¯t go easy on you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°You¡¯re all grown up now, arentcha?¡±


    All of a sudden, a loud crash came from the yard next door. It was followed by the sound of people crying out in pain. Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°What the hell was that!¡±


    Then they heard a familiar voice shout, ¡°Six assassins! Two have been shot down!¡± The voice obviously belonged to one of Luo Lan¡¯s men.


    As he wondered what was going on, he went straight out the door and jumped over the yard¡¯s wall. He discovered that six assassins dressed in ck had entered Luo Lan¡¯s yard and were holding guns fitted with silencers.


    Two of the assassins had already been shot dead by Luo Lan¡¯s men. One of Luo Lan¡¯s men was hiding behind a tree in the courtyard, unable toe out from his cover due to the enemy¡¯s heavy firepower.


    Meanwhile, Luo Lan and his other men were stuck inside the house. They had tried to rush out but were stopped by the assassins firing at them.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he quickly guessed these people were probably here to assassinate Luo Lan. However, they must not have expected to find Luo Lan and his men with their guards still up and that there would still be people patrolling in the courtyard during his house arrest. So the moment they entered the front yard, they were shot dead by Luo Lan¡¯s subordinate in the cover of the darkness who simrly had a silenced gun.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. For an arrogant fatso like Luo Lan to be able to live up till now, there had to have been a reason.


    When he jumped in, the people who were here to assassinate Luo Lan were not expecting someone from next door to jump over. They instantly pointed their guns at Ren Xiaosu, but it was already toote.


    The assassins only saw a blur as Ren Xiaosu dashed in an arc towards them.


    Ren Xiaosu hacked the gun out of one of their hands while grabbing the back of the assassin¡¯s neck to use him as a human shield. With just three shots, he finished off the remaining three assassins in the yard. Meanwhile, the assassin he was holding as a human shield was like a fearful little chick as he lost all will to resist. Ren Xiaosu had wanted to leave a survivor for Luo Lan to interrogate. But before he could even call Luo Lan toe out, the person swallowed a suicide pill to kill himself.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he threw him onto the ground. He could only watch helplessly as his opponent started foaming at the mouth. This was the first time he had seen ¡°suicide agents¡± with his own eyes.


    ¡°Come on out, Fatty, they¡¯re all dead,¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted into the house.

 Chapter 328 - Visiting to deliver some gifts

    <h4>Chapter 328 Visiting to deliver some gifts</h4>


    Luo Lan ran out of the house swearing. He was really angry from being suppressed by the enemy forces just now. ¡°Dammit, someone is actually trying to kill me. Luckily, I didn¡¯t let my guard down.¡±


    However, Luo Lan was also a little surprised. Although he had guessed Ren Xiaosu was a supernatural being, he did not think he was that powerful.


    Thinking about this, Luo Lan asked his subordinate who had been hiding behind the tree earlier in a whisper, ¡°Did you see how he killed those people?¡±


    That soldier shook his head. ¡°I didn¡¯t see it clearly.¡±


    ¡°Who are these people?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and said, ¡°You better not tell outsiders that I helped you. I don¡¯t want to get into trouble for it.¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s for sure.¡± Luo Lan looked at the corpses and said, ¡°Search them and see if there are any clues. However, it should be quite meaningless to do so. Suicide agents won¡¯t carry anything that might offer a clue to them.¡±


    As expected, they discovered nothing else on these people except for guns and magazines after searching through their bodies.


    Luo Lan squatted and thought for a moment. ¡°Let me think about this. If I were to die, who would benefit?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sat on a stone stool beside him and let him think about it slowly.


    ¡°Could it be the Zong Consortium?¡± Luo Lan asked doubtfully. ¡°If they had me killed, then the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium will immediately descend into war. The natural environment in the north around the Zong Consortium is not as good as the south. They¡¯ve been plotting to get this region for a long time now but aren¡¯t a match for us. So they tried to infiltrate Stronghold 178 and use them as leverage. If the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium were to start fighting, they could just sit back and reap the benefits.¡±


    However, Luo Lan changed his mind and said, ¡°But the Zong Consortium¡¯s people are still in the stronghold. If they kill me, Qing Zhen would probably think in that direction as well and might then focus his anger onto the Zong Consortium instead. So it could also be possible that the Yang Consortium is trying to kill me while the Zong Consortium¡¯s people are in Stronghold 88, making it difficult to discern what really happened. That way, they can force the Zong Consortium to face Qing Zhen together with them since the Zong Consortium couldn¡¯t prove it wasn¡¯t they who assassinated me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°Your analysis is as good as useless.¡±


    ¡°What else can I do?¡± Luo Lan stared at him. ¡°Since there¡¯s no fucking clues here, I can only make some wild guesses.¡±


    ¡°Alright, take your time to guess.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Remember not to tell anyone that I was the one who saved you. I¡¯ll be leaving the stronghold the day after tomorrow, so don¡¯t create unnecessary trouble for me.¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s expression immediately changed. ¡°What am I to do if you leave? What if someone tries to kill me again?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Liuyuan is staying just next door.¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°Besides, that guy from the Zong Consortium is going with me too. You¡¯ll probably be safe after he leaves.¡±


    ¡°Eh, where are you all off to?¡± Luo Lan wondered.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to exterminate the bandits.¡± Ren Xiaosu jumped back over to his yard.


    He heard Luo Lan lower his voice and shout, ¡°Wait, you said that Liuyuan will protect me? Can he really...¡±


    By now, Ren Xiaosu was really treating Luo Lan as a friend. It was the same for Luo Lan, so Ren Xiaosu did not mind helping Luo Lan out.


    It was just that tonight¡¯s incident was really strange. The Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium seemed to be getting along peacefully with both their armies still working together to fight the Li Consortium at the front lines. It was as though Luo Lan were not under house arrest in Stronghold 88.


    But underneath the surface of this seemingly calm sea, turbulent waves were rolling.


    Right now, the Li Consortium¡¯s front line at Mt. Guangying was in grave danger. Many of the Li Consortium¡¯s military forces were forced to resort to guerri warfare against the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium inside the mountains in an attempt to destroy the supply lines and marching routes of both parties. After all, they were no match for the Yang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade on the front lines. The Qing Consortium¡¯s artillery troops were especially brutal, so the Li Consortium could only use this method to dy their impending defeat.


    When their defeat finally arrived, the Yang Consortium and Qing Consortium would probably start fighting each other immediately. This was what a lot of people spected.


    Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu both knew Qing Zhen would send someone to save him, but no one knew what method Qing Zhen would use to conduct the rescue operation. Launch a frontal assault? In that case, it would definitely be over for Luo Lan as well.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that based on his level of understanding, he probably couldn¡¯t guess what Qing Zhen was nning.


    ...


    With the imminent departure to exterminate the bandits, Xiaoyu got busy again. She rushed everywhere to buy all sorts of supplies for Ren Xiaosu as she was afraid he would suffer when he went outside.


    And now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s storage space was equipped with a vacuum preservation zone, so the food would not go bad when stored inside.


    ¡°This is a new tent, a waterproof cushion, a nket, and a mattress,¡± Xiaoyu said. Although she did not know how Ren Xiaosu would take them with him, she knew Ren Xiaosu had the ability to carry a lot of things with him.


    After all, she was one of the closest people to Ren Xiaosu. How could she not have noticed anything after living together every day?


    ¡°I just bought these stainless steel bowls and chopsticks. Take them with you as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Wait, why are there two sets of bowls and chopsticks?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going with Ms. Xiaojin?¡± Xiaoyu paused. ¡°Since you can bring more things with you, you should bring an extra set for her just in case.¡±


    ¡°Then why is there only one tent?¡± Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded.


    Xiaoyu startedughing. ¡°Why are you being so shy? I only packed one tent because it¡¯s for your own good. It¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t get to use it, but if you do, you¡¯ll thank me for itter.¡±


    These words startled Ren Xiaosu quite a bit. He did not know how to respond.


    Then at this moment, a car stopped outside the house. Someone knocked on the door after getting out and asked, ¡°Hello, is anyone around?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. This voice was aplete stranger, for he had never heard it before.


    He walked over to open the door and found a young man he had never seen before standing there.


    ¡°Hello, my name is Zong Cheng. Nice to meet you.¡± Zong Cheng was the same height as Ren Xiaosu. He was standing there holding some gifts with both hands.


    Zong Cheng¡¯s subordinates who were standing behind him wanted to help him carry the gifts, but Zong Cheng smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s alright, I can handle it myself. Wait for me outside. Don¡¯te in and dirty their front yard.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had to admit that Zong Cheng looked quite friendly when he smiled. He had the cleansing presence of a spring breeze and waspletely different from what Ren Xiaosu had imagined. He had originally thought Zong Cheng was here to find trouble with him, but in the end, it seemed like he was here to give him some gifts?


    Then Zong Cheng said, ¡°You must be Ren Xiaosu. I brought you some gifts from up north. They¡¯re our hometown¡¯s specialty fruit, wolfberries.[1] These gifts are very cheap, so I hope you won¡¯t mind it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought Wang Fugui might have some use for these items, so he decided to ept them.


    Zong Cheng said happily, ¡°I won¡¯t be going inside. As we¡¯ll be going to exterminate the bandits together, there¡¯s still some supplies I have to purchase at the market. Is there anything you need to buy? I can get them for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°Nah, I¡¯m good.¡±


    ¡°Please do take care of me on our expedition to exterminate the bandits,¡± Zong Cheng said politely.


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll take care of you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly.


    ¡°Thank you so much,¡± Zong Cheng said.


    Ren Xiaosu was waiting for this moment. He did not receive any gratitude tokens from Zong Cheng.


    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goji

 Chapter 329 - The zealous Yang Yu’an

    <h4>Chapter 329 The zealous Yang Yu¡¯an</h4>


    The pce could not lie to Ren Xiaosu, so gratitude tokens came with every sincere gratitude. If it wasn¡¯t sincere, he wouldn¡¯t receive any tokens.


    No matter how earnest and sincere Zong Cheng behaved, Ren Xiaosu did not believe him. Even without the pce, Ren Xiaosu would still not have believed him. Otherwise, he would have lived a wasted life for the past 17 years.


    Zong Cheng did not stay around for longer. Ren Xiaosu did not know what this guy was up to. He just smiled and answered whatever he said.


    Yan Liuyuan watched as Ren Xiaosu sped hands with Zong Cheng. All there was left to do was to take vows to be blood brothers with the other party.


    After Zong Cheng finally left, Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°It¡¯s really difficult dealing with these people from the strongholds. We all know that we¡¯re just putting on an act, yet we still have to go along with it and cooperate with each other.¡±


    ¡°Bro, you were smiling very sincerely just now.¡± Yan Liuyuanughed and said, ¡°I seriously thought you were about to acknowledge him as your blood brother.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you know how capable your brother is?¡± Ren Xiaosu said proudly.


    After sending off the visitor, someone knocked on the door again. Ren Xiaosu thought that rascal, Zong Cheng, hade back again. He immediately put on a smile and went to answer the door. When he opened it, he was almost about to shake the other party¡¯s hand. ¡°Bro!¡±.


    Yang Yu¡¯an, who was standing outside, looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. He did not understand what was happening.


    ¡°Hahaha.¡± Ren Xiaosu was embarrassed. ¡°That was just a misunderstanding. Who are


    you?¡±


    Although Ren Xiaosu had gone to the g the other night, Yang Yu¡¯an only came out of the vi after he left the function with Yang Xiaojin. So Ren Xiaosu had not seen Yang Yu¡¯an, nor knew who he was.


    Yang Yu¡¯an smiled and said, ¡°Hello, my name is Yang Yn. I¡¯m Yang Xiaojin¡¯s third uncle.¡±


    ¡°Oh!¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment before quickly moving aside. ¡°Please,e in.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was thinking to himself that it must have been this manchild who had invited him to the g without giving him any prep time. He was probably trying to make him stay away from Yang Xiaojin when he did that.


    But of course, Ren Xiaosu would not mention that explicitly. Yang Yu¡¯an had personallye over with his bodyguards and subordinates following behind him. They entered the yard as well and kept watch on the surroundings.


    Without waiting for Ren Xiaosu to say anything, Yang Yu¡¯an started speaking. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry. My arrangements had not been properly thought out, so there was ack of preparation when I invited you to attend the g. The main issue was that this g had already been in the ns for a long time. But since you just arrived at the stronghold, I was a little negligent in hosting you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°No, no, I¡¯m just a refugee. It was great that I got to see what these parties are like.¡±


    Wang Fugui watched their interaction through the window and mumbled, ¡°Those two foxes.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan chuckled and said, ¡°My brother is no fox.¡±


    ¡°Then what is he?¡±


    ¡°A predator of foxes.¡±


    At this moment, Yang Yu¡¯an had someone bring the gifts over. ¡°I didn¡¯t prepare anything toovish on my first visit, but I hope you¡¯ll like it!¡±


    ¡°I like it, I like it. I like any gifts from you.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed.


    Ren Xiaosu waited for Yang Yu¡¯an to get down to business. He did not believe the second-inmand of the Yang Consortium woulde here just to pay him a visit and offer him gifts in apology. There was definitely something more important than that.


    In the end, Yang Yu¡¯an beat around the bush for half an hour before changing the topic to what he wanted to discuss. Ren Xiaosu really admired the patience of such people.


    Yang Yn said, ¡°Xu Xianchu had been talking a lot about you for the past few days before he departed back to Stronghold 178. Are you close with him?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°We went to the Jing Mountains together, and Xiaojin was there too.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Yang Yn seemed to have just found out about this. He then asked, ¡°Do you know Commander Zhang then? Zhang Jinglin.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback a little. ¡°Yes, I know him.¡±


    Yang Yu¡¯an smiled and said, ¡°You and him...¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s my teacher,¡± Ren Xiaosu said decisively.


    It was Yang Yu¡¯an who was startled this time. He had not expected Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin to have such a rtionship. Teacher and prot¨¦g¨¦?


    Ren Xiaosu had a calm expression on his face. Who wouldn¡¯t know how to borrow someone else¡¯s prestige to protect themselves? He had also used the silk banner Luo Lan had given him as protection from persecution. For Ren Xiaosu, the practical usage of such things was much more important. Gaining a few more of these amulets be much more powerful than anything else.


    He would not bother to hide anything at a time like this. Since he knew Yang Yn had thoughts of allying with Stronghold 178, it wouldn¡¯t really matter if Ren Xiaosu decided to put on an act here. Besides, he was not lying about Zhang Jinglin being his teacher. Not only that, but he had also even worked with Zhang Jinglin before. Weren¡¯t they both teachers of the school back in that town?


    Yang Yu¡¯an deliberated for a moment before saying, ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you go to Stronghold 178?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m not going.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a grave voice, ¡°But I was nning on going there after some time. After all, there are more important matters to attend to, so I had Xu Xianchu head there first after giving him a rmendation letter.¡±


    Yang Yu¡¯an looked calm on the surface, but his mind was racing. Could Xu Xianchu bemanding such an important role in Stronghold 178 because of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rmendation letter?


    It was no wonder that when Xu Xianchu heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name, he did not even care how it would look to the g when he took off in search of Ren Xiaosu!


    Although, the more important thing Ren Xiaosu had mentioned was probably Yang Xiaojin, wasn¡¯t it?


    Ren Xiaosu also wore a calm expression. He did not feel guilty when telling the half-truths.


    ¡°It looks like Commander Zhang values you a lot.¡± Yang Yn smiled amiably.


    ¡°I guess it¡¯s not too bad. Teach once wanted me to take over his job, but the timing wasn¡¯t right yet,¡± Ren Xiaosu said seriously. He wasn¡¯t telling a lie. After all, Zhang Jinglin had indeed chosen him as the substitute teacher. He was nning on making him the teacher of the school.


    However, it sounded different to Yang Yu¡¯an. Did Zhang Jinglin really want this young man in front of him to take over Stronghold 178 in the future? The ¡°timing wasn¡¯t right yet¡± should mean that Zhang Jinglin was nning on grooming him some more. Many of the old-timers knew Zhang Jinglin worked at the grassroots level for a full ten years until everyone was convinced before he took overmand of Stronghold 178. Therefore, this exnation made sense to Yang Yu¡¯an. Zhang Jinglin had been chosen as themander of Stronghold 178 even though he used to be a refugee. At Stronghold 178, it did not matter what your birthright was.


    The way Yang Yu¡¯an looked at Ren Xiaosu turned gentler. ¡°You¡¯re a promising young man.¡± He seemed to havepletely forgotten what he had said to Yang Xiaojin. ¡°I heard you¡¯re also going on the expedition to exterminate the bandits?¡±


    ¡°Mhm. This is an issue for the Northwest, so of course I won¡¯t hesitate to do it,¡± Ren Xiaosu said righteously.


    ¡°Good, good.¡± Yang Yn reminded, ¡°You must watch out for yourself. There¡¯s no hurry to exterminate the bandits. I believe we can definitely get rid of the banditry issue in the future. Alright, I won¡¯t stay around any longer. You should also be preparing to set off on your trip, so I¡¯ll leave you to do what you need.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Third Uncle,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Yang Yu¡¯an¡¯s smile grew wider at the words ¡°Third Uncle.¡± Compared to the Zong Consortium, he was definitely hoping to work with Stronghold 178 much more. That was what true support was really like. If Stronghold 178 could offer him a helping hand, it would probably be a piece of cake to devour the Zong Consortium as well.


    However, Yang Yu¡¯an would not ce all his chips on one person alone. He still had to verify the veracity of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ims.


    But from the looks of it, his credibility was very high. After all, there was already Xu Xianchu¡¯s testimonial.

 Chapter 330 - Exterminating the bandits

    <h4>Chapter 330 Exterminating the bandits</h4>


    ording to Yang Xiaojin, they would set off from Stronghold 88, then pass through Stronghold 97 and Stronghold 99, before arriving at the valley in the north.


    The banditry originated over there. At the beginning, the Zong Consortium made use of these activities to plunder the traveling merchants and seize precious resources left behind in the valley by the Pre-Cataclysm civilization.


    The entire valley¡¯s surface and underground had arge number of urban structures that remained from before The Cataclysm. Most of the things left behind were useless, but if anyone found something useful there, it would be priceless.


    There was a group of merchants who pretended to pass through the area and imed they were on a business trip, when in fact, they stayed around to excavate any useful resources and technologies from the valley.


    Some people used to try to excavate the technologies and secrets within the valley with the aid of electronic devices, but in reality, the massive nuclear haze and radioactive clouds from the fallout would destroy any kind of electronics on the ground.


    The things they found were either already rusted or could not be used even if they were rtively well-preserved.


    At first, the Zong Consortium did not interfere with those merchant groups and allowed them to excavate as they wished. But after the excavation, bandits would arrive as expected and plunder all of their valuable possessions.


    As a result, some of the bandit gangs grew bigger and stronger because of the plundering. Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium also rose and became a force to be reckoned with in the Northern Wastes.


    However, the proper organizations generally despised the Zong Consortium as they always felt the Zong Consortium did not have much depth in the way they did things.


    In order to exonerate themselves, the Zong Consortium started breaking off their rtions with the bandits in recent years. But when they attempted to kill the bandits, they realized the bandits had be familiar with all the terrain in the valley and were scattered in every corner of the ce. The Zong Consortium had quite a problem on their hands.


    All the bandits in the valley had be irritated with the Zong Consortium now. Although they used to pay tribute to the corporation annually, the Zong Consortium was suddenly trying to kick them to the curb after they had outlived their usefulness. They were too merciless!


    And now, the Zong Consortium had suddenly joined forces with the Yang Consortium and Stronghold 178 with the intention of leveraging both their strengths, all in order to make a clean break with their evil past. As long as they exterminated all the bandits, everyone would naturally forget how they started out in hundred years or so.


    In the house, Xiaoyu said, ¡°I made some snacks for you. This one is apparently a very famous mung bean cake[1] here in the stronghold. Take it with you and...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened to Xiaoyu¡¯s chatter. Xiaoyu would always help ready his belongings whenever he went on long trips now, so he did not have to pack on his own anymore.


    Luo Lan leaned over the wall and watched. He interrupted, ¡°You¡¯re bringing so much food with you, eh? Why don¡¯t you bring me along as well? I¡¯m quite the fighter.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless as he stared at Luo Lan. ¡°Do you know why quiet people seem smarter than talkative ones?¡±


    Luo Lan was surprised. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because they hide all their stupid thoughts on the inside.¡±


    Luo Lan was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Have you heard of a person named Zong Cheng?¡±


    ¡°Zong Cheng?¡± Luo Lan tried to remember. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of him before. But I suppose he¡¯s a family member of the Zong Consortium? We aren¡¯t really familiar with them.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t your Qing Consortium share a border with the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory in the north? Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The Zong Consortium is a cackle of hyenas. None of the proper organizations are willing to deal with them. Tigers will never make friends with hyenas.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°In any case, you should be pretty careful of him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu knew it was time to leave when he heard the sound of a vehicleing to a stop outside. Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, and the others sent him off together and reminded him to be careful.


    Ren Xiaosu opened the door and came out onto the street. He saw Yang Xiaojin driving an off-road vehicle, and no one else was in it besides her. There were also two military transport trucks following, and they looked like they were transporting quite a few soldiers and supplies.


    ¡°Get in,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around to Yan Liuyuan and instructed, ¡°While I¡¯m not around, you must watch over our family.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded vigorously.


    Then Ren Xiaosu opened the vehicle¡¯s door and left. Along the way, Ren Xiaosu nonchntly asked, ¡°How many soldiers are in the trucks behind us?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. ¡°30 nanosoldiers. They¡¯re here to help with the extermination of the bandits.¡±


    ¡°Nanosoldiers?¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up, but he immediately dismissed the idea of harming these nanosoldiers. After all, they were here to protect Yang Xiaojin, so he should not be attacking any of them. When he thought of this, Ren Xiaosu felt quite at odds. Although he and Yan Liuyuan did notck nanomachines, Wang Yuchi and the others still did not have enough.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°What did you say to my third uncle? Why did he suddenly change his attitude? He actually asked me to get along with you.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t really say much.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°I only said that I was Zhang Jinglin¡¯s student. There¡¯s nothing wrong with saying that, right?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. ¡°My third uncle only cares about his interests, so don¡¯t be fooled by his appearance. If he finds out you were lying to him, he¡¯ll probably change his attitude immediately.¡±


    If Yang Yu¡¯an found out Ren Xiaosu was only talking about taking over as the schoolteacher when he said Zhang Jinglin had asked him to ¡°take over his job,¡± his attitude would definitely be very different. He wouldn¡¯t immediately abandon Ren Xiaosu as a choice, but Zong Cheng would appear to be much more important than Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Then what about you?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smirked. ¡°Guess.¡±


    She stepped on the gas, and the off-road vehicle sped towards the northern gate of Stronghold 88. They were going there to meet up with the others from the Zong Consortium.


    When Ren Xiaosu and the convoy left, Yan Liuyuan stood at the door and looked in the direction of the departed off-road vehicle for some time. Xiaoyu came up to him. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, your brother¡¯s injuries have already gotten much better. He¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°I wasn¡¯t worried about that.¡±


    ¡°What are you thinking about then?¡± Xiaoyu asked with a smile.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu. ¡°Big Sis, they¡¯re holding a parent-teacher conference at school tomorrow. Can you go on my brother¡¯s behalf?¡±


    Xiaoyu felt a little awkward. ¡°Me? Am I allowed to?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re my big sister. Of course you can,¡± Yan Liuyuan replied with a smile.


    Although Xiaoyu had been with them for a long time, and Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan had also epted her wholeheartedly, she sometimes still worried about it in the middle of the night. She was unsure if she had really integrated into their family.


    They had to be a real family for her to be asked to attend the parent-teacher conference, right? Moreover, Yan Liuyuan had addressed her as ¡°Big Sis¡± instead of ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu.¡± It somehow felt like the rtionship between them had gotten much closer at this moment.


    Xiaoyu asked curiously, ¡°Then should I dress up a little?¡±


    When Xiaoyu was living back in the town of Stronghold 113, she would always wear makeup. But ever since she followed Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan, she no longer wore makeup most days because she had to do housework. She would present herself with her natural appearance almost every day.


    Now that she was going to attend a parent-teacher conference with Yan Liuyuan, she could not possibly disgrace Yan Liuyuan and let his ssmates think that his big sister was an unrefined woman. She had to give herself a makeover!


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu and said with a smile, ¡°Big Sis, you¡¯re pretty even without any makeup. It¡¯s true.¡±


    Xiaoyu rolled her eyes at him. ¡°You¡¯re such a sweet talker!¡±


    [1] Mung bean cake (l¨¹dougao) is a traditional and popr Chinese dessert in summer. | /mung -bean-cake)

 Chapter 331 - The parent-teacher conference

    <h4>Chapter 331 The parent-teacher conference</h4>


    This was Yan Liuyuan¡¯s first time hearing about something called a parent-teacher conference in the stronghold¡¯s school. He didn¡¯t know about it until the teacher informed him, but he wondered what it was for.


    Jiang Wu told him it was just a meeting to summarize the students¡¯ progress at school and to exin some issues to the parents for them to take note of. There was nothing special to it. When Jiang Wu said that, Yan Liuyuan was relieved.


    But he did not tell Ren Xiaosu because he was worried it would affect Ren Xiaosu on his expedition. Of course, there were also other reasons for not telling him.


    This was also the first time Xiaoyu was attending a parent-teacher conference. She purposely went to a shop in the stronghold to get new clothes and even bought some new cosmetics and jewelry.


    After Xiaoyu got dressed and walked out of her room, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu is so beautiful.¡±


    Xiaoyu had put on a simple pair of earrings and wore a new down coat and boots. She originally wanted to wear a skirt but was persuaded by Yan Liuyuan not to as the weather was too cold.


    Xiaoyu had initially put on too much makeup due to nervousness. However, Yan Liuyuan helped her clean it off afterughing at her for a long time.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Big Sis, you¡¯re naturally beautiful. Even if you don¡¯t put on any makeup, you still look good.¡±


    Xiaoyu poked his forehead and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you the sweet talker? Let¡¯s go to the parent-teacher conference now.¡±


    ¡°The students probably won¡¯t be able to take their eyes off you after they see you,¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile.


    It was no wonder Yan Liuyuan could be a friend of the women wherever he went. Although he might not know how topliment them, he made up for it byplimenting them often. Women always loved receivingpliments, after all.


    However, Yan Liuyuan really felt a sense of happiness when he saw Xiaoyu so happy.


    Xiaoyu took the streetcar to school with Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong. While on the streetcar, Yan Liuyuan even said, ¡°Look, that old man behind us has been staring at you the entire time.¡±


    When they arrived at school, Yan Liuyuan realized most of the people were already there. As this school was mainly attended by the children of the rich and influential figures of the stronghold, everyone owned a private car. Since they took the streetcar here, it wouldn¡¯t be out of the ordinary if they arrivedte. Fortunately, they weren¡¯tte.


    But when they entered the ssroom, Yan Liuyuan felt the parents¡¯ eyes looked a little strange. They were all checking them out. Then they started whispering to the children and parents next to them.


    A middle-aged female teacher walked into the ssroom. She said with a smile, ¡°Inst semester¡¯s final exams, the students in our ss fared extremely well. So let¡¯s give our children a round of encouraging apuse.¡±


    Xiaoyu also pped her hands. However, Yan Liuyuan whispered next to her, ¡°Big Sis, I didn¡¯t take those final exams, so you don¡¯t have to p.¡±


    Xiaoyu looked at him askance. ¡°I can still encourage you even if you didn¡¯t take those exams. You¡¯re such a good child, so I must encourage you.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan held back hisughter.


    From the front of the room, the teacher talked about the curriculum and matters regarding the children¡¯s weekday prep sses. She encouraged the children to attend more tutors because the students in this ss would have to make a final sprint for their university cings in the future. If they picked up knowledge beyond their years early, they would be one step ahead of those from the other high schools.


    As the saying went, once you got a head start in life, you would have an advantage. That was the logic.


    Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu were not really listening to the teacher¡¯s speech. Although Ren Xiaosu had always urged him to study hard, Xiaoyu was afraid that Yan Liuyuan would get exhausted from studying, so she did not ce too much emphasis on his learning progress. She knew this was a form of pampering, but she couldn¡¯t help it.


    At this moment, the teacher said, ¡°It¡¯s like this: I held the parent-teacher conference on a weekend afternoon because I¡¯d like to take the opportunity to discuss some matters with everyone.¡±


    The ssroom fell silent. The teacher said, ¡°Yan Liuyuan? Wang Dalong? Are your parents here?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu looked up at her. The teacher smiled at Xiaoyu and said, ¡°You must be Yan Liuyuan¡¯s guardian, right?¡±


    Xiaoyu replied with a smile, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong¡¯s elder sister.¡±


    ¡°You look really young. Where are their parents? Why aren¡¯t they here?¡± the teacher asked.


    Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment before saying, ¡°Miss, it¡¯s fine, you can speak with me.¡±


    ¡°Alright, look here.¡± The female teacher said, ¡°The parents have recently given us some feedback that Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong are not performing as well as the others. Our ss is the elite ss in school. When the teachers are lecturing, they will definitely add in a lot of knowledge beyond their grade. Since their foundation is quite poor, they can¡¯t keep up with the rest of the ss.¡±


    Xiaoyu¡¯s mood gradually sank as the teacher went on. She had thought this would be a normal parent-teacher conference. Jiang Wu also said it was just a session for discussing some of the moremon issues and that there shouldn¡¯t be anything special to it.


    But things seemed to have turned out a little different from what they had expected.


    Xiaoyu said, ¡°Miss, what do you mean? My Liuyuan and Dalong are very smart children. How could they possibly not keep up with the ss?¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t misunderstand.¡± The female teacher said with a smile, ¡°What I mean is that I would like for them to switch sses. The principals also know about this, and we¡¯re doing this for their own good. If they can¡¯t keep up with the ss, they can¡¯t follow the lessons, and that won¡¯t be good for them. We want to transfer them to a normal ss. There¡¯s no other meaning to it, so please don¡¯t mind it.¡±


    What this teacher said was right, and she had also used the same reasoning to persuade the principals about this matter. This was all for the sake of Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong as they really could not keep up with the progress of their ss.


    Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong had close ties to Lu Yuan, so the principals did not agree to it at the beginning. But they eventually relented when they could not refuse the constant requests of the rich and influential parents. After all, their reasoning was not wrong.


    Even though Lu Yuan had entrusted someone to handle the enrollment for Yan Liuyuan and Wang Dalong, that person was not an authoritative figure. After weighing the pros and cons, the principals instructed the homeroom teacher to handle the matter.


    Xiaoyu said firmly to the female teacher, ¡°Although I don¡¯t quite understand your arrangements, and maybe the decision that you brought up might turn out to be really good for them, I¡¯m certain of something else. You should discuss matters like this in private with me and not use such a humiliating method to deal with the issue in front of the entire ss.¡± Although Xiaoyu was not a cultured person, she understood what was reasonable in this world.


    All of a sudden, a short female parent said, ¡°Why should we talk reason with a refugee like you? My husband is the director of the Public Order Division. Even if I say those two kids are not allowed to attend school, so what?¡±


    If the director of the Public Order Division were here, he would definitely not speak like this. If he knew these two students were Ren Xiaosu¡¯s younger brothers, he might even p his wife on the spot. But he probably did not know about any of this. In this day and age, which authoritative man cared about trivialities like parent-teacher conferences?


    On the contrary, his rtives, friends, and wife would only talk like that because they were used to throwing his name around.


    Such behavior wasmon everywhere in society.


    A male parent tried to persuade the female parent, ¡°You can¡¯t say things like that either. We should talk things over peacefully and not use authority to oppress people.¡±


    Meanwhile, the other parents stayed silent.

 Chapter 332 - The origin of a disaster

    <h4>Chapter 332 The origin of a disaster</h4>


    The female parent looked at the male parent who spoke and sneered at him ¡°It¡¯s none of your bloody business how I speak. You might want your child to be friends with the refugees, but I don¡¯t!¡±


    The male parent choked on his words and couldn¡¯te up with anything in response, but he wasn¡¯t going to stoop to her level either.


    Xiaoyu sneered, ¡°And if I refuse to let them switch sses?¡±


    ¡°Refuse to switch sses?¡± The short female parent stood with her arms on her hips and said, ¡°Do you think you can make that decision? Why don¡¯t you ask the parents and students in ss if they agree to it or not first? Why should the 30 of us have to amodate you?¡±


    Xiaoyu said, ¡°Stand up if you want to talk to me. I¡¯m standing up while you¡¯re sitting down. Where are your manners? Is this how stronghold residents behave?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan burst outughing. Wang Dalong looked on from next to him, apparently enjoying the show.


    The female parent was immediately enraged. Her height had always been her sore spot and she hated anyone who brought it up. Yet now she was being ruthlessly mocked by Xiaoyu on it.


    She raised her voice and said, ¡°What an uncultured thing you are! How dare you speak to me like this? Watch your-¡°


    ¡°Watch what?¡± Xiaoyu said with a smile, ¡°Watch out in case you jump up and hit my knee?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan died ofughter. He sat in his seat and looked up at Xiaoyu, her thin stature suddenly looming muchrger.


    For the sake of Ren Xiaosu and him, this little woman ended up bing a housekeeper who did theundry and cooking for them. Having been used to spending generously without a second thought in the past, she had now be willing to haggle with shopkeeps for a long time just to save a few cents.


    And now she was acting like a hero as she tried her best to protect Yan Liuyuan from getting hurt.


    Normally, Yan Liuyuan was actually quite annoyed by Xiaoyu. She demanded him to wash his hands before eating and made sure he wore his fall clothing when it got cold. He also had to eat some vegetables he didn¡¯t like because Xiaoyu said he needed to have a bnced diet.


    But as he thought back on the past, that was the warmth of family.


    It seemed that only with Xiaoyu around did their family feelplete. If they were without her, this family wouldck a kind of warmth.


    Looking at Xiaoyu, the female parent was so irritated she couldn¡¯t utter another word. She rushed at Xiaoyu and wanted to p her face. However, Xiaoyu dodged in time and pped her back, knocking off her sses as well. After pping her, Xiaoyu did not take the opportunity to hit her again. Instead, she retreated.


    Some of the parents quickly stood up to stop the fight. The female parent tried again to p her, but there was no chance to do so anymore. Xiaoyu had gained the upper hand, and it was as though she had expected such a thing to happen.


    The refugees were much fiercer than the people from the stronghold when they fought. That was regardless of whether they were male or female.


    Someone suddenly said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we hear the children¡¯s opinions? See what they have to say about the matter?¡±


    A child spoke up, ¡°Ever since they arrived, there¡¯s been cases of pencils and erasers going missing in ss¡ª¡±


    Xiaoyu was unable to stand it any longer. She started cursing, ¡°Bullshit, whose badly disciplined child is that to cast stones at others? Who doesn¡¯t have pencils and erasers? I bought many of them for Liuyuan, so why would he need to steal yours?¡±


    However, that parent who had been pped exploded into anger again. ¡°How dare you say that about my son! Your mouth is filthy. One look at you and I know you do illicit activities outside the stronghold. The money you earn is dirty too, isn¡¯t it!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. He immediately turned to look at Xiaoyu, but he found that the usually glib Xiaoyu was dumbfounded. That was her most painful emotional scar, and it was suddenly uncovered by someone now. Xiaoyu looked a little confused and helpless. She was like an injured little animal.


    The darkest and most depressing time of her life was a burden Xiaoyu constantly had to carry around. That was why she always felt like she couldn¡¯t integrate into the family. It was not that Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu did not treat her well, but because... she felt she was unworthy of them.


    Early this morning, Li Xiaoyu thought the world was fresh and exciting. It was like she climbed out of her nightmarish hellscape in the middle of the night and into the world to enjoy the scenery. But now she was dragged into hell once again.


    When the female parent saw Xiaoyu¡¯s reaction, she got smug. ¡°See! Look at her! I wasn¡¯t wrong. I was spot on, wasn¡¯t I!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at her and said, ¡°I¡¯m warning you, don¡¯t say anything else.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t I?¡± The female parent snarled, ¡°How can a promiscuous woman like her be allowed to attend the parent-teacher conference!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan roared, ¡°I told you, don¡¯t say anything else!¡±


    Done speaking, Yan Liuyuan broke through the crowd and pped her face. Many of the people had wanted to stop Yan Liuyuan when they saw him charging. But when Yan Liuyuan collided with them, they realized they could not stop him.


    The young man was surprisingly strong! The ssroom was inplete chaos, and many of the tables were even overturned!


    But when he was about to kill that woman, Xiaoyu hugged him from behind and said softly, ¡°Liuyuan, let¡¯s go home.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan stood there quietly. Tears suddenly streamed down his cheeks. Xiaoyu said softly again, ¡°Liuyuan, let¡¯s go home.¡±


    ¡°Dalong, let¡¯s go.¡± Yan Liuyuan held Xiaoyu¡¯s hand and walked out of the front door. He no longer wanted to attend school.


    Wang Dalong quickly followed closely behind them. Before he left, he even spat at that female parent. Yan Liuyuan hit her so hard she was still in a daze.


    LOU


    On their way back, Xiaoyu held Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hand tightly in the fear that he would get impulsive and kill someone. She knew that if Yan Liuyuan used the nanomachines and started killing people, the ssroom would have turned into a river of blood, and no one could¡¯ve stopped him. She also held Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hand tightly like she was afraid she would lose him. It was as though she were scared Yan Liuyuan would abandon her.


    But just as they were about to reach home, a car suddenly sped towards them. The driver of the car was so drunk he kept flooring the gas pedal.


    The pedestrians on the streets cried out in rm, but the driver paid them no heed and continued elerating.


    A vehicle speeding rampantly on the road like that was as good as the Grim Reaper waving his sickle at them.


    But just as the car was about to hit Yan Liuyuan, he pulled Xiaoyu and Wang Dalong to safety like he already knew beforehand what was going to happen.


    Xiaoyu stared dumbfoundedly at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°You...¡±


    Curse Maniption was a new world Xiaoyu had personally opened up for Yan Liuyuan. So she knew Yan Liuyuan possessed such a power and also knew he would receive a simr bacsh whenever he used it.


    She asked in a whisper, ¡°Has she died already?¡±


    Next to her, Yan Liuyuan said calmly, ¡°She must die.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s head home right away.¡± Xiaoyu pulled Yan Liuyuan with her. Her feeble little body dragged Yan Liuyuan along in a stubborn yet helpless manner.

 Chapter 333 - Blessed with mines in the backyard

    <h4>Chapter 333 Blessed with mines in the backyard</h4>


    If Yan Liuyuan did not have the nanomachines, he would already have died, and Xiaoyu and Wang Dalong might even have been implicated. It seemed precisely because of this reason that his strength did not increase like the others after bing a supernatural being. The world was apparently preventing him from abusing his power.


    That was supposed to be his shoring, but Ren Xiaosu had helped him mitigate it. It was not an exaggeration to say that his fate had been changed.


    Xiaoyu did not say anything. She could sense the beast in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s heart that had previously been restrained by Ren Xiaosu was about to crawl out and start attacking people. But she did not know how to stop it. She only knew that Yan Liuyuan shouldn¡¯t be like that.


    A momentter, the neon sign hanging above them suddenly crashed down due to a loose screw.


    Yan Liuyuan once again pulled Xiaoyu and Wang Dalong aside and avoided the ident.


    Xiaoyu asked softly, ¡°Who was it this time?¡±


    ¡°Big Sis, don¡¯t bother yourself with this,¡± Yan Liuyuan answered.


    ¡°Can you stop killing people?¡± Xiaoyu said to Yan Liuyuan.


    ¡°No.¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head. He thumped his chest. ¡°Something¡¯s weighing heavily on my chest, and it makes me very ufortable, yet I can¡¯t seem to get it off my chest.¡±


    Xiaoyu suddenly started crying. ¡°Liuyuan, stop it. I¡¯m not worthy for you to do all this for me. Let me bear the responsibility since it was my own fault.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at her stubbornly. ¡°No, you¡¯re worth it.¡± Then Yan Liuyuan reached out and wiped her tears away. ¡°Don¡¯t cry. I¡¯ve already killed her for you, and I¡¯ll send her family members to hell with her.¡±


    Xiaoyu did not know what to do anymore. Without Ren Xiaosu around, there was not a person who could restrain Yan Liuyuan.


    Seeing Yan Liuyuan¡¯s murderous rage getting stronger, Xiaoyu hugged Yan Liuyuan tightly. ¡°Don¡¯t you remember what your brother said? Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name seemed to have a strange, magical effect on Yan Liuyuan. The words touched a soft spot in Yan Liuyuan. After Xiaoyu said that, Yan Liuyuan finally started to calm down.


    The wife of the Public Order Division¡¯s director was killed in a car ident, and the ident caused quite a stir in the stronghold. Someone even told the director his wife had only dashed out onto the streets because she was looking for someone who had argued with her at school.


    The director of the Public Order Division flew into a rage in his office and vowed to punish the murderer severely. He even wanted to seek out the student and parent who had hit his wife at school!


    But before he could conduct a thorough investigation, Yang Yu¡¯an summoned him to the Yang Consortium¡¯s manor and gave him a dressing down, iming that he did not discipline his friends, family, and wife properly. Yang Yu¡¯an even said that as the director of the Public Order Division, he could not differentiate right from wrong. If he caused any further trouble, he would be removed from his position as the director of the Public Order Division. When Yang Yn reprimanded him, Yang Yu¡¯an spoke pompously.


    However, the director of the Public Order Division knew there had to be a reason for this. Yang Yu¡¯an was definitely not someone who would reprimand him because of ¡°justice.¡± This matter must have affected the interests of Yang Yu¡¯an!


    It was only then that he calmed down and recalled what had happened. Then he remembered someone saying it was a refugee who was the cause of the matter!


    Wait a minute, there weren¡¯t that many refugees in the stronghold.


    There were probably less than ten refugees who had gotten into the Yang Consortium¡¯s stronghold over the years, so it would definitely be easy to find out who it was. However, there was one young refugee who had been enjoying the limelight recently.


    No, wait! There was also a group of refugees who hade into the stronghold recently!


    When he finally got someone to investigate the matter and found out the truth, he was shocked to discover the young man who had quarreled with his wife was actually Ren Xiaosu¡¯s younger brother! After finding out about this, he immediately understood why Yang Yn was not on his side this time.


    However, his first reaction was not to risk his position as director of the Public Order Division, nor was it to take revenge for his wife. He just mentally cursed at her for being such an idiotic woman. Afterwards, he instructed his subordinates to stop investigating the matter. Whatever happened at the school was wholly unrted to the traffic ident. That stupid woman had brought it upon herself for failing to obey traffic rules, and her death had nothing to do with anyone else.


    Once the case was concluded, the entire stronghold flew into an uproar. Those who were in the know understood why the director of the Public Order Division had bowed his head in regards to the investigations. As for those who did not know, they thought he had been looking forward to his wife¡¯s death and getting a promotion since a long time ago.


    What surprised everyone most was that the director of the Public Order Division actually headed to Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu¡¯s ce to apologize to them. However, Yan Liuyuan kept their door shut and did not have any intentions of meeting him.


    The principals also came down to their ce. However, Wang Fugui was the one who met them to handle Yan Liuyuan¡¯s and Wang Dalong¡¯s withdrawal from the school.


    Eventually, everyone in the inner circle caught wind of this matter. So it turned out that the refugee, Ren Xiaosu, was actually a prot¨¦g¨¦ of Zhang Jinglin. It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu could rmend Xu Xianchu to Stronghold 178.


    Meanwhile, the bandit extermination group Ren Xiaosu was part of had just arrived at the first stronghold on their journey. Everyone was to use a half-day to do quick repairs and maintenance work here before they continued north.


    After entering the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu did not do anything other than visit gold shops using his official identity as part of the bandit extermination task force and exchanged his gold for the devalued currencies of the Li Consortium and the Qing Consortium. But as he was in a hurry, he did not manage to trade too much.


    During this period, Yang Xiaojin also disappeared for a while. It seemed she had gone to meet up with the Saboteurs¡¯ nted spy here. And Zong Cheng remained behind with the convoy and happily waited for the others to return. He was a polite, talented young man who was confident in himself yet friendly to others.


    On the way here, he had tried talking to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. While Yang Xiaojin couldn¡¯t care less, Ren Xiaosu and Zong Cheng almost became blood brothers, the way they chatted.


    There were more than 60 people from the Zong Consortium who were traveling with them, and they were split between the two military transport trucks. The Zong Consortium¡¯s people were in charge of basic tasks like cooking for the journey.


    The nanosoldiers portrayed a sense of superiority and only showed a nice attitude to Yang Xiaojin, Ren Xiaosu, and Zong Cheng. When the normal soldiers talked to them, they would ignore them.


    Ren Xiaosu found an opportunity to ask Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Hey, why is everyone so interested in Stronghold 178? Is it because they¡¯re great atbat?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°In modern warfare, no matter how good you are atbat, you can¡¯t fight if you don¡¯t have money. There are four military factories in the vicinity of Stronghold 178 that are extremely vital. And you might not be aware of it, but there are more than 30 kinds of minerals found in the territory controlled by Stronghold 178. Their grain reserves are ranked first among those in the entire stronghold system. Some of their mineral reserves are even estimated to be at 90% of all reserves!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin continued, ¡°Besides, the exploitable oil reserves there amount to as much as 40% of what the entire stronghold system has ess to. Modern development is dependent on mineral and energy sources, so these things are all indispensable.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. He had thought Stronghold 178 was extremely poor. After all, that ce was located in such a harsh environment, so it sounded like it would be a very poor area. He had not expected Stronghold 178 to be so rich!


    Come to think of it, you could not win a modern battle with just courage alone. Fighting a war was all about money, and the reason Stronghold 178 could still stand intact in the Northwest without having any close ties to the other organizations was not because they were asocial or conceited but because they were blessed with mines in their backyard.

 Chapter 334 - Zong Cheng the magician

    <h4>Chapter 334 Zong Cheng the magician</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu felt that he could not be faulted for thinking that Stronghold 178 was very poor. After all, it was not like a ce that was located in such a harsh environment should have much wealth to begin with. But Yang Xiaojin¡¯s exnation made him understand why so many people were eyeing Stronghold 178 even though it was situated at the border.


    It was no wonder that Stronghold 178 wanted to exterminate the bandits and reopen the trade routes. Those minerals needed to be transported to the Central ins!


    More importantly, Zhang Jinglin had once refused to be themander of Stronghold 178 even though they were so rich? Was he being melodramatic or what! Ren Xiaosu started judging Zhang Jinglin.


    When they arrived at the second stronghold to do repairs and maintenance, Yang Xiaojin disappeared off to somewhere again. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu traded some more gold for money before returning to the assembly ce in advance. When he got back, Yang Xiaojin hadn¡¯t returned yet. Zong Cheng wasughing and chatting with the Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers.


    His own soldiers had brought over some folding chairs for the nanosoldiers and even provided them with some specialties from the North as snacks.


    It seemed that Zong Cheng was highly interested in these nanosoldiers and was willing to interact with them. No matter how arrogant the nanosoldiers might be, they would still not put on any airs in front of an important figure from the Zong Consortium and conversed quite happily with him.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned, he did not approach them immediately. Instead, he observed them from afar. It looked like Zong Cheng was performing some magic tricks for them. Zong Cheng asked one of the nanosoldiers while holding a water bottle in his hand, ¡°What do you usually like to drink?¡±


    The nanosoldier smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯re too polite. I¡¯ll just have some water.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Zong Cheng said as he tilted the bottle slightly and poured some clear liquid out of it.


    Zong Cheng turned to look at another soldier. ¡°What do you like to drink? Say something different this time.¡±


    ¡°I like grape juice,¡± the nanosoldier said.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Zong Cheng was still holding the same bottle in his hand but the previously clear liquid was no longer there. This time, he poured some purple grape juice out.


    The nanosoldiers eximed, ¡°There must be a mechanism in the bottle, right?¡±


    ¡°Come here, you can inspect it for yourself.¡± Zong Cheng handed the bottle to one of the nanosoldiers. The nanosoldier looked into the bottle and found no mechanisms inside.


    Then Zong Cheng turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Brother Xiaosu! Why are you watching from there? Come and sit with us for a while. We¡¯ll set off when Yang Xiaojin gets back.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu walked over and said with a smile, ¡°Can you do card tricks?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s something every magician has to learn.¡± Zong Cheng took out a deck of ying cards from his breast pocket and asked, ¡°What kinda trick would you like to see?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly sensed that something was not right. Why would a core figure of an organization be obsessed with magic tricks? He had heard Zong Cheng was a supernatural being, so could his superpower be rted to magic?


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you conjure up four ¡®fours¡¯ for me?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s simple.¡± Zong Cheng said confidently, ¡°Pick out any four cards as you like.¡±


    He fanned the cards out face down so that no one could see what the cards were.


    Ren Xiaosu reached out and picked the cards. These were cards used for magic, and he happened to have simr cards.


    ¡°Wow, they really are four ¡®fours,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise as he looked at the cards in his hands. ¡°Brother Zong Cheng is truly amazing.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu returned the cards to him.


    Zong Cheng was stunned. He felt like something was off but could not tell what it was exactly.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t say that. It was no big deal.¡± Zong Cheng smiled as he put the cards back into the box and then stuffed it into the inside pocket of his jacket.


    Then Zong Cheng said with a warm smile, ¡°By the way, Brother Xiaosu, I just heard about something. Are you very close with Xu Xianchu?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him and said with a smile, ¡°I guess. I was mainly trying to rmend talented people to my teacher.¡±


    He knew what Zong Cheng was getting at, but Ren Xiaosu would also not let slip any opportunity to increase his own ¡°amulets.¡±


    Zong Cheng¡¯s smile remained. ¡°I¡¯m also very familiar with Brother Xu. It seems like we were fated to meet. But if I could ask, your teacher is...¡±


    ¡°Zhang Jinglin.¡± Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°Usually, I don¡¯t tell a secret like that to anyone. It¡¯s better to keep a low profile.¡±


    Zong Cheng¡¯s eyes twitched. ¡®You¡¯re still calling this a secret? The entire Yang Consortium already knows about it!¡¯


    Even he had already received news of it. At first, he was still a little skeptical and had to check with the other party again to confirm if it was true. As a result, that person said everyone in Stronghold 88 already knew about it, and that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s younger brother had made the director of the Public Order Division eat humble pie.


    Before setting off on the expedition, Zong Cheng had realized there was something strange about Yang Yu¡¯an¡¯s attitude. So this was the reason for it.


    After confirming the truth, Zong Cheng¡¯s smile for Ren Xiaosu became even more sincere. At the beginning, he would asionally talk to Yang Xiaojin. But now it was like he did not even know Yang Xiaojin anymore, even though they were traveling together. He never said another word to her again, and the way he addressed her had changed from ¡°Xiaojin¡± to ¡°Yang Xiaojin.¡±


    This waspletely different from his original n in which he was the leader of this attack to exterminate bandits.


    It was not that he was afraid of Ren Xiaosu. Because the Yang Consortium was so bold as to detain Luo Lan despite both sides being equally powerful, it demonstrated the Yang Consortium was not necessarily afraid of the Qing Consortium. It was the same for the Zong Consortium when they faced Stronghold 178. After operating in the North for so many years, they had be a force to be reckoned with.


    However, he felt that he should be more ambitious as a man rather than creating unnecessary trouble over a minor issue like romance.


    The Zong Consortium had endured for so long in the impoverished Northern Wastes, yet everyone imed they were hyenas and even refused to acknowledge them as a consortium.


    Now that the South was at war, it was the best opportunity for the Zong Consortium to rise up. He could not screw this up.


    Before setting off again, Ren Xiaosu sat in the passenger seat of the off-road vehicle and asked, ¡°Can you let me drive for a while?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him in surprise. ¡°Why do you want to drive all of a sudden? Do you know how to drive?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Ren Xiaosu said confidently, ¡°How can a man not know how to drive?¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Yang Xiaojin stopped the vehicle and changed seats with him.


    Ren Xiaosu excitedly stepped on the elerator. But after driving for ten minutes, Yang Xiaojin took out her pistol and pointed it at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Stop the vehicle, I¡¯m driving.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu reluctantly stopped the vehicle. ¡°Let¡¯s talk nicely. Why do you have to point a gun at me?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin rubbed her temple and changed the topic. ¡°After we leave the stronghold, north of that is the valley. When the timees, I¡¯ll shake off Zong Cheng and the nanosoldiers so that we can act on our own.¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Aren¡¯t we going to exterminate the bandits? How are we going to exterminate the bandits with just the two of us?¡±


    ¡°You probably don¡¯t know how serious the banditry to the north is.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°There are already hundreds ofrge bandit gangs living there, with the smallest groups with members numbering in the double digits. They¡¯re all threats the Zong Consortium created over the years.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s that many of them?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find out there were hundreds of bands of bandits.


    ¡°So we won¡¯t be their match if we encounter arger gang of bandits with only the 100 of us,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.

 Chapter 335 - Acting alone

    <h4>Chapter 335 Acting alone</h4>


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t they send some more people?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t they sending us to our deaths? They could have just sent the army to eliminate the bandits!¡±


    ¡°Do you know why that ce has be an unincorporated zone?¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°It¡¯s because it¡¯s the transit hub of the Northwest with links to four different ces, of which three lead to the Zong Consortium, the Yang Consortium, and Stronghold 178. Whoever sends their troops into this area will attract the suspicion of the other two. In the past, there was nock of friction among the three groups over this matter. None of them wants anyone else to gain control of this route.¡±


    ¡°So that area eventually became a gathering ce for the bandits since no one could do anything about it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. ¡°No wonder the three organizations are conducting this operation together at the mention of exterminating bandits. Even Xu Xianchu had to specially make a trip to the Yang Consortium.¡±


    ¡°Yes, somerge bandit gangs even settled down over there and turned to stealing women from the refugees to keep thempany.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°If there¡¯s a need to deploy troops there to exterminate the bandits, the three organizations have to work together. Since everyone wants to kill the bandits, the mission must be carried out no matter what.¡±


    ¡°Everyone should have just sent their troops together then,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner. ¡°What¡¯s the point of sending us there?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s extremely easy for the bandits to hide in the valley because of theplex and peculiar terrain.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°So someone has to first get a better understanding of the bandit situation in the entire valley and find out where they¡¯re located to assess if there¡¯s a chance of killing them in one fell swoop before making further ns.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu understood they were just going there to scout the path and did not have to participate in any battles. He and Yang Xiaojin weren¡¯t even a part of this n at the beginning. The primary mission was supposed to be conducted by the 30 nanosoldiers along with the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers.


    If the troops were deployed directly into the valley, many of the bandits might go into hiding or run away. Furthermore, it would be very easy for the three organizations to fight each other.


    ¡°When you say that you want to shake them off, it¡¯s mainly Zong Cheng that you want to shake off, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu probed.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded and said, ¡°As the Zong Consortium is more familiar with the valley, they suggested they should lead the way this time. However, the banditry issue originated from them, and many of the bandit gangs have ties with them as well. If they lead the way, we can only see what they want us to see.¡±


    In any case, they would have to avoid the Zong Consortium and not get led by the nose.


    Ren Xiaosu did not have any problems with that. Honestly, Yang Xiaojin was a daredevil. How could a normal person barge into a bandit¡¯sir just like that? Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried that something will happen along the way?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. ¡°Don¡¯t I have you to protect me?¡± Then she stomped on the gas at an intersection.


    When they exited the stronghold, Yang Xiaojin deliberately drove to the rear of the convoy. By now, the convoy in front of her had turned down a side road. So when Yang Xiaojin suddenly took the other route and drove west, the vehicles ahead of her could not react in time.


    By the time they realized the off-road vehicle driven by Yang Xiaojin had detoured, it was toote for them to turn around. They could only stop their vehicles and watch Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin drive all the way northwest, leaving a huge trail of dust behind them.


    The Southern wilderness was filled with lush greenery. But in just the short distance spanning two strongholds, thendscape had suddenly changed from a lush green to a khakind filled with sand mounds. From here to the north, it would be hard to see an entire forest again. The remaining vegetation that could be seen were squat shrubs,


    <b>en wen</b>


    Severe soil erosion had happened here before The Cataclysm, and desertification was already an unstoppable trend back then and could only have been prevented by putting in a great deal of manpower, logistics, and funding into its reversal.


    But with the advent of The Cataclysm, thends becamepletely deserted.


    Zong Cheng had a calm expression as he stood outside the vehicle and looked at the off-road vehicle departing west.


    One of the nanosoldiers on the ground asked, ¡°toon Commander, what do we do now?¡±


    The toonmander gave it some thought and said, ¡°We¡¯ll continue with the original n and carry out our mission.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu were not included in their original mission ns to head deep into the northern valley. So even though Yang Xiaojin had just left, it did not fluster them.


    Zong Cheng looked at the nanosoldiers and said with a smile, ¡°They might have a more important mission to conduct. But that¡¯s alright. I hope that we can happily work together in theing days.¡±


    Based on the established n, Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu should have followed the convoy east where they would pass by the front lines at Mt. Shangying, Mt. Lianta, and Mt. Dingyuan before proceeding to the core of the valley.


    But with Yang Xiaojin¡¯s detour, she would have to pass through Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guan before meeting up with the rest of the convoy again. She had already nned for this as she wanted to see for herself what the banditry situation in the valley was really like.


    After driving for a short while, they abandoned their vehicle and walked on foot. Although this would slow their progress, they would not be easily identified as members of an organization.


    Yang Xiaojin had even prepared specific rags just so it would make them look like refugees who had escaped from a Yang Consortium factory.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Actually, there¡¯s still many small human settlements in the valley. They¡¯re all refugees who can¡¯t stand the exploitation of the consortiums and have fled here to farm near a water source.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t they afraid of the bandits?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The bandits deliberately left quite a few refugees alone in the valley and won¡¯t harm them.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I wonder who gave them the idea, though. Whenever an organization conducts an operation to exterminate them, if there isn¡¯t enough time for them to go into hiding, they¡¯ll simply stash their weapons and escape to the refugee settlements where they pretend to be refugees who live there as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised by her answer. ¡°What¡¯s the point of doing that?¡±


    ¡°To the organizations, people are also a kind of resource.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°When the Yang Consortium first started their operations to exterminate the bandits, they would escort any refugees back to the stronghold¡¯s town if they came across them and make them work at the factories to continue creating value. But after about a year, the bandits who had impersonated refugees would abduct some of the refugees and head back to the valley.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t easy for the bandits either, huh?¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    ¡°I suspect there¡¯s someone behind the scenes advising them,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°Or it could be their own smarts,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he stood atop a mound.


    ¡°I¡¯m not saying the bandits are stupid, but someone powerful must be backing them.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Some years ago, the ruins of the Cataclysm civilization were cleared out. With nothing much left to scavenge, and the merchants too afraid toe by, what did they survive on in recent years? We also found out these bandits often acquire brand-new weapons and motorcycles. Some of the bandit gangs are even quite up to date with thetest news. If you tell me they don¡¯t have some sort of corporation backing them, I¡¯d refuse to believe it.¡±

 Chapter 336 - The people supporting the bandits

    <h4>Chapter 336 The people supporting the bandits</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Could it be the Zong Consortium? Didn¡¯t you say that the bandits originated because of them?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°No, it seems the forces supporting the bandits with their resources are likely to be against the Zong Consortium. That¡¯s also why the Zong Consortium is helpless about the situation. The people behind it are especially hard to seek out. It¡¯s like they¡¯re rats or something.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had been confused. But when Yang Xiaojin mentioned the word ¡°rat,¡± he suddenly thought of Luo Lan for some reason. Although there was an extreme difference in their body size, they had one thing inmon, and that was how they loved scuttling around in the sewers.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt he could guess who was supporting the bandits to gross the Zong Consortium out. If it was really as he had guessed, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan¡¯s foresight would be much greater than the Yang Consortium¡¯s.


    After all, the Yang Consortium had only thought of forming an alliance with the Zong Consortium in the past one or two years, while the bandits had been troubling the Zong Consortium for five to six years.


    If it were really Qing Zhen and Luo Lan who were behind this, just how scheming would they have to be? What were they really after?


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was unaware of the entire story behind the change in leadership at the Qing Consortium, nor did he know how long Qing Zhen had been nning for it.


    And now, it seemed like the Zong Consortium truly had a problem with the bandits. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have sought the Yang Consortium and Stronghold 178¡¯s help. After all, they were the ones who developed the bandits at the beginning, but the issue got out of control in the end. If the problem were leaked, wouldn¡¯t they be the butt of the joke?


    Ren Xiaosu shared his assumptions with Yang Xiaojin. ¡°I think it¡¯s the Qing Consortium who¡¯s secretly helping them.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t really have anything to do with me.¡±


    ¡°Your rtionship with the Yang Consortium...¡± Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment but did not ask further.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to be apprehensive.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°The Yang Consortium is starting to decline, and family ties are something that¡¯s be dispensable. Let¡¯s head to Mt. Daban now. There¡¯s some small banditirs and refugee settlements congregated there.¡±


    ¡°Are you familiar with this region?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty familiar with the outer perimeter of the valley.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I came by here frequently some years back.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°What were you doing here?¡±


    ¡°I came to practice shooting,¡± Yang Xiaojin answered.


    Ren Xiaosu realized Yang Xiaojin had actually used the bandits out here in the wilderness for target practice. It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu felt like Yang Xiaojin was sometimes very simr to him. They were like the grass that grew in the wilderness.


    ¡°Would you like to learn?¡± Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°I can teach you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes twitched. ¡°My marksmanship is also quite good.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what kind of power you have that you can actually learn the skills of others directly,¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°but you didn¡¯t manage to learn itpletely, right? Your breathing technique is wrong.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. As expected of someone with Perfect Firearms Proficiency, she immediately noticed his shorings at a single nce. Although he had managed to copy her proficiency, there had to be a huge gap in proficiency between the Advanced Firearms Proficiency and Perfect Firearms Proficiency.


    He stopped acting unreasonable. ¡°How do you n to teach me?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll teach you through actualbat,¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°And I was thinking you would ce your hand on mine to teach me.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± As Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice was too soft, Yang Xiaojin could not hear him.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Nothing!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him and asked, ¡°How should I make myself look more like a refugee?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve asked the right person. You can¡¯t wear this cap anymore.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°What refugee wears a cap?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin decisively took off her cap. Ren Xiaosu was stunned as he rarely saw her without her cap.


    ¡°And then?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    Ren Xiaosu examined her and said, ¡°Your hair is too neat, but you don¡¯t have to make it too untidy. You can just leave it slightly disheveled.¡± Although her clothes seemed rather refugeelike, some details were still quite different upon closer inspection. As refugees tended to cut their own hair, everyone¡¯s hairstyle was always unkempt.


    But after he finished saying that, he saw Yang Xiaojin take out a dagger from her sleeve and cut off her hair without hesitation. After that, she ruffled it a little.


    Yang Xiaojin originally had a chin-length bob that was neat and tidy. But after she cut it off with the dagger, her hair became disheveled.


    Although she would return to her original appearance in another month or two, Ren Xiaosu was surprised by how Yang Xiaojin did not care about her image just so that she could look more like a refugee. He knew that some girls in the stronghold cherished their hair as much as their lives. This Yang Xiaojin was really willing to go all out to get things done.


    Yang Xiaojin gave a few slight shakes of her head and said, ¡°What about now? Do I look more like one now?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, that¡¯s more like it.¡± Ren Xiaosu held in hisughter and said, ¡°Your face still looks a little clean, as well as the lining of your clothes. But never mind that. Based on what you said earlier, it will still take us another day before we arrive at Mt. Daban. After we travel in the dusty wilderness for a day, we won¡¯t be clean anymore.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°Let¡¯se up with a narrative first. I don¡¯t want us to blow our cover when we find a human settlement and someone asks us about our rtionship. H-How old are you?¡±


    It seemed like this was the first time the two of them were asking each other the more personal questions. They had never discussed these matters before. Back at the Jing Mountains, they talked about what might lie in the mountains. When they were at Stronghold 109, they talked about the Li Consortium¡¯s breakthrough in their research. These days, they discussed the banditry that was going on in the valley. Somehow, they had never really gotten to know each other. It was as though they were not too worried about that.


    Ren Xiaosu vaguely remembered that Yang Xiaojin should be 18, while he was 17. If he told the truth, he would probably have to address her as big sister, and that would be quite unfortunate for him.


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some consideration. ¡°I¡¯m 20 this year.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°Well, I¡¯m 21, so you can just call me Big Sis. Don¡¯t have a slip of tongue when we encounter other people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Wasn¡¯t she fucking lying through her teeth? In the past, Ren Xiaosu was always the one who tricked others, so how did he end up getting tricked by someone else today!


    ¡°You¡¯re 21?¡± Ren Xiaosu said unconvinced, ¡°Take out your ID card and let me have a look.¡±


    ¡°I lost it.¡± Yang Xiaojin said nonchntly, ¡°Enough, you don¡¯t have to mind those details. You were the one who lied first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could only take the loss silently. Even as the two of them advanced northwest, he was still thinking about how to get back at her.


    In the vast wilderness, the two of them were two tiny ck dots, and the hills on thend were waves rolling across the ground.


    During the evening, their shadows were stretched extremely long on the ground. The sparse clouds above their heads also extended all the way into the distance and connected with the ground.


    At night, the sea of stars in the sky was so dense that they looked like they could be touched with an outstretched arm.


    Yang Xiaojin said while hurrying along, ¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu echoed, ¡°Me too.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not what I wanted to hear.¡±


    ¡°Hey, why didn¡¯t you bring any food with you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a refugee now. How can a refugee have any food?¡± Yang Xiaojin justified. ¡°And with you following me, there isn¡¯t a need to bring any food either.¡±

 Chapter 337 - Sniping is a natural talent

    <h4>Chapter 337 Sniping is a natural talent</h4>


    ¡°Sniping is a natural talent.¡±


    Yang Xiaojinid prone behind a mound, hiding herselfpletely within the cover of some bushes. Unless someone were to look down from above, it would be near impossible to notice that someone was lying there.


    Yang Xiaojin said to Ren Xiaosu, who was also prone next to her, ¡°In our training, your sense of bnce and the steadiness of your advanced neural activities determine your ¡®ceiling¡¯ from the day you¡¯re born. These terms might not match the scientific expressions used in biology, but we¡¯re used to calling them that.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not just talent alone, thought. There¡¯s also your personality, which is difficult to foster and change.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°In a personality assessment, there are 16 possible types based on the assessment of a set of judgment criteria. The first criterion is introversion and extraversion. On a scale of zero to ten for snipers, zero represents introversion and indecisiveness, while ten represents risk-taking and bravery. For a sniper, one should have a score between five and eight, inclusive, with the most ideal score being eight.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s your score?¡±


    ¡°Eight,¡± Yang Xiaojin answered.


    In fact, her answer was what Ren Xiaosu expected. Since she had Perfect Firearms Proficiency, she should be perfect in every aspect. If there were any ws, it wouldn¡¯t be called perfect.


    ¡°Let¡¯s talk about the training method we¡¯ll employ for the day after tomorrow.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°You¡¯ll have to keep your body steady and learn how to breathe evenly. All of that is done to ensure that when you finally pull the trigger, the bullet hits where you want it to. In that moment, all of the hormones secreted by your body should be at the bullet¡¯s service. All of this can only be achieved with a long period of training.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s also biofeedback[1] training to go through. When a sniper encounters a situation, they can¡¯t have their heart start racing and start sweating profusely like a normal person would,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°How do you train that? It goes against your instincts, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin felt a little aloof. Upon careful observation, it was a calmness behind the powerful self-control that allowed her topletely restrain her instincts.


    It was just like how she had covered Ren Xiaosu from the top of that building. Seeing the Experimentals about to get to her, she could still continue calmly pulling the trigger and only left at thest possible moment.


    Luo Xinyu was scared to death on that day as she thought she would not get Yang Xiaojin out of there.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°There¡¯s some methods to train your biofeedback. For example, one of my old training routines was to immerse my arms into two buckets, with one containing cold water and the other hot water. After training to a certain extent, I can even increase the temperature in just one hand by two degrees through mental suggestion.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°You can even do that? Can you do it now? Let me touch your hands.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes at him. ¡°The purpose of this training is not to control the temperature of your hands, but to let the sniper master their instincts. When they want to take a deep breath, their heart rate will immediately slow down.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized the difference in their sniping level was not just a small amount. Yang Xiaojin¡¯s sess was only achieved after she put in many years of effort. How could it possibly be duplicated with just a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll? It was no wonder that even the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll could only copy up to master-level skills. You had to put in a lot more effort if you wanted to break past your limit and achieve perfection. Of course, his skill to annoy people was an exception. It seemed he was born with it and did not require any training.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How did a girl like you get into firearms?¡±


    ¡°I like them.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°They have a power I can use to protect myself with.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s words made Ren Xiaosu realize that only those whocked a sense of security would seek strength to protect themselves with.


    ¡°Was it tough?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh.


    ¡°It¡¯d be a lie if I said it wasn¡¯t tough.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°But I enjoy it as well.¡±


    ¡°Why did youe out into the wilderness to practice your marksmanship?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°For desensitization training.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°It¡¯s so I would not be affected mentally after seeing corpses, blood, and death.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at Yang Xiaojin and wondered what this girl had been through.


    Yang Xiaojin wondered, ¡°We¡¯ve already been waiting for a day now. Why aren¡¯t any bandits passing by yet? This used to be a necessary route for bandits to take.¡±


    They had been lying here in wait for the entire day. On one hand, Yang Xiaojin wanted to see if Ren Xiaosu possessed the right qualities to be a sniper. On the other hand, they could observe the movements of the bandits from here.


    As a result, Yang Xiaojin realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to have as high an endurance as her. Although they had been lying in the bushes for more than eight hours, Ren Xiaosu did not even change his posture once. But what surprised Yang Xiaojin most was that even though Ren Xiaosu did not change his posture or even move a little, she could clearly feel him tightening and rxing his muscles all the while. This was to help his blood cirction so that his muscles would always remain in a rxed state.


    Yang Xiaojin had no doubt that if danger appeared, Ren Xiaosu, who had been lying here motionlessly all day, could quickly engage in a high-intensity battle. She wondered how this young man had trained himself to such a state.


    She slowly got up from the ground. ¡°Let¡¯s go. Something might have happened to the banditirs around here. Let¡¯s go and check them out.¡±


    Then Yang Xiaojin walked off in the direction she remembered. An hourter, she stood in a mountain gap and frowned as she looked at the white skeletal remains there.


    They were surrounded by mud shelters[2] that had been dug out by the bandits. Wooden tables, chairs, and benches were ced inside of them, but they were discolored and covered in a solidifiedyer of ck matter.


    ck matter was what blood would be after being left out to dry for a long time.


    ¡°Someone ransacked this ce.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I wonder who did it. There are bullets and empty shells lying around on the ground, while the firearms and motorcycles have all been taken away.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu looked at the skeletons on the ground, he noticed some teeth marks on them, suggesting that wild animals had been here as well. ¡°Are there any women in the banditirs?¡±


    ¡°Most of them have some. The bandits head into the towns or factories and abduct some of the women back,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°There¡¯s no skeletons of women or children in here,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°This ce must¡¯ve been plundered by other bandits. Strange. Why would anyone target such a poor group of bandits?¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°It seems the valley is no longer as peaceful, and something must have happened within the circle of bandits. They didn¡¯t kill each other in the past because the people funding them had always maintained a certain kind of bnce from behind the scenes.¡±


    ¡°Someone is trying to consolidate the valley bandits? Is that even possible?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s possible, but we still have to head to the other hideouts and investigate them before we can be sure of it,¡± Yang Xiaojin replied. ¡°Let¡¯s go, there¡¯s nothing more to see here.¡±


    The two of them continued going northwest. Mt. Daban was right in front of them now. Based on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s memory, they woulde across the first small human settlement there.


    [1] Biofeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many physiological functions of one¡¯s own body,mercially by using electronic or other instruments, and with a goal of being able to manipte the body¡¯s systems at will. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofeedback


    [2] A yaodong (Chinese: ?a; pinyin: y¨¢od¨°ng) or ¡°house cave¡± is a particr form of earth shelter dwellingmon in the Loess teau in China¡¯s north. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaodong

 Chapter 338 - Civil strife among the bandits

    <strong>Chapter 338 Civil strife among the bandits</strong>


    ¡°Take note of your breathing.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Breathing in will cause a rapid change to your posture. It might not be obvious, but every detail that isn¡¯t adhered to can be fatal for a sniper.


    ¡°The hawk is flying too high, you have to wait for it to spiral down and seize that opportunity when the distance closes. But the chance will be brief.¡±


    A sniper had to be decisive whenever an opportunity arose.


    Boom. Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger at the hawk soaring high in the sky. The sniper rifle¡¯s heavy recoil and burst of gas from the muzzle swept arge cloud of dust and smoke up off the sandy ground around him.


    This was Yang Xiaojin¡¯s sniper rifle she had materialized from thin air to lend to Ren Xiaosu.


    Today was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s realbat training day, and he was supposed to shoot a hawk out of the sky. But right from the start, Yang Xiaojin wanted him to hit the hawk¡¯s head, which was the highest degree of difficulty.


    After he fired at it once, the hawk was unscathed and flew away after getting frightened by the gunshot.


    Yang Xiaojin smirked. ¡°So do you still think your marksmanship is quite good?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pretended to be puzzled. ¡°I clearly shot it in the head, so how did it escape unharmed? Could it possibly be a mutant?¡±


    ¡°Oh,e on.¡± Yang Xiaojin curled her lips. ¡°It¡¯s still a hawk no matter how much it mutated. Since it¡¯s not a product of gic modification done by the Pyro Company, it can¡¯t survive a sniper¡¯s bullet. You said you hit it in the head, so why was it unharmed?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered the question. ¡°Maybe because its head is empty and the bullet went right through?¡±


    ¡°Ha, ha.¡± Yang Xiaojin put away her sniper rifle. ¡°We can¡¯t do any more shooting if we advance further. The sniper rifle is too loud and will attract the attention of the bandits.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. In the past two days, he had learned a lot of advanced knowledge about firearms, but he still needed much more practical experience.


    He had already dyed the journey by a day due to his target practice, but Yang Xiaojin did not seem anxious or in a rush at all. She patiently apanied him to practice his shooting


    But right now, the mission to exterminate the bandits was obviously more important, and he was not in a hurry to practice his shooting at this time either.


    ¡°If we encounter the refugee settlement, will they wee us?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°They probably won¡¯t, but it¡¯s also not to the extent of ostracizing us.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Everyone depends on a water source for farming and will grow their own crops. A lot of refugees who have just escaped here won¡¯t have any food on them. They will use the money they saved up while working in the factories to purchase some food and seeds from the others. After all, it will take quite a while for the crops to grow. This is something the refugees at the settlement will want to see. Furthermore, new refugees will also bring news of the outside world with them.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s really strange that we never encountered any bandits along the way.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned.


    If they could not see any bandits in a ce infested with bandits, it would be simr to not seeing any fish in the sea. Something strange must have happened out in this valley.


    After crossing a hill, Yang Xiaojin suddenly pointed ahead and said, ¡°Look over there.¡± There was a stream meandering across thend in front of her. Many refugees were digging ditches by the stream to get ready to irrigate the crops before spring arrived.


    When the refugees saw Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu dressed in refugee attire, they were relieved.


    The people here were very smart and could tell at a nce whether these were stronghold residents in disguise or not. It all depended on the details Ren Xiaosu had mentioned.


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin approached them, an older woman wiped away her sweat and spoke before they could say anything, ¡°Do you want to buy some sorghum seeds? You¡¯re just in time for the spring sowing season.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu took out a bag wrapped in cloth and flipped through severalyers before he found some loose coins. When the refugees saw this, they were even more relieved. Could important people from the strongholds possibly act as natural refugees?


    But still others worried. ¡°Where did the two of you escape from?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu railed, ¡°From the coal mine. They promised to pay us 21 yuan for every ton of coal carried, but then suddenly reduced it to 20 yuan and 60 cents. Furthermore, they even wanted to deduct some fees to cover the material cost. They were totally inhumane.¡±


    One of the refugeesughed. ¡°That¡¯s even worse than the time when I worked at the coal mine.¡±


    But at this moment, an older woman said, ¡°But it¡¯s not the right time for you and your wife to escape.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were both stunned. They had schemed against each other over who would be older, and it ended with Ren Xiaosu grumpily epting that he would be the younger brother while Yang Xiaojin was to be his elder sister. But after all that discussion, their ¡°rtionship¡± suddenly changed the moment they got here.


    Refugees tend to get married and have children at a very young age. When the children grew up, they could help out at home with some of the work. That was the mindset of the refugees. So while they might look too young to be a couple in the stronghold, they were just the right age for marriage out here.


    Furthermore, no one would flee together if they were not a couple these days. If either one told on the other, the person who reported it would get rewarded.


    This caught the two of them off guard. Ren Xiaosu stole a nce at Yang Xiaojin and wondered how she would react. If Yang Xiaojin insisted on clearing it up and arousing the suspicions of the refugees, they would have to retreat from this ce. In any case, It shouldn¡¯t be much of a problem for them to find another way into the valley.


    However, Yang Xiaojin just smiled and did not exin their rtionship. She chose to quietly ept it. She asked, ¡°Why is it not the right time for us toe out here? Could something have happened?¡±


    ¡°Lemme tell you, the state of the bandits in the north is chaos right now, and many people have been killed in this period.¡± The older woman said earnestly, ¡°We¡¯re panicking and nervous at the moment and wonder if all that will affect us as well.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the bandits?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why would they do anything to us when we¡¯re only farmers?¡±


    ¡°I heard there¡¯s three gangs in the north that dislike each other. They¡¯re trying to unify the bandit gangs in the valley regardless of size. Two of the gangs are especially fierce, and there¡¯s apparently a superhuman among them as well. If they bump into anyone who goes against them, they kill them immediately.¡± The older woman exined, ¡°Let¡¯se to an agreement beforehand. It¡¯s not a problem for you and your wife to stay here. We can always farm together. But if the banditse and ask if we¡¯ll submit to them, all of us will have to agree to it. We can¡¯t go against them.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu responded, ¡°But what if another ganges after that gang leaves?¡±


    The older woman waved it off. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. We¡¯ll submit to whoeveres as long as they let us farm here.¡±


    This was the refugees¡¯w of survival-give in and don¡¯t cause trouble. The bandits could fight among themselves all they wanted, and the refugees would submit to whoever came.


    In any case, the bandits no longer eyed their seeds and crops. For some reason, even though they did not have anyone left to steal from, the bandits were somehow getting richer, and their equipment and weapons were also getting better.


    Last year, the Zong Consortium¡¯sbat troops had entered the valley but left with their heads hanging after getting beaten by a few bands of bandits!


    How could ordinary bandits be capable of that? If they could fucking defeat the regrbat troops, could they still be called bandits?!

 Chapter 339 - Conceited bandits

    <strong>Chapter 339 Conceited bandits</strong>


    There were only a few hundred refugees in this small settlement. Ren Xiaosu saw a child running around the entrance of a mud shelter a distance away. By the looks of it, this small settlement was formed only a short time ago.


    There were many rivers in the valley. In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, ces near rivers should be lush with vegetation. However, the valley here was not like that.


    Most of the sand here had turned into soil, and where the rivers cut through, the flow of water would sweep away the soil from the two banks. Perhaps in another few years when the rivers dried out or changed course, the riverbed here would turn into a new valley like a scar running across the ground. Across thend here, the formations all looked to have been carved out by rivers.


    The area the refugees chose to settle was rtively t and suitable for nting crops.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had nned on staying here with the refugees for some time to get a better understanding of the banditry in the region.


    As they were talking, a cloud of dust suddenly emerged in the distance. From afar, it could even be mistaken as a small sandstorm.


    An older woman said nervously, ¡°Why are they here again? Which group is it this time?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are those the bandits?¡±


    ¡°Definitely. That dust cloud is made by the motorcycles they ride.¡± As the older woman spoke, she ran towards the mud shelters and shouted, ¡°Take the children back into the houses.¡±


    But the bandits in the distance were rapidly approaching. Everyone could already see their figures. The motorcycles they were riding were like taut and muscr beasts, while the rumbling of the engines and exhaust sounded like their roars.


    This was an especially rough and savage sight to behold.


    Even from afar, the refugees could hear the excited cries of the bandits. When they saw the refugees, it was as though they had spotted their prey.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other and blended in with the refugee group. They wanted to observe the situation first.


    The refugees seemed to already have experience in dealing with such situations. After hiding their children away, they stood in line on the t ground as though they were about to wee their superiors. The only difference was that their line was rather crooked, and everyone in the group had starkly different moods.


    Ren Xiaosu did a count and found slightly more than 20 bandits in this band. A group of this size would not be considered a very powerful force in this valley. However, he did not know how many other members they had back at theirir.


    The gang of bandits rode their motorcycles and circled around the refugees while roaring. This was a show of force by the bandits. Round after round, the circle became smaller, and the refugees cowered together in fear.


    When the refugees became visibly scared, the bandits slowly came to a stop. One of them jumped off his motorcycle and pulled down the scarf covering his mouth. ¡°You people are farming here?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right!¡± One of the refugees said in fear, ¡°We¡¯ve been farming here for several years already!¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s so interesting about farming?¡± the bandit said as he spat out the sand in his mouth onto the ground. Then he smiled and said, ¡°I see quite a few men here. Men are born to do lofty deeds. How can you call yourselves men when you¡¯re cowering here and farming every day?¡±


    ¡°But what are we gonna eat if we don¡¯t farm?¡± The refugee said meekly, ¡°We only want to grow some crops to feed ourselves with.¡±


    ¡°From today onwards, all of you will be my subjects.¡± Patting the face of the refugee in front of him, the bandit boss said, ¡°Follow me and you¡¯ll have meat to eat and wine to drink. In the past, the consortiums bullied you. Join me and we¡¯ll go bully them in the future!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu observed these people and thought about what Yang Xiaojin had said. There was an 80% chance their motorcycles were new, while the automatic weapons in their hands were even newer than the motorcycles. It was obvious they had just changed their equipment.


    Even more ridiculous was how many of these people were carrying two guns on their backs. It was as if they had too many guns and nowhere to use them.


    Perhaps the new equipment had given additional confidence to these bandits. With only a few more than twenty people, they even boasted about bullying the consortiums!


    When the refugees heard these people were going to dere war against the consortiums, they became even more afraid. ¡°We don¡¯t want to fight the consortiums. We only know how to farm.¡±


    The bandit boss¡¯s face sank. ¡°You have to fight even if you don¡¯t want to fight. Gentlemen, round them up and bring them back!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So it turned out they were here to abduct them. They were probably doing so because they had too many guns, more than the people in their group. So they knew they had to expand.


    This had to have something to do with the bandit¡¯s civil strife that was going on in the north. The entire valley was in a state of chaos as everyone started deviating from the ¡°rules¡±!


    ¡°Are we gonna go with them?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in a low voice.


    ¡°We should.¡± Yang Xiaojin replied, ¡°We might get to understand more about the situation in the valley this way. Besides, they only have about 20 people. If we really want to leave, they won¡¯t be able to stop us.¡±


    ¡°Well, why don¡¯t we just eliminate them here,¡± Ren Xiaosu mumbled.


    With so many guns pointed at them, the refugees had no choice but to return to the mud shelters to take their children with them. Then they started being escorted north.


    The bandit boss was riding a motorcycle next to the group of refugees. With the motorcycle¡¯s engine rumbling noisily, he shouted proudly, ¡°Don¡¯t you people think that I, Jin Lan, am a tyrant. It¡¯s just that you were living in the outermost region of the valley, so you might not know about the situation in thesends. The people in the northern settlements have already been abducted by the other groups from the other mountain ces. Even if we don¡¯t take you away today, others woulde for you tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°But we don¡¯t know how to fight,¡± the refugees said in distress.


    ¡°Who doesn¡¯t know how to fight? I¡¯ll give y¡¯all guns, and don¡¯t worry ¡¯bout saving ammo. Just shoot! Besides, even if you don¡¯t wanna fight, you can contribute in other ways.¡± Jin Lanughed heartily.


    Nobody knew what these other ways Jin Lan mentioned were, but what he said was enough to confirm Ren Xiaosu¡¯s suspicions. It looked like they had really captured all these people because they had an excess of guns and ammunition.


    However, Ren Xiaosu wondered how many firearms Qing Zhen and his people had invested in this area. Why did it seem like the entire valley was chaos?


    If this went on, a lot of people in the valley would die.


    The big fish devours the little fish; the strong prey on the weak. This had always been the case since ancient times.


    And when the war subsided, an even more powerful bandit organization could rise up after all the bandit gangs in the valley had been unified.


    Was that Qing Zhen¡¯s goal? To use a massacre to clear away the ¡°tainted impurities¡± in the valley and achieve the goal of consolidating all the bandits who were active here? After that, would he take control of this force for his own gain? And all he had to do was invest some guns and ammunition to make these bandits get conceited.


    Although automatic rifles were a favorite among the bandits, the consortiums knew well that these guns and ammunition were worth close to nothing.


    Although he had no evidence, Ren Xiaosu was certain that Qing Zhen was behind all this. No one else would do something like it.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was also certain that Qing Zhen still had subsequent ns for the valley, and that would be the power he would eventually use toplete the consolidation of the bandits here.


    At this moment, because the Yang Consortium was at war with the Li Consortium in the South, their defenses in the North were virtually empty. They would have, at most, an independent force garrisoning each of their strongholds.


    If this bandit army attacked south, they would definitely not be able to bring down the strongholds. However, they could easily destroy all the factories outside the strongholds, and that could set the Yang Consortium¡¯s economy back by three years.


    Meanwhile, the Yang Consortium was probably still thinking that the northern bandits would not amount to any threat. After all, which organization would be afraid of bandits? They were totally fine with leaving them in the valley to y by themselves.


    Facing such an opponent, the Zong Consortium and Yang Consortium would most likely have a really bad headache to deal with.

 Chapter 340 - She’s mine now

    <h4>Chapter 340 She¡¯s mine now</h4>


    Just over 20 bandits were enough to threaten the hundreds of refugees. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu did not see the refugees putting up any resistance.


    The bandit leader, Jin Lan, was still chattering nonstop. ¡°Don¡¯t y¡¯all worry. I, Jin Lan, also studied for two years in the town¡¯s school. I¡¯m not an oaf who kills without batting an eyelid, and I won¡¯t do anything bad to y¡¯all.¡±


    Someone nearby buttered up to him. ¡°That¡¯s right, our boss is very knowledgeable. Those bandits from the other gangs can¡¯tpare to him.¡±


    Jin Lan smiled humbly. ¡°Don¡¯t exaggerate. Speaking of which, I¡¯m bringing y¡¯all back to the mountains so that I can provide everyone here a better life. Look at how skinny y¡¯all are, especially you!¡± He pointed at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Look at how skinny you are. Your face is so bony and pale. It¡¯s like you don¡¯t even have any strength left.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a while. He looked at his own body and realized that since his Strength and Dexterity had reached equilibrium, it did make him look like he had lost some weight.


    Next to him, Yang Xiaojin wasughing like she had heard something really funny.


    Jin Lan did not care about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reaction and continued to ramble, ¡°Y¡¯all don¡¯t know how intense the fighting to the north is. I don¡¯t know where all these forces came from either, but the fighting is getting more and more intense. Y¡¯all can only survive by following me, understand?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin speechlessly. They had walked for more than ten kilometers under the escort of the 20-odd bandits before they finally arrived at their camp.


    The camp was extremely simple and crude. It was just an empty area surrounded by wooden fences up in the mountains. There were some mud huts in the camp, and the roofs even hadrge holes in them. Apart from the new firearms, everything else was junk!


    Ren Xiaosu could imagine how miserable these people were before they started receiving support from the Qing Consortium.


    But it was different now. There were even dozens of brand-new motorcycles parked in the clearing of their campsite. Next to the motorcycles were dozens of green jerrycans used for storing fuel, and entire boxes of ammunitionid beside them. There were grenades and bullets piled up beside the jerrycans, and if anything blew up there, the explosion would probably swallow the entire ridge in an instant.


    Seeing this, Ren Xiaosu had some misgivings. He didn¡¯t want to die due to the stupidity of these bandits. That would be such the injustice. And right after that, he saw the bandits who had just returned to the camp start a cooking fire ten meters away from the jerrycans.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hair stood on end. He muttered to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°If the other groups attack, these people won¡¯t even know how they died, right? The Zong Consortium can¡¯t even beat bandits this stupid?!¡±


    But despite saying that, he looked at how miserable Jin Lan¡¯s gang of bandits were and realized they were probably the weakest bandit gang in the entire valley. They didn¡¯t even know if they would survive until their next meal.


    Jin Lan suddenly said, ¡°If you¡¯re willing to fight alongside me, go and collect guns from over there. This is your only chance to make a choice!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. How did this fellow conquer this part of the mountains? Wasn¡¯t he afraid these refugees would kill him with the guns they picked up?


    However, something else shocked Ren Xiaosu even more. More than 30 male refugees went to collect guns in the end, but after they took their guns, they just sat woodenly on the ground and let Jin Lan continue to lecture them.


    They had no intention of resisting!


    The sight unfolding before his eyes was just like the fantasy novels he had read back at Stronghold 88¡¯s library. But it was even stranger than fiction.


    These refugees had been told to submit since they were young and to obey orders. If they were disobedient, they would get beaten up. They did not have the courage to resist the organizations. They would choose to pledge allegiance to whichever mountain ce they settled down at. This was a habit forced upon them by their difficult living conditions.


    At this moment, one of Jin Lan¡¯s subordinates came up to Ren Xiaosu. When he saw Yang Xiaojin, he was stunned. Although Yang Xiaojin had deliberately dirtied her face, it was still difficult to conceal her good looks.


    The bandit said excitedly, ¡°This chick is a looker. If she washes her face clean, she¡¯ll definitely be very pretty. She¡¯s mine now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed at the words. Bandits were still bandits. He said, ¡°Sorry, but lemme break into this.¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu flew into a rage. He punched the right side of the bandit¡¯s ribs while he was off guard, caving in the bandit¡¯s chest.


    The people around him were shocked. He really meant it when he said that he wanted to break in! He broke his bones just like that? He literally broke him?!


    Jin Lan and the others were building a fire, and they were shocked by what they saw. They wanted to pick up the guns beside them to defend themselves.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not stop moving. Before Jin Lan could get his hand near his gun, Ren Xiaosu had alreadye up to him and kicked him in the face!


    Jin Lan instinctively leaned backwards, and it was precisely this reaction that saved his life. However, he could feel his entire head buzzing.


    Gunfire rang out. Yang Xiaojin was holding a decorated pistol and covering Ren Xiaosu. The bandits who had picked up their guns suddenly felt their hands go numb. The wrists of their gun-toting hand were bleeding profusely.


    The refugees around them were all dumbfounded. Who was this couple who had just joined them?


    A clever bandit had already thudded onto his knees. ¡°Superhumans! Please spare my life!¡±


    The speed and strength Ren Xiaosu disyed were definitely beyond that of a normal human. The bandits were not stupid either. They knew what they were facing right now.


    As for Yang Xiaojin¡¯s marksmanship, it was so shocking it could be seen.


    Jin Lan dizzily knelt on the ground with his nose bleeding profusely. ¡°Sir, please spare my life. It was all a misunderstanding! We haven¡¯t been bandits for long and have never killed anyone before!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and realized these useless things were all kneeling on the ground. They had even consciously thrown their guns far away from themselves. What kind of fucking bandits were they? Why were they not the least bit bloodthirsty?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jin Lan and frowned. ¡°How did you even be a bandit?¡±


    Jin Lan was nearly crying as he wiped the blood from his nose. ¡°We used to be farmers from Mt. Tangwang to the north. But someone came around and told us to be bandits and even handed out guns, motorcycles, and food, so we decided to head into the mountains to be bandits. We¡¯ve only been bandits for two months now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless for a long time. What on earth was the Qing Consortium trying to achieve?


    Jin Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Boss, you¡¯ll be the leader of this mountain from now on. I hope you can lead us to be strong!¡±


    ¡°No, wait.¡± Ren Xiaosu facepalmed. ¡°What the hell are you talking about?¡±


    Jin Lan ttered with a smile, ¡°You don¡¯t know, right? There¡¯s a gang of bandits to the north who are especially fearsome because their leader is a supernatural being. Since you¡¯re also a supernatural being, you¡¯ll definitely do better than him and be more powerful than him!¡±

 Chapter 341 - Trapping

    <h4>Chapter 341 Trapping</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had originally wanted to stay in this mountain hideout for a while to observe them. However, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s looks sure made it easy for the bandits to want toy their hands on her. If it weren¡¯t for this matter, Ren Xiaosu wouldn¡¯t have suddenly made that move.


    But since he acted, he would have to ensure there wouldn¡¯t be trouble afterwards. He wasn¡¯t going to learn from the stronghold residents and fake mercy.


    However, the turn of events seemed a little unexpected. Ren Xiaosu realized that after Jin Lan and the others had been overpowered, they did not have any hate for him or even say any harsh words. Instead, they wanted this supernatural being to lead them to something greater!


    What kind of freaking mindset was that?!


    Seeing this band of bandits addressing Ren Xiaosu as their boss, even the refugees standing nearby were stunned. They could never have expected such a reversal!


    It was also at this moment they realized Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were no ordinary people. The couple had note to their settlement because they wanted to farm. In fact, they might even be bandits from another mountain hideout.


    Yang Xiaojin went on guard. She was responsible for preventing anyone from secretly attacking them with their guns. But after a while, she realized these people were actually serious about acknowledging Ren Xiaosu as their boss.


    He was here to exterminate the bandits, so how did it end up with him bing the bandit leader?


    However, the first thing Ren Xiaosu said was, ¡°Hurry up and move the firearms and fuel cans far away from me. By cing all the firearms in one spot, aren¡¯t y¡¯all afraid you¡¯ll blow yourselves up?¡±


    Jin Lan, whose nose was bleeding, hurriedly stood up. ¡°Listen to the boss. Hurry up and shift the things away. Don¡¯t keep them there and cause an eyesore to the boss!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin came to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side and watched the group of people busy themselves with their tasks. She said in a low voice, ¡°How are we going to put a stop to this mess now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered for a long time. ¡°Look at the logic you¡¯re going by! We¡¯re here to destroy the bandits, aren¡¯t we?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re here to figure out where all the bandits are hiding so we can capture them


    all!¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Then look at it this way. If we go through so much effort to find them and then draw the terrain map,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°when the Zong Consortium and Yang Consortium¡¯s troopse storming, we might not be able to find them.¡±


    These bandits were like rats, and the valley that had been cut through by rivers was like a sewer. It would be really easy for the regrbat troops toe here to fight them. All they had to do was send more people here, and they would have no problem dealing with the bandits. Ren Xiaosu did not believe the Zong Consortium would be so utterly defeated unless they had other motives.


    However, if thebat troops were not familiar with the terrain here, it would be impossible to exterminate the bandits entirely. Strictly speaking, it was not that it couldn¡¯t be done, but it was just not worth the effort.


    ¡°So...¡± Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°We¡¯ll have the banditse to us instead,¡± Ren Xiaosu decided.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin did not realize what it would lead to, mainly because Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thinking was quite different from others. Under normal circumstances, it would not be possible to guess what he was thinking.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the refugees. ¡°Let¡¯s go back to farming!¡±


    The refugees were stunned for a moment. ¡°We can go back to farming?¡±


    They had thought Ren Xiaosu would stay here at the mountain hideout as the bandit leader while they continued being their captives. After all, the bandits in the valley were all birds of a feather. But Ren Xiaosu was actually thinking of bringing them back to farm?


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Ren Xiaosu said excitedly, ¡°Haven¡¯t y¡¯all dug the irrigation ditches already? Since they¡¯ve already been dug, we have to sow thend! Now that we have weapons, we can choose not to be bandits and use them to protect our crops so that other bandits can¡¯t hurt us!¡±


    The refugees were stunned. However, they still did not dare pick up the weapons. It was as though they would get into trouble the moment they picked one up.


    Not everyone liked fighting and killing. They chose to escape here to farm because they wanted to avoid everything that was going on in the outside world and find a quiet ce where they could settle down.


    Among the refugees, if there were ruthless people such as Ren Xiaosu, then there were also cowardly ones who sought to avoid conflict. However, it was not exactly as simple as calling them cowardly. It could only be said that they were unwilling to fight others.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°We will definitely not take the fight to others. But if you don¡¯t have any means of protecting yourselves, then don¡¯t even think about being able to farm in peace. Think of your family and children!¡±


    At the mention of the word ¡°children,¡± some of the refugees were moved. Being used to the easy andfortable life in the valley, they¡¯ve realized it was no longer as safe in recent years. They had started bing the targets of the bandits.


    Just like today when the bandits came and took them away, they were not even capable of retaliating. The children had to suffer as a result, while their wives might even end up bing someone else¡¯s wife.


    Weapons could be used to invade, but they could also be used for protection.


    Some of the refugees slowly picked up the brand-new firearms. However, they did not even know how to use them. All it did was boost their courage for now.


    But when they held the cold and unfeeling firearms in their hands, they somehow felt a sense of security.


    Ren Xiaosu beguiled the refugees and escorted Jin Lan and the others back the way they came while riding pillion on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s motorcycle. Earlier on when no one was looking, Ren Xiaosu even threw an entire box of grenades into his storage space.


    A grenade was simr in power to the Explosive Poker¡¯s four ¡°threes,¡± so this could save Ren Xiaosu quite a few gratitude tokens.


    After returning to the settlement, Ren Xiaosu gave Jin Lan and the others a mission. ¡°All y¡¯all used to be refugees too. For now, don¡¯t think about being a bandit anymore. Behave yourselves and tend to thend here, ya hear?¡±


    Jin Lan and the others had bitter looks on their faces. The bandits from the other mountain hideouts all abducted refugees and turned them into bandits. Meanwhile, even though they were also bandits, they had been abducted back to the settlement by refugees to farm.


    Yang Xiaojin watched as the refugees started plowing the fields again. She asked, ¡°What do you n to do with these refugees and bandits?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the sky and smiled. ¡°We wait.¡±


    Right at this moment, another cloud of dust kicked up in the distance. Yang Xiaojin looked at the gang of bandits screeching their way over and realized, ¡°You were waiting for them toe knocking on our door....¡±


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, it was too slow to go around looking for these people one by one.


    Based on what Jin Lan had said, all the bandit gangs were trying to expand their strength and would not pass on raiding any human settlements they came across.


    In that case, why would Ren Xiaosu bother to go looking for them? He could easily wait for the bandits in the entire area consisting of Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guang to find him instead.


    Trapping!


    ¡°But we can only catch some of the small-time bandits in the south this way,¡± Yang Xiaojin said with augh.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. I would be really afraid if the stronger bandit gangs showed up. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll be able to defeat the bigger bandit gangs soon!¡± Ren Xiaosu said in high spirits.


    When this new band of bandits was about to arrive, the refugees who had just returned to the settlement started panicking and did not know what to do. They had just returned home, and now they were about to get taken away again by other bandits? But while they were panicking, they saw Ren Xiaosu rush up to those bandits excitedly.


    Just by looking at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression, it was as though he were going out to receive his rtives!


    Yang Xiaojin had already set up her sniper rifle atop a hill and was prepared to give Ren Xiaosu some long-range cover. Through her scope, she gazed at the band of bandits who were still unaware of what was going to happen. She suddenly felt that this expedition would turn out to be very interesting


    At the very least, it was going to be much more interesting than when shest came here.

 Chapter 342 - The people from Stronghold 178

    <h4>Chapter 342 The people from Stronghold 178</h4>


    Laying a trap was somewhat a technical skill. Ren Xiaosu had originally nned to head deeper into the valley. But after thinking over it carefully, he felt that if they encountered therger bandit gangs with hundreds of members, it could get difficult for him and Yang Xiaojin to deal with them.


    Staying here and waiting for the few dozen bandits to show up each day would not even make Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin break a sweat to handle them.


    What was a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user? If one could not even handle a situation as simple as this, then they would not qualify to be called a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user.


    It was at this time that Ren Xiaosu felt the joy of having a teammate protect him. He did not even have to worry about anyone sneaking up on him since the sneak attacker couldn¡¯t defend against getting sniped.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was also thinking about how he should integrate Jin Lan and the bandits into the group. They might be respectful to him now, but that was because they were no match for him. Moreover, they had also been stripped of their firearms by him and the other refugees, so they had to behave. If he let Jin Lan find an opportunity, who knew what he might try? However, Ren Xiaosu had still not thought of a solution to integrate them.


    At this moment, Jin Lan and his gang of bandits were squatting on the ground and watching Ren Xiaosu capture the bandits who had just arrived. They whispered to each other, ¡°Did you see that? Those two are freaking strong! It was definitely wise that we did not fight them head-on. Especially thatdy, she doesn¡¯t even bat an eyelid when killing people. I¡¯ve heard legends of that sniper rifle of hers before, but I¡¯m seeing it for myself for the first time.¡±


    One of hisckeys said, ¡°But, Boss, we did go head-on against them. We just didn¡¯t win, that¡¯s all!¡±


    ¡°...You talk too much.¡±


    ¡°Boss, ording to what you said, could these two people be linked with the consortiums?¡± Theckey wondered, ¡°Could they be specialists from the consortiums?¡±


    Jin Lan shook his head. ¡°No, they don¡¯t feel like the typical consortium people.¡±


    ¡°But what if they are?¡± Someone wondered, ¡°Where else would such specialistse from? I¡¯ve never heard of anyone in the entire valley who knows how to use a sniper rifle.¡±


    ¡°Look at the two of them. They aren¡¯t even bothered by the living conditions here nor wash their faces. How can they be from the strongholds?¡± Jin Lan continued arguing against the possibility. ¡°Could the important people from the strongholds endure this!¡±


    Just like Ren Xiaosu in his earlier years, much of their views of those who came from the strongholds werergely based on their imagination. Stereotypes were already deeply embedded in the minds of all the refugees. In their opinion, people from the strongholds were all simr.


    Of course, the people from the stronghold also looked at them the same way.


    ¡°Then where do you think they¡¯re from?¡± someone asked softly.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Jin Lan was taken aback. ¡°Don¡¯t fucking tell me they¡¯re from Stronghold 178? Didn¡¯t they say that highly skilled people all hail from Stronghold 178? I think only talents from Stronghold 178 would be this highly skilled and strong! Moreover, it¡¯s said that most of those in Stronghold 178 were former refugees. Holy shit, surely they can¡¯t really be from Stronghold 178, right?¡±


    As Jin Lan eliminated the possibilities, he came to the conclusion that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s backgrounds seemed to suggest they were likelier to be from the legendary Stronghold 178. They were not particr about the living conditions, did not have the delicate characters of those living in the strongholds, were vicious, mysterious, and really strong.


    In recent years, Stronghold 178¡¯s reputation in the Northwest had been spreading to the point of being a little too legendary, especially among the refugees.


    Jin Lan muttered to himself, ¡°If the people from Stronghold 178 have reallye down to the valley, then this is our chance. If we perform well, we might even get recruited into Stronghold 178 in the future!¡±


    These days, Stronghold 178 no longer epted outsiders into their ranks. Otherwise, it would definitely be a million times better to go to Stronghold 178 than be a bandit here in the valley!


    If Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were from the consortiums, Jin Lan would not even think about joining them. After all, everyone knew what the consortiums were like, so why would they go there to suffer?


    But Stronghold 178 was different. It was a sacred ce in the hearts of many refugees in the Northwest.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu returned with a group of bruised and swollen bandits. He called out to Jin Lan, ¡°Are you done with your tasks yet?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Please give me my next orders.¡± This time, Jin Lan wasn¡¯t putting on an act like he was earlier. Instead, he was speaking withplete sincerity from the bottom of his heart.


    Ren Xiaosu threw him a gun. ¡°You¡¯ll be the leader of 1st Squad from now on. Take care of these people.¡±


    Jin Lan was touched. ¡°Thank you, Boss!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Jin Lan, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jin Lan in surprise. He only wanted to test this guy a little, but what was this sincere gratitude about? Ren Xiaosu wondered if he actually possessed a legendary leadership aura and that it had somehow caused this guy to submit to him.


    He said to Jin Lan, ¡°Confiscate this group¡¯s guns and learn ¡¯em. They¡¯ll be part of this settlement from now on.¡±


    ¡°Alright, don¡¯t you worry!¡± Jin Lan said, ¡°Boss, may I ask you something?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°Ask away!¡±


    ¡°Where are you from?¡± Jin Lan asked softly, ¡°You aren¡¯t from around the valley, are you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback for a moment. He looked at Jin Lan. ¡°Is this something that you should be asking about?¡±


    ¡°Alright, I won¡¯t ask anymore!¡± Jin Lan said guiltily.


    Then Yang Xiaojin walked over and said, ¡°Don¡¯t bother with him for now. We have updates from the northwest.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shot a look at Jin Lan. ¡°Go and do what you need to do. Keep an eye on them and make them recognize the reality of things. They¡¯ll have a bright future ahead by joining us.¡±


    Jin Lan stifled his excitement. So they really were important figures from Stronghold 178!


    He believed Yang Xiaojin definitely had a slip of tongue earlier when she spoke to Ren Xiaosu. However, he had been listening for any clues that might give up their identities. And now everything matched his guesses!


    After Jin Lan left, Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu looked at each other and smiled. They had been discussing how to handle the issue of their identitiesst night and whether they could use it to make these bandits stay. They came up with a n to pretend they were from Stronghold 178.


    In the end, before they could resort to doing so, Jin Lan had already sent himself straight into the trap. This way, the effect was going to be even better!


    ¡°What if there really are people from Stronghold 178 here?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°At most, I¡¯ll take a special trip to Stronghold 178 to exin things to Zhang Jinglin. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll be fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Hey, why do the refugees in the Northwest fall so easily for something like that?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded and said, ¡°You¡¯re from the South, so you probably don¡¯t know how good Stronghold 178 is in the eyes of these people. A powerful organization that¡¯s impartial in epting refugees into their stronghold is a one of a kind existence out here in the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°But aren¡¯t they no longer epting refugees?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Yang Xiaojin answered, ¡°It¡¯s usually the things you can¡¯t have that make them even more precious.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Then let¡¯s continue to remain mysterious and let this matter develop on its own. We¡¯ll see how it turns out.¡±


    By this point, Jin Lan had already walked over to the other bandits with a mysterious smile on his face. Someone asked, ¡°Boss, you look very happy, but you can¡¯t forget our original ns just because they gave you a gun!¡±


    Jin Lan snapped, ¡°What do you know? Am I such a shallow person? I¡¯m telling you, those two really are from Stronghold 178!¡±

 Chapter 343 - Surrendering together

    <h4>Chapter 343 Surrendering together</h4>


    As soon as Jin Lan finished speaking, hisckeys were stunned. They looked at one another and said, ¡°Boss, could they be tricking you?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Jin Lan shook his head. ¡°They were trying to keep it a secret, but I¡¯ve already discovered the truth based on some clues!¡±


    ¡°What do we do now?¡± Theckey said, ¡°Are we still running away?¡±


    They were definitely not a match for Ren Xiaosu. So while they wereing here, Jin Lan and the others had secretly discussed if they should escape at night while everyone was sleeping. That way, they would stand a chance of regaining their freedom.


    However, Jin Lan had changed his mind now. He said, ¡°Run? My ass! I¡¯m not running anywhere! I¡¯m gonna stay right here! If I get a chance to go to Stronghold 178, I¡¯ll be rich!¡±


    The others were also tempted by his words. ¡°But will they allow us to join them?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m telling y¡¯all to behave!¡± Jin Lan said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll talk to the neers and settle them in first. This is the first mission the boss has given me, so I must not disappoint him.¡±


    Hisckeys fell silent. Fine! What else could they say since their boss had already acknowledged a new boss?


    Jin Lan came over to the new bandits and said with a smile, ¡°Hey, guys, which mountain hideout are y¡¯all from?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re the gang from Mt. Daban¡¯s west face.¡± The bandit leader of the neers said, ¡°I¡¯m warning you, we still have over 50 brothers back at ourir. Hurry up and release us, or y¡¯all will be in serious trouble when the rest of our brothers get here.¡±


    Jin Lanughed, ¡°Bro, who are you trying to threaten? How dare you make threats in front of Stronghold 178¡¯s people? You said that you still have more than 50 brothers back at yourir, but do you know how many brothers we have in Stronghold 178?¡±


    The person standing across from Jin Lan was stunned. What the hell? People from Stronghold 178?


    It was no wonder the young man and woman who had just given them a good beating were so strong. He looked at Jin Lan and asked uncertainly, ¡°Are all of you from Stronghold 178?¡±


    Jin Lan hesitated. ¡°Not yet for me...¡±


    ¡°Then what are you bbering about?¡± the bandit leader snapped.


    ¡°But those two lords who beat y¡¯all up are!¡± Jin Lan lowered his voice and said, ¡°Bro, I used to be from the North Face. You know where Mushroom Ridge is?¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± The bandit standing across from him was stunned. He said, ¡°You were also captured by them? I¡¯ve heard about those twenty or so people over at Mushroom Ridge. Someone said that they lived real awfully there.¡±


    Jin Lan¡¯s face darkened immediately. ¡°How can you speak like that! I¡¯ve turned my life around. Do you see the gun at my waist? It¡¯s a reward from our two lords over there! From now on, I¡¯ll be your leader, so you better wise up!¡±


    The bandit said meekly, ¡°Are those two really from Stronghold 178? How do you know that?¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Jin Lan whispered, ¡°Lemme tell you, I discovered it myself, so it¡¯s definitely true. Think about it again. Do you still want to go back to your West Face, or would you rather stay here for a better future?¡±


    At this point, the bandit was close to believing what he said. Most people would not use Stronghold 178¡¯s name as a joke. Moreover, the immense power disyed by Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin inbat made their hearts pound.


    Jin Lan said in a low voice, ¡°Last year when winter had just arrived, Master Xu happened to pass by this ce. Did you hear about it?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± The bandit leader said as his eyes lit up, ¡°Are those two rted to Master Xu as well?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure about that.¡± Jin Lan said, ¡°But when Master Xu passed by here back then, a reckless gang of bandits tried to rob him. At first, two of the bandits were finished off by some sort of magic. That angered the rest of the bandits, and more than 50 of them attacked all at once. However, they still couldn¡¯t hold him down despite that. That flying ck cauldron was the best!¡±


    ¡°I also heard about it. It¡¯s true.¡± The bandit leader said, ¡°I heard that Master Xu has another power that summons a shadow.¡±


    ¡°How can the shadow be more powerful than the cauldron?¡± Jin Lan said excitedly, ¡°I heard that the cauldron is extremely powerful. The 50-odd bandits shot at it for half an hour with their guns but still couldn¡¯t break it.¡±


    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s an exaggeration. What I heard was that they fired at it for two whole minutes.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not get too bothered with the details,¡± Jin Lan said unhappily. ¡°In the aftermath, those bandits regretted their actions. At that time, Master Xu had still not risen to power. If they followed him at that time, they would¡¯ve found salvation. That same opportunity has now presented itself right in front of us, so my advice to you is to give it a rest.¡±


    ¡°More importantly, who can confirm that the two of them are from Stronghold 178?¡± the bandit leader said unconvinced. ¡°Even though they might be strong, I still don¡¯t really believe they are who they say they are.¡±


    ¡°Do whatever you like then,¡± Jin Lan said coldly. He suddenly felt that everyone was drunk whereas he was the only sober one.


    But at this moment, Jin Lan saw a dark shadow darting past in an irrigation ditch. He thought he was seeing things, so he asked the people next to him, ¡°Did y¡¯all see anything just now?¡±


    Someone said, ¡°I think I saw a dark shadow moving extremely fast.¡±


    The bandit who¡¯d just been captured today startedughing. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that our brothers at home are getting worried about us. They must be here to rescue us!¡±


    ¡°Bullshit!¡± Jin Lan spat out, ¡°As if you people are that close!¡±


    Some of the bandits hurried after the shadow by following the ditches while Jin Lan followed close behind them in the fear they would escape. However, they did not find anyone there. Some of them could not ept this and continued chasing. But less than two minutester, they were surprised to see Ren Xiaosu talking face to face with a shadow. The shadow that felt like a physical being handed Ren Xiaosu a letter before sprinting off into the wilderness.


    A lot of others who were following Jin Lan also witnessed what just happened.


    ¡°What did y¡¯all say about Master Xu¡¯s other power?¡± someone asked in a soft, quivering voice. ¡°Two different superhumans can¡¯t have the same power, that much I do know....¡±


    Jin Lan said in a low voice, ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here! They definitely won¡¯t want anyone to discover them if they¡¯ve chosen to meet in such a secretive spot. If they find out that we saw them, they might even try to silence us!¡±


    But before they could leave, Ren Xiaosu had already looked up and discovered Jin Lan and the others. His face darkened and a killing intent seemed to slowly start forming.


    Jin Lan immediately knelt on the ground and cried, ¡°Boss, I didn¡¯t see anything! Please don¡¯t kill me, please don¡¯t kill me!¡±


    Immediately, everyone behind Jin Lan also knelt down in fear that Ren Xiaosu might silence them.


    Ren Xiaosu slowly walked up to Jin Lan and the others. After a long pause, he said, ¡°Alright, get up, but y¡¯all must keep it a secret.¡±


    Jin Lan and the others nearly cried. ¡°Boss, thank you for sparing us! Thank you for sparing us!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Jin Lan, +1!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from...¡±


    With this wave of gratitudes alone, Ren Xiaosu harvested over a dozen gratitude tokens and his number of gratitude tokens was back to around 900 or so!


    Jin Lan and the others got up and ran towards the settlement. Along the way, Jin Lan asked while panting, ¡°So do you still want to run away? Do you believe me now?¡±


    However, the new bandit next to him said, ¡°Can you please let me return to myir?¡±


    Jin Lan was stunned. ¡°You still want to run away?¡±


    ¡°No, I want to get all my brothers toe back here with me and surrender together.¡±

 Chapter 344 - Depends on my mood

    <h4>Chapter 344 Depends on my mood</h4>


    Once someone saw a brighter future for themself, they would naturally think of their bros. It was rare for a bandit toe to a good end. If there hadn¡¯t been someone who suddenly supported them with money and supplies in this deste ce, they would still be leading quite a difficult life.


    For the past five years, no caravans had passed through the valley. If the bandits wanted to fill their stomachs, they would have to go and rob the other bandits. All these days of fighting left them wondering when they could finally call it quits.


    In their poorest days three years ago, the bandits even reached a stage where they had to eat wild vegetables and chew on bark and tree roots. As bandits, they were leading terrible lives.


    Some of the bandits even ran back to the consortiums¡¯ factories to work...


    Two years ago, their situation improved after the Qing Consortium set their sights on this ce. At the beginning, they only brought food to them so they would not starve to death or leave the valley. Fromst year onwards, they started secretly sending weapons here.


    This was a gradual process.


    Naturally, the bandits were unaware it was the Qing Consortium that supported them. They did not care who they were and were only concerned about how long the aid wouldst.


    Everyone knew that whoever was sending them the firearms had to have other motives All of this was probably done so there would be chaos in the valley and in turn lead to an easier consolidation of forces.


    But so what if they knew the motive behind all this? They still had to at least survive. If they got unifiedter, that wouldn¡¯t be too bad either. At least, they would have their meals taken care of.


    But now there was a brighter path put ahead of them. It was just up to them whether they chose it.


    Jin Lan whispered, ¡°There¡¯s no point saying that. You¡¯ll have to speak to the two lords.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± The bandit hesitated for a while before finally going off to look for Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu was currently having a discussion with Yang Xiaojin about the oue. ¡°I wonder if they¡¯ve heard of old Xu¡¯s power before. What if they know nothing of it?¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s move was an unnecessary one. He thought that if he used Xu Xianchu¡¯s signature power and called upon the shadow clone, these people might link it to Xu Xianchu since his reputation was rather well-known now. In this way, their identities as members of Stronghold 178 would be even more realistic.


    But what Ren Xiaosu was worried about was that these bandits had never heard of Xu Xianchu before.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid you¡¯ll mess things up?¡±


    ¡°At worst, we¡¯ll just go back,¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly.


    As they were discussing this, the bandit came up to them. Ren Xiaosu looked calmly at him. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Boss,¡± the bandit hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°can you let me return home for a while?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. ¡°Do you think you can ask for sick leave to return home? Who said you could go home?¡±


    ¡°No, please hear me out.¡± The bandit exined, ¡°I just wanted to go back and bring all my brothers here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned as he looked at Yang Xiaojin. The strategy was working! It seemed like these people knew about Xu Xianchu!


    He deliberated for a moment before saying, ¡°What do you know?¡±


    The bandit quickly shook his head in fear. ¡°I don¡¯t know anything, really! I don¡¯t know that you¡¯re from Stronghold 178!¡±


    ¡°Shoo!¡± Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°You have a day.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes! Thank you!¡± The bandit took it as an opportunity bestowed by Ren Xiaosu and was deeply grateful.


    ¡°Gratitude received from Zhang Yiheng, +1!¡±


    After that, Zhang Yiheng hopped on his motorcycle and rode off by himself. Ren Xiaosu was not afraid he would not return. Even if he did not, Ren Xiaosu would only lose one person. He was not bothered by that in the slightest.


    He turned to Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°My strategy should be working.¡±


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu was most worried about the fact that even though he couldy the trap to capture all of these bandits, they would be beyond his control after a few hundred or even thousands of them had been forced to stay here. So Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief now.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu with a smile as she sat on a mound and quietly rested her chin on her hand. Who would have thought that Ren Xiaosu coulde up with so many tricks when all she did was invite him along to exterminate the bandits?


    To be honest, Yang Xiaojin did not care about the sess of the bandit extermination operation. What did this have anything to do with her anyway? She just did not want to quarrel with Yang Yu¡¯an because of it.


    Yang Xiaojin could have enjoyed leading a rich person¡¯s life in the stronghold, but she did not like being in there. She would rathery down in the wilderness for three days and three nights than stay in the stronghold.


    And now she was really looking forward to seeing what other ideas Ren Xiaosu coulde up with.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin. ¡°The more I think about it, the more I feel that the Qing Consortium must be behind the chaos happening in the valley. In fact, they¡¯ve been nning for this sincest year.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin tilted her head. ¡°Mhm.¡±


    ¡°The Qing Consortium¡¯s ns here are definitely to plot against the Zong Consortium and your Yang Consortium. However, the Qing Consortium still does not have much authority in this ce. We¡¯ve already heard about how the North is caught in a deadlock between the three forces. Who knows, maybe someone from the Zong Consortium is trying to thwart the Qing Consortium¡¯s ns for this region.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But if the Qing Consortium ends up as the victor, there will be no more bandits here and only their puppets will remain. Qing Zhen is... not a person who¡¯s easy to deal with. Aren¡¯t you worried about it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not worried,¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly.


    ¡°Are you ming the Yang Consortium for treating you as a chess piece in all this?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°I don¡¯t hate them nor do I feel close to them.¡± Yang Xiaojin changed the subject. ¡°What¡¯s your next step going to be? Why do I get the feeling that you¡¯re very interested in this valley?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and then said with a smile, ¡°Perhaps I¡¯lle here someday and settle down for the long term?¡±


    ¡°You want to leave the stronghold? Is it because of Yan Liuyuan? I can feel the aversion he has for the strongholds,¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Liuyuan is one of the reasons. I don¡¯t want him to feel wronged.¡± Ren Xiaosu took a look at the sky. ¡°It¡¯s not only him; I dislike the strongholds too. I think it¡¯ll be morefortable living out here.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯re thinking of establishing a foothold here, right?¡± Yang Xiaojin gave it some thought and said, ¡°But that won¡¯t be easy. This is only just the beginning. There¡¯s still a long way to go.¡±


    In response, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Will youe and help me?¡±


    Clouds were scudding across the blue sky while the dusty ground of the wastnds remained still. The refugees had just finished digging irrigation ditches and were ready to go home. Even the wind had stopped blowing.


    Ren Xiaosu seemed to have asked her casually


    Yang Xiaojin was stunned for a moment. She chuckled as she got up and walked back towards the settlement. ¡°That depends on my mood.¡±


    In the evening, the sound of motorcycle engines came from the wastnds in the distance. It sounded like there were a lot of them as well. As Ren Xiaosu watched from afar, Jin Lan ran to him. ¡°Boss, should we grab our weapons? What if those bastards are up to no good?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw that Yang Xiaojin had already reached a hidden spot on a hilltop and upied amanding position. Heughed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    Even without him, Yang Xiaojin alone would be enough to frighten away those useless bandits.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered the sniper who had wiped out the remainder of the Divine Arms Battalion deep in the Li Consortium¡¯s territory. That was probably Yang Xiaojin too, wasn¡¯t it?

 Chapter 345 - Is it cozy in the tent?

    <h4><strong>Chapter 345</strong> Is it cozy in the tent?</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu stood still and watched as the bandits approached. The leader of the group was Zhang Yiheng, the same person he had let go earlier today.


    San


    Zhang Yiheng shouted from afar, ¡°Boss, don¡¯t shoot. It¡¯s me!¡±


    Yang Xiaojiny prone on a mound and scrutinized the subtle movements of these people using her scope to prevent anyone from sneaking an attack on Ren Xiaosu.


    However, she realized these people were not at all aggressive. Their guns were slung across their chests and the safeties weren¡¯t even off.


    Furthermore, these people were really here to join them. They not only brought along all of their firearms and ammunition from their mountain hideout, but were carrying their own ragged bedrolls along as well.


    The bandits looked rather fierce as they rode on their muscr motorcycles. And they had their tattered nkets wrapped around their backs...


    The sight really could not get any stranger than this...


    It looked like they really nned to live here for an extended period. Yang Xiaojin sighed when she thought about how she and Ren Xiaosu had initiallye to exterminate the bandits. So how did Ren Xiaosu suddenly end up bing the leader of the bandits?


    Even Yang Xiaojin, who had witnessed the entire development for herself, was left a little confused at the unexpected turn of events.


    When Zhang Yiheng came up to Ren Xiaosu, he immediately jumped off his motorcycle and said respectfully, ¡°Boss, I¡¯ve brought all my brothers here. We¡¯ll all listen to your orders from now on.¡±


    Zhang Yiheng¡¯s brothers behind him quietly sized up Ren Xiaosu. So this was the specialist from Stronghold 178 their boss had mentioned? He looked really young!


    Wait a minute, wasn¡¯t there supposed to be a sniper around?


    At this moment, everyone realized they might already be in the sniper¡¯s sights. When they thought of this, they shuddered in fear at the possibility that the sniper might identally shoot them if they made any sudden movements.


    Ren Xiaosu found it a little awkward hearing a man in his thirties addressing him as boss. But now was not the time to contemte that. ¡°Jin Lan, find a ce for all these brothers. We¡¯ll have a meeting tomorrow.¡±


    The refugees living here from the beginning grinned when they saw this sight. The children were ying around their parents in a rxed mood. At the beginning, the refugees were quite afraid of the bandits. But after thinking about it, didn¡¯t the bandits also dig irrigation ditches with them? They did not even dare to ck off one bit either! When they thought of this, the refugees gradually epted the reality of their situation.


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu told them earlier in the evening that since they had already solved the issue of having enough people to defend the settlement, those who wanted to farm would not have to bear arms and fight anymore. That responsibility would naturally fall to the bandits.


    When it was time to sleep at night, Ren Xiaosuy down outside the tent with his arms acting as a pillow for his head. He said to Yang Xiaojin, who was in the tent, ¡°For some reason, I still feel that something¡¯s missing. Although we can fool them into staying put with our identities, they¡¯re barely capable of fighting.¡±


    Inside the tent, Yang Xiaojin was still awake. Before Ren Xiaosu set off, Xiaoyu had prepared the tent for him. At the beginning, they did not use it because they were pretending to be refugees. But it was unnecessary to do so anymore after they had deliberately ¡°exposed¡± themselves. They decided to stop pretending andid all their cards on the table.


    Based on Xiaoyu¡¯s intentions, this was definitely the kind of opportunity she had identified for Ren Xiaosu. But when the moment came, Ren Xiaosu got timid and ended up volunteering to sleep outside the tent. He even built a campfire out here!


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°You want them to bebat-ready?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You¡¯ve seen the standard of those bandits for yourself. If they really end up fighting others, I doubt they¡¯ll even know how to use the guns. And they¡¯ll probably run away covering their heads if some of them get killed or injured. How are soldiers usually trained in the military?¡±


    ¡°Under normal circumstances, if the weaker units lose 20% to 40% of their numbers, their entire unit is as good as gone. Only the soldiers with conviction persevere.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°The training a soldier goes through in the military is based on two aspects. First, it trains their military skills, and second, it enables them to be fearless through ideology. Neither of these two aspects are something that can be achieved overnight.¡±


    ¡°I have to give it a try no matter what.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll teach them how to use the guns,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°As for the ideology, we should unite them first.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Do you have any ideas?¡±


    ¡°They have to suffer together until they can find joy amid hardship,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu understood what Yang Xiaojin meant. It would be easy to see who their real friends were after they got put through adversity. But if they were allowed to get rich, they would be greedy instead.


    ¡°Er... is it cozy in the tent?¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked.


    Yang Xiaojin calmly replied, ¡°Why don¡¯t youe in and see if it¡¯s cozy?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed in embarrassment and said, ¡°I was just asking.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was the first to back down.


    The next morning, Ren Xiaosu woke everyone up from their slumber.


    Those bandits who were sleeping soundly were suddenly awoken. Just as they were about to lose their temper, they calmed down when they saw it was Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu gathered everyone and said, ¡°Have any of you used a brick kiln before?¡±


    The bandits looked at each other. Why was this boss so different from the bosses at the other mountain hideouts?


    The bosses in the other mountain hideouts would at least say some decent words when recruiting new brothers, things like ¡°stick with me and we¡¯ll have good food and good wine¡± or ¡°I¡¯ll lead everyone to something greater.¡±


    But over at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ce, they were first asked to dig ditches and were then made to build brick kilns?


    Someone raised his hand and said softly, ¡°I worked at the Zong Consortium¡¯s brick factory.¡±


    ¡°Do you know how to build a brick kiln?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Although the conditions here suck, we can still build a simple one with less bricks.¡± That bandit said, ¡°But we don¡¯t have enough firewood here, and it won¡¯t be enough to just use the shrubs in the area.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin chimed in, ¡°The spring floods wille soon. The melting of the upstream ciers will trigger a flood. When the timees, there¡¯ll be a lot of wood drifting downstream, and we¡¯ll definitely get enough firewood to use.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Jin Lan, ¡°Bring the weapons over.¡±


    Last night, Ren Xiaosu had ordered Jin Lan to seize everyone¡¯s weapons. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I know what y¡¯all are thinking, but it won¡¯t be easy to gain my approval.¡±


    Everyone looked at each other. These words were clear as day. It seemed like it would not be that easy to be a part of Stronghold 178.


    If Ren Xiaosu had said it was incredibly easy to join Stronghold 178, they would not have believed it. After all, this was Stronghold 178 they were talking about! So the more difficult their tests, the more realistic the trial would feel.


    Zhang Yiheng said, ¡°Just name the ce. We¡¯ll attack wherever you want us to.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I don¡¯t want bandits who only know how to mor for war. With yourbat strength, you¡¯re still not worth my attention.¡±


    The bandits started murmuring among themselves again. ¡°The people from Stronghold 178 are so capable. They don¡¯t even have eyes for people like us...¡±


    Jin Lan said resolutely, ¡°Just tell us what to do!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll start making bricks today. Since we¡¯re still digging ditches, I want all of you to get into the river and dig up the silt to make into y bricks. Every ten bricks made earns you one bullet. Once you amass a 100 bullets, I¡¯ll return your guns to you. When that happens, you¡¯ll have the chance to prove yourselves to us. Instructor Yang here will teach y¡¯all how to properly use a gun.¡±


    The bandits bit their tongues nervously. Even qualifying for the test was going to be this difficult? This was definitely not a trick!

 Chapter 346 - No pain, no gain

    <h4>Chapter 346 No pain, no gain</h4>


    The lengthy winter in the Northwest was finallying to an end. Ren Xiaosu saw some nts sprouting along the river, and the insects hibernating in the soil started waking up as well.


    The spring floods were approaching, and the snowy mountains that stretched for thousands of miles in the Northwest would gradually start melting. The sunlight would turn the snow into tens of thousands of rivulets, and they would then flow east and merge to be a raging river.


    Someone once said this water was from the Heavens and that it always flowed east without stop.


    The valley that had been dry for many months would receive an abundant source of water by spring. This was the best time for them to farm and irrigate. When the time came, the massive source of water from the river would fill up the irrigation ditches and turn the dusty channels into a riverbed.


    Ren Xiaosu and the bandits had to make enough y bricks before the spring floods arrived.


    When the tree trunks were sent floating downstream by the spring floods, it would be time for them to start firing bricks.


    Someone remarked that they shouldn¡¯t have to work so hard to fire bricks. It would be good enough to just build some mud huts. Hadn¡¯t everyone always lived like that?


    However, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Why should the stronghold residents get brick houses to live in, but not us? And we¡¯re not just going to build houses, but defenses too.¡±


    When a refugee asked if he was nning to build a new stronghold here, Ren Xiaosu was surprised. He smiled and said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it better to live in the wilderness? Why do we have to wall everyone up?¡±


    When he said that, the refugees fell silent. However, they started working more diligently after that.


    The bandits put down their guns and dug for silt in the riverbank barefoot. After digging up baskets of silt, they got back to dry ground and made them into y bricks.


    The idea of digging for silt sounded easy, but it was much harder when they did it. The bandits had only brought guns with them to this settlement and did not have any shovels. If they wanted to dig for silt, they had to do it barehanded.


    The weather was frigid. Although the fierce bandits were freezing their balls off, they still insisted on working.


    ¡°If you keep pushing them like this, won¡¯t they give up?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°The more tired they are, the more they¡¯ll believe that all of this is real. The more rxed they have it, the more they¡¯ll suspect that things might not be what they seem.¡±


    ¡°But they¡¯ll surely find out someday,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu turned to Yang Xiaojin and said in seriousness, ¡°I wanna build a home here. In the past, it was just a blurry idea in my mind. But when I saw them working, the idea became much clearer over time. When the timees, I¡¯ll give them a proper exnation.¡±


    This was also the first step Ren Xiaosu would be taking to train these bandits. He wanted to change the habits of these bandits who were used to beingzy and robbing others of their possessions. By making them go through all kinds of hardships here, he would build a peculiar feeling called camaraderie.


    After a tiring day, the bandits were grumbling endlessly, and even Jin Lan started to waver. He was so tired he felt like crying when he looked at the mud on his hands and feet. ¡°Why don¡¯t we just go back to being bandits instead of trying to get into fucking Stronghold 178? This is way too tough!¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Someone slumped down on the edge of the riverbed and looked up at the sky in a daze. ¡°What are we really after?¡±


    Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were currently the leaders of the 1st Squad and 2nd Squad, respectively. When the others saw the leaders starting to waver, their conviction was shaken even more.


    At noon, some of the refugees from the settlement suddenly came over carrying baskets and ced them down on the ground. Curious, Jin Lan asked, ¡°Hey, mate, what¡¯s that?¡±


    A good-natured refugee smiled in embarrassment and said, ¡°We have yet to thank y¡¯all for helping us dig the ditches. We made this cornbread ourselves. If they taste bad, we hope y¡¯all won¡¯t mind it.¡±


    Jin Lan was stunned. He did not know how to react to this situation. When he finally managed to speak, his speech was filled with expletives. ¡°Why are you being so fucking polite? You don¡¯t have to be so fucking polite with me. Just put the damn cornbread down. Feel free to yell for me if you need any fucking help with anything.¡±


    Jin Lan made it sound like he was just doing his work, not because he wanted to help the refugees. That shocked the refugees.


    At this moment, someone asked Jin Lan, ¡°Boss, why don¡¯t we escape this ce tonight?¡±


    However, Jin Lan hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s endure it for another two days and keep an eye on things. It won¡¯t be toote to run away by then! Our fellow vigers have made us some cornbread, so we should at least build houses for them first!¡±


    After work at night, everyoney on the ground and did not want to move. Ren Xiaosu came to the riverbank and saw the y bricks stacked on wooden nks. ¡°Get up ande over here to collect your bullets. You should only report the number of y bricks that you made. Every ten bricks get you one bullet in exchange.¡±


    Humans were very strange beings. These bullets were theirs to begin with and were not worth anything at all. Even though they did not seem to care much about it when they were working, everyone was still quite happy when they knew they could trade the bricks for bullets.


    Jin Lan got up and said, ¡°Me! I made 30 y bricks today. I could¡¯ve made even more if it was easier to dig out the silt!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Mhm, you get three bullets in exchange.¡±


    Looking at the three brass-colored bullets in his palm, Jin Lan felt a sense of aplishment was inexplicably touched.


    But these were clearly just three normal bullets, so why was he feeling that?


    This was the idea that Ren Xiaosu hade up with. If they just focused on working hard, the bandits would get depressed because they could not see their ¡°progress¡± or the ¡°end¡± of it.


    But by breaking down the progress into a 100 bullets and letting the bandits measure their own achievements, they would have an objective to work towards.


    At this moment, Jin Lan started calcting. If he could earn three bullets in one day, he might be able to earn up to five bullets a day once he got the hang of it. Then he could find salvation in less than a month.


    How long was a month at most? Thinking of it this way, Jin Lan suddenly felt he could endure this a bit more. At worst, he would just leave after the month if things didn¡¯t go ording to n. That would not cause much of a dy anyway.


    At this moment, he looked at the others. When he saw Zhang Yiheng with only two bullets in his hand, heughed and said, ¡°Buddy, you don¡¯t seem to be doing well. You only managed to receive two bullets?¡±


    Zhang Yiheng was so angry his face turned red. ¡°I just haven¡¯t gotten good at the work yet, but I¡¯ll definitely get more bullets than you tomorrow.¡±


    Then Zhang Yiheng looked to his side and saw someone without any bullets at all. He alsoughed. ¡°I¡¯m still not the worst here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He did not criticize those who had done less work nor praise those who did more.


    Jin Lanughed and went up to him. ¡°Boss, what do you think of me? I did the most work today.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said nomittally, ¡°Y¡¯all have to understand that I¡¯m only giving you a chance because you want to pass the test. It¡¯s not like you¡¯re helping me with anything.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu turned around and left.


    Jin Lan was stunned in the wake of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words. He said in shock after snapping out of his daze, ¡°Boss, thank you for giving us this opportunity!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Jin Lan, +1!¡±


    Suddenly, Jin Lan turned around and roared, ¡°It isn¡¯t dark yet, but y¡¯all can go back first, I still want to work a little longer!¡±


    The bandits looked at each other. They were already very tired, but they suddenly gained a little more motivation when they heard that. But at this moment, Yang Xiaojin came up to them and said, ¡°Stop working. Everyone, wash your hands clean and prepare for ss.¡±

 Chapter 347 - Strict discipline

    <h4>Chapter 347 Strict discipline</h4>


    Completing a day of menial work tended to be the limit for an adult. It wasn¡¯t like Ren Xiaosu was trying to squeeze the most work out of them, so he didn¡¯t intend on tiring them outpletely. He only wanted to make them tired enough so they would not have any energy to think about their own self-interest and start epting a new realm of thoughts.


    Some of the bandits would definitely adjust to this new mindset slowly, but there would also be some who were more stubborn and remain skeptical of all that was happening. But because of their fascination with getting into Stronghold 178, they decided to keep an eye on things for now.


    Ren Xiaosu did not think he could control everyone else¡¯s behavior since he was not a god. But he was not in a hurry to convince them because he still had time.


    In the evening, Yang Xiaojin did not give them any firearms lessons. Jin Lan and the other bandits who were amateurs at shooting were looking forward to the firearms lessons most of all. When Yang Xiaojin fought them, she disyed her superior shooting. So everyone got very excited when Yang Xiaojin told them that they would be attending her lessons.


    However, Yang Xiaojin said to them, ¡°Let me tell you about the five Disciplines of our group. Everyone is to memorize them without leaving out a word.¡±


    Jin Lan started panicking. Why did they have to memorize disciplines? He was most afraid of memorization when he attended the school in town years back. So why did he still have to memorize now that he had be a bandit?


    Jin Lan asked, ¡°Um... Boss Lady!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin raised her eyebrows when she heard him address her that way, but she did not say anything about it in the end. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t Boss say that he wanted us to learn about firearms?¡± Jin Lan said anxiously, ¡°So why do we still have to memorize all these fucking disciplines?¡±


    llen


    Yang Xiaojin sneered, ¡°Do you have guns right now? How are you supposed to attend a firearms lesson without guns?¡±


    The bandits were stunned. So they had to earn enough bullets and retrieve their weapons before they were qualified to attend the firearms lessons. Jin Lan touched the three bullets in his pocket bitterly and thought how it would take him another 20 days or so before he could start learning more about firearms.


    Then Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Those of you who manage to trade for a gun will be able to attend the lessons. I wonder if any of you are suitable to be snipers.¡±


    Jin Lan¡¯s eyes lit up at the words. ¡°You can teach us how to use a sniper rifle too?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°Don¡¯t be so happy yet. Since sniping depends on your natural attributes, out of the two hundred of you, only two or three will get selected for sniper training. So you all better not have high hopes.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin deliberately gave them something to look forward to before personally extinguishing their hopes.


    But how could that thought be stifled? When Jin Lan heard that two or three of them could be snipers, he immediately thought he might be one of the chosen ones.


    Before hitting the brick wall of reality, everyone would hope they could be the lucky ones!


    They were talking about getting a role as a sniper after all. It felt really exciting just to think about. All the rough and tumble men loved guns since they represented a form of power, security, and authority. And the sniper rifle represented the pinnacle of firearms.


    Yang Xiaojin nced at them. ¡°It¡¯s still too early to be happy now, so you¡¯d better memorize the disciplines first. Otherwise, don¡¯t even think about touching the guns.¡±


    Jin Lan whispered, ¡°Boss Lady, can I have a look at your sniper rifle? I haven¡¯t had the chance to get a close look at it.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave him a look and then pulled her sniper rifle out of thin air. Jin Lan and the others gasped at the sight. So it fucking turned out that these two were supernatural beings!


    At first, they thought Yang Xiaojin was just a sniper and did not expect that she could actually pull a sniper rifle out of thin air. It was no wonder they did not see where she had hidden her gun.


    Yang Xiaojin put the sniper rifle away and said, ¡°Now, I¡¯ll exin to you what the disciplines are. First, obey the order and execute it without fail...¡±


    After reciting them several times, the dumb bandits still couldn¡¯t memorize the disciplines. Yang Xiaojin had Jin Lan write the Five Disciplines on the ground with a tree branch. They did not have to understand them and only needed to memorize them.


    When these people started trying to memorize the disciplines, Yang Xiaojin went over to Ren Xiaosu, who was not too far away. ¡°We¡¯re really making things difficult for them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°Without discipline, no army can exist. This is something that they need to go through. There¡¯s no other way.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°You¡¯re really not afraid they¡¯ll just fall out with each other?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Since ancient times, strict teachers have produced outstanding students, strict parents have raised filial children, and strict discipline has made strong armies. You might think that making them go through this suffering will tear them apart, but I think that these hardships will make them band together even more tightly.¡±


    What was discipline to an army? Discipline was the code of conduct, the external manifestation ofbat power, the morale of the soldiers, and the image and honor of a unit.


    It was not useless. On the contrary, Ren Xiaosu thought no army could exist without discipline. He could not forget how the private troops were so messy in behavior and appearance when he first saw them, nor could he forget how Qing Zhen¡¯s troops awed him when he witnessed how disciplined they moved.


    Discipline was the first step of their ideology. Only after they achieved that could they start talking about things like a sense of belonging or honor.


    Unfortunately, some of these bandits were illiterate. Even though the disciplines were written clearly on the ground, it was illegible to them.


    Jin Lan was exasperated by this. ¡°I¡¯m telling you, Yan Laoliu. You have to fucking memorize it even if you can¡¯t. Don¡¯t disgrace our 1st Squad. I¡¯m still waiting to go through the sniper training.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin had told them that no one could start learning about guns if any of them could not fully memorize the disciplines.


    Ren Xiaosu specifically ordered this. He was hoping they could all learn to be a little more united through helping each other.


    This was also the first time he yed the role of instructor. He was feeling his way forward, but it would be good enough if these bandits could pick up a little of what he was trying to teach them.


    Ren Xiaosu turned to Yang Xiaojin and said with a smile, ¡°What do you think of my methods?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smirked. ¡°Not bad, I guess.¡±


    She thought this was really getting more and more interesting. There was even a moment when she suddenly started looking forward to the day when there would be plenty of brick houses and farnd here, with groups of children ying and lots ofughter in the


    air.


    But could there be such a possibility in this chaotic world?


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly asked, ¡°I can work out something with the Yang Consortium and let this settlement remain. But what if the Qing Consortium is really trying to consolidate the forces in the valley? What do we do after they find us here?¡±


    How could bandits possibly stand up to the capabilities of an organization. The reason the bandits could survive in the valley was because they were flexible. To put it bluntly, they were good at running away. But once they built a fixed settlement, they couldn¡¯t run away anymore. If they ended up running away, all of their previous efforts would havee to nothing.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s fine. Both Qing Zhen and Luo Lan still owe me big favors.¡±


    Whether it was saving Luo Lan or helping the Qing Consortium attack the Li Consortium¡¯s defensive line, these were both favors he had done for them.


    So when Ren Xiaosu guessed several days ago that it was the Qing Consortium behind the chaos in the valley, he no longer panicked. After all, he had worked with them on many asions...


    ¡°Alright.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. She did not object to Ren Xiaosu being friends with Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, nor would she request Ren Xiaosu to help her locate the Qing Consortium¡¯s nuclear test site. That was the Saboteurs and her own business. It had nothing to do with Ren Xiaosu, so there was no need to impose such a responsibility onto Ren Xiaosu.

 Chapter 348 - Why pretend

    <h4>Chapter 348 Why pretend</h4>


    While digging for silt to make y bricks two days ago, everyone was discussing whether they should run away, go back to being bandits, or rebel. But by the third day, everyone suddenly had a different topic of discussion. ¡°How many bullets do you have now?¡±


    ¡°Hehe, I already have ten bullets.¡± Jin Lan said, ¡°I think I can definitely get my gun back in less than a month!¡±


    After arriving here, they ended up having to work for the guns that were theirs to begin with. That sounded incredibly absurd but everyone suddenly seemed to be enjoying it. It was as though it had suddenly be an honor to be able to carry guns again.


    At the beginning, quite a few people cked off. They only pretended to be busy while the others worked hard. They would lie on the edge of the riverbed to sleep and bask in the sun or watch the others as they worked.


    But that changed by the third day. Those who did not do any work previously started feeling a little embarrassed of themselves. When the others were resting, they would continue working just to make up progress after falling behind for the past two days. Otherwise, it would be too fucking embarrassing when the others received their guns again and they were still empty-handed.


    Furthermore, Yang Xiaojin had already informed them that she would not give any firearm lessons as long as a single person was still without their gun.


    This left Jin Lan in a dilemma. He and Zhang Yiheng were each put in charge of more than a 100 people, so both of them were well aware of who was fast or slow in their progress.


    Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng counted all the bullets and found that some people were still missing quite a few. As such, Jin Lan took the lead and called for a meeting. ¡°Well, our goal was to quickly save up a 100 bullets each so that we can trade them for the guns, but some people have fallen behind. If it were because they were cking, I would not care about them. But y¡¯all saw for yourselves how anxious they are to get to a 100 bullets too, so as the leader, I¡¯ll donate one bullet to each of them.¡±


    Then Zhang Yiheng also said to his 2nd Squad, ¡°I¡¯ll donate a bullet to each of those who are short from my stash as well.¡±


    The bandits looked at each other for a while before someone hesitantly said, ¡°I¡¯ll donate too, but on one condition: They have to be returned!¡±


    Soon after, arge number of bandits donated around six bullets each. Although there was still a shortfall, the gap was considerably closed.


    Jin Lan was very pleased and nodded. ¡°Well done, brothers. Let¡¯s continue our work!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at them from afar. Suddenly, he said to Yang Xiaojin beside him, ¡°I came across a book in the library of Stronghold 88 hidden away in a corner. It was called The Crowd.[1]¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a passage in the book that states that once a person bes part of a group, their intelligence will be badly lowered. In order to be epted, an individual must be willing to abandon their capacity for reasoning and exchange their intelligence for a sense of belonging, which makes them feel safe,¡± Ren Xiaosu continued. ¡°Maybe that¡¯s the reason why it¡¯s so easy to get influenced when you¡¯re in a group.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°Do you mean they¡¯re going through this situation now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯d rather believe that this is the power of hope.¡±


    Now that this group had amon goal, these bandits who went through hardship together were also seeking ways to achieve that goal as quickly as possible. Friendship would be established in the process.


    Jin Lan was working with the others when he suddenly sensed that another two people had appeared next to him. After he took a closer look, it turned out to be Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    They saw Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin taking off their shoes and rolling up their sleeves. Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng hurriedly said, ¡°Lords, you two don¡¯t have to work. Please rest and leave the work to us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, we¡¯re not spoiled. You can divide the y bricks that we make equally among your two squads. I¡¯ll leave the squad leaders to assign them to their members.¡±


    The bandits were stunned. They never thought Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin would also work together with them.


    Shouldn¡¯t these big shots be resting on the sidelines? Back when they were working at the factories, the foremen did not do any physical work. While they went down to the coal mines, the foremen would sit outside and supervise the workers while resting.


    Furthermore, the two people in front of them were much more impressive than those foremen. Both of them were supernatural beings, after all. Especially Yang Xiaojin, who was a woman, even she got to working together with them. Their bossdy was really quite different from the others.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened. ¡°What¡¯re y¡¯all still standing around for? Trying to bezy?¡±


    Jin Lan chuckled. ¡°No, we¡¯re not! Brothers, let¡¯s keep working!¡±


    The bandits carried on working in silence. It was still the same work and the goal was still the same goal they had set out to achieve. But when Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin jumped in the trenches with them, it felt like a little more. It was a little more humanpassion.


    At this moment, a cloud of dust billowed in the distance. Ren Xiaosu was all too familiar with this sight. He knew a new band of bandits had arrived.


    ording to Yang Xiaojin¡¯s estimation, there should have been more than 3,000 bandits on the front lines of Mt. Guan, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Daban. And they had only gathered around 200 people here, far from the numbers of those to the north. They already knew there were far more bandits further north and much fewer of them here in the south.


    But Ren Xiaosu was still a little disappointed when no new bandits came by yesterday.


    This new bandit group that had just arrived consisted of about 30 people. When they saw arge group of people working from a distance, they were ecstatic. With so many refugees in this settlement, they were going to be rich!


    In the distance, Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, Ren Xiaosu, and the others all had mud over their arms and legs. They were not even carrying guns. If they were not refugees, what else could they be?


    Out here in the wilderness, refugees were the most obedient group of people and could be easily captured like livestock.


    However, when they arrived at the settlement, the bandit leader suddenly felt that something was off. He saw Ren Xiaosu and the others stand up and watch them calmly as they approached.


    The bandit leader suddenly muttered, ¡°Why do I get the feeling that they aren¡¯t afraid of us?¡±


    Meanwhile, Jin Lan said with a sigh, ¡°Why the fuck are there neers again? They¡¯ll have zero bullets when they join us!¡±


    Jin Lan already knew the fate of these bandits who hade from elsewhere. He was just feeling a little ripped off.


    That bandit stopped his motorcycle beside the ditches and pointed his gun at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°All of you, step out of the ditches right now! Haha, you¡¯re still in the fucking mood to make y bricks? Who says that you can make them?¡±


    Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng looked at each other and began feeling sorry for the new bandit leader at the same time.


    Half an hourter, the bruised and bloodied bandit leader had his sleeves rolled up inside the ditches. With his eyes swollen, he asked Jin Lan, ¡°How many y bricks do we have to make every day?¡±


    Jin Lan snapped, ¡°Do you know that you people are dying us? I¡¯m telling you, you can forget about sleeping if you can¡¯t produce 30 y bricks by the end of today.¡±


    Then the bandit leader nced at Zhang Yiheng beside him. ¡°Wait a minute, I know you. Aren¡¯t you the leader of the bandit gang on the west face of Mt. Daban? What¡¯re you doing here?¡±


    Zhang Yiheng also snapped at him, ¡°Just dig silt and cut the crap.¡±


    The newly arrived bandit leader felt ganged up on. ¡°Aren¡¯t y¡¯all bandits too? Why pretend to be refugees here? If I knew that there were so many of you here, I wouldn¡¯t havee at all!¡±


    [1] In the book, Le Bon ims that there are several characteristics of crowd psychology: ¡°impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgment of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others...¡± | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crowd:_A _Study_of_the_Popr_Mind

 Chapter 349 - Building houses for our fellow villagers

    <h4>Chapter 349 Building houses for our fellow vigers</h4>


    The bandits who had just arrived were confused. They saw Jin Lan and the others happily digging for silt in the river and making y bricks with it. After that, they would trade the bricks for bullets. For every ten y bricks, they could only get one bullet.


    Even at the sight of this, they did not really find it strange. But the moment Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others received their bullets, the newly arrived bandits wondered what the fuck was with the happy smiles on their faces. Weren¡¯t y¡¯all supposed to be bandit leaders? Why were you so happy to receive one bullet?! Could it be that you hadn¡¯t had much real-world experience yet?!


    The river channel was starting to be widened by these people digging. Originally, the riverbed here was just a channel that had been formed after a small stream had changed its course. But now, the channel was getting wider to the point of almost turning into arge river.


    Initially, the refugees were worried the elevation of the riverbed would cause the channel to burst its banks when the spring floods arrived. That would definitely affect the crops if it happened.


    But now, they did not have to worry. The spring floods did not scare them.


    In the river, Jin Lan and the others whose pockets were filled with bullets were making noisy clinking sounds. The new bandits were shocked by this strange scene. ¡°Have these people been put under a spell?¡±


    After Jin Lan finished his work, he called for the new bandits to gather and formally briefed them on their duties, what the bricks could be exchanged for, and the long-term ns they had. For example, they were nning on building ten small houses after the spring floods and then in the summer...


    When they heard that, the new bandits were dumbfounded. Could these people still fucking be considered bandits?


    Then Jin Lan got straight to the point. ¡°Do you know who¡¯s in charge of this ce? You think you¡¯re unlucky to have been caught, but I¡¯m telling you, you¡¯re actually very lucky!¡±


    Jin Lan kept rambling. The bandits switched their attention from Jin Lan to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin every now and then, while their eyes gradually became more confused.


    Currently, Ren Xiaosu did not have anything more to do. Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng would take care of everything for him. He and Yang Xiaojin were only required to reduce the number of casualties when they subdued the bandits at the beginning.


    Band after band of bandits came here and ended up joining the kiln forces. During the day, they would dig for silt to make y bricks. In the evening, they would memorize the Five Disciplines. Their lives had never been more enriching than this.


    When the spring floods arrived as expected, everyone could feel the current in the river getting stronger. They could even catch fish in it quite often, but the fish would bite anyone they encountered. If they did not have so many people, it would have been a really challenging task.


    More and more firewood were piled on the riverbank to be dried, while whole tree trunks broken off by the floods from upstream washed in as well. The thinner branches would be used as firewood, while the thicker trunks could be used for the beams of the housester on.


    The refugees in the settlement also helped to construct some temporary mud houses and a small brick kiln for them.


    The bandits had helped the refugees dig irrigation ditches, as well as the river. And the refugees gave them some help in return.


    The refugees were no longer afraid of the bandits. All of them were just like residents of a small vige living together.


    One of the refugees came up to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Boss, let¡¯s start firing the bricks. Otherwise, when the first rain arrives, a lot of the y bricks we made will get destroyed.¡±


    ¡°Sure!¡± Ren Xiaosu responded. Arge area of y bricks had already beenid out at this moment. It looked like it was enough to build more than ten houses with.


    Firing bricks was not a particrly difficult task. After cing the bricks into the kiln, the door would be closed. All that needed to be done afterwards was adding firewood into the kiln.


    As for the process to cool the kiln down with water, that would be left to the bandit who knew how to do it.


    Bricks were categorized into red and ck bricks. The silt y the bricks were made with contained iron. During the firing process, red bricks were produced when the iron content waspletely oxidized to form ferric oxide. If the iron content did notpletely oxidize during the firing process, they would end up as ck bricks.


    The brick kiln built by Ren Xiaosu and the others had a roof that did not allow oxygen to enter. Therefore, the fired bricks would all be ck in color.


    ¡°How long does it take to fire bricks?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked the bandit with experience in making them.


    ¡°Our kiln is small, so it can only burn around 20,000 bricks in one go. I reckon that it¡¯ll take a little more than ten days from now for the bricks to be ready. However, if we include the time for them to cool down, it¡¯ll take another two days.¡± The bandit exined, ¡°It¡¯ll require roughly 2,000 bricks to build a house measuring about 20 square meters. The batch of bricks in the kiln now should be enough to build a dozen houses with.¡±


    Thinking about living in brick houses soon, the bandits got quite excited.


    After all, most of the people here had never lived in a brick house before in their lives. A brick house was a symbol of status in town.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu said to the refugees from the settlement, ¡®Y¡¯all should send some people over to guard the ce. When the bricks are ready, we can build some houses for y¡¯all as well.¡±


    Jin Lan mumbled, ¡°Why do we have to build houses for them too when we¡¯re the ones making the bricks?¡±.


    Ren Xiaosu shot him a look. ¡°Quitining.¡±


    Jin Lan ran off with his head hanging. He shouted for his brothers to produce more y bricks before the rainy season arrived. Right now, there were more than 400 bandits at the settlement, so they were extremely efficient at their work!


    But after just a few days, the sky started to turn overcast. Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng got really worried that it might start raining soon, so they said, ¡°Hurry up, bring the y bricks in. Carry the dried y bricks into the mud houses!¡±


    Halfway through the retrieval, a drizzle enveloped the entire wastnd like a cotton towel.


    ¡°How unlucky!¡± While hiding under the eaves, Jin Lan said, ¡°Why did this rain have to fall now of all times?¡±


    ¡°Captain, can we go into the houses and take shelter from the rain?¡± a bandit muttered.


    At this moment, the houses were filled with bricks, and there was no room for anyone to stand inside. When Jin Lan heard that, he stared at the bandit. ¡°If you go inside, where do we put the bricks! These are all the bricks that everyone has worked hard to make. Are you gonna waste ¡¯em?¡±.


    The bandits pouted. They had even be inferior to bricks.


    Arge group of people were squatting in the rain around a huddle of mud houses and guarding the bricks within.


    Jin Lan muttered, ¡°Boss still wants to build houses for the refugees. I dunno what he¡¯s thinking. They won¡¯t even be enough for our brothers to live in.¡±


    ¡°Why, Captain, are youining against Boss now?¡± someone whispered.


    ¡°I¡¯m notining.¡± Jin Lan curled his lips. ¡°I can tell that those two are really different from those big shots in the strongholds. Those big shots look down their noses at us, but neither of them do. Have you seen any big shots from the consortiums dig for silt in the river like us? I¡¯m utterly convinced by this couple, if only because they were willing to do work with us.¡±


    ¡°What d¡¯ya mean, Captain?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just annoyed. Why should those refugees be allowed to live in a house when they did not even make a single y brick?¡± Jin Lan said angrily.


    ¡°But the brick kiln was built by them,¡± someone muttered.


    Jin Lan red at him. ¡°You talk too much.¡±


    But at this moment, some refugees braved the rain and came over, calling for Jin Lan, ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there in the rain. Get in our huts and take cover from the rain. We¡¯ve discussed this with the others. Y¡¯all can go into whichever house you want. There¡¯s definitely enough space for everyone. We also have hot soup at home, so y¡¯all can drink some to warm yourselves up.¡±


    Jin Lan was stunned for a moment. Then he hurriedly said, ¡°Oh... yeah, we¡¯lle over right away!¡±


    A bandit next to him asked in a whisper, ¡°Captain, aren¡¯t we supposed to be angry about building the houses for them?¡±


    ¡°Who says I¡¯m angry?¡± Jin Lan rebutted, ¡°Our fellow vigers are so kind to us. What¡¯s wrong with building some houses for them? We have to be more open-minded like our boss, understand? We should be more kind! Once the rain stops, we¡¯ll start building the houses for them!¡±

 Chapter 350 - Ulterior motives

    <h4>Chapter 350 Ulterior motives</h4>


    On a rainy mountain road near Mt. Daban, arge group of motorcycles suddenly drove up the mountain. Arge banner embroidered with the image of a tiger¡¯s head was being carried by the lead motorcycle.


    Each of these bandits had a blue bandana covering their nose and mouth. From afar, there were two rows of motorcycles, and all of the riders were wearing the same type of blue bandana on their faces. This was a spectacr sight to behold.


    Furthermore, there were a lot of people in this group. With more than 300 of them heading up the mountain together, they would not be mistaken for some small gang at a nce. At the very least, they looked way better than the ordinary bandits just in appearance alone. Some bandits were so poor that they even wore tattered pants, much less had bandanas and arge banner.


    When they arrived on the North Face, they parked their motorcycles by the side of the road. The leader of the group walked towards a small mountain path that would lead to a campsite.


    These fierce-looking bandits trekked on the path up the mountain silently. No one was speaking. Everyone was carrying their guns in front of them so they would be ready to deal with anything unexpected.


    They had thought there would be people lying in ambush to put up a fierce resistance against them. However, the whole stretch of the mountain path was silent, and there wasn¡¯t even anyone keeping a lookout.


    When they reached the entrance of the mountain hideout, the leader pushed open the wooden door with a creak. He was not afraid of anyone sneaking up to attack him and entered first. But when he went inside, he saw this mountain hideout was totally empty. It seemed like no one had been living here for some time.


    The leader said softly, ¡°There¡¯s something strange about this Mt. Daban. We¡¯vee across five or six empty hideouts along the way already. What¡¯s happened here?¡±


    ¡°Could it be that it¡¯s been getting too hard to get by these days, so everyone decided to head back to the consortiums¡¯ factories to work? Since there¡¯s still a few hideouts on the mountain. Should we go and look at them?¡± the leader¡¯s trusted aide asked.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go! I don¡¯t believe that all the bandits on Mt. Daban turned over a new leaf.¡± The leader sneered as he led his group further up the mountain.


    It wasn¡¯t until they checked another three hideouts before they discovered a few sporadic bandits in one of the campsites,


    When these solitary bandits saw the turnout, they immediately knelt down on the spot and begged for mercy, ¡°Please don¡¯t kill us!¡±.


    The leader thought for a while and asked with a frown, ¡°Where are your other men?¡±


    The two-bit bandits wailed, ¡°They were captured by bandits!¡±


    The leader was stunned. ¡°Aren¡¯t y¡¯all fucking bandits yourselves?¡±


    This group of people got so angry that they startedughing. They were only supposed to be abducting refugees. Why would anyone even abduct bandits?!


    But actually, they were also here to recruit the bandits from the other mountain hideouts. They had thought their ns were well ahead of the other groups¡¯, but who would have expected that someone had beaten them to it.


    The leader asked, ¡°Who¡¯s the leader here? Stand up and talk!¡±


    The bandits shouted, ¡°Our boss was taken away as well.¡±


    The leader was shocked. ¡°Damn... Who captured them? How did the few of you escape unharmed?¡±


    One of the bandits said, ¡°They were captured by the refugees from a settlement at the foot of a mountain to the south. Us few only managed to escape because we ran away in advance when we sensed that something was wrong.¡±


    ¡°Howrge is that settlement?¡± the leader asked curiously.


    ¡°4 to 500 people live there. They are extremely fierce, and there¡¯s two supernatural beings among them as well!¡± the bandit said.


    The leader became wary at this moment. There were two supernatural beings in a refugee settlement? How could that be a normal refugee settlement?


    The leader thought for a moment and asked, ¡°What kind of people do they usually capture? And how do they capture them?¡±


    ¡°They take anyone theye across. Basically, the two supernatural beings do all the work so the others don¡¯t have to do anything at all. Our boss was beaten to the ground.¡±


    ¡°What do they do with the people after capturing them?¡± the leader asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. In any case, I don¡¯t think they killed them. The group just gathers there to dig ditches and make bricks.¡±


    The leader said to his trusted aide next to him, ¡°It seems like this group of people don¡¯t have any sense of vignce. Xu Jinyuan, take a group of people with you and let them capture you. After you join them, get a better understanding of their situation and wait for my signal to concentrate an attack on them.¡±


    The bandit named Xu Jinyuan nodded. ¡°Got it!¡±


    He picked out 11 people to head down the mountain with him.


    The leader looked at another person and said, ¡°Head back north and get some brothers toe over. It seems like we might be in for a tough battle, but we should still be able to handle it without much effort. In any case, just get them toe here.¡±


    All of a sudden, the original bandits of this mountain hideout noticed the Tiger Head Banner. ¡°You¡¯re that bandit gang from the north!¡±


    The leader smiled. ¡°You¡¯re pretty observant.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan aggressively led a group of people to attack the refugee settlement. As expected, they were also captured by Ren Xiaosu.


    In order to make it more realistic, Xu Jinyuan and the others deliberately resisted capture with all their might. Although they couldn¡¯tnd a shot on Ren Xiaosu, they still looked quite aggressive in their attacks.


    After Ren Xiaosu handed Xu Jinyuan over to Jin Lan, Yang Xiaojin suddenly whispered, ¡°Something¡¯s a little off with this group.¡±


    ¡°How?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Someone¡¯s trained them on how to hold their guns, and there¡¯s also some form of cooperation between the 12 of them. You can see that there should have been a group symbol engraved on their motorcycles, but it was deliberately scratched off on their way here.¡± Yang Xiaojin had a very keen eye, so there was no way of hiding any details from her, especially when it was rted to firearms.


    These people only knew there were two supernatural beings here. Although they had yed their parts well, Yang Xiaojin could still see the problems with their act.


    ¡°Are they soldiers?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Not really. There are no signs they¡¯ve been through the tough training regimen of the


    tary. I¡¯m guessing this group of people must¡¯ve been sent by one of therger bandit gangs in the valley. Who knows, they might have bad intentions,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s alright, we can let them stay here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t seem worried about this group of people in the slightest.


    When the rain stopped, Xu Jinyuan and his group started digging for silt in the river after being put through Jin Lan¡¯s systematic training. What surprised them was Jin Lan¡¯s ims that these two supernatural beings were from Stronghold 178.


    Why would Stronghold 178 get involved with matters in the valley? Xu Jinyuan was rather skeptical. Then he was shocked to discover that the people digging silt with him were all bandits as well. Could it be that they were all here because they wanted to join Stronghold 178, just like what Jin Lan had hinted at?


    ¡°Brother Xu, what do we do now?¡± someone asked in a whisper.


    Xu Jinyuan thought for a moment and said, ¡°We¡¯ll continue making y bricks with them. Didn¡¯t they say that we can get our guns back once we collect a 100 bullets each? We can only coordinate with our brothers back at their if we get our guns back.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡±


    A few dayster, the brick firing process waspleted. Jin Lan and the others happily waited for the temperature in the kiln to cool down before carrying the ck bricks out.


    Someone next to Xu Jinyuan said, ¡°Brother Xu, why did theye here and work so hard to make bricks when they could have been bandits instead?¡±


    Xu Jinyuan thought for a moment before answering, ¡°They could be building defenses.¡±


    ¡°No way. I heard it¡¯s because they wanted to build houses for the refugees. I also heard that the refugees are quite good to these bandits and even offered them food.¡±


    ¡°Cut the bullshit.¡± Xu Jinyuan snapped at him, ¡°How could it be possible that bandits would build houses for refugees? Isn¡¯t that like a weasel dropping by a chicken coop for a visit? And you said that refugees offered food to the bandits? I don¡¯t believe it one bit!¡±


    But at noon, the refugees came over to the riverbank with baskets and said with warm smiles, ¡°Everyone,e and eat lunch. We¡¯ve cooked some ears of corn for all y¡¯all. Please don¡¯t mind the simple fare.¡±


    Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng took the baskets from the refugees and distributed the corn to everyone one by one. The ears of corn were fromst fall¡¯s harvest, and the refugees could not finish eating them during the winter, but no one minded that.


    Xu Jinyuan was stunned for a while. ¡°What the fucking hell is this!¡±


    Just as he finished saying that, Jin Lan stuffed a piping hot ear of corn into his hands and said, ¡°Talk less, eat while it¡¯s hot.¡±

 Chapter 351 - Dumbfounded!

    <h4>Chapter 351 Dumbfounded!</h4>


    Xu Jinyuan was absolutely reluctant to work, especially when it was something like digging for silt. It felt extremely degrading to him.


    Seeing hispanions that came with him to the settlement already starting to seriously work for the bullets, he was still hesitant and did not want to work.


    Xu Jinyuan observed Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin in silence. After all, these two legendary supernatural beings were his top priority. As a low-level bandit who had just joined them, he thought it would be difficult to meet these two supernatural beings and interact with them. However, he was wrong.


    Over the past few days, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had been working together with everyone. No matter how dirty or tired they were, they neverined once.


    Xu Jinyuan was a little puzzled by this. How could they possibly be supernatural beings? So these were the specialists from Stronghold 178? How could they be this humble?


    However, his pained face served as a reminder that he could not afford to offend the two.


    Xu Jinyuan asked Jin Lan quietly, ¡°Brother Jin Lan, the two of them are just putting on an act, yet y¡¯all still believe them? The big shots are just ying a child¡¯s game here, so how can you trust them?¡±


    Jin Lan gave him a look of disdain and said, ¡°Our two lords are not putting on an act. We¡¯re not idiots. If they were just pretending, couldn¡¯t we tell? As for you, you only know how toze around and not work. You¡¯re not allowed to eat the corn that¡¯s given by our fellow vigers today!¡±


    Xu Jinyuan was speechless. What the fuck was that!


    Xu Jinyuan said unhappily, ¡°You¡¯re a fucking bandit. What¡¯re you being so proud of when all you¡¯re doing is farming?!¡±


    Jin Lan shot him a look and sneered, ¡°It¡¯s not disgraceful if we work hard to fill our stomachs! But it¡¯s a disgrace if all you know is how to be azy bum!¡±


    Xu Jinyuan thought it over seriously. ¡°That does make sense...¡± ¡®Wait! Who the fuck are you calling azy bum!¡¯


    However, Xu Jinyuan had been observing Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin for a long time. He had been spending all his energy on observing them. In the end, he realized the two of them were not pretending. They could really take the suffering.


    In fact, Xu Jinyuan was starting to believe the identities of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. It would be great if he could really be recruited by Stronghold 178 too, but somehow he felt it was a little unreal. Besides, his other brothers to the north were still waiting for his news. What should he choose?


    The people who came here with a purpose would always be more difficult to convince than the others. That was because they already had an objective from the start.


    At this moment, someone shouted, ¡°I need a few people over here. Boss said that those who help build the houses will receive 15 bullets each!¡±


    Xu Jinyuan saw the people around him running over in an instant. Jin Lan was roaring, ¡°Don¡¯t anyone dare fight me!¡±


    Xu Jinyuan followed right behind and muttered, ¡°Has everyone gone fucking crazy?¡±


    When they reached the refugee settlement, the ck bricks were piled up off to one side. However, someone said, ¡°But where are we gonna get mortar from?¡±.


    At first, everyone thought that building a brick house only required some beams, a roof, and bricks. However, they now remembered they had forgotten to make the cement mortar.


    It was avable in the stronghold, but they couldn¡¯t possibly go there and buy it, right?


    Nearby, Ren Xiaosu said dumbfoundedly, ¡°Do any of you have any experience in building a house?¡±


    The refugees and bandits shook their heads. ¡°We¡¯ve never built a brick house before. We have been living in mud huts all our lives.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked loudly, ¡°Does anyone know? There¡¯ll be a reward of 20 bullets if anyone does, so if you have the know-how, please don¡¯t keep quiet!¡±


    Everyone looked at one another. Although they really wanted to earn those 20 bullets, they really did not know how to build houses.


    Suddenly, Xu Jinyuan said, ¡°A very gooey mixture[1] of sticky rice mortar, lime, and hemp fibers can be used as an adhesive to fill the gaps between the bricks. It won¡¯t crack even after a decade or two.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°What about the proportions? What¡¯s the ratio for each of the ingredients? Did you used to work in construction?¡±


    ¡°I used to build houses for the richer families in town. Y¡¯all can source the materials first. I¡¯ll adjust the proportionster. It¡¯s not difficult to find them out here in the wastnds., Xu Jinyuan said aloofly. He was not doing this for the 20 bullets, but because he felt that these refugees were so stupid that they did not even know a simple thing like that.


    Suddenly, Jin Lan walked over and thumped him on the chest. Xu Jinyuan was about to fly into a rage when Jin Lan smiled and said, ¡°Great one, bro! Awesome!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu led the apuse. ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s thank our brother here. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Xu Jinyuan?¡±


    ¡°Alright, you¡¯ll be the leader of the construction team of our settlement from now on!¡± Ren Xiaosu casually appointed him.


    Xu Jinyuan¡¯s mind was in a daze as he looked at the people around him who were giving him looks of approval. He suddenly recalled what Jin Lan had said to him: ¡°It¡¯s not disgraceful if we work hard to fill our stomachs.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu went to get 20 bullets and handed them to Xu Jinyuan. ¡°Well done, bro!¡±


    Xu Jinyuan looked at the bullets. They felt rather heavy in his hand. When he saw the others looking at him in envy, he suddenly felt a tinge of the happiness Jin Lan and the others felt when they earned their bullets.


    While they were building the houses, some of the refugees brought over sweet potatoes, corn, and other food to them. As their living conditions here were bad, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn were their staple foods.


    A female refugee was praising Xu Jinyuan as she stuffed food into his arms, ¡°I¡¯ve watched you since the first day you arrived. At first nce, I could tell that you¡¯re a learned person.¡±


    Here, those who could build houses were considered learned.


    Just as Xu Jinyuan was about to deny that he was a learned person, he was stopped by Ren Xiaosu, who said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re a learned person if you can use your knowledge to help everyone. Knowledge should be used to change the world, and you¡¯re changing the world right now.¡±


    These bold imsvished sky-high praise onto Xu Jinyuan.


    When he didn¡¯t do any work previously, all of the other bandits disliked and despised him. But after he disyed his abilities, these fucking bandits started to address him warmly as ¡°Brother Xu¡± every day when they saw him.


    Xu Jinyuan was unused to the huge difference in treatment.


    Meanwhile, this gang of bandits was turning from a scattered bunch into a unified force.


    They woulde to share the same values and gain a mysterious thing called faith in the time they would be spending together. But of course, it was still quite far from that day.


    Half a month quickly passed.


    Xu Jinyuan was thinking as he chewed on the delicious corncob in his hands. What was he here for? He hade here to gain the trust of this gang of bandits, to get a better understanding of their current situation, then get back their weapons, and n with the other bandits in the north to destroy this entire settlement.


    ¡°


    But what did he end up doing? He had been building houses every day!


    Not only that, he had also dug for silt, helped the refugees sow seeds, and eaten their corn.


    A female refugee had taken a liking to him and kept dragging him into her mud hut, but Xu Jinyuan used a great deal of effort to control himself.


    As a notorious bandit from the north, how could he stay here just because of romance and corn?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu shouted in the distance, ¡°Come and help carry bricks. You can earn a bullet for every 30 bricks carried.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan counted his bullets and quickly finished eating the corn in his hands in three bites. ¡°I¡¯ming. Brothers, don¡¯t fight me to carry those bricks! I¡¯ve almost collected enough bullets!¡±

 Chapter 352 - Seeds of faith

    <h4>Chapter 352 Seeds of faith</h4>


    With the bandits gathering here, the previously isted refugee settlement suddenly became much livelier.


    Although one of the bandits stole some dried corn on the cob from a refugee¡¯s house during this period, the refugee did not say anything when they discovered the theft. Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu who gave the guy a good beating and even confiscated his bullets.


    That refugee had even asked Ren Xiaosu to be merciful, and this made the bandit who got beaten up extremely ashamed.


    After that, such things never happened again.


    On the other hand, some refugees were still bullying their fellow refugees. They would go to their houses and act like punks while mooching off on their food. In the end, when Jin Lan and the others could no longer bear to watch, they beat up those punks and dragged them off to the other bandits to reform them.


    These punks might be capable of bullying the refugees, but going against the bandits was something none of them even dared to think of.


    The brick houses were rapidly taking shape. The bandits were all full of strength and could work extremely fast as well.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Jinyuan, who was supervising the construction of a house. Off to the side, a female refugee was looking at him lovingly. Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked Yang Xiaojin, ¡°He¡¯s one of those that you said was problematic, right?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°But it seems like he no longer has any ulterior motives.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin had been wondering if this group of people would cause them any trouble and had been spying on them. At the time, she was wondering why Ren Xiaosu was not worried. In the end, she realized her worries had been unnecessary. She could see that Xu Jinyuan was now looking forward to trading for bullets every day.


    This time, they managed to build 12 houses in one go. In this deste wastnd, brick houses were once again rising up from the ground. When Ren Xiaosu saw all of this, he felt a swirl of emotions. The sturdy brick houses were a symbol of the continuation of human civilization.


    The houses were about 28 square meters each. One single structure required around 1,900 bricks to build, and more than ten people could live in it.


    Although there were still too few housespared to the number of people they had, the second batch of bricks were already being fired. When they took them out in another two days, they could continue building the houses.


    Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were bragging to the refugees yesterday, saying they were going to build houses for everyone to live in.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu asked him whileughing: ¡°By the time y¡¯all¡¯ve collected enough bullets, do you still want to continue building houses?¡±


    Embarrassed, Jin Lan said, ¡°We can¡¯t just watch our fellow vigers continue living in those mud huts, can we? And there¡¯s so many children as well. It gets very damp in the shelters, and that isn¡¯t good for their health.¡±


    Zhang Yiheng added, ¡°We can even build a school, a factory...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°Why the hell would we build a factory? We don¡¯t even have the tech to run one!¡±


    ¡°What if we gain the tech in the future?¡± Zhang Yiheng mumbled.


    Then Ren Xiaosu walked over to those brick houses that were just built. He told Jin Lan, ¡°Count how many bullets everyone has.¡±


    It had been more than twenty days since the bandits started working, so a lot of them should have umted enough bullets by now. After counting for a long time, Jin Lan scratched his head and said, ¡°Because some new brothers have just joined us, we shared our bullets evenly between them. So everyone still has two to three more bullets to go. We should have enough by tomorrow after one more day of making bricks.¡±


    It was the arrival of the new bandits that had dyed everyone¡¯s progress. Otherwise, they would have umted enough bullets through their additional work in carrying bricks, mixing y, and sowing seeds.


    Fortunately for them, no new bandits had joined recently, with their total number here controlled at around 400 people. Of course, there were also some bandits who¡¯d escaped, but there were only a few of them.


    Ren Xiaosu had mentioned to Yang Xiaojin that some of the bandit gangs to the north must have already started heading south. It couldn¡¯t have been more than ten days since new bandits came by to their settlement.


    Therefore, they were very likely going to fight the gangs from the north to see who would be the victor.


    It was at this moment that Yang Xiaojin recalled that they were actually here to exterminate the bandits.


    But now was not the time to think about that. Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°You haven¡¯t included the bullets that are gonna be given out for building the houses today. I said before that everyone who helps build houses will get 15 bullets each. We keep our promises.¡±


    When he said that, Jin Lan and the others grew excited. After working so hard for more than twenty days, their efforts were finally paying off!


    If Ren Xiaosu had returned to them their guns at the start, they would definitely not be this excited, because those guns were theirs to begin with, and they were even given by other forces for free.


    But it was different now. Saving a 100 bullets and trading them for a gun was like an honor they earned. The reason they were so excited was not because of the gun, but because it meant they had earned the right to bear arms in this settlement.


    This right felt worth a lot of money. In the past, they had never been so happy or proud even after robbing the passing merchants. That was because they had earned this right today through their sweat.


    Ren Xiaosu had Jin Lan¡¯s people bring over all the firearms. ¡°What do y¡¯all n to do when you receive your guns?¡±


    Jin Lan said excitedly, ¡°We¡¯ll go robbing, of course! There¡¯s hundreds of us now, and we¡¯re so united. We can absolutely dominate the entire south!¡±


    Jin Lan was not bragging either. After all, some of the bandit gangs to the north were still very fearsome.


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. He pointed to the refugees who were watching them from the sidelines and said, ¡°Robbery? Are y¡¯all gonna rob people like them?¡±


    When the crowd of refugees heard this, they were stunned. Jin Lan hurriedly exined, ¡°We aren¡¯t gonna rob y¡¯all. Why would we rob you?¡±


    ¡°But there¡¯s still a lot of people just like them.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°They also have children and wives.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan wondered, ¡°Then why would we carry guns?¡±


    ¡°To protect them,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. He pointed at the female refugee who had been hooking up with Xu Jinyuan every day and said, ¡°To protect Xiaocui, to protect the vigers, and to protect your families.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan stopped talking. Bashful, Xiaocui was making eyes at him.


    Ren Xiaosu picked up a gun and handed it to Xu Jinyuan with both hands. ¡°After you take this gun, we¡¯ll berades, brothers, and family.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan took the gun hesitantly. Next up were the visibly excited Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng.


    Holding the cold and unfeeling guns in their arms, it felt like they were hugging a treasure. Jin Lan said to the vigers, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. With me around, no bandits will be able to snatch y¡¯all away!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin watched all of this quietly from the side. Looking at the youth who was like the main character on a stage, she thought about how she had once mentioned it would be very difficult to make this gang of bandits find faith, and how it would be good enough to just unite them. But to her surprise, after a little more than twenty days had passed, a herd mentality had silently formed. On top of that, a belief to ¡°protect¡± had also silently been born.


    There were no grand speeches of loyalty, and all Ren Xiaosu transmitted to the bandits was the belief to protect. Protect their own assets, protect their families, and protect their friends. Everything should be done from the perspective of guarding their own interests.


    There was no need to uphold world peace. That had nothing to do with them.


    But of course, be it the strength, will, or faith of this group, they were just tiny seeds that had been nted in them.


    If they were to be separated from a strong individual such as Ren Xiaosu and let go of the rope that was holding them together, they would probably break down quickly and go back to leading their own lives. Or if they encountered a strong opponent now, it would also be enough to deal them a quick defeat.


    But Yang Xiaojin felt that it was very impressive that Ren Xiaosu could nt these seeds.

 Chapter 353 - Family

    Chapter 353 Family


    Yang Xiaojin tilted her head and looked at Ren Xiaosu. For the past two days, she had been thinking about what kind of house she should build for herself here.


    She couldn¡¯t squeeze in with the other bandits, right? Could they build a bigger one then? For example, they could have a kitchen and maybe a small front yard as well, and Ren Xiaosu could go into the wilderness to hunt some pigs and wild chickens to domesticate them. Perhaps they could even rear a cow or two.


    Thinking of this, Yang Xiaojin was also starting to look forward to tomorrow when the new bricks were ready.


    However, she reckoned she would have to wait a while longer for her house to be built. After all, not everyone in the settlement had a brick house. Since Ren Xiaosu wanted to set an example for the others, she didn¡¯t mind suffering with him.


    However, she was curious as to what target Ren Xiaosu would set for them next to hold them together now that the guns had been issued.


    Then she heard Ren Xiaosu say, ¡°Starting tomorrow, we¡¯ll keep making bricks. For the next batch of bricks from the kiln, we¡¯ll build our defenses with them.¡±


    Jin Lan muttered, ¡°And I thought we wouldn¡¯t have to work anymore.¡±


    Although Ren Xiaosu was working hard to change their thinking, old habits die hard. To Jin Lan and the others, they felt they should be going on a killing and piging spree if they had guns. Even if they were no longer keen on killing and piging, they shouldn¡¯t need to keep working.


    Ren Xiaosu spoke up, ¡°From tomorrow onwards, every 200 bullets earned will allow you to trade for a motorcycle.¡±


    Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others looked at the brand-new motorcycles with a sparkle in their eyes. They had not touched the motorcycles since they arrived at this settlement.


    All men loved things that exuded strength, and vehicles were one of those things. Be it a two-wheeled motorcycle or a four-wheeled car, the purring of the engines were just like a roar from their hearts. It was an enjoyable and pleasurable feeling.


    Xu Jinyuan was a little hesitant. Should he also quickly get more work done so he could trade his bullets for a motorcycle? He was a skilled worker too, so he could definitely trade for one much faster than the others.


    The next morning, Ren Xiaosu walked along the river after waking up. The spring floods wouldst for quite a while, and the hotter the weather, the wider the river would get.


    By summer, the river that seemed to flow for forever would be a lifeline for humanity¡¯s survival as it stretched across the wastnds.


    Ren Xiaosu continued walking straight towards the settlement. Today was the day the bricks would be taken out of the kiln. The bandits felt that the progress of using only one brick kiln to fire the bricks was a little slow, so they decided to construct a new and even bigger one.


    Someone asked Jin Lan why they needed to make so many bricks. The houses would be finished sooner orter, and afterwards, would the brick kilns be of any use?


    Jin Lan said mysteriously, ¡°What if a Stronghold 179 suddenly gets built here?¡±


    The question of why Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin hade here had been on the bandits¡¯ minds for a while now. After analyzing it for some time, everyone wondered if Stronghold 178 was nning to extend its influence ind. Wasn¡¯t this vast and empty valley a very good choice to start?


    No consortiums had built a stronghold here because this unincorporated zone was just too sensitive an area. No one would agree to the construction of a stronghold here by any of the other factions.


    But if a powerful organization like Stronghold 178 were to take action, the Yang Consortium, which was currently engaged in war, might not be able to stop them. Meanwhile, the Northern Waste¡¯s Zong Consortium was no match for Stronghold 178. Although the location was not exactly ideal, the opportunity was!


    Furthermore, if Stronghold 178 wanted to export their mine reserves ind, the valley was an unavoidable region that they needed to pass through!


    When they thought of this, Jin Lan and the others felt like they understood what was going on.


    Throughout this, everyone would greet each other warmly as ¡°brothers¡± whenever they saw one another. It was as though they had really be family after Ren Xiaosu¡¯s speech.


    Some people really believed it, while others were still skeptical. But in light of the overall situation, those who did not believe it could not say much either.


    At the moment, the bandits who came here with Xu Jinyuan were just watching in silence.They did not believe anything that was said.


    Someone counted the days and estimated there wasn¡¯t much time left until the window their leader had set for them. At the agreed time, they were to secretly head out into the wilderness tonight and report back to their leader about the attack n. Afterwards, they wouldunch a surprise attack on the settlement the following night.


    ¡°Brother Xu, let¡¯s prepare to leave.¡± Someone said to Xu Jinyuan, ¡°Tonight...¡±


    Xu Jinyuan gave him a look and said, ¡°What are you talking about? How can I leave my family?¡±


    The bandits under him were confused. ¡®What fucking family! Are you fucking crazy?!¡¯


    At first, everyone thought Xu Jinyuan was just kidding. But when they got serious again, they realized Xu Jinyuan was absolutely not kidding!


    Hurt, one of the bandits said, ¡°Brother Xu, didn¡¯t you say that you didn¡¯t buy their antics out here?¡±


    Xu Jinyuan sighed and said, ¡°Will wee to a good end by being bandits? Have you heard of any bandits who get to enjoy theirter


    years?¡±


    Everyone carefully considered this and realized it was true.


    Xu Jinyuan continued, ¡°Y¡¯all¡¯ve interacted with Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin as well. Let¡¯s ignore whether they might really be from Stronghold 178. What do you think of them whenpared to our previous leader?¡±


    ¡°On strength, there¡¯s supernatural beings on both sides,¡± the bandit analyzed. ¡°But there¡¯s two of them here.¡±


    ¡°On conduct, it¡¯s way morefortable here.¡± Someone said, ¡°At our previous ce, the atmosphere could get quite oppressive. Usually, we don¡¯t even dare to sigh too loudly.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan nodded. ¡°What about here?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just like being around family here. We can joke, we can work together...¡±


    ¡°So let¡¯s not talk about anything else for now. Which side do y¡¯all like better?¡± Xu Jinyuan said, ¡°Do you really think that I¡¯ve been taken in by them? No, it¡¯s just that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin have let me seen a glimmer of hope.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan looked at Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng, who were moving bricks in the distance. Did these bandits choose to stay here because they were brainwashed? No, it was because they saw something called hope, so they willingly believed in the razzle-dazzle.


    If this razzle-dazzle could bring everyone a good life in the future, then would it still be considered a lie?


    Xu Jinyuan had lost much sleep over this before finally arriving at his decision.


    ¡°Then are we not gonna make a n with the others to attack this settlement?¡± someone probed.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Xu Jinyuan nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll find an opportunity to tell Boss about thister and warn him to be on guard against any sneak attacks.¡±


    Someone asked, ¡°But if he learns that we came here as spies, will he start shunning


    US?¡±


    Xu Jinyuan was taken aback. He took a deep breath and said, ¡°I believe that he won¡¯t.¡±


    Then Xu Jinyuan walked to where Ren Xiaosu was. He thought he could convince all his brothers to stay behind, but someone still ran away in secret. Before leaving, that bandit even said, ¡°Although I also think this ce is great, just look at how everyone else doesn¡¯t even know how to use a gun. When the leader gets here, this ce will be blown to dust overnight. I don¡¯t wanna die!¡±


    The others looked at one another, unable toe to a decision themselves.


    When Xu Jinyuan walked up to Ren Xiaosu and was hesitating to speak, Ren Xiaosu turned his head to him and asked with a smile, ¡°When are those bandits attacking


    US?¡±

 Chapter 354 - Wang Congyang

    <h4>Chapter 354 Wang Congyang</h4>


    ¡°You already knew about it, didn¡¯t you?¡± Xu Jinyuan said with mixed feelings. In deciding to tell Ren Xiaosu about this matter, he suffered from sleeplessness the entire night.


    In fact, he was still worried that Ren Xiaosu would kill him on the spot when he found out the truth.


    Although he had said to his brothers ¡°I believe that he won¡¯t,¡± he wasn¡¯t actually sure.


    But he realized at this moment that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had already known about the secret he was hiding.


    Yang Xiaojin stood next to Ren Xiaosu and looked at Xu Jinyuan while saying, ¡°You guys deliberately scratched away the logos on your motorcycles, didn¡¯t you? That wasn¡¯t exactly clever, was it?¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s not enough to suggest anything,¡± said Xu Jinyuan, pursing his lips.


    ¡°Ever since y¡¯all arrived, there haven¡¯t been any banditsing here from the north.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Someone in the north must¡¯ve already unified all the bandits at Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guan, right?¡±


    Xu Jinyuan said stubbornly, ¡°Just because of that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°We were bluffing.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan was dumbfounded. They were bluffing?


    ¡°Actually, we¡¯ve been watching you for some time.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°But it¡¯s only now that we¡¯ve fully confirmed your identity.¡±


    ¡°Then how are you gonna punish me?¡± Xu Jinyuan said in a low voice.


    The punishments dished out to bandit traitors had always been very cruel. They wouldn¡¯t show any mercy.


    Xu Jinyuan knew that if it were any other bandit leader, this would probably mean the end for him. But deep down, he felt that Ren Xiaosu was different!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly put out a hand to him and said, ¡°Wee to the team.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan heaved a sigh of relief. The young man in front of him was indeed different from the other bandit leaders. He said briefly, ¡°We originally agreed to meet tonight toe up with an attack n for tomorrow night. But one of the eleven guys I brought here ran away, so my previous gang will definitely know that I¡¯ve leaked their ns.¡±


    ¡°So there¡¯s a possibility that they might attack in advance.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°How many bandits does the gang to the north have? How many of them will be joining the attack?¡±


    ¡°They originally had 1,200 people, but it should have increased recently.¡± Xu Jinyuan said, ¡°But not all of them wille here because they still have to fight with two other gangs in the north. If they alle here together, the other bandit gangs will definitely take advantage of the situation. ording to the n that we had, 600 bandits will be showing up here.¡±


    In response, even Ren Xiaosu, who was already mentally prepared, gasped. The bandits in the valley had even fucking joined forces? How did they end up with so many people?!


    Although not all of them would turn up for the attack, 600 bandits could still theoretically crush their refugee settlement.


    Of course, that was only in theory.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Which organization is the leader of the northern bandits from?¡±


    Xu Jinyuan was taken aback for a moment. ¡°I think he used to be from the Qing Consortium, but he has nothing to do with them now. Someone said that he escaped from Stronghold 113 and knows Xu Xianchu of Stronghold 178 as well. However, I¡¯ve never seen him contact Xu Xianchu before, so maybe he only met him a couple times? Eh, don¡¯t you know Master Xu too? Maybe you know him as well?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Their leader escaped from Stronghold 113 and even knew Xu Xianchu? Could this be someone he knew? ¡°What¡¯s his name?¡±


    ¡°Wang Congyang!¡±


    ¡°Damn...¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised. He was not the only one who knew this man. Yang Xiaojin knew him as well.


    Yang Xiaojin thought back and said, ¡°Was he that man who was supposed to go with us on the expedition to the Jing Mountains?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s him.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. Enemies were always bound to meet. If Xu Jinyuan hadn¡¯t mentioned the name, Ren Xiaosu would have forgotten about this person.


    Wang Congyang was a junior officer in the private army of Stronghold 113, and he was simrly ostracized by the organization like Xu Xianchu was. Wang Congyang had, in fact, worked together with Xu Xianchu, but they weren¡¯t friends.


    Wang Congyang never stopped pursuing Ren Xiaosu after Ren Xiaosu had killed his rtive, and importantly, Wang Congyang was a meticulous person. Even though Ren Xiaosu was very good at acting like he wasn¡¯t the one who killed the man, he still got targeted by Wang Congyang.


    After that, Yan Liuyuan told Ren Xiaosu that even after he had set off to the Jing Mountains, Wang Congyang still persisted and even led a team to try to arrest him. If it weren¡¯t for Zhang Jinglin, Yan Liuyuan and the others would probably have been put in danger.


    The cause of this grudge was because Ren Xiaosu had killed someone. However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any regrets about doing it. Since he had already killed that man, so be it.


    However, he never expected Wang Congyang would survive the copse of Stronghold 113. Furthermore, he even fled north and became a bandit boss?


    And he turned out to be a supernatural being too!


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°How¡¯s his rtionship with Xu Xianchu?¡±


    ¡°I remember Xu Xianchu saying that he didn¡¯t have any friends in Stronghold 113.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°That eliminates the possibility that he and Wang Congyang are friends. Old Xu wouldn¡¯t lie to me about that.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s expressions and realized they really knew Xu Xianchu.


    At the beginning, he thought Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin might have been lying.


    ¡°Have you seen him use his superpower before?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Nope.¡± Xu Jinyuan shook his head. ¡°When we were fighting the other bandits, he would usually just stand behind and not need to do anything.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°No wonder y¡¯all are so different from the other bandits. Wang Congyang used to be an army officer, so it¡¯s no surprise that he can manage a gang of bandits as well.¡±


    ¡°Boss, what should we do?¡± Xu Jinyuan asked, ¡°Should we take refuge in the valley until the dust settles?¡±


    ¡°Nah.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°He¡¯s only one supernatural being. There¡¯s two of us here, so there¡¯s nothing to be afraid of.¡±


    Not only was he not afraid, but Ren Xiaosu even wanted to seek out Wang Congyang so he could replicate his power.


    Remember, he still had a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll in his hands. It was not worth learning from Yang Xiaojin since the conjured sniper rifle was only going to be useful in the hands of a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user. Even if he learned her power, he could only use it as an artillery weapon at most. So it would be great if Wang Congyang¡¯s superpower turned out to be quite useful.


    Ren Xiaosu walked towards the brick kiln and shouted to Jin Lan, ¡°Hurry up! Have some people push the bricks to the north side! Bandits areing to attack us! Build the defenses! The enemy might arrive tonight!¡±


    It might be a little toote to build the defenses now, but they had to win this battle no matter what!


    Jin Lan and the others had been holding it in for a long time. When they heard they were going to fight, their eyes lit up. ¡°Boss, how are we going to fight this battle?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Fight however you like.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin grinned as she looked at Ren Xiaosu from behind. She felt this could be the most interesting stretch in the 18 years of her life.


    Yang Xiaojin turned around and walked towards the wilderness. She did not need to stay here. A sniper was a lone wolf that transcended the confines of the wastnd. A lone wolf should do what a lone wolf did best.


    The wastnd was vast and boundless. Yang Xiaojin walked into the distance, stepping on the deste ground underfoot as the turbulent waters of the river flowed next to her.


    She would have to kill a lot of people tonight, but this was the first time she was going to pull the trigger to protect someone.


    What a night to look forward to!

 Chapter 355 - Thunder

    <h4>Chapter 355 Thunder</h4>


    When night fell, Jin Lan and the others hid behind the simple defensive fortifications, holding two buns of cornbread with them. The cornbread was made by the refugees to help them sate their hunger.


    Ren Xiaosu had already informed them that the bandits from the north might not being tonight, but everyone should still be prepared for an attack nheless. For the first half of the night, half the group would sleep before taking over the watch for the rest of the night. If there were really signs of the enemy, everyone would have to respond quickly and get straight into battle.


    When Ren Xiaosu was done giving them orders, he could not find Yang Xiaojin. ¡°Have you all seen... ahem, have y¡¯all seen your bossdy?¡±


    ¡°Nope,¡± Jin Lan replied.


    ¡°I saw her heading into the wilderne Thunderss earlier,¡± Xu Jinyuan answered.


    Ren Xiaosu grunted in acknowledgment. It looked like Yang Xiaojin had already gone to familiarize herself with the terrain.


    An outstanding sniper would never remain at only one vantage point on a real battlefield. If their position were discovered, they would have to leave that spot as quickly as possible. Otherwise, they would get shot dead by the approaching enemy. Hence, a sniper¡¯sbat role was a proactive one.


    Fortunately, Xu Jinyuan said there were no snipers among the bandits to the north. This would greatly reduce the danger to Yang Xiaojin.


    Moreover, Yang Xiaojin had her advantage as well.


    Sniper rifles could be very heavy. If a sniper used a high-caliber rifle, the rifle would be a heavy burden while they were operating


    Some sniper rifles could even weigh up to 20.9 kilograms. This was equivalent to carrying two bags of rice and running wildly in the wilderness. Even an adult man would find that difficult to bear.


    But Yang Xiaojin was different. When she needed to retreat, she could just put away her sniper rifle and move around freely. Moreover, supernatural beings were physically stronger, and their movements were also swift.


    A supernatural being who was also an elite sniper was definitely the most terrifying existence on a battlefield.


    After eating two pieces of cornbread, Ren Xiaosu hunkered down behind the defensive fortifications and closed his eyes to get some rest. Honestly, he also thought it would be more suitable for him to fight out in the wilderness.


    But before the bandits here experienced what a real battle was really like, they would still be just a mob. If there were no one to maintain their morale, more than half of these people would probably run away before the battle even began.


    Jin Lan went up to Ren Xiaosu and asked softly, ¡°Boss, if Boss Lady¡¯s superpower is to pull a sniper rifle out of thin air, what¡¯s yours?¡±


    Until today, Ren Xiaosu had purely relied on brute strength to deal with them without resorting to using his superpowers. So Jin Lan and the others were all guessing what Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power was.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the bandits. ¡°When those northern bandits arrive, you¡¯ll find out. Bring that box of grenades over and put it next to me.¡±


    The bandits around him were stunned. Weren¡¯t they just talking about superpowers? Why did he suddenly mention the grenades? Could his power be rted to grenades?


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°They¡¯re here! Prepare for battle! The enemy¡¯sing from the northwest, not the north!¡±


    Xu Jinyuan looked into the wilderness and then asked, ¡°Boss, where are they?¡±


    The wilderness in front of them was clearly pitch ck, so where was the enemy supposed to being from? They did not know how Ren Xiaosu could have discovered them.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu had sent out his shadow clone earlier tonight. Since they did not have any scouts, Ren Xiaosu had to use it to act as one. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu knew they had arrived when his shadow clone encountered the enemy. However, he did not expose his shadow clone and waited for the enemy to get closer.


    Then Xu Jinyuan watched Ren Xiaosu grab a grenade with his right hand and remove the pin before reaching his hand into a shadow.


    The shadow was like a doorway that seemingly allowed him to put his hand into another dimension.


    Jin Lan, Xu Jinyuan, and the others were watching this sight in a daze. They did not understand what Ren Xiaosu was doing.


    The bandits in the distance were quietly advancing. In order to hide their movements, they even took a detour to change their route, then abandoned their motorcycles to advance on foot.


    As they walked in the dark, the bandit farthest forward suddenly saw a hand extend out of thin air within the darkness and throw a grenade at his feet.


    The bandit was stunned. By the time he realized what was going on, he only had time to shout, ¡°Fuck!¡±


    Right after, Xu Jinyuan and the others heard a grenade explode nearly a kilometer away.


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. What kind of power was that? Throwing a grenade remotely?!


    They were not the only ones shocked; even their enemies were shocked! The gang of bandits who were advancing towards the settlement did not understand what was going on. They thought they might have stepped on and mine!


    But how could there bend mines in the valley?!


    The farthest a grenadier could throw a grenade was only about a 100 meters or so. For example, the best record in the Yang Consortium¡¯s army for grenade tossing was only 102 meters.


    Yet Ren Xiaosu had thrown a grenade from a kilometer away?


    Surely an imprable fortress couldn¡¯t exist in the face of such power, right? But why did this power feel really strange?


    At this moment, the enemy in the distance was still unsure of who was attacking them, and neither could they see where the attack hade from. There wasn¡¯t even an opponent they could fight back against.


    Suddenly, the boom of a sniper rifle thundered through the sky. It was just like the rumbling of arge overcast cloud.


    The sound of that high-caliber sniper rifle could even be heard from several kilometers away!


    The grenade Ren Xiaosu threw had pointed Yang Xiaojin in the direction of the enemy, and the explosion gave her illumination!


    Xu Jinyuan and the others understood that to be their bossdy making her move, but they still could not figure out where Yang Xiaojin was at this moment


    Jin Lan and the others roared excitedly as everyone clutched their automatic rifles. However, after waiting for a long time, there were still no signs of their enemies charging.


    In the minds of Jin Lan and the others, the battle should y out with them waiting for the enemy to arrive at their doorstep. When that happened, everyone would mow them down with their rifles like they were fire-breathing dragons, and there would be blood sttering everywhere.


    After the enemy copsed, Jin Lan could rally everyone to chase after them.


    The fantasy alone was already beyond exciting!


    In the end, the boom of the sniper rifle kept ringing out, and the grenades kept exploding. Meanwhile, they were like cheerleaders. After the battle had gone on for some time, they still did not see any signs of their enemies.


    As Ren Xiaosu threw the grenades, he used his shadow clone to observe from the shadows. However, he found it a little strange that the number of bandits here did not seem quite right.


    Weren¡¯t there supposed to be over 600 people? Why were there only about 200 or so of them?


    ¡®Shit!¡¯ Ren Xiaosu whisper-shouted to Zhang Yiheng, ¡°Be careful of the northeast. The enemy might have split into two groups!¡±


    Zhang Yiheng and the others immediately turned to look northeast. There were a series of gullies cutting across the middle of the valley over there. If the enemy came from that direction, they could hide in the gullies and advance on them, making it difficult to guard.


    As Ren Xiaosu spoke, he sent his shadow clone into the battlefield. The shadow clone was rapidly taking lives in the darkness of the night with the ck saber in hand. Ren Xiaosu had to quickly kill off the enemies in this direction, as the rest of them who were heading here from the other direction were probably going to arrive soon!

 Chapter 356 - Steam Locomotive

    <h4><strong>Chapter 356</strong> Steam Lotive</h4>


    Wang Congyang was someone who was much more difficult to deal with than Ren Xiaosu had imagined


    Back at the town, Ren Xiaosu had concealed almost every detail wlessly, but Wang Congyang stilltched hard onto him.


    Ren Xiaosu and the others who had thought the northwest attack would be the main battlefield were now realizing they had anticipated it wrong.


    When his shadow clone encountered these bandits, Ren Xiaosu immediately determined they had at least a few hundred people in the group. As such, he believed they were Wang Congyang¡¯s main force.


    However, Wang Congyang was even more ruthless. He actually used these 200 people as cannon fodder to attract the firepower of the enemy. Wang Congyang clearly knew these 200 people would die here, but he did not care!


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®No wonder that guy gained a foothold in the valley. Not only does he use his superpower, but he also has a cunning and vicious mind.¡¯


    At this moment, the firing of the sniper rifle suddenly stopped before the bandits in the northwest were all dead. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that Yang Xiaojin had also noticed that something was amiss and was quickly shifting her position in search of a newmanding point for her firepower suppression.


    Without needing tomunicate in words, Yang Xiaojin believed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone would finish off the remnants of the defeated bandits in the northwest.


    Seeing that more than half of the 200 bandits in the northwest had already died, the remaining ones were so scared their hearts nearly exploded. This unknown shadow that hade out of nowhere could neither be driven away nor killed.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu knew that if Wang Congyang¡¯s main forces were reallying from a different direction, his vige couldn¡¯t defeat them in a direct confrontation. Xu Jinyuan had said that Wang Congyang had heavy firepower on his side that included RPGs as well!


    He had to think of another way! He had to avoid a direct confrontation at their settlement.


    As for Jin Lan and the others, Ren Xiaosu could only bet on Yang Xiaojin arriving in time to support them.


    Jin Lan looked northeast into the darkness and said, ¡°There¡¯s a lot of gullies over there. If the enemies are hiding in them, I¡¯m afraid that Boss Lady¡¯s sniper rifle won¡¯t be effective.¡±


    ¡°Can they really be so familiar with the terrain?¡± Zhang Yiheng asked, ¡°If they haven¡¯t been here before, they¡¯ll probably lose their way in the gullies, right?¡±


    Xu Jinyuan sighed and said, ¡°This is all my fault. I should¡¯ve persuaded that brother to stay behind. He must have revealed our ns and informed the gang of bandits that we have a sniper. That¡¯s why their main forces purposely chose to approach from where the sniper can¡¯t spot them. Besides, he worked here for more than twenty days. He¡¯s surely familiarized himself with the area already. He always went out to explore the terrain at night.¡±


    Jin Lan was silent for a moment. ¡°You weren¡¯t in the wrong either. We can only say that everyone makes their own choices, so there¡¯s no need to feel guilty over it. As the saying goes, ¡®while the general is on horseback, do as you wish.¡¯¡±


    ¡°Haha.¡± Next to him, Zhang Yiheng slotted bullets into a magazine. ¡°Jin Lan, I didn¡¯t know you were a cultured person?¡±


    Jin Lan said modestly, ¡°I did attend a few years of school.¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t just rely on Boss Lady¡¯s sniping to hold them off. We¡¯re grown-ass men! We¡¯re holding guns in our hands, and we can kill our enemies too!¡± Zhang Yiheng said heroically, ¡°Weren¡¯t you all disappointed that our enemies could not charge at us just now? We¡¯re going to be charging at them instead very soon! Don¡¯t be a coward when the timees.¡±


    But right at this moment, metallic sounds nged in the darkness.


    The strange metallic sounds were like dagger-axes striking against each other, but it also sounded like someone was striking iron with a hammer.


    This sound came abruptly, yet it sounded extremely powerful.


    Suddenly, a fog started spreading. It felt like a gigantic creature was charging at them from the darkness.


    Then, clickety-cking could be heard. It grew louder in the nothingness and slowly increased in rhythm!


    Right after that, a ck steam lotive sped through the fog, ¡°shattering¡± it!


    ¡°Fuck!¡± Jin Lan roared angrily, ¡°Where the hell did this traine from!¡±


    The consortiums had trains as well, but they were limited to a very small number of ces and were used for transporting minerals and supplies. It was not that the consortiums could not afford to build a railway system, but that earthquakes in the Northwest and Southwest happened far too frequently. As a result, it would be extremely expensive to maintain the system. Sometimes, newly built railroad tracks would get damaged by the next day.


    How could anything even withstand earthquakes that could shatter two strongholds?


    However, Jin Lan and the others did know of the existence of trains. Jin Lan had also seen blurry pictures of them before in the schoolbooks.


    It was just that he could not figure out where this train hade from.


    The metallic nging was made by the train as it moved forward on a metal railroad track that materialized segment by segment below it. After the rails materialized, they would automatically pave themselves at the bottom of the ck lotive. As the train moved forward, the tracks behind would disappear while fresh tracks reappeared in front of it.


    The train had three carriages attached to the forward engine. Jin Lan instinctively fired at the lotive but could only send some sparks flying as the bullets hit the train!


    ¡°Dodge!¡± Jin Lan roared.


    But the train kept charging at their simple fortifications in an attempt topletely crush their defenses.


    Instead of the enemy showing up, they were greeted by a giant steel monster!


    The train was zooming. Before Jin Lan and the others could dodge, the train had already crashed into a short brick wall. The brick walls crumbled into pieces like tofu.


    This was the power of a supernatural being. In the era of the ¡°Rise of Gods,¡± the power of supernatural beings was getting more and more powerful. Who knew what kind of shocking things could happen in the future!


    As many of the bandits could not avoid it in time, they died from the impact of the cold and unfeeling train. After the train brushed past Jin Lan and the others who managed to escape unscathed, they could only watch helplessly as the steam lotive crashed into the vige where the refugees were located. Over there were the mud houses, the newly built brick houses, and also their fellow vigers who had cooked for them.


    Jin Lan watched this happen in a daze. He saw the new houses turn into a heap of ruins before his very eyes while the refugees inside were pinned under the bricks.


    But the steam lotive that seemed to havee from Hell remainedpletely undamaged.


    Gunshots rang out, but it wasn¡¯t Jin Lan and the others who had fired their weapons.


    Under the cover of the steam lotive, the bandits to the northeast finally broke out of the gullies and charged at Jin Lan¡¯s group!


    One of Jin Lan¡¯s squad mates next to him was shot, and blood started flowing out of his wound.


    It was over! Everything seemed to be finished! They had worked hard to make the bricks and build the houses, but they ended up being destroyed so easily by the enemy.


    They had been greeting each other as brothers all these days, but their brothers ended up dying here by their sides.


    Xu Jinyuan hid behind a heap of broken bricks and said in a daze, ¡°Who saw Boss?¡±


    They only just realized that Ren Xiaosu had disappeared at some point!


    ¡°Where¡¯s Boss


    ¡°Who saw where the boss went?¡±


    Behind the trembling voices that were asking this, the loneliness that stemmed from the fear of being abandoned and left behind started spreading. ¡°Did Boss abandon us and run away?¡±


    Gunfire intensified. The enemy was getting closer and closer.


    Some of the bandits started fleeing into the wilderness behind them.


    Although everyone felt a sense of belonging to this ce, no one would risk their lives for it.


    That wonderful hope ultimately could not win against their survival instincts.


    Although some of them left, there were also others who remained behind.


    Zhang Yiheng suddenly spat out, ¡°I don¡¯t believe that he would abandon us and run away. He¡¯s gotta have something more important to handle.¡±


    ¡°Then what should we do?¡± one of the bandits asked.


    ¡°Fucking kill them!¡± Zhang Yiheng roared, ¡°Aren¡¯t we also holding guns? They actually destroyed the houses that I put in so much effort to build! Fire at them! Let¡¯s get revenge for the houses and our brothers!¡±

 Chapter 357 - I’ve surrounded all of you

    <h4>Chapter 357 I¡¯ve surrounded all of you</h4>


    There were only two choices in despair. One was to die silently while the other was to find strength in silence.


    If it were twenty days ago, Zhang Yiheng would probably have run away by now, and so would have Jin Lan. But they had changed by today.


    Perhaps the change in them wasn¡¯t very big, but it was enough to make them willing to pick up their guns and fight for their survival.


    Even Ren Xiaosu would probably not have expected this group of bandits to push themselves and counterattack in such a desperate situation!


    When they started to fight back through their broken defensive line, the enemy immediately slowed and they started taking casualties.


    Bullets on the battlefield did not discern between friend from foe. The intelligence of humans was vividly portrayed in war, and the appearance of firearms and explosives brought about a great transformation in the history of human warfare.


    Zhang Yiheng hid behind copsed bricks and fired at the enemy with his automatic rifle. This band of bandits who had no strategy in ce were actually holding off the enemy.


    However, someone wasmanding the enemy forces from the rear. After a brief adjustment, they got used to the firing patterns employed by Zhang Yiheng¡¯s squad.


    Some of them silently crawled on the ground and advanced. This way, they could reduce the chances of being hit by bullets. The others would continue to charge forward until Zhang Yiheng¡¯s group revealed themselves and fired at them. When they did that, the enemy bandits who were crawling on the ground would fire in short spurts to cover their fellow bandits.


    Slowly, Zhang Yiheng and the others were getting suppressed by the enemy¡¯s tactics again.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s training had only made them united and nted seeds of faith in their minds. The training was not a magical solution, so it could not make this group of bandits who did not even possess any military knowledge be braver.


    They were being suppressed by theck of experience. It was not something they could be trained on in a short time. Wang Congyang had fought many tough battles with his bandit gang, and they had even undergone short-term military training with him.


    Zhang Yiheng panted and said, ¡°We can¡¯t beat them. It looks like we¡¯re going to die here!¡±


    ¡°What should we do then?¡± Jin Lan suddenlyughed. It was clearly a hopeless situation, but he was stillughing. ¡°Why don¡¯t we surrender?¡±


    Zhang Yiheng spat, ¡°If you wanna surrender, go ahead. No wonder there were only 20 bandits in your gang, and y¡¯all were even leading such shitty lives! So it was because you¡¯re a leader with no balls!¡±


    Jin Lan was infuriated. ¡°I was only fucking kidding! Don¡¯t you fucking criticize me!¡±


    Then Jin Lan got up and started attacking. The idiot managed to make the enemy retreat for a moment when he did that.


    But no matter how hard they tried, they were still losing


    ¡°Hey, where did Boss and Boss Lady go?¡± Zhang Yiheng sighed and said, ¡°If they don¡¯te back soon, we¡¯re really gonna die here.¡±


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s slender figure was running at full speed in the wilderness. The gullies on the ground were no obstacle to her.


    She was getting closer to the gunshots in the northeast. As she ran, she looked for gunfire that lit up the night in front of her.


    Yang Xiaojin was panting heavily. Even she would have to try her best to adjust her breathing when she was running with all her might.


    She could have had a more rxed role on the battlefield, but she knew there wasn¡¯t enough time.


    Yang Xiaojin knew there were people waiting for her!


    A secondter, Yang Xiaojin stopped on a dime in front of a mound and conjured her sniper rifle. She took only an instant.


    Deep breath.


    She lowered her heart rate quickly and illogically against her body¡¯s homeostatic responses. Following, her dynamic visual acuity seemingly froze time from her perspective.


    At this moment, all the anger in her transformed into an arrow from the gods. Yang Xiaojin slowly exhaled the air in her lungs and pulled the trigger ording to the rhythm of her breathing.


    With a loud bang, the sound of the sniper rifle spread across the battlefield again.


    The huge bullet traveled for nearly a 1,000 meters and arrived at the center of the battlefield after what felt like a long passage of time.


    The bullet prated the chest of a bandit who was making an attack. However, it did not stop moving even after that. It continued through and prated a second bandit behind before disappearing into the night.


    The thin gray fog that had first appeared when the steam lotive arrived suddenly turned into a bloody mist. The sprays of blood that bloomed formed beautiful shapes in the air.


    When Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng heard the sound of the sniper rifle, their hearts skipped a beat. The long-awaited gunshots had finally returned!


    They quietly poked their heads out and discovered that the enemy who had readjusted the rhythm of their attack was now getting torn apart one by one by the shots!


    ¡°Boss Lady is so brutal.¡± Jin Lan gasped in amazement. From their vantage point, they could see the enemies were sent flying one after another by the powerful force of the bullets.


    The sprays of blood were like flowers blooming in the dark of night.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was lying prone on a mound. Only by doing so could she stabilize her body against the high frequency of her shots.


    The formerly cap-wearing girl was not bothered by how dirty the ground was. She only cared if her bullets could reach the other side of the riverbank and bring death to the enemy.


    This was what a sniper was. She would only feel safe when her body was in contact with the ground.


    It was only at this moment that thoughts of being encaged by her n connections and the mystery of her parents¡¯ death no longer lingered on her mind. In this moment, she was just a sniper.


    A sniper who could dominate the wilderness battlefield!


    Amid the rhythmic bangs of the sniper rifle, Zhang Yiheng acted like he was on steroids. ¡°Everyone, attack them without mercy! Fucking kill them!¡±


    Silent, Xu Jinyuan fired as he felt his blood boiling. He could even feel himself getting goosebumps as he listened to the sniper rifle consistently ring out.


    This was a fight he had never experienced before. Xu Jinyuan never thought a small battle like this could be so exciting.


    Only Jin Lan was asking doubtfully, ¡°Boss Lady is here, but where¡¯s Boss? Why haven¡¯t we seen him yet?¡±


    ¡°I might not know where Boss is,¡± Zhang Yihengughed maniacally while saying, ¡°but I know that he definitely ain¡¯t gonna miss his chance to end this battle!¡±


    Right then, gunshots suddenly rang out from behind enemy lines. Zhang Yiheng instantly reacted. ¡°Boss is behind the enemy!¡±


    ¡°Holy fuck...¡± Jin Lan did not know what to say. He had thought Yang Xiaojin was very aggressive, but it turned out that Ren Xiao was even more ferocious than her. He actually ran to the rear of the enemy all by himself? Was he trying to cut off the enemy¡¯s retreat?


    Xu Jinyuan was also a little confused. ¡°Since Boss and Boss Lady are both so fierce, who do you think wears the pants at home?¡±


    Someone scolded him with a chuckle, ¡°Hey, we¡¯re fighting right now! Stop shooting the shit!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was rapidly approaching the back lines of the enemy from the nk. He was dashing in an arced path. Due to the angle of his approach, he was leaning close to the ground like he was a speeding motorcycle making a turn.


    The shots fired by the enemy in their attempt to stop him only sent bullets into the dirt. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had already detoured and arrived at the rear of the enemy¡¯s formation!


    ¡°I¡¯ve surrounded all of you!¡±

 Chapter 358 - Scene of the accident

    <h4>Chapter 358 Scene of the ident</h4>


    Due to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s appearance in the rear, the enemy had no choice but to divert arge number of their men to deal with him. That suddenly relieved the pressure on Jin Lan¡¯s group, and it was something they could clearly feel.


    However, while the enemy thought Ren Xiaosu would force his way into their formation, they were surprised by how Ren Xiaosu remained just outside of their effective attack radius throughout, even though he had rushed towards them aggressively. He was kiting them, pulling them in and then letting go.


    Ren Xiaosu was not holding back. He had activated the nanomachines and was crazily cycling them in his body to prevent himself from getting shot. Even if he did get hit, he could immediately use the nanomachines to stop the bullet from causing further damage.


    This was a very wise move. After all, Ren Xiaosu was just a normal human being, so how could he possibly hold up against a few hundred people shooting at him? If he even tried to get close to them, the enemies would quickly release a barrage of gunfire on him. Even a mosquito might get killed by the crossfire!


    But the enemy was confused. Where did your initial bravery go? Didn¡¯t you heroically dere you had all of us surrounded?


    Fucking attack us then!


    ¡°He¡¯s ying for time!¡± someone shouted.


    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Someone said, ¡°This kid has been distracting all this time so that we can¡¯t concentrate on our attack at the front. But he¡¯s not tryna get close. He¡¯s only tryna attract our firepower in a bid to stall for time.¡±


    ¡°But what¡¯s he waiting for?¡± a bandit wondered.


    Right at this moment, a shadow suddenly appeared on the horizon a distance away. The shadow was able to leap over ten meters in a single bound. It was extremely terrifying!


    The heavy and hurried footsteps were getting closer and closer. This was the reinforcement Ren Xiaosu had been trying to buy time for! It hade from afar!


    When some of the bandits saw the shadow approaching, they fired at it. However, the shadow did not dodge or evade and took all of the gunfire head on!


    ¡°What is this thing?¡± One of the bandits eximed, ¡°Why isn¡¯t it afraid of bullets!¡±


    ¡°Oh shit, run!¡±


    But it was toote to escape now!


    The shadow that was just like a wild bull collided with the crowd in an instant. The powerful inertia struck the bandits like a cannonball, sending a row of them flying into the air like toys and dolls thrown by a truck in a crash.


    The bandit who had been hit directly felt all his bones shattering before he was sent flying into the air uncontrobly.


    The bandits were sent flying into the air one after another like they were trapezists of a circus. However, they were the worst trapezists ever in history.


    The bandits no longer had the presence of mind to fire their weapons. When a strength that was strong enough to crush them appeared, these bandits plunged into panic!


    The strange shadow¡¯s ability at ughtering its enemy was too strong. They could not even fight back!


    Away from the battlefield, Ren Xiaosu was controlling his shadow clone to charge recklessly through the crowd as he looked for Wang Congyang¡¯s presence.


    Due to the shadow clone continuously getting shot, Ren Xiaosu was constantly enduring the pain that was passed on from his shadow clone to him.


    He was sweating profusely from his head and on his back due to the pain he had to endure. Ren Xiaosu was still looking for Wang Congyang. To catch a thief, he first had to first catch the king!


    Ren Xiaosu kept moving at high speeds. Stray bullets on the battlefield were flying around everywhere and were impossible to defend against. He had used the nanomachines to shield himself from the bullets twice already. When the bullets hit him, they only managed to scrape his skin; they could not prate past the defensive structure formed by the nanomachines.


    But even after searching for a long time, he still could not see any signs of Wang Congyang!


    Jin Lan, who was farthest in front on the battlefield, discovered that the enemy was beginning to panic. The enemies who were not beingmanded had be flustered when a powerful force appeared behind them.


    With Yang Xiaojin¡¯s suppressive fire covering them, Zhang Yiheng and the other bandits even dared to charge from behind the broken defensive line tounch a counterattack. And the bewildered enemies started to fall.


    But even now, Ren Xiaosu still did not see Wang Congyang!


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Could it be that Wang Congyang wasn¡¯t here? That couldn¡¯t be right! The train that appeared out of nowhere was clearly Wang Congyang¡¯s doing!


    Actually, when he first saw the steam lotive, one of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s early doubts was answered. In the earlier days, there were always rumors spreading among the refugees in Stronghold 113¡¯s town that someone had seen a moving train materializing from nothingness out in the wilderness. That was the power of a supernatural being.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu was still very envious. This was the earliest rumor being talked about in town regarding supernatural beings. It went on for so long that Ren Xiaosu even got sick of hearing it. Many people said the refugee must have been feeling sick and was only seeing things in his trance.


    That train never appeared a second time.


    Ren Xiaosu used to wonder about whether there were other supernatural beings in Stronghold 113. But no one had ever seen them before.


    Now that he thought about it, the train that appeared in the wilderness back then must have been Wang Congyang testing his power, right?


    So the rumors were true. Judging by the time Wang Congyang first became a supernatural being, he was most likely one of the earliest people to do so!


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized Wang Congyang must have escaped when he saw that the situation was hopeless.


    Ren Xiaosu looked towards the valley in the north, in the hopes that he might spot Wang Congyang fleeing through the gullies. The ravines would serve as Wang Congyang¡¯s shield.


    Ren Xiaosu stopped searching for him here and started running north, trying his luck. If his judgment were right, he might still be in time to catch that guy!


    After running for just two kilometers, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a figure crawling out of a gully in the distance. They were about a kilometer away from each other.


    Ren Xiaosu confirmed that it was Wang Congyang and that he had indeed escaped ahead of time!


    The bandit gang this person had painstakingly built was about to break apart, but none of that seemed worth mentioning to him. When he saw the shadow clone arriving, he abandoned all of his burdens and fled by himself.


    That was because the moment Wang Congyang saw the shadow clone, he thought it was Xu Xianchu who had arrived!


    In Wang Congyang¡¯s opinion, if three supernatural beings-Ren Xiaosu, Xu Xianchu, and Yang Xiaojin fought him alone, he would definitely lose!


    The bandit who had escaped from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ce had told Wang Congyang that Ren Xiaosu was from Stronghold 178 and that he was also a good friend of Xu Xianchu.


    At that time, Wang Congyang knew that even though the description was probably an exaggeration, Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin were actually on very good terms.


    If Ren Xiaosu were really there to carry out a mission for Stronghold 178, then Wang Congyang probably couldn¡¯t gain a foothold in the valley.


    Even if he did not go looking for Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu woulde and look for him!


    Wang Congyang was unable to figure out what exactly the truth was. All he wanted was to take advantage of the fact that Ren Xiaosu was not ready yet and try to kill him in order to eliminate any chance of future trouble!


    But regardless of whether he seeded or not, he would have to leave the valley and head to the Central ins where it was arger world!


    Therefore, when Wang Congyang heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name get mentioned, he already had the thought to abandon the bandits under him. It would be impossible for him to bring them to the Central ins with him, nor did he think they were worthy.


    Ren Xiaosu pursued him from behind. He had thought he could catch up with Wang Congyang easily, but at this moment, the mysterious and strange ck steam lotive suddenly drove into the wilderness,pletely ignoring the rugged valley as though it were driving on t ground.

 Chapter 359 - Duplicating a superpower!

    <strong>Chapter 359 Duplicating a superpower!</strong>


    The steam lotive headed straight for Wang Congyang. When it reached his side, Wang Congyang grabbed a metal handle on the steam lotive. He stood outside on the edge of the carriage. Off they went towards the north.


    Wang Congyang heaved a sigh of relief. But at this moment, he turned around and was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu running at full speed behind the train!


    What the hell!


    Why was there someone following him?!


    When Wang Congyang was escaping, he did not notice that someone was following him. In fact, he did not think anyone would have noticed him.


    But the moment he turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu, he frowned.


    At this moment, the two of them were truly pitted against each other one-on-one in the true sense of the phrase. Wang Congyang wondered if he should control the train to turn around and kill Ren Xiaosu. As one of the earliest people to turn superhuman, his physical fitness would definitely be better than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s!


    However, he gave up on the idea after careful consideration.


    Although he was one of the earliest people to be a supernatural being, and his physical fitness was definitely one of the best as well, that did not mean that Ren Xiaosu would not be hiding killer moves.


    Wang Congyang was unwilling to take this risk.


    He held the train with one hand and calmly turned around to stare at Ren Xiaosu. It was as though he were trying to burn Ren Xiaosu¡¯s image into his mind.


    A strong gust of wind was blowing past him, making his clothes flutter nonstop.


    Wait a minute... Wang Congyang realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to be gaining on him...


    He suddenly felt like something was amiss and hurriedly used all of his power to drive the steam lotive faster in hopes of ditching Ren Xiaosupletely.


    During this time, Wang Congyang had been leading a very unhappy life. He had be the bandit leader very quickly after arriving here, and that should have been quite good.


    But before long, he came to realize that problems were deeply rooted here in the valley due to the influence of several organizations. So it seemed that even being a bandit was a really stressful job!


    When he wanted to kill Ren Xiaosu, he ended up losing all the bandits under him after Ren Xiaosu joined forces with Xu Xianchu.


    All he wanted now was to leave this ce, yet Ren Xiaosu continued chasing after him like a vengeful spirit.


    Wang Congyang took out his pistol and fired it at Ren Xiaosu. However, they were so far apart that Ren Xiaosu was not within his effective range.


    But Wang Congyang felt a burst of joy when he realized Ren Xiaosu was gradually slowing. He was probably running out of stamina! Should he take advantage now that Ren Xiaosu was exhausted and kill him? Forget it, never mind! What if he was just faking it!


    As expected, Wang Congyang decided to give up on killing him. When Ren Xiaosu saw that Wang Congyang did not take any action, he started chasing after him again.


    The two of them were constantly jockeying. When Ren Xiaosu sped up, Wang Congyang clenched his teeth and went faster too.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu was already cursing Wang Congyang in his head. There was a limit to his stamina.


    This steam lotive was traveling at about the speed of a normal train, and its maximum speed was about 120 kilometers per hour.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current Strength and Dexterity were roughly three times that of an ordinary person¡¯s. His top speed was only slightly more than a 100 kilometers per hour.


    But the stamina of humans was limited! That limit applied to Ren Xiaosu as well!


    Ren Xiaosu kept trying to trick Wang Congyang to turn back, but that bastard was simply too smart and cautious. He wasn¡¯t taking the bait.


    ¡°Forget it, I¡¯m not gonna chase anymore!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was panting heavily as he prepared to stop chasing. He had wanted to activate City Crusher to chase after Wang Congyang, but the problem was that it would onlyst for 30 seconds. And the nanomachines were no longer operating at full capacity. What if he caught up to him but got beaten up instead?


    His shadow clone was still assisting Jin Lan and the others to kill their enemies at this moment. Without his shadow clone, who knew how many more people would die back there!


    So Ren Xiaosu decided to give up the chase. There would still be many more chances in the future.


    However, he suddenly remembered he still needed to do something!


    Ren Xiaosu said to the pce in his mind, ¡°Use the Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Currently out of effective range.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What¡¯s the effective range?¡±


    ¡°Five hundred meters.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the distance between him and Wang Congyang, then decisively activated City Crusher to chase after him. When Wang Congyang saw this, he nearly died of fright. How could Ren Xiaosu be so fast?!


    But before he could think of a way to handle him, he saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly turn around and run off!


    Wang Congyang got farther away as he rode on the steam lotive. He still could not figure out what Ren Xiaosu was up to! Ren Xiaosu clearly had the strength to catch up to him, so why didn¡¯t he continue pursuing him?


    But he couldn¡¯t possibly know that Ren Xiaosu only had a 30-second limit for his power. Why would he not quickly run away after the 30 seconds were up? Would he rather get beaten up?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the pce saying in his mind, ¡°About to copy the target¡¯s master-level skill or superpower. If you do not have the corresponding advanced-level skill after copying a master-level skill, you will not be able to learn it.¡±


    ¡°Randomly copied target¡¯s superpower ¡®Steam Lotive.¡¯ Do you want to learn it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was ecstatic. ¡°Yes!¡±


    Earlier on, Ren Xiaosu was worried he would end up copying some garbage skill, but he did not expect he would directly duplicate the opponent¡¯s superpower!


    The sadness of his past skill duplication attempts had been swept away with this. That jumping rope skill, mahjong ying skill, deception skill, and so on, all of that bad luck seemed to have gone far away from him.


    But in an instant, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Could this be the result of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s wish for him? If that were really the case, Yan Liuyuan would probably have to suffer the bacsh soon, right? But what was the bacsh going to be? Would it be dangerous?


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu felt his joy retreating. He wanted to go back to check on Liuyuan.


    Perhaps he could find an opportunity to bring Yan Liuyuan and the others out here into the wilderness? But he did not know when Qing Zhen would mount a rescue for Luo Lan. Surely it wouldn¡¯t be too long from now, right?


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was sitting in the yard ying Fight the Landlord with Wang Fugui and the others. When he saw the lousy hand that he had been dealt, like missing a card toplete a straight and his high card being a king, he sank deep into thought.


    It wasn¡¯t just this hand that was bad! He had been very unlucky throughout the night!


    Seeing how Wang Fugui was winning every game, why did it seem like all of the luck had gone to Wang Fugui instead!


    ¡°He shouldn¡¯t have encountered anything particrly dangerous, right?¡± Yan Liuyuan muttered to himself.


    ¡°Ever since Bro¡¯s nanomachines enabled him to block bullets, I¡¯ve haven¡¯t experienced any serious bacshes. But if the bacsh is just me getting really bad hands, what sort of situation could Bro have encountered?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan had a look at the poker cards in his hand again and eximed, ¡°What the hell!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu had yet to realize that their powers wouldplement each other. If not for Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan would be gued by the bacsh of making wishes. And without Yan Liuyuan, Ren Xiaosu would probably not have been able to sessfully copy the Steam Lotive either.


    In the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu attempted to summon the strange train out. A ck fog immediately appeared out of nothing as a ck steam lotive materialized out of thin air.


    The nking of steel was especially pleasing to the ears in the wilderness. With a chugging sound, ck smoke billowed out from the chimney of the steam lotive. However, Ren Xiaosu was suddenly stunned by what he saw.


    He carefully counted the carriages behind the steam lotive. Wang Congyang¡¯s steam lotive only had four, so why did he have as many as sixteen?

 Chapter 360 - In a good mood today

    <h4>Chapter 360 In a good mood today</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu returned to the battlefield, he saw the corpses of his enemies left behind in the uneven valley. Soon after Wang Congyang fled, the fearsome bandits from the north were routed.


    Most of these bandits had already fled into the wilderness and gone missing. Meanwhile, Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were frantically thanking the shadow clone, ¡°Master Xu, I didn¡¯t expect you to show up and help us out personally. Thank you so much!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes kept twitching when he heard those thanks. He did not even gain a single gratitude token from it.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu wanted toy all his cards on the table. That was not Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone but his! But Ren Xiaosu eventually managed to hold back from doing so because he still had not thought of how to give Xu Xianchu an exnation yet.


    Ren Xiaosu said to the shadow clone, ¡°Old Xu, go back and report to Commander Zhang that we¡¯ve defeated arge bandit gang here in the valley.¡±


    There used to be threerge bandit gangs that were active in the valley, and now, one of them had been eliminated.


    The bandits who had escaped might go on to join the other bandit gangs, but this battle here was aplete victory.


    When Jin Lan heard that, he thought that Ren Xiaosu was getting Xu Xianchu to go back to report about their contributions.


    However, Ren Xiaosu coughed and said, ¡°I got Old Xu to return to Stronghold 178 to put in some good words for all of us. Themander might be happy when he hears what Old Xu has to say and immediately recruit y¡¯all to join Stronghold 178, so you should know what to do now, shouldn¡¯t you?¡±


    While Ren Xiaosu waited for everyone to thank him, he watched Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others started bowing to the shadow at a 90-degree angle and saying, ¡°Thank you, Master Xu!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. ¡®Are they fucking rebelling?!¡¯


    Yang Xiaojin walked over from the wilderness looking extremely exhausted. Tonight, she had made some significant contributions to the battle. If it weren¡¯t for her, Jin Lan and the others would be dead.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°How many of our people were lost or injured?¡±


    The excitement on Jin Lan¡¯s face immediately faded as he sighed and said, ¡°More than a 100 of our brothers have died. The houses we just built have been destroyed, while our fellow vigers have also died and been injured.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s treat our brothers¡¯ wounds first.¡± Ren Xiaosu took out ten bottles of ck medicine and handed them to Jin Lan. ¡°Take the bullets out of their wounds first. This is a secret remedy passed down through my family. You can apply it directly to the wound. One bottle is enough for five to six uses. Just make sure it isn¡¯t drunk.¡±


    It might be gratifying to win the battle, but what about the aftermath? The dead could not be resurrected.


    Zhang Yiheng stood in the devastated wastnd looking a little confused. The refugees in the distance were crying.


    More than half of the settlement¡¯s mud houses had been toppled by the steam lotive, while none of the brick houses remained standing. Even the ditches had given way and were now a total mess.


    It would be great if even half of the crops they nted could end up germinating.


    Zhang Yiheng slowly walked through the crowd. Some of his injured brothers were crying out in pain, while the ones who were OK stayed around tofort them.


    When he walked past a refugee, a child cried out at him, ¡°It¡¯s all your fault! Those bandits came here because of all y¡¯all!¡±


    But before Zhang Yiheng could speak, the mother pped her child. ¡°Don¡¯t you run your mouth!¡±


    The child¡¯s mother looked at Zhang Yiheng and said, ¡°I know that y¡¯all are good people, so I won¡¯t me you!¡±


    Zhang Yiheng was stunned and did not say anything


    Ren Xiaosu called out to him, ¡°You regretting it?¡±


    Zhang Yiheng was stunned again, then suddenly said, ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t feel that sad. After so many years, everyone knows what this world is really like. It¡¯s all toomon to see people dying. Even when my father passed away, I didn¡¯t cry.¡±


    ¡°Then what¡¯re you thinking about?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zhang Yiheng said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m just thinking, if we were stronger, could we have prevented this suffering?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him seriously and said, ¡°The houses that we built have all been destroyed.¡±


    Jin Lan, who was standing next to them, said, ¡°We can still rebuild them even though they¡¯ve been destroyed. I¡¯ve checked, and the brick kiln is fine!¡±


    ¡°Even if something had happened to the brick kiln, we could still build another one, two, or even three of them!¡± Zhang Yiheng suddenly said in a determined tone.


    Ren Xiaosu was looking at these bandits. Actually, there was nothing they were good at. Most of them did not even attend school and were illiterate. Even though they were bandits, they could not even hold a gun properly.


    But when he attacked the enemy from their rear just now, the bandits here did not break down. Right now, they were still harboring hopes in the ruins of the settlement.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized these bandits were probably still useless as of now. But starting from today, their fate was really going to be changed.


    On the same day, Jin Lan led everyone to carry the wounded back to the mud houses that were still intact. Some of the refugees also took the initiative to help take care of them.


    At first, they thought that it would be very difficult for the wounded to survive. That was because bacteria these days had be very scary. If anyone received a wound, 90% of them would get infected even in the early spring when the weather was still very cold.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wound had been infected after he got nipped by the sparrow.


    But they were shocked to discover the ck medicine given by Ren Xiaosu was really effective. As soon as it was applied to the wounds of the injured, they imed their injuries did not hurt anymore. Moreover, their wounds started healing the very next day. The medicine was extremely effective!


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu with more and more admiration.


    It was even more so when Jin Lan and the others talked about Ren Xiaosu going behind enemy lines to draw fire to himself. Everyone¡¯s eyes were shimmering in admiration when they heard that.


    To Jin Lan and everyone else, this was the respect Ren Xiaosu had earned through risking his life. They admired him in all sincerity.


    With the refugees helping to take care of the wounded, Jin Lan and the others had time to make y bricks again. They salvaged all the usable ck bricks from the ruins and restarted the brick kiln.


    Standing next to Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin asked him, ¡°Do you feel these people have more enthusiasm now? Their eyes are all filled with hope.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I can feel it.¡± Ren Xiaosu said emotionally, ¡°It¡¯s probably because there¡¯s no rebuilding without destruction. These people are undergoing aplete change and getting reborn.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be teaching them about firearms. Some of them should be suitable for sniper training. They¡¯re calm and can endure hardship,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    On this day, Jin Lan and the others would go looking for Yang Xiaojin on and off to ask her when they could start learning about guns and when she would select the candidates for sniper training.


    The battle had made them see their shorings. But most importantly, the powerful fire suppression Yang Xiaojin had disyed during the battle was terrifying.


    Although everyone knew that it was basically impossible for them to reach Yang Xiaojin¡¯s level, their current ambition was to be a sniper.


    As for how Ren Xiaosu had surrounded all their enemies without fear, that was too far of a goal even for them. Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others did not even dare to think about something like that.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°When the situation here has stabilized, I n to make a trip back to the stronghold and see if I can bring Liuyuan and the others here.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯ve decided that you want to settle down here?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. He suddenly asked, ¡°Have you decided yet?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was stunned for a moment. She slipped her hands into her pockets and walked off to the distance. ¡°I¡¯m in a good mood today.¡±

 Chapter 361 - We have a spy

    <h4>Chapter 361 We have a spy</h4>


    Post-battle rebuilding was a very tedious process, because the ruins would have to be cleared up first before the structures could be rebuilt. They had to experience pain before they could receive a new lease of life.


    Ren Xiaosu took the lead in burying their deadpanions. He initially wanted to erect a stele for each of them, butter, he realized some of the bandits did not even have names.


    If Ren Xiaosu had not established this settlement, these people would have been forgotten after their deaths.


    He took out a pen and a notepad from his storage space and handed them to Yang Xiaojin, saying, ¡°Make a record of those who are still alive. This will be our future roster.¡±


    A regr army should first have a roster. It meant that everyone¡¯s names would be recorded, and the people on it would be recognized.


    But when Yang Xiaojin started the recording process, she was put in a dilemma. The bandits did not report their real names to her. Instead, they gave their nicknames such as Rat, Crow, Mud Pit, Rotten Egg...


    Just by their names alone, you would know they were not respectable people!


    Yang Xiaojin said patiently, ¡°This roster is only for recording your real names. Besides, aren¡¯t your nicknames really...¡±


    Jin Lan chuckled and said, ¡°Boss Lady, you should allow them to use their nicknames. If you call them by their real names, they might not even respond. All of us are bandits, so we should be called by our nicknames.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment and said with a smile, ¡°Sure!¡±


    But at this moment, Xu Jinyuan, who was in charge of the clean-up crew, suddenly came up to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Boss, we found something in the ruins.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the thing Xu Jinyuan was holding. It turned out to be a satellite phone! Seeing that the satellite phone was already damaged, he asked Xu Jinyuan curiously, ¡°Where¡¯d ya find it?¡±


    ¡°It was hidden under the bed in the ruins of our brick house.¡± Xu Jinyuan said, ¡°There were twenty people sleeping in that house, and I remember that a bandit called Old Fox slept on that particr bedroll.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s Old Fox now?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Get him here, I want to question him.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡± Xu Jinyuan said, ¡°That¡¯s why I secretly came over to seek Boss¡¯s instructions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. The satellite phone was definitely not something bandits could own. The owner of this satellite phone must¡¯ve used it to report information to a consortium.


    He wondered which consortium this satellite phone was linked to.


    Was it the Qing Consortium? Or the Zong Consortium?


    Anything was possible.


    These two consortiums had been eyeing the valley for a long time now, so they might have nted quite a few spies.


    ¡°Don¡¯t breathe a word about it. If it doesn¡¯t belong to Brother Old Fox, his reputation will be tarnished after his death if this matter gets out.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°This satellite phone could also belong to somebody else.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu even suspected the phone could be Xu Jinyuan¡¯s. He had read in a detective novel back at Stronghold 88 that stated how more than 40% of the witnesses and discoverers of a homicide turned out to actually be the real murderer.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not bring up that doubt and let Xu Jinyuan continue working.


    Yang Xiaojin walked over and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid we can¡¯t stay here any longer.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°After we go back and get Yan Liuyuan and the others, we¡¯ll head northwest to look for a more secretive location to settle down again. Our activities here have likely been leaked. It¡¯s not so bad if it¡¯s the Qing Consortium, but if it¡¯s the Zong Consortium that nted their spies here, we won¡¯t be able to fend them off when their military attacks us here.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin agreed with him. She did not think it was wrong for Ren Xiaosu to be more cautious.


    The reason why the Zong Consortium had trouble fighting the bandits was because the bandits were always wandering around. If they settled down here, it would be extremely easy for the Zong Consortium to deal with them. So Ren Xiaosu wanted to head deeper into the mountains and find a new ce to reestablish the settlement.


    In the evening, Jin Lan went to look for Ren Xiaosu. But when he came up to him, he heard Ren Xiaosu whispering to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°The northern bandits have killed so many of our brothers, so I¡¯ve already contacted Old Xu and told him to lead his troops here next week. We¡¯ll settle the score with those northern bandits then!¡±


    Jin Lan was a loudmouth. Once he learned about this, everyone in the settlement would find out about it as well.


    Ren Xiaosu turned to Jin Lan. ¡°Are you looking for me for something?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± The dumbfounded Jin Lan came back to his senses and said, ¡°Our brothers wanted to ask you... uh, I forgot what their question was!¡±


    ¡°Then go and remember beforeing back here,¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped at him.


    After Jin Lan went back to the others, the news of Xu Xianchuing here with troops next week started spreading.


    The bandits were stunned when they heard this. Everyone was fervently discussing how Master Xu would definitely bring others from Stronghold 178 with him. In that case, they would all have to start putting on a good performance from tomorrow onwards so that they would not disgrace their boss, Ren Xiaosu!


    The days of the post-disaster rebuilding were very dull. It wasn¡¯t like people could always wallow in pain and sorrow. Everyone had to continue leading their lives.


    Jin Lan and the others were working harder than before as they were still thinking about the motorcycles.


    Three dayster, a figure left the settlement in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep.


    The settlement was not quiet, as the bandits snored loudly.


    When the person was about to leave, he suddenly turned around and had a look at the settlement. It was as though he had a reluctant look in his eyes. But after struggling for a minute, he still decided he was going to escape north. He was going to leave this ce and head north!


    But before he could even take two steps, that figure saw Ren Xiaosu waiting in the shadows and looking at him with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled, ¡°So it was you. What¡¯s your nickname? Rat?¡±


    The bandit named Rat immediately knelt down. ¡°I... I had no choice.¡±


    ¡°Where did youe from?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Rat replied softly, ¡°I was originally from the banditir at Mt. Dingyuan in the north. The bandit leader at Mt. Dingyuan sent me to Mt. Daban. Later on, I came here together with the bandits of Mt. Daban, but they also had someone supporting them from the shadows.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re pretty honest for telling me everything.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    Rat was getting a little anxious. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to leave either. But even if I stayed, I wouldn¡¯t survive when those people at Mt. Dingyuan started spreading the news that I¡¯m a spy.¡±


    This was the awkward situation that a spy had to go through. If the beginning was already a mistake, it would lead to the wrong ending. Rat had also been tempted in recent days to stay here and lead a good life, but how could he still stay? When the time came, both sides would probably not spare him.


    ¡°Is that thing yours?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked but did not explicitly mention what he was referring to. ¡°What were you doing with it?¡±


    Rat said, ¡°The satellite phone was issued by my previous leader some time ago. It¡¯s used for sending intel.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded in acknowledgment. That matched precisely with what he was asking.


    But what should he do with Rat? Let him go? Ren Xiaosu was not that kind.


    But when he thought of the days they spent together, Ren Xiaosu felt a little mncholic.


    Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°If you didn¡¯t try to leave or betray me, I might not have done anything to you when the truth came to light. Xu Jinyuan was originally a spy too, but he made the right choices. Rat, let¡¯s be bandits again in our next lives. But for now, it¡¯s goodbye to you.¡±

 Chapter 362 - Harboring evil intentions

    <h4>Chapter 362 Harboring evil intentions</h4>


    It seemed that Rat was also quite the patient one. It wasn¡¯t until the third day after Ren Xiaosu had released the information that he tried to leave the settlement. Ren Xiaosu had not slept well in recent days because he wanted to find the spy who might still be alive.


    He had no choice but to root out that person, because if they kept such a person around, they might get found by the Zong Consortium before they could grow stronger even if they moved to another location.


    Ren Xiaosu believed the northern bandits were likely to be supported by the Zong Consortium. Although he had no evidence of that, Zong Cheng was supposed to bring them to the front lines at Mt. Shangying, Mt. Lianta, and Mt. Dingyuan in the original mission n.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu thought the ce Zong Cheng wanted to bring them to would definitely not be simple. It might even turn out to be the banditir controlled by the Zong Consortium.


    But what was Zong Cheng nning to do by bringing them to Mt. Dingyuan? Was he thinking of putting on an act for the Yang Consortium with his own bandits?


    Ren Xiaosu felt this matter had more than met the eye.


    At this moment, Wang Congyang was walking alone on a path in the valleys and hills of the Northern Wastes. But as he kept walking, his pace slowed.


    ¡°Come out,¡± Wang Congyang said harshly.


    Ahead of him, a young man walked out from behind a mound. He said to Wang Congyang with a warm smile, ¡°Chief Wang, I¡¯ve been waiting here for a long time. Let me introduce myself. I¡¯m Zong Cheng from the Zong Consortium.¡±


    Wang Congyang looked around and asked, ¡°Did youe alone?¡±


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Zong Cheng smiled and said, ¡°How could Ie alone when I¡¯m dealing with you?¡±


    As soon as Zong Cheng stopped speaking, another 30 soldiers appeared from behind the mound. However, Wang Congyang realized these soldiers were acting a little strange. They were behaving unnaturally, as though they were puppets. They didn¡¯t act like normal humans.


    He frowned and said, ¡°Why are you looking for me?¡±


    Wang Congyang was wondering how Zong Cheng caught wind of his escape. He actually predicted he would pass by here and came here in advance to wait for him?


    If Ren Xiaosu were present, he would have sensed that something was wrong. Since the spy¡¯s satellite phone had been smashed apart during the battle, how could Rat have ryed the intel to Zong Cheng?


    ¡°You and I have had dealings with each other for quite some time already.¡± Zong Cheng said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re one of the most difficult opponents our Zong Consortium has faced in the valley. I didn¡¯t expect you to end up in such a predicament today.¡±


    ¡°Like you know anything.¡± Wang Congyang sneered. If he weren¡¯t afraid of Stronghold 178¡¯s strength, Ren Xiaosu would not have been able to do anything to him. ¡°And when have I ever had any dealings with you... Oh, I see, so the bandits at Mt. Dingyuan are your Zong Consortium¡¯s people.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s much easier speaking with smart people.¡± Zong Cheng said, ¡°I¡¯m curious about something. Is there bad blood between you and Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Wang Congyang scorned, ¡°That¡¯s none of your business. As the second generation member of a consortium, aren¡¯t you ashamed toe here and mix with bandits?¡±


    Zong Cheng did not mind it. ¡°This valley has always been our Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. By rights, our Zong Consortium should be the ones controlling this area. But, Chief Wang, you¡¯re the one who¡¯s acting rather unusually. Why are you staking everything just so you can kill Ren Xiaosu when you¡¯ve always been a cautious person? Surely he did not kill your wife and children or something, right?¡±


    Wang Congyang¡¯s mood instantly changed. He suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯ve had a grudge against that Ren Xiaosu since we were at Stronghold 113. Am I wrong for attempting to kill him after he killed my brother?¡±


    Zong Cheng asked, ¡°Then what do you know about Ren Xiaosu? I heard he¡¯s on very good terms with Zhang Jinglin ever since they were at Stronghold 113. Zhang Jinglin also intends for him to take over his role. Isn¡¯t that because he favors Ren Xiaosu and wants him to be the nextmander of Stronghold 178? Aren¡¯t you afraid Stronghold 178 will get rid of you for trying to kill him?¡±


    Wang Congyangughed and answered with a half-truth, ¡°Where¡¯d you get that info from? I was at Stronghold 113 back then. When Zhang Jinglin was teaching in the town¡¯s school, Ren Xiaosu was just his substitute teacher. If he¡¯s on good terms with Zhang Jinglin, would I dare to kill him? All of you were fooled by him!¡±


    Wang Congyang was harboring evil intentions. He was afraid Zong Cheng did not dare to make a move on Ren Xiaosu because of the rtionship between Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin!


    Wang Congyang deliberated for a couple seconds and said, ¡°You might not know it, but I was the one who assigned the escorts for Zhang Jinglin when he traveled back to Stronghold 178 from Stronghold 113. But for someone as high-ranking as Zhang Jinglin, do you think he would make friends with normal people?¡±


    Zong Cheng frowned. Why did Wang Congyang¡¯s words differ so much from the ount Ren Xiaosu had portrayed?


    But as they had been dealing with Wang Congyang for some time, they knew he was not a rash person. Since Wang Congyang was willing to make trouble for Ren Xiaosu, could it really be that he might not be on such good terms with Zhang Jinglin after all?


    Zong Cheng smiled and said, ¡°Are you saying you want me to seek revenge for you? Why don¡¯t you join us and we¡¯ll seek revenge on your behalf together?¡±


    Wang Congyang smiled as he retreated. ¡°Once I left Stronghold 113, I said I¡¯d never work for anyone else ever again. I¡¯ll only die for myself!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s such a pity,¡± Zong Cheng said with some regret. ¡°But you killed so many bandits under my Zong Consortium¡¯s g. I¡¯m afraid it won¡¯t be appropriate to just let you leave like this.¡±


    ¡°You think you can stop me with just these people?¡± Wang Congyangughed uproariously. ¡°That depends on whether you¡¯re capable of doing so or not!¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Congyang suddenly noticed the faces of the 30 soldiers behind Zong Cheng were glowing with silvery strands. After that, all of them rushed at him!


    These soldiers were much faster than Wang Congyang could imagine. He even felt like they were like 30 standard supernatural beings!


    ¡°Nanosoldiers?!¡± Wang Congyang was bewildered. Although he had heard of nanosoldiers before, he had not seen them for himself. But Wang Congyang could not understand something. Wasn¡¯t it only the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium that had the nanosoldiers? Why would Zong Cheng also have nanosoldiers among his subordinates?


    However, Wang Congyang was already prepared. In just an instant, the rugged and menacing steam lotive had already materialized into reality and driven off in the opposite direction with Wang Congyang on it!


    A nanosoldier leaped up and caught a handle on the side of the steam lotive. It seemed like he was trying to climb onto the train to kill Wang Congyang. But to Zong Cheng¡¯s surprise, Wang Congyang just kicked the nanosoldier off.


    The power of this kick was so great it was far beyond Zong Cheng¡¯s imagination. It was not a power that standard supernatural beings could achieve! This Wang Congyang was the best of the best even among supernatural beings!


    When that nanosoldier was kicked down, his body blocked the other pursuing nanosoldiers to the rear. When they got up again to chase after him, they realized the steam lotive had already sped off at a speed of a 120 kilometers per hour.


    Some bandits in the gullies in the distance suddenly crawled out and started shooting mercilessly at the steam lotive. However, Wang Congyang was already inside the train and the bandits could not hurt him.


    One of the bandits carrying an RPGuncher fired it at the train. But surprisingly, even when the RPG hit the steam lotive, it only caused the strange train to wobble a little.


    Wang Congyang suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood in the train. He wiped it off and growled, ¡°Your Zong Consortium¡¯s people are like the hyenas that like attacking people from behind. I¡¯ll see how long you all can survive here in the Northwest!


    Zong Cheng watched calmly as the steam lotive departed. He knew he had underestimated what Wang Congyang could do.

 Chapter 363 - Delivering warmth to the valley

    <h4>Chapter 363 Delivering warmth to the valley</h4>


    In the settlement, Jin Lan suddenly ran madly towards Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Boss, Boss, those people delivering the stuff are here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What do you mean by those people delivering the stuff?¡±


    ¡°The people who previously gave us the firearms and motorcycles.¡± Jin Lan yelled, ¡°I saw their convoy from the hillside. They¡¯re almost here!¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go and take a look.¡± Ren Xiaosu and Jin Lan headed east. Without needing to say anything, Yang Xiaojin started to choose a sniping spot in case the two parties got into a conflict.


    During this period, Ren Xiaosu had frequently been hearing from the bandits that there were people delivering food and weapons into the valley. However, he had not seen it for himself yet.


    Ren Xiaosu stood on a mound and looked at the approaching convoy. There was no logo on the bodies of the vehicles. He realized the convoy seemed to be very familiar with the valley, as they knew exactly where the locations of the gullies and rivers were.


    It seemed this group of people had been keeping themselves rather busy in the valley for the past few years.


    Before the convoy arrived, the people in the vehicles were waving from afar when they saw Ren Xiaosu and the others. They were acting in such a friendly manner that it seemed as though they had spotted their fellow vigers.


    However, the convoy did not approach them and stopped just under a loess slope in the distance. 30 people jumped out of the vehicles and walked slowly towards them. The group looked to be moving free and easy, but they constantly maintained an attacking formation. The soldiers on both nks were aiming their guns and already had their weapons cocked in case they needed to open fire at any time.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that the disposition of these soldiers was extremely familiar.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought the group¡¯s leader looked a little familiar, but he couldn¡¯t recall where he had seen him before. After these people slowly got closer, the leader smiled and said, ¡°Hey, buddy, who¡¯s in charge here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°I¡¯m in charge here. Who are you?¡±


    The leader said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m here to deliver firearms and supplies to you all.¡±


    The sincere look he portrayed was like he was from the consortium dropping by the stronghold¡¯s factories to hand out rice to the workers there.


    Ren Xiaosu looked him over. ¡°You¡¯re from the Qing Consortium?¡±


    The leader raised an eyebrow and said, ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°Why do I find you so familiar-looking?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Have we met before?¡±


    The leader smiled and said, ¡°I also find you rather familiar. Perhaps it¡¯s fate that brought us together.¡±


    During the conversation, the soldiers behind the person speaking started making some subtle movements as everyone ced their right index finger onto the trigger of their rifle. The atmosphere did not feel right. It was like they could get ambushed at any moment!


    Ren Xiaosu nced at them and saw the atmosphere was getting more intense, so he decided to be direct and said, ¡°I¡¯m Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    Off to the side, Jin Lan and the others were all confused. What was their boss doing?


    To their surprise, when the leader heard the name ¡°Ren Xiaosu,¡± he suddenly froze. After that, he carefully sized up Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°You¡¯re Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Jin Lan and the others¡¯ jaws dropped. Was their boss this famous? It looked like the bandits themselves still did not understand their boss!


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How do I prove it?¡±


    The leader gave it some thought and said, ¡°What has Boss Luo given you before?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before answering, ¡°A banner...¡±


    ¡°Hahaha.¡± The leader burst intoughter. ¡°So it¡¯s really you. Hello, my name is Xu Man.¡±


    Xu Man appeared to be very polite. Meanwhile, Jin Lan and the others were totally confused by the developments. What was this banner they were talking about?


    Jin Lan asked, ¡°Boss, did you used to be a doctor?¡±


    As far as Jin Lan and the others knew, only doctors would receive banners these days.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jin Lan and the others and coughed. ¡°Y¡¯all¡¯ve also used the ck medicine to treat your wounds.¡±


    It was Xu Man who had discovered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence in the Jing Mountains back then. The two of them had shed before.


    But it waste at night back then, and the two of them did not engage in closebat. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face was really dirty at that time. So they did not recognize each other even though they were talking face to face.


    Xu Man continued, ¡°Back then, you were also in the Jing Mountains. But I probably did not see you because you did not enter the ruined city. I was tasked with capturing Xu Xianchu that night.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately understood.


    Then Xu Man said, ¡°But you still look very familiar to me. Have we met before?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, I don¡¯t look familiar, I really don¡¯t.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°I got the wrong person earlier.¡±


    Of course he couldn¡¯t fucking look familiar to Xu Man. Otherwise, Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and Xu Xianchu might just find out what really happened that night!


    Xu Man wondered, ¡°But you really look familiar! Wait, you¡¯re...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu began sweating. He quickly changed the subject and asked, ¡°What¡¯re you doing here? Don¡¯t tell me the Qing Consortium is supplying all the guns into the valley?¡±


    ¡°Oh, this has been going on since some time ago. I only starteding here in thest year.¡± Xu Man said, ¡°At that time, Mr. Qing Zhen had been ced under house arrest, and our men were separated when they got assigned out to the otherbat troops. I received Mr. Qing Zhen¡¯s instructions and secretly came to the valley to take over the duties here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized it was Qing Zhen who had nned everything here, not the Qing Consortium!


    But if it happened several years ago, then he must have gotten all of the ns in the valley started while he was still under tight watch by the Qing Consortium¡¯s Board of Directors.


    He had nned really far ahead!


    The Yang Consortium, the Li Consortium, and the Zong Consortium were really unlucky to encounter such an opponent. Initially, the Zong Consortium wanted to take control of Stronghold 178 from within during the absence of Zhang Jinglin. In the end, Qing Zhen purposely sent Zhang Jinglin back to Stronghold 178. He wondered whether the Zong Consortium¡¯s people had seen red when they learned about that.


    Xu Man suddenly said, ¡°Boss Luo has specifically instructed us to inform you if we met you that we¡¯re ready to take action. Of course, even if you can¡¯t make it back in time, he¡¯ll still help you bring your brother and the others out.¡±


    ¡°Is Qing Zhen preparing to rescue Luo Lan?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that I¡¯ll betray y¡¯all after you tell me this?¡±


    ¡°Boss Luo said you can be trusted.¡± Xu Man said with a smile, ¡°As subordinates, we just follow orders.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips. The feeling of being trusted was quite nice.


    He asked Xu Man, ¡°Then what about all y¡¯all? What are your ns? Are you going to attack the Zong Consortium?¡±.


    Since Qing Zhen had prepared backup ns for the north, they would be put to good use when the time arrived, right?


    Xu Man exined, ¡°We¡¯ve only managed to rope over some of the bandits in the north to our side, so it¡¯ll be impossible for us to defeat the Zong Consortium. Mr. Qing Zhen¡¯s ns here were not made so that he could send us to our deaths by taking on the Zong Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started to get curious. ¡°Then what are y¡¯all doing here?¡±


    Xu Man hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°The peak of the upstream floods of the river will be here in about ten days. At that time, we¡¯ll destroy all the bridges in the valley to stop the Zong Consortium froming further south to aid the Yang Consortium. Meanwhile, we¡¯ll have our other men head south to destroy all the factories outside of the Yang Consortium¡¯s strongholds.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He felt that Qing Zhen¡¯s ns were somehow all linked to one another.


    It was like Qing Zhen had been nning to incorporate the entire Northwest and Southwest into the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory since several years ago.

 Chapter 364 - I’ll wait for you here

    <h4>Chapter 364 I¡¯ll wait for you here</h4>


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that Qing Zhen was just like a shining star in the Northwest and Southwest. Hepletely overshadowed those from the other consortiums and made them appear dull and gloomy.


    It was not that the other consortiums were not smart, but that Qing Zhen¡¯s ns were much more thought out.


    The series after series of Qing Zhen¡¯s ns involved both luck and calction.


    From the start, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had gotten their hands on the Li Consortium¡¯s breakthrough in nanotech, yet they gave it to the Yang Consortium through Yang Xiaojin just like that.


    At that time, Qing Zhen asked Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Will the Yang Consortium put the knowledge to military use after acquiring what was originally a technology used for medical treatments?¡±


    Obviously, Qing Zhen already knew the answer. How could the Yang Consortium possibly not put the nanomachines to military use? These were greedy consortiums whose appetites would never be satisfied.


    The destruction of Stronghold 109 had a significant impact on the Li Consortium. As a result, several internal factions of the Li Consortium with their own interests were fighting one another to shirk responsibility for the defeat.


    At that time, the Li Consortium¡¯s higher-ups also needed a target to vent their anger on and prove they were not weaklings. If they let the matter slide, an even greater disaster might befall the entire organization. Therefore, they needed to take revenge.


    The Li Consortium¡¯s decision to start a war with the Yang Consortium was definitely not done out of spite. It was a decision they had to make after considering their political interests.


    The Li Consortium wanted to kill Li Shentan, but he had already disappeared.


    The Li Consortium also wanted to exterminate the Experimentals. But at the time, the Yang Consortium had already amassed their troops along their shared border, so they couldn¡¯t worry about the Experimentals.


    As such, the Li Consortium directed all of their anger at the Yang Consortium.


    In fact, the Qing Consortium joined the battlefield muchter. It was originally a war between the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium and had nothing to do with the Qing Consortium.


    Qing Zhen had predicted back then that the Board would send him to the front lines, so he waited patiently in his vi.


    After he made hiseback, Qing Zhen immediately killed Qing Yun and chose to cooperate with the Yang Consortium.


    It looked like he had formed an alliance with the Yang Consortium, but he was actually holding their main forces at the front line of the battlefield in the south.


    This was probably one of the most critical portions of Qing Zhen¡¯s n.


    Later on, Qing Zhen deliberately double-crossed the Yang Consortium with his sudden withdrawal of the troops. This led to Luo Lan¡¯s house arrest and caused the Yang Consortium to have to dispatch more troops to fill the gap at the front line.


    And currently, the mysterious force that was preparing to rescue Luo Lan, as well as the bandits he had been consolidating in the North, were all capable of troubling the defenseless Yang Consortium to the point they would not sleep well at night.


    It seemed Qing Zhen wasn¡¯t nning to swallow the Yang Consortium immediately. He had too much patience for that. Right now, he was only looking to disrupt the Yang Consortium¡¯s well-oiled supply chain. The copse of the rear logistics might seem to be just an economic setback, but in war, it could mean that the frontline soldiers would not get issued with enough bullets to fight!


    It might not be felt too soon since the Yang Consortium¡¯s reserves could stillst for a while. But over time, the Qing Consortium would probably be able to pin the Yang Consortium down on the ground and give them a good thrashing!


    If the Zong Consortium wanted to head south at this moment, they would be stopped by the arrival of the spring floods.


    Although the Zong Consortium could still build pontoon bridges, the intensity of the spring floods in the valley was absolutely not something that could be resolved by just constructing several dozen pontoon bridges. There were thousands of riverbeds, and the ground resembled broken porcin scattered around in the middle of a river.


    Qing Zhen had even calcted the timing perfectly. It would take ce ten dayster!


    But Ren Xiaosu could not understand who could possibly be capable of storming the stronghold to save Luo Lan. The Qing Consortium¡¯s main forces were at the front line in the south as well!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°But there should also be the Zong Consortium¡¯s people who are part of the northern bandits, right? What if they try to stop you?¡±


    Xu Man smiled and said, ¡°They think our Qing Consortium is trying topete with them for the valley¡¯s territory, but they¡¯re too shortsighted by thinking that way. We¡¯ve never regarded them as a threat before. We might be in the south for several days before they realize we¡¯re gone.¡±


    The Zong Consortium had always thought the Qing Consortium was trying to seize the valley for themselves. But in reality, that was not the Qing Consortium¡¯s target.


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath. ¡°I¡¯ll prepare to head south as well and cooperate with your people to save Luo Lan.¡±


    ¡°The ones rescuing Luo Lan are not our people.¡± Xu Man said, ¡°So you don¡¯t have to treat them as your friends.¡±


    However, Xu Man did not disclose too much information to Ren Xiaosu. That was all he could say.


    When they finished talking, Xu Man was about to leave. Off to the side, Jin Lan suddenly said, ¡°Since you¡¯re already here, why don¡¯t you give us some stuff before you leave?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Xu Man was stunned. He had totally forgotten about giving out firearms and supplies to them. ¡°What do you all need?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could not be bothered to slowly choose, so he said, ¡°Just leave all of it behind.¡±


    Jin Lan and the others were shocked. Their boss was way too different. By saying it that way, how could the people be willing to give them anything?


    Xu Man¡¯s mouth twitched. ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask me to let you keep the resupply vehicles as well?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°Well, I guess that would work too. After unloading the supplies, you¡¯ll have four empty vehicles. Since there aren¡¯t that many of you, just leave these four vehicles behind for us.¡±


    Off to the side, Xu Jinyuan whispered, ¡°Boss is really different. Usually, we have to wait for the consortium¡¯s people toe with the supplies and ept whatever they offer to us. Then we use the supplies to go and rob others. But, Boss, he just robs them instead.¡±


    Xu Man frowned and considered it for a couple seconds before saying with a sigh, ¡°Alright, you¡¯re so pushy.¡±


    Jin Lan and the others gasped. Who the hell was their boss, really? Never mind the Qing Consortium¡¯s people being so polite with them earlier, they even gave him whatever he wanted and the resupply vehicles as well.


    Ren Xiaosu stared at Jin Lan. ¡°What¡¯re you still standing there for? Go and take the stuff.¡± He turned to Xu Man and said, ¡°I won¡¯t keep y¡¯all for lunch. I still have to hurry up and get ready.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu turned around and left, leaving Xu Man standing there with his eyes twitching. After giving them all that stuff, he was actually chasing them away without offering them a meal? We didn¡¯t even say we¡¯d be staying for lunch, so who are you guarding against!


    Ren Xiaosu found Yang Xiaojin and told her, ¡°The Qing Consortium will likelyunch an attack on Stronghold 88 soon. What¡¯s your opinion?¡±


    In fact, what worried Ren Xiaosu the most was how Yang Xiaojin was also a member of the Yang Consortium. If the Yang Consortium¡¯s stronghold came under attack, could she possibly stay out of it?


    Yang Xiaojin was silent for some time before replying, ¡°I¡¯ll stay here.¡±


    It seemed that the estrangement between Yang Xiaojin and the Yang Consortium was not as simple as their kinship fading. She had never mentioned her parents before. Based on her age, her parents should both be in their prime, so why were they not around?


    If Yang Xiaojin did not wish to talk about it, Ren Xiaosu would not ask her either. But he understood there had to be more to this.


    But even though Yang Xiaojin could ignore the Yang Consortium, she would not want to harm them. So she decided to stay out of it by remaining here in the settlement.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu would inevitably sh with the Yang Consortium if he cooperated with Luo Lan to get Yan Liuyuan and the others out when he went back this time.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯ll be back as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll wait for you here.¡±

 Chapter 365 - The fall of the Li Consortium

    <h4>Chapter 365 The fall of the Li Consortium</h4>


    In the Southwest, Li Shentan was walking alone in a vast forest on a small path that was only wide enough for a car to pass. The ground had turned muddy after a downpour.


    He was carrying a fishing rod on his shoulder with a fish basket hanging from his waist.


    In the fish basket made out of bamboo strips, tworge river shrimps were wriggling, and three crabs had their pincers and legs tied up with hemp twine. Each crab looked like it weighed around 1 to 1.5kg. If these crabs were caught in the times before The Cataclysm, they would definitely be considered a good catch.


    ¡°Little Liren, did you get a good look at what that shadow in the river was?¡± Li Shentan asked.


    Si Liren¡¯s sweet voice could be heard above him. ¡°No, I didn¡¯t really see it.¡±


    Li Shentan curled his lips. ¡°It was quite scary.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it can¡¯t beat me,¡± Si Lirenforted.


    ¡°I was just worried I would get eaten by it before you could save me.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°But luck is on my side today. Although I did not catch any fish, I caught quite a few shrimps and crabs.¡±


    At this moment, the sound of an approaching vehicle came from further up the path. Li Shentan stood still with a calm expression on his face.


    When the vehicle appeared, the driver behind the wheel was shocked to see Li Shentan standing there. ¡°Get out of the way! Get out of the way!¡±


    The driver frantically honked at him, but Li Shentan just stood there motionlessly like a rock.


    The driver stepped on the brakes, but the vehicle could not stop due to the muddy ground. The middle-aged man in the vehicle gritted his teeth as it headed straight for Li Shentan. He could not turn his steering wheel at this moment because the vehicle would flip if he did.


    Just as the off-road vehicle was about to hit Li Shentan, the little girl in the sky suddenly dropped down from above and smashed her tiny fist heavily on its hood.


    This punch caused the entire rear half of the off-road vehicle to fly into the air. Then it flipped over Li Shentan in midair beforending in the mud behind him.


    ¡°Li Shentan, the damsel is here to save you!¡± Si Liren said happily.


    Li Shentan smiled but did not answer. Instead, he turned around and looked behind at the off-road vehicle that had just overturned. ¡°How sad.¡±


    The driver was stuck in his seat and dangling in midair. He cursed from within the vehicle, ¡°Are you fucking blind! You¡ª¡±.


    Before he could finish speaking, Si Liren floated over and flipped the vehicle back upright. Then she effortlessly lifted the old man in the backseat out.


    The old man had a look of horror on his face. Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s our first time meeting. Hi, my name is Li Shentan.¡±


    When this name was mentioned, the old man became even more frightened. ¡°How did you know I was going to be passing through here? What do you want?¡±


    Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°It seems you know nothing about my power, but there¡¯s no need to think about these meaningless things. What I¡¯m curious about is, didn¡¯t the Qing Consortium surround the stronghold awhile ago? How did you manage to get past their perimeter?¡±


    The old man¡¯s face darkened. ¡°What exactly do you want from me?¡±


    Li Shentan muttered to himself, ¡°Oh, I see. You made a deal with that demon, Qing Zhen, so you can abandon the entire Li Consortium and escape alone. Where does this road lead? There¡¯s a mountain road up ahead that goes all the way to the Central ins. So you must be fleeing there.¡±


    At this moment, Si Liren said, ¡°Big Brother Shentan, there¡¯s a lot of gold bars in the vehicle!¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Li Shentan nodded and said, ¡°Before leaving, you even took all the gold from the Li Consortium¡¯s bank. That¡¯s enough for you to lead a rich life in the Central ins.¡±


    The middle-aged man hiding in the vehicle did not dare to make a sound. The old man roared, ¡°Li Youbai, kill him with the gun!¡±


    But no matter how much the old man shouted at him, the middle-aged man did not dare to move recklessly.


    Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°You even thought of bringing your son with you to escape together, but sadly, he¡¯s useless. The Li Consortium has fallen from grace so much in your generation.¡±


    In the eyes of Li Shentan, the Li Consortium was unworthy of its reputation. They were but a small warlord exercising sovereignty in a corner of the Southwest.


    He said to the old man, ¡°Dear patriarch of the Li n, let me guess what deal you¡¯ve made with that demon, Qing Zhen...¡±


    Because Si Liren was holding the old man up, his long, sparse hair was scattered messily on his forehead. His face turned red as he said, ¡°How dare you im others are demons when you¡¯re the demon yourself!¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say he was the only demon in this world.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m one as well. But let¡¯s get back to the point. Over a month ago, the Qing Consortium suddenly withdrew their troops from the main battlefield, then the most mysterious nanosoldiers of the Li Consortium disappeared shortly after that. The Li Consortium¡¯s higher-ups must¡¯ve thought you were preparing to put up ast stand against the enemy. However, they didn¡¯t realize these mysterious nanosoldiers were only your bargaining chip. So what was Qing Zhen¡¯s condition for you that he allowed you to leave with the gold? You betrayed the entire Li Consortium this easily?¡±


    The old man did not say anything more. As he was advanced in age, he started getting dizzy after struggling for a bit in Si Liren¡¯s hands.


    Li Shentan continued, ¡°At that time, the mysterious troops were disguised as wounded soldiers of the Qing Consortium that retreated to the rear. They marched all the way north through the territories controlled by the Qing Consortium with no one stopping them, and they were even provided with supplies and firearms too. As for their destination, even I¡¯m not sure where they¡¯re headed. Can you tell me where they went and for what?¡±


    ¡°This has nothing to do with you!¡± the old man roared.


    ¡°I¡¯m a member of the Li Consortium as well.¡± Li Shentan said with a sigh, ¡°I¡¯d wanted to destroy the Li Consortium with my own hands as I was really ashamed of this identity. After all, it wouldn¡¯t exactly be too gratifying if the Li Consortium perished just like that.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a madman!¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s not fun anymore.¡± Li Shentan sighed before saying again, ¡°With the imminent destruction of the Li Consortium, you should die alongside it as well.¡±


    Si Liren said, ¡°Should I kill them?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯ll kill them myself. You¡¯re still young, so you shouldn¡¯t be killing anyone.¡±


    Then Li Shentan raised his hand and grabbed a small stone from the ground without physically bending down. With a flick of his finger, the stone flew towards the old man and left a bleeding wound in his forehead.


    The small stone stopped at the back of the old man¡¯s head and suddenly changed direction to go through the back of the driver¡¯s head.


    Li Shentan muttered to himself, ¡°So this is how it all ends?¡±


    Si Liren dropped the old man to the muddy ground as though he were a tattered bag. She wondered, ¡°What are we doing next?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°We¡¯ll head to the Central ins. I heard it¡¯s very prosperous. But we have to wait for a little while. Grandpa hasn¡¯t arrived yet.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Si Liren nodded. ¡°When will Grandpa Hu Shuo be here?¡±


    ¡°Tomorrow.¡± Li Shentan suddenly remembered something and said, ¡°Bring the gold in the vehicle along. Ren Xiaosu will definitely like it a lot. We can give it to him the next time we meet.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we go look for him in the North?¡±. Si Liren asked curiously.


    Li Shentan said calmly, ¡°He probably doesn¡¯t want to see me now. We should head to the Central ins and wait for him there instead.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± Si Liren answered obediently. She then flew into the woods and carried out a huge metal box that she ced over her back. The case was several times bigger than her, so it made her tiny body floating in the air look like a tiny bee. She stuffed the heavy gold pieces into the case, but it didn¡¯t look like it took her much effort to carry it on her back.


    Li Shentan stood on the quiet path and gazed at the far end of it. He saw sunlight shining down through the woods, and the scattered light looked just like the cold rain falling. He felt a little lost.


    Just like a child who had scored a 100 percent on his exam, he should be looking for his parents happily for reward and praise. But in this case, he couldn¡¯t find anyone he could share the happiness and sess with. ¡®Mom, I¡¯ve avenged you.¡¯

 Chapter 366 - The start of Qing Zhen’s territorial expansion

    <h4>Chapter 366 The start of Qing Zhen¡¯s territorial expansion</h4>


    In the darkness outside of Stronghold 88, a convoy of transport trucks were driving on the northern highway. When they arrived at the stronghold, the private troops in charge of guarding the gate carried out a simple search before letting them through. As these were the Yang Consortium¡¯s transport trucks, the private troops did not dare to stick their noses in too much.


    But shortly after the convoy entered the stronghold, the figure of a young man rolled out from under the truck. He stood up and dusted himself while looking around cautiously.


    It waste at night, so there wasn¡¯t really anyone around.


    Ren Xiaosu walked in the shadows of the streets as he quickly made his way to where Yan Liuyuan and the others were living. Xu Xianchu was the one who taught him how to get into the stronghold that way, and it was surprisingly useful.


    He would get there soon. During this time, Ren Xiaosu did not encounter anyone on patrol.


    But just when he thought everything was going smoothly, he suddenly saw the familiar figure of a woman in front of him. That person also seemed surprised to see Ren Xiaosu here.


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu, didn¡¯t you go north for the elimination of the bandits?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked in surprise.


    But just as she finished speaking, she saw Ren Xiaosu charge out of the shadows and swing his palm towards her neck without saying a word.


    Zhou Yingxue reacted extremely quickly as she raised her wrist to block the knifehand strike. But she was surprised that they were onpletely different levels.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he looked at Zhou Yingxue, who had fainted onto the ground. It should purely be a coincidence that he encountered Zhou Yingxue here. But her reaction speed from earlier was not something the average person possessed. She was a supernatural being.


    After thinking for a moment, he picked Zhou Yingxue off the ground and sprinted in the direction of Yan Liuyuan and the others.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know when Qing Zhen¡¯s people would make their move, so if he left Zhou Yingxue here, who knew what trouble she could cause aftering around?


    However, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t feel that it was necessary to silence her.


    After Ren Xiaosu carried Zhou Yingxue back, he jumped over the wall into the yard without knocking on the door. Uponnding on the other side, he saw Yan Liuyuan pointing a pistol at him.


    ¡°Bro?¡± Yan Liuyuan said in surprise, ¡°Why have youe back all of a sudden? You even brought someone back too?¡±


    Liuyuan was supposed to be keeping watch tonight, but little did he expect such a surprise.


    Ren Xiaosu put Zhou Yingxue down onto the ground and said with a smile, ¡°Wake Li Qingzheng and the others up. Tie this Zhou Yingxue up and gag her.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did anything happen at home recently?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan hesitated and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ve been doing well.¡±


    All of a sudden, Luo Lan¡¯s head appeared over the wall from next door. ¡°You¡¯re finally back. Anyter and we wouldn¡¯t have made it in time!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said curiously, ¡°Xu Man told me it was supposed to take ce ten dayster, and it¡¯s only been three days since then.¡±


    Luo Lan replied, ¡°This matter is a little beyond our control. We aren¡¯t sure when exactly they¡¯ll make their move, so it could happen at any moment.¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu heard a sudden explosion in the silence of the night!


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Beyond your control? Who exactly ising to attack Stronghold 88? Aren¡¯t they your people?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the Li Consortium¡¯s people. I don¡¯t have time to exin, so quickly pack everything up. My men will be here soon.¡± Luo Lan anxiously whisper-shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up and leave while the Yang Consortium deals with the attackers!¡±


    ¡°How many people from the Li Consortium are here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°A regiment of 1,500 soldiers.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°This is thest of the Li Consortium¡¯s forces.¡±


    As they spoke, the southern part of the stronghold was set aze. Gunfire ripped through the peace of the night and loud explosions rang out. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°How can 1,500 soldiers possibly take down a stronghold of the Yang Consortium?¡±


    Luo Lan nced at him. ¡°They¡¯re 1,500 nanosoldiers.¡±


    Just as Stronghold 88 started turning chaotic, thest stronghold of the Li Consortium at the front lines of the southern battlefield was dered destroyed.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s leader at the front line, Yang Yuning, said to his trusted aide beside him, ¡°Seize control of the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold. After we get inside, we must quickly upy the favorable terrain. Lay in ambush and kill all of the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops that enter the stronghold together. Don¡¯t show them any mercy!¡±


    But before the Yang Consortium could rush into the stronghold, Yang Yuning suddenly heard an ear-piercing sounde from the sky. It was the sound of artillery fire prating through the air, and it was fired from the Qing Consortium¡¯s position.


    He instinctively roared, ¡°Qing Zhen, you treacherous scoundrel!¡±


    After the destruction of the Li Consortium, there would no longer be any basis for the Yang Consortium and the Qing Consortium¡¯s alliance.


    The Yang Consortium was nning to attack the Qing Consortium before this, but Yang Yuning did not expect the Qing Consortium to not even bother taking down the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold before sneak attacking against them!


    The Yang Consortium was still not ruthless enough!


    ¡°Go prone!¡± Yang Yuning roared. ¡°Order the nanosoldiers to break through and take out Qing Yi!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, a soldier beside him pointed his gun at him and started shooting merciless. Before he could finish firing all the rounds in his magazine, the soldier copsed in a pool of blood.


    However, the Yang Consortium¡¯s general, Yang Yuning, had already been shot to death!


    No one knew how long Qing Zhen had been preparing for this day. All those countless days and nights that Qing Zhen had spent ying those unnecessary moves had now dealt continuous fatal blows to his enemies in just a short few months.


    The reinforcedpany in charge of guarding the general immediately surrounded him. Amid the chaos, someone shouted they were being attacked. But the artillery fire in the sky was already arriving.


    Right from the beginning, the Qing Consortium dealt them a vicious blow. The Yang Consortium¡¯s troops were surrounded by smoke and mud after artillery shells hit their area. The artillery troops the Qing Consortium had kept hidden for the longest time had fired at strategic locations like it didn¡¯t cost a thing. It was as though they wanted to bombard the entire battlefield once over.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers on standby to attack Qing Yi¡¯smand center were immediately deployed. But just as they were about to charge diagonally to the front of the Yang Consortium¡¯s position, they realized someone at the Qing Consortium¡¯s position had suddenly removed the tarps on the armored vehicles.


    There was a dense matrix of gun barrels on those ck armored vehicles!


    It was the metal storm, the Mountain Obliterator!


    The thousand-odd nanosoldiers were sted to shreds in an instant. Even before they died, they did not understand why these Mountain Obliterators appeared here. It wasn¡¯t mentioned in their intel at all!


    The intel they received was false!


    Qing Yi stood behind an armored vehicle and sneered, ¡°Third Bro was indeed right. These nanosoldiers are just a fancy bunch.¡±


    The third brother Qing Yi was referring to was Qing Zhen. Qing Zhen was third oldest among their group of cousins.


    And ording to Qing Zhen, these nanomachines that had always been hailed as the battlefield¡¯s divine weapons were really just bells and whistles in the face of modern artillery fire.


    When they annihted the Divine Arms Battalion some time ago, Qing Zhen had said it was an extremely dumb tactic to use the nanosoldiers by putting them together. They should be used for infiltration, carrying out decapitation strikes, intelligence gathering, and destruction of key enemy instations. They shouldn¡¯t appear on the main battlefield at all. Unless, of course, the enemies were caught off guard.


    Just like in Stronghold 88, no one had imagined there would be an entire formation of nanosoldiers breaking through the Qing Consortium¡¯s defensive line and arriving here.


    Even though the Yang Consortium had tried their best to monitor the movements of all the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops, they had neglected to keep tabs on the Li Consortium, which was fighting a desperatest stand.

 Chapter 367 - Towards the wilderness of hope

    <h4>Chapter 367 Towards the wilderness of hope</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu was unaware of what was going on at the southern front line. He only knew this stronghold was finished when he saw the fiery mes in Stronghold 88.


    Currently, the permanent garrison troops of Stronghold 88 were only left with the military strength of an independent infantry regiment. If this were a normal defense, even an infantry brigade would not be able to defeat it, unless it was an armored brigade or rocket troops.


    But the whereabouts of all the Qing Consortium¡¯s fighting forces were known to the Yang Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency. It was impossible that they could have allowed the Qing Consortium¡¯s heavy firepower troops to get so close to Stronghold 88.


    But ever since these nanosoldiers started moving north, they had relied on their high mobility to travel through the wilderness and never once showed themselves on the main roads. Although normal troops could not travel through such difficult terrain, it proved to be just walking on t ground for these nanosoldiers.


    This was also the reason why Qing Zhen chose to have these nanosoldiers infiltrate the Yang Consortium¡¯s stronghold. Even Qing Zhen¡¯s elite troops couldn¡¯t break through the Yang Consortium¡¯s defensive line without raising a ruckus.


    But nanosoldiers could.


    At this moment, the mes were spreading towards the north. Ren Xiaosu realized it was moving in a straight line like a precise scalpel cutting into the Yang Consortium¡¯s vital points.


    After destroying the gate and breaking into the stronghold, these nanosoldiers did not fight the garrison troops. Instead, they continued heading north as they sought to destroy the Yang Consortium¡¯s manor and kill all of the Yang Consortium¡¯s higher-ups located there.


    Although the Yang Consortium¡¯s higher-ups were distributed across more than a dozen strongholds, 60% of them were located here in the Yang Consortium¡¯s manor at Stronghold 88. If this ce were destroyed, the Yang Consortium would immediately fall into a state of disarray.


    Once the front line copsed and the rear was without a leader, the Qing Consortium would probably push forward unopposed and devour the already defeated Yang Consortium bit by bit.


    ¡°Ugh.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that sound, he turned around and saw Zhou Yingxue slowly regaining consciousness. Zhou Yingxue was staring nkly at the mes. She could also hear the thunder of firearms and explosives. Suddenly, she said in panic, ¡°Let me go! My mother¡¯s still at home!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He hesitated for a second before walking over to Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°I have nothing against you. I won¡¯t me you for spying on me since you and I are looking at the matter from a different standpoint. But if I let you go here, don¡¯t cause any trouble for me, got it?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue looked calmly at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°OK!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu cut the hemp rope tied around Zhou Yingxue. She jumped over the wall without hesitation and disappeared.


    Ren Xiaosu was no longer afraid the Yang Consortium woulde and stop them. After all, they could hardly even look after themselves.


    Suddenly, tires screeched against ground in front of their door. Luo Lan roared, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, hurry up ande with me. We have to leave this troublesome ce. Those Li Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers won¡¯t care if we¡¯re from the Yang Consortium or not once they start their killing spree.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu pushed open the front yard¡¯s door, he saw a lot of the stronghold¡¯s residentsing out onto the streets and watching the mes around them. Some people were hiding in the buildings, thinking it would be safer at home.


    Two transport trucks were parked at the door and were surrounded by the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers, who were standing guard. These soldiers had infiltrated Stronghold 88 earlier, but Luo Lan knew very well that they could not rescue him from here and were only responsible for aiding him.


    Ren Xiaosu helped Wang Fugui, Xiaoyu, and the others into the vehicles. Within two minutes, everyone was seated in the back of the truck in an orderly manner.


    Luo Lan roared, ¡°Start driving! Go, go, go! I don¡¯t want to be buried along with Stronghold 88!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked back at the zing mes where the 1,500 nanosoldiers were. If he could just get his hands on some of the nanomachines, it would be enough for everyone here to get stronger. But he could not take the risk because he knew his priorities.


    If they turned around now, all of them could end up dying here instead. Ren Xiaosu would rather not get those nanomachines.


    The two trucks sped along the streets towards the east gate. When the stronghold residents saw the way those two trucks took flight, everyone started panicking as well and began fleeing in the same direction as the trucks.


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu,¡± Luo Lan called out in the back of the truck during the bumpy ride, e with me to the Qing Consortium!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Yan Liuyuan, then shook his head. ¡°No.¡±


    Puzzled, Luo Lan asked, ¡°If you follow me to the Qing Consortium, you¡¯ll have meat to eat and wine to drink. There¡¯ll be plenty of money to spend, and you can get chauffeured around in luxury cars. Wouldn¡¯t it be such bliss to drive luxury cars and take beautiful women out for a spin?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°I¡¯ve thought about living in the stronghold before, but I have a better option now. I still feel that the wilderness is more suitable for me.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Bro, where we going?¡±


    ¡°Our new home.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°A ce where there¡¯s hope.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. He replied, ¡°Bro, thank you.¡±


    ¡°What are you thanking me for?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I really think that it¡¯s a good ce.¡±


    Luo Lanmented, ¡°Xu Man already told me about this. I can only wish you all the best then. In the future, you can visit our Qing Consortium. Just mention my name wherever you go.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°I will.¡±


    Although they did not want to settle down in the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory, they could still visit. But that would definitely be a long time from now. The current Qing Consortium would probably be involved in the war for a long time toe. At this moment, the Qing Consortium was no longer a consortium but a war machine.


    ¡°But the bridges in the north have probably been destroyed by now, so how are you guys going to head north?¡± Luo Lan asked. ¡°Now there¡¯s arge river separating the north and the south, so you can¡¯t pass through that


    area.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I have a n,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied calmly.


    The bandit gangs controlled by the Qing Consortium in the north hade down to the south. They had destroyed not only the bridges but also all of the Yang Consortium¡¯s factories in the wilderness.


    If it were the past, he definitely couldn¡¯t have crossed therge river. But now he could. He really had Wang Congyang to thank for presenting him with the steam lotive.


    Ren Xiaosu had already tested it earlier. The steam lotive could travel on any terrain like it was moving on t ground. The tracks that materialized out of thin air allowed it to cross any rivers.


    When the two trucks arrived at the east gate, there were only a few garrison troops remaining. When the soldiers were about to inspect the vehicles, the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers got out and killed them in an orderly fashion. How could these private troops guarding the gate be a match for the Qing Consortium¡¯s regr troops?


    After the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers blew up the gate, the trucks burst through the enveloping smoke and drove out into the wilderness.


    This escape from a stronghold was much easier than all of their previous experiences. Ren Xiaosu turned cheerful the moment he finally managed to get Yan Liuyuan and the others out of the stronghold.


    Everything was developing positively, and Ren Xiaosu started looking forward to their future in the wilderness.


    But when he looked back at the sky filled with smoke at Stronghold 88, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt this was probably not something he should be happy over.


    This era was starting to copse.


    Could they really carve out a future of their own in the wilderness?

 Chapter 368 - A gift

    <h4>Chapter 368 A gift</h4>


    The people who appeared in the stronghold were not the only ones who hade to pick Luo Lan up. Xu Man had also led a team to wait outside of Stronghold 88. It was as though he were afraid that something would go wrong in the process of rescuing Luo Lan.


    It seemed that the brotherhood between Luo Lan and Qing Zhen was indeed strong. Qing Zhen was even willing to destroy an entire stronghold for Luo Lan.


    When Ren Xiaosu first met Luo Lan at Stronghold 88, Luo Lan said Qing Zhen would definitely rescue him. Meanwhile, Qing Zhen had already made all the preparations for the rescue when he suddenly ordered the withdrawal of the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat troops and left the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops stranded at the front line.


    Even if Qing Zhen had not been able to turn the tables on the Board in that chaotic struggle for power, this rescue mission would still have been carried out ordingly, with Qing Yi¡¯s assistance, and the nanosoldiers would still have arrived at Stronghold 88 within the nned time.


    On the day Qing Zhen trekked up to Mt. Ginkgo, he hadid out everything for Luo Lan before the snowstorm arrived.


    Before they parted, Luo Lan was no longer trying to persuade Ren Xiaosu to go back to the Qing Consortium with them. He said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Once you¡¯ve all settled down in the valley, you can contact me. I¡¯ll get Xu Man to send some supplies to you. Consider it my congrattions to you on your new home.¡±


    ¡°Sure!¡± Ren Xiaosu did not be overly polite as they bade each other farewell.


    In this world, all good things had toe to an end. Ren Xiaosu and the others were about to head off towards that hope and light in their hearts.


    On their way back to the valley, Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Bro, what¡¯s it like in the valley?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s a poor ce where the homes are made out of mud. Thend for growing crops has also been destroyed, and there¡¯s a gang of bandits so poor that they only have guns, while there¡¯s no one left for them to rob.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan listened to this seriously but did not say anything.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°So are you still willing to go there?¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course.¡± Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes gleamed as he said, ¡°Is Big Sister Xiaojin there too? She...¡±


    ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s also there.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°Together with the bandits, the two of us usually dig for silt to make y bricks to build houses with. We even give lessons to those bandits too.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Can I also build houses with y¡¯all?¡±


    ¡°Of course you can,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Yan Liuyuan was not afraid that life would be tough. As long as there were hope, he would still be very happy even if he had to carry bricks and build houses.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yuchi, Jiang Wu, and the others behind him. Ms. Jiang had been very quiet ever since several of her female students left the group. No one knew what she was thinking about every day.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Let¡¯s go! Bro will take you for a spin!¡±


    ¡°How are we going for a spin?¡± Yan Liuyuan wondered. ¡°We don¡¯t even have a car. I thought we were going to walk to the valley.¡±


    Stronghold 88 was more than 400 kilometers away from the valley, with two strongholds between them. It would even take Ren Xiaosu three days to run back there.


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly summoned the steam lotive as though he had no intention of hiding this superpower. When Wang Fugui saw the train, he was stunned. ¡°Xiaosu, this is... a train?!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s go for a ride on the train!¡±


    Everyone behind him startedughing. Other people would take beautiful women out for a spin in their luxury cars, but when it came to Ren Xiaosu, that became a train ride with a bunch of men, women, seniors, and teens.


    Why was everything that came out of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mouth always a little different from imagination?


    ¡°Come on, step onto the train,¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted excitedly. With life full of hope now, he became particrly energetic and motivated in everything he did.


    The group sat inside the steam train as they watched the tracks in front of them change from illusion into reality. At the same time, the tracks behind them vanished segment by segment after the train passed by. This moment felt just like a dream.


    Xiaoyu asked, ¡°Xiaosu, is this train your superpower?¡± To her memory, Ren Xiaosu had never revealed his superpowers before, and this was the first time he was showing it. ¡°What does this power of yours do?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought carefully. ¡°I can use it to run some deliveries? When Stronghold 178 opens up the trade route in the future, I can go and pick up some goods to deliver. I wonder how much money I can make by delivering a trainload of goods?¡±


    In reality, it was not about the money. Je just wanted to put into service what he had learned.


    He wondered what Wang Congyang would think if he found out about this idea of his. Wang Congyang had probably not even thought about using his superpower to run a freight business.


    This was mainly because supernatural beings had a limit to their willpower. Even Wang Congyang could only ¡°drive¡± the train for half a day without carrying any load, and this was not even traveling at full speed.


    But it was different for Ren Xiaosu. From the moment he copied the ¡°Steam Lotive¡± power, he already had 12 more carriages than Wang Congyang¡¯s version. Moreover, he did not even feel his mental strength being drained while using it.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu had still not realized that his most advantageous skill was not in being able to copy other people¡¯s superpowers but that he had a mysterious mental strength that greatly surpassed that of other supernatural beings.


    It was extremely quick to travel using the steam lotive without the constraint of doing so with one¡¯s own limbs. Currently, there were no consortiums in the Northwest that had the power to stop supernatural beings. In fact, those consortiums were already busy up to the ears with their own matters. Meanwhile, the rtionships between Ren Xiaosu and both the Qing Consortium and Stronghold 178 right now could also be considered as quite friendly, right?


    As the steam lotive crossed the river en route to the valley, the natural moat that it provided was navigated over as though it were t ground. All of the worries everyone had were instantly cast out of their minds.


    Ren Xiaosu reminded them, ¡°When we get to the settlement, don¡¯t mention this power of mine. Those bandits still can¡¯t be trusted.¡±


    Wang Fugui and the others nodded in agreement. They still understood the seriousness of the situation. When they were about to arrive at the valley, Ren Xiaosu put away the steam lotive and led everyone there on foot.


    When they finally arrived, the settlement was still in ruins. Yang Xiaojin, who had her sleeves rolled up, was helping the refugees carry the harvested corn and sweet potatoes to store them in the trucks left behind by Xu Man.


    Her face was very dirty, and it did not look like she was the heiress of a consortium. She looked like she was a refugee her whole life.


    When Yang Xiaojin turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu and the others walking over, she waved happily to them. Yan Liuyuan did not seem saddened by the sight of the ruins at all. He waved at Yang Xiaojin and shouted, ¡°Sister-inw!¡±


    As this was the first time Yan Liuyuan had addressed Yang Xiaojin as ¡°sister-inw,¡± she was stunned.


    Suddenly, Yan Liuyuan felt someone kick his butt. When he turned around, he saw Ren Xiaosu blushing furiously. ¡°Stop messing around!¡±


    Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin had a calm expression on her face. This was mainly because the bandits had already been addressing her as ¡°Boss Lady¡±[1] for the past few days, so she was used to it and was willing to be addressed this way.


    Xiaoyu came over to Yang Xiaojin and took out a handkerchief to wipe her face. She smiled and said, ¡°What a terrible shame for a nice girl like you! It¡¯s akin to nting a beautiful flower in cow dung.


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Hey, watch your words. Who¡¯re you saying is cow dung?!¡±


    Xiaoyu ignored him. Instead, she took out a gold bracelet and put it on for Yang Xiaojin. ¡°Big Sis doesn¡¯t have much money, and this bracelet is not heavy enough either, so please don¡¯t mind it. When Big Sis has more money, I¡¯ll buy another more expensive one for you.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin did not decline it. Rather, she smiled gleefully and said, ¡°Of course. I don¡¯t mind, I like it a lot.¡±


    [1] Boss Lady and Sister-inw mean the same thing here.

 Chapter 369 - Getting ready for battle

    <h4>Chapter 369 Getting ready for battle</h4>


    Xiaoyu kept looking at Yang Xiaojin. The more she looked at her, the more she liked her. Yang Xiaojin looked very cultured and was beautiful as well. At the same time, it did not feel like she was a delicate girl who could not fend for herself.


    Where else could she find a sister-inw like her?


    Xiaoyu was already thinking about the dowry for Ren Xiaosu before the rtionship had even started taking shape. She even wanted to ask Ren Xiaosu what he would name his child. How many children would Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin have? If they only had two, she could help take care of them. But any more than that and it would be really tough for her to handle.


    When everyone went back to work, Xiaoyu secretly asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Did you use the tent that Big Sis prepared for you?¡±


    The first thing that Xiaoyu thought about the moment they arrived here was this. When she saw that there was not even a proper ce for them to live, she knew the tent would definitelye in handy!


    But as Xiaoyu joyfully waited for his reply, Ren Xiaosu stammered, ¡°She sleeps inside the tent while I sleep outside.¡±


    Xiaoyu pinched Ren Xiaosu hard. ¡°How could you let such a good opportunity slip?!¡± He had wasted all her efforts! Everything she¡¯d done had been for nothing!


    To avoid further questioning, Ren Xiaosu quickly went over to the refugees and gathered everyone together. ¡°I believe everyone already knows that the Zong Consortium in the north probably knows that we¡¯re here. Now that the South is in chaos, we might be in danger if we continue living here.¡±


    At this moment, Jin Lan took the lead and shouted, ¡°Boss, we¡¯ll follow you wherever you go!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu paused for half a minute before suddenly saying, ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not from Stronghold 178.¡±


    He felt that a wonderful hope should not be mixed with deception. If that dream were really worth it, there should be no impurities. So he had to be honest with them.


    After the bandits gradually quieted down, Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°I know both Xu Xianchu and Zhang Jinglin, and we even have a good rtionship, but I¡¯m not actually from Stronghold 178. If any of you wish to leave, I can write you a rmendation letter. As for whether you¡¯ll be allowed to join Stronghold 178, I can¡¯t guarantee that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu waited for everyone to make their decision. He was not pinning much hope on most of them choosing to remain with him. He had spoken the truth as he did not wish to deceive this group of people anymore.


    Sure enough, most of the bandits started looking at one another after hearing what Ren Xiaosu said.


    Regardless of whether the method that Ren Xiaosu had previously used to fool them was effective or not, even though everyone enjoyed the process of earning the bullets, they only chose to stay around because they ultimately were looking to join Stronghold 178. So the moment the truth was revealed, everyone instinctively hesitated.


    Someone stepped forward and said, ¡°Boss, to be honest, I only chose to stay behind because I really wanted to go to Stronghold 178. So...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. He beckoned for Yan Liuyuan to get pen and paper, then wrote a letter to Xu Xianchu and Zhang Jinglin on the spot. However, he could not guarantee that Stronghold 178 would take them in as a favor to him.


    Once someone got the ball rolling, the next bandit stepped forward and asked for a rmendation letter as well. Even though they were very happy here, their future was much more important. It was Stronghold 178 they were talking about.


    Within half an hour, roughly one-third of the 300-odd bandits had left.


    Ren Xiaosu was not unhappy. Rather, he appeared unusually calm.


    There was no point in forcing them to stay if they wanted to leave. He was no longer willing to resort to lies in order to keep these people around.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jin Lan. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you going?¡±


    Jin Lan replied with a smile, ¡°I already guessed that was the case.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°You guessed it?¡±


    ¡°Boss, I¡¯m not stupid.¡± Jin Lan said with a smile, ¡°If Stronghold 178 really wanted to unify the valley, they wouldn¡¯t have to act so cautiously and only send two people here. With just a word from them, 99% of the bandits in the valley would take up the offer immediately.¡±


    ¡°Then you...¡± Ren Xiaosu was startled. He wanted to ask Jin Lan and the others why they did not leave if that were the case.


    Jin Lan said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m in that 1%. When you and Boss Lady jumped into the muddy river and dug for silt together with us, I decided that I would follow you and explore the opportunities in the valley. Even if it wasn¡¯t the valley, we¡¯d still have followed you wherever.¡±


    After Jin Lan spoke up, Zhang Yiheng added, ¡°There¡¯s nothing great about Stronghold 178 anyway. It gets so fucking cold there in the winter that we wouldn¡¯t even know who we are, so it¡¯s no loss even if we don¡¯t go there.¡±


    Xu Jinyuan said, ¡°Bandits don¡¯t meet with a good end. We¡¯vee across all kinds of bandit leaders before, but this is the first time I¡¯ve encountered a leader like you. It doesn¡¯t matter if we can¡¯t go to Stronghold 178. We¡¯ll just go wherever you say, Boss!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan, Yang Xiaojin, and the others were watching quietly from the side. Perhaps this was the reason why Ren Xiaosu liked it out here.


    They had been wandering through the vast wastnds for about a year now. It seemed like they had just been going from stronghold to stronghold, one after another, yet they never managed to find one they could truly call home.


    And now, it seemed like Ren Xiaosu had found it.


    Yan Liuyuan whispered, ¡°Sister-inw, I like this ce.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smiled and patted his head. ¡°Me too.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and said, ¡°Then let¡¯s head northwest. I purposely checked the records in the library and know that there¡¯s a Mt. Kushui located in the Northwest. Apparently, there¡¯s a valley in that mountain where it¡¯s spring all year ¡¯round. The clear stream that passes through the valley does not freeze even in winter.¡±


    The group of bandits looked at each other and startedughing. ¡°Then let¡¯s head to Mt. Kushui. We¡¯ve also heard of that ce before, and some of us thought about going there too. But it seems that an extremely fierce group of wild boars led by a king is active in that area, so no one¡¯s dared to go there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Everyone, get on your motorcycles and take all your luggage! We¡¯re setting off!¡±


    ¡°We can ride the motorcycles right now?¡± Xu Jinyuan¡¯s eyes lit up.


    ¡°What else would we do with these hundreds of bikes?¡± Ren Xiaosu was incredulous. ¡°You gonna push them or leave them right here?¡±


    Jin Lan mumbled, ¡°Then do we still need to earn bullets to trade them in after we get to Mt. Kushui?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu answered seriously, ¡°Of course you have to!¡±


    Jin Lan was speechless.


    The journey to Mt. Kushui in the north required them to go around the front lines at Mt. Daban, Mt. Tangwang, and Mt. Guan first, traveling about a 100 kilometers west to Mt. Kaolei. After that, they would turn and continue heading north.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu was deliberately trying to take a detour, but that he wanted to avoid all the bandits¡¯ camps in case someone discovered their movements.


    Now that the South was plunged into a state of chaos, the Zong Consortium had be an uncontroble hyena in the wilderness. The Zong Consortium had be the most dangerous presence of all.


    For this journey, each bandit gave one or two passengers a ride on their motorcycles. The female refugee riding pillion on Xu Jinyuan¡¯s bike was so happy she could die. Xu Jinyuan had always been a little reserved towards her. But it was all good now. He was finally not shy about it anymore.


    Jin Lan and the others even started teasing Xu Jinyuan. After they got to Mt. Kushui and finished building their houses there, they would hold a wedding for these two!


    But on the third day of their journey, Ren Xiaosu was taken aback when they were close to arriving at Mt. Kaolei. ¡°Stop! Stop! Stop!¡±


    Someone asked, ¡°Boss, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he looked at their surroundings. He was looking for something.


    Ren Xiaosu whispered to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Quick! Search for a vantage point! The rest of you, find a ce to hide. We¡¯re under attack!¡±


    Jin Lan reacted and hurriedly gestured to the bandits. ¡°Prepare for battle!¡±


    No one knew where the enemy was, nor even what was going on. But if Ren Xiaosu said so, it definitely meant that danger was approaching.


    Zong Cheng had performed a card trick for Ren Xiaosu after they left Stronghold 88 to head into the valley. At that time, Ren Xiaosu deliberately asked Zong Cheng if he could conjure up four ¡°fours¡± for him. When he drew the cards and covered them in his hands, he switched them out and reced the four cards with his Explosive Poker cards.


    When the two of them parted ways, his mental connection to the Explosive Poker cards ¡°snapped¡± due to the distance between them. It seemed his control over the Explosive Poker cards was also limited to a distance of around one to two kilometers. As for the specific range, Ren Xiaosu was not exactly sure.


    The reason why he was nervous now was because his connection to those four cards had returned.


    Zong Cheng was here!

 Chapter 370 - Come and kill me!

    <h4>Chapter 370 Come and kill me!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had believed it was unlikely he would ever againe across those four ying cards he had ced on Zong Cheng. But he did not find it sad and even hoped he would never have to see him again. When his new life began, he felt he no longer needed to deal with those people from the consortiums like Zong Cheng anymore.


    As they had been carefully avoiding the other bandit gangs along the way, Ren Xiaosu was very sure no one noticed their whereabouts and therefore exposed it to Zong Cheng.


    This was something Ren Xiaosu was most careful about, so there couldn¡¯t possibly be any mistakes. He had even caught the spy who had infiltrated the group in order to keep their whereabouts a secret. He also decided they would have to leave the settlement they had grown familiar with. But despite all his efforts, their whereabouts had still been exposed.


    Zong Cheng¡¯s previous route should have taken him in the northeastern direction, so based on that logic, he should absolutely not be appearing here in the west, especially not in the vicinity of Mt. Kaolei.


    Ren Xiaosu knew there could have been more than one spy hidden amid them. Moreover, the spy was so good they did not get discovered even after being put through so many observations and tests. That person could even be a former soldier of the Zong Consortium.


    A secondter, he heard a rumbling getting closer. It sounded like arge number of people were approaching the dune in front of them. Right after, a muffled explosion rang out.


    Ren Xiaosu stood in ce and asked, ¡°Did y¡¯all hear something?¡±


    It sounded like something had exploded within a hard metal container before dragging its tail across the air. It then traveled in a crazy parabolic trajectory across the sky and headed towards Ren Xiaosu and the others.


    Yang Xiaojin, who was still searching for a vantage point, suddenly turned to Ren Xiaosu and shouted, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, it¡¯s a mortar!¡±


    With a loud boom, Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at the mortar shell thatnded at Xu Jinyuan¡¯s feet. Then he was blown into the air.


    Arge amount of mud and debris was blown off the ground. That female refugee who was in love with Xu Jinyuan ran in tears to the spot where he fell. She hugged his head and cried out to him, but the man she loved no longer responded to her.


    There weren¡¯t any farewells. In a war, there would hardly ever be any chance to say goodbye.


    In fact, Xu Jinyuan was nning to marry her after they arrived at Mt. Kushui, but he just didn¡¯t know how to say it to her.


    In the middle of the night, he would lie down in the wilderness with his arm cushioning his head and ask Jin Lan, ¡°I¡¯m just a bandit. Do you think I¡¯ll be a burden to her by marrying her?¡±


    At the time, Jin Lan and the othersughed and teased Xu Jinyuan for having romantic thoughts.


    But at this moment, Jin Lan and the others were stunned by the sight of theirrade falling. ¡°Jinyuan!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu yelled, ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there! Find cover!¡±


    A fit of extreme rage sted within him. That glimmer of hope that was just starting to bloom in his soul had been utterly wrecked by a mortar shell.


    Ren Xiaosu had gotten a glimpse of that hope and their future, but the more beautiful those moments were, the more hopelessness and anger he felt now.


    He had seen that hope before.


    The enemy was prepared for the attack as they fired off more than one mortar round towards them. They were going all out to ensure that everyone here would die.


    Yan Liuyuan immediately activated his nanomachines and retreated with Xiaoyu. The others also quickly looked for concealed spots on the ground to take cover from the shelling in an effort to reduce their casualties.


    The mortar shellsnded beside them one after another. Within a minute, dozens of bandits were either killed or wounded!


    Ren Xiaosu conjured up the steam lotive out of nothing behind him and yelled, ¡°Everyone, hide in the train!¡±


    But at this moment, another mortar shellnded, directly on the steam lotive. Ren Xiaosu spat out a mouthful of blood. So it turned out that he would receive bacsh whenever the train took damage! But Ren Xiaosu did not even bother wiping off the blood on his mouth. ¡°Motherfucker.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu mumbled, ¡°Motherfucker!¡±


    Motherfucking hell!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly charged in a frenzy towards where the mortars were fired from. He went pastyer uponyer of smoke in the wilderness like an angry lion with a bloody spear stabbed in its body!


    It only took 20 seconds for Ren Xiaosu to cover that short distance of a few hundred meters ande into view of the enemy¡¯s defensive line. As it turned out, they were the Zong Consortium¡¯sbat troops.


    And there were over a 1,000 of them!


    Should he go over? If he did, he might not be able to make it out. But if he did not, the mortars would kill everyone behind him.


    Ren Xiaosu started charging again at the defensive line of over a 1,000 people. His lone figure on the deste wastnd made him resemble a solitary boat in front of a towering tsunami. At the same time, it also made him look like the most brilliant star in the sky!


    Ren Xiaosu roared, ¡°Zong Cheng, don¡¯t you want to kill me? I¡¯m right here! Where are you!¡±


    His voice reverberated like arge bell being struck. Ren Xiaosu subconsciously detonated the Explosive Poker cards, and two secondster, a fireball suddenly shot up in the air at the rear of the defensive line!


    That was the ¡°gift¡± from Ren Xiaosu to Zong Cheng, but he hated himself a little at this moment as he thought, ¡®Why didn¡¯t I finish off this hyena from the north when I had the chance!¡¯


    Self-me, remorse, and anger formed into a killing intent within him!


    But after the Explosive Poker cards exploded, there were still no signs of chaos within the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive line. This told Ren Xiaosu that something was wrong. It was not the normal way a fighting force would react when itsmander fell!


    Zong Cheng was probably not dead yet!


    How could Zong Cheng still be alive?!


    Ren Xiaosu immediately summoned his shadow clone and instantly covered his entire body with the nanoarmor. The two figures abruptly changed their direction on the battlefield and dashed towards where the Explosive Poker cards had just gone off!


    Without seeing for himself that Zong Cheng had really died, Ren Xiaosu would never be able to ept it.


    A momentter, the shadow clone rushed in against the intense gunfire ahead of Ren Xiaosu and charged straight into the battlefield where over a 1,000 soldiers were holding the line!


    The fearsome shadow clone forced a bloody path through the crowd for Ren Xiaosu to follow.


    Amid the chaos, Ren Xiaosu held his ck saber in one hand while using the other to constantly throw the grenades he had stored after pulling out the pins on them.


    After he ran out of grenades to throw, he started throwing the Explosive Poker cards next. The gratitude tokens he had originally umted to around 900 were decreasing rapidly, but he showed no signs of hesitation.


    No one was expecting Ren Xiaosu to barge into the defensive line alone, and they didn¡¯t expect him to remain unharmed up til now either.


    Ren Xiaosu started killing his way through the ranks while the surrounding Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers shot indiscriminately at him. However, they discovered that the armored monster and ck shadow did not seem like they were affected by the attacks at all.


    Someone attempted to aim an RPG at Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu deliberately chose to attack where most people were congregated. If the RPGnded there, it would definitely injure many of their own troops!


    Ren Xiaosu had single-handedly turned the entire Zong Consortium¡¯s defenses upside down!


    When Ren Xiaosu looked at his surroundings, the image of Xu Jinyuan¡¯s smiling face suddenly appeared in his mind. Then the faces of those around him turned into demonic shadows.


    But that did not matter as dawn was already here. The gods were about to rise!


    In this brand new age of ¡°The Rise of Gods,¡± superhumans were defined as those who could single-handedly go against a group of people as gods. If this definition held true, Ren Xiaosu was slowly approaching that definition regardless of how he managed to achieve it. Although, he was still a far ways away from achieving that.


    The armor on Ren Xiaosu was riddled with holes as the power for it came close to depletion.


    He rushed to the spot where the Explosive Poker cards had blown up, but to his surprise, Zong Cheng¡¯s corpse wasn¡¯t there. Ren Xiaosu roared, ¡°Come and kill me!¡±

 Chapter 371 - As brilliant as a star

    <h4>Chapter 371 As brilliant as a star</h4>


    It seemed that Zong Cheng had sensed something and given the ying cards to someone else a while ago. After the artillery bombardment on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s position, the ying cards turned into bait that led him straight into the ripping chaos of the thundering troops.


    As this was the era of supernatural beings, no one knew what kind of superpower they were up against.


    Zong Cheng was also unsure if there were any problems with those ying cards. He was only being careful not to fall into a trap, and was trying to prevent any supernatural beings from plotting against him in these strange times. As it turned out, Ren Xiaosu really came looking for him.


    Ren Xiaosu stood in the middle of the battlefield with soldiers surrounding him in heavy numbers. He had toe over, because if he did not, the artillery fire would continue bombarding the bandits and refugees until they were all dead.


    And by now, the mortar bombardment had stopped.


    The batteries of the nanomachines in Ren Xiaosu were still depleting, and some of them had crumbled off like dust due to being out of power. It was as though this unique ¡°lifeform¡± were withering away one by one.


    The shadow clone continuously circled Ren Xiaosu as it ughtered the enemies with its ck saber in hand, cutting them down like a whetstone.


    But Ren Xiaosu just stood there silently.


    He suddenly felt like he could understand Qing Zhen a little better. The humans in these wastnds sought power and ambition like ugly moths attracted to candlelight and warmth.


    Humans had been endlessly seeking power over the strongholds, resulting in them bing selfish and greedy.


    If I do not kill you, you will end up killing me. As such, the basic rule of the world was to fight to the bitter end. That was because even when the world came to an end, hope still did not exist.


    As Ren Xiaosu looked around, his tough armored figure was slowly being disintegrated into a fine dust.


    This was a trap that had been prepared for a long time. His opponent was cunning like a hyena and was about to kill him right here.


    ¡®Since you wanted me toe over, and now that I¡¯m here, why are you not showing yourself?¡¯ Ren Xiaosu roared again, ¡°Come and kill me!¡±


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers were looking at the armored young man in the crowd like he was a star in a mysterious neb of the universe.


    Scorching, dazzling, and lonely.


    However, they also felt that this was probably Ren Xiaosu¡¯s final moment of brilliance. After that, this dazzling star would be just like the afterglow of the sunset.


    Sinking into the sea.


    A hail of bullets rained down on Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone. Heavily surrounded, this lonely ind would get swallowed up by the tsunami, and the clown would mock him in delight from the waves.


    A god was about to die.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked back at where he had arrived from.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers were taken aback. Why was he looking behind him?


    Someone followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze and looked over. Suddenly, a steam lotive resembling a long dragon rushed out of a gray mist and smashed through the formation that had surrounded Ren Xiaosu!


    At the same time, the steam lotive shattered the endless despair.


    ¡°Shit, he¡¯s trying to escape!¡± someone eximed.


    ¡°Kill him!¡±


    ¡°Use the RPGs!¡±


    The soldiers wanted to use their weapons to stop the steam lotive, but not even a direct hit from the RPG could cause any damage to the train.


    The steam lotive sped through the air and threw the entire defensive line intoplete chaos.


    No one had expected such a reversal. They all thought the armored young man who had been surrounded was surely going to die!


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m here, so why don¡¯t youe out and kill me? Why don¡¯t you show yourself and kill me? You better watch out when Ie and kill you.¡±


    Then the seemingly ancient train ¡°drove¡± out into the real world. The sound of the wheels turning and the metallic nging of the tracks paving themselves was enough to terrify anyone. The railcar¡¯s smokestack suddenly spewed a cloud of thick ck smoke, and the long whistle that followed was like a bugle being blown.


    On the battlefield, the ¡°ck iron¡± steam lotive was driving straight in and headed for Ren Xiaosu who was standing there silently.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers felt a strong sense of powerlessness, as though no matter how hard they struggled, they would still have to face their fate.


    As the steam lotive drove past Ren Xiaosu, he grabbed onto Yang Xiaojin, who had stretched out her hand from the inside. He was then carried forward by the train as it sped off into the distance towards the wilderness.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt his heart ache. That wilderness had represented his hope and light.


    The soldiers at the rear concentrated their firepower on the departing train, but their firearms seemed to have no effect on the steam lotive.


    As the train drove north, Ren Xiaosu spat out another mouthful of blood after he was brought into the train through the window. Right after, the nanomachines that were still covering him also started falling off.


    Ren Xiaosu slumped into a seat in the carriage and wheezed as he leaned against the wall. Even though the nanoarmor took the damage from those vicious bullets, he still sustained internal injuries. Moreover, the damage to the steam lotive and shadow clone would be directly transferred back to him. It was a pain that normal people would never experience in their lives and was so extreme that he felt as though he were in the abyss of hell.


    At this moment, he just wanted to sit still like this until the world ended.


    More than half of the nanomachines had died in this battle and could not return to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body.


    Even he couldn¡¯t take on an entire regiment of people armed with firearms and explosives. Or rather, he could handle them for only a short period and only if he were assisted externally by something like the nanomachines.


    With the loss of more than half of his nanomachines, the armor could no longer cover his entire body. If he got shot, it would be very dangerous for him.


    Wang Yuchi and several of the other male students came up to Ren Xiaosu and held out their hands. ¡°Use ours.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at them before shaking his head and saying, ¡°Y¡¯all don¡¯t have much of them in your bodies.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan firmly said, ¡°There¡¯s mine too.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu calmly rejected him, ¡°Keep them to protect yourself.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin crouched down to help him wipe away his sweat and blood. ¡°I wasn¡¯t of any help.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°How many of our brothers are dead or injured?¡±


    Jin Lan said tearfully, ¡°More than 60 of them have died. We wanted to bring the female refugee with us, but shemitted suicide with Xu Jinyuan¡¯s gun.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu paused for 30 seconds before changing the subject. ¡°Who¡¯s familiar with the terrain around here? We can¡¯t head to Mt. Kushui anymore. There¡¯s a spy among us.¡±


    Everyone looked at one another. A spy? So it was because there was a spy who had revealed their whereabouts that caused them to get ambushed?


    Jin Lan shouted at the group, ¡°Who is the spy? Step forward!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sneered, ¡°Search everyone. This spy must have some kind ofmunication equipment to contact the Zong Consortium.¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, a bandit suddenly panicked and jumped out of the window to try to escape from the steam lotive.


    But while he was still in midair, Yang Xiaojin took out her pistol and shot him straight in his temple.


    Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°Keep searching, there might be others!¡±


    But this time, they could not find any more clues of who could be a spy.


    But Ren Xiaosu still found it hard to put his mind at ease. Even though they did not find anymunication equipment, it did not mean that there were no more spies.


    The spies seemed to have left a mark on Ren Xiaosu that made it difficult for him to trust others again. It was a mark caused by the deaths of Xu Jinyuan and the others.


    They seemed to be safe for the time being. But Ren Xiaosu¡¯s failure to kill Zong Cheng was weighing on him. His opponent was a fierce, cunning, and cruel hyena, and the feeling of disgust was overwhelming Ren Xiaosu.

 Chapter 372 - Don’t you die

    <h4>Chapter 372 Don¡¯t you die</h4>


    But at this moment, the steam lotive suddenly started shaking when something exploded in front of the train. Yang Xiaojin stood up and said, ¡°Land mines, this spot is covered withnd mines!¡±


    It seemed that Zong Cheng had not only sent arge force to ambush them with artillery fire, but also made sure to ntnd mines at any possible escape route they might take.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately paled when thend mines loaded with TNT exploded one after another in the wilderness, bombarding the steam lotive as it went past them. Even the train started turning a little more translucent, as though it would disappear at any moment.


    Each time the steam lotive set off and mine, Ren Xiaosu felt like his vitals were being torn apart.


    Everyone saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly curl up on the ground in pain. It was so painful thatrge beads of sweat started rolling down his forehead. But then, everyone realized there were two gunshot wounds on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side!


    As it turned out, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nanomachines were no longer fully protecting him while he was escaping earlier. However, Ren Xiaosu was forced to remainposed and not treat his wounds immediately since he had to deal with the spy first.


    Everyone watched Ren Xiaosu put his right index finger and middle finger into his wound. Then, he forcefully plucked out the first bullet before doing the same for the second bullet!


    Jin Lan and the others looked on in a daze. They had never met anyone so brave as to extract bullets out of their own wounds.


    Ren Xiaosu had his eyes closed, and everyst strand of hair on his body looked to be trembling


    Only then did Yan Liuyuan finally react. He quickly took out the ck medicine Ren Xiaosu had given to him and applied it onto his wound.


    But even though the wounds had been treated, the pain of the bacsh from the attacks on the steam lotive did not lessen.


    Ren Xiaosu was trembling as Yang Xiaojin hugged him tightly in her arms. She said, ¡°Put away the steam lotive and let everyone walk on foot.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu roared angrily as though he did not hear it. The steam lotive that had started turning a little translucent ¡°solidified¡± once more!


    Yang Xiaojin whispered, ¡°You¡¯ve already done enough. Ren Xiaosu, I won¡¯t have any regrets if we die together today.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to give up as well, but he had to hold on. If the steam lotive were to disappear at this moment, everyone would fall into the minefield. If that happened, all of them would die!


    Jin Lan probably understood what Ren Xiaosu was doing. He said in a daze, ¡°Boss, just give up. Let¡¯s die together.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu continued to keep his eyes closed and did not respond, but the steam lotive ¡°solidified¡± once more.


    It wasn¡¯t until the train drove for a further three kilometers before they finally got out of the wilderness zone that was filled withnd mines.


    Ren Xiaosu could take it no more. The steam lotive started to rapidly slow, but it suddenly disappeared before it could fully stop, forcing everyone to roll to the ground.


    Jin Lan heard motorcycle engines in the distance. It sounded like arge number of bandits were heading for them!


    ¡°What should we do?¡± Zhang Yiheng asked with a frown. He could already see over a 1,000 bandits in front of him.


    It was impossible for Ren Xiaosu to participate in such high-intensity battles. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked extremely pale, so it was difficult to say if he still had any strength left to put up a fight or not.


    The pain was like millions of ants biting into every nerve of Ren Xiaosu. It was so painful it could make him lose his mobility. Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth with his eyes closed without saying a word.


    They were at a dead end.


    Everyone could only watch in silence. No one could bear the burden for Ren Xiaosu.


    Some people in the group suddenly started fleeing northwest without saying anything. They stopped caring as they treasured their lives more!


    Everyone was fine with not going to Stronghold 178 and happily continuing to earn their bullets at a new settlement. But if they died here? There would be nothing left if they died here!


    Ren Xiaosu had already nted a seed of faith in their minds. Given time, the seed might even have grown into a towering tree someday.


    But there was no time anymore.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had understood it, there was no hope when the world came to an end.


    Yan Liuyuan quietly watched as hundreds of people started leaving theirpanions behind. He said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Bro, I¡¯ll stay with you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s trembling gradually lessened. It seemed that with the disappearance of the steam lotive, the pain from the bacsh had also rapidly dissipated.


    Jin Lan slowly got up from the ground and dusted himself off. He unslung the automatic rifle from his back, disengaged the safety, and cocked the weapon.


    Then he smiled at Zhang Yiheng and said, ¡°At worst, I¡¯ll go down to the Underworld to meet up with Xu Jinyuan. Those of you remaining from the 1st Squad, follow me and don¡¯t disgrace Boss!¡±


    The sound of guns being cocked rang out. Adrenaline suddenly rushed through the veins, bones, muscles, and hair of Jin Lan and the others.


    Jin Lanughed and said, ¡°Boss, get some rest for now. We¡¯ll go down first and wait there for you. Ptui, ptui, ptui, that sounds a little ominous.... I felt really happy during this period. In this chaotic world, it¡¯s good enough to have felt happy just once.¡±


    ¡°2nd Squad, take the others and get out of here!¡± Saying that, Jin Lan suddenly rushed towards the oing bandits.


    In the sunlight, Jin Lan¡¯s back seemed to be glowing


    ¡°Stop acting like a hero.¡± Zhang Yiheng wiped away his tears and yelled, ¡°Protect Boss, let¡¯s head west!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Carry him on your back.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. ¡°Sister-inw, where are you going?¡±


    But before he was done talking to her, Yang Xiaojin had already turned around and walked off into the wilderness. She wanted to create ast line of defense for Ren Xiaosu there. ¡°Don¡¯t you die.¡±


    At this moment, Jin Lan¡¯s group, who was standing behind the others, had found an ambush location behind a hill. They crouched on one knee to stabilize the gun with the method Yang Xiaojin had taught them.


    Laughing, Jin Lan shouted, ¡°Believe it or not, but I must¡¯ve been a sniper in my previous life.¡±


    Someoneughed heartily and said, ¡°No, you¡¯re not, I am!¡±


    ¡°Haha,e on, we were definitely all snipers in our previous lives!¡±


    Then Jin Lan saw the enemy bandits finally entering their range. He shouted until the veins on his neck were protruding, ¡°Open


    fire!¡±


    When the gunfire rang out, arge group of bandits right at the front of the motorcade suddenly fell to the ground.


    But too many bandits hade this time. Previously, Qing Zhen¡¯s men were holding them back in the north. But with his men deployed to the south, no one in the valley could keep these northern bandits in check anymore.


    Jin Lan¡¯s group had not undergone any formal military training before. They just imitated whatever firearms knowledge Yang Xiaojin had taught them and carried out the basics, like burst firing.


    But they did not really manage to stop the bandits from advancing south even after they had finished firing all the rounds in their magazines.


    Seeing that the motorcade was almost right in front of them now, Jin Lan¡¯s group couldn¡¯t reload amid their panic. Suddenly, he threw aside his gun in desperation and blocked the motorcycles in front of him with his body. ¡°Motherfuckers, you¡¯re not allowed to pass through me!¡±


    In that instant, Jin Lan turned his body into a barricade. One of the enemy bandits riding at the front of the motorcade made an emergency turn when he saw someone rush out from behind the hill. But Jin Lan was reluctant to let the enemy speed past him, so he jumped at the motorcycle.


    With this hijack, he actually pulled down the bandit from the motorcycle. Meanwhile, the fallen bike ended up blocking the path of the other bandits behind the rider. The bandits further back got up and started shooting mercilessly, killing Jin Lan and that fallen bandit together.


    Jin Lan smiled as he closed his eyes. ¡°Motherfucker.¡±


    This was a chaotic world where the living had no choice, and the dead were forgotten.


    Since the day they were born, there had been nothing to be happy about for them. All they received was suffering.


    But on one day, someone suddenly appeared and let them see the light and learn what hope was. Because of that, they knew they had to let this person carry on living.


    This person might very well be that ray of light.

 Chapter 373 - I want my sorrows to become the sorrows of this era

    <h4>Chapter 373 I want my sorrows to be the sorrows of this era</h4>


    North of the battlefield, Zong Cheng was standing on a hill as he waited for the oue of the battle.


    Two people were standing in wait next to Zong Cheng. The 30 nanosoldiers from the Yang Consortium stood quietly behind him. However, these nanosoldiers who were originally part of the Yang Consortium seemed to be unaffected by everything that was happening with the outside world.


    ¡°You¡¯ll probably seed this time,¡± a person beside Zong Cheng said to him.


    Zong Cheng was not exactly anxious. He exuded a calm andposed aura. ¡°We spent so much time nning this. If we fail, that would be really disheartening.¡±


    ¡°But even if you could control Yang Xiaojin, I¡¯m afraid it wouldn¡¯t affect the Yang Consortium much.¡± Someone beside him asked, ¡°Can you make her live like a normal person in the Yang Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Zong Cheng nced at him.


    However, the voice didn¡¯te from Zong Cheng¡¯s mouth. He saw a nanosoldier walk out from behind Zong Cheng with a smile and say, ¡°Han Yang, you don¡¯t understand. The Yang Consortium will be helpless now that they¡¯re facing Qing Zhen, so I¡¯m not too interested in the Yang Consortium anymore.¡± Zong Cheng said calmly, ¡°What I¡¯m targeting is the power of the organization behind her. The Saboteurs are currently controlled by her aunt, so that role will definitely be passed to her someday. I don¡¯t even have to do much. I just bide my time.¡±


    These ¡°puppets¡± that were controlled by Zong Cheng were just like Zong Cheng himself.


    ¡°What about Ren Xiaosu?¡± Han Yang wondered, ¡°Do you want to leave him around?¡±


    Zong Cheng was somewhat hesitant. His original n was to go to Stronghold 88 and find an opportunity to take Yang Xiaojin outside. Then, he would use his superpower to control Yang Xiaojin before letting her go back and live like a normal person.


    But Zong Cheng did not eye Yang Xiaojin¡¯s influence within the Yang Consortium from the start. He was only interested in her influence with the Saboteurs.


    He was a supernatural being himself, so he understood what it meant when organizations like the Pyro Company and Saboteurs started bringing together supernatural beings. That would truly tilt the bnce of power in the world.


    Meanwhile, Zong Cheng would not even need to spend too much effort on the Saboteurs. He would only require Yang Xiaojin to get the entire Saboteurs involved.


    However, an unexpected involvement from Ren Xiaosu happened. When he first learned that Ren Xiaosu was Zhang Jinglin¡¯s student, he was absolutely ecstatic on the inside. If the sessor to Stronghold 178 were to fall into his hands, the Zong Consortium would be like a tiger that had grown wings.


    Zong Cheng loved his superpower. It was a hand that could control everything from behind the scenes. He could easily gain the status and power of others and control them like a puppet.


    However, Wang Congyang said that Ren Xiaosu did not really seem to have that good a rtionship with Zhang Jinglin. This made Zong Cheng a little hesitant. He knew that what Wang Congyang said might not be the truth, but even Zong Cheng doubted that Zhang Jinglin really looked upon Ren Xiaosu as his sessor to Stronghold 178. Wasn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu a little too young? Furthermore, could Ren Xiaosu convince the masses?


    Zhang Jinglin had been at Stronghold 178 for over a decade before he was able to fully win over the masses. As a member of Stronghold 178, everyone was even more supportive of him.


    But Ren Xiaosu was different. To the current Stronghold 178, he should still be considered an outsider, right?


    So after careful consideration, Zong Cheng still felt that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s value was clearly not as great as Yang Xiaojin¡¯s.


    Yang Xiaojin and the leader of the Saboteurs were blood rtives, and Yang Xiaojin was also publicly acknowledged as the sessor of the Saboteurs.


    ¡°Han Yang, you should go along as well. It¡¯s best if Ren Xiaosu is captured alive. If you can¡¯t, just kill him,¡± Zong Cheng said calmly.


    Even if he could only get his hands on Yang Xiaojin, it would still be a sess.


    The group led by Jin Lan only numbered around a dozen people, and they ultimately could not stand up to the torrent of northern bandits riding motorcycles.


    Zhang Yiheng was walking along when he suddenly came to a stop beside Ren Xiaosu. He looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was still panting hard on Yan Liuyuan¡¯s back, and said, ¡°Boss, I¡¯m going too.¡±


    After that, Zhang Yiheng turned around and said, ¡°2nd Squad brothers! Follow me!¡±


    Their groupughed and headed to wee the bandits. ¡°We can¡¯t have Jin Lan get all the fun, right?¡±


    Zhang Yiheng asked, ¡°Do y¡¯all me me? If I hadn¡¯t brought y¡¯all here from the mountain hideout, you might not be dying today.¡±


    Someone said, ¡°There wasn¡¯t really a point in living back where we were.¡±


    Zhang Yiheng smiled and said, ¡°Yeah, it was boring.¡±


    ¡°I wonder where we¡¯ll go after we die. Underground?¡± one of the bandits asked as he inspected his gun.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. In any case, study hard in your next life and learn a handy skill. Look at that Xu Jinyuan. Just because he knew how to build a house, he attracted that woman into pulling him into her house every day,¡± Zhang Yiheng lightheartedly mocked. ¡°I¡¯ll have to learn how to build a house in my next life as well.¡±


    ¡°I wonder if I¡¯ll get to meet Boss again in my next life?¡±


    ¡°We should be able to reincarnate in time to meet him.¡±


    ¡°Does anyone have a poem for the situation we¡¯re in?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, who would fucking know something like that?¡±


    These people had never been educated in their entire lives. When they were living in town, only the richer families could send their children to school. For them, they were sent to the factories and coal mines by the organizations.


    It was precisely because they could not stand those dark days that they became bandits. Now that they saw the light and knew what hope was, they preferred to die with some dignity.


    Suddenly, a sniper rifle boomed from a hill in the distance. Then a motorcycle in the cluster of bikes exploded into a huge fireball. Following that, the motorcycles exploded into balls of fire one after another. Yang Xiaojin was once again using her specialty to dominate the battlefield.


    But there were too many bandits, and they were still getting closer!


    Zhang Yiheng turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back. He shouted, ¡°We¡¯re gonna fucking take them on! My name is Zhang Yiheng! I¡¯m a hero too!¡±


    Zhang Yiheng did not know why he shouted out his name, but he felt that this was probably the most glorious moment in his life.


    From this moment on, it wasn¡¯t Zhang Yiheng who needed the world, but the world that needed Zhang Yiheng! He was not going to retreat, not even a single step!


    Yan Liuyuan did not turn around. He did his best to carry Ren Xiaosu as he ran west. Every nanomachine was making an agonizing sound inside his body at the burden they were carrying. Yan Liuyuan was already pushing his limits.


    ¡°Bro, does this world not want to see us lead a good life?¡± Yan Liuyuan panted as he spoke.


    ¡°We¡¯ve already left the stronghold. We were already nning to hide in the wilderness and not have anything to do with them, so why are they still doing this?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan ran while carrying Ren Xiaosu and asked nkly, ¡°Bro, are these the sorrows of this era?¡±


    He was not sad for Jin Lan and the others since he had never interacted with them before. Nor did he think that these people were that heroic, because he had witnessed a more heroic act before.


    It was just that this era did not seem like it had any intention of letting anyone lead a good life.


    In this chaotic world, one could only dream if they sought to better their lives.


    Ren Xiaosu was still a young man and did not used to understand why Zhang Jinglin was so tired of war. He also did not understand why Qing Zhen and Li Shentan would bother fighting to the death with their enemies.


    But now he and Yan Liuyuan understood why the world was called chaotic. It was because no one would be spared from it.


    Without enough power, there would be no way to build a ce of one¡¯s dreams. Before achieving absolute power, everything else was just wishful thinking.


    In the past month, everything that had happened in this valley was like an indulgence for Ren Xiaosu. In his 17 years of struggling and suffering, he had never seen his hands create something so beautiful before.


    So even though everything felt really surreal, he was still willing to give up his rationality and believe it was all true.


    It was a normal day today, just like any other day before.


    But when the bullets arrived on the battlefield, the peace from before vanished into thin air.


    Yan Liuyuan did not dare to use Curse Maniption because Ren Xiaosu was on his back. Right now, Yan Liuyuan was unsure if he could help Ren Xiaosu avoid the bacsh together with him. If the bacsh hit Ren Xiaosu, it would be over for him.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s weak voice came from behind. ¡°Put me down.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan pursed his lips and did not say anything as he continued running.


    The sound of the sniper rifle ringing in his ears was like an artillery bombardment, but there were too many northern bandits here. They had broken through the suppressive fire ande to where Zhang Yiheng was!


    Ren Xiaosu said while trembling, ¡°Liuyuan, put me down.¡±


    He struggled while on Yan Liuyuan¡¯s back, but the pain was still numbing his nerves. Although the pain was gradually fading away, he still remained helpless at this moment.


    Right at this moment, the northern bandits went around the defensive position Zhang Yiheng and the others were guarding. They split into two groups, and one of them rushed towards the sniper, while the other chased after Yan Liuyuan andpany.


    More than 400 members of the northern bandits remained behind. Their numbers were too great for Zhang Yiheng and his people to stand up to.


    When Zhang Yiheng saw the bandits going around them, he immediately got anxious. ¡°Stop right there! Come and kill me instead!¡±


    But the bandits did not care about them.


    Yan Liuyuan saw that the bandits were about to reach them, and no one could stop them.


    Five plum blossoms suddenly flew out of Jiang Wu¡¯s arm with five crimson petals on each of them.


    In the intense wind, Jiang Wu¡¯s petals flew towards the bandits like des. But there were far too few petals. It was still not enough.


    After one of the de petals flew towards a bandit and sliced the life out of him, it transformed into a red glow before fading away. However, there were still hundreds of bandits around.


    Jiang Wu gritted her teeth and three plum blossoms bloomed again from the markings of a plum blossom stalk on her arm.


    But that was still not enough. She was about to attempt to burn up her life force as someone else had once done.


    Wang Yuchi pulled her back and said calmly, ¡°Teacher, we¡¯re still here.¡± Then Wang Yuchi picked up his gun and prepared to charge.


    At this moment, a surge of bandits were charging in Yang Xiaojin¡¯s direction. Yang Xiaojin was a sniper, so how could she kill so many bandits in a short time?


    Then Yan Liuyuan stopped in his tracks. He turned around and said to Jiang Wu, ¡°Ms. Jiang, carry my brother on your back and keep walking forward. Don¡¯t turn back.¡± He ced Ren Xiaosu on Jiang Wu¡¯s back and walked alone towards the battlefield and towards disaster.


    Xiaoyu shouted at the top of her lungs, ¡°Liuyuan, what are you doing?!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said calmly, ¡°Uncle Fugui, take Big Sister Xiaoyu and go.¡±


    Xiaoyu tried her best to break free from Wang Fugui¡¯s grip. Meanwhile, Wang Fugui felt terribly awful on the inside.


    He did not know what Yan Liuyuan was trying to do, but he knew he could not let go of her hand. If he let go of her, something could happen to Li Xiaoyu as well.


    Xiaoyu cried out, ¡°Liuyuan,e back here. What are you doing!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan turned around and smiled at Xiaoyu. ¡°I want my sorrows to be the sorrows of this era.¡±


    After that, Yan Liuyuan gradually stepped away. This was an era on the decline, and a new era was definitely arriving.


    But how strong would you have to be to build an era filled with hope? Yan Liuyuan did not know, but he felt that Ren Xiaosu should be able to do it.


    Suddenly, dark clouds appeared in the sky, and the distant earth let out a keening cry.


    This was a time when gods seemed to be walking the Earth again¡ªthe era of ¡°The Rise of Gods.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan walked towards the oing bandits step by step. Suddenly, a gray aura wrapped around him like an evil dragon representing cmity.


    The beast whose heart was bound was roaring. It was roaring at this era!


    Yan Liuyuan, who was just a harmless boy-next-door in the past, had mastered the power of wishes and curses.


    No one knew what he could do, nor did anyone know the extremes of his curses.


    Now he was cursing the sky to copse and the ground to split. And so, the ground really broke apart.


    As Yan Liuyuan overexerted his power, his willpower suddenly stabbed and gave him a splitting headache.


    Finally, two teary streams of blood flowed down his cheeks.


    ¡°Hnnng, this won¡¯t kill me,¡± Yan Liuyuan said softly. He did not feel any sadness. All he wanted was to bury this old era together with the world.


    ¡°Bro, it¡¯s time that I protected you now and that impending new era as well,¡± Yan Liuyuan said softly.


    In the distance, a huge amount of energy abruptly burst out of the trembling crust. Cracks suddenly started spreading across the ground just like the one that had originated from the Jing Mountains and was capable of tearing the strongholds apart. Almost instantaneously, the ground in front of the bandits broke apart.


    It was almost exactly the same as back then.


    That was the force of nature that Yan Liuyuan had witnessed with his own eyes and was now being released by him.


    The fracture cut through the ground like a knife as the world rumbled loudly like it was about to copse.


    The fracture reached all the way to the bandits and trapped them in an abyss they could not ovee.


    Deep below the abyss was an endless darkness. When the winds of the wilderness blew into it, it sounded like a behemoth lived in it.


    However, the fault did not stop as it continued shooting northwards. Yan Liuyuan could not see any threat in the north, but he felt a very disgusting existence there that needed to be erased from this world.


    When Zong Cheng, who was in the north, saw this scene from afar, he was scared out of his mind. He had not thought there would be such a powerful supernatural being in this world!


    ¡°Run!¡± Zong Cheng¡¯s calm demeanor disappeared. He madly dashed to the side to avoid it, but the fault kept chasing after him. He could not shake it off.


    However, Zong Cheng realized the fault was running out of momentum. He was too far away from the battlefield. Even with Yan Liuyuan¡¯s full-power attack, he could not kill Zong Cheng, who was several kilometers away.


    Gradually, the fracture came to a halt before the abyss slowly started closing up.


    Zong Cheng¡¯s heart sank as he fled north with the nanosoldiers.


    He never expected the bandits charging Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu would be buried alive by an abyss!


    After surveying the area through her scope, Yang Xiaojin looked up at the young man who had summoned the cmity.


    Zhang Yiheng and the others stared nkly at the sight before them. They had survived?


    Was this... the power of the gods?


    Yan Liuyuan just stood quietly and waited for the bacsh.


    Since the curse was a natural disaster, the bacsh would also be a natural disaster.


    Suddenly, a loud rumble came from the west. It sounded like the galloping of thousands of horses. Yan Liuyuan understood that a flood wasing


    Yan Liuyuan used whatever was left of his strength and shouted at Wang Fugui and the others, ¡°Run for higher ground!¡±


    Then he slowly sat onto the ground in his weakened state. His nanomachines were out of energy, and the curse he had overexerted his willpower to cast left him unable to avoid the bacsh. He could only wait for fate¡¯s judgment.


    Every spring, the floods in the valley would arrive as expected. When that happened, the valley would form a new river, and most of thendscape here would be changed by the flood.


    But the difference was that the peak of this year¡¯s floods seemed to have arrived a few days early.


    A boundless amount of water gathered upstream, which then crashed down like an avnche. It was cascading at a speed faster than the blink of an eye!


    Yan Liuyuan could already hear trees breaking upstream. He turned around and looked up into the distance at the floodwaters that were towering high. It was going to crash down on them!


    But then he saw Ren Xiaosu break free from Jiang Wu¡¯s back. Xiaoyu had broken free from Wang Fugui¡¯s grip as well.


    While everyone else was running for higher ground, Ren Xiaosu and Xiaoyu were running towards him with all their might. Yan Liuyuan was stunned. ¡°Bro...¡±


    As the crest of the flood arrived, Wang Fugui and the others who were uphill could not avoid the rushing waters in time and got dragged into the waves. The plum blossom branches on Jiang Wu¡¯s arm suddenly materialized an extension of themselves, and the long plum branches tied everyone together as they got swept down along the river.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the rushing of the floodwatersing up from behind, he knew it might be toote. As such, Yan Liuyuan heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s angry bellow as he shouted, ¡°City Crusher!¡±


    An instantter, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s speed increased again. He suddenly arrived in the front of Yan Liuyuan as the torrent of floodwaters touched his back.


    But yet another unexpected event urred! A supernatural being suddenly appeared atop a hill in the north. It was none other than Zong Cheng¡¯s subordinate, Han Yang!


    In an instant, Han Yang raised his arm and a bright red spear appeared in his hand. When he tossed the spear, Yan Liuyuan said anxiously, ¡°Bro, dodge it!¡±


    The spear looked like it was soaring through the bounds of mortality.


    Ren Xiaosu also knew there was danger behind them, but he did not care. He forcefully grabbed Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu¡¯s arms before City Crusher could deactivate and flung them onto the shore. After Xiaoyunded on the ground, she passed out.


    In midair, Yan Liuyuan saw the sharp red spear pierce Ren Xiaosu¡¯s right side.


    The long stream of floodwaters split the north and south into two different worlds. Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were looking at each other from afar across the lengthy river of time. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s abdomen was bleeding profusely, but he smiled at Yan Liuyuan as though nothing had happened and said, ¡°Don¡¯t you die.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu got swept away by the floods and disappeared within the murky waters.


    ¡°Bro, wait for me!¡± Yan Liuyuan cried out in grief. He wanted to get up and give chase down the river, but he lost all strength when he stood up and fainted.


    Suddenly, the wolf pack in the south headed north. The Wolf King rushed to where Yan Liuyuan was without caring about the floodwaters. When it came to Yan Liuyuan¡¯s side, it picked Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan up with its mouth and left.


    Right after, the floodwaters came in and engulfed the area where they had just been.


    End of Volume Three: The Sorrows of Our Era


    Next Volume: Ruler of the Nortnds

 Chapter 374 - Yang Xiaojin’s revenge

    <h4><strong>Chapter 374</strong> Yang Xiaojin¡¯s revenge</h4>


    Han Yang was escaping. The floods had stopped his enemies on the other side of the river, but there was still someone chasing after him relentlessly. If not for his past experience in the army, he would have already died at the hands of his pursuer.


    Earlier, Zong Cheng had escaped back to the Zong Consortium in advance because Yan Liuyuan had disyed a power that was too shocking.


    As such, Han Yang had been left behind by others. He was just a sacrificial pawn now.


    Upon reaching the outlying area of Mt. Guan, Han Yang carefully made his way into a small stream flowing out of the valley. This was an area he was familiar with. The bandits controlled by the Zong Consortium used to be stationed inside of Mt. Guan.


    The outside world thought the bandits in the valley had gone out of control. However, as the main party in this matter, how could the Zong Consortium havepletely lost control of this ce? All of the bandits at Mt. Guan still remained under the control of the Zong Consortium.


    When he arrived here, Han Yang heaved a sigh of relief. He knew he was almost safe.


    However, the most dangerous moment when walking a tightrope was thest three steps. Han Yang heaved a sigh of relief before resuming his alertness.


    The ghostly opponent behind him was definitely still tracking him. He couldn¡¯t afford to be careless.


    But all of a sudden, Han Yang felt like his heart and lungs had been torn apart. A great force of inertia hit from his right and sent him right into the stream. He could not resist this force.


    A bullet spinning at high speed passed through the gap between his ribs. The massive tearing force ripped his muscles apart like they were wadding while his heart was pulverized.


    Only now did the sound of the sniper rifle reach his ears. Han Yang fell into the stream with his blood flowing from his wound, dyeing the water red. Heid on his back and watched the sky appear to darken before his life faded away.


    In the distance, Yang Xiaojin got off the ground. In order to hunt down Han Yang, she had spent the past two days and two nights awake.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s eyes were bloodshot, but it wasn¡¯t clear if it was due to crying or ack of sleep.


    She had a chance to finish off Han Yang earlier, but she held back so Han Yang would experience the same pain as Ren Xiaosu.


    No, she wanted Han Yang to experience even more intense pain.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was feeling a little lost. The other day, she had sprinted in a frenzy to the river to search for Ren Xiaosu. Even if he had really died, she needed to see his body first.


    But the river was moving too fast. She could not keep up even after running with all her might for several kilometers. All she could do was helplessly watch as the river took Ren Xiaosu further away.


    Even supernatural beings had limited endurance when running at full speed.


    Seeing that she could not keep up with the floodwaters, she forded the river at a narrow point to chase Han Yang down all the way to Mt. Guan.


    But what to do after killing Han Yang? Would she go after Zong Cheng next?


    However, just killing Zong Cheng would not quench her hatred for him.


    Suddenly, a white paper crane flew onto her shoulder. Yang Xiaojin was stunned for a moment before opening up the paper crane. She saw a line of beautifully written words on it: ¡°Come to the Central ins. After the matter here is handled, Auntie will help you to finish off the Zong Consortium.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes, he felt as though he had lost all his strength. And he heard someone say in surprise, ¡°He¡¯s awake.¡±


    The voice belonged to a girl. Ren Xiaosu looked over in silence and saw a girl who was around the same age as him looking at him from the passenger seat.


    He was lying in the back of an off-road vehicle with the backseatid out t like a bed.


    The girl picked up the vehicle¡¯s walkie-talkie and said, ¡°Big Bro, the injured boy has regained consciousness.¡±


    The vehicle slowly came to a stop. Ren Xiaosu had not said a single word since he came around. He had not figured out what had happened yet, but he could feel a sharp pain in the right side of his abdomen throughout all this.


    The door opened and he saw a middle-aged man in a wheelchair being pushed over.


    The middle-aged man smiled and said, ¡°Hello, my name is Wang Shengzhi. We had found you by the river unconscious and severely injured, so we made the decision to bring you with us. I hope you don¡¯t mind.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Are my injuries serious?¡±


    ¡°I have to congratte you on that,¡± Wang Shengzhi said with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. What was there to congratte?


    Sensing the doubt in Ren Xiaosu, Wang Shengzhi kept his smile and said, ¡°The wound you suffered happened to be right at your appendix. Whatever prated you actually cut it off for you, so you don¡¯t have to worry about getting appendicitis anymore.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    The young girl smiled. ¡°My name is Wang Shengyin. How did you get injured?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied without any hesitation, ¡°We were farming, but when the floods arrived, our settlement was wiped out. I was carried away by the floodwaters and hit into a tree where a branch went right through my abdomen.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± Wang Shengzhi nodded with a smile. He did not seem like he had any intention of getting to the bottom of how this wound was inflicted.


    But Ren Xiaosu had some hesitations of where these people were from. Where were they going?


    In this era, anyone who had an off-road vehicle was no ordinary person. But even though Wang Shengzhi sat in a wheelchair, Ren Xiaosu could vaguely sense that he was the person in charge of this convoy.


    Ren Xiaosu did not wish to tell the truth. He no longer trusted anyone.


    There was a time when he wanted to believe in something, but that brought about a disaster. Since he experienced that, he definitely had to remember the pain.


    Wang Shengzhi asked, ¡°It¡¯s not convenient for you to move about. Why don¡¯t you follow us and wait until your injuries are healed before making any ns?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked in return, ¡°Where are y¡¯all headed?¡±


    ¡°Stronghold 178.¡± Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°We¡¯re from the Central ins and are heading to Stronghold 178. Do you know about Stronghold 178?¡±.


    ¡°I do.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°But I¡¯ve never been there before.¡±


    Only at this time did Ren Xiaosu realize these people were actually from the Central ins to the east. So these were... Central insmen?


    He had been swept along by the flood to the east. But in the end, he was brought back to the Northwest by these people. It was in the exact opposite direction.


    But why were these people going to Stronghold 178? Ren Xiaosu noticed that everyone in the vehicle was dressed in casual attire, and there weren¡¯t any special symbols in the vehicle either.


    ¡°OK.¡± Wang Shengzhi nodded and said, ¡°Since your home has been washed away by the floods,e with us to Stronghold 178. Who knows, you might be able to find a ce there and settle down.¡±


    When he heard the word ¡°home,¡± Ren Xiaosu felt a sharp pain in his heart. Wang Shengzhi saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression and said, ¡°Apologies for reminding you of your painful memories.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not try to hide it. After all, he should be like a distressed refugee right now. He paused before saying, ¡°Stronghold 178 doesn¡¯t ept outsiders.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°I have some connections with Commander Zhang over there. Perhaps we can help put in a word for you. Even if that doesn¡¯t work, we can¡¯t just leave you out here in this wilderness.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. ¡°Alright, thank you then.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s injuries were indeed very serious. A sense of helplessness permeated throughout his entire being and into his bones, and he did not even have the ability to think properly.


    He was too seriously injured this time, so he needed to find an opportunity to apply the ck medicine on himself as soon as possible.


    When the convoy got back on the road, Ren Xiaosu asked to make conversation, ¡°Very few people from the Central inse to the Northwest. Why have y¡¯alle to such a poor ce?¡±


    The girl answered as though she did not have any reservations, ¡°We¡¯re here to open up the trade routes in the Northwest.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this for a moment. Open up the trade routes? Would the Zong Consortium, spread across the trade routes, agree to that?

 Chapter 375 - Traveling together

    <h4>Chapter 375 Traveling together</h4>


    The group headed to Stronghold 178 from the Central ins did not consist of a lot of people. Although Ren Xiaosu was badly injured and immobilized in the backseat, he could roughly tell that there were about 20 of them. The six off-road vehicles formed a convoy, with one of them pulling along a supplies trailer.


    The key figures of the convoy were probably the pair of siblings named Wang Shengzhi and Wang Shengyin. However, the two of them did not put on any airs. They seemed to be very easygoing, and the other people in the convoy did not feel any pressure in their presence.


    As they traveled, Ren Xiaosu checked on his wound. The tear in his right side was horrific. Fortunately, these people had stitched it up for him. Otherwise, he would probably have died before he could evene around and apply the ck medicine on himself. The sutures over the wound were straight and neat. He could tell the person who did it was meticulous.


    Listening to what these people were saying, Ren Xiaosu realized he had been swept by the floodwaters to more than a 100 kilometers away. He did not even know how he survived.


    When it was time to eat, Wang Shengzhi¡¯s subordinates brought over some piping hot food for Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu ate silently in the vehicle. But as everyone in the convoy knew that he had just survived a disaster, they thought it was normal for him to be quiet.


    After sunset, the convoy set up camp on schedule. Ren Xiaosu heard them discussing the entire Northwestern and Southwestern situation by the campfire. A man said, ¡°Why did a war suddenly break out there? Hasn¡¯t it been several decades since any conflicts happened in the region? We never used to pay attention to that area.¡±


    However, Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, ¡°In the past, it was because that ce was quite inessible by traffic. Meanwhile, the ns in the Central ins took no interest in the Southwest either. They could not even handle the matters back home, so how could they have time to care about whatever was happening over there? We don¡¯t really have any dealings in that region anyway.¡±


    The Southwest was destined to be an isted region due to its geographical location. However, it seemed that because of the sudden war that happened recently, some people in the Central ins started paying attention to it.


    ¡°It¡¯s said that Qing Zhen is an extremely formidable figure.¡± Wang Shengyin thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Although we don¡¯t know the details of the war, after the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium were done dealing with the Li Consortium, it seems that the Yang Consortium also got yed by Qing Zhen. We must definitely be careful of a belligerent like him.¡±


    To the eyes of an outsider, the developments in this war looked like Qing Zhen had been controlling it entirely on his own. From the beginning to the end, the war fully emanated Qing Zhen¡¯s ambitions and ns.


    However, only those who were in the know understood that Qing Zhen had only been doing whatever it took to protect himself all this while.


    Just as Qing Zhen had said, if he had been given more free rein previously, he might not have be the head of the Qing Consortium now.


    In the current times, those who were satisfied with the status quo would eventually get destroyed and die. On a long and dark road, no one could turn around until they saw the light.


    Someone suddenly turned around and asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Aren¡¯t you from the Northwest? Do you know how the war started?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯m only a refugee. Why would I know about those things?¡±


    The person speaking scratched his head. ¡°True, these matters are really far from you, hahaha. I guessed I asked for nothing then.¡±


    When Wang Shengyin heard that, she asked Ren Xiaosu, who was half-propped up in the vehicle, ¡°By the way, I haven¡¯t asked you your name yet.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. ¡°My name is Ren Xiaosu. My family was also swept away by the floodwaters. If you encounter anyone looking for me in the Central ins, please tell them that I¡¯m still alive.¡±


    This was the most Ren Xiaosu had spoken in days.


    Ren Xiaosu had wanted to hide his identity, but it was not like these people knew much about the Northwest and Southwest anyway. So Ren Xiaosu dismissed the thought and gave his real name. Moreover, he was hoping to find his lost family. His name should be considered quite unique since it didn¡¯t contain any repetition. If Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others heard his name mentioned, they would definitelye looking for him.


    In fact, he would also have liked to go look for Yan Liuyuan and the others. But finding people in this vast world was simply too difficult. He still had more important things he needed to handle.


    During this period, Ren Xiaosu would have to pay back the suffering and despair the Zong Consortium had inflicted on him. However, his strength alone was limited, so Ren Xiaosu was thinking about how he could get support for his cause. Now that this group of people in front of him were thinking of opening up the Northwestern trade routes, perhaps this would be his chance.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that he could understand Li Shentan much better. Back then, he thought Li Shentan was like a demon. But now, Ren Xiaosu finally understood that when you were not living in a state of pain and hatred yourself, you shouldn¡¯t be trying to persuade others to be kinder.


    Of course, understanding was one thing, but being friends was another.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Are there any wars in the Central ins?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi nced at him and said, ¡°That¡¯s a ce that any military would be willing to fight for.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Wang Shengzhi meant that there were also wars happening in the Central ins. He asked, ¡°Don¡¯t they all say that the Central ins are a prosperous and wealthy ce?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi smiled. ¡°It¡¯s precisely because it¡¯s prosperous and rich that wars happen. There¡¯s no contradiction between the two.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not probe further. That wouldn¡¯t match his current status as a normal refugee. But Wang Shengyin¡¯s interest did get piqued, and she got in the mood to chat. ¡°What do you refugees in the Northwest usually do?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu calmly answered, ¡°Farming, brick making, and digging ditches to irrigate the crops.¡±


    ¡°How long does it take to fire a kiln of bricks?¡± Wang Shengyin asked.


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°The ck bricks take about 13 days to make, but that also depends on how long we take to cool the kiln down with water. We haven¡¯t fired any red bricks before, so I don¡¯t know how long those take to make.¡±


    Wang Shengyin nodded and did not ask anything else. The questions might have seemed casual, but there was actually intent behind them.


    But at this moment, several military transport trucks suddenly drove over from the northwestern direction. Everyone stopped talking and looked over. When Ren Xiaosu saw the mark of a long saber on the vehicles, his heart sank. That was the symbol of the Zong Consortium.


    They were still at least a 100 kilometers away from the Zong Consortium, so why would their people suddenly appear here?


    Ren Xiaosu shifted himself further into the vehicle and kept his face hidden in the shadows within.


    Meanwhile, Wang Shengzhi and the others remained seated by the campfire like they were not worried at all.


    Those vehicles stopped next to the campsite, and threebat toons from the Zong Consortium disembarked. The leader was a tall and broad-shouldered man. He looked like an officer of the Zong Consortium. He frowned and asked, ¡°Who are you people?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi turned his wheelchair around to the officer and said with a smile, ¡°We¡¯re from the Central ins and are headed to Stronghold 178. Who are you?¡±


    The officer did not answer Wang Shengzhi¡¯s question. Instead, he continued asking, ¡°What are you going to Stronghold 178 for?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re going there to do business,¡± Wang Shengzhi replied briefly.


    ¡°This route is controlled by our Zong Consortium. Why don¡¯t you alle back with me to the Zong Consortium first and we¡¯ll let everyone leave after we get a clear understanding of the situation?¡± the officer said. It sounded like this officer was still being polite as he was unsure of who he was speaking to.


    However, Wang Shengyin said, ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t we have to take a detour? We¡¯ll just stick to our nned route and mind our business without troubling the Zong Consortium.¡±


    At that, the Zong Consortium officer dropped his polite tone and said to the soldiers beside him, ¡°Take them back.¡±


    Then they heard the Zong Consortium officer say to Wang Shengzhi, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, everyone. You¡¯re not allowed to enter this area.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered if the Zong Consortium was trying to iste Stronghold 178 in the Northwest and prevent any contact between them and the Central ins.

 Chapter 376 - Zhou Yinglong

    <h4>Chapter 376 Zhou Yinglong</h4>


    The Zong Consortium officer seemed very insistent on bringing Wang Shengzhi andpany away, with his threebat toons already starting to surround them.


    When Wang Shengyin saw Ren Xiaosu hiding in the shadows within the vehicle, sheforted him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll be fine. The Zong Consortium won¡¯t dare do anything to us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu acknowledged her and quietly put the Explosive Poker cards in his hand back into the pce.


    Wang Shengyin probably thought Ren Xiaosu was afraid of the consortium¡¯sbat troops, but he was actually worried that his identity would be exposed.


    The Zong Consortium should not know he was still alive, but just in case, it was better that he not reveal himself.


    Yesterday, Ren Xiaosu applied the ck medicine on himself. But the problem was that after his wound had been stitched up, the ck medicine did not work as effectively on his internal organs.


    Wang Shengzhi said to the Zong Consortium officer with a smile, ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so anxious. Just look at me. Could a handicapped person like me possibly get away from you all? We can go back to the Zong Consortium with you for questioning, but can you help us prepare some delicacies from the Zong Consortium¡¯s stronghold?¡±


    When he said that, even Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He did not expect Wang Shengzhi to suddenly bring up the topic of getting something to eat. Why did it feel like he treated this as a vacation to the Zong Consortium¡¯s stronghold? Furthermore, Wang Shengzhi didn¡¯t seem to mind talking about his disability at all. He had a very good mindset about things.


    But right at this moment, a car engine thrummed from afar again. The Zong Consortium officer was taken aback. Wang Shengzhi¡¯s smile broadened as he said, ¡°It looks like we can¡¯t make the trip anymore. If there¡¯s another chance in the future, we¡¯ll definitely go there.¡±


    As he said that, an off-road vehicle appeared on the horizon. From afar, this off-road vehicle¡¯s lone presence seemed a little weakpared to the Zong Consortium¡¯sbat troops.


    But on that off-road vehicle were three numbers: 178.


    Typical organizations would usually put their emblem on their vehicles, but the symbol of Stronghold 178 was just 178. Everyone seemed to recognize these three numbers.


    The people in the off-road vehicle were probably here to receive Wang Shengzhi and the others. But with only one vehicleing, would the Zong Consortium let them leave?


    Ren Xiaosu quietly sat in the backseat of the vehicle. When the off-road vehicle arrived in front of everyone, the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers did not dare move or even raise their guns.


    A burly man jumped out of the off-road vehicle and said with augh, ¡°I¡¯m Zhou Yinglong from Stronghold 178. Which one of you is Wang Shengzhi? Themander has asked me toe and bring you all to Stronghold 178.¡±


    It would have still been fine if it was just one vehicle, but it turned out that there was only one person in the car as well.


    But when the Zong Consortium officer heard the name ¡°Zhou Yinglong,¡± Ren Xiaosu noticed the immediate change in his expression.


    Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°Me, sorry to trouble you, brother.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong looked around at the surrounding Zong Consortium soldiers. ¡°What is the Zong Consortium doing here? Trying to intercept us?¡±


    That officer of the Zong Consortium dropped his serious face from before. He turned around and said with a smile, ¡°No, no, we just wanted to invite the guests from the Central ins for a visit to our Zong Consortium¡¯s stronghold.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s so good about your Zong Consortium¡¯s stronghold? Bug off!¡± Zhou Yinglong sneered and said, ¡°How dare you stop Commander Zhang¡¯s guest? You all must¡¯ve grown a pairtely, huh? Disappear from my sight! Otherwise, don¡¯t me me for being rude.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was around 1.9 meters tall. His stature was like that of a beast, and his square face was full of vigor.


    He was actually trying to threaten nearly a 100 regr soldiers from the Zong Consortium into backing off all by himself? But what was even more shocking was that the Zong Consortium officer really got back into his vehicle and left in a hurry.


    Zhou Yinglong watched as the Zong Consortium¡¯s vehicles fled and muttered, ¡°Fuck, I almost yed it too big. If I had known, I would¡¯ve asked the Commander to let me bring more people with me....¡±


    Wang Shengzhi and the others looked at each other speechlessly. Zhou Yinglong turned around and said to him with a smile, ¡°Follow my car and we¡¯ll head straight to Stronghold 178. Commander Zhang is already waiting for you.¡±


    ¡°How long will it take to get to Stronghold 178?¡± Wang Shengyin asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s approximately a four or five-day journey.¡± Zhou Yinglong said, ¡°One of the roads ahead was deliberately wrecked by the bandits. We¡¯ll have to thank our lucky stars if we can even drive above 15 kilometers per hour.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°This Zong Consortium...¡±


    Zhou Yinglong waved it off. ¡°They¡¯re just hyenas. They¡¯re nothing to worry about.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood the way Zhou Yinglong spoke. Regardless of whether he was really worried, his speech had to be tough.


    Zhou Yinglong was stunned when he saw Ren Xiaosu in the vehicle. ¡°Someone¡¯s injured? How did you get injured?¡±


    There were still traces of blood on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s clothes on his right side. The blood had seeped out, and Zhou Yinglong happened to have sharp eyes. He could immediately tell at a nce.


    Wang Shengzhi exined, ¡°Wasn¡¯t there flooding in the valley? This young man is a refugee who lived there. He was swept downstream by the flood, but we managed to save him.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s what happened.¡± Zhou Yinglong sized up Ren Xiaosu, ¡°It¡¯s true that there was flooding. But there¡¯s also a lot of bandits in the valley; it¡¯s not just refugees, you know? Hey, kid, are you a refugee or a bandit?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m a refugee.¡±


    ¡°Which settlement?¡± Zhou Yinglong asked again.


    ¡°It¡¯s about 50 kilometers east of Mt. Daban,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Then do you know who Old Liu is?¡± Zhou Yinglong asked.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart skipped a beat. He suddenly realized Stronghold 178 would probably have a good understanding of the valley. Otherwise, Zhou Yinglong wouldn¡¯t have asked about a particr person out of nowhere!


    He asked calmly, ¡°Which Old Liu? Liu Junkui or Liu Desheng?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong startedughing. ¡°Alright, if you can mention those two names, then you must really be from a refugee settlement.¡±


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt his heart ache.


    Liu Desheng and Liu Junkui were both honest peasants who lived in the settlement. It could be said that those who escaped to the settlements were all honest people who could not stand the organizations or the way of life in the strongholds¡¯ towns. So they could only go into the wild to seek refuge.


    However, whichever Old Liu he was referring to was probably dead from the flooding. Ren Xiaosu did not feel any joy in clearing the interrogation. Each time his intense hatred was stoked, it was as if his heart was being carved out. He simply could not find it in him to forgive that. If the Zong Consortium did not cease to exist, Ren Xiaosu would never be at ease.


    The convoy set off again. This time, no one doubted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity anymore. However, Ren Xiaosu became even quieter. He did not want to say anything else.


    In the car, Wang Shengyin said, ¡°Brother, this Zong Consortium will probably be the first problem in our bid to open up the trade routes. The essibility of this area is a secondary issue.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi grunted in agreement. ¡°It¡¯ll be easy to repair the roads. All we need are people and money to fix that. But it still remains to be seen if the returns for these repairs will be worth it. If the Zong Consortium still continues to stop us, it¡¯ll be useless even if the roads get repaired.¡±


    ¡°Then should we join forces with Stronghold 178 to eliminate the Zong Consortium?¡± Wang Shengyin asked.


    ¡°We can deliberate on that.¡± Wang Shengzhi said calmly, ¡°We¡¯ll see what Zhang Jinglin has to say first.¡±


    While they were discussing, they did not avoid mentioning anything in the presence of Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a glimmer of hope.

 Chapter 377 - Too tough to die

    <h4>Chapter 377 Too tough to die</h4>


    The Zong Consortium would not wish for any trade routes to open here, of course. After all, the terrain surrounding the Zong Consortium was really barren. This had always been an important factor that limited their development. It was also because of this that the Zong Consortium was always seeking to expand their territory.


    If the trade routes were opened, countless merchants would arrive in the Northwest, and Stronghold 178 would be stronger and stronger. As the saying went, two tigers couldn¡¯t share the same mountain. Even if Stronghold 178 had no intention of expanding, wouldn¡¯t the Zong Consortium be afraid by just being around Stronghold 178?


    Of course, the Zong Consortium could still continue supporting new bandits to control the valley like they had been doing. But in the past, Stronghold 178 did not have Zhang Jinglin around. And the stand-inmander did not want to manage affairs that were beyond the stronghold.


    But things were different now. Zhang Jinglin had returned!


    The higher-ups of the Zong Consortium could still remember how powerful Stronghold 178 was over a decade ago. They had been building up their power over the years, but if Stronghold 178 were allowed to return to their former glory, the Zong Consortium would very likely be doomed.


    This was why the Zong Consortium was not taking advantage of the situation even though the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium were currently embroiled in a fierce war. On one hand, Qing Zhen had cut off the Zong Consortium¡¯s shortcut to the south. On the other hand, the Zong Consortium was still wary of Stronghold 178 and did not dare to make any unusual moves.


    At night, Zhou Yinglong led them to a downwind spot to set up camp. It seemed that Zhou Yinglong came out to the wilderness very often, as he looked very familiar with everything he was doing out here.


    After applying the ck medicine, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wound did not feel so painful anymore. However, he still pretended like he had trouble moving around.


    When he got out of the vehicle slowly to move about, Wang Shengyin even came over specifically to help him. Ren Xiaosu rejected it and expressed that he could handle himself if he moved slowly.


    Wang Shengyin did not seem bothered by the blood on his body.


    Ren Xiaosu found a mound and sat down. Suddenly, someone said, ¡°I heard that many of the strongholds in the Southwest have been destroyed. I wonder what happened there. The strongholds in the Central ins are still doing well.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong chuckled. ¡°Let me share something with you guys about a good brother of mine called Xu Xianchu. All the strongholds he¡¯s been to, other than our Stronghold 178, have copsed! At first, everyone thought he was a jinx, but when Stronghold 178 still remained standing, we didn¡¯t think any further about it. But when he went to Stronghold 88 recently, Stronghold 88 also got destroyed....¡±


    Wang Shengzhiughed and said, ¡°Did nothing happen to him?¡±


    ¡°What can possibly happen to him? He always leaves before the copse of the strongholds, so he¡¯s basically unaffected.¡± Zhou Yinglong chuckled and said, ¡°Brother Xu Xianchu is too tough to die. He¡¯ll be fine even if the strongholds get destroyed.¡±


    ¡°He must be the chosen one then.¡± Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°Can you introduce him to us when we get to the stronghold?¡±


    ¡°Haha, of course!¡± Zhou Yinglong said, ¡°But Old Xu wouldn¡¯t admit to this himself. He said that there¡¯s someone who¡¯s even tougher than him. He always leaves before the stronghold copses, so he¡¯s unaffected. But that close brother of his has never managed to escape on time, yet he¡¯s still fine....¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he immediately knew who Zhou Yinglong was referring to. He recalled the strongholds he had been to had all copsed. Even the Yang Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 88 was not spared.


    But the copse of these strongholds should not have anything to do with him, right?


    The first few that were destroyed were either caused by the earthquake or due to Li Shentan¡¯s revenge and the Experimentals¡¯ invasions. Even Stronghold 88¡ªit was destroyed because Qing Zhen wanted to rescue Luo Lan.


    It really had nothing to do with him!


    Wang Shengzhi was even more intrigued after hearing what Zhou Yinglong said. ¡°If I can meet this ¡®chosen one¡¯ you mentioned, I¡¯m sure it will be very interesting.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong carried a box of wine out of the vehicle and asked, ¡°Do you guys drink? This Qiang[1] wine was brewed with excellent barley grains and water from snow mountain streams. It¡¯s a little sweet!¡±


    The others shook their heads. Only Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°I can drink with you, but does Stronghold 178 allow drinking in their military?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong remarked, ¡°At our ce, we¡¯re allowed to drink during our winter break. Without alcohol to warm our bodies, it¡¯s impossible to function.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s almost summer now,¡± Wang Shengzhi said.


    Zhou Yinglong thought for a moment. ¡°It¡¯ll be fine if you don¡¯t tell themander. I¡¯ve been saving this wine since winter.¡±


    ¡°But there shouldn¡¯t be many grain producers around Stronghold 178, right? Where did your barleye from?¡± Wang Shengyin asked.


    Zhou Yinglong stopped talking. This seemed to be a very important secret.


    Ren Xiaosu also realized there was something secretive about Stronghold 178 as well. There were no barley fields in the vicinity of Stronghold 178. If it were really as the outside world had said, Stronghold 178¡¯s people tended not to leave the stronghold under ordinary circumstances. In that case, why would Zhou Yinglong know so much about the refugee settlements in the valley? And how did the barley get transported to Stronghold 178?


    Zhou Yinglong changed the topic. ¡°Did youe from the Central ins with ns to do business with Commander Zhang? Does the alcohol in the Central ins taste good?¡±


    ¡°Of course, grain production is teeming in the Central ins. We produce tea and textiles as well.¡± Wang Shengzhi said in his wheelchair with a smile, ¡°But what Commander Zhang is after most are not these, but medicine.¡±


    When he heard the words ¡°medicine,¡± Zhou Yinglong¡¯s eyes lit up. The people in the military knew exactly what Stronghold 178cked the most.


    What outsiders did not know was that even though Stronghold 178cked grainstuffs(2), they did notck for meat. So they definitely would not starve to death.


    As for medicine, that was precious. Medicine determined the survival rate after any battles they participated in.


    Realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. It was no wonder Zhang Jinglin wanted to open up the trade routes so badly. And the Zong Consortium had probably guessed the significance of these actions.


    When he listened in on Zhang Jinglin¡¯s sses, Mr. Zhang would say that the ancient Silk Road was very important. Of course, times were different now, so the goods traded on the Silk Road would definitely be different as well. At that time, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why Zhang Jinglin had suddenly brought up this subject. But now it seemed like Zhang Jinglin had been thinking about it for a very long time.


    Wang Shengzhi stopped after taking two sips of the wine. Then Wang Shengyin helped him cover his knee with a nket.


    ¡°You can¡¯t hold your liquor,¡± Zhou Yinglong muttered. All of a sudden, he looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Do you drink?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯m still injured.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong thought for a moment. ¡°Since alcohol is an anti-inmmatory, your wounds won¡¯t get inmed after drinking some. Don¡¯t you think I make sense?¡±


    Next to them, Wang Shengyin said angrily, ¡°What kind of crappy theory is that? After an injury, the immune system will deal with the damage and fight infection. If you drink alcohol, you¡¯ll numb the immune system. When that happens, you can just wait for your death!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong opened his mouth but was unable to refute Wang Shengyin due to his limited knowledge. In the end, he could only mutter to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Don¡¯t listen to her. She might not be right either. Have you heard about how Guan Yu scraped poison off his bones? Even the Martial Saint drank alcohol after being wounded....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head helplessly. It was not that he was afraid that drinking would affect his injuries, but that he did not want to lose consciousness and rationality among this unfamiliar crowd and environment.


    Zhou Yinglong mumbled, ¡°How boring.¡±


    Right at this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard the sound of a vehicle passing through the wilderness in the distance. Zhou Yinglong put down the bottle and sneered, ¡°The Zong Consortium has grown too bold!¡±


    ¡°Do you think the Zong Consortium has ordered their people to attack us?¡± Wang Shengzhi looked at Zhou Yinglong. ¡°Does the Zong Consortium dare to attack people from Stronghold 178?¡±


    ¡°In recent years, the Zong Consortium has been developing at a rapid pace. They probably found some backing or something.¡± Zhou Yinglong sneered.


    [1] Qi¨¡ng # is the name of a people living in the western region of China, particrly the Hexi Corridor. | http://.chinaknowledge.de/History Altera/qiang.html


    (2) Previously in Chapter 333, it was mistakenly tranted that Stronghold 178¡¯s grain reserves were ranked first in the entire stronghold system. That is untrue and only their mineral reserves are ranked first.

 Chapter 378 - Mysticism

    <h4>Chapter 378 Mysticism</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu, who had already deemed the Zong Consortium as an enemy, heard a vehicle approaching, his first thought was that the Zong Consortium must have sent someone to ambush Wang Shengzhi¡¯s convoy. This was probably because they wanted to prevent Stronghold 178 from building close ties with the Central ins.


    One by one, the members of Wang Shengzhi¡¯s convoy drew their weapons from the vehicles¡¯ trunks. Meanwhile, Zhou Yinglong got up barehanded.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Zhou Yinglong and determined that the burly man from the Northwest was definitely a supernatural being. Otherwise, Zhang Jinglin would not have sent him here alone, nor would Zhou Yinglong not grab a weapon when facing a possible enemy attack.


    However, when the Zong Consortium¡¯s convoy finally approached, it surprised them. The moment the people in the vehicle got out, they immediately expressed that they were not carrying any weapons with them. The leader of the group was an unfamiliar young man.


    A few people dressed in chef¡¯s attire jumped out of the cars behind them. They were carrying some pots and pans, while some even carried portable gas stoves.


    The young man said with a smile, ¡°Good evening, everyone. I¡¯m the Zong Consortium¡¯s Zong Xiang. I heard all of you wanted to have a taste of our Zong Consortium¡¯s delicacies, but since you can¡¯t go to our stronghold due to your schedule, I¡¯ve brought my chefs out here instead so you can get to enjoy authentic food like caramelized potatoes, Hundred Blossoms Chicken, and roasted whole goat.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this from inside the vehicle, he sneered. The Zong Consortium was clearly eager for everyone here to die, yet they pretended to be really weing.


    Before Zong Cheng revealed his intentions, he had acted really warm and hospitable too. But in the end?


    Even now, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why Zong Cheng would attack them. This was what Ren Xiaosu was most furious about.


    Looking at this young man named Zong Xiang, Ren Xiaosu was very sure that he and Zong Cheng had a close rtionship. He was considering if he should kill Zong Cheng on the spot. But what would he do after killing Zong Xiang? That would not be enough to sate his fury.


    Ren Xiaosu needed to make sure the entire Zong Consortium was destroyed. Just killing Zong Xiang alone would not erase his hatred.


    Ren Xiaosu was even considering intentionally creating a conflict between Wang Shengzhi, Zhou Yinglong, and the Zong Consortium. For example, killing Zong Xiang and framing it as though Wang Shengzhi and the others had made the move. But if he did that, they would not be able to return to the Central ins safely, right? These people had saved his life, so he could not do that.


    Ren Xiaosu took a slow, deep breath to calm himself down. He wanted to gain the support of Wang Shengzhi and Stronghold 178 to use their power to seek out the best opportunity to destroy the Zong Consortium.


    As the saying went, p not a smiling face. Even Zhou Yinglong was not saying anything at this moment.


    After the food was prepared, the aroma spread throughout the entire campsite. Zong Xiang asked the chef to cut him a slice of mutton. He grabbed it and put it into his mouth. ¡°Let me taste it first for you all.... Mmm, it¡¯s cooked. The meat is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, so please enjoy it. I won¡¯t disturb you any further and hope that you¡¯ll have a pleasant journey in the Northwest.¡±


    After saying that, Zong Xiang actually left with his men.


    The taste test seemed more like it was to prove to Wang Shengzhi and the others that the food was not poisoned.


    When Zong Xiang departed, Zhou Yinglong spat on the ground. ¡°What good can possiblye of a hyena trying to please you?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°Why do you hate the Zong Consortium so much?¡±


    ¡°When Commander Zhang left the stronghold, the Zong Consortium loved throwing themselves at Stronghold 178, and even secretly sent their people behind the walls. That ended with the news in Stronghold 178 always getting leaked in advance.¡± Zhou Yinglong said with a dark expression, ¡°This group of hyenas kept fighting for power and benefits in Stronghold 178, creating a foul atmosphere in the organization. It was onlyter on that we found out the Chief of Staff was actually a bastard son of the Zong Consortium. Commander Zhang was quite upset after he found out about this. Since then, Stronghold 178 stopped epting outsiders. That was mainly to prevent people with ulterior motives from infiltrating the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°How did you guys learn he was an illegitimate son of the Zong Consortium?¡± Wang Shengyin asked.


    Zhou Yinglong sneered. ¡°Through torture, of course.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®Doesn¡¯t that make him a sleeper agent? Who knows how long that bastard son of the Zong Consortium was lurking to even rise to the role of chief of staff.¡¯


    Wang Shengzhi nodded. It was no wonder the people from Stronghold 178 hated the Zong Consortium so much. He smiled and said, ¡°We used to worry about such matters too.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was stunned. ¡°Have you stopped worrying?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, it¡¯s been resolved,¡± Wang Shengzhi replied.


    ¡°Can this be resolved too?¡± Zhou Yinglong frowned. ¡°It¡¯s impossible to guard against those with ulterior motives once they get into the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°We have artificial intelligence to depend on.¡± Wang Shengyin smiled as she exined, ¡°Our AI can use a camera to analyze whether a person is suspicious.¡±


    This time, it was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be confused. What was this artificial intelligence that was being talked about?


    Ren Xiaosu was not the only one who was dumbfounded. Even Zhou Yinglong was confused. ¡°What the hell is that?¡±


    Wang Shengyin exined, ¡°Al is something that our predecessors researched before The Cataclysm. It was fortunate that we managed to preserve all of the data from their research. To put it simply, we want ourputer program to have the ability to analyze things independently like a normal human being. However, our AI doesn¡¯t really have sapience. Currently, the philosophy behind AI is still¡ª¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me all that. I can¡¯t understand it,¡± Zhou Yinglong interrupted. ¡°Surely what you¡¯re talking about is mysticism, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like he could identify with Zhou Yinglong. Anything he could not understand would immediately be deemed superstitious.


    He knew what machines and programs were, but to make machines and programs think like humans? Was that even possible? Ren Xiaosu did not believe it. Machines were just machines.


    Due to The Cataclysm, humanity¡¯s scientific advancement deviated. Whatever research that remained behind would continue to get studied and be the mainstream research direction of the organizations. This would allow them to instantly gain a lead over the other organizations in certain fields.


    Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°Your Stronghold 178 can also deploy our AI to screen for any spies.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong wasn¡¯t stupid. He chuckled and said bluntly, ¡°Although I don¡¯t know what that thing is, and it might be very reliable in screening for spies, our Stronghold 178 will never allow something like that to monitor us. What if you can operate it remotely? We don¡¯t have the technology to fight you.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi did not mind. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I was just offering a suggestion.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong wondered, ¡°Even your machines have be intelligent. Please don¡¯t tell me you live in a floating stronghold in the sky or something.¡±


    Wang Shengyinughed. ¡°That¡¯s pseudoscience. What kind of propulsion can support an entire stronghold and make it float high in the air? Humans can¡¯t achieve something like that. There isn¡¯t actually much of a difference between our stronghold and your stronghold except we live a little more prosperously, have more high rises, and have better living conditions. We have factories and grain fields outside the stronghold just like you. The nanomachines the Yang Consortium and Li Consortium developed are not something we have.¡±


    The entire conversation, Ren Xiaosu did not say a word. As a refugee, he should not understand these things, and nobody cared if he could understand them.

 Chapter 379 - The two great jinxes

    <h4>Chapter 379 The two great jinxes</h4>


    Wang Shengyin carried on exining more about artificial intelligence. For example, the practical field of artificial intelligence was not very wide. It was mainly put into the stronghold¡¯s surveince cameras to create the so-called ¡°eye in the sky¡± function.


    It was precisely because of the appearance of such an artificial intelligence that the Central ins could be a civilization where one wouldn¡¯t need to shut their doors at night. It could even analyze thefts and inform the stronghold¡¯s Public Order Division to arrest the thief.


    Thus, the rumor that people in the Central ins did not close their doors at night was not because that ce was civilized, but because it was too easy to be caught aftermitting a crime.


    Ren Xiaosu could not help but ask, ¡°Are there also refugees in the Central ins?¡±


    Wang Shengyin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Yes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized the Central ins were not exactly a paradise either. From his point of view, there was no such thing as paradise as long as oppression existed.


    When Ren Xiaosu learned of the meaning of the phrase ¡°artificial intelligence,¡± he found it extremely ridiculous. Back when he was still living in town, he did not even own any electronics!


    In the entire town, only brick houses like the ones that Wang Fugui lived in had electrical cables wired. The rest of the refugees did not even have light bulbs in their homes, but someone here was actually saying that machines in the Central ins were close to being intelligent?


    Ren Xiaosu found this unreal.


    Zhou Yinglong stated, ¡°That means thebat strength of those in Central ins is about the same as ours, but the only difference is that there¡¯s been a breakthrough in this pain of an AI thing.¡± To this burly man from Stronghold 178, the first thing he was most concerned about was thebat strength of those in the Central ins.


    Wang Shengzhiughed and said, ¡°The wars happening in the Central ins aren¡¯t going to reach Stronghold 178 any time soon, so don¡¯t worry.¡±


    ¡°Who can say?¡± Zhou Yinglong muttered. ¡°Alright, get some rest. We¡¯ll reach Stronghold 178 in another two days.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was leaning on a mound. Here he was at the northernmost part of the valley, an area that was closest to where the Zong Consortium called its territory, where the vast expanse was covered in yellow dust.


    Because there were no industrial activities out here, the stars in the sky seemed to be right in front of him.


    But there was no one to keep watch for Ren Xiaosu anymore.


    Ren Xiaosu stared into the void while thinking. No matter how hard he tried to fall asleep, he just could not.


    He wondered where Yan Liuyuan was right now. Perhaps he was already on his way to the Central ins? Did Wang Fugui and the others survive? Ren Xiaosu had seen Jiang Wu¡¯s power undergo a new transformation at thest minute before they got swept away by the flood. So with Jiang Wu around, the others might have survived.


    ording to Wang Shengzhi, the Central ins were downstream of this river. It would flow past Strongholds 46, 37, 28, 7, 9, and end at Stronghold 1. If Ren Xiaosu wanted to seek out his family, he could go there ording to this route.


    Ren Xiaosu made a mental note of it. He would definitely go and look for Yan Liuyuan after the Zong Consortium was destroyed. But before the Zong Consortium¡¯s destruction, Ren Xiaosu did not want to drag Yan Liuyuan, Wang Fugui, and the others into this mess.


    At this moment, Wang Shengzhi rolled up to Ren Xiaosu in his wheelchair and asked, ¡°Are you thinking about your family and friends?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t have any family left, just friends who were like family.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll help you look for them after I return to the Central ins. Tell me their names.¡± Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°If they really did manage to get to the Central ins, I¡¯ll definitely help you locate them.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a moment. He did not want to give Wang Fugui and Yan Liuyuan¡¯s names because he did not know if Wang Shengzhi was a good or bad person. How could he possibly entrust the safety of Wang Fugui and the others to someone else? He believed that even without Wang Shengzhi¡¯s help, Wang Fugui and the others would still be able to live well.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Thank you, but only one of my friends still remains. His name is Li Shentan.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not tell the truth.


    Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll remember it.¡±


    After the convoy restarted their journey, the Zong Consortium did not reappear. After driving for some distance, the sunset in the wilderness was starting to arriveter.


    On the night before reaching Stronghold 178, the sun only went below the horizon after 8 PM.


    The vastness of the Northwest was something Ren Xiaosu had never seen before when he was in the Southwest. In his wheelchair, Wang Shengzhi looked out into the vast ins and snowy mountains in the distance and said with emotion, ¡°Today, I¡¯m finally able to appreciate howrge this world truly is.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong chuckled and said, ¡°A real man should be living out here. You people from the Central ins aren¡¯t noble enough.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi did not refute that. He asked, ¡°Why did Commander Zhang leave Stronghold 178?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong asked in return, ¡°And how did you get to know ourmander?¡±


    ¡°After Commander Zhang left Stronghold 178 all those years ago, he traveled to the Central ins. We got to know each other then.¡± Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°Back then, I still had full control of my legs. But time passes like a song. He and I are both getting old.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong curled his lips. ¡°Ourmander is still young though.¡±


    All of a sudden, a convoy of cars appeared on the horizon. Zhou Yinglong waved excitedly and said, ¡°I used the satellite phone to inform themander yesterday that you were arriving soon. Who¡¯d have thought you¡¯d be so important that themander would evene out personally to wee you?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi smiled without saying anything. Beside him, Wang Shengyin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°When we get to Stronghold 178, it shouldn¡¯t be difficult for my brother to arrange for you to join Stronghold 178 with his influence.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little stunned. How long had it been since hest saw Zhang Jinglin?


    He had squatted outside the school and listened to the sses for three years. Later on, he was finally allowed to attend sses in the school by Zhang Jinglin. Counting the days, Zhang Jinglin and he had known each other for quite some time. But that teacher had turned into themander of Stronghold 178 all of a sudden.


    The vehicles on the horizon drove over in the twilight of the sunset. When the convoy arrived in front of everyone, the first person to jump out of a vehicle was someone Ren Xiaosu knew: Xu Xianchu.


    When Xu Xianchu saw Zhou Yinglong and the others, he was stunned. Zhou Yinglong smiled and said, ¡°Bro, why have youe in advance to pick us up?¡±


    Afterwards, Xu Xianchu walked in a trance past him and came to Ren Xiaosu. When he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pale face and the bloodstains on his body, he asked anxiously, ¡°What happened? You got injured?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s just a minor injury. I¡¯ll be fine soon.¡±


    ¡°You call that a minor injury?¡± Xu Xianchu was shocked. He lifted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shirt and saw the scar on the right side of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s abdomen. ¡°It¡¯s a prating wound? Who did this? Weren¡¯t you at Stronghold 88?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s a long story. This was done by the Zong Consortium.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s Liuyuan?¡± Xu Xianchu looked around at everyone. ¡°And where¡¯s Wang Fugui?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened for a moment. ¡°We got separated.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong, Wang Shengyin, and Wang Shengzhi were all stunned. ¡°What¡¯s going on? Didn¡¯t he say he was a normal refugee?¡±


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yinglong was even more surprised. He had never heard Xu Xianchu having friends on the outside... Wait a minute! It seemed like Xu Xianchu really did have a friend on the outside.... Damn!


    Was Stronghold 178 about to y host to the two great jinxes?!

 Chapter 380 - Attitude switches faster than flipping through a book!

    <h4>Chapter 380 Attitude switches faster than flipping through a book!</h4>


    The people in Stronghold 178 had all mocked Xu Xianchu for being a jinx. Butter on, everyone realized it wasn¡¯t Xu Xianchu when nothing happened to Stronghold 178 since he arrived.


    Later, they heard from him that he only managed to join Stronghold 178 thanks to a rmendation letter by his friend. Otherwise, he couldn¡¯t have even gotten inside Stronghold 178. And it was this friend who was the most unfortunate one. Whichever stronghold he went to would surely copse. After Xu Xianchu came to Stronghold 178, he had only ever mentioned this friend of his. So Zhou Yinglong quickly put two and two together.


    While they were traveling here, Zhou Yinglong thought Ren Xiaosu was a normal refugee. On one hand, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s act was very believable. After all, he really was a refugee to begin with. On the other hand, the information Ren Xiaosu mentioned regarding the refugee settlement matched up with what Zhou Yinglong had asked.


    So why had his status changed all of a sudden?


    Wang Shengyin pursed her lips. She whispered to Wang Shengzhi, ¡°Brother, he lied to us. He¡¯s too deceptive.¡±


    After saving Ren Xiaosu, Wang Shengyin was the one who stitched up his wound. She cleaned off the dirt on his face too. She had thought Ren Xiaosu was a pitiful refugee who looked rather honest. But in the end, he didn¡¯t speak a single truthful word the entire trip.


    Women hated being lied to. In just an instant, Wang Shengyin¡¯s impression of Ren Xiaosu had gone down the drain. The only thing she did not expect was that Ren Xiaosu actually had contact with Stronghold 178.


    Wang Shengzhi smiled indifferently and said, ¡°He¡¯s not exactly deceptive. It¡¯s quite normal that he didn¡¯t trust us. It must be this cautiousness that helped him to survive in the wilderness. But at his age, I wonder what he¡¯s been through to constantly be so wary.¡±


    ¡°He still lied!¡± Wang Shengyin got unhappy.


    At this moment, Zhang Jinglin got out of a car. There was also a group of people from the convoy standing guard next to him. Zhang Jinglin said to them with augh, ¡°You guys don¡¯t have to be so uptight. Everyone here is an old friend.¡±


    But no matter what he said, the burly men behind still followed him closely. Someone mumbled, ¡°What if someone tries to harm you?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi was smiling as he watched this scene y out. He was a little envious of Zhang Jinglin¡¯s high status in Stronghold 178. He was clearly a frail schr, yet he was being supported by this group of burly Northwestern men.


    The people following Zhang Jinglin were all fully armed and looked extremely menacing. If they were deployed to their stronghold in the Central ins, the AI might think they were bad guys and tell the Public Order Division to arrest them all.


    Zhang Jinglin suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu as well. He frowned and greeted Wang Shengzhi briefly beforeing over to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°What happened? Where¡¯s Liuyuan? Where¡¯s Xiaoyu?¡±


    Just like Xu Xianchu, Zhang Jinglin lifted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shirt and took a look at his wound. ¡°It¡¯s a puncture. Could this be the same as the wounds some of our soldiers suffered when they got ambushed?¡±


    Someone behind him leaned forward to have a look. ¡°It¡¯s been stitched up, so I can¡¯t tell. Why don¡¯t we remove the stitches and get a better look?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Who the hell would suggest removing the stitches before a wound healed just so they could have a look?


    Zhang Jinglin asked seriously, ¡°Who did this?¡±


    ¡°It was the Zong Consortium¡¯s Zong Cheng.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not hold back anymore now that Zhang Jinglin was here. They¡¯d known each other for many years and were very good friends. He said, ¡°We had nned on heading to Mt. Kushui to settle down there. But along the way, we encountered Zong Cheng, who led his men in an ambush.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin frowned. ¡°Zong Cheng!¡±


    ¡°Mr. Zhang, do you know Zong Cheng?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment.


    ¡°I do.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang are the cream of the crop among the younger generation of the Zong n. It seems like the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium intend to let Zong Xiang take control of the Zong Consortium, while Zong Cheng will be Zong Xiang¡¯s Shadow. They¡¯re biological brothers.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remembered the clean-shaven young man named Zong Xiang. He was practically close enough to him that he could have killed him. But it wasn¡¯t exactly a missed opportunity either. By killing Zong Xiang, Zong Cheng would probably get alerted. There were still many more opportunities in the future to kill them together.


    However, Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Zong Cheng is a supernatural being. His superpower seems to allow him to make someone into his puppet, but we still can¡¯t verify that as he keeps a very low-profile and doesn¡¯t act predictably.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. If Zong Cheng were really as Zhang Jinglin had said, could it be that Zong Cheng had attacked them because he wanted to control him? No! If he wanted to control him, he wouldn¡¯t have tried to kill him. So that meant... he was trying to gain control of Yang Xiaojin?


    Wang Shengzhi and the others had been cast aside. Wang Shengyin stared nkly as Zhang Jinglin and Xu Xianchu stood around Ren Xiaosu. Was this young man so highly revered in Stronghold 178? What the hell? They had picked up this young man on the road. How did he turn out to be such an important person? They really did pick him up by chance!


    Wang Shengyin turned to look at Zhou Yinglong. ¡°You don¡¯t know this Ren Xiaosu? Isn¡¯t he from Stronghold 178?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was also a little confused. ¡°I didn¡¯t know he knew themander either.¡±


    Moreover, Zhang Jinglin¡¯s attitude towards Ren Xiaosu seemed to be a little special. Now that Zhou Yinglong was thinking about it, Xu Xianchu was also rmended to Stronghold 178 by Ren Xiaosu, wasn¡¯t he?


    At this moment, Zhang Jinglin whispered something to Ren Xiaosu. Then he turned around and said with embarrassment to Wang Shengzhi, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Shengzhi, but Ren Xiaosu is my student. I wasn¡¯t expecting to see him here, and he¡¯s even seriously injured too.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi said in surprise, ¡°He¡¯s your student? Then why isn¡¯t he a member of Stronghold 178?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin replied, ¡°This student is a little more peculiar. Let¡¯s head back to Stronghold 178 first before I fill you in further.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong suddenly muttered, ¡°It¡¯s over, we¡¯re done for. The strongholds he¡¯s been to have all copsed. Our Stronghold 178 has collected two of these great jinxes together. And one of them is even a student of themander!¡±


    The burly man next to him asked, ¡°Old Zhou, what are you mumbling about?¡±


    ¡°Nothing, it¡¯s nothing...¡±


    When they set off again, Ren Xiaosu was still sitting in Wang Shengyin¡¯s vehicle. But he noticed that something was off about Wang Shengyin¡¯s expression. She looked to be sulking. However, Ren Xiaosu did not give any exnation and only said, ¡°Thank you for saving me. I had no choice, so please understand.¡±


    Wang Shengyin pursed her lips and said, ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right, you¡¯re a big shot, so of course you had to hide your identity to prevent others from harming you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything further. He just looked out of the window. Zhang Jinglin had told him earlier that they should head to Stronghold 178 first. Stronghold 178 had some ideas for dealing with the Zong Consortium. If he wanted to seek revenge, he could only rely on Stronghold 178 for now. Even the Qing Consortium couldn¡¯t divert their attention as they were busy defending against the Yang Consortium¡¯s desperate counterattacks.


    Zhang Jinglin knew exactly what Ren Xiaosu wanted. So he only needed one sentence to convince him.


    All of a sudden, Wang Shengyin asked in a soft voice, ¡°Did something happen to your family as well? Was it caused by the Zong Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu continued staring out of the window as he grunted a response.


    ¡°Whatever, you¡¯re forgiven.¡± Wang Shengyin said, ¡°Don¡¯t feel too sad. We¡¯ll help you find your friends in the Central ins.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. A woman¡¯s mood was reallyplicated and vtile. Their attitude could switch faster than flipping through a book!

 Chapter 381

    <h4>Chapter 381 Fortress 178!</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Stronghold 178 from afar, he was in awe.


    This stronghold was utterly different from any of the other strongholds he had seen. The towering and ancient stronghold was marred with ¡°scars,¡± and there were evenrge areas of patched up scrapes. It looked like the stronghold had been through multiple copses and reconstructions. Over and over again, bad luck came and went, but it remained standing nheless.


    Even though the strongholds Ren Xiaosu came across in the past had shown signs of aging, their walls had never taken such serious damage before. Comparatively, they looked to be in really good condition.


    But the walls of Stronghold 178 were different. At first sight, Ren Xiaosu got the feeling that this wall seemed to have tenacity built into it.


    He suddenly understood why people referred to Stronghold 178 as a fortress.


    This was a fortress-type stronghold that was truly built for war. There was far more attention put into the building of its defenses than any other strongholds that Ren Xiaosu had been to.


    Zhou Yinglong said proudly, ¡°We all call this Fortress 178. It¡¯s totally different from those weak strongholds out there!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood under the towering walls of Fortress 178, while the soldiers on the tall walls were on alert. But as they had arrived with Zhang Jinglin, the soldiers on the walls did not issue any warnings to stop them.


    ording to Xu Xianchu, a stranger would find it very difficult to get close to this stronghold. Without Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rmendation letter, it would also have been impossible for him to get in.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°I wrote a few rmendation letters for others as well. Did theye to Fortress 178?¡±


    Xu Xianchu shook his head. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Something must¡¯ve happened to them then.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    Then Ren Xiaosu dug a bullet out of the wall. ¡°Why¡¯re there bullets lodged in the walls?¡±


    Fortress 178 was naturally constructed to defend against enemies. But from what Ren Xiaosu remembered, everyone had said that Fortress 178 was built to defend against wild animals.


    Everyone said there were fewer wild animals in the interior because humans had chased them to the outer perimeter of the stronghold ring. Meanwhile, Fortress 178 towered over the Northwest to prevent arge number of terrifying wild animals from invading ind.


    But how could bullets lodged in the wall be exined? It was obviously left behind by an enemy who had fired at the walls. And only humans knew how to use firearms.


    Xu Xianchu smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯ll understand in the future. In this era of firearms and explosives, the only true enemies of humans are humans themselves.¡±


    These words sounded somewhat familiar to Ren Xiaosu. A librarian named An Yuqian had said something simr before.


    However, An Yuqian was referring to how science was uncontroble and that humans would create a power so massive they could not control it in the end.


    But Xu Xianchu was more straightforward, stating the enemies of Fortress 178 were also humans.


    The thick and heavy gate of Fortress 178 slowly lifted. The rumble sounded like an enormous dragon roaring.


    As the group walked in, everyone was surprised to find that although Fortress 178 looked old, it was unusually clean and tidy.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought this ce where burly men from the Northwest lived would be very dirty and messy, but that was not the case.


    After passing through the gate, they ended up on a very long street. At the end of the street, a gigantic copper bell hung high above in a tower.


    Xu Xianchu described to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°This bell is a little different from the one at our previous stronghold. While the ones at the other strongholds are used for telling the time, the bells here at Fortress 178 only ring in warning. When the bell rings, everyone in the military prepares to fight to their deaths.¡±


    ¡°When was thest time it rang?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Sixteen years ago.¡± Xu Xianchumented, ¡°It sucks that I wasn¡¯t here to see that sight. Many people in the interior don¡¯t even know there was a war here. Fortress 178 is like a barrier that holds all of the dangers and darkness on the outside.¡±


    There were manymon folk on the streets, and they were all dressed in cloth clothing. Neon signs were rarely seen outside the shops, and there were barely any private cars driving on the road. asionally, the military would pass by in an off-road vehicle.


    Curious, Wang Shengyin said, ¡°This ce looks really primitive.¡±


    Xu Xianchu said, ¡°We don¡¯t have enough electricity. The new power nt at the outer perimeter is still being built. However, there isn¡¯t enough manpower in Fortress 178, so the construction process is very slow. We used to have a veryrge power station, but that was destroyed in the war.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s enough resources either.¡± Wang Shengyin said, ¡°The Northwest is quite suitable for nting cotton. There¡¯s a good amount of light, and water from the snow mountains and groundwater are also abundant. Why didn¡¯t you all grow more cotton?¡±


    Xu Xianchu looked at her and said, ¡°We have to make sure we can fill our stomachs first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the sights around Fortress 178. To be honest, it was a little dingy. But for some reason, he found this ce much morefortable than any of the other strongholds.


    When the pedestrians saw Zhang Jinglin¡¯s convoy passing through the streets, they did not deliberately fawn upon him. Instead, they greeted him as though they were old friends before getting back to their own business.


    Xu Xianchu gave Ren Xiaosu a look. ¡°Xiaosu, can that ck medicine of yours be mass produced? We have some people here who got frostbite during the winter and can¡¯t seem to heal. Furthermore, we¡¯ve always had ack of medicine for our battles. If we had your ck medicine, that would be great news for our Fortress 178.¡±


    Xu Xianchu had heard about Ren Xiaosu being a doctor in town, and Zhang Jinglin also knew about this.


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no way to mass produce it.¡±


    Xu Xianchu was a little disappointed. ¡°That¡¯s alright. When the trade routes are opened, we can start buying medicine from the Central ins.¡±


    Fortress 178cked not only medicine, but also clothes, food, and so on. For Zhang Jinglin, who had just returned to Fortress 178, reopening the trade routes was an extremely urgent matter.


    Zhang Jinglin had spent several months eliminating the turmoil in Fortress 178. Now it was time to consider the development of the fortress.


    Xu Xianchu arranged for Ren Xiaosu and the others to stay in a small building. ¡°This is where we entertain our guests. Please don¡¯t mind if it¡¯s a little bare.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s already quite nice.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi, Wang Shengyin, and the others might not have stayed in such a dpidated ce before, but since Ren Xiaosu had even lived in a shack before, there was no way he would mind it.


    A little embarrassed, Xu Xianchu replied, ¡°Xiaosu, your wound hasn¡¯t healed yet. I¡¯ll go to the Supply Division to apply for some medicine for you. However, we¡¯re missing a lot of drugs in the fortress, so I might not be able to get any....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I still have some ck medicine with me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good, that¡¯s good.¡± Xu Xianchu rubbed his hands together and said with augh, ¡°Then would you have any to spare...¡±


    Xu Xianchu was a little embarrassed to say this out loud. One of the soldiers under him had gotten injured during his training, and his wound still hadn¡¯t healed. In fact, the Supply Division had run out of medicine, so he could only live with the injury. Now that Ren Xiaosu hade, rather than taking good care of him, he even ended up asking him for something. What the hell was he thinking?


    But Ren Xiaosu stuffed a small porcin bottle into Xu Xianchu¡¯s hands. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡±


    In the past, even when Xu Xianchu was at his lowest, he was still willing to give away the remaining half of his cornbread to Ren Xiaosu. In that case, Ren Xiaosu could not be petty towards Xu Xianchu.

 Chapter 382 - To fight or not to fight

    <h4>Chapter 382 To fight or not to fight</h4>


    Fortress 178¡¯s sole existence was for the purpose of war. Therefore, it was destined to be different from the other strongholds ever since its emergence.


    There were no shops selling a variety of things in the streets, nor were there any particrly well-dressed pedestrians. Some girls had already changed into long skirts for the spring season, but even their long dresses were made out of calico fabric.


    The clothes of those in the fortress were very monotone and were mainly in shades of dark blue, dark green, or yellow.


    At present, the textile dyeing techniques in Fortress 178 were still stuck at the most basic level. After wearing the clothes for some time, the color would start fading.


    Just as Wang Shengyin had said, the Northwest was one of the most suitable ces for growing cotton. However, there was ack of that technology here. All of their focus was instead ced into developing their military industry, as well as trying their best to ensure that everyone had something to eat.


    So who would have the time to involve themselves with bells and whistles?


    After Xu Xianchu left, Ren Xiaosu, Wang Shengzhi, and the others walked out of the building and carefully sized up this legendary fortress.


    The pedestrians on the street turned to look at them when they saw them, because other than Ren Xiaosu, the group looked a little out of ce.


    Wang Shengyin had also changed into a long dress, but the blue dress did not look like it could be produced here in the fortress. Wang Shengyin said that this blue was called Tiffany Blue, and it was a very popr color back in the Central ins, as a female singer had worn it before.


    Ren Xiaosu thought there probably wouldn¡¯t be celebrity singers in Fortress 178. The women he saw in Fortress 178 were all carrying a pole with baskets on both ends just like the men.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked Wang Shengzhi, ¡°How do you think Mr. Zhang will handle the Zong Consortium?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi raised his head and smiled. ¡°You¡¯re hoping that Fortress 178 will help you get your revenge?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Ren Xiaosu admitted frankly. ¡°But if it¡¯s not Fortress 178¡¯s own decision, I don¡¯t want to drag others down with me either. I can still manage a lot of things by myself.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought that if Fortress 178 was unwilling to send in their troops against the Zong Consortium and clear out the obstruction to the trade routes, he would have to infiltrate the Zong Consortium himself.


    Anything Li Shentan could do, he could probably do as well.


    Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°Look at these pedestrians on the street.¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback.


    ¡°Everyone¡¯s taking the food in their homes out with carrying poles. But where are they taking it?¡± Wang Shengzhi asked.


    ¡°To sell?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°The farmers live outside the fortress, while these are normal residents, so why would they be selling their food?¡± Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, ¡°They¡¯ve gathered up all the food they stored away to donate it to the military of Fortress 178.¡±


    ¡°Why, though?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He really did not understand military matters. He had encountered an Advanced Army Warfare Leadership skill user but did not have a Skill Duplication Scroll on him to learn it at the time.


    ¡°This is Fortress 178¡¯s preparation for war. All the food has been handed over to the garrison troops to be allocated during the war,¡± Wang Shengzhi exined with a smile. ¡°If you¡¯ve already decided on taking revenge against the Zong Consortium, you can put your mind at ease. If Mr. Zhang hadn¡¯t thought over it carefully, he wouldn¡¯t have asked me toe to the Northwest. He¡¯s already made his decision.¡±


    Fortress 178 sought to sell off theirrge mineral deposits to make the lives of the fortress residents better and obtain better military armaments as well. As such, they had to open the trade routes.


    But the Zong Consortium would never allow all this to happen. Why would they allow outsiders to sleep soundly next to their beds? This was the inevitable oue caused by the growth and development of an organization with a vested interest.


    In a run-down meeting room in Fortress 178, a group of officers were arguing endlessly around arge sand table. Zhou Yinglong shouted, ¡°I¡¯ve long disliked the Zong Consortium. I¡¯m sure everyone already knows those old fogeys at the Zong Consortium have deployed their weapons and troops to face our Fortress 178. What do you think they intend to do? I don¡¯t have to borate, right?¡±


    ¡°Everyone understands.¡± Someone said, ¡°When I made a trip to the valley awhile ago, I discovered the Qing Consortium was also stirring up trouble there. However, Qing Zhen is not targeting our Fortress 178 in his schemes. All of his people have gone to attack the Yang Consortium, leaving only the Zong Consortium with a presence in the valley.¡±


    ¡°If we want to open the trade routes, it would be best to build it on the path that goes through Mt. Dingyuan. Wasn¡¯t it a highway before The Cataclysm? That would be the fastest route to take. But Mt. Dingyuan is still being controlled by the Zong Consortium¡¯s bandits, while Mt. Guan to its north acts as the Zong Consortium¡¯s forward operating base,¡± Xu Xianchu analyzed. ¡°So, even if we don¡¯t attack the Zong Consortium directly, we still have to take back control of the front line at Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan.¡±


    ¡°How do we do that?¡± Zhou Yinglong replied, ¡°We don¡¯t have enough manpower. We can fight, but upying the territories is a bit of a stretch. How many people would you have to deploy there to guard against the Zong Consortium¡¯s raids? And when the Zong Consortium cuts off the retreat route at Mt. Dingyuan, the soldiers there will immediately be left to fend for themselves. Just thinking about it makes me despair.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, Old Zhou¡¯s argument makes sense. No one takes a long-term defensive position.¡± A burly man said, ¡°The Zong Consortium is right in front of us. Those bastards have be too restless in recent years and are constantly fixated on Fortress 178 being their imaginary enemy. In the past, we stood guard at Fortress 178 to defend against the western enemies. It seems they¡¯ve already forgotten all about the kindness that we¡¯ve shown them!¡±


    For the whole night, the entire conference room was noisy as everyone chipped in with their opinions. It was heated.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Jinglin stood next to the sand table and looked quietly at the terrain mapped out on it. The sand table covered the entire Southwest and Northwest and even included a small area of the Central ins.


    All of a sudden, someone said, ¡°But what if the western enemiese again while we¡¯re attacking the Zong Consortium?¡±


    Everyone started looking at one another. Zhou Yinglong hesitated and said, ¡°They haven¡¯t been here in 16 years. Wouldn¡¯t that be too coincidental?¡±


    The person who spoke up calmly said, ¡°Because of the differences in our skin, hair, and ethnicity, our people have never been able to infiltrate their camp. By the same logic, they¡¯re also unable to infiltrate our camp. Thus, neither side knows anything that¡¯s going on at the other end, so how can you be so sure they won¡¯te? What if it¡¯s really that coincidental? Then we¡¯ll be stuck between a rock and a hard ce.¡±


    Fortress 178 had not been paying much attention to the Zong Consortium in many years, but it wasn¡¯t because they were willing to ept this hyena¡¯s insolence right at their doorstep. Rather, they had a more important mission that left them unable to spread their forces too thin.


    Zhou Yinglong and the others felt a little aggrieved. They had to ept that their mission came first.


    The Zong Consortium, the Qing Consortium, the Yang Consortium, and even the Central ins were not required to thank them for it, but a mission was a mission.


    Suddenly, Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°We will fight.¡±


    The meeting room fell silent. Everyone could hear each other¡¯s breathing. There was a glimmer in the eyes of Zhou Yinglong and the others as their cheeks flushed red. It was the rush of blood they would experience before every big battle.


    Regardless of the points of view brought up in the meeting room, or how different all of their opinions were, only Zhang Jinglin¡¯s words mattered.


    Once Zhang Jinglin had made his decision, it meant that war was inevitable.

 Chapter 383 - Razor Sharp Company

    <strong>Chapter 383 Razor Sharp Company</strong>


    Zhang Jinglin slowly said, ¡°Everyone¡¯s considerations are not wrong. On one hand, the Zong Consortium has entrenched themselves at the northern side of the trade route. As long as they are still there, we can forget about opening up the trade route from our ce to the Central ins. By controlling the front lines of Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan, it shows that they know what they¡¯re doing.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°On the other hand, the enemy from the west may attack us at any time. If we split up our forces to go to the Zong Consortium, we might not be able to defeat the western enemies. But even if they don¡¯t coincidentally attack while we¡¯re away, some of our troops will still be lost in the conflict against the Zong Consortium. At that time, we might not be able to defeat the western enemies when theye either.¡±


    At the end of the day, they were just arguing over these two possibilities for the entire afternoon. Zhang Jinglin had already decided after taking into consideration all details. He thought for a moment and said, ¡°There¡¯s definitely that risk, but if we don¡¯t clear the trade routes, Fortress 178 will only continue weakening. As you all know, we¡¯ve sent some people disguised as refugees west and discovered that ce is bing more and more prosperous. Meanwhile, we¡¯re held back in our current situation with no resources, no technology, and no new talents. We¡¯re even running out of clothes to wear!¡±


    ¡°We might control a lot of mines, but they can¡¯t turn into our strength.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°If this goes on, Fortress 178 might not be able to stop our enemies from the west in another ten years. So we have no choice but to make a change now. We have to survive this disaster before we can talk about the future.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin had made himself clear. It was not that he did not consider the risks involved, but that with the risks they were facing, fighting the Zong Consortium and opening the trade routes was their best option.


    Rather than waiting to die, he might as well have a go at it.


    Zhang Jinglin knew that Fortress 178 was much stronger and resolute than the rumors said, but their current plight was also much more dangerous than the rest of the world imagined


    But Zhou Yinglong and this group of rowdy people couldn¡¯t care less about Commander Zhang¡¯s considerations. As long as Zhang Jinglin gave the word that they were going to fight, they would fight.


    Whether they won or lost was something to think about in the future. All they had to do now was fight!


    The conditions at Fortress 178 might not beparable to others, but this damned group of people were definitely the strongest in their execution of orders.


    Then Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Tomorrow, we¡¯ll hold a meeting at the same time to discuss our strategy. If you¡¯rete, stand and listen as your punishment. You won¡¯t be allowed to speak.¡±


    When the others heard this, they hurriedly guaranteed that no one would bete. They would definitely not drink tonight.


    Zhang Jinglin added, ¡°Zhou Yinglong, arrange for that young man named Ren Xiaosu to join the Razor Sharp Company under yourmand. Let him start from the rank of private.¡±


    The moment he said that, the entire conference room became even quieter than before. It was as though they could not even hear the sound of breathing. They looked like they wanted to ask Zhang Jinglin something, but Zhang Jinglin did not even give them a chance to say anything and walked out of the conference room.


    When Zhang Jinglin left the room, the officers sitting at the sand table exploded. ¡°Was Commander referring to the Razor Sharp Company he used to be in?¡±


    ¡°Apparently, two other previousmanders also started in the Razor Sharp Company. Does Commander view that boy as his sessor? Old Zhou, you were the one who brought that boy in. What¡¯s up with him?¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company was a very special existence. No one had ever explicitly stipted that themander of Fortress 178 needed to serve in the Razor Sharp Company first.


    But as it stood, every previousmander hade from there. They were all sent by the previousmander before them to train where it was the most dangerous and then slowly work up the ranks.


    As the name ¡°Razor Sharp Company¡± suggested, it was the most dangerous fighting force to be posted to. They were often tasked to take on the most insurmountable missions, and only those who could survive the Razor Sharp Company would convince the others in Fortress 178.


    It wasn¡¯t about how the Razor Sharp Company was really strong, but that being part of it would put anyone in the most perilous of situations. You would have to spend time in the most dangerous ces to know the fate you were putting your soldiers in with the orders you gave.


    Eventually, after severalmanders served their tour of duty, the Razor Sharp Company became an even more special existence. Although no one said anything, everyone knew that whoever suddenly got posted to the Razor Sharp Company was definitely someone themander paid special attention to. As long as this person could survive and convince the masses, he would go on to be the nextmander of Fortress 178.


    16 years ago, Zhang Jinglin had once posted a person to join the Razor Sharp Company, but that person perished in the war. And now, he had sent Ren Xiaosu to the unit... and he was someone none of them knew!


    Zhou Yinglong looked at everyone¡¯s burning eyes and felt a little anxious. ¡°What are y¡¯all looking at me for? I¡¯ve only known him for a couple of days. That kid¡¯s also a refugee and has even lived in the valley. He looks rather soft and weak and is injured too, but I¡¯m not sure how he got injured. But from the looks of it, he doesn¡¯t look like he can fight well, so how is he gonna survive in the Razor Sharp Company?¡±


    Someone added, ¡°Themander wasn¡¯t exactly a fighter back then either, but that¡¯s not a problem as long as he¡¯s ruthless enough.¡±


    Someone chuckled. ¡°Commander was a medic at that time who wasn¡¯t even willing to fire a shot. How can youpare them? Why don¡¯t you talk about how many people Commander saved back then?¡±


    Xu Xianchu was starting to get unhappy. ¡°How can you say that about my bro? How can my bro possibly be weak? When we went on an expedition into the Jing Mountains, it was all thanks to him that we managed to get out of there safely.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was surprised before saying, ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right! Ren Xiaosu is Old Xu¡¯s bro. We should ask him for details.¡±


    ¡°Xu Xianchu, you punk, why weren¡¯t you more upfront about it? If you know things, tell us!¡± A big man chuckled and said, ¡°Hurry up and fill us in.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s a refugee from the town outside Stronghold 113. Someone in the stronghold wanted to go to the Jing Mountains and was trying to find a guide in town. In the end, everyone said that if they wanted to go to the Jing Mountains, Ren Xiaosu was the only one who could take them there,¡± Xu Xianchu recalled. ¡°The team went looking for him first, but he pretended to be ignorant as he didn¡¯t want to go. Later on, it seemed like they offered him something before he agreed to bring them. Oh right, I think he was Commander Zhang¡¯s student too as Commander Zhang was the teacher at the town¡¯s school at that time. He specified Ren Xiaosu as his substitute teacher after that because he wanted him to take over running the school.¡±


    Everyone looked at each other. He was supposed to take over the school? But now Commander Zhang was nning to let Ren Xiaosu take over at Fortress 178?


    Although everyone would not defy Zhang Jinglin¡¯s wishes, it would still depend on whether Ren Xiaosu was qualified enough to take over Fortress 178. If Ren Xiaosu could not convince the masses, even Zhang Jinglin would not force it ahead. This was the usual practice at Fortress 178.


    Even if you were given a herd of ferocious beasts, you needed to be able to control them. That was the logic behind it.


    Everyone felt that Zhang Jinglin¡¯s arrangement was too sudden, as Ren Xiaosu was still an outsider and no one knew him yet.


    Someone asked Xu Xianchu, ¡°What¡¯s Ren Xiaosu like?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no question about his morals.¡± Xu Xianchu said, ¡°In any case, I trust him.¡±


    Someone asked Xu Xianchu again, ¡°Is your bro also a supernatural being? What kind of power does he have?¡±


    These words immediately stunned Xu Xianchu. ¡°Back in the Jing Mountains, he could carry an adult man with just one arm. He must be a supernatural being, but I don¡¯t really know what power he has.¡±


    The group of burly men in the conference room were stunned. ¡®You call yourself his bro when you don¡¯t even know what his power is? You serious?¡¯

 Chapter 384 - Observing Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 384 Observing Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    Xu Xianchu exined, ¡°The environment he grew up in is a little different. He was always plotting against the refugees in town since childhood, so it¡¯s normal that he hides his thoughts deep inside. But don¡¯t underestimate him. Just think, how many people can escape unscathed on so many asions after a stronghold copses...¡±


    Everyone looked at one another. It was still too early to say for now. If he were the real deal, he could definitely stand up to their scrutiny. The war was going to happen no matter what, so the Razor Sharp Company would definitely be deployed at the forefront of the other fighting forces. At that time, it would be clear to all whether Ren Xiaosu was a hero or a zero.


    Regarding the matter of a young man named Ren Xiaosu being shoved into the Razor Sharp Company, everyone in the military of Fortress 178 found out overnight. This made everyone quite curious about what Ren Xiaosu was like.


    To the burly men of Fortress 178, this was clearly an important matter as it involved someone Zhang Jinglin regarded as his sessor.


    When Xu Xianchu was fast-tracked for promotion, everyone thought Xu Xianchu stood a chance of being considered and wondered if the tradition of the fortressmander emerging from the Razor Sharp Company would finally be broken.


    But from the looks of it, it seemed like Xu Xianchu had not been chosen by Commander Zhang as a candidate to be his sessor. It seemed that tradition would still remain tradition.


    Rumor had it that Ren Xiaosu was a supernatural being. However, it did not seem like he would be very good at fighting with that weak and frail body. Everyone was a little curious as to whether Ren Xiaosu could even survive the war.


    The next morning, when Ren Xiaosu walked out of the building where his group was staying, he saw a group of burly men squatting on the sidewalk.


    The moment he appeared, the group of men lowered their voices and whisper-shouted, ¡°He¡¯s out! That¡¯s him!¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s he so skinny?!¡±


    ¡°Can he even take a few punches?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s not gonna get killed the moment he steps onto the battlefield, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately put his guard up. Were they here to find trouble with him? Was this group of burly men blocking the way to seek a fight with him?


    Although his injuries had not fully healed yet, he was not afraid if anyone tried to find trouble with him.


    But once these burly men saw Ren Xiaosu, they retreated. Ren Xiaosu was left standing there in a daze, not understanding what was going on.


    Zhang Jinglin had not discussed anything with him prior. In fact, Zhang Jinglin¡¯s arrangements might not be a good thing for Ren Xiaosu at all.


    That was because once Ren Xiaosu joined the Razor Sharp Company, everyone would watch his every move, and any mistakes he made would be scrutinized even harder. The moment he showed any signs of cowardice, everyone would think he was not qualified enough.


    Everyone would look at him through a magnifying ss to see if he deserved to be so highly regarded by themander.


    And what made him so highly regarded?


    But Zhang Jinglin did not care about that. He only told Ren Xiaosu that if he wanted to take revenge and personally bring down the Zong Consortium, he would have to first join Fortress 178¡¯s military.


    Ren Xiaosu agreed to it, of course.


    Then Zhang Jinglin asked him what kinds of troops he was nning to join and offered him the chance to choose for himself.


    Ren Xiaosu answered he would like to go wherever it was the most dangerous. Whichever unit could kill the most enemies, he would go there.


    Zhang Jinglin asked him if he wanted to reconsider it, but Ren Xiaosu said he had already made his decision and would not go back on his word.


    Revenge was the only motivation that pushed Ren Xiaosu to go to Fortress 178.


    Zhang Jinglin smiled and said: ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll arrange for you to be posted where it¡¯s the most dangerous then.¡±


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was going to happen, but he did not know what exactly was going on.


    In the afternoon, Xu Xianchu came over and told him to report to the Razor Sharp Company. Thispany was going to be under themand of Zhou Yinglong, themander of the Forward Strike Battalion.


    When Ren Xiaosu was told, he did not think much of it since it was his own request.


    But Xu Xianchu reminded him repeatedly, ¡°Xiaosu, it¡¯s said that the Razor Sharp Companyes back with less than 10% of its troops after every war, and it¡¯s not even umon for everyone to get wiped out, so you must be careful when you¡¯re there. After you return safely, my future in Fortress 178 will be in your hands.¡±


    These words absolutely confused Ren Xiaosu.


    Xu Xianchu drove Ren Xiaosu to the west side of Fortress 178 where the Razor Sharp Company was garrisoned. As they drove in, Ren Xiaosu realized that all the soldiers in the military base stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look at him.


    Zhou Yinglong was already waiting inside. He nced at Xu Xianchu before chuckling and saying, ¡°Old Xu, go on back now. It¡¯ll be fine to leave him here with us.¡±


    Xu Xianchu raised an eyebrow. ¡°We don¡¯t even know if you¡¯ll survive this war or not.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong spat and said angrily, ¡°Stop jinxing me. I won¡¯t die even after you¡¯ve died.¡±


    Xu Xianchu sneered and said, ¡°Do you have a cauldron like I do?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong did not say anything else. Just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, Zhou Yinglong was a supernatural being as well. Otherwise, he would not be in such a dangerous ce like the Forward Strike Battalion.


    After all, it wasn¡¯t like there were a lot of supernatural beings in Fortress 178 either.


    But Zhou Yinglong knew his own power was not strong as Xu Xianchu¡¯s. Everyone had witnessed the might of Xu Xianchu¡¯s cauldron before.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized the soldiers in Fortress 178 were really casual when talking about death. It was asmon as eating. There was not much fear in their eyes. He wondered what kind of environment created such a group of soldiers.


    Even in spring, Fortress 178 was very cold. Sometimes, it would even start snowing by August or September out here, as more than half the year would be spent in wintry conditions.


    After bidding farewell to Xu Xianchu, Zhou Yinglong led Ren Xiaosu inside the military base. As they walked, he said, ¡°Our Forward Strike Battalion has always been a ce where we fight the tough battles. You might not know it since you came from outside the fortress, nor do I know if you¡¯ve ever experienced war before, but I just want to warn you so you don¡¯t go onto the battlefield and get caught off guard.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Battalion Commander, I won¡¯t.¡±


    Since he had been posted to this unit, he was someone¡¯s subordinate. Naturally, he would have to obey his orders. Ren Xiaosu was not surprised that Zhou Yinglong would say that either, so there was no need for him to deliberately talk back.


    Zhou Yinglong nced at him and continued, ¡°I heard Old Xu mention you before. I know you¡¯ve killed people before and that you¡¯re a supernatural being. However, bullets have no eyes on the battlefield. Even supernatural beings aren¡¯t that lucky. There¡¯s still a difference between war and killing people.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was very clear. Although Ren Xiaosu was very powerful, war was a totally different matter.


    War was like an avnche, and even supernatural beings could not defy the force of nature. It was good to not be scared, but one couldn¡¯t be overconfident either.


    In the makeup of troops at Fortress 178, there were 30 people in each toon. Eachpany consisted of four toons, so a normalpany would generally have about 120 soldiers each.


    But the Razor Sharp Company was a reinforcedpany. They also had their own cooks, quartermasters, radio operators, and medics. Thepanymander was a captain who was assisted by a nonmissioned officer.


    The reason the Razor Sharp Company was so well-equipped was so they would have the ability to fight as an independent force.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Battalion Commander Zhou, is the Razor Sharp Company really that strong?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong gave it some thought. ¡°They aren¡¯t necessarily as strong as you might imagine. They¡¯re just a bunch of drifters who¡¯ve gathered together. Normally, they¡¯re real ckers in their daily lives, but they¡¯ve never lost once in a military exercise. They¡¯re well-versed in digging up electrical cables and can fight for a position on the battlefield as well. They¡¯re really as shameless as you can get.¡±

 Chapter 385 - The Razor Sharp Company is invincible

    <h4>Chapter 385 The Razor Sharp Company is invincible</h4>


    When Fortress 178 decided tounch a war against the Zong Consortium, the entire ce suddenly started bustling with activity.


    Most consortiums would usually distribute most of their fighting forces across various strongholds in order to gainplete control over each stronghold. For example, it would be enough for the Qing Consortium to station one brigade in a stronghold during peacetime, while an independent regiment was enough for the weaker strongholds.


    Only Stronghold 111 where Qing Zhen was located would have more fighting forces garrisoned there.


    But it was different for Fortress 178. Since this was their only base, practically half of the fortress would be garrisoned by troops. Furthermore, the residents of the fortress and those living outside it, as well as some of the scattered settlements in the area, served the military as well.


    But unlike other strongholds, there wasn¡¯t a distinction between the refugees and residents of Fortress 178. Those who worked beyond the walls would even receive additional subsidies for being stationed outside.


    In winter, those who lived outside the fortress would be allowed to enter the fortress with a valid pass. Of course, approval for these passes was still rtively strict.


    The total military strength of Fortress 178 reached up to 80,000 troops, and they were an entirely first-ss fighting force as well. Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium¡¯s army imed to have as many as 200,000 soldiers.


    The difference between their military strength was too great. But it was also perhaps because of this significant difference that the Zong Consortium had be so daring in recent years, destroying the main traffic arteries connecting Fortress 178 and the outside world.


    But Ren Xiaosu realized the burly men at Fortress 178 did not seem to mind the stark contrast in their military strength.


    ording to Xu Xianchu, the number of soldiers was no longer the key to victory in modern warfare. The intelligence, technology, courage, and experience of the army was what mattered.


    Although the Zong Consortium had many soldiers, they were all recruits who had been drafted into the military, with many of them being refugees. Once they were deployed onto the battlefield, these recruits would be blindsided by their inexperience.


    The difference between veterans and recruits was like the distance between the heavens and the earth.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Zhang Jinglin was not a reckless person. Since Zhang Jinglin had decided to start the war, he must be confident he could win it.


    By this point, Zhou Yinglong led him to where the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s camp was. The members of the Razor Sharp Company had already been waiting at the entrance for a long time. They all had their arms around each other¡¯s shoulders as they started sizing up Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu was also wearing the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s uniform that had been delivered to him by Xu Xianchu. The patch on his arm was a bay, representing the Razor Sharp Company.


    Zhou Yinglong said softly, ¡°It¡¯s quite different here in the Northwestpared to the South. If this were the South, everyone in the military would probably treat you courteously if Commander Zhang assigned you to the Razor Sharp Company. But here in the Northwest... we¡¯re all curious to see whether you¡¯re really qualified to join us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. What did he mean? All he wanted was to seek revenge by being assigned to the most dangerous unit. That was it! Could it be that it was extremely difficult to join the Razor Sharp Company?


    Zhou Yinglong did not continue speaking. He said to the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company who had surrounded them, ¡°Why have y¡¯all gathered around instead of packing your stuff? You¡¯ll be the first ones to set out for the battlefield early next morning. I¡¯m hereby giving you half a month to take Mt. Dingyuan.¡±


    ¡°Those bandits at Mt. Dingyuan are nothing. We¡¯ll beat them as soon as we arrive.¡± Someone asked, ¡°Battalion Commander, is the person next to you Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he is.¡± Zhou Yinglong said, ¡°Remember, don¡¯t get too carried away.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Zhou Yinglong say ¡°don¡¯t get too carried away,¡± he felt like something was wrong. Were they about to put him in his ce or something? And why did it seem like he had suddenly be a celebrity here in Fortress 178?


    But as soon as Zhou Yinglong finished speaking, he turned around and left, leaving no chance for Ren Xiaosu to ask any questions.


    The 180 or so members of the Razor Sharp Company came up to Ren Xiaosu, including the chow squad who were holding kitchen knives. Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. How was this a fucking military camp? Why did it feel like this was a seedy shop operated by bandits?!


    But Ren Xiaosu was only here to get his revenge on the Zong Consortium by killing them. All he wanted to do was fight the Zong Consortium on the battlefield, so he didn¡¯t need to establish a good rtionship with these soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company.


    Ren Xiaosu lifted his shirt and exposed the wound on his right side. He said, ¡°Are y¡¯all gonna hit a wounded person?¡±


    But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, these thugs standing across from him justughed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t be too heavy-handed.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. They were even fucking OK with beating up the wounded?!


    A wise man did not fight when the odds were against him. As soon as the voice trailed off, Ren Xiaosu turned around and ran away. If he wasn¡¯t fighting to kill, taking on more than a 100 people proved too much for Ren Xiaosu to handle. Moreover, he still had not recovered from his internal injuries!


    The thugs of the Razor Sharp Company roared, ¡°Get him!¡±


    Whenever a recruit joined thepany, they would be put in their ce by the veterans. If they couldn¡¯t be beaten into submission, what if they disobeyed their orderster on? Of course, this was a hugely pretentious rationale to give. The true reason was that these veterans were bored and had nothing better to do.


    As the saying went, no discord, no concord. No one would bear any grudges after joining thepany for a while.


    However, something odd happened today. This recruit turned tail and ran away?! But where could he run off to? The Forward Strike Battalion¡¯s base was only so big, after all, and surely he had toe back to sleep tonight, right?!


    But the crux was that Ren Xiaosu ran away so fast he shook them off in an instant!


    As therge group of people chased after Ren Xiaosu, they saw him quickly slipping into the barracks in another area. The men of the Razor Sharp Company dived in right after him.


    When Ren Xiaosu entered the barracks, he saw a dozen-odd people drying their nkets in the sun. He rushed up to one of them and punched that person to the ground. ¡°The Razor Sharp Company is invincible!¡±


    The burly Northwestern men who were drying their nkets were all stunned and could not react for several seconds.


    One of the men grew angry. ¡°We still haven¡¯t fucking settled the score with the Razor Sharp Company for the previous military exercise, and now they¡¯ve actually picked a fight with us?!¡±


    Then he shouted into the barracks, ¡°Second Company, get out here now! We have a fight on our hands!¡±


    When the thugs of the Razor Sharp Company entered this area, they saw the members of Second Company running out of their barracks. The Razor Sharp Company¡¯smander shouted, ¡°Old Li, step aside. It¡¯s none of your business...¡±


    But when Second Company¡¯s Commander Li looked at hisrade who had been punched to the ground, he said, ¡°Step aside? Fuck you! Brothers, get them!¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯smander also turned furious. ¡°Hey, sore loser!¡±


    When Old Li heard this, he got even angrier and threw a punch.


    It only took a few seconds for everything to happen. No one had time to think. But if they had had the time, it would certainly not have ended up like this.


    Zhou Yinglong frowned as he watched from a distance. What the fuck was with this?! On the first day of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arrival, the Razor Sharp Company and Second Company had immediately descended into a mass brawl? More than 300 people were fighting one another, and some of them even had their shirt cors torn off in the scuffle!


    It was verymon for people to pick a fight with one another within the military bases of Fortress 178. In most situations, themanding officer would usually let the soldiers fight all they wanted. It was like these tough men in the fortress thought that being a little bloodthirsty was a prerequisite to them bing soldiers.


    But how on earth did this fight escte into a brawl?!


    ¡°This is way too fucking ominous, ¡± Zhou Yinglong said.


    Ren Xiaosu, who was standing next to him, alsomented, ¡°Yeah.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong spun around. ¡°Since when were you standing next to me!¡±


    Reserved, Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°I just got here a moment ago.¡±

 Chapter 386 - Swiftly taking Mt. Dingyuan

    <h4>Chapter 386 Swiftly taking Mt. Dingyuan</h4>


    Zhou Yinglong looked at Ren Xiaosu. He took a deep breath and asked, ¡°Why did they start fighting?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu blinked. ¡°I dunno, maybe they had some disagreements. Battalion Commander, aren¡¯t you going to stop them? Didn¡¯t you say that the Razor Sharp Company would be heading out to Mt. Dingyuan?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was stunned for a couple seconds before he stopped caring about Ren Xiaosu. He ran to where the fight had broken out. ¡°Everyone, stop fighting. Razor Sharp Company, I want all of you to return to your barracks and assemble within ten minutes. Since you¡¯re all so energetic, I don¡¯t think you need another day¡¯s rest, right? You can head straight for Mt. Dingyuan in that case!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s words still held a lot of weight in the Forward Strike Battalion. It seemed that the twopanies were also very used to this. Even though they were fighting, the two sides immediately stopped once Zhou Yinglong stepped in.


    The Razor Sharp Company turned around and ran back to their own barracks.


    Military orders were not to be taken lightly. If they were asked to assemble in ten minutes, they would have to do it within ten minutes and not a secondter.


    Before they left, the members of the Razor Sharp Company saw Ren Xiaosu standing next to Zhou Yinglong unscathed. When they thought about what had just happened, they nearly vomited blood.


    It wasn¡¯t until this moment that the Second Company soldier who was beaten up at the beginning started slowly getting up off the ground. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he shouted, ¡°He was the one who hit me just now, and he even yelled ¡®the Razor Sharp Company is invincible¡¯ at me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°You¡¯ve got the wrong person.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong raised his eyebrows and told Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I want you to assemble with everyone as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Then he ran towards the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s barracks.


    When he entered the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s camp, the Razor Sharp Company was already standing in a block formation with their field packs on their backs. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Recruit Ren Xiaosu reporting in.¡±


    The 180-odd men from the Razor Sharp Company looked at Ren Xiaosu speechlessly. Thepanymander was so angry he smiled. ¡°Good on ya, Ren Xiaosu. You¡¯re the only one in Fortress 178 who¡¯s capable of making our Razor Sharp Company look like dumbasses. Amazing!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said politely, ¡°But I¡¯m also part of our Razor Sharp Company.¡±


    Thepanymander barked, ¡°Get your ass in formation and fall in with 1st toon. I¡¯ll teach you a lesson after the war is over.¡±


    Thepanymander looked at the Razor Sharp Company that had assembled in a block formation and was about to lecture them. However, the men standing before him all looked bruised and swollen, while their uniforms were also in tatters. One of the soldiers¡¯ noses was still even bleeding. However, he did not fidget or wipe the blood off as he was currently standing in formation.


    When thepanymander was greeted by this sight, his heart shattered. What the fuck did they do to deserve this!


    Zhou Yinglong walked over while humming a little ditty. Thepanymander said to him, ¡°Reporting in, Battalion Commander, Razor Sharp Company has assembled. Total strength, 184. Present strength, 184. End of report, sir!


    Zhou Yinglong nodded as he looked at the Razor Sharp Company in the block formation. He snapped, ¡°Look at the state you¡¯re in! You¡¯ve got 60 more men than Second Company, but why does it seem like you¡¯re all useless?! Didn¡¯t y¡¯all do really good during the exercise, and you even captured ourmand center too? Where¡¯s that arrogance now, eh?¡±


    As he spoke, Zhou Yinglong stood in front of the Razor Sharp Company and startedughing...


    Ren Xiaosu stood in formation and thought to himself, ¡®Just by looking at the way Zhou Yinglong leads his soldiers, he¡¯s probably not an ordinary person either.¡¯


    Zhou Yinglong continued, ¡°We also don¡¯t have enough uniforms to go around at our fortress, so I wonder if y¡¯all will be mocked when you step on the battlefield wearing your current attire? Zhang Xiaoman, I hope you haven¡¯t forgotten that you¡¯ve pledged to take Mt. Dingyuan within half a month. Alright, time for y¡¯all to set off.¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯smander stood at attention and yelled, ¡°Battalion Commander, don¡¯t worry! If we don¡¯t take Mt. Dingyuan within half a month, I¡¯llmit suicide.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company standing in block formation roared, ¡°Battalion Commander, don¡¯t worry! We¡¯ll win the opening battle!¡±


    Only at this moment did Ren Xiaosu finally feel some bloodlust from this group of thugs. Earlier, they were thinking of beating up a wounded person. Their behavior was too immoral!


    After Zhou Yinglong left the barracks again, Zhang Xiaoman loosened up. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Good fucking job, kid! You¡¯ve made our Razor Sharp Company lose all honor.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said softly, ¡°Yes, sir, yes.¡±


    ¡°Jiao Xiaochen!¡± Zhang Xiaoman called over 1st toon¡¯smander. ¡°Ren Xiaosu will be assigned to your toon from now on, so keep an eye on him. If he disobeys any orders, beat him to death.¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen muttered, ¡°Captain, you saw how fast he ran just now, right? Even if we want to beat him up, we might not even be able to catch him.¡±


    ¡°Cut the crap. We¡¯re setting off.¡± Zhang Xiaoman turned to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Now that you¡¯ve joined the Razor Sharp Company, be prepared to suffer. I don¡¯t know how you lived in the past. You might be used to eating well and never having to sleep in the wilderness, but from today onwards, know that the good days of the past are over!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He would simply have to prove he could handle it.


    The Forward Strike Battalion was the advance guard of Fortress 178. They not only had to capture cities and territories, but also yed a part in verifying if the mapping of the battlefield was urate. They would then report any intel back to headquarters to guide the Engineering Battalion in their bridge building and road paving missions to establish a forward operating base.


    The armor and artillery could only reach the Zong Consortium after the bridges, roads, and FOB had been set up properly.


    And the Razor Sharp Company was the advance guard of the Forward Strike Battalion. They would be the first to face and ovee any difficulties.


    It was not without reason that all of the previous candidates for the role of fortressmander were trained in the Razor Sharp Company. If they did not gain experience with the toughestpany, how could they possibly be goodmanders?


    This way of setting an example had carried on to this day. As such, all the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were expecting even more from Ren Xiaosu. This person could end up bing themander of Fortress 178 in the future, but was he up to it?


    Ten military transport trucks were assigned to the Razor Sharp Company by Zhou Yinglong. They weren¡¯t only used for transporting people. They also transported heavy machine guns, mortars, and other firearms. If they wanted to capture Mt. Dingyuan without this equipment, that would be a pipe dream.


    After getting into the vehicles, thepanymander, Zhang Xiaoman, was still analyzing the map in his hands. ¡°There¡¯s a group of bandits holding Mt. Dingyuan, but it¡¯s hard to be sure at this moment that there won¡¯t be any of Zong Consortium¡¯s regrs mixed in among them. So we¡¯ve gotta be careful when we attack them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was also sitting in the same vehicle as thepanymander. He quite agreed with Zhang Xiaoman that they definitely could not treat the bandits at Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan as normal bandits.


    Zhang Xiaoman continued, ¡°We don¡¯t have much time. There might still be a spring on Mt. Dingyuan, so it¡¯s not feasible to cut off their water supply. Any of you have any good ideas?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman looked around for someone to offer a suggestion, but no one said a thing. In the corner, Ren Xiaosu also sat with his eyes closed without saying a word.


    Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s gaze fell on Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You look like you have a lot of ideas. Tell me, how should we fight this battle?¡¯


    ¡°Just fight?¡± Ren Xiaosu said. Since he had never been to Mt. Dingyuan before, he didn¡¯t even know what the terrain there looked like. So how could he think of a strategy?


    Zhang Xiaoman scorned, ¡°The bandits might even be armed with heavy machine guns, mortars, and RPGs. Do you know how many people will die if weunch a head-on attack? Do you think you¡¯re like Xu Xianchu, who has that invulnerable shadow with a ck cauldron, and that you can simply force your way through the battlefield?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mouth twitched. ¡°I¡¯m just a private, so I¡¯ll obey your orders.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman nodded. ¡°That¡¯s the correct attitude.¡±

 Chapter 387 - A pledge

    <h4>Chapter 387 A pledge</h4>


    In the truck, Ren Xiaosu listened as the thugs of the Razor Sharp Company discussed their ns to break through the defensive line at Mt. Dingyuan. They not only had to think about how to break through at Mt. Dingyuan, but also consider the possibility of the enemy¡¯s reinforcements arriving from Mt. Guan.


    The reason Mt. Dingyuan was difficult to capture was because the Zong Consortium¡¯s bandits were supporting them from the front line of Mt. Guan. In peacetime, the two groups of bandits looked wholly unrted. But when war broke out, these two groups were clearly fighting on the same side.


    So if they attacked Mt. Dingyuan, they would have to face the threat from Mt. Guan at the same time.


    When the convoy was about to leave Fortress 178, someone suddenly stopped the convoy from the front. It turned out that Wang Shengzhi and Wang Shengyin were both waiting at the east gate. Zhang Xiaoman jumped out of the truck and asked, ¡°Is there anything I can help you with?¡±


    Wang Shengyin said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu is in yourpany, right? We learned he would be heading out to the front line today after speaking to Commander Zhang. We¡¯re just nning to bid him farewell, so we won¡¯t really dy your journey.¡±


    Looking at Wang Shengyin¡¯s appearance, Zhang Xiaoman realized she was obviously one of the people from the Central ins. He said unhappily, ¡°When the troops are setting off for war, how can they be asked to wait just because someone wants to say goodbye? Get out of the way already. He¡¯s a soldier of my Razor Sharp Company now, so I won¡¯t allow him to meet you two.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was already a little unhappy to begin with. How could his troops be stopped in their journey over such a trivial matter? What the hell?


    Wang Shengyin said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, we won¡¯t say goodbye to him then. Can you hand this gift to him? Let him know that we¡¯ll also be leaving Fortress 178 in three days. When we return to the Central ins, we¡¯ll definitely help him to find his friend named Li Shentan.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright.¡± Zhang Xiaoman waved them off impatiently. ¡°I¡¯ll hand it to him.¡±


    Then Zhang Xiaoman jumped back up into the truck and quickly led the convoy through Fortress 178¡¯s gate. The copper bell behind them at the end of that long road stood at the center of the fortress unchanged. A group of soldiers watched Wang Shengyin, who was getting further and further away and muttered, ¡°How enviable...¡±


    At the moment, Wang Shengyin was still waving goodbye at the convoy. Meanwhile, Wang Shengzhi smiled throughout without a word.


    Zhang Xiaoman handed the present to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°During wartime, you shouldn¡¯t be in a rtionship. There¡¯s only life and death to think about in war, understand?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He took the box and opened it. He discovered it was a box of pea cakes, took one out, and stuffed it into his mouth. Then he gave the rest of the cakes to Zhang Xiaoman and said, ¡°Y¡¯all can share it.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. ¡°How can you let us have the snacks when it was given to you by a girl? Kid, what are you thinking?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°It tastes bad.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was speechless.


    The group of soldiers around him snatched the snacks from Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s hands and said, ¡°If he doesn¡¯t want them, let us have ¡¯em. It¡¯s so nice to have a girl send you something to eat, yet you¡¯re still being picky?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was sitting in the corner. He knew his rtionship with Wang Shengyin was not what the soldiers thought. They had only known each other for a little more than ten days. It hadn¡¯t even been a month yet.


    Perhaps Wang Shengzhi felt he would be useful in the future, so he quickly expressed his good intentions to him while they were still here.


    But no matter what, Ren Xiaosu would not trust these ¡°friends¡± he had only known for a little more than ten days. As for what would happen after Wang Shengzhi found Li Shentan, he did not care.


    Judging by what Li Shentan and Si Liren were capable of, Li Shentan could definitely get away unscathed even if Wang Shengzhi had ulterior motives.


    But when he tasted the pea cake, he was reminded of Yang Xiaojin. He wondered where that cap-wearing girl was now.


    All of them probably thought he was dead.


    Even Ren Xiaosu himself did not think that he had any hopes of survival at that time.


    Before he could get revenge, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to get involved with other people. He would just treat them as passersby in his life.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Company Commander, why don¡¯t we attack Mt. Guan head on instead?¡±


    ¡°Are you fucking crazy?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with his mouth full of pea cake. ¡°My pledge was to attack Mt. Dingyuan. Also, it¡¯s more difficult to attack Mt. Guan than Mt. Dingyuan!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that we have to prevent the reinforcements at Mt. Guan froming to support Mt. Dingyuan during our attack? So even if we attack Mt. Guan, there should also be reinforcementsing from Mt. Dingyuan, right?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman pondered what he said. Then he realized Ren Xiaosu was implying that they should pretend to attack Mt. Guan first, theny in ambush to pick off the reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan when they headed to Mt. Guan.


    This suggestion suited the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers¡¯ taste.


    After all, positional defense still yed the part of the ¡°meat grinder¡± in modern warfare.


    The officers of Fortress 178 were required to learn military knowledge during weekdays. Even though these men did not like studying, they still enjoyed reading case studies of wars preserved from before The Cataclysm.


    One of the case studies detailing a battle for an airport perfectly exined what modern positional warfare was about. The attacking forces were ten times the number of the defensive troops, and they also possessed 122 mm howitzers and attack choppers. But even in those circumstances, it still took three months for the attackers to take the airport. During the battle, both sides suffered countless casualties.


    This case study proved that as long as one side did not have a fully mechanized force and powerful aerial strikes they could depend on, positional warfare had to be taken seriously.


    Whatever equipment they had, their enemies would have as well. In fact, the defenders would have also ntednd mines, booby traps, and other forms of traps.


    Bombarding the target with firepower required a huge price and intel on the enemy¡¯s firepower deployment, earned by sacrificing lives.


    If it weren¡¯t for Ren Xiaosu, who had given the defensive deployment map to Qing Zhen, it would have taken Qing Zhen a very long time to take Position 313. At that time, the deadline set by the Qing Consortium¡¯s headquarters was only one month.


    A lot of people thought the era of positional warfare was no longer applicable in modern warfare, but that wasn¡¯t the case at all.


    The ¡°Theory of the Omnipotence of Missiles¡± had still not reached full omnipotence yet.


    In the case study Zhang Xiaoman and the others had read, the positions that were quickly conquered were bombarded by the air force. But now it was those flying beasts in the sky that were the overlords of airpower. Humanity¡¯s nes were too fragile inparison.


    The Razor Sharp Company was currently up against two banditirs. Although they could call for supporting fire to bombard Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan, what do they do after that? How were they going to fight the remainder of the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops?


    It was just two fucking banditirs. The real battle had not even started yet.


    Zhang Xiaoman pondered things for a while. ¡°But we might not be able to handle it when we get attacked on both sides.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Even if we don¡¯t attack this way, we¡¯ll still have to face attacks from both sides, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°But what if the reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan don¡¯te to support them if there isn¡¯t enough pressure on Mt. Guan?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°Then we¡¯ll put the pressure on them. Just leave it to me.¡±


    ¡°Will you pledge to that?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked in surprise.


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company in the truck suddenly felt something was wrong. They were still worried that a recruit like Ren Xiaosu would have his legs turn to rubber once he was on the battlefield. But why did it seem like Ren Xiaosu was more hellbent on seeking battle than they were?


    Wasn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu rumored to be a supernatural being? No one knew where he got the confidence to talk big.

 Chapter 388 - War fanatic

    <strong>Chapter 388 War fanatic</strong>


    Since they had decided to attack Mt. Guan to lure the Mt. Dingyuan bandits out of theirir, they would have to quietly sneak into the valley in case their movements were discovered.


    The Zong Consortium had spies all over the Northwest. Fortress 178 was nning to eliminate the bandits in the valley first in case they caused any trouble to the forward operating base when the real war began.


    Zhang Xiaoman believed it would be harder to take Mt. Guan, but Ren Xiaosu did not think so. That was because some of the bandits had already died in the terrible earthquake when Yan Liuyuan¡¯s curse hit them. He was guessing those bandits must havee from Mt. Guan.


    At that time, they were in the vicinity of Mt. Kaolei, and the nearest banditirs were at Mt. Tangwang and Mt. Guan. However, the bandits at Mt. Tangwang had already been recruited by Wang Congyang. So the only possibility was that those bandits were from Mt. Guan.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not mention a word about this. It seemed that Fortress 178 did not know about the battle in the wilderness yet, as the Zong Consortium was still locking out the news.


    Fortress 178 was between 5 and 600 kilometers away from that battlefield at that time. No matter how massive the explosions and firepower were, no one would hear anything if they were in the fortress.


    But Ren Xiaosu knew that if it were really as he had guessed, Mt. Guan was definitely not going to be as difficult to ovee as they had thought. Instead, it would be much easier to attack than Mt. Dingyuan.


    The Razor Sharp Company started behaving like mice when they suddenly abandoned their trucks and moved in the gullies with their guns and artillery supplies. By lying low in the daytime and only bing active at night, they were trying their best not to get discovered by the enemy.


    When they were resting in the shadows of the gullies during the day, Zhang Xiaoman said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Although I don¡¯t know what your superpower is, I¡¯ll still believe you since you said you could put pressure on Mt. Guan. But you better not tell me that you can¡¯t do it when we get there. If you can¡¯t do it, I¡¯ll be sure to shoot you regardless of who you are.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not reply to him as he cradled his automatic rifle andy against the gully with his eyes closed.


    Everyone was slowly eating their field rations. As they were now secretly trying to enter the valley, they were not allowed to set up cooking fires.


    But Zhang Xiaoman and the others were surprised by how Ren Xiaosu could bear more hardship than they could. While everyone was resting, they would always require rotations for sentry duty. The other soldiers were so sleepy they keptining, but Ren Xiaosu never once grumbled about anything. If he was asked to perform his sentry duty, he would just do it. He was also fine with it when he had to perform his duty for a little longer.


    Zhang Xiaoman observed and realized that Ren Xiaosu was really serious and responsible when he was on sentry duty.


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯smander muttered, ¡°As expected of someone chosen by themander.¡±


    Everyone was expecting something more from Ren Xiaosu, not because they had something against him, but because when they found out he could be the nextmander, they wondered, ¡®In what way is he better than me? Why should he be considered as a candidate for the role ofmander?¡¯


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu not only had to perform sentry duty, but he also took turns with everyone to carry the heavy machine guns and mortars during their march. The machine guns were really burdensome, and the mortars were only slightly lighter at about 15 kilograms each. Although it was very ufortable to carry them for long distances, it was still within eptable limits.


    Meanwhile, the 12.7 mm heavy machine guns weighed 25 kilograms each, and they even had to carry their own rucksacks too. The route they had to take to get to Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan was still at least another 100 kilometers away, and the terrain was difficult to traverse. Some soldiers even got abrasions on their shoulders after carrying the weapons.


    But Ren Xiaosu never onceined.


    Ren Xiaosu looked very skinny at the moment because his Strength and Dexterity were bnced. At the beginning, Zhang Xiaoman deliberately made things difficult for Ren Xiaosu by making him suffer.


    But to Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s surprise, Ren Xiaosu was not careless at all when carrying the machine gun even though he looked thinner than all of them. He even volunteered to shoulder some of the burden for hisrades.


    This was just how it was in the army. If you were tough and capable, you would get respected. If you were a weakling, you would get looked down on.


    In just these few days of their march through the wilderness, everyone¡¯s impression of Ren Xiaosu changed for the better. This kid was really tough and capable!


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company vaguely thought to themselves, ¡®He¡¯s too not bad after all.¡¯


    But it did not mean he had fully been epted. Whether he was qualified to be the nextmander would not depend only on physical strength and perseverance.


    At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman did some calctions and said, ¡°Mt. Guan is around 30 kilometers away from Mt. Dingyuan. If the bandits on Mt. Guan seek reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan, those bandits will probably arrive in about half an hour. We have to dig trenches and set up an ambush on the road in advance. Or else we might not be able to defeat those fucking bandits.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°This gully is already a natural trench.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, ¡°Are you really confident in putting pressure on Mt. Guan and forcing them to call for reinforcements?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I already pledged to do so.¡±


    The signalers from the Razor Sharp Company were constantly in touch with the Forward Strike Battalion behind them. The Forward Strike Battalion had set off the day after the Razor Sharp Company had departed. At this moment, they should be 60 kilometers behind them.


    However, the Forward Strike Battalion¡¯s target was neither Mt. Guan nor Mt. Dingyuan. They had to set up a defensive line in the north to prevent the Zong Consortium¡¯s counterattack on the south after they sessfully took Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan.


    Of Fortress 178¡¯s military corps, other than a full brigade that was tasked with staying behind to defend the fortress, the rest were preparing to head out to the battlefield.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Captain, does the Zong Consortium really have 200,000 soldiers?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said with a sneer, ¡°How dare the Zong Consortium im to have 200,000 soldiers when their territory is so small? Oh, wait, if we include the refugees and private troops they recruited into their forces, it seems there might really be 200,000 of them. But our Fortress 178 can fight down to ourst soldier. The Zong Consortium¡¯s so-called brigade would probably lose all their morale once a few hundred of their soldiers get killed.¡±


    Only then did it dawn on Ren Xiaosu that the Zong Consortium was just like the Li Consortium. Not only did they draft the incapable refugees, but they recruited the ipetent private troops into their forces as well.


    If the Qing Consortium did the same, Ren Xiaosu estimated they coulde up with more than 400,000 troops.


    But what was the use of such troops?


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Then how many real troops does the Zong Consortium have?¡±


    ¡°About 90,000.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°But this was intel fromst year.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. He suddenly felt that this battle was no longer that difficult to fight even though Fortress 178 only had 75,000 troops on the battlefield.


    But why did it feel like Fortress 178 was not that strong? Was he getting a false impression?


    Ren Xiaosu felt that there was something strange about this. If Fortress 178 only had these fighting forces, even if they could remain standing here in the Northwest, it would definitely not be enough to awe a real consortium.


    Besides, Luo Lan had wanted to kill Zhang Jinglin, but Qing Zhen refused.


    Did Qing Zhen allow Zhang Jinglin to return to the Northwest so he could keep the Zong Consortium in check, or was it because he wanted Zhang Jinglin to continue keeping guard for the humans in the interior and prevent another foreign war from breaking out?


    Perhaps it could be for both reasons too. Ren Xiaosu felt that Qing Zhen might not be that fanatic who was only obsessed with fighting <b>wars.</b>

 Chapter 389 - Don’t alert the enemy

    <h4>Chapter 389 Don¡¯t alert the enemy</h4>


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s march was not slow. They continuouslyid low during the day and only came out at night for three days in a row. Even this group of thugs were starting to feel a little tired.


    They would not be so tired if they were marching normally, mainly because they still had to carry their supplies, ammunition, and firearms with them. The Razor Sharp Company had four heavy machine guns with them and were supplied with more than 20 ammo boxes.


    At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu kept a very low profile and carried the heavy machine gun with the other soldiers. Two people were on a gun, rotating pairs every three hours.


    But as he kept walking, Ren Xiaosu felt it was very inconvenient for two people to carry the machine gun since they had to synchronize their pace and footsteps. As such, he simply had his teammate let go and carried the gun by himself.


    Zhang Xiaoman had thought Ren Xiaosu was overestimating himself. How could he carry that thing weighing 25 kilograms on top of his field pack all by himself? He might be able to carry it for a while, but try carrying it for three hours!


    But everyone eventually realized it was unusual. Ren Xiaosu was actually able to carry the fucking heavy machine gun weighing 25 kilograms by himself effortlessly, and he was not even panting!


    One hourter, Zhang Xiaoman and the others thought Ren Xiaosu would already be tired. However, Ren Xiaosu switched to carrying the machine gun in his other hand and continued carrying it forward.


    Two hourster, Zhang Xiaoman and the others thought that surely he would be tired by now. However, Ren Xiaosu simply switched back to carrying it with his previous hand like it was not heavy at all.


    After three hours, Ren Xiaosu passed the heavy machine gun to hisrades who would be taking over and said, ¡°It¡¯s your turn now.¡±


    This time, everyone from the Razor Sharp Company was secretly surprised. Was Ren Xiaosu a beast? Fortunately, they did not end up fighting Ren Xiaosu in the military base. With his strength, he could probably kill others with just a punch, right?!


    Zhang Xiaoman was a little jealous. ¡°Is this what it means to be a supernatural being?¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the pce in his mind say, ¡°Quest: Help yourrades lessen their burden.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had not received a quest from the pce for nearly a month. He wondered what kind of reward it would be this time.


    When they were about to arrive at the specified location on the fourth day, Ren Xiaosu purposely chose a time when hisrades had be extremely tired to help them carry their supplies. He would carry them for a while before letting them carry the supplies again.


    Hisrades were all moved to tears. Ren Xiaosu was such a good guy, and he was really helpful to everyone too.


    When Ren Xiaosu took their boxes of supplies, everyone thanked him for it. Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that even though the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers were like thugs, they were rather sincere in their gratitude. He actually managed to receive gratitude tokens from all of their thanks.


    During his previous battle, Ren Xiaosu had used his Explosive Poker cards like they did not cost a thing. So he only had around a 100 gratitude tokens left from the originally 900-odd gratitude tokens he had umted


    And now, Ren Xiaosu would have to be exceptionally hardworking as he started earning the gratitude tokens all over again.


    Although Zhang Xiaoman was thepanymander, he was always one to lead by example. He also helped carry whatever everyone was carrying without cking off one bit.


    When it was Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s turn to carry the supplies, Ren Xiaosu was about to take the ammo box from his hands, but Zhang Xiaoman refused to let him do so.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu did not bear any grudges against them for trying to beat him up. He even volunteered to help hisrades out, making everyone feel really embarrassed about how they treated him.


    When Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was about to take the ammo box from his shoulder, he immediately said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, you don¡¯t have to. I can carry it.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not budge. He said with a dark expression, ¡°Let go!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman subconsciously let go of his hand, and Ren Xiaosu grabbed the ammo box. Even if he could carry it, Ren Xiaosu wouldn¡¯t allow it. Wouldn¡¯t that dy the progress of his quest?


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought he couldplete the quest by just helping them carry one or two ammo boxes. But after testing, the pce updated him that the quest was only 1%plete. It meant he would have to do it a hundred times before the quest would be consideredplete.


    There had always been a better reward for the more challenging quests he was given. Ren Xiaosu was starting to look forward to the reward this time.


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like something was missing as he carried the ammo box. He looked back at Zhang Xiaoman and said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to thank me?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned before muttering, ¡°Thank you...¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Zhang Xiaoman,


    +1!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said from behind, ¡°Don¡¯t push yourself too hard, preserving yourbat strength is the most important thing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had been carrying something on his shoulder all day. But even when the rest of the troops looked really tired, Ren Xiaosu looked fresh.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks. ¡°Someone¡¯sing!¡±


    In that instant, all the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company went prone inside the gully. Ren Xiaosu was shocked when he looked back at them. Hisrades were way too cautious!


    It wasn¡¯t until ten secondster that they heard a motorcycle in the distance. It seemed to being from the east, so that could only mean it was someone from Mt. Dingyuan.


    Zhang Xiaomany on the ground and said to the others, ¡°Don¡¯t alert the enemy. We can¡¯t be discovered¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, the bandit riding the motorcycle suddenly screamed in the distance. Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. ¡°What was that? Who¡¯s screaming when I was just saying to not make a sound? Didn¡¯t I say to stay hidden and not alert the enemy?¡±


    ¡°Captain, the scream came from way over there. It¡¯s not our people.¡±


    ¡°From over there?¡± Zhang Xiaoman was puzzled. ¡°Wait a minute, where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    When they cautiously poked their heads out of the gully, they saw that Ren Xiaosu had snapped the bandit¡¯s neck and left him lying on the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu took off his Razor Sharp Company¡¯s uniform and put on that bandit¡¯s clothes. Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. ¡°What¡¯re you doing?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ll push the motorcycle and head up Mt. Guan. I noticed earlier that it¡¯d take around an hour to walk up the mountain road. In exactly an hour, I want ¡®all to start firing the mortars at the mountain. You don¡¯t have to worry about whether it¡¯s urate. Just create a distraction. After that, prepare to intercept the banditsing from Mt. Dingyuan. There¡¯s no need to worry about me.¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers looked at one another. Was Ren Xiaosu nning to head up Mt. Guan all by himself?!


    Zhang Xiaoman asked, ¡°Are you gonna be fine by yourself?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not looking to die.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s too dangerous. Why don¡¯t I send a toon to cover you?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°I¡¯ll help y¡¯all pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan first. If the situation goes south, I¡¯ll retreat. As long as I can lure the bandits out from Mt. Dingyuan, everything that I do there will be worth it.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman turned serious. ¡°You¡¯re a brother of our Razor Sharp Company from now on. If you sadly sacrifice yourself there, I¡¯ll make sure ourrades back at the fortress learn that you were a brave man.¡±


    How could there be no deaths in a war? There would surely have to be some sacrifices if they wanted to win the war.


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s current mission was to take Mt. Dingyuan. If they could notplete their mission on time, it would dy the progress of the entire army.


    They were going to be in for a tough battle.


    But 1st toon Commander Jiao Xiaochen suddenly wondered, ¡°Why would you have to push the motorcycle up the mountain? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to ride it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a while. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to ride it.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was speechless, as was Jiao Xiaochen. All of the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers were speechless.

 Chapter 390 - I’ve already taken Mt. Guan

    <h4>Chapter 390 I¡¯ve already taken Mt. Guan</h4>


    After Ren Xiaosu pushed the motorcycle and set off, Zhang Xiaoman quickly led the Razor Sharp Company in digging the trenches.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu was not well-versed in military knowledge. Although the gullies could indeed save them a lot of steps, there was still a need to work on them before the gullies could be useful as trenches. They needed to select the most suitable position for the ambush and set up emcements as well.


    It would take an hour for Ren Xiaosu to head up the mountain and probably another hour for the reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan to reach this location. So there wasn¡¯t much time left for Zhang Xiaoman and the others to get ready.


    As Jiao Xiaochen led the group to construct the trenches, he muttered, ¡°I thought themander sent us a weakling, but it turns out he¡¯s the best.¡±


    ¡°Do y¡¯all feel that he has a grudge against these bandits?¡± someone wondered. ¡°I feel like he really wants to fight these bandits and the Zong Consortium until he kills them all.¡±


    ¡°I can feel it too.¡± Zhang Xiaoman sighed. ¡°There¡¯s some sort of ferocity deep in that kid¡¯s bones. He could kill someone just like that without batting an eyelid. Before we could even react, he finished off that bandit.¡±


    ¡°When he was pushing the motorcycle to go up the mountain just now, I could sense a killing intent in him.¡±


    ¡°You must¡¯ve fucking listened to too many stories! You can even sense something like killing intent now? Get out of here!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was sitting in the trenches and estimated the time. ¡°Are the mortars ready?¡±


    ¡°Captain, our mortars definitely can¡¯t hit the mountain since their effective range is only three kilometers.¡± Jiao Xiaochen wiped away his sweat and said, ¡°Should we get a little closer? That way, we can still provide some cover for him. Our mortars are probably still a bit far from the banditir on Mt. Guan to effectively hit them.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. ¡°Our most important task is to wipe out the banditsing from Mt. Dingyuan. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to provide cover for him, but our mission must bepleted. We can only talk about other matters after the mission is done.¡±


    ¡°What if he¡ª¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no ¡®what ifs,¡¯¡± Zhang Xiaoman refuted. ¡°It¡¯s an honor for a soldier to die on the battlefield. Since he¡¯s decided to go, he must have some skills to keep himself alive. Don¡¯t ever underestimate a supernatural being. Have you forgotten how strong old Xu¡¯s superpower is? And Ren Xiaosu might even be stronger than Old Xu?¡±


    Supernatural beings had now be a variable on the battlefield. They were sharp daggers that could kill the enemy as soon as they were stabbed in the right position.


    When it was time, Zhang Xiaoman immediately ordered Jiao Xiaochen tounch the mortars and create a distraction. After the mortars exploded, intense gunfire suddenly came from the mountainside.


    Someone said, ¡°It seems like the bandits on Mt. Guan have already started fighting. Are we really not going to support him?¡±


    ¡°I think I just heard a train whistle. Did I hear wrong?¡±


    ¡°He definitely can¡¯t deal with them by himself. No matter how powerful a supernatural being is, they¡¯re still afraid of bullets. Why don¡¯t we attack Mt. Guan first?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said coldly, ¡°Keep your guards up, all of you! Our current enemies are the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan, not the bandits here at Mt. Guan!¡±


    But at this moment, the gunfire on the mountainside subsided. Zhang Xiaoman frowned. ¡°Why have the gunshots stopped so quickly? Has he retreated already, or did he sacrifice himself?¡±


    ¡°He sacrificed himself, more than likely.¡±


    Based onst year¡¯s intel, there were at least 700 bandits gathered up on Mt. Guan. No matter how powerful Ren Xiaosu was, he could not possibly wipe out all the bandits by himself.


    Moreover, there should be gunshots from the pursuing bandits if Ren Xiaosu had fled down the mountain. But right now, they couldn¡¯t hear any gunshots at all. This suggested the battle on the mountain had already ended.


    Therefore, the most reasonable exnation was that Ren Xiaosu had overestimated his own strength when he said he would pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan. In the end, his n backfired on him.


    ¡°But the reinforcements at Mt. Dingyuan won¡¯te over here to give support if the battle¡¯s ended so quickly. Then our n is ruined.¡± Jiao Xiaochen sighed. ¡°What should we do now? Should we retreat?¡±


    ¡°Wait awhile longer.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°What if the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan rush here? We can fight as many of them as we can then. Our enemies have motorcycles that allow them to travel freely in the valley while we retreat on foot. If we evacuate at this moment, we¡¯ll be caught up to very soon by the enemy. If that¡¯s the case, we might as well defend this position and fight back.¡±


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company leaned against the trench walls, hugging their guns. ¡°Themander is really unlucky. The two candidates he chose so far have both ended up dead.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be sorry about.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said calmly, ¡°On the battlefield, you never know when someone will die.¡±


    However, the Razor Sharp Company waited for nearly an hour in the trenches at the foot of the mountain. They did not see any bandit reinforcementsing from Mt. Dingyuan, nor did any bandits charge down from Mt. Guan to kill them.


    ¡°This feels a little strange.¡± Zhang Xiaoman wondered, ¡°We exposed our position when we fired the mortars earlier, so why¡¯re the bandits on Mt. Guan noting down to attack us? Never mind that the bandits from Mt. Dingyuan did note, why aren¡¯t the bandits on Mt. Guaning down either?¡±


    But at this moment, a soldier poked his head out and saw someone walking slowly on the mountain road towards them. The figure was covered in blood and prominently stood out in the dustyndscape.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that Ren Xiaosu? He¡¯s still alive?!¡± Jiao Xiaochen eximed.


    They had been specting anding up with many scenarios, but never had they thought Ren Xiaosu would be walking out of the mountain alive!


    When the calm-looking Zhang Xiaoman heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name, he immediately got out of the trench and ran towards him. He circled Ren Xiaosu for a while and asked, ¡°Did you get injured? How did you manage to escape? Medic! Medic, get over here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before suddenly saying, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯tplete the mission.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled when he saw that Ren Xiaosu was alright. ¡°It¡¯s good enough that you¡¯re still alive. I said that you were too overconfident. How could you possibly pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan all by yourself? Follow me into the trenches. When the bandits charge down, we¡¯ll still have a tough battle to fight!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°No, what I meant was that I killed them so fast they couldn¡¯t even call for reinforcements from Mt. Dingyuan.¡±


    Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company was stupefied. ¡®Is it fucking appropriate for you to say something so ruthless while putting on a sad face like that?!¡¯


    Zhang Xiaoman asked in bewilderment, ¡°You aren¡¯t joking, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The bandits of Mt. Guan almost turned out in full force for a battlest month, but they were all killed. There were only about a 100 bandits left on Mt. Guan, so they weren¡¯t as strong as y¡¯all thought.¡±


    ¡°Aha!¡± Zhang Xiaoman was stunned for a moment. ¡°But how do you know about it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not reply. He suddenly missed Liuyuan a little.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others still felt that something was wrong. Even with only a 100 bandits left on this mountain, the battle should not have ended this quickly, right?! In that case, did it mean that Ren Xiaosu had killed all the bandits on the mountain single-handedly?!


    ¡°Are you sure the bandits on the mountain are all dead?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked in confirmation. ¡°You better not joke around in the military!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There¡¯s still some HMGS and a lot of ammo left on the mountain, so I think we should go up and get them. We don¡¯t have enough ammo, after all.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not what I was asking about...¡± Zhang Xiaoman was a little speechless.


    An hourter, Zhang Xiaoman was looking at the bodies lying around the banditir on Mt. Guan. Then he said to a radiotelephone operator, ¡°Notify Commander Zhou. I¡¯ve gotta give him a sitrep.¡±


    The RTO walked over with a portable radio. When Zhang Xiaoman took the handset, he heard Zhou Yinglong shouting on the other end: ¡°Maggot, why¡¯re you looking for me at a time like this? Are you thinking of giving up because you feel you can¡¯t take Mt. Dingyuan? Lemme tell you, you already pledged to do it, so even if you can¡¯t, you¡¯ll still have to fight!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said in a speechless manner: ¡°Battalion Commander, we¡¯ve already taken Mt. Guan. We will be attacking Mt. Dingyuan tomorrow....¡±

 Chapter 391 - The copper bell

    <h4>Chapter 391 The copper bell</h4>


    After repeatedly confirming with Zhang Xiaoman through the radio, Zhou Yinglong finally believed that they had really taken Mt. Guan.


    The Forward Strike Battalion¡¯s original n was to first deploy the Razor Sharp Company to attack the bandits at Mt. Dingyuan, which they felt was easier to take. After that, the Razor Sharp Company would move to attack the stronger forces at Mt. Guan together with Second Company.


    But in the end, Mt. Guan was taken not long after the Razor Sharp Company set out.


    Zhang Xiaoman asked on the radio, ¡°Battalion Commander, does this count as our credit?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, yes,¡± Zhou Yinglong replied. ¡°What are the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s casualties? If there¡¯s too many casualties, take a short rest and wait for reinforcements.¡±


    ¡°We didn¡¯t suffer any casualties.¡± Even as Zhang Xiaoman said that, he was finding it hard to believe. As such, he did not bother hiding the truth. ¡°There were only about a 100 bandits on Mt. Guan, and they were all killed single-handedly by Ren Xiaosu. I¡¯m shocked by it, let alone you. We had only nned for him to pin down the bandits on Mt. Guan. But in the end, he pinned them down so hard that all of them died.¡±


    Then Zhang Xiaoman even heard Zhou Yinglong take a deep breath through the radio before shouting, ¡°What the!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was wiping the blood off his body by a stream behind Mt. Guan. After that, he changed back into the Razor Sharp Company¡¯sbat uniform.


    Jiao Xiaochen and the others watched Ren Xiaosu as they collected the ammunition and supplies a short distance away. ¡°Did y¡¯all see that? He¡¯s acting like it¡¯s no big deal after killing over a 100 people. He¡¯s a little too calm, ain¡¯t he?¡±


    ¡°I wonder what he did beforeing to Fortress 178....¡±


    ¡°I heard he was also a refugee. He was even a student of Commander Zhang¡¯s and well-known as ruthless in town. That¡¯s what Old Xu told me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the edge of the stream after changing back into the uniform of the Razor Sharp Company. This was just the beginning of his revenge. He still had a lot more battles to fight.


    Zhang Xiaoman finished reporting to Zhou Yinglong. He asked Jiao Xiaochen, ¡°Count everything we collected.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve collected two 12.7 mm caliber HMGS that came with wheeled mounts and gun shields, 31 ammo boxes, and two mortars,¡± Jiao Xiaochen reported. ¡°There¡¯s also a lot of rifles, but those are useless to us.¡±


    Having more guns wasn¡¯t necessarily better. They would still need people to carry them to be effective. So the rifles were not much different from scrap metal to them.


    ¡°Take the mortars and rounds, dismantle the wheel mounts and gun shields from the HMGs before taking them, and grab the HMG ammo too.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°The gun shields of the machine guns are more useful in the ins. It¡¯s not convenient for us to bring them while on the march. Wait, something¡¯s wrong. Weren¡¯t there any grenades there?¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen shook his head. ¡°No, we didn¡¯t find a single grenade.¡±


    ¡°Were those bandits so poor they couldn¡¯t even afford grenades?¡± Zhang Xiaoman wondered.


    It was not that the bandits on Mt. Guan were poor, but that Ren Xiaosu had already stuffed seven full boxes of grenades into his storage space before heading down the mountain.


    Before he obtained any Explosive Poker cards that were at least ¡°sixes,¡± Ren Xiaosu felt he could use the grenades as a recement. As for how powerful a ¡°quad-six¡± bomb was, he couldn¡¯t gauge that yet.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at the pile of firearms with shimmering eyes. Even the Razor Sharp Company was only equipped with the standard weaponry whenever they headed out for battle. They did not usually get issued with so much firepower. So they had to depend on their own abilities to get whatever they could from the battlefield.


    Jiao Xiaochen shouldered a machine gun. ¡°This thing¡¯s mine!¡±


    As he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu grabbed the machine gun out of Jiao Xiaochen¡¯s hands. Jiao Xiaochen was stunned for a moment. Then he heard Ren Xiaosu say, ¡°toon Commander, let me carry it for


    you.¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen was moved to tears. He was such apetent soldier and had such great esprit de corps. Just what kind of an angelic teammate was he!


    ¡°Thank you, Ren Xiaosu,¡± Jiao Xiaochen said.


    ¡°Gratitude received from Jiao Xiaochen, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized it was rather easy to gain gratitude tokens at Fortress 178.


    Now that his quest was almostplete, he thought he maybe should continue gaining more gratitude tokens even after the quest.


    ¡°Captain,¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman and asked, ¡°what do we do next?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll besiege Mt. Dingyuan.¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied, ¡°The Forward Strike Battalion and Engineering Battalion are about to reach our north. They¡¯re going to establish an FOB there, so we can¡¯t have the bandits in the rear go and make trouble for them.¡±


    ¡°Is the FOB essential?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. He was not doubting him but just humbly asking, ¡°What¡¯s the use of an FOB?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s impression was that a forward operating base was just a ce where one could eat.


    Zhang Xiaoman patiently exined, ¡°By using the FOB, it can greatly reduce the time the troops spend traveling from the rear to the front lines. It can also extend supply lines to a ce closer to the enemy¡¯s location. For example, an armored brigade must resupply at an FOB before venturing further into the depths of the battlefield.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded to show he understood. ¡°Then how are we attacking Mt. Dingyuan?¡±


    ¡°Commander Zhou said we don¡¯t have to do a head-on attack, so we only need to blockade them on Mt. Dingyuan.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Now that Mt. Guan has been taken, the n has changed. As such, our mission is no longer considered too difficult, so we should try to keep our casualties to a minimum. After the FOB is built, there¡¯ll be new troopsing to provide us with fire support. Then it¡¯ll be much easier to capture our target.¡±


    That same night, everyone took a short rest atop Mt. Guan. While the soldiers took off their shoes and sat by the campfire, Ren Xiaosu walked away quietly.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at the solitary Ren Xiaosu, who was standing near the edge of the cliff. He suddenly said to the other soldiers, ¡°Looks like he¡¯s got something on his mind.¡±


    ¡°Captain, it¡¯s cuz our feet stink.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman joked, ¡°Don¡¯t you think he¡¯s weighed down by something?¡±


    ¡°A little.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back. He had a feeling that Ren Xiaosu had been through much more than they imagined. He went up to Ren Xiaosu with some piping hot vegetable soup. ¡°Here, eat your fill.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, thank you, Captain,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman did not walk away after handing the soup to him. Instead, he asked, ¡°I heard you recently arrived at Fortress 178. Why have you chosen toe to such a poor ce?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave Zhang Xiaoman a look. ¡°I didn¡¯t n oning here, but there¡¯s something important that I have to do, and I also share somemon goals with Fortress 178.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Zhang Xiaoman nodded.


    ¡°Captain, why did you join the Fortress 178 army?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I was born in Fortress 178.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, ¡°The first thing the young men in the fortress do when they turn 16 is to get a physical to see if they can qualify as soldiers. Some people even attempt suicide after failing the test due to t feet.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked to the northwest like he could see Fortress 178. Then he replied with a smile, ¡°So they can get a chance to prove they¡¯re brave warriors when the copper bell in the center of the fortress tolls.¡±

 Chapter 392 - Zhang Xiaoman’s dream

    <h4>Chapter 392 Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s dream</h4>


    All the soldiers of Fortress 178 felt an unparalleled sense of belonging to the ancient fortress, but Ren Xiaosu was still very curious. ¡°The interior consortiums never told their residents about your efforts and achievements before, so the residents don¡¯t even know who¡¯s keeping the peace for them. Even so, y¡¯all are still willing to continue guarding it?¡±


    ¡°Whether they know or not, that¡¯s their problem.¡± Zhang Xiaoman smiled and said, ¡°But guarding this ce is our business.¡±


    As they were now carrying more ammunition and supplies, the weight on each person¡¯s back was almost as heavy as half their own weight.


    Although everyone wasining that they were really tired, no one was willing to throw away the ammunition because they depended on it for survival on the battlefield.


    Using Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s own words, when the war arrived, they could only trust the guns in their hands, the bullets in the magazines, and theirrades in the trenches.


    Therefore, the Razor Sharp Company despised cowards, as cowards in apany would get theirrades killed.


    ¡°I heard that when Commander Zhang joined the Razor Sharp Company as a medic, he was not even willing to fire a gun.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile as he struggled to march forward, ¡°At that time, the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s warriors all despised him, yet he did not argue once. But in a battle, he ended up saving the lives of hundreds of wounded soldiers. Not only did he save his ownpany¡¯srades, butrades from otherpanies were saved as well. That was how he earned their respect in the end. Before that, everyone thought he was just a coward.¡±


    These gruff men of Fortress 178 were not at all afraid to discuss Zhang Jinglin, and Zhang Jinglin did not seem to mind it either.


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°When I saw your thin and weak frame initially, I thought you wouldn¡¯t be good at fighting. However, I never expected you to be so fearsome.¡±


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Were you also there when Mr. Zhang was in the Razor Sharp Company?¡±


    ¡°Fat chance! I was still ying in the mud back then.¡± Zhang Xiaoman smiled and said, ¡°That was all in the older generation¡¯s time.¡±


    ¡°The older generation?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who¡¯s from the older generation in Fortress 178?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman thought back and replied, ¡°There¡¯s no point mentioning them since most of them are dead.¡±


    ¡°That tragic, huh?¡± Ren Xiaosu was startled. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°16 years ago, there was a war so terrible 90% of our original army perished in it. The remaining survivors said it was a war they barely escaped alive from, with the fortress almost getting destroyed too.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Do you know why Fortress 178 used to ept refugees? On one hand, everyone was a refugee to begin with, while others were exiled criminals from the Central ins. So no one disliked one another since they all had the same status. On the other hand... it was because no others were willing toe to this poor ce except for refugees. Fortress 178 needed those people to defend the ce.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°There were even exiles from the Central ins in Fortress 178?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, ¡°My neighbor¡¯s one of them, but I haven¡¯t seen anyone from the Central ins get exiled to the fortress in over ten years. I heard they¡¯ve started exiling them to Stronghold 176 in the north instead. And north of Stronghold 176 is the Steppe.¡±


    ¡°Is Stronghold 176 very far away from where we are now?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Do you have any other thoughts or wishes other than waiting for the bell to sound?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Zhang Xiaomanughed and said, ¡°I want to be a brigademander just like my father!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Your father was a brigademander?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman paused for a moment before saying, ¡°What I mean is, my father¡¯s dream was to be a brigademander as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised.


    The journey from Mt. Guan to Mt. Dingyuan was quite short. Before they had gone far, Jiao Xiaochen, who was in charge of leading the formation, suddenly raised his palm. All of the soldiers in the rear immediately took a knee and raised their guns in full alert.


    Zhang Xiaoman stooped low and ran to the front of the formation. He whispered, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°We discovered signs of the enemy. I think it¡¯s a hidden lookout post,¡± Jiao Xiaochen said.


    Zhang Xiaoman picked up his binocrs and looked ahead. He was surprised to see smokeing out of the gully several hundred meters ahead. ¡°I think someone might be smoking. The smoke produced from cooking does not look like that at all. These fucking bandits even have guards to keep a lookout on the foot of the mountain, how professional! Too bad the guards on duty are idiots.¡±


    The bandits under the Zong Consortium¡¯s control were truly different from other bandits, but all in all, they were still bandits.


    ¡°What do we do?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked, ¡°Should we kill them?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, we¡¯ll keep marching in the gully towards them. Fu Rao, Lin Ping¡¯an, see if you two can get to the road over there and kill them quietly without your guns. I don¡¯t want to cause amotion,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said.


    These two were the most outstanding soldiers in the Razor Sharp Company and were experts at infiltration and knife fighting


    However, Fu Rao whispered, ¡°Captain, Ren Xiaosu has already gone ahead....¡±


    As those words trailed off, Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s head started to hurt. Having such a fearsome person in thepany was also a very frustrating experience. He said, ¡°Let¡¯s wait here quietly!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was most worried that Ren Xiaosu would cause too much of amotion. However, it was dead silent ahead of them. After several minutes, Ren Xiaosu returned with two people in his hands. They were not dead, just unconscious.


    Ren Xiaosu threw the two men on the ground. ¡°We can ask them about their deployment on the mountain. Who knows, maybe we can use our mortars to take out their MG positions. Bandits aren¡¯t really tight-lipped, and the two of them should know quite a lot about the operations.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was taken aback. Most of the time when sneaking past an enemy¡¯s defensive line, it was quite difficult to capture them alive. That was because they had to prevent the enemy from struggling, firing warning shots, or shouting to warn others. So the only action taken would be to kill on sight.


    But with the appearance of Ren Xiaosu, he made the impossible possible.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman said in a serious tone, ¡°Xiaosu, I know you¡¯re very capable, but you still have to listen to orders during an op. You have to wait for mymand, understand? I¡¯m purposely putting on airs as thepanymander, but troops have to obey theirmanding officer and execute their orders to a tee in a battle.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this. ¡°Understood, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t need to apologize. You don¡¯t have experience serving as a soldier of Fortress 178, nor did you go through any training before getting deployed to the battlefield. So long as you have a modest attitude, we¡¯ll teach you whatever we can during battles.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°OK, I won¡¯t act without permission in the future.¡±


    While Zhang Xiaoman got someone to p the two bandits on the ground to wake them, Fu Rao and Lin Ping¡¯an held daggers to their necks and said, ¡°We¡¯ll remove our hands, but if you dare shout, you¡¯re dead.¡±


    The two bandits nodded frantically. Zhang Xiaoman took out a battle map and two pencils, then said, ¡°I¡¯ll give both of you a chance. If you can help us draw the defensive deployment map of Mt. Dingyuan, I¡¯ll spare your lives.¡±


    Fu Rao and Lin Ping¡¯an removed their palms from the bandits¡¯ mouths. However, the two bandits asked, ¡°What¡¯s a defensive deployment map?¡±


    ¡°Just indicate the positions of the heavy machine guns and mortars on the mountain, then tell me how many people are guarding those positions.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said coldly, ¡°We¡¯re from Fortress 178. If you cooperate with us, we¡¯ll let you go, understand?¡±


    The two bandits were stunned. ¡°You¡¯re from Fortress 178? Sure, we¡¯ll cooperate!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw this. It was like the bandits were not worried Zhang Xiaoman would go back on his words after he mentioned the name of Fortress 178.

 Chapter 393 - Sudden appearance on the battlefield

    <h4>Chapter 393 Sudden appearance on the battlefield</h4>


    But what surprised Ren Xiaosu even more was that he had thought the two bandits would have tricks up their sleeves. However, they actually pointed out some of the wrong details on the map.


    Drawing a map was a rather technical skill as it required surveying instruments. You could not confirm how high and wide a location was by just using your eyesight.


    Although Fortress 178 had attempted to map out the mountain hideouts as detailed as possible, their work was all carried out in secret. As some areas could only be measured visually, deviations on the map were guaranteed.


    The two bandits took the pencils and drew some circles on the map, with a small circle indicating that it was a heavy machine gun position. The two of them said, ¡°But the heavy machine gun positions often get switched around. A lot of equipment on the mountain are also covered with tarps. We don¡¯t know what¡¯s under them either, so y¡¯all must be careful.¡±


    ¡°Y¡¯all can¡¯t get to the top because the path leading up the mountain has been cut off by trees.¡± A bandit pointed at a route on the map and said, ¡°It seems that our boss was ordered to defend Mt. Dingyuan, so he shipped in a bunch of supplies in advance. He said that as long as we can defend the ce for three months, everyone would be rewarded.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Are there any regrs on the mountain?¡±


    The two bandits shook their heads. ¡°No, but there¡¯s some very powerful folks mixed in with the bandits. They definitely weren¡¯t bandits in the valley before.¡±


    ¡°How many of them are there?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°About a 100. There¡¯s more than 900 bandits in total on Mt. Dingyuan,¡± one of the bandits said.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and did not say anything else. An entire formation of the Zong Consortium¡¯s regr troops was among those who had intercepted his group, so he had to get to the bottom of it. If the Zong Consortium¡¯s regr troops were here on Mt. Dingyuan, he would have to be careful of them.


    ¡°Is there no other way up?¡± Zhang Xiaoman frowned and asked, ¡°Did they say why y¡¯all had to defend Mt. Dingyuan?¡±


    ¡°No, how could we know something like that?¡± One of the bandits said, ¡°So can we leave now?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman hesitated for a moment before waving them off. ¡°Scram, head west and don¡¯t let me see you two again.¡±


    ¡°Ah, alright.¡± The two bandits got up and started to run, but before they even covered two steps, they turned around and asked, ¡°Sir, do you have any cigs?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said impatiently, ¡°Our cigs don¡¯t contain the stuff you add into yours.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± the two bandits said.


    Zhang Xiaoman had Jiao Xiaochen throw two packs of cigarettes to them. ¡°Get lost.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°We¡¯re letting them go just like that?¡±


    ¡°Fortress 178 never breaks a promise. Don¡¯t worry, the bandits in the valley are all sensible. They won¡¯t turn around once they¡¯re told to head west,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said nonchntly.


    Ren Xiaosu watched as the two bandits disappeared after passing criss-crossing gullies in the west. If it were him, he would not have spared their lives.


    But he could not say what Zhang Xiaoman did was wrong. Fortress 178 had its own way of survival, after all.


    ¡°The bandits on Mt. Dingyuan have already sealed off the mountain path. Strange, why did they seal off the path? What¡¯s the point of keeping guard for three months?¡± Zhang Xiaoman wondered.


    ¡°That¡¯ll save us a lot of trouble if we just keep guard at the foot of the mountain. They won¡¯t be heading down the mountain anyway,¡± Jiao Xiaochen said.


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°There must be something fishy about their decision to defend this ce. War is not just about a rigid execution of orders. We¡¯ll only be sessful if we can make the enemy ufortable. Why don¡¯t we take Mt. Dingyuan by ourselves?¡±


    Yesterday, Battalion Commander Zhou had ordered them to onlyy siege on the bandits at Mt. Dingyuan after they had taken Mt. Guan. But from the looks of it, it seemed they would still have to attack Mt. Dingyuan after all.


    ¡°But it¡¯s a good thing that we already know about the locations of their HMGs, so we can reduce our casualties by pointing our mortars directly at the enemy¡¯s emcements and destroying them. We must immediately force an attack. Otherwise, when their MG positions change, all the information we just obtained will be outdated,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that we should listen to orders in battle? The order was for us toy siege on the enemies from the foot of the mountain.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman exined patiently, ¡°What I want to teach you now is how to be adaptable during battle.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu while pondering what he had just said. He suddenly felt that he should not have taught him that.


    Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°Are we going tounch an attack tonight then?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Zhang Xiaoman nodded and said, ¡°If only there were other smaller paths leading up the mountain. We could¡¯ve sent someone to covertly infiltrate theirir. But this is the only route we have to the top of Mt. Dingyuan. We can only fight our way up even if it¡¯s gonna be really difficult. Radioman, contact Commander Zhou and report the situation to him!¡±


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I can climb up the back of Mt. Dingyuan and sneak attack them first, then coordinate further action with y¡¯all.¡±


    The entire Razor Sharp Company was stunned when they heard that. ¡°How¡¯re you gonna climb up that 80-degree slope at the back of the mountain?¡±


    ¡°I have my ways.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Just give me two packs of TNT.¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company was still well-equipped with ammunition. However, TNT was generally used to blow up bunkers and artillery positions, so no one understood what Ren Xiaosu was nning to do with them.


    Zhang Xiaoman clenched his teeth and said, ¡°Take care of yourself!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly felt that it was amazing to have such a fearsome person in thepany who would always volunteer for the most dangerous tasks. It had never been easier to fight a war now that they had a person like him with such excellentbat skills.


    In his opinion, it did not matter if Ren Xiaosu was qualified to be themander of Fortress 178 or not. But at least having a character like Ren Xiaosu on the battlefield was really nice.


    Zhang Xiaoman said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Regardless of whether the others support you or not, our Razor Sharp Company will support you. Ain¡¯t that so, everyone?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°What do you mean by supporting me?¡±


    He somehow felt like he missed out on something very important.


    At 9 PM, Zhang Xiaoman handed the TNT and a rope over to Ren Xiaosu for him to carry on his back. ¡°When you¡¯re climbing up the back of the mountain, you must be extremely careful. If you feel like you can¡¯t get up there, don¡¯t force it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. When y¡¯all hear the TNT go off on the mountain in six hours, immediately start the attack on Mt. Dingyuan and destroy their HMG positions first. I¡¯ll be supporting y¡¯all from up there.¡±


    Through the military case studies of previous wars, Zhang Xiaoman and the others had learned that paratroopers would usually get paradropped onto the battlefield for them to open a path for the rest of the forces to enter. In this way, they could effectively avoid the enemy¡¯s interdiction.


    They were destined to not have things like paratroopers in this era, but that would not stop a fearsome person from climbing a 700-meter-tall and 80-degree-steep cliff with his bare hands.


    Besides, could a normal paratrooper have abat strength as powerful as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s?


    Watching as Ren Xiaosu faded into the distance, Jiao Xiaochen suddenly said, ¡°We must start our attack as soon as we hear the noise. I feel that if we don¡¯t act quickly enough, he¡¯ll wipe out all of the enemy forces before we get there.¡±


    When they attacked Mt. Guan, everyone was worried that Ren Xiaosu would die on the mountain. But this time, they were afraid he would kill the bandits too quickly.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman shook his head and said, ¡°It¡¯ll be harder to take Mt. Dingyuan than Mt. Guan since the bandit numbers are several times higher. ording to Ren Xiaosu, the main fighting forces on Mt. Guan died in a previous battle, leaving only remnants of the original bandit group there. We still need tounch an attack on the mountain a-sap, though, so we can ensure Ren Xiaosu¡¯s safety. It¡¯s the responsibility of the entire Razor Sharp Company to fight the battle. We can¡¯t let him face the pressure all by himself.¡±


    ¡°Starting now, we¡¯ll begin implementing noise and light discipline. There will be no smoking, no talking, and no using of shlights. Everything must be done in silence!¡± Zhang Xiaoman was thinking about something as he looked at the silhouette of Mt. Dingyuan in the distance.

 Chapter 394 - A spy in the bandit lair

    <h4>Chapter 394 A spy in the banditir</h4>


    Although Mt. Dingyuan was not tall, its terrain was extremely dangerous. The back of the mountain was not scble at all with its 700-meter-steep cliff. If they wanted to storm the mountain, there was only one way to go.


    Even Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t scale to the top with his own bare hands. However, he had his shadow clone with him.


    It was not that he was a daredevil for trying to attack from the rear by himself, but that he did not really wish to reveal his shadow clone in front of Zhang Xiaoman and the others.


    If Zhang Xiaoman and the others knew he had a shadow clone simr to Old Xu¡¯s, a lot of things would probablye to light. This was something Ren Xiaosu had still not figured out how to exin to Xu Xianchu.


    How should he exin things to Old Xu when the time came? Maybe he could just deny any knowledge of the ck cauldron¡¯s origins and convince him not to think too much into


    it.


    At this moment, the shadow clone was climbing up the face of the mountain while carrying Ren Xiaosu on its back. One of the greatest advantages of the shadow clone was that it would not get tired at all.


    If Ren Xiaosu tried to climb the mountain on his own, he might not have any strength left to fight even if he could reach the top.


    His current fitness was only a little more than three times that of normal people¡¯s, so he was still not that tough. But it was different for the shadow clone.


    If every supernatural beings¡¯ control of their superpowers were dependent on their ¡°mental strength,¡± then Ren Xiaosu had never really experienced the limit of his willpower before, and neither did he know what his limits were.


    The shadow clone used the two ck sabers as anchors as it climbed up the cliff. The ck saber was so sharp it could pierce into the cliff easily, but the only thing was that the sabers had to be thrust interally. Otherwise, if the saber prated into the mountain de down, the weight of the shadow clone and Ren Xiaosu would cause the ck sabers to cut through the stone face like tofu.


    Ren Xiaosu had discussed with Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s group to take action six hours after he started scaling the mountain. But in reality, he was a little ahead of time after moving much faster than he had predicted.


    When Ren Xiaosu poked his head up on the top of the cliff, he saw a campfire burning in the distance in an open space of the banditir on Mt. Dingyuan. Some people were sitting next to the campfire holding guns while keeping a lookout. But no one was keeping watch on the back of the mountain. It looked like the bandits never expected anyone to be so brave to actually scale the face of the mountain.


    Ren Xiaosu did not put away his shadow clone but manipted it to do a quick survey of the surrounding terrain. Meanwhile, he moved quietly in the shadows.


    As there were about 900 bandits on Mt. Dingyuan, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly attack them head on. If he still had his full set of armor, he could¡¯ve easily taken Mt. Dingyuan by himself without the help of Zhang Xiaoman and the others.


    But unfortunately, 80% of his nanomachines were destroyed in that battle. And now, he only had enough to barely protect his vitals.


    He wondered if he would encounter the Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers in the future. However, Ren Xiaosu did not really want toy a finger on the Yang Consortium¡¯s people. It would be quite good if some of the Li Consortium¡¯s 1,500 nanosoldiers who attacked Stronghold 88 had survived.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was aware that this was just a passing thought. He knew that neither the Yang Consortium nor the Li Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers woulde north.


    The shadow clone had already crept into one of the barracks and slit the necks of two sleeping bandits with its ck saber.


    Everything was carried out quietly. There were only 12 people to a room in the barracks of the banditir, and it only took 20 seconds for the shadow clone to kill everyone in the room.


    However, Ren Xiaosu knew he could not use this method too many times since idents would definitely happen.


    All of a sudden, he heard someone speaking in a low voice. After searching for some time, he still could not locate where the sound wasing from. Finally, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze settled at atrine.


    It was a pittrine surrounded by a brick wall with only a broken wooden door covering the front, and the metallic hook for locking the wooden door seemed broken as well. The person in the outhouse even had to stretch his arm out and hold the wooden door to prevent it from opening.


    It looked like someone inside was watching the outside through a small hole in the door. If any bandit walked over, this person would see them through the hole.


    But it was different for Ren Xiaosu since he had arrived from the back of the mountain.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly walked up to the outhouse and listened in on the person inside who was whispering, ¡°Boss, I really can¡¯t stay on Mt. Dingyuan any longer. They¡¯ve even sealed the path. Someone said Mt. Guan was taken by Fortress 178. The Zong Consortium has hidden two 52 caliber/155 mm howitzers with a firing range of more than 50 kilometers on this mountain. This weapon was phased out of the Zong Consortium¡¯s arsenal and ced here at the banditir after they calcted the target¡¯s strike location. I¡¯m guessing they¡¯ll use it tounch a surprise attack on Fortress 178¡¯s FOB.¡±


    The person inside continued, ¡°Boss, if the Zong Consortium uses the howitzers, I¡¯m afraid Fortress 178 will raze Mt. Dingyuan to the ground. If I continue to stay here, wouldn¡¯t I have to die along with them?! OK, OK, thank you, Boss. I¡¯ll head down the mountain tonight. Do you think we should inform Fortress 178 about the situation on Mt. Dingyuan?¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll make a trip to their military base and inform them. We can¡¯t let the Zong Consortium do whatever they want! We have to prevent them from ruining our battle ns in the South!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was listening to everything from the outside. It sounded like the ¡°bandit spy¡± inside the outhouse was contacting someone with a remotemunications device and reporting about the situation at Mt. Dingyuan.


    The two bandits had said there were some secret supplies transported up the mountain covered with tarps and that no one knew what they were. Those were probably the howitzers the spy was referring to, right?


    An effective firing range of more than 50 kilometers could really be called terrifying. Ren Xiaosu remembered Zhang Xiaoman said the forward operating base to the north was only about 40 kilometers from Mt. Dingyuan, and that it was the most suitable ce to establish a forward operating base.


    The Zong Consortium wasn¡¯t stupid. They were nning on dealing a severe blow to Fortress 178 with the two howitzers that had been phased out of their arsenal. Although these two howitzers might not be that significant, they could still throw Fortress 178¡¯s n into disarray and intimidate their military.


    Based on Zhou Yinglong¡¯s n, the forward operating base would be in deep trouble if the Razor Sharp Company only surrounded Mt. Dingyuan.


    Was Zhou Yinglong prepared for this? Ren Xiaosu was unsure.


    However, this person in the outhouse should be from the Qing Consortium, right? There were only the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium left in the South. The Qing Consortium was probably the only organization that could send someone here to Mt. Dingyuan to act as a bandit for such a prolonged period.


    At this moment, when the shadow clone broke into another room in the barracks, some bandits were actually still awake. When they saw it, they shouted so loudly that all the bandits on Mt. Dingyuan were jolted


    awake!


    The person in the outhouse whispered, ¡°Boss, I can¡¯t talk anymore. It sounds like there¡¯s a situation on the mountain!¡±


    While he was still speaking, Ren Xiaosu reached out and pulled open the outhouse door. But he had not expected the person in the outhouse to still be holding onto the door. With one pull, Ren Xiaosu dragged the spy out of the outhouse before he could even pull his pants up...


    ¡°Who the fuck!?¡± That person shouted as heid on the ground with his butt bare. He was already preparing to pick a fight with Ren Xiaosu without pulling up his pants!


    Ren Xiaosu pointed a pistol at the spy. ¡°You¡¯re from the Qing Consortium?¡±


    The spy was not stupid. Looking down the barrel of the gun, he turned obedient. He heard the shouting in the distance, then looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Razor Sharp Company fatigues. ¡°You¡¯re from Fortress 178?¡±.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt like the spy seemed to be relieved. But before Ren Xiaosu could do anything, the spy smashed the palm-sizedmunication device in his hand onto the ground with the gun still pointed at his head!

 Chapter 395 - Blessed be the good man

    <h4>Chapter 395 Blessed be the good man</h4>


    The soldiers of the Qing Consortium were all headstrong. Even though a gun was pointed at the spy¡¯s head, he decisively destroyed themunications device without any fear of death. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry! Are you Luo Lan¡¯s guy?¡±


    ¡°Who is Luo Lan?¡± The spy froze. ¡°Sir, what¡¯re you talking about? Why can¡¯t I understand anything you¡¯re saying?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not reveal his name. ¡°Pull up your pants first.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right.¡± The spy hurriedly pulled up his pants. He had not even managed to wipe his butt before getting dragged out of the outhouse.


    ¡°How many others from the Qing Consortium are here on Mt. Dingyuan?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    The spy said with a wry smile, ¡°Sir, I really don¡¯t understand what you¡¯re getting at. If you¡¯re nning on attacking Mt. Dingyuan, I can show you the way.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu lifted the spy over the edge of the cliff. ¡°If you don¡¯t tell me the truth, I¡¯ll drop you.¡±


    When the spy realized Ren Xiaosu could lift him up with one hand, he closed his eyes while hanging over the edge and muttered, ¡°Brothers, I¡¯ll be leaving first then.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was so angry he almostughed. He put the spy back on the ground. ¡°That¡¯ll do. I¡¯m actually a friend of Fatty Luo¡¯s. I¡¯ll let you go now. This ce isn¡¯t safe anymore. But don¡¯t take the main path, or you¡¯re gonna die.¡±


    At this moment, the spy was still unwilling toe clean. Seeing that Ren Xiaosu had loosened his grip, the spy turned and ran away. But after running for 50 meters without being fired at, he turned back around to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Blessed be the good man!¡±


    After saying that, he continued running into the shadows. But even then, he still did not reveal his identity.


    But when Ren Xiaosu heard the words ¡°blessed be the good man,¡± he somehow felt that it was not just a simple thank you.


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head for a bit before walking over to the banditir. Since he had already guessed the spy was from the Qing Consortium, he would definitely not kill him. After all, he might still have to depend on Luo Lan and Qing Zhen to help him find his family after taking his revenge.


    Moreover, he thought of Luo Lan as his friend.


    At this moment, the entire banditir was in chaos. Although Ren Xiaosu did not venture into the battlefield, he felt like the bullets were hitting him.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu felt an enormous pain when a bullet hit the shadow clone in its forehead. Getting hit by a bullet there hurt much more than getting hit at other parts of his shadow clone¡¯s body. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu got a feeling that he couldn¡¯t allow the shadow clone to be hit between the brows. That could spell big trouble for him!


    Most supernatural beings were still in the midst of figuring out their powers, and Ren Xiaosu was no exception.


    As they learned more, everyone would gradually discover their powers had some weaknesses rather than being omnipotent.


    Ren Xiaosu took off a pack of TNT from his back and lit the fuse. Then he used the Shadow Door and threw the TNT outside a row of barracks. At this moment, someone was shooting at his shadow clone through a window in the barracks.


    With a loud explosion, the entire row of brick barracks copsed and buried the bandits alive.


    However, there were a total of seven rows of these barracks. But Ren Xiaosu was not expecting the battle would end by just throwing one block of TNT at the enemy. This was just the signal he was sending to the Razor Sharp Company at the foot of the mountain!


    As soon as the TNT went off, the Razor Sharp Company began to bombard the pre-identified heavy machine gun positions with their mortars from the foot of the mountain!


    Zhang Xiaoman was leaning against a trench wall and eating hardtack from his field rations. As his mouth was a little dry, he was about to drink some water when the TNT exploded on the mountain.


    Zhang Xiaoman yelled at Jiao Xiaochen, ¡°Fire the mortars! Quickly, fire the mortars!¡±


    Hardtack crumbs sprayed out of his mouth onto Jiao Xiaochen¡¯s face, but Jiao Xiaochen couldn¡¯t care less and just wiped his face as he shouted themand, ¡°Ready the mortar barrage. Three, two, one! Fire!¡±


    Thump, thump, thump. The mortar rounds flew towards the mountain trailing smoke behind them. After that, their temporary positions were entirely filled with the smell of gunpowder.


    Zhang Xiaoman inspected his weapon again and said, ¡°2nd, 3rd, and 4th toons will charge forward with me. Radiomen, contact Battalion HQ. 1st toon will stay here and continue providing artillery support! Fire all the mortar rounds we collected!¡±


    Now was not the time for them to worry about how much each mortar shell cost. The fiercer the artillery support, the fewer casualties they would suffer. Moreover, they would resupply ammunition once they took Mt. Dingyuan.


    Other soldiers often carefully rationed the ammunition they could use in battle, but the Razor Sharp Company was different. They were the types who would spend money as they wished and use whatever ammunition they had. If they ran out, they would simply ask for more from Zhou Yinglong without shame. If he refused to give them any, they would throw tantrums back at the battalion headquarters. These people were capable of doing whatever it took to get more supplies.


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s objective was to ovee difficulties, not be frugal while fighting a war.


    So once the battle began, Zhang Xiaoman assigned a toon to fire the shells they had collected from Mt. Guan like it didn¡¯t cost a thing.


    But when they proceeded up the mountain, Zhang Xiaoman realized the opposing forces he was initially expecting seemed to have disappeared entirely.


    After the mountain path was sealed, this route should have been heavily guarded by the bandits. However, there was no trace of anyone as they made their way up the mountain.


    When they passed by the first heavy machine gun position, Zhang Xiaoman was relieved to see that it was exactly where it was marked on the map. This meant their n was proceeding smoothly.


    At this moment, intense gunfire suddenly came from the mountain again. Zhang Xiaoman had his men go prone and crawl all the way into a ditch on the side.


    But when they got into the ditch, everyone realized the gunshots were not aimed at them.


    ¡°What the fuck¡¯s happening on the mountaintop?¡± Zhang Xiaoman was bewildered. ¡°Everyone, charge forward with me! Ren Xiaosu¡¯s in grave danger!¡±


    But as they charged towards the final machine gun position, Zhang Xiaoman felt from afar that something was wrong. The bandits had switched the location of this heavy machine gun position. It was not positioned on the right side of the path like it wasbeled on the map, but on the left!


    ¡°This MG wasn¡¯t destroyed in our mortar attack,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, finding it a little pitiful. ¡°2nd toon Commander Wang Boren, charge your toon forward and take out that MG!¡±


    How could things always be smooth sailing in war? It would, of course, be wonderful if they could always take out all of their enemy¡¯s emcements. But if the mortars could not take them all out, they would have to get it done by sacrificing some lives!


    At this moment, people were bound to die. But still, they would die for a worthy cause!


    The 2nd toon¡¯smander, Wang Boren, looked up at the machine gun position and estimated it to be about 300 meters away from them. He said firmly to the soldiers of 2nd toon, ¡°Ma Dewei, we¡¯ll provide cover fire for you to gain another 220 meters. Can you throw a grenade at that MG position?¡±


    The grenadier, Ma Dewei, hesitated for a moment. ¡°That¡¯s gonna be difficult. It¡¯s definitely in range, but I¡¯m afraid that I won¡¯t be urate.¡±


    ¡°You have to make it happen no matter what. You only have three grenades to pull it off. If you don¡¯t throw it urately, all of us will have to die with you.¡± Wang Boren roared, ¡°Charge!¡±


    Then everyone in 2nd toon got out of the ditch and charged up the mountain. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman and the others had already set up their heavy machine guns and got ready to provide covering fire for 2nd toon.


    But at this moment, an explosion boomed at the final heavy machine gun position. All of the sandbags and the people inside were blown into the air!


    Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°That¡¯s TNT! It¡¯s Ren Xiaosu! He blew up the HMG position for us. Brothers, charge!¡±

 Chapter 396 - How can we know if we don’t try?

    <h4>Chapter 396 How can we know if we don¡¯t try?</h4>


    Initially, Zhang Xiaoman objected to Ren Xiaosu being assigned to hispany. He even wanted to discuss with Zhou Yinglong to see if he could transfer him away.


    But as of now, Zhang Xiaoman was more than likely to hug Zhou Yinglong and give him a peck on the cheek. Assigning Ren Xiaosu to hispany was even better than Zhou Yinglong issuing ten heavy machine guns to them!


    Everyone in the army who had fought in a battle before would know how difficult it was to destroy a heavy machine gun position. They truly represented the idea of a ¡°meat grinder¡± and was an ultimate weapon that could be wielded on the main battlefield.


    But now that they had Ren Xiaosu, the heavy machine guns could be destroyed with the TNT. No one knew how he did that.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others still did not know what Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower was. It was quite mysterious.


    But everyone had their secrets, so there was no need to delve deeper.


    When Zhang Xiaoman and his men finally charged up the mountain, they did not see Ren Xiaosu anywhere nearby. Meanwhile, the bandits up on the mountain were not concentrating their firepower in their direction, but away from them.


    ¡°Something¡¯s weird.¡± Zhang Xiaoman wondered, ¡°Why does it feel like Ren Xiaosu did note up here by himself? This feels more like anotherpany scaled the back of the mountain to attack this ce.¡±


    Many of the bandits¡¯ barracks had already copsed, and bodies were strewn all over the ce. However, they did not die from gunshot wounds but stab wounds!


    A soldier was shocked when he passed by the corpses. ¡°Did Ren Xiaosu get into closebat with them?¡±


    At this moment, the bandits on Mt. Dingyuan were engaged in battle with a mysterious shadow. But halfway through the battle, the shadow suddenly slipped behind a barracks and disappeared.


    The shadow was extremely fearsome and had killed many of the bandits at the beginning. But for some reason, the shadow started acting less aggressively as it used its quick movements to keep the enemy at bay. It never stayed in one ce for too long.


    But when they were searching for the shadow, gunshots suddenly rang out behind them. Some bandits turned around in shock and saw that the Razor Sharp Company had already set up three heavy machine guns at a distance of several hundred meters away behind them. They started shooting at them mercilessly!


    At the same time, Zhang Xiaoman led 2nd toon to outnk the bandits. They attempted to trap all the bandits in the open area and make them targets of the heavy machine guns.


    Some bandits reacted quickly and immediately hid behind the ruins of the barracks tounch a counterattack. But just as they were about to shoot, they suddenly saw a hand stretch out of a shadow next to them and throw a grenade over.


    With a loud explosion, the bandits who had just taken cover behind the ruins were blown sky-high. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman finished organizing a simple defensive formation on the nks.


    Zhang Xiaoman had never experienced such a smooth battle before, as though all the hidden threats had been nipped in the bud by someone. It felt like a god¡¯s hand was helping them on the battlefield and greenlighting everything for this surprise attack they hadunched.


    However, more than a 100 of the bandits in this group had obviously received formal military training before. They retreated slowly all the way back while constantly maintaining an orderly formation.


    Ren Xiaosu was observing this group of people from the shadows. These 100-odd people were probably the Zong Consortium¡¯s regr troops hiding among the bandits.


    Moreover, the 20-odd soldiers manning thest heavy machine gun position were also more cautious than the bandits. They were probably also a part of the Zong Consortium.


    The Zong Consortium had ced around a 100 of their soldiers here on Mt. Dingyuan and assigned them as thest line of defense. If their roles had been reversed with no supernatural beings participating in the battle, the Razor Sharp Company might not have even broken through the machine gun position after sacrificing all of their men.


    Now that Ren Xiaosu had spotted the Zong Consortium¡¯s regrs, he was not going to go easy on them. From within the shadows at 200 meters away, he aimed his rifle at them and opened fire!


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s regrs never expected an enemy to be over here as well. With just a burst of fire, the orderly formation they maintained while retreating was disrupted.


    Zhang Xiaoman shouted, ¡°Charge and continue pressing them! Go Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    To the north, Zhou Yinglong was leading the entire Forward Strike Battalion to create a defensive line to ensure that the forward operating base at the rear could be built sessfully.


    There were no unusual activities from the Zong Consortium here. But ever since the banditir on Mt. Guan had been taken, the two sides knew that war had begun.


    All of a sudden, a soldier ran up to Zhou Yinglong and said in a low voice, ¡°Battalion Commander, the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s Zhang Xiaoman is requesting to speak with you.¡±


    ¡°Bring the radio over,¡± Zhou Yinglong said while lying on a hill.


    When the radiotelephone operator approached him with the radio set on his back, Zhou Yinglong took the receiver and berated, ¡°Didn¡¯t I say to just follow my orders andy siege on the banditir at Mt. Dingyuan? What¡¯re y¡¯all messing around for? You¡¯ve been pinned down at the mountainside now, haven¡¯t you? Stay right there and don¡¯t move. I¡¯ll deploy Second Company there to support you!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was furious when a radioman from the Razor Sharp Company called in to report on the situation at Mt. Dingyuan. When the path leading up to Mt. Dingyuan had been sealed, it was clear the bandits were nning on fighting to the bitter end. They might have been able to carry out a sneak attack on the banditir previously, but it would be impossible for a singlepany to take the mountain fort.


    Zhou Yinglong was really worried that Zhang Xiaoman would act impulsively and lead the entire Razor Sharp Company to its demise at Mt. Dingyuan.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman interrupted Zhou Yinglong. ¡°Battalion Commander, we¡¯ve taken Mt. Dingyuan!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was confused.


    Before the night was over, they had already sessfully taken Mt. Dingyuan?! Everyone knew that a siege tended to take several days or even months before a mountain fort like that could be captured!


    Zhou Yinglong said with a dark expression: ¡°Have been drinking?!¡±


    ¡°Battalion Commander, we¡¯ve really taken Mt. Dingyuan.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said eagerly, ¡°We were fortunate that we attacked this ce. Did you know the Zong Consortium hid two howitzers on Mt. Dingyuan that were aimed at where the FOB would be built? If we didn¡¯t take Mt. Dingyuan, you would¡¯ve all been in deep trouble!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong cursed out loud: ¡°What deep trouble? As soon as I heard that Mt. Dingyuan was sealed, I knew the Zong Consortium had such a move up their sleeves. We already relocated the FOB. Their howitzers would never reach us at all. Our FOB is about 80 kilometers away from Mt. Dingyuan, so what are they going to hit us with?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was somewhat relieved when he heard Zhou Yinglong¡¯s loud voiceing from the radio. Before this, he was wondering whether Fortress 178 would foresee this cheap move by the Zong Consortium. If they didn¡¯t, Fortress 178 really wouldn¡¯t live up to its great reputation at fighting wars.


    However, even a battalionmander like Zhou Yinglong seemed to have a keen situational awareness. Fortress 178 was truly worthy of its reputation.


    Ren Xiaosu clearly knew he was still deeply ignorant of military knowledge aspared to Zhou Yinglong. He only realized there were long-range howitzers on Mt. Dingyuan after overhearing the spy¡¯s conversation with the Qing Consortium.


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s voice eased up a little. ¡°How many of our people were sacrificed or wounded?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman replied, ¡°Battalion Commander, only seven people were wounded, and no one died.¡±


    On the other end of the call, Zhou Yinglong fell silent for a while. Then he asked, ¡°How many bandits did y¡¯all wipe out?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said calmly, ¡°We killed 927 enemies, of which 131 are suspected to be the Zong Consortium¡¯s regrs!¡± Behind that tone was a hint of smugness.


    Zhou Yinglong knew well what the Razor Sharp Company was capable of. Under normal circumstances, he would not be surprised if the entire Razor Sharp Company perished while attacking Mt. Dingyuan.


    Zhou Yinglong understood very quickly. He instinctively questioned, ¡°Is the Ren Xiaosu assigned by themander really that capable?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had already walked away. Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu as he sat alone in the ruins and rested in the distance. After ending the conversation, he walked over to the ruins. Then he sat down next to Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°What are you fighting so hard for?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could clearly have attacked Mt. Dingyuan with them after the mortars had taken out the heavy machine gun positions. However, this young man chose to take the risk of climbing up the mountain with his bare hands andunching an attack on the entire bandit camp all by himself.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Doing this can help reduce your casualties.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°But people always die in battle. Sometimes when walking on the road, enemies hiding in the forest and bushes will suddenly pull the triggers of their machine guns and turn yourrades around you into blood-drenched sieves. It¡¯s also possible that an artillery shell could suddenlynd at your feet and blow up your legs, ripping your internal organs in the process. The battlefield¡¯s a ce where we have to put our trust in fate. Everything lies with fate. No one can control it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°How can we know if we don¡¯t try?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. He realized the reason why Ren Xiaosu was pushing so hard was because he really wanted everyone to stay alive.


    But this was war! How could there be no casualties in apany tasked to ovee all difficulties? Unless a miracle happened!

 Chapter 397 - The might of the Razor Sharp Company

    <h4>Chapter 397 The might of the Razor Sharp Company</h4>


    After every big battle, there would always be rewards to reap. Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s men had finished firing all their mortar shells with just a few rounds of artillery bombardment. But it didn¡¯t matter to them as the bandits on Mt. Dingyuan turned out much more well-armed than they had imagined.


    These things were not even worth much to an organization like the Zong Consortium.


    They had almost finished expending their bullets as well. 7.62 mm bullets were mostmonly used here in the Northwest, so plenty of them could be found at the banditir.


    How much ammunition could be expended in a single battle? That was an incalcble amount. If you included the bullets used in training, it was likely that thousands or even tens of thousands of bullets would be expended just to down one person in battle.


    This counting was purely based on data. Most of the time, the number of bullets expended using suppressive fire was probably much higher.


    After Zhang Xiaoman and the others brought out all of the ammunition from the banditir on Mt. Dingyuan, the soldiers went to retrieve the empty magazine that had been tossed aside during the battle and reinserted fresh bullets.


    Zhang Xiaoman sighed emotionally. ¡°How satisfying it is to take this entire mountain fort by ourselves. All the spoils of war are ours to keep. Wait a minute, why aren¡¯t there any grenades here again?¡±


    Everyone only realized it now that thepanymander mentioned it. ¡°Looks like it. We only found some individual grenades on the bandits and have not seen an entire box of them yet.¡±


    ¡°The bandits on Mt. Dingyuan aren¡¯t even poor, so why can¡¯t we even find a full box of grenades?!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu, who was standing a distance away heard this, he felt so guilty he did not say anything. Actually, there were as many as ten boxes of grenades here, with each filled with 20 grenades. But he had already put all of them in his storage space.


    All of a sudden, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded five attribute points. You can distribute them as you like.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. As expected, the rewards were much better for a more challenging quest like the one with a progression percentage!


    However, he had onlypleted 90% of the quest in which he had to help hisrades lessen their burden. Why did it suddenly jump to a 100%?


    Wait a minute, was it due to the ten boxes of grenades? By putting those grenades into his storage space, it could also be counted as helping his teammates lessen their burden?


    Ren Xiaosu, who was always taking advantage of any loopholes in the pce¡¯s requirements, was shocked. It could even be done like that?


    He had already stuffed six boxes of grenades into his storage space at Mt. Guan. But since there was no alert for thepletion of the quest, he did not notice the quest progression had ticked up. If he did, he would have finished the quest at that time.


    Ren Xiaosu was more than happy to help hisrades lessen their burden!


    He evenly distributed three points to Strength and two points to Dexterity. His Strength now reached 13.5, while his Dexterity was at 12.1.


    OV


    From these attributes alone, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current fitness was already more than four times that of a normal adult male.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was looking forward to whether a new skill would emerge when his Strength and Dexterity hit 20 much more. Like the ¡°City Crusher¡± powerup with a duration of 30 seconds that he had gained after surpassing 10 points in both those attributes. Perhaps there would be a qualitative change every time it exceeded a threshold?


    While heading down the mountain, everyone in the Razor Sharp Company had their arms full of supplies. If they could move those two howitzers as well, Zhang Xiaoman would probably have dragged them all the way back to the forward operating base.


    Before leaving, Zhang Xiaoman used the TNT to blow up the muzzles of the two howitzers¡¯ barrels. This was to prevent the Zong Consortium¡¯s people from using them again.


    Under normal circumstances, they would rather choose to destroyrge siege weapons on the battlefield that were less mobile instead of spending great effort to take them away.


    On their way down the mountain, a fellow soldier suddenly thanked Ren Xiaosu when he walked past him before continuing on as though it were nothing.


    Immediately after, more and more soldiers thanked Ren Xiaosu when they passed him.


    They were thanking Ren Xiaosu for helping them take most of the fire in the battle. If it weren¡¯t for Ren Xiaosu taking the risk by himself, it would not be a surprise if half of them were killed inbat.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This time, he had not even requested them to thank him! Even so, all of hisrades were really sincere in thanking him.


    In just a moment, Ren Xiaosu had gained more than a 100 gratitude tokens. His gratitude tokens had suddenly shot up to around 400.


    After just one battle, Ren Xiaosu not only gained ten boxes of grenades, five attribute points, and a 100-odd thanks, but he also earned the trust of hisrades.


    Zhang Xiaoman had said that you could only trust the guns and bullets in your hands, as well as yourrades in the trenches who provided covering fire for you on the battlefield.


    Ren Xiaosu kept quiet as he looked at hisrades in front of him heading down the mountain.


    Then he deliberately slowed down and waited for those who had not yet thanked him to pass him from behind.


    They would have to advance all the way northwest now. Zhou Yinglong had ordered the Razor Sharp Company to join up with the Forward Strike Battalion at the forward operating base first. They would have to wait for the rear troops to fully assemble at the forward operating base before setting off to the next destination based on Commander Zhang¡¯s next battle n.


    The strongholds under the jurisdiction of the Zong Consortium were all northeast of the forward operating base, while the vast Gobi Desert was situated more than 200 kilometers north.


    As the Razor Sharp Company had to travel more than 80 kilometers to get back to the forward operating base, all of the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers were dog-tired when they arrived. Even dogs would not be as tired as them! It was mainly because they had carried too many fucking things!


    But the moment they entered the forward operating base, Zhang Xiaoman and the others held their heads high and looked really spirited. Fu Rao and Lin Ping¡¯an even carried their rocketunchers on their shoulders proudly. They really couldn¡¯t look any more impressive than they did.


    Then they walked all the way to themand post¡¯s tent to be weed back by the entire army¡¯s advance guard.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Captain, is this really necessary?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand. Our Razor Sharp Company has emerged victorious, so the entire army must¡¯ve heard about how apany of just over a 100 people wiped out two mountain forts. We have to put on a front to show them the might of our Razor Sharp Company!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. They had clearly beenining that they were dead tired before entering the military base.


    But when he saw his fellow soldiers around them, they really were looking at the Razor Sharp Company with adtion. Even the soldiers who were setting up the tents in the base had stopped their work to whisper among themselves.


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s loud voice boomed, ¡°Put the fucking RPGs away already. It makes y¡¯all look like you¡¯reing here to attack the camp.¡±


    With that, Zhou Yinglong circled the Razor Sharp Company. When he saw the seven wounded soldiers lying on stretchers, he shouted, ¡°Where¡¯s the medics? Come and carry the wounded off for treatment.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± A wounded soldier from the Razor Sharp Company hurriedly said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu has already applied some medicine onto our wounds. We¡¯ve already recovered from our injuries.¡±


    ¡°How can traditional medicine be effective?¡± Zhou Yinglong said unhappily, ¡°If you¡¯ve suffered any injuries, you should get them treated, so cut the crap!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized that even though Zhou Yinglong was harsh with his words, his first reaction when he saw the Razor Sharp Company was to check on the casualties of thepany and treat the wounded.


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s wounded were getting anxious. ¡°Ren Xiaosu, please exin to the Battalion Commander that we¡¯re truly alright.¡±


    If they got taken away to be treated, they would not be able to participate in the next battle. While their brothers were off to fight at the front lines, they would have to recuperate in the medical center. How could they ept that?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yinglong and said, ¡°Commander Zhang has also seen the effects of my medicine before. It might be a traditional drug, but it¡¯ll heal all kinds of surface injuries within three days. Nowadays, there¡¯s plenty of magical herbs that can be found in the wilderness.¡±

 Chapter 398 - Third-class decoration

    <h4>Chapter 398 Third-ss decoration</h4>


    Zhou Yinglong specifically inspected the wounds of the injured and found that all of them had sustained gunshot wounds. One of them was even unfortunate enough to be hit by the fragments of a stray bullet.


    However, the wounds below theyer of ck medicine had already started to scab. It was as though the injuries were not that serious.


    In order not to get stretchered off, the injured even jumped off their stretchers and moved about vigorously to show they were absolutely fine. It wasn¡¯t an act at all and they really were fine.


    Zhang Xiaoman who was standing by the side directly scolded, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you all fucking walk on your own when you were fine?¡±


    The wounded chuckled and said, ¡°If we could walk a little less, why not?¡±


    Theirrades of the Razor Sharp Company who had carried them started cursing, ¡°Ya bastards are fucking awful!¡±


    ¡°Y¡¯all are too shameless!¡±


    At this moment, Zhou Yinglong asked, ¡°Are these all the casualties you suffered after taking Mt. Dingyuan?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said modestly, ¡°It was all due to Battalion Commander Zhou¡¯s good teachings.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was so angry he smiled. ¡°Enough of your bootlicking! Get out of here and write up the battle report for me!¡±


    The faces of Zhang Xiaoman and the others fell. ¡°Battalion Commander, all of us in the Razor Sharp Company are faithful veterans. Now should be the time for us to enjoy some good food and drink here at the FOB rather than writing some battle report.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Zhou Yinglong gave Zhang Xiaoman the side-eye. ¡°Would you also like me to personally pour you some w


    Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment. ¡°Well, if you don¡¯t mind...¡±


    Zhou Yinglong kicked Zhang Xiaoman in the ass. ¡°Get lost and write the report for me!¡±


    It was the usual practice to write a report after every battle. On one hand, it was to summarize all of the details of a battle. On the other hand, it was to list any mistakes and lessons learned inbat to prevent the same mistakes from happening again in the future.


    But Zhang Xiaoman and this group of gruff men hated writing battle reports the most.


    Since they had already won the battle, why should they still have to list their mistakes and lessons learned? All they had to do was win the battle!


    These gruff men of the Razor Sharp Company were all nestled and gathered around Zhang Xiaoman in the tent that had just been put up.


    At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu while holding a notebook and a pencil. ¡°Ren Xiaosu, you...¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just a refugee, so I dunno how to write,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Zhang Xiaoman lowered his head dejectedly at first but immediately figured out that something was not right. How could the sessor chosen by Commander Zhang be fucking illiterate? ¡®If you don¡¯t want to write the fucking report, just say it. Doesn¡¯t it prick your conscience to lie that tantly?!¡¯


    Zhang Xiaoman chewed on the end of the pencil and tried to recall the details of the battle. ¡°It feels like the enemy was defeated even though we did not put in much effort.¡±


    After thinking for a long time, Zhang Xiaoman still did not know how he should write the report. That was because their victory was mainly due to Ren Xiaosu. That was the truth.


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu, I think it¡¯s better for you to write the report. If you¡¯re really illiterate, you can just tell me and I will write it out for you.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°More importantly, we don¡¯t even know how exactly you managed to turn the banditir at Mt. Dingyuan upside down. Also, what you did will earn you great honors. You¡¯ll get promoted right after submitting this report!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You can just write that everyone fought bravely. Fighting the battle involved the entirepany, so I can¡¯t take all the credit for it.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s right.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said awkwardly, ¡°We¡¯ll be really embarrassed that way. It¡¯s not like us to ept credit where it isn¡¯t due.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be embarrassed about.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Forget it, I¡¯ll write instead.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu grabbed Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s notebook and pencil from him and started making up details of the battle. He described hisrades as soldiers who had shown unsurpassed bravery and resourcefulness inbat.


    He also wrote about how they broke through the defensive line and killed the enemies in an orderly manner. Zhang Xiaoman was dazed reading what he had written. ¡°Was I that great?¡±


    After he finished writing the report, Ren Xiaosu handed it to Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°Take it to the battalionmander. We¡¯ll all share the credit.¡±


    As for Ren Xiaosu, he did not really have a sense of belonging to Fortress 178 yet. He just wanted to use the power of Fortress 178 to take revenge on the Zong Consortium. Therefore, whatever credit he might deserve waspletely unimportant to him.


    After his revenge, he would head to the Central ins to search for Xiaoyu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others. He did not n to be an official in Fortress 178. So he¡¯d rather leave the credit for others.


    By now, the entire Razor Sharp Company had acknowledged Ren Xiaosu, and he was no longer ostracized by the others. This group of men had even forgotten about the previous incident where Ren Xiaosu caused a misunderstanding and led them to pick a fight with Second Company.


    However, Zhou Yinglong¡¯s intention was to find out about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s capabilities from the battle report. He knew it was mostly to the credit of Ren Xiaosu that they could take Mt. Dingyuan with almost no casualties. He also wanted to know what this person themander had selected was like. However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name was hardly mentioned in the entire report!


    Zhou Yinglong nced at Zhang Xiaoman and said unhappily, ¡°How dare you steal the aplishments of your subordinate! D¡¯you think I won¡¯t execute you?¡±


    Feeling wronged, Zhang Xiaoman stammered, ¡°But this report was written by Ren Xiaosu himself!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong got lost in thought. How could a young man not be greedy for sess? What kind of a sessor had Commander Zhang chosen?


    His group of oldrades would definitely ask him about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s performance as a soldier under hismand. As the battalionmander, wouldn¡¯t it be such an embarrassment if he could not even answer that?


    Zhou Yinglong suddenly asked Zhang Xiaoman, ¡°Tell me, how did Ren Xiaosu fight this battle?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman replied honestly, ¡°I didn¡¯t see it either, Battalion Commander....¡±


    ¡°Get outta here!¡±


    Their days at the forward operating base were not asfortable as expected. At 6.20 AM, Ren Xiaosu could already hear reveille ring outside their tents.


    Then soldiers gathered in their respective formations and began their morning exercises. Very quickly, cadences were being shouted from outside the forward operating base.


    The soldiers had to run five kilometers in full kit before heading out to the battlefield. Only the Razor Sharp Company was the exception. That was because they had just finished a battle, so they had the privilege of skipping training to recover at the forward operating base.


    But after reveille sounded, Jiao Xiaochen could not get back to sleep. Heid on his cot and said, ¡°Something doesn¡¯t feel right if I don¡¯t do anything after reveille. Is there anyone else who can¡¯t sleep like me?¡±


    In the military tent, there was a scattered response from everyone. ¡°Wanna go for a jog?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t get back to sleep either?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll be a miracle if I can fall asleep now....¡±


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go for a run!¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu saw everyone from 1st toon get up to put on their uniforms. As such, he got up as well. When he walked out of the tent, he realized that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th toons were also out of their tents. This included Han Minglei, a medic, and Li Xingcheng, a cook.


    Zhang Xiaoman said with a chuckle, ¡°Well done, gentlemen. Even though our Razor Sharp Company has gained victory, we can¡¯t get too uppity. We have to keep training!¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen muttered, ¡°You¡¯re the one who¡¯s most uppity right now....¡±


    ¡°Will you die if you don¡¯t speak?¡± Zhang Xiaoman stared at him.


    But at this moment, Zhou Yinglong¡¯s orderly trotted over to them. ¡°Captain Zhang Xiaoman, Battalion Commander Zhou is requesting your presence at themand post!¡±

 Chapter 399 - The petition

    <h4>Chapter 399 The petition</h4>


    In themand post, Zhou Yinglong said earnestly to Zhang Xiaoman, ¡°I just handed in the battle report yesterday, and themander has already issued amendation for you today. Things really move quickly during wartime. This shows that themander values you a lot.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman looked overwhelmed. ¡°What did Commander say?¡±


    ¡°So, your current rank is half a rank above your appointment, but due to the Razor Sharp Company being a reinforcedpany and even though your pay had been increased, your responsibilities remained unchanged.¡± Zhou Yinglong said, ¡°You¡¯ve made another big contribution this time, so the Personnel Division is already preparing talks with you....¡±


    Upon hearing this, Zhang Xiaoman knew what was going on. ¡°I¡¯m not leaving the Razor Sharp Company!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was stunned. ¡°This is a good thing. Why¡¯re you unhappy?¡±


    ¡°Right now, the Razor Sharp Company is in the midst of a tough battle. What does it say if I, thepanymander, leave at such a time? Even if I get transferred, it¡¯ll have to be at the end of the war!¡± Zhang Xiaoman raised his voice and shouted.


    ¡°What are you yelling for?¡± Zhou Yinglong got unhappy. ¡°I was just trying to hear your opinion. It¡¯s a good thing to begin with, but look at what you¡¯re making it out to be.¡±


    ¡°Battalion Commander, do you want me to open up a space for Ren Xiaosu? If that¡¯s the case, that¡¯s fine too. You¡¯ll just have to let me remain a soldier in the Razor Sharp Company.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°I¡¯m willing to let him take over aspanymander, but I won¡¯t leave the Razor Sharp Company.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s temper went away. People like Zhang Xiaoman, who was unwilling to be promoted and would rather get demoted than leave thepany, probably only existed among the troops of Fortress 178.


    However, Zhou Yinglong said, ¡°Then you can just stay and continue being themander of the Razor Sharp Company. This matter has nothing to do with Ren Xiaosu. Themendation has already been given, and the entirepany will receive the third-ss unit citation, except for him.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. ¡°Just because he was selected by themander, that¡¯s why he¡¯s being treated so harshly?¡±.


    Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. He had thought he was going to be transferred to make space for Ren Xiaosu, even though he did not think Ren Xiaosu would be promoted so soon. But it turned out that Ren Xiaosu was the only one who would not receive a medal.


    ¡°Enough, we can¡¯t figure out themander¡¯s thoughts. You should go back first. The award ceremony will be held tonight.¡± Zhou Yinglong waved him off.


    Zhang Xiaoman returned to hispany looking out of sorts. He continued to lead everyone in their exercise and training, but everyone could tell that Zhang Xiaoman had something on his mind.


    ¡°Captain, did the battalionmander lecture you?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked. ¡°I feel like you have something on your mind.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Themander¡¯s decided to give each of us the third-ss unit citation because we took Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan sessfully.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great.¡± Jiao Xiaochen was overjoyed. ¡°Maybe everyone in our Razor Sharp Company will even get promoted to officers after the war is over.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s so good about that?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Only Ren Xiaosu did not getmended and won¡¯t receive the third-ss medal.¡±


    Everyone was surprised. ¡°Why? Even if Ren Xiaosu did not mention anything about himself in the report, he should still get the award if the rest of thepany¡¯s also getting it. Could there be some problems with the report? Why don¡¯t we get the battalionmander to write a new one?¡±


    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s go look for themander! This is


    so unfair!¡±


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu risked his life toplete thepany¡¯s mission. No one else could¡¯ve climbed the back of that mountain, right? Even if any of us could¡¯ve climbed that mountain, we might not have caused much damage to the banditir.¡± Jiao Xiaochen said angrily, ¡°Winning this battle should have been his credit in the first ce!¡±


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu just smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s alright. It¡¯s pretty useless to me even if I were given an award. There¡¯s no need to go to themander on my behalf. Didn¡¯t you all say that obedience is our soldierly duty? Let¡¯s leave it to the higher-ups to decide however they want. We just need to listen to our orders.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said in exasperation, ¡°You need to fight for what you deserve too!¡±


    ¡°Why should I?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed and continued running. ¡°Hurry up and run, or we won¡¯t make it in time for dinner.¡±


    Everyone looked at one another, not knowing what to say.


    As the night¡¯s award ceremony was quite important, the forward operating base had organized it as a pep rally to motivate the soldiers.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman started addressing all of the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers except for Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Listen up, all of you. Writing this jointly signed petition is an act of insubordination. If themander gets upset, I¡¯m afraid that every one of us here will no longer have a future in the military.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe that themander is that kind of person. He¡¯s definitely open to suggestions.¡± Jiao Xiaochen said. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m gonna sign it. We have to make sure that Ren Xiaosu gets recognized for his contributions. If Ren Xiaosu does not want to fight for it, we¡¯ll fight for it on his behalf.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll write it, then all of you can sign it!¡±


    The group of gruff men lowered their heads and pondered how to write the petition. It was really difficult for them.


    Zhang Jinglin arrived at the forward operating base and was having a meeting with all themanders of the fighting forces. Just as they were about to discuss how to cross the Beiwan River at the front line, an orderly came inside and whispered to him, ¡°The officers from the Razor Sharp Company are all here. They said they¡¯re representing the entire Razor Sharp Company in submitting a petition.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t I already say they would be given the third-ss unit citation? What are they petitioning about? Let them in.¡±


    The othermanders whispered, ¡°Commander, should we go outside?¡±


    ¡°No need.¡± Zhang Jinglin shook his head. ¡°Let¡¯s listen to what our men from the Razor Sharp Company have to petition about.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, and the other officers were brought into themand post tent. Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°Tell me, what do the men of the hour who got us our first victory in the opening battles want to petition about?¡±


    ¡°This is our petition.¡± Zhang Xiaoman handed a crumpled piece of paper to Zhang Jinglin. ¡°We just feel that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s been treated unfairly. We would like to resubmit our battle report. He should be the one credited for winning this battle.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Zhang Jinglin nodded as he read the petition. The petition was even signed by all the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company. He said, ¡°Do you mean to say you all fabricated the battle report, and that you two, Zhang Xiaoman and Jiao Xiaochen, have falsely imed credit for the war contribution?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said through his teeth, ¡°Even if Commander wants to punish us, we¡¯ll still admit to it. However, Ren Xiaosu really contributed to the victory. You can¡¯t give all of us the third-ss unit citation but forget about him. Isn¡¯t that as good as a p to the face?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said calmly, ¡°Let¡¯s look at the facts without any bias. Fabricating the battle report, condemning the military from within, and falsely iming credit for war contributions¡ªthese actions will subject you to be revoked of your third-ss unit citation. It¡¯s no exception even if you were all men of the hour. As for Ren Xiaosu, I already knew about it.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others were stunned. What did he mean by he already knew about it?


    After that, they were led out of the tent by the orderly. Zhang Jinglin slid the petition to the othermanders with a smile. ¡°Everyone, have a read.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was seated at the end of the line. He thought to himself, ¡®Commander Zhang clearly looks like he¡¯s in a great mood.¡¯ By showing the petition to the othermanders, he was obviously trying to tell them what Ren Xiaosu, his chosen candidate, had contributed to the war.


    As a soldier who had just joined thepany, what had he done to deserve hisrades giving up their third-ss citation just so they could petition on his behalf?


    Ren Xiaosu was far more endearing to the Razor Sharp Company than they had imagined.


    If you were a beam of light, you would eventually encounter other beams of light behind a dark thundercloud.

 Chapter 400 - Urban warfare

    <h4>Chapter 400 Urban warfare</h4>


    Themanders of the various fighting forces in themand post tent were passing around the jointly signed petition and going through it. The contents of the petition roughly described that during the battle to take control of Mt. Dingyuan, Ren Xiaosu had climbed the back of Mt. Dingyuan barehanded tounch a surprise attack on the bandits there. As the credit was his, everyone at the Razor Sharp Company felt ashamed to be awarded the third-ss unit citation for it.


    Moreover, because Commander Zhang did not award the third-ss decoration to Ren Xiaosu as well, this was seen as really unfair.


    As Zhou Yinglong read the petition, he stole a nce at Zhang Jinglin¡¯s expression. However, he realized Zhang Jinglin did not seem unhappy. He softly probed, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect those bastards woulde here to chide themander for acting unfairly. Should I punish them when I return to the barracks?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin smiled. ¡°How could I not know what you¡¯re thinking? Alright, there¡¯s no need to test me. I¡¯m not angry.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good then.¡± Zhou Yinglong chuckled. ¡°Commander, you¡¯re such a kind person.¡±


    At this moment, a brigademander suddenly wondered, ¡°The Razor Sharp Company under Zhou Yinglong¡¯smand is notorious for being difficult. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s only been posted there for a few days, but he¡¯s already gained so much support?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Enough, let¡¯s not discuss this anymore. The award ceremony tonight will also be canceled. Zhou Yinglong, go back and tell the Razor Sharp Company that the reason Ren Xiaosu was not included in the third-ss citations was that I had intended to award him the second-ss decoration. However, since Ren Xiaosu fabricated the battle report that was submitted to me, his second-ss medal will also be revoked. We¡¯ll start discussing our next battle n now.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong, who was sitting in the back, suddenly felt his teeth aching. Themander was way too scheming. He did not even have to give out any awards in the end, and all themanders of the various fighting forces already knew Ren Xiaosu had already gained a foothold in the Razor Sharp Company. Not only was hisbat strength ferocious, but he was also a very inspiring figure there.


    Previously, themanders were still discussing among themselves that Zhang Jinglin might have ced Ren Xiaosu into the Razor Sharp Company purely by coincidence, not because he wanted Ren Xiaosu to be his sessor. But judging from Commander Zhang¡¯s actions, he was clearly paving the way for Ren Xiaosu, wasn¡¯t he?


    Of course, to forge iron, one had to be strong first. If Ren Xiaosu were a weakling, Zhang Jinglin could not groom him asmander even if he wanted to.


    But as it turned out, Ren Xiaosu was not even close to being a weakling.


    Zhou Yinglong was a little puzzled. Why did it feel like Commander Zhang was very confident in Ren Xiaosu?


    Although Ren Xiaosu did not seem to have gained anything out of the mission, all themanders had a clearer understanding of Zhang Jinglin¡¯s intentions and got to know Ren Xiaosu better as a person.


    Perhaps this had always been Zhang Jinglin¡¯s intention.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the other officers were not back at their own camp yet. People from the Personnel Division were alreadying to the barracks to tell them the award ceremony that was to be held that night had been canceled. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why did it get canceled?¡±


    It was only the officers who went to submit the petition. The rest of the soldiers did not go.


    The soldiers from the Razor Sharp Company standing next to Ren Xiaosu did not say a word when they heard that. It was those from the Personnel Division who said, ¡°Yourpany¡¯s officers went to themander to protest the fact that you weren¡¯t awarded the third-ss citation and everyone at thepany thought it was unfair to you. Themander has also revoked all of their three-ss unit citations over how the battle report was fabricated.¡±


    Only now did Zhang Xiaoman and the others finally appear back at the camp. Ren Xiaosu frowned and looked at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°Why did y¡¯all do that? I already said that I don¡¯t need any credit for my contributions.¡±


    ¡°You might not want to im it, but that¡¯s your business.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said loudly, ¡°But our brothers at the Razor Sharp Company can¡¯t stand to see such unfairness. We¡¯re from the Razor Sharp Company, and we¡¯re are all in this together. One for all, and all for one!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a long time. However, the employee from the Personnel Division who was standing beside him curled his lips and said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu had been awarded the second-ss decoration, but that¡¯s also been revoked now.¡±


    ¡°Revoked...¡± Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s smile faded away. ¡°What the fuck did you say?¡±


    The employee from the Personnel Division shot a look at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°We already prepared the second-ssmendation document for Ren Xiaosu, but it¡¯s been canceled now.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu, then at the employee. He facepalmed and did not know what to say.


    The employee from the Personnel Divisionughed. ¡°Alright, don¡¯t be in a hurry to feel dismayed. HQ has already told us to hold back all of your third-ss unit citations until y¡¯all make another contribution. We¡¯ll take everything into consideration then.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Zhang Xiaoman suddenly looked up.


    The staffer from the Personnel Division said, ¡°As the entire military already knows that you all are the heroes of the opening battle, you¡¯ll still get what you deserve. Also, themander has given the word that you can keep the spoils of war from the battle at Mt. Dingyuan.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was instantly overjoyed. The spoils of war had always been required to be sent to the Supply Division to be allocated. After every battle, the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s supplies would instantly get knocked back close to zero again.


    Now that themander had allowed them to retain their spoils of war, they had probably be the most well-armedpany in the entire military.


    After the Personnel Division left, Ren Xiaosu thanked Zhang Xiaoman and the others very seriously. ¡°I¡¯ll remember everyone¡¯s efforts. Thank you.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to thank us for?¡± Zhang Xiaoman waved his hand. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for you, most of us wouldn¡¯t have made it back.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at these gruff men from the Northwest and was suddenly looking forward to continuing to fight alongside them.


    At this moment, Zhou Yinglong strode over with a loping stride and yelled, ¡°You maggots, I¡¯ll settle the score with y¡¯all after the war is over! Everyone is to pack up your stuff and head to Shichuan Vige. I want you to take the vige within seven days.¡±


    Shichuan Vige was about 70 kilometers northeast of the forward operating base. No one lived there, and it was just a small town that remained behind from before The Cataclysm. Now it was a defensive strongpoint for the Zong Consortium at the southernmost side of their territory.


    The reason Fortress 178 was so eager to attack Shichuan Vige was because it was too close to their forward operating base. It was to prevent the Zong Consortium from setting up long-range artillery there and putting the forward operating base in their attack radius.


    The safety of the forward operating base was one of the most important issues at the beginning of the war, and the main mission for the Forward Strike Battalion was to ensure the safety of the forward operating base.


    Zhang Xiaoman took out a map and scanned it. ¡°I heard there¡¯s a ton of buildings in Shichuan Vige that are still standing. They¡¯re very suitable for setting up HMGs in. Also, there¡¯s new defensive fortifications and bunkers built by the Zong Consortium. This urban warfare isn¡¯t going to be easy to handle.¡±


    Urban warfare was also called urbanbat. Under most circumstances, urban warfare was fought at close quarters, and situations would even arise where closebat was required. Hostile and friendly forces could hardly be differentiated from each other, leading to extremely dangerous conflicts.


    The narrow streets,plex environment, unseen enemies, and gunfire that coulde from anywhere...


    You wouldn¡¯t know when a gun would suddenly point out of a dark window and start taking lives.


    ¡°Can¡¯t we get the armored brigade to provide cover?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked with a frown.


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. ¡°The FOB¡¯s facilities haven¡¯t been fully upgraded to serve them yet. The armored brigade can¡¯t throw themselves headlong into the battlefield.¡±


    For a moment, even these fearless thugs from the Razor Sharp Company got a little worried.


    Only Ren Xiaosu was unaffected. It was as though he were not bothered by the prospect of urbanbat.

 Chapter 401 - A happily married life

    <h4>Chapter 401 A happily married life</h4>


    The war had started the moment the Razor Sharp Company took Mt. Guan. There was no official deration of war, with the first gunshot fired being the bugle call.


    Attacking Shichuan Vige was a very minor interlude in the entire war. Both Second Company and Third Company hade along with Razor Sharp Company to Shichuan Vige as this was not a ce they could wage a battle on their own.


    From here on out, they would be facing the Zong Consortium¡¯s regr troops. These regr troops had been put through systematic military training and had shot countless targets before. The only thing was they had never officially been on the battlefield before. Compared with the bandits they faced earlier, these troops were on apletely different level.


    ording to Zhang Xiaoman, the troops of the Zong Consortium were not that much weaker than those from Fortress 178. The only difference was their experience and ability to adapt on the battlefield. There was also a difference in what they had learned during their desensitization training.


    Some of the Zong Consortium¡¯s new recruits would throw up, get disgusted, and be fearful when they saw intestines spilling out and legs getting broken. However, the veterans of Fortress 178 would not.


    At the forward operating base, Zhou Yinglong got the orderlies to hand out pen and paper to everyone.


    ¡°What¡¯s this for?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zhang Xiaoman raised his head and gave him a look. ¡°To write your will.¡±


    ¡°Will?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment.


    ¡°On the surface, it¡¯s to let everyone write down whatever they want to say. If they don¡¯t make it back after a battle, the Administration Division will deliver the letters to their family. You can consider it a letter to pass down any instructions after your death. If the soldiers manage to return, they can go to the Administration Division and redeem their letters,¡± Zhang Xiao Man exined. ¡°But we just call this thing a will.¡±


    ¡°That sounds like bad luck,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing unlucky about it.¡± Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. ¡°Those who step onto the battlefield should be able to make light of death. Actually, we didn¡¯t understand it at first, but after fighting so many enemies outside Fortress 178, we¡¯re numb to it.¡±


    ¡°Then who are you writing to?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°My parents,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°and my wife too.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re married?¡±


    ¡°Listen to what you¡¯re saying. I¡¯m almost thirty years old.¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, ¡°Can¡¯t I have a wife?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little embarrassed. He did not really understand the concept of marriage, so he assumed everyone else was single like him. Thinking about it, since Zhang Xiaoman was thepanymander, he couldn¡¯t be that young.


    ¡°What does being married feel like?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s not too bad, I guess. There¡¯s always a hot meal waiting at home,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said as he wrote out his ¡°will.¡±


    ¡°Are you happy?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and looked up. ¡°You must be hankering for love, huh? Why are you so interested in this? Let me put it this way. I¡¯ve been happily married for one year.¡±


    ¡°That sounds pretty nice,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Beside him, Jiao Xiaochenughed loudly and said, ¡°You don¡¯t get it. He¡¯s been married for ten years.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Then Zhang Xiaoman asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to write your letter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t know who I should write it to.¡±


    All the warriors of the Razor Sharp Company fell silent. They realized this was probably the reason Ren Xiaosu had fought so desperately against the Zong Consortium.


    After leaving the forward operating base, they could only travel on foot. In the battle n, they would arrive at the outskirts of Shichuan Vige on the third day. But from the moment they stepped out of the forward operating base, they had to be on full alert. This was in case the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops had set up an ambush near Shichuan Vige.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Shichuan Vige is located on a in. Although its outskirts are forest, it should be quite difficult for us to break through into Shichuan Vige, right?¡±


    A rifle in his hands, Zhang Xiaoman exined, ¡°We¡¯ll use the mortars to attack first. Their range of three kilometers is enough for us to stay outside the range of the enemy¡¯s HMGs. Once we create an opening, we can move on to urbanbat.¡±


    ¡°Are you confident?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked skeptically.


    ¡°If that doesn¡¯t work out, we¡¯ll get the artillery troops behind to take out theirrge-caliber artillery and bombard them.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°There¡¯s definitely a way.¡±


    On the night of the second day, the sound of gunfire rang out from both sides. From where the Razor Sharp Company was, heavy machine guns could be heard firing in the distance.


    Zhang Xiaoman frowned. ¡°Second Company and Third Company have been ambushed. We should be careful too!¡±


    Everyone had expected the Zong Consortium to set up an ambush outside of Shichuan Vige, so it was not a surprise. Second Company and Third Company were probably prepared for this as well.


    A gunshot suddenly rang out in front of them as well, but it sounded like it came from far away.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others instinctively took cover behind a tree by the side of the road, but no bullets flew at them.


    ¡°That¡¯s strange. Who¡¯s firing?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked in confusion. ¡°Let¡¯s continue moving forward!¡±


    But after the Razor Sharp Company advanced several hundred meters, they still did not reach where they thought the enemy was. There were not even any gunshots anymore.


    ¡°Something¡¯s not right.¡± Zhang Xiaoman frowned and said, ¡°We¡¯re the ones taking the main path. Is the Zong Consortium trying to mislead us? Fu Rao, Lin Ping¡¯an, I want the two of you to take point and scout!¡±


    It was not that Zhang Xiaoman liked ordering Fu Rao and Lin Ping¡¯an around when there was danger, but that there had to be designated scouts in thepany. When a dangerous situation arose, these scouts would be tasked with charging ahead first. This was just a division of responsibilities.


    Fu Rao and Lin Ping¡¯an crouch walked through the forest and felt their way forward. However, before they could get far, the two of them turned back. ¡°Captain, something¡¯s wrong. The people ambushing us are all dead. They¡¯ve been wiped out!¡±


    ¡°There was only a single toon manning the MG position, and all 30 of the soldiers there died just a while ago. They were still bleeding when we got near them,¡± Lin Ping¡¯an added.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked suspiciously at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You did this?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Ain¡¯t I right here?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were also a little stunned. ¡°Who helped us take out that MG nest? And their throats were slit? Only a supernatural being is capable of that, right?¡±


    Everyone was puzzled. A mysterious supernatural being had suddenly appeared on the battlefield and done good deeds for them?


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were not fools. This was clearly done by Ren Xiaosu, but they did not have any evidence of it.


    To be honest, everyone still did not know what kind of power Ren Xiaosu had.


    Zhang Xiaoman tried to test Ren Xiaosu again. ¡°It really wasn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°It really wasn¡¯t me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said innocently.


    Zhang Xiaoman came to the machine gun position where he found a corpse and touched the area between the man¡¯s thumb and index finger. ¡°There¡¯s no thick calluses, so they shouldn¡¯t be trained soldiers. This group was probably put together with refugees or soldiers from the private troops.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re just cannon fodder.¡± Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°It looks like the Zong Consortium is trying to use cannon fodder to wear us out first.¡±


    ¡°Predictable.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°There won¡¯t be ack of enemy troops in Shichuan Vige. A conservative estimate says there¡¯s over a 1,000 of them. But the good news is that most of the enemies we¡¯ll encounter should be very weak. They might not even have a proper understanding of what targeting range is.¡±


    Shichuan Vige was not a very important ce to begin with. The Zong Consortium had only garrisoned it because they wanted to be a pain in the ass to Fortress 178¡¯s forward operating base.

 Chapter 402 - As long as we’re still around

    <h4>Chapter 402 As long as we¡¯re still around</h4>


    Actually, Zhang Xiaoman and the others¡¯ suspicions were correct. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone was the one that had taken out the heavy machine gun position. Right after they had set off, he had been using his shadow clone to scout ahead in case they were ambushed.


    After experiencing some setbacks, Ren Xiaosu learned how to be more careful and cautious.


    However, this was not something to be happy about because he had learned to be this way through someone¡¯s suffering.


    The level of enlightenment for every individual was equivalent to the depth of their anguish.


    Second Company and Third Company¡¯s positions were some distance away, with the gap between each of the threepanies maintained at around two kilometers. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone was only effective within a one-kilometer radius, so he could not send it out to help them.


    Suddenly, Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Continue marching. We¡¯re still a day away from Shichuan Vige. Don¡¯t let up. We might encounter another ambush at any time.¡±


    The Zong Consortium had ced the refugees and private troops at the front lines. With just a single heavy machine gun, they could make Fortress 178¡¯s front line troops suffer heavy losses. This was a kind of bizarreness that only happened in the era of firearms and explosives.


    As they marched, Zhang Xiaoman asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I¡¯ve actually been quite curious for a while, but you¡¯re not very interested in getting promoted, are you?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°After the war, I might be heading to the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°Wait!¡± Zhang Xiaoman suddenly felt that something was not right. ¡°You¡¯re saying you¡¯ll leave Fortress 178 after the war?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I have to go find my family. The day before yesterday when y¡¯all were writing your wills, everyone had loved ones that they could write to. But when I wanted to write mine, I realized that there was no one for me to write to.¡±


    ¡°Is the Zong Consortium the cause of this?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    Zhang Xiaoman realized it was no wonder Ren Xiaosu was so ruthless towards the Zong Consortium. He even volunteered to lead the main attack for their mission. So it turned out that he actually had a grudge against them.


    Although Ren Xiaosu did not usually show any anguish, everyone could clearly feel the loneliness emanating from him. For example, when everyone gathered around the campfire, Ren Xiaosu would sit by himself and look up into the starry sky. Or when everyone wasughing and chatting after a meal, Ren Xiaosu would lean against a big tree and look out into the distance. No one knew what was on his mind.


    When Ren Xiaosu came down from Mt. Guan drenched in blood, Zhang Xiaoman had clearly sensed his rage dissipating.


    ¡°Did you kill the bandits on Mt. Guan?¡± Zhang Xiaoman was referring to the main forces who had disappeared from Mt. Guan.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°My little bro killed them.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman choked a little. Ren Xiaosu was already this ferocious, yet he had a younger brother who could wipe out an entire mountain of bandits? What kind of a family was this?


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu did not exin much.


    ¡°But if you leave, wouldn¡¯t themander have ced you in the Razor Sharp Company for nothing?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    ¡°Does themander have other intentions by putting me in the Razor Sharp Company? I was the one who asked to be posted to the most dangerous unit,¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Um, it¡¯s nothing, it¡¯s nothing,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said. He felt that everyone might have misunderstood the entire situation. How could someone who was going to leave Fortress 178 after the war be themander of the fortress? Or did Commander Zhang have other ideas?


    Throughout their journey, there were a total of three ambush points. Without exception, the heavy machine guns were all taken out by someone.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°It¡¯s not like Zhang Jinglin has anybat skills, so why do all y¡¯all listen to him?¡±


    This doubt had always been on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind. This group of gruff men from the Northwest respected strong people the most. Although Zhang Jinglin was very capable and had saved many people in the past, that should not be enough to give himmand over this forlorn hope, right?


    Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but someone said themander should never be made to bear arms. Killing others is our job. All themander has to do is to say who he wants us to kill and how to kill them.¡±


    When Zhang Xiaoman used the radio to report to Zhou Yinglong that they had arrived at the rendezvous point, Zhou Yinglong was shocked. ¡°Second Company and Third Company are still on their way. How¡¯d you get there so quickly? Did you encounter any ambushes on the way?¡±


    ¡°The ambushes we encountered were all taken out by a mysterious supernatural being,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said honestly. ¡°We don¡¯t know who did it either.¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu?¡± Zhou Yinglong asked.


    ¡°We also suspected it could have been him, but he was with us the whole time.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Battalion Commander, should we go and provide support to Second Company and Third Company?¡±


    ¡°Negative. Thepanies have their own routes to take. We can¡¯t mess up the n.¡± Zhou Yinglong said, ¡°They¡¯re not under a lot of pressure either, so they¡¯ll only be dyed by a bit. The enemies who ambushed them aren¡¯t experienced.¡±


    ¡°Then what should we do now?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    ¡°Familiarize yourselves with the terrain first, and make preparations to capture Shichuan Vige while waiting to rendezvous with Second Company and Third Company. The other fighting forces of the Forward Strike Battalion will be arriving the day after tomorrow.¡± Then Zhou Yinglong ended their conversation.


    Zhang Xiaoman ordered, ¡°1st, 2nd, and 3rd toons, you get a short break. 4th, 5th, and 6th toons, follow me and start building some simple fortifications to prevent our enemies froming out of Shichuan Vige and ambushing us.¡±


    As a matter of fact, even though Zhang Xiaoman was always seen scrounging at the forward operating base and constantly requesting more armaments, he became a fully qualifiedpanymander once he got onto the battlefield. He would unequivocally handle whatever needed to be done during battle.


    Through the dense forest, Ren Xiaosu was looking at Shichuan Vige in the distance. The abandoned town¡¯s high-rise buildings had long copsed, and all that remained were the tattered two-story buildings.


    Zhang Xiaoman said from next to him, ¡°Even the concrete and metal that humans relied on for survival is no match for the effects of time. As long as there¡¯s maintenance done on them, those tall buildings will all copse in a matter of 200 years. In another 500 years, there won¡¯t be any buildings left standing here. The cities of humans are not as sturdy as we imagined them to be.¡±


    ¡°As long as we¡¯re still around, that¡¯s good enough,¡± Ren Xiaosu remarked.


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned before smiling and saying, ¡°That¡¯s absolutely right. It¡¯s fine as long as we¡¯re still around.¡±


    As they were quite close to Shichuan Vige, they could not start a campfire. Otherwise, they would end up bing targets for artillery fire from the town.


    Ren Xiaosu expressed his understanding when he heard this reason. Then, as he had nothing better to do in the middle of the night, he ran far away and started a few campfires out there. As expected, just as the fire burned bright, the artillery from Shichuan Vige locked on to the locations where the fires were burning andmenced a heavy bombardment.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others who were sitting behind some sandbags were confused when they heard the artillery fire. They were wondering who the enemies in town were attacking


    When Ren Xiaosu came back after a while, Zhang Xiaoman asked, ¡°Where¡¯d you go?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that campfires would attract the artillery? I went out to start some campfires. I thought that it¡¯d be good if I could make them waste their shells. The troops in this Shichuan Vige are an isted force, so they definitely can¡¯t restock their ammo. Who knows? We might be able to reduce the number of casualties on our side this way.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was just giving it a try and did not really think he would seed.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman was thinking about what he had just done. He wondered how Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind even worked in the first ce.

 Chapter 403 - Bickering before battle

    <h4>Chapter 403 Bickering before battle</h4>


    The sound of artillery fire from Shichuan Vige was intense. Ren Xiaosu had lit up as many as seven campfires out there. Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers did not think too much and decided to bombard those areas first.


    Actually, it was very chaotic on the battlefield. Most of the time, the officers would not even have time to consider their actions too carefully, and it was normal to fight the moment they spotted their enemies.


    Only a small number ofmanders could remain calm in the chaos and take the right course of action. And it was thesemanders who would emerge victorious from a battle. Some would then go on to be famous military leaders.


    The artillery fire quickly put the Second Company and Third Company, who were currently storming the machine gun positions, on high alert. When they heard the sound of the bombardment, they thought the Razor Sharp Company had already started the attack on the town!


    Importantly, the battle n was for the threepanies to rendezvous beforeunching an attack on the town. It was practically impossible for a singlepany to capture Shichuan Vige, and the casualty count would definitely be disastrous as well.


    Both Second Company and Third Company called in to Zhou Yinglong at the rear in unison. They were hoping he could stop the recklessness of the Razor Sharp Company. Although the Razor Sharp Company had just aplished great things by taking mountain forss, there were two things in a battle that all soldiers were afraid of. One was cowardice, and the other was arrogance.


    An army cocksure of its invincibility was doomed to defeat.


    When Zhou Yinglong heard about the situation at the front line, he got anxious. He quickly found a radio operator to contact the Razor Sharp Company in the hopes they could still get through to them.


    In the end, the call went through very quickly. Zhou Yinglong said anxiously, ¡°Did you guys start attacking Shichuan Vige already? Zhang Xiaoman, are you crazy? Didn¡¯t I tell you to wait until you joined up with Second Third Companies beforeunching an attack? If your Razor Sharp Company suffers heavy casualties, I¡¯ll hold you responsible!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said innocently, ¡°Battalion Commander, we¡¯re eating right now. We didn¡¯t start attacking Shichuan Vige.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was taken aback. ¡°Are you sure? Then what¡¯s with the sound of the bombardment?¡± Zhou Yinglong could still hear the artillery bombardment on the other end while holding the receiver to his ear.


    Zhang Xiaoman patiently exined, ¡°I told Ren Xiaosu earlier that since we were very close to Shichuan Vige, we shouldn¡¯t light any campfires or risk ending up as targets for the enemy. In the end, he ran off to a faraway ce and started many campfires. He said he wanted to make the enemy at Shichuan Vige waste some of their shells....¡±


    It went silent in the call. Zhou Yinglong had not expected a situation like this. He said in a daze, ¡°Where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu?¡± Zhang Xiaoman looked around but could not find Ren Xiaosu. Then he saw another group of campfires lighting up in the distance. He said numbly, ¡°He went out to start a few more campfires.¡±


    But this time, the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops in Shichuan Vige seemed to have realized that something was amiss. They gradually stopped their bombardment.


    But after waiting half the night, Zhang Xiaoman did not see another campfire light up. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had also not returned yet.


    He muttered to Jiao Xiaochen, ¡°I wonder what Ren Xiaosu¡¯s up to now?¡±


    When dawn was about to break, Ren Xiaosu finally came back. Zhang Xiaoman leaned forward and sniffed. He could still smell gunpowder on Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Where have you


    been?¡±


    ¡°When I saw that Second Company and Third Company still hadn¡¯t arrived even after waiting for so long, I thought I¡¯d go help them,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.


    Zhang Xiaoman froze. He realized he had underestimated Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ferocity. He still had the strength to go and help his allies.


    As they were speaking, Second Company and Third Company finally arrived. Themander of Second Company was still wondering as they walked over, ¡°I wonder who helped us destroy that MG position with a grenade...¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman nced over at Ren Xiaosu. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was squatting behind the bushes and quietly watching the silent Shichuan Vige in the distance.


    Zhang Xiaoman did not say anything else. He turned to Second Company and Third Company and said, ¡°Why have you only just arrived?¡±


    Both Second Company and Third Company were puzzled. ¡°Didn¡¯t y¡¯all encounter any ambushesst night?¡±


    ¡°We did!¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°If our Razor Sharp Company can be stopped with just a machine gun, we¡¯re willing to give up our name of ¡®Razor Sharp¡¯ to y¡¯all!¡±


    The faces of both Second Company and Third Company¡¯smanders darkened. Zhang Xiaoman was too fucking arrogant recently!


    ¡°Was it really that easy for y¡¯all to take out the MG nests?¡± Second Company¡¯smander said unhappily, ¡°The trenches they dug were so effective that even our mortars couldn¡¯t cause any damage to them. Zhang Xiaoman, don¡¯t get too cocky. We don¡¯t care about getting the ¡®Razor Sharp¡¯ name.¡±


    What the Second Company and Third Company¡¯smanders did not know was that the Razor Sharp Company did not even encounter any living enemies in the course of their march. However, this did not stop Zhang Xiaoman from full-on mocking them.


    ¡°Don¡¯t stray from the subject.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Rest up during the day. We¡¯ll start byunching an aggressive attack on Shichuan Vige at midnight. Our Razor Sharp Company will be responsible for creating an opening, so y¡¯all better not drag us back.¡±


    The moment he said that, themanders of Second Company and Third Company got so angry they nearly lost their appetites! However, this was the culture at Fortress 178. As long as you were good at fighting, it wouldn¡¯t matter how tough your words sounded!


    Even though Second Company and Third Company were angered by this, they had to ept it. During their rest, all they could think of was how to win back their reputation during the attack on Shichuan Vige.


    Themander of Second Company quietly held a meeting with his officers. ¡°I don¡¯t want any of us losing our reasonter just to prove our worth, understand?¡±


    The officers said, ¡°Understood, sir!¡±


    Thepanymander¡¯s responsibility was not only to lead in a battle, but also to know when to remind their soldiers to be cool-headed. Fighting a war was a matter of life and death, so one must not allow their emotions to rule their heads.


    But immediately after themander of Second Company was done speaking to his men, he heard Zhang Xiaoman loudly say, ¡°Everyone, don¡¯t be in a hurry when attacking Shichuan Vige tonight. It¡¯s fine even if we allow Second Company and Third Company to get the credit. We¡¯re a team, after all, so our Razor Sharp Company shouldn¡¯t be hogging all the contributions, right?¡±


    This time, Second Company¡¯smander nearly vomited blood.


    It was normal to have some friendly bickering before a battle. They were all veterans with a lot of battlefield experience and knew how to put aside their emotions when going into battle.


    Zhang Xiaoman was on very good terms with Second Company and Third Company. Otherwise, he would not dare to talk nonsense like this before a battle.


    Themander of Second Company turned around and looked in the direction of the Razor Sharp Company. He saw Ren Xiaosu sitting alone with his eyes closed. Someone in thepany muttered, ¡°That¡¯s Ren Xiaosu, right? I heard he scaled a 700-meter-high cliff with his bare hands during the attack on Mt. Dingyuan.¡±


    ¡°Are you serious?¡± A Second Company soldier asked skeptically, ¡°Even Battalion Commander Zhou couldn¡¯t do that, right?¡±


    When Jiao Xiaochen heard the discussion about Ren Xiaosu in Second Company, he remarked, ¡°When Ren Xiaosu came back early in the morning, he said he went to help you guys. Weren¡¯t y¡¯all asking who helped you to take out the MG nests? It was him.¡±


    Themander of Second Company was stunned. Jiao Xiaochen would not lie about such a thing. ¡°I heard he¡¯s a supernatural being, right? What¡¯s his power?¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen went silent for a moment. ¡°We don¡¯t know either.¡±


    For a second, all of the soldiers at the camp looked at Ren Xiaosu either intentionally or unintentionally. They all had the same thought on their minds: ¡®Is this the person Commander Zhang chose? No wonder that themander chose him.¡¯

 Chapter 404 - Power revealed

    <h4>Chapter 404 Power revealed</h4>


    At 3 AM, most people would easily start falling asleep. However, Zhang Xiaoman did not think the enemy would be sleeping at this time. It was easier to breach the enemy¡¯s machine gun positions under the cover of night.


    Zhang Xiaoman quietly led the Razor Sharp Company forward. They could not rashly approach Shichuan Vige because there were sure to be machine guns waiting in the windows.


    The effective range of heavy machine guns tended to usually be between 1,000 and 2,000 meters. Some machine guns could even reach a range of 3,000 meters or 5,000 meters. However, once the range exceeded 500 meters, most shots from a machine gun would lose uracy. Whether or not they could hit someone purely depended on luck.


    Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman had set up some mortar positions 2.9 kilometers away from Shichuan Vige, the maximum range at which they were effective. He was nning to destroy the buildings on the periphery of the vige first.


    They did not need the mortars to inflict a lot of casualties. All they needed was for them to bring down the buildings and turn them into rubble. That would create a natural defensive barrier for Fortress 178¡¯s soldiers to get close to Shichuan Vige.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiao Xiaochen skillfully adjusting the mortar¡¯s angle. He suddenly asked, ¡°Where¡¯s the most terrifying part of urbanbat?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment and said, ¡°Every room with a window could be turned into an enemy position.¡±


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t we just demolish all the buildings and tten them?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. ¡°You make it sound so easy, but how are we going to achieve that? How many mortar rounds would we have to waste for that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stopped talking. He was hesitating about whether he should use the steam lotive to tten the buildings. It would definitely be painful for him, but he felt that such a method would be very useful. After all, the old buildings couldn¡¯t withstand the impact of the steam lotive.


    What was impossible for Zhang Xiaoman and the others was only one of the many methods that Ren Xiaosu could choose to use.


    But after some thought, Ren Xiaosu realized this was not his only way tounch an attack on the enemy. It would be better to choose a more conservative approach. If the steam lotive crashed into the buildings, he might just vomit blood again from the pain.


    At this moment, Jiao Xiaochen said at the side, ¡°Captain, all preparations areplete!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman nced at Second Company before saying softly, ¡°Other than Jiao Xiaochen and those who are operating the mortars to provide cover, the rest are to advance with me. Jiao Xiaochen, keep this in mind: Don¡¯t allow the enemies in Shichuan Vige to reinforce their defenses on the periphery. Attack them with everything you¡¯ve got!¡±


    Right now, Zhang Xiaoman was most worried about the required time for them to charge three kilometers. In that duration, the enemy was fully capable of reorganizing themselves to stop them from entering the town. Therefore, the uracy of Jiao Xiaochen¡¯s mortar bombardment would be crucial in their charge.


    Jiao Xiaochen was put in a difficult spot. ¡°Captain, it¡¯s too far. Furthermore, when we fire our mortars, the enemies will also fire back at us. We¡¯ll need to keep changing our positions!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care about that.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Our lives are in your hands!¡±


    Then Zhang Xiaoman led his men forward. Ren Xiaosu followed close behind him while Jiao Xiaochen was left with a problem at the rear.


    The firing of mortars whooshed from the back. The Razor Sharp Company had deployed six mortars, and they were firing at Shichuan Vige all at once.


    After firing, Jiao Xiaochen shouted anxiously, ¡°Run! Switch locations and fire again!¡±


    The soldiers from Razor Sharp Company adroitly carried the mortars and ran off, in case the bombardment from Shichuan Vige turned them into live targets.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Won¡¯t they have to readjust the angle and range when they get to another spot? That¡¯ll dy the covering fire, won¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°That¡¯s Jiao Xiaochen¡¯s expertise. No one in the entire army is better at it than him.¡±


    Ordinarily, mortars would never be used in this way, because every time they shifted positions, it would take an extremely long time to recalibrate the trajectory of fire. However, Jiao Xiaochen¡¯s expertise enabled the Razor Sharp Company to be this mobile. Many of the other fighting forces had tried to recruit Jiao Xiaochen into their ranks, but they were all stopped by Zhou Yinglong.


    As they were talking, the second wave of mortar rounds hit Shichuan Vige. Ren Xiaosu watched as the buildings on the periphery of Shichuan Vige copsed into rubble, forming cover for the Razor Sharp Company.


    Meanwhile, the artillery in the town started firing at the suspected area where the mortar fire wasing from. But by then, Jiao Xiaochen had already fled with his men.


    This was a great strategy, indeed.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Jiao Xiaochen is an expert. How did he master it?¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re afraid to die, you can train hard,¡± Zhang Xiaoman panted.


    As soon as the enemies in Shichuan Vige saw the mortar bombardment, their soldiers immediately moved towards the periphery and tried to re-establish a defensive line.


    But the toon Jiao Xiaochen was leading had set up another mortar shelling. The third wave of artillery fire happened to be right in the path of the enemy¡¯s movements and intercepted them!


    Back when the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were eating and bragging to each other, someone said how great it would be if all of them could be supernatural beings. Jiao Xiaochen said at that time that if he were a supernatural being, he would definitely find it very easy to lug the mortar around.


    Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, and the others did not have any superpowers. They had be an integral part of the Razor Sharp Company in the Forward Strike Battalion purely through their hard work.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others were approaching the rubble. He looked up ahead at Shichuan Vige and saw a small, two-story building still standing not too far away. However, he could not make out if there were any enemies behind the dark window.


    If there were a heavy machine gun nest set up inside that building, many of the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers would probably have to die here.


    But were they going to stop fighting just because people would die? Taking casualties in war was unavoidable!


    He lowered his voice and whisper-shouted, ¡°Those who aren¡¯t afraid to die, attack with me. Watch out for that window on the second floor¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu hold a grenade in his hand and extend it into a shadow.


    A secondter, an explosion burst from that second-floor window that he was worrying about a moment ago. With a loud boom, a huge cloud of dust was blown out of the window while cries of the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers came from the inside!


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. ¡°What kind of fucking power was that?!¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu did not stop moving. He ran towards the rubble as he said, ¡°If you think there¡¯s a spot where it might be dangerous, tell me. As long as it¡¯s within a kilometer, let me handle it.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was shocked. Urban warfare was at its most dangerous when it was too difficult to deal with enemies hiding behind windows during a close-quarters fight.


    But with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power, it was as though he was a born nemesis for enemies in urbanbat. No matter how well one hid, as long as enemies were suspected to be in a building, they would be greeted with a dropped grenade.


    In the past, the Razor Sharp Company would always have a hard time when they had to fight in urban settings, because there wasn¡¯t really a good strategy for such battles. All they could rely on was Jiao Xiaochen¡¯s long-range cover fire to suppress the enemies for them.


    But things were different now. They no longer had to be afraid of anything!


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, ¡°Wait, was it because of you that we didn¡¯t find any grenades at Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was about to exin when Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Don¡¯t exin! In the future, you don¡¯t have to hide the grenades we seize anymore. They¡¯re all yours to keep!¡±

 Chapter 405 - Staunch

    <h4>Chapter 405 Staunch</h4>


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu like he was a treasure.


    He was a military man, so he only required a moment to understand what the ability to drop a grenade urately from a kilometer away could do for their assaults and sieges.


    They could take out machine gun positions easily, as well as freely engage in urban warfare without breaking a sweat. If they encountered any defensive bunkers when attacking high ground, they would not have to worry either. The enemy¡¯s fortifications onnd were paper-thin in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence!


    Zhang Xiaoman said excitedly to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°From now on, whoever tries to take any grenades from you is as good as trying to take my life!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°That¡¯s not nice, is it?¡±


    As he spoke, he stuffed a second grenade behind another dark window. The Zong Consortium soldiers who were about to sweep their machine guns were blown out of the window by the grenade.


    Curious, Zhang Xiaosu asked, ¡°Xiaosu, where do you even keep these grenades? I don¡¯t see any hand grenades on you. Is this one power or two powers?¡±


    Serious, Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°I only have one power, and it¡¯s to open up a dark passage to a dimension with a small storage area I can put stuff in.¡±


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu felt this exnation was very illogical. After all, the Shadow Door did not have the ability to open another dimension.


    However, even the supernatural beings themselves did not fully understand superpowers. Even if he made up something to fool an ordinary person, the other party would still believe them no matter how unbelievable it was. After all, these were already superpowers they were talking about, so why would they be based on logic?


    Zhang Xiaoman was startled by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s exnation. He called over his toonmanders and said to them, ¡°Remove all the grenades on everyone and hand them over to Ren Xiaosu. We¡¯re going to start advancing in the direction of the artillery. Ren Xiaosu, I want you to blow up all of the arty!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had already saved more than a dozen boxes of grenades from the banditirs, with each box containing twenty grenades. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were given three grenades each as standard issue by the Supply Division of Fortress 178.


    There were a total of 184 people in Razor Sharp Company. Excluding the toon that stayed behind to man the mortars, there were a total of 154 people on the front line. The number of grenades they had numbered several hundred!


    So when Ren Xiaosu grouped all of them together in his storage space, he felt so nervous his scalp went numb.


    The Razor Sharp Company was sneaking through the rubble as they advanced. Whenever there was a spot where the enemy could be hiding, Zhang Xiaoman would remind Ren Xiaosu to bomb it from a distance.


    On the nks, Second Company and Third Company had simrly infiltrated into Shichuan Vige. They could only watch helplessly as the Razor Sharp Company left them far behind in their wake.


    Second Company and Third Company¡¯s mission was to provide cover for the Razor Sharp Company on both nks. But from the looks of it, the Razor Sharp Company did not look like they needed any support! The exploding of grenades could be heard everywhere inside Shichuan Vige. What was even more surprising was that the Razor Sharp Company did not even encounter a ¡°proper¡± enemy!


    What the hell was going on?!


    The buildings still standing in Shichuan Vige stretched for up to six kilometers, and the Razor Sharp Company had only taken half an hour so far to advance 500 meters in!


    They had nned to take this town within a fortnight, but it seemed that the Razor Sharp Company would only need two to three days to clear out the entire town now!


    However, Zhang Xiaoman did not want to get greedy and risk advancing farther. Their enemies on the nks were still there. If Second Company and Third Company could not keep up with their progress, they might very well find themselves surrounded by the enemies in Shichuan Vige.


    And there was also the problem of whether there was a sniper in this town. On top of that, no one knew whether there might be any traps hidden underground. Thus, it was better to wait for the other twopanies to join up with them first before continuing the assault.


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly raised his arm and shouted for the troops to change their route. They were going to head towards Second Company to provide support, with Ren Xiaosu in charge of blowing up enemies while the rest provided cover for him. They would also have to verify that the enemies in the buildings they had passed by were all dead.


    Although some enemies had been blown up by the grenades, they were still looking to take the fight to the Razor Sharp Company to the bitter end. If the enemy ambushed them at this time, that would be horrible. The number of people who died from fighting in this tough battle wasn¡¯t the horrible fact, but that their carelessness could lead to the death ofrades. The former was unavoidable, but thetter was a matter of attitude.


    Second Company was still having trouble dealing with a machine gun position behind a window at an intersection. Suddenly, an explosion rang out behind that window, and the enemy soldiers and machine gun were blown out from it!


    When themander of Second Company looked up, he saw Zhang Xiaoman waving to them. ¡°Catch up! We¡¯re gonna provide support for Third Company!¡±


    A soldier from Second Company mumbled, ¡°What does he think urban warfare is? He¡¯s moving so freely?!¡±


    By midnight, the Razor Sharp Company, Second Company, and Third Company were finally assembled together in an empty building. The soldiers upstairs from the Razor Sharp Company had set up several heavy machine gun nests and were on high alert to their surroundings. Downstairs, Zhang Xiaoman was holding a meeting with themanders of Second Company and Third Company. ¡°Hand over your remaining TNT and grenades to us.¡±


    Themander of Second Company turned unhappy. ¡°Hand them over to all y¡¯all? Then what¡¯re we going to use!¡±


    Meanwhile, themander of Third Company was worried about something else. ¡°All of us are in this building. What if the enemy bombs this ce? Wouldn¡¯t we be annihted right here?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said calmly, ¡°All the artillery in Shichuan Vige has been destroyed by our Razor Sharp Company!¡±


    ¡°What the hell are you talking about?¡± The face of the Second Company¡¯smander darkened. ¡°The artillery positions are still at least 700 meters away from here. Tell me, how could you possibly have destroyed them all?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s confidential, so how can I tell you?¡± Zhang Xiaomanughed. ¡°I¡¯ve gathered you all here for nothing other than telling you how ferocious our Razor Sharp Company is. Grenades are a divine weapon when put into our hands. It¡¯s a waste to let y¡¯all hold onto them!¡±


    Themander of Second Company thought of how difficult it was to bring everyone together at one point. So it was just because he wanted to ask for their ammunition?


    By now, they had advanced about two kilometers into Shichuan Vige. With still a lot of enemies remaining on the northern side, there would be quite a few tough battles left to fight. So Zhang Xiaoman made Ren Xiaosu count the number of grenades they had left and realized there were not enough.


    The eyes of Third Company¡¯smander darted around as he suddenly said, ¡°Zhang Xiaoman, be honest and tell us what you want the grenades for. Earlier, I saw one of the enemy¡¯s MG nests get destroyed before you even arrived. What exactly is going on?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu, seeing him nod his head. Only then did Zhang Xiaoman say, ¡°Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power lets him throw grenades anywhere he wants within a one-kilometer radius. It won¡¯t drop more than a meter from where he wants it tond! So y¡¯all understand now, right? Hand the grenades to us and let the Razor Sharp Company clear a path forward. When the timees, we can all share the credit!¡±


    Themander of Second Company was still reluctant. ¡°If we give you all our grenades, what are we going to¡ª¡±.


    ¡°Li Haichen, you better think this through.¡± Zhang Xiaoman cut him off. ¡°We¡¯re in a war now, and those machine gun bullets are whisking past everyone blindly. Is your Second Company¡¯s mission more important, or are the lives of your soldiers more important? Besides, by handing over the grenades to us and letting the Razor Sharp Company forge a path ahead, the mission can still bepleted all the same!¡±


    Themander of Second Company hesitated before finally saying with a sigh, ¡°Alright, you can have them all! We won¡¯t take a share of the credit either. Whatever really takes ce should be reported as such. Our Second Company doesn¡¯t want leftovers!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman happily gave him a thumbs up and said, ¡°Alright, Second Company, you sure are staunch!¡±


    Then Zhang Xiaoman turned to themander of Third Company. ¡°So is Third Company just as staunch?¡±


    Themander of Third Company was annoyed. ¡°Zhang Xiaoman, stop fucking rubbing it in!¡±

 Chapter 406 - Wiping out the Zong Consortium

    <h4>Chapter 406 Wiping out the Zong Consortium</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at the hundreds of hand grenades ced in front of him and was at a loss for words. Second Company¡¯s Commander Li Haichen looked at Zhang Xiaoman and said, ¡°Remember this: We gave the grenades to you so you can help reduce the number of casualties to our Second Company and Third Company. Don¡¯t take the grenades and venture out too deep into enemy lines. Otherwise, even if you manage to achieve something great, I¡¯ll still report y¡¯all to themander.¡±


    In the end, Zhang Xiaoman managed to move Second Company¡¯s Commander Li Haichen by giving the reason that this would help reduce the casualties for their side. During the attack on Shichuan Vigest night, Second Company suffered more than ten casualties. They were all good friends who trained and got along well with each other. Any achievements in battle were not as important as staying alive, and this was the consensus among the officers of Fortress 178.


    When it was time to fight the tough battles, they would fight the tough battles. But if there was a better choice, they would definitely prioritize the survival of their troops.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry one bit.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, ¡°We¡¯re sister units, so why would we do something like that? Come,e, Ren Xiaosu, put away these grenades. We¡¯ll continue attacking after night falls.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched quietly as Zhang Xiaoman negotiated with Second Company and Third Company. A group of soldiers were smoking and chatting off to the side, and some of them had even taken off their shoes. The entire building was filled with a strange odor that was mixed with the smell of cigarettes. However, the cigarettes were different from those the private troops of the other strongholds smoked. Even while the soldiers were chatting, their guns remained in their arms at the most convenient positions.


    Old Xu had mentioned to him that Fortress 178 was a different kind of ce. At that time, Ren Xiaosu thought that since they were all strongholds, how different could they be? But now he understood what Xu Xianchu meant when he saw how different it really was.


    Ren Xiaosu put away the grenades while asking Zhang Xiaoman, ¡°I think we should be more careful during our attack. Theyout of Shichuan Vige is veryplex, and the Zong Consortium has recently built some new buildings. We can¡¯t guarantee that they might not have some tricks up their sleeves. I get the feeling that our attack on Shichuan Vige has gone too smoothly.¡±


    Things that went too smoothly would always make Ren Xiaosu a little uneasy.


    Zhang Xiaoman didn¡¯t know whether tough or cry. ¡°You call this easy? If it weren¡¯t for the fact that you could urately drop those grenades, do you know how many of our people would have died in this town? You didn¡¯t know, but Battalion Commander Zhou was prepared to sacrifice the entire Forward Strike Battalion here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Is it that serious? He¡¯s prepared to sacrifice the entire Forward Strike Battalion for this urbanbat?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, ¡°Only by taking Shichuan Vige and clearing out the long-range artillery emcements hidden here can the troops in the rear regroup at the FOB with no worries and carry out the next stage of the battle n.¡±


    Next to them, Jiao Xiaochen added on, ¡°Wars these days are all about modern firearms and explosives. Our Forward Strike Battalion¡¯s role is to clear all obstacles during the early stages of the war. After that, we¡¯ll take on the temporary role of scouts to handle infiltration and recon in order to patch any missing map intel for the rest of our troops. We have basically no involvement in the main battles after that.¡±


    ¡°Then did we get sent here as cannon fodder?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned. Why did it sound no different from being cannon fodder to him?


    But Zhang Xiaoman immediately rejected any suggestion of that. He said seriously, ¡°We¡¯re not cannon fodder. Fortress 178 has never required cannon fodder to win a war. It¡¯s just that the division of our fighting forces is different. Today¡¯s sacrifices will lead to a victory for the rear forces. This is also the reason why all the candidates for the sessor of Fortress 178¡¯smander muste through the Razor Sharp Company. Only those who have risked their lives before have the right to ask others to fight for him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was silent. Jiao Xiaochen pped him on the shoulder and said happily, ¡°Commander Zhang came from the Razor Sharp Company. If we¡¯re really cannon fodder, and if themander was willing to be cannon fodder as well, then what makes us so special that we can reject the notion of that?¡±


    Understanding dawned upon Ren Xiaosu. It was probably because of the currentmander leading by example that Fortress 178 was such a cohesive force.


    So what did it mean when Zhang Jinglin specially arranged for him to join Razor Sharp Company after he had said that he wanted to be posted to the most dangerous unit in the fortress?


    ¡°How long are we going to fight this war?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Until the Zong Consortium ispletely destroyed, of course! We¡¯re going to fight all the way northeast til we reach Mt. Pingluo.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Until a hyena like the Zong Consortium is totally destroyed, there won¡¯t be any peace in the Northwest.¡±


    That night, right after the sun set, the Razor Sharp Company led an attack into the interior of Shichuan Vige.


    During the day, the enemies in the town seemed to have received orders to take back the lost ground. But in urban warfare, it was always the attackers who were at a disadvantage. The route the enemy had chosen to break through was exactly where Second Company and Third Company were stationed.


    The twopanymanders were already filled with anger, and the more they thought about it, the more pent-up they got. Now that the enemy hade knocking on their door, they would definitely strike at them mercilessly.


    When they broke through the enemy lines, the machine gun positions they captured still had heavy machine guns and ammunition that could be used. However, Zhang Xiaoman and the others from Razor Sharp Company did not take them because they were already carrying a lot of weight.


    Now that all of these firearms and ammunition were in the hands of Second Company and Third Company, they wanted nothing more than to rain down a hail of bullets on the enemy. Several walls even copsed from the heavy gunfire.


    Li Haichen was roaring with rage from behind a machine gun as he fired at the enemy ruthlessly.


    The defenders of Shichuan Vige made several waves of attacks, but they were unable to break through the defensive line Second Company and Third Company had set up. They were forced to retreat.


    After the second day of surprise attacks ended, the Razor Sharp Company led the rest of the troops to advance five kilometers into Shichuan Vige. Only a small portion of the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops were still putting up a stubborn resistance in some buildings in the north.


    This battle made the defenders of Shichuan Vige extremely sullen as they had thought their firepower could hold back the enemy. In this urban warfare, there were more than a dozen emcements with sufficient firepower. There were also many soldiers hidden within buildings, ready to snipe any of the invaders.


    But after two days, they suddenly felt like their defensive positions had been constructed out of paper. They simply could not hold back Fortress 178¡¯s soldiers.


    Sometimes, they would even get hit by a grenade before they saw any signs of the enemy!


    It was too frustrating!


    ording to their initial ns, they would beying waste to the entire Forward Strike Battalion of Fortress 178 here in Shichuan Vige. But in the end, all it took was threepanies from the Forward Strike Battalion to capture Shichuan Vige.


    In fact, if this hadn¡¯t been urbanbat, the effects of the grenades going off in an open space would not have caused as much destruction as it did.


    But now, the dark houses that were supposed to act as a defensive barrier for the garrison ended up turning into targets for Ren Xiaosu to attack.


    The next night, Battalion Commander Zhou Yinglong felt a little numb when Zhang Xiaoman gave him a sitrep. Zhou Yinglong had asked Commander Zhang Jinglin for more time toplete their mission. Only by having more time could theyfortably capture Shichuan Vige in battle.


    As such, the armored brigade to the rear temporarily slowed their advance. But as soon as he bought some time for the Forward Strike Battalion, Zhang Xiaoman, who was at the front lines, actually told him they might be able to take Shichuan Vige by the next day?

 Chapter 407 - Adapting to the situation

    <h4>Chapter 407 Adapting to the situation</h4>


    People tended to get fatigued very easily when fighting a battle. On the battlefield, one couldn¡¯t sleep in peace, and only true warriors could endure such mental exhaustion.


    As the third night approached, Zhang Xiaoman ordered a firearms inspection while he gave everyone a pep talk. ¡°I want all of you to fill your magazines to full. We¡¯ll be putting an end to this battle tonight. I know you¡¯re all exhausted¡ª¡±


    ¡°We aren¡¯t, Captain.¡± Jiao Xiaochen chuckled and said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu has been forging a safe path forward for us on the front lines all this while, and we¡¯re just here acting as his support, so we don¡¯t feel tired at all.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was speaking his mostmonly used lines to motivate the troops before the final battle. Essentially, the closing stages of a battle was when it would get most dangerous, so he was hoping to lift the spirits of his troops and let them face the fight in tiptop condition.


    He was never one to be good at giving pep talks. Therefore, he thought it would be better to speak while everyone was resting. But in the end, it turned out to be totally unnecessary.


    After two days of high-intensity fighting, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were each more pumped up than thest.


    This was unlike any of the battles they had fought in the past. They¡¯d never had it so easy before.


    Zhang Xiaoman said with a sigh, ¡°Forget it. Let¡¯s just get it over and done with. Everyone, take note. Battalion Commander Zhou and the othermanders suspect they hid some very destructive weapon systems inside this town. So if the enemy gets forced into a corner on the final day of battle, they might choose to activate those weapons.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did Battalion Commander Zhou say what might be hidden in this town?¡±


    ¡°Probably weapons like artillery or something.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°We stillck good intelligence gathering at Fortress 178, so we don¡¯t have a clear idea of howrge the garrison here is or what weapons they have.¡±


    On the intelligence gathering front, Ren Xiaosu really admired the Qing Consortium. Qing Zhen had made a mostprehensive preparation for the war and thought about potential futures as well.


    Meanwhile, over at Fortress 178, the entire stronghold ran in a near leaderless state after Zhang Jinglin went away for more than a decade.


    Although there was a stand-inmander during that period, he was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. As a result, the Northwestern man who had risen through the ranks of the military was mainly focused on ensuring their military readiness by constantly training and cycling the troops. He did not really develop the economy nor establish any intelligence gathering infrastructure, as those were not aspects he was good at.


    During the day, the defenders of Shichuan Vigeunched a wave of frenzied attacks against the Fortress 178 troops. But after that wave was repulsed, there were no signs of activity from them anymore.


    At that time, Zhang Xiaoman thought the Zong Consortium had learned their lesson after being beaten back. However, the shadow clone Ren Xiaosu had left outside started lurking behind enemy lines. He discovered the Shichuan defenders had slowly retreated during the attack.


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully. This attack probably acted as cover so the troops behind them could withdraw from the town, right? Only by retreating this way would Zhang Xiaoman and the others not detect them. But why were the defenders of Shichuan Vige retreating?


    Ren Xiaosu did not have time to think too much. ¡°Captain, why don¡¯t we retreat?¡±


    ¡°Retreat? We just won the battle and you¡¯re calling for us to retreat?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked in surprise.


    ¡°There¡¯s danger here,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone.


    Zhang Xiaoman frowned. ¡°We headed out here to the front line precisely because there¡¯s danger, so how can we retreat? And if we retreat too far, much of the ground we gained will be lost for nothing.¡±


    ¡°The Shichuan Vige defenders in the rear are retreating right now. There must a reason for that!¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°How do you know they¡¯re retreating? Haven¡¯t you been here all this while?¡± Zhang Xiaoman waved it off. ¡°We¡¯ve fought all the way here, so we can¡¯t retreat!¡±


    ¡°If we managed it before, we can do it again.¡± Ren Xiaosu said anxiously, ¡°Let¡¯s retreat! What if the Zong Consortium bombards the entire town with artillery?¡±.


    ¡°How could that be possible? We only have threepanies storming this town. If they bombard the area with artillery, that¡¯ll be no different from shooting a mosquito with a cannon.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was just about to keep speaking when he realized he had been lifted up by Ren Xiaosu. Zhang Xiaoman was rmed. ¡°Put me down!¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu ignored what he was saying. He picked up Zhang Xiaoman and sprinted for the periphery of the town.


    The action he took dumbfounded everyone in the Razor Sharp Company. Zhang Xiaoman roared on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shoulder, ¡°Put me down, Ren Xiaosu. If you disobey my order, I¡¯ll kill you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said as he ran, ¡°If there were only threepanies here, the Zong Consortium definitely wouldn¡¯t have fought so hard. But if the Zong Consortium knew that I was here as well, that would be different.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. For a while, he did not understand what Ren Xiaosu was trying to get at.


    Meanwhile, the Razor Sharp Company, Second Company, and Third Company were still caught in a daze. Zhang Xiaoman suddenly sighed on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shoulder and shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s all retreat! Ren Xiaosu, if you don¡¯t give me a satisfactory exnation afterwards, I¡¯ll be sure to court-martial you.¡±


    All the soldiers and officers looked at one another. What else could they do but retreat?


    When they retreated all the way outside of Shichuan Vige, Ren Xiaosu still kept on running for another two kilometers before stopping


    Zhang Xiaoman nearly vomited from the bumpy ride on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shoulder. Putting everything else aside, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s stamina was amazing. He ran several kilometers while carrying a person weighing over 50 kilograms without any problem!


    But just as Ren Xiaosu ced Zhang Xiaoman on the ground, the Razor Sharp Company saw a huge fireball erupt in Shichuan Vige. Explosions also burst from afar.


    Even though they were several kilometers away, everyone could feel the ground shaking.


    It was not an artillery bombardment. In fact, an artillery bombardment was not even required. The explosives left behind by the defenders of Shichuan Vige was all it took for the entire abandoned town to get swallowed in a sea of fire.


    Zhang Xiaoman stared at this sight in a daze. ¡°How fucking evil! If we didn¡¯t leave, I bet all three of ourpanies would¡¯ve died.¡±


    He did not pursue the issue of Ren Xiaosu forcefully carrying him away. At this moment, the soldiers from Second Company and Third Company were looking at the sea of fire with lingering fear in their minds.


    Because of the explosions, everyone heard ringing in their ears.


    ¡°How did you know the enemy retreated?¡± Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu curiously.


    ¡°I don¡¯t wanna talk about it,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered bluntly.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Zhang Xiaoman did not probe further. Instead, he thought for a moment before saying, ¡°But you still have to listen to orders in the future. Have you forgotten that I said,¡±


    ¡°Captain, you said that we had to know how to adapt to the situation,¡± interrupted Ren Xiaosu


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Jiao Xiaochen. ¡°Did I say that?¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen answered honestly, ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    Zhang Xiaomanughed. This was the joy of having survived a disaster. He solemnly said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Zhang Xiaoman, +1!¡±


    This was truly a lifesaving act. Had it not been for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s quick reaction, all threepanies would have been wiped out in the explosions.


    No matter how you put it, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arrival had certainly given their lives greater security.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu looked at his gratitude log in the pce and turned his gaze to the others.

 Chapter 408 - Reaping gratitude tokens

    <h4>Chapter 408 Reaping gratitude tokens</h4>


    Having managed to save lives, and so many of them in one fell swoop, how could Ren Xiaosu possibly pass up the opportunity to earn some gratitude tokens?


    There were 184 men in the Razor Sharp Company. After two battles, not a single one of them had died. Meanwhile, Second Company and Third Company were not reinforcedpanies, so they only had 120 people each. With a small number of casualties suffered, Ren Xiaosu had saved a total of 397 people.


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu and did not quite understand what he wanted. When Ren Xiaosu saw they had missed the hint, he explicitly expressed, ¡°Ahem, shouldn¡¯t y¡¯all thank me for saving your lives?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was confused. Both Second Company and Third Company were too.


    They had nevere across such a thick-skinned person before!


    Although he had saved their lives, straight-up asking for their gratitude was too strange a request. Did he had some sort of condition that needed fulfilling?


    It was not like they knew Ren Xiaosu needed gratitude tokens, so they just treated it as some strange fetish of his!


    But even if they thought that, since their savior had made such a request, everyone would definitely not want to make it awkward for him. Second Company¡¯smander, Li Haichen, took the lead and thanked him first, followed by the others who did the same.


    Ren Xiaosu calcted the number of gratitude tokens he got and was surprised to see that all 397 people across the threepanies had earned him a gratitude token each. None of them was insincere!


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu realized all his tricks to try to earn gratitude tokens previously were too shameful. Only by sincerely saving someone could he get gratitude tokens easily.


    Including the gratitude tokens he had earned earlier, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gratitude tokens now surpassed 800 again.


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, I remember what you just said on the run out here about the Zong Consortium not hesitating to use their artillery shells to bombard this area due to your presence? What¡¯d you mean? Do you have a vendetta with the Zong Consortium?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and answered, ¡°I was just saying. Don¡¯t take it seriously.¡±


    He could not exin too much. When he barged into the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive front, he had used the Shadow Door to throw the Explosive Poker cards at their forces. Back then, not all the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers were killed, so Zong Cheng would definitely know he possessed that power.


    Although he had also used the Shadow Door multiple times during the urbanbat, those who encountered it should all be dead. So Zong Cheng should not know he was still alive, right?


    If Zong Cheng knew that Ren Xiaosu was still alive, he would probably not be able to eat or sleep well.


    Zong Cheng had to be badly hoping to kill him, just as how he really hoped to kill Zong Cheng.


    Seeing that Ren Xiaosu did not want to talk about it, Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°ording to the n, we should have garrisoned Shichuan Vige after wepleted our mission. But now that the entire town has been destroyed, it looks like our n will have to change. Let¡¯s contact Battalion Commander Zhou and see where we should go next.¡±


    The radioman immediately radioed Zhou Yinglong. Zhou Yinglong asked nkly, ¡°What? You¡¯ve captured the town already?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong used to be shocked by the ferocity of the Razor Sharp Company. But now, he was getting used to it.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Shichuan Vige has been destroyed. I wonder how many explosives the Zong Consortium buried in that town. They actually blew up the entire ce.¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± Zhou Yinglong was shocked. ¡°Then are y¡¯all alright?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was an expert at fighting wars, so he could immediately tell how dangerous it was when he heard what happened. However, Zhang Xiaoman calmly replied, ¡°Fortunately, we discovered the enemy¡¯s movements in time and ran the hell out of Shichuan Vige.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong felt that listening to the situation reports each day was really making his heart weaker. It was never as agitating as this in the previous wars they had fought!


    However, it was a good thing they had managed to capture Shichuan Vige. From now on, there would no longer be any threats in the surroundings of the forward operating base.


    Zhou Yinglong said, ¡°Return to the FOB to regroup. You¡¯ll mop up the wilderness with the entire Forward Strike Battalion in two days.¡±


    The ¡°mop up of the wilderness¡± was to circle the forward operating base in a radius of 120 kilometers to eliminate any hidden threats. This was to prevent the Zong Consortium from leaving any guerris in the wilderness.


    In the tales of teahouse storytellers, war was a struggle between the strategies of the talented. For Zhou Yinglong and the rest, war was just about getting the details right.


    Just establishing a forward operating base required some extreme care and caution.


    Only then would Commander Zhang have the foundation to execute his strategy.


    After all, even skyscrapers had to be built on a good foundation!


    Zhang Xiaoman finishedmunicating on the radio. He said with a grin, ¡°Gentlemen, we can head back to the FOB and nap! Let¡¯s get the chow hall to make us some delicious food. We¡¯re the men of the hour!¡±


    In themand post, Zhou Yinglong was sitting at the end of the table. If not for the Forward Strike Battalion¡¯s special status, a battalionmander like him would not have the right to sit here.


    Themand post was considered sacred to the troops of Fortress 178. Every time the soldiers passed by themand post tent, they would imagine the day they could also sit in there to report about the battles.


    At this moment, Zhang Jinglin looked at Zhou Yinglong with a smile and said, ¡°You just went outside for a moment and can¡¯t hide the joy on your face now that you¡¯re back. What happened? Did your wife give birth to your second child?¡±


    ¡°Commander, what¡¯re you talking about?¡± Zhou Yinglong said happily, ¡°How can I possibly be contacting my wife when I¡¯m in the base? I¡¯m happy because my Forward Strike Battalion has already captured Shichuan Vige! Luckily, they didn¡¯t fail!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s cocky expression was exactly the same as Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s when he mentioned how fortunate it was they¡¯d seeded.


    Actually, the entire Forward Strike Battalion had the same attitude.


    ¡°Oh?¡± Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you ask me for more time toplete the mission the day before yesterday? You said it wouldn¡¯t be easy to take Shichuan Vige and even tried to reason with me how difficult urban warfare was. So why have y¡¯all suddenly achieved the objective today?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong rolled his eyes and said, ¡°That Ren Xiaosu you had join the Razor Sharp Company is a badass. Even if I personally joined the battlefield, the mission would not have gone so smoothly.¡±


    ¡°Let me hear about it,¡± Zhang Jinglin said calmly.


    ¡°That kid¡¯s superpower is to open up a portal to anywhere within a one-kilometer range. This power seems to be specifically made for urban warfare.¡± Zhou Yinglong praised, ¡°He can cripple an MG nest with a grenade from one kilometer away! Hell yeah!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin smiled at the people around him and said, ¡°Zhou Yinglong told me at the beginning that he didn¡¯t want Ren Xiaosu, saying that he looked too skinny to fight. But I reckon that he won¡¯t let Ren Xiaosu leave if someone tries to steal him away.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong mumbled, ¡°What I meant back then was that I don¡¯t want useless people. I realize he¡¯s useful now, and he even contributed greatly too!¡±


    Meanwhile, the group ofmanders at the table were thinking that Zhou Yinglong was too good at sucking up to others. He knew that Commander Zhang wanted to hear about Ren Xiaosu, so he specifically chose to share Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heroic deeds with him...


    But everyone knew that Zhou Yinglong was telling the truth, because Zhou Yinglong would not dare to lie in front of Commander Zhang.


    Someone spoke up, ¡°Just being capable isn¡¯t enough. What¡¯s he like?¡±


    Everyone was judging Ren Xiaosu as a candidate to be the next fortressmander. So, capabilities aside, his conduct was something that mattered to them as well.

 Chapter 409 - Stupidity and bravery

    <h4>Chapter 409 Stupidity and bravery</h4>


    When Zhang Jinglin assigned Ren Xiaosu to the Razor Sharp Company in the war room, he was making his stand clear. Moreover, he even ced Ren Xiaosu under the spotlight and illuminated him for everyone to see.


    As themander¡¯s choice, if he could not convince the masses or lead by example, Zhang Jinglin would not force the matter.


    But since Zhang Jinglin made the choice, he was not afraid of everyone finding fault with his decision.


    Back then, if Zhang Jinglin did not admire Ren Xiaosu, he would not have allowed Ren Xiaosu to be the recement teacher of the school. However, Zhang Jinglin had not expected Ren Xiaosu toe this far at that time.


    At that time, Zhang Jinglin had thought about getting Ren Xiaosu to be the schoolteacher because that arrangement would not affect the progress of the students. If Ren Xiaosu was a normal person, he would not be thinking about pulling him into this whirlpool of authority either. But even though he did not pull him in, Ren Xiaosu walked straight into it himself.


    What Fortress 178 needed was not a good person as its leader. But of course, they could not be a bad person, or worse, a belligerent boor. When Zhang Jinglin first started looking at themanders around him, he was surprised that none of them were suitable choices.


    Until Wang Shengzhi delivered Ren Xiaosu right to his doorstep.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu was not the best candidate either. However, Zhang Jinglin felt that the young man had drive, and as long as he had that kind of motivation, his future was something Zhang Jinglin thought would be worth looking forward to.


    However, thesemanders believed the young Ren Xiaosu was only lucky to be chosen by Zhang Jinglin. Meanwhile, Zhang Jinglin was thinking that Ren Xiaosu might not even be willing to remain at Fortress 178.


    Zhou Yinglong could not answer the question about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s character. ¡°He should be alright...¡±


    To be honest, Zhou Yinglong only cared about the sitreps. Why would he worry about whether Ren Xiaosu was a good person? To Zhou Yinglong, everything was fine as long as they won the battles.


    Zhang Jinglin tapped his fingers on the table. ¡°Hu Xinzhi, Chai Zhilong, your armored brigade and infantry divisions will need to get to the FOB a-sap. I¡¯ll give you two three days. Fu Hong, your Engineering Battalion will need to hurry to the ckstone River within half a month and build a bridge crossing there...¡±


    Numerous orders were issued from Zhang Jinglin¡¯s mouth as everyone realized this was not the time to be worrying over Ren Xiaosu. They still had a tough battle on their hands!


    When the Razor Sharp Company returned to the forward operating base, Zhang Xiaoman went to the makeshift chow hall and shouted, ¡°Lin Yuze, where¡¯s Lin Yuze?¡±


    Lin Yuze, who was the manager of the makeshift chow hall, walked out with a smile on his face. ¡°Hey, if it isn¡¯t Captain Zhang, our war hero.¡±


    ¡°Make some good grub. Our brothers are hungry aftering back from the front lines. We¡¯re gonna shower first. After we¡¯re done showering, we wanna see the piping hot dishes ready. Braised pork and braised chicken, those are two dishes we demand!¡± Zhang Xiaoman shouted.


    Lin Yuze smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make ¡¯em just for you! There¡¯s even barley wine for you to drink. Just be sure to not sneak it out of the base. After today, you can¡¯t drink anymore.¡±


    Normal soldiers couldn¡¯t request the dishes they wanted or drink alcohol. Even an officer like Zhou Yinglong was not allowed to do so, as all officers and men were treated in the same regard.


    However, war heroes were different. They could freely request whatever food they wanted that even the fortressmander could not eat. This had always been the tradition in Fortress 178. You would be given whatever you wished to eat after winning a battle!


    Rules like these made the men in Fortress 178 understand one thing, and that was how they definitely had to win all their battles!


    Allowing the Razor Sharp Company to drink alcohol was due to the fact that they would not be going on any new missions for the next two days. They were back to regroup and rest, after all, but not letting them sneak the alcohol away was in case they drank before their next battle and end up dying everything.


    Zhang Xiaoman swaggered out of the chow hall so much that even his shoulders were overflowing with arrogance. He was as smug as he could get.


    When the soldiers from the Engineering Corps saw him, theyughed and said, ¡°Zhang Xiaoman, you¡¯re so damn fucking cocky!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman smiled and said, ¡°Can¡¯t I be cocky after returning victorious from a battle? The mission that Old Zhou set for me was to capture Shichuan Vige within half a month, but we managed to do it in three days!¡±


    But just as he said that, Zhang Xiaoman felt his ass get kicked. When he turned around and saw it was Zhou Yinglong, he immediately smiled and said, ¡°Battalion Commander, how have you been these past few days?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Don¡¯t embarrass yourself. Hurry up and shower already.¡±


    ¡°Ah, alright!¡± Zhang Xiaoman turned around and ran off.


    One could take a hot shower at the forward operating base, with the facilities here much moreplete than expected. When Ren Xiaosu heard it was possible to take a hot shower, he wondered how these soldiers did it.


    When everyone took off their clothes and walked into the showers, Jiao Xiaochen was shocked when he saw Ren Xiaosu. While wearing clothes, he thought that Ren Xiaosu looked quite thin. But now he felt Ren Xiaosu¡¯s muscles exuded an aura of strength.


    After they showered and dressed, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see two girls in nurse uniforms standing at the entrance of the showers.


    Ren Xiaosu thought they were waiting for the other soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company, but when the two girls saw Ren Xiaosu, their eyes lit up. One of the girls took the initiative to walk up to him and whispered, ¡°When you first arrived at the FOB, I took notice of you. Here, this hand cream is for you.¡±


    With that said, the girl grabbed the other girl¡¯s hand and ran off. The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers behind him were all jealous when they saw this scene. ¡°I¡¯m jealous again...¡±


    ¡°Why is Ren Xiaosu so popr with thedies...¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen smiled and said, ¡°We¡¯re just a group of rugged men from the Northwest. The moment Ren Xiaosu arrived, we were knocked off our perches. Also, the entire military knows he¡¯s a supernatural being and that Commander Zhang thinks highly of him, so of course the girls would try to get to know him.¡±


    As he finished speaking, an orderly ran over. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Are you Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Commander Zhang has summoned you. He wishes to see you.¡± The orderly showed him the way.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and said to Jiao Xiaochen and the others, ¡°Y¡¯all can eat first. I¡¯ll be there in a bit.¡±


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll leave some for you,¡± Jiao Xiaochen said in envy. He had actually been summoned to meet the Commander on his


    own.


    When Ren Xiaosu arrived at themand post tent, only Zhang Jinglin was inside. He was standing deep in thought in front of the sand table. Ren Xiaosu walked in and said, ¡°Teacher.¡±


    When Zhang Jinglin heard that, he was taken aback before smiling and saying, ¡°I haven¡¯t been addressed that way in a long time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also smiled and said, ¡°I really miss the school days.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin nced at him before sighing. ¡°We can¡¯t go back to those days.¡±


    ¡°Teacher, why have you called me here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I just thought of chatting with you to catch up.¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°The Razor Sharp Company has participated in two tough battles consecutively without anyone dying. Is that to your credit?¡±


    ¡°Not really.¡± Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°There was also some luck involved.¡±


    ¡°Do you know how hard it is to lead apany on the battlefield without anyone dying?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked.


    ¡°I know it¡¯s very difficult.¡±


    ¡°If you know how difficult it is and still insist on achieving it at the risk of injuring yourself, that¡¯s called stupidity,¡± Zhang Jinglin said calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a moment before replying, ¡°Same goes for bravery.¡±

 Chapter 410 - The second weapon finally gets unlocked!

    <h4>Chapter 410 The second weapon finally gets unlocked!</h4>


    When Zhang Jinglin heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reply, he burst intoughter. ¡°Well said! Same goes for bravery, huh?¡±


    In reality, Zhang Jinglin did not know that for Ren Xiaosu, ensuring the survival of all his Razor Sharp Company¡¯srades had be an obsession in the course of his revenge. That obsession dictated whether he was qualified to protect some things.


    The things Ren Xiaosu wanted to protect in the past had been destroyed by the Zong Consortium. This led to Ren Xiaosu looking back on his beautiful vision from before and thinking about whether he could protect anything in this chaotic world.


    As a result, he had even taken on the survival of the Razor Sharp Company as his personal mission. Only by ensuring that the Razor Sharp Company remained intact could he have the right to go to the Central inster to search for his family and friends to continue living in this chaotic world.


    ¡°I can sense conflict within you.¡± Zhang Jinglin said calmly, ¡°It¡¯s exactly the same as when I was young. Back then, everyone wanted me to pick up a gun, saying how the battlefield needed soldiers who could fire a gun, how it was no ce for a useless medic. Sometimes, even I wondered if my persistence was correct, and whether I should also pick up a gun and attack alongside them?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°At that time, I was thinking about bending to the will of this chaotic world. Only that way could I live a better life.¡±


    ¡°What happened?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Persistence is persistence. Being correct doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Never deny yourself. Life should be a candle, burning brightly from tip to end.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu silently muttered the words to himself. ¡°Life should be a candle, burning brightly from tip to end.¡±


    He suddenly realized Zhang Jinglin might have called him over because he saw the conflict inside him, so he wanted to tell him these words.


    Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°Where do you n on going after destroying the Zong Consortium?¡±


    ¡°To the Central ins.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with certainty, ¡°I want to find Big Sister Xiaoyu, Yan Liuyuan, and the others and bring them back.¡±


    ¡°Hm.¡± Zhang Jinglin asked again, ¡°Will you return to Fortress 178?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Ren Xiaosu could not answer that question.


    ¡°You should know why I had you join the Razor Sharp Company. I won¡¯t stop you from going to the Central ins, but if there¡¯s something you wish to protect, then Fortress 178 is your best choice.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°Commander, if you don¡¯t let me go and eat now, there won¡¯t be any food left.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered he had juste out of the shower and had not eaten yet.


    When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the chow hall, Zhang Xiaoman was already on the verge of cking out.


    Ren Xiaosu sat nearby and ate the food everyone had left for him. However, they had kept so much food for him that it felt like they were afraid he wouldn¡¯t have enough to eat.


    Zhang Xiaoman dragged Ren Xiaosu to drink with him, but Ren Xiaosu refused to drink anything at all. When Zhang Xiaoman realized he could not persuade Ren Xiaosu, he turned around to look for someone else.


    While drinking, Zhang Xiaoman suddenly hugged Jiao Xiaochen and said, ¡°Wei Yunlin, I missed you.¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen quickly pushed Zhang Xiaoman off and chided him with augh, ¡°You miss your wife now?¡±


    Someoneughed at Zhang Xiaoman while drinking and said, ¡°Your wife getting married to you is like sticking a flower in a cow pie!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman sobered up a little and said unhappily, ¡°If she¡¯s a flower, then cows ain¡¯t gonna shit anymore!¡±


    ¡°Stop acting like it was a pity to marry her. You don¡¯t know what kind of a treasure you¡¯ve picked up. All you know is how to pretend to be tough when you¡¯re outside,¡± Jiao Xiaochen said with augh.


    Ren Xiaosu was an outsider in the noisy chow hall. He might be obsessed with keeping the Razor Sharp Company alive, but even now, it was very difficult for him to feel like he truly belonged in the Razor Sharp Company.


    And he had the same feeling for Fortress 178 as well.


    Lin Yuze, the manager of the chow hall, was watching the Razor Sharp Company with his arms folded andughing. He smiled at the chefs beside him and said, ¡°See that? These are the war heroes of our army. They¡¯re the ones who fought in the two battles recently, and they even won both of them.¡±


    Someone muttered, ¡°Chief Lin, is that young man sitting by them and eating also from the Razor Sharp Company? Why does it feel like he doesn¡¯t fit in?¡±


    Lin Yuze turned his gaze to Ren Xiaosu and saw him eating quietly. He looked unaffected by the noise around him. ¡°Is he the guy called Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°Rumor has it that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s a beast in battle, yeah? I heard that half the credit for capturing Shichuan Vige goes to him. That young man looks so soft it doesn¡¯t fit the descriptions at all!¡±


    But then Zhang Xiaoman came up to Ren Xiaosu in his drunken stupor and clutched Ren Xiaosu¡¯s left hand. ¡°Bro! If it weren¡¯t for you, our brothers wouldn¡¯t¡¯ve made it back this time. Thank you again for saving our lives!¡±


    Then Lin Yuze and the chow staff watched with their jaws hanging as Zhang Xiaoman knelt on the ground to thank him. He nearly even kowtowed to Ren Xiaosu!


    When someone had too much to drink, they were fucking capable of doing anything!


    Ren Xiaosu had not finished his meal yet, but he quickly pulled Zhang Xiaoman up. ¡°Can you fucking stop drinking already?!¡±


    But while he was pulling Zhang Xiaoman up, hisrades from the Razor Sharp Company beside him also came over to toast him. ¡°Thank you, Ren Xiaosu, for saving our lives!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not expect his second weapon to get unlocked while everyone in the chow hall was watching.


    After this group of Northwestern men had too much to drink, they started thanking him to no end. They easily said it seven or eight times in a row, and all of them were even sincere in their gratitude!


    Ren Xiaosu was wondering if he should keep some alcohol in his storage space in the future. When they had nothing better to do, he could get hisrades of the Razor Sharp Company together for a drink or two...


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°You have reached the number of gratitude tokens required to unlock the side quest¡¯s weapon. Confirm unlock?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath. ¡°Unlock!¡±


    The pce suddenly filled with a faint glow. Along the circr walls of the pce, a disy cab that was originally shrouded in a dark fog brightened. The ck mist within it slowly dissipated as well.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at it and saw arge, ck sniper rifle stored inside the long and extensive disy cab.


    Ren Xiaosu was guessing if the second weapon would be another saber, a sword, or perhaps, a bow?


    But he did not expect a sniper rifle.


    He was even more surprised that the sniper rifle also appeared on the back of the shadow clone.


    It was like his originally unrted skills would eventually undergo a chemical reaction andbine.


    There were two ck sniper rifles and two ck sabers. When the sniper rifle was revealed behind the ck mist, Ren Xiaosu immediately understood the properties of the sniper rifle. It had an effective range of 2,800 meters and did not need to be loaded with any bullets, and even the bullets could be conjured with his mind. He could also switch between incendiary bullets and armor-piercing bullets as he wished.


    These days, the most effective sniper rifle in the world only had an effective range of 2,300 meters.


    ¡°Effective range¡± referred to the typical engagement distances in normal situations. As long as someone wasn¡¯t shooting at a specific target, bullet drop need not be considered.


    If a sniper calcted the trajectory precisely and had good marksmanship, hitting a further target would not be a problem at all.


    For example, the maximum effective range of a sniper rifle was 2,300 meters. However, the longest recorded kill was at 2,475 meters.


    Wait! While Ren Xiaosu was exploring the ck sniper rifle in his mind, he discovered a type of bullet he had never seen before.


    Under normal circumstances, there were generally several types of sniper bullets: white, red, green, brass, orange, and so on. The difference in color was to differentiate between normal lead bullets, armor-piercing bullets, incendiary bullets, and tracers.


    But what was this ck-tipped bullet?

 Chapter 411 - Selling medals

    <h4>Chapter 411 Selling medals</h4>


    A sniper rifle was very novel to Ren Xiaosu and he really liked it a lot. Otherwise, he would not have asked to learn about it from Yang Xiaojin.


    Although supernatural beings now existed in this era, they were still not powerful enough to ignore the power of a sniper rifle.


    Ren Xiaosu was unsure of what that ck-tipped bullet was used for. After all, he did not have the chance to try it out and could only wait until he got into the wilderness to find out.


    At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman and the others were still drunk as they stumbled around the chow hall. Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry as he carried these people back to their barracks two at a time. Meanwhile, the troops at the forward operating base all watched in amazement as Ren Xiaosu made more than 60 trips between the chow hall and the barracks to carry everyone back.


    On the same day, news of Ren Xiaosu carrying hisrades back to their barracks became the talk of the forward operating base.


    In the evening, Zhang Xiaoman and the others were still drunk after waking up. But when they heard it was Ren Xiaosu who had carried them back, they quickly thanked him, ¡°Xiaosu, thank you for bringing us back. We definitely won¡¯t drink that much again in the future. That was so embarrassing.¡±


    However, Zhang Xiaoman realized Ren Xiaosu had turned unhappy. He heard Ren Xiaosu say, ¡°Keep drinking! How can a man not have alcohol?¡±


    If they did not drink, where would he get all his gratitude tokens from?


    Before the drinking session, he only had a little over 800 gratitude tokens. But afterwards, he still had more than 500 gratitude tokens even after the new weapon was unlocked!


    Ren Xiaosu even wanted to tell Zhang Xiaoman that they should stop going into battle and just keep drinking every day if they could.


    After unlocking the sniper rifle, the pce issued another side quest for the third weapon. This time, it would require 10,000 gratitude tokens to unlock.


    Ren Xiaosu did not even know where he was going to get so many gratitude tokens from.


    Suddenly, Zhou Yinglong entered the barracks where the Razor Sharp Company was staying. When he detected the smell of alcohol in the barracks, he frowned. ¡°Zhang Xiaoman, get up right now.¡±


    Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company got out of bed and smartly stood at attention in two rows on either side of the walkway. Zhou Yinglong walked around and inspected them. ¡°Look at how drunk you got! Do you know how to act like soldiers?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman muttered, ¡°We¡¯re all heroes. Aren¡¯t we being assigned a new mission in another two days?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was so angry heughed. ¡°You aren¡¯t obeying the chain ofmand after drinking, eh? You have to add the word ¡®sir¡¯ when you¡¯re speaking to me!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned for a moment before saying, ¡°Sir! I¡¯m a war hero!¡±


    With a loud crash, Zhou Yinglong kicked Zhang Xiaoman to the floor. ¡°You better sober up. Your Razor Sharp Company will be assigned a new mission tomorrow. Come and report to me after your head clears up!¡±


    Upon hearing that there was a new mission, Zhang Xiaoman immediately got off the floor. ¡°Battalion Commander, what mission is it? Is it urgent?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a covert op. Come and talk to me after you¡¯ve sobered up.¡± Zhou Yinglong left the barracks with his hands folded behind his back.


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers in the barracks all looked at one another. What was this covert op about?


    In the past, covert operations like these would never be given to the Razor Sharp Company. Although they could handle the tough battles and defeat strong foes, infiltration and ambushes were not exactly what they were best at. So these covert ops were always carried out by the Reconnaissance Battalion. The soldiers in the Reconnaissance Battalion were savage. Wheneverbatpetitions were held in the military, the top ten ces would almost always be taken by soldiers from the Recon Battalion.


    So why was the Razor Sharp Company suddenly assigned to a covert op?


    The next day, Zhang Xiaoman had a frown on his face after returning from Zhou Yinglong¡¯s ce. He said to the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company, ¡°The main forces will be heading towards the ckstone River in the north. Right across that river is Mt. Wuchuan, where the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive line is set up.¡±


    ¡°Then what about us?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked.


    ¡°We¡¯ll set off this afternoon and head to the front line at Mt. Qiangwan and Beiwan River before crossing to the nk of the main battlefield. We¡¯re to destroy the bridge there to sever the supply lines east of the Zong Consortium. Then we¡¯re to join up with our main forces at Mt. Wuchuan.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re only onepany. Do they really expect us to infiltrate deep into the rear to sever the supply lines there? And we have to blow up the bridge too? The bridge there is heavily guarded by Zong Consortium troops.¡± Jiao Xiaochen was shocked. ¡°Battalion Commander Zhou thinks too highly of us, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the order.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said in a serious tone, ¡°Pack up your stuff. We set off at 1600 sharp. We must reach the Beiwan River in seven days and blow up the Zong Consortium¡¯s bridge there. We have to make sure that our main forces arriving at ckstone River won¡¯t have any worries of a rear attack.¡±


    The ckstone River and Beiwan River were in twopletely different locations. Headquarters believed the potential price of breaking through at the Beiwan River was too costly, so they would rather build a pontoon bridge on the ckstone River to attack the defensive line at Mt. Wuchuan, as it was much safer than going to Beiwan River.


    The only thing they needed to worry about was that the enemies at Beiwan River might seize the opportunity to sneak attack the nks of the main forces of Fortress 178 when the main battle broke out at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan. Hence, they sent the Razor Sharp Company to cut off this route to prevent the Zong Consortium from being able to temporarily cross the Beiwan River.


    The only problem was that this operation was too difficult. It was akin to letting the Razor Sharp Company infiltrate deep behind enemy lines on their own.


    However, Zhou Yinglong said that the operation to blow up Beiwan Bridge had to be carried out in secret. There would be a predetermined time for the operation, so the fewer people carried out this operation, the better.


    At this moment, most of the people at the forward operating base did not know what strategy headquarters had drawn up. But all of a sudden, the Razor Sharp Company announced they were going out to head for a multiday ruck. The group put on their field packs and carried their weapons and ran out of the forward operating base. Everyone thought the Razor Sharp Company would take at most three days to return from their training. But after a few days passed, they finally realized the Razor Sharp Company was not going to being back.


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company trekking in the wilderness all had a new medal on their chests. The medals were engraved with the word ¡°Shichuan¡± on them and were obtained by all soldiers who had participated in the Battle of Shichuan Vige.


    Fu Rao mumbled as he walked, ¡°Hey, Captain, how much do you think this medal can fetch?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman gave it some thought and said, ¡°This was the first true battle since our military started its campaign. Since the raid on Mt. Dingyuan was against bandits, the Shichuan Vige battle should hold a greater significance. Furthermore, there¡¯s only a few hundred of these medals in total, so I estimate that it can be sold for up to 10,000 yuan.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not too bad.¡± Fu Rao was overjoyed. ¡°I¡¯ll sell it once we get back.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard that. ¡°Isn¡¯t this medal a symbol of honor? Are y¡¯all going to sell it just like that?¡±


    He pondered over how he thought the Razor Sharp Company had a strong sense of honor.


    ¡°What¡¯s the big deal?¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, ¡°Even if we sell the medal to someone else, would that make us feel any less honorable? Our third-ss citations still exist, so wouldn¡¯t it be better to exchange the medals for something more practical? Wouldn¡¯t it be nicer to use that 10,000 yuan to buy somemb chops?¡±


    When they were given medals, their third-ss unit citations that had been withheld previously were reinstated. However, all of this was carried out in secret, and they would probably have to wait until this operation waspleted before the decoration ceremony would be made up to them.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these thugs from the Razor Sharp Company were too shameless. They would even sell their medals for money? Yet apany like this was so fierce and fearless when it came tobat.

 Chapter 412 - Sniper

    <h4>Chapter 412 Sniper</h4>


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What kinds of medals are the most valuable? And who buys them?¡±


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, who would be interested in these things other than soldiers in the military?


    ¡°There are loads of buyers who want them.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with augh, ¡°Some of them are those who aspired to be soldiers but couldn¡¯t pass their physical, businessmen collectors in the fortress, or parents who buy them for their children as aing-of-age gift. The entire Fortress 178 has a poption of more than 2 million people, so don¡¯t underestimate their purchasing power.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu finally understood why the residents of Fortress 178 had a strange sense of respect for those in the military profession. Perhaps it was because these soldiers had always been protecting them.


    Zhang Xiaoman continued, ¡°However, some of the medals can¡¯t fetch a high price, like those that were given out to many soldiers, or the ones awarded for winning unimportant battles. Normally, families will only buy the medals that are worth a few hundred yuan for their children. But only the collectors are willing to seek out the kinds of medals like the ones we have. Shichuan Vige was the opening battle of this war, and the number of people awarded with the medal isn¡¯t that many either, so there¡¯s definitely a much higher collection value to it.¡±


    ¡°Then if our Razor Sharp Company achieved great things again in an individual battle, wouldn¡¯t we be awarded an even more valuable medal?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°But of course.¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, ¡°But how easy is it to do that? That would cost people their lives!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent. The journey to Beiwan Bridge was a bumpy one. Along the way they passed by Shichuan Vige, where the fire had extinguished. The entirety of the ruins were covered in a hazy darkness, making it seem like a purgatory of monsters.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at the town from afar and said, ¡°I wonder what the world was like before The Cataclysm. Alright, stop watching! Everyone, go on alert! Who knows when we might stumble upon the enemy and end up in a battle?¡±


    Shichuan Vige was located more than 200 kilometers away from Beiwan Bridge. They would have to enter a mountain range first before they could stealthily infiltrate Beiwan River from here.


    ording to the intelligence reports, some of the Zong Consortium¡¯sbat troops were scattered through the mountain range as part of the concealed sentries and guerris.


    The Razor Sharp Company had to try to avoid them, not kill them. But if they could not avoid them, then whoever was braver would emerge victorious in battle.


    Two hours after passing Shichuan Vige, the Razor Sharp Company arrived at the foot of a mountain. The mountain range here looked very odd, with the sunny side of the mountain covered in shrubs while the other side was the bare yellow body of the mountain itself.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly crouched in pain with a frown. Right after, a loud crack came from the mountains. Zhang Xiaoman was startled. ¡°Everyone, scatter and take cover. There¡¯s a sniper!¡±


    The difference between the sound of a sniper rifle and a normal rifle was enormous. So when the gunshot rang out, Zhang Xiaoman immediately reacted.


    Zhang Xiaoman dragged Ren Xiaosu with him towards some rocks nearby. However, he wondered what made Ren Xiaosu react before the gunshot had even sounded.


    Ren Xiaosu reacted like he was the one who had been shot. However, there were no injuries on him.


    What Zhang Xiaoman did not know was that the sniper¡¯s target was not actually Ren Xiaosu, but his shadow clone!


    Ren Xiaosu had discovered that if a bullet went between the shadow clone¡¯s brows, the bacsh from the shadow clone would cause an even more intense pain to him. So he constantly controlled the shadow clone to make it move forward cautiously in case it was shot right between the eyes.


    As for what would happen when it got hit between the eyes, even Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know. All supernatural beings were still in the process of exploring their superpowers.


    However, it was different this time. While the shadow clone was scouting a few hundred meters ahead, a sniper headshotted it squarely between the brows.


    After the shadow clone was shot, it turned into a ball of ck mist and dissipated. At the same time, the ck mist reappeared within Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind pce and slowly started taking shape again.


    From the looks of it, if the shadow clone were hit between the brows, it would result in the shadow clone dissipating immediately. Furthermore, it would take a long time for it to reform, taking around three days to get back to its original state.


    The sniper¡¯s marksmanship was great. This should be an advance-level, or perhaps even a master-level, sniper.


    After the shadow clone got shot, Ren Xiaosu did not even know where the opponent was. He could only roughly determine that the enemy was to his 12 o¡¯clock.


    However, now that his opponent had hit their target, he wondered if they would shift to another location.


    Ren Xiaosu panted, ¡°This shot was aimed at a target from 400 meters away, and the sniper¡¯s to our 12 o¡¯clock, but I¡¯m not sure if we¡¯re still within their effective range.¡±


    The effective range of a sniper rifle was really far. When deployed in the forested mountains, it had an intimidating and unpredictable power.


    Next to him, seemingly unconcerned, Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect the Zong Consortium to actually have a sniper waiting here in this mountain range. This is gonna be a tough nut to crack!¡±


    Their entirepany split up as the soldiers hid separately behind some rocks. Fortunately, the presence of the sniper was revealed in advance due to the gunshot that cracked. Otherwise, one of their toons could have been wiped out by now.


    Then Zhang Xiaoman took off his helmet and slowly poked it out from behind the rocks.


    Bang! The helmet was sent flying by the formidable sniper bullet!


    ¡°Dammit.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°We¡¯re within the enemy¡¯s range!¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen, who was ten meters away, shouted from behind the rocks, ¡°Captain, what do we do now? This is a game of cat and mouse, and all we can do is hide here. Think of something, Captain!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re the fucking mouse, dammit!¡± Zhang Xiaoman was also upset. But how could he have any good ideas? If he revealed his head even a little, he would fucking be dead!


    The supremacy of a sniper on the battlefield was perfectly disyed at this moment. A single person could suppress an entirepany and keep them hiding behind some rocks while waiting for their deaths. This was a situation where the enemy could hit you but you couldn¡¯t retaliate at all.


    That was unless Zhang Xiaoman was willing to sacrifice hisrades as cannon fodder. By sacrificing a group of soldiers, the other troops could shift to a good tactical position.


    Someone suggested, ¡°Why don¡¯t we contact the FOB and get them to send some reinforcements?¡±Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, ¡°They¡¯d be toote. It¡¯ll take at least three days to get here from the FOB. By then, this sniper will probably have called for support from the Zong Consortium¡¯s guerris here in the mountain range as well.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we wait and see who¡¯s more patient then, us or the sniper?¡± Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°Or we can take advantage of nightfall to move away from here?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re such a fucking genius! You actually want topete with a sniper on patience?¡± Zhang Xiaoman was so angry heughed. ¡°Since the sniper¡¯s hiding in this jungle, his scope will definitely be optimized for night vision. Gunning you down will be a game for him!¡±


    What could he do? Did this mean that someone would have to die out here?


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath. When Zhang Xiaoman saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s chest heave, he knew this was going to be bad! But in that instant, he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pupils turn crimson.


    ¡®City Crusher! Activate!¡¯


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu dashed out from behind the rocks at an unbelievable speed!


    When Ren Xiaosu ran out, a sniper¡¯s bullet flew in as expected. But because Ren Xiaosu was moving too fast, the sniper¡¯s shot missed its target this time!

 Chapter 413 - Ren Xiaosu in the Battle Between Snipers

    Chapter 413 Ren Xiaosu in the Battle Between Snipers


    When Zhang Xiaoman saw Ren Xiaosu take a deep breath, he felt that Ren Xiaosu could be about to try something dangerous. He wanted to stop Ren Xiaosu, but he was afraid he might throw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s momentum off and end up harming him instead.


    But to the surprise of everyone in the Razor Sharp Company, Ren Xiaosu darted out at a speed so quick it was blinding. He was moving way too fast!


    Zhang Xiaoman was the only person who had noticed the unforgettable red glint in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes. Was that his power? If that were the case, it would mean that Ren Xiaosu had two powers just like Xu Xianchu!


    When Xu Xianchu revealed both of his superpowers, the men from Fortress 178 were all extremely envious of him and everyone was saying how he was the ¡°chosen one¡± because of that. When most people did not even have any superpowers, Xu Xianchu wielded two superpowers of his own. He was truly a unique existence at Fortress 178.


    But after today, he would not be the only one anymore. Zhang Xiaoman firmly believed that Ren Xiaosu must also have two superpowers!


    Their Razor Sharp Company finally had such an impressive supernatural being as well!


    However, Zhang Xiaoman could not help but worry about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s safety. Although charging out like this was a little better than being pinned behind the rocks, they were still quite a distance away from the sniper. If Ren Xiaosu were thinking about killing that sniper, it would probably be very difficult to aplish.


    But the moment Ren Xiaosu ran out, he said, ¡°Stay right here and don¡¯t move! Wait until I get back!¡±


    City Crusher¡¯s effective duration was only 30 seconds, and Ren Xiaosu calcted that the valley where the sniper would be ¡°blind¡± was probably still about half a kilometer away. But if he had to avoid the sniper¡¯s shots, he would have to serpentine.


    Sprinting across nearly 500 meters in the presence of a sniper was equivalent to suicide for the average person. But Ren Xiaosu had to take the gamble!


    The sniper was hidden in the shrubs in the 12 o¡¯clock direction like a sinister vulture. He was aiming at the Razor Sharp Company through his scope and observing their every move. After making sure there were no snipers in thispany, he began the game of cat and mouse.


    After the sniper fired a shot at the ck shadow that he suspected was a supernatural being, the entirepany got pinned behind some rocks. He wanted to slowly torture this group of people to their deaths.


    The sniper knew he could lie among the shrubs for three straight days and nights, but he did not believe that this group of normal soldiers could do likewise.


    Time would pass arduously slow for them if they just remained hidden behind the rocks and took cover. The sniper believed that in just six hours, thepany hiding behind the rocks would break down and end up charging at him.


    But that would be an inconsequential struggle.


    However, events conspired against him. The sniper was not expecting someone so quick to appear from behind the rocks. He couldn¡¯t even adjust his sniper rifle to take aim at the target!


    That figure serpentined wildly into the open ground as the sniper tried to shoot him twice but failed in both attempts.


    Zhang Xiaoman and Jiao Xiaochen were not the types to sit back and do nothing. Zhang Xiaoman shouted, ¡°Jiao Xiaochen, the sniper has a semi-automatic rifle! You only have one chance, protect Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen did not utter a word. He understood what Zhang Xiaoman meant.


    He waited silently for a moment before he heard the crack of the sniper rifle. Then Jiao Xiaochen raised his mortar and loaded a shell into it. With a loud bang, the mortar round was lobbed at a specific angle towards a hillside to their 12 o¡¯clock.


    Jiao Xiaochen did not know where exactly the sniper was. They only used that moment when the sniper fired his rifle at Ren Xiaosu to provide him some fire support.


    They did not think the shell would actually hit the enemy, but as long as they managed to disrupt him, that would be enough for Ren Xiaosu to safely get across the open terrain!


    Ren Xiaosu might be very fearsome, but their Razor Sharp Company was not useless!


    After the mortar sted, no gunshots came from the sniper anymore. Jiao Xiaochen muttered, ¡°Did we st the enemy dead with that mortar attack?¡±


    ¡°Fucking dream on!¡± Zhang Xiaoman joked. ¡°If you can hit the enemy with a single shot, that¡¯ll be like Lu Yao falling in love with you. It¡¯s absolutely impossible.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m already married. Why would you mention Lu Yao?¡± Jiao Xiaochen countered, ¡°You¡¯re the one who¡¯s pining for her, right?¡±


    ¡°Which man in Fortress 178 doesn¡¯t miss her?¡± Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu and saw he had sessfully run to a blind spot where the sniper could not see him. So he said, ¡°Let¡¯s remain safely hidden here and leave the rest to Ren Xiaosu. I believe he can take care of that sniper.¡±


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was gasping for breath as he hid in the valley. The sniper had given him a lot of pressure, and if he had not activated City Crusher, he probably couldn¡¯t have dodged the enemy¡¯s bullets.


    Ren Xiaosu had only decided to run out from behind the rocks after carefully considering it. Previously, he and Yang Xiaojin had experimented to see if she could shoot him while he was moving at high speed.


    Of course, Yang Xiaojin would not really fire at him and only made a judgment call. If Ren Xiaosu did not activate City Crusher, Yang Xiaojin could shoot him with 100% certainty. But once he activated City Crusher, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hit rate was reduced to 70%. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was still a little dejected. Even though he activated City Crusher, he could only reduce Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hit rate to 70%?


    But Yang Xiaojin remarked that it was because she was the one holding the rifle. If it were any other sniper, it would not be bad if they could have a 10% chance of gunning him down while he was in his ¡°City Crusher¡± mode.


    Only


    At that moment, Ren Xiaosu did not know what to say.


    However, this was the reason why Ren Xiaosu took the gamble. In the end, it seemed that Yang Xiaojin was not bragging when she said that. As expected, she was much stronger than most other snipers.


    As Ren Xiaosu steadied his breathing, he started thinking about something. The sniper had probably already shifted to another location. After the sniper¡¯s n to pin down thepany behind the rocks had failed, he would definitely have to engage in maneuver warfare.


    Ren Xiaosu had to find and finish off this enemy. Otherwise, if they were to be constantly followed by a sniper during their march, who knew when the Razor Sharp Company would meet with disaster.


    He crept in the shadows and headed to that mountain in the 12 o¡¯clock direction in an attempt to find any tracks of the sniper. He had to be extremely cautious. If he were not careful, he might end up dead to his opponent¡¯s rifle. Ren Xiaosu plucked two shrubs and smeared the crushed up leaves onto his face and clothes for camouge.


    He suddenly remembered what Yang Xiaojin had said to him. ¡°When two snipers meet in the wilderness, whoever reveals themselves first will die. That¡¯s the rule for all snipers.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out the ck sniper rifle from the pce and muttered to himself, ¡°I should be considered a sniper too, right?¡±


    So then, where would the sniper shift to after leaving that 12 o¡¯clock position in the mountain range? Ren Xiaosu carried his sniper rifle and slipped into the mountains. This was going to be his first hunt as a sniper.

 Chapter 414 - Setting up a counter-ambush

    <h4>Chapter 414 Setting up a counter-ambush</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu was learning about sniper rifles from Yang Xiaojin, she gained a rough understanding of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current skill level. In her words, his Advanced Firearms Proficiency was already beyond that of most other people in the world.


    However, snipers had always enjoyed a special status as the most outstanding marksmen in the world. If anyone encountered one, they would have to take extreme caution.


    Ren Xiaosu knew well that it was dangerous for him to hunt down that sniper in the wilderness. That sniper¡¯s marksmanship was probably much better than his.


    But it did not matter. Ren Xiaosu was more adept at finding prey in the wilderness than his opponent was.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was crouching next to some shrubs and searching for any signs of the enemy¡¯s whereabouts.


    The sniper was very careful not to leave behind any trash throughout the day.


    The sniper must have been carrying some individual field rations, but there were no signs of any discarded packaging. Most likely, the enemy had brought all the trash with him after eating, in case the discarded packaging exposed his whereabouts.


    Even when he was moving about in the wilderness, he was very careful not to leave behind any footprints on the soft mud. He would take the stone path whenever there was one and was even prepared to pass through a small stream to shake off anyone who might be following him.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the shrubs in front of him and noticed some fallen leaves in an irregr pattern on the ground. When he saw this, he felt more confident.


    The chase had been going on for an entire day. The sniper did not know if he was being tracked, but he had not moved too far away from his original ambush spot. He was just going about in arge circle as his mind was still on thepany that hade into the wilderness. That glory was going to be his.


    If he could kill an entirepany, he would probably get promoted to major.


    However, he wasn¡¯t stupid. He had already called for reinforcements from the rear yesterday, and it was likely that the guerrising to support him would arrive by today.


    The situation yesterday was actually very dangerous. But fortunately for him, he had decided to leave the ambush site in advance. Otherwise, he might have died to the mortar attack.


    The sniper was a little bewildered at the time. Just which fighting force was thispany from? How did that spontaneous mortar attack drop so urately on the spot he had ambushed them from?


    But what was even scarier was that soldier who used pure speed to avoid his shots!


    Actually, he had subconsciously thought of the famous Xu Xianchu from Fortress 178 when he first noticed that shadow clone through his scope. Even the bandits in the wilderness knew the shadow clone was Xu Xianchu¡¯s symbol, so how could he not know?


    If he killed Xu Xianchu, his promotion to major would almost be secured.


    A sniper was a special type of soldier. Although they knew supernatural beings were very strong, they also understood that supernatural beings could not withstand a sniper¡¯s bullets.


    As such, the sniper subconsciously started searching for Xu Xianchu¡¯s presence in the group. But since he had never seen him before, he could not tell which person in the group was him.


    As such, the sniper decided to get rid of the shadow clone first. If he could not defeat the shadow clone, he would retreat.


    In the end, he sessfully defeated the shadow clone, and this made him grow in confidence. So a supernatural being was nothing more than that?


    After getting rid of the shadow clone, he thought the entirepany¡¯s fate was in his hands. However, reality forced him to wake up.


    Not everyone¡¯s dynamic visual acuity was as strong as Yang Xiaojin¡¯s, nor were their reflexes as fast as hers.


    So when Ren Xiaosu sprinted out from behind the rocks, even the sniper found it difficult to catch a glimpse of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure.


    He barely fired three shots, and all three shots missed. Then he quickly got up and left, entirely dropping the idea of engaging the enemy here. The sniper knew that this supernatural being was more powerful than he had imagined. He needed a better opportunity to strike.


    The sniper nced at the sky. After dying for a day, the guerris should be arriving very


    soon.


    But all of a sudden, a shriek came from the direction of Crow Pass. The sniper was lying within the shrubs and staying still, but when he heard the sound, he realized it was the guerris he had called for, and they had been attacked!


    What was going on? Why would the guerris get attacked at Crow Pass?


    He hesitated for a while but ultimately decided to head towards the site of the incident. But he immediately felt that something was off as soon as he got over the ridge and saw the situation at Crow Pass.


    The sniper quickly turned around and went back behind the ridge to hide. A loud bang sounded in the distance as a bullet hit the position he was standing in a moment earlier!


    It was a sniper! The enemy actually had a sniper too!


    But that couldn¡¯t be right! He had been observing thepany for a long time and was very sure there were no snipers in that group. How could they possibly hide something asrge as a sniper rifle?


    If the enemy forces had a sniper, he definitely would not have tried to ambush the entire Razor Sharp Company all by himself.


    And at this moment, the guerrising through Crow Pass to provide support were all surrounded by red vines hidden under the shrubs. There were also strange nts next to them spitting out khaki-colored fruits at them.


    When the fruit hit their bodies, it was so forceful that it broke their bones. Anyone who got hit in the chest would find that their ribs cracked. Those who were injured would even spit out a mouthful of blood!


    The troops who arrived weren¡¯t small in number. The sniper had called in to report the situation and stated that the enemy was a fullpany. As such, the guerris sent out twopanies to meet up with the sniper to provide support. However, this group that was attacked first had arrived earlier as they were closer in the vicinity.


    as


    They had thought that victory was already secured. Once the guerris arrived, they would definitely immediately finish off this unknownpany from Fortress 178. But in the end, they did not even get to see the shadows of their enemy before this first guerripany suffered casualties to half their forces. The remaining half were still fighting the Brambles in a frenzy as they tried to escape the area controlled by the monstrous nts.


    But Ren Xiaosu would not give them the chance to do so. After he threw a few grenades at them through the Shadow Door, Crow Pass turned silent again.


    The sniper who was hiding behind the ridge was drenched in cold sweat. Were those brambles some sort of superpower? There were actually two supernatural beings in thatpany?


    Moreover, the enemy seemed to have expected the arrival of these guerris andid an ambush for them. And the true purpose of the attack on the guerris was to lure him out!


    Fortunately, he reacted quickly, or else he would have died to that gunshot!


    The enemy sniper¡¯s marksmanship might not be great, but he was sufficiently treacherous!


    The Zong Consortium sniper could no longer remainposed. He could not even determine how many enemies there were in these mountains and how many supernatural beings were among them.


    He picked up his radio and called back to the headquarters at Beiwan River. ¡°Poison Wolf to HQ, requesting assistance! Xu Xianchu of Fortress 178 has been discovered. I repeat, Xu Xianchu of Fortress 178 has been discovered, and there¡¯s also the presence of another unknown supernatural being. One of the guerripanies has already been attacked! Please provide further assistance!¡±


    The sniper did not dare to be overconfident anymore. He mentioned Xu Xianchu¡¯s name as he was hoping that themand center at Beiwan River would send more troops to finish off the enemy in this mountain range.

 Chapter 415 - Regardless of method

    <h4>Chapter 415 Regardless of method</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu regretted that his shot missed. His marksmanship still was not good enough. Merely calcting the wind speed 0.1 seconds toote had allowed the enemy sniper to get away.


    The enemy sniper was also quite the ruthless person. Otherwise, he would not be wandering in the mountains alone.


    After Ren Xiaosu fired off his rifle, he moved off to another location. From the side of a hill, he quietly observed the Brambles as the guerris battled them. As a matter of fact, he had ced more than a dozen Brambles at that mountain pass, as well as over a dozen Potato Shooters.


    In the face of firearms, these nts actually turned out to be pretty useful. If the enemies did not have methrowers, it would be very difficult for them to kill the nts with bullets, especially the Brambles with their bloodsucking ability that made them extremely lethal. They made the enemies lose their ability to resist in a short time.


    These nts were an essential item to bring on a trip to the wilderness andmit murder and arson with.


    Ren Xiaosu had already unlocked his second weapon, while the third weapon was still far in the future. So Ren Xiaosu loosened his purse strings and got more generous with his usage of the gratitude tokens in order to kill more enemies. After he got back, he would have to get Zhang Xiaoman and the others to help him earn back even more gratitude tokens. All in all, the benefits would be greater than the costs.


    In fact, only 20 gratitude tokens had been consumed in the destruction of this particr Zong Consortiumpany. When he led Zhang Xiaoman and the others to victory and headed back to base for their celebratory drinks, they could earn him a few hundred more gratitude tokens.


    Ren Xiaosu regretted that he didn¡¯t kill the Zong Consortium¡¯s sniper this time. But that was alright. He still had time to slowly toy with him.


    It was very difficult to advance under the cover of the shrubs on a hillside while staying crouched. The shrubs growing here were at most half the height of a full-grown person, so remaining crouching for an extended period hurt his back badly.


    If it were the average person who was pursuing the opponent, they would probably expose themselves to the sniper very quickly. However, Ren Xiaosu was not the average person.


    That afternoon, Ren Xiaosu continued tracking the enemy sniper and headed east along the mountain range. By evening, just as Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t determine whether he was heading in the right direction, he suddenly saw some hardtack crumbs on the ground.


    Hardtack was a standardized food item in military field rations. It seemed like his opponent had replenished his energy at this spot.


    For something like hardtack crumbs, even the person eating the hardtack would generally find it very hard to notice them as they were tiny.


    This was the right direction. Ren Xiaosu crouched within the shrubs and looked around. He felt that he was very close to the sniper.


    As the sun went down behind the distant mountains, thest sliver of twilight turned from red to gray. The moment night fell, the sniper noticed a helmet moving at where he had scattered the hardtack crumbs earlier. He sneered. Did he have to shoot at the helmet?


    With a bang, a sniper bullet flew an unknown distance and towards the bottom right corner of the helmet. If someone were raising the helmet with their right hand, that person¡¯s body would have to be at the bottom right side of the helmet.


    It was very quiet in the mountains, but the sniper was too far away to determine from the feedback if he had hit the target or not.


    He asked on thems channel, ¡°Anyone lying in ambush in the vicinity heard the sound of a bullet hitting something?¡±


    ¡°Heard a bullet hitting flesh,¡± someone replied. ¡°We¡¯re about 300 meters away from the target and kinda heard it.¡±


    The sniper said on thems channel, ¡°Then the target should¡¯ve been hit. Go over and check it out.¡±


    ¡°Roger that.¡± Some guerris moved quietly towards the spot the sniper had shot at.


    A group of 120 soldiers from a guerripany was moving within the mountains. If one did not look carefully, they would not even notice the presence of this group.


    Beiwan River was considered a key strategic location. Otherwise, there wouldn¡¯t be so many guerris hidden in this mountain range that led there. There would also definitely be more than one sniper lying in ambush.


    This mountain range was not the only route to get to Beiwan River, and most troops could not even pass through here, including the armored troops that were fitted with heavy firepower. But even so, the Zong Consortium was still being extra careful.


    The guerripany headed up the mountain to surround the identified target. Thepanymander said softly on thems channel, ¡°The enemy is a supernatural being, so it¡¯s very likely that he might not have died yet even though he¡¯s been shot. Make sure to be on guard. Second toon will approach from 3 o¡¯clock to prevent him from breaking through our encirclement.


    ¡°It¡¯ste at night. If he breaks through our encirclement, the other toons are to immediately put on your night vision goggles.¡±


    Even if the enemy might have been shot, the Zong Consortium¡¯s guerripany remained wary as they made their approach.


    However, as the guerripany gradually tightened the encirclement, thepanymander suddenly saw a ham hock at the spot where the bullet supposedly hit!


    One of the guerri soldiers was stunned for a moment before asking on thems channel, ¡°Wait a minute, what¡¯s a pig¡¯s hindquarters doing here?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a trap!¡± Thepanymander shouted into thems channel, ¡°Retreat, retreat!¡±


    However, it was toote for them to retreat.


    A secondter, they discovered thin, red, thorny vines hidden within the shrubsing for them. At the same time, a strange nt started shooting potatoes at them!


    What the fuck was this?!


    The sniper listened in shock to hisrades¡¯ cries on thems channel. He had already changed his ambush position with care. Through his scope, he once again saw the vines that looked like purgatory tentacles taking all life within its attack radius.


    The Zong Consortium sniper was really afraid now. He did not even dare lift his head as he crawled into the distance and fled. He needed to rendezvous with the main forces of the guerris as this was not an enemy he could deal with!


    That was two fullpanies that had perished! A total of 240 people died without knowing why they died.


    However, the sniper could not understand how his opponent had carried that ham hock up the mountain!


    Suddenly, grenades exploded behind him. The sniper was shaken. If grenades could be thrown at him, wouldn¡¯t it mean the enemy was really close?


    The sniper could feel despair in his heart, but he did not give up. Instead, he just continued crawling forward and even used a slope to expeditiously roll down the mountain.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu had won another small battle.


    The sniper had deliberately scattered some hardtack crumbs on the ground in an attempt to lure Ren Xiaosu in.


    However, Ren Xiaosu kept wondering why a sniper who had always been very cautious would suddenly drop some hardtack crumbs. So he felt that something was not right. That was why he had set a trap to counter that.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still regretted things. He was still very far away from the sniper and was unable to ascertain his exact location, so he simply threw two hand grenades through the Shadow Door in the general area. But unfortunately, he didn¡¯t blow up his opponent.


    Yang Xiaojin had said that snipers with an ego would sometimes insist on ending their opponents¡¯ lives on a battlefield by shooting them.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not have the least bit of ego and was only interested in killing his enemy. As for how to finish them off, the method was not that important. After all, he only had Advanced Firearms Proficiency, so what was there to be proud of?


    As a soldier of the Razor Sharp Company, he just had to do it the most straightforward way. There was no need to care about how to achieve the objective.

 Chapter 416 - Double kill

    <h4>Chapter 416 Double kill</h4>


    Since his opponent had called for two guerripanies as backup, he had to kill them all!


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something didn¡¯t seem right. Because he had been fucking pursuing a single sniper, he ended up killing two guerripanies instead?


    How did he end up as the person behind the massacre of the guerripanies when he was just trying to kill the sniper?


    If he continued hunting the sniper, would it mean that all the guerris in the entire mountain range were going to get wiped out?


    But the problem was that if he did not get rid of the sniper, the Razor Sharp Company behind him could not risk trekking through this mountain range.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu knew it wasn¡¯t that the Razor Sharp Company could not do anything about the sniper. If they really decided to risk it all, how could a single sniper wipe out 180 people who were determined to charge forward? The sniper probably did not even have enough ammunition on him to achieve that.


    But it was just that this time, Ren Xiaosu was hoping that everyone from the Razor Sharp Company could return to the fortress alive. That was why he was so persistent in hunting down the sniper who was a threat.


    He even wiped out two entirepanies of guerris in the process.


    As he continued moving east, Ren Xiaosu got a day¡¯s march ahead of the Razor Sharp Company behind him. But that did not really matter since he could slowly make his way back and find the Razor Sharp Company after he had killed the sniper. He was no longer particrly worried about that sniper anymore. The mental state of a soldier on the battlefield was not unbreakable.


    After the sniper had twice witnessed hisrades getting killed by the enormous Brambles, he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.


    It was fortunate that he was a sniper, as having a strong mentality was always one of the key areas of training. As such, he could still keep his cool and continue fleeing.


    If a normal soldier had witnessed such a terrifying scene, they would be terrified.


    Many people who have not been in battle before would think there was no reason to be afraid of death. Even if theirrades were all dead, they would still fight to the bitter end.


    But in fact, when they saw theirrades dying one after another next to them, the fear of an unknown death approaching would suddenly envelop them and devour all of those heroic words. They would not even have the ability to think properly.


    This was what war was all about.


    So the mental fortitude of recruits waspletely different from that of veterans who had been in battle before.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully followed the sniper. Even though he knew well that the sniper had already lost his will to resist, he was definitely not the only enemy hiding in this mountain range.


    After rolling down the slope, the sniper did not even care to check for cuts or fractures and just fled to the eastern base as quickly as he could. The sniper rifle he was carrying in his hands felt particrly heavy as well.


    The Zong Consortium sniper kept thinking about how to resolve his current predicament. He would definitely get summoned to a court martial after he returned.


    He was the one who had called for reinforcements, and headquarters sent him twopanies of guerris as requested. However, the guerripanies both encountered ambushes one after the other while he escaped alive.


    The military police would probably take him away to be interrogated once he returned to the military base to see if he might be a spy.


    To be honest, not even some spies could achieve what he did on the battlefield to such great effect.


    Even if the military police ended up discharging suspicions of him being a spy, he would still end up a target for criticism for dereliction of duty. His bright future was definitely gone. It was all over the moment he opened fire on that shadow.


    The sniper froze. While he was thinking about his situation, he seemed to have wandered into a clearing. This was a sniper¡¯s taboo!


    Even though the clearing only measured a short five meters in size!


    The sniper suddenly elerated and bounded into the shrubs in front of him.


    But then he noticed a sh of light in the distance in his peripheral vision. The Zong Consortium sniper¡¯s heart sank!


    He felt a bullet passing through his abdomen, and the tremendous kic energy of the bullet surged through his body as his heart and lungs were torn to pieces.


    This was the power of a sniper rifle. It could kill people in an instant without needing to strike them in the head.


    But another sniper rifle boomed as well. Before the Zong Consortium sniper died, he showed a mysterious smile on his face. That was because he felt that someone would probably be taking revenge for him. Another sniper from the Zong Consortium had already arrived on the battlefield and confirmed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s position when he fired that shot just now!


    This was an arrangement he made with the other sniper. He would act as the bait to atone for his mistakes and deliberately walk into a clearing to lure the sniper from Fortress 178 into shooting him.


    As far as he could tell, his opponent¡¯s marksmanship was not that good. So he might still be able to survive if he moved quickly enough. This way, he wouldn¡¯t have to be summoned to court martial when he got back to the stronghold.


    He was gambling. As long as they could finish off that sniper from Fortress 178, they would win the bet.


    The sniper was so strong mentally that he was still thinking about how to fight back even though he had already caused the deaths of 240 of hisrades.


    Unfortunately, the n just barely failed.


    A few moments ago, Ren Xiaosu decisively pulled the trigger from his ambush point when he saw the Zong Consortium sniper exposing himself in the clearing.


    At the same time, the other sniper in the distant mountain also pulled his trigger.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had be really cautious now. He could not afford to be careless anymore after being given the lessons that others had sacrificed their lives to teach.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s position was exposed after he pulled the trigger, so he quickly grabbed his rifle and threw himself to the ground to his right right from his initial crouching position. A sniper bullet grazed the skin on the outside of his left thigh and hit the dirt behind him.


    Ren Xiaosu could feel a burning sensation on his thigh. Even though the bullet had only grazed his skin, it tore through a fair bit of the muscle fibers in his left leg as well.


    But Ren Xiaosu had no time to care about that. Ever since he started using the steam lotive and shadow clone, he had experienced so much pain that his nerves were now as tough as steel!


    Ren Xiaosu did not pause after falling to his right. Instead, he activated ¡°City Crusher¡± once again and started a mad dash forward. The sniper continued firing shots at him. However, none of the bullets were able to hit the speedy Ren Xiaosu from a distance of over a 1,000 meters.


    One shot, two shots, three shots... Ren Xiaosu kept his head on a swivel for the muzzle shes in the distance as he ran.


    When watching for a sniper, you should not depend on the sound of the shots since light travels much faster.


    All of a sudden, he came to a stop and crouched like a statue. Then he raised his sniper rifle and took aim.


    Yang Xiaojin had told him before that there was no need to be afraid when a sniper fired off a few shots in session. When a sniper was forced to keep shooting at a fast-moving target, they could no longer aim their shots urately at a target from over a 1,000 meters away by the fourth shot, because they had to adjust for the recoil.


    Ren Xiaosu knew well that the chance of survival he fought for would onlyst for a brief moment.


    As he inhaled, Ren Xiaosu heard only the sound of his own breathing around him.


    Yang Xiaojin said that upon pulling the trigger, the heart rate, body temperature, sweat nds, and all other parts of the body should serve the will. In that moment, you could only dominate others by dominating yourself first.


    Due to the hot and zing afternoon sun, the crushed leaves Ren Xiaosu applied on his face had dried up. After he pulled the trigger, a pink mist erupted in the mountains in the distance. The mist seemed to form a rainbow in the shining sunlight.

 Chapter 417 - Comrades who shelter and protect

    <strong>Chapter 417 Comrades who shelter and protect</strong>


    After Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger and shot his enemy, he did not let his guard down. Instead, he turned around and ran into the wilderness behind him. No one stipted that there could only be two Zong Consortium snipers here in the mountain range. Who knew if there were actually three of them?


    At this moment, the wound on his outer left thigh that was grazed by the sniper¡¯s bullet was still bleeding profusely. He had to limp along.


    It was not that he could not endure the pain, but that his left leg was a little weak now since the muscle fibers were torn. No matter how strong his willpower was, he could not mend the muscle fibers in an instant.


    So it was still those same words. The most dangerous moment when walking a tightrope was always thest three steps. Only those who could finish those three steps would be qualified to walk on a tightrope.


    Ren Xiaosu had already exhausted quite a bit of his energy in this battle. Whether it be ambushing the guerripanies or outwitting the snipers, he had not encountered so many twists and turns before.


    In reality, his enemy was not an elite sniper. In Yang Xiaojin¡¯s words, there were no elite snipers in the entire Northwest, and none of them were a match for her.


    Besides, Ren Xiaosu was also not a schemer. He had only ever learned how to fight and hunt. In the past, his targets had always been mindless animals. But this time, he was hunting down someone who had a mind of their own.


    If a true hunter were here, they would probably have scoffed at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s efforts. For example, should he have risked his life after the enemy¡¯s third shot, should he have pursued the enemy this far, or did he actually have a chance to kill that sniper but didn¡¯t realize it?


    If Yang Xiaojin were present, she would probably think those snipers were extremely stupid and bad shots.


    But no matter what, Ren Xiaosu was still making progress and learning from his experiences.


    The deaths of his enemies were more important than anything else.


    Ren Xiaosu hid in the bushes behind the mountain ridge for a long time. He wanted to see if there would be a third sniper out there and how the Zong Consortium¡¯s guerris would react.


    After all, two snipers and twopanies of guerris had perished here, so they couldn¡¯t possibly allow Ren Xiaosu and the others to get arrogant.


    But it was also possible that the guerris would simply give up on defending the Beiwan River when they saw their enemies were not to be trifled with. That was also a possibility, but it still depended mainly on how their opponent chose to react.


    After waiting for a long time, Ren Xiaosu did not see any more guerris getting sent here. It was as though they had given up on defending this mountain range.


    After some thought, Ren Xiaosu decided to head back and join up with the Razor Sharp Company first. He wondered what it was like at the rear now after he had been out here hunting the enemy for almost two days.


    All of a sudden, he saw arge number of troops heading straight for him from the north. Ren Xiaosu was shocked to discover they had not fucking given up on the mountain range yet. Instead, they had been taking some time to gather the troops to send a regiment directly into the mountain range. They were nning to wipe out their enemies in these mountains! They intended to surround him!


    He had overyed his hand! They were actually sending a full regiment to go after onepany? This was going overboard.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s head was starting to hurt. The Razor Sharp Company was still thinking about passing straight through here to get to the Beiwan River to blow up the bridge? How were they supposed to pass through now?


    He turned around and stooped low to make his escape. He had to get out of their perimeter first.


    While running away, Ren Xiaosu wondered if he could nt some Brambles to kill some of the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers. As there were too many of them, it would be unrealistic to wipe out the entire regiment. But it would be good enough if he could kill a portion of them.


    However, Ren Xiaosu realized the sniper might have already reported to his rear forces about the possibility of some terrifying nts being hidden within the shrubs when he sought reinforcements.


    As a result, the soldiers of the Zong Consortium¡¯s main troops did not even walk through the areas where shrubs were growing. They traversed the shady side of the slope where there was no vegetation while remaining extremely cautious.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had noticed that some of the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers were even carrying methrowers! With these around, the Brambles would be rendered useless. A fire could wipe them all out.


    Even nts had their natural enemies.


    When he saw this, Ren Xiaosu thought he did not want to create any unnecessary trouble. So he ran all the way back to the other end of the mountain while limping.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯smander at the Beiwan River seemed to be really outraged by all of this. He seemed extremely determined to kill Ren Xiaosu no matter what.


    While Ren Xiaosu was escaping, he realized these Zong Consortium soldiers always seemed to track down his exact location. Due to his injury, he was nning to shake off the Zong Consortium first before joining back up with the Razor Sharp Company. However, his n was foiled.


    During his escape, he hid on a ridge and observed his pursuers. He was surprised to see a dozen-odd Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers holding leashes for several huge hounds. The hounds were sorge they could drag people off by themselves. Even those well-built adult soldiers were unable to keep them under control with the leashes.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that these hounds could even be ridden as mounts.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized it was the smell of blood. Due to his outer left thigh that had been grazed by the enemy sniper¡¯s bullet, an open wound had formed. It not only slowed him down a lot but also left behind a scent trail. Although he had already applied the ck medicine onto the wound, that could not cover up the smell of blood.


    It seemed like that was the reason why the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers were able to keep chasing after him.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not have any better ideas to deal with these hounds. He could not just get rid of the smell by throwing away his bloodstained clothes. He could only try to find a stream and follow it all the way back to where the Razor Sharp Company was.


    But there was no such stream in the vicinity.


    By the next afternoon, the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers let the hounds loose and allowed them to pursue Ren Xiaosu freely after realizing they still had not caught up with him after wasting so much time.


    This put Ren Xiaosu in a fix. Even though he was injured, he could still move faster than the Zong Consortium soldiers. But the hounds were different. These animals had also fucking mutated!


    The dozen-odd hounds did not have a single ounce of fat and could navigate through the mountains like they were moving on t ground.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the shadow clone in the pce. The shadow clone had still not returned to its original form. He really had to be careful not to let anything hit the shadow clone between its brows again in the future. He would have to prepare a helmet for it just in case.


    Seeing that the dozen hounds were getting closer, Ren Xiaosu made ready to fight!


    He would not be afraid of these hounds if not for the Zong Consortium¡¯s firepower at their rear!


    Ren Xiaosu would have to kill the hounds out here as he did not wish to lead the Zong Consortium to where the Razor Sharp Company was.


    But at this moment, he heard the ratatat of a machine guning from the hills on both sides of Crow Pass. Ren Xiaosu even heard someone shout, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, get over here! We¡¯ll cover you!¡±


    He saw the Razor Sharp Company had already built a simple fortification on the hills on either side of Crow Pass. Fu Rao was shooting mercilessly at the hounds with a heavy machine gun he was wielding in his hands. In just a few seconds, he had already killed six or seven of the hounds that were chasing after Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. Was this what it felt like to have the support ofrades? When you needed to catch a breather, there would be someone standing behind you to shelter and protect you.


    ¡°What are you still standing there for? Get over here! Why are there so many fucking hounds chasing after you? Ren Xiaosu, how many enemies are pursuing you?¡± Zhang Xiaomanmented, ¡°Where did you go...¡±

 Chapter 418 - A triumph

    <strong>Chapter 418 A triumph</strong>


    After he limped up the hill, Ren Xiaosu hid behind the fortifications while panting. He said with a smile, ¡°I killed the sniper. There were actually two of them out there. Oh, I also wiped out two guerripanies.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, ¡°Stop bragging!¡± But when he saw over a 1,000 Zong Consortium soldiers pursuing behind the hounds, he immediately stoppedughing. ¡°Did you really single-handedly kill twopanies of guerris and two snipers as well?¡±


    The members of the Razor Sharp Company were used to bragging all the time. So when Ren Xiaosu told them this shocking news, everyone thought that Ren Xiaosu was just boasting.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There are many more pursuers. We should retreat immediately.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do.¡± Zhang Xiaomanughed. ¡°Since you¡¯re so fearsome, surely our Razor Sharp Company can¡¯t hold you back, right? No matter how many enemiese today, we¡¯ll wipe them all out!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized that Zhang Xiaoman and his men had prepared extensively here. It looked like they were fully ready to spring this ambush.


    ¡°Captain,¡± Jiao Xiaochen suddenly said as he looked out into the distance, ¡°I think we better retreat...¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman gazed at therge number of Zong Consortium soldiers in the distance. As they were still very far away, the soldiers looked just like ants.


    Zhang Xiaoman realized the Zong Consortium would not have sent so many soldiers to eliminate their enemies in the mountains if Ren Xiaosu had just been talking big. It looked like they were extremely determined to annihte the advance guard of Fortress 178!


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why did y¡¯all choose to set up the ambush here?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman replied, ¡°We were worried the situation would blow up and you would end up being pursued by the enemy, so we set up an ambush here with the intent ofing to your aid. But who would have thought the situation would get this serious!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°We were thinking that it would be great if you could kill the sniper. Once you achieved that, the guerripanies would definitelye after you. At that time, we would¡¯ve stopped the enemy here at Crow Pass and killed them all. But who would have expected that you¡¯d already kill the guerripanies and even managed to attract part of the Zong Consortium¡¯s main forces after you? Haha, you¡¯re too amazing!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman asked with concern, ¡°How¡¯s your injury?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already applied the ck medicine on it.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let¡¯s make our escape now. There¡¯s too many enemy troops out there.¡±


    By this point, Fu Rao and the others had taken care of all the hounds. The Razor Sharp Company definitely couldn¡¯t handle so many Zong Consortium soldiers. So fleeing was their best option.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman changed his mind again and said, ¡°Then what are we still hesitating for? Let¡¯s go... But we can¡¯t just run away like this. We have to pull off a big one against the Zong Consortium soldiers before we leave. Jiao Xiaochen, set your mortars up. Everyone, get ready and prepare for battle!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°But there¡¯s too many enemies.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said in seriousness, ¡°Do you think they¡¯ll be carrying heavy weapons? They¡¯re just guerris, while mechanized infantry can¡¯t enter these mountains. So we¡¯re assured of victory since we¡¯re fighting them from high ground.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ve already heard our machine guns. They won¡¯t charge up just to die, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you see that themanding officer of those troops has already allowed emotion to rule his head? You¡¯ve frustrated him.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, ¡°Do you think that everyone can be legendary generals? The Zong Consortium has been holing up in the North all these years and never fought a decent battle. Their officers are still far from being able to deal with spontaneity on the battlefield. Don¡¯t think that every officer is a calm and intelligent person. If that were the case, there wouldn¡¯t have been so many stupid battles in history.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent.


    Zhang Xiaoman said in amusement, ¡°Do you think I¡¯m belittling the heroes of the world? No, this is called knowing ourselves and knowing the enemy. If it were the Qing Consortium instead of the Zong Consortium, Commander Zhang might not be so willing to send out troops to open up the trade routes. If these were the Qing Consortium¡¯s veterans, I would turn around right now and flee. But there¡¯s also the strong and the weak among the consortiums. There must be a reason why the Zong Consortium was shoved aside by the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium. It¡¯s not that we look down on them, but that they¡¯re ipetent.¡±


    Realized dawned upon Ren Xiaosu that in the minds of these boorish men from Fortress 178, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were several times more capable than the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops. To them, only the Qing Consortium was seen as a truly difficult opponent.


    As though to confirm Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s assessment, the approaching Zong Consortium soldiers continued to obey their orders and advanced forward using the cover of the valley. They did so even though they knew that their enemy possessed heavy machine guns.


    They intended to wipe out the Razor Sharp Company with brute force!


    Zhang Xiaoman waited for the enemy to enter their range. Once they did, he immediately issued the order to fire. Together with Jiao Xiaochen¡¯s six mortar units, they mercilessly bombarded the Zong Consortium troops.


    Although it was only a single attack wave, they nearly wiped out one of the Zong Consortium¡¯spanies that came charging towards them. Only then was the enemy jolted awake.


    The Zong Consortium troops retreated like the tide!


    At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman got up and packed his belongings. ¡°Let¡¯s quickly leave this ce. The Zong Consortium¡¯s fucking mortars will being in soon. They should¡¯ve adjusted the angle of their mortars by now. It¡¯ll be toote if we don¡¯t leave now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned by the sight. He had not said anything since Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s decision to stay and fight. But at this moment, Zhang Xiaoman was actually running faster than a rabbit after ¡°pulling off a big one.¡± There were no signs of that lofty spirit and soaring determination he disyed earlier.


    Right after they retreated from the hill, the Zong Consortium¡¯s artillery fire plowed into where they just were.


    Zhang Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Thank goodness we escaped fast enough. If not, we would¡¯ve all died here. This time, we achieved great things. Including thepanies Ren Xiaosu took out, we¡¯ve defeated threepanies of the Zong Consortium. Haha, that¡¯ll be worth another third-ss unit citation after we return. Who knows, we might even be given a second-ss unit citation this time!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Captain, weren¡¯t you worried that they¡¯d attack us with their mortars first?¡±


    ¡°No, they couldn¡¯t determine our exact location at the start. Besides, they didn¡¯t have enough time to adjust the angle of the mortars, so they couldn¡¯t have hit us urately.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly said in seriousness, ¡°Captain, although I don¡¯t know how well you know the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops, let¡¯s try not to underestimate them again in the future. What if shells rained down before we could make our escape? Wouldn¡¯t all of us have died? I really hope that we can all return alive.¡±


    Everyone looked at Zhang Xiaoman. The Razor Sharp Company had always followed Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s orders as they braved the dangers on the battlefield. Even during their military exercises, he would specifically do the missions in the most dangerous way as a challenge to themselves.


    It was precisely such behavior that made outsiders refer to people from Fortress 178 as those ¡°damn fucks.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°I¡¯m not questioning the Captain¡¯sbat methods, but I just hope that we can exercise a little more caution. After all, we might end up dying if we encounter a brilliant opponent. Even if that¡¯s a one in a million chance, we still can¡¯t afford to take the gamble.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman remained silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll do as you say!¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers around him were shocked. Others had tried to persuade Zhang Xiaoman, but he never once heeded their advice.


    ¡°What are y¡¯all looking at?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, ¡°Why is everyone staring at me? Am I that handsome? Retreat already!¡±


    Since the Zong Consortium¡¯s mechanized infantry could not enter the mountains, they would not have to be afraid of their continued pursuit. The Razor Sharp Company could run faster than the Zong Consortium.

 Chapter 419 - All the world’s a stage

    <h4>Chapter 419 All the world¡¯s a stage</h4>


    Zhang Xiaoman said as he walked, ¡°HQ has made wrong estimations of the number of the enemy troops stationed in the mountains. If you hadn¡¯t gone to scout ahead, the entire Razor Sharp Company would probably have been wiped out once we stepped into their perimeter. Speaking of, we still have to thank you for it.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Zhang Xiaoman, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, ¡°That¡¯s not really due to me. More importantly, we had to take out that sniper since we got pinned behind the rocks.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that we can¡¯t do anything to the snipers. We could¡¯ve charged out from behind the rocks together. His effective range is probably around a 1,000 meters or so, but we have six HMGs whose effective range isn¡¯t any shorter than his weapon.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Why are so many snipers on the battlefield not given automatic sniper rifles? Is it because they don¡¯t want it? Of course not!


    ¡°It¡¯s every elite sniper¡¯s dream to be able to use a fully automatic sniper rifle. No matter how urate a bolt-action rifle is, it¡¯s not as good as a full-auto rifle on the battlefield. Even the best snipers are afraid of the HMGS operated by recruits. A long-range HMG with a tripod that can provide effective cover is a natural enemy of snipers.¡±


    This was an irond rule formed from the sacrifice of countless lives on the battlefield. So some of the more decent snipers would not choose to fire continuous shots and left right after carrying out a decapitation strike, the mark of a truly vicious sniper. Like the two snipers Ren Xiaosu had encountered. They were purely used for intercepting scouts who might try to infiltrate from this ce.


    On the battlefield, snipers could be used in more than one way.


    Based on Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s original n, the enemy sniper was hiding on the mountainside and trying to pin them down. But Zhang Xiaoman was willing to minimize their losses if need be. By charging out from behind cover, they could catch their enemy off guard.


    ¡°But a lot of people would be killed that way,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°How can there be no casualties in war? It¡¯s just some people dying. What¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. ¡°If I can die on the battlefield, that would be an honor.¡±


    How can there be no casualties in war? This seemed to be the conventional wisdom that Zhang Xiaoman frequently uttered.


    However, that was where the problemy. In his pursuit with the sniper, Ren Xiaosu decided to charge because he did not want anyone from the Razor Sharp Company to get killed. This was his obsession.


    His thinking may have been naive, but that was just how he thought. If someone from the Razor Sharp Company got killed, it was like he would be unworthy of protecting anything anymore.


    Zhang Xiaoman asked how there could be no casualties in war. To which Ren Xiaosu answered they wouldn¡¯t know if they didn¡¯t


    try.


    Regardless of what happened in the future, he had still managed to keep everyone alive this time.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu and said in a serious tone, ¡°Don¡¯t just talk about me. You can¡¯t continue risking your life like that either. You only live once, so we can¡¯t keep letting you charge into battle like this.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu insisted, ¡°I¡¯ll make sure that all of you survive.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman felt something was wrong. Why did it suddenly seem like Ren Xiaosu was thepanymander instead of him?


    But now they were facing new problems. Since there was an error with the intel of the garrison forces in this mountain range, this route was no longer safe to take. However, they still had notpleted the operation assigned to them by Zhou Yinglong to blow up the Beiwan Bridge.


    ¡°Bring the map over and let¡¯s figure out an alternate path to the Beiwan River.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°We¡¯re only 200 kilometers away from the Beiwan River now, so it¡¯s really frustrating that we can¡¯t get to it when it is right in front of us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°I¡¯ve always been curious about something. This op should¡¯ve been done by Recon, right? So why did they send our Razor Sharp Company?¡±.


    Ren Xiaosu had been wondering about this for some time. In his opinion, the Recon Battalion should have been the ones responsible for infiltration, carrying out long-range raids, and bombing bridges. So why was the Razor Sharp Company made to do it this time?


    Even if Zhang Jinglin liked to order him around, he wouldn¡¯t have given such an illogical order, right?


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu and exined, ¡°Commander Zhou has already left the FOB with the rest of the Forward Strike Battalion and headed northeast. From the looks of it, they¡¯ll pass through Shichuan Vige to join up with us, but the Forward Strike Battalion suddenly changed their direction and advanced north after passing through Shichuan Vige. They n to arrive at Mt. Qiangwan within three days and assault it.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Mt. Qiangwan was not that far away from the Beiwan River. The mountain held a small base of the Zong Consortium, but it was extremely difficult to take due to the dangerous terrain. It could be regarded as an anchor in the vicinity of the Beiwan River, and the two locations had always closely supported each other.


    ¡°The Forward Strike Battalion and Razor Sharp Company have always been the advance guard of Fortress 178. The entire Forward Strike Battalion¡¯s march to the east is to create the false impression that Fortress 178¡¯s main forces are attacking the east. In that way, we can buy some time to build a pontoon bridge on the ckstone River,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said.


    Ren Xiaosu finally understood. Be it the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s operation to bomb the Beiwan Bridge, or the Forward Strike Battalion attacking Mt. Qiangwan, all of it was a feint to cover up the true strategy. They just had to y their part well on this grand stage.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. ¡°Did any of you see Xu Xianchu at the FOB?¡±


    ¡°Old Xu?¡± Zhang Xiaoman wondered. ¡°I don¡¯t think I saw him. He could still be stationed back at the fortress. After all, our military presence at the fortress is rather low now, so it¡¯s essential to keep some of our main forces garrisoned at the fortress.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got lost in thought. Would someone like Xu Xianchu, who could make significant contributions on the front, be made to defend Fortress 178?


    He felt that Xu Xianchu had been assigned on a different mission.


    At this moment, the radioman came running over carrying the radio set on his back and said, ¡°Captain, the Battalion Commander would like to speak to you.¡±


    When Zhang Xiaoman answered the call, he heard Zhou Yinglong ask, ¡°What¡¯s the situation over there now?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman reported, ¡°There¡¯s arge number of Zong troops garrisoned within the mountain range leading towards the Beiwan River. We¡¯re trying to find alternate routes to pass through it and assessing whether there¡¯s a possibility of blowing up the Beiwan Bridge.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong asked, ¡°Were there any direct confrontations with them?¡±


    ¡°You can say so.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu killed two of their guerripanies. We alsoid an ambush and killed another of theirpanies, so they¡¯re just currently blind firing mortars at us. How ¡¯bout it, Battalion Commander? We ain¡¯t embarrassed you,


    yeah?¡±


    ¡°Maggot, don¡¯t you fucking get cocky.¡± Zhou Yinglong was so angry heughed. ¡°Before our troops here could even get close to Mt. Qiangwan, the scouts reported back to us that Mt. Qiangwan sent out reinforcements to the Beiwan River. After your attack there, the Zong Consortium probably thought our main forces were deployed to the Beiwan River! Let¡¯s see how you shits are going toplete the op now!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned before turning anxious. ¡°Battalion Commander, you should quickly start your attack on Mt. Qiangwan to lure the troops back there!¡±


    ¡°How the fuck am I supposed to lure them back?¡± Zhou Yinglong snapped. ¡°We still have two days before we can get to Mt. Qiangwan. But thanks to y¡¯all, we should have an easier time in our attack on Mt. Qiangwan.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman turned bitter. Orders were not to be taken lightly. Regardless of the situation, their objective was still to blow up the Beiwan Bridge. How were they supposed tounch their attack there now that enemy troops were concentrated at the Beiwan Bridge?


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Ren Xiaosu apologized as he nced at the radio that was still transmitting. ¡°It was all because of me that y¡¯all are in this dilemma. Give all the TNT to me, I¡¯ll go and blow up the Beiwan Bridge by myself.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman winked at him and said, ¡°Are you apologizing because you¡¯ve wiped out two of their guerripanies and killed two snipers as well? Matter of fact, without you, we¡¯d¡¯ve been surrounded by a regiment of the enemy. It¡¯s OK. We¡¯ll die together at worst. For the honor of Fortress 178, it¡¯s totally worth it!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong had yet to stop transmitting. He roared, ¡°Who are you putting on an act for when I haven¡¯t even hung up yet? What about dying together? Don¡¯t you feel embarrassed putting on such a heroic act? Quit acting already! Y¡¯all will rest for the next two days. Once we attack Mt. Qiangwan and attract the troops back here, y¡¯all willunch a breakthrough on the Beiwan River!¡±

 Chapter 420 - Arrival of the Qing Consortium

    <h4>Chapter 420 Arrival of the Qing Consortium</h4>


    The Razor Sharp Company suddenly found themselves with a lot of time on their hands. They had never been this free before even when holding at the forward operating base. During that time, they still had to carry on with their physical and field training regimens. But right now, all they had to do was wait here quietly.


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Xiaoman had put on an act for Zhou Yinglong because they knew that it would be impossible to blow up the Beiwan Bridge if Mt. Qiangwan had sent reinforcements to the Beiwan River.


    No matter how capable theirpany was, they could not possibly fight against thousands of people with only 184 of them. Not even Ren Xiaosu could do that. Besides, they did not have that much ammunition to handle all those enemies either.


    As for Zhou Yinglong, he was not a rigid person. He knew the Razor Sharp Company had done good enough. Onepany annihting threepanies of the Zong Consortium¡¯sbat troops without suffering any injuries themselves was something unheard of in the entire military.


    Therefore, he ordered the Razor Sharp Company to find a safe ce and regroup. The Razor Sharp Company would only continue advancing to break through at the Beiwan River after the Forward Strike Battalion drew the firepower of Mt. Qiangwan.


    Even though the Razor Sharp Company had gotten very far away from the mountain range, they still did not dare to set up a campfire. If the enemy¡¯s scouts discovered them and used their firepower to attack them, they would surely suffer heavy casualties.


    Zhang Xiaoman smiled mysteriously. He took out a small, silver sk and winked at the others. ¡°Since we have nothing better to do, shall we all drink a little?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had not expected Zhang Xiaoman to be so bold as to bring alcohol to the battlefield. ¡°Are you crazy? You can¡¯t drink now. We¡¯re in battle!¡±


    This time, it was Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s turn to be stunned. Everyone would usually share the alcohol after he took it out, and that was that. But with Ren Xiaosu around, it was like someone was supervising them.


    Zhang Xiaoman got upset. ¡°I¡¯m thepanymander.¡±


    ¡°Then go ahead and drink.¡± Ren Xiaosu paused. ¡°If you take even a sip, I¡¯ll report you to the Disciplinary Committee.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was speechless.


    ¡°We really can¡¯t drink right now.¡± Ren Xiaosu said earnestly, ¡°We don¡¯t know when a bullet wille flying on the battlefield. Can you react in time if that happens?¡±.


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t mind Zhang Xiaoman and the others drinking, but now was definitely not the time. He hoped to keep everyone in the Razor Sharp Company alive. So he could not afford to let things go wrong.


    As they conversed, Ren Xiaosu snatched the sk from Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s hands and stored it into his pce. ¡°I¡¯ll keep it for you for the time being.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu went to relieve himself.


    Someoneughed and said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu behaves more like our CO.¡±


    Someone else elbowed Zhang Xiaoman and said softly in a cheerful voice, ¡°Captain, you lost your temper if we didn¡¯t let you drink. Why were you so submissive this time?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like I can fucking beat him, can I?¡± Zhang Xiaoman snapped. ¡°And what do you know? Have you forgotten who he is? He¡¯s Ren Xiaosu! The one Commander Zhang assigned to the Razor Sharp Company!¡±


    ¡°So what?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean ¡®so what¡¯?¡± Zhang Xiaoman stared with eyes wide and said, ¡°By assigning him to the Razor Sharp Company, it¡¯s to show the entire army that he¡¯s qualified to be the nextmander. Seeing how fearsome Ren Xiaosu is, he will definitely survive until the end of the war. Even if you say he¡¯s the heir of Fortress 178, that wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration. Never mind that we used to pick on him. Now that we¡¯ve realized how qualified he is, we have to ept it, understand?¡±


    Everyone pondered that and found it quite reasonable.


    These gruff men from the Northwest might be a wild bunch, but they were still sensible. The other fighting forces of Fortress 178 might not be convinced by Ren Xiaosu yet, but their Razor Sharp Company had epted him already. Zhang Xiaoman already regarded Ren Xiaosu as the nextmander. Why else would he show such humility to him?


    ¡°To be honest, I admire Ren Xiaosu from the bottom of my heart.¡± Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°He doesn¡¯t seem to have any problems except for being fond of people thanking him.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s no big deal saying thanks.¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, ¡°In this era, we should be happy that our lives can be saved in exchange for saying thank you. Since he likes to hear people thank him, let¡¯s just thank him more.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu came back from relieving himself. When he heard their discussion, he sat down right next to Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°Then what are you waiting for? Why don¡¯t we start now?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was speechless.


    Then, Fu Rao, who was in charge of nighttime surveince, shouted on themunications channel, ¡°This is bad! Something terrible has happened. There¡¯s arge number of troops headed here from the south. They look like an independent regiment!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman immediately got up. Fortress 178 had not stationed any troops to the south. If these troops wereing from the south, they would definitely be enemies.


    He immediately asked, ¡°How far are they from our camp?¡±


    The voice on thems channel said. ¡°At most three kilometers away.¡±


    ¡°What kind of troops are they? Are they from the Zong Consortium?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked with a frown.


    ¡°No... their logo is that of a white ginkgo leaf.¡± Fu Rao said: ¡°It¡¯s the Qing Consortium¡¯s mechanized infantry.¡±


    ¡°The Qing Consortium?!¡± Everyone was confused.


    Shouldn¡¯t the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium be fighting to the death in the South? Why would they suddenly have the strength toe and join the northern battlefield? Could it be that the Qing Consortium and the Zong Consortium had joined forces?


    The war between the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium was full scale. All of Qing Zhen¡¯s ns had been carried out as more than half of the Yang Consortium¡¯s industries were destroyed. At the beginning, the Yang Consortium could rely on their ammunition reserves to fight the war. But after just two months, the entire Yang Consortium ended up passive.


    There was a shortage of ammunition at the front lines, while the strongholds that had not suffered from the war directly were also faced with a shortage of supplies.


    Qing Zhen was truly brilliant. By supporting the bandits in the North, he had shaken the Yang Consortium to its core at the lowest possible cost. He had really caught them by surprise.


    Zhang Xiaoman had said to Ren Xiaosu that if it were the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops they had encountered in the mountain range, he would have already fled.


    It would be difficult to say who would win when an entire regiment of infantry faced another regiment. But there was no doubt that apany would lose against a regiment even if both sides had simr capabilities.


    Only


    Therefore, an independent regiment from the Qing Consortium suddenlying north didn¡¯t sound like good news.


    Only Ren Xiaosu was still sitting quietly next to the campfire. Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Let¡¯s retreat towards Mt. Qiangwan and join up with Battalion Commander Zhou. We can¡¯t fight against this independent regiment from the Qing Consortium on our own!¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu piped up, ¡°They might not be here to fight us.¡±


    ¡°Are you crazy?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said in shock. ¡°How can the Qing troops not be here to attack us when they suddenly appeared at a ce so close to us?¡±


    But Fu Rao suddenly said on thems channel, ¡°Wait a minute, Captain. Their mechanized infantry has stopped advancing. They¡¯ve sent someone out to hoof it over to us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and stood up. ¡°They¡¯re probably here to look for me.¡±


    Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company was stunned. ¡®You¡¯re saying that the Qing Consortium traveled all the way north in the middle of the night with such a massive turnout of mechanized infantry just because they¡¯re looking for you?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu looked south and waited quietly. In reality, he was also unsure of the Qing Consortium¡¯s intentions until he saw Tang Zhou.

 Chapter 421 - Helping the attack on the Beiwan Bridge

    <h4>Chapter 421 Helping the attack on the Beiwan Bridge</h4>


    Not including Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, the officers Ren Xiaosu was most familiar with in the Qing Consortium were Tang Zhou and Xu Man.


    Tang Zhou was Luo Lan¡¯s trusted aide, and Ren Xiaosu had saved his life before. Meanwhile, Xu Man, as Qing Zhen¡¯s trusted aide, was the one who had been put in charge of consolidating the northern bandit groups.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Tang Zhou, Tang Zhou waved cheerfully at him. He also signaled to the other Razor Sharp Company soldiers to show that he was not armed.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re really quite bold toe over here without any weapons.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the point of carrying a weapon?¡± Tang Zhou also smiled and replied, ¡°There are so many people here, and with you around, I¡¯d still end up dead even if I had a weapon on me.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others watched quietly from the sidelines. They realized that Ren Xiaosu seemed to be very familiar with this person from the Qing Consortium. Moreover, the way this Qing officer spoke also suggested he understood Ren Xiaosu very well and knew how fearsome he was.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t your Qing Consortium fighting a war in the South? Why have you suddenlye up here to the North?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company perked their ears up and listened. This was what they were most concerned about as well.


    Tang Zhou said, ¡°Boss Luo has received intel from his spy in the Zong Consortium. He knows you just won a battle against the Zong Consortium in the mountain range, so he sent me here to look for you.¡±


    ¡°How does Fatty Luo know that I¡¯m in the Razor Sharp Company?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in turn.


    Tang Zhou smiled but did not say anything. Ren Xiaosu immediately understood it to mean that the Qing Consortium also had spies in Fortress 178.


    It looked like Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had done quite a bit of prep work.


    Justparing the intelligence gathering alone, Fortress 178¡¯s efforts were not as good as the Qing Consortium¡¯s.


    Getting back to the topic, Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°So what are y¡¯all doing here?¡±


    ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen believes you guys are here because you want to blow up the Beiwan Bridge. However, he said that there¡¯s more garrison troops stationed here than you think. He was worried that something would happen to you, so he sent us here to help,¡± Tang Zhou said.


    Zhang Xiaoman felt a tingling sensation. When Ren Xiaosu went to war, he could even get outside support?!


    What was the rtionship between Ren Xiaosu and the Qing Consortium? The Qing Consortium was already engaged in a very tough war with the Yang Consortium in the South, but they were still willing to send some of their troops to support Ren Xiaosu?


    Importantly, it was the Qing Consortium¡¯s mechanized infantry that hade this time. They were a force that woulde in handy if they were ced on the other front.


    Tang Zhou added, ¡°Boss Luo mentioned he wanted to send you a nice present to congratte you on moving to your new home once you settled down at Mt. Kushui. However, he didn¡¯t expect that things would turn out this way.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he felt a sharp pain in his heart. He took a deep breath and said, ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°Boss Luo wanted me to ask you something on his behalf.¡± Tang Zhou took a look at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face and asked, ¡°If he says that he didn¡¯t know anything about Zong Cheng¡¯s attack on you, would you believe him? The Qing Consortium did not have anyone inside Mt. Guan. We only had spies nted at Mt. Dingyuan.¡±


    This had been troubling Ren Xiaosu ever since he discovered the Qing Consortium spy at Mt. Dingyuan. He would have liked to know if Luo Lan had known about this matter at that time, but there was no way to ask him that.


    Even if Luo Lan had known about it, he had no obligation to inform him. So Ren Xiaosu could not possibly seek an answer from him. Although he did not ask, Luo Lan took the initiative and had Tang Zhou bring this up with him. Luo Lan was hoping to eliminate any bad feelings on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s part by trying to be upfront about it.


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I¡¯d believe him.¡± Since Luo Lan was so honest about it, there was no need for him to make things difficult.


    Tang Zhou continued, ¡°Boss Luo said that you and him had scrapes of death together, and you also helped the Qing Consortium on more than one asion. After our war with the Yang Consortium ends, he¡¯ll send someone to help you find your friends downstream. If Fortress 178 can¡¯t wipe out the Zong Consortium by then, he¡¯ll alsoe to the North to assist you.¡±


    Nearby, Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, ¡°Who are you looking down on? Our Fortress 178 will definitely end the war earlier than y¡¯all!¡±


    Tang Zhou chuckled, ¡°You don¡¯t have to yell at me. Those were Boss Luo¡¯s own words.¡±


    Luo Lan was a very loyal fat man with a strong sense of brotherhood. Ren Xiaosu had quite an understanding of Luo Lan after having known him for so long


    This was probably because Ren Xiaosu had saved Luo Lan¡¯s life. Therefore, the way they got along was always a little different. Although Luo Lan kept iming that he had already repaid the favor, it was still something he kept close to his heart.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°What about those troops you came with?¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Tang Zhou replied, ¡°they¡¯re under orders from Mr. Qing Zhen to help you guys attack the Beiwan Bridge. You helped the Qing Consortium a great deal with what you did at Position 313. If it weren¡¯t for you, I¡¯m afraid that many of our soldiers would¡¯ve died. Mr. Qing Zhen still thinks about that now.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman gasped. The Qing Consortium¡¯s mechanized infantry had suddenly left their Southern Front and headed north just so they could help Ren Xiaosu fight a battle? What the hell was with Today? Was there something wrong with the world?


    Even though Zhang Xiaoman and the others knew that Ren Xiaosu was very strong, that was purely based on hisbat strength. Putting aside hisbat capabilities, his status shouldn¡¯t be that different from them since he was also a normal person.


    But what happened here tonight subverted their expectations.


    What happened to that refugee he imed he was?


    Everyone knew that both Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were very influential in the South.


    It might seem rather easy to send a group of mechanized infantry to help attack the Beiwan Bridge, but if they really wanted to destroy the Beiwan Bridge, that effort could easily cost them tens of millions of yuan to achieve.


    Luo Lan was truly sincere about helping Ren Xiaosu. At the very least, he was spending cold hard cash to help.


    Actually, there had to be some intentions to stir up the situation in the North as well. The oue of the war in the South would soon be decided, and some even assessed that the Qing Consortium would annex the entire Yang Consortium within half a year.


    If Fortress 178 or the Zong Consortium were to move to the South during this time, that would interfere with their ns and create many unnecessary problems.


    As such, the Qing Consortium wanted to speed up the progress of the war between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium to stir up the entire Northwest and Southwest. That way, no one party would have the energy to meddle in each other¡¯s affairs, which was probably what Qing Zhen wanted.


    But no matter what Qing Zhen¡¯s goal was, Ren Xiaosu would still appreciate his help. Anyone was a friend as long as they helped attack the Zong Consortium. Besides, Luo Lan was genuinely sincere in helping.


    After saying that, Tang Zhou prepared to bid farewell to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°We can¡¯t stay here for too long. After we attack the Beiwan Bridge, we still have to return to the Southern Front. Mr. Qing Zhen only gave us a fortnight to aplish this objective.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Please give him my thanks. When this war is over, I¡¯ll definitely make a trip to Stronghold 111.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good to hear you say that.¡± Tang Zhou chuckled. ¡°Well then, let¡¯s meet again at Stronghold 111!¡± Then Tang Zhou turned around and left.


    Zhang Xiaoman finally reacted at this moment. ¡°Hurry up and contact Commander Zhou. This is a big fucking deal!¡±


    When they finally managed to put the call through, Zhou Yinglong¡¯s group was probably still on their night march. As such, he sounded a little impatient. ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you to reorganize yourselves at wherever you are? Don¡¯t tell me there¡¯s trouble again?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Xiaoman quickly exined, ¡°A group of the Qing mechanized infantry suddenly appeared where we are and said that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan are offering to help Ren Xiaosu blow up the Beiwan Bridge. They¡¯re advancing towards the Beiwan River right now. What¡¯s more, they mentioned that Qing Zhen only gave them a fortnight toplete their objective. It seems to me that they¡¯ll be storming the target!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong was confused by what he heard. What did this have anything to do with the Qing Consortium? What the hell was this? Just what kind of a person had Commander Zhang chosen to be his sessor?

 Chapter 422 - No man left behind

    <h4>Chapter 422 No man left behind</h4>


    At first, everyone was worried about the operation to blow up the Beiwan Bridge. But now, they no longer had to worry about it.


    Zhang Xiaoman felt that everything seemed to always go quite well in battle when fighting alongside Ren Xiaosu. Never mind the battle at Shichuan Vige, now that they were attacking the fully reinforced Beiwan River, the Qing Consortium stepped forward and said, ¡°Don¡¯t fear, we¡¯re friends with Ren Xiaosu, so let us fight for you!¡±


    Could he fucking be the ¡°chosen one¡±? No wonder Commander Zhang chose him!


    Of course, Zhang Xiaoman also wondered if Commander Zhang had done so because he valued the close ties between Ren Xiaosu and the Qing Consortium.


    ¡°Then what are we going to do now?¡± Zhang Xiaoman sat on the ground and pondered things. ¡°If the Qing Consortium helps us attack the Beiwan River, we won¡¯t have anything to do.¡±


    Suddenly, the Razor Sharp Company became the idlest troops in all the Southwestern and Northwestern battlefields.


    They had tomunicate this matter to Zhou Yinglong. As a result, Zhou Yinglong made a quick decision. He ordered the Razor Sharp Company to get to Mt. Qiangwan in two days and attack that defensive anchor point together with the rest of the Forward Strike Battalion. They would coordinate a simultaneous attack with the Qing Consortium so that the Zong Consortium would be unable to react on this battlefront.


    As for whether the Qing Consortium could blow up the Beiwan Bridge or not, Fortress 178 had backup ns if the Qing troops failed. So there was no need for them to tag along with the Qing Consortium to the Beiwan River.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the translucent shadow clone in the pce and said, ¡°Can we leave a dayter?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman estimated the time. ¡°No, we¡¯re still more than a 100 klicks away from Mt. Qiangwan. Even if we force marched, we¡¯d just barely make it there in two days.¡±


    Under normal circumstances, the average distance that troops could cover while marching with a heavy load was around 50 kilometers per day. If they force marched, they could travel at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour. However, they would not be able to move that fast as they had to carry a pack that weighed more than 30 kilograms each while maintaining their stamina.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s just be pretty cautious during the journey.¡±


    Without the shadow clone leading the way, the risk factor would increase greatly. He was hoping that they could wait until the shadow clone had returned to its original state before they set off again. But Zhang Xiaoman would definitely not listen to him. Military orders could not be disobeyed.


    The next morning, the Razor Sharp Company set off towards Mt. Qiangwan in the northwestern direction. On their way there, Zhang Xiaoman did not drop his guard once. The three best soldiers, Fu Rao, Lin Ping¡¯an, and Ren Xiaosu would constantly take turns to be the point man to scout ahead.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw that Zhang Xiaoman was taking the situation seriously, he finally felt at ease. He even volunteered to be on point for longer, walking in front of the formation for two-thirds of the time.


    Ren Xiaosu said he was fine with being on point throughout their march. But Zhang Xiaoman and the others disagreed, saying that there was no reason why he should be handling it all by himself. Since they wererades, they could not let him bear the risk alone.


    At noon, Fu Rao had just moved to the front of the formation to take point when Ren Xiaosu heard a gunshot in the mountain pass ahead of them. What followed was a cry of pain from Fu Rao.


    He was stunned for a moment before he heard Zhang Xiaoman yelling at them to go prone. ¡°Find a ce to take cover! There¡¯s enemies in the mountain pass!¡±


    Thepany went prone and could see Fu Rao lying on the ground in the mountain pass with his abdomen bleeding. He shouted, ¡°It¡¯s not an ambush! It¡¯s an encounter! Our enemy is an entirepany, leave me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched silently as the scene unfolded. Encounters were all toomon in war, but they were a little unfortunate. When they encountered the enemy in this mountain pass, they could see Fu Rao ahead of them but not the enemy hiding in the pass.


    Zhang Xiaoman whispered, ¡°An encounter implies that the enemy didn¡¯t expect to see us here either. It seems that these troops were thinking of detouring to get to the rear of our Forward Strike Battalion.¡±


    Some of the troops at Mt. Qiangwan got deployed to the Beiwan River as reinforcements, but Fortress 178 didn¡¯t know if all of them had really gone there.


    Bang! Another shot rang out from the pass. The enemy that was hiding behind the ridge shot at Fu Rao again.


    The enemy was guarding the narrow terrain of the pass. If anyone rushed over to save him, they would also get shot. However, the enemy was more worried that their opponents would not rush over to save theirrade. As such, they decided to slowly torture Fu Rao in an attempt to lure the Razor Sharp Company into charging forward.


    But Fu Rao was very tough too. He knew what he was facing. So he did not even whimper when the second shot hit him in the leg.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me! Contact the Forward Strike Battalion and surround them!¡± Fu Rao roared.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to throw a grenade at the enemy. But if the enemy discovered that there was a supernatural being here after the first grenade dropped, they might kill Fu Rao immediately and retreat in haste. The Razor Sharp Company could definitely win this encounter with Ren Xiaosu, but Fu Rao would die!


    Ren Xiaosu got up and slowly made his way towards Fu Rao through the mountainous terrain. Zhang Xiaoman said anxiously, ¡°This is the enemy¡¯s n. We can¡¯t fall for it. You and I are soldiers now, and Fu Rao knows what he needs to do. Everyone should also know that if I were the oneying on the ground, I wouldn¡¯t want y¡¯all to rescue me either!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked back at Zhang Xiaoman and said calmly, ¡°I already said no man left behind.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. He suddenly felt faith burning inside him.


    He saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pupils turn crimson again, the depths of his eyes swirling with magma.


    Ren Xiaosu started running fast as a cheetah. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words were still echoing in Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s mind.


    Zhang Jinglin had said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Life should be a candle, burning brightly from tip to end.¡±


    The dark world was about to crumble. But before it truly crumbled, that me should not be extinguished.


    And that was what Ren Xiaosu was obsessed with!


    Zhang Xiaoman lowered his voice and said, ¡°If Ren Xiaosu sessfully gets to him, block off the opening at the pass, and don¡¯t let the enemy seize the chance to shoot at them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu bounded out. The entrance of the pass was an open door, while the mountainous terrain were the walls next to it.


    When Ren Xiaosu leaped across the four-meter-wide ¡°door¡± along the ¡°wall,¡± it felt like his entire body had flown across at a low altitude.


    While ¡°flying¡± in midair, Ren Xiaosu grabbed Fu Rao¡¯s arm and used the momentum to pull him away from the ¡°door¡±!


    When the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure, they started firing wildly at him. However, they couldn¡¯t pull their triggers quicker than it took Ren Xiaosu to get to Fu Rao!


    But in the instant Ren Xiaosu flew across the entrance, he identified the enemy¡¯s position. Before hended back on the ground, he threw out three grenades at the enemy.


    Zhang Xiaoman shouted, ¡°Charge! Show them no mercy! Where are the medics?! Get over there and save them!¡±


    The moment Ren Xiaosu dropped back to the ground, heid Fu Rao t. Due to the inertia of the rescue, he had dislocated Fu Rao¡¯s arm. Ren Xiaosu said to Fu Rao, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It was difficult to control my strength.¡±


    Fu Raoughed dryly and said, ¡°Why the fuck are you talking about strength control?! It¡¯s great that I don¡¯t have to die! Where¡¯s the medic? Get over here! I feel like I can still be saved!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said to the medic who rushed over, ¡°Extract the bullets first, then use the ck medicine that I gave you and apply it on his wounds.¡±


    Once he finished speaking, he took the lead and charged at the mountain pass!

 Chapter 423 - Witnessing history get made

    <h4>Chapter 423 Witnessing history get made</h4>


    Fu Rao, who was feeling extremely lucky just a moment ago, was now whining in pain. His injuries were like the ones Ren Xiaosu had suffered back then. Such internal injuries would only slowly heal after the ck medicine that was applied onto the skin was fully absorbed. Ren Xiaosu reminded him repeatedly not to take it orally, otherwise, who knew what effect it would have on him?


    When Ren Xiaosu and the others returned after taking care of the Zong Consortiumpany, Fu Rao struggled to get up and thanked Ren Xiaosu.


    In the earlier situation, everyone knew the best option for the Razor Sharp Company was to let Fu Rao die a swift death before they avenged him.


    If it were the past, everyone would definitely have done the same if they were stuck in a simr impasse.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at the way Fu Rao was moving and scolded, ¡°Your dislocated arm has been reattached, huh? You¡¯re all good again now, huh? Lie down and get some rest already! Brothers, set up the stretcher for him. You better fucking lie on the stretcher obediently til you¡¯ve recovered from your injuries.¡±


    His face pale, Fu Rao said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Fu Rao, +1!¡±


    These words of gratitude were worth a great deal because it was given for a truly lifesaving act. Ren Xiaosu smiled and told Fu Rao to get well soon. After that, he went to the medics to get his wound bandaged as well. Ren Xiaosu had also been shot in the shoulder when he sprinted out during the skirmish.


    However, Ren Xiaosu knew that it would take at most three days for this type of injury to bepletely healed by the ck medicine.


    While the medic bandaged Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wound, he said in surprise, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, your muscles so strong that the bullet only prated an inch?!¡±


    Everyone gathered around Ren Xiaosu and looked at his wound with curiosity. ¡°Wow, is your skin bronze and bones steel?!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was sitting cross-legged on the ground next to Fu Rao. Rather than going over to look at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wound, he was thinking about something else with his head lowered.


    Fu Rao looked at Zhang Xiaoman and asked, ¡°Captain, what¡¯s on your mind?¡±


    ¡°Nothing much.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said softly, ¡°Before I set off for the war, I told my wife that I might not make it back this time. After all, we know just how dangerous it is in our Razor Sharp Company. So I made it clear to her in advance so she wouldn¡¯t get too upset.¡±


    Fu Rao did not say anything and listened to Zhang Xiaoman talk to himself. ¡°The people in Fortress 178 have had this thinking since childhood that it¡¯s some kind of honor to die in battle. But if we really had a choice, who¡¯d be willing to die in a gods-forsaken ce like this? Don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Fu Rao kept quiet for a moment before saying, ¡°Who wants to die?¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t die even if we want to now.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a helpless smile, ¡°A lunatic has suddenly appeared on the battlefield saying he¡¯ll make sure that all of us survive and won¡¯t leave a man behind.... What a fucking lunatic!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman would be turning 30 this year. He had lived in Fortress 178 for 27 years and spent three years assigned to an outpost outside of the fortress.


    His days at the outpost were very difficult. He had neither anymunication nor entertainment to speak of, and the weather was also very cold all year round due to the outpost being situated at a high altitude making it rare for him to perspire.


    To prevent the soldiers from developing renal failure, they did their physical training around a stove just so they would sweat.


    During fall, winter, and spring, they couldn¡¯t even drink water since it froze into ice. Theirrades on sentry duty had to chew on ice if they wanted to have a drink of water.


    A decade of hardship, yet their dreams remained. Most people probably never understood just how miserable it was to chew on ice.


    Zhang Xiaoman was prepared to die when he set off for this war. Just as he had said, ¡°How can there be no casualties in war?¡±


    When a soldier died in battle, hisrades would knock out one of his teeth and bring it back to Fortress 178 to ce below the copper bell if their bodies couldn¡¯t be brought back for burial. In that sense, it would be regarded as bringing their deadrades back home.


    This was so their souls could return to their hometown.


    All of the veterans said that the fallen of Fortress 178 would watch over them whenever the copper bell rang.


    But it was a little strange this time. A lunatic had sprung out of nowhere and imed he would bring all of them back home alive.


    ¡°Only a lunatic would say and do something like that, right?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked Fu Rao.


    Fu Rao said calmly, ¡°But I like this lunatic. I¡¯m not only d but also feel honored to be hisrade.¡±


    ¡°You feel honored?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯ll be themander of our Fortress 178 in the future. And right now, you and I are both witnessing history get made.¡±


    After some reorganization, Zhang Xiaoman led everyone back to the ce where the battle had broken out. He thought for a while and said, ¡°Listen, we might encounter even more of the Zong troops on our way to Mt. Qiangwan. Why don¡¯t we change into these dead soldiers¡¯ uniforms and pretend we¡¯re a Zongpany?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. ¡°What if Battalion Commander Zhou¡¯s Forward Strike Battalion encounters us and strikes us down in one shot?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was left speechless for a moment. ¡°We can just take a detour and not run into him, can¡¯t we?¡±


    ¡°But there are a lot of bullet holes and bloodstains on the dead¡¯s uniforms. If you pretend to be a defeatedpany, it might not be obvious at first nce, but any observant person will wonder why you can still fucking move and jump around after getting shot in the chest.¡± Jiao Xiaochen said in a speechless manner, ¡°Captain, can you stop fantasizing? Also, wouldn¡¯t they recognize theirrades?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman analyzed, ¡°Look here, see if my analysis is correct. The Zong Consortium ims to have more than 200,000 soldiers. Are you sure they¡¯ll recognize each other when they bump into one another on the road? For our troops at Fortress 178, we all live in the same stronghold for most of the year and can¡¯t avoid seeing one another. Even if we don¡¯t know everyone, we¡¯ll still look familiar to each other. But their soldiers are normally scattered across a dozen strongholds, so it¡¯d be natural if they don¡¯t know the others since they¡¯re only being mobilized for the war.¡±


    Everyone looked to Ren Xiaosu. Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s face darkened. ¡°I¡¯m the fucking captain here, so why¡¯re all of you looking at Ren Xiaosu when I¡¯m the decision maker? Are the words of a private more effective than mine?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness to Zhang Xiaoman, ¡°It really won¡¯t work.¡±


    ¡°OK...¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied.


    Jiao Xiaochen piped up, ¡°After wiping out four enemypanies in this battle, we still haven¡¯t suffered any casualties yet. Not even the Recon Battalion¡¯s pathetic Flying Eagles are capable of that.¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company of the Forward Strike Battalion and the Flying Eagle Company of the Reconnaissance Battalion had always been at odds with one another. The top tenpetitors of the militarybat tournaments were always from the Flying Eagle Company. They were urate marksmen, well-versed inbat, knew many skills, and even had snipers within their ranks.


    To them, the Razor Sharp Company was just a group of thugs who resorted to more unconventional methods while they were the real elites.


    Meanwhile, from the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s point of view, they were the ones who could fight and win tough battles. If the two sides encountered each other in a military exercise, they were destined to be rivals.


    Of course, they both won some and lost some. The Razor Sharp Company had won 30% of the time while the Flying Eagle Company won the other 70% of the time.


    Now that they had achieved such great sess, they had definitely outperformed the Flying Eagle Company. Zhang Xiaoman suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯ve always disliked the Flying Eagles. They don¡¯t call each other by their real names in the bases and use code names instead. What the hell is up with that pretentious act?!¡±

 Chapter 424 - Attacking the harbor

    <h4>Chapter 424 Attacking the harbor</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Zhang Xiaoman say this, his eyes lit up. ¡°If you¡¯re unhappy about them having code names, we can give ourselves code names as well.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right!¡± Zhang Xiaoman became excited and eximed, ¡°My code name shall be ¡®Screw the Flying Eagles¡¯!¡±.


    ¡°Then my code name will be ¡®Screw the Zong Consortium¡¯! Fu Rao, you look like you¡¯re in a vegetative state lying on the stretcher, so you can be called ¡®Vegetable¡¯!¡±


    Fu Rao was instantly enraged while lying on the stretcher. ¡°Why should I be called ¡®Vegetable¡¯? I¡¯m totally fine!¡±


    ¡°Since you im to be fine, show us that you can walk by yourself!¡±


    Fu Rao was speechless.


    These gruff men from the Northwest startedughing. Just half a day before, Fu Rao was dramatically calling out to be left there to die while Ren Xiaosu insisted on saving him.


    But half a dayter, they were back to bantering with one another. Perhaps this was whatrades were.


    At this moment, everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Xiaosu, what¡¯s your code name?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said with a smile, ¡°My code name is ¡®Thanks.¡¯ You can just call me ¡®Thanks¡¯ from now on.¡±


    Fu Rao and Zhang Xiaoman were confused.


    Everyone realized that Ren Xiaosu would really resort to anything just to make them thank him. Ren Xiaosu was the one who suggested giving themselves code names. But actually, he was waiting for them to take the bait!


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was so happy that it felt like he was in a dream. If so many people called him that every day, wouldn¡¯t he harvest a huge number of gratitude tokens soon?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the others. ¡°I¡¯m still a little unfamiliar with the code name I gave to myself. Why don¡¯t you all call me it a few more times so I can get used to it?¡±


    However, Zhang Xiaoman and the others turned around and left, ignoring him.


    ¡°Hey, is that how you treat yourrade? What¡¯s the big deal with calling me by my code name!¡±


    ¡°Hey, hey, say my code name!¡±


    And so, the n to assign everyone in the Razor Sharp Company a code name died off just like that.


    But before the Razor Sharp Company could advance any further north, they received another new order from Zhou Yinglong. This time, Zhou Yinglong wanted them to infiltrate from the rear of Mt. Qiangwan to destroy the ferries in the harbor there.


    A tributary of the Beiwan River was north of Mt. Qiangwan. By destroying the harbor, they could prevent any defeated troops from leaving by the river after Mt. Qiangwan got captured.


    Since they intended to win the war, they could not allow the enemy to have a chance to regain their effective strength.


    Upon receiving this order, Zhang Xiaoman and the others could not rest anymore. They immediately infiltrated from the east side of Mt. Qiangwan and arrived at a destination about 10 kilometers east of the harbor within a day and a half.


    At this moment, artillery was booming from Mt. Qiangwan. Supposedly, the Forward Strike Battalion and some reinforcements who arrived thereter had been attacking the ce for two days. But based on Zhou Yinglong¡¯s estimations, it seemed like the enemy was still going to put up a fight for another week before capitting. Therefore, Zhou Yinglong ordered the Razor Sharp Company to destroy the Zong Consortium¡¯s route of retreat in advance.


    Zhang Xiaoman was watching the garrison forces at the harbor through his binocrs from a hill. ¡°I guess most of the troops have gone to join the battle, so there¡¯s only onepany stationed here now. Something also looks a little strange. Look, they¡¯re loading some stuff onto the ferries. I wonder what they¡¯re moving.¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s only onepany, they¡¯ll be easy to attack,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Currently, the Razor Sharp Company did not regard any enemy troops of the same tactical grouping as a threat. Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°It¡¯s better to attack them sooner rather thanter, so let¡¯s do it now. After we take the harbor, we¡¯ll retreat immediately and join up with Battalion Commander Zhou.¡±


    They were going to conduct the operation immediately. The garrison troops at the harbor seemed to be moving around in a hurry. The soldiers were loading stuff onto the ferries with all their might with their guns slung over their shoulders.


    There were seven medium-sized ferries docked at the harbor. When Ren Xiaosu and hispany appeared, the Zong Consortium soldiers were all shocked. Before they could organize any effective resistance, the entirepany was blown apart by Ren Xiaosu.


    But all of a sudden, the radioman at the rear shouted, ¡°Captain, Battalion Commander Zhou wants to speak with you!¡±


    After instructing Ren Xiaosu and the others to blow up the ferries, Zhang Xiaoman walked over with a bewildered look. Weren¡¯t they in the middle of a battle? Why would they radio him at a time like this?


    When he answered the call, he heard Zhou Yinglong shout, ¡°Where are you right now? Have you arrived at the harbor?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said proudly, ¡°We didn¡¯t fail. We¡¯ve already captured the harbor. We¡¯re blowing up the ferries right now.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s voice cracked as he shouted, ¡°Hurry up and retreat! All of you, retreat now!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. ¡°Why? Did y¡¯all lose the battle?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that we lost the battle, but that all the enemy positions at Mt. Qiangwan have been abandoned. Those bastards of the Zong Consortium took advantage of the moment we temporarily withdrew from the mountain and escaped. They only left some soldiers behind to cover for them. The main forces are probably heading towards you as we speak!¡± Zhou Yinglong shouted.


    Zhang Xiaoman felt his scalp tingle. ¡°Zhou Yinglong, fuck your grandpa! Why didn¡¯t you say so earlier!¡±


    Then Zhang Xiaoman disconnected and shouted, ¡°Pack everything and retreat!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, everyone heard chaotic screaming erupt!


    No one could have fucking expected this. Didn¡¯t they say it would still take another week for the enemy at Mt. Qiangwan to capitte? So why were they retreating in advance?


    What they did not know was that the Qing Consortium¡¯s mechanized infantry in the Northeast had already blitzkrieged the Beiwan River and captured the position by storm.


    The garrison troops at Mt. Qiangwan started panicking because of this. They did not know whether the Qing Consortium would turn their sights to them after they were done attacking the Beiwan River.


    Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters wondered what the Qing Consortium was up to. Were they going to join in the conflict and start a full-scale war against the Zong Consortium, or would they leave after pulling off that attack? They did not want to end up bing the next Li Consortium. Didn¡¯t the Li Consortium get wiped out like this?! Therefore, the Zong Consortium decided to draw back all of their defensive lines and see what the Qing Consortium was up to.


    However, this made life difficult for the Razor Sharp Company. It was toote for them to get away now. Several loud explosions boomed at this moment as Zhang Xiaoman turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu and the rest of the Razor Sharp Company throwing TNT into the cabins of the ferries. Six of the ferries had already turned into massive fireballs and were burning so fiercely that the surface of the river resembled a fiery cloud.


    Zhang Xiaoman said in a panic, ¡°Stop, stop blowing them up! We have to fucking keep one for ourselves!¡±


    The garrison troops of Mt. Qiangwan had almost reached the harbor. When Ren Xiaosu saw that there was at least one battalion of soldiers making their way over, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Get on board! We¡¯re gonna escape on a ferry!¡± Zhang Xiaoman roared.


    The Razor Sharp Company had only this path of escape left. All the other routes were blocked by the Zong Consortium soldiers who were retreating from Mt. Qiangwan!


    The Zong Consortium soldiers in the distance sank into despair when they saw that the ferries had all been blown. Someone picked up a heavy machine gun and fired at the ferry that Ren Xiaosu andpany were on. Fortunately, the powerful recoil sent most of the bullets flying up into the air, only managing to hit one person from the Razor Sharp Company.


    Zhang Xiaoman shouted on the ferry, ¡°Do any of you know how to drive this?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t have anything like this in the vicinity of Fortress 178, so of course we don¡¯t know how to drive it,¡± Jiao Xiaochen muttered.


    Zhang Xiaoman crawled towards the cabin and said, ¡°We have to get this running even if we don¡¯t know how! If the ferry doesn¡¯t move, we¡¯re all gonna die!¡±

 Chapter 425 - What can I do? I’m also very desperate

    <h4>Chapter 425 What can I do? I¡¯m also very desperate</h4>


    When they heard they were gonna die, all of the Razor Sharp Company turned anxious. Everyone crawled into the cabin to figure out how to start the ferry.


    Someone grumbled, ¡°If I had known, I would¡¯ve captured some of their troops alive. Since they were the ones who drove the ferry here, they¡¯ll definitely know how to operate them.¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen looked at the person who said that and responded unhappily, ¡°Hindsight¡¯s 20/20. Were we even thinking of getting away on the ferry? Aren¡¯t we only doing this because we got cornered in the harbor?¡±


    Everyone was frantically pressing random buttons. As a result, someone tripped off something on a fluke, and the engine started running


    Everyone got excited. ¡°The engine¡¯s going!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re saved, hahaha! Heaven hasn¡¯t forsaken our Razor Sharp Company after all!¡±


    But at this moment, someone said curiously, ¡°But the ferry still isn¡¯t moving.¡±


    Then everyone saw Ren Xiaosu dash out of the cabin. Zhang Xiaoman shouted at him, ¡°Don¡¯t go out there. The fucking enemies are everywhere outside.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a rope tying the ferry to the dock that has to be cut off,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Even so, you still can¡¯t go outside! You will be killed in the crossfire if you step out there like this.¡± Zhang Xiaoman roared.


    Ren Xiaosu got an idea. He took out his saber and activated Shadow Door to reach the mooring line. But as Ren Xiaosu was unsure of where the rope was exactly, he started shing randomly at the area.


    The Zong Consortium soldiers who were running towards the harbor were stunned when they saw a hand appear out of thin air and sh a ck saber around. For a moment, they were so stunned they were even afraid to charge forward!


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s moving. The ferry¡¯s moving!¡± Zhang Xiaoman eximed.


    Ren Xiaosu had finally managed to cut the mooring line. The Zong Consortium¡¯s deserters could only watch with a forlorn expression as the bullethole-riddled ferry started moving slowly towards the middle of the river.


    When they got a little farther, Ren Xiaosu and the others finally came out of the cabin. They watched helplessly as they got farther away from the shore. As they watched, they even puked their guts out.


    No one in the Razor Sharp Company had been on a ferry before. Therefore, even though the ferry had only been moving for a dozen minutes, the troops were already puking so hard they nearly fainted.


    Those who wanted to take the ferry did not make it aboard, while those who did not want to take the ferry were now drifting on it to some unknown destination.


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company looked at their dejected enemies on the shore and thought to themselves, ¡®What can we do? We¡¯re also very desperate.¡¯


    At this moment, the Razor Sharp Company heard a choking sound as the ferry¡¯s engine grew weaker. Zhang Xiaoman asked, ¡°What the fuck is happening?¡±


    ¡°I dunno...¡±


    The ferry was gradually losing power, and it seemed like it had been damaged when the enemy was firing that heavy machine gun at it!


    ¡°What fucking luck!¡± Zhang Xiaoman did not know whether tough or cry. He mumbled something unintelligible as he continued puking on the deck, ¡°Quigly condact Medallion Commander Joe and hab hime and resgue us!¡±


    But the radioman replied meekly, ¡°Captain, our radio has been damaged.¡±


    ¡°What!¡± Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°That radio is a weapon with the same value as your life! How could you let it get damaged? Do you think I won¡¯t boot you into the river?¡±


    At this moment, everyone turned around and looked at the radioman. The radio set he was carrying on his back was utterly shattered. The radioman said in dismay, ¡°When the enemy was shooting at us with the heavy machine gun from shore, I was in a hurry to get aboard and allowed the radio to be hit.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman sighed. ¡°Forget it, the radio probably saved your life. It¡¯s good that you aren¡¯t dead.¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s troops sat on the deck and looked around in hopelessness. No one knew where the powerless ferry was going to take them.


    Now that even the radio set was damaged, they had truly be an isted fighting force of.


    They could not contact the main forces of Fortress 178, and neither could Fortress 178 contact them.


    ¡°Will we end up drifting to the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory like this?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked softly.


    ¡°Can you stop saying such depressing things...¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly smiled. ¡°That¡¯s why they say that unexpected events can happen all the time on the battlefield. Do you remember what I used to say? Everything lies with fate, and no one has any control over it. No matter how many battles you¡¯ve won in the past, fate will still deal you a bad hand if it really wants to.


    ¡°And sometimes, it can be extremely strange as well. It will seem like fate is hellbent on fighting you and not others....¡±


    Too many unexpected things could happen in war. People even used to say that 30% of a victory in war was determined by tactics and strength. The remaining 70% was dependent on whether God wanted to keep you alive and let you win the battles.


    After puking for the longest time, the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s troops were getting hungry. However, they had already left the forward operating base for some time and had only brought along seven days¡¯ worth of field rations with them. They did not have many provisions left.


    Zhang Xiaoman led his men to search for supplies in the cabin butter realized it waspletely bare. He asked in a startled manner, ¡°Didn¡¯t we see the Zong Consortium¡¯s garrison troops loading stuff onto the ferries? Why isn¡¯t there anything here?!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think they had enough time to load anything onto this ferry....¡±


    When he heard that, Zhang Xiaoman said angrily, ¡°Look at you guys. Couldn¡¯t you have searched the ferries for supplies before deciding which ones to blow up?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and the othersughed. ¡°Captain, you didn¡¯t tell us you wanted to leave one untouched. Weren¡¯t we told to blow up everything?¡±


    Turning around, Zhang Xiaoman started preparing the Razor Sharp Company for worse. ¡°Everyone, we don¡¯t have many rations left, and we don¡¯t know when we can reach shore. So for those of you who are seasick, stop throwing up. Even if you feel like throwing up, you should hold it in....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was standing on the deck of the ferry. He did not feel nauseous at all and was looking out at the vast Beiwan River covered in mist.


    Zhang Xiaoman walked next to him and asked, ¡°What¡¯re you thinking about?¡±


    ¡°About where we¡¯ll end up drifting to,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, ¡°We have no way to ask for help now, and we can¡¯t determine where we¡¯re heading. Who knows what we¡¯ll encounter next? If we drift towards the northern shore, that¡¯ll be the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory!¡±


    But the more they feared it, the likelier it would happen. The ferry was still drifting in the middle of the river, but they were clearly getting closer and closer to the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory in the north based on reference points on both sides of the shore.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. ¡°I will make sure everyone survives and that no man gets left behind.¡±


    After he said that, Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked back into the cabin. The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s troops watched as though magic were being performed as he threw out a wild boar, a goat, a box of hardtack, and arge box of bottled water from inside the cabin.


    This was what Xiaoyu had prepared for him back when she found out that he could carry a lot of supplies with him. He had already spent the money to add a vacuum preservation function for his storage space, so these things would not turn bad no matter how long they were stored in it.


    Ren Xiaosu said to hisrades of the Razor Sharp Company, ¡°I reckon we¡¯ll run aground on the northern shore within three days. If y¡¯all don¡¯t want to die, you should preserve your strength. We¡¯ll have to fight our way out when we get to the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong had already reported to Zhang Jinglin that the Razor Sharp Company had been forced to board a ferry to escape. Meanwhile, Zhang Jinglin locked down this news in case the Zong Consortium organized their forces to go and capture them.

 Chapter 426 - Who does he think he is?

    <h4>Chapter 426 Who does he think he is?</h4>


    Zhang Jinglin had given Zhou Yinglong half a month to take Mt. Qiangwan. For this reason, he even sent an additional artillery battalion to provide greater fire support. However, no one expected the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops to abandon their position at Mt. Qiangwan after the Qing Consortium defeated them at the Beiwan River.


    If everything went ording to n, they would have escaped and preserved their remaining troops. But unfortunately for them, their ferries were blown up by Ren Xiaosu andpany.


    The Zong Consortium had already drawn back their defensive lines entirely while Fortress 178¡¯s Engineering Battalion was sessful in building a pontoon bridge across ckstone River. The bridges that were constructed through current engineering technology and mechanical building equipment had no problems supporting mechanized troops crossing on them.


    Once Fortress 178 built up their defensive line on the other side of the river, this road leading up north would finally be consideredpletely opened.


    If everything else went smoothly, Fortress 178 would continue northwards to take the front line at Mt. Wuchuan, and there would be no further obstacles hindering them from traveling up north.


    However, it could be foreseen that the front line at Mt. Wuchuan would truly turn into a bloody battlefield from here. Countless soldiers of the Zong Consortium and Fortress 178 would get buried there and never return home.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s mechanized infantry had already left and were returning to their own front to continue the fight against the Yang Consortium. It seemed like it was just as Tang Zhou had told Ren Xiaosu, that they did not have any intentions of fighting in the war in the Nortnds. They were only here to send him a gift on Luo Lan¡¯s behalf.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yinglong was very satisfied with the oue of the battle at Mt. Qiangwan. Although they also suffered casualties, it was much fewer than he had expected.


    When they gave chase towards the river, the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops on the shore were forced to jump into the river one after another. However, Zhou Yinglong was shocked to see some shadows chasing and biting the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops under the surface. In just a few minutes, the yellowish river turned blood red.


    The rivers these days were not safe anymore.


    Fortunately, the spring floods that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group were caught in were only snow melt from the mountains and had no strange creatures mixed in upstream.


    Zhou Yinglong stood by the river and gazed at its surface. He attempted to establishmunications with the Razor Sharp Company but could not get through at all.


    He got his subordinates to check whether any of the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops had ryed the news of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group back to the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters, but they found out it did not happen.


    The Zong Consortium knew that someone had taken their ferry away, but they did not know where it was headed.


    Logically, anyone who did not want to die would not directly navigate the ferry towards the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory.


    Everyone thought the Razor Sharp Company would return and join up with the Forward Strike Battalion soon after seizing the ferry. However, the Razor Sharp Company simply disappeared after that.


    After all, no one would have guessed that they would be so unlucky as to have their engine damaged by the enemy.


    At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, and the others were lying on the deck and looking up at the starry sky. The view of the vast gxy in the night sky made them feel a little more rxed.


    However, they were definitely not in the mood for stargazing but were lying on the deck so that it would be more convenient for them to puke into the river. Having puked for the entire afternoon, there was nothing more for them to vomit other than water.


    Zhang Xiaoman spoke up feebly, ¡°I think we should¡¯ve stayed on the shore and fought the Zong Consortium soldiers.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s right...¡± Jiao Xiaochen replied, ¡°I heard from Battalion Commander Zhou that whenever he gets so tired at the military base and goes home on his days off, he immediately recharges once he hears his son call him ¡®Daddy.¡¯ Hey, how about this? I feel like I¡¯m dying now, so can you all call me ¡®Daddy!¡¯¡±


    Someone shouted, ¡°Fuck you! If I had any strength left now, I would get up and beat you up!¡±


    Honestly, the members of the Razor Sharp Company would definitely have beat up Jiao Xiaochen if they were not currently seasick.


    Next to them, Lin Ping¡¯an asked, ¡°Since y¡¯all are married, you can talk with your wives if you wanna have kids. I don¡¯t even have a girlfriend! Before setting off for our campaign, I wanted to confess to a girl but was too scared to do it in the end.¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you do it?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    Lin Ping¡¯an hesitated for a while. ¡°Because an officer from the armored brigade is also wooing her. I feel like I¡¯m inferior to him,¡±


    Lin Ping¡¯an, who was usually unafraid of most things, had turned cowardly in the face of such matters.


    Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, ¡°There¡¯s many others who are a lot more outstanding than you. Who does he think he is!¡±


    Lin Ping¡¯an was speechless. ¡®Was I fucking asking you tofort me?¡¯


    ¡°But seriously, Ping¡¯an, it¡¯s possible that you¡¯ll be promoted at least several ranks when we return. Once your rank is higher than his, you won¡¯t be afraid anymore.¡±


    Suddenly, everyone started getting concerned about their futures as well. As apany, they had already wiped out fivepanies of the enemy forces. Moreover, nobody knew if they might win even more glory with Ren Xiaosu in the future.


    But most importantly, everyone felt they would return home alive. This was the faith Ren Xiaosu had instilled in them.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu walked onto the deck as though he were totally fine and took out a rope with a hook tied to its end.


    There was a piece of meat hanging off the metal hook, and Ren Xiaosu cast it out into the water.


    Lying on the deck, Zhang Xiaoman said helplessly, ¡°How fucking frustrating. This seasickness is making us all feel like we¡¯re dying, yet he¡¯s in the mood to fish?!¡±


    But surprisingly, a fish immediately took the bait after the makeshift hook was cast into the water.


    Ren Xiaosu tugged on the rope as the fish struggled with all its strength in the water to get loose. But Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry either, so he waited for it to slowly get tired. He was mainly worried that the line would snap if he tried to forcefully pull it in.


    After the fish stopped struggling in the water, Ren Xiaosu slowly retrieved the line and was surprised to see a huge ck fish hanging from it.


    as


    ¡°Isn¡¯t this a snakehead[1]? But it looks twice asrge as what I¡¯ve seen before,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered. ¡°And its teeth are sharper as well.¡±


    Suddenly, the snakehead fish slipped out of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands and fell onto the deck¡¯s floor.


    However, the fish did not stay put in that position. Instead, it flopped over to Zhang Xiaoman with its mouth wide open. Zhang Xiaoman was scared to death. ¡°Hey, hold down that thing! Ren Xiaosu, you did that on purpose, didn¡¯t you? How can you not hold onto a fish with your immense strength?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed as he held the fish tightly in his hands. ¡°We can¡¯t see the underwater world, so we don¡¯t know what changes it¡¯s gone through. Anyway, let¡¯s try not to fall into a river like this. Who knows what might be hiding underneath? But this isn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing either. After The Cataclysm, humans have not reestablished the fishing industry on arge enough scale. After such a long period of reproduction, the fishes in the river alone might be enough to provide food for all the people in a stronghold.¡±


    With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fearsomebat strength, people tended to neglect that he was a wilderness survival master as well.


    Then Zhang Xiaoman climbed to his feet and grunted, ¡°Look, is that the shore in the distance? The current¡¯s pushing us towards it!¡±


    As the saying goes, shit happens. In the end, they were still pushed towards the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory by the current.


    [1] The northern snakehead (Channa argus) is a species of snakehead fish native to China, Russia, North Korea, and South Korea, ranging from the Amur River to Hainan. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern _snakehead

 Chapter 427 - A lone fighting force

    <h4>Chapter 427 A lone fighting force</h4>


    As the ferry slowly approached the shore, a group of peopley on the deck and looked around cautiously. Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°There¡¯s no lights out there, but it¡¯s clear that there aren¡¯t really any buildings on the shoreline. There probably aren¡¯t any enemies around here.¡±


    ¡°This should be a very isted ce. We might¡¯ve already drifted past the area where the Zong Consortium¡¯s military is garrisoned.¡± Jiao Xiaochen analyzed, ¡°We¡¯re traveling at about 11 kilometers per hour on the river. Since it¡¯s already been an entire day, we¡¯re already very far away from the front, having drifted for more than 200 kilometers.¡±


    ¡°But we still have to be careful. It won¡¯t be good if we encounter some refugees and they reveal our whereabouts,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said in a serious tone.


    ¡°If we encounter any refugees, do we kill them?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked.


    ¡°This war has nothing to do with refugees, so don¡¯t kill those innocent civilians.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a frown, ¡°Have you forgotten about the rules of Fortress 178?¡±


    ¡°But...¡± What Jiao Xiaochen wanted to say was that since they had now ventured into enemy territory, it might be a disaster for them if their whereabouts got exposed by any refugees they met.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman refuted, ¡°No buts! How are we any different from the Zong Consortium if we kill civilians indiscriminately?¡±


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Jiao Xiaochen acknowledged.


    Actually, this would increase the risk factor for the Razor Sharp Company. However, Fortress 178 had principles, so no one could really say whether this was the right decision or not.


    Of course, Fortress 178 would not be so popr with the Northwestern people if they were not so principled.


    In fact, some of themoners living in the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory were even saying that they were secretly leaning more towards Fortress 178 after war was dered between the Zong Consortium and them.


    Ultimately, everyone felt they could live a better life and possibly get taxed lower if Fortress 178 managed to drive the Zong Consortium away.


    ¡°But where should we go after we get ashore?¡±. Fu Rao suddenly wondered. His gunshot wound had been healing for three days after the ck medicine was applied to it. ¡°In the area, the only route we can take to get back is by crossing the Beiwan Bridge, but that¡¯s already been destroyed by the Qing Consortium. Besides, there might also be a lot of the Zong troops stationed there, so how are we gonna get back?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll simply not go back then!¡± Zhang Xiaoman waved it off and said, ¡°Our Forward Strike Battalion is mainly responsible for fighting during the early phase of the war. The Forward Strike Battalion¡¯s mission ended after Mt. Qiangwan and the Beiwan Bridge were conquered, so it¡¯ll be the armored brigade¡¯s performance for the rest of the time. Why should we go back at this time?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not going back? Why must wepare ourselves with the armored brigade? Our firepower isn¡¯t as strong as theirs anyway. Despite us winning so many battles, they¡¯ll definitely still be the ones credited with winning the war,¡± Jiao Xiaochen said doubtfully.


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°That¡¯s why we have to fight for the honor. Only those who aremended will be remembered by others, understand?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s pointless,¡± Jiao Xiaochen muttered.


    ¡°Why is it pointless?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked with a sneer, ¡°Do you know the highest mountain in the world?¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen shook his head. ¡°No.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stumped by his response. He had wanted to say that people only remembered the highest mountain in the world, not the second or third highest ones. However, the illiterate Jiao Xiaochen did not even know the highest mountain in the world, so how was he supposed to make the point that he wanted to make?


    Ren Xiaosu piped up, ¡°Didn¡¯t Battalion Commander Zhou say that the fortress¡¯s main forces will be fighting the war at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan, which is north of ckstone River? How long do y¡¯all think the battle will


    go on for?¡±


    ¡°At least three months.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Although I despise the Zong Consortium, there¡¯s way too many soldiers gathered at the Mt. Wuchuan front line, so it¡¯s gonna take us several months to defeat them. Besides, our difference in strength is still quite rtive since the Zong Consortium is also a modern army. If our Commander wants to break through the front line at Mt. Wuchuan, it won¡¯t be that easy. They might even end up fighting for up to half a year too.¡±


    Once the front line at Mt. Wuchuan was broken through, the Zong Consortium¡¯s defeat in the war could basically be announced in advance.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°At this moment, all of the Zong forces will surely assemble at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan. So their rear guard will definitely be spread thin. Why don¡¯t we attack their industry in the north then? Since those factories are located outside the strongholds, their garrison forces must be extremely weak. Some of the factories probably don¡¯t even have any private troops stationed there!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. Ren Xiaosu, how did youe up with something like that?¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t my idea.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°This method is what the Qing Consortium used against the Yang Consortium. Currently, the Zong Consortium¡¯s situation is quite simr to the Yang Consortium¡¯s. They¡¯re both defenseless in the rear.¡±


    Qing Zhen¡¯s means of dealing with the Yang Consortium had shown Ren Xiaosu the way.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others looked at one another. If they were a normalpany, they would never be able to disrupt the entire industry of the Zong Consortium in the north. From what the Qing Consortium had gathered, the Zong Consortium had organized enough bandits to form an entire regiment.


    But they could still choose to attack some of the factories!


    Jiao Xiaochen said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s a really good idea. We won¡¯t even have to wreak havoc since just giving the Zong Consortium a headache will work. Let¡¯s make a n and see which of the Zong factories we should attack.¡±


    But when these words were spoken, Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He said, ¡°What I meant was, we should attack all of them....¡±


    Everyone on the deck fell silent again. Zhang Xiaoman gave a hollow chuckle and said, ¡°Oh, stop joking!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not joking.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°Y¡¯all probably haven¡¯te across the private troops of the strongholds for many years. The regiment formation has been a mess for a long time. They probably can¡¯t even hit the bullseye at 50 meters at a gun range.¡±


    ¡°What if the Zong Consortium deploys their regr troops to pursue us?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked in surprise.


    ¡°Then we run.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I have a way to deal with that.¡±


    Everyone from the Razor Sharp Company thought that Ren Xiaosu was just a supernatural being with two superpowers, which was already very formidable.


    But actually, Ren Xiaosu still had a trump card up his sleeve. It was a move that would deal the Zong Consortium and Zong Cheng the fatal blow. It would be the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back!


    With a thud, the ferry ran aground on the shore. The Razor Sharp Company jumped off the boat one after another, and in just two minutes, they finished assembling and began to infiltrate the coast in a wedge.


    In a ce they were unfamiliar with, it was unthinkable to spread out their forces. So they had to move together as a group. They would either survive together or die together.


    Looking down from above, the forces of Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium were distinctly separate from each other in the south and the north. In the east, a route led to the Central ins, while the Gobi Desert was to the west and stretched all the way to the Alxa League[1] in the north.


    But now, there was a strangepany mixed among that distinct distribution of fighting forces as the Razor Sharp Company advanced north.


    As Zhang Xiaoman walked in formation with the others, Ren Xiaosu had already sent his shadow clone out while nobody was paying attention. Suddenly, Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Brothers, we can¡¯t call for reinforcements this time. This is a treacherous path we¡¯re walking, and none of us can turn around. If I die, y¡¯all must remember to bring my mrs back home.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°You¡¯d better not die. If you do, I¡¯ll knock all of your teeth out before I choose a good-looking one to bring back.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman shuddered in fear. ¡°You¡¯re too fucking ruthless.¡±


    [1] Alxa League is one of 12 prefecture level divisions and 3 extant leagues of Inner Mongolia. / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alxa_League

 Chapter 428 - The Zong Consortium’s contingency plan

    <h4>Chapter 428 The Zong Consortium¡¯s contingency n</h4>


    At Qing Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 111, the manor that stood on Mt. Ginkgo had been empty for some time.


    After the coup in the Qing Consortium, Qing Zhen did not choose to stay at that luxurious manor. Instead, he moved into the barracks of Stronghold 111¡¯s garrison and lived alongside the soldiers. He ate his meals every day in the chow hall and rejected any special treatment that the kitchen police offered him.


    At the beginning, the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers who were his supporters were saying how it would be difficult to get to see him in the future. But to their surprise, they got to see him almost every day now.


    In their private conversations, the generals even said that Qing Zhen was toopassionate towards his subordinates. They felt that a lot of people might learn they could win the support of their subordinates by living in the same conditions and not seeking to be treated with special privileges. But knowing so did not mean they would practice it as well.


    But when Qing Zhen heard what was being said about him in private, he admitted frankly that he had moved into the barracks because he was afraid of getting assassinated. Living under the same roof with the troops and sharing the same meals was because he was worried about being poisoned.


    When the generals heard this, they did not know how to respond. However, they were already used to hearing him speak hard truths in such a casual manner. When they were nning the coup, Qing Zhen told them they might die if they charged up Mt. Ginkgo. But didn¡¯t they still do it in the end?


    So after the generals learned about Qing Zhen¡¯s worries, they all reassured him that the military base near Stronghold 111 was the safest ce of all. No matter how powerful the supernatural being that broke in was, they would never walk out of the ce alive.


    Qing Zhen could only shake his head and smile, because he knew very well how difficult it was to deal with the supernatural beings these days. Moreover, the supernatural beings were still getting stronger.


    At this moment, Qing Zhen was standing in front of a huge sand table. However, the terrain on the sand table was not the Southwest but the Northwestern battlefield between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium.


    There was a clear and distinctive separation between the red and blue gs on the sand table. The blue g represented the Zong Consortium in the north, while the red g represented Fortress 178 in the south.


    Suddenly, Qing Zhen picked up a tiny red g and seemed like he wanted to ce it somewhere in the north. But he didn¡¯t know where to ce it.


    Next to him, Luo Lan, who was making eyes at the secretary, suddenly asked, ¡°And which fighting force does this g represent?¡±


    ¡°The Forward Strike Battalion¡¯s Razor Sharp Company,¡± Qing Zhen replied calmly. ¡°If you harass my secretary again, I¡¯ll have Qing Yu throw you out.¡±


    ¡°Would that child, Qing Yu, dare to throw me out?¡± Luo Lan brushed it off. He pped the secretary¡¯s butt and said to Qing Zhen after harrying her out, ¡°Since you don¡¯t lust after women, why not let me have her rather than having others take advantage of her?¡±


    ¡°I bet you¡¯re running out of the ck medicine Ren Xiaosu gave you.¡± Qing Zhen nced at Luo Lan. ¡°Let¡¯s see what you¡¯re gonna do when it runs out.¡±


    Luo Lan felt a pain in his chest. ¡°I forgot to tell Tang Zhou to get some more ck medicine from Ren Xiaosu when I sent him north. Dammit!¡±


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company have already passed the Beiwan River and are continuing north.¡± Qing Zhen remarked, ¡°If something happens to him, you¡¯re gonna be out of ck medicine for the rest of your life.¡±


    ¡°What? Why¡¯s he heading further north? The Zong troops are all over the ce there,¡± Luo Lan said in surprise. ¡°When did this happen?¡±


    ¡°About two days ago. The news was ryed back a littlete this time.¡± Qing Zhen thought for a moment before saying, ¡°I wonder if he was forced to go there or if he chose to do it so he could kill the enemy himself. So don¡¯t ever underestimate a supernatural being¡¯s determination for vengeance. That¡¯s also why I chose to move into the barracks.¡±


    News of Li Shentan¡¯s revenge on the Li Consortium had already begun to spread, with several versions, either from the rumor mill or as told by those in the inner circle of the Li Consortium, going around. They were all about how that young man had buried the entire Li Consortium into the Underworld. Even people in the Central ins probably knew about this.


    ¡°This is the era of ¡®The Rise of Gods.¡¯¡± Qing Zhen said with a sigh, ¡°In the end, we have two supernatural beings around us, and one of them loves money too much.¡±


    Nearby, Zhou Qi, who was lying in an armchair and pretending to be sleeping, opened his eyes and said, ¡°Please don¡¯t insinuate things in my presence. Is it wrong of me to love money?¡±


    Qing Zhen nced at Zhou Qi and continued, ¡°At this point, I think that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower is still to be determined. I¡¯m afraid that the Zong Consortium will have a problem on their hands now that he¡¯s headed north into their territory.¡±


    Luo Lan walked to the sand table. ¡°Where do you think he¡¯ll go?¡±


    Qing Zhen thought for a moment before answering, ¡°No matter where he goes, he¡¯ll definitely appear in front of those Zong Consortium hyenas at the end.¡±


    Then Qing Zhen ced the red g down on the position of Stronghold 146. ¡°Pass along my orders. If our nted spy at Stronghold 146 encounters him, I want him to do his best to assist Ren Xiaosu. Inparison, I¡¯d rather be neighbors with that damn group from Fortress 178.¡±


    As Stronghold 146 was the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters, Luo Lan could not understand why Qing Zhen was so sure that Ren Xiaosu would go there.


    ¡°Who do you think will win between the Zong Consortium and Fortress 178?¡± Zhou Qi asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s a smart move for the Zong Consortium topact their defensive line. They know it¡¯ll be difficult to fight Fortress 178 if their field army is scattered across the wilderness, so they might as well take the fight to the front line at Mt. Wuchuan,¡± Qing Zhen said with a smile. ¡°Once the real war kicks off, it¡¯ll be easy to lose sight of the important information in battles or have situations where orders are not conveyed properly even with the aid of modernms. Also, the Zong Consortium will definitely have a contingency n. After hiding in cowardice for decades, the hyena must have some kind of trump card for daring to bare their fangs all of a sudden.¡±


    ¡°A trump card?¡± Zhou Qi asked, ¡°So you think the Zong Consortium will win?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Qing Zhen shook his head and said, ¡°We¡¯ll be underestimating Zhang Jinglin if you put it that way. I¡¯m guessing he¡¯s waiting for the Zong Consortium to y their trump card first. Once the Zong Consortium initiates that n, they¡¯ll be presenting the entire Northwest on a tter to him.¡±


    Although Luo Lan and Zhou Qi could not understand what Qing Zhen was trying to say, they knew he had already figured something out.


    Zhou Qi muttered, ¡°Why are you acting so mysterious? You should quickly think of a way to deal with the Yang Consortium instead of talking about the Zong Consortium all the time. Have you got nothing better to do?¡±


    ¡°The Yang Consortium is no longer a threat to us,¡± Qing Zhen said calmly.


    At this moment, an officer walked in and said, ¡°The Yang Consortium¡¯s envoy has been escorted here. Would you like him toe in?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, bring him in,¡± Qing Zhen said.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s envoy was escorted into themand center. However, he looked veryical as he was all bound up. This was probably because the troops were worried that he would try and assassinate Qing Zhen.


    But the Yang Consortium¡¯s envoy was not angry. He put on a smile and said, ¡°Dear Mr. Qing Zhen, patriarch of the Qing Consortium, I¡¯m here to speak with you on behalf of Yang Lichen.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t waste my time. If you have something to say, speak,¡± Qing Zhen said lightly.


    The envoy looked at the people around him. He had nned on holding secret talks with Qing Zhen and had mentally imagined how to emte the ancients and be a good lobbyist. However, he was tied up the moment he came in and had several guns pointed at him as well. In such a situation, he really couldn¡¯t fake it any longer.


    He said bluntly, ¡°Yang Lichen wants to form an alliance with you. Currently, there are expectations for hi

 Chapter 429 - A real life fairy tale

    <h4><strong>Chapter 429</strong> A real life fairy tale</h4>


    Everyone in themand center fell silent. Zhou Qi and Luo Lan stared at the envoy like he was a fool. However, they did not say anything.


    Qing Zhen smiled ambiguously at him and said, ¡°How would Yang Lichen like me to help him?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯ll supply you with the defensive deployment map of the front line at Ziyang, and you¡¯ll only be required to help him destroy the garrison there.¡± The envoy put on an ingratiating smile and said, ¡°To show our sincerity, I even brought the defensive deployment map with me.¡±


    Qing Zhen raised his eyebrows and smiled at Zhou Qi. Then he said to the envoy, ¡°How do I know that your defensive deployment map is real? Leave it with me first. I¡¯ll decide whether to help your boss after I analyze it. Enough! Men, take him out. And make sure he leaves the defensive deployment map behind.¡±


    With that, a group of fierce soldiers escorted the Yang Consortium¡¯s envoy out.


    Zhou Qi jumped to his feet and said, ¡°Is he a fucking idiot or what? Why are they still fighting among themselves at a time like this? Does he think we¡¯re ying games with the Yang Consortium? And what did he mean by gifting Stronghold 97 and Stronghold 99 to us? Who gave him permission to gift us something we already own?¡±


    Qing Zhen said calmly, ¡°Yang Huaiyin from the younger generation of the Yang Consortium is the one guarding the front line at Ziyang. As for Yang Lichen, he¡¯s also a family member of the Yang Consortium. However, he was cast aside years ago and was made overseer of a stronghold to take charge of the factories¡¯ production levels in its vicinity.¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Luo Lanughed and said, ¡°Reality will always be stranger than fiction. The things you encounter in real life don¡¯t happen in stories. It¡¯s no wonder that Yang Lichen was ostracized. So it¡¯s because he¡¯s actually an idiot.¡±


    ¡°In the battle at Stronghold 88, the Li Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers charged in and went on a frenzied killing spree. I suspect the nanomachines in their bodies were controlling them rather than the other way around.¡± Qing Zhen said, ¡°In that battle, the Yang Consortium¡¯s core figures were basically all in Stronghold 88. Now that the Yang Consortium is without a leader, the entire Yang Consortium has started fragmenting. Thus, many of those who used to be ostracized would rather fight for control of the Yang Consortium than think about how to win the war.¡±


    Yang Lichen was not the only one who sent their people here. Others had done the same.


    Of course, not all of them were that stupid. The majority of them said they would stop resisting and hoped to be granted an official position in the stronghold in the future. Meanwhile, people like Yang Lichen were difficult to find even among the idiots.


    The outside world thought the Qing Consortium would get exhausted in the war with the Yang Consortium. But in reality, the Qing Consortium was just putting on a front.


    After all, the Southwest and Northwest were not the only ces in this world. There was also the Central ins.


    ¡°But there¡¯s also smart people in the Yang Consortium.¡± Qing Zhen said with a smile, ¡°Yang Huaiyin, who is taking charge of the front line at Ziyang, he said he didn¡¯t want to resist anymore and sought an official position. He even sent the defensive deployment map of the front line at Ziyang to me. However, the defensive deployment map wasn¡¯t entirely real. He was trying to set a trap for me.¡±


    Luo Lan said with a sigh, ¡°For a huge organization like the Yang Consortium with their glorious past, who would¡¯ve expected them to end up in this state?¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at the sand table and said calmly, ¡°You should never reveal your trump cards or intentions. Else, you can only wait to be ughtered. This chess game is not over yet.¡±


    ¡°Oh, right.¡± Luo Lan asked, ¡°What are we gonna do about the Experimentals to the south?¡±


    Qing Zhen frowned slightly. Ever since the Li Consortium was destroyed, and with both the Qing Consortium and the Yang Consortium¡¯s forces returning to the North, the South¡¯s defenses were practically empty. The Qing Consortium could not possibly keep too many fighting forces guarding the South. So the territories that used to be under the Li Consortium¡¯s control were no longer able to hold back the Experimentals.


    After the Yang Consortium¡¯s defeated troops escaped with their tails tucked between their legs, Qing Zhen left a brigade in the South to ward off the Experimentals. But with so many strongholds in the region, how could a single brigade defend them all? Besides, their main objective there was to take over the strongholds and force the former officials to surrender their assets.


    In less than two months, the Experimentals had upied yet another stronghold and turned it into their territory.


    It was like a purgatory filled with demons in the fallen stronghold.


    If the Qing Consortium had not left behind an entire brigade, perhaps even more people would have died.


    Qing Zhen thought for a while and said, ¡°Let Qing Yi know that he has 15 days to capture the front line at Ziyang. After that, he is to lead the troops south to exterminate the Experimentals. I don¡¯t want to see any more people dying.¡±


    For a person who had orchestrated the entire war in the Southwest to suddenly say that he did not want to see any more people dying sounded extremely absurd. However, no one knew what Qing Zhen was thinking at this moment.


    Luo Lan asked, ¡°After they defeat the Yang Consortium, the soldiers will be exhausted. Shouldn¡¯t we let them rest rather than making them head south immediately? Why don¡¯t you use-¡°


    ¡°No, we can¡¯t use that,¡± Qing Zhen interrupted. ¡°We can¡¯t simply do as we please with some things.¡±


    Luo Lan stood up and dusted himself off. ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll oversee the takeover of the Yang Consortium¡¯s strongholds. I think those old fogeys should be quite rich. After the war¡¯s over, it can¡¯t be that our Qing Consortium keeps getting poorer, right? You¡¯re not suited to handle such rotten matters, so leave it to me.¡±


    Now that Qing Zhen was the Qing Consortium¡¯s CEO, he had to take care of his image. Hence, Luo Lan volunteered to take charge of the seizure of people¡¯s assets.


    Previously, Luo Lan had also overseen the seizure of the Li Consortium¡¯s territories. The officials and businessmen of the Li Consortium got horrified whenever Luo Lan¡¯s name was mentioned. That was because Luo Lan¡¯s methods for pilfering their assets were known to be brutal.


    Some of the officials who used to work for the Li Consortium insisted they did not have any money at all because they did not want their gold to be seized.


    However, all of them still ended up confessing after they were hung from their roofs and severely beaten for three days and three nights by Luo Lan.


    There were also methods like not allowing them to sleep and physical torture that Luo Lan resorted to. These were all methods that were used to deal with spies, so how could the officials possibly endure it?


    As of this moment, it was unknown how many people were cursing him behind his back. Everyone was iming that Luo Lan was a cannibal.


    But all the assets that were seized by Luo Lan would get put into the Qing Consortium¡¯s ount. He did not keep any of it for himself.


    Quoting Luo Lan, why would he need the money when his brother was the Qing Consortium¡¯s CEO? He didn¡¯t even have to pay out of his own pocket wherever he went.


    Qing Zhen was previously the Qing Consortium¡¯s Shadow. And now, Luo Lan looked like he had be Qing Zhen¡¯s Shadow.


    Qing Zhen looked at Zhou Qi. ¡°I want you to make a trip to the Central ins. Things are already brewing over there, so it¡¯s time to act.¡±


    ¡°You seem quite trusting of me this time.¡± Zhou Qi said with a grin, ¡°Weren¡¯t you afraid I would turn against you at thest minute? But now you¡¯re actually assigning such an important task to me?¡±


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°No one can afford to pay you what I paid.¡±


    Zhou Qi whistled. He no longer carried himself in a cultured and respectable way anymore and acted more like a mercenary. He said with a smile, ¡°Boss¡¯s generosity knows no bounds! The war in the Southwest will be over soon, and the entire Southwest will be flying the g of the Qing Consortium. Looks like I made the correct decision back then!¡±


    However, Qing Zhen suddenly said after a long silence, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s worth being happy about.¡±


    Qing Zhen stood next to the sand table and looked at the entireyout. Luo Lan suddenly remembered that his younger brother once said he actually preferred cultivating flowers to this.

 Chapter 430 - The petty Wang Congyang

    <h4>Chapter 430 The petty Wang Congyang</h4>


    On the only route from the Northwest to the Central ins, Li Shentan, Si Liren, and Hu Shuo were sitting under the shade of trees to avoid getting heatstroke. Leaning against the tree trunk, Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°The weather is really getting hotter and hotter these days. I wonder when the war in the Northwest will end.¡±


    Little Liren was scooping out a watermelon with a spoon next to him. The huge case she had been carrying was on the ground by her side. Si Liren looked up at Li Shentan. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that we¡¯re going to the Central ins? Why¡¯d we end uping here? We¡¯ve been here for three days already. Big Brother Shentan, what exactly are you waiting for?¡±


    ¡°Well, didn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu join Fortress 178 to fight the Zong Consortium?¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°He must want to kill everyone from the Zong Consortium, dontcha think?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Si Liren nodded.


    ¡°Then look at it this way. Since the Zong Consortium has so many people, there¡¯s probably gonna be some of them who¡¯ll go into hiding in the Central ins to avoid the cmity. So we¡¯re here to help Ren Xiaosu catch the fish that slip through his.¡± Li Shentan chuckled and said, ¡°In this way, no one from the Zong Consortium will escape.¡±


    ¡°Are we going to capture them?¡± Si Liren asked in seriousness, ¡°But where are we gonna lock them up?¡±


    ¡°Uh, that was just an example. We¡¯re actually gonna kill them.¡± When Li Shentan talked about killing people, it looked like it was nothing to him.


    Hu Shuo had been meditating next to them. Li Shentan looked at him and said, ¡°Grandpa, are you sure this is the only route for the Zong Consortium¡¯s people to head to the Central ins?¡±


    Hu Shuo said with his eyes closed, ¡°No, there¡¯s many other routes leading east. But if they¡¯re driving, this is the only road they can take for now. How can those self-important people who¡¯re used to livingfortably in the strongholds possibly try to pass through the treacherous mountains on foot? If they had the courage, they wouldn¡¯t be fleeing to the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Li Shentan nodded.


    Hu Shuo¡¯s mental fortitude was excellent. Even in the wilderness, he did not show any signs of being fazed, nor did he feel bored about meditating with his eyes closed.


    All of a sudden, the sound of vehicles approaching from afar rumbled. Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°Here theye!¡±


    These vehicles had traveled here from the Northwest. As Fortress 178 did not have ess to this road, so it could only be someone from the Zong Consortium.


    Li Shentan and Si Liren started approaching the convoy. They had already decided not to let any surviving members of the Zong Consortium leave here.


    Si Liren waved her hand, and the huge chest flew towards her like it was light as a feather, allowing her to carry it on her back at will.


    But just as the convoy was turning past a hill, Li Shentan and Si Liren saw a steam lotive speed out of nowhere in the wilderness and smash ruthlessly into the convoy, flipping over all of the vehicles. The steam lotive that appeared out of thin air was moving extremely fast. It looked like this was premeditated.


    The vehicles that had been hit were sent rolling across the ground. When these vehicles finally came to a stop, the people inside were either dead or injured.


    The vehicle at the head of the convoy had even been squashed like a can of sardines.


    When the people who were still alive tried their best to climb out of the vehicles, the steam lotive with four carriages that had just gone past turned around and smashed into them once more. It looked like it was determined to kill everyone in the convoy.


    Li Shentan, Si Liren, and Hu Shuo watched, their jaws dropping. They were about to make a move, but little did they expect that someone even more violent than them would appear.


    What was going on? Who had such a huge grudge against the Zong Consortium?


    ¡°Wh-Who is that?¡± Li Shentan said in surprise.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably someone seeking revenge,¡± Hu Shuo said. ¡°Let¡¯s watch from the shadows for now.¡±


    Although there were trees around here, the view of the surroundings was rtively clear. The person controlling the steam lotive should have spotted them, yet they did not attack them.


    After all, Si Liren was floating in the sky with a huge chest on her back, so it was obvious that the three of them were not to be trifled with.


    The steam lotive slowly dissipated. It had not killed everyone in the convoy yet, and one of the vehicles even managed to escape nearly unscathed.


    Wang Congyang stepped out from behind a hill at this moment. He was the one who had been controlling the steam lotive.


    Wang Congyang nced at Li Shentan¡¯s group in the distance, then crouched beside the rearmost overturned off-road vehicle of the convoy and sneered, ¡°Don¡¯t go any further. Return and tell that bastard, Zong Cheng, that our score hasn¡¯t been settled yet. I¡¯ll have plenty of time to settle things with you people in the future, but for now, I¡¯ll be happy to get the interest.¡±


    Wang Congyang was someone who would seek revenge over the smallest of grievances. Otherwise, he would not have kept making trouble for Ren Xiaosu.


    He not only possessed capability and courage but also a high level of restraint. Although he was from one of the earliest batches of supernatural beings to awaken their powers, he constantly remained under the radar and was willing to suffer the disdain of his superiors in the private troops. That was why Wang Congyang would not foolishly seek an opportunity to kill Zong Cheng after Zong Cheng had plotted against him. However, he definitely wanted to get back at him for it. If he had the chance to get his revenge, he would undoubtedly take it.


    Shouldering his backpack, Wang Congyang walked to the other off-road vehicles, acting like no one was around as he pried open one of the trunks and took out the gold in it.


    After taking away a portion, he suddenly said to Li Shentan, ¡°It was fate that we met. Thank you for not interfering. Someone from the Zong Consortium is diverting the gold in this vehicle to the Central ins. I¡¯ve only taken half of it. You guys can have the rest.¡± As Wang Congyang spoke, he slowly retreated backwards. He was so cautious that he did not even want to approach Li Shentan¡¯s group.


    Stunned, Li Shentan watched this y out. To be honest, they had not expected this turn of events. He asked Wang Congyang, ¡°Did you have a grudge against the Zong Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± Wang Congyang replied. ¡°What¡¯s in that chest you¡¯re carrying?¡±.


    Li Shentan nced at the case on Si Liren¡¯s back and said, ¡°You talking ¡¯bout this? There¡¯s a statue of a deity inside it.¡±


    Wang Congyang was stunned. He thought the little girl was carrying something valuable, but how could he have known it would turn out to just be a statue? Then he asked, ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°Oh, we also have a grudge against the Zong Consortium.... Well, I guess it¡¯s considered a grudge.¡± Li Shentanughed and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you stay around? We can kill the Zong Consortium¡¯s people together.¡±


    Wang Congyang smiled. ¡°I appreciate your kind offer, but I¡¯m used to being alone and not making friends with others. So let¡¯s just bid farewell.¡±


    Wang Congyang was a bold but careful person. He had never felt any sense of belonging to any organization or force and would never trust anyone either. He was just pursuing a good life. Yes, it would be fine if he kept living in wealth.


    Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°You said it yourself. It was fate that we met. My name is Li Shentan. What¡¯s yours, brother?¡±


    Wang Congyang¡¯s pupils contracted. How could he not have heard of it before? This name had already spread throughout the entire Southwest and Northwest. However, he had not expected to encounter this demon here!


    Wang Congyang said cautiously, ¡°I¡¯m just a nobody, so there¡¯s no point mentioning it.¡±


    Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°It looks like you¡¯ve heard of my name.¡±


    Wang Congyang said with a smile, ¡°How can I not have heard of the Demon Whisperer? I just wonder why you guys are here.¡±


    During their conversation, Wang Congyang retreated backwards quickly and conjured the steam lotive once more. Then he jumped onto it and fled into the distance.


    Li Shentan stroked his face. ¡°Am I that frightening?¡±


    Si Liren giggled and said, ¡°No.¡±


    Li Shentan watched the steam lotive depart and sighed. ¡°I guess only such emotionless people with no attachments to the world can survive in this chaotic world.¡±

 Chapter 431 - Sneaking into the North

    <h4>Chapter 431 Sneaking into the North</h4>


    Li Shentan did not finish off the person from the Zong Consortium Wang Congyang had deliberately left alive. He squatted next to the overturned vehicle and asked with a smile, ¡°Can you contact your boss right now?¡±


    The man was still dangling from the backseat of the vehicle. As the vehicle was flipped with its chassis facing up, the man was unfortunate enough to have his foot stuck and could not move at all.


    When Li Shentan reached out and opened his clenched fist, the squashed vehicle actually started uncrumpling as though it were an expanding balloon.


    When the man could move again, he kowtowed to Li Shentan. ¡°I have a satellite phone, so I can get him right away!¡±


    Li Shentan nodded and said with a smile, ¡°Give him a call then. You heard what that person said just now. Since he asked you to report back to the Zong Consortium, you should report it quickly.¡±


    ¡°OK, OK.¡± The man was traumatized and did whatever he was told. Part of it might have been the effect of Li Shentan¡¯s hypnosis or maybe panic.


    Li Shentan looked into his eyes and said, ¡°A supernatural being who can control a steam lotive has attacked you all. He said he wanted to take revenge on the Zong Consortium and has taken away all the gold.¡±


    When the call went through, the man hurriedly reported the situation. The person on the other end of the line did not even grumble and just hung up in silence.


    Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°Why isn¡¯t there any reaction? Alright, there¡¯s nothing left for you to do. You can end yourself now.¡±


    With those words, the man stood up and limped quickly towards a rock on the roadside. He rammed himself into it and died.


    Next to him, Hu Shuo asked, ¡°What was the point of having him make that call?¡±


    ¡°Grandpa,¡± Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°wouldn¡¯t it be fun if that starts a chain reaction?¡±


    Hu Shuo looked at Li Shentan. He felt a sense of anguish when he heard it was about having fun. The old man understood that his grandson did not have a healthy mind, but he knew exactly what caused it. Most people who had experienced those situations would also find it difficult to live like a normal person, wouldn¡¯t they? So all he could do was protect his grandson while he still could. Whatever he wanted to do, he would be there with him.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, who had just reached the shore, was unaware that the big picture in the South had been decided. Li Shentan was guarding at the Zong Consortium¡¯s escape route and saying he wanted to help Ren Xiaosu eradicate all of the Zong Consortium¡¯s people. He also did not know that Wang Congyang had actually been hiding in the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory for over a month after escaping from the valley, and he even pulled off a big ambush against the Zong Consortium before swaggering off.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was leading the Razor Sharp Company along the shore while moving in a crooked fashion.


    When the group of thugs from the Razor Sharp Company disembarked from the ferry, they could barely maintain the wedge. However, they seriously underestimated the aftereffects of seasickness. After all, this group of people had been seasick on the ferry for two days and two nights. They did not have much to eat during this period, and even when they did eat something, they ended up vomiting it all out. The entire group was tottering around and could not even keep to a straight path!


    When Ren Xiaosu asked them whether they were alright, they still answered that they were fine!


    Aftering ashore, they would definitely have to do something. Ren Xiaosu suggested that they change out of their uniforms first.


    Zhang Xiaoman had suggested they put on the Zong Consortium¡¯s khaki uniforms and impersonate the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers to catch the enemy by surprise. But there were too many holes in the uniforms they could gather at that time, so Ren Xiaosu rejected the idea.


    Right now would be the correct moment for them to put on the Zong Consortium¡¯s uniforms. They almost certainly wouldn¡¯t encounter any friendlies in the ce they were stepping foot in. There would only be enemies here.


    On the northern shore of the Beiwan River was a farming settlement. But at this moment, there were weeds everywhere in the fields, and the fields looked hardly taken care of.


    In the territories controlled by the consortiums, it would not be enough to just own factories. Without a supply of food, they couldn¡¯t support many people. So the consortiums alsomanded the refugees to cluster farm like how they managed their factories. Farming was basically the same as working in a factory.


    ¡°Looks like the farmer refugees have also been recruited to fight the war,¡± Zhang Xiaoman muttered. ¡°Look at all these crops. They¡¯re dying with no one taking care of them.¡±


    Farming was definitely not as simple as ¡°sowing in spring and reaping in fall.¡± If there were no one to clear the weeds, they would end up growing even better than the crops.


    ¡°What the hell!¡± Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°Look, the corn is about to bear ears, right? We don¡¯t even have this to eat in the fortress, yet they don¡¯t cherish what they have.¡±


    ¡°However, it can also be seen how great of an exaggeration the Zong Consortium made when they imed they had 200,000 soldiers.¡± Zhang Xiaoman spat on the ground. ¡°How can a group of farmers fight a fucking battle? No wonder I thought the enemy¡¯s marksmanship was piss-poor in the Battle of Shichuan Vige. I think there¡¯s probably a lot of simr cannon fodder deployed at Mt. Wuchuan as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°If the refugees here had been recruited, they might have left in a hurry and not taken their clothing with them. Let¡¯s look around and put on whatever we can find first before searching for the Zong Consortium¡¯s military uniforms.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll be easy to find clothing left behind by the refugees here,¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied. ¡°What¡¯ll be difficult is getting our hands on the Zong Consortium¡¯s military uniforms. We have to obtain those that are clean and not bloodstained. You can¡¯t possibly expect to capture an entirepany of Zong Consortium soldiers alive, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°We can just look for a garment factory. The Zong Consortium¡¯s garment factories must all be producing those military uniforms now. We can choose whatever size we like after we take one of the garment factories.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. This idea had not crossed his mind before.


    But before they could walk much further, they came across some simple ranch houses near the farming settlement that were neatly arranged in rows. It looked like these were the refugees¡¯ living quarters.


    There were a lot of clothes inside, but they were all filthy.


    But at a time like this, they could not be particr. Everyone in the Razor Sharp Company took the clothes from the houses and changed into them.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard someone humming and approaching from behind the row of houses. It was even a girl¡¯s voice that he heard.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just some normal refugees, and they aren¡¯t carrying any weapons.¡±


    When they heard Ren Xiaosu, everyone was relieved. They did not even care how Ren Xiaosu knew that.


    Zhang Xiaoman said in a low voice, ¡°They¡¯re probably refugees who came here to escape from the war. Don¡¯t alert them. We¡¯re also refugees now. Hide the guns inside the house and then head out.¡±


    The moment they stepped out, everyone was surprised to see an old man holding a little girl¡¯s hand standing in front of them. The old man and the little girl were also stunned. They had not expected so many people to suddenly appear here.


    Zhang Xiaoman smiled kindly and said, ¡°Sir, we are refugees passing by this ce. Do you have any food that we can eat?¡±


    ¡°Refugees?¡± The old man said in a startled manner, ¡°I don¡¯t think y¡¯all¡¯re refugees?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was taken aback. ¡°Why do you say that?¡±


    The old man trembled while replying, ¡°This is the first time I¡¯ve seen refugees carrying a mortar...¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman turned around and looked at Jiao Xiaochen. when he saw Jiao Xiaochen still carrying the mortar in a daze, he kicked him right in the crotch. Only now did the Razor Sharp Company finally snap out of their seasickness.


    Zhang Xiaoman said angrily, ¡°Why¡¯re you still carrying the fucking mortar?¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen climbed back to his feet and muttered, ¡°Captain, you only told us to leave our guns in the houses. You didn¡¯t say anything about the mortar!¡±

 Chapter 432 - Forced by circumstance

    <h4>Chapter 432 Forced by circumstance</h4>


    The old man looked at the Razor Sharp Company not knowing how to react. Instead, it was the little girl who startedughing when she saw Zhang Xiaoman and Jiao Xiaochen bickering with each other.


    A child¡¯s world was a simple one. They still did not understand how terrifying this world was.


    Ren Xiaosu asked the old man, ¡°What¡¯s the stronghold closest to here?¡±


    ¡°That would be Stronghold 144,¡± the old man replied truthfully. ¡°It¡¯s about 60 kilometers to the west.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°So can you confirm our location now?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Zhang Xiaoman nodded. ¡°Stronghold 144 is the Zong Consortium¡¯s granary, as 70% of the farming settlements are located near it. You could say it¡¯s a stronghold that was specially built for handling food stores, just like what Stronghold 114 is to the Qing Consortium.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°Then let¡¯s start by attacking the areas around Stronghold 144 first.¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen suddenly asked, ¡°What should we do with this old man and the little girl? Are we just gonna let them go? What if they report us to the Zong Consortium?¡±


    The old man immediately turned anxious. ¡°Sir, don¡¯t you worry. We definitely won¡¯t report y¡¯all to the Zong Consortium. Y¡¯all¡¯re from Fortress 178, right? To be honest, we were all hoping that you woulde here as well.¡±


    The Zong Consortium had oppressed the refugees too much. As a result, they had lost the support of the refugees.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If all the young and able adults weren¡¯t already conscripted by the Zong Consortium, we might¡¯ve been able to organize the refugees into an armed force behind enemy lines and encircle the stronghold. When I attended Mr. Zhang¡¯s lessons, he once mentioned that such a division won...¡±


    These words startled Zhang Xiaoman and the others quite a bit. However, they did not have the conditions to recreate something like that right now.


    From thepany, someone asked, ¡°Grandpa, is there any food here?¡±


    They were asking this because their rations were running out. Although there was the food that Ren Xiaosu had brought, Xiaoyu only prepared enough for him alone.


    Based on Xiaoyu¡¯s n, the provisions would be enough tost Ren Xiaosu three months in the wilderness without needing him to constantly look for something to eat.


    Although there was plenty of food, it was not sufficient for the entire Razor Sharp Company. Three months¡¯ worth of food for a single person would onlyst two days for 184 people. Therefore, it was extremely urgent that they find food first.


    Although Ren Xiaosu could nt some of the Potato Shooters, he would only use a method that would consume his gratitude tokens as ast resort.


    The old man said, ¡°How could we still have food? It¡¯s all been seized by the Zong Consortium. They even found and took the food that we stashed away.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the basket the old man was carrying and saw it was filled with wild vegetables. It seemed like he had taken the little girl out earlier to dig for them. The old man was not lying.


    ¡°Then what should we do?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked.


    Zhang Xiaoman gave a wave of his hand. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we can go and blow up the factories. There¡¯s so many workers in the factories, so how can they not have food there?¡±


    When everyone heard this, they immediately headed west. They were going to seek uniforms and food at the same time.


    It went better than they expected. It didn¡¯t take them long before they came across a factory that had a continuous trail of white smoke gushing out of its chimney.


    The Razor Sharp Company had meticulously nned to attack it from two different directions. However, they did not even encounter any presence of a decent garrison around it, with only two private troops guarding the ce. When they saw Ren Xiaosu andpany, they instantly knelt on the ground and begged for mercy without any resistance.


    Furthermore, all of the refugees in the factory also came outside promptly and lined up.


    Zhang Xiaoman wondered, ¡°You only have two people guarding the entire factory?¡±.


    The private troops who were kneeling on the ground said, ¡°The rest have been transferred to the Zong Consortium¡¯sbat troops.¡±


    ¡°Alright then!¡± Zhang Xiaoman seized their weapons and said, ¡°Bring out the food y¡¯all eat here. We want to take some of it with us.¡±


    The two private soldiers hesitated a little but still ended up doing as they were told.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman and the others were shocked when they saw the moldy cornbread that was brought out. He said in surprise, ¡°Is this all you have in this factory? Can any refugees step forward and answer me?¡±


    One of the refugees said, ¡°Sir, this is what we usually eat.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s face darkened. It was no wonder the Zong Consortium was unpopr with the people and that the old man had said they were all hoping for Fortress 178 to invade. It turned out the refugees were leading miserable lives.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Although the Qing Consortium was also an organization that exploited its refugees, the refugees in their factories at least had enough to eat. It wasn¡¯t about how good the Qing Consortium was, but how the other organizations made them look better.


    Jiao Xiaochen broke a moldy top of cornbread in half and saw that there were even grain chaff mixed into it. ¡°Is this thing really edible? Wouldn¡¯t you die after eating it?¡±


    ¡°Sir, it¡¯s enough as long as it keeps us alive,¡± the refugee replied.


    As this was a bronze smelter, the Razor Sharp Company could not find any clothes nor the Zong Consortium¡¯s military uniforms. This upset Zhang Xiaoman a little. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°We can¡¯t eat this. We¡¯ve also eaten horrible food before, but we really can¡¯t eat something that¡¯s already moldy. It¡¯ll affect ourbat effectiveness.¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯ll be the same at the other nearby factories,¡± Ren Xiaosumented. ¡°So if we want something to eat, we¡¯ll have to find it at the Zong Consortium¡¯s stronghold.¡±


    ¡°Since Stronghold 144 is known as the Zong Consortium¡¯s granary, we¡¯ll definitely find food there. Besides, if we can destroy that ¡®granary,¡¯ it¡¯ll trouble the Zong Consortium quite a bit. If their troops don¡¯t have any food to eat during the war, they might just stage a mutiny.¡±


    ¡°Dream on!¡± Zhang Xiaoman joked. ¡°There should be at least a regiment garrisoned inside Stronghold 144, so how¡¯re we supposed to attack it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu piped up, ¡°We can attack their baggage train first!¡±


    Initially, the Razor Sharp Company did not wish toe into contact with any of the Zong Consortium¡¯s regrs since they were behind enemy lines. But now, they had no choice but to fight. If they did not fight, they would starve to death. Their hand was forced by circumstance.


    No one could have expected that the bloodshed about to take ce within the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory would actually be sparked by a search for food.


    Two dayster, the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters suddenly received news that a convoy moving provisions had been attacked by a small group of enemy troops outside Stronghold 144. As the enemy was only a singlepany from Fortress 178, they did not manage topletely wipe out the supply column.


    Currently, Stronghold 144¡¯s garrison infantry regiment was pursuing thispany with all its might.


    A general at the headquarters on the front line frowned when he received this news. As Stronghold 144¡¯s geography was unique, Fortress 178 would have to cross a river to be able to attack that ce. But since Fortress 178 did not have any ships, the Zong Consortium did not worry too much about this ce when they were previously considering their strategic ns.


    But to their surprise, something just had to happen at Stronghold 144.


    The headquarters issued an official document to Stronghold 144 to order the infantry regiment¡¯smander to eliminate thispany that came from Fortress 178. He was to ensure the safety of the rear supply lines!


    But just a few hours after the document was sent, Stronghold 144 ryed the news that the regiment had lost sight of the enemy.


    The general at the headquarters who was in charge of logistics was enraged. ¡°How could you even lose sight of the enemy inside your own territory?! Find them! Locate thispany no matter what! Otherwise, you won¡¯t have to be the regimentalmander anymore!¡±

 Chapter 433 - Your regimental commander is dead

    <h4>Chapter 433 Your regimentalmander is dead</h4>


    Actually, the general who was in charge of logistics had bypassed the chain ofmand by issuing the order directly. However, no one said anything about it since whoever was in charge of logistics would usually be close to the higher-ups.


    The Razor Sharp Company had not actually disappeared and were instead hiding in the bronze smelter they had arrived at first. On one hand, they had to watch over the refugees in the factory to prevent them from running off and revealing their whereabouts. On the other hand, they shared a portion of the provisions they had robbed from the Zong Consortium with the refugees to win them over.


    At first, everyone was still on edge as they were afraid something could happen. After all, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s idea of hiding in the factory was a bold one. They were surprised that none of the refugees had any intentions of tattling on them. But of course, they did not have the chance to do so either.


    The refugees said that being a snitch was more trouble than it was worth. Even if they tried every means possible to escape from here and went to inform the Zong Consortium, they would not be given any rewards.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s harsh treatment of the refugees was evident.


    Some of the refugees even requested that Ren Xiaosu andpany equip them with firearms as they hoped to join the battle to fight the Zong Consortium together.


    Zhang Xiaoman naturally did not agree. But he sighed emotionally and said, ¡°If a civilization wants its people to fall to its knees, then the people will show that civilization the pride of their savagery.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman in surprise. ¡°You¡¯re quite cultured.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think of it.¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, ¡°Commander Zhang said it.¡±


    After they sessfully seized the food, the Razor Sharp Company hid in the factory again andy in wait for another opportunity. Meanwhile, the infantry regiment was not expecting the Razor Sharp Company to be so bold as to hide right under their noses.


    ¡°Currently, the garrison of Stronghold 144 must be conducting a thorough search for us. If an enemy appeared to our rear as well, we¡¯d definitely have a headache like them too,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile.


    Amid their chattering, the factory carried on with its usual operations. Only in this way would it not seem suspicious.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The Zong troops will definitelye around to ask if there are any suspicious figures around. At that time, we can determine whether they¡¯ve split up into groups or concentrated their forces to search for us. If they have split up, we can seize the opportunity to attack them.¡±


    Although the general in charge of logistics at the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters was furious, he also felt that the matter was not actually that serious. They had already guessed that thispany might have been the one that identally made the river crossing at Mt. Qiangwan, but it would be fine as long as they were not the main forces of Fortress 178.


    After all, a regiment¡¯s strength was ten times that of apany¡¯s. It was obvious who would win.


    The infantry regiment left behind a battalion to defend Stronghold 144, while severalpanies were deployed to search in all directions. ording to their ns, if apany encountered the enemy, they should stall and call for reinforcements. It would then take at most two hours for two of theirpanies to surround the enemy.


    But less than two dayster, headquarters received yet another report that apany from the garrison infantry regiment of Stronghold 144 had been wiped out and that the enemy remained on the loose. On that same afternoon, anotherpany was wiped out by the enemy. Thispany that was killed had actually gone to support the firstpany that was taken out.


    Headquarters was rmed. What was this turn of events? Didn¡¯t the enemy only consist of a singlepany? How did they manage to wipe out twopanies of theirs?


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s infantry regimentalmander was not an idiot. He immediatelybined his fighting forces and no longer split them up.


    This regimentalmander even went to the battlefield to have a look. He was surprised to discover that the enemy did not suffer any casualties in the previous battles. What the hell was with thisbat effectiveness? A supernatural being had to be part of this Fortress 178pany!


    The regimentalmander frowned as he stood on the battlefield and wondered how he should resolve this thorn in the side. His responsibility for staying behind at Stronghold 144 was to ensure that the logistics and provisions to the front line were kept safe. If this problem remained unresolved, he probably wouldn¡¯t keep his position as the regimentalmander.


    But then a pink mist erupted from the regimentmander¡¯s chest, and his entire body was knocked backwards.


    The soldiers around him grew anxious. ¡°Sniper! Sniper! Save the CO!¡±


    But how could the regimentalmander who was shot in the chest by a sniper rifle possibly survive that.


    To be honest, the Zong Consortium had never fought tough battles before. Most of the officers at the grassroots level did not even have the awareness to keep a lookout for snipers.


    No one could have expected that a sniper would actually appear here. How could an elite soldier like a sniper be attached to an infantrypany? Just how many troops from Fortress 178 had crossed the river?!


    Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters was still waiting for news of the annihtion of the Razor Sharp Company. However, they were told about the regimentalmander¡¯s death instead.


    When the general who was in charge of logistics heard this news, he wanted to curse out loud. He immediately handed the case over to the Department of War for them to handle. This was a big deal. There was a need to appoint a new regimentalmander, and someone had to be held ountable as well!


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu was also unaware that he had killed the regimentalmander of Stronghold 144¡¯s garrison. He was purely trying his luck when he found amanding point to observe the battlefield from. But when he spotted the regimentalmander in his scope, he decisively took a shot at him.


    After Ren Xiaosu scurried off from his sniping position, he even asked the pce, ¡°What¡¯s my firearms proficiency now?¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Master.¡±


    Not bad, not bad at all. Ren Xiaosu was happy. Ever since he killed the two snipers in the mountain range, he felt that his skill should have improved.


    This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had raised one of his skills to master, so he still felt a sense of aplishment. After all, he did not achieve this by copying but through his actual skill and training.


    Ren Xiaosu did not fire a second shot because he saw the Zong Consortium troops armed with heavy machine guns. If they somehow managed to react and attack his position with the heavy machine guns, he might not survive.


    After joining back up with Zhang Xiaoman and the others, Zhang Xiaoman asked him, ¡°Any sess?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I killed an officer,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    ¡°An officer? What was his rank?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    ¡°You think I could tell?¡± Ren Xiaosu said. After all, the scope was not some kind of divine artifact. At that great a distance, a person would appear as small as an ant.


    Zhang Xiaoman nodded. ¡°Alright, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s anyone important anyway. Let¡¯s head back to the factory and lie low for now.¡±


    This time, they stayed hidden for seven days straight. The Razor Sharp Company did not even see any signs of the Zong Consortium¡¯spanies pursuing or searching for them during this period. Zhang Xiaoman joked, ¡°Why have the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops ceased their search? Ren Xiaosu, could you have killed their regimentalmander?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°As if we could get that lucky! Don¡¯t even think about it. I doubt that officer would be anyone as important as the regimentalmander since he doesn¡¯t even have the awareness to keep a lookout for snipers.¡±


    But unbeknownst to them, a chain reaction had already started due to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sniping of the infantry regimentalmander.


    It would even go on to affect the situation at the front line too.


    All because the Zong Consortium now suspected that there had to be more than onepany from Fortress 178 that had infiltrated their rear lines.

 Chapter 434 - Your new regimental commander is dead too

    <h4>Chapter 434 Your new regimentalmander is dead too</h4>


    The Razor Sharp Company did not feel like they had really done much. To them, they had at most eliminated twopanies while Ren Xiaosu killed an officer. As for how he killed the officer, the Razor Sharp Company was numb to it and not particrly concerned.


    In their opinion, this was trivial. Compared to what they had done previously, it was nothing at all.


    However, that wasn¡¯t the case for the Zong Consortium. At this moment, the Zong Consortium had recalled an elite officer from the front line to Stronghold 144 to take over as the newmander of the infantry regiment there.


    This young officer¡¯s performance at the front line was without peer. The Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups had even intended to let him take responsibility for guarding Position 128 on Mt. Wuchuan.


    In the end, to resolve the matter at hand, they ordered him to return from the front line to take charge of the encirclement operation in the rear.


    Someone suggested they should just arrange for a full regiment to be redeployed to the rear to carry out the encirclement.


    However, one of the generals at the headquarters rejected this suggestion. ¡°Fortress 178 does not have a fleet. Although our defensive line at the southern shore of the Beiwan River has been crushed by the Qing Consortium, the waterway still remains under our control. There are no other vessels on that river, and even if there were, we would¡¯ve spotted them already. Therefore, this fighting force from Fortress 178 that¡¯s currently sneaking around in our backyard must be the troops that boarded the ferry at the harbor behind Mt. Qiangwan. That ship can fit 300 people on it at most, so this is the intel we have to work with.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, the 1237th Regiment from Stronghold 144 isn¡¯t weak either. If Zong Jing still can¡¯t handle this matter with a regiment at hismand, he¡¯s probably not that capable after all,¡± a middle-aged general said calmly.


    At this moment, everyone stopped talking. This general actually brought up the internal strife between the factions of the organization the moment he spoke.


    Just like most other organizations, the Zong Consortium had cracks in the foundation. Otherwise, no one would have secretly transferred their assets out.


    Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang, who were from the Zong n¡¯s main branch, were currently considered the frontrunners to lead the Zong Consortium. Meanwhile, this young officer named Zong Jing was from the fourth anciry branch, and they were all consideredpetitors with one another.


    In the end, one of the generals in Zong Jing¡¯s branch said, ¡°The enemy has a sniper, so we have to deploy our most elite snipers to Stronghold 144 as well, since the battle at Mt. Wuchuan has not reached its climax yet.¡±


    This was considered a quid pro quo, to which the other generals agreed to.


    Stronghold 144 was about 500 kilometers away from Mt. Wuchuan, and the Zong Consortium had built a simple concrete road to link up these two locations. But due to tectonic movements and ack of maintenance, the road was already riddled with potholes and cracks.


    Currently, Zong Jing had the most elite snipers from the Zong Consortium traveling with him.


    The off-road vehicle was driving down the road at a top speed of only 50 kilometers per hour.


    Zong Jing had set off during the night to head to Stronghold 144. As he was traveling light, he arrived in the territory that was overseen by Stronghold 144 by the next afternoon.


    Zong Jing was also getting very impatient. He was hoping to deal with the threat in the rear as quickly as possible so he could return to the front line where it was more feasible for him to gain des for a promotion.


    Before he even arrived at the stronghold, he was already making arrangements with the deputymander of 1237th Regiment via a phone call. The first thing he did was to order his deputy to quickly search the nearby factories. While reading the situation reports, Zong Jing realized the previous regimentalmander had missed out on checking the factories and had a feeling that the enemy troops might be hiding in one of them.


    Thus, the second-inmand sent out severalpanies to check on the twenty-something factories in the area.


    As expected, while he was still on the road that night, his second-inmand contacted him and reported that their troops had engaged the Fortress 178 troops in battle at a bronze smelter.


    Zong Jing heaved a sigh of relief. It was just as he had guessed. Right after, he asked about the oue of the battle but was met with evasiveness from his second-inmand, who told him that because there were too many factories, he had no choice but to split up the troops to check on each of the factories. He said that only a singlepany went to check on the bronze smelter, and they ended up being defeated by the enemy.


    Zong Jing went silent for a while before asking about the number of casualties the enemy had sustained. He was told they suffered no casualties at all.


    In fact, before thepany could even get close to the bronze smelter, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone had already taken out most of their troops. The shadow clone rushed into thepany¡¯s formation and shed the radio operator and his radio set first. Then it started shing all over the ce within the formation before telling the Razor Sharp Company toe and clean up the mess.


    But it didn¡¯t just end there. The shadow clone also hunted down the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers who were fleeing into the wilderness. In the end, thepany that went to the bronze smelter was wiped out before they could even see the main entrance of the factory.


    The second-inmand only reacted after he realized he couldn¡¯t contact this particrpany after half an hour had passed. But by that time, the Razor Sharp Company had already sent the refugees away and blown up the bronze smelter before escaping themselves. He didn¡¯t even have an idea of where they had fled.


    All of this was thanks to the fact that there was a war going on at the front line. Otherwise, Stronghold 144¡¯s troops were definitely not a force that Ren Xiaosu could beat. However, Ren Xiaosu only dared to attack the Zong Consortium in their own territory precisely because of that.


    Zong Jing was starting to burn with worry. It would be not appropriate for him to chide his new second-inmand in the call. After all, how could he tell him off so quickly when he was freshly posted to this regiment himself? If the other party did not cooperate with him as a result, that would be even more troublesome.


    His second-inmand asked: ¡°Should I send some troops to go and escort you? If there¡¯s any danger, they¡¯ll at least be able to protect you.¡±


    Zong Jing was really frustrated. Although he wanted to learn from the higher-ups to act patiently, he was still young and unable to rein in his anger. He couldn¡¯t help but criticize, ¡°There¡¯s no need. Continue tracking the enemy. Even though you can¡¯t do your duty, you sure are great at being an asskisser. If you can¡¯t locate the Fortress 178 troops within the day, you won¡¯t need to stay around in 1237th Regiment any longer. I¡¯ll ship you north to mine.¡±


    Meanwhile, the Razor Sharp Company was marching west in the wilderness. Thanks to Zong Jing, they could no longer hidefortably in the factories anymore. Zhang Xiaoman was cursing at Zong Jing, ¡°I wonder which Zong bastard is so cunning that they actually guessed where we were hiding.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯d you expect?¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°We can¡¯t treat the other party like they¡¯re idiots. It was only a matter of time before the Zong Consortium found out.¡±


    When they heard the sudden rumble of a vehicle driving in the wilderness, everyone threw themselves on the ground. Some of them hid in ditches while others took cover behind trees.


    over


    They had not been walking on the main road as that would be a death wish. However, they were marching parallel to the road in case they lost their bearings. If they encountered the Zong Consortium¡¯s convoys, they might even be able to rob them again.


    After all, their provisions were running out again.


    An off-road vehicle sped past them on the road. Jiao Xiaochen mumbled, ¡°It¡¯s not a convoy....¡± There was a hint of disappointment in his voice.


    Chuckling, Zhang Xiaoman chided him softly, ¡°That vehicle came from the direction of the front lines. Even if they are a convoy, it would only be an empty vehicle. Eh? Where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    They looked around and were surprised to see Ren Xiaosu lying on a hill and holding arge ck sniper rifle in front of him.


    With a loud bang, a huge dust cloud kicked up around where Ren Xiaosuy. He had fired an incendiary bullet that hit the off-road vehicle right in the gas tank.


    Everyone saw the off-road vehicle explode into a fireball in the wilderness. The vehicle parts were sted into the air beforending on the ground, scattering everywhere.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others watched in shock as Ren Xiaosu put away his sniper rifle. They only knew that Ren Xiaosu was capable of sniping, and this was the first time they had witnessed the process themselves. Including the sniper rifle, how many powers did Ren Xiaosu have? Three?!


    Stunned, Zhang Xiaoman wondered if Ren Xiaosu might even possess more than three superpowers.


    When Ren Xiaosu came back over, Zhang Xiaoman asked, ¡°Why did you shoot them?¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before answering, ¡°If they can travel in an off-road vehicle, they should at least be lieutenants, right? In that case, why not just kill them?¡±


    ¡°True.... Let¡¯s hurry and leave. It¡¯s time to switch locations.¡± Zhang Xiaoman led the Razor Sharp Company and escaped into the depths of the wilderness. The Zong Consortium was tracking them closely, so they had to find a ce to lie low for a bit.


    But when news of Zong Jing¡¯s death was reported back to headquarters, the Zong Consortium¡¯s centralmand fell so quiet that only their heartbeats could be heard.

 Chapter 435 - Pursuit

    <h4>Chapter 435</h4> <h4>Pursuit</h4>


    Zong Jing, who was from the fourth anciry branch of the Zong n, was also one of the frontrunners of the younger generation. But it was only because Zong Cheng was a supernatural being that he, as a normal person, had mostly been overlooked.


    Of course, they were only outstanding because they werepared with the other members of the Zong Consortium. If thisparison included everyone else, then Qing Zhen, who was a simr age to them, had already surpassed their achievements by bing the head of the Qing Consortium. But because of Qing Zhen¡¯s coup, the Zong Consortium¡¯s Board seemed to have started bing wary of the troops controlled by the n¡¯s family members. They were all worried that what happened to the Qing Consortium would y out in their organization as well.


    The fourth anciry branch of the Zong n knew that Zong Jing was definitely notparable to Zong Cheng or Zong Xiang, but still, he couldn¡¯t just die like that!


    Moreover, Zong Jing had taken two of the most elite snipers from the Zong Consortium¡¯s military with him. As a matter of fact, the cost of training a sniper wasparable to training a fighter pilot before The Cataclysm!


    ¡°I¡¯ll deploy the recon battalion to Stronghold 144.¡± A general said gloomily, ¡°I want to make sure these Fortress 178 troops will never return home!¡±


    ¡°Seconded! It¡¯s better to leave such pursuits in the wilderness to the recon battalion. Besides, the front at Mt. Wuchuan doesn¡¯t require them either. But more importantly, we can¡¯t allow these Fortress 178 troops to find out about our contingency ns,¡± the general sitting at the end of the conference table said in a low voice.


    Everyone was cowed by the words. The contingency ns seemed extremely important.


    Moreover, Stronghold 144 was the Zong Consortium¡¯s granary, and the military rations at the front line could onlyst for about 15 days. If they did not resolve the problem of the infiltration quickly, the battles at the front line might get affected as a result.


    ¡°It¡¯s decided then. Order the recon battalion to set off immediately. As for the role of the infantry regiment¡¯smander, I rmend Zong Han take over. The defeat we suffered at the Beiwan River has already proven that Zong Han is not suitable as a brigademander, so demote him and make him report to Stronghold 144 instead.¡± ¡°Seconded, but let¡¯s not make the same, stupid mistake as the previous time. Have the 1237th Regiment send some troops to receive him.¡±


    All of the Zong Consortium¡¯s generals were upset. Although this issue did not really affect the Zong Consortium as a whole, these troops from Fortress 178 that had infiltrated their rear lines were a thorn in the side and a niggling source of pain.


    They were about to begin the final battle at Mt. Wuchuan, yet they still had to redeploy their troops to the rear.


    However, the Razor Sharp Company evaporated into thin air and did not appear again around Stronghold 144 for the next seven days.


    When the Zong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance battalion arrived, they started tracking from the area where Zong Jing was attacked. These soldiers were all experts at hunting people in the wilderness, so it would be easy to find the tracks of an entirepany if they wanted to.


    For example, trampled grass, human excrement, and other tracks that suggested people had been there before would all alert them.


    But when they followed the trail to a small stream, the tracks stopped abruptly. The Zong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance troops realized that the Razor Sharp Company had made use of this small stream to escape, but they could not ascertain where they had gone.


    This left the Zong Consortium in a very ufortable position.


    For example, someone wouldn¡¯t be disgusted by seeing a palm-sized spider at home but that it disappeared right after one turned one¡¯s eyes away for a moment.


    Three dayster, three military factories in the vicinity of Stronghold 145 fell under attack. These three factories were not technologically advanced in any way either. They were just factories that manufactured the mostmon bullets, hand grenades, and mortar shells.


    The defenses at the military factories were still pretty tight, yet the mysterious troops from Fortress 178 seemed to havee prepared and were able to blow up all three factories in a


    day.


    Of course, the Razor Sharp Company was only able to make such swift attacks because they had the refugees helping them. How else would they have gotten such detailed information on where to attack?


    After blowing up the factories, the Razor Sharp Company once again made use of the stream to leave so that they could hide elsewhere in the wilderness. Some of the Zong Consortium¡¯s generals were going crazy with rage. ¡°It looks like Fortress 178 was fully prepared for this. How could those troops have made the river crossing identally? They¡¯re obviously trying to copy the Qing Consortium¡¯s tactics and are targeting our military factories! Tell the garrisons of those strongholds that if anything happens to the other military factories under their watch, I¡¯ll have all of them executed!¡±


    Immediately, all of the military factories in the north were ced under lockdown. It looked as though all of them were facing a formidable enemy, as they split up half of the troops garrisoned in the strongholds to head out and protect the military factories.


    Meanwhile, the Zong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance battalion lived up to their expectations of locating the Razor Sharp Company. At some point, from atop a distant hill, they even managed to catch a glimpse of the retreating figures of the Razor Sharp Company.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance battalion was cursing at this in their minds. Why weren¡¯t these troops from Fortress 178 following a proper route? Were they just randomly moving and going wherever they liked?


    At the start, the Zong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance battalion was chasing after them from behind. When they spotted some disorderly tracks, they thought the Razor Sharp Company was deliberately trying to mislead them. However, after almost catching up to them a few times, they suddenly felt that from the unconcealed manner that this group of soldiers were moving, it did not suggest that they were trying to intentionally leave behind a trail to mislead them. It purely felt like they had just taken the wrong route and were turning back to retrace their steps!


    But the more it felt like this, the more disgusted the Zong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance battalion grew. After the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s attacks on the military factories, they felt that they had more or less figured out what the Razor Sharp Company was thinking


    Hence, the Zong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance battalion took a shortcut as they wanted to set up an ambush for the enemy, but they did not see the Razor Sharp Company appear even after a long time had passed. It was only then that they realized the Razor Sharp Company had turned around again.


    What the hell was this? Weren¡¯t they afraid that there would be pursuers behind them? They actually turned around?!


    In fact, the Razor Sharp Company had only turned around because Fu Rao had lost his Shichuan Vige medal. They turned back to see if they could find it. After all, the medal was worth 10,000 yuan.


    Of course, the Razor Sharp Company was not treating this as a game either. When Fu Rao asked to turn around to search for his lost medal, he had sought Ren Xiaosu¡¯s permission to do so. Then Ren Xiaosu said that he happened to want to turn around as well.


    There was actually anotheryer of safety for the Razor Sharp Company, and that was the shadow clone that was roaming the wilderness.


    In fact, as long as their presence was small enough, it wouldn¡¯t be difficult for them to stay hidden in the wilderness. If the Razor Sharp Company was anyrger in size, they would not be able to resort to such guerri tactics.


    ¡°So where do we go now?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    ¡°That group of soldiers pursuing us makes things a little tricky. I feel like their overall quality is much higher than the Zong soldiers we defeated before.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned.


    If it were a normal unit, they would have abandoned the chase long ago. However, these troops were much more difficult to deal with. Ren Xiaosu had also nted a few of the Brambles as a trap for them. But in the end, they were not even hindered by it. When the enemy troops saw the strange red vines hidden within the patches of grass, they avoided them entirely.


    Even if someone identally got entwined, the others would definitely try their best to rescue them. As such, it was very difficult for the Brambles to cause any casualties.


    ¡°We can¡¯t just keep letting them chase us like this. We nearly had a close range exchange of fire with them on many asions already.¡± Zhang Xiaoman thought for a while and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we attack them frontally?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I suspect that they might also have snipers. How could there be no snipers in such an elite battalion? So I think it¡¯s still better to avoid them for now.¡±


    ¡°Then what should we do?¡±

 Chapter 436 - The annoying recon battalion

    <strong>Chapter 436 The annoying recon battalion</strong>


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s forced march. We¡¯re turning back to Stronghold 144 while they¡¯re busy setting up an ambush ahead!¡± Ren Xiaosu decided.


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company did not question Ren Xiaosu on how he knew the enemy had taken a shortcut and gotten ahead of them to set up an ambush. They were used to this.


    But suddenly, Ren Xiaosu frowned. This reconnaissance battalion was able to react much faster than he had expected. When the enemy saw that the Razor Sharp Company had not fallen for their ambush, they immediately pursued them again!


    ¡°They¡¯re really annoying.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned. However, he also gained something unexpected.


    His shadow clone was lurking in the wilderness and taking the most concealed routes to get everywhere. These routes were also the favorites for a sniper to take.


    His shadow clone hade face to face with an enemy sniper. However, when a sniper encountered something as powerful as the shadow clone, it was easy to imagine what would happen. All it took was a single sh and it was over.


    However, the Zong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance battalion was still rapidly closing in on them. The troops had switched from their previously patient pursuit into a headlong attacking chase. It was as though they wanted to overwhelm the Razor Sharp Company right here with their strength and numbers.


    An ORBAT like the reconnaissance battalion was always the strongest in terms of individualbat effectiveness. Some people would even refer to them just as spec ops.


    Although the Razor Sharp Company had also won their fair share of battles, the difference between them and the reconnaissance troops was still huge. Be it their physical strength, marksmanship, or tactics, the Razor Sharp Company was nowhere near the level of the recon troops.


    Seeing the distance between the twobatants closing, Ren Xiaosu did not even use his shadow clone to slow them down. If it got struck in the center of its forehead again in a crossfire, the situation in which Fu Rao got struck down would probably repeat itself. His shadow clone was now his most important scout.


    Ren Xiaosu tried to activate the Shadow Door to throw some grenades at the enemy. However, the enemy¡¯s recon troops were well-trained. As soon as the Shadow Door opened up in the darkness, it was greeted with a hail of bullets.


    Fortunately for Ren Xiaosu, he did not look through the Shadow Door at a direct angle. Otherwise, the bullets would probably have prated and struck him! If he had put his arm out, it would most likely would¡¯ve been shot to mincemeat too.


    <b>arn</b>


    They were facing a strong opponent this time!


    It was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s first timeing up against such a well-trained unit in battle. This was just like the sense of oppression he felt back when he faced Xu Man¡¯s troops from the Qing Consortium in the Jing Mountains.


    ¡°Xiaosu, are we gonna get out of here this time?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked rather nervously. ¡°I heard that people call out the names of those closest to them in times of fear?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. ¡°Then d¡¯you know who ¡®fuck¡¯ is?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman did not know whether tough or cry. He said, ¡°How the fuck are you still in the mood to crack shitty jokes? Why don¡¯t you leave on your own first, Xiaosu? You can move fast, so bring the others along with you. I¡¯ll stay behind and form a defensive line with 1st toon to cover you all as you leave!¡±


    When a decision was called for, someone would have to sacrifice themselves to ensure the survival of others.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°Why are you always trying to sacrifice yourself? Don¡¯t worry, with me around, it¡¯ll be hard to die even if you really want to.¡±


    Suddenly, a ck steam lotive spewing ck smoke from its smokestack phased into reality as it sped out of a gray fog.


    When Zhang Xiaoman and the others saw something thatrge appearing in front of them, the warriors of the Razor Sharp Company felt very humbled. At the same time, they were very shocked by the sight of it. This was probably another one of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpowers.


    Speaking of which, just how many powers did Ren Xiaosu have? This was throwingmon sense out the window! It would have been fine if he only had two or three powers, but why were there still more being revealed?


    ¡°Hop on!¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ll take y¡¯all for a spin.¡±


    ¡°Damn, it¡¯s my first time riding a train...¡±


    While muttering, everyone got onto the train, each faster than thest. After all of the Razor Sharp Company had boarded the steam lotive, it started traveling north, traversing the mountains like they were a roller coaster.


    When the enemy recon battalion that was pursuing them saw this sight after stepping out from a mountain pass, they could only stop in their tracks and stare in bewilderment, not knowing what to do.


    Themander of the recon battalion nearly went crazy with anger. ¡®If you had such a power in the first ce, you should have used it long ago! We¡¯ve been chasing after you for two days, yet you only revealed such a hack now?! Why! By not showing off a power like that, does it make you feel closer to the ground?¡¯


    Themander of the recon battalion felt like a mess. ¡°Radioman, hurry up and notify HQ about this. Which stronghold is north of here? Tell them to be on guard with everything they¡¯ve got. There¡¯s a train heading for them right now!¡±


    However, after Ren Xiaosu¡¯s steam lotive drove north for dozens of kilometers, it suddenly made its way back towards Stronghold 144. Having already attracted so much attention from the enemy, wouldn¡¯t it be asking to die if he continued heading further into enemy territory?


    Moreover, the Zong Consortium¡¯s stronghold garrisons in the north would surely be waiting for them by now.


    Therefore, it was better to return to the vicinity of Stronghold 144 instead. It was easy to choose between fighting or leaving. If he decided to flee in the end, he could just cross the Beiwan River.


    Although the steam lotive was traveling through the mountains like there were no obstacles, it was still a particrly ¡°exciting¡± ride. Sitting down, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company held tightly onto the armrests in the carriages while yelling, ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu guffawed. ¡°See? Didn¡¯t I tell y¡¯all that when people get scared, they shout ¡®fuck,¡¯ not the names of those closest to them?¡±


    The steam lotive was moving at a very fast speed. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the wilderness. A few hourster, the steam lotive returned to the territory of Stronghold 144 once more. Ren Xiaosu suddenly looked ahead of the train and said, ¡°There¡¯s some troops up ahead. Looks like about twopanies of soldiers. Why don¡¯t we get some target practice while we¡¯re on the train?¡±


    ¡°Twopanies? They¡¯re probably troops escorting a supply column. We don¡¯t have a lot of rations left, so why don¡¯t we hold them up?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°But can your steam lotive stand it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s strong! Let¡¯s do this!¡± Ren Xiaosu roared carefreely. The strong winds on both sides of the steam lotive howled as it traveled alone across the vast wilderness.


    It had been a long time since Ren Xiaosu felt so carefree!


    The steam lotive was rapidly approaching the twopanies of soldiers. However, when it got closer, they realized these troops were not part of the supply columns.


    The deputymander of the 1237th Regiment had just led twopanies to receive Zong Han, their new regimentalmander, and escort him back to Stronghold 144.


    They had heard that Zong Han used to be themander of the brigade that was stationed at the Beiwan River. Due to his defeat at the front line, he got demoted to regimentalmander. However, everyone knew that Zong Han had the backing of the Zong n¡¯s main branch, so he would surely rise again someday. Therefore, they still had to serve well for him.


    The deputymander sat in the passenger seat of the troop transport truck while Zong Han took the off-road vehicle. Suddenly, the driver of the troop transport truck shouted, ¡°Oh no, there¡¯s a train approaching us from behind!¡±


    As the steam lotive had followed the convoy of vehicles, only the driver had noticed it in his rearview mirror. When the deputymander heard that, he was amused. ¡°How can there be a fucking train out here? That thing only runs between Stronghold 145 and Stronghold 146!¡±


    ¡°But there¡¯s really a train!¡± the driver said in panic.


    The deputymander peeked out of the window in his confusion and was greeted by the sight of a ck steam lotive surging towards them. ck smoke was puffing out of the steam lotive¡¯s smokestack as it whistled!

 Chapter 437 - Chain reaction

    <strong>Chapter 437 Chain reaction</strong>


    ¡°Quick, avoid it! Get out of the way!¡± The deputymander watched as the steam lotive got closer and closer. He went numb with fear and could only wonder why something like that would suddenly appear out in the wilderness.


    Segments of railroad tracks were materializing and joining up at the front of the train as a loud metallic nging rang out while it surged forward. The driver tried his best to speed up, but if he went too fast on this uneven road, the truck would flip over!


    ¡°Soldiers in the back, set up the HMGs and prepare to fire!¡± The deputymander shouted, ¡°Prepare for battle!¡±


    While the vehicles drove over the uneven ground, the soldiers of the 1237th Regiment were hastily setting up the heavy machine guns at the back of the trucks. As the road was too bumpy, it took them a long time to even load the ammunition.


    The radio in the truck crackled to life. Zong Han, who was in the off-road vehicle up front, asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why did a train suddenly appear behind us?¡±


    ¡°It should be an enemy attack, but don¡¯t worry, Regimental Commander, we¡¯ll definitely stop the train behind us!¡± The deputymander turned around and shouted to the soldiers, ¡°Fire!¡±


    The machine guns were going ratatat, but the troops realized these normally unstoppable killing machines of the battlefield could only cause some sparks to fly as the bullets ricocheted off this strange steam lotive in front of them!


    The steam lotive was traveling much faster than the convoy. Ren Xiaosu frowned as he endured the pain and said, ¡°When we pull up to them, I want all of you to get up and start shooting! Remember to look out for any supplies that they might be carrying!¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers hid under the windows of the carriages, which acted as natural defenses for them. This was clearly a quick pursuit battle, yet it felt like an ambush instead.


    This Zong Consortium¡¯s convoy consisted of ten troop transport trucks and a single off-road vehicle. When the steam lotive caught up and began traveling parallel to the convoy, the Zong Consortium soldiers fired crazily at it.


    But even their bullets would run out at some point. When the Zong Consortium¡¯s heavy machine guns finally required reloading, their soldiers were greeted by the sight of multiple automatic rifles and some heavy machine guns poking out from the train¡¯s windows and firing at them.


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers did not even have to reveal their heads since they remained crouched under the windows as they fired.


    The scene could not look any stranger than what was happening.


    The Zong Consortium troops were shocked. What kind of fucking power was this?


    They wanted to take cover, but the problem was that they did not even have a ce to hide. The troop transport trucks were just covered by a simple sheet of canvas, and it wasn¡¯t like it was bulletproof!


    As soon as the exchange of fire started, many of the Zong Consortium soldiers were downed by the gunfire.


    Ren Xiaosu shouted from the front of the train, ¡°I¡¯ve had a look! This convoy isn¡¯t carrying any supplies. Let¡¯s leave!¡±


    With that, the steam lotive turned away and headed in a different direction in the wilderness.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu did not want to take out this group of Zong Consortium soldiers. But when they fired at the steam lotive, Ren Xiaosu still felt the pain. He was already sweating as he could not take it much longer.


    Fortunately for the deputymander of the 1237th Regiment, he survived the attack. He had also been hit by bullets, but since he was sitting in the passenger seat, the side door helped to lessen the velocity of the bullets. Hence, the gunshots wounds he suffered were not too deep. He got slightly lucky as the recoil of the heavy machine guns was so strong that their aim became erratic and mostly missed him.


    After all, the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s troops did not even show their heads and were only hit whoever was unlucky enough to get in their blindfire.


    The deputymander recalled that he vaguely heard Ren Xiaosu shouting. So they had fuckinge here to steal supplies, and at the same, took the opportunity to shoot at his troops?


    The deputymander stared nkly at the steam lotive as it disappeared into the distance. They were leaving just like that?! What kind of fucking troops were these?


    Suddenly, the deputymander¡¯s expression changed. He picked up the radio and said, ¡°Regimental Commander? Are you OK, Regimental Commander?¡±


    The driver in the off-road vehicle picked up his radio and replied, ¡°The Regimental Commander... has fallen in the line of duty....¡±


    The deputymander of the 1237th Regiment was on the verge of tears. Did Fortress 178 have a grudge against their 1237th Regiment or something? Why were they always targeting themanders of their regiment? In less than half a month, three of their regimentalmanders had died! This must have been on purpose! Who had the regimentalmanders provoked?!


    On the train that had gotten far away, the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s troops were cheering. ¡°That was such a fun battle, and the enemy did not even get to see any of our faces! I dare say that we killed at least half of their twopanies. That makes how manypanies we¡¯ve wiped out so far?¡±


    ¡°Lemme see...¡± Zhang Xiaoman started counting on his fingers. But after a long time, he still could note up to an exact figure.


    Jiao Xiaochen suddenly asked, ¡°Did you get that person in the off-road vehicle just now? It didn¡¯t look like the driver was killed. Did we not hit him?¡±


    They had been so focused on avoiding getting shot that no one dared to look out of the steam lotive before it fully turned away.


    Ren Xiaosu thought back and said, ¡°The passengers in the front and back should all be dead.¡±


    ¡°I wonder who it was that died,¡± Jiao Xiaochen mumbled. ¡°I reckon the officer was not a junior officer this time. My guess is that it¡¯ll be a battalionmander at the least.¡±


    ¡°Haha, who cares?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°As long as they¡¯re dead, that¡¯s all that matters!¡±


    Actually, even the Razor Sharp Company themselves did not know they had already killed three regimentalmanders. After all, it was unlikely that a regimentalmander would be so bored that he¡¯d flit around outside.


    They also did not know that the deputymander of the 1237th Regiment was on the verge of a breakdown at this moment.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters once again received news of a death, Zong Han. The generals called for an emergency meeting, and one of them said, ¡°There must be a spy among us. How else would the people of Fortress 178 know about Zong Han¡¯s redeployment and go ambush him?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. The enemy wants the 1237th Regiment to fall into disarray so they can disrupt the supply lines at Stronghold 144.¡± One of the generals said, ¡°There must be an insider who leaked Zong Han¡¯s whereabouts.¡±


    Suddenly, a middle-aged man looked over at the staff officer who was listening by the side. ¡°What did you say about the method the enemy used to attack them?¡±


    ¡°It was a steam lotive!¡± the staff officer replied.


    That middle-aged general sneered and said, ¡°This was all Zong Cheng¡¯s doing. I remember that he had deployed his troops to ambush a supernatural being named Wang Congyang, and that supernatural being¡¯s power is to summon a steam lotive.¡±


    ¡°However, the steam lotive that appeared this time seems a little different. The train that was previously mentioned only had four carriages, but the train that appeared today had sixteen!¡±


    ¡°The powers of supernatural beings are not something that we can really assess. What if the superhuman can freely change the number of carriages as they please? I¡¯ve nevere across a repeated superpower in the world before.¡± The middle-aged general sneered and said, ¡°It was Zong Cheng that didn¡¯t handle this matter properly. He¡¯s still young, after all, so maybe we should not rush to ce him in too important a role. My 131st Brigade won¡¯t be ying along with you all anymore. I¡¯m going to hunt down those troops from Fortress 178 myself.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you should do that.¡± Someone asked in confusion, ¡°Your 131st Brigade is in charge of one of the most important positions at Mt. Wuchuan. Who will guard the front if your troops leave?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s none of my business. If we don¡¯t get rid of these Fortress 178 troops, it will be a disgrace if word gets out.¡± The middle-aged general turned around and left the headquarters.


    It wasn¡¯t really as righteous as it sounded when he said that he would hunt down the Razor Sharp Company. In reality, the assets he had tried to transfer to the Central ins were all in Wang Congyang¡¯s hands! That was the wealth he had spent the greater part of his life amassing!


    With the appearance of the steam lotive, this middle-aged general had immediately found his adversary. He was going to take back all of his assets.

 Chapter 438 - The deputy commander makes a run for it

    <h4>Chapter 438 The deputymander makes a run for it</h4>


    In the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters, the general sitting at the end of the conference table had a grim expression on his face. However, this was not due to Zong Han¡¯s death, but because Zong Wu actually disobeyed his orders and pulled his 131st Brigade out from Mt. Wuchuan!


    The soldiers of the 131st Brigade were the trusted troops of Zong Wu. As they had undergone training in Stronghold 149 for several years, their allegiancey with Zong Wu and not the consortium.


    In the past, no one bothered about him over that. But after this time, the patriarch of the Zong Consortium would probably have to deal with him. However, that would have to wait until the war was over.


    Although the Zong Consortium had not been united all along, they still maintained the same goals. At the very least, no one dared to break the status quo like now. Zong Wu was actually using the military influence that he had to openly defy his battle orders. Instead of guarding the front, he decided that he wanted to capture the troops from Fortress 178.


    If it continued like this, the morale of the Zong Consortium would plummet!


    Instantly, the generals in the headquarters fell silent. No one knew what the others were thinking


    Actually, the matter of Zong Wu transferring his assets was initially kept secret. But there was no such thing as a perfect secret, so everyone already knew about it.


    was


    ¡°We¡¯ll now move on to discussing the situation affecting the stability of our rear lines.¡± Zong Ying, themander of the frontline forces, said, ¡°Does anyone have any


    opinions?¡±


    Everyone had assumed this was just apany of soldiers that likely consisted of a supernatural being and a sniper. Later on, it felt like there might have been more than onepany involved. But up until then, no one felt that a single unit could be enough to affect the entire war.


    But all of that had changed today. The appearance of that steam lotive meant that this small group of soldiers had great mobility, and not even the reconnaissance battalion could catch up to them in the wilderness.


    Thus, this small unit from Fortress 178 had suddenly be a huge threat because no one knew what exactly they would do next.


    The main issue was that Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company did not have any clear objectives of what they wanted to achieve. They would spontaneously start a battle if they felt confident of winning. If they did not think that they could win, they would just run away. No matter what actions they took, the results were all that mattered...


    They operated by the motto: Even we don¡¯t know what we want to achieve!


    This unpredictability proved to be very fatal in the war. The Zong Consortium could no longer sit idly by as the enemy troops messed around in their territory!


    Zong Ying, themander of the frontline forces, wore a dark look. He never expected that he would have to worry over a smallpany when he was in charge of over a 100,000 troops!


    Someone spoked up, ¡°I also think that we have to get rid of this unit in the rear. However, hasn¡¯t Zong Wu already taken his 131st Brigade to handle them? Isn¡¯t a single brigade enough? He¡¯s also leading a mechanized brigade that¡¯s well-equipped, so just let him deal with them.... There¡¯s no way we can call him back now anyway.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not enough.¡± Zong Ying said, ¡°Attach two supernatural beings to his brigade.¡±


    Next to him, a general who was in charge of managing the supernatural beings nodded and said, ¡°Alright, but we only have a total of five supernatural beings. If we lose any of them, that could affect our subsequent ns.¡±


    Zong Ying looked at him coldly. ¡°Now is not the time to consider the future. I want those troops from Fortress 178 to die in our Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. Also, there¡¯s no need to appoint a newmander for the 1237th Regiment anymore. Just have the deputy take over as the actingmander.¡±


    Being appointed the actingmander was a good thing. If one did not make any mistakes in that duration, the appointment would likely be made permanent as a result.


    But at this moment, a staff officer said, ¡°I¡¯ve just received news that the deputymander has run away.¡±


    Zong Ying ws confused.


    The simple-minded Razor Sharp Company did not know how huge of a chain reaction they had set off. This series of events even managed to affect the main forces of Fortress 178.


    At this moment, Zhang Jinglin was being briefed on the sitrep. The key point of the report was that the Zong Consortium¡¯s 131st Brigade had suddenly retreated from the front line and abandoned their position entirely.


    This was extremely odd. In fact, the Zong Consortium¡¯s 131st Brigade was causing a lot of trouble for Fortress 178 on the front lines. That mechanized unit was extremely difficult to deal with.


    Hu Xingzhi, who was themander of Fortress 178¡¯s armored brigade, frowned and said, ¡°It¡¯s very out of character for them to suddenly abandon their position entirely. They retreated just like that while we were still shelling them. In the end, we were only shelling an empty space. But the good thing is that we¡¯ve already captured that position, so it¡¯ll save us a lot of trouble.¡±


    ¡°Do y¡¯all think that this might be a scheme by the Zong Consortium?¡± Zhou Yinglong mumbled. ¡°They did blow up all of Shichuan Vige, after all, so they had better not have buried something destructive in the position we just captured!¡±


    Hu Xingzhi shook his head. ¡°I thought the same as you at the beginning, so I ordered our troops to immediately carry out checks after seizing the position. We found no problems at


    all.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s weird...¡±


    ¡°Not only that,¡± Wang Fengyuan, the director of the intelligence agency, said from beside them, ¡°every one of you should know that our Fortress 178 was quitete to the intelligence gathering game. However, we¡¯ve got a pretty goodwork spread through the Zong Consortium. I¡¯ve received updates via radio that the Zong Consortium has also moved their recon battalion back to the rear. However, our intelligence agent is still quite low-ranking, so we don¡¯t know exactly what is happening over there.¡±


    ¡°Also, the Zong Consortium¡¯s supply lines have suddenly changed, so that could somehow be rted to this. Originally, they were transporting their supplies from Stronghold 144, but they have temporarily switched to using the backup supplies at Stronghold 145.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the Razor Sharp Company,¡± Zhang Jinglin said.


    As soon as Zhang Jinglin spoke, the entire headquarters quieted. Zhang Jinglin said calmly, ¡°I think the Razor Sharp Company might be causing quite a bit of trouble for the Zong Consortium in their rear. That¡¯s why they had to deploy their recon battalion and 131st Brigade back, to deal with the Razor Sharp Company.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong cautiously asked, ¡°Commander, are you serious? There¡¯s only a hundred-some men in the Razor Sharp Company. How could they possibly kick up such a huge fuss? I know those bastards very well. They¡¯re not capable of something like that.¡±


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu¡¯s in the Razor Sharp Company now.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°With him around, there¡¯s definitely such a possibility. Otherwise, it¡¯d be very difficult to exin why the Zong Consortium is acting so strangely. Moreover, for a unit like the recon battalion to be moved back to the rear, they must be fighting a very targeted battle. Apart from the Razor Sharp Company, would the Zong Consortium have any other enemies at their rear?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Zhou Yinglong answered.


    Everyone knew the Razor Sharp Company were the only Fortress 178 troops who were currently behind Zong Consortium lines. It was just that everyone had a feeling that they would not trouble the enemy so badly. As such, they found the idea a little unbelievable.


    But after eliminating all of the possible scenarios, the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s presence behind enemy lines was still something they could not deny.


    ¡°No matter how they did it, and no matter what they¡¯re doing now,¡± Zhang Jinglin looked at themanders around him and said, ¡°we have to pressure the Zong Consortium even more on the front lines now. We can¡¯t let them deploy more troops back to deal with the Razor Sharp Company any further, so we¡¯ll have to press even harder in order to help the Razor Sharp Company in the rear. After this, we¡¯re going to implement a more detailed battle n.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Everyone nodded.


    But themanders of Fortress 178 were all very curious as to what the Razor Sharp Company had done behind Zong Consortium lines.


    The troops from both sides were still at the stage of testing each other¡¯s capabilities at the front line of Mt. Wuchuan. But a series of dominoes that had been toppled by the Razor Sharp Company brought the tempo of the war to a more intense level.


    Meanwhile, the Razor Sharp Company that was the cause of all these happenings was currently hiding in the mountains and eating roasted potatoes.

 Chapter 439 - A brief reorganization

    <h4>Chapter 439 A brief reorganization</h4>


    ¡°Ahh, this potato smells so good!¡± Zhang Xiaoman retrieved a charred potato from the campfire with a tree branch. Before it even cooled down, he had already opened his mouth and bit into the potato. Instantly, the entire makeshift campsite was filled with a unique aroma of roasted potatoes.


    At this moment, they were situated at the edge of the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. The reconnaissance battalion that was pursuing them was probably still around 200 kilometers away, so they did not have to worry about enemy troops for now.


    For the next few days, they could finally eat some fresh rations. The moment everyone bit into the potatoes, it felt like their life wasplete.


    ¡°How exciting it is to be fighting a war alongside Ren Xiaosu.¡± Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, ¡°In the past, I¡¯ve never thought that our Razor Sharp Company would actually kill so many enemies. I was still expecting that half of our troops would get sacrificed in the Battle of Shichuan Vige.¡±


    ¡°Oh, where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu?¡± Fu Rao asked.


    ¡°He said he was going to catch some fish,¡± Jiao Xiaochen answered. ¡°I¡¯ve realized something. With Ren Xiaosu around, it wasn¡¯t even necessary to bring our rations. We¡¯ll never starve since he can find food at any ce.¡±


    As they chatted, thepany of soldiers removed their shoes and leaned back against the rocks next to them in contentment.


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were all thinking they were probably the most leisurely fighting force on the battlefield right now with the most freedom to do whatever they wanted.


    Hiding behind enemy lines, they did not have to listen to anyone¡¯s orders and did as they liked.


    ¡°Do you think we¡¯ll be awarded a second-ss decoration when we return this time?¡± Fu Rao asked, ¡°Will we be given some rare medal for our achievements?¡±


    Someone said, ¡°You¡¯re trying to ask if there¡¯ll be a more valuable medal given out, right? Haha!¡±


    Fu Rao was from a poor family, so he always felt a little inferior around others. There was a woman he liked but did not dare confess to, and in the end, he could only watch as someone from the armored brigade snatched her away from him.


    In the beginning, the Razor Sharp Company did not actually have the practice of selling their medals. After all, it was a badge of honor that was bestowed to them for their contributions. But there was one time when Fu Rao asked that if he was the only one to sell off his medal, would that make him look like he did not have a collective sense of honor? His mother had fallen sick and he needed the money urgently. Although medical allowances were a thing in the stronghold, his mother needed a controlled substance for her illness, which was more expensive.


    In the end, Zhang Xiaoman asked him why he did not sell off his medal when the rest of them had already sold theirs.


    With that, Fu Rao started to feel more at ease, and selling war medals becamemon practice within the Razor Sharp Company.


    Back when Fu Rao wanted to turn around to search for the medal he lost, Zhang Xiaoman and the others agreed to do so without a second thought. As for the medal they found, that was actually Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s.


    After all, how could it be that easy to find a thumb-sized medal out in the wilderness?


    At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman analyzed, ¡°Look, our military¡¯s most impressive award is the Neb Medal that buyers in the ck market offer 200,000 yuan for. However, we don¡¯t stand much of a chance of getting that since it¡¯s only awarded to the most outstanding soldiers with the greatest contributions in war. But I think we can try to aim for the Star Medal instead. That medal can still fetch over 50,000 yuan on the ck market!¡±


    Fu Rao¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°That much?¡±


    ¡°You had better believe it!.¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, ¡°Once you receive the Star Medal, you can pay off the debts incurred from your mother¡¯s medical treatment.¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Fu Rao said with a silly smile, ¡°Then what kinds of contributions do we need to make to get that award?¡±


    ¡°We should¡¯ve already earned enough battle achievements. Since we don¡¯t have that many people in our unit and were made to fight this battle by ourselves, the standards could probably be lowered a little. We were lucky to take advantage of our enemies in the rear to stand out with our contributions.¡± Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment before saying, ¡°We¡¯ve already wiped out at least sixpanies, but that¡¯s probably only enough to earn us the Star Medal. If we can add a few more kills involving the more important Zong Consortium officers, we¡¯ll definitely qualify for the Neb Medal.¡±


    ¡°More important officers? What rank would those officers have to be?¡±


    ¡°They would have to be regimentalmanders at least.¡±


    ¡°Then how can we possibly achieve that? For someone like a regimental infantrymander, they¡¯ll surely be heavily protected.¡± Fu Rao shook his head in disappointment.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu returned with several dozen fish strung up through their gills on a straw rope. He said, ¡°If y¡¯all want to earn a medal, then earn the best one there is. Let¡¯s aim for the Neb Medal with our achievements. Y¡¯all have yet to count the three factories that we destroyed, and who knows what else we can achieveter.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Why don¡¯t we take the fight to Stronghold 144? That stronghold is the Zong Consortium¡¯s granary, so if we can cut off the food supply to the Zong troops, it would definitely be a great achievement from us. With so many of Stronghold 144¡¯s troops already wiped out by us, their defenses must be quite empty.¡±


    ¡°As if it would be that easy. We might¡¯ve been sessful in our attacks on the Zongbat troops in the wilderness, but for a small unit like us to break into a stronghold, that¡¯s nothing more than a death wish,¡± Ren Xiaosu said testily as he skillfully skewered the gutted fish onto the branches.


    Jiao Xiaochen came up with a bad idea. ¡°Why don¡¯t we poison Stronghold 144¡¯s water source at the river? We can either throw some animal carcasses in to spoil the water. That¡¯ll cause a lot of misery to Stronghold 144.¡±


    But Zhang Xiaoman retorted, ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t the stronghold residents suffer as well?¡±


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s true....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. After a while, the aroma of roasted fish drifted into the air. He spoke up, ¡°Let¡¯s have fish for the next few days. They¡¯re really easy to catch. It feels like there¡¯s too many of them in the river.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman came over. ¡°Xiaosu, skip the fish talk for now. Do you have any good ideas? What should we do next?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and answered, ¡°We can at most pull off another attack in the vicinity of Stronghold 144 before we leave again. Think, is there anything other than food that requires a constant supply in wartime?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman pped his hands. ¡°I¡¯ve got it! Let¡¯s destroy their garment factories so their soldiers on the front line have no uniforms to wear!¡±


    The entire Razor Sharp Company looked at Zhang Xiaoman in silence as the sight of Zong Consortium soldiers fighting naked in battle appeared in their mind¡¯s eye. It was an awful sight that made their eyes bleed!


    ¡°Uniforms aren¡¯t a necessity.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head with a dark look. ¡°Even if new uniforms can¡¯t be sent to the front line, they can still wear their old and tattered ones. It wouldn¡¯t cause much of an impact.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman gave it some more thought. ¡°Then let¡¯s attack their footwear factories! Boots wear out very quickly in war, so it would surely cause a huge impact if they don¡¯t get new ones to wear, right? It¡¯ll hurt their feet if they don¡¯t have boots to wear.¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company continued looking at Zhang Xiaoman in silence. This time, Ren Xiaosu ignored him.


    Ren Xiaosu thought about all the effort they had put in so far to deal with the enemy, and all that was just so they could make the Zong Consortium soldiers have no boots to wear?


    It actually felt quite good thinking about it, but the problem was that there were too many footwear factories around. Something like that did not require much technical know-how to make, and some of the factories were even located inside the strongholds.


    Jiao Xiaochen piped up, ¡°There¡¯s one thing the Zong Consortium really can¡¯t do without. If its supply is stopped, they can¡¯t fight anymore.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Their oil supply! Gas and diesel! The Zong Consortium has many mechanized troops that can cause a lot of trouble for our forces. But without oil, their mechanized troops are as good as scrap metal.¡±

 Chapter 440 - Are you a sore loser?!

    <h4>Chapter 440 Are you a sore loser?!</h4>


    In modern warfare, there were myriad uses for gasoline and diesel. Without it, mechanical equipment such as tanks, trucks, and off-road vehicles could not be operated. How were the tanks supposed to operate when the time came for them to roll out? Would the armored brigade troops push them into battle?


    So when this suggestion was proposed, everyone¡¯s eyes lit up. Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°I¡¯m guessing that the Zong Consortium¡¯s attention is already on us, so it won¡¯t be easy for us tounch another attack on Stronghold 144. But we¡¯re a highly mobile force and can take the battle elsewhere quickly.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman felt like he could already see the end of this war. ¡°That¡¯s right. If we cany waste to all of the Zong mechanized troops, I would definitely protest against Commander Zhang, the old bastard, if he doesn¡¯t award us the Neb Prize!¡±


    Everyone looked at the arrogant Zhang Xiaoman without saying a word. Zhang Xiaoman rubbed his face in awkwardness and coughed. ¡°Excuse me, I got too proud.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was the typical thug in theirpany. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°We still haven¡¯t gotten down to cutting off the supply lines for their oil supply. But since we¡¯re about to depart from this area, we have to bring something with us to eat. Who knows if it¡¯ll be easy to look for food farther in the north? Once we find the oil refineries there, we¡¯re gonna destroy them all!¡±


    The n was immediately put into effect. The Razor Sharp Company set off the next day. Since Ren Xiaosu had already revealed his Steam Lotive power, there was no point in holding back anymore.


    In this war, Ren Xiaosu was no longer apprehensive about keeping too many secrets. Instead, he tried toe up with more ways to use his powers to the best of their potential so he could live up to his determination of getting revenge.


    In the morning, the Razor Sharp Company took the steam lotive as they prepared to ambush the convoys traveling on the supply lines. While they waited, they were bored out of their wits. But before any convoys could arrive, they heard a loud rumbling.


    This distant rumble sounded like heavily armored vehicles rolling across the ground. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What¡¯s that sound?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve got fucking tanks iing!¡± Zhang Xiaoman was startled. He picked up his binocrs and observed the troops that had just appeared on the horizon. ¡°What are these mechanized troops doing here? Shouldn¡¯t they be engaged in battle at Mt. Wuchuan? Or is our intel outdated? How has the situation changed at the front lines?¡±


    Fu Rao muttered, ¡°Could we have already lost?¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company fell silent for a moment. That was actually a very reasonable assumption. After all, why would an armored brigade suddenly appear at the rear if the war hadn¡¯t ended yet?


    And from the looks of it, the armored brigade even seemed like they were still at full strength.


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± Zhang Xiaoman firmly denied it. ¡°Even if the Zong Consortium is really strong, we still have a lot of Fortress 178 troops in the war. So how can we be defeated so quickly? These mechanized troops must be here for us!¡±


    Pfft! Ren Xiaosu who was next to him drinking from a canteen spat out a mouthful of water onto Zhang Xiaoman. Zhang Xiaoman wiped his face and said unhappily, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    ¡°An entire armored brigadeing to fight an infantrypany like us?¡± Ren Xiaosu was shocked but could not figure out why this armored brigade would appear here either. ¡°Has the Zong Consortium gone mad?¡±


    Didn¡¯t their Razor Sharp Company only wipe out several of the Zong Consortium¡¯spanies, a few convoys, and several junior officers while giving their recon battalion the slip for two days?


    ¡®Well, alright, although we did go a little overboard, that still shouldn¡¯t warrant sending an entire armored brigade to attack us! Is there really a need for that? Huh? Is there? Are you a sore loser?!¡¯


    ¡°What should we do now?¡± Zhang Xiaoman looked to Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°What¡¯s the point of fighting if they¡¯re really here for us?¡± Ren Xiaosu said. Who knows how painful it would be for him if the tanks fired at the steam lotive? He did not even know if he could endure such great pain.


    ¡°Retreat, retreat! If this armored brigade is really here for us, it¡¯ll be a great achievement if we can lure them away from the front lines.¡± Zhang Xiaoman was not panicking and even got a little excited as he said, ¡°Let¡¯s head north now to attack the oil refineries!¡±


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters had juste up with their next battle n as the original needed revising. This was because Fortress 178¡¯s troops had suddenly started attacking them relentlessly at Mt. Wuchuan, putting immense pressure on them.


    The two sides had been probing the other¡¯s strength with their attacks. But all of sudden, it had turned so intense that it felt like it was the final battle already.


    This was Fortress 178 trying to buy time and space for the Razor Sharp Company in case the Zong Consortium deployed more troops back to the rear to deal with them.


    And they were sessful in achieving this objective. The Zong Consortium¡¯s frontlinemander, Zong Ying, was calling Zong Wu three times a day to request him to divert the armored brigade back to the front lines. In the end, Zong Wu ignored him, which left Zong Ying fuming mad!


    This was too maddening!


    He was even tempted to tell Zong Wu that he would make up for the gold he lost, so just hurry up and bring the armored brigade back to the front line!


    At this moment, the generals at the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters knew that Zong Wu was likely to leave the Zong Consortium for good after capturing that person who had seized his gold. It was either that, or he would end up forming a new consortium of his own. After all, Zong Wu did control an army now, and that was something that could truly help him survive in this chaotic world.


    But would the Zong Consortium let him off so easily? Zong Ying had attached two supernatural beings to Zong Wu¡¯s forces to hunt down the Razor Sharp Company together. However, these two supernatural beings had another mission as well. After the primary objective was achieved, they would immediately kill Zong Wu to prevent the armored brigade from leaving with him.


    Moreover, if Zong Wu were not dead, how would Zong Ying establish his authority in the future? How would he answer to the elders of the Board?


    ¡°Zong Wu will definitely not return to Mt. Wuchuan. We¡¯ll have to think of another n,¡± Zong Ying said with a dark expression.


    But at this moment, a staff officer came in to report, ¡°Those troops from Fortress 178 in our rear have suddenly destroyed three of our oil refineries in a day!¡±


    Zong Ying jumped out of his seat. ¡°They destroyed what?!¡±


    ¡°Our oil refineries. But there¡¯s no need to worry, Commander. It was just the cooking oil refineries that were destroyed,¡± the staff officer hurriedly exined.


    Zong Ying heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°Why the fuck did those Fortress 178 troops destroy those factories? So that we won¡¯t have oil to cook with? Or did they have other goals?¡±


    One of the generals hesitated for a moment before asking, ¡°Could it be that they were trying to destroy our crude oil refineries but blew up the wrong targets?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± Zong Ying coldly rejected this possibility. ¡°How could such elite troops make such a rookie mistake? They must have some other motives. Send orders down to study the connection between the oil refineries that were destroyed!¡±


    A general asked, ¡°But what if they really just wanted to destroy our crude oil refineries?¡±


    Zong Ying hesitated for a moment. ¡°Tell the crude oil refineries to go on full alert! Raise the readiness of the garrison troops at those refineries!¡±


    The crude oil refineries had their own garrison forces to defend them. If Ren Xiaosu and the others knew the importance of fuel in wartime, how could the Zong Consortium not know?


    Meanwhile, Jiao Xiaochen wasining to Zhang Xiaoman on the train, ¡°Captain, if we can¡¯t find the right target next time, why don¡¯t we just give up? The Zong Consortium must¡¯ve started taking precautions at those refineries.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman shouted at the top of his lungs, ¡°Can you me me for that? Huh? When we questioned the refugees on where the oil refineries were, they were so enthusiastic to answer us. At that time, none of you doubted what they said either, so why are you ming me now!¡±


    ¡°We aren¡¯t ming you....¡±


    Listening to this noise, Ren Xiaosu could feel the back of his head throbbing.

 Chapter 441 - Idiotic

    <h4>Chapter 441 Idiotic</h4>


    Hope was always such a beautiful thing, and the mindset of the Razor Sharp Company was very simple. Wasn¡¯t it just crippling the Zong Consortium¡¯s mechanized troops from the perspective of cutting off their fuel?


    However, reality was cruel. They were in an unfamiliar ce and did not even know where the oil refineries were located.


    When they found some refugees to ask for directions, the refugees answered all their questions enthusiastically. Furthermore, the refugees promised to keep it a secret.


    But when the Razor Sharp Company arrived at the oil refinery and discovered that it was only a factory producing can oil for cooking with, they were shocked!


    After attacking three factories in a single day, they did not evene across one proper crude oil refinery and were exhausted to death. In the end, Ren Xiaosu was forced to bring everyone back to the uninhabited wilderness to figure out their next steps.


    And so, the n to attack the crude oil refineries was abandoned. They had already attacked three oil refineries, after all, so the Zong Consortium would easily figure out what the Razor Sharp Company was up to. As such, the actual crude oil refineries would most likely be heavily guarded by now.


    ¡°Then what should we do?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked while smearing some cooking oil they had stolen onto a fish for grilling.


    Actually, what Ren Xiaosu and the others did not know was that if they had taken the steam lotive and headed straight to Stronghold 144 before the 131st Brigade arrived, they might have been able to destroy the Zong Consortium¡¯s granary.


    After all, half of the garrison infantry regiment¡¯s troops had already been wiped out in their previous skirmishes, and a further three of their regimentalmanders were killed one after the other, including a deputymander who fled from his position. The remaining troops had fallen into disarray without a leader.


    If they reallyunched an attack on the stronghold, the enemy might not be able to organize an effective defense against them.


    Unfortunately, their intel was outdated. They still did not know they had already killed three of the 1237th Regiment¡¯smanders.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s just destroy some of their factories as and when we encounter them.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Didn¡¯t we say that we could learn from the Qing Consortium¡¯s tactics? They just destroyed whatever instations they came across and wiped out the entire Yang Consortium¡¯s industry as a result.¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen said, rolling his eyes, ¡°Can wepare to the Qing Consortium? They had over a 1,000 troops to fight their enemy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not participating in the discussion with the Razor Sharp Company because he knew it would be very difficult for them toe to a conclusion. It was better for the Razor Sharp Company to not have any ns at all. By doing so, the enemy would not be able to sense a pattern in their attacks, and that would prevent them from being caught in a meticulously nned ambush.


    On top of that, he was also wondering about the whereabouts of Zong Cheng at this moment. He had heard that Zong Cheng was in charge of the garrison troops at the Zong Consortium¡¯s main stronghold. Luo Lan even disdainfully said that the garrison troops were where the family members of the Zong Consortium got posted.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°Where¡¯s the Zong Consortium¡¯s HQ?¡±


    ¡°In Stronghold 146. It¡¯s about 400 kilometers away from here.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said in surprise, ¡°Xiaosu, don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re thinking of attacking their headquarters? We don¡¯t have enough people for that. There should be at least a brigade garrisoned at Stronghold 146 right now. It¡¯s their headquarters, after all, so it¡¯ll definitely be different there.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I was just asking.¡±


    He kept pondering this. That was a whole brigade they were talking about. It seemed like he could only wait for Fortress 178 to join up with them here before they could attack the Zong Consortium¡¯s main stronghold together. Otherwise, he would be seeking an early death if he led the Razor Sharp Company in by himself.


    But at this moment, the sound of armored vehicles could be heard out in the distance again. It sounded like the armored brigade that was chasing after them had caught up.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°How did they manage to find us?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Zhang Xiaoman was a little confused. By rights, they should not have left any tracks when they left their previous campsite today.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not worry about that for now. That armored brigade can¡¯t move as fast as us. We can discuss that after we get away from here.¡±


    But just as they were about to leave, a young man suddenly walked over alone from afar with a knife in his hand. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and the others and, with a smile, said loudly, ¡°I¡¯ve finally found you people¡ª¡±.


    Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Xiaoman reacted in double-quick time and started firing at him.


    But to everyone¡¯s surprise, when the bullets arrived in front of the young man, a glow resembling a yellow honeb structure appeared and blocked the bullets.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t you let me finish speaking? That¡¯s so rude.¡± The young man shook his head and said with a smile while looking calm and collected, ¡°One of you here should be Xu Xianchu, right? And which one of you might that be?¡±


    Right at this moment, a bright yellow glow suddenly appeared again behind the young man like an impregnable stronghold. But this time, the young man looked down in astonishment as the ck tip of a de emerged through his chest. Blood was flowing out from it as well. With that, he could no longer say another word.


    Then Ren Xiaosu put the ck saber away and closed the Shadow Door. He asked, ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡±


    The young man slumped to the ground as the aura around him faded away.


    Zhang Xiaoman replied, ¡°He¡¯s probably a supernatural being from the Zong Consortium. Why does he look and seem kinda idiotic?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression changed. When they were making their way through the mountains to the Beiwan River, someone had seen his shadow clone. That was probably how the enemy determined that Xu Xianchu was among theirpany.


    He couldn¡¯t allow this supernatural being to continue rambling. Otherwise, his secret would be exposed. Zhang Xiaoman and the others had still not seen his shadow clone yet. Thus, he went straight for the kill. But Ren Xiaosu had not expected him to die so easily.


    Ren Xiaosu also knew that the overall quality of supernatural beings in these times was quite inconsistent. Not everyone hadbat experience, and some of them could even be quite arrogant too. Yang Xiaojin had told him that a supernatural being in the Central ins had immediately announced that they were going to rule over the entire Central ins after their power was awakened. In the end, that supernatural being was killed in the shooting spree that ensued.


    There were also those who said they wanted to protect the peace but ended up getting killed as well.


    In any case, there were all kinds of people out there, and not everyone was as careful as Wang Congyang.


    However, the supernatural being they met today was exceptionally stupid. Who knew how the Zong Consortium had raised him?


    ¡°Forget it, let¡¯s not bother with him anymore. We have to move since our position might¡¯ve beenpromised.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu summoned the steam lotive for them to get away from here, leaving behind the corpse of the supernatural being alone in the wilderness. The Razor Sharp Company did not even give him another look.


    But what Ren Xiaosu did not know was that this supernatural being was actually arrogant for a reason. That was because in the three months since he had been recruited by the Zong Consortium, they had been testing the hardness of his ¡°defense system.¡± Subsequently, they discovered that he was even able to block artillery shells that were fired at him from reaching his body.


    Therefore, the sudden appearance of this supernatural being was actually to stall the group before the armored brigade arrived. If it were anyone else, they might not have been able to keep the Razor Sharp Company from escaping


    But to his surprise, there was really nothing that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ck saber could not cut. The pce had said that it was the sharpest weapon of all, and it seemed like it was really not lying. It was definitely the sharpest weapon with nothing elseing close.


    Thus, the supernatural being perished.


    Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company rode the steam lotive off into the distance again. When Zong Wu, who was pursuing them from behind, saw that they had gotten away again, he cursed angrily, ¡°I thought you all said that the guy was a very powerful supernatural being? Why can¡¯t he even stall the enemy for a while?! Piece of shit!¡± Then Zong Wu looked at the other supernatural being standing next to him and said, ¡°Are you also a piece of shit?¡±


    That supernatural being¡¯s eyes twitched. ¡°I¡¯m definitely more powerful than him, but my expertise is in locating other supernatural beings, not fighting them. I¡¯ve already sought out so many supernatural beings for the Zong Consortium...¡±


    Zong Wu waved him off impatiently. ¡°Alright, alright, I get it already! So where are they now?¡±


    ¡°My power can only be used three times a day, and I¡¯ve already used it three times today. Furthermore, the effective range cannot exceed a 100 kilometers.¡±


    ¡°And you dare say that you¡¯re not shit.¡±


    Zong Wu was starting to get anxious over his gold, so how could he still be in the mood to y nice with this supernatural being?


    When this supernatural being heard that, he got a little annoyed. He did not bring up the doubts he had either. Based on the power of his perception, it was clear that there was only one supernatural being among the enemy. So then, why was everyone saying there were two, or even three of them?


    Wasn¡¯t that really strange?

 Chapter 442 - The deputy regimental commander helps clear things up

    <h4>Chapter 442 The deputy regimentalmander helps clear things up</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company were having a discussion on the train, and Zhang Xiaoman wondered out loud, ¡°How did the armored brigade find us?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Could the things we took from that factory we destroyed have GPS trackers on them or something?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked.


    ¡°It can¡¯t be. We only took away some cooking oil from there and nothing else. There wasn¡¯t really anything valuable anyway.¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked everyone, ¡°Did y¡¯all take anything with you?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± The soldiers all shook their heads. ¡°We¡¯re in the middle of a war, so why would we do something so stupid that we affected ourrades? We definitely did not steal anything.¡±


    ¡°Then could we have a spy among us?¡± Zhang Xiaoman scolded, ¡°Who¡¯s the traitor? I¡¯ll give you a chance if you own up right now!¡±


    ¡°I think you look more like the spy!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, I also think that the captain looks like a traitor.¡±


    A proper discussion had suddenly devolved into a nonsensical bantering. Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°There¡¯s definitely no spy in ourpany. It should be a supernatural being with rted powers that found us, I think? Since the Zong Consortium thinks so highly of us, and even sent an armored brigade after us, there¡¯s no reason they would only send one supernatural being to do the job. There must be another one out there.¡±


    If there were a spy, it would not have been so easy for them to take out the enemies at the Beiwan River and Mt. Qiangwan. The infantry regiment of Stronghold 144 would also not have found them so difficult to handle either.


    Moreover, the fatality rate of the Razor Sharp Company had always been extremely high. Sending a spy in would be too risky since the spy would most likely get killed once they reached the front line. No matter how stupid the intelligence agency¡¯s director at the Zong Consortium was, they would not ce a spy in the Razor Sharp Company. There was little value in that and the chances of dying were extremely high.


    It was only when Ren Xiaosu joined the Razor Sharp Company that it suddenly became a very important fighting force.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s guess was that this was the doing of a supernatural being.


    After all, it was very difficult for normal people to understand the miracles of supernatural beings.


    ¡°If this armored brigade still manages to find us despite our attempts to get away, then what?¡± Jiao Xiaochen asked. ¡°I¡¯ll be very disgusted if we can¡¯t shake them off our tail.¡±


    Just the thought of being pursued by more than 4,000 troops and not knowing when they would catch up really made them nervous.


    ¡°That supernatural being must have some way of finding us.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned as he thought about it. Not even a supernatural being could be omniscient and be able to find anyone they wanted. There had to be conditions for a power like this.


    The shadow clone had a maximum control range of only one kilometer, and the Shadow Door¡¯s maximum effective distance was also at one kilometer. Therefore, he did not believe that the enemy¡¯s supernatural being¡¯s power was not limited by distance as well.


    Actually, the person whose expertise was searching for other supernatural beings had made great contributions to the Zong Consortium.


    Take, for example, the only three supernatural beings around someone like Qing Zhen. Including the one who had shielded him from the sniper attack and died, there were four of them.


    This was not to say there was ack of supernatural beings in the Qing Consortium¡¯s territories. People like Wang Congyang and Xu Xianchu also lived under the Qing Consortium rule, but they stayed hidden by keeping a low profile as they were not willing to use their powers to work for others.


    Therefore, there were still quite a lot of supernatural beings around. Ren Xiaosu felt that the number of supernatural beings within an organization¡¯s territories should be in the double digits at least, but not all of them had been identified yet.


    However, it was different at the Zong Consortium¡¯s territories. For example, that kinda idiotic supernatural being Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company had encountered earlier, as well as Han Yang who had been hunted down by Yang Xiaojin, they were all found by this person who could sense the existence of other supernatural beings. After locating them, they were forcefully recruited into the Zong Consortium¡¯s military.


    Of course, the Zong Consortium was not harsh on them. They were all treated very well so they could be brainwashed into serving the organization.


    Meanwhile, this supernatural being who could locate other supernatural beings yed too important a role. Just for this mission alone he had an entirepany of recon troops assigned to protect him. This reconpany was only responsible for protecting him and did not have to do anything else.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before turning the steam lotive away from the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory at full speed. He wanted to see if he could shake off this armored brigade by getting as far away from them as possible.


    But after traveling for quite some time, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw an off-road vehicle up ahead driving east. Due to the bad conditions of the road, the off-road vehicle was not moving too fast.


    ¡°Eh? Why¡¯s an off-road vehicle all the way out here?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked. ¡°There should be no presence of the Zong Consortium¡¯s military in this remote area.¡±


    ¡°I wonder who it is.¡± Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°But it¡¯s someone from the Zong Consortium for sure, so why don¡¯t we kill them?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t get anxious.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Whoever¡¯s in that off-road vehicle is definitely at least an officer. Let¡¯s capture them and see if we can get anything from an interrogation.¡±


    At this moment, the deputymander of the 1237th Regiment was driving the off-road vehicle by himself to escape from the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. He did not even bring his wife along, or it would definitely have aroused the suspicion of others.


    At this moment, his wife might just be cursing at him back at Stronghold 144.


    But he had to flee! The Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters had suddenly said that he would be promoted to the position of regimentalmander, but that damn unit from Fortress 178 was precisely targeting whoever was the regimentalmander!


    Although, this deputymander wasn¡¯t very sure of that either. It could have just been a coincidence that three of their regimentalmanders were killed one after the other, but he still could not help but feel very nervous.


    But while he was fleeing, he suddenly noticed the steam lotive approaching him in the rearview mirror. Alright, that confirmed it! He was now sure that the opponent was really out to kill themanders of the 1237th Regiment. He had fled this far away, yet they were still chasing after him! ¡®This is fucking crazy! I already said that I don¡¯t want to be the regimentalmander!


    However, this was also not exactly a coincidence. After all, the deputymander was just trying to escape, while the Razor Sharp Company was doing the same too. As both parties were essentially going in the same direction, how could they not run into each other?


    If the steam lotive traveled further for another 100 kilometers or so, Ren Xiaosu would even get to see Li Shentan again.


    The appearance of the steam lotive quickly forced the off-road vehicle to stop. The deputymander was also very decisive in doing so. He got out of the vehicle with his hands in the air. ¡°I surrender! Don¡¯t kill me! I already said that I won¡¯t be the regimentalmander, so why are you still pursuing me? I¡¯m really not going to be the regimentalmander!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and the others hopped out of the steam lotive with puzzled looks on their faces. What the hell was this guy talking about?


    ¡°What regimentalmander?¡± Zhang Xiaoman pointed his gun at the deputymander and slowly approached him. ¡°Is there anyone else in the vehicle?¡±


    ¡°No, there¡¯s no one other than me!¡± The deputymander was close to tears when he saw Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s fierce expression. There were more than a 100 people surrounding him, so he felt like he wouldn¡¯t survive this even if he had ten lives!


    ¡°What did you mean by that just now? What about the regimentalmander?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a frown.


    The deputymander was also confused. ¡°Aren¡¯t you specifically hunting down our 1237th Regiment¡¯smanders?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others looked at each other in confusion. What the hell was he going on about? When the deputymander gave them a detailed exnation, the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company only had two words: ¡°Holy shit!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve killed three regimentalmanders already?!¡± Jiao Xiaochen was shocked.


    Ren Xiaosu was extremely shocked as he listened to the deputymander¡¯s ount. Meanwhile, the deputymander looked at the Razor Sharp Company and thought to himself, ¡®What¡¯s with the shocked expressions on all of your faces?¡¯


    ¡°We should at least be worthy of a Star Medal now, right?¡± Fu Rao mumbled.


    ¡°I bet it¡¯s even possible that we¡¯ll get awarded the Neb Medal...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu cut him off and said, ¡°Don¡¯t get off topic. Are there any supernatural beings within the Zong Consortium who are good at finding people?¡±


    The deputymander was taken aback but said, ¡°Finding people? I don¡¯t know about that, but I do know there¡¯s a supernatural being who¡¯s good at searching for other supernatural beings.¡±

 Chapter 443 - Raiding Stronghold 144!

    <strong>Chapter 443 Raiding Stronghold 144!</strong>


    The Razor Sharp Company had been in the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory for some time now. While they had gained many victories, they were essentially running around like headless chickens due to ack of intel.


    How blind was the Razor Sharp Company on the battlefield? Most of the time, they only knew they had won but did not know who they had won against, they didn¡¯t know who else wasing to attack them.


    But now that they had suddenly caught the deputymander of the 1237th Regiment, the Razor Sharp Company was suddenly enlightened through him on what they had achieved.


    Ren Xiaosu was still most concerned about why the armored brigade was constantly able to find them, and he was able to find out about this as well from this deputymander. ¡°So there¡¯s actually someone who can find other supernatural beings, and he even managed to recruit quite a few of those he found? Did you say that he can only sense the presence of other supernatural beings who are within a radius of a 100 kilometers?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. He was even escorted to Stronghold 144 to search for a supernatural being who lived there. I only found out there was someone like that at that time.¡±


    The deputymander sat on the ground obediently and epted his interrogation. Off to the side, Fu Rao asked softly, ¡°Did we really kill three regimentalmanders?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Li Mingli, Zong Jing, and Zong Han. Of these three people, Zong Han was originally the brigademander at the Beiwan River...¡±


    Fu Rao was overjoyed. Based on what this deputymander was telling them, their Razor Sharp Company had really achieved something great! The Star Medal that was worth 50,000 yuan was surely in the bag now!


    This time, the money he owed for his mother¡¯s medical bills could finally be repaid!


    Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman chuckled as he looked at the deputymander and said, ¡°If we didn¡¯t encounter you, I wouldn¡¯t¡¯ve known that I was so awesome!¡±


    Beside him, Jiao Xiaochen said, ¡°What¡¯s that got to do with you? Shouldn¡¯t it all be thanks to Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman red at Jiao Xiaochen. ¡°No wonder your jawline seems more chiseled now. So it was because you¡¯ve been practicing talking back to others in recent days, huh?¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen was at a loss for words. ¡®What the hell are you getting at?!¡¯


    As for the deputymander, he did not even dare to make a sound for fear of angering this damn crowd.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°We discovered that an armored brigade is pursuing us. Why? Our unit¡¯s so small. There¡¯s no need to deploy an armored brigade after us, right?¡±


    ¡°The higher-ups thought that a lot of you had infiltrated our territory in the rear,¡± the deputymander exined cautiously. ¡°But I don¡¯t really know about the armored brigade since that was after I left.¡±


    ¡°Then what¡¯s going on at Stronghold 144 right now? What¡¯s the situation with your 1237th Regiment?¡±


    ¡°Before I escaped, the troops of the 1237th Regiment were in a state of disarray.¡± The deputymander said softly, ¡°There weren¡¯t many garrison troops who stayed behind in Stronghold 144 in the first ce, but a further half of them were taken out by your unit afterwards. I can¡¯t be sure of what happened after I fled, but I guess there¡¯s no one left in Stronghold 144 to manage the troops. As for the other officers of the 1237th Regiment, they¡¯re mostly divided and not on good terms.¡±


    ¡°I know what we should do now!¡± Ren Xiaosu eximed.


    During that afternoon, the Razor Sharp Company brought the despondent deputymander with them and made their way to Stronghold 144.


    At this moment, the armored brigade should still be tracking them in the northward direction. However, the tracking radius of that supernatural being was only up to a 100 kilometers. The steam lotive had gone far beyond that distance and shaken them off long ago.


    The armored brigade might sound like an intimidating force, but the marching speed for tanks and armored vehicles in the wilderness would not go beyond 60 kilometers per hour. Most tanks these days could only travel at a maximum speed of around 80 kilometers per hour on t terrain. With that kind of speed, how could they possibly catch up to the Razor Sharp Company?


    Therefore, the Razor Sharp Company had topete in speed with the armored brigade at this moment! You want to pursue and kill us, right? Happy chasing then! Good luck!


    When the steam lotive arrived at the gate of Stronghold 144, itpletely ignored the garrison troops on top of the walls that were firing their machine guns at it. Before the garrison troops could adjust the angle of their close-range guns, the steam lotive had already smashed right through the gate.


    Ren Xiaosu spat out a mouthful of blood. However, he just looked at the deputymander as though it was nothing and said, ¡°Where¡¯s the granary!¡±


    The deputymander said numbly, ¡°To the east.¡±


    When he decided to flee, it was not only because he did not want to ept the role of regimentalmander, but that he was also worried about being used as a spy and getting arrested. After all, three regimentalmanders had died while he was their second-inmand. At the same time, the enemy seemed to be able to predict where the regimentalmander would show up. So would you dare to say that it had nothing to do with you, the second-inmand?! The link was too obvious!


    Perhaps they might not touch him while the war was still going on, but someone would surely be held ountable after the dust had settled.


    The deputymander knew he was not a spy, but Ren Xiaosu looked at him as though he was suggesting: You are now!


    Ren Xiaosu said kindly to the deputymander, ¡°You¡¯re now an unofficial member of our Razor Sharp Company, so strive to perform well and be a useful person to our stronghold and bring glory to it!¡±


    The deputymander felt a sense of bitterness. He had intended to ask if he could be released after Stronghold 144¡¯s granary was destroyed, but when he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gun pointing at him, either intentionally or unintentionally, he did not dare to speak anymore.


    Who could he possibly reason with?!


    Just as this deputymander had said, Stronghold 144 was as good as a paper tiger at this moment. It was not as daunting as the Razor Sharp Company had imagined it to be, and the garrison troops in the stronghold werepletely unable to organize an effective defense.


    The steam lotive continued making its way to the granary located in the east of the stronghold. The warehouse over there upied an extremelyrge area, and the harvest from the fertile farming settlements near Stronghold 144 for the past five years were all stored there.


    There was a checkpoint equipped with heavy firepower located right in front of the granary, while the high walls surrounding it were protected from entry by barbed wire.


    However, the steam lotive driven by Ren Xiaosu did not enter the granary through the main entrance. Instead, it crashed through a wall and charged in. ¡°Zhang Xiaoman!¡±


    ¡°Sir!¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied.


    ¡°We¡¯ll only set fire to the granary from aboard the train. Don¡¯t get any ideas about fighting anyone, ya hear me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied excitedly.


    But this left the other soldiers with a strange look on their faces. Why was Zhang Xiaoman suddenly acting like a toonmander under Ren Xiaosu?! ¡®Fucking Zhang Xiaoman! For someone who¡¯s always giving off the vibes of an upright person, you¡¯re actually starting to pander to the future Commander?!¡¯


    The Razor Sharp Company was leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, so it was toote for the 131st Brigade, which was still in the north, to head back to Stronghold 144. By the time they made it back here to help out, the entire Stronghold 144 might have been wiped out already.


    After the Razor Sharp Company had broken into Stronghold 144, someone suggested that they fire at the residents to create chaos. However, Zhang Xiaoman firmly stopped that from happening and said that Fortress 178 would not do such things.


    The stronghold¡¯s Water Dragon Division was in charge of emergency services like firefighting, but how could they put out fires faster than the Razor Sharp Company was starting them?


    Meanwhile, when the remaining garrison troops of the 1237th Regiment saw that the situation had turned hopeless, they decided to stop fighting back and simply packed their belongings to flee from the stronghold!


    No matter the oue, the 1237th Regiment would bear responsibility for what happened here. So if they did not flee now, it was not as though their lives would be good after the dust settled. Everyone knew how ruthless the Zong Consortium was when it came to handling such matters!


    While the garrison troops were escaping, someone even said, ¡°Was that the deputymander that I saw on that train?¡±


    Themander of Third Company said harshly, ¡°I said long ago that he¡¯d likely be a spy, but all of you did not believe me back then!¡±

 Chapter 444 - The Zong Consortium’s plans

    <h4>Chapter 444 The Zong Consortium¡¯s ns</h4>


    ¡°Why do I feel like our attack on Stronghold 144 seems way too easy?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly, ¡°Could something go wrong? We had better be careful.¡±


    More than half the granary was burning, but the armored brigade was still only making its way back from the north at this moment. By the time the armored brigade arrived back at the stronghold, the Razor Sharp Company would probably have already scooted off somewhere.


    The Razor Sharp Company met with almost no resistance from the stronghold. Although it was quite chaotic inside the stronghold, that was mainly due to the residents panicking. Next to him, the deputymander was at a loss for words when he heard what Ren Xiaosu said. ¡®You call this easy? You¡¯ve already killed three regimentalmanders, while I, the second-inmand, have also fallen into your hands. So what do you mean by easy? Is that even something a human would say?¡¯


    As the granary burned, Ren Xiaosu realized that one-third of it was actually empty. He asked the deputymander, ¡°Have the grains been transported to the front line already?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± The deputymander shook his head. ¡°The generals bought most of it up before the war began using a number of different identities.¡±


    ¡°You mean they have to buy their own food when they go to war?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°No, they were nning to sell the grains to the residents once the war started. The higher-ups don¡¯t actually know about this. The generals said that if the grains were sold to them first, they would make up for the reserves once the grain prices dropped back down, and no one would discover it. After all, the original battle n did not require too much food.¡± The deputy regiment said, ¡°At least, it wouldn¡¯t all be used up.¡±


    Oh well. It seemed that this time, Ren Xiaosu had inadvertently helped to cover up for the Zong Consortium¡¯s generals who had secretly stashed away the grain reserves. With everything burned down, no one would know that a third of reserves here had gone missing.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was unhappy that even though their attack on the granary had a huge impact on the war, it was definitely not enough to deal a fatal blow to the Zong Consortium. As their food reserves had already been spread out, the Zong Consortium would surely have a way to get back all those missing grains.


    At this moment, all of the generals in the Zong Consortium¡¯s headquarters looked very solemn. Zong Ying suddenly mmed his fountain pen onto the table. ¡°What the hell is with that Zong Wu? We¡¯ve already allowed him to lead his 131st Brigade to hunt down the enemy, and even sent two supernatural beings to back him up, so how did he allow the enemy to set fire to Stronghold 144 right under their noses? And what are the garrison troops at Stronghold 144 doing? Can¡¯t they even organize a defense? How could they let the enemy burn down the granary just like that!¡± Zong Ying was about to explode. ¡°I want their regimentalmander executed¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, Zong Ying suddenly remembered the 1237th Regiment did not currently have amander, and even the second-inmand had run away too. He did not even have someone to pin the me on to blow off steam!


    A general said, ¡°Commander, since things havee to this point, we have to think of a countermeasure.¡±


    ¡°Gather all the grain reserves from the various strongholds, and the grains that you people are holding, I want them handed over as well. This matter determines the sess or downfall of the consortium, so stop with your selfish little schemes! Did you think I didn¡¯t know what you¡¯ve done?¡± Zong Ying sneered.


    He meant to gather all of the grain reserves of the entire Zong Consortium to send to the front line, including whatever grains he could collect from the residents of the various strongholds.


    There were also a lot of grainstuffs that were in the possession of the generals.


    When they learned that a war was imminent, many of the generals had wantonly started purchasing an increased amount of grains and hoarded them. They knew that when war broke out, food prices would increase.


    As half a kilogram of rice was only worth about a yuan or so, most people wondered how something like that could make anyone any money. But during a war, the price of rice could go up to five, or even ten yuan.


    At that time, the stronghold residents would not want to starve to death, right? Therefore, whatever money they had would eventually fall into the hands of the generals who hoarded the grains.


    Who wouldn¡¯t want to earn ten times the profits? They were looking to rip off the strongholds¡¯ residents!


    Suddenly, one of the generals said, ¡°What should we do with the troops from Fortress 178? We can¡¯t just let them continue to make trouble in our rear, right?¡± Zong Ying also felt very helpless about this. He knew that if the Razor Sharp Company were allowed to continue making trouble as they wished, he would most likely end up with no time to focus on fighting the war. But now that they knew what the Razor Sharp Company was capable of, they felt there was almost nothing they could do about them. The blitzkrieg was the coordinated use of aircraft, tanks, artillery, armored and mechanized infantry, and other types of armed forces to create an overwhelming local superiority inbat power to break through the enemy¡¯s defenses. This allowed the forces to quickly get past any tactical maneuvering to encircle the enemy in order to eliminate them.


    Now that there were no longer aircraft, they could only rely on their tanks for such tactics.


    If a tank moving at 60 kilometers per hour on the battlefield could be called a blitzkrieg, what would the opponent who could travel at 120 kilometers per hour be? Comparing the speed of their tanks to the steam lotive, it was just as good as a tractor. How could they possibly chase it! ¡°We¡¯ll implement our contingency ns in advance.¡± Zong Ying said coldly, ¡°If Fortress 178 thinks they can win the war just like that, they¡¯re underestimating our Zong Consortium! I¡¯m gonna massacre Fortress 178!¡± On that night, multiple pontoon bridges in ckstone River remained still in its choppy waters. This was the supply line Fortress 178 relied on for their march to the front line, and it was also a lifeline for them. Hence, these structures were bound to be built very sturdily. Every day, the Engineering Battalion repaired and maintenanced them.


    But in the dark of night, more than a 100 speedboats started approaching the pontoon bridges on ckstone River in a frenzy. At first, these speedboats were being rowed with oars by the soldiers in them. This way, they were able to quietly approach the bridges until they were about ten kilometers away.


    But once they got to within ten kilometers of the pontoon bridges, the engines of the speedboats roared to life as they flew towards them. On these speedboats were alsorge quantities of TNT!


    When Fortress 178¡¯s defending troops near ckstone River discovered this, it was already toote.They fired their heavy machine guns and tried to intercept the speedboats, but there were too many of them. Furthermore, it seemed like all of the enemy troops were determined to fight to the death and did not mind sacrificing themselves.


    Explosions could be heard everywhere. Before the speedboats crashed into the pontoon bridges, the Zong Consortium soldiers on the speedboats activated the detonators attached to the TNT.


    The instant the detonators ignited, the TNT went off and broke all the pontoon bridges in half.


    As the Zong Consortium soldiers recklessly crashed into the pontoon bridges and detonated the explosives, the bridge Fortress 178 relied on to cross the river broke apart and drifted downstream.


    In an instant, Fortress 178¡¯s troops were split between both sides of the river again. The Fortress 178 troops on the northern shore could no longer retreat, while their supply lines had been cut off.


    Themanders on the northern shore all turned to Zhang Jinglin. ¡°Commander, what should we do? We¡¯re¡ª¡±


    Zhang Jinglin, who was at the military base, frowned as he looked into the distance at the inferno on the river. ¡°Get ready for ast stand!¡±


    However, the ns of the Zong Consortium were still not finished. A group of the Zong Consortium¡¯s elite troops had already set off from the Alxa League behind them, plunging into the Gobi Desert like a sharp knife, as they headed straight for Fortress 178 in the Northwest!

 Chapter 445 - A precarious situation

    Chapter 445 A precarious situation


    To the west of the Alxa League was the vast Gobi Desert. In this day and age, no one would venture there for no good reason as that was a truly deserted ce.


    So when the war began, even though everyone knew the distance between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 146 was not particrly far, very few people would even have any ideas about using the Gobi in their ns.


    If a military unit wanted to pass through there, it was basically a pipe dream.


    However, the Zong Consortium had been plotting to take over Fortress 178 for a long time.


    The territory the Zong Consortium upied had far fewer resources than Fortress 178, the Qing Consortium, and the Yang Consortium. In fact, the level of their resources could not evenpare with that of the Li Consortium.


    Therefore, expanding to seek further resources was something the Zong Consortium had to do. Only with arge amount of resources could they support their ambitions.


    But where were the resources? At Fortress 178, of course!


    Importantly, Fortress 178 upied a broader territory beyond the Northwest. Thend in that territory held 90% of the mineral resources that were avable to the Alliance of Strongholds, as well as a vast amount of natural gas, crude oil, and various types of metal ores.


    In the Zong Consortium¡¯s view, these resources were simply wasted in the hands of that damn group from Fortress 178 if they did not make use of them.


    Several years earlier, the Zong Consortium had quietly established a secret troop to transport supplies into the Gobi. And now, they had established a massive forward operating base in a little oasis within the desert.


    All of this was done so that one day, a ferocious army could make use of this forward operating base to pass through the Gobi and deal a fatal blow to Fortress 178.


    Actually, the Zong Consortium already knew that Fortress 178 was going to attack Mt. Wuchuan from the southern bank of ckstone River. They also knew their Zong Consortium¡¯s route to the south for any incursions would be cut off once Fortress 178 blew up the Beiwan Bridge. However, everything was still going ording to the Zong Consortium¡¯s n. This was because Fortress 178 would also not have a path of retreat.


    Zong Ying had received some very reliable intelligence a long time ago. Currently, there was only one independent brigade garrisoned in Fortress 178, with the rest of the stronghold¡¯s forces deployed in full force for the war.


    As a result, the almost defenseless Fortress 178 was now like a deserted ind with no one to protect it.


    As long as the Zong Consortium could upy Fortress 178, even if Zhang Jinglin and his men repaired the pontoon bridge, they would have no home to return to, nor would there be any fortress left for them to defend.


    When the supplies for Fortress 178¡¯s troops got cut off, the Zong Consortium could manipte them at will.


    ording to Zong Ying¡¯s calctions, his troops would cross the Gobi Desert and reach Fortress 178 in another seven days for the confrontation!


    Zong Ying narrowed his eyes as he wondered if Zhang Jinglin had already guessed all of this by now. He assumed so, since cutting off their path at ckstone River showed his ns pretty obviously. But so what if he could guess it? There was no way that Zhang Jinglin could stop him from upying Fortress 178.


    Troops were sacrificed as cannon fodder so he could lure Zhang Jinglin to the northern shore of ckstone River. In the end, he was the superior tactician.


    Although there was a small episode in between involving the Razor Sharp Company, that was not too great of a concern. Even if thatpany was extremely capable, they couldn¡¯t affect the big picture.


    Although the granary had been burned down, the Zong Consortium could stillst for a month with their food reserves. This one month would be enough for him to bring the Fortress 178 troops to their knees. After all, Zhang Jinglin would be cut off from his supply lines as well, wouldn¡¯t he?


    At the thought of being able to defeat Zhang Jinglin, a military leader long famous, Zong Ying felt an uncontroble sense of excitement in his heart.


    At his position, only power and unprecedented victory could arouse his desires.


    Meanwhile, the armored brigade¡¯s Commander Hu Xingzhi, who was standing beside Zhang Jinglin, looked at him and said, ¡°Commander Zhang, the Zong Consortium has cut off our main forces¡¯ retreat route. They must be plotting something against us. Sir, please think of something.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Hu Xingzhi. ¡°We must make a stand. Everyone, we¡¯ll have to take Mt. Wuchuan as quickly as possible if we want to make it out of this alive. Inform the Engineering Battalion behind us to quickly rebuild the pontoon bridge, and check how long they will need!¡±


    A staff officer hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°We asked about that earlier. The Engineering Battalion on the southern shore said that it would take ten days! They could build a simple pontoon bridge instead; that will be faster, but it¡¯s useless if the mechanized infantry can¡¯t cross the river on it.¡±


    Ten days...


    Even if they could rebuild the pontoon bridge within ten days, they would still need another seven days to get back to Fortress 178. That would be toote!


    Suddenly, Zhou Yinglong ran back from the front line. ¡°Commander! Commander! The Razor Sharp Company has called in!¡±


    Everyone was startled. They never expected the Razor Sharp Company that was behind the enemy lines to actually reestablishmunications with them.


    The Razor Sharp Company had just finished their attack on Stronghold 144. Not only did they burn down the granary there, but they also stole a satellite phone from within the stronghold. It was only then that they were able to contact Fortress 178¡¯s troops again.


    Zhang Jinglin took the satellite phone and answered it. On the other end of the line, Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s loud voice yelled excitedly, ¡°Commander Zhang? Is that Commander Zhang?¡±


    ¡°Yes, this is Zhang Jinglin, please speak,¡± Zhang Jinglin said calmly. ¡°We¡¯ve burnt down the granary at Stronghold 144 and wiped out seven or eight of theirpanies. We even killed three regimentalmanders of their 1237th Regiment, and the deputy regimentalmander is in our hands now,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said cockily, as though he were afraid Zhang Jinglin would not award them the Neb Medal. He thought he should list all of their contributions in one fell swoop.


    Themanders beside Zhang Jinglin were stunned. They had not expected the Razor Sharp Company would achieve so many important objectives. It was no wonder the Zong Consortium had to deploy their troops back to deal with them in the rear. Was this even a fuckingpany? Even an independent brigade would most probably not achieve what they had done.


    The Razor Sharp Company was simply too fearsome!


    However, everyone did not cheer up because the current situation of the war could no longer be changed by burning down a granary, killing a few regimentalmanders, or wiping out severalpanies. However, Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°You all did very well, but you have to be careful as well.¡±


    ¡°Commander Zhang, don¡¯t worry, we suffered no casualties at all!¡±


    Themanders started gritting their teeth. None of them could have imagined the Razor Sharp Company could do so many things without suffering a single casualty.


    Zhang Jinglinughed and gave Zhang Xiaoman a few instructions before handing the phone to Zhou Yinglong. He did not mention a word about Ren Xiaosu throughout the entire call, but everyone knew Ren Xiaosu must have done a great job in this battle.


    Zhou Yinglong took the phone and said to Zhang Xiaoman, ¡°Alright, we know y¡¯all¡¯ve done well, but now¡¯s not the time to go over all of your achievements. Retreat to a safe location. We¡¯re in a precarious situation over here.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. ¡°Precarious?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong hesitated for a moment and sighed as he briefly exined the current situation. The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers beside Zhang Xiaoman were all listening to the call as well. Everyone was suddenly at a slight loss of what to do. How did the situation suddenly turn so disadvantageous for them?


    Furthermore, the Zong Consortium might even capture Fortress 178 soon? Zhang Xiaoman thought about his wife and child. What about that girl Fu Rao liked? What about everyone¡¯s dream lover, Lu Yao?


    Zhang Xiaoman said anxiously, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Battalion Commander. If they can attack Fortress 178, we can also take the fight to their Stronghold 146. Those old geezers of the Zong Consortium¡¯s Board are all located in Stronghold 146. If we kill them, the Zong Consortium will immediately descend into chaos.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong scolded him with augh. ¡°What are you talking about? There¡¯s an entire brigade garrisoned in Stronghold 146 right now, so do you think you can attack them that easily? Hurry and get out of there! I want y¡¯all to flee in the direction of the Central ins,¡±


    But before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by another voice. ¡°Is Mr. Zhang still listening? Can I just ask if it¡¯ll be of any help to the situation if we destroy Stronghold 146?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go and attack them then.¡±


    Themanders listening to the call from the side felt that this voice sounded a little unfamiliar, but they all knew it was probably Ren Xiaosu talking.


    But this Ren Xiaosu was way too arrogant. How could the Razor Sharp Company possibly be capable of taking Stronghold 146?


    Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s impossible for you all to destroy Stronghold 146.¡± ¡°Mr. Zhang, do you still remember what you told me?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked calmly. ¡°You said that if one knows how difficult the situation is and still insists on doing it at the risk of injuring themselves, that is called stupidity. But do you remember what my response to you was?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin recalled the moment Ren Xiaosu had told him that the same went for bravery.

 Chapter 446 - Lone operation

    Chapter 446 Lone operation


    Zhang Jinglin attempted to persuade Ren Xiaosu not to take such a risk. However, Ren Xiaosu seemed to have made up his mind already. He did not give Zhang Jinglin the chance to continue talking and ended the call.


    By rights, with Zong Ying as themander of the military, the battle over here should not have been affected even if the Zong Consortium were attacked in the rear. But in reality, that wasn¡¯t the case at all. The reason the Board was the Board was that they had absolute influence and control over the military. It was just that they had temporarily appointed Zong Ying as themander-in-chief.


    Currently, the various fighting forces were temporarily under Zong Ying¡¯smand. After the war ended, Zong Ying would only be themander of his own fighting force and would still need to listen to the Board¡¯s orders.


    So when Ren Xiaosu asked Zhang Jinglin whether it would be of any use if he captured Stronghold 146, Zhang Jinglin replied in the affirmative.


    That was where the Zong Consortium was held together. Just as when the Yang Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 88 was destroyed, it had caused the entire Yang Consortium to immediately turn into a pile of loose sand and scheme against each other, the Zong Consortium would be no exception either.


    If Zong Ying led all the frontline troops for another ten years, perhaps his personal influence would be enough to turn the tide of chaos and pull everyone together. But right now, Zong Ying was not capable of doing so.


    If the troops from Fortress 178 were defeated, Ren Xiaosu would no longer have an avenue of support for him to destroy the entire Zong Consortium.


    Perhaps the Qing Consortium would think about attacking the Zong Consortium in the future. But after they did that, the Qing Consortium would definitely enter a long postwar period, requiring huge amounts of manpower and resources to rebuild the strongholds.


    Not only that, but the Qing Consortium would also have to spend a long time to bring the Yang Consortium¡¯s and Li Consortium¡¯s strongholds under their control in order to absorb their resources.


    After Ren Xiaosu ended the call, Zhang Xiaoman and the others rubbed their hands in glee. ¡°What should we do? Should we attack Stronghold 146? Haha, we even managed to shatter Stronghold 144, so Stronghold 146 should be easy too!¡± The other soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company looked at Ren Xiaosu. Some of them had said they wanted to attack Stronghold 146, but Ren Xiaosu had denied them at that time. But this time, Ren Xiaosu did not mock Zhang Xiaoman. Instead, he urged the soldiers from the Razor Sharp Company to hurry up and get aboard the train.


    The steam lotive was traveling at full speed in the wilderness, and no one could figure out which direction they were heading. They just assumed they were going towards Stronghold 146.


    Everyone on the train was having a lively discussion. ¡°How do y¡¯all think we should attack Stronghold 146? We¡¯ll have to quickly wrap things up, won¡¯t we? Otherwise, when that 131st Brigade hears the news and rushes back, we might end up facing two brigades in battle.¡±


    On the train, Ren Xiaosu pulled the deputymander of the 1237th Regiment over and asked, ¡°How¡¯s thebat effectiveness of that garrison brigade in Stronghold 146?¡±.


    ¡°They¡¯re obviously one of the most elite fighting forces of the Zong Consortium. Their equipment¡¯s all thetest and the best since they represent the image of the Zong Consortium. Even the family members of the Zong Consortium who get posted there to serve their ¡®tour of duty¡¯ have to be the most outstanding members of the organization. Of course, they don¡¯t really have any actualbat experience.¡± The deputymander said meekly, ¡°You all aren¡¯t really thinking of attacking Stronghold 146, are you? I¡¯m not trying to pour cold water on you, but with just this many of you, it¡¯s really no different from suicide if you assault Stronghold 146.¡±


    The deputymander was thinking, ¡®If you fucking want to die, don¡¯t drag me in!¡¯


    Then the deputymander saw the direction they were traveling and said, ¡°Eh, this isn¡¯t the right¡ª¡±


    ¡°Keep quiet,¡± said Ren Xiaosu as he looked at him. ¡°I¡¯ll let you leave with them when we reach a suitable location, or would you rathere with me to Stronghold 146?¡±


    Wait a minute! There was too much information contained in those words!


    The deputymander was shocked. The route this young man had taken was clearly not to get to Stronghold 146. From what he had said, it was likely this young man was nning to go to Stronghold 146 alone!


    The steam lotive suddenly came to a stop in the wilderness. Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Time to get off!¡±


    The sound of guns being cocked came from within the carriages as the Razor Sharp Company assumed it was time to prepare for battle.


    But after they got out of the train, Zhang Xiaoman was caught off guard when he did not see Ren Xiaosu getting down with them. Instead, the train sped off into the distance again!


    ¡°Hey, wait up, Ren Xiaosu, where are you going? What is this ce!¡± Zhang Xiaoman chased after him for a short distance, but the train sped off so fast that he could not catch up at all. Besides, Ren Xiaosu had no intention of turning back.


    Jiao Xiaochen pointed his gun at the deputymander. ¡°Where are we?!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re in the easternmost territory of the Zong Consortium. If we were to continue traveling for another ten kilometers, we would be leaving the Zong Consortium.¡± The deputymander said with difficulty, ¡°Put down your gun first. I didn¡¯t know he would do this! When we were traveling here, I realized that something was amiss when I saw the direction we were heading. But that young man warned me not to breathe a word to anyone about it!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said resentfully, ¡°Goddammit, it¡¯s all over now! Ren Xiaosu must be worried that it¡¯d be too dangerous for us to go to Stronghold 146, so he deliberately dropped us off at a safe ce and went there by himself!¡±


    There were no other possibilities! It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu had been so quiet along the way. So it turned out that Ren Xiaosu had nned this way in advance, and he even ensured that he dropped them off somewhere first without a fluster.


    Zhang Xiaoman passed this information to Zhang Jinglin and the others through the satellite phone. All of themanders also fell silent. Zhou Yinglong suddenly said to Zhang Jinglin, ¡°In any case, I¡¯m convinced.¡±


    He was referring to the move that Zhang Jinglin had made when he arranged for Ren Xiaosu to join the Razor Sharp Company. Zhou Yinglong was the first senior officer to express his support for Ren Xiaosu, although his position was the lowest among the othermanders.


    The othermanders still did not say anything yet. After all, there were still many requirements to pass if one were to be the fortressmander. They would like to observe Ren Xiaosu further if he could make it back alive from Stronghold 146.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was making his way over to attack Stronghold 146. But rather than saying that he was going to raid them, it might be better to call it a sneak attack.


    After some thought, Ren Xiaosu still felt that it would be safer for him to go to Stronghold 146 by himself. He could not bring the Razor Sharp Company with him when he knew they would die there.


    Therefore, he might as well drop off Zhang Xiaoman and the others somewhere far away so it would be impossible for them toe over to help him. In fact, it would take at least ten days for them to reach Stronghold 146 if they wanted to head there on foot.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu had still given it very careful consideration. If it were him alone, he could use many methods to calmly get into Stronghold 146 to observe the situation first. Whether it be climbing over the stronghold walls or sneaking in on the undercarriages of the Zong Consortium¡¯s transport trucks, there were more chances of pulling it off with fewer people in the group. If he had brought along the Razor Sharp Company, they would truly have to fight their way in.


    Ren Xiaosu dematerialized the steam lotive when he was about to reach Stronghold 146. Then he started walking alone in the wilderness so he would not be discovered by his enemies in advance.


    He remained hidden outside of Stronghold 146 for a full day and night to see if there were any good ways for him to sneak into the stronghold.


    However, Ren Xiaosu discovered that the vehicles entering Stronghold 146 had to go through extremely strict security checks. From afar, he could see through his sniper rifle scope that the security guards were thoroughly checking all supplies that were being brought in and had never failed to investigate the undersides of the vehicles either.


    As such, he could only scale the stronghold walls like he did when he climbed the steep cliffs on the back of Mt. Dingyuan. Fortunately for him, there was a gap between the patrol times of the troops on the stronghold¡¯s wall, and that one-minute gap would be more than enough for him to fully take advantage of.

 Chapter 447 - The fortune teller

    Chapter 447 The fortune teller


    As Fortress 178 got forced into a corner at Mt. Wuchuan, the damn band of soldiers fought so fiercely they forced the Zong Consortium to retreat.


    As the saying goes, an oppressed army fighting with desperate courage is sure to win, and that was exactly what happened here.


    It was as though Zhang Jinglin, who was at the front line himself, had suddenly turned the matter of their retreat route being cut off into something positive. All the soldiers of Fortress 178 shared a bitter hatred for the enemy, so all of them fought like they were unafraid of death.


    Of course, this was something that could only be aplished with many years of faith. However, this would not change the crisis that Fortress 178 was facing at the moment.


    For the past two days, Zhang Jinglin had not spoken much at all. Amander went to inquire with him on how to handle and resolve the Zong Consortium¡¯s sudden attack on Fortress 178, but he just said that he had not thought of a n yet.


    Themanders found it a little strange that Commander Zhang seemed to be at a loss for what to do. Usually, he could make a resolute decision no matter how difficult things got. But why did it seem like the Zong Consortium was leading him by the nose now?


    What was the point of winning the battle here at Mt. Wuchuan when they were on the verge of losing their homes?


    Themanders were so anxious that they got a little mad, and one of them even had a lot of his hair turn gray overnight. Everyone¡¯s friends and family were still back at Fortress 178.


    Someone privately asked Lin Yuze, the chow hall manager, ¡°How¡¯s the Commander¡¯s appetite been the past few days?¡±


    Someone was trying to figure out from Zhang Jinglin¡¯s behavior if he had any contingencies for their situation. If he had any, his appetite would probably remain the same. But if he didn¡¯t, he would most likely not eat as much as he usually did.


    Themanders of Fortress 178 all knew about Zhang Jinglin¡¯s habits. This one was an entricity of Zhang Jinglin¡¯s they had figured out long ago.


    Lin Yuze said with a bitter expression, ¡°Commander Zhang has not eaten for two days already.¡±


    Themanders of Fortress 178 all had a bitter look on their faces. Commander Zhang was so worried this time that he did not even eat?!


    Although Zong Ying had suffered sessive defeats here at Mt. Wuchuan, this frontlinemander knew the situation was going to change in a few more days. But the problem was that there had to be an exnation for this matter.


    This exnation was necessary to appease the Board. Being victorious was not the only thing that mattered in war. Amid all the battles, there would still be a lot of people seeking to reproach whoever was responsible for certain results in order to get rid of their opponents.


    Furthermore, a lot of people were also eyeing Zong Ying¡¯s position, seeing that once the contingency n seeded, this would truly be an unprecedented victory. To be honest, a lot of people were looking to steal the fruits of Zong Ying¡¯sbor.


    The Board had already sent someone to inquire about the matter. Meanwhile, Zong Ying squarely pinned the me on Zong Wu, saying that if Zong Wu had not withdrawn an anchoring force like the 131st Brigade from the front, the defeat at Mt. Wuchuan could definitely have been avoided.


    After all, the defensive position the 131st Brigade was guarding was an extremely important one. However, Zong Wu had abandoned the interests of the organization just because his diverted assets had been seized by someone. This was as good as desertion!


    Meanwhile, this action of withdrawing from the battle at thest minute had in turn affected the overall situation of the war by disrupting the ns at the front lines.


    On the other hand, the Board had also contacted Zong Wu regarding the same matter, only to hear him yelling at the top of his lungs and iming that if Zong Ying could not even guarantee the safety of the rear, how were they supposed to win the war?


    Both parties were pushing the me on the other with their excuses. However, Zong Wu, who was leading the 131st Brigade, had already lost track of the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s whereabouts. He knew his sudden withdrawal from the battlefield would no longer be his main charge. Instead, diverting his assets during the war and nning his getaway would make the Board even more suspicious of him. What would he face after the war was over? It would surely have to be a torrent of investigations!


    Hence, the thing that would surprise everyone still happened. Zong Wu had actually taken the 131st Brigade and fled! Although the mechanized infantry were very reliant on logistics from the rear, the fact that Zong Wu fled showed that he must have found an organization that would take him in in the Central ins.


    Who wouldn¡¯t wee a surrender from someone if a mechanized army came included with them!


    With the desertion, everyone from the Zong Consortium was disgusted. Meanwhile, Zong Ying heaved a sigh of relief as the matter overshadowed the defeats he had suffered, and no one cared about that anymore.


    What Zong Ying should really be doing right now was to stay at the top of Mt. Wuchuan to continue defending against Stronghold 178¡¯s attacks. If the Zong Consortium were to get beaten before their contingency n could be pulled off, that would be the real joke.


    ...


    The night was silent in Stronghold 146, and Ren Xiaosu guessed that a curfew might have been implemented. It couldn¡¯t be that no pedestrians would be out walking the streets otherwise. asionally, he could even see troops patrolling the ce.


    It wouldn¡¯t be difficult for Ren Xiaosu to avoid the patrols. What was difficult was finding out where the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium were.


    Ren Xiaosu had defined the operation this time as a decapitation strike. His purpose was not to destroy the entirety of Stronghold 146, nor was he going to fight against the brigade that was garrisoned here. Instead, he was seeking to cripple all of the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium so they would fall to the same fate as the Yang Consortium.


    But Ren Xiaosu thought of a very serious problem. If Zong Cheng was themander of the garrison brigade for Stronghold 146, wouldn¡¯t he also be around in the military base here?


    Other targets aside, Zong Cheng was the one he wanted to kill the most.


    Figuring out a way to sneak into the base, as well as finding out where the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium were located, were the first things that Ren Xiaosu had to face.


    But how was he supposed to find them?


    Ren Xiaosu hid under a small bridge all night. The next day, he started strolling on the streets like it was nothing. He realized the residents of Stronghold 146 all looked lifeless. There was no one talking on the streets, and the atmosphere was extremely oppressive.


    He did not know what the Zong Consortium did during their rule over these citizens to make thempletely lose their spirits. It was only after entering the stronghold that Ren Xiaosu realized that the Zong Consortium had not only lost the hearts of the refugees but also the hearts of the stronghold¡¯s residents.


    But he did not try to strike up a conversation with any of them. Surely he could not pull a random person aside to ask them where the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium lived, could he?


    While Ren Xiaosu was walking the streets, a person holding a white banner upright suddenly walked over to him. He saw two words written on the white banner: Divine Foresight.[1]


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned as this was his first time encountering a fortune teller on the streets. But such things were just interesting to look at. He had heard that a 100 percent of fortune tellers were frauds who used their skills to cheat others.


    But as the two of them walked past each other, the fortune teller suddenly grabbed Ren Xiaosu by the arm. Ren Xiaosu turned around and grabbed his wrist, locking the fortune teller¡¯s arm as he carried him into a small alley.


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and realized no one had noticed them. Then he said, ¡°Who are


    you?¡±


    The fortune teller started sweating from the pain. ¡°Let go of me! I¡¯m just a fortune teller! I noticed from your aura that you might encounter a bloody cmity in theing days, so I wanted to read your fortune for you.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Ren Xiaosu was amused to hear that. Telling others they would encounter a bloody cmity was a trick fortune tellers used. To resolve this ¡°cmity,¡± one would have to pay them money to avoid it. ¡°I¡¯m not that stupid. Go and scam others. I¡¯m not that gullible to fall for something like that.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you know what¡¯s good for you?¡± The fortune teller said in a speechless manner, ¡°I¡¯m really sincere about telling your fortune. My divinations are quite urate.¡±


    ¡°urate?¡± Ren Xiaosu sneered. ¡°Then what can you divine for me?¡±


    ¡°I can divine anything!¡± said the fortune teller.


    ¡°Then riddle me this: Given the quadratic function f(x) = ax2 + bx +c, the maximum value urs when x = 1. What is the rtionship between f(-1), f(0), and f(4) in terms of value?¡±


    The fortune teller was confused.


    Ren Xiaosu continued sneering. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that you can divine anything?¡± [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_fortune __telling#Appearances

 Chapter 448 - A bloody calamity

    <h4>Chapter 448 A bloody cmity</h4>


    The fortune teller did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°I¡¯m a fortune-teller. If you ask me to interpret dreams, calcte your chances of marriage or future prospects, I can do that for you. But why would you ask me to solve a math problem? That¡¯s science, while I¡¯m a practitioner of magic. The two don¡¯t mix.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a moment before saying, ¡°You said you can interpret dreams, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± The fortune teller nodded enthusiastically. ¡°I can interpret all kinds of dreams.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Then listen carefully. I had a dream about a question rted to quadratic function f(x)...¡±


    The fortune teller was dumbfounded. ¡®What fucking dream is that? Can¡¯t a guy help others read their fortunes even if he does not know how to solve quadratic functions! What the hell!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu sneered. ¡°You can¡¯t interpret that, right? So you¡¯re really a fraud.¡±


    But the fortune teller suddenly said, ¡°Based on your facial structure, I can tell that you have a friend who¡¯s like family but is not rted to you by blood. I also know you¡¯ve experienced a turning point in your life at the age of 17, while water is the source of your mishaps!¡±


    This time, it was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be stunned. However, he still did not believe the fortune teller. He lifted him off his feet and asked coldly, ¡°Just who the hell are you? How did you know these things?¡±


    His ¡°younger brother¡± was Yan Liuyuan, and didn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu experience the greatest cmity of his life in that flood? Even though the fortune teller mentioned all these, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s natural instincts told him not to believe this was something that could be figured out through divination. Instead, it was likely that some people with ulterior motives who knew about those matters were using it to get close to him.


    But when the fortune teller noticed that Ren Xiaosu did not believe him, he smiled wryly. ¡°I can also tell that you got into grave danger when you were in your teens, but you probably don¡¯t even know how you managed to escape it. The Northwest is where you will prosper. If you still don¡¯t believe me, there¡¯s nothing I can


    do.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu loosened his grip on the fortune teller. Very few people knew about his past, and not even those back at Stronghold 113¡¯s town knew about it. But it was true that he really did not know how he had escaped from the wolves.


    This fortune teller dared to bring up something like that with such certainty, so could he really know how to read fortunes?


    Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment before saying, ¡°You¡¯re saying that I will face a bloody cmity in the next two days?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. It¡¯s extremely ominous!¡± The fortune teller said, ¡°But I didn¡¯t get to look at it carefully just now, so you¡¯ll have to let me have a look again.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said nomittally, ¡°Then divine for me how to resolve it.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu released his grip from the fortune teller. However, he kept his guard up in case the fortune teller sneak attacked or attempted to escape.


    However, the fortune teller did not try to escape. Instead, he turned around and carefully observed Ren Xiaosu, who put on an expressionless face. If the fortune teller told him he would have to pay up to avert the cmity, he would kill him on the spot.


    But the more the fortune teller looked at him, the more startled his expression became. ¡°You won¡¯t fucking be the one facing the bloody cmity, you¡¯ll be the one bringing a bloody cmity upon others...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    ¡°What nonsense!¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart skipped a beat but refused to admit it. ¡°I¡¯m just a resident of the stronghold. Why would I bring a bloody cmity upon others?¡± ¡°Are you really a resident of this stronghold?¡± The fortune tellerughed and said, ¡°You can¡¯t fool me. Your ¡®aura¡¯ makes you look really out of ce in this stronghold. If you even lived here for longer than three days, you wouldn¡¯t look like that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered why the conversation seemed to be getting more and more mystical. He asked, ¡°Then why don¡¯t you tell me if I¡¯ll be able to achieve what I wish to do?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I can¡¯t divine that.¡± The fortune teller said, ¡°I cannot predict something so specific. Usually, I can only provide a word of warning to those whose fortunes I¡¯ve read.¡±


    ¡°Then what would you like to say to me?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a frown.


    The fortune teller looked at Ren Xiaosu again for a long time before suddenly saying in surprise, ¡°Eh, why¡¯re there so many intersections in your life? I¡¯ve never met anyone like you before.... I can¡¯t divine, no, I won¡¯t read your fortune any further!¡± Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Had he just wasted his fucking time here for nothing?


    He pulled the fortune teller back. Ren Xiaosu was starting to believe him a little. ¡°Let¡¯s disregard everything for the moment. Can you help me divine where the people I want to kill are? If you can¡¯t tell me that, you won¡¯t be leaving today.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± The fortune teller thought for a while before saying, ¡°They¡¯re right here in this stronghold.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Be more specific.¡±


    The fortune teller broke free from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s grasp and said with a smile, ¡°They¡¯ll be gathering in the northeast in theing days, but you¡¯ll only have one chance to strike.¡± Then the fortune teller turned around to leave. Ren Xiaosu did not stop him this time.


    Ren Xiaosu believed 60% of the fortune teller¡¯s words. But fate was still something he didn¡¯t know well, so he still had doubts.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked in a loud voice, ¡°Wait a minute, have you ever read fortunes for people living in the South?¡±.


    ¡°I¡¯ve read quite a lot of people¡¯s fortunes. Who are you referring to? I can remember the names of all those I¡¯ve told the fortunes of.¡±


    ¡°Li Qingzheng!¡±


    ¡°Oh, I told him he would meet his benefactor in the future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu kept quiet and did not say anything else. Now he believed 80% of the fortune teller¡¯s words! However, could there really be such a mystical person in the world? Could this fortune teller also be a supernatural being?


    Normally, anything that Ren Xiaosu could not understand would immediately be deemed as superstition. But now that he actually encountered it, he did not know whether he should trust the fortune teller.


    Li Qingzheng had told him he had met a fortune teller who said he would meet a benefactor who would bring him into the stronghold. However, Ren Xiaosu thought that fortune teller might not be that reliable. Even though Li Qingzheng had really entered the stronghold, it was not to enjoy life on the inside but to experience a disaster.


    More importantly, the fortune teller also did not say there were beings like the Experimentals in the stronghold he would be entering. If he had said so earlier, Li Qingzheng would definitely not have wanted to go in.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu only kept in mind the one thing the fortune teller had said. The people he wanted to kill would be gathering in theing days, and he only had one chance to strike. He was targeting 13 people, including Zong Cheng. As each of them wielded a lot of power, if he tried to kill them one by one, he would probably get hunted down by the entire stronghold after eliminating the first target. Simultaneously, the other targets would go into hiding.


    So if his enemies gathered together, that would be the best opportunity for Ren Xiaosu to get them. But how was he supposed to find out where they would be gathering?


    After turning a corner, the fortune teller quickly ran off. ¡°What a close shave! I nearly died, and I didn¡¯t con any money out of him!¡±


    In the east, the Razor Sharp Company was marching through the wilderness. Then Zhang Xiaoman looked disconcerted when they heard the sound of armored vehicles moving. He quickly beckoned the others to hide inside a gully nearby to avoid being discovered by the enemy. ¡°Why is this fucking armored brigade chasing us around relentlessly? I thought you said they could only locate other supernatural beings? So how did they follow us all the way here?¡± Zhang Xiaoman looked at the deputymander. ¡°Did you lie to us? Do you think I won¡¯t stab you to death?¡±


    The deputymander was already in tears. ¡°I¡¯ve already said everything that I know.¡±


    However, it was no time to argue. The armored brigade was right in front of them. However, Zhang Xiaoman and the Razor Sharp Company discovered this armored brigade was noting for them but heading towards the Central ins.

 Chapter 449 - A spy in Fortress 178

    <h4>Chapter 449 A spy in Fortress 178</h4>


    After the armored brigade continued to rumble their way towards the Central ins, Zhang Xiaoman muttered, ¡°That¡¯s strange, why are they headed in that direction? Doesn¡¯t that road lead to the Central ins?¡±


    ¡°Could they have some other ns?¡±


    ¡°Is it possible that they¡¯re fleeing?¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be, right? Hasn¡¯t the Zong Consortium gained the upper hand in the war? So why would they suddenly need to flee?¡±


    The Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers could not figure out what was going on. But after the armored brigade advanced dozens of kilometers further, it was suddenly stopped by a smiling young man who was none other than Li Shentan.


    Zong Wu, themander of the 131st Brigade, shouted into the radio, ¡°Run him over! Whoever that is, just go over him!¡±


    But when the armored brigade was about to collide into Li Shentan, he suddenly raised his right hand and a turbulent ¡°wave¡± rippled through the ground as an earthen wall suddenly got pulled up. The armored brigade could only stomp on the brakes ande to a quick stop. If they hadn¡¯t, some of the armored vehicles and tanks could¡¯ve been destroyed if they had collided into the thick earthen wall.


    I


    Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°To think that I was worried that I wouldn¡¯t be of much help to Ren Xiaosu. Who could¡¯ve guessed that an armored brigade would suddenly show up at our doorstep?¡±


    ¡°Are you going to hypnotize them?¡± Si Liren asked.


    ¡°Of course,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile.


    ¡°Do we need to make theme out of the armored vehicles? How are you going to hypnotize them if they remain inside?¡± Si Liren wondered.


    ¡°Sound can be used for hypnotizing people as well. Everything in this world can act as a medium for hypnotism.¡± Then Li Shentan picked up a small stone and flicked it with his fingers. The stone bounced off a tank and produced a ringing sound.


    It was a strange sound that felt like an intimidating force that could shake the hearts of people. Then the faces of the armored brigade¡¯s troops turned nk.


    But even a powerful supernatural being like Li Shentan found this a little strenuous on himself. It seemed that this was his limit.


    Li Shentan calmed himself down and spoke to the armored brigade, ¡°Where is your brigademander? Step forward.¡± Zong Wu walked out of an armored vehicle and stood in front of Li Shentan in a trance.


    A ways away, Hu Shuo happened to emerge from the forest. ¡°Little Liren, look what I brought for you. Haha, I found a watermelon


    patch.¡±


    As it was summer, the harvesting season for melons had arrived. However, Hu Shuo was stunned when he saw the armored brigade in front of Li Shentan.


    Little Liren¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Grandpa Hu Shuo is amazing.¡±


    Li Shentan nced at both of them before turning back to face the armored brigade. He said calmly, ¡°After you hear a finger snap, you¡¯ll head to Stronghold 146 andunch an attack there. Remember, you¡¯re to only kill the Zong Consortium¡¯s people after breaking into the stronghold, and you will neither resort to deploying your mechanized equipment nor killing the innocent indiscriminately.¡±


    With a snap of his fingers, the armored brigade turned around and headed straight in the direction of Stronghold 146.


    Hu Shuo said curiously next to him, ¡°Looks like you¡¯re avoiding killing the innocent this time.¡±


    Li Shentan looked silently at the huge case Si Liren was carrying on her back. ¡°In the past, I used to think that I was always right. I felt that whoever was in my shoes would also act with no qualms like I did.¡±


    ¡°Then what about now?¡± Hu Shuo said with a smile.


    Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°Some people are like a zing torch. Even after they¡¯ve stopped burning, they¡¯ve still affected us a little.¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯m a little curious. Why do you choose to stay here and not head to the Zong Consortium personally?¡± Hu Shuo asked, ¡°If you go there, can¡¯t you help them even more?¡±


    Li Shentan took a watermelon from Hu Shuo and said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about that anymore and just enjoy the watermelons.¡±


    Earlier, when the Razor Sharp Company watched the armored brigade rumble off into the distance, they climbed out of the gully and continued heading towards the interior of the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. But before they could get far, they heard the rumbling of the armored vehicles again. Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s mood soured as he led everyone to crawl back into a gully again. The Razor Sharp Company was speechless by now. What was this armored brigade doing by going back and forth? Were they ying games? Were they done yet?


    But this time, the armored brigade was moving much faster than before, like they were in a hurry to get somewhere. The Razor Sharp Company was utterly confused by this and felt that something was amiss.


    The battle at Mt. Wuchuan had already been going on for an extended period as the battle between Fortress 178 and the Zong Consortium went back and forth in this vast mountain range. The ferocity of the battle was vividly reflected here.


    In order to capture Position 129, half of Zhou Yinglong¡¯s Forward Strike Battalion had been sacrificed, with this position alone changing hands more than 20 times!


    Zong Ying had just evaded getting punished by the Board and was no longer holding out hope for getting so lucky again. So he transferred all of that pressure onto the generals under hismand, ordering them to defend the position until the troops in the Gobi arrived at Fortress 178. Even if they had to fight to the death, they would have to defend their position!


    As for Fortress 178, there was actually no other way out for them anymore. Not only that, but everyone also knew that Fortress 178 was facing imminent danger. Therefore, almost all of their troops were so enraged that it seemed like they had gone mad!


    Zhou Yinglong had not gotten any sleep for the past two days and two nights. Position 129 proved much more difficult to take than he had imagined. Almost every time they won the position, it was due to his superpower that they pulled it off.


    A huge, gray boar appeared again at Zhou Yinglong¡¯s side and charged at Position 129. The wild boar was so tough it did not even fear the heavy machine guns firing at it.


    But Zhou Yinglong was not Ren Xiaosu. Each time he used his superpower, there was a time limit for it. The past two days had exhausted him mentally many times, leaving his eyes deeply sunken like he was at death¡¯s door.


    Themander of Second Company advised him, ¡°Battalion Commander, do rest a bit more. If you carry on like this, I¡¯m afraid you won¡¯t hold out for much longer.¡±


    But Zhou Yinglong retorted, ¡°If we don¡¯t hold Position 129, how will our armored brigade pass through Pass 177 safely? It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to rest, but even if you and I have to die here, we must make sure that the enemy cannot target the armored brigade!¡± Simr battles such as the one happening at Position 129 were taking ce throughout Mt. Wuchuan. As multiple infantry brigades advanced in oblique order, they won more and more territory as soldiers got sacrificed one after another.


    amo


    But it was only by relying on these soldiers to engage in tug-of-war battles that the armored brigade would have a chance to continue venturing further into the battlefield.


    Not only the Forward Strike Battalion, but the Reconnaissance Battalion too had crossed swords many times with the Zong Consortium¡¯s guerris in the mountains. As both sides ran through the battlefield, it was as though they were dancing with death on a tightrope every time there was an exchange of fire.


    Almost nowhere in the vast Wuchuan Mountain remained in a perfect condition. The soldiers were already exhausted from fighting, but if an officer came up to them and asked for volunteers to storm a certain summit, these exhausted soldiers would immediately step forward to fight to the death.


    This was what war was.


    Even without the Zong Consortium¡¯s contingency ns, Fortress 178 would still have attacked with the same fortitude to take Mt. Wuchuan. However, Fortress 178 was able to win even more battles than they would have as the soldiers were currently filled with intense rage.


    But at this moment, troops from the Intelligence Department of Fortress 178 were quietly surrounding the 103rd Infantry Brigade¡¯smand post. When they arrived at the tent of themand post, the soldiers who were temporarily reorganizing their forces looked at them in surprise. One of them who spotted a familiarrade asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Why have y¡¯all shown up here all of a sudden?¡±


    As he said that, the infantry brigade¡¯s soldiers gathered and tried to stop the Intelligence Department¡¯s troops from advancing any further.


    Although both groups were fighting on the same side, the intelligence agencies of every organization always had a cruel streak to them. So when these intelligence troops descended down to their ¡°territory,¡± all of the infantry soldiers had an ominous feeling.


    The director of the 2nd Military Intelligence Division of the Intelligence Department said coldly, ¡°Get out of the way. We¡¯re here on official duty.¡±


    The soldiers of the 103rd Infantry Brigade thought of stopping them, but they were surprised to see Zhang Jinglin walking towards them alongside Wang Fengyuan, the Intelligence Director, from a distance.


    With the appearance of Commander Zhang, the soldiers of the 103rd Infantry Brigade finally gave up any hopes of stopping them and opened up a path. The 2nd Military Intelligence Division¡¯s troops walked into themand post tent and led Brigade Commander Li Xiang out.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Li Xiang and asked, ¡°Why?¡±

 Chapter 450 - A citywide search!

    Chapter 450 A citywide search!


    Li Xiang knew that the Intelligence Department must have found some evidence against him and somehow intercepted his rying of information to their enemy. Otherwise, they would not arrest him right during the war. As such, he did not bother to exin himself.


    Zhang Jinglin also did not say anything else. ¡°Take him away. As of today, Zhou Yinglong will concurrently serve as themander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s promotion had been fast-tracked because of the war. On one hand, it was due to the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s contributions that the Forward Strike Battalion aplished many great things. On the other hand, this war had so far been tragic. Fortress 178 had fought to the point where there was barely anyone left to deploy to the battlefield. Zhang Jinglin frowned as he watched Li Xiang get taken away. He was only worried about whether the intelligence leaked by Li Xiang would inconvenience Ren Xiaosu greatly.


    Next to him, Wang Fengyuan lowered his head and said, ¡°Commander, I wasn¡¯t observant enough and allowed him to ry the intel. If I had discovered it earlier, Ren Xiaosu would not have to¡ª¡±.


    ¡°It¡¯s not your fault.¡± Zhang Jinglin shook his head. ¡°There are too many tasks waiting to be done in intelligence gathering, so it¡¯s great that you sniffed him out. When we were cleaning up and purging the Zong Consortium¡¯s elements, Li Xiang was clearly on our side. It was inevitable that he confounded your judgment as even I find it hard to believe.¡±


    ¡°But for Ren Xiaosu to infiltrate into Stronghold 146 alone...¡±


    Zhang Jinglin replied, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he isn¡¯t a reckless person and will only act if he is confident. All we need to do is wait for a miracle.¡±


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was still trying to figure out Stronghold 146¡¯syout as quickly as possible so he could capture all the Zong Consortium higher-ups in one fell swoop.


    But when he went out onto the streets again that day, he realized the garrison troops of Stronghold 146 were putting up wanted posters everywhere. All of the electrical poles in the stronghold had several posters pasted on them, and all of them were for the arrest of the same person: Ren Xiaosu!


    Before anyone could gather around to have a look, Ren Xiaosu found an electrical pole with no one around it and went up to have a look. He was surprised to see a portrait of himself on it.


    As the portrait was a sketch, there were some differences. But it was still really well-drawn. Although there were some differences, anyone who saw the wanted poster would definitely find him extremely familiar.


    As described on the wanted poster, Ren Xiaosu was currently likely to be in the vicinity of the stronghold or might even have infiltrated into the stronghold alone. If any residents discovered the whereabouts of this person and reported it to the garrison brigade of Stronghold 146, they would receive 200,000 yuan as a reward for the tip. Ren Xiaosu pouted. Was he only worth 200,000 yuan?


    While he felt unhappy about that, his thoughts turned to, ¡®There must be a spy in Fortress 178 that told the Zong Consortium about my location.¡¯


    He did not know if the troops of Fortress 178 were aware of this spy, but if the spy were allowed to continue rying intel to the enemy, it could be disastrous for Fortress 178.


    Suddenly, a toon walked in the direction of Ren Xiaosu. He immediately lowered his head so they would not notice him. But when the toon walked past him, the toonmander at the front of the group sensed something was wrong. He turned to look at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Hey, you, raise your head!¡±


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu took off in the opposite direction. With a leap, he jumped over a wall andnded inside a small yard.


    Before the toon could even raise their guns to shoot at him, Ren Xiaosu had already disappeared from their sights.


    This toon immediately blew their whistles and shouted into their radio, ¡°Suspicious personnel spotted! Suspicious personnel spotted! Requesting reinforcements!¡±


    The search party in Stronghold 146 was a wide. Once they received the intelligence report from the spy at Fortress 178, they got ready to cast it.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu was incapable of winning against a standard toon, but if he did not manage to kill them all at once, they could get a chance to warn the other members of the search party. If Ren Xiaosu got held back in such a situation, it would probably be over for him.


    At this moment, the benefits of acting alone could vividly be seen. If he was leading the Razor Sharp Company, he would probably have to look out for their safety. But since he was alone, he was extremely mobile and could shake off any pursuing troops whenever or just start an all-out fight with them.


    When Ren Xiaosunded inside the yard, he was startled by the sight of a woman collecting driedundry. He did not stop and jumped over a wall into another yard.


    As screams rang out one after another, the cries of the stronghold residents were a signal to help the search party track him down.


    When he finally jumped out into an alleyway, he encountered two Zong Consortium soldiers who were trying to intercept him.


    When the two soldiers saw Ren Xiaosu, they were about to raise their guns to shoot him down. But the moment Ren Xiaosunded in front of them, he grabbed hold of their gun barrels, and a hint of his shadow could be seen darting out from behind him. Once the shadow disappeared from sight, blood started seeping from the slit in the necks of the two soldiers.


    They were surprised, as they could not even make out what that shadow darting from behind Ren Xiaosu was.


    Arge-scale pursuit wasunched in Stronghold 146, and that wide gradually closed down on Ren Xiaosu.


    When the pedestrians in the streets saw the Zong Consortium soldiers pursuing their target with so much urgency, they immediately hid in the buildings on the street, afraid they would get themselves entangled.


    All of the Zong Consortium soldiers were listening in on the radio and could hear random shouting. ¡°Target has crossed Fuxing Road. I repeat, target has crossed Fuxing Road. He is now moving eastwards on Zhangheng Road at a fast pace!¡±


    ¡°The target has downed several of our soldiers again. He has jumped into the residents¡¯ houses on Zhangheng Road and is still moving east!¡±


    More than a 1,000 Zong Consortium soldiers were scattered all over the streets as residents living in the vicinity eavesdropped on the soldiers¡¯ shouts from their windows. They were surprised when they realized that all of these elite members of the Zong Consortium¡¯s garrison were actually pursuing just one person. Many of them had thought the bigmotion was caused by a group of soldiers from Fortress 178 infiltrating into the stronghold.


    The Zong Consortium soldiers realized the target they were pursuing was not human at all. Disregarding how fast it could move, any scattered troops who got separated from the main force would instantly be killed. Some of those who were in did not even manage to finish their reports about the target¡¯s whereabouts.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was using his rifle because he realized the enemy¡¯s encirclement was gradually closing in on him. Even if he did not use the rifle, he could not hide his whereabouts. He could only resort to every means avable to break through the encirclement so he could open up a path of escape for himself.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s firearms proficiency had been raised to master, so how could these normal soldierspare with him? Even if he suddenly encountered the Zong Consortium toons in the streets, Ren Xiaosu could still immediately suppress them with his rifle.


    Some soldiers attempted to form a defensive line in front by hiding behind some walls. But before they could even react, a grenade suddenly appeared at their feet and the newly established defensive line was blown up into pieces.


    Ren Xiaosu had already started his killing spree, and there was no way back from it!


    Fighting to the death was something Ren Xiaosu long understood!

 Chapter 451 - The spy in the sewers

    Chapter 451 The spy in the sewers


    The Zong Consortium was still tightening their encirclement. In the buildings on both sides of the streets, some residents watched silently as Ren Xiaosu flitted past them so quickly they could only see his afterimages. It shocked them when they realized it was just a young man who had turned Stronghold 146 upside down.


    Could it be that this supernatural being had already surpassed the strength of the consortium¡¯s troops?


    Gradually, the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops set up blockades along several traffic arteries, even mounting heavy machine guns at many key spots. The western part of Stronghold 146 had turned into a ¡°cage.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu narrowed his eyes and sprinted. He tried breaking through two defensive lines of fire, but the problem was that there seemed to be an endless stream of Zong Consortium soldiers remanning the positions.


    All people would get exhausted no matter what. Even Ren Xiaosu, who had a strong level of fitness, would get tired as well.


    However, the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops were also at a loss. The toons who had not encountered Ren Xiaosu yet were terrified because they realized most of the troops on the radio that encountered him were dead. Was the enemy really human?


    But when Ren Xiaosu found himself getting lost on the streets, a manhole cover on the ground was suddenly pushed aside by someone underneath it. Ren Xiaosu found the sight to be extremely familiar.


    The person in the manhole waved wildly at him. ¡°Here! Over here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu jumped straight down. But the moment he got into the sewers, he grabbed the person by the neck. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    The grip on the man¡¯s neck was so strong his face reddened. ¡°Boss Luo wanted me to bring you a message.¡±


    ¡°What message?¡± Ren Xiaosu lifted him effortlessly.


    ¡°He said that you had better not die. If you want to die, make sure to leave some ck medicine for him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was so annoyed heughed. ¡°Which way do we go?¡±


    ¡°Left, go left!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu confiscated the person¡¯s weapons and went left all the way. It was not that he was returning kindness with enmity, but that he had to be extremely cautious at this moment. Who could know if this fellow were sent by the Zong Consortium to trick him on purpose?


    The man did not get angry even though he was being carried around like that. ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen told me that you¡¯d definitelye to Stronghold 146 someday. That was why he asked me to help you when I saw you. However, I really did not expect that you would cause such a bigmotion.¡± ¡°Oh? Did I cause a bigmotion?¡± Ren Xiaosu said absent-mindedly.


    ¡°Is that not big enough of amotion?¡± The man said with a wry smile, ¡°Currently, the higher-ups of the Zong Consortium living in the stronghold feel unsafe as they¡¯re afraid you¡¯ll kill them if they drop their guard. Before I came to pick you up, you killed several hundred of the stronghold¡¯s garrison troops, didn¡¯t you? Even though the buildings provided you with cover as you took on the brigade by yourself, you¡¯re still the most fearsome person I¡¯vee across in my life. You might as well be called the God of War.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyebrows twitched. This guy was really good at ttery. However, it seemed that this person also held a rather high position in the Zong Consortium since he knew so much. How else could he be so knowledgeable about the higher-ups? He asked the spy, ¡°Where does the left lead?¡±


    ¡°We have to get out of their perimeter first.¡± The spy said, ¡°I¡¯ve already prepared a safe house for you where you can wait for things to die down.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have time to wait any longer.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Tell me, where are those Zong Consortium higher-ups?¡±


    The Qing Consortium spy who was being carried around turned anxious and said, ¡°The Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups? You still think you can kill all of them at this point? There¡¯ll be at least half a brigade of soldiers guarding them while the other half tries to capture you. Do you really think you¡¯re a god?¡±


    COSS


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. Noticing no response, the Qing Consortium spy said with a wry smile, ¡°What¡¯s more, the Zong Consortium higher-ups are all currently scattered across the stronghold. Once you kill any of them, the entire stronghold¡¯s forces will descend upon you again. At that time, I won¡¯t be able to get you out of their perimeter again. Mr. Qing Zhen said I could prioritize my own life over the mission.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu listened to him speak, he continued walking without saying a word. Then he asked, ¡°Which direction leads to the garrison base?¡±


    The Qing Consortium spy gasped. ¡°Are you thinking of attacking their base while it¡¯s empty?!¡± What was at the garrison base? There were ammunition depots, and the strategic headquarters was located within it as well. Even if Zong Cheng were not there, he could still cause some trouble to the garrison brigade of Stronghold 146 by killing some of their staff officers andmanders.


    Ren Xiaosu understood this might not be the most important thing he should be doing, but attacking the enemy¡¯s weak point was still his best option right now.


    Who could have thought he would be so bold as to venture into the enemy¡¯s garrison base by himself? No matter how brave someone might be, they wouldn¡¯t do something like that, right?


    Ren Xiaosu understood that he might only get a chance if he could create enough chaos to make the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops constantly run about.


    He was running out of time. The Zong Consortium¡¯s troops would probably cross the Gobi soon and arrive at Fortress 178. The only way to make Zong Cheng recall them was to hit them hard here!


    Time waited for no man!


    However, the spy rambled, ¡°Even if the base is almost defenseless, there are still at least 500 troops stationed there. If you go, you¡¯ll bemitting suicide.¡± ¡°Which way?¡±


    ¡°Turn right up ahead.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out six vials of ck medicine and stuffed them into the spy¡¯s hands as they walked. He did not have time to repack the ck medicine, so he gave them directly to the spy after trading for them in the pce


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The spy said happily, ¡°Hehe, don¡¯t mention it. Put me down after we get up close. I know how to find my way back.¡± With the ck medicine in hand, Boss Luo would definitely reward him handsomely when he got back to the Qing Consortium. He would have almost nothing to worry about for the rest of his life.


    Putting everything else aside, Mr. Qing Zhen and Boss Luo would never treat their loyal servants badly.


    Ren Xiaosu thanked the spy as he had risked his life to rescue him. This was despite the fact that he had not used his trump card yet, and it would still prove very difficult for the Zong Consortium brigade to encircle and trap him.


    But if he sustained an injury while breaking through the encirclement, and if the enemy used hounds to chase after him, that would only make his next ns harder to carry out.


    Moreover, the spy had taken a great risk in the circumstances. Since the spy was willing to risk his life to rescue him, he would bear it in mind.


    After walking for a dozen kilometers and taking many turns, the spy said with great familiarity, ¡°Here we are, the Zong Consortium¡¯s garrison base is right in front of us. Although the sewers also pass underneath the base, the center is reinforced with rebar grates, and there¡¯s no way to get through them. You¡¯ll have to figure out how to get in


    yourself.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and finally put him back on the ground. ¡°Go back and tell Fatty Luo and Qing Zhen that I¡¯ll repay them in the future.¡±


    As of today, the brothers no longer owed him any more favors. Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu who owed Qing Zhen and Luo Lan a great big favor. Whether it be the help the Qing Consortium gave to capture the Beiwan River, or the spy they sent who risked his life to assist him, Ren Xiaosu could no longer ignore these two brothers.


    A momentter, the spy saw Ren Xiaosu draw a ck saber out of thin air. He started shing, and he cut through the rebar grating in front of him like it was paper. The Qing Consortium spy¡¯s jaw dropped. So it turned out the area he couldn¡¯t get into was no obstacle for Ren Xiaosu at all. Come to think of it, he was someone who fucking dared to take on a brigade by himself!


    Before Ren Xiaosu proceeded any further, he looked back at the spy and asked, ¡°Friend, what¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Zheng Yuandong,¡± the spy said. ¡°I¡¯ll remember you.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked into the darkness.

 Chapter 452 - Strategies revealed!

    <h4>452 Strategies revealed!</h4>


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s troops were double timing it deep in the Gobi. They had already charted out this route and knew there was an oasis that could even allow their mechanized infantry to travel through.


    If not for this route, they would only be able tounch a surprise attack with their infantry. However, that strategy would be significantly less effective.


    Before the Cataclysm, it seemed that this path used to be a forest. No one knew who it was who nted so many trees here that it created oases, but it eventually helped to create some form of life out here.


    However, it started turning back into a wastnd after many years of neglect.


    Actually, not many people cared whether this ce would revert back into a desert. More importantly, this disappearing oasis had presented the Zong Consortium with a final opportunity to achieve their ambitions.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups termed this ¡°Heavens¡¯ Route¡± as it was an opportunity given by the Heavens for them to usurp Fortress 178.


    The Zong Consortium had not been preparing for nothing over the past few years. If they did not have a contingency n like this, they would not have dared to poke at Fortress 178 so much in recent years.


    ¡°We¡¯ll arrive at South Lake soon. After we pass there, we¡¯ll stop for a two-hour reorganization before heading straight for Fortress 178!¡± The Zong Consortium¡¯s general said delightedly to his deputymander next to him, ¡°In this war, we¡¯ll be the ones to get recognized for our outstanding contributions. Without our painstaking nning all these years, and our crossing of the Gobi to deal a fatal blow to Fortress 178, we¡¯d probably only have a very slim chance of winning!¡±


    ¡°Sir, you really are wise,¡± the adjutantughed reservedly.


    When heughed, he ended up eating a mouthful of sand. They had been traveling in the Gobi for several days already. Even with the cover of the oasis that was disappearing, it was still a very tough journey to make. But no matter how much they were suffering in these moments, it would still be worth it. They would definitely go down in the annals of history!


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s general said in high spirits, ¡°This battle will be a good opportunity for us to make a name for ourselves!¡±


    As the mechanized infantry in the rear continued to roll over the hard ground, it swept up arge cloud of sand and dust in the desert. When the Zong Consortium¡¯s general listened to the sound of the armored vehicles moving across the gravel road, he found it extremely sonorous and pleasant.


    He asked his adjutant, ¡°Notice anything unusual? This is a critical period, so we have to be even more careful.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± The adjutant said, ¡°We¡¯ve be so familiar with this ce over the years, and Fortress 178 doesn¡¯t have any military facilities in the Gobi at all, so how would those damn fucks know we are?¡±


    But a momentter, they heard an ear-piercing noise approach them. Thesebat troops were the Zong Consortium¡¯s most elite fighting force, and the soldiers were the highest quality in the military.


    So when the ear-piercing noise screeched, all of them were horrified. It was the sound of missiles flying through the air and heading towards them. ¡°We¡¯re under attack! We¡¯re under attack!¡±


    A few loud explosions boomed as several missilesnded on their column. Suddenly, the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops were enveloped in arge cloud of dust and smoke.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s general was already prone. He did not understand why a group of soldiers from Fortress 178 was lying in ambush here.


    As hey on the ground, he had a quick look around at his surroundings. When the dust and smoke dissipated slightly, he saw ck dots appearing on the horizon in three directions. Fortress 178 hade prepared!


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s general was surprised when he realized they had actually walked right into Fortress 178¡¯s trap that wrapped them up into a bag!


    The iing mechanized infantry of Fortress 178 swept up a huge cloud of smoke and dust on the road. The Zong Consortium¡¯s general immediately ordered his troops tounch a counterattack. But when an artillery shell flew towards their enemy, a ck cauldron suddenly appeared in front of the targeted troops and blocked it.


    However, that huge ck cauldron did not stay put there. It flew around in the air and blocked another five or six artillery shells in session. It was very difficult to even catch a glimpse of a flying missile with the naked eye, yet all of the artillery shells were blocked one after another!


    When the artillery shells impacted against the ck cauldron, they exploded. Once the wind blew, the gray smoke from the explosion dissipated immediately.


    Many of the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers were stunned. What the fuck was that?!


    ¡°Xu Xianchu?!¡± The Zong Consortium¡¯s general was bewildered. ¡°How can Xu Xianchu possibly be here? Isn¡¯t he at the rear of our Zong territory?! Didn¡¯t someone report that they spotted his shadow back there?!¡±


    Someone in the Zong Consortium headquarters had mentioned this. They said that Xu Xianchu had disappeared from the battlefield, and it seemed like Zhang Jinglin had made some other arrangements for him. It was likely that Zhang Jinglin had seen through their intentions and sent Xu Xianchu to stop their advance through the Gobi.


    But when someone suddenly ryed some new intel with ims that Xu Xianchu was seen with thatpany in their rear disying his superpower, they were relieved.


    But the Zong Consortium general in the Gobi could never have expected that Xu Xianchu would suddenly appear in front of him like magic.


    Did this Xu Xianchu know how to fly?!


    At the same time, Xu Xianchu, who had just blocked the artillery shells fromnding, was moring for war at the rear of the troops. ¡°Attack without mercy and surround them from three directions! We may let this Zong general slip away, but their troops must be destroyed here in the Gobi! Charge!¡±


    When the soldiers of Fortress 178 witnessed for themselves that theirmanding officer could even block artillery shells, their morale gained a huge boost. However, Xu Xianchu was just putting on a brave front at this moment and doing his best to hold on. It was obvious that he was experiencing pain all over his body from the bacsh transmitted by the ck cauldron. In fact, it was nearly not tough enough to withstand the force of the artillery bombardment. But he knew well that whether Stronghold 178 could win the war all depended on whether his army could score a beautiful and resounding victory here!


    Xu Xianchu had been lying in ambush here for nearly a month now, and all of the men from Fortress 178 were stretched to their limits.


    However, was Fortress 178 able to stand intact in the Northwest for so long because of how well-equipped they were? No, so was it because one of their troops was worth a hundred of the enemy¡¯s? It was not that either.


    It was because they could endure hardships more than any other troops in the world. It was because they treated hardship as a routine while living in the harsh Northwestern frontier!


    This was going to be a vicious battle where their final strategies were revealed.


    Zhang Jinglin just received news from Xu Xianchu¡¯s troops that they were exchanging fire with the enemy. Because of the surprise, the ambush troops of Fortress 178 had gained the upper hand!


    Wang Fengyuan looked at Zhang Jinglin. ¡°Will Ren Xiaosu me us?¡±


    It was obvious what Wang Fengyuan was getting at. Actually, with this contingency n, the Zong Consortium¡¯s trump card would be easily staved off as long as they stepped into the trap Fortress 178 had set up. Once that happened, Fortress 178 would no longer be in an as perilous situation as they were expecting.


    There hadn¡¯t actually been a need for Ren Xiaosu to head to Stronghold 146 at all.


    When Zhang Xiaoman called them the other day, Ren Xiaosu had volunteered to head to Stronghold 146 to take out their Board members. Zhang Jinglin had wanted to stop him, but he could not reveal his n.


    Back then, Zhang Jinglin and Wang Fengyuan were thoroughly investigating the issue of the spy. Even though they knew there was a spy among themanders, they did not manage to discover who it was. So to ensure their ns would not be leaked to the Zong Consortium, Zhang Jinglin could not talk about their ns to the Razor Sharp Company at that time.


    During that call, any details that were brought up could easily get caught by the spy. As such, Zhang Jinglin decided he could not let the soldiers of Fortress 178 bear such a risk.

 Chapter 453 - A potential estrangemen

    <h4>453 A potential estrangemen</h4>


    Earlier, more than a dozen units of Fortress 178¡¯s fighting forces had secretly left the forward operating base. For example, Zhou Yinglong had instructed the Razor Sharp Company tounch an attack on the Beiwan River on the pretense of heading out for their cross-country training. Then they never returned to base again. Likewise, the independent regiment Xu Xianchu was previously in was deployed to the western side of ckstone River.


    The deployment of these troops was actually to make it difficult for the spy to figure out the situation. Once these troops left the forward operating base, allmunications with them would be handled personally by Wang Fengyuan.


    Furthermore, Zhang Jinglin had stopped eating for two days and lost quite a bit of weight in order to deceive the spy as well.


    It was also at this time that they locked onto Li Xiang as a suspect. When Li Xiang went to eat, he would pretend to casually ask Lin Yuze, the manager of the chow hall, ¡°How has themander¡¯s appetite been recently?¡±


    As an infantry brigademander, Li Xiang was not authorized to participate in the drafting of battle ns. So he could only use Zhang Jinglin¡¯s appetite to gauge whether Fortress 178 had any contingency ns.


    This was because it was known to everyone in Fortress 178 that Commander Zhang¡¯s appetite would drop whenever he was troubled.


    If the spy were not caught, that n could only remain hidden in his head. But Zhang Jinglin knew that if he did not reveal his n, he would not be able to stop Ren Xiaosu.


    By the time the spy was caught, Ren Xiaosu had already split from the Razor Sharp Company and could no longer be contacted.


    Therefore, Wang Fengyuan immediately consulted with Zhang Jinglin on Ren Xiaosu after they caught the spy.


    But it was toote by then. Zhang Jinglin could only hope that Ren Xiaosu would survive by himself.


    Wang Fengyuan whispered, ¡°Fortunately, he got the Razor Sharp Company somewhere safe. Otherwise, this would¡¯ve weighed on my conscience for the rest of my life if those glorious troops had gotten wiped out.¡±


    ¡°That was expected of him,¡± Zhang Jinglin said calmly.


    Zhang Jinglin knew this deep down. The moment Ren Xiaosu decided to head to Stronghold 146, he would definitely have arranged for the Razor Sharp Company to be ced somewhere safe. This was just like how the young man had arranged for Li Xiaoyu and Yan Liuyuan to stay at the town¡¯s school back then. Zhang Jinglin understood this young man very well.


    Just as expected, Ren Xiaosu went to Stronghold 146 alone. Meanwhile, Wang Fengyuan had received reliable intel from their spy hiding in a residential building that the garrison troops of Stronghold 146 were conducting a citywide search for Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu had fought his way out of the predicament and was nowhere to be found.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Wang Fengyuan and said calmly, ¡°Even if he mes me, I¡¯ll still ept it. I have my duty to uphold, so I can¡¯t be indecisive.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin had a clear picture of what his priorities were when it came down to Ren Xiaosu and everyone else at Fortress 178.


    Wang Fengyuan was stunned. He was worried if this would estrange the young man from Fortress 178.


    When Wang Fengyuan looked at Zhang Jinglin, he realized he was not as calm as he had imed.


    It was just that he was pretending to fool the spy. Now, he was really worried.


    ...


    The battle in the Gobi did not end that quickly. The Zong Consortium troops who were tasked with crossing the Gobi were extremely tough soldiers. Even though they had been ambushed, they were still able to immediately form a strong defensive line to fight back and retreat at the same time.


    This mission was the Zong Consortium¡¯s entire hope for the war. Therefore, every soldier here not only had to go through a strict political assessment but also undergo extremely tough military training as well.


    But Xu Xianchu was not surprised by that as he already knew what kinds of troops he would be facing.


    Actually, there were still some ws with Fortress 178¡¯s ns. For example, would the absence of a key supernatural being from the main battlefield like Xu Xianchu impact their ns negatively?


    However, Zhang Jinglin was left with no other choice. Xu Xianchu¡¯s mastery ofmand in small-scale military operations, as well as the application of his superpower in a small-scale engagement¡¯s attack and defense, were outstanding. Therefore, Xu Xianchu was definitely the best candidate tomand the ambush troops in the Gobi.


    But what Zhang Jinglin and Xu Xianchu had not expected was how Ren Xiaosu had helped to plug that gap.


    Of course, it remained to be seen whether Xu Xianchu would feel grateful to Ren Xiaosu after he found out.


    The battle in the Gobi continued. The Zong Consortium had waited too long for this day, and so had Zhang Jinglin.


    But if the Zong Consortium was staking everything on the Gobi mission as their final resort to turn the tables, it could only be said that they had made the wrong decision.


    Actually, Fortress 178 had already gotten closer to winning the war now that it had progressed to here.


    After Zhang Jinglin¡¯s n to catch the Zong Consortium in their own trap waspleted, Fortress 178 suddenly made significant progress in the battle at Mt. Wuchuan.


    When they were previously trying to capture the summits, Fortress 178 had faced tough battles. At that time, the Zong Consortium generals were even thinking that Fortress 178¡¯s troops did not seem so tough after all.


    Actually, Fortress 178¡¯s weapons and equipment were not as good as what the Zong Consortium had. Moreover, the Zong Consortium outnumbered Fortress 178 by more than two to one. However, the Zong Consortium generals consciously chose to ignore those conditions and felt that as long as they could defeat Fortress 178, it would show that they were more powerful than them.


    But in that raging storm of a battle, the Zong Consortium suddenly realized the Fortress 178 troops were seemingly undefeatable.


    No matter how many troops they piled on them, Fortress 178¡¯s soldiers who were stretched to their limits were still able to go a little further.


    Even though some of the positions had changed hands many times, the actual duration it took Fortress 178 to win back a position was only two to four hours. Meanwhile, it might take up to a full day and night for the Zong Consortium to win it back from Fortress 178.


    There were clearly far fewer Fortress 178 troops on the battlefield, but even when the Zong Consortium troops barely managed to win back a position, they would find some of the enemy soldiers pretending to be dead while clutching explosives in their arms just so they could perish together with the Zong Consortium soldiers.


    This kind of war with no end in sight was like fighting an enemy that could never be defeated. Just the thought of it would terrify anyone.


    ...


    After the sessful ambush of the Zong Consortium troops in the Gobi, Zhang Jinglin immediately ordered the mechanized infantry that were reorganizing themselves to fully deploy onto the battlefield. Zhou Yinglong had fought hard to open up safe passage for them to proceed. These mechanized infantry would deal the Zong Consortium troops a fatal blow. It would be the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back!


    And surprising many people, the pontoon bridge on the ckstone River had been rebuilt in just three days. Originally, they had estimated it would take 15 days before the mechanized infantry could cross again.


    When Zhou Yinglong went for a break in the rear, he even fell asleep on his meal tray while eating. The medics in the rear quickly carried him away. After cutting open his uniform with scissors, they realized the newly promoted brigademander had sustained tiny wounds all over his body. There were two pieces of shrapnel stuck in his thigh that weren¡¯t removed until now.


    The nurse cleaning his wounds was shocked when she saw his injuries.


    There was another nurse working in the temporary medical center who was the wife of one of the troops. She looked at her husband¡¯s wounds and scolded him tearfully for being careless while bandaging it.


    The soldier said impatiently, ¡°Can¡¯t you stop crying? I have to rejoin my squad after you¡¯re done bandaging my wounds. We¡¯re the ones who took those positions. Now that we¡¯re close to victory, I can¡¯t let those li¡¯l bastards im all the credit!¡±


    ¡°Get lost then, go im your credit! I¡¯ll settle the score with you when we get home.¡± After the nurse tied a bowknot to finish off the bandage, she chased her husband off tearfully.

 Chapter 454 - I can’t say

    <h4>454 I can¡°t say</h4>


    Some of themanders who had already returned from the front line were discussing the battle that took ce in the Gobi. This was something they were not even aware of previously.


    Back then, some of them had realized Xu Xianchu had gone missing. But with nearly a 100,000 troops deployed all over the battlefield, and Zhang Jinglin splitting up more than a dozen units to various locations to mislead the enemy, everyone did not think much of it at the time.


    It wasn¡¯t until today that they realized Xu Xianchu had been sent to the Gobi to the northwest!


    At this moment, Wang Fengyuan came into the chow hall with his meal tray. Lin Yuze, the manager of the chow hall, asked proudly while serving him, ¡°How was my acting?¡±


    ¡°It was perfect.¡± Wang Fengyuanughed heartily. ¡°Themander told me it was all thanks to you that we caught Li Xiang this time.¡±


    ¡°Hehe, I¡¯ve been paying close attention since that bastard sneakily asked me about themander¡¯s appetite.¡± Lin Yuze said as he scooped up argedle of meat for Wang Fengyuan, ¡°But still, it was all thanks to your subsequent actions. Otherwise, we could only have remained suspicious of that person.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to be humble.¡± Wang Fengyuan shook his head. ¡°After all, we only knew who to investigate after he disyed some unusual behavior.¡±


    At this moment, arge group ofmanders gathered around Wang Fengyuan. ¡°You asshole, you must¡¯ve known about themander¡¯s n from the start, right? Why were you so tight-lipped? You didn¡¯t tell us anything at all.¡±


    Wang Fengyuan snapped, ¡°What if any of you turned out to be spies? Even now, I still suspect there¡¯s a spy among you people.¡±


    Themanders around him got annoyed for a while. But as they were used to Wang Fengyuan¡¯s manner of speaking, they never took it personally since a long time ago.


    When Wang Fengyuan was flushing out the spy, his methods were brutal and he did not give a damn about anyone. He was only answerable to Zhang Jinglin.


    Even back at Fortress 178, Wang Fengyuan lived in seclusion every day and never had a drop of alcohol. Wang Fengyuan used to have a wife, but there was one night when she overheard him talking in his sleep. It turned out Wang Fengyuan was also a very ruthless person. He actually separated from his wife right after that and only asionally visited his child during the day.


    At that time, Wang Fengyuan¡¯s child just got born. Whenever he went to visit his child after that, the child would only address him as uncle. However, Wang Fengyuan never onceined no matter how unbearable it felt and spent his life in seclusion for over a decade.


    When his subordinates sometimes saw Wang Fengyuan smoking alone outside the office, they always felt that he had a lot of things weighing on his mind.


    Next to him, Chai Zhilong, who was themander of an infantry brigade, asked, ¡°Fengyuan, since it¡¯s no longer a secret, why don¡¯t you share with us what happened? We were all worried when Commander Zhang stopped eating for two days.¡±


    Wang Fengyuan smiled ambiguously at them. ¡°I think there¡¯s no harm in sharing it with y¡¯all now since themander¡¯s given me permission to talk about it.¡±


    Sharing their victorious exploits at this moment would surely boost the morale of the troops. When someone heard that Wang Fengyuan was willing to share, they said excitedly, ¡°Tell us, did themander really go hungry for two days? Didn¡¯t y¡¯all have Lin Yuze serve him some food secretly?¡±


    Wang Fengyuan did not know whether tough or cry. He did not expect this group of people to actually be concerned about this matter instead. He said, ¡°Who said that themander¡¯s appetite gets affected whenever he¡¯s troubled?¡±


    Themanders looked at one another. ¡°That¡¯s not true?¡±


    Wang Fengyuan smiled. The othermanders suddenly realized the rumor was a trap. For example, by letting an opponent think that you had the habit of touching your nose when you were bluffing in three-card brag, you could fake a tell to lure your opponent into a trap and deal them the fatal blow.


    Of course, that was only the most basic example. The rumors of Zhang Jinglin having no appetite whenever he was troubled had been circting in the stronghold for nearly 20 years. However, that was proven to be false today.


    Wang Fengyuan said, ¡°When themander is really troubled, he¡¯ll smoke more than two packs of cigarettes a day. That much is true.¡±


    However, Chai Zhilong, who was next to him, pointed at Wang Fengyuan and chided him jokingly, ¡°You¡¯re fuckingying a trap for us, right? When I was serving as an orderly for themander, he could also smoke two packs of cigarettes if he was in a good mood!¡±


    Wang Fengyuan raised his eyebrows. ¡°You¡¯ve revealed themander¡¯s personal habits without permission. Go and pen a 3,000-word long apology letter.¡±


    Chai Zhilong¡¯s expression immediately changed. ¡°But I never said anything!¡±


    Wang Fengyuan ignored his protest. Rules were rules.


    Chai Zhilong pulled a long face.


    Reveling in schadenfreude, someone patted Chai Zhilong on the shoulder, then turned to ask Wang Fengyuan, ¡°Tell us then, how did Commander Zhang discover that the Zong Consortium was nning to use the Gobi to get to Fortress 178? Hasn¡¯t Commander Zhang been away from the fortress for more than a decade? Didn¡¯t he only just return? Besides, no one at Fortress 178 has mentioned something like that before.¡±


    Wang Fengyuan sneered. ¡°The n itself was given to the Zong Consortium by Commander Zhang several years ago. When the Zong Consortium began provoking us more frequently, Commander Zhang guessed their FOB in the Gobi had most likely finished construction. That was when he decided toe back.¡±


    Themanders realized Commander Zhang had not been idle outside either. Everyone turned their gaze to Wang Fengyuan again. So it turned out Wang Fengyuan must have been keeping in touch with Commander Zhang ever since he secretly left Fortress 178. However, this bastard was so tight-lipped the others were totally unaware.


    ¡°Bastard, I didn¡¯t expect you to be so good at bluffing when you¡¯re so terrible at intelligence gathering,¡± Chai Zhilong muttered.


    Chai Zhilong stunned himself. Wait a minute! Wang Fengyuan had been the intelligence director for over a decade now and was alwaysining to others about how difficult it was to gather intelligence. Although he also started making some progress in recent years, no one knew exactly what progress he had made.


    Everyone would always make fun of Wang Fengyuan in private, saying the intelligence agency of Fortress 178 was where one waited for retirement.


    But today, it seemed that Wang Fengyuan and Commander Zhang were really the prescient people. If Wang Fengyuan was not capable, wouldn¡¯t Commander Zhang have removed him from his post long ago?


    How could Commander Zhang be so careless in his duties?


    When they thought of this, everyone started seeing Wang Fengyuan in a different light.


    So it seemed that even the Zong Consortium¡¯s n to cross the Gobi was leaked by Zhang Jinglin to them? Could it be that Commander Zhang had intended to destroy the Zong Consortium for a long, long time?


    But Commander Zhang had still not returned to Fortress 178 at that time, right? So was Wang Fengyuan responsible for all this?


    ¡°When did that happen?¡± someone asked.


    Wang Fengyuan thought back and replied, ¡°I don¡¯t remember.¡±


    Themanders around him scowled. ¡®As if you would fucking forget! Like hell we¡¯d believe that!¡¯


    But then amander asked about something unrted. ¡°Fengyuan, you must¡¯ve known there was someone like Ren Xiaosu, right? Tell us more!¡±


    Wang Fengyuan thought for a moment. ¡°I still can¡¯t talk about it.¡±


    ¡°Is it because he¡¯s not gotten out of danger yet? I heard he went to Stronghold 146 by himself. Is it true?¡± Chai Zhilong asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Wang Fengyuan did not hide this from them. After all, the Zong Consortium knew about this as well.


    Chai Zhilong muttered, ¡°That kid is way too fierce. He even dares to go to Stronghold 146 by himself? Then what¡¯s he doing now? Did you get our agent in the north to give him some help?¡±


    Wang Fengyuan shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t say.¡±


    He had already said all that he could say. The rest of the information would have to be kept secret. Themanders around Wang Fengyuan dispersed. They also needed to reorganize themselves as quickly as possible since they were still required to fight on the northern front. After all, even though they were close to victory today, they still had not captured any of the Zong Consortium¡¯s strongholds.

 Chapter 455 - Sneaking into the Zong Consortium’s military base

    <h4>455 Sneaking into the Zong Consortium¡°s military base</h4>


    As Fortress 178¡¯s troops emerged victorious at the front lines, Ren Xiaosu, who was moving through the sewers, had finished cutting through the rebar grating in front of him. He was quietly infiltrating deep into Garrison 146¡¯s military base.


    Every time he passed by a manhole cover, he would listen carefully for any movements overhead.


    Ren Xiaosu could clearly hear footfalls above him as Zong Consortium soldiers walked around in their hard-soled boots.


    Since he could not just climb up there, he could only estimate the number of garrison troops remaining in the base based on the movements above his head. He needed to do this so he could find a good opportunity to take action.


    Through his careful observation, Ren Xiaosu realized the soldiers here still maintained an extremely strict patrolling routine even when the rest of the troops were conducting a citywide search for him.


    Approximately every five minutes or so, a toon would walk past overhead. The margin of error in their timing did not exceed ten seconds.


    Sometimes, light from spotlights outside would seep in through the two holes on the manhole cover and illuminate Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face.


    Ren Xiaosu cautiously found a manhole cover where the patrols seldom passed by and got a bold idea.


    The manhole cover above his head was welded shut, leaving only two holes for drainage purposes. If it were anyone else who had infiltrated into this ce, they would definitely be driven to despair. It was no wonder the Qing Consortium spy from earlier had not even thought about infiltrating the military base through the sewer system.


    Fatty Luo¡¯s trusted method for escape and concealment back at the Li Consortium did not seem like it would work in this military base.


    But not even this was enough to stop Ren Xiaosu. He did possess the ck saber, after all. It was precisely because the defense here was the tightest that he chose to break in from here to get aboveground.


    This was because even the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers would not expect someone to break in quietly through the manhole covers since they were welded shut, especially when the sewer system was reinforced with rebar grating.


    Ren Xiaosu started to slowly and effortlessly cut open the manhole cover with his ck saber.


    Then he waited in silence. Suddenly, he heard footsteps slowly approaching the manhole cover he was under. When the enemy passed by, Ren Xiaosu flipped open the manhole cover quietly and leaped out.


    He pounced onto the enemy like a cheetah. Before the spotlights could sweep across again, he had already broken the neck of his enemy and dragged the corpse into the sewers, closing the manhole cover after him.


    His shadow clone had assisted him throughout the entire process. After the manhole cover was closed, it went all quiet again aboveground as though nothing had happened.


    Ren Xiaosu had a quick look at his surroundings when he was aboveground just now.


    His current position was at the edge of the base. Most of the buildings here consisted of one-story barracks, but there was a narrow five-story tower that stood out from among the structures. Could that be the administrative building of the garrison troops¡¯ headquarters?


    Ren Xiaosu mentally estimated that he was around 200 meters away from the tower.


    Ren Xiaosu made a decision. Although he had not yet seen where the ammunition depots of Garrison 146 were, he knew he should set his sights on that narrow tower if he wanted to destroy the centralmand of these troops.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu needed to get a change of clothes. Only by changing into the Zong Consortium¡¯s khaki uniform could he minimize his chances of being suspected.


    Even if it could make the enemy hesitate for only 0.1 seconds, that would still be worth it. Sometimes, that 0.1-second reaction time could determine the difference between life and death.


    He quickly took the uniform off of the Zong Consortium soldier he had just killed and happily prepared to change into it.


    He did not even use the ck saber earlier because he was worried the clothes would get stained with blood.


    But Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Not for any other reason but because he realized the enemy was a little too short and his uniform was too small.


    Ren Xiaosu was 18 years old and a supernatural being as well. He had grown from his original height of 178 centimeters at the age of 17 to 184 centimeters. This was considered very tall even among males, especially in an era where malnutrition was prevalent.


    This meant it might not be easy to find the right size of uniform.


    But Ren Xiaosu was not someone who was easily discouraged. Since the n was still feasible, he would have to find a way to execute it no matter what!


    However, he would have to act quickly. Once the Zong Consortium discovered that a soldier had gone missing, his n would have more or less failed.


    When he grabbed a second Zong Consortium soldier, Ren Xiaosu frowned again and let out a sigh. ¡®No! This soldier is still too short.¡¯


    And the third soldier Ren Xiaosu grabbed, ¡®No! This one¡¯s too big!¡¯ This soldier¡¯s uniform made Ren Xiaosu look like he had put on a costume. Although Ren Xiaosu was built, his physique was still thin because his strength and agility were evenly bnced.


    Ren Xiaosu was not expecting much anymore, but when he caught the fourth person, he saw a glimmer of hope in his n. ¡®The size of this person is just right this time!¡¯


    ¡°Phew.¡± Ren Xiaosu finally heaved a sigh of relief. He was worried he would end up capturing and bringing all of the soldiers in this base down into the sewers he was hiding in.


    But at this moment, an rm red in the garrison base. It seemed the missing personnel had already attracted the attention of the Zong Consortium garrison troops.


    Ren Xiaosu quickly got changed and took the soldier¡¯s ess card before climbing out of the sewers. Then he walked to the tower as casually as he could.


    The patrolling toons that were on rotational break quickly reassembled at the barracks. Immediately, an even more rigorous search team armed with live ammunition was formed.


    Troops were rying the orders as they passed each other, ¡°We have some soldiers who went missing. Search every corner of the base immediately!¡±


    ¡°Conduct a nket search and follow up on any tracks that are found!¡±


    ¡°The enemy might¡¯ve already infiltrated our base!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt these Zong Consortium troops were really quite alert. But it was not a big problem as he had already gone into the tower he identified earlier.


    The tower was illuminated with incandescent white lights inside. When Ren Xiaosu was about to swipe his ess card to pass through the security entrance, the guard outside eyed him suspiciously as though he found this person a little unfamiliar. ¡°Sir, please show me your ID.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu tried to bluff his way through. He looked at the guard and said calmly, ¡°You don¡¯t know me? Can you say you recognize every soldier in the base?¡±


    The guard replied earnestly, ¡°Well, sir, it¡¯s true that I can¡¯t recognize every soldier in our brigade, but I can still recognize the regimentalmanders when there¡¯s so few of them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was slightly taken aback. Did he kill yet another regimentalmander?! He had not even gone through boot camp before, so how could he know how to recognize the Zong Consortium¡¯s military ranks? Moreover, the regimentalmander he killed was also wearing a standardbat uniform like the rest of the soldiers. It was just that there was a slightly different insignia on his cor. So he thought it was just an ordinary officer like a toonmander or a nonmissioned officer with an appointment. However, he did not expect it to be a regimentalmander.


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu gave a mental sigh. For such tightly guarded ces, it seemed it would really be impossible to sneak past the defenses. It was not that his n was unfeasible but that the enemy¡¯s security was too tight.


    Since he could not sneak in, he would just have to kill his way in!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly made his move. Before the guard could react, Ren Xiaosunded a knifehand strike onto his opponent¡¯s neck. The strike whooshed through the air.


    The guard copsed onto the ground lifelessly. Ren Xiaosu looked up at the surveince camera and knew that from this moment on, the soldiers in the entire base would start pursuing him with all their might.


    But before that happened, Ren Xiaosu would first cripple the military¡¯s centralmand in this tower.


    He would rather face a defenseless base than head out to the stronghold to face the massive search force. He was only hoping that his arrival would send Stronghold 146 spiraling into chaos.


    Only amid the chaos would he have a glimmer of hope to clinch victory.

 Chapter 456 - Breakthrough!

    <h4>456 Breakthrough!</h4>


    The rm in Garrison 146¡¯s military base was getting more and more deafening. It even got to the point where almost half of the stronghold could hear it now. When the residents furtively opened their windows and looked out towards the base, they heard the heavy footsteps of soldiers running around. The troops that were originally searching for Ren Xiaosu in the stronghold were rushing back towards the base.


    Some residents were bewildered by this. When they heard during the day that the Zong Consortium troops had been unable to capture the young man who had broken into the stronghold, everyone found it unbelievable. After all, there was an entire formation of Zong Consortium troops stationed here, while the other party was only a single person.


    Yet they couldn¡¯t even capture him?


    At that time, the person who brought up the matter said, ¡°My brother-inw is a regimentalmander in the Garrison 146 troops. He was the one who told me about it.¡±


    However, many of those he told did not believe it and felt he was just bragging. They said that if his brother-inw were a regimentalmander, then their father would be the brigademander.


    After all, the situation was so chaotic that everyone was getting extremely unsettled, and it felt like the war was starting to affect the people in Stronghold 146. As such, no one really took that young man¡¯s words seriously.


    After all, who would believe that a brigade could not even deal with a lone enemy who had entered the stronghold?


    But at this moment, they were finally a little convinced after hearing the ear-piercing rm.


    The young man had not only escaped the pursuit of the garrison troops in the daytime, he was even bold enough to attack the base of the Zong Consortium¡¯s garrison?


    After Ren Xiaosu killed the guard at the entrance, he immediately headed upstairs armed with his ck saber. When someone saw him kill the guard through the surveince camera, they rushed down. The rm in the tower red as well. All of a sudden, amotion broke out in the administrative building.


    Two of the soldiers who rushed down had their guards up in the stairway. They had seen clearly through the surveince camera how unbelievably skilled the enemy was. When the enemy took out the guard earlier, he even smashed the brick wall beside him at the same time.


    But before they could evene face to face with Ren Xiaosu, they saw a hand reach out of a shadow cast by the stairway¡¯s handrail. It then dropped a grenade at their feet!


    An explosion sted in the tower. Ren Xiaosu did not have time to tussle with these Zong Consortium soldiers who were hiding in the shadows and trying to shoot him. It would be too troublesome if the enemy¡¯s troops managed to group up and surround the tower.


    The troops in the tower all rushed down, with some of them adopting a defensive formation in the stairways and corners while they waited quietly for Ren Xiaosu to show up.


    However, this method would only be effective when dealing with normal enemies. Against Ren Xiaosu, that was too passive a tactic.


    Ren Xiaosu was rapidly taking down the enemy troops one by one. The soldier in the control room who was in charge of monitoring and reporting Ren Xiaosu¡¯s movements could only watch as he ran through the corridors like a ghostly presence, and his every move was also ferocious like a beast¡¯s.


    Through the surveince feed, he watched an officer rush out of a room holding a pistol. But the moment he stepped out of the room, a ck saber shed onto his shoulder and his arm fell onto the ground together with the gun.


    Right after, the young man kicked the officer so forcefully his entire body was mangled.


    How much strength would he need to be able to do that? The bones in a human body were extremely tough!


    As grenades exploded one after another, the soldier in the control room saw the security monitors turning ck one by one. However, he could do nothing to stop the young man¡¯s advance.


    Every few seconds, a security monitor would either go ck or turn into static.


    The soldier in the control room suddenly felt like he was watching a paranormal movie. Such scenes would usually take ce right before the appearance of a ghost as it slowly wrang the fear out of its victim¡¯s heart until it bled.


    Earlier in the day, this soldier had heard about how his fellowrades of the search party were unable to apprehend the wanted criminal.


    When everyone was eating in the chow hall, they even made fun of theirrades outside the base for being too weak and unable to capture a single person.


    But when he saw with his own eyes how fearsome the enemy was, he understood what havoc a person like him could cause in the stronghold¡¯s city by relying on the blind spots the buildings provided.


    Without intense firepower suppressing him, no one could do anything. This young man was practically invincible in the smaller battles, so it required the deployment of a muchrger force to kill him.


    Wait a minute! The enemy had already moved to... The soldier in the control room was startled. He picked up his gun and looked behind him only to see the locked door of the control room being shed open right at this moment.


    That ck saber left a terrifying crack in the steel door, and the soldier inside was met by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cold stare through it.


    He was so nervous with keeping his eye on the security monitors that he forgot the enemy had already arrived at the control room¡¯s doorstep. The soldier was scared out of his wits even though he only saw part of the enemy¡¯s face through the crack.


    After shing through the closed steel door, Ren Xiaosu did not even bother to enter when he saw there was only one person inside. He just threw a grenade in through the crack before he continued moving forward.


    Ren Xiaosu used to use the grenades sparingly as he had very few of them on hand.


    But when he led the Razor Sharp Company to destroy three military factories some time ago, they seized so many grenades it was unimaginable for Ren Xiaosu. Right now, even he was unsure of how many grenades he had exactly.


    No one from the Razor Sharp Company would fight Ren Xiaosu for the grenades. They just handed all the grenades they found over to Ren Xiaosu.


    At this moment, the battle at Mt. Wuchuan had benefited Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cause as the number of troops in Garrison 146 had decreased by several times after their soldiers were deployed to the front lines.


    There were usually two supernatural beings stationed at the garrison base as well. However, only one remained at this moment, and that supernatural being was none other than Zong Cheng himself. It was just that no one knew where he was right now.


    So Ren Xiaosu did not encounter any particrly effective resistance as he made his way upstairs in a killing spree. After all, he could casually drop grenades anywhere in the building as he wished while the enemy had to be cautious.


    There was arge amount of information stored here, and many of those who were in the building were the Zong Consortium¡¯s own people. As such, they still harbored fantasies that as long as one of them could gun down Ren Xiaosu, he would definitely be done for. But none of them managed to hit Ren Xiaosu, and most of them died before they could even see him.


    Besides, half of those in the administrative building were clerical staff officers, while the remaining half consisted of officers equipped with pistols and some normal garrison troops. As soldiers guarding a ce like this, the garrison troops were not equipped with grenades at all!


    Blood was flowing down the stairway and trickling onto the next level with audible dripping sounds.


    After Ren Xiaosu rushed up to the third story, a person stealthily climbed out of a closet in an office on the second story. He did not even have the courage to put up a fight just now. At this moment, he realized he might still have a chance to escape. The explosions had already moved on to the upper floors!


    The chubby officer finally managed to get out of the closet after some struggling. But when he walked to the corridor, he suddenly slipped and fell heavily onto the ground.


    Due to the sticky blood that was flowing on the ground, the floor was very difficult to walk on. If one could not find their bnce, they would surely slip and fall.


    When the chubby officernded on the ground, he let out a cry in pain. But he regretted it immediately as he wondered if that would have attracted the enemy¡¯s attention. But the enemy was already upstairs, surely he wouldn¡¯t turn back to kill him, right?


    But before he could stop worrying, he suddenly saw someone throw a grenade out of a shadow next to him!

 Chapter 457 - Restoring the armor

    <h4>457 Restoring the armor</h4>


    Silence fell over the administrative building. As Ren Xiaosu strolled through the bloodsoaked environment, the enemies in the building had apparently all died. Only the sound of blood flowing could be heard in the background.


    While he walked up the stairway to the fourth story, Ren Xiaosu realized he encountered almost no resistance. He felt that this was a little odd.


    He found a locked door between the third and fourth stories, and it seemed like it was not usually essible to even the officers of this building.


    ng! Ren Xiaosu cut open the door. Before proceeding up to the fourth story, he hid stealthily behind a window and took a look outside. He saw more than a 100 soldiers already gathered below the tower.


    With a re, Ren Xiaosu began to search through the entirety of the fourth story. It would still take a while for the brigade outside the base to get back. If there were 500 Zong Consortium soldiers in the base, there would only be about 300 soldiers below the tower after taking into ount the 100 or so troops he had just killed.


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was hoping he could attract an even greater number of Zong Consortium troops back to the base. This was so he would get a better opportunity to kill the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups once he rushed out of here. As such, Ren Xiaosu believed that his n of breaking into the Zong Consortium¡¯s base had achieved its goal of disrupting their ns.


    When he shed open another locked door, Ren Xiaosu was startled. He instinctively thought of ducking into the corner to hide as he saw 30 soldiers standing inside this spacious room!


    But Ren Xiaosu realized what was going on. After he broke into the room, the soldiers did not even move. They just stood like statues.


    Ren Xiaosu cautiously looked at them and was shocked to discover he actually knew these soldiers! Weren¡¯t these the Yang Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers?!


    When Yang Xiaojin was assigned to exterminate the bandits, her third uncle had sent a toon of nanosoldiers to ensure her safety.


    But Ren Xiaosu never saw those nanosoldiers again after Yang Xiaojin suddenly took him on another route to the valley.


    But shouldn¡¯t these nanosoldiers have continued marching north with Zong Cheng? Even if they had failed to exterminate the bandits or encountered something unexpected, it didn¡¯t make sense that they would be standing here like statues.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu remembered what Zhang Jinglin had told him. ¡°We have evidence to suspect that Zong Cheng¡¯s superpower allows him to gain control of others.¡±


    A conjecture popped up in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind. Could these nanosoldiers have fallen under the control of Zong Cheng to be his trump cards?


    At this moment, the voice from the pce in his mind said, ¡°Nanomachines not paired to a consciousness have been detected. Would you like to establish a connection?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. In the past, he could only reset the nanomachines of nanosoldiers who had died, so why was it different this time?


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu remembered what the pce had said. He realized the condition required for the pce to reset the nanomachines was not dependent on whether a person was dead but whether there was any consciousness controlling them.


    And these nanosoldiers had been put into some kind of a sleep mode after being controlled by Zong Cheng. Therefore, were their ¡°consciousnesses¡± forcefully suspended by Zong Cheng as well?


    Living like this could not be more miserable since they did not have control over their own lives.


    ¡°Reset them!¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    Since hisst battle in the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu often missed the feeling of having those nanomachines. That was because the armor was like a lifeline that could allow him to ignore the effects of standard firearms for a short duration!


    Although he missed having them, he had not had the opportunity to search for more new nanomachines. He had almost given up hope, so he was surprised he could actually reunite with the nanomachines here in the Zong Consortium today.


    As the saying goes, you search high and low only to find it when you least expect it.


    ¡°Removing remote ess protocol...


    ¡°Resetting to factory settings...


    ¡°Restarting system...


    ¡°Pairing sessful.¡±


    As a silvery stream gathered towards Ren Xiaosu, he could feel that familiar power returning to his body.


    He heard shuffling footsteps from downstairs again. It sounded like the troops gathered outside had run out of patience and were going tounch an assault.


    But Ren Xiaosu chose to ignore them this time and focused on receiving all the nanomachines.


    What were several hundred Zong Consortium soldiers in the face of the armor? Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of security spreading in him.


    Once he regained this power, the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups living in Stronghold 146 had better start praying hard for themselves!


    This was Ren Xiaosu at his peak! And Stronghold 146 was destined to be his final battlefield in the Northwest!


    No! Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt it was unnecessary for the Zong Consortium higher-ups to even pray anymore. They might as well just prepare for their deaths.


    But before all of the nanomachines were fully integrated into his body, the nanosoldiers in the room suddenly charged at him. It seemed like they had received amand from someone. Ren Xiaosu frowned. Zong Cheng must have reached somewhere close enough for him to control the nanosoldiers!


    Zong Cheng!


    When this name shed through Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind, all he felt was a killing intent.


    Although all of the nanosoldiers charged at him, these nanosoldiers without nanomachines were fragile as a paper to Ren Xiaosu.


    At the same time as the nanosoldiers were activated, a man darted in from outside to coordinate with them to kill Ren Xiaosu. This person that had just arrived was Zong Cheng!


    Ren Xiaosu sneered as he drew out his saber to sh at him. But the moment Zong Cheng came into the room, he suddenly realized something was not right. He backed off immediately and just managed to dodge Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ck saber that wasing at him!


    Zong Cheng stared nkly at the nanosoldiers who were heavily injured and shouted at Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Where¡¯d all the nanomachines go? Why have the nanomachines in these nanosoldiers disappeared?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu guided the remaining stream of nanomachines into his blood vessels while exining patiently, ¡°Isn¡¯t it normal that there¡¯s no nanomachines in nanosoldiers? You don¡¯t get a wife in a ¡®wife cake.¡¯[1]¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was now certain that even though Zong Cheng could control others, he could not control them in the way he could control his shadow clone, whose sensory perception would give feedback to his own senses.


    Otherwise, Zong Cheng would not have rushed into the room at all.


    Zong Cheng was not in the mood to crackme jokes with Ren Xiaosu at a time like this. When he realized that one of his trump cards had been nullified, he leaped out of a window in the hallway behind him without hesitation. He had decisively jumped from the fourth story in an attempt to join up with the garrison troops below to escape. He knew full well he was no match for Ren Xiaosu!


    Jumping from the fourth story was better than dying on the spot!


    But this time, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not allow him to continue living.


    If he missed this chance to get him, Zong Cheng would probably conceal himself and escape from here. At that time, it would be difficult to find him again in the sea of people.


    So for Ren Xiaosu, this was his only chance to get him.


    Ren Xiaosu instantly covered his entire body with the armor and stood by the window. He saw Zong Cheng limping towards the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive line while shouting at them, ¡°Kill that man at the window! Fire at him!¡±


    But as the hail of bullets hit the armor, they could only see sparks flying!


    Under the gazes of the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers, a huge and massive armored being suddenly leaped and crashed down in front of them without any fancy moves.


    With this leap, Ren Xiaosu took out the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive line in the most dominating fashion!


    [1] A sweetheart cake or wife cake or marriage pie is a traditional Cantonese pastry with a thin crust of ky pastry, and made with a filling of winter melon, almond paste, and sesame, and spiced with five spice powder. ¡°Wife cake¡± is the trantion of lou po beng from Cantonese, and although the meaning is ¡°wife¡±, the literal trantion is ¡°olddy cake¡±, paralleling the colloquial usage of ¡°olddy¡± for ¡°wife¡± in American English. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetheart_cake

 Chapter 458 - Killing spree

    <h4>Chapter 458 Killing spree</h4>


    Zong Cheng was a supernatural being the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups had been watching closely since his appearance. Because his superpower allowed him to control others, this was an extremely useful skill in the eyes of the authority figures.


    Although this was a time where supernatural beings were rising up in the world, and their individualbat prowess was also being magnified to the extreme, they were still only human.


    No matter what powers a supernatural being had, they would inevitably possess a physique far superior to a normal person¡¯s, and that was why Zong Cheng dared to jump down from the fourth story. If it were a normal person, they would have fractured all of the bones in their body. However, Zong Cheng only sprained his foot.


    Zong Cheng was normally the person in charge of the brigade garrisoned at Stronghold 146 due to his status as a family member of the Zong Consortium¡¯s main branch. As he was also a supernatural being, all the soldiers and officers of the brigade followed his lead.


    In the eyes of the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers, Zong Cheng was a powerful and mysterious person. When Zong Cheng received the news and rushed back to the base, many of the soldiers felt the situation would get under control as he was back.


    No matter how powerful the enemy in the administrative building was, would they not be able to handle him with a supernatural being and several hundred elite soldiers on their side?


    But the reality was that Zong Cheng had jumped out of the window in an extremely pathetic manner after they had just formed the defensive line at ground level. His previously glossy hair was also in a disheveled state while his expression betrayed a look of fear.


    As a core figure of the Zong Consortium, he usually portrayed himself as a very powerful man. However, he was not actually as powerful as everyone thought.


    Zong Cheng¡¯s jump dealt a severe blow to the morale of the entire garrison. This was even more damaging than any physical injuries they could receive. They suddenly felt that the enemy they were facing was invincible.


    If even a supernatural being like Zong Cheng was trying to escape, what could these normal soldiers do against the enemy?


    But Zong Cheng did not care about that. Since his trump card was now lost, he only thought about fleeing.


    This was when a huge object leaped out of the window from the fourth story andnded on the defensive line below. No one expected the enemy would be so strong that he could just tear apart their defensive formation so easily.


    With such an imperious gesture, the enemy¡¯s intentions were fullyid out even if he did not say a word: I dare to stand before you for I fear none of you!


    Although the soldiers at the defensive line were badly shaken, they still knew what they had to do. They immediately consolidated their firepower and started shooting at the armored being.


    After some modifications by Wang Yuchi, An Yuqian, and the rest of the students, the armor looked even more menacing now and exuded an aura of violence.


    The armor no longer had a t and smooth surface. Instead, it was made up of a dense honeb structure that was carefully engineered by An Yuqian. To others, the surface of the armor looked just like a dull matte finish. But upon closer inspection, they would discover it was made up of countless honebs.


    A physical structure like this not only required fewer materials to build but was also far more useful for shock absorption than a smooth and t surface.


    As countless bullets rained down at the armor, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze remained dead set on the escaping Zong Cheng.


    Zong Cheng was limping towards the outside of the base, and it could be seen that he did not care about the survival of the soldiers behind him.


    As he was a supernatural being, he could run faster than normal people even with a sprained ankle. At this moment, Zong Cheng was enduring the pain in his ankle as he fled desperately to join up with the Zong Consortium¡¯s main forces in Stronghold 146.


    He had injured the soft tissue in his ankle during the jump and torn his cartge. If he continued running like this, he might not be able to fully recover. But even if he had to lose his leg from overexertion, it was still better than losing his life!


    Not only that, Zong Cheng evenmanded the other soldiers to intercept the enemy as he made a run for it.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the Zong Consortium soldiers in front of him and suddenly charged towards Zong Cheng.


    The Zong Consortium soldiers who tried to block Ren Xiaosu were weak as toys. In just a few seconds, Ren Xiaosu broke through the defensive line.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was throwing grenades at the enemy as he fought them, as though it cost him nothing at all.


    Even at this moment, Ren Xiaosu had still not forgotten he was here to wipe out the troops of Stronghold 146. If he could kill the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups as well, that would be even better.


    Now that he was in his peak condition, he would kill as many Zong Consortium soldiers as he could. Only by doing so would the Zong Consortium be afraid of him. When he would try to kill the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-upster on, he would face less resistance from the troops.


    At this moment, the Zong Consortium¡¯s base was no longer able to organize any new forces to stop him. The remaining soldiers who luckily survived could only watch in fear as Ren Xiaosu continued his pursuit of Zong Cheng.


    They suddenly realized that this supernatural being that had appeared out of nowhere must have had some sort of a feud with their brigademander. And the brigademander they usually feared so greatly was not as strong as they had imagined!


    Of course, they could never have expected that Han Yang, the person their brigademander relied on the most, had already been sniped by Yang Xiaojin in the wilderness. Furthermore, those 30 nanosoldiers were like a gift Zong Cheng had been putting aside for Ren Xiaosu and waiting for him to im.


    If Zong Cheng had controlled other supernatural beings, that would have really given Ren Xiaosu a headache. But to him, those nanosoldiers were no threat at all but a pleasant surprise!


    When Zong Cheng reached the gate of the base, he was overjoyed. He saw that some of the troops from the search party had returned at this moment as reinforcements!


    He shouted at them, ¡°The enemy is right behind me! Kill him!¡±


    Approximately 500 of the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops had returned. As this was a battalion, Zong Cheng was finally able to feel more at ease.


    As he had controlled the nanosoldiers, he knew full well that the usage of the nanomachines was limited by a power source. If a nanosoldier were to fully unleash the power of the nanomachines, they would onlyst around ten minutes. With the number of troops here, he could easily pile them on him and finish him off.


    And the enemy was all by himself. Thest time the Zong Consortium attacked Ren Xiaosu in the wilderness, he had only managed to get away because he had Wang Congyang¡¯s steam lotive supporting him!


    And besides, that supernatural being who could trigger a giant earthquake was not in Stronghold 146 either!


    At the thought of Wang Congyang¡¯s name, Zong Cheng still grew angry. Although Wang Congyang imed he had a grudge against Ren Xiaosu, he still helped him secretly!


    And because of Wang Congyang¡¯s seizure of Zong Wu¡¯s assets, the higher-ups had indirectly pushed the me on him as well. Someone privately reminded him that the elders felt he should have killed off Wang Congyang when he made his move on him back then. How could he have allowed such a powerful supernatural being to get away?


    But there was no time to think about that anymore. He would just have to kill Ren Xiaosu first!


    But when Zong Cheng turned around, he suddenly saw a steam lotive breaking through the Zong Consortium¡¯s formation and charging at him!


    The Zong Consortium troops who had just returned did not even have time to react as more than half of them got crushed like they were toy blocks.


    Zong Cheng was a little bewildered. Why had the steam lotive suddenly appeared here when he did not see Wang Congyang around?

 Chapter 459 - Destroying the formation

    <h4>459 Destroying the formation</h4>


    When he saw the steam lotive approaching, Zong Cheng had an epiphany. After considering the doubts that had umted in his mind in recent days and analyzing them further, he surmised that the steam lotive was probably not Wang Congyang¡¯s doing at all. Instead, it was probably Ren Xiaosu¡¯s own power!


    Although Zong Cheng did not really want to ept such a presumption, he had no other choice.


    And once this presumption was established, many things that happened previously could finally be exined. For example, why had Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone appeared at two different locations? Xu Xianchu had admitted before that he could not control the shadow clone beyond a distance of one kilometer.


    And for example, Wang Congyang¡¯s steam lotive was known to only have four carriages, but why did the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops keep seeing one that had 16?


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower was that he could copy the superpowers of other supernatural beings!


    This made Zong Cheng even more fearful. If supernatural beings were the gods of the world, what kind of existence would a supernatural being that could outrageously copy the powers of other supernatural beings, and even further enhance them, be?


    When Zong Cheng attacked Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group, he did not give a fuck about this young man. His target had all along been Yang Xiaojin and the organization backing her, the Saboteurs.


    Now, Zong Cheng realized that he had made a huge mistake.


    Suddenly, Zong Cheng stopped a military off-road vehicle that was speeding back to the base. He dragged the Zong Consortium soldier out of the driver¡¯s seat and threw him onto the ground. Then he drove the vehicle away!


    As the night curfew had already been imposed on Stronghold 146, there were no pedestrians out on the streets. Only the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers could be seen patrolling.


    But no matter how many soldiers came back as reinforcements, Zong Cheng was not going to turn around anymore. He just shouted into the vehicle¡¯s walkie-talkie andmanded all of the Zong Consortium soldiers in Stronghold 146 toe back to hold off Ren Xiaosu.


    Zong Cheng thought to himself, ¡®There should be an extent to how much supernatural beings can use their superpowers, right?¡¯ For example, he could only control 30 to 50 people with his power. In that case, there also had to be a limit for the Steam Lotive. Didn¡¯t it get blown into thin air after being bombed by thend mines in the wilderness?


    As long as he had enough soldiers, he could crush Ren Xiaosu.


    Zong Cheng regained hisposure slightly. One by one, the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops started returning to the base, with thergest consisting of a fullpany, while the smaller groups were made up of individual toons.


    These sporadic forces would not be enough to stop Ren Xiaosu. Zong Cheng looked at his surroundings and immediately ordered through the radio, ¡°I¡¯m leading the target towards Zijing Road now. All soldiers in the vicinity of Zijing Road, organize a defensive formation immediately and mount HMGs. Make sure to stop the steam lotive that¡¯s chasing me!¡±


    This would be the most effective method. Zong Cheng knew he could not run away aimlessly and should instead lead Ren Xiaosu to where the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers were the most concentrated so they could take him out while he was exhausted!


    It was destined to be a sleepless night in Stronghold 146 tonight. The rm that red through the night, along with the explosions and gunfire, would make it difficult for any residents in the stronghold to fall asleep.


    As some people watched quietly from a residential building on the street, they got a strange feeling. During the day, it was the Zong Consortium that was chasing after the young man. But now that it was nighttime, why had it suddenly be the young man chasing after the Zong Consortium soldiers while driving a train?


    Why had the roles suddenly reversed?


    rion and pleasant ngs of metal rang out as the steam lotive traveled. This was the first time the residents in the stronghold witnessed a superpower with their own eyes.


    A child leaning against the windowsill shouted to their parents, ¡°Daddy, it¡¯s a toy train!¡±


    There were railroad tracks and trains that operated between Stronghold 146 and Stronghold 145, and many of the residents had taken them before. But in recent years, the Zong Consortium had been preparing for the war so intensively that the trains had be an exclusive means of transport for the military.


    When the adults heard their child¡¯s words, the father said with aplicated expression, ¡°My child, that is a real train.¡±


    Zheng Yuandong, the Qing Consortium¡¯s spy, was standing at a window somewhere in the stronghold. He had just witnessed with his very own eyes an off-road vehicle of the Zong Consortium fleeing with a train chasing behind it.


    Zheng Yuandong had heard of car chases before, but this was the first time he saw something like that, and this one even involved a train.


    Zheng Yuandong was probably one of the few who really knew what was happening here. He was the one who had personally led Ren Xiaosu into the base, while the steam lotive hade charging out of there. Without even needing to analyze, he guessed what was going on.


    It was just that he could not understand why this young man was being so vicious.


    After Zheng Yuandong led Ren Xiaosu to the garrison base, he went back and reported to Luo Lan that it was probably the end for that kid. After all, he would definitely be done for by barging into such a tightly defended base by himself.


    At that time, Luo Lan remained silent for a while before saying, ¡°I understand. He made his own choice.¡±


    Even an idiot could sense the sadness in Luo Lan¡¯s tone when he said that.


    But what was he supposed to tell Boss Luo now?


    He could say, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I made a mistake. It wasn¡¯t the end for that young man. It¡¯s the Zong Consortium that was done for...¡±


    Zheng Yuandong quietly climbed to the roof of a building. He was moving freely on top of the buildings and could leap five to six meters across buildings with a single step even though the gap felt like a gulf.


    Although he was not a supernatural being, he was one of the toughest spies in the Qing Consortium¡¯s secret troops.


    Zheng Yuandong chased after the train for the entire time and saw for himself how the steam lotive was smashing through every obstacle. The young man in the train calmly pursued the off-road vehicle in front of him and even threw several grenades from time to time.


    Ren Xiaosu had already put away his armor and stored the nanomachines back into his body to recharge it for the next battle. When he turned his head, he saw Zheng Yuandong leaping and scurrying across the roofs. He smiled and waved at Zheng Yuandong. He also signaled for him to stay away in case he identally got hurt.


    Just what kind of mental fortitude did he need to have to remain smiling in the face of all the danger around him?


    He wanted to tell Luo Lan every detail about today¡¯s events so the Qing Consortium could reassess the capability of this young man from an objective point of view!


    Ren Xiaosu had pursued Zong Cheng until they were in the vicinity of Zijing Road. The traffic lights were still shing at the huge intersection, while the neon lights on the surrounding buildings were still lit up.


    Hundreds of Zong Consortium soldiers stood guard at this intersection armed with a massive amount of weapons as they waited for the strange steam lotive to enter their kill zone.


    Even Zong Cheng could not help but step on the brakes when he saw the formation up ahead and wondered if they would be enough to stop Ren Xiaosu!


    But before the steam lotive could arrive, something strange suddenlynded at the Zong Consortium¡¯s position via the Shadow Door.


    A soldier looked over and caught sight of it. He was surprised to see four ying cards lying on the ground.


    He saw four ¡°sixes,¡± with the spade, heart, club, and diamond suits shining extraordinarily bright.


    At first, some of the soldiers did not even realize what was going on. They thought it was their fellowrades who had identally dropped the cards and were wondering who had brought them here. If theirmanding officer found out, they would probably be severely punished.


    But before they could figure it out, they saw the four ¡°sixes¡± grow brighter and brighter. With a loud boom, the Explosive Poker instantly sted close to a 100 people into the sky!

 Chapter 460 - Proxy murder

    <h4>Chapter 460 Proxy murder</h4>


    The explosive power and destructive range of these Explosive Poker cards were a dozen times greater than those of a grenade!


    It would be great if a grenade thrown into a defensive position could blow up a few people. So if Ren Xiaosu still had to rely on his grenades here, he would probably get shot to death first in a confrontation with the defensive line.


    Ren Xiaosu had been keeping these four ¡°sixes¡± as his trump card for a long time. He had always decried how difficult it was to get the higher value cards from Explosive Poker. He had been looking forward to witnessing the might of the Jokers. However, gathering four ¡°sixes¡± proved to be the limit after he tried collecting the cards for a long time.


    In that instant, a huge shockwave surged outwards like a tidal wave. Some of the residents in the surrounding were secretly watching from their homes. But when that shockwave swept through, the people hiding behind their windows were pushed backwards.


    The ss windows of the off-road vehicle Zong Cheng was in were instantly shattered while the body shook nonstop.


    He heard a ringing in his ears and suddenly lost his sense of hearing!


    Looking at the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive position burning up in mes in front of him, Ren Xiaosu rammed straight through it, sneering as he stood in the cab unit.


    The Explosive Poker¡¯s four ¡°sixes¡± were powerful enough to destroy this formation of a few hundred people.


    Ren Xiaosu estimated that a little less than half of the soldiers at this position were fortunate enough to not die. But what could they do even if they survived? These Zong Consortium soldiers had already lost their fighting spirit after the st.


    They did not even have the ability to think straight anymore.


    Zong Cheng¡¯s ears were still ringing as he stepped on the gas and continued to escape. Fortunately, he was pretty far away from the defensive line when the st urred, or he would have died in the explosion.


    Ren Xiaosu had tried to use the Shadow Door to kill Zong Cheng by dropping some grenades on him. However, as the two of them were moving at high speeds, and with the Shadow Door having some margin of error as well, Ren Xiaosu did not manage to seed even after several attempts.


    But Ren Xiaosu gave up trying when he noticed the situation at Zijing Road and wondered where Zong Cheng would lead him in the course of his escape.


    It was not that he was intentionally teasing Zong Cheng. But if he were to only kill him, that would probably have too small an impact on the overall situation of the war.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reason foring to Stronghold 146 was to resolve the problem Fortress 178 was facing. He was unaware that the Zong Consortium troops in the Gobi had already been intercepted by Xu Xianchu, nor did he know about the might of Zhang Jinglin¡¯s contingency n.


    So now that Ren Xiaosu was in enemy territory, he decided he had to seriously consider the big picture as well after he had calmed down.


    Where could Zong Cheng escape to in his panic? Where would the Zong Consortium¡¯s fighting forces in Stronghold 146 be concentrated? At the side of the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups, of course!


    Zheng Yuandong had told Ren Xiaosu before that half of the brigade at Stronghold 146 was trying to capture him while the other half was in charge of guarding the Zong Consortium¡¯s Board members.


    At this moment, the soldiers searching for Ren Xiaosu were still scattered across the stronghold, so Zong Cheng could not organize them effectively within a short time. Therefore, in Zong Cheng¡¯s eyes, it would only be possible for him to be saved by the troops who were currently guarding the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups.


    Actually, Zong Cheng had just realized this as he was fleeing from Ren Xiaosu. Looking into the rearview mirror, he found that the steam lotive behind him was constantly keeping its distance. In a way, it felt like Ren Xiaosu was walking a dog.


    He had nned on leading Ren Xiaosu to a ce with thergest number of troops so they could wear him down. But now, it felt more like he was leading Ren Xiaosu to attack the Zong Consortium troops in the stronghold.


    Zong Cheng¡¯s face was covered in blood. His scalp had been cut by shrapnel that got sted out of the massive explosion. With the blood flowing down his face, Zong Cheng appeared even more savage.


    He was not stupid, so he immediately understood the scattered defensive forces had given Ren Xiaosu a sweet taste of things toe. Now, his opponent was deliberately letting him lead the way so he could find the other troops in the stronghold, which was where the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups were!


    Zong Cheng was stuck between a rock and a hard ce. While he watched the steam lotive in the rearview mirror, he considered whether he should continue heading to where the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups were. If he led Ren Xiaosu there and dragged in the Board members, he would probably bear the consequences after the war.


    But Zong Cheng got the thought, ¡®But where else can I go now?¡¯ Although the Board members¡¯ residences were at three separate locations, and even though some of them were elders from the same family branch as him, what choice did he have?


    He could only head to where the elders of the Board were. After all, their troops were more elite and orderly.


    Zong Cheng was struck by another thought. Since there were more than 2,000 soldiers in the defensive forces guarding the elders, that should be more than enough to stretch Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mental strength to the limit, right?


    In fact, Zong Cheng was not wrong to think this way. From any normal person¡¯s point of view, there should be limits to a supernatural being¡¯s power no matter how ferocious they were. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had just been chased around by the search party in the stronghold. If he was really as powerful as a god, why would he have needed to hide from his pursuers?


    In reality, the Zong Consortium hadmitted a strategic mistake tonight. They did not expect that Ren Xiaosu would actually head to the Zong Consortium¡¯s base. Due to the search party being scattered across the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu had gained the upper hand there. Furthermore, the Zong Consortium made another mistake, which was Zong Cheng misjudging Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mental strength.


    He thought he couldpletely wear down Ren Xiaosu by having an overwhelming number of people on his side. But actually, not even Ren Xiaosu knew the limits of his mental strength.


    Zong Cheng calmed down a little. Since he had judged that Ren Xiaosu would soon get stretched to his limits, he could probably make an issue out of this matter to boost himself.


    Although the crisis was imminent, politicking could still turn bad happenings into good oues.


    He only needed to lead Ren Xiaosu to the territory of the other two Zong Consortium factions. On the one hand, he could wear down Ren Xiaosu with the number of troops standing guard there, and on the other hand, he could dispose of his dissidents with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ¡°help¡±!


    As a matter of fact, it was not always smooth sailing for him and Zong Xiang in the Zong Consortium. That was because the Zong Consortium¡¯s third and fourth houses had joined forces to fight against their main branch, which was the most authoritative in the organization.


    As there were still more than a 1,000 soldiersbined under those two family branches, they should be more than enough to wear Ren Xiaosu down in two separate battles. After that, his main branch would swoop in and clear up the mess before he opened up peace talks with Fortress 178. In that way, not only would the influence of his main branch not decrease, it might even grow stronger. Then, after a few years of rebuilding, he could make aeback!


    When he thought of this, Zong Cheng yanked on the steering wheel and drove in another direction.


    The pursuit had been going on for almost an hour. Zong Cheng was speeding to the third house¡¯s territory with Ren Xiaosu chasing him. The troops outside of the third anciry branch¡¯s manor had already set up Czech hedgehogs to stop any vehicles from entering. They also had guards standing by with heavy weapons in waiting.


    When Zong Cheng was about to arrive at the manor, he shouted on the radio, ¡°Move the hedgehogs away and let me through!¡±


    The soldiers were somewhat hesitant, but Zong Cheng yelled again, ¡°I¡¯m Zong Cheng, Commander of the 107th Combat Brigade. I¡¯m ordering all of you to move the hedgehogs away right now and prepare to face the enemy!¡±


    Although the troops guarding outside the third anciry branch¡¯s manor were also under the 107th Combat Brigade, they were mainly responsible for protecting the manor. As the battalionmander was the eldest son of the third anciry branch, he didn¡¯t really heed Zong Cheng¡¯s orders.


    An officer just stared at Zong Cheng from the forward position as the off-road vehicle approached. However, it did not look like he would be stepping aside. He did not have any intention of letting Zong Cheng through.

 Chapter 461 - A spent force

    <h4>Chapter 461 A spent force</h4>


    After arriving outside the manor, Zong Cheng realized he might have taken too big of a risk. The third anciry branch was refusing to save him?


    Zong Cheng was terribly upset as his ears were still ringing. Zong Cheng said coldly over the radio, ¡°Fourth Brother, aren¡¯t you afraid the main branch will take revenge on youter if you refuse to help me? Our main house might not be able to do anything about the entire third house, but do you think you can get away if we¡¯re only fighting against you? There¡¯s only one supernatural being pursuing me, so the troops here are enough to handle him!¡±


    Fourth Brother was the eldest son of the third anciry branch, as well as themander of the 1229th Battalion which was under the 107th Combat Brigade.


    Fourth Brother lividly pondered this for a few seconds before saying, ¡°Move the hedgehogs aside and let Zong Cheng through.¡±


    Seeing that the hedgehogs had been shifted away, Zong Cheng was overjoyed. Then he floored it and drove forward.


    However, he did not stop after entering the defensive position and continued driving deeper into the manor. He was going to escape from the western entrance of the manor.


    When Fourth Brother saw Zong Cheng continuing to flee, he felt that something was wrong. If the troops here were really enough to handle the supernatural being as Zong Cheng had imed, why would he still need to run away?!


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s Fourth Brother growled, ¡°Zong Cheng, you treacherous bastard, you¡¯re despicable!¡±


    ¡°Sir, what should we do now?¡± the deputymander of the 1229th Battalion asked.


    ¡°Defend the position! As if a supernatural being can take on an entire stronghold all by themself!¡± the Zong Consortium¡¯s Fourth Brother said.


    As the steam lotive approached the manor, Ren Xiaosu resorted to his usual tactic again and started dropping grenades on the defensive line to break it up. In between, he also threw out four ¡°fives¡± from the Explosive Poker deck he had. However, the power of four ¡°fives¡± was much weaker than that of four ¡°sixes.¡±


    Then three soldiers on the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive position carrying RPGunchers fired at Ren Xiaosu!


    As the steam lotive was a reallyrge target, how could the RPGs miss?


    But as they waited for the RPGs to explode, they saw the huge steam lotive transforming into ck mist. A secondter, an armored being sprang out of the mist.


    While still in midair, he contorted his body and dexterously dodged the iing RPGs by passing through the gaps between them.


    When the armor-d Ren Xiaosunded on the ground, he started charging forward, making the entire ground quake as he did so. The Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers felt a sense of powerlessness. Seeing that their bullets were totally ineffective against their enemy and with their RPGs missing him entirely, they didn¡¯t know how to deal with him!


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not engage the enemies here any further. He was only looking to destroy the manor quickly with his grenades and kill as many of the enemy¡¯s troops as possible.


    The third house was doomed.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu could not guarantee that all the ces he had just attacked would end up getting destroyed, nor could he finish off the soldiers and members of the Zong Consortium who had survived the sts. Whether or not they were killed was all down to luck.


    After the third anciry branch¡¯s manor was attacked, an old man crawled out from under the ruins. When the Zong Consortium¡¯s battalionmander saw that his father was alright, he immediately ran forward to help him up. ¡°Father, let¡¯s retreat. We can¡¯t stay here any longer!¡±


    The old man looked especiallyical when thebover used to cover his bald head were scattered. He snapped, ¡°Retreat? Haven¡¯t you realized by now? This is the main branch¡¯s scheme! Zong Cheng has more than a 1,000 soldiers under hismand, yet he couldn¡¯t even stop a supernatural being? No matter how strong a supernatural being is, they don¡¯t have an endless amount of mental strength. So why was that supernatural being still up and running? It¡¯s obvious that Zong Cheng is taking this chance to eliminate his dissidents!¡±


    The expression on this battalionmander¡¯s face turned extremely sullen. Earlier, when Zong Cheng entered the defensive position and continued fleeing, he had already thought that something was amiss.


    The elder¡¯s expression turned dark. ¡°That little shit, Zong Cheng, has turned against our Zong Consortium, so don¡¯t me me for not caring about our family ties! Call the fourth branch immediately! We must unite against the main branch!¡±


    After so many years of infighting within the Zong Consortium, Zong Cheng¡¯s first thoughts after encountering Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attack on Stronghold 146 was to lead him to wipe out the third and fourth anciry branches. At the same time, he also wanted to use the third and fourth houses¡¯ strength to wear down Ren Xiaosu.


    Meanwhile, after the third house was implicated, they did not choose to flee, nor mention anything about organizing a search party to hunt down Ren Xiaosu. Instead, they immediately wanted to join up with the other faction to get their revenge!


    But when their call to the fourth anciry branch connected, the person answering immediately said, ¡°That little shit, Zong Cheng, brought a supernatural being to our manor. Hurry over here! We need reinforcements!¡±


    The third house fell silent. It seemed that the fourth house was done for as well.


    Stronghold 146 was in utter chaos now. However, Zong Cheng could no longer clearly hear the nearby explosions due to the ringing in his ears.


    He looked in his rearview mirror and was surprised to see the armored being still chasing after him. However, it seemed to have slowed down somewhat.


    Zong Cheng sneered to himself. He felt that his n had probably seeded. Zong Cheng did not even consider the possibility that Ren Xiaosu might be tricking him. Even if Ren Xiaosu were a god, he would still get tired after battling for so long!


    He took a phone out of his pocket and called his father. As soon as the call went through, Zong Cheng quickly said, ¡°Father, that Ren Xiaosu should be at his limits. I¡¯ll lead him to our manor right away, so get ready for battle. After we kill him, we can consolidate the resources left behind by the third and fourth houses.¡±


    On the other end, his father shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking bring him here!¡±


    But Zong Cheng could barely hear anything due to his tinnitus. He said, ¡°OK, I¡¯ll bring him over right away!¡±


    Then Zong Cheng ended the call and focused back on driving. He even looked at the fuel gauge. Although the gas tank was close to empty, there was enough for him to drive back to the entrance of his manor.


    But as he was making his escape, Zong Cheng suddenly felt an inkling of danger. He saw the Shadow Door appear next to him in the vehicle, then felt a saber gently sh him before disappearing.


    Zong Cheng was shocked. When the ck saber disappeared, he immediately began to inspect his wound. However, he realized that it was just a superficial injury. Learning this, Zong Cheng felt slightly relieved. It looked like his enemy had missed.


    But before he could dwell any further on it, the Shadow Door appeared again. He felt another sh that left a wound on him that was neither shallow nor deep.


    Would Zong Cheng still not understand what was going on at this moment? His enemy was obviously trying to torture him!


    Ren Xiaosu clearly had the chance to kill him, yet he did not seem to be in a hurry to do so.


    Zong Cheng felt humiliated. This was his first time facing this type of situation.


    There was nothing he could do but step harder on the gas pedal and continue to escape.


    At this moment, Zheng Yuandong was standing on the roof of a tall building that overlooked the stronghold. He was stunned by what he saw.


    Previously, he thought he had overestimated Ren Xiaosu¡¯s abilities. But right now, this Qing Consortium spy was finding it a little hard to believe. A lone supernatural being was absolutely dominating the entire Zong Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 146?


    Zheng Yuandong knew that a lot of what was happening here was mainly opportunistic. For example, Ren Xiaosu had disrupted the entire Zong Consortium n by attacking their military base. While the troops that were scattered around the stronghold wanted to return as reinforcements, they were not as mobile as Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, they could only rush back in small waves like servers sending dishes to a table in a 10-course dinner.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu would not have achieved this either if he were not ruthless enough.


    Zheng Yuandong had seen for himself how Ren Xiaosu had used an unknown method to somehow blow up the Zong Consortium¡¯s defensive positions. Furthermore, he could even protect himself with steel armor, drive a steam lotive, and not feel threatened by firearms and explosives.


    Zheng Yuandong had taken a shortcut to the manor of the Zong Consortium¡¯s main house. When he saw how the third and fourth houses were destroyed, he knew that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s next target would most likely be the main house.


    But Zheng Yuandong was worried about how Ren Xiaosu had wasted some time to destroy the manors of the third and fourth anciry branches.


    As such, the Zong Consortium¡¯s main branch had already reorganized some of the stray troops and gathered them outside of their manor.

 Chapter 462 - A surprise attack

    <h4>A surprise attack</h4>


    Smoke was rising up in the stronghold. What was initially a starry night had now turned into a smoky sky in the middle of the night. It was as though a cmity had suddenly descended upon the stronghold.


    Zong Cheng was driving an off-road vehicle through the empty streets as he fled for his life.


    Zong Cheng was covered with sh wounds as he tried unsessfully to evade the Shadow Door. It was a pest as Ren Xiaosu continuously tortured him throughout the pursuit.


    Fortunately, a small group of reinforcements appeared and managed to dy Ren Xiaosu a little. This allowed Zong Cheng to get away from the endless torture of being cut by the saber.


    The stronghold residents no longer dared to watch themotion. All of them hid in their bathrooms at home, afraid that a sudden attack would deal them coteral damage.


    The Zong Consortium troops scattered across the stronghold streamed towards the main branch¡¯s manor, with someone giving them orders to assemble through the radio.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups in that manor were panicking. They could only hope that it was not toote!


    Zheng Yuandong finally made it here as well. He concealed himself on the roof of a tall building and watched the situation unfold. The sky in the distance was filled with smoke and fire, like it represented the Zong Consortium¡¯s future going up in me.


    Although the Zong Consortium was beginning to copse on the fronts, they could still rely on their vast territory to fight a strategic war if theypacted their defensive lines once more. As Fortress 178 had too few soldiers, if they continued to march into the hearnd where Stronghold 146 was, the worry was that their battlefront would get overextended.


    But everything changed with the arrival of a young man at Stronghold 146.


    In fact, Zheng Yuandong had figured out what Ren Xiaosu was here for. Wasn¡¯t he just looking to kill the core figures of the Zong Consortium? Anyone could have guessed it! However, he did not believe that Ren Xiaosu could achieve that at the beginning.


    At this moment, Zong Cheng looked behind him through the rearview mirror and noticed the speed of the pursuing armored being was slowing down bit by bit. Zong Cheng immediately knew why this was as he had also used nanomachines before. They were starting to run out of juice!


    Estimating the time, he knew Ren Xiaosu could not handle such a drawn out battle even if he had recharged the nanomachines during the pursuit.


    As the manor was just in front of him, Zong Cheng floored it again. The soldiers outside the entrance automatically moved the hedgehogs aside for him. After Zong Cheng passed through sessfully, they returned to their defensive formation. Those cold and unfeeling firearms and heavy weapons were all aiming at the end of the long street.


    Although Zong Cheng¡¯s father was extremely furious by what he had done tonight, the Zong n¡¯s patriarch could not bear to see his son die before his very eyes.


    Zong Cheng¡¯s father was already 71 years old. Both Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang were born when he was at an advanced age, so they were extremely precious to him.


    The Zong n¡¯s patriarch used to have another son, but he died of lung cancer.


    This was considered a secret within the Zong n. Two years after the eldest son of the main branch had passed away, his wife got pregnant again. Initially, the members of the Zong Consortium were furious and thought the eldest son¡¯s widow had dishonored the family name. However, the Zong n¡¯s patriarch stood his ground and took the widow, who was also his daughter-inw, as his concubine.


    In modern civilization, concubinage was a regressive practice. Further, she was his own daughter-inw.


    Only then did the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups finally understand what had happened. So it turned out the Zong n¡¯s patriarch hadmitted an immoral act. Who else could the widow¡¯s child belong to? It was clear the Zong n¡¯s patriarch was responsible!


    But the Zong Consortium¡¯s main branch was firmly in power, so everyone kept quiet as though nothing had happened. Even Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang were unaware of this.


    However, there were also rumors within the family that Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang might not be the biological sons of the Zong n¡¯s patriarch. After all, the patriarch was so old.


    As for whether the patriarch had done any paternity tests, no one knew.


    Zong Cheng had already driven into the manor. Initially, the patriarch wanted to punish him severely. But when he saw Zong Cheng¡¯s body covered in blood and wounds, he could not bear to do so anymore. He pped his face, but that just made Zong Cheng¡¯s tinnitus even worse.


    The patriarch held his anger back and said, ¡°Stand aside. We¡¯ll talk about what you did after tonight.¡±


    Someone off to the side noticed that Zong Cheng was still in a daze, so they hurriedly pulled him aside.


    The bulky armored being rounded a corner and appeared in front of everyone!


    In an instant, all the firepower outside the Zong Consortium¡¯s manor burst with the intention of annihting the enemy at the end of the long street. But the armored being did not slow down at all. Instead, it sped up and moved even faster!


    Zheng Yuandong was standing on the roof of a tall building in the distance as he watched the scene unfold. Under the dark sky, the Zong Consortium¡¯s position was like an insurmountable mountain. A violent storm of firepower was created in the atmosphere, while the aggressive armored being approached it ruthlessly in an unpredictable fashion.


    The sound of the steel armor stomping on the ground reverberated like a heavy war drum that was as loud as thunder!


    ¡°Is this kid really going to continue charging forward?¡± Zheng Yuandong mumbled, ¡°The Zong Consortium has called so many troops back here, and Ren Xiaosu should also be at his limits now. He can¡¯t be that fearless, right?¡±


    But just as he finished, he discovered the armored being had picked up speed again.


    The cold and unfeeling steel armor had remained quiet throughout the battle. But amid the silence, it seemed to be roaring at the Zong Consortium with rage. The clouds of dust that had been kicked up by stray bullets hitting the ground trailed behind the steel armor like a solitary g waving in the wind as it charged forward!


    ¡°I¡¯m convinced.¡± Zheng Yuandong sighed. Before this era of the rise of supernatural beings, he was the most elite Qing Consortium spy around. His assassination methods were extremely direct and efficient, and he was a remarkably strong fighter.


    Even after this era began, Zheng Yuandong still felt that he could kill them even though they were supernatural beings.


    But tonight, Ren Xiaosu had single-handedly upended his thinking. All of a sudden, he understood that the era he belonged to was truly over.


    ¡°No, I can¡¯t ept this!¡±


    In his boundless solitude, Zheng Yuandong¡¯s gaze was fixated on the prominent armored being out in the distance. Suddenly, a resolute strength started growing in his heart. It felt like it was bursting with the force of erupting magma, the bombardment of artillery fire, and the destructive winds of a tornado.


    That ambition that had umted in him over the years burst forth.


    A secondter, Zheng Yuandong looked at the armored being in astonishment. He had actually awakened his superpower?!


    This was the power he had been desiring for a long time. Even after witnessing the birth of so many supernatural beings, Zheng Yuandong had yet to awaken his superpower.


    But just as he was about to give up on that happening, the sight of how that young man battled on had triggered the immeasurable uneptance in him.


    This was what shocked Zheng Yuandong the most. He knew he would not have felt so agitated if he did not see that armored being charging forward with such an indomitable spirit.


    ¡°Since my power has been awakened, does it mean I can help him now?¡± Zheng Yuandong wondered.


    But before he coulde to a decision, he saw the armored being suddenly turn left and run away just as it was about to reach the Zong Consortium¡¯s position.


    Zheng Yuandong and the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops were all dumbfounded by the sight. The armored being ran away just like that?


    Whatever happened to that indomitable spirit?


    Zong Cheng and the others were also confused by the events as they watched from the manor. The Zong n¡¯s patriarch frowned. He looked at Zong Cheng and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why did he run away?¡±


    Zong Cheng said, ¡°Can you speak louder?!¡±


    The patriarch felt his blood pressure shoot up again and got the urge to p Zong Cheng. But before he could do so, the orderlies around them shrieked in agony and pain.


    The Zong n¡¯s patriarch immediately turned around. The young man who hade to kill them had arrived behind them without anyone realizing it!


    He was holding a ck saber, looking invincible!

 Chapter 463 - Comrades

    <h4>Chapter 463 - Comrades</h4>


    No one knew when the young man arrived at the rear of the Zong Consortium. Even Zheng Yuandong, who had been observing the situation, was unsure.


    Actually, Zong Cheng¡¯s assessment was not wrong. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nanomachines were really at their limits, with the power source almostpletely exhausted.


    Ren Xiaosu was also not too confident of forcing his way into a position that nearly a 1,000 soldiers were guarding. After an entire night of fighting, he could not endure the bacsh from the steam lotive anymore.


    But Zong Cheng and the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups were right in front of him, so how could he possibly give up now? If Ren Xiaosu gave up at this point, then he might as well have killed Zong Cheng earlier.


    If he did not kill Zong Cheng tonight, he would not be able to take it lying down.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu put his armor onto the shadow clone during the pursuit while no one was paying attention. On one hand, he would not have to worry about himself falling into a dangerous situation even if the nanomachines died midway. On the other hand, the armor solved the problem of the shadow clone getting hit by any stray bullets between its eyes.


    As the shadow clone wasunching its frontal assault on the defensive position while wearing the armor, Ren Xiaosu barged in from the side of the manor. The troops in the Zong Consortium¡¯s manor were all concentrated at the front. Throughout the night, Ren Xiaosu had used his actions to mislead Zong Cheng into thinking he wouldunch a frontal assault.


    But just as everyone had gotten used to his movements amid the chaos, Ren Xiaosu decided to execute the decapitation strike at the weakest point of the enemy!


    Before Ren Xiaosu, the defenses at the back of the manor were practically useless. Zong Cheng was shocked when he turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu attacking from behind. Then Ren Xiaosu grabbed one of the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups as a human shield as he sped towards him.


    Zong Cheng shouted without any regard for the human shield, ¡°Kill him. Ignore the human shield and open fire!¡±


    But the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers hesitated for a moment. Importantly, the human shield Ren Xiaosu was holding was Zong Cheng¡¯s uncle.


    As Ren Xiaosu held Zong Cheng¡¯s uncle and advanced, he sneered at him, ¡°Ask them to save you. Otherwise, I¡¯ll kill you right away.¡±


    Zong Cheng¡¯s uncle got so anxious that he swore at Zong Cheng, ¡°Zong Cheng, you little bastard! How dare you ignore my safety-¡°


    Suddenly, Zong Cheng raised his gun and shot his uncle dead before he could finish speaking. The soldiers around them and the Zong n¡¯s patriarch were stunned.


    While they were momentarily stunned, Ren Xiaosu was already bearing down on Zong Cheng.


    But to everyone¡¯s surprise, Zong Cheng, who had long been highly regarded as a supernatural being by the Zong Consortium, did not even put up a fight. Instead, he pushed his father into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s saber!


    With a sh, the Zong n¡¯s patriarch was beheaded!


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu threw the human shield in his hands aside and charged Zong Cheng at full speed. As the ck saber in his hands cut through the night, it gleamed with a menacing aura.


    In an era where firearms and explosives were clearly king, this saber was like the Sword of Judgment that was capable of slicing through anything When the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers saw that Ren Xiaosu had nothing to shield himself with after throwing aside the body, they immediately aimed their guns at him. But before they could even pull the trigger, the shadow clone had alreadye back!


    The shadow clone ran in a frenzy and crashed into the Zong Consortium troops. The sound of their bones breaking was so loud that it sounded like firecrackers being set off!


    When the shadow clone barged into the defensive line, it showcased an almost unparalleled level of individualbat power!


    ¡°City Crusher!¡± Ren Xiaosu roared.


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu took a small step forward and shed the saber horizontally!


    The glow of burning mes in the distance seemed like they were projecting images on the clouds above. Ren Xiaosu could see Xu Jinyuan enjoying his corn, Jin Lan wearing a silly smile on his face, Yan Liuyuan standing next to Big Sister Xiaoyu as he angrily brought about that disastrous earthquake, as well as that ray of hope that had been destroyed.


    From that moment onwards, Ren Xiaosu would often recall those scenes over and over every night. He uncovered these ¡°wounds¡± in his heart again and again just so he could remind himself not to forget the anger of that day.


    Even when others thought that it was normal for people to die in war, he wanted to ensure that everyone in the Razor Sharp Company survived and that no man was left behind.


    When not even Zhang Xiaoman himself believed he could survive, Ren Xiaosu still insisted on trying


    So when Ren Xiaosu was finally confronting Zong Cheng at this moment, it was as though all of the Underworld¡¯s spirits of vengeance had followed him. As it turned out, when he was filled with all this hatred, he wasn¡¯t that different from Li Shentan at all.


    If he did not have that ray of light left in his heart, he would even want the entirety of Stronghold 146 to perish together with the Zong Consortium.


    ¡°Die!¡± As the ck saber shed across Zong Cheng¡¯s waist, Ren Xiaosu watched as Zong Cheng gave him an incredulous expression. Then he turned around and left.


    Behind him, the shadow clone started shing at the enemies without restraint in a bid to protect him. Moments before a hail of bullets could rain down on him, Ren Xiaosu made his retreat. He no longer had any lingering thoughts of fighting the enemy.


    It was not that he did not want to continue killing them, but that he must not do so anymore. The Zong Consortium was about to fall apart now that their leaders were dead. Shortly after, the troops from Fortress 178 would arrive to destroy the ce, so he did not have to continue taking further risks.


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had been shot.


    No matter how unexpected it was that he would attack from the enemy¡¯s rear just now, there were still some Zong Consortium soldiers who managed to react. So Ren Xiaosu expected he would get shot.


    As of this moment, Ren Xiaosu had sustained two gunshot wounds to his abdomen. He had to shake off the Zong Consortium¡¯s pursuit as quickly as possible so he could extract the bullets and apply the ck medicine on his wounds.


    But something else unexpected happened. The shadow clone that was now without the armor got shot again between its eyes. It poofed into a lump of ck mist before dissipating away.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. He could hear people shouting behind him. Some of them were shouting for medics, while others were rming everyone else to the presence of an assassin.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pursuers chased after him relentlessly. Although Ren Xiaosu had already leaped out of the manor and run two streets away, he still could not shake off the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops.


    Ren Xiaosu could even hear off-road vehicles roaring to life behind him. The Zong Consortium was enraged!


    Was he cornered now? Ren Xiaosu smiled. So what?


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around with his saber raised. He stared at his pursuers at the end of that long street, while the rumbling smoke and cloudy sky seemingly came to a standstill. ¡°Come at me!¡±


    No one had expected that Ren Xiaosu would turn around, nor think that he would dare to take on a 1,000 people when he was already injured! But when his pursuers saw this, they subconsciously stepped on their brakes. They even had thoughts of turning around and fleeing. It felt gratifying when they were chasing after him, but in the course of the pursuit, they never really thought what would happen if they caught up to him. Did they make a suicidal decision to chase him?


    Although, the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers knew that, with their numbers, they could simply pile up on the young man and crush him to death. But why would they do that? Who would see it now that the Zong n¡¯s patriarch was dead?


    Furthermore, many of them would probably die in the process.


    But when their vehicles came to a stop, they saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly turn around and bolt.


    ¡°Fuck, we¡¯ve been had! That kid is at his limits!¡±


    ¡°After him!¡±


    Of course, some of the troops had figured out what was at stake here, so theypletely gave up on pursuing him.


    With this temporary cessation, the pursuers halved.


    <strong>suers</strong>


    But even though the number of pursuers halved, there were still a lot of them. Some of the troops wanted to kill Ren Xiaosu so they could get a reward. After all, someone would have to take over as the new patriarch of the Zong Consortium, so whoever came to power would definitely have to establish their authority by taking the head of their enemy. And the Zong Consortium would probably not be able to unite for as long as this young man remained alive. Although, they were never really united in the first ce.


    Therefore, the Zong Consortium soldiers who were still pursuing Ren Xiaosu were mostly the ambitious ones.


    But as Ren Xiaosu fled madly while pressing on his wounds, someone suddenly shouted, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, over here, quick!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. Who was calling out to him?


    He turned his head to the voice and saw Zhang Xiaoman waving at him cheerfully. Meanwhile, Jiao Xiaochen and the others were busy setting up mortars and heavy machine guns on the street corner.


    As for the deputymander of the 1237th Regiment, he was lying helplessly off to the side with his hands and feet bound.


    After Ren Xiaosu dropped them off in the wilderness, the Razor Sharp Company had taken the risk of plundering a military factory to seize the military transport trucks and off-road vehicles in it, all so they could get to Stronghold 146 as quickly as possible!


    As everyone in the stronghold was attracted by the firepower surrounding Ren Xiaosu tonight, no one noticed the east gate had been breached by the Razor Sharp Company. They did not even encounter any proper resistance! Zhang Xiaoman was standing there in high spirits as he grinned, illuminated by the burning sky. ¡°Get over here! We¡¯vee to save you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu clutched his abdomen and walked over slowly. ¡°What are y¡¯all doing here?¡±.


    Nearby, Fu Rao was loading ammunition into a heavy machine gun. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that in our Razor Sharp Company, no man gets left behind?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. Suddenly, he mimicked Zhang Jinglin¡¯s tone and said, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, do you still remember what I said?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment before saying with a smile, ¡°You said that people always die in battle. The battlefield is a ce where we have to put our trust in fate. Everything lies with fate. No one can control<i> it.¡±</i>


    Zhang Xiaomanughed again. ¡°Do you still remember what your reply was?¡±


    Back then, Ren Xiaosu had said, ¡°How would we know if we don¡¯t try?!¡± All of the Razor Sharp Company was in this together. One for all, and all for one! Since someone had dered that no man from the Razor Sharp Company would be left behind, they would have to keep their word no matter what.


    Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s cheeks looked especially stiff in the illumination of the fiery glow, but he suddenly turned cute.


    He spat on the ground and said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s give them a fucking good beating!¡±


    In that instant, four heavy machine guns started spitting out a barrage of fire at the end of the long street. The oing Zong Consortium troops were all caught off guard and fell to the ground like dominoes.


    Someone in the past had killed more than 3,000 people in a single afternoon using two heavy machine guns rigged at an intersection. Since the development of firearms, many people had forgotten that in the history of human warfare, heavy machine guns were ranked highest among all weapons for ability to kill.


    Zheng Yuandong was watching this quietly from afar. He had nned to rush to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rescue, but he discovered that hisrades had already made it to Stronghold 146.


    Looking at the way the Razor Sharp Company was providing cover and support to each other, Zheng Yuandong suddenly wished he was not a spy anymore. He wanted to return to the Qing Consortium to look for his ownrades.

 Chapter 464 - A surprise attack by the armored brigade

    <h4>A surprise attack by the armored brigade</h4>


    Ever since Ren Xiaosu entered Stronghold 146, he had been fighting by himself. Even though he encountered Zheng Yuandong, who was a Qing Consortium spy, the man merely showed him the way forward and never participated in his battles.


    Just as Zheng Yuandong had said, his personal safety still took precedence over other matters even if Luo Lan had requested him to assist Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu could understand that since it was how the world worked.


    But things were different after the Razor Sharp Company broke into the stronghold. While Ren Xiaosu was injured, this group of lunatics set up terrifying heavy machine guns in the streets of the stronghold and imed the lives of the pursuing Zong Consortium soldiers, providing shelter and protection for Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu was leaning against a wall as he pressed down on his wounds. As there were shops and residential buildings on both sides of the street, some residents in the house behind him were shivering in fear at everything that was going on. But even in his battle to seek revenge tonight, Ren Xiaosu was still very careful to not cause the deaths of any innocent residents. This was all because Zhang Xiaoman had previously said that Fortress 178 had its own set of principles they abided by.


    ¡°How did y¡¯all manage to find me?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    The Razor Sharp Company was unfamiliar with theyout of Stronghold 146. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had been fighting a highly mobile battle tonight, so it should have been difficult to locate him.


    Zhang Xiaoman smiled while reloading. ¡°After we got into the stronghold, there was a fortune teller waiting for us at the gate. He even pointed out your position to us. At first, we didn¡¯t believe him. But after that, we actually heard gunshotsing from the position he pointed to.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Is the fortune teller you¡¯re talking about a thin, middle-aged man with a mustache who wears a pair of sunsses and holds a banner that has the words ¡®Divine Foresight¡¯ written on it?¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Zhang Xiaoman was amused. ¡°How did you know?¡±


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s troops had been thoroughly defeated by the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s heavy machine guns. In fact, that momentary burst of fire earlier had even beaten many of the Zong Consortium¡¯s soldiers into submission. The soldiers in the off-road vehicles could not even fight back in the face of the heavy machine guns peppering them.


    If it were under normal circumstances, these Zong Consortium troops would certainly not be so fragile. But now that more than half of the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups had either been killed or wounded, the morale of the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops was affected.


    So when the soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company saw their enemies screaming in defeat, their morale was lifted. Jiao Xiaochen asked, ¡°Xiaosu, you know that fortune teller too?¡±


    ¡°I guess so.¡± Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Could that fortune teller be the real deal? But why would he guide the Razor Sharp Company to save him?


    Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, ¡°He¡¯s one of our Fortress 178¡¯s people. I¡¯ve only heard of him, and I didn¡¯t expect to bump into him here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu waspletely dumbfounded. ¡°He¡¯s from Fortress 178?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Zhang Xiaoman smiled and said, ¡°Before we came here, the intelligence director, Wang Fengyuan, called and informed us that someone would receive us at Stronghold 146. He managed to match the code word with us, so that fortune teller is indeed an agent of Fortress 178 assigned here to the Zong Consortium in the north. He¡¯s in charge of the nted spies over here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that something was amiss. He said unhappily, ¡°That guy¡¯s code name is ¡®Divine Foresight¡¯?¡±


    ¡°No, his code name is ¡®Great Hoodwinker.¡¯ I heard that his code name used to be ¡®Divine Foresight,¡¯ but it was changed to ¡®Great Hoodwinker¡¯ because he¡¯s always scamming hisrades of their pay.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly did not feel so good. He had believed 80% of the fortune teller¡¯s words. But now that he thought about it, it could have been Zhang Jinglin who told him about Ren Xiaosu having kin who was not rted to him by blood.


    And he still had the cheek to say, ¡°The Northwest is where you will prosper.¡± Could it be that Zhang Jinglin or Wang Fengyuan were ¡°channeling¡± their attempts through the Great Hoodwinker to try to make him stay?


    Regarding the fortune teller¡¯s prediction that the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups would be gathering these few days, that was probably intel they had received about a meeting that would be held soon. Then, through the fortune teller, Ren Xiaosu would be guided on how to wipe out the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups.


    So when Ren Xiaosu asked this Great Hoodwinker to divine his future for him, the man immediately fell silent. How could someone like that fucking be trusted?!


    But how did the fortune teller know about Li Qingzheng? Could it be that he was also a swindler during the time he spent in the South?


    Even at this moment, Ren Xiaosu was skeptical about him. He felt that there was something strange about this Great Hoodwinker.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Has the Great Hoodwinker always been assigned here in the North?¡±


    ¡°I dunno,¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that he wouldn¡¯t get to the bottom of this for the time being, so maybe he should treat his injuries first....


    While the Razor Sharp Company was firing at the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops, Jiao Xiaochen saw Ren Xiaosu using his fingers to directly extract the bullets out of his wounds. He saw Ren Xiaosu in such great pain that his veins were throbbing. His face was flushed red, but he never made a sound.


    This group of gruff men from the Razor Sharp Company were totally shocked. Everyone liked to boast about how they were such warriors, especially when it was politically convenient to be known as a warrior back at Fortress 178. If one could not bear hardship, everyone would make fun of them.


    But no matter how tough they were, they still wouldn¡¯t resort to extracting bullets from their wounds personally.


    After the Zong Consortium troops werepletely defeated, the entirety of Stronghold 146 was a mess. Zhang Xiaoman and the others gathered around Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Do you need anesthetics? Your wounds look¡ª¡±


    But before they could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu had already extracted the second bullet. He clenched his teeth and applied the ck medicine onto his wounds. ¡°That¡¯s OK, I¡¯ll recover in three days.¡±


    All of a sudden, Zhang Xiaoman and the others heard the rumbling of armored vehicles rolling on hard ground. The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company were shocked. ¡°Fuck, could it be that armored brigade?¡±


    They hade across the 131st Brigade at the edge of the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. At that time, they were even chased into hiding in a gully on two asions.


    After the armored brigade left, the captured deputy regimentalmander guided the Razor Sharp Company to plunder a military factory and got their hands on some vehicles. Then they took a shortcut and rushed to Stronghold 146.


    On the way here, they did not encounter the armored brigade again. As such, they forgot about them.


    But when they heard the sound of the armored vehicles, Zhang Xiaoman and the others looked horrified. No matter how ferocious they were earlier, they could not possibly face an armored brigade head on!


    ¡°Run! Let¡¯s get out of here quickly!¡± Zhang Xiaoman roared.


    Ren Xiaosu asked weakly, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have time to exin. Get into the vehicle!¡±


    With that, a group of people carried Ren Xiaosu into their vehicle. Then they stepped on the gas and drove off in the opposite direction of the armored brigade.


    The Zong Consortium troops in front were taking cover at a corner of the street to discuss their countermeasures. The only remaining regimentalmander of the Zong Consortium¡¯sbat brigade was trying to contact the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups, but he realized he could not reach anyone of them.


    But when they heard the roaring of engines, someone peeked out and nearly pissed his pants. ¡°They¡¯re charging! Regimental Commander, they¡¯re charging!¡±


    The regimentalmander also quietly sneaked a peek and was surprised to see the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s vehicles speeding towards them. The regimentalmander nearly pissed his pants as well. ¡°Run, run, run!¡±


    All of a sudden, the entire stronghold was plunged into chaos again.

 Chapter 465 - Tears of humiliation

    <h4>Tears of humiliation</h4>


    Zheng Yuandong, who was already nning to leave Stronghold 146, was still standing on the roof of the tall building and thinking about life.


    But midway through his thoughts, he saw a heavily armed armored brigade entering Stronghold 146 via the east gate.


    Zheng Yuandong was a spy whose main responsibility was keeping tabs on the decisions of the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups and the movements of their key fighting forces. However, he never heard anything about the Zong Consortium deploying an armored brigade to Stronghold 146 before.


    However, he was very familiar with the structure of the Zong Consortium¡¯s military forces. He immediately noticed the insignia of those troops and realized it was the 131st Brigade! Didn¡¯t these troops get fucking led away by Zong Wu? Why had theye back here again?


    The situation in the stronghold right now was basically this: The defeated Zong Consortium troops were being pursued by the Razor Sharp Company, which in turn was being pursued by the armored brigade. It was total pandemonium with everyone driving their vehicles around in panic.


    The Zong Consortium troops at the front were driving hastily as they were scared out of their wits by the Razor Sharp Company. They did not even stop their vehicles for a moment as they fled from the east to the west.


    After driving for more than ten kilometers, they were about to reach the west gate.


    Suddenly, the west gate opened. It seemed that some of the Zong Consortium soldiers were also starting to abandon their posts and had opened the gate to escape.


    The regimentalmander of the Zong Consortium troops said in a trembling voice, ¡°Of all the troops in the stronghold, why must they chase us?¡±


    A soldier suddenly said, ¡°I think I hear the sound of armored vehicles and tanks behind us.¡±


    The regimentmander grew ever more flustered. ¡°What? Fortress 178¡¯s armored brigade has arrived as well?¡±


    They could not even see what the situation behind them was, much less notice the unit insignia of the pursuing troops at the rear. As the regimentalmander held a very high rank in the military, he knew full well that there were no friendly troops in the vicinity. Therefore, he assumed the sound of the armored vehicles belonged to Fortress 178.


    As they fled in panic, their ability to think rationally was destroyed. Although it was unrealistic that Fortress 178¡¯s campaign would have reached here already, these troops could no longer think properly. If even Stronghold 146 could be rampaged through by a lone supernatural being, what was impossible?


    Zheng Yuandong was stunned by this sight. He watched with his own eyes as the three forces tried to overtake each other until all of them finally disappeared into the distance.


    ¡°Whatever, it¡¯s none of my business. I¡¯ll just return to the Qing Consortium.¡±


    The entire Northwest had descended into chaos. If Zheng Yuandong wanted to leave, now was the best time to do so.


    After the Razor Sharp Company and armored brigade exited from the stronghold¡¯s west gate, they started driving south. The Zong Consortium troops ahead of them were nearly driven to despair. Didn¡¯t they already escape from the stronghold? So why were those people still chasing after them? Did they not want Stronghold 146 anymore?


    Zhang Xiaoman and the Razor Sharp Company did not stop driving or attack the vehicles in front of them.


    They were clearly very close to the enemy ahead of them, but there was only one path, and it was only wide enough for two vehicles to drive side by side on. If any vehicles ahead of them rolled over, the Razor Sharp Company would get caught between the wreck and the armored brigade behind them.


    Suddenly, one of the Zong Consortium soldiers took a look behind. ¡°Eh, the vehicles they¡¯re driving look like those from our military. Could they share the same radio frequency?¡±


    The regimentalmander turned around to have a look and realized it was true.


    He immediately had the soldier in the passenger seat try every frequency to see if he could get in touch with the Razor Sharp Company and discuss some workaround to the situation.


    Sure enough, after he switched to an encrypted frequency and shouted into it, a reply came from the other end.


    The regimentalmander was overjoyed. ¡°Friends from Fortress 178, please don¡¯t pursue us anymore. We¡¯ll be retiring to the countryside to farm, so can you guys please stop?¡±


    However, the other party answered, ¡°No!¡±


    The regimentalmander turned furious and shouted, ¡°Do you really have to be so ruthless?¡±


    The soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company looked at each other, then at the armored brigade not too far behind them, and realized they did not know how to respond.


    The Zong Consortium troops in the front roared, ¡°Then surely we can stop our vehicles! We¡¯ll surrender! Fortress 178 doesn¡¯t kill captives, right?!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was starting to get anxious. ¡°No stopping, keep driving! If you dare stop, I¡¯ll kill you!¡± ¡®There¡¯s only one fucking road out here and the shoulder¡¯s full of muck, so if y¡¯all stopped here, wouldn¡¯t we get blocked as well?¡¯


    When the regimentalmander in front heard this, tears of humiliation rolled down his cheeks. ¡®Why aren¡¯t you epting our surrender? Must you really force us to flee?¡¯


    ¡°Could those fucking Fortress 178 troops think that it¡¯s fun to torture us like this?¡±


    ¡°That might be possible...¡±


    But at this moment, one of the soldiers finally saw a full view of the armored brigade that was the farthest back while making arge turn. He wondered, ¡°Wait a minute, isn¡¯t that armored brigade in the rear ourrades?¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± The regimentalmander was surprised. He did not care about the danger anymore and peeked out to look back. The paint on the exterior of the armored brigade clearly showed them to be their Zong Consortium troops.


    The regimentalmander picked up the vehicle¡¯s walkie-talkie and startedughing arrogantly. ¡°To the pursuing troops of Fortress 178, my advice to you all is to surrender quickly. You¡¯re clearly surrounded by us, so what¡¯re you trying to bluff!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, he was greeted by a hail of bullets from behind. The regimentalmander was so frightened that his hands trembled again.


    Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s voice came from over the radio, ¡°My advice to you is to keep driving. We don¡¯t know if anything will happen to us, but if you dare stop, y¡¯all will definitely be the first to suffer!¡±


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s regimentalmander nearly started shedding tears of humiliation again. He swore into the walkie-talkie and said that the Razor Sharp Company would definitely pay the price, and that the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops behind them would never let them off.


    On the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s side, Jiao Xiaochen sat in the back of a truck and wondered, ¡°Wait a minute, even though we¡¯re in range of the tank behind us, why didn¡¯t they open fire at us? Furthermore, the Zong Consortium¡¯s armored brigade is way too quiet back there.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, ¡°Something must be wrong with them. Why else would we have gotten forced into taking cover in the gully twice without being attacked? I think they should¡¯ve discovered us back then, but I wonder why they didn¡¯t open fire on us?¡±


    At that, Ren Xiaosu widened his eyes. ¡°Tell me, what happened?¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen rted the incident and said curiously, ¡°I feel that something strange is going on.¡±


    A conjecture popped into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind. He ordered, ¡°Turn, let¡¯s not follow these defeated Zong Consortium troops anymore. The armored brigade behind us probably isn¡¯t here to attack us but to chase after the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops in front of us.¡±


    Then the Zong Consortium¡¯s troops in front saw the Razor Sharp Company turning into the wilderness through their rearview mirrors. The regimentalmander immediately felt a sense of relief. He had been saved. But after being chased around like a dog for so long, how could he just let the matter rest?


    The regimentmander shouted to his soldiers, ¡°They¡¯ve been intimidated by us, but we can¡¯t just let them escape like that¡ª¡±


    After the Razor Sharp Company departed, the Zong Consortium troops were the only ones left in front of the armored brigade. With a loud boom, the armored brigade¡¯s tank to their rear opened fire!


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s regimentalmander was stunned. He could only watch helplessly as the truck at the back of his convoy suddenly turned into a fireball. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    The soldiers started crying. ¡°Regimental Commander! The armored brigade is here to attack us!¡±

 Chapter 466 - Total strength: 184, present strength: 183

    <h4>Total strength: 184, present strength: 183</h4>


    The other day, when Li Shentan hypnotized the armored brigade, he had ordered that they could only kill the Zong Consortium soldiers and not the innocent.


    Li Shentan¡¯s hypnotism could be called magical and was different from Zong Cheng¡¯s superpower that allowed him to turn a person into an obedient machine. Li Shentan¡¯s power allowed him to insert specificmands into a person¡¯s subconsciousness.


    The targets hypnotized by Li Shentan would even have the ability to think on their own. To put it simply, they could distinguish between who the Zong Consortium soldiers were and who were not.


    Although Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company were also driving the Zong Consortium¡¯s vehicles, they were dressed in refugee clothing.


    Therefore, even though the armored brigade was chasing after the Zong Consortium troops from behind, they could not indiscriminately kill the innocent Razor Sharp Company that was blocking their way.


    But once the Razor Sharp Company departed from the chase, the armored brigade immediately started firing at the Zong Consortium troops.


    How could a group of routed soldiers stand up to a full armored brigade?


    Or rather, the strongest defensive unit that remained across the Zong Consortium¡¯s strongholds in the entire Northwest right now was Stronghold 146¡¯s garrison brigade, with the rest of the Zong Consortium troops still involved in the battle at the front lines.


    Therefore, the 131st Brigade did not have any worthy opponents in the rear.


    The soldiers of the 131st Brigade were sitting quietly in the armored vehicles. As they had not rested for a long time, dark circles were appearing under their eyes.


    But they could not sleep, at least not until the moment they were finally at death¡¯s door.


    The Razor Sharp Company watched as the armored brigade drove off, then turned to look at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while. ¡°I think someone called Li Shentan might be controlling them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not have any actual proof of that, though. Even though their Razor Sharp Company was clearly within range of the armored brigade, they did not get fired upon. Ren Xiaosu just felt that something was off. It was just his intuition.


    Thinking of what he had witnessed back at the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold, the people who were hypnotized by Li Shentan would basically push themselves to their limits as though they had gone crazy, so this armored brigade would probably notst much longer either.


    Seeing that the armored brigade was heading straight for the next stronghold, Ren Xiaosu thought that Li Shentan might have just done Fortress 178 a huge favor. Or was Li Shentan¡¯s intention actually to help Ren Xiaosu?


    But no matter what, this armored brigade would definitely bring a great surprise to the Zong Consortium.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How¡¯s the war going for Commander Zhang and the others in the south?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s still going well, but the Zong Consortium is putting up quite a resistance on the battlefront. Although we¡¯ll definitely win, there¡¯ll have to be some sacrifices on our side as well.¡± Zhang Xiaoman sighed.


    ¡°Besides, Xiaosu, the Zong Consortium will definitely plunge into chaos now that you¡¯ve killed more than half of their higher-ups,¡± Jiao Xiaochen said.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that Fortress 178 could win the war, he felt more at ease. However, the deputymander who had been captured by them said, ¡°That might not be the case. Zong Ying is the frontlinemander of the Zong forces, so he¡¯s still pretty well respected by the military. Besides, he¡¯s been expanding his influence in recent years too. Because of that, the Zong higher-ups have kept him in check for the past three years. Now that the Zong higher-ups are no longer in control, who knows? He might just take the opportunity to consolidate the Zong Consortium and be the new¡ª¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do. I¡¯ll have to inform themander about this,¡± interrupted Zhang Xiaoman.


    Then he dialed a number on the satellite phone and repeated the deputymander¡¯s words to Wang Fengyuan. However, Wang Fengyuan said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Zong Ying won¡¯t survive beyond tonight.¡±


    After saying that, Wang Fengyuan hung up.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others exchanged nces. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It seems like Commander Zhang has a n to deal with him.¡±


    Truth be told, Fortress 178 did have contingency ns for that. Ever since Xu Xianchu ambushed the Zong Consortium troops in the Gobi, those contingency ns started taking effect one after another. For example, there were still quite a few lucky survivors from the Zong Consortium¡¯s third anciry branch in Stronghold 146 who were looking to escape, but they were suddenly met by that fortune teller who stopped them from leaving.


    At the front lines, Zong Ying did not even know danger was approaching.


    After being in hiding for over a decade, Zhang Jinglin had destroyed the Zong Consortium as soon as he returned to the Northwest. From this moment on, Fortress 178 would no longer have any opponents in the Northwest. Only the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178 remained in the entire Southwest and Northwest, which were separated by a river.


    If anyone else had gone to ask Wang Fengyuan, he would definitely not have revealed anything to them. Only the Razor Sharp Company could receive such treatment and get some information out of him.


    Not everyone was capable of destroying Stronghold 146.


    When the Fortress 178manders at the front lines heard that Stronghold 146 in the north had been taken by the Razor Sharp Company, jealous expressions appeared on their faces.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the Razor Sharp Company hadpleted their mission. There was basically nothing left for them to do on the battlefield. The Razor Sharp Company had already received their orders to march back south to rendezvous with Zhou Yinglong¡¯s Forward Strike Battalion where they would reorganize themselves before returning to Fortress 178.


    Zhang Xiaoman said happily, ¡°We¡¯ll definitely earn the Neb Medal this time since half the Zong higher-ups were killed by our Razor Sharp Company. We¡¯re clearly just apany, yet it feels like we¡¯re a brigade instead.¡±


    ¡°Ptui.¡± Jiao Xiaochen scolded jokingly, ¡°You¡¯re such a shameless captain. What we achieved was obviously all Ren Xiaosu¡¯s credit. What has it got anything to do with you? Without Ren Xiaosu, we might not even have survived to now.¡±


    ¡°But Ren Xiaosu is also part of our Razor Sharp Company.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said unhappily, ¡°We¡¯re in the same unit, understand?¡±


    As the exhausted soldiers of the Razor Sharp Company sat in the vehicle, they felt a sense of relief. Everyone knew the war in the Northwest was finallying to an end. The remaining battles had nothing to do with them.


    But when everyone thought back on the details, it seemed like it was just as Jiao Xiaochen had described. If Ren Xiaosu were not around in this war, they would probably have died long ago.


    They had captured Mt. Dingyuan and Mt. Guan, attacked the Beiwan River to distract the enemy¡¯s firepower from the main forces, crossed the river at Mt. Qiangwan into the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory, took out the logistic lines of Stronghold 144, wrecked their military factories, and eventually destroyed Stronghold 146 entirely.


    It was no wonder themanders at the front lines felt a little jealous. Although the Razor Sharp Company did not really engage in any tough battles, they had done more than what most of the other fighting forces had contributed, and all of this was even achieved with only 184 of them!


    Someone sneaked a nce at Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting in the vehicle. After this war, there would probably be no one who would not be convinced by Ren Xiaosu, right?


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was still far from being qualified as the fortressmander since knowing how to fight and being an ablemander were two different matters.


    But there was still plenty of time in the future. Everyone felt that this young man would grow up to be like Zhang Jinglin and be the backbone of Fortress 178 someday.


    Ren Xiaosu, meanwhile, quietly leaned back in his seat and watched the dust and smoke get swept up by the strong wind in the distance . No one knew what he was thinking right now.


    When the troops were about to arrive at the rendezvous point, it was already evening. Zhou Yinglong had been waiting at the entrance of the camp for a long time. Not only Zhou Yinglong, but Wang Fengyuan, Zhang Jinglin, and the other importantmanders were here as well.


    The rendezvous point was the Northern Headquarters of Fortress 178.


    After Zhang Xiaoman and the Razor Sharp Company jumped out of the vehicles and limped, Zhou Yinglong kicked him and said, ¡°Why are you pretending to be injured when you¡¯re not?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman quickly stood to attention and said with a cheeky smile, ¡°It makes us appear even more valiant, no?¡±


    As they spoke, the Razor Sharp Company assembled behind Zhang Xiaoman. Zhang Xiaoman shouted, ¡°Count off!¡±


    ¡°1!¡±


    ¡°2!¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°182!¡±


    Throughout the counting off, the voices of the Razor Sharp Company¡¯s soldiers were sonorous. However, the count-off ended at 182. Zhang Xiaoman thought that something was not right. ¡°Why are we short one person?¡±


    There should be 184 of them in total, including Zhang Xiaoman himself. But why was one of them missing?


    Jiao Xiaochen wondered, ¡°Hey, wait a minute, where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right! Where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin stood calmly in front of the formation. Many of themanders had only stayed behind because they wanted to see what that legendary Ren Xiaosu looked like. But in the end, Ren Xiaosu had disappeared?


    Zhou Yinglong looked at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you? How could you lose Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was also starting to get anxious. ¡°Did any of you see Ren Xiaosu just now?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he was still around a moment ago. He was just sitting there in the bed of the truck. I dunno where he suddenly disappeared to.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I saw him as well!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin sighed. ¡°Never mind, leave him be.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin knew that Ren Xiaosu had temporarily joined Fortress 178 because of the Zong Consortium. But it was also because of the destruction of the Zong Consortium that he had left again. His heart did not belong here, after all.


    Wang Fengyuan whispered, ¡°Could he really have felt estranged?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin shook his head and said, ¡°It¡¯s not important.¡± Then Zhang Jinglin looked at Zhang Xiaoman and said, ¡°Carry on.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman stood to attention and swung his hand up energetically close to his ear in a salute. ¡°Reporting in, Commander! The Razor Sharp Company has assembled. ...¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was full of pride when he spoke. But now that the Razor Sharp Company was short one person, he somehow felt very empty and miserable inside.


    Ren Xiaosu actually left without bidding farewell.


    Thinking back on the times they spent together for the past month or so, the difficulties and dangers they faced were deeply imprinted in their minds.


    As he kept speaking, Zhang Xiaoman grew depressed. Zhou Yinglong snapped at him, ¡°Haven¡¯t we already won the war? So what¡¯s with that expression of yours?!¡±


    ¡°Battalion Commander, sir! We had made an agreement that no man would get left behind, but we¡¯ve failed to bring Ren Xiaosu back with us!¡±


    Everyone suddenly fell silent. No one had ever expected that the entire Razor Sharp Company would truly survive the war.


    The dying sun blood-red. [1]


    [1] This is thest line from the ci poem, Loushan Pass, by Mao Zedong. Mao wrote this poem after the Red Army defeated the KMT after a fierce battle and upied the pass. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loushan_Pass |


    Fierce the west wind,


    Wild geese cry under the frosty morning moon.


    Under the frosty morning moon


    Horses¡¯ hooves ttering,


    Bugles sobbing low.


    Idle boast the strong pass is a wall of iron,


    With firm strides we are crossing its summit.


    We are crossing its summit,


    The rolling hills sea-blue,


    The dying sun blood-red.

 Chapter 467 - Zong Cheng’s death

    <h4>Zong Cheng¡°s death</h4>


    As the Zong Consortium¡¯s battle continued in the north, an off-road vehicle was speeding towards the Central ins. The sky was vast and blue while the ground stretched endlessly into the horizon. As the vehicle drove on, it resembled aet shooting across the sky with an exhaust trail.


    It was as though getting here made it feel like the troubles of the war were cast far away.


    But instead of taking the main road, this vehicle suddenly made a detour at some point and drove into the extensive mountain range.


    The young man deliberately parked the off-road vehicle in an extremely remote ce and got out. He took out all of his belongings before pushing them over into a ravine.


    He probably did this so no one would discover his whereabouts. This young man was extremely careful and took so many precautions to hide his tracks. In fact, to avoid whatever he was trying to avoid, he even nned to trek across the treacherous mountain range.


    The young man wore a backpack. The water and food he had inside were enough for him to trek all the way to the Central ins on foot.


    Suddenly, this young man turned his head and looked at his homnd with a hint of nostalgia and hatred on his face. He promised himself that he would return someday.


    But when he turned back around, someone on a small hill in the mountain range ahead smiled at him and said, ¡°What are you looking at?¡±


    The young man was shocked. He turned around and drew a pistol from his waist, ready to shoot. He reacted like a bird startled by the twang of a bow.


    But as he turned around, the man sitting on the hill chuckled and snapped his fingers. Then the young man¡¯s face turned nk.


    ¡°Let¡¯s y a game.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°The game is called ¡®Twenty Questions.¡¯ So, what¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Zong Cheng, Zong Xiang,¡± the young man answered.


    Li Shentan was stunned. ¡°Why do you have two names? Besides, Zong Cheng doesn¡¯t look like you.¡±


    ¡°I used to be called Zong Xiang, but now I¡¯m known as Zong Cheng,¡± the young man answered. ¡°I nted a seed within Zong Xiang with my superpower and turned him into a puppet.¡±


    Li Shentan was a little surprised. Even he did not expect that Zong Cheng would possess such a power. Thinking about it, wouldn¡¯t this mean that Zong Cheng would be as good as immortal as long as he nted a part of his consciousness in others?


    Furthermore, the Zong Consortium¡¯s members had probably not realized this was something that could be done.


    Within the Zong Consortium, both Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang could be consideredpetitors. Since there could only be one patriarch of the organization, there would have to be clearly defined winners and losers.


    Both Zong Cheng and Zong Xiang were from the main branch of the family. Previously, some people from the third and fourth anciry branches tried to sow discord between them, but little did they know that Zong Cheng had put Zong Xiang under his control a long time ago.


    Moreover, Zong Xiang continued living in the Zong Consortium like a normal person, so no one discovered that something like that could have happened.


    This power was way too strange. If the other organizations¡¯ leaders were to also fall under Zong Cheng¡¯s control, wouldn¡¯t it be extremely easy for him to bring them down?


    Although Zong Cheng could only control a small number of people, Li Shentan had not expected this power could actually get branched into a different power.


    Li Shentan asked, ¡°Do you have any other ¡®seeds¡¯ out there? Is it the same for everyone you gain control over?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zong Xiang said, ¡°The seeds are extremely rare. Only by controlling a fixed group of people for an extended time can I draw on their mental strength to create the seeds. There was supposed to be another seed out there, but I didn¡¯t have the chance to use it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s such a disgrace that I have a simr power as someone like you.¡±


    At this point, a sh of anger and struggle appeared on Zong Xiang¡¯s face. It was as though he was trying to break free from Li Shentan¡¯s control. But before he could really react, his consciousness was once again suppressed by Li Shentan.


    Li Shentan¡¯s superpower seemed to be a natural ¡°nemesis¡± against other mind controlling supernatural beings such as Zong Cheng.


    Li Shentan posed a few more questions to him regarding the Zong Consortium¡¯s war efforts and found out that the Zong Consortium was gued by multiple crises and could no longer resist Fortress 178.


    He also found out about how the 131st Brigade had gone back to Stronghold 146 and caused a huge ruckus there.


    Li Shentan said with a helpless smile, ¡°To think that rather than helping, I nearly got in his way instead? But what happened sounds quite interesting.¡±


    To someone like Li Shentan, interesting things had be something he looked forward to in life.


    ¡°Alright!¡± Li Shentan thought for a moment and said, ¡°That¡¯s it for my questioning. You can end your life now.¡±


    When he said that, Zong Xiang¡¯s expression suddenly distorted. It seemed like there was a constant struggle between uneptance and anger within him. Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°It seems that I¡¯m still not strong enough to make a supernatural being choose between life and death.¡±


    Then Li Shentan picked up a stone and flicked it between Zong Xiang¡¯s eyes. Only at this time could Zong Cheng be considered truly dead.


    Off to the side, Si Liren looked at Zong Xiang¡¯s corpse, used to seeing things like this. ¡°Big Brother Shentan, where do we go now? To Fortress 178?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Li Shentan shook his head and said, ¡°I think Ren Xiaosu will probably leave the Fortress 178 troops very soon. That¡¯s not where he wants to be, at least not for now.¡±


    ¡°Then where are we going?¡±


    ¡°We should go and do something more interesting,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile. He looked at the case on Si Liren¡¯s back and teased, ¡°When they said you were a carrying pole back then, I didn¡¯t believe it at first.¡±


    Si Liren wrinkled her nose. ¡°I¡¯m not a carrying pole. Stop calling me that.¡±


    ¡°Sure, little carrying pole.¡±


    Li Shentan turned around and headed off in the direction of the Central ins. Hu Shuo was nowhere to be seen, and no one knew where he had gone.


    ...


    The war in the north continued. Zong Ying, themander at the front lines, immediately summoned all of the Zong Consortium¡¯s generals at the battlefront to a meeting after receiving news that Stronghold 146 was in trouble.


    But the moment the generals stepped in to the headquarters, they were immediately arrested. Then Zong Ying arranged for his trusted aide to carry out the consolidation process.


    Of the generals here, Zong Ying had the most troops under him. The other generals had not expected Zong Ying to be so ruthless and decisive to arrest them immediately after trouble broke out back at Stronghold 146.


    Zong Ying said to them, ¡°The Zong Consortium is currently facing a crisis, so we need to be united.¡±


    What he meant by ¡°united¡± was that they should submit to Zong Ying and let him lead them. And since everyone was arrested, they could not refuse his proposal to unite together.


    The Zong Consortium¡¯s generals looked at one another. They were not expecting Zong Ying to immediately bare his fangs now that the majority of the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups had been taken out or injured.


    But one of the generals could not understand. ¡°We¡¯ve already been defeated in the war. Even if you control all of the frontline troops now, you still can¡¯t win against Fortress 178, isn¡¯t that so?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll head north.¡± Zong Ying said, ¡°We have to continue marching north of Stronghold 146. This ce isn¡¯t safe anymore. We can rebuild when we get farther north and wait for our chance to make aeback.¡±


    The generals were taken aback. Was Zong Ying nning on bringing everyone to the Northern Steppe? Were they supposed topletely abandon everything they currently had?


    Not only that, Zong Ying was even nning to take these frontline troops on a piging expedition as they made their way north. They would take whatever valuable items from the Zong Consortium¡¯s strongholds and turn them into ruins.


    As for what would happen to the stronghold residents after that, it was something for Fortress 178 to consider.


    Someone asked, ¡°How should we shake off the pursuit from the Fortress 178 troops?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have Zong Xing to help me deal with them, of course. If we head another 170 kilometers north, we¡¯ll arrive at Fuzhi Bridge. After we cross it, we can blow up the bridge. Since it will take several days for Fortress 178 to build a pontoon bridge, there¡¯ll be enough time for us to make our retreat,¡± Zong Ying exined.


    Zong Xing was one of the few veteran generals left in the Zong Consortium. When everyone started to withdraw from the front lines, Zong Xing still held his ground and fought for every inch of territory.


    Normally, neither the younger generals nor the veteran generals were too fond of each other. The veterans always felt that the young ones did not feel a sense of belonging to the n.


    But what Zong Ying uttered here decided the fate of Zong Xing.


    Zong Ying looked at the Zong Consortium¡¯s generals and said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯ll always be a need for sacrifices in war. Of course, what I mean is the sacrifice of others.¡±

 Chapter 468 - Zong Ying’s death

    <h4>468 Zong Ying¡°s death</h4>


    The Zong Consortium troops at Mt. Wuchuan were suddenly withdrawn, and only one unit was left behind to put up a stubborn resistance at the most dangerous position on the battlefield.


    Meanwhile, the rest of the troops started plundering through their own territory. The Zong Consortium strongholds in the north were being looted by their own forces.


    On the same evening, Zong Ying¡¯s troops arrived at Fuzhi Bridge. As he stood on the bridge and watched the transport vehicles passing by, he suddenly sighed and said to his second-inmand next to him, ¡°I wonder when we can return after going north this time. Remember, bring along the refugee fishermen from the various strongholds, as well as those who specialize in animal husbandry.¡±


    In reality, Zong Ying had already been scheming to retreat north for some time. He had not expected things to go so smoothly and that someone would actually give him a hand in getting rid of the majority of the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups.


    The Northern Steppe was situated outside of the stronghold perimeter. It was a ce where wild beasts ran rampant.


    But what threat could those wild beasts possibly pose to professional soldiers?


    His second-inmand said, ¡°A lot of our troops have deserted over the past few days, but they¡¯ve all been caught and killed.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s very normal that some people tried to escape.¡± Zong Ying said with a smile, ¡°In their opinion, they would rather be refugees than go north to herd sheep. Don¡¯t worry, killing a few people and streamlining our troops as we make our way there isn¡¯t exactly a bad thing, and we can make use of it to intimidate the other soldiers as well. After all, it¡¯ll be a tough life from now on.¡±


    For now, Zong Ying wanted to use an extreme form of coercion to band these routed Zong Consortium troops together and bring them north.


    These troops would be his investment.


    They wouldn¡¯t even need an armored brigade once they get to the Northern Steppe. After all, mechanized troops would be useless without fuel.


    His second-inmand asked, ¡°Commander, when can we return here?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll return when Fortress 178 and the Qing Consortium start fighting.¡± Zong Yingughed and said, ¡°No two tigers can share the same mountain, so there¡¯ll definitelye such a day. How can Qing Zhen possibly give up on the lucrative North when he¡¯s such an ambitious person? Let¡¯s go, we¡¯ll just wait and see.¡±


    In truth, Zong Ying did not know whether he could return here. Even if Fortress 178 and the Qing Consortium started fighting, the Zong Consortium would not have the strength to re-enter the stage. They would only be able to watch others perform on the stage while waiting in the wings.


    But politics was always a mixture of truth and lies. Even if Zong Ying did not have any intention of returning, he could not tell his soldiers. Only by giving these people a glimmer of hope would he be allowed the time to consolidate his power.


    All of a sudden, a water arrow shot out from the river under the bridge. Zong Ying was utterly shocked when he sensed danger. No one expected such a surprising turn of events to happen here!


    This was an attack by a supernatural being!


    Zong Ying quickly pulled his second-inmand in front of him to block the water arrow attack. But when the water arrow was about to hit, it suddenly lost shape and transformed into many fine water needles.


    Zong Ying hid his entire body behind his second-inmand. In that instant, his second-inmand was riddled by the needles.


    The nearby supernatural being who was responsible for protecting Zong Ying finally reacted and spat a cloudy mist.


    The cloudy mist transformed into a majestic hawk in the air and hovered over Zong Ying¡¯s head, ready to protect him at all times.


    But before Zong Ying could breathe a sigh of relief, a huge, translucent killer whale jumped out of the turbulent river and leaped over the bridge.


    The killer whale was formed from water. As it leaped over everyone¡¯s heads andnded back into the river, it caught the hawk in midair and dragged it down into the water.


    The supernatural being next to Zong Ying coughed up blood and copsed to the ground with a depressed look.


    However, the attack did not stop there. Suddenly, some dark clouds started gathering in the sky and snowkes began falling.


    The falling snowkes were as sharp as des, and they quickly pierced through Zong Ying¡¯s chest before disintegrating into nothingness.


    Zong Ying fell to the ground.


    This ambitious general of the Zong Consortium failed to realize his ambitions in the end. But there was nothing much to feel indignant about before he died. The supernatural attack he witnessed here today was obviously not done by a single person. Several supernatural beings had worked together to ensure he was killed.


    And the variation of attacks in the water clearly told Zong Ying that his sessful destruction of the pontoon bridge at ckstone River that day was just a deception to trick him into thinking that Fortress 178 was out of retreating options, and it was not that they could do nothing about those speedboats he sent.


    Before Zong Ying died, he gave a mental sigh. The old era was over, after all.


    ...


    After being briefed, Wang Fengyuan looked at Zhang Jinglin and said, ¡°Commander, Zong Ying is dead. Just as you had expected, they were intending to leave via Fuzhi Bridge. Commander¡¯s foresight is amazing!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°So you¡¯ve also learned how to tter others, huh? If their intentions were to shake us off, that was the only route they could have taken. This isn¡¯t about having amazing foresight.¡±


    Everyone thought Fortress 178 did not really have any supernatural beings in their service, but that was not the case at all.


    In Wang Fengyuan¡¯s words, ¡°Their superpowers came from being frozen.¡±


    The soldiers had suffered daily hardships at the border outposts. In winter, their breaths would even condense into ice when they exhaled. That freezing and harsh environment hammered out their strongest willpower.


    But it was not enough to just freeze. They also had to possess the most sincere belief in the world.


    Did the soldiers choose to be in such a harsh environment for themselves? Of course not! Was it for meritorious service and promotion? It was not that either.


    They did it because they wanted to protect the stronghold.


    Therefore, belief and hardship were indispensable factors for the awakening of their superpowers.


    Yang Xiaojin had once said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°When a disasteres, mental strength bes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.¡±


    While wild animals evolved to be stronger, and nts turned more bizarre, what was it that humans had? Evolution of mental strength was the proper path for humans to embark on.


    But of course, it didn¡¯t mean that everyone would be supernatural beings just because they had suffered hardships. The secret force in Fortress 178 that was made up of supernatural beings was also another secret that Wang Fengyuan kept.


    Wang Fengyuan continued, ¡°Commander, the frontline troops have captured a supernatural being. He¡¯s the one that can locate other supernatural beings. ording to him, he found an opportunity to escape after the 131st Brigade defected. He intended to return to the front line at Mt. Wuchuan, but he got captured by us instead.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Zhang Jinglin¡¯s interest was piqued. ¡°Bring him in.¡±


    Then the supernatural being was pushed into the headquarters by several people outside. It was a plump young man, and he was shouting, ¡°I can help you guys locate other supernatural beings. After you find them, you can round them up and ce them under your control. I¡¯m very useful, so don¡¯t kill me!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin asked him with great interest, ¡°What is your effective detection range?¡±


    ¡°I can locate any supernatural being within the radius of a 100 kilometers.¡± The delicate-looking supernatural being shouted, ¡°There must be more supernatural beings hidden in Fortress 178. I can help you to find them.¡±

 Chapter 469 - Alliance

    <h4>Chapter 469 Alliance</h4>


    Zhang Jinglin looked at the supernatural being in front of him and said with a smile, ¡°Do you have any other superpowers? What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°My name is Xun Yeyu.¡± The fair-skinned fatty said, ¡°And no, I don¡¯t have any other powers.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin nodded and said to Wang Fengyuan, ¡°Bring him to Fortress 178 and see if we can locate any other supernatural beings living there. However, there¡¯s no need to force them to join us. Just record their powers in a register.¡±


    Xun Yeyu¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°You¡¯re only registering them? Aren¡¯t you going to ce them under your control so they¡¯ll work for you?¡±


    ¡°Our Fortress 178 does not need to resort to restricting the freedom of others in exchange for their strength.¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°Have a nice stay in Fortress 178, and don¡¯t get yourself involved in the war anymore.¡±


    Then Zhang Jinglin had someone take Xun Yeyu away.


    The Zong Consortium hadpletely lost control of their strongholds in the north. Actually, Zhang Jinglin knew that Zong Ying would withdraw from the front line, but he did not try to stop him.


    If those troops put up a fierce resistance at Mt. Wuchuan, it would only serve to increase the casualties that Fortress 178 suffered.


    Furthermore, since Zong Ying had taken the initiative to pull out of the battlefield with his troops, would the remaining generals who harbored their own ns be able to organize an effective resistance the moment Zong Ying died?


    Some of them would simply upy a stronghold in hopes they could be the overseer. But once the Fortress 178 army arrived, these people would immediately lose will and surrender the stronghold.


    Everything they did was futile in the face of overwhelming strength.


    Fortress 178 had already deployed an extremely professional team to handle the takeover of the strongholds. This unit had a very clear purpose and operated meticulously. They would forcefully clean up the old ruling hierarchy in the strongholds by killing them.


    This directive had been established long ago as Fortress 178 did not have time to deal with such pests courteously.


    At this moment, Wang Shengzhi¡¯s organization sent another delegation to discuss the matter of opening up the transportation lifeline with Fortress 178.


    Previously, they did not have an in-depth discussion about it because Zhang Jinglin had yet to conquer the entire Northwest.


    The consortium Wang Shengzhi belonged to was extremely influential and powerful in the Central ins, and they formed a triumvirate with two other consortiums. The remaining consortiums in the region simply served to entuate the big three, or perhaps, just had no ambitions to expand further.


    Therefore, Wang Shengzhi previously stated to Zhang Jinglin that both sides would get their demands. Fortress 178 wanted the resources of the Central ins, while the Central ins was eyeing the resources that Fortress 178 had. However, the Wang n would only deal with whoever was fully in control of the Northwest. Otherwise, it would be meaningless.


    Although Wang Shengzhi had rushed to make the trip to the Northwest, it did not mean he would bend his principles to reach a deal.


    Now that Zhang Jinglin had be the ruler of the Nortnds, they could finally start discussing all kinds of deals.


    However, Zhang Jinglin simply smiled and expressed that he was not qualified to be the ruler of the Nortnds. How could a frail schr be worthy of such a title? But someday, a new ruler would surely appear in the Northwest, and that was something that even he was eagerly awaiting.


    The representatives of the Wang n were a little surprised. Why did the words ¡°a new ruler would surely appear someday¡± sound like what the ancient tribes would say? And it even carried a hint of feudal superstition too?


    Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°That was what our Great Hoodwinker imed, but I believe that person will definitely return someday.¡±


    There were only a few key points brought up in the discussion.


    They first talked about the minerals and resources Wang Shengzhi needed, then discussed how to set the prices and what resources would be exchanged between the two sides, as well as how to collect the tariffs. Then they proceeded to talk about how to build the controlled ess highway to link up the Northwest and the Central ins and how it would be managed. Wang Shengzhi¡¯s intention was that they would take charge of restoring all the essways, whether it was the railway or the highway.


    However, Zhang Jinglin rejected Wang Shengzhi¡¯s goodwill and expressed that the Northwestern people should resolve the issues in the Northwest by themselves. The Northwestern people would restore the Northwestern essways, while the Central ins people would repair the Central ins portion. That way, neither party would be on the losing side.


    Third, Wang Shengzhi proposed they send troops to expel the wild beasts in the vicinity of the trading routes so as not to affect the safety. However, that offer was also turned down by Zhang Jinglin.


    Seeing that they were nning to construct a railway that led to the Central ins from the Northwest, themanders of the fighting forces of Fortress 178 did not know whether it was a good thing or not.


    But in the end, Zhang Jinglin still felt it would not be feasible for them to remain content with staying here in the corner of the Northwest for the long term. If they had to face the enemies further northwest, they would have to obtain the resources they werecking to progress.


    What surprised Zhang Jinglin was that Wang Shengyin, the younger sister of Wang Shengzhi, was still part of the delegation this time.


    Wang Shengyin was also a little fatigued after having to travel back here again from the Central ins. But when she arrived at the headquarters of Fortress 178, she pretended to casually ask about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts. She asked why she had not seen Ren Xiaosu around, and if he was injured or had been killed in action.


    It was only then that she learned of all the things Ren Xiaosu had done in the North, including his departure from Fortress 178 without farewell.


    Even the people of Fortress 178 did not know where Ren Xiaosu had gone.


    Wang Shengyin appeared a little crestfallen at this.


    ...


    At the same time the visitors from the Wang n were here, Luo Lan represented the Qing Consortium and also dropped by the Nortnds. He was here to discuss an alliance between them and Fortress 178.


    Luo Lan¡¯s offer was clear: Both sides would get along as friendly neighbors and not interfere with each other¡¯s affairs, as well as cooperate with each other to guard against the Central ins.


    In other words, he regarded the Central ins as potential enemies and wanted to prevent them from plotting against the Southwest and Northwest.


    Of course, there were also disagreements about this among themanders of Fortress 178. ¡°The Qing Consortium is overly ambitious. They can¡¯t afford to deal with us yet as they are currently busy taking over the Li Consortium and Yang Consortium¡¯s strongholds. If we get along peacefully with them now, what¡¯ll happen when they start a war with us in the future?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. I heard that the Experimentals in the South are giving them a headache. After the Qing Consortium¡¯s main forces captured the front line at Ziyang, they immediately turned around and headed back south. This shows that the Qing Consortium does not have the capacity to deal with us for now. That¡¯s why they¡¯re suggesting that we get along peacefully.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin nced at them and said, ¡°I¡¯ve already made up my mind to sign an alliance treaty with the Qing Consortium. However, there¡¯s one condition we must reject. We cannot allow the Qing Consortium to build their railway to connect with ours.¡±


    Wang Fengyuan said in a low voice, ¡°Commander, the concerns everyone¡¯s brought up are valid too.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°If another war breaks out at this time, wouldn¡¯t our situation be the exact same to what the Qing Consortium is going through? If we start warring again, the Qing Consortium¡¯s main forces will immediately be deployed here to the North. Then the South will truly be a paradise for the Experimentals. If that happens, who knows how many people will have to die?¡±


    Wang Fengyuan understood what Zhang Jinglin meant. He intended to let the Qing Consortium focus on dealing with the threat of the Experimentals first.


    That was the most crucial matter for now.


    ¡°What else does that Fatty Luo want?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked.


    ¡°He¡¯s also looking for Ren Xiaosu.¡± Wang Fengyuan said, ¡°I told him that Ren Xiaosu has already left our territory.¡±


    Nearby, one of the generals muttered, ¡°Why are all of them looking for Ren Xiaosu? This is so odd.¡±


    Half a monthter, the Razor Sharp Company was the first of the troops to return to Fortress 178. When they entered the fortress, the residents lined the streets to wee them back. Someone held up a red banner that read: ¡°Wee home, war heroes!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman wore the Neb Medal on his chest. This award was the highest honor he could receive in Fortress 178.


    There was a joyous atmosphere on both sides of the street as children followed behind the military transport trucks. A middle-aged woman stuffed whole baskets of eggs into their vehicles, while Lu Yao, the goddess of the fortress, organized a concert put on by the cultural troupe for these victorious warriors.


    When Lu Yao saw them, she also asked, ¡°Which one of you is Ren Xiaosu?¡± However, Zhang Xiaoman and the others were at a loss for words.


    Looking at the cheering crowd in the fortress, Zhang Xiaoman really wished Ren Xiaosu could be here to enjoy this honor with them.


    They were only given this honor because of Ren Xiaosu.


    Zhang Xiaoman had another Neb Medal in his possession that belonged to Ren Xiaosu. For now, it would be ced with him for safekeeping.


    Zhang Xiaoman somehow felt that the young man would return someday. At that time, he would personally help Ren Xiaosu wear the Neb Medal.


    ...


    End of Volume: Ruler of the Nortnds


    Next Volume: Alliance of Assassins

 Chapter 470 - The Anjing House

    <h4>Chapter 470 The Anjing House</h4>


    Stronghold 73 was located at the intersection of three rivers in the south of the Central ins, bute every summer, the zing hot sun in the sky would vaporize the water in the river.


    When the seasonal plum rain[1] passed over the middle and lower reaches of the river, the high atmospheric pressure system would affect airflow in the lower altitudes and inhibit rain clouds from forming, leading to summer droughts as the surface temperatures reached extreme highs.


    As such, Stronghold 73 was also known as ¡°The Furnace.¡±


    In an official residence on the north side of Longyang Avenue, some people were arguing endlessly in a n meeting that was in progress. More than a dozen luxury cars were parked in the square outside the official residence. The chauffeurs were standing in a corner smoking and chatting as they waited for the big shots toe out.


    Inside the conference room, someone said in a loud voice, ¡°The Wang n in the north has already opened up their trade route with the Northwest. If we let them carry on developing, wouldn¡¯t that make us sitting ducks?¡±


    Someone retorted, ¡°Don¡¯t always be spoiling for a fight. Our priority now should be to continue our spread east. The Qinghe Group over there cannot be underestimated.¡±


    The person who made the retort was a bearded, middle-aged man. He had a calm look on his face, and his ck tie and dark blue military uniform made him appear exceptionally solemn.


    The person who spoke earlier sneered, ¡°Zhou Shiji, the Qinghe Group is content with exercising sovereignty within their own territory and has never gotten involved in anypetition for resources in the Central ins. What¡¯s there to be afraid of? I don¡¯t think you realize yet who our true enemy is.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that I deem the Qinghe Group to be an enemy, but I¡¯ve heard that they¡¯ve mastered how to create superhumans. My opinion¡¯s that we should get our hands on a simr method first.¡± The bearded, middle-aged man adjusted the pen and paper in front of him and ced them neatly together.


    ¡°But they don¡¯t seem to have that many superhumans in their organization,¡± someone else countered.


    ¡°In this current climate, it¡¯s time that we start paying more attention to superhumans.¡±


    Internal strife was ying out between the main and conservative factions of the n, but this meeting was destined to have no oue.


    It took another two hours before these Zhou Consortium big shots finally walked out of the official residence. One by one, the important figures from the conservative faction bid farewell to the representative of their faction, Zhou Shiji. There was even someone who invited him for drinks, but he turned them down.


    As Zhou Shiji walked down the gravel road in front of the official residence, the protocol officers and security personnel were waiting in front of the car. After the protocol officer opened the car door for Zhou Shiji, Zhou Shiji nodded at him before getting into the car.


    The luxury ck car drove out of the official residence with two motorcycle escorts in front and behind. The assistant officer sitting in the front passenger seat held a document and said, ¡°The people who met up with the Qinghe Group have returned. They said the other party rejected our proposal as usual.¡±


    Zhou Shiji was resting with his eyes closed and his expression showed no signs of being affected.


    Someone was watching the movement of the convoy with a pair of military binocrs on a roof of a tall building in the distance. When the person was sure of it, he turned around and brought out three white doves from a cage behind him and tossed them into the sky.


    The sound of the white doves¡¯ pping wings would make anyone joyful.


    Elsewhere, someone was cautiously hiding in a residence and watching that tall building.


    When he saw three doves taking flight from the tall building, he said to his three armedpanions next to him, ¡°The target is taking the route that was briefed to us. Get ready to fight.¡±


    ¡°This assassination attempt can only seed. Failure is uneptable!¡±


    ¡°Do you think we¡¯ll get the chance to join the Anjing House after we pull off this job?¡±


    Based on what they said, the Anjing House sounded like an organization rather than a temple. After all, it didn¡¯t make sense that one would only be able to join a temple after killing people.


    But at this moment, a young man suddenly walked out from the shadows next to them. He let out a foul breath and said with a grin, ¡°I¡¯ve finally found y¡¯all. However, the Anjing House is not a ce that characters like you can join.¡±


    These four hitmen quickly pointed their guns at the young man. ¡°Where¡¯d you pop out of? Were you hiding in the kitchen all this while?¡±


    Holding a ss of juice in his hand, the young man chuckled softly and said, ¡°Don¡¯t get so anxious. Let me finish my juice first.¡±


    As he spoke, the four hitmen¡¯s gun barrels twisted like a pastry twist.


    Five minutester, the young man walked out of the building. There was a bright scarlet stain on his white shirt that indicated the fate of the four hitmen in the building.


    He frowned at the sight of the bloodstain, then reached up to wipe it clean.


    When the stronghold bell rang out in the distance, the white doves in Ping¡¯an Square got rmed by the sound and took off into the sky.


    Then the young man took out a paper crane from his pocket and wrote on it, ¡°Mission aplished. Please deposit themission into my ount. The targets are extras that don¡¯t know who the mastermind is.¡±


    After the message was written, the paper crane took flight into the sky by itself and crossed the turbulent river, going north.


    This paper crane would help to bring back news of what had happened here. As it flew among the white doves, it did not look out of ce at all.


    As for where the paper crane would fly to, the young man did not know either.


    ...


    On a mountain road in the north, a young man was trekking across the treacherous mountains. He was moving down the river, apparently searching for something along the way. But at the same time, he seemed afraid he would miss something.


    The mountains here were yellowish brown, and only after heading further east did thendscape start transforming into a grassy green.


    The young man looked a little disappointed when he did not find any tracks here.


    But it was also a good thing that he did not see any corpses since that would mean the people he was looking for might still be alive.


    He walked and walked until half a month had passed. Actually, he could probably have crossed the mountain range within four or five days if he had traveled at full speed. But as he was searching for tracks along the way, it dyed his travels by quite a bit.


    The young man slowed when he heard a ruckus up ahead. Before he could walk much further, he saw a group of refugee workers in safety helmets cutting wood.


    When these workers saw the young man, they were stunned. ¡°Friend, where did youe from? Why did you walk out of the mountain range?¡±


    ¡°Actually, I lost my way and got here by ident. I¡¯m from the Northwest.¡± The young man said with a smile, ¡°Bros, where are y¡¯all from?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re lumberjack refugees from Stronghold 61.¡± The oldest lumberjack wondered, ¡°The Northwest? A lot of people fleeing there have arrived here recently. I heard that there¡¯s a war going on. Did you escape from the war? ¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The young man smiled and said, ¡°I escaped here to get away from the war. The fighting there is too deadly.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I heard that the superhumans over there are extremely powerful. Someone escaped from Stronghold 146 and is staying in our town. They imed that Stronghold 146 was destroyed by a young superhuman. Are the superhumans these days that fearsome? They can even destroy a stronghold by themselves?¡±


    The young man was stunned before replying with a smile, ¡°I dunno about that. I haven¡¯t been to Stronghold 146 before.¡±


    ¡°Oh, news doesn¡¯t really flow that well over there, so it¡¯s understandable that you don¡¯t know about it.¡± The lumberjack nodded. ¡°My name is Xu Yahui. If you¡¯re lost, you cane back with uster and settle down in town. But you definitely won¡¯t be allowed into the stronghold. Friend, how should I address you?¡±


    The young man smiled. ¡°Thank you, bro, I¡¯m Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    [1] The East Asian rainy season,monly called the plum rain (Chinese: ÷Óê; pinyin: m¨¦iy¨³), is caused by precipitation along a persistent stationary front known as the Meiyu front for nearly two months during thete spring and early summer between China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_rainy_season

 Chapter 471 - White paper crane

    <h4>471 White paper crane</h4>


    The lumberjacks had toplete their tasks for the day before returning to the stronghold. In the meantime, Ren Xiaosu chatted with this group of workers while waiting for them to finish.


    After Ren Xiaosu departed from the Razor Sharp Company without saying goodbye, he did not immediately venture deeper into the Central ins from the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. Instead, Ren Xiaosu headed south and found the ce where the flood urred. From there, he marched all the way eastward while looking for tracks of Yan Liuyuan and the others along the riverbank.


    The valley had formed a new river channel. Almost every year, thendscape here would be different from the previous year. The river that flowed downstream from the snowy mountains was like time washing away the familiarity of what used to lie here.


    As he followed the river, Ren Xiaosu even saw the settlement where his family used to live and the ce where Yang Xiaojin taught him how to use a sniper rifle.


    But times changed, and things were no longer as they used to be.


    Ren Xiaosu did not manage to find any leads with regards to Wang Fugui and the others even though he was about to reach Stronghold 61.


    One of the lumberjacks sighed and said, ¡°Kid, you sure are lucky! You actually came out alive after getting lost in the mountains!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s in the mountains?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a herd of boars in there.¡± The lumberjack eximed exaggeratedly, ¡°And they¡¯re especially ferocious.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought silently, ¡®Is this lumberjack referring to the herd I ate for dinner a few days ago?¡¯


    But he did not say anything and just yed along, ¡°Ah, that was a close call then. Fortunately for me, I didn¡¯t encounter them.¡±


    He asked the lumberjacks as he sat next to them, ¡°Bros, do y¡¯all usually work around here?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± A lumberjack who just sat down to take a break said, ¡°We¡¯re chopping down trees for the Wang n and have been working in this area for the past few months. Years ago, we were logging in the north. However, the Wang n said that we had to practice sustainable logging and should not chop down trees in the same area. So we got sent here instead. The ce where we used to cut wood in the north is being rented with trees.¡±


    Someone said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t you find it strange? After all that effort to chop down the trees, they¡¯re renting them? I wonder what on earth they¡¯re thinking.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not answer that question and continued asking, ¡°Did you see anyone drifting down from upstream?¡±


    The lumberjacks paused for a moment. ¡°Are you looking for your family?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°In fact, bodies often drift down from upstream, probably due to the war in the Northwest. But we haven¡¯te across anyone who¡¯s still alive by the time they drift all the way here.¡± A lumberjack shook his head. ¡°This is the only river that we can still see bodies adrift on. Apparently, this river is formed by the snow melt from the mountains, so there¡¯s no carnivorous fishes in it. If it were the other rivers, any bodies would¡¯ve already been devoured by the fish.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart stopped for a while and he said nothing more. In reality, he had always been afraid to hear about the bad oues. But it did not really matter since he would continue to look for them.


    Besides, it wasn¡¯t like these lumberjacks came here every day. Perhaps they might have just missed them? That was still usible.


    The lumberjack looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you now that although the Wang n doesn¡¯t reject those who flee here from the Northwest, nobody¡¯s allowed to enter the stronghold. So former stronghold residents like you should be mentally prepared to be refugees like us. You¡¯ll only be allowed to do menial work to support your family.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Bros, I think y¡¯all¡¯ve gotten the wrong impression. I¡¯m actually a refugee too.¡±


    When the lumberjacks heard that Ren Xiaosu was also a refugee, they turned friendlier and asked about the differences between refugees in the Northwest and those in the Central ins.


    In the end, the lumberjacks came to the conclusion that the refugees in the Northwest did not have a better life than them.


    Although they were also tired from their constant busy lives, being a ss lower than the stronghold residents, and distrusting their fellow townspeople, at least they did not have to worry about starving to death or eating moldy cornbread.


    A lumberjack said with a smile, ¡°After a busy day of work here, we can still head back to town and enjoy a bowl of hotmb stew.[1] If we pay a little more, we can even get to eat a burger.[2]¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°The refugees here can afford to buy meat?¡±


    ¡°Haha, themb stew we have is only the broth, as if there¡¯s any meat in it. It¡¯s great that we can even enjoy meat broth.¡±


    Realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. It truly was great to even have meat broth to drink.


    Inparison, the Central ins was indeed wealthier than the Southwest and Northwest. This was true since ancient times.


    In the evening, the leader of the logging team drove back to town with a truckload of wood. As the workers sat on the wood in the back of the truck, someone asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Did you ever meet Fortress 178¡¯s troops while you were in the Northwest? We heard from the stronghold residents who fled from the Northwest that the Fortress 178 troops are extremely strong, especially thatpany of soldiers who utterly defeated the Zong Consortium in the North. They even burned their granary!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ve only heard about them. I haven¡¯t met them before.¡±


    ¡°C¡¯mon, tell us about ¡¯em. Everyone in town¡¯s been discussing what¡¯s going on in the Northwest recently. It sounds even more exciting than the storyteller¡¯s tales.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, ¡°I heard that thepany of soldiers did not initially n on crossing the river to the north, but they thought that it was not good to drag the war on for too long. As the saying goes, with great poweres great responsibility, so they felt that they had the obligation to cross the river to finish the war in the North. But even though thepany is powerful, the most powerful one of them is still the supernatural being in their ranks. I heard that he¡¯s extremely brave, mighty, and handsome.... Later on, he headed north by himself to Stronghold 146. That battle was a storm.... By the way, he¡¯s that supernatural being y¡¯all were mentioning earlier...¡±


    As he continued rting the story to them, the lumberjacks got so engrossed they did not notice they were almost back in town. ¡°Huh, we arrived so soon?¡±


    But at this moment, a strong gust of wind blew past them. It seemed that there was something white pping its wings in the sky, but it was pushed down by the wind. Ren Xiaosu felt that something was not right, so he jumped up from the truck and grabbed the white object with his hand.


    When he opened his fist, he was surprised to see a small and exquisite paper crane. The paper crane looked alive and was wriggling its body and ring at Ren Xiaosu.


    Although this paper crane did not have any eyes, Ren Xiaosu had this bizarre feeling that the tiny little thing was really staring at him.


    As the paper crane¡¯s wings were extremely sharp, Ren Xiaosu identally cut his finger on one.


    When Ren Xiaosu let go of his hand in pain, the paper crane started pping its wings again and tried to escape. But before it could fly out of his palm, Ren Xiaosu caught it again.


    Ren Xiaosu unfolded it curiously. Inside the squarish white piece of paper, a message read, ¡°The war in the north has ended. The Qing Consortium has signed an alliance treaty with Fortress 178.¡±


    ¡®Is someone trying to ry this information to the Central ins?¡¯ Ren Xiaosu wondered. However, even he did not know about the alliance between the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178.


    Before he could figure it out, a lumberjack asked, ¡°Why would that white paper crane suddenly fly here?¡±


    The lumberjacks did not clearly see what Ren Xiaosu did with the paper crane. They just felt that it was a little strange to see it flying here.


    [1] Paomo is a specialty of Shaanxi cuisine and is a typical food eaten in the city of Xi¡¯an. It is a hot stew of chopped-up steamed leavened bread, cooked inmb broth, and served withmb meat, sometimes substituted with beef. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paomo


    [2] Roujiamo, (Chinese: Èâ¼ÐâÉ; pinyin: r¨°uji¨¡m¨®; lit.: ¡®meat sandwiched in bread¡¯) the Chinese hamburger, is a street food originating from the cuisine of Shaanxi Province and widely consumed all over China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roujiamo

 Chapter 472 - Robbery

    <h4>472 Robbery</h4>


    ¡°Maybe it was blown here by the wind,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°Do y¡¯all remember?¡± A lumberjack said in a low voice, ¡°The storyteller in town once told a story about these white paper cranes. He said that a very mysterious organization likes to use paper cranes to ry information. Ren Xiaosu, is there anything written on it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu tightened his fist and said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s nothing on it. That storyteller must have made that story up. Why would anyone use paper cranes to ry information?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Everyone heard what Ren Xiaosu said and did not question him any further.


    But Ren Xiaosu was actually startled to hear that. He had a feeling that the ¡°mysterious organization¡± might just turn out to be real.


    But how could an organization like this let him intercept their means ofmunication so easily?


    Could it be a coincidence? Or was it intentionally arranged?


    As Ren Xiaosu was cautious by nature, he would always delve further whenever he encountered something strange.


    But he did not consider whether it would be a problem for anyone else to try to catch the paper crane. Perhaps they might even be killed by the small paper crane if they tried to catch it.


    He intended to refold the paper crane as he wanted to see if it would try to fly off again. But after unfolding it, Ren Xiaosu realized he did not know how to refold it. He never learned something like this before. So Ren Xiaosu ced the piece of paper into his storage space.


    The paper crane was probably the power of some supernatural being. Ren Xiaosu turned to look in the direction of Stronghold 61 as that was where it was flying towards.


    Perhaps that supernatural being was at Stronghold 61 right now?


    When they reached the entrance of the town, the leader of the logging team parked the truck and jumped out of the vehicle. He said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°A lot of people in town fled here from the Northwest. If you want to find your family, you can start looking for them here. If they¡¯re not here...¡±


    He did not finish the sentence. What the team leader was implying was that if they were not here, they would probably be dead.


    The team leader said, ¡°I live on the west side of town. If you have nothing to do and want to earn some money, you cane to look for me in the western part of town. It just so happens that we have a lot of work recently.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, bro, but I don¡¯t think I need a job yet.¡± After thanking him, Ren Xiaosu started his search in town. He went looking for Wang Fugui and the others shack by shack.


    The town here was huge and was many timesrger than those he had seen in the Southwest and Northwest.


    A lot of the escapees who fled here had already set up their shacks. Many of them had ashen looks on their faces with hints of despair.


    A lot of these high and mighty stronghold residents were probably unable to ept that they¡¯d suddenly be refugees. Some of them had brought along their money and thought they could continue to live afortable life when they got to the Central ins.


    However, all of the strongholds under the Wang Consortium had stopped epting the Zong Consortium¡¯s currency. When people came here to do business in the past, the Zong Consortium¡¯s currency could be used. However, that was no longer the case.


    It was as though the Wang Consortium firmly believed that the Zong Consortium would suffer a crushing defeat.


    As such, these escapees were forced to pawn their gold jewelry in order to survive.


    One of the stronghold residents was following a refugee and saying he wanted to work to earn some money for food. However, he was rejected by the refugee because he was too old and did not look like he was strong enough to dobor.


    Some of the stronghold residents scolded these refugees for daring to look down on them. As a result, the refugees gave them a good thrashing and even spat on them.


    Of course, some stronghold residents quickly epted their fate and did whatever they could to trade for some food.


    Although the refugees in the Central ins had it better than those in the Southwest and Northwest, they still had to work in exchange for food. This was the irond rule that was constant everywhere.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu was disappointed that he could not find any trace of Wang Fugui and the others here.


    At this moment, he was feeling a little lost. How was he going to look for Wang Fugui and the rest in this sea of people?


    It was at this moment that a rat-faced worker from the logging team quietly approached Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°I¡¯ve been following you around for some time. You haven¡¯t found your family yet? That¡¯s alright, I have some friends in this ce. As long as you have money, they can help you locate them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw the lumberjack¡¯s eyes looked rather shifty. It seemed that the man had guessed that Ren Xiaosu had some money on him after overhearing the conversation between the team leader and him about not needing a job yet.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll be depending on you then. If you can find my family, I¡¯ll be sure to reward you handsomely.¡±


    ¡°Follow me then. It¡¯s not convenient to talk here in town.¡± Then the lumberjack turned around and led Ren Xiaosu out into the wilderness.


    Before they could get far, Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°How much farther do we have to walk?¡±


    ¡°Hehe, we¡¯re almost there.¡± As he spoke, the lumberjack arrived at a mound and whistled loudly.


    Suddenly, three people emerged from behind the mound. The lumberjack looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°You must be carrying some money on you, right? Hand it over and we¡¯ll let you live.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°How many escapees have you robbed using this method? I thought that the people here did not need to shut their doors at night? Wasn¡¯t there something known as artificial intelligence here?¡±


    Wang Shengyin and Wang Shengzhi had said that in the territories controlled by their Wang n, people did not need to close their doors at night because there was an artificial intelligence that could analyze criminal behavior extremely urately. Only a few people could avoid getting caught aftermitting a crime.


    But it didn¡¯t seem like that was the case now!


    The lumberjack sneered, ¡°That¡¯s only applicable in the stronghold. What does it have anything to do with us refugees? Hurry up and hand over all your money!¡±


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered. So it turned out the Central ins were just like the Southwest and Northwest. There was also a clear distinction between refugees and stronghold residents.


    The lumberjack¡¯s vision suddenly went ck. Right after, he fell backwards with his chest hurting. The rusty metal knife in his hand dropped to the ground with a ng.


    His three aplices were no exception either as all of them suffered a sudden blow.


    Ren Xiaosu put the four of them together and said nicely, ¡°I¡¯ll ask y¡¯all some questions. Well... I¡¯d just like to find out more about the local customs and conditions here in the Central ins. Don¡¯t be too nervous. Just answer the best you can.¡±


    These refugees who tried to rob Ren Xiaosu realized they had stubbed their toes on an iron te! No, how could this only be an iron te? It might as well be a fucking mountain that was several kilometers thick!


    In this recent period, they had tasted the sweetness by robbing escapees who fled here from the Northwest. Moreover, the stronghold residents were very timid and would immediately cower in fear at the sight of a knife.


    However, they did not expect to rob a superhuman today.


    When Ren Xiaosu started questioning them, the exchange went on for the entire night. The four refugees in front of him nearly broke down from his interrogation. When day broke, he returned to town alone and did nothing but stand at the door of the only tavern in town and waited for it to open.


    Not only was he hungry and looking for something to eat, he had also heard there was a storyteller here who brought up something about white paper cranes.

 Chapter 473 - Listener

    <h4>473 Listener</h4>


    The town¡¯s tavern was only open for business at noon, so Ren Xiaosu returned here and waited. The refugees were up early and headed to the factories in groups to earn their keep for the day.


    It was very difficult for refugees to save up money. They already earned very little each day, yet the consortium still operated shops that sold meat stew, alcohol, and tobo, as well as had gambling dens all over town. The Central ins did not ban alcohol, probably because of the rtively rich foods that were found here.


    When it was time for the workers to go home, those entertainment shops would be advertising their businesses at their workce entrances. After a hard day of work, everyone just wanted to reward themselves, so they would spend the money they had just earned.


    In this town, there was always a ce that pandered to their desires.


    Zhang Jinglin once said this was a world meticulously designed by the consortiums. It seemed like he was not wrong at all.


    People-watching the refugees, Ren Xiaosu recalled the days when he and Yan Liuyuan were still living in the town at Stronghold 113. Although that period was more difficult than now, it was still exceptionally wonderful in his memory, so much so that he would deliberately forget some of the suffering he had been through, forget about the time when he could not fill his stomach, forget how he was ostracized by others, and forget the feeling of falling asleep in fear.


    Then, there would only be happy memories left.


    Humans are optimistic creatures.


    To this town, Ren Xiaosu was an unfamiliar face. But with the increased number of stronghold residents who had fled here from the Northwest in recent days, no one really cared about his arrival.


    The stronghold residents who had fled here would hide in the corner and worry about their future lives.


    Suddenly, a young woman ran out of the back door of the tavern with a notebook and pen in hand. She was looking for these escapees to ask them some questions.


    Ren Xiaosu leaned in close to listen and discovered this young woman was actually asking the escapees from the Northwest about the war over there. She wanted to know how the war had started and if there were any heroic deeds that took ce or any particrly powerful figures in it.


    The young woman wasn¡¯t asking the escapees to tell her stories about the war for nothing, though. There would be a payment of one steamed bun for every story told as an exchange of equal value.


    Although payment of a single steamed bun sounded really cheap, to these escapees who had no idea of how many meals they had skipped, this bun was worth their life, so they would say everything they knew.


    A middle-aged man said, ¡°Zong Ying, themander of the Zong Consortium¡¯s front line this time, is still a very capable leader. He used a scheme to make Fortress 178¡ª¡±


    Interrupting, the girl, around 18 years old, shook her head and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t the Zong Consortium already lose? I don¡¯t want to hear about the Zong Consortium¡¯s side of the story, I only want to listen to what Fortress 178 has done.¡±


    The middle-aged man nched and his heart bled. He used to be a bureaucrat in the Zong Consortium¡¯s ranks, but as a result of losing the war, he had to drag his family away from his hometown. And, as if that wasn¡¯t bad enough yet, he now had to speak heroically of the enemy¡¯s deeds. Was this young woman here to fucking add insult to injury?


    The young woman said earnestly to him, ¡°If you don¡¯t have a story to tell, I¡¯ll just ask someone else. Grandpa is still waiting.¡±


    The middle-aged man quickly stopped her from leaving. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you, I will! Besides, I used to be a high-ranking official, so I definitely know more details than anyone else. When Stronghold 146 was being destroyed, I was right there myself!¡±


    The young woman was very happy when she heard that. ¡°Really? Then quickly tell me about it. If it¡¯s interesting, I¡¯ll give you another steamed bun!¡±


    When this middle-aged man heard he could get another steamed bun, he immediately started rting the story without a care for his previous status. He was afraid the other escapees would steal this opportunity from him.


    Once he started, he droned on for more than two hours. Ren Xiaosu went next to them and listened. But as he kept listening, his expression became stranger.


    At the beginning, the middle-aged man was able to rte the story rather factually. He talked about why Fortress 178 wanted to start a war against the Zong Consortium and why the Zong Consortium had been provoking Fortress 178 in recent years. Truly, this middle-aged man was quite the eloquent speaker. His rhetoric was so good that it made people relish listening to him. There were some things that even Ren Xiaosu did not know about.


    And then he touched on the actual war, from the attack on Mt. Guan and Mt. Dingyuan, to Shichuan Vige being taken, to the Beiwan River being broken through, and finally Stronghold 146 getting destroyed.


    All of those incidents revolved around Ren Xiaosu. While he was on the subject of Stronghold 146 getting destroyed, the middle-aged man started talking about how that mysterious young supernatural being had utterly crushed the entire Zong Consortium¡¯sbat brigade.


    As the girl listened to the story, she wrote it down in her notebook. She wrote very fast, and the more she listened, the brighter her eyes became. She asked, ¡°Is there really such a bold and powerful person in this world?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s not just bold and powerful.¡± The middle-aged man sighed and said, ¡°I was inside the manor of the Zong Consortium¡¯s third house at the time. I saw with my own eyes how he wrapped himself in steel armor and managed to dodge three RPGs. After that...¡±


    At this point, the middle-aged man suddenly looked at Ren Xiaosu and said in surprise, ¡°Have we met before?¡±


    The Zong Consortium had sketched a wanted portrait of Ren Xiaosu. Nearly all of the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups had seen that portrait before. But as it was not the responsibility of this middle-aged man to catch Ren Xiaosu, he only took a quick nce at it. Now he felt a shocking sense of familiarity when he saw Ren Xiaosu. However, he could not recall where he had seen him before.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I also fled here from the Northwest. We might¡¯ve met there before.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s possible.¡± The middle-aged man nodded.


    Next to him, the young woman urged, ¡°You haven¡¯t finished the story yet. Hurry up and finish the rest of it.¡±


    The middle-aged man was stunned. When he raised his head again to take another look at Ren Xiaosu, he realized he had already left.


    Ren Xiaosu did not want anyone to recognize him yet. He felt it would be better for him to keep a low profile now that he had arrived at the Central ins. Although the Central ins were prosperous, the ¡°undercurrents¡± of this ce should be simr to that of the Southwest and Northwest.


    He understood that although the war in the Central ins had not yet begun, everyone already knew of the intentions of the consortiums here to fight for the Central ins. He did not wish to get embroiled in these matters.


    Furthermore, the Pyro Company was here. The Central ins was the home field of the Pyro Company. In this ce, the Pyro Company would no longer be as easy to deal with as before.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized the escapees were probably all former stronghold residents, and some of them were even formerly people of status. So then, why were there no refugees who escaped here as well?


    But Ren Xiaosu realized his thinking was wrong. The escapees could only be former residents of a stronghold. In fact, they would also have to be high-ranking officials linked with the Zong Consortium.


    The refugees in the Northwest were very weing of Fortress 178. Once Fortress 178 arrived in the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory, they would definitely lower the refugees¡¯ taxes and improve their living conditions. So why would any refugee want to escape from there? In fact, they probably could not wait for Fortress 178 to arrive.


    As for the normal stronghold residents, they did not have to worry about the war affecting them at all. Only the high-ranking officials would worry about getting removed from the system!


    After all, during the time the Zong Consortium was in power, the high-ranking officials caused quite a lot of trouble for the stronghold¡¯s residents and refugees. Ren Xiaosu had been to many strongholds, so he knew the Zong Consortium¡¯s officials were definitely not any better than those from the Li Consortium, the Qing Consortium, or the Yang Consortium.


    At the thought of this, Ren Xiaosu cast aside his sympathy for the escapees. None of those who coulde here despite their guilt would be good people.


    The waiter in the tavern pushed open the creaking wooden door. Ren Xiaosu got up and walked in.

 Chapter 474 - A cell phone

    <h4>474 A cell phone</h4>


    In truth, Ren Xiaosu hade to the tavern because he wanted to listen to stories.


    When he got a rough understanding of the rumors surrounding the Anjing House, he suddenly heard an interesting but terrifying saying about how there was no one in this world the Anjing House could not kill.


    This was an extremely secretive organization whose members were scattered and acted independently, yet it was also very powerful at the same time.


    One of the more interesting stories about the Anjing House spoke about how the heir of a small consortium entrusted the Anjing House to assassinate his biological father in order to inherit the family business earlier.


    In the end, after a week, the Anjing House said they hadpleted the mission. However, the heir realized his father was not dead yet. Hence, he angrily used the Anjing House of being untrustworthy. He had already paid the fee, but the Anjing House had broken their promise. The fee was equivalent to five or six years of his savings as the heir of the consortium, and it was a huge sum that normal people would never get to see in their lives!


    However, the Anjing House calmly replied to that consortium¡¯s heir, ¡°You said you wanted your biological father killed. Your mother¡¯s bodyguard from more than ten years ago, who¡¯s also known to you as Uncle Wang, has been killed. He¡¯s your actual biological father.¡±


    Along with that reply, the Anjing House also sent a DNA paternity test report to the heir.


    The heir of the consortium was stunned. What kind of a fucking twist was this? He did not even know when the paternity test was done, much less how the Anjing House could have learned of such a secret.


    This heir apparent of the small consortium almost had a mental breakdown.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether this incident had really happened, but he was very interested in the ability of the Anjing House to find people.


    Furthermore, he had a long chat with the lumberjacks who tried to rob him yesterday and found out from them that there was even a rumor among the people that if you helped the Anjing House carry out a mission, you could choose not to be paid marily and get them to do something of equal value for you instead.


    However, all of this was just hearsay. After all, they were just some rumors the refugees had heard, so Ren Xiaosu understood well that these rumors were most likely fabricated.


    For example, there were now even rumors about him, the war hero of Fortress 178, being over two meters tall and not ever taking his eyes off his gun while sleeping. He was even known to be more inclined towards certain subjects.


    What the fuck did it mean to be more inclined towards certain subjects?


    Ren Xiaosu was perplexed. He could understand the basis of the other rumors, but who the fuck would spread rumors about him being more inclined in certain subjects at school? There was no fucking basis to that rumor at all! And what did that have anything to do withbat?


    After the tavern opened for business, he went inside and ordered two dishes. Then he noticed the young woman, who had gone around earlier taking notes as she listened to stories from the Northwest, helping a blind old man towards a chair in the middle of the tavern.


    Ren Xiaosu understood now that this young woman was the granddaughter of this storyteller. The reason why she was just now asking people to tell their stories was so she could collect more material for her grandpa.


    Ren Xiaosu became even more interested in what tales the storyteller would weave. This was because, when the young woman was listening to the stories earlier, she would asionally interrupt the middle-aged man to analyze the logic of what he said. Clearly, she was very particr about the veracity of the stories.


    When the young woman saw Ren Xiaosu, she greeted him with a smile. Meanwhile, the tale that the storyteller narrated today was about the war in the Southwest, and the main character was Qing Zhen.


    In the story, there was also a supernatural being who acted as the Qing Consortium¡¯s spy and helped to bring down the Li Consortium¡¯s Divine Arms Battalion.


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips in satisfaction. Although he was no longer out there fighting wars, the legend of his deeds was still spreading to many ces.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu felt that even though he clearly did not wish to get involved in those disputes, it was as though everything that happened in the Northwest and Southwest were somehow rted to him.


    Ren Xiaosu hade here because he wanted to listen to stories about the Anjing House, but he was not in a hurry to know. If this topic wasn¡¯t touched on today, he was fine withing back again tomorrow to listen. The storyteller would definitely talk about it someday.


    That night, after Ren Xiaosu left the tavern, he went to the grocery store closest to the stronghold to trade his gold for money. When he saw the owner of the grocery store, Ren Xiaosu felt as though he had seen Wang Fugui again. It was just that this owner was not as benevolent as Wang Fugui.


    Ren Xiaosu decisively bought a brick house with the money he exchanged for, and it even came with a backyard too! Suddenly, the entire town was abuzz with news that a rich man had arrived.


    Every day, Ren Xiaosu did not do anything other than dumping corpses in the morning and going to the tavern to listen to the storyteller from noon until night. The storyteller would only tell two stories a day, while there would also be a preview of what would be talked about in the next session.


    The reason for dumping corpses was that his exchanging of gold for money had rmed some of the ruthless people in town. When they saw that Ren Xiaosu was able to so generously afford a brick house, they started getting ideas to rob him.


    There were constantly people climbing over the wall of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s house in the middle of the night. However, all of them would always disappear after that like rocks sinking into the sea.


    These people were all very secretive in their actions. A lot of people only realized the ruthless people in town seemed to be lessening after they had been missing for a few days...


    At first, nobody thought much of it. Slowly, the atmosphere in town became much more peaceful when the ruthless people who often liked stealing from others started going extinct.


    There were also some ruthless people who sensed that something was amiss and decided to run away. They felt like someone was secretly hunting them down in this town.


    This rumor was spreading around the town: ¡°Someone is purposely hunting down the ruthlesswbreakers.¡±


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu still had to trade his gold for more cash. But after killing so many of the ruthless people, the money he had on hand started increasing instead of decreasing.


    Since Ren Xiaosu was not a good person either, he did not feel bad about spending this ill-gotten gains.


    And to his surprise, he found an old cell phone on one of the people.


    Although the cell phone was very basic and worn-out, it was not enough to stop Ren Xiaosu¡¯s curiosity for new stuff.


    Ren Xiaosu had also seen an instructional manual for a cell phone from before The Cataclysm in the Yang Consortium¡¯s library. However, he had never seen an actual cell phone before and only had experience using a satellite phone.


    The cell phone did not have a charger, and there was nowhere in this town where it could be charged. However, this problem did not stump Ren Xiaosu since he had the nanomachines.


    As he waited for the cell phone to finish charging to turn it on, a glimmer shone in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes. This was the first time he hade across such a ¡°high tech¡± daily necessity.


    However, after studying it for a long time, Ren Xiaosu realized this device only had the functions of sending and receiving text messages, as well as taking pictures. But who would that refugee be sending messages to? The mailbox was empty, and so was the photo album.


    Or could it be that the refugee who had it previously was only holding onto it but had never used it before?


    He went outside and asked around. Some refugees said some of the Wang Consortium¡¯s big shots in the stronghold had been using cell phones for a long time now. Ren Xiaosu did not think too much about it and assumed the refugee had gotten it from robbing the escapees.


    As the number of people looking for trouble decreased, Ren Xiaosu was finally able to calm down. He started to concentrate on listening to all of the stories that were told, such as the Pyro Company secretly capturing supernatural beings, or the Qinghe Group in the Central ins that had a method to create supernatural beings. As long as one couldplete eight mysterious challenges, they could unlock the gic code to awaken their power. However, no one in the outside world knew what these eight challenges were.

 Chapter 475 - Lamb stew

    <h4>475 Lamb stew</h4>


    There was another supernatural organization called the Riders that operated under the Qinghe Group, but the Riders did not participate in thepetition for resources and had been searching for something for more than a 100 years now.


    Then the storyteller touched on the Saboteurs and spoke of how it had quietly changed from purely fighting against the use of nuclear weapons in its earlier years to having different aims now that the group had gone through some reorganization in its ranks.


    The customers in the tavern were all old-timers, so they had heard many stories from the storyteller before. Therefore, when stories were repeated, they would appear uninterested and only focused on drinking.


    Only Ren Xiaosu was listening attentively from the beginning til the end. Some of the customers beside him could not help but wonder who he was. This was because the spending level at this tavern meant that not anyone coulde here just because they wanted to. Now that a rich man had suddenly appeared in town, everyone would definitely pay a little more attention to him.


    However, they realized Ren Xiaosu would just sit there alone and listen to the stories being told every day. He did not try to interact with them at all. The esquires in town were all thinking to themselves that he was probably some family member of the Zong Consortium that had escaped the war and that it was only a matter of time before his pockets were emptied.


    Ren Xiaosu listened to the stories every day, and his life became unusually peaceful. But one day, he received a text message on the old and worn-out cell phone he carried around. ¡°Stronghold 67, C Rank. Takers, please reply.¡±


    This text was very perplexing, so Ren Xiaosu did not bother with it. He was just using the cell phone as a camera, and he found it quite novel.


    Ren Xiaosu used the cell phone to take pictures of the beautiful sunset. When he saw the sumptuousmb stew in the tavern, he took a picture of it as well. He thought that when he got reunited with Liuyuan in the future, he could show him the pictures and let him know what the legendarymb stews were like.


    The stew in the tavern was different from those sold at the market stalls in town. It was slightly more expensive but also had meat.


    After ordering the stew, the waiter in the shop would even give each customer two tbreads and let them break it themselves. The easier they tore, the better.


    Some people said that if you didn¡¯t break the bread yourself, or if you didn¡¯t do it properly, the chef would secretly spit in your stew.


    On this day, Ren Xiaosu came to the tavern and realized the storyteller was not there. Curious, he asked the waiter, ¡°Where¡¯s the storyteller?¡±


    The waiter smiled and said, ¡°You must not know since you¡¯re a new customer. The old man doesn¡¯te here every day. He asionally takes a break too; when depends on his mood.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this wouldn¡¯t do. He was looking forward to listening to more stories. Hence, he resolutely asked the waiter where the storyteller lived and went to knock on his door to make him go to the tavern to tell his stories.


    The old man was stunned as well. ¡°Young man, I¡¯m only in the storytelling business because I don¡¯t want to work in a factory. You showing up at my door now suddenly makes me feel like I¡¯m back in the days when I was still working at the factory before I went blind.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little embarrassed by his words. However, the old man sighed again and said, ¡°When I heard that you were showing up at the tavern every day, I thought that it was because you were interested in my granddaughter. But now it seems like you just really want to hear my stories. Tell me then, what stories would you like to hear? We won¡¯t be going to the tavern today. After all, I might not tell the stories that you want to hear in front of so many people.¡±


    The young woman next to him turned a little shy and hid back in her room. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He suddenly realized that although this old man had blindness of the eyes, his heart was not affected.


    This world was really a strange ce. Some people were not blind, yet they could not see the truth of things.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he did not bother hiding it anymore. He bluntly said, ¡°Grandpa, I want to hear stories about the Anjing House.¡±


    The storyteller smiled. ¡°That¡¯s not something a normal person should hear about.¡±


    ¡°Do you feel that I¡¯m normal?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right. You¡¯re not normal at all. I¡¯ll tell you then.¡±


    Although the Anjing House had not been established for that long, it was an exceptionally mysterious organization since its inception. Their extraordinary strength was not self-proimed. In all these years, there were indeed no missions the Anjing House could not aplish.


    Only the world¡¯s best hitmen could get a chance to join the Anjing House. Not only would the Anjing House assign missions to these hitmen, but it would also ensure their safety and provide them with facilities.


    ¡°That yarn about the Anjing House killing the biological father of the heir of a small consortium, the one about that Uncle Wang, did it really happen?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°It was a real incident.¡± The storyteller nodded with a smile.


    ¡°So does it mean that bypleting a mission for the Anjing House, I can get them to help me do something of equal value? For example, to help me find someone?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± The storyteller smiled and said, ¡°So you¡¯re not looking to have someone killed for you but just looking for a person instead?¡±


    ¡°If I want to kill someone, I can do that myself,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly. A certain aura of arrogance belied the way he spoke.


    But the storyteller did not take it to heart. He only sighed. ¡°Times have indeed changed.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Do you think that the Anjing House is a good organization or an evil one? I¡¯m not trying to judge them or something, but since I need their help to find some people, I have to at least know if they are dependable.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was worried he might end uppromising Wang Fugui and the others¡¯ safety by getting the Anjing House to look for them.


    The storyteller thought for a moment and said, ¡°All these years, the Anjing House has always had a very clear criteria for the people they kill, and their targets were also deserving of death. Many of them are the radical members of the main factions in various consortiums, while the important figures of the conservative factions are usually protected through missions that seek to kill hitmen who target them. However, due to the extremely high price of that, the Anjing House has rarely handled such missions personally in recent years.¡±


    ¡°They don¡¯t personally handle the missions? Then who do they get to do it?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned.


    ¡°They hire some of the hitmen who are waiting for the trials.¡± The storyteller smiled and said, ¡°The Anjing House dispersed a bunch of cell phones a few years ago, and it¡¯s said that the phones can only send and receive text messages and take pictures. The purpose of sending and receiving texts is for the Anjing House to issue missions and wait for interested hitmen to ept them. The mission details include the mission rank and hitmen rank that can ept it. As for the camera, that¡¯s necessary for taking pictures of the body after the mission¡¯s beenpleted. The pictures are automatically sent to the Anjing House.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was absolutely taken aback. Cell phones?! Cell phones that could only send and receive text messages and take pictures as well? Using text messages to take on missions, and the missions are even ranked?


    Didn¡¯t he have one just like that in his hands?!


    However, the old man said that after taking a picture, the cell phone would automatically send it over to the Anjing House....


    Ren Xiaosu recalled themb stew in his photo album and suddenly fell deep into thought.


    The people at the Anjing House probably did not think they would receive a photo like that either.


    ¡°Haha, how magical,¡± Ren Xiaosuughed awkwardly.


    The old man continued, ¡°Afterpleting a series of missions, you can rise from D rank to A rank. Only then will you be qualified to participate in the formal trials to join the Anjing House.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered, ¡°Grandpa, how do you know about all this? Normal people don¡¯t tell others these stories, right? So how true is all of that?¡±


    The storyteller paused for a moment, then said with a smile, ¡°How do you think I lost my eyesight?¡±

 Chapter 476 - Please don’t send pictures of lamb stew again

    <h4>Chapter 476 Please don¡°t send pictures ofmb stew again</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had gained a lot of knowledge by finding his way to the storyteller¡¯s house. At least, he realized what the old cell phone he had ¡°picked up¡± was used for. Furthermore, he was also able to learn a bit more about the Anjing House.


    Ren Xiaosu returned to his own house and turned on the cell phone again. After hesitating for a while, he sent a text message back to the other party. ¡°ept mission.¡±


    He hesitated because he did not know what kind of future he would face after sending this text. Today¡¯s events would bring about a change in his life once again.


    The other concern he had was that Stronghold 67 was quite far away from Stronghold 61, so it would take him some time toplete the mission.


    But this was probably the best way for him to find Wang Fugui and the others now, wasn¡¯t it? Based on his strength alone, it would truly be very difficult to find them in such a vast sea of people.


    Perhaps he could have used Wang Shengzhi¡¯s influence to look for them by frankly exining the situation to him, but Wang Shengzhi knew exactly who he was and knew very well how Zhang Jinglin viewed Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, it would be hard to guarantee that the Wang n would not get any other ideas from this rtionship.


    But the Anjing House did not know who he was. He would be anonymous to them, so there would still be some room for a buffer.


    While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about all that, the old and worn cell phone lit up. It was a text from the other party: ¡°The holder of this cell phone has not reached C-rank yet. Unable to ept mission.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze. It turned out that all the thinking he did had been for nothing since he was not even allowed to ept the mission.


    He looked at the cell phone in his hand in disbelief. Was the previous owner of this phone a pig? The phones were dispersed a few years ago, so why was the previous owner still a D-rank?


    Besides, the Anjing House was also really odd. ¡®Since you already know that I¡¯m a D-rank, why are you mass sending me a C-rank mission?¡¯


    But before he could cool off, the other party sent him another message. ¡°Please don¡¯t send pictures ofmb stew again.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Well, alright then! He would just have to continue waiting patiently.


    Ren Xiaosu still went to the tavern every day. If the storyteller was there, he would listen to the stories he told. If the storyteller did not go, he would just sit there and read. This humble tavern actually started exuding the feeling of a library because of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s antics.


    As for where the books came from... well, he had been to Stronghold 88¡¯s library, after all, so there was no reason for him to return empty-handed since he had entered a treasure trove like that!


    And with Stronghold 88 already destroyed, Ren Xiaosu felt he had actually helped save a great wealth of human knowledge!


    Didn¡¯t they say that people in the Central ins could get rich overnight if they discovered research from ab? This meant humans still valued knowledge.


    Most of the research found inbs were eitherpleted or about to bepleted technologies. Once a consortium found it, they could immediately open up a new field of technology. So even though the research could be sold for money, the books in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s possession might not fetch sky-high prices.


    After Ren Xiaosu¡¯s visit to the storyteller¡¯s ce, when the storyteller met him again in the tavern, it was as though that meeting never took ce. Both parties kept quiet about it in tacit agreement.


    Instead, it was the storyteller¡¯s granddaughter who became closer to Ren Xiaosu. Sometimes, when she went outside to pry for more stories, she woulde back and tell them to Ren Xiaosu in detail before telling the storyteller.


    The storyteller was not angry about this either. He just vaguely hoped that Ren Xiaosu could receive a mission soon and then quickly scram.


    The days passed, and the number of stronghold residents who fled here from the Northwest decreased. All those who should have escaped had already escaped. Those who did not manage to escape in time would have been dispatched by Fortress 178.


    Some of the escapees gathered together and went to block the gate of Stronghold 61 every day, saying that they wanted to make a political appeal to the Wang Consortium. They also said they used to be people of status and that the Wang Consortium should not treat them like this.


    It wasn¡¯t that these refugees were stupid, but that they really had no other choice.


    Many of these escapees had brought their families with them. Their entire family was going hungry, but they had already sold off everything that they could. Therefore, being so starved and unable to take manualbor, this was the only option left.


    At the beginning, the Wang Consortium did not even want to bother with them. After all, 90% of these people were former Zong Consortium officials who did not even know how to use technology.


    Some of them were originally in the field of technology, but after holding their elevated positions for so long, they had already lost relevance. Therefore, to the Wang Consortium, they werepletely useless.


    Later on, the town administrator felt it would be a problem if these people blocked the gate day in and day out, so he simply ordered for them to be beaten up.


    Only then did the escapees start behaving.


    Some of them started performing manualbor, while others continued to think of crooked ways to survive.


    And so, the refugees in the town of Stronghold 61 were very happy. Seeing that these former stronghold residents were worse off than them, they were all gloating on the inside.


    There were even some refugees who went to make fun of the families of these former officials. Although they did not really dare to be too harsh, it was still quite an unbearable sight to watch.


    In the evening, Ren Xiaosu returned home after having dinner at the tavern. While he was doing some reading, there came a sudden knock on the door.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over to answer the door. When he opened the door, he held his ck saber in one hand behind his back. The nanomachines in his body were also getting restless and ready to form the armor at any moment.


    However, when he opened the door, he saw a beautiful, middle-aged woman standing outside of it. The woman seemed to have specially cleaned her face and hurriedly put on some makeup with cosmetics brought over from the Northwest. She had even changed into a beautiful qipao.


    Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, ¡°Anything the matter?¡±


    The woman asked softly, ¡°Can I go inside and talk?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu rejected her.


    The woman did not expect Ren Xiaosu to be so difficult. She got a little anxious and said, ¡°We¡¯re all escapees from the Northwest, and I¡¯m from Stronghold 146 as well. Since we were all fellow Zong Consortium residents, can you let me trade for some food?¡±


    In these recent days, Ren Xiaosu was living the mostfortably among all the escapees. Of course, in the eyes of the other refugees, Ren Xiaosu was just a refugee like them, as even he had said so himself.


    Therefore, when the other escapees found out that Ren Xiaosu was leading such a good life, they started getting ideas about him.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. ¡°Trade with what?¡±


    ¡°With myself,¡± the woman said through clenched teeth. She spoke while deliberately posing her body so that Ren Xiaosu could see her legs under the slit of her qipao. The woman had maintained her figure really well.


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I suggest that you quickly go home and change out of these clothes. It can get quite dangerous when it turns dark.¡± Then he mmed the door shut.


    A man¡¯s voice rang out from behind the door. He lowered his voice and asked, ¡°What happened? Is he not interested?¡±


    The woman, who felt rather humiliated by all this, sobbed, ¡°What kind of husband forces his wife out to sell herself?¡±


    The man said angrily, ¡°Then what¡¯s the point of having you as my wife? Or do you prefer that all of us wait until we starve to death?¡±

 Chapter 477 - First come, first served

    <h4>477 Firste, first served</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s lifestyle did not change because of the attention he was getting from the escapees. When you got hungry, you would just have to work and find ways to survive. This was the worldview he had been inculcated with since childhood. No one owed you a living, and you had to rely on yourself for everything.


    Although life in town was very cruel, as long as you were willing to work, there would always be a way to survive.


    In the end, the beautiful woman did not manage to get anything from Ren Xiaosu. However, she seemed to be filled with humiliation and anger as she presented herself to a provisions store owner in town.


    The boss had a mouth full of yellow teeth and did not wash his hair and feet. If this were the past, the woman would not even have looked at him.


    But surprisingly, even though she had presented herself to someone, she still secretly gave the food she had received to her husband who scolded her earlier. This puzzled Ren Xiaosu a little.


    But there were too many strange things in this world that Ren Xiaosu did not have the time to waste on.


    This woman was not the only one. There were also many other escapees who tried to seek help from Ren Xiaosu. They all hoped Ren Xiaosu would offer them a bite on ount of them being fellow former Zong Consortium residents.


    The escapees even discussed with each other to see who used to be from the same stronghold as Ren Xiaosu, and whether they had seen this young man around before. This way, they might just be able to get closer to him if there was an acquaintance who could link them up.


    But slowly, the escapees realized none of them knew Ren Xiaosu at all...


    Not in their wildest dream would they have expected that Ren Xiaosu was not from the Zong Consortium at all. Rather, it turned out he was actually the supernatural being who destroyed Stronghold 146 all by himself in the deep of night.


    When the escapees finally stopped pestering Ren Xiaosu, he received a new text on his cell phone. ¡°Stronghold 62, D-rank. Any takers, please reply.¡±


    He had finally received a D-rank mission. Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little touched. He immediately replied, ¡°ept mission.¡±


    The moment he sent it out, the other party replied with a new text. ¡°The target is Ma Dewei, a manager at the sand nt outside of Stronghold 62. He once killed nine refugee workers. Reward: 20,000 yuan.¡±


    The text was simple, and there were two pictures attached as well. One was Ma Dewei¡¯s picture, and the other was a blueprint of the nt.


    As for how to use this information to kill Ma Dewei, that would be up to the hitmen themselves.


    Ren Xiaosu realized the organization behind this cell phone was probably also trying to protect the hitmen by assigning them specific ranked missions. It was to prevent the weaker hitmen from foolishly sending themselves to their deaths.


    The missions that D-ranks could receive would not even require them to enter the strongholds, and the targets were just factory managers.


    Legend had it that it would be extremely costly for the Anjing House to undertake a mission. However, this referred to the missions that were undertaken by the actual members of the Anjing House. But ording to the storyteller, people like Ren Xiaosu were extras who would not even pass the trials to join the Anjing House.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately set off for Stronghold 62. His current location was about 190 kilometers away from the target, so it would probably take around three to four hours to get there if he were to use the steam lotive to travel in the wilderness.


    Even now, Ren Xiaosu had to be a little cautious when driving the steam lotive. As such, it would be better to travel there on foot in case he were seen by others along the way.


    In the tavern, the guests were all puzzled when that youth who usually sat by the window did not appear today.


    The storyteller¡¯s granddaughter asked the waiter curiously, ¡°Did hee by today?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t see him.¡± The waiter shook his head and teased, ¡°Why, Xiaolu, you miss him?¡±


    The girl named Xiaolu rolled her eyes and kicked the man in the ass. ¡°Go and get the steamed buns for me. My grandpa¡¯s making me go out to get more stories.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡±


    The customers in the shop were starting to get used to the young man sitting in the tavern every day. Now that the young man had suddenly disappeared, they found it a little difficult to adjust to.


    Some people even wondered if he had spent all his money already. After all, not even an esquire living in town could handleing to the tavern every day.


    Speaking of which, that esquire dressed really poorly too.


    Xiaolu was bored stiff as she stood by the window where Ren Xiaosu often sat. She was leaning her arms on the windowsill and waiting for the waiter to bring the steamed buns to her.


    In this town, only she and her grandpa knew that Ren Xiaosu was not an ordinary person. In fact, he was even the most extraordinary kind there was.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu slowly walked into the town at Stronghold 62. He smiled and asked around if there was any ce near Stronghold 62 that he could get some work to do. He told the people he approached that he had been starving for several days and wanted to look for a factory where he could do some manualbor.


    The people in town were used to this. There were many refugees like Ren Xiaosu who wanted to look for a factory to work at.


    Someone told him that if he wanted to fire bricks at the brick kiln, he could go north; if he wanted to carry ore from the mines, go west; and if he wanted to scoop out sand, go south. Any of the other factories required people with craftsmanship and would only take those who were skilled, so it would not be feasible to head to those ces to earn money.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and thanked the person. Then he walked south. He looked up at the sky. It was only noon now, so there was no need for him to rush. It would be better if he carried out the assassination at night.


    He had once killed a factory manager. Wang Congyang¡¯s elder brother, Wang Dongyang, had died to his hand.


    It was really easy to kill a factory manager. Although they were armed with guns, Ren Xiaosu could even ignore it if it were just a pistol...


    But this did not mean that Ren Xiaosu would rush over recklessly and kill the target. He still hoped he could do it safely by always staying undercover.


    In the wee hours of the night, Ren Xiaosu, who had been resting in a patch of bushes in the wilderness, suddenly opened his eyes.


    He walked toward the factory with cautious footsteps. When he reached the outer wall of the factory, he leaped over it and went inside.


    In the dead of night, no one noticed an uninvited guest had broken into the factory.


    Ren Xiaosu hid in the shadows and calmly watched the patrolling refugee workers pass him by. They did not even seem to have realized Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence at all.


    After they left, Ren Xiaosu quietly climbed up the building. But when he reached the fourth floor, he was stunned. This was because he saw through the window that Ma Dewei was already lying in a pool of blood.


    What the fuck!


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. He hade all the way here and had been hiding in the bushes all night, but the mission target had already died?


    Wait. Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized he might have missed out on something very important. He recalled the process of epting the mission. Since the text for the mission was sent out as a group message, it meant a lot of people could receive the message. So a lot of people could ept it!


    Ren Xiaosu sent a text. ¡°Has someonepleted the Ma Dewei mission? Wasn¡¯t I the one who epted the mission?¡±


    In the end, the other party replied, ¡°Firste, first served.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a throbbing pain in the back of his head. He would actually have to steal away the mission from others?!


    Then why the fuck did he go through all that effort to stay low? Wasn¡¯t that just troubling himself for nothing?!

 Chapter 478 - Path of the Hitman

    <h4>478 Path of the Hitman</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu returned to Stronghold 61¡¯s town angrily and waited for further missions to be assigned through the texts. When Xiaolu saw he had returned, she even asked quietly if the mission had beenpleted.


    How was Ren Xiaosu supposed to answer? Was he supposed to say his mission was intercepted by someone while he was hiding in the bushes?


    For the next half a month, he received a total of seven missions through the cell phone. However, five of them were to be carried out in strongholds too far away from Ren Xiaosu.


    He would never make it there in time.


    As for the two missions that were nearby, one of them was to kill an esquire in town. This mission was easier, but the reward was rtively low as well.


    The other one was to kill one of the town¡¯s administrators. As the difficulty was simr to that of killing a factory manager, the reward was 20,000 yuan as well.


    However, without exception, every time Ren Xiaosu arrived at the scene, he would discover the mission had already beenpleted.


    This made Ren Xiaosu even angrier. Where were the promised fivepleted missions within two months? And what happened to moving up to A-rank quickly?


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought the hardest part of the assassination missions would be the killing. But now he finally understood the hardest part was to be the first to finish a mission.


    The threshold for a D-rank mission was so low that even some of the refugees and ruthless townspeople could do it. This meant that any random person could easily snatch a mission from him.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if there would be fewer people trying for the missions as the ranks went up. After all, the higher the rank, the fewer hitmen there would be.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu received a new text. ¡°The target is Zhao Yanbo, the former warden of Stronghold 146¡¯s prison. He bullied female prisoners while he was still in office and has escaped to the town outside of Stronghold 61. Reward: 20,000 yuan.¡±


    Then a photo of Zhao Yanbo was sent over. Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Wasn¡¯t this person the middle-aged man who had forced his wife to offer herself to him?


    Ren Xiaosu got a pleasant surprise. He had already made three trips in vain in the past half a month. It was only because he was too far away from those targets that others could get to them before him.


    This time, the assigned mission was right next to him!


    If someone else went ahead and stole his mission again this time, Ren Xiaosu swore to himself that he would start eating while doing a handstand!


    It was evening, and the townspeople were already back in their shacks. The number of people on the streets was starting to lessen.


    Ren Xiaosu changed into his attire and even put on a cap as he walked out of his house.


    Zhao Yanbo had been living quite well recently. Although it was not as good a life as he had at the Zong Consortium, at least he would not starve to death with his wife secretly bringing food back to him.


    This person had no other pursuits in life anymore. He hid in the shack every day and would secretly ask his wife for some money from time to time to buy alcohol.


    When Ren Xiaosu located Zhao Yanbo, he was merely hiding in his shack and drinking some alcohol.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to make a move yet. Instead, he hid in the shadows not far away and waited there quietly.


    Three hourster, someone suddenly sneaked in from outside of town. He took out an old phone and checked the text. But just as his phone lit up, he heard someone behind him say cheerfully, ¡°Here on a mission?¡±


    The hitman was shocked. He tried to turn around and swing his sword at whoever said that, but before he could turn around, he was knocked unconscious by a knifehand strike.


    Ren Xiaosu squatted down and took the cell phone away from the hitman. He sneered and said, ¡°How dare you try to steal my mission? I¡¯ll see how you can steal it away now without your cell phone!¡±


    He happily looted the money the hitman had on him and threw the cell phone into his storage space. He was finally able to vent his anger after wasting the past half a month.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not kill the person because he was unsure if this hitman was evil or not. At least this hitman was here to kill someone who was an actual viin.


    After he finished up, Ren Xiaosu dragged the hitman over to the side and continued waiting in ambush patiently.


    As long as no one replied to the mission assignment text message with a picture of Zhao Yanbo¡¯s death, then this mission would not be consideredplete, and there would constantly be new hitmening here.


    Currently, Zhao Yanbo was still unaware of what was happening outside because of him.


    Ren Xiaosu was filled with a sense of frustration after having waited for half a month for nothing. He wanted to vent this frustration, but the people who had stolen the missions had already left the crime scene. Even if he wanted to blow off some steam, he did not know who he could vent to.


    Now that the assigned mission area was right next to him, he could easily carry it out without any trouble.


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu felt he could not always have others stealing his missions away. So how should he solve this problem?


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thinking had always been different from others. Everyone else would try to treat the symptoms of their problems, while Ren Xiaosu would look at the root of the problem. Wouldn¡¯t it be better to solve it by taking care of those people who created the problems for him?


    Today, all he needed to do was wait patiently and knock out the hitmen who responded to the mission. Afterwards, he would just have to take their phones. That way, wouldn¡¯t he be the only hitman left in this vicinity?


    After that, he could do whatever missions he wanted, and he could even do them whenever he wanted!


    In fact, he could even pick and choose which missions to take. If the mission was too troublesome, he could totally ignore it! ¡®I want to keep a low profile too, but I can¡¯t!¡¯ Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu nearlyughed out loud.


    This was perfect!


    That night, the mission to kill Zhao Yanbo remained iplete. More and more hitmen arrived at his door, but all of them were taken out by Ren Xiaosu.


    Although the other hitmen also had problems rted to finishing a mission first, they never once thought of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s method. It was simply impossible for them to carry out.


    These hitmen who answered to the mission were only D-ranked. They had not even seen a superhuman before, so they weren¡¯t a match for Ren Xiaosu.


    These people were basically D-ranked because they could only get to D-rank. After all, not everyone couldplete five missions within two months. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was only stuck at D-rank because he did not manage toplete any of the missions until now!


    But not everyone was like Ren Xiaosu. Even though he had already be a legendary supernatural being in the Northwest, he was still meddling in these low-level missions here.


    If the other hitmen knew about this, they would definitely curse Ren Xiaosu for being shameless.


    In one night, Ren Xiaosu had already taken away five cell phones from other hitmen. He estimated there should still be some more hitmen in the stronghold controlled by the Wang Consortium, so as long as he continued seizing cell phones, he would get to pick any mission he wanted one day.


    At dawn, Ren Xiaosu decided to stop waiting. He went straight to Zhao Yanbo, who was sound asleep, and twisted his neck. He did not have any reservations killing these Zong Consortiumckeys.


    After Ren Xiaosu took a photo of the scene, he received a text as expected. ¡°Mission aplished. You have a time limit of two months, a total of 60 days, starting today, to advance to C-rank. Mission reward of 20,000 yuan to be transferred to the anonymous ount 1583850 in the Wang Consortium Bank. The password is 666666.¡±


    As the sun rose, the sky brightened and the red glow of dawn followed.


    Ren Xiaosu finally let out a sigh of relief. His Path of the Hitman had finally begun.

 Chapter 479 - The paper crane appears again

    <h4>Chapter 479 The paper crane appears again</h4>


    In a certain house, someone curiously muttered, ¡°There seems to be a problem with the D-rank mission near Stronghold 61.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the problem?¡± a shrill voice asked from close by. ¡°What problems can there be for a D-rank mission?¡±


    ¡°In the past, these D-rank missions would bepleted not long after they got assigned. Look, the averagepletion time is four hours, but thest two missions were onlypleted after a day.¡±


    ¡°Eh? Is that true?¡± The other person went over. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s really true. One took 21 hours, the other one took 23 hours. What¡¯s going on here? Are there no qualified ount holders around Stronghold 61?¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be. There were a total of 11 qualified ount holders who epted both missions.¡±


    This meant 11 hitmen must have epted the missions. But even with so many hitmen taking on the jobs, problems were still encountered.


    ¡°Could it be that these two missions¡¯ targets were harder to kill? Which missions did you assign?¡±


    ¡°They were both very simple D-rank missions. The goal was to clean up some of the more corrupt Zong Consortium officials. What¡¯s more, they aren¡¯t protected by any bodyguards.¡± The person who started this discussion asked doubtfully, ¡°Could something have happened?¡±


    ¡°Then whopleted those two missions?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s that dumbass who sent us pictures ofmb stew.¡±


    ¡°Pfft.¡± The person next to him burst intoughter. ¡°It must be a newly qualified ount holder, and he actually managed toplete the missions smoothly too?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not the case either. He did take a few missions before. But perhaps because he was too far away from them, he did not manage toplete those missions. I think this qualified ount holder should be in the town of Stronghold 61.¡±


    ¡°Report this to the boss.¡± The person next to him said as he chewed on a cracker, ¡°Put this information into thetest mission summary report. Although D-rank qualified ount holders are not that big a deal, we should still let the boss know.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    The person beside him suddenly thought of something. ¡°By the way, did those people who epted the missions at Stronghold 61 take on any other missions after that?¡±


    ¡°Let me see.¡± The first person who spoke was surprised to find that all the qualified ount holders that had gone to Stronghold 61 to carry out the missions had disappeared without sending another text.


    He was puzzled. Could they have taken a break? So they did not take any further missions for the time being?


    However, among the 11 people, there was someone who was still taking missions without fail. Even if the targets were far away, he would still attempt it.


    ¡°This won¡¯t do. We have to inform the boss as soon as possible.¡±


    ...


    During this period, Ren Xiaosu did not do anything else. He just peacefully remained at the small tavern and waited for new missions to be assigned before going ¡°fishing.¡±


    The thought of going to the other strongholds toplete missions had also crossed his mind, but they were way too far away and he was not at all familiar with the ces. He might as well stay here for now and familiarize himself with the organization behind the cell phones.


    In just half a month, he had already collected more than ten cell phones in his storage space. But to his disappointment, in this same time frame, the other party had only issued two missions rted to Stronghold 61.


    In this duration, more than a dozen missions rted to the other strongholds were issued. But due to the distance and his unfamiliarity, Ren Xiaosu did not venture there.


    Ren Xiaosu made a rough calction. If he could only advance to C-rank afterpleting five missions in 60 days, then the missions rted to a single stronghold would definitely not be enough for him to achieve that. After all, assassinations could not keep urring in the same stronghold over and over.


    ¡®I would have to take this step by step,¡¯ Ren Xiaosu thought.


    At this moment, he received a new text on his cell phone: ¡°The target is Zhang Cengran, the former Director of the Taxation Department of Stronghold 144. He escaped to the town outside Stronghold 61. Reward: 20,000 yuan.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was delighted. This was someone else he was familiar with. He did not expect that the Anjing House would keep sending out missions to kill these officials like they had something against them.


    But based on the previous mission assignments, the organization behind the cell phone would always write a summary of the evil deedsmitted by the person they wanted killed, as though to lessen the guilt of the hitmen. Meanwhile, the D-rank missions were mainly focused on the factory managers who bullied the people or some extremely terrible town administrators.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand. Would anyone really pay to have these people killed?


    He did not understand the reason and went to ask the storyteller. In the end, the storyteller said, ¡°My guess is that the missions assigned to the ount holders of these cell phones were all issued by the Anjing House themselves. After they ept the incredibly well-paying missions that required superhumans toplete, they pay a portion of it to the superhuman whopletes it and uses their own part of themission to maintain the mercenary hitman system. This acts as their assassin trial selection and, at the same time, eliminates the targets they want to kill.¡±


    As for what their exact purpose was, only they themselves knew.


    Ren Xiaosu did not want to think too much about it anymore. He headed straight to the shack where Zhang Cengran was living. This was the third time he had to carry out a mission at Stronghold 61. By the time he was done with it, there would probably be no more cell phones left in the area, right?


    When he was about to reach the shack where Zhang Cengran was living, Ren Xiaosu took a careful detour to deliberately observe the surroundings.


    Although it was easy to deal with a former fat cat like him, what if something unexpected happened?


    As a result, Ren Xiaosu saw a tiny white paper crane sitting atop a pole next to Zhang Cengran¡¯s shack.


    It was already dark. If Ren Xiaosu had not seen a thing like this before, he might not have noticed it at all.


    The paper crane was facing Zhang Cengran¡¯s shack, and Zhang Cengran was currently sleeping on the inside.


    The situation gradually turned weird. The paper crane was staring at Zhang Cengran while Ren Xiaosu kept his eye on the paper crane...


    Ren Xiaosu was quite sure he had not spotted any paper cranes during his previous missions. It must have been his recent actions that had attracted the attention of the other party, so they wanted to see who the one causing trouble was.


    However, he was also quite sure this paper crane¡¯s feedback was not immediate. Why else would there be a need to send messages via notes? It would have been more direct to just talk to it instead.


    Furthermore, he had also caught a paper crane before. Since that paper crane had seen his appearance before, if it could transmit a message immediately, the other party would probably have tried to capture him long ago.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu decisively activated Shadow Door and grabbed ahold of the paper crane.


    The paper crane was caught off guard. When it was grabbed, it tried to spread its wings to cut Ren Xiaosu¡¯s finger. With the sharpness of those wings, a normal person would most likely get their fingers cut off. But this time, Ren Xiaosu had learned his lesson and moved even faster than it could react. He immediately threw the paper crane into his storage space once he grabbed ahold of it.


    Now, there were two paper cranes in the storage space. The first one had even been unfolded back into a piece of white paper.


    Wouldn¡¯t gathering a 1,000 paper cranes bring good luck to the person he liked? Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thoughts started running wild.


    On this mission, Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t get any new cell phones, probably because he had already wiped out all of the qualified ount holders of the cell phones nearby.

 Chapter 480 - The boss

    <h4>Chapter 480 The boss</h4>


    Ever since Ren Xiaosupleted the mission to assassinate Zhang Cengran, he did not leave his yard for two days straight. He even nted five Potato Shooters in the yard to prevent anyone from sneaking up on him.


    But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, everything seemed normal even after he caught the paper crane. The other party still deposited the reward money into his anonymous ount, while further missions were still systematically sent to him as usual. Nothing had changed at all.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little pained about the five gratitude tokens he had spent. He even thought of setting up a stall in town to start selling potatoes.


    Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu would definitely lead a very good life wherever he went, and neither would he need to do any farming. He could just nt a few Potato Shooters in his own yard, and it would not only prevent thieves, but he would also have potatoes to sell every day. He would have no worries about having no money to spend.


    The reason why he could sleep with peace of mind every day was due to the existence of the Potato Shooters. Even though they might be weak, supernatural beings would still grimace in pain if they were not careful. As for the average person, needless to say, their bones would at the minimum break if they got hit.


    Ren Xiaosu unfolded the second paper crane in the yard, but there was nothing written on it. This disappointed him a little.


    The supernatural being who controlled the paper cranes probably did not care about losing one or two of them, right?


    As he unfolded it, he was also paying attention to how the paper crane was folded. After all, he wanted to see if the paper crane woulde back to ¡°life¡± if he refolded it again.


    When he finally felt that he understood how it was folded, he encountered amon issue faced by all craftsmen:


    The eyes: ¡°Alright, I got it!¡±


    The brain: ¡°No, you don¡¯t!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu reached the tavern, the storyteller was sitting calmly in his chair and rting the story of Qing Zhen¡¯s encirclement operation of the Experimentals to the customers. No one knew where this news hade from, but it was said the Qing Consortium had already driven the Experimentals out of the strongholds in the south. The former residents of the Li Consortium¡¯s strongholds were even praising how good of a person Qing Zhen was, as though they had already forgotten that he was actually the biggest winner of the war in the Southwest.


    However, the Experimentals still remained a potential threat. That was because no one knew where they would move to after taking refuge in the mountains.


    At this moment, Ms. Xiaolu was sitting in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s usual spot. When she saw Ren Xiaosu, she waved happily at him and asked, ¡°Where have you been to the past two days?¡±


    ¡°I was just sleeping andzing around at home,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined with a smile.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Xiaolu did not probe further. She had a new red hairband securing her braided hair at the back of her head. ¡°Grandpa is telling a new story today that he just heard about. He said that there¡¯s also many people escaping the Southwest. However, those escapees are much worse off than the Zong Consortium¡¯s escapees. Their journey of escape hasn¡¯t been smooth at all, and many of them were killed by wild animals that roam the mountains. Apparently, some people ran into the Experimentals, and only a few of them survived the encounter.¡±


    When he heard about the Experimentals again after such a long time, Ren Xiaosu recalled how threatening they were in his encounter with them back in the Jing Mountains. He felt that Qing Zhen had at least handled this matter correctly.


    Regardless of the war, they would have to deal with these unreasonable creatures first.


    Then Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Xiaolu, do you know how to fold a paper crane?¡±


    Xiaolu¡¯s dainty face turned red in embarrassment. ¡°Who would take the initiative to ask for paper cranes from a girl? Shameless!¡±


    After saying that, Xiaolu ran out to the backyard of the tavern with her pigtail swinging behind her.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    When the storyteller heard their conversation at the side, he was furious. How dare this young man try to flirt with his granddaughter in front of him!


    Ren Xiaosu felt helpless. He truly wanted to learn how to fold paper cranes. Didn¡¯t they say that all girls knew how to fold them?


    With that thought in mind, he felt that the supernatural being who could control the paper cranes was quite like a young woman.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt he had to go out to find a ce to lie low for a bit during this period. After stealing so many cell phones, even a fool could probably guess that something must have happened to those D-rank hitmen at Stronghold 61.


    Moreover, he could not help but to go into hiding after intercepting two of the paper cranes in session. Otherwise, who was he going to seek justice from if they came down to attack him?


    Ren Xiaosu bade the storyteller farewell. When the old man heard he was leaving, he looked quite happy.


    But when Ren Xiaosu said he would still be back after some time, the old man¡¯s smile immediately disappeared.


    After all, Stronghold 61 was the nearest stronghold in the Central ins from the Northwest.


    Ren Xiaosu went home and changed into a set of clothes he did not usually put on. Then he headed straight out of town with his head kept low.


    Just as he was about to walk out of town, he suddenly saw a girl wearing a cap and dressed in a neatbat uniform walking towards him. Ren Xiaosu subconsciously wanted to call out Yang Xiaojin¡¯s name as he got extremely excited at that moment.


    But he immediately realized that something was off. The other party was not a girl, but a woman. Judging from her figure and appearance, she was a mature woman who was about eight years older than Yang Xiaojin. She was probably around 28 years old.


    Furthermore, Yang Xiaojin usually only donned sports outfits and rarely wore thebat uniform of the military. Although the cap that Yang Xiaojin usually wore was not brightly colored, it was not dark-colored either. But the cap this woman had on was simply ck in color.


    What left Ren Xiaosu a little puzzled was that he felt a strange sense of familiarity from the woman. Perhaps she had a certain demeanor that was simr to Yang Xiaojin. But upon careful observation, Ren Xiaosu realized there was a difference. This woman¡¯s demeanor was far more rational and cold than Yang Xiaojin. It was like she had seen the ugly side of the world.


    Ren Xiaosu walked past her with his head lowered and quickly left the Stronghold 61 town. He felt that if he didn¡¯t leave now, he might be targeted.


    After Ren Xiaosu left, the woman turned around and looked suspiciously at his back. But she quickly turned around again and continued on her way.


    She came to the outside of the shack where Zhang Cengran had been killed. By now, the corpse in the shack had already been removed and buried by the townspeople under the orders of the town administrator.


    The woman frowned as she looked up at the electric pole the paper crane had previously been sitting on. No one knew what she was thinking.


    Then she lowered her head and took out a cell phone simr to the one Ren Xiaosu had and sent out a text. ¡°From now on, forward all information regarding 1583850¡¯s missions to me directly.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Boss.¡±


    1583850 was referring to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s anonymous ount number.


    The woman walked towards the tavern where Ren Xiaosu often hung out at. It might have been a coincidence or maybe she went there on purpose, but she happened to sit at the window where Ren Xiaosu usually sat.


    As soon as she entered the ce, the storyteller, who was sitting in a chair in the middle of the tavern, suddenly said with a smile, ¡°If y¡¯all want to hear about the aftermath, please join me at the next session.¡±


    After he said that, the storyteller called Xiaolu over and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go back home. I¡¯m tired today.¡±


    The woman wearing the ck cap also got up and left. She walked to the door of the storyteller¡¯s house with a sense of familiarity. The storyteller smiled at Xiaolu and said, ¡°My dear, please go and buy a bottle of soy sauce. We don¡¯t have any left at home.¡±


    Xiaolu did not say anything. She just turned around and went out the door.


    The woman looked at the storyteller and asked, ¡°Did anyone strange recently appear in town?¡±


    The storyteller smiled as he shook his head. ¡°No.¡±

 Chapter 481 - A-rank mission

    <h4>481 A-rank mission</h4>


    A middle-aged man and a young man were riding their motorcycles and heading towards Stronghold 63, which was more than 300 kilometers away from Stronghold 61.


    The two men were covered in ayer of dust as though they had been sleeping out in the wilderness for several days. But even so, the middle-aged man¡¯s eyes were brimming with a radiating vigor. He looked extraordinarily energetic.


    Traveling eastwards from Stronghold 61, that yellowish tinge of brown between the prodigious mountains could hardly be seen anymore. Thendscape was starting to be covered in greenery, and rivers could be seen running from time to time. The scenery of the wilderness refreshed those who saw it.


    It was said that this ce was arge sanctuary for birds before The Cataclysm, with an excellent ecological environment as a conservation park.


    It was the birds that needed human protection at that time. But when humans encountered birds now, they needed to protect themselves.


    Although birds rarely initiated attacks on humans, they bore grudges. There was someone in the past who had stolen some eggs in the wilderness and ate them. As a result, he got chased by a flock of birds for more than a 100 kilometers. In the end, that person was covered with peck wounds and a thickyer of bird droppings all over him.


    The bird droppings were stered all over his body and it made him look like a statue.


    After parking their motorcycles in the wilderness, they camouged themselves with a green tarp. It would be too eye-catching if they rode their bikes for the rest of the journey from here, so they could only proceed there on foot.


    Enjoying the scenery of the mountains, the middle-aged man suddenly said emotionally, ¡°I see in lush mountains such charm allure, I expect they see the same in me!¡± [1]


    The young man next to him opened his mouth and thought of asking his master if he had quoted the poem in the wrong situation, but he did not dare to speak up in the end.


    The middle-aged man continued, ¡°Disciple, do you know why I bought a new cell phone this time and gave it to you instead of your junior brother? You should know that this phone is truly a treasure. Without it, it would be really quite pointless to be a hitman. If you can get into the Anjing House with it someday, that would mean you¡¯ve really seeded!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± the young man answered honestly and shook his head.


    ¡°It¡¯s because you don¡¯t talk nonsense,¡± the middle-aged man praised. ¡°Your junior brother always likes to talk back to me. I¡¯ll be sending him to the construction site to hone himself.¡±


    ¡°Master, are we here to carry out a mission this time?¡± the young man asked.


    ¡°Of course.¡± The middle-aged man said proudly, ¡°It¡¯s mainly to let you see the world and gain some experience. You¡¯ve been my disciple for many years, and now that you¡¯ve learned how to kill people, you naturally have to carry out a mission on your own. For now, Master will bring you along to do a few D-rank missions. You should learn as much as you can as we go along!¡±


    ¡°Master,¡± the young man said meekly, ¡°will the missions be too difficult?¡±


    ¡°Difficult?¡± The middle-aged manughed and stroked his handlebar mustache. ¡°How can it be difficult when I¡¯m a C-rank hitman doing a D-rank mission? Do you know that some hitmen remain at D-rank their entire lives and are unable to advance to C-rank?¡±


    The young man¡¯s eyes lit up when he heard this. ¡°Then when will Master be promoted to B-rank?¡±


    The middle-aged man looked at his disciple and hesitated. ¡°Soon, I¡¯ll get there very soon.¡±


    ¡°Master, if you¡¯re already this strong, how powerful are the A-rank experts?¡± the young man asked as he was always curious to find out about such things.


    The middle-aged man suddenly sighed and replied, ¡°A-rank hitmen are all superhumans or extremely terrifying characters, so I definitely don¡¯t stand a chance. I once witnessed an A-rank expert killing someone, but I didn¡¯t even understand how they did it. Of course, even among the A-ranked hitmen, there¡¯s only a small number of superhumans.¡±


    As the two of them talked, they arrived at the town outside Stronghold 63. The middle-aged man sneaked a nce at his cell phone. ¡°We¡¯ve just received a mission. It¡¯s at a factory nearby! Let¡¯s go, we have to set off immediately! There will be peoplepeting for these D-rank missions!¡±


    They dashed to the nearby factory. The young man was still a little worried. ¡°Master, the target is already in the factory. Shouldn¡¯t we infiltrate after it turns dark? We¡¯ll be seen easily if we go in like this.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? How have I always taught you? Don¡¯t worry, it would be a joke if a C-rank expert like me can¡¯t evenplete a D-rank mission!¡± The middle-aged man sneered with a haughty expression on his face.


    But as they were about to arrive at the factory, someone suddenly called out to them, ¡°Hey... are you two here for a mission?¡±


    The middle-aged man immediately turned around and fired a pistol fitted with a silencer without hesitation. But in the blink of an eye, he saw the masked youth who had spoken a moment earlier disappear. He did not even manage tond a shot at him!


    ¡°It looks like you¡¯re really here for the mission.¡± The young man said with augh from behind them, ¡°You two should rest for a bit. I¡¯ll be confiscating your cell phone so you won¡¯t fight with me for missions in the future.¡±


    After that, a gust of wind blew from behind the middle-aged man. He immediately realized the young man had gone to their rear to try to knock him out!


    Although he realized it, his body couldn¡¯t keep up with the events!


    The opponent was a superhuman! This speed was beyond the limits an average human could reach!


    The middle-aged man found that his body couldn¡¯t keep up with his opponent¡¯s movements even after he had trained for so many years. The young man was simply too fast!


    However, this middle-aged man was also considered a veteran. He had ced a thinyer of steel te around the inner cor of his shirt. First, that could prevent someone from slitting his throat with a dagger, and second, it could stop them from targeting his carotid artery!


    In order not to kill them, Ren Xiaosu held back from using his full strength. However, he realized the middle-aged man did not pass out and was only grimacing in pain afternding a blow!


    Meanwhile, his disciple had already fainted. The middle-aged man turned around and made a run for it.


    While Ren Xiaosu was surprised, the middle-aged man nearly wanted to curse out loud. How was this a fucking D-rank mission? Huh?


    Didn¡¯t the Anjing House verify the hitmen¡¯s identities before distributing the cell phones? Had they fucking gone crazy to hand a D-ranked cell phone to a superhuman? What the hell was wrong with the Anjing House?!


    Besides, why would a superhumane and attempt a D-rank mission? Just how much more shameless could you get? Did youck this bit of money?!


    However, his opponent did not seem to be going all out for the kill. Otherwise, he could have just killed them instead of knocking them out. The middle-aged man knew his opponent had held back.


    Thinking of this, the middle-aged man did not even try to resist anymore. He immediately shouted, ¡°I have money, I can give you money!¡±


    But as soon as he said that, his vision went dark and he lost consciousness.


    Ren Xiaosu squatted down next to them and started searching their bodies. To his surprise, he actually found two cell phones on them. This was a great harvest.


    Ren Xiaosu decisively ced the cell phones into his storage space and continued to wait for more victims.


    When the middle-aged man came to, he found another four or five people lying next to them. He quickly pped his disciple to wake him up and then patted himself down to see if his opponent had left him anything.


    The middle-aged man was overjoyed when he realized his money was still there. Could it be that this superhuman was not after money?


    But a momentter, he was dumbfounded. His two cell phones were gone!


    At this moment, the middle-aged man finally understood this superhuman was actually guarding the mission so he could seize everyone¡¯s cell phones!


    It was over! They were all done for!


    To think that he even bragged to his disciple that it would be a simple mission. In the end, they did not even get the chance toy eyes on the target for the mission. Just which goddamn superhuman hade to pull this prank on them!


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu noticed a text message on his cell phone: ¡°The targets in Stronghold 63 are from the Pyro Company¡¯s Midnight squad. They are currently located in the residential building at 476 Xianyang Street. A-rank. Reward: 500,000 yuan. Up to three people can work in a group for the mission, and all will receive rights to use the safe house and be protected by us upon being pursued by the enemy.¡±


    [1] This is a line from a poem entitled ¡°Woe Is Me¡± to the tune of ¡°Congrattions to the Bridegroom¡± by the poet Xin Qiji.

 Chapter 482 - The more chaotic, the merrier

    <h4>482 The more chaotic, the merrier</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw the mission to kill the Pyro Company¡¯s Midnight squad. The organization behind the cell phone must really have a grudge against the Pyro Company. Why else would they offer such a high bounty for them?


    He had fought Midnight before, so Ren Xiaosu roughly knew how strong they were.


    These people might seem like supernatural beings, but they were only gically modified and possessed a stronger physique than normal people. Although they were far more powerful than normal people, they still couldn¡¯t hold a candle to supernatural beings.


    After all, the current level of power that supernatural beings had was far more explosive and stranger.


    Yang Xiaojin once said the Pyro Company had even more powerful fighting forces within their ranks, but Ren Xiaosu could not really judge as he had not encountered them before.


    The reward this time was secondary. More importantly, the hitmen could earn a one-time right to seek refuge with the Anjing House.


    Who had not faced a dangerous situation in their lives? Even Ren Xiaosu had encountered such situations many times.


    For example, after getting injured, anyone would require an extremely safe ce to recuperate. At such times, deaths were the most likely to ur because even supernatural beings could get killed by normal people.


    Therefore, having a secret safe house and trusted protection would definitely be everyone¡¯s first choice.


    Was the Anjing House trustworthy? At the very least, they had an extremely reliable reputation among all hitmen. Why else would everyone want to join them?


    Therefore, the Anjing House¡¯s offer of protection for those whopleted this mission would definitely tempt many people.


    It was rare for a hitman to meet a good end, and this was something every hitman knew.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned when he saw the text. The mission happened to be posted at Stronghold 63, which was right next to him. However, it was an A-rank mission, so he couldn¡¯t ept it even if he wanted to.


    He would have liked to take on the Pyro Company too. After all, Yang Xiaojin seemed to have a grudge against them.


    However, he was only D-rank right now. Including the mission just now, he would be considered as havingpleted two missions at Stronghold 63. Even though he should be able to get promoted to C-rank, he was still far from getting to A-rank.


    Therefore, this mission did not seem like it had anything to do with him...


    Wait. Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that even though he could not ept the mission, he could still go and watch how the A-rank experts conducted their mission since the address was made known to him.


    When he got there, he could just hide in the shadows and watch those hitmen take on the Pyro Company. The fiercer the fight, the better!


    At this moment, one of the greatest characteristics of human beings was vividly reflected in Ren Xiaosu¡ªhe just wanted to watch chaos ensue. The more chaotic it was, the merrier.


    ...


    Just as Ren Xiaosu made up his mind to sneak into Stronghold 63, a person in a house somewhere muttered, ¡°That 1583850 haspleted yet another mission. ording to the timeframe, he¡¯s alreadypleted five missions within 60 days. Should we promote him to C-rank?¡±


    The man next to him said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you notice that ever since he went to Stronghold 63, those D-rank missions in the vicinity have also been dyed for more than 20 hours before they werepleted? Moreover, it seems the six ount holders who epted the mission initially have all disappeared as well....¡±


    ¡°Mhm...¡±


    The person next to him said, ¡°I definitely won¡¯t believe it if you say it had nothing to do with him. He must be the one who stole the other hitmen¡¯s cell phones at Stronghold 61.¡±


    The Anjing House was not stupid. These suspicious missions were allpleted by the ount holder 1583850, so even a fool would know there was something wrong with this guy!


    After what happened at Stronghold 61 a while ago, they had begun investigating the case. Even though their boss had personally made a trip there, she was still unable to catch the culprit.


    ¡°We better consult with the boss to see how we should handle this.¡±


    When they sent a text to their boss, she replied, ¡°Don¡¯t alert him. Promote him to C-rank and then observe what he gets up to. Don¡¯t group send him any more details of D-rank missions either in case he tries to harm the other D-rank hitmen.¡±


    The two people in the house asked again, ¡°What if he kills the other hitmen?¡±


    Their boss replied, ¡°He won¡¯t.¡±


    Anjing House had encountered many hitmen with different personalities. For example, some of them had unique fetishes or could get extremely unruly. But as long as they couldplete their missions, the Anjing House would not be too bothered.


    It was just that the candidate they encountered this time was a bit too much.


    The two members of the Anjing House in the building were responsible for assigning missions and allocating resources, and this residence was their safe house.


    Since their boss did not give any clear indication, they would just have to go with their boss¡¯s instructions.


    When Ren Xiaosu received the text saying he had been promoted to C-rank, he had already quietly sneaked into Stronghold 63. He wanted to observe what would be taking ce here.


    When Ren Xiaosu sneaked into a stronghold this time, he did not have to hide under a vehicle. He could just leap over the walls and into the stronghold now.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold looked even more prosperous than the other strongholds. At 10 PM, colorful neon lights were still shing in the streets and illuminating the night in the stronghold, making it seem like day.


    However, the difference between this Wang Consortium stronghold and the other ces was that there was a surveince camera installed on the streets every 100 meters.


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu heard that if people stayed in a hotel or ate in a restaurant in the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds, they would need to swipe their ID cards. All the people in the stronghold city were like a dataset being supervised by an artificial intelligence.


    Regarding the Wang Consortium, Ren Xiaosu had heard much about them. For example, every young man here who was of suitable age would be required to serve in the military.


    If they chose to default on their service, their entire family would be implicated and get expelled from the stronghold.


    In addition, if anyone encountered a thief on the streets, whoever was nearby would be obligated to catch them once the artificial intelligence issued a warning. If an adult man saw a thief but pretended not to see them, he would get punished as well.


    If an elderly person fell down on the road, the person next to them had to offer their help. If the elderly person turned around and used that person instead, then it would be the elderly person who would be sentenced.


    All of this was judged by the pervasive artificial intelligence.


    There were thousands ofws like these all across the Wang Consortium¡¯s territories, and everyone had to memorize them and take a test on them during their school years.


    The storyteller said this was based on the Legalism school of thought that originated from the State of Qin from before The Cataclysm. The governance of the organization was based on the rule ofw.


    They did not believe in human nature and only trusted rationality andw.


    Ren Xiaosu was at a loss of words regarding this system. Of course, it was a good thing that everyone should stand up for others. However, he would be unwilling to live in a stronghold like this.


    It was not that a system like this was bad. In fact, it was actually quite good since the stronghold residents could lead a very safe life at the minimum.


    However, Ren Xiaosu would not be able to get used to it. He had no intention of judging the good and bad sides of a governing system for the various consortiums. He only felt that there would not be enough freedom if his every action fell under the supervision of others.


    Ren Xiaosu could not walk around freely in a stronghold like this. That was because the legendary artificial intelligence¡¯s database did not have his profile. Once the surveince cameras detected his presence, it would sound the rm.


    Moreover, if a hitman could not carry out a mission perfectly and avoid all the surveince cameras in a stronghold like this, they would definitely end up being wanted by the entire Wang Consortium. The artificial intelligence would also be able to help analyze where the hitman was hiding.


    Ren Xiaosu was curious to know how the A-rank hitmen would assassinate someone in a stronghold like this.

 Chapter 483 - What’s with the posturing?

    <h4>Chapter 483 What¡°s with the posturing?</h4>


    The bounties paid out for missions conducted in the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds had always been higher than those conducted at other strongholds. This was because most of the hitmen were put in a very dangerous position for conducting a mission here. Furthermore, they would have to escape from all strongholds under the jurisdiction of the Wang Consortium afterpleting such missions. If they got spotted by the surveince cameras again when entering the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds, an arrest order would be immediately triggered.


    Ren Xiaosu realized there would be surveince cameras appearing on the tall buildings of this stronghold from time to time. It seemed that the Wang Consortium had also taken into consideration that there could be supernatural beings like him flying over roofs and scaling walls. So he had to remain extremely cautious to avoid getting spotted by them.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that as long as the cameras were not ced everywhere and covered all the blind spots, he would have a chance to take advantage of it.


    At the bottom of the text he received earlier, a map with the approximate location of 476 Xianyang Street was attached. It was simple and easy to understand.


    Ren Xiaosu lithely advanced in the direction of the neon lights. During this period, his presence was almost captured by the cameras several times. Fortunately, the speed of the cameras¡¯ rotation was rtively slow and he managed to get to the vicinity of the mission¡¯s target.


    Ren Xiaosu found a 12-story building and climbed to the roof with his bare hands. After ensuring there were no surveince cameras on the roof, he carefullyid in wait there.


    This location was not exactly the best spot to observe 476 Xianyang Street from. That was because there were some buildings blocking his view, and the distance was 900 meters away. Usually, snipers would not choose to shoot from this distance. Moreover, the target was Midnight, whose strength surpassed that of normal people.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not choose to go to the best observation spot since if he could judge where the best positions were, the A-rank hitmen would surely know as well. Who knew if there might already be someone waiting there at this moment?


    476 Xianyang Street was a apartmentplex five stories high. Ren Xiaosu could not tell which floor the Pyro Company¡¯s Midnight squad was hiding in, so he could only wait patiently in the shadows.


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was a little impressed by the Anjing House at this moment. He wondered how they managed to discover the whereabouts of the well-hidden Midnight in a sea of people.


    Ren Xiaosu conjured up his ck sniper rifle out of thin air and quietly scanned the surroundings of 476 Xianyang Street through the scope. However, he was puzzled by why there were no suspicious people around. The faces of the pedestrians walking past were never repeated and no one loitered around in the vicinity either.


    Something was strange. Could it be that he was the first qualified ount holder of the cell phones to arrive at the scene because he was the nearest to the target?


    Ren Xiaosu sat on the top of the building with hisrge sniper rifle and continued to wait quietly.


    No one would expect a strange person could have sneaked his way into the middle of an A-rank mission. He wasn¡¯t here to do the mission and just wanted to watch themotion.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu turned serious when he saw five people walking out of the apartmentplex. The demeanor of the Pyro Company¡¯s Midnight squad was totally different from that of the normal stronghold residents. Normal people might not notice it, but how could Ren Xiaosu, who often dealt with supernatural beings and elite soldiers, not be able to tell? Moreover, Midnight had always been a group of five, and it just so happened that there were five of them here.


    Ren Xiaosu ced his sniper rifle in position and began to slow his breathing. Yang Xiaojin had said that controlling one¡¯s breathing was one of the keys to unlocking the shackles of the body.


    If no one from the Anjing House came here to carry out the mission, then he would not mind helping Yang Xiaojin kill off some members of the Pyro Company.


    He had nothing better to do anyway.


    All of a sudden, fireworks shot up into the sky in the western part of the stronghold for some reason. The brilliant fireworks made crackling sounds as they burst open in the sky and emitted a colorful glow. This loud sound caused all of the stronghold residents to look to the west.


    Not far away, a sh suddenly came from a tall building just as the fireworks exploded in the sky. A member of Midnight was immediately killed on Xianyang Street.


    Ren Xiaosu quickly shifted his scope and saw that that building was the most ideal location for shooting. With a firing distance of 600 meters, it had the best view of that building at Xianyang Street.


    A young man was lying on the roof of the building. It looked like he was already taking aim at his next target. Ren Xiaosu could even tell that the sniper was using a ser R93 Tactical.[1] The best feature of this gun was that the bolt action design allowed for much steadier follow-up shots.


    Bang! Another shot rang out from 600 meters away. Then another member of Midnight was sniped dead before they could even find a ce to take cover.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this for a moment and realized snipers were actually among the A-rank hitmen. In truth, it was rather expensive to train a sniper these days. Meanwhile, this sniper who could maintain his uracy even though he was firing continuously and at such a fast rate was definitely not an amateur. He might even previously be the trump card of a certain elite unit.


    But how could the Pyro Company be so easy to deal with? No matter how powerful and sneaky a sniper was, how could they possibly wipe out the entirety of Midnight on their own?


    But before Ren Xiaosu could dwell further on it, he suddenly saw through his scope a person climbing up the building across from where the sniper was located with his bare hands. In an instant, the sniper was attacked and killed by the person.


    This person¡¯s speed and strength were far superior to the Midnight squad that Ren Xiaosu had previously fought!


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. The information provided by the Anjing House was erroneous. It turned out there was more than one team from the Pyro Company here, and they actually had a contingency n too! Moreover, it was a technologically advanced fighting force that was lying in ambush.


    The members of Midnight that were shot by the sniper were merely bait.


    Seeing that the member of the Pyro Company on the opposite building had killed the sniper, Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling. Wasn¡¯t it said the Pyro Company¡¯s fighting forces always consisted of five people per team?


    Then where were the otherbatants? When he looked at the member of the Pyro Company on the opposite building through his scope, thatbatant suddenly turned around and grinned at him. Then he made a throat-slitting gesture.


    In that instant, another person pounced from the edge of the building onto the rooftop where Ren Xiaosu was. The enemy was dressed in ck, and it was as though he had merged with the night.


    But an even darker shadow suddenly appeared from the darkness beside him. When the shadow raised the ck saber in its hand and shed, it cut the approaching member of the Pyro Company in half.


    From the beginning to the end, Ren Xiaosu did not even turn around to look. He continued to maintain his steady breathing.


    Distance: 617 meters. Wind speed: 15m/s. Humidity...


    The moment the opponent made that throat-slitting gesture, Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger with a sneer. From a distance like this, the firepower of his anti-materiel sniper rifle[2] was enough to ignore any external factors, unless strong winds were blowing.


    With a shot, the exhaust from the sides of the gun swept up the dust around Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, that member of the Pyro Company was sent flying backwards by the huge inertia of the bullet.


    Ren Xiaosu was afraid his enemy would be wearing a bulletproof vest, so he even resorted to using armor-piercing bullets that could shoot through tanks.


    Seeing that the enemy was utterly dead now, Ren Xiaosu stowed his gun and muttered, ¡°What the fuck is with your posturing!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quickly moved in another direction as he said that. As the gunshot was incredibly loud, it would attract the attention of many people.


    Meanwhile, three members of that advanced fighting force from the Pyro Company still had not shown themselves.


    [1] The ser R93 Tactical is a German bolt action sniper rifle, based on the ser R93 design. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ser_R93_Tactical


    [2] An anti-materiel rifle (AMR) is a rifle that is designed for use against military equipment (materiel), rather than against otherbatants (¡°anti-personnel¡±). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-materiel_rifle

 Chapter 484 - Breaking free from fate!

    <h4>Chapter 484 Breaking free from fate!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had only entered Stronghold 63 because he wanted to take a look at themotion that would be happening. After all, he would not get any reward forpleting the A-rank mission. Meanwhile, it was clear the Anjing House had had a feud with the Pyro Company for some time. As such, he was unwilling to get embroiled in this dispute.


    But that member of the advanced fighting force from the Pyro Company had to make that provocation and even sent someone after him. This could not be tolerated.


    Ren Xiaosu put away his sniper rifle and relocated to another position. As he left, he continued observing Xianyang Street. He was surprised to see an old sugar painter[1] sitting by the roadside boiling sugar syrup to make snacks for children. He suddenly reached into the pot with hisdle and scooped out a spoonful of caramelized sugar. Then he quickly painted something on an aluminum te in front of him with thergedle.


    In the blink of an eye, the old man finished drawing a lifelike peacock. Right after, the sugary peacock on the aluminum te suddenly pped its wings and flew up into the sky!


    The peacock drawn with sugar syrup had actuallye to life.


    The amber-colored peacock flying in the sky immediately pounced in front of the remaining three members of Midnight.


    However, the old man did not stop there as he reached into the pot with hisdle again. He scooped out another spoonful of golden syrup and painted a dragon on the aluminum te!


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback for a moment. This was the first time he had seen such a magical superpower. It seemed possible to draw anything as long as one believed it was alive!


    When he was observing through his scope earlier, he thought the old man was just a normal artisan. There were even many children who went to buy the old man¡¯s sugar paintings, and everything looked very normal at that time.


    But now, he disyed an even more magnificent side of the superhuman world to Ren Xiaosu!


    The amber dragon did not attack Midnight but stood close guard next to the old man. Then he started drawing a tiger.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt the old man might be reaching his limits soon. He seemed to be having difficulties as he painted the tiger.


    At this moment, five people suddenly jumped out of a window from a nearby residential building and surrounded the old man. Ren Xiaosu was shocked. This should also be the Pyro Company¡¯s contingency n, right?


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu realized the Pyro Company¡¯s Midnight squad had actually been used as bait to capture the superhumans who came to encircle them!


    Across the entire Alliance of Strongholds, everyone knew the Pyro Company was particrly interested in superhumans. And Ren Xiaosu had already faced Midnight before. What they really wanted was the gic data of superhumans. They wanted to create even more powerful human beings, and this was the evolutionary path they had chosen.


    Therefore, this mission might appear on the surface like it was the Anjing House looking to exterminate the Pyro Company. But actually, it was a trap set by the Pyro Company to kill their superhumans.


    Although the Pyro Company used to have a presence in the Southwest, Qing Zhen had clearly expressed his disgust for them. He even fought a tough battle with the Pyro Company and drove them out of the Southwest.


    Hence, the influence the Pyro Company had in the Southwest was extremely weak. The enemy they faced there was Qing Zhen, someone who controlled an entire military and was skilled at war.


    But here in the Central ins, the Pyro Company called this their territory!


    Furthermore, the Pyro Company seemed to have an endless number of gically enhanced soldiers. They possessed a stable way of creating superhumans, and it was an advantage no other organization couldpare with.


    Actually, only the Qinghe Group couldpare with them. However, it seemed the Qinghe Group didn¡¯t possess a lot of superhumans, and they did not really care about thepetition for resources in the region either. Usually, they would not attack others unless they were provoked. Furthermore, they did not hold any political stances.


    Ren Xiaosu had already jumped over to another rooftop. He could hear footsteps behind him shuttling between the roofs, and they belonged to the members of the Pyro Company who were chasing after him.


    His opponents were getting closer and closer.


    The entirety of Stronghold 63 was in chaos now. When the residents on the streets who were enjoying their nightlife heard the gunshots, they quickly fled from the scene of the assassination while screaming.


    The night became chaotic, and even the colorful neon lights suddenly appeared dull and depressing.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu came to a stop. He pulled out hisrge, ck sniper rifle again and aimed it at the members of the Pyro Company who had surrounded the old man.


    As he was moving at a very rapid pace while fleeing, his heart rate had increased.


    He took a deep breath.


    The moment before the sniper pulled the trigger, the hormones, blood, muscles, and heart in their body would all have to serve the will. At that time, even the chaotic night sky woulde to a standstill.


    Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger and a thickyer of smoke burst out from the muzzle with a bang. As the bullet passed through the rifling of the barrel, it started spinning rapidly, carrying with it a huge amount of kic energy.


    In the rifling, the grooves were the spaces that were cut out, and the resulting ridges were callednds. In the ck sniper rifle¡¯s barrel, the perfect angle and twist rate made the bullet start spinning the moment it was fired out of the chamber, This allowed the bullet to break free from any external restrictions with its immense kic energy and let the shot go further and more urately.


    It was breaking free from fate!


    The elongated bullet passed through the gap between two buildings and squarely hit a member of the Pyro Company. The spinning bullet quickly prated through his muscles, and the massive friction of the bullet ripped the muscle fibers like it was cotton!


    Death!


    Through the scope, Ren Xiaosu saw a young man in a ck suit and white shirt on Xianyang Street break off the pole of a metal streetmp on the side of the road with a wave of his hand. Then it floated over next to him as though it were a weapon.


    But before he could rush to the old man¡¯s rescue, he realized a sniper was helping them kill their enemies.


    The young man was stunned for a moment before asking through his earpiece, ¡°Did we send any other snipers here?¡±


    Someone replied through the earpiece, ¡°No, there¡¯s only one A-rank sniper who epted the mission, but he¡¯s already dead. But the sniper who opened fire just now avenged him.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s strange. Where did that snipere from then?¡± The young man looked in the direction of where the bullet came from, but that building was already empty.


    Suddenly, another three figures shed across the roof of that building. The young man said worriedly into his earpiece, ¡°I¡¯ll take care of the Pyro Company members on Xianyang Street first. The sniper to my 7 o¡¯clock is being pursued by three members of Dusk. Can anyone go to his aid?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s toote. He¡¯s too far away from us.¡±


    Everyone stopped talking. Due to the distance, they could only pray the sniper would get lucky and not be caught by the members of the Pyro Company.


    The battle was chaotic. Even the Anjing House members could not fully understand what was happening on the battlefield. There were not many talents like Qing Zhen in the world who were strategic geniuses, after all. Most people only knew how to adapt their ns as the battle developed.


    It didn¡¯t matter if it was the Anjing House or the Pyro Company; they were all the same.


    However, neither of them could have expected that the sniper who had appeared out of nowhere would be the key to turning the tide of the situation.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was frequently jumping across various buildings as he fled all the way west. But a secondter, he halted in his tracks.


    It was not that he could not run anymore, but that he did not want to continue running.


    [1] Sugar painting (ÌÇ»­) is a form of traditional Chinese folk art using hot, liquid sugar to create two dimensional objects on a marble or metal surface. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_painting

 Chapter 485 - No more running!

    <h4>Chapter 485 No more running!</h4>


    Ever since he escaped from Stronghold 146, Ren Xiaosu had not experienced getting chased by anyone in the past two months. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was odd. Didn¡¯t he onlye here to watch themotion? Why did the Pyro Company start chasing after him then?


    Although he had shot and killed another member of the Pyro Company just now, they were the ones who attacked first!


    ¡®I might have been holding a sniper rifle on the roof, but it was only because the view was clearer through the scope. I really did not intend to attack anyone! I don¡¯t care whether you believe it or not, I only wanted to have a look! So since I was only here to have a look, and you all tried to attack me, I¡¯m forced to fight back!¡¯


    In the entirety of Stronghold 63, it was estimated that there were only ten people from the Pyro Company¡¯s advanced fighting force in total. However, the Pyro Company ended up splitting half of their forces to attack him even though the Anjing House was the one attacking them...


    Who was he supposed to bring the attention of this injustice to?


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully. Could he defeat the three members of the Pyro Company? Yes!


    When he thought of this, Ren Xiaosu wondered why the hell he should keep running.


    Ren Xiaosu came to a stop on the roof of a building. The three members of the Pyro Company were chasing after him in a triangr formation when they saw Ren Xiaosu stop in his tracks and were bewildered.


    Although they did not witness how Ren Xiaosu killed theirrades earlier, they knew he must be an extremely powerful supernatural being if he could kill two members of their Dusk squad in a row.


    As the three members of Dusk came to a gradual stop, the two sides were now facing each other on the roofs of two buildings, separated by a gap of more than 20 meters.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fighting spirit was so fired up that it felt like an intimidating presence that could fill people¡¯s hearts with fear. Suddenly, the three members of Dusk were a little afraid to chase after him anymore.


    Thinking about it calmly now, the three of them had only pursued the enemy when they saw him running away just now. But now that they had caught up to him, they were finally able to consider if they could defeat him or not.


    As sirens rang out in the distance, a continuous stream of Stronghold 63¡¯s security forces started heading over to encircle the area. They were looking to capture all the members of the Anjing House and the Pyro Company in the stronghold.


    The three Dusk members looked at each other and got ready to make a move. No matter how powerful their opponent was, he was all by himself at this moment. As they were gically modified super soldiers, how could they not take care of one person if the three of them attacked all at once?


    ¡°We can¡¯t wait any longer. If we don¡¯t kill him today, we¡¯ll be seen as defective goods when we return.¡±


    ¡°Kill him!¡±


    But before they coulde to a decision, they saw Ren Xiaosu slowly take a few steps back. The three Dusk members wondered, ¡°Is he going to run away again?¡±


    Then they unexpectedly saw Ren Xiaosu starting to charge towards them from the opposite building.


    Those few steps back that he took were actually to facilitate his run-up!


    ¡°Open fire!¡±


    The three of them aimed their silenced guns at Ren Xiaosu and started shooting rapidly. With their physiques, they could easily match Ren Xiaosu¡¯s movement speed as they kept their aim on him.


    But before they could even pull the trigger, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor immediately covered his entire body.


    In the eyes of the three Pyro Company members, the figure leaping over from the opposite rooftop gradually gotrger. Then it suddenly turned into an indestructible armored being that no one couldy a finger on.


    This turn of events was really shocking. When the bullets from the pistols hit the armor, they could only leave behind a white mark without causing any substantial damage.


    ¡°Wait, it¡¯s him!¡± A member of the Pyro Company roared, ¡°What¡¯s he doing here!¡±


    After the battle in the Northwest, any organization that had paid attention to the situation there would know there was a young man who could conjure up a set of armor and had single-handedly destroyed a stronghold.


    Any organization with ambition would have to keep abreast of such developments, after all. Although the Northwest was a remote ce, it would be extremely stupid of them if they did not even know about an important development like that.


    Not only that, but they also had to purchase the information and intel regarding this young man from the various secret intelligence organizations.


    But to their surprise, the two secret intelligence organizations that were usually the most familiar with the happenings in the Southwest and Northwest expressed they did not have any specific information about this young man.


    After Fortress 178 marched into Stronghold 146, the first thing they did was not to take over the resources of the stronghold but to search for all of the wanted portraits of that young man and destroy them.


    When the members of the Pyro Company realized the enemy they were facing turned out to be that legendary figure, they immediately turned gloomy!


    One of them shouted into their radio, ¡°We¡¯ve encountered¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, a ck shadow dashed into them from behind. The ck saber pierced the chest of the person speaking, and blood instantly filled the alveoli of his lungs. When he tried to speak, blood started gushing out of his throat.


    The remaining two people quickly fled in two different directions. Their speed wasparable to that of the best of the best among superhumans and might even be a tad faster than them.


    In an instant, their powerful brains figured out their best escape routes.


    However, they were shocked to find they could only cover two steps before they were quickly caught up to. Although they were fast, Ren Xiaosu was even faster!


    Even without activating City Crusher, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s physical fitness had almost ced him above all the other members of Dusk.


    As fireworks shot up into the rousing night sky again, the chaotic mixture of sirens, gunshots, screams, and shouts filled Stronghold 63 with the smell of blood and smoke.


    Ren Xiaosu and the shadow clone brushed past each other as the two figures blocked the two escaping members of Dusk separately. Their movements were so exact that they looked like two sets of synchronized machines!


    Since he had used his armor here, he could not allow any of the Pyro Company members present to leave alive.


    Seeing that these two members of Dusk had jumped off either side of the roof to the other roofs, Ren Xiaosu and his shadow clone jumped after them. The strong force they generated as they leaped off from the rooftop even shattered the waterproofyer of the rooftop.


    When Ren Xiaosu got ahead of the Dusk member in midair, he turned around and shed his saber. His opponent had wanted to pull out a saber from his belt to block the sh, but Ren Xiaosu pressed down on his hand in the air. No matter how hard he tried, he could not draw the saber from his belt. Then Ren Xiaosu stabbed the ck saber into his heart fast as lightning.


    ¡®Why are you so strong?¡¯ This was the only thought the member of Dusk had before he died. Ren Xiaosu kicked off him in midair and flew towards the roof on the opposite building. Due to the great inertia, he slid for five to six meters on the building¡¯s rooftop on one knee before finally stopping.


    Meanwhile, his shadow clone on the other side was even more efficient at killing its victim. Even Ren Xiaosu had to admit that his shadow clone¡¯s physical fitness was much stronger than his...


    Ren Xiaosu panted as he recalled his shadow clone while he stood on the rooftop. Afterwards, he quickly fled the stronghold. After experiencing so much tonight, he had no need to risk his life here anymore.


    As for who woulde out victorious in the battle between the Anjing House and the Pyro Company, that had nothing to do with him.

 Chapter 487 - A mysterious hitman

    <h4>487 A mysterious hitman</h4>


    the smoke in stronghold 63 had already dispersed. a small battle was not enough to cause much damage to the stronghold, after all. moreover, the civilians were not affected by the battle between the two sides, so casualties involving the stronghold residents were as good as negligible.


    but to the wang consortium, the actual controller of stronghold 63, this was a challenge to their authority by the anjing house and the pyropany.


    if people like the elderly sugar painter and vani, who could manipte metal, were to enter any strongholds under the wang consortium¡¯s jurisdiction again, a citywide search would be immediately triggered once they got identified by the surveince cameras.


    the reason why the price for killing a target in the wang consortium¡¯s strongholds was so high was that most hitmen could only conduct one mission in them.


    not everyone could parkour¡ªfly over roofs and scale walls¡ªlike ren xiaosu.


    at this moment, hundreds of employees were sitting and busying themselves in a huge control room within stronghold 62. in this control room were several hundred security monitors, and the all-white interior radiated a strong sense of technology.


    wang shengyin pushed in wang shengzhi in his wheelchair. he looked at the staff members and said with a smile, ¡°show me the ai report fromst night. let¡¯s see what it says.¡±


    ¡°when the anjing house assassin known as vani entered the stronghold, the ai issued an early warning and signaled that this person had trespassed into the stronghold. he sneaked in on a truck that was transporting frozen pork.¡± a staff member said, ¡°we¡¯ve already located the truck, but the owner is nowhere to be found. there¡¯s a specially modifiedpartment in the truck, so vani must have hidden in it to enter the stronghold.¡± with that, the staff member handed a document to wang shengzhi.


    the whole analysis report was fully documented. other than that elderly sugar painter, the others were all identified by the surveince and they had received advance warning of the intrusion.


    wang shengzhi had actually predicted a long time ago that this small battle would take ce. however, the staff members did not understand why it was allowed to happen.


    perhaps wang shengzhi had nned to let the pyropany and the anjing house build even more resentment between their two organizations.


    wang shengzhi was flipping through the report when he suddenly noticed the final analysis. he saw nine photos, and in each one of them a blurry figure was captured leaping across roofs.


    the staff member next to him exined, ¡°this person constantly kept his activities to the roofs and was even so cautious that he avoided all our surveince cameras on the roofs of the buildings. these photos were only taken by a surveince camera on a tall building in the distance after our ai spotted him.¡±


    wang shengzhi nodded and looked at the follow-up analysis report: ¡°the suspect is 1.84 meters tall and possesses an unknown power. the six pyropany members who died that night were likely killed by this person. this includes one member of midnight and five members of dusk. this suspect is extremely dangerous, and it is rmended that we go all out to pursue him.¡±


    ¡°did you manage to find any trace of this person¡¯s whereabouts after that?¡± wang shengzhi asked while looking up.


    ¡°no.¡± the staff member shook his head. ¡°the ai¡¯s analysis showed that he should have already fled from the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°is he a member of the anjing house?¡± wang shengzhi asked.


    ¡°no, please turn to thest page of the report. the ai analyzed all the participants of the battle and which organization they belong to. he¡¯s the only one with no known links to any organization,¡± the staff member said while shaking his head.


    wang shengyin looked curiously at the blurry figure while standing behind wang shengzhi. she said, ¡°why do i feel like this person looks so familiar? it¡¯s as if i¡¯ve seen him somewhere before.¡±


    everyone looked at wang shengyin in a stunned manner, only to see her shaking her head and saying with augh, ¡°the pictures are too blurry, so i probably mistook it for someone else.¡±


    wang shengzhi shook his head and said with a smile, ¡°since this person is ssified as extremely dangerous by the ai, we must be careful when we find him next time.¡±


    ...


    when ren xiaosu returned to stronghold 61, he did not head home immediately but went to the tavern instead. ren xiaosu had not had a warm meal for several days, so he needed to get something to eat first.


    before he even reached the tavern, ren xiaosu could already see ms. xiaolu sitting by the window from a distance. it seemed like she was folding something on the table with her head down. when she heard the sound of footsteps, she looked up and saw ren xiaosu.


    but just as ren xiaosu was about to greet her, he heard xiaolu shout before sweeping everything on the table into her arms. then she ran into the backyard of the tavern.


    ren xiaosu could only wave at the air with his raised hand.


    as he walked into the tavern, the storyteller was rting a story to the customers. ¡°everyone here might not know that something major has taken ce in stronghold 63. it¡¯s said that the pyropany and anjing house have been at loggerheads with each other for a long time, so both sidesid a trap for the other at stronghold 63. the pyropany wanted to capture the superhumans of the anjing house, while the anjing house was looking to take down the pyropany members in one fell swoop. an old man was seen waving his hand over an aluminum te, and it turned out that the dragon he painted with some sugar syrup ended up soaring into the sky...¡±


    ren xiaosu was stunned when he heard this. the incident at stronghold 63 had just happened two days ago, but the storyteller already knew about it?


    however, he was not too bothered by it. after all, he already knew this storyteller was no ordinary person, and he was not particrly concerned about where his intel came from either.


    it happened that he also wanted to hear how the news in the outside world portrayed this skirmish.


    the storyteller continued, ¡°however, the pyropany and the anjing house were not the protagonists of this battle. it was someone else! in the battle, although the pyropany had sent out a total of 15 members, a mysterious visitor ended up killing six of them single-handedly....¡±


    ren xiaosu listened to the story and realized he was involved in at least half of the storyteller¡¯s tale.


    at this moment, xiaolu reentered the tavern from the backyard. she sat down across from ren xiaosu and asked casually, ¡°did you see what i was doing just now?¡±


    ¡°no.¡± after ordering a bowl ofmb stew from the waiter, ren xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°so what were you doing just now?¡±


    ¡°nothing much.¡± xiaolu changed the subject, ¡°you should quickly go home and have a look after you¡¯ve eaten. recently, the townspeople have been saying that your yard is haunted. there¡¯s always the sound of people howling and screaming in there in the middle of the night, but no one dares to go in and check it out since they¡¯re afraid of being devoured by the ghosts.¡±


    ren xiaosu froze. how could a spooky event like this happen to him? but after a brief pause, he roughly understood what was going on.


    ren xiaosu asked, ¡°were there any other strange urrences in towntely?¡±


    xiaolu sneaked a nce at the storyteller before whispering, ¡°don¡¯t tell grandpa that i was the one who told you. you had better be more careful these days. it seems that someone¡¯s been looking for you, but grandpa helped you to hide the truth.¡±


    ren xiaosu grinned from ear to ear. ¡°thank you.¡±


    ¡°grandpa didn¡¯t want me to tell you, so you must not tell him about this.¡± xiaolu happily lowered her voice and reminded him.


    a ways away, the storyteller was midway through the story. his voice clearly paused for a moment, and he nearly forgot about thetter part of the story that he was telling. what the hell was going on!

 Chapter 488 - Inclined towards certain subjects

    <h4>Chapter 488 Inclined towards certain subjects</h4>


    Someone once mentioned that when one of the five senses of a person is ¡°switched off,¡± the other senses be heightened. These five senses referred to sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.


    The human body did not only have five senses but also a legendary sixth sense, which was the soul.


    Some people asked, ¡°Do humans really have souls? Can humans really exist in the form of a soul or even have the ability to influence reality?¡±


    Someone had once tried to gradually switch off their taste, hearing, sight, and so on with each passing year. After switching off his senses one by one, the remaining senses would be greatly enhanced. It was as though those deactivated senses ended up being concentrated on one sense, the sense of touch.


    Then, at the moment when his emotions fluctuated the most violently, he ended his life, thus effectively ending his sense of touch as well.


    Some people said that from that moment on, he existed only in the form of a soul, which was also the sixth sense. But no one could verify this since no one had ever seen the soul of that extreme person before.


    Getting back to the topic of the five senses, some people¡¯s hearing would be exceptionally good after they went blind. However, this was umon. Instead, people who went blind usually ended up with a better memory than that of able people.


    The storyteller was the type who had great hearing and memory. So he could hear very clearly what Xiaolu said to Ren Xiaosu.


    His granddaughter was actually whispering secrets to an outsider while trying to keep it from him?


    After eating, Ren Xiaosu slowly walked back home. Although he was now a familiar face in town, the impression that most people had was that he was someone rich.


    Previously, it was not only the refugees who came to seek help from him. There were also others from the world¡¯s oldest profession that came knocking on his door in the middle of the night offering their services. However, he rejected all of them. Sometimes he would just drive them away without even opening the door.


    As for the spooky event Xiaolu had mentioned... he already guessed what was going on.


    Seeing that the lock on his house door was still intact, Ren Xiaosu opened the door with his key and headed straight for the backyard. There, he saw five people lying on the ground and smashed potatoes everywhere.


    These five people were all normal people, and they were long dead from the Potato Shooter¡¯s attacks.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not feel the least bit distraught when he saw a few bone knives scattered around the backyard. If a normal person were living here, they would probably have been killed by these people.


    Everyone in town knew Ren Xiaosu was rich, so there would always be thieves trying to enter his house every now and then. In the past, Ren Xiaosu would have to kill them himself, then put their bodies away in his storage space and take them to the wilderness to bury.


    But now, he did not have to do that anymore. The Potato Shooters would help him do all the dirty work.


    The ¡°haunting¡± was probably just the screams of these intruders when they got hit by the Potato Shooters after climbing into the backyard.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought about it, he also felt that it must have been eerie that night.


    A newly established recruitment office in town was offering high pay to workers to build roads.


    Fortress 178 and the Wang Consortium had reached a consensus. The roads in the Central ins would soon be extended to the Northwest, and there would be a highway for vehicles and a railway leading to the former Zong Consortium strongholds.


    Due to the frozen ground, they could not build the railway further into the depths of the hintends of the Northwest. Construction would get too difficult, and the maintenance cost would be extremely high.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu received another text message. ¡°The targets in Stronghold 61 are from the Pyro Company¡¯s Midnight squad. They are currently located in a residential building on 137 Lingbao Road. A-rank. Reward: 1 million yuan. Up to five people can work in a group for the mission, and all will receive rights to use the safe house and be protected by us upon being pursued by the enemy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. This mission was very simr to the mission that took ce in Stronghold 63 a few days ago. Moreover, the Anjing House increased the difficulty and reward of the mission this time. Previously, the mission allowed hitmen to work in groups of three, but that had expanded to a group of five this time.


    Actually, the number of hitmen working together was not important. All it meant was that this mission¡¯s reward would be given out as five sets!


    It looked like the Anjing House was going all out against the Pyro Company this time. They had issued another mission with them as targets again this soon? Suddenly, it felt like these two heavyweight organizations were going to fight each other to the death.


    It could also be because the ambush enraged the Anjing House and made them determined to clear out the Pyro Company from the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory at all costs.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not n on getting involved this time. He realized that every time he tried to stay out of something, trouble would automaticallye looking for him even if he were just watching themotion as a spectator.


    He had caused too much of amotion in Stronghold 63. If the Anjing House and the Pyro Company came looking for him together, he would be in deep trouble.


    Furthermore, who knew if the Anjing House might have issued this mission at Stronghold 61 because they were trying to flush him out? How else could there be such a coincidence?


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu decided he would just stay home and catch up on sleep. In the evening, the sound of gunfire suddenly came from the stronghold. There were even loud explosions too, and this woke Ren Xiaosu up.


    However, he headed to the tavern for dinner as though nothing had happened. When he arrived at the tavern, the storyteller was resting and eating dinner. It was nothing too special, just a bowl of biangbiang noodles.[1]


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Where¡¯s Xiaolu?¡±


    The storyteller did not answer him. Instead, he asked in turn, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going into the stronghold to have a look?¡±


    ¡°Why would I go in there? I don¡¯t want to get involved in that mess.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he said to the waiter, ¡°I¡¯ll have a bowl of biangbiang noodles; make it extra spicy. I heard that y¡¯all purchased fresh watermelons. Cut one for us. I¡¯ll have some together with Grandpa here.¡±


    The storyteller ¡°stared¡± at Ren Xiaosu with his cloudy eyes. ¡°Haven¡¯t you already had your fair share of messy situations?¡±


    ¡°Only when I¡¯m forced by circumstance,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with augh.


    All of a sudden, the storyteller asked, ¡°Let me ask you a question. If a watermelon is cut into three pieces, each portion will be 0.333, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    ¡°0.333 multiplied by 3 equals 0.999. Then I ask of you: Where did the remaining 0.001 go?¡± the storyteller asked calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°It¡¯s on the knife? Yes, it¡¯s on the knife!¡±


    The storyteller paused for a while. ¡°You¡¯re indeed inclined towards certain subjects....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned serious. He was only fooling around earlier. Of course he knew about the recurring decimal sequence.[2]


    But about being ¡°inclined towards certain subjects,¡± didn¡¯t that rumore from the Northwest? The storyteller was obviously referring to something else by bringing that up.


    Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, ¡°So Grandpa already knows who I am?¡±


    ¡°People always say that only fearsome dragons cross the river, but how many river-crossing dragons can there be in the world?¡± The storyteller slurped up the remaining noodles in his bowl. ¡°I¡¯m warning you! A dangerous person like you better not get near my granddaughter!¡±


    Then Xiaolu came in from the backyard with a watermelon. ¡°Grandpa, the waiter said that you wanted to eat some watermelon? I¡¯ve already cut some for you.¡±


    The storyteller threw his chopsticks on the table. As if the watermelon was cut for me!


    [1] Biangbiang noodles, alternatively known as youpo chemian in Chinese, are a type of noodles popr in the cuisine of China¡¯s Shaanxi Province. The noodles, touted as one of the ¡°eight strange wonders of Shaanxi¡± (ÉÂÎ÷°Ë´ó¹Ö), are described as being like a belt, owing to their thickness and length. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biangbiang_noodles


    [2] The infinitely repeated digit sequence is called the repetend or reptend. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_decimal

 Chapter 489 - Reacquainted with Zhou Yingxue!

    <h4>Chapter 489 Reacquainted with Zhou Yingxue!</h4>


    ren xiaosu didn¡¯t know whether tough or cry at the storyteller¡¯s words. since when did he get any ideas about his granddaughter? that was absolutely untrue, alright!


    but at this moment, the two of them noticed the intensity of the battle in the stronghold did not decrease even after such a long time. instead, it seemed to be getting even more intense!


    ren xiaosu understood that the previous battle at stronghold 63 had only ended so quickly because of his sudden involvement. after all, the members of dusk were not weak. if typical superhumans encountered them, they might even end up dying at their hands.


    the pyropany¡¯s fighting forces had always had a huge advantage due to their numbers, probably because they could mass produce them.


    ren xiaosu suddenly sighed and said, ¡°an eye for an eye makes the world go blind.¡±


    but the storyteller, who was listening intently to the sound of the fighting, replied with a serious look, ¡°this is not about vengeance but a struggle between the ideals of those two organizations. you have to understand that without their ideals, they would not be known as an organization.¡±


    ren xiaosu was stunned. perhaps that was the source of qing zhen and the saboteurs¡¯ conflict as well. qing zhen saw nuclear technology as a gift from nature and felt that humans should make good use of it. however, the saboteurs felt that humans should not possess a weapon that was powerful enough to destroy themselves with. that was because there were no bounds to humanity¡¯s greed and they would never be satisfied with what they had. even if qing zhen could ensure that he would not use them, could he do the same for his descendants?


    if those gruff men of fortress 178 did not have the belief to guard their stronghold, they probably would not have such strong willpower either.


    however, it was not something ren xiaosu should be considering right now. he never got the idea of establishing an organization before, so these were not things he needed to care about.


    the battle was getting louder and louder. it was so loud that even the refugees in town stopped in their tracks outside the stronghold walls to watch what would happen next.


    a raging fire was burning inside the stronghold. the zing mes in the sky were so bright that the red glow illuminated the faces of the refugees dressed in rags.


    ¡°it seems the anjing house has not gained the upper hand in the battle yet,¡± the storyteller said with a sigh.


    ren xiaosu asked, ¡°grandpa, are you on the side of the anjing house?¡±


    the storyteller said with a smile, ¡°normal people would find it very difficult to have a good impression of organizations like the pyropany. no matter how good they might have been in the past, the current pyropany has already gone astray on the path of gic evolution.¡±


    ¡°do you mean that the pyropany used to be good?¡± ren xiaosu asked.


    ¡°apparently, even though they were also somewhat extreme during the pre-cataclysm times, they would still show some restraint in their behavior.¡± the storyteller said, ¡°when the world lost order after the cataclysm, their ambitions started growing too rapidly.¡±


    ren xiaosu muttered, ¡°but it doesn¡¯t feel like they¡¯re that powerful....¡±


    the storyteller was left speechless for a moment. he snapped, ¡°how can you say that they aren¡¯t powerful when they¡¯re an organization that controls ten strongholds and has a ripple effect on the entire alliance of strongholds? you only think that they aren¡¯t powerful because you¡¯ve killed several of their members before. but what if you¡¯re facing a 100 members of their advanced fighting forces? an organization that can mass produce super soldiers should never be judged based on the strength of an individual soldier. you have to multiply that by the numbers they have.¡±


    ren xiaosu smacked his lips. ¡°alright...¡±


    as soon as his voice trailed off, ren xiaosu suddenly heard the voice from the pce state, ¡°quest: take in an injured person for three days.¡±


    ren xiaosu was stunned. it had probably been two months since he heard the pce assign him a quest. as a matter of fact, ever since he encountered the superhumans who could manipte metal and summon a painted dragon at stronghold 63 a few days ago, he became really eager to learn their powers.


    if he had that dragon painting power, it coulde in quite handy to entertain his children with in the future! ahem, perhaps he had gotten a little too far ahead of himself.


    even though he wanted to learn those powers, he could not do anything without a perfect skill duplication scroll. hence, the pce¡¯s quests were essential.


    but there had to be a reason why the pce would suddenly assign him a quest to take in someone who was injured.


    ren xiaosu got up to leave. the storyteller asked from behind him, ¡°where are you going? didn¡¯t you say that you don¡¯t want to get involved in that mess?¡±


    ren xiaosu snapped, ¡°i¡¯m going home to sleep!¡±


    he wasn¡¯t looking to get involved in any chaos, but based on what the pce had said, it was a clear sign that trouble hade looking for him instead!


    on his way back home, ren xiaosu kept walking past other refugees who were watching the ruckus from town. as the refugees did not have any activities to keep them entertained at night, they really hoped the fighting would go on for longer when they saw a battle going on in the stronghold.


    after all, those big shots responsible for stirring up trouble had always looked down on the townspeople. even if battles broke out asionally, the hostile forces would not do anything to the refugees. that was because they still needed refugees to work for them as they could not let the factories go unmanned!


    when ren xiaosu arrived at the entrance of his home, he first checked the main door and found that the padlock was still intact. however, he caught a whiff of a sweet, metallic odoring from the inside the house through the gap in the door. it was the smell of blood.


    he opened the door with his key calmly. but as soon as he pushed open the door, he saw a pathetic figure attack him with a dagger from inside the house. to ren xiaosu¡¯s further surprise, two vines sprouted out from the ground as though they were trying to grab ahold of his ankles.


    but the attacker seemed to have aggravated a wound with this surprise attack on ren xiaosu. this caused the attacker to lose control of their movement, and the vines that sprouted out of the ground also withered away.


    ren xiaosu easily grabbed the attacker¡¯s wrist that was brandishing a dagger at him. however, he gasped when he realized the wrist was very slender. it turned out this was a woman¡¯s wrist.


    however, ren xiaosu was not really someone who would go soft on women. he immediatelynded a knifehand strike on the attacker¡¯s carotid artery so he could properly size her up afterwards.


    however, he was surprised by what he saw. the attacker turned out to be an old acquaintance of his!


    zhou yingxue!


    why would that yang consortium spy, who had tried to get close to him by seducing him at stronghold 88 only to end up jumping rope with him, appear here? and she even looked like she had been seriously injured?


    when stronghold 88 was destroyed, ren xiaosu had also apprehended zhou yingxue. but at that time, she had anxiously pleaded with him to allow her to go save her mother. as such, he let her off after some consideration.


    he had not expected to encounter her again here.


    ren xiaosu carried zhou yingxue to the backyard and saw the potato shooters were putting on their best behavior. zhou yingxue probably escaped being attacked by the potato shooters due to her power to manipte nts.


    zhou yingxue had even controlled two vines on the ground to attack ren xiaosu.


    ren xiaosu snapped at the potato shooters, ¡°did y¡¯all not attack her just because she can manipte nts? why are y¡¯all so useless?¡±


    the five potato shooters gently spat out a few potatoes as though they were trying to get back into ren xiaosu¡¯s good books. ¡®here, have some potatoes.¡¯


    ren xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. what the hell was this?


    he looked at zhou yingxue, who he had thrown to the side. then he listened to the gunfire that was still ringing out in the stronghold. the wang consortium¡¯s troops had probably been alerted now since the gunfire seemed to have only gotten even more intense.

 Chapter 490 - The mystery of the mission assignments

    <h4>Chapter 490 The mystery of the mission assignments</h4>


    the fighting in the stronghold continued untilte into the night, but even then, it did not stop. ren xiaosu could still hear gunfireing from the stronghold in his yard every now and then.


    ren xiaosu thought that if he had not been at stronghold 63 two days ago, that battle would probably have alsosted this long.


    fortunately, the battle in the stronghold had attracted the attention of stronghold 61¡¯s garrison troops. otherwise, the enemy might have alreadye searching for zhou yingxue.


    he wondered if zhou yingxue had been seen by anyone when she fled?


    but how should he handle zhou yingxue now? after he tied her up, ren xiaosu suddenly remembered he had also bound her like this in theirst encounter. always meeting under such circumstances just did not feel right to him.


    zhou yingxue gradually came to. when she regained consciousness, she struggled for a bit in the chair and realized she could not move. then she looked up at ren xiaosu and said, ¡°what are you trying to do? why are you here? are you here to arrest me? don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve joined the pyropany or the wang consortium?¡±


    ¡°hold it right there!¡± ren xiaosu said, ¡°this is my fucking house. you were the one who intruded into my house in the middle of the night, so how dare you ask why i¡¯m here? is that even appropriate? shouldn¡¯t i be the one asking what you¡¯re doing here? what are you plotting against me?¡±


    when zhou yingxue heard that, she got so angry she nearly flipped. who was plotting against you?!


    but zhou yingxue could not understand why this was ren xiaosu¡¯s residence. wasn¡¯t this ce in the town outside stronghold 61?


    in zhou yingxue¡¯s opinion, ren xiaosu was a much stronger supernatural being than her, so he shouldn¡¯t be living in a town like this.


    but she had lost too much blood and could not think straight anymore. she only barely managed to argue back, ¡°lie! continue lying! how can a person like you possibly be living here?¡±


    after that, zhou yingxue quietly watched as ren xiaosu held up a key and lock. when he gently twisted the key, the padlock opened.


    seemingly afraid that zhou yingxue could not see it clearly, ren xiaosu relocked the padlock and twisted the key again. just like that, he repeated the process many times.


    it was like he was mocking zhou yingxue silently.


    zhou yingxue could feel her head starting to hurt. ¡°stop it, stop opening it already!¡±


    she could not understand why there was such an annoying person in this world!


    ren xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°this is the padlock on my house door. the nts in the backyard were nted by me. the chair you¡¯re sitting in was made by a carpenter i hired. on the nightstand next to the chair are books from stronghold 88¡¯s library that i stole¡ªi mean, borrowed.¡±


    with that, zhou yingxue was finally convinced. she kept quiet for a while before asking, ¡°what¡¯re you doing here? where did you all go after stronghold 88 was destroyed? were you the ones responsible for that?¡±


    ren xiaosu asked, ¡°you were partly in charge of the intelligence work at the yang consortium, so how can you not know that it was the li consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers who were responsible for it? you must¡¯ve encountered those soldiers that lost their minds that night, right? by the way, did you manage to save your mother?¡±


    ¡°yes, i got her out.¡± when zhou yingxue recalled that she had only managed to save her mother because ren xiaosu decided to let her go, her anger subsided a little.


    but when zhou yingxue thought about it again, she felt that something was not right. ren xiaosu was the one who had tied her up at that time. she had just finished her grocery shopping and was about to return home to cook for her mother. however, she met this guy on the way and was knocked out by him!


    zhou yingxue asked, ¡°what do you want from me now?¡±


    e, i want you to answer some of my questions.¡± ren xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°are you a member of the anjing house?¡±


    ¡°no.¡± zhou yingxue shook her head. ¡°at least not yet.¡±


    ¡°then you must be an a-rank hitwoman, right?¡± ren xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°since you¡¯re a woman, it¡¯s not convenient for me to body search you. where do you keep your cell phone? hand it over.¡±


    zhou yingxue no longer possessed the charming aura she had back at the library. instead, she was wearing a tight-fitting, ck t-shirt and a pair of pants that gave her a rather nimble look.


    actually, zhou yingxue was not exactly the beautiful type and could only be considered slightly above average-looking. however, she possessed a certain demeanor that made her stand out.


    zhou yingxue suddenly asked, ¡°how do you know about the anjing house and the contract killers?¡±


    ¡°ahem.¡± ren xiaosu said with restraint, ¡°coincidentally, i¡¯m also a contract killer myself.¡±


    zhou yingxue was really stunned this time. ¡°you¡¯re also an a-rank hitman?¡±


    ¡°no, i¡¯m a d-rank....¡± ren xiaosu took out a d-rank cell phone that he had snatched from someone but never used before.


    zhou yingxue burst intoughter. ¡°what? you¡¯re a d-rank?! you must be kidding, right? how can a supernatural being like you be a d-rank hitman?¡±


    ren xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°is it that funny? aren¡¯t we supposed toplete the missions and get promoted slowly? didn¡¯t you also start off as a d-rank?¡±


    ¡°of course not.¡± zhou yingxue bellyughed. ¡°when supernatural beings make their known identities, they¡¯ll be issued a new cell phone, and the missions assigned through them will also be different. you stole that phone from a d-rank hitman, right? you can¡¯t receive any a-rank missions. also, an a-rank hitman¡¯s cell phone is matched to their fingerprints.¡±


    ¡°that can¡¯t be. i can receive a-rank missions too.¡± ren xiaosu was puzzled.


    hold on! actually, he had not received any a-rank missions before. but ever since he stirred up all that trouble at stronghold 61 and 63, he started receiving them.


    he took zhou yingxue¡¯s cell phone from her right pants pocket. her phone was much more exquisite than his, and the camera¡¯s quality was also clearer. there was also an area reserved for the fingerprint scanner to unlock the cell phone.


    so was he only receiving information about the a-rank missions because the anjing house had given him special treatment after realizing he was the one who stirred up all that trouble?


    if so, he would have to be more careful when he performed his missions from now on.


    although he could also get promoted to a-rank by dering himself to the anjing house that he was a supernatural being like zhou yingxue, he did not want to expose his identity.


    he had thought about stealing an a-rank hitman¡¯s cell phone, but the anjing house required a-rank hitmen to switch to new cell phones that had fingerprint verification software. each a-rank hitman would get a phone that could only be unlocked specifically by them.


    therefore, every killer needed to change to a new cell phone after they got promoted to a-rank. if he had to swap for a new phone, he would have to deal directly with an anjing house member to get his fingerprint id set up. wouldn¡¯t his identity still get exposed?


    ren xiaosu asked, ¡°did a member of the anjing house personally hand you your new cell phone?¡±


    ¡°no.¡± zhou yingxue shook her head. ¡°it was delivered to me by a white paper crane. the anjing house has never questioned the identities of the hitmen. whether they wish to keep their identities secret or publicize it, that¡¯s all up to them.¡±


    realization dawned upon ren xiaosu. so that¡¯s how it was. it was all good as long as there was no need for him to meet them in person. and he could finally confirm that the supernatural being who controlled the paper cranes was from anjing house. he wondered what position that person held within the anjing house.


    it was probably not an important position, right? after all, from the looks of it, that supernatural being was merely a messenger of sorts...


    suddenly, zhou yingxue said, ¡°untie me, please. i need to clean my wound. i¡¯ll tell you whatever you want to know after that. if i don¡¯t treat my wound soon, i¡¯ll die....¡±

 Chapter 491 - The girl I like is much prettier than you

    <h4>Chapter 491 The girl I like is much prettier than you</h4>


    ren xiaosu nced at zhou yingxue¡¯s wound. ¡°don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not a fatal wound. you won¡¯t die within the next three days.¡±


    zhou yingxue was furious. what did he mean that she wouldn¡¯t die within the next three days? ¡°it¡¯s not like i only want to live for three days. if i¡¯m dead, who¡¯s gonna take care of my mother? she¡¯s over 50 and has been diagnosed with cancer! do you think i chose to be a hired gun for my own sake? i needed to make money to treat her illness!¡±


    when he heard this, ren xiaosu went silent for a moment before untying her ropes. he just could not bear to hear such things.


    zhou yingxue heaved a sigh of relief. she considered herself to have made the right bet this time. ren xiaosu was still someone with principles. if he could let her go the previous time, he would do the same this time.


    if it had been someone unprincipled, they would not care about the life and death of her mother. back then, zhou yingxue would definitely not have escaped from their clutches and could even end up being humiliated before her death.


    she was fortunate she bumped into ren xiaosu.


    but upon further thought, would zhou yingxue have been tied up easily by anyone if she had not encountered a powerful supernatural being like ren xiaosu?


    after her ropes were undone, zhou yingxue said in a low voice, ¡°i have to treat my wound, so can you go outside for a while?¡±


    ¡°why do i have to go outside when you¡¯re treating your wound?¡±


    zhou yingxue said softly, ¡°i have to undress.¡±


    ren xiaosu calmly replied, ¡°if you¡¯re gonna say that, i won¡¯t feel sleepy anymore....¡±


    ¡°i know that you¡¯re not that sort of a person,¡± zhou yingxue said softly.


    ren xiaosu raised an eyebrow but did not say anything in the end. then he walked out to the backyard to peel some potatoes.


    zhou yingxue heaved a sigh of relief again. she was lucky to meet a principled man like him in these current times. she suddenly wondered why a powerful supernatural being like ren xiaosu would have a bottom line. if she hadn¡¯t been let off by ren xiaosu before, she would definitely find this unbelievable.


    while she was taking off her t-shirt slowly in the room, some rustling came from the room. even so, ren xiaosu still continued peeling his potatoes as though no one were around.


    zhou yingxue was quietly watching from the room. when she realized ren xiaosu was really not going toe into the room, she suddenly made her way towards the main door. she wanted to take this opportunity to escape.


    however, ren xiaosu¡¯s voice drifted in. ¡°do you believe i won¡¯t kill you if you take another two steps?¡±


    zhou yingxue immediately froze. she exined, ¡°i¡¯m just looking for a sewing kit to stitch up my wound. i have a very deep knife wound that needs to be stitched up.¡±


    a sewing kit and a vial of ck medicine were thrown in from the outside. ¡°apply this medicine after the wound¡¯s been stitched up, and remember to thank me after that.¡±


    zhou yingxue felt helpless. she realized that even though she was an a-rank hitwoman who would usually bring fear to people, she still felt a sense of powerlessness at all times when facing ren xiaosu.


    back at stronghold 88, the young man appeared to be a very harmless person. how could anyone expect that he would actually be this terrifying? it was onlyter on that she understood how powerful ren xiaosu was after she had fallen into his hands once.


    even if the official members of the anjing house were here, they would probably not be able to do anything about ren xiaosu either.


    zhou yingxue could only focus on treating her wound. while stitching it up, she asked, ¡°why did you also be a contract killer for the anjing house?¡±


    ren xiaosu answered while peeling potatoes, ¡°to make money.¡±


    ¡°then you could have just dered to the anjing house that you¡¯re a supernatural being,¡± zhou yingxue said as she did not understand. however, she then realized it. ¡°no, wait! you don¡¯t wish to reveal your identity?¡±


    ren xiaosu said with a deadpan voice, ¡°you know too much.¡±


    zhou yingxue shuddered in her mind and quickly changed the subject. ¡°but with your strength, you should¡¯ve been promoted to the next rank very quickly. why are you still stuck at d-rank?¡±


    ¡°i just bought the cell phone recently.¡± ren xiaosu asked, ¡°are you done changing?¡±


    ¡°yes.¡±


    ten minutester, zhou yingxue growled as she sat on the chair and looked at the rope that was retied around her body, ¡°we¡¯re old acquaintances, and i¡¯m an injured girl, so how could you do this to me? do you still consider yourself a man?!¡±


    however, ren xiaosu was lying on the bed and sleeping soundly as though no one were around. before sleeping, he even patiently instructed, ¡°because of you, i¡¯m still awake when it¡¯s close to daybreak. stop your whining, or i¡¯ll have to gag you. can you be more conscious of things?¡±


    zhou yingxue did not say anything else. she realized ren xiaosu still had his gun pointed at her even when he was sleeping.


    it was already noon when zhou yingxue slowly woke up in her chair. although she had slept a littlest night, she did not have a good night¡¯s sleep in the slightest.


    when she woke up, she could smell an aromaing from the kitchen. curious, she asked, ¡°what are you cooking?¡±


    ¡°potatoes,¡± ren xiaosu answered calmly. ¡°don¡¯t you know what those nts in my backyard are?¡±


    zhou yingxue replied nkly, ¡°no.¡±


    although she was also capable of getting friendly with nt life, she could only control the nts that were nted with her superpower.


    in reality, zhou yingxue¡¯s power was not strong at all. or at least, in actualbat, she was far inferior to the supernatural beings who could manipte metal and summon a painted dragon.


    it wouldn¡¯t be too much to say that she was one of the weakest a-rank hitmen around...


    at this moment, an alert rang on zhou yingxue¡¯s cell phone. ren xiaosu picked it up and was surprised to see a text message. ¡°please reply ¡®1¡¯ if you¡¯re still alive and have already fled from the scene. please reply ¡®2¡¯ if you need a safe house or require any assistance.¡±


    ren xiaosu untied the rope for zhou yingxue and said, ¡°reply with 1 yourself.¡±


    zhou yingxue was a little confused. ¡°what¡¯s the point of tying me up here? if you¡¯re afraid i¡¯ll expose your whereabouts, wouldn¡¯t it be more convenient for you to just kill me? if you¡¯re not afraid that i¡¯ll leak your secret, why not just let me go instead? that would be safer for you since i won¡¯t be found here if anyone searches your ce.¡± but then zhou yingxue panicked. ¡°don¡¯t tell me you intend to keep me here as a mistress!¡±


    ¡°what the hell are you babbling about?¡± ren xiaosu snapped, ¡°just stay here quietly for three days, and then you can go wherever you like after that. as for my ce getting searched, you don¡¯t have to worry about that. those hitmen and the members of the pyropany in the stronghold have likely already been killed. that¡¯s why the wang consortium did not conduct a follow-up pursuit toe after you. in any case, i didn¡¯t even see any wanted posters.¡±


    zhou yingxue¡¯s mind was a mess. she felt that the situation had only be utterly confusing after she encountered ren xiaosu. she could not understand what he was after. he even requested her to jump rope with him the previous time, so he was obviously not a normal person.


    curious, zhou yingxue asked, ¡°you really don¡¯t want to take advantage of me?¡±


    ren xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°the girl i like is much prettier than you!¡±


    zhou yingxue got so angry she nearly flipped out again. he might as well have answered that he wanted to take advantage of her! she really could not ept this injustice!


    ren xiaosu found it a little strange when he saw zhou yingxue sulking. why was this woman so weird? when he expressed that he did not want to impose upon her, she got angry!

 Chapter 492 - Black marke

    <h4>Chapter 492 ck marke</h4>


    zhou yingxue looked at ren xiaosu. ¡°the girl you like is yang xiaojin, right?¡±


    ren xiaosu stayed silent and did not answer her question.


    zhou yingxue continued, ¡°if it¡¯s yang xiaojin, then i admit that she¡¯s indeed much prettier than me. but didn¡¯t you leave stronghold 88 with her? why don¡¯t i see her around?¡±


    zhou yingxue remembered that ren xiaosu and yang xiaojin were tasked with heading to the valley to the north to exterminate the bandits some time ago. but after that, yang xiaojin was nowhere to be seen.


    ren xiaosu nced at zhou yingxue. ¡°mind your own business. have you heard any news regarding the saboteurs in the central ins while you were here?¡±


    ¡°no.¡± zhou yingxue shook her head. ¡°although the saboteurs have been active in the central ins in recent years, their organization is much more secretive and vignt than we thought. some people say they¡¯re hiding behind another organization and giving orders remotely, but no one knows which organization it is.¡±


    ¡°alright.¡± ren xiaosu sighed. although he had already been in the central ins for two months, he still had not found any of them.


    the fighting in stronghold 61 finally stopped. the refugees had already gotten tired of watching themotion in the middle of the night, but they were somehow unable to fall asleep when they returned to their shacks. when they woke up in the morning to go to work at the factory, all of them had dark circles under their eyes and were yawning.


    but on their way to the factory with the other workers, they were still discussingst night¡¯s battle with great enthusiasm and specting happily about how the battle might have broken out.


    unlike the gloomy expressions on the stronghold residents, the refugees did not feel that the battle had anything to do with them.


    the refugees and stronghold residents seemed to be living in two different worlds. there was even a clear distinction between their stand on matters and values.


    ren xiaosu would often get emotional when he saw such things happening, but zhou yingxue did not care about these matters. the only question she had for ren xiaosu was, ¡°why are we always eating potatoes for every meal!¡±


    ren xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°just make do with it. it¡¯s great to even have potatoes to eat.¡±


    then ren xiaosu untied the rope for zhou yingxue and stuffed two boiled potatoes into her hands. zhou yingxue took advantage of this rare free time to quickly stretch herself to prevent her joints from going stiff.


    ren xiaosu was still rambling, ¡°yesterday, you asked me why a supernatural being like me would live in a town? that¡¯s because i was originally a refugee. you¡¯re already getting sick of eating potatoes after having them for two meals. but did you know that the refugees in the northwest and southwest don¡¯t even have potatoes to eat sometimes? who wouldn¡¯t like to eat rice and noodles every day? but can they afford to have those?¡±


    zhou yingxue was stunned. then she asked in a whisper, ¡°do you usually only eat potatoes too?¡±


    ¡°no.¡± ren xiaosu shook his head. ¡°i usually eat at the tavern since i have money.¡±


    zhou yingxue was surprised. she wanted to smash the two potatoes in her hands onto ren xiaosu¡¯s face, but she dared not do it as she really could not afford to offend him.


    zhou yingxue said with a stern expression, ¡°i want to eat at a tavern too.¡±


    ¡°i think you¡¯re thinking too much.¡± ren xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°do you really think that the wang consortium¡¯s people are all deadbeats? you¡¯re gonna swagger around in town after creating trouble in their stronghold?¡±


    zhou yingxue immediately felt aggrieved. why did she, a supernatural being, feel so powerless before ren xiaosu?


    back when she was at stronghold 88, many young and talented people had tried wooing her. she was also one of the top performers in the yang consortium¡¯s intelligence agency in terms of assassination, intelligence gathering, and infiltration. otherwise, she would not have been able to escape the stronghold while the other a-rank hitmen fought for their lives there.


    but a supernatural being like her was now reduced to eating potatoes to survive.


    wait a minute. zhou yingxue suddenly asked, ¡°where did the nts in your backyarde from?¡±


    zhou yingxue finally felt that something was off. she had seen ren xiaosu make those nts spit out the potatoes with her own eyes. that sight almost upended her understanding of things. shouldn¡¯t potatoes grow underground?


    ren xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°they were already around when i bought the house.¡±


    ¡°do you think i believe that?¡± zhou yingxue said stubbornly.


    ¡°then i must have bought the seeds from someone.¡± ren xiaosu chuckled.


    ¡°nonsense, i¡¯ve never seen anyone selling strange seeds like that on the ck market before.¡± zhou yingxue frowned.


    ¡°ck market?¡± ren xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued. ¡°there¡¯s even something like a ck market in the central ins?¡±


    ¡°you¡¯ve never seen a ck market before?¡± zhou yingxue was taken aback. ¡°there¡¯s always illicit trading hubs like that everywhere, and the things they sell there are all banned items.¡±


    ¡°are there any flying treasures that can soar in the sky? or perhaps legendary magical weapons? aren¡¯t we in the era of supernatural beings?¡± ren xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°no, there¡¯s nothing like what you¡¯ve mentioned there.¡± zhou yingxue rolled her eyes. ¡°the main trades involve firearms and medicine, as well as some pre-cataclysm technology that various small groups dug out from somewhere. finally, there¡¯s also intel trading. i also bought my initial cell phone from the ck market.¡±


    ren xiaosu gasped. ¡°you can even buy a contract killers¡¯ cell phone on the ck market? how much does a cell phone cost?¡±


    ¡°500,000 a piece!¡± zhou yingxue said.


    ren xiaosu was startled. ¡°that much? the reward for a d-rank mission is only 20,000 yuan!¡±


    ¡°but if you get promoted to c-rank, you can easily earn it back afterpleting five missions.¡± zhou yingxue said, ¡°besides, some cell phones are not purchased by hitmen. they¡¯re bought by some important figures who are enemies of the anjing house as a form of self-preservation. although they can¡¯t receive details of a-rank missions, they can receive missions that are b-ranked and below. if the anjing house releases a mission that targets them, they can make preparations in advance.¡±


    ¡°eh, doesn¡¯t the anjing house know about this?¡± ren xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°they don¡¯t seem to care,¡± zhou yingxue said.


    ¡°what else can you find on the ck market?¡± ren xiaosu asked.


    ¡°oh, there¡¯s many hitmen that stay long term near a ck market, because those ces have the safest hotels around. whenever the anjing house releases group missions, the hitmen there can form a party with the help of the hotel and disband after the mission ispleted.¡± zhou yingxue said, ¡°for example, the mission at stronghold 63 two days ago, or the mission at stronghold 61 yesterday, they could both be carried out as a group.¡±


    realization dawned upon ren xiaosu. when he saw the text messages, he was wondering how those hitmen were supposed to work in groups when they usually hid their tracks and did not know each other.


    so it turned out that there was a whole other world in this underworld organization.


    ren xiaosu became a little interested in the ck market. he wondered what level he was atpared to the other hitmen on the ck market. furthermore, there should be a lot of a-rank hitmen there as well, and he might even get to meet the members of the anjing house too. simply thinking about it, anyone would know that this would be a ce where supernatural beings gathered.


    he would finish the quest of taking in the injured zhou yingxue soon. after that, how great would it be when he could use the skill duplication scroll to copy a superpower? he still had his mind set on that sugar painting power.


    ¡°bring me to the ck market in two days,¡± ren xiaosu told zhou yingxue.

 Chapter 493 - Hostage and railroad

    <h4>Chapter 493 Hostage and railroad</h4>


    it was now september, and the nights at fortress 178 were already getting chilly. the residents working outside the fortress began to return home with a rich amount of pay. due to the generous wages received from working outside the fortress, many residents would return home to rest after working for half a year outside. for the rest of the winter, they would be on break.


    of course, that was also because winter in the northwest was freezing cold.


    a lot of residents were still working in the factories outside the stronghold. by the end of october, the roads outside would be blocked by snow.


    at that time, only the soldiers of fortress 178 would be left outside to guard the border outposts. they would be manning their positions throughout the winter without any entertainment and would also have to perform sentry duty. as such, some people would teach themselves a craft, learn the harmonica or ordion, as well as pick up many other strange skills while on duty.


    it was not because they were eager to learn new skills; rather, they were bored. this was just their way of coping with the loneliness at those border outposts.


    in the evening, six off-road vehicles drove in from the southwest direction. the convoy was like a sharp arrow flying true at fortress 178.


    when they were about 170 kilometers away from fortress 178, they were suddenly pulled over by the patrolling troops. the patrol from fortress 178 came through the vehicle inte, ¡°you are now entering a zone with restricted radiomunication. please turn off your radio equipment and pull over for inspection.¡±


    luon, who was in one of the off-road vehicles, chuckled and said, ¡°let¡¯s pull over then. fortress 178¡¯s defensive measures have always been really strict, and even our qing consortium can¡¯tpare to them in this area. after all, their mission is to guard against external enemies.¡±


    all six of the off-road vehicles turned off their onboard radios and slowly pulled over. on the side of the road, three toons stood up in the wilderness and approached them in fullbat gear.


    luon got out of the vehicle first and raised his hands high. wearing a pair of sunsses on his face, he looked like a crime lord who engaged in smuggling. ¡°friends, i¡¯m luon from the qing consortium. i¡¯ve already informed yourmander zhang about this trip!¡±


    a fortress 178 soldier calmly said, ¡°please wait a moment. i need to report this to the general staff first.¡±


    as he spoke, the other soldiers¡¯ guns stayed aimed at luon. however, he was not flustered at all.


    beside him, zhou qi curled his lips and said, ¡°why¡¯re they acting like we¡¯re bandits? let¡¯s quickly deal with the business here. we still have to hurry to the central ins. it¡¯s turmoil over there.¡±


    ¡°don¡¯t get so anxious,¡± luon said with a smile as he looked at the ck muzzles of the guns pointing at him. ¡°why aren¡¯t you behaving like a subordinate at all? as a subordinate, you should understand that any business of the qing consortium¡¯s leader has to be handled with the utmost urgency.¡±


    zhou qi adjusted his gold-rimmed sses. ¡°i¡¯m not a subordinate. i¡¯m just working for money.¡±


    ¡°haha, we shouldn¡¯t be thinking about anything other than our objective,¡± luon said with augh.


    when the soldiers of fortress 178 saw how this fatso kept a straight face, they were somewhat impressed. he was a brave person indeed.


    suddenly, thepanymander to the rear agreed to let them through after contacting the general staff and confirming the legitimacy of luon¡¯s visit to fortress 178.


    but before the fortress 178 troops allowed them to carry on with their journey, they collected all their weapons and made the group transfer to the patrol vehicles to proceed on.


    when the convoy arrived at fortress 178 in the night, xu xianchu came out to receive them instead of zhang jinglin.


    luon looked at xu xianchu with a smile. he put his arm warmly over xu xianchu¡¯s shoulder and praised, ¡°brother xu is such a young and promising man. i¡¯m sorry you had to suffer in the private troops of our qing consortium¡¯s stronghold. how about this? why don¡¯t youe back to the southwest with us? i guarantee you¡¯ll have meat to eat and wine to drink, and you¡¯ll also get to enjoy a life of endless riches.¡±


    xu xianchu politely rejected his offer. ¡°stop dreaming.¡±


    however, luon was unfazed. he continued with augh, ¡°it gets freezing cold in the northwest every winter, and it isn¡¯t as prosperous and interesting in the fortresspared to our south. if you go back to the southwest, i¡¯ll find ten concubines for you!¡±


    next to them, zhou qi said with a sigh, ¡°fatty luo, you really sound like the viin of a story right now.¡±


    luon said unhappily, ¡°although i¡¯vemitted murder and arson, i¡¯m still a good person overall.¡±


    ¡°pfft.¡± zhou qi and xu xianchu spurned him at the same time.


    ¡°alright, enough chattering for now. let¡¯s get down to business.¡± luon said to xu xianchu, ¡°hurry up and find a ce to swap documents so we can leave.¡±


    when xu xianchu led luon and the others to a remote and quiet street, he said, mander zhang informed only me about today¡¯s meeting, so you don¡¯t have to worry about your secrets getting revealed. and while we at fortress 178 don¡¯t im we¡¯re better than others in most things, we definitely have the least number of spies from other organizations active here.¡±


    ¡°alright, enough with your bragging. i know you all are capable.¡± luon chuckled.


    then xu xianchu asked, ¡°where¡¯s the hostage you brought along? is it this four eyes beside you?¡±


    zhou qi said unhappily, ¡°i have a name, y¡¯know. what do you mean by four eyes?¡±


    however, luon gave a hand signal to a soldier behind him. xu xianchu was taken aback for a moment. ¡°is that the hostage the qing consortium is sending us? y¡¯all better not be sending someone unimportant to us.¡±


    the soldier took off the peaked cap, and a head of ck, silky hair rolled down behind her back like a waterfall.


    luon said with a smile, ¡°this is the woman our qing consortium leader is fond of. will she do?¡±


    xu xianchu frowned and looked behind him. then a middle-aged soldier walked out and said, ¡°she¡¯ll do.¡±


    luon was amused. ¡°you must be wang fengyuan, right? i¡¯ve heard so much about you!¡±


    xu xianchu did not say any more. if wang fengyuan said that she would do, then it was definitely enough.


    wang fengyuan did not answer luon. ¡°aren¡¯t y¡¯all afraid that by sending her to us, we¡¯ll use her against your qing consortium in the future?¡±


    ¡°don¡¯t worry, our qing consortium does not have any ns of unifying the world. i hope that our two sides will never need to fight each other!¡± so saying, luon turned around and left.


    zhou qi chased after him and asked, ¡°we¡¯re leaving just like that? why didn¡¯t i hear about qing zhen liking a girl?¡±


    luon answered in disregard to the question, ¡°thatdy was originally an opera performer in stronghold 111. she was even a ¡®main lead¡¯ too. back when the board was trying to get ahold of qing zhen¡¯s weakness, they realized he had never been to the same opera theater twice. he just left whichever girl performed to fate.


    ¡°even though they did not know which girl qing zhen had his eyes on, what the board did not do wrong was to shutter all the theaters and arrest all the women. then, qing zhen realized it was useless even if he visited a different theater each time. the moment he stepped into the arena, his opponents would all be cruel beyond imagination. moreover, the opponents he would be facing in the future would definitely be much crueler than thest.¡±


    zhou qi sighed and said, ¡°so qing zhen decided to send her here as a hostage? that¡¯s even more bewildering.¡±


    ¡°hehe, zhang jinglin is one of the few honorable people left in the world. sending her here to be a hostage is actually the safest choice.¡± luon said with a grin, ¡°soon, it will no longer be safe at our qing consortium. at that time, qing zhen won¡¯t be able to divert his attention to protect her anymore.¡±


    ¡°but fortress 178 did not exchange hostages with us, so why should we hand over a hostage to them?¡± zhou qi wondered.


    luon said firmly, ¡°for the railroad of course.¡±


    the qing consortium had wanted to connect their railroad to fortress 178¡¯s railroad and open up a route to the central ins. however, zhang jinglin rejected them.


    after two long months of negotiations, the two sides finally reached a consensus on this point. although the qing consortium paid a heavy price, qing zhen thought it was worthwhile. he even took the initiative to offer a political hostage to fortress 178.


    luon understood that this girl might appear to be a hostage on the surface, but it was actually so that fortress 178 could protect her. as long as the qing consortium did not dere war on fortress 178, this would be the safest haven for her.


    zhou qi clicked his tongue. ¡°she¡¯s no ordinary person either, judging by how calm she was even after being sent here as a hostage.¡±


    ¡°well, any woman my younger brother likes would definitely have to be extraordinary.¡±

 Chapter 494 - A new world

    <h4>Chapter 494 A new world</h4>


    when luon and the others departed, the fleet of off-road vehicles left a cloud of dust in their wake as they drove all the way eastwards. their destination this time was the central ins.


    on the way, luon did not even dare to open the windows. he was worried he would end up eating sand if a gust of wind blew in. ¡°only those people from fortress 178 treat this godforsaken ce as treasure and guard it so wholeheartedly. we¡¯ll be arriving at the fascinating world in the central ins soon. i¡¯m getting a little excited just thinking about it.¡±


    zhou qi was sitting next to him, but he had been silent for some time, apparently thinking about something. he suddenly said, ¡°i can understand you all want to open up the railroads, but everything is already safe and peaceful in the southwest, so why are you still constantly acting like there¡¯s danger at every corner?¡±


    zhou qi used to be the secretary for the qing consortium board. so even if he looked slovenly right now, he was not stupid.


    judging by qing zhen¡¯s move to send that girl to the northwest, the qing consortium was already determined to form an alliance with fortress 178. ¡°and how did you guys manage to persuade fortress 178 to agree to let us build the railroad? y¡¯know, it¡¯ll take less than a day to get from stronghold 111 to fortress 178 if the railroad getspleted.¡±


    in this way, if the qing consortiumunched a first strike in the future, the railroad would be a lifeline that could transport soldiers and military supplies continuously as long as a stable forward operating base was established. it would probably be much faster to transport their soldiers there than to deploy their mechanized infantry!


    ¡°wait,¡± zhou qi said to himself, ¡°could it be that you have amon enemy? but where¡¯s this enemy? it¡¯s like you¡¯re all facing a formidable foe.¡±


    ¡°to say that it¡¯s a formidable foe would be an exaggeration.¡± luon chuckled and said, ¡°at worst, you can say that we¡¯re preparing for a rainy day! we¡¯ve also paid a heavy price for this oue. first, if fortress 178 encounters external enemies again someday, our qing consortium¡¯s troops will have to rush to the battlefield as support.¡±


    ¡°what?¡± zhou qi was stunned. ¡°did zhang jinglin agree to let you station our troops next to him?¡±


    ¡°of course not.¡± luon shook his head. ¡°from today onwards, the qing consortium will have to open up a corridor in the southwest through the mountain range in the west. that corridor will cut through the hintends of the teau. if someone attacks fortress 178, we¡¯ll have to support and outnk them from behind.¡±


    ¡°it won¡¯t be easy to open up a corridor in the mountain range.¡± zhou qi sighed.


    ¡°it wasn¡¯t easy to get fortress 178 to agree to us connecting railroads either. all i can say is that both sides made their concessions and put in a lot of hard work to reach a deal,¡± luon said calmly.


    ¡°alright, even if zhang jinglin believes you¡¯ll support them when the timees, who¡¯s the qing consortium¡¯s enemy?¡± zhou qi asked.


    ¡°the wang consortium in the central ins.¡± luon said with a smile, ¡°can you imagine that? actually, i also didn¡¯t expect qing zhen to care so much about that wang consortium initially.¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s interesting.¡± zhou qi¡¯s interest was piqued. ¡°i heard that wang shengzhi is wheelchair-bound and always treats others with kindness. why would you be afraid of a person like him?¡±


    ¡°we aren¡¯t afraid of anyone.¡± luon looked at the loess outside the window. ¡°but not all is as peaceful in the qing consortium as you think. the qing consortium has be the most powerful organization on the surface in the entire alliance of strongholds, with more than 40 strongholds under its control. as our consortium grows more powerful, a lot of people will start paying more attention to the southwest.¡±


    ¡°then what does it have anything to do with the wang consortium?¡± zhou qi asked this question as he understood very little about the wang consortium.


    ¡°wang shengzhi spent ten years uniting the wang consortium and opened the most important resource route in the northwest. he also worked hard to implement a mandatory military service during this time. it might not look like anything at first, and the wang consortium does not have a lot of active troops at the moment, but things will change as time passes. once a war breaks out, almost all of the wang consortium¡¯s adult males under the age of 35 can immediately bear arms and be soldiers,¡± luon calmly exined.


    ¡°they only implemented military service.¡± zhou qi said in confusion, ¡°you can¡¯t solely use that to use them of being ever ready to wage war against others, can you?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s not only that. qing zhen also said the wang consortium¡¯s been purchasing silk at high prices since years ago. the zhou consortium¡¯s territory has some of the most suitable ces for silkworm breeding, so many of their refugees fled into the mountains to breed silkworms while the wang consortium quietly purchased their silk at high prices. they even provided the refugees with supplies too. guess what? two years ago, the zhou consortium discovered they had fewer and fewer refugees, and many of their factories had shortages of manpower. they nearly did not have enough food to feed their people!¡± luon chuckled and said, ¡°of course, the wang consortium did many other things too.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯d like to know how qing zhen views the wang consortium.¡± zhou qi frowned.


    luon said calmly, ¡°he said the wang consortium has the ambition of unifying the alliance of strongholds.¡±


    ¡°so zhang jinglin agreed to your proposal because he and qing zhen have the same thoughts, and both parties will work together secretly to fend off any future danger?¡± zhou qi sighed. ¡°can¡¯t we all just lead a peaceful life? isn¡¯t it quite good to just make some money, chase some skirts, and enjoy a life of luxury? why¡¯s there always someone who wants to conquer everything in the world?¡±


    luon said with a smile, ¡°you and i have witnessed a great deal of the greed of humans, but wang shengzhi is doing this not for greed... and that¡¯s the scariest thing about him. also, the qing consortium still has some old rivals from years ago. for example, the leader of the saboteurs never let go of her prejudice against us. and the pyropany has been unhappy with us for a long time too....¡±


    ¡°if you put it that way, it feels to me that everyone in the world is an enemy...¡± zhou qi said in a speechless manner. ¡°i¡¯m more curious if the qing consortium really has a nuclear base.¡±


    luon chuckled and said, ¡°guess.¡±


    zhou qi curled his lips. ¡°stop acting so mysteriously.¡±


    luonmented, ¡°if only we could¡¯ve gotten ren xiaosu onto our side. that would¡¯ve been great. with him stationed at stronghold 111, my brother wouldn¡¯t have to sleep in the barracks every day.¡±


    ¡°who are you looking down on?¡± zhou qi said unhappily, ¡°didn¡¯t i used to stand guard at his side? what? you don¡¯t believe i can protect him? how¡¯s ren xiaosu better than me?¡±


    ¡°are you brave enough to attack stronghold 146 all by yourself?¡± luon asked.


    zhou qi paused for a moment. ¡°never mind! but who¡¯ll protect qing zhen now that i¡¯m going to the central ins?¡±


    ¡°there¡¯s a guy called zheng yuandong who¡¯s returned.¡± luon said with a smile, ¡°he¡¯s even more powerful than i imagined.¡±


    ¡°zheng yuandong?¡± that name sounds quite familiar.¡±


    ¡°you should be more familiar with his codename, eternal night. he¡¯s now a supernatural being.¡±


    the convoy¡¯s journey to the central ins did not take long at all. luon and zhou qi¡¯s mission to head to the central ins seemed to have suddenly be more important. they were looking to use gold to obtain cheap friendship amid the chaos in the central ins. then they would try their best to dy the thing they worried most about for as long as possible until the day it arrived.


    this way, qing zhen would have more time to consolidate the resources in the southwest.


    of course, it would be even better if they could nip the threat in the bud.


    ¡°by the way, what¡¯s up with that qinghe group?¡± zhou qi asked, ¡°aren¡¯t you guys worried about them too?¡±


    ¡°there¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡±

 Chapter 495 - The guy I like has never led a pampered life

    <h4>495 The guy I like has never led a pampered life</h4>


    the qinghe group was located in the hearnd of the central ins. but unlike other consortiums that often controlled several to over a dozen strongholds, the qinghe group had only ever controlled one. based on its sequence number in the alliance of strongholds, that should be stronghold 66.


    but over the years, the people from the qinghe group did not care that it was called stronghold 66 and simply referred to it as luoyang city.


    over time, other people also began to call that stronghold luoyang city.


    it was unique just like fortress 178.


    before the alliance of strongholds was established, the qinghe group had already shown they had a strong side. they had a fixed and stable organizational structure, and many technologies that had been preserved from the pre-cataclysm times. of course, they did not manage to preserve all of them.


    at first, the other consortiums were constantly wary of the qinghe group. but after time passed, everyone realized they did not seem to be interested in expanding their territory at all.


    moreover, the qinghe group had never gotten involved in thepetition for resources in the central ins all these years. they seemed to only be persistently searching for something.


    but there was something even stranger. the person currently in charge of the qinghe group was surnamed xu. the leadership role had been passed down from father to son through old xu¡¯s family lineage. it was said that his ancestors used to sell sanitary pads.ter on, a tech expert named xu nuo emerged, and he became wildly sessful working under the big boss of the qinghe group.


    however, it seemed that the big boss of the qinghe group did not have any offspring, so the xu n took over stewardship of the qinghe group. however, they always insisted they were only minority shareholders. when they located the heir of the major shareholder, they would step down and make way for that person to take over.


    this standter became a joke that circted around. who would step down to make way for others in this age of wastnds?


    up to the present, the qinghe group had be a very special existence in the central ins. it was located between the wang consortium, the chen consortium, and the kong consortium. the wang consortium upied the northwest section of the central ins, which connected to fortress 178. the kong consortium was located in the northeast that connected to the sea and guandong.[1] meanwhile, the zhou consortium was situated at the intersection of three rivers and spread downwards to the south.


    although there were more than a dozen other consortiums in the central ins, these three consortiums were the most powerful here.


    however, the qinghe group was special not because of its unique geographic location but because of how it conducted itself. luoyang city possessed thergest institution of higher learning in the entire alliance of strongholds, and it had a model of teaching that was closest to the pre-cataclysm times.


    meanwhile, the establishment of universities in the other consortiums was done only to serve the research of their own technologies. all of them had a very utilitarian focus. as all the different research subjects were done for the sake of improving the power of the consortium someday, the children of other consortiums were not allowed to study at their universities.


    but unlike other universities, anyone could take part in the exams for qinghe university. they taught a variety of subjects, and they even included the arts in this age of wastnds.


    when such courses were set up initially, many consortiums jokingly criticized how there could be any space for the arts to survive in these times.


    furthermore, when the other consortiums acquired the cultural heritage from before the cataclysm, they focused heavily onboratory data and some technological research results. meanwhile, the qinghe group collected everything they could get their hands on and even sent their own people to look for such items. they seemed to be particrly interested in calligraphy, paintings, and antiques, iming they were treasures of mankind.


    a consortium like this was like a different existence in these wastnds. there really wasn¡¯t another consortium that behaved like them in this world.


    at this moment, the students at qinghe university just finished their sses. on campus, the students walked out of their ssrooms happily with their backpacks. some of them rushed to the next building for their uing sses, while others who did not have any more lessons simply went to attend their club activities.


    a girl wearing a cap walked out of the school alone with her schoolbag, her back straight.


    someone behind called out to her, ¡°yang xiaojin!¡±


    yang xiaojin calmly looked back. ¡°what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    there were a lot of people on the other side, and the person who spoke was a very tall college student. he was wearing a white shirt and had a very sunny smile on his face. he smiled at yang xiaojin and said, ¡°we have a social this evening, and i¡¯d like to invite you to join us. since school started, you¡¯ve always been going around on your own. are you still getting used to the lifestyle in luoyang city?¡±


    yang xiaojin shook her head. ¡°i only came here to gain more knowledge. i¡¯m not interested in any socials.¡±


    the people behind the male student were whispering among themselves. someone who seemed to be cheering him on said in a low voice, ¡°don¡¯t be shy! hurry up and say it.¡±


    the male student hesitated for a moment before suddenly saying, ¡°yang xiaojin, i like you. can you give me a chance? i can¡ª¡±


    ¡°i already have someone i like,¡± interrupted yang xiaojin.


    that male student froze. he did not know what else to say and started to back down.


    yang xiaojin shook her head and said, ¡°see, your feelings for me aren¡¯t even that deep. if i reject you today, you¡¯ll just fall in love with another person tomorrow. your ¡®like¡¯ is just you trying your luck. once you hit a stumbling block, you immediately back down.¡±


    off to the side, someone whispered, ¡°she¡¯s going too far.¡±


    the male student struggled and said, ¡°then who do you like? the president of the student council? or...¡±


    yang xiaojin shook her head again. ¡°he¡¯s not in luoyang city. you think that the president of the student council is outstanding because you guys haven¡¯t had a chance to see the outside world yet. the guy i like has never led a pampered life.¡±


    however, yang xiaojin was not sure whether ren xiaosu was still alive or not. she had witnessed the scarlet red spear prate his body right before her very eyes. the saboteurs had promised to help her get revenge, but the condition was that she had to do ten things for the organization first.


    for the past two months, she kept asking her aunt if there was any news of ren xiaosu. however, all she received was a negative answer.


    in order to gain a clearer understanding of the qinghe group, her aunt arranged for her to continue with her studies at qinghe university. however, yang xiaojin was never just a normal student. she had killed people before and had also apanied someone in building a future filled with hope in the wilderness until that hope was shattered.


    but it didn¡¯t matter to her. she believed that ren xiaosu was still alive, and she would locate him sooner orter.


    yang xiaojin turned around and left. she walked along kaiyuan avenue back to her home in luoyang city. then she constantly stripped her sniper rifle and cleaned it.


    after repeating the process several times, she personally reloaded gunpowder into all the different types of bullets that she had. if the students at school saw this scene, they would probably be shocked. this was not a toy a girl should have.


    it was during this time that yang xiaojin slowly calmed down. actually, under her calm appearance, a warm heart was hidden within.


    she went to the kitchen to cook a meal for herself. after she finished, she crushed the remaining onion she had and squeezed out the juice.


    yang xiaojin took out a thin brush before retrieving a paper crane from her pocket and unfolding it. she dipped the brush into the onion juice and wrote a few lines of words on the paper. after that, she refolded the paper crane.


    the paper crane spread its wings as though it had suddenlye to life. then it flew off into the west.


    when the recipient received the paper crane, the handwriting inside would be revealed by slightly heating the paper over an open me.


    [1] guandong: often referring to northeast china where the three provinces of heilongjiang, jilin, and liaoning are located in china. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/northeast_china#names

 Chapter 496 - The Riders organization

    <h4>Chapter 496 The Riders organization</h4>


    there were many ways to write a secret letter, such as using a mixture of aminophenazone tablets dissolved in water. through a special process, handwriting written with that mixture could be disyed. another example was to write with a mixture of starch water with rice water. after lightly wiping the paper with an iodine solution, the hidden message would also be revealed.


    but yang xiaojin had chosen to use onion juice this time only because this method was rtively simpler. besides, if someone wiped the piece of paper with an iodine solution first, they would not be able to see the handwriting clearly even if they heated it over an open me afterwards.


    when the onion juice was absorbed by the paper, it would start burning at a lower temperature than the paper. therefore, the writing would turn brown when slightly heated.


    as yang xiaojin watched the paper crane fly away slowly, it was as though the expectations in her heart were carried off with it. she hoped it would bring good news to her the next time it flew back.


    ...


    ren xiaosu and zhou yingxue were trekking in the wilderness. as the wang consortium had begun arresting suspicious people recently, they thought that traveling in a car would make them too noticeable, so they decided against using one.


    the two of them could have gotten their hands on two motorcycles, but they did not know how to ride them...


    ren xiaosu¡¯s quest of taking in zhou yingxue had beenpleted. but to his disappointment, he was only rewarded with the basic skill duplication scroll and not the perfect skill duplication scroll. in other words, he still did not have a scroll that could allow him to copy another¡¯s superpowers.


    however, that was not a big problem. there would be other quests in the future, and a perfect skill duplication scroll would surely appear again.


    the ck market zhou yingxue had talked about was located at the intersection between the wang consortium, the kong consortium, and the zhou consortium. it was situated in a ravine not too far away from luoyang city.


    luoyang city was under the control of the qinghe group. in fact, this was the only stronghold the qinghe group possessed.


    the organizer of the ck market chose to be located near luoyang city as it was convenient for the criminal underworld in the three consortiums to travel there to make purchases. it was close to everywhere.


    on top of that, the qinghe group had never cared about such activities as long as nothing too serious arose in the ck market.


    ren xiaosu asked, ¡°then can anyone get into the ck market as they wish?¡±


    ¡°of course!¡± zhou yingxue said, ¡°this ck market is really big as it upies the size of an entire county from before the cataclysm. it also gets very lively there. many fugitives who are wanted by the various consortiums usually end up hiding there. the rich can also go and hire them to do their dirty work.¡±


    ren xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°alright then, you¡¯ll pretend to be my subordinate after we get there.¡±


    zhou yingxue refused to ept this. ¡°why have i be a follower all of a sudden? i¡¯m a supernatural being for goodness¡¯ sake!¡±


    ren xiaosu turned around and looked at her calmly. zhou yingxue¡¯s tone grew meek. ¡°alright, alright, so be it if i have to act as your subordinate... wait, that won¡¯t do. a lot of people in the ck market have seen me before. when we had to work in groups toplete the a-rank missions, we even had to dere our superpowers to each other. if i get recognized by others and it turns out that i¡¯m your subordinate, how powerful would you have to be?¡±


    ren xiaosu thought that it sounded quite logical. he nced at zhou yingxue and said, ¡°then i guess you can tell others that i¡¯m your assistant.¡±


    with that, zhou yingxue said happily, ¡°in that case, you should behave like an assistant. you can¡¯t order me around again.¡±


    ¡°whatever!¡± ren xiaosu waved her off impatiently. ¡°you can rest easy.¡±


    when the two of them were about to reach the periphery of the ck market, someone from the ck market organization came over to ask them something. they did not ask about their identities and only asked what they were here for. they even checked to see if they needed help to book a hotel room.


    zhou yingxue said with an arrogant look, ¡°i want to book two hotel rooms.¡±


    ¡°then do you want to rent a car or schedule a massage?¡±


    ¡°not for the time being.¡±


    ¡°alright.¡±


    after saying that, the people from the ck market organization left politely. before departing, they even wished them an enjoyable time here.


    ren xiaosu smacked his lips. ¡°the service in this ck market feels really good.¡±


    zhou yingxue said, ¡°i wonder who¡¯s controlling the ck market behind the scenes. they¡¯ve not only made this into a ce to trade prohibited goods but also created a solid spending economy. if you spend enough money here, they¡¯ll even send you an invitation to an organized vacation by the beache every spring. there¡¯s even a massive casino here, and the dealers inside are all dressed...¡±


    ren xiaosu asked, ¡°dressed even more revealing than what you wore in the library back then?¡±


    zhou yingxue¡¯s expression darkened immediately. ¡°must you bring that up?¡±


    ever since zhou yingxue left the yang consortium, she seemed to have turned into a different person. in the past, she had to do certain things because of her job. but now, she was living more for herself.


    a supernatural being leaving a consortium was like a bird flying out of a cage.


    of course, zhou yingxue was still willing to dress sexily. however, she did not need to deliberately show herself to other men now.


    as soon as they entered the ck market, sure enough, someone immediately recognized zhou yingxue and came forward to greet her cordially.


    some things were different from what ren xiaosu had expected. he thought the previous mission carried out in stronghold 61 was a failure, but many people at the ck market were saying that zhou yingxue and the others hadpleted their mission really well by wiping out all the members of the pyropany at stronghold 61.


    however, ren xiaosu realized there was some uncertainty in zhou yingxue¡¯s eyes. he decided he would get to the bottom of it when he had a chance to rify.


    when someone saw ren xiaosu, they said curiously, ¡°this is...¡±


    zhou yingxue coldly waved it off. ¡°he¡¯s just my assistant. you don¡¯t have to care about him.¡±


    ren xiaosu was speechless.


    in an instant, ren xiaosu waspletely ignored by the group of snobs in front of him. meanwhile, zhou yingxue was enthusiastically surrounded by a crowd who asked her for details of the battle.


    most of these people made a living by trading intel. if they could receive any vital information by saying something nice to zhou yingxue, why not?


    however, ren xiaosu found that zhou yingxue was not stupid either. she spoke wlessly without revealing any useful information at all.


    all of a sudden, he saw someone lead a group in from outside the ck market. the person at the very front was quite strange, and their faces were even covered with red scarves. some of the followers looked very young, and they might even be students who were still attending school.


    when those people who had surrounded zhou yingxue in the ck market realized they could not get any useful information out of her, they left. they started crowding around the young man whose face was covered with a red scarf instead. ren xiaosu asked in a low voice, ¡°who is that person?¡±


    ¡°he is a member of the riders.¡± zhou yingxue whispered, ¡°since this ce is very close to the qinghe group, we often get to see them around.¡±


    ¡°then who¡¯re those people behind him? they look really young,¡± ren xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°i heard that they¡¯re the students of qinghe university. qinghe university has a rule that students must travel the world, but they can only do so under the protection of the riders.¡±

 Chapter 497 - Social Learning class

    <h4>Chapter 497 Social Learning ss</h4>


    The member of the Riders organization with a red scarf on his face passing by with a group of students following him was just a simple interlude. Whenever they passed by a particr building, the Rider member would point out to the others what the ce was. He would even exin to the students behind him what people did here.Actually, this field trip felt more like a fall tour. Or rather, it was a kind of social learning ss for the college students to see what the outside world was really like.


    Ren Xiaosu believed this Rider must have brought these stronghold students to look at the refugees¡¯ living conditions before bringing them here to the ck market.


    After the group of students passed by, Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°It¡¯s gettingte, so let¡¯s head to the hotel we reserved and rest up. I¡¯ll show you around the ce tomorrow. There¡¯s nothing much to see in the ck market at night since no one¡¯s selling anything at this time. The rich have all gone to waste their money in the vice establishments. As for the poor, they¡¯ll be waiting outside to run errands for the bosses inside.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    But as they made their way to the hotel, they suddenly realized the Rider was also taking the students in the same direction as them.


    On the way there, Ren Xiaosu saw a brightly lit hotel up front and asked, ¡°Is that the hotel we¡¯re staying in?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Zhou Yingxue nodded. ¡°It looks like these people from the Qinghe Group are also staying there.¡±


    The hotel appeared quite elegant, and there were parking lots outside and waiters in white uniforms weing guests. The white marble flooring at the hotel entrance looked spotlessly clean. Ren Xiaosu found it very difficult to believe that a ce like this could be hidden in such a remote area. It was even more luxurious than what could be found in the strongholds.


    Zhou Yingxue said softly, ¡°The other ck markets have to worry about extremely highmissions and being cracked down on by the consortiums, but the security and stability of this ce have gradually be the first choice of many mob bosses. In recent years, many mob bosses have settled down here and are treating this ce as their headquarters.¡±


    When the two of them stepped into the lobby, the waiter first brought them some warm white towels, then indicated with a smile that they wereplimentary. Ren Xiaosu saw the member of the Riders calmly instructing the students from the Qinghe Group as they were checking in, ¡°It¡¯s good for you all toe out here to see the world, but don¡¯t let this good thing turn into a bad thing. If I find anyone sneaking into the brothels or the casino, they¡¯ll be expelled once we return to Luoyang City.¡±


    During the conversation, the Rider looked up and saw Ren Xiaosu looking at him. He nodded courteously with a smile. However, there was a certain feeling to that polite smile that would keep people at arm¡¯s length.


    Zhou Yingxue whispered, ¡°The Riders are extremely proud and have always been quite antisocial.¡±


    ¡°I can see that.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    After the Rider led his group away, the pretty receptionist said to Zhou Yingxue with an apologetic face, ¡°Hi, Ms. Zhou. I¡¯m sorry, but only one of the two rooms you reserved is left. It¡¯s Room 1005.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. ¡°This is the first time I¡¯ve encountered something like this. How can there be a problem when we reserved the rooms in advance?¡±


    The pretty receptionist said guiltily, ¡°I¡¯m really very sorry. The main reason is we suddenly had over 20 guests that arrived from the Qinghe Group. They didn¡¯t make a prior reservation, so... You should also know that members of the Qinghe Group are priority customers at our hotel.¡±


    Before Zhou Yingxue could argue with her, someone suddenly walked into the lobby. When he saw Zhou Yingxue, he said with a smile, ¡°Well, if it¡¯s isn¡¯t Zhou Yingxue! I heard the previous mission went very smoothly? But it seems like you were the only A-rank hitman in your team who made it back alive. You¡¯re truly a powerful superhuman!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the person who spoke. His hair wasbed back and he was dressed in a tight suit. He was wearing a pair of leather shoes but did not have any socks on. Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who is this? He can¡¯t even afford to buy socks?¡±


    The man standing across from him got so angry heughed. ¡°What¡¯s with theme joke!¡±


    However, Zhou Yingxue frowned and said, ¡°Assistant, don¡¯t let hime near me. But don¡¯t get into a fight either. Fighting isn¡¯t allowed in this hotel. I¡¯m gonna head upstairs to get some rest first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue in astonishment. After getting her room key, she turned around and walked into the elevator. Ren Xiaosu just stood quietly outside the elevator while the man attempted several times to get past him to grab ahold of Zhou Yingxue¡¯s arm. However, Ren Xiaosu kept standing in front of him like apetent bodyguard...


    After Zhou Yingxue went upstairs, the man left angrily. ¡°To think that she¡¯s already keeping a gigolo afterpleting just one A-rank mission.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes twitched as he headed upstairs as well. If Zhou Yingxue had not explicitly said that fighting was not allowed in the hotel, the guy in front of him would probably have been killed on the spot.


    After knocking on the door and entering the room, Ren Xiaosu swaggered towards the sofa and sat down. Zhou Yingxue went over meekly and squatted as she began to massage Ren Xiaosu¡¯s legs. ¡°I was just trying to act realistically. I didn¡¯t really mean to order you around. Besides, he¡¯s really annoying....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grunted in acknowledgement. ¡°Who is he?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue exined as she massaged Ren Xiaosu¡¯s legs, ¡°His name is Zhao Haocheng, and he¡¯s also an A-rank hitma. I¡¯m not sure if he has any superpowers, though. He was supposed to be part of the group that performed the mission at Stronghold 61, but after I appeared, someone else invited me and kicked him out of their team. I heard he¡¯s double-crossed his teammates before.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you mean you took over his spot in the group? No wonder he was so sarcastic.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Actually, he did not mind helping Zhou Yingxue a little. He also understood why she had deliberately told him that this was a gathering ce for hitmen to team up toplete missions and even conceded to him that he was stronger. This was actually because Zhou Yingxue knew that her superpower was too weak and that she couldn¡¯tplete an A-rank mission on her own.


    Therefore, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s main purpose in bringing Ren Xiaosu here was to let him form a team with her to perform the missions. To put it bluntly, she wanted to ride on his coattails toplete the missions.


    ¡°Alright, you can stop massaging. You¡¯re a supernatural being, after all,¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped.


    Zhou Yingxue cursed in her head. So what if she was a supernatural being? She had already been knocked out by him a few times, so what dignity of a supernatural being did she still have left! She was close to bing his maidservant already!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°What else do you know about the Qinghe Group? Why does this hotel treat them with such esteem? Are they extremely strong inbat?¡±


    ¡°Thebat strength of the Qinghe Group has always been a mystery. Many people said the founder of the Qinghe Group was already a supernatural being before The Cataclysm, but that has not been verified.¡± Zhou Yingxue gingerly sat next to him and said, ¡°But what is known is that of the 12 satellites that the Alliance of Strongholds still have, the Qinghe Group controls seven of them. Moreover, the electricity in the ck market is actually also provided for by the Qinghe Group.¡±


    ¡°So, the Qinghe Group is the big boss behind the ck market?¡±

 Chapter 498 - A new mission

    <h4>498 A new mission</h4>


    Ever since arriving in the Central ins, Ren Xiaosu felt like he had entered a whole new world. It was a world where not only the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178 existed but also many other strange organizations such as the Pyro Company, the Anjing House, the Qinghe Group, etc.The world was much bigger than he knew. It was no wonder Yang Xiaojin once said she woulde here after finishing her business in the Southwest. Thinking about it, when she was willing to stay with Ren Xiaosu in that deserted valley, it showed her attitude about him.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that the person behind the biggest and most professional ck market in the Central ins was most likely the boss of the Qinghe Group. If he coulde to such a conclusion, others would definitely be able to as well.


    However, the reason why everyone left this ck market unchecked was probably also due to the uncaring attitude disyed by the Qinghe Group. Since an organization like them did not have the ambition to rule over the Central ins, others would naturally be able to turn a blind eye to some unimportant matters.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go and check out what the ck market is like at night.¡± Ren Xiaosu got up and headed out. Zhou Yingxue followed him, but she curled her lips in silence. Wasn¡¯t he just curious to see the sensual temptations of this world? He must have been tempted after hearing what she said about the croupiers and brothels. There were indeed no good men!


    However, Zhou Yingxue still obediently followed him. After they left the hotel room, the two of them returned to their roles as an A-rank hitwoman and her assistant respectively. Zhou Yingxue¡¯s expression could not get any more arrogant than it was.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like Zhou Yingxue was a little bit addicted to being in-character for her role...


    When they passed by the legendary brothel, a group of beautiful women in uniform were standing at the door and smiling at the passersby. Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What uniform is this? I haven¡¯t seen any soldiers wearing it before.¡±


    ¡°They say it¡¯s the uniform of flight attendants from the Pre-Cataclysm times. I¡¯m referring to the cabin crew of a ne,¡± Zhou Yingxue exined.


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t respond.


    The ck market was a real eye-opener to him. It was no wonder those mob bosses were willing to stay here. ording to Zhou Yingxue, there was even a housing block specially built here in the ck market. The vis there were sold to the mob bosses at astronomical prices.


    Moreover, the people from the ck market organization had been eliminating wild beasts so frequently in the surrounding mountain range that there was not even a snake to be found.


    But Zhou Yingxue asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna go into the brothel to have a look? Didn¡¯t youe out in the middle of the night because you wanted to see this?¡±


    ¡°I just wanted to have a look from the outside.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in confusion, ¡°Why would I go in?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was shocked right then and there. Was he really just here to have a look?!


    When they came to the entrance of the casino, Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He and Zhou Yingxue both saw that Rider from earlier wearing a red scarf hoisting a student out from inside.


    Although the student looked like he was around 50 kilograms, the Rider held him in his hand as though he were a featherweight.


    They saw the Rider throw the student mercilessly to the ground. ¡°You¡¯ve vited the order about going out without permission. Head back to Luoyang City yourself. You¡¯ve been expelled from the school!¡±


    The student got up from the ground in a pathetic manner and said, ¡°What gives you the right to make such a decision when you¡¯re just here to protect us?¡±


    The Rider said coldly, ¡°If you can make it back to Luoyang City, you¡¯ll understand why I can make a decision like this.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°It seems that the Riders have a lot of authority within the Qinghe Group.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Zhou Yingxue nodded. ¡°They¡¯re all devotees to the founder of Qinghe. The current leader of Qinghe, Xu Ke, also reveres them greatly. Apparently, only bypleting eight challenges can they be true devotees.¡±


    ¡°Then why did the student confront him?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Probably because the Riders do not have any actual duties within the Qinghe Group.¡± Zhou Yingxue was not too familiar with the internal workings of the Qinghe Group.


    ¡°I think he¡¯s just young and immature. His family must¡¯ve already told him, but he still went into the casino out of curiosity. He¡¯s only getting angry out of embarrassment at being caught red-handed.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Look, he can¡¯t bear to face that Rider now. This shows that he still understands the Rider¡¯s standing within the Qinghe Group. He was just too pampered and had nothing better to do.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue looked strangely at Ren Xiaosu. ¡®Aren¡¯t you also around the same age as that student!¡¯


    ¡°Do you know anything about the founder of Qinghe?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°A lot of information was lost after The Cataclysm, and only a few people in the Qinghe Group know about it. It seems that there were some secrets hidden in the history of the founder¡¯s life experience. Everyone¡¯s guessing that if we learn about his life, we¡¯ll know how he became a supernatural being in the times before The Cataclysm.¡± Zhou Yingxue thought for a moment and said, ¡°Frankly, everyone¡¯s actually quite curious about this secret.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the name of the founder?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°He was called Ren He.¡± Zhou Yingxue said firmly, ¡°But that¡¯s not a secret anymore.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, we¡¯re heading back to the hotel.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned around and left.


    Zhou Yingxue could only follow and say, ¡°Then what¡¯re we gonna do next?¡±


    ¡°We wait.¡±


    ...


    When they returned to the hotel at night, Zhou Yingxue quietly ced a pillow on the couch for herself. With just one reserved room left, she was forced to ept that she would have to sleep on the couch.


    Ren Xiaosu swaggered to the bed andy down on it. He did not have any intentions of being gentlemanly. In a huff, Zhou Yingxue covered herself with a thin nket.


    However, Zhou Yingxue had a particrly peaceful sleep this time. It was though she was no longer worried that Ren Xiaosu would do something to her.


    She slept all the way until dawn when she suddenly woke up. Then she saw Ren Xiaosu move a chair over and sit down calmly next to her. Zhou Yingxue was immediately jolted awake as she quickly wrapped herself up in the nket. She carefully probed, ¡°What are you doing?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu calmly asked, ¡°Had a dream?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. ¡°How did you know... No, I didn¡¯t have any dreams!¡±


    ¡°Then what did you mean when you said those words in your sleep?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°What did I say?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a deadpan expression, ¡°You were saying that you wanted to kill me.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was so scared she almost cried. ¡°I was just talking in my dream. Who takes the things that people say while dreaming seriously?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not argue with her. He got up and said, ¡°Go and wash up. We have business to handle.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue quickly got out of her nket on the couch. ¡°What business?¡±


    ¡°We have a mission.¡±


    A text message had appeared on their cell phones at the same time. ¡°The target in Stronghold 73 is Zhou Xilong. He advocated the development of nuclear weapons and once took his subordinate¡¯s wife for himself. He¡¯s suspected to be protected by a superhuman. A-rank. Reward: 1 million yuan. Up to five people can work in a group for the mission, and all will receive rights to use the safe house and be protected by us upon being pursued by the enemy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ced the cell phone into his pocket. He had to carry it around at all times. If he put it away in the pce, he would not receive any texts.


    However, he suddenly felt that the Anjing House and the Saboteurs seemed to have amon goal in that they both had a hostile attitude towards nuclear weapons. Could there be any connection between the Anjing House and the Saboteurs? But he had not heard Yang Xiaojin mention it before.

 Chapter 499 - Ren Xiaosu’s problem-solving method

    <h4>Chapter 499 Ren Xiaosu¡°s problem-solving method</h4>


    Even among the A-rank hitmen, there were very few superhumans. Therefore, it should be just enough to hire several A-rank hitmen to deal with the big shots of these consortiums.


    Dealing with the Pyro Company, though, would prove to be a bit more difficult.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was looking forward to any mission that would require him to deal with the Pyro Company, because it would be more challenging for him.


    At this moment, the telephone in the room rang. When Zhou Yingxue went to pick up the phone, she heard a pleasant voice say, ¡°The guest in Room 1209 has entrusted the hotel to extend an invitation to those interested in working in groups. If you¡¯re interested, you can go straight to Room 1209.¡±


    ¡°Alright, got it.¡± After Zhou Yingxue hung up, she looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Shall we go?¡±


    ¡°This hotel is amazing. They can actually be entrusted to assign missions to the hitmen directly? How far is Stronghold 73 from here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°I think it should be quite far, right? I¡¯ve never received any missions over there before. Is it possible that the missions are assigned ording to different regions?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s around 600 kilometers away from here. Actually, I don¡¯t really want to ept this mission,¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°because I¡¯ve never been to Stronghold 73 before, and I¡¯m not familiar with that ce at all. However, the Anjing House does assign missions ording to regions. It seems that if you¡¯re in the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory, you¡¯ll only receive missions rted to the Wang Consortium. But in this ck market, it¡¯s a little special. As long as you¡¯re here, you can receive missions rted to all three consortiums.¡±


    Realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. So this was the reason. It was no wonder Zhou Yingxue said that a lot of hitmen came here to stay in the ck market afterpleting their missions. Not only could they enjoy themselves at the vice establishments, but they could also receive more missions here!


    The location of this ck market was really unique.


    He said to Zhou Yingxue in a serious tone, ¡°Then let¡¯s hurry to Stronghold 73 in case someone steals our mission away. Also, I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be necessary to work on this mission with others. The two of us should be good enough.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue heard something very interesting. ¡°Do you have topete for D-rank missions with others?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Don¡¯t you have topete for A-rank missions with other people as well?¡±


    ¡°Of course not!¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°As long as someone forms a party and jointly submits the mission application to the Anjing House, the mission will not be given to other people. And the Anjing House will assess whether your team is qualified enough to ept the mission. If not, it won¡¯t be approved. Therefore, they definitely won¡¯t approve our application if we apply for it using my status as a single A-rank hitman.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu finally understood. So it turned out they would still need to form a party with others after getting promoted to A-rank? Under normal circumstances, when the Anjing House allowed several people to work in a group for a mission, it would be easier to get approval for it if a team applied.


    Although it seemed like there was an additional condition, the hitmen had nothing toin about. Everyone believed in the capability of the Anjing House¡¯s intelligence gathering, and it was also for the sake of their safety by having every one form their parties freely for the job.


    ¡°Do you think we should ept this mission?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zhou Yingxue gave it some thought before saying, ¡°I think it¡¯s a bit dangerous since we¡¯re unfamiliar with the location. So it¡¯s better not to ept it.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go! We should have a look at what our teammates are like this time,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Zhou Yingxue was confused. ¡®Did you listen to what I said?¡¯


    After discussing for about ten minutes, Ren Xiaosu decided on taking on the mission. Zhou Yingxue followed him and rolled her eyes at his back for a long time. ¡®If you had already intended to ept the mission, you could¡¯ve just said so. What was the point of asking me for my opinion?¡¯


    However, Zhou Yingxue did not dare to speak even though she was angry. A maidservant had no rights toin.


    The two of them took the elevator to the 12th floor and headed to Room 1209. To their surprise, the door was already open when they arrived. They saw five people sitting inside, and one of them was Zhao Haocheng, the man Ren Xiaosu stopped outside the elevatorst night.


    The Anjing House had only allowed the hitmen to work in a group of five. So even if they had more people, the total reward would still be the same. So now that there were already five people in the room, it meant they might have gotten here toote.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself: ¡®So we still have topete for A-rank missions with other people after all....¡¯


    When Zhao Haocheng saw Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu, heughed and gloated, ¡°Unfortunately, there¡¯s no spot for you this time.¡±


    The other person, who was the upant of Room 1209, apologized to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but we already have enough people.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said coldly, ¡°Zhao Haocheng has a record of double-crossing his teammates. Are you still willing to carry out the mission with someone like him?¡±


    Zhao Haocheng¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°Zhou Yingxue, I¡¯m warning you! You better not nder people willy-nilly. You were the only one who returned afterpleting the mission at Stronghold 61. Why?! I doubt you can exin that, right?¡±


    ¡°At the very least, I won¡¯t double-cross my own teammates.¡± Zhou Yingxue sneered.


    The upant of Room 1209 remained as polite as before and said apologetically, ¡°Since there aren¡¯t many A-rank hitmen around and the social circle isn¡¯t that big, I, as the initiator of the mission, am not willing to offend the two of you. As such, I can only say firste, first served.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue turned around to leave while Ren Xiaosu followed her and acted obediently like an assistant.


    After they left, Zhou Yingxue was nning on returning to their room. However, Ren Xiaosu pressed the first floor button in the elevator. When he got downstairs, he headed straight out of the ck market.


    Zhou Yingxue asked, ¡°What are you doing? We can just go back to our room and continue waiting for another mission. You don¡¯t have to get so angry that you wanna leave this ce immediately, right?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna leave the ck market, but it has nothing to do with me being angry.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked strangely at Zhou Yingxue, giving her a look that wondered why she was so peculiar to think like that.


    Annoyed, Zhou Yingxue followed Ren Xiaosu andined, ¡°I wonder what those people are thinking! When that Zhao Haocheng double-crossed his teammates, he had not expected one of them to survive. However, very few people knew about this. The teammate who survivedter died due to the serious injuries he suffered. The dead tell no tales, so he¡¯s starting to act arrogantly again.¡±


    As they walked up a hillside, Zhou Yingxue saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly take out a sniper rifle. He acted like no one was around as he set up the gun andy down on the ground. Then he looked through the scope. ¡°Don¡¯t they have a full team? I¡¯ll wait for Zhao Haocheng toe out of the hotel and kill him. That way, we¡¯ll have a spot.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was shocked. ¡®So this is your way of thinking? If their team is full, you¡¯ll simply kill one of them so that they¡¯ll be short of people? This way, we can go on the mission with them!¡¯ What kind of logic is that?! Is this something a human would do?


    She still did not know that Ren Xiaosu had stolen more than 20 cell phones from a group of D-rank hitmen in order to carry out his own missions sessfully.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s way of solving problems had always been this straightforward!


    Ren Xiaosu nced at her. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that Zhao Haocheng double-crossed his teammates? I consider this getting rid of evil for the people.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue did not say anything else. Although she felt this method of killing Zhao Haocheng was a little violent, she still felt a little happy when she saw Ren Xiaosu standing up for her.


    ¡°Thank you for standing up for me,¡± Zhou Yingxue said softly.


    Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°Who cares whether you¡¯re angry at him. I just want to do the mission, that¡¯s all.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue suddenly became even angrier.

 Chapter 500 - Revenge

    <h4>Chapter 500 Revenge</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu was very particr about the position of his ambush. He had observed the terrain near the ck market and found there were only three exits around it. If the team were to head to Stronghold 73 at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory to conduct their mission, they would have to take the route Ren Xiaosu was ambushing.


    When Zhao Haocheng and the others drove out of the ck market, a sniper bullet prated the window of the off-road vehicle without any warning and killed Zhao Haocheng in the backseat.


    Next to Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue was watching quietly all this while and was a little puzzled. How did the young man next to her seem to know everything? He could even use a sniper rifle this well?


    She could just imagine how terrifying a supernatural being would be after learning how to snipe.


    Other snipers had to carefully guard against sneak attacks of supernatural beings in closebat. However, this young man before her did not have to worry about that at all. If normal supernatural beings sneak attacked him, they would only find that they could not beat him in closebat either.


    And now, a well-known A-rank hitman had died just like that. Ren Xiaosu really did not hesitate when it came to killing people.


    Ren Xiaosu stowed his sniper rifle and went down the hill. Zhou Yingxue followed and murmured, ¡°Will they still let you join their team after you¡¯ve killed their teammate?¡±


    ¡°Since Zhao Haocheng had to die no matter what, we¡¯re just gonna have to take it one step at a time,¡± Ren Xiaosu said slowly. In his opinion, if someone were always plotting against him behind his back or would possibly sabotage him in the future, he might as well just kill that person now.


    Ren Xiaosu had already said he was not a good person, and neither was he willing to be one.


    However, he asked, ¡°This team is also very strange. Even though they know that Zhao Haocheng is problematic, why did they still ept him as their teammate? Most people wouldn¡¯t want someone like him as their teammate. If it were me, I¡¯d rather offend him than work with him.¡±


    ¡°Who knows?¡± Zhou Yingxue said as she followed Ren Xiaosu.


    When they got down the hill, Zhou Yingxue reverted to her arrogant expression and walked towards the convoy with her assistant, Ren Xiaosu.


    By now, the other four A-rank hitmen in the convoy had already dumped Zhao Haocheng¡¯s corpse on the side of the road. They picked up a cloth to wipe down the interior of the vehicle as it was covered in blood.


    However, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue did not expect that when the other A-rank hitmen saw them, they actuallyughed happily. ¡°Wee aboard?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue wondered, ¡°Why does it look like you guys don¡¯t mind that your teammate¡¯s just been killed?¡±


    The upant of Room 1209 said with a smile, ¡°Let me introduce myself. My name is Wu Tong. My good friend was among the teammates Zhao Haocheng killed. I wanted to set a trap to kill him this time and thought it¡¯d be quite difficult since he was so alert. However, I didn¡¯t expect you to kill him with a sniper rifle. Speaking of, I still have to thank you for taking revenge for my friend.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that it made sense if it was like this. Otherwise, he really could not understand why the other party did not kick Zhao Haocheng out of their team. After all, they could choose their team members freely, and it was not like the Anjing House forcefully assigned Zhao Haocheng to them.


    So Zhao Haocheng had probably not expected that someone woulde after him for revenge.


    In such a person¡¯s world, he probably felt that no one would have any friends since he did not have any friends himself either.


    However, Wu Tong and the others thought of Zhou Yingxue as the sniper who opened fire just now. Wu Tong praised, ¡°I never expected that Ms. Zhou Yingxue is not only a superhuman but a sniper. No wonder you managed to wipe out the Pyro Company¡¯s Dusk in Stronghold 61.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu learned from Zhou Yingxue that the Pyro Company had actually gained the upper hand when she was fleeing. Not only was she seriously injured, but some of their team members had also been killed by the Pyro Company.


    However, everyone was now saying they had done a beautiful job and that the Pyro Company members werepletely wiped out.


    Something must have happened after Zhou Yingxue fled from Stronghold 61.


    On that night, the battle at Stronghold 61sted for a very long time. Ren Xiaosu suspected it was the Wang Consortium that had wiped out the Pyro Company butter imed it was the Anjing House¡¯s doing.


    In fact, the same thing happened at Stronghold 63. When Vani was conducting his mission, he retreated the moment he realized the members of the Pyro Company were fleeing in the direction of the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops.


    Ren Xiaosu always found that a little strange. Could it be that the Wang Consortium only appeared to be capturing the members of the Anjing House on the surface but were actually siding with them privately? Why was the Anjing House acting like the Wang Consortium¡¯s shadow then? Could it be that the two parties were somehow cooperating?


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu would probably be even more sure of this point if he knew about Qing Zhen¡¯s opinion of the Wang Consortium.


    But he could not understand what interests the Wang Consortium and Anjing House had inmon.


    Perhaps not even Qing Zhen understood.


    Wu Tong looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Ms. Zhou, this is...¡±


    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s my assistant, my spotter,¡± Zhou Yingxue said coldly.


    Ren Xiaosu paused for a moment, then convincingly took out a scope that was specifically used by spotters from his backpack.


    This kind of monocr had a professional, scientific name called the spotting scope. Its magnification and field of vision were much higher than that of a sniper rifle¡¯s scope. Even under poor visual conditions, the spotting scope would still clearly show thending point of a bullet in the distance so the sniper could be guided to correct the trajectory deviation.


    Under normal circumstances, snipers carrying out decapitation strikes would usually bring along a spotter who was equipped with a spotting scope. This spotting scope was even given to Ren Xiaosu by Yang Xiaojin. She probably did not expect that Ren Xiaosu had also be a sniper now.


    When Wu Tong and the others saw that Ren Xiaosu had even brought a spotting scope with him, they thought Zhou Yingxue must be quite the professional...


    Since he was her spotter, nobody asked any other questions. After all, it would be quite good to have a sniper in the group.


    But they did not know that Zhou Yingxue was already starting to feel uneasy. By using Ren Xiaosu to show off, she would definitely have to return the favor afterwards!


    However, she really enjoyed the envious looks of the others.


    During the entire day, the convoy only managed to travel 150 kilometers because of Zhao Haocheng¡¯s incident. Wu Tong estimated the time and calcted the remaining two days were enough for them to reach the vicinity of Stronghold 73.


    They nned to abandon their vehicles and travel on foot when they reached the periphery of Stronghold 73. From there, they would each think of a way to sneak into the stronghold and finally rendezvous at 191 Longyang Avenue, which was Wu Tong¡¯s safe house in Stronghold 73. Other than Zhou Yingxue, the other four A-rank hitmen mainly performed missions rted to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s strongholds.


    Wu Tong joked to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me y¡¯all don¡¯t have a way to sneak into the stronghold?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue calmly said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that.¡±


    After the tents were set up for the night, Zhou Yingxue went straight into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s tent. She exined while massaging his legs, ¡°There was really nothing I could do when they assumed I was the sniper. I can¡¯t exin to them that I¡¯m not a sniper, right?¡±

 Chapter 501 - 80/20 spli

    <h4>Chapter 501 80/20 spli</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu cast a sidelong nce at Zhou Yingxue. Seeing her attitude, he did not know what to say. ¡°Go ahead and pretend to be the sniper. I have no objections.¡±


    ¡°Then after the mission is aplished, the reward...¡± Zhou Yingxue carefully probed.


    ¡°We¡¯ll split it. I¡¯ll get 80% while you get 20,¡± Ren Xiaosu said while looking at her.


    ¡°I¡¯m only getting 20%?!¡± Zhou Yingxue said in disbelief.


    ¡°You have a problem with that?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at her seriously.


    ¡°No, no I don¡¯t!¡± Zhou Yingxue knew her own capabilities well enough. Although she was good at assassination, infiltration, and intelligence gathering, she was not someone who could handle a target like the member of an organization¡¯s Board of Directors. Therefore, just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, Zhou Yingxue had onlytched onto him because she realized he was trying to keep his identity hidden, so she took the initiative to act as his front. It was a win-win situation!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at her and suddenly said, ¡°Do you want to gain entry to the Anjing House?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Zhou Yingxue¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°I heard that after getting into the Anjing House, even if you don¡¯tplete a mission, you¡¯ll still receive a fixed amount of money!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snappe, ¡°Dream on! You definitely still have to contribute something. But if you really want to get in, I can help you!¡±


    ¡°What do you want in exchange?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked. She realized Ren Xiaosu wanted to get into the Anjing House as well!


    ¡°Alright, go back to your own tent. We¡¯ll talk about other matters after you get into the Anjing House,¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped.


    With that, he chased Zhou Yingxue out of the tent. What would it look like if he kept being seen with a woman alone? If word of this got out, what would he do if he suddenly got sniped?


    At this moment, the other A-rank hitmen outside were not yet asleep. They had quietly watched Zhou Yingxue enter Ren Xiaosu¡¯s tent earlier. After a dozen minutes, she came out again as though nothing had happened. When Zhou Yingxue exited from the tent, she was even tidying her hair.


    The A-rank hitman named Wu Tong sighed. ¡°As if he¡¯s a spotter. He¡¯s clearly a boy toy.¡±


    One of the hitmen said indifferently, ¡°It isn¡¯t that umon. Many hitwomen also seekfort after all the dangerous work they¡¯ve performed. Don¡¯t hitmen also visit brothels? It¡¯s all about equality.¡±


    Another person said, ¡°I¡¯m just afraid that that boy toy will drag us down when he gets into the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± Wu Tong smiled and said, ¡°We¡¯ve already discussed this, in fact. My informant has arranged for a way to get us into the stronghold together, but I told the two of them that we¡¯ll have to find our own way into the stronghold. If he¡¯s really a boy toy, we¡¯ll see if Zhou Yingxue can get him into the stronghold on her own. If he can¡¯t get in, he can¡¯t drag us down.¡±


    ¡°Hehe, Old Wu is so wise!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was lying down in his tent. He was holding a pistol in case anyone showed up and sneak attacked him in the night.


    Any slight movement would not escape his notice.


    Ren Xiaosu could not trust the other four hitmen at all. It was very likely that one of them might have ulterior motives.


    When Zhou Yingxue came over, he was not lying when he said he wanted to help her gain entry into the Anjing House. He really had a n.


    As a matter of fact, his goal was to eventually get the Anjing House to help him find Wang Fugui and the others, and the reason why he had been hiding his identity all this while was that he was afraid Wang Fugui and the others would get captured if the other party found out about his identity.


    ording to Zhou Yingxue, when a hitman reached A-rank, a paper crane would deliver a new cell phone to them.


    Other people might think the paper cranes were just folded pieces of paper that could not perceive their surroundings, but Ren Xiaosu knew those who had received the new cell phones would probably have their appearances memorized.


    He could hide his face, but that would still arouse the suspicion of others. Therefore, he might as well push Zhou Yingxue to the front while he operated behind the scenes. At least, that would leave him with some room to maneuver.


    Both stood to gain, so it was indeed a win-win situation for everyone.


    When they set off again the next day, the other A-rank hitmen looked at Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue with curious gazes. However, Ren Xiaosu did not pay much attention to them and just focused on ying the role of an assistant.


    But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, Zhou Yingxue seemed like she was really hooked on acting as the boss. She even asked Ren Xiaosu to make tea for her! It was as though she did not feel burdened acting in this way. Then she would hurry over at night to apologize.


    Actually, Zhou Yingxue found that letting others assume she was a sniper did not really make her feel that awesome or satisfied. Instead, she got the most kick out of having Ren Xiaosu make tea for her.


    Other people might not know Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity, but how could she not know? To have a supernatural being who was almost legendary brew tea for her, there was probably no need to mention just how great it felt!


    It was just that when she apologized at night, her arms got a little sore. Since she acted that way during the day, Ren Xiaosu thought he might as well not chase her away and just let her massage his legs until midnight. Only then did Zhou Yingxue learn to restrain herself a little.


    Ren Xiaosu realized Zhou Yingxue was quite an interesting character. She was the kind of person who would get cocky with just a little praise.


    There was an old saying specifically for people like Zhou Yingxue. Spare the rod and spoil the child. They would constantly test the limits of how far they could go without getting punished.


    When the team arrived outside of Stronghold 73, the members parted ways. They hid the vehicle in the wilderness to the north, specifically covering it with a green camouge tarp.


    After the others left, Zhou Yingxue switched back to her role as the maid. She busied herself around Ren Xiaosu, even taking out an apple from her backpack and peeling it for Ren Xiaosu to eat.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°What methods do you spies usually use to sneak into the strongholds? You probably don¡¯t have to resort to hiding underneath a truck, right?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°That¡¯s basically how we do it, unless we have a lot of connections in the area. In that case, the private troops will secretly let us in and receive a reward for their help. Some of the private troops can even receive hundreds of thousands of yuan each time they ept a bribe. That¡¯s basically enough to cover 20 years of their sry.¡±


    ¡°Then do you have any ideas?¡± Ren Xiaosu found a tall hill to observe the vicinity of Stronghold 73 with his spotting scope. To his surprise, he saw the other four hitmen board a vehicle in the wilderness that had driven out of a ughterhouse.


    It turned out they already had a way to get into the stronghold. It was just that they didn¡¯t want Zhou Yingxue and him to get in the same way as them.


    However, this wasn¡¯t a big problem as the four hitmen were not obliged to give them any help either. The problem was that Ren Xiaosu had realized the security check at the stronghold¡¯s gate was extremely strict. Other than that vehicle from the ughterhouse, the other vehicles that were going in and out of the stronghold were all required to open up their cargo holds for inspection. It would not be realistic to think they could get in by hiding underneath a truck.


    It would be easy for him to solve this problem since he could just scamper over the walls and get in. But what about Zhou Yingxue? As the spotter, he couldn¡¯t possibly leave the sniper outside and get in by himself, could he? Would there still be a need for him if that were the case?


    However, Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°I can control a nt to open up an underground tunnel. The stronghold with the deepest walls is Fortress 178, but even the foundation of Fortress 178 only goes down 27 meters. My nts can easily dig a tunnel through that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started to look at Zhou Yingxue in a new light. So it turned out her superpower to control nts was actually quite useful. However, this floral supernatural being was still a little stranger than he had thought. She could dig tunnels.

 Chapter 502 - Zhou Yingxue’s suppressive fire

    <h4>Chapter 502 Zhou Yingxue¡°s suppressive fire</h4>


    In this world, strange superpowers were constantly emerging. Without seeing it with their own eyes, no one would know just how many strange beings there were in existence.


    When night fell, Ren Xiaosu quietly led Zhou Yingxue outside the stronghold. Then Zhou Yingxue ¡°took¡± out a seed and threw it onto the ground. Without needing to dig any holes or water it, the seed started sprouting immediately and grew rapidly.


    Ren Xiaosu could hear the muffled sound of the earth rumbling, but he could not tell that anything was going on underground. The nt that sprouted from the ground did not seem like it had grown very tall and looked at most asrge as a coriander nt.


    However, when Zhou Yingxue pulled the green nt out of the ground, the ground suddenly opened up into a one-meter-wide tunnel. Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Just jump right in. I plucked it out early, otherwise, it could have used its roots to create an evenrger space underground.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s thergest size it can create?¡±


    ¡°About the size of a room,¡± Zhou Yingxue said.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered about a room being created at will several dozen meters under the ground. This fucking power would be such an easy way to build a bomb shelter!


    ¡°You head down first.¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°I¡¯ll follow you.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue pursed her lips at the thought of him not trusting her.


    However, she did not make a fuss about it. She just contorted her body and crawled into the tunnel. As she was crawling inside, she caught a glimpse of some light behind her and wondered if Ren Xiaosu was secretly peeking at her from behind. Although Zhou Yingxue was cursing at how shameless he was, she did not dare to protest.


    But when they got out of the tunnel, Ren Xiaosu said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Head to the rendezvous point first. I still have something I need to attend to.¡±


    After saying that, Ren Xiaosu handed a long case to Zhou Yingxue and told her that there was a sniper rifle inside it. He wanted her to carry it with her.


    The main purpose of doing so was to confuse Wu Tong and the others. After all, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s current persona was that of a sniper, so carrying the long case on her back would only make her look more like one.


    After he dealt with that, Ren Xiaosu left Zhou Yingxue behind in the stronghold alone. She hurriedly nted some nts to cover the entrance of the tunnel but was left with a sense of helplessness. Didn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu promise to help her with the mission? So why did he leave right after getting into the stronghold?


    Fortunately, this wasn¡¯t the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold. Otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t be so sure that she could avoid all of the surveince cameras on her own.


    Zhou Yingxue rushed all the way to the rendezvous point. How the Zhou Consortium¡¯s strongholds differed from the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds was that even if you were to sneak into one of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s strongholds, no one would care about you even if you openly swaggered down the streets.


    If it were the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds, the artificial intelligence would probably have already reported the presence of an intruder to the police.


    After arriving at the meeting ce, Zhou Yingxue knocked on the door and went inside. The other hitmen asked, ¡°Where¡¯s your assistant?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue answered calmly, ¡°I got him to handle some matters.¡± What else could she say?


    The hitmen looked at each other andughed in their heads. That boy toy really couldn¡¯t get into the stronghold after all!


    However, they did not explicitly remark about it. After all, Zhou Yingxue was a superhuman and a sniper at that, too, so of course they could not afford to offend her.


    Wu Tong brought out a huge map and said, ¡°I have an informant on my side who helped me find out about Zhou Xilong¡¯s daily routine. Every morning, he sets off from Red Pine Lane and passes by Jianghan North Road, Liberation Avenue, and Sanyang Road before arriving at his office. At night, he attends some social engagements, but the location isn¡¯t permanent. However, he tends to return home to his residence at Red Pine Lane after that.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue quietly observed the reactions of the other hitmen and noticed they looked a little distracted. It was obvious they had already been briefed, but Wu Tong was just repeating it to her.


    The four people before her had already formed a clique.


    Wu Tong continued, ¡°We have two ns. One is to ambush him on his way to the office, and the other is to ambush him at the entrance of Red Pine Lane when he returns at night. Both ns have their pros and cons. The morning n is more likely to seed as he¡¯ll definitely pass through that route every day, but the disadvantage is that it won¡¯t be convenient for us to retreat after taking action in the daylight. The night n will give us the advantage to retreat safely. Visibility in the night is worse, so it¡¯ll be more difficult for the enemy to pursue us.¡±


    After Wu Tong finished speaking, Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Have you all nned the retreat route yet?¡±


    ¡°No, but the same rule applies. We¡¯ll leave based on our own capabilities.¡± Wu Tong smiled.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go with the night n.¡± Zhou Yingxue smiled calmly and said, ¡°We can¡¯t throw away our lives over a mission, right?¡±


    ¡°Alright, since the superhuman has said so, we¡¯ll prioritize the night n and carry out the decapitation strike in the vi at Red Pine Lane,¡± Wu Tong said and nodded.


    ¡°How many people are there escorting him every day? And how many guards are stationed at the vi?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked with a frown.


    Wu Tong said, ¡°They have a total of seven guards spread out between two vehicles. The vehicles are bulletproof, and it¡¯s always the same person sitting by the target¡¯s side. That¡¯s probably his aide or the superhuman that was mentioned in the mission brief. As for what the superhuman¡¯s power is, we aren¡¯t sure either. These people also stay overnight in the vi.¡±


    At this point, a person next to Wu Tong said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°There¡¯s a tall building in the vicinity of Red Pine Lane. The four of us will attack the vi sometime during the night. At that time, Ms. Zhou, you can choose your preferred sniping spot and provide us with suppressive fire. If anyone uses the windows as cover and tries to stop us, we¡¯ll be depending on Ms. Zhou to help us take care of them. Our proposed time of operation will be tonight.¡±


    In fact, the most difficult part of a decapitation strike was how to get ahold of the target¡¯s schedule and how to identify their location. Once they could find the target, everything could proceed smoothly.


    The person they were going to kill this time was not an elusive target. Wu Tong¡¯s informant had even made preparations for them beforehand, so that saved them a lot of trouble.


    Therefore, since all the preparations were in order, they might as well strike fast.


    Furthermore, the n the four hade up with was definitely not that simple. They probably did not want to say it because they did not want Zhou Yingxue to know about their n.


    Zhou Yingxue said calmly, ¡°No problem.¡±


    But after saying that, she started panicking on the inside. They were going to take action tonight, but Ren Xiaosu had yet toe back from whatever he had gone to do. How was she supposed to provide suppressive fire for the others?


    However, Zhou Yingxue thought that even though she had not been specially trained to handle a sniper rifle, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem for her to hit a nearby target with the help of a scope. After all, she was trained as a soldier in the Yang Consortium¡¯s military, so she had handled a sniper rifle before.


    She quietly left the safe house. After locating Red Pine Lane, she scouted for a tall building nearby. It wasn¡¯t easy for her to find an observation spot that was close enough, but when Zhou Yingxue went up to the rooftop and opened the case that Ren Xiaosu had given her...


    She discovered it was filled with bricks...


    Zhou Yingxue was so angry she nearly wanted to curse out loud. That shameless Ren Xiaosu! Never mind that he had disappeared, but he did not even leave her with a sniper rifle? Was she supposed to rely on these bricks to provide suppressive fire for the rest of the team tonight? Use the bricks to smash the ss windows of the vi?!

 Chapter 503 - Stirring up the biggest trouble in Stronghold 73

    <h4>503 Stirring up the biggest trouble in Stronghold 73</h4>


    Indeed, Wu Tong had already formed a clique with the other three members. They had excluded Zhou Yingxue from the mission nning and had her provide suppressive fire for them instead. On one hand, it did not matter even if Zhou Yingxue was of no help to them. Wu Tong and the others had actually nned to kill Zhao Haocheng before they conducted the mission here. This meant the four of them were confident ofpleting the mission by themselves.Of course, Wu Tong and the others were now looking forward to what Zhou Yingxue could do after she had killed Zhao Haocheng with a single shot a few days ago while they were moving at high speed. That shot was simply ruthless. It would be good if she could contribute by providing suppressive fire for them.


    On the other hand, Wu Tong¡¯s preparation for this mission seemed to have involved the upper echelons of the stronghold. Therefore, Wu Tong was not keen on letting Zhou Yingxue know about his connections.


    Zhou Yingxue could also guess that this was the case. Wu Tong¡¯s informant had already found out about Zhou Xilong¡¯s schedule before they got here. So it was obvious the informant was not a normal person.


    Moreover, Wu Tong and the others had decided to make their move on the very same day they entered the stronghold because they had received very reliable news that two bodyguards were going to pick up their target¡¯s daughter from school today. After that, the bodyguards would send the target¡¯s daughter to his ex-wife¡¯s ce for the weekend before returning on Monday.


    This was a godsend.


    Now that their clique had excluded her, Zhou Yingxue was happy to get some peace and quiet. Of course, it would also be better if she couldplete the mission with their help. After all, she would still get rewarded when Wu Tong and the rest finished the mission sessfully.


    But the problem was that even if she were going to remain a bystander in this battle, it would be better to do so with a sniper rifle in her hands. What was she supposed to do with a case of bricks?


    But right now, it was not how the mission would turn out that made her angry! It was because Ren Xiaosu was really too undependable!


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu had already located the target of the D-rank mission outside of Stronghold 73. All he needed to do now was to kneel in wait for more cell phones to be delivered to him.


    Other people would subconsciously think of the 20,000 yuan reward when they saw a D-rank mission get issued. But it was different for Ren Xiaosu. His thoughts turned straight to getting his hands on several more cell phones instead!


    Didn¡¯t Zhou Yingxue say a cell phone could fetch up to several hundred thousand yuan on the ck market? Therefore, this was much more valuable thanpleting a mission!


    Earlier in the tunnel when Zhou Yingxue saw a light behind her, she thought Ren Xiaosu was trying to sneak a peek at her. But actually, Ren Xiaosu had received a notification for a mission at Stronghold 73. Moreover, a C and D-rank mission had been issued at the same time.


    Ren Xiaosu nned onpleting the D-rank mission first, then move on to finishing the C-rank mission. However, he did not know if he could make it in time.


    In his opinion, Zhou Yingxue and the others would definitely need a few days of preparation toplete their A-rank mission. After all, it was only wise to be cautious when it came to an A-rank mission.


    Truthfully, Ren Xiaosu could not have expected them to pick tonight to execute the mission.


    But so what? What could be more important than him stealing more cell phones?


    This time, Ren Xiaosu did not use his previous cell phones to conduct the missions. Instead, he switched to a cell phone he had just gotten today to ept the missions. In any case, the mission rewards were always paid out each time a mission waspleted, and it was always credited to an anonymous ount too, so it did not really affect him.


    In the dead of night, Ren Xiaosu thought about his situation carefully. He would also admit that he had gone overboard. His actions did not help him in keeping a low profile.


    Ren Xiaosu changed into a hoodie and covered his head with the hood. Although there were no surveince cameras in Stronghold 73, he still had to be careful, right?


    Afterpleting the D-rank mission, Ren Xiaosu rushed over to conduct the C-rank mission. After confirming the mission had not been done by anyone yet, Ren Xiaosu felt quite happy. Was it because there were no C-rank hitmen in Stronghold 73? Why was there no onepeting for the mission?


    In the end, something a little unexpected happened. When Ren Xiaosu saw the mission details, he realized his target this time was a mob boss in Stronghold 73. There was no point in reasoning with such a person, and all that he needed to do was to go up to him and finish the job.


    However, he did not expect that when he pushed open the door of the gang¡¯s headquarters in a spa care center, the entire gang would be in the middle of a meeting.


    Ren Xiaosu saw a group of men with tattoos standing in the lobby and being lectured by the target. When the group of men saw someone push open the door and enter the spa, they all turned around in unison and looked at the uninvited guest with an imposing manner.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind, wasn¡¯t this just a gang? Why would criminals be holding a meeting?!


    Time waited for no man, and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s time was very precious!


    Oh well, better to just attack first and think about itter! Ren Xiaosu even closed the door behind him after going in!


    There were already a few C-rank hitmen lying in wait outside the spa. It was not that they did not want to perform this mission, but that they were too scared to do it. No matter what, they would have to wait for the meeting to end first, right? There were dozens of people inside, after all.


    In the end, they saw Ren Xiaosu, who was wearing a ck hoodie, walk right into the lobby. As Ren Xiaosu covered himself very well, they did not manage to see his face clearly.


    No one thought that Ren Xiaosu would be a hitman. After all, none of the C-rank hitmen would be so bold and aggressive as him to go straight into the lobby to aplish the mission.


    However, immediately after Ren Xiaosu went inside, they heard some loud gunshots...


    The C-rank hitmen outside all pissed their pants. ¡°That person who just went in is a hitman just like us?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s dozens of people inside, and he went inside just like that?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s definitely gonna rest in pieces!¡±


    ¡°So are we still gonna conduct the mission or not? I didn¡¯t expect to meet such a formidable counterpart here.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we just give up? Police sirens are already wailing in the neighboring street. I don¡¯t want to get arrested with them.¡±


    But before they coulde to a decision, these hitmen saw Ren Xiaosu push open the door of the spa from inside. Then he headed north as if nothing had happened and disappeared amid the pedestrians. There wasn¡¯t even a drop of blood on him.


    In the duration that the spa¡¯s door was open just now, the C-rank hitmen vaguely heard some screams and saw traces of blood on the inside.


    Actually, these C-rank hitmen should be d they had not made a move earlier. Because of that, they were not exposed to Ren Xiaosu as C-rank hitmen. Otherwise, he would have taken them all down as well.


    When the few C-rank hitmen saw the terrible situation in the spa and heard the police sirens getting closer, they turned around and left. They had encountered a fearsome outsider today, so they realized they could not stay here any longer.


    ¡°Is this something a C-rank hitman does?¡±


    ¡°Is this something a human does?!¡±


    ...


    ¡°No one does something like that!¡± Zhou Yingxue uttered indignantly as she sat on the roof with a brick in hand.


    It was about to turn dark, yet Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure was still nowhere to be seen. If he had gone to the meeting ce and saw that the team was not there, he should have rushed over to Red Pine Lane. After all, the target¡¯s address was specified on the attached map in the mission briefing.


    But even after waiting for a long time, she still did not see Ren Xiaosu anywhere.


    At this moment, instead of Ren Xiaosu turning up, Zhou Yingxue heard the sound of gunshots in the distance.


    The gunshots were so sharp that Zhou Yingxue suddenly looked up. She stood on the roof and looked in the direction of the gunshots while wondering if something had happened to Ren Xiaosu.


    Zhou Yingxue subconsciously thought of Ren Xiaosu not because she was hoping that something would happen to him, but because she was truly very worried. Would it affect them if something unexpected were to happen in Stronghold 73 just as they were about to carry out their mission?


    And right now, in Stronghold 73, Ren Xiaosu was the biggest question mark of all

 Chapter 504 - A black swan even

    <h4>504 A ck swan even</h4>


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s guess was pretty urate. The gunshot she heard was from Ren Xiaosu as hepleted his mission at the gang¡¯s headquarters. Moreover, thismotion had caused the stronghold¡¯s troops to be deployed.The entire stronghold¡¯s management was alerted as they never expected a shooting would happen in their peaceful stronghold.


    Would the gunshots affect the A-rank mission?


    The short answer would be ¡°yes.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue waited on the rooftop while Wu Tong and the others blended into the crowd on the street below. They had nned on pretending to be pedestrians to observe their surroundings. But when the gunshots rang out, all of the stronghold residents headed home. Only Wu Tong and the others were left standing in the streets as they continued to stubbornly pretend to be pedestrians.


    Someone shouted at them from a window, ¡°People, hurry on home already. Don¡¯t be wandering around out here! It¡¯s dangerous! Didn¡¯t you hear the gunshots?¡±


    Everyone else had left after they heard the gunshots. As such, the few who remained out on the streets stuck out like a sore thumb.


    Quick-witted, Wu Tong gave some hand signals to the hitman beside him and pretended to be deaf and mute.


    Wu Tong was embittered. He did not know what was going on. The missions he usually did would proceed quite smoothly, but why was nothing going well this time?


    Zhou Yingxue was rejoicing up on the roof with the brick in hand, thinking of how fortunate she was to not be downstairs.


    However, the gunshots did not only affect Wu Tong and the others. It also affected Zhou Xilong¡¯s schedule.


    The target, Zhou Xilong, was a very cautious person to begin with. He would usually take seven bodyguards with him whenever he went out in the stronghold. If that wasn¡¯t being cautious, what was?


    Of course, the most cautious person Ren Xiaosu had ever met was still Qing Zhen. He went as far as moving into the military barracks and living there.


    Ren Xiaosu also did not expect the gang to possess guns. Even though the strongholds in the Southwest and Northwest were chaotic, gun control measures there were still quite strict. It would be fantastic for a small gang to own knives.


    But of course, this gang only had two guns in their possession. In normal times, the deterrent of guns was much greater than their actual power. Actually, the members of the gang did not dare to fire the weapons either. At most, they would bring it out to the wilderness to feel its might. These guns were actually secretly bought from the private troops.


    If it weren¡¯t for the fact that the situation called for the guns to be used, they would probably not get to use them again in the future.


    But unfortunately, the first time the mob boss fired his gun in the stronghold, nobody but him ended up dying.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was making his way to the meeting ce. He did not know that Zhou Yingxue and the others had already headed over to Red Pine Lane.


    A vehicle from the Public Order Division drove past him, but it did not notice him. From his appearance, he was just a normal young man who did not look like a hitman.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked into the distance. The sunset cascaded in the evening sky as the golden glow enveloped his skin like warm seawater.


    He did not care how great amotion he had caused in the stronghold. All he felt was that everything was going pretty smoothly today!


    ...


    Wu Tong and the others did not see Zhou Xilong¡¯s convoy returning home evente into the night. It was as if the gunshots that rang out earlier had caused their target to quickly move to another location.


    Furthermore, his informant even called him on the satellite phone to inform him that someone had already picked up Zhou Xilong¡¯s daughter an hour ahead of schedule while she was still attending ss. It seemed that Zhou Xilong was already alerted.


    Seeing that they could notplete the mission today, they decided to retreat. Zhou Yingxue waited until more pedestrians reappeared on the streets before leaving the rooftop with the long case slung over her back.


    When they arrived back at the outside of the safe house, they saw that the lights were on. Wu Tong frowned. ¡°Could someone have leaked the news andpromised my safe house?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± A hitman said, ¡°I can hear someone cooking inside....¡±


    Everyone was at a loss for words. What kind of strange situation was this? Disregarding the fact that someone had barged into the safe house in the middle of the night, the intruder even ended up cooking inside?


    They could even smell the aroma of food!


    ¡°Fuck! Let¡¯s just go in and have a look.¡± Wu Tong clenched his teeth and took out a key to open the door. If the Zhou Consortium had already discovered his safe house, then it meant they had enough information on him. If he did not check out the situation right now, he would have to leave the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory to seek refuge elsewhere.


    As soon as he entered, Wu Tong saw Zhou Yingxue¡¯s assistant walk out of the kitchen. Her assistant greeted him, ¡°Hey, you guys are back already? Have you eaten yet? I didn¡¯t cook for y¡¯all. Also, your stove¡¯s gas tank¡¯s almost empty. Remember to fill it up tomorrow.¡±


    Everyone was dumbfounded. They looked at Zhou Yingxue to hear her calmly say, ¡°I had him contact an informant, so he waste.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue asked, ¡°Have you gotten in touch with the informant? Did he say why there were gunshots in the stronghold today? That incident seems to have affected our mission as Zhou Xilong did not appear as nned.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized something. ¡°Oh, yes, I was told the gunshots were caused by a gang war. Someone took out an entire gang at the spa.¡±


    Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. So it was due to a ck swan event like that.


    The ¡°ck swan event¡± referred to an unexpected event that resulted in a series of severe chain reactions.


    Ren Xiaosu termed this a tiny moth event. In any case, they were both sort of grayish and could also fly.


    Zhou Yingxue pulled Ren Xiaosu onto the balcony and muttered, ¡°Was it you that caused all that? Do you know how badly it would affect me if you suddenly left? They said they were going to conduct the mission today, but you ended up not being around. I nearly started panicking because of that! What if they really made a move today and you didn¡¯t make it back on time?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Look, even though they said they were going to conduct the mission today, I made sure they couldn¡¯t. It doesn¡¯t matter what they say.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. ¡®How can you be so overly confident!¡¯


    ...


    Outside the stronghold, a convoy of vehicles was driving in from the west. They had yet to hand over the customs documents to enter the stronghold when Luo Lan, who was sitting in the vehicle, eximed in admiration when he heard the gunshots, ¡°This is so exciting! The strongholds in the Central ins are not as safe as I would have imagined. There¡¯s actually a shooting happening in broad daylight?¡±


    Next to him, Zhou Qi rolled his eyes. ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried that you¡¯ll get hurt in such an exciting ce? You must be aware that you only answer to one person in the Qing Consortium now, and that you¡¯re above everyone else. You¡¯ll get to enjoy a lifetime of glory and wealth. As the saying goes, ¡®The son of a wealthy family does not sit under the eaves; a gentleman does not stand under a shaky wall.¡¯[1]¡±


    Luo Lan chuckled. ¡°Where¡¯s the fun in that? What I like most are exciting ces like these. In the past, the Southwest was quite an interesting ce, and just thinking about it makes me so excited! Now that the Southwest hase under the control of the Qing Consortium, the matters I have to handle every day have be so trivial. Matters like a power struggle between the Public Order Division and the Audit Department or an applicant rmendation from a certain family seeking a good job position! What kinda nonsense is that!¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s a good thing. If someone asks you for help, it means there¡¯s money to be had!¡± Zhou Qi¡¯s eyes lit up.


    ¡°Am I someone whocks that bit of money?¡± Luo Lan gave Zhou Qi a sidelong nce. ¡°You have to take a long-term view of things. We¡¯re people destined for bigger things.¡±


    ¡°Was that why you volunteered to Qing Zhen toe to the Central ins? And he even agreed to it too?¡± Zhou Qi said in a speechless manner.


    ¡°Of course. I came to the Central ins to stir up trouble. I wouldn¡¯t go anywhere if there was nothing promising about the ce!¡±


    ¡°So why have wee to Stronghold 73?¡± Zhou Qi asked with a frown.


    ¡°Hehe, that Zhou Xilong from the Zhou Consortium has always advocated for the research and development of nuclear weapons. Although we probably won¡¯t get along with someone like that, we should still support him a little so the Zhou Consortium can help deflect some attention from us. That would be a good thing for us too.¡± Luo Lan smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s why we¡¯re meeting Zhou Xilong this time. The appointment is set for tomorrow.¡±


    [1] People important or revered should not put themselves in a dangerous situation.

 Chapter 505 - Liberation Park

    <h4>505 Liberation Park</h4>


    ¡°You won¡¯t be running off to do other missions again, right?¡± Zhou Yingxue stared intently at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression, as though she were trying to figure out something.Ren Xiaosu was unhappy. ¡°How can you use the word ¡®run¡¯? I also have proper business to attend to!¡±


    ¡°What proper business?¡± Zhou Yingxue was curious. She really wanted to know why Ren Xiaosu had caused all that trouble today.


    ¡°The D and C-rank missions, of course,¡± Ren Xiaosu said seriously.


    Zhou Yingxue felt really helpless upon hearing that. ¡®You¡¯re already a legendary supernatural being, so why are you stillpeting with the D and C-rank hitmen for their missions? Are you not ashamed?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How did the four of them do today? Did they behave strangely?¡±


    ¡°Nothing out of the ordinary. They just scouted the vicinity of the vi at Red Pine Lane in preparation for the assault tonight. As the streets were emptied of pedestrians after the gunshots rang out, we decided to retreat first,¡± Zhou Yingxue exined.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he ordered, ¡°Be careful of these four people. I think that if any idents happen during the mission, they¡¯ll likely join forces and try to turn us in.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue suddenly stopped speaking. The moment she said those words, she instinctively felt that something was off!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue in surprise. ¡°What did you just say?¡±


    ¡°Nothing.¡± Zhou Yingxue nearly cried at her own stupidity. ¡°Slip of the tongue.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gazed at her silently for half a minute. ¡°Let¡¯s eat. I¡¯ve cooked your share.¡±


    The two of them walked back into the house. Zhou Yingxue immediately turned cold and aloof. ¡°Assistant, bring me my food.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Zhou Yingxue did not even need any cooldown time for her to switch roles? Wu Tong, who was next to Ren Xiaosu, looked at him and said, ¡°Bring us our food too.¡±


    But Zhou Yingxue said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m the only one who can order my assistant around. You guys aren¡¯t allowed to. If you want to eat something hot, go make it yourself. You¡¯re all grown men, so why are youmanding my assistant?¡±


    From Zhou Yingxue¡¯s point of view, Wu Tong and the other three people had deliberately not shared their method of getting into the stronghold, and there were still other things they did not discuss with her. They were clearly trying to draw a line between them, and there was nothing wrong with doing so. ¡®But since you¡¯re being so clear about it, I definitely have to be clear as well.¡¯


    Moreover, she was worried that if Wu Tong really forced Ren Xiaosu to cook for the four of them, they might not need to eat in the future.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Sorry, I only prepared enough for two.¡±


    The dishes were simple: spicy and sour shredded potato, scrambled eggs with tomato, and stir-fried wild boar.


    This wild boar was that herd Ren Xiaosu had encountered on his way here from the Northwest.


    Wu Tong and the others ended up dryly chewing on hardtack next to Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue as they quietly watched them enjoy their hot meal. Wu Tong said coldly, ¡°This is a safe house. We have to be careful, so don¡¯t use the kitchen as you like.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Since this safe house is a home, don¡¯t you think it¡¯ll look suspicious if no one cooks when the lights are on at night, or if the stove¡¯s gas tank isn¡¯t even changed once a year? Don¡¯t underestimate the observation skills of your neighbors. They know full well the situation of your house. They probably even remember which day you made dumplings on.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue asked as she ate, ¡°Did your informant say what Zhou Xilong¡¯s next ns are?¡±


    Wu Tong nced at her. ¡°What¡¯s the maximum effective range of your sniper rifle?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said arrogantly, ¡°Any target within two kilometers won¡¯t be a problem.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked when she said that. He only had Master Firearms Proficiency, not Perfect like Yang Xiaojin. ¡®What a bold im on my behalf!¡¯


    When Wu Tong heard what Zhou Yingxue said, he felt relieved. ¡°Tomorrow, Zhou Xilong will be heading to Liberation Park as per his original n. He¡¯ll be meeting a VIP there. It¡¯s a private meeting. When the timees, the intelligence agency Zhou Xilongmands will be all over the entire park, so there might be over a 100 people there.¡±


    ¡°That many?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked with doubt, ¡°Then shouldn¡¯t we execute the n another day?¡±


    Wu Tong looked at Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu. ¡°When there¡¯s a lot of people, the enemy¡¯s vignce will be at its lowest. We¡¯ll have to rely on Ms. Zhou¡¯s sniping this time.¡±


    ...


    At 4 AM sharp, a number of sanitation workers entered Liberation Park to empty the trash cans there as well as clear the fallen leaves and litter.


    However, the sanitation workers today seemed a little special as they were all made up of strapping young men.


    Outside Liberation Park, a few ice cream trucks were already parked in the lot early in the morning. They looked like they were here to sell ice cream, but in fact, there were more than a dozen staff members busily working inside them.


    ¡°Position 10, test the audio equipment again,¡± someone inside a truck said into an earpiece.


    Then he heard a voice say ¡°testing, one, two, three¡± in his earpiece. The person in the truck said, ¡°Audio equipment checks areplete. Set up the next surveince point.¡±


    Such work was amon urrence for intelligence agencies all around. They were setting up the location for surveince to avoid any problems during the private meeting to be heldter in the day.


    It so happened that the surveince points had blocked all of the entrances and exits of the park, as well as any ¡°infiltration points¡± within Liberation Park.


    When dawn broke, some of the field crew in the vehicles changed into sportswear and took turns heading to the park for a morning jog. They looked just like normal stronghold residents going about their daily activities. Only five people remained inside the vehicles to monitor the surveince feeds. When they discovered any suspicious people, they would immediately lock on to the target¡¯s appearance in the surveince footage and run it through their database records.


    Such work continued for nearly six hours before Zhou Xilong¡¯s convoy arrived at the entrance of Liberation Park. After he got out of the car, he slowly walked in with two bodyguards protecting him. It was already 10 in the morning.


    Zhou Xilong was a middle-aged man, and his hair had already greyed. He was dressed in a navy blue suit that made him appear especially solemn. The bodyguard next to him was still deploying the field crew by giving orders into his earpiece. ¡°Position 6 needs to be filled by a squad. Position 7, pull out, you guys aren¡¯t blending in at all. Go back and write a self-criticism and submit it to me.¡±


    This person was just like the ¡°director general¡± for Zhou Xilong¡¯s operations, with all the field resources being deployed by him.


    Zhou Xilong sat down on a bench in the park. The nearest high ground was 1.2 kilometers away, and the snipers from the field team had already upied two high-rises within that range.


    But the person Zhou Xilong was meeting did not appear even after a long time. However, Zhou Xilong was not in a hurry either. He just sat calmly on the bench while his bodyguard stood right behind him.


    Not only that, but there was also a fully armed secret service on standby for orders in the nearby bushes.


    It wasn¡¯t until 11 AM that Luo Lan¡¯s convoy suddenly appeared at the park¡¯s entrance. That plump figure led 12 of his subordinates into the park casually. When he encountered the field crew dressed in inclothes, it was as though he did not see them at all.


    Luo Lan was wearing a pair of sunsses while Zhou Qi was yawning behind him. There was even a lipstick mark on the back of his neck that had not been wiped off.

 Chapter 506 - To shoot or no

    <h4>Chapter 506 To shoot or no</h4>


    Luo Lan came over to Zhou Xilong at the bench and sat down happily while the rest of his subordinates scattered to keep watch.


    Just as Zhou Xilong thought that Zhou Qi, who was following Luo Lan, would stand behind Luo Lan like his bodyguard had, Zhou Qi actually nudged Luo Lan to the middle of the bench so he could sit down as well.


    Zhou Xilong was even more surprised that Luo Lan was actually willing to make some room for Zhou Qi.


    All of a sudden, the three of them were huddled together on the bench, looking as odd as they could be. Luo Lan¡¯srge figure nearly even squeezed Zhou Xilong onto the ground!


    Zhou Qi closed his eyes to catch up on sleep. ¡°You guys go ahead and chat.¡±


    Luo Lanughed out loud. ¡°This is the chief secretary of our Qing Consortium, Zhou Qi.¡±


    Zhou Xilong smiled and said, ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s a brother of our n. May I know what business brought Boss Luo here to the Central ins?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing much.¡± Luo Lan smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s mainly because some of us in this world were born to be friends, so here I am to make a friend!¡±


    ¡°Although the Zhou Consortium and the Qing Consortium are very close, we¡¯re still separated by a mountain range and won¡¯t get to see each other. Why would the elder brother of the Qing Consortiume to be friends with our Zhou Consortium?¡± Zhou Xilong said nomittally.


    Luo Lan smiled and replied, ¡°I¡¯m not here to be friends with the Zhou Consortium. I¡¯m here to be friends with you, Zhou Xilong.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve always been a blunt person.¡± Luo Lan said with a smile, ¡°I heard Brother Zhou¡¯s group is supportive of the research and development of nuclear weapons within the Zhou Consortium but has never been able to convince the conservative Zhou Shiji to do so. That¡¯s why I¡¯m here to help you.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about that yet. I¡¯d like to know why Brother Zhou supports the research and development of nuclear weapons?¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°From what I know, there haven¡¯t been any wars in the Central ins for over a decade now. The Wang Consortium to the north has always been on good terms with everyone, the Qinghe Group is content with that little area they upy, and the Kong Consortium is very far away from you guys. Brother Zhou, who is it that you want to attack by developing nuclear weapons?¡±


    Zhou Xilong said calmly, ¡°Must I use it to attack others? Building a nuclear power nt is also a good thing.¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Luo Lan smiled and said, ¡°Actually, I know what you¡¯re thinking and who your enemy is. In this aspect, we have amon goal.¡±


    Zhou Xilong did not answer. Instead, he asked, ¡°Does the Qing Consortium really have a nuclear base? I heard that even the Saboteurs have not found it yet?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Luo Lan smiled and said, ¡°Of course!¡±


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you all use it against the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium?¡± Zhou Xilong asked.


    ¡°Um...¡± Luo Lan was hesitant.


    ¡°Even if you had some reservations against those two, why didn¡¯t you use it when you battled the Experimentals?¡±


    Luo Lan stopped talking.


    Zhou Xilongughed hard. ¡°So do you really have one?¡±


    The consortiums in the Central ins had always been wondering if the Qing Consortium had sessfully developed a nuclear weapon. Had it really been developed already? Or was it a lie to make others stay away from them?


    There were two reasons for suspecting this. On the one hand, the Saboteurs had yet to find the Qing Consortium¡¯s nuclear base.


    In recent years, the Saboteurs had already destroyed five nuclear test sites in the Central ins and assassinated around ten extremist scientists. Suddenly, everyone was deterred by the danger they were put in and no one dared to publicly dere they wanted to develop nuclear weapons anymore. But even so, Zhou Xilong still went about his life with a group of bodyguards protecting him every day and even spentrge sums to hire supernatural beings as his bodyguards too.


    Therefore, since the Saboteurs could not find it, did that mean the Qing Consortium was trying to mislead everyone?


    On the other hand, the Qing Consortium¡¯s war efforts in the Southwest were well-known. But in this war, the Qing Consortium did not even use any heavy payload tactical ballistic missiles. If they really had any, why did they not use them?


    Luo Lan said seriously, ¡°In the Southwest, I once used a particle beam produced by nuclear fusion shot through an astronomical distance to wipe out hundreds of millions of bugs.¡±


    Zhou Xilong didn¡¯t understand but thought it was amazing. ¡°Was it during the previous bug infestation?¡±


    Next to them, Zhou Qi finally opened his eyes. ¡°Weren¡¯t you just drying your nket in the sun? That¡¯s an old joke from before the Cataclysm. How many more times do you want to repeat it....¡±


    Zhou Xilong was confused.


    ...


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu, who was 1.8 kilometers away, was leading Zhou Yingxue up a tall building.


    Before entering the building, Ren Xiaosu tok a look at the pedestrians outside. Then he stopped in his tracks for a moment. However, he did not say anything.


    When they arrived on the rooftop, Ren Xiaosu chose the best observation spot and silently overlooked the park through his spotting scope.


    Zhou Xilong¡¯s subordinates did not have this area under surveince as the high ground here was too far away.


    It seemed they also believed there were very few snipers in the world who could hit a target from such a long distance. The snipers who could do this would not want to attack Zhou Xilong rashly either. After all, Zhou Xilong was not the leader of the Zhou Consortium.


    Zhou Yingxue was munching on melon seeds as she asked, ¡°What do you see? Let me take a look too.¡±


    As she spoke, she carefully discarded the melon seed shells into a small bag to prevent anyone from using them to get her DNA samples and input it into a database.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly put down the spotting scope. Although it was very far away, and others might not be able to recognize that person, how could he not recognize thatrge figure of Luo Lan?


    He wondered why this fatty had suddenlye to the Central ins. And he was even with the mission target, Zhou Xilong? So when Wu Tong said that Zhou Xilong was going to meet a VIP today, he was actually referring to Luo Lan!


    Wait! The mission text message said Zhou Xilong was an advocate of nuclear weapons development. That did seem rted to Luo Lan.


    At this moment, Wu Tong and the others were loitering in the vicinity of Liberation Park. However, they did not enter the park ording to their n even after a long time. Ren Xiaosu put down his spotting scope and picked up his sniper rifle again.


    Zhou Xilong was right in his sights. If he took the shot at this moment, Ren Xiaosu was confident he could hit Zhou Xilong.


    This was the reason why the various organizations were always very annoyed with snipers from opposing forces. It was simply too difficult to guard against them.


    The role of a sniper on the battlefield at the front lines was not that of stealth. But in a decapitation strike, even supernatural beings would have to be wary of the presence of a sniper. After all, not even they could not withstand a shot from a sniper when they were defenseless.


    But if he took the shot, what would happen to Luo Lan? He would probably get arrested by the Zhou Consortium immediately, right?


    However, Luo Lan would definitely not get into any big trouble. After all, the Qing Consortium was not to be trifled with due to their influence in the Southwest. Without any warning, the Qing Consortium had be thergest force in the entire Alliance of Strongholds.


    However, Luo Lan would certainly get locked up.


    Zhou Yingxue continued munching on melon seeds and asked, ¡°Are the conditions not right for shooting?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But the person next to Zhou Xilong is my friend.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. ¡°So you¡¯re gonna give up on the mission...¡±


    Before she could finish speaking, she saw Ren Xiaosu look into the scope. He was starting to seriously calcte the ballistic trajectory.


    The melon seeds in Zhou Yingxue¡¯s mouth dropped to the ground. Was that really his friend?


    So, was a friend or the mission more important?


    Ren Xiaosu had already made his decision. Money was the most important.


    Besides, he still had his follow-up ns.

 Chapter 507 - Master, save me!

    <h4>Chapter 507 Master, save me!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not take the shot immediately because the distance was way too far. Even Yang Xiaojin had once said even she could not guarantee she couldnd a hit if the range was greater than 1.6 kilometers. As the bullet would have to travel over a really long distance, it would take two to four seconds for the bullet to reach the target after pulling the trigger. This timing waspletely dependent on the bullet¡¯s travel speed.


    In that time, the bullet would be affected by various factors. It would no longer be traveling in a straight line but a graceful arc. The factors that would affect it would be things like Coriolis effect, gravity, wind speed, etc. Therefore, it would be hard to guarantee that nothing would go wrong during the bullet¡¯s flight.


    Luo Lan and Zhou Xilong were just too close to each other. Completing the mission was one thing, but Ren Xiaosu did not want to identally injure Luo Lan in the process.


    This private meetingsted for nearly an hour. Ren Xiaosu did not know what specifically Zhou Xilong and Luo Lan had said to each other, but they eventually shook hands and parted ways.


    Next to him, Zhou Yingxue wasining they had been chatting for too long. What was there so much to talk about between two grown men? She had even finished an entire bag of melon seeds!


    But she suddenly felt like the air had frozen. It was at this moment that Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger.


    The bullet flew through the air for a while.


    Zhou Yingxue suddenly turned around and looked at Liberation Park. She could not see the bullet¡¯s trajectory and could only feel Ren Xiaosu¡¯s concentration and determination from a moment earlier.


    The young man¡¯s profile was well-defined. While he waspletely focused on his task, his profile was like a work of art.


    In Liberation Park, blood suddenly burst out of Zhou Xilong¡¯s chest when Luo Lan had gotten a dozen meters away from him. When the bullet prated his body, a pink mist exploded in the opposite direction of the shot.


    When Luo Lan heard themotion behind him, he spun around and looked at Zhou Xilong¡¯s body in shock. He had a speechless expression on his face. ¡°My friend I just fucking made!¡±


    After an hour of discussion, both parties had finally confirmed the preliminary goals of the Qing Consortium and Zhou Xilong¡¯s coboration, and their professional negotiation teams still needed to iron out a lot of detailster.


    However, just as they hade to an agreement, the other party died!


    Luo Lan instinctively hid behind a tree and raised his hands. ¡°I didn¡¯t fucking do it!¡±


    His associate was dead, but so be it. However, if he were implicated as well, that would be fucking bullshit!


    As Luo Lan was shouting, his subordinates behind him surrounded him, huddling closely around him. They began to slowly move out of the park. Their defense was so tight that no one could see where Luo Lan was within the crowd of people.


    Even Zhou Qi had already condensed a stream of water vapor at his fingertips, set to kill at any moment.


    However, before Luo Lan and the others could walk out of the park, they were immediately stopped by Zhou Xilong¡¯s subordinates who said they were going to be arrested.


    Luo Lan¡¯s people wanted to resist, but Luo Lan justughed and said, ¡°This is their fucking stronghold, so where can we run to? C¡¯mon, let¡¯s go with them. We¡¯re innocent, anyway, so we¡¯ll definitely clear our names!¡±


    Meanwhile, on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side, he did not sit idle after killing Zhou Xilong. He decisively turned his gun on Wu Tong and the others. In just ten seconds, Wu Tong was the only remaining one of the four A-rank hitmen!


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and pulled Zhou Yingxue by the arm. ¡°It¡¯s time to retreat!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue followed Ren Xiaosu down the stairs in a daze. As they headed down, she realized there were a lot of dead people in the stairway. These people were all dressed in casual clothes but there were pistols scattered around their bodies.


    ¡°Who are these people?¡± Zhou Yingxue was stunned. ¡°Are they from the Zhou Consortium? Why did they appear here? And who killed them?¡±


    There were probably a dozen bodies lying in the stairway, but she had not heard anything just now.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a sneer, ¡°They were probably sent by Wu Tong¡¯s informant to stop us. Once wepleted our mission, they would surround this building and apprehend us. Then we would be scapegoated. If someone identally gunned us down amid the chaos, the case would be closed as such. The dead cannot testify, after all. The gun, ballistics, and rifling can all be matched to us, and the officer who caught Zhou Xilong¡¯s killers would probably get promoted two ranks as well.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was a little confused. So it turned out that something so dangerous had taken ce just now while she was munching on melon seeds?


    ¡°Did you stop for a moment before entering the building just now because you had already realized these undercover people were around?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    ¡°Is that why you decided to shoot Wu Tong and the others? But why didn¡¯t you kill Wu Tong?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°You said that you had a way to track down Wu Tong yesterday. Are you still confident in that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    The two of them ran downstairs. Ren Xiaosu had already pulled the hood over his head again, while Zhou Yingxue also covered her face with a scarf.


    The moment they exited the building, Ren Xiaosu checked the surroundings as they made a frantic run for it. There were already several undercover personnel approaching them. However, they seemed to be afraid of shooting openly in the streets.


    But after just two steps, Ren Xiaosu realized Zhou Yingxue was not following behind him anymore. When he turned around, he saw around six undercover personnel between her and him.


    Zhou Yingxue panicked. ¡°Master, save me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around impatiently and fired at them. Zhou Yingxue was a supernatural being, so why was herbat strength so weak!


    Stronghold 73 once again descended into chaos. After yesterday¡¯s turmoil, the residents already knew what they had to do. They quickly returned home to hide when they heard the gunshots.


    On the streets, vehicles from the Public Order Division passed by from time to time. The staff of the Public Order Division who were in charge of the stronghold¡¯s security were frantically searching for something. Using a building that was 1.8 kilometers from the park as the center, theyunched a manhunt that radiated out.


    However, during this manhunt operation, they only found the more than 20 corpses of the Public Order Division¡¯s undercover personnel and nothing more.


    The killer seemed to have disappeared into thin air and was nowhere to be found.


    At the same time, Stronghold 73 was put on lockdown, with no vehicles or personnel allowed to leave the stronghold. The four gates in the north, south, east, and west of the stronghold were also closed at the same time. Without the personal written order of the leader of the Zhou Consortium, Zhou Shiji, the gates were not to be opened.


    When night fell, the residents of Stronghold 73 were still panicking.


    Wu Tong stayed hidden for an entire day before quietly entering another safe house he had prepared. But just as he was about to heave a sigh of relief and close the door behind him, a cold, hard gun pressed against his back. He heard a familiar voice behind him. Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°It was really difficult to find you. Go on in. Raise your hands above your head and ce them where I can see them. Let¡¯s have a talk.¡±


    Wu Tong broke out in a cold sweat. ¡°What do you want?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and asked, ¡°Can you ask that informant of yours where Luo Lan is locked up for me?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s voice rang out behind him, ¡°Master, you wanna save Luo Lan?¡±


    Wu Tong was shocked. He had thought Ren Xiaosu was just a boy toy, so why did the two¡¯s identities suddenly switch? Ren Xiaosu had actually be the ¡°master¡± based on what Zhou Yingxue just said?! Why did it fucking sound like a maidservant in the olden days addressing her employer? What was with this feudalistic form of address! But just what kind of a person could make a superhuman address him as ¡°master¡± willingly?


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Of course I¡¯m going to save him. He¡¯s my friend!¡±

 Chapter 508 - The informan

    <h4>Chapter 508 The informan</h4>


    Inside the quiet house, a dim yellow light was shining. Ren Xiaosu pointed his pistol at Wu Tong, with the two of them seated in chairs across from each other.


    A professional killer like Wu Tong would have gone through all kinds of escape training. For example, he could distract the enemy to evade gunpoint.


    To people like him, being held at gunpoint might not necessarily mean death. In such a situation, they would have to find an opportunity to get away.


    But when Wu Tong faced Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue, he suddenly felt very helpless. These were two superhumans, so even if he could actually evade gunpoint, the oue would still be the same.


    It was terrifying for two superhumans to team up for a mission.


    No, they were not teaming up. This was one superhuman subservient to another. She even addressed him as her ¡°master.¡±


    To be honest, Wu Tong would also like to have a simr maidservant. Although Zhou Yingxue¡¯s looks could only be considered above average, she had a good figure!


    But this was no time to be thinking about that. Ren Xiaosu said to Wu Tong with a smile, ¡°You didn¡¯t expect us to find you, huh?¡±


    It was all thanks to Zhou Yingxue that he found Wu Tong. Although Ren Xiaosu¡¯sbat prowess was very strong, he did not have any expertise in searching and tracking people.


    But Zhou Yingxue¡¯s skill helped Ren Xiaosu make up for theck of that.


    She was able to conjure up three types of seeds in total. One was simr to the Brambles and could sprout from underground to kill enemies, and the second type could dig tunnels and open up an area that could be used as an underground hiding spot.


    The third type would grow into a short four-leaf clover after being nted, and Zhou Yingxue could crush the four-leaf clover to extract a juice that could be smeared on a target¡¯s body. They would then emit a grassy scent for up to three days that only Zhou Yingxue could smell.


    No matter how far the target went, she could follow the scent and find them.


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it and realized not every supernatural being had an extremely powerfulbat skill. It seemed that some supernatural beings were born with no talent in that area at all.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was looking across at Wu Tong. Wu Tong appeared rather calm, which was to be expected of a hitman who could reach A-rank.


    Wu Tong asked, ¡°We¡¯re on the same team. Why¡¯re you pointing a gun at me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you know what you¡¯ve done? Since I¡¯ve already killed the other three, I don¡¯t n on leaving you a way out.¡±


    ¡°You killed them?¡± Wu Tong¡¯s pupils constricted. ¡°You¡¯re the sniper? Then Zhou Yingxue...¡±


    He looked at Zhou Yingxue. Zhou Yingxue had started munching on melon seeds off to the side again.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°I don¡¯t have many questions for you. There¡¯s only two. If you answer them to my liking, I¡¯ll give you a quick death. But if you don¡¯t, I¡¯ll drag out your death over three days and three nights.¡±


    Wu Tong calmed down. This was the first time he had ever encountered such an interrogation method. ¡®If you have to interrogate someone, at least lie about letting the interviewee live.¡¯


    But the more it was like that, the more he could not muster up any resistance.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s begin. I want you to ask your informant.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Ask him where Luo Lan is being detained. Since he knows about the meeting at Liberation Park, it must mean that he holds a very important position in the stronghold. How do you usually contact him?¡±


    ¡°On the satphone,¡± Wu Tong answered, having decided to cooperate. He took out the satellite phone from his backpack. ¡°I¡¯ll ask him for you now.¡±


    After the call was made, Wu Tong said, ¡°Luo Lan has been imprisoned in the housing block at Houguan Lake. The Zhou Consortium is too scared to do anything to him. They¡¯re still providing him with good food and drink. They arrested him because they suspected he had brought some assassins in with him. But the Zhou Consortium isn¡¯t stupid either. They know Luo Lan doesn¡¯t have to do something like that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. Actually, anyone who was smart would know Luo Lan¡¯s motive foring here. So Fatty Luo would have no reason to finish off an ally he had just made. There was no enmity between them at all.


    But before finding the real culprit, it was impossible for Luo Lan to be released. He was still one of the suspects in this attack.


    Ren Xiaosu continued asking, ¡°So who¡¯s your informant?¡±


    Wu Tong was also a thug. Since he was about to die, why would he care about his informant¡¯s life? ¡°He¡¯s the director of the Public Order Division here. The overseer position in Stronghold 73 has been vacant for a while now, so he¡¯s set his sights on it. If someone assassinated Zhou Xilong, it would definitely shock the entire Zhou Consortium. So if he can solve the case, he¡¯ll be very highly regarded for sure. He might even have a chance to fight for the position as the stronghold¡¯s overseer.¡±


    ¡°Man dies for money; birds die for food.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Wu Tong had nned on conning Zhao Haocheng into bing a scapegoat for the mission. After Ren Xiaosu killed Zhao Haocheng, Wu Tong was worried about where to find another scapegoat. But in the end, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue came knocking on his door and offered themselves up.


    That was why Wu Tong was so happy at that time.


    ¡°Did Zhao Haocheng really kill your friend?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°He did kill his teammates, but that teammate was not my friend. I lied to you,¡± Wu Tong said calmly.


    ¡°That makes sense.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded again. How could a ruthless person like Wu Tong care about avenging a friend? All he had in mind were probably only schemes and fame.


    At this point, Ren Xiaosu signaled for Zhou Yingxue to turn off the recording pen. He even carefully recalled the entire conversation and was quite certain he did not reveal his identity once. Only his voice was recorded.


    Zhou Yingxue took out the recording pen and turned it off. Wu Tong said anxiously, ¡°Since I cooperated so readily, can I¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, he saw Ren Xiaosu had already stood up and left without even looking at him. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue carefully ced the melon seeds back into the bag before attaching a silencer to her pistol and shooting him in the chest.


    Wu Tong¡¯s vision blurred. He could vaguely make out Zhou Yingxue¡¯s slender figure turning away as she followed that young man out the door and into the darkness of the night.


    He faintly heard Zhou Yingxue say to that young man, ¡°Master, I¡¯m a little hungry.¡±


    The young man replied angrily, ¡°You¡¯re still hungry after eating so many melon seeds?!¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t really eat that much...¡±


    Wu Tong¡¯s consciousness stopped there as it returned to nothingness.


    Actually, there was nothing wrong with the operation this time, all except for one person he had not taken into consideration, the young man.


    Actually, what Wu Tong did not know was that Ren Xiaosu was actually quite disappointed with his answer.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought some mastermind behind the scenes was controlling him. But in the end, the other party was only the director of the Public Order Division. In Wu Tong¡¯s eyes, that was a big shot in the stronghold. But Ren Xiaosu felt like he had killed the directors of several Public Order Divisions already.


    Moreover, from the moment Ren Xiaosu stepped into this chaotic world, the people he hade into contact with were figures like Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, Yang Xiaojin, and Zhang Jinglin. He was patently uninterested in a lowly director of a Public Order Division who was only interested in scheming his way up.


    All of a sudden, the pce issued a mission. ¡°Quest: Save a friend in trouble.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu walked down the busy streets. Even if he did not get this quest, he would still go and save that person.

 Chapter 509 - No, you must leave!

    <h4>Chapter 509 No, you must leave!</h4>


    Stronghold 73¡¯s Houguan Lake was a famous neighborhood. Ren Xiaosu had nned to take Zhou Yingxue straight there, but Zhou Yingxue insisted that she was hungry.


    Zhou Yingxue exined patiently, ¡°Well, think about it. After we rescue Luo Lan, we still have to n a good escape route. After all, this is the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory. Even if we manage to escape from Houguan Lake, we¡¯ll still be inside their stronghold. So let me eat something first, and I¡¯lle up with a detailed escape n while eating....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°Alrighty.¡±


    It had to be said that sometimes, Zhou Yingxue yed a really good supporting role. For example, tracking, gaining easy ess into the stronghold, carrying around a recording pen, all of that was really great. If only she wouldn¡¯t keep munching on melon seeds all the time! That would have been even better.


    Furthermore, Zhou Yingxue loved money more than he did.


    As Zhou Yingxue ate her piping hot noodles, she took out her cell phone and said, ¡°The reward for killing Zhou Xilong has already been paid out. Wu Tong¡¯s phone has also been unlocked, so you can check how much money he has in his ount when you have the time. I wonder if the others also received their rewards on their phones.¡±


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu only wanted to ask some questions after entering Wu Tong¡¯s safe house, but Zhou Yingxue was already a step ahead by getting his ount first.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Wu Tong was mainly active in the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory. Are we still gonna withdraw the money from his ount at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s bank?¡±


    If they did that, it would increase their chances of being exposed.


    ¡°No need.¡± Zhou Yingxue shook her head. ¡°We can go back to the ck market to retrieve the funds. There¡¯s the Zhou, Kong, and Wang Consortiums¡¯ banks there, and they aren¡¯t even monitored by any surveince cameras.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t listen to what they say about having no surveince there.¡± Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. ¡°The consortiums are dirty liars. There must be hidden cameras around somewhere. After opening a bank branch in the ck market, how can they not want to know who¡¯s retrieving funds from them? That can be very important information for them.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nodded. ¡°That¡¯s true. Wu Tong is also an experienced A-rank hitman, so I think his ount must have a lot of money in it.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to the bathroom.¡± Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu like she was asking him for permission.


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    In the end, Zhou Yingxue was gone for over 20 minutes. Ren Xiaosu sat quietly in the hotel and thought that Zhou Yingxue must have run away. The reward this time was very generous, and she had even gotten ahold of Wu Tong¡¯s ount, so if Zhou Yingxue wanted to run away, there would be enough reason for her to do so.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. It looked like he would have to search for another candidate to join the Anjing House on his behalf.


    He did not chase after Zhou Yingxue. On the one hand, the woman had been very cooperative with him during this period. On the other hand, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s mother was seriously ill and she badly needed the money. Considering these factors, Ren Xiaosu felt there was no need for him to leave Zhou Yingxue with no way out.


    She was just a normal girl in this chaotic era.


    But at this moment, a voice interrupted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thoughts. ¡°Let¡¯s go, Master.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at Zhou Yingxue in surprise. ¡°You didn¡¯t run away?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue thought for a moment and said, ¡°And you didn¡¯t n to hunt me down?¡±


    ¡°Why would I hunt you down?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry as he stood up. ¡°But I¡¯m curious about why you didn¡¯t run away. This amount of money should¡¯ve been enough to make you consider that, right?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue gave it some thought and said, ¡°I did consider running away, but I wouldn¡¯t be able to live well on my own in this world. So since I met someone this strong, I have to stick close to him.¡±


    Actually, Zhou Yingxue was preparing to run away just now. She had waited in the bathroom for a while to see Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reaction and if he would spare no effort in hunting her down.


    In the end, Zhou Yingxue realized Ren Xiaosu had no intention whatsoever of doing so. Then, having thought of something, she decided toe back here.


    Only now did she suddenly feel she truly wanted to follow Ren Xiaosu and sincerely work together on more missions.


    ...


    When the two of them arrived at Houguan Lake, Zhou Yingxue saw the tight defense that had been set up there. It was just a housing block, but there was actually an entirepany armed with loaded guns stationed out here?


    ¡°Master, how do you n on saving Luo Lan?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked as she crouched in the greenway.[1]


    But right as she finished speaking, she saw Ren Xiaosu stand up and walk towards the entrance of the gated neighborhood at Houguan Lake. Zhou Yingxue nearly went crazy! Was Ren Xiaosu just going to barge in?


    Could this be how the mind of a legendary supernatural being worked?!


    At this moment, Luo Lan was sitting in the yard of a vi smoking a cigar. Beside him, Zhou Qi said, ¡°We¡¯ve already prepared troops to rescue you from here. After we fight our way out of Houguan Lake, we¡¯ll head west. There will, of course, be some people staying behind in the stronghold to fend off the pursuers. Once we get out of the stronghold, Qing Zhen¡¯s people wille and pick you up.¡±


    Luo Lan stayed quiet.


    Zhou Qi smiled and said, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Too scared to leave? Are you afraid you won¡¯t be able to clear your name once you leave?¡±


    Luo Lan thought for a moment and said, ¡°That¡¯s only one of my concerns. Even an idiot knows I didn¡¯t do it. Zhou Shiji is a smart person, so he won¡¯t be so stupid to assume that. But have you ever thought about it? If we really fight our way out of here, the hundred or so people we have lurking in Stronghold 73 will be sacrificed. Besides, even if we can leave the stronghold, the Zhou Consortium will definitely keep pursuing us. If they don¡¯t, their reputations will be tarnished. This is a bloody path we¡¯re taking, and I¡¯m not gonna treat the lives of my subordinates as a joke.¡±


    Zhou Qi frowned. ¡°What¡¯s with the soft-heartedness? You¡¯re the elder brother of the Qing Consortium¡¯s head and should never have put yourself in such a dangerous situation in the first ce. Your subordinates risking their lives for you is all for the sake of a greater cause!¡±


    ¡°No matter how great the cause is, is it more worthwhile than human lives?¡± Luo Lan pressed his cigar into the ashtray. ¡°If there¡¯s someone who wants me dead, I won¡¯t hesitate to leave. But since I know that the Zhou Consortium won¡¯t kill me, why should I force my subordinates to take such a risk for me?¡±


    Zhou Qi pursed his lips. ¡°Whatever! There aren¡¯t even any women in this crappy ce! Boring!¡±


    Luo Lan smiled and said, ¡°Besides, as you¡¯ve said, if I were to run away, the Zhou Consortium would definitely think that I have ulterior motives. Although everyone knows I didn¡¯t do it, I simply won¡¯t be able to exin myself once I leave.¡±


    But at this moment, a figure suddenly jumped into their yard and carried Luo Lan away!


    As the person ran off, he even said, ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there! I¡¯ve already knocked out the guards outside. Let¡¯s get out of here already.¡±


    Luo Lan eximed, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, put me down! I can¡¯t leave yet!¡±


    Zhou Qi had never seen Ren Xiaosu before, but when he heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name, he trembled. Why had this ruthless person suddenly appeared in Stronghold 73?!


    When Ren Xiaosu heard what Luo Lan said, he frowned and asked, ¡°Why can¡¯t you leave?¡±


    ¡°If I leave, isn¡¯t that as good as admitting that I¡¯m a criminal?¡± Luo Lan whisper-shouted.


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully. It did seem like that would be the case. But if he did not save Luo Lan, what would happen to his quest?!


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°No, you must leave!¡±


    Luo Lan was surprised.


    [1] A greenway is a trail or road along a strip of undevelopednd, often near an urban area, set aside for recreational use or environmental protection. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenway_ndscape)

 Chapter 510 - Don’t worry, I“ll definitely be there

    <h4>Chapter 510 Don¡°t worry, I¡°ll definitely be there</h4>


    It was toote to turn back. It was no longer up to Luo Lan to decide on whether they were leaving. At the very least, Ren Xiaosu would have toplete his quest first.


    Honestly, not even Ren Xiaosu himself would have expected he would sabotage Luo Lan twice in one day.


    But right now, he could not care about that. As Ren Xiaosu ran outside carrying Luo Lan, Zhou Qi and the others looked at one another in dismay. The subordinates who had pledged to protect Luo Lan with their lives were suddenly at a loss of what to do. If it were an enemy that took Luo Lan away, they could at least shoot him. But this was Ren Xiaosu they were talking about. They would often even hear Luo Lan mention this person!


    When they ran outside, the subordinates saw that many of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s soldiers were unconscious on the ground. But why had they not heard anything at all just now?


    By the time they reached the entrance of the neighborhood of Houguan Lake, Zhou Yingxue was already waiting there with a stolen van. Although it was a seven-seater van, they ended up cramming 14 people into it. In an orderly fashion, they started heading off ording to the nned escape route.


    Without any sacrifices or intensivebat, Ren Xiaosu had rescued Luo Lan just like that.


    This was because of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s bad supervisory control. And Zhou Shiji did not feel that Luo Lan needed to flee.


    In the back row of the van, Luo Lan asked, ¡°Xiaosu, what¡¯s with all the drama? And what¡¯re you doing at Stronghold 73?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I was just passing by,¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly.


    Luo Lan was a bold but careful person. He suddenly felt that something was off. ¡°How did you know I was ced under house arrest? Wait a minute, were you the one who fired that shot during the day?¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha, how¡¯s that possible?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed in embarrassment and said, ¡°Would I possibly do something that would get my friend into trouble?¡±


    Luo Lan said skeptically, ¡°Really?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quickly changed the subject and asked, ¡°What are you doing at Stronghold 73? Doesn¡¯t the Qing Consortium need people in their own territory at the moment?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just here on vacation, as well as make some friends along the way.¡± Luo Lan did not hide it from Ren Xiaosu. ¡°We feel that the Wang Consortium has be rather ambitious these days, so we¡¯re taking some precautions.¡±


    ¡°Then what are your next ns?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll stay in the Zhou Consortium for a while before heading to the Kong Consortium, then ourst stop will be the Wang Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised to hear that. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that they¡¯re getting ambitious? Then why are you walking into their trap?¡±


    Luo Lan said with a smile, ¡°You have to take some risks in order to gain something. Also, the Wang Consortium won¡¯t do anything to me for now. I¡¯m just going there to walk around and see if the Wang Consortium is as united as the rest of the world ims.¡±


    As a matter of fact, Ren Xiaosu really admired Luo Lan. The guy was truly a brave person who would venture wherever it was dangerous. Everything he did was for the sake of the Qing Consortium.


    At some point in time, Ren Xiaosu felt that after Qing Zhen rose to be the Qing Consortium¡¯s leader, Luo Lan had started recing him as the Shadow of the organization.


    Luo Lan would help do all the dirty work Qing Zhen could no longer handle.


    Ten minutes after they left the neighborhood of Houguan Lake, the voice from the pce said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded 1.0 Dexterity.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. The quest waspleted just like that? He was now another step closer to surpassing 20 points in both the Strength and Dexterity attributes. He wondered what skill the pce would activate for him when he surpassed that level.


    As of now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Strength was 13.5 while his Dexterity was 13.1!


    ¡°Stop the van,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Zhou Yingxue was surprised. However, she did not question anything and stepped on the brakes.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Luo Lan with a smile, ¡°Since y¡¯all don¡¯t wish to flee, you can just go back.¡±


    Luo Lan was confused.


    Everyone in the van was stunned. What the hell was this?


    Ren Xiaosu handed Luo Lan a sh drive. ¡°There¡¯s an audio recording on this. I interrogated someone named Wu Tong who was an A-rank hitman hired by the Anjing House. Their team of five came here to Stronghold 73 and colluded with the director of the Public Order Division to assassinate Zhou Xilong. The audio recording on there is the evidence you can use to clear your name.¡±


    Luo Lan froze. ¡°The Anjing House hitmen? How did you manage to find them?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s also three people who got sniped outside the park. They should be carrying cell phones that are unique to each A-rank hitman from the Anjing House.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Wu Tong¡¯s body is in a house at 67 L¨¹shun Road. You can tell the Zhou Consortium the truth about all this.¡±


    With the evidence in hand, the Zhou Consortium would have no reason to keep Luo Lan under house arrest. In fact, this had been Ren Xiaosu¡¯s original n. If the pce had not assigned him the quest, he would have handed the sh drive over to Luo Lan, and the matter would have ended just like that.


    Luo Lan held the sh drive in his hand and said in shock, ¡°If you had this, why didn¡¯t you take it out earlier? Wouldn¡¯t it have been better to just give it to me then?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°If I didn¡¯t save you from there, how¡¯d you have known that I¡¯m a good friend!¡±


    Luo Lan quietly uttered, ¡°Those A-rank hitmen usually work in a group of five. You said that there¡¯s three people dead outside the park and another body in a house at L¨¹shun Road. Then, you must be the fifth?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not me.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head.


    Luo Lan was so angry heughed. He stared at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Swear to me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness again, ¡°The fifth hitman is a loser!¡±


    In the driver¡¯s seat, Zhou Yingxue said unhappily, ¡°Master, how can you say that about me!¡±


    Immediately, everyone¡¯s eyes turned to Zhou Yingxue.


    Luo Lan gave a hollow chuckle. ¡°Alright. I was wondering why the sniper didn¡¯t shoot when Zhou Xilong was sitting on the bench. It would¡¯ve been easier to hit him while he was sitting still, yet the sniper waited for Zhou Xilong to get up and start moving before opening fire. So it actually turned out that I was too close to the target and you were worried I might identally get injured.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu praised, ¡°Fatty Luo, your intelligence is truly extraordinary!¡±


    ¡°Extraordinary? My ass!¡± Luo Lan snappily opened the door and got out of the van. ¡°If I want to look for you, where should I go?¡±


    ¡°The ck market outside of the Qinghe Group.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°I should be there waiting for new missions most of the time.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go there to find you.¡± Luo Lan gave a wave of his hand and walked off towards the vi at Houguan Lake with his men.


    Both parties did not say anything further, and Luo Lan did not me Ren Xiaosu either. He knew Ren Xiaosu was also unaware that he was here to look for Zhou Xilong to work together before he had epted the mission. It was already good enough that he had a friend in this world who worried about identally injuring him while pulling the trigger.


    This was an era where personal interest came first, and men were ustomed to people cutting off friendship, love, family ties, and dispensing with dignity and justice.


    Luo Lan suddenly turned around and said with a smile, ¡°If you see my name appear in a mission assignment someday, what will you do?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll definitely be there.¡±


    ¡°Hehe,¡± Luo Lanughed. ¡°That¡¯s all I need to hear. I¡¯ll see you again in the ck market!¡±


    Luo Lan knew full well that when Ren Xiaosu woulde to look for him, it would definitely not be to carry out the mission.


    Then he led his men back to the vi at Houguan Lake. However, the ce was alreadypletely sealed off at this moment. Luo Lan looked at the middle-aged man in front of him and said with a smile, ¡°You must be Zhou Shiji, right? How rare for the Zhou Consortium¡¯s leader to personallye out to wee me back. If I say I was just out for a stroll, I wonder if you¡¯d believe me or not...¡±

 Chapter 511 - Luo Lan’s new friend

    <h4>Chapter 511 Luo Lan¡°s new friend</h4>


    Luo Lan looked at the middle-aged man standing at the entrance of the vi. The other party was wearing a trim suit with his tie secured close to his chest with a golden tie clip. He had seen him before, but only in a photograph.


    Zhou Shiji looked calmly at Luo Lan and asked, ¡°Did you have to knock out an entirepany of my soldiers if you were just going out for a stroll?¡±


    ¡°Haha, it¡¯s all a misunderstanding.¡± Luo Lanughed it off.


    Luo Lan realized Ren Xiaosu already intended to let hime back here. Otherwise, Ren Xiaosu, who was known to be someone decisive, would definitely not knock the soldiers out but kill them all instead.


    But if he killed these soldiers, there would be no way for the matter between Luo Lan and the Zhou Consortium to be resolved.


    It seemed that Zhou Shiji also did not intend to further investigate the matter. As the neighborhood of Houguan Lake was quite important, there were many surveince cameras around.


    Someone had already pulled the surveince footage from earlier. However, they discovered that not even the surveince cameras could capture the attacker¡¯s image clearly.


    What Luo Lan did not know was that Zhou Shiji¡¯s official residence was also in the neighborhood of Houguan Lake. It was just a simple house. Awhile ago, Zhou Shiji did not even hear any noise. He only found out about the big mess in the neighborhood after someone informed him Luo Lan had fled.


    If this person had been here to assassinate Zhou Shiji, what would have happened?


    However, Zhou Shiji did not seem to feel that this was the most important matter. He looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Did you kill Zhou Xilong?¡±


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Luo Lan was now in high spirits. ¡°I have a sh drive that contains evidence that the director of the Public Order Division colluded with hitmen from the Anjing House. The corpses of the assassins responsible have also been found!¡±


    Zhou Shiji took the sh drive from him but did not say anything for a long time. He pondered things before saying, ¡°As expected of someone with Boss Luo¡¯s reputation. To think that you actually have such great influence in our Stronghold 73. We couldn¡¯t even find the assassins, yet you managed to do so.¡±


    This was obviously not apliment. Zhou Shiji suspected that the Qing Consortium must have nted arge number of spies in the Zhou Consortium!


    ¡°That¡¯s really not true....¡± Luo Lan smiled in embarrassment and said, ¡°It was all thanks to the help from a friend who happened to pass by. He was the one who helped to find the evidence.¡±


    ¡°Then what¡¯s Boss Luo¡¯s purpose ining to our Zhou Consortium?¡± Zhou Shiji asked nomittally.


    ¡°To make friends!¡± Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°It¡¯s to make friends, of course!¡±


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t youe to me but Zhou Xilong? Am I not worthy of being your friend?¡± Zhou Shiji asked.


    Luo Lan was embarrassed again. ¡®Does Zhou Shiji not know how to carry a conversation? Must he always say everything so sarcastically? No, that¡¯s not it!¡¯


    Luo Lan suddenly looked up at Zhou Shiji. ¡°I thought Brother Zhou would be unwilling to be friends with our Qing Consortium.¡±


    ¡°How could that be?¡± Zhou Shiji finallyughed. ¡°Of course it¡¯s better to have more friends. The fewer enemies there are, the better.¡±


    Luo Lan finally understood that Zhou Shiji was taking the initiative to form an alliance with the Qing Consortium. But why? Wasn¡¯t Zhou Shiji the leader of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s conservative faction?


    The two of them did not waste any more time and went straight into the vi.


    It was not until an hourter that Luo Lan finally realized that even though Zhou Shiji, a conservative leader, did not like the idea of dealing the first strike in a war, he understood the concept of self-preservation. He was willing to face war for the sake of protecting his consortium. There was essentially no conflict between the two positions.


    Furthermore, he was actually very worried about the Wang Consortium.


    When both sides had amon imaginary enemy, the conversation would go much smoother.


    Zhou Shiji sat on the sofa and said calmly, ¡°Although I didn¡¯t like Zhou Xilong¡¯s political views, he was still an important figure of our Zhou Consortium. So he can¡¯t just die for nothing. A lot of people say the Anjing House is a righteous organization, and they only kill those who deserve to be killed. However, they do not have the right to be a judiciary.¡±


    ¡°I agree.¡± Luo Lan said with a chuckle.


    Like Zhou Shiji, Luo Lan was not fond of the Anjing House either, because he might be on the Anjing House¡¯s list of assassination targets at some point in time. Those in power utterly loathed a mysterious and powerful organization like them.


    If the organizations had different standpoints, it would inevitably lead to differences and conflicts.


    Was Zhou Shiji in the wrong? Of course not. Why should his Zhou Consortium get judged by others? It wasn¡¯t like the Anjing House would be impartial enough to ensure that their judgment was not biased, right?


    Was the Anjing House in the wrong? They wouldn¡¯t think they were wrong either. Since there was no one to punish the rampant viins of this era, they would have to step in to punish them.


    Ultimately, it was because there were no longer any fixed moral criteria in this era, and the judicial system had crumbled long ago.


    The sh drive in hand, Zhou Shiji looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Who gave you this audio recording? This friend of yours is really impressive. Why didn¡¯t you invite him along to our chat? I didn¡¯t expect the Qing Consortium would have a powerful character like him.¡±


    ¡°Haha, he¡¯s not from our Qing Consortium.¡± Luo Lanughed it off and said, ¡°And he should¡¯ve left Stronghold 73 by now. As for where he¡¯s gone, I¡¯m not sure either. But there¡¯s no doubt about whether he¡¯s powerful. At the very least, he¡¯s worthy of my admiration.¡±


    Zhou Shiji was clearly taken aback for a bit. Based on what Luo Lan had said, this mysterious uninvited guest was not a member of the Qing Consortium? Was he an independent powerhouse then?


    ...


    At this moment, Zhou Yingxue was driving an off-road vehicle back to the ck market. It was the vehicle that Wu Tong and the others hid in the wilderness. Now that Wu Tong had died, Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu would naturally take the car.


    It would take at least three days to return to the ck market from Stronghold 73 as the total journey was 678 kilometers. This was mainly because the condition of the roads was not good. Otherwise, they could have arrived back in a day.


    Zhou Yingxue had a look at Ren Xiaosu, who was sleeping soundly in the front passenger seat next to her. She curled her lips and muttered as she drove, ¡°To think that I¡¯m the only person driving the entire way of the journey. How dare he im that it¡¯s for my own good that he¡¯s not driving! Excuses! Men are all liars!¡±


    ¡°What are you mumbling about?¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice drifted over from the passenger seat.


    Zhou Yingxue eximed in her head, ¡®Wasn¡¯t Master snoring just now? Was he pretending to be asleep?!¡¯ She quickly exined, ¡°I didn¡¯t say anything. I was justining that the road¡¯s a little hard to travel on....¡±


    Next to her, Ren Xiaosu reclined all the way back in the passenger seat and leaned back with his arms behind his head, using them as a pillow. He could not get any morefortable than this. He suddenly asked, ¡°Is your superpower only limited to producing those three types of seeds? Why does it feel so weak?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said unhappily, ¡°Master, don¡¯t go too far with your criticisms. Aren¡¯t you a little too much for bluntly saying I¡¯m weak?¡±


    ¡°Alright, you¡¯ve driven for quite a while already. Find a ce where we can stop for a break.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I wanna see what you can do with your superpower.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had not nned on forming a team with Zhou Yingxue for the long term, so he did not care about her superpower before this.


    But since he decided to form a team with Zhou Yingxue and get her into the Anjing House, he had to get a better understanding of her superpower. He also had some other ns.

 Chapter 512 - Zhou Yingxue’s superpower advancemen

    <h4>512 Zhou Yingxue¡°s superpower advancemen</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu recalled that Zhou Yingxue was the first floral supernatural being he had encountered since the ¡°Rise of Gods¡± started. She could be considered a rtively rare type in this sense.But even if she were a floral supernatural being, she shouldn¡¯t be this weak. Although she could produce three types of seeds, only one of them could be used forbat.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that since Zhou Yingxue could control nts, would there be a possibility that she could continue to further develop this superpower?


    Importantly, all supernatural beings always had room for improvement.


    After the two of them got out of the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu asked in the woods by the road, ¡°Tell me, how did you first awaken your power?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°During a secret mission, I fainted after I got shot at. After waking up from mya, I realized I could produce a seed out of thin air.¡±


    Then Zhou Yingxue stretched her right hand out. A green glow continuously swirled at the tip of her index finger before finally ¡°solidifying¡± into a seed.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°It can even be done like that? Why does it sound like your awakening process was so simple?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said in surprise, ¡°No one said it has to be difficult for supernatural beings to awaken their powers. That¡¯s why some people say supernatural beings are Heaven¡¯s chosen ones, and that they awaken once the moment is right.¡±


    ¡°Alrighty.¡± Ren Xiaosu had never asked others about how they awakened their powers before. He only felt that his own process of awakening his power was very tedious. The awakening itself might have only taken one moment, but the problem was that he kept falling into aa every night before that happened.


    It was precisely because of this that the refugees in town imed something was wrong with his head.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can youmunicate with other nts? Have you tried to before?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue felt surprised again. ¡°How can Imunicate with nts when they don¡¯t have a consciousness?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. Zhou Yingxue had already shown she had an affinity with nt life when his Potato Shooter did not automatically attack her. In that case, could she control other nts as well?


    He said in seriousness, ¡°Sit over here and close your eyes, then try to sense the nts around you.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue obediently sat cross-legged on the ground and closed her eyes. But less than a minuteter, Ren Xiaosu heard a rumblinge from Zhou Yingxue¡¯s stomach.


    Zhou Yingxue opened her eyes and looked at Ren Xiaosu with distress. ¡°Master, I¡¯m hungry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°Close your eyes and get a proper sense of the nts. If you don¡¯t achieve any results, you can forget about eating!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had high expectations for Zhou Yingxue because he also possessed a floral power. Ever since he learned she was a floral supernatural being, he had always wondered if Zhou Yingxue could help strengthen his seeds.


    As a matter of fact, the Potato Shooter was actually almost useless inbat. At most, it could be used to guard his home. However, it couldn¡¯t withstand a supernatural being.


    He could not really treat the Potato Shooter as a food power, right? That would leave the Potato Shooter with no dignity at all!


    Of course, if other supernatural beings knew about his superpowers, they would probably find it even more unbearable than him. All other supernatural beings basically only had one power. ¡®Since you already have so many other powers, what¡¯s the big deal if one of them is almost useless?¡¯


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw Zhou Yingxue open her eyes. A green glow had once again formed at the tip of her index finger which she then gently infused into a jujube tree. The entire tree started sprouting new buds, and the originally green jujubes on the tree turned fleshier one after another. They even ripened into a reddish color.


    Not only that, but the tree also started lowering its branches slowly. It was as though they were offering the jujubes to Zhou Yingxue.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Is this power something new?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Zhou Yingxue happily took a bite from a jujube. ¡°It¡¯s so sweet!¡±


    ¡°Is this the fucking time to eat jujubes?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped at her. ¡°So what power is this?¡±


    ¡°In the past, I thought that since nts don¡¯t have consciousness, they¡¯d have no way to establish a connection with humans, so I never tried to do so before.¡± Zhou Yingxue thought for a moment and said, ¡°After you reminded me, I realize they felt familiar to me, and it¡¯s like they yearn for the green glow in my hand. After I infused the nts with that green glow, I could gain control over them, and they became stronger than before and can even change their shapes slightly.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly fished out a seed and handed it to Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Infuse this with the glow again, then nt it personally.¡±


    A momentter, Zhou Yingxue repeated the same process with the Potato Shooter seed. Then, she buried it into the soil. In just the blink of an eye, some buds started sprouting out of the ground and grew into... a Potato Shooter that didn¡¯t look any different than before.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little curious as he could still control the Potato Shooter. He did not lose his control over the Potato Shooter to Zhou Yingxue like what she had said earlier.


    He looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Can you control it?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Zhou Yingxue sized up the Potato Shooter curiously. ¡°What is this? It¡¯s like there¡¯s a lot of fruit hidden underground, and it can even spit them out at breakneck speed.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu took back control of the Potato Shooter, he asked again, ¡°Can you still control it now?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue shook her head. ¡°Not anymore.¡±


    She looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. Was this Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower? But it couldn¡¯t be! Ren Xiaosu did not have a superpower like this based on the intelligence reports. Could it be that Ren Xiaosu had two superpowers?


    Of course, if she knew the truth, she would likely get very annoyed. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpowers did not only stop at two.


    By this point, Ren Xiaosu had realized the Potato Shooter was a little different. After Zhou Yingxue had established a connection with the Potato Shooter and infused it with her power, it could be controlled by the two of them. Moreover, the most important difference was that it could now produce a 100 potatoes a day from its ¡°magazine.¡±


    Was he really about to embark further down the path of agriculture?!


    Zhou Yingxue urged the Potato Shooter to spit out a potato. She suddenly looked up. ¡°So the reason you gave me so many potatoes to eat back in town was because this nt produces potatoes?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, wouldn¡¯t it be a waste if they¡¯re not eaten?¡± Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and said, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s camp here for the night and set up the tent!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue plucked a bagful of jujubes and ate them as she set up her tent. Her bulging cheeks made her look just like a hamster.


    At this moment, a convoy of vehicles drove down from the north. However, it was made up of off-road vehicles that looked a little different than thosemonly seen in the wilderness. For example, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue had only driven either a green or a khaki-colored off-road vehicle before, while Luo Lan and his men traveled in off-road vehicles that were a solemn ck. Things were different for this convoy that had appeared before them. It looked like the vehicles had been specially spray painted garish colors, and even the fitted tires wererger ones. The off-road vehicles had all been modified until they almost looked like dune buggies.


    As the convoy approached, Ren Xiaosu could even hear the loud musicing from their vehicles. The young men and women in the cars were swaying to the beat of the music.


    After the vehicles drove past Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue, they slowly turned back around. A group of young people got out and someone asked Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Excuse me, is this the road leading to the Zhou Consortium?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at them. As they were pretty polite, Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°Yes. You¡¯ll get to the Zhou Consortium by traveling south for about 300 more kilometers.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Then the young man who had just asked for directions returned to the car and was about to step on the gas to continue on their way. However, a girl in the car suddenly eximed, ¡°Look at that jujube tree! The fruit¡¯s all so red and ripe!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quietly pulled his hood up and asked softly, ¡°What¡¯s that logo on their vehicles?¡±


    There was a white logo that was exceptionally eye-catching on the bodies of the garish cars. It was obvious that it was an image of a snow mountain.


    Zhou Yingxue whispered, ¡°That¡¯s the logo of the Qinghe Group. These people are from there. Reportedly, the snow mountain was designed by the founder himself after he conquered the highest mountain in the world.¡±

 Chapter 513 - At least one of them is single

    <h4>Chapter 513 At least one of them is single</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu watched silently as the group of young people got out of their vehicles and came over. Two men and two women headed straight for the jujube tree.However, someone rather sensible came over to ask Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Hi, can we set up our camp next to yours? We¡¯ll be a ways away and not intrude on your space.¡±


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue barked, ¡°Hey, that¡¯s my jujube tree!¡±


    Someone wondered, ¡°Isn¡¯t this jujube tree growing in the wilderness? When did it be yours?¡±


    Actually, there was nothing wrong with this person¡¯s words. This wilderness did not look like it was a ce where anyone lived, while the jujube tree was also wild. Therefore, Zhou Yingxue should not be able toy im to it.


    However, a young man from the convoy signaled to the others to stop talking and said, ¡°Things found in the wilderness fall into the firste, first served basis. Since they were the ones who discovered it first, we shouldn¡¯t touch it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised these people were still quite polite and reasonable even though they looked like an ostentatious bunch.


    He said to the person who came to talk to him, ¡°Feel free to set up camp next to us. Just don¡¯t affect our rest.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a master of wilderness survival, so he had chosen the best location for their campsite. It had good venttion, was spacious, was free of poisonous insects, and was also near a water source.


    There was a clear river about a 100 meters away. It was so clear they could see the bottom of the river.


    Other people might not be able to tell what was good about this campsite, but they would find it very safe and convenient to stay here.


    This group of young people from the Qinghe Group moved to a spot about 50 meters away from them and started setting up their tents. They were chatting andughing as they worked.


    Ren Xiaosu observed the number of people in their group. There were five vehicles and a total of 17 people in all. This included nine men and eight women, so at least one of them should be single.


    He raised his head and looked at Zhou Yingxue, who had climbed up the jujube tree, and wondered, ¡°Whatever are you doing?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°I¡¯m gonna pluck all the jujubes from the tree in case anyone is still thinking about them!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. Zhou Yingxue really knew how to live her life, and she looked especially like a calcting housewife. ¡°Just take enough for yourself. It¡¯s no big deal even if you have to share some with others. Don¡¯t create unnecessary trouble when you¡¯re outside. You can¡¯t finish eating all of them in one night anyway.¡±


    However, Zhou Yingxue disagreed, ¡°I can bring them with me and eat along the way!¡±


    ¡°Who do you think they are?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I think they must be the offspring of the high-ranking officials of Luoyang City since they can freely enter and exit strongholds while bearing the logo of the Qinghe Group.¡± Zhou Yingxue said nonchntly, ¡°Although the Qinghe Group hasn¡¯t expanded its territory in recent years, its business activities have widened considerably. The big shots of the Qinghe Group are not people like the director of the Public Order Division but those who hold important positions as business project directors.¡±


    ¡°They don¡¯t look that old.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°They should be around 20 or so.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, they might still be studying at Qinghe University,¡± Zhou Yingxue replied absentmindedly.


    Ren Xiaosu gave a heartfelt sigh. ¡°I also wanted to attend uni in the past as I always felt that college life would be very peaceful.¡±


    The youngsters from the Qinghe Group went around looking for more jujube trees. Although there were quite a lot of them around here, they only managed to find those with unripe fruits. Someone even plucked one to have a taste, but it was so sour their face scrunched up.


    Someone muttered, ¡°Why has the jujube tree next to them matured?¡±


    The young man who stopped them from plucking the ripe jujubes said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t keep eyeing other people¡¯s things. What is yours is yours. What isn¡¯t will never be yours.¡±


    ¡°Get outta here, Xu Zhi, that probably sums up the ideology of those in your Xu n. Speaking of which, does your distant cousin, Xu Ke, really not feel tempted at all now that he controls the Qinghe Group?¡± a chubby boy asked with a smile.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Xu Zhi shook his head. ¡°He has been a little reticent in recent years. No one really knows what he¡¯s thinking.¡±


    ¡°What do you guys think is the rtionship between that guy and girl? Are they a couple?¡± The chubster asked, ¡°They don¡¯t look it. Although I can¡¯t see that young man¡¯s face clearly, he looks really young and might even be younger than us. The woman looks older and is probably around 25 or 26. Could they be siblings?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s possible.¡± Xu Zhi nodded. ¡°But don¡¯t go and provoke them. Those who can travel through the wilderness alone can¡¯t be your average person.¡±


    The chubster said with augh, ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? We brought guns with us this time!¡±


    Xu Zhi shook his head. ¡°Guns aren¡¯t omnipotent, and we sneaked out this time. If you get into trouble outside and call Luoyang City for help, the school might even end up punishing you.¡±


    ¡°So be it. I already have somewhere to go after graduation anyway.¡± The chubster curled his lips. ¡°My uncle wants me to follow him to the ck market after I graduate.¡±


    ¡°Your personality is quite suitable for the ck market. Just remember not to cause any trouble. Currently, many superhumans are active in the ck market. If you offend them, you¡¯ll still get into trouble even though you¡¯re from the Qinghe Group. Even if the Qinghe Group avenges you, it¡¯ll be some time after the first seven days of the mourning period,¡± Xu Zhi said with a smile.


    ¡°Ptui, stop cursing me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu, who was at the other campsite, did not look at those young people as he felt he would not interact much with them. After he had found all of his lost friends, he would return to the Northwest.


    Honestly, he still preferred to mingle with those gruff men in the Northwest after going to so many ces.


    Although it was a little tough in the Northwest and the living conditions there were bad, it was not something that bothered Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue and asked, ¡°What are your ns for the future?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue, who was munching on the jujubes, mumbled, ¡°To make enough money to retire.¡±


    ¡°It ain¡¯t a peaceful world out there, so I¡¯m afraid that you won¡¯t have a chance to retire.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. Qing Zhen was a prepper. Since the Qing Consortium had made Luo Lane here to the Central ins, it showed that something big would happen within the Alliance of Strongholds soon.


    Suddenly, Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°By the way, I¡¯ve been getting a feeling that something¡¯s wrong with the nts recently.¡±


    ¡°Something¡¯s wrong? What¡¯s wrong?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°After I was able to sense them, I somehow feel like they have an extremely pressing thirst for nutrients. It¡¯s like... they¡¯re evolving.¡± Zhou Yingxue whispered, ¡°It is a very vague feeling, so I¡¯m unsure if that¡¯s the case.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He suddenly remembered the fish meat and bones he had dumped after eating in the Jing Mountains that disappearedter.


    At times, he felt it might have been the Experimentals that took it. But if the Experimentals had to resort to eating leftovers, wouldn¡¯t that be really degrading to them? More importantly, the leftovers were not enough for them to eat at all.


    Now that he thought about it again, could it be possible that there was something wrong with that forest?


    The Jing Mountains were probably the second region in the entire Alliance of Strongholds where creatures were starting to rapidly evolve. The first region was the area under the control of the Pyro Company.


    Suddenly, the young man named Xu Zhi came over with a te of fruit. He smiled at Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°Hi, may we trade you some jujubes for the fruit we brought?¡±


    While speaking, he tried to take the opportunity to get a look at Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu kept his head lowered throughout and did not allow his face to be seen clearly.

 Chapter 514 - Uninvited guest

    <h4>Chapter 514 Uninvited guest</h4>


    When Zhou Yingxue heard Xu Zhi say he wanted to trade their fruit for jujubes, she looked at his hands and was surprised to see grapes.¡°I¡¯ll trade with you!¡± Zhou Yingxue decisively took some jujubes from the vehicle for Xu Zhi.


    Xu Zhi suddenly saw the Potato Shooter next to Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. ¡°What nt is this? Why haven¡¯t I seen it before?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°We don¡¯t know what it is either. It¡¯s probably just some mutated nt in the wilderness.¡±


    Xu Zhi did not ask any further questions.


    After Zhou Yingxue sent Xu Zhi away, she started eating the grapes happily. After she was done eating, she somehow felt like something was amiss. She suddenly looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Er... Master, would you like to have some grapes? If you want, I¡¯ll go and trade some for you....¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to eat.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°You used to be a spy for the Yang Consortium, but look at...¡±


    ¡°I was only in charge of a small department that was responsible for monitoring Stronghold 88.¡± Zhou Yingxue finished.


    ¡°Speaking of, why did you join the Yang Consortium¡¯s army?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. He always had the feeling that Zhou Yingxue¡¯s only interest was to make money as she did not really seem like a bellicose person.


    Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°I just wanted to earn some money. The Yang Consortium had found out about my awakening after my neighbor learned about it, so they recruited me and even offered me a very high sry. After I became a supernatural being, my physical fitness was much better than that of the other female soldiers. I¡¯m also quick-witted, so I got promoted at a rtively faster pace. When I was still a normal soldier, my sry was already ten times higher than the others¡¯. Later on, because of my skill in tracking, and the fact that I was female, I got transferred to the Intelligence Department.¡±


    ¡°The Yang Consortium¡¯s benefits are pretty good.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°So in order to earn money, you started working diligently in the Intelligence Department?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue changed the subject and asked, ¡°When did you discover my identity?¡±


    ¡°I already knew when you first stepped into the library.¡± Ren Xiaosu closed his eyes and continued resting.


    Zhou Yingxue felt her face burn with embarrassment. She had not expected that he would so easily see through her disguise. However, she seemed to think of something and asked, ¡°Then, Master, why did you ask me to jump rope with you?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. Zhou Yingxue raised her voice and said, ¡°Master, don¡¯t pretend to sleep. Up until now, I still haven¡¯t figured out why you did that!¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu was determined not to answer this question.


    He did not expect that Zhou Yingxue would still remember that.


    ...


    Compared to the quiet atmosphere at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side, it was bustling over at the Qinghe University students¡¯ side. This group of students had sneaked out of the stronghold, so everything felt more beautiful, and even the air was much fresher.


    It seemed that this was not the first time they hade out. Just then, Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of a gun being cocked, followed by squeals of adoration from the girls in the group. A male student was deliberately showing off that he knew how to use guns in front of the girls and was thoroughly enjoying their admiration.


    Since they knew to bring guns with them when going out into the wilderness, it meant these people also understood it was not very safe out.


    However, Ren Xiaosu noticed these students probably did not have too many chances to practice firing a gun. This was because they did not have any obvious calluses on their hands.


    Moreover, a person¡¯s shoulders and chest stance would be different from that of the average pe if they frequently fired an automatic rifle.


    Ren Xiaosu could probably be considered an expert in using firearms.


    At this moment, the group of students were ying a game called ¡°Truth or Dare.¡± This was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s first time hearing of such a game. As many refugees were fond of gambling, a lot of gambling games such as poker would be yed around town. The consortiums were also happy to see the refugees indulging in such activities that could make them lose their ambitions.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had nevere across something like Truth or Dare before. Although he had read a lot of books in Stronghold 88, none of them cared to describe a game like this.


    The students had drunk a lot of the alcohol they¡¯d brought with them from the stronghold. Seeing that Ren Xiaosu was ignoring her and pretending to be asleep, Zhou Yingxue sat by the campfire and looked at the students. Suddenly, she said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Why don¡¯t we also y Truth or Dare?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu still ignored her.


    At this moment, it looked like a female student had been picked, and she chose ¡°dare.¡± As a result, the male student sitting across from her dared her to find a guy to kiss.


    The content of the game involved all sorts of strange things. Some of them required the male students to dance like girls, and some required the girls to do the splits. But since all of them were just students, they did not go overboard.


    The students were starting to drink more and more, but only Xu Zhi did not have any drinks. He also kept his automatic rifle close to his side.


    At the beginning, the students were actually quite worried about drinking. After all, what if they got drunk while they were out in the wilderness?


    However, the chubster boy next to Xu Zhi kept saying that it would be fine. He said he had been hanging out with his uncle in the wilderness for many years and imed there was no danger at all.


    Only then did the other students relent and drink some. At first, they only intended to have a little. But once they started drinking, they could not stop.


    At this moment, another girl got picked and she decided to choose ¡°dare.¡± However, maybe the girl who picked her had had a drink too many or was simply too excited with ying the game. She actually wanted her to go to Ren Xiaosu and kiss him!


    When they usually yed Truth or Dare, they would have the person who was picked go on the streets to look for a stranger to do the dare with. But right now, there weren¡¯t really any other strangers around.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea. I don¡¯t even know them,¡± the girl that had been picked said embarrassedly.


    Someone jeered, ¡°C¡¯mon, it¡¯s not like you knew those people on the streets when we were ying this in the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°Besides, you¡¯re a girl.¡± A female student nudged her with her elbow. ¡°He won¡¯t be at a disadvantage, so what are you afraid of!¡±


    That girl clenched her teeth. ¡°Fine!¡±


    After that, she walked over to Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. But before she could get close to him, Ren Xiaosu had already opened his eyes and was looking at her calmly.


    The calmness he exuded was like a silent rejection that made the girl ying the game subconsciously take a step back.


    She wanted to tell Ren Xiaosu they were only ying a game and he only needed to let her kiss him, but she could not say it no matter what.


    The girl turned around and left. When herpanions saw her unsettled expression, they wondered, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Why do you look so scared?¡±


    A male student stood up. ¡°Did they say something nasty to you?¡±


    It looked like the students were all very loyal people.


    The girl had to quickly say she was fine. She told them she was just timid and that the other party did not say anything to her.


    At Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side, after the girl turned around and went back to her campsite in a hurry, Zhou Yingxue said with a chuckle next to him, ¡°Master, why didn¡¯t you take advantage of her dare?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at her. ¡°I already have someone I like.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned by his answer. He rejected all other people of the opposite sex just because he had someone he liked?


    When Zhou Yingxue was still with the Yang Consortium, she had seen so many men who would take advantage of women whenever there was an opportunity. However, the young man in front of her was obviously very powerful, so powerful that she had to look up to him, yet why had his desires not grown in tandem with his strength?


    That was how a normal person would be!


    But true, Ren Xiaosu was not normal at all.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said in a low voice, ¡°If this group of people are on a trip to the Zhou Consortium, they¡¯ll get into trouble sooner orter. Not everyone will respect the Qinghe Group and the Riders. They¡¯ll be heading to their doom getting so drunk in the wilderness.¡±


    ¡°The Central ins aren¡¯t as dangerous as our Southwest and Northwest,¡± Zhou Yingxue said with a smile. ¡°In general, the wilderness here is much safer than ours.¡±


    But as though to confirm Ren Xiaosu¡¯s assessment, the sound of someone stepping on a twig in the forest reverberated. The others might not think much of it if they even heard it.


    But for Ren Xiaosu, he was already starting to inspect his rifle.

 Chapter 515 - Kidnapping

    <h4>Chapter 515 Kidnapping</h4>


    Amid the din of the students, the sound of someone stepping on a twig would not be so obvious. Ren Xiaosu skillfully disengaged the safety of the automatic rifle in his hand and loaded it with a full magazine. Under the illumination of the campfire, the brass rounds in the magazine appeared extremely dense and heavy.


    Ren Xiaosu looked up and was surprised to see that Zhou Yingxue had also taken her pistol out. ¡°You heard that as well?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhou Yingxue said in surprise, ¡°Heard what? I saw you taking out your gun, so I got mine out as well. Aren¡¯t we robbing these Qinghe University students? They look rather rich....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused. How did it end up as them trying to rob the students?!


    He said in a speechless manner, ¡°Be on guard. There¡¯s someone quietly approaching us. I wonder if they¡¯reing after that group of students or us, but the probability of theming after us is lower.¡±


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, they had caused such a big mess at Stronghold 73 recently. Although Zhou Xilong was not the ruler of the Zhou Consortium, he was still a significant figure.


    Later, he even handed an audio recording to Luo Lan to help him. If Luo Lan had a slip of the tongue, it could be possible that the Zhou Consortium woulde and hunt them down.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt it was unlikely this intruder wasing after them. That was because he felt that Luo Lan would not have a slip of the tongue, and this was a form of trust he had in Luo Lan¡¯s ability in handling matters.


    Although that fatty could be quite frivolous, he was always dependable when it came to getting things done.


    Zhou Yingxue whispered, ¡°Should we help them if this uninvited guest is here for the students and a battle breaks out?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not gonna help.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Only the fittest survive in the wilderness, so why should we help those who are unrted to us?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue curled her lips. ¡°Master, you¡¯re really cold-blooded....¡±


    The people lurking were getting closer and closer. As the campfire illuminated the forest, Ren Xiaosu could already discern some figures approaching within the shadows of the swaying leaves. There was more than one person!


    ¡°Pay attention to our surroundings. This is a group operation.¡± Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°Be careful not to get surrounded. I estimate that there¡¯s around 10 to 20 of them.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu was slightly relieved to note that these people were really targeting the group of students. It was just that Zhou Yingxue and he had been dragged in.


    ¡°What should we do now?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°Let¡¯s leave before they focus their attention on us,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    But before they could leave, Ren Xiaosu also heard footstepse from nearby as well. In fact, this unit seemed to have already surrounded all of them.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°They¡¯re a well-trained unit. Why would such troops appear here?¡±


    It was clear that these uninvited guests were not some small-time bandits that got a spur of the moment idea about them but professionals who had set a premeditated ambush.


    The squad closest to the students had already fanned out of the forest. It was clear they did not think highly of this group of students and were looking to capture them in one fell swoop.


    However, the uninvited guests did not open fire. Xu Zhi was the first student to discover the enemy as he had remained sober.


    But before he could pick up his gun, he realized several ck muzzles were already pointing at him. He could not move at all.


    Someone slowly walked up to Xu Zhi with a rifle in hand and kicked his weapon away. Then the other students were scared out of their drunken stupor. They still did not realize what was happening.


    Someone quickly said, ¡°Is there a misunderstanding? We¡¯re just normal students.¡±


    All of these intruders were wearingbat boots, IOTVs[1], andbat helmets. Their firearms were also rtively expensive M16A2s with an effective range of 900 meters. They were also equipped with night vision goggles and walkie-talkies on their helmets.


    Bandits could not afford to buy a setup like that, nor would they even have ess to buy it.


    Ren Xiaosu was looking at the soldiers in front of him with great interest. Since they did not allow them to escape, he was forced to stay. He looked at Zhou Yingxue and asked, ¡°Can you tell where they¡¯re from?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re mercenaries,¡± Zhou Yingxue replied. ¡°They specialize in doing dirty work.¡±


    Since there were organizations like the Anjing House that upheld justice, there would be organizations specializing in dirty work as well. Of course, these organizations only used the most elite of soldiers for their deeds, so their members tended to all be infamous ouws.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. He had really broadened his horizons aftering to the Central ins.


    He surreptitiously counted the number of people and found that there were 15 of them. This was less than the number of people in a toon. However, their movements were extremely well-coordinated.


    The leader of the mercenaries looked at Xu Zhi and handed him a satellite phone. ¡°Call your father and tell him we want a 10 million yuan ransom in cash within seven days.¡±


    Only now did the students finally realize this was not a misunderstanding. The mercenaries hade prepared, and they were even professional kidnappers.


    The male students who said they had guns and were showing them off earlier to the girls no longer dared to say any more. Some of them actually still had their pistols with them, but they did not even have the courage to draw them.


    However, Ren Xiaosu thought this was normal. After all, the kidnappers were wielding a lot more guns than them.


    Some of them even subconsciously looked at Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. But when they realized the two were also being held at gunpoint by six soldiers, they immediately sank into despair.


    Xu Zhi said calmly, ¡°You want cash? You¡¯re brave enough to retrieve it?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about how we¡¯re going to retrieve it.¡± The mercenary said, ¡°Since we¡¯ve managed to gather so many people for the job, it¡¯ll be uneptable if we return without making some money.¡±


    ¡°If we pay the ransom, will you let us go back?¡± Xu Zhi asked.


    ¡°Of course, we¡¯re very trustworthy people,¡± the mercenary said with augh.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid the Riders will go after you?¡± Xu Zhi asked again.


    ¡°It¡¯s not like the Riders are working for your Xu n,¡± the mercenary said with a sneer.


    Those words surprised Ren Xiaosu a little. Were the Riders and the Qinghe Group not on the same side? It sounded like these mercenaries knew more about the inside story.


    Xu Zhi gave it some thought and said, ¡°Seeing that you people can follow us here and grasp our timing so urately, may I ask who your informant is? Tell me, and I¡¯ll immediately call my father. Look, I¡¯m already in your hands, so can¡¯t you fulfill this small request of mine?¡±


    The mercenary leader was amused. He pointed at the chubster next to Xu Zhi. ¡°We promised to give 2 million yuan to your good friend over here once the deed was done.¡±


    Xu Zhi looked at the chubster next to him and shook his head. ¡°You know they aren¡¯t gonna pay you, right?¡±


    All of the students looked at the chubster and found it a little hard to believe. They had never expected a spy would be among them. After all, they were all ssmates! Then they remembered it was the chubster who persuaded everyone to drink. So it turned out that was a premeditated move.


    The chubster said in panic, ¡°It was my uncle who made me do it! I didn¡¯t want to!¡±


    The mercenary said with a smile, ¡°Weren¡¯t you the one who wanted a share of the money? That wasn¡¯t what your uncle asked for.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. It seemed the Qinghe Group was no longer as united after so many years of changes to its internal management. Of course, he couldn¡¯t pass any judgment on what really happened internally.


    However, it looked like the mercenaries were going to silence everyone after this. That was because they were acting without the slightest scruple after taking control of the situation.


    [1] The Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV) is a type of ballistic vest. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Outer_Tactical_Vest

 Chapter 516 - Master, let’s call it a day

    <h4>Chapter 516 Master, let¡°s call it a day</h4>


    The mercenaries kept a close eye on the students by the campfire while their leader said into the walkie-talkie, ¡°What¡¯s the situation over there? Have y¡¯all established the identity of that man and woman?¡±¡°Not yet, they have no identification on them. We¡¯re gonna do a body search to see if they¡¯re armed.¡±


    ¡°Be careful and don¡¯t screw up. Anyone who can venture into the wilderness alone is definitely unusual.¡±


    ¡°Then should we just get rid of them?¡±


    The mercenary leader thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Interrogate them first to find out why they¡¯re here.¡± Then he added in a low voice, ¡°If they¡¯re nobodies, just kill them.¡±


    Xu Zhi looked at the mercenary leader and said calmly, ¡°If I get my father to pay you double, will you help me kill this spy over here and his uncle as well?¡±


    The mercenary leader started tough. ¡°And you won¡¯t pursue us after that? That¡¯s workable too!¡±


    ¡°Then let me call my father.¡± Xu Zhi said, ¡°I¡¯ll call him right away.¡±


    One of the mercenaries handed a satellite phone to Xu Zhi, who then took a look at the service provider and sneered, ¡°To think this satellite phone was sold by our Qinghe Group too.¡±


    After that, Xu Zhi did not hesitate and dialed his father¡¯s number.


    But to everyone¡¯s surprise, Xu Zhi said something quite different from what he had just expressed to the mercenaries. Xu Zhi said, ¡°Dad, I¡¯ve been kidnapped. The masterminds are Wang Baijun and his uncle, Wang Bingjun. You don¡¯t have to save me since they¡¯re prepared to silence us. Dad, please take care of yourself.¡±


    With that, Xu Zhi ended the call. The mercenary leader pped and praised, ¡°I¡¯ve always heard that the people from the Qinghe Group are very tough. Today, I¡¯ve finally seen it for myself and even witnessed an act of filial piety. But never mind that. As long as you¡¯re alive, your father will be more than happy to pay the ransom. All parents worry about their children. As long as they have a 0.01% chance, they¡¯ll surely give up everything to have you returned safely.¡±


    Xu Zhi pursed his lips and did not say another word. But at this moment, a dull cry of pain came through the mercenaries¡¯ radio. The mercenary leader immediately looked up in the direction of Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. However, the campfire there was already extinguished.


    Next to the embers, he saw that his fellow mercenaries had all dropped to the ground.


    It seemed that while they were distracted by Xu Zhi¡¯s phone call to his father just now, that man and woman had suddenly sprung into action. In just an instant, his squadmates were overpowered without a chance to even shout for help.


    What kind of people were they?!


    Some of the mercenaries raised their rifles and slowly moved toward the other camp. However, the mercenary leader shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t go over there! We can¡¯t afford to split up now!¡±


    The mercenary leader felt a chill fall over him. Only superhumans could have such strong individualbat prowess.


    At this moment, there were only nine of them left. If the mercenaries were to split up even further, they would only present their enemy with better opportunities to attack!


    ¡°Bring Xu Zhi along and kill the rest. We¡¯re pulling out of here,¡± the mercenary leader said in a low voice.


    But just as his words trailed off, a gunshot suddenly rang out from the forest, and a bleeding wound appeared on the chest of the mercenary leader. The mercenaries shouted in a panic, ¡°It¡¯s a sniper! There¡¯s a sniper in the forest!¡±


    Immediately after, another three members of the mercenary group were killed. The strange bullets that came from nowhere were like the breath of the Grim Reaper.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu discovered another advantage the ck sniper rifle had. There was no muzzle sh produced even when it was fired in the darkness!


    Usually, a sniper¡¯s position would get exposed due to the conspicuous sh of gunpowder bursting out of the muzzle.


    Therefore, a sniper rifle that did not need to be manually reloaded and could even be fired without producing any muzzle sh was truly a godly weapon.


    A mercenary shouted, ¡°Stop firing! If you fire at us again, I¡¯ll kill these students.¡±


    But a womanughed and said, ¡°Go ahead, we don¡¯t know them anyway.¡±


    When the five remaining mercenaries tried to leave, some vines sprouted out of the ground and entangled them tightly. Not only that, but those vines silently sprouted further, slowly binding the struggling mercenaries before it wrapped around their necks.


    A mercenary unsheathed a dagger and tried to cut himself loose from the vines, but another vine sprouted to hold his hand back. It seemed these vines were much tougher than he expected.


    Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself how he had underestimated Zhou Yingxue¡¯s powers. The vines were not weak at all when it came to killing people. Although it would still be quite tough if they were used to deal with supernatural beings, they were very effective against normal people.


    When those mercenaries were all bound up, Zhou Yingxue slowly emerged from the shadows of the forest. She giggled as she looked at the five mercenaries. ¡°You wanted to kill me, huh?¡±


    Xu Zhi looked at Zhou Yingxue in a daze. In the illumination of the campfire, Zhou Yingxue looked like a captivating fairy emerging from the forest.


    Although she had just killed someone, the more violent her methods, the more her beautiful demeanor felt like a drug that men couldn¡¯t pull themselves away from.


    Zhou Yingxue suddenly turned her head to Xu Zhi and said with a smile, ¡°Well, I saved your life there. Since they wanted a 10 million yuan ransom, I suppose it¡¯s not too much that I ask for 2 million, right?¡±


    The calm-looking Xu Zhi was suddenly flustered. ¡°No, not at all.¡±


    ¡°Then call your father and transfer the money to my ount,¡± Zhou Yingxue said with a smile.


    Xu Zhi quickly picked up the satellite phone on the ground and made the call. ¡°Dad, I was saved by someone. I don¡¯t know the identity of my rescuers, but they killed all 15 of the kidnappers. They are requesting for 2 million yuan as a reward.¡±


    His father said something on the other end, and Xu Zhi looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°What¡¯s your ount number?¡±


    ¡°Send it to anonymous ount 1377799 of the Wang Consortium Bank.¡± Zhou Yingxue was smiling even more happily now. ¡°Although I can¡¯t check whether the money¡¯s been transferred, I believe the Qinghe Group won¡¯t cheat me of this small sum.¡±


    ¡°No, we definitely won¡¯t,¡± Xu Zhi said firmly. ¡°May I know your¡ª¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re asking for my identity, forget it. We won¡¯t be meeting again anyway.¡± Zhou Yingxue chuckled. She nced at the chubster next to her who was still alive and said with a smile, ¡°Do you want me to kill him for you as well? I¡¯ll charge 500,000 yuan for this kill.... Forget it, he¡¯s not worth that much. 250,000 yuan will do.¡±


    Xu Zhi said softly, ¡°Thank you, but I have my own arrangements for this person.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Zhou Yingxue felt it was somewhat pitiful she had missed out on a deal. After confirming the five mercenaries had been strangled to death, she turned to the forest and shouted, ¡°Master, let¡¯s call it a day!¡±


    With that, Zhou Yingxue headed straight into the forest with swaying hips and disappeared into the dark night.


    Dumbfounded, Xu Zhi stared at Zhou Yingxue¡¯s receding figure. He was thinking about something.


    The other Qinghe University students were also in a daze. So many twists and turns happened tonight that their brains could not keep up with everything that had happened.


    The recent scene of that female superhuman killing people had really terrified them. However, what was most puzzling was that she actually had a master.


    In that case, could the master this female superhuman was referring to be that quiet young man from earlier?!

 Chapter 517 - The world outside

    <h4>Chapter 517 The world outside</h4>


    Xu Zhi did not leave with his ssmates in a hurry but remained quietly sitting in the same spot while waiting for rescue to arrive. During the wait, he held his automatic rifle closely and pointed it at the chubster who had betrayed him without letting up his guard.The students sat by the campfire in silence. No one knew what they were thinking. The atmosphere around the campfire was no longer cheerful like before. Instead, it had be quite gloomy and depressing.


    Someone suddenly remembered an interesting rumor from before. Apparently, an outstanding freshman had tried to woo a girl who had transferred to Qinghe University from another school. However, that girl said the students of their university all led a very sheltered life.


    The rumored girl was Yang Xiaojin, and she had said, ¡°You think that the president of the Student Council is outstanding because you guys haven¡¯t had a chance to see the outside world yet. The guy I like has never led a pampered life.¡±


    And that president of the Student Council referred to Xu Zhi himself.


    Xu Zhi was an excellent student and a member of the Xu n. Therefore, he had always been the most outstanding student in school since childhood.


    When this rumor reached Xu Zhi¡¯s ears, he justughed it off. However, a senior female student who admired Xu Zhi went to look for that girl and asked her, ¡°You said that our Qinghe University students all lead a pampered life?¡±


    But even in the face of being questioned, Yang Xiaojin still stuck to her answer.


    Now that Xu Zhi thought about what the girl had said, he realized he used to be really sheltered. However, he started wondering what kind of guy the girl admired was like. Was he as strong as that young man he just met?


    But while thinking about that, his mind couldn¡¯t help wandering towards Zhou Yingxue¡¯s image. The woman who had saved him suddenly appeared in his memories, exuding an alluring but dangerous aura. How could a woman like her be someone else¡¯s maid?


    Four hours after Ren Xiaosu left with Zhou Yingxue, a convoy suddenly arrived. Xu Zhi got up and said, ¡°Dad, why¡¯d youe here personally?¡±


    Xu Zhi¡¯s father took a look around. When he found that the students were all fine, he said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m here to pick you up.¡±


    Xu Zhi asked, ¡°What about Wang Baijun¡¯s uncle, Wang Bingjun?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s been apprehended. Is this fat boy Wang Baijun?¡± Xu Zhi¡¯s father smiled at his subordinate next to him and said, ¡°Bring him back and lock him up in jail with his uncle. Don¡¯t let him out ever again. By the way, Little Zhi, where¡¯s the people who saved you?¡±


    Xu Zhi felt somewhat lost as he looked in the direction where Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu had disappeared off to. He said, ¡°They left after killing the kidnappers.¡±


    ¡°Do you know their identities?¡± Xu Zhi¡¯s father frowned.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Xu Zhi shook his head. ¡°They didn¡¯t have any identification on them and I didn¡¯t even manage to get a clear look at the young man¡¯s face. But if I see them again, I can definitely recognize them.¡±


    That was because that young man possessed a unique aura that was calm yet full of strength.


    ...


    After the students were rescued, they took a short, one-week break before returning to school. The incident in which Xu Zhi, the president of the Student Council, was nearly kidnapped in the wilderness was already spreading.


    After all, there were many other students present at the time of the attempted kidnapping. It was just like a legend in a story for the students who experienced it, so they would brag to their ssmates without restraint. Moreover, Xu Zhi did not say they could not talk about it.


    Details of the matter spread very quickly in school. As Xu Zhi was the protagonist of the story, and being the president of the Student Council, it naturally attracted a lot of attention.


    Furthermore, Xu Zhi¡¯s unyielding attitude towards the kidnappers was unanimously praised by his ssmates. Not anyone could remain calm while being held at gunpoint and facing certain death.


    The girls who admired Xu Zhi felt they had not fallen for the wrong person after all.


    After this incident, Xu Zhi became somewhat famous within the Qinghe Group. Disregarding whether he was capable or not, at least he was a bold person.


    But Xu Zhi¡¯s matter merely served as an embellishment to the story. The other students were more interested in the man and woman who had rescued Xu Zhi.


    Rumor had it that Xu Zhi was saved by a female superhuman. When she emerged from the forest, she looked as graceful as a swan, while her eyes sparkled like limpid autumn waters.


    She was capable of controlling nts that helped to trap the mercenaries in ce before strangling them to death with the vines of the nt.


    After what she did, everyone seemed to have forgotten about Zhou Yingxue¡¯s hogging of the ripened jujube tree and other simr matters. They could only remember the sight of her killing those mercenaries.


    However, this was not the main focus of the story. The main point was that she actually had a grandpa.


    A student who was listening to the story wondered, ¡°What¡¯s the big deal about having a grandpa? Isn¡¯t that something very normal? I have a grandpa too. I call my father¡¯s father ¡®Grandfather,¡¯ while my mother¡¯s father is called ¡®Grandpa...¡¯¡±


    The student telling the story was dumbfounded. ¡°I¡¯m not fucking referring to ¡®grandpa.¡¯ I¡¯m talking about the ¡®master¡¯[1] in a master-servant rtionship! This female superhuman¡¯s master is very young. In fact, he might even be younger than us.¡±


    The students listening to the story now understood. ¡°Oh, I see! You meant master!¡±


    To these students who were still living in an ivory tower, the story itself was already legendary enough. A mysterious young sniper leading his maid around in the wilderness would always arouse the yearnings of many people.


    The male students all hoped to be that young sniper. Sprawling drunk while in a beauty¡¯sp, holding the world¡¯s power while sober. Just the thought of that made them extremely excited!


    Meanwhile, the girls felt it would be quite romantic to follow such a young man and wander the world.


    Of course, the story also made these students who lived in an ivory tower understand the outside world had be mystical and dangerous.


    Yang Xiaojin was also listening to the story. All the girls in the ssroom were discussing it with great enthusiasm, but only she was sitting quietly in the corner.


    A female student said excitedly while chatting, ¡°Wow, a sniper! That young man must be very handsome, right? For someone as powerful and mysterious as him, even I would like to be his maid as well! Although that might sound pretty feudal, it still feels pretty nice.¡±


    Of course, they did not know that Yang Xiaojin, who was sitting beside them, was actually an existence that felt like the top of the pyramid to other snipers.


    A girl spun around and asked Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Xiaojin, since you¡¯re from outside of Luoyang City, can you tell us what it¡¯s like out there? Is it really as dangerous as they put it?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin calmly looked at them. ¡°It¡¯s a little more dangerous than what they described.¡±


    To someone like Yang Xiaojin, it seemed there were not many secrets left in this world. Therefore, the world was 10,000 times more dangerous to her than what the eyes of these girls could see.


    Kill or be killed.


    A female student said with a smile, ¡°Xiaojin, you said that you don¡¯t like guys who lead a pampered life. Then what about that young sniper?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I already have someone I like.¡±


    After saying that, Yang Xiaojin continued taking notes with lowered head as she prepared for the lessons today. Since the paper crane she had been waiting for did not arrive yet, she could only put her concentration on her studies.


    The girl next to her muttered, ¡°Then I¡¯m sure that the person that you like is not as powerful as the young man we¡¯re talking about.¡±


    [1] ÀÑÒ¯ and ÀÏÒ¯ sound the same in Chinese but they mean Grandpa and Master respectively.

 Chapter 518 - Rich overnigh

    <h4>Chapter 518 Rich overnigh</h4>


    Zhou Yingxue returned to the ck market by herself. She and Ren Xiaosu had arrived on the outskirts of the ck market together. However, Ren Xiaosu said it would be too eye-catching for a man and woman to go back into town together.This ck market was, after all, under the control of the Qinghe Group. If Xu Zhi had the intention, he could definitely find them as they had such distinctive features.


    But that was only the secondary concern. Actually, it would not be a big deal even if Xu Zhi managed to find them. However, Ren Xiaosu had used a sniper rifle when they rescued Xu Zhi¡¯s group, so it would be bad if the Zhou Consortium were to link this to Zhou Xilong¡¯s assassination.


    The Zhou Consortium was a well-known consortium in the Central ins. If they wanted to take revenge on someone, it would surely not be trivial.


    Even after Zhou Yingxue returned to the ck market alone, she still stayed in the hotel every day and rarely left her room. If she had to go out, she would wrap herself up very tightly.


    As it was already a month into fall, no one would really get suspicious even if she wore thicker clothes with a silk scarf and sunsses.


    After hiding in the hotel for several days, Zhou Yingxue finally couldn¡¯t stand it any longer. She wrapped herself up in disguise and headed to the bank at the ck market to check her ount.


    She concealed herself so tightly because Ren Xiaosu told her the consortiums would certainly not let go of any vital information they could get and would set up surveince cameras in hidden ces.


    After arriving at the bank, Zhou Yingxue was stunned as soon as she went in. She saw two people wrapped up even tighter than her standing in front of the automated teller machine.


    When she saw them keying in numbers with a sense of familiarity, she believed they must have been here on more than one asion. When Zhou Yingxue saw that veterans like these were also guarding against the consortium¡¯s banks, she wondered if Ren Xiaosu could really be right.


    Zhou Yingxue keyed in her anonymous ount and password at an ATM and noted there was four million yuan in it. Of that amount, one million yuan was received from the previous mission she had aplished, while another one million yuan was the reward for assassinating Zhou Xilong.


    This showed the Anjing House had already recognized thepletion of thatst mission and that she had gained the opportunity to ask for their protection once.


    The remaining two million yuan was paid by Xu Zhi who promised it for saving his life.


    When she keyed in Wu Tong¡¯s ount and password, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s eyes lit up. There was 5.3 million yuan in Wu Tong¡¯s ount!


    Frankly, Zhou Yingxue really did not expect Wu Tong to be so rich. But upon thinking about it, Wu Tong was considered a very experienced A-rank hitman. And with the Zhou Consortium¡¯s internal resources readily avable for him, he could easily carry out his missions there.


    So it was normal he had earned so much money.


    After checking Wu Tong¡¯s ount, Zhou Yingxue got lost in thought. After all, she now had 9.3 million yuan in her hands. This amount of money couldst her for the rest of her life at any stronghold, right?


    Then should she continue leading such a dangerous life?


    Based on how Ren Xiaosu had reacted, he would not hunt her down to the ends of the earth even if she absconded with the money. In that case, what else did she have to worry about?


    Her purpose for deliberately staying in the bathroom of the restaurant for half an hour the previous time was just so she could see how Ren Xiaosu would react about the money. Actually, what she was most worried about was getting hunted down by Ren Xiaosu.


    That young man made her feel like he was a massive mountain she could not conquer. In fact, it felt like she could not even muster up any resistance against him. If the two of them really became enemies, Zhou Yingxue would definitely escape rather than think about how to fight back.


    ¡°Should I leave or not?¡± Zhou Yingxue had experienced such a struggle recently. She initially thought that she could ept remaining as a maidservant to that young man, but after seeing such arge sum of money, she still felt tempted by it.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu would be getting 80% of the money when he returned.


    Zhou Yingxue walked out of the bank while gritting her teeth and muttering to herself, ¡°Why does he have to take such arge share of the money? Seriously, I wouldn¡¯t be caught in such a dilemma if I could just get another 10% more!¡±


    But when Zhou Yingxue was about to leave, she hesitated again, because no one had ever given her any sense of security like Ren Xiaosu had in this chaotic world.


    By following Ren Xiaosu, things would be totally different. She could munch on melon seedsfortably even while standing on the roof of a building.


    To be honest, Zhou Yingxue believed that as long as Ren Xiaosu was around, any missions could bepleted and she would not have to be put in danger at any time.


    After all, Stronghold 73 might not necessarily be tougher than Stronghold 146, and that young man was someone who had destroyed a stronghold before.


    A sense of security was simply too important in this chaotic world. Or rather, it was really too important to Zhou Yingxue.


    Moreover, her master was also quite a nice person. Although he looked unfeeling on the surface, he had a warm heart. If something happened to her someday, Ren Xiaosu would definitely save her, right?


    With those thoughts, Zhou Yingxue involuntarily walked back to the entrance of the hotel. Zhou Yingxue sighed, ¡°Since I¡¯ve alreadye back here, I should just wait patiently for Master to return....¡±


    The feeling of being a maidservant wasn¡¯t too bad after all.


    All of a sudden, Zhou Yingxue felt much more rxed. She turned around and ran to the ck market¡¯s casino.


    She had earned some money, so she needed to spend it now!


    But when Zhou Yingxue went into the casino, she only exchanged for 500 yuan¡¯s worth of chips. She held the five small chips in her hands and looked around for a long time but did not really sit down at any tables to y.


    Not for any other reason, but because she could not bear to part with the money. What if she lost?


    In the end, Zhou Yingxue traded the chips back for money and returned straight to her hotel room to soak in the bathtub. The casino staff rolled their eyes after she exchanged the chips without ying at all.


    Just after Zhou Yingxue left, Vani of the Anjing House stood at the casino¡¯s entrance and smilingly said through his micro-earpiece, ¡°She doesn¡¯t look like someone who would double-cross her teammates. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any problem with the mission at Stronghold 73. Moreover, the Zhou Consortium also imed they killed four of the hitmen, so everything matches up.¡±


    But a voice rang out through the earpiece, ¡°I still think there¡¯s something suspicious with this A-rank hitwoman. After all, her teammates all perished for both the missions she was involved in.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s observe her again when we get a chance next time. I¡¯m off to carry out another mission now,¡± Vani said.


    Right now, Vani was dressed in a ck suit and tie, and he looked like any other handsome young man out there. In fact, one might even mistake him as the most popr gigolo of a host club, the type older women liked the most.


    ¡°By the way,¡± Vani suddenly asked, ¡°what about the D-rank hitman that caused a lot of trouble at Stronghold 61? No, he should¡¯ve been promoted to C-rank, right?¡±


    Someone said through the earpiece, ¡°It seems that person has disappeared.¡±


    ¡°Is it possible the person used other people¡¯s cell phones to carry out the missions? Check if there¡¯s been any simr situations recently,¡± Vani said.


    It would have been fine if they did not check, but the person in charge of assigning the missions at the Anjing House suddenly realized a simr situation had also urred during the previous D-rank mission assignments at Stronghold 73. No one managed toplete it even after a long time, and those who epted the mission had all disappeared!


    Vani was a little puzzled by this. ¡°Could that troublemaker have gone to Stronghold 73? The distance between the two strongholds is way too vast. Could that D-rank hitman actually be Zhou Yingxue?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not the case. We had our people investigate and sought eyewitness ounts. They said the troublemaker¡¯s a young male individual.¡±


    At this moment, Zhou Yingxue was still unaware she was almost targeted by the Anjing House. Ren Xiaosu was right about it after all. If they wanted to lead a better life in this chaotic world, they would have to be even more cautious.

 Chapter 519 - The wild world

    <h4>Chapter 519 The wild world</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had already returned to the town outside of Stronghold 61. When he first got to the Central ins, he started off from here. He even bought a house and nted some Potato Shooters in the yard.


    As soon as he went into the house, he saw the corpses of several people lying on the ground just as he had anticipated. They were all killed by the Potato Shooters when they leaped into his yard while he was away.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Now that this ce had be the haunted house of the town, it would probably be a little difficult to sell it away.


    After cleaning up the house, he headed straight to the tavern.


    When he arrived there, the storyteller was telling a new story again. Ren Xiaosu pricked his ears up to listen and was surprised to hear it was about Xu Zhi¡¯s rescue in the wilderness.


    The storyteller said, ¡°My dear listeners, you might not know that the world¡¯s been getting strangertely. That mysterious young man in the wilderness is traveling thends and upholding justice with his maid in tow...¡±


    After entering the tavern, Ren Xiaosu was smiling as he ordered a bowl ofmb stew from the waiter. Xiaolu was sitting in a chair next to the storyteller, but it seemed like she did not notice Ren Xiaosu at all.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Had they forgotten about him after he had been away for just a few days? Even the waiter was acting like he had never seen Ren Xiaosu before.


    Just as he was about to take his usual seat by the window, he realized a woman wearing a ck cap was already sitting there.


    He had encountered this woman before and nearly even mistook her for Yang Xiaojin!


    The woman was still dressed in a trimbat uniform and a pair ofbat boots. As these were steel-toebat boots, normal women would not want to wear them.


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything and just chose another table to sit down at. He realized the reason why Xiaolu, the storyteller, and the waiter were pretending not to know him might have something to do with this woman¡¯s presence.


    Was she a supernatural being? Ren Xiaosu was not very sure, but he could confirm that she was sure to be someone with a powerful background.


    But why would a woman like her appear here in town?


    As usual, Ren Xiaosu carefully tore the bread into tiny pieces for half an hour as he listened to the storyteller praising him through his storytelling.


    Throughout, the woman wearing the ck cap remained silent and did not look up at Ren Xiaosu once. She only cared about drinking but did not seem to get drunk no matter how much she drank.


    Ren Xiaosu left after eating hismb stew. It wasn¡¯t until evening that he heard a knocking on his door.


    He walked up to the door but did not face it directly. Instead, he hid behind the brick wall next to it and asked, ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡±


    ¡°Me.¡±


    It was Xiaolu¡¯s voice.


    Ren Xiaosu opened the door slightly and Xiaolu agilely squeezed in through the opening. ¡°Did you see that woman wearing the cap?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    ¡°Ever since she came here, my grandpa specifically ordered me and the waiter to pretend not to know you if we see you again.¡± Xiaolu said, ¡°She¡¯d been here once before and even paid a visit to my grandpa¡¯s house. However, I don¡¯t know what they talked about as Grandpa told me to go and buy a bottle of soy sauce for him.¡±


    Xiaolu finished her sentence in a single breath as though she were afraid Ren Xiaosu would misunderstand her. After all, she had pretended not to know Ren Xiaosu during the day.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said with a smile, ¡°I thought that y¡¯all had forgotten me. But who on earth is that woman? She actually made your grandpa that wary?¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not too sure. I only know that she¡¯s a very powerful superhuman.¡± Xiaolu said, ¡°Have you been on a mission recently? Why¡¯d you go away for half a month?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, the location of the mission was a little bit far,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    ¡°Was it a mission concerning the Zhou Consortium?¡± Xiaolu asked.


    Ren Xiaosu just smiled and did not answer her question.


    However, Xiaolu asked again, ¡°Do you know how to use a sniper rifle? Are you that person with the maid?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°What sniper rifle?¡±


    He realized Xiaolu and the storyteller had already guessed the person was him. However, they were not too sure because the operation was extremely secretive this time.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Do I look like someone with a maid?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true; you¡¯re still by yourself.¡± Xiaolu nodded, feeling reassured. ¡°Then will you stille by the tavern tomorrow?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°With that woman around, I shouldn¡¯t be appearing at the tavern so often while her identity is still unknown. I¡¯ll be leaving tomorrow.


    ¡°Where are you going?¡± Xiaolu fluttered hershes.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be going to the ck market at Luoyang City.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not hide it from her.


    ¡°Will you stille back?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I still have a house here. If that woman leaves, throw a bunch of weeds into my yard, and I¡¯ll get the message.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll head back home now. You¡¯d better be careful.¡± Xiaolu sounded sad. In fact, she would have liked to have gone with Ren Xiaosu to see the world, but she knew her grandpa would get very angry if she did.


    After saying that, Xiaolu squeezed through the opening in the door again and disappeared off into the darkness. Only Xiaolu¡¯s scent still lingered in the house. Beforeing over, she apparently applied some perfume on herself. It smelled pretty good and was not one of the inferior perfumes sold in town.


    Xiaolu returned home looking down. The storyteller snapped at her, ¡°Where have you been?¡±


    ¡°I... I went out to gather more stories,¡± Xiaolu replied.


    ¡°You were totally unsettled the moment he came back to town. Did you go and look for him?¡± The storyteller pulled a long face. ¡°I¡¯ve told you so many times that this sort of person is very dangerous, and it¡¯s even more dangerous for you to hang around him.¡±


    ¡°Grandpa,¡± Xiaolu said pitifully, ¡°I want to go out and see the world.¡±


    ¡°I think you just want to be his maid!¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with that!¡± Xiaolu said stubbornly.


    The storyteller was stunned for a moment. He said with a sigh, ¡°You¡¯re still young, but he¡¯s someone who has walked into that power vortex. I won¡¯t allow you to be with him.¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯m also very strong,¡± Xiaolu said, unconvinced.


    ¡°You should listen to more stories first to understand just how dangerous this wild world is,¡± the storyteller said earnestly.


    ¡°But why?¡±


    ¡°Because what¡¯s most dangerous about the world aren¡¯t the firearms or superpowers out there, but the people. You have to learn what the true nature of this wild world is,¡± the storyteller said with a smile.


    ¡°OK, so how long do I have to listen to these stories?¡± Xiaolu sat at the table and ced her chin on her hand as she stared nkly into space.


    ¡°Another year. Another year and I¡¯ll let you venture out,¡± the storyteller said.


    Then the storyteller heard Xiaolu folding some paper next to him. ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m folding paper cranes,¡± Xiaolu said with a smile.


    The storyteller felt a tinge of despair in his heart. What the hell!


    Before Ren Xiaosu returned to the town at Stronghold 61, the storyteller had been hoping the cap-wearing woman would quickly leave. With someone like hering to listen to his stories every day, he was under too much stress!


    It was not that he was afraid the woman would pose a threat to him. After all, there was no conflict of interest between the two of them. However, that woman knew too much, so he could no longer make up the stories as he liked anymore.


    And now, he hated Ren Xiaosu more than that woman.


    The storyteller really hoped Ren Xiaosu would leave as soon as possible and not to return to Stronghold 61 again to harm his granddaughter.

 Chapter 520 - A pack of lies

    <h4>Chapter 520 A pack of lies</h4>


    It took seven days for Ren Xiaosu to return to the ck market. No one knew where he had been during that time.


    But when he was checking in to the hotel, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see someone wearing a Pyro Company logo on his chest walk out from the elevator and leave the hotel.


    Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu nearly started a fight right there in the hotel when he saw that small me on the other party¡¯s chest. After all, Ren Xiaosu had subconsciously deemed the Pyro Company as his enemy after such a long time. However, Ren Xiaosu managed to get ahold of himself. After all, this was the ck market.


    He went upstairs and entered his room. After a while, Zhou Yingxue came knocking on his door. Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue with an ambiguous smile and said, ¡°You didn¡¯t leave after seeing all that money?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue curled her lips and did not answer the question. She wrote down an ount number for Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Master, your 80% share has been deposited into this ount.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and took the piece of paper from her. ¡°I won¡¯t exploit you either. You can deduct any expenses incurred from this ount while carrying out the missions. After all, your mother is still sick. By the way, do you have enough for her medical bills?¡±


    ¡°If I say that I don¡¯t have enough, are you gonna give me another 10%?¡± Zhou Yingxue stared nkly at Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°If you don¡¯t have enough money, I¡¯ll take you to aplish more missions.¡±


    ¡°Then forget it.¡± Zhou Yingxue sat down on the couch and muttered, ¡°I still want to rest for a while longer.¡±


    ¡°By the way, I saw someone from the Pyro Company in the hotel lobby earlier. How¡¯d they get into the ck market?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°And they even wear their logo around so tantly?¡±


    Puzzled, Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t that be very normal?¡±


    ¡°Normal?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t the Pyro Company be hated by everyone?¡±


    ¡°Only supernatural beings think that way.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°The Pyro Company doesn¡¯t capture normal people, and they¡¯ve only been going after supernatural beings in recent years. As they usually carry out their operations in secret. Many supernatural beings don¡¯t even know about it.¡±


    ¡°But the Pyro Company is also very tyrannical in their ways. Doesn¡¯t that irk people?¡±


    ¡°Of course it does! But aren¡¯t all consortiums the same?¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Moreover, the Pyro Company has quite a few strongholds under their control and is such a dominant power as well. Other than the Anjing House and the Saboteurs, no one would really want to offend them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized it was his previous experience in the Southwest that gave him a negative impression of the Pyro Company. It was mainly because Yang Xiaojin wanted to attack the Pyro Company that he subconsciously ced them on his cklist.


    He finally realized there wasn¡¯t much of a difference between the Pyro Company and the other consortiums in most people¡¯s eyes.


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Besides, the Pyro Company has always regarded this ck market as a hub. I heard the Pyro Company¡¯s on good terms with the Qinghe Group, and it seems the rtionship between the two founders was great. Therefore, the Pyro Company has always been an ally of Luoyang City all these years. Furthermore, the Pyro Company has never gone after any supernatural beings within the Qinghe Group¡¯s territory before. As such, a lot of supernatural beings came here to the ck market to avoid the Pyro Company¡¯s attempts at capturing them.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t they afraid that the Pyro Company will make a move once they leave the ck market?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°It seems that the Pyro Company has really not resorted to something like that in the ck market before,¡± Zhou Yingxue answered.


    ¡°What¡¯s the rtionship between the Pyro Company and the Qinghe Group?¡± Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled.


    However, none of this seemed to have much to do with him. He would still kill the members of the Pyro Company if he encountered them in the wilderness anyway. After all, the Pyro Company had attacked him on more than one asion.


    Ren Xiaosu cast a sidelong nce at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°What¡¯ve you been up to in the ck market the past few days? You didn¡¯t go out to show off, right?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°I¡¯m not the sort of person who likes attention.¡±


    Yet Ren Xiaosu saw therge, new diamond ring on Zhou Yingxue¡¯s right index finger she had just bought and the jade bracelet on her wrist.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°You didn¡¯t go to the casino?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhou Yingxue shook her head. ¡°My father went into heavy debt because of gambling, and if it weren¡¯t for that, my mother would¡¯ve had enough money to treat her illness when she fell seriously sick. When she passed away...¡±


    Zhou Yingxue stopped abruptly mid-sentence and the room fell silent.


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Don¡¯t speak yet. Let me think it through. Back when we were at Stronghold 88, you said that you wanted to go home to save your mother. Then, when I encountered you againter, you said that you wanted to make enough money for your mother¡¯s treatment. But now, you¡¯re saying that your mother has passed away...¡±


    ¡°I misspoke...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, ¡°Do I look gullible to you?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue quickly squatted down next to Ren Xiaosu and started massaging his legs. ¡°Master, wasn¡¯t it only because I was afraid you would kill me? What else could I have said? What¡¯s the matter with a weak girl like me telling some lies to others....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at the ceiling in a speechless manner. Indeed, no one in this world could be trusted anymore. Back then, he had thought Zhou Yingxue was quite a filial person, so he let her off.


    Ren Xiaosu had never met his parents before nor mentioned it to anyone. But that did not mean he did not miss them or find it regretful. Therefore, when Zhou Yingxue mentioned she wanted to save her mother and pay off her medical bills, his heart softened.


    However, only now did he realize Zhou fucking Yingxue could lie without batting an eyelid! So this was what a spy was like!


    But what else could he do now? Should he kill Zhou Yingxue? He did not have to go that far, right? After all, she had been addressing him as her master for quite a while.


    Ren Xiaosu stared at Zhou Yingxue. He even suspected she had deliberately misspoken so she couldy out all her cards on the table as she was sure that he would not do anything to her.


    Ren Xiaosu asked angrily, ¡°What else have you lied about, huh?¡±


    ¡°Nothing else.¡± Zhou Yingxue quickly shook her head.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to say something, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s cell phone off to the side suddenly lit up. A new text message hade in. ¡°Escort Mission: Provide protection for a female singer from Stronghold 62 for the duration of her concert tour spanning 37 strongholds. The employer requests that the mission be entrusted to a female superhuman. To all interested female superhumans, please sign up and verify your gender by taking a selfie. The reward is 2 million yuan.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised. This was the first time he had seen an escort mission be issued. He asked Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Have you seen a mission like this before?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Zhou Yingxue nodded. ¡°The previous one was to protect the Zhou Consortium¡¯s Zhou Shiji. But the strange thing is that escort missions are usually requested by an employer, yet there are no employers when ites to assassination missions. It feels like the targets in the assassination missions are people the Anjing House themselves want dead.¡±


    This mission gave him a sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, and anticipation suddenly filled him. Was this female singer a member of the Saboteurs as well? If so, couldn¡¯t he find Yang Xiaojin this time?

 Chapter 521 - An arrogant employer

    <h4>521 An arrogant employer</h4>


    ¡°Master, are we gonna take this mission?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked. Now that there was a mission, it was no longer up to her to decide whether to ept it or not. After all, Ren Xiaosu was the one mainly responsible for conducting them.In the end, Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°It¡¯s still very democratic between us. Do you wanna ept it?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°I feel that even though this mission is simple, since it¡¯s only to escort a female singer, the duration of the mission is too long. She¡¯s gonna pass through more than 30 strongholds, and it wasn¡¯t specified how many concerts she would be holding. During that long duration, it¡¯d be enough for us toplete several other missions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Then let¡¯s ept it!¡±


    All of a sudden, Zhou Yingxue was dumbfounded. ¡®Master, do you not understand humannguage? Isn¡¯t it obvious that I don¡¯t want to ept it!¡¯


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Master, I would like to rest for a while longer.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s easy to fall sick if you rest too much.¡± Ren Xiaosu patiently exined, ¡°Think about it. Although this mission¡¯s duration is long, the reward she¡¯s giving is also very high. It¡¯s 2 million yuan!¡±


    ¡°Master, since when were you someone who would get enticed by two million yuan?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked in disbelief.


    ¡°See, you still don¡¯t know me well enough! Alright, reply to the text and send them your selfie. In any case, you already revealed yourself to the Anjing House when you became an A-rank hitwoman,¡± Ren Xiaosu decided.


    Zhou Yingxue pursed her lips. She took a selfie and replied to the text to ept the mission.


    Ren Xiaosu gave the situation some thought. Zhou Yingxue was previously involved in intelligence work and was even in charge of protecting some of the Yang Consortium¡¯s important personnel. Since the Anjing House knew about Zhou Yingxue¡¯s identity, the probability of her getting chosen for the mission was very high.


    The Anjing House¡¯s reply arrived very quickly. ¡°We¡¯ve received your mission application. Please wait patiently as we still require the employer to make a choice. Please do not worry. Your photo was only used to verify your identity, and we will not submit any images to the employer. Given your previous work experience and good mission credibility, we will give priority to your application and rmend you to the employer first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. The Anjing House¡¯s reply was quite polite. They actually used the honorific form of ¡°you¡± in their texts.


    But from the looks of it, they would have to wait a while longer. This time, the mission eptance would actually have to be decided by the employer.


    It was back to normal again as Zhou Yingxue went out to shop on a daily basis. The prosperity of the ck market was something the strongholds could notpare to, with 70% of those who came here carryingrge amounts of cash on them.


    Moreover, these people were probably unable to go to the normal strongholds for their purchases, so they could only spend their money here.


    Hence, the ck market specially created an entire range of consumer industries for them like the casino and brothels. They even specially invited some celebrities from the strongholds to perform here. Then there was also Zhou Yingxue¡¯s favorite industry... jewelry.


    Ren Xiaosu did some calctions based on Zhou Yingxue¡¯s pattern of buying a piece of jewelry every three days. If that female singer did not hurry here soon, Zhou Yingxue could very well go bankrupt.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was in his hotel room holding a book in hand and lying on the sofa by the full-length window. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue was happily showing off a diamond ring on her hand to him. ¡°Master, isn¡¯t this nice? I heard that someone dug it out from some Pre-Cataclysm ruins. Who¡¯d¡¯ve known that after The Cataclysm, diamonds would still be intact? Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s really miraculous?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. ¡°What¡¯s so miraculous about that...¡±


    By the time Zhou Yingxue was showing off her other jewelry, Ren Xiaosu had already turned a deaf ear to her and was focused on reading.


    Zhou Yingxue muttered, ¡°You¡¯re always reading books every day. Are they really that interesting? Master, why do you like to read so much?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not even look at her. ¡°Because I can gain an understanding of this world through reading.¡±


    In the past, he did not have the qualifications to attend school, nor did he have the opportunity to learn through the strongholds¡¯ education system. Therefore, the more hecked knowledge, the more he desired it.


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Don¡¯t we already know enough about this world? People are scheming against each other every day and have so much distrust for each other. Everyone hungers for fame and status so much that it might as well be written on their foreheads.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked back at her. ¡°The world is much more than that.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned for a moment. She did not expect Ren Xiaosu to answer her in such a manner. This was because Ren Xiaosu should have much stronger feelings about those things she had mentioned and experienced it far more as well.


    When Zhou Yingxue saw that Ren Xiaosu had gone back to reading, she suddenly felt that this young man who was clearly approaching the peak of humanity was slightly more charming when he read.


    Zhou Yingxue received another text. ¡°You¡¯ve been chosen by the employer. The other party requests that you head to the ck market on the outskirts of Luoyang City within 48 hours. You are to be dressed formally, and the hem of your skirt can not be above your knees. You are not to sleep before the employer, you cannot eat meat in her presence, you cannot mention cats in her presence, you cannot... You¡¯ll also have to sign a confidentiality agreement and are not allowed to leak the personal habits of the employer.¡±


    All in all, there were 81 terms detailing what Zhou Yingxue could not do!


    Zhou Yingxue frowned when she saw these conditions. ¡°Master, I left the Yang Consortium precisely because I couldn¡¯t stand such pretentious behavior. Now that I¡¯ve be an A-rank hitwoman, I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m encountering a person like this again.¡±


    To be honest, Zhou Yingxue was already starting to feel conflicted when she saw the employer had included so many conditions for the mission. She was a professional hitwoman, so why did she feel like she had ended up as a female bodyguard at the beck and call of her employer?


    ¡°It¡¯s also possible that this is a more formal job request.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you also have to act this way when you were on an escort assignment at the Yang Consortium?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s different.¡± Zhou Yingxue pursed her lips. ¡°It¡¯s not like she¡¯s an important figure or something. She¡¯s just a singer.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue replied to the text to state she was already at the ck market and asked where her employer was.


    The reply came back and said her employer was still in Stronghold 62.


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s temper rose immediately. ¡°She wants us to be here within 48 hours, yet she isn¡¯t even on her way yet?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s wait patiently then,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    In the end, a week passed.


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s fingers were a blur as she typed her reply on the phone, ¡°Is the employer stilling? Hm? She told me to be here within 48 hours, but she hasn¡¯t even arrived after a week? Hm? Is an A-rank hitwoman¡¯s time any less valuable?¡±


    Over the past few days, Zhou Yingxue had been on the verge of exploding from anger. She was a supernatural being, an A-rank hitwoman, yet she had to wait here without an end in sight for a lousy singer?!


    The Anjing House replied with, ¡°You may cancel the mission. The cancetion this time will not affect any of your mission results. Also, the one million yuan the other party has paid as a security deposit will be transferred to you.¡±


    The Anjing House¡¯s attitude was quite clear. They definitely would think from the perspective of their own members. Moreover, an A-rank hitman¡¯s time was indeed worth a lot.


    However, the Anjing House followed up with another text, ¡°The employer says that if you can wait, they¡¯ll increase the reward by two million yuan as fees for loss of working time.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue threw her cell phone onto the bed. ¡°Am I someone whocks that couple of million yuan?¡±


    But after careful consideration, she realized she did.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue with an ambiguous smile. ¡°Why don¡¯t we cancel the mission?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue red at him. ¡°It¡¯s such a waste not to earn a moron¡¯s money!¡±

 Chapter 522 - Gaudy

    <h4>Chapter 522 Gaudy</h4>


    It was understandable that the employer was not punctual. After all, they were the ones paying.However, the problem was that the other party had requested Zhou Yingxue rush to the ck market within 48 hours. In the end, they werete by a week.


    Zhou Yingxue was most unhappy with this point. She thought the other party would be very punctual, but in the end, they stood her up for an entire week!


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Master, aren¡¯t you angry?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled confidently and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to overthink it. When this singer arrives, I¡¯ll just need to say something to her and she¡¯ll immediately change her attitude.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. Looking at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s confident smile, she realized Ren Xiaosu might know something that she did not.


    But since her master had spoken, she did not have anything else to add.


    After waiting for another three days, the female singer¡¯s entourage finally arrived. Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue were waiting outside the ck market to pick them up.


    More than twenty vehicles were approaching in the distance. This lineup was muchrger than Luo Xinyu¡¯s entourage when she went on her concert tour.


    Zhou Yingxue mumbled, ¡°I¡¯ve long heard about how the celebrities of the Central ins are spoiled rotten. Theymand even greater importance than the consortiums¡¯ officials, and when they go on tour, they get escorted by such huge entourages and get ferried around wherever they go. I didn¡¯t expect it to really be like that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are there many celebrities in the Central ins?¡±


    ¡°There are a considerable number of them.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°After all, the residents of the strongholds don¡¯t have any particrly good entertainment outlets. Ever since all the books were collected by the consortiums and stored in the libraries, there¡¯s been ack of spiritual food for the brain. There¡¯s a lot of people in the strongholds who chase after celebrities like fanatics. It¡¯s like they can¡¯t wait to give away everything they have to the celebrities they idolize.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°In an era of spiritual barrenness, it sure is very easy to be obsessed with something. But surely this isn¡¯t enough for her to act with so much self-importance, right?¡±


    ¡°These celebrities all have backers.¡± Zhou Yingxue said softly, ¡°The backers are all important figures of the consortiums. Some of them might appear like a father figure to the celebrities on the surface, but in reality...¡±


    The entourage came to a stop at the front of Zhou Yingxue. The female singer did not even get out and only asked her assistant to open the door of the minivan for her. She looked at Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°Are you the bodyguard this time?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nodded. ¡°Yes, I am.¡±


    The female singer started sizing up Zhou Yingxue. When she saw the ring on her finger, she giggled. ¡°How gaudy.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. What kind of upbringing did she have to call other people gaudy to their faces? What! Did celebrities not have parents to teach them manners?!


    However, what she did not know was that in show business, when someone started throwing their weight around, it would make any observer feel like their intelligence had been insulted. For example, during a g, some female celebrities would stay up for several nights in a row just to plot how to get the centermost seat.


    That was an industry no one could make sense of.


    Zhou Yingxue held back her anger and did not retort. She said calmly, ¡°I¡¯ll be the one in charge of protecting you for the duration of this tour. Along the way, if any security risks arise, please follow my instructions to the letter. Only then will your safety not bepromised.¡±


    These words were very familiar to Zhou Yingxue. After all, she had said the same thing to many of the big shots of the Yang Consortium in the past.


    The female singer nced at Zhou Yingxue before turning her head to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°And who is he?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s my assistant,¡± Zhou Yingxue said.


    The female singer said in disdain, ¡°How unrefined! His clothes aren¡¯t even ironed, and he looks so unsophisticated like he¡¯s a student.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was secretly amused. It was fine that this female singer tried to provoke her, but offending her master as well? Who knew if she might get into some sort of trouble in the future?


    Even though her master might seem quite amiable now, his fearsomeness was something that was already fucking legendary.


    The female singer continued, ¡°Why did you bring an assistant with you? I didn¡¯t hear the person who epted our mission request bring it up.¡±


    When Zhou Yingxue heard the other party referring to ¡°the Anjing House¡± as ¡°the person who epted the mission request,¡± she realized she did not seem to know what the Anjing House was capable of.


    Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°I¡¯m a sniper. He¡¯s my assistant and also my spotter.¡±


    The female singer got a little interested. ¡°You¡¯re actually a sniper?¡±


    But that was as far as her interest went. Ren Xiaosu took a sudden step forward, like he had something to say.


    Zhou Yingxue was cheering in her head. ¡®Here hees! Master said he only needed to say something to the other party to make her change her attitude immediately.¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Do you know Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    ording to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thinking, if this person was from the Saboteurs, she would definitely know about Yang Xiaojin. After all, Yang Xiaojin was one of the most important figures in the Saboteurs.


    The female singer frowned. ¡°What nonsense are you talking about?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked around. Perhaps it was not convenient for her to speak as there were too many people around. In that case, he would have to wait for her to tell him in private.


    He whispered to the female singer, ¡°I¡¯m in Room 1009.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. How awesome was her master? He actually gave a celebrity his room number on their first meeting? Was this a hint? No! This was as direct as it could get!


    The female singer frowned. ¡°Your assistant doesn¡¯t look half-bad, but he¡¯s too unkempt, and there¡¯s something wrong with his brain too!¡± As she said that, the female singer got her assistant to close the minivan¡¯s door. Then the entourage drove towards the hotel in the ck market.


    Zhou Yingxue looked at her dazed master and nearlyughed out loud. ¡°So what Master meant when you said you had a way to deal with her was to give her an open invitation to your room?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened. ¡°No one will think you¡¯re mute if you don¡¯t speak, y¡¯know.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not too sure if this female singer was really from the Saboteurs anymore.


    He could only wait until nighttime to see if she woulde to his room and tell him the truth. If Yang Xiaojin knew he was still alive, she would definitely rush over immediately. Therefore, if this female singer were really from the Saboteurs, she would surely make contact with him as soon as possible.


    Zhou Yingxue spun around and whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Master, she said that I¡¯m gaudy. Do you think I¡¯m gaudy?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a look at Zhou Yingxue¡¯s hand and saw ten shining rings on her fingers. He sighed and said, ¡°She isn¡¯t wrong to say so.... Of course, I¡¯m still on your side in other aspects. That female celebrity really is a little pretentious....¡±


    The pretentiousness was probably referring to how the other party did not even get out of the van and ordered others to do things for her. This sort of behavior was a real turnoff.


    Zhou Yingxue quietly removed the rings and carefully stuffed them back into her pocket. ¡°I think all of you just don¡¯t know how to appreciate what¡¯s nice!¡±


    When the two of them returned to the hotel, the female singer¡¯s assistant was already waiting for them in the lobby.


    When the assistant saw the two of them, he smiled and said, ¡°Our boss can be a little cranky sometimes. If both of you were offended, please forgive us.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s anger subsided a little. ¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡±


    Then the middle-aged male assistant smiled and said, ¡°However, there¡¯s a confidentiality agreement here that we need both of you to sign. Oh right, Ms. Zhou, while we¡¯ve hired you as our bodyguard this time, it¡¯s actually more for the sake of showcasing our status. Please do not interfere too much with the boss¡¯s schedule.¡±

 Chapter 523 - A knock on the door at nigh

    <h4>523 A knock on the door at nigh</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue gave each other a look. Although this middle-aged male assistant spoke politely, what he said was not polite at all.


    ording to him, the female celebrity had spent four million yuan to hire a supernatural being to make herself look good.


    Just how important would a person have to be to employ a supernatural being as a bodyguard?


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Showbiz is really fond of such shy behavior. So what you mean is, I¡¯ll only need to stand beside her whenever she attends an event, and she does not really need any protection at all?¡±


    The middle-aged male assistant nodded and said with a smile, ¡°Ms. Zhou truly is smart to understand so easily. Besides, the Central ins is not that chaotic. Although there are conflicts between the consortiums, they would never do anything to celebrities. So please just stick to our nned schedule. There won¡¯t be a need for the two of you to interfere.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nced at Ren Xiaosu who showed no expression and said nothing. Zhou Yingxue immediately agreed, ¡°Sure thing!¡±


    After that, both parties signed the confidentiality agreement. There was even a special 200,000 yuan payment for the confidentiality fee!


    Party A of the confidentiality agreement had topensate Party B based on the terms before they could take any effect.


    When Ren Xiaosu was signing the agreement, he realized the female celebrity¡¯s real name was Li Ran, with her stage name being Ranran.


    Zhou Yingxue smiled as she took the money from the man. She gave a mental sigh at the thought of how easy it was to earn the money of this celebrity.


    ¡°By the way, when are we heading out?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°That depends on our boss¡¯s mood.¡± The assistant smiled and said, ¡°Both of you may return to your rooms to rest. My name is Fang Zhi. If anything crops up, you can leave a message at the front desk. During this period, we¡¯ll be responsible for both your expenses incurred at the hotel. Of course, there¡¯s a limit of 3,600 yuan per day.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s pretty good.¡± Zhou Yingxue raised her eyebrows.


    Zhou Yingxue had thought they would set off immediately once the female singer arrived. After all, they mentioned this was a concert tour.


    However, to her surprise, the other party remained at the ck market for the next seven days.


    Every day, the female singer would doll herself up only to go to the casino to gamble. It was as if she hade to the ck market specifically for that.


    Zhou Yingxue was going on and on about it in their room, ¡°She doesn¡¯t take us seriously at all. Master, it¡¯s fine that she looks down on me, but how can she look down on you as well!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he read his book. ¡°Don¡¯t try to fan the mes. It won¡¯t work.¡±


    But what left Ren Xiaosu speechless was that the female singer never came to find him at his room throughout the seven days. If she were really from the Saboteurs, then no matter where Yang Xiaojin was in the Central ins, the seven days would have been enough for her to rush over.


    This disappointed Ren Xiaosu a lot. He had only epted this mission because he wanted to find Yang Xiaojin, but in the end, even Zhou Yingxue was having augh at his expense.


    So when Ren Xiaosu realized the other party was not a member of the Saboteurs, he immediately began to lose interest in the mission. He even asked Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Can we still cancel the mission now?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said helplessly, ¡°Master, you didn¡¯t allow me to cancel it previously when I wanted to. If I were to cancel it now, I couldn¡¯tplete the mission.¡±


    ¡°Will that affect you? At worst, we¡¯ll just return the money to her,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°That won¡¯t work.¡± Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°Master, you probably don¡¯t know about the rules of the Anjing House, right? An A-rank hitman needs toplete five A-rank missions within the year, and there can¡¯t be any mission failures during that period either. Only then can I participate in the trials to enter the Anjing House when they take ce next year.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t even fail once?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Then when do the Anjing House trials usually start?¡±


    ¡°They normally start notifying the qualified hitmen at the beginning of spring.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°It¡¯s fall now, so we still have two more missions toplete before spring arrives. I¡¯ve alreadypleted two missions, and this bodyguard mission is the third, so I still need two more to qualify.¡±


    ¡°But this bodyguard mission will take quite some time,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh. Previously, it was Zhou Yingxue who did not want to ept the mission, but now it was the other way around. Ren Xiaosu really wanted to turn down this mission.


    After all, if it weren¡¯t for Yang Xiaojin, he would not even want to follow such a pretentious female celebrity on some concert tour.


    But on the seventh night, when Ren Xiaosu was alone in his room, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.


    He picked up his pistol and walked to the door. ¡°Who is it?¡±


    The female celebrity¡¯s drunken voice came from outside. ¡°Weren¡¯t you the one who gave me your room number?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately opened the door and said excitedly, ¡°Where¡¯s Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    The female celebrity entered the room and locked the door behind her. Ren Xiaosu could only see that her face was flushed red from the alcohol she had. Then, with a look of interest, she lifted the hemline of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shirt and gently stroked his abs. ¡°Oh, I couldn¡¯t tell that you had such a nice body.¡±


    Although Ren Xiaosu looked quite thin in his clothes, it was only because his Strength and Dexterity had reached a bnced state. His understated figure would not reveal just how strong he really was.


    Therefore, when the hemline of his shirt was lifted, his firm muscles could be seen. It looked extremely beautiful, picturesque as a sculpture.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt like he was being molested.


    The female celebrity, Li Ran, pushed Ren Xiaosu further into the room as she said, ¡°Since you dared to give me your room number, why¡¯re you still acting so shy?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, ¡°You didn¡¯t tell Yang Xiaojin that I was here? Are you really from the Saboteurs?¡±


    ¡°Yang Xiaojin? Is that your girlfriend?¡± Li Ran said with an enchanting smile, ¡°I¡¯ve already paid you two so much. If you keep mepany, I can add more money. Do you know that the amount I lost tonight is enough tost you for a lifetime...¡±


    Seeing that Li Ran was trying to take off his clothes, Ren Xiaosu decisively knocked her out.


    ¡®Why the fuck did I give her my room number? Why would I do something so stupid!¡¯ He looked out the window and saw no one aiming a sniper rifle at him. It looked like this was not Yang Xiaojin¡¯s prank after all.


    That girl was very fond of pranking others.


    But since there was no sniper outside the window, Ren Xiaosu could ascertain that Li Ran was definitely not a member of the Saboteurs!


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯sughter came from outside. Ren Xiaosu opened the door angrily and said, ¡°Help her to your room so that she isn¡¯t an eyesore here.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said obediently, ¡°Yes, Master!¡±


    But as soon as she said that, sheughed out loud again. ¡°Master, what a close shave. You almost lost your virginity!¡±


    ¡°Get out!¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright!¡±


    The next morning, Li Ran¡¯s assistant, Fang Zhi, came over with 200,000 yuan in cash to look for Ren Xiaosu. He said he was here to sign another confidentiality agreement with him, and that yesterday¡¯s incident had to be kept a secret no matter what.


    Ren Xiaosu found it ridiculous. Frankly, he really wanted to earn money as well, but not this way!

 Chapter 524 - Setting off

    <h4>Chapter 524 Setting off</h4>


    After the assistant named Fang Zhi left, it was as though nothing had happened between the two parties. Even if they did encounter each otherter on, there was a tacit understanding to not mention the matter anymore.


    To be honest, Li Ran had a drink too manyst night, so she wasn¡¯t too sure about what happened either. She could vaguely recall that something had happened, but everyone only told her that she had been knocked unconscious by the other party.


    This made Li Ran a little unhappy. She had taken the initiative to go to the other party¡¯s room, but he ended up knocking her unconscious? Was it because shecked charm?


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was no longer thinking about this matter. He was thinking about how he could help Zhou Yingxueplete this supposed concert tour mission.


    Apart from this escort mission, Zhou Yingxue would have toplete another two missions before next spring in order to qualify for the Anjing House trials.


    ¡°Master, this escort mission will probablyst until the end of the year. We already missed an A-rank mission while we were waiting for her arrival,¡± Zhou Yingxueined. ¡°With time so tight, what if there aren¡¯t enough missions for us to do?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said helplessly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll think of something.¡±


    The mistake of epting this mission was indeed his fault.


    Three dayster, Assistant Fang Zhi suddenly came to inform them that the team was preparing to set off. Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue did not have any objections to that. They were just hoping that this group¡¯s concert tour would progress as quickly as possible so they would not get dyed any further.


    The concert tour group even arranged a special car for Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. They had wanted to get a chauffeur for them too, but Zhou Yingxue rejected the offer.


    She brought out a professional-looking, small ck box that she used to examine the car carefully. Only upon confirming there was no surveince equipment or GPS trackers on board did she feel at ease.


    After all, she often discussed secrets with Ren Xiaosu, so it wouldn¡¯t be too good if someone were to overhear them.


    Before getting in the car, Ren Xiaosu and Li Ran bumped into each other again. Ren Xiaosu realized Li Ran deliberately walked past without looking at him. It was as if she had never met him before.


    This felt like a silent deration of war: ¡°I¡¯m not fucking interested in you. I went to your room that night purely because I was bestowing a favor upon you! To put it crudely, I was just patronizing you!¡±


    Although neither of them said a word, Ren Xiaosu instantly understood what the other party meant.


    The other staff were looking at Ren Xiaosu curiously. Many of them knew that Li Ran had drunk too much that night before going to look for Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, everyone¡¯s eyes were on Ren Xiaosu, and some of them even wanted to ask him if anything had happened.


    In short, Ren Xiaosu had suddenly be the focus of attention in the concert tour group because of this stupid matter.


    After Zhou Yingxue got into the car, she leaned against the steering wheel and cackled for more than 10 minutes. It was only when Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face had turned thunderous that she got a hold of herself.


    She changed the topic and said, ¡°Ahem, why would this concert tour group need to have over twenty vehicles in their entourage? They even have a semi-truck at the back of the group!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s carrying their speakers and musical instruments. I already looked at it,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered normally.


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. She did not even know when Ren Xiaosu had searched the entire concert tour group.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°You should¡¯ve done that in advance. Don¡¯t let your guard down just because you¡¯re no longer working in intelligence.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue replied weakly, ¡°OK.¡±


    The convoy set off. Their first stop would be the Zhou Consortium. This would require Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue to take extra caution as it could get very awkward if their identities were exposed.


    The tour group hade from the Wang Consortium after their event there waspleted, so the remaining tour locations were at the Zhou and the Kong Consortiums¡¯ strongholds.


    The tour group would kick off the next leg of the tour in the Zhou Consortium first, then move on to the Kong Consortium, and finally wrap it up in the Qinghe Group¡¯s Luoyang City. Afterwards, they would return to the ck market.


    Fortunately, the tour group had no ns to go to the eight strongholds the Pyro Company controlled. Otherwise, it would get even more dangerous.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu sometimes felt that the Central ins was a safer ce. As such, it would usually not be a problem even when traveling with so many people on a concert tour. For Li Ran and Fang Zhi to disallow Zhou Yingxue from interfering with their ns, it must also be because they were confident it would be safe.


    In this tour group, there was also a ten-memberbat squad protecting them. Although these people were dressed in casual clothes, their auras could not be concealed from Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue.


    It could be seen that Li Ran did have the backing of someone important in the Wang Consortium. It was definitely not that simple.


    And along the way, if the tour group were to encounter any danger, it would most likely be someone who wanted to take revenge on Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. After all, the two of them were the most unstable elements in the group.


    When the convoy passed by Luoyang City, they did not stop at all. Ren Xiaosu looked at Luoyang City from afar and felt that it looked no different from the other strongholds in the Central ins.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the town outside the stronghold and sighed. ¡°A lot of people in the ck market often speak about how good the Qinghe Group is. But from the looks of it, they still differentiate between refugees and stronghold residents. Overall, the essence of being a consortium still remains.¡±


    That wall was like a huge mountain that separated the refugees and stronghold residents.


    But Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°It¡¯s not like that at all. The reason so many people like the Qinghe Group is actually simr to why people in the Northwest like Fortress 178. It¡¯s because the sry the Qinghe Group pays to refugees is very high and they give them pretty good benefits too. The Qinghe Group does not exploit them as the other consortiums do. After Xu Ke took over the reins at Qinghe Group 12 years ago, he tried to introduce changes to the system by tearing down the discrimination between the stronghold residents and refugees. Hepletely opened up the gates to everyone.¡±


    ¡°Then why did he close them again?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°The motivation was out of goodness, but the reality is that refugees from everywhere rushed over when they heard about the Qinghe Group¡¯s policies. As a result, there was no one left in the surrounding strongholds and towns.¡± Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°This incident caused the Wang Consortium, Zhou Consortium, and Kong Consortium to send their people to the Qinghe Group to negotiate putting an end to the open-door policy. Moreover, the Qinghe Group was unable to amodate all the refugees that had surged to their territory. So they closed their doors again and only increased the benefits of the refugees. However, they restricted the number of hires avable.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s what happened.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°It¡¯s really all thanks to their peers that they were seen in such good light. As long as one of the consortiums is willing to give the refugees better treatment, they instantly win the hearts of the people.¡±


    The convoy continued heading south. But at the same time, unknown to Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue, Xu Zhi was currently headed towards the ck market after their reorganization back at the Qinghe Group.


    Xu Zhi¡¯s father told him that if the mysterious youth and his maidservant were really important figures of the underworld, then they were most likely heading to the ck market outside Luoyang City based on the route they took.


    Hence, Xu Zhi headed straight for the ck market without even bothering to attend his sses. He stayed put in the hotel lobby for over half a month without finding out anything before helplessly returning to Luoyang City.


    That gorgeous figure kept reappearing in his mind as he tried forgetting it to no avail.

 Chapter 525 - A new A-rank mission

    <h4>Chapter 525 A new A-rank mission</h4>


    The convoy arrived at Stronghold 77 of the Zhou Consortium, which was closest to Luoyang City, on the same afternoon. This was the outermost stronghold in the territory of the Zhou Consortium. Meanwhile, Stronghold 73, which Ren Xiaosu and the others had carried out the mission at, was where the Zhou Consortium was headquartered.After arriving at Stronghold 77, Fang Zhi presented the customs documents to the garrison troops. Ren Xiaosu realized the entourage was very familiar with organizing tours and had already prepared all the necessary paperwork beforehand.However, before the tour group was allowed to enter the stronghold, they were led inside together and inspected thoroughly before being released.


    Zhou Yingxue said softly, ¡°I¡¯ve never had to go through these steps when I came to the Zhou Consortium in the past.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. It was probably because of Zhou Xilong¡¯s death that the entire Zhou Consortium was put on high alert now to prevent anyone from entering their strongholds and causing trouble.


    When the security checks were done, some soldiers even asked Li Ran for an autograph. Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Is Li Ran very famous? Even the Zhou Consortium¡¯s people know her?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nearlyughed out loud. ¡°Master, aren¡¯t you a little too out of touch? She¡¯s one of the most popr female singers these days, and her cassette albums are selling to the farthest southern reaches. Although it¡¯s her first time here, a lot of people have heard her songs. Even the music stores in the Yang Consortium¡¯s strongholds were selling her cassettes too. A lot of young people like her. Master, aren¡¯t you also a young person?¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s how it is.¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood. He exined, ¡°I¡¯ve never paid much attention to such things in the past.¡±


    After all, for people who needed to constantly think about their survival every day, how would they have time to pay attention to these celebrities? From what he remembered, Xiaoyu also seemed to have a female singer she liked some time after they got acquainted. That female singer¡¯s cassette album was even at home, but Xiaoyu, at most, listened to her songs.


    For people like them, it was difficult to feel any admiration for such illusory idols.


    After entering the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu realized a lot of stronghold residents had assembled on the sidewalks. They were holding up custom-made signs as a show of support, and shiny little light bulbs were even shing on them.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Why¡¯re there so many people? Are there really this many people that like her?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nced at Ren Xiaosu. She realized her master was even more annoyed with Li Ran than she was. Zhou Yingxue was very happy to see this.


    Zhou Yingxue realized that while the convoy was going down the road, it was deliberately slowing down. Meanwhile, Li Ran rolled down the car window and started waving at the fans warmly. She even took some of the fans¡¯ notebooks and autographed them.


    Zhou Yingxue said through the walkie-talkie, ¡°Please pass through quickly. There¡¯s too many people here and danger could be lurking, so please pass through quickly.¡±


    Fang Zhi¡¯s voice sounded over the inte, replying, ¡°This is a good opportunity for Ranran to get close to her fans. It¡¯ll be very helpful for her friendly image, so we can¡¯t pass through too quickly. Please continue to follow the convoy at this same speed. And, Ms. Zhou, please don¡¯t interfere too much.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue rolled her eyes in the car. ¡°They have no sense of safety. If someone here were hiding a knife and stabbed her suddenly, not even a god could stop it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu leaned back in the passenger seat and said leisurely, ¡°Why do you care so much?¡±


    ¡°If something happens to her, my mission will be considered a failure,¡± Zhou Yingxuemented.


    Then Ren Xiaosu took a look at his cell phone and said, ¡°I¡¯m heading out for a while. I¡¯ll go straight back to the hotel tonight, so I¡¯ll leave you to handle things here.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. ¡°Master, you¡¯re going off to do another solo mission? Why¡¯re you always leaving me by myself? Can¡¯t you please spare all those D and C-rank hitmen? I get somewhat flustered whenever I¡¯m alone....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at her. ¡°You handle things here, and I¡¯ll share 20% of the money I get from selling the cell phones.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue immediately put on a smile. ¡°All the best for your mission, Master.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu opened the door and jumped out of the slow-moving vehicle before blending into the crowd.


    However, Li Ran noticed his action from the corners of her eyes. She turned around and frowned at Fang Zhi, saying, ¡°Why is that kid acting on his own? Ask Zhou Yingxue what this is all about!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s reply was that Ren Xiaosu had gone out to scout around to ensure that Li Ran¡¯s safety was notpromised.


    Li Ran said Ren Xiaosu would have toe back so he could guard her. However, Zhou Yingxue said she was the one who took the mission, not Ren Xiaosu.


    This time, Li Ran was helpless. She realized she did not seem to have any good way of dealing with Ren Xiaosu.


    But what Zhou Yingxue had on her mind was that the D and C-rank hitmen were the basis of the Anjing House¡¯s mission-based structure, with many of the simpler missions performed by these D and C-rank hitmen.


    If their tour group was going to pass through 37 strongholds, of which 90% were made up of the Zhou and Kong consortiums¡¯ strongholds, then by the time they made their way around, wouldn¡¯t the foundation the Anjing House had beenying over the years in the Zhou and Kong consortiums get wiped out by Ren Xiaosu?


    Based on her master¡¯s ¡°fishing¡± methods, this was a very likely scenario. At that time, would she even need to think about joining the Anjing House? If the Anjing House found out about this, they would probably issue a mission to get all the A-rank hitmen toe after them instead.


    After all, if someone from the Anjing House were to cross-reference the disappearances of the D and C-rank hitmen with more scrutiny, it would match up perfectly with the stops their tour group went to. It would not be too bad if it were just one or two strongholds, but if it happened across all 37 strongholds, even a fool would know that she, Zhou Yingxue, had a problem.


    No, she had to tell Ren Xiaosu about this. They would need to make sure the n was sustainable.


    But this time, there wasn¡¯t another firefight like the previous time as Ren Xiaosu took care of both the hitmen and the target silently.


    When he returned to the hotel at night, Ren Xiaosu was holding onto another eight cellphones. But before he could feel happy about it, Zhou Yingxue received a text message on her cell phone again. Actually, it was three messages that came in all at once.


    Ren Xiaosu had a look at the three missions. Two of them were too far away at a Kong Consortium¡¯s stronghold, but the third one made his eyes light up. ¡°The target in Stronghold 77 is Yang Lichen. He was a former core figure of the Yang Consortium and is currently located at 121 Zhengwu Road. The target has followers traveling with him, so it¡¯s suggested that three people form a team to undertake the mission. Reward: 800,000 yuan.¡±


    There was also a picture of Yang Lichen and some further information about him. The information contained some of the cruel oppression that went on while he was an overseer of a stronghold.


    However, there were still some things that were not mentioned. For example, Yang Lichen had previously sent someone to present a defensive deployment map to Qing Zhen that caused the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops at the Ziyang front line to bepromised.


    In the end, he did not manage to be the head of the Yang Consortium. After all, the Yang Consortium no longer existed. He could only make use of the time when the Qing Consortium redeployed their troops to the south to deal with the Experimentals to quickly escape.


    And somehow, he really managed to escape.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Reply to the Anjing House that we¡¯re epting this mission.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue did as she was instructed. However, to their surprise, the Anjing House did not ept their mission application and rejected Zhou Yingxue!

 Chapter 526 - Forcefully stealing a mission

    <h4>Chapter 526 Forcefully stealing a mission</h4>


    The reason the Anjing House did not allow Zhou Yingxue to take the mission was simple.On one hand, it was because Zhou Yingxue was already involved in an escort mission. Although the mission target was also located in Stronghold 77, carrying out another mission would definitely affect the current one.


    If Zhou Yingxue got injured or died while carrying out the new mission, that would affect the Anjing House¡¯s reputation.


    On the other hand, it was because Zhou Yingxue was alone and unable to group up with teammates in the ck market. At the same time, there was already a team that had set off from the ck market. That group was made up of three A-rank hitmen, so the mission would be much safer being carried out by them than Zhou Yingxue.


    It was not like a hitman was not allowed to take the mission alone, but since there was a more suitable team for it, the lone wolf would find it very difficult to get assigned the mission.


    Zhou Yingxue was a little angry at this. ¡°We¡¯re the closest to the mission target, so why aren¡¯t we allowed to take this mission? Besides, Li Ran doesn¡¯t want us to protect her at all. Unless she¡¯s attending an event, she won¡¯t even let me get close to her. In such a situation, I totally have time to take other missions.¡±


    Actually, she understood the Anjing House¡¯s decision was the right one. After all, they did not know she had the terrifying Ren Xiaosu with her. Therefore, based onmon sense, Zhou Yingxue indeed couldn¡¯t split herself up to take two missions at this moment. Meanwhile, Yang Lichen clearly kept a small fighting force by his side, and he was even given protection by the Zhou Consortium as well.


    After Yang Lichen left the Southwest, he came to seek asylum under the Zhou Consortium. As he knew all about the Southwest¡¯s geography and politics, he was immediately offered protection by the Zhou Consortium who also provided him with materialforts.


    An organization like a consortium would definitely not let slip the chance to gather firsthand information from a well-connected individual.


    ¡°Master, what do we do now?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked. ¡°We can¡¯t take the mission this time. Also, if they won¡¯t let me take any further missions during the course of this escort mission, I definitely can¡¯tplete the two remaining missions required for participating in the trials.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯m going out for a while.¡±


    That night, Li Ran came by Zhou Yingxue¡¯s room, seemingly unintentionally, and exined to her what happened during the day. She said a public figure like her could not waste such a good chance to establish a good image, so she hoped Zhou Yingxue would not take it to heart. However, Li Ran still told Zhou Yingxue not to consciously protect her anymore and just ensure that she helped boost her image and standing.


    Although what she said was unpleasant, Zhou Yingxue was a little puzzled. Li Ran actually came over personally just to exin this to her?


    But after Li Ran finished with that speech, she asked, ¡°Where did Ren Xiaosu go?¡±


    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s still scouting around outside,¡± Zhou Yingxue answered.


    Zhou Yingxue realized Li Ran had to be here for Ren Xiaosu. Furthermore, she did not look for him directly and seemed to be beating around the bush about something.


    After Li Ran left, Ren Xiaosu suddenly carried someone in through the window. The person on his shoulder was unconscious.


    Zhou Yingxue said in a daze, ¡°Master, who is that?¡±


    ¡°Yang Lichen,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    ¡°But we didn¡¯t get assigned the mission, so it¡¯s useless even if we kill him,¡± Zhou Yingxue said helplessly.


    Ren Xiaosu was still as calm as ever. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Even if the Anjing House has given the mission to the other hitmen, the mission will still be a failure if they can¡¯t locate the mission target. Don¡¯t worry, the people who saw me are all dead. The ambush this time was very sessful, so no one knows where Yang Lichen¡¯s gone.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was dumbfounded. Why was her master¡¯s thinking so different from others? Even when stealing missions, he did it so forcefully?


    As long as the other hitmen could not find the mission target, Zhou Yingxue could just tell the Anjing Houseter on that she found him and force them to give her the mission.


    This was forcing someone off their own path and leaving them no room to walk!


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°If those three A-rank hitmen can¡¯tplete the mission, they definitely won¡¯t be able to participate in the Anjing House trials next year. This way, you¡¯ll also have three fewer opponents without anyone knowing. This is killing two birds with one stone.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue covered her face as she suddenly started to worry about those A-rank hitmen who were going topete with her for a spot in the Anjing House. It was really unfortunate that these hitmen had to meet an opponent like her master.


    She tied Yang Lichen up and stuffed a towel into his mouth before putting him in the wardrobe of the hotel room. She said worriedly, ¡°We can¡¯t just keep a person in the room like that. What if he struggles after he regains consciousness? They have people cleaning the hotel rooms every day.¡±


    ¡°We can hang the ¡®do not disturb¡¯ sign on the knob, then make sure he doesn¡¯t regain his consciousness.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see how things unfold. Stronghold 77 is very near the ck market, so I¡¯m guessing the three A-rank hitmen have already arrived outside the stronghold. They might even have already entered the stronghold. We only need to wait for another three days before we approach the Anjing House to ask for the mission to be assigned to us.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue stretched. She suddenly felt it was a wise decision to stay behind and continue working with Ren Xiaosu. Nothing was really unachievable when following such a master.


    Other people would have to wait to be assigned the missions, but only Ren Xiaosu could approach the Anjing House directly to ask for a mission.


    Of course, if he didn¡¯t have such a weird mind, he wouldn¡¯t be constantly thinking about ¡°fishing¡± the D and C-rank hitmen either.


    She got up and walked towards the bathroom. Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°To shower.¡± Zhou Yingxue smiled and said, ¡°Does Master want to join me?¡±


    ¡°Get out!¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright!¡±


    ...


    The next day, the three A-rank hitmen went around the stronghold like crazy in search of Yang Lichen¡¯s whereabouts. In the end, they only found the corpses of several guards in the residence the Anjing House had sent to them. However, Yang Lichen was nowhere to be seen.


    They asked the Anjing House if there had been a mistake in the intelligence, or if the mission had been assigned to others or was taken by someone else. The Anjing House¡¯s reply was that they were the only ones conducting the mission and that it wasn¡¯t assigned to any other people.


    The three A-rank hitmen had no choice but to use their connections in the Zhou Consortium. While secretly questioning the witnesses, they also checked on the surveince feed of the traffic hubs. However, they still found nothing at all.


    The A-rank hitmen were on the verge of breaking down. This was the first time they had encountered something like this where they could not even find the target.


    They weren¡¯t the only ones who could not find the target. Even the Anjing House was unable to find him.


    Three dayster, Zhou Yingxue suddenly sent a photo to the Anjing House. In the photo, Yang Lichen was unconscious and close to death. In those three days, Yang Lichen was only fed a few sips of water before being knocked unconscious. Right now, he looked like he had lost a lot of weight.


    Zhou Yingxue sent a text, ¡°Yang Lichen is in my hands. Please assign the mission to me quickly.¡±


    After sending the text, Zhou Yingxue pondered, ¡°Master, why does it feel like we¡¯re kidnappers?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not a big problem.¡± Ren Xiaosu waved it off dismissively. ¡°But do you think the Anjing House will assign us the mission? After all, it was a little too much to forcefully steal the mission from others.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. ¡®Master, you also know that this is too much? Actually, you¡¯ve known that all along, right?!¡¯


    The Anjing House replied with, ¡°You can receive the mission reward after killing him.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue beamed. Sess!

 Chapter 527 - An accident in the wilderness

    <h4>Chapter 527 An ident in the wilderness</h4>


    Before getting assigned the mission, Ren Xiaosu was actually very worried the Anjing House would not ept their act of stealing the mission.After all, even a fool would know that ¡°Zhou Yingxue¡± had kidnapped Yang Lichen three days ago to prevent others frompleting the mission.


    This method was clearly somewhat against the rules.


    However, it seemed the Anjing House did not really care about whopleted the mission or how it waspleted. The other party only wanted one oue¡ªa dead Yang Lichen.


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it and felt it made sense. After all, the Anjing House only refused to let Zhou Yingxue take the mission because they were worried it would affect the current escort mission she was doing.


    However, since Anjing House did not mind him stealing the mission, there would be more opportunities for him in the future.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Zhou Yingxue to kill Yang Lichen and take a photo to send to the Anjing House, but Zhou Yingxue curled her lips and said, ¡°But I¡¯ll see blood, and that¡¯s so gross! Master, why don¡¯t you kill him instead?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Have you forgotten that you are a hitwoman?!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue smiled cutely and said, ¡°I was just spoiled by you, Master.¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu killed Yang Lichen and let Zhou Yingxue take a picture of the body, he secretly carried Yang Lichen¡¯s body out of the stronghold so noplications would arise.


    The Zhou Consortium was probably starting to look for Yang Lichen. If the Zhou Consortium were worried about the Southwest, then Yang Lichen would prove very useful to them.


    The next night, Li Ran held a mini-concert to meet her fans. Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue were standing offstage at the venue and wearing earpieces like the other ten inclothes guards, ready to deal with any danger that might arise.


    During the concert, the host even formally introduced Zhou Yingxue¡¯s identity as a superhuman, causing the fans in the audience to gasp and cheer.


    The introduction described Zhou Yingxue as a fan of Li Ran, and she had joined the concert tour to protect Li Ran out of love.


    Ren Xiaosu was really impressed with how the celebrities created hype.


    However, after the concert, Li Ran still ignored Zhou Yingxue¡¯s security advice. Just as they had said earlier, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s presence was just to help boost Li Ran¡¯s image and standing.


    The tour group set off again. Zhou Yingxue took stock of the supplies in the vehicles and found the group was not carrying any extra food or gasoline.


    She then suggested replenishing these supplies before moving on. However, Fang Zhi said they would be arriving at a new stronghold daily and could just restock those supplies when they were there. The distance between each stronghold was at most 300 kilometers, so a full tank of gas was definitely enough.


    Zhou Yingxue frowned and did not say anything more. Indeed, it was not a problem to travel 500 kilometers on a full tank of gas. But what if something unexpected were to happen?


    In fact, Fang Zhi patiently exined he had already considered that they might get into an ident in the wilderness. However, there were just enough vehicles in the convoy, and there was no more space to store any additional gas.


    But after they set off again, they really got into an ident. No one knew who had deliberately scattered some nails on the road, but several cars at the front of the convoy got t tires all at the same time. With this, even the spare tires they were carrying were insufficient to fix the problem.


    Fang Zhi thought for a moment and decided to send someone to call for a vehicle recovery team at Stronghold 78 toe and change their tires. The fees were negotiable.


    Li Ran said angrily in the minivan that was rendered immobile, ¡°Why doesn¡¯t the Zhou Consortium ensure the wilderness is taken care of? Someone must¡¯ve deliberately scattered the nails in the middle of the road.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not easy to manage considering how big the wilderness is.¡± Fang Zhi smiled and said, ¡°But it¡¯s alright. We¡¯re only about a 100 kilometers away from Stronghold 78. The tow trucks will definitely arrive soon.¡±


    But as he finished speaking, Fang Zhi saw that Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue had already started setting up their tents.


    Li Ran was stunned for a moment. ¡°Why are you two setting up the tents?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid the tow trucks won¡¯t be able to make it here by today, so I might as well set up camp in the woods.¡±


    ¡°Why won¡¯t they make it here by today?¡± Li Ran said angrily, ¡°Stronghold 78 isn¡¯t that far away. Even if the road isn¡¯t in a good condition, they¡¯ll be here in at most three to four hours!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled but did not say anything, because he understood the work efficiency of those in strongholds. It was not like this was the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold where it was Li Ran¡¯s home territory, so rescue would definitely not arrive that quickly.


    It was already evening. The journey here would take three to four hours, and another three to four hours to get back. In addition to the repair time, the entire rescue wouldstte into the night.


    So based on the attitude that the strongholds¡¯ vehicle recovery team had, they would definitely be more willing to set off after waking up the next morning.


    In any case, Ren Xiaosu was quite familiar with deeds like scattering nails.


    In the early years, when the Southwestern and Northwestern wildernesses had not be dangerous yet, some refugees would specifically target caravans using the same method. They would puncture the tires of the merchant vehicles first, thene around to peddle their old tires at night.


    This was a scam some groups of people depended on to make their fortunes.


    But as it got more dangerous in the wilderness, those groups started to disappear.


    Of course, it wasn¡¯t to say that the people who were involved in the scam today were those Ren Xiaosu knew back then. Ren Xiaosu guessed that since traders could travel freely in the Central ins, there would definitely be no shortage of such people here as well.


    The people in the tour group did not believe Ren Xiaosu. They felt that as long as they mentioned who they were, the vehicle recovery team would definitely rush over immediately. After all, this had always been the case for them in the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds.


    But six hourster, there was still no sign of the vehicle recovery team.


    The people from the tour group sat in their vehicles in a daze. As every stop of their tour was a stronghold, they did not even bring enough supplies for the road. After all, they were always able to get to the strongholds on time. With the food much better in the strongholds, there wasn¡¯t even a need to consider what to eat while they traveled there.


    Li Ran was gritting her teeth as she looked at Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. The two of them were sitting at a campfire not far away, eating and drinking. Moreover, they had set up two tents as well, so they could go inside to sleep anytime.


    Li Ran asked Fang Zhi, ¡°Do we have tents?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Fang Zhi shook his head. ¡°Our n was to arrive at Stronghold 78 by tonight, and there weren¡¯t supposed to be any days where we¡¯d have to camp outside in the wilderness. Why don¡¯t I approach them to give up a tent for you?¡±


    ¡°No need.¡± Li Ran said coldly, ¡°I¡¯ll just sleep in the car.¡±


    Her minivan was still quitefortable, and the soft seats could even be reclined t into a bed.


    It was alreadyte fall, so the nights would get very cold. It could even reach as low as two degrees Celsius, so the heater would have to be turned on in all of the vehicles.


    After a while, when Zhou Yingxue saw that everyone in the tour group had fallen asleep in their vehicles, she got up.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll know in a bit, Master,¡± Zhou Yingxue said.


    Zhou Yingxue walked to the side of the minivan and knocked on Li Ran¡¯s window. Li Ran opened her eyes sleepily and heard Zhou Yingxue say, ¡°Do you feel dizzy and a little nauseous?¡±


    Li Ran instantly sobered up a little. ¡°What did you do to me?!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m not doing anything to you. It¡¯s just that you shouldn¡¯t keep the heater on when your vehicle is idling. You¡¯re being poisoned by carbon monoxide, so hurry up and get out of the car.¡±

 Chapter 528 - Catfigh

    <h4>528 Catfigh</h4>


    In fact, even Ren Xiaosu did not know that keeping the heater on for an extended period of time in an idling vehicle would cause carbon monoxide poisoning. If the upants of the vehicle were awake, it might be fine. But if they were not, then it might really be possible they would not regain consciousness ever again.When Li Ran heard what Zhou Yingxue said, she immediately woke the others up. Everyone started shivering in the cold wind after they got out of their vehicles. Some of them were even showing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning already.


    Carbon monoxide poisoning would cause a person to feel very ufortable. Everyone sat in the wilderness wrapped tightly in their clothes, but when a gust of cold wind blew past, the coldness seeped right into their bones.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked Zhou Yingxue, ¡°How¡¯d you know something like that?¡±


    ¡°In the past, I often used this method to create scenes of idental death. It was just that I would also need to resort to other methods of killing back then.¡± Zhou Yingxue smiled and said, ¡°After all, I don¡¯t like seeing blood.¡±


    Only now did Ren Xiaosu realize she was not just a gluttonous maidservant, but also a very real former intelligence agent who was good at assassination, infiltration, and intelligence gathering.


    Li Ran slowly moved to the campfire and sat down. But unexpectedly, she did not question Zhou Yingxue on why she had not warned them earlier. Rather, she whispered a soft ¡°thank you¡± to her.


    Zhou Yingxue smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯re wee.¡± Then she prepared to go into the tent to sleep.


    Li Ran asked, ¡°Can I sleep in the same tent as you?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°There¡¯s no such agreement in the contract. Plus the tent isn¡¯t big enough for the two of us.¡±


    This time, Li Ran seemed to be unusually calm. ¡°Then do you remember that in the contract, there¡¯s also a term that says you can¡¯t sleep earlier than your employer?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. Even this tactic was being used?


    She thought for a moment, then said, ¡°Fine, I won¡¯t sleep then!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. A catfight between women would only lead to heavy losses. They could clearly have just gone into the tent together to sleep, and it was absolutely spacious enough to fit two people, yet they both ended up sitting by the campfire and whiling their time away.


    However, he was fine with this. He just sat by the campfire and read his book. He could not sleep at this time. Since someone had scattered nails on the road, there would definitely be a follow-up. Be it selling tires or other ns, Ren Xiaosu decided this matter would have to be taken care of first.


    Li Ran looked Ren Xiaosu up and down. She realized the book he was reading looked very unfamiliar to her. It was titled Golden Age.[1]


    ¡°Who wrote that book? Why haven¡¯t I heard of it before?¡± Li Ran asked.


    Ren Xiaosu nced up at her. ¡°This book is from before The Cataclysm, so it¡¯s normal that you haven¡¯t heard of it.¡±


    Li Ran did not say another word. She looked at Ren Xiaosu and felt a little curious. He was clearly quite well-built and was Zhou Yingxue¡¯s assistant too, yet he actually took the time to read books even though he had a job that constantly engaged in fighting and killing?


    Zhou Yingxue noticed Li Ran sneaking peeks at Ren Xiaosu. She said, ¡°Assistant, bring me my water bottle.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue speechlessly. He did not know what this gal was up to this time.


    But then, the hum of engines came from afar in the wilderness. It even sounded like someone was happily shouting something out there. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The people who¡¯re here to change your tires have arrived.¡±


    The ten inclothes guards of the tour group already had their pistols drawn and were ready to shoot at any moment.


    But they were surprised by the fact that there were actually around six vehicles in the convoy dashing over. One of them even had a heavy machine gun mounted on it.


    One of the people in the vehicles shouted, ¡°Do y¡¯all wanna change your tires? Only 20,000 yuan each, what a fair deal! Of course, if you don¡¯t need a tire change, we¡¯ll leave immediately! We also provide tire patching services at 8,000 yuan each!¡±


    Fang Zhi wanted to curse at that guy. Usually, a normal tire would cost at most slightly over a 1,000 yuan to change. Moreover, the spare tires these people had on their vehicles looked really worn-out. It was obvious they were used tires taken from somewhere else and were just barely usable.


    However, with a heavy machine gun pointing at him, Fang Zhi was somewhat apprehensive about scolding him.


    Since when did the Central ins be so chaotic that even the vehicles providing tire patching services were equipped with heavy machine guns? Was there no one around to enforce thew?!


    Being within range of the heavy machine gun, the ten guards suddenly felt a little powerless.


    The other party did not get too close to the tour group either. The person in the vehicle only used a loudspeaker to shout their offer to them.


    The people in the repair team said, ¡°So do you need a tire change or what? We still have other ces to go!¡±


    From the looks of it, they probably scattered the nails in quite a few other areas too.


    Li Ran said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°If you kill them, I¡¯ll add another 100,000 yuan to your reward.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue blinked and said, ¡°I was told to take a back seat for the escort mission and just look pretty.¡±


    Li Ran clenched her teeth. ¡°I didn¡¯t say ¡®look pretty.¡¯¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Why were women always focused on such trivial things?


    When Zhou Yingxue heard that, she all the more did not want to care about Li Ran anymore. ¡°I¡¯m only responsible for your safety, and they¡¯re not threatening you right now. If you don¡¯t wanna change tires, they¡¯ll be off anyway. So I can¡¯t be considered to have vited the contract. I¡¯m a bodyguard, not a fighter.¡±


    But just as she finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu shot to his feet. ¡°Wang Ergou?!¡±


    That person in the vehicle was also stunned. He carefully sized up Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Xiaosu?!¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, you guys really came to the Central ins!¡± Ren Xiaosuughed as he walked towards that convoy. Even in the face of that heavy machine gun, it posed no threat to him.


    That person in the vehicle cried out, ¡°Everyone, lower your guns! Can¡¯t you see? It¡¯s Xiaosu!¡±


    Then the person jumped out of the vehicle. He was wearing a dirty fur coat and limping as he walked. Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What happened to your leg?¡±


    ¡°Ugh.¡± Wang Ergou said with augh, ¡°I got into a conflict with someone while I was working, but the other party did not kill me and just broke my leg.¡±


    ¡°Weird. You even managed to get your hands on a heavy machine gun, and you still encountered a troublesome person?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°It was a lone woman.¡± Wang Ergou sighed and said, ¡°You don¡¯t know how dangerous the world has be now. That woman wearing a ck cap was driving in an off-road vehicle by herself, so I thought it was a definite done deal. But before I could clearly see what was going on, she had already taken care of all of us. That¡¯s why we¡¯re keeping our distance from our targets now even though we¡¯re equipped with a heavy machine gun. When we repair any vehicles, there will also be people keeping watch. Someone has to stay at the vehicle and be ready to fire at a moment¡¯s notice.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Is that woman you¡¯re talking about dressed in a ckbat uniform?¡±


    ¡°Eh? You¡¯ve seen her before too?¡± Wang Ergou was surprised. ¡°You offended that bitch as well? I have to warn you: You can¡¯t afford to offend her.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did y¡¯all manage to see what her power is?¡±


    Wang Ergou said, ¡°I think she can control sand. At that time, she straight-up moved the sand and made our vehicle mounted with the machine gun sink into the ground.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t expect this answer, because he had suspected the woman was the mastermind controlling the paper cranes!

 Chapter 529 - Savior

    <h4>529 Savior</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not suspect the woman in the ck cap without reason. It was just that her previous appearances happened too coincidentally. Not long after he had caught the two paper cranes, she started appearing in the town of Stronghold 61. This left Ren Xiaosu with no choice but to link the two matters together.He had left Stronghold 61¡¯s town in a hurry as he felt a little guilty. After all, it was only normal that other people woulde and question him if he captured their paper cranes for no apparent reason.


    But now, Wang Ergou was saying that her power was controlling sand?


    Ren Xiaosu had to ponder this matter.


    As Ren Xiaosu and Wang Ergou chatted, everyone in the entire tour group looked at each other in bewilderment. They did not understand what was happening.


    He even met someone he knew out here in the wilderness?


    Li Ran wanted to get up and go over to listen to what they were saying, but the ten guards stopped her. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t go over. Those people are clearly ouws with blood on their hands. Not even we can do anything about them.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you guys elites troops?¡± Li Ran frowned.


    The guards said awkwardly, ¡°But they have a heavy machine gun while we only have pistols.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue startedughing from the rear. ¡°At this range, the heavy machine gun can turn all the vehicles into Swiss cheese within ten seconds. But you guys don¡¯t have to worry. With us here, everything will be fine.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue could already tell that this ¡°repair team¡± had a very good rapport with Ren Xiaosu. There would definitely not be any conflict happening here, so she took the opportunity to brag.


    At this moment, they saw Wang Ergou and Ren Xiaosue back towards their convoy while they chatted. Wang Ergou said to everyone with a smile, ¡°Since I bumped into Ren Xiaosu here, I¡¯ll take back the prices I offered just now. We¡¯ll repair your vehicles for free.¡±


    Suspicious, Li Ran asked, ¡°Does Ren Xiaosu have such a great reputation?¡±


    ¡°Haha,¡± Wang Ergouughed. ¡°When we got lost in the wilderness after a heavy snowfall in the mountains, it was Ren Xiaosu who led us back to town while searching for food to fill our stomachs. He¡¯s basically our savior.¡±


    At that time, Wang Ergou and the others had not hit it big yet. They did not have any heavy machine guns and were not skilled at carrying out their scams, nor were their legsme.


    Butter, Ren Xiaosu rarely met Wang Ergou and the others anymore as their group was rumored to have gone to the vicinity of the Yang Consortium¡¯s strongholds to be bandits for a while. After that, their whereabouts became unknown.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu did not expect they would actuallye to the Central ins and go back to plying their old trade.


    Wang Ergou asked, ¡°But, Xiaosu, why have youe to the Central ins, and what¡¯re you doing with them?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I took a mission to provide protection for their concert tour,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    Wang Ergou looked at Li Ran. ¡°You people are really lucky to be able to get Ren Xiaosu to protect you. There¡¯s nothing in the wilderness that he can¡¯t handle. If you¡¯re going south, what¡¯s the ce y¡¯all¡¯re heading to?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re heading straight to Stronghold 81.¡± Ren Xiaosu recalled the route.


    ¡°It isn¡¯t exactly peaceful in the South anymore. Back when the Wang Consortium was dealing with the Zhou Consortium, many refugees moved into the mountains and even received funding from the Wang Consortium. As such, things are pretty chaotic there now. However, if y¡¯all mention my name, that usually proves rather useful.¡± Then Wang Ergou turned around and beckoned, saying, ¡°I need two bros with a car jack to patch up their tires.¡±


    In fact, mending tires wasn¡¯t a particrly difficult task to handle and neither was it costly at all. So Wang Ergou decided to waive the fee for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sake.


    The other men of the ¡°repair team¡± greeted Ren Xiaosu. It seemed they all had a good impression of him as well. After all, it was Ren Xiaosu who saved them back then.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°When you say that it isn¡¯t peaceful, do you mean that the people who moved into the mountains have turned to banditry? It shouldn¡¯t be that bad, right?¡±


    ¡°No, no, no.¡± Wang Ergou smiled and said, ¡°If they did turn to banditry, the Zhou Consortium would have gone and wiped them out already. It¡¯s just that some of them chop down trees and ce them in the middle of the roads. If you pay them, they¡¯ll help you shift the trees away. Or sometimes, they¡¯ll lie in front of your vehicles and try to ckmail you. If you don¡¯t pay up, you have to drive over them to get through. Most of those who can drive on the roads are people from the strongholds. Since they¡¯ve never seen blood before, most of them are too afraid to drive over others. So it¡¯s really easy to scare them into paying up.¡±


    While Wang Ergou¡¯s men repaired the vehicles, Wang Ergou kept asking Ren Xiaosu about what happened in the Southwest. The inclothes guards by the vehicles wanted to seize this opportunity to detain Wang Ergou and show that they werepetent to Li Ran. However, they realized the heavy machine gun a distance away was still pointed right at them.


    The heavy machine gunner did not care about anyone else and kept his eyes trained on the inclothes guards. It seemed he recognized they were soldiers and knew they were the biggest threat.


    At this moment, Wang Ergou said with a sigh, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect the changes in the Southwest to be so widespread, and that the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium no longer exist. How does it make sense that I, Wang Ergou, am doing even better than a consortium?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue burst outughing. Wang Ergou looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Are you Brother Xiaosu¡¯s woman?¡±


    ¡°Knock it off.¡± Ren Xiaosu stopped Wang Ergou. What the fuck!


    Zhou Yingxue said calmly, ¡°He¡¯s my assistant.¡±


    Wang Ergou smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s definitely not the case. My eyes are really sharp. There¡¯s something between the two of you, and who knows just which one of you is taking orders from the other behind closed doors?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue rolled her eyes, then asked softly, ¡°Then what do you think is the rtionship between Brother Xiaosu and that female celebrity?¡±


    Wang Ergou chuckled, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, my bro here isn¡¯t attracted by that kind of woman.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue instantly beamed with joy.


    A repairman off to the side shouted, ¡°Ergou, the vehicles are fixed.¡±


    Wang Ergou patted Ren Xiaosu on the shoulder casually. ¡°We¡¯ll be taking our leave now. Take care of yourself. If we meet again, we must have a drink or two.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and nodded. He did not say he didn¡¯t drink alcohol, as there was no need to reject his friend¡¯s good intentions.


    After the repair team drove off, a inclothes guard said to Li Ran, ¡°Should we get permission from General Wang to wipe them out?¡±


    Li Ran nced at them. ¡°There were only about 17 of them just now, so why didn¡¯t the ten of you, being regr soldiers, mention wiping them out while they were still around? Also, how¡¯re you gonna wipe them out when this is the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory?¡±


    ¡°We can just get someone to do it covertly. They¡¯re just your everyday thugs, so it¡¯ll be very easy to deal with them if we want.¡± Now that they were no longer threatened, the soldier said, ¡°And we also need to be warier of that Ren Xiaosu. After all, there must be something with him if he can address those thugs as bros.¡±


    However, Li Ran did not agree with the points he brought up. Instead, she remarked, ¡°I don¡¯t care as long as he can solve problems.¡±


    Honestly, when Li Ran saw the other party had a heavy machine gun just now, she felt a little scared. After all, they were people who risked their lives in the wilderness every day, and armed with such heavy firepower, how could she not be afraid?


    But for some reason, the moment Ren Xiaosu stepped forward, her fear disappeared.


    When Li Ran returned to the minivan, she said to Fang Zhi, ¡°Pay 200,000 yuan to Ren Xiaosu and thank him for resolving the situation.¡±


    Fang Zhi was stunned. ¡°Even if we had the tires changed based on the quoted rates, it wouldn¡¯t cost that much, right?¡±


    Li Ran nced at him. ¡°I¡¯m happy to pay!¡±

 Chapter 530 - The disappearing Experimentals

    <h4>Chapter 530 The disappearing Experimentals</h4>


    While the tour group traveled south, east of the Qing Consortium¡¯s strongholds where the mountain range that separated the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory and the Central insy, several groups of special forces were pouring southwards into the mountain range.The mountain range was a towering and steep presence, spanning hundreds of kilometers in length. If a path were cut straight through it, the Qing Consortium could probably reach the Zhou Consortium within two days.


    Unfortunately, it did not seem like humans were capable of conquering Mother Nature at their current level. Moreover, Qing Zhen seemed happy to have such a barrier as well.


    He was even willing to set his sights farther away at Fortress 178 by joining the railroad in the northern valley than shatter this natural barrier here.


    Qing Zhen referred to this as the true ¡°wall¡± of the Qing Consortium¡¯s strongholds to Luo Lan.


    At this moment, a clear voice spoke on the radio.


    ¡°Alpha 2, sitrep.¡±


    ¡°Alpha 2 has not discovered any abnormalities nor found any traces of the Experimentals.¡±


    ¡°Alpha 3, sitrep...¡±


    The voice broadcasting on the radio had a static quality to it. These special forces were no longer grouped in a regr 30-man toon but groups of 12.


    At this moment, a full reconnaissance battalion was trekking through the mountain range without rest. Behind them, the supporting infantry were following closely as they marched. Due to the rugged mountain paths, the speed at which the troops were marching was reduced a bit.


    The special forces could increase their speed, but the mechanized infantry behind them providing supporting fire would not be able to keep up.


    Themander of the frontline troops, Qing Yi, was standing in themand post at the rear. There were many screens at the front of themand post, and they were constantly switching between video feeds from the special forces on the ground. The troops¡¯ helmet-mounted cameras were sending back these images in real time.


    Qing Yi said calmly, ¡°Enter the perimeter of Mt. Hefeng immediately. You¡¯ll likely encounter arge number of Experimentals there, but there¡¯s no need to fight them to the death. If you discover you¡¯re no match for them, regroup immediately and set up a defensive line and wait for reinforcements from the rear.¡±


    ¡°Roger,¡± themander of the reconnaissance battalion replied as his expression turned even grimmer.


    The reconnaissance battalion had always been the strongest fighting force for the various organizations. The residents of the strongholds tended to refer to them as special forces.


    Under normal circumstances, these soldiers would always emerge as the top performers of the military¡¯s field exercises. But after half a month of infiltration into the mountain range, even they were a little exhausted, and the camouge paint on their faces was also running.


    ¡°Check your weapons and firearms, check yourser sights, check...¡± The reconnaissance battalion¡¯smander issued multiple orders in an instant, and all of the special forces immediately went on high alert. They knew exactly what thesemands meant: They were about to encounter the enemy.


    The 12-man toons were starting to enter into the perimeter of Mt. Hefeng. Suddenly, the sound of scurrying creatures came from the bushes in front of a toon.


    In an instant, nine out of 12 soldiers pointed their guns at the bushes. Two others were covering the group¡¯s nks in case they were ambushed by the enemy, and one of them was holding a grenadeuncher, ready to fire at any moment.


    The scurrying sounds were getting closer and closer. The toonmander whispered over the radio, ¡°Unidentified creature approaching Alpha 9. I repeat, an unknown creature is approaching Alpha 9.¡±


    As his words trailed off, a wild boar suddenly charged out of the bushes. His deputy beside him instantly unsheathed a dagger from his belt and met the creature head on.


    But even stranger, the blood vessels in his face and hands started glowing silver. When the huge boar charged in, the deputy toonmander grabbed its sharp tusks with one hand and mmed it ruthlessly into the ground. Right after, the dagger in his other hand pierced the boar¡¯s neck.


    ¡°Danger eradicated. The danger at Alpha 9 has been taken care of. It was a wild boar. Alpha 9 will now continue advancing.¡± The toonmander then led the way forward.


    In themand post, Qing Yi could clearly see what had just happened. He calmly said to a bespectacled middle-aged man next to him, ¡°Calcte the soldiers¡¯ speed and strength.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Many younger people were standing around the middle-aged man. Qing Zhen had gathered all of the nanomachine researchers that had previously served under the Li and the Yang Consortiums under hismand.


    Qing Yi smiled and said, ¡°As expected, this gadgetry is only useful in the hands of our Qing Consortium, isn¡¯t that so?¡±


    The middle-aged man hurriedly nodded. ¡°Yes, it is.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s continue with the tests. I want to know the most suitable amount of nanomachines that each individual soldier should have, do you understand what I¡¯m saying? I want the most scientific data you can churn out,¡± Qing Yi instructed his adjutant. ¡°We have to quicklyplete the tests. Boss Luo is still trying to buy us time, but we can¡¯t keep him waiting in a dangerous ce like the Central ins.¡±


    However, Qing Yi suddenly felt that something was not right. ¡°Why are there living creatures in a ce where arge number of Experimentals have gathered? Why was there a wild boar? Tell the men to gather their troops and quickly charge forward to check the perimeter of Mt. Hefeng!¡±


    The oue was soon reported back, and the troops did not find any traces of the Experimentals within Mt. Hefeng. However, traces of a campfire were discovered in the mountains. There seemed to be a lot of paper documents that had been burnt in the campfire as well, while the entirety of Mt. Hefeng had been emptied out!


    The remnants of the documents found in the campfire must have been burned by the Experimentals. Qing Yi frowned at this. He already knew of the existence of an intelligent being among the Experimentals. But now he realized they could even read documents and knew how to destroy them. This surprised him a little.


    ¡°Bring back the ashes in full and see if we can piece together any useful information.¡± Qing Yi said, ¡°We¡¯re pulling out of here.¡±


    There weren¡¯t many ashes left, and the biggest piece was probably only the size of a fingernail. Furthermore, it was already burnt to soot. In fact, Qing Yi did not have much hope for this method either.


    Qing Yi looked at the towering Mt. Hefeng on the screen and sighed. ¡°What kind of monsters did the Pyro Company create with their experiments prior to the Cataclysm?¡±


    His adjutant next to him asked, ¡°Where do you think the Experimentals went? Should we inform the other strongholds to be on alert?¡±


    Qing Yi looked at the map carefully. ¡°Set up a call to my brother.¡±


    The radio operator passed the handset over, and Qing Zhen¡¯s calm voice rang out, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°The Experimentals have disappeared. I suspect they might¡¯ve gone to the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°Tell the Zhou Consortium to be careful,¡± Qing Zhen said.


    ¡°Why should we tell the Zhou Consortium?¡± Qing Yi was puzzled. ¡°Isn¡¯t it better if they suffer some losses?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll be the residents of the strongholds who¡¯ll be unfortunate,¡± Qing Zhen said. ¡°Besides, we¡¯re already working together with them to guard against the Wang Consortium. You have to understand the principle of interdependence.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t need to know about that.¡± Qing Yiughed and said, ¡°I just have to know how to fight a war. As for the rest, I¡¯ll leave it to you.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to hide anything. I¡¯m not a person who¡¯s jealous of talent.¡± Qing Zhen chuckled. ¡°Come back and regroup. You¡¯ve been busy out there for over half a year.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Qing Yi agreed. ¡°Brother, send someone dependable here for the transference of authority. I¡¯ll hand overmand of the troops to him.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for a change ofmand.¡± Qing Zhen said, ¡°You¡¯re the one I¡¯m most confident in. However, there isn¡¯t a higher rank I can promote you to. I heard you like the female celebrities of the Central ins, so I asked Luo Lan to bring one back for you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for trusting me, Brother.¡±


    After the call ended, Qing Yi did not say anything for a long time. His adjutant who had been listening to the call next to him mumbled to himself, ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen said he requested Boss Luo bring a celebrity back. Why does it sound like he¡¯s talking about some local specialties?¡±

 Chapter 531 - Dawn of a mutation

    <strong>Chapter 531 </strong><strong>Dawn of a mutation</strong>


    On the night the Qing Consortiumpletely lost track of the Experimentals, no one noticed a Japanese creeper vine growing in a winding fashion along a wall in the corner of Stronghold 61 where the battle between the A-rank hitmen and the Pyro Company took ce.


    That creeper vine had been nted a long time ago, and the walls of the residences on the road were already fully covered by it.


    Whenever someone passed by here in the summertime, they would get a refreshing feeling just by looking at the lush, green walls.


    On the day of the battle, some members of the Pyro Company¡¯s Dusk team had been killed under that wall. After they died, blood from their corpses seeped into the soil and mixed with the creeper vine¡¯s roots.


    When night fell, a fat rat crawled out of the sewers and cautiously scavenged for food. It was attracted to the creeper vine where the scent of blood was still lingering from before.


    However, the creeper vine seemed toe alive as it reached out a small tendril and attempted to touch the rat with its feeler.


    The rat hopped two steps back in fear and looked cautiously at the creeper vine¡¯s feeler as though it were a human hand. But when the rat realized that it was only a nt, it became less wary and approached it again.


    The creeper vine¡¯s soft feeler caressed the rat on its head, and it felt like the nt was very curious.


    This was probably the first time it was seriously trying to understand this world in its own way. As the feeler caressed the rat¡¯s head like it was helping to scratch an itch, the rat squinted its eyes in enjoyment.


    But a momentter, the creeper vine¡¯s feeler suddenly syed open and spiked into the rat¡¯s body. In just an instant, the rat was pierced all the way through and dragged into the dense foliage of the creeper vine.


    Before it died, the rat only had time to let out a squeak before falling silent. Meanwhile, the creeper vine spread across the wall still looked ever so quiet and beautiful.


    ...


    The tour group arrived at Stronghold 78 early the next morning. After getting their tires patched, they had immediately continued their journey. Just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, the tour group reached Stronghold 78 before the vehicle recovery team even set off.


    Fang Zhi finally took Zhou Yingxue¡¯s suggestion and purchased another two off-road vehicles to temporarily store their supplies and vehicle maintenance tools. He even hired a local mechanic at a high sry to follow the tour group.


    They had really been terrified by the incidentst night.


    What if they had not encountered that ¡°repair team¡± but an even more ruthless group of robbers? Fang Zhi knew all too well that if they were stranded in a wilderness without rules, most men would be very interested inying their hands on the female singer, Li Ran.


    When they arrived at the stronghold, Li Ran brought Zhou Yingxue along with her wherever she went this time, and the two women looked to be as close as sisters. If Ren Xiaosu did not know what it was really like behind the scenes, he would probably have fallen for it.


    Li Ran took Zhou Yingxue to various events and banquets as she did not want Zhou Yingxue to have any free time for herself.


    At the same time, since Zhou Yingxue was participating in the events with Li Ran, Ren Xiaosu would have to tag along as her ¡°assistant.¡±


    At this moment, Li Ran proudly told Zhou Yingxue, ¡°The main reason I came to the Zhou Consortium for a concert tour was to meet up with a movie director at Stronghold 73. I think he¡¯s filming a new movie soon, and if I manage to get the lead actress role, I¡¯ll push him to make you the supporting actress.¡±


    Li Ran¡¯s words made Zhou Yingxue roll her eyes. She knew that Li Ran was only trying to show off in front of her. Otherwise, she would not mention something like that for no reason.


    However, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are there still people making movies?¡±


    ¡°Of course. They¡¯re even in color,¡± Li Ran said proudly.


    Ren Xiaosu had only been living in the Central ins¡¯ strongholds for a short while, so he did not know there were outdoor cinemas showing movies in many of the strongholds here. There were projectionists who would specially set up the screens and use a projector to y the movies.


    Every time there was a movie screening,rge groups of men, women, seniors, and children would gather in front of the screens, while vendors selling cigarettes, soft drinks, and edible seeds woulde around to peddle their wares.


    Such scenes did not exist in the Southwest and Northwest and only happened here in the Central ins.


    But when Zhou Yingxue was attending a banquet, she received some texts from the Anjing House. However, the mission this time was a little different.


    ¡°Arge number of the Pyro Company members have already sneaked into Stronghold 73 and are apanied by some Riders. We suspect the targets are searching for the Pre-Cataclysm site of a Pyro Company researchb. The location of the site is in the vicinity of East Lake.


    ¡°This is a very valuableb that likely conducted research in the field of life sciences. A technological breakthrough was achieved before The Cataclysm, and the results can be deployed to a wide range of medical fields.


    ¡°There is no quota of participants for this mission. The reward for killing a member of the Pyro Company¡¯s Midnight squad is 150,000 yuan, while each member of the Dusk squad killed will get a reward of 500,000 yuan.


    ¡°Only sessful hunters will be eligible for the trials next spring.¡±


    As they stood on thewn outside the banquet grounds, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue were stunned by the texts for this mission. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Has the Anjing House ever assigned such a vicious mission in the past? This is as good as asking all of the A-rank hitmen to hunt down the Pyro Company members.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out a C-rank cell phone he had recently stolen. To his surprise, he saw this phone had also received the same texts! So the Anjing House had issued this mission to everyone! Even C-rank hitmen were eligible to take part!


    ¡°The most ruthless thing about this mission is that it was sent as a group text.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°The Anjing House definitely knows that many of their cell phones havended in the hands of people with ulterior motives.... Master, I¡¯m not insinuating that you¡¯re one of them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°There should be one or two of the Anjing House¡¯s cell phones in the hands of the various forces. Although they can¡¯t receive the A-rank mission texts, they can still asionally guard against the assassination missions targeting some of their important members.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Previously, someone from the Zhou Consortium was targeted through a B-rank mission, and all of their crimes were even listed. But before the hitmen could arrive, that person was arrested and interrogated by the Zhou Consortium themselves. So these group texts were sent out with the intention of reaching those forces. They¡¯re hoping more people will show up and stop the Pyro Company.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°If it¡¯s simply a mission to kill Pyro Company personnel, it probably won¡¯t tempt would-be hitmen into joining. However, theb research that can be sold at astronomical prices will be enough to change their minds. I¡¯m afraid that the Zhou Consortium themselves will also be moved by the offer. After all, thisb lies within their territory. The texts emphasize the value of theb, yet the Anjing House has not shown any interest in theb research at all. Curious.¡±


    This showed the Anjing House clearly knew there were people other than hitmen who had obtained their cell phones, but they just didn¡¯t care. All they did was to ensure the A-rank hitmen were issued with cell phones that only they could ess.


    Actually, they had deliberately allowed others to obtain the cell phones so they could upset the applecart at the critical moment!


    ¡°But why would the Riders go with the Pyro Company to search for the site of the researchb? How did these two organizations get involved with each other?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.

 Chapter 532 - Pyro and Riders

    <h4>Chapter 532 Pyro and Riders</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s impression of the Riders was still rather good. The Rider he encountered was very polite and rtively impartial when dealing with matters.


    Ren Xiaosupletely agreed with the Rider¡¯s decision on banning the students from gambling, because Ren Xiaosu knew too well what gamblers were like.


    But why would a reputable organization like the Riders help the Pyro Company search for something?


    Unless, of course, they had amon goal!


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that the Qinghe Group¡¯s been searching for their major shareholder¡¯s heir? But they still did not manage to find him after this many years?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly.


    ¡°Yes, this info has been circting around for a long time, so it¡¯s not a secret anymore.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°But it seems that a lot of information has been lost due to The Cataclysm. After all, the Qinghe Group did not seem to have managed too well in the first few years after The Cataclysm, and the founder also sacrificed himself to ensure the survival of the organization.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°The heir of the founder couldn¡¯t have ended up in a researchb of the Pyro Company, right?!¡±


    Stressed, Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Master, let¡¯s not talk about other things for now, and focus on this mission. Only those who manage to kill the Pyro Company¡¯s members this time will qualify for the trials next year. How am I supposed to go to Stronghold 73 when Li Ran is keeping me close to her every day?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu thought about it, it dawned on him that this was really the case. Although they did not need to apply to do the mission this time, Zhou Yingxue could not leave for the time being. Moreover, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s fingerprints were required to unlock the cell phone to take pictures of the targets andplete the mission. In other words, Zhou Yingxue would have to be present at the site.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a bit. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll make a trip there and bring back someone for you to kill.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was shocked on the spot. ¡°Master, can your ideas not always be so extreme? Stronghold 73 is more than 400 kilometers away from here. Are you just going to carry someone back for me toplete the mission?¡±


    ¡°What else can I do?¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at her. ¡°Do you have any better ideas? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll think of other methods on my way there.¡±


    ¡°Master, be careful.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that all of the underworld criminals of the Central ins will be trying to get into Stronghold 73 this time, and they can be a really mixed bag.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll ry your message to them to be careful.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was confused.


    With that, Ren Xiaosu did not waste any more time and headed right off into the darkness of the night.


    Li Ran, who was dressed in an evening gown, walked out of the banquet grounds with a ss of champagne in her hand. Sparkling bubbles could even be seen fizzing in the exquisite crystal ss.


    Walking over, Li Ran asked Zhou Yingxue, ¡°And where¡¯s he off to?¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Zhou Yingxue smiled and said, ¡°I asked my assistant to head back to the hotel first so he can make the bed for me.¡±


    ¡°Hmph!¡± Li Ran turned around and walked off.


    ...


    Just as Zhou Yingxue had guessed, the entire underworld of the Central ins was getting restless due to the actions of the Anjing House.


    In just half a day after the group texts were sent out, the ck market outside of Luoyang City had be half empty.


    The mob bosses who had been forced to live in seclusion here sessively sprang into action and left the ck market.


    After all, they would have to make more money to better enjoy life.


    In the entire Alliance of Strongholds, it was said that one could get rich overnight by obtaining research data from theboratories. Even if they only managed to get their hands on one page, it could very well fetch them enough tost a lifetime.


    This was the data of the life sciences research the Pyro Company had been conducting before The Cataclysm. More importantly, the Anjing House imed there was already a breakthrough in this field of research, so the implication was that it was ready for industrial application.


    Meanwhile, the Zhou Consortium had started setting up checkpoints around Stronghold 73. They even nned to deploy two brigades of troops and station them outside the stronghold.


    You could say they were taking this matter very seriously.


    However, it would take time to mobilize the troops, and the two brigades would take at least three days to get here from the other strongholds. This military operation was not just a matter of sending out the troops, but also required the logistics lines to be ready.


    But to the surprise of all the various forces, the two brigades were redirected to garrison at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s stronghold in the farthest west before they could arrive at Stronghold 73.


    This puzzled everyone a great deal. Was the Zhou Consortium nning to ignore the situation at Stronghold 73?


    But there was nothing at Stronghold 74 in the farthest west. There was only a mountain range a 100 kilometers farther west of that stronghold, so why was the Zhou Consortium garrisoning their troops there?


    Could there be anything more important than what was going to happen at Stronghold 73?


    Of course, no one knew the Qing Consortium had already sent even more important intelligence to the Zhou Consortium.


    As such, after the two brigades were redeployed to the west, the Zhou Consortium mobilized other troops to rush to Stronghold 73.


    However, it did not matter to the underworld criminals. They were only concerned about where the Pyro Company¡¯s Pre-Cataclysm researchb was.


    During the past few days when the Zhou Consortium was busily redeploying its troops, all kinds of criminal figures had entered Stronghold 73 through their own means before martialw was enforced.


    As they did not dare to check in to the hotels, they could only hide in houses and quietly observe the situation from there.


    Some of them were so pathetic they had nowhere else to go and could only hide in the spa center every day. They even had to make sure to avoid the patrols of Stronghold 73. After all, not everyone had a safe house in Stronghold 73.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was already tucking into his takeout hot dry noodles[1] inside a safe house. This was the first safe house Wu Tong had arranged for them to rendezvous at during the previous mission.


    This safe house used to belong to Wu Tong, but it belonged to Ren Xiaosu now. After all, Wu Tong was dead. Since the house was without an owner, Ren Xiaosu dly upied it as his own.


    Ren Xiaosu did not find it difficult to get into the stronghold. However, he had observed something outside earlier. At some point, Ren Xiaosu felt the Zhou Consortium had even rxed their inspection of the people entering the stronghold. It was as though they were deliberately letting this mixed bag of people into the stronghold.


    But why was that? Did they intend to use these people to keep the Pyro Company in check?


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, wouldn¡¯t it be much safer to just station the troops inside the stronghold itself? What was the Zhou Consortium nning?


    A curfew had already been temporarily enforced within Stronghold 73, something that was still rarely seen in the Central ins. Some of the strongholds here were even known to be sleepless cities, with bustling sightssting throughout the night and into the morning.


    After finishing his hot dry noodles, Ren Xiaosu headed out again. The Anjing House had appended more information about the mission and indicated that the Pyro Company had arrived in the vicinity of East Lake near Stronghold 73. Although they had lost track of their whereabouts, it was very possible the researchboratory was located right next to East Lake. However, it was likely the Pyro Company had not discovered the entrance of the researchboratory yet.


    Ren Xiaosu was parkouring freely up on the roofs. asionally, he would notice there were also others up on the roofs looking at something.


    Vani was walking with the elderly sugar painter in the shadows on the streets not far away. Dressed in his smart suit, he seemed wholly unrted to the old man beside him.


    The old man muttered, ¡°There¡¯s too many formidable people this time. You should tell me in advance what the Anjing House is nning. I don¡¯t want to take too many risks.¡±


    Vani adjusted his tie and said with a smile, ¡°With you and me working together, and the other Anjing House members supporting us, who would be a match for us in this stronghold?¡±


    [1] Hot dry noodles, also known as reganmian, is a traditional dish of Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province in central China. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dry_noodles

 Chapter 533 - A dark and stormy nigh

    <h4>Chapter 533 A dark and stormy nigh</h4>


    Things were already stirring in Stronghold 73. The underworld criminals were hiding in the stronghold and waiting for their opportunity to strike.As East Lake spanned a veryrge area, it would be impossible to pinpoint the researchboratory¡¯s location when the Anjing House only stated that it was in the vicinity of East Lake.


    So everyone was just waiting for the Pyro Company to find the researchboratory¡¯s entrance before making their move to seize the research data.


    Although the criminal underworld was no match for the members of the Pyro Company in a one-on-one battle, everyone knew there would be a lot of people involved when the conflict broke out. Furthermore, the A-rank hitmen from the Anjing House would be participating in the battle as well. Once the situation turned chaotic, as long as they could get their hands on some of that research data, they could sell it for a sky-high price.


    However, the mob bosses still remained hidden in the spa center. It was not like they enjoyed soaking in the hot bath and scrubbing their backs, but that most of them had been ced on the watchlists of the various consortiums. If they were to go outside and get recognized by people, the Zhou Consortium might just arrest them on the spot.


    It was not only they who were lying low. Even Vani and the elderly sugar painter, the Pyro Company, and the Riders were also hiding their presence in the stronghold.


    Only Ren Xiaosu could openly take a night run around East Lake like nothing was going on.


    Fortress 178 had already destroyed all the information that would visually identify Ren Xiaosu, while the Qing Consortium was also helping him keep secret, so it didn¡¯t matter if the people of the Central ins had heard of his deeds. At the very least, they couldn¡¯t recognize him even if they met him by chance.


    Ren Xiaosu seemed like an ordinary student in Stronghold 73 wearing his blue sportswear that looked just like a school uniform.


    Besides, to be honest, even the intelligence personnel of the various forces did not suspect anything when they saw Ren Xiaosu running around East Lake at night. That was because everyone felt that no one would dare wander around so casually in this tense period.


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu looked really young, like someone in his teens. No matter how they looked at him, he just did not seem like a ruthless person.


    Hence, Ren Xiaosu got neglected by the various forces as they treated him like an invisible person in Stronghold 73.


    While Ren Xiaosu was taking his night run, a cleaner nearby spoke into his earpiece, ¡°He¡¯s likely a young resident of the stronghold, so we can eliminate him as a suspect. There¡¯s no signs of weapons hidden on him.¡±


    It was very easy for experts to tell if there were hidden weapons on someone, especially when a person was running. If they were hiding a dagger or a firearm on them, it would definitely not escape their eyes.


    There were many intelligence personnel scattered around the perimeter of East Lake. Everyone was keeping a close eye on this ce.


    A voiceughed into the earpiece. ¡°I really wish I could warn these people to not jog at theke for a few days. It¡¯s too dangerous here. But since we¡¯re not good people anyway, there¡¯s no need to reveal ourselves to help these stronghold residents.¡±


    The cleaner watched Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure recede into the distance and said with augh, ¡°Who cares if they live or die?¡±


    The voice in the earpiece said, ¡°I heard that a movie director will being to East Lake with a film crew to shoot a movie in a few days. I¡¯ve never seen a film crew before.¡±


    The cleaner smiled and said, ¡°What¡¯s the big deal about a film crew? What we¡¯re doing here is even more exciting than in the movies.¡±


    Although the cleaner did not try to persuade Ren Xiaosu to leave, another young man stopped him. This young man looked around 27 years old, and he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Please do not jog near East Lake for the next few days. It¡¯s about to get very dangerous here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in panic, ¡°Why? Is something going to happen?!¡±


    The young man thought for a moment and said, ¡°This ce is no longer safe. A lot of criminals will be gathering here soon.¡±


    ¡°Oh, alright, I¡¯d better get back then. Are you from the Public Order Division?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No.¡± The young man shook his head.


    After talking to Ren Xiaosu, the young man went over to persuade the olddies who were practicing their za dancing in the za next to East Lake.


    But the moment the young man opened his mouth, the olddies started pushing him around. They said, ¡°Why should we listen to you?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, do you own this ce?!¡±


    ¡°Who are you trying to scare by saying this ce isn¡¯t safe? I¡¯m warning you,d, if you insist on saying that, I¡¯ll lie down[1] right here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled at the scene unfolding before him. But amid the pushing and shoving, he suddenly noticed a triangr red scarf fall out of the young man¡¯s pocket.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback by the sight of this. He recalled what he saw back at the ck market. Didn¡¯t the Riders usually cover their faces with a red scarf when they were carrying out their missions? Could this person be a Rider too?


    Due to the possibility that this ce could get dangerous, the other party was patiently urging residents to leave the vicinity of East Lake.


    Why would an organization like them get involved with the Pyro Company? Just what were they searching for?


    As the actors got ready to step onto the stage that was Stronghold 73, Ren Xiaosu believed a good show was going to y out soon.


    But when Ren Xiaosu returned to his safe house, he was surprised to see a few texts had appeared on his recently acquired C-rank cell phone.


    ¡°Something was stolen from the library in Stronghold 73st night. After a day of investigation, it was determined that the Pre-Cataclysm local histories and location map of Stronghold 73 had gone missing from the reference section of the library.¡±


    ¡°Confidential files of Stronghold 73 were stolenst night. The missing data are the topography map and infrastructural changes caused by the tectonic movements at Stronghold 73 over the past 70 years.


    ¡°Based on our deduction, this should be the work of the Pyro Company. Perhaps due to the changes in thendscape, the Pyro Company still hasn¡¯t located the entrance to the researchb.¡±


    Because East Lake spanned such arge area, it would probably take a normal person several days to finish covering the entire distance on a night run.


    Furthermore, thendscape had changed so much over the years that even the Pyro Company had to resort to stealing confidential files to slowly determine where the researchboratory was located.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at his cell phone and suddenly realized the Anjing House must have ced a great deal of emphasis on the Pyro Company¡¯s n this time. So they might as well join the fray and start dictating the rhythm of how things would develop. Their purpose was to share all the information they knew with everyone they could.


    The Anjing House¡¯s goal was not theboratory data. They were only looking to target the Pyro Company.


    The Pyro Company would definitely have ess to some of the Anjing House¡¯s cell phones as well, right? For the Anjing House to announce every move the Pyro Company was making, Ren Xiaosu wondered how bad it would feel when they saw their ns getting leaked?


    Since Ren Xiaosu had nothing better to do, he headed to thergest spa center nearby to take a bath. He swore he was just curious to see what the underworld¡¯s mob bosses looked like and was not going there for anything else.


    After registering at reception, Ren Xiaosu entered the male section and saw a group of mob bosses with tattoos sitting in a circle inside the bath. It looked like they were discussing something.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully checked out the tattoos on these people with great interest. Some of them had tiger tattoos, dragon tattoos, and all sorts of fanciful decorative art on their bodies.


    Although there were also normal guests at the spa center, they did not dare to get close to the group of burly, tattooed men sitting in the bath.


    However, Ren Xiaosu went over and sat in the bath as though he knew them, and this rather dumbfounded the mob bosses.


    Ren Xiaosu pointed at a twin koi tattoo on a man¡¯s arms and asked, ¡°What does this tattoo mean? Does it bring you good luck?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± The mob boss looked calmly at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I was born on a dark and stormy night 30 years ago on March 11th.¡±


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was waiting to hear a rattling story, the mob boss suddenly said, ¡°So since my birthday falls on March 11th, I¡¯m a Pisces.¡±


    [1] When people say that they¡¯ll lie down, it¡¯s an ultimatum given to thementer to leave or they¡¯ll lie down and use the person of injuring them.

 Chapter 534 - Doctor of the black marke

    <h4>Chapter 534 Doctor of the ck marke</h4>


    When the mob boss said that, Ren Xiaosu burst intoughter. His fucking horoscope sign was Pisces? So that was how they got their tattoos!


    He looked at a mob boss with a tiger tattoo. ¡°Then you must be born in the Year of the Tiger? And I¡¯m guessing that other guy was born in the Year of the Dragon?¡±


    Those mob bosses looked at Ren Xiaosu calmly before gradually feeling that something was off. ¡°Who the hell are you!¡±


    When they saw Ren Xiaosu did not even have a single tattoo on him from head to toe, it was obvious he was just a normal guy. The other regrs had run off to the showers, yet this kid actually dared to enter the bath they were soaking in?!


    But before they could question him further, they suddenly heard a din outside. Everyone turned around to look and were surprised to see someone helping a wounded man in.


    One of the mob bosses frowned and asked, ¡°What happened?¡±


    The person supporting the big man replied, ¡°We ran into our foes. We won a lot of money from them back at the ck market, but they were too scared to do anything to us there. Unfortunately, we bumped into them here and they attacked us. He got shed twice!¡±


    ¡°Let me see.¡± The mob bosses got up and lifted the wounded man¡¯s shirt to see two deep cuts, one each on his chest and back. As the wounds were very deep, it did not look too favorable for the injured man.


    One of the mob bosses sighed. ¡°Bro, we can¡¯t get you to the hospital here in Stronghold 73, so I¡¯m afraid that your wounds can¡¯t be treated. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll take good care of your wife and kids.¡±


    The big man¡¯s face was deathly pale. ¡°But I think I can still be saved....¡±


    ¡°If you go to the hospital, wouldn¡¯t our presence in the stronghold be exposed?¡± one of the bosses said. ¡°When that happens, the Zhou Consortium will capture all of us. Have you forgotten that we kidnapped some members of the Zhou Consortium two years ago? If we get caught, we¡¯ll definitely pay with our lives. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re loyal brothers and definitely won¡¯t let your wife and children starve to death.¡±


    The wounded man rolled his eyes before losing consciousness.


    However, a voice next to them said, ¡°I can save him.¡±


    Everyone turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu walk over in a bathrobe through the steam. ¡°I can stitch him up and treat his wounds with a secret ancestral remedy. I guarantee that he¡¯ll fully recover within three days. However, I suppose it¡¯s not too much to ask for 500,000 yuan in exchange for saving his life, right?¡±


    ¡°No, not at all!¡± The wounded man regained consciousness. ¡°I have money!¡±


    Upon hearing that, Ren Xiaosu pretended to walk over to his locker to retrieve the ck medicine and a sewing kit. The mob bosses were all stunned when they saw what Ren Xiaosu was holding in his hands. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a sewing kit used for patching up clothes?¡±


    ¡°Why are you being so picky at this point in time?¡± Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°If it can save a life, that¡¯s a great oue.¡±


    While speaking, he started stitching up the wound with the sewing kit. As anesthetics weren¡¯t used, the big man was in so much pain he nearly went into shock.


    The mob bosses looked at one another. They knew they definitely couldn¡¯t go to the hospital while they were in the Zhou Consortium¡¯s stronghold. But over the next few days, there would probably be even more wounded peopleing in, and even a minor wound could prove fatal.


    If there were really a ¡°shady doctor¡± like Ren Xiaosu around, it might just prove to be a blessing for them. However, the mob bosses decided to wait and see if this person were really capable of treating injuries first.


    Seeing how Ren Xiaosu remained calm at the sight of blood gushing out while stitching up the wound, the mob bosses were convinced that he at least had guts.


    After suturing the wounds, Ren Xiaosu took out the ck medicine from his bathrobe and applied it onto the wounds. The big man¡¯s pale face rapidly regained a pink glow, and he was no longer sweating.


    ¡°How is it? Are you feeling better?¡± asked one of the nearby mob mosses.


    ¡°It¡¯s not painful anymore! It really isn¡¯t painful!¡± the big man said in astonishment. He turned to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Thank you so much, young man!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Zheng Hongning, +1!¡±


    Immediately, everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu. Someone smiled and asked kindly, ¡°Young man, how can we address you?¡±


    ¡°Y¡¯all can just call me Dr. Ren,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a harmless smile.


    ¡°Look, why don¡¯t youe more often to the spa center during this period? We¡¯ll cover all of your expenses here. In return, we only ask that you help treat anyone whoes in wounded. And not to worry, we¡¯ll still pay for the treatment ordingly!¡±


    During the conversation, the wounded man had one of his men bring a gambling chip over. He said, ¡°This is a chip from the casino in the ck market outside of Luoyang City. We normally don¡¯t keep our money in the consortiums¡¯ banks, and we don¡¯t carry cash around since that¡¯s inconvenient. However, you can still easily exchange this chip for cash at the ck market¡¯s casino.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had a look at it and was surprised to see a ¡°500¡± engraved in gold on the chip. It looked like this chip was worth 500,000 yuan.


    The biggest denomination of chips used in ordinary casinos was usually 10,000 yuan. He did not expect that the spending power in Luoyang City¡¯s ck market would be so great they even had to specially cater to these mob bosses with 500,000 yuan chips to carry around and easily make transactions with.


    This was as good as the currencies issued by the banks, with the casino chips the choice of currency for them.


    Ren Xiaosu took the chip and examined it. At certain angles, he could even see a strange pattern on it moving around.


    Next to him, one of the mob bosses exined, ¡°This is aser engraving technique used for anti-counterfeiting purposes. The engraving is encrypted and only a specific instrument can decrypt it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll ept it. How about this? I won¡¯t being here frequently, but if anyone requires medical attention, you all can just ce a red cone at the entrance. When I see it, I will rush over as quickly as possible. Don¡¯t worry, there won¡¯t be any problems.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered how he ended up as a doctor of the ck market.


    After this incident, Ren Xiaosu somehow became the most popr person in the spa center. Furthermore, ever since a wounded person came into the spa center, the ce had ceased business operations, stating that renovations were in progress and they would not be open for business during the duration.


    On the third day, when Ren Xiaosu saw a red cone at the entrance, he walked into the spa center. However, it turned out no one was wounded this time. The burly man who had previously been wounded looked at Ren Xiaosu in embarrassment and asked, ¡°Dr. Ren, can you please restitch me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Why do you request that?¡±


    The burly man, Zheng Hongning, took off his clothes, revealing his chest. ¡°Look, my chest was supposed to have a dragon tattoo on it, but you stitched it up crookedly...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the big green dragon on his chest in silence. He noticed the dragon¡¯s head and neck didn¡¯t quite match up.


    Zheng Hongning said anxiously, ¡°A tattoo represents our reputation, and a severed dragon¡¯s head doesn¡¯t look auspicious either. Doctor Ren, do you provide any aftersales service or something?¡±


    ¡°See, that¡¯s why I said that people in your choice of industry aren¡¯t suited to get tattoos. Since all you do is fight and kill, it requires more effort to stitch the wounds.¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°I¡¯m a ck market doctor, so refusing to provide aftersales service has always been our principle.¡±


    Zheng Hongning was stunned. However, he couldn¡¯t do anything to his benefactor. He thought of having to soak in the hot springs bath with his brotherster on, and every one of them sported those realistic tattoos while his was a dragon with a severed head...


    At this moment, another burly man who was wounded got carried in. When this wounded mob boss saw that Ren Xiaosu was also here, he was overjoyed. ¡°Dr. Ren, please hurry up and treat my wounds.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I previously quoted 500,000 yuan for my service, right?¡±


    Even though the wounded man was in tremendous pain, he still nodded his head quickly. ¡°Yes! I can afford to pay!¡±


    ¡°How about this? I¡¯ll offer you an additional service. Pay me 50,000 yuan more and I¡¯ll stitch you up with your tattoo intact.¡± Ren Xiaosu hade up with a new business idea.


    The wounded man nced at the severed dragon¡¯s head on Zheng Hongning¡¯s chest and immediately nodded. ¡°50,000 yuan? Deal!¡±


    Zheng Hongning looked at Ren Xiaosu suspiciously. He could not help but feel that Ren Xiaosu had deliberately stitched his wound up crookedly. This ck market doctor was indeed shady. He would do anything just to earn money!

 Chapter 535 - The Anjing House declares war

    <h4>Chapter 535 The Anjing House deres war</h4>


    Other than a few underworld mob bosses getting into fights inside Stronghold 73, it seemed like nothing else was really happening. Meanwhile, the Anjing House kept sending out texts to stir up the situation every day. However, the Pyro Company had still not found the entrance to the researchboratory.


    As long as the researchboratory¡¯s entrance was not found, no one would attack the Pyro Company in advance.


    After all, everyone wanted to get their hands on the data from that researchboratory.


    If anyone tried to kill the Pyro Company members at this moment, they would probably be stopped by others, too.


    Some people even spected the Zhou Consortium was also probably waiting for things to happen as it seemed they were turning a blind eye to this matter.


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops had started to set up camp outside the stronghold, but there were no signs of panic in the stronghold as the criminals just continued to lie low.


    It was the calm before the storm brewing in the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu would take a stroll to the spa center every day without worries before heading for a night run around East Lake.


    The older women were still za dancing in the za, but the Rider who tried to persuade them into thinking this ce was unsafe was nowhere to be seen. This matter even got on the news in the stronghold: ¡°Breaking! Young man attempts to stopdies from za dancing but was threatened with extortion ims.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu was treating the mob bosses¡¯ injuries, he asked, ¡°Why don¡¯t y¡¯all just stay quietly inside the spa center? If you keep picking fights like this, I¡¯m afraid that all y¡¯all will end up crippled before the Pyro Company can locate the researchb¡¯s entrance.¡±


    The mob bosses already knew Ren Xiaosu was no ordinary person. After all, none of them had evere across a miraculous medicine in the world that could heal deep wounds like theirs within three days.


    However, those mob bossesughed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, with your treatment, we can recover from our wounds within three days. But they can¡¯t! If we just keep on fighting them, they¡¯ll eventually die first!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment. So there were many wounded people on the other side as well, huh? Um... can I ask which spa they¡¯re at?¡±


    After all, there was money to be earned.


    One of the mob bosses was left speechless for a long time. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°We¡¯ll pay you an additional one million yuan to not treat their injuries. You might not know this, but our feud with those bastards goes back a long time. To be honest, we even had thoughts about giving up on getting theb data when we encountered our foes here in Stronghold 73. We really just want to eradicate them so badly.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu really did not regard these mob bosses as potential enemies. After all, he had forced his way into a stronghold and even fought against an entire brigade. He really didn¡¯t think these so-called underworld mob bosses were a threat to him.


    These people were really not his match, nor were they worthy opponents for him.


    The core of this world was still the consortiums, as well as the powerful forces built around supernatural beings.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said with a sigh, ¡°I still think y¡¯all should be more rational. It¡¯s better to wait for updates from the Anjing House, then go and seize theb data.¡±


    After all, Ren Xiaosu would be happier to see the situation descend into chaos instead of two criminal organizations kill one another. They did not even fire their guns or go to the hospital because they were afraid of getting arrested by the Zhou Consortium.


    How boring!


    However, a mob boss said, ¡°Dr. Ren, you don¡¯t understand the situation. We used to be the local power here at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s strongholds, but due to the other party¡¯s sneaky schemes, we were forced out and had to seek refuge at the ck market outside of Luoyang City. You think we wanted to leave our homes? Now that we¡¯re back, of course we¡¯re seething with anger when we see our foes again. You¡¯re a doctor, so you don¡¯t understand how brutal the fighting and killing in this wild world is. There¡¯s vengeance on our minds. If we don¡¯t take revenge, outsiders will start looking down on us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully. After much thinking, he felt he would earn money too slowly if there was only a patient or twoing in every few days.


    He turned to the mob bosses and said with a grin, ¡°Then what about this? How much will you pay me if I help y¡¯all wipe out the local power here?¡±


    The mob bosses suddenly looked at one another. The young man in front of them had such an innocent smile, but the words he said gave them the chills.


    But wasn¡¯t this young man a doctor?


    Someoneughed and said, ¡°Dr. Ren, don¡¯t joke around. They have guns. We¡¯re not using ours only because we¡¯re worried about getting arrested by the Zhou Consortium. But if it reallyes down to it, we¡¯ll still fire our weapons. That¡¯s not something that a doctor like you can handle, so don¡¯t underestimate us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows and did not say anything further.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu thought that such peaceful days wouldst for a while, the Anjing House sent out another extremely important text.


    ¡°The Pyro Company¡¯s safe house has been identified. It¡¯s located in the neighborhood at Swan Lake, and they have a total of 40 members in the stronghold. The number of Riders in the stronghold is currently unknown. The location of the researchb is suspected to be in the original East Lake Tunnel, and the Pyro Company is still trying to locate the researchb¡¯s entrance.¡±


    These were the exact words in the text. The mob bosses in the spa center rubbed their hands in glee as they were originally from this stronghold. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°East Lake Tunnel? Why haven¡¯t I heard of this ce before?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know about it, do you?¡± One of them said with a smile, ¡°The East Lake Tunnel is Pre-Cataclysm infrastructure here in the stronghold. Apparently, the tunnel passes through the north and the south of theke and shortened the travel time between both ces. As the tunnel was very sturdy, it remained in use for many years after The Cataclysm. However, the main structure was damaged by an earthquake over a decade ago. Although there was no water seepage, people said that it was in danger of copsing. As such, the Zhou Consortium sealed off the East Lake Tunnelpletely.¡±


    ¡°The Zhou Consortium did not make any repairs to that tunnel?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Of course not. The various consortiums are busy developing their weapons and military capabilities, and their basic construction capabilities are far worse than the Pre-Cataclysm times,¡± one of them exined. ¡°However, that tunnel runs for a very long distance. Why would theb be hidden in it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s so fucking dark in that tunnel, and there are many emergency passageways that only maintenance workers are allowed to enter. Who knows if theb might be hidden underground behind one of those doors? It seems that the Pyro Company was also very secretive with what they did in the past.¡± One of them sighed.


    Ren Xiaosu packed his stuff and headed out of the spa. He did not have time to waste with this group of mob bosses anymore. At this moment, there were probably already countless criminals heading towards the East Lake Tunnel.


    This text was like a deration of war by the Anjing House on the Pyro Company: ¡°We have already found you and kinda know where yourb is. Many people are rushing over there right now, so are you going as well?


    ¡°If you don¡¯t turn up, with so many people on our side, they¡¯ll definitely locate yourb first. If you show up, you¡¯re gonna have to face all these enemies.¡±


    It was veryte at night now. Due to the curfew, there were no longer any pedestrians on the streets of Stronghold 73. The entire city looked deserted.


    As Ren Xiaosu walked down the dark streets where even the street lights were turned off, he knew this silence would notst for too long. It would get rowdy beyond belief in Stronghold 73 tonight.


    A gunshot rang out in the distance, and the report was like the prelude to a midnight feast under the night sky.

 Chapter 536 - Biding his time

    <h4>Chapter 536 Biding his time</h4>


    The night was like an overcast cloud hanging over the entire stronghold, and under this dark cloud, many people were making their way over to the East Lake Tunnel in a hurry.


    In the dark of the night, the pitch-ck East Lake was like a giant ma drawing in speckles of iron dust inside the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu had guessed many underworld criminals would turn up this time, but he did not expect so many.


    But upon further thinking, it rather made sense. Ignoring the other forces that had turned up, just the A-rank hitmen from the Anjing House alone would already number in the dozens. After all, only those who sessfully killed members of the Pyro Company this time would qualify for the Anjing House trials next year.


    Ren Xiaosu reckoned that at least half of all the Anjing House¡¯s A-rank hitmen had shown up this time.


    However, the closer Ren Xiaosu got to East Lake, the more he felt that something was off. ording to Zhou Yingxue, the Pyro Company was not an organization that was easy to deal with. How else could they control eight strongholds in a ce like the Central ins?


    Would arge organization like them allow their ns to get disrupted so easily?


    Furthermore, why did this researchboratory have to be located in an abandoned tunnel of all ces?


    There were originally three entrances to the East Lake Tunnel. But ording to the mob bosses at the spa center, two of these entrances had been sealed off. Hence, it was impossible to get in without resorting to a violent skirmish.


    There was only one tunnel entrance left, after all, and it was even in an airtight space and at the bottom of theke.


    If the tunnel were to copse, it would be hard for those who went in toe out alive since there would be nowhere to escape to.


    Looking at the fanatical eyes of those who were making their way towards the East Lake Tunnel, Ren Xiaosu slowed down.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard someone whispering a short distance away, ¡°Isn¡¯t that the young man who went for those nightly jogs?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu spun around and was surprised to see a man in a cleaner¡¯s uniform he¡¯d seen before. After all, it was rather eye-catching to see someone wearing an earpiece while doing cleaning.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled at that time. He wondered which organization this person who was pretending to be a cleaner was from. Did he really think no one would notice he was wearing an earpiece?


    But Ren Xiaosu simply ignored them. Rather, he was surprised when he turned around and saw a man wearing a director¡¯s vest leading about a dozen people with cameras and equipment on their shoulders. They were also rushing towards the East Lake Tunnel like the others.


    He was probably what they called a ¡°movie director,¡± right?!


    The director was running and shouting at the same time, ¡°Move quickly! Don¡¯t miss out on capturing the most exciting scenes. When these scenes get edited into a documentary about superhumans, I¡¯ll be famous!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Someone was even trying to film a documentary on superhumans?


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu saw a familiar figure running extremely quickly in front of him. Ren Xiaosu felt that he looked quite familiar, but he could not remember who it was.


    Wait a minute! Wasn¡¯t that fucking Wang Congyang? How could he forget someone so important? He had copied the Steam Lotive power from him, after all.


    But what was this guy doing at Stronghold 73?


    By the time Ren Xiaosu wanted to catch up to him and give him a good thrashing, Wang Congyang was already nowhere to be seen. Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know where he had gone.


    When Ren Xiaosu reached the entrance of the tunnel, he was greeted by the sight of overgrown wild grass everywhere. As it was alreadyte fall, the vegetation here was starting to wither.


    Ren Xiaosuy in the tall grass and did not rush in rashly. However, he saw the underworld criminals flick on their shlights one by one and rush straight into the tunnel.


    When the people at the back saw those at the front rushing into the tunnel, they didn¡¯t think much and followed in right behind them.


    It was beginning to get very chaotic as hundreds of people gathered from nearby. Nobody had much time to process what was happening, and most of the people were only thinking about the astronomical prices they could get if they managed to get their hands on even a page ofboratory data.


    Only a minority could remain calm like Ren Xiaosu.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not lie idle either and summoned his shadow clone. But he was cautious this time and manipted the shadow clone into putting on his clothes. After pulling the hood over its head, it even put on a white mask for additional security.


    Yang Xiaojin had reminded him about this in the past. Since he did not want to expose the fact that he had a shadow clone, he had to disguise it as a person.


    At this moment, the shadow clone looked just like a normal human being with the clothes and mask on. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu pulled his own hood over his head andy quietly in the grass.


    Then Ren Xiaosu saw the film crew he had left behind earlier finally arrive at the tunnel entrance. These people were really bold. Was this a ce normal people should being to?


    The director said, ¡°It¡¯s right here! Set up the equipment quickly!¡±


    The dozen-odd members of the film crew got down to work. Some of them set up the cameras while othersid out the dolly tracks. Someone even brought a camping chair for the director to use.


    A person in the film crew said, sounding somewhat afraid, ¡°Director, will it really be safe here? My wife¡¯s about to give birth. I don¡¯t want anything to happen to me....¡±


    The director barked, ¡°Hey, don¡¯t jinx it! Don¡¯t you know that you shouldn¡¯t say such things in our line of work?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Nearby, one of the crew members said hesitantly, ¡°But the people here are all very dangerous.¡±


    The director said scornfully, ¡°This is art! Do you know what art is? Without the spirit of dedication to art, how are we supposed to make a wonderful documentary?¡±


    ¡°Director, you never said anything about making a documentary before. We¡¯ve always been shootingmercial films,¡± a crew member muttered.


    ¡°Great ideas are often born in a split second.¡± The director said proudly, ¡°Think about it. The world has already started changing, hasn¡¯t it? Has there been anyone who¡¯s made a documentary about real superhumans before? At the most, we¡¯ve had real superhumans getting cast in movies! But think about what we are doing now! We¡¯re going to present this magical, wild world to the audience to show them what the real world of superhumans is like! Don¡¯t you guys think this idea is so exciting it¡¯ll make people sleepless? Once the documentary ispleted, my name will go down in history!¡±


    Off to the side in the grass, Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. He could only hope the film crew would stay away from him and his shadow clone. As for filming the documentary, they would first have to survive before they could talk about that.


    Watching more and more people heading into the tunnel, Ren Xiaosu stayed stationary. After all, his goal was to capture a member of the Pyro Company for Zhou Yingxue toplete her mission, not get his hands on someboratory data.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu only wanted to help Zhou Yingxue join the Anjing House. He would be happy just to achieve this goal.


    Furthermore, while theboratory data was probably worth a lot of money, those who managed to get their hands on it would still have to make their way out from the only exit, wouldn¡¯t they?


    As such, Ren Xiaosu felt that there was nothing wrong with him biding his time out here.

 Chapter 537 - East Lake caves in

    <h4>Chapter 537 East Lake caves in</h4>


    The film crew had set up their cameras to face the entrance of the dark tunnel. As more and more people headed inside, a growing number of people also started gathering and lying in wait in the thicket outside.Surprisingly, the director grabbed his microphone and went around interviewing some of the people lying in the grass. It looked like he was searching for supernatural beings within the crowd.


    But when he skipped past Ren Xiaosu, someone asked the director, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you interview that young man just now?¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t look strong at all. I can tell at a nce that he¡¯s not a superhuman,¡± the director said.


    Then the director spotted the shadow clone not far away from them. When he saw the shadow clone in the white mask, his eyes lit up. ¡°Hurry up, let¡¯s interview him. That man looks really strong!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was left speechless as hey in the grass. The initially tense atmosphere was suddenly mixed with an element of absurdity due to the arrival of the film crew.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw the mob bosses he had made friends with at the spa center run over. Seeing that they were about to enter the tunnel without even thinking, Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t help himself from stopping them. ¡°Zheng Hongning, get over here!¡±


    Zheng Hongning was pleased to see Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Dr. Ren, you came here too? Why didn¡¯t you go inside?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu beckoned to them. ¡°Don¡¯t go inside yet. Let¡¯s just watch for a bit.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to see? If we watch any longer, all the research data will be seized by others,¡± Zheng Hongning said.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s that easy to get ahold of the research data? Just wait and see. Those people who manage to get their hands on the research data will still have to exit from the tunnel through here anyway.¡±


    Upon Ren Xiaosu¡¯s observation, Zheng Hongning facepalmed. ¡°Oh! That¡¯s true!¡±


    As they spoke, another several dozen people joined them in the overgrowth outside the tunnel.


    What Ren Xiaosu found curious was that he did not see anyone from the Pyro Company and the Riders enter the tunnel since he got here.


    Could it be that the Pyro Company and the Riders had given up on the research data when they saw so many people arriving? Or could it be that this was just a conspiracy as he had guessed?


    Then, a text alert sounded from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pocket. When he looked up at the others, he saw more than 20 people among the now nearly a 100-member crowd in the grass take out their cell phones as well.


    The lights on the cell phones looked like fireflies fluttering around in the grass.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the text message and was surprised to see the Anjing House had suddenly changed their mind. They had sent a reminder to all hitmen to not act rashly, and that everyone should watch and wait outside the tunnel!


    Although the Anjing House did not state the reason for this, everyone was overwhelmed with doubt by this sudden announcement.


    Suddenly, someone stood up holding a cell phone in his hand and said, ¡°Whoever owns a cell phone here is probably a contract killer from the Anjing House, and my guess is that not everyone here is A-rank. There should be some of you who are still B and C-rank, so I feel that we lower-ranking hitmen should work together to hunt down the members of the Pyro Company. That way, our chances of seeding will be greater. Those of us with cell phones¡ª¡±


    The person speaking was a B-rank hitman. Knowing that he would be promoted to A-rank soon, he was also getting a little ambitious at qualifying for the Anjing House trials. However, he was not confident of killing the Pyro Company members by himself. As such, he tried to urge everyone here to attack the enemy together.


    It wasn¡¯t only the A-rank hitmen who had gathered here; arge number of local B and C-rank hitmen also who wanted to take advantage of the situation. After all, regardless of whether they could qualify for the trials next year, they would still receive a reward for killing the Pyro Company members today.


    However, his speech ended up reminding Ren Xiaosu instead!


    That was right! There were more than 20 cell phones here!


    While the B-rank hitman was speaking, he suddenly saw a hooded figure wearing a white mask get up from the grass and walk over to knock him unconscious.


    Not mentioning the Pyro Company, the Anjing House¡¯s mission broadcast this time had gathered all of these hitmen with cell phones in one ce, giving Ren Xiaosu a chance to capture them in one fell swoop.


    Nobody had expected such a turn of events. Why was this person suddenly snatching the cell phone of others without warning?! Weren¡¯t they just talking about working together to kill the Pyro Company members?


    Watching the shadow clone attacking the hitmen, Zheng Hongning suddenly sighed next to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°How I wish I was a powerful superhuman like that guy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said modestly without a care while watching the tunnel entrance, ¡°He¡¯s not really that powerful.¡±


    But when Zheng Hongning heard this, he said to Ren Xiaosu solemnly, ¡°Dr. Ren, I know you¡¯re young and energetic, but admitting that others are powerful can also be a sign of self-confidence.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized he had said something wrong. He responded humbly by reflex, but Zheng Hongning did not know the shadow clone belonged to him.


    All of a sudden, loud explosions rang out in the tunnel. In an instant, smoke and fire spewed out of the tunnel like a sandstorm.


    Smoke and dust were sted out by the huge explosions in the tunnel, and some of those who had just gone into the tunnel were immediately blown several dozen meters into the air!


    Off to the side, the film crew¡¯s cameras happened to record this shocking scene.


    The loud explosions jolted the entire stronghold awake.


    However, that was not all. Amid the explosions, a sound resembling the crackling of a cier came from the tunnel as well. Ren Xiaosu mumbled, ¡°The tunnel¡¯s gonna copse!¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the tunnel, which had existed since before The Cataclysm, suddenly caved in. Ren Xiaosu realized the Pyro Company was actually using this tunnel as a counterattack against the Anjing House.


    If they had not carefully nted explosives at each of the load-bearing points of the tunnel, it would have been impossible to destroy the tunnel in an instant.


    A huge whirlpool suddenly appeared on the surface of East Lake, and a flood of water gushed into every corner of the tunnel. However, no screams came from inside the tunnel. The sound of the tunnel copsing, the explosions, and the current devouring the tunnel hadpletely drowned out the screams of those inside.


    In the blink of an eye, several hundred human lives in the tunnel were snuffed out.


    It was as quick as aet burning through the sky.


    The Anjing House had tried to conspire against the Pyro Company. With just a text, several hundred people had been attracted here to interfere with the Pyro Company¡¯s ns and bring ridicule to their secret operation.


    But the Pyro Company was not dumb. They also made use of the scheme the Anjing House had hatched to finish off these few hundred people who had ulterior motives and leave them dead at the bottom of East Lake.


    The director of the film crew was stupefied by the happenings. Compared to the wild world that should have been all about duels and romances, this waspletely unlike his expectations.


    The wild world that was ying out in front of him could only be described as brutal.


    He had seen those people entering the tunnel with his own eyes, and their cameras even captured shots of them. But just a short whileter, the people who had passed him were all dead.


    Ren Xiaosu recalled that he had not seen anyone from the Pyro Company or the Riders this entire time. Perhaps the Anjing House had also realized this, so they sent out a text to inform everyone to watch and wait outside the tunnel.


    However, the text hade toote.

 Chapter 538 - A jack-of-all-trades doctor

    <h4>Chapter 538 A jack-of-all-trades doctor</h4>


    East Lake was caving in.No, to be precise, East Lake would return to its original calm appearance in time. However, the tunnel that was from before The Cataclysm had caved in.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this sight, he felt like he was looking at a civilization that was about to disappear.


    Perhaps warring and plotting among humans might really be an eternal theme.


    But before he could get too emotional about this, Ren Xiaosu saw some people surround them from outside the tunnel. He could vaguely see that they were wielding ck ceramic sabers as they approached, looking like they were nning to encircle the group of people lying here in the grass.


    Ren Xiaosu realized this was probably the Pyro Company¡¯s follow-up n. They were looking to establish their dominance over those who tried to mess with them.


    In the past, it was only the Anjing House and the Saboteurs that were at odds with the Pyro Company. However, it was a little different this time. The Anjing House had attracted so many underworld criminals with just a text message, and this made the Pyro Company feel threatened. The Pyro Company knew they had to let the entire criminal underworld understand that it was not going to be easy to seize something of theirs.


    The Pyro Company did not intend tomunicate this to the underworld criminals in a proper setting. They firmly believed that as long as they massacred this disorderly mob and terrified them, no one would dare to respond to the call of the Anjing House in the future.


    At the very least, they should consider whether they were qualified before joining in on the action!


    Men died for money, and birds died for food. This saying was just like a reflection of tonight¡¯s events.


    It wasn¡¯t until this moment that the people who came to steal the Pyro Company¡¯sboratory data realized how ruthless the opponent was.


    But it was toote.


    The 30 people encircling them suddenly made their move. In the blink of an eye, the encirclement perimeter shrank further. When the nearly a 100 people in the grass saw the situation was getting unfavorable, they dispersed and attempted to break out of the encirclement.


    However, the members of the Pyro Company were extremely ferocious. When anyone tried to get past them, they would quickly block their getaway and stab them with sabers.


    Not only that, at least 40 Pyro Company members were hiding in Stronghold 73 prior to the battle.


    In the distance, a sniper had started taking down the Pyro Company members. It seemed the Anjing House was starting to fight back. However, the sniper only managed to get two shots off before he let out a cry and was killed.


    In turn, that member of the Pyro Company¡¯s Dusk squad who finished off the sniper was killed with a fine metallic needle that prated through his skull.


    The elderly sugar painter was sitting beside Vani with his aluminum te spread out in front of him, along with a stove and a metal pot. As the sugar cubes reduced into an amber liquid in the red-hot metal pot, the old man waved his hand over the aluminum te and painted a dragon that came alive and stood close guard next to Vani.


    These two people had formed a tacit agreement to work together. One would paint a dragon to protect the team while the other focused on manipting metal to finish off the enemy.


    When the first amber dragon appeared, the old man wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, ¡°Can¡¯t you inform me in advance next time? Don¡¯t make it so hasty for me. I need some time to cast my power.¡±


    Vani replied with a smile, ¡°Well, you still managed to get it done, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    As he spoke, he opened the silver box he was carrying that contained 24 tailor-made long metal needles. With a flick of his finger, 12 long metal needles flew up and floated in front of him, searching for targets.


    The long needles shot out as though they had detected something, and a person cried out in pain in the darkness. Vani killed one of the Pyro Company¡¯sbatants lurking in the vicinity!


    In the darkness nearby, more members of the Pyro Company appeared. Some of them had crawled out from the river, and they had gill-like features growing at their jowls. This was likely what allowed them to breathe underwater.


    These people were the ones who had detonated the tunnel with explosives, and it could be said that the cave-in at East Lake was their doing.


    Now that they hadpleted their mission, they would have toe out of the water to join their teammates in battle.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was at a loss. Could they still be considered human? Had the Pyro Company¡¯s gic modifications already reached a stage where they could even change the characteristics of a species?


    Seeing that close to a 100 members of the Pyro Company had already appeared, Ren Xiaosu wondered if there really were a researchboratory in Stronghold 73.


    Did the Pyro Company reallye here with the intention to search for the researchboratory, or had they chosen a location that was most beneficial for the scheme they had been plotting for so long against the Anjing House?


    The Anjing House sent out another text. ¡°Reward increase. Any hitman within the encirclement that manages to kill a Pyro Company member will receive double the reward.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned when he saw the text. As a matter of fact, within the encirclement, he was probably the only one who could receive texts from the Anjing House. His shadow clone was still holding onto the cell phones it¡¯d snatched from the others.


    The Anjing House probably didn¡¯t expect the group text they sent would end up as a one-on-one chat with Ren Xiaosu.


    Right after, the Anjing House¡¯s A-rank hitmen appeared out of nowhere and attacked this group of amphibious monsters from the Pyro Company.


    The A-rank hitmen must have been outstanding to get promoted to this rank, and that was probably why they did not rush into the tunnel earlier.


    As chaos erupted everywhere, a mob boss like Zheng Hongning could only feel at a loss. This was no longer a battlefield they could control. Like what they had said, this world had already changed beyond theirprehension!


    The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. In this chaotic battle, it was no longer clear who the cicada was, who the mantis was, and who the oriole was!


    That verdict would only be reached at the end of the battle.


    Only those with more trump cards would emerge victorious from this!


    The scent of blood was starting to fill the air in the area of the thicket as more and more people got killed.


    While Zheng Hongning and the other mob bosses were thinking about what to do, they suddenly heard ¡°Dr. Ren¡± say in a low voice, ¡°Follow me if you want to live.¡±


    As soon as he finished, Ren Xiaosu rushed off in the southwest direction. That was where an opening had been created by the Anjing House sniper earlier.


    Zheng Hongning and the others had no time to think, so they ran out with Ren Xiaosu. But before they could get past the encirclement, the Pyro Company had already tightened the perimeter.


    Zheng Hongning felt a tinge of despair. ¡°Dr. Ren, what do we do now?¡±


    ¡°What are you panicking for?¡± Ren Xiaosu said coldly.


    Eight members of the Pyro Company sneered as they charged. But before they could get to Ren Xiaosu, a figure wearing a white mask suddenly appeared from the side and grabbed the neck of one of the Pyro Company¡¯s members like lightning. The figure dashed forward in an extremely aggressive manner.


    Zheng Hongning and the others were stunned. Why did it feel like this superhuman Zheng Hongning was envious of and had just stolen a bunch of cell phones was deliberately protecting Dr. Ren?


    They looked quietly at the back of the young man standing in front of them and felt like they had underestimated him!


    However, why was Dr. Ren taking pictures nonstop with the cell phones as they ran for their lives? Zheng Hongning asked in panic, ¡°Dr. Ren, this isn¡¯t the time to be messing with your cell phones! Put it away and escape. Stop checking on texts from the Anjing House!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said strangely, ¡°I¡¯m not checking for texts; I¡¯m taking pictures! Each kill is worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, even up to a million yuan! This is all money! I have to take pictures as evidence to show that they were killed by me and my friend here, Old Xu!¡±


    Zheng Hongning was at a loss for words. Why was he still thinking about money at this time!


    He asked, ¡°But aren¡¯t you a doctor?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a grin, ¡°Uh, I¡¯m a jack of all trades.¡±

 Chapter 539 - Lame

    <h4>Chapter 539 Lame</h4>


    The battlefield could no longer be described as just an encirclement. No one knew how many people were fighting in this chaotic battle. There were the Anjing House¡¯s own members, the Anjing House A-rank hitmen, the Pyro Company members, and people from the various forces that came to seize theboratory data.As everyone fought one another, hostile and friendly forces could hardly be differentiated.


    Ren Xiaosu was very decisive in breaking through the encirclement. Initially, the Pyro Company members nned toe over to attack him when they saw him killing their teammates. However, they realized Ren Xiaosu and his group were too determined to get away.


    The Pyro Company membermanding the battle said calmly on their frequency, ¡°Let them leave.¡±


    For the Pyro Company, tonight¡¯s operation was to establish their dominance. They didn¡¯t need to fight to the death with one or two superhumans. Besides, it was obvious these opponents were not to be trifled with. Since they wanted to leave, they should just let them go.


    But just as he finished speaking, someone suddenly said on the radio, ¡°He¡¯s back again....¡±


    Themander frowned. ¡°How many of them?¡±


    ¡°Only two. One of them is a hooded young man whose face we can¡¯t see clearly, and the other is wearing a white mask,¡± someone reported on the radio.


    Themander said, ¡°Send out another Dusk squad to surround them¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, the person speaking on the radio reported, ¡°They¡¯ve left again....¡±


    Themander of the Pyro Company was at a loss for words. What were their opponents doing? They wereing and going as they pleased?!


    However, this also inadvertently showed they were powerless to stop the other party now. Themander said coldly on the radio, ¡°Ignore them. Just do your best to cause casualties. What we need to achieve is making the tragic news spread so these people won¡¯t dare toe and cause us any more trouble in the future.¡±


    The objective of the Pyro Company was to eventually make the outside world know they would have to pay the price foring here. As for what happened in between, it would not affect the big picture. Since there were only a couple enemies, and there wasn¡¯t any realboratory site in the tunnel, they were really not afraid of them causing any trouble.


    Just a moment ago, Ren Xiaosu, Zheng Hongning, and the others stopped in their tracks after breaking through the encirclement.


    Ren Xiaosu had wanted to lure some of the Pyro Company members to pursue them by manipting his shadow clone to kill efficiently. This way, he would only need to face a small portion of the Pyro Company members himself. Not only could he earn the rewards this way, but he could also capture one or two of them for Zhou Yingxue toplete her mission.


    But he suddenly realized the Pyro Company members had stopped pursuing them!


    Ren Xiaosu got anxious. He told Zheng Hongning, ¡°If there¡¯s nothing else for you, get out of Stronghold 73, quick. The Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops will probably arrive soon. You can see the situation here for yourself, and it¡¯s not something that you can handle, so just go back to the ck market! Come on, Old Xu, let¡¯s go!¡±


    After saying that, Ren Xiaosu returned to the battlefield with his shadow clone. This was the first incident of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s return to the battlefield that was reported on the Pyro Company¡¯s radio frequency.


    But midway through, Ren Xiaosu felt that he had forgotten something. As such, he turned back and stopped Zheng Hongning and the others. ¡°Y¡¯all haven¡¯t thanked me yet.¡±


    Zheng Hongning and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu with stunned expressions like they were looking at a monster. He wasing and going on the battlefield as he liked at this fucking time just so he could get them to thank him?!


    ¡°Thank you...¡±


    ¡°Thank you...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the typewriter in the pce typing out several lines of words on leather parchment for the gratitude tokens he had earned before returning to the battlefield with much satisfaction.


    Although he was still far from unlocking his new weapon, requiring 10,000 gratitude tokens for that, a penny saved was a penny earned.


    Honestly, he was quite looking forward to the third weapon getting unlocked. Be it his ck saber or ck sniper rifle, they proved to be extremely useful to him, helping him a great deal in critical moments.


    The reason why Ren Xiaosu chose to return to the battlefield was partly also because of money.


    But more importantly, didn¡¯t the Anjing House say that only A-rank hitmen who could kill a member of the Pyro Company for this mission would have a chance of participating in next year¡¯s trials?


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. Almost all of the A-rank hitmen who could participate in the trials next year were already here. However, he definitely could not kill them. Otherwise, both the Anjing House and the Pyro Company would probably start hunting him down together.


    Although he could not kill the A-rank hitmen, he could stop them from getting any Pyro Company kills. As long as these A-rank hitmen failed toplete their missions sessfully, they would lose the qualification to participate in next year¡¯s trials.


    Someone in town once told a story about an evil dragon that only ate the girls in a vige. The vige selected the most skilled hero to kill the dragon, but the hero still believed he could not defeat it. So he simply made sure the girls became women, and that starved the dragon to death.


    Everyone regarded this as a joke. However, this method was simr to what Ren Xiaosu was nning. It was also known as solving the root of the problem.


    ...


    At this moment, the film crew was shivering in fright as the Pyro Company members walked towards them. In the end, it was the director who was bravest. He forced himself to calm down and said, ¡°Hi, we¡¯re the film crew from ¡®Awesome Media.¡¯ We¡¯re just here to do some filming and have no intention of interfering in your dispute, so can you please let us go....¡±


    The Duskbatant facing them did not make a decision on his own. He looked at the film crew¡¯s equipment and asked on the radio, ¡°Commander, there¡¯s a film crew shooting a video here. They said they¡¯re from Awesome Media. Should we kill them?¡±


    Themander gave it some thought and said coldly, ¡°Confiscate their equipment and let them go. These people still have some influence across the various strongholds, and they¡¯re often featured in newspapers. By letting them leave, they can also help us publicize what happened here.¡±


    The Duskbatant standing in front of the film crew looked at the director. ¡°You¡¯re the director, right? You guys can leave, but we definitely won¡¯t allow you to take your equipment with you. Take a good look around at this purgatory and go tell the world that this isn¡¯t all fun and games. In the modern day, you¡¯ll get yourselves killed if you involve yourselves in other people¡¯s business.¡±


    As he was speaking, the Duskbatant¡¯s expression suddenly changed. He heard a gust of wind behind him and instinctively backflipped into the air. At the same time, he used the ck ceramic saber in his hand and shed at whatever was behind him.


    Everything happened in a split second, so the film crew did not even manage to see his movements clearly. However, the attacker was even faster than him. Before the Duskbatant could sh the attacker, the attacker¡¯s ck saber had already sliced down onto him!


    When the two ck sabers struck each other, the ck ceramic saber the Duskbatant was holding was cleanly severed like a candle being cut in two.


    Ren Xiaosu shed his ck saber diagonally across his enemy¡¯s chest, and he also forcefully cut through the bulletproof vest.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the corpse of the Duskbatant and sneered, ¡°Lame.¡±


    Dumbfounded, the director gazed at the young man in front of him whose face was half-hidden by the shadow of his hood.


    He suddenly got a little excited. This was probably the wild world he had been searching for.

 Chapter 540 - The cauldron has gotten a little larger

    <h4>Chapter 540 The cauldron has gotten a littlerger</h4>


    While the director was momentarily stunned, Ren Xiaosu took out a cell phone and snapped a picture of the corpse on the ground.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did this without attracting any attention. He would switch to a different cell phone afterpleting a mission with one. He absolutely did not use the same identity to receive the reward twice.


    After all, the cell phones he had just stolen today were taken from B and C-rank hitmen. It would already be very impressive for these ¡°hitmen¡± to kill a member of the Pyro Company. If he killed too many of them, it would easily arouse the suspicions of the Anjing House.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not realize this would give a false impression to the Anjing House. The mission dispatcher thought there were still a lot of their people left on the battlefield, and they felt terrific about it!


    The mission dispatcher asked on their frequency, ¡°How is everything over there? Have you guys killed those amphibious monsters yet?¡±


    Vani loosened his tie. ¡°Soon.¡±


    ¡°Alright, don¡¯t worry, our hitmen on the battlefield are all very impressive. There¡¯s still a lot of them, and they¡¯ve killed many of the Pyro Company.¡±


    Vani heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°That¡¯s good. Have you seen Boss?¡±


    ¡°No, Boss went out into the wilderness to intercept the Pyro Company¡¯s reinforcements by herself, so she can¡¯t make it over,¡± the mission dispatcher said.


    Vani whistled. ¡°The boss is amazing!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was about to leave after he finished taking photos to search for his next target. However, someone caught up to him and said, ¡°Bro, can you give me your contact info? My name is Mu Wan¡¯ge.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu turned around, he saw the director from earlier. The moment he came to speak to him, Ren Xiaosu was reminded of something he nearly forgot about. Rather than asking the director for his gratitude, he retrieved the film roll from the crew¡¯s equipment and destroyed it.


    After all, the film crew had been filming really close to him earlier, so who knew if their camera had captured his image?


    Mu Wan¡¯ge was stunned. ¡°My film...¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡± Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at him.


    Mu Wan¡¯ge immediately stopped talking about the film roll. ¡°Um, can I invite you to star in my next movie?¡±


    The main reason for this invitation was that the figure of Ren Xiaosu shing his saber kept reying in his mind. As the director was really into the visual arts, he found the scene from earlier spectacr.


    However, Ren Xiaosu looked at him with a puzzled expression before turning around to continue searching for his target.


    Invite him to act in a movie? What bullshit!


    Besides, it was still a question whether this director would make it out of here alive.


    ...


    At this moment, an injured A-rank hitman was fleeing for his life with a member of Dusk pursuing close behind.


    As the rustle of his footsteps on the grass and his heavy breathing amplified, the A-rank hitman could no longer hear the surrounding gunfire and shouting on the chaotic battlefield. He had never felt so tired before.


    He just wanted to lie down in the grass and fall into a deep sleep forever, without having to care about these struggles for fame and status.


    However, his pursuer behind him was still getting closer. He still did not want to die!


    Just as the Dusk member was about to catch up to him, he suddenly heard a scream behind him. The A-rank hitman turned around and saw a hooded young man slicing the main artery of the enemy¡¯s neck in an instant. The Dusk member did not seem to have a chance of fighting back at all in the face of this young man, with even his ceramic saber easily severed in half.


    He wanted to go over and thank him, but he saw another figure in a white mask emerging from the side and snatching away the Dusk member¡¯s body.


    The A-rank hitman was stunned. The reward had been snatched! Before he could say anything, the young man who saved him was already running far away in pursuit of the figure that stole the reward.


    From the beginning to the end, the A-rank hitman was left absolutely confused. He did not even know who had saved him!


    ...


    Another A-rank hitman was pursuing a lone Dusk member who had been shot and would not be able to run far. Seeing that he was about to qualify for the trials next year, a hooded figure in a white mask suddenly dashed out from the vicinity and knocked out the Dusk member he was pursuing. Then the hooded figure turned around and ran away carrying the Dusk member!


    The A-rank hitman was stunned by the turn of events unfolding before his eyes. Before he could even react, the shadow clone had already run far away.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± The A-rank hitman was furious. It was not easy for him to find this lone Pyro Company member, yet he had been robbed of a kill just like that?


    ...


    An A-rank hitman had just ended his battle, and the corpse of a Dusk member was lying in front of him. Just as he was about to snap a picture toplete his mission, a figure in a white mask suddenly rushed out.


    The A-rank hitman raised the gun in his right hand and fired, but his opponent¡¯s target was not him at all!


    When he saw the figure in the white mask speeding by, the A-rank hitman fired another two shots in a row. However, his opponent seemedpletely unscathed.


    The A-rank hitman was getting a little flustered. Why did he have to encounter a ¡°monster¡± that was not afraid of bullets in this ce?!


    But just as he stepped back and prepared to use his superpower, his opponent ran far away.


    When the A-rank hitman looked down, he discovered that the Dusk member he had just killed... had disappeared.


    The A-rank hitman stared at the shadow clone¡¯s receding figure as it left. ¡°What the fuck...¡±


    He could not understand why his opponent was not hunting his own targets and had toe steal his prey even though he was clearly so skillful. It even felt like he was invulnerable to attacks!


    How nasty could he get!


    Throughout, Ren Xiaosu yed the good guy while ¡°Old Xu¡± took the me.


    In any case, Zheng Hongning, who knew that Ren Xiaosu and ¡°Old Xu¡± were friends, was probably fleeing back to the ck market right now. Since Zheng Hongning and the others did not have any interactions with the Anjing House and the Pyro Company, Ren Xiaosu was not afraid of anyone finding out about his scheme.


    But so what if they knew? He had already stolen the corpses anyway.


    Simr incidents like this happened frequently on the chaotic battlefield. Ren Xiaosu had wanted to take a few more corpses, but the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops had suddenly surrounded the battlefield.


    Although there was a rather loudmotion when the Pyro Company blew up the East Lake Tunnel, the Zhou Consortium apparently feigned ignorance about it. They did not care at all about how many people would die here.


    It was not until the forces on the battlefield were indistinguishable from one another that they finally arrived.


    Even amid the chaos on the battlefield, no one wanted to face the regr army of an organization. The garrison force in Stronghold 73 had at least 4,500 soldiers, which represented an entire brigade¡¯s strength.


    No matter how powerful a supernatural being was, or how reputable the criminals were in the underworld, it would be impossible for them to take on a brigade.


    Moreover, everyone was very sure by now that there wasn¡¯t anyboratory data in the East Lake Tunnel, so why would they still stay around?


    The Pyro Company and the Anjing House were the first to withdraw. Ren Xiaosu felt that the Pyro Company had gained a slight upper hand in this conflict.


    Although the Pyro Company had suffered greater casualties than the Anjing House due to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence, not too many people would be willing to take part in the conflicts between the Anjing House and the Pyro Company in the future.


    The Anjing House could no longer take advantage and garner support from other forces!


    Ren Xiaosu also pulled out of the battlefield. But throughout the battle, he had several doubts on his mind. First, he never saw any of the Riders enter the battlefield, and second, he did not encounter his old acquaintance, Wang Congyang.


    Did Wang Congyang die in the tunnel?


    No, how could someone like Wang Congyang who was such a terrible person enter the East Lake Tunnel rashly?


    Ren Xiaosu had a feeling that this battle in Stronghold 73 would continue. After all, the Anjing House and the Pyro Company still had energy to spare. However, this had nothing to do with him anymore. Since he had captured a member of the Pyro Company like he wanted to, he would head back and let Zhou Yingxueplete her mission.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu did not want to stay, but that he could not continue staying.


    After all, he had stolen too many of the Anjing House¡¯s cell phones and snatched all of the targets from the A-rank hitmen. Furthermore, he also killed a lot of the Pyro Company¡¯s members. Once the other parties gave these matters a think when the chaotic battle concluded, they would realize all the things he had done.


    At that time, it would not be surprising if the two organizations teamed up to hunt down ¡°Old Xu.¡±


    The surface of East Lake had calmed, and it was sparkling in the moonlight that shone down from above.


    After the chaotic battle was over, it was as though no one cared about the hundreds of lives buried overnight at the bottom of theke.


    Actually, what more people were thinking about was whether there was really a Pyro Company researchboratory in Stronghold 73.


    ...


    Xu Xianchu, who was far away at Fortress 178, was pondering his superpower. Next to him, Zhou Yinglong snapped at him, ¡°Put away your cauldron already. Why do you keep showing it off?!¡±


    However, when Zhou Yinglong realized that Xu Xianchu looked startled, he quickly said, ¡°I was just kidding.¡±


    However, Xu Xianchu asked, feeling puzzled, ¡°Do you think my cauldron just got a littlerger?!¡±


    Zhou Yinglong thought that Xu Xianchu was showing off to him again. ¡°Get lost!¡±

 Chapter 541 - The dust settles

    <h4>Chapter 541 The dust settles</h4>


    After leaving Stronghold 73, Ren Xiaosu did not care about what would happen in the stronghold. While he was on his way to join back up with his maidservant, the Anjing House was still issuing missions to deal with the Pyro Company through their text messages. From that, it could be seen that the battle in Stronghold 73 did not end with the cave-in at East Lake.However, two dayster, the Anjing House finally stopped sending out any further texts with regards to Stronghold 73. Thus, Ren Xiaosu concluded the battle should havepletely ended and that the Anjing House and the Pyro Company would be withdrawing from Stronghold 73.


    As for whether there was truly anyboratory data at the site, Ren Xiaosu suddenly had a feeling there should be.


    This was because he did not see any of the Riders since the chaotic battle broke out.


    After all, finding the researchboratory had been the goal from the start for that group of people. But once the battle began, they went missing. This had to be because they had gone to search for the true location of theboratory.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu felt the Riders and the Pyro Company only shared the same goal but were not truly united in their cause. If there were noboratory there, the Pyro Company would not have been able to convince the Riders to show up.


    Therefore, it was probably also in the Pyro Company¡¯s n for the Riders to head straight for theboratory while they plotted and fought to the death against the Anjing House.


    A corpse of a Pyro Company member was in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s storage space that he prepared for Zhou Yingxue toplete her mission. The two of them were discussing how to pose the body so it would look more natural.


    But then, the Anjing House sent out a text, ¡°Due to an unexpected person deliberately breaking the rules, the requirement of killing the Pyro Company members to qualify for next year¡¯s trials has been rescinded. Qualification for the trials will still be determined by thepletion of five A-rank missions within the year.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had fucking spent so much effort to help Zhou Yingxue disqualify the other A-rank hitmen, but in the end, this text from the Anjing House had made his work all for nothing?!


    Ren Xiaosu was a little angry. How could arge organization like that not have the most basic form of credibility!


    When Zhou Yingxue saw the text, she looked up at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Master, what exactly did you do in Stronghold 73?¡±


    In the blink of an eye, Zhou Yingxue realized the person in the text who broke the rules must have been her master and not anyone else!


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Is that the kind of person you see me as?¡±


    ¡°Yes, absolutely!¡± Zhou Yingxue said with certainty.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu had overyed his hand. The Anjing House had more than 30 A-rank hitmen show up at Stronghold 73. Minus the 11 who died, there were still 26 of them remaining.


    But of the 26, only two managed to qualify for the trials next year.


    If there had been more than five hitmen whopleted this mission, the Anjing House would probably not have gone back on their word. It was purely because of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s meddling that they were forced to rescind their own rules, and that was not something the Anjing House wanted either!


    When Ren Xiaosu came back to the hotel, it seemed he had been noticed by someone in the tour group. Not long after his return, Li Ran actually came over to look for Zhou Yingxue. She forced Zhou Yingxue to chat with her for two hours straight before leaving, which nearly drove Zhou Yingxue crazy!


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Looks like the rtionship between you two improved a lot while I was away.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue rolled her eyes. ¡°She obviously came to see you, Master.¡±


    ¡°Oh yes,¡± Ren Xiaosu took out a bunch of cell phones and said, ¡°all these cell phones havepleted the mission with one or two Pyro Company member kills on them. Go and calcte how much reward money we can get from these.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue stared nkly at the 20-plus cell phones in front of her. She could roughly understand why the Anjing House had rescinded the rule. ¡°Master, didn¡¯t they say that only 40 people from the Pyro Company were there? Yet you have more than 20 cell phones here?¡±


    ¡°There were more than 40 of them.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°I think over 80 Pyro Company members showed up. The Anjing House¡¯s intelligence report gave the wrong info.¡± Only after Ren Xiaosu exined everything to Zhou Yingxue did she realize her master¡¯s trip to Stronghold 73 was really dangerous.


    ¡°Good thing you didn¡¯t go into the tunnel,¡± Zhou Yingxue rejoiced. ¡°However, the Pyro Company and the Anjing House aren¡¯t easy to deal with at all. I just hope we won¡¯t be dragged in again the next time they fight.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue picked up the cell phones Ren Xiaosu had handed her one by one and counted the reward money earned. ¡°There¡¯s 15 Midnight and 6 Dusk member kills in total. Originally, a reward of 150,000 yuan was offered for each Midnight member killed and 500,000 yuan for each Dusk member killed. However, the Anjing House suddenly doubled the reward money, so we have a total of 10.5 million yuan.¡± Zhou Yingxue beamed in delight. As a matter of fact, her share of this 10.5 million yuan reward would be more than 2 million yuan. All she did was lie around the hotel with nothing to do and money still came to her. Where else was she supposed to find another master like that?


    ¡°The Anjing House will definitely notice that there¡¯s something suspicious with this batch of cell phones. After all, there were not that many Pyro Company members killed by the A-rank hitmen, yet this group of B and C-rank hitmen seem to be ying in god mode or something. It¡¯s clear that there¡¯s something strange going on.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°I think that these ounts might¡¯ve been ced under surveince. How can we safely transfer the money out?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°That won¡¯t be difficult. The most straightforward and crude way would be to go to the casino in Luoyang City and transfer the money using the anonymous ounts¡¯ passwords. The casino will then exchange the money for chips that you can either deposit into your new ount or take with you. That casino should be owned by the Qinghe Group, so there¡¯s a lot of privacy. Although there¡¯s an administrative fee, I think it¡¯s absolutely worth it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Even if it¡¯s the Qinghe Group, we can¡¯tpletely ce our trust in them. They might have a good reputation, but we don¡¯t really know what goes on behind the scenes.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Zhou Yingxue shook her head. ¡°The other consortiums tried to pressure the casino into freezing some ounts. But the casinos did not bow to the pressure of those consortiums and only took orders from the Qinghe Group.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk about it when we get back.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Record these ounts and passwords first, then delete the texts and find an opportunity to sell this batch of cell phones. That¡¯ll be another lump sum earned.¡±


    ¡°We can sell these off in the local ck markets. If we sell them in batches at the various strongholds, we won¡¯t need to sell them at too low a price.¡± Zhou Yingxue was absolutely nailing her role as the support teammate right now. Ren Xiaosu did not know much about the Central ins, so with a former intelligence officer like Zhou Yingxue by his side, he could learn more about how things worked here.


    ¡°Where we going next?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Our next stop will be Stronghold 73 where we¡¯ll stay for four days while Li Ran attends an audition. After that, we¡¯ll head to Stronghold 74 for another concert,¡± Zhou Yingxue said.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Did Stronghold 73 have some sort of grudge against him? This was the third time he¡¯d be going to Stronghold 73!


    Hopefully, the storm at Stronghold 73 would have subsided by the time they got there.

 Chapter 542 - Debriefing

    <h4>Chapter 542 Debriefing</h4>


    Since it was a concert tour, there were concerts scheduled. However, Ren Xiaosu still took time to rx amid the frantic schedule. While the others in the group were busy up to their ears, he stayed in the hotel and read.Fang Zhi, Li Ran¡¯s assistant, wanted Ren Xiaosu to go to the concert venue to help out, but Ren Xiaosu mercilessly rejected him.


    At this moment, a Pyro Company fighting force was convening a meeting to analyze the battle at Stronghold 73.


    An after-action review was an extremely important process for all militarymanders. It was just like how students specifically kept a notebook to record their mistakes to remind themselves not to repeat the same errors.


    In the dark conference room, everyone was sitting upright.


    This ce did not really look like your usual conference room. It felt more like a prison instead.


    One of the attendees said, ¡°We¡¯ve sessfully gotten our hands on theb data this time. I have to say that Commander¡¯s n of creating a diversion to secretly make our move was a wonderful strategy. Furthermore, Commander has also established our Pyro Company¡¯s dominance on that filth out there. They probably won¡¯t even think about going against us again in the future. I feel that this is really down to the great contribution of Commander!¡±


    Themander nced at the person who spoke, then calmly said, ¡°This is not the time to bootlick. I want a detailed report of the casualties we suffered.¡±


    His adjutant next to him said, ¡°We have 43 dead, 4 seriously injured, and 17 others who suffered minor injuries.¡±


    Themander frowned and said, ¡°The casualties are much worse than we expected. One-third of our casualties during this operation came from the elite Dusk unit.¡±


    ¡°It was mainly because of that person in the white mask that we suffered so many casualties,¡± the adjutant calmly encapsted. ¡°Butpared to the casualties, HQ should be rewarding us for our sess this time instead of punishing us.¡±


    Everyone¡¯s eyes lit up. This meant they could obtain ess to better gene mods as well as greater authority.


    The concept of authority within the Pyro Company was a measure of one¡¯s status. Currently, theirmander only had P3 authority, with the P4 and P5 personnel outranking him. If he wanted to be a big shot like them, there was still a long way to go.


    Themander read through the battle summary and asked, ¡°Who fought against that person in the white mask that day?¡±


    His adjutant replied, ¡°This is where it gets a little strange. Those who fought against him are all dead, so it¡¯s difficult for us to even find out what the opponent¡¯s superpower is.¡±


    Silence fell over the conference room. Anyone who had fought that person directly was dead? So that made it difficult to find out anything useful about the other party?


    The most useful information they had was that the other party was a masked male, with his gender determined via his height and physique.


    ¡°Designate this person as a T4 threat.¡± Themander said, ¡°Report this information to HQ.¡±


    Just as P1 to P5 represented the Pyro Company¡¯s internal authority levels, ¡°T¡± represented thebat power of an individual, or the threat that they posed. The previous person designated as a T4 threat was Li Shentan from the Southwest.


    As for T5, no one was assessed to be at that threat level yet.


    However, the Pyro Company firmly believed that such a person would definitely appear in the Era of Gods.


    ...


    At the same time the Pyro Company was conducting its after-action review, the Anjing House was also having theirs. In a residential area, several people had gathered around a dining table and were discussing as they ate. ¡°We still have much to learn from our experience this time. Based on our assessment, the Pyro Company has already obtained theb data with the help of the Riders. However, the Riders still haven¡¯t found what they wanted and have already returned to Luoyang City.


    ¡°What was unexpected that day was that the Pyro Company¡¯s infiltration methods were even more brilliant than we knew. Otherwise, we wouldn¡¯t have made the wrong assessment of how many people they had in the stronghold. Therefore, we must be more careful in the future. The Pyro Company is an extremely strong opponent, so don¡¯t underestimate them.


    ¡°Another thing is, someone kept using different cell phones to receive the rewards for the mission that day. This led to us getting the wrong impression of how many people had responded to our mission that day. We only learnedter on that a person in a white mask that came to mess things up had stolen a bunch of C and B-rank hitmen¡¯s cell phones before the battle broke out. Therefore, he was the one who killed over 20 of the Pyro Company members.¡±


    Vani frowned as he listened to this. Only now did he say, ¡°He killed so many people single-handedly? Just how godly is he? Why is he so powerful? Do you have any more detailed information about him?¡±


    ¡°His identity is unknown, but his height is estimated to be between 182 to 185 centimeters. ording to the A-rank hitmen, he has an extremely strong physique, so it¡¯s very likely that he¡¯s a superhuman with extreme physical strength.¡± A girl at the dining table touched her newly regrown canine teeth and said, ¡°Our A-rank hitmen didn¡¯t engage inbat with him directly, so the Pyro Company should have more information about him.¡±


    This girl¡¯s canine teeth were a little strange-looking. They were much longer than the other teeth she had and made her look like a vampire.


    Vani sat in his chair with his arms crossed and said, ¡°You have to keep an eye on this superhuman. Moving in and out of the chaotic battlefield so casually, it¡¯s like everything is just a game to him. The strength of a person like that is truly terrifying.¡±


    The girl with the long canine teeth said, ¡°However, that person killed many of the Pyro Company¡¯s members for us. So the boss intends to pay out all the rewards so we can foster this rtionship and continue observing him.¡±


    ying with sugar syrup next to them, the old man pursed his lips and said, ¡°How are we going to keep an eye on him? We don¡¯t know what he looks like, and he owns so many cell phones as well, so how are we going to track his movements? Do you know which cell phone he¡¯ll be using for the next mission?¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± The girl with the long canine teeth was stunned. ¡°There was also a D-rank hitman in Stronghold 61 who liked to steal the cell phones of the other hitmen. The boss even went down to Stronghold 61¡¯s town specifically to investigate. Could he be that person?¡±


    Vani was at a loss. ¡°Do you really think that guy has nothing better to do and became a D-rank hitman? Why do I find it hard to believe...¡±


    In fact, the Anjing House had also suspected Zhou Yingxue before. After all, when she went to Stronghold 73 to kill Zhou Xilong, the D-rank hitmen over there were simrly wiped out.


    From the looks of it, the suspicions on Zhou Yingxue could be eased for the time being as they had temporarily identified the suspect to be male. After all, Vani had seen Zhou Yingxue before. With her figure, there was no way she could disguise herself as a man even with a mask on.


    In that chaotic battle, the man in the white mask had be the focus of the Pyro Company and the Anjing House after they sat down to analyze the situation. Everyone wanted to find him, but there weren¡¯t any good leads on where to start.


    The radiance of that white-masked man even concealed the role that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s original self had yed on the battlefield. Just like that, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s participation that night had been ignored.


    Vani asked, ¡°Can we investigate those anonymous ounts? As long as he tries to withdraw the money, we can find his whereabouts.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re already on that, but what I¡¯m most worried about is that he¡¯ll go to the casino at the Qinghe Group to get the money out. If he does that, thest lead we have will be cut off.¡±

 Chapter 543 - Hope Media

    <h4>543 Hope Media</h4>


    It had already been a week since the cave-in at East Lake. Ren Xiaosu kept himself cooped up in the hotel every day as if he had nothing to do with that incident at all.However, Zhou Yingxue remained very busy. As Li Ran¡¯s bodyguard, Zhou Yingxue had to constantly be by Li Ran¡¯s side while she attended all sorts of events. For some reason, the media in the stronghold went crazy and started tracking Zhou Yingxue as well. They even gave her the title of the most beautiful female bodyguard, which made her feel ttered for a few days.


    After several concerts, Li Ran was starting to look a little tired.


    However, before setting off on the journey to Stronghold 73, Li Ran did not board her own minivan. Instead, she got into Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s car. This surprised Ren Xiaosu a little.


    With Li Ran sitting in the same car as them, he couldn¡¯t speak casually anymore. After all, he was supposed to be Zhou Yingxue¡¯s assistant.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Isn¡¯t it morefortable for you to take the minivan?¡±


    The seat in the minivan had been modified so it could be used as a bed for resting by reclining it fully. One could sleep through the entire journey and find themselves arriving at the destination when they woke up, so how much more enjoyable could it get?


    However, Li Ran gave a very good excuse. ¡°I¡¯m worried we¡¯ll encounter danger in the wilderness, so I wanted to take the same car as my bodyguard. That way, if we encounter any danger, you guys can protect me immediately. Besides, any potential attacker would expect me to be in that minivan. If someone really attacks the convoy, they¡¯ll target the minivan first, and I¡¯ll be able to escape from danger.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in a speechless manner, ¡°As if there¡¯s that many bandits targeting convoys in the wilderness of the Central ins.¡±


    However, Li Ran¡¯s reasoning was legitimate, so they couldn¡¯t really refuse to take her in their car.


    After they set off, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue remained silent. Li Ran was reading the newspaper in the backseat of the off-road vehicle, and she kept flipping through the newspaper noisily.


    Ren Xiaosu could not help but turn around and look. Li Ran immediately pretended to be reading the news seriously. However, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find that the entire page facing him was full of news about Li Ran¡¯s sessful performances. From the looks of it, it was even featured as the headliner!


    It was no wonder she was flipping the newspaper so noisily. So it turned out that she was trying to show off.


    The most eye-catching picture on the front page was Li Ran¡¯s photo. It was probably taken during one of her concerts as she was in her performance outfit that looked really dazzling.


    Ren Xiaosu turned back around and resumed resting with his eyes closed. Behind him, Li Ran coughed twice and said, ¡°This newspaper from Hope Media is very influential and can be bought in all of the Zhou, Wang, and Kong Consortiums¡¯ strongholds. Also, I heard their newspaper is sold at all newsstands in the Pyro Company¡¯s strongholds.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue rolled her eyes as she drove. What this woman was obviously trying to say was that she was amazing for being able to get on the front page of such a newspaper.


    Yet Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued by the other aspects of this discovery. ¡°What¡¯s up with this Hope Media? Which organization do they belong to?¡±


    From his point of view, the various consortiums were still rtively isted from one another. After all, if he wanted to go to the strongholds of the other consortiums, he would have to apply for a visa beforehand.


    So why was this Hope Media able to cast such a wide?


    ¡°It is a business arm under the Qinghe Group.¡± Li Ran smiled and said, ¡°Thest leg of our tour was set at Luoyang City because we also wanted to pay a visit to the chief editor of Hope Media.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was enlightened. So it was a business arm under the Qinghe Group? No wonder.


    A mouthpiece like a newspaper would have to adopt a neutral stance in order to be distributed in so many strongholds.


    It would be very difficult for the newspaper industry of the Wang Consortium to make any headway in the Zhou Consortium¡¯s strongholds. After all, a public opinion mouthpiece should not be influenced by external forces.


    Moreover, the Qinghe Group also owned more than half of the satellites in service to the Alliance of Strongholds. In terms of the speed of their news dissemination, they truly crushed all the other newspaperpanies.


    The dissemination of news had always been focused on speed and uracy. Whoever could deliver the news faster would have the advantage.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can I have a look at the newspaper?¡±


    Li Ran was delighted on the inside, but she said in a reserved tone, ¡°Of course.¡±


    However, Li Ran was disappointed when Ren Xiaosu flipped through all the pages except for the entertainment section and the front page! He had to be intentionally ignoring her. That must be it!


    Zhou Yingxue was amused. She knew full well that her master was not interested in entertainment news at all.


    After Ren Xiaosu finished reading today¡¯s newspaper, he went to get more of the previous days¡¯ newspapers that the entourage had stored and spent the entire day reading them.


    Hope Media¡¯s newspaper was also quite ruthless. The current affairs pages¡¯ were filled with articles that pointed out contemporary issues, with the Wang Consortium, Zhou Consortium, and Kong Consortium all criticized. Not even the Pyro Company escaped their scathing opinion.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. ¡°The chief editor of a newspaper like that hasn¡¯t been beaten to death yet?¡±


    ¡°When Hope Media first started, people threatened them. However, the chief editor still continued writing this way. I heard he was kidnapped once and locked up for three days and three nights, and they broke his legs too. In the end, after he was released, the style of the newspaper¡¯s articles remained unchanged.¡± Li Ran exined, ¡°After that, for some reason, everyone stopped caring about him. It¡¯s also because of Hope Media¡¯s truthful reporting that they were able to expand so rapidly.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. They actually did not kill the chief editor? Was it because the organizations still wanted to maintain their reputations?


    To be honest, he didn¡¯t really understand this.


    However, after reading so many newspapers, Ren Xiaosu became interested in Hope Media¡¯s publications, because just a few days¡¯ worth of newspapers had helped him learn a lot about the Central ins.


    For example, the Wang Consortium and Fortress 178 had already signed a treaty on the construction and repair of the highways and railroads. Both parties had been preparing for this for a long time, and it was said that by the middle of next year, the highways would preliminarily be opened to traffic. The fullpletion date, however, would have to wait another five years.


    From the looks of it, the Wang Consortium had a really urgent demand for resources from the Northwest.


    In Hope Media¡¯s newspaper, there was also a report about the cave-in at East Lake. However, the reporter did not seem to know the entire story and only wrote about the reactions of the various consortiums.


    In his reading, Ren Xiaosu even saw reports about Luo Lan. However, the articles regarding the guy were basically all gossip. In the newspapers, the man seemed to be characterized as a nouveau riche from the Southwest who hade to the Central ins to enjoy life.


    However, at the end of the article, it was stated that perhaps Luo Lan¡¯s purpose ining to the Central ins was not that simple.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Hope Media¡¯s newspaper was really good. He decided that from now on, he would have to pick up the day¡¯s newspaper whenever they passed by a stronghold.


    Only Li Ran was left sulking at the back of the off-road vehicle. This was because she carefully watched Ren Xiaosu flip through the newspapers during the entire journey and realized that it was not that he did not read entertainment news, but that he did not read entertainment news rted to her!


    Regarding this, Zhou Yingxue also got it wrong. Ren Xiaosu was actually quite concerned about entertainment news. He was really looking forward to seeing Luo Xinyu¡¯s picture appear in the entertainment sections of the newspapers. But unfortunately, there weren¡¯t any.

 Chapter 544 - Meeting Wang Congyang again

    <h4>Chapter 544 Meeting Wang Congyang again</h4>


    The tour group arrived at Stronghold 73 on the same night. On their way here, another two vehicles suffered breakdowns. Fortunately, they had employed a mechanic and brought maintenance tools with them this time. Otherwise, they might have gotten dyed again.When they arrived at Stronghold 73, the outside of the stronghold was a different sight. There was not just a town outside now, but arge military encampment had been set up as well. It felt like thousands of troops were stationed out there.


    If the tour group wanted to get into Stronghold 73, they would have to pass through this military encampment first. However, they got stopped at the entrance of the camp to be interrogated and inspected first.


    There was no problem with their customs documents, but everyone would have to go through a body search as well. Fortunately, the military personnel here were a principled bunch. Seeing that there were women in the group, they sent the military camp¡¯s female nurses to handle the body search for the women.


    In the end, it was the inclothes guards protecting Li Ran¡¯s team who had their daggers and pistols all confiscated. They were told that they coulde to the military camp to get them back once they left the stronghold.


    What surprised Li Ran and the others was that not a single weapon was found on Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu.


    However, they were still not allowed to enter the stronghold after the security checks wereplete. As there was a curfew in the stronghold right now, they had to wait until daybreak in the military camp. Only after 7 AM would the stronghold¡¯s gate be opened.


    Seeing that the stronghold was right in front, and that they had already booked the hotel in advance, Li Ran could not stand it anymore. They were already exhausted from traveling for the entire day, yet they still had to wait in the barracks until daybreak?


    But just as the soldier was done letting them know, a convoy passed through the military base and drove straight into the stronghold. After the stronghold¡¯s gate was opened, it came back down again. Li Ran was stunned for a moment before asking, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say the stronghold gate would not be opened? Then what was with that convoy?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re our Zhou Consortium¡¯s people,¡± the Zhou Consortium soldier said calmly.


    It was only natural for the Zhou Consortium¡¯s people to get privileged treatment at their own strongholds.


    Li Ran asked Fang Zhi softly, ¡°Can you contact the film crew in the stronghold and get them to think of a solution?¡±


    In the end, Fang Zhi took the satellite phone and went outside to call the film crew. When he came back, he said helplessly, ¡°They told us to settle such issues by ourselves.¡±


    Li Ran went silent for a moment. She did not expect the film crew to be so heartless when the other party was clearly on good terms with the big shots of the Zhou Consortium. She thought for a while and said, ¡°Try paying these soldiers and see if they can make an exception.¡±


    But at such a time, no one dared to ept any bribes. The soldier exined that something big had just happened in the stronghold, and if they had read the newspapers, they would have known about the cave-in at East Lake. Therefore, no one dared to make any mistakes at a time like this.


    They did not even dare to ept bribes!


    Nothing could be done about the situation. At this moment, Li Ran was finally feeling a sense of helplessness in the face of a consortium. In the face of absolute military power, money and connections did not seem that useful anymore.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not mind at all. He just sat down at the side and continued reading the newspapers. It was as if the soldiersing and going were invisible to him.


    In the morning, Ren Xiaosu even shamelessly asked the officer for a copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper after it was distributed in the base.


    The Zhou Consortium troops were quite disciplined. They were only carrying out their duties by holding the tour group outside the stronghold. As there were also Li Ran¡¯s fans within the base, no one would deliberately make things difficult for them.


    Ren Xiaosu saw in today¡¯s newspaper that the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops had intercepted and wiped out a small group of Pyro Company members that were preparing to pull out of the stronghold. However, they did not find anyboratory data on them.


    This made Ren Xiaosu wonder if there was really anyboratory data in Stronghold 73 at all.


    When the stronghold¡¯s gate was opened, Li Ran and the others immediately entered the stronghold and headed to the hotel they had booked. In just one night, dark circles had already appeared under Li Ran¡¯s eyes. Zhou Yingxue, on the other hand, seemed fine. After all, a supernatural being¡¯s physical fitness far exceeded that of a normal person¡¯s.


    On the way to the hotel, Ren Xiaosu froze.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    Ren Xiaosu started rolling up the car window. Li Ran had already returned to her minivan, so he did not have to be so cautious with his words anymore. ¡°Did you see that man? I want you to smear some of the four-leaf clover¡¯s extract on him. I need to know his whereabouts.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nodded. ¡°Alright, but, Master, who is that?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t know him.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°His name is Wang Congyang. I didn¡¯t expect him to appear here.¡±


    As they spoke, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s car fell out of the convoy and stopped by the side.


    Then she pretended she was going to buy breakfast and walked past Wang Congyang. Zhou Yingxue did not evene into contact with Wang Congyang and simply flicked a drop of clover extract onto his clothes.


    After that, Zhou Yingxue continued to get breakfast before slowly walking back to the car. ¡°Master, do you want buns or fried dough sticks? I bought some of each.¡±


    ¡°Buns, I guess,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a frown.


    From afar, Wang Congyang blended into the crowd after passing them by. He had quietly turned around to observe Zhou Yingxue buying breakfast before returning to her car. Then the car drove off and gradually disappeared from the streets.


    Wang Congyang carefully checked himself to see if there was any tracking equipment ced on him. After confirming there was nothing, he smiled. He was probably being too suspicious.


    When they arrived at the hotel, Li Ran did not even catch up on sleep and brought Fang Zhi straight out.


    Zhou Yingxue was grumbling in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room, ¡°She¡¯s off to meet that director in private. She doesn¡¯t want me to go with her as her bodyguard this time since she¡¯s obviously afraid the director will take a fancy to me and invite me to y a role in his production. She¡¯s so petty!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at her and said with a smile, ¡°You want to act in a movie? I do know a director myself, so if you really want to act in one, I can bring you to meet him when we¡¯re done here. I saved his life once.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue pursed her lips. ¡°Master, when did you save a director? Why didn¡¯t I know about it?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a lot of things that you don¡¯t know.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked, ¡°Are you sure that everything¡¯s OK with the four-leaf clover extract? Don¡¯t make any mistakes on this matter. I¡¯ll need you to lead me to him tonight so I can find out what he¡¯s up to.¡±


    ¡°Is this Wang Congyang someone very important?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that he¡¯s important; I just had a feud with him. But I¡¯m more curious about what he¡¯s doing here at Stronghold 73.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I saw him as well near East Lake the other time, but I lost track of his whereabouts during the chaotic battle. I¡¯m very sure that he was there for theb¡¯s data, but now that the battle has concluded, why hasn¡¯t he left yet? Stronghold 73 is obviously not a safe ce anymore for supernatural beings to hang around. If anything goes wrong, the Zhou Consortium might even start hunting them down.¡±


    So Ren Xiaosu wondered if the matter of the researchboratory was not over yet.


    The answer to this question could only be revealed tonight.

 Chapter 545 - Déjà vu

    <h4>Chapter 545 D¨¦j¨¤ vu</h4>


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll join you to fight tonight, Master,¡± Zhou Yingxue said confidently. ¡°I¡¯ll catch up on some sleep first so I don¡¯t embarrass youter.¡±When Ren Xiaosu heard the word ¡°fight,¡± he suddenly felt that he was like some hooligan on the streets picking a fight with someone else.


    But at this moment, there was a knock on the door of Zhou Yingxue¡¯s room next door. Zhou Yingxue stood up curiously and went out to check. ¡°Who would be knocking on my door at this time? We just checked in, and it shouldn¡¯t be time for housekeeping yet, right?¡±


    With that, Zhou Yingxue opened the door and saw a group of people outside who immediately rushed into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room under the lead of a middle-aged man when they saw her.


    Li Ran, who was standing behind these people, had a dark expression on her face. She had just gone to see the director of the film crew in the morning, but as the director had found out in the papers that she had a superhuman as her bodyguard, he immediately had her bring them to the hotel. He wanted to interview Zhou Yingxue so he could add more content to the documentary regarding superhumans he was making.


    Li Ran did not know how to turn him down, so she had no choice but to take the crew and director to the hotel before her audition even started.


    When the director saw Zhou Yingxue, he smiled happily and shook her hand. ¡°You must be Ms. Zhou Yingxue, I¡¯ve heard a lot about you.¡±


    However, when Zhou Yingxue saw the other party¡¯s outstretched hand, she took a step back and said warily, ¡°Speak properly, and don¡¯t get touchy with me.¡±


    How could she, Zhou Yingxue, casually hold the hand of another person? Her master was still in the room, and it would be bad if he saw that!


    When Zhou Yingxue did not ept his handshake, the middle-aged man did not get angry. Instead, he introduced himself, ¡°Hello, my name is Mu Wan¡¯ge, and I¡¯m a director...¡±


    Then he incidentally saw Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting by the window, looking back at him calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that since he had worn arge hoodst time, and it was also nighttime, the other party should have only seen his face below his nose in that chaos. Under such circumstances, the other party would probably not recognize him.


    However, he realized he was wrong. He saw the way Mu Wan¡¯ge was looking at him was not that of a normal person.


    ¡°Savior!¡± Mu Wan¡¯ge eximed.


    This exmation frightened Zhou Yingxue, Li Ran, and the others. Everyone watched in a daze as Mu Wan¡¯ge walked towards Ren Xiaosu. Li Ran was absolutely dumbfounded by this. How did Ren Xiaosu suddenly end up as his savior?


    What kind of fucking twist was this?


    However, what made her a little unhappy was that the director who was acting all snobby with her just now was getting poilter and politer with Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu with each passing moment.


    Li Ran knew Mu Wan¡¯ge was obsessed with supernatural beings and even wanted to direct a movie featuring a full cast of such people. But there was no need for such a big-time director to act so politely to supernatural beings, right?


    Moreover, what did Mu Wan¡¯ge call Ren Xiaosu just now? Savior?


    Hang on a minute! Ren Xiaosu was Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s savior?!


    Li Ran asked, ¡°Director Mu, why are you¡ª¡±


    However, Mu Wange cut her off and said to everyone behind him, ¡°Can all of you please go outside for now? I have something to say to this young man.¡±


    With that, he chased everyone out of the room. Li Ran was confused. Wasn¡¯t she supposed to be the one in the limelight today?


    Mu Wan¡¯ge turned around and said to Ren Xiaosu warmly, ¡°Savior!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°You¡¯ve got the wrong person.¡±


    ¡°How can people like us who are involved in the visual arts possibly recognize the wrong person? Even if you had only revealed your chin that night, I would still recognize you.¡± Mu Wan¡¯ge rubbed his hands together gleefully and said, ¡°Can I have your autograph?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Ren Xiaosu tactfully declined. In fact, he was even considering whether he should resort to silencing this person. Although, that was just a fleeting thought. It was a good thing that Mu Wan¡¯ge did not know about ¡°Old Xu.¡± Otherwise, he would really have to seriously consider doing so.


    Mu Wan¡¯ge said seriously, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll keep your involvement a secret, I swear to God! However, I would really like to ask if you would consider participating in my movie...¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu was really uninterested in such matters. He got up and said, ¡°It¡¯s best that you keep it a secret or else. You know exactly what I¡¯m capable of. If my identity gets out, you won¡¯t have anywhere to run.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu pushed open the door and walked out. He passed through the crowd at the door and gestured for Zhou Yingxue to follow him.


    After the two of them left, the people outside still did not know what was going on.


    Mu Wan¡¯ge walked out of the room and asked Li Ran warmly, ¡°Do you want to be the female lead?¡±


    Li Ran answered nkly, ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°How about this? If you have a way to get them on set, or even take a role or two, I¡¯ll make you the female lead.¡± With that, Mu Wan¡¯ge left as well.


    Li Ran was extremely confused. Why did it feel like she was suddenly thrown into the deal as an extra? It was like buying jade and getting a free lucky bracelet as a gift.


    Mu Wan¡¯ge said to the film crew as he walked, ¡°Did you guys capture any footage of their backs on camera just now?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but somehow, I have a feeling that their rtionship isn¡¯t exactly that of a bodyguard and her assistant.¡± The staff mumbled, ¡°I feel like the female superhuman is subconsciously taking orders from the young man. With just a nce, she followed him and left.¡±


    Mu Wan¡¯ge took a deep breath. Of course, that was exactly how it was! The young man was pretending to be an assistant precisely because he was trying to keep his identity hidden. He recalled the scene from that night and wondered how such a superhuman could possibly be an assistant to someone.


    As he watched Ren Xiaosu leave with Zhou Yingxue, Mu Wan¡¯ge imagined the mysterious youth leading the way while his beautiful attendant followed. This should be exactly how the mysterious wild world in a movie should look like.


    Mu Wan¡¯ge thought for a moment and said, ¡°Destroy all the captured footage. Secretly filming a person like that without their permission could get you into fatal trouble if you¡¯re discovered!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was following Ren Xiaosu and asking nonstop, ¡°Master, did you really save that director? Then can you get him to arrange for me to be the female lead in his movie? And let that Li Ran act as a maid to me or something?


    ¡°Master, when did you save him?


    ¡°Master...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could not help but turn around and re at her. ¡°If you don¡¯t shut up and concentrate on tracking down the target, I¡¯ll cut your share from 20% to 10%!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue immediately shut up and began searching for the scent of the four-leaf clover to locate Wang Congyang¡¯s whereabouts.


    The two of them walked for nearly 30 kilometers in the stronghold before they finally started closing in on Wang Congyang.


    Zhou Yingxue observed the source of where the smell wasing from and wondered, ¡°I think Liberation Park¡¯s right up ahead. That¡¯s where Zhou Xilong and Luo Lan had their meeting. Wang Congyang is right there!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took Zhou Yingxue up to the rooftop of a building where he set up his sniper rifle and observed the situation in the park. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue was munching on melon seeds next to him.


    Ren Xiaosu felt an uncanny sensation. ¡°Why am I getting a feeling of d¨¦j¨¤ vu?¡±

 Chapter 546 - The Pyro Company’s research laboratory

    <h4>Chapter 546 The Pyro Company¡°s researchboratory</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu remembered that it was exactly the same situation as the previous time. After he had set up his sniper rifle, Zhou Yingxue started munching on melon seeds next to him. Back then, after the two of them aplished their mission and went downstairs, Zhou Yingxue even shouted for him to save her when she got surrounded by enemies.Ren Xiaosu gave Zhou Yingxue a displeased look. ¡°Stop munching on melon seeds. Take the spotting scope and check on the situation down there.¡±


    When the two of them looked into the park, Ren Xiaosu immediately spotted Wang Congyang. He was sitting on a bench and reading a newspaper as though he were a normal resident enjoying the fresh air in the park.


    However, Wang Congyang stayed in the park for the next five hours, and this made Ren Xiaosu even more certain that there was something up with his trip here. A normal person would note to sit on a park bench for five hours if they had nothing to do. Besides, sitting there for so long would definitely make their butt hurt too!


    Just as the sun was about to set, Zhou Yingxue suddenly said, ¡°Master, a few suspicious people are approaching from the south side of Liberation Park.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took the spotting scope from Zhou Yingxue and looked over. She was not wrong. There really was a group dressed in ck jackets and beanies approaching the park. As they walked, their arms did not swing naturally with their footsteps. This was clearly because they had guns hidden under their armpits.


    On the other side of the park, Wang Congyang suddenly stood up and left.


    There had to be some kind of connection between these two groups of people. Ren Xiaosu supposed they were up to something in Liberation Park.


    But what could be here in Liberation Park? It was clearly just a normal park.


    Right after, Ren Xiaosu saw someone among the people in ck jackets take out a pocket-sized device resembling a cell phone. After fiddling with it for some time, one of them drew a circle on a certain patch of grass in the park.


    After they finished, they quickly left. But they didn¡¯t go too far away and ate at a nearby restaurant. It was as if they were waiting for something.


    ¡°Are they thinking of digging up the area marked by the circle?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked. ¡°It¡¯s just that there¡¯s still normal stronghold residents out in the park now, so they can¡¯t do anything about it. They¡¯re probably waiting until the curfew is in effect before making a move.¡±


    ¡°But why did Wang Congyang appear here? Could he be the one leading the group that¡¯s trying to dig for something in the park?¡± Ren Xiaosu analyzed, ¡°There¡¯s a very strong possibility that he¡¯ s the mastermind behind this operation. Don¡¯t the masterminds in the field of intelligence also coordinate operations from behind the scenes? They don¡¯t join the operations directly, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Zhou Yingxue nodded.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued. Whatever Wang Congyang was trying to dig up must be very valuable, right?


    ¡°Master, what are we gonna do?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°We¡¯re gonna snatch the prize from him, of course.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled. Wang Congyang had looked for trouble with him on several asions before. If Ren Xiaosu went easy on him this time, that wouldn¡¯t make sense, would it?


    ¡°Then how should we do it? Go down there after they¡¯re done digging?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°No, I¡¯ll go and deal with Wang Congyang first. When they get frightened off, we can dig up thewn and find out what¡¯s underneath,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    With that, he led Zhou Yingxue downstairs and walked to where Wang Congyang would be.


    However, they did not expect to bump into Wang Congyang right after walking past two streets!


    Ren Xiaosu wore the hood over his head and even deliberately pulled up the zipper really high. With his head lowered while walking, the other party could only see his chin at most.


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue remained standing in their spot while Wang Congyang also did the same. The two groups stood there in a deadlock.


    However, although Wang Congyang did not recognize Ren Xiaosu, he recognized Zhou Yingxue!


    He had already been suspicious of Zhou Yingxue in the morning. Now that he saw a familiar face again, he realized in an instant that he had been followed!


    A group of students who just finished their evening self-study session passed by. Some of the students even looked curiously at the three of them, but they did not pay too much attention to it. They had to hurry home since it would be curfew soon.


    Just as the students walked past Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue, Wang Congyang suddenly turned around and ran!


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. Wang Congyang was still as careful as ever. He did not even intend to fight and only thought of fleeing!


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°We¡¯ve alerted him.¡± Zhou Yingxue and he could not go after him as it would be too obvious to start a chase in the streets at this time. In fact, it might even cause the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops toe after them. Importantly, there were also supernatural beings among the Zhou Consortium troops.


    Next to him, Zhou Yingxue cautiously said, ¡°Master, my four-leaf clover extract only allows me to determine the general direction, not the distance to the target. I wasn¡¯t expecting him to be walking towards us either.¡±


    ¡°Never mind.¡± Ren Xiaosu took a look at the sky. ¡°Since we¡¯ve alerted them, the people who would be doing the digging should also have left. Wang Congyang would surely have found a way to contact his partners about us. Let¡¯s head to the park right away and see what exactly they¡¯re after over there. You don¡¯t have to follow me. Just head back to the hotel first. It¡¯ll get a little dangerous there.¡±


    What Ren Xiaosu was trying to say was, even if Zhou Yingxue was also a supernatural being, she would only be a hindrance to him. After all, herbat power was way too terrible.


    But Zhou Yingxue thought her master was pretty concerned about her safety.


    ¡°Master, I¡¯lle with you,¡± Zhou Yingxue said obediently.


    ¡°Get lost!¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright!¡±


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu found a public bathroom and changed his attire. He also summoned his shadow clone and dressed it as well, even putting a Pigsy mask on it.


    The white mask from before could not be used as it would draw animosity from anyone who saw it.


    Under the cover of the curfew, Ren Xiaosu hurried towards Liberation Park, running behind his shadow clone.


    But what left Ren Xiaosu surprised was that before he got there, he could already hear the sound of digging.


    Wait! Did Wang Congyang not notify his partners to leave? Why was that group of people still digging up the ground over here?


    He ordered his shadow clone to go over. When the group saw his shadow clone approaching in its mask, they were not surprised. After all, they were carrying out something sneaky, so who would want to expose their identities to the consortiums?


    The people in ck jackets looked at the shadow clone, and one of them said, ¡°You must be Wang Congyang, right? Where¡¯s your steam lotive?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard this from where he was hiding. They had mistaken his shadow clone for Wang Congyang?!


    Could it be that Wang Congyang was not with them? And as a result, Wang Congyang did not let them know that he had been discovered?


    But why did these people want Wang Congyang¡¯s steam lotive? It was as if they also needed it for something besides using it to confirm his identity.


    However, after some thought, he gritted his teeth and conjured the steam lotive out of thin air. He also deliberately controlled the train to not make any loud sounds. The leader of the ck-jacketed people sized up the steam lotive and nodded in satisfaction. ¡°Alright, your identity has been verified. After we get the data out from the ground, we¡¯ll board your steam lotive and force our way out of here. You said that your steam lotive can reach a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour, so the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops will definitely not be able to catch up to you in the wilderness. When we get out of the stronghold, there will be people from the Companying to back us up. The research data will be ced in your steam lotive, and since you¡¯ve already epted the payment, you¡¯ll have to ensure that it¡¯s delivered without a hitch.¡±


    During their conversation, someone struck a metal cover in the ground while digging. The other party lifted the metal cover and entered inside. Fifteen minutester, someone crawled out of the ground carrying a silver box with a logo of the Pyro Company on it!


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. So these people were the Pyro Company members in disguise. So it turned out that there was really a Pre-Cataclysm researchboratory in Stronghold 73. Moreover, due to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s blockade, the Pyro Company was not yet able to transport the research data out. Therefore, that was their reason for finding Wang Congyang. They wanted to use his steam lotive to barge out of the stronghold!


    Had Wang Congyang switched industries to providing delivery services?!

 Chapter 547 - Amusement park train ride

    <h4>547 Amusement park train ride</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu ordered his shadow clone to wait beside the pit that had been dug up by the Pyro Company. The Pyro Company had three of their people remain outside while six members entered the pit. On the inside, they started shifting the research data into silver boxes before moving it out of the undergroundboratory.Ren Xiaosu wanted to have his shadow clone peek into theboratory to check on the situation. However, he was stopped by the three people standing guard outside. ¡°You¡¯re only responsible for the transportation of the data. Don¡¯t be poking your nose into other matters.¡±


    His shadow clone nodded and stood quietly by the side. Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that he would just have to wait for these people to load the research data onto his steam lotive.


    The research data that so many people were after and was worth an astronomical price was actually going to be personally handed over to someone else by the Pyro Company¡¯s own people. Just how much would they hate Wang Congyang once they realized this?


    The members of the Pyro Company nearby did not suspect anything. In fact, they were already being very cautious about the operation. Upon meeting ¡°Wang Congyang,¡± they first confirmed his identity by having him reveal his superpower. This was not something anyone could impersonate.


    After all, everyone¡¯s powers were unique. Even if there might be simr skills, it would be for superhumans who controlled elements such as water and fire.


    But there couldn¡¯t be two people with the same Steam Lotive power, could there?


    As they continued to excavate the ground, boxes were continuously sent up. A Pyro Company member looked at the shadow clone and said, ¡°We¡¯ll pay 50% of the reward to your ount first. Once we¡¯re outside the stronghold, the remaining 50% will be paid out. Are you still using the same ount that you provided to us previously?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned anxious. How could he allow the money to be transferred to Wang Congyang¡¯s ount? The job was obviously going to be done by him, so it should be transferred into his own ount.


    His shadow clone quickly used a tree branch to write out a string of numbers on the grass. There were even five words at the end of it: Blessed be the good man.


    The Pyro Company member chuckled at the sight. ¡°You want to use a new ount, right? Sure!¡±


    As he spoke, he gestured for the person next to him to transfer the money into the new ount. Based on their agreement, the job was quoted at two million yuan. Therefore, one million yuan would be paid as the deposit first.


    The Pyro Company member sized up the shadow clone. ¡°I¡¯ve long heard that you, Wang Congyang, are extremely cautious. I didn¡¯t expect you to be so cautious that you¡¯d wrap yourself up so tightly, though. You don¡¯t even want to speak? Why? Are you afraid someone will identify your voice?¡±


    The fact that the shadow clone could not speak had been misunderstood by the other party as Wang Congyang¡¯s cautiousness.


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought Wang Congyang¡¯s identity could prove quite useful in the Central ins.


    As for whether Wang Congyang would get into any trouble after that, it was none of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s business!


    All of the research data underground was finally transported out. The members of the Pyro Company loaded up 13 boxes of research data onto the steam lotive.


    However, before they could start pulling out of the stronghold, several bright shlights approached from outside Liberation Park. The Pyro Company members immediately frowned and looked at ¡°Wang Congyang.¡± ¡°You betrayed us?¡±


    The shadow clone shook its head.


    One of the Pyro Company members carefully looked at the source of the light. ¡°It¡¯s a Zhou Consortium patrol. They might just be on a routine patrol. Should we kill them or just leave?¡±


    ¡°Kill them.¡± One of them drew a saber from his belt. ¡°T4138, take five people with you to cut those troops off at the rear and eliminate them. The other three of us will leave on the steam lotive first. Once you¡¯ve taken care of them, the six of you can seek refuge in the safe house and wait there for any new Stronghold 73 missions.¡±


    ¡°Understood,¡± T4138 and the others said respectfully.


    ¡°You¡¯ll need to give them the chance to fire at all of you. Only then can you draw their attention to Liberation Park, and we¡¯ll be able to escape the stronghold with the research data, understand?¡±


    ¡°Understood!¡± T4138 and the others replied.


    Ren Xiaosu was listening from nearby. He found it quite novel that these people were actually addressing each other by their code names.


    Under the cover of darkness in Liberation Park, the six Pyro Company members quietly made their way over. Before the patrol troops could even get close to the steam lotive, they were ambushed.


    ...


    The toon had been patrolling around Liberation Park in their usual patrol formation, 30 soldiers marching in two parallel rows. Due to security guidelines, the safeties on these soldiers¡¯ guns were all on.


    Furthermore, the first two bullets in their magazines were nks that would only be fired as a warning.


    It wasn¡¯t that they were stupid, but that the security guidelines throughout the stronghold were all like that.


    However, when they passed by the woods in the park, they heard some sudden movements behind them. The toonmander turned around and saw that six of hisrades at the back of the toon had already had their throats slit.


    Furthermore, the culprits did not run away and even smiled at them!


    ¡°Contact! Open fire!¡± the toonmander shouted.


    As he shouted, everyone in the toon disengaged the safety on their guns. However, the six people who had ambushed them were like apparitions. The soldiers couldn¡¯t get a bead on the enemies due to how fast they were moving.


    A gust of wind blew and the leaves rustled. The enemies¡¯ footsteps sounded like they were just beside them, yet the patrol troops could not figure out where the enemy was.


    Gunshots suddenly rang out inside Liberation Park. Ever since the tunnel cave-in at East Lake, the atmosphere across Stronghold 73 remained extremely tense. But what was unexpected was that even after imposing such strict security, there were actually still peoplemitting murder. Furthermore, the victims were the Zhou Consortium¡¯s patrol troops!


    ...


    Upon hearing the gunshots, a member of the Pyro Company standing next to the shadow clone said to it, ¡°Let¡¯s go, Wang Congyang. We¡¯ll charge out from the east gate and break through the walls before turning southeast. There¡¯ll be someone picking us up once we get far away.¡±


    The shadow clone took the lead and boarded the steam lotive. The Pyro Company members kept an intent eye on ¡°Wang Congyang¡± in the conductor¡¯s seat in case he tried any tricks.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu took advantage of the moment they were boarding the train to get to the side of it and grab ahold of the exterior.


    The steam lotive started moving. However, the Pyro Company members realized the steam lotive was not heading out of Liberation Park. Instead, it was just circling the park.


    When the Pyro Company members realized this, they frowned and said, ¡°Why aren¡¯t we leaving? What are you driving around the park? Do you think you¡¯re operating an amusement park train ride?!¡±


    In the end, they saw ¡°Wang Congyang¡± pull a ck saber out of thin air.


    A Pyro Company member sneered and said, ¡°So you¡¯re nning to double-cross us, huh? But don¡¯t you think you should ask yourself if you¡¯re capable of doing so? There¡¯s three of us but only one of you. You¡¯re already using your Steam Lotive, and we¡¯re aboard the train as well, so don¡¯t tell me you can still knock us down.¡±


    Actually, this Pyro Company member¡¯s logic was not wrong at all.


    A superhuman could only have one power. Now that they were all aboard the steam lotive, Wang Congyang¡¯s physical fitness might not even match theirs as soldiers who had been gically modified. So if Wang Congyang were trying to double-cross them in this situation, it would be as good as suicide.


    The only thing they did not expect was that the person in front of them was not Wang Congyang. Or more urately, this person in front of them was not even human.


    Then the steam lotive came to an abrupt halt. Due to the immense inertia, the three Pyro Company members staggered forward a couple steps before charging the shadow clone!

 Chapter 548 - Brothers-in-cauldrons

    <h4>Chapter 548 Brothers-in-cauldrons</h4>


    When a steam lotive suddenly came to a stop while traveling at high speed, if the inertia couldn¡¯t be precisely predicted beforehand to adjust for one¡¯s center of gravity, then there would definitely be a huge loss of bnce.


    Bnce was one of the most important things for everybatant.


    Not to mention a battle between supernatural beings, even if it were just a battle between normal people, abatant who had lost their bnce was as good as a fish on the chopping board.


    The Pyro Company members had extremely good physical fitness, and normal supernatural beings could notpare to them. Therefore, at the moment of imbnce, they quickly used their feet to adjust their center of gravity so they would not end up in a particrly sorry state and bump into the shadow clone¡¯s de.


    But as long as they were thrown off even a little, they would definitely expose an opening.


    The shadow clone zipped past the three of them with the ck saber in hand while the Pyro Company members tried their best to sh at its body. But to their surprise, they discovered that there was no sound at all when their sabers struck the shadow clone¡¯s body. It was as though the three of them were not brandishing swords but pieces of paper instead!


    The shadow clone¡¯s ck saber was already closing in towards them. One of the Pyro Company members instinctively raised his arm in hopes of slowing down the ck saber¡¯s attack. However, when the ck saber shed across his arm, it did not feel like it had slowed down at all.


    ¡°Such sharpness...¡± That Pyro Company member was shocked. ¡°It¡¯s you! Just who on earth are you? Why are you always going against our Pyro Company!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, he lost consciousness.


    Ren Xiaosu had already shed with the Pyro Company on more than one asion. The Pyro Company had long known there was someone capable of using a sharp weapon to cut a human in half.


    While the storyteller¡¯s incredible tales sounded quite believable sometimes, there were not many swords in reality that were capable of that. Therefore, shing a human in half across the waist was usually due to great strength by the wielder and not because the de was really sharp.


    As for the Pyro Company, they had discovered during the recovery of their dead that the skeletal structures were cleanly cut across at the waist. This was all down to the might of the saber itself!


    When the three Pyro Company members died, Ren Xiaosu gave a wave of his hand and the steam lotive disappeared with a poof. He stuffed all 13 boxes of theboratory data into his storage space and left before the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops could arrive at Liberation Park.


    Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu took the corpses of the three Pyro Company members away with him.


    The other party had recognized who he was just now. Although they still had not figured out his identity, if the Pyro Company found their corpses, they would surely know it was not Wang Congyang¡¯s doing.


    That wouldn¡¯t do. He had to me him entirely!


    Not long after Ren Xiaosu left, the six members of the Pyro Company who were in charge of taking out the patrol team also fled. They still did not know what happened over here and thought the mission was a sess.


    When they returned to the safe house, they contacted their headquarters and reported the situation on their side. In the end, the P3mander who oversaw the operation told them the steam lotive did not leave the stronghold at all. In fact, it did not even leave the park.


    Only then did the Pyro Company realize that something had happened! It had all gone wrong!


    Themander on the other end of the satellite call asked coldly, ¡°The superhuman responsible for escorting them is called Wang Congyang, right?¡±


    The six members of the Pyro Company answered in panic, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s Wang Congyang. His power allows him to conjure a steam lotive. We all saw him do so with our own eyes.¡±


    ¡°OK, I¡¯ll send out an internal memo for his arrest.¡± Themander hung up. Then he said to the person next to him, ¡°The deposit of one million yuan has already been paid. Follow up and investigate the recipient¡¯s ount.¡±


    ...


    At this moment, the girl with the canine teeth who was in the residence stared at the screen in front of her. She was stunned because a deposit of one million yuan suddenly appeared in one of the ounts on the surveince monitors.


    Strange, wasn¡¯t this one of their Anjing House¡¯s anonymous ounts that they were monitoring? The ount holder did not ept any new missions, so where did the moneye from?


    She made a call to find out the source of the funds. But upon checking, she realized the one million yuan was paid out from the Pyro Company¡¯s ount.


    What the hell? Didn¡¯t this ount holder kill a lot of people from the Pyro Company previously? Why did the Pyro Company send him the money then? To thank him for not killing the rest of them?


    This was way too strange! She had to tell the boss about it quickly.


    As for the Pyro Company, they were also checking on the ount details. It was really easy to obtain information on these consortiums¡¯ bank ounts.


    Of course, the Anjing House was different from the Pyro Company. The Pyro Company was an organization on the level of a consortium. Therefore, their ount number was always public. The girl with the canine teeth was able to find out about this with a simple check.


    Meanwhile, Anjing House¡¯s ounts were all secret ounts. When the Pyro Company searched for the ount, they could not determine who it was registered to.


    However, looking at the transaction records of the ount, on the night of the cave-in at East Lake, someone had transferred 300,000 yuan into the ount. This was obviously the reward paid out by the Anjing House to a hitman for killing a member of Midnight.


    So the Pyro Company linked it to the Anjing House.


    When the P3mander reported this matter to the higher-ups of the Pyro Company, they were extremely angered. This was because if Wang Congyang were really a member of the Anjing House, then the Pyro Company would have lost in their conflict with them this time!


    It didn¡¯t matter how many of their members died. Theboratory data was what mattered most of all!


    If Wang Congyang were really from the Anjing House, then it was equivalent to him scamming theboratory data out of their hands. The higher-ups of the Pyro Company felt like their intelligence had been utterly insulted!


    ...


    Wang Congyang was in the wilderness outside of Stronghold 73 at the moment. When he realized he was being followed, he immediately gave up on the mission and fled.


    For someone like him, what could be more important than his life?


    But as he walked on, Wang Congyang felt that something was amiss. He suddenly raised his hand in the isted wilderness, and a huge ck cauldron appeared out of thin air.


    Wang Congyang was dumbstruck. What the fuck was this! Wait, a ck cauldron? Why did he feel like he had seen this before?


    Since Wang Congyang and Xu Xianchu were former brothers-in-arms, he was also quite concerned about Xu Xianchu¡¯s news.


    Wang Congyang knew Xu Xianchu had a simr ck cauldron. Reportedly, the ck cauldron was extremely powerful and could be used as a shield against bullets and attack people too.


    But why did he also have a ck cauldron? Even though he had heard before that some supernatural beings could have two powers, this was ridiculous!


    Besides, for Xu Xianchu and him to each have a ck cauldron, what the hell was that about? Wouldn¡¯t that make them brothers-in-cauldrons?


    Unlike Xu Xianchu, who happily epted the ck cauldron, Wang Congyang felt that there had to be something fishy. The appearance of this ck cauldron was definitely not because he had awakened a new power but due to some external factor!


    However, he couldn¡¯t figure out what that external factor was.


    At the same time, the Zhou Consortium troops had started sealing off Liberation Park. Then a supernatural being followed the troops into the park.


    Themander of the Zhou Consortium troops said politely to the supernatural being, ¡°Mr. Li, you may begin now.¡±


    The person called Mr. Li was a middle-aged man who did not really look too impressive. However, he was a rather spirited man.


    He raised his hand and waved it to produce a white mist. Gradually, the white mist started disying some weird images at the pit dug by the Pyro Company. Through the images, it showed the Pyro Company members discussing something with ¡°Wang Congyang,¡± and a steam lotive was even parked next to them.

 Chapter 549 - Backlash

    <h4>Chapter 549 Bacsh</h4>


    If Ren Xiaosu were present, he would immediately understand this supernatural being named Mr. Li had the power of retrocognition. He was capable of reying an earlier scene of anything that happened in an area.Within that white mist, a projection of the Pyro Company members and ¡°Wang Congyang¡± was reyed urately scene by scene.


    ¡°Mr. Li, can you make it go back a little further to the beginning. We want to see the entirety of what took ce here,¡± said the Zhou Consortiummander. Someone beside him had already set up a camera to record the projected imagery.


    Mr. Li nodded. The projection within the mist reversed as the motion of the ¡°people¡± inside became distorted.


    The projection in the mist kept reversing until it reached a point when ¡°Wang Congyang¡± appeared while the Pyro Company was excavating the ground.


    Mr. Li shook his head. ¡°I can only make it go back this much. Fortunately, there weren¡¯t too many people here. Otherwise, I couldn¡¯t even focus the projection properly.¡±


    ¡°Alright, thank you.¡± The Zhou Consortiummander said politely, ¡°Can you also please trante what they were saying?¡±


    Mr. Li already had his assistant who could read lips standing by. When the Pyro Company member opened his mouth to speak in the projection, the assistant interpreted what he said based on the shape of his mouth. ¡°You must be Wang Congyang, right? Where¡¯s your steam lotive?¡±


    ¡°Alright, your identity has been verified. After we get the data out from the ground...¡±


    Everything the Pyro Company member had said was interpreted. From the beginning to the end, ¡°Wang Congyang¡± had not said a single word.


    Following that, they discussed killing the patrol troops and then ¡°Wang Congyang¡± led the Pyro Company members to leave.


    The projection stopped at this point. It seemed that Mr. Li¡¯s power had reached its limit. However, something unexpected happened during thest scene. Another blurry figure emerged from the woods and grabbed the exterior of the train carriage as it left.


    ¡°Who is that?¡± the Zhou Consortiummander said in surprise. ¡°We didn¡¯t spot him. Where was he hiding?¡±


    Mr. Li pointed to the woods nearby. ¡°He was hiding over there the whole time. We didn¡¯t see him because he didn¡¯t show up until the end.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s strange. So who could this person be? Was he tailing the Pyro Company? Perhaps someone from the Anjing House?¡± The Zhou Consortiummander frowned. ¡°But Mr. Li, why couldn¡¯t we see his face clearly? It looks like his body is entirely shrouded in ayer of fog.¡±


    Mr. Li also found it a little strange. He walked closer and carefully observed the figure of Ren Xiaosu who had grabbed hold of the exterior. He realized the other party was indeed shrouded in ayer of fog, making it difficult for anyone to get a clear look at his appearance and clothing. They could only tell that it was a person.


    ¡°This has never happened before.¡± Mr. Li asked, ¡°Why is this person so special?¡±


    ¡°We found traces of blood on the ground nearby, but we didn¡¯t find any bodies. Furthermore, the steam lotive did not drive out of the park.¡± The Zhou Consortiummander said, ¡°So we suspect that something might have happened inside the park after the steam lotive drove off. Can you create more projections and show us what might have really happened at that time?¡±


    Mr. Li shook his head. ¡°I can only use my power once a day. But even if I use it again tomorrow, we¡¯ll have already passed the time limit to recreate the scene.¡±


    The Zhou Consortiummander asked, ¡°Then can you think of something so we can get a clearer look at this blurry figure? I think he might be the key figure in this matter.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try my best,¡± Mr. Li said.


    At this moment, the projected steam lotive was parked right in front of them. In it, the figure of Ren Xiaosu was still grabbing the exterior. It was like a scene from a movie that had been paused.


    Mr. Li stood in front of Ren Xiaosu and waved his hand again, trying to disperse the fog around Ren Xiaosu.


    But when he focused on Ren Xiaosu, the blurry figure suddenly moved. In the projection, the steam lotive was still paused. However, Ren Xiaosu turned his head and looked calmly at Mr. Li.


    The look in his eyes was so cold it was extremely intimidating. With just a quiet look, Mr. Li felt as though he were being stared down by a terrible beast.


    Only the eyes of the blurry figure were iparably clear!


    Mr. Li spat blood and copsed to the ground. ¡°I can¡¯t do this anymore! I can¡¯t get a clear look at all! This is so strange. Just who on earth could this person be? Why can he counter my power!¡±


    Uproar broke out all around. No one had expected such an oue.


    In the past, everything would always proceed very smoothly whenever Mr. Li helped them with an investigation. It was really easy to find criminals with his assistance. However, they failed this time, and Mr. Li even suffered bacsh from using his power.


    The circumstances in which Mr. Li¡¯s superpower came about were actually quite odd. He was just a normal researcher in the past, but when his wife was robbed and killed one night, Mr. Li became so heartbroken that he swore to catch the murderer.


    However, the Public Order Division¡¯s staff said no surveince cameras were in the area that day the robbery took ce, so it made it very difficult for them to catch the murderer.


    In the end, Mr. Li¡¯s power was awakened, and he led the Public Order Division to find the culprit behind the crime.


    After that, Mr. Li did not keep this power to himself. Every day, he would assist the Zhou Consortium in handling some of the more difficult cases they were facing, and the Zhou Consortium would pay him for his services as well.


    Due to the fact the projections were only visual and without sound, he even hired an assistant who could read lips.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, who was already cooped up back in the hotel, started.


    Zhou Yingxue asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Master?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°It felt like someone was watching me a moment ago, but that feeling went away very quickly. I¡¯m not exactly sure what happened either.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nced at the window, but the curtains were drawn. ¡°I¡¯ve already checked the room. There aren¡¯t any surveince cameras around.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and took out the 13 boxes containing the research information.


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. ¡°Master, what is all this?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu briefly told her about tonight¡¯s happenings in which the Pyro Company had tried to transport theboratory data out of the stronghold and how a fight had broken out between him and the Pyro Company members.


    Zhou Yingxue was speechless. So it turned out that so much had happened tonight. ¡°Master, I thought you were just going for a little excavation trip, but I didn¡¯t know a battle would actually break out! How dangerous!¡±


    ¡°Mhm, it was really quite dangerous for them,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied absent-mindedly. His attention was already on the research information in front of him.


    ¡°So, Master, is this theb data?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked with her eyes gleaming. ¡°So if we sell this data, wouldn¡¯t we have nothing more to worry about for the rest of our lives?¡±


    ¡°Only if you¡¯re still alive to not have to worry.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Once you sell the data, a lot of people will definitely target you. The Pyro Company will probably hunt you down to the ends of the earth as well. Don¡¯t assume that you can do it so well that no one will find out. There¡¯s no such thing as an absolute secret.¡±


    Therefore, if Ren Xiaosu really wanted to sell theboratory data, he only had two choices. One of them was Fortress 178, but he wasn¡¯t sure if they would be interested in it.


    The other was the Qing Consortium.


    Ren Xiaosu would only feel at ease if he were selling it to either of these parties.

 Chapter 550 - Wanted: Wang Congyang

    <h4>Chapter 550 Wanted: Wang Congyang</h4>


    Ever since Ren Xiaosu snatched theboratory data out of the Pyro Company¡¯s hands, everything seemed to have calmed down, and it became peaceful again in the stronghold. Other than the Zhou Consortium issuing a warrant for Wang Congyang, there didn¡¯t seem to be anything else that cheered Ren Xiaosu up.


    In the dead of the night, Ren Xiaosu was alone in his hotel room going through the Pyro Company¡¯s research data. He was quite curious about the Pyro Company because he had once faced the monsters this organization had created. That group of Experimentals was still forcibly upying the wilderness in the Southwest, and it was unknown when they would be a threat to humanity once again.


    If he did not get rid of such a terrifying existence, there would probably be a much greater cmity in the future.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu was very curious about what the Pyro Company really did.


    However, when he browsed through the data, he was surprised to discover it was different than he had imagined. This life sciences researchboratory had genuinely been researching anti-cancer drugs. Furthermore, based on some of the research papers¡¯ background and significance, the Pyro Company had no other objectives but to treat patients and save lives.


    There was nothing in the data to suggest they were against humanity. If Ren Xiaosu were to just look at this information, he would probably think the Pyro Company was a typical medical institution whose mission was to treat and save lives.


    This was quite different from the Pyro Company Ren Xiaosu knew.


    But it wasn¡¯t like Ren Xiaosu was starting to feel that the Pyro Company was a benevolent organization after reading through the information. Instead, he was wondering why the Pyro Company had be the current organization they were after The Cataclysm.


    It was very difficult for Ren Xiaosu to have a good impression of the Pyro Company¡¯s mass abduction of supernatural beings. Disregarding the other things they did, that matter alone was enough for Ren Xiaosu to hate them.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a separate document on its own. The document¡¯s content was very short, but in it, it was stated that Laboratory No. 39 had made a breakthrough in cancer treatment. The single nucleus cells in a patient were turned into binucleated cells and managed to reach a state of equilibrium. However, the treatment¡¯s conditions were extremely particr and difficult to replicate.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. There seemed to still be a lot of cancer patients after The Cataclysm, possibly due to the aftereffects of radiation from nuclear fallout.


    But he did not expect the Pyro Company to have already found a treatment for cancer before The Cataclysm.


    However, what were these particr conditions the Pyro Company was referring to?


    While Ren Xiaosu was reading through the information, Li Ran and the others seemed to have returned to the hotel after a banquet. Many of them had too much to drink and were being rowdy in the hallways. However, this did not affect Ren Xiaosu at all.


    But in the middle of the night, Li Ran actually knocked on his door again in another drunken stupor. Ren Xiaosu simply pretended to not be in the room so he could have some peace and quiet.


    The next morning, Li Ran¡¯s assistant, Fang Zhi, came over to invite Ren Xiaosu to the film set on the pretext of touring the ce.


    Zhou Yingxue would definitely have to go since she was Li Ran¡¯s bodyguard. However, Ren Xiaosu was not interested and rejected him.


    It was probably Director Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s idea to have him go down to the film set.


    When Fang Zhi realized he could not convince Ren Xiaosu, he lied that Li Ran and Zhou Yingxue were in danger on set and asked him to hurry over to help them. However, Ren Xiaosu shot him a look and closed the door without even bothering.


    Like hell I¡¯d believe you! Both the Pyro Company and the Anjing House had already pulled out of the stronghold, so what kind of danger could there be? Even Wang Congyang had probably run far away by now, while the underworld criminals have started to keep their distance from Stronghold 73.


    You could say Stronghold 73 was one of the safest strongholds in the entire world right now, and that wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration at all.


    After the film crew wrapped up for the night, it became Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s turn to harass him personally. He was constantly talking about having Ren Xiaosu y some role in his production.


    After Ren Xiaosu chased Mu Wan¡¯ge away, he asked Zhou Yingxue speechlessly, ¡°When will that Li Ran set out for the next stronghold?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°ording to the schedule, we should¡¯ve set out two days ago. After all, the concert in Stronghold 74, which is the farthest west one, is ted to take ce in seven days. We were only supposed to be here for the audition, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, this director suddenly became very enthusiastic towards Li Ran. In fact, he even arranged a very good role for her in his current production, and they¡¯re working overtime to film the scenes right now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gazed up at the ceiling. He knew the ¡°unforeseen circumstances¡± was probably referring to him.


    However, when Zhou Yingxue mentioned Stronghold 74, Ren Xiaosu got a little uneasy. He felt like something bad was about to happen. However, it was only a fleeting thought. He would definitely not try to persuade the tour group to change their schedule with something so baseless.


    But it was not that he had no evidence to support that thinking. When the Zhou Consortium¡¯s reinforcements did not head to Stronghold 73 and were redirected to Stronghold 74 to set up the defenses there, Ren Xiaosu was very puzzled. It was as though the Zhou Consortium knew something was going to happen at Stronghold 74.


    Ren Xiaosu told Zhou Yingxue, ¡°If anything happens at Stronghold 74, ignore Li Ran and her team¡¯s wishes. Get the situation under control and take them away with you.¡±


    Could the Zhou Consortium have received news about the possibility of a Qing Consortium invasion? After all, the Qing Consortium was the closest to Stronghold 74.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°So when are they nning to leave for Stronghold 74? Aren¡¯t they gonna hold a concert there? They have to get there early to make preparations, don¡¯t they?¡±


    ¡°No need. It¡¯s all handled by the concert promoter.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°They n to set out in five days.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gazed at the ceiling again. He would have to be harassed for another five days?


    He got up and said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Stay here and protect her. I¡¯ll head to Stronghold 74 first. I can do some missions or steal some cell phones while I¡¯m there. I remember you telling me that there¡¯s also a ck market at Stronghold 74, right? I¡¯ll go there and sell off some of the cell phones first.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue panicked. ¡°Master, are you going to leave right now? But I¡¯ve already told them I¡¯ll bring you to the set....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu silently gazed at Zhou Yingxue.


    Zhou Yingxue knew she had said the wrong thing again. ¡°Director Mu promised me that as long as I convince you to join the crew, he¡¯ll give the female lead to me and cast Li Ran as the supporting actress.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got furious. Mu Wan¡¯ge actually seeded in turning Zhou Yingxue against him? He looked at Zhou Yingxue with disappointment. ¡°Do you really wanna be the female lead that badly?¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu turned around and left. After he went out of the stronghold, he suddenly remembered he had forgotten to ask Zhou Yingxue where Stronghold 74 was.


    Furthermore, all of their vehicles had been detained by the Zhou Consortium, so he did not even have a car he could drive.


    Walking in the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu got angrier the more he thought about it. He really wanted to go back there and give Mu Wan¡¯ge, Zhou Yingxue, and Li Ran a good thrashing.


    But right then, Ren Xiaosu heard the roar of an engine behind him. He turned around and saw an off-road vehicle approaching.


    As the vehicle passed Ren Xiaosu, it came to a stop. A middle-aged man looked at him and said with a polite smile, ¡°Where are you headed, young man? Why are you walking by yourself?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯m going to Stronghold 74.¡±


    While speaking, Ren Xiaosu started sizing up the other party. There were only two people in the vehicle, one of which was a middle-aged man, while the other was a young man who looked to be about the same age as Ren Xiaosu. The two looked like they were father and son.


    The middle-aged man smiled and said, ¡°We happen to be heading to Stronghold 74 too. Get in, we¡¯ll give you a ride.¡±

 Chapter 551 - Teacher and disciple

    <h4>551 Teacher and disciple</h4>


    Honestly, this was the first time Ren Xiaosu encountered someone in the wilderness who was willing to give others a ride.


    After all, anyone would know the wilderness was not entirely safe. As the saying went, one must be vignt to not be harmed. If it were Ren Xiaosu, he would never offer others a lift.


    Of course, not many people would hitch a ride from him either.


    The middle-aged man said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s along the way since we¡¯re also heading to Stronghold 74. However, we need to make a stop at a remote ce midway, so if you don¡¯t mind that, we can offer you a lift to Stronghold 74.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He broke out into a smile and said, ¡°Sure, thanks.¡±


    The young man in the front passenger seat also said enthusiastically, ¡°Get in quickly then.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got into the backseat. He then heard some music ying from a cassette in the vehicle and wondered why the singer¡¯s voice sounded so familiar.


    Ren Xiaosu only managed to react a few secondster. Wasn¡¯t this Li Ran¡¯s voice? Although he had never listened to her songs before, her voice was very recognizable.


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu did not know what to say. He had clearly escaped so he could avoid that woman. But now that he was outside, he still had to listen to Li Ran¡¯s songs. She really was just like a lingering spirit.


    During the journey, Ren Xiaosu realized the middle-aged man and the young man were not father and son. From the way the young man kept addressing him as his teacher, it seemed they were actually a master and disciple.


    The two of them did not ask about his identity, nor did they ask why he was heading to Stronghold 74. It seemed like they were simply giving him a lift.


    However, the middle-aged man had specifically mentioned they would have to make a stop at a remote ce to handle some affairs. This made Ren Xiaosu very wary. What could be in a remote ce? Very few people lived in the wilderness, so if they really turned into some remote ce, could they be nning to lead Ren Xiaosu into a trap?


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. Instead, he asked calmly, ¡°May I know why the two of you are heading to Stronghold 74?¡±


    The middle-aged man smiled and said, ¡°Actually, we¡¯ll only be passing by Stronghold 74. After dropping you off near the stronghold, we¡¯ll be heading into the mountain range west of Stronghold 74 to pick some herbs. Now that very few people are living in those mountains, there will be plenty of treasures naturally growing there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Do you mean the legendary Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures?¡±


    The storyteller told stories such as The Investiture of the Gods,[1] and in those stories, the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were herbs that were extremely helpful for cultivators.


    When the middle-aged man heard Ren Xiaosu ask this, he said with a smile, ¡°No, no, I was just referring to mountain products,mon herbs that can help strengthen my disciple¡¯s body.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. From the sound of it, they were martial artists?


    There was an old saying that went, ¡°The poor study, while the rich learn martial arts.¡± That was because studying could change the fate of the poor, while those who were not rich had no way to practice martial arts since they could not afford the herbs and tonics to strengthen their bodies.


    But were they really going to pick herbs in those forested mountains? Ren Xiaosu did not believe it.


    In the afternoon, the off-road vehicle suddenly deviated from the main road and drove towards a more deste wilderness. Ren Xiaosu sat quietly in the backseat and did not show any expression.


    He thought to himself, ¡®They might be making a move soon.¡¯ Be it robbery or revenge, these two had probably been plotting this for a long time.


    After the vehicle came to a stop, the middle-aged man ced his fingers in his mouth and whistled. Ren Xiaosu frowned. They actually had partners?


    Following, there was a rustle in the woods nearby. Five honest-looking refugees emerged from it, and they said to the middle-aged man in surprise, ¡°Old Li, you haven¡¯te here in a long time.¡±


    ¡°Enough talk, the medicine¡¯s in the trunk. Hurry up and unload the items from the vehicle.¡± The middle-aged man named Old Li said with a smile, ¡°We brought antibiotics this time. That¡¯s something you guysck most in the wilderness.¡±


    Behind them, Ren Xiaosu, who was ready to kill at a moment¡¯s notice, was shocked. He thought the two people had taken him here as a convenient ce for them to make a move on him. As it turned out, they were only delivering medicine to refugees?


    Ren Xiaosu knew exactly what refugees looked like. He tried looking closer at the woods but could not see what was in that darkness.


    When Old Li opened the trunk, Ren Xiaosu saw two cartons simply sealed with adhesive tape.


    One of the refugees handed a basket of eggs to Old Li. ¡°We don¡¯t have anything good here, only these eggs. Please ept them.¡±


    Each of the eggs was the size of a fist, and it was clear they were from chickens that had evolved in the wilderness. They werepletely different from the domestic eggs found in the stronghold. In the past two years, eating exotic meat had be very popr in the strongholds. Whoever could treat others to a meal of exotic meat would be very popr and well-respected by their friends.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu was able to sell sparrows for a living because the stronghold residents were fond of such exotic fare.


    But no matter how expensive wild chicken eggs were, they could not be more expensive than antibiotics. Medicine could save lives!


    Old Li did not decline their gift. He took the eggs from the refugee and handed it to his disciple. ¡°I still have to go to Stronghold 74, so I won¡¯t be eating with you today. What else do you need? I can bring it for you when I get back from Stronghold 74.¡±


    A refugee hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°It¡¯ll be winter soon. Some children in the mountains won¡¯t be able to endure the cold. Can you buy a few coats for them? But if it¡¯s really inconvenient, then never mind...¡±


    Old Li asked decisively, ¡°How many do you need?¡±


    ¡°12.¡±


    ¡°OK, I¡¯ll make a trip to the town at Stronghold 74 then. There¡¯ll be coats for sale there,¡± Old Li said with a smile.


    That refugee rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry to keep troubling you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± Old Li said and smiled.


    ¡°I wonder, how much do the coats cost in town now?¡± the refugee asked. ¡°We still have some savings here.¡±


    Old Li pointed at the eggs in his disciple¡¯s arms and said with a smile, ¡°These wild chicken eggs are already worth a lot, so that¡¯ll be enough.¡±


    After the trade was concluded, Old Li and his disciple got back into the vehicle and started the engine. Ren Xiaosu could not help but feel that these two did not seem like drug peddlers either.


    ¡°You can at most trade one coat for that basket of wild chicken eggs. I¡¯m quite familiar with the prices in town. You two are purely performing good deeds, arentcha?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Old Li said with a smile as he drove, ¡°We have a rule that after we be a Ri¡ªan adult, we must go to the towns to experience how the refugees live. Back then, I was so arrogant I almost couldn¡¯t survive in town. It was this group of refugees that fed me and allowed me to live. Later, they escaped when they couldn¡¯t stand the consortium¡¯s exploitation of them and the stress of living in town.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. So it turned out there were also honest people in town, and some would silently endure where they could. This caused those arrogant people who mistreated them to be even more arrogant. In the end, the honest people could only escape town when they could no longer stand the suffering.


    Besides, even if they continued working for the consortiums, they would still have nothing to their names other than a shack when they grew old. Even if they farmed for the consortiums, they would still only be drawing a sry.


    Therefore, some people would rather choose to live a hard life in the wilderness. At least the crops they cultivated would belong to them.


    [1] The Investiture of the Gods or The Creation of the Gods is a 16th-century Chinese novel and one of the major vernacr Chinese works in the ¡°gods and demons¡± (shenmo) genre written during the Ming Dynasty. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_of_the_Gods

 Chapter 552 - The twelfth Rider

    <h4>Chapter 552 The twelfth Rider</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had thought these two guys had abducted him to this remote ce so they could attack him. However, it turned out they were just here to perform good deeds.But what were their identities? They even had to go and experience what it was like to live like a refugee in town at some point? In that case, they would have to be people from the stronghold. Whether they were supernatural beings was yet to be determined. However, Ren Xiaosu noticed the two of them had a very steady gait and did not expose any vulnerabilities while walking. By the looks of it, they were not ordinary people either.


    Old Li looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Are you a refugee?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Yes.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not exin anything to avoid slipping up.


    Old Li nodded and said, ¡°You don¡¯t look like a stronghold resident anyhow. People in the strongholds do not have that look in your eyes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered what kind of look he was referring to.


    Their journey had been dyed by half a day because they had to deliver the medicine to the refugees. As a result, they were still more than a 100 kilometers from Stronghold 74 by that evening.


    Old Li thought for a moment and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we find a ce to set up camp before continuing on our journey to Stronghold 74 tomorrow morning? I¡¯m sorry that your schedule has been dyed because of us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m very grateful that you were willing to give me a lift. If I had to walk to Stronghold 74 by myself, I don¡¯t even know when I¡¯d get there.¡±


    There was even a pot in the truck of Old Li¡¯s off-road vehicle. When Ren Xiaosu was helping to carry out the camping equipment, he realized the two of them would be spending quite a while in the mountains. Just the condiments alone were already a lot. He wondered what they were nning to do in the mountains in the west.


    Old Li called to his disciple, ¡°Qin Sheng, start the campfire. I¡¯ll go and hunt two rabbits.¡±


    With that, Old Li took out a dagger and headed into the forest, leaving Qin Sheng alone to carry out his task diligently. Ren Xiaosu watched from nearby and asked, ¡°Do you two often venture into the wilderness?¡±


    He only asked because he saw Qin Sheng skillfully starting a cookfire. Some people might not even be able to start a fire with the aid of flint, purely due to ack of experience.


    Qin Sheng smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ve been to many ces with my teacher. It¡¯s better to travel thousands of miles than read thousands of books.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not add on to that. He felt the two of them were a little mysterious. Qin Sheng¡¯splexion was tanned and his figure was very well-proportioned. It made him look like an extremely agile cheetah in the wilderness.


    Normal people would not have such an aura.


    After Qin Sheng started the campfire, he ced a few branches over the fire for the pot before throwing in all the wild chicken eggs he had gotten from the refugees earlier. He smiled to Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°It takes ten minutes for a normal hard-boiled egg to be cooked, but wild chicken eggs take 15 minutes to cook. However, the taste of wild chicken eggs is far better than the domesticated chicken eggs found in the strongholds. They¡¯re delicious.¡±


    At this moment, Old Li returned with two rabbits in hand. He smiled and said, ¡°The chickens in the wilderness have evolved tremendously in just a few decades. However, domesticated chickens in the strongholds have not changed at all. In my opinion, we should tear down all the strongholds and have their residents live outside theirfort zones. That way, humanity will truly understand what they¡¯re facing in the future and be more adapted to this world.¡±


    ¡°Make the stronghold residents live outside theirfort zones?¡± Ren Xiaosu recalled that the lives of those who lived in the strongholds were not necessarily better. He said to Old Li, ¡°The stronghold residents aren¡¯t exactly livingfortable lives either.¡±


    Old Li was speechless.


    After two minutes of silence, Old Li still did not know how to continue the conversation!


    However, the sound of an approaching convoy suddenly thrummed in the distance while the eggs were cooking. Ren Xiaosu could see the bright headlights of a dozen vehicles bouncing as they traveled on the rocky road.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully observed the convoy, then his expression suddenly changed!


    He turned around and said to Old Li and Qin Sheng, ¡°Um... I¡¯m not feeling well, so I¡¯ll take my leave. Thank you for giving me a lift!¡±


    He was about to run off when Old Li called out to him from behind, ¡°Hey, take two eggs with you to eat along the way.¡±


    As he said that, Ren Xiaosu came back and fished out a wild chicken egg straight from the pot before running off.


    Old Li and Qin Sheng frowned as they watched him leave. Curious, Qin Sheng asked, ¡°Teacher, who do you think he is?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but he¡¯s no simple person.¡± Old Li said, ¡°It¡¯s hard to get a read on him, but he¡¯s definitely not a normal refugee. Who knows, he might even be a superhuman!¡±


    ¡°Then why did he run away?¡± Qin Sheng could not understand.


    ¡°Maybe that approaching convoy ising after him?¡± Old Li said puzzledly, ¡°Could it be rted to that incident at Stronghold 73 some time ago? When we get back, ask your Brother Qingxi about it. He was the one who apanied the Pyro Company to Stronghold 73, so ask him if he¡¯s seen the young man before.¡±


    A momentter, the convoy that was speeding over came to a stop in front of them. A woman rolled down the window and asked, ¡°Did you two see a young man passing through here?¡±


    Qin Sheng¡¯s jaw slowly dropped. ¡°Y-You¡¯re Li Ran?¡±


    When Li Ran realized she had been recognized, she was secretly delighted. ¡°Ahem, yes, that¡¯s me.¡±


    After she said that, she was pushed aside by someone next to her. That person opened the door and jumped out the vehicle. ¡°Hello, my name is Mu Wan¡¯ge, and I¡¯m a director. Have you seen a young man passing through here? He¡¯s heading to Stronghold 74.¡±


    Qin Sheng and Old Li were dumbfounded by this question. They had assumed this convoy was chasing after Ren Xiaosu to kill him. But now they realized it was not the case at all.


    With a director and a female celebrity chasing after him, just who could that young man be?


    Ren Xiaosu was so pissed off he wanted to curse out loud as he made his escape. Didn¡¯t they say they would be setting off five dayster? So why were theying after him so quickly when he just left the stronghold? They were really too difficult to shake off. Why couldn¡¯t they just leave him alone for a day or two?!


    It seemed that men should really not be too good-looking. Otherwise, they would only be inviting trouble. Ren Xiaosu really thought this.


    Old Li smiled at Li Ran and Mu Wan¡¯ge. ¡°Sorry, we didn¡¯t see anyone.¡±


    ¡°Could we have missed him somewhere along the way?¡± Mu Wan¡¯ge wondered. ¡°He didn¡¯t drive either, so he couldn¡¯t have gotten far.¡±


    ¡°Continue chasing after him! He must¡¯ve somehow gotten his hands on a vehicle,¡± Li Ran said.


    With that, the convoy set off again, leaving Old Li and Qin Sheng absolutely confused.


    ¡°Teacher, why are they chasing after that young man? And they¡¯re even a famous celebrity and director too,¡± Qin Sheng asked in a speechless manner.


    Old Li stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°I don¡¯t know either. Strange things happen every year, but it¡¯s especially so this year.¡±


    ¡°But, Teacher, was lying to them appropriate?¡± Qin Sheng asked.


    ¡°In this world, how is it possible to not lie to others? I taught you to be honest, but I never said you couldn¡¯t lie to others.¡± Old Li said with a smile, ¡°These two things aren¡¯t contradictory.¡±


    ¡°Is it really not contradictory?¡± Qin Sheng began to wonder.


    ¡°Alright, don¡¯t think too much.¡± Old Li added a log of firewood to the campfire. ¡°You should rest and conserve your strength for now. After we get to that cliff in the mountains, you¡¯ll be embarking on your final challenge. When the timees, you¡¯ll be climbing it with your bare hands without any protective measures. If you die, it¡¯ll all be for naught. But if you manage to survive, you¡¯ll be the twelfth Rider.¡±

 Chapter 553 - Key to the world of a new biological order

    <h4>Chapter 553 Key to the world of a new biological order</h4>


    The Public Order Division at Stronghold 61 was very troubled recently. As the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds had always been very safe, their public order divisions only needed to capture criminals based on the rmendations of the artificial intelligence. Therefore, the public order divisions at the various strongholds were usually not that busy.In the beginning, they did not really trust this so-called artificial intelligence that much. Butter on, everyone realized it could even deduce suspects based on footage from surveince cameras. Just this point alone made it a really powerful technology.


    For example, if someone had escaped from the scene of a hit and run, the artificial intelligence could determine the criminal¡¯s height and behavioral traits based on the angle of the vehicle¡¯s turn in the surveince footage. That was because the view in the car would be different for people of different heights.


    Gradually, the public order divisions became used to the artificial intelligence recing their investigative duties. All they needed to be responsible for was the arrest of the criminals.


    After that, the criminals in the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds started being arrested and sentenced for their crimes. During the time the artificial intelligence was first introduced, the Wang Consortium¡¯s prison became so full they were unable to hold any more prisoners.


    It was initially decided they would expand the size of the prison. However, the Wang Consortium¡¯s higher-ups directly ordered the Law Division to mete out harsher punishments to the criminals. More than 2,000 prisoners were sentenced to death as a result, and over a 1,000 were sent to performbor at purpose-built factories outside the stronghold overnight.


    Once the criminals were sent to those ces, they were not going to return. That eased the pressure of overpoption in the prison.


    During that time, everybody was deterred frommitting more crimes. After all, those who stole anything over a 1,000 yuan or got involved in street fights would be sentenced to death, so who would still dare tomit crimes?


    However, the Public Order Division at Stronghold 61 was starting to get busy again recently. There were a lot of people reporting their guard dogs had suddenly gone missing, and this was not just one or two cases but over a dozen of them. The Public Order Division immediately wondered if a dognapper had entered the stronghold?


    The Wang Consortium had set a target of a 100% rate of solved crimes for the Public Order Division. As long as someone reported a case, they would have to solve it. Otherwise, there would be no year-end bonus for the Public Order Division staff.


    The Public Order Division immediately dispatched some people to several dog meat shops in the stronghold to investigate the crimes and even checked the footage from the surveince cameras outside the dog meat shops. However, they found nothing suspicious.


    Moreover, it was extremely unusual as the artificial intelligence did not even provide them with any information this time.


    As such, the Public Order Division activated their K9 unit. But when they were going down a street, a police dog suddenly broke free from its leash for some reason and ran away. Then that police dog went missing as well.


    This irritated the Public Order Division a lot as the police chief mmed tables in the office and roared angrily at officers. The Public Order Division immediately sent more manpower to carry out a nket search at the ce where the police dog had broken free from its leash. They even went down into the sewers to search.


    A Public Order Division squad was walking in the dirty and smelly water down in the sewers. Someoneined, ¡°Why should we be the ones sent into the sewers? They should¡¯ve just deployed the auxiliary police to check it out.¡±


    Someone nearby said, ¡°Quitining. You were the one who lost the K9, so consider this your punishment. It won¡¯t be so bad if you can find the criminal, or else be prepared to lose your job.¡±


    Suddenly, the person speaking noticed the person at the front of the squad had stopped in his tracks, and his body was even trembling.


    Someone asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    The person at the front trembled and said, ¡°Everyone... look!¡±


    Everyone turned on their shlights and looked ahead. They were surprised to see that the sewer in front of them was piled full of skeletal remains of animals. There were bones everywhere!


    Those skeletal remains were piled into a small hill. While most of them were rat bones, there were also some cat and dog bones.


    ¡°No wonder we didn¡¯t see a single rat while we were down here!¡± someone said with a tingling sensation in his scalp.


    At this moment, they heard the sound of the dirty water rippling behind them. With chills running up their spines, they looked back and saw nothing at all.


    ¡°There aren¡¯t any monsters in the sewers, right?¡±


    When those words were uttered, everyone in this Public Order Division squad fled outside.


    Without encountering any monsters that threatened to devour them like they had imagined, this group of people got back safely aboveground.


    That afternoon, the Public Order Division deployed even more men to carry out an investigation of the entire sewage system. As a result, they discovered nine areas where white bones were piled up in the sewers. They even found the missing police dog in one of the spots, although it had not turned to bone yet. However, it had been strangled to death.


    Immediately, a rumor started spreading throughout the stronghold: A monster might have entered the stronghold and could be hiding in the sewers.


    This incident caused everyone in the stronghold to feel really worried. Whenever the stronghold residents were out on the streets, they would deliberately avoid walking near manhole covers, afraid that something would pull them down into the sewers.


    This was a serious matter. As such, even the Wang Consortium¡¯s higher-ups were rmed. Wang Shengzhi even specially sent a supernatural being over to the stronghold, but nothing came of the investigation.


    At this moment, the Public Order Division was holding an internal meeting to discuss this matter. Without getting into a discussion of whether there would be any arrests, they would first have to determine what could possibly be responsible for this.


    ¡°After the skeletal remains were examined, we found no human skeletons among them. This means that whatever was responsible for this does not eat humans.¡± A man wearing a pair of gold-rimmed sses said, ¡°I think it might be some mutated creature that lives in the sewers. However, we don¡¯t really need to be afraid since it doesn¡¯t eat humans. It could be that it¡¯s smaller than humans, so it fears us instead.¡±


    But at this moment, someone barged in from outside and said, ¡°Bad news! Someone from the Public Order Division has gone missing after the search in the sewers!¡±


    ...


    At the bottom of East Lake, a school of fish had gathered near the copsed tunnel in the dark waters and were greedily feeding on the blood seeping out of the caved-in rocks.


    No one had expected that the hundreds of people who died in the tunnel would end up as nutrients for the fish in East Lake. This was especially true for the blood of supernatural beings whose scent sent the fish into a frenzy.


    At the bottom of the ruinedke, dense shoals of fish, turtles, water snakes, frogs, crabs, and freshwater shrimp were swimming among the rocks.


    A human tragedy had be a feast for the creatures at the bottom of theke. However, it was still very difficult for them to reach the human corpses that were buried under the ruins.


    All of a sudden, swarms of fish scattered in panic. A huge creature was approaching in the darkness. When it opened its mouth, a great number of fish were sucked into its mouth. The fish in East Lake were so frightened by this new arrival of an overlord that they did not dare to get near it, yet they were also reluctant to leave.


    The huge creature swam to the bottom of theke where it shoved aside a part of the tunnel¡¯s ruins with its body and revealed the human corpses underneath.


    The bottom of theke turned turbid as a tremendous amount of silt got stirred up inside theke.


    However, the swarms of fish started swimming forward in a frenzy. Meanwhile, that huge creature calmly started picking its food without a hurry. It was as though it only chose supernatural beings to eat.


    On the shore of East Lake, the staff from Stronghold 73¡¯s Public Order Division had already set up a blockade to prohibit stronghold residents from approaching. So no one noticed undercurrents were crazily surging up from the bottom of theke.


    After that huge creature had its fill, it quietly remained at the bottom of theke and waited for its next meal.


    In this moment of silence, no one knew the flesh and blood of superhumans had be the key that opened the door to the world of a new biological order.


    It was a much more dangerous and mysterious world.

 Chapter 554 - Through thick and thin

    <h4>Chapter 554 Through thick and thin</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu was strolling through the streets of Stronghold 74, the farthest west of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s strongholds.This ce was obviously not as prosperous as Stronghold 73. And for some reason, Stronghold 74 was already in lockdown, with military vehicles constantly traversing the streets.


    Based on the news he had read in the papers, the Zhou Consortium had already mobilized two brigades to garrison Stronghold 74. So the number of troops here had already exceeded 10,000 in strength. However, no one knew what was really happening here and why the Zhou Consortium would make such a move.


    Based on the analysis by Hope Media¡¯smentators, the Qing Consortium was the closest organization to Stronghold 74, with the distance, as the crow flew, between the Zhou Consortium and the Qing Consortium measuring only 500 kilometers. However, as the two organizations were separated by a mountain range, they did not have any dealings in the past.


    Now that the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops were garrisoned here, they were likely guarding against the Qing Consortium. After all, the Qing Consortium had already unified the entire Southwest and became the most powerful organization in the entire Alliance of Strongholds.


    At the very least, the Qing Consortium controlled thergestnd area based on the territory it upied.


    At this moment, the atmosphere in Stronghold 74 was very tense, and the stronghold residents were extremely nervous. Ren Xiaosu even saw the patrolling soldiers conducting a search on the provisions stores one by one and requisitioning food from them.


    However, the owners of the provisions stores did not protest against this. Shops like the provisions stores were all owned by the Zhou Consortium, while the shopkeepers were only employees working under them. Now that all the food was being requisitioned, they couldn¡¯t feel happier.


    While Ren Xiaosu was walking the streets, a patrol squad suddenly came across him. When they walked past Ren Xiaosu, the patrol squad stopped him. One of the soldiers wondered, ¡°Are you of age? Lemme check your resident ID. All adult males have to join the temporary conscription to dobor.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned on the spot. ¡°I¡¯m not of age. I¡¯m still young.¡±


    ¡°Then show me your ID card,¡± the soldier said.


    Ren Xiaosu had really not expected to encounter a situation like this when he sneaked into the stronghold. Nothing had happened to him before even though he infiltrated into a ce with surveince cameras like the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold.


    ¡°Sir, I¡¯m really not of age,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    As he spoke, he looked around to see if there was a chance to run away.


    But as soon as he finished speaking, the patrol squad was already starting to surround him. There were another seven or eight patrol squads on the entire street. If a fight broke out here, he would probably be wanted throughout the stronghold.


    The patrol squad did not even want to check his ID card anymore. The squad leader sneered, ¡°Since you¡¯re too afraid to show your ID, you must be an adult and are trying to avoid the temporary conscription. Men, take him away to the construction site!¡±


    With that, a group of soldiers came over and started getting rough with Ren Xiaosu. One of them even took out a pair of handcuffs.


    Suddenly, a convoy of vehicles drove over from afar. It looked like they had just driven into the stronghold.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the convoy, he immediately felt ufortable. Weren¡¯t these the tour group¡¯s vehicles? Why would Stronghold 74 let them in when it was still in lockdown?


    He realized this tour group must be his jinx. No matter where he went, they were always able to catch up to him.


    Of course, he did not know they were only able to get in because of Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s reputation.


    In the Central ins, well-known figures like Mu Wan¡¯ge and Li Ran had a decent reputation wherever they went. Furthermore, the concert promoter in the stronghold had also stepped in to help. If Li Ran could not get in, wouldn¡¯t that mean the concert would have to be canceled?


    After getting into the stronghold, the concert promoter even specifically instructed them to stay in the hotel and avoid going out for the next few days. He was also unsure of what had gotten into the Zhou Consortium as they busily started conscripting adult males in the stronghold. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that the concert promoter had bought himself an official position in the stronghold, he would have had to go to work at the construction site as well.


    What the concert promoter meant was that they could only hold the concert after this period had passed.


    However, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why they would still think about the concert when war was descending upon Stronghold 74. Were they going to perform for the troops? As if the soldiers would pay for the tickets!


    The people in the vehicles obviously saw Ren Xiaosu, but the convoy had no intention of stopping at all.


    When the convoy passed by, Ren Xiaosu saw Li Ran gloating at him through the window as though she had already guessed why he was being arrested.


    Li Ran was absolutely delighted to see this. Even though she was a famous celebrity, Ren Xiaosu actually knocked her unconscious when she presented herself in his room in the middle of the night one time. On yet another asion, he simply refused to open the door for her when she went to look for him. How could she possibly tolerate those things?


    As such, Li Ran felt so happy she could die when she saw that Ren Xiaosu had been temporarily conscripted to work at the construction site!


    As Ren Xiaosu watched the convoy pass by, Li Ran even made a face at him from inside the car. Ren Xiaosu said to the patrol squad detaining him, ¡°Were y¡¯all ordered to carry out the conscription? Do y¡¯all have to fulfill a quota set by your higher-ups?¡±


    ¡°Cut the shit.¡± The leader of the patrol squad said, ¡°It¡¯s useless to say anything now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly pointed at the convoy and shouted, ¡°I can see many adult males in those cars through the windows.¡±


    Fang Zhi was confused.


    The patrol squad turned their heads and looked at the vehicles. Someone asked the other soldiers, ¡°Do you guys recognize those cars? Do they belong to anyone important in the stronghold?¡±


    ¡°No, I know the cars of all the important figures. I can even recite their license tes by heart,¡± someone said.


    In the end, ten minutester, Fang Zhi and the others were escorted to the construction site alongside Ren Xiaosu.


    Of those in the concert tour group, Mu Wan¡¯ge was the only male who did not get taken away. The rest were forcefully detained by the patrol squads.


    If it were any other troops in the stronghold, they probably wouldn¡¯t have done that. However, the brigademander in charge of the patrols in the stronghold was a family member of the Zhou Consortium, so he didn¡¯t care if there were directors or actors in the group. Besides, it was not like the patrols hadid a finger on the director or actors. All they did was conscript a few crew members of the tour group; that was all.


    Coincidentally, this Zhou Consortium¡¯s brigademander had previously tried to set up a dinner with an actress through Mu Wan¡¯ge. However, Mu Wan¡¯ge did not even bother with him at that time.


    In the eyes of thismander, he considered it very polite of him to not haveid a finger on Mu Wan¡¯ge this time. More importantly, he was worried he would end up in the headlines of the entertainment section of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper tomorrow.


    As Ren Xiaosu walked, he was thinking the Zhou Consortium must have encountered some terrifying enemies this time. Otherwise, they would not be acting like this.


    He noticed that even the soldiers were acting a little nervous.


    But what kinds of enemies could the Zhou Consortium be facing?


    Li Ran was dumbfounded to see Fang Zhi taken away for hardbor. Zhou Yingxue was chuckling next to her. She knew full well that her master would not tolerate othersughing at him while he was down on his luck.


    Fang Zhi was nearly in tears as he walked alongside Ren Xiaosu. ¡°It was Li Ran whoughed at you just now. I didn¡¯t even make a sound. What did I do to deserve this!¡±


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu had instructed Zhou Yingxue to find the best hotel in the stronghold to stay at. This was so that he could locate thendmark easily after he escaped from the construction site. As it would probably get chaotic in Stronghold 74, it would be best for them not to get involved in the mess here. Furthermore, he wanted her to find out what exactly was going to happen in Stronghold 74.

 Chapter 555 - Investigative reporter

    <h4>Chapter 555 Investigative reporter</h4>


    The patrol squad escorted Ren Xiaosu, Fang Zhi, and the others to the edge of the stronghold. The nonessential residences had already been cleared out and demolished, and new defensive fortifications were currently being built.


    This area used to be a clean and tidy street, and there were small shops and old residential buildings around six stories high that stood on the road. But now the residential buildings and shops had all disappeared. In their ce was ground covered in dust and dirt with half-built bunkers and some simple machine gun nests.


    Such defensive fortifications were for defending against enemies in a battle once the stronghold walls got breached. But looking at the state of things, how were they supposed to fight this way?


    Furthermore, the stronghold gate was sealed shut as well.


    ¡°Why¡¯d they seal the gate?¡± Fang Zhi asked in surprise, ¡°We came in through the east gate this morning. It wasn¡¯t shut over there.¡±


    They were north of the stronghold, which had four city gates in total. Right now, the north gate had already beenpletely sealed shut with some concrete analogue. Ren Xiaosu had a look at it and saw the material was not fully dry yet. It looked to him like the gate had just been sealed in the past two days.


    No one from the patrol squad next to them answered. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was thinking that war might really be breaking out soon. Why else would they seal the gate for no reason?


    The east gate was perhaps the only city gate that was not sealed off in the entire stronghold. Could it be that the enemy was going to attack from the west? And that was why the Zhou Consortium only left the east gate untouched?


    When they arrived at the construction site, Ren Xiaosu and the others were made to carry bricks and assist the Engineering Corps in building the defensive fortifications.


    While carrying bricks, Ren Xiaosu also kept an eye on what the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops were up to.


    First of all, they collected the transported supplies and consolidated them under the troops¡¯ supervision. Usually, this signaled that a very tough war was impending.


    Second, they nted naval mines in the river that ran through the stronghold. These mines even seemed to have been specially transported here from the other strongholds.


    There were manykes and rivers in the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory, while the Wang Consortium¡¯s regions were dominated by ins. As for the Kong Consortium, they were connected to the sea. These were the geographies of the three consortiums. As such, the Zhou Consortium was more versed in the research and development of underwater weapons.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could not understand what was going on even after watching for a long time. What on earth were they guarding against? They actually had to nt mines in the water? Normal troops would not be getting into the stronghold through the canal, right?


    While they were working, Ren Xiaosu did not feel tired at all. With his physical fitness, this little bit of work was nothing to him.


    But Fang Zhi and the others were so tired they nearly died. When they went to collect their lunches, Fang Zhi¡¯s hands were trembling as he held the stic meal tray given out by the Zhou Consortium.


    Fang Zhi grumbled, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, we were just having augh in the car. Why did you have to stoop this low? Wait a minute, weren¡¯t you working too? Why don¡¯t you look tired?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°You people don¡¯t usually do any physicalbor at all. When danger reallyes, y¡¯all will never be able to run away. It¡¯s for your own good that you can get some training now.¡±


    ¡°What the hell are you talking about?¡± Fang Zhi was speechless. ¡°The Central ins is such a safe ce, and we don¡¯t even see any wild animals around anymore, so where¡¯s the danger that you¡¯re talking about?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pointed to the ground. ¡°Isn¡¯t Stronghold 74 already facing imminent danger?¡±


    Fang Zhi had a look at the massive defensive fortifications around him. It seemed like that was really that case. He asked, ¡°What on earth is going on here? Is the Qing Consortiuming to attack soon?¡±


    ¡°I dunno.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t have enough info to judge.¡±


    A momentter, someone in the crowd was suddenly singled out and pulled aside by a site supervisor. Then he snatched away a small camera that was hidden in that person¡¯s pocket and said, ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    The person who was pulled aside dered proudly, ¡°I¡¯m an investigative reporter, and I¡¯m documenting everything all of you are doing. You¡¯ve been pressing the stronghold residents into work asborers, yet you don¡¯t intend to pay them their wages¡ª¡±


    But before he could finish speaking, the site supervisor stopped the reporter and invited him into the shade before changing his meal to a better one. However, that reporter¡¯s camera was confiscated.


    As Ren Xiaosu, Fang Zhi, and the others watched from afar, they saw the supervisor sending a subordinate to get a red packet, which he then handed to the reporter. That reporter epted it and did not mention the investigation anymore.


    Fang Zhi adjusted his sses. ¡°That is definitely not an investigative reporter from Hope Media. He has no principles.¡±


    ¡°They resolved the matter with just a red packet?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That reporter probably came here intending to extort money. There¡¯s many reporters like him in the Central ins, and they always im to be investigating some of the troublesome issues around. However, they¡¯re really just aiming to collect some bribes,¡± Fang Zhi exined.


    ¡°Oh, I see. What about Hope Media? From what you¡¯ve just said, it sounds like Hope Media is different?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The chief editor of Hope Media used to be an investigative reporter.¡± Fang Zhi said with admiration, ¡°He hid in the coal mines of the Kong Consortium to document the mistreatment of coal miners. Because of this incident, he was beaten up several times. After he escaped, all he wanted was to report the things he heard and saw there, but no newspaper firms dared to run his story. It was only at this point that he approached Xu Ke of the Qinghe Group. At that time, Xu Ke had just taken over the organization. Allegedly, Xu Ke and the chief editor hit it off right from the start. Xu Ke said that since no newspaper firms dared to run the story, they could set up their own newspaper firm to report about it, and that was how Hope Media came into existence.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened with keen interest. Across from him, Fang Zhi continued with a sigh, ¡°Of course, that¡¯s just an urban myth that¡¯s been circting, but Hope Media has always been unyielding in whatever they do.... Eh, I have a reporter¡¯s pass as well!¡±


    Fang Zhi came back to his senses at this moment. He had also applied for a reporter¡¯s pass. Of course, he was not looking to be a reporter, but it was useful to him as Li Ran¡¯s assistant since it made matters easier to handle. A lot of celebrities¡¯ assistants also held many titles that were purchased with money.


    Fang Zhi rummaged through his wallet for the pass. If he could show his identification to the troops, he would not have to do any morebor.


    Other things aside, not having to work in the construction site was the most important.


    Fang Zhi took out a card with his photo on it from his wallet and shouted to the site supervisor, ¡°I¡¯m also¡ª¡±


    But before he could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu took his reporter¡¯s pass away and tore it up. ¡°No, you¡¯re not.¡±


    Fang Zhi was confused.


    Ren Xiaosu exined in a low voice, ¡°I¡¯ll take y¡¯all to find Li Ran and the others tonight. If you get taken away now, you¡¯ll be left alone at the construction site after we leave. Are you willing to risk that?¡±


    Fang Zhi said skeptically, ¡°You want to help us escape?¡±


    ¡°Do you think I want to work here? Don¡¯t worry, the stronghold is really big. Even if we run away, the Zhou Consortium won¡¯t have the resources to search the entire stronghold for us.¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°But before we leave, there¡¯s still something we need to do.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remembered the tour group was only carrying enough food tost everyone for at most two days. However, it was apparent that a war would be breaking out soon in Stronghold 74. All of the food was consolidated in the hands of the troops now. If they did not get some provisions for themselves, the entire tour group would go hungry in two days.

 Chapter 556 - Only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal

    <h4>Chapter 556 Only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal</h4>


    In the prodigious mountains in the west, the traces of human civilization had beenpletely erased by the vegetation.In the morning, Old Li and Qin Sheng set off and entered the mountains. They scurried across the uneven ground in the forested mountains as though they were traveling on t ground.When they speedily arrived at a canyon that was six to seven meters wide, they swiftly leaped across it like cats without batting an eyelid.


    It seemed they did not regard this canyon to be dangerous at all.


    Every time this happened, Qin Sheng would feel a sense of pride like he had conquered nature.


    But his teacher always reminded him that it was not possible for a human to conquer nature. What a Rider should seek to do was be a unique living creature that was a part of nature.


    Just as Old Li had said to Ren Xiaosu, he always believed that human beings should leave the strongholds so they could adapt to this world. If not, they would only get eliminated.


    That was how he lived as well.


    Slowly, as the two of them got closer to their destination, Qin Sheng¡¯s stamina was gradually depleting. Old Li stopped in his tracks and said with a smile, ¡°Since you aren¡¯t a true Rider yet, you should conserve your energy a little. You¡¯ll be required to scale a 600-meter-tall vertical cliff this time. It won¡¯t be easy to get to the top.¡±


    ¡°Teacher, must I really climb that high?¡± Qin Sheng said with a wry smile, ¡°Without any protective measures, I¡¯ll die if I fall from that height.¡±


    But Old Li didn¡¯t seem to care. ¡°As disciples of the Riders, how can you be afraid of death? This is about faith. Moreover, the height of 600 meters was determined by the Riders that came before. Why did they not set it at 500 or 700 meters? Because you can unlock your body¡¯s shackles at 600 meters, so it isn¡¯t necessary to climb higher than that. You should know that back then, that Rider had climbed to a height of 900 meters. You and I can¡¯t match his brilliance. However, 600 meters is the minimum height that has to be climbed, not one meter less.¡±


    The Rider Old Li was referring to was the founder of the Qinghe Group. Currently, in the Riders organization, everyone was a believer in the philosophy of the Riders. Besides putting their faith in the original Rider, they also sought to conquer nature by bing a part of it. All these years, they had been searching for the original Rider¡¯s descendant.


    The so-called secret to unlocking the gic code in a Rider¡¯s bodyy in the eight mysterious challenges that pushed the challenger to conquer nature and be a part of it.


    Among them was the Surge of Strength: Mountain biking.


    Birth of Sky: Skydiving.


    Life of Water: Extreme surfing.


    Life of Wind: Wingsuit flying.


    Currently, Qin Sheng was only left with thest challenge. Law of Attraction: Without any protective measures, he had to scale a 600-meter-tall cliff with only his bare hands.


    In fact, the Riders did not mind letting the outside world know about this secret. They just never publicized it before. However, these eight challenges had to bepleted by normal people in order to fully unlock the shackles in their bodies.


    If they did not have an extreme passion and faith during the process, it would be impossible toplete the eight challenges. If someone seeded inpleting them, they would be a member of the Riders as well, because they would understand there was something more to life after experiencing the original Rider¡¯s glory.


    Each of these eight challenges was a matter of life and death. They would have to go through near-death experiences before they could clear these thresholds.


    When Old Li looked at Qin Sheng¡¯s youthful face brimming with vigor, he was reminded of himself from 15 years ago.


    Now that he was 38 years old, he was no longer considered young. Although his body had be stronger after his gic code was unlocked, his mindset was destined to be different.


    The other members of the Riders probably had the same mindset as him. Their current wish was to find the original Rider¡¯s descendant. Although they did not have a chance to meet that Rider, they wanted to see if his descendant was cut from the same cloth.


    Looking at the 600-meter-tall cliff in front of him, Old Li said with a sigh, ¡°In recent years, we feel that there might not be any new Ridersing through in the future. Some people who attempted the wingsuit flying challenge after you were attacked by flying beasts while midair. As the various consortiums have stopped operating aircraft, skydiving has be impossible. The most difficult challenge is still surfing. They say a huge creature is often sighted devouring ships off the coast of the Kong Consortium¡¯s territory in recent times. Even going out to sea will be difficult, so don¡¯t mention surfing.¡±


    Not mentioning the difficulty of the challenge itself, just the conditions toplete them had be even harsher than before. If you could not even get into the sky, how could you skydive? In the process of parachuting down, there was even the possibility of being attacked by flying beasts. This was no longer a near-death experience but a sure-death experience.


    When Qin Sheng started the challenges, some people in their organization had already foreseen that these situations might happen. Therefore, they trained Qin Sheng toplete the other challenges first.


    As they passed through the forest, a smooth cliff suddenly appeared in front of them. Old Li was lost in thought as he looked at the cliff. In the past, he had also climbed up from here.


    Old Li said with a smile, ¡°When my uncle brought me here, I had the same thought as you. How could a human being climb this cliff? It was impossible to do, right? But as it turned out, I managed to do it. Qin Sheng, go on and climb it. Complete yourst challenge and be the final Rider.¡±


    Qin Sheng took off his heavy fall clothing and changed into his rock climbing shoes, vest, and shorts they had specially brought with them. He also attached a chalk bag to his belt. The chalk would prevent his palms from getting sweaty and increase the friction between his hands and the cliff wall.


    Old Li said with a smile, ¡°Do you still remember what I told you?¡±


    Qin Sheng nced at Old Li. ¡°I remember.... Only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal.¡±


    With that, Qin Sheng turned around and walked towards the mountain. Even at noon, the autumn sun did not feel scorching. Instead, it gave people a sense of warmth in the cold wind.


    Under normal circumstances, climbers would have to familiarize themselves with the route in advance for a free solo. It was necessary for the climber to be lowered down from the top with a rope bit by bit, not only to get familiarized with the route, but also to clear debris off the cliff walls.


    However, a lot of Riders had already climbed this cliff before. Qin Sheng could even see the subtle traces left on the cliff wall to deduce the route those Riders took back then. It was as though he had the guidance of his predecessors.


    At this moment, Qin Sheng turned around and looked at Old Li. It was as though the brilliant Riders from before were all standing behind and smiling at him.


    As he climbed the cliff, Qin Sheng¡¯s movements were like an agile ape. But when he reached the height of a 100 meters, Qin Sheng started to feel his stamina depleting quickly.


    As he stood there, he lodged his arm in a crevice on the stone wall and took a break while panting heavily. Looking up above him, it was as if there was no end to the cliff.


    Then Qin Sheng saw some words carved into the cliff beside him: Zhang Qingxi was here.


    Thinking about it, this should be where Brother Qingxi had rested when he scaled the wall. Qin Sheng smiled. Then he adjusted his breathing and continued to climb up.


    At this moment, it felt like the other Riders were climbing to the top of the cliff with him.


    Old Li started stretching at the bottom of the cliff. He began climbing up the cliff with a bundle of ropes on his back. But to a Rider like Old Li, it was no longer challenging to climb up a cliff like this. Rather, it felt more like a reminder of his youth.

 Chapter 557 - Isolated city

    <h4>Chapter 557 Isted city</h4>


    Free soloing is one of the most exhausting activities in extreme sports. In his climb, Qin Sheng took seven breaks, and he could even see the words left behind by his predecessors at every resting spot.As he made his way to the top, the names were like warm greetings that silently supported him.Old Li was following Qin Sheng at a speed that was neither fast nor slow. Old Li enjoyed not the joy of reaching the top but the pleasure of looking for the names of his old friends.


    After he went back and met up with his old friends, he would have a new conversation topic. ¡°Buddy, you rested eight times when you scaled the cliff back then. You really suck!¡±


    Old Li was not the only person with a sarcastic sense of humor. All Riders would develop this bad habit after being a part of this organization for some time.


    When Qin Sheng was at thest ten meters of his ascent, his arms were shaking. However, Old Li called out from below, ¡°Keep climbing. If you fall down now, there will be no more new Riders in the future!¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, Qin Sheng let out a fierce grunt and continued climbing upward.


    Several hours had already passed, and the afternoon sun was gradually setting behind the cliff.


    The wind in the mountains was starting to pick up, and their clothes were pping loudly in the wind. Qin Sheng climbed up as though he were chasing the fading afterglow of the sunset.


    Old Li did not help him because every Rider had to take their own path.


    He remembered when the original Rider first established the organization, he once said to a senior member of the Riders, ¡°This is where we part ways. From here on out, I will no longer interfere with what you do.¡±


    At this moment, Qin Sheng¡¯s right hand grabbed the edge of the cliff. Using thest bit of his strength, he pulled his entire body up with his right hand as support. As heid at the top of the cliff and gasped violently for breath, he suddenly noticed a dense inscription on the ground.


    There were names at the end of every sentence. Zhang Qingxi, Li Yingyun, Huang Xiaoyu, Wen Meng, Wu Dingyuan, Luo Yunxian, Xu Ke...


    There were a total of 32 familiar names.


    Old Li¡¯s real name was Li Yingyun, while Xu Ke¡¯s name surprised Qin Sheng. Honestly, probably no one in the rest of the world knew that Xu Ke was also a member of the Riders. Only those who had made it to the top of this cliff could see the names that were clearly engraved here.


    Everyone wrote the same thing: ¡°Only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal.¡±


    Qin Sheng was stunned. He realized someone had etched tworge words before any of those other inscriptions. However, no name was signed.


    ¡°Forever young.¡±


    These words stood out.


    Qin Sheng immediately turned to look at Old Li, who had just arrived at the top. ¡°Did that Rider really die when The Cataclysm urred?¡±


    Old Li shook his head and said with a smile, ¡°I don¡¯t know either, I really don¡¯t know.¡±


    Qin Sheng turned around and looked at the words ¡°forever young.¡± This cliff was the most suitable ce for the Riders to face their challenge and had only been discovered by his predecessors after The Cataclysm. But why would these words appear here?


    All generations of the Riders had signed their names after writing here, except for the one that said ¡°forever young.¡± So there were not just 32 Riders in the organization. Including that unknown person, there should be a total of 33.


    Old Li said next to him, ¡°Your vision should not be limited to what¡¯s in front of you.¡±


    The young Qin Sheng jerked his head up to face the western horizon. The setting sun¡¯s rays were shining through the clouds in the distance. When the magnificent clouds suddenly parted, the golden rays shone down like a sea of light.


    Then a cracking sound suddenly came from the young Qin Sheng¡¯s body. Old Li startedughing in a pleased manner.


    It seemed that some kind of shackle had been unlocked as a huge and powerful force swept through Qin Sheng¡¯s body like a torrent.


    Old Li smiled and said, ¡°Qin Sheng, you¡¯re thest Rider.¡±


    But suddenly, the sound of gunfire rang out from the mountains in the distance. Old Li and Qin Sheng turned around to look. The anguished wails of humans followed after the gunshots. Who could be fighting in the mountains? Could it be that the Qing Consortium and the Zhou Consortium have started engaging in war?


    A momentter, a gray figure climbed to the peak of a nearby mountain. Old Li frowned when he saw that figure had climbed up at a shockingly fast speed. The physical strength of the other party was probably evenparable to that of a Rider!


    The gray figure standing at the top of the mountain across from them did not have any hair or even eyebrows. The other party looked quietly at Old Li and Qin Sheng with a gaze like that of a normal, callous human being.


    The description might not be urate, because in Old Li¡¯s opinion, the other party was almost the same as a human being except for its telltale skin color.


    It was an Experimental!


    This word immediately shed across Old Li¡¯s mind. They had heard of the Experimentals before. After all, they were known to be wreaking havoc in the Southwest for a long time now.


    But Old Li could not understand why the Experimentals would suddenlye to the Central ins.


    Besides, didn¡¯t they say Experimentals moved in a reptilian-like crawl? Why was this Experimental in front of them so special then? It even had an expressive gaze in its eyes like that of human beings?


    Old Li stood upright in confrontation with the other party. However, the Experimental actually smiled at Old Li before heading back down the mountain. It seemed like it had climbed to the summit just to take a look at them.


    After the Experimental left, Old Li immediately secured the rope he had brought up with him to the summit. ¡°Let¡¯s leave here quickly. We have to inform the Zhou Consortium about the arrival of the Experimentals. If Stronghold 74 is caught unprepared, I¡¯m afraid that everyone in the stronghold will be in trouble!¡±


    In that instant, a scene of the stronghold residents wailing in anguish appeared in Old Li¡¯s mind. It was a sight no humans wanted to see.


    Just before they headed back down the mountain, Old Li even purposely turned around and took a look. He saw in the distance a dense group of Experimentals crazily surging forward in the valley. The number of Experimentals covering the entire wilderness was probably close to 10,000 strong.


    Even someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Old Li could feel his scalp going numb at the sight of this. How did the number of Experimentals grow so rapidly?!


    They could only pray the garrison troops of Stronghold 74 were sufficient!


    As Old Li and Qin Sheng sprinted towards Stronghold 74, Qin Sheng¡¯s joy at bing a Rider vanished.


    When they arrived at the stronghold gate, Old Li did not hide his identity and directly produced his Riders¡¯ identification. Then he told the Zhou Consortium troops that there was arge number of Experimentals right behind them. Even by their most conservative estimate, there were still around 6,000 of them!


    But before they could exin further, the Zhou Consortium troops suddenly received news that the brigade sent from Stronghold 73 to reinforce their defenses had been ambushed by the Experimentals. More than half of the reinforcements had been injured or killed and were retreating back to Stronghold 73!


    As it was already dark, that brigade did not even manage to figure out how many Experimentals they were ambushed by. Before they received more precise intelligence about the Experimentals, the troops from Stronghold 73 could only wait until they were joined by more soldiers beforeing over to reinforce Stronghold 74¡¯s defenses.


    In other words, Stronghold 74 would be an isted city for at least the next seven days!


    Old Li said in a solemn voice, ¡°The Experimentals behind us can¡¯t run faster than us, so that must be another group of Experimentals that ambushed your troops. They¡¯re attacking the stronghold from both the east and the west. If that¡¯s really the case, then we must be prepared that their numbers exceed 10,000!¡±

 Chapter 558 - To leave or not to leave

    <h4>558 To leave or not to leave</h4>


    When Old Li and Qin Sheng finished the free solo challenge, it was already evening. By the time they got back to Stronghold 74 to ry the news, it was already veryte at night.


    When the news was ryed back that the reinforcements from Stronghold 73 had been ambushed, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops fell silent. Old Li asked, ¡°Since the Qing Consortium had informed you all beforehand, why didn¡¯t you deploy more troops over here?¡±


    Themander of the Zhou Consortium troops at Stronghold 74 replied, ¡°Originally, we wanted to mobilize more troops here, but didn¡¯t something happen at Stronghold 73 a while ago too? Who would¡¯ve expected something like this to happen? If not for the cave-in at East Lake in Stronghold 73, the reinforcements would¡¯ve already arrived.¡±


    Old Li fell silent because the Riders were also involved in the incident at Stronghold 73. Although it was only one of their members who went there, they were involved nheless. So strictly speaking, everyone with an ulterior motive at Stronghold 73 that day were aplices to the Experimentals.


    But while Old Li thought like this, others did not. For example, Ren Xiaosu simply felt that the incident was caused by the Pyro Company and the Anjing House and had nothing to do with him at all.


    In the middle of the night, the Zhou Consortium troops in the stronghold deployed all their soldiers to the defensive fortifications even though it was already bedtime, leaving only a small number of soldiers with rotational breaks.


    Based on the Qing Consortium¡¯s intelligence reports, a few thousand Experimentals were already enough to cause a headache for them in their previous encounters. Their skin and muscles were so tough that not even bullets could prate, so they had to resort to using heavy machine guns.


    But the Experimentals were also capable of moving very quickly. They could easily dodge their fire and get into the shooters¡¯ blind spots while normal soldiers could not react fast enough to keep up with their movements.


    When the speed and strength of the enemy were more than twice that of ordinary soldiers, they would have a feeling of being overwhelmed on the battlefield.


    It would feel like the normal soldiers were moving in ¡°slow motion¡± while the Experimentals were moving at a normal speed. Even if they possessed firearms, they would still suffer heavy casualties while fighting in that situation.


    Although the soldiers could kill a lot of Experimentals, the Experimentals did not care about casualties at all. They could just turn the stronghold residents into Experimentals to make up for their losses after taking over the stronghold!


    Old Li nced at Qin Sheng and said, ¡°By rights, you should go to a town immediately and live there for a year once you be a Rider. You can¡¯t use your power or even use the skills I¡¯ve taught you to survive in the wilderness. But at a critical moment like this, you and I should help the Zhou Consortium defend against external enemies first.¡±


    Qin Sheng nodded at that. He understood the seriousness of the situation.


    There wasn¡¯t really anyone around the town outside the stronghold anymore. Even the refugees had already been shifted into the stronghold to help build the defensive fortifications. This was probably the first time the refugees had stepped foot in the stronghold, but they were made to wear an anklet tracker.


    After all, the refugees would still have to leave the stronghold after the war was over.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was leading Fang Zhi and the others quietly towards the perimeter of the construction site. He whispered, ¡°Do y¡¯all have any other valuables on you?¡±


    Fang Zhi nodded and said, ¡°We managed to gather 30,000 yuan in cash and five watches.¡± Fang Zhi was visibly feeling the pinch. His own watch was very expensive and cost him more than 200,000 yuan.


    Ren Xiaosu first used his watch to trade for some food. The officer in charge of watching over the grain supplies grinned from ear to ear. These supplies were not his own but the Zhou Consortium¡¯s rations, after all. Since he could get a branded watch in exchange for some of these grains, he could not be happier to oblige.


    Ren Xiaosu traded for around a dozen bags of grains, which would be enough to sustain them for at least half a month. However, Ren Xiaosu did not put it away into his storage space. Instead, he made Fang Zhi and the others carry them.


    Immediately after, Ren Xiaosu used the remaining 30,000 yuan and five watches to bribe the supervisor of the construction site to allow them to leave.


    The officer in charge of supervising the construction site even specifically instructed them not to head out after returning home. If they were caught and made toe back here again, not even the gods could help them.


    There were more than 2,000 people at the construction site where Ren Xiaosu and the others were working. It had so many conscripted workers there was not even a ce to house them all, so they could only sleep on the ground.


    Therefore, no one would realize it even if a dozen-odd people disappeared.


    When Fang Zhi walked out of the construction site, he felt extremely puzzled. ¡°We got out so easily? They let us go just like that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°They only brought you here to work, not line you up to be executed. There¡¯s already so many people working there, so it¡¯s not like they miss the few of us. It¡¯s the private troops who¡¯re supervising the construction site, and you know how they are, don¡¯t you?¡±


    In recent years, the various consortiums had been gradually downsizing the number of private troops. In another few years, they might not even be around anymore.


    ording to Zhang Jinglin, stronghold overseers used to be elected at the beginning. As the consortiums were still not strong at that time, some stronghold overseers could even rival the consortiums with the private troops under their control.


    But gradually, as the consortiums grew more and more powerful, the status of the overseers became weaker and weaker. Even though they controlled the private troops, that only served as a proverbial loincloth for the overseers. In the end, their power was even further corroded by the highly addictive cigarettes the consortiums supplied.


    In the current day, the consortiums had started recing the overseers. For example, Luo Lan was secretly in charge of an entire stronghold even though he did not hold an official post in Stronghold 113 in the past.


    And now, the consortiums openly took over all the strongholds. So, there was no reason for the private troops to exist.


    Many officers in the private troops had also realized this point. They knew very well that the consortiums would not want to keep good-for-nothings like them under their payroll. In that case, they might as well earn whatever money they could so they would have nothing to worry about for the rest of their lives.


    The group walked stealthily in the streets. From time to time, they even had to follow Ren Xiaosu¡¯s lead to avoid any military vehicles that passed by. It took them two hours to get to the hotel where Li Ran and the others were staying. Along the way, Ren Xiaosu kept feeling that something was not quite right tonight. The stronghold was especially ¡°active,¡± and it felt as if a war would be breaking out immediately.


    Ever since Li Ran and the others got to the hotel, they had been waiting in the hotel lobby. Li Ran had wanted to go back to her own room, but Zhou Yingxue insisted they sit in the lobby to wait. She said it was impossible that Ren Xiaosu would stay at the construction site for too long and that he might escape as soon as it turned dark.


    As expected, Zhou Yingxue rushed over happily to Ren Xiaosu when she saw him. However, she was turned off by the sweaty stench of this group of people.


    Li Ran pinched her nose. ¡°Hurry up and go take a shower.¡±


    ¡°How can we still be in the mood to take a shower?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Pack up your belongings immediately. We have to leave the stronghold tonight.¡±


    ¡°Why do we have to leave the stronghold?¡± Li Ran eximed. ¡°We just arrived, and the concert hasn¡¯t even been held yet.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu cast an eye at her. She was really oblivious about the seriousness of the situation. Why would she still be thinking of the concert at such a time!


    He said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Use your power to make a tunnel leading outside the walls or something. We¡¯ll leave through that.¡±


    ¡°A tunnel?¡± Fang Zhi asked doubtfully, ¡°How wide is the tunnel?¡±


    ¡°Wide enough for a person to pass through.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Fang Zhi.


    ¡°What about our loudspeakers and instruments?¡± Fang Zhi eximed, ¡°Even a single trumpet of ours is worth more than a 100,000 yuan!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded by what he said. He had not expected instruments to be so expensive.


    Next to them, one of the ten inclothes guards from the Wang Consortium said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s necessary for us to leave. Even if the Qing Consortium attacks this ce, they won¡¯t do anything to the stronghold residents, so we can just stay in the hotel without worries. There¡¯s nothing to be afraid of. When the timees, I can liaise with them as an officer of the Wang Consortium, and they¡¯ll definitely let us go. After all, the Qing Consortium will not want to offend the Wang Consortium after just dering war on the Zhou Consortium.¡±

 Chapter 559 - Attack of the Experimentals

    <strong>Chapter 559 Attack of the Experimentals</strong>


    The inclothes guard spoke with logic and reason. What he was trying to say was that they did not have to listen to Ren Xiaosu.


    Moreover, he really convinced the others as well. Fang Zhi pulled Zhou Yingxue over and said, ¡°I think they¡¯re right. We don¡¯t actually have to leave at all. If the Qing Consortium attacks, the Wang Consortium¡¯s officer can handle them. Everything will be fine since there¡¯s absolutely no reason for the Qing Consortium to dere war on the entire Central ins.¡±


    Fang Zhi did not say this to Ren Xiaosu. Instead, he spoke to Zhou Yingxue because Ren Xiaosu was her assistant, so he would definitely have to listen to her.


    But when Ren Xiaosu heard that, he could not help but get angry.


    If it were really the Qing Consortiuming to attack, it would be fine. He was just afraid that the enemy was not the Qing Consortium!


    If it were the Qing Consortium invading Stronghold 74, why would Ren Xiaosu run away? He could walk brazenly in the stronghold at that time, alright? When the time came, there wouldn¡¯t even be a need for the Wang Consortium officers to liaise with them. After all, he was still an active officer in the Qing Consortium¡¯s army!


    Back at Position 313, Ren Xiaosu gave the defensive deployment map to Qing Zhen and helped Luo Lan on many asions. Luo Lan even said he could make Ren Xiaosu a general, but Ren Xiaosu turned down his offer. He did not want any official positions; just money would do.


    Luo Lan said he would keep the post for him anyway, and he could take the position as and when he felt like it.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the few inclothes officers who were speaking so confidently as if they had the authority to negotiate with the Qing Consortium. Right now, Ren Xiaosu was most afraid the enemy was not the Qing Consortium.


    After all, Luo Lan had only recently be friends with the Zhou Consortium. He also understood that Qing Zhen was not someone who liked starting wars. Since the Zhou Consortium did not dere war on the Qing Consortium, why would Qing Zhen have his soldiers travel 500 kilometers over mountain paths to the Central ins for no reason? Did he think it would be fun?


    All of a sudden, a bell rang out in Stronghold 74. Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He asked Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Do the bells in the Central ins have the same meaning as the ones in the Southwest and Northwest?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue whispered, ¡°Yes, they mean the same thing. It¡¯s signaling that the stronghold is in danger.¡±


    A patrol squad drove past outside with a loudspeaker ring, ¡°All stronghold residents are to stay at home. You will not be allowed toe outside without permission. If you encounter any unknown creatures, please inform the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops by telephone as soon as possible. Thendline number is 077.¡±


    All residents of the stronghold had andline telephone in their homes. Ren Xiaosu and the others had also used one when they were running the clinic.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that, his expression immediately sank. He looked at Li Ran and the inclothes guards and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to leave. We can¡¯t escape anymore.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could roughly guess who wasing to attack Stronghold 74. Other than terrifying creatures like the Experimentals, there was probably nothing else that could make a consortium fear they were facing a formidable foe.


    If there were really Experimentals outside the stronghold, the wilderness would be the most dangerous ce to be right now.


    As for what the inclothes guard had said about no stronghold residentsing to harm no matter who attacked the stronghold, that was even more ridiculous. The Experimentals were absolutely the kind that would massacre everyone.


    When Zhou Yingxue noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s serious expression, she quickly asked, ¡°Just what on earth ising to attack?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Since you¡¯re also from the Southwest, you must¡¯ve heard of the Experimentals...¡±


    Zhou Yingxue also nched. After all, the Experimentals had already destroyed several strongholds in the Southwest.


    Immediately, Zhou Yingxue said to Li Ran, ¡°The mission only requires us to protect you, so you have to leave with us now. If you want to live, don¡¯t worry about the others.¡±


    Li Ran turned a little panicky and looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was standing off to the side. However, Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He was frowning while thinking about something.


    Next to them, one of the inclothes guards said unhappily when he heard Zhou Yingxue¡¯s words, ¡°You were only hired to boost the image of our client. Do you really think Ms. Ranran needs your protection? She¡¯ll stay with us and no one will be able to hurt her, because we¡¯re active military personnel!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue gave that inclothes guard a cold stare. ¡°How¡¯re you going to protect Li Ran when your guns have been confiscated by the Zhou Consortium? Besides, it¡¯s still a question whether you¡¯ve been on a real battlefield before!¡±


    Then Li Ran asked Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Is the situation really that terrible? I can pay you more, so please just protect all of us?¡±


    The inclothes guard stopped her and said, ¡°Why do you want to pay them more? She¡¯s only a superhuman! Besides, we haven¡¯t even seen her use her power, so who knows if her reputation precedes her?¡±


    Li Ran did not listen to him and continued asking Zhou Yingxue, ¡°I can pay more. Will you agree?¡±


    To Li Ran¡¯s surprise, Zhou Yingxue turned her head and looked at Ren Xiaosu. It was as if she were asking for his opinion.


    Li Ran suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu was not her assistant at all. Why else would Zhou Yingxue need to consult her assistant on what to do next?


    But thinking of this, Li Ran felt that everything made sense now. Even Zhou Yingxue could not stop Ren Xiaosu from acting on his own throughout the tour. If he were just a lowly assistant, how could he possibly act so recklessly?


    As he spoke, Mu Wan¡¯ge stepped out of the hotel elevator. He only ran down from his hotel room when he heard themotion outside. As such, he wanted to meet up with the rest of the group to decide on what to do next.


    Sensing the tense atmosphere in the hotel lobby, Mu Wan¡¯ge asked what was going on. In the end, a crew member told him the stronghold might get attacked by some unknown creatures that were extremely strong. And right now, Li Ran was requesting that Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu protect everyone, but the inclothes guards did not allow it.


    When Mu Wan¡¯ge heard this, he immediately turned to Ren Xiaosu and nearly grabbed his hands. He said sincerely, ¡°I have money, please protect me. My life is dedicated to art, not to be sacrificed to monsters.¡±


    Everyone in the lobby was stunned. When Li Ran saw Mu Wan¡¯ge approaching Ren Xiaosu directly instead of Zhou Yingxue, she was not surprised at all. This made more sense now.


    If not, why would Mu Wan¡¯ge keep insisting on having Ren Xiaosu appear in his movie? And even chased him all the way to Stronghold 74?


    Only this could exin everything!


    This time, Mu Wan¡¯ge had only brought two crew members along with him, with most of those in the group being Li Ran¡¯s people. All in all, there were 30 of them.


    Ren Xiaosu was not interested in saving so many people. Furthermore, if the Experimentals were to invade into the stronghold, 90% of the people in this city would die. Why would he care about others at a time like this? With such arge group of people, shouldn¡¯t they be more afraid the Experimentals would find them more easily?


    In actual fact, Ren Xiaosu had also realized the Experimentals were not so thorough in their search of a stronghold. So, even though the strongholds in the Southwest had been invaded by the Experimentals before, a few survivors still managed to escape. Ren Xiaosu thought that if the Experimentals were to really breach the stronghold, he could make use of Zhou Yingxue¡¯s power to create a small underground refuge to take shelter in. The Zhou Consortium could not possibly give up Stronghold 74 entirely. Once the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops drove the Experimentals away, they coulde out of the underground refuge.


    But was it really that simple?

 Chapter 560 - Predicamen

    <h4>560 Predicamen</h4>


    There was barely any staff left in the hotel, with only one or two people staying behind to look after the ce while the rest of their colleagues went home to their families.


    While Li Ran and the others were sitting in the hotel lobby in a daze, gunshots suddenly rang out outside the stronghold. To be precise, it came from the top of the stronghold walls.


    The inclothes guards from the Wang Consortium were standing at the hotel¡¯s entrance and had been discussing how to get their hands on some weapons. They wondered if they could contact the Wang Consortium to get them to liaise with the Zhou Consortium to return the weapons to them.


    But after talking on the satellite phone for a long time, the Wang Consortium only promised them that they would speak with the Zhou Consortium about the matter. However, there was no further update.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at those soldiers standing at the entrance, then pulled Zhou Yingxue aside and said, ¡°You stay here. I¡¯ll go outside to take a look.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue turned anxious. She lowered her voice and said, ¡°Master, please don¡¯t go running around. I¡¯m scared.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the use of being scared?¡± Ren Xiaosu retrieved two pistols and six magazines from his storage space and handed them to Zhou Yingxue. ¡°This hotel is located in the center of the stronghold. If anything happens here, it means that the entire stronghold is doomed. When the timees, you can just find a random spot to open up an underground refuge with your seeds. After that, wait for me toe and rescue you, understand?¡±


    ¡°Then should we still save Li Ran at that time?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. ¡°It¡¯s already good enough if you can survive, so why would you still think about saving others at that time? At worst, we don¡¯t get to participate in the Anjing House trials, but we won¡¯t die either.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue broke out into a smile and was no longer scared. ¡°Yes, Master.¡±


    She was most worried that Ren Xiaosu was only using her to join the Anjing House and would abandon her after that. But right now, it seemed she was more important than his objective of joining the Anjing House.


    Ren Xiaosu found this a little baffling. How could this woman change so quickly? Just a moment ago, she was looking quite scared. But now, she could even start smiling.


    After that, he walked out of the hotel. When Li Ran and Mu Wan¡¯ge saw this, they immediately panicked. Li Ran got up and asked, ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going outside to take a look,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    ¡°If you¡¯re leaving, who¡¯s going to protect us?¡± Mu Wan¡¯ge said anxiously.


    ¡°What if you don¡¯te back?¡± Li Ran said, sounding a little lost.


    Ren Xiaosu gestured with his chin at Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°You still have her around.¡±


    Everyone looked at Zhou Yingxue. When they saw Zhou Yingxue inspecting the pistols, everyone wondered how she managed to sneak them into the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the inclothes guards and said with a grin, ¡°And there¡¯s still them, right? They can protect y¡¯all.¡±


    When those guards saw the two guns Zhou Yingxue was holding, their eyes lit up. ¡°We¡¯re active military personnel. Since you want us to protect everyone, we should be the ones handling those guns. Also, we¡¯re more adept at using them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sneered, ¡°Zhou Yingxue, if anyone tries to seize the guns from you after I leave, you can shoot them dead.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue also said calmly, ¡°You¡¯re saying that you guys are more adept at using firearms? You couldn¡¯t even safeguard your own guns, so why are you still talking about using them?¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu left. As a matter of fact, Zhou Yingxue was not a weak-willed woman at all. She was ady who could tantly lie without batting an eyelid. If these inclothes guards dared to plot against Zhou Yingxue to get her guns, they would probably be killed by her tonight.


    After Ren Xiaosu left the hotel, he headed to the west side of the stronghold. That should be the main battlefield where the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops were going to face the Experimentals. But on the way there, he suddenly saw more than a dozen supernatural beings dressed in ck hopping across the roofs at almost the same speed as him. They only took a nce at him and did not say anything.


    But something felt strange. Where did these supernatural beingse from? A momentter, Ren Xiaosu noticed the sabers they were carrying on their belts. Weren¡¯t those the Pyro Company¡¯s ceramic sabers?


    Wait a minute, were all these people the Pyro Company¡¯s members? All of them must have been hiding in Stronghold 74 before the Experimentals arrived.


    But since they were members of the Pyro Company, why didn¡¯t they make a move when they encountered a supernatural being like him?


    Ren Xiaosu quietly ran off in another direction. Then he switched to using his shadow clone to follow the Pyro Company members to see what they were up to.


    The garrison troops had already ceased firing from the top of the stronghold walls, and Ren Xiaosu wondered what the situation outside was like.


    Eventually, the Pyro Company members and Ren Xiaosu arrived at the stronghold¡¯s western walls. The Pyro Company members immediately announced their identities to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops and started ascending the walls.


    Ren Xiaosu watched through his spotting scope. He also saw the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops distributing guns to the Pyro Company members. It seemed like the Pyro Company members would be joining forces with the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops to guard the city this time.


    The Pyro Company was going to help defend the city and protect the stronghold residents? So it turned out the Pyro Company members did not try to capture a supernatural being like him when they encountered him earlier because they had an even more important task to handle?


    This was subverting Ren Xiaosu¡¯s understanding. So when humans were faced with amon threat, even an organization like the Pyro Company would be part of the defense forces?


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu understood that if the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops were to be defeated, hundreds of thousands of people across the entire stronghold would end up suffering. But to be honest, he was really not expecting the Pyro Company to automatically step forward to give their assistance.


    Old Li and Qin Sheng had already collected their firearms distributed by the Zhou Consortium troops. However, the Zhou Consortium did not assign them any specific tasks. But if the Experimentals started charging up the walls, it would be up to these supernatural beings to fend them off.


    After all, it would be very difficult to kill the Experimentals with just pistols and automatic rifles if that happened. Furthermore, the Experimentals were extremely mobile. So if an Experimental managed to climb the walls, it would be a huge threat to the stronghold¡¯s entire defense system. Even more Experimentals could manage to get up on the walls and cause the entire defensive line to copse. At that time, they could only rely on the newly built defensive fortifications within the city, although that would surely be theirst resort.


    At this moment, the Experimentals had just started attacking, but they were forced to retreat into the forest when the Zhou Consortium killed several dozen of them with heavy machine guns.


    When the Experimentals emerged from the forest again, everyone on the stronghold walls was stunned. That was because there were several hundred live hostages being herded towards the stronghold by the Experimentals. Old Li thought he might even know some of them as they seemed to be the refugees who had escaped into the wilderness to avoid the organizations.


    The Experimentals would usually kill anyone they encountered. But it was different this time. They had actually learned how to take humans as hostages!


    The humans had heavy machine guns, didn¡¯t they? Then let¡¯s see if they were willing to kill their own kind first.


    The garrison force stationed on the stronghold walls in the east was facing a simr predicament. It was not only the refugees that were being herded forward by the Experimentals, but arge number of the Zhou Consortium soldiers in their blue military uniforms were also among the crowd. It seemed that these were the reinforcements from Stronghold 73 that had been recently captured by the Experimentals.


    To open fire or not to open fire?


    Old Li, Qin Sheng, and the Pyro Company members did not say anything because they were only here to provide support, so it was not up to them to make the decisions.


    Themander of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s garrison troops stood on the stronghold walls and looked silently at the crowd of people approaching the city. Those people cried until their throats turned hoarse. Some of the adults were hugging their children in their arms while their faces were covered in tears.


    Among the crowd, a few sporadic Experimentals were responsible for herding them forward. Meanwhile, the main Experimental forces were closely following about six meters behind them. If the soldiers on the walls did not make a move, the Experimentals would destroy the seemingly imprable stronghold in less than a minute once they got close enough to the walls.


    The Zhou Consortiummander said calmly, ¡°Open fire.¡±

 Chapter 561 - Defending the city

    <h4>561 Defending the city</h4>


    In the past, no one from the three consortiums in the Southwest had thought of the Experimentals as a threat before. This was because the consortiums believed they were just a bunch of unintelligent beasts. They thought they could get rid of the Experimentals once and for all after they were done settling their inter-consortium matters.


    But by the time Qing Yi headed to the south to take care of the Experimentals problem, the Qing Consortium came to realize that the intelligent being among the Experimentals was not easy to deal with.


    As of now, humans would have to treat the Experimentals as beings with the same intelligence level and carefully deal with them.


    For example, right now, the Zhou Consortium troops would have never expected the Experimentals to be holding the refugees and captive soldiers as hostages to advance towards the stronghold. This made the Zhou Consortiummander standing on the stronghold walls very troubled.


    Although themander of the Zhou Consortium troops had calmly given the order to open fire, there were still the elderly and children among the refugees held hostage. After this battle was over, thismander of the Zhou Consortium troops would very likely be bugged by his conscience.


    Not everyone could be fully cold-blooded and heartless. He was only making the most rational and calm choice based on the situation.


    The heavy machine guns mounted atop the stronghold walls started firing. In the dark of the night, the muzzle shes produced were like fire-spitting dragons. It even resembled meteors shooting across the sky.


    Everyone on the stronghold walls was watching this sight quietly. Old Li and Qin Sheng saw the refugees being ripped apart by the bullets, and some of them were even people they knew. Just recently, they had delivered some medicine to those refugees and received a basketful of wild chicken eggs in return.


    Old Li had promised them at the time that he would purchase some coats for twelve of the refugee children. But before he could get the clothes for them, those twelve children had perished.


    However, neither Old Li nor Qin Sheng stopped the Zhou Consortium troops from opening fire, because they knew this was the best option they had. Although the Riders were honorable people, they were never taught to be benevolent.


    Amid the gunfire, the Experimentals mixed into the crowd of people were also shot by the heavy machine guns. When they realized the humans had opened fire, they immediately pulled back.


    They retreated out of the heavy machine guns¡¯ range at the fastest possible speed and disappeared into the forest.


    Some of the machine gunners seemed to have gone crazy as they kept shooting at the Experimentals even though they were running off. However, this group of Experimentals seemed to have undergone some kind of training. While they were retreating, they even did so by running in zigzag patterns and trying their best to avoid getting shot.


    Themander of the Zhou Consortium troops had already tried his best to draw in the Experimentals so that they could cut off their retreat. But this time, their barrage of gunfire was only able to kill several hundred Experimentals at most. As the Experimentals fled, the garrison troops on the stronghold walls were also able to see for themselves just how much strength these creatures had.


    However, before the garrison troops could breathe a sigh of relief, the other garrison troops in the south suddenly roared on the radio that they were under attack!


    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Didn¡¯t the Experimentals just retreat?¡± someone said in a stunned voice.


    ¡°This is bad. That was just a feint earlier!¡± themander of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops said, clenching his teeth.


    Earlier, the Experimentals had mobilized arge number of forces to attack the stronghold. They even forced all the refugees to move in front as shields for them and pretended they were going to attack the stronghold from this side.


    As a result, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops had to resort to transferring some troops away from the south and north gates at thest minute in a desperate attempt to defend this side of the stronghold. However, those reinforcements had only managed to get halfway to the western walls when they received orders to turn around and head back to their original positions.


    It turned out that even though the Experimentals at the west gate had looked like they wereunching a very powerful attack, it was only used to divert the attention of the stronghold¡¯s garrison. In fact, the Experimentals had other ns that now seemed even more devious than they expected.


    Themander of the Zhou Consortium troops issued an order on the radio frequency. ¡°Defend the south gate! We must not allow the Experimentals to ascend the stronghold walls!¡±


    Just five minutes earlier, everyone had witnessed how strong the Experimentals were. If such monsters were to climb the stronghold walls and engage them in closebat, it would probably only take ten minutes for their entire defensework at the southern walls to copse.


    As he spoke, themander of the Zhou Consortium troops could already see Old Li and Qin Sheng rushing towards the south gate. Even the Pyro Company¡¯s 15 members followed close behind.


    Both parties were very decisive in their actions. Once there was danger of the south side falling to the Experimentals, they knew exactly where they were needed most.


    If the Experimentals managed to get to the top of the stronghold walls, they were the only ones who could drive them back down.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly watched through his spotting scope from high ground in the distance. However, he did not know what was happening.


    He could only see small, blurry, ck figures atop the stronghold walls dashing madly towards the south. Could more Experimentals have appeared at the south gate?


    However, Ren Xiaosu still did not make his move. He was considering if he should even participate in this battle.


    During the mad dash to the southern walls, the difference in strength between the Riders and the Pyro Company members became obvious. The two Riders were running ahead without even needing to catch their breaths. Furthermore, they were pulling farther and farther away from the Pyro Company members. Behind them, the Pyro Company members desperately tried to catch up to Old Li and Qin Sheng, but they just couldn¡¯t do so.


    One of themanders of the Pyro Company members suddenly said, ¡°Don¡¯t try to keep up with them. We¡¯re just gonna tire ourselves out if we do that. Save our energy and prepare for closebatter. We mustn¡¯t let the Experimentals get up on the walls.¡±


    The garrison troops in the south could hold the defenses for a while. Meanwhile, it would take time for the Riders to rush from the western walls to the southern walls. It would take at least twenty minutes for them to get there. Old Li and Qin Sheng could only pray that the Zhou Consortium¡¯s garrison troops on the southern walls fought hard enough to not fall to a quick defeat!


    Now, Ren Xiaosu was also rushing towards the south side. He thought that if Old Li and Qin Sheng could not hold the line, he could at least help if he were closer to the area.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that if the Pyro Company members he had always been annoyed with were willing to take a stand at this time, how could he continue to sit idle? Would that not make him worse than the people he hated?


    Everyone was running madly about. The Zhou Consortium troops that were returning to their positions in the south were also sprinting on top of the stronghold walls. But as they ran, Old Li and Qin Sheng slowly overtook them.


    Ren Xiaosu was also leaping from roof to roof inside the stronghold. However, before he could get close to the walls, the two Riders had already arrived at the south gate. Just as Old Li and Qin Sheng got there, the Experimentals managed to climb to the top of the walls. Kicking off hard against the wall, their fully gray figures pounced, like they were flying, towards the heavy machine guns mounted at the top of the walls. It seemed that they were most afraid of those weapons now. The first group of Experimentals that ascended the walls were on a mission to destroy all of their opponent¡¯s heavy firepower!


    But before they could do so, Old Li collided into an Experimental in midair with the strength of an off-road vehicle and sent it hurtling down to the bottom of the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately found another vantage point to watch everything unfold through his spotting scope. He could see that whenever Old Li threw his punches, there would be a dazzling radiance in the follow-through. Even though Old Li was several meters away from the other Experimentals, he could stillnd those dazzling punches on them through the air!


    It was not only Old Li who could do that. Even Qin Sheng was fighting in a simr style. The dazzling radiance followed every punch they threw!


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned by what he saw through the spotting scope. What the hell was this? Were Old Li and Qin Sheng this fearsome? It was no wonder they dared to stroll around in the wilderness so freely.

 Chapter 562 - Wave after wave

    <h4>Chapter 562 Wave after wave</h4>


    Old Li and Qin Sheng worked very well together. Theirbat style seemed to be mainly focused on Old Li as the lead fighter while Qin Sheng stayed at his side toplement his attacks. The dozen or so Experimentals that had climbed up the stronghold walls were actually unable to get near them for a while. Any time an Experimental tried to get close to Old Li, it would immediately get knocked back by Qin Sheng with a punch or be sent flying down to the bottom of the stronghold walls.Ren Xiaosu could see through his spotting scope that the young man named Qin Sheng was still not used to his power yet. So he was not as confident inbat as Old Li was. But even so, Qin Sheng¡¯s punches were still capable of breaking the Experimentals¡¯ bones.


    While Old Li and Qin Sheng were fighting the Experimentals, the Pyro Company members also arrived. They immediately formed a new line of defense around the two Riders to stop any Experimentals that had just climbed up the wall. The Pyro Company members had willingly be Old Li¡¯s support, with the battle solely centered around Old Li.


    The strength of Pyro Company had always been measured by the quantity, not quality, of its members. Of course, this did not apply to their more advanced fighting forces.


    At the very least, those in the Midnight and Dusk squads were well aware of their own capabilities. That was why they always fought in teams of five.


    For example, to fight head-on against a Rider-level supernatural being like Old Li, their Dusk squad would require at least 15 members.


    Of course, this was only hypothetical. The rtionship between the Pyro Company and the Riders was still very good, so there was no reason for them to fight.


    Mass producing supernatural beings was what the Pyro Company was strong at.


    The 17 supernatural beings on the stronghold walls were moving together like a sharp arrow, with Old Li spearheading the attacks on the Experimentals. Wherever he went, the others would follow and give him their support.


    Only by constantly taking down the Experimentals that had climbed up the stronghold walls could the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops continue using their heavy firepower to cut off the advancement of the Experimentals emerging from the forest in the distance.


    Old Li also knew their role was to engage in closebat with the Experimentals atop the stronghold walls. As for killing the Experimentals on arger scale, they would still have to rely on firearms to achieve that. Therefore, they would have to guard this area, as the Zhou Consortium troops were the true protectors of the city.


    At this moment, the Zhou Consortium troops that had responded to the reinforcement calls at the western walls earlier finally got back. They did not even look at the battle on Old Li¡¯s side and immediately started setting up a new firing point not too far away.


    A soldier said in fear, ¡°Sir, the Experimentals have climbed onto the stronghold walls!¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± A battalionmander of the Zhou Consortium troops sneered, ¡°These people helping to guard the stronghold are not even afraid yet, so what are you afraid of? Just do your part well. Your family and friends need you to defend the city for them. What you should be doing now is pulling the trigger and stopping those Experimentals from advancing, not being scared of them.¡±


    His men clenched their teeth and started firing the heavy machine gun they had just set up. They acted as though they could not see the terrifying Experimentals roaring at them just some dozen meters away.


    In the battle to defend the stronghold, be it the Zhou Consortium, the Pyro Company, or the Riders, everyone was trying their best to do what was necessary of them. They were no longer children, so they had to understand that only by doing their duty could the stronghold be protected.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he was a little shocked.


    He had experienced wars before and was personally involved in the one that happened in the Northwest some time ago. He had even dered war against an entire stronghold by himself.


    But those were wars between humans.


    Now that humans were facing an external enemy, the different organizations had abandoned their own interests and positions to fight together on the same side. This was apletely different kind of feeling.


    The 15 Pyro Company members were probably sleeper agents hiding in Stronghold 74. Their original mission might have been to capture supernatural beings in the stronghold, but now they had put everything aside so they could help to fend off external enemies.


    The Experimentals on the southern walls were gradually getting pushed back, and some of the Experimentals that had climbed up were even jumping off the walls by themselves. This probably signaled the Experimentals were about to retreat.


    Ren Xiaosu silently turned around and left. It looked like he would not have to take action this time. Old Li and Qin Sheng¡¯s skills wereparable to his, so with those two around, the Experimentals would not find it easy to summit the stronghold walls.


    However, the Experimentals¡¯ attack was still ongoing.


    All of a sudden, chaos broke out in the southwest of the stronghold. The logistics troops there started screaming, and residents were running out of their houses and fleeing for their lives towards the center of the stronghold. It was like something extremely terrifying was chasing them.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly raised his head and looked up at the stronghold walls. The battle over there was still going, and it looked like the Zhou Consortium troops had yet to react to this new group of Experimentals that had infiltrated the stronghold.


    But there was no gap in the defensive line on top of the stronghold walls, so how did these Experimentals get in?


    Ren Xiaosu picked up his spotting scope again and was surprised to see a one-meter-wide hole in the southwestern walls where Experimentals were crawling out from.


    And the reason the logistics troops and residents were screaming was because of the sudden appearance of these monsters!


    Only at this moment did Ren Xiaosu feel shocked. As it turned out, no matter how strong the Experimentals¡¯ attacks were earlier, all of their attempts were just to cover for this group of Experimentals that had infiltrated.


    Those Experimentals had been preparing for who knew how long and had actually dug a tunnel that led into the stronghold from the wilderness outside.


    What Ren Xiaosu did not know was that the Experimentals had left the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory a long time ago and been in the Central ins for a while now. However, be it Old Li or the Zhou Consortium troops, everyone thought they had just gotten here.


    Of the many preparations the Experimentals had made, they were all done for the sake of this tunnel.


    The moment they dug closer to the stronghold, the main forces of the Experimentals began their attack. All of that was not for anything else but to attract the attention of the forward facing troops. The Experimentals had used themotion caused by the humans firing their weapons to drown out the sound of their digging of the tunnel.


    It was only at this moment when the tunnel waspletely dug through that the real attack began.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a chill running down his spine. He had also faced the Experimentals before, but to know they could already apply their intelligence in battle? To n wave after wave of strategic attacks against their enemy?


    Then could theree a day when the Experimentals might use humanity¡¯s own cannons to attack their cities?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at that tunnel. As it wasn¡¯t wide enough, not many Experimentals emerged from it.


    But if these Experimentals destroyed the defensework of the stronghold from the inside or climbed the stronghold walls from behind and took out the heavy machine gun nests, that would probably be very troublesome.


    Ren Xiaosu put away his spotting scope and went against the flow of the fleeing crowd. If even the Pyro Company had stepped forward to help, there was no reason for him to keep standing back.


    Weren¡¯t they just some Experimentals?


    In the crowd, his white-masked shadow clone was already rushing towards the Experimentals to attack. When one of the Experimentals saw the shadow clone, it pounced. However, the shadow clone leaped up and grabbed the Experimental¡¯s gray, tough, and rough face with its hand and shoved it violently into the ground.


    One knee on the ground, the shadow clone released its grip from the Experimental. The Experimental was no longer moving. The brain of this monster had been smashed into paste by the attack, and even the stone path on the ground had cracked!


    The other Experimentals that were chasing after the humans gradually came to a stop. They turned towards the shadow clone and surrounded it.

 Chapter 563 - Everyone’s duty

    <h4>Chapter 563 Everyone¡°s duty</h4>


    This time, it was the shadow clone that became the main fighting force of the battle. A dozen Experimentals had surrounded the shadow clone, but they were not in a hurry to attack.Among the Experimentals, one of its leaders let out a hoarse roar. It was apparentlymunicating with itspanions on how to deal with the ¡°human¡± in front of them.


    These creatures had departed from the normal speech of humans. They weremunicating more like beasts with one another.


    But while the Experimentals did not make a move, the shadow clone did.


    Seeing that more and more Experimentals were emerging from the underground tunnel, if they weren¡¯t immediately taken care of, their numbers aboveground would only start increasing.


    These dozen or so Experimentals were clearly just stalling for time so theirpanions at the back could join them on the surface.


    The shadow clone leaped up and flew straight over the head of an Experimental and towards the exit of the underground tunnel.


    When that Experimental saw they could not stall the shadow clone, it tried to tangle up the shadow clone in midair with tooth and w. But to its surprise, the shadow clone seemed to have expected it to make a move and shed back at it.


    The ck saber sliced through the howling wind with a buzzing sound. Before the Experimental could even make contact with the shadow clone¡¯s body, it was severed in half!


    The shadow clone did not stop moving. The moment itnded on the ground, it rushed straight for the underground tunnel. The Experimentals that were charging towards the center of the stronghold behind the shadow clone immediately went after it. They wanted to guard the underground tunnel¡¯s exit for the other Experimentals so they coulde aboveground safely!


    This seemed to be an irrevocable order given by that intelligent being among them.


    Six Experimentals went to higher ground and pounced at the shadow clone from behind. Although their appearances were like humans, their crawling motions and gray skin made them look like huge spiders. They were extremely weird-looking.


    Just as the Experimentals behind were about to lunge at the shadow clone from above, the shadow clone suddenly bent over and avoided their pursuit by sliding away.


    One of the Experimentals was just about to exit from the underground tunnel when it saw a figure sliding on the ground. With a slice, its head was cut off.


    The Experimental¡¯s body fell limply back into the tunnel and onto itspanions that were preparing to emerge from the ground.


    The Experimental below let out an angry roar as it pushed itspanion¡¯s corpse aside. Just as it tried to exit the tunnel, its head was pierced by a ck saber that suddenly appeared above it.


    In just a short moment, four Experimentals had died to that ck saber. That ck saber was so sharp it could even prate the bodies of the Experimentals when bullets could not.


    The bodies of these four Experimentals were blocking the tunnel exit while the shadow clone stood on top of their corpses. Listening to the indignant roars of the Experimentals that were stuck in the tunnel, the shadow clone turned its ¡°gaze¡± to the Experimentals aboveground.


    The Experimentals on the street that had surrounded the shadow clone looked at the unfeeling white mask and ck saber dripping with a murky liquid. All of a sudden, they felt a little scared.


    The human before them was capable of killing them like he was cutting grass. If he were outside the stronghold, they could easily kill him by outnumbering him. However, there were only eight or nine Experimentals inside the stronghold right now. As such, they actually felt they were the weaker side.


    In the blink of an eye, this human had single-handedly stopped the final trump card in their wave of attacks on the stronghold.


    Old Li and the others saw this scene from the edge of the stronghold walls. In a brief glimpse, they saw the shadow clone facing all the Experimentals alone and even managing to seal off the tunnel.


    Qin Sheng looked at the back of the ¡°human¡± and suddenly felt the other party emanated an aura of invincibility.


    Killing the Experimentals was nothing surprising, but scaring them to the point of not daring to make a move was not something that just anyone could achieve.


    From the beginning to the end, Ren Xiaosu did not participate in the battle personally. That was because it was enough for him to have the shadow clone fight on his behalf. Meanwhile, he was lying on the roof of a tall building in the distance where he could fire his sniper rifle at any moment.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not act rashly. His shadow clone was enough to deal with these Experimentals. If he were to casually fire a shot and reveal the presence of a sniper here, it would be very easy for the Anjing House or the Pyro Company to associate it with Zhou Yingxue.


    But that would still be very unlikely.


    If it really became necessary for him to take a shot, Ren Xiaosu would no longer care whether his actions would reveal anything.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu saw a young man rush against the flow of the crowd and towards the battlefield.


    That person¡¯s stride was delicate, and it did not look like he was a supernatural being. In fact, he might not have even gone through any physical training before, so after running for a while, he started panting heavily. Breathing in such a way could easily hurt the lungs.


    There was a camera hanging from the young man¡¯s neck as well as a dark blue badge. Ren Xiaosu could not see what was written on it, but he could guess the young man was probably a reporter.


    The stronghold residents now understood the kinds of monsters they were facing. They had beenining about how the Zhou Consortium had mobilized arge number of forces to tear down many of the residences in the city and built defensive fortifications in their ce. They had even conscripted all of the adult men into the army, with only a small number of them escaping the call-ups. This made the residents of the stronghold very unhappy at that time.


    But when they personally saw how easily the Experimentals could tear apart humans, they finally recognized what the Zhou Consortium troops did from the bottom of their hearts. Only when their own interests and lives were threatened did they understand the significance of the Zhou Consortium troops.


    But while the residents were fleeing in a panic, a reporter was actually rushing towards the scene of the battle just so he could gather firsthand news to report about. Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand what went through the minds of these reporters.


    A momentter, the Experimentals in the underground tunnel seemingly retreated. Meanwhile, the Experimentals facing the shadow clone suddenly tried to escape. They turned around and got far away from the shadow clone, the Experimentals running to a manhole cover. One of them stretched out its gray hands and tried to pull open the manhole cover to get into the sewers.


    However, the manhole cover did not budge!


    If not for the fact that the Zhou Consortium troops had already welded the manhole covers shut in advance and stopped these Experimentals from escaping into the sewers, their presence in the stronghold would probably contribute to extreme instabilityter on. Who knew what they would do after they got back out?


    If the Experimentals hid in the sewers and escaped separately, not even the shadow clone could catch up to all of them.


    The direction where the Experimentals were escaping towards was where that young reporter was standing. There were not many residents around that reporter anymore as everyone had already fled.


    He stood in a daze on the street and stopped in his tracks. When the young reporter saw the Experimentals surrounding the manhole cover, he was astonished. But his reporter¡¯s instinct kicked in, and he kept pressing the shutter button of the camera he was holding.


    Behind those Experimentals, the shadow clone hade chasing after them. The white mask the shadow clone was wearing looked extremely out of ce in the camera¡¯s viewfinder. The calm expression on the mask seemed to form a stark contrast with the fleeing Experimentals.


    Of course, the welded manhole covers could not stop the Experimentals. They used their arms to break the manhole cover apart. But just after they escaped inside, an explosion came from the sewers. Ren Xiaosu had used Shadow Door to cast ten grenades beneath the manhole and forcefully blow them back up to the surface.


    But they were still intact Experimentals when they went in. By the time they were blown back out, they had turned into fragmented pieces of Experimentals.


    Only at this moment did the Zhou Consortium¡¯s emergency response force in the stronghold arrive.

 Chapter 564 - A brief calm

    <h4>Chapter 564 A brief calm</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not want to have any dealings with the Zhou Consortium troops, nor did he want to get involved with the Pyro Company. After all, he had manipted ¡°Old Xu¡± into killing quite a few of the Pyro Company members in that incident at East Lake. In a sense, they would surely have quite a huge grudge.


    So by the time the Zhou Consortium¡¯s emergency response force arrived, Ren Xiaosu had already left.


    After three waves of attacks and probing, the Experimentals hadpletely retreated this time. As the saying went, ¡°Three strikes and you¡¯re out!¡± Having failed to take Stronghold 74 with three straight attempts, there was no need for the Experimentals to continue wasting their efforts here. Instead, they should be going back to the drawing board to identify their next opportunity.


    But the Experimentals did not retreat too far away. They seemed to have taken shelter in the forest outside Stronghold 74, but no one from the Zhou Consortium dared to go into the forest to check.


    To be honest, none of those from Stronghold 74 who had participated in the defense of the stronghold had expected that a group of what everyone thought of as beasts would actually give them such a tough time. They nearly even managed to break into the stronghold.


    If it weren¡¯t for the white-masked man suddenly appearing and blocking off the breach, based on the time it took for the Zhou Consortium¡¯s emergency response force to arrive, Stronghold 74 would be in danger by now.


    As a matter of fact, if those Experimentals had managed to get in and cause damage, not only would it cause panic and chaos among the stronghold residents, they would also try their best to destroy the entire defense system of the stronghold.


    However, the Experimentals probably did not expect that their siege with three different tactics in a row would end up in failure.


    After the Experimentals retreated, Stronghold 74 experienced a brief calm.


    The battlested from night until dawn. Old Li, Qin Sheng, and the others were sitting on the stronghold walls exhausted. As the morning sun shone on their faces, a gust of cold wind blew. Only then did Old Li and Qin Sheng realize their clothes were drenched in sweat, and sitting out here in the wind made them exceptionally cold.


    At this moment, a staff officer from the Zhou Consortium came over to greet them. ¡°Honored friends from the Riders and the Pyro Company, please take a shower and get a change of clothes. After you all get some rest, we would like to invite everyone to a debriefing. The Experimentals will definitely return, so we have to summarize any mistakes we made in this battle.¡±


    Old Li struggled to get up. There was even a wound on his arm he had gotten when he was identally scratched by an Experimental during the battle. He smiled and said, ¡°This wound shouldn¡¯t make me be like them too, right?¡±


    The staff officer shook his head. ¡°That won¡¯t be happening. The Experimentals have to inject a drug to assimte humans into their kind.¡±


    ¡°You guys seem to know a lot about the Experimentals?¡± Qin Sheng asked.


    ¡°The Qing Consortium shared that information with us.¡± The staff officer said, ¡°It was also the Qing Consortium that warned us the Experimentals might attack Stronghold 74 this time. If it weren¡¯t for them informing us and buying us time to deploy our troops in advance, we would¡¯ve really been in trouble this time.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s how it is,¡± Old Li mumbled. ¡°The Qing Consortium... is quite different from what the rumors say.¡±


    The Riders and the Pyro Company went into the stronghold to take hot showers. This time, the Pyro Company¡¯s participation in the battle left them with four dead. However, the remaining members did not seem to feel sad at all. It was as though they were not friends with their squadmates.


    After everyone sat down in the meeting room, the Pyro Company¡¯smander in Stronghold 74 said bluntly, ¡°Who was that in the white mask? Is he someone from your Zhou Consortium? He¡¯s already appeared twice in your Zhou Consortium¡¯s strongholds so far. We thought he was with the Anjing House, but by the looks of it now, it seems he has a closer rtionship with your Zhou Consortium!¡±


    Zhou Xingwen, themander of the Zhou Consortium troops, said calmly, ¡°He isn¡¯t rted to the Zhou Consortium. We think he might have shown up in Stronghold 74 by coincidence. Let¡¯s talk about the uing battle to defend the stronghold. First of all, I¡¯d like to thank all of you for your help so far. Without all of you, we couldn¡¯t¡¯ve defended Stronghold 74.¡±


    The Pyro Company¡¯smander said calmly, ¡°There¡¯s no need to thank us. We all have the responsibility to stand up against amon enemy of humanity. Our Pyro Company members at Stronghold 73 will also be rushing over with the next group of Zhou Consortium reinforcements.¡±


    Old Li suddenly said, ¡°But your Zhou Consortium¡¯s emergency response force in the stronghold still needs to be on high alert and move a little faster. If the Experimentals can dig a tunnel, they can easily dig ten more. Everyone¡¯s seen how strong those monsters are. It will only take them a few days to dig a tunnel into the stronghold.¡±


    Zhou Xingwen nodded and said, ¡°Our emergency response troops have failed in their duties this time. Furthermore, we have underestimated the Experimentals.¡±


    After a short discussion, the main point of the meeting was to optimize the current defense n.


    Old Li and the others prepared to head to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s camp to get some rest. After all, they were also very exhausted from the battle.


    At this moment, the Pyro Company brought up the matter again. ¡°I suggest that your Zhou Consortium find that person wearing the white mask. Our Pyro Company can promise we¡¯ll temporarily set aside our grudges and fight alongside him. With such a person around, it¡¯ll be much easier for us to handle the situation should the Experimentals break into the stronghold.¡±


    Zhou Xingwen sighed and shook his head. ¡°It won¡¯t be easy to find him.¡±


    However, Old Li did not seem bothered by that. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Since he¡¯s stepped forward to help this time, he¡¯ll definitely show up again the next time.¡±


    ...


    When Ren Xiaosu returned to the hotel, a drowsy group of people were sprawled out on the couches in the hotel lobby. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue was still wide awake as she held her pistols, on full alert. The ten inclothes guards from the Wang Consortium did not sleep either. They had found some knives and iron rods in the hotel to protect themselves with.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these people did not seem as useless as he thought, and that they were just a little too inflexible when doing things.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu even suspected these soldiers might not have been on the battlefield before. After all, there had not been any wars in the Central ins in recent years, so it would not be unexpected if these soldiers had not seen blood before.


    Furthermore, no organizations would send their elite soldiers to protect a female celebrity.


    A inclothes guard looked at Ren Xiaosu, who had just returned, and asked with a frown, ¡°The fighting out there has been going on for the entire night, and you disappeared for the entire night as well. Where did you go?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°I went to help defend the city. What¡¯s that gotta do with you?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no traces on you to suggest that you fought, yet you¡¯re saying you helped defend the city?¡± The inclothes guard sneered.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had no intention of arguing with him. Instead, he walked over to Zhou Yingxue and asked, ¡°Anything happen in the night?¡±


    ¡°No, they were all quitepliant.¡± Zhou Yingxue shook her head. ¡°Was it really the Experimentals that attacked?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I saw it with my own eyes. Also, we definitely can¡¯t underestimate the intelligence of the Experimentals anymore. And their numbers are constantly increasing. If only we had exterminated them at Stronghold 113, this wouldn¡¯t be happening right now.¡±


    ¡°At that time, the entire Southwest was in chaos. Who would have time to worry about them?¡± Zhou Yingxue sighed.


    ¡°Alright, go back to your room and get some rest. I don¡¯t think the Experimentals will be returning anytime soon,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you go and get some rest instead? I¡¯ve just been sitting around all night, so I¡¯m not tired at all. As for you, you must¡¯ve engaged the Experimentals in closebat, right?¡±


    Off to the side, the inclothes guard shot them a look but did not say anything. He only sneered. That was because the way Ren Xiaosu had spoken to them earlier was way too unpleasant, so they found it very difficult to have a good impression of him.

 Chapter 565 - Hints of disorder

    <h4>Chapter 565 Hints of disorder</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Then I¡¯ll head upstairs for a few hours of sleep first. Wake me up when it¡¯s noon.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Zhou Yingxue nodded.


    But before Ren Xiaosu could head upstairs, he suddenly saw someone riding a green bicycle on the road outside. Two green cloth bags were hanging behind the bicycle with the words ¡°Hope Media¡± written on them.


    Ren Xiaosu ran out and asked, ¡°Is that today¡¯s newspaper? Give me a copy. Why are y¡¯all still working at this time? You don¡¯t look like someone who delivers newspapers.¡±


    The cyclist was wearing a suit, and most newspaper delivery workers did not dress like this.


    The person delivering the newspapers said with a smile, ¡°We¡¯re the staff of Hope Media. The people who usually deliver the newspapers are hiding at home, so we have no choice but to send the newspapers ourselves.¡± Then the cyclist handed a newspaper to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°The newspapers in Stronghold 74 today don¡¯t cost anything. They¡¯re free of charge.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment before saying, ¡°Thanks.¡±


    When the inclothes guard in the lobby saw Ren Xiaosu taking a newspaper, he also went to get a copy. Whenever they passed through a stronghold, Fang Zhi would usually be the one to purchase the newspapers for the day.


    Ren Xiaosu flipped open the newspaper. The newspaper today was a little strange, with four entire pages dedicated to reporting about the Experimentals¡¯ attack on Stronghold 74.


    The main point of the first page reported that the spokesperson of the Wang Consortium had told the media that they would send their troops to support the Zhou Consortium whenever they were called upon. They were willing to assist the Zhou Consortium to drive back the enemy together and exterminate the Experimentals in the south part of the Central ins.


    However, the Zhou Consortium rejected the Wang Consortium¡¯s offer and told the media to let the Wang Consortium know they should not take advantage of this crisis. This was amon enemy of humanity they were dealing with, so if they really wanted to help, all they needed to do was to transport some supplies. There was no need for them to send their troops as the Zhou Consortium¡¯s army was sufficient to deal with the problem.


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. These two consortiums had started tearing into each other in the newspapers. It looked like the Zhou Consortium believed the Wang Consortium was up to no good by wanting to send their troops over. After all, no one would possibly allow another organization¡¯s troops to freely march into their own territory. Who knew what the fuck the other party was really up to?


    When he flipped the newspaper to the next page, the content was much more substantial. Hope Media actually exined the battle in detail, but it was mainly based on the perspective of the reporters who were at the scene. They then provided an addendum based on an interview with the Zhou Consortium¡¯s higher-ups.


    There was even an emphasis on the strategy the Experimentals had adopted. Everyone who thought the Experimentals were just a bunch of wild animals was shocked when they read this.


    The more cultured had always looked down on the less cultured. In the eyes of many consortiums, the Experimentals were just barbaric beasts that could be eradicated with firearms. But now, the reports on the Experimentals would probably refresh their understanding of those creatures.


    When he reached the third page, it was filled with pictures of moments from the battle that three of Hope Media¡¯s reporters stationed at Stronghold 74 had captured. For example, when the Riders and the Pyro Company were fighting on the stronghold walls and killing the Experimentals, Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t even see the happenings clearly at the time, yet those reporters still managed to photograph them using their extremely expensive cameras.


    On this page, there was great affirmation given to the Pyro Company by Hope Media. They were praising them for setting aside their beliefs in order to fight the enemy together. They also reported the Pyro Company members at Stronghold 73 had already joined the reinforcements and were currently heading to Stronghold 74.


    As far as everyone could remember, this was probably the first time Hope Media had praised the Pyro Company.


    While the Pyro Company and Qinghe Group had always been on good terms, Hope Media was always critical of the Pyro Company¡¯s actions.


    When he reached the fourth page, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to discover that the most eye-catching photo actually turned out to be ¡°Old Xu.¡±


    In the picture, ¡°Old Xu¡± was wearing a white mask while the Experimentals were running away in fear. This picture was a little shocking as it had captured the details very clearly.


    In fact, the reporters from Hope Media had taken a lot of pictures, but in the one that was chosen to be published, the figure of ¡°Old Xu¡± appeared a little blurry. Only his tall and upright posture, as well as that conspicuous white mask, could be seen clearly. Meanwhile, the clearest part of the picture was the expressions of the Experimentals.


    It was no longer the fierce expression they had but one of fear.


    The headline on this page was even titled ¡°The Era of Gods.¡±


    This newspaper had elevated the status of supernatural beings to such a high degree that even the terrifying Experimentals could only serve as an embellishment to them.


    Of course, there was a lot of glorification in this. After all, everyone who participated in the battle knew the most terrifying thing about the Experimentals was their numbers. Even the Pyro Company could notpare to their numbers and their cruelty.


    As Ren Xiaosu read the newspaper, Zhou Yingxue was also reading from his side. She kept ncing at Ren Xiaosu as she read, then whispered, ¡°Master, that¡¯s you, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu whispered back, sounding surprised, ¡°How¡¯d you guess? Is it that obvious? Did you tell from the figure or something?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not it. You purposely wore your clothes to appear slightly more cumbersome, so it¡¯s not possible to tell from the figure. But I didn¡¯t see any mention of you in the entire newspaper, so I just felt that this person might be you. After all, you¡¯re the only one fearsome enough to scare the Experimentals away,¡± Zhou Yingxue muttered.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Zhou Yingxue had actually used process of elimination to deduce that it was him? Because she did not see any mention of him in the newspaper, she felt that this really strong person was him?


    In any case, it did not matter whether this person wearing the white mask was Ren Xiaosu or not, the ttering was already aplished.


    However, while the two of them were whispering, a inclothes guard nearbyughed and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you im you joined in the battle? Why didn¡¯t I see you in the newspaper then? Or were you just hiding somewhere?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shot him a look and ignored him. He did not want to encourage the guard. Among those present, not even Mu Wan¡¯ge knew the person wearing the white mask was him. After all, it was Ren Xiaosu himself who saved Mu Wan¡¯ge back then.


    So since he wanted to conceal his identity, he could not reveal it so casually, lest he incur the wrath of the Pyro Company after the war was over.


    Ren Xiaosu continued flipping through the newspaper. The entertainment section had a mention of Li Ran, but even that was rted to the battle at Stronghold 74. Reportedly, the concert had been canceled due to the situation in the stronghold.


    Then the breaking of ss came from the streets outside the hotel. The noise woke Li Ran and the others. Li Ran wrapped herself in a nket and opened her sleepy eyes. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu walked out to take a look, he was surprised to see a group of people smashing the ss windows of a general store and a grocery store.


    After they smashed the windows, arge group of people rushed inside in search of food.


    With someone setting the precedent, more and more people joined in the act ofrceny. Such acts would spread like a contagion, but it was an extremely base behavior.


    ¡°The aftereffects of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s foodmandeering has started.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°After Stronghold 74 was put in lockdown for several days, and with the grocery stores emptied out by the Zhou Consortium troops, many of the residents don¡¯t have anything to eat anymore. Hunger can really drive people to do anything.¡±

 Chapter 566 - Wartime chaos

    <h4>Chapter 566 Wartime chaos</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu saw that some of the stronghold residents were starting to make trouble, he immediately closed off the hotel¡¯s main entrance. There were already a lot of things going on in the stronghold, so he was thinking of going back to his room to ponder how to deal with the situation. But with the ruckus now, he had lost the mood to think about what to do next.


    After this group of people barged into the grocery store, they realized all the food in it had already been emptied out by the Zhou Consortium troops. Some of them even tried to charge into the store¡¯s warehouse, but when they saw the Zhou Consortium soldiers guarding it, they did not dare to go over and cause trouble.


    Following that, these people started targeting the restaurants in the stronghold. As restaurants usually prepared a lot of food, there would definitely be rice, noodles, spices, and cooking oil stored there.


    Some of the restaurants had already been locked up. When the owners who were hiding inside were just rejoicing that they still had some food left, the restaurants had their doors smashed open by the looters, and everything inside the restaurant was taken away.


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s emergency response force started to intervene and took control of the situation. After capturing a group of looters, the chaos only stopped for a brief while before getting more chaotic again.


    They discovered the Zhou Consortium did not send out as many emergency response troops as they had thought. Moreover, rumors were saying that getting put away in prison would not really affect anything in the future. After the war, whoever got caught would simply be released. Besides, they would have food to eat while they were in prison too.


    And so, Stronghold 74 became even more chaotic.


    Stronghold 74 had never encountered such a situation before. As such, the public¡¯s opinion was not handled in a timely enough manner, and that allowed the rumors to spread like wildfire across the entire stronghold. That was why the Zhou Consortium had toe forward to refute the rumors. They also said the Zhou Consortium did not have much rations and that they had to prioritize the supply to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops. After all, the soldiers had to defend the city and could not be starved.


    But the rioters would not ept the exnation at this point in time. They even argued why the army should be prioritized when everyone was human, and that all of them should enjoy the same rights!


    Among these rioters, most of them were just going with the flow. However, there were a few who were enjoying this disturbance and had been leading others to create more trouble with them.


    If this were during the battle, these people would definitely not dare to cause such a disturbance. But didn¡¯t the newspaper say the Experimentals had been repelled after three attack attempts on the stronghold? To the rioters, the Experimentals could definitely not get in.


    Gradually, they were no longer satisfied with just filling their stomachs. The next morning, incidents of gold shops getting broken into started urring. When some people got a taste of what they could do, they even tried to break into the banks. However, there were troops stationed at the banks, and the rioters were immediately fired upon with warning shots. This finally scared all the rioters away.


    Later, a group of women came out onto the streets to make another scene. They were requesting that the army allow the men of their families to go home to them. For this cause, they even rolled out a banner to make their demands known.


    There was a valid reason for these women to be making a scene here. Their heads of the family had all been forced to join the army, but some men who escaped conscription started harassing them every now and then. They were fighting to have their mene back home so they would be protected.


    Zhou Xingwen, themander of the Zhou Consortium troops, had been frowning for the past two days. He still needed to think about how to deal with the Experimentals¡¯ next attack on the stronghold, yet he was getting disturbed by these troublesome events taking ce in the stronghold.


    A staff officer next to him said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we send the conscripted men back home first?¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t let them leave.¡± Zhou Xingwen frowned. ¡°If those people are allowed to go back, it¡¯ll only get more chaotic in the stronghold! Lock them up at the construction site and release them after we¡¯re done fighting the Experimentals! We¡¯ll leave it to the emergency response force to suppress the public disorder!¡±


    ¡°But there¡¯s still a lot of reporters in the stronghold. If they¡ª¡±


    ¡°Then chase them away!¡±


    Less than two dayster, the chaos in the Zhou Consortium¡¯s stronghold finally calmed down a little. However, that was only on the surface. Secretly, there were still rioters ganging up andmitting robberies in the night.


    They had already finished raiding the restaurants for food, so these people were now starting to think about stealing from the hotels.


    Li Ran and the others were in the hotel lobby discussing their countermeasures when a group of people smashed open the hotel¡¯s entrance.


    After these rioters rushed into the lobby, they were stunned because they recognized Li Ran!


    To be honest, the rioters did not expect to meet a big star like Li Ran here. Everyone immediately restrained themselves and some even approached her for an autograph.


    Li Ran nced at Zhou Yingxue smugly. However, when she was signing autographs for the rioters, a middle-aged man reached out and tried to hug her. Li Ran pushed him away angrily. ¡°What are you doing!?¡±


    That rioter said, ¡°I super like listening to your songs. I just want a hug, that¡¯s all.¡±


    As he said that, the middle-aged man took the opportunity to hug her again. However, Li Ran pped his face.


    Someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, ¡°What¡¯s the big deal about a celebrity? Can a celebrity condescendingly p anyone they like? We¡¯re gonna get a hug today no matter what. Let¡¯s see who can stop us!¡±


    Li Ran was stunned. Everything was fine just a moment ago like it was a fan meeting. But in the blink of an eye, the situation turned chaotic.


    Seeing the group of people swarming towards Li Ran, Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu. However, she only saw him looking up at the ceiling like it was none of his business.


    The inclothes guards who were responsible for protecting Li Ran rushed out at once. Theynded some hits on the rioters standing at the front of the group with the metal rods in their hands.


    These rioters were the type to bully the weak and fear the strong. Seeing that the inclothes guards were really fierce, they immediately cowered with their heads in their hands and stepped back.


    Ren Xiaosu watched from the side. He thought this group of inclothes guards were still quite useful in such a situation. The ten of them worked very well together, with some of them blocking the front while others stayed on the sides to cover the rest.


    After all, they had undergone proper military training before, so it wasn¡¯t like they couldn¡¯t deal with just a few rioters.


    But amid the scuffle, the sound of a gunshot left everyone stunned. The inclothes guards who were chasing away the rioters with the metal rods were also stunned on the spot. As they were soldiers, they were even more aware of the might of firearms. If they were to get shot at such a time, they might not survive.


    One of the rioters with a bruised face was holding a pistol. He said, ¡°Let¡¯s see who dares to touch me!¡±


    It waspletely silent in the hotel lobby. Even his fellow rioters were shocked. That rioter roared, ¡°That female celebrity, get over here. I want you to follow me. I¡¯ll let youe back here when I feel like it¡ª¡±


    Midway through his sentence, a figure suddenly dashed past, and the pistol in the rioter¡¯s hand disappeared.


    Ren Xiaosu tossed the pistol to a inclothes guard. ¡°Carry on and take over from here.¡± With that, Ren Xiaosu headed upstairs to do some reading. He acted like he had just done something trivial.


    When the rioters saw the inclothes guard pointing the ck barrel at them, they immediately dispersed.


    However, something even more surprising happened. After the rioters left, a lot of women started arriving when they heard rumors there was food in the hotel Li Ran was staying at. Furthermore, this was where women were protected.


    So a lot of women came running to Li Ran to seek protection.


    Li Ran did not make the decision on her own. She purposely went to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room to ask if she could take in these women. Ren Xiaosu only gave her a look and told her to make the decision herself.


    If she wanted to protect them, she would have to protect them herself. Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue were only responsible for her safety.

 Chapter 567 - The reinforcements get ambushed

    <h4>Chapter 567 The reinforcements get ambushed</h4>


    Although Ren Xiaosu said that Li Ran could make the decision herself, she could tell that Ren Xiaosu did not want any further trouble. Therefore, she decided to just hide in her hotel room and let Fang Zhi deal with turning away the women who hade to seek refuge.And a well-knownpany in Stronghold 74 suddenly organized a food drive. The stronghold residents could swipe their ID cards in exchange for receiving some porridge, and everyone would get two servings per day.


    There were a total of 41 porridge stands set up across the entire stronghold. In an instant, all of the stronghold residents took their pots, bowls, and pans to collect the porridge.


    Ren Xiaosu went to take a look for himself. The porridge given out at the porridge stands was not too thin either. At the least, it would not be a problem for the stronghold residents to survive on.


    Upon swiping one¡¯s ID card on a ck device at the porridge stands, if a green light were shown, porridge would be served to the resident. A red light indicated the resident had already collected their share of the porridge, so the organizers would not dispense any porridge to them.


    Many of the stronghold residents tried to im more than they were allotted, but none of them seeded in getting extra.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if the Zhou Consortium was behind thispany. After all, the entire stronghold¡¯s food supplies were in the hands of the Zhou Consortium. But why didn¡¯t the Zhou Consortium organize the food drive in their own name?


    Instead, they had thispany do it on their behalf?


    Besides, when Ren Xiaosu saw the people who were giving out the porridge, they all looked really burly. Some of them even had tattoos on their necks and looked like gangsters.


    Since the stronghold residents had food to eat now, the chaos did notst for too long. Moreover, Hope Media¡¯s newspaper published a piece of news saying the Zhou Consortium troops from Stronghold 73 had already regrouped and were setting off to Stronghold 74 to exterminate the Experimentals. Their strength totaled 14,000 soldiers.


    Many people felt the war was probablying to an end, so they would be suicidal if they caused any further trouble.


    These people only dared to make a scene while the Zhou Consortium was too busy to care about them. Now that the Zhou Consortium was free to deal with the disorder, it would be no more difficult than stepping on an ant.


    Based on the normal speed of a march, the reinforcements should take around three days to reach the vicinity of Stronghold 74. However, due to the urgency of the situation, they were likelier to arrive in two days if they force marched.


    Li Ran and the others were cheering in the main lobby. Even Ren Xiaosu had a smile on his face. It seemed that Stronghold 74 could get off the hook this time, and the Experimentals had to retreat back into the mountains.


    But on the afternoon of the next day, Stronghold 73¡¯s 2nd Division that was on its way to Stronghold 74 as reinforcements suddenly encountered a dense group of Experimentals that charged down from the forested mountains while they were walking on a mountain path.


    As the path was narrow, and the Experimentals were charging at them from high ground, the 2nd Division¡¯s tanks were unable to do much.


    On the left was a mountain, and on the right was a cliff.


    The Experimentals had been nning for a long time to use this position as an ambush spot.


    However, 2nd Division was prepared for this. They had expected the Experimentals would attack the reinforcements along the way like the previous time, so the armored vehicles that were mounted with heavy machine guns were always on guard to prevent an Experimental ambush on the formation.


    The soldiers in the armored vehicles immediately turned the heavy machine guns toward the Experimentals and ced them in their sights.


    Moreover, the infantry troops¡¯ automatic rifles were even equipped with grenadeunchers this time, and much of their ammunition was reced with white phosphorus munitions.


    White phosphorus munitions included grenades, artillery shells, and other types of bombs. The body of the ammunition would be filled with phosphorus and would automatically ignite on contact with air and burn until itpletely reacted.


    Normal bullets could not prate the Experimentals¡¯ bodies? Then use white phosphorus against them!


    It seemed like this was also the first time the Experimentals had encountered an individualbat weapon that could cause enough effective damage to kill them. As a result, the first group of Experimentals that rushed at their enemy were all burned to death. The entire forested mountain started burning as the originally emerald green mountain range was engulfed in mes.


    Just as 2nd Division thought victory was in their grasp, hundreds of Experimentals suddenly climbed up the mountain andunched another attack from the other side.


    When they used the white phosphorus munitions again, the Zhou Consortium troops realized they had used it in the wrong situation. After the Experimentals that had already rushed near them were hit by the white phosphorus, they wouldn¡¯t instantly burn to ashes. However, the burning mes that were brought into the crowd of soldiers caused even more casualties to the Zhou Consortium troops!


    Once it came down to closebat, the white phosphorus became a double-edged sword. Although it was capable of killing enemies, it also hurt their own troops.


    The Experimentals were also much hardier than normal soldiers. As such, before the Experimentals could die from the fiery attacks, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s own soldiers had already fallen to the burning mes!


    Furthermore, some of the soldiers were shocked to discover there were another dozen or so Experimentals that werepletely different from the others.


    The other Experimentals moved around by crawling, but these dozen or so Experimentals were actually walking upright all the time!


    In a split second, these dozen or so Experimentals charged into the 2nd Division¡¯s formation. Some of the soldiers had used the white phosphorus to hit one of them, but it seemed totally unaffected by the mes burning on its body. They watched the Experimental charge to the front of an armored vehicle and grab the wheels with its bare hands. Then it threw the armored vehicle down to the bottom of the cliff to the right.


    The heavily armored vehicle tumbled down the mountainside, and even the sturdy frame of the vehicle was shattered!


    When the soldiers saw this sight, they were all shocked. They had not expected such a ferocious existence among the Experimentals!


    How powerful was it to be able to flip an armored vehicle with its bare hands?!


    These dozen-odd Experimentals zipped through the Zhou Consortium troops with no intention of prolonging the fight. When they encountered the standard infantry, they would charge into them with their bodies and break the soldiers¡¯ bones. When they encountered an armored vehicle, they would throw it right off the cliff.


    These Experimentals were the strongest warriors in their entire race and werepletely focused on crippling the heavy firepower of the Zhou Consortium troops. They did not seem to know what fear was and were extremely powerful.


    They were like a sharp knife that stabbed right at the hearts of the Zhou Consortium troops, and it was even twisted in for good measure.


    While the Experimentals advanced, the Zhou Consortium soldiers tried to fire at them with their guns. However, the Experimentals were moving too quickly.


    They were able to move freely within the Zhou Consortium troops, taking out the normal soldiers in the process like they were up against children.


    This was the result of overwhelming strength and speed.


    Although there weren¡¯t many of these Experimentals that walked upright, their destructive power on the battlefield was simply too great!


    A minuteter, just as one of the Experimentals was about to crash into a soldier like they had been doing, that soldier suddenly took the initiative to charge it. The moment the two parties collided, the explosives in the soldier¡¯s arms immediately went off. Both the soldier and that Experimental were blown into pieces.


    The huge st sent the surrounding soldiers flying up. Even the armored vehicles nearby were rattling from the explosion, the shockwave killing some of the soldiers who were standing close to the impact zone.


    In this ambush battle, this seemed to be the only way the Zhou Consortium troops could effectively stop the Experimentals.


    More and more soldiers started using this method as they sought to die together with the Experimentals. During this wave of attacks, the Experimentals also learned to be smart. They would charge in while steering clear of the humans and only destroy the armored vehicles and tanks. They avoided going headfirst into the soldiers.


    As a result, some of the soldiers died in vain. Although the explosives were detonated, the Experimentals managed to avoid getting caught in the sts.

 Chapter 568 - Isolated and helpless

    <h4>Chapter 568 Isted and helpless</h4>


    Once the Experimentals started avoiding the soldiers, the rate of their casualties began to decrease. Meanwhile, the armor of 2nd Division were beginning to get hit hard.But what surprised the Experimentals was that some of the humans whose physical fitness was second only to theirs had also started these suicidal attacks against them.


    The Pyro Company members carried the explosives on their backs as they searched for traces of the Experimentals on the battlefield. As long as they saw any Experimentals, they would charge at it in a bid to take the enemy down together with them. It was precisely because the Pyro Company was participating in the battle that the chaotic situation had reversed.


    30 members of the Pyro Company had joined the reinforcements this time, a total of six squadsprising three Midnight and three Dusk squads.


    Their physical fitness was not as good as the Experimentals that walked upright, but it was enough for them tounch a suicide attack against these creatures. They were trading a life for a life!


    Before this, the Zhou Consortium soldiers did not really take a liking to the Pyro Company members, because they always felt they were too shady and did notmunicate well with the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops.


    But at this moment, everyone admired them from the bottom of their hearts.


    The Pyro Company that clearly did not have a good reputation was now standing up to fight alongside them.


    They had always heard of some supernatural beings who were particrly powerful that existed in the Central ins. But where were those supernatural beings now?


    Very quickly, only two out of the dozen or so Experimentals that walked upright were left after the suicide attacks. And without the help of these walkers, the Experimentals found it very difficult to get past the 2nd Division¡¯s heavy machine gun positions.


    Just as hope started growing in all the soldiers andmanders of 2nd Division, someone suddenly shouted, ¡°Another dozen walking Experimentals are climbing up the mountain!¡±


    But it was toote by the time that was said.


    Suddenly, one of the Experimentals carried a strange-looking bag of items and charged into the Zhou Consortium troops. Following that, dust and pieces of flesh were sent flying everywhere with a loud bang.


    The 2nd Division¡¯smander who was watching from afar was dumbfounded. This time, it was the Experimentalsunching suicide bombings against them.


    The Experimentals were starting to use firearms and explosives!


    Themander of 2nd Division had a heavy expression as he said, ¡°Retreat, orderly retreat!¡±


    Whenever a time like this came, it was always difficult to make any decisions. If a portion of the troops were going to evacuate, it would mean a portion of them would have to stay behind forever. In fact, some of the soldiers might even get assimted into new Experimentals.


    In the end, the Experimentals¡¯ numbers did not really decrease by much after the battle. Furthermore, if the soldiers with stronger physical fitness were turned into Experimentals, they might even end up as those walking Experimentals that were exceptionally strong.


    The Experimentals seemed to have their own selection criteria for new Experimentals.


    The Qing Consortium had calcted the statistics before. It seemed the Experimentals had a 7% chance of choosing someone to be assimted as one of them.


    If 2nd Division were to retreat now, they should be able to retain two-thirds of their troop strength. After all, a division with more than ten thousand troops was not that easy to defeat.


    But themander of 2nd Division was more concerned about the fact that if the Experimentals were capable of using firearms and explosives, it would make it even more difficult for Stronghold 74, which was isted and helpless, in future sieges.


    They could only hope the Experimentals did not know how to drive tanks.


    The Experimentals did not chase after them either and only watched silently from the forest with ferocious expressions as the Zhou Consortium troops retreated.


    Meanwhile, the forest by that mountain path was still burning with raging mes. As the fire spread further, it left behind only dark ashes and ruins in its path.


    ...


    When news of the reinforcements¡¯ defeat reached Stronghold 74, the stronghold residents felt like they were struck by lightning.


    It became obvious that the porridge given out at the porridge stands had suddenly be very thin, as though there were almost no rice grains in it.


    It wasn¡¯t that there was no more food left in Stronghold 74 but that the Zhou Consortium troops were preparing to fight a prolonged war.


    If the reinforcements could not make it here, it would be left to them to continue defending the stronghold, and no one knew how much longer they would have to fight for.


    When some of the residents realized there were barely any rice grains in the porridge, they immediately started making a fuss at a porridge stand. They shouted at the person who was giving out the porridge, ¡°Look at how thin the porridge has be!¡±


    With that said, these people actually flipped the porridge stand!


    However, after the porridge stand was destroyed, the men in charge of the stand rushed out and started beating up the troublemakers with sticks. The people who had flipped the porridge stand were beaten beyond recognition.


    The men who attacked them were extremely fierce. They were absolutely making an example out of these people to establish their dominance!


    Very quickly, a reporter brought a photo he had taken and went to the Zhou Consortium to ask for an exnation. The Zhou Consortium¡¯s reply was that thispany was not a business arm under them, but that they would definitely investigate the matter thoroughly.


    An hourter, the Zhou Consortium announced the perpetrators had been fired and considered that an exnation to the residents.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard about this, heughed. He had been wondering why the Zhou Consortium did not run the porridge stands in their own name. So it turned out it was because they could exin themselves to the media if anyone got beaten up at the stands.


    After the troublemakers got beaten up, they could just fire the people running the stands and wash their hands of the matter.


    This pany¡± was purely used for taking any me.


    This was not a pretty move, and it could even be considered a little underhanded. However, no one dared to make trouble at the porridge stands anymore. Even the residents who previously caused trouble in the stronghold had settled down. They understood the beatings at the porridge stand was a signal: The Zhou Consortium¡¯s patience was running thin, so they had better not go looking for trouble.


    Three days passed, and all that the stronghold residents were thinking about was collecting porridge at the porridge stands.


    A week passed, but there were still no updates from the reinforcements that were supposed to be arriving. It seemed like the Zhou Consortium troops were also in a difficult position and did not know how to deal with the Experimentals.


    The entire stronghold seemed to be getting more and more depressed by the day. There were very few pedestrians out on the streets. Even if there were, they were also begging for food on the sidewalk. The trees on the streets did not even have any bark left as they had been stripped bare and eaten.


    It was not that the Zhou Consortium was not handing out food on purpose. Rather, they did not have much rations anymore. Even the food for the Zhou Consortium troops had been reduced. To express solidarity with the army, Zhou Xingwen even moved into the military barracks where he lived and ate with the rest. This showed he did not get any special treatment, and that all of them were going through this difficult time together.


    Li Ran and the others were somewhat d that Ren Xiaosu had told Fang Zhi to bribe the private troops¡¯ officers and bought some military rations from them. Otherwise, they would all be starving by now.


    However, Ren Xiaosu specifically instructed them, ¡°Don¡¯t use the hotel¡¯s kitchen when you¡¯re cooking. There¡¯s an exhaust fan in there. Also, close the doors tight and don¡¯t let the smell get out.¡±


    Fang Zhi controlled all their food, and Ren Xiaosu did not take any extra for himself. Li Ran carefully asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I heard from Fang Zhi that the food we bought can onlyst for another two days at most. What are we going to do next?¡±


    After all, the tour group had many staff members. Even though they bought some food back, it would not be enough to feed everyone.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Ran¡¯s expectant gaze and shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to do either.¡±


    ¡°If there really aren¡¯t any reinforcementsing, can you and Zhou Yingxue save me from here?¡± Li Ran asked anxiously.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at her and answered, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

 Chapter 569 - Never coming back

    <h4>569 Nevering back</h4>


    Based on what everyone thought, the Zhou Consortium could definitely exterminate the Experimentals within a week. Since the Experimentals were not sessful in attacking the city at the start, once the Zhou Consortium started a full-scale retaliation, the Experimentals would not even stand a chance.


    But reality proved this false. More than a week had already passed since the day the Experimentals attacked the city for the first time, yet Stronghold 74 did not even see any signs of the reinforcements arriving.


    When Li Ran and the others first started eating the rations, they did not control the amount of food they ate. Everyone just ate as usual, so the food they bought previously was almost gone.


    Zhou Yingxue even warned them at the beginning, but everyone felt the war would be over soon. When the time came, they would not be able to leave with the food either, so they might as well finish it all. Hence, Zhou Yingxue did not say anything else. At most, she could just eat the potatoes with her master. It wasn¡¯t like the lives of these people had anything to do with her anyway!


    At this point, Li Ran and the others were starting to worry about the food shortage when they saw how hopeless the situation had be. However, they remembered that Zhou Yingxue had warned them earlier, yet they did not heed her advice.


    As such, they were embarrassed to ask for Zhou Yingxue¡¯s help to think of a solution. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was unaffected by the situation as he could not even be bothered with them.


    Of course, it was because they were not in a dire situation yet. If they got really hungry, these people would probably even be willing to eat tree bark, not to mention begging others for help.


    But at that time, it would be difficult to say if there would still be any bark left on the streets.


    In any case, Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t panicking. He would go out every day to check on the situation in the city to see if any Experimentals hade to attack. Nothing else mattered to him.


    The food he¡¯d hoarded in his storage space was enough tost him and Zhou Yingxue for another three months at least. Furthermore, there were many varieties of food, like the entire herd of wild boars he had killed. There were still three of them left.


    Two dayster, Li Ran and the others kept wondering why they could smell a faint aroma of meat inside the hotel. However, when they searched for the source of the smell, they could not find anything. They even thought they might be hallucinating from hunger.


    That was until they saw the gloss of oil on Zhou Yingxue¡¯s lips.


    Zhou Yingxue did not seem to have any intention of eating inconspicuously. The pork was given by her master, after all, and it wasn¡¯t like she stole or seized it from anyone, so she did not have the obligation to share it with others, right?


    On that same day, something extremely strange happened.


    There were soldiers lying behind the defensive fortifications on the top of the stronghold walls when they saw an Experimental crawling over at high speed with something hanging in its mouth.


    Everyone was a little puzzled by the sight. What was the Experimentaling here for? To surrender? Could infighting have arisen among the Experimentals as well?


    The Experimental came to the bottom of the stronghold walls and dropped whatever was in its mouth before turning around and retreating back into the dark forest.


    The garrison troops on the stronghold walls looked at each other and quickly lowered someone in a gond car to pick up the item the Experimental had dropped. They found a white cloth.


    When Zhou Xingwen heard about this, he ran to the top of the stronghold walls and took the white cloth from the soldier¡¯s hands. On it were a few words written in fresh blood: ¡°Negotiations. Come alone.¡±


    Instantly, Zhou Xingwen¡¯s scalp tingled. The Experimentals actually knew how to write and even used the term ¡°negotiation¡±?


    Humans negotiating with the Experimentals? How was that supposed to be carried out?


    Old Li and Qin Sheng rushed over as well. The Pyro Company members, who were already on the stronghold walls when the Experimental came over, started exining the situation to them. Old Li suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯ll go!¡±


    Qin Sheng turned to look at Old Li. ¡°Teacher, you can¡¯t go. There¡¯s probably at least ten thousand Experimentals still in that forest.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK.¡± Old Li waved the white cloth in his hand and said with a smile, ¡°Someone has to go see what the Experimentals are up to, right? I have no children, no partner, no worries, and my only disciple has also graduated. I should be the one to do this.¡±


    The Zhou Consortium officers nearby did not say anything. They were definitely not going. They felt a deep admiration for Old Li when they heard he was willing to volunteer.


    And it did not seem this Rider was scared either from the way he wasughing and chatting.


    Old Li¡¯s smile gradually faded. ¡°Moreover, it¡¯s obvious there¡¯s an intelligent being that¡¯s controlling those Experimentals. If the other party wants to negotiate with me, I might just be able to get close and kill it. If that happens, this crisis involving the Experimentals will probably be resolved as well.¡±


    As for what came after that, Old Li would definitely get surrounded and killed by the other Experimentals after taking out their leader. No matter how powerful he was, it would be impossible for him to take on that many Experimentals.


    However, he did not say anything regarding the consequences. Since he had decided to go, he would have to prepare to die.


    Qin Sheng wanted to stop him, but before he could say anything, Old Li stopped him. Old Li smiled and said, ¡°This is really exciting, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ...


    In the afternoon, Old Li rappeled down the stronghold walls and walked into the forest alone. But just as he entered the forest, he discovered there were Experimentals constantly moving around and surrounding him in the shadows.


    The Experimentals did not attack Old Li. Instead, they opened up a path for him to walk straight into the depths of the forest.


    Old Li stepped on soft leaves as he walked. Fall had passed, and the leaves that had fallen onto the soil had turned to duff. Old Li¡¯s ending was not going to be that different from the fallen leaves; it was just a matter of time.


    Thinking this, Old Li strode forward with long strides. He looked at the Experimentals next to him like they were nothing.


    After walking for about two kilometers, Old Li saw an Experimental sitting at a campfire in front of him. It was holding a tree branch in its gray hand, a sparrow impaled on it.


    Old Li stood still and surveyed his surroundings silently. He wanted to see if there would be a chance for him to kill the other party. However, before he made his move, he still needed to hear what it had to say first.


    But how were they going to talk? Through writing?


    While Old Li was letting his imagination wander, the Experimental suddenlyughed hoarsely. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you before. That evening, you were up on the mountain with a young man beside you. Why isn¡¯t he here as well?¡±


    Old Li was shocked. So this Experimental could actually speak!


    The Experimentals mutated from humans, so it should be quite normal that they could speak a humannguage. But still, Old Li found it very unusual!


    The Experimental¡¯s voice was extremely hoarse and sounded like two pieces of sandpaper scraping against each other. ¡°Don¡¯t be so surprised. I¡¯m also human. We only became like this because we wanted to cure our illness. It¡¯s just that some of us are lucky like me to be able to gradually regain our sapience, while the others unfortunately turned into monsters.¡±


    Old Li frowned but did not say anything. What the other party was telling him was an information overload.


    The Experimental looked at him and waved the sparrow on the stick while saying with a smile, ¡°This is for you. I used to like eating roast meat too. But now, I prefer raw and bloody meat more. Sometimes, I even like to eat something that¡¯s rotting for a change of taste. You can just stand over there. If you get any closer, you¡¯ll die here. You don¡¯t have to think about killing me. Your kind can¡¯t.¡± With that, the Experimental threw the sparrow to Old Li.


    Old Li epted the sparrow graciously. He raised it to his mouth and tore off a piece of meat from it. As he chewed, he asked, ¡°Isn¡¯t it better to be human? Meat only tastes good if it¡¯s cooked.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly why I¡¯m looking for you.¡± The Experimental said in a hoarse voice, ¡°Help me find someone. If you can find him, we¡¯ll return to the forest, or we can head south and nevere back again.¡±

 Chapter 570 - The person the Experimentals are looking for

    <h4>Chapter 570 The person the Experimentals are looking for</h4>


    ¡°We came from the Pyro Company¡¯s Lab 39. Prior to The Cataclysm, theboratory had been researching various kinds of cancer treatments. But their drugs were the disapproved kind, so only those who were on the verge of death dared to try it,¡± the Experimental said slowly.Old Li wished he could memorize every word the Experimental was saying because the information given was way too important. Any missing bits could lead to a mistaketer on.


    In addition, what the Experimentals did not know was that the Riders were also searching for that secretboratory of the Pyro Company. The person they were looking for was also in there.


    However, too much information had gone missing after the Cataclysm. As the founder of the Riders had also died in that event, not even the Pyro Company and the Qinghe Group knew the whereabouts of the Qinghe Group¡¯s heir. All that the founder left behind was a message saying that his son must still be alive.


    This matter became an obsession to the Riders. As long as they could not find that child, they would not be at peace even in death.


    Before Old Li¡¯s master passed away, he only left one instruction for him: Find the Rider¡¯s heir.


    Now that the Experimental was saying this, Old Li¡¯s heart suddenly started pounding. He wondered if the Riders and the Experimentals were actually looking for the same person.


    Even if that weren¡¯t the case, c-could that Rider¡¯s heir have also turned into an Experimental? Or could he be the Experimental right in front of him?


    Old Li probed, ¡°Since you¡¯ve gotten back your sapience, what did you used to do?¡±


    ¡°Me?¡± The Experimental smiled. ¡°I was the heir of some corporation.¡±


    Old Li was stunned. ¡°Is it Qinghe?¡±


    He was about to go crazy. The descendant of the original Rider had actually be an Experimental? How was he going to exin this to the other Riders?


    However, the Experimental shook its head and said in a hoarse voice, ¡°I¡¯m from the Li Consortium, a corporation from before the Cataclysm. You¡¯ve probably never even heard of it before.¡±


    Old Li was so pleasantly surprised he was about to burst into tears. Everything was fine as long as the person they were looking for wasn¡¯t this Experimental before him!


    Wait a minute, then could the Qinghe heir really be one of the Experimentals?


    At the thought of this, he started feeling conflicted again.


    The Experimental looked at Old Li and said gloomily, ¡°There were only several hundred people in thatboratory, and they came from all over the world. Everyone spent a lot of money to get the Pyro Company to treat those of us who were about to die. But what the Pyro Company didn¡¯t tell us was that their research carried a high risk, and even they themselves were not confident of curing our diseases.


    ¡°It would¡¯ve been fine if I just died, but they actually turned me into this inhuman.¡± The Experimental sneered and said, ¡°I heard the Pyro Company¡¯s still doing great now, and that¡¯s really disappointing.¡±


    Puzzled, Old Li asked, ¡°So you want us to capture the Pyro Company¡¯s people for you to take revenge on?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± The Experimental shook its head. ¡°The person I want you to find is someone like me, a test subject. However, his illness was fully cured.¡±


    ¡°Even if he was cured, how could he still be alive after 200 years? Even if he had a long life, he would¡¯ve already died of old age,¡± Old Li said curiously.


    The Experimental asked, ¡°Am I dead? Adding up the time that¡¯s passed, I¡¯m probably over 200 years old as well.¡±


    ¡°You mean you¡¯ve obtained immortality?!¡± Old Li was shocked again. He felt the information he was getting today would be enough to shock him for an entire year.


    The Experimental sneered. ¡°You¡¯ll have to ask the Pyro Company about that. They were the ones who turned us into these carriers of cancer cells. If cancer cells are immortal, then we¡¯re immortal too.¡±


    ¡°Then the person you¡¯re looking for...¡± Old Li gulped. Even though he was very experienced and knowledgeable, he had never heard of such a thing before.


    The Experimental said, ¡°He should have also escaped from theboratory not too long ago. A few years ago, during an earthquake, a crack appeared in theboratory we were in. All the patients who were locked up inside started to wake up, but the Pyro Company had chained us up before The Cataclysm to prevent us from escaping. As a result, we were trapped in there for a very long time. But the person who escaped was different. As the only one who was truly cured, he did not get chained.


    ¡°After the crack appeared, he also woke up from his slumber. I roared to him in hopes that he could bring us to see the light of day again, but I only heard his footsteps fall silent.¡± The Experimental¡¯s voice became heavier. ¡°He¡¯s different from us. ording to the Pyro Company, he looks no different from a normal human on the surface. Only when he¡¯s tested will it be discovered that the cell nuclei in him are all heterokaryotic. Just, the heterokaryotic cells are uniformly divided in him. The Pyro Company even described such cell structures as a work of art.¡±


    Old Li felt his scalp go numb. ¡°Can he still be considered human?¡±


    The Experimental gave a strange smile and said, ¡°Of course! The Pyro Company identifies him as more powerful... a Homo novus, a Neo-Human.¡±


    ¡°So why do you want us to help you find him?¡± Old Li asked.


    ¡°So we can find a way to cure ourselves, of course!¡± the Experimental roared. After it fell into this state, it became extremely enraged. ¡°Find him and hand him over to me. As long as I can find a way to cure us, we¡¯ll never step into the Central ins again. This is a very good deal. If you can¡¯t find him, I¡¯ll be sure to turn the Central ins into my kingdom!¡±


    Old Li felt it was already considering itself a king.


    ¡°But you¡¯ll have to give me some clues on where to start.¡± Old Li said, ¡°Just knowing that his cells are all heterokaryotic doesn¡¯t help, I can¡¯t possibly drag over everyone in the world and test them, or biopsy them to observe their cells under the microscope, right? This wouldn¡¯t work, and that wouldn¡¯t work either....¡±


    The Experimental said angrily, ¡°I don¡¯t have time to chat with you. Just go and find him. There aren¡¯t any clues here, but he definitely won¡¯t be average upon stepping back into the human world. Maybe you can ask the Qing Consortium what clues they have. If you can¡¯t find him in seven days, I¡¯ll ughter the entire city. No one in that stronghold will survive.¡±


    Throughout, the Experimental did not give Old Li a chance to get close enough to decapitate it. And Old Li had also given up on the idea of decapitating it. The influx of information he received was too heavy. He had to hurry back to the stronghold and discuss their next step with the others.


    Furthermore, he had to ask the Pyro Company¡¯s headquarters to see if they had any information regarding this matter.


    They had always been like headless flies as they went to the variousboratory sites with the Pyro Company, only to never discover any traces of that Rider¡¯s heir in any of them.


    Due to The Cataclysm, the Pyro Company had lost a great deal of precious information. Not even one in ten of their researchers remained, and it was already fortunate that four or five out of a thousand researchers managed to survive The Cataclysm. As for the Riders, they had also lost all pictures of the heir due to The Cataclysm. All these years, they could only use their words to describe that person¡¯s looks: Considered handsome...


    As if they could fucking find him based on that!


    They knew the descendant of the Rider was named Ren Xiaobei. If they could locate Laboratory 39, they might just find the list of theboratory staff at that time!

 Chapter 571 - The person who can’t be found

    <h4>Chapter 571 The person who can¡°t be found</h4>


    The garrison troops of Stronghold 74 all stood quietly on the stronghold walls as they waited for Old Li to return.Everyone wanted to know what the Experimentals had talked about since it was a little bizarre for such fearsome creatures to want to negotiate.


    When they saw Old Li appear on the horizon, the garrison troops on the walls were all relieved. At least, Old Li had returned safely.


    Some of them even started cheering like they were weing a lone hero home. They were not stingy with their praises and ardor at all. It sounded like these garrison troops on the stronghold walls had won the battle with everyone conveniently forgetting that they were still surrounded by the Experimentals at this moment.


    However, the hero, Old Li, did not look happy at all. Instead, he felt torn and puzzled by what he had just found out. His mood turned a little heavy.


    The soldiers on the walls were about to lower the gond car to pick up Old Li. However, he climbed up from below with his bare hands.


    From a distance, the stronghold walls looked very smooth. But upon closer inspection, there were still some fine cracks in it. When everyone saw Old Li skillfully climbing the walls, it was apparent that this was not the first time he had scaled a stronghold.


    Zhou Xingwen went up to Old Li. ¡°What did the Experimentals want? How did youmunicate with them?¡±


    ¡°One of them can speak ournguage.¡± Old Li looked at the Pyro Company members next to him and said to the others truthfully, ¡°The Experimentals all came from the Pyro Company¡¯s Lab 39 that was originally used to treat cancer patients. However, an ident happened and caused them to be like that. They wanted to negotiate with us to help them find a person who escaped from thatb. They said the person holds a secret that can help them recover fully and turn them back into normal humans again.¡±


    Everyone was shocked. A lot of information was contained in those short few sentences.


    Looking at everyone¡¯s dumbfounded expression, Old Li recalled that he probably wore the same look as well earlier.


    Everyone looked at the Pyro Company members subconsciously and thought to themselves, ¡®So they were the ones who created these creatures.¡¯ This confirmed the Pyro Company had created the monsters.


    But since they were helping to defend the city now, the officers of the Zhou Consortium troops did not say anything more. They could only go back and discuss it in privateter.


    Meanwhile, the Pyro Company members remained expressionless throughout. In fact, it was no secret the Experimentals were created by the Pyro Company.


    At least the Qing Consortium knew all about this. However, they did not deliberately try to stir up public opinion to spite the Pyro Company.


    At this moment, Old Li sighed and said, ¡°If we can¡¯t find that person, the Experimentals wille and destroy the city in seven days.¡±


    Zhou Xingwen suddenly said, ¡°We definitely can¡¯t hand that person over to the Experimentals. First of all, we can¡¯t fully believe what they said as we still need to verify the authenticity of the story. Second, we don¡¯t know whether this person can cure the Experimentals or not. These Experimentals are so cunning and vicious, so even if they recover, are we certain we can get along with them?¡±


    Nearby, some people echoed agreement that the person must not be handed over to the Experimentals.


    Only Qin Sheng wondered from next to them, ¡°You¡¯re putting it as though we¡¯ve already found that person. Why do I feel that we might not even be able to find him?¡±


    Zhou Xingwen was speechless.


    Old Li said, ¡°Indeed, there aren¡¯t really any clues for us to start from. We don¡¯t even know what he looks like and can¡¯t be sure of how old he is. The only information we have is that he came out of Lab 39.¡±


    Qin Sheng¡¯s words hit the mark. They would have to find that person first before discussing whether to hand him over to the Experimentals.


    Everyone split up and got down to business. The Pyro Company contacted their headquarters to ry the information. However, the Pyro Company clearly expressed that Laboratory 39 had beenpletely destroyed. After the earthquake in the Jing Mountains, the volcanic magma had entirely covered the area. Furthermore, there was an extremely powerful unidentified creature there.


    Even if that creature remained motionless in the volcano, theboratory data would have been burned away by the magma. There was absolutely no chance of finding any clues.


    There might have been some relevant data left in the researchboratory at Stronghold 73. After all, based on some previously discovered information, the research direction of that researchboratory and Laboratory 39 was generally the same, so bothboratories should have had contact with each other. There might just have been some information left behind.


    But that data had already been stolen by Wang Congyang!


    Suddenly, the Pyro Company issued an order to raise the wanted level of Wang Congyang.


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops immediately contacted the Qing Consortium. Even the head of the Zhou Consortium, Zhou Shiji, called Qing Zhen directly in the hope that the Qing Consortium could provide them with some information about this matter.


    However, the Qing Consortium expressed they also knew nothing of this. They had only deduced that the Experimentals must have mutated from cancer patients, which was now confirmed by the Zhou Consortium.


    As for the person the Experimentals were looking for, they were not sure of that either. It could be very possible that he had died along with the destruction of Stronghold 113 and Stronghold 112.


    The earthquake utterly destroyed the two strongholds. Even if there were any clues, they would probably have been buried together with the strongholds.


    Zhou Xingwen was at a loss. They also discussed whether they should hand over the person, but how were they supposed to hand him over when they could not even find him?!


    At this moment, they were guessing the patient who had been sessfully cured of cancer was walking among normal people by now. Unless that person¡¯s cells were tested, it would be impossible to find him.


    Even the Experimentals had mentioned he probably looked like an average person now.


    This matter eventually made it to Hope Media¡¯s newspapers. The Zhou Consortium troops had made the issue public and epted the media¡¯s interview as they were hoping to appeal to the Experimental who was walking among normal human beings to voluntarily step forward. He would not have to face the Experimentals and only needed to tell them the information he knew.


    When Ren Xiaosu read the newspaper, he was bewildered. ¡°Lab 39?¡±


    This matched the research data he had transported away in his train. One of the documents also stated that a patient in Laboratory 39 had sessfully made a full recovery from cancer. However, the treatment conditions were extremely particr and difficult to replicate.


    So the Experimentals were the guinea pigs of that replicated treatment that had failed.


    When he saw the date reported in the newspaper, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. The image of a little boy who was lying unconscious in the snow appeared in his mind. After he carried the boy out of the snow, he ended up with a younger brother from that day onwards.


    Based on the date and location, Yan Liuyuan seemed to fit the descriptions very well.


    Although the reported date and location were extremely vague, and it was difficult to calcte the time scale as the Experimentals imed to have been imprisoned in the darkboratory, it was really possible that Yan Liuyuan could be the person they were looking for based on simple deduction.


    But Yan Liuyuan did not have a strong physique. Instead, he was really weak and frail due to his Curse Maniption superpower.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably not the case,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself.


    But regardless of whether Yan Liuyuan was Experimental 001 or not, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not tell anyone about it. He had seen too much evil and knew full well the kind of things a unique person like that would encounter in society.


    No matter how kind you were, you would still be ostracized if you were not one of them.


    Even heroes were treated like this, let alone others.

 Chapter 572 - There’s a bomb

    <h4>Chapter 572 There¡°s a bomb</h4>


    The people at Stronghold 74 had never thought that seven days would feel this long. Usually, a week would fly by, but these seven days felt like seven years.Old Li seemed full of worries these days. He contacted the other Riders to ask if they knew anything else and whether there was any information they might have neglected.


    Actually, Old Li and Qin Sheng did not care so much about the battle between Stronghold 74 and the Experimentals anymore. To them, they were simply defending Stronghold 74 out of a sense of justice.


    Just as a hero would step in to help when there was injustice, Old Li and Qin Sheng did not intend to sacrifice themselves to save Stronghold 74.


    It was not that they were not resolute in facing amon enemy with the entire human race, but if they could not protect the city even after trying their best, they would rather not die inbat here.


    Even though everyone said the Riders were kind and good people, it was only because they had helped a lot of people and were remembered fondly.


    But the Riders had something more important they needed to do.


    That was why they had carved ¡°only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal¡± at the top of the mountain instead of protecting world peace.


    In the Riders¡¯ opinion, world peace might be important, but it was not as important as what they believed in.


    As part of the Riders, they would have to put finding that Rider¡¯s descendant as their main priority.


    Old Li and Qin Sheng kept contacting the rest of the Riders as they wanted to verify whether the Experimentals were really looking for the same person as them.


    But after asking around for a long time, everyone expressed that due to severe loss of information, they only knew the person they were looking for was called Ren Xiaobei and that he was rather handsome. He was known to be in the Pyro Company¡¯s researchboratory and was definitely still alive.


    This information might seem like a lot, but it was actually very vague.


    Old Li and Qin Sheng were sitting on a rooftop in the stronghold with no one around. Old Li suddenly said, ¡°Why would the descendant of that Rider be in the Pyro Company¡¯s researchb? Before this, I didn¡¯t quite understand why that Rider would send his son to the Pyro Company as a guinea pig for research, so it didn¡¯t feel to me like that Rider was someone who could be counted on. But now,bined with what that Experimental told me, I figured that Rider¡¯s descendant must¡¯ve also contracted a terminal disease. Hence, as hisst hope, he was forced to send his own son to the Pyro Company.¡±


    Qin Sheng nodded in seriousness. ¡°That makes sense, Teacher.¡±


    Old Li continued to deduce, ¡°That Rider said his son must still be alive, so does it mean his son¡¯s fully recovered? So could the Experimentals be looking for the same person as us?¡±


    Qin Sheng nodded again. ¡°That makes sense, teacher.¡±


    Old Li tugged at his own hair. ¡°But what¡¯s the use even if we know all this? Where are we going to look for him now that the Qing Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 113 and Stronghold 112 have been buried? It¡¯s useless even if we know that he¡¯s quite handsome. Why don¡¯t we put out a notice in the newspapers that we¡¯re looking for Ren Xiaobei? If he sees it, he might juste looking for us. If you say that I made sense again, I¡¯m going to beat you up.¡±


    Qin Sheng said awkwardly, ¡°But wouldn¡¯t he be put in danger if other forces with ulterior motives also start looking for him after we put out a notice in the papers? Besides, the Pyro Company has already deviated from their path, so who knows if they might have other ideas about Ren Xiaobei.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Old Li looked at the sky and sighed, ¡°This is so difficult!¡±


    The Pyro Company had been pushed into the spotlight again because of the Experimentals. It seemed that everyone had already forgotten the Pyro Company was also involved in guarding the city and started turning their attention to attack them for creating those monsters.


    They even spected that the Pyro Company had ulterior motives for guarding the city. The garrison in Stronghold 74 gradually began ostracizing the Pyro Company members and no longer told them about any important details regarding the protection of the city.


    It was both sad andughable that humans started fighting among themselves before the final battle had even begun.


    The residents in Stronghold 74 had run out of food again. In arge pot of porridge, there were probably only several dozen grains of rice. After eating the porridge, the residents would at most feel bloated with water before starting to feel hungry again in less than an hour.


    Fortunately, there was still water avable in the stronghold. If not, a lot of people would have died.


    The greenway and trees by the roadside had already been stripped clean, leaving only bare branches behind.


    Some stronghold residents even hoped the Experimentals would attack earlier so that their suffering could end as quickly as possible. No matter which side won, at least there would be an oue.


    Li Ran and the others had also run out of food, but they were in an even more miserable state than the other residents in the stronghold. Not only were they hungry, but they still had to bear with the smell of meat every day. What a terrible feeling this was! They could smell the food, but they could not eat it!


    During the past two days, Li Ran harassed Ren Xiaosu both nights. As a result, he did not even go back to the hotel anymore. After that, Li Ran proceeded to harass Zhou Yingxue. This time, she finally managed to get some food from her. After all, Zhou Yingxue was not a heartless person.


    When Fang Zhi, who was standing guard at the door, asked her what she was eating, Li Ran wiped off the oil on her lips and replied, ¡°I was only given some potatoes to eat.¡±


    Then Li Ran stuffed about six potatoes into Fang Zhi¡¯s hands. ¡°Distribute these to everyone so they can fill their stomachs a little.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu walked down the street, he saw some people sitting on the curb. There were some signs ced in front of them: ¡°Will work for food.¡±


    This was a rtively civilized approach. Some people even turned to stealing or robbing.


    In fact, there was not much of a difference between the stronghold residents and refugees anymore. When they were driven to desperation, they would resort to any means necessary just to obtain some food.


    Most of the time, Ren Xiaosu would just be keeping guard at the top of some high-rise buildings. He was not doing this for anything other than to ensure that the Experimentals would not suddenly crawl out of some hole in the ground again.


    He felt this could also be considered as doing his part to defend the stronghold. At this moment, no one in the city would be spared if the stronghold were invaded.


    And Ren Xiaosu was thinking about a problem. In reality, it had to be really difficult to find Experimental 001. The Experimentals should also know this since they had already destroyed so many strongholds in the Southwest. Even if they could find him, it would be impossible for Experimental 001 to get to Stronghold 74 within seven days.


    Then why did the Experimentals make such a request? They even gave them a seven-day deadline?


    Ren Xiaosu was already used to assuming the worst with the Experimentals. After all, their wisdom was already on par with that of normal people or might even have far surpassed that of normal human beings.


    Could that negotiation also have been one of the Experimentals¡¯ tactics?


    ...


    At this moment, several refugee workers were cking behind the defensive fortifications next to the stronghold walls. They had it slightly better than the stronghold residents. At the very least, they still had some porridge to eat while they were locked up in the barracks. After all, the Zhou Consortium troops still needed them to work.


    While several refugee workers were chatting and bragging, the area one of them was sitting on suddenly caved in.


    The refugee who fell into the pit was shocked. He thought he was done for. There had to be some Experimentals hiding inside of this pit. This had to be an attack by the Experimentals!


    After falling in, he realized the tunnel was really leading towards the outside of the stronghold. However, he did not see any Experimentals inside.


    He hurriedly got out of the pit and reported it to the Zhou Consortium troops.


    A soldier of the Zhou Consortium used a powerful military shlight and went down into the pit to investigate. But after just walking a few dozen meters forward, he saw something before him covered with a tarp.


    When he lifted the tarp to have a look, he saw some military ammunition boxes underneath that werebeled... ¡°TNT¡±!


    The Zhou Consortium soldier started panicking. He yelled at the people behind him, ¡°There¡¯s a bomb!¡±


    This bomb was nted right below the foundations of the stronghold walls.

 Chapter 573 - There’s really a bomb

    <h4>Chapter 573 There¡°s really a bomb</h4>


    Knowing that the Experimentals were capable of using simple explosives, it was extremely frightening to find a bomb in the tunnel.


    During this period, the Zhou Consortium had deployed special instruments to check on the decibel levels in the vicinity of the stronghold walls, because they were afraid they could not detect the sound of the Experimentals digging tunnels underneath the stronghold.


    But looking at this underground tunnel in front of them, the Experimentals must have dug it a long time ago. How else could they have avoided detection by the Zhou Consortium troops?


    The soldier who discovered the bomb was panicking as he tried to run back frantically. But before he could get out of the pit, the bomb behind him suddenly exploded.


    The ground around the stronghold walls looked like it had suddenly been plowed asrge clods of earth started breaking apart. Like the water surface, a dirt ¡°wave¡± swept across the ground.


    The people surrounding the pit were immediately blown into the air, and their organs were ruptured. In the blink of an eye, they died from excessive internal bleeding.


    But this was only the beginning. Simr explosions like this went off at three other ces.


    The loud explosions left the entire stronghold in shock. The residents all stopped whatever they were doing and stared dumbfoundedly at the stronghold walls on the west side that were starting to crumble.


    With the loss of the foundation, cracks started to spread from the bottom of the wall to the top from the power of the st. Finally, three huge gaps appeared!


    These three fracture points eventually caused part of the wall to copse, bringing the garrison troops who were still standing on it to the ground. Any heavy machine guns and artillery they had also became useless. With a breach created in the walls, the Experimentals waiting outside would be getting restless to attack.


    When Old Li and Qin Sheng heard the explosions, they immediately rushed off towards the stronghold walls at high speed. But before they could get there, they could already see the stronghold walls copsing.


    It was a sight they had never witnessed with their own eyes. It was as though human civilization were copsing right before them.


    The structure that human beings had relied upon to protect themselves for hundreds of years had crumbled in front of them.


    The huge circr stronghold was just like a cake, and a part of it had been cut with a knife by the Experimentals.


    This sight also sent a clear message to the humans that their strongholds were not as sturdy as they had thought. All they were good for was defending against wild animals.


    Immediately after, a dense pack of Experimentals climbed over the ruins of the fallen wall. Old Li stared nkly at the gray Experimentals crawling towards them like a cluster of spiders.


    This proved the negotiation and seven-day deadline mentioned by the Experimentals were a lie. The Experimentals were only trying to make the humans in the stronghold let their guard down and focus on searching for the so-called Experimental 001.


    The Experimentals had already nned tounch an attack to destroy the stronghold the day after the negotiations.


    The Experimentals wanted the humans in the stronghold for the sake of expanding their race!


    Old Li remembered the attitude of the Experimentals¡¯ ¡°king.¡± Actually, that monster was already prepared to turn the entire Central ins into its own territory. The other party probably never had any intention of turning back into a normal person ever again.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Old Li said in a startled manner.


    Qin Sheng said anxiously, ¡°Are we leaving just like that?¡±


    Old Li nced at Qin Sheng and said in seriousness, ¡°You and I have no obligation to sacrifice ourselves to save Stronghold 74. We should preserve our strength and rescue as many people as we can from this ce. Stronghold 74 has already fallen!¡±


    It was not that Old Li did not want to defend the stronghold, but that most of the garrison troops on the stronghold walls had already been killed. War was cruel to begin with, and the Zhou Consortium troops were no longer capable of resisting the Experimentals!


    Old Li looked back at Qin Sheng. ¡°Only the east gate has not been sealed off yet. Lead the escapees over there!¡±


    ¡°You want me to lead them?¡± Qin Sheng was taken aback. ¡°Then what about you, Teacher?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna hold the Experimentals back for a while. Pray that I can hold on for a bit longer. Those Experimentals won¡¯t be able to outrun me, so don¡¯t worry,¡± Old Li said.


    What Old Li did not say was that if no one went to stop the Experimentals, probably nobody would make it out of here. Since the escapees could not outrun the Experimentals, a lot of escapees would eventually be devoured.


    But at this moment, a group of soldiers rushed over from the streets at the rear. Zhou Xingwen was sitting in the car and looked calmly at Old Li and Qin Sheng. ¡°You two, take the residents and flee east. I¡¯ve already told the garrison to open the east gate. The Zhou Consortium will defend the stronghold by ourselves. There¡¯s no reason for you two to die together with us.¡±


    As he spoke, Zhou Xingwen was exuding a certain kind of gantry that showed he was not afraid of death. Before the explosions happened, he was deploying troops from themand center. But after hearing the explosions, he immediately rushed over.


    He knew full well this stronghold no longer had a chance of surviving as he got surrounded by screaming and despairing residents. As the highest-ranking officer in the stronghold, he should not be escaping first. He needed to do onest thing: kill as many Experimentals as he could.


    Zhou Xingwen also knew that if he ran away in cowardice, he could never escape from the massive feelings of guilt and remorse.


    While they were talking, a reddish-gray mushroom cloud suddenly rose up in the middle of a dense group of Experimentals. And under that mushroom cloud, a transparent shockwave started spreading outwards. The Experimentals that were caught in the explosion¡¯s range were involuntarily swept up and disintegrated.


    The mushroom cloud had a radius of 100 meters, and the Experimentals within that range were vaporized. The power of the explosion was really terrifying.


    The Experimentals crawling in from the brach in the stronghold never expected a bomb to suddenly go off around them.


    As the mushroom cloud dissipated, several other explosions went off in the vicinity. But they did not sound as intense as the first explosion.


    Ren Xiaosu was extremely excited as he ran off after throwing the Explosive Poker cards.


    The Experimentals that had just swarmed into the stronghold were dazed by the explosions he set off. This time, approximately a quarter of the Experimentals¡¯ strength had been lost after he threw out the bombs in batches.


    The mushroom cloud from earlier was made by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s four ¡°sevens¡± he had just gotten. To be honest, even Ren Xiaosu himself was shocked by the power of the four ¡°sevens¡±!


    At the rear, the Experimentals that had not entered the stronghold yet were also stunned. They hesitated outside the stronghold and did not dare to advance. It wasn¡¯t until they received a newmand that they started storming the stronghold again.


    Old Li looked at the mushroom cloud dumbfoundedly. ¡°Was that bomb dropped by your Zhou Consortium?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhou Xingwen shook his head in denial. Then he ordered the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops to carry on marching. Although someone had helped them clear out some of the Experimentals, there were still more of them up ahead.


    Qin Sheng gulped. ¡°Teacher, could a superhuman have caused those explosions? Could it be that superhuman wearing the white mask?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Old Li shook his head. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was making a mad dash for the hotel. When he got to the hotel¡¯s entrance, he shouted at Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Let¡¯s go,e on! It¡¯ll be toote if we don¡¯t leave now!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue had heard the explosions. When she saw Ren Xiaosu, she followed right behind him without hesitation. Ren Xiaosu looked back at Li Ran and the others and said, ¡°The Experimentals are already here. Follow me if you want to live. Those who can¡¯t keep up, I won¡¯t turn around to save you.¡±

 Chapter 574 - Blasting a way ou

    <h4>Chapter 574 sting a way ou</h4>


    As the dense group of Experimentals swarmed into the stronghold from the west, the stronghold residents only felt panic and despair. And what was even worse was that the stronghold residents had already been starving for so long that they did not even have the energy to run anymore.Some people had just run a step or two when they fell to the ground helplessly.


    Some people watched as the Experimentals got closer and started cursing the Experimentals¡¯ mothers in fear and the ipetence of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops. Then they were either easily killed by the Experimentals or knocked unconscious and captured alive.


    A middle-aged man yelled at his parents inside a house, ¡°Dad, Mom, let¡¯s hurry up and leave. Don¡¯t wait! The stronghold is already done for!¡±


    But the old couple looked at each other and said to their son, ¡°We can¡¯t move anymore, so don¡¯t let us drag you down. Just take your wife and child with you.¡±


    The middle-aged man was in tears. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed several times to his parents, but he could not say anything to them.


    The old couple said, ¡°We don¡¯t have any regrets after living for so long. Go now.¡±


    After that, they started pushing their son out the door.


    In this world, it would be hard to find someone like them who would treat you so purely. They were willing to sacrifice themselves to ensure their son¡¯s survival.


    However, as soon as the middle-aged man went out with his wife and child, they saw the Experimentals approaching. The Experimentals were so fast that the family was caught before they could even start running.


    The world was this unpredictable.


    On another street, a man carrying a child in his arms was running and knocking on windows of vehicles passing by. ¡°Please, take my child with you. He¡¯s very smart, not a picky eater, and easy to raise!¡±


    The people in the car looked at him, but the man inside did not say anything. Just as he was about to step on the elerator, the woman in the passenger seat opened the window and took the child from the man.


    The man cried and thanked her. But at this moment, several people rushed out of nowhere. They put their hands through the open window to unlock the door from the inside and pulled the woman and child out of the car.


    The man cried out as he picked his child up, but the child was already bleeding profusely from the fall after being pulled out of the car.


    The good, the bad, the old, the young, the men, the women.


    Suddenly, the stronghold descended into carnage gonepletely out of control.


    Ren Xiaosu made a mad dash through the streets with Zhou Yingxue. They had nned to steal a vehicle but realized it would only allow them to travel a little faster at the beginning. Once it got crowded on the streets, the car would not be any faster than the running pace of a person. Furthermore, by driving a car, they might just end up as a target.


    Li Ran and the others were following close behind. A inclothes guard suddenly roared, ¡°Let¡¯s head east! The east gate¡¯s the only one that hasn¡¯t been sealed. We can¡¯t get out if we go anywhere else!¡±


    Fang Zhi, who was following him, added, ¡°That¡¯s right, we saw it with our own eyes. Only the east gate hasn¡¯t been sealed. Ren Xiaosu, head towards the east gate!¡±


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu had the same thought initially. But when the inclothes guard and Fang Zhi shouted this behind him, he suddenly felt that something might be wrong.


    Almost everyone in the stronghold knew the east gate was the only one that had not been sealed yet. But the problem was that the Experimentals should know this too!


    This time, it could be said the Experimentals were fully prepared for the siege. Would such a smart enemy miss out on an important detail like this?


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly changed his mind. ¡°We¡¯ll head north!¡±


    There were Experimentals to the west, and there might be Experimentals to the east as well. Meanwhile. the heart of the Central insy to the north. If reinforcements were arriving, they would definitelye from the north. So Ren Xiaosu chose to head north!


    But when the inclothes guard behind him heard that, he started panicking. ¡°How can we possibly head north? Are you stupid? The north gate has already been sealed with concrete. It¡¯s a dead end if we go there, so I don¡¯t agree!¡± Then the inclothes guard noticed that Ren Xiaosu ignored him as he continued running straight north.


    Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t care less if they agreed. They could just fucking go wherever they liked since he was only leading the way. Whoever followed him would live while those who did not would die, and it was as simple as that.


    The inclothes guard watched Ren Xiaosu run. To his surprise, he realized both Director Mu Wan¡¯ge and Li Ran kept up with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pace. With that, everyone followed Ren Xiaosu and ran north. In the end, that inclothes guard could only follow them.


    During the escape, Ren Xiaosu had been leading everyone the entire way. All the obstacles blocking their path were pushed aside by Ren Xiaosu while any crowds of people were also mercilessly broken up by him.


    This made the flight extremely easy for those who were following him. Furthermore, this group of people had been eating potatoes every day. Although it was not a lot, their stamina was still in much better shape than the other residents in the stronghold.


    Before they could reach the stronghold walls in the north, everyone saw the residents in the east starting to run west. They happened to bump into the residents who were fleeing from the west, and the streets got jammed as a result.


    Even Li Ran could understand the Experimentals must have appeared in the east as well. Otherwise, the stronghold residents in the east would not be running here. However, they should still be quite far away from the Experimentals in the east. Therefore, they could not see those terrifying gray figures yet.


    The inclothes guard who disagreed with Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He knew Ren Xiaosu¡¯s choice to head north was definitely not a coincidence, and he must have thought of this scenario in advance.


    This was probably something the Zhou Consortium troops did not expect.


    On the congested streets, Ren Xiaosu was still breaking up crowds as he ran northwards. When the residents who were at a loss saw Ren Xiaosu and his group running north, they also followed after him.


    The flow of people in the stronghold acted like a wave, and Ren Xiaosu, who was farthest ahead, was the crest of this wave.


    Ren Xiaosu looked back and saw many escapees following him. At some point, he even thought about using his steam lotive to take these people to safety. But what about the aftermath? Would he have to face the endless pursuit of the Pyro Company after using that power?


    Ren Xiaosu was not a saint. All he cared about was leading the group of people towards a path of survival. As for whether they could keep up or not, that was not something he had to consider!


    When they were about to arrive at the northern walls, Zhou Yingxue felt a tinge of despair as she looked at the gate in front of her that was sealed with concrete. The measures used to guard against the Experimentals were actually blocking their way to survival at this moment?


    When she was about to turn her head and ask her master what they should do, she saw Ren Xiaosu take four poker cards out of nowhere. As the cards swayed in his hands, she could even see that they were four ¡°sixes.¡±


    ¡°Master, how are we supposed to get out of here?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°I¡¯ll blow it up with a bomb!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue thought to herself, ¡®Master, you can¡¯t be fucking thinking of using those four ¡°sixes¡± in your hands as a bomb, can you?!¡¯


    After Ren Xiaosu, who was in the lead, pped the four ¡°sixes¡± onto the wall, he turned around and ran away from it.


    With a loud boom, a huge hole was forcefully sted out of the wall sealing the stronghold gate!


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. That was really a bomb?! What kind of strange powers did her master possess?!


    Honestly speaking, up until now, Zhou Yingxue only knew her master could conjure up strange seeds that could produce potatoes and that he was very proficient in using a sniper rifle. And this was yet another eye-opener for her.


    Ren Xiaosu took the lead to squeeze through the hole in the wall. Due to the existence of the foundation and rebar acting as load-bearing structures in the wall, this small explosion was not enough to cause the copse of the entire wall.

 Chapter 575 - Today is not a day to be happy

    <h4>575 Today is not a day to be happy</h4>


    The Experimentals hade attacking from the east and the west. This opening in the northern walls had now be the only way out of the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu ran out first while Zhou Yingxue followed closely.


    But when it was Li Ran and the others¡¯ turn to escape, it did not seem to go so smoothly anymore. As arge number of escapees crowded the hole in the wall, Li Ran and the others were stuck there for a while.


    Someone started cursing after the crowd started squeezing together at the hole, ¡°Can¡¯t you all give way to others and pass through in an orderly manner?¡±


    But actually, he was also trying his best to squeeze to the front. At this moment, it was useless to say anything. Would being polite and orderly be more important than their own survival?


    Because of this stupidity, hardly anyone managed to get out of the hole in the wall after Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue, with all of them stuck at the exit.


    There were still arge number of escapees waiting to get out of the stronghold through the hole. But since it was blocked, no one could get out!


    Ren Xiaosu did not have time to worry about them. If these people died over such a stupid thing, he felt they deserved it.


    Fortunately, the people behind those at the front had a very strong desire to live. They forcefully kicked the people who were stuck in the exit to the other side before the crowd started streaming out like water again.


    Ren Xiaosu looked behind him. He had thought the exit would get blocked again, but he realized the people were suddenly moving in a much more orderly manner.


    He took another look in disbelief and was surprised to see Old Li and Qin Sheng standing guard at the exit. They were organizing the escapees as they evacuated the stronghold.


    The two of them had only caught up by following the crowd and heading to the north of the stronghold. Even so, they did not prioritize their own escape. Instead, they stood next to the exit to provide cover for the fleeing crowd.


    Following that, they even faced the pursuing Experimentals head on. Fortunately, not too many Experimentals hade in pursuit of the escapees, so Old Li and Qin Sheng were more than enough to handle them.


    The Experimentals that invaded the stronghold probably numbered in the 5,000s, but they were scattered all across the huge stronghold. If a smaller group of Experimentals were to encounter the two Riders, they would surely be doomed.


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. He had already done what he was supposed to do. As for the rest, it was every man for himself. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu started fleeing into the wilderness. As they ran crazily for their lives, Li Ran fell down due to the uneven path and cried out in pain.


    Fang Zhi and the inclothes guards all stopped in their steps. They were going to carry Li Ran and continue making their escape.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that this group of people were not that heartless after all. It was not in vain for Li Ran to have them as acquaintances since they were still willing to help her at a time like this.


    However, even soldiers would find it quite unbearable to have a load of 50 kilograms on their backs while running in the wilderness.


    Everyone had good intentions, but they just couldn¡¯t help wanting to abandon Li Ran as they ran.


    It was just like how a lot of people were really filial to their parents. At the beginning, they might be able to take care of their sickly parents and clean up after them. But after a prolonged period, they would start feeling that old people were a burden.


    That was because the suffering umted over time was capable of bringing down a person.


    After they got out of the stronghold, Fang Zhi counted the number of people from the tour group that had escaped. It saddened him that only half of the staff who had traveled with them were left. As for the other half, no one knew whether they had made it out of the stronghold alive.


    The inclothes guards who were taking turns to carry Li Ran were totally exhausted after running for two hours. By the time they started taking the mountain path, their knees could barely stand the heavy load anymore.


    The mountain path was treacherous to travel on.


    Ren Xiaosu took a break when they reached a small hill, while the people following him also stopped.


    Ren Xiaosu crested the hill and looked back at Stronghold 74 in the distance. He could still see the outline of the stronghold from this position, but he was no longer sure of what was going on in the stronghold.


    Old Li and Qin Sheng had caught up to them and were injured all over. Ren Xiaosu handed them a vial of ck medicine. ¡°This is very effective. Just apply it onto your wounds, and they¡¯ll heal very quickly.¡±


    The two Riders expressed their thanks. They had lost a lot of stamina due to fighting the Experimentals.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How many escapees made it out of the stronghold in the end?¡±


    ¡°Quite a few.¡± Old Li panted and said, ¡°But I¡¯m afraid those who didn¡¯t manage to escape are doomed.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly looked up as though he sensed something. He turned and looked in the direction of the stronghold.


    When the others saw him do that, they also looked at the stronghold.


    In an instant, it felt as though something had dropped onto the stronghold in the distance. Immediately after, a strange, massive circle of light started radiating outwards. A huge cloud of dust and smoke was swept across the entire stronghold by this sudden attack.


    In the blink of an eye, a mighty explosion began to spread from the inside. Crimson mes shot up into the sky and enveloped the entire stronghold in a mushroom cloud.


    As the unstoppable shockwave spread outward, it instantly obliterated every building in the stronghold and turned them into dust. The devastating scene of destruction was like a divine punishment brought upon the stronghold by the gods above!


    The buildings in areas that were unaffected by the st retained their original dusty gray color, while those that were within the range of the shockwave were already burning in bright orange mes.


    The distant mes were burning so strongly that the escapees¡¯ faces were illuminated red even though they had already escaped far away from the stronghold and onto the hills. Even at this distance, the shockwave still managed to make a mess of their hair and clothes. Some even stumbled back from the force of the st.


    ¡°This...¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in a startled manner.


    ¡°Is a nuclear bomb.¡± With much difficulty, Old Li said, ¡°A weapon created by humans that even gods are afraid of.¡±


    All the escapees were dumbfounded. Even though they knew there were probably no survivors left in the stronghold other than the Experimentals, they still felt shocked and saddened by this scene of destruction.


    It was where they had lived for decades. That was their home.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered that Yang Xiaojin had told him that nuclear weapons were extremely difficult for humans to control.


    ...


    In the Qing Consortium¡¯s stronghold, Qing Yi was already back at the barracks. He stood behind Qing Zhen and confirmed, ¡°We urately hit our target, and all the Experimentals should be dead. The highest altitude the missile¡¯s trajectory reached was 47 kilometers, and it traveled at a top speed of 7.5 kilometers per second, while the precision error was less than 30 meters. Those are the real-time measurement data we have from theunch.¡±


    Qing Zhen, who was standing in front of him, had both his hands behind his back. He stood there in the barracks and gazed up at the sky. No one knew what he was thinking.


    Qing Yi said with a smile, ¡°Bro, you¡¯re right. Only children would be afraid of something like the Experimentals. Now that the Experimentals have been wiped out, we won¡¯t have any more trouble in the future.¡±


    Qing Zhen slowly turned around to look at Qing Yi and said, ¡°Ah Yi, today is not a day to be happy.¡±


    Qing Yi slowly fell silent. He knew what Qing Zhen was thinking about. Some time ago, the Qing Consortium had informed the Zhou Consortium and hoped they could stop the Experimentals so the stronghold residents would not have to suffer. However, no one expected the Zhou Consortium would be unable to do anything about them.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s sleeper agent at Stronghold 74 had also been sacrificed in the destruction of the stronghold. The spy had immediately called for the Qing Consortium tounch the missile after confirming that Stronghold 74 was beyond saving.


    Therefore, the missile not only wiped out the Experimentals, it also killed their Qing Consortium¡¯s people.


    Qing Yi understood that Qing Zhen would not have made such a move unless it was absolutely necessary.


    As a matter of fact, even during their war with the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium, Qing Zhen did not resort to using these weapons.


    Qing Zhen patted Qing Yi on the shoulder. ¡°Let¡¯s get prepared for war.¡±


    ¡°But who will dare to attack us when we possess weapons like that?¡± Qing Yi could not understand.


    Qing Zhen sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s precisely because we possess such weapons.¡±


    After he said that, Qing Zhen suddenly felt a little tired.


    ...


    After that shocking explosion, no one had noticed a gray figure retreating and disappearing into the forest.

 Chapter 576 - Wang Fugui!

    <h4>Chapter 576 Wang Fugui!</h4>


    After the total destruction of Stronghold 74, the escapees could not help but feel sad when they saw their homes had been destroyed. But at least there would be no more Experimentals chasing after them and threatening them, so everyone could finally breathe a sigh of relief.However, Old Li and Qin Sheng kept urging the escapees to continue on with their journey. Although they were very far away from Stronghold 74 and the explosive power of that nuclear bomb did not seem that great, the fallout would eventually spread to their location.


    As such, they could afford to stop fleeing. They had to go and look for the Zhou Consortium¡¯s reinforcements.


    The members of the Pyro Company had already vanished. No one knew if they had died in the stronghold or if they had taken another escape route, but that was not of concern to Old Li and Qin Sheng.


    Old Li did a headcount of the escapees and found there were approximately 3,000 of them.


    Yet there were hundreds of thousands of people in the stronghold at the beginning. With only 3,000 managing to escape, the losses were immeasurable.


    As they fled, Ren Xiaosu took charge of leading the way. Meanwhile, Old Li and Qin Sheng volunteered to look for food. The two of them were familiar with the wilderness since they often ventured out to such ces in the past.


    They found some wild vegetables and even managed to hunt quite a bit of prey. However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head when he saw this. For a group of 3,000, the amount of food two people could find would simply be a drop in the bucket.


    And what worried Ren Xiaosu the most was not theck of food but the fact that it could not be distributed evenly.


    If they could not distribute it equally, they might as well let all of the escapees starve.


    After Old Li and Qin Sheng returned with the food, they gave out the wild vegetables to the women first. Then they cut and distributed the roast meat to the children among the escapees.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had worried, someone immediately rushed out and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s our share?¡±


    Old Li patiently exined, ¡°We could only get this much with the two of us. How about this? I¡¯ll tell you what wild vegetables are edible, and you all can go pick them by yourselves in the wilderness. Would that be better?¡±


    When the people saw that Old Li and Qin Sheng were easy to approach, they started pushing their luck. ¡°We don¡¯t know anything about wild vegetables, so if we pick something poisonous, will you take responsibility for it?¡±


    Then Old Li and Qin Sheng beat them up.


    By the time they were lying on the ground and begging for mercy, Old Li dusted off his hands and said, ¡°If you want to eat, pick food by yourselves, understand?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused watching this from the sidelines. He was really worried Old Li and Qin Sheng would turn out to be goody two shoes. He already knew they were members of the Riders, but this still updated Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion of their organization.


    But something unexpected happened at the campsite that night. Ren Xiaosu was lying next to the campfire and preparing to go to sleep when Li Ran suddenly limped towards him. She leaned against his back and hugged him from behind.


    Li Ran asked softly, ¡°Can you protect me?¡±


    When the inclothes guards got exhausted from taking turns to carry her today, they started grumbling a little. This made Li Ran very ufortable. In such times of helplessness, even Fang Zhi could only remain silent at her side. As such, she thought of Ren Xiaosu.


    At the most critical moment, it was Ren Xiaosu who led them out of the stronghold safely. Ren Xiaosu running in front of the group and blowing up the stronghold gate was something Li Ran would never forget in her life.


    But just as Li Ran finished speaking, Zhou Yingxue, who was keeping watch beside them, lifted Li Ran up and took her away. When Li Ran was so easily lifted by Zhou Yingxue, she wore a dumbfounded look as she watched herself getting farther and farther away from Ren Xiaosu.


    Zhou Yingxue ced Li Ran down next to her and said earnestly, ¡°Ms. Li Ran, I should be the one protecting you based on the contract. My master isn¡¯t obliged to do so. He already has someone that he likes, so please don¡¯t behave like this anymore.¡±


    Li Ran said dumbfoundedly, ¡°M-Master?¡±


    Although she knew Ren Xiaosu was definitely not Zhou Yingxue¡¯s assistant, she did not expect such a stark contrast in his actual status.


    Wasn¡¯t Zhou Yingxue a superhuman? How could a mighty figure like a superhuman be willing to submit to someone as a maid?


    Ren Xiaosu was still lying awake next to the campfire as he had something on his mind. He was so lost in thought that he did not get distracted even when Li Ran hugged him from behind. Ren Xiaosu was recalling that sight of the nuclear bomb explosion. The world was getting more and more dangerous with every passing moment. In just an instant, that god-killing weapon utterly destroyed the Experimentals.


    Would more of such weapons appear in other strongholds in the future? And would his friends and family he had been separated from get dragged in by the chaos of the world?


    He wondered how Old Wang, Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, Wang Yuchi, Jiang Wu, and the others were doing. Without him around, could they protect themselves?


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he got even more anxious to find them. He would only feel at ease if he were there to protect them.


    Then Ren Xiaosu saw a young man sit at the campfire with a notebook and pen in hand. He was scribbling furiously on it.


    Ren Xiaosu recognized him as the reporter from Hope Media who had witnessed ¡°Old Xu¡± killing the Experimentals in the stronghold. He was also the one who took the photograph of ¡°Old Xu¡± that was published in the newspaper of Hope Media.


    Ren Xiaosu sat up and asked, ¡°What are you writing?¡±


    The young reporter said, ¡°I¡¯m recording a draft of today¡¯s happenings. All my colleagues died doing their duty, and I¡¯m the only one left who¡¯s witnessed the scenes. The rest of the world still doesn¡¯t know what happened here, so I¡¯ll record all of it in an article and hand it over to the chief editor when I return. This is a day of suffering for humans. The death toll of the stronghold residents exceeded 200,000 in just one day. This is a day all humans should remember.¡±


    Nearby, Old Li and Qin Sheng listened in silence. During the escape, they became more acquainted with Ren Xiaosu after finding out he was the one who opened up a path for them to escape.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu looked at the Hope Media reporter and suddenly thought of a way he could find Yan Liuyuan and the others with the help of Hope Media.


    If he could find them with this method, he would not have to put in so much effort trying to make use of the Anjing House.


    ...


    Outside of Stronghold 144 in the Northwest, four trucks were driving towards the stronghold gate.


    When the four trucks came to a stop, a group of people jumped out of the vehicles. A young man shouted to a middle-aged man, ¡°Uncle Fugui, are you really sure of this? Why didn¡¯t I see any caravans passing by here?¡±


    Wang Fugui wiped his face with a towel from the truck and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t you believe in your Uncle Fugui¡¯s ability? We bought these four used trucks with our savings, and they¡¯re now carrying all the good stuff from the Central ins that you won¡¯t find here in the Southwest and Northwest. This ce might look a little run-down, but take another look at it in half a year. Fortress 178 will be opening a trade route to the Central ins soon, and with Stronghold 144 the closest stronghold to the Central ins, it¡¯ll surely flourish into thergest distribution center of goods in the entire Northwest by then!¡±

 Chapter 577 - Have you heard of someone called Ren Xiaosu?

    <h4>Chapter 577 Have you heard of someone called Ren Xiaosu?</h4>


    The young man who posed the question was Wang Yuchi, and he was originally one of Jiang Wu¡¯s students. But having gone through several huge disasters and wandered around the Central ins with Wang Fugui for a few months, his appearance had be more mature.Along the way, everyone had suffered a lot. When they finally arrived at Stronghold 144, everyone was worn out from the journey.


    During this period, Wang Yuchi also showed potential in his abilities. After learning a lot from Wang Fugui, he was now his right-hand man.


    Wang Fugui said proudly, ¡°We came here first to build a working rtionship with the people of Fortress 178; this is what we call seizing the initiative. Other people might wait for the trade route to open up in half a year¡¯s time, but we can¡¯t afford to do so. The savings Xiaosu left for us are drying up. If we see him again and he asks how much money we have left, we can¡¯t embarrass ourselves.¡±


    Wang Yuchi fell silent. ¡°Will we still get to see Brother Xiaosu?¡±


    Wang Fugui was taken aback before replying with a smile, ¡°Definitely! I heard that a jinx can live for a millennium, so he definitely won¡¯t die.¡±


    ¡°Then will anyone buy the goods we¡¯ve transported here?¡± Wang Yuchi changed the subject.


    ¡°Of course,¡± Wang Fugui chuckled and said, ¡°Look, we¡¯re already at an advantage when ites to traveling to the Northwest to conduct our business. Since y¡¯all have nanomachines in your bodies, and we also have a supernatural being in Ms. Wu with us, normal bandits won¡¯t have any way to rob us. Also, your female ssmates are skilled with their hands; the ornaments they designed are all beautiful. While wearing ornaments was already a very popr trend in the Central ins, the women in the Northwest have never seen them before. I¡¯m sure that they¡¯ll take a liking to it immediately.¡±


    As he spoke, Wang Fugui ran to the back of the box truck and unlocked the trailer. He called out to the people inside, ¡°Ladies, get out of the vehicle and take a breather. Uncle Fugui will bring y¡¯all to town for a hot meal.¡±


    Inside the trailer, Jiang Wu and five female students were diligently braiding some bracelets. Some time ago, Wang Fugui thought of purchasing the bracelets directly from a supplier. However, they felt that the prices in the Central ins were a ripoff. When the sellers saw that they were refugees, they even deliberately jacked up the price.


    Later, Jiang Wu realized the materials needed to make these bracelets were not expensive, so she stepped forward and said they could just buy the raw materials to make it themselves. On the way to the Northwest, the girls could work on braiding the bracelets, and this saved them a lot of money.


    Actually, Jiang Wu¡¯s intention was to find something for the female students to do. After all, everyone was in the same boat now. Even Wang Yuchi and the other male students had been forced to grow quickly, so no one should be idle in the group.


    Over time, the female students who could not contribute as much started to feel a little embarrassed.


    Currently, Jiang Wu was also considered one of the core members of the group. On one hand, she was there to ensure the students would continue studying by themselves. On the other hand, she was responsible for feeding and dressing the group. On top of that, she also used her superpower to protect the group.


    In the past, Jiang Wu¡¯s superpower did not have much of a presence in their group.


    This was because Ren Xiaosu was too powerful, and there wasn¡¯t a need for Jiang Wu to use her superpower. Since Ren Xiaosu could handle all kinds of situations by himself, Jiang Wu did not have to do anything at all.


    But it was different now. Although Wang Yuchi and the other male students had nanomachines, those things were limited by their power source and did not have enough lethality either.


    They still came across a few sporadic bandits while traveling to the Northwest from the Central ins. But when the bandits encountered Jiang Wu, they got scared away by just a few petals she conjured up before even understanding what was going on.


    Furthermore, if it were not for Jiang Wu¡¯s plum blossom branches she had materialized to keep everyone together back then, they might have gotten separated and ended up getting washed away by the flood.


    Therefore, Wang Fugui would always discuss everything with Jiang Wu when something cropped up these days.


    There were not only bracelets in this batch of goods they were transporting, but also cosmetics and other daily necessities that were rtively popr in the Central ins. Basically, they were all mainly feminine products.


    ording to Wang Fugui, while women were fussy customers and most people disliked doing business with women, selling to women was a surefire way to make money.


    As such, he bought these four used trucks to transport the goods, of which three-quarters were lipstick, skincare products, and various hair conditioners with different scents.


    Lipstick was somewhat of a necessity for women, just like how cigarettes were for men. Moreover, the variety of lipstick colors avable in the Central ins was much greater than that in the Southwest and Northwest. The women here would definitely look more trendy if they used them.


    Wang Fugui had requested Jiang Wu and a few of the prettier students to use their lipstick products daily once they arrived in the Northwest. This was so they could entice other women to buy their products when they saw how trendy the colors were.


    As a matter of fact, many people in the Southwest and Northwest were still at the stage of using rouge paper to color their lips. It was not that they could not afford lipstick but that the Northwest and Southwest were focused on the development of heavy industry. As such, daily necessities like these were very scarce.


    Old Wang immediately felt that he had discovered a business opportunity and thought of how to promote it. When he arrived in the Northwest, he would approach some newspaper firms to advocate the use of lipstick. It would go something like this: ¡°Whether a man loves a woman or not, he can prove it by buying our Central ins¡¯ lipstick for his dearly beloved.¡±


    Wang Fugui used to be the owner of a grocery store in the Southwest. His business had been doing better and better over the years because he was so good at seeking out business opportunities and understanding the customer¡¯s needs.


    Back then, the important figures of Stronghold 113 in the Southwest had suddenly taken to eating exotic meat as an expression of their identities and status. That was also partly credited to Wang Fugui¡¯s advocacy of how rare exotic meat was toe by.


    ¡°But will Fortress 178 agree to let us sell our things here like this?¡± Wang Yuchi wondered.


    ¡°What¡¯re you afraid of? I¡¯m on good terms with their Commander Zhang Jinglin!¡± Wang Fugui said proudly.


    With that, Wang Fugui took everyone out to eat first. There was also a reason why he dared to bring everyone to the Northwest.


    Everyone in the world knew Zhang Jinglin had regained control of Fortress 178, and the entire Northwest was now Fortress 178¡¯s territory. Wang Fugui used to be an acquaintance of Zhang Jinglin in town and enjoyed a friendly rtionship with him.


    Now that he had arrived in the Northwest, wouldn¡¯t his opportunities abound?


    After lunch, Wang Fugui and Wang Yuchi immediately went to look for the people guarding the stronghold. The moment they approached them, Wang Fugui¡¯s first words were, ¡°I¡¯m a friend of Commander Zhang and would like to meet him to do some catching up.¡±


    Of course, the more impressive the introductions, the better! These days, people who did not know how to brag would not be destined for big things!


    An officer who was supposedly the new regimentalmander of Stronghold 144¡¯s garrison walked up to them. He said with a kind smile, ¡°Bro, even if you¡¯re not a friend of themander, you can still do business here in the Northwest. All you need to do is pay your taxes ordingly. Our taxes have been lowered recently, so there¡¯s definitely profit to be made.¡±


    Wang Fugui did not give up. ¡°I¡¯m really a friend of your Commander Zhang.¡±


    The regimentalmanderughed. ¡°There was someone who said that two days ago. But in the end, we found out the other party was only trying to meet Commander Zhang. They were not actually acquainted at all.¡±


    Wang Fugui was left speechless. Although there were also other merchants like him who came to the Northwest in advance to do business, he did not expect that someone would have already been exposed for trying to pretend to be an acquaintance of themander.


    Off to the side, Wang Yuchi chuckled. ¡°Uncle Fugui, why don¡¯t we just stick to selling our goods? As if we can get to meet theirmander so easily. Also, didn¡¯t he say that anyone cane and do business here? There¡¯s no need for us to cotton up to others.¡±


    ¡°Like you¡¯d understand!¡± Wang Fugui said with a dark expression, ¡°In business, how could it be the same if we had someone at the top looking out for us?¡±


    Suddenly, the regimentalmander asked, ¡°Did y¡¯alle from the Central ins?¡±


    Wang Fugui was stunned. ¡°Of course we came from the Central ins.¡±


    The regimentalmander suddenly asked again, ¡°Then have you heard of someone called Ren Xiaosu in the Central ins? Oh, by the way, my name is Zhang Xiaoman.¡±

 Chapter 578 - The excited Wang Fugui

    <h4>Chapter 578 The excited Wang Fugui</h4>


    When Wang Fugui heard the name Zhang Xiaoman mentioned, he was dumbfounded. ¡°Come again?¡±


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu.¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked again, ¡°You haven¡¯t heard of this name before?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was previously themander of the Razor Sharp Company. After the war with the Zong Consortium, he was promoted three ranks and appointed themander of Stronghold 144¡¯s infantry regiment due to his outstandingbat achievements and the fact that Fortress 178 was in urgent need of manpower after upying more territory.


    Zhang Xiaoman had thought of boasting about his promotion to his ex-battalionmander, Zhou Yinglong. However, Zhou Yinglong had been promoted to a brigademander.


    Now that he was stationed at Stronghold 144, he did not have much to do every day. He was only responsible for protecting the stronghold and ensuring its safety. At the same time, he also had to work with the stronghold administration team from Fortress 178 to reorganize the governance system of Stronghold 144 as they carried out new post assignments.


    In the end, Fortress 178 was really trying to turn Stronghold 144 into thergest distribution center of goods in the entire Northwest just as Wang Fugui had anticipated. With Zhang Xiaoman put in charge of overseeing the ce, the rear lines could finally rest easy.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman recently kept having the feeling that something was missing in life. Although he had been promoted to the position of regimentalmander, the most exemry soldier in the war was no longer with them.


    Based on a discussion that Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, and the others had, they felt that Ren Xiaosu must have definitely headed to the Central ins. So when Zhang Xiaoman encountered Wang Fugui, who was a businessman from the Central ins, he casually asked to see if he could get some information from him and find out how Ren Xiaosu was doing recently.


    However, Wang Fugui was shocked when he heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name being mentioned. There weren¡¯t that many people that went by this name, so he probed, ¡°Why are you looking for this Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Wang Fugui was afraid Ren Xiaosu might have gotten himself into some trouble over here that caused him to be wanted by Fortress 178.


    But on second thought, Wang Fugui felt that something was not right. Since Ren Xiaosu had a great rtionship with Zhang Jinglin, Zhang Jinglin would never arrest Ren Xiaosu over some trivial matter.


    Due to the confidentialityw that Fortress 178 had passed, the rest of the world had no idea of how much Ren Xiaosu had contributed in the war with the Zong Consortium. They only knew that a supernatural being had rendered great service and defeated an entire brigade from Stronghold 146 all by himself. However, no one knew who that supernatural being was.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Wang Fugui and said with a smile, ¡°Bro, don¡¯t ask why I¡¯m looking for him. Never mind, there¡¯s no point in telling you too much.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly remembered there was a confidentialityw in ce. He could not reveal too much information about Ren Xiaosu in case the outside world¡¯s suspicions were aroused. As such, he got ready to head back inside the military base.


    However, Wang Fugui looked at Zhang Xiaoman and said, ¡°I know Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    Wang Fugui felt that with Zhang Jinglin and Xu Xianchu at Fortress 178, there was a high chance they would not make things difficult for Ren Xiaosu. He decided to take a gamble!


    By observing Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s expression, he felt he made the right bet this time!


    Zhang Xiaoman was getting very excited. He asked, ¡°You said that you know Ren Xiaosu? Where¡¯s he now then?¡±


    Wang Fugui shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know where he is either, but he was the one who had been taking care of us. We were separatedter on because the Zong Consortium attacked us, and he got ambushed by them. We saw him get pierced by a spear through his stomach with our own eyes!¡±


    With that, Zhang Xiaoman got even more excited since this ount of events matched precisely with what Ren Xiaosu had shared with him before.


    Back when Ren Xiaosu first arrived at Fortress 178, wasn¡¯t he nursing an injury after being saved by Wang Shengzhi and Wang Shengyin? Ren Xiaosu said he had be enemies with the Zong Consortium because he wanted revenge.


    Ren Xiaosu also told them that after the war was over, he would have to go and look for his friends and family who had been separated from him.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman did not expect to encounter Wang Fugui here.


    However, Zhang Xiaoman was also very cautious. He immediately called the intelligence director, Wang Fengyuan, to confirm some things. After all, everything concerning Ren Xiaosu was ssified as top secret in Fortress 178. What if this person were here to pry for information from them? Zhang Xiaoman had to be extra cautious about this.


    As soon as the call went through, Zhang Xiaoman mentioned the names of Wang Fugui, Wang Yuchi, Jiang Wu, and the others to Wang Fengyuan. As Jiang Wu was a supernatural being with a unique superpower, Wang Fengyuan immediately replied, ¡°There¡¯s no need to investigate further. They¡¯re the ones that Ren Xiaosu is looking for.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman excitedly pulled Wang Fugui and the others into the base. ¡°Bro, I finally got to meet Ren Xiaosu¡¯s kin! Did you know that Ren Xiaosu and I wererades when we were fighting the Zong Consortium? He was part of my Razor Sharp Company and I was hispanymander...¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was rambling incoherently due to excitement. But as he spoke, he realized that Wang Fugui¡¯s and the others¡¯ eyes had reddened.


    For a while now, Wang Fugui had beenforting everyone by telling them that Ren Xiaosu was definitely still alive.


    But even he did not quite believe his own words sometimes. After all, they had seen a spear pierce Ren Xiaosu with their own eyes. Would a normal person survive after getting hit by something like that? Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was caught in the flood after he got injured, so there was no reason he could survive that. Therefore, he had been saying that Ren Xiaosu was still alive so he and everyone else would have a pir of support for them to continue living.


    But now, they suddenly learned that Ren Xiaosu was really still alive, and he had even personally avenged everyone by destroying the Zong Consortium.


    This swirl of emotions everyone was feeling could bepared to eating a whole onion¡ªit left them both agitated and wanting to cry.


    Furthermore, when Zhang Xiaoman said Ren Xiaosu had fought really hard in the war, Wang Fugui and the others immediately understood it was because Ren Xiaosu thought they had been killed by the Zong Consortium. Therefore, he wanted to take revenge to nurse his hatred.


    The harder Ren Xiaosu fought in the war, the more it represented how much he hated the Zong Consortium. The more he hated the Zong Consortium, the more it showed how important Wang Fugui and the others were to Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Then do y¡¯all know where he is right now?¡± Wang Fugui asked, ¡°We¡¯ll go look for him right away.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. ¡°He disappeared immediately after the war, so I guessed he must have gone to the Central ins to look for y¡¯all.¡±


    When he said that, Wang Fugui turned around and walked out of the base. He muttered to Jiang Wu as they made their way out, ¡°Let¡¯s head back to the Central ins.... Let¡¯s head back to the Central ins right now. He must already be in the Central ins. Let¡¯s go look for him immediately!¡±


    Jiang Wu nodded. ¡°Mhm, let¡¯s go.¡±


    But before they could even take two steps, Zhang Xiaoman stopped Wang Fugui. He did not know whether tough or cry as he said, ¡°We haven¡¯t even found him yet, so how will you find him? Don¡¯t worry, since you¡¯vee to the Northwest, you¡¯ll be treated as distinguished guests of Fortress 178. We¡¯ll also help to look for him. At least, y¡¯all will feel at ease if you know that he¡¯s fine, right? Oh yes, what¡¯re y¡¯all doing here in the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°Oh, erm...¡± Wang Fugui wiped the corners of his eyes. ¡°We came here to do business. After all, I have to take care of our big family while Ren Xiaosu is not around.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman thumped his own chest. ¡°Just tell me what kind of business you wish to conduct here in Stronghold 144 in the future. You can bring your goods from the Central ins to sell over here, then haul our Fortress 178¡¯s minerals back to the Central ins. As long as it¡¯s a business dealing with Stronghold 144, there¡¯s nothing you can¡¯t do. If anyone asks about it, you can just mention my name, Zhang Xiaoman!¡±


    Wang Fugui was stunned for quite a while before saying, ¡°Those minerals are too expensive. We can¡¯t afford them at all.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman thumped his chest again. ¡°You can buy them on credit. You have my word!¡±


    Wang Fugui stood in the base on this afternoon as the sun shone down from above. He thought it felt exceptionally pleasant today.

 Chapter 579 - Relying on mysticism to search for Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 579 Relying on mysticism to search for Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    Wang Fugui¡¯s original intention was to return to the Central ins as soon as possible. After all, Ren Xiaosu was in the Central ins, so what was the point of them being here in the Northwest?Moreover, Old Wang was very sure that Ren Xiaosu had gone to the Central ins to look for them. Therefore, he definitely had to go back!


    However, Zhang Xiaoman refused to let him leave. He even insisted on arranging for them to stay at the military base and prepared food and hot water for them, saying that it would not be toote to leave in another few days.


    The reason Zhang Xiaoman gave to convince Wang Fugui was very simple: ¡°The Central ins are so big, and our people from Fortress 178 are also looking for Ren Xiaosu there, so wouldn¡¯t it be much better for us to look for him than you trying your luck to find him? You don¡¯t even know where Ren Xiaosu might pop up anyway.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we still have a great chance of finding him.¡±


    ¡°Why do you say that?¡± Wang Fugui was stunned. ¡°Why are y¡¯all so sure that you can find him?¡±


    ¡°Since you and Ren Xiaosu are old friends, do you know Xu Xianchu as well?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really know him, but I know that he¡¯s a good friend of Xiaosu¡¯s.¡± Wang Fugui wondered, ¡°Can Xu Xianchu find Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    However, Wang Fugui did not believe that. After all, they were the ones who were closest to Ren Xiaosu. If even they did not know where to find him, how would Xu Xianchu know?


    Zhang Xiaoman lowered his voice and said, ¡°Old Xu told us that wherever Ren Xiaosu goes, a stronghold will copse. Just look, isn¡¯t Stronghold 74 in the south of the Central ins currently under siege? It might just copse someday. Xu Xianchu suspects that Ren Xiaosu could be there, so Wang Fengyuan has already sent someone to Stronghold 74 to investigate. For all we know, he might be found in another few days!¡±


    Wang Fugui was dumbfounded. ¡®So you all are relying on mysticism to search for Ren Xiaosu?!¡¯ What the fuck did he mean by strongholds would copse whenever Ren Xiaosu went?


    Wang Fugui thought back. Eh, it did seem like that was really the case!


    After thinking for a long time, Wang Fugui did not even know how to refute Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s words!


    But upon further thinking, it was indeed more reliable to have Fortress 178 look for someone than them. As such, Wang Fugui decided to wait here for news.


    At this moment, news of Stronghold 74 copsing had not yet spread to the Northwest. Even the majority of those in the Alliance of Strongholds still did not know what had happened to Stronghold 74. They only knew that contact had been lost with the people there.


    Zhang Xiaoman dragged Wang Fugui with him to get lunch. Immediately after that, he enthusiastically arranged some goods for Wang Fugui to bring back to the Central ins. ¡°We initially thought that trade with the Central ins wouldn¡¯t start until half a yearter, but we¡¯ve underestimated the enthusiasm of the merchants out there. You can¡¯t be returning with your trucks empty, or you would have wasted a trip! I¡¯ve already arranged everything for you over here. Of course, we can¡¯t let you take too much on our first deal, so we just prepared several dozen tons of potassium chloride for you to haul back.¡±


    Wang Fugui was dumbfounded. He knew what potassium chloride was and the many uses it had. If he brought it back, it would definitely sell for a lot.


    In fact, most of the minerals from the Northwest could be sold directly to the Wang Consortium when they were brought back to the Central ins. The Wang Consortium¡¯s purpose in opening the trade route was precisely for the Northwest¡¯s mineral resources, after all.


    Zhang Xiaoman offered him several dozen tons of the mineral as soon as he opened his mouth, but Wang Fugui could not evenprehend the amount that this unit of measurement represented.


    He hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°We only brought four used trucks...¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said nonchntly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll get you some more trucks.¡±


    He then got his orderly to summon the more well-to-do families in the stronghold and owners of various businesses over.


    These people used to be under the Zong Consortium¡¯s protection. After Fortress 178 had taken over at the stronghold, Zhang Jinglin ordered not to make things too difficult for them.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others tacitly understood what this meant. What the fortressmander meant was that they could make things difficult for them but not to the extent of forcing them to their deaths.


    Therefore, Zhang Xiaoman, who had been looking for a chance to deal with these well-to-do families, was now presented with a good opportunity to make them contribute to Wang Fugui¡¯s business.


    When these families arrived, Zhang Xiaoman asked to borrow a convoy of vehicles from them. If there were any extra vehicles left after loading up the potassium chloride, they would add some nickel ore for Wang Fugui to bring back.


    Although those well-to-do families felt pained, they did not dare to say anything. Seeing that Zhang Xiaoman had garrisoned his troops next to Stronghold 144 and had a say over their lives, he was their daddy.


    But that was not all. Zhang Xiaoman felt it would take too much effort for Wang Fugui to personally sell his stock of lipstick, so he had these people purchase the goods Wang Fugui had brought over from the Central ins. In the future, Wang Fugui could sell his goods directly to them when he brought more from the Central ins.


    Those well-to-do families were grumbling incessantly in their hearts, but the smart ones suddenly realized something. Could this be Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s way of diverting the money into his own pocket? Could it be that Zhang Xiaoman did not want to directly ask them for money, so he used the excuse of doing business to take their money instead?


    At this moment, any smart person would surely know not to turn down his requests. In fact, they would even respond positively on the surface!


    After these well-to-do families left, Wang Fugui was left stunned as he sat down in the base. Having been in business for most of his life, this was the first time he felt that doing business was not difficult at all!


    The four truckloads of goods they brought here had been sold out even before they started selling them.


    However, Old Wang did not go too far with this opportunity. Although he quoted a price higher than the cost to these well-to-do families, it was not absurdly high. After all, if he wanted them to be his distributors in the long run, it would have to be a win-win situation for everyone, right?


    Old Wang was not blinded by what was ced in front of him. Instead, he was thinking about the future rather than a one-off deal.


    Old Wang was already starting to contemte his ns. Now that there was a rtionship with Fortress 178, he might just be the most indomitable and sessful businessman on the northwestern trade route. This way, their whole family would be able to lead afortable life.


    And it would be a great life!


    And he understood that Zhang Xiaoman was doing all this because of Ren Xiaosu.


    Old Wang was given preferential treatment in Fortress 178¡¯s territory as he was one of the people Ren Xiaosu had been searching so desperately for. Old Wang had mentioned to Wang Yuchi that they should always have a backer when it came to doing business. However, he did not expect their backer would be this powerful.


    But there was something that Old Wang could not understand. Even if Ren Xiaosu had really helped Fortress 178 fight in the war, that should not cause Zhang Xiaoman to behave in such a way, right? A few dozen tons of potassium chloride was ced on credit just like that. How could Zhang Xiaoman have so much authority? These goods were worth millions, after all!


    While Wang Fugui was trying to figure this out, Jiao Xiaochen also asked Zhang Xiaoman in private, ¡°Regimental Commander, aren¡¯t you being a little too bold? You really giving him the goods on credit? We don¡¯t have to go that far, do we?¡±


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said proudly, ¡°Why else am I the regimentalmander and you¡¯re just my deputy?¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen¡¯s face immediately darkened. He was even tempted to kick Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°Then tell me why you¡¯re doing this?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman whispered, ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear Old Wang? He¡¯s actually Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shopkeeper, so all their assets and money will eventually be returned to Ren Xiaosu. That is to say, all this money will be earned by Ren Xiaosu. If Ren Xiaosues to you and says that he wants to buy several dozen tons of potassium chloride on credit, can you say no? After Ren Xiaosu is reunited with Old Wang and realizes that he has so many assets in the Northwest, won¡¯t he want toe back here? We can use these assets to tie down Old Wang and the others first. If they can remain here, Ren Xiaosu will naturally stay here too.¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen pondered things for a moment. ¡°That makes sense, go on.¡±


    ¡°And if Ren Xiaosu returns, who knows? He might end up as our Fortress 178¡¯smander in another few years.¡± Zhang Xiaoman muttered mysteriously, ¡°I heard from Old Zhou several days ago that Wang Fengyuan suggested we increase our efforts in searching for Ren Xiaosu during their executive meeting. He hopes to bring him back so that he can systematically learn about military warfare and leadership before getting familiarized with the various fighting forces. Since silence ispliance, the othermanders agreed by not objecting.¡±


    Jiao Xiaochen gasped when he heard that Ren Xiaosu would have to systematically learn military warfare and leadership and be familiar with the various fighting forces. What kinds of officers were required to learn such things? Wasn¡¯t that the job of a fuckingmander?!


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled and said, ¡°Actually, the most important thing is that all the generals have already acknowledged Ren Xiaosu. It¡¯s not as though everyone feels that Ren Xiaosu can be themander right away, but they¡¯ve already epted that he has the potential and acknowledged his strength, courage, and character! It¡¯s really not easy to achieve that. So, through that war with the Zong Consortium, Ren Xiaosu has already cleared some of the obstacles that he might encounter when he takes over as the fortressmander in another few years or decades. Just think about it, we¡¯re actually making money for the nextmander. Don¡¯t you think it¡¯s worth it?!¡±


    ¡°But what if themander questions us about this batch of potassium chloride...¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if we can make Ren Xiaosue back, themander might even be willing to give this batch of potassium chloride to Old Wang for free instead of putting it on credit....¡±

 Chapter 580 - Me too

    <h4>Chapter 580 Me too</h4>


    By this time, Ren Xiaosu and the others had set off again. They were advancing in the direction of Stronghold 73. Without the threat of the Experimentals behind them, their escape this time was not that tense.


    At night, Zhou Yingxue took Li Ran aside, and they spent half the night chatting away. It seemed that Li Ran had a lot to say to Zhou Yingxue due to the setback she had suffered and was in a bit of a vulnerable state.


    She told her about her past, from her kindergarten days to her high school graduation, why she became a singer, and the difficulties she faced as a singer. She seemed to be regarding Zhou Yingxue as a confidante now.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue was listening with gusto and even asked Li Ran if she had a chance of making her debut.


    In the morning, Ren Xiaosu realized that the inclothes guards had be unwilling to carry Li Ran anymore. Instead, it was Zhou Yingxue who carried her.


    After this disaster, Li Ran decided to cancel her concert tour. Therefore, this meant Zhou Yingxue¡¯s mission waspleted.


    When Li Ran informed the Anjing House about thepletion of the mission, Zhou Yingxue received her reward shortly after.


    However, after the Anjing House paid the reward, they hoped to get some detailed information from Zhou Yingxue in regards to Stronghold 74. They wanted to know what exactly happened there.


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Can we tell them about it, Master?


    Li Ran listened quietly but did not say anything. Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°If we can earn some money from this, why not? It wasn¡¯t us who blew Stronghold 74 up, anyway!¡±


    So Zhou Yingxue conveyed the details of Stronghold 74 being destroyed by a nuclear bomb to the Anjing House and received another million yuan in return.


    Ren Xiaosu thought the Anjing House must be really rich since they were actually willing to pay a million yuan for just some intel.


    As a matter of fact, Hope Media would publish the entire story of everything that happened at Stronghold 74 very soon. This money was totally theirs for the taking.


    While they were escaping, the reporter from Hope Media kept running back and forth within the group. After getting the consent of an escapee, he took a picture of them as they were fleeing to use as a featured image for his articles in the future.


    At a time like this, Ren Xiaosu avoided all contact with the reporter. He initially felt it would surely be easier for him to find his family and friends if he appeared in the newspapers, but it would probably also put him in danger.


    Old Li ran over to ask Ren Xiaosu if he was the one who caused that small mushroom cloud to appear inside the stronghold. He had seen Ren Xiaosu casually blow up the stronghold walls. Although he did not know how that happened, he got a rather strong impression of it.


    Moreover, that mushroom cloud was obviously the doing of a supernatural being. Hence, Old Li linked it to Ren Xiaosu.


    Having met once before, the two Riders and Ren Xiaosu chatted for quite a bit along the way. They got to know each other.


    But when Old Li asked him about that mushroom cloud, Ren Xiaosu simply feigned ignorance. How could he let others learn about his trump card so easily?


    Although he had be more familiar with the Riders, there was no need to reveal everything to them.


    On the same afternoon, the escapees were finally able to meet up with the Zhou Consortium¡¯s reinforcements.


    When everyone saw the Zhou Consortium troops, they felt like they had reunited with their family members. The Zhou Consortium troops did not disappoint the escapees either, and they immediately transported them away in their military trucks.


    The rest of the Zhou Consortium troops continued to advance towards Stronghold 74. After being informed that a nuclear bomb had been dropped on Stronghold 74, they did not head directly to the battlefield. Instead, they slowed their pace and waited for troops from the rear to transport the CBRN[1] suits over.


    The escapees rushed for thebat rations the Zhou Consortium troops were giving out from the vehicles. As they had been starving for so long, they were really unable to bear it anymore.


    Suddenly, Li Ran looked at Fang Zhi in the truck and asked, ¡°Where are Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue? Li Yingyun and Qin Sheng have disappeared as well.¡±


    Fang Zhi also wondered, ¡°I remember they got into the truck with us just now. Why have they disappeared all of a sudden?¡±


    When Li Ran turned her head and looked out the back of the truck, she could only see the scenery that was getting further and further away.


    After experiencing all the mind-boggling incidents along the way, the concert was far in the back of her mind. She only remembered the figure of that young man who led the crowd out of the stronghold.


    When she thought about how Zhou Yingxue would follow her master to wander the world again, she even felt a little envious and somewhat disappointed.


    If anyone perhaps encountered these two again, Ren Xiaosu would likely be Zhou Yingxue¡¯s assistant once more. He was both mysterious and restrained.


    Li Ran wondered if she would have a chance toe into contact with that mysterious world again. At this moment, she was somewhat able to understand Mu Wan¡¯ge.


    Li Ran looked at Mu Wan¡¯ge, who was sitting beside her, before saying with a sigh, ¡°At some point, I also started hoping I could be his maid and wander the world with him.¡±


    Mu Wan¡¯ge said, ¡°Me too.¡±


    Li Ran was surprised.


    ...


    After arriving at Stronghold 73, the escapees had to undergo a series of radiation tests first before being epted into the stronghold.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue and the others went into town and bought a new car. Then they headed straight for the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold where they did not have to undergo those radiation tests.


    As for the Hope Media reporter, he got a lift in their car to Luoyang City.


    Three dayster, Hope Media¡¯s newspaper caused a great stir across the Alliance of Strongholds.


    On this day, Hope Media¡¯s newspapers got sold out in all the various strongholds. As such, Hope Media had no choice but to add another print run of a 100,000 copies of newspapers. However, even that was not enough.


    The news of Stronghold 74 being destroyed by a nuclear bomb even overshadowed the Experimentals¡¯ attack. Since the Experimentals were already dead, everyone did not find it necessary to talk about them anymore. Nuclear bombs were the real threat now.


    Moreover, civilization and an era had been destroyed in the past because of such weapons. Now that it had appeared again, it was really difficult for people not to think of the worst-case scenario.


    As the saying went, a burnt child dreaded the fire.


    And to be clear, this was a real fire!


    In just a single day, everyone was fervently discussing this matter. Some people imed that since the nuclear bomb was targeted at the Experimentals and not humans, it was considered as ridding evil for the good of humanity.


    But more people believed that something like that should not even be deployed as a military weapon anymore. Besides, what if there had still been survivors inside of Stronghold 74? Then wouldn¡¯t the strike have killed them together with the Experimentals?


    Furthermore, with the nuclear strike, no humans could live in Stronghold 74 for the next 50 years. This was something that would still have a very significant impact.


    As a result of the nuclear strike, everyone even neglected the Pyro Company issue. Before this, everyone had been denouncing the Pyro Company for creating those monsters.


    Humans were simply too forgetful. They tended to forget past pains once the wounds were healed.


    At this moment, everyone was curious to know how the various consortiums would react. After all, something so threatening would surely be a great cause of concern for them.


    While the other consortiums remained silent, the Wang Consortium suddenly held a press conference.


    At this press conference, the Wang Consortium pinned the me on the Qing Consortium. On one hand, they protested against the Qing Consortium for the nuclear strike. On the other hand, they hoped the other consortiums would unite and hold discussions on this matter with the Qing Consortium. They hoped the Qing Consortium would willingly give up on the further research and development of nuclear weapons. Otherwise, sanctions would be imposed upon them.


    Human beings needed to work together to protect the future of mankind, and the Qing Consortium should not turn themselves into a potential threat to humanity. The current Alliance of Strongholds that humanity had was already too fragile.


    [1] A CBRN suit (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) is a piece of military protective equipment. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_suit

 Chapter 581 - I can’t leave

    <h4>Chapter 581 I can¡°t leave</h4>


    Throughout this storm, what disappointed the Hope Media reporter the most was that he had captured many photos of the escapees so that everyone would pay more attention to them, as well as the disaster itself.However, that was quickly forgotten, and it made the reporter a little sad.After the Wang Consortium directed the me at the Qing Consortium, everyone started waiting for the other consortiums to react. However, the other consortiums seemed to have suddenly lost their voices as they maintained silence over the matter.


    The reporters who wanted to interview the higher-ups of the Kong Consortium and Zhou Consortium were also blocked from doing so.


    Actually, it wasn¡¯t as though everyone was fucking stupid or something. Forget that you, the Wang Consortium, had suddenly joined the fray, but why did you have to drag the rest of us consortiums in as well in front of the reporters? The Qing Consortium really did have fucking nuclear bombs, alright?!


    Moreover, they could not understand why the Wang Consortium would dare to jump into the fray when they knew the Qing Consortium had nuclear weapons. Were they not afraid of death?


    Or could the Wang Consortium have something that bolstered their confidence? If they did not, the Wang Consortium would seem a little foolish with their usations.


    Before these questions were answered, they could only remain silent.


    In recent years, the Zhou and Kong Consortiums were starting to feel pressure from the Wang Consortium. Otherwise, Zhou Shiji would not have taken the initiative to befriend Luo Lan.


    However, after the nuclear bomb was dropped, the entire political situation was turned upside down. Suddenly, everyone could not tell who was friend and who was foe.


    Or to be more urate, other than themselves, everyone else was an enemy. It was just that they could not tell who the more threatening parties were.


    Regarding the nuclear bomb, the Zhou Consortium felt veryplicated. The Experimentals proved to be a very troublesome matter for them. If it weren¡¯t for this nuclear bomb, they would not even have known how to deal with it.


    They would have been unwilling to bomb their own Stronghold 74, but the Qing Consortium had helped them solve that dilemma.


    Everyone understood the Qing Consortium had onlyunched their nuclear bomb after the situation was deemed beyond saving, and from the looks of it, they did not want to cause any civilian casualties either. But by dropping the nuclear bomb, everything in the vicinity of Stronghold 74 was as good as destroyed.


    Since the Qing Consortium was bold enough to use a nuclear bomb to deal with the Experimentals, why didn¡¯t they use it against the Experimentals while they were in their territory?!


    Therefore, Zhou Shiji felt he needed to put aside his ties with the Qing Consortium for now and wait for the situation to be clearer.


    The days passed, and the reporters from Hope Media went all the way to the Qing Consortium to ask how they viewed this matter and whether they would give up their nuclear weapons.


    In the end, the Qing Consortium¡¯s answer waspletely unexpected. The Qing Consortium¡¯s spokesperson questioned, ¡°The nuclear bomb wasn¡¯tunched by us, so why is the Wang Consortium pointing fingers at us? Have consortiums these days started fabricating lies?¡±


    The reporters were stunned on the spot. Just as everyone in the world was thinking this was the Qing Consortium¡¯s doing, the Qing Consortium actually denied it was them.


    Thinking back, it did seem like there was no evidence pointing to the fact that this was done by the Qing Consortium.


    The various consortiums were also left speechless. Everyone knew full well that the nuclear test sites in the Central ins had been destroyed by the Saboteurs, and only the Qing Consortium was still equipped with a nuclear capability. However, it was also true that they did not have any evidence of that.


    It was obvious the Qing Consortium was intent on denying responsibility for the strike. Who knew if they were trying to stall for time, or if they were just trying to plunge the situation into even muddier waters.


    Before everyone could figure out what was going on, Luo Lan, who was currently visiting the Kong Consortium, actually started epting public interviews.


    Logically speaking, Luo Lan should really have been leaving the Central ins and returning to the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory. Even Zhou Qi was trying to persuade Luo Lan to leave quickly.


    If the consortiums were to issue a joint arrest order for Luo Lan, Zhou Qi could not protect him!


    But not only did Luo Lan not leave, he even mboyantly epted the interviews. How infuriating!


    When Luo Lan faced the reporters, he said in a heavy tone, ¡°Don¡¯t be using our Qing Consortium so easily. Just because the Wang Consortium says it was us whounched the strike, does it really mean we did? A lot of people know the Saboteurs have been trying to destroy our nuclear test base in the Southwest, yet they still haven¡¯t found it, have they? But how are they going to find it when we don¡¯t actually have any of those? The Wang Consortium had better not falsely use us like that.¡±


    The reporters were dumbfounded. ¡°Then what¡¯s your opinion on this matter?¡±


    Luo Lan sounded even more depressed and nearly cried. ¡°Whoever did it, I feel it was a really good move. ording to the Hope Media reporters, Stronghold 74 had already fallen to the Experimentals at that time, right? That means that no matter whether there were any survivors, the Experimentals would still tear them apart. Our Qing Consortium has fought quite a few battles with the Experimentals before. Back when the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold was attacked by the Experimentals, our Qing Consortium also suffered heavy losses when we went over to reinforce them. It¡¯s a pity the Li Consortium did not manage to withstand the attacks of the Experimentals. In order to let the Li Consortium¡¯s residents continue living in peace, our Qing Consortium took control of their strongholds.¡±


    Based on what Luo Lan had said, they had only taken over the Li Consortium¡¯s strongholds out of a sense of justice. They had wanted to support the Li Consortium¡¯s fight against the Experimentals, but the Li Consortium was unable to hold on. In the end, it was all the Experimentals¡¯ fault!


    His passionate¡± tone made him sound just like a good Samaritan.


    Luo Lan said as he wiped away his tears, ¡°No matter who blew up Stronghold 74, I, Luo Lan, will be the first to thank them for taking revenge for the residents of the Southwest and for taking revenge for the residents of Stronghold 74! They¡¯ve even eliminated a future threat for humanity as well!¡±


    Then Luo Lan bowed deeply to the camera and said, ¡°Thank you all!¡±


    The reporters were all dumbfounded. When the consortiums saw the reporters¡¯ articles, they wanted to scold Luo Lan for his shamelessness!


    A member of the Kong Consortium who was standing beside Luo Lan said with a smile after the reporters left, ¡°Boss Luo, you show no fear in the face of danger. After such a brouhaha, you can still act as though nothing happened and remain a guest at our Kong Consortium. I¡¯m really impressed.¡±


    This was not a lie, as he really admired Luo Lan from the bottom of his heart. Disregarding everything else, he would have to give Luo Lan a perfect score just for his acting chops and courage!


    The people from the Kong Consortium did not ask whether the Qing Consortium had any nuclear weapons. They had never depended on evidence to judge others. Everyone already knew this was done by the Qing Consortium after all, so there was no need for them to probe further.


    However, Luo Lan narrowed his eyes. ¡°This is only the start. It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll only be a guest here at your Kong Consortium, I¡¯m also going to be visiting the Wang Consortium in a few days. Let¡¯s see who dares toy a finger on me.¡±


    After the Kong Consortium¡¯s people left, Luo Lan immediatelyy on the sofa and asked Zhou Qi, ¡°I¡¯m feeling really panicky now. Do you think they¡¯ll really tie me up?¡±


    Zhou Qi did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Since you¡¯re so worried, let¡¯s hurry back to the Qing Consortium. Whenever you were out the past few days, the people in the stronghold have been pointing and talking behind your back. I reckon that once you go to the Wang Consortium, you¡¯ll be met with people throwing rotten eggs at your head! You must know the Wang Consortium¡¯s official media outlets have started painting the Qing Consortium as the viin now.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t leave.¡± Luo Lan stood up and looked out the window. ¡°The Qing Consortium is on the cusp of a political storm. Qing Zhen still needs someone to stir up trouble in the Central ins to buy him some time, so I can¡¯t leave yet!¡±

 Chapter 582 - Destination: Luoyang City

    <h4>582 Destination: Luoyang City</h4>


    ¡°Old Li, I¡¯ve always been curious about the rtionship between the Riders and the Qinghe Group.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked as they were leaving Stronghold 73, ¡°The world says that the Riders are part of the Qinghe Group, but I feel that y¡¯all are more like free agents?¡±


    After the Zhou Consortium troops took in the escapees, Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue, Li Yingyun, and Qin Sheng left the group together. All of them did not really want to have any interaction with the Zhou Consortium troops, let alone be put through radiation tests.


    Since Ren Xiaosu still had some matters to attend to at Hope Media in Luoyang City, the four of them decided to travel together.


    Old Li replied to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s question, ¡°Actually, it isn¡¯t really a secret, so it doesn¡¯t matter even if I tell you about it. Before The Cataclysm, the Riders and the Qinghe Group were only working under the same boss. Both parties did not have any rtion to the other and they were more like two peer institutions. Later on, when The Cataclysm happened, the Riders helped the founder of the organization save the Qinghe Group. As such, the rtionship between the two organizations became very close. Before that, both parties rarely interacted with each other.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    Then Old Li sighed and said, ¡°Back then, our predecessors died and got wounded just so they could protect the foundation of the Qinghe Group. Now that the Qing Consortium has achieved nuclear capability again, who knows when an apocalypse will once again befall humanity.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t see it that way. I still feel that it depends on who uses the weapons. Based on my understanding of Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, they wouldn¡¯t abuse such weapons.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Old Li looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. ¡°Brother Xiaosu, are you very familiar with the heroic duo of the Qing Consortium?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. What the hell was with that corny nickname?! The heroic duo of the Qing Consortium? He said, ¡°I used to live in the Southwest but was forced toe to the Central ins because of the Experimental invasion. I¡¯ve interacted with Qing Zhen and Luo Lan before. While I don¡¯t think that they¡¯re good people, they¡¯re definitely not bad people either, so I ask that the Riders please not judge them with any bias.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rtionship with Luo Lan could be considered quite good. So he was very willing to speak up for the Qing Consortium so they could have fewer enemies.


    However, as Old Li was listening to him, he suddenly realized something else. He already knew that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name only had a character¡¯s difference from Ren Xiaobei. Moreover, the young man beside him was also a supernatural being and looked very powerful as well.


    Previously, Old Li did not think too deeply into it. This was because he felt that even if that Rider¡¯s heir had managed to live a long life, he should now be very old. At the least, he would appear as a middle-aged man, so he did not put too much thought into Ren Xiaosu.


    But now, when he heard that Ren Xiaosu was also from the Southwest, he could not help having second thoughts about his identity. Old Li discreetly sized up Ren Xiaosu and thought, ¡®Hmm, he¡¯s rather handsome too...¡¯


    Could this be the person the Riders and the Experimentals were looking for?!


    However, Old Li did not really say much and just kept the matter to himself. They would be seeing each other at Luoyang City anyway, so Old Li would have to ponder over the details first.


    Ren Xiaosu casually asked, ¡°I heard that the Qinghe Group is now under the control of the Xu n. The Xu n also said that they¡¯re only managing the organization on behalf of the major shareholder. Could the Xu n really be so impartial and have no selfish motives?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know about others,¡± Old Li¡¯s thoughts got interrupted as he replied, ¡°but in the Xu n, Xu Ke¡¯s family is a very honorable one. They¡¯ve never hankered for something that doesn¡¯t belong to them. However, it¡¯s harder to speak for the other members of the Xu n. Although the organization¡¯s caretaker role has been passed down through Xu Ke¡¯s family for three generations, he still has other rtives who aren¡¯t satisfied with the status quo. Never mind, why am I telling you all this?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized there were also conflicts at y within the Qinghe Group.


    When they arrived at Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue got registered at the gate before they were allowed into the stronghold. Due to the Riders apanying them, everything proceeded very smoothly.


    But when Ren Xiaosu saw a lot of people going in and out of Luoyang City, he asked Old Li, ¡°These people look like refugees. Are they allowed to enter and exit as they please?¡±


    ¡°Oh, about that,¡± Old Li smiled and said, ¡°Many of them hold work or trader visas in the stronghold, so they can go in and out of the stronghold at any time as long as their papers are valid. Of course, they still have to leave before the gate closes at 10 PM nightly. Only those with student passes can stay in the stronghold until theyplete their studies. After they graduate sessfully, they can directly apply for residential ID cards and settle down in the stronghold.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought this was a rather novel practice. ¡°How many young people from the other strongholdse here to take the college entrance exam? Can refugees take the exam as well?¡±


    ¡°Of course they can. The refugees are also allowed to attend university. Besides, Qinghe University has also specifically set aside some enrollment spots for the refugees. This is to encourage them to make use of their knowledge so they may change their fate. As long as they can get into the university, they have a chance of bing stronghold residents,¡± Qin Sheng exined. ¡°Thus, supplementary sses are held outside Luoyang City as well. Some of the teachers in the stronghold love going into town to earn the extra ie. This can also be considered a unique industry that can only be found in Luoyang City.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. So the refugees were also given a chance to improve their lives. Although it was a difficult path to take, it was still enough to give the refugees some hope.


    Qin Sheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and continued, ¡°We wanted to open up the stronghold in the past, but you also know that this¡¯ll only make us enemies of the other consortiums. As such, we can only do it this way.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. In this era, anyone who dared to stand out from others would definitely need the courage to do so. It was already difficult for the Qinghe Group to want to create a path for the refugees to climb, so what more could others ask of them?


    Qin Sheng continued, ¡°But even so, a lot of consortiums are still unhappy about it. They often send representatives toe and hold discussions with the Qinghe Group. They hope we can be like the other consortiums and forbid refugees from entering the stronghold.¡±


    As they spoke, they stepped into the stronghold. The Qinghe Group¡¯s vehicles were already waiting on the other side of the gate. Old Li had a car deliver Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue to the building of Hope Media¡¯s headquarters. Meanwhile, they rushed off to join up with the other Riders for a meeting.


    This was an internal meeting for the Riders. Too many things had happened recently, and some of them were rted to their own group, so they had to quickly hold a meeting to reach a conclusion.


    After bidding each other farewell, their journey together ended as they parted ways.


    Upon arriving at Hope Media¡¯s headquarters, Ren Xiaosu got out of the car and had a look. The building was a little run-down and far from the grand appearances of the other buildings in the stronghold.


    It was hard to imagine this was actually the headquarters of the famous Hope Media.


    Ren Xiaosu exined to the security guard at the door that he was here to ce an advertisement in the newspaper. Almost immediately, an employee from the business department came out to receive him.


    This staff member was not old and was probably around the same age as Zhou Yingxue. The person smiled and said, ¡°Whichpany are you two from? What is it that you¡¯d like to advertise with us? And what ad size are you looking to ce?¡±

 Chapter 583 - The weight of a few words

    <h4>Chapter 583 The weight of a few words</h4>


    The business department employee weed the two of them into the building. ¡°Let me introduce myself. My name is Ying Yuzheng, the supervisor of the Business Department. Let¡¯s head upstairs to talk.¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu walked into the building, he made an observation of the internal operations of Hope Media. The staff were walking around without any particrly tight security in ce like it was just a normal office building.


    Importantly, Hope Media supposedly made many enemies over the years and offended countless organizations. Shouldn¡¯t apany like this be more careful?


    When they arrived on the seventh floor, Ren Xiaosu heard a loud, clear voice lecturing someone the moment he stepped out of the elevator.


    An old man holding a cane was saying to a young man, ¡°We journalists need to respect the truth. Don¡¯t you know what was wrong with the draft you submitted yesterday? Have you investigated the source or verified the facts? It¡¯s absolutely uneptable to write an article based on your own assumptions in order to attract the attention of readers! Every newspaper that goes out from here must report the facts. When people pick up a copy of today¡¯s newspaper from Hope Media in the future, they¡¯ll immediately learn about what truly happened today. That¡¯s what our job¡¯s about!¡±


    The young reporter said, ¡°But the other newspapers¡ª¡±


    ¡°Others are others, Hope Media is Hope Media!¡± The old man holding a cane said, ¡°Don¡¯t forget, what was your intention when you first entered the industry? Was it for fame and fortune? If you want fame and fortune, I¡¯ll write a rmendation letter for you to go work at Qinghe Group! We at Hope Media must always respect the truth and record history factually!¡±


    The young reporter stopped talking.


    Ying Yuzheng said to Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m sorry you had to see that. Our chief editor has a short temper. This way please.¡±


    He brought Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue into a meeting room where Ren Xiaosu saw somerge red words written on the wall: ¡°Seek truth from fact.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not think there was anything wrong with the chief editor¡¯s anger towards the reporter. In fact, it made him trust Hope Media more.


    Ying Yuzheng sat on the opposite side at the conference table and asked warmly, ¡°What sort of advertisement are you two looking to ce?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s very simple.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and took out a piece of paper to exin, ¡°I only need this to be published at the bottom of the fifth page. The ad will take up a quarter of the page.¡±


    Ying Yuzheng took the note from him. There were only two sentences written on it. ¡°Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well.¡±


    The second sentence was: ¡°61.¡±


    This was the solution Ren Xiaosu had thought of. Since Hope Media¡¯s newspaper cirction spread across the Central ins, then if Old Wang were also in the Central ins, he would definitely read such an influential newspaper to keep up with the current affairs.


    Wang Fugui might not look like a very serious person, but actually, he was really meticulous and dependable. In the past, when Ren Xiaosu was still living in town, he would often see Wang Fugui reading the official newspaper of the Qing Consortium when he went to his grocery store. His reason for doing so was so that he could keep up with recent happenings and not be out of touch with the times.


    Thus, Ren Xiaosu thought of cing an advertisement in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper. Be it Yan Liuyuan or Wang Fugui, they would surely link it to him if they saw the message.


    He had said these words to Yan Liuyuan in front of Old Wang. Xiaoyu would even asionally bring it up in the presence of others, so it was a very iconic statement.


    Meanwhile, the ¡°61¡± below that statement was to indicate that he was going to settle down at Stronghold 61 soon. If Old Wang and the others saw it, they should go to Stronghold 61 to look for him.


    This hint was not exactly obscure, but only Old Wang and Yan Liuyuan would know what it meant.


    Ying Yuzheng looked at the note and wondered, ¡°You¡¯re just gonna advertise this?¡±


    Usually, those who approached Hope Media to publish their advertisements would do so to promote their businesses, such as selling clothes or cosmetics. As for the advertisement that Ren Xiaosu was looking to ce, it did not seem to serve any purpose at all.


    Could it be that he was a spy from some organization using the advertisement to transmit an encrypted message? Ying Yuzheng was a little hesitant. This was something Hope Media frequently encountered. For example, the Riders¡¯ earliest form of contact was through the use of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper to transmit their messages. If they decrypted the messages with their key, they could get the information they wanted.


    However, no spy would be so attention seeking as to advertise on the fifth page of the newspaper. The first four pages did not ept any advertisement cements, while advertising on the fifth page would be extremely expensive.


    Ying Yuzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°May I know the purpose of this advertisement?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Just take it that I¡¯m spreading a positive message.¡±


    ¡°What does this ¡¯61¡¯ mean?¡± Ying Yuzheng asked.


    ¡°Oh, 61 refers to Children¡¯s Day. I would like to wish everyone a happy Children¡¯s Day in advance,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined without batting an eyelid.


    Like hell Ying Yuzheng would believe that! It was still a long way to Children¡¯s Day! He patiently said, ¡°Sir, it¡¯s November right now.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, we want the advertisement to be ced until June 1st of next year.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°How much would that cost?¡±


    This shocked Ying Yuzheng. Beside Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue could feel her heart aching. How much would it cost to have this quarter-page advertisement running for more than half a year?!


    Ying Yuzheng did a rough calction before saying to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Sorry, this ount is a little too big for me to handle. I can¡¯t make the decision, so please wait a moment.¡±


    Just the advertising fee alone woulde up to over two million yuan. Furthermore, he could not figure out Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue¡¯s intentions for this advertisement.


    Not long after Ying Yuzheng excused himself, Ren Xiaosu again heard the sound of a cane tapping on the ground outside the door. Right after, the chief editor pushed open the door and entered. The man¡¯s gray hair was neatlybed, and he was wearing a ck tunic suit. He looked very spirited.


    The chief editor came to the conference table and picked up the note. He asked, ¡°Is this the advertisement our two guests want to ce in our newspaper?¡±


    Ying Yuzheng said, ¡°Yes.¡±


    The chief editor was stunned when he saw the note. He could not help but mutter, ¡°Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well....¡±


    He looked up at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Who made this statement?¡±


    ¡°I did,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Why did you say it?¡± The chief editor continued asking.


    ¡°Because I wanted to caution my younger brother not to be influenced by the sentiments of this era.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°I just feel that I should be sharing this with more people by publishing it in the newspaper.¡±


    The chief editorughed. He was not going to be taken in by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nonsensical reason. However, he fell in love with the statement at the first instance.


    The chief editor held the note in his hand and looked at it for a long time before saying, ¡°You can just pay 20% of the fees. 400,000 yuan will be the advertising cost for the word ¡¯61¡¯ while the rest can be waived. I won¡¯t ask you the reason for cing this ad, and I¡¯ll have it published until June 1st of next year.¡±


    Ying Yuzheng, who was standing off to the side, was stunned. A total of 1.6 million yuan was waived just like that!


    Ren Xiaosu was also puzzled. ¡°Why are you doing this?¡±


    The chief editor waved the note in his hand and said, ¡°This sentence alone is worth that much.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was moved. So it turned out there were still people in this era who valued a sentence that much.

 Chapter 584 - Old friend, Magician Li Shentan!

    <h4>Chapter 584 Old friend, Magician Li Shentan!</h4>


    During this period, too many things had happened in the territory of the Alliance of Strongholds. The war in the Southwest, the war in the Northwest, and the nuclear strike on Stronghold 74.


    All of these events left everyone in a panic. While walking the streets of Luoyang City, the chief editor had heard the popce discussing these conflicts. This era was gradually crumbling, as was the order that humanity had recently reestablished.


    He had reprimanded that reporter just now for fabricating news in an attempt to make a name for himself. Alright, rather than saying that he fabricated news, it was more of just listening to one side of the story and writing a draft without validating the facts. The headline was also very sensational.


    That reporter said the other newspapers were also doing the same as it would help their newspapers to sell better, while the reporters who wrote such articles became well-known quickly.


    But just because that was what everyone was doing, should they go with the flow as well? The chief editor would very much prefer to go against the flow!


    The chief editor looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Alright, this phrase will be published in the papers starting tomorrow. My name is Jiang Xu, pleased to meet you. Or to be precise, I¡¯m pleased I was able toe across a sentence like that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. What the other party was trying to say was that he was actually not that interested in Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu stood up and got Zhou Yingxue to pay the 400,000 yuan. This sum had already beenundered by Zhou Yingxue, so it would not be traceable by anyone. As for the rest of the money, they would have to make a trip back to the ck market before they could spend it, and it just so happened the ck market was right next to Luoyang City.


    After exiting the headquarters of Hope Media, Zhou Yingxue said excitedly by his side, ¡°Master, that Jiang Xu is a legendary figure. He actually waived 1.6 million yuan in fees because of a statement you made. Master, you¡¯re amazing!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough, there should be a limit to your ttery,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Alright!¡±


    It was gettingte. Ren Xiaosu was leading Zhou Yingxue straight to the hotel in Luoyang City when he suddenly felt some interest in this stronghold city. He decided he would go sightseeing for a day before leaving since it wouldn¡¯t affect his schedule.


    They got two rooms, each for one person. The hotel in Luoyang City was as hospitable as the hotel back at the ck market. Ren Xiaosu sat by the floor-to-ceiling window in his room and read the newspaper he had swiped from Hope Media¡¯s headquarters earlier. It was today¡¯s newspaper, and Ren Xiaosu thought that since he had already taken out a 400,000 yuan ad cement, taking a copy of their newspaper should not be asking too much, right? He had only taken it as a gift anyway.


    The newspaper was still filled with analysis articles about Zhou Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 74. The Zhou Consortium had formed a new rescue team to head to Stronghold 74 to assess the possibility of rebuilding it. If that were not possible, they would have to find a new location to rebuild Stronghold 74.


    Other than that, it was the usual articles criticizing the Pyro Company.


    The other newspapers had basically forgotten about the Pyro Company. After all, nuclear bombs were the trending topic. However, Hope Media was different. In their articles, they were still hoping the Pyro Company could disclose their research and prove that their current studies did not vite scientific ethics.


    The third page covered the Qing Consortium and Luo Lan. The journalist even praised Luo Lan for being bold and daring. But when Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Lan thanking the person who fired the nuclear bomb with tears in his eyes, he nearlyughed out loud. That fatso was way too shameless.


    Eventually, Ren Xiaosu flipped to the entertainment section of the newspaper. The biggest news was that Li Ran had returned to Stronghold 61. The fans streamed onto the streets to wee and greet their idol.


    When night fell, Zhou Yingxue suddenly knocked on his door and said she wanted to eat out. Ren Xiaosu put down the newspaper and went out with her.


    After Ren Xiaosu walked out of the hotel¡¯s main entrance, Old Li and Qin Sheng suddenly came out of the hotel¡¯s kitchen and went to the hotel¡¯s front desk to ask for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room key.


    The two of them were very cautious. Before they entered the room, they checked if there were any traps left behind by Ren Xiaosu. However, they found nothing.


    ¡°Search every corner and see if he left behind any hairs,¡± Old Li said.


    Hair loss was not an exclusive condition suffered by middle-aged men. If Ren Xiaosu had taken a shower in his room, some of his hair would definitely be on the floor.


    The two of them put on gloves and searched through the entire room. Unfortunately, they could not find anything at all. Old Li wondered, ¡°He took a shower after checking into the hotel this afternoon, but there isn¡¯t a single strand of hair on the floor of the bathroom. Could he have purposely picked up all his hair?¡±


    Qin Sheng scratched his head. ¡°Or maybe it¡¯s just that the quality of his hair is better? So, what should we do now?¡±


    ¡°What else can we do?¡± Old Li snapped at him. ¡°We can onlye back tomorrow and search again.¡±


    ¡°What if he isn¡¯t the person we¡¯re looking for?¡± Qin Sheng asked.


    ¡°We have nothing to lose anyway.¡± Old Li said, ¡°We¡¯re just looking for his hair to get it tested so we can make sure.¡±


    ¡°What if he¡¯s the one?¡± Qin Sheng asked.


    ¡°In that case...¡± Old Li frowned. They still did not know much about that young man, so it was difficult to say if they could ept such an oue. Old Li sighed and said, ¡°At least he¡¯s still a normal human being. Furthermore, he doesn¡¯t look like a bad person. Although it doesn¡¯t seem like he can fight well, this oue isn¡¯t too far from what we were expecting.¡±


    On their way here to Luoyang City, even though Old Li and Qin Sheng had chatted a lot with Ren Xiaosu, he looked really skinny and weak to them, and they felt he could not fight well either. Those in the Riders were all powerful superhumans, after all, so would a young man like that really be able to helm the organization? Old Li had some doubts.


    As a matter of fact, although the Riders believed in Ren He, they did not necessarily have to acknowledge Ren He¡¯s descendants as their overlords. They still had to see what kind of person Ren He¡¯s descendant was.


    For example, Riders like Zhang Qingxi and Wu Dingyuan might look kind, but each of them was more arrogant than the other.


    However, Old Li and Qin Sheng did not know what Ren Xiaosu had done in the Northwest and Southwest. There was also the role Ren Xiaosu yed in the farce between the Anjing House and the Pyro Company a while ago.


    If they knew about all this, they would probably not think that Ren Xiaosu could not fight.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu did not know what was going on in his room. Two of the famed Riders had sneaked into his room to search for his hair.


    The nightlife in Luoyang City was bustling, much more flourishing than Ren Xiaosu had imagined. Not even Stronghold 73, which was built based on the framework of a consortium, couldpare to it.


    Perhaps, because free trade was allowed in Luoyang City, the industries here were more developed.


    Moreover, the Qinghe Group¡¯s ethos was this as well. They encouraged innovation, creative thinking, and were business friendly.


    The university here was also allowed much more freedom. It was unlike the other consortiums where all their students had to devote themselves to the organization¡¯s own research. Qinghe University was currently the only university in the entire Alliance of Strongholds that had always offered art subjects.


    When Ren Xiaosu arrived at the town square, he even saw some people singing while ying the guitar. He also saw some people putting on a performance arts showcase and painting themselves with extravagant colors all over.


    ¡°Master, there¡¯s someone doing magic over there,¡± Zhou Yingxue suddenly shouted joyfully.


    But when Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw the performer, he immediately turned around and left.


    The young magician smiled through the crowd and said, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t old friends greet each other when they meet again?¡±

 Chapter 585 - Li Shentan’s gift of gold

    <h4>Chapter 585 Li Shentan¡°s gift of gold</h4>


    In the town square, Ren Xiaosu wanted to leave immediately at first. However, the magician¡¯s words made him stop in his tracks. He turned around and saw Li Shentan standing in the crowd with a card deck in his hand. He had suddenly stopped his performance he was putting on.


    The crowd around Li Shentan looked at Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu casually pulled his hood up so fewer people would remember his appearance.


    When Li Shentan saw Ren Xiaosu stop in his tracks, he smiled. ¡°Hang around for a bit and let me finish showing off my magic.¡±


    With that, the crowd turned back to look at Li Shentan. They saw the ying cards in Li Shentan¡¯s right hand suddenly surge into the sky like a water fountain. Although he only had one deck in hand, the cards hovering above everyone¡¯s heads and spinning around in the air enshrouded everyone underneath it.


    Slowly, the cards converged like a whirlwind and headed towards Li Shentan.


    The crowd let out a cry of surprise. They could no longer tell whether this was a magic trick or a magic spell, nor could they figure out what was causing the cards to spin around like that.


    The dazzling whirlwind of cards finally enveloped Li Shentan, and the onlookers could no longer see his figure. All they could see were the cards spinning around rapidly.


    Li Shentan, surrounded by countless cards, said with a smile, ¡°Three... two... one!¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the whirlwind of cards dropped to the ground. And Li Shentan was nowhere to be seen!


    The crowd immediately cheered. They had never seen such amazing magic in their lives before.


    Furthermore, everyone witnessed the magician disappearing into thin air despite being in such close proximity!


    A girl screamed, ¡°Cool, that was so damn cool! I¡¯ve fallen in love with that magician! This must be real magic, right!¡±


    Li Shentan had been performing magic in Luoyang City for quite some time now. Due to his amazing magic tricks and handsome appearance, many girls had be his fans. Even before night fell, a lot of people would already be waiting in the town square for his performance to start.


    Meanwhile, Li Shentan never disappointed his audience either. His magic tricks were never repeated, and the audience could not even tell how he pulled them off.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. Even he was unable to tell how Li Shentan did that.


    At this moment, Li Shentan¡¯sughter pealed from behind him. ¡°How did you like my trick?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked Li Shentan, ¡°How did you do that?¡±


    ¡°It was just misdirection,¡± Li Shentan said with a humble smile.


    But Ren Xiaosu knew it was definitely not as simple as misdirection. He just did not understand why Li Shentan would appear in this ce. Moreover, he was clearly a legendary supernatural being, yet he liked doing street magic so much.


    Li Shentan nced at Zhou Yingxue, who was standing next to Ren Xiaosu. However, he did not ask Ren Xiaosu anything. Instead, he seemed to have thought of something and said, ¡°Oh yeah,e with me. I have something I want to give you.¡±


    Then Li Shentan led the way to a small park next to the square. It was where many of the stronghold residents strolled.


    Li Shentan was walking at the front and did not seem worried that Ren Xiaosu would just leave.


    When they got to a ce where there was no one around, Li Shentan took out a ck cloth and threw it onto the grass. This action took Ren Xiaosu by surprise. What was Li Shentan up to?


    Li Shentan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Let me show you a trick.¡±


    With that, he blew the ck cloth before lifting it up again. All of a sudden, arge pile of gold bars were lying on thewn!


    ¡°This is for you.¡± Li Shentan smiled happily and said, ¡°Do you like it?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s eyes widened, but Ren Xiaosu, who had always been greedy, remained still. He only frowned and asked, ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°This was stolen from the Zong Consortium, but I wasn¡¯t the one who robbed them. It was a supernatural being named Wang Congyang who did it,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile.


    ¡°Wang Congyang? Who did he rob?!¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like there were some very important details behind this.


    ¡°I think it was stolen from a brigademander of the Zong Consortium. At that time, Wang Congyang drove his little train and knocked over the brigademander¡¯s vehicle he was using for transporting away his assets. After that, he took half the gold while I took the remaining half. I know you like these things, so I kept it especially for you,¡± Li Shentan exined with a smile. ¡°I didn¡¯ty a finger on any of it. The money for our daily expenses is all earned through my magic shows.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood something. Their Razor Sharp Company had once encountered the pursuit of an armored brigade within the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. No one could understand why the armored brigade did not head to the battlefield at the front line and instead ran back to the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory to chase after them on his steam lotive.


    He realized now he had also taken the me for Wang Congyang once before.


    They were not fucking chasing after him at all. It was just that when the brigademander saw the steam lotive, he thought it was Wang Congyang driving it. As such, he pursued Wang Congyang to try to get his assets back!


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Maybe he should not be using the powers he had copied from others so recklessly.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still did not ept the gold bars. To be honest, he did not really want to have any dealings with Li Shentan, because it was extremely dangerous for a normal person to deal with a lunatic. You would not even be able to imagine what the other party might be nning by offering you the gold.


    Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s that little girl who¡¯s always with you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was asking about Si Liren. Didn¡¯t those two used to be inseparable? As he spoke, Ren Xiaosu even looked up into the sky to see if Si Liren was floating in the air again.


    Li Shentan exined, ¡°Oh, she¡¯s been really into romance novels recently, so she doesn¡¯te out anymore.¡±


    ¡°Why did youe to Luoyang City?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again.


    Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°Because this ce is more suitable for people like me who perform to make a living. Don¡¯t you think the residents of a stronghold like Luoyang City are much ¡®livelier¡¯ than the residents of the other strongholds? I feel really stifled when I¡¯m in the other strongholds, like I¡¯m waiting for the consortiums to skin me alive even when I¡¯m sitting at home.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue remained standing behind Ren Xiaosu without saying a word. She knew it was not the time for her to speak. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was watching Li Shentan very carefully. He always had the feeling that Li Shentan¡¯s motives were not that straightforward.


    Could Li Shentan have been purposely waiting here for him? But that didn¡¯t make sense either. He had onlye to Luoyang City by chance.


    Ren Xiaosu then asked, ¡°What are you nning to do in the future? Put on magic shows in Luoyang City?¡±


    ¡°No, no, no.¡± Li Shentan said with augh, ¡°I¡¯m waiting for a miracle to happen.¡±


    It was Li Shentan who ended the conversation first. He said, ¡°It¡¯s gettingte. That little girl is still waiting for me to bring home sweet potatoes for her to eat. I¡¯ll leave the gold here. If you want it, you can just take it with you. If you don¡¯t want it, I can¡¯t do anything about that. We¡¯ll definitely meet again. Oh right, I suggest you make a trip to Qinghe University. There could be a reward waiting for you there.¡±


    After that, Li Shentan turned around and left without any hesitation.


    His behavior was predicated on his whims.

 Chapter 586 - Li Shentan’s awful hobby

    <h4>Chapter 586 Li Shentan¡°s awful hobby</h4>


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Li Shentan¡¯s retreating figure and asked, ¡°Master, who is he?¡±


    ¡°Li Shentan,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    ¡°Sounds familiar, but I can¡¯t remember who that is,¡± Zhou Yingxue said as she thought hard.


    ¡°The Demon Whisperer.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the gold left behind on thewn. In the end, he still took the gold and put it into his storage space.


    When Zhou Yingxue heard the mention of the ¡°Demon Whisperer,¡± she froze. ¡°Master, so he¡¯s the Demon Whisperer? He¡¯s actually quite good-looking. He doesn¡¯t at all look like the demons that are told in the legends. But wow, for a person like Li Shentan to gift you gold, Master, you must be so amazing.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shot a look at Zhou Yingxue. He was already feeling a little numb towards her frequent ttering.


    In the dark of the night, Li Shentan carried the roasted sweet potatoes he had just bought and jogged all the way back to the little courtyard house he was staying at with Si Liren. At this moment, the young Si Liren was still reading her novel with relish.


    Li Shentan grumbled, ¡°I bought these sweet potatoes for you from such a faraway ce. Shouldn¡¯t you at least thank me for them? To prevent the sweet potatoes from getting cold, I even ran all the way back here!¡±


    Si Liren put down her book and said with a smile, ¡°Thank you, Big Brother Shentan!¡± She took the sweet potatoes from Li Shentan¡¯s hands. Then she looked at him and wondered, ¡°Big Bro, why do you look so happy?¡±


    ¡°I saw Ren Xiaosu.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile.


    Si Liren pouted. ¡°What¡¯s there to be happy about seeing him?¡±


    ¡°I told him to go to Qinghe University.¡± Li Shentan looked very excited. ¡°But I didn¡¯t tell him for what!¡±


    ¡°And then?¡± Si Liren was puzzled.


    ¡°Think about it. If he brings his maid to Qinghe University without knowing who¡¯s there, how interesting would it be if he happens to bump into Yang Xiaojin! That¡¯ll be so fun!¡± Li Shentan¡¯s eyes glimmered as he spoke.


    Si Liren had been catching up on a lot of romance novels recently. When she heard what Li Shentan said, she got interested as well. ¡°After that, Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu will turn on each other and a deadly pursuit begins in Luoyang City. When the sound of the sniper rifle rings out, Zhou Yingxue will be the first to slump to the ground?¡±


    Li Shentan did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°There¡¯s no need for a deadly pursuit, right?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t all the female leads¡¯ scenes written like this?¡± Si Liren muttered. ¡°When will he be going to Qinghe University?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ste today, so I suppose he¡¯ll go tomorrow,¡± Li Shentan guessed.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s go and have a look too.¡± Si Liren blinked innocently.


    Li Shentan thought for a moment and said, ¡°They might not get to see each other. After all, Qinghe University is quite big, so the chances of them bumping into each other will be quite low.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s treat it like we¡¯re going out for a walk.¡± Si Liren said, ¡°I haven¡¯t been to Qinghe University before.¡±


    ¡°What if I get recognized by the university students? I¡¯m also very famous now, so a lot of girls wille asking for my autograph,¡± Li Shentan said hesitantly.


    Si Liren¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°You¡¯re even starting to get burdened like a celebrity now?¡±


    ...


    After Ren Xiaosu returned to the hotel, he did not sleep at all. The words Li Shentan had said to him kept ringing in his head. ¡°Make a trip to Qinghe University. There could be a reward waiting for you there.¡±


    What was this reward about?


    Due to ack of information, Ren Xiaosu could not make any guesses.


    These words seemed to have a hold on him, so when Ren Xiaosu woke up the next morning, he knocked on Zhou Yingxue¡¯s door and said he would be making a trip to Qinghe University. He told Zhou Yingxue she did not have to follow him and could continue sleeping.


    But in the end, Zhou Yingxue got ready within two minutes and said she wanted to go and have a look as well since she had not been to Qinghe University before.


    After breakfast, the two of them headed straight for Qinghe University. Old Li and Qin Sheng appeared at the hotel again and headed straight for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room.


    But they still found nothing this time. They did not even manage to find a trace of dead skin, much less hair!


    Old Li wondered, ¡°Could that kid be bald? Maybe he¡¯s been wearing a wig all this while?¡±


    He and Qin Sheng were left looking at each other, lost. Qin Sheng said, ¡°It could also be that he¡¯s quite cautious. He might have purposely swept up his hair like many hitmen do. They never leave behind any traces.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps.¡± Old Li said helplessly, ¡°Let¡¯s go look for them and see if we can find anything out from them again. That Zhang Qingxi has pushed this matter entirely onto us, and the others are also quite concerned about it, so we have to get to the bottom of things.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue had already walked through the school gate of Qinghe University. No one stopped them from entering. This was unlike the universities of the other consortiums where they werepletely off limits to outsiders. If anyone wanted to enter the campus, they would have to show their ID first. After they got in, they would be subjected to strict, routine checks as well.


    Those universities might as well be called institutes of secrets instead!


    The young men and women in the university were walking around on campus with rxed and unrestrained smiles on their faces. There were even couples holding hands and walking past too.


    Ren Xiaosu stood on campus and looked at these carefree university students. He suddenly felt that such a life seemed really far away from him.


    The students here were dating, ying basketball, and dancing at socials together while he had to flee for his life from the pursuit of the Experimentals. He had even risked his life in the wilderness with the Razor Sharp Company and faced enemies and gunfire at Stronghold 146.


    The contrast was like creatures living in two different worlds. But when Ren Xiaosu looked back on his path, he realized there was no turning back for him. It was that chaos that pushed him forward bit by bit.


    His life had never given him any choices.


    A momentter, Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Master, look, so many students are running in the same direction. I wonder why they¡¯re hurrying there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if this was the ¡°reward¡± Li Shentan was telling him about.


    He said, ¡°Come, let¡¯s go and have a look too.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu was a little disappointed when he arrived at the crowded ce. He saw a lot of people crowding around a stage, and it looked like a debate was going on. The topic of the debate was whether humans should possess nuclear capabilities or not.


    Due to the incident at Stronghold 74, a ce like Qinghe University, where many ideological students were gathered, would definitely pay attention to such matters.


    The university students on stage all stuck to their arguments, but Ren Xiaosu was not interested in such armchair strategists debating.


    Should humans possess nuclear capabilities or not? This was something that not even Ren Xiaosu was sure about. But he knew it was already a thing, and he had also witnessed the power of it from a distance away.


    No matter how intense the students debated the subject, nuclear weapons were inevitable.


    Zhou Yingxue smiled with great interest and said, ¡°Master, these students look like they¡¯re the same age as you or maybe even be a little older, but they all still feel like children who haven¡¯t yet grown up.¡±


    When Zhou Yingxue said that, she did not lower her voice. Several students nearby turned over and looked at them. Ren Xiaosu flipped up his hood in a bad mood and snapped at Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Will it kill you to speak less? Is this the right time to be ttering me? At least keep your voice down!¡±


    ¡°OK...¡±

 Chapter 587 - Player

    <h4>Chapter 587 yer</h4>


    While the debate on stage was intensely ongoing, Zhou Yingxue said again, ¡°Eh, that kid on stage looks a little familiar.¡±Ren Xiaosu followed Zhou Yingxue¡¯s gaze and looked over. Familiar?! That was the student, Xu Zhi, they had saved!


    Xu Zhi, who was the president of the student council at Qinghe University, had returned from the ck market after unsessfully waiting for Zhou Yingxue there.


    Now that a major event was being held in school, he would have to show up. Furthermore, he was the moderator of this debate session.


    ¡°Oh, I remember now.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°We saved him once. He paid the reward money and transferred it into my ount promptly.¡±


    This time, she mentioned it very softly. But as it was very crowded, everyone was standing in close proximity to each other. In the end, a few people still overheard her.


    Someone looked at Zhou Yingxue and wondered what nonsense she was babbling about.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He was afraid Zhou Yingxue would continue speaking carelessly in public.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had be uninterested in Qinghe University. He wondered why Li Shentan had said that to him. Could it be that he wanted him toe and listen to the debate so he would go and persuade the Qing Consortium to give up their nuclear weapons?


    Since when had Li Shentan, the demon from the Southwest, be sopassionate?


    That couldn¡¯t be possible, right?


    Just as they turned around to walk away from the crowd, Xu Zhi suddenly saw Zhou Yingxue¡¯s back from the stage. Her back was way too familiar to him!


    While the debate was still ongoing, Xu Zhi suddenly jumped off the stage, leaving the debaters dumbfounded.


    Xu Zhi tried hard to break up the crowd in his attempt to find Zhou Yingxue, but she had already disappeared.


    Someone asked, ¡°What are you looking for?¡±


    Xu Zhi asked anxiously, ¡°Did you guys see a woman and a hooded young man around just now?¡±


    Everyone looked at one another as though they had some inkling of the described people. ¡°Two people were standing here just now, but it felt like they were looking down on us. They only listened to the debate for a bit before leaving. Why are you looking for them?¡±


    Xu Zhi did not have time to exin further. ¡°They saved me once.¡± After that, Xu Zhi rushed off in search of them.


    Themotion gradually turned into an uproar. It was known throughout Qinghe University that Xu Zhi had been kidnapped and that a mysterious young man with a maidservant had saved him. This news even caused quite amotion and attracted the interest of many people.


    Those two actually appeared here on the Qinghe University campus? Someone muttered, ¡°Could Xu Zhi have mistaken someone else for them?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± A girl who was standing next to Zhou Yingxue earlier said, ¡°That woman also said it herself just now that they saved Xu Zhi!¡±


    Eventually, no one paid attention to the debate anymore. As for whether humans should possess nuclear capabilities or not, that was no longer important. A lot of people had gone after Xu Zhi as they wanted to see what those two legendary figures were like.


    Xu Zhi ran all the way out of the school, but he still could not find Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue.


    Xu Zhi could only stand there on the road with a nk and depressed look on his face.


    In a ssroom somewhere else on campus, Yang Xiaojin was sitting at a desk next to the window. A girl in front of her suddenly turned around and asked, ¡°Xiaojin, I heard there¡¯s a debate going on at Zhengde Square. The topic is about whether humans should use nuclear weapons or not. Should we go and have a listen together after ss?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was taken aback for a bit. Although this girl was her ssmate, Yang Xiaojin had always been a loner and did not know her well. Why did she suddenly invite her to attend a debate?


    Yang Xiaojin only took a second before tactfully turning her down. ¡°Don¡¯t have the time.¡±


    The girl in front of her said, ¡°True, I guess the topic of nuclear weapons isn¡¯t really rtable to us. There isn¡¯t really a point in going to listen to the debate.¡±


    There weren¡¯t really any changes in Yang Xiaojin¡¯s expression. The topic of nuclear weapons truly had almost nothing to do with the average Qinghe University student, but it was not so for her. As a matter of fact, she had participated in two strikes to destroy the Li Consortium¡¯s nuclear test sites, and both of them ended in sess too.


    Her life experience meant she and these university students did not have much inmon.


    After the girl was turned down by Yang Xiaojin, she turned back to face the front. At this moment, the bell for the end of ss went off. When the girl heard the pealing signaling the end of ss, she was startled. Another girl next to her whispered, ¡°Why did you suddenly invite her to go watch the debate together? You should¡¯ve known that you¡¯d be rejected.¡±


    That girl also whispered in confusion, ¡°Yeah, why did I invite her?¡±


    Li Shentan and Si Liren were sneakily crouching in the bushes under the lecture hall. Li Shentan was so anxious he said, ¡°Why did the bell have to ring now of all times? The hypnosis has been interrupted!¡±


    ¡°Brother Shentan, your hypnosis is a little wonky this time,¡± Si Liren alsomented.


    ¡°This time, I only managed to exchange one nce with the subject.¡± Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°So this hypnotism method is still a little unstable.¡±


    ¡°We won¡¯t get to see any drama then.¡± Si Liren looked at Li Shentan helplessly.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, there will definitely be a chance in the future....¡±


    Li Shentan and Si Liren hade to Qinghe University early in the morning to set up a ¡°chance¡± encounter with Yang Xiaojin¡¯s ssmate to hypnotize them. The two of them thought of using this method to get Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu to bump into each other, but it ended up failing.


    Li Shentan broke intoughter. ¡°Those two clearly want to see each other again so much. They¡¯re so close right now, yet they won¡¯t get to see each other. It¡¯s really interesting just thinking about that!¡±


    Si Liren waved her little hands around cutely and said excitedly, ¡°I¡¯ve read such tropes in romance novels!¡±


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was about to walk out of the ssroom. She suddenly frowned and thought the incident earlier felt a little off, but before she could figure out what it was, a male student suddenly stopped her at the door.


    This young man was a well-known and experienced yboy at Qinghe University. And Yang Xiaojin was an exceptionally outstanding female student, so many people admired her. This guy was one of them.


    Over the past few months, Yang Xiaojin had probably rejected more men than she had killed. Although, this analogy sounded a little inappropriate.


    The male student handed Yang Xiaojin a love letter. ¡°This is the second time I¡¯ve mustered up my courage toe and see you. Maybe the girls in your ss have some misconceptions about me. I¡¯m really not a yer like they say I am, so please give me a chance.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at the love letter he was holding in his hand and did not even bother taking it. She consoled the boy, ¡°The girls in our ss did not say anything about you. It¡¯s just as you said, you¡¯re not a yer. yers need to be at least 1.8 meters tall.¡±


    The boy in front of her was petrified.


    Several girls in the ssroom were a little jealous. After Yang Xiaojin arrived at the school, the male students around them only had eyes for her.


    But Yang Xiaojin had already said she liked someone. However, she never brought him to school. She had to be lying, right?


    Amotion broke out outside the lecture hall. A girl darted through the hallway and said to the others as she ran, ¡°Did you guys hear? The young man and his maid who saved Xu Zhi havee to our school. I heard Xu Zhi is searching for them like crazy right now.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± someone said in surprise.


    ¡°Quick, let¡¯s go and look for them too!¡±


    Then a crowd of students streamed out of the lecture hall, with the majority of them being girls.


    Yang Xiaojin thought of something as she followed them. But right when she got downstairs, the crowd of students happened to bump into Li Shentan and Si Liren.


    When one of the girls saw Li Shentan, she eximed, ¡°Magician! You¡¯re that magician!¡±


    Everyone looked at Li Shentan and Si Liren, and someone muttered, ¡°Could they be the two that saved Xu Zhi?¡±


    Li Shentan was so handsome, and with the cute Si Liren by his side, she looked just like his maid. Although this did not quite tally with the rumors, the appearance of these two very unique people in front of them made it very easy for the students to rte it to what that girl had just said in the hallway.


    Li Shentan was dumbfounded. What the fuck did this have to do with him?


    But before he could say anything, many of the girls recognized him and ran over to ask for his autograph. Then he noticed Yang Xiaojin looking at him coldly apart from the crowd.


    Just a moment ago, Yang Xiaojin wanted to see if it might be Ren Xiaosu they were talking about. But immediately after, she actually bumped into Li Shentan!


    This disappointed Yang Xiaojin a lot. She was so disappointed she even wanted to shoot Li Shentan.


    Li Shentan pushed aside the girls who had surrounded him and said with an embarrassedugh, ¡°Hahaha, I was just passing by!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Li Shentan silently. Then Li Shentan took Si Liren¡¯s hand and said, ¡°We¡¯re leaving right away!¡±


    ¡°Are you that afraid of me?¡± Yang Xiaojin raised her eyebrows.


    ¡°Haha, me? Afraid of you? What a joke.¡± Li Shentan said as he turned around and walked away, ¡°I¡¯m just afraid of that boyfriend of yours!¡±


    The girls surrounding him wanted to chase after him, but Li Shentan raised his hand and threw a barrage of ying cards into the air. When the cards fell to the ground, Si Liren and he were nowhere to be seen.


    Yang Xiaojin, who was standing right there, was deep in thought. Just as she was thinking of asking Li Shentan something, she could no longer see a trace of him.


    The girls nearby all looked at Yang Xiaojin. There had already been rumors going around during this period that the magician who had recently arrived was a superhuman. Reportedly, the amazing magic he performed was actually achieved through his superpower.


    How could that scene of him disappearing into thin air just now possibly be a magic trick? Simply thinking about it, it felt more like sorcery!


    But for such a person to actually say he was afraid of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s boyfriend, it made everything even stranger now. With just a few words, Yang Xiaojin became more mysterious to the surrounding students.


    Some of the girls were bewildered. What kind of person was Yang Xiaojin¡¯s boyfriend exactly?


    Yang Xiaojin was still feeling indignant and wanted to go after Li Shentan. However, she froze just as she was about to move off again. She saw a woman wearing a ck cap standing not far away in the distance.


    Yang Xiaojin rushed over and asked, ¡°Aunt, what are you doing here?¡±


    The woman wearing a ck cap helped Yang Xiaojin tidy up her hair. Then she said with a smile, ¡°Something cropped up. I need you to make a trip to the Southwest with me.¡±

 Chapter 588 - I“ll spend my entire life looking for him

    <h4>Chapter 588 I¡°ll spend my entire life looking for him</h4>


    ¡°Why are we going to the Southwest?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°We¡¯ve already confirmed the Qing Consortium really does have nuclear weapons. Previously, we did not manage to locate their nuclear test site, so we have to get rid of this future threat immediately.¡± The woman in the ck cap said, ¡°This time, we have to find whatever clues we can. Make a trip with me. The other members of the Saboteurs don¡¯t know the Southwest as well as you do.¡±


    Then Yang Xiaojin¡¯s aunt turned around and prepared to lead Yang Xiaojin away. But to her surprise, Yang Xiaojin did not follow along this time. Instead, she remained standing there silently.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Have you forgotten our creed?¡± her aunt questioned.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t forget, but I have something more important I still need to do,¡± Yang Xiaojin said softly.


    Crowds were passing to and fro across the school¡¯s entrance, but these two people felt like they were separate entities from the bustling of the world. It was as though they did not belong in this peaceful world at all.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s aunt looked at her and said, ¡°What else can be more important than doing what we believe in?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin did not answer this question. Instead, she asked, ¡°Have you heard any news of Ren Xiaosu yet?¡±


    Actually, this was also her answer of sorts. Yang Xiaojin looked at her aunt who had always been strong. Otherwise, she would also not have parted ways with the Yang Consortium.


    Her aunt¡¯s original name was Yang Anjing, but as she felt it sounded too frail, she changed her name to Yang Anjing.[1]


    Yang Xiaojin met her aunt¡¯s eyes. Her aunt stayed silent for a second before answering calmly, ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to look for him. After I¡¯ve found him, I¡¯ll head to the Southwest to meet up with you,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Yang Anjing smiled and said, ¡°You said you saw him getting pierced through the abdomen by a spear with your own eyes. Then you should also know how low the chances of survival are for someone who¡¯s had his abdomen pierced and was swept away by a flood. If it were you, could you survive that?¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, ¡°But he can.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s just a boy who hasn¡¯t grown up yet. Perhaps he said something that made you happy and unable to forget about him. However, no one can have such resolute and loyal feelings in this world. Even if he were fortunate enough to survive, he would definitely have someone else he likes now.¡±


    ¡°He won¡¯t.¡± Yang Xiaojin said firmly, ¡°He¡¯s just like everyone else in this world. He¡¯s unique.¡±


    Yang Anjing fell silent.


    Yang Xiaojin stubbornly said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Aunt. But I can¡¯t go to the Southwest yet. I still want to look for him. In the past, I also thought I could just attend school here quietly and not pay attention to the rest of the world until I forgot about him. But at some point today, I felt like he was just by my side. It was only at this moment that I realized I couldn¡¯t forget him.¡±


    ¡°Then do you know where to start looking for him?¡± Yang Anjing asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head.


    ¡°And how are you going to find him?¡± Yang Anjing asked again.


    ¡°With my entire life if need be.¡±


    ...


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to leave with Zhou Yingxue, Old Li and Qin Sheng bumped into them. The moment they met, Old Li reached out to touch Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hair to test if it were a wig.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Old Li speechlessly as he pulled his hair. ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Old Li said, ¡°your hair feels real nice. What¡¯s your haircare routine?¡±


    ¡°What haircare routine!¡± Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Is that what you two came here for?¡±


    Old Li changed the subject and asked, ¡°How long are you nning to stay in Luoyang City? As your hosts, we should at least entertain you a little. Do you want us to show you around?¡±


    ¡°No need.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°We were just nning to leave. There¡¯s still some things that we need to handle.¡±


    The sentences he had given to Hope Media¡¯s Jiang Xu had already been published in the newspapers. As such, Ren Xiaosu wanted to return to Stronghold 61 as soon as possible to wait for Wang Fugui to arrive.


    When Old Li heard Ren Xiaosu was nning to leave, he said, ¡°Oh, then let us see you off. We can get a car for you two. What ns do you have in the future? Since we know each other so well, if I wanted to have a chat with you someday, there should at least be a ce where I can go look for you, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and decided there was no need to hide his whereabouts from Old Li. He also intended to make friends with the Riders. ¡°I¡¯m going to the ck market outside of Luoyang City first before heading straight for Stronghold 61.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, mhm.¡± Old Li hurriedly nodded. ¡°Alright, I got it.¡±


    Qin Sheng, who was next to them, suddenly said, ¡°Brother Xiaosu, I guess you¡¯ve heard about us Riders, right?¡±


    Qin Sheng was the same age as Ren Xiaosu. In order to sound more friendly, he directly addressed him as Brother Xiaosu.


    ¡°What about?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly.


    ¡°That we¡¯re looking for someone.¡± Qin Sheng exined, ¡°The Riders have been searching for that person for a long time. His name is Ren Xiaobei, and it¡¯s only one character different from your name, Brother Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s such a coincidence.¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart skipped a beat. ¡°Why? Do you need me to help you look for him? Does he have any unique traits? If I see him, I¡¯ll definitely let y¡¯all know.¡±


    Old Li scrutinized Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression and said, ¡°We don¡¯t know if he has any identifiable traits. We just know he looks quite handsome.¡±


    For some reason, Old Li felt that Ren Xiaosu was suddenly very relieved.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If I encounter someone called Ren Xiaobei, I¡¯ll definitely tell y¡¯all.¡±


    Actually, at some point, Ren Xiaosu also wondered if the person the Riders and Qinghe Group were looking for could be him and not Yan Liuyuan.


    But Ren Xiaosu was more hoping that it would be neither of them. That was because a lot of people now knew this person hade out of the Pyro Company¡¯sboratory. Even if he were still alive, he would be more than 200 years old. Would he not be regarded as a monster by others in that case?


    But Ren Xiaobei¡¯s name was only one character different from his, while Yan Liuyuan addressed him as ¡°brother¡± so confidently back then. Therefore, there must have been someplicated situation in between that left Ren Xiaosu unable to understand what was going on.


    It was too messy, so Ren Xiaosu decided not to think about it for now.


    As they chatted, they arrived at the stronghold¡¯s entrance. Old Li said, ¡°We¡¯ll see you off here. Take care.¡±


    After they bade farewell to each other, Zhou Yingxue drove the off-road vehicle Old Li and Qin Sheng had gifted them to the ck market. On the way, Zhou Yingxue asked, ¡°Master, could that Ren Xiaobei person they¡¯re looking for be you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°That can¡¯t be. They mentioned that Ren Xiaobei looks quite handsome, so how could it be me when I¡¯m very handsome?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was surprised. So that¡¯s why you were suddenly relieved earlier? It was because they said he only looked quite handsome? And then you felt they must definitely not be referring to you?


    As Zhou Yingxue drove on, she could feel a sense of resentfulness growing inside her. However, Zhou Yingxue realized that ever since they parted ways with Old Li and Qin Sheng, Ren Xiaosu seemed to have a lot on his mind. As such, she did not say anything further.


    Ren Xiaosu was gazing out the window, and no one knew what he was thinking.


    The two of them did not head directly to Stronghold 61. Instead, they made a detour to the ck market first tounder the reward money they had received from the Anjing House before setting off again.


    [1] The original name ¡°Anjing¡± means ¡°quiet,¡± while the new name means peaceful capital (of a country).

 Chapter 589 - Submit to me

    <h4>Chapter 589 Submit to me</h4>


    It was the tail end of November, and the entire Alliance of Strongholds had transitioned into winter. Arge quantity of supplies were starting to be transported into the stronghold to prepare for winter, and the nts along the streets were starting to wither.However, something strange was happening in Stronghold 61. In the past, the creeper vines would shed all their leaves by winter, leaving only the bare vines. But this year, the creeper vines looked even lusher than before. As the weather got colder and colder, they did not seem to be affected at all. Furthermore, they even started spreading over a wider area, adorning residential buildings and making them look beautiful beyondpare.


    When a lot of the residents in Stronghold 61 heard about this, they went to take a look. Some of the Wang Consortium officials who were people pleasers reported this to Wang Shengzhi, saying this was a good omen. They were implying Wang Shengzhi had managed the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds really well, so everyone¡¯s stomachs were filled, and there was nock of clothes to dress the residents. As such, the Heavens sent this auspicious sign to them.


    Wang Shengzhiughed it off.


    The refugee workers who were building railroads and highways in the Northwest were still busy with their work. The weather gradually getting colder did not seem to have much of an effect on them. Everyone was used to it, and besides, this was not the coldest time of the season.


    However, the Northern ins were already covered in snow and ice. This was an area situated outside of the Alliance of Strongholds that bordered Stronghold 176.


    Stronghold 176 was also an independent stronghold not controlled by any organization. However, their reputation was usually not as prominent as Fortress 178¡¯s, probably because they rarely encountered any external threats.


    A howling wind blew across the grasnds. Not only was there heavy snowfall, even the snow on the ground was getting swept upyer afteryer by the wind. In the end, newly fallen snow covered the ground again.


    The entire world was gloomy. The dark clouds in the sky resembled a ck dragon roaring loudly, while the snow seemed like it would never end.


    On the ins, over a thousand gigantic wolves were advancing in the snow step by step as they headed eastwards. Every once in a while, the wolves on the inside of the pack woulde out to take positions on the outer perimeter of the group while the ones that were bearing the brunt of the blizzard¡¯s wind earlier would return to the center of the pack to keep warm.


    After The Cataclysm, the weather was constantly bad. Even the thick fur on these wolves could not help them withstand the cold for long.


    The wolf pack continued moving east, leaving behind their elongated pawprints on the snow, which were then covered again by the blizzard¡¯s snowfall.


    Within the wolf pack, Yan Liuyuan was sitting on the back of the Wolf King. He was wrapped up inyer afteryer of thick leather hides, turning him into a fat man. Only by doing this could he barely keep himself warm enough.


    After the wolves caught their prey, Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu would skin them for their hide. As there were very few humans in the Northern ins, and they were mainly scattered across a veryrge area, the other living creatures were able to flourish. So the wolves did not have to worry about not finding food out here.


    When Yan Liuyuan saw that winter was about to arrive, he started collecting the fur-lined hides of the wolves¡¯ prey. But without any sewing tools, he could only wrap it around himself in a paltry manner.


    Behind them, the wolves were also carrying rolls of sun-dried fur hides on their backs. Those were all of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s current ¡°assets.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan turned around calmly and looked to the side. Xiaoyu was also simrly sitting on the back of a wolf like him. Xiaoyu asked, ¡°Liuyuan, are you cold?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not cold.¡± Yan Liuyuan pulled down a scarf made of fur and smiled wryly. ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, you¡¯ve already wrapped me up into this state, so how could I still feel cold?¡±


    At this moment, they noticed a pale yellow me burning in the distance. That yellow-orange color exuded a sense of warmth in this gloomy world.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°That should be the northern nomads. It¡¯s probably a small tribe, I think we should start with them.¡± Then he patted the Wolf King below him. ¡°Let¡¯s head over there and have a look, we might be able to get some grain from them. I¡¯m a little sick of eating meat every day.¡±


    With that, the wolves started sprinting on the snow-covered ground. The sight of a 1,000 wolves running with their fur blowing in the strong winds was spectacr to behold.


    The firepits inside the several dozen tents of the small tribe were burning, and there were small, metal, ck pots over the fires with things cooking in them. The contents were gurgling in a subdued way that sounded very ¡°textured.¡±


    But the people sitting in the tents were shocked. They could hear strange sounds mixed with the blizzard wind blowing outside.


    Immediately after, the sharp howl of wolves pierced through the wind and reached everyone¡¯s ears.


    The howling of wolves caused the expressions of the herdsmen in the tent to change. They often came across wolves out here in the north, but they had not met a pack of wolves that caused such a huge ruckus before.


    Someone shouted in a tent, ¡°Round up the horses and sheep! Don¡¯t let the wolves scare the animals. Quick, hurry and get our tribe¡¯s guns!¡±


    As he spoke, the tribal chief drew an old pistol from his belt. He lifted the tent p and was about to rush out to scare the wolves away.


    The wolves in the Northern ins would naturally retreat as long as you fired a few shots to wound some of their pack members.


    But this time, as soon as the tribal chief ran out of his tent, he was rooted to the ground in a daze. He saw countless huge wolves standing quietly outside the tent. They were muchrger than the grasnd wolves he had seen before. In fact, they were sorge they could even be mistaken for cows!


    The tribal chief was so shocked he froze. He knew full well that the wolves in front of him were different. No matter how many shots he might fire at them, it would definitely not scare them away.


    He had seen wolves before, but he had never seen such a huge group of dire wolves before. With so many of them, this was not a force they could fight against!


    The tribal chief said in a trembling voice to his tribesmen behind him, ¡°Tell the women and children to leave. All the men are to stay behind to buy time for the rest to escape. Ride on the horses and leave.¡±


    At this point, the tribal chief was in despair. How could the horses possibly outrun the wolves in this snowy weather?


    Just as he was ready to die, the terrifying wolves in front of him actually parted ways and opened a path between them. Two evenrger wolves carried a man and a woman on their backs as they slowly padded over.


    All the herdsmen in the tribe were stunned. They could not understand anything. The wolves were actually controlled by someone?


    Furthermore, the boy sitting on the back of the Wolf King even had a silver glow flowing through his veins. It made him look like he was a young god.


    There had always been legends of gods being told in the grasnds, but the herdsmen had never actually seen one before. If this person in front of them was not a god, what other exnation could there be?


    The herdsmen behind the tribal chief were all stunned. In this snowy weather, this unexpected scene made them temporarily lose their ability to think rationally.


    The mes in the firepits inside the tents were swaying due to the strong winds outside. The women in the tents were hugging their children tightly and shivering in fear.


    Meanwhile, the young man sitting on the Wolf King¡¯s back and the woman at his side looked really mysterious and powerful.


    However, the tribal chief was unable to understand something. Could it really be that the gods had descended upon them?


    Yan Liuyuan sat on the back of the Wolf King and came before the herdsmen where he looked down upon them. When the herdsmen no longer dared to look at him directly, Yan Liuyuan finally smiled and said, ¡°The north is too cold. Submit to me and I¡¯ll bring y¡¯all south to spend your next winter there.¡±

 Chapter 590 - A miraculous sign

    <h4>Chapter 590 A miraculous sign</h4>


    Whether it was the threat of the wolves or the admiration the nomadic tribe had for the gods, this first tribe Yan Liuyuan encountered after arriving in the ins had already submitted to him.The tribal chief remained the tribal chief. Initially, that herdsman had volunteered to give up his position to Yan Liuyuan, but Yan Liuyuan rejected him with a smile.


    The tribal chief was puzzled. ¡°Didn¡¯t youe here because of...¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled and exined, ¡°Your tribe is too small. What I¡¯m aiming for is control over the entire ins.¡±


    As for why he wanted to control the entire ins, no one really knew.


    At the beginning, the tribe members all avoided Yan Liuyuan and Li Xiaoyu in the fear they would offend them.


    Everyone¡¯s reverence for Yan Liuyuan was more out of fear than respect.


    But everyone slowly realized that aside from the young Yan Liuyuan, the woman named Li Xiaoyu who was with him was a really good person. When the weather cleared, she would also help everyone with their farm work and even joined everyone to collect cowpies to dry for keeping warm. Xiaoyu did not mind that cowpies were dirty. She would even sing children¡¯s songs to the kids. Her voice was sonorous and pleasant to listen to.


    In Yan Liuyuan¡¯s opinion, the cultural gap of the nomadic people in the north was far greater than what the Central ins people could imagine. There wasn¡¯t even the most basic of electrical power in this region, and the various tribes had to go through a lot of hardship to redomesticate livestock before settling back into a nomadic lifestyle.


    The tribe Yan Liuyuan encountered did not even have a name. It was just naturally formed after a group of herders started living in groups for some generations.


    However, Yan Liuyuan had heard there were also veryrge tribes in the grasnds. It was precisely theserge tribes that Stronghold 176 was guarding against.


    ording to what Hassan said, their tribe was actually also part of arger tribe. It was just that they did not usually interact with their people. However, the ruling tribe woulde every spring to collect a tribute of cows, goats, and horses from them.


    If they had to fight a war with the Central ins, therge tribes would send someone over to inform them beforehand and request they gather at a designated location. Some of the guns their tribe had were given by thoserger tribes, and the weapons were very old and worn. It seemed that they were stolen from the Central ins people in the past.


    Hassan looked at Yan Liuyuan and said cautiously, ¡°When it¡¯s spring, and they send someone over...¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ll handle it.¡±


    When Yan Liuyuan first became the ruler of this tribe, the herdsmen in the tribe had been quite worried. They were worried Yan Liuyuan might be overly brutal since he was someone who had a pack of wolves following him. Just based on that, it would seem that he was extremely vicious.


    Moreover, there weren¡¯t enough cows, goats, and horses in the tribe to feed such arge number of wolves. What if this young man let the wolves devour all their livestock?


    But in the end, after Yan Liuyuan took over the tribe, he dismissed the wolves and let them venture out to hunt for their own food freely. There were a lot of food sources out in the steppe, so there was no need for the wolves to eat the livestock of these herdsmen.


    When some of the herdsmen saw that Yan Liuyuan had dispersed the wolves, they started thinking, ¡®Could this be the moment that Yan Liuyuan is at his most vulnerable? If we kill him right now, we won¡¯t have to pander to him anymore.¡¯


    But the tribal chief, Hassan, was more rational. ¡°If we kill him, what if the wolves return to avenge him? Moreover, if a person can dismiss the wolves just like that, it shows that he¡¯s very confident in himself. This means he doesn¡¯t even see us as a threat.¡±


    The others finally gave up on the idea to assassinate Yan Liuyuan.


    After a week, when Hassan ran off to report some matters to Yan Liuyuan, Yan Liuyuan looked at Hassan with a half-smile and said, ¡°You¡¯re a smart man.¡±


    Hassan immediately understood what Yan Liuyuan was referring to. As a result, Hassan became even more humble in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s presence.


    Yan Liuyuan had thought it would be a while before the people from therge tribes arrived. But on the third day after the blizzard stopped, someone arrived at the tribe on horseback with a scepter in hand.


    The other party came to Hassan¡¯s tent and announced loudly, ¡°By orders of the khan, all of you are to make your way to the royal tent next to the Jungar River within ten days to participate in the plundering of the South.¡±


    The nomadic tribes were not after money in their raids on the South. What they were after was the supply of daily necessities there. Yan Liuyuan had heard from Hassan that this year was too cold, so a lot of the livestock had died after the blizzard. If they did not go to the South to raid food, a lot of people would probably not survive past this winter.


    They did not have to go and raid the strongholds either. After all, many of the Central ins people¡¯s daily necessities could be found in the factories and farms located in the wilderness. Some years ago, therge tribe¡¯s leader was very stupid and liked to fight head-on with Stronghold 176 as they tried to rob the stronghold of their supplies.


    In the end, that khan was caught in a crossfire and shot dead during a raid attempt. The firearms of the Central ins people were definitely not something they could defend against.


    But their new khan was different. He identified a routest year that allowed him to bypass Stronghold 176 and get directly behind them where they could plunder all they wanted.


    By the time Stronghold 176¡¯s garrison troops realized what was going on, they already relied on the powerful mobility of their evolved horses to detour back to the grasnds.


    It was this battle that established the authority of this khan. Many of the tribal leaders were finally convinced by him because of this.


    However, the supplies they had stolen that time were not considered much to the whole of the Central ins, so they did not really attract their attention and get targeted back.


    And this time, after having tasted sess, the khan actually started assembling all the tribes together to fight a war as soon as winter arrived.


    The man holding the scepter looked at Hassan and said, ¡°Why aren¡¯t you responding? Are you trying to disobey orders? It doesn¡¯t matter. When I get back and bring news of this to the khan, he¡¯ll wipe out your tribe. There¡¯ll be no need for y¡¯all to go to the Central ins at that time. Your livestock will be redistributed to the other tribes.¡±


    Hassan turned anxious. He quickly looked to Yan Liuyuan.


    The person holding the scepter frowned. ¡°Why are you looking at others?¡±


    ¡°This is our tribe¡¯s new chief, so we listen to him,¡± Hassan exined.


    The man holding the scepter looked at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°He¡¯s just a little brat. Why would your tribe elect him as the new chief?¡±


    Nearby, Xiaoyu sighed and went back into her tent. Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°Go back and convey this to your khan. Our tribe will go to the Central ins, but not now. It will be after I be the khan. I¡¯ll allow you to return with your life, but my guess is that you¡¯ll be blinded by an eagle after this. That¡¯s because even though you have eyes, you¡¯re still blind to what¡¯s in front of you.¡±


    Everyone thought Yan Liuyuan was just giving a snide remark. But at this moment, a shadow suddenly swept over them. The person holding the scepter looked up and saw an eagle swooping down at him. Before he could even exim in surprise, the eagle wed out one of his eyes!


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s smile disappeared. ¡°Go back and tell your khan he only has one chance to choose whether he wants to live or die.¡±


    Next to them, Hassan fell to his knees. All of the herdsmen copied Hassan and knelt as well. From their point of view, the sight of the eagle wing the envoy was a miraculous sign!


    It was a sign that a true god had appeared!

 Chapter 591 - Qin Sheng the trespasser

    <h4>591 Qin Sheng the trespasser</h4>


    Many dayster, Ren Xiaosu was finally back at Stronghold 61. He was unaware of what was happening in the Northern ins. In that savage wilderness, a new force was rising quietly.


    After returning to Stronghold 61, the first thing Ren Xiaosu did was to return to his house to clear up the burrs that had been killed by the Potato Shooters. However, he discovered the yard to be totally empty. There was nothing there at all.


    It looked like the refugees in town had finally wised up. When they knew no one coulde out alive from this yard, they did not dare toe here anymore.


    This was a situation Ren Xiaosu was a little unustomed to.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw a bunch of wildflowers in the backyard, he immediately understood this was likely the sign Xiaolu had left for him. They had agreed that if the woman wearing the ck cap left town, Xiaolu would let him know about it.


    Ren Xiaosu was relieved when he found out the woman had finally left. For some reason, he always felt a sense of oppression whenever that woman was at the tavern.


    After Zhou Yingxue entered the yard, she quickly wet a cloth and started cleaning off the dust on the furniture. Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows and said, ¡°When did you be so hard-working?¡±


    ¡°Master, how long have you been away from here? It¡¯s so dirty! I¡¯ll itch all over when I sleep here at night,¡± Zhou Yingxue said with a frown.


    ¡°Who says that you can stay here?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°Since the houses in town are not expensive, you should get your own ce to live. How can we live together when there¡¯s only one bedroom in my house?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue had stayed in the same hotel room due to the limited avability of rooms. But now that Zhou Yingxue was so rich, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not be willing to share a room with her anymore. It wouldn¡¯t be nice if word of this got outter since it would easily cause a misunderstanding.


    Zhou Yingxue asked, ¡°Then how much does a house cost in town, Master?¡±


    ¡°You can buy an identical brick house like mine for just 30,000 yuan,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    When Zhou Yingxue heard that she would have to spend 30,000 yuan, her miserly character kicked in again. ¡°Master, I can sleep on the floor at your ce! I can wash your clothes and massage your legs!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Didn¡¯t I give you a share of the money already? You have at least ten million yuan by now, yet you¡¯re still trying to save this bit of money? Go and get your own house. I also don¡¯t know how long we¡¯ll be staying here.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Zhou Yingxue reluctantly left.


    Very soon, Ren Xiaosu heard Zhou Yingxue¡¯s voice in the yard next door. ¡°What? 60,000 yuan? Have the prices of the houses gone up so quickly? This is highway robbery!¡±


    The homeowner next door said, ¡°This is my ancestral home where all my childhood memories are.... So how much are you willing to offer? Why don¡¯t you make a counteroffer? I might just agree to it.¡±


    Since the yard next door was only five or six meters away from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s house, he could hear them very clearly. Actually, the homeowner was very eager to sell the ce as the recent haunting had affected him badly. But when he saw Zhou Yingxue fully essorized with jewels, he thought he might as well fleece as much out of her as he could. Moreover, Zhou Yingxue had to have some other motives for buying his house even though she was dressed in such an expensive outfit. Who knew if his house might suddenly rise in value in another few days?


    Zhou Yingxue thought for a moment and said, ¡°Since you want me to make a counteroffer, I¡¯ll say 3,000 yuan!¡±


    The homeowner said impatiently, ¡°3,000 yuan?! Are you trolling me? You should be offering at least 30,000 yuan!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t I have to troll you ten times at least? No, I¡¯m only willing to troll you three times at most!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and continued with his housekeeping. The chatter of the haggling next doorsted from morning until evening. In the end, the homeowner got so frustrated his scalp went numb. Thus, he sold off the house to Zhou Yingxue for the price of 19,000 yuan.


    When Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue went to the tavern to havemb stew in the evening, the storyteller was rting the cave-in at East Lake to the audience. When he heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s footsteps, his expression changed greatly as though he were weing a formidable foe.


    The storyteller could already recognize Ren Xiaosu by his footsteps!


    When Xiaolu saw that Ren Xiaosu hade, she ran over excitedly. But when she saw Zhou Yingxue standing behind him, she turned glum before heading back to the kitchen.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Themb stew here is really good. You should try it.¡±


    With that, he waved at the waiter and ced his order. While waiting for themb stew to be served, he listened to the storyteller talking about the cave-in at East Lake. As expected, Ren Xiaosu was involved in the story again.


    Or to be precise, the protagonist of this story was actually ¡°Old Xu.¡±


    After the two bowls ofmb stew were served, Zhou Yingxue looked at her bowl and realized there wasn¡¯t any meat in it. Then she looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bowl that was full of meat. ¡°Master, did you bring me here just so that you could eat two portions of meat?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. This was definitely Xiaolu¡¯s doing. When he looked up, he saw her sitting next to the storyteller and seething with anger.


    When Zhou Yingxue followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze towards Xiaolu, she realized what was going on. Then she nced nonchntly at her master and wondered why he was so popr with the women. He had only just shaken off Li Ran, but here came another girl throwing herself at him!


    After the tavern closed, Xiaolu, who was feeling down, followed the storyteller back home. When she entered the house, she began to tear up the paper cranes that she had folded. The storyteller was ted when he heard the tearing. ¡°Yes, tear them all up! There are indeed no good men in the world!¡±


    But before the storyteller could be happy for long, Xiaolu started folding paper cranes again. The storyteller wondered, ¡°Didn¡¯t you just tear up a pile of paper cranes? Why are you folding them again?¡±


    Xiaolu stubbornly said, ¡°I like him! It¡¯s not his fault!¡±


    The storyteller started to feel an ache in his heart. ¡°Where did you learn that from?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu returned to his courtyard house alone. But to his surprise, there were potatoes smashed and scattered everywhere next to the Potato Shooters in the backyard.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned by what he saw. It was obvious someone had been attacked by the Potato Shooters after leaping into the backyard. But where did that person go? Did they run away after getting battered?


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment. ¡°The intruder¡¯s probably a supernatural being.¡± Only a supernatural being could escape unscathed after such a heavy beating. But didn¡¯t the woman wearing the ck cap leave? Could it be that there were other supernatural beings at Stronghold 61?


    This made Ren Xiaosu even warier. Someone was spying on him, and for something like this to happen on the very first day of his return, it could not be uplicated.


    Could it be Wang Fugui and the others? No, Ren Xiaosu felt that even if Wang Fugui had read the newspaper, they couldn¡¯t get here so quickly. Moreover, they definitely couldn¡¯t take the Potato Shooters¡¯ attack. Besides, there was no need for them to leap into the backyard either.


    Two dayster, Ren Xiaosu met Qin Sheng at the tavern. His face was all bruised and swollen...


    Ren Xiaosu sized Qin Sheng up before asking, ¡°Were you the one who went into my backyard two days ago?¡±


    The bruised and bloodied Qin Sheng smiled in embarrassment and said, ¡°Hahahahaha, what are you talking about? I only just arrived.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Normally, people useughter to cover up for something when they¡¯re embarrassed. The more embarrassed they are, the more ¡®hahas¡¯ there will be....¡±

 Chapter 592 - The arrival of Luo Lan

    <h4>Chapter 592 The arrival of Luo Lan</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry as he looked at Qin Sheng whose face was all bruised and swollen. He knew the person who had jumped into his yard two days ago must have been the young Rider the same age as him standing in front of him regardless of how much he denied it.However, Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What¡¯re you doing at Stronghold 61?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Qin Sheng exined seriously, ¡°Our group has a rule that we must live in a town for a year after we be Riders. Because we normally live in the stronghold, the previous leader of the Riders felt new Riders might not be able to empathize with the sufferings of humanity. So this rule was implemented.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°There¡¯s really a need to do that. How great it would be if all the stronghold residents had the same mindset as you all.¡±


    The Riders were virtuous but not pedantic. Ren Xiaosu felt this was a very rare trait in this current era. That was because outstanding people tended to either be inclined towards extreme good or evil. However, Ren Xiaosu did not agree with being on either of the extremes. Sometimes, he would even feel pained whenever he thought of a person who had been too good.


    The pain in his heart was like an undercurrent in the deep sea. It was strong and yet not easily detected.


    Of course, he especially disliked those who tried to persuade people to be good but had evil intentions themselves.


    Qin Sheng¡¯s arrival added some entertainment to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life. Every day, Qin Sheng did nothing other than helping some refugees in town fetch water. He even helped repair their shacks.


    This winter was exceptionally cold. Many of the refugees¡¯ shacks were exposed to the cold wind due to the holes in them, but they could not find any suitable materials to patch them up with.


    Ren Xiaosu had experienced hardship like this before. It was a good thing that a richer person like Qin Sheng could experience such a life as well.


    However, it was different from what Ren Xiaosu had imagined. At first, he thought Qin Sheng might get flustered or even make the situation messier. But actually, Qin Sheng was very capable at being hands-on with things and had a lot of experience living in the wilderness.


    Qin Sheng spent two days hunting for gophers in the wilderness. Then he used the gophers¡¯ hide to mend the shacks while the meat was distributed to the refugees as food.


    In fact, he was really skilled at mending the shacks, much more skillful than Ren Xiaosu was.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did you do a lot of sewing in the past?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Qin Sheng said with a smile, ¡°when I trained under my teacher, we would usually venture out into the wilderness for two to three months straight. At that time, my teacher made me do everything hands-on to train me. He said that it¡¯s an honor to be a Rider and they¡¯d never train a bum to be one.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if this was just an excuse for Old Li toze around. He watched Qin Sheng and thought that while he had an abundant amount of experiences in his life, he looked like a good-hearted young man who was very easy to fool.


    Qin Sheng also bought a house next to Ren Xiaosu, so both Zhou Yingxue and he were now Ren Xiaosu¡¯s neighbors.


    However, Qin Sheng did not jump into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s backyard anymore after he was exposed thest time. More importantly, Qin Sheng knew it would not be easy to sneak in quietly with those strange nts in the backyard.


    Every day, Qin Sheng would go to the tavern to look for Ren Xiaosu after helping the refugees. Somehow, Zhou Yingxue, Ren Xiaosu, and Qin Sheng would always start ying Fight the Landlord whenever they got together.


    When Xiaolu saw this, she joined the game as well. In the end, it became a four-yer game of Fight the Landlord, with two sets of decks and eight trump cards in y.


    For the past two days, Ren Xiaosu had been searching high and low in town for a copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper.


    But the grocery store owner here was not as enterprising as Wang Fugui. He did not read any newspapers and was content with watching over his tiny shop to pass the time.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if he would have to resort to sneaking into the stronghold every day just to get his hands on the paper.


    There was no doubt about the importance of newspapers in this era, especially a newspaper firm like Hope Media that particrly respected factual reporting. Ren Xiaosu could learn a lot of news from them.


    As he did not have ess to arge intelligencework like others, he could only rely on himself.


    Ren Xiaosu went to look for the storyteller in the evening. After entering the house, he bluntly asked, ¡°Do you know where I can get a copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper?¡±


    The storyteller nced at him. ¡°Why? You¡¯ve started paying attention to current affairs?¡±


    ¡°Since I¡¯m all by myself, I don¡¯t have ess to any reliable sources of information. So I thought I could learn some pretty useful info in the papers,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.


    Off to the side, Xiaolu sneered. ¡°You¡¯re not alone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. The storyteller looked like he did not wee him and took a few copies of newspapers out from under his bed to pass to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was slightly taken aback. He noticed that one of the newspapers was even from today, yet he had never seen anyone going to deliver newspapers to the storyteller. The storyteller was really not an ordinary person. He was even the one who shared with him the information about the Anjing House. And when the woman in the ck cap came to town, he was also the one who had Xiaolu alert him about it.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Ren Xiaosu sat down in a chair and started reading the newspapers. Xiaolu propped her chin up on her hands while looking at him from the side.


    But just as Ren Xiaosu started reading, the storyteller raged, ¡°If you want to read the papers, go read them at your own ce! What¡¯re you trying to prove by reading them here? Get out of my house!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused. What was wrong with the storyteller today?


    Didn¡¯t they get along just fine in the past?!


    However, Ren Xiaosu hurriedly left and did not make a fuss about it. The contents of the newspaper had already caught his attention, so he wanted to go back to read it in depth.


    Today¡¯s Hope Media newspaper had reported that Luo Lan would be arriving at the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold as a guest shortly, and itmented this was an extremely bold and dangerous move by Luo Lan.


    Moreover, it also reported many radical youth groups had gathered at the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold to protest against Luo Lan once he arrived. They hoped the Qing Consortium would automatically give up on their nuclear weapons.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this for a moment. Fatty Luo was way too bold. Even though Fatty Luo knew the Wang Consortium was purposely targeting the Qing Consortium right now, he still bucked up and decided to go there anyway.


    Luo Lan¡¯s itinerary was even listed in the paper. He would be passing through Stronghold 65, 63, 62, and finally to 61.


    Luo Lan had provided the itinerary to Hope Media himself. He wanted to make a trip to the Wang Consortium with everyone watching so they could judge for themselves whether he had a clear conscience and if he were a resolute man.


    After reading this, Ren Xiaosu thought that if Luo Lan encountered any danger when he arrived at Stronghold 61, he could offer him some protection.


    He flipped through the pages and started reading other news. There was an article that reported about some seemingly unusual movements in the Northern ins. Stronghold 176 had discovered the presence of the nomadic tribes¡¯ scouts on many asions and even captured some of them too. ording to the captives, the various tribes in the Northern ins were starting to assemble in preparation for an attack on the south. They were nning to plunder food from the south due to many of their livestock dying in the blizzard that hit during winter.


    There was another piece of somewhat inconspicuous news that Ren Xiaosu had brushed off: ¡°A spectacr sight of creeper vines growing in Stronghold 61 has turned the ce into a tourist attraction.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this news, he just muttered to himself in boredom and flipped to the next page.


    A creeper vine could even be news in this era? Couldn¡¯t they focus on something more newsworthy?

 Chapter 593 - The Great Hoodwinker

    <h4>593 The Great Hoodwinker</h4>


    In the town outside Stronghold 61, in a dimly lit house, the young Qin Sheng was writing an entry in a notebook with a fountain pen by candlelight:


    ¡°On December 7th, Ren Xiaosu headed out to the tavern as usual at 10 in the morning and stayed until 7 in the evening before leaving.


    ¡°I observed nothing out of the ordinary nor heard any useful information during surveince. After the target returned home, I only heard the sound of him flipping through some books in his house.


    ¡°Even though Ren Xiaosu lives in town, he was somehow able to get his hands on newspapers. I suspect the newspapers were given to him by the storyteller. However, there is no conclusive evidence of this.¡±


    This was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s daily routine that Qin Sheng recorded. He even had surveince equipment ced next to him.


    With it, he did not have to nt any bugs in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s house. He only had to point the audio surveince device at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s yard from his own house. This was the reason Qin Sheng had to be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s neighbor.


    The surveince equipment was portable and battery operated. When the batteries were almost dead, the Qinghe Group¡¯s intelligence personnel would automaticallye and rece them.


    Qin Sheng hade to this town on a mission. Those who became Riders were required to live in a town for an entire year. However, they would usually just move to the town outside Luoyang City, not go to such a faraway ce.


    After all, if a Rider were to go live in someone else¡¯s territory for an extended period, that could easily be misunderstood by the other consortiums as something else. But right now, they couldn¡¯t care less about that.


    After Qin Sheng finished the entry, he took out another journal from the side and started recording his daily life. He thought for a while before seriously writing a few words: ¡°December 7th: yed cards.¡±


    That was it.


    It was not that Qin Sheng did not want to write more, but all he did the entire day was y cards and nothing else!


    Before Qin Sheng came to the town at Stronghold 61, his diary entries revealed the enriching life he led. He would describe the training he underwent and talk about the scenery and wilderness he had been to. For example, if he wrote down he had fish for dinner, he would describe how his teacher had taught him to set a trap on the riverbank and wait for the fish to get caught in it.


    But he did not detail the challenges he hadpleted. Qin Sheng was a little regretful as he thought it would sound more glorious if his achievements could be described in words.


    When Qin Sheng recalled the times he attempted the wingsuit and skydiving challenges, he could feel his blood pulsing through his veins.


    Unfortunately, he could not attempt them anymore as the flying beasts had grown too fearsome. The Qinghe Group¡¯s airport had already been abandoned for some time, and even thest small turboprop airne had been stored in the warehouse.


    Qin Sheng looked at his diary. Ever since he arrived in Stronghold 61¡¯s town, he went from leading an enriching life to ying cards every day now.


    December 5th: yed cards.


    December 6th: yed cards.


    December 7th: yed cards.


    Qin Sheng felt like he couldn¡¯t degenerate any further and would have to make some changes to his life.


    ¡°December 8th: yed cards.¡±


    Next door, Ren Xiaosu was reading Hope Media¡¯s newspaper from December 8th in his own house. He was mainly concerned about Luo Lan¡¯s schedule.


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Lan had nothing serious lined up in his agenda after he arrived at the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds. It felt more like he was going on vacation.


    Ren Xiaosu put the newspaper down on the table next to him, then sat back in the recliner in the yard and looked up into the sky. He had read from a book in Stronghold 88¡¯s library that it was very rare for humans to be able to see the view of the blue sky and stars before The Cataclysm. But now, he could see the stars shining brightly above him.


    Therefore, what humanity had destroyed in that disaster was itself, not the entire world.


    Humans were only an extremely minute presence whenpared to the entire world.


    The next day, Ren Xiaosu went to the tavern to y cards as usual. Everything in life seemed to have suddenly calmed down again. But on his way back, Ren Xiaosu got a surprise.


    He saw a haggard-looking old man walking towards him. The old man was holding a white banner with two words written on it: ¡°Divine Foresight.¡±


    The moment ¡°Divine Foresight¡± saw Ren Xiaosu, his eyes lit up. He quickened his pace and trotted towards Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Young man, I noticed that there¡¯s a unique aura exuding from you. I see great fortune in your future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. This fellow had said he would face a bloody cmity the previous time.... No, he meant he would bring a bloody cmity upon others instead.


    And now, he was actually saying he had great fortune?!


    The fortune teller stroked his beard and said with a smile, ¡°Young man, I can predict that the Northwest is where you will prosper in life. Don¡¯t stay here any longer and hurry back to the Northwest!¡±


    The fortune teller looked like a profound sage when he stroked his beard while smiling mysteriously. However, it would be better if he would wash his face and change into some clean clothes.


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°Why would I prosper in the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°Because I can predict that a lot of people there are waiting for you to go back!¡± the fortune teller remarked.


    Ren Xiaosu retorted, ¡°I already know that you¡¯re from Fortress 178, alright? Zhang Xiaoman already told me. Aren¡¯t you just trying to make me return to Fortress 178? I¡¯m not done with my business here yet, so I won¡¯t go back there!¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha, how embarrassing.¡± The fortune teller wanted to dash his banner to the ground. ¡®Zhang Xiaoman, you snitch!¡¯


    On his journey, the fortune teller had first rushed to Stronghold 74 when he heard it was about to fall. But before he could get there, Stronghold 74 had already been destroyed.


    Afterwards, the fortune teller managed to locate a group of escapees from the stronghold. But when he found them, Ren Xiaosu had already departed with others from the main group.


    The fortune teller had to ask a lot of people before he finally identified someone he suspected to be Ren Xiaosu. He truly lived up to his name as an experienced intelligence agent. He was actually able to trace his route to Stronghold 61 just based on some clues like that.


    As a matter of fact, the fortune teller did not have a car he could drive. He had to make his way here on foot and had lost lots of weight from all the walking he did.


    His dry rations had run out and his satellite phone was also dead. Where was he supposed to recharge his phone out in the wilderness? To Fortress 178 right now, he might as well be missing!


    But even though he was in such a pathetic state, he was still thinking about swaying Ren Xiaosu into returning to the Northwest.


    But!


    Just as he had started trying to hoodwink Ren Xiaosu, he got exposed instead. The fortune teller harbored some resentment. If he did not give Zhang Xiaoman a good beating after he returned to the Northwest, he would have traveled all that distance for nothing!


    As Ren Xiaosu walked back to his residence, the fortune teller followed him and nagged, ¡°It¡¯s gonna get chaotic here in the Central ins. Look at how dangerous it is for them when you¡¯re here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Great Hoodwinker puzzledly. Was he even seriously trying to persuade him?


    ¡°You are just a wanderer in the Central ins. No matter where you go, everyone will regard you as a dangerous person, right?¡± The Great Hoodwinker chased after Ren Xiaosu and muttered, ¡°But it¡¯ll be different if you return to Fortress 178, because Fortress 178 is your home. Everyone can¡¯t wait for you to be stronger so that people will be afraid of you!¡±


    As he was speaking, Ren Xiaosu reached home. He tried to m the door in the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s face. However, the Great Hoodwinker blocked the front gate with half his body.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu had no choice but to let him in. Just as the Great Hoodwinker had described, he had a good rtionship with people from Fortress 178, such as Zhang Xiaoman, Jiao Xiaochen, Fu Rao, and Lin Ping¡¯an. They were all family to him.


    So even if he did not want to listen to the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s nagging, he still should not make things too embarrassing for him.

 Chapter 594 - Future Commander

    <h4>594 Future Commander</h4>


    Next door, Qin Sheng had also returned home after the card game at the tavern. On his way back, he saw someone seemingly walking with Ren Xiaosu from afar. That person even followed Ren Xiaosu back into his house.


    Qin Sheng got excited. Who knew if this could end up as an important clue?


    Qin Sheng quickly went home to set up the surveince equipment. In the end, he was stunned after hearing just a few words.


    Right at this moment, the Great Hoodwinker was sitting in a chair in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s house where he continued, ¡°Everyone has already acknowledged you. As long as you go back to Fortress 178, you¡¯ll be the futuremander. Do you know what that means? The people in the Central ins will not tolerate your presence here. But if you return to Fortress 178, with our vast territory in the Northwest in theing years, wouldn¡¯t you get the final say over this ce?¡±


    When Qin Sheng heard this, he was absolutely stunned!


    Old Li, he, and even all the other Riders had suspected Ren Xiaosu might be a supernatural being, but he also seemed like an independent force without any organization backing him.


    Only now did he realize their hypotheses were totally wrong. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s true identity was way beyond what they had imagined!


    What kind of ce was Fortress 178? They were famous even here in the Central ins.


    Moreover, Fortress 178 had unified the Northwest. They could be called one of the major powers in the Alliance of Strongholds. The number of strongholds controlled by Fortress 178 was second only to the Wang Consortium. Not even the Zhou Consortium, the Kong Consortium, or the Pyro Company controlled as many strongholds as Fortress 178 did.


    However, Fortress 178 had never been judged by the number of strongholds they controlled. Fortress 178 could only be said to have be even more powerful.


    After Zhang Jinglin returned to Fortress 178, he made quite a lot of big moves. He unified the Northwest and opened the trade routes. In the early years, a senior member of the Riders even held Zhang Jinglin in high esteem after meeting him only once.


    It suddenly dawned on Qin Sheng that Ren Xiaosu was actually going to be the futuremander of Fortress 178!


    What the hell?! Why hadn¡¯t the rest of the world heard anything about this before? Could it be that they knew he was listening in on them and were just putting on an act for him? This was fucking Fortress 178, after all!


    An ambitious young man like Qin Sheng was still very impressed with that group of warriors from Fortress 178. Therefore, he decided to continue listening to the rest of the conversation patiently.


    Ren Xiaosu poured himself a cup of water and stayed silent for a long time while the Great Hoodwinker looked at him with anticipation. Then Ren Xiaosu suddenly burped. ¡°Sorry, had too much to eat tonight.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker did not know whether tough or cry. What the hell was this?


    Then Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself, ¡°I¡¯ve won quite a bit of money from Qin Sheng today. That kid looks pretty smart, but he¡¯s not so good at ying cards.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker roared, ¡°Were you seriously listening to me at all? Don¡¯t think that you can conveniently change the subject by talking to yourself!¡±


    On the other side, Qin Sheng¡¯s face darkened. He swore to himself he would definitely win back the money he had lost today!


    Ren Xiaosu said to the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°I feel very tempted by what you¡¯ve told me. I¡¯m not someone who can turn a blind eye to such great temptations, but are you really sure that I¡¯m suitable to be amander? I¡¯m just a poor kid from a refugee background.¡±


    ¡°Ourmander was also a refugee.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said in an extremely sincere tone, ¡°We don¡¯t care about your origins, and it doesn¡¯t matter if you don¡¯t have any military skill for now. What¡¯s important is that we acknowledge you and hope that you can return to Fortress 178.¡±


    Just how good was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s military skill? In actual fact, he could not at allpare to the experiencedmanders. Having military skill was not just about leading apany of soldiers and winning a battle or two.


    But after reading Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s battle report, what impressed everyone was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ability to adapt to the circumstances in the course of the war and how he prioritized his fellow soldiers¡¯ lives.


    Wasn¡¯t this the same reason everyone was convinced by Zhang Jinglin back then?


    Furthermore, he led apany to constantly keep the enemy at the rear on their toes and also wiped out most of the Zong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups. In the end, he even brought down an entire stronghold by himself. So could it really be said that he did not have any military skill?


    Although a lot of what he did was actually handled very badly, and it could even be said that he had achieved everything through his immense individual strength. But could you really say he did not disy any military potential in the course of the war?


    Therefore, many of themanders at Fortress 178 recognized one thing. As long as Ren Xiaosu returned to receive systematic military training, he would probably not turn out to be a badmander even if he might notpare to Zhang Jinglin.


    Moreover, the Great Hoodwinker and Wang Fengyuan had also discussed this matter in private. It would be an absolutely good idea to have a ¡°sessor¡± for Fortress 178 as soon as possible. On one hand, it would stop others fromying eyes on Fortress 178. On the other hand, Ren Xiaosu could get familiarized with the military situation as soon as possible. In this way, Fortress 178 would still have a leader should anything happen to the current fortressmander.


    It was not that they were hoping something would happen to Zhang Jinglin, but hadn¡¯t they been without a leader for over a decade previously?


    Who could know what was going to happen in the future!


    Moreover, everyone would feel more at ease if a powerful supernatural being like Ren Xiaosu was stationed at Fortress 178. A lot of troublesome matters would also be much easier to handle as a result.


    But in the end, Ren Xiaosu still shook his head. ¡°I still haven¡¯t figured out a lot of things yet. Perhaps I¡¯ll go back there someday, but I can¡¯t promise that. First of all, I have to find my family and friends who I¡¯ve been separated from.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker became a little happier at the words. At least, Ren Xiaosu did not reject him, right?


    He said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll think of a way to contact Fortress 178¡¯s intelligence personnel in the Central ins right away so that they can send over batteries for the satphone. It shouldn¡¯t take too long! Some time ago, Commander Zhang ordered us to help you find your friends in the Central ins. Who knows, we might already have received news of them! How about this? If we find your friends, you go back with me to the Northwest!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker had stealthily changed the point of view of his argument. Ren Xiaosu did not promise he would go back with him after finding his family and friends. However, Ren Xiaosu did not bother to refute him either. Otherwise, he would have to waste a long time here bantering with him.


    ¡°Go do whatever you were busy with.¡± Ren Xiaosu chased the Great Hoodwinker out of his house.


    Qin Sheng listened to their entire conversation from next door. The more he listened, the more surprised he felt. He suddenly thought of something. Even if Ren Xiaosu were really the heir of the Qinghe Group, was it a more powerful organization whenpared to Fortress 178? Although the Qinghe Group¡¯s reputation wasparable to that of Fortress 178¡¯s, the Qinghe Group was known more for its business reputation. Hence, an ambitious person would usually be more inclined towards Fortress 178, right?


    If anyone else were to find out they were the heir of the Qinghe Group, they would probably be so happy they could die. Therefore, based on Old Li and the others¡¯ assumptions, Ren Xiaosu would be no exception either. However, they had to be extremely, extremely cautious about this. They would have to verify Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity before telling him about it.


    They only thought about having to be cautious themselves, but they didn¡¯t consider if Ren Xiaosu would even be willing to inherit the Qinghe Group and lead the Riders if they told him.


    If he rejected them, that would be extremely embarrassing.


    But of course, Ren Xiaosu might not necessarily be that person either.


    What should he do? Qin Sheng felt he had to ry this information to his teacher as quickly as possible. The Riders would all have to reevaluate their attitude towards Ren Xiaosu.

 Chapter 595 - Luo Lan arrives

    <h4>595 Luo Lan arrives</h4>


    As Qin Sheng was letting his mind run wild, someone suddenly knocked on the front door. He went to open the door and was surprised to see the Great Hoodwinker standing there.


    ¡°Is something the matter?¡± Qin Sheng asked politely.


    ¡°I observed that the feng shui of your ce is awful. If you stay here for a long time, bad mojo will enter your body. You¡¯re still young and strong, so you might not feel it. But after a prolonged period, you¡¯ll get gued by illnesses and misfortunes.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°But don¡¯t worry, I have a solution for that. You can sell this house to me, and I will help you resolve the sh of auras here....¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re crazy.¡± Qin Sheng closed the door. He wondered if this person was really from Fortress 178. How could he be bullshitting with a straight face?!


    The Great Hoodwinker left awkwardly and proceeded to knock on Zhou Yingxue¡¯s door. He intended to relocate here to keep watch over Ren Xiaosu.


    Although there were more than 20 brick houses in town that came attached with a yard, Ren Xiaosu only had two neighbors. One of them was Qin Sheng, and the other was Zhou Yingxue.


    When the Great Hoodwinker realized that he could not fool Qin Sheng, he turned his attention to Zhou Yingxue.


    Ren Xiaosu was tickled when he heard the sound of knocking next door. As if Zhou Yingxue would sell her house to the Great Hoodwinker! How would that even be possible?


    In the end, Zhou Yingxue agreed to deal with the Great Hoodwinker for 60,000 yuan, and the ownership of the house was transferred overnight.


    Zhou Yingxue then bought another house a little further down the road from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ce. And the Great Hoodwinker became Ren Xiaosu¡¯s new neighbor.


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded when he found out. That woman actually sold him out for a profit of just some tens of thousands of yuan!


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue was happily counting her profits as she said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Master, I made these from my real estate investment, so I won¡¯t be sharing it with you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. What the fuck?!


    Zhou Yingxue did not care about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reaction. She just continued, ¡°Master, I think there¡¯s still a lot of room for the property prices in this town to appreciate. See, I¡¯ve already made some tens of thousands of yuan in half a month. This won¡¯t do! I have to purchase a few more houses. Who knows? I could make more money in some time!¡±


    With that, Zhou Yingxue rushed out and bought six houses in one shot. She was even willing to purchase them at the price of more than 30,000 yuan each.


    After that, sheid in the bed of one of her newly purchased properties and started fantasizing about the future. Now that she was considered wealthy, she could easily switch careers to being a real estate investor. Just based on her foresight of selecting properties, she could easily be the richest person in the Alliance of Strongholds and overtake the Wang Consortium!


    With this wonderful dream in mind, Zhou Yingxue nodded off. In her dream, she was standing on stronghold walls and generously telling Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Master, I bought this stronghold for you!¡±


    At this moment, the storyteller was sighing in his own house, ¡°My dear, ever since that Ren Xiaosu came to Stronghold 61, that woman from the Anjing House, the Riders, and even the people from Fortress 178 have descended on this town. I heard that he¡¯s also on very good terms with the Qing Consortium. Before this, I thought that he was going to get sucked into the center of that storm. However, I realized that I was wrong. He¡¯s actually the one who¡¯s causing the storm...¡±


    The storyteller was saying these things because he wanted to tell Xiaolu that it would be best not to get involved with someone like Ren Xiaosu. There was no future for them and something bad could easily happen to her.


    But he did not hear Xiaolu respond even after speaking for a long time.


    The storyteller said curiously, ¡°My dear?¡±


    Only then did Xiaolue back to her senses. ¡°Huh? Grandpa, are you calling for me? Grandpa, what kind of girl do you think Ren Xiaosu likes?¡±


    The storyteller was speechless.


    ...


    At this moment, Luo Lan¡¯s convoy was on its way to Stronghold 61. Inside the car, Zhou Qi said with a forlorn expression, ¡°If you were trying to die, you could¡¯ve just gone by yourself. Why do you always have to drag me along? You already know it is really dangerous at the Wang Consortium, yet you still insist oning here.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s only through this that I can show I¡¯m not guilty at all.¡± Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°How does the Wang Consortium count as a dangerous ce? Do you think they¡¯ll really try toy a finger on me? What right do they have?¡±


    ¡°They can just ce you under house arrest in secret.¡± Zhou Qi said, ¡°Oh no, that won¡¯t work since you purposely found a reporter from Hope Media to travel with you. They can¡¯t confine you unless they also confine the reporter. Otherwise, Hope Media will just report the facts as is.¡±


    ¡°Hope Media wishes to investigate what¡¯s going on while I need the outside world to be aware of my whereabouts every day. Both of us will just take what we need from each other,¡± Luo Lan said with a smile. The reporter from Hope Media was sitting in one of the vehicles behind them. As long as Hope Media was still providing thetest updates, the Wang Consortium could noty a finger on Luo Lan.


    After all, what legitimate reasons did the Wang Consortium have for cing Luo Lan under house arrest? This was also the reason Luo Lan and the Qing Consortium¡¯s official stance was that they did not possess any nuclear weapons. ¡°Don¡¯t ask whether we have them or not. Either way, we just won¡¯t admit to it. We might admit to it someday, but that will be in the future. However, we will never admit to it now.¡±


    Zhou Qi muttered, ¡°If they manage to find any evidence in the future, your reputation in the Central ins will be ruined. You¡¯ve put on this whole show and even made those tearful denials until so many people fell for it. When they find out you were lying to everyone, I¡¯m afraid no one in the Central ins will like you anymore.¡±


    Luo Lan frowned. Actually, he also knew such a day woulde. Evidence pointing to the Qing Consortium¡¯s possession of nuclear weapons would definitely surface someday. As long as they really didunch it, it would be impossible to cover up everything.


    At that time, Luo Lan would probably be known as the biggest liar and be aughingstock in this era of strongholds.


    Eventually, Luo Lan said firmly, ¡°This is nothingpared to the future of our Qing Consortium.¡±


    Luo Lan felt it was well worth it to buy some time for the Qing Consortium in exchange for his own sacrifice.


    ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡± Zhou Qi curled his lips. ¡°I heard there¡¯s a lot of radicals gathering at Stronghold 61 to protest against you. You should think about what to doter.¡±


    ¡°Hehe, they¡¯re just a group of students, aren¡¯t they? What¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡± Luo Lan¡¯s words showed he did not really care about this group of students at all.


    The convoy did not encounter any obstacles when entering Stronghold 61, with just a symbolic inspection carried out on the vehicles before letting them through.


    These actions seemed more like they were done to avoid suspicion. Everyone knew the Wang Consortium had taken the lead to point fingers at the Qing Consortium for the nuclear strike. To show a fair and just attitude, they wanted to prove they would not pettily pick on the Qing Consortium over trivial matters.


    The greater the conflict was at the top level, the less they cared about the small details.


    Along the way, Luo Lan looked at the creeper vines growing by the roadside. He said, ¡°Say, these creeper vines in the stronghold are really strange. They haven¡¯t withered even though it¡¯s winter already, and there¡¯s so many growing too.¡±


    The creeper vines had originally been growing on the outer walls of several houses. But now that it was winter, not only did they not wither, they even started growing further onto several streets.


    If someone took a bird¡¯s eye view, they would discover the vines were spreading out in parallel with the stronghold walls. It was like the vines were trying to surround the entire stronghold. Meanwhile, there were not many vines at the center of the stronghold.


    The lush scenery covered about 10% of the entire stronghold, giving it a rather pleasant look.


    However, Luo Lan did not have time to think about the creeper vines. He could already see some people up front trying to block the convoy from advancing. Those people were even holding up banners with the words, ¡°Qing Zhen is a dictator! Give up nuclear weapons!¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s eyes narrowed.

 Chapter 596 - Missing persons

    <h4>596 Missing persons</h4>


    A group of people were standing on both sides of the road, and some of them even deliberately raised the banners they were holding higher into a more conspicuous position. Luo Lan thought they were protesting him, so he wasn¡¯t really bothered. But when he saw they were targeting Qing Zhen, it made him very unhappy.


    ¡°Just drive past them, don¡¯t stop.¡± Luo Lan sneered, ¡°The Wang Consortium must have stationed these people here to stir up trouble. How else could they have known the time we were ted to arrive? The Hope Media newspaper did not report our exact itinerary for today.¡±


    Actually, everyone was well aware the Wang Consortium was controlling everything from behind the scenes. Zhou Qi was thinking about how to resolve the situation they were in now. If such a group of people charged over and beat up Luo Lan, that would be terrible.


    Luo Lan and the others could not possibly open fire inside the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold. If they did, that would give the Wang Consortium a reason to detain Luo Lan.


    However, Zhou Qi realized Luo Lan was stillfortably sitting in the car and did not seem to be panicking at all.


    The convoy was driving forward slowly, and they were still about 2.2 kilometers away from the hotel in the center of the stronghold. The hotel they were going to stay at could be considered the most luxurious hotel.


    The Qing Consortium soldiers in charge of protecting Luo Lan were getting tense in the vehicles. They were afraid someone in the crowd would suddenly shoot Luo Lan.


    The Qing Consortium soldiers were eagle-eyed. When they scanned the crowd, some people got so scared they took a few steps back in fear.


    The security personnel Qing Zhen picked out for Luo Lan were elite soldiers. Qing Zhen did not even deploy these elite trump cards for his own protection.


    After the convoy drove past them, the dense crowd holding the banners on either side of the road followed close behind them on foot. They walked all the way to the hotel where Luo Lan and his entourage were staying.


    ¡°These people won¡¯t follow us to the hotel, right?¡± Zhou Qi frowned.


    But Zhou Qi guessed wrong. After they got to the hotel, the group of protesters sat quietly outside the hotel entrance with their banners that had all sorts of things written on them. Some of the banners were chastising Qing Zhen, some were requesting that the Qing Consortium give up their nuclear weapons, while others were calling for Luo Lan to leave the Central ins. Several people were not holding up any banners and were quietly watching from within the crowd. These were the ones giving instructions to the rest of the protesters.


    Before Luo Lan and his subordinates entered the room, the Qing Consortium soldiers did a sweep of the room first. Besides checking for bugs and surveince cameras, they also had to ensure there were no double walls or secretpartments in the walls.


    The entire process took fifteen minutes. The Qing Consortium soldiers were extremely rigorous in their duties, and Luo Lan did not rush them and waited quietly outside the door with five soldiers protecting him.


    Although Luo Lan imed there was nothing to be afraid of, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to be a little more cautious.


    After entering the room, Luo Lan ordered one of the soldiers behind him, ¡°Have the hotel¡¯s restaurant make dinner and have them serve their most luxurious and expensive food to me. Price is not an issue for the Qing Consortium.¡±


    Zhou Qi was stunned. ¡°It¡¯s only noon. Why are you asking them to prepare for dinner?¡±


    Luo Lan strolled to the window and opened a tiny gap in the curtains. He said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m preparing it for them. They¡¯ll definitely be sitting there until evening. Who knows? They might even sit there for several days. So how can we allow them to go hungry?¡±


    Just as Luo Lan predicted, the group of protesters downstairs were determined to force Luo Lan to confront them. They sat there without moving an inch.


    At past 6 PM, Luo Lan pushed the service cart out of the hotel personally. The cart was adorned with a white cloth and filled with food.


    One of the protesters spoke, ¡°Don¡¯t think you can send us away with just some food, we¡ª¡±


    ¡°Well, aren¡¯t you presumptuous? Who said this food was for you people? This is for my personal consumption,¡± Luo Lan said with a smile.


    After that, one of the Qing Consortium soldiers carried a chair over for Luo Lan to sit down on. Luo Lan then started gorging himself at the entrance of the hotel, eating until his lips were glistening with oil.


    While Luo Lan was eating, he even heard someone among the protesters sitting across from him swallow hard. After all, these people had not eaten anything since morning. Besides, it would make them look really umitted if they ate during such a serious protest!


    Luo Lan continued munching on his food like no one was around. Actually, he had not fully told Zhou Qi what he wanted to say. After these people had criticized Qing Zhen, it would not be enough for them to just go hungry. They would have to suffer his spite!


    After he finished eating, Luo Lan even burped in satisfaction. ¡°Wow, I don¡¯t think I can finish it all. There¡¯s still more than half left. Why don¡¯t you guys have some? You should be quite hungry by now.¡±


    After that, Luo Lan pushed the service cart with the leftovers to the front of the protesters before heading back to the hotelughing.


    Not only did he want to savor the food in front of these people, but he also intentionally left behind some leftovers for them to look at.


    The group of protesters looked at Luo Lan¡¯s back and gritted their teeth in hatred. But they could not make a move on him yet. If they initiated a fight, they would be the ones in the wrong!


    ...


    While the group of protesters were staging a sit-in at the hotel¡¯s entrance, someone suddenly came to the Public Order Division to report a case.


    The staff in the Public Order Division¡¯s office lobby were very unhappy as the majority of their manpower had to be reassigned due to Luo Lan¡¯s visit. Their hands were already tied, and they were busy up to their ears, so why was someone stilling to trouble them?


    Furthermore, the artificial intelligence had proven to be really useful over the years as it directly informed the Public Order Division¡¯s staff whenever there was a case. Most of the cases reported by the stronghold residents were often just trivial matters.


    However, the Wang Consortium had set a target of 100% solved cases rate for the Public Order Division, so as long as a case were reported, they would have to investigate and solve it.


    An employee of the Public Order Division asked, ¡°What case are you reporting?¡±


    ¡°Several of our workers in the garment factory have gone missing. We tried calling their home phones, but they didn¡¯t pick up. So we went to their apartments to look for them, but they were not there either. They seemed to have just vanished into thin air!¡± A middle-aged man said, ¡°Those are our factory¡¯s workers. We can¡¯t just let them disappear like that without a reason, right?¡±


    The Public Order Division employee was stunned when he heard this. Why hadn¡¯t they received an alert from the artificial intelligence regarding such a conclusive missing persons case?


    ¡°Could they have been spies?¡± Another employee said, ¡°There were cases like this in the past where several people suddenly disappeared entirely. But actually, it was just that they had escaped the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem right. Why would spies go to a garment factory? They can¡¯t find any secrets there.¡± The Public Order Division employee said helplessly, ¡°Why don¡¯t you register your case and provide us with the information you have? I¡¯ll go with youter to visit their apartments and investigate if there were any traces of a fight. I wonder what¡¯s been up with the AI. We still haven¡¯t been able to solve the case of the missing cats and dogs from some time ago.¡±


    The manager of the garment factory gave a cating smile. ¡°This is definitely more serious than the case of the missing cats and dogs.¡±


    The Public Order Division employee nced at him and said, ¡°In our department, there are no cases that are less important than the others. As long as you report a case to us, we¡¯ll have to solve it. By the way, where do your workers live?¡±


    The manager of the garment factory said anxiously, ¡°Have you read the news of the creeper vine?! Their homes are in the vicinity of where that creeper vine is growing!¡±

 Chapter 597 - Eaten

    <h4>Chapter 597 Eaten</h4>


    The Public Order Division employee left the office with the person who had lodged the case and drove to the location where the missing persons were reported to be staying. Before leaving, the employee even asked, ¡°Do all the missing people live in the same area? Did they rent a house together?¡±¡°No, we have hundreds of workers in our garment factory, and they¡¯re all staying at different ces. The few workers who went missing also had their own ces in the stronghold. They weren¡¯t renting or living together,¡± the garment factory¡¯s manager exined.


    ¡°That¡¯s a little strange then.¡± The Public Order Division employee named Wang Zhongrui wondered, ¡°Don¡¯t you find it odd? They weren¡¯t living together, yet they all went missing at the same time. What was their work performance at the factory like? Did any valuable items go missing at your factory recently?¡±


    Wang Zhongrui thought of a possibility. Could the workers at the factory have run away after stealing some valuable items?


    Such things had happened before. However, the criminal was unlucky that time and got discovered by the artificial intelligence even before they could escape the stronghold.


    ¡°The most valuable things in our factory are the mechanical equipment and raw materials. However, they can¡¯t steal those. Even if they could, there¡¯s no avenues for them to fence them.¡± The manager rejected this hypothesis.


    ¡°In that case, we can only go to the ce they lived to take a look,¡± Wang Zhongrui said.


    The creeper vine had grown to cover a veryrge area by now. The location mentioned by the garment factory¡¯s manager was where the creeper vine was initially reported by Hope Media¡¯s newspaper to have originated.


    Many families in the stronghold who could afford a camera even specially went to this ce to take pictures with the creeper vine in the winter.


    However, the creeper vine had grown much more since that time. When Wang Zhongrui drove to the area where the creeper vine was growing, he asked the garment factory¡¯s manager next to him in the passenger seat, ¡°There¡¯s creeper vines growing everywhere here. Where are their homes?¡±


    The garment factory¡¯s manager said, ¡°Turn left, then turn right, and we should be there. Eh, this is strange! Why has the creeper vine grown so much? Sir, do you see that apartment on the left? From what I remember, the vines had not spread there yet as of yesterday, but it looks like it¡¯s already covered the entire apartment today. To be honest, if I weren¡¯t incredibly familiar with this area, I might¡¯ve lost my way.¡±


    The lush creeper vines had grown so dense that even the address number on the apartment got covered.


    At first, the residents thought it looked really beautiful. But now, the creeper vines were starting to affect everyone¡¯s daily lives. The pedestrians walking down the street were also mostly unhappy about the creeper vines¡¯ overgrowth.


    As Wang Zhongrui looked at the creeper vine, he got a niggling feeling that something was not right. However, he could not pinpoint what the problem was.


    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived. It¡¯s here.¡± The garment factory¡¯s manager said, ¡°One of the workers¡¯ homes is on the first floor of thisplex.¡±


    After parking the car, Wang Zhongrui walked into the hallway of the building and asked, ¡°Eh, do creeper vines usually grow into the hallways? Don¡¯t they grow in ces where sunlight can reach?¡±


    Wang Zhongrui saw that the hallway in front of him had been invaded by the creeper vines, and the originally white walls were no longer visible. However, Wang Zhongrui did not feel that these creeper vines were beautiful. Instead, he felt a chill running up his spine.


    But how could a Public Order Division employee get so easily frightened by some creeper vines? As such, he braced himself and walked in.


    But strangely, they found the door of the worker¡¯s residence had been left open. Wang Zhongrui asked, ¡°Were you the one who opened the door?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± The garment factory¡¯s manager replied, ¡°it was already open when I came here yesterday. I was also wondering why they would leave their doors wide open when they left their home.¡±


    Wang Zhongrui stepped into the apartment. There were no traces of fighting in the room as he had imagined, nothing at all.


    However, Wang Zhongrui was much more experienced than the manager of the garment factory. Although their Public Order Division had mostly stopped following up on reported cases manually and mainly relied on the artificial intelligence to crack them, the Public Order Division¡¯s employees were still professionally trained.


    Right as they entered the house, Wang Zhongrui sensed something was amiss. There was a sweaty handprint on the door frame that was not particrly noticeable, but it looked very strange indeed.


    The handprint that was left behind seemed to suggest someone had just opened the door when they were suddenly pulled out of the house by something. The person probably tried to grab ahold of the door frame immediately but failed to do so.


    Thinking of all this, Wang Zhongrui turned to look behind him as a chill ran up his spine. However, he saw nothing behind him.


    Wang Zhongrui looked around the apartment and suddenly did not want to stay here any longer. He said to the garment factory¡¯s manager, ¡°Let¡¯s step outside and go interview the other residents upstairs.¡±


    After that, they headed upstairs. Then Wang Zhongrui realized the creeper vines had already grown all over the building, both on the inside and on the outside.


    When they came to the second floor, Wang Zhongrui was surprised to find the doors of two households were also open. He asked, ¡°Did youe upstairs yesterday?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± The garment factory¡¯s manager said, ¡°Why would Ie upstairs for no reason?¡±


    What Wang Zhongrui was trying to ask was, ¡°When you came here yesterday, did you open the doors on the second floor?! And were the residents still around?!¡±


    Suddenly, Wang Zhongrui shouted loudly, ¡°Is there anyone in there?¡±


    He did not even dare to step into the apartments now as he felt a huge sense of danger threatening him. Wang Zhongrui¡¯s back was drenched in sweat.


    A momentter, Wang Zhongrui saw some traces of blood mixed into the dust on the ground. Other people might not recognize that as blood, but how could someone like him not recognize it?!


    ¡°Run!¡± Wang Zhongrui roared.


    With that, he pulled the garment factory¡¯s manager by the arm and tried to run downstairs. But it was already toote. Wang Zhongrui saw the creeper vines on the hallway walls moving towards them as though they hade alive.


    Wang Zhongrui did not hesitate and rushed into an apartment instead. He seemed to remember there were no creeper vines growing inside the apartment on the first floor.


    Both he and the garment factory¡¯s manager rushed into the apartment before the creeper vines could grab ahold of them. The garment factory¡¯s manager was still in a state of shock. ¡°What the hell is going on here? What kind of monster is that? Why are the creeper vines moving?!¡±


    However, Wang Zhongrui did not have time to exin. After entering the apartment, he ran straight for the window as quickly as he could.


    With a crash, Wang Zhongrui smashed through the window with his shoulder and escaped from the second floor. Due to therge inertia of his sprint, some of those creeper vines outside the window got snapped by Wang Zhongrui when they tried to grab him.


    With a loud thud, Wang Zhongruinded on the street. The pedestrians on the street looked at him in surprise, but he started shouting at the second floor without a care, ¡°Quick, jump out! Or else it¡¯ll be toote!¡±


    But...


    No one responded to him, and it became all quiet on the second floor of the building as though nothing had happened.


    The pedestrians on the street stared at Wang Zhongrui like he was a fool. Nobody knew who he was talking to.


    Wang Zhongrui felt a tingling sensation in his scalp. He took out his identification and shouted at the pedestrians, ¡°I¡¯m from the Public Order Division. Everyone, stay away from those creeper vines. Quickly make your way to a ce where no creeper vines are growing!¡±


    When they saw his Public Order Division ID, they turned nervous. Someone asked, ¡°Sir, what¡¯s wrong with the creeper vines? Is there a problem with them?¡±


    Wang Zhongrui said in a low voice, ¡°These creeper vines can eat people!¡±


    He stood in the middle of the street as he looked at the dense mass of creeper vines surrounding him and the apartmentplexes covered in it. He wondered how many people had already been ¡°eaten¡± by the creeper vines.


    But it was still not entirely safe yet even though he had escaped from the clutches of the creeper vines. Wang Zhongrui knew the creeper vines would actively try to grab its prey. But for some reason, it immediately stopped attacking when hended on the street.

 Chapter 598 - A shattered dream

    <h4>Chapter 598 A shattered dream</h4>


    Wang Zhongrui was quickly evacuating the residents on the streets away from where the creeper vines were growing. However, he was only able to vacate a single street by himself. What about the residents in other areas?Furthermore, the creeper vines were so sinister Wang Zhongrui did not dare to stay around any longer. He was just a normal person, after all!


    After he left the area where the creeper vines were growing, he immediately found a public telephone and called the Public Order Division. ¡°There¡¯s something weird going on with that creeper vine. It can even eat people! For now, quickly try to contact the residents where the creeper vines are growing and see if there¡¯s any survivors in the apartments overgrown with the vines. If there are, tell them to leave quickly! Also, tell the Wang Consortium¡¯s higher-ups to send troops over. We¡¯ll need methrowers to deal with this problem!¡±


    Wang Zhongrui was still thinking logically. He was a very rational and decisive person. Otherwise, he would not have escaped from the apartmentplex earlier.


    He passed on that message to the Public Order Division so they could verify if there were any survivors left and tell them how to deal with the creeper vines. The creeper vines were not afraid of bullets and qwew extremely aggressive, so Wang Zhongrui thought it would be more appropriate to use methrowers to deal with them.


    However, Wang Zhongrui was still a little hesitant. The creeper vines had already covered one-fifth of the stronghold. In other words, the death toll of the residents in the stronghold would have already reached an unimaginable level.


    Wang Zhongrui assumed the creeper vines had only started devouring humans during the past couple days. If not, there would already be loads of people lodging reports about people who had gone missing in the stronghold.


    Furthermore, the creeper vines had probably be more ferocious after getting a taste of human flesh. He recalled that the garment factory¡¯s manager had said that one of the apartment blocks was not yet overgrown with green vines as of yesterday. However, that building was fully covered by the vines today.


    The creeper vines had not been spreading so quickly!


    The Public Order Division did not feel that Wang Zhongrui was trying to frighten them, because Wang Zhongrui was a senior employee and was usually very reliable in his day-to-day work.


    As such, everyone in the Public Order Division immediately got down to work. Arge number of the Public Order Division¡¯s staff rushed to where Wang Zhongrui was, while the staff at the headquarters began calling up residents living in the apartmentplexes overgrown with the creeper vines.


    However, the more calls they made, the heavier their moods became, because no one was answering their calls. They always ended up getting greeted by an answering machine on the other end of the line.


    It might be a coincidence if it were just one or two calls, but for a few hundred calls to all be the same, it could only mean that something bad must have happened!


    The stronghold¡¯s garrison¡¯s advance guard had already arrived on the scene with their methrowers.


    Thepanymander of the advance guard found Wang Zhongrui to learn about the situation, but Wang Zhongrui looked at the two sets of methrowers that they were holding and asked, ¡°How many methrowers do we have in our stronghold?¡±


    ¡°We only have these two. Usually, there¡¯s no need for this kind of weapon. So our stronghold has never really equipped the troops with such things,¡± thepanymander replied. ¡°Also, these two methrowers have not been used in a very long time, so I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re still working or not.¡±


    At that, Wang Zhongrui turned around and looked at the creeper vines again. The creeper vines looked like a boundless green sea in front of them, so how could two sets of methrowers possibly be enough to kill it?


    Thepanymander said, ¡°Let¡¯s just try it out first. Our men are still transporting fuel over from the rear. If this doesn¡¯t work, we can set fire to the nt bit by bit.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s give it a try first!¡± Wang Zhongrui replied.


    A soldier carried a methrower and fuel pack on his back and walked towards the apartment building. When he was about five meters away, he fired a tongue of me right at the creeper vines. The creeper vines on the wall immediately writhed in pain, moving like how a human would thrash their limbs in pain from fire.


    Initially, the advance guard was skeptical of what Wang Zhongrui had told them. But they were shocked when they saw this sight.


    Normal creeper vines would definitely not react like this when burned by me!


    But before they could give it any further thought, a manhole cover behind the soldier was suddenly pushed up and out by countless vines. Then those vines shot out at the soldier and stabbed him with their sharp spikes before harshly dragging him into the sewers.


    The soldier did not even have time to cry out in pain. Although the other troops wanted to charge forward and try to rescue him, there were no signs of him in the sewers anymore. All they could see was a dark manhole that looked horrifying and frightening.


    Thepanymander of the advance guard yelled at the radioman, ¡°Keep your guard up! Tell headquarters ASAP and call for reinforcements. We¡¯ll need a huge amount of fuel!¡±


    But he did not know it was already a little toote to deal with the creeper vines. After that soldier was pulled down into the sewers, the creeper vines that had been angered by the mes started spreading further at an incredible speed.


    That me was like a prelude to the cmity in Stronghold 61. Previously, the creeper vine would ¡°eat¡± its food secretly. But now, it had gone totally crazy!


    Before the reinforcements could arrive, Wang Zhongrui and the others could already see the vines spreading towards them at a very fast speed. Before this, the surface of the streets was at least clear of vines. But just a minuteter, even the roads in the area got covered by the creeper vines and turned green!


    Wang Zhongrui could feel his scalp going numb when he saw the leaves on the creeper vines swaying like multiple pairs of hands.


    The advance guard was still thinking of using the other methrower to stop the creeper vines from advancing. However, Wang Zhongrui took a look at the side and realized they were about to get surrounded by the creeper vines!


    He pulled thepanymander away with him and started to run. ¡°Run! It¡¯ll be toote if we don¡¯t leave now!¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t leave!¡± Thepanymander shouted angrily, ¡°As soldiers, if we run away, what¡¯re the civilians going to do?!¡±


    Wang Zhongrui was helpless. He did not want to stand around and wait for death here. Even if the troops did not want to leave, he would still leave nheless. Even if he might lose his job at the Public Order Division, he did not want to die here.


    Wang Zhongrui ignored the advance guard. He turned and ran off. He had just made it a few hundred meters away when he turned around and saw the creeper vines swallow up the entire advancepany. He paled with fright!


    At this moment, Luo Lan was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows and wondering, ¡°What¡¯s going on? The people from the Public Order Division have all been pulled back and the military vehicles have driven off as well. What¡¯s happening? We didn¡¯t do anything!¡±


    It was already afternoon, and the protesters sitting outside the hotel had been there for an entire day and night. Luo Lan really did not have any idea of what was going on. At this moment, the creeper vines were spreading out along the walls of the stronghold at an rming rate. If anyone took a bird¡¯s eye view, the stronghold would look like it was getting surrounded by a strange, unknown greenyer.


    Ren Xiaosu could hear cries from the inside of the stronghold while he was standing outside of it. He muttered in a daze, ¡°It¡¯s not me, I didn¡¯t do anything this time....¡±


    The stronghold gate flew open, and several soldiers ran out in a pathetic state. Someone went forward and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Those soldiers had no time for niceties and bluntly shouted, ¡°The stronghold has been taken over by maneater vines! Stronghold 61 is in grave danger!¡±


    These few soldiers had escaped from the stronghold in the final moments and were feeling fortunate to have survived the disaster. Ren Xiaosu looked towards the gate that used to be wide open and saw it had beenpletely sealed by a dense growth of green vines.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard the sound of crying next to him. He turned around and looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°What are you crying for?¡±


    Aggrieved, Zhou Yingxue sobbed out, ¡°I can¡¯t sell my houses anymore!¡±


    Her dream of bing a real estate mogul was shattered before it even began.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened. Was this the fucking time to be thinking about that? They had to escape!


    But wait! Luo Lan was still in there!

 Chapter 599 - The creeper vine calamity!

    <h4>Chapter 599 The creeper vine cmity!</h4>


    At this moment, Luo Lan and the Qing Consortium soldiers were packing their stuff. In fact, Luo Lan had quite a lot of luggage with him, even having brought aplete tea set with him for the trip. He was quite particr about life.Reportedly, the tea set was an item that came from before The Cataclysm and was rather expensive. If the Alliance of Strongholds were to really settle down one day and turn peaceful, this antique set could get auctioned off for an astronomical price for sure.


    Therefore, when Luo Lan gave the order to pack up, the Qing Consortium soldiers prioritized retrieving the tea set and some other valuable items.


    Although they did not know why their boss seemed to be in such a hurry, they could only follow his orders as they were just soldiers.


    But while they were packing up the items, they heard Luo Lan say anxiously, ¡°Why are you all putting that crap away? Do you not want to live anymore? Just take whatever food we have. There¡¯s no need to get water since Zhou Qi can conjure that up with his power!¡±


    Zhou Qi raised his eyebrows. Since when did he be a provider of drinking water for others?


    One of the Qing Consortium soldiers looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Boss, this is the tea set you like a bunch.¡±


    ¡°Is the tea set more important than our lives?¡± Luo Lan handed his belongings to a soldier. ¡°Come with me. Don¡¯t bring any unnecessary things. We have to travel light. Quickly get the Hope Media reporter and bring him with us as well!¡±


    With that, Luo Lan rushed out of the room and headed straight for the stairwell. He did not even take the elevator for safety¡¯s sake as he was afraid something would happen.


    In the end, Luo Lan really did the right thing. When they got down to the third floor from the seventh floor, a ckout hit the entire hotel!


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind me saying this, but why are you running?¡± Zhou Qi wondered. ¡°If the Wang Consortium really wants to kill you, you can¡¯t escape.¡±


    Zhou Qi thought Luo Lan was trying to avoid the Wang Consortium, but he heard Luo Lan say, ¡°What do you know? It might not be the Wang Consortiuming to attack us. For all we know, it might not even be human!¡±


    Honestly speaking, Luo Lan had been through much in life. When the Experimentals attacked so many of the strongholds, he was always there at the scene. When he saw the reaction of the Wang Consortium troops, he initially could not figure out what they were doing. But he quickly realized their reactions were more or less the same as the Li Consortium garrison troops back then.


    Before this, Luo Lan was standing at the window and observing the situation. The more he watched, the more it felt familiar. This strong sense of danger impelled him to hurry downstairs. No matter what might be happening, he had to find a safer ce to be!


    First of all, it would be best if they could escape from the stronghold. If they could not get away, they would have to choose the safest ce to hide and wait for the Wang Consortium troops to rescue them.


    This stronghold was at a critical geographical position for the Wang Consortium. Even if it were the Experimentals attacking the stronghold, the Wang Consortium could definitely take back the stronghold, so all they needed to do was stay low for between ten days and a fortnight.


    But this was not right! Didn¡¯t the Experimentals get blown up already? What else could cause the Wang Consortium troops to panic like this?


    When they got downstairs, some chaos had already broken out in the stronghold even though the creeper vines had not spread to the hotel yet. Vehicles were driving by frantically from time to time, but the pedestrians on the streets were clueless about what was going on.


    When the group of protesters seated downstairs saw Luo Lane out, they started to surround him.


    Luo Lan said impatiently, ¡°Step the fuck aside. I don¡¯t have time to waste with you people.¡±


    Then the Qing Consortium soldiers formed a wedge formation in front of Luo Lan and forcefully broke up the protester group. They quickly led Luo Lan away and evacuated from the ce.


    Some of them wanted to take the vehicles to get away, but one of the soldiers discovered that some terrible person had punctured the tires. That group of sit-in protesters were probably the culprits. Since they could noty a finger on Luo Lan, they could only resort to this kind of petty trick like a child throwing a tantrum. It was hrious.


    When Luo Lan saw the condition of the tires, he turned around decisively and ran off in the opposite direction of where the Wang Consortium troops were moving.


    If it were anyone else, they would probably take some time to grumble andin from next to the damaged vehicles. However, Luo Lan felt there was no need to waste any time here since what was done was already done. If they tarried for another minute, their fate could be disastrous.


    When the group of protesters saw Luo Lan running away, they got even more excited. ¡°He¡¯s getting scared now, let¡¯s chase after him!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t let up on him!¡±


    The Qing Consortium soldiers could not take it lying down after hearing those words. They wanted to turn around and take the opportunity to teach these people a lesson. However, Luo Lan immediately shouted at them, ¡°Why are you getting angry at them at a time like this? Just keep running!¡±


    Zhou Tao, the reporter from Hope Media, wondered, ¡°Luo Lan, why are you running away in such a hurry? Are you really scared as they said?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t be bothered to exin everything to you right now, so shut up! You can get cramps easily if you keep talking while running!¡± Luo Lan said, then shut his mouth and ran madly without saying another word.


    Although they didn¡¯t encounter any danger so far, Luo Lan firmly believed his own judgment of what was going on. If he did not even have this bit of judgment, he could not have survived all those past dangers!


    The Hope Media reporter, Zhou Tao, was a little puzzled. It did not look like Luo Lan was trying to avoid the protesters either.


    A momentter, an rm suddenly rang out in the stronghold. The ear-piercing sound was so pressing and loud it made everyone panic.


    Only then did everyone realize something bad had happened in the stronghold!


    Zhou Tao suddenly looked at Luo Lan, who was in front of him. He could notprehend how Luo Lan had predicted this.


    As they continued running, Luo Lan felt he should be able to escape with his life intact since he was trying really hard to flee. But as he ran, he was surprised to see someone running towards them.


    If someone were fleeing in the opposite direction, that meant there was also danger ahead of Luo Lan and the others!


    Luo Lan changed directions without saying a word and started running south. But before he could get far, he realized people were running away from the south as well.


    ¡°What the hell is going on!¡± Luo Lan despaired a little. ¡°Why is everyone running towards the center of the stronghold? What on earth could possibly cause the stronghold residents to be so afraid?!¡±


    Luo Lan pulled one of those people aside and asked, ¡°Why are you all fleeing?!¡±


    The person who was fleeing for his life wanted to curse out loud, but when he saw about a dozen or so tough-looking Qing Consortium soldiers standing around Luo Lan, he immediately took retracted his swearing and said, ¡°I heard the creeper vines in the stronghold are crazily trying to catch people. It¡¯s already blocked the stronghold gate and is spreading towards the center of the stronghold. Someone said the creeper vines have already surrounded the entire stronghold!¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned on the spot. To be honest, there were quite a few nts that had mutated since The Cataclysm urred. However, those nts did not actively seek to attack humans. Luo Lan had really never heard of something like that happening before!


    It was not only him, but most people had not heard of something like that either. No one had ever thought the nts would attack humans!


    99.99% of the people in the world would think this way other than the few who hade across Brambles and Potato Shooters. That was why Wang Zhongrui only found it a little weird when he first saw the creeper vines and did not think a nt could pose any threat to him.


    Meanwhile, those who encountered the Brambles and Potato Shooters before were basically all dead, so no one could have warned about such things beforehand.


    It was precisely this mismatch in mindset that led to the tragedy of Stronghold 61 today!


    Luo Lan shouted at the Qing Consortium soldiers around him, ¡°Since we can¡¯t escape from this enclosed environment, we have to find a ce to hide!¡±

 Chapter 600 - Leave them for later

    <h4>Chapter 600 Leave them forter</h4>


    They could hide, but where?Luo Lan was thinking hard. ¡°Creeper vines love the sun, don¡¯t they? So does that mean that we can resort to our usual trick of hiding in the sewers?¡±


    Then a manhole cover got sent flying into the air by an unknown entity from below. Countless vines emerged from the sewers in front of them and started pulling people standing around the manhole into the sewers.


    ¡°Pretend I didn¡¯t say that.¡± Luo Lan gulped hard as he turned around and ran off.


    The suggestion was rebuked so quickly Luo Lan got caught off guard. Meanwhile, the creeper vines had started spreading towards them.


    A third of the entire stronghold had already fallen to the vines!


    Zhou Qi said angrily as he followed Luo Lan, ¡°You and your useless ideas. Didn¡¯t you say we could take shelter in the sewers? Fortunately, we didn¡¯t listen to you. If we followed you down, the creeper vines would¡¯ve caught and killed all of us!¡±


    Luo Lan said with a dark expression, ¡°Then why don¡¯t you think of something? I don¡¯t mind if you cane up with a solution!¡±


    Zhou Qi gave it some thought and said, ¡°The creeper vines aren¡¯t afraid of bullets and water. Although it¡¯s afraid of fire, it¡¯s grown sorge we¡¯ll have to burn down the entire stronghold to get rid of it. There doesn¡¯t seem like there¡¯s anything we can do about it.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Captain Obvious!¡± Luo Lan started chastising, ¡°I already know what you said! Everyone here knows as well!¡±


    But as he spoke, Luo Lan got a cramp.


    Zhou Qi was a supernatural being while the others in the group were either a young reporter or the Qing Consortium soldiers. It did not take much effort for them to run, but the flight took a toll on Luo Lan physically.


    Earlier, it was the instinct to run for his life that made him forget about his fatigue. But now his body could no longer bear it.


    Luo Lan clutched his chest and said, ¡°You guys keep running. Don¡¯t worry about me.¡± He panted heavily, standing still.


    However, the Qing Consortium soldiers suddenly lifted him. ¡°We have a duty to protect you, so it¡¯s either we leave together, or we die protecting you.¡±


    Luo Lan said anxiously, ¡°I¡¯m not done talking. It¡¯s not like I haven¡¯t considered that you guys are just normal people. Can you lift someone like me who weighs over 120 kilos? Zhou Qi, get over here and carry me instead!¡±


    Luo Lan wanted to call out to Zhou Qi just now, but he wasn¡¯t able to catch his breath. As such, the Qing Consortium soldiers misunderstood him and thought Luo Lan did not want to slow them down.


    Zhou Qi, who was running at the front, wanted to ignore Luo Lan. But since Luo Lan had spoken such, he could only run back and say with a dark look, ¡°You¡¯ll have to pay me more for this!¡±


    With that, Zhou Qi ran back and piggybacked Luo Lan. However, it did not seem to slow him down at all.


    Very few people knew Zhou Qi had awoken his power a long time ago. He was probably one of the first few supernatural beings to do so. As a result, his physical fitness was also better than most other supernatural beings.


    As everyone was fleeing, Luo Lan came up with a n while on Zhou Qi¡¯s back. ¡°Let me think about the safest ce we can go to. Oh, the safest ce has to be where money is stored! Hurry and find a bank. The bank vaults are definitely the most secure ce to hide in. Some vaults do not even have air vents. If we hide in there, those vines won¡¯t be able to creep in! And there¡¯ll definitely be some gaps in the vault, so we won¡¯t suffocate to death in there!¡±


    As he said that, they passed by a Wang Consortium bank and saw the bank¡¯s entrance clogged up with people. As it turned out, everyone had thought of the same idea to hide in the safest ce. However, there were so many people here they could not squeeze inside anymore!


    Luo Lan smacked his lips. ¡°Alright, pretend I didn¡¯t say anything. I¡¯ll think about it again....¡±


    Zhou Qi said anxiously, ¡°Think quickly! If you can¡¯t think of any ideas, we¡¯ll probably end up dead here!¡±


    The vines behind them were closing in. From a third of the entire stronghold, the creeper vines now covered half.


    As they ran, the manhole cover in front of them was suddenly pushed aside by the vines. But before the vines could attack Luo Lan, Zhou Qi frowned. In the blink of an eye, Zhou Qi drew the water content in those vines out.


    The terrifying vines started to visibly wither and were no longer capable of grabbing people.


    Luo Lan eximed excitedly, ¡°Oh, right! Zhou Qi can control the water content in those vines! Why don¡¯t we deal with it immediately then? When I be the person to save the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold from destruction, let¡¯s see if they¡¯ll still dare to go against me. If they do, the public will surely criticize them roundly!¡±


    Zhou Qi clenched his teeth and said, ¡°Enough nonsense. Can¡¯t you see how many vines there are? Do you think I¡¯m a god? Even if I am one, I can¡¯t draw out all the water from the vines!¡±


    So Zhou Qi could only run away in the face of this vast number of creeper vines.


    ¡°Your superpower really sucks.¡± Luo Lan curled his lips and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you were one of the earliest to awaken your power? Why¡¯re you so weak then?¡±


    ¡°Am I the one who¡¯s weak here? It¡¯s the opponent that¡¯s too powerful, alright?!¡± Zhou Qiqi was so angry he wanted to throw Fatty Luo to the ground!


    The group of protesters were still chasing Luo Lan closely. At first, these people had wanted to pursue Luo Lan to beat him up when they saw him fleeing. But it was a different situation now. They were thinking they might be able to escape from the danger by following Luo Lan.


    They did not even have time to consider their actions amid the panic. All they felt was that if Luo Lan was able to sense the danger beforehand, he might just have a way to escape from the danger.


    At this moment, survival was more important than the beliefs they stood firmly for.


    Luo Lan turned around and took a look at these people, but he did not bother engaging them. There was no reason for him to take it up with them at the risk of his life. It was entirely up to them as to whether they would survive.


    ¡°Wait a minute, the vines don¡¯t look like they¡¯re spreading anymore!¡± Luo Lan inadvertently realized the creeper vines that had been growing rapidly had stopped. After it drove all the humans in the stronghold to the remaining half at the city center, it suddenly stopped moving.


    Everyone looked at the lush, green creeper vines from afar and suddenly felt like they had been saved.


    One of the protesters wondered, ¡°Why isn¡¯t it moving anymore? Are we safe now?¡±


    A bespectacled protester calmed down and said, ¡°Everyone thinks that nts can grow without limit, but in fact, only woody nts[1] seem to be able to achieve that. Of course, I¡¯m just assuming that since I¡¯m not a professional in the field. Just like how the trees can¡¯t grow taller indefinitely, maybe the creeper vines have reached the limit of their growth?¡±


    After he said that, Luo Lan¡¯s faint voice drifted over, ¡°Did you guys stop to think about it? It might not be eating us now because it wants to leave us forter....¡±


    The protesters were speechless.


    But whatever the reason, the creeper vines had finally stopped moving. This gave the humans in the stronghold some respite.


    ¡°The people from the Wang Consortium must¡¯ve already requested reinforcements. Who knows, we might get saved during this time!¡± a protester said.


    However, Luo Lan was having none of it. He whispered softly to Zhou Qi and the others, ¡°I made a purposeful observation while we were making our way to this stronghold. While we do not have any clear information about the Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops across their various strongholds, we know there¡¯s no military bases in the vicinity of Stronghold 61. So the Wang Consortium¡¯s reinforcements could take up to three days to arrive. Besides, can their troops deal with the creeper vines? They can¡¯t gather arge number of methrowers on such short notice. It¡¯ll just scratch the surface.¡±


    [1] A woody nt is a nt that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody nts further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposed to herbaceous nts that die back to the ground until spring. Trees do stop growing at certain heights, but they never stop growing |

 Chapter 601 - I have too few friends, so Luo Lan cannot die

    <h4>Chapter 601 I have too few friends, so Luo Lan cannot die</h4>


    ¡°There is a way, though. We can use zip fuels or something like white phosphorus to burn down this entire stronghold. But if we stay at the center of the stronghold and the fire spreads here, we¡¯ll all be dead before the creeper vine gets exterminated.¡± Luo Lan added, ¡°If the creeper vines start moving again, we¡¯ll really be done for.¡±


    Zhou Qi frowned. ¡°Continue searching for an enclosed environment. As long as I don¡¯t have to face too many vines at once, I might be able to buy us some time with my power.¡±


    Luo Lan sighed and said, ¡°Thest time I faced a predicament like this, I was getting pursued by the Experimentals.¡±


    One of the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers suddenly asked, ¡°Boss, how did you manage to escape from the Experimentals previously?¡±


    Luo Lan thought back and replied, ¡°I met a strong young man back then. But I¡¯m not that lucky this time.¡±


    One of the protesters who had joined Luo Lan¡¯s group suddenly stepped forward and asked, ¡°Luo Lan, is this nt part of your conspiracy?¡±


    Luo Lan was surprised. ¡°Are you out of your mind? Didn¡¯t you guys say this was an auspicious sign for your Wang Consortium?¡±


    Back when people first started noticing the creeper vines growing, they deliberately described it as an auspicious sign for the Wang Consortium. They said Wang Shengzhi had managed the dozen-odd strongholds under the Wang Consortium really well, which was why an auspicious sign like this appeared.


    But thinking back now, that sounded like an absolute joke...


    ¡°Then how did you know in advance there would be a crisis like this?¡± that protester asked loudly.


    Luo Lan was amused. ¡°Didn¡¯t you guys see those military vehicles driving to and fro when you were sitting downstairs? It¡¯s because you¡¯re too used to leading afortable life in the stronghold and act like domesticated pigs that you can¡¯t recognize when danger ising. The news about the creeper vine was reported a long time ago, so what¡¯s it gotta do with me? Don¡¯t tell me that I nted them from across the strongholds? If I had that ability, I would¡¯ve already impregnated your wife!¡±


    The protester¡¯s face darkened!


    The Qing Consortium soldiers¡¯ mouths twitched a little. It seemed that Boss Luo was also getting a little annoyed at being surrounded by the creeper vines. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have started throwing insults. However, they did not think much of it. After all, Boss Luo had always been a rapscallion.


    Luo Lan looked around and saw the other residents were fleeing towards the center of the stronghold. They were the only ones who were still standing at the boundary where the creeper vines had grown to.


    Luo Lan suddenly asked his subordinates, ¡°Hehe! What do you say if we just kill them here now? No one will know anyway, right?¡±


    When he said that, the protesters¡¯ expressions changed. They were really frightened now!


    They were willing to protest against Luo Lan because they knew he could not do anything about them in the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold. But now that all order was gone, the safeguard they had was also no more!


    However, Luo Lan did not really intend to kill them. Nearby, the Hope Media reporter, Zhou Tao, coughed and said, ¡°I will report everything that happens factually.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, I got it.¡± Luo Lan waved his hand impatiently. ¡°You¡¯ve already seen the kind of people they are. I won¡¯t argue with them, but your Hope Media should also understand that such methods disgust me. It¡¯s too underhanded.¡±


    With that, Luo Lan led the way and headed off towards the center of the stronghold.


    Regardless of whether the creeper vines would continue spreading, they had to get to the center of the stronghold and find some food first. Afterwards, they had to seek shelter in a safe ce where they could not be harmed!


    The stronghold had descended into chaos. Luo Lan did not get far before he came across some people smashing open store doors and going in to loot any food and water inside.


    ¡°Looks like not everyone is stupid. They know food and water are the most important things right now,¡± Luo Lan said with a smile. From his behavior, he did not look like he was in a dangerous city at all.


    After a group of people had just raided a store, they ran into Luo Lan and a group of Qing Consortium soldiers looking at them with a smile. Their spoils were forcefully taken away.


    Luo Lan distributed the food to Zhou Qi and the others and said, ¡°This should be enough tost us for three days. Hide the food well on yourselves.¡±


    In this dangerous city, everyone was panicking. The protesters were no longer following Luo Lan¡¯s group. Instead, they went off looking for the other residents of Stronghold 61 and the Wang Consortium troops.


    Along the way, when they saw other people stealing food, they started doing the same. However, after they got their hands on some food, they secretly hid it on themselves and no longer looked as united as before.


    Zhou Qi said, ¡°Should we go and approach the Wang Consortium troops? We¡¯re still considered their guests, after all. From a political standpoint, they¡¯re obliged to protect us. They can¡¯t bear Qing Zhen¡¯s wrath otherwise, even if they aren¡¯t really to me.¡±


    If Luo Lan died here, Qing Zhen would seriouslyunch a nuclear strike at the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds! Even if the culprit behind his death was actually a nt!


    However, Luo Lan shook his head and said, ¡°The Wang Consortium must still have many surviving troops right now, but do you think firearms will give us any protection? It¡¯s not like the Experimentals are the threat right now. Old Zhou... at a critical moment like this, I guess we still have to rely on you! I¡¯ve known you¡¯re especially reliable since a long time ago. You¡¯re someone who will step forward at a critical moment like a good brother....¡±


    Zhou Qi curled his lips. ¡°I already made the disimer that I can¡¯t protect you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll pay more!¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°I can¡¯t protect you even if you pay me more money.¡± Zhou Qi roared, ¡°Can you recognize the situation we¡¯re in?!¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s find a house with fewer openings to set up ast-ditch defense in.¡± Luo Lan sighed and said, ¡°Hopefully, the rescue troops will arrive earlier and save us, although I don¡¯t know what they can do against this nt. Let¡¯s just hope the Wang Consortium doesn¡¯t choose to set the entire stronghold ame. If only Ren Xiaosu were around. We could kill our way out of this mess.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, right.¡± Zhou Qi said in a speechless manner, ¡°Look at the creeper vines outside. Even if Ren Xiaosu were here, he couldn¡¯t get us out of this ce!¡±


    ...


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was standing in front of the gate outside the stronghold. He was looking at the dense growth of creeper vines blocking the gate. He turned around and said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Can you control the vines?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue revealed a hesitant look. ¡°Master, do we really have to go inside? Didn¡¯t you hear the Wang Consortium soldiers say this stronghold is doomed? When they were fleeing for their lives from the stronghold walls just now, they already saw a third of the stronghold getting overrun by these creeper vines. Judging by how long has passed, the entire stronghold must already be covered in creeper vines. Luo Lan is definitely going to die, so do we really have to go in and save him?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Knowing Luo Lan¡¯s craftiness, I feel that he¡¯ll definitely survive until the end. Regardless of whether he¡¯s dead or alive, I still have to go in and take a look.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue muttered, ¡°Why are you so insistent about saving that fatass?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said seriously, ¡°Because he¡¯s my friend.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu had two extremes of personality. If it were not his friend, he wouldn¡¯t care whether the person was dead or alive. But if it were his friend, he would go to the ends of the earth for them.


    Ren Xiaosu could tell that Zhou Yingxue was puzzled, so he briefly exined, ¡°I have too few friends, so every one of them is precious. One dead person means one less friend.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Zhou Yingxue sighed and said, ¡°I tried to control the nt just now. It seems that because we¡¯re too far away from the creeper vines¡¯ roots, I can¡¯t gain control whatsoever.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the creeper vines and quietly estimated his chances if he were to force his way in.


    Then Zhou Yingxue added, ¡°But I can make it not attack me.¡±


    ...

 Chapter 602 - The maid’s power

    <h4>602 The maid¡°s power</h4>


    Back when Ren Xiaosu and the Razor Sharp Company had to attack the Beiwan River, everyone was still thinking about how to approach the battle. In the end, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops arrived and took the Beiwan River in a sh.


    Initially, everyone thought the Qing Consortium might have some other motives for offering their help. However, that was not the case. It was only because Qing Zhen and Luo Lan had found out about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s situation that they decided to help him attack the Zong Consortium. This linkup was also what shocked Zhang Xiaoman back then. No one in the Razor Sharp Company had expected the Qing Consortium would ce so much importance on their rtionship with Ren Xiaosu.


    Furthermore, Luo Lan had also stood by his side at the Yang Consortium¡¯s g back at Stronghold 88. When everyone was mocking them, Luo Lan stepped forward to back him.


    Now that Luo Lan was here in Stronghold 61, and since Ren Xiaosu had found out about his itinerary from the newspapers, it would be wrong of him to not go to Luo Lan¡¯s rescue.


    Ren Xiaosu had Zhou Yingxue test it out first. Just to be safe, he wanted to see if Zhou Yingxue would really not get attacked by the creeper vines.


    What surprised Ren Xiaosu was that when Zhou Yingxue walked towards the gate that had been blocked by the creeper vines, the vines started giving way to her. Zhou Yingxue turned around to look at her master. ¡°Master, I wasn¡¯t lying. They really won¡¯t attack me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and thought for a moment. ¡°Then can you make it not attack me as well?¡±


    The creeper vines had grown so dense it would be a little troublesome even if Ren Xiaosu could get into the stronghold. So it would be best if he could rely on Zhou Yingxue¡¯s power.


    But Zhou Yingxue replied, ¡°I doubt it...¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s give it a try.¡± Ren Xiaosu walked to Zhou Yingxue¡¯s side. But as he walked over, extremely aggressive creeper vines thrust towards him.


    Zhou Yingxue was just about to rush forward to save him when she saw the ck saber in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand flick by. The vines thrusting at him broke off and fell to the ground.


    ¡°Master, this is too dangerous.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Let¡¯s not go inside. As your maid, I definitely won¡¯t allow you to take such a risk!¡±


    To put it inly, Zhou Yingxue absolutely refused to go into such an eerie ce at this moment. Although she could now make the creeper vines not attack her, who knew what else could happen inside the stronghold?


    When Zhou Yingxue saw Ren Xiaosu frowning silently, she thought she had convinced him. Therefore, she added, ¡°Master, think about it. We¡¯ve stuck together for so long, so how can I watch you die?! It¡¯ll be very dangerous for you to go in there!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°Alright, I won¡¯t go in then, but you should be careful when going in alone.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was surprised.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°There a problem? Yesterday¡¯s Hope Media paper reported about the hotel Luo Lan checked into, so go and look for him there first. If he isn¡¯t there, you can go and take a look at the bank vaults. If he isn¡¯t at the bank vaults, go search for him in the center of the stronghold. Luo Lan¡¯s a smart person. Since the creeper vines are growing inwards from the outside, he¡¯ll only escape towards the city center.¡±


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Master, I suddenly thought of something. Actually, you won¡¯t get attacked if you hold my hand....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sneered, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say so earlier?¡±


    ¡°I just thought of it,¡± Zhou Yingxue replied. She was on the verge of breaking down. How could she have known her master would make her go into the stronghold alone? If she had known that, she would have said so earlier! ¡®Master, you¡¯re way too cruel!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu gave Zhou Yingxue a sidelong look. ¡°Can you really make the vines not attack me?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nodded vigorously. ¡°I guarantee that as long as you hold onto my hand, the creeper vine will definitely not attack you!¡±


    ¡°Alright, wait here for me.¡± Ren Xiaosu then he went back into town. Zhou Yingxue stood there in a daze, not knowing what Ren Xiaosu was nning.


    Ten minutester, Ren Xiaosu returned. Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu dumbfoundedly as he held a pair of gloves in his hands!


    ¡°Master, what¡¯re you doing?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s improper for men and women to be in close contact with each other. Let¡¯s put on the gloves!¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Master, do you really have to go that far!¡± Zhou Yingxue did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°It¡¯s just holding hands, isn¡¯t it? Are my hands that dirty to you?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t think too much into it. I just feel that we should avoid certain misunderstandings.¡± Ren Xiaosu remarked, ¡°After all, it¡¯ll be a little difficult to exin why I¡¯m holding another girl¡¯s hand. Although she won¡¯t see it, I have to be honest with her.¡±


    ¡°Master, you¡¯re way too innocent.¡± Zhou Yingxue had no energy to argue with him anymore. Her master standing before her had achieved so many amazing deeds, yet he was not even willing to hold hands with another woman!


    Ren Xiaosu had already put on his glove. Then he held Zhou Yingxue¡¯s hand and they tested it again. As expected, the creeper vines did not attack him anymore.


    Ren Xiaosu was initially worried that wearing the glove would make the power ineffective. In the end, he was relieved it worked. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue was rolling her eyes from next to him.


    Most of the refugees in town had already fled along with the soldiers that had just escaped from the stronghold. Only a few of them were still watching the developments.


    Qin Shengm who was standing not far away from Ren Xiaosum suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯ll go inside with you two!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Qin Sheng. The young Rider had a lot ofbat strength as well. If a battle were to break out, he would definitely be of great help.


    But this time, the enemy was not human or beast. It was a nt. Moreover, after going in, based on the character of the Riders, he might even try his best to save some of the stronghold residents. This might slow Ren Xiaosu down in his search for Luo Lan. So Ren Xiaosu decisively rejected him. ¡°You can just wait here in town. Aren¡¯t you Riders not supposed to enter the stronghold during your training period in town?¡±


    ¡°But this is a crisis! How can I just stand by and do nothing? Besides, even if I go in, my teacher might not necessarily find out,¡± Qin Sheng exined.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If you go in, I¡¯ll go to Luoyang City and report your actions.¡±


    Qin Sheng was confused.


    With that, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue walked into Stronghold 61. Qin Sheng was just about to rush in when the vines blocking the gate started closing up again, leaving him helpless.


    Qin Sheng suddenly realized there was probably no human who could face the creeper vines alone. Not even a superhuman could do that.


    A group of refugees nearby could only stand by and watch as Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue made their way into the stronghold. They could not understand why someone would voluntarily enter the stronghold at a time like this.


    How bold of them!


    Ren Xiaosu was considered a familiar face in town. Everyone only knew he was rich, but they did not know he was actually also a superhuman.


    And that person who addressed him as ¡°master¡± earlier, was she also a superhuman?


    After Ren Xiaosu entered the stronghold with Zhou Yingxue, the first thing that shocked him was that everything in sight had turned green.


    The dense growth of creeper vines was an ocean, while Zhou Yingxue and he were a miniscule presence in this huge expanse.

 Chapter 603 - The bank vaults

    <h4>603 The bank vaults</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu looked away from the ocean of green, he was startled to see that the Wang Consortium¡¯s artificial intelligence camera near the gate was turning slowly towards him.


    Ren Xiaosu pulled his hood up and wondered, ¡®The stronghold¡¯s on the verge of being destroyed, so why is the AI still working? Since it¡¯s still working, why wasn¡¯t there any warning given?¡¯


    A lot of people had mentioned the artificial intelligence to Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu was never really certain about how it worked. As Ren Xiaosu did not have any experience with things likeputers in his previous environment, he had always been curious about the artificial intelligence yet somewhat skeptical.


    Now that he thought about those who had praised the artificial intelligence, he felt like they might have been sarcastic.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu did not know if the Wang Consortium themselves thought that way.


    As he did not understand the artificial intelligence, Ren Xiaosu had no way of judging it.


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue walked cautiously along the streets. As they proceeded, Ren Xiaosu suddenly stepped on something. He looked down and saw a human skeleton under a dense growth of creeper vine leaves.


    It wasn¡¯t just one. Human skeletal remains were strewn all over the streets with the creeper vines wrapped tightly around them. It was a horrifying and terrifying sight to see.


    Ren Xiaosu could imagine how desperate the people were at the moment of the disaster.


    If it had been the Experimentals attacking, some of these people might have at least been able to escape by taking refuge at home. The Experimentals¡¯ awareness was not as heightened even though their physical fitness had improved significantly. As such, some people had managed to survive that ordeal.


    But it was different when faced with the creeper vines. After walking around for a long time, Ren Xiaosu did not even glimpse any survivors.


    Ren Xiaosu tried to remember, ¡®What was the name of the hotel that Luo Lan was staying at?¡¯


    He took out a copy of yesterday¡¯s newspaper from his storage space. After browsing for a long time, he finally found it in the papers: InterContinental Triumphant West Road.


    Ren Xiaosu led Zhou Yingxue to a newspaper stand first and found the map of Stronghold 61 there. Then they identified where Triumphant West Road was located.


    They were only about five or six kilometers away from the hotel, and it would take about half an hour to get there by walking.


    When they arrived outside the InterContinental Hotel, other than the skeletal remains of humans, there were also the banners the protesters had abandoned.


    ¡°It¡¯s here.¡± When Ren Xiaosu saw the banners, he was sure they were at the right ce. ¡°Let¡¯s check out the parking lot first.¡±


    When they arrived at the parking lot, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find the vehicles with the Qing Consortium¡¯s license tes already covered in vines. The tires of the vehicles looked like they had been punctured.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered why all of Luo Lan¡¯s vehicles always met with such unfortunate incidents. Back at the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold, didn¡¯t Yang Xiaojin destroy his cars one after another?


    And at this ce, his vehicles¡¯ tires were punctured.


    Ren Xiaosu took Zhou Yingxue upstairs and searched through the rooms one by one. However, he could not find Fatty Luo at all. Just searching from room to room alone took Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue an entire hour toplete.


    ¡°There¡¯s no sign of any corpses that might be Luo Lan¡¯s, so that means that he¡¯s already escaped from the hotel. That¡¯s a good thing,¡± Ren Xiaosu analyzed. ¡°But where¡¯ll he head?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s so fat, so he definitely can¡¯t run fast enough. Who knows, he might¡¯ve already been caught by the creeper vines,¡± said Zhou Yingxue, curling her lips.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°He brought his subordinates here. The Qing Consortium soldiers are far more loyal than you can imagine. If he can¡¯t run, they¡¯ll carry him and escape together.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Then let¡¯s go search the bank vaults?¡±


    Awhileter, a group of people who were hiding in a bank vault suddenly heard knockinge from the outside. The people who had locked themselves in the vault were shocked. Why would someone be knocking on the vault door at a time like this?


    ¡°Has rescue arrived?¡± Someone said excitedly, ¡°It must be the Wang Consortium troops who came. Who else would be knocking on the door at this time?¡±


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s the vines?¡±


    ¡°The vines don¡¯t know how to knock on doors!¡±


    ¡°The vines can even eat humans, so why would it be strange if they can knock on the door?¡±


    As they were discussing, a muffled shout came from outside. Due to the soundproofing of the vault, the volume was very soft when it reached the inside.


    When someone heard the shouting, they pressed their face against the walls and heard what was being said. ¡°Is there anyone inside? Don¡¯t open the door. It¡¯s full of vines out here. I just wanna ask if there¡¯s anyone named Luo Lan in there.¡±


    The people in the vault looked at each other in dismay. What on earth was going on? Why would someonee here to look for people?


    The person inside shouted, ¡°No, we don¡¯t have anyone called Luo Lan in here!¡±


    ¡°Alright, just stay well-hidden in there and don¡¯te out rashly. The vines out here haven¡¯t been dealt with yet, and the Wang Consortium troops are also not here yet.¡± Ren Xiaosu then led Zhou Yingxue away.


    The people in the bank vault were the first group of survivors Ren Xiaosu had encountered. This was a good sign. Based on Luo Lan¡¯s intelligence, he would definitely know he could hide in a bank vault too. As long as Luo Lan could get in there, he could wait until Ren Xiaosu came to rescue him!


    When the people in the vault heard the situation outside had calmed down, they were all dumbfounded. ¡°Who was that outside? It wasn¡¯t the Wang Consortium troops?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s definitely not them.¡± Someone said, ¡°But at a time like this, what kind of a powerful person can walk freely among those vines?¡±


    For a moment, their image of Ren Xiaosu suddenly became very mysterious and elevated. They looked at themselves hiding in the vault in such a pathetic state, and even their breathing had be a little difficult due to theck of air. Meanwhile, the person knocking on the vault door was treating the creeper vines as though they were nothing.


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue continued walking deeper into the stronghold. Zhou Yingxue suddenly whispered, ¡°Master, look over there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked in the direction Zhou Yingxue was pointing and was surprised to see a few people tied to a wall. The creeper vines were stabbed into their bodies, and blood was flowing out through the vines, making them appear red.


    However, these people were different from the skeletons Ren Xiaosu hade across. Although their eyes were closed and they seemed unconscious, they were clearly still alive!


    It was like these people were sources of nutrients the creeper vines were keeping for themselves.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to get closer to take a look, but Zhou Yingxue stopped him. ¡°Master, don¡¯t get too close. The creeper vine has a very strong instinct to protect its food and is highly territorial. If you get too close, it¡¯ll get angry and both of us will be goners.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What is the principle behind it not attacking you?¡±


    ¡°I assimted it with my power and let it think that we¡¯re part of it. So it¡¯s not that it doesn¡¯t attack us but that it hasn¡¯t discovered us yet,¡± Zhou Yingxue exined.


    ¡°But didn¡¯t you manage to control my Potato Shooter nts? Why can¡¯t you control the vines?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zhou Yingxue exined helplessly, ¡°Because I can¡¯t find its roots. If I want to gain control of it, I have to infuse my power into its roots. Master, why don¡¯t we go and look for its roots? As long as I can control it, won¡¯t the threat in the stronghold get resolved immediately?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stared numbly at the vast ocean of greenery before him. ¡°Look, my ass! Who could possibly find its roots in the midst of all this? Stop dreaming!¡±


    ¡°OK...¡±

 Chapter 604 - Even if I die, I need to get to Stronghold 61

    <h4>604 Even if I die, I need to get to Stronghold 61</h4>


    For the entire afternoon, many of the people who had taken shelter in the bank vaults across Stronghold 61 encountered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s efforts as he went around searching for a person.


    The survivors hiding in the vaults did not know how to react when they encountered this, with some people begging Ren Xiaosu to take them with him to escape. But after finding out Luo Lan was not in those vaults, Ren Xiaosu immediately left and headed to the next bank to continue his search.


    There were many banks in Stronghold 61, but Ren Xiaosu could not find Luo Lan even after searching all of the banks within a ten-kilometer radius of the InterContinental.


    Ren Xiaosu could feel his mood growing heavy. Everyone knew that all of the Wang Consortium¡¯s male residents were required to serve in the military.


    So right at the beginning, Ren Xiaosu felt that if a disaster were to befall a Wang Consortium stronghold, the Wang Consortium residents could deal with it better than the other consortiums¡¯ residents. But he was wrong. When everyone was facing a situation where they were helpless, the oue was still the same.


    It wasn¡¯t that the residents of the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold were physically weak, but that they had never faced such an enemy before.


    Ren Xiaosu held Zhou Yingxue¡¯s hand the entire way as he led her around everywhere they went. She looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s profile from the corner of her eye and suddenly could not recall when she first became known as his maidservant.


    In this stronghold engulfed by disaster, the city felt like it belonged to only the two of them.


    Even though Ren Xiaosu was holding her hand while wearing gloves.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu was in a very dangerous situation at this moment. It was very difficult for Ren Xiaosu to face such a massive creeper vinework by himself. If he were a little careless, he might even end up bing one of the skeletons lying around.


    The creeper vines had absorbed a lot of nutrients from the humans and was no longer a force that a lone supernatural being could take on.


    At this moment, if Zhou Yingxue suddenly let go of his hand, Ren Xiaosu would definitely end up in a predicament.


    But Zhou Yingxue realized Ren Xiaosu did not seem to be worried about something like that happening. In these current times, being trusted suddenly made Zhou Yingxue feel kind of blessed.


    As this thought ran through Zhou Yingxue¡¯s mind, she got so distracted she nearly tripped over the vines. It was still Ren Xiaosu who reacted fast enough to help her back on her feet.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked with a frown, ¡°Why are you spacing out?¡±


    ¡°Master, I¡¯m a little hungry...¡±


    ...


    Outside Stronghold 62, arge convoy of trucks suddenly drove towards the stronghold. Due to the overlyrge size of the convoy, the Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops instantly went on alert.


    Before the convoy could get any closer to the stronghold¡¯s perimeter, they were stopped by a group of heavily armed troops.


    The Wang Consortium troops pointed their guns at the convoy and said, ¡°Everyone in the trucks, get out of your vehicles. State the purpose of your visit and prepare to be inspected!¡±


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s troops were very well-trained. They had quickly formed a defensive formation to ensure there were no blind spots. If any suspicious movements were made by the people in the vehicles, the convoy would face the full force of their firepower.


    A slightly older middle-aged man jumped out of the lead truck. He looked like life had treated him harshly, his face weathered, his back a little hunched.


    After this person jumped out of the truck, he smiled apologetically and said, ¡°Hello, sirs, I¡¯m Wang Fugui, a trader! Didn¡¯t our Wang Consortium start trade rtions with Fortress 178? I¡¯m probably one of the first groups of merchants to travel to the Northwest!¡±


    The Wang Consortium officer frowned and said, ¡°Why do you have such arge convoy?¡±


    Wang Fugui gave a wry smile. Actually, he did not want to bring back so many goods with him either. But if he did not do so, Zhang Xiaoman would not have allowed them to leave!


    From the looks of it, there were as many as 71 trucks behind him. This was the main reason why the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops were rmed. They had never seen a merchant with such arge convoy before.


    ¡°What are you guys transporting in the trucks?¡± the officer asked. ¡°You don¡¯t have to call me ¡®sir.¡¯ My name is Wang Lin, and I¡¯m the battalionmander of this unit. Speaking of which, we¡¯re rted through our surnames.¡±


    Building trade rtions with the Northwest was one of the foremost matters for the entire Wang Consortium. Therefore, the higher-ups had ordered the troops to treat the merchants well. If they were found to have vited the rules or tried to extort the merchants, they should just get ready to be transferred out or get discharged from the military.


    So when Wang Lin heard the other party state he was a merchant, his attitude softened a lot.


    However, they still had to inspect the vehicles carefully. This was not something that they could be sloppy about.


    Wang Fugui exined, ¡°There¡¯s potassium chloride, nickel ore, and... well, kinda everything...¡±


    Wang Fugui smiled wryly again. The cargo Zhang Xiaoman had loaded up for him was so much it was almost unimaginable. Furthermore, there were so many types of goods it would be impossible for him to finish listing them all for the Wang Consortium troops in a short time. He even had an entire truckload of wolfberries from the Northwest. Apparently, some of the big shots in the Central ins liked drinking wolfberries soaked in water, especially the ck variety of wolfberries.


    Wang Lin had a look at the size of Wang Fugui¡¯s convoy and ribbed, ¡°Bro, don¡¯t mind us; it¡¯s just a routine inspection. This is the first time we¡¯vee across such arge convoy as yours, so please forgive us for having to check so thoroughly.¡±


    With that, he gestured with his hand, and twopanies of soldiers hurriedly raised their guns and approached the convoy. They only stood down when they were able to confirm the entire convoy was only carrying cargo with them.


    There were some weapons and guns in the trucks, but Wang Fugui instructed the truck drivers behind him to hand over their firearms obediently. Throughout the course of the inspection, no trouble arose.


    When the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops saw the firearms, they did not question them further either. These days, if traders did not equip themselves with any weapons, then the goods they were transporting might as well be gifted to the bandits staked out along the trade route.


    After Wang Lin found nothing suspicious, and with Wang Fugui¡¯s convoy being sorge, he invited Wang Fugui into the military base to wait. This was because the Wang Consortium had to personally receive the goods after arrival so they could set the prices.


    As the Wang Consortium intended to operate the trade route for a long time, they had to be transparent on the prices as well.


    Wang Lin exined to Wang Fugui, ¡°Bro, please wait here in the base for a while. Officials from the stronghold will soone to take these goods.¡±


    Wang Fugui nodded with a smile and agreed to wait. He thought about it and realized that because of Ren Xiaosu, he was treated like a VIP upon his arrival in the Northwest. And because he had transported so many goods from the Northwest, he was also treated as a VIP by the Wang Consortium. Perhaps this could be considered as a type of karma.


    Wang Fugui suddenly saw a lot of soldiers in the military base assembling with their field packs. Curious, he asked, ¡°Where are you going off to?¡±


    ¡°Eh, it isn¡¯t really a secret.¡± Wang Lin said, ¡°Have a look at this newspaper, bro. You¡¯ve only just returned from the Northwest, so you don¡¯t know what¡¯s happened here in the Central ins.¡± As Wang Lin brought this matter up, his smile slowly faded.


    Wang Fugui looked at the newspaper and was surprised to see that the news of Stronghold 61 getting attacked by a nt was the headlines on Hope Media¡¯s newspaper. He said in shock, ¡°nts these days have be this scary?!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Wang Lin sighed and said, ¡°We didn¡¯t expect something like that either. The AI never defined nts as dangerous threats before, so we didn¡¯t get any warning of such an attack. Of course, I¡¯m not entirely sure about the specifics of the situation either.¡±


    But Wang Fugui had already flipped to the fifth page of the newspaper. He looked down at the huge nk space below and saw the words: ¡°Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well.


    ¡°61.¡±


    When Wang Fugui saw this, he could feel goosebumps explode all over his body. He suddenly stood up and walked outside.


    Wang Lin wondered, ¡°Bro, where are you going?¡±


    ¡°I need to get to Stronghold 61!¡± Wang Fugui said.


    ¡°Wait a minute, why do you have to go to Stronghold 61?¡± Wang Lin said in surprise, ¡°Didn¡¯t you just read the news? It¡¯s very dangerous over there at the moment!¡±


    ¡°No, I have to go there no matter how dangerous it might be!¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°My family¡¯s at Stronghold 61!¡±


    Wang Lin was stunned. ¡°Are you not afraid of death?¡±


    ¡°I am.¡± Wang Fugui said bitterly, ¡°But even so, I still need to go.¡±

 Chapter 605 - A desperate situation

    <h4>Chapter 605 A desperate situation</h4>


    In Luoyang City, all the reporters of Hope Media were sitting quietly in the headquarters and waiting for a call. One of their reporters had been assigned to follow Luo Lan to Stronghold 61. And coincidentally, this reporter was fortunate enough to have survived the creeper vine attack and informed Hope Media about it over the satellite phone.


    Then the reporter had to end the call in a hurry as he was fleeing for his life. Meanwhile, everyone at Hope Media was left speechless by the developments. Humanity had just experienced an invasion by the Experimentals, and now, they were facing yet another disaster.


    The chief editor, Jiang Xu,mented at how bad news had beening nonstop since the previous year.


    All of a sudden, Jiang Xu caught sight of the advertisement published on the fifth page of their newspaper beside him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well.


    ¡°61.¡±


    Jiang Xu had also been thinking about this matter quite a bit. What exactly did ¡°61¡± mean? At that time, although he graciously promised Ren Xiaosu he would publish the advertisement for him, Jiang Xu was actually hoping the newspaper would remain impartial so it would not be a tool for others to convey their messages.


    However, he liked those words too much that he couldn¡¯t agree to not publish them.


    But now that he saw the ¡°61¡± again, it gave him a slightly different feeling this time. Could the young man have hinted that Stronghold 61 would face a disaster such as the one that was happening? But how could that young man possibly predict this?


    Did that young man nt the creeper vine?


    Jiang Xu felt it was highly unlikely, yet he couldn¡¯t help associating ¡°61¡± with the ongoing situation. However, he just could not figure out exactly what this was all about.


    That young man suddenly became very mysterious to Jiang Xu.


    At this moment, the call everyone was waiting for suddenly arrived. Everyone looked at Jiang Xu as the phone¡¯s ringing pulled him out of his thoughts. He picked up the phone and said, ¡°This is Jiang Xu.¡±


    ¡°Chief Editor! It¡¯s Zhou Tao! I¡¯m currently at the center of Stronghold 61.¡±


    Jiang Xu immediately asked, ¡°Are you injured? Have you found a ce to seek shelter?¡±


    Jiang Xu did not directly ask about what was happening in Stronghold 61 at this moment and started worrying about Zhou Tao¡¯s safety instead. However, Zhou Tao interrupted Jiang Xu, ¡°Chief Editor, let me give you a brief update on the situation first. Otherwise, it might be toote.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead.¡± Jiang Xu pressed the speakerphone button. At the side, a stenographer had already prepared a stenotype to record the details.


    It was Jiang Xu¡¯s responsibility as the chief editor to be concerned about his subordinates.


    However, Zhou Tao, who was field reporting, also had his duties and pride as a Hope Media reporter.


    ¡°Yesterday, half of the stronghold was suddenly invaded by creeper vines. But for some reason, it suddenly stopped movingter and that left the center of the stronghold temporarily safe. But after 24 hours, it started spreading and continued its invasion. However, the area that was attacked this time was not that big. Six hourster, which was just a while ago, it started to slowly spread towards the center of the stronghold again. Right now, there¡¯s only an area of a few thousand square meters left in the center of the stronghold where the residents can take shelter in. However, the frequency of its attacks has gotten higher and higher. I don¡¯t know when it¡¯ll again start threatening the lives of everyone here,¡± Zhou Tao said anxiously.


    Jiang Xu fell silent. A few thousand square meters did not sound like it was a small area, but in the context of the entire stronghold, this area was basically a drop in the ocean.


    Even in such arge stronghold, there were actually not that many ces where humans could hide.


    Jiang Xu said, ¡°I¡¯ve already received news that the Wang Consortium troops have set off for Stronghold 61 and will probably arrive there by this afternoon. As for whether they have a way to deal with the creeper vines, that¡¯s still unknown....¡±


    Zhou Tao said on the other end of the line, ¡°Please tell my parents that I love them. I might have argued with them often when I was young, but I realized the sacrifices they made for me after I grew up. Also, please tell Zhang Liangyue not to wait for my return.¡±


    Jiang Xu understood from these words that resembled a person¡¯sst words that Zhou Tao knew his situation. Before the Wang Consortium troops could arrive at Stronghold 61, the creeper vines would definitely get to all of them. It was toote!


    ¡°Do you regret being a reporter?¡± Jiang Xu sighed.


    Noisy screaming came from the other end of the line. Zhou Tao said anxiously, ¡°The creeper vines have started moving again. I¡¯m now heading towards a store with Luo Lan and the others...¡±


    Beep beep beep. Only the busy signal came through on the call. Meanwhile, the editorial department at Hope Media had fallen silent. Many of the female staff members were crying so hard they could no longer speak. It was very rare for them to experience a forever parting.


    ...


    ¡°Hurry up and run!¡± Zhou Qi carried Luo Lan on his back and took off with loping strides. Meanwhile, the Qing Consortium soldiers continued guarding him, ready to defend against any creeper vines that might get near them at any moment.


    There were not many ces where they could hide anymore. The creeper vines behind them were a huge wave approaching, and a mishmash of screams and cries of the stronghold residents reverberated around them.


    Luo Lan broke intoughter while on Zhou Qi¡¯s back. Zhou Qi frowned and said, ¡°Everyone is fleeing for their lives, so what are youughing about back there!¡±


    ¡°I remembered something.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°Do you remember when we were young and hanging out on the streets, a group of Qing Consortium kids would follow me and Qing Zhen around to pick fights with gangsters?¡±


    Zhou Qi alsoughed. ¡°How can I forget? Qing Zhen was still quite timid at that time, but he was always the most ruthless with his attacks. And when we were piggyback jousting, that bitch, Qing Zhen, would always go for cheap shots while riding on our backs.¡±


    Although they were fleeing for their lives, the two of them were bantering about unrted matters and reminiscing about the past. It almost felt like they were doing so because it would be toote if they did not reminisce now.


    ¡°Whenever I got into a fight at that time, I would always get beaten up by my old man after I returned home.¡± Luo Lan said with augh, ¡°Qing Zhen would just stand by the side with an innocent look on his face like I was the one who led him astray. Thinking about it now, that period was actually the happiest time for me. You had not officially joined the Qing Consortium at that time, and Qing Zhen was also not the Qing Consortium¡¯s Shadow yet.¡±


    But those wonderful times flew by. A huge turning point during that period cut off the happy times from Luo Lan, Qing Zhen, and others.


    ¡°Do you think we can escape from here?¡± Zhou Qi suddenly asked.


    ¡°Probably not, unless a miracle happens,¡± Luo Lan said calmly.


    ¡°What will happen to Qing Zhen if we die here?¡± Zhou Qi asked again.


    ¡°He¡¯s already the Qing Consortium¡¯s leader. We should probably think about what we should be doing instead, right?¡± Luo Lan asked.


    While they were talking, their group of over a dozen people arrived at the entrance of a midsize supermarket. Zhou Qi ran inside while shouting, ¡°Pull down the roller shutter!¡±


    Facing the creeper vines closing in on them aggressively, a few of the Qing Consortium soldiers pulled down the roller shutter without any fear on their faces. Right when the roller door was halfway down, the creeper vines reached them. What was even more unfortunate was that the door got jammed as well.


    A toonmander of the Qing Consortium soldiers shouted, ¡°No one is allowed to retreat! We must get the roller shutter down no matter what!¡±


    At the veryst moment, the roller shutter finally budged and locked everyone inside the midsize supermarket!

 Chapter 606 - Rescuing Li Ran

    <h4>Chapter 606 Rescuing Li Ran</h4>


    An hour before the creeper vine began its invasion into the center of the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue were making their way towards the city center.But when they passed by the gate of a courtyard house, Zhou Yingxue suddenly saw some banners scattered on the ground below her feet. She was stunned for a moment before saying, ¡°Master, why are there so many banners lying on the ground here? There¡¯s far more banners here than where Luo Lan and his entourage were staying.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also became curious. When he crouched down and peeled away the creeper vine leaves, he was surprised to see a fan sign made out of LED lights. The sign was still lit and it said, ¡°Ranran, we love you!¡±


    ¡°Wait! Ranran? Why does it sound so familiar? I feel like I¡¯ve heard that somewhere before,¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. ¡°Master, did you forget Li Ran¡¯s stage name?¡±


    She looked at the courtyard housepletely covered by creeper vines. ¡°Could this be Li Ran¡¯s house?¡±


    After Zhou Yingxue¡¯s reminder, Ren Xiaosu finally remembered that Li Ran¡¯s stage name was indeed Ranran. Furthermore, he had read in the newspaper that Li Ran had safely returned to Stronghold 61.


    At that time, this news even headlined the entertainment section of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Even if this is her house, she definitely won¡¯t have survived. The creeper vines have already enveloped her whole home.¡±


    ¡°Master, let¡¯s go in and have a look.¡± Zhou Yingxue pleaded, ¡°Li Ran is actually quite a nice person. Besides, the people around here have been captured as food reserves by the creeper vines. Their blood is slowly being absorbed for its nutrients, so maybe Li Ran might still be alive?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Since when did you get so chummy with her?¡±


    ¡°Li Ran told me that she actually had a very sad life. She was the illegitimate daughter of an authoritative figure in the Wang Consortium, and her mother used to be a servant in the Wang n. After she got pregnant, she was chased out of the family.¡± Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°Fortunately, both mother and daughter did not starve to death as someone secretly took care of them. Li Ran does not have many friends either as the people surrounding her are all after her money. She told me a lot that night, so I took pity on her.¡±


    It was because of the copse of Stronghold 74 that Li Ran revealed her true self under such vulnerable circumstances. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s teenage years were also very sad. Her mother was bedridden, so she had no choice but to sell herself to the Yang Consortium and be a spy. As such, the two of them found sce in each other.


    Furthermore, Zhou Yingxue was not a cold-blooded person. Since she knew Li Ran might be inside, she naturally wanted to see if she could save her.


    ¡°Master,¡± Zhou Yingxue said seriously, ¡°you¡¯re actually not that cold-blooded either, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go in and have a look.¡±


    The two of them pushed aside the creeper vines outside the house. Upon contact, the feelers on the creeper vines suddenly hardened into spikes. Only when they did not detect any prey did the feelers soften again.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he could feel his scalp going numb. Could a normal person possibly survive if they encountered such a monster?


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that trying to snatch its food would make it fly into a rage?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zhou Yingxue muttered, ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be a big deal if we just snatch one....¡±


    When the two of them pushed open the door and entered, they saw Li Ran hanging from the middle of the vi¡¯s living room with countless vines holding her up. Currently, Li Ran¡¯s face was pallid.


    Vines were wrapped around Li Ran¡¯s limbs. The sight of the strange vines and the fragile youngdy¡¯s body suspended in the air gave the vibe that it was a beautiful tribute. There was a strange sense of beauty to it.


    Zhou Yingxue hurriedly pulled Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand and went over to Li Ran. She tried to get a feel of Li Ran¡¯s pulse, but before her hand could get close, the feelers of the creeper vine immediately stopped her.


    However, when the feelers came to the front of Zhou Yingxue, they stopped again and lingered in the air around her. It seemed to have been confused by her presence.


    Ren Xiaosu was sure the creeper vine did not have a sense of hearing. And it probably wasn¡¯t that intelligent either. Otherwise, Zhou Yingxue would not have stayed hidden for so long.


    That one Experimental was a highly intelligent being, so Ren Xiaosu was fearful that this creeper vine might also be a highly intelligent creature. If that were the case, it would be really troublesome.


    He carefully sized up the feelers and said, ¡°I¡¯ll lop off the vines that are binding Li Ran¡¯s limbs in a bit. Remember, if the creeper vines attack me in rage, you must give up on saving Li Ran immediately. I¡¯ll carry you and we¡¯ll escape together, understand?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Zhou Yingxue nodded.


    As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ck saber appeared out of thin air. In the blink of an eye, he chopped off all the vines binding Li Ran¡¯s body.


    Zhou Yingxue did not immediately try to catch Li Ran, who was falling to the ground. Instead, she reached out to her pale hand and grabbed it!


    A momentter, countless feelers attacked Ren Xiaosu. The vines in the vi were all twisting wildly and chaotically.


    Ren Xiaosu was fully prepared for this. But when the feelers reached him, they suddenly stopped moving again!


    A sharp spike was hovering right at the tip of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nose. Zhou Yingxue realized Ren Xiaosu had not budged an inch. He did not even bat an eyelid.


    She had received professional training, so she knew that when faced with danger, flinching was a very natural response humans would have. But it was in the blink of an eye that the oue of a battle could end up very differently.


    As such, powerful warriors would undergo training to ovee such instinctive reactions. It was just like how Yang Xiaojin was able to calm herself by taking a deep breath. These were all behaviors that went against physical instincts.


    But this was also a sign that one had truly mastered their own body!


    ¡°Carry Li Ran. Let¡¯s get out of here quickly,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, clearly still feeling a vague sense of danger. Although the vines had stopped moving, Ren Xiaosu felt it seemed to have realized something this time.


    When the two of them rushed out of the vi, Zhou Yingxue was holding one of Li Ran¡¯s hands and carrying her on her shoulder like she were a bag of rice.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the creeper vines in the vi. The feelers had followed them out of the vi, but after Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue got far enough away, they stopped chasing after them.


    Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. Honestly, if Zhou Yingxue had not repeatedly pleaded with him, he would not have taken such a risk for Li Ran.


    Li Ran, who was lying on Zhou Yingxue¡¯s shoulder, suddenly let out a whimper as she regained consciousness. Zhou Yingxue ced her down. ¡°Master, she¡¯s still alive!¡±


    Li Ran had more than a dozen wounds on her body that were still bleeding after she was stabbed by the creeper vines. Furthermore, a lot of her blood had been sucked out by the nt, so she was probably still in shock.


    Ren Xiaosu took out the ck medicine and was about to apply it on Li Ran when he realized her clothes were riddled with holes. Moreover, some of the wounds were located in very sensitive areas.


    ¡°Apply the medicine on her,¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Zhou Yingxue stoically.


    Zhou Yingxue blinked innocently at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Master, I¡¯m holding your hand with my right hand and her hand with my left, so how am I supposed to apply the medicine on her?¡±


    ¡°Are you doing this on purpose? You just want to watch things happen, don¡¯t you?¡± Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°Master, don¡¯t keep making it sound like you¡¯re suffering.¡± Zhou Yingxue could not help but startining. ¡°We¡¯re the girls here, and you¡¯re clearly the one who has nothing to lose, OK?! So why¡¯re you making it sound like we¡¯re taking advantage of you!¡±

 Chapter 607 - I believe that she“ll pull through

    <h4>Chapter 607 I believe that she¡°ll pull through</h4>


    Zhou Yingxue was just stating the objective truth. Since both her hands were holding something, she was really unable to apply the medicine on Li Ran.If she let go of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand, the creeper vines would probably swallow him up immediately.


    Furthermore, Zhou Yingxue was only interested in watching the show right now. ¡®Master, you want to remain pure? You even needed to put on gloves before holding my hand? Let¡¯s see what you¡¯re gonna do now!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°Forget it, there¡¯s no need to apply the medicine. I believe that she¡¯ll pull through.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was confused.


    This was a matter of life and death, yet he simply decided not to apply the medicine just like that? ¡®Master, do you still have a shred of human decency left?¡¯


    Li Ran, who was unconscious with them, suddenly said, ¡°I can apply it myself....¡±


    Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu looked down and saw that Li Ran hade to. She was struggling to take the ck medicine from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let go of my hand, or those creeper vines will start attacking you again,¡± Zhou Yingxue added. The show was over, and Li Ran¡¯s strong desire to survive made her regain consciousness.


    Li Ran applied the ck medicine to her wounds with much difficulty using only one hand. The blood flow to her face had visibly started recovering. Not only did the ck medicine have healing properties, but it also encouraged the regeneration of blood in the body.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if the pce had unlocked such a powerful trauma medicine for him as the first item because it was afraid he would identally die?


    Then what the hell was about the effect of the ck medicine when taken orally?!


    Li Ran could feel her strength recovering quickly and was even surprised. ¡°What medicine is this? It¡¯s so effective!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a secret ancestral remedy that¡¯s only passed down the male side,¡± Ren Xiaosu remarked.


    As soon as he finished speaking, Li Ran looked at him with a glimmer in her eyes. ¡°Did youe here specially to save me?¡±


    Li Ran wanted to reach out to hug Ren Xiaosu. However, Zhou Yingxue, who was in between them, pulled her away and said, ¡°I think you must be daydreaming. Don¡¯t keep saying ¡®you¡¯ when it was both of us who came to your rescue. Please say ¡®you two¡¯ instead! Why have you disregarded me entirely? And we did note here specially to save you. Stop being so shameless.¡±


    Li Ran found it a little regrettable that she did not manage to hug Ren Xiaosu. Didn¡¯t a damsel marry the hero who rescued her? Why was it now that a damsel was offering her hand in marriage to the hero, the hero looked so unhappy? This did not seem to go with the storyline at all!


    But there was no time to think about that. The creeper vines in the entire stronghold were suddenly starting to get restless. Ren Xiaosu looked at the vines below his feet starting to move towards the center of the stronghold like a wave.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised.


    ¡°It seems like... a new hunt has started,¡± Zhou Yingxue said.


    ¡°Let¡¯s hurry to the city center then!¡±


    ...


    While Luo Lan and the others were taking shelter in the supermarket, their field of vision of the outside waspletely blocked by the roller shutter door. The store had be theirst ce of refuge.


    The Qing Consortium soldiers surrounded Zhou Qi and Luo Lan while Zhou Qi sat cross-legged on the floor. The bright blue in his eyes was constantly dimming.


    The frenzied creeper vines prated through the gaps in the roller shutter door, but no matter how many of them got through, Zhou Qi would use his superpower to draw out the water. In the blink of an eye, the vines dried up and turned into a fine powder.


    ¡°How much longer can you hold out for?¡± Luo Lan asked.


    ¡°At most an hour.¡± Zhou Qi had a worried look on his face. He asked the reporter from Hope Media, Zhou Tao, ¡°You said the Wang Consortium troops will only be arriving in the afternoon? What time is it right now?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s 11 AM.¡± Zhou Tao sat against the corner. He found a pen and notebook in the supermarket and was writing nonstop in it.


    Luo Lan asked, ¡°What are you writing?¡±


    Zhou Tao, whose face was covered in dust, said, ¡°I want to record in detail everything that happened after the disaster began. I wasn¡¯t able to exin everything over the phone, so it has to be written down. The creeper vines should only be interested in lifeforms. After I finish writing everything, I¡¯ll call the chief editor and tell him where to find this journal. Once the Wang Consortium troops arrive and take care of the creeper vines, the reporters from Hope Media wille and retrieve this journal. It will be the most authentic firsthand ount they can get.¡±


    Humans could die, but whatever that was recorded had to be left behind for the world to know. This was Zhou Tao¡¯s attitude and dignity as a reporter.


    Luo Lan chuckled as he sized Zhou Tao up. Zhou Tao¡¯s face was still stained with blood. He had scraped his palms in a fall earlier. He said to Zhou Tao, ¡°I used to think that people from the Central ins were all quite stupid. Just look at the Wang Consortium. They¡¯re clearly an ambitious lot, yet they insist on ndering our Qing Consortium. But I wasn¡¯t expecting you Hope Media reporters to be so likable.¡±


    Zhou Tao did not even look up. ¡°We¡¯re just doing our duty.¡±


    ¡°With people like you around, the heritage of humanity will never truly be lost. In any case, this is not something I can achieve,¡± Luo Lan admired.


    Fatty Luo¡¯s greatest strengths were that he was loyal and sensible. Second, he would never be jealous of others. If the other party were stronger than him, he would simply ept it. It wasn¡¯t like he had anything to lose by epting the fact.


    Luo Lan looked at Zhou Qi again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I made youe to the Central ins.¡±


    Zhou Qi curled his lips. ¡°I came here because there was money to be earned, so what¡¯s there to be sorry about? Riches are earned through danger; I understand that perfectly.¡±


    ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t have to work so hard to earn your money.¡± Luo Lan sighed and said, ¡°Although you worship money, Qing Zhen and I actually see you as our best friend. We¡¯re just worried you don¡¯t feel the same way about us.¡±


    Zhou Qi was silent for a moment before saying, ¡°You¡¯re still lying even though we¡¯re on the brink of death? Aren¡¯t you afraid of being condemned to hell for that?¡±


    Luo Lan chuckled and Zhou Qi also startedughing. The Qing Consortium soldiers next to them could not understand why these two big shots were suddenlyughing when they were facing imminent death.


    Zhou Qi said, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect I would end up dying together with a fatty like you. How unfortunate!¡± He was reaching his limit. ¡°If I get out of this alive, can you bestow that secretary of Qing Zhen¡¯s to me?¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Why are you always so obsessed with my brother¡¯s secretary¡ª¡±


    As he said that, the creeper vines outside seemed to have sensed that Zhou Qi was exhausted. Suddenly, arge number of vines swept into the supermarket. The creeper vines did not start attacking the people in the store but forcefully used its vines to remove the roller shutter.


    Amid the noise, Luo Lan stared dumbfoundedly as the roller shutter got thrown out by the creeper vines, leaving the entire supermarket with a gaping hole. He muttered, ¡°No way!¡±


    Zhou Qi did not know if Luo Lan was answering him or reacting to the situation in front of them.


    However, Zhou Qi was stunned when he saw the sight outside. ¡°Look out there. Is that three people walking towards us?¡±


    Luo Lan took a closer look. ¡°Am I seeing things? Isn¡¯t that Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    The entire time they were fleeing, Luo Lan had kept rambling to himself about how they would definitely not die if only Ren Xiaosu were around.


    When Luo Lan was muttering that to himself, Zhou Qi felt some resentment. But now he was convinced.


    Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue, and Li Ran were walking hand in hand over the creeper vines like it was nothing!


    Amid the cries, the chaos, and the tumult of the world, everyone was trying their hardest to stay alive as memories of their lives shed past.


    But right at this moment, three people were holding hands as they strolled through the bem in front of them. It almost looked like those three people were going on a pic or flying a kite.


    Time seemed to have slowed down. In everyone¡¯s vision, the three people were walking so slowly it felt like the scene was moving forward frame by frame. It was a scene that shattered everyone¡¯s worldview.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Luo Lan, he waved at him in pleasant surprise. It was as though they were old friends who had reunited on a street corner and decided to go for a scrumptious meal ofmb stew.


    Zhou Qi was convinced. He was utterly convinced.


    It was already shocking enough that there were still people alive in the sea of violent creeper vines. But those people were even holding hands too? What the hell?! Were they out there going shopping or something?!


    This was simply too bizarre!

 Chapter 608 - The mysterious saber

    <h4>Chapter 608 The mysterious saber</h4>


    Luo Lan looked at the three people outside and ignored the creeper vines sweeping towards him. ¡°Zhou Qi, are you convinced now?¡±Zhou Qi, almost at death¡¯s door, said in a daze, ¡°I¡¯m convinced, I¡¯m truly convinced.¡±


    Previously, in Zhou Qi¡¯s opinion, no matter how amazing Ren Xiaosu might be, he was still only a superhuman like him.


    Any superhuman would think they were extraordinary, and it was not like some of them had an extra arm or a leg, right? Zhou Qi felt that even if he were to go up against Li Shentan, he would not necessarily lose to him. He might not be able to take him head on, but he could always find ways to assassinate him.


    Moreover, Zhou Qi was one of the earlier superhumans to awaken their superpowers, so his physical fitness also surpassed most of the current crop of superhumans.


    Therefore, when Luo Lan kept mentioning Ren Xiaosu in the presence of Zhou Qi, it annoyed him very much. It was as though Luo Lan deemed Zhou Qi to be super useless.


    But now that he had a reference point, it wasn¡¯t the same anymore. The other party was walking leisurely over the creeper vines he could not defeat. He was even holding hands with two women as he walked towards them. The visual impact of this sight was too much.


    But more importantly, why was he holding the women¡¯s hands despite it being such a dangerous situation?!


    Just as the creeper vines were about to entwine Luo Lan and the others, the dark shadow of a saber suddenly shed in front of them. It went past so quickly they could not make out what it was, and itpletely severed the creeper vines in front of them!


    Zhou Qi suddenly looked up at Ren Xiaosu and saw the young man holding a ck saber in his right hand. However, Zhou Qi did not understand how the young man managed to sh through the vines even though they were still a few hundred meters apart.


    The sh was extremely mystifying.


    It had to be mysterious! In the past, Ren Xiaosu had used the Shadow Door to smack Luo Lan on his head. His actions had to be quick, or Luo Lan would realize it.


    The creeper vine whose feelers had been severed became enraged. Although it was a low intelligence lifeform, even an idiot would fight back after being attacked!


    In its perception, Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue, and Li Ran were still ¡°invisible.¡± Therefore, it focused all of its anger on Luo Lan¡¯s group.


    A momentter, Luo Lan could only watch helplessly as a huge green wave of creeper vines came mming towards them. The vines were tangled together like a gigantic hand.


    Luo Lan despaired. Perhaps this was not a power any supernatural being stood a chance against.


    However, he suddenly felt like he had no regrets. Just as he had said to Zhou Qi, he and Qing Zhen had always regarded Zhou Qi as their best friend. They were just worried he did not see them as his friends.


    He also felt the same towards Ren Xiaosu.


    Luo Lan had always been very envious of Ren Xiaosu and admired him a lot. He already considered Ren Xiaosu to be a very good friend. Otherwise, he would not have invited Ren Xiaosu to the Qing Consortium on so many asions, nor would he have sent an armored brigade to attack the Beiwan River on his behalf.


    However, he was most worried Ren Xiaosu did not consider him a friend.


    But Ren Xiaosu had actuallye to this dangerous city to rescue him! Just how many people in this world would truly risk their lives for their friends?


    Luo Lan felt he should be content. With a friend like this, he shouldn¡¯t have any more regrets in life.


    Luo Lan shouted, ¡°You don¡¯t have to save me anymore. Hurry up and escape! We can¡¯t defeat it.¡±


    However, he saw Ren Xiaosu run towards them without a second word!


    The countless nanomachines in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body started surging like crazy. It was as though the nanomachines were hungry for some action. When these cute little guys sensed their owner¡¯s call, they cheered inside his body and became restless!


    The nanomachines ignored the danger and seeped out of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bloodstream, forming tiny honeb structures on the surface of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s skin and instantly turning into the strongest armor for their owner!


    This transformation was a long journey for the nanomachines. Emerging from the blood vessels to the surface of the skin, a great adventure was about to begin.


    But this transformation zoomed by for Luo Lan and the others. It almost felt like Ren Xiaosu was racing against that gigantic green hand. The only thing was that time seemed to be on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side.


    From their point of view, Ren Xiaosupleted the entire process of forming the armor in an instant. That handsome young man had transformed into a steel beast!


    As Ren Xiaosu made a mad dash to rescue the others, the creeper vines started attacking him as he had let go of Zhou Yingxue¡¯s hand. However, the creeper vines¡¯ spiked feelers were a little helpless against the armor. The armor could not even be prated by bullets and could be considered one of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s greatest reliances at the moment.


    When the gigantic green hand was about to hit them, Luo Lan excitedly watched as Ren Xiaosu rushed up to them. Then Ren Xiaosu turned to face the entirety of that green wave by himself as he leaped forward to meet it!


    Luo Lan could only see the back of the armored Ren Xiaosu. He was soaring against the sunlight and flying toward the creeper vines with the ck saber, splitting the ¡°palm¡± of that green wave from its ¡°hand¡±!


    Li Ran saw everything from afar. So this was the reason why Zhou Yingxue was willing to submit to Ren Xiaosu as his maidservant. That young man was always able to give people an unparalleled sense of security at the most dangerous times.


    That power...


    ¡°Quickly save them! Make use of this time!¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted as he descended from midair.


    Zhou Yingxue rushed over to the group with Li Ran. Before the creeper vine could organize another counterattack, she quickly shouted to everyone, ¡°Luo Lan, quick! Grab ahold of Li Ran¡¯s hand. And the people at the back, grab Luo Lan¡¯s hand! Form a chain and hold each other¡¯s hands. Don¡¯t panic!¡±


    Everyone other than Zhou Tao had been through countless battles, so they immediately understood what Zhou Yingxue meant. It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu was holding hands with her earlier. So it turned out she had some kind of power that allowed her to not get attacked by the creeper vines!


    The Qing Consortium soldiers carried Luo Lan and ran to Zhou Yingxue¡¯s side. They forced Luo Lan¡¯s hand into Zhou Yingxue¡¯s hand and brought the exhausted Zhou Qi to his side as well. Following this, the Qing Consortium soldiers formed an orderly chain, holding hands, while the toonmander held Zhou Qi¡¯s hand.


    Usually, in desperate times like this, if people realized that holding Zhou Yingxue¡¯s hand would save them, they would definitely rush forward and try to grab her hand instead. This would cause the entire situation to descend into utter chaos.


    But the Qing Consortium soldiers did not do that. Instead, theypleted the chain in an instant with the toonmander at the front while the rest of the soldiers formed up behind him.


    Thest soldier even had time to look out for the Hope Media reporter, Zhou Tao!


    The moment everyone gripped each other¡¯s hand tightly, the creeper vines sweeping towards them suddenly lost their target. Ren Xiaosu did not continue fighting the creeper vines and grabbed Zhou Tao¡¯s hand. He said, ¡°Let¡¯s go! We have to leave this ce before it realizes what¡¯s happening!¡±


    Since he had found Luo Lan, his mission was aplished. He had to evacuate from here as quickly as possible now!


    The group began their grand escape by walking over the dense growth of creeper vines. It was a sight as strange as it could get.


    Luo Lan said in anguish, ¡°Thest time I held hands with so many people was when I was ying games in kindergarten....¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not answer him. He realized he might have stolen too much ¡°food¡± from the creeper vines this time. As such, even though the creeper vines did not attack them for a while, the feelers were still following close behind them and might attack at any moment!

 Chapter 609 - Those vines aren’t enough to trouble my master

    <h4>609 Those vines aren¡°t enough to trouble my master</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu was very d he had sessfully located Luo Lan. He had followed the direction the creeper vines were heading and found Luo Lan at the end of the trail.


    But it was also probably due to Zhou Qi¡¯s self-sacrifice that this could be pulled off. If he had not held on for so long and made so many of the vines wither, the creeper vine would not have gotten so furious it concentrated its attack on them. In turn, Ren Xiaosu would not have sessfully found their position.


    The group was fleeing without knowing where they were heading. There were no other survivors that could be seen in the stronghold anymore. This stronghold had beenpletely upied by the nt now.


    Before this, they could never have expected the nts in this era would be so terrifying.


    While everyone was escaping, the feelers of the creeper vine were still chasing them. It did not attack, but neither did it give up on chasing after them.


    ¡°What about Ren Xiaosu?¡± Luo Lan shouted while panting breathlessly.


    Zhou Yingxue turned around and nced behind her. Ren Xiaosu was in his armor and withstanding the creeper vine¡¯s attacks as he became its only target in this entire stronghold.


    The creeper vine seemed like it wanted to unleash all its anger on him as countless vines swept over to his position.


    The vines enclosed Ren Xiaosu like a ball of wool, while the spikes on the feelers tried to cut through the armor!


    There was no movement within the vines anymore, and it appeared that Ren Xiaosu was also helpless against so many vines.


    Luo Lan shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s head back and save him! We can¡¯t leave him here alone!¡±


    However, Zhou Yingxue snapped, ¡°Take care of yourself first! Those vines aren¡¯t enough to trouble my master!¡±


    Luo Lan nearly burst into tears at this insult. How did Ren Xiaosu gain a maid superhuman in this short period that Luo Lan had not seen him? Why did all the supernatural beings like congregating around Ren Xiaosu so much?!


    As though to confirm Zhou Yingxue¡¯s words, when all of those vines finally enclosed Ren Xiaosu, Luo Lan saw a ck saber piercing through the vines from inside. Following, the extremely tough-looking vines were cut apart like they were dry twigs!


    The metallic beast leaped out from within, and Luo Lan heard Ren Xiaosu say, ¡°Why¡¯re y¡¯all still standing there? Hurry up and flee!¡±


    Luo Lan thought, ¡®Alright, this guy really doesn¡¯t need anyone to save him.¡¯


    Everyone started fleeing again while Ren Xiaosu quickly caught up to them as the vines did not slow him down at all.


    When Ren Xiaosu came to Li Ran¡¯s side, he deactivated the armor and returned the nanomachines into his bloodstream. Once those cute nanomachines were back inside his body, they immediately retracted their robotic arms and curled up into tiny balls to recharge while waiting for their master to summon them again.


    But just as the nanomachines fully returned to his body, a vine stabbed for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s left arm.


    In an instant, Ren Xiaosu mobilized the nanomachines once again to form a shield on the surface of his arm to block the attack. The price of blocking the attack was a small piece of the defensive armor constructed from the nanomachines chipping off and falling to the ground.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu had activated those nanomachines in a rush. He didn¡¯t feel like it would be a big problem if he lost some. Luo Lan had mentioned the Qing Consortium had fully mastered the nanomachine technology. Since the nanomachine researchers were now in their employment, if Ren Xiaosu wanted to replenish his nanomachines, he could just approach the Qing Consortium anytime.


    Or maybe based on his rtionship with the Qing Consortium, it wouldn¡¯t even be unreasonable to say they might send him some recement nanomachines.


    But this was no time to be pondering about that. Ren Xiaosu put on his glove again and held Li Ran¡¯s hand. Zhou Yingxue secretly smirked when she saw this. Even while escaping, she could still think about how her master was equally fair in his treatment towards others. But it was just that at a critical moment like this, why would anyone still think about putting on a glove again?


    When Ren Xiaosu grabbed Li Ran¡¯s hand, Li Ran could feel her sense of happiness soaring. However, she immediately realized the hand she was holding felt a little fuzzy.


    The creeper vine immediately stopped attacking Ren Xiaosu again. However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s direct confrontation with it this time was simply too intense. No matter how low its intelligence was, it could still detect that something was not right.


    All of the vines started pointing towards Ren Xiaosu, and while it did not make a move, it seemed to be ¡°thinking¡± about something.


    ¡°Hurry up and run!¡± Ren Xiaosu noticed that something was off. ¡°Let¡¯s just hope that it has the memory of a goldfish. If it forgets about us after seven seconds, that would be perfect.¡±


    Luo Lan was thinking as he ran. This escape had a totally different feeling to it. Everyone was holding hands as they ran away with long strides. There was even a hint of joy amid their nervousness and fear, as though they were fleeing towards a field of hope.


    But no one noticed that when the nanomachines on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arm fell off, a surveince camera on the street suddenly turned and focused on the nanomachines.


    Usually, when a part of the armor was chipped off, it would immediately turn into a dull gray color. But this time, when itnded on the ground, it returned to its silvery liquid form again. The little guys turned idle, and it was as though a program had been inputted into them and started wrestling for control of them with Ren Xiaosu.


    But no matter how hard the program tried, it could not seize control of the nanomachines that had fallen off. It was only after Ren Xiaosu had gotten farther away that it managed to get a chance.


    After rebooting, the little guys became active again. Then the silvery liquid metal started streaming towards the surveince camera.


    When this small cluster of liquid metal nanomachines got near amp post installed with surveince cameras, it instantly merged into themp post and disappeared.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu frowned as he realized something. Although those nanomachines had fallen off, he could still perceive them.


    But now they hadpletely been cut off from Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu thought he had probably gotten too far away from the nanomachines, or that they might have run out of power, so he did not take this matter to heart.


    He had not lost too many nanomachines anyway, and Ren Xiaosu thought he would not even have to look for the Qing Consortium to replenish them. This tiny loss had almost no effect on the armor.


    Amid the creeper vine tracking them, Ren Xiaosu and the others managed to flee more than ten kilometers from their initial position. Luo Lan was so exhausted he was about to copse. In the end, it was Zhou Yingxue and Zhou Qi who had to carry him as they ran. Being able to ¡°fly¡± with his feet off the ground for the rest of the way, Fatty Luo suddenly felt this escape had be even more enjoyable.


    Gradually, the creeper vines started closing in and gaining on them. Ren Xiaosu got an ominous feeling. As expected, a secondter, the creeper vines started trying to attack them. It was Ren Xiaosu who was the first to bear the brunt.


    ¡°Master, what should I do? My power isn¡¯t working anymore!¡± Zhou Yingxue started getting anxious. If her power became ineffective, wouldn¡¯t it mean that everyone would die here?


    Luo Lan no longer felt like they were fleeing towards a field of hope. ¡°Comrade, can you please think of some other idea?¡±


    However, when Zhou Yingxue tried tomunicate with the creeper vine, all she could feel was a violent emotion flowing freely through its vines.


    Zhou Yingxue was also helpless in such a situation!


    Zhou Qi wanted to use his powers again to drain the water from the nearby vines, but there were just too many of them. As such, the bacsh from using his power caused him to spit out a mouthful of blood!


    Ren Xiaosu started examining their surroundings while continuing to sh the vines that wereing at him with his ck saber.


    Luo Lan sighed. ¡°Surviving until now makes us luckier than the few hundred thousand others in this stronghold.¡±


    But at this moment, Li Ran realized the hand she was holding had pulled away.


    Instead of running forward, Ren Xiaosu retreated towards the nt by himself. Luo Lan turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise, but Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face was hidden under his hood.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m the one that this nt hates the most right now. All y¡¯all, keep running away.¡±

 Chapter 610 - You only have one chance. Are you ready?

    <h4>610 You only have one chance. Are you ready?</h4>


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu already knew that even though Zhou Yingxue had stolen so much food from the creeper vine, with over a dozen people saved, the creeper vine would not have discovered their whereabouts because of those actions.


    The reason why the creeper vine was so angry was because it couldn¡¯t do anything about Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu had severed so many of its feelers, and now he wanted to escape just like that? How could there be such a good deal in this world?


    Even an idiot would retaliate if you punched them!


    Since Ren Xiaosu was the target of all that hatred, why not let the others get away?


    As expected, the moment he released his grip from the group, the creeper vine concentrated all its attacks on him and left Zhou Yingxue and the others alone.


    Zhou Yingxue turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu in a daze. ¡°Master, I¡¯m not leaving.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you tell Luo Lan earlier to ¡®take care of yourselves first¡¯?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was on the verge of tears. ¡°This is different. Master, leave with us! There must be some other way!¡±


    In the past, this maidservant was always thinking about retiring to a life of enjoyment after she had earned enough money by riding the coattails of her master. Who would want to be a servant to a man for the rest of their life? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to live life as a carefree and rich woman by herself?


    She had wanted to leave on two asions, but she eventually chose to stay behind.


    At that time, Zhou Yingxue consoled herself, ¡°I still haven¡¯t earned enough money, so I can¡¯t leave yet. I¡¯ll just follow Master around for a bit longer and earn more money first.¡±


    But gradually, those thoughts never surfaced again.


    Zhou Yingxue suddenly felt her heart aching badly when she saw Ren Xiaosu getting surrounded by the vines alone.


    She was clearly only relying on him to make more money, so why did her heart feel so much pain for him?


    ¡°Leave quickly.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled as he severed countless vines again. ¡°I¡¯ll meet up with y¡¯all outside the strongholdter.¡±


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw his surroundings.


    Then, as Luo Lan and the others stood still, they saw Ren Xiaosu take out a newspaper from somewhere while fighting the vines!


    Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu as he flipped through the newspaper with one hand. He looked so rxed and at ease.


    Luo Lan suddenly felt it shouldn¡¯t be a problem if they left Ren Xiaosu here alone. Just based on how calm andposed he was, it didn¡¯t even look like he was in any danger! ¡®More importantly, why the hell are you reading the paper at a time like this?!¡¯


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu raised his head. He looked at the newspaper in his hands andpared it with the nearby buildings, even raising the newspaper topare.


    The newspaper in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand was from more than ten days ago. At that time, there was an article about a creeper vine in Stronghold 61 that did not wither even though winter had arrived. A lot of people came to see the creeper vines and take pictures with it like tourists.


    There was a picture insert for that newspaper report of the family who nted the creeper vine. The creeper vine had started growing from there before spreading outwardster on.


    The media even interviewed one of the residents, to which the resident smiled and exined he had just scattered some seeds to grow. He did not expect the creeper vine would turn out so well.


    At that time, the tall building next to that apartment building stuck out to Ren Xiaosu. There was a very eye-catching red billboard that read: ¡°Jiafu Fuqiao Pedicure and Spa.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was looking at an apartment building in the distance and then next to it. Wasn¡¯t that Jiafu Fuqiao Pedicure and Spa?!


    If nts were incapable of moving their own roots, wouldn¡¯t it mean the roots of the creeper vine were right below that apartment building?!


    Luo Lan broke down and said, ¡°Oh my god, I¡¯ve really gotta give it to you! Can you stop reading the paper in this situation? Are you trying to show off how strong you are inbat or what!¡±


    Right now, the creeper vines were attacking Ren Xiaosu wave after wave, but Ren Xiaosu was still able to block every attack they made without much effort.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°If I can help you to find its roots, how confident are you of controlling it?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was stunned. She did not expect Ren Xiaosu to suddenly talk about this. But she snapped out of it and answered, ¡°If it can still be considered a nt, I¡¯m a 100% sure I can control it!¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°Then I have a gift for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly broke through the creeper vine¡¯s encirclement and headed straight for that red billboard.


    Only at this moment did everyone finally understand that when Ren Xiaosu was reading the newspaper earlier, he had found a clue to the whereabouts of the creeper vine¡¯s roots.


    Luo Lan sighed and said, ¡°To think that he can still maintain his rationality at a critical moment like this. I¡¯m impressed.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue snorted. ¡°How else could he be my master? Damn fatty, start running on your own for a bit. Don¡¯t keep making me carry you all the way. You¡¯re a man! Aren¡¯t you ashamed of yourself?¡±


    Luo Lan was so angry he wanted to start cursing on the spot. Why was there such a huge difference in the treatment of two people?! Thedy¡¯s words could really be harsh if she was not holding back!


    When Ren Xiaosu suddenly rushed towards the creeper vine¡¯s roots, the creeper vine became even more enraged.


    It also seemed to have realized what Ren Xiaosu was trying to do. Roots were the lifeline of a nt. No matter how powerful this creeper vine might be, it would not be able to transcend thews of nature. It was just like how a superhuman would die instantly if they were shot in the head or heart. Although everyone had be stronger, they were unable to transcend the original rules!


    Now, Ren Xiaosu was leading the way in front of the group. As he got closer and closer to the billboard, the creeper vines around him also started acting crazier and crazier!


    This confirmed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thoughts. The creeper vine was beginning to feel afraid. If it weren¡¯t afraid, it wouldn¡¯t have reacted so strongly!


    Luo Lan and the others saw Ren Xiaosu activating his armor again. Not only that, but Ren Xiaosu had also taken out a grenade from somewhere. He did not deliberately throw it at a specific spot and only wanted to disrupt the attention and attack rhythm of the creeper vines.


    ¡°Wait, Ren Xiaosu, be careful of the sewers below you. Its feelers can shoot out of the sewers!¡± Luo Lan still had a lingering fear of this happening. He had wanted to escape into the sewers but he witnessed someone get dragged under.


    However, Luo Lan found it a little strange. It seemed that no creeper vines had ever emerged from the sewers to sneak up on Ren Xiaosu while they were escaping this entire way.


    Actually, when Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue entered the vi to save Li Ran earlier, he had let Zhou Yingxue enter the house first and secretly unleashed ¡°Old Xu¡± behind her back.


    But as Old Xu was not a lifeform, the creeper vines showed no interest in him at all.


    At this moment, Old Xu was right under Ren Xiaosu¡¯s feet and following him closely as it charged forward in attack. With Old Xu¡¯s strength, no matter how many feelers were hiding in the sewers, it would be impossible for it to emerge from the manholes to attack Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the red billboard that was already within a hundred meters of him and estimated how much power he had left in his armor. He turned around and asked Zhou Yingxue, ¡°Are you scared?¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Zhou Yingxue shook her head. She wasn¡¯t lying. With Ren Xiaosu chopping down the vines in front of her, she really was not afraid at all!


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°You only have one chance. Are you ready?¡±

 Chapter 611 - Everything is One

    <h4>611 Everything is One</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu was only able to go head-to-head against the terrifying creeper vine by relying on the armor. Without it, Ren Xiaosu would have found it very difficult to handle the inescapable spikes on the feelers.


    But the armor always had a w¡ªlimited power.


    It was way too slow to solely depend on the bioenergy of the human body to recharge its energy. Moreover, the nanomachines were too small in size, so the amount of energy they could store was also extremely limited.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor was unable to sustain much longer after a lengthy and intense battle. Thus, he told Zhou Yingxue that she only had one chance.


    If they failed this time, they could only continue fleeing for their lives and try their best to get out of this ce quickly.


    Although he still had the steam lotive as his trump card, it was not an omnipotent solution. Ren Xiaosu was worried the massive steam lotive would get entangled in the vines and end up stuck.


    ¡°We¡¯re probably still about a 100 meters away from its roots.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned around and said, ¡°Zhou Qi, can you still continue fighting? I need you to protect the others here while I send Zhou Yingxue in.¡±


    Zhou Qiughed and spat blood on the ground. ¡°It¡¯s rare that I can get to be the hero, so how can I turn you down? Don¡¯t worry about me and go on. I won¡¯t let anyone die before I die! I¡¯m still waiting to go back so that Boss Luo can bestow Qing Zhen¡¯s female secretary to me!¡±


    Luo Lan ribbed, ¡°That¡¯s all you¡¯re good for!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Qi had never met each other before. But after today¡¯s adversity, they could be consideredrades. As such, he developed a great impression of Zhou Qi.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± Ren Xiaosu continued rushing forward. Zhou Yingxue let go of Li Ran and Luo Lan¡¯s hands and followed Ren Xiaosu closely.


    The moment Zhou Yingxue released her hand, the dense mass of vines swept towards Luo Lan and the others like they had detected new enemies. Meanwhile, Zhou Qi remained seated where he was and closed his eyes. Then a cerulean glow appeared over Zhou Qi¡¯s body and the vines that went near them instantly withered!


    Within a radius of 10 meters, none of the vines were able to approach them for a while!


    However, Luo Lan realized that Zhou Qi¡¯s face was paling. He sat down beside Zhou Qi and started feeling a little mncholic. Ever since he learned of the existence of supernatural beings, he had been extremely envious of them.


    Luo Lan¡¯s willpower was by no means inferior to others, but why was he unable to awaken his power and be a supernatural being?


    At this moment, Luo Lan could only bemoan himself for being useless and watch helplessly as Zhou Qi started to overexert his mental strength to protect everyone around him.


    If Luo Lan were also a supernatural being, and they really died this time, he could at least proudly tell Zhou Qi that he had died with dignity when they both met in the Underworld.


    But unfortunately, he was not a supernatural being.


    When Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue were still about 50 meters away from the roots, Zhou Qi finally could not bear it anymore. Within the radius of 10 meters, some of the vines managed to slip through his defenses, and a spiked feeler stabbed at his heart without mercy.


    Zhou Qi could sense everything that was happening and knew he was probably on his way to meet his maker. To be honest, he himself was unsure if he had led a worthwhile life.


    ¡®Qing Zhen, I¡¯ve fulfilled my promise to you.¡¯ After saying this in his head, Zhou Qi was prepared to die.


    However, a surprising turn of events took ce. A Qing Consortium soldier stepped in front of Zhou Qi and let the spike pierce his body. Then he grabbed ahold of the vine with his arm so the spike would not be able to hurt Zhou Qi behind him!


    When the Qing Consortium soldier got pierced through by the spike, his ruptured organs started bleeding. Blood was flowing out of his wounds and mouth.


    Luo Lan was stunned. ¡°You...¡±


    The Qing Consortium soldier smiled at Luo Lan and said, ¡°Take care, boss.¡±


    His head drooped limply.


    Zhou Qi protected everyone by overexerting his willpower while the Qing Consortium soldiers abided by their duties and guarded Zhou Qi and Luo Lan with their lives.


    It might be easy for one to say they were not afraid of death, but how many people in the world could really put those words into action?


    In the hot and zing afternoon sun, Luo Lan felt like something was stuck in his throat. This choking feeling was making him a little ufortable.


    And then another Qing Consortium soldier died in front of Zhou Qi as he blocked a vine attack for him. It was the toonmander this time.


    He smiled at Luo Lan and said with his dying breath, ¡°As the toonmander, I couldn¡¯t even match the conscientiousness of my subordinates. I¡¯m really ashamed that he had to die before me....¡±


    The toonmander fell silent.


    Luo Lan knelt on the ground with tears streaming down his face. However, he could not even let out a whimper.


    Suddenly, Luo Lan fainted. When the Qing Consortium soldiers rushed forward to check on him, one of them was bewildered by what he saw. ¡°Boss¡¯s body seems to be covered in a mild golden glow, or am I seeing things?¡±


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu did not know anything about what was happening behind him. He just kept mechanically shing at the creeper vines around him.


    When the nanomachines on his body started ¡°dying¡± and falling off, Ren Xiaosu immediately recalled them back into his body to prevent them from bingpletely ¡°dead.¡±


    For the remaining 30 meters, he would have to use his own body to resist those vines.


    As Zhou Yingxue silently followed Ren Xiaosu, she looked at the raging vines in front of her. However, none of the vines could threaten her because all of them were intercepted by Ren Xiaosu.


    She looked at the young man¡¯s back. Due to the strong wind stirred up by the moving vines, her hair and clothes were a little messy.


    Zhou Yingxue suddenly said behind Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Master, I really am a little jealous of Yang Xiaojin.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu could not hear her clearly, he shouted back without even looking, ¡°What did you say?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Zhou Yingxue said with a smile, ¡°I said you¡¯re very handsome.¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed heartily. ¡°You¡¯ve got good taste!¡±


    Now, they were just five meters away from the roots. Ren Xiaosu kept shing at the vines in front of him, then forced open a temporary passageway for Zhou Yingxue with four ¡°fours.¡±


    He turned around and roared at Zhou Yingxue, ¡°You only have one chance!¡±


    With that, he dragged Zhou Yingxue and tried his best to throw her into the passageway where the creeper vine¡¯s roots were located.


    Then Ren Xiaosu got overwhelmed by the vines.


    The creeper vine¡¯s roots started emitting a green, fluorescent light before bursting with light in an instant!


    The stronghold fell silent. This was a long-awaited peace for Stronghold 61. As the creeper vines stopped moving and eating humans, the wind also seemed to have fallen silent for a moment.


    Then the vines in the stronghold started withering. Ren Xiaosu fought his way out of the vines that had ensnared him and quietly watched all this. None of the vines were attacking him anymore!


    But it was different from what Ren Xiaosu had expected. He had thought there would not be much change to the vines after Zhou Yingxue gained control.


    But he could see with his naked eye countless beads of green light particles converging here from all directions. The light particles were traveling along the vines to where the roots were!


    It looked as though... countless energy particles were converging on a single point, with the vines that had lost this source of ¡°energy¡± shriveling into firewood.


    And it turned out that Zhou Yingxue was the one gathering all the energy.

 Chapter 612 - Luo Lan awakens

    <h4>612 Luo Lan awakens</h4>


    Arge convoy of trucks suddenly arrived at the town outside Stronghold 61.


    Wang Fugui was sitting in one of the trucks and looking anxiously at the stronghold in front of him. He saw the stronghold was really covered in countless vines just like the rumors had said. Furthermore, anyone that tried to approach it would immediately get attacked by the creeper vines¡¯ feelers.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s troops that had arrived together with Wang Fugui were discussing how to solve the problem before them. But they did not really have any good ideas.


    In the end, someone said, ¡°Since there¡¯s unlikely to be any survivors left inside the stronghold, why don¡¯t we just burn the stronghold down? No matter how powerful this creeper vine might be, it should still be afraid of fire.¡±


    This time, it was all thanks to Wang Fugui that the Wang Consortium troops arrived ahead of time.


    Before this, the troops had assembled and made a spontaneous decision to set off. However, some of their military vehicles were still outside and unable to return. As such, Wang Fugui volunteered his trucks to transport the soldiers after the goods were unloaded at the military base. This way, the Wang Consortium troops would not have to keep waiting around.


    Hence, the officer of Stronghold 62¡¯s garrison troops who were the first to arrive at Stronghold 61 was very grateful to Wang Fugui. He even started addressing Wang Fugui as ¡°bro,¡± praising him repeatedly for being so understanding and calling him a good man.


    Wang Fugui could onlyugh wryly. It was not that he was understanding, but that he had a family member who was probably inside Stronghold 61 right now. Therefore, he also hoped the troops could get here as soon as possible so they might be able to save his family.


    When Wang Fugui heard themanding officer of the Wang Consortium troops say they should burn down Stronghold 61, he immediately turned anxious. ¡°Sir, my family¡¯s still inside. Y¡¯all must not set fire to the ce.¡±


    The officer, Wang Lin, said with a wry smile, ¡°Bro, even if your kin is really inside, they couldn¡¯t possibly have survived. I¡¯ve just received new orders from our higher-ups. The satellite photo shows the entire stronghold has already been covered in vines. No one will have survived this disaster.¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be!¡± Wang Fugui could feel his ears ringing. Then he shouted, ¡°He¡¯s different! He definitely survived! He managed to survive even in such difficult situations, so he¡¯s definitely...¡± Wang Fugui wanted to rush into the stronghold. However, Jiang Wu suddenly pulled him back.


    Wang Fugui turned around and asked nkly, ¡°Ms. Jiang, you think that Xiaosu died too?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Jiang Wu shook her head. ¡°You stay here. I¡¯ll go and look for him.¡±


    While they were arguing, someone shouted, ¡°Look! Why are the creeper vines at the stronghold gate starting to wither?¡±


    Everyone turned their gaze to the stronghold gate and was surprised to see that it was really the case. The originally lush green creeper vines had really started withering!


    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±


    ¡°Did someone on the inside manage to kill it?¡±


    Wang Lin frowned as he watched all this. No one could tell what was exactly going on in there. They were unable to verify if something had happened to the creeper vine itself or if someone inside the stronghold had killed it.


    However, he suspected that no one in the world could possibly kill such a terrifying lifeform.


    ...


    One would experience many springs, summers, falls, and winters throughout their lives. All living things blossomed in spring, grew lush in summer, yellowed in fall, and frosted over with snow in winter.


    But at this moment, the dense and sinister-looking green vines in Stronghold 61 were withering rapidly and turning into brown twigs.


    It was as though time had sped up, going from spring to winter in the blink of an eye. It was like someone had wiped off this oil painting with their hand as the colors started fading away bit by bit.


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked when he saw what was happening around him.


    As the area covered by the vines was humongous, this huge change was taking ce throughout the vast stronghold. This made people feel like it was more the power of nature that was causing it.


    This creeper vine was growing normally at the beginning. So it was until the battle that broke out between the Pyro Company and the Anjing House inside the stronghold that resulted in superhuman blood getting spilled onto its branches.


    Afterwards, it began consuming the rats that scuttled in the sewers. After that, it started eating domesticated cats and dogs before finally devouring humans.


    At first, it would only stealthily catch and eat people. Perhaps it was also worried about being discovered by humans. Although it was a low intelligence lifeform, that did not mean it had no wisdom. Actually, this creeper vine¡¯s behavior was more like that of a child. Since there was no one to teach it how to live in this world, it developed in its own selfish way.


    Were humans born good or evil? Ren Xiaosu felt that these two definitions were not in line with his thinking. He felt that humans were born selfish, and there was no right or wrong about this.


    And eventer, when people from the stronghold realized there was something fishy about the creeper vine, they had tried to use methrowers to end its life. Naturally, the creeper vine was unwilling to get destroyed by humans just like that. Moreover, it was clearly much stronger than them. So it decided to bury the entire stronghold in its rage.


    But none of that was important. What mattered more was that it had absorbed the life force of several hundred thousand people that lived in the stronghold. There were even supernatural beings among those killed!


    Actually, it would take an extremelyrge amount of energy for the creeper vine to cover the entire stronghold. The reason it was able to grow sorge so quickly was that the several hundred thousand lives in the stronghold had provided it with enough nutrients to do so.


    It could be said that it had sacrificed an entire stronghold toplete its own growth.


    But now, all the energy gained from that sacrifice was converging on Zhou Yingxue!


    After the vines withered and broke off, Ren Xiaosu watched Zhou Yingxue stand quietly on top of the creeper vine¡¯s roots with her eyes closed.


    Her hand was ced over the creeper vine¡¯s main branch next to her. After she controlled its roots, the creeper vine was at Zhou Yingxue¡¯s mercy.


    Countless green energy particles were drawn out through the vines and flowed into Zhou Yingxue¡¯s body through her fingers.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if Zhou Yingxue was drawing out all the energy from the creeper vine and causing it to die?


    But what kind of a supernatural being would she be considering this power came at the cost of a stronghold?


    Zhou Yingxue was probably the first person to experience something like this in human history.


    Although his maid used to y a very good supporting role, she reallyckedbat power. But what would happen after this?


    That maidservant who especially enjoyed munching on melon seeds and did not have much of an image to speak of in front of Ren Xiaosu had now seemingly be a goddess in the stronghold who could control the fate of everyone in it.


    A momentter, when all of the vines finally withered away, Zhou Yingxue fell unconscious.


    Ren Xiaosu went to check on Zhou Yingxue and discovered her breathing and pulse were still normal. Perhaps she had absorbed so much energy she couldn¡¯t handle it.


    Ren Xiaosu did not have any prior experience of such things, so he did not know what to do in this situation either.


    Then Zhou Yingxue¡¯s body suddenly turned hot and cold while her expression kept changing. Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before finally picking her up from the ground.


    But in that instant, Ren Xiaosu noticed that everything around him had been enveloped by a golden glow. He snapped his head around and saw Luo Lan get off the ground while manifesting a golden glow around him.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°You¡¯ve awakened?¡±

 Chapter 613 - Savior

    <h4>613 Savior</h4>


    Luo Lan falling unconscious earlier and the faint glow emanating from his body had proven a fact to Ren Xiaosu: Luo Lan had really awakened his power.


    Before this, Ren Xiaosu had gotten used to the fact that the fatty was just a normal person. But now, his power was awakened.


    However, Luo Lan did not answer Ren Xiaosu¡¯s question. Instead, he looked at the Qing Consortium soldiers around Zhou Qi.


    They were still standing, to the end guarding Zhou Qi.


    Ren Xiaosu saw countless withered vines pierced through these Qing Consortium soldiers, but none managed to hurt Zhou Qi.


    These Qing Consortium soldiers had formed the world¡¯s strongest wall for Zhou Qi with their mortal bodies.


    Luo Lan stood in front of them and said, ¡°Actually, I¡¯m just a fat man with a blessed life to have you all sacrifice your lives for me. If I weren¡¯t born in the Qing Consortium and had a powerful younger brother, I would probably be much worse off than you guys. Even though I¡¯m randy, gluttonous, not really able to endure hardships, and scared out of my mind, I still chose to do what¡¯s most dangerous in the world.¡±


    No one interrupted Luo Lan; everyone listened quietly as he spoke.


    Luo Lan continued, ¡°Before we set off, I even joked with you guys that I would find you the most beautiful wives in the Central ins and let you bring them back home. I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t do it. At that time, I was just bragging. All of you should know that I¡¯m fond of bragging and don¡¯t know when to stop....


    ¡°But I digress. What I wanted to say is that I¡¯ll still have to face a lot of danger in the future. Will you still continue to protect me?¡± Luo Lan stared hard at the dead Qing Consortium soldiers. As the stronghold went quiet, all everyone could hear was their own breathing.


    The moment Luo Lan finished speaking, golden figures walked out of the bodies of the Qing Consortium soldiers. The golden silhouettes even retained the appearances of the soldiers. The toonmander looked at Luo Lan with a smile and said, ¡°Boss, it¡¯s been a while.¡±


    Before this, the Qing Consortium soldiers experienced endless darkness and loneliness without knowing how long had passed. It wasn¡¯t until they heard a call summoning them in the darkness that they came to keep the appointment.


    Tears started to fall from Luo Lan¡¯s eyes again. He wiped his tears away while smiling. ¡°Fuck!¡±


    Other than cursing like that, Luo Lan did not know what to say.


    Ren Xiaosu watched silently from the sidelines for a long time. He could not tell what kind of power Luo Lan had. He could actually bring back the dead in another form so that they could continue existing in this world.


    Ren Xiaosu got very excited. If only he had a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll right now! He would copy Luo Lan¡¯s skill straight away!


    However, it seemed that the prerequisite of this power was that the other party must be willing to be summoned. These golden figures were spirits guarding Luo Lan. After they talked for a while, the golden silhouettes of the twelve Qing Consortium soldiers walked into Luo Lan¡¯s body one by one.


    ¡°This is the power you¡¯ve awoken?¡± Ren Xiaosu inquired.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Luo Lan nodded and sighed. ¡°I¡¯ve finally be a supernatural being too.¡±


    No one else said anything else. It was not appropriate to say too much with outsiders like Li Ran and Zhou Tao around. It would be better to talk in privateter when they got a chance to do so.


    Luo Lan turned his head to the Hope Media reporter, Zhou Tao, and said, ¡°If I pay you ten million yuan, can you keep today¡¯s events a secret?¡±


    Zhou Tao shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Everything that happened today is of great importance, so I have to record it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. Zhou Tao actually remained unmoved even though Luo Lan offered him ten million yuan. This Hope Media reporter was too stubborn.


    However, Luo Lan¡¯s concerns were necessary. On one hand, Luo Lan did not want others to know that he awakened his power. Sometimes, it would be much more effective to keep an ace up the sleeve.


    On the other hand, Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue had revealed many things about themselves in this battle, especially Zhou Yingxue, who had absorbed the life force of the creeper vine that had taken over the entire stronghold. If anyone with bad intentions learned about this, it might spell big trouble for her.


    Luo Lan looked at Zhou Tao and said with a frown, ¡°You can pretend that you were seeking refuge today and did not see anything. Just by doing so, you will earn yourself ten million yuan. There¡¯s probably no better deal than this in the world, right?¡±


    Zhou Tao said stubbornly, ¡°You can silence me if you want, but you can¡¯t force me to lie.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. He did not know how to feel about this reporter¡¯s undaunting spirit anymore. Sometimes, having such a principled intellectual like him around was a very frustrating experience. They could not kill him even if they felt like doing so.


    Luo Lan said, ¡°Actually, what you want to record are the events of the disaster that took ce today, right? In other words, you only want to detail how it ended.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Zhou Tao nodded. ¡°This matter is very important to mankind.¡±


    ¡°But my power has nothing to do with this matter. Can you keep it a secret by not recording it or telling others about it?¡± Luo Lan asked.


    Zhou Tao thought for a moment before nodding. ¡°I can do that.¡±


    Luo Lan pointed to Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°The two of them came into this terrifying ce to save us. How many people in this world do you think are willing to risk their lives for their friends? They¡¯re our saviors! After saving you, is it appropriate that you turn around and sell them out by telling everyone about their powers?¡±


    This time, Zhou Tao started feeling conflicted.


    Luo Lan felt that he had to resort to moral coercion to deal with a principled person like Zhou Tao. He told him, ¡°I don¡¯t mind you recording this incident nor object to Hope Media publishing the report about them in the newspapers. But I have a suggestion for you. Can you keep your saviors¡¯ identities anonymous in your article and just report that ¡®someone¡¯ saved the entire stronghold? There shouldn¡¯t be any conflicts like that, right?¡±


    Zhou Tao looked at Ren Xiaosu and was about to say something. ¡°You¡ª¡±


    ¡°Watch your tone!¡± Luo Lan interrupted. ¡°You should address him as ¡®savior¡¯!¡±


    Zhou Tao was speechless. So was Ren Xiaosu.


    Luo Lan knew he convinced Zhou Tao. He said with a smile, ¡°I know that Hope Media also keeps some of their files confidential, and a lot of the information will only be released after 50 years. So about this matter, can you ce it into the confidential files?¡±


    Finally, Zhou Tao said with a sigh, ¡°I¡¯ll do as you say.¡±


    After getting this reply from Zhou Tao, Luo Lan finally felt at ease. Zhou Tao had been following them all the while, so Luo Lan eventually figured out what kind of person Zhou Tao was.


    There wasn¡¯t a need to measure others by his own standards when making an agreement with someone like Zhou Tao. That was because Zhou Tao would definitely keep his word as long as he promised so.


    After the matter was settled, Luo Lan heaved a sigh of relief and felt a little more at ease. Suddenly, Zhou Qi¡¯s voice rang out beside them, ¡°Fatty, I wanna wait and see when you n to help me up...¡±


    Zhou Qi was even coughing up blood as he spoke. Only then did everyone suddenly remember that Zhou Qi was still alive.

 Chapter 614 - Reunion

    <h4>614 Reunion</h4>


    Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Shall we leave then? The Wang Consortium¡¯s troops will definitely arrive soon. We need to get out of here quickly.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops might already be outside the stronghold by now. No matter what, you¡¯ll still bump into them if you go out now. Besides, if you sneak away, the Wang Consortium will probably assume you died in the stronghold. But if you show up again in the future, the Wang Consortium will surely wonder whether you had anything to do with this creeper vine.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Luo Lan was worried. He wanted to distance himself entirely from the matter, but he really did not know how to.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Follow me.¡±


    In order to prevent any clues from being left behind, Ren Xiaosu even used his storage space to help Luo Lan take away the corpses of the Qing Consortium soldiers. These admirable people would have to receive an borate burialter.


    However, Luo Lan was a little puzzled. Where was Ren Xiaosu nning to bring them?


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu wanted to lead them to destroy all the surveince footage in the stronghold. But when they arrived at the Wang Consortium¡¯s control room, they realized the surveince footage had already been deleted!


    Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu were stunned on the spot. Ren Xiaosu did not really understand these things, so he confirmed with Luo Lan again, ¡°Has it really been deleted?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Luo Lan nodded and said, ¡°It might have been during the time there was a power failure in the stronghold. By the time the power was restored when the backup circuit kicked in, the problem might have already urred.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that things were not that simple. However, he did not understand anything about it since this was also his first time seeing aputer. So he could only take Luo Lan¡¯s word for it.


    When they located thergest bank in the vicinity, they took the vault key from the corpse of the bank president lying on the ground, and everyone hid inside the vault. Meanwhile, the Hope Media reporter, Zhou Tao, remained outside.


    Everyone had already agreed to collude that Luo Lan had abandoned Zhou Tao while escaping. In the end, it was the mysterious superhuman who saved Zhou Tao and destroyed the short-lived creeper vine.


    Immediately after, the mysterious superhuman left this ce, leaving Zhou Tao behind and alone at the site of the battle.


    Right now, the only problem Ren Xiaosu had was that he did not know was whether the so-called artificial intelligence overseeing the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold would store any backup copies of the surveince footage after they had been destroyed.


    This area was overgrown with the creeper vines from very early on. So when the residents of Stronghold 61 started fleeing, no one was able to get into this area. As such, the bank vault here was not upied by anyone.


    After entering the vault, they waited patiently without worries. Ren Xiaosu, Luo Lan, and the others even started ying Fight the Landlord inside the vault.


    As Zhou Yingxue was still unconscious, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried. He was worried that his maid might have damaged her brain from the huge amount of energy she had absorbed.


    There would always be a price to pay. To earn money, one had to put in time and effort by working, and the same went for acquiring knowledge. There was no such thing as free lunch in this world.


    Since Zhou Yingxue had acquired too much this time, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried for her.


    After Ren Xiaosu and the others hid in the vault, they waited for two long hours before they finally heard a flurry of footstepsing from the outside.


    Someone shouted outside the vault, ¡°Is anyone in there? We¡¯re the Wang Consortium¡¯s rescue team!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately put away the poker cards while Luo Lan opened the vault door and said in a choked up voice, ¡°You¡¯re finally here! I¡¯ve missed all of you so much. Why are you sote!¡±


    Zhou Tao was already with the rescue team. When Luo Lan saw them, he looked like he had finally been reunited with his family members. Zhou Tao could feel his scalp going numb at the sight of this. This was because when Luo Lan had denied that the Qing Consortium was in possession of nuclear weapons, he also fucking looked like that!


    Zhou Tao had also thought about it before. Could it be that the Qing Consortium really did not have any nuclear weapons? Otherwise, Luo Lan¡¯s tearful denial would have really been too convincing!


    But now, Zhou Tao could only chuckle at that.


    When the Wang Consortium troops entered the stronghold, they immediately searched for all survivors. In the end, they realized there were only a few survivors found in the vaults and several other enclosed environments in the city. For example, some of them had hidden in the water tanks of high-rise buildings, their own cers, and even inside the wells.


    But how many people could hide in these ces? This disaster had brought devastating destruction to the residents of Stronghold 61.


    Luo Lan revealed his identity to the Wang Consortium troops. First of all, he had to affirm the fact that he had been waiting for rescue to arrive throughout the disaster. As for other matters, they had nothing to do with him.


    Along the way, the soldier who was responsible for getting Luo Lan and the others to safety asked, ¡°Do you guys know how the creeper vine wilted?¡±


    Luo Lan said in an extremely flustered manner, ¡°Weren¡¯t you the ones that killed it? We¡¯ve been hiding in the vault all this while and have no idea of what happened outside at all.¡±


    Then the soldier looked at Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu and suddenly called Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity into question. ¡°Eh, is he with your group? The information I have here states that there are Qing Consortium soldiers traveling with you. Why haven¡¯t I seen them?¡±


    Luo Lan nced at Ren Xiaosu. Luo Lan¡¯s group had informed the Wang Consortium about their entourage, and the Wang Consortium even saved a copy of their photos. Therefore, he could not admit that Ren Xiaosu was with him. Otherwise, it might just arouse the Wang Consortium¡¯s suspicions.


    Luo Lan said in grief, ¡°Myrades died while trying to save me. These people aren¡¯t with us. I think he might be a stronghold resident.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± The soldier nodded and asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°What¡¯s your ID number? I need to verify it.¡±


    Under normal circumstances, who would immediately verify the identity of escapees? As if they weren¡¯t miserable enough yet! Ren Xiaosu knew the other party must already be suspicious of him. After all, Luo Lan was originally the focus of everyone¡¯s attention.


    While Ren Xiaosu was thinking of how to handle the situation, he suddenly heard a hopeful shout behind him. ¡°Boss?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu spun around. He suddenly felt the disaster he had gone through vanish into thin air when he saw Wang Fugui, Jiang Wu, Wang Yuchi, Li Qingzheng, and the others on the long street full of dead vines.


    All the unhappiness vanished in this instant.


    Wang Fugui trotted his way over to Ren Xiaosu and circled him to check if he had taken any injuries or if he had be thinner. However, he was totally fine. The only strange thing was that he was carrying a girl.


    Wang Fugui did not know whether it would be appropriate to call Ren Xiaosu by name here, so he simply addressed him as ¡°boss.¡± After all, he considered himself Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shopkeeper now. No matter how much money he made from those businesses, it was all earned for Ren Xiaosu.


    Jiang Wu, who was behind Wang Fugui, also wanted to rush up. However, she stopped in her tracks after just a few steps.


    Off to the side, themanding officer of the Wang Consortium¡¯s rescue teams, Wang Lin, said with a smile, ¡°Bro, I never expected that the person you were looking for would really survive. Congrattions! But why did you address him as boss just now?¡±


    Wang Fugui exined with a smile, ¡°I might¡¯ve brought in a lot of goods from the Northwest, but I¡¯m actually just a shopkeeper. That guy is our actual boss.¡±


    Wang Lin looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. So this young man turned out to be the real owner of the mercantilepany? In that case, he would probably have to deal with this young man very often in the future.


    Who didn¡¯t like making friends with rich people? Although Wang Lin controlled an army, there were still times when he needed money.


    Therefore, Wang Lin¡¯s attitude towards Ren Xiaosu became exceptionally pleasant.


    When the soldier who wanted to check Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ID card saw his superiore over and seemingly had a very close rtionship with him, he gave up on wanting to check his identity and went off to continue searching for other survivors.


    Wang Lin said to Wang Fugui with a smile, ¡°You guys can rest here for now. I have a more important search and rescue mission to take care of.¡±


    ¡°Do what you have to do.¡± Wang Fugui said with a smile, ¡°Now that we¡¯ve picked up our boss, we have to return to Stronghold 62 to tally the goods. There¡¯ll be more opportunities for us to interact in the future, so we won¡¯t hold you up any more here.¡±


    After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wang Lin left with a smile. Ren Xiaosu also said goodbye to Luo Lan. Although Ren Xiaosu wanted to keep Luo Lan at his side to copy his power, it was really not appropriate for him to interact too much with Luo Lan right now. Moreover, Luo Lan was still not allowed to leave the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold. He would have to wait for the dust to settle so he could show he had a clear conscience.


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything else. At this moment, he had too many things he wanted to tell Old Wang and the others and also too many questions he wanted to ask.


    As he looked back at the stronghold, a question popped up in his mind. Who could have deleted all the surveince footage?

 Chapter 615 - Catching up.

    <h4>Chapter 615 Catching up.</h4>


    A catastrophe had ended with the arrival of the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops. The people who were still alive could only count themselves fortunate, while the dead would soon be forgotten.


    The entire stronghold was filled with wilted creeper vines. The gray vines and withered leaves scattered all over the ground made Stronghold 61 look bleak and deste, like the stronghold were a newly formed ruin.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that it would take a lot of time just to clean up the dead vines. To the Wang Consortium, their most significant loss was actually not the facilities in the stronghold but the people.


    In this day and age, the consortiums were well aware that there would only be productivity with manpower.


    When the creeper vine attacked the stronghold, it did not really damage the facilities at all. Even the power supply was untouched andmunications were not cut off. Although there was a slight malfunction in the power grid during the period due to ack of maintenance, the backup power supply was immediately activated.


    Under such circumstances, the stronghold did not seem to have suffered any major losses in terms of structural damage.


    However, it was undeniable that several hundred thousand people in Stronghold 61 had died. The people who supported the light industries, service industries, andmerce of the stronghold were all gone now.


    Without heavy industries, there would be no corepetitiveness. Without light industries, life would be ufortable and business would also decline.


    Ren Xiaosu quickly led Wang Fugui and the others out of the stronghold. He brought everyone back to his own house andid down the unconscious Zhou Yingxue.


    Wang Fugui looked at the little courtyard house and said, ¡°Xiaosu, have you been living here all this time?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before saying, ¡°Well, not really. I¡¯ve been to many ces, such as Luoyang City, Stronghold 73, 74, 63, and 62...¡±


    Wang Fugui thought to himself, ¡®Why do these strongholds sound so familiar?¡¯ He remembered he had read the bad news of these strongholds in the newspapers. For example, the cave-in at East Lake in Stronghold 73, the nuclear strike on Stronghold 74, and the battle between the Anjing House and the Pyro Company in Stronghold 63...


    ¡°Xiaosu, other than Luoyang City, those ces that you mentioned all seem quite dangerous.¡± Wang Fugui asked with concern, ¡°Nothing happened to you, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuforted, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m fine. I can¡¯t say the same for others though.¡±


    Wang Fugui and Jiang Wu were speechless.


    Although he sounded really rxed, Wang Fugui somehow felt that Ren Xiaosu must have gone through a lot of danger. He asked, ¡°Xiaosu, how did you survive back then? Can you tell us about it?¡±


    With a chuckle, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°After that spear pierced me through the abdomen, I was saved by some big shots of the Wang Consortium who happened to pass by. They were the ones who went to the Northwest to discuss the opening of the trade routes. At that time, they told me the spear had coincidentally pierced my appendix... and my other organs were not seriously injured....¡±


    ¡°App-Appendix?¡± Wang Fugui and the others were all dumbfounded. How could it be such a coincidence?


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu thought of something after the incident. Perhaps the spear had only pierced his appendix because of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s wish? But if it were really because of him, what kind of bacsh would Yan Liuyuan have suffered?


    He looked at Wang Fugui. ¡°By the way, where¡¯s Liuyuan?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu swept his gaze over everyone. But after looking at all of them, he did not see Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu. ¡°Old Wang, where are Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu?¡±


    Wang Fugui fell silent while Wang Yuchi and the others looked away. Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Old Wang, please answer me. Where are Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s like this.¡± Jiang Wu exined, ¡°When we got swept away by the flood, we were not together with Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu. I only had time to keep these people together with the plum branches I conjured. The currents were very rapid and we were washed away in the blink of an eye. We were unable to save the two of them....¡± Jiang Wu still felt a little bad about it.


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a while before saying, ¡°Ms. Jiang, you¡¯ve already done great. There¡¯s no need to feel guilty.¡±


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu felt a little fortunate that so many people had managed to survive. He calmed himself down and said with a smile, ¡°I believe that they must still be alive, but it¡¯s just that we don¡¯t know where they are right now. I¡¯ve published something in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper. If Liuyuan sees it, he¡¯ll definitely rush to Stronghold 61.¡±


    Wang Fugui hurriedly said with a smile, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right! A kid like Liuyuan is very smart, so he definitely survived. At that time, I vaguely saw them on the shore, and it did not seem like they were threatened by the flood. However, I didn¡¯t get a clear look, so I can¡¯t be sure either.¡±


    ¡°What about Yang Xiaojin?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°I know she was definitely fine at the time because she was quite far away from the floodwaters. Did y¡¯all see her again after that?¡±


    Old Wang said awkwardly, ¡°We haven¡¯t seen her either. But since she¡¯s fine, you¡¯ll definitely get to meet her again someday.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was still unaware that Yang Xiaojin had headed downstream of the river to look for him like crazy after he got speared. When she realized the chances of finding him were too slim, she hunted down the enemy next. That enemy was Han Yang, and he was Zong Consortium¡¯s superhuman who pierced Ren Xiaosu¡¯s abdomen with the spear.


    She chased after Han Yang all the way to the foot of Mt. Guan, putting him through despair before sniping him dead.


    ¡°Oh yeah.¡± Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and asked, ¡°How have y¡¯all been doing during this period? Old Wang, it looked like you and that Wang officer are close?¡±


    At this moment, someone knocked on the front door. Ren Xiaosu frowned. Who could be knocking on the door at this time?


    When he opened the door, he was surprised to see that the Great Hoodwinker hade to visit.


    The man rudely stepped into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s house. When he saw Wang Fugui, he said happily, ¡°You¡¯re Wang Fugui, aren¡¯t you? I just restoredms with Fortress 178 and found out you¡¯re still alive. Congrats!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°Great Hoodwinker, what¡¯re you doing here?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just here to have a look. Can¡¯t Ie by since I¡¯m free?¡± The Great Hoodwinker sat down on a chair and made up his mind to impose himself here.


    Ren Xiaosu had no choice but to introduce him to Wang Fugui. ¡°This is an intelligence agent from Fortress 178. He was previously in charge of the intelligence gathering in the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory. After the Zong Consortium was destroyed, he came to the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°Xiaosu¡±¡ªWang Fugui suddenly thought of something when he heard this¡ª¡±I heard from Zhang Xiaoman that you had participated in that war and personally avenged all of us? It must have been very dangerous, right?¡±


    ¡°It was not dangerous,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. Of course he would just mention the positives and not bring up the negatives at all. Since it was all in the past, he should not let Old Wang and the others worry about him. Simultaneously, Ren Xiaosu even shot a warning look at the Great Hoodwinker to stop him from babbling nonsense.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker ignored him. He piped in, ¡°You guys might not know this, but the war was tragic and earth-shattering! Ren Xiaosu won over the vast majority of our officers and soldiers of Fortress 178!¡±


    Next door, Qin Sheng, who was eavesdropping on the conversation, had a glint in his eyes. These people had finally mentioned something that he wanted to hear. Previously, the rtionship between Ren Xiaosu and Fortress 178 was a mystery that puzzled this young Rider. It sounded like it was finally time to confirm his suspicions.

 Chapter 616 - Are you that sort of person?

    <h4>616 Are you that sort of person?</h4>


    Qin Sheng thought that since there were so many of them, it should be impossible that they still were putting on an act, right? Qin Sheng had been watching from town when Old Wang arrived at Stronghold 61 with the troops. As he listened to their conversation from next door, he could roughly guess that Wang Fugui had just returned from Fortress 178 and even hauled a lot of goods with him from there.Those goods couldn¡¯t be faked. If they had to cover up a lie by using that amount of goods, the cost of this lie would be absurdly high.


    At this moment, the Great Hoodwinker asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I heard you went into the stronghold to save someone? Do you know how the creeper vine died? Can you reveal anything about it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu calmly said, ¡°I don¡¯t know either. Just after I went in, a vine coiled around Zhou Yingxue¡¯s head. She fell unconscious after that, and I had to quickly take her with me to go into hiding.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu said he did not know what had happened in the stronghold, the Great Hoodwinker started cursing on the inside. Like hell he would believe that! With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s temper, it was good enough that he didn¡¯t uproot the entire creeper vine, so how could he possibly have left it alone?


    The Great Hoodwinker ridiculed, ¡°You went into hiding? Do you think you¡¯re that sort of person?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned his head to Wang Fugui. ¡°Ignore him, Old Wang. Continue your story.¡±


    Old Wang said, ¡°After we were washed away by the flood, Ms. Jiang found an opportunity midway through and brought us back onto shore. Later on, we lived with refugees in the mountains for a while, but we really couldn¡¯t get through those days of being isted from the world. After that, we thought of starting a business with the money and medicine that you left behind. At least, we would still have some money when we saw you again in the future.¡±


    Old Wang continued, ¡°We went to the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold and purchased some goods that weren¡¯t avable in the Northwest. Then we transported them to the Northwest and met Zhang Xiaoman on the first day of our arrival. When I learned that you were still alive, I immediately wanted to return to the Central ins. However, he said that he had a method to find you....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What method?¡±


    ¡°Uh...¡± Old Wang nced at Ren Xiaosu and hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°He said that they would send their people to look for you at whichever strongholds were in trouble. However, it seemed that they were unable to find you even after sending someone to Stronghold 74. Zhang Xiaoman even imed that it was Xu Xianchu who taught him this method....¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said from off to the side, ¡°I was the person Wang Fengyuan sent to Stronghold 74. Xu Xianchu¡¯s guess was right. By the time I found out about his whereabouts, he was at Stronghold 74. Moreover, look at how Stronghold 61 ended up....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was immediately left speechless. What the hell! He interrupted the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Don¡¯t say any more for now!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker fell silent.


    Wang Fugui said with a sigh, ¡°When we didn¡¯t hear any news of you, I led everyone back to the Central ins and even hauled a lot of goods back. It was all thanks to Zhang Xiaoman that we couldplete the deal sessfully this time. But he took the liberty to give us several million yuan¡¯s worth of goods on credit. Will that affect him?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was amused. ¡°No, you don¡¯t have to worry. Zhang Xiaoman did the right thing this time! Old Wang, do you know who the young man in front of you is?¡±


    Huh? Wang Fugui was taken aback by that question. How could he not know who Ren Xiaosu was?


    The Great Hoodwinker said conspiratorially, ¡°This is our Fortress 178¡¯s futuremander. Do you know what that means? After Commander Zhang retires, Ren Xiaosu will take over as themander. In that case, what¡¯s the matter with putting the goods on credit when it involves our futuremander¡¯s own business? Don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Wang Fugui and the others were stunned. Although they had stayed for a while in the Northwest, no one would tell them such things.


    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Wang Fugui asked the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°He¡¯s the futuremander of Fortress 178?¡±


    ¡°How could it not be true?¡± The Great Hoodwinker replied, ¡°Do you really think anyone can buy several million yuan¡¯s worth of goods on credit from our Fortress 178 just by giving a name?¡±


    Wang Fugui finally understood why everyone in the Northwest behaved so enthusiastically towards him. It also exined Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s cordiality and generosity.


    When the goods were transported out of the warehouse, even the warehouse officer was exceptionally friendly with him. He kept addressing him as Brother Wang and said he hoped Wang Fugui woulde frequently to the Northwest to grow his business and achieve glorious heights.


    He was wondering why Zhang Xiaoman had such great authority.


    Only now did he realize Ren Xiaosu¡¯s status had changed!


    Old Wang stared dumbfoundedly at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°No wonder Zhang Jinglin stayed in our town for so many years! So you¡¯re his...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened. ¡°What the hell are you talking about? I¡¯m not rted to him by blood. The Great Hoodwinker is just bluffing y¡¯all, so don¡¯t take him seriously.¡±


    However, the Great Hoodwinker wasn¡¯t going to care about that. All he wanted was to get this matter confirmed no matter what it took! If he could influence Ren Xiaosu through Wang Fugui and the others, who were like family to him, it would even be better in the future!


    Qin Sheng, who was eavesdropping next door, was finally able to confirm that Ren Xiaosu was really the next designatedmander of Fortress 178. He was even the type to refuse the role despite everyone wanting him to be the one.


    What should he do now? He picked up the satellite phone next to him and called his teacher, Old Li. When the call connected, he bluntly said, ¡°Teacher, I¡¯ve confirmed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity. It is not as simple as we thought....¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Old Li could not understand what he was trying to say.


    Qin Sheng exined, ¡°He¡¯s definitely not a superhuman who operates by himself. He is different from those other lone wolves.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know he has a maid.¡± Old Li said impatiently, ¡°Can you say everything without pausing in between each sentence?¡±


    Qin Sheng said helplessly, ¡°He is the heir of Fortress 178. It looks like the entire Fortress 178 has tacitly acknowledged this, but it sounds like he doesn¡¯t want to go back to the Northwest. So, Teacher, you should be mentally prepared. Even if he¡¯s really the one we¡¯re looking for, he might not ept it.¡±


    Before this, the consideration Old Li had was what if Zhang Qingxi and the others did not ept Ren Xiaosu when it turned out he was the one they were looking for.


    But now, that condition had suddenly shifted. Instead, they should be worrying about what to do if Ren Xiaosu did not ept them!


    Old Li asked nkly, ¡°Are you really sure?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a need for him to put on an act for us.¡± Qin Sheng said, ¡°But, Teacher, I think this might also be a good thing. After interacting more with Ren Xiaosu recently, I realize hisbat strength is probably beyond our imagination. In the past, we thought he would not be as strong as us. Or rather, all the Riders feel that most of the superhumans who have awoken their powers naturally in this world are weaker than us, save for a few individuals. However, Ren Xiaosu is very likely to be one of those few. Teacher, you should also have heard about the creeper vine at Stronghold 61. He managed to emerge unscathed after he went inside. Also, I suspect he¡¯s definitely involved with how the creeper vine wilted away.¡±


    Old Li said with a sigh, ¡°Alright, I understand. I¡¯ll need to inform the rest of the Riders about this.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu turned his head and looked at Jiang Wu, who was standing off to one side. Over the past few months, Jiang Wu¡¯s demeanor had be even more reserved. Right now, as everyone was conversing, she just listened quietly with a smile and did not interrupt them. However, she kept looking at Ren Xiaosu.


    But when Ren Xiaosu looked back at her, she would avoid eye contact.

 Chapter 617 - All grown up

    <h4>Chapter 617 All grown up</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu took another look at Wang Yuchi and the others. They did seem a lot more mature than they were a few months ago. Their faces alone revealed this, as they looked a little more tanned and slightly more rugged than before. When they smiled, they appeared much more confident, unlike the frail demeanor they portrayed from the time they were students.


    After all, these children used to be students who only knew how to study, and they were all single-mindedly focused on getting into university back then.


    Even Wang Dalong, who was not sensible previously, had also be much more mature.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It looks like y¡¯all¡¯ve changed a lot.¡±


    At the side, Old Wang said with a smile, ¡°Yeah. We encountered bandits early in our travels, but it was all thanks to Ms. Jiang, Wang Yuchi, the other male students, as well as the nanomachines you gave them that we managed to send those bandits running away in fear. That was also the reason why I dared to start the mercantile business to haul goods to the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± Ren Xiaosu patted Wang Yuchi on the shoulder and said with a smile, ¡°You can even fight bandits now! What¡¯s the dy like when you¡¯re using the nanomachines now?¡±


    Wang Yuchi smiled and said, ¡°I don¡¯t really feel a dy anymore, and the response time is still within eptable range for me. Two of our ssmates can still feel a dy when operating them, but we think they can raise their sync rates very soon to achieve a negligible level of dy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. It seemed like it was really as he had guessed. The reason why the Li Consortium dared to send those refugees with a high synchronization rate to their deaths was that the synchronization rate could be improved through training afterwards.


    This also exined something. It proved the Li Consortium had indeed treated those refugee nanosoldiers as cannon fodder back then. They were nothing but test subjects for the nanomachines.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and asked, ¡°Were y¡¯all scared when you were fighting the bandits?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I was rather scared at the time.¡± A male student smiled and said, ¡°But when I thought about it, I realized it was what you had done for us in the past. Since you were not afraid, we shouldn¡¯t be afraid either. Besides, we still have a duty to protect everyone here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him, then looked at a female student who constantly had her eyes on him. He chuckled and said, ¡°Protect everyone? Or do you mean protect someone?¡±


    The group burst intoughter. It seemed that this couple¡¯s rtionship was no longer a secret. This was quite normal. As the saying went, true love was found in adversity. After this group of teenagers had been through so much difficulty and desperate situations, they would naturally develop feelings for each other over time.


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Are y¡¯all still keeping up with your studies?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Wang Yuchi replied. ¡°When we were still living in the mountains, it wasn¡¯t like we couldn¡¯t bear the hardship of being isted from the world but that Uncle Fugui felt it would be a pity if we didn¡¯t have a chance to study anymore. That was why he took us away from the mountains to see if we could make more money. He also wanted to see if there were any universities in the Northwest that we could further our studies at.¡±


    Realization dawned upon Ren Xiaosu. So it turned out Old Wang was still just as thoughtful. He felt that Old Wang had done the right thing regarding this.


    While Ren Xiaosu was chatting with the students, the Great Hoodwinker took the opportunity to do some palm reading for Old Wang. He asked Old Wang, ¡°How old are you this year?¡±


    Wang Fugui answered with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m 46.¡±


    ¡°Then you¡¯re a little younger than me. I¡¯m 52. Why don¡¯t I address you as bro? That sounds closer!¡± the Great Hoodwinker said with a smile while holding Wang Fugui¡¯s hand.


    Wang Fugui did not reject him. The Great Hoodwinker continued, ¡°Based on your palm, I think you had a son when you were still in your early thirties. You were only 32 years old when your son was born, am I right?¡±


    Wang Fugui was shocked. ¡°How¡¯d you know?¡±


    ¡°Haha.¡± The Great Hoodwinker pointed at his white banner that had the words ¡°Divine Foresight¡± written on it. ¡°I¡¯m a fortune teller, so of course I know things like that. Everything¡¯s written on your palm.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so you¡¯re a master! Sorry for the disrespect.¡± Wang Fugui was a little confused, so he asked, ¡°But aren¡¯t you an intelligence agent?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, intelligence gathering is just my side job,¡± the Great Hoodwinker exined. ¡°Fortune telling is my main job.¡±


    ¡°Then, big bro, can you read my fortune and tell me how thetter part of my life will go?¡± Wang Fugui asked. When the Great Hoodwinker was able to state his son¡¯s age urately, Wang Fugui was a little convinced.


    The Great Hoodwinker stroked his beard and said with a smile, ¡°Your future isn¡¯t too good. The Central ins is a dangerous ce for you. If you want to be sessful, you have to head north. But north is still not the best choice you have. You have to head northwest because that¡¯s where the Prosperous Northwest is!¡±


    Wang Fugui pondered this. Of course it had to be the Prosperous Northwest! How could he not get rich when Ren Xiaosu was already themander designated to take over the Northwest?


    The Great Hoodwinker continued, ¡°The character ¡®Wang¡¯ is also quite peculiar in geomancy. Although ¡®Wang¡¯ was originally meant to portray a king¡¯s demeanor, there are too many people who have it as their surnames. This in turn weakens its disposition. But if you add a stroke to it and change the character to ¡®Yu,¡¯[1] it willplement your given name of Fugui. Otherwise, your surname doesn¡¯t match your given name at all! Do you know where there¡¯s an abundance of jade? The Northwest...¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was already starting to talk nonsense. Anyway, the core of his idea was just to get Wang Fugui to head northwest.


    If Wang Fugui and his family decided to head northwest, would Ren Xiaosu still want to stay in the Central ins by himself? That was impossible!


    Since he could not convince Ren Xiaosu, he would just have to persuade Wang Fugui first.


    Once Wang Fugui made another trip to the Northwest, arge quantity of goods would already be prepared for him to tie him down to this trade. He would not have to pay for the goods in advance and could just reckon with the cost after selling it all.


    Honestly, Fortress 178 was absolutely stinking rich with minerals and ores. This was not something that theycked in the slightest.


    Eventually, they started sharing anecdotes of fortune telling as they talked. The Great Hoodwinker bragged, ¡°When I was younger, I was adored by countless youngdies due to this fortune telling skill of mine. I¡¯m really good at it!¡±


    Wang Fugui said with a smile, ¡°Then you must have a lot of luck with women. You must¡¯ve been a yboy when you were younger, right?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± The Great Hoodwinker shook his head and said, ¡°people in our line of work aren¡¯t allowed to get into rtionships with our clients.¡±


    Nearby, Ren Xiaosu, who had been listening for a long time, sneered, ¡°Why not? Are you in the funeral business?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Fugui, ¡°Don¡¯t listen to his BS. His side job is intelligence gathering? That¡¯s his main job! That¡¯s how he knew Wang Dalong¡¯s age. Wait, no, he could¡¯ve just found that out from Zhang Jinglin. When he asked your age, it was so he could determine when you had Wang Dalong after subtracting his age from your age.¡±


    Wang Fugui was enlightened. Meanwhile, the Great Hoodwinker said exasperatedly from nearby, ¡°Even though you¡¯re the futuremander, you can¡¯t just leak my trade secrets as you wish!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I know why you¡¯re trying to dupe him. You just want me to return to the Northwest, don¡¯t you? But I¡¯ll still say the same thing as before. Actually, I¡¯m very grateful that y¡¯all think so highly of me. If you really feel that I¡¯m suitable, I might go back there someday when I feel ready. But it definitely won¡¯t be now.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker broke into a smile. ¡°That¡¯s all I needed to hear!¡±


    [1] Íõ(W¨¢ng) -u003e Óñ (Y¨´) is the Chinese character for jade. | ¸»¹ó(F¨´gu¨¬) means Wealth

 Chapter 618 - The Wang Consortium’s strategy

    <h4>Chapter 618 The Wang Consortium¡°s strategy</h4>


    Zhou Yingxue was still not awake even after a long time had passed. Furthermore, for most of the time she was unconscious, her body would intermittently flip between hot and cold. It was not that Ren Xiaosu went near her to feel her temperature, but that when Zhou Yingxue¡¯s body started turning hot, it was as though a furnace had been fired up in the house. It was sweltering and scorching.Ren Xiaosu was really worried her brain would be damaged at that temperature.


    He lodged Wang Fugui and the others in the houses Zhou Yingxue purchased. Since Zhou Yingxue had purchased a lot of houses, it would be a waste if no one was living in them. Ren Xiaosu felt that Zhou Yingxue¡¯s dream of bing a real estate investor should have been shattered when that creeper vine attacked the stronghold.


    After lodging Old Wang and the others, Ren Xiaosu went back to keeping watch over Zhou Yingxue. He was afraid something would happen to her.


    If this maidservant could sessfully control the energy the creeper vine had received from sacrificing an entire stronghold, Zhou Yingxue would probably be a great help to him in the future.


    However, he had already been waiting for three days. After three days, Ren Xiaosu still did not see any signs of Zhou Yingxue recovering.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not in a rush. After three days had passed, Zhou Yingxue still had a healthy glow on her face and did not show any signs of getting weaker.


    He would have to stay in Stronghold 61¡¯s town for some time anyway. ording to Old Wang and the others, Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu¡¯s whereabouts were still unknown. However, Ren Xiaosu felt that if Yan Liuyuan had not sustained any fatal wounds, the floodwaters would probably not kill him since he was capable of manipting luck and curses.


    So he would have to wait a little longer by Stronghold 61. As long as Yan Liuyuan saw those words in the Hope Media newspaper, he would definitelye to Stronghold 61 to look for him.


    As for Yang Xiaojin, he could only think of a different way to find her after reuniting with Yan Liuyuan. After all, Yang Xiaojin did not spend enough time with Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu, and the others, so she couldn¡¯t have heard that phrase before.


    Ren Xiaosu already knew she was the one for him. As long as she were still alive, they would definitely meet again.


    But what surprised Ren Xiaosu was actually the Wang Consortium¡¯s reaction after the disaster at Stronghold 61.


    The cmity had brought immeasurable losses to the Wang Consortium, but they suddenly announced that Stronghold 61 had already ovee the crisis during an interview with Hope Media. They were now recruiting new residents for the stronghold, and anyone from the Alliance of Strongholds coulde here to live and settle down for the long term.


    Although the details were fully summed up in one sentence, this piece of news upied the entire front page of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper that day!


    The Wang Consortium did not state any requirements or mention what kind of people coulde here to settle down. They even said they would provide a sum of money to help the people live and arrange suitable jobs for them based on their abilities!


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw this news. He immediately thought of the dirty trick the Wang Consortium had used against the Zhou Consortium. At that time, many of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s refugees fled into the mountains to breed silkworms after the Wang Consortium deliberately started purchasing silk at high prices. This caused a shortage of manpower for the Zhou Consortium¡¯s factories and affected their productivity.


    And now?


    Who would feel most tempted after reading this piece of news? The stronghold residents of the Zhou and Kong consortiums? Definitely not!


    On one hand, the residents of the Zhou and Kong consortiums were not allowed to enter and leave the strongholds freely. On the other hand, they were also leading a good life with their family and friends in their own strongholds. So who would want to leave a ce they were familiar with?


    However, this piece of news had a different meaning to the refugees!


    Ren Xiaosu knew exactly how much those people longed to be stronghold residents since he used to be like that as well!


    Right now, the opportunity to be a stronghold resident was presented in front of them and within their reach!


    Even if the creeper vine tragedy took ce here not too long ago, wasn¡¯t the creeper vine dead? A threat that was dead was no longer a threat.


    How many refugees would it take to fill a stronghold that used to have a few hundred thousand residents living in it? Moreover, the Wang Consortium even purposely announced this n in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper, which had the highest cirction. It would only take a few days to see the effects.


    Immediately, the refugees from the factories around the Zhou Consortium strongholds started fleeing northwards. It was no exception in the Kong Consortium either!


    Within a week, a lot of the Zhou and Kong Consortiums¡¯ factories came to a standstill. Their strongholds even faced a shortage of vegetables and processed food as a result, while the butchers also rushed to the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold with their families. They were afraid they would miss out on the opportunity to be stronghold residents if they werete!


    Ren Xiaosu watched this from town silently. In just one week, nearly 20,000 people came to Stronghold 61 and were converted to stronghold residents after going through background checks.


    What left Ren Xiaosu a little speechless was that all the waiters in the tavern in town had also moved into the stronghold. Right now, customers had to head into the kitchen to get their ownmb stew as there were no more waiters to serve them. Fortunately, the chef did not leave. Otherwise, the regrs at the tavern would even have ended up cooking their own meals.


    Moreover, people from the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold approached Ren Xiaosu and the others. They thought they were the local refugees here, so they asked them affably if they wanted to move into the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu politely rejected them by saying he could not adapt to the lifestyle in the stronghold after having grown up in town.


    Since he did not want to move into the stronghold, the people in his group also rejected the offer. There was nothing to feel regretful about. After all, they were different from the real refugees now. They did not feel they would be better off living in the stronghold.


    But even though Ren Xiaosu did not want to move into the stronghold, the other refugees in town had already left. This time, Ren Xiaosu purchased the remaining dozen-odd brick courtyard houses in town in one fell swoop.


    As the esquires were in a hurry to move into the stronghold, they naturally had no reason to keep the courtyard houses in town. Furthermore, they had to move into the stronghold as quickly as possible. Otherwise, they might not be able to get a spot in the stronghold. Thus, the courtyard houses were all sold for cheap.


    When Zhou Yingxue bought the houses, she paid an average of 30,000 yuan each. But when Ren Xiaosu bought them, it only cost him 5,000 yuan a pop!


    As the deals were being made, Wang Fugui wondered, ¡°Xiaosu, why are you buying so many courtyard houses near a stronghold that¡¯s just suffered a disaster? Nobody wille here to live.¡±


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, there will be.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯ll be countless peopleing here to live. Old Wang, we¡¯re refugees as well, so don¡¯t underestimate the refugees¡¯ enthusiasm when they get the chance to move into a stronghold.¡±


    99% of the people in the world would not pass up on an opportunity to move higher in the hierarchy. If they could be a stronghold resident, that would mean a chance to make money and lead a better life!


    Wang Fugui asked again, ¡°Then why not pay with the money I¡¯m holding for us? The Wang Consortium has already paid me for this batch of goods. This is the first time I¡¯ve earned over a million yuan in a single transaction!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said with a smile, ¡°I still have money here. By the way, jot down this ount number. You can use the money in it to fund the business. No matter what, you have to continue running the business. After all, we have such arge family to support. In the future, if Wang Yuchi and the others continue with their studies, they¡¯ll also need to spend money.¡±


    Wang Fugui wrote down the ount number and asked, ¡°Xiaosu, how much do you have in there? Do you have enough to spend?¡±


    Old Wang thought that since he had made some money through the business, and the money also belonged to Ren Xiaosu, he absolutely must not let Ren Xiaosu suffer anymore.


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°I think there should still be around 10 million yuan inside.¡±

 Chapter 619 - The troubled Zhou and Kong Consortiums

    <h4>Chapter 619 The troubled Zhou and Kong Consortiums</h4>


    Wang Fugui nearly vomited blood. How could his hard-earned money not even match up to what Ren Xiaosu had?Ren Xiaosu felt they should continue plying the northwestern trade route business. Once Old Wang and the others had rested enough, they could set off for the Northwest again.


    After much thinking, Ren Xiaosu still felt that the Wang Consortium, Zhou Consortium, and Kong Consortium were not suitable for Wang Yuchi and the other students to further their studies at. The most suitable ce for them would be Qinghe University in Luoyang City.


    With this action from the Wang Consortium, the Zhou Consortium, Kong Consortium, and even the Pyro Company and other smaller consortiums were going to be affected. Only the refugees living outside Luoyang City were the least affected.


    The refugees in Luoyang City were not even interested in bing a so-called stronghold resident.


    Ren Xiaosu would have to approach Qin Sheng to arrange for Wang Yuchi and the others to enroll in Qinghe University. He asked Qin Sheng, ¡°Is it true that anyone can get into Qinghe University?¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± Qin Sheng nodded and said, ¡°Why? Wang Yuchi and the others wish to attend uni? But I can¡¯t make the decision, though I can ask my teacher to apply for the necessary passes for them. But if they want to attend Qinghe University, they¡¯ll have to take the entrance exam. Spring enrollment will start soon. It might be difficult for them to pass the exam since they didn¡¯t attend the supplementary sses held outside town.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yuchi and the others. ¡°Time is very tight. Do y¡¯all think you can pass the exam?¡±


    Wang Yuchi smiled confidently and said, ¡°We¡¯ve never fallen behind in our studies, so there¡¯s no need to attend any supplementary sses. But, Brother Xiaosu, we don¡¯t want to attend university anymore. We just want to stay here and help. Even if we don¡¯t attend uni, we can still study by ourselves. Also, Uncle Fugui needs help. He can¡¯t handle the bandits alone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu advised him with a smile, ¡°Since y¡¯all¡¯re capable of passing the exam, you should continue your studies. Don¡¯t worry about the bandits. We can have Zhang Xiaoman send some people to escort him. Institutional education is still better than having to learn everything slowly by yourselves.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had always been serious when it came to learning. Although he did not have the chance to go to university and further his studies, Wang Yuchi and the others were all fine young prospects who should not waste their talents.


    Next to them, the Great Hoodwinker hurriedly said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s right, Zhang Xiaoman can send people to escort Bro Fugui. If those bandits were not based in the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory, we could even send in troops to eliminate them.¡±


    If Wang Fugui¡¯s convoy were escorted by Fortress 178¡¯s troops, wouldn¡¯t they be recognized as the official merchant for Fortress 178? In that case, who would be so foolish as to offend Wang Fugui in the future?


    With Wang Fugui¡¯s ability, it would even be possible for him to monopolize the entire northwestern trade route.


    By this time, more and more refugees had moved into Stronghold 61. Some small media outlets began to follow up closely on the matter to report about it. For example, they interviewed the new stronghold residents and asked them how they felt and whether the Wang Consortium had made things difficult for them.


    These refugees unanimously expressed that the Wang Consortium was really wonderful. They didn¡¯t expect they would get the opportunity to be stronghold residents one day. Moreover, the jobs the Wang Consortium had arranged for them were much easier than working in the mines like they did before. They had already decided to settle down here for the rest of their lives.


    The Wang Consortium not only gave them jobs but also paid them well.


    It was like buying a carcass with a thousand taels of silver.[1] These 20,000 refugees who were the first to move into the stronghold were the ¡°carcasses¡± bought by the Wang Consortium with arge sum of money!


    The Zhou and Kong Consortiums were also trying their best to keep the refugees in their territories. But how could they possibly do better than offering the refugees a chance to be stronghold residents?


    Surely they could not have their troops guard the refugees daily like they were prisoners, right? Besides, they could not enforce something like that either!


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s move instantly reversed their losses, turning a disaster into a good oue!


    Half a monthter, Stronghold 61¡¯s town started getting lively again. Ren Xiaosu thought the current poption in the vicinity of Stronghold 61 must have exceeded the original number of people that used to live here!


    Of course, the Wang Consortium¡¯s factories had also been affected by the disaster. However, they were prepared for this. In fact, the first people to arrive at Stronghold 61 were the refugees in their own territory. At that time, the Wang Consortium¡¯s factories hade to a standstill, but they did not reject those refugees from moving into the stronghold.


    Following that, arge number of troops and military vehicles started assembling at Stronghold 61 due to the ongoing rescue efforts. When the refugees in the stronghold reached a certain number, Stronghold 61 stopped epting the refugees who had just arrived. Then they transported the newly arrived refugees to the various factories in their military vehicles.


    The refugees who camete were sad to learn they would not get to be stronghold residents.


    However, the Wang Consortium immediately promised they would still be treated very well. Although it was not much better, it was still slightly better than how the Zhou and Kong Consortiums treated them.


    As such, the refugees thought that since they were already here and it would take them at least another 10 days to a fortnight to return to their former homes, wouldn¡¯t it be the same working for any consortium? Besides, the sry given by the Wang Consortium was also higher.


    As a result, the Wang Consortium¡¯s factories were the first to restore their operations, while the Zhou and Kong Consortiums¡¯ factories remained at a standstill. Although these two consortiums also thought of improving the refugees¡¯ benefits, the refugees had already left their territories. Even if they improved the benefits at this moment, the refugees would not want to make the long journey back.


    The consortiums could not go to the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory to steal back their former refugees, right? That was as good as dering war!


    At this moment, they would probably have to increase their previous wages by 40% to 50% if they wanted to get the refugees to go back.


    Ren Xiaosu did not pay attention to the consortiums¡¯ subsequent actions as he was not really interested in it.


    However, the Wang Consortium seemed to have nned all of this way beforehand. The more Ren Xiaosu thought about it, the more afraid he felt.


    When Luo Lan said they would have to form alliances with the other forces to deal with the Wang Consortium, he felt that Luo Lan and Qing Zhen were being too cautious. But now it seemed like the Wang Consortium¡¯s intention was clear. Qing Zhen had thought ahead of everyone else again.


    Ren Xiaosu initially thought that the Wang Consortium would start a war very soon. But after this, they fell silent again and focused all of their energy on opening the trade route and getting their productivity restarted. Theypletely ignored the talk in the rest of the world.


    During this period, the Hope Media reporter, Zhou Tao, remained at Stronghold 61 as he reported on thetest updates to the situation after the refugees were let into the stronghold.


    At first, he thought the entire stronghold would descend into chaos. After all, the people in Stronghold 61 were now made up of refugees. Those people did not have any manners, nor would they obey anyws, so there should be a lot of theft and robbery.


    But the Wang Consortium¡¯s artificial intelligence started disying its usefulness at this moment. Some of the people who had justmitted robberies were caught by the Wang Consortium¡¯s newly appointed Public Order Division staff right after turning the corner on a street.


    Others were handcuffed immediately after they stole something.


    The artificial intelligence was like an omniscient god that regted everyone¡¯s actions.


    Before this, Zhou Tao could not really grasp the concept of the Wang Consortium¡¯s artificial intelligence. It was not until he experienced the transition from chaos to order in Stronghold 61 that he gained a deeper understanding of the role the artificial intelligence yed in maintaining the peace of the stronghold.


    He suddenly felt that Stronghold 61 was more like a pilot project for the Wang Consortium and a demonstration piece. They were using a practical example to tell the world how powerful the artificial intelligence was in governing a stronghold and the stability it brought to people¡¯s lives.


    [1] To show that one is sincere about doing something

 Chapter 620 - Warfare in the Northern Plains

    <h4>620 Warfare in the Northern ins</h4>


    In the grasnds in the North, Yan Liuyuan was sitting at the campfire in his tent with a calm expression. The flickering glow of the mes illuminated his face red.


    Next to him, the tribal chief, Hassan, ced somemb meat into the metal pot hanging over the firepit. Themb meat was already cooked, so he was just reheating it in the pot.


    He said respectfully to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Master, the people from thatrge tribe who want to go to the Central ins to plunder for food are doing so to establish their dominance. The khan will definitely not let it rest after you summoned that eagle from the sky to blind his envoy.¡±


    Yan Liuyuanughed. ¡°Hassan, you don¡¯t have to worry about that. I¡¯m just worried that he won¡¯t dare toe.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± Hassan did not say anything more. After a while, he fished out the mutton from the pot and took out his small knife to cut it into slices.


    As his master did not like eating big chunks of meat, he had to carefully cut it into smaller pieces.


    If he submitted to Yan Liuyuan due to fear at the beginning, he was now truly worshipping Yan Liuyuan as a god.


    The people in the Northern ins believed in gods. This had always been the case since ancient times. The feats disyed by Yan Liuyuan so far were making him look like a true god to these people.


    Even if he weren¡¯t a god, he was definitely close to being one.


    Hassan believed the gods would protect the tribe. Some livestock had gotten lost due to the blizzard, but his master told him the livestock would return by themselves. In the end, it started gusting strongly that afternoon and all the livestock starteding back.


    All of these events left Hassan deeply in awe and admiration.


    Yan Liuyuan picked up a piece of mutton and ced it into his mouth. After swallowing it with great difficulty, he said to Hassan, ¡°Don¡¯t y¡¯all have vegetables here in the ins?¡±


    Back when they were at Stronghold 88, Yan Liuyuan often enjoyed listening to Ren Xiaosu share some stories he read in books.


    Ren Xiaosu told him that before The Cataclysm, not everyone living in the North was nomadic. Many of those who lived there also lived in cities, and their diet was not much different from that of Southerners, with it consisting of vegetables and fruits as well.


    It was just that most of it was either harvested through agriculture or imported in.


    Now that the Northern ins no longer imported food from the Central ins, it would have to depend on luck if they could even get any fruits to eat. Only wild fruits could be found in the grasnds.


    Hassan replied, ¡°Master, it¡¯s mainly because it¡¯s winter now. It isn¡¯t easy to find those things. When springes, I can take our tribespeople out to look for other kinds of food.¡±


    ¡°It looks like it really will be necessary to make a trip to the Central ins.¡± Yan Liuyuan sighed.


    ¡°Master, are you from the Central ins?¡± Hassan asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head. ¡°But the ce I used to live is simr to the Central ins. We ate rice and wore coats too. There aren¡¯t many herdsmen there since most people practice farming.¡±


    ¡°Does Master also want to build those magnificent city walls here in the ins?¡± Hassan gestured animatedly as he said, ¡°I¡¯ve seen them from a distance before and they¡¯re towering. The people living inside must not be afraid of wild animals. They can even drive those beasts here to the Northern ins.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan walked out of the tent and rubbed his cheeks with a handful of snow from the outside. ¡°Hassan, we can¡¯t build strongholds in the North. Also, I don¡¯t like that kinda thing either.¡±


    Hassan wondered, ¡°Master doesn¡¯t like strongholds?¡±


    ¡°Of course not,¡± Yan Liuyuan said. ¡°Those Central ins people who are hiding in the strongholds have already lost their sense of the outside world. The world is ever-changing, but they¡¯re the only ones not making any progress. And they even divide their own people into different sses.¡±


    Hassan understood that his master disliked strongholds.


    Yan Liuyuan continued, ¡°Furthermore, if the nomadic tribes are set on being against the Central ins people, they mustn¡¯t live in a fixed location. When the Central ins people start getting wary of us and decide to conquer the grasnds, their artillery can easily destroy any stronghold. The nomads¡¯ advantage is the terrain of the grasnds. When the Central ins peoplee attacking, they¡¯ll have to build forward operating bases as they advance along the rivers. But we can move freely. Once they advance deep enough, we¡¯ll have a chance to fight back against them.¡±


    Hassan smiled and said, ¡°Master is so knowledgeable.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just throwing it out there.¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°I just don¡¯t like stronghold residents.¡±


    At this moment, Xiaoyu, who was wearing a pelt cloak like the herdsmen, walked out of the tent. She was holding a bowl of milk in her hand. ¡°Liuyuan,e and have some goat milk. You can¡¯t keep eating so little.¡±


    But as soon as she finished speaking, the howling of wolves sounded in the distance on the grasnds. Yan Liuyuanughed. ¡°They¡¯re finally here. Let¡¯s go, Hassan, I¡¯ll take you to see something interesting.¡±


    After that, Hassan had the tribesmen bring over the horses. He knelt on one knee and used his thigh as a pedestal for Yan Liuyuan to mount the horse.


    The group of several dozen rode off in the direction of the wolves¡¯ howls. Even now, the tribesmen still had a lingering fear of the wolves. However, Yan Liuyuan had reassured them many times the wolves would not hurt their own people or eat their livestock indiscriminately.


    After riding for a while, Hassan stared nkly at the grasnd in front of him. It looked like blood had been spilled here.


    He recognized one of the men the wolves had surrounded as the Commander-in-Chief of the Right,[1] a warrior of thatrge tribe who was skilled in warfare.


    It looked like these were the troops sent by therge tribe to encircle Hassan¡¯s tribe. However, the several thousand-strong army was ambushed by the wolves in the grasnd before they could eveny eyes on Yan Liuyuan.


    These people thought firearms could scare away the wolves, but the wolves were much more ferocious than they had ever seen.


    In just half an hour, the several thousand-strong army was wiped out, leaving the Commander-in-Chief of the Right, whose name was Golmud, and his associates still battling the wolf pack.


    However, the reason he could survive until now was not that he could fight well, but because Yan Liuyuan had told the Wolf King to keep the person in charge alive.


    When the Wolf King saw Yan Liuyuaning, it stopped attacking them. Then it led the wolves and surrounded the enemy, leaving them to shout angrily inside the circle all they wanted.


    Golmud was panting heavily within the wolf pack. He looked at Yan Liuyuan through the wolf pack and said fiercely, ¡°You¡¯re this tribe¡¯s new chief?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan, who was sitting on the back of arge, powerful horse, looked at him with great interest. ¡°Did your khan receive the message that I asked your envoy to send him?¡±


    ¡°How dare you make such big ims when you¡¯re just a brat who¡¯s wet behind the ears?¡± Golmud said with a sneer, ¡°You want control of the entire ins? You¡¯re not capable yet.¡±


    ¡°It seems like this is the attitude of your khan.¡± Yan Liuyuan said nonchntly, ¡°In that case, I can only resort to more radical methods.¡±


    With that, the wolves ended their encirclement and pounced forward to bite all of the remaining enemies to death. After that, they were even going to start gnawing on the corpses of these people.


    This was an exceptionally bloody and brutal sight to behold. It was just like a tyrant punishing his enemies.


    But Xiaoyu suddenly looked at Yan Liuyuan from next to him and said, ¡°Liuyuan, you can have the wolves kill them, but you can¡¯t let the wolves eat them. If your brother were here, he wouldn¡¯t allow you to do this.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan sat on his horse and remained silent for a long while. Then he gave a wave of his hand to disperse the wolves. ¡°Go onto the ins to look for your own food. You aren¡¯t allowed to eat these people.¡±


    The Wolf King obeyed his order and promptly left.


    [1] Commander-in-Chief of the Right, a rank at the level of the 24 imperial leaders called the Ten Thousand Horsemen. Nomadic leaders formed a dualistic system of political organization with the left and right wings divided on a regional basis, with left being east and right being west.

 Chapter 621 - Flower

    <h4>621 Flower</h4>


    In this vast steppe, it was extremelymon for the nomadic tribes to be engaged in strife with one another. Even though civilization had once been ended by The Cataclysm, it was still very difficult to change the nature of the people living on thisnd.


    Therge tribes set up their royal courts, appointed their kings of the left and right wings,[1] and designated some lower-ranked tribal leaders toplete their control over the steppe.


    However, as the steppe was too vast, a truly ambitious person would sometimes rise and overturn the original hierarchy of power.


    Hassan felt he was currently witnessing such a change. When he heard the howling of the wolves, he was no longer afraid. Instead, he even felt a little excited.


    The power disyed by his master had surpassed the level of all the other lords in the grasnds. That was the power of the gods.


    After Yan Liuyuan sent the wolves away, Hassan and the others led the remaining horses and cows on the battlefield back to the tribe. The mutated horses were now the main mode of transportation for the nomads in the grasnds, while oxen were mainly used for transporting supplies.


    When the wolves attacked this group of people, they were even specifically instructed by Yan Liuyuan not to harm the horses and the cows. This, in Hassan¡¯s eyes, was truly a miracle.


    After all, wolves were carnivores, so to be able to make them give up their prey, who else but a god could do something like?


    On their way back, Yan Liuyuan kept silent the entire time. When they were about to arrive at the tribe, Xiaoyu suddenly said, ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have countered your orders in front of the others.¡±


    Xiaoyu looked a little gloomy. She had followed Yan Liuyuan to the grasnds and knew exactly what he wanted to achieve. Unifying the grasnds was only the first step.


    She could not stop Yan Liuyuan from wanting to do this, nor did she have any intention of stopping him, much less have any reason to stop him. So she just quietly watched everything from behind Yan Liuyuan.


    Xiaoyu knew very well that the young man next to her was likely no longer the little brother she used to have. He was now the leader of a tribe. In the future, he would even be the leader of many more tribes, eventually setting up his own royal court to take control of the entire ins.


    Therefore, she might not be able to talk to Yan Liuyuan like she used to.


    But... she did not want to see this young man who used to be innocent and na?ve fall into the abyss.


    But after she said that to him, Yan Liuyuan suddenly smiled and said, ¡°Thankfully you¡¯re here, BIg Sister Xiaoyu.¡±


    A strong gust of wind started blowing again, causing Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu¡¯s clothes to flutter. Yan Liuyuan continued saying in the wind, ¡°Sometimes, I really wish that my brother were still here with me. If it were him, it would probably be easier for him to unify the ins. But I know that he doesn¡¯t have such thoughts. He was never an ambitious person and just wants to protect the people around him.¡±


    Xiaoyu listened quietly.


    ¡°Regardless of whether my brother admits it or not, he¡¯s still a good person in my heart. Actually, Big Sister Xiaoyu, you were right to stop me today. I was just thinking that if my brother were still alive, he would definitely hate this tyrannical me.¡± Yan Liuyuan sighed.


    ¡°He won¡¯t.¡± Xiaoyu shook her head and said softly, ¡°You¡¯re the most important person to Xiaosu. Even if you fall into the abyss, he¡¯ll still pull you out from it.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡±


    Xiaoyu was very important to Yan Liuyuan. Only with her by his side could he continue being clear-headed.


    On this day, Yan Liuyuan stood atop a grassy hill and looked south. He remained there from dusk until night, then from night until dawn.


    Hassan came out of his tent several times and looked at the back of his master from afar. He felt his master looked a little lonely.


    In the morning, when Yan Liuyuan returned to his tent, he was surprised to see a young girl kneeling inside.


    Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°You¡¯re Hassan¡¯s daughter?¡±


    The girl was a little timid. ¡°Father asked me toe and serve you.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled helplessly. ¡°You may leave. I have my own hands and feet, so I don¡¯t need anyone to serve me. By the way, what¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Tsetseg.¡± The young girl answered timidly, ¡°It means ¡®flower.¡¯¡±


    ¡°How old are you?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked again.


    ¡°13. I¡¯ll be 14 in another three months,¡± Tsetseg answered.


    Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll remember it. Go on back to your mother now.¡±


    But just as Yan Liuyuan was about to lie down and rest, Tsetseg ran out and brought in a basin of hot water and a cotton cloth.


    She soaked the cotton cloth in the hot water and went to wipe Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face. Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid of me?¡±


    ¡°Dad said that you¡¯re a god who¡¯s the protector of our tribe, so I don¡¯t have to be afraid.¡± Tsetseg said.


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. It was not because Hassan had called him a god, but because he said that he was their ¡°protector.¡±


    He softened his tone. ¡°I¡¯m not a god. I¡¯m just a normal person like you.¡±


    ¡°But you canmand the wolves andmand the eagles in the sky.¡± Tsetseg said, ¡°And the girls in the tribe... they all say that you¡¯re very good-looking....¡±


    By her second line, Tsetseg¡¯s voice softened.


    Yan Liuyuan was indeed different from the males in the tribe. He did not have rough skin that was damaged by long exposure to ultraviolet rays, and his appearance was also more ¡°defined.¡±


    So many girls in the tribe were saying that only a god could look so good.


    Xiaoyu had also mentioned this to Yan Liuyuan. Yan Liuyuan wondered how long it had been since these nomads saw people from the Central ins.


    When Tsetseg saw Yan Liuyuan not respond to her after a long time, she got a little anxious. ¡°I can helpb your hair, wash your clothes, and cook for you. Dad wants me to stay in your tent. He says that... I¡¯m yours from now on. If you chase me out, I¡¯ll be very embarrassed.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. What kind of tradition was this?!


    Heughed and said, ¡°Thene help meb my hair, but you don¡¯t have to remain in my tent every day. After you bring hot water over in the morning, you can go back to your mother¡¯s side.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t I have toe over at night?¡± Tsetseg asked softly. To be honest, she wasn¡¯t ready for this yet.


    ¡°No,¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile.


    Then Tsetseg sat down behind Yan Liuyuan and wiped his hair with a wet towel, being careful and meticulous about it.


    After a moment of silence, she could not help but say, ¡°You¡¯re not as dangerous as I thought. They¡¯re all saying you made the wolves kill a lot of people yesterday, much more than the people we have in our tribe. But Big Sister Xiaoyu said that you¡¯re a very nice person, so she told us not to be afraid of you.¡±


    Before this, Tsetseg had lied. When Hassan told her toe to Yan Liuyuan¡¯s tent, she was indeed a little scared.


    But now she really was not scared anymore.


    Yan Liuyuan did not respond to Tsetseg. Meanwhile, Tsetseg continued chattering, ¡°If I only need toe over every morning tob your hair, I can still go gathering with others during the day.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan wondered, ¡°Gathering?¡±


    ¡°Going out to gather some of the edible fungi,¡± Tsetseg exined. ¡°Otherwise, we can only drink milk or go hungry. Dad said that many of the cows and goats died in the blizzard, so we can¡¯t eat them anymore. We have to wait until they give birth next year.¡±


    [1] ¡°Worthy Prince of the Left (East)¡± and ¡°Worthy Prince of the Right (West)¡± | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuqi_King

 Chapter 622 - Searching for sal

    <h4><strong>Chapter 622</strong> Searching for sal</h4>


    The cows and goats were to the nomads what farming was for the Central ins. It certainly wasn¡¯t as though they could eat their crops or livestock as they pleased.However, after Yan Liuyuan¡¯s arrival, Hassan had been ughtering the tribe¡¯s goats for Yan Liuyuan to eat to show his respect. As for the rest of the tribespeople, only the younger, stronger manualborers would get to eat meat, and even that meat would have toe from the animals that died in the blizzard.


    For the young girls like Tsetseg, even though she was Hassan¡¯s daughter, she did not receive any preferential treatment.


    It was also probably because of Hassan¡¯s impartiality that he became the tribe¡¯s chief.


    The moment Yan Liuyuan arrived at their tribe, he was treated with the highest respect. Therefore, he had never had to experience the hardships of the nomads. When Xiaoyu and he saw that these people reared their own livestock, they thought that the tribe was quite well-to-do. However, they did not know the livestock were not supposed to be killed at whim. With so many people in the tribe, if they only ate beef and goat meat for their meals, they would probably have to ughter several of them in one day alone.


    Their tribe could not survive such extravagance.


    When Yan Liuyuan heard this, he started asking Tsetseg about the situation in the tribe in detail. Only then did he realize that not only did the tribespeople not get to eat meat often, they also rarely got to have salt.


    Salt was extremely scarce in the grasnds. The nomads had always supplemented their salt intake through eating mutton, beef, and drinking goat milk. The meat they usually ate did not have much taste, and only the meat served to Yan Liuyuan would be seasoned with some salt.


    But now, as the tribespeople were not allowed to eat any meat, they could not replenish their salt intake. Many of the women and elderly would get dizzy, experience muscle spasms, or show signs of nausea.


    When such symptoms appeared among the tribespeople, due to ack of knowledge, they just felt they might be ill or something. So everyone would gather around the firepit and pray for blessings from the gods, hoping they would get cured in the process.


    There was no salt or medicine in this ce, and the tribespeople would only resort to killing goats if they got too hungry.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, we¡¯re the poor people of this era, so why did I think that y¡¯all were leading a good life?¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a bitter smile, ¡°It¡¯s my fault.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan had Tsetseg call Hassan over. Hassan red at his daughter on the way to Yan Liuyuan¡¯s tent. Then he respectfully said to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Master, don¡¯t listen to Tsetseg¡¯s nonsense. Actually, things aren¡¯t that difficult for our tribe yet.¡±


    ¡°Enough, just listen to me.¡± Yan Liuyuan said calmly, ¡°The women and elderly are showing signs of nausea because they don¡¯t have meat to eat anymore, so they can¡¯t replenish their salt intake. We need salt.¡±


    Hassan said awkwardly, ¡°Salt is very scarce here. Only therge tribes have it. We need to pay tribute to the big tribes with our livestock every year to obtain the precious salt that they have.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan realized this sounded like one of the methods the consortiums used to control the refugees. Hassan¡¯s tribe was just like the refugees outside the strongholds, always getting controlled by others.


    But at the thought of this, Yan Liuyuan became even more interested. He wanted to lead these people to a good life.


    Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Don¡¯t y¡¯all have the ability to get salt by yourselves? This steppe is so vast, so you should be able to find some, right? It might not be much, but there can¡¯t bepletely nothing.¡±


    ¡°The salt pools are all controlled by therge tribes, and there aren¡¯t that many salt pools in the steppe to begin with,¡± Hassan replied. ¡°I heard that therge tribes don¡¯t even have enough salt for themselves.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan carefully recalled what Ren Xiaosu had told him about wilderness survival. He did not like learning, but he would always take note of everything Ren Xiaosu mentioned to him.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly said to Hassan, ¡°Gather the herdsmen. Ask them if they remember where and what the cows licked when they brought them out to graze.¡±


    He remembered that Ren Xiaosu had told him before that all mammals needed to take in salt. Humans had long lost their instinct to survive in the wilderness, but they were a species that relied on their intelligence. If they could not find salt by themselves, they could always get the animals to help them locate it.


    How did the animals in the ins replenish their salt intake? Some of the cattle farms in the Central ins would ce some coarse salt in the cowsheds for them to lick. Meanwhile, in the grasnds, there would be salt licks that cows would find to replenish their salt intake.


    As expected, Hassan managed to get an answer after asking a few tribesmen.


    After all, there were only a few ces the cows liked licking when they were grazing in the pastures, so how could they not know?


    Yan Liuyuan immediately set off and led Hassan and the others to that pasture.


    What happened after was simple. Yan Liuyuan led a group of people to pry open the frozen ground and bring a lot of the soil under the grass back to the tribe.


    Yan Liuyuan did not know how the salt should be extracted, but he knew for sure there was salt in this soil.


    He could only use a makeshift method of mixing water with the soil before filtering it through a cotton fabric over and over again until the water cleared up. Then the water was ced over the firepit for distition.


    Very quickly, Hassan, who was standing off to the side, saw a faintyer of yellowish-white crystals forming at the bottom of the pot. It was a very minute quantity. As the extraction process was not up to par, the crystals that formed did not look clean.


    Hassan could not wait any longer and ced a little bit of it into his mouth. Then he looked at Yan Liuyuan in surprise. ¡°Master, this is really salt!¡±


    Regardless of its appearance, it was still salt!


    Yan Liuyuan heaved a sigh of relief. In the past, Ren Xiaosu would go out into the wilderness to look for the roots of a walnut tree to boil in water. The water that was cooked would then carry salt content. At that time, it was always Ren Xiaosu who was responsible for looking for food, and now, it was Yan Liuyuan¡¯s turn.


    He said to Hassan, ¡°Scrape these off. I want y¡¯all to go to the salt lick and do the same as I did earlier, understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I understand,¡± Hassan said excitedly. This was indeed a god. He could even extract salt from barren soil. How powerful!


    Actually, the nomads were capable of simr expertise like this long before The Cataclysm. But after civilization had developed to a certain extent back then, the steppe inhabitants did notck any salt intake in their daily lives anymore. Even while living in the north, the people still had ess to salt that came from thousands of kilometers away.


    The steppe inhabitants from before The Cataclysm were going through a formal education system during their schooling years, and no teachers had ever taught them how to search for salt in the grasnds.


    Therefore, by the time The Cataclysm urred, there were even some steppe inhabitants who knew the poem, ¡°Preface to Prince Teng¡¯s Pavilion.¡±[1] But when it came to surviving in the grasnds, they had lost the crucial skills necessary for that.


    Gradually, the pressure to survive started hanging over everyone¡¯s heads. Eventually, even the ¡°Preface to Prince Teng¡¯s Pavilion¡± was forgotten.


    All that was left was an instinct to survive. After that, ambitious people began rising up and consolidating their authority over the grasnds. Then they started getting ideas about treating the Central ins as their granary to feed themselves.


    However, there had been some ws in their understanding of the world. When they arrived at the Central ins, they realized they were actually the ones in the most miserable state after The Cataclysm. Strongholds had already been established in the territory of the Central ins, and they were even equipped with firearms.


    The nomads living in the grasnds did not even quite understand what the South had be. Only Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu knew.


    Yan Liuyuan sat in the tent while Xiaoyu, who was next to him, kept smiling at him. He asked, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, why are you smiling?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m smiling because I find that you look just like your brother now.¡± Xiaoyu said gently, ¡°He¡¯ll definitely be proud of you, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Xiaoyu realized Yan Liuyuan had fallen silent and was looking rather down.


    Yan Liuyuan said softly, ¡°Big Sis, I miss my brother.¡±


    [1] A piece of literature by Wang Bo of the Tang dynasty. It is considered a founding piece of Tang Literature.

 Chapter 623 - Throne

    <h4>623 Throne</h4>


    Yan Liuyuan underestimated Hassan and the others¡¯ enthusiasm for harvesting salt. For the next three days, Hassan led the members of the tribe to the grazing area and dug up the ground the cows liked to lick.The more onecked something, the more they would desire it. Although there was also salt content in the beef and mutton, anyone who had ever had boiled beef and mutton would know they werepletely different types of food from meat that was seasoned with salt.


    Moreover, Yan Liuyuan had told him the illness the women and elders in the tribe were suffering from was caused by ack of salt. Therefore, Hassan was exceptionally motivated to harvest as much salt as he could.


    Only with salt would one have strength.


    In just three days, Hassan had forcefully harvested a bowl of salt from the frozen ground with the help of his tribe.


    Under Yan Liuyuan¡¯s instructions, he ughtered another goat and added in some salt while cooking it. Just drinking the broth alone felt blissful.


    Although his heart ached when he was killing the goat, when he saw the excited looks on the faces of his people, Hassan¡¯s wrinkled face was also full of smiles.


    However, on the afternoon he ughtered the goat, another envoy arrived from a distant grasnd.


    Yan Liuyuan was already standing at the entrance of the tribe. He quietly watched as the other party arrived.


    The wolves had discovered the enemy three hours ago, but they did not attack.


    The envoy was riding a muscr horse and had a long saber tied at his waist. Next to Yan Liuyuan, Hassan said, ¡°Master, this saber is only worn by the battle-hardened warriors of thatrge tribe. Be careful. don¡¯t let him get too close to you.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Let¡¯s see what he has to say first.¡±


    The envoy came up to Yan Liuyuan and jumped off his horse about 20 meters away. He slowly walked over. ¡°I¡¯m the khan¡¯s envoy, Bogdei. The khan has ordered me to invite you to the royal tent for a meeting. He¡¯s willing to appoint you as Commander-in-Chief of the Right and let you take charge of a section of the steppe!¡±


    This envoy did not sound as arrogant as the one who came previously. Instead, he was much politer.


    Yan Liuyuan was surprised. He looked at Hassan. ¡°I killed his subject, but he wants me to rece the other party?¡±


    The previous Commander-in-Chief of the Right had just died by his hands. The khan did not even mention revenge and was actually trying to offer him amnesty and enlistment instead?


    Hassan exined, ¡°Such things happen sometimes. On the steppe, everyone only respects strength.¡±


    Arge tribe in the steppe was actually not particrly united. It could be made up of about 50 to 60 smaller tribes, so it did not seem like it would be a big deal to rece some appointments with another holder.


    But Yan Liuyuan felt that something was not right. That khan was about to set off for the South for a raid soon, so it should be the time for him to establish his authority. If he did not kill Yan Liuyuan, how could he convince the masses?


    So many of the smaller tribes were watching and waiting to see what would happen. If it were other times, the other party might really be serious about enlisting him into their ranks, but it was definitely not so right now.


    Even a young man like Yan Liuyuan understood this principle, so how could the other party who was themander of dozens of tribes not know this would be the wrong move?


    Then the envoy said, ¡°If you don¡¯t believe me, I have the khan¡¯s edict that you can look at.¡± The other party walked forward and took out a goatskin scroll.


    But before he could get close, Hassan shouted, ¡°Master, be careful!¡±


    Then Hassan attempted to push Yan Liuyuan aside. However, Hassan did not manage to make Yan Liuyuan budge. Instead, it was Yan Liuyuan who pushed him away.


    Hassan turned around in panic and saw a silvery glow coursing through Yan Liuyuan¡¯s blood vessels. It was just like how Yan Liuyuan looked when he first arrived at their tribe in the blizzard. He was exuding an extremely mysterious aura.


    When the envoy got right up to Yan Liuyuan, he unsheathed his saber. A blinding glow surged towards Yan Liuyuan like a wave crashing upon him. The envoy hade here with the mission to kill this young man in front of him. Once he aplished that, he would be the new Commander-in-Chief of the Right!


    Based on the description of that previously blinded envoy, Yan Liuyuan was likely a supernatural being. But the young man¡¯s power could probably only control wild beasts, such as eagles and wolves.


    However, there were no supernatural beings that did not have any weaknesses. Since his power was to control wild beasts, then it should mean his physical body was very weak.


    As long as the battle-hardened warriors of the tribe could get close to him and prevent him from controlling beasts, they could get rid of this great threat.


    The khan had indeed recognized Yan Liuyuan as a great threat. Someone who could control over a 1,000 wolves would probably and easily strike a huge blow to his troops if they were to sh.


    Furthermore, the herdsmen in their tribes, being ignorant people, would surely get confused upon seeing such a strange sight. They might even break down before the sh began.


    Therefore, he had to kill Yan Liuyuan. On one hand, he needed to establish his authority to stabilize his own rule. On the other hand, he had to nip the threat in the bud.


    For this, he did not even hesitate to give away the appointment of Commander-in-Chief of the Right!


    But when this warrior named Bogdei got to Yan Liuyuan¡¯s side and saw the mysterious silvery strands on his face, he suddenly got an ominous feeling.


    With the sabering straight down at Yan Liuyuan, the nervous Bogdei was suddenly overjoyed. He did not expect the young man to not even dodge!


    Even a god like the khan could probably not withstand a saber strike like this one, right?


    ng!


    When the steel saber came shing down, the sound of metal colliding rang out. At some point, Yan Liuyuan, who was standing in front of Bogdei, got wrapped in armor of steel. When the steel saber struck the head of the armor, it could only leave behind a white mark!


    Yan Liuyuan did have some shorings due to his power. He did not have a strong physique like the other supernatural beings, so if an enemy were to get close, he could easily die.


    But Ren Xiaosu had already helped him mitigate that!


    Ren Xiaosu had umted nanomachines from dozens of nanosoldiers and gave them all to Yan Liuyuan before they got separated. Ren Xiaosu had done so precisely because he was worried something would happen to Yan Liuyuan.


    This amount of nanomachines was enough for Yan Liuyuan toplete his armor!


    In the grasnds where heavy weapons were not avable, not mentioning Yan Liuyuan¡¯s own power, just having this armor alone was enough for him to walk around brazenly!


    This was a gift from Ren Xiaosu. Yan Liuyuan used his hand gloved with the armor to grab Bogdei¡¯s long saber before breaking it in two.


    Bogdei was at a loss as he looked at the steel beast in front of him. How was he supposed to deal with a ferocious beast that could not even be damaged by a saber? Without his saber, was he going to use his teeth to bite it?


    But before Bogdei could think about his next course of action, he saw the herdsmen behind the young Yan Liuyuan kneel down to him. These herdsmen from the tribe were genuflecting to Yan Liuyuan as though they were worshipping a god.


    In their eyes, this was undoubtedly yet another miracle the gods had performed.


    Yan Liuyuan smiled at Bogdei and said, ¡°I understand the khan¡¯s intention now. I¡¯ll be happy to use your skulls to construct my throne.¡±


    If he wanted to rule over the entire steppe, he would first have to let the ins know of his arrival.


    In the future, he would have to kill a lot more people. He would keep killing until this steppe belonged to him.


    However this era had treated him, he would do the same back to it.


    Xiaoyu watched quietly from the sidelines. She suddenly felt a little fortunate she was still by Yan Liuyuan¡¯s side.

 Chapter 624 - Regaining consciousness!

    <h4>Chapter 624 Regaining consciousness!</h4>


    Stronghold 61 had already regained its vitality. The refugees quickly took to their jobs in the stronghold, and the entire ce was back to running withw and order.Due to the supervision of the Wang Consortium¡¯s artificial intelligence, some of the refugees who had sinister motives were also forced to settle down in the end. Those who still dared to cause trouble in the stronghold were mostly locked in jail, and many of them were sentenced to death.


    However, the atmosphere in the stronghold was a little oppressive. Many of the refugees became afraid they would get imprisoned if they did anything wrong.


    Regarding the entire running of Stronghold 61, the Wang Consortium¡¯s people specially recorded and organized detailed information into a report.


    The officials of the Wang Consortium were especially serious about this matter. This was because it was what their boss, Wang Shengzhi, wanted. It was said the information would be used to train and improve the artificial intelligence.


    Outside the stronghold, the houses Ren Xiaosu bought at a great discount were all sold for higher prices thanks to the Wang Consortium...


    Of course, they were not sold too expensively either. After all, Ren Xiaosu had to consider the purchasing power of the refugees. There were not many refugees who could save that much money.


    However, the prices Ren Xiaosu bought the houses for were incredibly low.


    This left Old Wang feeling a little conflicted. He felt that Ren Xiaosu always seemed to be able to make a lot of money very easily. Meanwhile, he worked really hard and traveled extensively, yet the money he earned was way less than what Ren Xiaosu had.


    At this moment, the town was filled with people again. After a month, the hustle and bustle in town was even more lively than ever.


    As a matter of fact, before the incident at Stronghold 61, there were only around 40,000 people living in town. But after the trouble was taken care of, over 80,000 people had gathered there.


    While Ren Xiaosu was ying cards in the tavern, he looked out of the window at the passing people and said with a sigh, ¡°The Wang Consortium¡¯s move was really beyond everyone¡¯s expectations, and these are only the people we see in town. I think there¡¯s even more who got transported by military trucks to the factories. The Zhou and Kong Consortiums should have a problem on their hands right now. The fact that their factories have stopped running is the least of their worries, but if their food supply gets reduced next year, a lot of people are gonna go hungry.¡±


    When the Zhou and Kong Consortiums first found out about the incident at Stronghold 61, they had shown some sympathy on the surface and were willing to support the reconstruction process. But behind the scenes, they were probably gloating hard at what happened.


    And now, they werepletely dumbfounded. After the dust settled, the Wang Consortium actually ended up turning the tables on them.


    Ren Xiaosu thought even more highly of Wang Shengzhi for this.


    Beside him, Wang Yuchi asked, ¡°But, Brother Xiaosu, why would the Wang Consortium need so many refugees?¡±


    ¡°Only with people will there be productivity.¡± Wang Fugui exined from next to them, ¡°The Wang Consortium is mainly located in the ins, and there¡¯s still many good fields in the wilderness that haven¡¯t been reimed yet. In the past, they did not have the manpower to do so, and it was difficult to break ranks and force the stronghold residents to go outside to farm. But now they suddenly have an overabundance of people to work for them.¡±


    Qin Sheng looked at them and said, ¡°Less talk. Hurry up and y your cards.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, a pair of fours.¡± Ren Xiaosu threw out two cards.


    ¡°A pair of fives.¡± Wang Fugui also took his turn. ¡°By the way, Xiaosu, has that Zhoudy in your house regained consciousness yet?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening, but that woman has not regained consciousness even though an entire month has passed. I was thinking that since she is a floral supernatural being, she might¡¯ve absorbed too much energy from the nt this time and ended up a vegetable....¡±


    When he returned home at night, Ren Xiaosu looked quietly at Zhou Yingxue. The woman had been asleep for an entire month already, but there was still a healthy glow to her face even though she had not eaten or drunk anything. He muttered, ¡°Looks like you won¡¯t have to eat anymore in the future. That¡¯ll be great. I could save some money on your meals that way....¡±


    As he spoke, Ren Xiaosu kept staring at Zhou Yingxue¡¯s fingers. It was written in the books that when aatose person was about to wake up, they would start moving their fingers first.


    But as Ren Xiaosu was staring at Zhou Yingxue¡¯s fingers, a cold voice rang out, ¡°Who are you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu jerked his head up to see that Zhou Yingxue¡¯s eyes had opened. Her gaze was deep and cold, as though she had never met Ren Xiaosu before.


    It fell silent in the room. Ren Xiaosu had gotten used to Zhou Yingxue lying here quietly in aa. He was hoping she would wake up, but he was still shocked when she really did regain consciousness.


    The candle in the room seemed unmoving, as though stilled by the heavy atmosphere in the air.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxuey on the bed and looked at Ren Xiaosu coldly. Both of them were suddenly caught in a deadlock.


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°Did you really damage your brain? But I guess you did not have a brain to begin with anyway.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue immediately got angry. ¡°Master, is that how you see me? You¡¯re the one who has no brain. How boring! Couldn¡¯t you have just yed along for a bit?¡±


    ¡°Get up already if you¡¯re awake.¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°You¡¯ve already upied my bed for a month. Do you know how I got through this past month? I had to sleep on the ground! Is letting your master sleep on the ground what a maid should do? Is that even something a human should do?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue looked at the mattress spread out by the window and softened. She carefully got up and asked, ¡°Master, you¡¯ve been guarding me for a month?¡±


    ¡°What do you think!¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°You slept well for the past month, but I went through hell. It¡¯s winter now! Do you know how cold the ground is!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue smiled apologetically and said, ¡°Master, please sit down. I¡¯ll massage your legs¡ª¡±


    ¡°Forget about the leg massage!¡± Ren Xiaosu inspected Zhou Yingxue and asked, ¡°Do you know what happened to you?¡±


    ¡°My memory stopped at the final moment I infused my energy into the creeper vine¡¯s roots. Initially, I thought I could gain control of it, but my energy seemed to have only ¡®cut¡¯ a hole in its body, and its chaotic energy started flowing into me instead and then I passed out. I floated in the darkness for a long time in my subconsciousness and saw many strange bubbles glowing. In the bubbles, I could see the entire lives of some people.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°I suspect they¡¯re the memories left behind by those who died in the disaster after getting devoured by the creeper vine.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered that for a moment. ¡°So, did you get a look at their bank ounts and passwords?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was taken aback before nearly bursting into tears. She cried out, ¡°Oh no, Master! I forgot to check!¡±


    ¡°Is it toote to check now?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s toote.¡± Zhou Yingxue was filled with regret. ¡°When I woke up, all those memories disappeared.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°You¡¯re usually quite the money-grubber, so why did you drop the ball at such a crucial moment?¡±


    ¡°Hey, wait a minute, Master!¡± Zhou Yingxue came back to her senses. ¡°I¡¯ve finally regained consciousness after an entire month, so why are you paying attention to money the moment Ie to? Shouldn¡¯t you at least be a bit more concerned for me?¡±


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Ren Xiaosu changed the topic. ¡°By the way, do you feel any changes to your superpower?¡±


    Actually, this was what Ren Xiaosu wanted to know the most. After all, Zhou Yingxue had absorbed the energy of several hundred thousand people from the stronghold. Even though that energy was absorbed via the creeper vine, it was still a shocking amount.

 Chapter 625 - Qinghe in crisis

    <h4>625 Qinghe in crisis</h4>


    When she heard her master ask about her power, Zhou Yingxue thought for a moment and replied, ¡°I just feel like I¡¯m stronger than before....¡±¡°Can you be more specific?¡± Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°What kind of metric did you use to figure that? Why don¡¯t we head out to the wilderness and test out how strong your physical fitness is?¡±


    Under normal circumstances, other than the particr case of Yan Liuyuan, the physical fitness of a supernatural being would increase ordingly with their power.


    When they arrived in the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu had Zhou Yingxue run at full speed and punch a big tree.


    To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, the speed and strength Zhou Yingxue disyed wereparable to that of his shadow clone! And the shadow clone¡¯s strength and speed were twice that of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s!


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu had deliberately observed that Zhou Yingxue¡¯s prior speed and strength were already at half the level of his. In other words, in terms of physical fitness alone, Zhou Yingxue was already four times stronger than before. She was now twice as strong as Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little jealous. What kind of dogshit luck did this woman have?


    Other supernatural beings, including Wang Congyang and Zhou Qi, who were the earliest to awaken their powers, only had a physical fitness level that was about the same as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s. In fact, they were not even as strong as Ren Xiaosu.


    Yet Zhou Yingxue, who was brought into the stronghold by Ren Xiaosu and led by hand for a stroll, had achieved what most others could only dream of.


    ¡°Then what about your power? Are there any new developments?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°There should be a lot of changes in that area, right?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue replied, ¡°I only feel that I can make the nts more powerful after taking control of them. I also obtained a new seed ability that I can use to nt a creeper vine.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Zhou Yingxue say she could nt a creeper vine, he nearly choked. Was it a creeper vine as huge as the one that grew in Stronghold 61?


    ¡°Don¡¯t use that power carelessly.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If others see that the creeper vine that you nt looks exactly like the one from Stronghold 61, they might think that you were responsible for that creeper vine from before.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized another important point. After the creeper vine had mutated and was absorbed by Zhou Yingxue, she gained the ability to nt a new type of seed.


    So would that mean that if Zhou Yingxue were to encounter other mutated flora in the future, she could also fold them into her power? If that were the case, the variations of Zhou Yingxue¡¯s power would only grow more abundant.


    So it turned out that the variations of her power still had the potential to grow.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately nted a Potato Shooter in the ground. He looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°This time, do you want to try absorbing the energy of this nt like you did for the creeper vine?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue did as Ren Xiaosu said, but the Potato Shooter instantly withered!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°What happened?¡±


    A green ball of energy within Zhou Yingxue¡¯s hand materialized into a seed. She said happily, ¡°Master, I can now nt potatoes too!¡±


    ¡°It seems that if we hear about any more mutated nts, I¡¯ll have to take you there to collect them.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°I think I came across an article regarding some exotic nts that were reported about in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper recently. I¡¯ll look for itter when we get back. In the future, we¡¯ll have to start paying more attention to such articles.¡±


    In the current day, not many nts had mutated yet. But even for those that did, they were generally not that aggressive. Otherwise, those people would not have been so slow to react to the creeper vines.


    It was definitely a good thing that Zhou Yingxue had be stronger. The creeper vine seeds might just end up being very useful during critical times.


    After returning to town, Ren Xiaosu saw the door of Qin Sheng¡¯s residence wide open. There were two people packing things inside the house.


    He asked them, ¡°Where¡¯s the owner of this house?¡±


    When Qin Sheng heard that, he came out of the house and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I¡¯ve just received news that I am to return to Luoyang City immediately. I enjoyed my time with Brother Xiaosu, but I have to leave now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Don¡¯t you Riders have a rule that says that you have to stay in a town for a full year? Why are you leaving just like that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had realized the rules the Riders lived by were extremely strict. Otherwise, Qin Sheng would surely have stepped into Stronghold 61 to save others during that incident. So what could be so important that Qin Sheng had to hurry back to Luoyang City no matter what? Could something have happened to the Qinghe Group in Luoyang City?


    He remembered Old Li had mentioned that all was not well within the Qinghe Group.


    Qin Sheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°It¡¯s definitely urgent if they want me back immediately. I¡¯m really sorry that I can¡¯t tell you the truth.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s the threating from?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°The twelve of you Riders are all supernatural beings, so what could possibly threaten y¡¯all?¡±


    Qin Sheng said with a wry smile, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that arge number of superhumans have gathered in Luoyang City. There were already people from the Wang, Zhou, and Kong Consortiums, as well as the Anjing House and the Saboteurs, who infiltrated the city. This is because Luoyang City has an open door policy, and a lot of people enter and leave the stronghold every day. So it¡¯s very difficult to track everyone. Besides... forget it, there are some things I can¡¯t talk about. I shouldn¡¯t be airing our dirtyundry in front of you.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the Saboteurs get mentioned, he was stunned. Saboteurs!


    If he could find the Saboteurs, wouldn¡¯t he find Yang Xiaojin? He suddenly said to Qin Sheng, ¡°By the way, I mentioned this to you a few days ago, but if Wang Yuchi and the others are thinking of attending Qinghe University, will this matter affect them?¡±


    Qin Sheng gave it some thought and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think so. No matter how scheming those people are, there¡¯s no need to target Qinghe University. There¡¯s no secrets there. How about this? I¡¯ll immediately convey this matter to the others once I get back. When you guys get to Luoyang City, no one will stop you from entering. Wang Yuchi and the other students can just focus on testing into uni.¡±


    ¡°Alrighty then, thanks in advance.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he asked, ¡°But I don¡¯t understand one thing. Why would those forces want to attack Luoyang City?¡±


    ¡°They aren¡¯t targeting Luoyang City.¡± Qin Sheng shook his head and replied, ¡°They¡¯re just after the Qinghe Group because they have too many satellites under their control. Those things are simply too important for an organization.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not ask further. He did not know why the various forces would all choose to make a move at this time. As there was not enough information, he could not judge what was happening.


    Rather than asking Qin Sheng, he might as well consult the storyteller and the Great Hoodwinker.


    However, he would still have to make a trip to Luoyang City. While the satellites had nothing to do with him, he really wanted to go there to look for the Saboteurs.


    Hold on! Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered Li Shentan¡¯s strange words from back then: ¡°Make a trip to Qinghe University. There could be a reward waiting for you there.¡±


    If Qin Sheng had not mentioned the Saboteurs, he would not have recalled those words. But putting together Qin Sheng and Li Shentan¡¯s words into context, he realized he might really have missed out on something.


    Li Shentan did not tell him to go to Qinghe University just to watch a boring debate.


    When Qin Sheng was about to bid farewell, Ren Xiaosu said righteously, ¡°We¡¯re friends now, so whatever¡¯s troubling the Riders is my business as well. I¡¯ll go to Luoyang City with you!¡±


    Qin Sheng was stunned. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t trouble you like that. Actually, this matter has nothing to do with you....¡±


    ¡°Alright, shall we set off then?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Qin Sheng was utterly confused. ¡®Bro, did you hear what I just said?¡¯


    Seeing how Ren Xiaosu started calling for Wang Yuchi and the others to set off immediately, Qin Sheng could only say powerlessly, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you guys at least pack some stuff with you?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to pack! We¡¯re leaving right away!¡± Ren Xiaosu then dragged Qin Sheng off towards the wilderness.

 Chapter 626 - Clues to the Saboteurs

    <h4>Chapter 626 Clues to the Saboteurs</h4>


    For this trip to Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu brought along Wang Yuchi and the other students. Meanwhile, Wang Fugui and the others stayed behind at Stronghold 61 to continue waiting for Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu to arrive.After all, if Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu were to find their way to Stronghold 61 after seeing the ad in the newspaper, they could miss the chance to reunite if there was no one waiting for them there.


    Therefore, to be safe, Ren Xiaosu asked Wang Fugui to halt his mercantile business for a while.


    Based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s n, he would only be looking for Yang Xiaojin or the Saboteurs¡¯ members when he went to the Qinghe stronghold. After that, he would settle Wang Yuchi and the others at the college before returning to Stronghold 61. The entire process would not take too long.


    But in the time that Zhou Yingxue was unconscious, Ren Xiaosu was also thinking about something. Were Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu still alive?


    After an entire month, the longer Ren Xiaosu waited, the heavier his mood became.


    Over and over again, he would get his hopes up only to see them be dashed, just like how this world was.


    But fortunately, he had already found Wang Fugui. This gave him some confidence again.


    Unlike other big shots who often traveled in their off-road vehicles when going on a trip, Ren Xiaosu and the others took Wang Fugui¡¯s truck to Luoyang City. This was considered a rather unique form of transport out in the wilderness.


    Qin Sheng drove the truck and asked Ren Xiaosu, who was in the front passenger seat, ¡°Brother Xiaosu, I would like to express my gratitude to you on behalf of the Riders for your help at a time like this. To be honest, there aren¡¯t many people nowadays who are willing to help others.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said politely, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. After all, I¡¯ve won so much money from you, so it would only be right to help out a little.¡±


    Qin Sheng¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Ahem, please don¡¯t mention the fact that we yed cards together when you see my teacher.¡±


    Nothing unusual happened along the way, but what surprised Ren Xiaosu was that when they were about to reach Luoyang City, Qin Sheng drove to the ck market outside the stronghold and said he wanted to handle something there first.


    Ren Xiaosu told him to be quick, but when Qin Sheng got back, there was an extremely strong scent of blood on him. It was as though he had just killed someone and returned.


    And he had even killed more than one person.


    ¡°Did you kill someone?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    While starting up the truck, Qin Sheng answered, ¡°Yes, I had to take care of some ignorant people who tried to take advantage of the situation. In the past, we didn¡¯t care to deal with those people in the ck market. But now it¡¯s no longer alright to keep them around. Ever since the new administrator took over in the ck market, those people have not been cooperative at all. They¡¯ve even started stabbing us in the back.¡±


    Only at this moment did Qin Sheng appear like a Rider, instead of a simple young man who yed cards with them all day long.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these must be the desperate times calling for desperate measures. Now that the Riders were starting to purge the internal threats in Qinghe, it must mean that they had sensed that great danger was impending.


    At this moment, Qin Sheng took out a copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper he had just bought from the ck market. Ren Xiaosu took a nce and saw it was today¡¯s newspaper.


    Why did he suddenly buy a newspaper to read at this time? It was not like he could not do this, but it was a little unusual of him.


    Realization dawned upon Ren Xiaosu. Were the more secretivemunications between the Riders actually transmitted through the Hope Media newspaper?


    ¡°Come on, we¡¯re going back to Luoyang City.¡± Qin Sheng stepped on the elerator and said, ¡°I¡¯ve also informed Teacher that you¡¯reing along this time. He said he would like to treat you guys to a meal. The current acting president of the Qinghe Group, Xu Ke, would also like to meet you. What do you say, Brother Xiaosu?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°There¡¯s no rush for that. I want to go to Qinghe University first after we get to Luoyang City.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid you can¡¯t get into Qinghe University right now.¡± Qin Sheng said, ¡°In order to protect the students, the entire school has been cordoned off. Unless you have a student pass, you can¡¯t get in. If you¡¯d like to go and have a look, I can arrange a student pass for you after I¡¯ve settled my affairs. You can stay in the stronghold for as long as you want.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I can climb over the walls and get into the school,¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly.


    Qin Sheng was in a dilemma. ¡®Could you not say something like that in front of me?¡¯


    He said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Then why don¡¯t you go to Qinghe University first? And say we set the meal for tomorrow night?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Ren Xiaosu agreed.


    After Qin Sheng got Ren Xiaosu¡¯s agreement, he breathed a sigh of relief. After all, the entire Riders¡¯ organization was paying special attention to Ren Xiaosu now. On one hand, they were suspicious of his identity. On the other hand, everyone already knew he was going to be the futuremander of Fortress 178, so they definitely would not want to be negligent about it.


    Even if Ren Xiaosu were not the person they were looking for, maintaining a good rtionship with Fortress 178 was still something everyone would be happy to see. Moreover, the Riders always had a good faith rtionship with Fortress 178 and an admiration for their likable soldiers on the frontier.


    And this time, with Qinghe facing a crisis, it was definitely better to have a strong ally joining them.


    They finally arrived at Luoyang City during the night. Luoyang City was no longer the same as when Ren Xiaosu was herest time. It was already very quiet outside the gates.


    The Qinghe Group temporarily canceled the ess rights of those holding business visas and work visas. Most of the refugees who needed to work in the stronghold were stopped outside the gates.


    The refugees did not know what had happened, but they understood it was very unusual. Since they were not allowed to enter, so be it. In any case, the Qinghe Group wouldpensate them for their losses.


    For the past two days, the Qinghe Group had sent some meat into the town for the refugees to eat and informed those with work visas that they would bepensated for their lost working hours.


    This was probably the reason why Luoyang City was not affected as much after the Wang Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 61 announced they were opened to the public. This was because the Qinghe Group had always treated the refugees well, and no one was willing to leave the environment they grew up in.


    After Ren Xiaosu got into the stronghold, he first proceeded to the public square where he had met Li Shentan previously. He wanted to find Li Shentan to ask him what he meant by those words.


    When he arrived at the square, the entire ce was still bustling with people, but he could no longer find Li Shentan.


    He also asked Qin Sheng if he had discovered any traces of the various forces in the stronghold, but Qin Sheng did not answer him.


    Ren Xiaosu could only rely on himself now.


    On the way to Qinghe University, Ren Xiaosu caught sight of a familiar figure.


    Ren Xiaosu could not remember who it was for a moment. When he chased after that person, he realized the other party had already disappeared into the crowd.


    There was no curfew in Luoyang City yet, so the residents were not really affected. They were still going out to stores at night, enjoying snacks, and watching shows.


    It was as though all signs of danger were hidden in this sea of people and drowned out by the crowd.


    ¡°Master, who are you looking for?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked while holding a roasted sweet potato.


    ¡°I keep getting the feeling that it¡¯s someone I¡¯ve met before. It¡¯s a woman, but I can¡¯t remember who she is. I only caught a glimpse of her back just now.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned as he cycled through his memories.


    Zhou Yingxue did not disturb Ren Xiaosu anymore and continued eating the roasted sweet potato happily. She even had another one wrapped in a stic bag in the pocket of her coat that she was nning to give to her master after he was done thinking.


    Ren Xiaosu jolted! He remembered who it was that he had seen earlier. Dong Funan!


    She was a supernatural being they encountered at a stronghold back in the Southwest. Her awakened power was simr to that of a vampire. However, his disciple had caused Dong Funan to lose two of her bloodsucking fangs!


    That girl had been taken away by Yang Xiaojin¡¯s people at that time, and it was very likely she had joined the Saboteurs.


    Therefore, the Saboteurs were really here in Luoyang City. This was the first time he had discovered clues to the Saboteurs since arriving at the Central ins!

 Chapter 627 - Li Shentan gets pursued

    <strong>Chapter 627 Li Shentan gets pursued</strong>


    In an old Daoist temple more than 600 kilometers away from Luoyang City, Li Shentan, who Ren Xiaosu had been looking for, was looking at the campfire in front of him with a mncholic expression. He also added some firewood to the fire as he watched it burn.


    A cataclysmic event had caused human society to copse, yet this temple was still standing here fine. At least, it did not copse.


    Si Liren looked at Li Shentan eagerly while pointing at the pheasant roasting over the fire. ¡°Can I eat yet?¡±


    Li Shentan looked back at Si Liren and saw her dirty face. He sighed and said, ¡°What the hell did I do to deserve that girl¡¯s relentless pursuit? I wasn¡¯t the one who caused them to miss out on reuniting. Speaking of which, I even made an effort to bring them back together.¡±


    ¡°But she doesn¡¯t know that.¡± Si Liren muttered, ¡°She doesn¡¯t know what we did, nor does she know that Ren Xiaosu was at Luoyang City. I keep getting the feeling that she¡¯s only hunting you because she doesn¡¯t like you.¡±


    ¡°Do you have to be so honest?!¡± Li Shentan red at Si Liren. He tore off one of the roast pheasant¡¯s legs and gave it to Liren. ¡°Be careful, it¡¯s hot.¡±


    But Si Liren did not care. She was famished. After running around aimlessly with Li Shentan for more than half a month, her little face had slimmed down even more!


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t we getting back at her?¡± Si Liren asked after taking a bite of the drumstick.


    ¡°If we had really tried to fight her, we would be in big trouble.¡± Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°There¡¯s some people we can go against, and some we shouldn¡¯t, understand? That girl is really strong. She¡¯s so elusive that it¡¯s almost impossible to guard against her. But I haven¡¯t seen any signs of her for a week already, so I guess she doesn¡¯t have time to waste with me anymore. After all, looking for Ren Xiaosu should be the priority for her.¡±


    ¡°Since she¡¯s not pursuing us anymore, how about we return to Luoyang City?¡± Si Liren was still thinking about the roasted sweet potatoes in Luoyang City. It was particrly difficult for these two people who did not have many wilderness survival skills to make it out here.


    Li Shentan shook his head. ¡°Luoyang City has be a troublesome ce, so we can¡¯t go back there now. Grandpa Hu Shuo sent us some information and said that a lot of supernatural beings have gathered at Luoyang City in the past month. He was the one who told us to quickly leave that ce.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s Grandpa Hu Shuo doing now?¡± Si Liren asked.


    ¡°He couldn¡¯t idle around any longer and went back to his old profession. He¡¯s set up an intelligencework, and I even heard he¡¯s adopted some refugee orphans to raise them,¡± Li Shentan answered.


    ¡°Why did those supernatural beings go to Luoyang City?¡± Si Liren grumbled, ¡°I can¡¯t even enjoy my sweet potatoes now!¡±


    ¡°A person¡¯s talent will arouse the envy of others.¡± Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°Think about it. For a single stronghold to control more than half the satellites that are still in service, it¡¯s only normal that there¡¯s people hankering after them. Grandpa Hu Shuo said that some very determined people are after those satellites this time. The satellites seem to be very important to them, although he doesn¡¯t understand why.¡±


    ¡°Then where can we go if we can¡¯t return to Luoyang City?¡± After Si Liren finished eating the drumstick in her hand, she greedily eyed the one in Li Shentan¡¯s hand.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we head south to see the sea first?¡± As Li Shentan handed his roasted drumstick to Si Liren, he thought for a moment and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you wanted to know what the sea looked like? I¡¯ve never seen the sea before either. Apparently, it used to be very lively there before The Cataclysm, but now, the consortiums avoid it. I think it¡¯s because typhoons are amon urrence there now. Those typhoons are so strong they can blow us away.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go and see the typhoons then!¡± Si Liren said firmly.


    ¡°Silly Liren, typhoons only ur in the summer.¡±


    ¡°Then we¡¯ll stay there until summer!¡±


    ¡°This is the first time I¡¯ve heard someone get so excited about seeing typhoons....¡±


    ...


    Inside Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu spent almost half the night searching for Dong Funan. In the end, he didn¡¯t know where that female vampire had ventured off to, as he did not manage to find her again.


    ¡°Forget it, let¡¯s stop searching for now. We can¡¯t check into a hotel, so we¡¯ll have to stay in a residential area.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s too eye-catching to stay in a hotel at this time. We¡¯ll definitely attract attention that way.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was also aware there had to be a lot of people with ulterior motives gathered at this special stronghold in the Central ins. Outsiders were forbidden to enter Luoyang City. Currently, the people looking to stay in a hotel would either be young couples looking for a room or non-residents.


    Ren Xiaosu definitely did not want to catch the attention of others. He was even more unwilling to room with Zhou Yingxue.


    Moreover, there were still Wang Yuchi and the others. With so many people in their group, they would easily attract attention.


    Ren Xiaosu had wanted to find a bridge and make do with sleeping underneath it. If he were alone, he could definitely settle down for the night just like that. But the problem was that Wang Yuchi and the others were also traveling with him.


    Of course, Wang Yuchi and the others were no longer pampered children like before, so it would not be a big deal for them to sleep outside. But these students were about to face a specially arranged admissions exam. It was a critical period for studying, so Ren Xiaosu did not want them to copy him and sleep under a bridge.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go and look for the Qinghe Group.¡± Zhou Yingxue muttered, ¡°We¡¯re here to help them, so they should at least take care of our meals and amodation, right?¡±


    ¡°If we get too close to the Qinghe Group at this time, wouldn¡¯t that be as good as revealing ourselves to everyone?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m not even nning to turn up for the dinner appointment with the Qinghe Group¡¯s president tomorrow night. We absolutely cannot put ourselves out in the open and get targeted.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue thought to herself that her master was really cautious. However, she would not have to think too hard anymore in this case. All she had to do was tag along and rely on her master.


    ¡°Then where are we going, Master?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked. ¡°It¡¯s toote to buy a house now.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give Qin Sheng a callter to see if he has any good suggestions,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    This time, in order to contact Ren Xiaosu more easily, Qin Sheng had even purposely given him a satellite phone. Furthermore, the phone was an encrypted one the Qinghe Group members used. This way, there would be no worries that the content of any conversation would leak.


    In the end, Qin Sheng gave Ren Xiaosu a satisfactory answer. They could head to Junmin Alley where there was a secluded courtyard house that was recently vacated. As it was still upied yesterday, it would not arouse any suspicions if they were to move in.


    After Ren Xiaosu hung up, he sighed and said, ¡°The Riders are still quite dependable. They¡¯re simply wless in their nning. I feel that the people causing trouble this time might not be able to take advantage of the situation at all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu told Wang Yuchi and the others, ¡°Study hard when you get to the house. There¡¯s no need for y¡¯all to think of anything else. In our group, only the few of you have the potential to be intellectuals, so y¡¯all have to treasure this opportunity.¡±


    Wang Yuchi nodded his oath.


    When they arrived at the courtyard house, Ren Xiaosu had just flipped on the lights in the living room when he heard the telephone beside the couch ring. He answered the call in confusion and said something along the lines of ¡°OK, no problem¡± before hanging up.


    Zhou Yingxue asked, ¡°Master, was that from Qin Sheng?¡±


    ¡°Oh, no.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Someone said he wanted to take tomorrow off because he can¡¯t go to work.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said in a daze, ¡°Then, Master, did you approve of his leave just now?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, who cares who he is. I¡¯ll just approve it. I consider that as doing a good deed,¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly. That person was not his employee anyway.


    Furthermore, he even received four gratitude tokens for it when the person on the other end of the line thanked him profusely.


    Zhou Yingxue was speechless.

 Chapter 628 - Class representative, Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 628 ss representative, Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    Early in the morning, Qin Sheng wrapped up tightly in a disguise and arrived at the courtyard house where Ren Xiaosu and the others were staying.


    He handed a student pass to Ren Xiaosu and said in embarrassment, ¡°I wanted to apply for a new student pass for you, but the dean of Qinghe University did not agree. He said that no suspicious persons are allowed to enter his school at the moment in case his studentse to any harm. The old dean can be a little stubborn, so not even we Riders are influential enough to ask for a favor.¡±


    ¡°Something like that happened?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°There are actually things that a Rider can¡¯t handle in Luoyang City?¡±


    ¡°Yes, there¡¯s two ces where our words don¡¯t matter. To be precise, it doesn¡¯t matter who¡¯s speaking.¡± Qin Sheng exined, ¡°One of them is Hope Media, and the other is Qinghe University. Hope Media¡¯s Chief Editor Jiang Xu and Principal Hu Xingzhi of Qinghe University are both very principled people. We also respect the two of them very much.¡±


    ¡°Then what about this student pass?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s my cousin¡¯s student pass,¡± Qin Sheng replied. ¡°Luckily, he has a simr face to yours, although he wears sses. When you go through the security gate at school, just tell them you didn¡¯t put on your sses and that you look a little different from your ID photo. That¡¯ll be good enough for them. You have to enter the school at 8 every morning and leave school at 8 PM. Be on time. Our undercover agents only work these two shifts.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°OK.¡±


    It looked like Qin Sheng had arranged everything for him. Ren Xiaosu was a little embarrassed that he had to trouble Qin Sheng to arrange so many things for him at such a critical time.


    However, Ren Xiaosu noticed Qin Sheng wanted to say something. He asked Qin Sheng with concern, ¡°Is there anything else?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Qin Sheng awkwardly took out a schedule and said, ¡°This is my cousin¡¯s ss schedule.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned.


    ¡°Look, since he gave you his student pass, he can¡¯t go to school anymore. You have to take his ce in ss and get marked for attendance,¡± Qin Sheng said helplessly. Actually, his cousin just wanted to ditch. Now that he had someone attending school on his behalf, he couldn¡¯t be happier. He could stay at home and y video games all day.


    However, Qin Sheng felt embarrassed because this man in front of him was the futuremander of the Northwest. Making themander help with attendance was too much.


    ¡°Sure, no problem,¡± Ren Xiaosu agreed. Since they were helping him, he could not possibly reject such a trivial request. Besides, Ren Xiaosu also wanted to attend some college sses to see what it was all about.


    After Qin Sheng finished going through the important matters, he was about to leave when Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°When will those people make their move?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Qin Sheng shook his head. ¡°We¡¯ve killed a bunch of them these past two days. Perhaps, our harshness has shocked them. So, many of them have started lying low for now. However, Teacher said they¡¯ll definitely take action. They¡¯re just waiting for the right opportunity.¡±


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu would be going to Qinghe University alone. Zhou Yingxue tried to persuade Qin Sheng to get her a student pass as well, but Qin Sheng rejected her request. After all, she did not look like a student in the slightest.


    When entering Qinghe University, the troops enforcing the lockdown outside the school did not even raise any doubts about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s student identification.


    This was not his first time at Qinghe University, but the campus was still a maze to him.


    But what left him most speechless was that every ss was actually held in a different ssroom. In other words, he found himself losing his way before the start of every ss.


    ¡°There¡¯s only one ss in the morning?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the schedule in his hands and thought the Qinghe University students had it easy. No wonder these people had the time to do all sorts of activities since they were mostly idle.


    Ren Xiaosu walked around campus and inspected his surroundings. He was hoping to spot that familiar figure he was looking for, but he got nothing.


    When he finally located the ssroom for the ss and went in, all the students in ss turned around to look at Ren Xiaosu. Someone said, ¡°Mate, this is the Humanities and Political Science ss. Did youe to the wrong ce?¡±


    ¡°Wait, do y¡¯all know Zheng Hang?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, checking his ss schedule.


    ¡°Yes.¡± A girl said, ¡°He¡¯s a ssmate of ours.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grinned and said, ¡°Oh, I¡¯m in the right ce then. I¡¯m here to attend ss on his behalf. When does the teacher usually mark attendance?¡±


    The students in the ssroom were stunned. A male student shouted hyperbolically, ¡°That Zheng Hang is way toozy. He actually spent money to get someone to show up for attendance? Hey, how much do you charge for getting marked for attendance?¡±


    These words stunned Ren Xiaosu. How did this get linked to charging a fee? Could there really be people in Qinghe University offering an attendance point scheme as a business?


    He grinned and replied, ¡°30 yuan per ss.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s quite a fair price.¡± A male student joked, ¡°But with two to three sses per day, I¡¯m afraid that only a nouveau riche kid like Zheng Hang can afford it. I¡¯m so jealous.¡±


    At this moment, the sound of a cane tapping on the ground came from outside the ssroom. The ss immediately quieted down. A male student shot Ren Xiaosu a look to get him to sit down.


    But it was toote. The tapping of the cane had already reached the door. When Ren Xiaosu turned around, both him and the person outside were stunned.


    The person who came to ss was the chief editor of Hope Media, Jiang Xu!


    There were many visiting professors at Qinghe University. These professors were all people with extremely high social standing and academic attainment, so much so that they could be called the authorities in their fields.


    And Jiang Xu was one such visiting professor who taught at Qinghe University. He was even personally invited to teach by the university¡¯s dean, Hu Xingzhi.


    Ever since the incident at Stronghold 61, Jiang Xu could not help but think of Ren Xiaosu. It was not just how those two numbers really stood out, but also because he always felt that sorrowful phrase about the era should not have been spoken by a young man that age.


    What kinds of experiences had he had toe up with something like that?


    However, Jiang Xu did not expect to actually meet Ren Xiaosu again in ss. He had not seen him in ss before. Although Jiang Xu had a lot of students, this young man had a unique aura about him, so he would definitely remember if he had seen Ren Xiaosu in school before.


    Jiang Xu asked slowly, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought this was bad, but he still forced himself to say, ¡°My name is Zheng Hang.¡±


    Jiang Xu did not expose him. Instead, he walked up to the teaching podium. ¡°It just so happens that I still don¡¯t have a ss representative for this ss. In the future, Zheng Hang, you¡¯ll be my ss representative. Your duties will include tasks like collecting homework.¡±


    The students observed a moment of silence for Zheng Hang.


    How did Zheng Hang manage to find someone show up for attendance and end up getting appointed as the ss representative all of a sudden? Who knew what kind of miserable life would be waiting for Zheng Hang. If Jiang Xu found out that Zheng Hang had gotten someone to stand in for him in ss, he might even get held back for several years.

 Chapter 629 - Your name

    <h4>Chapter 629 Your name</h4>


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu did not expect to bump into Jiang Xu here. No one had told him Jiang Xu was a visiting professor at the university, after all.


    However, there was still another surprise today. When he went back after ss, he could tell Qin Sheng to congratte his cousin for getting appointed as the Humanities and Political Science ss representative. This should be considered a good thing no matter what.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu felt a little guilty. However, he did not think it was a bad thing in general.


    He sat down. Actually, he was already aware that Jiang Xu knew he was not a student in this ss. It was just that he did not expose him.


    Jiang Xu walked up to the podium and looked at all the students. ¡°At the end of the previous lecture, I wanted you all to go back and think about the current political situation based on what was reported in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper. If you have any questions, you may ask them now.¡±


    A girl suddenly asked, ¡°Professor, you mentioned the geopolitical situation of the Wang Consortium, Zhou Consortium, and Kong Consortium during the previous lesson. I think it¡¯s very dangerous for our Luoyang City since we¡¯re smack dab in the middle of these three consortiums. Our school has already been ced under lockdown. Is this rted to the things you¡¯re telling us about?¡±


    Jiang Xu gave it some thought and said, ¡°It¡¯s somewhat linked, but it¡¯s not something you all need to worry about. No matter how serious the situation is, it won¡¯t affect us at school.¡±


    A male student said, ¡°Professor, I have a question. You mentioned the consortiums are all greedy, and it isn¡¯t something that will change ording to the will of the leaders because the consortiums need to stabilize their own power base and interests first, so the huge war machine must march on. However, to maintain this march, there needs to be a stable ss structure in ce, right?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Jiang Xu shook his head and said, ¡°Actually, it¡¯s this stable ss structure that might encourage rot to fester sometimes. If a ruler has great ambition, they could choose to shatter this ss structure first to energize the lower sses back to life.¡±


    ¡°Then does the Wang Consortium¡¯s high profile announcement of Stronghold 61 taking in refugees mean that Wang Shengzhi has great ambition?¡± a male student asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°I¡¯ve never ever doubted that. Furthermore, Stronghold 61¡¯s eptance of refugees has severely damaged the Zhou and Kong Consortiums¡¯ industry. This can be considered killing two birds with one stone. Regarding this, I¡¯m also very impressed by Wang Shengzhi¡¯s boldness. When he wanted to implement this policy, he would definitely have faced objection from those in the Wang Consortium with vested interests. This is because an empty stronghold requires many key positions to be filled. Since Wang Shengzhi was able to sessfully make use of the refugees for that, it also shows that his authority within the Wang Consortium is secure. No one dares to challenge his authority.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Jiang Xu could understand the situation better than him. Ren Xiaosu only saw the damage the Wang Consortium did to the Zhou and Kong Consortiums, but he did not think of the implications.


    Jiang Xu spoke with assuredness and used 20 minutes to thoroughly analyze the Wang Consortium based on one incident.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little jealous of the university students. They only had to pay tuition to gain the wisdom others had umted over their lifetime, all in thefort of their ivory tower.


    As for the lecture¡¯s mode of delivery, Jiang Xu did not just regurgitate what was covered in the textbooks. Instead, it was carried out in a discussion format. Jiang Xu had everyone pay attention to current affairs, then used some of the minor details to ignite their thinking. This method was not meant for imparting knowledge but to improve the wisdom of the students.


    One of the female students asked, ¡°Professor, I¡¯ve seen the line ¡®don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well¡¯ printed on the fifth page of your newspaper recently. Why did you publish such a statement? We all like it a ton.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that.¡± Jiang Xu smiled as he flicked a nce at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°A young man around your age shared it with me. I also like it a lot, so I decided to publish it in the paper.¡±


    The students looked at each other. They did not expect those words toe from the mouth of someone their age.


    When they were done discussing this, Jiang Xu suddenly looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Representative, do you have any questions for me?¡±


    The students looked at Ren Xiaosu sympathetically. Even a substitute student could get picked to ask a question.


    But it so happened that Ren Xiaosu really did have a question. ¡°Professor, what I want to ask is, is the artificial intelligence that the Wang Consortium has really that reliable?¡±


    Jiang Xu thought for a moment and replied, ¡°It¡¯s still too early to say whether it¡¯s reliable. But in terms of managing the strongholds, it has disyed an extremely powerful ability. However, I¡¯ve also heard a story about it. I¡¯m just going to share it, no notes needed.


    ¡°Apparently, one of the Wang Consortium¡¯sputer engineers mentioned this story to someone after his retirement. He said there was a time when he got bored and wanted to put the AI through a Turing test. The Turing test is a test that requires a human tomunicate with an intelligent machine without being aware of that. If more than 30 percent of the human evaluators do not discover that their conversation partner is a machine, that means the device possesses ¡®intelligence.¡¯


    ¡°In fact, the Turing test was devised a very long time ago. It cannot truly be considered the standard for assessing whether AI is intelligent. Furthermore, this engineer was already confident beforehand that the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI would definitely pass the Turing test.¡±


    Jiang Xu smiled and continued, ¡°So out of boredom, he started experimenting for fun. But something unexpected happened. That AI did not pass the test.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Jiang Xu was stealthily trying to reveal something. He did not explicitly say what it was but just shared a story. The teacher¡¯s intention was far more difficult to understand than the deeper meaning behind the story itself.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered the artificial intelligence did not raise the rm about the creeper vine growing in Stronghold 61.


    Ren Xiaosu actually started bing very interested in Jiang Xu¡¯s lecture. He would have toe and attend the ss next time.


    When ss was over, Jiang Xu took out the student roster. He looked at Ren Xiaosu with a faint smile and said, ¡°We¡¯re going to mark attendance now. Those who aren¡¯t present will get ten points deducted on their final exam.¡±


    ¡°Shu Linlin.¡±


    ¡°Here.¡±


    ¡°Gao Yingyu.¡±


    ¡°Here.¡±


    ¡°Zheng Hang.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said helplessly, ¡°Here.¡±


    But all of a sudden, Jiang Xu said, ¡°Yang Xiaojin.¡±


    The ss fell silent. Ren Xiaosu was also stunned!


    When this name rang out in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ears, he felt like he had been shot through the heart by a sniper bullet from thousands of meters away.


    This name was too familiar to him, so much so that when Jiang Xu mentioned it, Ren Xiaosu felt his entire body go numb as he sat dazed in his seat.


    It was a name he had not heard in a long time.


    Jiang Xu frowned and said, ¡°Is Yang Xiaojin here?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin also used to ask him questions, so he had quite a good memory of her, if only because the questions she posed were different from what a normal student would ask. They were more brutal questions.


    A female student exined, ¡°Professor, Yang Xiaojin has already left Luoyang City after applying to take a leave of absence from school ten days ago. You didn¡¯t mark attendance during our previous lecture, so you didn¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Jiang Xu sighed and said, ¡°What a pity.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked around his surroundings. So these were Yang Xiaojin¡¯s ssmates? So Yang Xiaojin had really attended college here? But now, she had left for some unknown reason.


    As Ren Xiaosu was pondering over this, Jiang Xu said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Zheng Hang,e to my office after ss.¡±

 Chapter 630 - Chinese Chess

    <h4>Chapter 630 Chinese Chess</h4>


    When Jiang Xu called for Ren Xiaosu to go to his office, the students all looked at him sympathetically.


    Ren Xiaosu followed Jiang Xu and passed through campus. Whenever any students in the school saw Jiang Xu, they would greet him very respectfully. They were also very curious about who Ren Xiaosu was as he followed the professor.


    Jiang Xu limped along while using his cane and said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°What¡¯s your real name?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and decided there was no need for him to hide it from Jiang Xu. ¡°Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you.¡± Jiang Xu sighed and said, ¡°What a small world. I was just discussing you with others some time ago. Yet here you are, standing in front of me.¡±


    ¡°Chief Editor, you know about me?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t you know? I¡¯m good friends with Zhang Jinglin. When he called me, he mentioned you.¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°But why did youe to the Central ins instead of staying in the Northwest? Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t hunger for authority? I heard from Zhang Jinglin that he wants you to be the nextmander of Fortress 178.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like the entire world knew he was going to be the nextmander of Fortress 178. He exined to Jiang Xu, ¡°I came here to the Central ins to look for someone.¡±


    ¡°Who are you looking for?¡± Jiang Xu asked.


    ¡°Yang Xiaojin.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°She¡¯s your student as well, but she left right when I arrived.¡±


    Jiang Xu stopped in his tracks and looked at Ren Xiaosu with interest. ¡°You must be the guy she likes, right? You two seem reallypatible.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately grew fond of Jiang Xu!


    But he was a little puzzled. ¡°What do you mean by I¡¯m the guy she likes? Do you know her that well?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s actually a rumor going around campus.¡± Jiang Xu chuckled and said, ¡°Yang Xiaojin has a lot of suitors at Qinghe University¡ª¡±


    ¡°Where are they?¡± interrupted Ren Xiaosu, his eyebrows twitching.


    ¡°You¡¯re so rude. Don¡¯t you know that you shouldn¡¯t interrupt your elders when they¡¯re talking? Why? You want to fight them? This isn¡¯t the wilderness.¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°Let me finish first. There was a guy who confessed to her. But perhaps she got impatient with him, so she said she already has someone she likes. Furthermore, she ims the guy she likes is definitely not pampered like how the Qinghe University students are.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Actually, he had been worried that Yang Xiaojin might think he was dead and slowly forget about him. If that happened, what was he supposed to do?


    But now it sounded like Yang Xiaojin had not forgotten about him and even told others she liked him.


    However, Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°You¡¯re the chief editor of a newspaper, so why are you so interested in student gossip like that?¡±


    Jiang Xu was amused. ¡°How can I be a reporter if I¡¯m not a busybody? A reporter should always be curious about everything and have an enthusiasm for life. Whoever said that a chief editor can¡¯t be a busybody?¡±


    Jiang Xu continued walking forward. He brought Ren Xiaosu into an office building and opened the door to his office. ¡°I¡¯m usually only here in the morning since I have to go back to Hope Media in the afternoon. Do you want to hear more about Yang Xiaojin? If you want to,e in and y a game of chess with me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quickly stepped into the office and saw that there were only a table and two chairs inside. There was also a Chinese chess set on the table.


    Jiang Xu looked at Ren Xiaosu with interest. The initial impression he had of Ren Xiaosu came from the few words he had uttered. But it was different now. When he learned of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity, he became even more interested.


    He really wanted to know what kind of person Zhang Jinglin had chosen as his sessor.


    Jiang Xu was already very old. He had been thinking about who should take over Hope Media so that he wouldn¡¯t have to feel worried. He believed that someone like Zhang Jinglin was probably facing the same predicament as him. Therefore, when Zhang Jinglin said there was someone he could entrust his role to, Jiang Xu actually felt a little envious.


    One could get to know a person better through a game of chess. Jiang Xu wanted to y against Ren Xiaosu to see what kind of a person he was.


    Both of them sat in the chairs. Jiang Xu set his cane aside. ¡°I¡¯ll let you move first, so you had better not go tell Zhang Jinglin that I bullied you when you get back.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu calmly shifted a chess piece on the board. Jiang Xu was stunned. ¡°You don¡¯t know how to y chess, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise, ¡°How did you know?¡±


    Jiang Xu snapped at him, ¡°I¡¯ve yed chess for many years, but this is the first time I¡¯ve seen someone move the general on their first move....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Jiang Xu did not know what to say. How was he supposed to assess this person when he did not even know how to y chess?! The only obvious thing he could see was that this person did not know how to y chess!


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Ren Xiaosu was a little embarrassed. ¡°When I was living in town, the refugees there usually yed poker instead of chess. Of course, some people know how to y chess too, but it¡¯s very rare. I only saw them y it asionally, but I never got the chance to learn the game.¡±


    To say nothing of chess, he even started learning how to y Fight the Landlord only after he had gotten his Explosive Poker power.


    As if he could find time to think about such downtime activities. It was already very difficult just trying to survive.


    Curious, Jiang Xu said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell me why you moved the general on your first move.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I thought the general should be the strongest of these chess pieces, so why should the strongest piece be hiding behind the others? What¡¯s with that?¡±


    Jiang Xu was stunned. He sighed and said, ¡°I kinda get why Zhang Jinglin chose you.¡±


    ying chess was different from being human. To be human, you had to keep a low profile and consider the pros and cons of a situation before acting. You had to consider the ways of the world. But that was not necessary when ying chess. You could do whatever you wanted as long as that was how you thought.


    Some people liked confounding the opponent by making risky moves, while others preferred ying fair and honest to counter any surprises. The way they yed would reveal their true nature.


    ¡°How about this?¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°I won¡¯t teach you the rules of chess, so you can just y however you want, that OK?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and replied, ¡°Sure!¡±


    Jiang Xu smiled in his head. Perhaps he could learn something about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s personality this way.


    But then Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You lost.¡±


    Jiang Xu looked at the chessboard in a daze. How could he possibly have lost when he had not even made a move yet?


    ¡°This ¡®car¡¯[1] must be a tank, right? Look here, since I already know where your general is, I can just bombard it from afar.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.


    Jiang Xu said, ¡°Um... this game is based on ancient warfare, not modern warfare.¡±


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Ren Xiaosu reluctantly agreed.


    Awhileter, Jiang Xu saw Ren Xiaosu running a pawn around like crazy on the battlefield, jumping across five or six squares in a single move. Jiang Xu could not help but say, ¡°How can a measly pawn have such great mobility? You¡¯re just messing around, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I was also a measly pawn on the battlefield during the war in the Northwest, and I¡¯m that mobile,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined patiently.


    Jiang Xu stared at Ren Xiaosu in shock for a long time and could not refute him. In the end, he could only say, ¡°Alright, even if it does have such mobility, it still can¡¯t move backwards, right? That would make it a deserter in battle.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t a pawn move backwards?¡± Ren Xiaosu retorted, ¡°There¡¯s such a thing as guerri warfare in tactics. There¡¯s no reason that we should only keep charging forward bravely. Isn¡¯t that as good as being cannon fodder? Are the lives of the pawns not the same as ours? When I was fighting in the Northwest, didn¡¯t we also have to return to the forward operating base to reorganize ourselves? If we were not allowed to retreat, Zhang Xiaoman and the others would have died on the battlefield!¡±


    Jiang Xu was stunned. What the fuck did this have to do with Zhang Xiaoman? And who the hell was Zhang Xiaoman?!


    Jiang Xu remained silent for a long time. Then he suddenly flipped the chessboard and said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to y anymore!¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡± Ren Xiaosu stayed seated. ¡°So can you start telling me about Yang Xiaojin now?¡±


    When Jiang Xu heard this, he finally snapped and said, ¡°Speak, what do you want to hear about her?¡±


    ¡°I just want to know what else she¡¯s said.¡± At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was sitting quite harmlessly in his chair.


    ¡°She didn¡¯t say anything else, and there was still an endless stream of people chasing her. However, she didn¡¯t even notice them. Are you happy now?¡± Jiang Xu said unhappily, ¡°It was just that she had used the Qinghe University students of being pampered, which was as good as pitting herself against the entire student body. As a result, she didn¡¯t have a good rtionship with her ssmates.¡±

 Chapter 631 - Paying the price for reporting the truth

    <h4>Chapter 631 Paying the price for reporting the truth</h4>


    Jiang Xu looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Yang Xiaojin is a good girl, but she¡¯s a little antisocial.¡±Ren Xiaosu grew unhappy at the words. ¡°How could you say that she¡¯s antisocial? She is a nice person. Besides, what she said was true. Don¡¯t these Qinghe University students lead a really pampered life?¡±¡°Why are you arguing with me?¡± Jiang Xu stared at him and said, ¡°And why are you using my students of leading a pampered life?¡±


    ¡°When I came to Qinghe Universityst time, the students were debating whether nuclear weapons should exist in the world or not.¡± Ren Xiaosu scorned, ¡°Living in a sheltered environment like this, they go on and on about the important global matters like it affects them. Can y¡¯all tell them to not act so highfalutin? They might as well think about how to survive in this chaotic world. Just look, y¡¯all immediately ced them under protection when something is about to happen to Luoyang City. These students have no idea of what kind of threat they¡¯re facing.¡±


    ¡°No matter how huge the threat is, it doesn¡¯t concern the university since there isn¡¯t anything they want here,¡± Jiang Xu said.


    ¡°Chief Editor, ¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, ¡°I admire your views on current affairs, but you and the others have made the same mistake. That is, you¡¯ve underestimated the role and power of supernatural beings in this era. I watched a massive earthquake get triggered in front of me and also saw with my own eyes how someone manipted 5, 000 people like they were puppets. If those politicians think that this world is still their stage and everything¡¯s under their control, they¡¯re gonna die as well.¡±


    Jiang Xu was a reasonable person. He said, ¡°The one who can manipte 5, 000 people like puppets should be Li Shentan, but who¡¯s the person who can trigger a massive earthquake?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not answer this question, because he still did not want outsiders to know how terrifying Yan Liuyuan¡¯s power was at its peak.


    Seeing that he did not want to answer, Jiang Xu asked again, ¡°What do you think is the reason that people can be superhuman?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and answered, ¡°Yang Xiaojin told me this. When a disasteres, mental strength bes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has. Someone else once shared a simr point of view as mine. That person is Li Shentan, and he said that humans have not fully mastered their own bodies, which are controlled by the subconscious. When humans are able to control their subconscious, they¡¯ll be on par with gods even in their mortal bodies.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu added, ¡°I spent a lot of time in libraries reading many books, as I wanted to learn more about this world. I came across a very interesting book called Psychology in a Deviant Society. It recorded an experiment that a scientist carried out. He gathered 11 people and blindfolded them, then told everyone he would sear them with a hot iron.¡±


    ¡°But actually, he used an ice cube and ¡®seared¡¯ their skin with it instead of using a hot iron. Then something strange happened. After the ice cube came into contact with their skin, two of the subjects did not react while three started screaming. The other six people experienced scalding and developed blisters on their skin. However, when they learned that it was just an ice cube that had ¡®burned¡¯ them, their injuries disappeared within a few minutes.¡±


    Jiang Xu wondered, ¡°If this is true, does that mean that superhumans who master their subconscious will gain control of the world?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I doubt even Li Shentan understands this fully yet. Otherwise, he would¡¯ve be a god already.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But no matter what, this is no longer a world where authority figures can do whatever they like. Besides, among the supernatural beings, many of them have already started treating normal people as ants. They won¡¯t even hesitate to sacrifice an entire stronghold to achieve what they want. Mr. Chief Editor, do you pay attention to whether you¡¯ve trampled any ants while walking?¡±


    Jiang Xu said, ¡°Yes, I do.¡±


    ¡°... Amazing,¡± remarked Ren Xiaosu.


    Jiang Xu started bellyughing. By stumping Ren Xiaosu, he felt like he had gained a minor victory of sorts. He finally got revenge for the chess game!


    ¡°Will you still be attending sses at the university after everything settles down?¡± Jiang Xu suddenly asked, ¡°Why did youe to Luoyang City? It seems like you know exactly what will happen in Luoyang City. In that case, why did you stille here and risk your life?¡±


    ¡°Initially, I came here to look for Yang Xiaojin. Although I don¡¯t know her whereabouts now, I¡¯ve found some clues. So I n to stay and see if anything will arise.¡± Ren Xiaosu was currently waiting for the Saboteurs to appear. ¡°Besides, since Qin Sheng and Old Li are my friends, it¡¯s only natural that I help them out.¡±


    ¡°I know Qin Sheng, but who is Old Li?¡± Jiang Xu wondered.


    ¡°Li Yingyun,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.


    ¡°Oh, I usually call him Little Li,¡± Jiang Xu said with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Is there any point in lording over such a small thing when you¡¯re already the important chief editor?¡±


    ¡°I am certainly much older than you, so how does that count as lording over you?¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°You still haven¡¯t answered my question. Will you still be attending sses after everything settles down?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Ren Xiaosu said frankly, ¡°it¡¯s still very rewarding to attend your ss.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Jiang Xu took his cane and stood up. ¡°Then I¡¯ll see you in ss next time. I¡¯m also looking forward to the questions you ask. If there isn¡¯t enough time in ss, you¡¯re wee to visit me at Hope Media.¡± With that, Jiang Xu limped out of the office.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did someone really break your leg? Have you gotten revenge yet?¡±


    Jiang Xu did not answer his question. ¡°This was the price to pay for reporting the truth.¡±


    ...


    In the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu continued to attend sses ording to the schedule. However, the other sse were not as interesting as the one in the morning. Ren Xiaosu was getting drowsy as the lecturer recited directly from the textbook at the teaching podium.


    He asked a male ssmate nonchntly, ¡°I heard that there was a very popr girl in this ss. Is her name Yang Xiaojin? When did she leave Qinghe University?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t really remember why, but that should have been more than ten days ago.¡± The male ssmate said, ¡°She just suddenly stoppeding to ss. We only found out that she took a leave of absence from school when the ss Committee went to ask a counselor. Why? You want to find out about her as well?¡±


    ¡°As well? Who else is asking?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Well, a lot of people.¡± The male student chuckled and said, ¡°Our ss often joins up with other sses for therger lectures. That is to say, two or three sses will attend the same lecture together. Many of the male students fell in love at first sight. Wait, why are you so concerned about this when you¡¯re just here to show up for attendance for someone else? What do you do outside of campus? Are you really short of money?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I sell roasted sweet potatoes with my family,¡± Ren Xiaosu lied with a smile.


    The male student did not say anything more to Ren Xiaosu as he continued paying attention to the lecture and writing some notes.


    A female ssmate sitting in the back muttered, ¡°I wonder where Zheng Hang found this person? He¡¯s good-looking and has a nice body too.¡±


    A lot of guys do not know that girls can actually be cruder than guys when discussing such matters in private.

 Chapter 632 - Prelude to chaos

    <h4>Chapter 632: Prelude to chaos</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    A girl beside her said with a smile, ¡°Are you interested in him?¡±


    ¡°Interested?¡± The female student who started the conversation muttered, ¡°And live a life of poverty after getting together? A guy like him is just good for looking at.¡±


    ¡°Have you guys heard? It seems like Xu Zhi has always been single. He¡¯s the president of the student council and his family members are the core figures of the Qinghe Group...¡±


    The people who would stand in for students for their lessons were typically bums from outside of school, so the students of Qinghe University would look down on them.


    Therefore, everyone would stop paying attention to Ren Xiaosu once the novelty of his presence wore off.


    When Ren Xiaosu would eventually leave the university and Jiang Xu would suspend Zheng Hang from his sses year after year, Zheng Hang would likely be unable to graduate and end up bing a bum of society himself.


    After school, Ren Xiaosu did not go straight home like the other students who lived in the stronghold. Instead, he did some reading in the library before leaving at 8 PM.


    Sure enough, it was just as Qin Sheng had said. The soldiers on duty at 8 PM were the same ones on duty at 8 AM. As they already remembered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face, they only routinely swiped his student pass, checking the mag strip, before letting him through.


    On the way back, Ren Xiaosu tried to find out the whereabouts of the Saboteurs. However, it was a futile attempt as he barely knew any of their members.


    But before he could return to his residence at Junmin Alley, he heard a hysterical scream in the distance. Then he saw a figure dart across a roof.


    ¡°They¡¯re making their moves already?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself. In his opinion, the various forces in Luoyang City should be lying low while waiting for the other forces to make their move first. So some of them were getting impatient?


    But the bird that takes the lead gets shot first. The first ones to strike would most likely get crushed by the Riders with the most brutal methods.


    At this moment, a peddler selling roasted sweet potatoes on the sidewalk started packing up. He looked like he was afraid of getting dragged in.


    As Ren Xiaosu had not eaten dinner yet, he decided to lowball the street vendor and buy two sweet potatoes on the cheap. The peddler was not in the mood to haggle with Ren Xiaosu, so he just sold them to him cheaply.


    Ren Xiaosu called Qin Sheng. ¡°What¡¯s happening in Luoyang City? Do you need my help?¡±


    Qin Sheng replied over the phone, ¡°It¡¯s fine. An unknown person attacked a tobo and liquor store in the city. We now suspect that the store was operated by one of the forces, and that a sh broke out between them and a rival. But these are all minor incidents. Unless arge number of superhumans appear, we¡¯re capable of dealing with these matters on our own.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got the picture. So it turned out they were just sending a few minions to create a bit of trouble. Meanwhile, the supernatural beings, as the trump cards, had not even appeared yet.


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Also, I have good news to tell you. To be precise, the good news is rted to your cousin. I got him appointed as the Humanities and Political Science ss representative.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu ate the sweet potatoes as he slowly made his way back to his little courtyard house.


    Since Qin Sheng said he did not need his help, there was no need for him to intervene, right?


    After hanging up, Qin Sheng was baffled for a moment. He did not know whether he should tell his cousin about the bad news Ren Xiaosu had conveyed to him. For a student who preferred ying video games at home every day, he actually got chosen as the ss representative.


    Ren Xiaosu was walking down the street. Although Qinghe University was more than ten kilometers away from the little courtyard house at Junmin Alley, Ren Xiaosu did not take the streetcar.


    But at this moment, the chaos and moring were getting louder. It sounded as though it was heading towards him.


    Shortly after, Ren Xiaosu watched two people turn a corner while holding the sweet potatoes in his hands. They were making a mad dash towards him.


    They were not targeting him but were being chased. These two people were fleeing towards him in panic.


    Ren Xiaosu pulled his hood over his head.


    When the two people passed by Ren Xiaosu, he stuck out a leg and tripped one of them. Due to the great inertia, the person who got tripped was sent rolling more than ten meters beforeing to a stop.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to deal with the other person, he suddenly felt a sense of danger behind him. It was a scorching attack. Ren Xiaosu could even feel the heat on his back while the ends of his hair also started curling.


    Faster than the blink of an eye, the nanomachines covered his entire body and turned into extremely strong armor.


    Immediately after, an explosive fireball engulfed the armor in mes. This was an attack by a supernatural being who was trying to provide cover for the two people to escape!


    However, the supernatural being who used the fire technique was surprised to find that the armored being was unscathed by his attack. Within the brilliant mes, that dark figure of the steel beast turned around and looked at him. He was being stared down by something terrifying.


    With no time to hesitate, the supernatural being who used the fire technique turned around and tried to escape. With just a few simple jumps, he propelled himself up towards the rooftops by kicking off on the walls between two buildings that were four meters apart.


    But before he could safelynd on the rooftop, the supernatural being suddenly felt that his ankle was caught by something metallic. When he looked down, he saw the steel beast had jumped more than eight meters at once from its original position. It grabbed hold of his ankle ruthlessly and threw him to the ground!


    Even he had to resort to pushing off walls to get to the top of the building that was eight meters high. However, his opponent was able to achieve the same by just leaping up? What sort of formidable physical fitness was that? Or could this be the effect of the steel armor?


    If he were to fall from a height of more than eight meters, the supernatural being thought he would either end up dead or crippled.


    Thinking of this, he twisted his body. As he was falling, he used a me whip to tie the legs of the steel beast together in an attempt to break his fall. His movements were extraordinarily agile.


    When the supernatural being flicked the me whip in his hand, his body immediately stopped falling. Furthermore, he managed to pull Ren Xiaosu back towards the ground and used this momentum change to leap into the air again.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression remained calm within the steel armor. In just a few seconds, he roughly realized his opponent was a supernatural being who was extremely nimble and had swift reactions as well. He looked just like a me dancer gyrating in the air.


    ¡°Too fancy.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu grabbed hold of his opponent¡¯s neck with his left hand in midair and pierced the chest of the supernatural being with the ck saber in his right hand.


    The supernatural being tried to struggle free the moment he was caught, but the strength of that grip was absolutely not something he could resist.


    This supernatural being felt sullen before he died. He was only here to provide cover for the others to leave, so how did he end up getting killed first?


    Ren Xiaosu quickly left the battlefield and disappeared into the shadows of a building after killing this supernatural being. When Qin Sheng and the others who arrivedter saw the corpse of the supernatural being lying on the ground, Old Li quietly gave a sigh. A supernatural being had finally died in this chaotic battle in Luoyang City. Perhaps even more supernatural beings would soon die in this conflict.


    On this night, blood was finally spilled in this chaotic battle.

 Chapter 633 - Legend of the armored being

    <h4>Chapter 633: Legend of the armored being</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Initially, Qin Sheng and the other Riders thought it was just a minor incident that happened today. This was nothing more than a few unidentified forces getting rid of their rivals and taking out their intelligencework.


    Everyone was currently at the stage of mutual observation as each party took note of how many people the other forces had brought to Luoyang City and vice versa. In any case, no one wanted to make the first move and continued hiding in the shadows.


    Therefore, Qin Sheng and the others were also at the stage of trying to figure out the situation. Everyone felt that it was still not the right time to make a move.


    Superhumans appearing at this moment was something very unexpected. Moreover, one of them even died as soon as he appeared.


    Sometimes, it was very difficult for supernatural beings to kill another supernatural being even if they encountered one another.


    For example, back at the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold, the Pyro Company¡¯s members had wanted to kill that elderly sugar painter. However, with his amber-colored dragon keeping a close guard at his side, the Pyro Company could not find any opportunity to finish him off.


    Meanwhile, when the Anjing House¡¯s Vani tried to kill the members of the Pyro Company, they were able to escape due to their strong physical fitness.


    Everyone had their shorings. So when some superhumans bumped into each other, they would usually just exchange a few blows before retreating.


    But it was different today. A supernatural being had absolutely crushed another supernatural being in just a short encounter. This incident had undoubtedly announced to all of the supernatural beings in Luoyang City that someone really strong was here.


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu was also caught off guard by the sneak attack on him. Under such circumstances, he had no choice but to activate his armor.


    Of course, a lot of people knew of the existence of the armor, but they might not know that Ren Xiaosu was the one controlling it.


    Other than Fortress 178, Wang Fugui¡¯s group, and Yang Xiaojin, it seemed that the only other living people who had seen him in the armor were the residents of Stronghold 146. However, Stronghold 146¡¯s residents did not know his identity. Furthermore, the Fortress 178 troops had been ordered to keep it a secret. Therefore, the outside world only knew that someone in armor had destroyed a stronghold, but they did not know who exactly that person was.


    This time, many of the residents in Luoyang City witnessed it as well. When the Riders and the Luoyang City troops arrived at the scene, someone came up to them and said animatedly, ¡°Are you guys pursuing two people? I saw them escaping in a hurry earlier on. But when they happened to pass by a hooded young man, that young man tripped one of them while snacking on some sweet potatoes.¡±


    Qin Sheng and Old Li looked at each other. Snacking on sweet potatoes? What the fuck?! Meanwhile, Zhang Qingxi, who was nearby, said nothing.


    The pedestrian continued, ¡°Just as the young man was about to stop the other person from escaping, someone suddenly attacked him from behind from the alley. I don¡¯t know how he managed to conjure up a fireball and envelope the young man inside the mes, but that young man was suddenly d in steel armor that appeared out of thin air, and he was unscathed by the fire.¡±


    Next up was the story of how the steel beast killed the acrobatic superhuman. Even if the pedestrian did not really understand supernatural beings, he could tell that the young man in the steel armor was much stronger than the other supernatural being.


    He had brutally crushed his opponent. The pedestrian felt adrenaline pumping just from watching it happen, and he even wished he could be the protagonist of this battle.


    ¡°Steel armor?¡± Zhang Qingxi mumbled, ¡°Could it be that person from the Northwest?¡±


    Actually, even Ren Xiaosu himself did not know he had be as famous as Li Shentan after the battle at Stronghold 146. In the eyes of many, he was a superhuman on par with Li Shentan.


    After all, not many supernatural beings could take on a stronghold on their own.


    No matter whether they knew the specifics, a symbolic object like ¡°steel armor¡± was gged by most of the major forces. Everyone knew Fortress 178 had such a fearsome supernatural being in their ranks.


    But after Zhang Qingxi said that, Li Yingyun threw him a significant look. The three Riders then walked away. Puzzled, Zhang Qingxi asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Brother Qingxi, there really is someone from Fortress 178 in Luoyang City at the moment,¡± Qin Sheng exined. ¡°And he¡¯s the only one from there who¡¯s here.¡±


    ¡°You mean Ren Xiaosu?¡± Zhang Qingxi was stunned. ¡°Didn¡¯t you two say that he doesn¡¯t look like he can fight that well?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, that was just a misunderstanding.¡± Old Li said, ¡°Didn¡¯t we bring it up again in the post-op meeting? That kid went into Stronghold 61 by himself, so he might also be the one who took care of the creeper vine.¡±


    ¡°Based on what you said, if he is really the person in the steel armor, he might be the one who finished off that creeper vine.¡± Zhang Qingxi muttered, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you two say so earlier?¡±


    Zhang Qingxi had made his stand clear at the meeting that if the descendant of the Riders¡¯ founder was a weakling, he would be willing to provide the other party a life of luxury, but he would definitely not swear loyalty to him.


    But now it seemed that if the person they were looking for was really Ren Xiaosu, Zhang Qingxi might not even be a match for him.


    After all, Zhang Qingxi knew he was not capable of taking on a stronghold by himself.


    ¡°Are you sure he¡¯s here to help?¡± Zhang Qingxi asked.


    ¡°I think so.¡± Qin Sheng exined, ¡°During the conflict between the two forces earlier, he even called me to ask if we needed his help. I told him it was fine. He should have been in the vicinity at that time and acted after encountering the two who tried to escape.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a good thing.¡± Zhang Qingxi said with a sigh, ¡°Since Wu Dingyuan and Wen Meng are still not back, something must have happened along the way. It looks like the Qinghe University students will have to cancel their future travel ns. It¡¯s really no longer safe to go to other people¡¯s territories.¡±


    Every year, the Riders would send their members to travel out of the stronghold with the more outstanding Qinghe University students to see the world. Back then, the Rider Ren Xiaosu met at the ck market was Wu Dingyuan.


    The scope of their travels was very broad and was mainly to allow the students to gain more real world knowledge by not always remaining in the stronghold.


    However, the enemies took advantage of this moment toe to Luoyang City. At this moment, there were only seven Riders in the stronghold, so their overall strength had slightly weakened.


    This was also the reason why Qin Sheng and the others had to kill their enemies so decisively. At this moment, they needed to intimidate the troublemakers and stall for time.


    The arrival of Ren Xiaosu and the power he disyed had undoubtedly reassured them a little.


    ¡°He still helped us in the end. We definitely have to thank him for that, but we can¡¯t keep relying on outsiders.¡± Old Li said with a smile, ¡°Besides, we Riders are pretty strong ourselves too!¡±


    When Zhang Qingxi looked at the huge stronghold city, the nightlife was still brilliant and bustling. He wondered if the prosperity would remain after this chaotic battle ended.


    News of the armored being¡¯s appearance in Luoyang City had already begun to spread through the grapevine.


    However, the people from the other forces did not know the truth of the armored being like the Riders did. They were only specting whether Fortress 178 was also interested in the satellites the Qinghe Group had in their possession.


    That was also a possibility. After all, Fortress 178 did not have the ability tounch their own satellites either.


    However, how many people from Fortress 178 hade to Luoyang City?


    Suddenly, it seemed like the situation had be even more chaotic. Everyone was surprised because they had not previously thought Fortress 178 would get embroiled in this matter.


    Even themanders of Fortress 178 had the same thoughts.

 Chapter 634 - Jiang Xu’s regrets

    <h4>Chapter 634: Jiang Xu¡¯s regrets</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The next day, Ren Xiaosu went to school as usual. Last night, he had been waiting for Qin Sheng and Old Li toe and ask him if he was the one who killed that supernatural being. However, Qin Sheng did note over.


    But actually, it was unnecessary to ask too much. The moment that armor appeared, many questions were answered.


    It was as though everyone tacitly understood what had happened. I know that it was you, and I know that you already know...


    This was probably what the situation was like.


    When Ren Xiaosu walked into Qinghe University, he could hear some students discussingst night¡¯s incident.


    Ren Xiaosu approached and listened in on their conversation.


    ¡°A big battle had broken out between superhumans in the cityst night. Could that be the reason why our school is under lockdown? It looks like something big is really going to unfold in Luoyang City.¡±


    ¡°But Professor Jiang said these matters would not affect the school.¡±


    ¡°On the contrary, I¡¯m paying more attention to that superhuman. I heard he defeated the other superhuman in a one-sided battle and killed his opponent. I wonder where that superhuman came from and which organization he belongs to?¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± A knowledgeable student said, ¡°I¡¯m better informed than you. I know he¡¯s from Fortress 178 as my friend¡¯s cousin told him so. During the war in which the Zong Consortium was destroyed, he single-handedly brought down an entire stronghold. It¡¯s someone who¡¯s on par with the Demon Whisperer and has been ced on the watchlists of all the major organizations.¡±


    When the student said that, a flurry of wows and other exmations rang out all around him. Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed.


    ¡°Is he really that powerful? But why did someone from the Northweste to Luoyang City?¡± someone wondered. ¡°I heard he¡¯s still a young man, but I don¡¯t know his actual age.¡±


    The powerful superhuman they were talking about was actually close to their age? He was strong, mysterious, and young. Just these characteristics alone were already enough to attract the yearning of the female students at the school.


    ¡°But I don¡¯t think he¡¯s the most powerful person yet,¡± a male student said.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows and was about to interrupt. However, the male student continued, ¡°I still think the person who saved Xu Zhi is better, not for any other reason but because he has a maid.¡±


    This male student¡¯s words showed that he was full of disdain at being single. Ren Xiaosu felt better when he heard that. In the end, he was still the one being praised.


    When he found the ssroom where the first ss was held for the day, Ren Xiaosu realized Yang Xiaojin¡¯s ssmates were also discussingst night¡¯s incident.


    There was simply too little entertainment around these days. This was why the presence of someone like Li Ran was so popr with the people.


    Any of the more interesting topics in life could be discussed for extended periods. If one was not up to date with the major incidents that happened in the stronghold while living here, they might as well just stay home.


    Basically, thendline phone¡¯s role in a stronghold was simply a channel for people to pass on news from the grapevine most of the time.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that if he reunited with Yang Xiaojin, she coulde back to school and say to her ssmates, ¡°Do you know so and so? He¡¯s the guy I like.¡± He wondered if the students would be jealous of him or not.


    As he was thinking about that, someone next to him said, ¡°Hey, you, what are you snickering about at the door?¡±


    The students in ss were still unaware of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name, and Ren Xiaosu did not intend to tell them either. Therefore, they would just address Ren Xiaosu as ¡°hey, you¡± when calling out to him.


    Ren Xiaosu came back to his senses and found a seat and sat down. A male student beside him asked, ¡°Have you told Zheng Hang about what happened yesterday? We couldn¡¯t get through to him at all. By the way, why did Professor Jiang summon you to his office?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°Is that any of your business?¡±


    The male student was speechless.


    The students next to them looked over. Weren¡¯t they getting along quite fine just yesterday? What was going on? Did he wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not exin to them and just waited quietly for ss to start.


    Yesterday, Jiang Xu told him that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s rtionship with her ssmates was not good. If that were the case, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not treat them nicely either.


    Jiang Xu only held two sses per week. After attending the other teachers¡¯ lectures, Ren Xiaosu found there were two slightly more interesting sses. One of them was Modern History, which recorded some of the events that urred after The Cataclysm.


    For example, it talked about how everyone worked together to establish the Alliance of Strongholds and how they ended up splitting and fighting against each other.


    At the end of the lesson, Ren Xiaosu was about to head to the cafeteria for lunch as usual. In fact, the food at this university was really cheap. Apparently, this was because of the Qinghe Group¡¯s subsidies.


    If Qinghe University were not under lockdown right now, Ren Xiaosu would have liked to have taken Zhou Yingxue, Wang Yuchi, and the others here to eat as well.


    But just as the students were about to rush out of the ssroom, Jiang Xu suddenly appeared outside the door. He smiled and waved at Ren Xiaosu. The entire ss was shocked as everyone knew Jiang Xu¡¯s habits. If Jiang Xu did not have any sses for the day, he would definitely note to school. After all, he was only a visiting professor and there was a lot of work to handle at Hope Media.


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu. What could have made Jiang Xu so concerned about a student?


    Ren Xiaosu walked out of the ssroom. ¡°What are you doing here? I don¡¯t think you have any sses today, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, whatever!¡± Jiang Xu cut him off. ¡°I¡¯ll treat you to a meal at the staff cafeteria. Wannae?¡±


    ¡°Sure!¡± Then Ren Xiaosu followed Jiang Xu out.


    Many of the students were utterly confused. A female student said, ¡°Did Professor Jiang just say he was taking him out for lunch? It¡¯s obvious that their rtionship isn¡¯t typical.¡±


    ...


    While they were walking to the staff cafeteria, Jiang Xu asked, ¡°You were the one who killed that superhumanst night, right?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu felt there was no reason for him to deny it.


    Jiang Xu said with a smile, ¡°A weak and frail-looking schr like Zhang Jinglin actually chose to entrust Fortress 178 to a superhuman. It looks like he also thinks the world is starting to get dangerous. I heard you destroyed a Zong Consortium stronghold by yourself?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m really not that great at fighting. Luck still yed a major role in the oue. Mr. Zhang chose me...¡± Ren Xiaosu said modestly, ¡°... probably because I¡¯m wiser and smarter than most people.¡±


    Jiang Xu was speechless for some time. He changed the subject and asked, ¡°What exactly is that steel armor you were wearing yesterday? I think none of the consortiums have developed something like that yet, right?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re nanomachines from the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined as they walked along the secluded path. Seeing that no one was around, Ren Xiaosu stretched out his hand. Jiang Xu saw with his own eyes how the nanomachines turned into a steel-like armor around Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand like an illusion..


    He asked in surprise, ¡°Are these nanomachines inside your body?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°They depend on a bioenergy source to charge up. They can also temporarily take the ce of bone and muscle in case of injury. They¡¯re connected to the human body¡¯s neurons and controlling them is like controlling your own fingers. Say, if you connect them to your neurons, getting your broken bones repaired will definitely not be a problem.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said this because he felt it was a great pity for someone like Jiang Xu to walk with a limp.

 Chapter 635 - It’s you!

    <h4>Chapter 635: It¡¯s you!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    When Jiang Xu heard what Ren Xiaosu said, his interest was piqued. ¡°Where are these nanomachines found? You know, the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium have already been destroyed.¡±


    ¡°The Qing Consortium.¡± Ren Xiaosu answered matter-of-factly, ¡°Luo Lan said that Qing Consortium has already developed nanomachines and put them into use.¡±


    ¡°I know that,¡± Jiang Xu said. The Qing Consortium did not treat this matter as a secret either. Hope Media had even reported it in their newspaper before.


    Luo Lan said everyone knew the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium had nanomachines in their possession. With the Qing Consortium recing those two consortiums now, of course it would be no secret the nanomachines were also in their hands now.


    In any case, it was just used for strengthening the physical fitness of normal soldiers. Moreover, Qing Zhen was not allowing the nanomachines to be implemented on a wide scale yet. On one hand, it was due to ack of production quantities. On the other hand, he was worried the soldiers would start relying on them.


    A lot of their training would be much easier toplete.


    Qing Zhen believed the most important thing for the troops was not their strength but having a strong will that could not be crushed. So what was regarded as a treasure to the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium was only seen as an ordinary tool in Qing Zhen¡¯s hands.


    Perhaps Ren Xiaosu would only get to see nanosoldiers inrge numbers again when another war descended upon the Qing Consortium. But the next time, he would not have to hunt down those nanosoldiers.


    Jiang Xu continued asking, ¡°So, is the Qing Consortium the only one who has nanorobotics technology at the moment?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°It¡¯s good as long as it can be used. Do you need me to get some nanomachines from the Qing Consortium?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡± Jiang Xu smiled and shook his head.


    ¡°Why not?¡± Ren Xiaosu was even more confused by this. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to be able to walk normally?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that.¡± Jiang Xu exined with a smile, ¡°Who would want to walk with a limp? A lot of people admire me because of what happened to my leg. However, I¡¯d rather walk like a normal person than have everyone¡¯s admiration.¡±


    ¡°Then do you have something against the Qing Consortium?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again.


    ¡°No.¡± Jiang Xu shook his head. ¡°Rather, of all the organizations, I admire the Qing Consortium the most. Of course, organizations throughout the world are all the same, and there¡¯s essentially no difference between them.¡±


    ¡°Then why¡¯re you unwilling to approach the Qing Consortium and get some nanomachines from them?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Because I want to record the truth, so I can¡¯t ept gifts of any kind from any organizations. Besides, the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium have also proven that the nanomachines are capable of controlling human thought. For example, when Stronghold 88 was destroyed, those nanosoldiers had already fallen under their control.¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°Even if the Qing Consortium doesn¡¯t control me with the nanomachines or run any malicious programs in the background, how am I going to convince everyone that I¡¯m really recording the truth?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. To ensure he could record the truth, Jiang Xu was willing to persevere even when his leg was broken.


    To ensure that the truth was reliable, he would rather give up the chance to fix his broken leg.


    This was probably the reason why everyone admired him.


    Some people were really willing to give their lives to uphold their principles, and such people were way too few and far between. They were so rare they seemed to exude a certain brilliance.


    Therefore, if the Qing Consortium were the only organization in the world that could produce the nanomachines, Jiang Xu would be unwilling to ept it even if Ren Xiaosu offered to give his own nanomachines to him.


    This was because Jiang Xu wanted to avoid suspicion. How would others possibly know where his nanomachines came from?


    Jiang Xu patted Ren Xiaosu on the shoulder. ¡°You are also part of the truth I want to report. At the very least, I can start putting on record what the seventhmander of Fortress 178 is like once you take over in the future. Perhaps you still haven¡¯t realized you¡¯ll also be part of this history, so you¡¯ll never be forgotten with time.¡±


    ¡°Is the truth really that important?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in a low voice, ¡°What if no one cares what the truth is?¡±


    Jiang Xuughed and continued walking towards the cafeteria. ¡°That¡¯s their problem then.¡±


    Although Ren Xiaosu was starting to admire Jiang Xu a little, he did not hold back at lunch. He ate so much that Jiang Xu was left dumbfounded by his appetite. Patting his stomach in satisfaction, he asked if they were going to have lunch together again tomorrow.


    Jiang Xu expressed he would not being to school again until the next lecture.


    The head chef in the staff cafeteria was dumbfounded. He thought Professor Jiang must be a really kind person to bring a poor student here to eat.


    ...


    In the evening, Ren Xiaosu left the library quietly and exited the school through the security post. Then he walked all the way across a dozen streets and made his way towards a secret residence.


    This was the ce where he and Qin Sheng had agreed to meet for a dinner party with the Riders.


    Back when they entered the stronghold, Qin Sheng told Ren Xiaosu he had arranged for a meal together with Xu Ke, the head of the Qinghe Group. The meetup could be considered an opportunity to make friends.


    Ren Xiaosu had intended to stand Qin Sheng up today, but he did not expect Qin Sheng to call him seven times today to remind him about it.


    There was no choice. He could not possibly disgrace Qin Sheng and turn down his invitation. After all, it was not like he was some big shot.


    The residence did not look grand, and there were not a lot of people inside either.


    After Ren Xiaosu knocked on the door a few times, Qin Sheng opened the door and let him in. There were only four people inside. They were Qin Sheng, Old Li, an unknown person who was preparing a meal in the kitchen, and a final person who was stunned when he saw Ren Xiaosu. ¡°It¡¯s you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you.¡±


    Zhang Qingxi was the Rider Ren Xiaosu had seen near East Lake at Stronghold 73. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was jogging around East Lake when the Rider advised him to leave.


    Ren Xiaosu could still clearly remember how Zhang Qingxi tried to persuade the za dancing aunties in the za to leave but ended up getting threatened with extortion ims instead.


    Only at this moment did Zhang Qingxi realize Ren Xiaosu was also at Stronghold 73 at that time.


    However, Zhang Qingxi was a little puzzled. ¡°Since you were also at Stronghold 73 at that time, were you that person in the white mask?¡±


    With only a few clues, Zhang Qingxi immediately linked it to Ren Xiaosu. During the Battle of East Lake, ¡°Old Xu,¡± who was wearing the white mask, had ughtered a lot of people. On the other hand, Ren Xiaosu seemed to have disappeared with no one paying much attention to him.


    All of these were suspicious points.


    Old Li and Qin Sheng looked at each other. When they were defending Stronghold 74, the person in the white mask had also appeared there, as a matter of fact, and Ren Xiaosu happened to be there as well.


    Some things just could not stand up to scrutiny...


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It wasn¡¯t me. It really wasn¡¯t me.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we Riders have our principles and will not reveal your identity. Besides, you came over to help us out this time. We don¡¯t betray our friends,¡± Zhang Qingxi said.


    Ren Xiaosu said innocently, ¡°It really wasn¡¯t me.¡±


    ¡°Then where did you go that day?¡± Zhang Qingxi stared at Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu lied without blinking, ¡°You persuaded me to leave. After thinking about it carefully when I got back, I felt that you were right, so I left.¡±


    Zhang Qingxi was speechless. Who are you trying to bluff?!


    At this moment, Xu Ke walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron. He said with a smile, ¡°Stop arguing about this. Wash your hands and get ready to eat. Hi, I¡¯m Xu Ke.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. The leader of the Qinghe Group had personally prepared the meal?

 Chapter 636 - The Xu clan’s past

    <h4>Chapter 636: The Xu n¡¯s past</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu had heard of Xu Ke¡¯s name on many asions. As the leader of the Qinghe Group, it was quite normal that his name was so well-known.


    But in his opinion, the leader of an organization should be someone very prominent and aloof. As Ren Xiaosu did not like interacting with such people, he initially wanted to bail on Qin Sheng.


    The Yang Consortium had also invited Ren Xiaosu to a g before. However, that event made him lose interest in all gs since then.


    The games people in the upper ss yed did not interest Ren Xiaosu at all.


    But right now, Xu Ke was dressed in a casual gray sweater paired with a checkered apron. He held a te of shredded pork with garlic sauce in one hand and a spat in the other. He looked like he was only in his thirties and could be considered young.


    This image did not suit the looks of an organization¡¯s leader at all. Instead, he felt more like a really nice househusband.


    Qin Sheng introduced Ren Xiaosu to Xu Ke, ¡°This is Ren Xiaosu, whom I mentioned to you previously.¡±


    ¡°Pleased to meet you. Quickly take a seat. I¡¯ll bring the food over.¡± Xu Ke said, ¡°Due to the secrecy of this matter, the ce that we chose is a little secluded. It¡¯s just some home-cooked food, so I hope you won¡¯t mind.¡±


    ¡°It looks pretty good.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the shredded pork with garlic sauce in front of him. It looked delicious and appetizing.


    Qin Sheng said from next to him, ¡°Dig in. This is a secret gathering ce for the Riders. It¡¯s usually Big Brother Xu Ke who prepares the meals.¡±


    Meanwhile, Old Li was rummaging through the cabs for something. Xu Ke wondered, ¡°What are you looking for?¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s the wine you hid in the house?¡± Old Li asked.


    ¡°Have you forgotten?¡± Xu Ke did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°You and Qingxi finished it the previous time. Also, we shouldn¡¯t be having any alcohol now since it might dy our work.¡±


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Zhang Qingxi said, ¡°He drank a lot more than me. I only had a little....¡±


    When the five of them took their seats, Xu Ke raised his teacup and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I¡¯m grateful to Brother Xiaosu foring to Luoyang City¡¯s assistance during this crisis. I would have liked to have given you a toast with wine, but I have to keep a clear head right now. So in ce of that, let me use tea to toast you instead.¡± With that, Xu Ke downed the tea in one gulp.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Just what is the cause of this crisis? Surely those organizations can¡¯te looking for trouble just because they want to seize your satellites, right?¡±


    ¡°The cause of this actually arose from the Xu n¡¯s control of the Qinghe Group.¡± Xu Ke calmly exined, ¡°You should¡¯ve heard the rumor that we¡¯re searching for the heir of the major shareholder. In fact, our Xu n only owns 3% of the Qinghe Group¡¯s shares. The rest of thepany belongs to the major shareholder.¡±


    ¡°I know that.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°But what does that have to do with the crisis?¡±


    ¡°Our Xu n¡¯s ancestor was named Xu Nuo. He built the organization with the founder of the Qinghe Group, and the leadership role has since been passed down from father to son through my family¡¯s lineage. We all abide by the teachings of our forebears and do not covet what does not belong to us.¡± Xu Ke sighed. ¡°This is really a scandal for our n. Although my direct family does not have ambitions of seizing control of the Qinghe Group for ourselves, some of our rtives are unwilling toply.¡±


    With Xu Ke¡¯s exnation, Ren Xiaosu realized Xu Ke and his father had always only taken a 3% share of the profits, while the rest of the money was reinvested back into the operations of the Qinghe Group.


    As the Xu n was firmly in power, some of the Xu n¡¯s rtives gradually started holding important positions within the Qinghe Group.


    At first, everyone worked hard and performed quite well. But over time, these people started topletely regard the Qinghe Group as the Xu n¡¯s asset. Moreover, a lot of them tried to persuade Xu Ke to not search for the major shareholder¡¯s heir anymore.


    It was their Xu n who had been managing the Qinghe Group for all these years, toiling hard and earning merit for the organization. Therefore, they felt the Qinghe Group should rightfully belong to the Xu n.


    Some of the business arms were even monopolized by certain rtives as they passed down their positions within their own families. In the past, it was the capable people who assumed these positions. But now the children would take over after their parents¡¯ death, regardless of whether they were capable or not.


    When Xu Ke realized his rtives were starting to get such ideas, he immediately started purging potential threats within the organization. This was to prevent the Qinghe Group from being led to its demise by the hands of his rtives¡¯ children while under his watch.


    In this n struggle, Xu Ke came out as the winner in the end. After all, the Riders were on his side.


    But this power struggle also made the rtives of the Xu n realize their strength alone was not enough to exert any pressure on Xu Ke. Moreover, they were not firmly in power at the moment, so they began to secretly conspire with each other and search for external forces to help them seize authority from within the group.


    The most critical step was dealing with the Riders.


    After his rtives had found the external powers to help them, they did not immediately make a move. Instead, they spent several years nning and letting arge number of spies and unidentified superhumans into Luoyang City.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Aren¡¯t they afraid that the external powers will usurp power over Luoyang City?¡±


    Xu Keughed. ¡°That¡¯s why they thought they were being smart by finding different groups of people to aid their conspiracy. Their goal is to let the various forces fight among themselves and hold each other back so that no one can usurp the stronghold. In the end, they¡¯re even willing to give up control of all the satellites in exchange for the wealth that¡¯s been umted by the Qinghe Group over many years. Some of them even want to sell the Qinghe Group and go lead a life of riches at the other organizations.¡±


    ¡°So who¡¯s the main enemy this time?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The Wang Consortium.¡± Zhang Qingxi said in a low voice, ¡°But we don¡¯t have any hard evidence yet. We only suspect the Wang Consortium wants to use our seven satellites toplete the final step of their AI strategy.¡±


    After the meal, Ren Xiaosu had a rough understanding of the situation. Perhaps out of gratitude to Ren Xiaosu for his help, Xu Ke told him everything he knew.


    Then Xu Ke said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about such serious topics anymore. Do you all want some dessert? Brother Xiaosu, what would you like to eat?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. As if he ever had dessert before!


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°Give me a te of pickled garlic then.¡±


    Xu Ke, Li Yingyun, and Qin Sheng were all surprised.


    ...


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu did not get to eat pickled garlic. But it was not because there wasn¡¯t any in the house as it just so happened that Xu Ke really kept a jar.


    Before the pickled garlic could be served, Zhang Qingxi received a phone call. ¡°A chaotic battle has broken out at Triumphant Road again, but we still can¡¯t figure out which of the forces are involved. The garrison troops are already on their way. We¡¯d better hurry over now.¡±


    Xu Ke nodded. ¡°Thank you for the assistance. I¡¯ll also return to the Group¡¯s headquarters immediately.¡±


    With that, everyone got dressed and left in different directions. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see that Xu Ke¡¯s mode of transportation was actually a bicycle.


    Perhaps by using such a mode of transportation, it would make it harder for others to track him down.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Qin Sheng, who was beside him, ¡°Are any of the supernatural beings going to make a move tonight?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Qin Sheng nodded. ¡°But based on their characteristics, one of them seems to have operated as a lone wolf in the past. I wonder which organization recruited him here to make this hard-earned money.¡±


    ¡°A lone wolf?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s his power?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I heard he can produce saliva bubbles to blow people up...¡±

 Chapter 637 - Come out and surrender

    <h4>Chapter 637: Come out and surrender</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Qin Sheng say the other party¡¯s power was blowing saliva bubbles, Ren Xiaosu was stunned for some time. Qin Sheng added, ¡°I heard that person¡¯s saliva bubble power is extremely powerful. The other superhuman was blown more than ten meters away by his attack. I wonder why there¡¯s such a strange superpower like that....¡±


    Then Qin Sheng noticed Ren Xiaosu had a strange look on his face. Curious, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    ¡°I think I might know that supernatural being,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh.


    Even elemental superpowers would have very obvious differences. For example, there was the covert supernatural being from Fortress 178 who could turn water into lifelike underwater beasts such as a killer whale among other creatures. Only through this could he unleash his greatest destructive power.


    And now, the person who could blow saliva bubbles might just turn out to be that Zhang Baogen that Ren Xiaosu knew.


    Back then, he and Zhang Baogen used to live in the same town. But because some refugees harbored evil intentions against him, they reported him to the authorities.


    His parents thought he was doomed after he was taken into the stronghold, so they killed the entire refugee family who reported their son before taking their own lives.


    Wang Fugui and Zhang Jinglin were even the ones who helped bury the corpses of Zhang Baogen¡¯s parents, while Wang Fugui paid for their burial.


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu also thought Zhang Baogen would definitely not survive. However, the earthquake saved him. During the escape, Ren Xiaosu even saw from afar how he repelled the Experimentals with his superpower.


    But he did not expect Zhang Baogen would appear in Luoyang City as a supernatural being that acted alone.


    After Ren Xiaosu rted Zhang Baogen¡¯s story to Qin Sheng, Qin Sheng was also stunned. ¡°Wow, there¡¯s even something like that? Then let¡¯s quickly go over and have a look.¡±


    The ce where the battle broke out was Triumphant Road. When they arrived there, Ren Xiaosu saw strange fracture marks on all of the surrounding residential buildings. It was as though a bomb had been thrown at the walls, but there were no scorch marks left behind at all.


    It looked like the battle was already over. Qin Sheng was told the two superhumans had fought each other for over 20 minutes as they battled across several hundred meters. In the end, it was the superhuman who could blow saliva bubbles that killed his opponent. Right now, he was hiding inside a building and holding someone hostage.


    The garrison troops of Luoyang City surrounded a bicycle shop while a negotiator standing at the door was negotiating with the superhuman inside. ¡°We¡¯ve surrounded this ce. Even if you kill the hostage, you can¡¯t get away. Why don¡¯t you tell me your terms and we might consider letting you off?¡±


    The person inside sneered, ¡°Y¡¯all will let me off? What a joke! There¡¯s no need to convince me to release the hostage.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quietly walked away from Qin Sheng and climbed to the top of a building across from the bicycle shop by himself.


    This location was more than 700 meters away from the site of the incident, and it was a perfect spot for sniping.


    He took a look inside the bicycle shop with his spotting scope first, and he was surprised by what he saw.


    In the bicycle shop, Zhang Baogen was hiding behind his human hostage shield. And the hostage turned out to be the person he tripped the previous night! Was this a coincidence? Or were they putting on an act?


    Ren Xiaosu called Qin Sheng. ¡°I¡¯m getting ready to make my move.¡±


    Qin Sheng had a confused look on his face. He looked around and realized Ren Xiaosu had disappeared off to somewhere. ¡°Where are you now? What do you n to do?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna snipe him from far away.¡±


    ¡°But he¡¯s well-hidden. It¡¯ll be very difficult to kill him without injuring the hostage,¡± Qin Sheng said doubtfully.


    Just as he finished speaking, everyone at the site heard the crack of a sniper rifle. Qin Sheng immediately turned to look at the bicycle shop and saw the hostage inside had been killed on the spot.


    Qin Sheng was confused.


    Bro, when you said you were making your move, did you mean you were going to just kill the hostage?


    The sniper bullet was fired precisely through the carotid artery of the hostage¡¯s neck. However, it did not hurt Zhang Baogen, who was standing behind the hostage.


    Ren Xiaosu said on the phone, ¡°Alright, get him toe out and surrender, but don¡¯t kill him yet.¡±


    Qin Sheng felt helpless. Meanwhile, the Qinghe Group¡¯s negotiator phrased it in a different way. ¡°The hostage has been killed. Will the criminal inside pleasee out and surrender immediately...¡±


    Everyone was dumbfounded. Zhang Baogen was even more confused. What kinda nonsense was this? Why did they shoot and kill the hostage?!


    Zhang Baogen stared at the ck barrels outside the shop. He wanted to charge out, but he gave up on the idea in the end.


    After dragging the situation out for such a long time, all of the Riders in Luoyang City would probably have arrived by now. Since their ally had killed the hostage so decisively, they were prepared to go in and kill him as well.


    He raised his hands and slowly walked out of the bicycle shop as Qin Sheng and Zhang Qingxi converged on him from both nks. However, they only pressed Zhang Baogen down to the ground. As he did not resist, they did not continue hurting him.


    After the farce was over, Ren Xiaosu followed the vehicle convoy of Qin Sheng and the others. He wanted to ask Zhang Baogen about something.


    As for the hostage who had died, he would soon be forgotten.


    While the convoy was traveling, the vehicle Zhang Baogen was being escorted in by Qin Sheng and Zhang Qingxi suddenly split from the convoy on a remote road and headed in another direction.


    Zhang Baogen, who was sitting in the vehicle, asked, ¡°Where are y¡¯all taking me?¡±


    Qin Sheng smiled and said, ¡°An old friend would like to meet you. However, his identity is special, so in order to not expose him, we had to shake off some spies first.¡±


    Zhang Baogen did not say anything else. He was already resigned to fate. However, he was a little puzzled. How could he still have any old friends?


    The vehicle turned left, then right, and finally stopped at a section of a park. When Qin Sheng and Zhang Qingxi led Zhang Baogen out of the car, Ren Xiaosu emerged from the woods in the park.


    When Zhang Baogen saw Ren Xiaosu, he was shocked. ¡°You¡¯re... Ren Xiaosu, the one who¡¯s sick in the head?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened. Why the hell are you bringing up something from so long ago!


    As the four of them stood in the dark in a spot in the park, Zhang Qingxi and Qin Sheng looked at each other and wondered what was about Ren Xiaosu being sick in the head.


    However, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Your parents...¡±


    Zhang Baogen said anxiously, ¡°What about my parents? Where are they?¡±


    After Zhang Baogen got captured, the stronghold was already destroyed by the time he regained his freedom. He was still unaware of his parents¡¯ situation and tried looking for them, but he couldn¡¯t get past the Experimentals at all. His only choice was to escape.


    Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°After you were taken away, your parents killed the entire family of the one who reported you before taking their own lives. The schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang, and Wang Fugui helped with your parents¡¯ funeral. They¡¯re buried outside the town. You should be able to see their tombstones if you go there in the future. That ce might still be intact.¡±


    Actually, Zhang Baogen already knew his parents were probably not alive anymore. But when he got confirmation of the news, he still felt upset and forlorn.


    Ren Xiaosu and Qin Sheng looked quietly at Zhang Baogen and waited for him to calm down.


    Half an hourter, Zhang Baogen looked up at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Thank you for telling me about this. You can ask me anything you want to know. I¡¯ll answer all of your questions.¡±

 Chapter 638 - Orphanage

    <h4>Chapter 638: Orphanage</h4>


    ¡°I heard that you work as an independent supernatural being. Why did you get involved in this chaotic battle?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who gave you orders and who were you trying to kill?¡±


    Zhang Baogen thought for a while before replying, ¡°I don¡¯t know my employer¡¯s identity. All I only know is that Scarface from Luoyang City hired me to kill someone at Triumphant Road. The target was going to appear at a restaurant wearing a ck shirt and gray shoes.¡±


    Scarface was a well-known underworld agent at Luoyang City who specialized in brokering illegal transactions. It sounded like Zhang Baogen and Scarface had coborated with each other on more than one asion as well.


    This was easy to verify since it would not be difficult for Qin Sheng and the others to find Scarface.


    However, Zhang Qingxi felt that Scarface might not even know who the employer was.


    ¡°Are you saying that you came to kill the target because you epted an assassination mission?¡± Zhang Qingxi wondered, ¡°I¡¯ve been to the site of the battle. You aren¡¯t cautious enough when carrying out your attacks and don¡¯t look like a professional hitman either. Also, it seems you didn¡¯t expect the target to be a superhuman too?¡±


    ¡°True, I really didn¡¯t expect that.¡± Zhang Baogen said, ¡°I¡¯m really not a professional hitman either. I onlye out to do such jobs when the days get unbearable. If I didn¡¯t have to get coats for winter this time, I wouldn¡¯t have taken the risk to carry out a hit in Luoyang City.¡±


    Nobody knew how to react when they heard Zhang Baogen say he only resorted to killing someone because he wanted to buy a coat. He actually went to kill a superhuman so that he could buy a coat?


    Zhang Qingxi scrutinized Zhang Baogen. He realized Zhang Baogen was dressed in ill-fitting clothes sold at street stalls.


    ¡°How did you manage to get into Luoyang City?¡± Zhang Qingxi asked. ¡°The security is so tight now. Someone must¡¯ve helped you get in. Who¡¯s that person?¡±


    This time, it was Zhang Baogen¡¯s turn to be surprised. ¡°I¡¯ve been living in Luoyang City all this while. A few months ago, I came here like the other refugees and entered the city through a work recruitment exercise. Later on, the director of the welfare home took me in. He even helped me apply for a long-term work permit, which allowed me to stay in the stronghold for half a year.¡±


    ¡°Wait a sec, you¡¯re working at a welfare home? What do you do there?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    This time, everyone was confused by Zhang Baogen.


    At first, everyone thought Zhang Baogen was just a hitman that operated alone. But the more they talked, the more they realized he was just a rookie. He did not even know who he was killing and was basically just doing the dirty work for someone else.


    Furthermore, he was even working at an orphanage in Luoyang City.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, ¡°Did you ept such a dangerous mission just so you could buy one coat?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not just one coat.¡± Zhang Baogen exined earnestly, ¡°It¡¯s 47 coats. The welfare home is running out of funds, and we still haven¡¯t bought any coats for the children yet. Even though the director has applied for funding from the higher-ups, we did not receive any reply for a long time. Left with no other choice, I took the risk while trying to hide it from the director.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. This conversation with Zhang Baogen tonight was simply full of twists and turns. What did this have anything to do with the children at the orphanage?


    Zhang Qingxi and Qin Sheng looked at each other. ¡°Let¡¯s go, we¡¯ll head to the orphanage right away to verify the situation. Don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t disturb the children there. If you¡¯re telling the truth, we won¡¯t make things difficult for you.¡±


    After all, Zhang Baogen did not kill anyone from the Qinghe Group. It could be said that the more those forces fought among themselves, the happier the Riders were.


    And if Zhang Baogen were telling the truth, then this person was at least good-natured.


    Zhang Qingxi uncuffed Zhang Baogen. ¡°Lead the way. We¡¯ll talk when we get there.¡±


    When Zhang Baogen got into the vehicle, he said in a low voice, ¡°I know that there¡¯s many good people in the Qinghe Group. I didn¡¯t want to kill anyone in Luoyang City either...¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough.¡± Zhang Qingxi said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s no need to tter us. As long as you¡¯re telling the truth, you¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    When they arrived at the entrance of the orphanage, Ren Xiaosu looked at the run-down ce. ¡°This is your Qinghe Group¡¯s property, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Qin Sheng nodded. Since there was a sign that read ¡°Qinghe Welfare Home¡± at the entrance, it had to be their property.


    ¡°Then why¡¯s there ack of funding? It¡¯s not like y¡¯allck this bit of money,¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid this must be the doing of the Xu n¡¯s rtives. Those people do not have any principles at all, and this isn¡¯t the first time they¡¯ve embezzled their employees¡¯ sries. Previously, someone even dared to embezzle the garrison troops¡¯ military sry,¡± Zhang Qingxi exined calmly. ¡°This is probably one of the reasons why Xu Ke wants to purge the potential threats from the organization.¡±


    As the four of them walked into the orphanage, Qin Sheng suddenly thought of something. ¡°By the way, Brother Xiaosu, why did you straight-up shoot that hostage?¡±


    Qin Sheng had been wondering about this for some time, but he couldn¡¯t figure out why.


    Zhang Baogen looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. So it turned out Ren Xiaosu was the one who took out his hostage.


    However, Zhang Baogen could understand that. After all, Ren Xiaosu was well-known in town for being ruthless.


    Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°You should know that I tripped a fugitivest night, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I heard so from a pedestrian yesterday.¡± Qin Sheng nodded. ¡°After that, you were attacked by that superhuman.¡±


    ¡°The hostage turned out to be the person I tripped.¡± Ren Xiaosumented how fate was so unpredictable. If Zhang Baogen had really not colluded with anyone beforehand, then that hostage must have just been... purely unlucky.


    The truth of the matter was that the guy was really unfortunate. As an intelligence agent, he only wanted to see what was going on out there. In the end, he got manhandled by Zhang Baogen.


    He could only resign himself to the fact that he had been taken hostage. As a normal person who was no match for a supernatural being, he was carried away effortlessly by his opponent. But the Qinghe Group would most likely find a way to rescue him, right? After all, they did not know he was a spy.


    But before the Qinghe Group could rescue him, he was shot dead.


    Who could he possibly go and reason with!


    It was 11 PM when the four of them walked into the orphanage. Some of the children who were still awake were horsing around in the yard.


    When the children saw Zhang Baogen, they happily greeted him as Uncle Baogen. They even scrambled forward to get close to him.


    Zhang Qingxi quietly observed that these children were truly wearing tattered and threadbare clothes and many of them were even patched up. Some of the children hiding inside the house were also wearing very thin fall clothing.


    Judging by the situation here, Zhang Baogen was not lying.


    A child looked at Zhang Baogen eagerly. ¡°Uncle Baogen, didn¡¯t you say you were going out to buy coats for us? Did you manage to get any?¡±


    Zhang Baogen said in embarrassment, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t manage to get them today. I¡¯ll go out again tomorrow to have a look.¡±


    Seeing that the child was a little disappointed, Zhang Baogen said with a smile, ¡°Let me blow a bubble for you.¡±


    With that, Zhang Baogen blew a saliva bubble for the child. The bubble turned into a white little winged horse in the air as the children ran yfully after it.


    Zhang Qingxi asked, ¡°You¡¯re a superhuman. Are you really satisfied with just being a care worker at the orphanage?¡±


    ¡°Actually, my reason foring to Luoyang City is not that simple.¡± Zhang Baogen whispered, ¡°I only wanted to sneak into the stronghold to kill someone andplete my mission. But after I snuck in as a care worker, I kept wanting to cheer up those children whenever I saw them. It wasn¡¯t until an autistic child saw the bubbles that I blew and startedughing that I suddenly got the idea of staying. There is nothing special about supernatural beings. Perhaps the purpose of my power was never meant for killing people at all.¡±

 Chapter 639 - Unexpected

    <h4>Chapter 639: Unexpected</h4>


    Just because Zhang Baogen had identally amused an autistic child with his saliva bubbles, it made him, a supernatural being, decide to remain at the orphanage. This would probably be unimaginable to many supernatural beings.


    But whoever stipted that supernatural beings had to go around killing people and striving for supremacy?


    Perhaps superpowers were meant for achieving other things in the first ce.


    Not everyone in this world was cast from the same mold. Ren Xiaosu sought to use his own superpower to protect his family and friends, while Zhang Baogen felt his superpower was at its peak when using it to cheer up an autistic child. Was there anything wrong with that?


    Zhang Qingxi went into the orphanage¡¯s kitchen to look around and realized there weren¡¯t even any decent food ingredients.


    Zhang Baogen exined, ¡°The Qinghe Group disburses 6,000 yuan to our welfare home each month. But as y¡¯all can see, we have so many children here, so that amount is definitely not enough to go around. We also don¡¯t wish to see these children suffer, and most of them have some sort of issue. They¡¯re either born with internal birth defects or developmental disorders like autism. Their parents abandoned them at our doorstep and gave up on them.¡±


    Qin Sheng looked at the group of children and said coldly, ¡°To think that there would be such an impoverished welfare home in Luoyang City. Why don¡¯t they just call it a hardship home instead? Where¡¯s the director? Get him out here. I want to check with him on who¡¯s responsible for these situations!¡±


    There were only two care workers at the orphanage. One of them was Zhang Baogen, and the other was a girl who was telling stories to the children inside the home. Meanwhile, the director had not made an appearance at all til now.


    Zhang Baogen went in and shouted for the director. But when Ren Xiaosu saw the director, he was dumbfounded. It was Hu Shuo!


    Ren Xiaosu immediately cursed in his head!


    To be honest, he had not expected to encounter Hu Shuo here.


    He was wondering why Li Shentan had only made mention of Si Liren but not Hu Shuo. However, he did not expect Hu Shuo to actually end up as the director of the orphanage at Luoyang City.


    After all, this was the former director of the Li Consortium¡¯s Special Investigations Division, so how could he possibly be willing to be the director of an orphanage?


    He wondered how Hu Shuo ended up as the director of the orphanage, and it seemed like he had been in the role for quite a while too. However, Ren Xiaosu did not expose Hu Shuo¡¯s identity. He just stood at the side and watched Hu Shuoment to Qin Sheng and Zhang Qingxi. His acting was so wless the two Riders did not suspect a thing.


    Ren Xiaosu even suspected Hu Shuo was the one who instructed Zhang Baogen to deliberately kill someone so it would attract the attention of the Qinghe Group¡¯s people. By ying the sympathetic card, they could improve the orphanage¡¯s benefits.


    Back when Zhang Baogen was holding the hostage, there was something that made Ren Xiaosu suspicious, and it was how Zhang Baogen had so easily stopped resisting.


    But only by doing so could he survive until the ¡°interrogation¡± stage without getting seriously injured. Only then could he convey to the Riders his reason for killing someone.


    One would have to carefully consider the Riders¡¯ behavior patterns before they dared to pull off something like that. And it was precisely someone like Hu Shuo who possessed such a quality.


    If it were really so, Hu Shuo was probably not expecting Ren Xiaosu to appear here.


    Qin Sheng and Zhang Qingxi assured Hu Shuo they would investigate this matter thoroughly the next day. On top of that, the disbursement of funds to the orphanage would be handled by the Riders¡¯ staff in the future. It would no longer be controlled by the Civil Affairs Department of Luoyang City.


    Hu Shuo was so grateful he directly addressed the Riders as kind angels. Zhang Qingxi and Qin Sheng turned red in embarrassment and wanted to get out of there.


    Ren Xiaosu did not leave, as he told Qin Sheng he wanted to catch up with Zhang Baogen.


    After the orphanage¡¯s gate closed, he saw Hu Shuo smiling ambiguously at him. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you expose me just now?¡±


    ¡°What do I stand to gain if I expose you? After all, the children really do need new coats, and it¡¯s also a good thing to improve their welfare.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But you¡¯re not someone whocks money, so why¡¯s there a need to put on such an act?¡±


    ¡°Why? Did you see through my n?¡± Hu Shuo chuckled and said, ¡°I¡¯m just trying to test the Riders to see if they¡¯re as honorable as the rumors say.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave Zhang Baogen a stern look. ¡°You¡¯re way too bold. Are you tired of living? You dared to go along with something like that?¡±


    Hu Shuo smiled and said, ¡°He¡¯s not putting on an act. He really doesn¡¯t know about it.¡±


    Zhang Baogen looked at Hu Shuo and Ren Xiaosu with wide eyes. ¡°The two of you know each other? Director, you...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu finally understood Hu Shuo was mainly trying to test Zhang Baogen. Who could rest easy when a supernatural being like him imed he just wanted to remain at the orphanage to take care of the children?


    Hu Shuo patted Zhang Baogen on the shoulder and said with a smile, ¡°Go and watch the children. I¡¯m gonna have a chat with Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    After Zhang Baogen went off, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are you nning to make use of Zhang Baogen?¡±


    Hu Shuo sighed, ¡°That kid is like an uncut gem. I can¡¯t bear to make use of him.¡±


    ¡°Then are you thinking of making use of the children in the orphanage?¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly made a guess that Hu Shuo could probably raise a new batch of elite intelligence agents by staying here for a few years to groom these children who had no one to rely on.


    Ren Xiaosu had attended Hu Shuo¡¯s sses before, so he knew exactly what Hu Shuo was capable of. He was an expert in rearing talents.


    Hu Shuo replied, ¡°When I first arrived here, it was indeed just as you had thought. On the one hand, I wanted to keep my identity a secret and stay hidden in the city. On the other hand, I hoped to inject new blood into my intelligencework. But after living with them for a while, I¡¯ve already dismissed that idea. All of us have led a tough life, so why should they have to go through those hardships again?¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu felt that Hu Shuo sounded quite sincere. Curious, he asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Li Shentan?¡±


    ¡°You still have the cheek to bring this up? I get so angry at the mention of it. Yang Xiaojin was chasing after him for half a month, and he ended up being forced to escape south. He says he¡¯s gone there to wait for the typhoon season to arrive!¡± Hu Shuo snapped at Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Why does your girlfriend have such a bad temper?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to hold it in, but he finally snapped back, ¡°Serves him right!¡±


    ¡°Look at you! Is that what you should be saying?¡± Hu Shuo said.


    ¡°Since he knew that Yang Xiaojin was at Qinghe University, why didn¡¯t he just tell me?¡± Ren Xiaosu was also getting unhappy. ¡°Do you have any news about Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Hu Shuo shook his head. ¡°That girl is very elusive, so it won¡¯t be easy to find her. But since you¡¯ve already revealed your armor in the city, she¡¯ll definitely be attracted back here when the news gets out.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. Actually, the reason he no longer hid his whereabouts and revealed his armor was because he was hoping the various forces could spread this news to let Yang Xiaojin know he was here.


    Perhaps the venue and timing of this reunion were not too appropriate, because this ce would soon be the center of a storm.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not care about the impending danger. Before meeting Yang Xiaojin again, no one was allowed to do anything to this stronghold!

 Chapter 640 - A touch of humanity amid the chaos

    <h4>Chapter 640: A touch of humanity amid the chaos</h4>


    After chatting with Hu Shuo, Ren Xiaosu went to take a look at the kitchen. There was not much rice left in the rice bucket. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu even purposely took a look at the garbage can in the kitchen, but he did not find any meat remains in it. This demonstrated the living conditions of these children at the orphanage were deplorable.


    Hu Shuo followed behind and said, ¡°Do you know why I can¡¯t bear to make use of Zhang Baogen? Was it just because he revealed his kind nature? No, or rather, it wasn¡¯t that alone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and quietly listened.


    Hu Shuo continued, ¡°Actually, Zhang Baogen is also still a child. He had been sent to a psychiatric hospital by the Qing Consortium before he could get to see what the world is really like. Fortunately, the Qing Consortium is considered slightly more benevolent among all the consortiums. They only observed the condition of the supernatural beings without harming them.


    ¡°When Zhang Baogen first arrived here, he was totally broke. A while ago, one of the children said he wanted to eat dumplings. When he was three years old, his parents abandoned him at the entrance of the orphanage. Now that he¡¯s twelve, he only remembers the taste of a type of pork and celery dumpling. That was the only memory left of his original family. He doesn¡¯t even remember what his mother looks like, but he still remembers the taste of the dumplings.


    ¡°As Zhang Baogen did not have any money, he went to the market to collect celery leaves that had been discarded by other people. He even begged the butcher to give him some fatty meat that people didn¡¯t want. I don¡¯t know how he did it, but they really gave him some in the end.¡± Hu Shuoughed and said, ¡°That day at the orphanage, it felt as though we were celebrating the New Year. Later, Zhang Baogen went out to work some odd jobs like clean people¡¯s cars to earn a bit of money. Every time he gets paid, he¡¯ll buy some meat back for the children to eat. However, he didn¡¯t have any for himself.


    ¡°This time, if it weren¡¯t because of the coats costing too much, and the children already suffering from frostbite, he would probably not have taken the risk to go out and kill someone. Do you know what I value most about him? After he came here, he really wanted to turn over a new leaf and start taking care of the children. He also would like to eat the meat he brought back, but he¡¯s fine with just watching the children have it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you rich? Why didn¡¯t you buy something for the children?¡±


    Hu Shuo looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Don¡¯t bring that up with me. Shentan, that rascal, did not even give me a share of the gold after taking so much of it. He said he was keeping it all for you. When I was still an official in the Li Consortium, I was always honest and never took any bribes, so how would I have any money! At the beginning, I did have a little bit of savings. But you don¡¯t know how much these children can eat. As the saying goes, a growing child burns a hole in the pocket. I literally went broke because of them!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Are you really that poor?¡±


    ¡°So what if I¡¯m poor?¡± Hu Shuo¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Money can¡¯t buy happiness, anyway!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°It¡¯s because you have too little money that you can¡¯t buy happiness!¡±


    He turned around and went out. The next afternoon, he came back with half a dozen kilograms of high quality pork and dozens of kilograms of celery. Behind him, Zhou Yingxue was also carrying arge bag of flour. All of the children at the orphanage started cheering.


    This time, even Hu Shuo made the dumplings together with everyone. Ren Xiaosu used his two ck sabers to put on a fancy performance of chopping the dumpling filling for the children. It won their apuse and made Ren Xiaosu very proud.


    When it was time for the pork and celery dumplings toe out of the pot, Zhou Yingxue stood next to it. However, the children did not make a rush for the food. They all followed Zhang Baogen¡¯s instructions and lined up in an orderly manner, with each of them carrying a small bowl. Girls in the front, boys at the back, the young ones went first while the elders waited behind them.


    It wasn¡¯t until the children started eating that Zhang Baogen came over with a bowl in embarrassment.


    Zhou Yingxue smiled and filled the bowl to the brim. Zhang Baogen even thanked her for it.


    After they finished eating, the children sat in their chairs with bloated bellies. They had not had meat in a long time, so they could not stop eating once they got started.


    A child smiled at Zhang Baogen and said, ¡°Uncle Baogen, please blow a bubble for us!¡±


    Zhang Baogen thought for a moment and casually blew out a bubble in the shape of a magpie.


    However, the children recoiled and said, ¡°Uncle Baogen, why does the bubble today smell like pork and celery...¡±


    ...


    After leaving the orphanage, Zhou Yingxue walked beside Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Master, you were quitepassionate today.¡±


    ¡°Compassionate?¡± Ren Xiaosu forced a smile and said, ¡°That was nothing more than a moment of kindness. I doubt I can protect those children like how Zhang Baogen does.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s still better than doing nothing.¡± Zhou Yingxue grimaced and said, ¡°The world would be very different if there were a touch of humanity. But, Master, why didn¡¯t you leave some money for them?¡±


    ¡°Even without us, they¡¯ll live very happily.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°At first, I had wanted to leave them a million yuan. Butter on, I thought that Hu Shuo was probably right. Their happiness there has nothing to do with money. Besides, Qin Sheng and Zhang Qingxi will help them solve their financial problems, so we don¡¯t need to intervene unnecessarily.¡±


    For the first time sincest night, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a brief moment of peace.


    Since arriving at Luoyang City, he was constantly tensed up in case he had to be on guard against enemies who might attack without warning. However, this should not be how the world worked. All of a sudden, he started looking forward to world peace.


    Just as another wave of chaos subsided in Luoyang City, a group of more than 20 people were rushing towards Luoyang City from afar.


    The person leading the group had a red cloth covering his face. It was the Rider Wu Dingyuan.


    He had been taking the students out to travel ording to the n. But midway through their journey, he was informed about the crisis going on at Luoyang City. As such, he was forced to bring the students back to the stronghold.


    But when they passed through the Kong Consortium¡¯s stronghold and rested there for a night, their vehicles were all damaged by some people with ulterior motives. In the end, they could only travel on foot.


    Wu Dingyuan knew someone was deliberately dying his return, but he did not go and argue with the Kong Consortium about this. Since what was done was done, the Riders had to assume every consortium was their enemy.


    When they were still about 300 kilometers away from Luoyang City, Wu Dingyuan suddenly stopped in his tracks. He looked at Vani and the elderly sugar painter in front of him.


    Vani smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m Vani from the Anjing House.¡±


    The old man introduced himself while stirring some sugar syrup, ¡°I¡¯m Tang Hualong from the Anjing House.¡±


    Wu Dingyuan frowned. ¡°Is the Anjing House dering themselves an enemy of the Riders? Have you considered the consequences?¡±


    Vani exined with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s why we¡¯re here. We have no intention of bing enemies of the Riders, nor do we want to kill innocent people in Luoyang City. As such, we won¡¯t enter the stronghold. We just hope that you, Wu Dingyuan, will apany us and have a chat here.¡±


    ¡°And if I say no?¡± Wu Dingyuan said with a grim expression, ¡°Are you going to use these students behind me to threaten me?¡±


    ¡°No, no, no.¡± Vani shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not a cold-blooded killer. It¡¯s just that you won¡¯t be able to leave with the two of us taking you on.¡±


    Wu Dingyuan stood right where he was. He suddenly realized the people in Luoyang City might be making a move soon.

 Chapter 641 - A brewing storm

    <h4>Chapter 641: A brewing storm</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    There were also a few other Riders facing the same situation as Wu Dingyuan.


    Wen Meng was also stopped on the way back. However, he was caught in a dilemma before he could even see the other party.


    While they were returning to the stronghold, arge number of paper cranes suddenly descended from the sky. When the Qinghe University students behind him saw the paper cranes, their first reaction was to cheer. They did not know why there were so many of these strange paper cranes flying towards them.


    Only Wen Meng¡¯s expression changed. He did not expect the head of the Anjing House would actuallye here personally.


    He asked aloud, ¡°Is the Anjing House also trying to seize our Qinghe¡¯s satellites?¡±


    But no one answered him. The paper cranesnded on the shoulders of the students and even asionally used their ¡°beaks¡± to preen their wings like they were really feathered.


    Wen Meng said to the students in a low voice, ¡°Don¡¯t touch them!¡±


    But it was toote. One of the students was already reaching out towards the paper crane on his shoulder out of curiosity. When his finger came into contact with it, he let out a cry of pain and retracted his hand.


    His finger was bleeding profusely after getting cut by the sharp edge of the paper crane.


    Wen Meng went over to have a look. Fortunately, it was just a shallow cut. The person controlling the paper cranes was warning him not to act rashly but had unintentionally hurt someone in the process.


    To this day, the head of the Anjing House was still an extremely mysterious person. No one knew what kind of person he was, and they only knew that his superpower was controlling paper cranes.


    Wen Meng frowned. He understood the other Riders who were out traveling were probably facing the same situation as him now.


    Abandon the students and head straight for Luoyang City? Wen Meng was caught in a dilemma. He was unsure if the other party would really kill the students.


    He took out his satellite phone and called Li Yingyun. ¡°I¡¯ve been intercepted by the Anjing House at my position. There¡¯s more than 20 students here with me.¡±


    Old Li replied, ¡°Stall them right there then. Actually, it¡¯s a good thing they¡¯re noting to Luoyang City. At least that way, some of the battles won¡¯t have to happen in the stronghold.¡±


    Outsiders might not care about the rise and fall of Luoyang City, but Old Li and the others had grown up here, so of course they hoped Luoyang City would not get destroyed.


    Therefore, if everyone were to start fighting their battles in the stronghold, who knew what kind of destruction the stronghold would suffer? Since the other party had chosen to hold back the Riders in the wilderness, and upon considering the bigger picture, it might be better to get caught in a deadlock with the enemy outside. The rest would have to depend on Old Li and the others.


    The ongoing situation at Luoyang City was originally hushed up, and not many people knew Luoyang City was currently at the center of a whirlpool of events.


    But gradually, more and more people started paying attention to this ce.


    As a result, no one noticed that a group of the Pyro Company¡¯s elites had suddenly set off for the Northern ins.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s elites were extremely cautious in their actions. They did not even bring along any supplies or support personnel with them. The soldiers in the group were all at least T3-levelbatants, with there being tenmanders whosebat strength was ranked at T4.


    ...


    Due to the events at the orphanage, Ren Xiaosu skipped his sses for the day. But to him, this was actually not considered skipping sses at all. After all, Jiang Xu did not give any lectures today.


    However, Zheng Hang was going to get in trouble for sure. Their ss had a full schedule today. There were four periods in total, and all four teachers marked attendance at the end of each lecture. Zheng Hang seemed to have vanished into thin air for all of them.


    Zheng Hang¡¯s ssmates wanted to tell him the bad news, but they could not get through to his phone at all.


    It was not that Zheng Hang had gone into hiding, but that Qin Sheng had cut off his cousin¡¯s phone line so that his happiness could be prolonged a few more days...


    After all, Ren Xiaosu was still using his cousin¡¯s student pass for now. It would not be good if Zheng Hang identally let slip the arrangement.


    The next day, Ren Xiaosu resumed going to ss. The second lecture of the day was Jiang Xu¡¯s Humanities and Political Science ss.


    As usual, the students would raise some questions during the lecture.


    But this time, no one asked about current affairs rted to politics. Instead, they directly asked about what was happening inside Luoyang City.


    After all, two intense battles between superhumans had taken ce in the span of three days. The students could not figure out why this was happening.


    A girl asked, ¡°Professor, what exactly is going on in Luoyang City? Didn¡¯t you say we wouldn¡¯t be affected?¡±


    Jiang Xu said from the podium, ¡°I hope all of you will not assume you¡¯re going to bepletely safe. Everything I¡¯m telling you right now might cause you to panic, but one of you was correct. We might be living in an ivory tower here, but the perpetrator is not going to be stopped by that.¡±


    Everyone was stunned. Which of their ssmates had said that to Jiang Xu?


    Jiang Xu smiled and said, ¡°Zheng Hang was the one who said that.¡±


    Immediately, the entire ss turned their attention to Ren Xiaosu. And Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Xu speechlessly. What was this old man trying to do? Why did he suddenly single him out in front of the ss?


    This confused the students a little. Jiang Xu had even speciallye to the school to have lunch with Ren Xiaosu. Could it be that Jiang Xu really admired that guy?


    But he was only a bum who hade to ss to earn some money for helping others mark attendance.


    Jiang Xu continued, ¡°Students, I suggest that if any of you discovers someonemitting a crime, you should immediately run in the direction of the garrison troops enforcing the lockdown. Although the garrison troops might not be strong enough, it¡¯s still better than running around wildly.¡±


    After Jiang Xu went back to Hope Media yesterday, he had given the matter very careful thought before deciding to take Ren Xiaosu¡¯s advice. He was no longer going to tell the students to focus on their studies but teach them how to avoid any danger that might arise during this chaotic battle.


    When these words came out of Jiang Xu¡¯s mouth, it undoubtedly depressed the students. However, Jiang Xu felt the students should know about these things.


    Actually, Jiang Xu wanted to tell them that if they discovered someonemitting a crime on campus, they should quickly run to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side. However, he could not say that.


    ¡°Professor.¡± A male student suddenly asked, ¡°I read in today¡¯s Hope Media newspaper that during the arrest of the criminalst night, it was the hostage that got killed first. Is that true?¡±


    Jiang Xu smiled and said, ¡°Yes.¡± His gaze drifted towards Ren Xiaosu. He only found out this morning that the person who had killed the hostage was actually Ren Xiaosu.


    But he could not tell that to the students either.


    However, Jiang Xu exined, ¡°There was a problem with that hostage. You probably know about the fugitive who got tripped by a superhuman the day before yesterday, right? That fugitive was the hostage who got killedst night.¡±


    The students were stunned. Something like that actually happened?


    After ss, Jiang Xu waved at Ren Xiaosu again. ¡°Zheng Hang, let¡¯s have lunch together.¡±


    The students watched silently as Ren Xiaosu and Jiang Xu walked out of the ssroom. They were suddenly at a loss as to how to react. They could not ept that a bum was being so highly regarded by Professor Jiang


    While Jiang Xu and Ren Xiaosu were walking, he asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I heard you didn¡¯te to school yesterday?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu told him about what happened at the orphanage.


    But as they were talking, an explosion boomed from very far away. Based on the sound, it came from more than five kilometers away from the school.


    Immediately after, the screams and wails of students could also be hearding from the school grounds. Ren Xiaosu spun around and saw students scattering in all directions.


    Ren Xiaosu and Jiang Xu looked at each other. The real chaos was just about to begin.

 Chapter 642 - A mysterious superhuman

    <h4>Chapter 642: A mysterious superhuman</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Before today, all of the violence that ured in the stronghold was more like a form of probing. There were scattered incidents across different locations, but none of them were enough to threaten the foundations of Luoyang City.


    Just like the time when Zhang Baogen tried to kill someone, he had only done so as a hired gun.


    Something like this probably happened because someone had wanted to see how quickly the garrison troops and the Riders would react.


    But it was different now. The entire stronghold looked like it was caught in a premeditated move as chaos erupted everywhere.


    This was the moment the ughter would truly begin.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°There¡¯s nothing in Qinghe University that they¡¯re after, so why did they start a killing spree here in the school? And why did they choose to do it in the daytime? I¡¯m afraid that this is just a move to disrupt the Qinghe Group¡¯s ns. These people are not truly making their move yet.¡±


    Jiang Xu said, ¡°I share the same thoughts as you. There¡¯s still five hours until the sun sets, but the most critical moment is probably still nighttime. Go and save those students. They¡¯re innocent.¡±


    After that, Jiang Xu watched Ren Xiaosu dash off towards where the chaos started.


    The students were fleeing in all directions. Perhaps due to what Jiang Xu had said in the lecture, the students in his ss started leading the way after the chaos broke out and fled in the direction of the garrison troops. While running, they even called out to the other students to follow them.


    However, the enemy¡¯s n was very meticulous. Before the students could escape to the area where the garrison troops were stationed, thugs rushed out from different directions and chased them around in a disciplined pattern. In the end, most of the students were driven into Teaching Block 11.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly rushed into their encirclement. However, the thugs did not think much of it. They only thought he was a flustered student trying to escape, so they chased him into the teaching block as well.


    Ren Xiaosu did not choose to make a move immediately because there were too many students crowded here. If a battle broke out here, a lot of students could get killed in the crossfire. So he decided to wait for a better opportunity.


    Roughly a dozen thugs had appeared. They did not seem like they wanted to restrain the entire school¡¯s students either. They only rounded up a few hundred students so it would be easier to control them.


    Shortly after, the entire teaching block was seized by the armed thugs. They then steered all the students in and crammed them into a lecture hall where they were kept locked up.


    Guns pointing at them, the students did not dare to resist and obediently followed the thugs like sheep.


    All the students in the teaching block were squeezed into this lecture hall and were shivering in fear. They did not know when the thugs had entered the school and why the garrison troops were not taking any action.


    Some of the students saw through the windows that the thugs outside were all masked. After the thugs had searched the entire building, they stopped killing and just locked them up like this.


    As if they had a n, the thugs immediately dismantled the tables and chairs in the ssrooms and piled them up at the four entrances of the teaching block. After these temporary barricades were built, the thugs even set up heavy machine gun nests inside the building!


    By the time the garrison troops arrived, the well-trained thugs had alreadypleted locking down the entire teaching block. They had even built a defensive bunker on the roof of the building. Although what was happening in the bunker couldn¡¯t be seen, there were definitely thugs upying the high ground armed with heavy weapons.


    The garrison troops¡¯manding officer looked around and realized the location the thugs had chosen to defend was definitely nned. That was because the tallest building on the Qinghe University campus was Teaching Block 11.


    The other teaching blocks were only five or six stories high, while Teaching Block 11 was a newly built building that stood eight stories tall.


    Therefore, even if the garrison troops¡¯ snipers were to be deployed, all the other suitable sniping spots would be within range of the thugs. If anyone were to take up a position on the roof of another building, they would definitely get targeted by the thugs.


    Moreover, Teaching Block 11 was ingeniously located away from the various security posts, so the garrison troops were unable to react in time.


    It wasn¡¯t until the thugs had taken control of the entire teaching block that the first wave of garrison troops arrived.


    Qinghe University was way too big. No matter how well-defended it might be, it would not be able to cover all the bases unless an entire army was stationed there.


    But if arge number of troops were to be stationed here, what would happen to the rest of Luoyang City?


    It could only be said that there were too many people with ulterior motives in Luoyang City right now.


    The garrison troops¡¯manding officer pondered things for a moment. Those people were definitely professional soldiers. If they were not professional soldiers, they would not have such strong coordination skills. He wondered how many people the Xu n¡¯s rtives had sneaked into the stronghold over the years. This was going to be such a headache.


    Once the garrison troops arrived, they evacuated the unaffected students who were not rounded up in the teaching block to a safer location. The entire teaching block was cordoned off from a distance away, with roadblocks and defensive bunkers set up as well.


    Suddenly, Old Li¡¯s voice red over the radio frequency, ¡°There should be a superhuman on our side in the campus at this moment. If he makes a move, you must cooperate fully with him. He¡¯s not a member of our Riders but someone who came from outside to help. With him around, you all should be able to quickly put an end to the crisis there!¡±


    The garrison troops were surprised by this. The way Old Li put it, it sounded like he regarded that superhuman very highly. ¡°Can you tell us if he has any special characteristics, or get him to join up with us quickly? We don¡¯t see any superhumansing to assist us yet.¡±


    Old Li was obviously taken aback when he heard that. Shouldn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu be at the school right now?


    Themanding officer said in a low voice, ¡°Sir, could he have left when the chaos broke out?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± Old Li frowned and said, ¡°Just stick to your original n and wait until he appears. Remember, if he makes a move, you all must cooperate with him.¡±


    ¡°Roger,¡± the garrison troops¡¯manding officer replied. However, he was a little puzzled as to why Old Li was so confident this external help could sessfully resolve the current crisis.


    Left with no other choice, the garrison troops could only start formting a rescue n. A soldier looked at Teaching Block 11 and said, ¡°Sir, could that superhuman... be locked up in the teaching block as well?¡±


    The garrison troops¡¯manding officer was stunned. He looked at Teaching Block 11 and thought there might really be such a possibility.


    Before the garrison troops coulde up with a detailed rescue n, a loudspeaker from the teaching block spoke, ¡°Tell the Qinghe Group to hand over control of the seven satellites to us before nightfall. Otherwise, we¡¯ll kill a student for every minute of dy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself inside the lecture hall that these people were truly trying to stall for time. Why else did they not get the Qinghe Group to ede to their request immediately instead of waiting until dark?


    Under normal circumstances, the thugs should be making strong demands immediately after taking control of the situation. Yet these thugs were giving the Qinghe Group five hours to give in to their demands.


    More and more garrison troops started converging on the various locations where chaos had broken out. There were as many as three incidents of thugs holding arge number of hostages inside the stronghold.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know where the other two locations were. He felt that since the other party had meticulously nned this, there must be some hidden purpose behind the hostage situation.


    At this moment, everyone in the lecture hall was panicking. Some of the students were already in tears. A female student sobbed softly, ¡°Will the Riderse and save us?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu, who was in the lecture hall, looked out of the window and remarked, ¡°They¡¯ll definitelye and save us. But I heard that they straight-up killed a hostage when they encountered a hostage situation yesterday.¡±


    Immediately, the cries in the ssroom got even louder.


    Weren¡¯t they being held hostage right now?

 Chapter 643 - These thugs are done for!

    <h4>Chapter 643: These thugs are done for!</h4>


    As soon as amotion broke out in the lecture hall, a thug immediately came in from the outside with his gun up. The thug said coldly, ¡°If you want to cry, cry. If the Qinghe Group doesn¡¯t hand over the satellites, I¡¯m afraid you all won¡¯t even have the chance to cry.¡±


    With that, the thug with the gun went back out.


    Ren Xiaosu watched quietly. Most of the time, the thugs did not evene into the lecture hall and were just scattered at different locations in the teaching block. He was a little puzzled. Were these thugs not afraid the students in the lecture hall would try and save themselves?


    Or were these thugs so confident the students they had rounded up would not cause them any trouble?


    That couldn¡¯t be. Ren Xiaosu felt these thugs were still very professional at their jobs. Arrogant people would definitely not be picked to carry out an operation that had been in the works for years.


    Ren Xiaosu pretended to be despondent as he observed the students in the lecture hall.


    In the end, he realized that although there was a person in the ssroom who was also very young and wearing a school uniform, his expression did not look like he had been taken hostage at all. It felt like he was just acting afraid, but his eyes kept darting around in observation of the ¡°schoolmates¡± around him.


    Moreover, this person¡¯s disposition was also very obvious. When a professional soldier was ced among a group of ordinary students, they appeared like a stone on a te of white sand. Inside the crowded lecture hall, his posture remained ramrod straight, while the contours of his face exuded a sense of strength. One look and it was obvious he had received high intensity training for an extended period based on his extremely lean body.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that it was no wonder the thugs did not really step into the lecture hall. It turned out that they already had the situation inside under control. The thugs really were meticulous in their operations.


    When the student impersonator in the lecture hall looked at Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu immediately started wailing. He said to the student next to him in a sobbing tone, ¡°What should we do now? Will these thugs really kill us? I don¡¯t wanna die yet....¡±


    Seeing this, the impostor shifted his gaze away to observe the others instead. It was as though he was somewhat disdainful of a coward like Ren Xiaosu.


    At this moment, a student said, ¡°Do you guys think the Qinghe Group will hand over control of the satellites?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Someone sighed and said, ¡°After all, how can the lives of a few hundred students be more important than the satellites?¡±


    ¡°But the Qinghe Group¡¯s members will not sit back and do nothing. They aren¡¯t that kind of people,¡± a female student retorted.


    ¡°But the Qinghe Group is still a consortium,¡± someone said.


    As the students were discussing, a thug walked into the lecture hall holding a video camera. He had a thickyer of camouge paint applied on his face and taunted the students, ¡°I can offer you all a chance to save yourselves right now. Will you all take it?¡±


    The students were stunned. No one dared to answer for a long time.


    So the thug continued, ¡°I want you to look into the camera and beg the Qinghe Group to hand over their satellites to us. Pressure them! This way, we¡¯ll get control of the satellites and you¡¯ll be saved. Wouldn¡¯t that be the best for both of us? As for the satellites that the Qinghe Group will lose, what would that matter to you?¡±


    The students fell silent. Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that these people were obviously not expecting to get their hands on the satellites by doing this. They were only making sure they would not miss out on any opportunity to create chaos for the Qinghe Group.


    These students weren¡¯t that stupid, right? Even if they did as the other party requested, they might still not be saved. In that case, why should they be tools?


    But Ren Xiaosu was wrong. The students only kept quiet for a minute before someone suddenly cried into the video camera, ¡°Please hand over the satellites! I don¡¯t want to die!¡±


    When one person started speaking, several more students also started pleading into the camera.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. The students were not in the wrong either. After all, who wouldn¡¯t want to live? It was just that the people from the Qinghe Group would probably be a little disappointed. These were the university students they had been nurturing, after all.


    Inparison, Xu Zhi, who Ren Xiaosu had encountered with Zhou Yingxue, had more backbone than these students.


    After the thugs were done recording, they left in satisfaction. Soon, the garrison troops outside saw the thugs throw a thick paper package out from behind the defensive bunker.


    A soldier from the garrison troops went to retrieve it, and the thugs did not open fire.


    Old Li had already rushed to Qinghe University. The other two locations where chaos had broken out were handled by Zhang Qingxi and Qin Sheng, while the remaining Riders stayed behind at the Qinghe Group¡¯s headquarters.


    Old Li took the package from the soldier and had him move away before opening ityer byyer. When he saw a videotape inside, he heaved a sigh of relief.


    ¡°There must be some yback equipment in the school. Hurry up and find it.¡± Old Li said, ¡°I wonder what those thugs are up to. Why did they throw a videotape out to us at a time like this?¡±


    While waiting for the yback equipment, Old Li kept looking around for Ren Xiaosu. However, he could not find him at all.


    ¡°That¡¯s strange. Didn¡¯t Qin Sheng say Ren Xiaosu has been attending school every day?¡± Old Li was a little puzzled. Could Ren Xiaosu really have run away? But that did not seem in character at all.


    Two minutester, the garrison troops managed to find a ssroom where there was yback equipment installed. Old Li and themander of the garrison troops hurriedly rushed over and inserted the tape.


    Very quickly, Old Li was able to see the students in the video begging the Qinghe Group to hand over the satellites in exchange for their release. Old Li and the garrison troops¡¯manding officer got mixed feelings.


    ¡°They¡¯re still just children, so it¡¯s quite normal that they want to live.¡± Old Li also sighed.


    But just as he finished speaking, he jerked his head up and roared, ¡°Wait, rewind it!¡±


    The soldier who was ying back the video was a little puzzled by Old Li¡¯s reaction, but he did as he was told.


    When the video was rewound back to the 1 minute, 31 second mark, Old Li shouted for the soldier to pause the tape.


    Old Li looked at the television and muttered, ¡°It¡¯s over!¡±


    Themanding officer of the garrison troops wondered, ¡°Sir, our rescue n hasn¡¯t even started yet, so why did you say that it¡¯s over? Please trust us. We¡¯ll definitelyplete our rescue mission! From the day I joined the military, protecting the citizens of Luoyang City has been my duty¡ª¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not saying it¡¯s over for us, I¡¯m saying these thugs are done for!¡± Old Li interrupted


    The officer was stunned. What the hell was going on?


    Weren¡¯t they just worried about the thugs killing the hostages a moment ago? How did it suddenly be the thugs who were done for?


    The garrison troops¡¯manding officer stared at the television but could not figure out what clues were hidden in this scene.


    Old Li raised his head and stared intently at the image on the screen. He saw Ren Xiaosu hidden among the crowd with only half his face showing.


    If one did not look carefully, they really would not discover that Ren Xiaosu was in there. But as Old Li had been looking for Ren Xiaosu all this while, he managed to spot some clues in the recording.


    He felt these thugs were really unlucky to have taken Ren Xiaosu hostage.


    Old Li turned around and walked out of the ssroom. He said to the garrison troops¡¯manding officer, ¡°I need to hurry off to another hostage situation. After you¡¯re done here, update me. I won¡¯t waste any more time here. Calm the students down, and if any parentse over to cause trouble, tell them that their children will be saved very soon.¡±

 Chapter 644 - The hunt begins

    <h4>Chapter 644: The hunt begins</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Old Li departed just like that. He hade to Qinghe University to take a look because he was worried about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nonappearance.


    Now that he saw Ren Xiaosu being held hostage, he could finally feel at ease.


    Although it sounded awkward, the logic behind it wasn¡¯t.


    It was not that Old Li did not care about the safety of these students, but that Luoyang City was in desperate need of manpower right now, so there was really no need for him to waste any more time here.


    After the thugs in the teaching block threw out the videotape, they started waiting for the Qinghe Group¡¯s reaction. But even after waiting for a long time, the Qinghe Group did not respond to their demands at all.


    Moreover, the thug manning the bunker on the roof of the building said that someone he suspected to be a Rider, Li Yingyun, had left the garrison troops¡¯ defensive bunker and hastily departed the school grounds.


    The thugs in the teaching block were a little puzzled. The Qinghe troops did not storm the building nor make any response to their attack on the school. Just what were the Qinghe people nning?


    ¡°Something¡¯s not right.¡± The leader of the thugs said coldly, ¡°Send more men up to the rooftop. Li Yingyun has departed from the garrison troops¡¯ position, and no one has made any attempts to negotiate with us yet. They¡¯re likely preparing to assault us. Make sure that if the garrison troops attack, we hold them off no matter what!¡±


    With that, the person next to him led another ten people upstairs.


    The thugs were proper professional soldiers, so they knew full well how difficult it would be to attack a school building without using artillery.


    The Qinghe Group would probably not resort to artillery either. After all, there were still several hundred students here. If they fired at them, the thugs might not die, but the students would definitely get wiped out.


    The Qinghe Group would surely not be willing to bear the pressure of the public¡¯s opinion by killing their own students, right?


    The leader of the thugs still felt a little uneasy. He somehow felt that something had gone wrong somewhere. Old Li¡¯s quiet departure still gave him some sort of an ominous feeling.


    ¡°Drag a student up to the roof of the building and kill them in front of the garrison troops.¡± The thugs¡¯ leader sneered and said, ¡°I¡¯d like to see just what they¡¯re up to.¡±


    ¡°The higher-ups want us to drag out the situation until evening. If we act on our own like this and cause the garrison troops to respond with some drastic measures, it won¡¯t be good if we disrupt the higher-ups¡¯ n,¡± his deputy next to him said.


    ¡°I want to follow the original n too, but Li Yingyun¡¯s unexpected response is making me a little uneasy. Just do as I say and kill a student to test their reaction. It shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡±


    The deputy immediately led some men to the lecture hall. The moment he entered, the noisy ssroom fell silent, the students waiting likembs to the ughter.


    The deputy sneered and said, ¡°We¡¯ve already shown the recording to the Qinghe Group, but they didn¡¯t react. Look, we¡¯ve already expressed our sincerity, but they won¡¯t ept it. They could have just handed over the satellites to us, but the Qinghe Group doesn¡¯t seem to care much about you people. Men, grab a student and bring them up to the roof!¡±


    The two thugs next to him grabbed a girl near the door and tried to pull her outside. The girl struggled hard, but how could she possibly be a match for these thugs?


    The girl cried out, ¡°Where are you taking me? What are you trying to do!¡±


    The students beside her just stood there quietly. A few of the boys wanted to step forward, but their bodies only jerked forward a little. In the end, they still could not find the courage to speak up against the thugs.


    ¡°Let go of her! Take me instead!¡±


    When this voice rang out, even the thugs were stunned. The deputy turned to look at the crowd of students, and his gazended upon Ren Xiaosu ,who said those words. It wasn¡¯t that he had identified Ren Xiaosu at a nce, but the moment Ren Xiaosu spoke, the students around him quietly stepped away and cast the attention on him. They were all afraid the thugs would identify the wrong person.


    The deputy looked at Ren Xiaosu with interest. ¡°You want to be a hero? Sure! Bring him up to the roof together with the girl.¡±


    When some of the students saw it was Ren Xiaosu, they were stunned. ¡°Isn¡¯t that the guy attending ss in ce of Zheng Hang? Why is it him?¡±


    Some of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s ssmates were also among those who had been locked in here. They could never have expected the person who stepped forward so bravely was actually not a student of Qinghe University, strictly speaking.


    Ren Xiaosu stepped out of the crowd and stood in front of the thugs. One of the thugs with an automatic rifle slung around him came over to grab Ren Xiaosu by the arm.


    When the thug approached him, Ren Xiaosu silently counted a total of four thugs in the lecture hall. Three of them hade over from elsewhere, while the other one had been standing guard at the entrance from the beginning.


    No, wait! There was another one hiding among the students.


    There were a total of five of them!


    Just as the two thugs were about to touch Ren Xiaosu, they suddenly realized he was grinning.


    Before they could figure out why the young man was smiling, Ren Xiaosu suddenly raised his hands and urately struck their throats with his knuckles. With a crack, their necks twisted weirdly!


    The other thugs tried to point their guns over at Ren Xiaosu, but they saw a metallicyer of armor suddenly cover the young man in an instant.


    The armored hand grabbed the chest region of the clothes of the two thugs and then pushed forward. The powerful force caused the two remaining armed thugs to lose their bnce, and their backs smashed against a wall.


    The two thugs were like toys being trampled on by a monster, unable to put up any resistance at all!


    With a loud crash, the armored being broke through the walls of the ssroom with the two thugs in its grip and rushed out into the corridor.


    The two thugs felt as though their thorax had been wrung like a rag as they coughed up blood nonstop. Their automatic rifles were now slung loosely around their necks while their heads slumped to the side.


    All of a sudden, the ssroom was filled with dust and smoke. The students were so shocked they could not say anything. They could only stare at therge hole in the wall of the lecture hall nkly.


    The sight of Ren Xiaosu killing the thugs was way too violent. That kind of power was so extreme that it shocked all the students out of their minds.


    Wait a minute! Some of the students finally reacted. Wasn¡¯t this the legendary superhuman from the Northwest?


    What was he doing here?!


    Before this, everyone had been enthusiastically discussing Ren Xiaosu for several days. But they could never have expected the subject of their discussions would appear right in front of them.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s ssmates were extraordinarily shocked. Actually, they were the ones who were the most shocked of all in the entire lecture hall!


    When the other thugs outside heard themotion, they quickly started closing in on the ssroom. Only the thugs manning the machine gun nests remained behind to stand guard. It would take at most 15 seconds for the thugs to arrive at the ssroom.


    Ren Xiaosu sneered inside the armor when he heard the sound of their footsteps nearing. However, he did not immediately try to block them off. Instead, he went back into the lecture hall and grabbed the thug who was hiding among the students and broke his neck!


    A girl looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor and said in fear, ¡°W-Who are you exactly?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grinned in the armor and said, ¡°Me? I¡¯m the guy that Yang Xiaojin likes.¡±


    As the footsteps approached, the students watched the steel armor rush out through the hole in the wall again. A wild animal was starting a hunt!

 Chapter 645 - Standing up for Yang Xiaojin

    <h4>Chapter 645: Standing up for Yang Xiaojin</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The guy Yang Xiaojin likes?


    The students in the lecture hall werepletely dumbfounded. This was a topic that had been discussed several months ago at Qinghe University. At that time, someone had confessed to Yang Xiaojin and was mercilessly rejected by her. As a result, Yang Xiaojin seemed to have pitted herself against most of the university¡¯s students.


    When everyone discussed this topic in private, they would always say Yang Xiaojin was being too arrogant. How dare she look down on all the students of Qinghe University?


    At that time, Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°You think that the president of the Student Council is outstanding because you guys haven¡¯t had a chance to see the outside world yet. The guy I like has never led a pampered life.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin even seemed to look down on Xu Zhi.


    But now, the guy Yang Xiaojin liked had finally appeared. He showed up in front of everyone in an ubermensch fashion and told them he was the mant they had been talking about and worshipping in recent times, that he was the guy Yang Xiaojin liked.


    This scene made it seem like Ren Xiaosu was not here to save them. Instead, it was as though he had heard them mocking Yang Xiaojin behind her back and was here to stand up for her!


    Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have specifically emphasized he was the guy Yang Xiaojin liked!


    So it turned out Yang Xiaojin was not lying, nor was she just being conceited. The guy she liked was someone from a totally different world than them.


    In that case, this young man must also like Yang Xiaojin since he came all the way here just to stand up for her.


    This also proved that Yang Xiaojin was not an ordinary person!


    At this moment, many of the girls present started to envy Yang Xiaojin...


    Gunshots continuously rang out outside the lecture hall, and it felt really intense and overpowering.


    But from the beginning to the end, it was the people who fired their weapons that cried out in pain. The students could still hear the muffled sound of bones being smashed against the wall of the lecture hall. Every time it happened, they would tremble in shock.


    They could even imagine the sight of the steel armor mming the thugs against the wall and shattering their bones.


    Outside the teaching block, the garrison troops who had surrounded it from a distance away suddenly heard amotioning from the building. First, it was the sound of walls shattering, followed by cries of surprise, and then gunshots.


    Gradually, the gunshots lessened. They saw the fa?ade of the teaching block suddenly crumble before a thug was thrown out from inside. The thug fell from a height of over several dozen meters down to the ground where he twitched twice before stilling.


    From the exterior of that fa?ade, the garrison troops were surprised to see steel armor shine past on the inside. Immediately after, more cries of the thugs could be heard again.


    ¡°Just what is going on?¡± The garrison troops¡¯manding officer muttered, ¡°We didn¡¯t see that thing go in, so how did it suddenly appear in there?¡±


    ¡°Sir, do you remember what we were guessing earlier? We said the superhuman Officer Li was looking for might be inside the teaching block?¡± the deputymander said.


    All of a sudden, the garrison troops¡¯manding officer figured out many things. It was no wonder Li Yingyun said the thugs were done for after he watched the video. Old Li must have noticed the superhuman was among the students in the recording!


    That was why Old Li left and headed off elsewhere without any worries. He felt he was no longer needed here!


    This armored being was not something unfamiliar to everyone. It had been a hot topic among the garrison troops for the past two days!


    ¡°Second Company, provide cover.¡± Themanding officer shouted, ¡°We¡¯re going to storm the MG nests. We should not keep troubling our friend by letting him do all the work. First and Third Company, follow my lead! We¡¯re charging in to providebat support!¡±


    But as soon as he was done shouting, he saw the steel armor emerge from the hole in the wall.


    ¡°Hold on, what¡¯s he up to now?¡± Themanding officer was stunned.


    He saw the steel armor climb up the exterior wall without the need for any holds. The other party was just using its steel fingers to grab the fa?ade wall and climb upwards. The cement wall was just like a piece of tofu that kept crumbling towards the ground as the armored being made its way up to the roof.


    ¡°How crude. Is he trying to save time by not taking the stairs?¡± A soldier muttered, ¡°Battalion Commander, are we still charging in?¡±


    ¡°... I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a need anymore! ¡±


    As he was speaking, the armored being climbed to the roof of the building. Ren Xiaosu used both hands to support himself on the ledge and leaped onto the rooftop. At this moment, the afternoon sun was still shining brightly in the sky. The garrison troops saw the armored being leaping up as it blocked their line of sight with the sun. This made the back of the armored being appear very dark like it was shrouded in shadow, while the sun¡¯s rays dazzled the edges of its silhouette!


    It was as though the armor was emitting a glow!


    Subsequently, all the garrison troops heard the sound of machine gun fireing from atop the building. Then more than a dozen thugs on the roof were thrown down until the gunfire stopped!


    The armored being slowly walked to the edge of the roof and looked down quietly at the garrison troops below.


    Blood was still flowing down the exterior of the armor. The dark crimson blood gave the metallic armor an even greater aesthetic of violence. The young man was waving at the garrison troops in his steel armor, indicating that it was safe for them to enter the building to rescue the hostages.


    ¡°Go, go, go! Let¡¯s quickly clear the battlefield and see if there¡¯s any casualties among the students.¡± Themanding officer took the lead and rushed forward. They knew there were probably no survivors among the thugs inside the building.


    Ren Xiaosu jumped down from the roof of the teaching block in his armor, hisnding cracking the ground. He looked at the garrison troops who had rushed over and said, ¡°I¡¯ve left one of them alive for you. He looked like he might be the leader of the thugs, so he should know a lot of things. If you get any useful info from him after the interrogation, have Qin Sheng update me ASAP.¡±


    The garrison troops¡¯manding officer hurriedly nodded. ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll definitely interrogate them as soon as possible.¡±


    This officer¡¯s humble attitude made him seem like a fanboy standing in front of his idol.


    The students inside were led out of the building. Everyone hadplicated expressions as they nced at the armored being. Their faces looked exceedingly awkward.


    After Ren Xiaosu was done handing over the situation to the garrison troops, he turned around and left in his armor. Then the voice of one of the garrison troops rang out from the perimeter, ¡°Ma¡¯am, you can¡¯t go in there. This is a restricted zone!¡±


    ¡°Out of my way! My master is in there!¡± Zhou Yingxue roared.


    How could an average soldier possibly stop Zhou Yingxue? She pushed the soldier aside and ran towards Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Master, are you alright? I heard something happened at the university, so I immediately rushed here from home!¡±


    When the students saw this scene from afar, they were so dumbfounded they stopped thinking. Master? A maid? This young man was actually the person who saved Xu Zhi?


    So they were actually praising the same person all this while?


    As a matter of fact, many students at Qinghe University were jealous of the young man who had a maidservant!


    Earlier, it was the girls who were envious of Yang Xiaojin. But now, it was the boys who were envious of Ren Xiaosu. Never mind that he had such a beautiful girlfriend like Yang Xiaojin, he even had a pretty maid with such a good figure too.


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s looks could only be considered above average, but with that figure of hers, it would also make her more attractive.


    But some of the girls started wondering if Yang Xiaojin knew the guy she liked had a maid who served him.

 Chapter 646 - Nothing to do with justice

    <h4>Chapter 646: Nothing to do with justice</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue quickly disappeared from everyone¡¯s sight. After the chaotic battle started, no pedestrians could be seen loitering on the streets anymore.


    ¡°Why did youe here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I was about to cook for Wang Yuchi and the others at home, but I heard an explosion go off.¡± Zhou Yingxue exined, ¡°At first, I wasn¡¯t really bothered by it. After all, it had nothing to do with me. Butter on, the neighbors ran out from their houses anxiously. Some of them said that there was an incident at Qinghe University and they wanted to go look for their children. That was when I thought if you would be OK.¡±


    For the past few days, with nothing much to do at home, Zhou Yingxue had turned nanny to Wang Yuchi and the others and would cook for them every day to replenish their nutrition so they could focus on their entrance exam.


    As a result, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s status shot up in the eyes of Wang Yuchi and the students.


    Putting all else aside, Zhou Yingxue was indeed very good at cooking. In the past, she was purelyzy and did not want to cook. But now something seemed to have gone wrong with her head. She actually got down to preparing their meals every day and would even tell Ren Xiaosu to gain his approval.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°The battle today was unavoidable, but this is still just the prelude. Night is when it¡¯ll probably be the most critical moment. Go back and keep an eye on Wang Yuchi and the others. We were only doing the Qinghe Group a favor to begin with. If we end up letting Wang Yuchi and the others get hurt because of helping others, that would really not be worth it.¡±


    Although Wang Yuchi and the others also had nanomachines, the problem was they did not have a lot. They did not even have enough to construct armor.


    Meanwhile, the superhumans involved in this chaotic battle had yet to make their moves, so there must still be a greater conspiracy abound. If Wang Yuchi and the others got dragged in by these people, they could very well die.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that since Wang Yuchi and the other students¡¯ synchronization rate had improved, could he maybe get some nanomachines from Luo Lan to equip them with? After all, Wang Yuchi and the rest would still need to further their studies at Qinghe University in theing days.


    But of course, nanomachines were very precious, and the Qing Consortium¡¯s production rate was not that high yet. The amount of nanomachines needed to construct armor would be enough to equip several dozen standard nanosoldiers.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt Luo Lan would probably not reject his request.


    ¡°Alright, hurry back.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°And be careful on the way.¡±


    ¡°Master, are you worried about my safety?¡± Zhou Yingxue was overjoyed.


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°Why do you have so many questions?¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go back right away.¡± Zhou Yingxue happily headed off in the direction of the courtyard house.


    After just two steps, she thought of something and turned around to say, ¡°The soup I made is still sitting on the gas stove. Master,e back earlier and have some soup after you¡¯ve dealt with those people tonight.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought it sounded really weird. How did dealing with supernatural beings suddenly feel like it was something that he did every day? She actually made it sound that simple?


    It was not easy at all, alright? With so many organizations gathered here this time, no matter how powerful an individual was, they could still easily fail tonight.


    Ren Xiaosu called Qin Sheng and said, ¡°The situation at Qinghe University has been resolved. How are things on your side?¡±


    Qin Sheng answered, ¡°The other party¡¯s rounded up several dozen hostages and taken cover inside a building, so it won¡¯t be easy to attack them. The situation is a little tricky at the moment.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu acknowledged that he understood. The reason he was able to eliminate the thugs without harming the hostages was entirely because he had taken them out from the inside. If he were to attack from the outside, he could still have taken them out. However, it would definitely be unavoidable that the enemy would kill some of the hostages. ¡°Then what do y¡¯all n to do?¡±


    The young Qin Sheng said ruthlessly, ¡°Before it gets dark, and if we don¡¯t have a better n, we¡¯ll have no choice but to force our way in. It¡¯s better to have dozens of hostages dead than letting the enemy lead us by the nose like that. What they¡¯re attempting right now is probably to keep the garrison troops busy by threatening to harm the hostages. We can¡¯t let them have their way.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. It was good that the Riders were willing to make an assault. He was most worried that the righteous Riders would suddenly soften up and not bear to let the hostagese to harm.


    But the truth was that even if the Riders had agreed to the thugs¡¯ conditions, would they really let the hostages go? The thugs were all ready to give their lives for their cause. Since they dared to take so many people hostage in someone else¡¯s territory, they probably did not intend to get out alive. In that case, it was only natural they would drag some of the hostages down with them before they died.


    If the Riders did not force their way in, they would lose a lot more by trying to save the few.


    The Riders were not bound by virtue, and this was the main reason Ren Xiaosu was willing to be friends with them.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Do you need my help with the assault?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Qin Sheng said calmly, ¡°If they weren¡¯t holding any hostages, just these people alone wouldn¡¯t be a match for me.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, keep me updated.¡± Ren Xiaosu hung up.


    Qin Sheng looked at the building in front of him quietly. He had also just heard that Ren Xiaosu had resolved the hostage crisis at Qinghe University. Zhang Qingxi sighed next to him and said, ¡°Our outsider friend that came to our aid has sessfully resolved a crisis without a single hostage dying. Meanwhile, we can only choose to sacrifice the hostages held in there. The difference between him and us is obvious.¡±


    Even the aloof Zhang Qingxi was starting to admire Ren Xiaosu a little.


    There were still three hours until nightfall. At almost the same time, Old Li and Qin Shengunched a simultaneous attack at both locations while the garrison troops charged in. Against the strong fire support, the thugs who were holding the hostages in the building attempted to organize a resistance but to no avail.


    The garrison troops did not resort to using any artillery. Instead, they used heavy machine guns to prate the walls of the building!


    Perhaps the Qinghe Group would have to face the questioning of the hostages¡¯ family members after the chaotic battle was over, but they would have to get through the night before they could discuss what came after.


    Today, the Qinghe Group suddenly shed their usual gentle nature and revealed their courage.


    Every Rider had to go through a near-death experience before they could leave their names at the top of that cliff. Qin Sheng and the others were thrilled as they faced the hail of bullets.


    What were the Riders? A lot of people¡¯s definition for them was ¡°justice,¡± but only they themselves knew that Riders were born from faith. Be it wingsuiting or free soloing, everything they did was to challenge death over and over again.


    As the Riders started attacking, Ren Xiaosu arrived at the entrance of Hope Media¡¯s headquarters.


    After the chaotic battle had broken out at the school, Jiang Xu immediately rushed back to Hope Media to take charge of the situation. When Ren Xiaosu arrived, Jiang Xu put down everything on hand and went downstairs to wee him. ¡°How are things at Qinghe University?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grinned and said, ¡°None of the hostages died, and the crisis has been resolved.¡±


    Jiang Xu also smiled. ¡°Admirable.¡±


    The Hope Media staff were watching from afar as Jiang Xu conversed with Ren Xiaosu. They were all wondering who this young man was since he got weed personally by the chief editor himself.


    Jiang Xu asked, ¡°Why are you here at Hope Media now?¡±


    ¡°Qin Sheng, Old Li, and the others don¡¯t require my help for the time being.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°I thought about it and decided toe here to ensure that y¡¯all¡¯ll be safe.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Jiang Xu did not decline. ¡°I¡¯ll continue with my work then. There¡¯s too many things I need to organize and report about today.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, just get me a chair.¡±


    Inside the headquarters of Hope Media, everyone was busy with reporting the truth of this day. They rushed to do the typesetting for an additional print run of their newspaper.


    Meanwhile, the young man sat down in a chair at the entrance of the building and waited for any uninvited guests toe and seek death.

 Chapter 647 - Rock solid

    <h4>Chapter 647: Rock solid</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu was not standing guard in the lot of Hope Media¡¯s headquarters for no reason. If the aim of those people with ulterior motives in the stronghold were to cause chaos in Luoyang City, it would be impossible to achieve that by just holding some insignificant residents hostage at some insignificant locations.


    Just like right now, the Riders were no longer hesitating and had chosen to fight back with force.


    Putting aside the hostages they were holding, the hostage takers were absolutely not a match against the professional troops and superhumans.


    So would the enemy not have thought of that if Ren Xiaosu and the others could think of it?


    So if they really wanted to keep the garrison troops and Riders at bay, they would have to capture the most important people.


    Who were the most important? To the Qinghe Group, Xu Ke was the most important, and so was this group of people behind Ren Xiaosu at this moment.


    The Riders were the toughest cadres of the Qinghe Group. If anyone were scheming to take on the Qinghe Group, they would surely use their toughest fists to crush the enemy to pieces.


    Meanwhile, Hope Media was the essence, energy, and spirit of the Qinghe Group.


    Previously, when Ren Xiaosu was chatting with Jiang Xu, he found out Hope Media was jointly established by him and Xu Ke after a discussion. This busy group of people were still holding the fort down amid the chaos, not for meager sry or fame, but for their ideals.


    As the sky darkened, the lights in the building lit up. Under the illumination of the lights, hundreds of people were fighting for their dreams.


    Were they not afraid? How could that be? Fear was a basic human instinct. It was just that they could not abandon their ideals.


    Today¡¯s Hope Media newspaper was a little special. There were three editions published in just one day. The first edition was the usual publication, while the other two editions were rtively thinner and only reported about the incidents happening in Luoyang City.


    Once the draft was approved, it would be immediately transmitted to the Hope Media branches across the Alliance of Strongholds via satellite and published locally in those territories.


    Jiang Xu was doing this because he wanted to use the power he had to shout to the world for them to see what was happening in Luoyang City.


    However, Hope Media¡¯s branches across the various territories also met with some resistance. The Kong Consortium¡¯s printing factories suddenly started to reject the publication of Hope Media¡¯s newspapers.


    The Kong Consortium did not firmly reject it either. Instead, the printing factory indicated they had run out of their stockpile of paper and were really sorry they could not continue printing today. They could only continue tomorrow.


    It was obvious they were only looking to get through the day. No one knew whether Hope Media would still be around by tomorrow.


    Of all the organizations in the Central ins, only the Pyro Company remained silent. It was as though they were not involved at all.


    In the past, everyone thought the Pyro Company and the Qinghe Group would always look out for each other. However, they did not expect the Pyro Company would choose to stand by and do nothing at a critical moment like this.


    No one knew what the Pyro Company was up to, nor did anyone have the energy to pay attention to them. Everything would have to wait until the night was over!


    Jiang Xu was up on the top floor of the building. As he had to go through too many drafts, he was unusually fatigued.


    The deputy chief editor stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in Jiang Xu¡¯s office and looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting in the lot downstairs. The clothes the young man was wearing were not expensive at all. In the eyes of many stronghold residents, he might even look a little down and out. The chair he was seated in was just an old wooden chair and did not give him an imposing look.


    But for some reason, when the deputy chief editor, Ji Yi, saw the figure of this young man, it looked like he was shouldering a responsibility that was as heavy as a mountain.


    ¡°Chief Editor, who¡¯s that young man?¡± Ji Yi asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s the person whose lines appeared on the fifth page of our newspaper.¡± Jiang Xu also stood up and went to the window.


    ¡°He was the one who said that?¡± Ji Yi was stunned. ¡°Then what¡¯s he doing? Why¡¯s he sitting in our front yard?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s protecting us.¡± Jiang Xu looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure and said with a smile, ¡°Tell everyone not to be afraid. No one will be able to take a step into our Hope Media headquarters tonight.¡±


    ¡°You trust him that much?¡± Ji Yi asked doubtfully.


    ¡°At first, I thought he might have said those words because he heard them from somewhere else. So I only thought highly of the phrase itself but not him. I somehow felt the line was something this era sorelycked.¡± Jiang Xu suddenly changed the subject. ¡°Later on, I slowly understood it wasn¡¯t a coincidence that those words came out of his mouth. Enough already, let¡¯s continue working. We still have a lot to do.¡±


    The employees moving about in Hope Media¡¯s headquarters could all see Ren Xiaosu at the entrance. The employees sitting at the windows would also asionally turn to look at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back whenever they felt tired.


    For some reason, their anxiety would lessen a little.


    A female editor who had learned how to draw even sketched Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back while she was taking a break.


    There was a sense of stability, calm, and confidence.


    It was as though no matter who came, they could not rattle that young man.


    When night fell, Old Li and Zhang Qingxi finallypleted their sweep of all the thugs. Many of the hostages were either dead or injured. Fortunately, members of the Qinghe Group¡¯s staff immediately came to get the situation under control. This allowed Li Yingyun and the others to escape the questioning of the hostages¡¯ families.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard gunshots ringing out again. The cracks tore apart the night sky that had just calmed down.


    He turned to look at the bright crescent moon hanging high in the sky.


    At the same time, the Hope Media staff upstairs saw Ren Xiaosu stand up. Everyone was a little puzzled. That female editor who drew a sketch of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure earlier said to her colleague nearby, ¡°He¡¯s getting up. Is something about to happen?¡±


    As soon as she finished speaking, they saw a group of thugs appear out of nowhere and rush into the yard with loaded weapons.


    And behind them, there was another person dressed in abat uniform walking over alone. It was as though he was taking a stroll in the park.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had expected, the other party would definitely make a move on Hope Media if they wanted to truly create chaos. Moreover, the world of superhumans would only begin after night fell!


    The thugs came rushing towards the Hope Media headquarters like they were a group of wild animals. But when they rushed into the yard, they were stunned. A young man was standing calmly in front of them.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°This is the worst ce that y¡¯all could¡¯ve chosen to attack.¡±


    All of a sudden, the thugs opened fire on Ren Xiaosu. When the editors upstairs saw the gunfire, they screamed.


    But in the blink of an eye, they saw the young man who had been sitting in the lot for a long time suddenly leap into the air. In an instant, he turned into a steel beast and smashed right into the group of thugs!


    When the cold metallic armor shed with a human, there could only be one oue, the shattering of bone.


    Everyone in the Hope Media headquarters stopped everything they were doing and stood at the windows to watch Ren Xiaosu.


    A male reporter picked up a chair and shouted, ¡°All of you men, follow me downstairs! We¡¯ve got to help him!¡±


    But as soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Xu arrived at their office. He said coldly, ¡°Why are you all standing there and watching the fighting? Isn¡¯t it chaotic enough already? Hurry up and get back to whatever you were busy with. Do you think that young man is here to protect us? No, he¡¯s here to protect what we¡¯re doing, fighting for the truth! Put away your unnecessary hotbloodedness and continue with the only thing you are worthy of right now. Even if you die, you have to die in pursuit of the truth.¡±

 Chapter 648 - Being foolish for once

    <h4>Chapter 648: Being foolish for once</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not really care for the truth. He was born in this era of sorrows and had been through the saddest moments of it.


    The situation he was in was the truth.


    When he first heard Hope Media was responsible for reporting the truth, Ren Xiaosu did not think much of it. Would knowing the truth help fill people¡¯s stomachs?


    Therefore, Jiang Xu was wrong. Ren Xiaosu was not protecting the truth but this group of people behind him that reported the truth.


    Whether or not the truth was reported was not important to Ren Xiaosu. He just did not want to see these people who were fighting for their ideals dying just like that.


    They could die of old age and illness, but they should not die as a result of being used by others.


    This was probably the first time Ren Xiaosu was fighting for people he did not know. However, Ren Xiaosu felt tonight was particrly meaningful. It was as though he was also participating in that great undertaking and fighting alongside the people behind him.


    He still remembered asking Jiang Xu, ¡°Do people really care about the truth?¡±


    Jiang Xu replied with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s their business.¡±


    It turned out the world was not actually so dark he could not see any hope in it. Along the way, he was still able to encounter people who were zing torches of light!


    Could a disaster really destroy humanity? Maybe, maybe not.


    But should humans who survived the disaster really give up their beliefs? Absolutely not!


    ¡®<i>Wudi, if you were here, you would probably be very happy, right? Because this group of people behind me are just as foolish as you were. Haha, they¡¯re so foolish that it¡¯s silly!</i>¡®


    ¡°Fight for the truth?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself with a smile, ¡°That sounds pretty good!¡±


    In this murky world, he was also willing to be foolish once in a while.


    Ren Xiaosu, in his armor, grabbed one of the thugs to use as a shield. He raised his ck saber as he faced the oing tide of enemies. Holding that extremely sharp saber in his hand, it looked like he was flying an eternal ck banner.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I still don¡¯t know who your backer is, but y¡¯all havee to a ce where you shouldn¡¯t be. So all y¡¯all are going to die tonight.¡±


    The dark clouds in the sky finally covered the crescent moon. It signaled a change!


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu crashed into the crowd of thugs again, swinging his saber at them. He was harvesting their lives with every sh!


    Jiang Xu stood at the floor-to-ceiling window and quietly took in everything that was unfolding. He could sense the strength in the young man¡¯s body did note from the fibers in his muscles, but rather, a result of his strong will.


    Jiang Xu turned around and looked at all his colleagues in the office. He said with a smile, ¡°From today onwards, we¡¯re no longer alone.¡±


    As they could not do anything about Ren Xiaosu, the thugs started calling for reinforcements on their radios. Initially, they were supposed to seize control of four strategic locations at nightfall, with four supernatural beings leading them. However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s appearance hadpletely disrupted their ns.


    Hope Media was exceedingly important, and it could be considered the most important step in the n for the people behind tonight¡¯s events. If they could not take down Hope Media, they could not control the cadence of the garrison troops.


    Gradually, the thugs from the other locations started converging. It was as though there was an endless stream of enemies Ren Xiaosu could never finish killing. Sparks were sent flying as the steel armor met with the hail of gunfire from his enemies. As the bulletsnded on Ren Xiaosu, the shes that sparked off made it seem as though he had donned battle armor made of fire.


    However, no one could get past him and enter Hope Media¡¯s headquarters!


    Some of the thugs wanted to break into the building from the back, but when they climbed over the wall of the backyard, they realized there was already someone wearing a white mask waiting for them in the shadows.


    ¡°Oh no, it¡¯s that white mask!¡± someone said in despair.


    These thugs were all elites of the consortiums, so how could they not know a person wearing a white mask had recently appeared out of nowhere? This was someone else who had made a name for himself in the various organizations, and not even the Pyro Company could do anything about him.


    More and more thugs rushed to the Hope Media headquarters, but they still ended up dead nheless.


    Their faces kept changing, but the only thing that remained constant was the steel armor that was battling them relentlessly and White Mask protecting the back.


    Ren Xiaosu single-handedly fought against all the minions in the stronghold until the corpses of the enemies formed a mountain around him like a throne.


    The world currently referred to Zhang Jinglin as the Ruler of the Nortnds, but Zhang Jinglin himself imed that the Ruler of the Nortnds was someone else.


    Suddenly, a supernatural being hidden among the thugs came attacking from a diagonal position. When this supernatural being arrived in front of Ren Xiaosu, he projected a wave of dirt from the ground and tried to bury Ren Xiaosu in it.


    But before he couldplete his move, the dirt wave had beenpletely smashed apart. Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°You overestimate yourself.¡±


    With a sh, the supernatural being fell.


    The thugs finally started panicking a little. They considered the supernatural being their trump card and wanted to deal a fatal blow to Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu proved to them through practical action that supernatural beings were nothing special. The one in front of them was just one of the many he had killed.


    Ever since the battle at Stronghold 146, Ren Xiaosu had not experienced such a high intensity battle in a long time. But this time, he did not feel any fear at all. Instead, he enjoyed it to his heart¡¯s content.


    With Ren Xiaosu guarding this ce, not even a god could get in!


    Gradually, the nanomachines on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body started crumbling like dust. This was a sign they were about to run out of power.


    However, the cute little fellows still followed their master¡¯s will andpleted their final mission.


    Every nanomachine that was about to fall off would transfer its remaining energy to the nanomachines that could still continue fighting. It was their final gift to Ren Xiaosu, or even a farewell of minute proportions.


    To the nanomachines, this was as good as burning their life force away.


    When a supernatural being who was hiding in the shadows saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s steel armor starting to crumble, he was finally unable to hold back and attacked him. The red saber in his hand seemed to have some kind of magical power imbued within. When it connected with the ck saber, it did not get severed at all. Instead, it suddenly turned into a red stream of liquid that quickly spread towards Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body. It was trying to get to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body through the gaps in the armor!


    But just as the red liquid came into contact with the nanomachines on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arm, the nanomachines automatically detached themselves and turned into a silvery liquid that started fighting back against the red enemies.


    It was a battle happening in the microscopic world. In just an instant, the nanomachines sessfully devoured the red blob.


    Immediately after, that supernatural being suffered bacsh from his power and fell to the ground with a cry of pain. A saber shed down on him, and he was severed into two. He could not even figure out how his ever sessful sneak attack had ended up in failure.


    There were no more enemiesing onto the battlefield to rece the previousbatants. This time, the thugs who had nned to seize control of Hope Media had all been taken care of by Ren Xiaosu. The masterminds of the plot would probably not have expected that their opening n of the night would get thwarted by a young man single-handedly.


    Ren Xiaosu panted as he stood in the lot with his saber in hand. He burst intoughter. ¡°Y¡¯all¡¯re weak!¡±


    A gust of wind blew over, and the grayish nanomachines on the ground were blown into the distance like dust. Ren Xiaosu watched them ¡°leave¡± before whispering, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    The battle tonight was still far from over, but he was thankful the cute little guys had apanied him for part of the journey. From here on out, he would have to rely on himself.

 Chapter 649 - A brief moment of calm

    <h4>Chapter 649: A brief moment of calm</h4>


    The first wave of danger that came after nightfall had passed. Ren Xiaosu stood in the lot of Hope Media, a little tired.


    The masterminds¡¯ original n was probably to create chaos so they could attract the attention of the garrison troops and the Riders. After that, they would descend on this ce to take down Hope Media in one fell swoop.


    Due to the importance of Hope Media, it would be enough to pin down the Riders for a while.


    This way, they could carry out the next step of their n. That would leave the garrison troops and the Riders with no time to catch a breather.


    But the other party probably did not expect their ns would fall into disarray at such a time. Not only did they fail to seize control of Hope Media, but they even activated the other two groups of thugs to try and kill Ren Xiaosu by overwhelming him.


    After all, the firepower of over 300 automatic rifles was truly not something a superhuman could handle alone. But in actual fact, it was only enough to destroy Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor.


    As such, their original n of attacking from all points failed due to this sudden turn of events. The entire n had gone down the drain, and their covertbatants had all died in vain along with it.


    This left the masterminds of this operation a little confused by the situation. All of the ns they had made were thwarted because of the appearance of a superhuman from the Northwest. This actually left them in a dilemma right now.


    And why did that person wearing the white mask also appear here? What was his rtionship with the Qinghe Group? Why had they not heard anything about this before?


    Never mind that the legendary superhuman from the Northwest hade to help the Qinghe Group; what was with the appearance of White Mask as well?


    Some people had suspected Ren Xiaosu was the same person as White Mask. But now, Ren Xiaosu had proven they were not the same person. After all, they had both appeared at the same time.


    In the past, White Mask would always mysteriously appear before disappearing without a trace.


    The opponent¡¯s strong physique and fearlessness against firearms made everyone shudder. The most terrifying thing was that everyone suddenly realized the person had not even disyed what kind of superpower he had. Was it because his opponents were too weak that he did not need to use his power?


    But of course, what they did not know was that ¡°Old Xu¡± did not have a superpower at all. It was just that he was very strong physically and could run really fast. This was double the happiness. If Ren Xiaosu were to have City Crusher activate too, that would be four times the happiness.


    It was not that ¡°he¡± did not want to use his power, but that ¡°he¡± really did not have any, and neither did ¡°he¡± need it.


    After the battle, there was a brief moment of calm. The enemy needed some time to reconsider the situation and tweak their subsequent ns.


    When the battle ended, all of Hope Media¡¯s staff quietly went to the windows again. They saw the sight of the young man¡¯s back and the countless bodies of enemies lying on the ground.


    Their blood had stained the entire front yard red. The sight in front of them was strangely magnificent, exuding a heroic and violent beauty.


    This time, Jiang Xu did not harry everyone back to work. Instead, he walked over to a window and looked at Ren Xiaosu together with the rest of his colleagues. He saw Ren Xiaosu turn his head up to look at them from the middle of the carnage before breaking into a smile.


    That smile amid the bloodshed was extremely bright and made them feel secure.


    The female editor who sat at the window looked at the sketch in her hand that depicted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back when he was sitting down in the yard earlier. Now that she was looking at it again, she somehow felt the old wooden chair he was sitting in did not look not as crappy as it used to.


    Jiang Xu previously asked the deputy chief editor, Ji Yi, to tell everyone to focus on their work. As long as the young man downstairs was still around, no one could enter the building to harm them.


    At that time, almost everyone felt the chief editor was justforting them. How could one person possibly protect the entire building?


    But as such a miracle happened right before their eyes, they had no choice but to believe it.


    The female editor turned around and looked at Jiang Xu. ¡°Chief Editor, can we report about this young man¡¯s battle?¡±


    Jiang Xu thought for a moment and replied, ¡°You can write about it, but you can¡¯t describe the details of the battle. Furthermore, you can¡¯t reveal any details of his identity.¡±


    ¡°Then is this OK?¡± The female editor picked up her sketch. ¡°Using this as the apanying picture for the article? You always say we should be truthful in our reporting. The apanying picture is kinda blurry, but I feel that since he¡¯s been fighting for us until now, even though his name can¡¯t appear in the newspaper, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem to include this as an apanying picture, right?¡±


    Jiang Xu looked at the sketch and smiled. ¡°You may do so.¡± Jiang Xu thought about how Ren Xiaosu even had fans at Hope Media now.


    Li Yingyun and Qin Sheng rushed over from elsewhere with the garrison troops behind them.


    When the two of them stepped into the lot and saw the corpses all over the ground, they were shocked. Ren Xiaosu was the only one left guarding the building in the lot, as White Mask had already disappeared.


    ¡°Brother Xiaosu, did you kill all of them?¡± Qin Sheng asked.


    ¡°Mhm, they wanted to break into the Hope Media headquarters, so I just killed them. I was under a lot of pressure this time, so I didn¡¯t manage to leave any survivors for y¡¯all,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    ¡°That¡¯s alright, we captured someone alive at another location.¡± Old Li looked at the bodies strewn all over the ground and did not know what to say. ¡°It was smart that you came here to stand guard. Otherwise, it would¡¯ve been really troublesome today. Come on, the garrison troops will take over from here. Let¡¯s go inside and get some rest first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu examined Old Li and realized he looked a little tired as well. There were bloodstains on his body, and it looked like he had also been involved in a battle earlier.


    After the garrison troops took over the defensive duties to protect Hope Media, Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh of relief. ¡°Was there any oue from the interrogation?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re very tight-lipped, so we didn¡¯t get much information,¡± Qin Sheng said, shaking his head. ¡°However, we realized the Wang, Kong, and Zhou Consortiums must¡¯ve agreed to a temporary pact. It seems like they want to get rid of the Qinghe Group first before battling it out among themselves. The thugs from this afternoon might look like they¡¯re the same ones as those who took action tonight, but they¡¯re actually not from the same consortium. Even the four groups of people that took action tonight are not all from the same consortium. The three groups of thugs that attacked Hope Media belong to the same group, while the other group we took care of was acting independently.¡±


    This made the situation even more dangerous in the stronghold. Although this was the Qinghe Group¡¯s home field, and they also had their own professional troops stationed here, the other three organizations had temporarily joined forces.


    ¡°Have there been no updates from Xu Ke¡¯s side?¡± Ren Xiaosu was referring to the fact that these people were obviously here for the satellites. But up until now, there was still no threat directed at Xu Ke.


    In other words, no matter how intense the battles were so far, it was still just a prelude to the main event.


    ¡°We have three Riders guarding the Qinghe Group¡¯s headquarters, so it won¡¯t be that easy to break into the ce.¡± Li Yingyun said, ¡°As for what those consortiums are really up to, we can only wait for them to make their move. By the way, there¡¯s definitely spies within the Qinghe Group, but we can only wait until they reveal themselves before we can get rid of them. Since you¡¯ve already put yourself out in the open, they¡¯ll likely target you through whatever minor things that can be linked to you. Didn¡¯t you bring some people into Luoyang City with you? Will they be fine? Why don¡¯t you go back and keep an eye on them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Did he mean someone would try to harm Zhou Yingxue and the others?


    Then, he thought about his maid¡¯s current power level and shook his head. ¡°Well, I¡¯m really not worried about that at all.¡±

 Chapter 650 - A new plan

    <h4>Chapter 650: A new n</h4>


    In Luoyang City, several people were conspiring inside a dark room.


    In the dim lighting, a person said calmly, ¡°I suspect your Kong Consortium did not even bring out your trump card this time. If three of your teams can¡¯t even handle taking Hope Media, what¡¯s the point of our cooperation?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t your Zhou Consortium¡¯s people also fail to take Qinghe University?¡± A middle-aged man sneered and said, ¡°We all encountered the same superhuman, so we should know full well that person is not that easy to deal with. Instead of ming each other, why don¡¯t we focus on nning whates next?¡±


    Next to them, a young man burst intoughter and said, ¡°Second Brother Kong is absolutely right. That superhuman from the Northwest is far stronger than we expected, so it can be considered an unforeseen hup in the n. However, his strength alone is still limited. Actually, the three of our consortiums still have more aces up our sleeves, so why don¡¯t we think about how we should y our cards next?¡±


    ¡°I think that person from the Northwest isn¡¯t here for the satellites.¡± The middle-aged man said, ¡°It feels more like he¡¯s here to help. Or, it could also be that he¡¯s hoping to add to the chaos in Luoyang City like we are.¡±


    ¡°No matter what, he stands against us. Who knows, the Northwest might end up losing one of their high-ranking officers tonight.¡± The person from the Kong Consortium said calmly, ¡°Summon the Xu n members and ask them if there have been any strange happenings with the Qinghe Group and the Riders recently. Since we didn¡¯t manage to capture Jiang Xu, we¡¯ll have to find out any other clues we can. We need to get ahold of some of their important figures so we can continue restricting the movements of the garrison troops and the Riders. After all, this is the Qinghe Group¡¯s home field, so we had better not be careless. We should take them out one by one.¡±


    After saying that, he ordered his subordinates to bring in the Xu n members. The Kong Consortium¡¯s representative looked up and asked sternly, ¡°We only came to Luoyang City this time to help you all seize authority because you needed our help. Don¡¯t just make us do all the hard work while you watch and not contribute to the cause at all. Let me ask you, did the Qinghe Group and the Riders do anything unusual recently?¡±


    The representative of the Xu n members thought for a moment and said, ¡°There really was something like that. You should also know that the Qinghe Group has a telmunications business arm that sells satellite phones to the rest of the world. The person in charge of this business is named Yang Ruilin. As I have business dealings with him, I had a meal with him several days ago. After the meal, I had my private chauffeur send him home. However, he did not return to his own home but went to stay at a hotel instead.¡±


    The Kong Consortium¡¯s representative was speechless. ¡°What¡¯s so unusual about a secret rendezvous with a lover at a hotel? If you don¡¯t have anything important, don¡¯t use such gossip to make up something for us to hear.¡±


    But the young man from the Wang Consortium interrupted, ¡°Second Brother Kong, let¡¯s continue listening to him first.¡±


    ¡°As he did not go back home that night, I also thought he had kept a lover at the hotel.¡± The Xu n representative exined, ¡°In our line of work, we always prefer having leverage over others. So after the chauffeur returned and told me about this, I sent someone to the hotel to get a few ndestine photos of him and his lover¡¯s secret rendezvous. But I discovered their entire family of three were all staying in the hotel. It wasn¡¯t some secret rendezvous with his lover at all. That Yang Ruilin is Xu Ke¡¯s trusted aide, so I suspect the hotel is used as a secret base for protecting the core members of the Qinghe Group.¡±


    ¡°The problem is not with the hotel.¡± Second Brother Kong frowned. He was not an idiot and immediately figured out what was illogical. As stronghold residents, they did not live in their own home but stayed at a hotel instead? ¡°Look, isn¡¯t this how a temporary safe house is usually arranged? When a stranger enters a new stronghold, in order not to be discovered, the informants use their own residences as temporary safe houses for the other party. Or perhaps there¡¯s a more important person that needs to be secretly protected. As there¡¯s the worry of the existing safe houses getting exposed, they temporarily vacate a location where people have been living.¡±


    No one present at this meeting was average, and no average person would get sent here to handle something this important either. Second Brother Kong had only relied on a simple clue to deduce what was really going on.


    Of course, this was also amon tactic used by the intelligence agencies for many years, so it was not considered odd at all.


    The young man from the Wang Consortium looked at the Xu n representative. ¡°Indeed, it does look like that¡¯s the case. Where is Yang Ruilin¡¯s family home? We¡¯ll send someone over right away. Regardless of who might be living there now, we need to quickly figure it out first.¡±


    The Xu n representative smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ve already checked that out for you guys. A young woman and a group of teenagers are living at Yang Ruilin¡¯s house now.¡±


    Second Brother Kongughed and said, ¡°Haha! We¡¯ve been searching high and low all this while only to find it this easily. They¡¯re probably the family and children of a core member of the Qinghe Group. They must be very important for the group to have kept them tucked away so well. As long as we can get our hands on them, so what if we can¡¯t capture Jiang Xu?¡±


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s representative heaved a sigh of relief. It had to be said that the failure to capture Jiang Xu had put everyone under a lot of pressure, so much so that their subsequent ns were temporarily halted. He said to the others, ¡°Send a few more people over. We must ensure that nothing goes wrong in this operation.¡±


    As he spoke, a subordinate was already delivering the orders. The covert operatives hidden in Luoyang City started moving, and even the superhumans rushed off towards Junmin Alley.


    Second Brother Kong looked at the Xu n spokesman and said amiably, ¡°You wanted to settle down at the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold in the future, right? Let me wee you on behalf of the Wang Consortium. After this operation isplete, the Wang Consortium will be sure to reward you handsomely.¡±


    Then a different member of the Xu n said, ¡°I also noticed something strange. I¡¯m in charge of the Civil Affairs Department of Luoyang City. Yesterday, someone from the Riders suddenly came to inform me that one of the orphanages will no longer fall under the jurisdiction of the Civil Affairs Department. After that, the Riders even transferred a sum of money directly into that orphanage¡¯s ount. Does that count as abnormal?¡±


    ¡°Of course, of course it counts!¡± Second Brother Kong startedughing heartily. ¡°At a critical moment like this, anything the Riders do is surely not a small matter.¡±


    With a major war imminent, the Riders were actually giving their attention to this small orphanage? How could this be normal? Shouldn¡¯t they be putting aside all matters that were not rted to the war for now?


    Therefore, there had to be something about this orphanage as well!


    ¡°Go, tell Xin Yi to lead his men to the orphanage and round up everyone there. Failure is not an option!¡± Second Brother Kong said fiercely.


    Although everyone did not show it on their faces when Ren Xiaosu exerted pressure on them, they were actually very nervous and worried their operation would fail.


    But now everyone felt like they had finally found a way out of this predicament!


    Instantly, countless sleeper agents started rushing towards Junmin Alley and the orphanage, and this included quite a few supernatural beings too.


    It was unknown how many superhumans the other forces had sent, but the Kong Consortium¡¯s superhumans made up 60% of them.


    Of course, they still had their aces up their sleeves. Those were for when they started fighting the other two consortiums after they had taken care of the Qinghe Group.


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s, the Kong Consortium¡¯s, and the Wang Consortium¡¯s representatives sat in the room and looked at each other with smiles. All of them had their own agenda in this war.

 Chapter 651 - Lost goons

    <h4>Chapter 651: Lost goons</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    In the house at Junmin Alley, Wang Yuchi and the others were going through some revision materials Zhou Yingxue had recently bought for them. In the kitchen, soup boiling could be heard. The thick broth was simmering with a quiet bubbling sound within the earthenware.


    The smell of the soup floated over from the kitchen to the living room. Wang Zhe, who was sitting next to Wang Yuchi, said, ¡°I¡¯m working so hard on these questions that I¡¯m smelling chicken soup.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue walked out of the kitchen. She haddled out a small bowl of chicken soup for all of the students. Wang Yuchi looked up and asked, ¡°Ms. Yingxue, is Brother Xiaosu really going to be fine? Why don¡¯t we go and help him? We have nanomachines in our bodies as well.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said with a smile, ¡°Your top priority right now is to study hard. He even specially instructed me to look after you guys. Don¡¯t you know him? Who could possibly pose a threat to him in this city?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Wang Yuchi nodded.


    Zhou Yingxue then picked up all the trash bags in the kitchen and living room while humming along to Li Ran¡¯s song. She said to the students, ¡°I¡¯m taking out the trash.¡±


    With that, Zhou Yingxue went outside.


    But as soon as she opened the door, she was startled. However, she still stepped out as though nothing was wrong. She saw some vague figures moving around within Junmin Alley. It looked like an ambush had already beenid all around the house!


    Just as Zhou Yingxue was about to reach the garbage bin, someone abruptly charged at her from the shadows. They wanted to quickly subdue Zhou Yingxue to prevent her from screaming for help.


    But before they could even close in on Zhou Yingxue, some strange nts in the house started spitting out khaki-colored lumps in session at an extremely fast rate.


    The people who wanted to attack Zhou Yingxue did not expect such a turn of events at all. After all, someone had already checked out this house from a vantage point in the distance and everything looked normal. Other than there being some nts in the yard, there was nothing suspicious.


    However, it was precisely these nts that caught the thugs off guard.


    As therge potatoes struck them one after another, the goons were all thrown into disarray as they suffered serious injuries.


    After all, the Potato Shooter was no longer a simple food crop after Zhou Yingxue¡¯s power enhanced it. It had regained its dignity as an offensive nt!


    A lot more thugs who were lurking outside rushed over. They were already prepared to attack if they realized there were people guarding the house!


    A superhuman followed this group of thugs. When he saw Zhou Yingxue¡¯s appearance, his eyes lit up. ¡°Don¡¯t hurt that woman. I want her alive.¡±


    But at this moment, Zhou Yingxue, who was standing in the front yard, suddenly held up something glowing green in her fingers and threw it on the ground. The thugs were stunned. When the green glow disappeared into the ground, countless vines started sprouting from the soil. In just the blink of an eye, leafy vines were spreading rapidly outwards.


    The creeper vines¡¯ tentacles covered the entire house in an instant with Zhou Yingxue standing at its center. The thugs who tried to break in through the windows at the back of the house were immediately wrapped up by the creeper vines¡¯ thorny vines. The sharp spikes stabbed into them mercilessly and started sucking their blood without stop.


    Everything happened in an instant.


    Ever since Zhou Yingxue obtained this power, she had not used it. It was not that she did not want to use it, but that her master was too powerful, so there was no chance for her to show what she was capable of.


    As such, even Qin Sheng and the others did not pay much attention to Zhou Yingxue. They only treated her as a normal superhuman who followed Ren Xiaosu around.


    But only Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue knew her current self had probably already be a top-tier figure among the superhumans.


    To Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue was still that maidservant who liked munching on melon seeds. Recently, she even took a liking to cooking soup and preparing meals.


    But to the enemy, she was as good as a hidden monster.


    The thugs were wrapped up by the countless vines before they could even get a chance to shoot. Someone wanted to pull the trigger to warn theirpanions at the rear, but they had already lost all their strength. There was a poison within the thorny vines that could paralyze people instantly.


    The superhuman who said he wanted Zhou Yingxue alive suddenly looked aghast. He remembered the rumors about the creeper vine at the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold. In an instant, he linked that to everything he was witnessing before his eyes. Could the creeper vine under this woman¡¯s feet be the thing that had wiped out an entire stronghold¡¯s poption?


    He immediately felt a tingling sensation in his scalp and wanted to retreat. But when he turned around, he realized a green wall of vines had appeared behind him at some point in time and blocked him from escaping.


    Zhou Yingxueughed and said, ¡°You guys should have brought some gifts since you were visiting. So then, why don¡¯t you offer me your life?¡±


    Ten minutester, Zhou Yingxue went back into the house. Everyone outside had disappeared, and the creeper vines had furled up and were hidden somewhere by Zhou Yingxue. It was as though nothing had happened at all.


    Wang Yuchi looked at Zhou Yingxue, who had juste in through the door, and asked, ¡°Ms. Yingxue, why were you gone for so long? I thought I heard you talking to someone just now.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it was just someone that got lost.¡± Zhou Yingxue smiled and said, ¡°Have you guys finished the chicken soup? I¡¯ll get you some more.¡±


    ...


    Meanwhile, the same thing was happening outside the orphanage.


    Hu Shuo was giving a basic education lesson to the children. ¡°How many ways are there to write a secret letter? Which one of you knows the answer?¡±


    A child raised his hand. ¡°Sir, you taught us three ways to write one. They can be done with onion juice, aminophenazone tablets, and starch water.¡±


    Hu Shuoughed happily and said, ¡°I¡¯ll teach you all the fourth method today. First, take two pieces of paper and wet one of them with water before cing it on the table. Then, ce the dry sheet on top of the wet one. After that, write on the dry sheet of paper with a pencil and let the ink prate onto the wet sheet below. After allowing the paper to drypletely, the handwriting will be invisible. But you can make it reappear by wetting it with water again...¡±


    The children were listening with keen interest, including Zhang Baogen who was standing off to the side. However, he felt a little curious. ¡°Director, do you intend for these children to...¡±


    Hu Shuo shook his head. ¡°I can only teach you guys the skills, but you have to choose your own paths. I can¡¯t force anything.¡±


    Hu Shuo suddenly looked at the main entrance of the orphanage. Then he said to Zhang Baogen, ¡°I¡¯m going out for a while. Bring the children into the house. We¡¯re ending today¡¯s lesson here.¡±


    With that, Hu Shuo walked out of the orphanage. After that, the screams of intruders and gunfire came from outside the front yard.


    Hu Shuo returned to the orphanage less than half an hourter. Zhang Baogen examined him when he came back. Other than a few bloodstains on him, he looked as though nothing had happened.


    Zhang Baogen asked with concern, ¡°Director, what happened?¡±


    ¡°I think the disbursement of funds from the Riders may have attracted some robbers. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already handled it.¡± Hu Shuo said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s continue with our lessons.¡±


    After the destruction of the Li Consortium, Hu Shuo had faded from everyone¡¯s sight. When Chen Wudi was asked to assess the old man¡¯sbat prowess back then, he could only muster up a ¡°what the fuck¡± in response!

 Chapter 652 - The final crisis

    <h4>Chapter 652: The final crisis</h4>


    Be it Hu Shuo or Zhou Yingxue, the two of them dealt with the thugs and superhumans like it was nothing. They went back to what they were doing after the battle, and it was as though there wasn¡¯t any pressure at all.


    The only difference was that Wang Yuchi and the others got to have a few more pieces of potatoes with their chicken soup.


    These three consortiums thought they had found a way to break the deadlock. But instead, they somehow zeroed in on the two monsters in the stronghold who had wanted to iste themselves from the world.


    Regarding Zhou Yingxue, Ren Xiaosu was the one who had ordered her to stay home and not to go out. She was to ensure that Wang Yuchi and the others were safe.


    But the thugs had gone overboard with regards to Hu Shuo. They just had to go looking for trouble when Hu Shuo was teaching the children how to write secret messages. Even if they managed to defeat him, what would they have done if Li Shentan and Si Liren came to avenge him?


    Actually, the Xu n representative was not wrong. It was indeed suspicious for Yang Ruilin to vacate his house and the Riders to suddenly disburse funds to the orphanage right before the big battle happened.


    Moreover, they had indeed located Ren Xiaosu¡¯s family too. If Zhou Yingxue had not been around, they might even have seeded in their mission.


    But ¡°ifs¡± did not matter in this world.


    The three consortiums¡¯ representatives were waiting silently for good news from the operatives in their secluded residence. It was different from the tense atmosphere earlier. At this moment, all of them were more rxed and even touched on the topic of wine tasting.


    Second Brother Kong said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s a bottle of Suntory Whisky hidden at my ce. I wonder which rich family from the Pre-Cataclysm times that wine cer belonged to. The seals on the wine bottles inside are all very well-preserved.¡±


    The young man from the Wang Consortium, Wang Wenyan, nced at him. ¡°I still prefer Maotai.¡±[1]


    As time ticked by, the three of them got the feeling that something was off. Second Brother Kong looked at his watch. ¡°It¡¯s been more than 40 minutes already. Why isn¡¯t there any news yet? Go and contact the field teams and find out their current progress.¡±


    However, the subordinate ran back immediately after he went out. He said with a sense of unease, ¡°We couldn¡¯t get in contact with them!¡±


    ¡°Which team can you not contact?¡± Wang Wenyan asked with a sullen face.


    ¡°We couldn¡¯t contact either of them.¡±


    The three representatives immediately raised their eyebrows. They had thought something had happened to one of the teams. But now it seemed that both teams might have perished.


    ¡°Send someone to check out the vicinity!¡± Second Brother Kong said.


    The three of them sat down again, but the unease inside them only got stronger.


    Ten minutester, the person who went to check came back and said, ¡°The people who went to Junmin Alley to investigate the situation have all disappeared. I also saw from a distance away people from the Qinghe Group clearing the corpses of our people at the orphanage. From the looks of it, they were all killed before they could even get past the entrance!¡±


    Second Brother Kong clenched his teeth and said, ¡°Bring the Xu n members to me!¡±


    He had been quite polite with the Xu n members, but not anymore.


    When the Xu n members were brought into the house, they looked utterly confused. ¡°Is there something you all want from us?¡±


    Second Brother Kong was so angry heughed. ¡°You¡¯re still trying to feign ignorance? Your n¡¯s Xu Ke and schemes! He actually set up an ambush and got the few of you to lure our people into this trap to weaken our strength.¡±


    The Xu n members were stunned. ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Second Brother Kong sneered, ¡°You¡¯re all good men. You clearly know you can¡¯t escape after setting the trap for us, yet you still dare toe here and be a double agent. I¡¯ll grant you a swift death then. Take them out and execute them!¡±


    The Xu n members protested, ¡°Could there be some misunderstanding between us? I don¡¯t even understand what you¡¯re talking about! Didn¡¯t we already agree that once the matter is settled, you will only take the satellites while the assets of Luoyang City will go to us? We don¡¯t want the money anymore. Can¡¯t you spare our lives!¡±


    As they spoke, the Xu n members started sobbing.


    Unfortunately, no outsiders could hear them anymore. The entire neighborhood in the vicinity was upied by the three consortiums¡¯ people.


    Actually, they also could not be sure it was the people from the Xu n who had deliberately set the trap for them. After all, they were the ones who had allowed the people from the three consortiums toe into the stronghold over the years. They even did it very secretively. If they had betrayed them, it would not make any sense at all.


    It was likelier that Xu Ke had predicted the Xu n members would sell him out. Therefore, he deliberately let slip seemingly wed information to lure them into the trap.


    But it did not matter anymore. The people from the Xu n had already be disposable, and the three consortiums had not nned on splitting Luoyang City with them anyway.


    But what they did not know was that Xu Ke had not plotted this at all. Even if he did, it would not be in these areas. The reason why those two field teams and two superhumans they dispatched had died was purely because they were unfortunate enough to hit a brick wall.


    Rather than describing it as a brick wall, they had crashed into two granite blocks.


    At this moment, the people from the Qinghe Group were cleaning up the corpses of the consortiums¡¯ people that were left at the doorstep of the orphanage. Several dozen thugs had died here, and there was even one superhuman among the dead.


    There was no way that Hu Shuo¡¯s identity as a superhuman could be kept secret anymore with what happened. However, the Qinghe Group had never mistreated superhumans, nor would they do anything bad to them. Therefore, he did not care whether his identity was exposed.


    When Qin Sheng arrived at the orphanage, Hu Shuo came forward to exin he did not know why the thugs woulde here. Hu Shuo was not lying. He really did not fucking know why!


    ¡°It¡¯s probably because we Riders have ced the orphanage under our jurisdiction, making the malicious take notice.¡± Qin Sheng sighed, ¡°I was worried about this, but I didn¡¯t expect the enemy would be so crazy to not even spare an orphanage. Please rest up. This was all thanks to your help. In the future, the funds for the orphanage will be disbursed on time. In fact, the sum will be increased by a lot. Consider it our Riders¡¯ gratitude to you.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I still have to get ready for my lessons with the children, so please do what you need to do.¡± Hu Shuo waved his hand and closed the door of the orphanage. It was as though he did not care about what had happened at all.


    When Qin Sheng told Xu Ke about this, Xu Ke got the feeling he had secured the victory of a distant battle without even needing to do anything.


    However, everyone knew they had not won yet. Before the end of the night, the consortiums definitely still had more trump cards left to y.


    In the secluded residence, Wang Wenyan said calmly, ¡°This is still the Qinghe Group¡¯s territory. There are too many things we don¡¯t know about. Our opponent has been running the ce for so long, so it should be expected that they also have something up their sleeves. I think everyone here should stop hesitating. It¡¯s no longer possible for us to keep our casualties to a minimum before the end of the battle. It¡¯s time to go all out and make our move. While creating chaos, we can take down Xu Ke at the same time.¡±


    Before this, the three consortiums had attempted to find ways to take advantage of the situation over and over again, such as capturing Jiang Xu or finding a way to break the deadlock. It was not that their strength was inferior to the Qinghe Group, but the three consortiums wanted to reserve their strength to deal with the other two consortiums after destroying the Qinghe Group.


    Second Brother Kong got up and sneered, ¡°Then let¡¯s do this! Everyone will have to depend on their own capabilities now.¡±


    [1] Maotai or Moutai is a brand of baijiu, a distilled Chinese liquor (spirit), made in the town of Maotai in China¡¯s Guizhou province. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maotai

 Chapter 653 - Xu Ke’s choice

    <h4>Chapter 653: Xu Ke¡¯s choice</h4>


    At 9 PM, an unexpected visitor suddenly came to the Qinghe Group¡¯s headquarters. The president of Qinghe University¡¯s Student Council, Xu Zhi, stood outside the security gate and said, ¡°I¡¯m the Xu n¡¯s Xu Zhi. I would like to meet my brother, Xu Ke.¡±


    Xu Ke was Xu Zhi¡¯s elder first cousin on his father¡¯s side. Before Luoyang City was in trouble, the two of them had a very good rtionship. Many of Xu Zhi¡¯s friends knew Xu Zhi saw Xu Ke as his role model.


    But at this moment, it did not matter who came to look for Xu Ke. The Rider who was guarding the entrance, Luo Yunxian, just looked up and said, ¡°Xu Ke is not receiving any visitors today. Pleasee back tomorrow.¡±


    As for whether the Qinghe Group would still be around tomorrow, they would have to wait until after tonight. Time would decide the oue.


    Xu Zhi stood at the gate and fell silent for a moment. ¡°Can you let my brother know? He might be willing to see me?¡±


    Luo Yunxian totally ignored him as the Riders were not the Qinghe Group¡¯s subordinates. All they needed to do today was protect the Qinghe Group, and nothing else mattered to them.


    In the past, Xu Zhi would be the center of attention wherever he went. But suddenly, he felt a little lonely. As expected, the adult world would not care about his achievements in school.


    But then Xu Ke¡¯s secretary came down from the elevator and said to Xu Zhi, ¡°Follow me upstairs.¡±


    Xu Zhi¡¯s eyes lit up again at the secretary¡¯s words. ¡°OK.¡±


    The elevator went all the way up to the top floor. When the elevator door opened, Xu Zhi saw Xu Ke standing by himself next to the floor-to-ceiling window of the 12th floor, overlooking the entirety of Luoyang City.


    Today¡¯s Luoyang City was no longer a sleepless city with bright lights. Most of the neon lights had been turned off, and the usual pedestrians were hiding in their homes, too scared to head out. As such, the streets looked utterly deserted.


    Before Xu Zhi could walk over to Xu Ke, Xu Ke startedughing. ¡°Look, a city without a strong military force is just so fragile.¡±


    ¡°It will definitely return to its former prosperity,¡± Xu Zhi said softly.


    ¡°Is there a reason you¡¯re looking for me?¡± Xu Ke asked.


    ¡°Someone is looking to oppose you,¡± Xu Zhi said.


    ¡°I know.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re going to kill you.¡±


    ¡°I know that too.¡±


    Finally, Xu Zhi could not help but say, ¡°They¡¯ve sent a lot more people here this time than you can imagine. The ones who died earlier were just some foreign superhumans who were hired by the three consortiums. Right now, their core strength might not even be shaken yet.¡±


    Xu Ke asked with great interest, ¡°What else do you know?¡±


    ¡°And... be careful of the people around you.¡± Xu Zhi sighed.


    Xu Ke fell silent.


    This time, he had no choice but to stay silent. No matter how many external enemies might descend on this city, it would not make him feel this nervous. It was this revtion that caused Xu Ke¡¯s gaze to waver.


    But Xu Zhi suddenly felt that Xu Ke already knew about this.


    ¡°I know that my uncle is involved, but he doesn¡¯t represent my standpoint. My father went to the ck market yesterday as he intends to stay out of this matter. I initially wanted to leave as well, but I somehow felt a little uneasy,¡± Xu Zhi said.


    Xu Ke patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, ¡°Leave now while there¡¯s still time. Get away from this troublesome ce ande back tomorrow.¡±


    Before today, even the work permit holders were stopped from entering Luoyang City as the gates had been closed.


    However, Luoyang City suddenly reopened its gates today to allow all its residents to flee from the city. They were told they coulde back again tomorrow. No matter who was controlling Luoyang City the next day, they would not make things difficult for themoners.


    Xu Ke did this because he did not want all of Luoyang City to perish together with him.


    Li Yingyun, Zhang Qingxi, and the others had been running around all these days simply because they wanted to protect the Qinghe Group. All of them still had feelings for the Qinghe Group and Luoyang City.


    But Xu Ke suddenly felt the city and its people were much more important than the Qinghe Group.


    Actually, everyone already knew full well the Qinghe Group could not stand against the three consortiums since they had joined forces. Even with Ren Xiaosu on their side, it was still not enough to stop them.


    Some people said that ever since the era of the ¡°Rise of Gods¡± started, the time of the consortiums would eventuallye to an end. Xu Ke also agreed with this statement. But at least for now, the consortiums were still standing strong.


    At this moment, an explosive glow could be seen out in the distance through the floor-to-ceiling window. It lit up the entire stronghold and did not fade away.


    Many other explosions went off elsewhere in the stronghold, and like they were the final salvo of fireworks going off.


    Xu Zhi turned around and looked at Xu Ke. He suddenly felt that Xu Ke, who was frowning deeply, had made his decision


    Xu Ke smiled at Xu Zhi. ¡°Go back. This isn¡¯t where you should be right now.¡±


    After sending Xu Zhi away, Xu Ke changed into hisbat uniform. He had kept this uniform in his wardrobe for some years and had not touched it again until now.


    As he stood alone in his office on the top floor, he ironed away all the creases on his uniform in a ritual manner.


    After he got changed, he headed downstairs. But instead of taking the elevator, he climbed down from the building¡¯s fa?ade with his bare hands. His movements were so agile he was like a lizard.


    Before Qin Sheng became a Rider, even he was not aware that Xu Ke was also a Rider. It was only when he reached the top of that cliff and saw Xu Ke¡¯s name that he realized this.


    Xu Ke avoided Luo Yunxian and the other Riders¡¯ line of sight and headed onto the streets alone. He was a little tired of being protected by others. Tonight, he was also a Rider.


    Xu Ke turned around and looked at the brightly lit Qinghe Building that had been standing for decades. And Luoyang City had existed for even longer than the Qinghe Building.


    Too many people had died in the past few days. The Riders had all been sleeping only a few hours every day as well. Even though Old Li was injured, he kept it from everyone. Luo Yunxian and Huang Xiaoyu had been keeping watch over the Qinghe Building without getting any rest and were so tired they could fall asleep even when standing upright.


    Since the consortiums were only after the seven satellites and his life, Xu Ke was willing to give that up to them. There was no need for even more people to perish together with him.


    The Riders were supposed to be carefree people. They were all born from their love for freedom and faith.


    But because Xu Ke was the head of the Qinghe Group, he had tied down all the Riders to Luoyang City. After all, the Riders were all bound together for better or worse.


    The Riders even had to work together with the Xu n members they despised.


    So if Xu Ke weren¡¯t around anymore, everyone should be able to lead a better life, right?


    But before that, as a Rider, Xu Ke had to die with dignity.


    In other words, he needed the lives of his enemies to be his epitaph.


    The outside of the Qinghe Building was filled with the various organizations¡¯ spies keeping an eye on the situation. So the moment Xu Ke left the building by himself, the consortiums found about it before the two Riders, Luo Yunxian and Huang Xiaoyu, could even realize.


    After Xu Ke got far away, he suddenly said to the shadowy figures behind him with a smile, ¡°Tell your boss that Xu Ke will be waiting here. Let¡¯s see just how many of you havee to Luoyang City.¡±


    A nearby voiceughed and said, ¡°The head of the Qinghe Group is indeed braver and tougher than we thought. Don¡¯t worry, the people we¡¯ve sent here tonight will definitely be more than enough to bury the entire Qinghe Group.¡±

 Chapter 654 - Forever young

    <h4>Chapter 654: Forever young</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Old Li felt sad as he watched the mes burn everywhere in the stronghold. The Luoyang City they had lived in for so many years had be a hopeless mess overnight because of these invaders.


    Right now, he wanted nothing more than to kill all the enemies in the stronghold. However, Old Li knew he was not capable of that.


    The Riders¡¯bat prowess was far more powerful than average superhumans, but there were just too many enemies this time.


    Moreover, the invading consortiums had be wary of the Riders due to theirbat prowess and avoided them as they went around wreaking havoc in the stronghold over the past two days. Faced with so many troublemakers, Old Li and the others had been running around the stronghold like firefighters putting out fires everywhere.


    At this moment, Old Li¡¯s satellite phone rang. He heard Luo Yunxian say, ¡°Xu Ke has gone missing. He probably wants to put an end to this mess by himself.¡±


    When Old Li heard that, he kept quiet for a long time. Ren Xiaosu, who was standing next to him, asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Xu Ke suddenly left the Qinghe Building to go and face the enemy by himself,¡± Li Yingyun said with a sigh.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. ¡°But why? Wasn¡¯t everything going well? The enemies who came here have all been intercepted, and none of you Riders were killed, so why did he suddenly go out to face the enemy alone?¡±


    Old Li did not answer his question. ¡°Even Riders change.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. All this while, he had seen the Riders as a united group, even as a symbol of justice, unity, and courage.


    But when Old Li suddenly said that even Riders change, he realized Xu Ke probably felt an unprecedented crisis approaching and did not want to further implicate anyone because of the Qinghe Group. Therefore, he chose to put an end to this mess by himself and die like a hero.


    True, how could a utopia truly exist in this world? Ren Xiaosu should have understood this fact.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and asked, ¡°Who is it? Do I know the person? You already knew about this?¡±


    Old Li and the others must have already known. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t only be Xu Ke, Zhang Qingxi, Qin Sheng, and Old Li turning up for that recent dinner party when there were clearly other Riders in the stronghold as well.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know that person.¡± Old Li shook his head.


    ¡°Why did the Riders collude with those consortiums to overthrow the Qinghe Group?¡± Ren Xiaosu found it a little unbelievable.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t collude with the consortiums.¡± Old Li said, ¡°It¡¯s just that the Riders and the Qinghe Group have be more and more tightly bound together after all these years. They often have to deal with many of the Qinghe Group¡¯s affairs on their behalf, and that finally made some people unhappy. Someone thought Xu Ke no longer acted like a Rider. At a meeting two years ago, someone suggested the Riders shouldpletely separate from the Qinghe Group. However, the matter was dropped in the end. So Xu Ke has been feeling quite remorseful for the past two years. He wanted to make changes, but the situation was already what it was, so introducing any changes would be very difficult unless the Qinghe Group were destroyed or someone trustworthy could take over the Qinghe Group from him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, ¡°Y¡¯all are really weird.¡±


    What normal person would not want money and authority?


    But of course, normal people would not seek the boundaries of life and death by experiencing the high mountains or skies either.


    ¡°Then where¡¯s Xu Ke now?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Let¡¯s go and help him. How can he possibly handle something so major all by himself?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s split up and look for him.¡± Old Li sighed, ¡°We might not be able to find him in this chaos at all. Also, he¡¯ll definitely lead our enemies to somece difficult to find.¡±


    mes were still burning everywhere in the stronghold. Many stronghold residents had been forced out onto the streets by the inferno. In this chaos, it would be very difficult to determine Xu Ke¡¯s location.


    After they split up, Ren Xiaosu immediately jumped onto the roof of a high-rise building and tried to quickly search for Xu Ke¡¯s whereabouts. However, it was too difficult to find someone with the intent to hide inside a city that held hundreds of thousands of people.


    An explosion boomed in the stronghold again. It sounded like someone had detonated another set of buried explosives.


    Ren Xiaosu ignored this as he stood on the high-rise building. He was a little lost. Where should he go and find Xu Ke?


    But then, Ren Xiaosu noticed someone leaping across the roofs and heading north. He increased his pace to catch up.


    That person was flitting between buildings when he suddenly saw a figure catching up to him. Then Ren Xiaosu patted him on the shoulder and asked, ¡°Are you looking for Xu Ke?¡±


    This superhuman was stunned for a moment but ignored Ren Xiaosu. Instead, he picked up his pace again and tried to shake off Ren Xiaosu.


    But when he increased his speed, Ren Xiaosu went faster as well.


    Ren Xiaosu shouted next to him, ¡°I¡¯m asking you, are you looking for Xu Ke?¡±


    The superhuman increased his speed again but realized he could not run anymore. When he turned around, he was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu grabbing hold of his clothes from behind. Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, ¡°I¡¯m asking you a question! Didn¡¯t you hear me?¡±


    The superhuman wondered, ¡°Didn¡¯t your superior tell you where to assemble? Who the fuck are you! Ah!¡±


    While he was speaking, Ren Xiaosu lifted the superhuman and leaped into the air. Then he threw the other party down to the ground from high up in between two high-rise buildings. The superhuman was ruthlessly mmed to the ground like a cannonball, breaking many of his bones.


    As he struggled and looked up, he saw Ren Xiaosu not stopping at all as he continued making his way northwards.


    ...


    Xu Ke stood in the middle of Wangchunmen Boulevard and looked around with a smile. ¡°Anyone else?¡±


    Xu Ke was covered in blood, with eight superhumans¡¯ corpses lying next to him.


    The might of this Rider actually made the superhumans around him stop in their tracks. Everyone was waiting for further instructions from the higher-ups on how to proceed.


    Some of the supernatural beings had rashly attacked just now, but not even eight of them could defeat Xu Ke.


    Before this, everyone had spected about Xu Ke¡¯sbat prowess. However, they did not expect him to be this strong. They did not even know Xu Ke was also a Rider himself.


    Seeing no movement from the supernatural beings, Xu Ke noticed more and more people were gathering on the boulevard. Supernatural beings and armedbatants had arrived.


    Caught in the ambush, Xu Ke broke into heartyughter and said, ¡°You people are nothing but minions! Rider Xu Ke at your service! Who dares challenge me!¡±


    At this moment, Xu Ke remembered when he first climbed up the cliff and saw the sunrise radiate brilliantly.


    I turn my head startled, the sky three feet above me!


    Like a thousand stallions, in full gallop in the heat of battle!<sup>1</sup>


    And just like Qin Sheng had done after him, he also carved his name clearly into the rock face after writing, ¡°Only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal.¡±


    He suddenly remembered the words that didn¡¯t have an autograph. ¡°Forever young.¡±


    Perhaps this was what it really meant to be a Rider. To be forever zealous, forever sincere, forever journeying, and forever young.


    Ever since he became the leader of the Qinghe Group, he felt like he had not been this happy in a long time. Perhaps Huang Xiaoyu was right. The Riders should never have been embroiled in these matters. But it was toote to say that now.


    It was time for him to ept his fate.


    But at this moment, he saw the crowd of people at the end of the long street get sent flying into the air by an unstoppable force. Someone had forced open up a bloody path through the ambush.


    As a result, the people who had surrounded Xu Ke subconsciously made way for the other party.


    When Xu Ke saw who it was, he said calmly, ¡°It¡¯s not worth it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu killed his way through the crowd of several hundred and made his way towards him with a grin. ¡°Do you believe in me?¡±


    Xu Ke was taken aback for a second. Then he smiled as well. ¡°Yes.¡±

 Chapter 655 - No rules

    <h4>Chapter 655: No rules</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Xu Ke had really not expected someone to suddenly cut their way through an ambush from the end of the street in this darkness, then say to him, ¡°Do you believe in me?¡±


    Actually, Xu Ke really wanted to say, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t havee here at this time. As long as I¡¯m dead, this matter will be over. You still have a maid and a girl you like, so why would youe here to die with me?¡±


    But under the shing neon lights, Xu Ke suddenly felt he might not have to die today when he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s smile.


    Did he believe in him? He chose to believe!


    It was like someone had suddenly grabbed hold of him when he was about to fall into an abyss. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll destroy this abyss for you!¡±


    This was the first time Xu Ke experienced something like that. As the head of the Qinghe Group, when had he ever needed anyone¡¯s help before?


    But perhaps because he had been the head of the Qinghe Group for too long, he eventually chose to face his enemies alone. He was already used to facing everything by himself.


    Today, Xu Ke seemed to rediscover how it felt to fight alongside the other Riders, even though Ren Xiaosu was not one of them.


    But how was Ren Xiaosu going to handle so many supernatural beings by himself?


    Just as he was pondering this, the whistling of a train and the metallic nging of tracks could suddenly be heard on the boulevard in the darkness!


    Everyone immediately turned around and saw that a steam lotive had actually emerged out of thin air from the darkness behind them. The lotive was spewing thick ck fumes from its top and had appeared like a monster in front of them without any warning!


    Segments of railroad tracks materialized and pieced together one by one in front of the train. The loud metallic nging was pounding everyone¡¯s chests like a heartbeat had escaped the body.


    The steam lotive increased its speed to maximum after appearing, and in the blink of an eye, more than a dozen of the consortiums¡¯batants that had surrounded Ren Xiaosu and Xu Ke were caught off guard and knocked to the ground!


    Xu Ke was stunned as he had not expected such a turn of events. Was this Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power? No, he had heard about this power a long time ago! The person who controlled this power should be someone named Wang Congyang!


    Ren Xiaosu dashed into the crowd again while everyone was still dazed and killed some more people. With just a single kick, he had bounded forward by a dozen meters.


    One of the consortium¡¯sbatants on the street shouted into their radio, ¡°Open fire!¡±


    zing bullets and tongues of me spewed out of the cold and unfeeling firearms. As the bullets passed through the rifling of the barrels, they started spinning rapidly!


    But when thebatants tried to rain down a hail of bullets on Ren Xiaosu, they realized Ren Xiaosu was only feinting. With just a slight tap of his feet on the ground, he changed his direction of movement.


    At the same time, Ren Xiaosu even grabbed a supernatural being and used him as a human shield. The intense gunfire did not manage to hurt Ren Xiaosu but killed their ally first instead!


    As the barrage of bullets hit the supernatural being, countless bloody holes bored into his body. This supernatural being could not even die in peace.


    Thebat troops were shocked by this sight. Everything happened too quickly just now, and when they finally came back to their senses, they realized Ren Xiaosu was already grabbing a supernatural being!


    Ren Xiaosu was holding his ck saber in one hand while using the other to hold the now dead supernatural being. He was like a fierce soldier charging his way through an army, while the supernatural being everyone envied had be a shield for him.


    That was a supernatural being, alright! But when he went up against Ren Xiaosu, he could not put up any resistance. Ren Xiaosu held him up effortlessly as a shield like he was some frightened little chicken!


    This supernatural being had been carefully selected by Ren Xiaosu. Without his armor, it was impossible to face a hail of bullets head on. And since he already had the sharpest saber, he had to find a shield for himself!


    The reason why he chose a supernatural being was that their bodies were strong.


    The consortiums¡¯ troops quickly got into a defensive formation and retreated in case Ren Xiaosu tried to force his way through. But their efforts were futile as Ren Xiaosu was much faster than them!


    The formation broke. A bullet was fired from the shadows, as though someone were trying to get Ren Xiaosu by shooting through the gap between the shield and him. However, the ck saber suddenly shed across and blocked the bullet just as it was about to hit him in the side. The bullet ricocheted off the nt of the saber¡¯s edge and hit anotherbatant right in the head.


    Everyone was shocked by this sight. They could not tell whether Ren Xiaosu did this deliberately or if it was just a coincidence!


    When Ren Xiaosu was about to charge into their formation, a supernatural being suddenly jumped out from the rear and made a strange seal symbol with his hands.


    A battle between supernatural beings was extremely dangerous, because if you did not know what the other party¡¯s superpower was, you could not guard against it.


    Actually, when supernatural beings of the same level encountered each other most of the time, the most terrifying thing would be fighting a counter. For example, the supernatural being who had tried to sneak attack Ren Xiaosu in front of Hope Media¡¯s headquarters. His saber had suddenly turned into a liquid form and spread towards Ren Xiaosu. If Ren Xiaosu did not have his nanomachines protecting him, he might really have gotten killed.


    So Ren Xiaosu was extremely cautious when facing this supernatural being. Between him and the other party, whose superpower would be stronger?


    The sniper rifle was more powerful, of course.


    When the supernatural being finished forming his hand seals, a glow in the shape of a lotus emerged from his hands. However, he noticed the ck saber in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand had turned into a ck sniper rifle. He did not even have the chance to get close to Ren Xiaosu before he was sent flying backwards by a shot.


    The caliber of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sniper rifle was sorge it could be used as a cannon at close range!


    ¡°You think y¡¯all are the only ones who know how to use guns?¡± Ren Xiaosu sneered. As he spoke, the ck sniper rifle in his hand suddenly changed into a heavy machine gun. Normal people would need a tripod to put the heavy machine gun on, but Ren Xiaosu was holding it in his hand as though it were a feather!


    This was one of the heavy weapons he had seized from the Zong Consortium. When Ren Xiaosu pulled the trigger, the internal mechanisms of the machine gun started firing at extremely high speeds as countless bullets spewed out of the muzzle. In just the blink of an eye, the consortiums¡¯bat troops were forcefully dispersed in front of him!


    Among them, there were even supernatural beings who could not dodge in time and got shot!


    But it was quite a pity he couldn¡¯t reload the heavy machine gun. So he had to switch to other weapons after firing off all the rounds.


    A lot of people were stunned by this. They had never encountered such a strange supernatural being like him before. How was he able to switch weapons at will? Wait a minute, it looked like he had taken out a grenade this time!


    As a supernatural being, why was he depending on all these firearms and explosives?!


    This was something Ren Xiaosu had figured out long ago. If it were a duel, of course his ck saber would be more powerful. But when there were too many enemies, it would be better to use firearms and explosives.


    Whoever stated supernatural beings could not use firearms and explosives? Ren Xiaosu had always survived in the wilderness, and the rule in the wilderness was, ¡°There are no rules!¡±


    The choice of weapon used would depend on who it was used against. There were infinite ways of fighting as long as it could kill the enemy!


    Thebatmander of the consortiums¡¯ troops was staring closely at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s movements from the rear. Never mind that their gunfire could not break through the human shield and kill their enemy, they were even forced to flee with their tails between their legs by an individual.


    A momentter, themander¡¯s expression changed greatly. ¡°Get out of the way! It¡¯s TNT!¡±

 Chapter 656 - Theres someone that I believe in too, and I know that shell definitely come

    <h4>Chapter 656: There¡¯s someone that I believe in too, and I know that she¡¯ll definitelye</h4>


    Ever since Ren Xiaosu plundered the Zong Consortium¡¯s military factories, the stockpile of ammunition he had in his storage space was enough to equip an entirepany. Back then, he had taken these weapons in case the Razor Sharp Company needed to rece their equipment. But as the fortunes of war changed quickly, he ended up having no use for them in that war.


    The amount of grenades in a military factory was simply unimaginable. If he had not already given away a lot of them because of the war, he would have even more grenades in his possession.


    But the power of the grenades paled inparison to TNT.


    The consortiums¡¯ troops suddenly felt like Ren Xiaosu was armed with even more ammunition than they were. After Ren Xiaosu threw the TNT, it exploded very quickly in the distance.


    The consortiums¡¯batants did not even have time to get out of the TNT¡¯s explosive range. Immediately, the shockwave sent all the nearby soldiers flying!


    When themanding officer of the troops saw this scene, he could almost feel his heart bleeding!


    Before they came here, their higher-ups had specially instructed them to watch what they did in case of repercussions. Although they wanted to seize the satellites, they should not make it like an all-out war as it would not look good on them.


    At that time, everyone was confident of seizing the satellites, so they were more concerned about their public image.


    But now that someone like Ren Xiaosu had appeared, who would still care about what the public thought? Winning was the priority!


    However, the thought of going all out against these few hundred people never crossed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind at all. Otherwise, he would not have summoned the steam lotive right off the bat!


    Taking advantage of the chaos created by the explosion, Ren Xiaosu turned and ran towards Xu Ke. He shouted at Xu Ke, ¡°Quick, get on the train!¡±


    One of the supernatural beings could tell that Ren Xiaosu intended to escape with Xu Ke. He immediately opened a notebook in his hand and wrote quickly in it, ¡°The young man prepared to escape on the train after the explosion went off, but the streetmp beside him suddenly fell down. As he dodged the falling streetmp, he revealed an opening between himself and his shield. Then a bullet shot through him.¡±


    This superhuman wrote extremely fast. He only took about two seconds to finish writing a few dozen words. The handwriting in the notebook was so illegible that nobody else could read what he had written!


    The moment he was done writing, he added a period to the sentence, and it actually starteding true!


    A momentter, a soldier from the troops sprayed bullets at the road next to Ren Xiaosu. He was aiming at Ren Xiaosu at first, but the bullets directed at him got blocked by the human shield in his hand.


    Another few shots that missed Ren Xiaosu ended up hitting the streetmp in front of him.


    As the streetmp started falling, a creaking sound came from it.


    The superhuman holding the notebook started to show a smile. He had been hiding in the corner just to wait for this moment to arrive. No matter how powerful the other party was, they still couldn¡¯t escape their fate.


    But before he could fully break into a smile, blood spluttered from his mouth. Ren Xiaosu did not dodge even when the streetmp was falling towards him. Instead, he kicked it away. In between, thebatants who were trying to shoot at Ren Xiaosu realized they could not find an opening through the human shield even though an ident like this happened!


    The superhuman with the notebook looked at his handwriting in a daze. The words he wrote on the empty sheet of paper seemed to be getting rubbed away by an eraser as they started fading slowly!


    The superhuman was shocked. He had nevere across a strange situation like this before. The other party not only refused to ept his fate, he even caused him to suffer bacsh!


    Everything happened in a split second. When the superhuman raised his head to look for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure, he realized Ren Xiaosu was aiming at him with arge ck sniper rifle while running. In the blink of an eye, an intense muzzle sh burst from the rugged ck sniper rifle. A huge bullet prated the book in his hand, then his heart as well.


    The superhuman was thrown backwards by this huge force. He could even feel the spinning bullet tearing through the muscles and organs inside him after entering his body.


    He could not understand why the other party would notice him. However, he did not have a chance to ponder that anymore.


    Ren Xiaosu put away the sniper rifle and muttered, ¡°Why are you holding a book at a time like this? Stop trying to look smart. You think you¡¯re the only one who¡¯s studious?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu rejoined Xu Ke. Meanwhile, the steam lotive had also driven up to Xu Ke.


    But just as Xu Ke was getting on the steam lotive, a supernatural being who was hiding somewhere shed out of the shadows. The other party jumped up into the air and pointed at the steam lotive with one finger.


    When his finger came into contact with the steam lotive¡¯s ck metallic surface, the entire train body got covered by ayer of purple mist.


    This purple mist shrouded the entire steam lotive and froze it in ce. The steam lotive that was barging its way forward was immediately halted!


    The powers of superhumans in the world had reached a stage where they were almost magical. Some superhumans could sense the presence of other superhumans, some could materialize a train out of thin air, and there was even someone who could use a notebook to decide the fate of others.


    And now, there was someone who could freeze a steam lotive in ce with their power!


    Ren Xiaosu was bewildered. He felt he was fully capable of oveing the other party¡¯s superpower, and it would only take him a few seconds to do so!


    But at present, they were out in the open! He was unwilling to waste even a few seconds here! If he reacted any slower, Xu Ke might get turned into Swiss cheese!


    After all, Xu Ke was alreadypletely exhausted after killing several superhumans. If it had not been for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arrival, he would have been dead by now.


    With no time to waste, Ren Xiaosu rushed to Xu Ke¡¯s side and dragged him along as they wildly dodged the bullets on the long boulevard.


    He had wanted to escape their pursuers by entering a nearby building, but if they went into the building, they would probably have no way to escape once thebatants and superhumans surrounded it from the outside.


    Xu Ke gave a bitter smile. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to have dragged you in.¡±


    Having been forced into a corner, Xu Ke was not the most upset about his impending death but that he had dragged Ren Xiaosu down with him.


    But at a time like this, Ren Xiaosu actuallyughed again. ¡°Do you believe in me?¡±


    Xu Ke smiled bitterly. ¡°Yes.¡±


    In the face of death, he shouldn¡¯t be refuting Ren Xiaosu anymore, right? However, he did not know where Ren Xiaosu¡¯s confidence came from. It was clear Ren Xiaosu had no other way out either.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile as they ran, ¡°There¡¯s someone that I believe in too, and I know that she¡¯ll definitelye¡±


    Elsewhere, a girl wearing a cap was traversing through the mes and crowds in the darkness. She was running somewhere with all her might.

 Chapter 657 - Authority on the battlefield

    <h4>Chapter 657: Authority on the battlefield</h4>


    Most sentiments in the world would fade with time. Like sand running through an hourss, it would disappear bit by bit.


    Be it friendship or love, it was all the same.


    There was a time Yang Xiaojin really thought Ren Xiaosu had died in that flood. Her stubborn persistence in waiting was actually just her way of dealing with it.


    Although she told Yang Anjing she wanted to go look for Ren Xiaosu, she did not even have the slightest idea of where to start. As she journeyed aimlessly in the wilderness, Yang Xiaojin was struck by a wave of loneliness.


    That was until Li Shentan found her in the wilderness. Li Shentan held up a copy of a newspaper and waved it around as though he were holding a white g. Then he threw the newspaper on the ground before running away.


    After confirming Li Shentan and Si Liren had left, Yang Xiaojin put away her sniper rifle and walked over to the newspaper puzzledly.


    She then came across the news of the steel armor appearing in Luoyang City!


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was running madly within Luoyang City. She had not slept for the past two days, all for the sake of an inexplicable hope.


    She had traveled more than 300 kilometers during these two days as she trekked across mountains and rivers day and night.


    Right now, Yang Xiaojin was so close to that person it was like she could sense the other party¡¯s aura. That warm feeling was like a hand brushing past her cheek and stroking her hair.


    Her cap was a little dirty, and her hair was also messy, but that didn¡¯t matter at all!


    In this chaotic city where everyone was avoiding gunfire, only this girl wearing a cap was rushing towards the gunshots without hesitation. She was looking for someone over there.


    On Wangchunmen Boulevard, the young man was fighting furiously to open up an escape path.


    Outside Wangchunmen Boulevard, a girl wearing a cap was making her way to the top of a high-rise building.


    A moment ago.


    Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile, ¡°Do you believe in me?¡±


    Xu Ke replied that he did, rather startled.


    And a momentter, Xu Ke heard Ren Xiaosu say with a smile, ¡°And now, the person that I believe in is here.¡±


    A supernatural being suddenly raised his hand, and a green glow appeared around it. No one knew what kind of killing blow he was preparing to make.


    However, a gunshot suddenly rang out from a high-rise building in the distance. The bullet traveled through the vast sky, through countless days and nights, through incessant persistence, through longing, and turned that supernatural being who was about to release his killing blow into a bloody mist!


    The Perfect Firearms Proficiency user started taking control of the battlefield. From this moment, anyone who wanted to kill Ren Xiaosu would die.


    This was her authority.


    Ren Xiaosu had deliberately announced to the world that the user of the armor was here. It was as though he knew Yang Xiaojin would definitely show up once she heard news of him.


    After receiving news that Ren Xiaosu was at Luoyang City, Yang Xiaojin trekked across the treacherous mountains and passed through a sea of people to fulfill that unspoken promise with him.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the high-rise building in the distance. The girl wearing the cap seemingly acknowledged him as she pulled the trigger and killed a supernatural being who was trying to sneak up on Ren Xiaosu.


    A smile appeared on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s face under her cap. ¡®<i>You knew I woulde to meet you, so here I am.</i>¡®


    But suddenly, time seemed to freeze. The two of them had been waiting for this day for too long. So every minute and second of this day slowed down, allowing them to cherish every moment of it.


    It had been a while.


    Ren Xiaosu turned to Xu Ke and said with a smile, ¡°Do you have any strength left?¡±


    Xu Ke said with a wry smile, ¡°I should be able to kill a few more enemies.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s kill all of them.¡±


    Then screams came from both ends of the boulevard. It sounded like someone hadunched a surprise attack from both sides.


    Xu Ke¡¯s gaze pierced through the crowd, and he saw Old Li, Qin Sheng, and Zhang Qingxi arriving. But he was even more surprised to see Luo Yunxian and Huang Xiaoyu with them.


    The consortiums¡¯batants roared, ¡°We¡¯re under attack! Be careful, there¡¯s a sniper and Riders too!¡±


    Initially, this was a battle of ambushes and encirclement. But now, the hunters have be the hunted.


    Actually, ever since Yang Xiaojin arrived, the scales of victory had tipped towards them.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly dropped his human shield and strode towards the crowd of people. There were clearly enemies everywhere, but all of them ended up turning into a bloody mist first no matter where Ren Xiaosu went.


    At this moment, the consortiums¡¯ troops were hoping the supernatural beings could use their strong physiques to dodge the sniper¡¯s shots and finish off Ren Xiaosu.


    Although the supernatural beings were extremely quick, Ren Xiaosu was even faster!


    Some supernatural beings started jumping onto the rooftops of high-rise buildings in an attempt to close down on Yang Xiaojin. They intended to kill the sniper first.


    However, their path was blocked by White Mask, ¡°Old Xu.¡±


    No matter how hard these supernatural beings tried, ¡°Old Xu¡± was like a mountain blocking them. It could not be prated by guns, and its movements were demonically fast.


    The appearance of ¡°Old Xu¡± also gave Yang Xiaojin more assurance to pull the trigger without any worries.


    When she saw ¡°Old Xu¡± through her scope from the high-rise building, she almost thought he was a supernatural being she did not know. But when she saw the ck saber in Old Xu¡¯s hand, she understood it was actually Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow clone. It was just that Ren Xiaosu had thoroughly disguised the shadow clone as a person.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s smile widened. ¡°You¡¯ve be more cautious.¡±


    As she spoke, she fired another bullet.


    The enemies copsed one after another next to Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu looked more like he was taking a stroll than engaging in a fight to the death with the enemies.


    That strong sense of self-confidence did not originate from just himself but also from that girl atop the high-rise building.


    Although it was really hard to believe, it was a fact that all this chaos and overwhelming advantage the group had was because of this young man and young woman.


    Before this, it was really difficult for anyone to imagine there could be two people in this world who would trust each other and cooperate so well together.


    The young man strolled along the bloodstained boulevard without taking any defensive measures. But the strange thing was that no one was aiming their guns at him.


    The people who had pointed their guns at Ren Xiaosu were all dead.


    Xu Ke was following right behind Ren Xiaosu. He felt this young man in front of him must be the greatest poser he had ever seen in all his years. No one else came close.


    The consortiums¡¯batants tried countless times to reorganize their forces to counterattack. However, the sniper bullets seemingly had eyes and would keep targeting themanders directing the battle.


    For Yang Xiaojin, if all she could do was hit her targets with her shots, she would definitely not be considered a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user at all.


    A true Firearms Proficiency master would know exactly which targets to take out first and where their precise positions were.


    Yang Xiaojin had the entire battlefield in range from the roof of the high-rise building at the end of the boulevard. There were no blind spots, and no one could survive her attacks.


    As such, the consortiums¡¯ officers on the battlefield were killed one after another until there was no one left to give any orders.


    Although the consortiums¡¯ soldiers did not fear death, they could only fight individually without anyone to direct them.


    Ren Xiaosu walked towards a supernatural being unobstructed.


    He carried his sniper rifle and fired off shots one after another like an artillery attack.


    ¡°All of you have been surrounded.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed heartily and said, ¡°Put your weapons down and surrender.¡±


    It had been a very long time since he was this happy!


    The steam lotive started moving again, leaving the enemies on the boulevard a little flustered. They did not know when the bullets representing the Grim Reaper would descend upon them.


    This feeling of awaiting judgment was especially tormenting and dreadful.


    Gradually, some people started fleeing. However, Li Yingyun, Qin Sheng, and the Riders had already blocked their path.


    Especially Huang Xiaoyu. He cut his way through their enemies and forged a bloody path leading to Xu Ke.


    Xu Ke was stunned. ¡°Didn¡¯t you...¡±


    Huang Xiaoyu said calmly, ¡°I was only against protecting the Qinghe Group and getting involved with those disputes over fame and fortune. That didn¡¯t mean I¡¯m willing to watch you die.¡±


    Old Li roared in the distance, ¡°Stop chatting! I¡¯m injured all over! Hurry up ande help me!¡±

 Chapter 658 - The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind

    <h4>Chapter 658: The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind</h4>


    After so many years of nning by the consortiums and smuggling all these people into Luoyang City through coordination with the Xu n¡¯s renegades, they were all defeated in just a single day.


    Under the siege of the Riders, some of the supernatural beings fled their separate ways. If it were only a few Riders who had shown up here, they would not have left in such a hurry.


    But the garrison troops had already arrived at both ends of Wangchunmen Boulevard. The armored vehicles and heavy machine guns were not to be trifled with. No matter how powerful the supernatural beings were, there was no reason for them to go all out against the troops.


    Otherwise, they would not have gone through so much trouble and tried to capture Jiang Xu, Zhou Yingxue, and Hu Shuo.


    Second Brother Kong was sitting in the hidden residence. The lights in the living room were not on, his face shrouded in darkness.


    He suddenly said, ¡°Actually, we were all wrong. From the moment that superhuman from the Northwest appeared, we should¡¯ve withdrawn.¡±


    No one responded to him in the darkness. Everyone had fallen silent.


    Second Brother Kong was not a superhuman himself. He had only appeared here because he was in charge of the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence and field operations.


    He was also the first to make contact with the Xu n¡¯s rtives.


    It could be said that Second Brother Kong was the one who sparked off everything that happened at Luoyang City.


    The consortiums were well-prepared for this operation. Before embarking on it, they had even taken into ount the Pyro Company¡¯s strength.


    When the consortiums realized the Pyro Company did note to Qinghe¡¯s aid, they even felt a little relieved. This way, their n to take over the Qinghe Group would be much more secure.


    But they did not expect the arrival of a young man from the Northwest would actually disrupt all of their ns.


    From the moment they tried to attack Qinghe University to the failure of capturing Jiang Xu, it seemed that every step they took was wrong.


    A single wrong move affected all subsequent moves. Perhaps the root of their mistake was that everyone had underestimated the impact a superhuman could have on the world.


    Of course, they had also underestimated that superhuman¡¯s maidservant.


    While sitting in the dark living room, Second Brother Kong asionally had thoughts that if they did not send the operatives to attack the residence at Junmin Alley and the orphanage earlier, the current situation would have been a little more favorable for them.


    Second Brother Kong asked Wang Wenyan, who was sitting across from him, ¡°What¡¯s your Wang Consortium nning to do next? Will you follow through to the end and send your troops to attack Luoyang City or will you just ept defeat? And the Zhou Consortium, what are your next ns?¡±


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s representative said with a sneer, ¡°Second Brother Kong, are you trying to instigate the Central ins into starting a war? I¡¯m afraid that once the three consortiums assemble here at Luoyang City, no one can stop the war from happening.¡±


    At that time, it would not be as simple as seizing Luoyang City anymore. When the three consortiums¡¯ troops met, the mes of war would probably ignite across the entire Central ins.


    Second Brother Kong realized something was amiss. ¡°Wang Wenyan?¡±


    When he got up to turn on the lights, he realized Wang Wenyan had disappeared from the living room. There was only a ck mist on the sofa across from him that was maintaining the silhouette of a human figure. When Second Brother Kong reached out to touch it, the ck mist dissipated like a punctured balloon!


    Second Brother Kong was stunned on the spot. ¡°Where did Wang Wenyan go? He¡¯s actually a superhuman?!¡±


    All of them were sitting in the house just a moment ago, and Second Brother Kong was sure he did not hear anyone leaving through the door or windows. He did not even hear Wang Wenyan¡¯s footsteps, but that person had somehow disappeared into thin air.


    A secondter, the sofa Second Brother Kong was sitting on started to glow a fiery red. A bomb that had been nted in the room exploded loudly, and the entire building was engulfed in mes in the blink of an eye.


    At this moment, many other ces in Luoyang City were also burning in mes, so there was nothing too particr about this ce. There would just be a wait for the firefighters to arrive and put out the fire before discovering the corpses here in the residential building.


    The ck mist drifted into the air and towards the Qinghe Building like a ck scarf fluttering in the wind.


    In the darkness of the night, everyone thought it was just a small patch of dark clouds or did not notice it at all when the ck mist drifted past them.


    When it reached the outside of the Qinghe headquarters, the ck mist entered the building through the venttion system. As long as there were some gaps in the building, it would be impossible to stop it from getting in.


    The ck mist drifted rapidly through the venttion ducts before finally ending up in a room filled with electronic equipment on the 11th floor. Then the ck mist slowly ¡°solidified¡± into the figure of Wang Wenyan.


    He walked to a set of equipment with a smile and took out a ck, palm-sized device which he connected to the instrument¡¯s data port.


    A green light lit up on the ck, palm-sized device. Wang Wenyan could suddenly feel something had made its way into the entire Qinghe Building, as well as into those satellites, through this device.


    The lights in the Qinghe Building went off for a moment before immediately returning to normal. It was like the entire Qinghe Building had been ¡°rebooted.¡±


    Wang Wenyan did not stay around any longer. He turned into the ck mist again and left through the venttion system.


    The surveince footage of the entire building was about to be tampered with by an unknown force, and no one would discover that Wang Wenyan had been here.


    Actually, Second Brother Kong and that Zhou Consortium¡¯s representative were unaware that the Wang Consortium had no intention of taking Xu Ke hostage or capturing the Qinghe Building. Because they knew right from the beginning that there was actually no need for any fighting or killing if they wanted to take control of the satellites.


    Of course, if Xu Ke had been killed or if someone could help distract their enemies, that would even be better. But it did not matter that Xu Ke was still alive, as long as the Zhou Consortium and the Kong Consortium suffered many casualties.


    To the Wang Consortium, this operation was still extremely sessful.


    Although some of their elite soldiers and superhumans had also died, the Kong Consortium and the Zhou Consortium had taken more casualties.


    The remainder of the Wang Consortium¡¯s super humans had not gone to Wangchunmen Boulevard tonight. Instead, they took advantage of the chaos and left Luoyang City earlier in the night.


    The people who looked like superhumans at Wangchunmen Boulevard were just normal soldiers the Wang Consortium dressed up carefully to look like supernatural beings.


    This time, they not only wanted to seize the satellites but also weaken the strength of the Kong Consortium and Zhou Consortium.


    Therefore, everything that happened tonight was just like Wang Shengzhi¡¯s foreshadowing for the future.


    Second Brother Kong was right. A single wrong move affected all subsequent moves. The mistakes of the Kong Consortium and the Zhou Consortium had effectively started from today.


    A young woman in a ckbat uniform was standing atop a high-rise building next to Wangchunmen Boulevard. She was surrounded by a dozen paper cranes hovering around her.


    The woman in the ck cap quietly watched as the cap-wearing girl continued pulling the trigger from the roof of another building. She suddenly took off her ck cap and threw it into the wind, sending it flying off to somewhere.


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly sensed something and turned her head towards her aunt. They were looking at each other from the roofs of the two buildings. When the dark clouds in the sky dispersed, the crescent moon reappeared.


    Yang Xiaojin hesitated a little, but she did not say anything in the end. She turned around and ran downstairs, sprinting straight for Ren Xiaosu.


    And so, Yang Anjing was left standing alone on the roof of a high-rise building. No one knew what she was thinking.


    She looked at the Qinghe Building from afar and only left when she saw the lights in the entire building flicker off and light up again.

 Chapter 659 - I heard that you recently got a maid?

    <h4>Chapter 659: I heard that you recently got a maid?</h4>


    The battle was over. At the same time, the oue of the Battle of Wangchunmen Boulevard meant the monthlong chaos in Luoyang City hade to an end.


    However, Old Li, Xu Ke, and the others could not feel any joy when they saw how devastated Luoyang City had be.


    Not all of the consortiums¡¯ supernatural beings were annihted in this ce, with at least a third of them managing to escape. Old Li regretted this a little.


    In this battle, the Riders also realized their shorings. Although they were much stronger than most normal superhumans, the 12 of them were still unable to cope when it came down to protecting such arge stronghold.


    If Wu Dingyuan and Wen Meng had managed to rush back on time, it would probably have been much better. However, they were also held back by the enemy out in the wilderness.


    With shackles, there would also be weaknesses.


    When he was at Stronghold 74, Li Yingyun could just leave when the situation became impossible to handle. However, he could not do the same when it came to Luoyang City.


    It was not that the Riders had deep feelings for Luoyang City but that they could not abandon Xu Ke.


    Riders with no attachments to the world were truly terrifying. As a united group of 12 superhumans, even the consortiums would not dare to underestimate them.


    But once they were tied down by their responsibility to the stronghold, the Riders would not have any distinct advantage over others.


    Take Luo Yunxian for example. He had remained guard at the Qinghe Group¡¯s headquarters even when the crisis was unfolding. But upon learning Xu Ke was in danger, he finally stood down from his duty and went to his rescue. Throughout the entire battle, it could be said that Luo Yunxian did not really face any enemies at all.


    Many of the stronghold residents who worshipped the Riders always felt they were invincible and extremely powerful. But while that was what they wished for, reality did not concur.


    This was probably the reason why Huang Xiaoyu wanted the Riders to leave the Qinghe Grouppletely.


    At this moment, Xu Ke leaned against a wall and slowly sat down. He looked up at Huang Xiaoyu and asked, ¡°So you¡¯ve already considered this point. That¡¯s why you wanted the Riders to leave the Qinghe Group?¡±


    Huang Xiaoyu, who was standing next to him, said, ¡°Even if the Riders have to continue guarding the Qinghe Group, it should be done covertly. Do you understand what I mean? Once the enemy knows what you care about, you¡¯ve already lost. Actually, I have feelings for the Qinghe Group and Luoyang City as well. But with the world already in chaos, we can¡¯t gift others an opportunity to bring us down.¡±


    In Huang Xiaoyu¡¯s opinion, only when the Riders became a sword of Damocles above their enemies¡¯ heads would their enemies feel fear.


    If their enemies attacked Luoyang City again, the Riders would no longer be its guardian. Instead, they would avenge it. They could destroy Luoyang City as much as they liked, but they would have to face the fanatic retaliation of the 12 Riders in the aftermath. No matter which consortium it might be, they would definitely be afraid of this happening.


    In this era, you could not have anything that would tie you down. Even if you did, you couldn¡¯t let others know about it, and you would have to be ruthless as well.


    This was the point Huang Xiaoyu was trying to make.


    Xu Ke nodded. ¡°Then we can start making ns for that. I can¡¯t cut ties with the Qinghe Group for the time being, but I¡¯ll join up with you all in a year.¡±


    ¡°Do you n to hand over the Qinghe Group?¡± Huang Xiaoyu asked, ¡°Who are you gonna to give it to?¡±


    Xu Ke nced at Ren Xiaosu, then thought for a moment and said, ¡°To Xu Zhi.¡±


    ¡°Xu Zhi? That young man?¡± Huang Xiaoyu said with a frown, ¡°Surely he¡¯s not capable yet, right?¡±


    ¡°When I took over the Qinghe Group, I was also only 23 years old. Who would be capable right from the beginning?¡± Xu Ke said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll take him under my wing for a year. Other things aside, at least that kid has courage and determination. Did you hear of the time he got kidnapped? The kid straight-up told his kidnappers to kill him rather than giving in to their demands. Among the young ones, he¡¯s definitely the cream of the crop.¡±


    Huang Xiaoyu still felt it would be a little rash to hand the Qinghe Group over to Xu Zhi. After all, Xu Zhi was way too young.


    However, Xu Ke said with a sigh, ¡°It¡¯s mainly because there¡¯s no other suitable candidate. I... also want to achieve freedom like you all as soon as possible.¡±


    These were Xu Ke¡¯s heartfelt words. After this battle, he suddenly got the desire to travel across the famous mountains and great rivers with everyone. He did not want to be a tycoon who had to toil so hard for the stronghold. That was not Xu Ke¡¯s ambition in the slightest.


    If fame and fortune were his goals, he would not have been able to be a Rider.


    As Xu Zhi was too young, Xu Ke could not help but be a little worried too. But after the chaos this time, the internal ranks of the Qinghe Group had been thoroughly purged for good. The core members of the board were not severely affected either. On the contrary, the Qinghe Group might even end up bing more united than ever.


    As for whether Xu Zhi could manage the Qinghe Group well or not... who cared about that! He only owned 3% shares anyway.


    Right now, Xu Ke was also a little keen on cutting himself free from all ties.


    Running footsteps came from the end of the street. Everyone turned their gaze and was surprised to see a cap-wearing girl running towards Ren Xiaosu.


    When Yang Xiaojin ran past Old Li, Old Li tried to thank her. However, he realized she hadpletely ignored him.


    Yang Xiaojin was sprinting when she was far away. But by the time she approached, she slowed her pace. This reservation she was showing was very pure, and it was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen this reserved side of her.


    Xu Ke looked at his own injury and sighed, ¡°This fucking show of affection is the fucking worst! Why can¡¯t they spare a thought for us onlookers¡¯ feelings?¡±


    However, Qin Sheng urged, ¡°Brother Xiaosu, go over!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu walked to Yang Xiaojin with a smile, but he was stunned.


    Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks when he saw the ck barrel of the sniper rifle pointing at him from a short distance away.


    Yang Xiaojin calmly asked, ¡°I heard you recently got a maid and that she¡¯s very close to you?


    ¡°Huh?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned on the spot as he did not expect Yang Xiaojin to suddenly bring this up.


    <i>Bang!</i> A bullet nearly grazed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ear and nicked a lock of his hair. Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice harshened. ¡°I asked you a question!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu retreated bit by bit. ¡°Wait, let me exin...¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t wanna hear it!¡±


    Xu Ke was enjoying this. ¡®<i>What goes aroundes around! You deserve it for blustering!</i>¡®


    It was obviously such an intense and dangerous battlefield earlier, yet he could still say something like ¡°the person that I believe in is here¡±? Pshaw!


    As Yang Xiaojin approached step by step, pointing the muzzle of the sniper rifle at Ren Xiaosu, he retreated step by step. His back was drenched in sweat!


    Slowly, the two of them started running, with one chasing and the other retreating. As the sniper rifle rang out, Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Listen to me, it¡¯s really not what you think it is. She¡¯s not that close to me!¡±


    ¡°So you really do have a maid!¡± Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice also drifted over from in the distance.


    Their voices were getting farther away as they ran out of the stronghold.


    The couple who had just reunited immediately began a grand pursuit!


    Li Shentan was standing on the stronghold walls and watching this with delight. He said with a smile to Si Liren next to him, ¡°Our trip here wasn¡¯t made in vain. This is really fun to watch. So enjoyable! Such fun!¡±


    Of course, the Hope Media newspapers would not mention anything about the master-servant rtionship between Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue, but Li Shentan would!


    Si Liren saw with her own eyes how Li Shentan had written a sentence on the newspaper he gave to Yang Xiaojin. ¡°That mysterious young man in the limelighttely, the one who travels everywhere with his maid in tow, is none other than Ren Xiaosu.¡±

 Chapter 660 - He ran away just like that?

    <h4>Chapter 660: He ran away just like that?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Other people might not understand this awful hobby of Li Shentan¡¯s, but Si Liren knew very well that this brother of hers only liked dabbling in interesting matters.


    Moreover, she also enjoyed watching sadistic romance tropes like these. It was much more enjoyable than reading those romance novels!


    Si Liren watched with delight and even thought of flying out of the stronghold to see how Ren Xiaosu would get hunted down by Yang Xiaojin. However, Li Shentan stopped her.


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°We¡¯ll just have a look here. It¡¯s a little too much if we follow them as well. If these two suddenly get angry out of embarrassment and decide to attack us, wouldn¡¯t we be bringing trouble upon ourselves?¡±


    ¡°Then where do we go now?¡± Si Liren asked.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go to the orphanage to visit Grandpa!¡± Li Shentan said firmly.


    ¡°But weren¡¯t we supposed to head south to see the typhoons?¡± Si Liren asked.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to be so anxious about that. The typhoons will not arrive for a few more months.¡± Li Shentan exined, ¡°Let¡¯s go to the orphanage first and do some magic for the children to cheer them up!¡±


    ¡°Do magic for them?¡± Si Liren wondered.


    ¡°That¡¯s right! Think about it: If I do some magic for them, they¡¯ll definitely apud hard and worship me as their idol.¡± Li Shentan started fantasizing again.


    ¡°But, Big Brother Shentan, why do you always do whatever you like?¡± Si Liren said, curling her lips.


    Li Shentan said matter-of-factly, ¡°That¡¯s how all mental patients are!¡±


    ...


    Several of the Riders were sitting side by side at Wangchunmen Boulevard as they watched Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin disappear into the distance. Xu Ke sighed and said, ¡°How nice it is to be young. Meanwhile, we¡¯re already in our thirties...¡±


    ¡°Big Brother Xu Ke, I¡¯m only 18,¡± Qin Sheng said.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t talking about you.¡± Xu Ke snapped, ¡°Old Li, I think you all should... Old Li?¡±


    When Xu Ke turned his head, he was surprised to see Old Li was not even looking at him, nor did he hear what he just said. Old Li was staring hard at the stone bs on the street.


    Xu Ke stretched his hand out and waved it in Old Li¡¯s face. Only then did Li Yingyune back to his senses. Xu Ke saw a blur as Old Li threw himself to the ground and picked up something from the bloodstains.


    ¡°Old Li, what are you doing?¡± Huang Xiaoyu asked with a frown, ¡°Why¡¯re you acting like you¡¯ve gone crazy? Could it be that you were beaten up silly while fighting just now? You looked pretty agile there. If you¡¯re not tired,e and give me a hand....¡±


    But Old Li did not even notice him as he stared, fixated on the thing in his hand.


    ¡°Old Li!¡± Huang Xiaoyu said anxiously, ¡°What the hell are you doing?!¡±


    Li Yingyun turned around and looked at them. ¡°This is Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hair that fell on the ground.¡±


    Before this, Old Li and Qin Sheng had gone to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room to search for his hair on more than one asion, because they suspected Ren Xiaosu was the person they were looking for.


    But to Old Li¡¯s disappointment, they always returned empty-handed.


    It seemed that Ren Xiaosu did not have any hair loss worries that most normal people would face.


    Actually, even a normal person would asionally lose some hair in their daily lives as it was a normal phenomenon. However, Ren Xiaosu was not normal at all.


    It was just like how the gods in the legends attained transcendence.


    Later, Qin Sheng even followed Ren Xiaosu to Stronghold 61 with the same purpose. However, he still found nothing at all.


    Now that Yang Xiaojin had shot off a lock of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hair, Old Li could finally use it to extract his DNA for a test!


    A lot of people did not know the Qinghe Group still had the DNA sequence data of the founder stored here. This was the most important mission for the Qinghe Group. The Pyro Company had always wanted to obtain it, but the Qinghe Group never announced they had it to the public.


    Old Li finally managed to get his hands on some of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hair. However, everyone suddenly felt unsettled by this. It was like they were a group of students waiting for their exam results to be released.


    Huang Xiaoyu and the others stood up. ¡°Old Li, are you sure you saw it clearly? Is that really his hair?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure of it. I didn¡¯t even blink just now.¡± Old Li said firmly, ¡°Let¡¯s go back to the Qinghe headquarters. This is our utmost priority right now!¡±


    ¡°And what if he really is the one?¡± Zhang Qingxi said distantly from next to him, ¡°That Ren Xiaosu is even more powerful than we imagined, and it seems like he doesn¡¯t hunger for power. I suggest everyone think carefully about how to get along with him if he really is...¡±


    ...


    On that very night, Qin Sheng went to look for Zhou Yingxue. ¡°We¡¯ve arranged a new ce for you all to live at. The house is even more well-hidden than this one, and it¡¯s closer to Qinghe University as well.¡±


    The ce where Zhou Yingxue and the others were living right now was the home of an important member of the Qinghe Group, Yang Ruilin. This arrangement was made to provide Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group with a smokescreen on their arrival at the stronghold. Now that the matter was over, it would not be very nice to have Yang Ruilin continue staying at the hotel anymore. So Luo Yunxian vacated his vi to Zhou Yingxue and the others.


    In any case, the Riders were already nning to leave Luoyang City soon.


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Qin Sheng and wondered, ¡°Why are you here? Where¡¯s my master?¡±


    Qin Sheng hesitated for a moment. ¡°He left with Yang Xiaojin. Didn¡¯t anyone tell you?¡±


    Then Qin Sheng saw Zhou Yingxue, who was smiling, suddenly look like she had been struck by lightning.


    ¡°Eh?!¡± Zhou Yingxue flew into a rage. ¡°He ran away just like that? He didn¡¯t even tell me anything? Where did he go? Does he still remember that his maid is here?!¡±


    Qin Sheng said innocently, ¡°I¡ª¡±


    Zhou Yingxue ignored him and continued throwing a tantrum. ¡°How can he forget about his maid after reuniting with his wife? Is the maid not important at all? Huh? He should have at least said something! This is too much!¡±


    Qin Sheng was forced to flee.


    While Zhou Yingxue was throwing her tantrum, Qin Sheng suddenly felt the woman in front of him was extremely dangerous. He was so frightened his hair stood on end. It felt as though the stronghold was about to get destroyed in her rage.


    He could not understand why he got this feeling.


    Of course, Qin Sheng did not know that Zhou Yingxue was really capable of destroying a stronghold now.


    When Wang Yuchi and the others saw Zhou Yingxue walk back into the house, they quickly lowered their heads and started studying. They were afraid the woman would start venting her anger on them.


    While they were having dinner that evening, the expressions on Wang Yuchi and the others¡¯ faces changed. Zhou Yingxue must have poured all the salt in the house into the pot when she was cooking.


    Three dayster, Zhang Qingxi suddenly announced their separation from the Qinghe Group on behalf of the Riders. As this news was directly published by Hope Media, it gained widespread coverage.


    After this incident, Xu Ke was the only Rider that remained in the Qinghe Group. It was as though the two sides had fallen out.


    Before this, the consortiums had already noticed the Riders were divided. As such, it seemed inevitable this would happen now.


    However, the consortiums were still rtively cautious. A matter that was widely publicized like this might not be trustworthy.


    Immediately after, the Riders led by Zhang Qingxi joined up with Wu Dingyuan and Wen Meng before disappearing into the wilderness. All of a sudden, the consortiums had their guards up. They were all afraid the Riders wouldunch a retaliation attack on them.

 Chapter 661 - Statue

    <strong>Chapter 661: Statue</strong>


    Just as the consortiums had feared, not only did the Riders retaliate against them, but they also did it with precision.


    Some of the secret research bases of the three consortiums suffered varying degrees of damage. The Riders did not charge in recklessly like they had imagined. Instead, they destroyed them remotely with artillery fire.


    Although the underground fortifications of those bases were still intact, the Riders did not continue with the further destruction of the targets.


    As the Qinghe Group had been controlling the satellites for many years, they knew a lot of secrets. The consortiums had also decided to stir up trouble in Luoyang City precisely because they were concerned about this. They did not want an eye in the sky flying over their heads and spying on them.


    However, they did not manage to seize Luoyang City, and the n to eliminate the Riders was also unsessful, so all they could do now was take the beating.


    Of course, the Riders were not just relentlessly seeking revenge. They just thought that it would be good to cause the consortiums some pain and let them know the Riders were out and roaming the wilderness, so they had better not dare to get any ideas about Luoyang City again.


    If they really forced the consortiums into a corner, Luoyang City would still be the one at a disadvantage.


    Amid the bustle, Xu Zhi was walking alone on a small street. The holly trees on the sidewalk had grown very tall. He was here this time because he had found out about Zhou Yingxue¡¯s new address, so he wanted toe over and have a look.


    Xu Zhi had been searching for Zhou Yingxue for a long time. Now that he knew she was in Luoyang City and was aware of her address, there was no reason why he should not drop by.


    Xu Zhi walked to the entrance of the vi and looked at it silently. But before two minutes could pass, the door of the vi opened.


    He looked a little flustered as Zhou Yingxue came walking out with two bags of trash in her hands.


    Zhou Yingxue immediately recognized Xu Zhi. However, she frowned and asked, ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°I...¡± Xu Zhi was at a loss for words. ¡°I just wanted to thank you again. After all, you saved me before¡ª¡±


    ¡°C¡¯mon,¡± Zhou Yingxue interrupted, ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking. You should just go back. You¡¯re nothingpared to my master.¡± Then Zhou Yingxue handed the two trash bags to Xu Zhi. ¡°Turn left and walk a short distance. You¡¯ll see a dumpster there. Throw these away for me.¡±


    Then Zhou Yingxue went back into the house just like that!


    Xu Zhi stood outside the entrance in a daze for a while. He cut a sorry and pathetic figure holding two bags of trash in his hands.


    Then he smiled bitterly and walked off towards the Qinghe Building.


    This time, there was no one standing in his way. The security guard at the entrance even greeted him warmly.


    Xu Zhi rarely went to school these days. As he was already in his fourth year of university, he did not have any sses to attend. And now, Xu Ke had even made him the assistant to the Qinghe Group¡¯s president. Instantly, he became a rising star in the whole of Luoyang City, as well as a legend in school.


    As a matter of fact, the entire Luoyang City was dependent on the Qinghe Group and only existed because of it. As the assistant to the Qinghe Group¡¯s president, he held a lot of power.


    Although a position like that did not seem to have any real power, it was still a very prestigious one.


    However, Xu Zhi did not feel excited at all. He suddenly felt that his current achievements were totally not worth mentioning in front of Zhou Yingxue. All she had in her heart was her master.


    Even if her master had already run off with someone else....


    He took the elevator up. He had taken the documents from his desk to report to Xu Ke, ¡°The reconstruction work is already underway, and Director Yang Ruilin has given us an update of the time frame for the rebuilding project. The specific task breakdown will be delivered to us in the afternoon, and I will follow up on this matter personally...¡±


    Xu Ke stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and listened. When Xu Zhi finished reporting, he asked, ¡°Do you know why I suddenly appointed you as my assistant?¡±


    Xu Zhi shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°Guess.¡±


    Xu Zhi gave it some thought and said, ¡°Was it because I made the correct choice right near the end?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Xu Ke shook his head with a smile. ¡°Your choice was not important. It was your courage that mattered.¡±


    Xu Zhi was a little puzzled. Xu Ke patted him on the shoulder and walked off towards the elevator. ¡°In this era, one needs to possess both drive and courage, and you have both of these qualities. Come, follow me outside for a while. The two custom-made statues should be fabricated after we rushed for it to bepleted.¡±


    It was Xu Zhi¡¯s character that Xu Ke valued.


    Their vehicle drove all the way to Wangchunmen Boulevard, where it was already packed with countless people. It was as though everyone was gathered here for some exciting event.


    Xu Zhi had just taken the job and was still unsure of what was going on here.


    Xu Ke was the first to step out of the car. When the crowd saw Xu Ke arrive, they immediately made way for him. Regardless of whether others acknowledged Xu Ke, at least the residents of Luoyang City felt he was a good person who treated everyone well.


    Two statues covered by a red cloth stood in the middle of the boulevard. The garrison troops were standing guard next to them and waiting for Xu Ke toe and unveil the sculpture.


    Rumors of these two statues had been flying around from very early on. It was first spread from the sculptor who said these statues were of the two people who had saved Luoyang City during Qinghe¡¯s moment of crisis.


    During this period, stories of the crisis in Luoyang City were being spread around in the stronghold¡¯s bars until they became nearly legendary.


    After all, residents lived on both sides of Wangchunmen Boulevard. Most of the residents just hid at home and did not even dare to look out their windows during the chaos. But as it turned out, there were those who were bolder who managed to witness the entire thing.


    As a result, the events of how Xu Ke faced the enemies alone and killed seven or eight of them, how Ren Xiaosu came alone to Xu Ke¡¯s aid, and how the appearance of a mysterious sniper helped them dominate the battlefield, all of those stories immediately became the stuff of legend!


    Xu Ke walked up to the statues and pulled away the red cloth.


    One of the statues was of a girl wearing a cap with short hair that reached her shoulders. She was carrying a sniper rifle on her shoulder, making her look extremely domineering.


    The onlookers immediately realized this must be the legendary sniper who dominated the battlefield.


    It was a little stranger on the other side of the sculpture. Half of the young man¡¯s body was visible outside steel armor, while the other half was enclosed within. It was like the armor had been damaged after a brutal battle.


    The scene the sculpture depicted had an extraordinarily tragic feel to it.


    However, what the two statues had inmon was that Yang Xiaojin was wearing a cap while Ren Xiaosu was wearing a hood. Their faces were hidden in shadow and could not be seen clearly at all.


    Some peoplemented, ¡°That girl must be very beautiful, right? Why did the sculptor sculpt her with a cap on for?¡±


    In the crowd of onlookers, a group of students were stunned. Others might not be able to see their faces clearly, but Ren Xiaosu¡¯s steel armor and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s cap were way too unique. It was so unique they could immediately tell this was their ssmate, Yang Xiaojin!


    As for the other statue, wasn¡¯t that the young man who stood in for Zheng Hang in ss? Zheng Hang was still crying now as he could no longer skip any of Jiang Xu¡¯s sses in the future. Furthermore, when Jiang Xu asked any questions in ss these days, he would always pick Zheng Hang to answer them.


    Earlier, everyone was still specting if Yang Xiaojin was also a supernatural being since that young man was one.


    And these spections were finally confirmed today. A student sighed and said, ¡°To them, we truly do lead a very pampered life. It¡¯s said they killed more than a hundred enemies that day. People like them... are not from the same world as us.¡±


    Xu Zhi looked at the sculpture and suddenly felt Ren Xiaosu was at a level he would probably never reach in his lifetime.

 Chapter 662 - Business deals in the grasslands

    Chapter 662: Business deals in the grasnds


    At the border between the Northern ins and the Central ins, a group of refugees were sitting by the Shenmu River with a campfire burning next to them.


    This ce was located at the northern edge of the Wang Consortium and bordered the grasnds. However, there were barely any signs of human activity here since the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops rarely patrolled the area.


    A group of people had gathered around the campfire to keep themselves warm. The clothes they were wearing clearly had a lot of patching, and it did not look like they were frequently washed either. These people were even carrying improvised firearms with them, so it was obvious they were bandits who lived in the wilderness throughout the year.


    A rat-faced middle-aged man said, ¡°Boss, do you think they¡¯re gonna appear? The set date has passed.¡±


    ¡°I dunno.¡± A burly, middle-aged man rubbed his hands together. ¡°Who knows what¡¯s going on in the grasnds? I heard that it¡¯s quite chaotic over there as well. Some of the smaller tribes have been wiped out just like that.¡±


    ¡°Then should we keep waiting? We¡¯ve already been waiting for two days.¡± The rat-faced middle-aged man cursed and said, ¡°If the goods that they bring here ain¡¯t as good as they im, we¡¯ll have wasted a trip.¡±


    ¡°Wang Ergou, can you stop mouthing off for a moment? I¡¯ve been listening to your nagging for the past two days. If you don¡¯t wanna wait, you can go back by yourself,¡± said a man in the group who then spat on the ground.


    The leader of the bandits did not say anything further. He had been waiting here for two days, not because of his integrity or anything, but because he would soon be unable to make ends meet.


    They lived in the Central ins along the route leading to the Northwest, but the trade route between the Northwest and the Central ins had been cut off for an indefinite number of years. The bandits who used to live gloriously were now forced to farm every day, and it felt really degrading to them.


    Although they heard the trade route was going to reopen, it still wasn¡¯t open yet, right? They had encountered several merchant groups and wanted to rob them. But the merchant groups that could travel between the Northwest and the Central ins at the moment were all big-time merchants who were equipped with much better weapons than them.


    And he was a smart person. Who were the ones running the trade route? Fortress 178!


    Fortress 178 was different from the consortiums. If the bandits continued plundering the merchant groups in the future, those damn fucks from Fortress 178 might just disregard everything ande to exterminate them all.


    The leader of these bandits thought that since there were risks in continuing as bandits, maybe he could take advantage of the situation and start a business as well.


    But what kind of business could he do? He had no goods on hand.


    Therefore, when a nomad riding a horse arrived from the north and said he wanted to do business with them, this bandit leader named Su Lei was immediately tempted.


    That nomad rode in on a rugged and muscr horse and said they had a lot of fur hides harvested from the prey they hunted in the grasnds, as well as beef and mutton they could trade.


    These items, be it in the Northwest or the Central ins, were all very scarce!


    Fur coats, in particr, were one of the favorite items of the aristocrats in the strongholds. It was the same reason why exotic meat was so in demand. If you could wear a beautiful fur coat that was obtained from the wilderness, you would be the most dazzling presence at a banquet.


    Of course, Su Lei only heard about this from others and did not see it with his own eyes.


    But in the towns of the Zong Consortium¡¯s strongholds, it was true that the grocery store owners there would often take in fur coats from people selling them.


    No, wait! Those strongholds were now under Fortress 178¡¯s control.


    The Shenmu River was very shallow, and due to the cold weather, it had frozen over.


    There also had to be a reason why nomadic tribes always chose to travel south during the winter, and part of the reason was probably because they could cross rivers.


    While the leader of the bandits, Su Lei, was deep in thought, he suddenly heard the faint sound of horses gallopinging from afar. He looked up and was surprised to see a group of peopleing towards them on the surface of the frozen river. They were led by a young man at the front.


    Su Lei stood up. ¡°I¡¯m Su Lei. You people arete.¡±


    The young man on the horse said with a smile, ¡°Good things always arrive a littlete. We¡¯ve brought a lot of fur hides with us. There¡¯s a ton, and they¡¯re all in great condition too! Did y¡¯all bring what we asked for?¡±


    Su Lei thought of something he found very odd. Based on what he knew, the northern nomadic tribes should be trading for items such as salt or weapons. But strangely, the other party had specifically requested tea leaves, cabbage, coriander, onions, ginger, garlic, pepper, and other seasonings instead.


    And of course, they also asked for some antibiotics and ironware. However, the ironware they requested were just pots and pans rather than weapons like knives and swords.


    Su Lei said, ¡°We¡¯ve kept the goods a few kilometers away from here. We need to be sure of your sincerity before we bring you to retrieve them.¡±


    The few dozen people behind Su Lei quietly sized up the young man and the hundreds of burly men behind him. These people were all riding on tall horses and following close behind the young man.


    The young man smiled at Su Lei and responded, ¡°Send your men over to inspect the goods.¡±


    Su Lei looked at the rat-faced middle-aged man and signaled for him to inspect the goods, but thetter shrank back.


    Instead, the man who had reprimanded this middle-aged man took the initiative and stepped towards the nomads.


    The young man looked at the man and praised, ¡°You¡¯re quite brave. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    Su Lei suddenly felt the young man had an air of confidence like he was superior. The man did not mind and answered normally, ¡°Cui Qiang!¡±


    During the exchange, the man walked up to the nomads. He was surprised to see the people were carrying piles of fur hides on horseback.


    Cui Qiang reached out and checked the fur hides. They were in such good condition that even the best hunters in the Central ins could achieve this quality of fur. There were no bullet holes, and only two small punctures that looked like teeth marks. It was as though they had been bitten to death by wolves.


    If the fur hides here were sold to the Northwest or the Central ins, they would definitely make a fortune. It would be best if they could sell them to the Central ins where the people were wealthier!


    Cui Qiang checked for half an hour before he finally stopped. He turned around and shouted at Su Lei, ¡°There¡¯s no problems.¡±


    Su Lei took a deep breath and said to the young man, ¡°Follow me. I¡¯ll lead you to where the goods are stored. Vegetables, ironware, medicine, we have them all¡±


    The young man smiled happily. ¡°When I saw that you didn¡¯t have any goods with you, I thought that you were nning to take our stuff without giving anything in return. Since you¡¯re sincere about making a deal with our tribe, you¡¯ve made a very wise decision this time.¡±


    While speaking, Su Lei realized the young man did not seem to be afraid of their guns at all. But these nomads were clearly not carrying any firearms, so where did their confidencee from?


    After all, no matter how improvised a gun was, a gun was still a gun.


    As Su Lei led the way, he wondered, ¡°Why didn¡¯t y¡¯all ask for things like weapons and chose instead to get so much of these daily necessities?¡±


    The young manughed. ¡°You make it sound like you can get us weapons if we ask for them.¡±


    His reply was full of sarcasm, but Su Lei was really unable to refute him. If he could get his hands on better weapons, they would not have to run around carrying these improvised guns.


    The young man looked at Su Lei and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t mind me, I was just stating the facts. After this transaction, you¡¯ll slowly start getting richer. By that time, it won¡¯t be toote for us to trade other goods.¡±


    Su Lei was stunned. He realized this young man was actually looking to cooperate long term with him.


    The other party did not ask for guns now because he knew that Su Lei and his men could not get their hands on any either.


    But even though he could not get them now, it did not mean he could not get them in the future.

 Chapter 663 - Looking to the future

    <h4>Chapter 663: Looking to the future</h4>


    The young man rode slowly on his horse with Su Lei following beside him. After a full five kilometers, the young man finally saw the goods Su Lei and the others had piled up in the dip of a hill.


    However, the young man frowned. ¡°Is that all?¡±


    He got down from his horse and circled the goods. They were mostly vegetables while the medicine was pitifully little. There were also not many ironware items to be seen but a lot of seasonings like scallions, ginger, and garlic.


    In conclusion, most of the items were not valuable at all.


    Nearby, Su Lei exined, ¡°We were a little rushed, so we only managed to get these items. You live in the grasnds and have never been to the south before, so you might not know that the supplies in the south are not as readily avable as you think. It was very difficult to even get ahold of these things.¡±


    The young man looked at Su Lei with a half-smile. He grasped what was going on. ¡°I¡¯m guessing that you didn¡¯t have the money to buy what I asked for?¡±


    Su Lei immediately felt embarrassed. ¡°How could that be? I¡¯m telling the truth.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± The young man did not expose him further. Instead, he said bluntly, ¡°We don¡¯t have any shared currency between us, so let¡¯s just barter instead. How do you propose to trade?¡±


    Su Lei thought for a moment and said, ¡°As you can see, the people in the south are actually also very poor. Even if you give me your stock of fur hides, I can¡¯t sell them for a good price. In this day and age, food is still the most valuable of all.¡±


    On the way here, Su Lei had thought of how to bargain. It would be nothing more than bullying the northern nomads for not knowing the situation in the Central ins and making them think their fur hides were worthless. Then he would jack up the value of the tea leaves, medicine, ironware, and vegetables he was holding. With that, he would make a killing for sure!


    The young man did not refute him. Instead, he continued listening to Su Lei¡¯s nonsense with great interest. ¡°It¡¯s not like the Central ins is cold, so there¡¯s no point in wearing a fur coat like that. But ironware is really hard to find around here. Do you know how much this pot is worth?¡±


    The young man said with a smile, ¡°900 yuan?¡±


    Su Lei was taken aback, as the young man had urately stated the value of the iron pot.


    Of course, the price he had said was still not urate enough. Although the avability of iron goods was quite scarce these days, after Fortress 178 took over the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory, many of the daily necessities previously controlled by the Zong Consortium had started dropping in price. Currently, the price of an iron pot was just 800 yuan.


    But a month ago, an iron pot was still selling for over 900 yuan.


    Su Lei suddenly realized the young man in front of him probably had knowledge of the south!


    Su Lei stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s forget about this iron pot for now. You should also know that as long as a person is alive, they definitely need to take medicine at some point, right? Who doesn¡¯t suffer from headaches and fevers? Many people end up dying after running a fever, so the price of medicine has always been very high. Guess how much an antibiotic pill like this costs?¡±


    The young man said with a smile again, ¡°200 yuan?¡±


    Su Lei was speechless. It might have been a coincidence the young man got the price right the first time, but getting it correct a second time was definitely not.


    ¡°How do you know the prices of these items?¡± Su Lei was puzzled. Could it be that a traitor had defected from the South to the grasnds?


    Who could have leaked the info?!


    However, the young man said with a smile, ¡°OK, the most expensive items you have here are these few dozen antibiotic tablets and ironware. I can tell that you must¡¯ve spent a lot of money to purchase them. As for the vegetables, they aren¡¯t worth much. Although the strongholds regte the distribution of grain, they don¡¯t do so for vegetables. The refugees themselves are allowed to grow vegetables in the wilderness. I¡¯m guessing that these vegetables were also nted by you guys.¡±


    Su Lei felt a little helpless, but he still wanted to continue bargaining. ¡°The price of the fur hides¡ª¡±


    ¡°To show you my sincerity, all of the fur hides that we brought this time are the best-looking ones,¡± the young man interrupted with a smile. ¡°These items can go for at least three to four thousand yuan each at the store in town.¡±


    Su Lei was at aplete loss for words. He was still thinking he could cheat the northern nomads. After all, in the eyes of the Southerners, the nomads did not seem very smart and were especially gullible.


    Moreover, didn¡¯t everyone say that in the course of human history, the Central ins¡¯ people had always been able to cheat the nomads from the grasnds when it came to doing business? So why didn¡¯t it work when it was their turn?


    Now that he thought about it again, although the young man was wearing a nomad¡¯s robe, his way of speaking and acting was not too different from the Southerners.


    It was just that Su Lei had never seen a nomad before, so he did not know how to differentiate between them.


    Su Lei looked at the group of horsemen behind the young man. He estimated he could probably only trade for 10% of the fur hides they brought this time. Or maybe he would not even have enough to get 10%.


    The young man consoled him, ¡°You don¡¯t have to feel depressed. Of course I won¡¯t do business with you based on the prices offered in town. After all, everyone is trying to make a profit here. That¡¯s the only way we can look forward to future dealings, right?¡±


    Su Lei perked up. ¡°Then how do you propose to bargain?¡±


    ¡°How about this? You can sell these fur hides to the stronghold for at least three to four thousand yuan each, but I¡¯ll only charge you at a unit price of 2,000 yuan, so I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll have to get into detail about the profits. As for these items of yours, I¡¯ll buy them at the market rate. Furthermore, I¡¯ll also let you have another 50 fur hides on credit to fund your supply run. This way, you won¡¯t have wasted a trip, right? Just bring me a 100,000 yuan worth of goods on the same day next month.¡±


    Su Lei was overjoyed. Although it was much less than what he had expected to earn, this oue was by no means not a profit!


    Moreover, for the other party to let him have 50 fur hides on credit, it was as though someone had stuffed a pillow under his head as he was dozing off. What did heck now? Wasn¡¯t it capital?


    However, Su Lei was a little puzzled. ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that I¡¯ll take all 50 of your fur hides and run away?¡±


    After all, these fur hides were worth over a 100,000 yuan total.


    The young man smiled and said, ¡°You were already willing to travel several hundred kilometers to meet me, so I believe that you¡¯re not a shortsighted person. If you run your business honestly, you¡¯ll probably be able to earn ten or a hundredfold more than what these 50 fur hides are worth. I¡¯ll leave you to consider the pros and cons of this for yourself.¡±


    Of course, this was also because things like fur hides were not worth much to the young man. He had plenty of them back where he came from!


    A business deal that suddenly came about was quicklypleted. The nomads behind the young man loaded the goods Su Lei and his gang had brought up onto their horses and left in high spirits.


    One thing to be unhappy about was how they had to bring back most of the fur hides they had transported here. After all, Su Lei and his gang were too poor and had brought too few goods to trade with.


    On the way back, a man said guiltily to the young man, ¡°Master, the person I sent out was too ipetent. I didn¡¯t expect him to have found such poor bandits to do business with.¡±


    The young man said with a smile, ¡°Hassan, you don¡¯t have to be too concerned about this short-term loss. I believe that this group of people will surprise us next month. We have to look further into the future. Right now, he¡¯s just a small-time bandit, but one day, he¡¯ll be a sessful businessman. When that timees, I¡¯ll be able to get some automatic rifles for y¡¯all to y with. Y¡¯know, there¡¯s quite a lot of arm dealers in the south. The other tribes in the grasnds are still stuck at the level of asionally raiding the Central ins for their supplies. But actually, doing business is the surest way of securing the livelihoods of the nomads. I won¡¯te here next month. I¡¯ll leave this matter to you in the future, so you can just bring some people along with you to carry out the deals.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master,¡± Hassan answered respectfully. ¡°Master, can you get the wolves to escort me then?¡±


    The young manughed out loud. ¡°Hassan, don¡¯t be afraid of those people. I¡¯ll have the wolves apany you, but they won¡¯t show themselves if there¡¯s no danger. I don¡¯t want us scaring away these new ¡®friends¡¯ of ours.¡±

 Chapter 664 - Pyro in the grasslands

    <h4>Chapter 664: Pyro in the grasnds</h4>


    After Yan Liuyuan, Hassan, and the others left, Su Lei, who had stopped in the distance, heaved a sigh of relief. The transaction this time was way too important to him.


    Yan Liuyuan was right just now. He really did put together everything he had in order to purchase those goods. He even needed to sell off a small gold bar he treasured to raise the money.


    Thest gold bar on a bandit was hidden in his waistband. When the bandit¡¯s life was threatened, this gold bar would act as his lifeline.


    Of course, only the more sessful bandits could afford to keep a gold bar hidden in their waistbands.


    This small gold bar weighed about 50 grams and was passed down from his grandfather¡¯s generation. Su Lei had inherited it from his father, but he did not expect it would be gone in his generation.


    The money he had raised for today was Su Lei¡¯sst bit of wealth. All of it had been used to purchase the medicine and ironware. If Yan Liuyuan had not shown up today, Su Lei would have had to go back to town and set up a stall there.


    The people in the walled vige did not understand why Su Lei would take such a risk.


    But to be honest, Su Lei really felt that the opening of the Northwestern trade route was an opportunity for everyone. Whether they could seize it or not would depend on themselves.


    At this moment, Wang Ergou, who was standing next to Su Lei, instigated, ¡°Boss, I¡¯ve been watching them closely. Those people don¡¯t even have any guns on them and are only using sabers to defend themselves. We have three improvised guns here. Although they have more people, we have nothing to be afraid of since we have guns. How about finishing them off?¡±


    When this person saw the fur hides Yan Liuyuan had brought with him, he started coveting the goods. After all, 90% of the fur hides had been taken back by Yan Liuyuan.


    And that 90% was worth nearly a million yuan!


    It suddenly quieted down among the bandits. Su Lei looked at Wang Ergou. ¡°After we steal it, then what?¡±


    ¡°The one million yuan is enough for all of our men to not have to worry about food and drink for the rest of our lives. Boss, let¡¯s do this,¡± he replied.


    Su Leiughed and said, ¡°My ambition isn¡¯t easily satisfied with just a million yuan.¡±


    With that, Su Lei led the group back towards the South. Their vige stood along the route to the Northwest from the Central ins.


    On the way back, Su Lei found an opportunity and ordered Cui Qiang, ¡°After we return to the vige, find a chance to finish off Wang Ergou quietly.¡±


    Cui Qiang was stunned for a moment as he looked at Su Lei. He seemed to be very puzzled by this decision but ultimately did not reject it. He just nodded and agreed to do so.


    Su Lei gave him a look and said with a smile, ¡°That Wang Ergou is way too good at stirring up trouble. That time he fought the people from Hexi Vige, wasn¡¯t it because he tried to hook up with the wife of their second-inmand? And he didn¡¯t even seed at hooking up with her! If we wish to start taking the right path in the future, we can¡¯t keep someone like him around.¡±


    Perhaps Su Lei could have chosen to give Wang Ergou some money so he would leave their vige and go make a living for himself. However, Su Lei was worried someone like him would be resentful ande back to cause unnecessary trouble for him.


    Therefore, he thought they might as well just kill him.


    Su Lei was a bandit who risked his life daily doing what he did. He was very polite in front of Yan Liuyuan, but he would not hesitate when he needed to kill people.


    Now that Su Lei wanted to change their group¡¯s direction, a person like Wang Ergou could not be allowed to live.


    Cui Qiang did not say anything. He was only a fighter, so there was no need for him to think too much about it. Besides, he had already disliked Wang Ergou for a long time, so what if he killed him?


    ...


    It only took Yan Liuyuan two days to return to the tribe with Hassan. The horses they rode on were all very fast and had evolved in the steppe to be like the mythical horses in the storytellers¡¯ tales. When the horses ran, the sweat on their bodies would form white mist in the cold air.


    The first thing Yan Liuyuan did when he returned to the tribe was to ask Xiaoyu to cook a small pot of cabbage for him.


    Hassan watched with his jaw hanging from off to the side. He realized his master was eating the cabbage with a blissful smile on his face.


    ¡°Master, is it that delicious?¡± Beside him, Tsetseg was watching this as well. As Hassan¡¯s daughter, she would spend most of her time in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s tent every day. This was something Hassan had instructed her to do.


    However, she would not disturb Yan Liuyuan when he was deep in thought. She would just apany him and stare into space together. Although Yan Liuyuan would always spend hours thinking each time, she did not feel bitter at all.


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and looked at Tsetseg. ¡°You can have some if you want.¡±


    When Tsetseg heard that, she reached out and tried to grab some of the cabbage with her hand. Yan Liuyuan shook his head with a wry smile. ¡°Didn¡¯t I teach you how to use chopsticks? Here, use the chopsticks to eat.¡±


    Tsetseg had a reluctant look on her face. ¡°Master, are you unhappy because we look too barbaric eating with our hands?¡±


    Before The Cataclysm, the nomads in the north had started using chopsticks to eat their meals. But after The Cataclysm, it was clear that using hands was more in line with their cultural habits as it was more convenient.


    Yan Liuyuan shook his head and said, ¡°Some people might think that I despise y¡¯all for being barbaric when I made everyone in the tribe use chopsticks to eat. But the purpose of using chopsticks is actually for the sake of hygiene. Y¡¯all don¡¯t know how much bacteria is on your hands, and y¡¯all don¡¯t have the habit of frequently washing them either. It¡¯s also one of the reasons why children in the tribe often die young.¡±


    Tsetseg suddenly remembered something. ¡°By the way, the child from Bohan¡¯s family fell sick. But he recovered immediately after taking the medicine that you brought back from the South. It¡¯s such a miracle.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nodded and said, ¡°Although we brought back some medicine from the South this time, we still have to be careful about hygiene. This includes my rule that everyone in the tribe is not allowed to drink unboiled water. The reason we have to boil it before drinking is also because of this.¡±


    Tsetseg looked at Yan Liuyuan in admiration. ¡°So there¡¯s actually so many reasons for this? Master, why do you know so much?¡±


    Tsetseg watched Yan Liuyuan¡¯s expression darken. ¡°It was my brother who taught me all of this.¡±


    ¡°You still have a brother?¡± Tsetseg was like a cheerful little bird, but Yan Liuyuan did not answer her question. Instead, he asked her to go back to her mother¡¯s side.


    Tsetseg understood that Yan Liuyuan wanted to be left alone for a while.


    Right as Tsetseg lifted the tent p, Yan Liuyuan saw some people approaching from afar through the lifted door curtain.


    He walked out of the tent and waited quietly outside. There were a lot of people on the other side, and they were all dressed in ck. It was obvious they were from the Central ins.


    Hassan asked, ¡°Master, should we intercept them?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t act rashly. Tell everyone to keep their mouths shut. I¡¯ll handle it.¡± Yan Liuyuan took a deep breath. In truth, he had never dealt with people from the Central ins before, so he would have to improvise on how to deal with them.


    Gradually, the figures in the distance got closer. The other party had arrived on foot and were armed with sabers at their waists.


    Hassan shouted for the young and strong men in the tribe to be on guard.


    But when Yan Liuyuan eventually saw the me logo on the chests of the other party, his pupils constricted.


    This group of nearly a 100 that hade to the Northern ins were actually from the Pyro Company!


    Xiaoyu looked somewhat nervously at Yan Liuyuan. Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°Let¡¯s ask why they¡¯re here first. At worst, we¡¯ll just fight them.¡±

 Chapter 665 - Zhou Yingxue the liar

    <h4>Chapter 665: Zhou Yingxue the liar</h4>


    To the northwest of the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory and inside a forest that spanned over a 100 kilometers in the wilderness, Ren Xiaosu was carefully making his way alone across the mountain ridges.


    The forest next to him was already full of dead branches. In the harsh winter weather, Ren Xiaosu could see the snow mixed together with rotten leaves.


    He washed his face at a stream. The stream was so clear he could see the bottom of it. The cold water made Ren Xiaosu shudder, and he sobered up a lot.


    Ren Xiaosu thought, ¡®<i>The stream isn¡¯t even frozen in this season, so it¡¯s probably flowing down from a hot spring upstream, right?</i>¡® He had not taken a bath in seven days and seven nights, so he was wondering if he should go up to the hot spring to take a bath there.


    During these seven days and nights, he had been chased for more than 700 kilometers. He was really starting to find it a little unbearable!


    But before he could think further, a gunshot rang out in the distance. A bullet suddenly hit the stream in front of him, shattering the rocks within and sshing water all over him.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to cry. Why did that girl have such a bad temper? He and Zhou Yingxue were really innocent. He even put on gloves when they entered Stronghold 61 together back then!


    But he did not have time to think too much. He turned around and went back into the forest again.


    After Ren Xiaosu went away, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s figure slowly appeared from the forest. She walked up to the stream and slowly washed her face. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that it was too cold in this season, she would even liked to have washed her hair.


    ¡°What a silly fool,¡± Yang Xiaojin muttered to herself. All she needed was an apology, but she ended up being made to chase after him for more than 700 kilometers.


    To be honest, it was not only Ren Xiaosu who was finding it rather unbearable. Even she could not take it anymore.


    However, she absolutely could not admit defeat. Otherwise, if that boy were to take in a few more maidservants in the future, who was she going to reason with, huh?


    When Yang Xiaojin was still attending Qinghe University, she had heard about the story of that mysterious young man and his maidservant. Yang Xiaojin really did not expect Ren Xiaosu would actually do something like that when they had only been separated for such a short while!


    A decent-looking person like him actually turned out to be such a yer?!


    With this thought, Yang Xiaojin got up again and decisively walked across the stream. Her footwear were excellent waterproofbat boots. But after seven days of chasing, the soles of her boots were almost worn out.


    After entering the forest, Yang Xiaojin calmly examined the ground.


    It was past the snowy season, so Ren Xiaosu¡¯s footprints were clearly left on the ground. She was not worried she would lose track of him.


    But as she walked on, Yang Xiaojin suddenly stopped, because the footprints on the ground had disappeared!


    While she was taken aback by this discovery, a sniper rifle went off in the distance. A bullet was fired andnded straight at her feet. The bullet prated the soft, dposing leaves and soil, leaving the hole in the ground smoking...


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s eyebrows twitched under her cap. You were in the wrong for taking in a maid, yet you still dare to retaliate?!


    Thinking this, Yang Xiaojin picked up her sniper rifle and went after Ren Xiaosu in the direction of the mountain.


    Gradually, the temperature in the atmosphere seemed to increase by several degrees. The vegetation on the mountainside even started turning green. They had not withered due to winter at all.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s footprints reappeared. Yang Xiaojin sneered and continued her chase up the mountain.


    Suddenly, the meandering mountain path stopped, and there was tnd on the mountainside filled with warm pools.


    The pools emitting hot steam in the winter looked like an enchantednd.


    And at the edge of a pool, there was a bunch of white flowers.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s eyebrows twitched again. This sight was really a little unexpected. It hadpletely caught her off guard. She really did not expect Ren Xiaosu would suddenly have such a trick up his sleeve after chasing him around for seven days.


    Besides, Ren Xiaosu did not seem like a person who knew how to send flowers!


    ¡°Alright,e on out. I know you¡¯re here,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu came out from behind the dense steam. ¡°You¡¯re not angry anymore?¡±


    ¡°Where did you pick the flowers in the middle of winter?¡± asked Yang Xiaojin nonchntly, not answering his question.


    ¡°The temperature around this hot spring is quite high. Not only are the nts not wilting, they¡¯ve even bloomed.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°I led you here mainly because I felt that both of us must have gotten really dirty after running around in the wilderness for seven days. When I saw that the stream at the foot of the mountain was not frozen, I realized that there had to be a hot spring up here. So I thought that maybe we... maybe you could take a bath here....¡±


    Yang Xiaojin secretly rolled her eyes. Putting all else aside, Ren Xiaosu was still as wishy-washy as ever.


    She nced at Ren Xiaos. ¡°I¡¯ll forgive you this time.¡±


    Actually, girls were very easy to appease most of the time. What they wanted was not a specific oue but an attitude.


    It wasn¡¯t that Yang Xiaojin insisted on hunting down Ren Xiaosu, but it was just that Ren Xiaosu did not seem like he had any intention of apologizing at all. This made her even angrier as she chased after him. It was clearly Ren Xiaosu who had taken in the maidservant, but in the end, it was as though she were the one being unreasonable.


    ¡°Step aside, and don¡¯t peek,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°OK, alright,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he walked down the slope. He sat on the slope with his back facing the hot spring and said, ¡°Not all hot springs are suitable for bathing in, but I¡¯ve already checked this one. There¡¯s no problem with the water here, so it¡¯s very safe.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin asked nonchntly, ¡°What¡¯s the name of that maid of yours?¡±


    As she was asking, she kept staring in the direction of Ren Xiaosu to see if he was peeking at her. She waited a long time before finally getting into the water.


    ¡°Zhou Yingxue,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied. ¡°You probably know her too, right?¡±


    ¡°Zhou Yingxue?¡± Yang Xiaojin was clearly taken aback. ¡°Why is it her? Isn¡¯t she supposed to be in the Southwest?¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°after Stronghold 88 was destroyed, she went to the Central ins. At first, she said that she wanted to make money to treat her mother¡¯s illness. Butter on, I realized that she had lied to me when I found out her mother had passed away years ago.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was silent for a while before saying, ¡°Zhou Yingxue grew up in the Yang Consortium¡¯s orphanage, so how could she have a mother...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Had Zhou Yingxue really never told the truth before? He had thought Zhou Yingxue was being honest with him the second time she confessed, but he did not expect her to still be lying!


    That maidservant was way too damn good at putting on an act!


    ¡°So tell me, what happened after that?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of water sshing, his mind went nk.


    Noticing Ren Xiaosu did not answer her, Yang Xiaojin asked again, ¡°What did I just ask you?¡±


    ¡°Oh... actually, I didn¡¯t want to ept her as my maid. At the beginning, I only wanted to join the Anjing House through her. Don¡¯t people say that after bing an official member of the Anjing House, we can get the Anjing House to do something for us? That¡¯s why I wanted to get into the Anjing House: so I could get them to look for all y¡¯all.¡± Ren Xiaosu blushed when he came back to his senses. ¡°We were only working together at the beginning!¡±

 Chapter 666 - The Wang Consortium and the Anjing House

    <h4>Chapter 666: The Wang Consortium and the Anjing House</h4>


    ¡°You two really worked well together, huh?¡± Yang Xiaojin sighed and said, ¡°From working together, she actually ended up as your maid?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hurriedly exined, ¡°I was originally acting as her assistant. But she suddenly addressed me as ¡®Master¡¯ once when I was saving her, and after that, she got really into character....¡±


    ¡°So you got into character as well then?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Ahem, no, not at all.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I was still mainly trying to look for y¡¯all through the Anjing House.¡±


    ¡°Then do you know the Anjing House and the Saboteurs are actually two organizations that share the same roots?¡± Yang Xiaojin sighed.


    Actually, she should have already thought of this. After Ren Xiaosu caused such a bigmotion in the Northwest, how could Yang Anjing not know Ren Xiaosu was still alive? After all, her aunt¡¯s intelligencework wasparable to that of a consortium¡¯s.


    Otherwise, the Saboteurs and the Anjing House would not have progressed to their current scale either.


    When Yang Xiaojin wrote to Yang Anjing time and again while she was attending Qinghe University to ask if Ren Xiaosu was still alive, she always answered that there was no news about him.


    But actually, Yang Anjing was the one keeping it from her. Just like the time they parted ways at Luoyang City, Yang Anjing said there were no sentiments in this world that could withstand the test of time. No one would keep waiting for another person endlessly. That Yang Xiaojin was willing to wait only showed how much of a fool she was.


    But it just so happened there were two fools in this world.


    Thinking of this, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s tone turned gentler. ¡°My aunt founded the Saboteurs years earlier. But after destroying some of the consortiums¡¯ nuclear test sites, the various consortiums started targeting the Saboteurs. As such, she reestablished the Anjing House and used it as cover for the Saboteurs.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. In other words, he had actually been very close to finding Yang Xiaojin all this while? ¡°Then should I have just told the people from the Anjing House that I was looking for Yang Xiaojin?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment and said, ¡°You probably couldn¡¯t have found me even if you told them.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not understand.


    Yang Xiaojin did not answer this question because Yang Anjing was her only family. She did not want Ren Xiaosu to have any prejudice towards Yang Anjing, so she chose to avoid the question.


    When Ren Xiaosu realized she did not want to answer, he did not make it difficult for her either. Instead, he changed the subject and said, ¡°I heard from the Riders that the Anjing House was also involved in the crisis at Luoyang City this time. Why¡¯s that? Could it be that your aunt¡¯s also targeting their satellites? But the problem is that the Anjing House and the Saboteurs don¡¯t have a fixed base, so what¡¯s the point of taking control of those seven satellites?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment and said, ¡°I guess she wanted to help the Wang Consortium seize those seven satellites.¡±


    ¡°Help the Wang Consortium?¡± Ren Xiaosu really did not expect this answer. ¡°What is the Anjing House and the Saboteurs¡¯ rtionship with the Wang Consortium?¡±


    ¡°The Saboteurs have nothing to do with the Wang Consortium, but the Anjing House has been working with the Wang Consortium for years now,¡± Yang Xiaojin replied.


    ¡°Why?¡± Ren Xiaosu found it very strange. ¡°Does your aunt and the Wang Consortium have anymon interests? And will anything happen to you if you let me in on these secrets?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin hesitated for a moment and lowered her voice to a whisper. ¡°You¡¯re not an outsider anyway, so it¡¯s fine. At the beginning, my aunt was hoping she wouldn¡¯t have to see another nuclear weapon appear in this world. Butter, she realized that no matter what methods she used, there would always be people who wanted to get their hands on nuclear weapons rising to power. So she gradually began to look for ways to address the root of the problem.¡±


    ¡°So she found the solution at the Wang Consortium?¡± Ren Xiaosu remembered what was unique about the Wang Consortium. ¡°Is it the AI? Why would an AI be able to solve this problem?¡±


    ¡°Because AI is absolutely impartial.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°When a person takes charge of others, there will always be rtionships and personal feelings involved. In the early years, Wang Shengzhi was robbed in his own stronghold and got hit by a bullet that paralyzed him from the waist down. Later, the Wang Consortium investigated the matter thoroughly and discovered the robber had actuallymitted multiple crimes before. He was once jailed by people from the Public Order Division. Logically speaking, someone like that should never step out of prison again for the rest of his life. However, this person bribed the prison guards and actually managed to get many chances to reduce his sentence.¡±


    ¡°So the reason why Wang Shengzhi regards the AI so highly is that he feels that it won¡¯t make such a mistake, and it won¡¯t be bribed by anyone either?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That should be the case.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Besides, it¡¯s also been proven that the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds have a very low crime rate in this era. Also, even if someone were tomit a crime, they would be caught very quickly. After these criminals are put in jail, whether they can turn over a new leaf is fully assessed by the AI. No one can ept any bribes under its surveince.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Actually, he already knew that no matter whether he liked the Saboteurs, the Wang Consortium, the Qing Consortium, or the Pyro Company, these organizations were only acting ording to their own principles.


    Ren Xiaosu could have his own principles and beliefs, Jiang Xu and his fellow colleagues at Hope Media could also have them, so the same applied to the Wang Consortium and the Pyro Company.


    For example, when Stronghold 74 was attacked by the Experimentals, didn¡¯t the Pyro Company also step in bravely to help defend the ce?


    In that case, who was qualified to judge who was right and who was wrong?


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was in no position to argue whether he epted the artificial intelligence or not. After all, this had nothing to do with him, and he did not live in the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold either.


    ¡°Does your aunt think that if the AI gets instated as an impartial third party, there might be a chance that nuclear weapons will not appear anymore? What if the Wang Consortium starts their own nuclear research?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°I think Wang Shengzhi devised ten guiding principles in the AI¡¯s algorithm. There¡¯s a rule that says it must destroy all nuclear weapons,¡± Yang Xiaojin exined. ¡°But I¡¯m not sure about the specifics. I¡¯ve never had much contact with the Anjing House and the Saboteurs here in the Central ins, so I¡¯m not too sure about some of the events.¡±


    ¡°Then why does the Wang Consortium want to seize control of the seven satellites?¡± Ren Xiaosu returned to the original topic.


    ¡°Probably because these seven satellites are needed toplete the final step of the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI program, Heaven¡¯s Eye,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little ufortable. He had a feeling it was not a good thing to have someone always watching him from above.


    No matter who might be watching him, he did not like being surveilled like that.


    However, Yang Xiaojin dispelled his worries. ¡°Actually, those seven satellites can only be used to observe the contours of the terrain at most. It¡¯s not capable of seeing everyone¡¯s appearance. The seven satellites of the Qinghe Group don¡¯t have that ability either. My aunt probably helped the Wang Consortium seize these seven satellites because she wants to locate the Qing Consortium¡¯s nuclear test sites. Once the AI starts taking control of the satellites, the Qing Consortium will no longer be able to conceal their nuclear test sites. At that time, the Saboteurs can finally make their move.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin knew her aunt well, so she could guess what she was up to just based on some clues.

 Chapter 667 - Confession

    <h4>Chapter 667: Confession</h4>


    At this moment, everyone, including the Riders and Ren Xiaosu, thought the Wang Consortium and the Anjing House had failed in their objective. After all, they had not seen Wang Wenyan transforming into a ck mist and sneaking into the Qinghe Building. After that happened, the Qinghe Group¡¯s satellites continued operating as usual, and there were no signs that hinted they might have been hijacked.


    Only Yang Xiaojin knew Yang Anjing must have seeded after plotting for so long. Otherwise, her aunt would not have remained so calm that night.


    Over the years, the only person who had made the Saboteurs experience failure was Qing Zhen.


    Now, Yang Anjing had found a way to keep Qing Zhen in check.


    While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about this, he suddenly heard Yang Xiaojin say behind him, ¡°Do you want toe in and bathe? You also haven¡¯t bathed in more than a week, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked in a trembling voice, ¡°C-Can I?¡±


    ¡°Of course you can,¡± Yang Xiaojin replied. ¡°Don¡¯t you find yourself dirty?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was overwhelmed with joy. He said carefully, ¡°I¡¯ll being in then....¡±


    ¡°Yeah,e here.¡±


    But when Ren Xiaosu climbed back over the slope on his hands and knees, he saw Yang Xiaojin, who had put on her clothes at some point, looking at him with a half-smile on her face. ¡°Not bad, you¡¯ve grown bolder than before.¡±


    She was probably referring to the tent incident from before.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He did not even hear the sound of the water sshing, so Yang Xiaojin must have purposely been teasing him.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu felt he couldn¡¯t urately define the type of girl Yang Xiaojin was.


    She was a Perfect Firearms Proficiency master who had killed many of her enemies. However, she also possessed many other childlike skills like jumping rope and singing nursery rhymes...


    Yang Xiaojin was willing to make her way through a crowd to save him, but she was also capable of chasing him down for a week because he had taken in a maidservant. She could talk about things very seriously and help Ren Xiaosu understand this world better, but she would also tease him mischievously.


    This girl always managed to bring some unexpected things to his life.


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s enough. Go and take your bath.¡± Yang Xiaojin beckoned him to the hot springs and walked off towards the mountainside. ¡°Don¡¯t use the pool that I used just now.¡±


    ¡°You think I want to? Seriously? Am I that kind of person?¡± Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    But as he was undressing, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice came from the slope, ¡°You¡¯ve really got quite a nice body.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around in shock and saw Yang Xiaojin sticking her head over the slope to peek at him. Ren Xiaosu was so shocked he fell into the hot spring pool before he couldpletely undress. He roared, ¡°What are you doing? Why can you look at me but I can¡¯t look at you! This is unfair!¡±


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you look?¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    With that, Ren Xiaosu backed off again.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get back to serious topics. What do you n to do next?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked Ren Xiaosu as she sat on the slope with her back facing him.


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. ¡°Old Wang wants to do some business in the Northwest and the Central ins. I think the Great Hoodwinker is very right about one thing. At the least, I stillmand some influence in the Northwest. When I fought against the Zong Consortium back then, I made some friends in the Northwest after going through thick and thin with them on the battlefield. Rather than being disliked by everyone here in the Central ins, I might as well head to the Northwest. I don¡¯t have much ambition, so it¡¯s good enough if I can find a ce to settle down at.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice suddenly turned gentle. ¡°Were you injured during the war?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°As you know, I¡¯m a very cautious person. I usually only make a move when I¡¯m sure that I can seed.¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Yang Xiaojin acknowledged simply. She could imagine how dangerous it was back then. The survival of a person in a war was not something that could be decided by an individual. No matter how strong you might be, bullets on the battlefield do not recognize friend from foe. In a small battle, there would be hundreds of thousands of bullets flying around, so the probability of getting injured was extremely high. Although Ren Xiaosu did not get injured, that did not mean it was not dangerous.


    In the end, she said, ¡°I didn¡¯t know you had survived. If I knew, I would¡¯ve gone to the Northwest to help you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could hear from Yang Xiaojin¡¯s tone that she felt a little guilty.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to feel bad. Look, I¡¯m fine, aren¡¯t I?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with augh.


    ¡°Then do you n to return to the Northwest?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°I want to eliminate the bandits along the Northwestern trade route first.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Fortress 178 is also annoyed by those bandits. But because of the sensitive geography, they can¡¯t deploy their troops to resolve the issue. In that case, why don¡¯t I just help them clear out these obstacles? Once I¡¯m done with this, I can rest assured that Old Wang can carry out his business on this trade route.¡±


    ¡°And then?¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll find Yan Liuyuan. Do you have any news of Liuyuan?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No, I went to chase after the person who attacked you at that time and didn¡¯t pay attention to anything else.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°But he and Big Sister Xiaoyu should be fine. At least, they weren¡¯t caught by the floodwaters.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I¡¯ll definitely find them,¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly. ¡°By the way, where are you going next? What are your ns?¡±


    ¡°Me?¡± Yang Xiaojin pondered it for a moment. ¡°I¡¯ll go wherever you go.¡±


    Too many words in the world could be used to confess love. For example, ¡°the moon is so beautiful tonight,¡± or as a famous artist before The Cataclysm had sung, ¡°I turn into a werewolf for your sake. / I go wild for your sake.¡±


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt the five words Yang Xiaojin uttered sounded the nicest.


    ...


    A small town thatid between the Northwest and the Central ins was a very strange existence. This was a ce that seemed to bepletely independent of the stronghold system.


    All the people who lived in these mountains used to be bandits. There was not really much interaction among the different groups of bandits, and they would always fight to the death when they encountered each other.


    Butter, when their ¡°business¡± got worse, some of the bandits started moving down to live at the foot of the mountains. They traded their crops and game with each other, and gradually, the long and narrow strip ofnd at the foot of the mountain turned into a small town.


    Due to the sensitive geography, the former Zong Consortium and the Central ins¡¯ Wang Consortium did not care about this ce. It was just like a no man¡¯snd thaty between the two consortiums, and this gave the bandits some respite.


    Currently, most of the people here were no longer involved in banditry. Although most of them considered themselves bandits, they mostly only farmed and herded sheep as their daily activities.


    There was no choice. Life got in the way.


    The recent reopening of the trade route had finally caused a stir in the town. The townspeople here were divided into two factions. One faction felt that since merchants were going to appear, they should resume their old trade. The other faction felt that since they had not been involved in banditry for many years, they should just focus on their agriculture.


    While everyone was having an intense discussion, a young couple arrived in town. They said they had gotten lost in the mountains and wanted to settle down here for a few nights.


    They mentioned they would not be staying for free and that they had money on them. It was even money issued by the Wang Consortium¡¯s banks.


    Currently, the Wang Consortium¡¯s currency was very strong. Anyone could go to the towns outside the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds to buy a lot of things with it, and they could also use it to purchase items from the traveling merchants along the trade route.

 Chapter 668 - A record of eliminating bandits

    <h4>Chapter 668: A record of eliminating bandits</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin arrived at this small town in the northwest, they did not bother hiding the fact they had money. In fact, they even deliberately acted like they were extremely extravagant.


    When they expressed they needed a ce to spend the night, a family even vacated their own house for them to stay in. After that, the entire family moved into their rtives¡¯ ce, all because they could earn quite a bit of money from Ren Xiaosu.


    When the neighbors saw that the two of them were very easygoing, they immediately brought over food for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. They even killed one of the chickens they reared and braised it before sending it over.


    Ren Xiaosu did not reject anything at all. He epted whatever was given to them at the door, paid for it, and carried the food into the house for Yang Xiaojin to eat.


    As a matter of fact, the chicken stew made with local chickens was quite delicious.


    After closing the door, Yang Xiaojin said while eating the chicken stew, ¡°Are you trying to show them you¡¯re rich? And then wait for them to make a move on you before killing all of the bandits here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked out through a gap in the door. Many of the refugees in town were quietly discussing them not far away from the house. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You saw it too. There¡¯s so many of them here. If we went on a killing spree at the entrance, wouldn¡¯t most of them start fleeing? We¡¯re not gonna run all over the mountains just to catch them, right? There¡¯s only two of us, so it¡¯d be great if we could catch just a fifth of them.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin asked with a half-smile, ¡°Didn¡¯t we agree to say we¡¯re siblings? Why did you suddenly change your mind?¡±


    ¡°I was just thinking that we don¡¯t look like siblings at all. What if we end up getting exposed by iming that we¡¯re siblings?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered.


    Yang Xiaojin raised an eyebrow. So it seemed like he was implying that they looked more like a married couple? ¡°By the way, I haven¡¯t agreed to anything.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at her. ¡°I went to Qinghe University and stood up for you. You said the guy you like doesn¡¯t lead a pampered life, so I killed all those thugs before announcing to the students that I¡¯m the guy you like.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± This was the first time Yang Xiaojin was hearing about this. She was stunned for some time before saying, ¡°I only said that by the by. Obviously, you were the one who liked me first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled good-naturedly and said, ¡°It¡¯s all the same.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin realized Ren Xiaosu was often quite shameless, but that was only in speech. His actions were as cowardly as ever.


    ¡°They don¡¯t really know what the situation is with us at the moment, so it¡¯s unlikely they¡¯ll make a move for the time being.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°But I keep getting the feeling that this town is a little strange. They don¡¯t look like bandits at all.¡±


    But then, another group of people came back from outside the town. All of the townspeople rushed over. ¡°Lei-zi, I heard that you gathered some people and headed to the North to do business with the nomads. How was it? Did you make a profit?¡±


    Su Lei smiled and patted the fur hides he was carrying on his shoulder. ¡°Look here, whaddaya see?¡±


    When some of the refugees saw the glossy fur hides, their eyes turned green with envy. Some of them wanted to feel it, but Su Lei and the others moved out of their way.


    Su Lei joked, ¡°These are the goods that our investor, a lord from the grasnds, have given us on credit. You can¡¯t afford to pay if you damage it.¡±


    Although Ren Xiaosu had his door closed, he could hear everything going on outside. ¡°The grasnds? Xiaojin, do you know anything about the grasnds? I¡¯ve never been there before.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s quite chaotic in the grasnds. The nomadic tribes are always fighting and killing among themselves. Sometimes, they head south to the vicinity of Stronghold 176 to plunder the factories or the refugees, but they rarely head any farther south than that,¡± Yang Xiaojin replied after thinking for a bit. ¡°However, the tribes in the grasnds have not been to the Central ins in several years, so almost everyone has forgotten about them. And there aren¡¯t any strong military forces in the grasnds. I think they¡¯re still stuck in the era of melee weapons. The firearms they have are only in the hands of a few people, so there¡¯s nothing to fear.¡±


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t the Central ins take them out?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. From Yang Xiaojin¡¯s description, it seemed like thebat strength of the steppe nomads was very weak.


    ¡°It¡¯s not easy to fight them.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°Disregarding the issue of limatization and not knowing the terrain well enough, the main issue is that the cows, goats, and horses over there have evolved to be very powerful. If theye to the Central ins, we might still be able to fight them. But if the Central ins people go north, the consortiums can¡¯t catch them if they decide to hide. Unless some consortium is willing to go all the way against them, it¡¯s difficult to achieve victory.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood now. On one hand, it was because the nomadic tribes were very mobile. The armored brigade of the Central ins could only travel at an average speed of 60 kilometers per hour at most, but the nomadic tribes could easily beat them anytime. So it would still be very easy to escape if they wanted to.


    On the other hand, the grasnds did not have many resources, with the greatest resource being their livestock and meat. Since there was no threat from the grasnds, there was no need for anyone to mobilize so many people to target the Northern ins. It would not be good if the other organizations were to take advantage of the situation and invade whoever started a campaign against the nomadic tribes.


    ¡°However,¡± Yang Xiaojin changed the subject and said, ¡°the Central ins has always imposed sanctions on the Northern ins and prohibited anyone from selling arms to them in case any new problems arise.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°I can understand that, but they don¡¯t have tanks or armored vehicles anyway, so even if they can get their hands on some guns, they can¡¯t cause much trouble, right? Don¡¯t people say the era of firearms and explosives signaled the end of cavalry?¡±


    ¡°No, a lot of people misunderstand that.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°Actually, in the history of mankind, a small part of the top ten most powerful empires were all cavalry empires that existed during the era of firearms. They dragged along artillery with them to attack cities and conquernds, and their enemies could not do anything about it. Later, cavalry was only eliminated because the mobility of horses had be inferior to modern technology. But if the horses had also evolved, no one would know the oue of a battle before it was fought.¡±


    Just as Yang Xiaojin had said, if the nomads had ess to firearms and explosives now, it would still be uncertain if anyone could defeat them. Therefore, there was no point in continuing to discuss this.


    Then they heard someone outside say, ¡°Lei-zi, it looks like the goods that y¡¯all bought with your hard-earned money have all been sold?¡±


    Su Leiughed and said, ¡°But of course. The lord from the grasnds was very generous too.¡±


    ¡°Since that¡¯s the case, why don¡¯t you bring everyone along to earn money together?¡± A shrill voice shouted, ¡°It¡¯s not easy being a bandit anymore, so we might as well follow you to do business.¡±


    However, Su Leiughed and said, ¡°Li Mazi, what did you tell me when I asked you to join us? Didn¡¯t you say that doing business with the nomads was unreliable? You even said that they were poor and barbaric people. It¡¯s a little toote to join us now, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Lei-zi, you can¡¯t talk like that. We grew up together in the same town, so don¡¯t you think you should lift us up as well?¡±


    Su Lei replied calmly, ¡°No.¡±


    He had finally found an opportunity after putting in so much hard work, so Su Lei was not going to allow anyone in town to ruin his business.


    Suddenly, that shrill voice asked, ¡°Eh, where¡¯s Wang Ergou? Didn¡¯t he go with y¡¯all? Why isn¡¯t he back?¡±

 Chapter 669 - A town in chaos

    <h4>Chapter 669: A town in chaos</h4>


    Su Lei had wanted to find an opportunity to kill Wang Ergou after getting back to town. He was a ruthless person trying to achieve great things, so he would definitely kill Wang Ergou if he said so and had already discussed this with Cui Qiang while on the way back.


    In the end, it was even Cui Qiang who reminded him that since he had to kill Wang Ergou sooner orter, he should just kill him as soon as possible.


    Otherwise, when they returned to town, Wang Ergou might get other ideas and collude with the other bandit groups to steal their business opportunity. If that happened, it would get very troublesome.


    After all, Wang Ergou knew the details of their next transaction. What the investor from the grasnds mainly wanted was just goods; he did not care who delivered them.


    Su Lei knew he was not that important to Yan Liuyuan yet. Therefore, before he managed to establish a true ¡°friendship¡± with Yan Liuyuan, he could not let any of the other bandit groups know where the business deal would take ce.


    As such, Su Lei decided to personally kill Wang Ergou.


    At this moment, Su Lei looked at the other party coldly after being questioned. ¡°Wang Ergou decided to seek his rtives¡¯ help in the Central ins, so I thought that since he had such a promising future, there was no need for me to stop him, right?¡±


    But the other party did not believe Su Lei¡¯s exnation at all. Instead, he retorted, ¡°I think you must¡¯ve killed him, right? Since when did Wang Ergou ever have rtives in the Central ins?¡±


    The other party thought Su Lei would fly into a rage after being humiliated like that, but Su Leiughed out loud instead. Su Lei looked around. ¡°Since when have y¡¯all cared about other people¡¯s lives? So what if I killed Wang Ergou? Do y¡¯all want to avenge him? Have y¡¯all thought about the consequences?¡±


    Su Lei understood everything about this group of people. So what if he killed the guy? Wang Ergou did not have any friends, so he was not afraid of anyoneing to seek revenge!


    There was a tense atmosphere among the onlooking bandits surrounding them.


    Seeing that no one was going to speak, Su Lei sneered and said, ¡°I¡¯ll spend the night in town and set off for Fortress 178 with my men tomorrow. Since this ce won¡¯t amodate me, I won¡¯t force it either. But as I, Su Lei, have found a path out now, if anyone dares to ruin my ns, I¡¯ll make sure this path of mine bes all of your deathbeds. Cui Qiang, let¡¯s go!¡±


    With that, Su Lei led his men into town. They had only returned this time to pack their belongings.


    Ren Xiaosu was muttering in the house, ¡°These bandits are such a mob. Besides, why do I feel like these bandits are all trying to get onto the right path?¡±


    ¡°I have the same feeling as well. It looks like it isn¡¯t easy being a bandit anymore, so they¡¯re all looking for other ways to survive.¡± Yang Xiaojin pondered things for a moment and said, ¡°Are we still gonna kill them then?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see.¡± Ren Xiaosu sank into thought and said, ¡°I think that this Su Lei person is quite interesting. What he¡¯s doing now is equivalent to helping Fortress 178 connect the trade route to the grasnds.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. ¡°As expected of Fortress 178¡¯s futuremander. You¡¯re always looking out for Fortress 178¡¯s interests.¡±


    ¡°Ahem, married couples should not speak so sarcastically to each other!¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu!¡± Yang Xiaojin raised her voice. ¡°We¡¯re only putting on an act, so don¡¯t get too into character! I haven¡¯t even agreed to anything yet!¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu stared down the dark barrel of the sniper rifle in front of him and reluctantly shut his mouth.


    He recalled the situation Fortress 178 was facing. Actually, Ren Xiaosu also roughly understood from his conversations with the Great Hoodwinker that Qing Zhen and Zhang Jinglin had suddenly formed an implicit alliance so they could deal with the Wang Consortium in the future.


    Since the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178 could work together, could the Northern ins also be used as leverage for that cause?


    Unknowingly, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thoughts were already starting to align with Fortress 178¡¯s standpoint.


    This oue was probably what the Great Hoodwinker had hoped for when he kept nagging Ren Xiaosu back then.


    He had unconsciously changed his mind regarding some matters.


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it. Actually, if he wanted to borrow the strength of the nomadic tribes, he would not even have to form an alliance with them. He would only have to secretly provide them with weapons so they would have the capital for an expedition south. After that, the nomadic tribes would automatically start journeying downwards themselves.


    Ren Xiaosu had learned about the nomads that lived before The Cataclysm from the library in Stronghold 88. Due to the cold weather in the North and a shortage of supplies, it wasmon for cows and goats to freeze to death during winter. This caused the nomadic tribes¡¯ livestock numbers to shrink and food to be scarce.


    In order to maintain the stability and bnce of the tribes, the leaders of therge tribes had to direct the conflicts towards the Central ins. This was also a tradeoff they had to employ. During wartime, the nomads would always treat the South as their granary.


    Therefore, if the enemies of Fortress 178 and the Qing Consortium really turned out to be the Wang Consortium in the future, Su Lei, who no longer wanted to be a bandit and was capable of doing business with the nomads, could be a key turning point at this moment.


    Almost tacitly, Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Are you nning to recruit this Su Lei?¡±


    ¡°Recruit him for what?¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°I already have enough people to take care of! It¡¯s too tiring to take care of everyone by myself, so I don¡¯t want to add any more burdens.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. ¡°Don¡¯t you still have me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately said happily, ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m doubting your ability, but it¡¯s mainly because I don¡¯t know this Su Lei well enough and have no intention of interacting with him too much. I¡¯m just thinking of pointing him towards a clear path that he can pursue. As long as he goes to Stronghold 144 and mentions my name to Zhang Xiaoman, Zhang Xiaoman will definitely report Su Lei¡¯s story to Mr. Zhang. Then Mr. Zhang will naturally understand my intention of guiding Su Lei there.¡±


    Fortress 178 did notck for basic firearms. By taking this seemingly pointless step now, who knew when it might be useful in the future?


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu was especially envious of Qing Zhen, because he did not even know how Qing Zhen¡¯s brain worked. He was always ten steps ahead at any point in time.


    Ren Xiaosu knew he could never be as wless in nning as Qing Zhen, so he could only try his best to think harder sometimes.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not feel inferior in the slightest. He believed he had his own strengths as well.


    With Su Lei¡¯s appearance, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s n to wipe out the townspeople was temporarily shelved. To normal people, this n would have seemed incredulous. The two of them wanted to wipe out a town with over a 1,000 people in it? That was a joke, right?


    But for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, neither of them doubted this n would fail.


    They had also thought there might be supernatural beings in this town, but neither of them really cared.


    After all, not that many supernatural beings could survive against thebined pursuit of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    However, the atmosphere in town was starting to feel a little odd. Su Lei quietly looked out from his house and was surprised to find the townspeople were starting to hang around the vicinity of his residence, whether intentionally or otherwise. They did not do anything, and it felt as though... these bandits were scouting before taking action!


    Su Lei said sternly to Cui Qiang, who was behind him, ¡°I was too careless this time. We shouldn¡¯t have returned here. I wanted toe back to pack up before we left, but it looks like we can¡¯t leave anymore.¡±


    Su Lei hade back to town to retrieve something very important to him, his parents¡¯ wooden memorial tablets.


    Only something like that could make Su Lei risking back here.

 Chapter 670 - Ren Xiaosu makes his move

    <h4>Chapter 670: Ren Xiaosu makes his move</h4>


    Su Lei had wanted to take his parents¡¯ memorial tablets and leave right after. But when he got back home, he realized it was toote.


    It seemed that some of the bandits in town had already discussed how to deal with his gang before their return.


    Just as Su Lei had guessed, the bandits started plotting as soon as he left town. If Su Lei did not manage to get the business deal done, everyone would just go on with their lives as usual. If the deal were sessful, they would want in as well. If Su Lei were unwilling to share, they would kill him and force Wang Ergou to tell them everything that he knew.


    Wang Ergou was a very spineless person. As long as they scared him a little, he would spill the beans.


    Whatever it was that the rich investor from the grasnds wanted, or the time and ce of the next transaction, they could find out all that from Wang Ergou.


    This was also the reason why they immediately noticed Wang Ergou did note back with them. However, they did not expect Su Lei to be even more ruthless than they had imagined. He actually killed Wang Ergou in advance!


    This caught everyone by surprise. It was also why a few groups of bandits had surrounded the ce where Su Lei and his gang were staying. They did not make a move yet as they were still discussing what to do.


    Su Lei was definitely going to be killed. If they let him off today, it would be the same as letting the tiger back into the mountains. If such a ruthless person did not die, they would not be able to sleep well.


    The crux of the problem was that they did not want to give up on this business opportunity either. They were eyeing this trade route with the grasnds since it would definitely earn them a lot of money.


    The most important thing right now was how were they going to kill Su Lei and steal his business deal.


    With Su Lei¡¯s return, everyone in the town hadpletely forgotten about Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    In the evening, Ren Xiaosu prepared the money and was waiting for the refugees to voluntarily send some food over. However, no one came by.


    ¡°They¡¯ve even given up on a target who¡¯s stupid and rich? What are these refugees thinking?¡± Ren Xiaosu pondered things. ¡°Something big is probably going to happen in this town. It should be rted to Su Lei, right? I guess they¡¯re still bandits, after all. Their hearts get stirred up in the presence of a fortune.¡±


    ¡°So are we going to do anything about it?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked as though she were waiting for Ren Xiaosu to decide.


    ¡°Of course we are.¡± Ren Xiaosu grinned and said, ¡°We definitely have to!¡±


    ...


    As night fell, Su Lei took Cui Qiang and his fellow men out to guard their residence¡¯s yard. Everyone was really tense as they silently gripped their weapons.


    Some of the higher-ranked people were armed with improvised guns, while the others made do with bone knives or whatever iron weapons they could get their hands on.


    White bone knives near their waists, it added a sense of gravity to the bandits in the yard.


    Su Lei said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my brothers. This was all because I insisted on making a trip back here.¡±


    His men did not say anything. Su Lei¡¯s gang might not be that united, as after all, they were still just bandits and could not bepared to military troops.


    Some of the men were also ming Su Lei in their heads, but no one would possibly open their mouths to criticize him at such a time.


    Cui Qiang was sitting by a dirt wall next to the yard¡¯s door and wiping the improvised gun in his hand until the steel barrel shone.


    Their improvised guns were all single shot only, so they had to reload every time they fired the weapon once. There were too many people watching them on the outside, so Cui Qiang knew that in a fight to the death, their gang would definitely be at a disadvantage.


    Someone whispered, ¡°Boss, why don¡¯t we just hand over the business deal to them? They have so many people, and a wise man knows better than to fight when the odds are stacked against him. We can look for other business opportunities, but we only have one life.¡±


    Su Lei was about to say something.


    But just as this person finished speaking, Cui Qiang shot to his feet and jumped in front of him. As he moved, Cui Qiang pulled out a dagger from his waistband and stabbed it ruthlessly into the neck of the person who spoke.


    Cui Qiang¡¯s movements were so fast he looked like a wild cat on the hunt, swift and powerful!


    ¡°None of that nonsense here.¡± Cui Qiang said coldly, ¡°It wasn¡¯t easy for Boss to get this deal, so how can you ask him to give it away just like that? We¡¯re all gonna listen to Boss¡¯s orderster and fight our way out of here. Those who survive can go on to enjoy life with the boss, and we¡¯ll live in luxury for the rest of our lives!¡±


    The people around them were all stunned. Cui Qiang rarely spoke much, so when he made this move to kill someone, it left the others in a state of silence. They were all afraid they would get killed by Cui Qiang.


    Su Lei sighed in his mind. He had thought of just handing over the business deal. However, Cui Qiang did not even ask him before making a move. Thus, it would obviously not be appropriate for him to talk about giving up the business deal.


    He had no other choice now.


    However, Su Lei knew full well he would not survive even if he handed over the business deal.


    Then the outside of the residence gradually lit up like it was illuminated by a fire.


    Numerous people had lit torches and surrounded the yard of Su Lei¡¯s residence. The leader of a group of bandits said, ¡°Su Lei, I think it¡¯s better that you step out. Just hand over the business deal to us obediently and we can make money together. When the timees, we can all enjoy life together. Wouldn¡¯t it be better that we bros be happy together?¡±


    Su Leiughed and scolded, ¡°Li Mazi, don¡¯t pretend to be kind and just. Do you think I¡¯ll survive after I give up the deal to y¡¯all? You¡¯ll probably find it difficult to sleep if I¡¯m not dead!¡±


    Li Mazi said coldly, ¡°I¡¯m gonna count to ten, so step out by yourself. Otherwise, we¡¯re gonna set your ce on fire! Then we¡¯ll see if youe out or not!¡±


    Su Lei¡¯s heart had already hit rock bottom. He knew he was doomed.


    But then, a young man¡¯s voice suddenly rang out outside. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s so lively out here tonight. Everyone has gathered around here, but no one has cooked anything for me and my wife. I¡¯m really unhappy about that.¡±


    Everyone was stunned. Su Lei turned around and looked at Cui Qiang. ¡°Whose voice was that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard it before.¡± Cui Qiang shook his head. They still did not know a couple strangers hade to their small town.


    Li Mazi looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin and grinned. ¡°Young man, don¡¯t be a busybody. This is none of your business.¡±


    Someone next to Li Mazi said, ¡°Why not just kill these two people as well? They seem to be quite rich, so we can use their money as our business¡¯s capital! Besides, that woman¡ª¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could not be bothered to say anything further.


    Su Lei and the others heard a flurry of screamse from outside. This group of bandits in the yard were so frightened their hearts were pounding. They did not know what was going on outside.


    The sound of bones breaking and tendons snapping reverberated in between the wails. It was terrifying to listen to!


    Half an hourter, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice came again from outside. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve killed them all. Come on out.¡±


    Su Lei carefully opened the yard¡¯s door and was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu standing outside with a torch in hand. He was smiling at him. Next to the young man was a girl wearing a cap, and it was obvious there was an extraordinary demeanor about her.


    Bodies were strewn all over the ground next to the two of them, but there were no traces of blood on the two of them.


    ¡°Wh-Who are you?¡± Although Su Lei was a ruthless person, he was still only starting out and had not seen much of the world yet.


    Corpses were strewn all over the ground while the killers stood around calmly.


    The impact he got from this sight was something he would not forget for the rest of his life.


    Even if he were to be a big shot in the future, he would still feel a sense of reverence if he saw Ren Xiaosu again.

 Chapter 671 - The Pyro Company and the No. 001 Experimental

    <h4>Chapter 671: The Pyro Company and the No. 001 Experimental</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Before Ren Xiaosu¡¯s appearance, Su Lei thought he was definitely going to die today. After all, several gangs of bandits had teamed up in an attempt to kill him.


    But for some reason, while they were in the yard, they heard a lot of screamsing from outside. By the time they stepped out, all of those bandits were dead.


    Su Lei asked cautiously, ¡°You two are...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu inspected Su Lei with a smile. ¡°Do you know that there¡¯s even a supernatural being in your town?¡±


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was also quite surprised. He really had not expected there would be a supernatural being in a town full of bandits. Su Lei was stunned to hear this. ¡°Supernatural being? Who¡¯s the supernatural being? Where is he?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. He¡¯s dead.¡±


    Su Lei was speechless. The supernatural being died just like that? Why did it sound so easy for this young man to kill a supernatural being?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Su Lei and asked, ¡°What kind of deal did you make with the nomads?¡±


    ¡°They wanted us to bring ironware, medicine, vegetables, tea, and salt from the South to trade with them for the fur hides of their prey.¡± Su Lei exined carefully, ¡°We didn¡¯t sell any prohibited goods, you¡ª¡±


    ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t have to exin it to me. I don¡¯t care about that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I heard that you were going to Fortress 178 to make some deals?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Su Lei hurriedly replied, ¡°I¡¯m going to sell these fur hides in our possession before buying some new supplies to deliver it to the North.¡±


    Su Lei did not lie. He was not only ruthless but also a smart person. Since the young man before him could kill all the bandits, he was definitely capable of killing him as well.


    The only way he could probably keep his life was to be honest when facing someone who could decide his fate.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Su Lei and thought for a moment before saying, ¡°You can take the goods to Stronghold 144 and look for a Fortress 178mander named Zhang Xiaoman. Just tell him that hisrade from the Razor Sharp Company rmended you go there and someone will take care of you. Currently, Fortress 178 needs people like you who can run a business on the trade route. Rest assured and boldly do business. Don¡¯t be a bandit anymore.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Su Lei was pleasantly surprised. It was clear the young man in front of him was on very good terms with Fortress 178. If he could build a rtionship with Fortress 178 through Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rmendation, wouldn¡¯t his business be even more secure?


    Moreover, he knew full well the nomads required weapons. That young lord from the steppe also wanted weapons, but he knew Su Lei was still unable to get his hands on any for now.


    If he really could make good on the business rtionship with Fortress 178 in the future, wouldn¡¯t he be able to expand his business and start selling weapons to the nomads?


    That would be a chance to make a lot of money!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered, ¡°How did you link up with the nomads from the Northern ins? Why do they want to do business with the Southerners?¡±


    Su Lei said honestly, ¡°One day, a nomad riding an extremely well-built horse suddenly came to our vige. Then he announced to everyone that whoever wanted to get rich should head to the Shenmu River several hundred kilometers away from here in a month¡¯s time with a supply of ironware, medicine, vegetables, and other items.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was curious. ¡°So you took the items there? Why didn¡¯t the others in town go as well?¡±


    ¡°They didn¡¯t wanna travel that far. Besides, they were worried that nomad was lying to them,¡± Su Lei replied. ¡°If they weren¡¯tzy and hated working, these people would not have ended up bing bandits either. So it was only to be expected that no one else went.¡±


    ¡°Then why did you go?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Because I didn¡¯t want to be cooped up here for the rest of my life. I heard that the Northwestern trade route has been reopened. Be it Fortress 178 or the Wang Consortium, everyone is wee to do business with them. I think it¡¯s better to strike out and do business than to live like a coward here forever,¡± Su Lei exined. ¡°As a true man¡ª¡±


    ¡°Hold it right there, don¡¯t be so pompous with me,¡± Ren Xiaosu interrupted and snapped at him, ¡°Are you doing business with the nomads from arge tribe? Tell me your impression of them.¡±


    Su Lei hurriedly said, ¡°The leader of the other party is a mysterious young man. They weren¡¯t even holding any guns, but they gave off a calm andposed demeanor. It was like they weren¡¯t afraid that we would stir up any trouble for them. It was as though he had the look of a lord in the steppe. The things that they requested were very strange...¡±


    But at this moment, a message tone sounded in Yang Xiaojin¡¯s pocket. She took out her cell phone and read it. Ren Xiaosu realized Yang Xiaojin¡¯s cell phone was very simr to the ones the A-rank hitmen from the Anjing House carried. However, it seemed like her phone had more functions.


    Ren Xiaosu figured out something. Some time ago, he had been wondering why the Anjing House, an assassination organization, would have amunicationswork that used cell phones as a tool.


    Ignoring everything else, the Anjing House would at least need a satellite to be able to use the cell phones, right?


    Therefore, now that he thought about it, the Anjing House and the Wang Consortium must have already been working together back then. The reason the Anjing House could use cell phones as a form ofmunication for their hitmen was because they were also relying on that satellite the Wang Consortium originally controlled.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu also took out two cell phones, which were C- and B-ranked respectively, from his storage space.


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find that the moment he took out the cell phones, they received a text on both at the same time: ¡°We suspect the Pyro Company has captured an Experimental target in the Northern ins. They are now on their way back to the Pyro Company¡¯s research base. All Anjing House hitmen may proceed to intercept and kill the Pyro Company targets. The mission reward...¡±


    Upon seeing this, Ren Xiaosu looked at Su Lei first and said, ¡°Take the goods to Stronghold 144 and do as I said. There will be people from Fortress 178 looking after you when you get there. Don¡¯t mention selling medicine and ironware. You can sell even more things to the Northern ins in time.¡±


    Su Lei nodded in surprise. ¡°Alright, thank you very much!¡±


    After saying that, Su Lei led his men out of town. He knew Ren Xiaosu probably had something important to attend to, so he did not have time to waste with Su Lei anymore.


    After Ren Xiaosu chased Su Lei and the others away, a man who was with Su Lei passed by Ren Xiaosu and whispered when the others were not paying attention, ¡°My greetings, futuremander.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. That fucking Wang Fengyuan was so impressive. He even had a spy in a ce like this?


    However, he did not say much and just waited for Su Lei and the others to leave. After that, he turned his head to Yang Xiaojin and asked, ¡°Did you receive this text as well?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°This is also a dedicated cell phone used by the members of the Anjing House, and the text I received mentioned something about the Pyro Company too. However, it contains more information. It says here that someone from the Anjing House suspects the captured target is likely to be the No. 001 Experimental the Experimentals were looking for! Otherwise, the Pyro Company would have no reason to mobilize so many of their troops. Y¡¯know, the Pyro Company did not even show up when something happened at Luoyang City. It¡¯s extremely rare to see them sending so many people to the Northern ins in recent years.¡±


    When Yang Xiaojin realized Ren Xiaosu had frozen, she asked, ¡°What¡¯s with you?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the mention of No. 001 Experimental, he got lost in thought.


    ...


    There was a time in Stronghold 74 when Ren Xiaosu wondered if Yan Liuyuan was the legendary No. 001 Experimental. After all, no one knew where exactly Yan Liuyuan had popped out of. Moreover, the problem was that the date and location of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s appearance coincided with the time the Experimentals escaped from the researchboratory.


    Although the details were not an absolute match, the Experimentals probably had no concept of time since they were kept locked up in a dark ce. Who the hell would know the specific time and date the No. 001 Experimental escaped from there?


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu had also thought of the question before. Could he be the No. 001 Experimental instead?


    After all, he also lost a lot of his memories, and no one in town knew where he came from.


    But now, since the Anjing House was saying the Pyro Company had captured the No. 001 Experimental, it meant it was definitely not him. After all, wasn¡¯t he standing here all well and fine?


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Why are you frowning?¡±


    ¡°I suspect that the person captured by the Pyro Company is Yan Liuyuan.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If it really is Liuyuan, I¡¯m afraid that things will get very troublesome.¡±


    ¡°Liuyuan?¡± Yang Xiaojin was stunned. ¡°Are you sure? This person was captured in the steppe. What would Liuyuan be doing in the steppe?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know where Liuyuan is right now, but the Pyro Company¡¯s Lab 39 was located next to the town where we used to live. You¡¯re also aware of this since we went to the Jing Mountains together at that time.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°A few years ago, I suddenly discovered Liuyuan lying in the snow. He couldn¡¯t remember where exactly he came from or what he had experienced in the past. His memory was wiped.¡±


    ¡°But it still doesn¡¯t prove he¡¯s the No. 001 Experimental.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°However, your worries are well-founded. The closest stronghold in the vicinity of Stronghold 113 is more than 200 kilometers away. It¡¯s impossible that a child like him could walk more than 200 kilometers on a snowy day and just appear outside the town. And the Pyro Company¡¯s researchb in the Jing Mountains is actually closer.¡±


    ¡°Yes, this is the reason why I¡¯m worried. Although Yan Liuyuan does not have a strong physique like the Experimentals imed, he was indeed different from others since childhood.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Also, all supernatural beings tend to improve and strengthen their physiques. Other than Liuyuan, I haven¡¯t seen any exceptions.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin turn around and make her way out of town. He said in surprise, ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°To save Liuyuan, of course,¡± Yang Xiaojin answered matter-of-factly. ¡°The Pyro Company will only take six days to get back to their research base, so we have to intercept them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised by Yang Xiaojin¡¯s decisiveness. He still could not confirm whether the Pyro Company had really captured Yan Liuyuan.


    However, he would definitely have to make this trip. Whether it was Yan Liuyuan or not, he needed to verify it personally.


    ¡°Do you want to contact the Saboteurs?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Um... this will be the first time I meet your aunt. Do I need to bring some gifts? Does your aunt have anyone that she hates? Maybe I could kill them for her or something?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought that since this was the first time he would be meeting Yang Xiaojin¡¯s only kin, he would definitely have to bring a valuable gift. What else could be more valuable than a life?


    However, Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°I won¡¯t be contacting them. The two of us are enough.¡±


    Actually, Yang Xiaojin had not thought of how to face Yang Anjing yet. So it would be better if they did not meet for now.

 Chapter 672 - Immortality

    Chapter 672: Immortality


    In a in-looking official residence in Stronghold 31 of the Kong Consortium, a group of people in military uniforms were waiting outside the main hall. All of them were holding a document in their hands, as if waiting to give a report on their work.


    They were standing outside the main hall and staring at the mahogany-colored wooden door in front of them. The room inside waspletely soundproofed by this thick wooden door.


    The officers were standing there solemnly even though some chairs had been ced outside for them to sit on. However, it was a little special today. Because of the incident in Luoyang City, the boss was in a very bad mood, so no one outside dared to sit down.


    At this moment, a young man walked in from outside the official residence. When he saw the others standing around, he smiled and looked for the butler. ¡°How many bowls of rice did the boss eat today?¡±


    When the officers inside the residence saw the young man, they all greeted him softly. It was as though this young man¡¯s standing in the Kong Consortium was very high.


    When the butler saw the young man, he said softly with a kind smile, ¡°The boss hasn¡¯t eaten yet today.¡±


    The young man smirked. ¡°No wonder these people dare not sit down.¡±


    ¡°You be careful too. The boss is in a terrible mood,¡± The butler reminded him.


    ¡°It¡¯s none of my business.¡± The young man said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s not like I was involved in the matter in Luoyang City. If I were there, I would definitely not have fallen into Wang Wenyan¡¯s trap. Old Liu, brew a new pot of Da Hong Pao[1] for me. I¡¯ll bring it in for the boss.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± The butler nodded.


    Actually, even the butler did not dare to breathe too loudly inside the residence. When his boss was in a bad mood, he was even more terrifying than the rumors said.


    It was said that Kong Erdong, the director of the intelligence agency, was a ruthless person. Others would kill people when they got angry, but he would get angry if he did not get to kill people.


    When the tea was ready, the butler handed it to the young man on a tray. But when the young man was about to enter the room, the butler pulled him back. ¡°Wang Yun, you had better not speak carelessly today.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I know what I¡¯m doing,¡± the young man known as Wang Yun said with a smile.


    Wang Yun pushed open the door and stepped into the main hall with the tray in hand. The officers outside were visibly relieved. It seemed as though once this young man named Wang Yun went in, the disaster they were facing today would be averted.


    When Kong Erdong saw that someone had pushed open the door and walked in, his expression darkened. But when he saw it was Wang Yun, he reined in his temper and said slowly, ¡°When did you get back? Did everything go smoothly? Have you found out what happened?¡±


    ¡°I got back this morning.¡± Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°When I heard that you were angry, I quickly came over to pay my respects to you. Please have some tea first.¡±


    Kong Erdong nced at him. ¡°The matter in Luoyang City has been handled badly. After four or five years of nning, it has gone up in smoke. Even if it¡¯s me, I¡¯ll have to face the wrath of the big boss above.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve already investigated the matter thoroughly.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°I just returned from Luoyang City, and to be honest, Second Brother Kong wasn¡¯t to me. There were two reasons for this failure.¡±


    Kong Erdong did not say anything and waited for Wang Yun to continue.


    ¡°The first reason is that Wang Wenyan, whom the Wang Consortium has kept hidden all this while, is indeed a superhuman. Moreover, there are many doubts surrounding the Wang Consortium regarding this operation, including the battle on Wangchunmen Boulevard. Most of the people who ran away from the battle were the Wang Consortium¡¯s superhumans. It feels like they had nned to escape right at the start and did not have any expectations that Xu Ke would get killed in that battle at all.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°Wang Wenyan is a very powerful opponent. My guess is that he was the one behind the mysterious deaths of Second Brother Kong and the others in the safe house.¡±


    ¡°Keep going,¡± Kong Erdong said.


    ¡°Second Brother Kong was not of average ability either. He rarely made any mistakes in the course of his fieldwork over the years.¡± Wang Yun thought for a moment and said, ¡°Therefore, we need to be more vignt if Wang Wenyan could catch them off guard and blow them up like that. On the other hand, it¡¯s clear the Wang Consortium wants the satellites the most, yet they were the quickest to retreat. I suspect the Wang Consortium has some other way to seize control of the satellites, and it might also be rted to Wang Wenyan¡¯s superpower. Wang Wenyan is a very crucial person in this Luoyang City incident. I had wanted to find him and kill him, but that guy already returned to the Wang Consortium. Hence, it won¡¯t be easy to make a move on him.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough. You¡¯re already on the Wang Consortium¡¯s watchlist, so there¡¯s no need for you to take the risk.¡± Kong Erdong said calmly, ¡°If that fucking A of the Wang Consortium discovers you, I¡¯m afraid that all of the Wang Consortium¡¯s superhumans will start hunting you down. Tell me the second reason.¡±


    ¡°The second reason is that mysterious superhuman from the Northwest.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°In this incident in Luoyang City, he yed a very important role. He also has a girlfriend who¡¯s good at using a sniper rifle. When I went to check on the bullet holes on the ground at Wangchunmen Boulevard, I discovered the sniper had killed at least several dozen people. I believe most of the superhumans won¡¯t want to face enemies like those two right now.¡±


    ¡°Then what about you?¡± Kong Erdong asked.


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to encounter them either.¡± Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°However, that guy has no conflict of interest with the Kong Consortium, so the possibility of meeting him in the future isn¡¯t that great. I think he should have returned to the Northwest by now. He was most likely just helping out this time. Didn¡¯t we also hear about it a few years ago? Rumor had it that Zhang Jinglin had been to Luoyang City during his travels.¡±


    Kong Erdong knitted his eyebrows. He took off his reading sses and ced them on the table. ¡°At least you managed to find out about Wang Wenyan¡¯s background on this trip. If only the others were as capable as you, then I wouldn¡¯t have to worry so much. What do you n to do next?¡±


    ¡°Have you heard about the Pyro Company?¡± Wang Yun replied.


    ¡°Of course I¡¯ve heard about them.¡± Kong Erdong looked at Wang Yun. ¡°Why? You got ideas?¡±


    ¡°The Pyro Company is our neighbor, so how can we not concern ourselves with them?¡± Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°Besides, Boss, think about it. Ever since the incident at Luoyang City, it¡¯s clear the Anjing House is siding with the Wang Consortium. Regardless of whether it¡¯ll be useful for us to get our hands on that No. 001 Experimental, even if it¡¯s just to spoil the ns of the Anjing House and the Wang Consortium and stop them from getting the Experimental, that would be good enough.¡±


    Kong Erdong suddenly said, ¡°I heard the No. 001 Experimental might have been alive for over 200 years now?¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. He had not expected Kong Erdong to actually focus on this.


    In the dark room, a sunbeam shone through the gap in the curtains. Wang Yun looked at the reading sses Kong Erdong had just ced on the table. Only then did he remember his boss was not young anymore.


    An old person standing on the pinnacle of power and being only second best, what else would they want to pursue in life?


    Immortality and evesting power would be the things they wanted the most.


    Initially, Wang Yun did not care too much for the so-called No. 001 Experimental. Furthermore, he thought Kong Erdong would not pay any special attention to it either. But at this moment, he realized he was wrong.


    Because he was young, he had never coveted something such as immortality.


    [1] Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) is a Wuyi rock tea grown in the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian Province, China. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Hong_Pao

 Chapter 673 - Assassination

    <h4>Chapter 673: Assassination</h4>


    ¡°Boss, he might¡¯ve lived for over 200 years,¡± Wang Yun cautiously phrased his words, ¡°but you should consider this as well. The other Experimentals have also lived for over 200 years, but what kind of ghastly appearances do they have to live with?¡±


    Kong Erdong shot a nce at Wang Yun. ¡°Alright, point taken. You¡¯ll lead a team to the North this time and watch from the sidelines while the Anjing House, the Wang Consortium, and the Pyro Company fight among themselves. If there¡¯s a chance, bring this No. 001 Experimental back to me.¡±


    As the saying goes, being in the king¡¯spany is tantamount to living with a tiger. Wang Yun, who was favored just a second ago, could feel a hint of annoyance from Kong Erdong at this moment.


    When his boss lost his temper, everyone would always invite Wang Yun over. As long as Wang Yun were here, he would have his way to make Boss Kong happy. That was because he was capable of solving many difficult problems.


    But now, Wang Yun could feel that Boss Kong was so obsessed with the No. 001 Experimental that he refused to listen to any suggestions.


    He had had something more important to report. But now it seemed that he should wait for a while first.


    Wang Yun said respectfully, ¡°Understood. I¡¯ll definitely bring this Experimental back to the Kong Consortium for you.¡±


    Kong Erdong stood up. ¡°Mhm, I still have to go over to my boss¡¯s residence to discuss some important matters, so I won¡¯t ask you to stay for lunch. Get ready to set off as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Wang Yun went to the coat rack and took Kong Erdong¡¯s coat down for him. ¡°How many men do you suggest I bring along?¡±


    ¡°You can decide for yourself. I trust your ability. Just bring as many people as you deem fit.¡± Kong Erdong put on his coat and walked out without looking back.


    As for the officers who were waiting outside the main hall, they had waited for nothing this time.


    When Kong Erdong walked out, the officers all stood to attention with their heads lowered. They did not even dare to breathe too loudly.


    The butler gave Wang Yun a probing look, but Wang Yun just smiled wryly and shook his head.


    A convoy of ck cars were already waiting outside the entrance. Kong Erdong¡¯s schedule had already been arranged by his secretary.


    As the convoy drove down Tongji Road towards Zhenghe Avenue, police cars led ahead while vehicles full of bodyguards escorted from behind.


    However, Kong Erdong was not going to meet Kong Donghai, the head of the Kong Consortium. After the convoy passed Zhenghe Avenue, Kong Erdong¡¯s car turned into a small road by itself. A stunning youngdy was waiting for him there.


    When the car arrived and stopped, it was the only vehicle left in the convoy. There were also only two bodyguards left, and they went to stand guard at the front and the back of the vi.


    The woman was already waiting at the door. She looked at Kong Erdong, whose hair had already grayed, and grumbled with a grin, ¡°Why did you just get here? You don¡¯t miss me anymore?¡±


    When Kong Erdong saw this young woman, the worries on his mind seemed to dissipatepletely. He brushed his finger on the woman¡¯s nose lightly. ¡°You greedy little kitten.¡±


    The two of them entered the house. As this vi was very secluded, he did not have to worry about getting seen by anyone.


    When he pulled open the vi¡¯s door, it made a creak. Kong Erdong frowned and said, ¡°It¡¯s time to rece the door.¡±


    The woman said aggrievedly, ¡°Isn¡¯t that because I¡¯ve run out of money? Look, it¡¯s about time to renovate this house. There was even a leak in the attic a few days ago.¡±


    Kong Erdongughed. ¡°You¡¯re always asking for money in all kinds of ways.¡±


    As the two of them walked into the living room, the woman reached out to unbutton Kong Erdong¡¯s shirt. But right at this moment, the crystal chandelier hanging above the living room suddenly rattled. Kong Erdong looked up in shock and saw that the screws at the base of the chandelier hade loose.


    The woman screamed and dodged. Kong Erdong wanted to dodge too, but he was too old and did not have the same agility as when he was younger.


    With a loud crash, Kong Erdong got pinned under the huge chandelier. As deep purple blood flowed out onto the floor, Kong Erdong¡¯s legs were still trembling underneath it.


    When the bodyguards outside heard themotion, they immediately rushed in. On top of a building not far from the vi, Vani chuckled to Tang Hualong, ¡°It¡¯s done! Time to retreat!¡±


    Tang Hualong asked, ¡°That¡¯s it?¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± Vani said with a smile. ¡°I assumed Kong Erdong didn¡¯t have any weaknesses, and it¡¯d be difficult to kill him with so many bodyguards around. Who could¡¯ve known that someone so cautious when he was young would start indulging in his lust for younger women now that he¡¯s old?¡±


    Tang Hualong thought for a moment and said, ¡°Maybe he thought he could recapture his youth through escapades with these young women? A lot of people with age and authority are like this. It¡¯s like a poison that draws them in.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Vani said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up and leave. Although I¡¯ve made it look like an ident, the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence officers will definitely get suspicious. Moreover, the boss wants us to head north. We have to be there for the operation against the Pyro Company.¡±


    ¡°What I¡¯m wondering is, since you can do this alone, why did you ask me along? My old bag of bones can¡¯t handle being made to run around like this by you,¡± Tang Hualong snapped.


    Vani patiently exined, ¡°You see, all the powerful people have partners. For example, Li Shentan and Si Liren, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, andstly, Xu Xianchu and hisrge ck cauldron...¡±


    ¡°Wait, I understood the first few references, but what¡¯s with thatst one?¡±


    While joking and preparing to retreat, Vani suddenly stopped for a while. He looked towards the roof of another building but saw nothing there. ¡°Strange, it felt like someone was watching us a moment ago. Let¡¯s hurry up. We shouldn¡¯t stay here any longer.¡±


    After the two of them left, Wang Yun, the director of the 2nd Military Intelligence Division of the Kong Consortium, jumped out of the water tank on top of the high-rise building. ¡°I nearly got discovered!¡±


    He looked at the vi where the incident had taken ce. There were already countless people gathering there.


    Wang Yun had no expression on his face at all. It was as though he were just watching the downfall of someone else.


    In the past, everyone in the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligencework was very polite towards Wang Yun. That was because Kong Erdong had mentioned on more than one asion that he wanted someone like Wang Yun to take over the intelligence agency in the future.


    Actually, although Wang Yun was the director of the 2nd Military Intelligence Division, he would frequently overstep his authority and assign work to the 1st and 3rd Divisions. It was not that he wanted to overstep his authority but that Kong Erdong gave him the power to do so.


    Wang Yun had been a director for a long time and did not mind doing it for a little longer. Then when Kong Erdong retired, he would take over as the new intelligence head.


    He did not mind waiting a while, but he could not keep waiting forever.


    A superior who sought immortality could only spell disaster for his subordinates.


    People always said that ¡°being in the king¡¯spany is tantamount to living with a tiger,¡± so who would want to keep a tigerpany when it might end up eating him at any moment?


    Of course, Wang Yun did not have the courage to kill Kong Erdong with his own hands. He only hid the fact that he had discovered Vani and Tang Hualong¡¯s whereabouts from Kong Erdong.


    He had wanted to report about this, but the attitude disyed by Kong Erdong made him decide to keep quiet about it.


    Initially, he only wanted to see if there might be anything to gain from it, but Wang Yun did not expect such a good oue.


    ¡°I guess I¡¯ll head to the North first.¡± Wang Yun burst outughing.


    For now, he was undoubtedly one of the frontrunners to take over the intelligence agency. But to get rid of his fellowpetitors, he would still need a gift.


    The current head of the Kong Consortium, Kong Donghai, was also advanced in age, so he should be very interested in gaining immortality as well.


    Wang Yun knew the most important thing to do at this moment was definitely not to form a political alliance and engage in politics but to let Kong Haidong understand who was truly thepetent one.

 Chapter 674 - The Anjing House trials

    <h4>Chapter 674: The Anjing House trials</h4>


    In Luoyang City, many locations were starting to get busy as repair works began. The Qinghe Group¡¯s workers were transporting truckloads of building materials from outside the city to repair the damaged buildings.


    Inside this huge stronghold, ckened walls and neon signs damaged by the big fire could often be seen while taking a walk in the streets.


    Fortunately, the first thing the Qinghe Group did after the chaotic battle was to carry out post-disaster rebuilding work. They not only rebuilt the houses and set up temporary tents but also distributed food to the people so they could tide through the crisis.


    This gave the Luoyang City residents some hope, and Luoyang City was able to regain some of its vitality.


    A reporter proposed to Jiang Xu that he wanted to interview those who had lost their homes and ask them if they felt touched by the Qinghe Group¡¯s rebuilding efforts.


    As a result, this reporter was criticized at the headquarters of Hope Media on that very day. Jiang Xu would always reprimand his reporters and editors with a very loud voice. ¡°Those people don¡¯t even have a home anymore, yet you¡¯re thinking of asking them if they feel touched? Are you out of your mind? Don¡¯t go and make things difficult for them at a time like this. Our Hope Media is not a mouthpiece for the Qinghe Group, so there¡¯s no need to publicize their achievements for them!¡±


    With this reprimand from Jiang Xu, all the reporters in the office stopped working for a moment.


    Some people said Jiang Xu was the bastion of Hope Media. As long as he remained at Hope Media, this newspaper firm would keep reporting the truth.


    Today was the day of Qinghe University¡¯s special admissions examination. Zhou Yingxue and many other parents were standing outside the school entrance and waiting for the examinees inside.


    Among the group of test-takers¡¯ guardians, Zhou Yingxue was the only one who was dressed gorgeously. She outshone all the other parents.


    Zhou Yingxue even kept ncing at a middle-aged woman next to her from time to time with a disdainful look.


    The students¡¯ parents standing around her rolled their eyes at Zhou Yingxue¡¯s behavior.


    At this moment, many students started streaming out of the school, and Zhou Yingxue¡¯s spirits were immediately lifted. She saw Wang Yuchi and the others walking in front of the students. When they saw Zhou Yingxue, they waved wildly and shouted, ¡°Ms. Yingxue!¡±


    ¡°So, how did you guys do?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked anxiously.


    ¡°Very good.¡± Wang Yuchi did not keep her in suspense. During this period, the person who had been most worried about how they would do was Zhou Yingxue. She cooked a variety of food for them every day and took care of their daily lives. Wang Yuchi and the others were grateful people. If they weren¡¯t, they would not have survived until now by following Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui. Therefore, everyone was full of confidence at this moment. The first thing they did was tell Zhou Yingxue about this good news.


    The special admissions examination was a written exam, and the results would be announced after seven days. Wang Yuchi and his fellow ssmates were smart, well-prepared, diligent, and neverzy.


    Before they suffered misfortune, they had been studying for their parents¡¯ sake. But now, they were studying for themselves so they could be useful to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group in the future. This motivation in itself was already different from most other examinees.


    They had a goal they wanted to achieve.


    Moreover, the exams they took at the Li Consortium were much more difficult than what they had just gone through. As a matter of fact, when the other consortiums held their admission examination to select their university students, they would base the criteria on scientific research and only recruit a few hundred students each year. Meanwhile, Qinghe University recruited thousands of students every year, so the pressure on the students topete was entirely different.


    Therefore, Wang Yuchi and the others were able to finish the exam with ease.


    Zhou Yingxue was overjoyed to hear their reply. ¡°Let¡¯s go! When we get back, Big Sis will cook something delicious for you guys.¡±


    But on the way back, Zhou Yingxue suddenly said, ¡°Er... I have something to attend to, so I¡¯ll be leaving Luoyang City for a while. I think I¡¯ve found out about your Brother Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts. I have to go and look for him to give him a piece of my mind. How could he just abandon all of you at Luoyang City without a care? If I were you, I couldn¡¯t tolerate it!¡±


    Wang Yuchi and the others held back theirughter. All of them were fully aware of why she wanted to give Ren Xiaosu a piece of her mind.


    After Ren Xiaosu left Luoyang City, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s cooking became either too salty or had too much vinegar in it. This situationsted for three straight days!


    At this moment, Zhou Yingxue also received a text message from the Anjing House. After informing all the hitmen of the mission to attack the Pyro Company, the Anjing House sent another text to tell everyone this mission would act as the official Anjing House trials.


    In other words, whoever performed outstandingly this time would be qualified to directly enter the Anjing House.


    Zhou Yingxue felt a little tempted by this announcement. Furthermore, she thought that since her master had been particrly interested in joining the Anjing House, now that the trials were about to begin, he would definitely go as well, right?


    Zhou Yingxue was extremely unhappy about being abandoned at Luoyang City, but she could not locate Ren Xiaosu toin to him about it. The Anjing House trials could very well be her opportunity to find him.


    Wang Yuchi smiled at Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°Ms. Yingxue, just go. You don¡¯t have to worry about us. We can take care of ourselves.¡±


    ¡°I see, then Big Sis will leave you with enough money for your living expenses so you can have whatever you want to eat. I could be back soon.¡± Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°No, I¡¯ll definitely be back soon.¡±


    When they got back to the courtyard house they were currently living in, Zhou Yingxue immediately started packing. And she even nted some strange seeds in the yard. She could confidently say this house would definitely be the safest ce in the entirety of Luoyang City in theing days.


    Zhou Yingxue told Wang Yuchi they should immediately run back home if they encountered any danger. As long as they stayed at home, not even a god could touch them.


    Wang Yuchi and the others smiled and promised they would do so. Ren Xiaosu had also told them before that there were very few people who were a match for Zhou Yingxue now. In their minds, Zhou Yingxue was a very powerful supernatural being.


    Therefore, they just had to do as Zhou Yingxue said.


    Before leaving, Zhou Yingxue evenmented, ¡°Y¡¯know, your Brother Xiaosu is a handful. He has such a lovely mai here in Luoyang City... no, he has so many lovely little brothers here, so how could he run away with someone else? Alright, alright, don¡¯t hold it in anymore, justugh all you want!¡±


    Wang Yuchi and the others stifled theirughter and saw Zhou Yingxue out the door. However, they saw Xu Zhi already standing outside the yard.


    ¡°You all can go back now. Remember to study hard.¡± With that, Zhou Yingxue walked over to Xu Zhi. ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°I heard from Brother Xu Ke that you¡¯re leaving?¡± Xu Zhi asked softly.


    ¡°What has that got to do with you?¡± Zhou Yingxue rolled her eyes.


    ¡°I just came to send you off.¡± Xu Zhi was a little unsettled. He was no longer as prideful and confident as he was back at school and at the Qinghe Group.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to send me off. I have legs; I can walk by myself.¡± Then Zhou Yingxue got into the new car she bought recently.


    Xu Zhi suddenly asked, ¡°Since I like you so much, can you give me a chance?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue closed the door. ¡°I like my master very much too, but he didn¡¯t give me a chance either!¡±


    With that, Zhou Yingxue stepped on the pedal, and the off-road vehicle roared north.

 Chapter 675 - Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 675: Ambush</h4>


    While arge number of people with different intentions were heading north, a convoy was fleeing hastily south at the border of the Northern ins and the Central ins.


    Within the convoy, a fully enclosed container truck that was being protected was traveling with them. The entire trailerpartment was just like a special cage that had no windows.


    Hundreds of nomads on horseback were pursuing the convoy. They would even shoot at them with arrows every now and then. Those arrows were steady, urate, and deadly. Thest vehicle at the rear of the convoy had its spare tire that was mounted on the back pierced by the arrows like an archery target.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s n to capture the supernatural being was not proceeding too smoothly as the other party¡¯s superpower troubled them a lot. Before they came to the grasnds, they had expected their target to be very strong. But in the actual battle, they realized they had still underestimated their opponent.


    Fortunately, the Pyro Company had sent a lot of people this time, and even a T5-rankedbatant was dispatched. Only then did they finally manage to capture their target.


    This was probably one of the most important operations the Pyro Company had carried out in recent years. They could only seed; failure would not be tolerated.


    When the convoy drove out of the grasnds, the off-road vehicles¡¯ speed after they got back onto the dirt track became faster, and they got farther away from the horses behind them. Someone cursed out loud in the vehicle, ¡°What the hell did they feed the horses in the grasnds? How can they run for three days straight without getting tired? And they¡¯re so fast!¡±


    ¡°Get used to it.¡± A person sitting in the back closed his eyes to get some rest. ¡°In the future, the creatures in the wilderness might be even more ferocious. I heard that even the nts in that mountain under lockdown have already mutated on arge scale.¡±


    It was no secret the Pyro Company had a mysterious mountain range under their control.


    Back when Qing Zhen went into the Jing Mountains, he mentioned the Jing Mountains might be a hallowed ground simr to that of the Pyro Company¡¯s mountain range.


    The Saboteurs had once hoped to explore that mountain range, but they were still too weak at that time to do so.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s strongholds were situated north of the Kong Consortium, with half of them east while the other half were west. Theyout of the strongholds¡¯ locations seemed to form a circle that protected that mountain range at the center.


    Upon leaving the grasnds, the nomads stopped chasing. They just stood at the edge of the grasnds on their horses and stared into the distance as they watched the Pyro Company convoy leave.


    A member of the Pyro Company heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°They¡¯ve finally stopped pursuing us.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t let your guard down.¡± The T5-rankedbatant said behind them, ¡°We¡¯ve received news from the headquarters that the Anjing House has issued a mission to intercept us. There will be even more peopleing after uster, so it won¡¯t be easy for us to get back to thepany safely.¡±


    ¡°Since this superhuman is so important, why don¡¯t you request for headquarters to send us some support?¡± someone asked.


    But when this topic was brought up, the T5-rankedbatant kept quiet.


    All the Pyro Company members who were feeling relieved just a moment ago became worried again. Did this mean there would not be any reinforcements?


    Right at this moment, a distant mountain in front of them suddenly started moving. The mountain transformed into a gigantic dragon that blotted out the sky and let out a ferocious roar.


    This was a sight that could be called a wonder of the world. If this was a supernatural being¡¯s doing, it would be enough to let the wielder be ranked among the top five supernatural beings just based on this ability to move mountains!


    Some of the Pyro Company members in the convoy were immediately flustered. Seeing the five-wed golden dragon was about to crash down onto the convoy from the sky, the driver quickly turned the steering wheel in shock.


    However, the T5-rankedbatant suddenly grabbed the steering wheel from behind. ¡°Don¡¯t panic!¡±


    The T5-rankedbatant picked up the built-in walkie-talkie and said, ¡°Keep driving forward! Keep driving forward! Don¡¯t make sharp turns!¡±


    They were currently traveling at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour. If they were to turn their steering wheels in panic, all of the vehicles in the convoy would overturn for sure!


    T5102 continued saying coldly, ¡°This is an illusion. I repeat, this is an illusion. If it were real, the opponent would not have to resort to making such a big scene to try to scare us. Also, if it weren¡¯t an illusion, we couldn¡¯t get away from a superhuman like that either!¡±


    As he was saying that, the five-wed golden dragon swept over their vehicles at a low altitude. However, it did not cause any damage to the convoy at all.


    T5102 sneered, ¡°So it was really an illusion. Does he think he can deter us with a little trick like that?¡±


    Seeing that the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy was not affected, the supernatural being in the distance raised his hand again and made another mountain transform into a simr-sized spotted tiger that pounced at the convoy.


    If such an illusion did not work the first time, it would definitely not work subsequently.


    The supernatural being¡¯s forehead was full of sweat as he said to hispanions next to him, ¡°I can¡¯t frighten them at all, so start making your moves now!¡±


    The people next to him had already set up heavy machine gun nests at the mountain pass. They were just waiting for the convoy toe into range.


    This team was led by an official member of the Anjing House, and they had rushed here to ambush the Pyro Company at this spot.


    This time, the reward offered by the Anjing House was enough to tempt anyone. Moreover, the Anjing House also promised the hitmen would not have to hand the No. 001 Experimental to them after capturing it. They were free to deal with it on their own.


    In other words, they could totally sell the No. 001 Experimental to the consortiums that wanted it after receiving the reward from the Anjing House. This way, they could earn twice the amount of money!


    Everyone realized the Anjing House was only targeting the Pyro Company¡¯s operation this time because they did not want them toplete their follow-up research after obtaining the No. 001 Experimental. As for who got the No. 001 Experimental after that, they were not concerned at all.


    Among the official members of the Anjing House, some of them operated as lone wolves like Vani previously did, while the others worked in a fixed team, like this supernatural being who was currently using his illusion techniques.


    Actually, his superpower was quite useless. If he encountered a powerful supernatural being, he would definitely not be a match for them. Therefore, he needed to coborate with others for his missions.


    His assistant next to him said calmly, ¡°As long as they get into range, I¡¯ll turn their convoy into Swiss cheese.¡±


    The supernatural being emphasized, ¡°Be careful not to damage the vehicle in the middle. I want the Experimental captured alive!¡±


    ¡°Got it!¡±


    But before the convoy could enter their precise range, they saw a person jump out of the rear door of the vehicle at the front of the convoy.


    After T5102 jumped out of the vehicle, his body tilted extremely close to the ground for a short moment due to the inertia. However, he didn¡¯t care at all and maintained a 60-degree angle with the ground and started running madly.


    Within two seconds, T5102 had already overtaken the convoy and was rushing towards the mountain pass where someone was lying in ambush. His speed was so fast it was unimaginable!


    Four secondster, T5102 had left the convoy far behind in his wake. With every step he took, he would leave a hole in the ground.


    As he ran, hisbat boots could not withstand the tremendous force and started cracking open.


    ¡°Open fire! Don¡¯t let him get near us! That¡¯s a T5-rankedbatant from the Pyro Company¡¯s Dawn team!¡± the supernatural being roared.


    The Dusk and Midnight teams were the mostmon Pyro Company members that supernatural beings would encounter. But a lot of people knew that Dusk was not the strongest fighting force within the Pyro Company. There was an even stronger unit above them, and that team was known as Dawn.


    The speed of the enemy had already given them a great sense of danger. No one at the site could survive if the enemy got near them!


    But suddenly, someone rushed out of the shadows at the foot of the mountain and collided straight into T5102.


    The people up on the mountain saw the other party was wearing a white mask.

 Chapter 676 - Working together

    <h4>Chapter 676: Working together</h4>


    No one knew when that person in the white mask had hidden at the foot of the mountain. Not even the members of the Anjing House who had been lying here in ambush since earlier were aware.


    Up on the mountain, these Anjing House members broke out in cold sweat. If this person were here to kill them, wouldn¡¯t it mean they would not have even known how they might have died?


    Fortunately, this person was here for the Pyro Company!


    ¡°Wait a minute, isn¡¯t that the legendary White Mask?¡± someone asked.


    White Mask had be too well-known in recent times. He had ughtered many people at Stronghold 73 and even made it onto the newspapers for facing the Experimentals at Stronghold 74. Later, there were also rumors he had appeared at Luoyang City during the Qinghe crisis.


    It seemed he was always involved in the major events that happened recently. However, no one knew where he came from.


    Initially, Li Yingyun, Qin Sheng, and Zhang Qingxi had suspected Ren Xiaosu and White Mask were in fact the same person. Butter, the two of them appeared at Hope Media¡¯s headquarters at the same time, so that dispelled their suspicions.


    However, this White Mask would not help the Qinghe Group for no reason, so he must be somehow rted to Ren Xiaosu, right?


    But of course, the Riders would definitely not tell anyone about this.


    At this moment, T5102 was dashing crazily past the gunfire. As he ran, he kicked up arge cloud of dust.


    Meanwhile, the speed of White Mask, who was rushing towards him in the opposite direction, did not decrease at all. If the two of them were to meet each other head-on, it would probably be no different from a high-speed train collision.


    Even supernatural beings would get severely injured by that, let alone normal people.


    The impact of this collision would crush a supernatural being¡¯s organs!


    ¡°Neither of them are going to stop?¡± The supernatural being up on the mountain looked down with his binocrs. ¡°These two are way too ferocious. They¡¯re both probably going to die if they really collide with each other.¡±


    Supernatural beings tended to cherish their lives a lot. Since they had already be supernatural beings, who would be willing to die before they got to enjoy their lives first?


    But now, these two people seemed to be acting out of spite. It was like they did not care about anything else.


    In a battle between experts, the first move would not involve a saber or sword but intimidation.


    Whoever retreated first would have been intimidated.


    This was not mysticism but a matter of psychology.


    Furthermore, whoever changed their trajectory during this high-speed motion would inevitably affect their bnce.


    And bnce was very crucial in battle.


    Up on the mountain, the professional team of assassins had stopped firing and started to watch this first-ss battle between two supernatural beings.


    In the distance, the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy was trying to give support to T5102, but they could not catch up with his speed. And they did not dare to chase too closely either. After all, there were still heavy machine gun nests up on the mountain. If those heavy machine guns were not destroyed first, it would be as good as suicidal for them to go over.


    ¡°Old Xu¡¯s¡± and T5102¡¯s speed was getting faster and faster. But just as everyone thought that they were going to collide, T5102 suddenly dodged to the left. At the veryst second, T5102 still got intimidated!


    But before he could regain his bnce with that maneuver to the left, ¡°Old Xu¡± had already grabbed hold of his cor. His clothes were even torn in the process.


    ¡°Old Xu¡± twisted its hips with some force as it traveled forward at high speed while dragging T5102 through the air. Like a shot putter pushing a ball, it forcefully threw this living person about 10 meters up into the air!


    Many people liked resorting to shy attacks, such as flying kicks or spinning kicks, but all truebatants knew that whoever¡¯s feet went off the ground first and lost their bnce while fighting would have already lost half the battle.


    That was because no matter how strong your hips and legs were, you needed to have a firm footing on the ground to fully exert your strength.


    Therefore, the moment the two sides came into contact and T5102 got intimidated, ¡°Old Xu¡± was able to catch hold of his Achilles heel.


    When T5102 was thrown up into the air, he tried his best to turn his hips around to attack ¡°Old Xu,¡± who was approaching from behind. But how could ¡°Old Xu¡± possibly give him a chance?


    Before T5102 could adjust his bnce in the air, the ck saber had alreadye shing at him from behind.


    T5102 grit his teeth and decided to use his left arm to block the de. In this way, he would still have a chance to get back on the ground and join back up with the convoy even if he lost an arm.


    But he could only watch helplessly as the ck saber shed through his arm like a hot knife cutting through butter. Then it continued slicing through his body without any resistance!


    He was a T5-rankedbatant of the Pyro Company. His body was capable of resisting bullets, but why couldn¡¯t he even block a saber sh?!


    A member of the Anjing House hiding up on the distant mountain said in shock, ¡°Judging by his speed, I guess he should be a T5-ranked Dawn member, right? What kind of saber is that? It can even cut through the T5-rankedbatant¡¯s body?!¡±


    It wasn¡¯t that no one had ever fought with a T5-rankedbatant before. But weren¡¯t they supposed to be so strong they were almost invulnerable, with even firearms being ineffective against them?


    However, this T5-rankedbatant suffered a crushing defeat against White Mask.


    Actually, it was not that the T5-rankedbatant was too weak in the battle, but that Ren Xiaosu had taken advantage of the situation.


    T5102 wanted to scare ¡°Old Xu¡± away by relying on his strong body. He knew most people in this world would not dare to collide straight into him. But he did not know ¡°Old Xu¡± was not even a person at all.


    Others might be afraid to collide with him. But to Ren Xiaosu, all he would experience was a little pain and some cold sweat at most.


    As a result, T5102¡¯s wrong move affected all his subsequent moves. Because he got intimidated at thest second, he lost the initiative in the battle for that moment. He was then killed after a series of attacks by ¡°Old Xu¡± that seized the opportunity.


    If he had stood firm and fought steadily, ¡°Old Xu¡± might not have a good way to defeat him. In fact, Ren Xiaosu might even have to resort to activating City Crusher to do that.


    At some point, Ren Xiaosu even thought that if the Pyro Company had a lot of these T5-rankedbatants in their ranks, the Anjing House would probably not be a match for them.


    After ¡°Old Xu¡± killed the T5-rankedbatant, it went straight for the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy. The Anjing House members who were watching the battle from the mountain said, ¡°Let¡¯s head down quickly. Who knows? We might be able to get something from that T5batant.¡±


    But as soon as they got up, a sniper bullet came from nowhere and hit the ground behind them, sending loose gravel flying.


    The five of them were immediately stunned and did not dare to move a muscle. ¡°Sniper!¡±


    ¡°Did you get a clear view of where the sniper¡¯s firing from?¡±


    ¡°No, but the sniper¡¯s probably in the 9 to 3 o¡¯clock direction.¡±


    ¡°Is there any point in giving such a wide range? You might as well say you don¡¯t know!¡±


    The five of them stayed still. As the other party did not kill them directly, it meant they did not want to start a killing spree. At this moment, it was better not to go looking for trouble since they werepletely exposed and within shooting range.


    Since the other party wanted them to stay here quietly, they would just have to remain in their positions obediently.


    A supernatural being who could kill a T5-rankedbatant, and a sniper who was lying in ambush in the shadows, just who were these people?! They were terrifying!


    Remaining hidden in the shadows, Ren Xiaosu was watching ¡°Old Xu¡± as it attacked the convoy. He asked over the radio, ¡°I¡¯m going to attack the convoy soon. Are those people hiding on the mountain going to cause any trouble? That was an illusion just now, right? It caused quite amotion, but it¡¯s a pity that it was quite useless.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was covered with a yellow camouge cloth as shey in the wilderness. She took out a piece of chocte and said while eating, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re as quiet as quails now.¡±

 Chapter 677 - Completely empty

    <h4>Chapter 677: Completely empty</h4>


    Yang Xiaojin had her sniper rifle aimed right at the Anjing House members in the wilderness to prevent them froming out to cause any trouble.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had even purposely gotten hold of some radio equipment the troops used. With their earpieces on, they became the most dependable team in the field.


    Moreover, the two of them coordinated extremely well together. Ren Xiaosu was responsible for controlling ¡°Old Xu¡± to get close to the target while Yang Xiaojin took charge of controlling the battlefield from a distance.


    The Anjing House had informed everyone they only had six days toplete the mission. Based on the time, today was still just the third day.


    Actually, there were still a lot of people who wanted to capture the No. 001 Experimental. However, everyone was hoping someone else would make the first move as nobody wanted to be the lead bird that stuck its neck out. In the end, they all went to Mount Gardenia that was hundreds of kilometers away to wait for the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy. That was thest part of the journey the Pyro Company had nned to take to return to their stronghold.


    However, the people waiting there had not expected someone would rush in to make a move so quickly. On the third day of the mission, they had already overturned the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy and even killed T5102.


    One of the people hiding up on the mountain asked, ¡°Do you guys think the sniper from earlier did not get us because of poor aim, or were we shown mercy?¡±


    The supernatural being from the Anjing House said helplessly, ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. Those who dare to make a move on the third day are either people like us with a team lying in ambush or daredevils who are really that strong. Didn¡¯t you see how he managed to kill that T5batant? So how could his sniper teammate be an amateur? Don¡¯t be thinking that you somehow survived because you got lucky. The reason why I¡¯ve lived so long is that I¡¯ve never taken anything for granted regardless of the situation.¡±


    In fact, they had nted explosives on the sides of the mountain. If the T5batant had really rushed over, he might have ended up getting killed by the st.


    Everyone was aware that T5-rankedbatants were not afraid of firearms, but the power of explosives was different.


    As the Anjing House members were talking, ¡°Old Xu,¡± who was wearing a white mask, appeared in front of the convoy. The Pyro Company members had already stopped their vehicles and were using them as cover while shooting at ¡°Old Xu.¡±


    But be it the Pyro Company members or the five-person team hiding up on the mountain, they realized the White Mask did not seem affected at all in the face of the gunfire. When the bullets hit ¡°him,¡± it only caused ¡°his¡± body to sway a little. There was not even any bleeding.


    The five people on the mountain gasped. ¡°That¡¯s too fucking strong!¡±


    The supernatural being¡¯s assistant asked in a whisper, ¡°Do you think you can withstand the bullets head on like this?¡±


    That supernatural being got so angry heughed. ¡°If I could, would I have to get pointed at by a sniper rifle and hide here with you people? You¡¯re an experienced veteran with countless battles under your belt, so can you think before you speak?¡±


    ¡°Old Xu¡± had already broken through the suppressive fire and was standing right in front of the convoy. With just a slight nudge of his shoulder, the vehicles were knocked over in an instant.


    The Pyro Company members hiding behind the vehicles tried to draw their sabers and engage in closebat. Some of them even started running into the wilderness, but they were all chased down by ¡°Old Xu,¡± one by one.


    However, ¡°Old Xu¡± did not kill them all. Two people were spared.


    In the distance, Ren Xiaosu suddenly became nervous. He moved ¡°Old Xu¡± towards the container truck slowly.


    Ren Xiaosu had not seen Yan Liuyuan in a long time, so he was really hoping Yan Liuyuan would be inside the container truck, and that when he opened up the container, the other party would call out ¡°Bro¡± to him.


    Ren Xiaosu had been looking forward to the day of their reunion for far too long.


    With a snap, ¡°Old Xu¡± broke the lock on the container with its bare hands. But when the door was opened, Ren Xiaosu was stunned.


    He heard Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice through the earpiece. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Xiaosu? Is it Liuyuan?¡±¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing in the container,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with some difficulty.


    When ¡°Old Xu¡± opened the container door, it waspletely empty on the inside. Ren Xiaosu was really unable to ept this. He even ordered ¡°Old Xu¡± to break apart the container with its bare hands to see if there were any hiddenpartments inside.


    Unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t.


    When the five people on the mountain in the distance saw this, they bit their tongues nervously. The other party had dismantled the truck as though it were a toy.


    But they were also a little puzzled. Why wasn¡¯t there anyone in the container?


    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Didn¡¯t they say they had captured the No. 001 Experimental?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. ¡°Could the Anjing House have received the wrong intel?¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be. They must¡¯ve seeded in capturing it,¡± Yang Xiaojin said firmly. ¡°Let¡¯s take the survivors away and interrogate them.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Let¡¯s retreat.¡±


    With that, Yang Xiaojin pulled the trigger and fired at the five people hiding on the mountain. The bullets pierced their caps and cors, scaring them so much that they quickly crouched down to avoid the bullets.


    After a long time, they got up and realized the enemy had probably left. They had only fired off those shots earlier because they did not want them to see where they had gone.


    ¡°Thankfully, the sniper showed us mercy. Otherwise, the five of us would¡¯ve died here,¡± the supernatural being muttered. He looked at the bullet hole in his cor and was surprised to see the sniper had shot a button off. If that were intentional, just how good was the sniper¡¯s marksmanship?


    If such a team were to travel around the wilderness, whoever encountered them would be extremely down on their luck.


    ¡°What should we do now?¡± his assistant asked.


    ¡°Sell the information to the Anjing House. Tell them there wasn¡¯t anyone in the container. We¡¯ve been tricked by the Pyro Company. This news will fetch a lot of money,¡± the supernatural being said.


    ...


    ¡°Old Xu¡± carried the two unconscious Pyro Company members all the way east. Only when they had chosen a ce to camp did they finally settle down to set up their tents and start cooking.


    Ren Xiaosu carried a bucket of cold water over and sshed it on the heads of the Pyro Company members. The cold stream water in winter made the two of them shiver. Then they looked at Ren Xiaosu before them in horror.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll ask, and you two will answer. Let¡¯s reduce any unnecessary trouble for each other. Did y¡¯all sessfully capture the No. 001 Experimental?¡±


    ¡°Ye¡ª¡± The Pyro Company member could not even give aplete answer before choking on his words.


    Following, dark blood flowed out of their eyes, and the two of them dropped dead to the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. ¡°Did theymit suicide by swallowing poison or what?¡±


    ¡°It feels more like someone has cursed them with an anti-betrayal hex.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I¡¯ve heard about it before. It seems there¡¯s a superhuman whose power is simr to this. As long as the victims are cursed, they can never betray anyone. The price of betrayal is death.¡±


    ¡°Based on his answer, I guess he was going to say they seeded?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Since they seeded, why wasn¡¯t the No. 001 Experimental in the container?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s very likely that another team from the Pyro Company secretly transported the No. 001 Experimental away after capturing it. Meanwhile, the group we encountered was meant to draw firepower towards it.¡± Yang Xiaojin sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid there was more than one T5batant of the Pyro Company that headed to the steppe this time.¡±

 Chapter 678 - Preparing to head to the Sacred Mountains

    <h4>Chapter 678: Preparing to head to the Sacred Mountains</h4>


    Three days had already passed since the Anjing House sent out the message announcing the start of the mission. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had tried their best to rush over as quickly as possible, but they could never have expected that even though they managed to catch up and intercept the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy, it was actually just a strategy to mislead them.


    If the Anjing House were able to nt their spies in the Pyro Company and find out in advance that they were heading to the grasnds to capture the No. 001 Experimental, the Pyro Company could also have ess to their A-rank hitmen¡¯s cell phones.


    Since they were adversaries, how could the Pyro Company possibly not guard against the Anjing House?


    Yang Xiaojin even had a feeling that the Anjing House¡¯s spy within the Pyro Company might already be dead.


    Espionage and counterespionage was often like an undercurrent in the deep sea, and spies tended to disappear or die without a trace.


    ¡°So which route would the Pyro Company take to transport the No. 001 Experimental away if they split up into two groups?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can we still catch up and intercept them now?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°Since they nned it so carefully and even got a T5batant to act as bait, their alternative route will definitely be much more secure. Who knows? They might be reaching the Pyro Company¡¯sb soon.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little anxious. If Yan Liuyuan had really been captured by the Pyro Company, he would most likely be doomed.


    Most people would hide until thest moment and let someone else make a move first. If this were any other time, Ren Xiaosu would surely be taking cover in the shadows like everyone else and finding an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.


    But Yan Liuyuan was too important to him. Therefore, he would not hesitate to take the lead and make his move in advance.


    ¡°Where will the Pyro Company send the No. 001 Experimental for study after capturing him?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Probably the Sacred Mountains.¡± Yang Xiaojin analyzed, ¡°Almost all superhumans caught by the Pyro Company are sent to the Sacred Mountains. It¡¯s a legendary, hallowed ground where the Pyro Company set up theirb, and all ess routes leading to it are heavily guarded by troops.¡±


    ¡°How many routes are there to ess the mountains?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Seven.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°The Sacred Mountains are an entire mountain range that stretches on for more than 200 kilometers. An entire regiment of regr troops is stationed at every ess route.¡±


    ¡°With our physiques as supernatural beings, there¡¯s no need for us to take the main path. Since the Sacred Mountains span such a wide area, the Pyro Company can¡¯t seal off the entire mountain range,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°You want to go to the Sacred Mountains?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I have no choice but to go.¡±


    ¡°OK, I¡¯ll go with you.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°But there¡¯s some things you need to heed my advice on. The danger in the Sacred Mountains is not only limited to the Pyro Company¡¯s troops stationed there. In fact, those troops don¡¯t usually dare to step into the Sacred Mountains either. The ones who can venture in are the Pyro Company¡¯s genemoddedbatants. Previously, the Anjing House sent some A-rank hitmen in, but without exception, we never heard from them again.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin continued, ¡°I know you¡¯re concerned about Liuyuan¡¯s safety, and I don¡¯t want anything to happen to him either. However, this is not a reason for you to lose your cool and caution. We should always n before making any moves. We can¡¯t just barge in without any preparation. As the saying goes, ¡®concern leads to confusion.¡¯ You have to listen to me for this operation.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment and sighed, ¡°Mhm, thanks for the reminder.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was not afraid of dying. If she were, she would not choose to apany him to the Sacred Mountains. However, Yang Xiaojin knew full well that it would be very easy for Ren Xiaosu to lose his mind because of Yan Liuyuan. Therefore, what she had to do was not to act rashly along with Ren Xiaosu but to help him keep his cool.


    ...


    That afternoon, the Anjing House members who had watched the entire battle passed on the information to the Anjing House that there weren¡¯t any Experimentals being escorted by the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy.


    After the Anjing House received the intel and verified it, they sent out another text. ¡°The No. 001 Experimental has been transported to the Sacred Mountains. All Anjing House hitmen, please confirm your participation to assist the Anjing House to stop the Pyro Company¡¯s research. The reward...¡±


    This time, the reward offered by the Anjing House was even higher than the reward offered for intercepting the convoy. However, they did not mention anything about a rendezvous point or their specific ns. It seemed that this was to prevent the Pyro Company from getting wind of the news in advance.


    As for how to gather all of these hitmen together, that would be up to the Anjing House to arrange. They would definitely have a way to do it.


    When Ren Xiaosu received the text, he did not head directly for the Sacred Mountains. Instead, he followed Yang Xiaojin to the ruins of a city more than 100 kilometers west of the Sacred Mountains.


    This ce was originally a county-level city before The Cataclysm. From the outside, all of the buildings in the ruins were in disrepair, and there was no one roaming the streets either.


    Yang Xiaojin led Ren Xiaosu and made many twists and turns before they came to the entrance of a bomb shelter where they walked right in.


    It was very dark underground. They had to walk for dozens of meters before they saw an old light bulb mounted on the walls of the bomb shelter. There were even two young men squatting beneath it.


    When they saw that someone hade in, they stood up and asked, ¡°Where are you from?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin calmly handed over 10,000 yuan in cash and said, ¡°The two of us are here to ask about some information.¡±


    One of the young men took the cash from her and pped it in his hand with a smile. ¡°You¡¯vee to the right ce. However, we can¡¯t guarantee the uracy of the information that you find here. You¡¯ll have to make that judgment by yourself, and neither should you expect us to help you catch any scammers.¡±


    ¡°I know the rules.¡± Then Yang Xiaojin continued walking in. When the young man gave a loud whistle, an old, broken metal door slowly opened in front of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Unlike the deserted atmosphere outside, the area behind the bomb shelter¡¯s door was bustling with activity.


    ¡°This is a ck market?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yang Xiaojin walked farther inside. ¡°But the scale of this ck market is not that big, and there aren¡¯t that many people either. Unlike the ck market at Luoyang City where it¡¯s mainly for leisure with many vice establishments and can be considered a retirement home for some of the mob bosses, this one is more chaotic. Before the appearance of the Anjing House, most of the assassination missions were assigned at this location, and many infamous ouws hid here. The bomb shelter is huge, as it stretches across the entire county¡¯s ruins, so it¡¯s a good ce for criminals to seek refuge in.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t bring me here just to get intel, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The Anjing House has many people stationed here. It can be said that half of the entire underground ck market is under the control of the Anjing House. Although this ce is not exactly close to the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains, the Anjing House will likely treat it as their final staging spot if they n on infiltrating the Sacred Mountains.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°And it¡¯s said that there¡¯s someone here who once traveled to the periphery of the Sacred Mountains. It¡¯s better to have someone lead the way than to blindly feel our way forward.¡±


    In other words, they were here to find someone who could scout the way for them and die on their behalf.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered that when they first entered the Jing Mountains, Yang Xiaojin and the others also found a group of private soldiers who were looking to get by to travel with them. They even recruited him as their guide.


    Thinking of that now, it felt as though an entire lifetime had passed. Back then, he had just obtained the pce and did not know about the truth of the world yet.

 Chapter 679 - Extortion in the black market

    <h4>Chapter 679: Extortion in the ck market</h4>


    In the gloomy bomb shelter¡¯s ck market, yellow tungsten bulbs hanging overhead every ten meters or so were illuminating the ce dimly.


    The reason the lighting was poor was that the air quality underground was really bad.


    The ck market definitely did notck money since everyone was required to pay 10,000 yuan before entering. Logically speaking, they could clearly renovate the underground to make it a little better and brighter.


    But the people at the ck market did not do so. It was as though this ce was specially designed so everyone had a chance of survival in the dim lighting. If no one could see each other¡¯s faces clearly, it would be easier to keep their identities hidden.


    Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were not pampered people. They had survived in worse environments than this before.


    Yang Xiaojin whispered as they walked, ¡°Although the Anjing House does not have a lot of official members, many people underestimate the number of A-rank hitmen in their ranks. Some of the A-rank hitmen are also members of various consortiums. They usually carry out missions to maintain their statuses as A-rank hitmen in order to gain ess to some of the Anjing House¡¯s intelligence. In the past, they generally did not show up for most of the operations. But this time, I believe many big shots of the consortiums will be interested in the No. 001 Experimental. So my guess is that a lot of people will gather here this time.¡±


    ¡°Since the Anjing House knows there¡¯s so many spies within the organization, why didn¡¯t they screen the owners of the cell phones more carefully?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Of course the Anjing House has its own screening criteria. There¡¯s people specially monitoring each of the cell phones¡¯ ounts.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined, ¡°They don¡¯t mind people from the consortiums infiltrating their hitmen teams either. Just like right now, these people mighte in handy. As you can see, even B- and C-rank hitmen have also received texts this time. They¡¯d rather have more people showing up than less. In any case, the Sacred Mountains isn¡¯t the Anjing House¡¯s territory. No matter whoes here to stir up trouble, it¡¯ll be the Pyro Company that gets affected. Because the Anjing House is using what the Pyro Company has in their possession to attract everyone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt the hitmen were just tools for the Anjing House to use.


    With so many people attracted to the Sacred Mountains, the Anjing House was probably deciding to sacrifice most of them, right? After all, not many of these people could possibly make it out alive.


    ¡°How many ck markets are there in the entire Alliance of Strongholds?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°A lot, but most of them don¡¯tst long. The established ones are located outside the jurisdiction of the consortiums in no man¡¯snd,¡± Yang Xiaojin answered. ¡°Like this ce where we are and the one in Luoyang City, they survive by operating in the gaps between the consortiums.¡±


    ¡°Did youe here because you hope to follow the Anjing House teams into the mountains? Are you gonna get recognized by anyone?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, ¡°I don¡¯t interact much with the Anjing House. Even if there¡¯s someone I know, they¡¯re just the logistics personnel. Also, if too many peoplee here, they¡¯ll definitely set off for the Sacred Mountains in batches. My aunt and the others will surely not appear at a conspicuous ce like this.¡±


    ¡°Is the person you know... Dong Funan?¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked. He remembered he had seen Dong Funan back at Luoyang City.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, Dong Funan is one of them.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Even now, her teeth still haven¡¯t fully grown back yet, so she can only serve in a supporting role for now.¡±


    There were countless rooms sitting side by side in the bomb shelter. The rooms did not have any doors and were just covered up by a simple door curtain.


    When they passed by a room, Ren Xiaosu happened to hear some people discussing on the inside, ¡°That White Mask has appeared as well. And it seems he¡¯s also very interested in annihting the Pyro Company.¡±


    Another person said, ¡°After all, he was one of the main fighting forces against the Pyro Company when he appeared at Stronghold 73 and fought in the battle where East Lake caved in. It all adds up based on this logic. However, your intel isn¡¯t particrly valuable. The entire time, you didn¡¯t mention what superpowers he had, nor revealed his identity. You don¡¯t even know the sniper¡¯s identity. Besides, you must¡¯ve heard of this from other people. Since you weren¡¯t onsite at that time, this is just secondhand info you didn¡¯t personally witness. As such, after discount, I¡¯ll only pay you 10,000 yuan at most.¡±


    ¡°10,000 yuan? That¡¯s too little!¡±


    ¡°Listen, aren¡¯t you going to the Sacred Mountains with the members of the Anjing House? I¡¯m guessing White Mask will definitely be there as well. At that time, if you can confirm what his superpower is, I¡¯ll pay you 500,000 yuan. If you can confirm his identity too, I¡¯ll add another one million yuan on top of that. The identity of the sniper is also worth another 500,000 yuan!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin who was beside him. Yang Xiaojin cast a nce at him and said in a low voice, ¡°Are you thinking of selling yourself out?¡±


    ¡°Who¡¯s eavesdropping outside?¡± When the people inside heard someone talking outside, they lifted the curtain and rushed out. ¡°My info is priceless. Since you overheard us, you have to pay up!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. The people inside couldn¡¯t possibly have heard what they just said. They only rushed out to ask for money when they realized that there were people standing outside. However, Yang Xiaojin simply handed over 10,000 yuan with a smile before turning around to leave.


    ¡°You gave them the money just like that?¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Why should we pay them!?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the rule of the ck market.¡± Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, ¡°Since the rooms at the ck market do not have doors, it leads to another kind of business, extortion. The people inside might have heard our footsteps, so they deliberately talked about some useless info for us to hear. As long as we hear it, we have to pay for it. It doesn¡¯t matter if you don¡¯t want to pay, but you can¡¯t enter this ck market in the future.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re using info to extort money...¡± Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips. ¡°It really takes all sorts to make a world. You already knew about this rule, didn¡¯t you? Why didn¡¯t you warn me?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, ¡°It slipped my mind too, but never mind. Isn¡¯t that person going to the Sacred Mountains as well? It looks like we¡¯ll be traveling together, so it¡¯s not like the money is lost yet.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at this girl from behind and thought she could sometimes be even more ruthless than him.


    The two of them continued walking until Yang Xiaojin saw a marking in the hallway of the bomb shelter. Then they turned and went inside that room.


    The marking was notplicated. It was just a triangr symbol formed by the intersection of three straight lines.


    It seemed this was the mark of the Anjing House.


    Before this, Ren Xiaosu did not know much about what the underworld was like, and Zhou Yingxue only had a passing knowledge. Therefore, when Yang Xiaojin led him into the bomb shelter, it was as though she had revealed another world to him.


    After lifting the door curtain, Yang Xiaojin surveyed the room first. Before she continued on in, she had to be sure no one inside the room knew her.


    The people in the room carefully sized up Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. But when they realized one of them had a hood over his head and the other was wearing a cap, they turned their gazes away since they could not see their faces clearly. Only one of the people in the room was still staring excitedly at Ren Xiaosu.


    Yang Xiaojin said in a low voice, ¡°I don¡¯t know anyone in here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was at a loss. ¡°But I do....¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was sittingfortably in the room and smiling happily at Ren Xiaosu with yellow teeth.

 Chapter 680 - Five little quails

    <h4>Chapter 680: Five little quails</h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s bright smile, he was a little at a loss for words.


    It had crossed his mind before that he might bump into Luo Lan and Zhou Qi. After all, Luo Lan was still strutting around the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory that was not far from here.


    He had also thought he might encounter Li Shentan as well. After all, that guy always enjoyed a goodmotion.


    But Ren Xiaosu had not expected to meet the Great Hoodwinker here.


    It seemed that all the people in the room were waiting for the Anjing House members to appear before setting off for the Sacred Mountains together.


    Ren Xiaosu pulled the Great Hoodwinker out the door and whispered, ¡°What are you doing here? Don¡¯t you know that this ce is very dangerous?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker chuckled and said, ¡°This is my main job. Now that something so big has happened in the Central ins, I have to do some intelligence gathering for Fortress 178, right?¡±


    Then he looked at Yang Xiaojin. ¡°You must be Ms. Yang Xiaojin, right? As expected, your extraordinary ssiness makes you reallypatible with our futuremander. Ms. Yang, are you interested in settling down in Fortress 178? We¡¯ll allocate free housing for you.¡±


    The moment the Great Hoodwinker saw Yang Xiaojin, he immediately had an idea. Now that Wang Fugui was alreadymitted to working on the trade route business with Fortress 178, if he could also convince Yang Xiaojin to go to the Northwest as well, could Ren Xiaosu still get away?


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Futuremander?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± The Great Hoodwinker beamed and said, ¡°Doesn¡¯t that sound really impressive? After Commander Zhang retires, he¡¯ll take over as themander of our Fortress 178. Now that you know this, don¡¯t you want to go to the Northwest even more?¡±


    Honestly, Yang Xiaojin really did not expect Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current status in the Northwest to have gotten so prominent. She grinned at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard you mention this before.¡±


    ¡°Why should I bring that up? He¡¯s just kidding you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    When he said that, Yang Xiaojin immediately understood. It was no wonder the Great Hoodwinker was being so attentive towards him. So it turned out Ren Xiaosu had still not agreed yet.


    If it was anyone else, they would probably be too excited to even sleep. That was a force that controlled the entire Northwestern region, after all. Besides, if it were anyone else that got chosen by Fortress 178 to be their futuremander, they would surely be bragging about it constantly in the presence of any girls, as though they were afraid no one would know about it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not like that. He did not mention it, nor boast about it to Yang Xiaojin. He was just different from the others.


    But Ren Xiaosu was more concerned about other matters at the moment. He said to the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°I feel that the Pyro Company might¡¯ve already prepared a backup n this time. It might look like a one-off response against the Anjing House¡¯s operation, but I somehow feel that the Pyro Company is doing this to eliminate the Anjing House, their long-term adversary. I have my reasons for going, but you don¡¯t, so I suggest that you stay put here.¡±


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu was hell-bent on intercepting the Pyro Company to save Liuyuan. His brother, his only kin, had been kidnapped by someone, so it was inevitable he would get anxious and unsettled. Ren Xiaosu was not a sage, after all.


    However, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s reminder made him start thinking about this matter calmly. The Pyro Company obviously already knew what the Anjing House was up to, so they had prepared a decoy and split up their troops. In that case, could the Pyro Companyy any further ambushes for them inside the Sacred Mountains?


    The Anjing House had already revealed their cards, but no one knew what the Pyro Company was up to yet.


    The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°I¡¯ve experienced too many dangers in my life. Future Commander, you don¡¯t have to worry about me. I¡¯m a tough one. Moreover, I¡¯m also worried about you going in just like that. If something were to happen to you in the Sacred Mountains, how am I going to answer to themander and Wang Fengyuan?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine,¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly.


    ¡°That won¡¯t do either.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said awkwardly, ¡°If I don¡¯t go, you guys can¡¯t go either.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why?¡±


    At this moment, five people walked in from the hallway of the bomb shelter. It turned out they were none other than the five quails Yang Xiaojin had in her scope earlier. However, they did not recognize Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. During the attack on the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy, Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu never once revealed themselves.


    The leading supernatural being looked at the Great Hoodwinker and asked, ¡°You must be our guide, right?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker chuckled and said, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right. But let me say this first. I¡¯ve only been to the outer periphery of the Sacred Mountains, so I¡¯m not really sure about the situation on the inside.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt really ufortable. So it turned out the Great Hoodwinker was the guide Yang Xiaojin was referring to? The person who was said to have traveled around the periphery of the Sacred Mountains?


    It was no wonder this fellow had appeared here. So it turned out the Great Hoodwinker did not only wander around the Northwest all these years, but he had also explored most of the Central ins already.


    The supernatural being frowned and thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Whether or not you¡¯ve gone into the Sacred Mountains before, it doesn¡¯t matter. You¡¯ll still have toplete the journey with us before you can leave. How else would I know if you¡¯ll leak our information and route to others?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said a little reluctantly, ¡°I¡¯m just a normal person, not some superhuman. Aren¡¯t you sending me to my death by asking me to go into the Sacred Mountains with you all? If you insist that I have to travel into the Sacred Mountains, I¡¯d rather not earn this money.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nearly rolled his eyes at the side. He did not believe the Great Hoodwinker was a normal person at all. How could a normal person possibly survive through so many dangers?


    He was obviously putting on an act here!


    The supernatural being standing across from him pondered things for a moment and said, ¡°I also won¡¯t insist that you go into the Sacred Mountains with us for nothing. Our team can pay you more. We¡¯ll add one million yuan to yourpensation.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker hesitated for a long time before reluctantly agreeing to it. He acted so convincingly that it felt like he was really afraid of dying.


    To the Great Hoodwinker, money was not important. What was most important was that these people believed he was just a normal person.


    It was not Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s exclusive right to hide their identities while waiting for an opportunity to strike. Most people would also choose to do so in an unfamiliar environment or group.


    The Great Hoodwinker was only going with them to gather intel, not to die.


    Then the supernatural being looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. ¡°And the two of you are?¡±


    ¡°Oh, we¡¯re both C-rank hitmen. We came here after receiving the text,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered. ¡°She¡¯s my partner.¡±


    The assistant behind the supernatural being startedughing. ¡°Is there even a need for C-rank hitmen to have partners?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°It¡¯s precisely because we¡¯re weak that we need to find a partner.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin, who was next to him, said nothing. Both of them were calm and collected people. When they made their moves, each of them was more unscrupulous than the other. Since they were nning to hide in the group for now, it would, of course, be better for them to keep a low profile.


    The supernatural being introduced himself, ¡°My name is Cheng Yu, and I¡¯ll be leading you all into the Sacred Mountains this time. Actually, I wasn¡¯t expecting that C-rank hitmen would also participate in this mission. I hope there aren¡¯t too many people of your level on the team. I also hope you two won¡¯t be a burden during our infiltration into the Sacred Mountains. I¡¯ll make myself clear: If you can¡¯t keep up with the pace of our march, you¡¯ll be left behind.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. ¡°Alright.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go inside then,¡± Cheng Yu said with a frown. He wondered why the Anjing House would mass send those texts to the B and C-rank hitmen as well? Were they screwing around with them?

 Chapter 681 - Assembling

    <h4>Chapter 681: Assembling</h4>


    When the Anjing House decided to attack the Pyro Company in the Sacred Mountains, their official members set off to the designated ck markets to assemble the hitmen.


    Cheng Yu was quite resistant to the idea of entering the Sacred Mountains to begin with. After all, it was a strategic location for the Pyro Company. Even though the Sacred Mountains spanned such arge area that their troops had to be scattered at different points, they must still have some contingency ns in ce.


    If they were to rashly enter the Sacred Mountains under such circumstances, they might just end up losing really badly.


    But some things just could not be refused even if one did not want to do it.


    Now that Cheng Yu realized there were actually amateurs who were C-rank hitmen on the team, his mood worsened.


    Cheng Yu lifted the door curtain and walked into the room. He looked around at the dozen or so people sitting inside. ¡°Is everyone here to take part in the mission?¡±


    No one answered him. Yang Xiaojin leaned against the doorframe and started sizing up the people one by one. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, who was half a head taller, was standing behind her. ¡°Something about these people doesn¡¯t feel right.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nodded but the two of them did not continue talking. This was not the right ce for them to discuss any further spections in detail.


    Actually, the two of them could tell the people in this room were not simple at all. There might even be quite a few experts from the consortiums hiding among them.


    Since Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were willing to follow the Anjing House into the Sacred Mountains, the other organizations¡¯ experts would be even more willing to take advantage of the situation by tagging onto arger group.


    Therefore, no one here could be trusted. Only the Great Hoodwinker, Yang Xiaojin, and Ren Xiaosu could trust one another.


    At this moment, another dozen people walked in from outside. Ren Xiaosu turned around and was surprised to see the person who had scammed them earlier was here as well. When this person saw Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, he looked a little embarrassed. However, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s lips curled. Did this person think it would be so easy to get her money?


    She even took back the dagger she had promised to Ren Xiaosu. This girl was never a generous person to begin with!


    After everyone had entered the room, Cheng Yu said to them, ¡°We¡¯ll assemble in an hour, so take this time to prepare your logistics. We estimate we¡¯ll need to survive in the Sacred Mountains for at least 15 days, so I don¡¯t want anyone to say you¡¯re not prepared once we¡¯re on the road. I won¡¯t be responsible for providing any logistics support to you. Later, the guide will lead us to the outer perimeter of the Sacred Mountains. After we enter the territory of the Sacred Mountains, I don¡¯t care what ulterior motives you might have, but you must listen to my orders.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he felt Cheng Yu must also know the identities of the members in the group were veryplicated. That was why he emphasized he did not care what their motives were.


    Only a few people in the room responded to what Cheng Yu said. Ren Xiaosu noticed three people. The first one was a middle-aged man who was sitting quietly in the corner. As he sat in the corner, his body was postured to constantly be on guard against the others. But what caught Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attention was that the man did not even have any calluses on his hands. He did not look like a normal hitman at all, so he was quite likely a supernatural being.


    The second person was a young man who kept ncing at Cheng Yu and the others. It was as though he were paying attention to where they kept their weapons.


    The third person was a young woman. Ren Xiaosu was just about to make a more detailed inspection of her.


    <i>Ow!</i> Ren Xiaosu grimaced in pain as he looked at Yang Xiaojin. Then Yang Xiaojin let go of her hand pinching Ren Xiaosu and whispered, ¡°Where are you looking?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. But Yang Xiaojin continued, ¡°You don¡¯t have to look anymore. That woman is a superhuman.¡±


    It was unknown just how many supernatural beings had gathered in this small little room in the ck market. It was clear the Anjing House intended to lead the experts from the various forces into the Sacred Mountains so they could make things difficult for the Pyro Company.


    As a matter of fact, Yang Anjing was also a very ruthless person.


    Other people would recruit experts into their own ranks in order to achieve their goals. But Yang Anjing started the Anjing House and made all the other forces take the initiative to get ahold of the cell phones and help her with her missions. All she needed to do was dangle the carrot, and whoever was willing would take the bait.


    Ren Xiaosu thought maybe Yang Anjing had already nned everything when she first established the Anjing House.


    After agreeing on the assembly time, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and the others went to walk around the ck market. Other than information trading, assassination missions, moneyundering, and casino gambling, firearms and ammunition were also sold here. There was even an amulet industry too!


    The people selling the firearms and ammunition said that as long as the buyers had enough money, they could even get them an armored vehicle if they wanted. It was as though there was nothing these arms dealers could not get their hands on.


    The person hawking amulets said his products would calm the wearer and cleanse their sins. It could also help them pursue good fortune and avoid disasters.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Do these things even have a market?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at the stall and said, ¡°The people who are here have done too many guilty things. Some of them can¡¯t even get a good night¡¯s rest because of their conscience. Not everyone can kill without batting an eyelid.¡±


    Off to the side, the Great Hoodwinker said with a smile, ¡°Thisdy our futuremander fancies is very knowledgeable indeed. You¡¯re absolutely right. There¡¯s a lot of people in the ck market who¡¯re willing to buy these charms. Even if it may sound foolish, all they want is to have peace of mind.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at the Great Hoodwinker speechlessly. She kept getting the feeling this guy was just a random person Ren Xiaosu had hired with money to praise him in her presence, not someone who was in charge of intelligence and field operations for Fortress 178.


    The Great Hoodwinker smiled until his face was all creased and said, ¡°Miss, why don¡¯t you let me read your fortune? Our futuremander knows that I, Divine Foresight, am capable of seeing both the past and the future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, ¡°Don¡¯t you bring up the ¡®Prosperous Northwest¡¯ again!¡±


    ¡°Haha.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said awkwardly, ¡°How did you guess?¡±


    ¡°Do you even know how to read fortunes?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    If he said he did not, what about the time when he told the Lord of Wolves, Li Qingzheng, he was destined to meet a benefactor in this life?


    But if he said he knew how to read fortunes, then why did he keep going on and on about the Prosperous Northwest to everyone? How did that make him someone who was in charge of intelligence and field operations? He was clearly the director of Fortress 178¡¯s Recruitment Division overseeing their talent acquisition program.


    The Great Hoodwinker sighed and said, ¡°To be honest with you, Future Commander, I didn¡¯t actually know how to read fortunes at the beginning. When I was younger, I hooked up with a woman and got intimate with her at her ce when her husband happened toe home. To exin the situation, she told her husband I was a fortune teller. Then I randomly read his fortune and told him he would definitely get promoted within three days. I had only said that to get off the hook, but I didn¡¯t expect that guy to really be promoted the very next day.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. ¡°Has your tongue received some kind of blessing?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker sighed and said, ¡°Later, her husband even rmended a lot of people have their fortunes told by me. Gradually, more and more people started approaching me for my fortune telling services. Sometimes, I even wonder if I really know something about geomantic omens while lying in bed in the middle of the night.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Great Hoodwinker skeptically. He was trying to discern whether the other party was lying or not.


    However, it was already approaching the time for them to assemble. The three of them packed up the supplies they had just bought and left. Ren Xiaosu wanted to carry Yang Xiaojin¡¯s backpack for her, but Yang Xiaojin said she could handle it herself.


    This girl had never pretended like she needed help from others.

 Chapter 682 - Black sniper rifle

    <h4>Chapter 682: ck sniper rifle</h4>


    On the way out of the ck market.


    ¡°Why are the Sacred Mountains called the Sacred Mountains?¡±


    This question might sound a little nonsensical, but the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s interest was aroused when he heard it. He answered Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Actually, this mountain range did not have a name in the past. Everyone was caught up with trying to survive in these wastnds, so why would anyone care to remember its name? Moreover, the terrain around here had also changed since The Cataclysm. Later, the Pyro Company only named this ce the Sacred Mountains after they set up a researchboratory here and cordoned it off.¡±


    ¡°I keep getting the feeling that this name sounds a little religious. It¡¯s somewhat awkward to hear it being called that,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered.


    ¡°It has nothing to do with religion at all. The Pyro Company only believes in gics.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said with a sigh, ¡°However, there¡¯s a rumor circting among a minority of people that this is hallowed ground. The Qing Consortium defined the Jing Mountains as hallowed ground as well, but now that the Jing Mountains have been destroyed, no one dares to explore there anymore.¡±


    ¡°Hallowed ground?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Does that mean that something like a god has appeared at this ce before? What¡¯s the exnation for that?¡±


    ¡°That, I¡¯m not sure. It¡¯s very difficult to infiltrate the Pyro Company¡¯s territories. Back then, I was only brave enough to walk around the outer perimeter of the Sacred Mountains. It somehow felt like there was some kind of unknown danger lurking on the inside.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°However, the Qing Consortium seems to have a lot more spies out there. They defined it as hallowed ground because there was someone who appeared there, or was born there, that sparked changes to the surrounding environment.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had never asked Luo Lan about these things. As for the Jing Mountains, it was a memory from a long time ago.


    However, Ren Xiaosu knew Qing Zhen disliked the Pyro Company a lot. With Qing Zhen¡¯s character, he would indeed spare no effort to understand as much as he could about his opponents.


    Therefore, this information that had originated from the Qing Consortium might very well be true.


    ¡°Hallowed ground...¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself. That ce was where the Pyro Company¡¯s Laboratory 39 was, and now, it had somehow be known as hallowed ground? Could this also be rted to the No. 001 Experimental?


    ¡°Why are you suddenly so interested in this matter?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked.


    ¡°Yang Xiaojin and I both went to the Jing Mountains. We can at best be considered survivors of that cataclysmic earthquake.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a low voice, ¡°If there¡¯s a corrtion between the two hallowed grounds, we had better be more careful. There could be extremely terrifying creatures living here in the Sacred Mountains.¡±


    When they were traveling into the Jing Mountains, that ck shadow in the river gave Ren Xiaosu a sense of danger. Then there were the events of the fish bones and meat and human corpses that had mysteriously disappeared. There were also the Experimentals and face bugs too. Some of those were strange existences that even supernatural beings were not capable of dealing with.


    But what worried Ren Xiaosu the most was that enormous monster living in the volcano. Could there be something simr lurking in the Sacred Mountains?


    Once the volcanic eruption destroyed the Jing Mountains, Ren Xiaosu was constantly worried for several months that the creature woulde out of the volcano. But when there were no signs of activity there, Ren Xiaosu began to forget about it.


    But how could he truly forget about a creature as surreal as that?


    If there were also such a monster in the Sacred Mountains, all those who ventured into the Sacred Mountains this time would probably be in trouble.


    The three of them were walking at the back of the group. Someone had suggested they drive to the periphery of the Sacred Mountains, but Cheng Yu rejected that n.


    Cheng Yu was a very cautious person. He would rather travel on foot in the wilderness for a 100 kilometers than drive on the main road.


    After all, the Sacred Mountains was the home field of the Pyro Company. By being more cautious, it would ensure they could survive longer.


    At this moment, Cheng Yu turned around and shouted at the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Guide, what are you constantly mumbling about at the back of the group? Lead the way from the front! How are we going to proceed from here?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker obliged as he jogged to the front of the group. ¡°Normal people like me can¡¯t keep up with the pace of people like you. My feet aren¡¯t nimble either, so isn¡¯t it quite normal that I fall behind? You should have a map on you, right? Let me draw the route of the hike for you.¡±


    Cheng Yu thought for a moment before having his assistant bring over a map. The Great Hoodwinker took the map and drew on it as he said, ¡°To reach the outer perimeter of the Sacred Mountains, we still have to cross threerge mountains first. We¡¯ll reach the foot of Mt. Fang by tonight, then Mt. Wuzhai in two days, and finally arrive at Mt. Shenchi after seven days. Once we get to the mountainside of Mt. Shenchi, we should be able to see the outline of the Sacred Mountains.¡±


    Cheng Yu was a little unhappy. ¡°Why does it take seven days when it¡¯s only a 100 kilometers of walking or so?¡±


    ¡°Because my legs aren¡¯t good. If you all think that I¡¯m slowing you down, you can carry me. Or since I¡¯ve already drawn the route, maybe you should go there by yourselves?¡± the Great Hoodwinker muttered as he marked the map.


    Cheng Yu was so angry that heughed. ¡°Carry you? Why don¡¯t you die instead? You better stay put in the team and behave yourself. If it¡¯s gonna take seven days, so be it.¡±


    When they arrived at the foot of Mt. Fang that night, the Great Hoodwinker secretly said to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, ¡°There¡¯s some things that I didn¡¯t tell them. In recent years, I¡¯ve beening to the outer perimeter of the Sacred Mountains yearly. As a result, I realized the zone in which the nts have mutated has slowly been expanding. So we must be careful once we¡¯ve gone past Mt. Wuzhai so that we don¡¯t end up dying.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought he could have Zhou Yingxuee here in the future. Didn¡¯t she have the ability to replicate the powers of mutated nts now? This would be the best ce to collect them.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu stepped away from the Great Hoodwinker and asked Yang Xiaojin in a low voice, ¡°Do you have any weaknesses in your superpower? Let¡¯smunicate this in advance so that we¡¯re better aware when fighting others. Take me for example. The shadow clone power that I copied from Xu Xianchu, if it gets hit hard enough between the eyes, it will vanish. The steam lotive power that I copied from Wang Congyang will reflect any damage done to it onto me in the form of pain.¡±


    All supernatural beings had weaknesses in their superpowers. For example, Zhang Baogen, whose power was blowing explosive saliva bubbles, could not do so if his mouth was dry.


    Powers were born from the willpower of a person, but that did not mean it would be perfect. This was something limited by objective factors.


    Under normal circumstances, supernatural beings would never tell others about the weaknesses of their superpowers. However, this was not a problem between Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Yang Xiaojin gave it some thought and said, ¡°My power¡¯s weakness is that my sniper rifle can only fire one shot at a time. Every time it¡¯s fired, I have to reload, and the rate of fire restricts how effectively I can use my superpower. I¡¯ve always had a feeling that I can¡¯t exert any strength at all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little stunned. In previous battles, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s rate of fire had always been extremely high, such as in Luoyang City and the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold.


    If a bolt action rifle could already be fired at such a high frequency, what kind of results could she get with an automatic rifle?


    Wait a minute, he had two ck sabers and two ck sniper rifles, didn¡¯t he? However, ¡°Old Xu¡± was not capable of firing the sniper rifle with any uracy at all, so it might as well be carrying a heavy machine gun instead.


    In that case, could he let Yang Xiaojin use his ck sniper rifle? After all, the ck sniper rifle had so many advantages. Its effective range was even farther, and there was no need to equip it with an additional sh guard or manually reload it. There was also the ck bullet ammunition Ren Xiaosu had not dared to use even now

 Chapter 683 - Penalties

    <h4>Chapter 683: Penalties</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    While everyone was still setting up their tents and starting a cookfire, Ren Xiaosu ditched the Great Hoodwinker and led Yang Xiaojin into the mountains.


    Cheng Yu, who was in charge of leading the team, frowned at the sight. It was only the first day, yet there were already people moving around on their own? Was that young couple so afraid of loneliness? Was seeking pleasure all they could think of at their age?


    They were in the middle of a war!


    But on second thought, these two C-rank hitmen might not even be able to make it out of the Sacred Mountains alive. Moreover, they did not look like supernatural beings either, so it would not matter how hard they fought. What they could achieve would still be very limited in the end.


    Cheng Yu refocused his attention on the suspected hitmen from the consortiums. He had to pay attention in case they turned against him.


    However, Cheng Yu still called his assistant over in the end. ¡°You¡¯re the most skilled atbat. Go follow those two and see what they¡¯re up to.¡±


    His assistant nodded and said, ¡°Alright, you can count on me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had already arrived at another mountainside. After making sure no one had seen them, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I can conjure up a sniper rifle with my power. Would you like to give it a try?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°No. What¡¯ll you use if you give it to me?¡±


    ¡°I can conjure two rifles, but the second one¡¯s no use to me,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied. He had made such a wise choice to copy Xu Xianchu¡¯s superpower.


    The shadow clone was not only one of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s greatest helpers, it was also directly linked to the pce. As a result, every time Ren Xiaosu unlocked a weapon, he would get two sets. This made Ren Xiaosu feel like he had taken advantage of the pce.


    As he spoke, he took out the ck sniper rifle from his storage space. Yang Xiaojin looked at it curiously. ¡°Why is your superpower so strange? It¡¯s like a treasure chest with all kinds of items in it. What special traits does this ck sniper rifle have?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Its effective range is over 2,600 meters, and there¡¯s no need to manually reload. There¡¯s also many different bullets to choose from and no need for an additional sh guard to be attached. I call it the ck sniper rifle.¡±


    ¡°It can suppress muzzle sh without a sh guard?¡± Yang Xiaojin muttered, ¡°Then it¡¯s pretty apt that it¡¯s called a ck sniper rifle. It¡¯ll be very suitable for covert operations.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin listened as Ren Xiaosu detailed the ck sniper rifle¡¯s attributes to her. She was particrly interested when he mentioned the bullets did not need to be manually reloaded and the muzzle sh was automatically suppressed.


    But right as Yang Xiaojin took the additional ck sniper rifle from Ren Xiaosu, the long-awaited voice from the pce suddenly said, ¡°The ck sniper rifle has been detected to bepatible with the target¡¯s power. Would you like to gift it to the target?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. First, he was very happy the pce had finally spoken again. Second, the pce sounded exceptionally pleasant today. It was actually allowing him to gift the ck sniper rifle to Yang Xiaojin?


    However, Ren Xiaosu turned wary. After all, his stingy pce used to demand a lot of money from him just to open up some storage space. So why was it being so generous all of a sudden?


    Ren Xiaosu asked in his mind, ¡°And what¡¯s the price to pay?¡±


    ¡°The host will ept being punished for a duration of seven days. The choice of penalty will be random.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s with this random penalty thingy? Are you trying to cause trouble again?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can¡¯t you just tell me what the punishment will be?¡±


    Seeing that they would only be entering the Sacred Mountains seven dayster, the pce probably did not want anything to happen to him either. Therefore, the punishment duration was set for exactly seven days. In that case, this was not an uneptable oue.


    But not knowing what the punishment would be, Ren Xiaosu felt a little uneasy. Who knew what the pce was really up to?


    Seeing Yang Xiaojin holding the ck sniper rifle so tightly like she really wanted it, Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth and said, ¡°Gift!¡±


    However, Yang Xiaojin suddenly frowned. It felt like her power was being controlled externally as her own sniper rifle materialized and turned into an apparition.


    Slowly, that sniper rifle¡¯s apparition started merging with the ck sniper rifle. The pce had turned the ck sniper rifle into Yang Xiaojin¡¯s power!


    Ren Xiaosu was also stunned. Back when Xu Xianchu was showing off his ck cauldron, Ren Xiaosu thought he might have unconsciously bestowed it on him. Because he kept making others take the me for him, the pce decided topensate Xu Xianchu with a ck cauldron.


    But Ren Xiaosu was not very sure at that time. After all, no one in this world could add to the superpowers of others, right?


    But now, Ren Xiaosu was finally sure he was the one who had given that ck cauldron to Xu Xianchu.


    Ren Xiaosu had already found the pce to be extremely magical. It was even more magical than most of the powers supernatural beings possessed in this world. Others would only have one superpower to speak of, while the most powerful ones thus far might wield two superpowers at the same time.


    But it was different for Ren Xiaosu. He had so many superpowers even he felt it was abnormal. Ren Xiaosu found it terrifying just thinking about how he could replicate other people¡¯s superpowers and enhance them stronger for himself. Of course, this was also the reason why he had always been hiding his superpowers from everyone. If anyone were to find out about it, he would be in great danger.


    But now he realized he could bestow powers upon others too.


    Being able to bestow superpowers to supernatural beings was like a divine gift from the gods. It was like he was naturally at a higher level than others.


    Moreover, Li Shentan said before that he was unable to hypnotize him. During the battle in Luoyang City, a superhuman had tried to dictate his fate but was met with bacsh instead. It seemed like a lot of supernatural beings were unable to deal with him in their encounters.


    Other supernatural beings, such as Luo Xinyu, could only activate her Shadow Door power about a dozen times per day at most. But Ren Xiaosu, whose mental strength never seemed to run out, could open it whenever he wished.


    Wang Congyang¡¯s steam lotive only had four carriages, but his had sixteen. If Wang Congyang found out about this, he would probably die of anger.


    All of this seemed to be telling Ren Xiaosu that he was no average person.


    But Yan Liuyuan¡¯s power was clearly able to affect Ren Xiaosu. In that case, could Yan Liuyuan be at the same level as him? Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled.


    But before he could think further, the punishment was meted out.


    At this moment, the assistant Cheng Yu had sent to tail Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin was slowly creeping up on them. He did not dare to approach them rashly either. If Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were hiding their strength, wouldn¡¯t it be very dangerous for him to get too close to them?


    He was on the other side of the mountain where he took out his binocrs to observe them in the distance. However, he was stunned by what he saw. Then he turned around and returned to the campsite.


    When Cheng Yu saw his assistant returning, he asked, ¡°Why are you back so soon? Did you see what they were doing?¡±


    The assistant hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°I did, but it was such a strange sight. I don¡¯t know how to describe it.¡±


    Cheng Yu frowned. ¡°Why? Was it something weird?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it was way too weird.¡± The assistant said, ¡°The two of them were actually jumping rope on the mountainside!¡±


    Cheng Yu was confused. He had thought of the possibility that his assistant might catch them getting intimate, or that the two of them were plotting something. He predicted many possibilities of what they could be up to, but he never expected they would actually sneak out of the campsite just so they could jump rope together!


    As Cheng Yu imagined that scene, the mental image killed him!


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin returned to the campsite with dark expressions, they felt like Cheng Yu was giving them strange looks.

 Chapter 684 - Your expertise

    <h4>Chapter 684: Your expertise</h4>


    After Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin returned to the campsite, they sat in front of the campfire the Great Hoodwinker had built and remained there in silence.


    The Great Hoodwinker wanted to say something to the two of them, but when he realized they did not look too happy, he went back to cooking.


    All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin asked in a whisper, ¡°Did you copy your jumping rope skill from me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded nkly and said, ¡°Mhm, my Skill Duplication technique randomly picks a skill to copy. I don¡¯t know what skill I¡¯ll get either.¡±


    ¡°Then what other skills have you copied from me?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Nothing else,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    Yang Xiaojin seemed to let out a sigh of relief.


    However, Ren Xiaosu immediately added, ¡°But I know that you also have a skill like singing nursery rhymes.¡±


    As soon as he said that, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s mouth twitched. She did not expect this side of her would get discovered by Ren Xiaosu just like that.


    Yang Xiaojin then said, ¡°But I still don¡¯t understand why you would suddenly start jumping rope.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the campfire before him and said numbly, ¡°I don¡¯t know either....¡±


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought the pce¡¯s so-called punishment would require him to help or save someone.


    Weren¡¯t all the pce¡¯s quests like that?


    But he could never have expected that the moment the gifting waspleted, the pce would make him and Yang Xiaojin jump rope together. If it were notpleted, his Strength and Dexterity attributes would get lowered.


    Attributes were way too important to him. It could be said that the reason why ¡°Old Xu¡± was so powerful now was all due to his attributes.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin jumped rope together for half an hour. Moreover, it was Ren Xiaosu who did the jumping while Yang Xiaojin and a tree acted as the pirs on either side.


    This was also what baffled Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant the most. When it came to jumping rope, shouldn¡¯t it be the girl doing the jumping? Why did he see the guy jumping then?!


    Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant¡¯s spying had definitely not escaped Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s counterreconnaissance. So this made Ren Xiaosu even more downcast. Not only did he embarrass himself in front of Yang Xiaojin, he even embarrassed himself in front of an outsider!


    Seeing that the punishment quest was going tost for another seven days, Ren Xiaosu wondered just how much more trouble his pce would cause him.


    Of course, it was not all bad today. At the very least, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s superpower had advanced to another level. Ren Xiaosu was already looking forward to Yang Xiaojin¡¯s fire support in the future. After all, she was already so strong even though she was using a bolt action rifle. In that case, wouldn¡¯t she be even more fearsome now?


    They would be entering the Sacred Mountains in another seven days, so it was indeed a good thing that they could increase their powers before that.


    Ren Xiaosu asked the Great Hoodwinker next to him, ¡°Did anything happen while we were away?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker responded, ¡°Nothing much, actually. Other than Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant tailing you two, everyone else obediently stayed behind at the campsite. However, I realized that the young man to our 8 o¡¯clock and the young woman to our 9 o¡¯clock are probably acquainted. Although they pretended not to know each other, the two of them made eye contact. They might both be from the same consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked out of the corner of his eye. The young man and woman turned out to be the two people he suspected might be supernatural beings.


    The Great Hoodwinker continued, ¡°However, it¡¯s very normal to have someone you can trust tagging along when going to a ce like the Sacred Mountains with such arge group of people. After all, it¡¯ll only work if you have someone trustworthy to take turns keeping watch at night. Otherwise, you won¡¯t even know how you died if something happens. There¡¯s a total of 31 people here, and five or six groups likely exist within the team. There won¡¯t be many lone wolves for sure.¡±


    While they were resting at the campsite, the Great Hoodwinker had been scrutinizing everyone. And everyone else was also examining the others. But to the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s relief, no one seemed too interested in him as their guide. Their attention was mainly focused on Cheng Yu and the other hitmen. And Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were also not in the scope of their observations either.


    At this moment, Cheng Yu stood up and said to everyone, ¡°Although we haven¡¯t reached the Sacred Mountains yet, it¡¯s not necessarily safe down here either. So we should have some people keeping watch during the night. Everyone, I n to divide all of us into two groups. One group will keep watch in the first half of the night while the other will keep watch in thetter half. How about that?¡±


    This was supposed to be a very normal request, but no one responded. Everyone just calmly looked at Cheng Yu.


    In fact, the people with their own teammates within thisrger group had already discussed the night watch order. If Cheng Yu made any further arrangements, it would very likely disrupt their original ns.


    Therefore, no one wanted to ept Cheng Yu¡¯s arrangements.


    Cheng Yu waited for a dozen seconds, but in the end, only two people responded to him. The others kept busy with their own matters and did not even look at him anymore.


    The Great Hoodwinker said softly to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°The people who responded to Cheng Yu might be the Anjing House members that he had arranged to be in the team. They¡¯re probably here to back him up and give him the necessary support.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nodded.


    Sensing the awkward atmosphere, the Great Hoodwinker continued, ¡°It¡¯s actually not that easy for the Anjing House to send everyone into the Sacred Mountains to trouble the Pyro Company...¡±


    As he said that, the Great Hoodwinker was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu suddenly stand up and walk to the center of the campsite.


    Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°What? Is something the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°Since everyone seems to be quite distracted, I¡¯ll put on a little talent show for y¡¯all to watch. ¡®Before the door grows a vine of grapes, tender green leaves that have just sprouted. A snail carrying its heavy shell, inching slowly towards the top...¡¯[1]¡±


    Cheng Yu was confused.


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock. The Great Hoodwinker and Yang Xiaojin were both stunned!


    Weren¡¯t they just discussing who should keep watch during the night? How did it end up with someone singing?!


    After he finished singing the nursery rhyme, Ren Xiaosu returned to Yang Xiaojin¡¯s side and sat down expressionlessly. Yang Xiaojin asked in a whisper, ¡°So you¡¯ve copied my Nursery Rhymes Singing too?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu said ashen-faced.


    Next to them, the Great Hoodwinker tried to ease the atmosphere. ¡°Future Commander, your singing sounds very pleasant.¡±


    ¡°Enough, stop ttering me already.¡± Ren Xiaosu was on the verge of breaking down. Just how many times did the pce have to mete out punishments every day?


    During the journey, everyone was trying to determine the strength and character of the others based on their behavior. Not many of those who were present were truly amateurs, and their investigative instincts and judgment were all top-notch. However, everyone suddenly realized they could not get a read on Ren Xiaosu at all.


    No matter how they looked at him, they just could not understand anything about him.


    However, this sudden turn of events saved Cheng Yu from embarrassment. The awkward atmosphere allowed him to skip over the topic of who should keep watch during the night.


    Then the young man the Great Hoodwinker had been paying close attention to at the campsite said with a smile, ¡°Since we¡¯re all going into the Sacred Mountains together and will be facing battle with the Pyro Company in the future, why don¡¯t we all share our expertise so we can assign duties ording to our capabilities?¡±


    After saying that, the first person he looked towards was actually Ren Xiaosu. The young man smiled and said, ¡°So, what¡¯s your expertise?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°Singing nursery rhymes.¡±


    [1] https://youtu.be/bZqlwL_g1bs | The Snail and the Oriole

 Chapter 685 - Obfuscation

    <h4>Chapter 685: Obfuscation</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had already given up. He could foresee that in the next six and a half days, the pce would definitely brew a lot more trouble.


    Therefore, when that young man asked everyone about their expertise, he simply told him it was singing nursery rhymes.


    The reason why the young man chose Ren Xiaosu as the first person to ask was mainly to test him out. After that, he wanted to see how the others would respond so he could get a deeper understanding of the others on the team.


    But the moment he posed that question to Ren Xiaosu, it might as well have ended right there. It was impossible to continue asking any further!


    The young man turned towards the Great Hoodwinker in slight embarrassment and asked him about his expertise. With Ren Xiaosu kicking it off by answering that his expertise was singing nursery rhymes, the Great Hoodwinker followed up by saying that he was good at kneading ydough. If it weren¡¯t because he had taken into consideration that everyone was about to have dinner, he even wanted to say he was good at scratching his feet.


    As such, this discussion finally died off here. Cheng Yu sat back down at his campfire and looked at Ren Xiaosu through the flickering mes.


    He was a little puzzled. Was this young man ying dumb or did he really have some kind of strange fetish?


    Cheng Yu was sure that Ren Xiaosu was not stupid. After all, an idiot could not be a C-rank hitman. Cheng Yu was different from Zhou Yingxue in that he had to work his way up to be an A-rank hitman before getting epted as an official member of the Anjing House. Cheng Yu had to conscientiously perform his missions in order to rise up the ranks.


    He knew full well that even if an idiot had been lucky enough to pick up an Anjing House cell phone, it would be impossible for them to rise from D-rank to C-rank.


    But when he thought about his assistant mentioning that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had gone out to jump rope in the afternoon, Cheng Yu couldn¡¯t be sure of his judgment.


    Cheng Yu had wanted to conduct a check on everyone tonight, but it seemed that he would have to leave it for now.


    To ease the awkward atmosphere, Ren Xiaosu headed out alone and caught tworge rabbits to roast for dinner.


    Once he got that rolling, many others in the campsite also headed out to hunt. As many people went out, no one could tell who had gone hunting for game or who was taking the opportunity to go elsewhere to plot something with theirpanions.


    Ren Xiaosu hung the plump rabbits on a tree branch and said to Yang Xiaojin while smearing honey on them, ¡°Laugh if you want. There¡¯s no need to hold it in.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin pursed her lips to stopughing. ¡°It sounded pretty nice.¡±


    Off to the side, the Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°I know! Future Commander, you must be trying to obfuscate these people so they can¡¯t see through you. Was that why you suddenly acted like you were crazy?¡±


    Act crazy, my ass!


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face darkened as he handed the branch with the rabbits hanging from it to the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Leave me alone!¡±


    That night, the Great Hoodwinker negotiated with Ren Xiaosu and said he wanted to keep watch for the night by himself. He said he felt quite energetic and could keep watch without problems, but Ren Xiaosu did not agree.


    In the end, the Great Hoodwinker said he would take turns with Ren Xiaosu and keep watch for each half of the night so Yang Xiaojin would not have to. After all, she was a girl, so she should get some preferential treatment since they were out in the wilderness.


    But Yang Xiaojin objected. In her opinion, everyone on a team should always do their best. At this moment, there should be no differentiation between genders. There were simply teammates andpanions.


    Afterpromising, it was decided Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker would each keep watch for half of the night today, while Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin would share the duties of keeping watch for tomorrow night. The day after that, it would be Yang Xiaojin and the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s turns to keep watch. As such, there would always be one person in the trio at their best during the day to deal with any emergencies.


    While keeping watch, Ren Xiaosu made some careful observations during the first half of the night. Just as the Great Hoodwinker had said, these seemingly independent experts seemed to have already been assigned their duties as they went about keeping watch for the night.


    During the day, Ren Xiaosu wondered if there were really some lone wolves among them. But now he realized there was not a single one.


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu was worried the Anjing House might not be able to trouble the Pyro Company much even though they had split into several groups to enter the Sacred Mountains.


    But from the looks of it now, the organizations probably wanted to get their hands on the No. 001 Experimental very badly.


    Immortality?


    Ren Xiaosu had never thought about living forever. He always felt it might not be a good thing for some people to live too long.


    If a cat was not happy, having nine lives would be kind of sorrowful.


    Ren Xiaosu did not think those people living in high ces and had a grip on authority were truly happy at all.


    Tonight, Ren Xiaosu was keeping watch for the first half of the night. Even though he was on guard in front of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s tent, Yang Xiaojin still ced her pistol nearby so she could easily grab it. However, her breathing this time was much more even, and it was as though she was sleeping better.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and nced at Yang Xiaojin, who was sound asleep. This girl must have been so wary in the past because she did not have anyone she could rely on.


    Comparing Yang Xiaojin¡¯s current state with how she was in the past, she did not even fully trust Luo Xinyu. After all, Luo Xinyu had always been by her side while they were in the Jing Mountains. But at that time, Ren Xiaosu clearly noticed the girl had never really slept well.


    At this moment, the young man, who had earlier asked Ren Xiaosu what his expertise was, got up and walked into the wilderness. It might be that he wanted to relieve himself.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu did not take this matter to heart. However, something the pce said suddenly caused his expression to change.


    Ren Xiaosu paled as he sat at the entrance of the tent. When the young man returned to the campsite more than ten minutester, Ren Xiaosu looked up and asked, ¡°Why were you gone for so long? Did you pee on your hands?¡±


    The young man was shocked. Are you crazy?!


    The young man flew into a rage out of humiliation. ¡°What¡¯s so strange about that? Have you never peed on your hands before?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Judging by this reaction, he actually got it right!


    But he really did not want to ask such a weird question in the first ce. It was the pce that made him do it!


    Moreover, after this quest waspleted, the pce suddenly added, ¡°As you havepleted three penalties perfectly, a side quest has been activated. If you canplete every quest perfectly over the next seven days, you will receive a new skill reward.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He did not even hear what the young man said to him after that. Afterpleting all three penalties perfectly today, he had activated a new side quest that would reward him with a new skill?


    When it came to new skills, Ren Xiaosu got really excited at the thought. After all, everything the pce gave him as a reward, including a crop like the Potato Shooter, always proved to be useful at critical moments.


    Ren Xiaosu was a very pragmatic person. As long as there was a new skill to be earned, what was there to be embarrassed about?


    Then Ren Xiaosu heard the sound of something stepping on decaying leaves in the wilderness behind him. But when he turned around, he did not see anything.


    Ren Xiaosu counted the number of people at the campsite. Everyone was right here, so who could have made that sound just now?


    He recalled his encounters in the Jing Mountains. At that time, they had also encountered many strange happenings.


    Themotion outside the campsite did not only rm Ren Xiaosu, but many of those who were sleeping also suddenly opened their eyes. It seemed that everyone here was no average person.


    Yang Xiaojin asked in a whisper, ¡°Is it an enemy attack?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, go back to sleep. Everything will be fine with me around.¡±


    He was no longer that ignorant young man from the Jing Mountains.

 Chapter 686 - Song and dance

    <h4>Chapter 686: Song and dance</h4>


    Many people at the campsite were woken up and got out of their tents to find out what was happening.


    Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was on watch duty. As Ren Xiaosu was closest to the source of themotion, he bluntly asked him, ¡°Did you see anything just now? Was it someone from our campsite?¡±


    ¡°No, everyone in our group was at the campsite. It sounded like footsteps to me, but it was very light. If there were really someone approaching, it would have to be a child,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    The assistant next to Cheng Yu got goosebumps all over his body. ¡°It¡¯s the middle of the night in the wilderness. Where would a child like that possiblye from?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just making an analogy.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked around at everyone and realized they were all frowning and looking a little worried. He suddenly said, ¡°Since you all look so nervous, why don¡¯t I put on a show¡ª¡±


    ¡°No thanks, good night.¡± Cheng Yu turned around and went back to his tent. Rather than being overly suspicious out here and listening to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s performance, he might as well go back to sleep!


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips regretfully. This time, he was not doing this because the pce had issued a quest to him but out of his own enthusiasm.


    After all, if he wanted toplete his penalties perfectly over these seven days, he would have to face them with a brand new attitude. Instead of epting it passively, he might as well take the initiative to do them with enthusiasm. It would all be for the sake of a new skill!


    The Great Hoodwinker also woke up and went over to Ren Xiaosu at this moment. ¡°Are you sure that it was the sound of footsteps just now?¡±


    Earlier, the Great Hoodwinker had bravely gone out for a stroll in the wilderness. However, he did not notice any footprints. This was indeed very strange. No matter how light the intruder¡¯s footsteps were, there should at least be some traces of footprints left behind, right?


    ¡°I¡¯m sure. It was approaching in a rhythmic pattern.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You previously mentioned that the zone of mutation taking ce in the Sacred Mountains has been constantly expanding. Who knows, we might be closing in on that zone now. And it should be quite normal if something were toe running out of there. Anyways, just be careful.¡±


    ¡°Alright, why don¡¯t you get some sleep then?¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°It¡¯s my turn to keep watch.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, shout for me anytime if something happens.¡±


    Everyone seemed to stop going out to relieve themselves in case they met with any idents. A few of them even decided to hold it in until daybreak.


    Although they were all experts who had killed people before, they still felt a tinge of fear when faced with a strange existence like the Sacred Mountains.


    The Great Hoodwinker was sitting next to the campfire and thinking about something as he looked out for any signs of trouble. But by daybreak, he detected nothing unusual.


    Then the Great Hoodwinker saw Ren Xiaosu sneak out of the tent quietly. Just as he was about to greet Ren Xiaosu, he saw Ren Xiaosu raise his index finger to his mouth. ¡°Shh!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker perked up. He was unsure of what this was about.


    The sky was still quite gloomy at this time. The Great Hoodwinker watched as Ren Xiaosu quietly took out a pistol and loaded a magazine. Was he going to make a move on someone?


    Thinking of this, the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s muscles tensed as he prepared to support Ren Xiaosu at a moment¡¯s notice.


    He did not care why Ren Xiaosu would suddenly make a move now. In any case, he would just follow along and take on whoever Ren Xiaosu wanted to fight. There need not be any reason for it.


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu suddenly fired three shots into the sky and shouted, ¡°Wake up! It¡¯s dawn!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was speechless. ¡®<i>Wait a minute, Future Commander, is this how you usually wake people up?</i>¡®


    What was he even thinking?!


    To say nothing of the Great Hoodwinker, even Cheng Yu, who was jolted awake by Ren Xiaosu, was dumbfounded. He looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s smiling face and wondered if he was crazy!


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu asked the pce in his mind, ¡°What¡¯s thepletion level for the quest to wake everyone up?¡±


    ¡°Sessfully awakened 17 people. Completion level: Perfect.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Can you tell me what that new skill is for?¡±


    ¡°Unauthorized to answer,¡± the pce answered emotionlessly.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you just give me a general idea of what the skill¡¯s about?¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily.


    However, the pce ignored him.


    At this moment, Cheng Yu asked with a dark expression, ¡°What the hell are you doing? It¡¯s only 6 AM.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu bowed. ¡°Sorry, I misread the time.¡±


    Cheng Yu suddenly felt a little muzzled and couldn¡¯te up with a response.


    Ren Xiaosu bowed again. ¡°It won¡¯t happen again.¡±


    After that, he went back to his tent to sleep.


    But while he could fall back asleep, the others could not.


    Even Yang Xiaojin came out of her tent grumpily. However, she did not me Ren Xiaosu as she could guess that he was probably performing some penalty for giving her the ck sniper rifle.


    Ren Xiaosu did not tell her the specifics, but the timing of Ren Xiaosu going crazy came right after she epted the ck sniper rifle from him. Therefore, she understood this to be the price he had to pay for her epting the ck sniper rifle.


    Cheng Yu felt a little helpless. What did he do to deserve such karma? The Anjing House had arranged for him to lead another team into the Sacred Mountains, but he purposely chose this team as they were thest group to enter the Sacred Mountains.


    However, the oue was not what he wanted at all.


    At 8 AM, Ren Xiaosu came out of the tent looking very well-rested. The moment he stepped out, everyone looked at him.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Y¡¯all look a little haggard.¡±


    Cheng Yu thought to himself, ¡®<i>Aren¡¯t you stating the obvious? Everyone was woken up by that strangemotion in the middle of the night. But before we all could fall back asleep, we got scared awake again by your gunshots! As if we can fucking not look haggard!</i>¡®


    He ignored Ren Xiaosu and turned around to ask the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Where do we proceed from here?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker answered, ¡°We¡¯ll head northeast. After we cross that mountain up ahead, we¡¯ll reach the boundary of Mt. Wuzhai.¡±


    ¡°Why did youe out here by yourself back then?¡± Cheng Yu suddenly asked.


    ¡°Because everyone says that the things found in the Sacred Mountains are worth a lot of money. If you can find any exotic flowers or nts, you can sell them for a high price,¡± the Great Hoodwinker replied. ¡°There¡¯s people in the ck market who¡¯re collectors of such exotic flowers and nts, and they¡¯re willing to pay a high price for them.¡±


    Only then did Cheng Yu stop pursuing the matter. The people who collected exotic flowers and nts in the ck market were all spies of consortiums. Why would normal people be interested in those things anyway? Only the consortiums were looking for such things to use in their research.


    Cheng Yu took a look at his cell phone and said to the others, ¡°Let¡¯s set off. Everyone, be on high alert. Our team¡¯s the only one that¡¯s taking the Mt. Wuzhai and Mt. Shenchi route. If anything happens, we won¡¯t even be able to call for reinforcements.¡±


    With that, Cheng Yu got up and set off towards the northeast. From time to time, he would even hear Ren Xiaosu singing out loud behind him.


    Initially, no one cared about Ren Xiaosu when he started singing. However, his singing was too catchy as they were all nursery rhymes everyone was familiar with. This caused the others in the group to involuntarily start humming along as they walked.


    Looking at Mt. Wuzhai in the distance, Cheng Yu felt a little mncholic. It was clearly a very tense atmosphere, and there was also an unknown creature that ventured near their campsite during the night, so why did it feel like they were here on a spring trip while being entertained with song and dance?


    Just what did he reallye here for...

 Chapter 687 - An odd superhuman

    <h4>Chapter 687: An odd superhuman</h4>


    In order to avoid getting discovered by the Pyro Company, the path the Great Hoodwinker pointed out was the most remote and difficult to take. Initially, there were even some people in the group who criticized the Great Hoodwinker unhappily, ¡°Are you sure you¡¯ve been to the periphery of the Sacred Mountains before? Why do I get the feeling you don¡¯t know the way?¡±


    However, the Great Hoodwinker sneered, ¡°In that case, let me leave. I¡¯m only in charge of bringing y¡¯all to the periphery of the Sacred Mountains. Does it matter which route I take? Besides, this route that I chose is the safest. You¡¯re all highly skilled, and some of you are even supernatural beings. If we encounter the Pyro Company, y¡¯all can just run away. But where am I supposed to run to? I don¡¯t want us encountering them.¡±


    At first, Cheng Yu was also a little displeased with this stubborn guide. But when he realized they really did not encounter any attacks from the Pyro Company along the way, he started to acknowledge the Great Hoodwinker as their guide.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were currently portraying themselves as ordinary people who were C-rank hitmen, so the two of them pretended to be as exhausted as the Great Hoodwinker during their trek across the mountains.


    After all, even some supernatural beings would find it a little tough to travel this route, let alone ¡°normal people¡± like them.


    When some of the people in the group saw how exhausted Ren Xiaosu looked, they startedughing in their heads. Some of them even hoped he would start falling behind.


    The person who wanted Ren Xiaosu to fall behind the most was definitely Cheng Yu. When he saw Ren Xiaosu panting and looking like he could not walk any further, he said, ¡°Why don¡¯t the two of you turn back? This is not a ce where C-rank hitmen should go. Which other C-rank hitmen would go to their deaths out here? You two are probably the only ones.¡±


    But then, the young man who asked Ren Xiaosu his expertise raised his hand and said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m also a C-rank.¡±


    Cheng Yu was speechless.


    He cast an unhappy nce at that young man and saw he was not even panting from the trek across the mountains. He was definitely a supernatural being. Why would a supernatural being like him bother to chip in at this moment? By persuading those two to leave, wouldn¡¯t it be easier for everyone?


    Cheng Yu ignored what the young man said and continued trying to persuade Ren Xiaosu to leave. ¡°Our journey has only just started. It¡¯ll probably get even more dangerous after we enter the Sacred Mountains six dayster. Don¡¯t think I¡¯m being nasty. I¡¯m just saying this for your own good. You can barely keep up with the group. If you suddenly fall behind when we get to the Sacred Mountains, how¡¯re you going to ensure your survival in that dangerous environment?¡±


    Seeing Ren Xiaosu sink deep into thought, Cheng Yu was ecstatic. He had had enough of the guy¡¯s nursery rhymes. If he could persuade him to leave, it would be a joy for this operation.


    For the entire morning, Ren Xiaosu had sung so much it made his head buzz!


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think what I said makes sense?¡± Cheng Yu said earnestly. ¡°Your stamina ¡ª¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu said emotionally, ¡°I¡¯m fine. Actually, I also have a superpower.¡±


    Cheng Yu was stunned for a moment. ¡°You¡¯re also a superhuman?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m a superhuman or not.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°But as long as someone sings a nursery rhyme for me, I¡¯ll immediately regain my strength.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sneered in his head. This person was actually trying to dissuade him from entering the Sacred Mountains? ¡®<i>Alright then, I won¡¯t pretend anymore. I¡¯m gonnay all my cards on the table. I¡¯m also a supernatural being!</i>¡®


    Cheng Yu said in a speechless manner, ¡°Who¡¯re you trying to fool here? Besides, who¡¯s gonna sing nursery rhymes for you? Do you think we have nothing better to do?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin sang, ¡°The bridge in front of the gate, a group of ducks swimming under it. Quick,e and count them! Two, four, six, seven, eight...¡±[1]


    Ren Xiaosu immediately straightened his posture and stopped panting. Then he climbed up the mountain and headed into the distance, dumbfounding Cheng Yu.


    Cheng Yu thought it was no wonder that guy had to have a bloody partner. So it turned out it was not only he who sang nursery rhymes. He also had someone sing them for him. They were simply the perfect duo!


    But Cheng Yu also thought the guy was probably a supernatural being to begin with. He must have just been pretending previously, right?


    Indeed, how many real C-rank hitmen would want to go to their deaths here even if they had nothing better to do?


    Therefore, the probability Ren Xiaosu was a superhuman to begin with was very high!


    ¡®<i>But which supernatural being would behave the way you did? So what if you¡¯re a superhuman? What¡¯re you trying to achieve by singing those nursery rhymes? Even if you¡¯re a superhuman, you¡¯re still an odd superhuman!</i>¡®


    Along the way, Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin in a whisper, ¡°Do you find it very embarrassing that I¡¯m behaving like this?¡±


    Actually, even Ren Xiaosu himself found it quite embarrassing. He was clearly a normal person, yet he had to sing those nursery rhymes every day.


    But he had no choice but to do the quests. Since he was going to do it, he wouldplete them perfectly.


    Ren Xiaosu was not too worried about anything else; he was mainly concerned that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s impression of him would worsen.


    Yang Xiaojin smirked slightly and replied, ¡°It was quite cute.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Are you doing all this because you gave me the ck sniper rifle?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°It¡¯s gonna go on for seven days. This is the price that I have to pay for giving away the ck sniper rifle.¡±


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Yang Xiaojin suddenly said in a serious tone. She felt that since Ren Xiaosu was considered a very powerful supernatural being now, he must have known there would be a trade-off before giving the ck sniper rifle to her, yet he still did it.


    Most rtionships in this world were just built on empty promises. The rtionships between adults tend to be more like a restrained admiration, with no one side truly able to selflessly sacrifice for the other.


    Some people said that liking someone meant going all-out for them, while loving someone required restraint. However, Yang Xiaojin had her own thoughts on this.


    In her opinion, love was about going all-out for a person, while liking was a form of restraint.


    As young people would not know about restraint and self-preservation, they would go all-out and love without hesitation.


    However, it was different for adults. If they liked someone but did not get a response, they would just leave. ¡°When I take a step towards you but you step back, I shall just turn around and leave.¡± Such feelings that were constantly restrained would never blossom into love.


    Therefore, there was no such thing as love in the world of adults, only restrained admiration.


    Right now, Yang Xiaojin was feeling a little regretful that she had epted the ck sniper rifle, but she could also feel Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sincerity when she saw he had no choice but to put away his pride and pretend to be crazy because he had given her his power.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°In the future, I¡¯ll sing with you if you want to sing, and I¡¯ll go wherever you go no matter what you want to do.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that singing nursery rhymes was not that embarrassing anymore.


    When they set up camp that night, Cheng Yu looked at the others in the campsite with a numb expression. He did not know if it was because of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s influence, but someone actually suggested holding a gathering at night. Seeing everyone putting on a lively talent show at the campsite, Cheng Yu¡¯s assistants were even starting to get a little eager.


    ¡°What are you going to perform?¡± Cheng Yu asked one of his assistants.


    ¡°I can whistle....¡±


    ¡°If you even dare think about performing, I¡¯m gonna deduct your sry this month.¡±


    ¡°Alright then,¡± the assistant said reluctantly. As a result, the other three assistants gave up on the idea as well.

 Chapter 688 - Usurping authority

    <strong>Chapter 688: Usurping authority</strong>


    ¡°Be careful of the situation outside the campsite when you¡¯re keeping watch at night,¡± Ren Xiaosu reminded Yang Xiaojin before he went to sleep, ¡°The sound of footstepsst night really did happen. It can¡¯t be that so many people heard it wrong. If you sense any problems, just fire your gun. The sound of the gunshots will wake everyone up.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°Mhm. Do you feel the situation right now is very simr to the time when we were in the Jing Mountains?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°We¡¯re still taking turns to keep watch for each other, but our rtionship this time¡ª¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m saying it¡¯s as strange as back then,¡± interrupted Yang Xiaojin. ¡°We don¡¯t know who the real enemies are.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re talking about that?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I feel the changes at this ce happened much earlier than in the Jing Mountains, so it might be more dangerous here.¡±


    ¡°Hallowed ground.¡± Yang Xiaojin pondered things for a moment. ¡°There¡¯s only two hallowed grounds in the entire Alliance of Strongholds. But if the Qing Consortium said it was because a god was born here, why have we nevere across any gods before?¡±


    ¡°We probably won¡¯t recognize a god even if we see one.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But I don¡¯t think the truth can be kept under wraps for long. The truth will be revealed sooner orter.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, go and get some sleep,¡± Yang Xiaojin said softly.


    On this night, no one was able to get a good sleep, including Ren Xiaosu.


    Everyone reckoned that if something were really following them, it would only be a matter of time before the enemy made its move.


    On the surface, no one was nervous. When everyone was asked during the gathering earlier if they were afraid, all of themughed it off and said there was nothing to be scared of.


    But as the night continued, everyone stopped hydrating. It was as though they were afraid they would have to head out of the camp to relieve themselves at night.


    Thus, on this night, everyone was waiting for that strange creature to approach again. Regardless of whether they were keeping watch or not, everyone was waiting.


    However, nothing happened even after dawn broke.


    But even at this moment, everyone was unable to sleep. They were worried Ren Xiaosu would wake everyone up again the moment they fell asleep.


    Therefore, Cheng Yu was thinking he should only get some rest after Ren Xiaosu¡¯s morning antics were over.


    As he waited, there was still no movement from Ren Xiaosu even though it was already daybreak.


    Cheng Yu came out of his tent with two dark circles under his eyes. He found the experience of leading the team this time to be extremely terrible!


    Just as everyone was getting out of bed to wash up, they saw Cheng Yu walk to the middle of the campsite with a heavy expression. ¡°Something happened to the other team.¡±


    Everyone immediately turned to look at Cheng Yu. Someone asked, ¡°What happened? Did they all get wiped out?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Cheng Yu shook his head and said, ¡°They said an unknown creature attacked someone who went out to relieve himself during the night. Only one person had died, and they all went out this morning to look for him. They just found his corpse and discovered his organs had all been consumed.¡±


    Someone asked, ¡°Did they see what it was? If it only ate the internal organs, could it be a scavenger?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he frowned. It was probably a misunderstanding that many people had about scavengers. In fact, most carnivores in the wilderness would prioritize eating the internal organs of their prey first. This was because the internal organs had the most nutritional value, especially the cholesterol heavy ones, and were easier to digest. They would usually finish eating the internal organs before feeding on the other parts.


    Therefore, it would be impossible to determine the type of animal based on its feeding preference.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. She knew Ren Xiaosu was probably the person who understood the wilderness the most among this group of people. ¡°Can you deduce anything from this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s difficult.¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at Cheng Yu again, ¡°Where did they find it? Were there any footprints or feces in the vicinity of the body? What was the area around the wound shaped like?¡±


    Cheng Yu shook his head and said, ¡°I only received very limited information from them. I just know the body was found a few dozen meters away from their campsite. No one heard his cry for help. There were bite marks on his neck, so it seems like he passed out immediately after being ambushed.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu whispered to Yang Xiaojin and the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Without seeing the bite marks and not knowing how much of the organs were eaten, I can only make a simple guess that it was a lone attacker. Moreover, it was probably not that hungry either. Otherwise, they would¡¯ve dragged the corpse away and hid it in a cave or tree to protect it. It seems like it might be an extremely powerful creature without any natural predators in the wilderness and isn¡¯t afraid of crowded ces. It¡¯s probably quite patient and knows how to sneak attack its prey.¡±


    But even after making all these deductions, he still could not figure out what exactly had attacked that person.


    The Great Hoodwinker said to Cheng Yu in panic, ¡°Why don¡¯t we turn back? Why are y¡¯all still going forward when it¡¯s so dangerous?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mouth twitched a little. The Great Hoodwinker was putting on an act again.


    However, Cheng Yu said, ¡°Since you¡¯ve already epted the payment, stop getting cold feet on me. Just carry out your duty and lead the way. We won¡¯t be advancing any further today. The team that met with trouble is only 50 kilometers away, so the higher-ups are now asking them to join us and advance together.¡±


    It seemed like the Anjing House was not expecting there to be casualties so soon. As such, they decided to merge the two teams so their strength would be better concentrated.


    On the afternoon of the same day, the team members who were sitting idle in the campsite suddenly heard the sound of footsteps.


    Everyone stood up and looked towards the source of the sound. A loud voice panted, ¡°How much longer do we have to walk before we join up with the other group? Why is the Anjing House so cowardly? We¡¯ve only lost one member, yet they¡¯re already trying to merge us with another group? Are they trying to tire us to death?¡±


    Another voice said coldly, ¡°Boss Luo, you can withdraw from the team if you don¡¯t wish to go to the Sacred Mountains.¡±


    ¡°Withdraw?¡± Luo Lan hooted, ¡°Why should I withdraw? I¡¯m one of your C-rank hitmen too. It was you all who sent me those texts asking me to assemble, yet you want me to withdraw now? No way!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just a normal person, so why the hell are you tagging along for?!¡± The Anjing House member was bing unhappier as he spoke.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Luo Lan¡¯s voice, he wanted to facepalm. He had not expected Luo Lan and Zhou Qi would also be part of the team that was joining them!


    Moreover, no one knew that Luo Lan was a supernatural being. Judging by how Luo Lan was panting, he was still pretending to be a normal person.


    Ren Xiaosu had never met the Anjing House member who was leading the team. He looked at Yang Xiaojin who also shook her head.


    When this group of people came walking out of the forest in the wilderness, the first thing everyone saw was Luo Lan¡¯s burly figure.


    However, Ren Xiaosu realized that Luo Lan, who used to be fat, had now be much bulkier. He was starting to look more like a big man.


    Ren Xiaosu found this a little difficult to ept.


    When Luo Lan saw Ren Xiaosu, he was stunned. However, he immediately looked away as though it were nothing and had no intention of greeting Ren Xiaosu at all.


    Ren Xiaosu was pleasantly surprised. Fatty Luo was still as savvy as ever.


    Before the people from the Anjing House could say anything, Luo Lan started calling out to the people behind him, ¡°Alright, we¡¯re finally here. Everyone, quickly sit down and get some rest.¡±


    The Anjing House members standing behind him had helpless looks on their faces. Luo Lan had usurped their authority on the journey thus far. It was like he was the de facto leader of the group as his leadership qualitiespletely outshone the rest!

 Chapter 689 - What grown man would jump rope?

    <h4>Chapter 689: What grown man would jump rope?</h4>


    The Anjing House was definitely trying to take the lead in this operation. They wanted to be in control of how to disrupt the Pyro Company¡¯s ns, how to seize the No. 001 Experimental, and how to carry out their follow-up ns.


    But when Luo Lan swaggered over and imed he was a C-rank hitman, Song Qiao, who was in charge of leading Luo Lan¡¯s group, felt like he had just eaten a fly he was so disgusted!


    Just like Cheng Yu, Song Qiao also had his own assistants on the team. However, they had hidden anonymously within the group so they could influence everyone¡¯s decisions at critical moments.


    For example, when Song Qiao was about to implement some decisions, these assistants would be the first to respond to create the illusion that many people were supportive of him.


    Everyone tended to have their own opinion on things, and Song Qiao had nned very well for that. It was just that he never expected to meet Luo Lan.


    Previously, Song Qiao had received orders their team would set off a day earlier. However, Luo Lan was unwilling to and invited everyone on the team to head to the ck market¡¯s spa instead!


    How could going to the Sacred Mountains be more interesting than going to the spa!


    The members from the various consortiums in their group were also having a goodugh at the Anjing House¡¯s expense. Although theirmon target this time was the Pyro Company, the Anjing House had still caused quite a bit of trouble for them. So everyone was also happy to see the Anjing House deal with this mess.


    Song Qiao really wanted to teach Luo Lan a lesson. He even asked the Anjing House if he could kill Luo Lan discreetly since there were no reporters following him around anymore.


    In the end, the Anjing House rejected this idea and expressed it was not the time to deal with Luo Lan yet.


    However, the Anjing House also affirmed it would not be a problem to teach him a lesson.


    Song Qiao was delighted to hear that. Just as he was about to take action against Luo Lan, Luo Lan seemed to have preempted his motives. Luo Lan bluntly said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid my brother will send people after you? I don¡¯t care about the others, but since I remember how you look, as long as you don¡¯t strike me down today, you can rest assured that my brother will hunt you down tomorrow!¡±


    Song Qiao¡¯s expression darkened. Luo Lan was constantly mentioning how the Qing Consortium¡¯s leader would send people to hunt him down. If that were really the case, could he truly deal with that?


    Besides, even if he killed Luo Lan here, there were still so many others from the various consortiums traveling with them. Surely Song Qiao could not silence everyone who was here as well, right?


    Of course, it was precisely because of this reason that Luo Lan dared to act so brazenly.


    If Luo Lan were in a situation where he could be killed without anyone finding out, he would have long fled.


    It was like this guy had a split personality, behaving arrogantly when his safety was not threatened and immediately backing off at the first sign of danger. He was apletely different person in different situations.


    At some point in time, Song Qiao actually felt this operation had failed really badly.


    They were clearly supposed to be hitmen operating in the shadows where it was most advantageous for them. But for the sake of the mission against the Pyro Company, they exposed several of their members.


    Of course, this was what made Cheng Yu the most unhappy. He had also secretly thought this operation did not fit with the character of the Anjing House leader. The boss always came up with a n before making a move in the past, so why did it seem a little rash this time?


    Could there be a follow-up n they did not know about?


    At this moment, Luo Lan plopped himself down at Cheng Yu¡¯s campfire. Then he smiled warmly at Cheng Yu and said, ¡°Please, sit down. Why are you standing around? There¡¯s no need to be so reserved!¡±


    Cheng Yu¡¯s expression darkened. Why was he acting like he was some leader conducting an inspection? And he even seemed to be such a natural at it?


    Just as he was about to say something, he saw Song Qiao shaking his head at him with a bitter expression, hinting at him not to provoke this man.


    Cheng Yu thought for a moment before finally sitting down with a sigh next to the campfire.


    When Ren Xiaosu witnessed this exchange from afar, he chuckled. That Fatty Luo was way too good at causing trouble wherever he went.


    ¡°Why¡¯s he here?¡± Yang Xiaojin wondered, ¡°Why¡¯s a normal person like him getting involved in something like this? Could the Qing Consortium have an ulterior motive as well?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s awoken his power, so he¡¯s also a supernatural being now.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined in a low voice, ¡°I think Fatty Luo¡¯s motive foring here is very simple. He¡¯s just looking to stir up some trouble. The Qing Consortium hates both the Pyro Company and the Anjing House, so they definitely won¡¯t miss out on the opportunity to make things difficult for these two organizations. Besides, Luo Lan always says that he wants to buy time for Qing Zhen by causing chaos all over the world, so how could he miss out on such a good opportunity here?¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. In the past, she did not like these two brothers, Luo Lan and Qing Zhen. But now that they were friends with Ren Xiaosu, she hated them less than before. Instead, she thought Luo Lan and Qing Zhen were quite loyal after hearing about the things that they did from Ren Xiaosu.


    Actually, Luo Lan also felt very nervous on the way here. After all, they were heading deep into the Pyro Company¡¯s strategic base. While he was also a supernatural being now, he still felt very panicky even though he was traveling with Zhou Qi.


    What if whatever was lurking in the Sacred Mountains was really scary? What if they got ambushed? These were all the things Luo Lan was worried about.


    But when he got here and saw Ren Xiaosu, there was only one thing he thought: Everything is gonna be alright!


    Luo Lan had witnessed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s growth from when he was at his weakest to the point where he could even bring down an entire stronghold by himself. With this person going to the Sacred Mountains, what more did he have to worry about?


    As such, Luo Lan got even more arrogant and oppressive. With someone that could protect him, could anyone here do anything to him?


    Over at Luo Lan¡¯s side, Zhou Qi also sat down next to the campfire without a care. He took some food that was being roasted over the fire and started eating. Meanwhile, Luo Lan said to Cheng Yu as he kept himself warm, ¡°So tell us, what¡¯s the situation over here like?¡±


    Cheng Yu sneered, ¡°Who do you think you are?¡±


    He was unable to hold it in any longer. If it weren¡¯t for Song Qiao giving him that look, he would have already started scolding Luo Lan. ¡®<i>You¡¯re just a normal person. What right do you have toe to the Sacred Mountains?</i>¡®


    Luo Lan looked at Cheng Yu seriously. ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid my brother will send people after you?¡±


    Off to the side, Song Qiao had a gloomy expression on his face. He realized that even though this was all Fatty Luo could say, it was way too effective against them.


    After Luo Lan arrived in the Central ins, he went to the Zhou Consortium first before visiting the Kong Consortium, with hisst stop being the Wang Consortium. In the end, no one could do anything to him even though he kept stirring up trouble for others. Wasn¡¯t that because he had Qing Zhen back in the Southwest eyeing the Central ins like a tiger?


    Cheng Yu¡¯s expression wavered for a while before he finally said, ¡°There¡¯s a total of 33 people on my side and no members have fallen. However, we encountered some unknown creature that tried to approach our campsite two nights ago, though it didn¡¯t do anything to us.¡±


    Luo Lan nodded. ¡°Anything else unusual happen? Or do you have any personnel behaving unusually in the group?¡±


    Cheng Yu thought to himself, ¡®<i>Aren¡¯t you the one who¡¯s acting unusual here?</i>¡® He thought for a moment and suddenly said, ¡°Oh, there really is one.¡± Cheng Yu pointed at Ren Xiaosu and said to Luo Lan, ¡°That guy¡¯s really strange. On our way to the Sacred Mountains, not only did he go and jump rope with his partner, but he also keeps belting nursery rhymes!¡±


    Composed, Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu. This answer... was truly a little unexpected. To think that Brother Xiaosu would actually have such a hobby.


    However, he showed no expression on his face. Instead, he said nonchntly, ¡°Did you actually try hard to remember things? What¡¯s so unusual about that?¡±


    Although Luo Lan pretended not to know Ren Xiaosu, he still could not help but defend him a little. No matter how entric Ren Xiaosu was, that was still his business. How could Luo Lan allow outsiders to gossip about him?


    Cheng Yu said unhappily, ¡°Isn¡¯t that unusual? The journey to the Sacred Mountains is fraught with danger, so what¡¯s with singing all those nursery rhymes? Besides, what grown man would jump rope?¡±


    ¡°I jump rope too. You have a problem with that?¡±


    Cheng Yu was confused.

 Chapter 690 - Cheng Yu, the tour guide

    <h4>Chapter 690: Cheng Yu, the tour guide</h4>


    At a certain point in time, even Zhou Qi was sighing at how loyal Luo Lan was. In order to defend Ren Xiaosu, Luo Lan even shamelessly imed he jumped rope as well.


    Cheng Yu and the others around the campfire fell dead silent. No one knew what to say to that.


    You must be deliberately rebutting us, right?!


    However, Luo Lan was well-known everywhere for his meddling in affairs. Now that they heard what he said, everyone immediately felt the rumors were not unfounded. It was really true!


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Luo Lan changed the subject and said, ¡°I heard that your Anjing House tried to ambush the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy? What, you guys didn¡¯t seed? They were even allowed to escape back to the Sacred Mountains. You people are so useless!¡±


    Luo Lan only had a C-rank cell phone in his possession, so he did not really receive that much information.


    At the mention of this, Cheng Yu finally heaved a sigh of relief. There was finally a topic he could talk about. ¡°Who says we¡¯re useless? Didn¡¯t their entire convoy get wiped out? It¡¯s not that we failed, but that the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy was not carrying the No. 001 Experimental in the first ce. They were just trying to throw us off.¡±


    ¡°Hehe, you¡¯ve already sold the intel, yet you¡¯re still lying through your teeth? Were you the ones who killed the Pyro Company members in that convoy?¡± Luo Lan chuckled. As a matter of fact, Cheng Yu had already sold the intel for a high price, so almost everyone in the ck market knew about it now. There were even a lot of people who used this information to scam others. Therefore, the Anjing House was not the one who took out that convoy.


    As for who had wiped out the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy, Luo Lan could guess. A sniper who could suppress five people and an expert who could take on a T5-rankedbatant head on, such abination was far too rare in this world. But as it happened, there was such a team right here with them.


    A lot of people thought Luo Lan was very rash and dumb, but the big shots of the organizations all knew Luo Lan was a bold and meticulous person who also happened to be smart.


    Therefore, it was not surprising Luo Lan was able to guess it was Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Cheng Yu was left speechless by Luo Lan for quite a while before saying, ¡°How do you know they aren¡¯t from the Anjing House? It¡¯s quite normal for the members of the Anjing House to not know each other. If they weren¡¯t from the Anjing House, why would they have attacked the Pyro Company?¡±


    Cheng Yu did not know the two partners who had beaten the five of them into submissive quails were also here at the campsite.


    When Luo Lan heard this, he fell into deep thought. That was true. Why had Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin gotten themselves involved in this mess? No matter how much trouble Ren Xiaosu had gotten himself into before, he was still someone who preferred to avoid trouble as much as he could. So why did hee out to the Sacred Mountains?


    A young man at the side suddenly asked Cheng Yu, ¡°I received intel that White Mask killed the T5batant the instant they met. Is that true?¡±


    Cheng Yu was silent for a while before saying with a sigh, ¡°Yes. If you had witnessed it with your own eyes as I did, you would also feel that the other party is probably not a superhuman at our level.¡±


    Supernatural beings all knew they were extraordinary people, but in the face of such a vast difference in strength, Cheng Yu had no choice but to honestly admit how powerful White Mask was.


    ¡°Then did they alsoe to the Sacred Mountains?¡± the young man asked.


    ¡°My guess is they did.¡± Cheng Yu said, ¡°Based on what happened, they had shown up back there because their target was the No. 001 Experimental. With their level of strength, there¡¯s no reason why they would note. I feel they might¡¯ve already joined one of the groups. But I¡¯ve checked with the other members of the Anjing House, and they said that they did not see anyone in their groups carrying a sniper rifle. This is where it¡¯s quite strange, but maybe they¡¯re already so powerful they don¡¯t need to travel with others.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were of course not that powerful yet. They were currently at the campsite waiting to fish in troubled waters.


    At this moment, Luo Lan stood up and waved his hand. ¡°Alright, there¡¯s no time to lose. We¡¯ve already wasted a lot of time here, so let¡¯s continue on our way!¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the others at the campsite got up and started packing.


    Cheng Yu looked at Luo Lan in surprise. He had taken overmand of the group from him so naturally?


    Luo Lan looked at Cheng Yu and said, ¡°Um... tour guide, where do we head next?¡±


    Cheng Yu was immediately irked by this. ¡®<i>Tour guide? Who the hell is the tour guide? Do you really think you¡¯re here on vacation?</i>¡®


    He gritted his teeth and thought to himself that this fatty was way too audacious by insisting on going to the Sacred Mountains. ¡®<i>Let¡¯s see if you cane out alive once you¡¯re in there!</i>¡®


    It¡¯d be just as well if Fatty Luo ended up getting killed by the Pyro Company. Then Qing Zhen could seek revenge on the Pyro Company to his heart¡¯s content. This would also help the Anjing House get rid of an adversary!


    While everyone was packing up, no one noticed a young man bending over quietly to carve a circr marking on a tree next to him.


    This guy was the young man who had asked Ren Xiaosu what his expertise was. His identity was Wang Yun, the most promising person to take over the entire intelligencework of the Kong Consortium.


    After Wang Yun witnessed the death of his superior, Kong Erdong, he departed from the Kong Consortium on a mission and left his other twopetitors to vie for the leadership of the organization¡¯s intelligence agency. It was as though he were not involved in the matter at all.


    When his twopetitors saw him leave the Kong Consortium at such a time, they couldn¡¯t be happier. They even deployed more people to send him off personally and wished him good luck on his journey to the Sacred Mountains.


    When he left, Wang Yun was even sneering in his head. Kong Donghai, who was the head of the Kong Consortium, was not fooled easily. The post of the intelligence agency¡¯s director would definitely not be decided so quickly, as Kong Donghai would still have to observe the situation for at least three months.


    At that time, when he returned to the Kong Consortium with his aplishments, his twopetitors would probably not even have a chance to regret things.


    After Wang Yun finished inscribing the marking on the tree, he followed the group as though nothing had happened. Shortly after the group of more than 60 people had left the campsite, ¡°Old Xu,¡± wearing the white mask, went to the ce Wang Yun had left the mark.


    Wang Yun had always been Ren Xiaosu¡¯s main subject of observation. Earlier, while he had been putting away his belongings, his attention was actually focused on Wang Yun and a few others.


    Ren Xiaosu had sent ¡°Old Xu¡± out because he had wanted it to search the outer perimeter of the campsite for the intruder that appeared during the night. And now, he could also get it to check the marking Wang Yun had left behind.


    There was only a simple circle carved onto the tree roots and nothing else. This puzzled Ren Xiaosu a little. What did this circle mean?


    Without any clues, it would be difficult to guess.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a long time before finally deciding to not overthink it. All he would have to do was just destroy the marking.


    In any case, it was still unknown whether this young man was friend or foe. By interfering with the other party¡¯s ns, it might end up being an unexpected sess.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu made ¡°Old Xu¡± draw an X in the circle. Then, he hurriedly rushed ahead of the group to continue scouting the route ahead.


    Having experienced so many disasters, Ren Xiaosu was used to using ¡°Old Xu¡± to clear a path in the wilderness. This was a habit he had learned through a lot of sacrifice.


    Ren Xiaosu had discovered an interesting phenomenon in the strongholds. He noticed that some stray cats and dogs knew how to navigate the streets.


    But upon further consideration, nobody knew how heavy a price they had to pay to learn how to do so.

 Chapter 691 - The well-prepared Wang Yun

    Chapter 691: The well-prepared Wang Yun


    Two hours after ¡°Old Xu¡± left the campsite, troops in full battle gear suddenly arrived at the campsite from the wilderness.


    ¡°Set up defenses. Provide fire support from our 1 o¡¯clock,¡± someonemanded over the radio fixed to the troops¡¯bat helmets.


    ¡°Gather the troops and check the campsite. Look out for a marking left behind by the director.¡±


    In just one minute, these 200-odd soldiers werepletely deployed across a radius of several hundred meters in the surrounding area. Some of them had organized a line of fire, while others acted as nking troops, ready to provide fire support at any time.


    These 200-odd troops were illustrious in the Kong Consortium.


    The Kong Consortium¡¯s Intelligence Department was divided into the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Divisions. 1st Division was responsible for domestic affairs, 2nd Division oversaw foreign affairs, and 3rd Division dealt with the difficult and tough battles. For example, 3rd Division would take charge of extractions when their operatives needed to be brought out from the other consortiums¡¯ territories.


    When Wang Yun was serving in 3rd Division a long time ago, these 200-odd soldiers were under hismand.


    Later, he was recognized by Kong Erdong for his achievements and got transferred to 2nd Division where he oversaw foreign security for the consortium. At that time, he started slowly transferring these soldiers to his side. As a result, these troops gradually gained the nickname of the ¡°Embroidered Uniform Guard¡± within the Kong Consortium.[1]


    After Wang Yun took over as director of 2nd Division, these 200-odd troops became his most trusted subordinates.


    It could be said that these people were also the reason Wang Yun was able to get promoted consistently over the years. All these soldiers were skilled in battle and had extremely strong individual capabilities.


    Despite the fact that these people were only soldiers, their ranks were very high and they were incredibly wellpensated.


    Sometimes, after Wang Yunpleted an assassination, the money left behind by the target would get distributed among these soldiers.


    Wang Yun ced great importance on this expedition to the Sacred Mountains. Therefore, he only brought along his own people in case outsiders created any trouble for him.


    By this point, the 200-odd troops had taken full control of the campsite Ren Xiaosu and the others had just stayed at.


    Meanwhile, themander of the ¡°Embroidered Uniform Guard¡± remained in the campsite and waited for his men to find the marking left behind by Wang Yun.


    They were all Wang Yun¡¯s trusted subordinates and were also the Kong Consortium¡¯s most elite scouts from the intelligence agency¡¯s field office. In the past, they had executed numerous missions such as carrying out decapitation strikes and infiltration operations.


    This time, Wang Yun¡¯s men were puzzled when he suddenly took them away from the Kong Consortium during such a critical time. Could it be that Wang Yun was giving up on the chance to be the intelligence agency¡¯s director?


    After Wang Yun briefly exined his n to them, everyone understood he was trying to gain promotion through a meritorious achievement!


    At this moment, someone on the radio said, ¡°Sir, we found the marking left behind by Director Wang Yun.¡±


    Themander of the ¡°Embroidered Uniform Guard¡± walked over. ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s Director Wang Yun¡¯s marking?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we also dug a bullet out from under the tree roots,¡± his subordinate reported.


    The marking on the tree and the bullet buried in the ground served as dual verification so they would not confuse it with someone else¡¯s markings.


    Themander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard walked up to the tree, but he was stunned when he saw the marking.


    ¡°Is Director Wang Yun telling us to retreat by drawing an X within the circle?¡± Themander was a little puzzled. ¡°Could something unexpected have happened that¡¯s making it unsuitable for us to make a move?¡±


    ¡°Or maybe Director Wang Yun thinks we shouldn¡¯t venture any further since we¡¯re just normal people?¡± One of the subordinates analyzed, ¡°I heard there¡¯s something odd going on in the Sacred Mountains and that it¡¯s a very dangerous ce.¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t be sure of Director Wang Yun¡¯s intentions, but he¡¯s always very confident in what he does. Since he wants us to retreat, we should just retreat.¡± Themander said, ¡°Let¡¯s retreat to a ce 40 kilometers north of the ck market and set up camp there. Withdraw!¡±


    After that, the troops retreated in an orderly manner swiftly like the tide.


    At this moment, Wang Yun had a grin on his face as he advanced with the Anjing House group. This time, he hade well-prepared.


    ...


    ¡°Who was the person that got attacked?¡± Cheng Yu asked Song Qiao.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Song Qiao shook his head. ¡°But he must be someone from the consortiums. He should be the assistant of one of the superhumans in the group. When he left the campsite, he was probably not going out to relieve himself but to deliver some news back to the outside world. Unfortunately, he met with misfortune.¡±


    ¡°I heard the site of the incident was very close to the campsite. Did he not even have a chance to call for help?¡± Cheng Yu asked again.


    ¡°There was no sound at all,¡± Song Qiao replied. ¡°I also checked the wound, but I couldn¡¯t tell anything from the bloody mess on his neck.¡±


    ¡°Then we oughta be more careful. I suspect that whatever attacked that guy might¡¯ve followed you all here,¡± Cheng Yu said helplessly.


    He felt very ufortable about this. It was obvious Song Qiao¡¯s group had been targeted by something. However, the higher-ups still requested for their groups to join up and advance. His group had been doing fine by themselves. But now, he was on edge.


    Song Qiao could guess what was on Cheng Yu¡¯s mind. He said with augh, ¡°It¡¯s also a good thing for you that our teams have merged since yourbat prowess isn¡¯t strong. How can you possibly return safely from the Sacred Mountains with just those few assistants of yours?¡±


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Cheng Yu snapped. ¡°Wild animals don¡¯t know how to distinguish reality from illusion and will believe whatever they see since they aren¡¯t intelligent. My superpower might not be effective against a lot of superhumans, but when ites to dealing with wild animals, which one of you is better than me? If a dangerous situation really arises, I guarantee the wild animals won¡¯t notice it even if they walk right past me. You had better worry about yourself first.¡±


    Song Qiao pondered that and realized it seemed to be the case. Cheng Yu¡¯s power might not be effective against intelligent people, but wild animals were unable to distinguish it from reality. He whispered, ¡°Bro, if you lend me a hand when ites down to the critical moment, I¡¯ll be sure to reward you handsomely.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡± Cheng Yuughed.


    But as they were chatting, they suddenly heard a wild animal¡¯s roare from in front of them. Everyone in the group stopped in their tracks at the same time and went on alert.


    Cheng Yu and Song Qiao looked at each other and quickly rushed towards the source of the sound.


    Neither of them were cowards since cowards would not havee to a ce like this. Rather than cowering in fear, they might as well hurry over and see what was going on.


    Of course, there were some people who rushed over faster than them. Luo Lan had been panting as they trekked on the mountain road, but when he heard themotion, he immediately rushed over.


    He was not afraid at all. Ren Xiaosu was right behind him, so what was there to be scared of?


    When someone started running, everyone behind followed suit.


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Can you tell what it is?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just arge fox.¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°I already killed it. I didn¡¯t expect it to be so fast and nearly allowed it to escape.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin realized it was Ren Xiaosu who caused themotion.


    When Cheng Yu and the others arrived at the scene, they saw the carcass of the fox lying on the ground. Its spine had been broken in an extremely violent manner.


    Cheng Yu said with a frown, ¡°Could this be what attacked your team member?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s possible.¡± With that, Song Qiao took out a dagger and cut open the fox¡¯s stomach. When he did that, a jumble of organs spilled out.


    Song Qiao¡¯s assistant did not mind the mess. After inspecting it slightly, he said, ¡°It still has some undigested human organs inside its stomach. This must be the culprit.¡±


    ¡°But who killed it?¡± After Cheng Yu received confirmation of the culprit, instead of breathing a sigh of relief, he got even more worried!


    [1] The Embroidered Uniform Guard (traditional Chinese: å\ÒÂÐo; simplified Chinese: ½õÒÂÎÀ; pinyin: J¨«ny¨©w¨¨i; lit.: ¡®brocade-d guard¡¯) was the imperial secret police that served the emperors of the Ming dynasty in China. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embroidered_Uniform_Guard

 Chapter 692 - A wave of unrest

    <h4>Chapter 692: A wave of unrest</h4>


    In everyone¡¯s opinion, if the wild animals in the Sacred Mountains were like the fox in front of them that had berger, more cunning, and stronger, there would actually be nothing to worry about for this expedition into the Sacred Mountains.


    What they were most afraid of were the strange and the unknown. As such, there would be a tinge of fear if they did not know who or what the enemy was.


    But when the mysterious unknown got revealed, that fear would gradually dissipate.


    In fact, after the two groups merged, and with quite a few supernatural beings among them, it would be very easy to deal with wild animals like that as long as they were careful not to get ambushed.


    But who could have killed this fox?


    Surely it could not be someone who happened to pass by that did them a favor, right?


    ¡°Could the wild animals in the mountains have started killing one another?¡± someone asked.


    ¡°No, this must be done by a person.¡± Cheng Yu analyzed, ¡°If it were the wild animals fighting among themselves, there should be some teeth marks or other hints on this fox¡¯s carcass. But as you can see, it looks like someone suddenly caught it and broke its spine. The animals in the wilderness definitely don¡¯t kill their enemies like this. Let¡¯s do a headcount of everyone first.¡±


    Cheng Yu had asked to do a headcount to see if anyone had broken away from the group. While they were marching earlier, everyone was scattered and did not move together as a group. Perhaps, this was the doing of an expert hiding in the group.


    In the end, Cheng Yu and Song Qiao¡¯s assistants quickly counted the number of people and realized two people were missing!


    ¡°Does anyone know those two?¡± Cheng Yu asked, ¡°Anyone know where they went?¡±


    Wang Yun replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know them, but I think I remember they¡¯re both men. One of them is a middle-aged man in his forties, and the other is a young man around the age of 25.¡± Wang Yun turned his head to a young woman. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s that young man who sent up camp next to your tentst night.¡±


    The young woman was stunned. Then she looked around. ¡°It really is him.¡±


    At this moment, everyone looked at Wang Yun. They were surprised by this fellow¡¯s memory as he actually remembered everyone so clearly. Not only did he know who had left the group at just a nce, he even knew where they set up camp the previous night.


    This was not something the average person could manage.


    Of course, if Wang Yun were just a normal person, he would not have be the director of the Kong Consortium¡¯s 2nd Military Information Division.


    Back then, when the intelligence agency was recruiting talents while he was serving in the military, the chief recruitment officer in charge immediately took a liking to him. At that time, every candidate had to be put through an interview. The moment Wang Yun entered the interview room, the chief recruitment officer¡¯s first question was, ¡°How many people did you meet on the way to this interview room just now?¡±


    Wang Yun said, ¡°Seven.¡±


    ¡°What color were their clothes?¡±


    ¡°Two were wearing blue; five were in ck.¡±


    ¡°How many moles were there on the face of the third person you encountered?¡±


    ¡°Six.¡±


    As such, Wang Yun quickly became the center of attention after joining the intelligence agency.


    Wang Yun had been keeping a low profile at the start of this expedition into the Sacred Mountains. After making sure there was no one else following their group other than his subordinates, Wang Yun felt very confident that he could start revealing a little bit of his ability now.


    Cheng Yu looked at Wang Yun and said, ¡°Since you have such a good memory, you should remember where they went, yeah? Were they the ones who killed this fox just now?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Wang Yun shook his head and said, ¡°They¡¯d fallen far behind at the back of the group, and they¡¯re not close with each other either, so it doesn¡¯t look like they¡¯re partners.¡±


    Cheng Yu frowned. He suddenly said, ¡°Let¡¯s go back and look for them!¡±


    After that, Cheng Yu immediately headed back the way they came. But after walking a few hundred meters, he saw the middle-aged man Wang Yun was talking about lying in a pool of blood with a mangled wound on his neck.


    After walking a dozen meters more, they also discovered the corpse of that young man with a wound in the same position.


    Everyone in the group fell silent as a strange, oppressive atmosphere spread through the crowd.


    When they saw the carcass of the fox, everyone thought they had found the real culprit. But they immediately went on alert again after having just breathed a sigh of relief.


    ¡°But we clearly found human organs in the fox¡¯s stomach.¡± Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant wondered, ¡°Could it havepanions as well?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu surreptitously shook his head and denied Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant¡¯s exnation.


    Then Wang Yun said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°I noticed you shaking your head. Can you tell me why?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him and was about to answer when the voice from the pce rang out in his mind. Ren Xiaosu let out a sigh in his head.


    Everyone was looking at Ren Xiaosu because of Wang Yun¡¯s question. Then they saw Ren Xiaosu take out a rope from his pocket and started skipping with it.


    Ren Xiaosu said while jumping rope, ¡°Because the neck wounds on those two were not caused by a fox¡¯s bite.... Ignore me, I¡¯ll be done skipping in a moment.¡±


    Wang Yun was confused, as was Cheng Yu.


    Wang Yun had wanted to ask about something else as well. But due to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bizarre behavior, he did not know how to react! ¡®<i>You could have just answered my question normally. Why did you have to suddenly start jumping rope?!</i>¡®


    It was not only Wang Yun; almost everyone¡¯s mind turned nk when they saw this strange sight of Ren Xiaosu jumping rope.


    Everyone did not even care about how these two people had died. They were more concerned about why this young man had to jump rope while answering the question!


    Having gotten Yang Xiaojin¡¯s understanding, Ren Xiaosu no longer felt any embarrassment when he was required to perform his quests. As long as the person he cared about could understand why he was doing this, it was good enough for him. So why would he care what others thought about him?


    Ren Xiaosu was examining the wound on one of the corpses while jumping rope. The wound did not have any teeth marks and was more like someone had grabbed to the main artery of the neck with their hand, causing the victim to fall unconscious before tearing the flesh off.


    This was such a violent way of killing someone that Ren Xiaosu could not be sure if his judgment was correct or not.


    As Ren Xiaosu continued jumping rope, he even mumbled something that made Cheng Yu ask, ¡°What are you mumbling?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°278, 279, 280...¡±


    When he counted to 300, he finally stopped jumping. He said to the pce in his mind, ¡°What¡¯s thepletion level for the quest this time?¡±


    ¡°Perfect.¡±


    ¡°Great.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and realized everyone was wearing aplicated expression on their face.


    But this was to be expected. Having been put through a series of strange incidents that involved a crisis being resolved and immediately plunging into another, and seeing Ren Xiaosu jumping rope throughout all of it, everyone needed a while to digest what they had just experienced.


    After Ren Xiaosu finished jumping rope, Luo Lan said, ¡°As everyone can see, we¡¯ve already encountered several dangers even before entering the boundary of the Sacred Mountains. So we have to tighten our formation even further as we move on. Even if you n on going to relieve yourself, you are to proceed in a group of at least five people. There¡¯s only fourdies in our group, but that¡¯s fine; I can reluctantly apany you all.¡±

 Chapter 693 - The relaxed Fatty Luo

    <h4>Chapter 693: The rxed Fatty Luo</h4>


    Everyone was at a loss for words when they heard Luo Lan say that. Could he get any more shameless?


    But someone suddenly realized something. ¡°Aren¡¯t there fivedies in total? Did you miss out on counting one of them? The five of them are just enough to form a group.¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned for a bit. Only at this moment did he realize he had left out Yang Xiaojin.


    As he knew about Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s rtionship, he had filtered her out of his mind and did not treat her as a woman!


    Luo Lan gave an awkwardugh and said, ¡°Hahaha, I counted wrong.¡±


    ¡°Has Luo Lan always been this thick-skinned?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked Ren Xiaosu in a low voice while everyone¡¯s attention was on Luo Lan.


    Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°He¡¯s always been this thick-skinned.¡±


    After all, when Luo Lan tried to recruit Dong Funan to join him, he kept running down to their clinic every day to look for her.


    ¡°We should be more careful. Not even ¡®Old Xu¡¯ was able to find out what has been loitering around us.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The other party might have some way to avoid Old Xu¡¯s detection. I didn¡¯t even notice anything when those two were killed just now.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°The Great Hoodwinker and I will be keeping watch tonight. You should have a good night¡¯s rest to conserve your strength. But what¡¯s with that fox? Why are there human organs in its stomach?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that it might be following something around to find food for itself. Whatever that thing is, it only cares about killing people. It must have gone away after ripping off the neck of its victim and left the fox to feed on its kill. That was why Luo Lan and his group discovered the corpse with its organs consumed. We had assumed it was done by one creature, but in fact, there were actually two of them. There are many symbiotic rtionships in the wilderness and...¡±


    ¡°And what?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°And if I guessed correctly, the perpetrator might very well be a person, and this fox could be their pet.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°If that¡¯s really the case, it¡¯ll be a little troublesome.¡±


    ¡°Why did youe to such a conclusion?¡± Yang Xiaojin wondered.


    ¡°Did you notice that the fox¡¯s fur is very clean? Like someone¡¯s washed it before? Even for the animals in the wilderness that are particrly clean, they wouldn¡¯t be as clean as this,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.


    The others might not have noticed this, but how could Ren Xiaosu not notice it when he had been venturing into the wilderness for so long?


    If this fox were really someone¡¯s pet, the other party would probably hate him to the bone for using ¡°Old Xu¡± to kill it. There would be some form of retaliation waiting for themter on.


    At this moment, ¡°Old Xu,¡± who was scouting about one kilometer ahead of the group, suddenly turned around and saw a stone flying at him from out of nowhere in the wilderness.


    The stone was extremely fast and hit ¡°Old Xu¡± in the chest like a bullet, causing it to stumble a little. If a normal person got hit like that, they would probably vomit blood on the spot. Even supernatural beings might not be able to withstand it.


    But when ¡°Old Xu¡± went around to investigate, it could not find the culprit who threw the stone.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back was hurting so much he started sweating. ¡°The culprit¡¯s already started taking revenge on Old Xu. But I can¡¯t identify their location yet, so I can¡¯t determine what it really is.¡±


    But at the very least, Ren Xiaosu had guessed something right. The fox was indeed the other party¡¯s pet. Otherwise, they would not be so anxious to take revenge on Old Xu.


    ¡°How¡¯s it taking revenge? What did it do?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°It threw a stone at Old Xu,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    Yang Xiaojin was stunned. Hitting someone with a stone? Why did that sound like something a child would do?


    When they continued the journey again on the same day, everyone obediently followed the instructions and tightened their marching formation due to their fear.


    Not only that, but Luo Lan also divided the group into several smaller teams so they could take turns to guard the rear and protect the nks as they made their way forward. At this moment, Luo Lan felt like he had returned to the days when he was leading fresh recruits at the Qing Consortium. He even found this quite fun.


    It had to be known that the brigade Luo Lan had led previously was one of the most fearsome fighting forces in the Qing Consortium.


    In the afternoon, when the enemy seemingly realized there was no suitable opportunity to kill anyone, it did not make any further moves.


    Some people in the group wanted to leave, but how could they possibly get away now?


    If anyone tried to turn back at this moment, they might even get ambushed by that monster. Without knowing what and how strong it was, leaving the group on their own was as good as suicide.


    When they set up camp again at night, Luo Lan arranged for each of the teams to take turns keeping watch. He even drew up the night watch areas himself and specified the positions where the sentries had to be stationed, how to rotate duties, and when to change shifts. Everything was well-organized.


    Ren Xiaosu watched quietly. He realized Luo Lan¡¯s assigned night sentries were particrly thought out. Anyone who tried to sneak attack the campsite would not be able to escape the sight of these sentries.


    If something happened to the sentries at any of the positions, the others would find out very quickly.


    Regarding this matter, Cheng Yu and Song Qiao also felt a little ashamed of themselves. Although they were supernatural beings, they did not have any experience in leading troops into battle. They might be able to kill people, but they were far worse than Luo Lan when it came to organization and coordination.


    Sometimes, the way Luo Lan portrayed himself could easily cause others to overlook his talents. A long time ago, someone from the Qing Consortium had mentioned Luo Lan might be more suitable to be the organization¡¯s Shadow than Qing Zhen. But because Luo Lan was an illegitimate child, no one brought this matter up again.


    After making arrangements for the night sentries, Luo Lan swaggered back to his campfire and got ready to sleep.


    Cheng Yu quickly stopped him. ¡°Aren¡¯t we going to discuss how to deal with the thing that attacked us?¡±


    Luo Lan gave him a strange look. ¡°That¡¯s something for you supernatural beings to handle. What¡¯s it gotta do with me?¡±


    After that, Luo Lan ignored Cheng Yu and went straight to sleep.


    Cheng Yu looked like he could do nothing about Fatty Luo. Then he asked Song Qiao, ¡°Just what the hell is that fatty nning? Why the fuck does he even want to go to the Sacred Mountains?¡±


    ¡°Who the hell knows?¡± Song Qiao sighed.


    But a minuteter, Luo Lan¡¯s snoring reverberated loudly throughout the entire campsite. He was sleeping so soundly his breathing even made a beat.


    Next to Luo Lan, Zhou Qi was already sprawled spread-eagle, asleep.


    Cheng Yu found this a little strange. He asked Song Qiao, ¡°Wait a minute, aren¡¯t those two together? Why didn¡¯t one of them stay up to keep watch? They just went to sleep like that? Is that Fatty Luo not afraid we¡¯ll plot against him? Were they also like this before?¡±


    Song Qiao was taken aback. He thought back for a bit and said, ¡°No, when he was traveling with our group, he was extremely vignt. The two of them would never sleep at the same time.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s strange.¡± Cheng Yu looked towards the campsite and said firmly, ¡°This means that Luo Lan and Zhou Qi must have someone they can trust in this camp. The level of trust they have is even allowing them to fall asleep in an environment like this without having to worry for their own safety. Luo Lan would only dare to sleep so soundly if he believes no one here is capable of killing him!¡±

 Chapter 694 - A wild guess

    <h4>Chapter 694: A wild guess</h4>


    Tonight, everyone was exceptionally serious while performing their sentry duties. Of course, the members of this group with their own motives would only start working together in the face of amon danger.


    After all, everyone¡¯s goal was to get to the Sacred Mountains so they could stir up trouble, so they had better not die before they got there.


    Over a dozen campfires were burning brightly in the campsite. Before going to bed, Luo Lan had led everyone to collect enough firewood tost throughout the night. Fortunately, it was winter right now, so firewood could be found everywhere on the ground.


    There were nine sentry posts in total, and each of them was manned by two people. All of the trees around the sentry posts had been chopped down to ensure the sentries could have a broad view of their surroundings.


    Luo Lan was well-versed in this aspect. In his own words, if one wanted to be able to sleep soundly during a war, one would have to prepare well during the day.


    This time, Luo Lan was treating their expedition to the Sacred Mountains as a war.


    Ren Xiaosu was sleeping soundly in the tent while Yang Xiaojin guarded the outside. She was fiddling with a palm-sized sniper rifle bullet in her hands. While other people usually yed with walnuts or beaded bracelets, Yang Xiaojin was a little specialpared to others. When she had nothing to do, she would fiddle with her bullets.


    At this moment, ¡°Old Xu¡± was sitting quietly about 500 meters outside the camp, apparently waiting for something.


    The moon was not very bright, and dark clouds asionally drifted through the sky. It looked like it was about to snow. Many of the group members wrapped themselves tightly with their nkets within their tents as the campfires around the campsite flickered nonstop due to the cold, piercing wind.


    The sky was shrouded by a patch of dark clouds as a shadowy figure in the wilderness started approaching ¡°Old Xu.¡± It did not make any sound as it walked across the ground.


    Gradually, it could vaguely see Old Xu¡¯s back in the darkness. It felt like it could kill the person in front like how it had killed the other humans.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, the other party had concentrated all of its hatred on Old Xu because ¡°he¡± had killed that fox.


    Moreover, Old Xu had been acting alone all this while, and a hunter always liked to pick off this kind of solitary prey.


    In silence, the shadowy figure approached its target very quickly. There was even a hint of joy that the human in front of it still had its back facing it. Regardless of whether the other party had noticed its approach or not, it was toote!


    In that instant, the shadow reached out and grabbed Old Xu¡¯s neck. However, it was startled to realize it couldn¡¯t cause any harm to Old Xu!


    This was wholly different from any other prey it had encountered before. No blood spurted out of the other party, nor did he lose his consciousness. It was as though the figure it had touched was not made of flesh and blood.


    But he was clearly a human being!


    Ren Xiaosu, who was in his tent, suddenly opened his eyes. When Old Xu, who was seated, sprang up, it looked more like a terrifying ghost that had been unleashed. By then, it had already shed the ck saber that was resting on its knee at the shadow.


    But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, Old Xu actually missed. That monster in the wilderness was even more alert and cunning than he had imagined. After discovering Old Xu¡¯s abnormality, the other party turned around and ran back into the wilderness without hesitation. Its speed was not worse than Old Xu¡¯s in the slightest.


    When Old Xu chased after it into the forest, the monster started jumping freely between the tree trunks without any impediment.


    ¡°City Crusher.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was determined to finish off the other party here. It made no sense to constantly be on the guard against something like that. Who could sleep well with such a freak stalking them?


    When the monsternded at the next tree trunk, Old Xu¡¯s speed suddenly exploded. It arrived ahead of that tree and shed its saber at the monster again.


    However, something unexpected happened. The little monster was so frightened by the oing ck saber that it let out a scream. Ren Xiaosu thought this sh would definitely not miss, but the monster seemed like it could defy thews of physics as it changed its direction in midair. Thus, Old Xu missed it and shed the air instead!


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. The purpose of activating City Crusher was to catch the other party off guard. If his first attack missed, there would be no hope ofnding any subsequent hits.


    In the wilderness, Old Xu was pursuing the monster from behind. However, the path the other party took was way too strange. It kept changing its direction in midair, making it impossible for Old Xu to anticipate which way it would go. In the end, when City Crusher deactivated, Ren Xiaosu made Old Xu stop pursuing.


    Many people in the camp were awakened by the battle. Although it happened 500 meters away from them, themotion was deafening, as Old Xu cut down severalrge trees while trying to hunt down the monster.


    Cheng Yu lit a torch with the campfire and stood at the edge of the camp as he looked out. However, he could not see anything as it was too dark.


    When Ren Xiaosu sat up in the tent, Yang Xiaojin asked in a low voice, ¡°Did you kill it?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and said, ¡°It was harder to deal with than I thought. I don¡¯t know how, but the enemy can actually switch directions in midair.¡±


    ¡°Did you get a clear look at what it is?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°It was too dark, I could only tell from the silhouette that it was humanoid. I can¡¯t confirm if it¡¯s human or not, but if it is, it should only be around 1.2 meters tall or so.¡±


    At this moment, Song Qiao went over to Cheng Yu and wondered, ¡°Who¡¯s fighting out there? Could it be the person that helped us kill the fox during the day?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s possible.¡± Cheng Yu said with a solemn expression, ¡°I wonder which demigod is so bold as to wander around the wilderness in the middle of the night. Do you think he sessfully stopped the enemy?¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we go and check it out?¡± Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant asked. ¡°We would at least have to see what happened out there before we can feel at ease.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Cheng Yu shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s too dangerous to go out at this time. I¡¯d rather go there tomorrow morning than risk my life now. What if it¡¯s some monster trying to lure us there?¡±


    The people around them did not say anything. No one was going to risk going out into the dark like this.


    As everyone¡¯s attention was focused on the dark ce out there and discussing among themselves, no one noticed Wang Yun had carved a small triangr marking into the roots at the bottom of a tree. This marking meant there was danger ahead, and Wang Yun wanted to remind his subordinates to his rear to act carefully.


    Actually, this action was quite unnecessary. After all, his subordinates were already very careful, having retreated.


    Luo Lan furtively made eye contact with Ren Xiaosu while everyone was distracted.


    He pointed at Ren Xiaosu first, then himself, and finally at the darkness outside. He was implying, ¡°Bro, you have to protect me. It¡¯s too dangerous out there, and I¡¯m afraid of dying.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu shook his head back at him, Luo Lan¡¯s expression turned bitter. Could it be that Ren Xiaosu was not confident of protecting himself?


    Luo Lan started pondering his life and wondered if he had been too reckless bying to the Sacred Mountains this time. If even Ren Xiaosu was not confident of protecting himself, that was enough to show how dangerous this ce was.


    When Yang Xiaojin saw the two of them making eye contact, she asked in a whisper, ¡°What¡¯s he gesturing about?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°He pointed at me, then himself, and finally pointed to the woods. I think he was asking if I wanted to go to the bathroom with him, so I shook my head to say no.¡±

 Chapter 695 - Argument

    <h4>Chapter 695: Argument</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not give any serious thought as to what Luo Lan was gesturing to him. Therefore, he was unaware that Luo Lan was deeply regretting it now. He was regretting that he had been so reckless for wanting toe out to the Sacred Mountains.


    As Luo Lan dwelled on it, he actually dozed off.


    That night, the monster did note near the campsite again. When Ren Xiaosu went to sleep, ¡°Old Xu¡± remained sitting cross-legged outside the campsite. If any creature were to attack it, he would immediately sense it through the pain that was ryed back to him.


    Although Ren Xiaosu could not control Old Xu while he was asleep, Old Xu acted like bait by sitting alone in the wilderness. If the enemy were a wild animal, who would it attack?


    It would definitely not attack the campsite that was upied by dozens of people.


    After the battle was over, everyone at the campsite could only hear themotioning from the wilderness but not know what was going on out there. As a result, everyone suffered from sleeplessness again for the rest of the night.


    Cheng Yu suddenlymented how he had not had a single good night¡¯s sleep since their expedition to the Sacred Mountains started.


    He sat outside his tent and let the flickering campfire illuminate his cheeks. Song Qiao was sitting next to him and holding a cup of hot water to keep his hands warm. ¡°What¡¯re you thinking about?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m wondering if we can get out of the Sacred Mountains alive,¡± Cheng Yu answered calmly.


    ¡°Hehe, what¡¯s the point of thinking about that?¡± Song Qiao said with a smile, ¡°Have you ever thought that the head of the Anjing House might not even care if we survive or not?¡±


    Cheng Yu nced at him. ¡°No.¡±


    As the snoring continued, Song Qiao looked to Luo Lan¡¯s tent andmented, ¡°I¡¯m a little envious of him. That Fatty Luo is really fearless. If I had a younger brother like Qing Zhen, I would¡¯ve gone somewhere to lead a carefree life. Why would I want toe here and risk my life? As the saying goes, ¡®The son of a wealthy family does not sit under the eaves; a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall.¡¯ With such a distinguished status, I would be cherishing my life for sure. Just what is that Fatty Luo really thinking?¡±


    ¡°Who knows?¡± Cheng Yu sighed and said, ¡°But don¡¯t you underestimate that Fatty Luo. Just as we¡¯ve said before, Luo Lan must have a very powerful person backing him up in this group.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see then.¡± Song Qiao shrugged.


    When day broke, everyone formed into teams and hurried over to check on the battle site fromst night without even freshening up.


    The location where the battle took ce 500 meters away was a mess. But strangely enough, there was no blood to be seen.


    ¡°Could neither side have been unable to hurt the other?¡± Cheng Yu frowned and said, ¡°That¡¯s really strange. How could no one have gotten injured when their battle caused such a hugemotion?¡±


    ¡°It might be that they were very cautious. After all, if they got injured in a ce like this, they could end up dying out here,¡± Song Qiao said.


    Wang Yun was standing next to a tree that had been cut down by Old Xu¡¯s ck saber. He was secretly shocked to see how neat the cut of the tree trunk was. Just how sharp did the weapon in his hand have to be to cut through a tree trunk that was so thick a person could wrap their arms around it? And the cut was made so cleanly too?


    Not only did the weapon have to be sharp, the person wielding it would have to be exceptionally strong.


    A young woman next to them noticed the cut on the tree trunk as well. She eximed, ¡°Have you all ever seen such a sharp weapon before?¡±


    When she said that, it alerted Cheng Yu. He was not sure if the others had seen it before, but he did!


    When Old Xu killed T5102, Cheng Yu hadmented how powerful the weapon was if it could even cut down someone like a T5batant with a single sh.


    Not just anyone could get their hands on such a weapon.


    Therefore, Cheng Yu immediately realized the person who had fought herest night might be White Mask, who he encountered previously!


    ¡°I¡¯ve once met someone who can do this.¡± Cheng Yu said in a low voice, ¡°As you all know, there was a person who intercepted the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy. At that time, I saw with my own eyes how White Mask severed a T5batant in half with his saber.¡±


    ¡°You mean to say the one who fought herest night was White Mask?¡± Wang Yun wondered, ¡°But what¡¯s he doing here?¡±


    Cheng Yu looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Boss Luo, any opinions?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Luo Lan grumbled, ¡°Fighting should be the forte of you supernatural beings. I¡¯m only responsible for overseeing the direction of our group!¡±


    Cheng Yu immediately wanted to curse at him. Who needs you to oversee the group¡¯s direction?!


    He looked at Luo Lan in displeasure. ¡°Then tell us, what do we do now?¡±


    Luo Lan gave it some thought and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we retreat? I feel that this ce is too dangerous. Since I¡¯m still young, I don¡¯t need to get my hands on the No. 001 Experimental to prolong my lifespan. All your bosses regard this Experimental to be Tripitaka¡¯s flesh. It¡¯s as though they think they can achieve immortality by consuming it.¡±


    All Luo Lan could think about at the moment was that if even Ren Xiaosu could not protect him, what was the point of him staying? But what he did not know was that this was just a beautiful misunderstanding. A wink in real life was absolutely not as magical as depicted in fiction.


    Luo Lan continued with his persuasion. ¡°You all must have been sent here by the various consortiums, right? But just think about it. Even though you¡¯re risking your lives out here, you¡¯ll only be obtaining the possibility of immortality for others. If your boss ends up living a long life, wouldn¡¯t you be anguished?!¡±


    Wang Yun nced at Luo Lan when he heard this. Wasn¡¯t it precisely because he was worried his superior, Kong Erdong, would live for too long that he allowed Vani to create that ¡°ident¡± and kill him?


    But Wang Yun could not leave yet. He had to capture the No. 001 Experimental this time. Even if he weren¡¯t sessful, he would have to at least obtain a sample of the target¡¯s DNA no matter what. Only then could he gain a foothold when he returned to the Kong Consortium.


    Actually, it was a little risky for him to leave the Kong Consortium at this time. After all, his twopetitors who stayed behind in the Kong Consortium would surely try to get rid of their dissidents. If he returned without any achievements, he might not even be able to keep his position as the director of 2nd Military Information Division.


    Wang Yun said, ¡°Since we¡¯ve already made it all the way here, why should we leave now? Besides, it¡¯s clear White Mask is also trying to enter the Sacred Mountains. With someone so strong around, what are we still worried about?¡±


    Luo Lan curled his lips and said, ¡°You make it sound as though you know the other party. Once the enemy starts a massacre, you won¡¯t be able to avoid death.¡±


    Luo Lan and Wang Yun started arguing at the ce where the battle took cest night. One of them was calling for a retreat while the other wanted to continue heading into the Sacred Mountains. Meanwhile, the others who were happy to watch themotion decided to wait and let them both argue for a while.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu opened his mouth to say something. As he still had to head into the mountains to save Yan Liuyuan, he did not have any time to waste here. ¡°Enough nonsense, let¡¯s keep moving forward.¡±


    When Cheng Yu saw Ren Xiaosu speak up, heughed. He even started fanning the mes by saying to Luo Lan, ¡°He¡¯s saying that you¡¯re talking nonsense.¡±


    Luo Lan was taken aback and looked at Cheng Yu. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m talking nonsense. You have a problem with that?¡±


    Cheng Yu was confused.


    But then, the way Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu changed. He realized Ren Xiaosu was Luo Lan¡¯s backing in the group!

 Chapter 696 - Divine Lake

    <h4>Chapter 696: Divine Lake</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ever sincest night, Cheng Yu and Song Qiao had suspected that Luo Lan had the backing of someone in the camp. However, Cheng Yu could never have expected the person would turn out to be Ren Xiaosu.


    If it had been someone else, such as Wang Yun or any other person, Cheng Yu would surely feel a sense of superiority like ¡°I saw through everything¡± as he lurked in the shadows and watched everyone. It would be as though he had gained an advantage over Luo Lan after finding out about his trump card.


    But when he realized the person was Ren Xiaosu, the other party¡¯s odd behavior left him in some doubt. Following that, questions started popping up in his mind: ¡®<i>Did I see wrong? Could I be blind? Is Luo Lan blind as well...</i>¡®


    ¡®<i>Could Luo Lan be trying to mislead everyone?</i>¡® Cheng Yu knew that Luo Lan was always a very meticulous person. Although he appeared to be very carefree, he had never done anything that would expose his trump cards. Therefore, when Ren Xiaosu pretended to be crazy, Luo Lan followed suit to give people the impression they were in cahoots. This way, wouldn¡¯t there be someone to share his burden when things got critical?


    He could even take it a step further and conceal the identity of his real teammate!


    Cheng Yu suddenly felt like he was enlightened!


    But no matter what, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s importance in Cheng Yu¡¯s eyes skyrocketed. Regardless of which of his guesses were right, Cheng Yu felt he could no longer look at Ren Xiaosu in the same way as before.


    Actually, when Luo Lan saw Ren Xiaosu, who had always been hiding at the back of the group,e forward to say that they should continue, he understood that Ren Xiaosu must have something very important to do in the Sacred Mountains. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu must have already made an assessment of the people in the group and felt these people would not pose a threat for the time being.


    Although there was a disconnect in their unspokenmunication earlier, Luo Lan was quick-witted and managed to react in time. In just an instant, he figured out the details and came forward to support Ren Xiaosu¡¯s decision.


    ¡°Pack up and continue moving!¡± Luo Lan gave a wave of his hand and said to Wang Yun, ¡°Only cowards would be too scared to continue heading into the Sacred Mountains. If you¡¯re afraid of death, stay behind by yourself and don¡¯t affect us.¡±


    Wang Yun stood in his spot and suddenly felt there was something wrong with Luo Lan¡¯s words. Wait a minute, weren¡¯t you the one that wanted to retreat at the start!?


    However, Luo Lan had no intention of staying behind to continue arguing with him. Instead, he turned around and walked back to the camp to pack his belongings before leading the group forward!


    ¡°Tour guide! Where¡¯s the tour guide?¡± Luo Lan shouted at the front of the group.


    The Great Hoodwinker ran over happily. ¡°Over here, over here!¡±


    ¡°Which direction should we head in next?¡± Luo Lan asked.


    ¡°Are we following the original n?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked.


    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll continue based on the original n,¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°That means we¡¯re heading in the direction of Mt. Shenchi.¡±


    Over the years, the farthest ce the Great Hoodwinker had traveled to in the outer periphery of the Sacred Mountains was Mt. Shenchi. This was not a name someone hade up with after The Cataclysm, but came from the words ¡°Shenchi¡± that were originally carved into a cliff wall of the mountain.


    Based on the mountain¡¯s name, it would suggest there was a divineke within the mountain. However, the Great Hoodwinker had nevere across any divinekes on his two previous trips to Mt. Shenchi.<sup>1</sup>


    Instead, it was always foggy on Mt. Shenchi, and the air was extremely humid. When the Great Hoodwinker came here two years ago, he had stayed on Mt. Shenchi for four days. However, there was heavy fog during three of those four days.


    The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°If y¡¯all want to pass through Mt. Shenchi together without getting lost, you¡¯d better stick close to me. Otherwise, you won¡¯t be able to find your way out of the heavy fog. If you get lost on that mountain, you¡¯re gonna end up falling behind.¡±


    A person next to him asked, ¡°And we¡¯ll get lost in there forever?¡±


    ¡°Of course you won¡¯t.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°The heavy fog on Mt. Shenchi will eventually disperse. When I came herest, I was lost for three days as well. Then, the moment the heavy fog cleared on the fourth day, I ran off the mountain. So if you really end up falling behind, don¡¯t go wandering around. When the fog disperses, you can just head home by yourself.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was just being frank. As he did not have any grudges with these people, there was no need to go to the extent of abandoning them in the mountains to die. As such, he thought it would be better to warn them.


    At this moment, Cheng Yu said, ¡°All of us can just tie a hemp rope around our wrists. That way, we won¡¯t have to worry about being left behind.¡±


    What Cheng Yu meant was that they should link everyone together in a line with a rope.


    ¡°That¡¯s a good idea.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°I¡¯ll take second!¡±


    Zhou Qi said, ¡°I¡¯ll take third!¡±


    Before Ren Xiaosu could say anything, Cheng Yu quickly said, ¡°Fourth!¡±


    Cheng Yu had responded so hastily because he was worried Luo Lan, Ren Xiaosu, and the others would end up at the front of the formation. If Luo Lan and the others harbored any evil intentions after they entered the heavy fog and cut the rope, those at the back of the line would be left scratching their heads.


    Therefore, Cheng Yu wanted to stand between Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu with his assistants to prevent Luo Lan from ying dirty.


    Luo Lan smiled ambiguously at Cheng Yu. As they were both smart people, he could tell what Cheng Yu was thinking at a nce.


    In the end, the final order was decided as such: The Great Hoodwinker would lead from the front, while Zhou Qi stood second in line, followed by Luo Lan, Cheng Yu and his five assistants, Ren Xiaosu, and the others.


    Curious, Wang Yun asked the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Must we pass through here? Are there any other routes we can take?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at him and said, ¡°We can only sessfully break through the defenses around the Sacred Mountains if we take a route that normal people, or even the Pyro Company themselves, dare not tread. After all, the Pyro Company isn¡¯t easy to deal with.¡±


    Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°I was just asking.¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s main concern was that if he followed the Great Hoodwinker into the mountain, how would the reinforcements behind him pass through Mt. Shenchi?


    Before this, Wang Yun was unaware of the situation at Mt. Shenchi since he was not omniscient. If everyone knew how to pass through Mt. Shenchi, there would be no need for them to pay the Great Hoodwinker for his services.


    After thinking for a long time, Wang Yun finally decided to stand at the back of the group. He nned to use the hardtack he had brought with him and grind them into crumbs to scatter on the ground as a guide for his reinforcements.


    Although this might cause him to starve after he got into the Sacred Mountains, what was there to be afraid of when the reinforcements were right behind him? He was going to go all out this time!


    Thinking of this, Wang Yun took the opportunity to make a straight marker when he returned to the campsite to pack up. This marking was meant to tell his subordinates they should follow his trail and that he would lead the way for them.


    Wang Yun thought for a moment and looked up at the sky. He wanted to see if there were a lot of birds around. After all, birds were really fond of eating bread crumbs, so it would be bad if they ate the crumbs.


    But as he thought about it, Wang Yun suddenly realized he had never seen a single bird since entering the vicinity of Mt. Wuzhai.


    Wang Yun calmed himself and tried to listen to the sounds of the wilderness. However, he could not hear anything at all.


    Could it be that there were no birds here? Even though it was winter now, not all birds would migrate south for the winter. Shouldn¡¯t arge and secluded ce like this be perfect for birds to live?

 Chapter 697 - An eerie fog

    <h4>Chapter 697: An eerie fog</h4>


    By the time the group arrived at the foot of Mt. Shenchi, it was already the morning of the fourth day since they set off from the ck market. To be ready to deal with the devious Mt. Shenchi, everyone even made sure to rest well for the night beforeing here.


    During this period, the monster that attacked the campsite at night did not appear again. It seemed that it sensed lethal danger from ¡°Old Xu¡± and decided to temporarily give up attacking any further.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt the other party woulde back. Thinking about it from another perspective, if someone had killed his pet, he would surely seek revenge against them for a while too.


    But when Ren Xiaosu thought about it again, he felt it was impossible he would have a pet at all. Anything remotely edible would have already been used to fill his stomach.


    This was a result of his many years of living as a refugee. People like him were unlikely to have any pets at all. He had even turned an offensive nt like the Potato Shooter, which was a reward from the pce, into a crop, so how could he possibly own a pet?


    In the past, a young Yan Liuyuan had asked Ren Xiaosu if he were afraid of snakes, but Ren Xiaosu said he was only afraid they were not fresh.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu loved winter the most. That was because it was the safest time to catch snakes.


    Mt. Shenchi was indeed as strange as the Great Hoodwinker had imed. The entire mountain seemed shrouded in clouds, like a different world altogether.


    Only at this moment did Cheng Yu confirm the Great Hoodwinker had really been to the periphery of the Sacred Mountains before. As a matter of fact, many of the guides back at the ck market were always swindling, lying, cheating, and stealing. It did not matter whether they had really been there before. As long as there was money to be made, they would im they had ¡°been there¡± before.


    Before entering Mt. Shenchi, Cheng Yu had his assistants bring out a 200-meter rope. Then he made everyone tie it around their wrists.


    At first, everyone was worried this would affect their mobility. But when they realizedter it was not really a hindrance, they felt relieved.


    Cheng Yu smiled and said, ¡°There¡¯s still about two or three meters of rope between each of us. This length should be enough for everyone to move around freely, so even if you encounter any danger, you won¡¯t get impeded by other people¡¯s movements and there will still be time to loosen the rope.¡±


    Everyone agreed unanimously, that was, until Ren Xiaosu started jumping rope while they were marching.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu did not even have to use his own rope. He just untied the one around his wrist and had Yang Xiaojin swing it for him.


    After entering Mt. Shenchi, the visibility between each person went down to only about five meters. Cheng Yu could suddenly feel the rope tied to his hand starting to sway frequently. When he turned around, he discovered that Ren Xiaosu had started jumping rope at some point in time.


    Ren Xiaosu was jumping rope this time with one end of the rope tied to Cheng Yu¡¯s hand, while the other was tied to Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hand. When Yang Xiaojin swung the rope, Cheng Yu¡¯s arm swung as well.


    Cheng Yu felt a strange sense of participation.


    What the fuck! He really did not want to be a part of this!


    Cheng Yu shouted at Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Why are you jumping rope in a ce like this?!¡±


    With Mt. Shenchi covered in thick fog, who knew when a dangerous creature might suddenly jump out and attack them? With everyone already feeling so anxious, a person in their group had started jumping rope and marching at the same time? It really couldn¡¯t be any stranger than this.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned when he heard Cheng Yu shouting at him. ¡°What are you shouting for? Just mind your own business and keep walking. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m affecting you by jumping rope.¡±


    Cheng Yu nearly copsed. This guy could still calmly ask him why he was shouting? He even looked annoyed when he said that.


    If this were the past, Cheng Yu would definitely have beaten him up already. However, when he thought the other party might be Luo Lan¡¯s backer and felt he was probably not a match for him, he calmed down and dismissed the idea.


    But who could possibly regard a lunatic like him as their backer?! And that girl behind him, why would she be so cooperative and swing the rope for him?!


    Ren Xiaosu stopped jumping and asked in his mind, ¡°What¡¯s thepletion level for the quest this time?¡±


    ¡°Perfect!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu breathed a sigh of relief. He was still a bit worried his quest¡¯spletion level would get affected if the others could not clearly see he was jumping rope in this thick fog.


    As the Great Hoodwinker led them through the mountains, at least half of Cheng Yu¡¯s attention was focused on him now. He wanted to see what the guide was relying on to bring them out of Mt. Shenchi.


    The Great Hoodwinker muttered as he walked, ¡°150 steps ahead to the left...¡±


    Cheng Yu silently counted the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s steps as they marched. When he reached 150, he saw the Great Hoodwinker standing in front of a huge rock before muttering again, ¡°370 steps ahead to the right...¡±


    Cheng Yu was shocked to realize the man waspletely relying on this stupid method of memorizingndmarks to slowly feel his way forward. But wouldn¡¯t it take at least a 100,000 steps to walk out of Mt. Shenchi. How could he even remember all that?


    The people at the back of the group gradually came to a stop.


    Cheng Yu asked out loud, ¡°What¡¯s going on at the back? Why have you all stopped moving?¡±


    His voice could only reach the middle of the group, so someone in the middle responded, ¡°We can¡¯t see anything, so we¡¯re not sure why they¡¯ve stopped moving.¡±


    With that, everyone stopped talking. They were waiting to hear how the person at the back of the group would respond.


    In this moment of silence, Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard a strange rattlee from the white fog. It sounded like bones ttering against the ground, as well as like countless insects moving at a fast speed.


    ¡°Surely it¡¯s not the face bugs, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu had a bad feeling. This sound was almost the same as when they encountered the face bugs back in the Jing Mountains. Moreover, these two ces were also known as the legendary hallowed grounds.


    Suddenly, a scream reverberated through the mountains. Almost in unison, Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, Ren Xiaosu, Cheng Yu, and Song Qiao all looked toward the source of the sound.


    But the fog was so thick no one could see what was going on.


    They could only feel the rope getting tighter and tighter, and it was even shaking violently. It was as though some of the group¡¯s members were struggling against something.


    Eventually, the rope got so tight it went taut. Song Qiao, who was standing behind Yang Xiaojin, had his arms yanked straight by the rope. He ended up looking like a cross as Yang Xiaojin and another person held tightly onto the rope on either side of him.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately rushed over to Song Qiao and cut off the rope around his wrist with a dagger. Right after, the severed rope was pulled out into the white fog!


    He quickly loosened the rope around Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hand and shielded her behind himself. Meanwhile, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi had already loosened their rope by themselves and taken cover behind Ren Xiaosu.


    Cheng Yu could finally confirm Luo Lan had only dared to sleep soundly without someone keeping watch for him at night in the campsite because he had encountered Ren Xiaosu.


    A person¡¯s first reaction to danger would definitely be to seek safety!


    Ren Xiaosu and the others stood there quietly. Every now and then, they would hear cries of griefing from within the white fog There were even some inexplicable light and shadows shing inside the white fog.


    ¡°There¡¯s supernatural beings fighting,¡± Cheng Yu said.


    However, none of the remaining dozen or so people were willing to go in and rescue them.


    Since this was a group of people with different intentions, who would be willing to plunge themselves into the fog to save others at a time like this?


    Only Song Qiao was worried, because his assistants were now in that fog!

 Chapter 698 - Tarantulas

    <h4>Chapter 698: Tarants</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Are we gonna save them?¡± Song Qiao asked powerlessly.


    As expected, no one answered him.


    At this moment, the only people around him were the Great Hoodwinker, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and Cheng Yu and his five assistants. All of these people did not look like they were helpful.


    Although both Song Qiao and Cheng Yu were members of the Anjing House, Cheng Yu would probably not care to help Song Qiao even if something were to happen to him, much less help him save his assistants.


    ¡°What the hell was that?¡± The Great Hoodwinker asked in a low voice, ¡°I did not encounter something like this when I was here previously!¡±


    Cheng Yu believed the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s words. After all, the monsters in this wilderness would have no semnce of pity for humans. If the Great Hoodwinker really encountered these creatures when he came here previously, he would already be dead.


    ¡°What should we do now? Run?¡± Luo Lan asked Ren Xiaosu from behind.


    Cheng Yu turned around and realized Luo Lan was only looking to Ren Xiaosu for answers and no one else.


    It seemed the monstrous creatures were being held back by some of the supernatural beings at this moment, so it would be a good opportunity for them to make a run for it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Don¡¯t be rash now. The fog here is too heavy. Rather than run away in confusion, we might as well watch and wait. There¡¯s quite a few of us here, and also many supernatural beings in our group, so we might not lose to the monsters in this fog.¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, Song Qiao was surprised to see a figure dart past in the fog in front of them. However, that person was not trying to escape from the battlefield. On the contrary, he seemed to havee from somewhere further in front of the group and plunged himself straight into the battlefield!


    Wait a minute, who was that? Song Qiao looked at his figure but could not remember anyone in the group wearing an outfit like that.


    ¡°It¡¯s White Mask!¡± Cheng Yu eximed. ¡°Why did he suddenlye here? It looks like he was really the one who cut down all those trees and fought that monster in the wilderness.¡±


    Song Qiao was bewildered. ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re not mistaken?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s definitely him. He¡¯s wearing the same outfit as the previous time I saw him.¡± Cheng Yu said, ¡°I wonder why he didn¡¯t change his clothes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Cheng Yu speechlessly. He thought, ¡®<i>Aren¡¯t you totally focusing on the wrong thing?</i>¡® There was no need to change Old Xu¡¯s clothes since this outfit had be Old Xu¡¯s trademark. Since Old Xu was meant to be his scapegoat in the first ce, Ren Xiaosu was more worried that others would not recognize ¡°him.¡±


    When Luo Lan suggested earlier that they flee, the reason Ren Xiaosu decided to stay around was because Old Xu, who was scouting ahead of them, was rushing over to them.


    No matter what monsters might be attacking them now, he would have to take a look before leaving, right? If they kept running away the moment they encountered any danger, they might as well not enter the Sacred Mountains since there would surely be more danger ahead.


    If they wanted to survive the Sacred Mountains, they would first have to understand what was roaming out here.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu would be depending on all the supernatural beings in the group once they got into the Sacred Mountains. He needed them so he could get an opportunity to fish in troubled waters. If these people were to die on Mt. Shenchi, who would cover for himter?


    To put it simply, Ren Xiaosu could not let these people die so easily. At the very least, they would have to survive until they were in the Sacred Mountains.


    Even if he couldn¡¯t fend off the monsters, he could still use Old Xu to draw their attention and let the others escape.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had thought too much. After making Old Xu enter the battlefield, he realized the team members at the back had not really suffered too many casualties. The supernatural beings in the group were still supporting each other as they took down the monsters attacking them.


    At this moment, a gust of wind blew behind Old Xu. Ren Xiaosu made Old Xu turn around and fight, but he was stunned for a moment. A huge hairy spider more than half the height of a person was bounding over in the white fog.


    However, the spider in front of him was rarely seen in the Central ins. Ren Xiaosu started remembering the science books he had read in Stronghold 88¡¯s library as he tried to match it to a corresponding Pre-Cataclysm species.


    Tarants?


    From the science books he had read, this arachnid was preying on birds, frogs, and lizards during the time before The Cataclysm. It could be said that they were very terrifying hunters. But didn¡¯t tarants live in the tropics? Why would they appear here?


    After all, they were currently in a northern temperate zone.


    This was most likely rted to the Pyro Company, right? Ren Xiaosu felt that the appearance of these tarants on Mt. Shenchi was not as simple as it appeared.


    No wonder Ren Xiaosu had noticed very few birds around since they passed Mt. Wuzhai. Even if the birds had also mutated, they would still be afraid of a natural enemy like tarants.


    As more and more tarants appeared in the white fog, Ren Xiaosu manipted Old Xu to attack towards the center of the battlefield.


    Cheng Yu and the others remained on guard in their positions. They could hear someone shouting ¡°spiders¡± from inside the white fog followed by exmations of ¡°White Mask¡± immediately after. Once Old Xu entered the battlefield, there were also fewer and fewer screams.


    When the numerous tarants in the white fog noticed how powerful Old Xu was, they stopped attacking their prey and started surrounding Old Xu instead. This gave the others a window to catch a breather.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. The tarants were capable of shooting white silk webs to bind their prey. It would be easy to dodge one or two of their attacks, but if there were too many of them, not even Old Xu could escape.


    If Old Xu got bound by too many of the spiders¡¯ silk webs, itsbat prowess would get significantly reduced.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu controlled Old Xu and took out some grenades from a shirt pocket and threw them everywhere.


    No matter how powerful the tarants might be, they could not withstand the power of grenades. Faced with a formidable opponent like Old Xu, the group of tarants began retreating!


    ¡°Why do I keep getting the feeling that White Mask has always been nearby?¡± Cheng Yu felt a little puzzled. ¡°Previously, I thought that he was here to seize the No. 001 Experimental. But now, it seems more like he¡¯s protecting someone.¡±


    Saying that, Cheng Yu looked at Luo Lan and the others suspiciously. Was White Mask protecting Luo Lan? Or was he protecting someone else?


    Luo Lan nced at him and said, ¡°What are you looking at me for? If I had a bodyguard like him, I would¡¯ve already given your Anjing House a bashing!¡±


    Cheng Yu¡¯s face darkened. Could you not be so direct regarding our conflict?


    In fact, Luo Lan did not know about the existence of ¡°Old Xu¡± either. When he previously heard White Mask and a sniper had intercepted the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy, he thought it was Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu was standing beside him right now, so it showed Ren Xiaosu was not White Mask.


    Cheng Yu recalled that White Mask had appeared in Stronghold 74, Stronghold 73, and Luoyang City. It seemed like he really did not have anything to do with Luo Lan at all.


    On the contrary, Ren Xiaosu, who was previously suspected to be Luo Lan¡¯s backer, did not take any action this time. Thinking of this, Cheng Yu felt that no matter how powerful Ren Xiaosu might be, he would probably not be a match for White Mask either.


    If White Mask had been constantly protecting the group from nearby, it would be considered a check against Luo Lan and the others. A bnce of power was needed in this group to prevent any of the factions from getting too influential and swaying everyone¡¯s decisions.


    Cheng Yu was about to say something, but he froze. ¡°Someone¡¯s missing? Hey, girl over there, where¡¯s your boyfriend?¡±


    At some point, Ren Xiaosu had ventured into the heavy fog while they were talking.


    Yang Xiaojin wanted to ignore Cheng Yu, but he was pretty insistent and continued asking, ¡°You don¡¯t know where he went either?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said in a serious tone, ¡°He probably went somewhere to jump rope.¡±


    Cheng Yu was surprised. For some reason, Cheng Yu felt this answer was actually somewhat usible even though it sounded extremely absurd.

 Chapter 699 - The monster in the mountains

    <h4>Chapter 699: The monster in the mountains</h4>


    Of course, Yang Xiaojin knew where Ren Xiaosu had gone, but why would she tell Cheng Yu?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was trailing ¡°Old Xu¡± from a distance. Meanwhile, Old Xu was following the retreating tarants. Gradually, Ren Xiaosu realized the fog was getting lighter and lighter in the direction he was heading. When he entered a small valley, his vision became much clearer.


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu had realized something very strange. Although a lot of the people in the group had been attacked by the tarants, he did not see any corpses or bloodstains on the ground. There was something that did not make sense about it.


    Therefore, under the assumption that these tarants were deliberately released into Mt. Shenchi by the Pyro Company, Ren Xiaosu felt that there were probably some other secrets to them.


    Of course, if it got too dangerous, he would immediately return and bring Yang Xiaojin, Luo Lan, and the others out of Mt. Shenchi.


    Ren Xiaosu was making his way cautiously inside the valley. The stone walls on either side of the valley were very dark. In fact, this valley was very simr to that slot canyon[1] back at the Jing Mountains. When he looked up, he could only see a tiny sliver of light shining through.


    While he was looking up, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see countless white silk sacs hanging from the stone walls. They looked like huge, tattered cocoons.


    Ren Xiaosu was careful not to make a sound. Old Xu was watching the tarants from a short distance in front. If Old Xu got too close, it could get really dangerous.


    Moreover, Old Xu could already see the tarants dragging some new cocoons up the stone walls and hanging the humans they had just captured.


    The people in the cocoons were no longer visible. They were all wrapped in the thick spider silk and did not put up a struggle or resistance. It was as though they were already dead.


    Ren Xiaosu scrutinized these ¡°cocoons.¡± Perhaps this was how the tarants stored their food?


    Therefore, the reason he did not see any bloodstains or corpses around just now was because the tarants had to drag their prey back to their nest before slowly consuming them.


    At the spot where Old Xu was hiding, there were dark caves packed densely on both sides of the stone walls. No one knew where they led to.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered whether those people who were captured by the tarants were still alive. He did not intend to take the risk to save them. Earlier, he had made a rough estimate of there being about a few hundred tarants in here.


    Animals in the wilderness had a habit of guarding their food, and it looked like there was very little difference between tarants and wild animals. If he tried to rescue those people and the tarants started regarding him as an enemy stealing their food, things could get really bad.


    Faced with these tarants, even Ren Xiaosu had no choice but to turn and flee.


    But just as Ren Xiaosu was about to leave, he could see through Old Xu¡¯s vision that some powerful shlights were shining from the other end of the small valley.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Who were the people who were approaching? Why were theying to such a ce at a time like this?


    When the powerful shlights were shone against the stone walls, it made the tarants restless. Someone inside the dark valley said, ¡°Looks like there¡¯s a new batch of meat again. I wonder if there¡¯s any superhumans among them this time.¡±


    Another personined, ¡°As if superhumans are so readily avable. The higher-ups are really asking for the impossible.¡±


    ¡°I heard a group of people from Mt. Wuzhai have just arrived. We might get some good stuff today.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened quietly to their conversation. It was clear these people were part of the Pyro Company. Furthermore, the tarants here were probably kept by them for their hunting purposes.


    Ren Xiaosu had been wondering about something. Even though the Anjing House had issued an order to intercept the Pyro Company, and even wantonly organized groups to head into the Sacred Mountainster, why didn¡¯t the Pyro Company retaliate but simply allowed them in like that?


    Ren Xiaosu surmised the Pyro Company might be using this opportunity to collect the DNA of supernatural beings!


    Outside of the Sacred Mountains, the Pyro Company would have to spend a lot of effort in order to capture a supernatural being. Moreover, they might even suffer heavy casualties if they tried to do so in someone else¡¯s territory.


    But the Sacred Mountains were the Pyro Company¡¯s home field!


    Back at Stronghold 73, the Anjing House and the Pyro Company had been plotting against each other throughout. Their schemes were not inferior to each other either. The Pyro Company even used the tunnel to kill many of the experts from the underworld.


    Therefore, it was also reasonable that the Pyro Company would use this n to counter the various consortiums and the Anjing House¡¯s supernatural beings.


    But he could not understand why these five people would dare toe in here and steal food from the tarants. It was not like these tarants couldmunicate with humans, right?


    Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu waited quietly, hoping to see the other party¡¯s methods.


    After the tarants sensed the strong light and threat, they started crawling towards the five members of the Pyro Company. The ck and hairy tarants on the stone walls were so densely packed together that it nearly gave Ren Xiaosu trypophobia.


    Suddenly, he saw through Old Xu¡¯s vision a Pyro Company member take out a ck box from his backpack. An ear-piercing sound reverberated through the valley. When those tarants heard this sound, they no longer bounded towards them. Instead, they scrambled like the tide into the dark caves on both sides of the valley walls. In an instant, they had all but disappeared from view.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. It turned out the Pyro Company actually had a way to restrain the tarants. The sound produced by the ck box might seem harmless to humans, but the tarants had an instinctive repulsion and fear of it.


    A member of the Pyro Companyughed and said, ¡°Hehe, these spiders really don¡¯t learn. We wouldn¡¯t have let them out if we didn¡¯t thoroughly study their gics and find out about their weaknesses.¡±


    ¡°Enough talking. Let¡¯s hurry up and take the prey away,¡± another member of the Pyro Company said.


    ¡°Wait, someone¡¯s there!¡±


    One of the Pyro Company members had sharp eyes. They could even see Old Xu¡¯s figure a few hundred meters away in this dim lighting.


    ¡°Who¡¯s over there?¡± a Pyro Company member said with a raised voice.


    Immediately, the five of them drew their sabers from their belts.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and decided to leave. Since he had already learned a lot of information from the Pyro Company members here, there was no need for him to tussle with them. What if those spiders went crazy again and crawled out to attack him?


    But just as he was about to leave, the pce suddenly spoke.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression darkened. Why did it have to assign a quest now of all times?


    The Pyro Company members on the opposite side were closing in. They exchanged tactical hand signs with each other as they attempted to surround Ren Xiaosu by fanning out.


    But before they could even take a couple steps, they heard a strange voice.


    Immediately after, they saw Ren Xiaosu jumping rope and singing a nursery rhyme as he slowly approached. ¡°Let¡¯s paddle together... The boat will push away the waves...¡±


    The five members of the Pyro Company were advancing towards him, but this sight shocked them so much they beat a hasty retreat. For a moment, they were wondering what kind of strange being they had encountered.


    ¡°What the fuck is this!¡±


    ¡°Could it be one of those freaks created by the researchers in the mountains again?!¡±


    These people did not even show the slightest fear when they ventured into the tarants¡¯ nest. But when they saw this strange person skipping and singing nursery rhymes in the dark valley approaching them, they got scared!


    [1] A slot canyon is a long, narrow, deep and tortuous channel or drainageway with sheer rock walls that are typically eroded into either sandstone or other sedimentary rock. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_canyon

 Chapter 700 - Game of conspiracies

    <h4>Chapter 700: Game of conspiracies</h4>


    In this dark environment that was already eerie to begin with, someone actually appeared in the most unexpected of ways and approached them while jumping rope.


    It was no wonder the Pyro Company members were afraid. If it were anyone else, who wouldn¡¯t feel scared? After all, there was already something spooky about the atmosphere here!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Pyro Company members and said while jumping rope, ¡°Hang on, don¡¯t leave yet. Let me finish skipping first.¡±


    The Pyro Company members looked like they had encountered a formidable foe. However, they could not understand what Ren Xiaosu meant. One of them said, ¡°Who the hell are you? What are you doing here? We are the Pyro Company¡¯s T3-ranked Midnight team. If you came out from the mountains, we should be friends.¡±


    It was not umon for Pyro Company members to be killed by the monsters in the mountains. Therefore, they were now scared that the researchboratory in the mountains had released yet another monster that did not differentiate friend from foe.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu fell silent. Two secondster, he said with a sigh, ¡°Don¡¯t make a sound. Y¡¯all have interrupted my counting! Don¡¯t talk until I¡¯m done jumping. Otherwise, I¡¯ll have to kill someone.¡±


    He had already jumped more than 200 times just now, but when the Pyro Company members interrupted him, he lost count of how many times he had jumped. He had no choice but to start counting from 200 again so as not to affect the quest¡¯spletion level.


    The members of the Pyro Company fell silent. They had onlye out here to gather the prey recently caught by the tarants. Although they were also trained inbat, they were mostly deployed like handymen in the mountains. Now that they encountered a legendary monster in the mountains, they did not even have the courage to put up a fight.


    At this moment, they ascertained this young man in front of them was a freak monster that came out of the mountains. Any normal person outside the mountains would not behave like Ren Xiaosu.


    If Cheng Yu knew about these thoughts of theirs, he would probably get so emotional he would want to shake hands with them.


    About ten secondster, Ren Xiaosu finally stopped skipping. Looking at the Pyro Company members, he noticed they had their sabers pointed down. This subconscious action implied they had no intention of fighting ll. It was as though they were at a loss after giving up on resisting.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered things for a moment and asked, ¡°What¡¯s that ck box for?¡±


    ¡°It ys back a sound that¡¯s used against the tarants. It was specially developed by the researchb in the mountains. And these tarants really are terrified of the sound. They run away the moment they hear it,¡± a member of the Pyro Company exined.


    ¡°When did these tarants get released here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Last year.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re used to deal with outsiders, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu pretended he was on the same side as them. ¡°Against the Anjing House?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not too sure. We T3-rankedbatants know very little about this. You might as well ask those big shots in charge of our battle n when you return to the mountains.¡± A Pyro Company member said, ¡°Just a few months ago, the higher-ups suddenly ordered us toe here and check on the situation every three days. They said a lot of people would being here on their own. It¡¯s not only this ce that has the tarants; other ces have them as well. Also, T31901 and I were transferred here to Mt. Shenchi only recently.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. A few months ago, the Pyro Company told them there would be people sending themselves to their doorsteps. That meant the Pyro Company had deliberately tricked the Anjing House and lured them out here into the Sacred Mountains.


    His previous spection was not wrong. The Pyro Company was hoping the supernatural beings would walk right into their trap!


    Therefore, while it seemed like the Anjing House and the Pyro Company were suffering losses as they plotted against each other, it was in fact the consortiums fanning the mes that suffered the most significant losses. After all, the victims that were captured by the tarants this time were all the consortiums¡¯ people.


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. If the Wang Consortium¡¯s target was to gain control of the Central ins, and perhaps also the southwest and northwest of the Alliance of Strongholds¡¯ entire territory, then with the Anjing House having formed a coalition with the Wang Consortium, could their objective for this operation have been to lure the various consortiums¡¯ experts into the Sacred Mountains so they could help the Wang Consortium eliminate some potential threats all along?


    Truly, the minds of these conspirators were way tooplicated. Ren Xiaosu was far too inferior to others in this aspect. In fact, no matter who it was that was caught up in this maelstrom, there would always be several motives for every single thing they did.


    Ren Xiaosu felt ashamed of himself.


    At this moment, a Pyro Company member in front of him suddenly asked, ¡°Which researchb did youe out from?¡±


    To y it safe, Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°Lab 1.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu noticed the expressions of the Pyro Company members changing after he said that. A Pyro Company member raised his saber again. ¡°There¡¯s only Lab 2 and 7 in these mountains. What Lab 1 are you talking about!?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Where¡¯s Lab 1 then?¡±


    ¡°Lab 1 was destroyed in The Cataclysm.¡± The Pyro Company member sneered.


    Ren Xiaosu had asked too many questions just now, and shouldn¡¯t the monsters in the mountains know more than them?


    At first, everyone was confused by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s odd behavior. But they finally realized Ren Xiaosu was not like those freaks at all. Other than jumping rope and singing, he was essentially no different from a normal person.


    This was someone who hade from outside of Mt. Shenchi!


    After that, the Pyro Company members slowly surrounded Ren Xiaosu. Then they were all killed by him.


    ¡°You don¡¯t get to live long if you¡¯re too smart,¡± Ren Xiaosumented as he looked at the five bodies.


    They were only a five-man Midnight squad, so Ren Xiaosu wondered where they found the courage to try to kill him. Not even a Dusk team was able to handle him. Perhaps there would still be some hope if it were a five-man Dawn team that were here.


    Ren Xiaosu turned his head and looked at the dozen or so white cocoons hanging on the stone walls. After making Old Xu to leave, he used his saber to cut off the spider silk holding up the cocoons and saved the people who were captured.


    When Ren Xiaosu cut open a cocoon, he found the person inside was still breathing evenly. Their facialplexion was also normal and it looked like they could still be saved.


    Ren Xiaosu remembered that tarants were venomous. However, they would only inject digestive enzymes into their prey after they were dead to liquefy the body before consuming it, so it was unlikely they were at that stage yet.


    After tying the cocoons together one by one with a rope, he dragged them back like a bunch of Chinese hawberries.[1] He even carried the ck box in his hand in case the tarants came after him.


    When he returned, Ren Xiaosu did not drag these unconscious people over to the group personally. Instead, he made Old Xu drag them over to Cheng Yu before disappearing into the white fog again.


    Cheng Yu gazed at White Mask¡¯s receding figure. He thought to himself how he did not even have a chance to thank him before he left.


    This mysterious and powerful image of White Mask could not be erased from Cheng Yu¡¯s mind. Sometimes, he wouldment how there was such a huge gap in power even among superhumans.


    While he did not dare to move away from where they were, the other party had pursued the tarants back to their nest and even rescued everyone there.


    It wasn¡¯t until the people trapped inside the cocoons beganing to that Ren Xiaosu slowly made his way back.


    Cheng Yu snapped, ¡°Where did you go?¡±


    ¡°I went to jump rope,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered matter-of-factly.


    [1] Tanghulu (simplified Chinese: ÌǺù«; traditional Chinese: ÌǺùÌJ; pinyin: t¨¢ngh¨²lu), also called bingtanghulu (simplified Chinese: ±ùÌǺù«; traditional Chinese: ±ùÌǺùÌJ; pinyin: b¨©ngt¨¢ngh¨²lu), is a traditional Northern Chinese snack of candied Crataegus pinnatifida, also known as mountain hawthorn, Chinese haw, Chinese hawthorn, Chinese hawberry, or shanzha (ɽé«) in Mandarin Chinese. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanghulu

 Chapter 701 - Reorganizing on site

    <h4>Chapter 701: Reorganizing on site</h4>


    ¡°Who would believe that he went to jump rope? As if anyone would do that at a time like this!¡± Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant whispered at the side.


    Cheng Yu asked in a daze, ¡°What? Has he ever considered the timing when ites to jumping rope?¡±


    Regarding Ren Xiaosu¡¯s excuses, if it were anyone else saying it, Cheng Yu would definitely not believe them. To go and jump rope during a life and death situation, how could that even be possible?!


    But for some reason, when it was Ren Xiaosu who used this excuse, Cheng Yu felt he could notpletely write it off. That was because Ren Xiaosu was really prone to acting up whatever the situation might be.


    But right now, Cheng Yu did not want to give any attention to Ren Xiaosu. He wanted to know more about who in the group White Mask was trying to protect!


    Cheng Yu had personally witnessed thebat strength of White Mask before. Therefore, now that they were caught up in a real crisis, he would have to tag along with the person protected by White Mask. That way, he could benefit from the protection the other party was getting.


    It was not that Cheng Yu was weak and useless. As a member of the Anjing House, he was constantly thinking about how to seek protection from others mainly because he was not strong inbat to begin with. Moreover, the Sacred Mountains was a really dangerous ce.


    While everyone was rescuing the wounded in the cocoons, Luo Lan, Ren Xiaosu, and the others hid in the white fog and muttered to each other softly, ¡°Why are we saving them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°If we start losing people this early in the expedition and the rest be unwilling to enter the Sacred Mountains, I¡¯ll end up having to go in there by myself.¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu knew Luo Lan and Zhou Qi were hoping to send these people from the consortiums to their deaths. Why else would Zhou Qi just stand by and watch as the attack happened?


    As a matter of fact, Zhou Qi was a superhuman with water powers. Although the white fog felt eerie, it was just water vapor. It could be said that Mt. Shenchi was Zhou Qi¡¯s home turf.


    Moreover, Zhou Qi was one of the earliest superhumans to awaken his powers. With top-notch physical fitness and mental strength, it would not have been difficult for him to deal with some tarants.


    Ren Xiaosu even believed that Zhou Qi could sense the attacker was a group of spiders through the fog with his power. However, he did not do anything about it.


    Ren Xiaosu could understand this. To Luo Lan, the other organizations were all his enemies. As long as he stood by and did nothing, he would have helped the Qing Consortium weaken their enemies, so why wouldn¡¯t he do that?


    However, Ren Xiaosu was going into the Sacred Mountains to save Yan Liuyuan, so he had to cherish every bit of help he could get.


    ¡°Got it.¡± Luo Lan nodded. He asked again softly, ¡°Is White Mask your friend?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and grunted, ¡°Mhm.¡±


    He did not go into detail, but there was no need to hide some things from Luo Lan. Only at this moment did Luo Lan finally feel a little at ease. ¡°Previously, when you said you weren¡¯t able to protect me, I thought...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°When did I say that?¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned. ¡°When I gestured to you that day...¡±


    ¡°Weren¡¯t you asking me to take a leak with you?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly, ¡°Could you have meant something else?¡±


    Luo Lan was confused.


    At this moment, someone shouted in the white fog, ¡°They¡¯re awake, they¡¯re awake!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu led the way and walked towards the voice. Everyone was around the cocoons, and someone had already cut all of them open. The people in the cocoons had opened their eyes, but they were still unable to speak or move. It was only their eyes that were moving.


    Whatever else happened, it was very fortunate they managed to survive the attack.


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and silently noted the people who did not look like they were in a terrible state. There were more than 60 people in the entire group, but seven of them did not look like they went through a vicious attack at all. These seven people were most likely supernatural beings, and one of them happened to be Wang Yun, who had secretly left behind some markings along the way.


    Of course, it was also possible they had not encountered the tarant attack.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t they move?¡± Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant asked.


    Ren Xiaosu came forward to say, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because I haven¡¯t performed yet. Step back a little, let me do a split for y¡¯all....¡±


    Everyone was astonished. <i>¡®You¡¯re really great at catching opportune moments to perform your talents, huh!¡¯</i>


    Cheng Yu chose to ignore Ren Xiaosu and said to everyone, ¡°Everyone, take turns carrying the injured who can¡¯t move yet. We can¡¯t stay in Mt. Shenchi any longer, so it¡¯s better to leave as soon as possible.¡±


    However, Luo Lan stopped him. ¡°Wait. I suggest we set up camp here and build onsite defensive fortifications.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± Cheng Yu asked with a frown.


    ¡°First of all, you definitely won¡¯t leave this ce in a day or two.¡± Luo Lan looked at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°We have to listen to the guide on this matter. Let¡¯s get his opinion first on how long it will take before we can leave this ce.¡±


    ¡°Even at full speed, it will still take a little more than two days,¡± the Great Hoodwinker said.


    ¡°Instead of making everyone take turns carrying these dozen-odd wounded and wearing down our stamina, why don¡¯t we set up camp here and wait for them to recover first? We have no idea what¡¯s waiting for us up ahead. We¡¯ll have to face whatever danger there might be in our best condition.¡±


    Luo Lan might not know about other things, but he was very good at leadership and decision-making in times of danger.


    Cheng Yu gave it some thought and asked, ¡°What if those spiderse back again?¡±


    ¡°Since White Mask saved those people from the tarants¡¯ nest, it means he probably took care of the spiders,¡± Luo Lan analyzed. ¡°So we don¡¯t have to worry about them anymore.¡±


    Luo Lan made this decision based on his understanding of Ren Xiaosu. He knew Ren Xiaosu must have also gone to the nest just now, so he definitely did not believe he went to jump rope. Seeing how calm andposed he was at the moment, the spiders were definitely not going to pose a threat anymore.


    Cheng Yu looked at the others. ¡°What do you guys think?¡±


    ¡°I support reorganizing on site. I also think that since White Mask saved them, those spiders are definitely done for,¡± Song Qiao said.


    More importantly, Song Qiao¡¯s assistants were still fully paralyzed. Without the support of his assistants, he was unwilling to move forward.


    Many of those present shared the same thoughts as Song Qiao.


    ¡°I would like to ask a question.¡± Cheng Yu looked at everyone. ¡°Which of you is being protected by White Mask? Can you get him to officially join the team so we can advance and retreat together? He¡¯s alone in the wilderness, so it will be a little troublesome if he gets ambushed while sleeping, right? By joining the team, we can all look out for one another.¡±


    However, no one responded to Cheng Yu.


    Cheng Yu examined everyone¡¯s expressions and tried to identify the person being protected by White Mask. When his gazended on Ren Xiaosu, he immediately skipped him as he assumed White Mask could not possibly be protecting a lunatic like him.


    Cheng Yu felt Wang Yun and the other middle-aged man were the prime suspects. Both of them looked like they did not fear anything.


    After the chaos, these two people remained the calmest.


    Seeing that no one responded to him, Cheng Yu shouted right at the white fog, ¡°I know you¡¯re nearby. Since ourmon target is the Pyro Company, why don¡¯t we travel together?¡±

 Chapter 702 - Fulfilling a teammate’s wishes

    <h4>Chapter 702: Fulfilling a teammate¡¯s wishes</h4>


    Cheng Yu¡¯s voice calling out to White Mask rang through the white fog. Everyone held their breaths as they wondered if White Mask would agree to travel with them. If there were such a supernatural being in the group, it would definitely be safer for everyone.


    No one doubted the strength of White Mask. After all, while everyone was busy saving themselves in battle just now, he went to the spiders¡¯ nest to rescue more than a dozen of their teammates.


    But how could Ren Xiaosu possibly let ¡°Old Xu¡± stay in the team to protect this group of people? Old Xu¡¯s most important role right now was to be a scout. An undying scout that traveled alone in the wilderness could help Ren Xiaosu avoid a lot of danger.


    As time ticked by, Cheng Yu felt a little disappointed when White Mask did not show up even after a long time. ¡°Although I don¡¯t know who he is protecting, since we¡¯re all on the same team, I hope we can still look out for one another in the future.¡±


    An assistant next to Cheng Yu muttered, ¡°When White Mask appeared just now, that young man who¡¯s always jumping rope also went off somewhere. Could White Mask be here to protect him?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± Cheng Yu shook his head. ¡°Why would such a person be protected by an expert like White Mask? However, we can¡¯t underestimate this young man either. I think he has a very close rtionship with Luo Lan. When Luo Lan encountered danger, his first reaction was to stand behind him.¡±


    ¡°Then should we still persuade White Mask to join us?¡± the assistant asked.


    ¡°Forget it.¡± Cheng Yu sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s not like we can force someone like that to do our bidding.¡±


    But even though Cheng Yu had given up, it did not mean the others had as well. A middle-aged man looked at everyone in the group and said, ¡°I know White Mask must have something to do with one of you here. Why don¡¯t we do it this way instead? I¡¯ll offer five million yuan for him to join the group. I won¡¯t ask him to deliberately protect anyone either, but just travel together with us.¡±


    This was an extremely strange request. Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment. The other party seemed to be spitefully offering five million yuan for White Mask to appear, but other than that, he had no other conditions.


    Wouldn¡¯t this money be given away for nothing then? Could the middle-aged man have an ulterior motive?


    At the side, Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°Old boy, your offer is too petty. Would such an expert care for that five million yuan? If White Mask really shows himself for this five million yuan, I, Wang Yun, will walk doing a handstand for a day.¡±


    Suddenly, the pce in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind started speaking. His expression also became very weird after he heard what it said.


    ¡°Quest: Fulfill the wishes of your teammate.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it. The pce did not explicitly say which of the teammates¡¯ wishes to satisfy. Was it the middle-aged man¡¯s wish to get Old Xu to join the team, or was it Wang Yun¡¯s wish to do a handstand?


    However, this quest seemed very easy toplete.


    In the white fog, everyone heard the sound of approaching footsteps. They turned their heads to look in that direction and saw the silhouette of a figure be clearer as it got closer.


    Wang Yun was surprised.


    Old Xu walked up to the middle-aged man and stretched out his hand. The middle-aged man did not break his promise and took out a small box. ¡°There¡¯s a Wang Consortium bank card inside to ess an anonymous ount with exactly five million yuan in it.¡±


    Old Xu nodded and looked towards Wang Yun calmly.


    Wang Yun felt ufortable at that moment. Why did he get the feeling that the other party had suddenly appeared just so he could make him walk while doing a handstand?!


    Actually, if the pce had announced the quest waspleted after the middle-aged man paid up, Ren Xiaosu would not have needed to make Wang Yun do a handstand. But as it stood, the quest was still notpleted.


    With everyone¡¯s attention on him, Wang Yun gritted his teeth and sneered. ¡°Fine, you¡¯re targeting me, right?!¡±


    After that, he really got upside down and did a handstand. In fact, Wang Yun¡¯s bnce was not only good, but he also seemed to be able to walk upside down very naturally.


    Cheng Yu looked at Old Xu in bewilderment before looking at Ren Xiaosu, who was standing not too far from him. He found White Mask¡¯s style felt quite familiar.


    At some point, Cheng Yu even felt a little scared. He was afraid the other party would suddenly start singing nursery rhymes together with Ren Xiaosu.


    However, everyone felt a little more at ease now that Old Xu had joined the team. It was as though their group was boosted by someone really strong.


    The main reason was that Old Xu¡¯s reputation had been soaring recently. There were still too few supernatural beings who could take a T5batant head-on and win.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly sized up Wang Yun. He realized Wang Yun¡¯s expression was unusually ferocious like he was bearing a grudge.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not care. It was Old Xu that made him do a handstand, so what did it have anything to do with him?


    The rtionships between the various teammates in the group were bing clearer. Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu were in the same group, and Wang Yun had four otherpanions hidden within the group. One of them might even be a supernatural being.


    The remaining people were roughly divided into six groups. Thergest group was made up of nine people, while the smallest group had three.


    When they did not encounter any danger, these people would act as though they did not know each other. But earlier, they had subconsciously banded together to fight the spiders. This was an instinctive reaction when facing danger.


    The wounded in the cocoons had been rescued. Although they could not move yet, there were already people volunteering to take care of them.


    In a ce like this, who would be so kind as to take care of someone not rted to them? It would definitely have to be their friends who stepped forward to help.


    While everyone was taking care of the wounded, Wang Yun quietly walked upside down into the white fog. Since the fog had not dispersed yet, no one would realize that someone had stepped away.


    After leaving the group, Wang Yun somersaulted forward andnded firmly on his feet again. He sneered, ¡°I, Wang Yun, will definitely get revenge for suffering such humiliation!¡±


    As he quietly made his way back, he made two markings¡ªa horizontal bar and a concentric circle¡ªalong the trail of hardtack crumbs he had left.


    The first marking meant the danger ahead had been temporarily resolved, while the second marking was him requesting a replenishment of supplies.


    Along the way, in order to leave a trail, he had scattered most of the dry rations he had brought with him. Wang Yun had calcted his provisions wouldst another day at most.


    But this was where the advantage of having support troops behind him came in. He did not have to worry about his provisions like the others.


    Bute the following night, Wang Yun was sitting by the campfire and watching as the others ate their food while he had run out of rations.


    Ren Xiaosu even asked him why he was not eating anything, but Wang Yun just smiled and said he was not hungry. He could not possibly tell him he had used up his rations to leave a trail, right?


    For the entire day, Ren Xiaosu and the others remained onsite as they waited for their teammates who had been paralyzed by the spider venom to recover.


    During this period, Wang Yun ventured into the white fog alone on more than one asion. He took out a small bamboo whistle that he used to produce the sound of insects pping their wings. However, he still did not see the reinforcements he had been waiting for.


    Wang Yun felt that something had gone wrong somewhere, but he did not know what exactly happened.


    Could hisrades have retreated because they thought it was too dangerous?


    No, they were still very trustedrades of his, having traveled extensively together for all their missions. Otherwise, he would not have entrusted his life to them either.


    They must have been dyed by something. Who knew, they might just arrive by tomorrow!

 Chapter 703 - Assassination attempt

    <h4>Chapter 703: Assassination attempt</h4>


    While Wang Yun was starving, the middle-aged man in the next tent, who had spent five million yuan to get Old Xu to join the team, brought over some food he had just heated up to cotton up to ¡°him.¡±


    But no matter what the middle-aged man said, Old Xu did not respond.


    First of all, Old Xu actually couldn¡¯t speak. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu could not care less.


    The middle-aged man kept mumbling to himself for a long time. He was just trying to make the point that he hoped they could work together and conspire for greater causes, and after that, there would be other rewards they could talk about.


    But Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>I don¡¯t care for things like rewards. Who knows if you¡¯ll even be able to get out of here alive after this!</i>¡®


    However, Ren Xiaosu was secretly sizing up the middle-aged man. He was still a little puzzled. Did the other party offer Old Xu five million yuan just so ¡°he¡± would travel with the group? Although the other party tried to cozy up to Old Xu after that, Ren Xiaosu felt that things were not that simple.


    When the middle-aged man carried the food over, Ren Xiaosu made Old Xu to receive it before cing it to the side. After this, the middle-aged man would deliver food to Old Xu three times a day.


    However, the middle-aged man did not know Old Xu was only a shadow clone that did not need to eat at all.


    Therefore, when the others saw Old Xu putting aside the food the middle-aged man had given to him without even touching it, they thought to themselves it must be really difficult to deal with White Mask. He was way too unfeeling.


    Only Wang Yun¡¯s eyes gleamed when he saw the food ced next to Old Xu.


    In these one and a half days, Wang Yun had gone to the ce where he made the markings five or six times, but there was still no response from his troops.


    His spirit had hit rock bottom. He was even wondering if something had happened to his support.


    If his 200-odd subordinates were OK, they would not have left him behind here. So they must have met their demise.


    Wang Yun did not view his subordinates as ants like the others in the organization. These 200-oddrades had been fighting alongside him for many years, so they had a very close bond. Now that their fate was unknown, Wang Yun, as theirmander, felt an endless sense of sorrow.


    Moreover, he did not even know who had killed them.


    Of course, Wang Yun did not know his group of subordinates were currently enjoying themselves at a ce 40 kilometers north of the ck market. They were currently obsessed with hunting for the past two days since they had nothing better to do anyway.


    Wang Yun looked at the food beside Old Xu and gulped silently. It was not that he was weak-willed, but the hunger was really starting to make him feel a little flustered.


    Mt. Shenchi was also a very strange ce in that there was not a single living creature in the vicinity of the mountain. It was probably because of the appearance of exotic creatures like the tarants that had disrupted the bnce of the ecosystem in Mt. Shenchi.


    Such situations often happened in the past as well. For example, the Zhou Consortium used to have rich aquatic biodiversity to their south. The consortium¡¯s Stronghold 73 was even located at the intersection of three rivers.


    However, the Wang Consortium¡¯s spies secretly released arge number of suckermouth catfish fry into the Zhou Consortium¡¯s aquatic ecosystem and even secretly introduced water hyacinth into their waters. This caused the Zhou Consortium to suffer a continuous decrease in their water supply yearly.


    Back then, because of this matter, the Zhou Consortium even criticized the Wang Consortium in their official newspaper for over half a year.


    Right now, the tarants were also considered an invasive species in Mt. Shenchi. Furthermore, they might even have been gically modified by the Pyro Company. Without any natural predators, they had turned Mt. Shenchi into a wastnd.


    Wang Yun had realized there were no birds on Mt. Wuzhai. This was actually also due to the presence of the tarants in the mountains.


    At the campsite during the night, the multiple campfires that were burning made the fog less heavy. At least within the campsite itself, everyone was able to see each other¡¯s faces clearly.


    Wang Yun was nestled inside his own tent and quietly looking at the food in front of Old Xu through a gap in the tent p.


    In the dead of the night, an air current was swept up from nowhere and slowly moved towards Old Xu.


    However, the air current did note into contact with Old Xu¡¯s body. Instead, two pieces of hardtack were swept up as though they were lifted by the wind and made their way back to Wang Yun¡¯s tent effortlessly.


    Wang Yun used his power while carefully observing Old Xu at the same time. When he realized there was no reaction from him, he felt relieved.


    After all, White Mask had forced him to walk upside down yesterday. If he were to be discovered stealing his food now, that would really be too embarrassing.


    Wang Yun recalled that he had not been this humiliated in a long time.


    However, he would have to survive first. He still had to find out the fate of his 200-odd subordinates and avenge them!


    Thinking of this, Wang Yun opened the wrapping carefully and ced the hardtack into his mouth. Then he paused for a moment and wondered if the food might be poisoned.


    However, Wang Yun was famished. Heforted himself by thinking how this food was not meant for him in the first ce. That middle-aged man looked like he was a bootlicker, and it was obvious he was trying to curry favor with White Mask, so it wasn¡¯t necessary to poison him, right?


    However, Wang Yun felt that something was off the moment he took the first bite. He quickly spat out the hardtack. However, the neurotoxin in the hardtack had already affected him. His mouth went numb, and his mind was starting to get a little confused.


    With his remaining consciousness, Wang Yun stared at the hardtack in his hand, then at Old Xu. ¡°What the hell...¡±


    Then his eyes closed and he slipped into darkness.


    Not far away from Wang Yun¡¯s tent, the middle-aged man who delivered the food to Old Xu was sitting inside his tent. He was holding a firearm with a thermal scope attached in his hands. The gun was loaded with anesthetic bullets that he aimed at Old Xu from across the tent.


    Using the thermal scope to aim was entirely so that Old Xu would not detect his attacking intent.


    With the tents separating them, no one would notice as he took aim at his target.


    The middle-aged man knew full well that if a powerful supernatural being like White Mask even had a line of sight with the firing weapon, it would be impossible for them to be hit.


    Faced with such a supernatural being, he had to be extremely cautious.


    But the middle-aged man was caught by surprise. He could not find anyone on the thermal imaging screen!


    What the hell was going on? Was the other party human? Or was his power able to interfere with the thermal imaging?


    However, the middle-aged man did not have time to think too much about it. He had to take action tonight, and he had to do so without making any mistakes.


    Since he had alreadye this far, the middle-aged man decided to just aim at Old Xu based on his intuition. The distance between the two of them was at most seven to eight meters, so he felt he would not miss!


    With a swoosh, a tranquilizer dart pierced through the tent and stabbed into Old Xu¡¯s body.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes opened in his tent, but he did not move. He just made Old Xu slowly fall sideways onto the ground.


    A momentter, the middle-aged man rushed out of his tent and ran towards Old Xu. He dragged Old Xu, who had fallen ¡°unconscious,¡± on the ground and fled towards the darkness of the night outside the campsite. The strength he exhibited was clearly that of a supernatural being¡¯s.


    Thismotion woke a lot of people up. Those who were responsible for keeping night watch also saw what happened, but none of them seemed to have any intention of getting involved.


    They watched helplessly as the middle-aged man dragged Old Xu out of the campsite. It was as though he were running into the darkness of the wilderness.


    Then the middle-aged man took out a re gun and fired it into the sky. In an instant, everyone in the campsite understood this middle-aged man had reinforcements outside!


    With that, everyone became even more unwilling to rashly head into the darkness to save Old Xu.

 Chapter 704 - The Pyro Company’s serial numbers

    <h4>Chapter 704: The Pyro Company¡¯s serial numbers</h4>


    Although everyone in the campsite hoped to have a strong ally like White Mask to enter the Sacred Mountains with, he would be of no value to them if he fell here.


    A stampede of footsteps came from the distance. It sounded like the middle-aged man¡¯s reinforcements had arrived.


    Everyone in the campsite felt a sense of pity that a powerful supernatural being like White Mask was actually going to fall here.


    Based on hisbat strength, there were very few who could match him in a head-to-head duel. Such a supernatural being should have be a prominent figure in this world, but he ended up dying before his potential was fulfilled.


    Perhaps he got stabbed in the back like this due to his conceitedness.


    ¡°He¡¯s probably done for,¡± someone said.


    ¡°Aye, he was too arrogant.¡±


    ¡°Prepare for battle. I think we might get attacked as well!¡±


    Everyone tensed up.


    But to their surprise, a sudden wail came from the direction the middle-aged man ran off in. Continual gunfire could then be heard.


    ¡°Ah!¡± A scream rang out, and everyone in the campsite trembled in shock.


    ¡°Ah!¡± Another scream was heard. Everyone could only silently look into the darkness of the night as their hearts skipped a beat with every scream that rang out.


    Cheng Yu could tell the scream belonged to the middle-aged man.


    As the screams went on and on, Cheng Yu said with a look ofmiseration, ¡°That sounds really tragic....¡±


    Everyone was stunned as they did not expect such a reversal. Wasn¡¯t White Mask shot unconscious by a tranquilizer? What was with this sudden turn of events then?


    Judging from the current situation, it was clearly the middle-aged man that was being absolutely thrashed!


    Some of them suddenly regretted their inaction. White Mask was probably just putting on an act earlier. If they had lent a helping hand in his time of need, wouldn¡¯t they have gained a valuable friendship?


    Unfortunately, this assumption was not valid either.


    The screams gradually subsided.


    Ren Xiaosu, who had not stepped out of his tent throughout all this, sighed. He had suspected the middle-aged man was a spy the Pyro Company had nted in the group. The Pyro Company had been prepared to deal with this group of people from both within and without. However, the spy kept pushing back the n as he feared White Mask.


    Today, the middle-aged man had first delivered some food to Old Xu. But when he saw that Old Xu did not take the food, he decided to just use a tranquilizer gun on him.


    As the higher-ups had instructed him to obtain a sample of White Mask¡¯s DNA, the middle-aged man dragged Old Xu, who had fainted to the ground, into the wilderness. Little did he know that it was actually the Grim Reaper he had dragged with him.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that if the middle-aged man had chosen any other target among the many supernatural beings in the camp, he would not have ended up in such a miserable state.


    Of course, he could also understand the Pyro Company was probably very eager to get their hands on the DNA sample of White Mask, so they decided to take action in advance.


    The battle came to a close. Everyone in the campsite was looking in the direction of where the battle had taken ce in shock.


    Eventually, a figure appeared in the fog. White Mask slowly took in the eyes of everyone in the campsite as though it was silently mocking them for not saving ¡°him.¡± After all, over a dozen of them here had been personally saved by Old Xu.


    These people couldn¡¯t make eye contact with White Mask due to their guilt.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not continue acting cocky here and had Old Xu throw several badges onto the ground. There was a hollowed out carving of a me logo on the badges.


    This was something Old Xu had found on the bodies of the enemies ¡°he¡± had just killed. It was proof the middle-aged man was actually a Pyro Company spy.


    Cheng Yu walked over and picked up the Pyro Company¡¯s badges. ¡°So they¡¯re really from the Pyro Company.¡±


    In truth, everyone had already thought of this possibility. Since so many of the consortiums¡¯ people had managed to sneak into the group, what was there to stop the Pyro Company from doing the same?


    It had been proven on many asions that the person overseeing the Pyro Company¡¯s battle strategy was really smart. He might even have prepared a contingency n and was only waiting for the Anjing House to make the next move.


    Thinking of this, many people on the team started to have thoughts about retreating.


    If it weren¡¯t for the fact the leaders of their organizations were seeking immortality and had given them an irrevocable order, they would probably have left already.


    Cheng Yu looked silently at the others in the campsite. Everyone was either sitting or standing around as they looked at him. He wondered if there were still others from the Pyro Company among them.


    ¡°As everyone knows, all members of the Pyro Company are required to have their serial numbers tattooed near their ribs.¡± Cheng Yu said in a low voice, ¡°This is the recognized brand all Pyro Company members carry. Be it T31092 or T5102, the serial numbers will definitely be found under their left rib cage. So to prevent the Pyro Company¡¯s spies from remaining in the group, we¡¯re going to conduct a body check today to see if anyone has said tattoo under their left or right rib cage.¡±


    It was not a secret the Pyro Company members were marked with a serial number under their left rib cage. Many people knew that after joining the Pyro Company and confirming they could be gically modified, the tattooing of the serial number would be the first step they had to go through. This was unavoidable.


    Furthermore, the Pyro Company¡¯s method of confirming the serial number would amaze anyone as well, because they could determine whether you were a T3 or a T5 by simply checking your gic sequence. They could urately determine your future potential with very little chance of error.


    The Pyro Company always believed that talent determined each person¡¯s potential and that the gulf between a T1 and T5 was naturally present.


    As for whether there were any ranks higher than T5, this was not something that was known to the public. But people guessed there might be a T6 rank as well.


    Although Cheng Yu¡¯s suggestion to conduct a body check vited their privacy, no one rejected it, nor would they have any reason to.


    The men would check on the other men, while the women would check on the other women. No one would want a Pyro Company member around them, after all.


    The body check process went very smoothly. During this time, Cheng Yu and his assistants were constantly on guard in case any Pyro Company members tried to make a run for it. However, after a full inspection was carried out, they did not discover a single person with a tattoo on their ribs.


    Cheng Yu thought for a moment and suddenly said to Old Xu, ¡°Can you please go and check on the corpse of that middle-aged man just now to see if he has a tattooed serial number on his body?¡±


    Old Xu nodded and walked over. After a while, he returned with a piece of skin with the words ¡°T31029¡± tattooed on it.


    Cheng Yu heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°This crisis has been temporarily resolved.¡±


    He had gotten Old Xu to go and check because he was worried the Pyro Company did not tattoo anyone they trained as spies.


    After all, everyone knew the Pyro Company members had such tattoos on their bodies. What if thismon knowledge was actually deliberately spread by the Pyro Company? They could then easily use the opportunity to stab you in the back while you had your guard down.


    But from the looks of it, it was true that everyone from the Pyro Company had a tattoo on their bodies. At the least, that middle-aged man had his serial number tattooed on him.


    ¡°Wait a minute, why are we missing a person?¡± Someone carefully counted the number of people present. ¡°We can¡¯t miss out on checking anyone during this inspection. One of the guys is missing. Don¡¯t tell me he has already escaped?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he looked around at everyone. He suddenly realized the missing person was that young man who had secretly left those markings.


    Cheng Yu also realized Wang Yun had disappeared. He walked to the entrance of Wang Yun¡¯s tent and lifted the door curtain. He discovered Wang Yun lying inside the tent and foaming at the mouth. There was even a bitten piece of hardtack lying at the side.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Cheng Yu felt for Wang Yun¡¯s pulse at his neck. ¡°He¡¯s still alive, but why did he suddenly get poisoned?¡±

 Chapter 705 - Singing nursery rhymes together

    <h4>Chapter 705: Singing nursery rhymes together</h4>


    Wang Yun had been unconscious for quite a while. Before the middle-aged man attacked ¡°Old Xu,¡± Wang Yun had already started foaming at the mouth. Now that the skirmish was over, he still had not regained consciousness.


    Fortunately, the middle-aged man had seemingly not wanted to take Old Xu¡¯s life. Therefore, the poison in the hardtack was only to paralyze ¡°him¡± and not to kill.


    A group of people surrounded the unconscious Wang Yun, with four of them being his subordinates. They had stopped pretending and quickly checked on Wang Yun¡¯s condition. They were only relieved when they could confirm Wang Yun was only unconscious.


    After they checked him, the four of them looked at each other in dismay. Ever since they joined the team, all of them acted like they did not know each other and did not evenmunicate with one another.


    But they did not find anything unusual with Director Wang Yun these few days. How did he suddenly get poisoned after taking a bite of the hardtack?


    Could this be the doing of Director Wang Yun¡¯s two otherpetitors in the Kong Consortium?


    Although they had left the Kong Consortium, their supplies for the expedition were still collected through the logistics department of the intelligence agency. Judging by the methods of his twopetitors, it would not have been difficult for them to poison the supplies as well.


    Now that the race to be the intelligence director was at its most intense stage, poisoning an opponent to death could not be ruled out even if it might sound a little crazed.


    Wang Yun did not tell them he had been starving for a day and a half either. After all, as a senior officer, it was a little embarrassing he ended up in such a state. Wang Yun thought it would be very easy for him to settle a matter like that by himself.


    Therefore, his subordinates did not think too much about it. All they felt was that their superior might have been plotted against by a political opponent.


    One of them muttered, ¡°Director Wang¡¯s supplies and ours were mixed together. I¡¯m afraid that some of our hardtack could be poisoned as well.¡±


    ¡°But nothing happened when we ate them before,¡± someone replied.


    ¡°The other party might not have poisoned too many of the rations.¡± The person who spoke first exined, ¡°It might only be one-tenth of the hardtack that was poisoned. But would you dare to bet your life on which ones are poisoned and which ones are not?¡±


    There were still others around them, but these four people no longer pretended. Previously, they had acted like they did not know each other. Now that something had happened to their superior, there was no need to continue acting anymore.


    ¡°I wonder when Director Wang will wake up?¡±


    ¡°Director Wang is a superhuman, so he should be fine.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t until the next morning that Wang Yun slowly regained consciousness. When he saw his four subordinates keeping guard by his side, he bluntly asked, ¡°How long have I been out for?¡±


    ¡°One night.¡± One of his subordinates recounted what had happened the previous night. ¡°Sir, did you get poisoned by the hardtack we brought along for the expedition?¡±


    Wang Yun was still a little weak. He hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Yes.¡±


    There was no way he could say he had used his superpower to steal someone else¡¯s food in the middle of the night and even got poisoned in the process. He could not bring himself to say something so embarrassing.


    Some people in the camp had already woken up to pack their belongings.


    Wang Yun examined the campsite. He knew everyone in the campsite must know by now that the five of them were acquainted, so he looked at his subordinates and said, ¡°I haven¡¯t eaten anything all night. Go and get some food and water for me.¡±


    In fact, Wang Yun had not gone hungry for just one night. He was so hungry right now he could not take it anymore. Since his subordinates¡¯ identities were exposed, he should just quickly get some food from them.


    However, one of his subordinates answered, ¡°Sir, we¡¯ll get you some water first. We mustn¡¯t eat from our rations anymore. What if the rest of the food was also poisoned? I¡¯ll go and get rid of the remaining supplies immediately!¡±


    ¡°Get rid of it?¡± Wang Yun was stunned.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Since you were poisoned, it must¡¯ve been yourpetitors¡¯ doing. That¡¯s why we can¡¯t eat our rations anymore,¡± the subordinate said matter-of-factly. ¡°But that¡¯s alright. We¡¯ll go out again in the morning to see if we can find any food nearby. Don¡¯t worry, survival in the wilderness won¡¯t be a problem for us.¡±


    With that, the subordinate went off to throw away all the rations they had brought.


    Wang Yun wanted to cry but no tears came out. He was really at a loss of how to exin it. Moreover, he had just admitted he got poisoned after eating his own rations.


    His subordinates threw away the rations they had brought with them. Yet, there were not even any signs of living things here in Mt. Shenchi. Wang Yun felt he would have to get out of this ce as soon as possible. It did not matter where they went, but it should at least be a ce where they could find food.


    Wang Yun thought that if he became the first supernatural being to starve to death in this new era, he might as well kill himself right now!


    ¡°Help me up.¡± Wang Yun struggled to get up with the help of his subordinates. He walked to the center of the campsite and asked Cheng Yu, ¡°What¡¯s your next n?¡±


    Off to the side, Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°We¡¯re getting ready to leave now. Those who were captured by the tarants earlier are also able to move slowly now. Although their movements are not nimble yet, the Pyro Company has probably already set their sights on this ce, so we can¡¯t stay here much longer. How did you get poisoned? Look at your pale face. Shall we wait for you to recover and rest until the morning is over?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to wait!¡± Wang Yun said firmly, ¡°We¡¯re leaving Mt. Shenchi immediately!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re quite strong,¡± Luo Lan muttered as he went to look for Zhou Qi to pack his things.


    When Wang Yun heard what Luo Lan said, he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. Strong? Wasn¡¯t it all because he was fucking forced into such a situation?!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yun and the others, then whispered to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°I saw that guy¡¯s subordinates throwing away all their food just now. Could someone have really poisoned them?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s possible.¡± Yang Xiaojin said nonchntly, ¡°It looks like it.¡±


    ¡°Then I have a bold idea. They might not have anything left to eat now, but I still have quite a lot of rations,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Why? You¡¯re thinking of earning his money?¡± Yang Xiaojin nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Why do you need so much money?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s useful, of course.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You think we don¡¯t have to spend money in the future? I heard that getting married, having children, and buying a house are all things that involve money! How can I let our children lead a difficult life...¡±


    When Yang Xiaojin heard this, she immediately rolled her eyes. She knew Ren Xiaosu was trying to take advantage of her through his words again. She got so angry that she nearlyughed. The guy in front of her was so cowardly in his actions, but he was really not shy at all with his words.


    Ren Xiaosu walked up to Wang Yun and said, ¡°Look, someone must¡¯ve poisoned the rations that y¡¯all brought along. We happen to have extra rations with us. We can sell them to you!¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Thank you, we happen to need it. May I know how much you¡¯re selling it for?¡±


    ¡°One million yuan...¡± Ren Xiaosu was just about to say he would sell 50 hardtacks for one million yuan when he heard the pce issuing a new quest.


    Nearby, Cheng Yu was watching the conversation. He felt Ren Xiaosu was really ballsy to even quote such a price. One million yuan was a lot of money, so Wang Yun was unlikely to ept it.


    Then he heard Ren Xiaosu say, ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t have to pay for it. If you sing nursery rhymes with me, I¡¯ll give you 50 hardtacks.¡±


    Cheng Yu was confused. So was Wang Yun.

 Chapter 706 - New power!

    <h4>Chapter 706: New power!</h4>


    Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu in bewilderment. Previously, this guy only sang nursery rhymes by himself. But now, he was actually using the hardtack to make others sing along with him?!


    Thinking of this, Cheng Yu suddenly had some qualms about the future.


    Meanwhile, Wang Yun paled. As the director of the Kong Consortium¡¯s 2nd Military Intelligence Division, what would it say about him if he started singing nursery rhymes with others for some hardtack?


    Wasn¡¯t this guy totally undermining him?!


    Ten minutester, Ren Xiaosu was saying loudly, ¡°Stop, that¡¯s not the right phrase. You missed a word. Let¡¯s start over!¡±


    Wang Yun sang, ¡°A snail carrying its heavy shell...¡±


    When Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates saw this sight, they felt their superior was really capable of bearing the humiliation. In order to get them food, he was even willing to sing nursery rhymes with someone.


    Just now, Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates had advised him to ignore the young man. However, Wang Yun said impassionedly that as their senior officer, how could he let his subordinates starve with him? He was not that type of person.


    His subordinates were a little touched. They realized their loyalty to Wang Yun was really not for nothing.


    Wang Yun felt that if Ren Xiaosu had asked him to sing the nursery rhymes by himself, he would definitely not have epted it. It was just like if someone were to throw some food in front of him and make him eat it for their own entertainment, Wang Yun would rather starve in such a situation.


    But these circumstances were a little different. Since Ren Xiaosu was going to sing along with him, the sense of humiliation was not as bad anymore.


    However, he just could not understand what was wrong with the young man before him.


    Honestly, even Ren Xiaosu himself did not understand what was wrong with the pce.


    When the others in the campsite saw this strange sight, they did not know what to say for a long time. After Ren Xiaosu and Wang Yun finished singing, Luo Lan immediately shouted to everyone, ¡°There¡¯s no time to lose. Let¡¯s set off quickly!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu wiped out the Pyro Company membersst night, Luo Lan privately asked Ren Xiaosu how many of them there were. In the end, Ren Xiaosu said several dozens of them had been killed. There should even be quite a few Dusk team members among them.


    This ce was very close to the Sacred Mountains to begin with, yet Ren Xiaosu still managed to kill so many enemies at their own doorstep. Could the Pyro Company tolerate that? They would surely send more people over!


    Therefore, if they did not leave now, they might not be able to leave anymore. They would have to get out of here quickly and engage in guerri warfare with the enemy along the way.


    Although it was also dangerous in the Sacred Mountains, that seemed to be a better option than staying here in the fog.


    The Pyro Company clearly had a way to find them in the fog at any time. Meanwhile, the Anjing House team could do nothing about the fog.


    Cheng Yu asked the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Have you really never gone into the Sacred Mountains before?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker thought for a moment and said, ¡°Actually, I did venture inside a little, but only a little.¡±


    Cheng Yu was speechless when he saw the look on the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s face. The man really did not speak a single word of truth.


    Not long after they set off, the fog on Mt. Shenchi gradually started to disperse. Just as the Great Hoodwinker had mentioned, Mt. Shenchi was not always shrouded in fog, with the fog dispersing for about a day once every three days.


    ¡°Let¡¯s hurry up.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°We were initially two days from getting out of the mountain, but that was due to the heavy fog¡¯s presence. Now that it¡¯s dispersed, let¡¯s make up for the lost time. We might even be able to get out of here in about a day or so.¡±


    ¡°This is the first piece of good news since we hiked up the mountain.¡± Cheng Yu sighed. It was as though the gloom in his heart had also dissipated.


    He looked at ¡°Old Xu¡± among the crowd of people. Ever since the previous night, Old Xu had kept quiet. Since setting off, he had been walking at the front of the group and did not interact with anyone


    Just as they were about to leave Mt. Shenchi, everyone heard the sound of the tarants attacking again. Everyone was extremely familiar with this sound, so they turned nervous.


    The sound of their legs skittering on the ground sent a tingle down everyone¡¯s spines.


    But before the tarants could get close, White Mask took out a small ck box, and a strange sound emitted from it. Then the tarants retreated in fear.


    This surprised everyone. Someone asked what the ck box was, but Old Xu never answered them once.


    But gradually during the journey, everyone started to get the feeling there was nothing White Mask could not handle.


    Cheng Yu inexplicably felt at ease as he looked at Old Xu¡¯s back. He turned around and had a look at Ren Xiaosu and Luo Lan, who were at the back of the group. He wondered what Luo Lan was even thinking when he got this young man to be his backer.


    If he wanted to be backed by someone powerful, at least get White Mask to do it. What was the point of finding an entertainer who only knew how to sing and dance?!


    Cheng Yu suddenly felt it was perfect to describe Ren Xiaosu as an entertainer who sang and danced.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not notice Cheng Yu¡¯s expression. Just as the entire group stepped onto the boundary between the Sacred Mountains and Mt. Shenchi, he finally heard the pce announce, ¡°Side questpleted. As all of the host¡¯s penalty quests werepleted perfectly, a new power will be awarded: Ear Picking.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the initial part of the announcement, he perked up spiritedly. But when the rest of it was said, he got confused and even had a bad feeling about it.


    Furthermore, another one of the disy cabs on the walls of the pce lit up. In the disy cab, an exquisite ear pick hovered within. It was even glowing faintly


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression turned ferocious. Other people had skills that were called Diamond Dust, Rising Dragon Punch, and so on, all of which sounded especially cool.


    But when it came to his skills, how did he end up with one that had such a boring name like ¡°Ear Picking¡±? If any outsiders heard about this, they would probably think that he was some ear-picking specialist working at a spa.


    In the future when he fought others, his opponent would identify themselves by saying, ¡°I¡¯m a T5-rankedbatant of the Pyro Company¡¯s Dawn team.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu would introduce himself, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Ear-cleaning Specialist No. 1 at your service.¡±


    That wouldn¡¯t sound too proper at all!


    He asked the pce in his mind, ¡°What is this power used for?¡±


    However, the voice from the pce answered, ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could not help but say, ¡°You awarded me this power, so why can¡¯t you tell me what it¡¯s used for?¡±


    ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu started feeling unhappy. For the past seven days, he did not even care about his pride and carried out those penalties every day. Did the pce think it was easy for him to sing and dance? Yet in the end, all he got was a lousy power like that, and he couldn¡¯t even find out what it did?


    ¡®<i>Aren¡¯t you letting me down this way?</i>


    ¡®<i>If I wanted to get an ear pick, I could have spent a few cents to buy one. Why would I need the pce to give me one?</i>¡®


    Ren Xiaosu took the ear pick out of the pce and held it in his hand to examine it for a while. Then he started picking his ear.


    While he was picking his ear, Luo Lan, who was walking next to him, tried to pat him on the shoulder. But when his hand was about 30 centimeters away from Ren Xiaosu, it got pushed away by an invisible force.


    Luo Lan was stunned.


    Ren Xiaosu was also stunned!


    He quietly looked at the ear pick in his hand and remembered an old saying: ¡°Don¡¯t touch someone when they¡¯re picking their ears.¡±

 Chapter 707 - Shrine

    <h4>Chapter 707: Shrine</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Regarding his new power, Ren Xiaosu hade up with many possibilities of what it might be. For example, he thought it could be a short-duration powerup like City Crusher, or a tool-type trap like the Brambles, or even something like the Potato Shooter.


    But he really did not expect to get such a strange power.


    Ren Xiaosu imagined a situation of himself in battle. While several hundred, or even several thousand people were fighting to the death, only he would be standing there calmly on the battlefield and picking his ears.


    If he were the enemy, he definitely couldn¡¯t stand the sight of this. Ren Xiaosu felt that if his enemy was still nonchntly picking his ears while under attack, he would definitely get very angry as well.


    ¡®<i>Bro, what are you doing? We¡¯re in the middle of a battle, so why are you picking your ears? Can you show some respect, please!</i>¡®


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu felt he had better be cautious when using this power in a group battle. After all, this was something that would surely attract a lot of hate.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin dropped to the back of the group as they walked. He wanted to test out how this power would work while the others were not paying attention.


    ¡°Punch me.¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he picked his ears, ¡°Put some strength into it.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin did not say anything when she heard that and directly threw a punch at Ren Xiaosu. But just as Luo Lan had tried to pat Ren Xiaosu just now, that tight fist was stopped by an invisible force when it was 30 centimeters away from Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>This girl is really ruthless. I only told her to punch me, but she¡¯s going straight for my face.</i>¡®


    However, the fist did not remain stationary when it came 30 centimeters in front of him. Instead, it bounced backwards, catching Yang Xiaojin off guard before she could dampen the force.


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. This power actually had a counteraction too?


    It seemed that Ear Picking was quite an effective defensive power.


    ¡°Try picking up a rock and smashing me with it.¡± Ren Xiaosu said proudly, ¡°Use more force.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded.


    With that, Yang Xiaojin picked up a rock from the ground and threw it. Ren Xiaosu saw the rocking closer and closer to him. When it was almost 30 centimeters away, he was just about to say something when he saw the rock break through the 30-centimeter barrier.


    <i>Thunk!</i>


    The rock smashed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s chest and sent him flying backwards.


    When the people ahead heard the noise, they quickly looked back and wondered if someone from the Pyro Company hade to ambush them. However, Ren Xiaosu quickly stood up and said, ¡°I¡¯m fine, I¡¯m fine!¡±


    Everyone looked at the rock that was still rolling on the ground, then at Yang Xiaojin. It turned out the couple was just having a lovers¡¯ spat. Only then did they not pay any more attention to themotion.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he looked at the rock. So it seemed the rock could hit him once it left the hands of the thrower. In other words, Ear Picking could not block firearms and artillery fire.


    ¡°Hold the rock and hit me with it,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Yang Xiaojin held the rock and swung it towards Ren Xiaosu. This time, Ear Picking activated again and blocked Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hand 30 centimeters away from him.


    It seemed the power was still useful against melee weapons.


    Yang Xiaojin asked softly, ¡°Is it a new power? Whose power did you copy?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t copy it. It¡¯s something that was awarded to me after the past few days of penalties I had to perform.... You can say it¡¯s a form ofpensation,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined. ¡°It seems that this power is only useful in closebat. It can¡¯t defend against firearms.¡±


    But who still engaged in closebat these days? It was probably only supernatural beings that did that, right?


    For example, the Pyro Company¡¯s members, or people like Xu Xianchu and some others.


    Therefore, this power could only be used against specific people in specific circumstances, so it was not as effective as the armor.


    Of course, there might be other uses Ren Xiaosu had not discovered yet.


    Cheng Yu, who was walking in front of the group, turned around at this moment. When he saw Yang Xiaojin holding a rock in her hand, hemented to his assistant, ¡°I really can¡¯t grasp how young people interact these days.¡±


    When the group finally crossed from Mt. Shenchi into the outermost perimeter of the Sacred Mountains, everyone stopped in their tracks.


    That was because they were surprised to discover that all of the nts in the vicinity of the Sacred Mountains were extremely tall. Ren Xiaosu looked at a nt as tall as a person and said in a low voice, ¡°That¡¯s a coriander.... Why is it so tall?¡±


    It wasn¡¯t that Ren Xiaosu had never seen coriander growing in the wild before, but they would grow to waist height at most.


    He broke off a coriander leaf and discovered a milky white liquid flowing out from the torn off part of the leaf.


    ¡°This can¡¯t be eaten.¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°In the wilderness, nine out of ten nts that produce such a white sap will kill whoever eats it. The nts here have all evolved, but it¡¯s not evolving in the way that humans wish to see.¡±


    nts also had their own defensive capabilities. For example, in order to avoid being eaten by insects, many nts would give off a strange smell or turn poisonous.


    At this moment, something seemed to crawl through the dense foliage. Ren Xiaosu controlled Old Xu and directly rushed in while Cheng Yu and the others followed close behind.


    But after pushing through the dense foliage for about a 100 meters, they lost track of whatever they were after.


    ¡°Look, there¡¯s a shrine<sup>1</sup> here,¡± someone said in surprise.


    When everyone turned around to have a look, they were surprised to see there was a shrine built from stone about half a person¡¯s height at the feet of that person. A statue was sitting quietly in the middle of the shrine with its eyes closed and holding a seal in its hand.


    ¡°Does anyone know what kind of shrine this is? What god is housed in it?¡± Cheng Yu asked. He never really understood much about religion.


    ¡°Never seen it before.¡± Everyone shook their heads.


    Luo Lan happily squatted in front of the shrine and made some observations. He said, ¡°This thing here looks quite strange. See, it has six fingers on its hand.¡±


    As he spoke, everyone looked. It was no wonder everyone was a little spooked out just now. So it turned out the hand of the statue in the shrine was a little deformed. There was actually another slender finger below its pinky finger.


    Someone reached into the back of the shrine to see if there was anything there.


    Typically, such shrines would be filled with items when it was being consecrated. The main contents of these items were jewelry, scriptures, jade artifacts, and gold and silver livers and lungs that represented the internal organs of the shrine.


    Therefore, if these items could be found at the back of the shrine, they would be considered very valuable antiques if taken out to be sold.


    At this moment, someone stepped back in panic and tripped over some grass. ¡°Did you guys see that? I think the statue opened its eyes and looked at me just now?!¡±


    Luo Lan turned to look at the statue¡¯s eyes, but they were closed. ¡°You must be suffering from a mental breakdown, right? Its eyes aren¡¯t open.¡±


    But suddenly, the person who had fallen to the ground grabbed his own throat as blood started seeping out from the corners of his eyes.


    This person who was still alive and jumping a moment ago had died in the blink of an eye!


    Cheng Yu was bewildered. His assistant wanted to check on the person but was stopped by him. It was only when Ren Xiaosu controlled Old Xu to check his pulse that ¡°he¡± confirmed he was really dead.


    The group who was chattering just a moment ago fell silent. Everyone looked at the statue in the shrine and noticed it apparently wore a strange smile.

 Chapter 708 - Poisonous bugs

    <h4>Chapter 708: Poisonous bugs</h4>


    No matter who it might be, anyone who went into the Sacred Mountains would be filled with a sense of wariness and fear of it. Even Ren Xiaosu was no exception.


    That was because no one knew what might be lurking in these mountains. Furthermore, the Sacred Mountains had already been demonized by the outside world as well.


    So everyone could not help but feel a little spooked when someone mysteriously died at this moment.


    Seeing the two lines of blood mixed with tears on the face of their dead teammate quickly solidifying, many people subconsciously stepped away from the shrine. They did not even dare to look at the statue¡¯s eyes and the expression on its face, as though afraid they would be the next to die if it opened its eyes again.


    However, there was also a hooligan in this group who was born without fear for the divine. Luo Lan cursed as he walked up to the shrine and said, ¡°I don¡¯t believe in demons and gods. When our ancestors abolished these divine beings back then, it wasn¡¯t like any of them came forward to protect their temples.¡±


    Then Luo Lan kicked at the shrine and caused it to copse!


    The people around him looked at Luo Lan speechlessly. They thought that if the god of the shrine were to start ming anyone, they had better not be implicated by his actions.


    But after the shrine copsed, a strange sound could suddenly be heard. Right after, a ck tide surged out of it. Ren Xiaosu took a closer look and realized they were some strange ck bugs he had never seen before.


    When Cheng Yu saw this, he immediately called out to a superhuman with fire powers to burn them with fire. The ck bugs started squeaking as they burned in the mes.


    But as bugs were really afraid of fire, no matter how much they tried to struggle, they still ended up dying very quickly.


    The person who attacked the bugs had been exposed when facing the tarants, so everyone knew of his identity as a supernatural being.


    Luo Lan startedughing loudly next to the burnt pile of bugs. ¡°Didn¡¯t I say there were no such things as demons or gods in this world? Look at how frightened you all were just now. Why did you evene to the Sacred Mountains when you¡¯re such cowards?¡±


    Cheng Yu looked at Luo Lan. ¡°Boss Luo, you already knew it was the bugs that killed the guy?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know about that, actually.¡± Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°But didn¡¯t you guys notice? The guy who died just now was the first to reach behind the statue to see if there were any treasures. I immediately thought there must be some kind of poisonous substance hidden behind it. That was why he started hallucinating and thought the statue had opened its eyes. After that, he died because the toxin from the bugs had spread through his entire body.¡±


    In truth, even though Luo Lan seemed like he didn¡¯t care most of the time, he still managed to show his quick-wittedness and meticulous nature on many asions.


    Everyone in the group heaved a sigh of relief. Although someone had died this time, it still sounded more reassuring to hear it was the bugs that killed him rather than divine forces. At the very least, it was something they could deal with.


    ¡°Are there any friends here with years of experience in wilderness survival?¡± Cheng Yu asked, ¡°I¡¯m guessing that most of youck experience in this aspect, right? If any of you are good at wilderness survival, pleasee forward and tell us how to avoid the poisonous creatures in the wilderness.¡±


    Many people thought supernatural beings should be proficient in everything, but the truth was that most of the supernatural beings here did not even have any military experience. Before they became supernatural beings, they were just normal people. They were then taughtbat skills after they were recruited by the consortiums.


    And under normal circumstances, they would usually have private vehicles ferrying them to any job assignments they had to handle. They would even have normal soldiers escorting them, so it would not be too much to say they had most things provided for them.


    Ren Xiaosu took a step forward. Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°If you¡¯re thinking about performing, forget it.¡±


    ¡°Perform? What?!¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped. ¡°I just wanna tell y¡¯all, starting from tonight, everyone should clear the grass around them before they go to sleep. It would be best if y¡¯all can sleep on the ground where a campfire was burning. I think there will be plenty of poisonous bugs out here, so hopefully, y¡¯all won¡¯t end up sleeping forever.¡±


    ¡°I thought you were going to say something weird,¡± Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant muttered. ¡°As you can see, there¡¯s so many weeds here. If we have to clear them before going to sleep, it will probably take an hour or two. It¡¯s already tiring enough during the day, and we still can¡¯t rest well at night?¡±


    What Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant said was very fitting to their situation. The weeds here were overgrown, and it would really be too troublesome to clear them. Not too many people were willing to spend two extra hours to set up camp after walking for an entire day. Moreover, everyone¡¯s tents were also quite enclosed, so they felt there was no need to put in so much effort.


    Someone at the side said, ¡°I brought some insect repellent with me. It should be quite effective.¡±


    ¡°I also brought a lot. I don¡¯t mind sharing it with everyone, but not for nothing. Whoever wants to use my insect repellent will have to keep watch in ce of me tonight,¡± someone said.


    Over the past two days, it seemed the threats from within the team were not that great anymore. At the very least, there would not be any internal strife until the real benefit presented itself.


    So some of those who were particrly exhausted attempted to trade their insect repellent for some extra sleep. After all, keeping watch at night was also very tiring.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at them and said, ¡°Don¡¯t be blindly dependent on the insect repellent. You don¡¯t even know if these bugs are really afraid of it.¡±


    He knew full well that most of the insect repellent found in the market now was just mosquito repellent. Many poisonous bugs were not afraid of stuff like that.


    Furthermore, after the bugs had evolved, their bodily functions became different from before. The previous dosage of insect repellent might not be enough to deal with the poisonous bugs in the Sacred Mountains.


    When it was time to set up camp at night, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin worked tirelessly to clear away all the weeds. Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin to take a break, but she said she was not tired. Moreover, she enjoyed clearing the area where they set up camp with Ren Xiaosu.


    Only a few people in the entire campsite followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s example. Ren Xiaosu had thought that Luo Lan and Zhou Qi wouldin about being tired and start cking off. But in the end, those two cleared their areas the most meticulously.


    In Luo Lan¡¯s opinion, it was safer to listen to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion when traveling in the wilderness. There was nothing to lose by being farsighted.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Qi and said, ¡°Can you secretly drain out the moisture around our tentster on? Don¡¯t leave any moisture in the ground either, it will be safer that way.¡±


    Zhou Qi did not make it difficult and directly agreed.


    When the others in the campsite saw Ren Xiaosu and the others working up a sweat, someone muttered, ¡°Aren¡¯t these people tired? They¡¯ve been working for almost an hour already.¡± As he said that, he also sprinkled some insect repellent in a circle around his tent.


    At this moment, Luo Lan asked softly, ¡°Xiaosu, I never had the chance to ask you this, but why do you insist on going into the Sacred Mountains?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a look at Luo Lan. He thought that if he had not insisted oning to the Sacred Mountains, Luo Lan would probably have left. At that time, Luo Lan had been calling for the team to depart and return. He was really serious about withdrawing from the expedition.


    But when Ren Xiaosu decided to continue on, Luo Lan immediately changed his mind.


    Putting all else aside, Luo Lan was truly impable when it came to his friends. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to hide the reason from him. ¡°I suspect that Liuyuan is the person that the Pyro Company captured this time.¡±

 Chapter 709 - The mysterious stone statue

    <h4>Chapter 709: The mysterious stone statue</h4>


    ¡°Wait.¡± Luo Lan was stunned when he heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reply. ¡°Didn¡¯t they say they had captured the No. 001 Experimental? When did it be Liuyuan?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°Keep this a secret. It¡¯s because I¡¯m guessing that Liuyuan might be the No. 001 Experimental. As for why I guessed so, I can¡¯t tell you the reason before I¡¯m sure of it.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Qi.


    Zhou Qi immediately looked unhappy. ¡°I¡¯m also very tight-lipped, alright? Don¡¯t worry, you and your maid saved our lives in Stronghold 61. I, Zhou Qi, know what I have to do.¡±


    When he said that, Ren Xiaosu felt the tension around them easing.


    He quickly changed the subject. ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to save Liuyuan this time. Actually, there¡¯s no need for y¡¯all to put yourselves in danger with me. It will be enough with these people paving the way.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do.¡± Luo Lan said righteously, ¡°The Pyro Company has gone too far. How could they actually abduct cute little Liuyuan? I won¡¯t take this lying down. We¡¯re gonna have to turn the entire Sacred Mountains upside down!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked out into the night and wondered how Liuyuan was doing now. If the Pyro Company had really captured Liuyuan, he would probably really turn this entire ce upside down.


    ¡°Future Commander, what are you thinking about?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked.


    ¡°I was thinking that it would be great if we can sessfully find Yan Liuyuan. When the timees, I want to bring him back to the Northwest and lead a good life there. We won¡¯t have to get involved in the affairs of the Central ins anymore,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh. These were his heartfelt words. He wanted nothing more than to have some peace.


    However, when the Great Hoodwinker heard this, his eyes lit up. ¡°Future Commander, are you serious?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see the Great Hoodwinker getting up and going towards the outside of the campsite. ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to send out a signal to notify our troops from the Northwest toe and tten the Sacred Mountains and help Future Commander find your younger brother!¡± The Great Hoodwinker said firmly.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Alright, alright, why are you still trying to make an impression at a time like this? By the time Fortress 178¡¯s troops arrive, what time would it be?¡±


    ¡°Hehe, I¡¯m just expressing Fortress 178¡¯s stand on their behalf,¡± the Great Hoodwinker said with a smile.


    The night passed peacefully, but the next morning, Ren Xiaosu was awoken by someone screaming in the campsite.


    When he came out of his tent, he was surprised to see a woman standing at the entrance of someone¡¯s tent. She was pointing at a statue on the grass patch and eximing, ¡°Quick,e and see! Why is there another statue in front of this tent? Didn¡¯t the shrine get smashed yesterday?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu went closer to have a look and asked Luo Lan, ¡°You were the one who smashed the shrine yesterday. Do you still remember it?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Luo Lan nodded and said, ¡°At that time, I only kicked over the shrine from the outside, but the statue in it was not damaged. However, a lot of bugs started crawling out after the shrine copsed, so no one really checked out the statue in detail after that.¡±


    ¡°Is this the statue from yesterday?¡± Cheng Yu squatted in front of the statue and examined it carefully. ¡°I think it really is. Look, there¡¯s some freshly broken off edges on its body. It was probably caused by Luo Lan when he knocked down the shrine yesterday. But why has this statue appeared here?¡±


    Cheng Yu turned around and looked at the tent behind him. At this moment, the tent p was closed with a zipper, but even with such a bigmotion outside, it did not wake the person in it?


    He reached out to pull down the tent p, and his expression suddenly changed and he couldn¡¯t help but take two steps back.


    He saw the person in the tent had died at some point in time. There were two lines of blood and tears on his face that looked almost exactly the same as the person who died yesterday. What was different today was that the unknown bugs were still crawling back and forth between the victim¡¯s eyes and nostrils. It also looked like there was something wriggling under the skin of this person¡¯s face.


    Cheng Yu turned around and looked at the statue in bewilderment. The statue seemed like it was smiling at the deceased in the tent. It was extremely eerie!


    No one knew why this statue had followed them to the campsite. After all, they were several kilometers away from the shrine.


    This time, everyone was getting anxious. No one could exin what was going on.


    After knocking down the shrine yesterday, everyone had felt a sense of relief. But now, they realized they had underestimated the situation.


    When the woman who discovered the statue in the morning saw the deceased in the tent, she covered her mouth and started crying. It was obvious this man and woman knew each from before. Judging from the woman¡¯s pained expression, they were most likely a couple.


    Off to the side, Song Qiao said, ¡°This person also tried to touch the shrine yesterday, but he wasn¡¯t as fast as the other guy. Could it be that this statue is looking to kill anyone who disrespected it?¡±


    Luo Lan sneered, ¡°Then it should havee to look for me first. I¡¯ve already destroyed its shrine, so why didn¡¯t ite and seek revenge on me? Don¡¯t always try to link everything to mysticism. In my opinion, there might still be spies from the Pyro Company in our group. There¡¯s someone trying to make us live in fear every day to wear us out!¡±


    What Luo Lan said was not without logic. Once a person lived in a state of fear for long enough, they would even lose their ability to think normally. In the end, they would just end up as fish on the chopping block.


    ¡°But didn¡¯t those bugs get burnt to death yesterday? Where did these bugse from? Besides, look, there¡¯s also insect repellent scattered around his tent. Are these bugs actually not afraid of the insect repellent?¡± Cheng Yu wondered.


    ¡°It¡¯s pointless to think about that now.¡± Luo Lan sneered, ¡°I¡¯ll smash this statue right here. Let¡¯s see who else can use it to y tricks on us.¡±


    Then Luo Lan picked up a huge rock and threw it at the statue. With a loud crash, the rock and the statue shattered.


    But someone eximed, ¡°Look, there¡¯s a skeleton hidden inside the statue!¡±


    Luo Lan squatted to have a look at it. That person was right. There was indeed a white skeleton underneath the statue that was also smashed to pieces.


    ¡°Seems like this statue was made with a human. I think there were people who did this on purpose. The child¡¯s skeleton inside the statue is a ¡®sacrifice¡¯ that was used as a medium for the so-called gods.¡± Wang Yun said nearby, ¡°I read it in a book once, but that was really long ago, so I can¡¯t remember the details exactly.¡±


    Luo Lan sneered, ¡°You can¡¯t remember? Or do you not want to say it?¡±


    Wang Yun clearly had a photographic memory. Since he had mentioned the usage of such a strange practice, how could he not know about its origins?


    While everyone was discussing, Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu, who was frowning at the side. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Did you discover something?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m just worried that since someone could move a stone statue into the campsite without anyone noticing, that person would have the ability to kill anyone silently as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was most concerned that even he did not know how the statue had gotten into the campsite.

 Chapter 710 - Murder motive

    <h4>Chapter 710: Murder motive</h4>


    Last night, it was Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker who were keeping watch. In the first half of the night, Ren Xiaosu was very sure the statue had not appeared in the campsite yet. He found the Great Hoodwinker and asked, ¡°You didn¡¯t hear anything during the second half of the night?¡±


    ¡°I really did not.¡± The Great Hoodwinker shook his head. ¡°Even though I joke around a lot, I¡¯m still very careful when I¡¯m outside. I couldn¡¯t possibly be unaware if someone had carried such a huge statue into the campsite. To be honest, I didn¡¯t even see anyone moving aroundst night.¡±


    ¡°Where were you keeping watch?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Over there.¡± The Great Hoodwinker pointed to the three o¡¯clock of their campfire.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over to the campfire and sat down. He realized the position where the Great Hoodwinker was keeping watch was great. He could almost see the entire campsite from here. However, there happened to be another person¡¯s tent standing between this position and the tent where the incident happened.


    ¡°Forget it, there¡¯s no point in getting to the bottom of this now.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°I¡¯ve never believed in demons and gods before, and I believe that everyone here except for the Great Hoodwinker does not believe in them either. So let¡¯s assume that this was done by a person. In that case, we have to consider the murder motive.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said helplessly from nearby, ¡°I don¡¯t believe in demons and gods either.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him and said, ¡°A fortune teller like you is iming you don¡¯t believe in the divine?¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that just bluffing?¡± the Great Hoodwinker exined awkwardly.


    ¡°Let¡¯s talk about the murder motive first.¡± Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and said, ¡°Did any of you pay any attention to the deceased previously?¡±


    ¡°I noticed him before.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°He was with the woman who discovered the statue. I saw them exchanging looks with each other before, and there were three others with them as well.¡±


    ¡°Can you make a guess as to which organization those people belong to?¡± Ren Xiaosu felt the person¡¯s death might also have something to do with the conflicts between the organizations outside the Sacred Mountains.


    Luo Lan whispered, ¡°Those people maintained their cover really well. Also, there should be a lot of experts hidden among the people sent by the consortiums this time. They¡¯re probably hiding their identities for now in order not to attract any trouble, so there¡¯s no way to determine which organizations they belong to. Besides, the organizations are not the only ones in the underworld. In every ck market, there¡¯s always one or two low profile but powerful teams. They don¡¯t serve the consortiums nor involve themselves with the matters between the organizations. They only work on obtaining intelligence or taking missions, then get paid for their work done. Today, they can help the Zhou Consortium kill the Wang Consortium¡¯s people, and tomorrow, they can help the Wang Consortium kill the Kong Consortium¡¯s people. However, those people generally prefer taking on neutral missions. For example, a lot of them are interested in this current mission we¡¯re on.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t this mission offend the Pyro Company? How is it neutral?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Some of them are here not because they¡¯re after the No. 001 Experimental. They only came here to map out the territory of the Sacred Mountains to sell for money. Also, they can take advantage of any situation along the way by following the other organizations. That was why a lot of people in the ck market were very interested ining on the expedition,¡± Luo Lan exined. ¡°These people have no intention ofpeting with the consortiums for the prize. They¡¯re just here to pick some exotic flowers and nts and draw up a map before they go back.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯m afraid that the deceased is not one of those people,¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly. ¡°I suspect that someone in our group was responsible for the situationst night. There must be some conflict of interest between them, but we just don¡¯t know what it¡¯s about, that¡¯s all. Y¡¯all should keep an eye on the dead man¡¯s partner for the next two days and see who she¡¯s watching keenly.¡±


    If someone lost their partner, it would make them lose their minds, especially if it was a woman.


    Some men with aloof personalities might be able to act as though nothing had happened, but that woman had clearly lost control of herself in the morning. Whoever she kept her eye on for the next two days would probably be the most suspicious person responsible for this incident.


    On the same morning, the woman requested the superhuman with fire powers from before to help her cremate her lover. This dyed the group for the entire morning, but no one said anything about it.


    They continued on their journey in the afternoon. As it was still winter, the days were much shorter, so they did not actually manage to cover much ground.


    When they set up camp again at night, Ren Xiaosu and the others gathered around and started whispering among themselves.


    Luo Lan said, ¡°I discovered the woman kept staring viciously at that young man with a photographic memory while we were traveling in the afternoon.¡±


    ¡°So it¡¯s true that when you lose your sense of rationality, you¡¯ll get easily figured out.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. At this moment, he was a little grateful to Yang Xiaojin. Back when he found out Yan Liuyuan might have been captured, he was probably just as irrational as that woman. Fortunately, Yang Xiaojin had reminded him.


    ¡°Does anyone know that young man?¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°I¡¯ve seen the people around him serving him like they¡¯re his subordinates. That guy is really like a member of the consortiums. Moreover, I can see that they¡¯re all very efficient when they¡¯re packing up. They¡¯re likely to be the soldiers of some consortium.¡±


    Next to them, the Great Hoodwinker suddenlyughed, ¡°What a coincidence. I happen to know who he is. That man¡¯s name is Wang Yun, and he¡¯s the director of the Kong Consortium¡¯s 2nd Military Intelligence Division. He¡¯s really capable to have be the director of an intelligence division at such a young age.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard of Wang Yun before. He¡¯s a supernatural being, but I¡¯m not sure what kind of power he has.¡± Luo Lan nodded and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Do you think he was the one responsible for what happenedst night?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s difficult to say.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°First of all, since that woman has started suspecting Wang Yun, Wang Yun must have a motive to kill that person. Do y¡¯all know much about the Kong Consortium? Does Wang Yun have any enemies?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if he has any enemies, but I do know that Kong Erdong, the director of the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency, was killed in an ident some time ago.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°When I saw Wang Yun here, it made me quite curious. He¡¯s clearly one of the most favored candidates for the role of the intelligence agency¡¯s director, so what¡¯s he doing out here?¡±


    ¡°Then it makes sense.¡± Zhou Qi said with a smile, ¡°Who knows, the person who died might have been sent by Wang Yun¡¯spetitor to stir up trouble for him on the way. But as he was discovered, Wang Yun made a move on him first.¡±


    ¡°Hehe, I knew it! I knew there were no such things as demons and gods in this world,¡± Luo Lan said.


    Wang Yun had regained his energy. He sat by the campfire with a grim expression as he watched his subordinates clearing the grass.


    Yesterday, no one cared when Ren Xiaosu said they should clear the grass before sleeping. But today, everyone actually spent over an hour tidying up their campsite as they were afraid that they would get killed by the poisonous bugs in the middle of the night.


    Ren Xiaosu was sizing up Wang Yun from afar. Meanwhile, Wang Yun, having apparently sensed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze, looked up at him, greeting him with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu said to the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°You get some rest tonight as well. I¡¯ll keep watch for the entire night.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not such a good idea, is it?¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Can youst the day tomorrow?¡±


    ¡°I can handle it.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m much more energetic than all y¡¯all. Also, I¡¯m more confident at keeping watch since we¡¯ve just entered the Sacred Mountains. Y¡¯all will still get your chance to keep watch after I¡¯ve figured out the actual situation here in the Sacred Mountains.¡±

 Chapter 711 - The maidservant’s team

    <h4>Chapter 711 The maidservant¡¯s team</h4>


    Entering the Sacred Mountains from the direction of Mt. Shenchi had always been referred to as the ¡°Western Route.¡± Meanwhile on the ¡°Eastern Route,¡± Vani and Tang Hualong were leading a group of people forward. They could already see the outline of the Sacred Mountains from afar.


    Compared to Cheng Yu¡¯s team, Vani¡¯s team was exceptionally easy to handle. In this group, there were no intelligence personnel from the consortiums harboring ulterior motives like Wang Yun, nor were there weird intruders like Ren Xiaosu.


    In Vani¡¯s group, there were only A-rank hitmen who had been carefully selected. As all of them here were people who truly wanted to participate in the Anjing House trials, they were especially united.


    It was different from the hooligans in Cheng Yu¡¯s group. If something happened to Cheng Yu, many of those in his team would probably gloat at his misfortune.


    Meanwhile, almost everyone in Vani¡¯s group scrambled to showcase themselves. They would volunteer to take down whatever obstacles were blocking their way.


    Vani did not even need to do anything himself. The A-rank hitmen who wanted to join the Anjing House had already done everything for all of them.


    For example, someone had scouted the surrounding terrain beforehand, while others knew in advance of the tarants¡¯ existence in the periphery of the Sacred Mountains. They were putting on such a good performance so that they could get Vani¡¯s attention to help increase their chances of joining the Anjing House after the expedition to the Sacred Mountains.


    At some point, Vani felt a little emotional. He did not have to put in any effort at all on the journey since everyone was way too enthusiastic.


    However, there were always one or two exceptions in a group. Vani looked back at Zhou Yingxue, who was in the group behind him. He could not understand what the woman hade here for and why she was selected during the previous screening.


    Actually, the Anjing House was also unsure if there were any problems with Zhou Yingxue. The Anjing House had even sent Vani to the ck market outside of Luoyang City to investigate her, but he did not find anything unusual.


    Regarding the Anjing House¡¯s suspicion and spection on Zhou Yingxue, they always felt something would happen wherever she went, but they did not have any conclusive evidence.


    After entering the mountain range, Vani realized some problems as well. The woman named Zhou Yingxue did not seem to be that interested in the Anjing House trials anymore. She only cared about asking him the whereabouts of the other groups during the journey.


    For the rest of the time, she focused all her attention on the exotic nts growing by the side of the paths. At the beginning, she did not interact with anyone at all.


    Gradually, Zhou Yingxue even ordered the others to find her some exotic nts. Many people in the team could not tell who she was, so they could only obediently help her find them.


    It was not that everyone was kind, but it was rumored the Anjing House would test them on many aspects. Perhaps, Zhou Yingxue was sent by the Anjing House to see if they had anypassion.


    After all, everyone also felt Zhou Yingxue was a little unique. It was as though she had a different purpose ining here.


    Therefore, everyone assumed this uniqueness to mean she was an ¡°examiner¡± hiding in the crowd.


    When Vani thought about this, he was put in a dilemma. After all, there was a reason why the boss had arranged for him to lead this team. Everyone in the group was extremely important, and they might be the core members of the Anjing House in the future.


    Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have been specially assigned to the same team.


    Zhou Yingxue had just followed the group into the mountains for a few days, but she already sessfully obtained two seeds. One of them was an evolved sweet potato nt that did not have any uses other than producing a higher quantity of potatoes. It was especially sweet when roasted too.


    Zhou Yingxue felt this nt was verypatible with the Potato Shooter, so she decided to name it the Sweet Potato Buddy from now on. This way, the Potato Shooter would not be that lonely anymore.


    The other nt was a little stranger. After all, Zhou Yingxue stillcked wilderness survival experience, so she could not recognize what the nt was.


    Not only could the nt grow on a rock, it could even crush it.


    At this moment, Tang Hualong walked over from the other side and beckoned to Vani, ¡°Vani!¡±


    Zhou Yingxue perked up. ¡°Vani? What kind of nt is vani? Old man, did you discover an exotic nt?¡± She was already nning to get up and turn ¡°vani¡± into a seed.


    Vani said with a dark expression at the side, ¡°Vani is my name. Lady, just what is your purpose ining here?¡± ¡°I¡¯m here to participate in the Anjing House trials, of course.¡± When Zhou Yingxue heard that vani was only a name, she immediately felt a little disappointed, and the way she looked at Vani turned disdainful.


    Vani said unhappily, ¡°Why do I get the feeling that you¡¯re not interested in participating in the trials at all? Just look at the other participants! All of them are spirited and ready to take on the dangers in the mountains. But you? I¡¯ll let it slide that you keep picking flowers and nts by yourself, but what¡¯s with ordering others to do that for you as well?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a floral supernatural being. Since there¡¯s exotic nts here, of course I have to collect them.¡± Zhou Yingxue was also getting unhappy. After following Ren Xiaosu around for a long time, even people like Luo Lan, Li Yingyun, Zhang Qingxi, and Xu Ke would treat her courteously. Where did this Vani, an insignificant character, pop out from? How dare he yell at her.


    Zhou Yingxue was a slightly superficial woman. Otherwise, she would not have bought ten rings and worn them all on her fingers. She was already starting to miss the days of being around Ren Xiaosu. No one dared to shout at her, and she could even throw her weight around and intimidate others.


    Recently, Zhou Yingxue had been wondering if she had been too impulsive bying to the Sacred Mountains. Since her master was definitely with Yang Xiaojin, what should she call Yang Xiaojin when she saw her? Madame? Mistress?


    It felt a little strange no matter what. Besides, she came here in such a hurry that she did not bring along any gifts. Should she just give her ten rings to Yang Xiaojin? She wondered if Yang Xiaojin would like them or not.


    Of course, Zhou Yingxue had also considered Yang Xiaojin might not want her hanging around Ren Xiaosu.


    But it didn¡¯t matter to her. If the Central ins were to continue getting more and more chaotic, she could simply head to the Northwest.


    Regardless of whether Ren Xiaosu would return to the Northwest, she could tell the people of Fortress 178 she was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s maidservant. They would definitely be very polite towards her then.


    Zhou Yingxue had heard from the Great Hoodwinker that Ren Xiaosu was the futuremander of Fortress 178. In that case, the maidservant of the futuremander would surely also enjoy a high status, right?


    Even if she did not hang around Ren Xiaosu at that time, she could still lead a veryfortable life.


    Zhou Yingxue was not useless eye candy either. She heard there was ack of food in the Northwest and the residents barely had enough to sustain themselves. Sometimes, there would be famine when the harvest was not good.


    Zhou Yingxue had heard Wang Fugui mention in town that he had brought such arge convoy to the Central ins because he had the very important task of delivering crops.


    Although the territory of the Northwest wasrge, a lot of it was unsuitable for growing crops. It was not that Fortress 178 was poor at management, but that there was a natural climate constraint to it.


    Now that she possessed the Potato Shooter and Sweet Potato Buddy seeds, she could easily be the most popr person in the Northwest.


    After all, the crops she nted with her own hands were not afraid of the harsh weather!


    Thinking of this, Zhou Yingxue felt a little more at ease. In any case, she would have a ce to go no matter what.

 Chapter 712 - Li Shentan joins the team

    <h4>Chapter 712 Li Shentan joins the team</h4>


    When Zhou Yingxue thought about how it did not seem necessary to join the Anjing House anymore, or even totally pointless to do so, her attitude towards Vani turned even more hostile. ¡°Who the hell are you?! Why are you poking your nose into my business?¡±.


    Vani was stunned. This was the first time he hade across as fierce a candidate as her.


    Before he could even re up, Tang Hualong, who was standing next to him, interrupted, ¡°The boss sent out a message saying White Mask has shown up in Cheng Yu¡¯s group. Moreover, some of the Pyro Company spies have appeared in that group as well. She¡¯s telling us to act carefully.¡±


    Vani sneered, ¡°Anyone could have guessed the Pyro Company has nted spies in the groups. Tonight, we¡¯ll find an excuse to check everyone to see if they have any tattoos near their ribs. But I believe White Mask¡¯s involvement in this mess is also something the boss wanted to see. I¡¯m looking forward to seeing how much chaos he can cause for the Pyro Company.¡±


    Beside them, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s ears pricked up when she heard them mention White Mask.


    Actually, Zhou Yingxue also did not know if White Mask was rted to Ren Xiaosu in any way. However, she knew full well White Mask would always appear wherever her master went.


    Although the maidservant was silly at times, she was not a fool. She could still discern a pattern like this very easily.


    Moreover, the intel had mentioned that a sniper was also there to provide assistance when White Mask intercepted the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy.


    First of all, she had witnessed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sniping before. Second, she had also heard of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s sniping before. Therefore, when Zhou Yingxue found out about this information, she felt it was very likely these two people were Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Zhou Yingxue interrupted the conversation between Vani and Tang Hualong and said, ¡°Where is White Mask? Where¡¯s their group now?¡±


    Vani nced at her and said, ¡°Why are you asking that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s because I want to find someone powerful to protect me, of course,¡± Zhou Yingxue said. ¡°Based on how weak you look, how are you going to lead us into the Sacred Mountains? So we definitely have to seek out someone more powerful to lead the team, right?¡± Vani got so angry he nearly vomited blood. ¡°What makes you think I¡¯m weak? As a floral superhuman, where did you get the courage to mock a metallic superhuman from?¡± ¡°But you look very weak,¡± Zhou Yingxue said disdainfully. ¡°Moreover, you¡¯ve disyed yourbat capabilities in the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold before, right? That news has long been spread. Everyone said you were a little slow at controlling metal and there wasn¡¯t much you could do about that Dusk team.¡±


    ¡°Then what about you? You think you¡¯re that powerful?¡± Vani stuck his neck out and shouted, ¡°White Mask is over on the west side of the Sacred Mountains now, and we¡¯re on the east side! Why don¡¯t you walk through the Sacred Mountains to look for him then?¡±


    When Zhou Yingxue heard this, she started having second thoughts, because she was not confident of crossing the Sacred Mountains by herself.


    Of course, it was not that she was afraid of death. After all, even she was a little afraid of wielding her own powers. Zhou Yingxue was worried that if she walked straight through the Sacred Mountains, she might end up causing a hugemotion and disrupt her master¡¯s ns as a result. If Vani knew the terrifying creeper vine in Stronghold 61 was in Zhou Yingxue¡¯s possession now, he would probably change his tone too.


    At this moment, Zhou Yingxue even felt a little smug as though she were a royal traveling incognito. Thinking of this, Zhou Yingxue got a little unhappy again. Her master had only randomly taken her around to collect exotic flowers and nts, but she ended up gaining something on the level of the creeper vine. Meanwhile with these people, she was only able to find a food crop after spending so much effort searching.


    There must still be a lot more exotic nts in the Sacred Mountains, right? If she could only travel with her master into the mountains, couldn¡¯t she collect the seeds with ease? And when she finally headed to the Northwest, the people of Fortress 178 would surely be amazed by her powerful ability.


    She wondered if her master had anypetitors in the Northwest. Power struggles should be verymon inrge and formidable organizations like Fortress 178, right? At that time, she could be her master¡¯s right-hand woman and help him eliminate his enemies.


    While Zhou Yingxue was letting her imagination run wild, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from the forest.


    The footsteps sounded so orderly no one in the campsite could tell whether it was a person or a group of people approaching.


    ¡°Prepare for battle,¡± Vani said in a low voice.


    Based on the intel they had received, there shouldn¡¯t be any Anjing House members in the vicinity. Therefore, anyone who appeared here would most likely be an enemy.


    Before this, they had been ambushed by the tarants, as well as encountered an attack by the Pyro Company members. So everyone knew full well it was not safe here. A momentter, Vani formed up more than 30 A-rank hitmen into a defensive formation. Some of the strength-based superhumans had already lifted heavy machine guns up to their hips, ready to set off a metal storm against the intruders.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to start a fight. I was just passing by.¡± Aughing voice rang out from the forest.


    Vani frowned. He was surprised to see a group of people making their way out of the forest. But the strange thing was that these people had a nk expression on their faces, and they were even carrying a young man in a pnquin.


    The people in the group were dressed in a mix of attire. Some of them were in casual wear while others were dressed in the Pyro Company¡¯s uniform. The people in casual wear looked like they were also here to invade the Sacred Mountains like their group, while the Pyro Company members were those who were sent after them.


    These two groups of people hadbined to form a new group that ended up protecting the young man and the little girl floating in the air. It was a sight that could not get any stranger than this.


    ¡°Hello, everyone, my name is Li Shentan,¡± the young man said with a smile.


    Li Shentan¡¯s name seemed to have a magical ring to it. When everyone heard it, their mood immediately sank.


    It had been some time since the destruction of the Li Consortium in the Southwest. What supernatural being would not have heard of the name of the Demon Whisperer by now?


    The people who surrounded themselves around Li Shentan were probably puppets he had hypnotized.


    After entering the Sacred Mountains, everyone was totally exhausted. However, it was different for Li Shentan. He had actually hypnotized a few dozen people to protect himself and even made a pnquin for them to carry him on!


    Vani¡¯s fingers were already wrapped around a metallic needle at his waist. ¡°Why are you¡ª¡±.


    But before he could finish speaking, Li Shentan suddenly jumped down from the pnquin and ran towards... Zhou Yingxue!


    Li Shentan said happily, ¡°What are you doing here? Where¡¯s your mas¡ªyour boss?¡±


    Li Shentan was going to ask her where her master was. However, he thought it might expose some information about Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu, so he immediately corrected himself.


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Li Shentan. ¡°Wait a minute, aren¡¯t you that magician from Luoyang City? What are you doing here?¡± ¡°I came here to have some fun.¡± Li Shentan said matter-of-factly, ¡°I had wanted to go to the South to watch the typhoons, but didn¡¯t something more interesting crop up here? That¡¯s why I¡¯m here. So, where¡¯s your boss?¡±


    ¡°Why are you looking for him?¡± Zhou Yingxue said disdainfully, ¡°Is my boss someone you can meet as you like?¡±


    Li Shentan said with a serious look, ¡°I am your boss¡¯s best friend!¡±


    Just a simple exchange of a few words had left Vani and the others standing at the side dumbfounded.

 Chapter 713 - Li Shentan’s friend

    <h4>Chapter 713 Li Shentan¡¯s friend</h4>


    Li Shentan did not care about anyone else as he stood in the middle of the Anjing House group of hitmen. It was as though he were not worried for his safety at all.


    Instead, it was Si Liren, who was carrying a box on her back, who kept a close eye on everyone in case somebody tried to sneak attack Li Shentan.


    Zhou Yingxue nced at Li Shentan. ¡°My boss only said you were his friend. He didn¡¯t say you were his best friend.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Li Shentan¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°He said I¡¯m his friend?¡±


    He didn¡¯t at all care about thetter half of Zhou Yingxue¡¯s reply. Instead, it seemed he was happy enough to hear that Ren Xiaosu regarded him as a friend.


    Around them, Vani and the other Anjing House hitmen were looking at Li Shentan and Zhou Yingxue in bewilderment.


    Actually, Vani was certain the young man before him was Li Shentan and not actually an impostor. After all, who had nothing better to do than impersonate the Demon Whisperer? Besides, no one was capable of doing that either.


    But this was a really strange situation. Although Li Shentan imed he was best friends with Zhou Yingxue¡¯s boss, Zhou Yingxue seemed to despise him.


    To this day, stories of Li Shentan had been spreading around the whole world to the point he was really terrifying. He was so scary that even babies would stop crying.


    What was so extraordinary about Zhou Yingxue¡¯s boss that made Li Shentan so eager to be his friend?


    Moreover, Li Shentan seemed to be very happy just because he was addressed as a friend by the other party. All of that had subverted their understanding of this person.


    Zhou Yingxue was a supernatural being, while her boss was also a friend of Li Shentan¡¯s.


    Vani felt like he was going nuts. Just who the fuck was her boss?


    Wait a minute! After Zhou Yingxue heard White Mask get mentioned earlier, she immediately switched topics and asked them about him. Could that legendary and mysterious White Mask be Zhou Yingxue¡¯s boss?


    Vani was pondering if there was such a possibility, and the conclusion he reached was that it was highly usible!


    Vani was an elite hitman whose expertise was taking out his mission targets by making it look like an ident. Even the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency could not find anything unusual for a long time after Kong Erdong was assassinated. A person like him had an extremely keen eye for detail, so he was able to deduce that Zhou Yingxue¡¯s boss was White Mask in just an instant!


    For some reason, Vani actually felt a little emotional at this moment. He had finally discovered some clues about White Mask.


    White Mask had been exceptionally mysterious ever since he first appeared. No one knew where he came from, and there were no probable suspects linked to him. He was just an extremely mysterious person. Everyone was trying to guess who White Mask was, but there was ack of key clues regarding his identity.


    Meanwhile, Vani felt like he was a prophet who had grasped something no one else knew about yet.


    As long as he followed the lead through Zhou Yingxue, he might just be able to find out the true identity of White Mask.


    However, he would have to get past Li Shentan first.


    Vani turned his gaze to the few dozen people standing behind Li Shentan and saw them standing there in a daze without moving. Everyone knew Li Shentan was good at hypnotism and could gainplete control over others without them realizing it. Who knew if Li Shentan would control all of them as well?


    In this era of the ¡°Rise of Gods,¡± Li Shentan was defined as a ¡°demigod¡± by people. Of course, thebel of ¡°demigod¡± had to be in quotation marks, since everyone¡¯s assessment of Li Shentan was exaggerated to signify how strong he was and did not literally mean he was representative of the gods. But who knew just what heights Li Shentan¡¯s power were really at now?


    Actually, Vani¡¯s anxiety was totally uncalled for. There was not only one ¡°demigod¡± standing in front of him at this moment but two.


    At this moment, Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°I don¡¯t know where my boss is either. If you want to find him, you¡¯ll have to head into the Sacred Mountains with me. I think he¡¯s there.¡±


    ¡°OK, let¡¯s head into the Sacred Mountains together then,¡± Li Shentan said happily. When he snapped his fingers, people behind him immediately came forward to set up a tent for him. Some of them even went to collect firewood while the others began cleaning up the grounds and started a fire for cooking.


    With just a snap of his fingers, dozens of people suddenly got down to work. However, they only served Li Shentan alone.


    This scene was out of this world!


    ¡°Little Liren,e and sit down. I got them to cook for you,¡± Li Shentan said.


    ¡°I want to eat sweet potatoes,¡± Si Liren muttered.


    When Zhou Yingxue saw how adorable Si Liren was, she was overwhelmed with love. ¡°I have some evolved sweet potatoes here that are scrumptious.¡±


    Afterwards, Zhou Yingxue took out two sweet potatoes from her backpack.


    When the others saw this joyous exchange, they did not know what to say. Their minds were no longer able to keep up with these changes.


    Moreover, with Li Shentan around, none of them dared to act rashly. They were all afraid they would offend this legendary demon.


    Li Shentan looked at the crowd with a smile. ¡°What are you all standing around for? Have a seat. I¡¯m in a good mood today, so why don¡¯t I do some magic for everyone?¡±


    ¡°No, you don¡¯t have to.¡± The group of people quickly shook their heads.


    Li Shentan said in a stunned manner, ¡°You all don¡¯t like my magic tricks? Are you looking down on me?¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that.¡± Everyone shook their heads again.


    In the eyes of normal people, everyone at the campsite was mysterious and powerful. But in front of Li Shentan, this group of people felt an inexplicable sense of reverence.


    Li Shentan was way too famous!


    Some of the people here who were not supernatural beings had heard rumors of Li Shentan killing people like flies. They could not ovee the psychological fear of him so easily by just cheering themselves on in their heads.


    Vani could only sigh in his mind. Just as he thought his group was extremely easy to handle, he encountered a legendary supernatural being, Li Shentan. What the hell!


    Was Li Shentan about to seize control of the group?


    After Vani calmed down a little, he pointed at the busy crowd of people around Li Shentan and said, ¡°Are they under your control?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Li Shentan said with a grin as he took out a deck of cards and started shuffling it, ¡°But you don¡¯t have to worry that I¡¯ll control you all. When I encountered these people, they were in the middle of a battle. If I didn¡¯t control them, many of them would¡¯ve definitely died. After the expedition to the Sacred Mountains, I¡¯ll release them from my control. At that time, they¡¯ll have to thank me for saving their lives, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    Vani gave a mental sigh. Li Shentan¡¯s logic was indeed different from normal people¡¯s. He was indeed a lunatic as the rumors said.


    In Li Shentan¡¯s opinion, he was not trying to control these people at all. Instead, he wanted to ¡°save¡± them so they would be spared from the pain of war.


    If it were anyone else who said that, Vani would have scoffed at this logic. But when it was Li Shentan who said it, it felt like it was only reasonable to do so.


    If their group encountered the Pyro Companyter, should they fight or not? If they did, what if they were also ¡°saved¡± by Li Shentan?


    Vani was unsure whether he could resist Li Shentan¡¯s hypnotism!


    He secretly decided that if they really encountered the Pyro Company members in the next few days, he would quickly shout that Li Shentan was here and that nobody should make a move.


    With Li Shentan¡¯s arrival, Vani felt there would probably be a lot of trouble on this expedition to the Sacred Mountains.

 Chapter 714 - Trample the mountains underfoot

    <h4>Chapter 714 Trample the mountains underfoot</h4>


    Li Shentan¡¯s arrival was not necessarily bad news for Vani. At the very least, they would not need so many people to keep watch at night anymore. When Li Shentan was ready to go to bed, the people under Li Shentan¡¯s control stood outside the campsite in a circle and held hands with each other. Vani suddenly felt like he wanted to y the Drop the Handkerchief.[1]


    Disregarding whether this was a strange sight or not, with such a force guarding around the campsite tirelessly, no one could sessfullyunch a sneak attack at all.


    Just as Li Shentan was about to enter his tent, he suddenly stepped back. ¡°Oh yeah, I forgot something important.¡±


    When he said that, everyone at the campsite stopped what they were doing for fear that Li Shentan would do something crazy.


    Li Shentan walked to the center of the campsite and said, ¡°Listen, will our friends from the Pyro Company please turn around?¡±


    With that, around 30 people standing guard outside that were under his control turned around to face the campsite.


    Then Li Shentan said, ¡°You all were active in this vicinity. I¡¯m guessing you all were waiting for someone to give you a signal, right? See if there are any of your fellow members in this campsite. If there are, point them out to me.¡±


    Vani was stunned. When he received news from Cheng Yu¡¯s side during the day saying they had discovered some Pyro Company spies in their group, he was still thinking about identifying them based on the tattoos near their ribs.


    However, his ns were disrupted by the arrival of Li Shentan. He hadpletely forgotten about this matter.


    And now, Li Shentan was actually using the people under his control to identify their aplices.


    ¡°He can even do that?¡± Vani muttered softly.


    Next to him, Tang Hualong gave a wry smile. ¡°The Demon Whisperer is very entric and unpredictable. I wonder who¡¯s capable of being friends with him.¡±


    Right at this moment, two Pyro Company members suddenly raised their hands and pointed at two people in the campsite.


    The two who were pointed out looked terrified. ¡°We aren¡¯t members of the Pyro Company. We don¡¯t have any tattoos near our ribs. You can have a look if you don¡¯t believe it.¡±


    Li Shentan pped his hands and startedughing. ¡°Your Pyro Company was the one that spread the information about those tattoos to the public. Wasn¡¯t that precisely so it could throw us off in times like these? I won¡¯t trust anymon knowledge that everyone is aware of.¡±


    It was very easy for humans to trust what was known asmon knowledge to them. However, how could there be so muchmon knowledge in life? Most of them were just castles of lies.


    So only at this moment did the others in the campsite finally understand that not all Pyro Company members were tattooed at their ribs. Some of them simply did not have any tattoos at all.


    Vani sighed. They had been very cautious when they were screening the candidates for this group. But in the end, two Pyro Company members still managed to sneak through.


    The two Pyro Company members suddenly saw Li Shentan take a silver coin out of his pocket. Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°Let¡¯s y a game of heads or tails. If you guess right, I¡¯ll spare your lives.¡±


    The two Pyro Company members looked at each other. If it were someone else that said this to them, they would be lying. How could the Anjing House possibly let the two of them from the Pyro Company leave? However, when Li Shentan used a game to decide their fate, it somehow sounded more convincing. One of the Pyro Company members said, ¡°I¡¯ll guess tails.¡±


    Li Shentan nodded. ¡°Watch carefully.¡±


    As he spoke, he flipped the silver coin high up into the air with his thumb. There was an engraving of a young woman on the heads¡¯ side of the exquisite silver coin. She had bright eyes, white teeth, and a graceful smile on her face. On the back, there was an engraving of a bouquet of lilies.


    No consortium in this world had ever issued such a silver coin. Li Shentan had personally carved it.


    As the silver coin flew past the bridge of Li Shentan¡¯s nose, it hovered at the position of his eyes and kept spinning.


    Everyone was waiting to see the oue of the toss, but it just remained suspended in the air and did not fall back down!


    Vani shouted, ¡°Everyone, shut your eyes!¡±


    However, it was toote. Many of those in the campsite turned nk at the same time, with only a few managing to escape the hypnotism.


    Li Shentan looked at Vani and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯ve got a pretty quick reaction.¡±


    Vani¡¯s face darkened as he was immediately prepared to start a killing spree. Although Li Shentan had a reputation, Vani was no small fry who could easily be manipted either.


    Honestly, though, no one expected Li Shentan¡¯s hypnotism to be so difficult to guard against. But before he could even make any moves, he heard Li Shentan say with a smile, ¡°Other than the Pyro Company members, the rest will have their hypnotism lifted after I snap my fingers.¡±


    When he snapped his fingers, some of the people, including those who had been under Li Shentan¡¯s control earlier, woke up from their hypnotism. Only the Pyro Company members remained standing there in a daze.


    Vani was stunned. What was Li Shentan trying to do? Why couldn¡¯t he grasp the logic of his actions?


    He had thought Li Shentan was trying to use this opportunity to control everyone. But now, even the people he had been controlling earlier had their hypnotism dispelled. Just what was Li Shentan nning? Nearby, Si Liren, who had been staring at the silver coin, curled her lips and said, ¡°I¡¯m still waiting to see the oue. How can you not keep your promises?¡±


    Li Shentan smiled and said matter-of-factly, ¡°What¡¯s the point of asking a mental patient like me why I can¡¯t keep my promises?¡±


    Si Liren curled her lips again. Li Shentan was always using his mental illness as an excuse these days. It was as though mental patients could just do whatever they liked!


    Those who had just regained consciousness felt like they had been in a long dream. They stood where they were and did not know what to do.


    They could not even remember what happened while they were under Li Shentan¡¯s control.


    A majority of them were feeling a little weak. That was because they had not been eating or sleeping ever since they got hypnotized by Li Shentan. They were fully drawing on their life force to maintain their mobility.


    Among these people, some were from the various consortiums, and there were Anjing House members as well. Vani quickly had his subordinates settle the people down. Then Li Shentan turned his head to Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you get hypnotized just


    now?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by why?¡± Zhou Yingxue said disdainfully, ¡°That was just some party trick.¡±


    Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°It looks like you aren¡¯t typical either. No wonder you became his maid.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue beamed. ¡°At least you¡¯re observant.¡±


    Although Li Shentan¡¯s hypnosis just now was done casually without using his full strength, it was still not something anyone could withstand so easily.


    Since Zhou Yingxue was not affected, it showed that Zhou Yingxue¡¯s mental strength far exceeded that of normal people¡¯s. And the rtionship between a supernatural being and their mental strength corresponded to how powerful they were.


    There were only a few people in this world Li Shentan could not see through. For example, when he first saw Ren Xiaosu back at the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold, he could sense his mental strength was unique, vast like the sea. Li Shentan asked Zhou Yingxue in a whisper, ¡°Do you really not know where your boss is? I think you should also want to see him, right? Tell me where he is, and we can go and look for him together.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue carefully sized up Li Shentan.Ren Xiaosu had indeed said Li Shentan was a friend. Moreover, when they were at Luoyang City, both parties had also expressed their attitudes clearly. At the very least, Ren Xiaosu did not have any clear animosity for Li Shentan, and it was the same for Li Shentan.


    She thought for a moment and said, ¡°He should be on the west side. We¡¯re separated by the Sacred Mountains between us.¡±


    Li Shentanughed and said, ¡°When you want to meet your friends and the mountains are in your way, trample on them.¡±


    [1] A variant of Duck, Duck, Goose. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck,_duck, _goose#Kiss_in_the_Ring_or_Drop _Handkerchief

 Chapter 715 - The mystery of the statue

    <h4>Chapter 715 The mystery of the statue</h4>


    In the evening, Vani briefed Yang Anjing after Li Shentan had gotten rid of the Pyro Company spies in their group. His main point was to inform the other groups that not everyone from the Pyro Company were tattooed with their serial numbers.


    At the very least, the two Pyro Company members discovered in their group were not tattooed.


    It might not necessarily be useful to let the other teams know about this. After all, without any identifiable symbols or Li Shentan¡¯s method of puppeteering, it would be very difficult to weed out the Pyro Company¡¯s spies.


    They could only be careful to avoid falling into the Pyro Company¡¯s trap.


    After Cheng Yu received the news, he started thinking back on everyone on the team to see if he could identify who might be suspicious.


    The first person that came to mind was actually Wang Yun.


    That was because Wang Yun left the group the most times during their journey. Although he did not know what Wang Yun was doing, rying intel was essentially a solo operation. Therefore, Wang Yun was the most suspicious. However, Cheng Yu immediately ruled out Wang Yun. That was because he knew Wang Yun¡¯s true identity. As the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company were neighbors, there would often be friction between them. If Wang Yun were a Pyro Company member, how could he possibly get into a ce like the intelligence agency where political background checks were extremely strict?


    Then Cheng Yu also ruled out Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. However, it was not because of what Ren Xiaosu did but because of Luo Lan.


    After all, the animosity between the Qing Consortium and the Pyro Company all these years could not have been faked. It was undeniable that the Qing Consortium had killed many members of the Pyro Company. If Ren Xiaosu were really Luo Lan¡¯s backer, he would definitely not be rted to the Pyro Company.


    Cheng Yu locked onto 12 people as the prime suspects. They were the two teams with five and seven members respectively.


    The reason he suspected them was because their people often disappeared somewhere as well.


    Furthermore, Cheng Yu also took note that more than half of these people had been keeping watch on the night the middle-aged man carried out a sneak attack on White Mask. By picking this timing, who knew if it might be rted to this as well?


    Cheng Yu did not tell the others about this. Instead, he decided to observe them for a while more to avoid alerting the enemy.


    When the night sky waspletely covered in darkness and the night watchmen were about to switch shifts, a strange power suddenly enveloped the shattered statue at a spot far away from the campsite.


    The statue had beenpletely smashed by Luo Lan, and the fragments alone probably numbered in the dozens.


    But under the control of this mysterious power, the dozens of fragments actually started moving by themselves and strangely reassembled back together to form aplete statue.


    Moreover, with the body and face of the statue fully covered in cracks, it made the smiling statue look exceptionally terrifying and ferocious.


    Following this, the statue slowly lifted off the ground and flew towards the campsite at a constant speed.


    As it passed through the forest, it did not touch a single leaf or a single weed. It was silent as it approached the campsite.


    The statue was approaching the flickering me of the campsite. When it was about five meters away, the statue suddenly came to a stop and seemed to be spying on the movements in the campsite.


    At this moment, there was still another half an hour before the night watchmen switched shifts. Right now, it was the most tiring period for these people.


    The statue started moving again and flew towards the entrance of a tent in the campsite.


    But when it was about to enter the campsite, a figure leaped out of nowhere and attacked it with a kick. With a crash, the statue shattered to pieces.


    Wang Yun opened his eyes in the tent. Through the gap in his tent, he looked silently at Ren Xiaosu, who was standing at the edge of the campsite. The others in the campsite were also rmed and trickled out of their tents. Cheng Yu asked with a frown, ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Oh, this statue suddenly flew into the campsite. I don¡¯t know how, but it somehow managed to stick itself back together.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a very rxed manner, ¡°But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already smashed it to pieces. Those of you who are already up and scheduled for night watch in the second half of the night, don¡¯t go back to sleep. Just take over my shift.¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s eyes twitched a little. Ren Xiaosu was one of the night watchmen for the first half of the night, but he didn¡¯t expect Ren Xiaosu would foil his n in such a straightforward manner. In truth, Luo Lan and the others had guessed correctly. This statue was indeed Wang Yun¡¯s doing


    If a statue weighing dozens of kilograms wanted to get into the campsite quietly, it would definitely require the power of a supernatural being to bring it in.


    Meanwhile, Wang Yun¡¯s superpower was to control the air. He could use it to kill people without leaving a trace.


    There were all kinds of strange superpowers in this world, and Wang Yun was very satisfied with his since it was very well-suited for his profession.


    When he was still serving in the field, he had used this power to assassinate many people. There were no murder weapons, fingerprints, or any evidence that could be found.


    Furthermore, Wang Yun himself was also pleasantly surprised by his amazing ability to control air.


    His motive for killing people this time was because he had discovered hispetitors¡¯ subordinates in the group.


    Although the five of them had never appeared in the intelligence agency¡¯s records before, Wang Yun had a photographic memory. He could clearly remember these five people had participated in the selection process of the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency. However, they had all failed to get through it.


    Thinking about it now, they were probably recruited and trained as suicide agents by hispetitors after they were eliminated from the intelligence agency¡¯s selection process.


    He had never expected hispetitors would still send people to disrupt his mission even though he had shown signs of backing down by leaving the Kong Consortium. In that case, how could Wang Yun possibly not think about killing them?


    When it came to conflicts of interest and status within the consortiums, it was always a matter of life and death. Wang Yun could not afford to fail in his operation.


    Later on, after he realized the statue might have attracted a lot of poisonous bugs because there was a child¡¯s skeleton in it, he nned to use the statues to help him kill others. It could even end up frightening the other team members and mentally exhaust them with fear.


    He was only trying his hand at this strategy with yesterday¡¯s incident. Wang Yun was quite happy when he saw the reaction of the others at that time. However, he did not expect someone would kick and smash the statue to pieces today. Yesterday, the statue had only been broken into several dozens of pieces. But now, the head of the statue was almost pulverized.


    However, this incident still caused a panic among the people at the campsite. Although Ren Xiaosu had smashed the statue to pieces, what they were terrified of was why the statue could piece itself back together and even follow them.


    Could there really be something spooky going on in the mountains?


    Cheng Yu asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°How did it get here?¡±


    A person next to him asked anxiously, ¡°Could someone be ying a trick on us?¡±


    Actually, everyone just wanted to be sure if it was someone manipting this from behind the scenes. As long as it was someone¡¯s doing, it would not be that scary anymore and would prove it had nothing to do with mysticism.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at everyone andforted, ¡°It flew over here by itself.¡±


    With that, everyone got even more afraid.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not lying. It had indeed flown over by itself.

 Chapter 716 - Bestselling lipstick

    <h4>Chapter 716 Bestselling lipstick</h4>


    As Ren Xiaosu was the one who personally witnessed and smashed the statue, he naturally had to describe the events in detail to everyone. ¡°At the time, I was keeping watch right here when a statue suddenly floated over. It looked extremely ferocious after fixing itself up from the shattered fragments yesterday. Do y¡¯all understand what I¡¯m saying? Its face was full of cracks...¡±


    At the side, Cheng Yu¡¯s expression darkened. He realized the more Ren Xiaosu talked about it, the eerier the atmosphere became. When he looked at the expressions of the others around him, they were basically the same as his. Even though they were very nervous, they needed to understand what happened exactly.


    After Ren Xiaosu finished talking, he didn¡¯t care what the rest of them thought and just went to bed.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt it had been too peaceful since they entered the Sacred Mountains.


    The statue incident was definitely someone¡¯s doing. When the statue was secretly observing from outside the campsite, Ren Xiaosu was secretly observing the statue as well. Then he realized the statue was watching the tent where the girlfriend of that person who had died earlier was staying.


    Therefore, Luo Lan¡¯s guess was most likely correct. The murderer was Wang Yun. Putting this matter aside, they had actually not encountered the Pyro Company members ever since they came into the Sacred Mountains.


    Yet this ce was the Pyro Company¡¯s core strategic location. If they had encountered sneak attacks by the Pyro Company beforeing in here, why weren¡¯t there any more attacks after they had arrived?


    This left Ren Xiaosu feeling wary instead. Whatever tricks the Pyro Company had in store for them next would probably be even stranger!


    The entire mountain range covered a veryrge area, spanning hundreds of kilometers in length. Based on their current marching speed, they would probably arrive at the true center of the Sacred Mountains in another ten days.


    While Ren Xiaosu and the others continued venturing deeper into the Sacred Mountains, a convoy of off-road vehicles had arrived outside Stronghold 144 in the Northwest from the Central ins.


    Zhang Xiaoman had been waiting here for quite a while now. But this time, he was only an escort. The officer in charge of weing the convoy was Wang Fengyuan, the intelligence director of Fortress 178.


    Generally, any matters that required Wang Fengyuan to oversee personally would be handled with the utmost confidentiality.


    Next to him, Zhang Xiaoman probed, ¡°Boss Wang, who¡¯s the personing this time? They even needed you toe here personally?¡±


    Wang Fengyuan nced at him. ¡°Oh, I haven¡¯t seen you for a few months, but our Zhang Xiaoman knows how to use honorifics now. Why is it that the higher your rank is, the more polite you be?¡± ¡°Heh.¡± Zhang Xiaoman did not mind Wang Fengyuan¡¯s sarcasm. ¡°This is an improvement that I¡¯ve made.¡±


    ¡°Not bad, not bad at all.¡± Wang Fengyuan nodded approvingly. Then Zhang Xiaoman realized Wang Fengyuan had simply changed the topic. It did not seem like he intended to answer his question at all.


    When the convoy of off-road vehicles reached the base of the stronghold walls, the people in the vehicles did not even need to get out of their cars. Wang Fengyuan got into one of the vehicles, and they drove off farther northwest. The rest of the convoy that had traveled here from afar was following right behind.


    Zhang Xiaoman watched as the convoy drove off and curled his lips. ¡°He always acts so secretively.¡±


    The convoy continued to drive for more than a 100 kilometers westward before finallying to a stop at a hill. Someone had already set up a temporary military camp in the t of that hill. It was not veryrge in size, and Lin Yuze, who was in charge of the logistics here, was beckoning to his cooks to make food.


    When Zhang Jinglin heard themotion outside, he walked out of the military tent he was in. Someone from the convoy that had just arrived quickly retrieved a wheelchair from the trunk and carried Wang Shengzhi, who was sitting in the backseat, onto it.


    Wang Shengzhi kept smiling throughout and even had time to wave at Zhang Jinglin. ¡°Long time no see. When I passed by Stronghold 144 earlier, I noticed a lot of merchant trucks were parked outside. It looks like the decision to reopen the trade route was right.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s always a good thing to do business with one another. But you probably wouldn¡¯t have expected that the bestselling product in the Northwest from your Central ins would turn out to be lipstick.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi really was taken aback. As the true controller of the Wang Consortium, even if he were to pay attention to the ongoings of the trade route, it would be data rted to staple goods. He really had not expected that lipstick would be the bestselling product in the Northwest.


    Even Wang Fugui, the biggest lipstick distributor, could not have expected that either.


    Back then, Zhang Xiaoman had forced some of the local businessmen to pick up the goods when Wang Fugui brought in a few truckloads of lipstick with him. The businessmen were allining the goods might be left unsold on the shelves.


    But who knew that Wang Fugui would have such great foresight? This batch of lipstick everyone thought might end up unsold actually turned out to be the hottest item as soon as it was released on the market!


    Before this, everyone was wondering who would want to buy lipstick with their spare cash when there was still a shortage of necessities in the Northwest.


    In the end, it turned out they did not understand a woman¡¯s love for beauty.


    Later, other people also wanted to jump on the bandwagon and start a lipstick business, but something unexpected happened. Zhang Xiaoman, that hooligan, came up with the idea of issuing an exclusive distribution license for lipstick and awarded it to Wang Fugui.


    With that, the lipstick business essentially became Wang Fugui¡¯s exclusive source of ie.


    When Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s superior, Zhou Yinglong, heard about this, he wanted to get someone to take care of this matter. But on second thought, since lipstick was not considered a strategic resource, and this matter also involved Ren Xiaosu, he decided to just let it slide. Nowadays, whoever encountered Wang Fugui on the trade route would have to greet him politely and address him as Mr. Wang or Director Wang. Everyone knew Wang Fugui had to have a backer in Fortress 178. Otherwise, he could not possibly enjoy a monopoly on the lipstick business.


    Some people even approached Wang Fugui to ask for his help in rmending someone to solve their troubles.


    However, Wang Fugui was someone who knew his limits. He just focused on doing his own business and did not care about other people¡¯s messes.


    Wang Fugui felt that since Ren Xiaosu would be taking over Fortress 178 one day, he did not want to tarnish his reputation.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Wang Shengzhi. ¡°It¡¯s no longer peaceful in the Central ins, right? Why do you dare toe to the Northwest so lightly escorted?¡± Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, ¡°The troublemakers have all headed to the Sacred Mountains. That¡¯s why I¡¯ve ventured out like this.¡±


    ¡°You were the one who lured them there, right?¡± Zhang Jinglin got straight to the point. ¡°Haha, what delicious food did Chef Lin prepare today?¡± Wang Shengzhi said as he pushed his wheelchair into the military camp by himself. He did not seem to want to answer the question.


    Actually, what Zhang Jinglin really wanted to ask was whether the Anjing House and the Wang Consortium had already joined forces and set a trap for everyone in the world.


    Ever since the cave-in of East Lake, the wide the Anjing House had cast for so many years started tightening and began to affect the Central ins as well. But that was only the beginning, and the impact was still not widespread yet.


    But now, the entire Central ins had sprung into action over the No. 001 Experimental. Zhang Jinglin felt that 70% of the supernatural beings in the Central ins had already ventured into the mountains. Why was Wang Shengzhi doing this? He was probably trying to eliminate all of the unstable elements that were in his way.


    Wang Shengzhi suddenly turned around and said with a smile, ¡°Mr. Zhang, are you guarding against me bying to an agreement with the Qing Consortium to connect their railway to the Northwest so they can trade with the Central ins through you all?¡±

 Chapter 717 - The Wang Consortium’s intentions

    <h4>Chapter 717 The Wang Consortium¡¯s intentions</h4>


    While everyone¡¯s attention was over at the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains, Wang Shengzhi suddenly took a small group of his people and traveled to the Northwest to hold a brief, secret meeting with Zhang Jinglin in the wilderness.


    Wang Shengzhi clearly ced great importance on this meeting. If not, he would not havee all the way to the Northwest under such secrecy.


    Faced with Wang Shengzhi¡¯s question, Zhang Jinglin just smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯re thinking too much. We¡¯re only seeking mutual trade benefits with the Qing Consortium. We¡¯ve never thought about guarding against anyone before.¡± ¡°I¡¯m relieved then,¡± Wang Shengzhi said with a smile.


    When the two of them entered the temporary military camp, Wang Shengzhi looked at the young officer who was protecting Zhang Jinglin from a distance and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re Xu Xianchu, aren¡¯t you? I¡¯ve heard about you; you¡¯re very impressive.¡±


    Xu Xianchu remained unmoved as he continued to stand guard.


    Nowadays, supernatural beings were constantly surfacing, and their superpowers were getting more and more varied. In order to prevent anyone from assassinating Zhang Jinglin, the high-ranking generals in the fortress suggested that Xu Xianchu be transferred to the garrison troops to ensure Zhang Jinglin¡¯s safety.


    Xu Xianchu was really good inbat. Although it was a waste of his talent to manage the garrison troops¡¯ fighting forces, no one was more suitable than Xu Xianchu for this role. In Zhou Yinglong¡¯s own words, no matter who tried to assassinate Zhang Jinglin, Xu Xianchu would be able to hold them off until reinforcements arrived by using thatrge cauldron of his as a barrier.


    Xu Xianchu¡¯s cauldron could definitely fend off more than a dozen enemies.


    The only thing that everyone was puzzled about was why Xu Xianchu¡¯s cauldron was still growingrger at such a fast pace.


    Lin Yuze ordered the cooks to bring over a small heating stove for Zhang Jinglin and Wang Shengzhi to keep warm in the tent. Wang Shengzhi¡¯s aide brought over a nket for him to cover his legs with before everyone stepped out.


    The conversation between Zhang Jinglin and Wang Shengzhi was definitely a confidential one, and even Wang Fengyuan had no intention of being in the tent with them.


    Zhang Jinglin ced a wine sk by the stove and warmed it up. Then he said, ¡°You¡¯re not the kind of person to go on a trip for no apparent reason. Tell me, what is it that you want to talk about on this trip to the Northwest?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, ¡°Now that the trade route between the Northwest and the Wang Consortium has been opened, our two organizations should already have a closer rtionship with one another. In that case, can¡¯t I drop by since I have nothing to do?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to beat around the bush between us.¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°The weather in the Northwest is cold, and the soldiers outside are still suffering from the cold. If we can finish our talk early, they can head back to the barracks earlier. What¡¯s the Wang Consortium up to?¡±


    ¡°To restore order to the world, of course,¡± Wang Shengzhi said. ¡°How are you going to do that?¡± ¡°With the artificial intelligence.¡± Wang Shengzhi looked at Zhang Jinglin and said earnestly, ¡°I know your Fortress 178 has always treated the refugees very well. Yes, I understand that anyone with a tinge of conscience will not divide the human race into different sses of people after a disaster. But our Wang Consortium is even bolder since we¡¯ve epted refugees right into a stronghold.¡±


    ¡°It sounds a little pompous when you put it that way.¡± Zhang Jinglin lit a cigarette for himself. ¡°Stronghold 61¡¯s eptance of refugees was only a strategy against the Zhou and the Kong Consortiums. Weren¡¯t a lot of refugees still sent to the various strongholds¡¯ towns and factories by you all?¡±


    ¡°That was only at the beginning.¡± Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°What I was most worried about was that it would be difficult to manage the refugees after they got into the stronghold. That could eventually lead to potential trouble. But now, the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI is mature enough. Although Stronghold 61 has thergest number of refugees, it has the best security.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the fear that you, Wang Shengzhi, have exchanged for thousands of lives.¡± Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°I also hope the Northwest can be a peaceful ce and that everyone will not have to worry about othersmitting crimes that hurt them. But how did your Wang Consortium manage to achieve that? The criminals are sentenced to death even for a minor offense like theft, so of course no one daresmit any more crimes.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just a small price to pay.¡± Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°If I don¡¯t do it this way, do you have a better solution? I¡¯m not a cold-blooded killer, but it¡¯s a fact that the people in Stronghold 61 do not need to close their doors at night. Although the Wang Consortium has taken a little detour in the pursuit of order, we¡¯re still the first to arrive at that target.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin shook his head. ¡°Actually, what I dislike most is the phrase ¡®taken a little detour.¡¯ Anyone can say that very easily, but the sacrifices made by taking this detour is something that many people ignore.¡±


    ¡°Then please tell me your views.¡± Wang Shengzhi sat up straight in his wheelchair.


    ¡°As for whether the refugees should have equal human rights,¡± Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°What you¡¯re nning is to lock everyone inside the strongholds and let the AI run their daily lives. However, I prefer that stronghold residents can get to see the outside world. The gates will no longer be permanently closed, and there will be no need for a person to be of a certain status before they can walk in or out of a stronghold.¡±


    ¡°How are you going to deal with the refugees who havemitted crimes in the stronghold? Are you not going to arrest them?¡± Wang Shengzhi asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m not defending criminals.¡± Zhang Jinglin shook his head and said, ¡°I just feel that your Wang Consortium is acting too ruthless in handling things. And most importantly, I don¡¯t trust the AI.¡±


    ¡°You and I both know full well how bad humans are.¡± Wang Shengzhi said calmly, ¡°Even in Fortress 178, there will still be corruption or inaction. You¡¯re also aware of how I became crippled. If no one was bribed back then and that criminal was put through proper reform in prison, there would definitely be fewer victims like me. But can you make sure that everyone is fair and honest? You can¡¯t, and neither can I! But the AI can do that. It¡¯s the fairest third party that no one can bribe, and it will never get tired or ck off either.¡±


    ¡°So when you said that you wanted to restore order to the Alliance of Strongholds, you would have to first take control of the entire Alliance of Strongholds.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Actually, you¡¯re already prepared to start a war, right? Luoyang City was just the beginning. You also have some people helping you to get rid of some of the unstable elements in the Sacred Mountains this time. Then a new pie will emerge, and the process of splitting that pie will be your Wang Consortium¡¯s opportunity to take control.¡±


    Only at this moment did they reach the main topic of their conversation. Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°What I want is for the Northwest and the Central ins to work together to keep the southwestern Qing Consortium in check when the war starts.¡±


    ¡°And what will our Northwest get in return?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked calmly.


    ¡°A world without the threat of nuclear weapons and a stable stronghold order. If external enemies attack Fortress 178 again, the entire Alliance of Strongholds will be Fortress 178¡¯s strongest backing,¡± Wang Shengzhi said.


    One of the conditions in the agreement between the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178 was that if any external enemies were to attack, the Qing Consortium would have to deploy their troops to cut off the retreat route and supply lines of the external enemies via the Western Hignds.


    This was because Zhang Jinglin would never forget Fortress 178¡¯s duty regardless of the situation.


    Right now, Wang Shengzhi was also promising the same to Zhang Jinglin. However, Zhang Jinglin shook his head. ¡°Only that? I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s not enough.¡±

 Chapter 718 - I won’t get to see that

    <h4>Chapter 718 I won¡¯t get to see that</h4>


    Before this, Wang Shengzhi had not approached the Zhou Consortium and the Kong Consortium to discuss this matter. This meant he was not particrly worried they were a threat.


    And now that he came to the Northwest, it was not because he was worried that Fortress 178 would hinder his ns. He needed the Northwest to form an alliance with him to keep the southwestern Qing Consortium under control.


    Ultimately, Zhang Jinglin felt that Wang Shengzhi had personallye to the Northwest at such a time because he was afraid of Qing Zhen.


    Of course, Zhang Jinglin could understand this since he was very familiar with that young man called Qing Zhen. Almost none of the consortiums in this world would underestimate this person.


    Those who dared to look down on Qing Zhen were either dead, or just waiting for their time to be up.


    Right now, the reason why Wang Shengzhi was looking to join forces with Fortress 178 was probably because of the Qing Consortium.


    Therefore, if Zhang Jinglin were to ept Wang Shengzhi¡¯s offer, the Northwest would definitely have to stand with the Wang Consortium and pit themselves against the Qing Consortium in the future.


    Zhang Jinglin was not afraid of Qing Zhen, and neither was Fortress 178 afraid of the Qing Consortium. However, it did not have toe to that.


    The key point was that ¡°it did not have toe to that.¡± Their lives in the Northwest were already getting better, so why would he want to expand his ambitions and drag the entirety of Fortress 178 into the mes of war? This was the best time for the Northwest to recuperate.


    ¡°I¡¯m not moved by what you are offering.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Whether the Wang Consortium will really do anything when Fortress 178 is faced with the external enemies in the future is just empty talk now. Besides, I¡¯m not interested in war either.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin had said before that war would not save humanity.


    Wang Shengzhi looked at Zhang Jinglin and said with a smile, ¡°What if you¡¯re the one taking control of the Alliance of Strongholds? When the entire Alliance of Strongholds under your control, are you still gonna be afraid that I¡¯ll make empty promises?¡±


    This time, it was Zhang Jinglin that got stunned.


    Honestly speaking, their conversation thus far was well within Zhang Jinglin¡¯s expectations. When Wang Shengzhi came to visit, Zhang Jinglin already knew why he hade to the Northwest.


    But when they reached this part of the conversation, it suddenly exceeded Zhang Jinglin¡¯s expectations.


    He frowned and asked, ¡°What do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°I mean the Alliance of Strongholds will no longer be under the control of the consortiums in the future.¡± Wang Shengzhi said calmly, ¡°The consortiums will be history, and future sessors to the Alliance of Strongholds will no longer be hereditary. As for the first leader of the alliance, it will be you, Mr. Zhang.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Wang Shengzhi seriously. ¡°You¡¯ve been nning for so long and putting in so much effort just so you can benefit others? You aren¡¯t after anything?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°I only have one request, and it¡¯s that the Alliance of Strongholds must have its order kept by the AI. Of course, it¡¯s only managing the order I¡¯m asking for.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± Zhang Jinglin said frankly, ¡°I really don¡¯t know what you¡¯re thinking this time. Actually, you could have just taken longer to prepare, and you might still have achieved what you wanted without asking the Northwest for help. There¡¯s no need to use something like this as a bargaining chip to make a deal.¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not looking to make a deal.¡± Wang Shengzhi shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t have much time left.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Zhang Jinglin scrutinized Wang Shengzhi. Only then did he realize the man did not look healthy.


    Wang Shengzhi pointed to his own chest and replied, ¡°I have lung cancer.¡±


    ¡°Was that why you joined forces with the Anjing House this time and led those people to the Sacred Mountains? So you can locate the No. 001 Experimental and then use it to find a way to treat cancer?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked. Most people seemed to already know the No. 001 Experimental was born during the times when the Pyro Company was researching cancer treatments. The rest of the other Experimentals also used to be cancer patients as well.


    ¡°Haha,¡± Wang Shengzhiughed and said as he pointed to his legs, ¡°I don¡¯t have such ns at all. In my condition, wouldn¡¯t death also be a form of release for me? Why should I pursue a life that¡¯s not meant to be mine? Mr. Zhang, what do you think makes life worth living? It¡¯s because life is finite. If life does not have an ending, then its existence will lose meaning.¡±


    For some reason, Zhang Jinglin and Wang Shengzhi suddenly reached an agreement on this subject after debating for so long.


    Zhang Jinglin sighed, ¡°My apologies.¡±


    He was implying that if he knew that Wang Shengzhi¡¯s days were numbered, he would have been more polite when he spoke just now.


    Wang Shengzhi waved it off. ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything to be sympathetic about. I just want to finish what I have to do before I die. I don¡¯t covet fame or fortune in this world anymore. To me, you¡¯ve always been the most clearheaded person in the world. Therefore, I hope you can take my cause over after I¡¯ve finished building it.¡±


    However, Zhang Jinglin did not say anything. When Wang Shengzhi saw Zhang Jinglin staying silent, he tried to persuade him again, ¡°I¡¯ll wipe out all the consortiums before I die and grant you an incorruptible Alliance of Strongholds.¡±


    When Wang Shengzhi mentioned wiping out all the consortiums, his tone was especially firm. This also included his own Wang Consortium.


    At some point, Zhang Jinglin felt Wang Shengzhi¡¯s determination and his dissatisfaction with the consortiums.


    He did not know how to assess Wang Shengzhi anymore. That was because he had always thought the man had been painstakingly nning all these years for his own ambition. It wasn¡¯t only Zhang Jinglin who thought this way; even Qing Zhen felt the same.


    But now that Wang Shengzhi knew he was dying soon, he was thinking about how to unify the Alliance of Strongholds and wipe out all the consortiums.


    Wang Shengzhi looked at Zhang Jinglin and said sincerely, ¡°I know Mr. Zhang still has some prejudice against the AI. I just hope you will try to understand it better. Just look at how orderly Stronghold 61 is running now.¡±


    But in the end, Zhang Jinglin still shook his head and said with a sigh, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t help you.¡± ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have the ambition to take control of the Alliance of Strongholds.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°If there¡¯s someone who can take overmand of Fortress 178 from me now, I would retire right away.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi gave a bitter smile. ¡°You still have time to groom that person, but I¡¯m running out of time. Do you have anyone in mind already? Let me guess, it¡¯s Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Wang Shengzhi. ¡°How did you know?¡± Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to look at me like this. Isn¡¯t it quite normal to have our spies in each other¡¯s organization? It¡¯s just that I nted them earlier than the others. That¡¯s why you were unable to find mine even after you had weeded out the other organizations¡¯ spies. There¡¯s something I¡¯m curious about. What¡¯s so special about him?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin answered, ¡°Maybe you¡¯ll find out in the future.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t get to see that.¡± Wang Shengzhi wheeled himself out of the tent. ¡°Thank you for your hospitality. Although none of my wishes have been fulfilled, I still got to meet my old friend again. Mr. Zhang, do you remember how we first met?¡± ¡°I remember,¡± Zhang Jinglin said.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± With these baffling words, Wang Shengzhi got into a vehicle, and the convoy of off-road vehicles sped off back towards the Central ins.


    It was nowte winter, and thest snow had started falling from the sky.

 Chapter 719 - Artificial intelligence

    <h4>Chapter 719 Artificial intelligence</h4>


    Outside the gates of Stronghold 61, a group of people were standing at the entrance as they waited for their identities to be verified. ¡°Name?¡±


    ¡°Jiang Xu.¡±


    ¡°Did you bring your travel documents with you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes!¡± An apanying reporter next to Jiang Xu quickly handed over their documents. Ever since Stronghold 61 epted refugees into the stronghold, this ce had been the focus of the entire Alliance of Strongholds. On one hand, it was because this was the only stronghold that wasprised fully of refugees. On the other hand, it was due to the presence of the Wang Consortium¡¯s artificial intelligence.


    Right as Ren Xiaosu and the others arrived at the Sacred Mountains, the Wang Consortium¡¯s official media did not idle around for even a moment. Every day, they would spare no effort to record the daily life in the stronghold, as well as how good the security was and how quickly criminal cases were cracked.


    Since Jiang Xu wanted to report the truth of their entire era, how could he possibly miss out on something like this? It was likely that this was a revolutionary change of the times and could even affect the lifestyles of humanity in the future.


    Therefore, Jiang Xu applied to visit Stronghold 61 in his role as chief editor of Hope Media, to which the Wang Consortium immediately agreed.


    Stronghold 61 was not a pilot project. Everything that took ce here made all of the stronghold overseers of the Wang Consortium extremely proud. They would even oftenment publicly that they never expected refugees to be much easier to manage than stronghold residents.


    Everyone in the Wang Consortium was very busy recently. It was even said that Wang Shengzhi was thinking about moving the Wang Consortium¡¯s administrative center to Stronghold 61.


    The soldiers in charge of checking the travel documents at the city gate quickly verified the identities of Jiang Xu and his entourage. This included checking their documentations¡¯ authenticity and whether the photos were of the holders themselves.


    It wasn¡¯t until ten minutester that an officer came over and said politely, ¡°Chief Editor, wee to Stronghold 61. Let me immediately arrange for a private vehicle to facilitate your tour of the ce.¡±


    Jiang Xu¡¯s influence was not only limited to Luoyang City. Everyone¡¯s respect for him was from the bottom of their hearts.


    This respect did note from his authority or wealth, but from his attitude and wisdom.


    However, Jiang Xu waved it off and said frankly, ¡°I¡¯m here to find trouble with you all on this trip, so, please, you don¡¯t have to see to our needs. Moreover, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t get an unbiased view if I follow the itinerary you all


    set.¡±


    That Wang Consortium¡¯s officer smiled and said with an embarrassed smile, ¡°We don¡¯t have anything to hide in Stronghold 61. Please feel free to look around all you want.¡±


    ¡°OK, thank you in advance,¡± Jiang Xu said with a smile. Then he strolled inside holding his cane. There were only five people in their group. Other than Jiang Xu, the rest were all reporters from Hope Media. He said to the four of them, ¡°Take a good look around and take good notes. Don¡¯t forget what we¡¯re here for.¡±


    After entering the stronghold, the sight they saw was somewhat different from what they had imagined Based on the reporters¡¯ expectations, since there were only refugees in Stronghold 61, shouldn¡¯t everyone be dressed poorly and have gloomy expressions on their faces?


    However, the people here did not look any different from the stronghold residents at all. There was no sense that anyone was always looking miserable.


    Jiang Xu turned around and said with a smile, ¡°What? You all can¡¯t bear to see others doing well?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not it.¡± One of the reporters scratched his head. ¡°I feel it would be quite a p in the face if we were to report this matter to the stronghold residents.¡±


    Before this, there were stronghold residents in Luoyang City who were very much against refugees being epted into the stronghold. Some of the people also regarded the refugees as an inferior race. They said refugees would never learn to be stronghold residents even if they entered the stronghold.


    as


    But now, the refugees in Stronghold 61 did not look any different from those who were stronghold residents.


    In just a few months, the refugees already started dressing neatly and even knew how to behave politely. It was rumored that the Wang Consortium had even set up night schools in Stronghold 61, with many of the refugees voluntarily signing up to gain new knowledge after work. They were all extremely motivated.


    Therefore, it seemed that circumstances shaped people, not that people shaped the circumstances.


    Jiang Xu did not respond to that remark. Instead, he saw a middle-aged man standing on the sidewalk and went up to him and said, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m a reporter. Can you spare two minutes of your time for us to ask you a few questions? It¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t have the time. I just hope we¡¯re not troubling you.¡±


    That middle-aged man hesitated for a moment before agreeing


    Jiang Xu suddenly saw the middle-aged man raise his head and look around. Jiang Xu followed his gaze and was surprised to see the man checking for cameras on the street.


    However, Jiang Xu did not mention this. Instead, he asked, ¡°What job do you have in Stronghold 61?¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± The middle-aged man said, ¡°I work at the waterpany. My job involves supplying water to the people. Sometimes, I also help out with the heating systems.¡± ¡°How¡¯s the pay? Is it enough to cover your food and clothing expenses?¡± Jiang Xu asked.


    ¡°Of course it¡¯s enough. Besides, we don¡¯t get exploited by the foremen anymore, so it¡¯s still pretty good.¡± The middle-aged man said, ¡°When I was working at the construction site outside the stronghold, they said that they would pay us 2,000 yuan a month. However, we only received around a 1,000 yuan or so in the end. But these days, such bad practices don¡¯t exist anymore.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± A reporter asked, ¡°You must feel really lucky then?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t get what luck is. In any case, we¡¯re leading a better life than before,¡± the middle-aged man replied.


    The reporter muttered, ¡°It looks like the Wang Consortium wasn¡¯t lying.¡±


    Jiang Xu smiled at the middle-aged man and said, ¡°Alright, thank you. I¡¯m sorry to have held you back for so long. We have a small gift for you. Please take it.¡± Afterwards, he had the reporter behind him hand a box to the middle-aged man. There was an exquisite fountain pen inside.


    Jiang Xu suddenly asked, ¡°Earlier, I noticed you were standing on the sidewalk the entire time. Were you waiting for someone? If you¡¯re busy, we won¡¯t disturb you any further.¡±


    The middle-aged man smiled wryly and answered, ¡°I wasn¡¯t waiting for anyone. It¡¯s just that I saw a wallet on the ground just now when I was passing by. I was the first to see it, so I had to wait here for the owner toe back for it.¡±


    One of the reporters was stunned. ¡°Then you¡¯re a really honest person.¡±


    The middle-aged man waved it off. ¡°Not really. It¡¯s mainly because of the stronghold¡¯sws that state that if I don¡¯t pick it up and just leave, I¡¯ll be fined. If I keep it for myself, it will be even more serious, and I¡¯ll be jailed for seven days.¡±


    The reporters looked at one another. They did not expect there to be suchws in Stronghold 61.


    But it was also a good thing to discourage people from keeping what wasn¡¯t theirs. It was just that it was a little too strict. Although it felt really weird, the intention behind it was still good.


    The middle-aged man waited for the rightful owner of the wallet to return before leaving.


    Jiang Xu thought for a moment before saying to the reporters around him, ¡°Let¡¯s stay here for today. We still have to slowly observe what Stronghold 61 is really like.¡±


    Jiang Xu looked up and noticed the surveince cameras nearby had turned in their direction. When Jiang Xu tried walking about 10 meters forward, the cameras followed him closely and turned as well.


    He knew the cameras were capable of capturing audio, so their conversation with the middle-aged man earlier had also probably been recorded in full.


    For some reason, even though the passerby who had just been interviewed had expressed he was leading a good life, Jiang Xu still felt that something was off.


    Jiang Xu was someone who had his own freedom, with the definition of freedom being that he could make a choice based on his own initiative. But if this freedom were constantly being monitored by others, it would somehow make him feel an inexplicable sense of awkwardness.


    But when Jiang Xu thought about it, it was great for the refugees to be able to live well in this world. The refugees would not have any unnecessary concerns like him, right?


    Jiang Xu was not a bigoted person. If the artificial intelligence could prevent more people from starving to death by just monitoring everyone, he would not really say too much about it. After all, he could not represent the views of the refugees.

 Chapter 720 - Reformed bandits

    <h4>Chapter 720 Reformed bandits</h4>


    The stronghold managed by the artificial intelligence had actually given Jiang Xu a sense of novelty.


    An amazing stronghold like this had actually emerged in the era he was living in. As a witness to this, Jiang Xu wanted to explore this strange ¡°world¡± more deeply. It did not matter if this was a positive or negative phenomenon.


    After a full day of touring, all the people they came across were humble and did not take things that did not belong to them. Jiang Xu even saw some people not locking the door when they went out. He stood at the entrance of this house for three hours, but no one went inside to steal things.


    Passersby would at most nce at the open door before continuing on their way.


    A reporter muttered, ¡°It looks like there is indeed something unique about the Alls governance of the stronghold. When I lost my bicycle in Luoyang Cityst month, no one in the Public Order Division even cared to take my case report.¡±


    ¡°So you wrote that article to annoy the Public Order Division?¡± Jiang Xu said calmly, ¡°But I ended up rejecting the draft?¡± The reporter was a little embarrassed. ¡°What I wrote was also the truth. The Public Order Division in Luoyang City doesn¡¯t care about the small matters anymore and only deals with big cases. Just look at Stronghold 61. Those bicycles on the sidewalk aren¡¯t even locked.¡±


    As the saying went, one would be most attentive to whatever was closest to their hearts. Jiang Xu did not pay any attention to the bicycles on the sidewalk, but the reporter who had lost his bicycle purposely went to take a look. The bicycles parked on the sidewalk truly were not locked.


    It seemed like Stronghold 61 had eliminated the lock industry.


    That reporter did not have the same foresight as Jiang Xu. So he felt it would not be that bad if he could live in a stronghold as safe as this.


    But Jiang Xu suddenly said, ¡°Are you all starting to feel a little envious of life here? Everyone has food to eat and a job to do, and there¡¯s not even a need to worry about fights breaking out and theft.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± The reporter nodded. ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel that good being monitored like this, but if the AI doesn¡¯t interfere with daily life, it¡¯s not that difficult to ept it. Actually, you see, the other consortiums are also monitoring their residents¡¯ lives. It¡¯s just that they don¡¯t do it so obviously. How could normal residents be truly free?¡±


    Jiang Xu nodded. Indeed, he agreed with this point. This was why he did not have a clear aversion to the surveince cameras after noticing that they were monitoring him. Actually, it was the same everywhere.


    However, Jiang Xu said, ¡°I suddenly recall a saying: ¡®Ruling a state with benevolence is impossible, but disying benevolence while ruling is possible.¡±[1]


    Coincidentally, the current head of the Wang Consortium was named Wang Shengzhi,[2] which was near homophonic with the word in the saying


    Jiang Xu continued, ¡°Look, there aren¡¯t even any beggars around in Stronghold 61. Everyone has their own matters to attend to. The Wang Consortium uses the AI to analyze statistics and assign jobs to everyone to ensure they have food to eat and money to make. But have you ever thought about it? If you¡¯re unhappy with your job at Hope Media, you can still quit and take a short break. But over here, you can¡¯t do that.¡±


    ¡°Surely not, right?¡± The reporter was a little doubtful about that. He walked away to look for a passerby. When he came back, he muttered, ¡°It seems like that¡¯s really the case. You have to do whatever the consortium arranges for you. There isn¡¯t a choice.¡±


    ¡°So there¡¯s no ce for something like the arts to survive here. Nobody has the time to stop and think about what they need or what suits them.¡± Jiang Xu sighed and said, ¡°Because the AI does not consider things that are ¡®pointless.¡¯ Its guiding principles have a very strong sense of purpose, but that¡¯s not how humans are.¡± However, a refugee who happened to pass by overheard their conversation and said with augh, ¡°It¡¯s already good enough that we can fill our bellies these days. Can art put food on the table? In the past, when we were living outside the stronghold, we never thought about something like art either.¡±


    Jiang Xu was stunned. Then he bowed slightly to the pedestrian and said, ¡°I¡¯ve learned something.¡± The reporter let out a sigh. Perhaps this was the difference between him and the chief editor. Jiang Xu had never insisted that his thoughts were the only ¡°correct¡± ones just because of his pride. He was always willing to ept his mistakes regardless of the person debating him.


    Jiang Xu and the reporters had never considered whether their stomachs would get filled when they were living in Luoyang City. That was because having something to eat was so basic that they never had to worry about it. That was why they could afford to think about the arts and philosophy. But what about the refugees?


    ¡°Chief Editor, what do you think of the AI?¡± a reporter asked. Jiang Xu stood silently on the street for a long time. Even the reporters could feel his dilemma.


    It wasn¡¯t until night fell that Jiang Xu finally said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. There¡¯s no need to continue with the visit anymore. Time will tell us the answer.¡±


    Just as Wang Shengzhi was leaving the Northwest to return to the Central ins, Su Lei, the leader of the bandits in the Northwest, was chewing on a goat leg outside Stronghold 144.


    The business deal with the nomads made him understand for the first time that even without turning to robbery, there was joy in making money through his own efforts. The fur hides Yan Liuyuan had given him were sold for an extremely high price at Stronghold 144. It was even higher than what he was expecting to earn. Moreover, after Fortress 178 took control of the Northwest, the taxes were reduced, and daily necessities became surprisingly cheap.


    This time, Su Lei made so much profit he was even willing to bring his men to eat roast goat legs! Nearby, one of his men said, ¡°Boss, I see that the daily necessities you¡¯ve gotten for the nomads are all quality stuff. Why did you have to buy such good ironware for them? Wouldn¡¯t it be more profitable if we bought the cheap ones instead?¡±


    Su Lei nced at him. ¡°Zhang Gong, do you know why we¡¯re sitting here and enjoying roast goat leg?¡±


    ¡°Because Boss is extremely smart and talented in doing business, of course,¡± Zhang Gong ttered.


    However, Su Leiughed and said, ¡°How is that my credit? This is only possible because those nomads trusted us and decided to do business with us. Do you think the nomads are stupid? That young man is obviously well-informed about the affairs in the South. If you fool them with inferior items, they can just find someone else to do business with at any time. When that happens, who are you gonna go crying to?¡±


    Zhang Gong did not say anything more. Su Lei continued, ¡°Look at that Wang Fugui. He¡¯s able to get in and out of the strongholds like they¡¯re his own homes, and everyone treats him with so much respect. Do you know why that is? It¡¯s because he owns an exclusive lipstick business on the Northwestern trade route. And us? We have an exclusive business deal with the Northern ins under our names now. As long as we conduct business honestly, we can also be big shots like Wang Fugui sooner orter. Do you understand? The most important thing in doing business is integrity. As long as we hold onto the business firmly with our hands, will we need to worry about not having goat leg to feast on in the future? Don¡¯t keep thinking about taking advantage of others at every opportunity!¡±


    ¡°Got it, Boss,¡± Zhang Gong replied.


    However, Su Lei¡¯s men realized that ever since their boss had turned over a new leaf and stepped onto the right path, he had be very good at using reason to educate others. In times like these, even bandits were starting to talk about treating others with integrity.


    Isn¡¯t that really frightening when you think about it?


    (1) & (Sh¨¨ng) is the Chinese character for sagely. ? (Zh¨¬) is the Chinese character for governance. B? (Shengzh¨¬) means to rule with benevolence.


    [2] ÍõÊ¥Öª Wang Shengzhi

 Chapter 721 - Su Lei’s new business

    <h4>Chapter 721 Su Lei¡¯s new business</h4>


    This time, after Su Lei had sold off all the fur hides and received the money, he suddenly felt like he was living the dream.


    Before this, he had never once thought he would have so much cash on him.


    For the past two days, Su Lei slept with the money close to him until he finally deposited it into the bank ount he had just opened in Fortress 178. He was the only one who knew the password.


    After that, Su Lei started sleeping alone. When he slept, he would make sure no one was around him. He was worried he would reveal the password identally if he talked in his sleep.


    Su Lei purchased arge quantity of daily necessities at Stronghold 144. These were the items the young man from the grasnds requested.


    Last time, Su Lei was too poor and did not manage to get all the items. This time, in order to build a good rtionship with the customer, he picked all the best quality items to buy. He believed the young lord was a smart person, and that when he saw these items, he would know just how much effort Su Lei had put in.


    He had also considered what Zhang Gong told him. Even if he had bought cheap ironware to supply the customer, it was still ironware nheless. But every time Su Lei remembered the young man¡¯s half-smile, he felt it was better not to deceive a smart person like that.


    Not only that, Su Lei even purposely used a portion of the money he had received to buy gifts for the young lord from the grasnds. There was even an exquisite revolver among the gifts. Rumor had it that it used to belong to a high-ranking official of the Zong Consortium, and that he had sold off everything and fled to the Wang Consortium prior to Fortress 178 taking control of the Northwest.


    Initially, that official did not want to sell this gun, but the people in the ck market forcefully bought it from him anyway.


    The ck market¡¯s boss evenughed and said, ¡°You should have seen how cowardly that bastard was back then. He used to be all high and mighty, but he did not dare to make a sound even though he had a gun in his hand.¡±


    Su Lei understood then that some people were born to be sheep. Even if they relied on their kin in the Zong Consortium and climbed to a high-ranking position, it would not change their natures.


    Now that firearms were difficult to obtain, they should be in even shorter supply in a ce like the grasnds, right?


    Su Lei once thought about keeping the revolver for himself as he really liked it. But after some thought, he ced it back into the wooden box it came in. The bottom of the box was covered in velvet.


    Compared to his future business, would a gun be more important?


    Su Lei had been trying to establish a rtionship with the garrison troops in Stronghold 144 for the past few days, but reality told him he was still only a small fry. No one cared about him a single bit.


    ¡°Boss, why are you always hanging around those Fortress 178 soldiers these days? We¡¯re bandits, so we had better not get found out by them,¡± Zhang Gong said.


    Next to them, Cui Qiang, who was polishing his dagger, said, ¡°Boss has his own ns. Why do you care so much?¡±


    Su Lei sighed. ¡°That young lord in the grasnds definitely wants to get some firearms, and if we intend to sell firearms to him, it definitely won¡¯t work without the support of the Fortress 178 troops. But it¡¯s still early days, so let¡¯s wait until a chancees by in the future.¡±


    Actually, Su Lei knew that his reselling of daily necessities was only a small business. A ce like the grasnds would not have the ability to manufacture their own firearms, but which ruler would not want to have weapons so that they could stabilize their rule?


    Therefore, only a future firearms business would allow him to reach the pinnacle of his life.


    At this moment, a man suddenly sat down across from them and said with a smile, ¡°Hello, are you Su Lei?¡±


    When this man came over, Cui Qiang hid his dagger, and his muscles tensed. He was ready to pounce forward for the kill at any moment.


    Su Lei patted Cui Qiang on the arm before turning to look at the man opposite him and said with a smile, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m Su Lei. You are?¡±


    The man smiled and said, ¡°Who I am is not important. I heard that you all came here from the steppe?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not it. We only did some business with the nomads,¡± Su Lei said calmly.


    ¡°Oh.¡± The man took out 10,000 yuan and stuffed it into Su Lei¡¯s hands. ¡°Tell me about the situation in the steppe and this 10,000 yuan is yours.¡±


    Su Lei frowned. He suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of pressure from the other party¡¯s words. This person had just casually sat down in the wilderness outside Stronghold 144 without any fear that the several dozen of them would kill him.


    Cui Qiang sneered, ¡°You sure are ballsy, but why should our boss tell you that?¡±


    ¡°Because my fists are bigger,¡± the man said with a smile.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you see how many people we have here?¡± Cui Qiang said coldly. ¡°Oh?¡± The man smiled and said, ¡°Then why don¡¯t you turn and look outside?¡±


    Su Lei looked back in shock. He was surprised to find they had been surrounded by dozens of inclothes men armed with weapons at some point in time. The ck muzzles were all locked onto them and within shooting range.


    These were regr troops! They were definitely regr troops!


    Could they be Fortress 178¡¯s troops? No, if they were from Fortress 178, they would not need to be dressed in in clothes to deal with bandits like them.


    The man said with a smile, ¡°Su Lei, in that bandit town in the Northwest, although it no longer exists, you all were the only ones that survived. You even managed to make a deal with the nomads.¡±


    Su Lei said calmly, ¡°Sir, have we ever offended you in the past?¡± ¡°No.¡± The man shook his head.


    ¡°Then why are you threatening us like this?¡± Su Lei asked, ¡°Since you¡¯vee to look for us, you must have a motive, right? Just tell us directly what you want. Our bandit lives are worthless.¡±


    ¡°Haha, what a straightforward person!¡± The man cut off a piece of meat from a goat leg. ¡°Tell me about the steppe.¡±


    ¡°We didn¡¯t go to the steppe. We only delivered some daily necessities to them at the agreed upon location. After that, they handed over the fur hides and other local specialties to us,¡± Su Lei said.


    ¡°Oh, do they have a very powerful force?¡± the man asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re powerful or not, but I¡¯m very good at judging people. The person making the decisions is extremely smart. I believe that even if they aren¡¯t the most powerful force in the steppe, they¡¯ll be a force to be reckoned with in the future,¡± Su Lei said firmly.


    ¡°What does he want?¡± the man asked.


    ¡°Daily necessities, ironware, and medicine.¡± Su Lei said, ¡°But with medicine being a controlled substance under Fortress 178, we can¡¯t buy enough even if we had the money.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t they want weapons?¡± the man asked.


    ¡°Yes, but we can¡¯t get those,¡± Su Lei admitted honestly.


    The man smiled. ¡°Fortress 178 will not sell any weapons to you all to aid the nomads. That¡¯s because once the nomads get stronger, they¡¯ll be a threat to the Central ins. Zhang Jinglin will definitely not want to see a bloodbath happen.¡±


    When Su Lei heard this, he realized he was just a small-time bandit after all. He did not understand much about the situation or the important figures from the various forces, so he was unaware of something like that.


    Only now did he realize that Fortress 178 would not possibly sell them any firearms. In that case, his business would have to be limited to reselling daily necessities. This left Su Lei feeling a little bad.


    But the man changed the subject. ¡°But while Fortress 178 will not sell you firearms, we can. Let¡¯s start over and get to know each other again. Hi, my name is Xu Man.¡±

 Chapter 722 - A new deal

    <h4>Chapter 722 A new deal</h4>


    The railroad linking the Qing Consortium and the Northwest was still under construction, but the trade between them had already started.


    When Qing Zhen appointed the person to take charge of this matter, he did not consider anyone but Xu Man. Only he was the most suitable candidate for the job.


    It had to be known that Xu Man oversaw the growth of the bandit forces in the valley, and it could be said that many of Qing Zhen¡¯s ns had always been executed perfectly whenever he handled them.


    In the Qing Consortium, it would not be enough if it were only Qing Zhen alone who had to deal with this chaotic world. His farsightedness still required strong executioners.


    Therefore, Xu Man could be said to be the Qing Consortium¡¯s principal person who oversaw their Northwestern strategy.


    One of the more important matters in recent days was that Wang Fugui had brought back with him a group of merchants from the Central ins. The amount of goods he hauled back to the Northwest made the other merchants extremely envious.


    One of Xu Man¡¯s subordinates suggested they make contact with Wang Fugui and groom him to be an agent of the Qing Consortium.


    However, Xu Man rejected the suggestion with an astounded expression. Others might not know about Wang Fugui, but how could he not know? That was not someone he could nurture.


    Another important thing was that a batch of fur hides had suddenly appeared in the market.


    Logically speaking, it was just a bunch of fur hides and not some strategic resources that appeared, so it should not have raised any concerns.


    But Xu Man still personally made a trip over. When he saw the corsac fox fur hides, he immediately realized these goods must havee from the steppe.


    <b>NO</b>


    When normal people heard about the steppe, they would only get reminded of groups of nomadic tribes and barbarians. However, Xu Man deeply understood Qing Zhen¡¯s concerns. The steppe meant a great deal to the Qing Consortium.


    Just like how Wang Shengzhi had specially made a trip to the Northwest to persuade Zhang Jinglin to help him suppress the Qing Consortium, Qing Zhen needed someone to suppress the Wang Consortium! Although the steppe was thousands of kilometers away from the Qing Consortium, the nomadic tribes there could get to the Wang Consortium immediately by passing through Stronghold 176.


    If such geography were consolidated, it would create the same banditry situation as the valley that had annoyed the Yang Consortium back then, and annoy the Wang Consortium as well.


    Just as Xu Man had said, Zhang Jinglin would definitely not allow something like that. That was because too many people would die if it ever happened.


    But Qing Zhen had always been an unscrupulous person. The only people he wanted to protect were the Qing Consortium¡¯s people in the Southwest. The lives of others had nothing to do with him.


    Therefore, Xu Man found and approached Su Lei instead. He wanted to send firearms to the steppe to help one of the major powers there consolidate the territory!


    Xu Man got straight to the point. ¡°The business you¡¯re running now is too small. I also know full well that you aren¡¯t satisfied with just reselling some daily necessities. However, you definitely can¡¯t get any help from Fortress 178, so you can only rely on us.¡± ¡°Where exactly are you from?¡± Su Lei asked hesitantly.


    ¡°It¡¯s not difficult to guess.¡± Xu Man said with a smile, ¡°If you can¡¯t even guess that, I might have to find someone smarter to work with.¡±


    ¡°The Qing Consortium?¡± Su Lei asked. To be honest, he really did not expect the Qing Consortium would approach him.


    Xu Man smiled and said, ¡°Where did you guys do the deal?¡±


    Su Lei hesitated. He was a little worried that if he told Xu Man about this, the other party would bypass him and directly make a deal with that young man from the grasnds.


    Xu Man¡¯s smile got even wider. ¡°What? Are you afraid I¡¯ll steal away your business? Forget it then. Just pretend that I didn¡¯t look for you today.¡±


    However, when Su Lei thought about it again, Qing Zhen¡¯s name was well-known throughout the Southwest and Northwest. He would definitely not do something meaningless. So why was the Qing Consortium trying to help the nomads in the Northern ins? They must definitely be plotting something. Now that Xu Man had secretly approached him, the Qing Consortium¡¯s n was definitely not supposed to be found out by anyone else. In fact, the n should not even be headed by someone from the Qing Consortium. What they needed was an agent!


    Su Lei said, ¡°It¡¯s right next to the Shenmu River. It¡¯s almost time for the deal to happen. You may send someone to tag along with me for this first transaction.¡±


    Xu Man patted Su Lei on the shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re truly a smart person. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll send five toons with you this time. There won¡¯t be a need for that again in the subsequent deals. Once the first transaction ispleted, you¡¯ll be a lieutenant in our Qing Consortium. If you ever want to retire someday, you cane to the Qing Consortium to live out your retirement. We can offer you a path to take a step back towards. But if you get discovered, killed, or captured during the deal, we won¡¯t acknowledge that you¡¯re our people. However, we¡¯ll definitely try to save you. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard of our Qing Consortium¡¯s reputation before. We never let down those who¡¯ve worked hard for us.¡±


    These words made Su Lei a little happy. Just as Xu Man had said, the Qing Consortium¡¯s reputation was not only that of Qing Zhen¡¯s great wisdom, but also how well treated the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers were, how united they were, and how greatly Qing Zhen empathized with his subordinates.


    Didn¡¯t the Qing Consortium and the Pyro Company have a conflict years ago over the Pyro Company¡¯s capture of Qing Zhen¡¯s people?


    Now that he had gotten Xu Man¡¯smitment, it was equivalent to having another way out in the future.


    When Xu Man saw Su Lei¡¯s expression, he already knew the oue. He got up to leave. ¡°Alright, pack your things and follow me to collect the firearms. After that, we¡¯ll head to the Shenmu River as soon as possible toplete the transaction.¡±


    Seven dayster, Su Lei and the others quietly arrived on the bank of the Shenmu River. They waited quietly for that young man to arrive. But even after a day had passed, they still did not see anyoneing. By the riverbank, Su Lei had gained an additional fewrge cargo trucks since thest time he was here. Meanwhile, Xu Man was standing behind him and would be observing the transaction as Su Lei¡¯s subordinate this time.


    Xu Man asked, ¡°Why aren¡¯t they here yet?¡±


    ¡°The nomads might not have a good sense of time, or they could have been dyed by something important.¡± Su Lei said, ¡°They also arrived two dayste the previous time.¡±


    As they were talking, the sound of horse hooves clopping came from the frozen surface of the Shenmu River. Xu Man turned around and looked into the fog. He saw a group of people graduallye into focus.


    Hassan spurred his horse to the front of the group. He greeted Su Lei from afar, ¡°Friend, I¡¯m sorry that I¡¯mte. My master sends his apologies.¡±


    Su Lei smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine. As long as it doesn¡¯t affect your master¡¯s business, I won¡¯t mind even if I have to wait another month. But where¡¯s your master?¡±


    ¡°My master has more important matters to deal with, so I¡¯ll be the one doing business with you from now on.¡± As Hassan spoke, he looked at the people behind Su Lei and suddenly turned wary. ¡°Brother Su Lei, these people weren¡¯t here during the previous deal.¡±


    Su Lei exined with a smile, ¡°These are the new subordinates that I¡¯ve recruited. Furthermore, I¡¯ve got a huge surprise for you this time. The things that your master wanted most, I¡¯ve brought them!¡±


    Hassan muttered, ¡°Brother Su Lei, look at you. You¡¯re getting so excited just because you¡¯ve brought some cabbages?¡± Su Lei stiffened. ¡°I¡¯m not talking about cabbages!¡±


    He gave a wave of his hand and had Cui Qiang bring out an automatic rifle. Cui Qiang pulled back the charging handle on the rifle and fired it into the sky. The hot shell casingnded on the surface of the ice and burned through it.


    Cui Qiang handed the rifle in his hand to Hassan, who looked at the heavy gun happily. ¡°My master said that you would definitely bring him a surprise. I didn¡¯t expect it to be true.¡±

 Chapter 723 - Happy cooperation

    <h4>Chapter 723 Happy cooperation</h4>


    No one would dislike weapons, especially in a ce like the grasnds where fighting and killing weremon, and even tribes could be destroyed at any moment.


    In the grasnds, whoever had guns would have a louder say than the others. In the early years, this was the reason why thoserge tribes becamerge tribes.


    However, the dpidated guns in the hands of therge tribes could not even bepared to the brand-new weapons in front of them. The quantity of weapons was also iparable.


    Xu Man, who was standing behind Su Lei, took out an automatic rifle from a wooden box and casually aimed it at a rock a 100 meters away. With two shots, the rock shattered into pieces.


    ¡°The effective range of this firearm is 400 meters, with a maximum range of 600 meters.¡± Xu Man said, ¡°There are a total of 300 automatic rifles here, 20,000 rounds of ammo, a 1,000 grenades, and two heavy machine guns with an additional 20,000 rounds of ammo. It¡¯s just that we came here in a hurry this time, otherwise we would¡¯ve brought even more with us. We can make another transaction at the same time next month. At that time, we can even get artillery if that¡¯s what you need.¡±


    Su Lei was secretly shocked when he heard that. As expected, the Qing Consortium¡¯s people were far more confident with their promises. They were even nning to transport artillery to the grasnds!


    Xu Man said to Hassan with a smile, ¡°Actually, we can get you armored vehicles as well, but there¡¯s probably no way to build a supply line in the steppe for armored vehicles. So it wouldn¡¯t be feasible even if we gave them to you. But it won¡¯t be toote to talk about it after you all have unified the grasnds.¡±


    Hassan was looking down at Xu Man from his horse. He suddenly said with a smile, ¡°My master said that if the consortiums in the South were smart, they would have their people tag along for this deal. He told me not to ask who you are and only wanted me to pass you a message. He says that he likes being friends with smart people.¡±


    Xu Manughed out loud. ¡°Simrly, we also like being friends with smart people. Consider this batch of weapons our meeting gift.¡±


    When Su Lei heard that, his expression immediately turned bitter. How was he going to make money now that the weapons had been given away? Hassan also said, ¡°Then please ept the goods that we brought this time as a gift to you all as well. In the future, when you all visit the grasnds as our guests, I, Hassan, will personally ughter goats and cows to serve you, my new friends.¡±


    ¡°Deal,¡± Xu Man replied.


    Su Lei was overjoyed. Hassan had brought along quite a lot of fur hides this time, and Xu Man would definitely not be interested in the things. In the end, they would still end up in his hands.


    By being the broker just this once, he could already receive such massive returns. Su Lei suddenly had an even higher expectation of the future.


    As for the reason why Xu Man had given the weapons as a gift, that was because while the items might be in demand in the grasnds and were very coveted by Su Lei, they were not worth much to the Qing Consortium.


    He was basically giving them away by the tens of thousands of bullets and hundreds of automatic rifles. What was that number to the Qing Consortium?


    To be honest, Xu Man also realized the master Hassan was referring to was a smart person. What he was trying to find the most right now was also a smart person. Without someone like that, it would be impossible to keep the Wang Consortium in check.


    At this moment, Xu Man even regretted that he had brought too few weapons with him!


    Be it Xu Man or Hassan, both of them were happy with this deal. However, Su Lei suddenly asked, ¡°I¡¯m afraid y¡¯all have brought too few horses with you. These firearms are quite heavy. Can you transport them?¡±


    Xu Man added, ¡°If it¡¯s difficult for you all to transport them, we can also help with that. And if you don¡¯t know how to use these firearms, we can provide you with instructors as well.¡±


    Xu Man was hoping the grasnds would quickly get consolidated by these nomads. Only then would they have greater ambitions to spread into the Central ins.


    In the end, Hassan said with a smile, ¡°We¡¯ll talk about the matter of the instructors during the next transaction. As for how we¡¯re going to bring the goods back, my master told me before we set off that Su Lei would definitely bring a lot of things with him this time. So I¡¯ve also brought quite a lot of people with me.¡± With that, Hassan ordered a tribesman next to him to take out a horn. The melodious and sorrowful call of the horn drifted across the Shenmu River as though it were trying to blow the thick fog away. Hassan felt a little emotional. His master had said there would be people from the consortiumsing this time, and it really came true. His master also said Su Lei would bring a lot of items with him, so he specifically instructed him to bring more people along for the trip. In the end, it was really as his master had said.


    That young lord was a seer, always capable of seeing ahead of Hassan at all times.


    The divine predictions he made caused Hassan to revere him like a god.


    Currently, Hassan was Yan Liuyuan¡¯s most loyal believer. Moreover, he felt that more and more people in the grasnds would be devout believers like him as well.


    It seemed that Yan Liuyuan¡¯s power was born just for this, and it made the nomads unable to resist his rule.


    The galloping of horses came from the north. Xu Man saw several hundred strong men riding on tall horses break through the fog and arrive in front of them.


    Xu Man was a soldier. He sized up these men and was surprised by the valiant aura they exuded. At some point, Xu Man even wondered if it was the right decision to provide weapons to the steppe. These people were natural-born warriors.


    After Hassan left with a full load of goods, Su Lei stood beside Xu Man and said, ¡°Sir, what do you think?¡±


    Xu Man nced at Su Lei and said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so polite with me. You may take full authority starting from the next deal. You only have to report to me after each transaction ispleted.¡± ¡°I have another question.¡± Su Lei asked, ¡°Is it worth giving away all those things at once? The other party seems to be too smart. Will there be any problems if we send those weapons to the North like this?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just afraid that he¡¯s not smart enough and can¡¯t make good use of the weapons.¡± Xu Man smiled and patted Su Lei on the shoulder. ¡°What I fear the most is that I¡¯m helping out an idiot. If you help a smart person, you can support him with 10% of your strength, and he¡¯ll amplify that by 10 times. If it¡¯s an idiot you¡¯re helping, even if you support him with a 100% of your strength, he¡¯ll only be able to use 10% of that. The remaining 90% will all go to waste!¡±


    ¡°Then these fur hides...¡± Su Lei said tactfully.


    ¡°They¡¯re yours to keep.¡± Xu Man said with a smile, ¡°The Qing Consortium has never mistreated anyone who works for them. But I have a question for you. You said the young lord seems to know a great deal about the South? Then do you have any idea if he¡¯s been to the South before or if he was originally from there?¡±


    Su Lei carefully thought back and said, ¡°I guessed he was from the South because hisplexion wasn¡¯t as rough as Hassan¡¯s. He looks really delicate.¡±


    Xu Man fell into deep thought. If the other party was a Southerner, why hadn¡¯t he heard of anyone with such capabilities before?


    At this moment, Hassan was leading a group of several hundred people and heading towards the Northern ins. Just a month ago, he probably would not have been able to transport so many goods back. But it was different now. Their tribe had seized a new opportunity under the leadership of their master, and the number of people in the tribe had suddenly increased by severalfold.


    He had to hurry back to the tribe to help his master deal with the chaos in the steppe.

 Chapter 724 - I’m also not sure why the Pyro Company captured your khan

    <h4>Chapter 724 I¡¯m also not sure why the Pyro Company captured your khan</h4>


    When Hassan led the group back to the tribe, even though he had only been away for less than 10 days, he felt that it lookedpletely different again.


    Before this, their tribe was so small he could see everything with just a nce. But now, the tents that had been set up here were spread out far and wide. It was truly quite a spectacr sight.


    In just a few weeks, Yan Liuyuan had annexed about seven tribes of various sizes andpleted a rare and rapid expansion. But before Hassan could ride back into the territory of the tribe, he saw two people running over in a hurry. ¡°Hassan, hurry back. Something has happened at the royal tent.¡±


    Hassan¡¯s legs tightened around the horse¡¯s nks as he led the men behind him into the tribe. The so-called royal tent was where Yan Liuyuan was situated.


    Since someone said that something had happened at the royal tent, Yan Liuyuan might be in danger.


    The price of expanding too quickly was that the internal stability of the tribe would be difficult to ensure. This was because many of the tribes that had just been annexed might not truly be convinced by them, nor were they as loyal to Yan Liuyuan as Hassan was.


    As Hassan rode his horse towards the royal tent, he was surprised to find many people standing at the side looking on in silence.


    ¡°Raise your guns.¡± Hassan said coldly, ¡°Let¡¯s make a deep impression on these people!¡±


    With that, the hundreds of men raised their guns and fired them into the sky.


    The loud gunshots frightened the cows and goats of the various tribes and sent them scurrying in all directions. Meanwhile, the herdsmen of those tribes had looks of fear on their faces.


    They did not know where Hassan had gotten such sophisticated weapons from. All they knew was that these weapons were enough to intimidate them.


    While Hassan and the others were firing their weapons, all of the nomads in the tribal camp fell silent. There was only the cracking of gunshots and the screeching of livestock. This was a sign of submission in the face of strength.


    The grasnds were a ce where people worshipped the strong. If you were strong enough, everyone would acknowledge you from the bottom of their hearts.


    Some of the children wanted to pick up the shells on the ground that Hassan and the others had discharged from firing their weapons. But they were held back by their parents as they were afraid that Hassan would kill them as a warning to the others.


    Hassan arrived at the front of the royal tent and was surprised to find that the leaders of the various tribes were already standing outside it. One of them nced at Hassan before continuing to shout at the royal tent, ¡°As a battle-hardened warrior and also the chief of the t tribe, I¡¯m here to challenge you today to see if you¡¯re qualified to be our khan. Don¡¯t use those guns that you¡¯ve gotten from the Central ins people or use the wolves to scare me. A man should trust in his own strength, not something that emboldens them from the outside!¡±


    This was the difference between the nomads and the people of the Central ins. If this were the Central ins, with Yan Liuyuan having a 1,000 wolves at hismand and also possessing those sophisticated weapons that no one else had, who would possibly dare to challenge him?


    In the eyes of the Central ins people, that would be pure foolishness.


    But here in the grasnds, this chief of the t tribe was seen as extremely courageous by everyone.


    Moreover, if the chief of the t tribe were to win in the challenge, they would start looking down on Yan Liuyuan from the bottom of their hearts.


    Even Hassan did not know what to do when faced with this issue. Logically speaking, Yan Liuyuan would have to ept the challenge, but due to his loyalty to Yan Liuyuan, Hassan could not bear to see others provoking Yan Liuyuan like this. ¡°t tribe, if you want a challenge, let me, Hassan, take you on.¡± The leader of the t tribe sneered, ¡°You¡¯re not the one I¡¯m challenging!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s voice came from the royal tent. Curious, he asked, ¡°What I don¡¯t understand is that even if you do defeat me, I still own the guns, and the wolves won¡¯t leave my side, so what are you really after? You can¡¯t take away my authority, so isn¡¯t this challenge essentially meaningless?¡±


    The leader of the t tribe said ruthlessly, ¡°You colluded with the people of the Central ins and disrupted the rules of the grasnds. I, t Baghatur, won¡¯t stand for


    it!¡±


    ¡°When did I collude with the Central ins people?¡± Yan Liuyuan said calmly.


    ¡°Where did you get those guns from? And why did those Central ins people capture our khan?!¡± t Baghatur asked loudly.


    Yan Liuyuan said mncholically, ¡°I¡¯m also not sure why the Pyro Company has captured your khan.¡±


    When the Pyro Company¡¯s people arrived at their tribe, Yan Liuyuan was prepared to attack them. However, he realized they were only asking for directions. Their target was actually thergest tribe in the grasnds.


    At the beginning, Yan Liuyuan did not know what the Pyro Company¡¯s people were up to. Butter on, he heard the ruthless people from the Pyro Company had actually captured thatrge tribe¡¯s khan.


    This left Yan Liuyuan dumbfounded for two days as he could not figure out what the Pyro Company was up to.


    He knew the Pyro Company liked to capture supernatural beings to extract their DNA, but why did theye all the way to the grasnds to do that?


    Furthermore, this act by the Pyro Company had unknowingly helped Yan Liuyuan greatly. Yan Liuyuan was in a confrontation with thisrge tribe earlier. It was said that their khan was also a supernatural being. If the Pyro Company had not appeared, thisrge tribe would have been the biggest obstacle in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s n to unify the grasnds.


    Of course, Yan Liuyuan was not afraid of that either. It would have just made it very troublesome for him to achieve his goal.


    But now, that stumbling block had been cleared away by the Pyro Company.


    Actually, even Yan Liuyuan himself got the feeling that it was him who hired the Pyro Company to do that.


    For some reason, ever since he had the thought of unifying the grasnds, it was as though the Heavens were on his side. When he asked Hassan to handle the deal with Su Lei, he managed to bring back a batch of firearms by the second transaction. He wanted to eradicate thatrge tribe, but it ended up being taken apart even faster than he had expected. Right now, thatrge tribe was divided into three factions. The one that Yan Liuyuan had consolidated into his tribe was ostracized by the other two factions. After several battles, they had lost all of them and could only pledge allegiance to Yan Liuyuan.


    But after reaching this point, t Baghatur, who had gained a foothold among the nomads, remained unconvinced by Yan Liuyuan. That was why he wanted to challenge Yan Liuyuan today.


    They had not seen the wolves while they were here, so they were even starting to wonder if the wolves were real.


    But at this moment, exmations of surprise rang out outside the tribe. Arge number of tribe members started running into the campsite. When t Baghatur turned around, he saw the entire tribal camp was surrounded by countless wolves.


    The Wolf King, whose body was covered in snow-white fur, walked into the tribe alone. It did not hurt anyone, but its formless dignity caused everyone to take a step or two back.


    Finally, the Wolf Kingid in front of the royal tent and started resting as though nothing had happened.


    Yan Liuyuan walked out of the royal tent and stroked the Wolf King¡¯s neck with a smile. The Wolf King closed its eyes infort and rested.


    This was the first time the people of the various tribes had seen the wolf pack and the Wolf King since pledging allegiance to Yan Liuyuan. For a moment, they were so shocked they could not even speak.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at t Baghatur and said with a smile, ¡°You must be thinking that I look very weak, so you want to make me lose my dignity by challenging me. However, you¡¯ve made the wrong decision. I¡¯ll ept your challenge. But let me ask you again: Have you fully thought about the consequences?¡±


    t Baghatur¡¯s face turned red with boiling anger. He stayed silent for a dozen seconds before saying, ¡°I¡¯ve thought it through!¡±

 Chapter 725 - A new imperial court

    <h4>Chapter 725 A new imperial court</h4>


    ¡°I still want to challenge you.¡± t Baghatur said coldly, ¡°A battle-hardened warrior does not go back on their word on this steppe!¡±


    Calling himself a battle-hardened warrior was only a title, but there were less than 20 people in the entire steppe that were worthy of such a title. Once one became a battle-hardened warrior, they could immediately attract the following of some nomads who admired the strong, forming their own tribes in the process.


    Moreover, the most important issue was that t Baghatur had a strong personality. He was brave and had the traits of the nomads, so he would definitely not give up challenging this new khan just because there was the threat of the wolves.


    The nomads were used to using their courage and strength to win apuse and respect. When t Baghatur said he still wanted to challenge Yan Liuyuan, the Wolf King stood up. Suddenly, everyone felt that the already tall and burly t Baghatur looked a little insignificant in front of the Wolf King.


    Yan Liuyuan patted the Wolf King and said with a smile, ¡°Alright, don¡¯t scare him.¡±


    After that, the Wolf Kingid down docilely again. Even the servant, Hassan, was surprised by how loyal the wolves were to Yan Liuyuan.


    When the other nomads saw this, they were sincerely in awe of Yan Liuyuan. The nomads revered all kinds of mysterious powers and deeply believed that gods really existed in this world.


    Some of the elderly women in the tribe even knelt down in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s direction all of a sudden.


    Everything that was happening here would surely be iprehensible to the people of the Central ins. A lot of people from the Central ins would probably feel a little envious if they saw this. As long as they could disy some ¡°miracles¡± here, they would be immediately regarded as gods. Yan Liuyuan looked at t Baghatur. ¡°Let¡¯s get started then. Let me have a look at what battle-hardened warriors are capable of.¡± t Baghatur said, ¡°You need to exin to the wolves and your people first that this is a fair challenge. Even if I identally kill you, they cannot pursue the matter.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Yan Liuyuan said to Hassan with a smile, ¡°Did you hear what he said? If I get killed, you don¡¯t have to take it up with him.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan patted the Wolf King. ¡°You too.¡±


    Then everyone saw the Wolf King nod!


    A momentter, t Baghatur rushed towards Yan Liuyuan. However, he suddenly noticed some fine silvery patterns appearing on Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face. There was even a silvery glow in his eyes.


    The nanomachines Ren Xiaosu had given to his younger brother immediately activated and strengthened their master¡¯s physical body.


    Within his blood, bones, and muscles, the nanomachines were everywhere. They followed Yan Liuyuan¡¯s will and became his strongest support.


    t Baghatur shed down at Yan Liuyuan with his saber, but the de could not get any further than the top of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s head. Yan Liuyuan grabbed the de with his palm as though it were a toy handed to him by a child.


    With a snap, Yan Liuyuan snapped t Baghatur¡¯s saber in half. The broken saber continued shing down across Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face, but it still remained a fraction away from Yan Liuyuan¡¯s cheeks. Yan Liuyuan did not even blink as he watched the broken saber descend. When t Baghatur¡¯s saber came to a stop, Yan Liuyuan took a step forward and used the knuckle of his index finger to hit the other party squarely on the chest.


    Although it looked like a simple knock, it caused t Baghatur so much pain he nearly fainted. He clutched his chest and fell on his knees as though he were submitting to Yan Liuyuan.


    This battle ended as quickly as it started. To those watching, it looked like a god teaching his believer a lesson. This was not an evenly matched battle at all.


    Everything Yan Liuyuan did seemed so easy.


    Meanwhile, the surrounding tribal chiefs suddenly felt that everything made sense.


    If Yan Liuyuan were not strong, why would such powerful wolves follow him willingly?


    No, it was no longer enough to define Yan Liuyuan as strong. They started to seriously consider if Yan Liuyuan were really a god who had descended to the human world, just as Hassan had thought when he first met Yan Liuyuan.


    Yan Liuyuan was standing next to t Baghatur. He held the broken de in his left hand and ced it at his neck. The cold edge of the de caused t Baghatur¡¯s body to tremble.


    He did not say anything and seemed to be thinking about something. t Baghatur was still clutching his chest and panting heavily. He did not have any strength to resist at all.


    Hassan raised his gun and pointed it at the chiefs of the various tribes, as well as t Baghatur¡¯s fellow tribespeople. This was to prevent them from suddenly causing any trouble.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly said, ¡°Today, I will set up my imperial court here. The blood of t Baghatur will be used to draw the g of my court as a warning to those whoeter. A true king is needed in the steppe. Killing a person might not prove that I have the right to rule over y¡¯all. But follow me to the South in half a month¡¯s time. I¡¯ll bestow on everyone all the fame and glory that others can¡¯t give to you. Everything that the other khans can¡¯t do, I¡¯ll show you that it¡¯s possible!¡±


    With that, Yan Liuyuan shed the sharp edge of the de across t Baghatur¡¯s neck. Hassan immediately ordered someone to bring a wooden basin over to collect the blood that was gushing out of t Baghatur¡¯s neck.


    Yan Liuyuan turned around. Actually, he could have spared t Baghatur to show benevolence.


    But in these grasnds, there was no need for any benevolent rulers.


    If he wanted to unite the grasnds quickly, it would have to be through a bloody process. Yan Liuyuan did not mind showing benevolence, but that would have to wait until he unified the grasnds.


    As for how t Baghatur¡¯s tribespeople would react, Yan Liuyuan believed that Hassan would handle it very well.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan saw Xiaoyu looking at him worriedly from the royal tent.


    Yan Liuyuan walked back into the tent and said softly, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, do you think what I did today was a little cruel?¡±


    Xiaoyu touched his forehead. ¡°No, Liuyuan has grown up into a man. This is what you have to go through. I¡¯ve also thought about it before. The world does not allow us to be weak. You should rest for a while first. I¡¯ll go and cook for you.¡±


    Xiaoyu walked outside and looked back at the royal tent behind her. From today onwards, this would be the imperial court of the grasnds.


    It might look a little shabby now, but it was never mor that represented the authority of a leader. It was all about absolute power.


    Yan Liuyuan sat inside the tent in silence for a long time. Beside him, Tsetseg said, ¡°Let meb your hair for you.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned for a moment before chuckling. ¡°Alright.¡±


    Tsetseg went to get ab and dipped the wooden teeth of it into some clear water before brushing it through Yan Liuyuan¡¯s long hair.


    Even after going through a battle, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hair did not get messed up. Tsetseg said softly, ¡°You didn¡¯t actually want to kill t Baghatur, right?¡±


    Tsetseg could feel the dilemma in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s heart. It was as though he were personally destroying something within him, hardening his heart along the way.


    To others, Yan Liuyuan was a god.


    Initially, that was what Tsetseg thought as well. But after interacting with Yan Liuyuan for some time, she realized he was also a person of flesh and blood.


    But she liked the version of Yan Liuyuan she had in her heart more. It did not matter what he did, right or wrong.

 Chapter 726 - The strange canyon

    <h4>Chapter 726 The strange canyon</h4>


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s team had just arrived at a canyon in the Sacred Mountains. Cheng Yu received a message saying that Vani¡¯s team had encountered Li Shentan on the other side and that they had lost control of the situation there. Everyone in that team was even forced to watch Li Shentan do magic tricks every day.


    But at this moment, Cheng Yu actually felt a psychological sense of equilibrium in his heart. At least, it wasn¡¯t just his team that had encountered trouble. Inparison, even though their group had a troublemaker like Ren Xiaosu, they also had a great helper like White Mask. Although White Mask was unwilling tomunicate with them, Cheng Yu felt a sense of security with him in the group. Ren Xiaosu looked at the canyon in front of them. The edges of the stone walls on both sides of the canyon were as sharp as knives. He whispered to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Somehow, I feel that everything that we¡¯ve seen and encountered this time is really strange. It¡¯s just like a whirlpool that was designed by someone to trap all the Anjing House teams. This is simr to that tunnel at the bottom of East Lake back when it could copse at any moment.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had underestimated the Pyro Company in the past. That was because some of the Pyro Company members he had encountered were full of nonsense and not very good at fighting in a direct showdown.


    But ever since the fall of East Lake, he realized there was a reason why the Qing Consortium and the Saboteurs paid so much attention to the Pyro Company. The Pyro Company was never one to just sit back and do nothing about a situation.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard you mention who controls the Pyro Company before,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. ¡°I didn¡¯t mention it because the Pyro Company is not controlled by a single person. What¡¯s different about them is that while the other consortiums are led by a single n leader, the Pyro Company has five.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°You can¡¯t be sure of who¡¯s behind one of their strategies, or if they¡¯re working together.¡±


    ¡°Five leaders?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t they feud over the distribution of benefits?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what makes the Pyro Company unique.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Rumor has it that they have never had any disagreements about their interests before. Moreover, their roles are not like the other consortiums that have a board of directors. They¡¯re the chief scientists of five fields, and those five roles are fixed. Each person will lead a research team, and the organization will carry out research in five different areas. If one of them dies, a person on their team will rece them.¡±


    ¡°Then who do you think is the mastermind behind the fall of East Lake?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head.


    After walking into the canyon, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized there seemed to be signs of excavation and cracks on the stone walls on both sides of the canyon.


    The canyon was so rugged it looked like it was manmade.


    When everyone realized this, Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant asked curiously, ¡°Could it be that someone dug this canyon out of the mountain? Surely that¡¯s not necessary, right? It¡¯s not like this is the only way to get into the mountains, so why would they dig a canyon here?¡±


    They had been traveling in the wilderness all this time. The Pyro Company had also built roads in the mountains, but their group did not dare to take those routes.


    ¡°Alright, cut the crap.¡± Cheng Yu said, ¡°Hurry through here first.¡±


    Given the dangerous terrain of the canyon, it would be easy for them to get ambushed. Therefore, Cheng Yu did not want to waste any time here.


    <b>we</b>


    As they made their way through the canyon, everyone was cautiously guarding against the Pyro Company¡¯s sneak attacks. But when they were about to finish walking through the long canyon, the enemy still did not make a move. ¡°This doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. The Pyro Company would definitely not give up on using such a convenient ce for an ambush. This was their home field, after all, so they should be familiar with the terrain.


    As he spoke, ¡°Old Xu¡± passed everyone and was walking in front of the group. ¡°He¡± was the first to walk out of the canyon.


    Cheng Yu sighed and said, ¡°As expected, the stronger they are, the more responsible they tend to be. Look at White Mask. He¡¯s always walking in front of us to fend off any danger, but some people in the team are unwilling to do that.¡±


    There was an insinuation in his words. It was obvious that Luo Lan was being backed by Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin kept walking behind them the entire way. It was as though they were afraid they would be the first to bear the brunt of any danger.


    Ren Xiaosu ignored him. He could already see through Old Xu¡¯s vision that there was just a normal forest lying beyond the canyon. There was nothing strange about it, nor was there anyone lying in ambush outside the canyon.


    Everyone followed Old Xu out of the canyon. But the moment they stepped out, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant at the front of the group take out a gun and shoot someone next to him.


    It was not only Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant; many others also seemed to have gone crazy the moment they stepped out of the canyon.


    In just a short span of half a minute, three people in the team had already died at the hands of their own teammates. The people who went crazy were wielding firearms as bullets whizzed through the air.


    Ren Xiaosu quickly pulled Yang Xiaojin back into the canyon and called out to Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and the Great Hoodwinker.


    He looked at Yang Xiaojin and saw that her eyes were shut tightly. It looked like she was struggling with something. Ren Xiaosu was worried she might also have been possessed, so he prepared to knock her out. But before he could do anything, Yang Xiaojin opened her eyes again. ¡°There¡¯s something strange about this canyon. Quick, save Luo Lan and the others first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. He was surprised to find that Luo Lan and the others were also in a very chaotic state. It was just that they did not make any rash moves to kill the people around them.


    A bullet came out of nowhere and hit Luo Lan right in the leg. Luo Lan let out a cry, but the chaos was still not over yet. In fact, he even wanted to join in the chaotic battle ahead. When Ren Xiaosu realized something was off, he quickly pulled Luo Lan back and knocked him unconscious.


    After all, Luo Lan had only be a supernatural being a short while ago. Meanwhile, Zhou Qi and the Great Hoodwinker were in much better condition. Although they came around a little slower than Yang Xiaojin, they still managed to regain control of their faculties by themselves.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s first reaction was to quickly lie down on the ground and pretend to be unconscious. In the end, he was also helplessly dragged back into the canyon by Ren Xiaosu. ¡°What¡¯s going on? What happened just now?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin curiously, ¡°Why am I totally fine?¡±.


    ¡°The moment I stepped out of the canyon, I started hallucinating. In my hallucination, I saw you drawing your saber at me,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°Then how did you snap out of it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t think you would attack me. I realized it shouldn¡¯t be real, so I woke up,¡± Yang Xiaojin said matter-of-factly.


    Ren Xiaosu looked outside and quickly had Old Xu knock everyone out amid the chaos in an attempt to stop it.


    However, he realized that other than him, there were also others in the group who were still themselves. The young man named Wang Yun shuttled through the crowd and carefully avoided all the bullets. He first knocked out his subordinates and dragged them aside. Then he returned to the battlefield and killed four people in session!


    His gaze was extremely cold, and it did not look like he was possessed at all. The people he killed were all spies sent by hispetitors.


    The man took advantage of this opportunity to eliminate his enemies. It could be said that he was truly ruthless.


    However, to have saved his subordinates in such a chaotic situation, Ren Xiaosu did not know how to gauge the type of person he was.

 Chapter 727 - Wang Yun’s probing

    <h4>Chapter 727 Wang Yun¡¯s probing</h4>


    After Wang Yun killed those he wanted to kill, he immediately left the battlefield and waited quietly as the rest fought among themselves.


    He made a deliberate observation and realized that only Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, Zhou Qi, the Great Hoodwinker, Cheng Yu, and another woman were still conscious and unaffected.


    There were very few women in this group to begin with, so it was quite unexpected that other than Yang Xiaojin, she was also able to remain in control of herself.


    Before this, the young woman had always kept a low profile and did not even speak much in the group. But now, no one could continue pretending. To remain conscious after passing through this canyon, she had to be a supernatural being!


    Among them, it was obvious that Ren Xiaosu and White Mask had the strongest mental strength. Wang Yun¡¯s mind was only affected for a moment, probably four seconds at most. When he came back to his senses, he realized Ren Xiaosu and White Mask were totally fine. Even Yang Xiaojin was OK.


    He had already felt that there was a problem with Ren Xiaosu. From the look of it, it seemed like it was even a big problem. But in terms of mental strength, Ren Xiaosu and White Mask were indeed the most powerful among them. He wondered who the stronger one was.


    Unlike Cheng Yu, Wang Yun was not prejudiced in his judgment of Ren Xiaosu. After all, with the jumping rope and nursery rhyme incidents, it was really difficult for Cheng Yu to see Ren Xiaosu in a normal way. Therefore, he always had the thought that White Mask was capable while belittling Ren Xiaosu.


    However, Wang Yun felt that Ren Xiaosu might not necessarily be weaker than White Mask. After all, those who did not reveal themselves were the ones who were the scariest these days.


    At the moment, other than Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and the Great Hoodwinker, no one in the group knew the names of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Wang Yun felt there was a need to probe them a little. Perhaps their names had appeared before in that powerful memory of his. In that way, he could find out some clues about them.


    The top tier of the group had appeared. It was Ren Xiaosu and White Mask. The second tier consisted of Wang Yun, Yang Xiaojin, Cheng Yu, Zhou Qi, the unknown young woman, and Song Qiao.


    These people were the supernatural beings in the group. As for the remaining members, Wang Yun felt there was basically no need to rank them. Luo Lan¡¯s behavior had puzzled him before. He was like a supernatural being, but his willpower did not seem that strong, so he temporarily ruled him out.


    This was a coincidence. Luo Lan had just awakened his power, and it was very difficult for him topare with other supernatural beings in terms of willpower. So he was ruled out by Wang Yun.


    Ren Xiaosu finished making ¡°Old Xu¡± knock everyone unconscious. Next to him, Yang Xiaojin asked softly, ¡°Did you experience any hallucinations throughout all these?¡± ¡°Oh, I did, I did!¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°In my hallucination, I was about to raise my saber and sh it at you. However, I had an internal struggle and thought to myself at that time, ¡®How can I attack you? No matter who I attack, it mustn¡¯t be you.¡¯ And then I woke up.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes and said, ¡°Stop being melodramatic. I think everyone here thought they were being attacked, but you¡¯re the only one who¡¯s hallucinating that you¡¯re attacking someone. Alright, stop faking it. So you were really not affected at all.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin remembered what she had said before. ¡°When a disasteres, mental strength bes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.¡±


    Then just how strong would Ren Xiaosu¡¯s willpower have to be?


    Even now, no consortium or organization in this world had a clear set of standards that defined a supernatural being¡¯s level.


    In fact, who in this world had the ability to define such superpowers? The Pyro Company could categorize their members from Ti to T5 as they only needed to look at their physical fitness, with the speed or strength of a punch or any other overall ratings to determine their levels.


    But the superpowers of other supernatural beings were unpredictable, so how could they be defined?


    Job roles could be defined, and sries could also be defined, but how were superpowers supposed to be defined? They could only be ssified by danger ratings. Yang Xiaojin knew that someone in the Saboteurs was alreadying up with a list to categorize all the supernatural beings that had appeared before. There would be ssifications based on different categories. However, she did not know the progress of this, nor did she know what rating Ren Xiaosu had been assigned.


    Cheng Yu had a worried frown on his face on the battlefield. There were originally more than 60 people in the team, and this was even the number after the two teams had merged.


    In the end, nine people had died in this chaos, six were seriously injured, and 17 others were lightly injured. It was quite tragic.


    He did not even know how the Pyro Company did it. They had only just stepped out of the canyon before they started attacking one another.


    Cheng Yu looked at the people who were still conscious. ¡°Did you all also experience a hallucination that someone had attacked you?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Wang Yun nodded.


    ¡°It seems like there¡¯s something strange about this canyon.¡± Cheng Yu said, ¡°Everyone, let¡¯s help save the wounded first. We¡¯ll talk about it after they wake up.¡±


    ¡°What should we do with the seriously injured?¡± Wang Yun asked, ¡°Should we continue bringing them with us? Actually, I suggest we don¡¯t even bring along any of those who suffered light injuries. Who knows what else is waiting in the Sacred Mountains? The smell of blood is gonna make us a target in the wilderness.¡±


    ¡°No, I want to go into the Sacred Mountains!¡± Luo Lan gradually came to. He was the first person to regain consciousness...


    Gradually, the people outside the canyon started waking up as well. It wasn¡¯t so bad for those who were not injured, but those who were immediately started wailing in pain when they woke up. They might as well have remained unconscious.


    Luo Lan secretly asked Ren Xiaosu for the ck medicine before getting him to extract the bullet.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°Bear with it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Before Luo Lan could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu had already used a pair of forceps to clip the bullet out of his leg while he was distracted.


    This was to prevent Luo Lan from getting too nervous and having his muscles mp down on the bullet, which would cause him to suffer even more.


    Ren Xiaosu threw the bullet aside and said, ¡°Not bad, you didn¡¯t make a sound.¡±


    Luo Lan broke out into a cold sweat. ¡°I¡¯m not kidding you; I, Luo Lan, am a real man.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him another nce. Usually, Luo Lan wouldin about being tired even if he didn¡¯t seem so. He was as frivolous as he could be, and it made him seem like he was extremely unreliable. But during critical moments, some of his true qualities would surface and reveal themselves.


    ¡°Then why are you always pretending?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°It¡¯s not like you¡¯re azy person either.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t I just trying to strategically confuse my opponents?¡± Luo Lan chuckled. When the ck medicine was applied, his pain immediately went away.


    When Wang Yun saw they were conversing with one another in a rather rxed manner, he suddenly took the opportunity to ask Ren Xiaosu jokingly, ¡°By the way, we¡¯ve been traveling together for so long now, but I still didn¡¯t get your name yet. How should I address you? We¡¯ll still be traveling together for some time in theing days, so I can¡¯t possibly keep calling you ¡®hey,¡¯ right?¡±


    ¡°My name?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback.


    Wang Yun smiled and said, ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I was named too long ago, so I seem to have forgotten what it is.¡±


    Wang Yun was surprised. What kind of fuckingme excuse was that?!

 Chapter 728 - Li Shentan’s DNA sample

    <h4>Chapter 728 Li Shentan¡¯s DNA sample</h4>


    In the world of adults, if I didn¡¯t want to answer your questions, I would juste up with an excuse to reject you, and you should know to back off.


    Wang Yun understood this logic, but he just could not understand how this young man had the nerve to find such ame excuse to do that.


    However, he could be sure of one thing now. The other party was definitely not a nobody. His name must havee up in some past incidents, which was why he was unwilling to give his name.


    Wang Yun thought about it carefully and tried to recall if there was anyone in his memory that matched Ren Xiaosu¡¯s characteristics. Right at this moment, Wang Yun suddenly remembered a photo!


    It wasn¡¯t really an important picture, and it was even filed together with some ss C intel.


    The Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence assessments were divided into four sses: A, B, C, and D. These four sses were used to differentiate the importance of the intel and prioritize them. Usually, directors of the intelligence agency would only read through the ss A and B intel. As for the ss C and D intel, they would at most give them a passing nce.


    Most people would forget them immediately after seeing them, but Wang Yun was different. His memory was ridiculously good. That picture was of two sculptures that had just been erected on Wangchunmen Boulevard in Luoyang City. Although the Qinghe Group had tried its best to hide the true silhouette of the two sculptures, the girl¡¯s cap remained on Wang Yun¡¯s mind.


    Previously, Wang Yun did not take notice of this at all as there were many girls who wore caps. Two years ago, there was a celebrity who was famous throughout the Central ins who especially liked wearing caps, so a lot of girls imitated her fashion sense.


    But now, it was clear that Ren Xiaosu was likely much stronger than him. Therefore, Wang Yun¡¯s range of conjecture shrank infinitely as well.


    Instantly, Wang Yun got down to guessing. He had also heard about the battle at Wangchunmen Boulevard back then, but because the Kong Consortium¡¯s people had been killed by Wang Wenyan, he did not manage to get any concrete intel.


    From the look of it, it was very likely this young man and young woman in front of him were the ones who defeated all the consortiums in that battle.


    In that case, it also meant he was the legendary superhuman who had destroyed a stronghold in the Northwest!


    Thinking of this, Wang Yun was a little baffled. Disregarding the whereabouts of his reinforcements, even if they were still trailing behind him right now, he also couldn¡¯t be sure if he would be a match for the guy in front of him.


    Moreover, White Mask had also appeared in Luoyang City back then and helped the Qinghe Group and the Riders. Could it be a coincidence that this young man and White Mask had appeared here together as well then?


    He did not fucking believe that such coincidences existed in this world!


    Wang Yun had always been a very conceited person, but he was also very aware of his own capabilities. He knew his greatest advantage was his brains, status, and the support this status brought him. He was indeed very strong in terms of his superpower, but he was definitely not the strongest.


    Wang Yun knew very well that the strongest group of supernatural beings had already started to break away from the boundaries that defined humans.


    However, Wang Yun thought that since he had not offended the other party, they were not on opposing sides yet.


    But this time, the Pyro Company would probably be the ones getting a headache now that these two had arrived in the Sacred Mountains.


    Thinking of this, Wang Yun calmed down again. He even started to worry for the Pyro Company.


    Of course, Wang Yun felt that just these two people alone would not be enough to deal with the entire Pyro Company. After all, the Pyro Company was already prepared for their arrival. Who knew what kinds of traps had been set for them?


    Wang Yun started getting excited as he really wanted to witness this battle. It would be great if the Pyro Company, the young man in front of him, and White Mask were to inflict damage on each other so that both sides would suffer!


    However, what Wang Yun did not know was that Li Shentan, Zhou Yingxue, and Si Liren were currently leading a team into the canyon of the mountains on another route.


    The canyon Li Shentan and the others were facing was almost exactly the same as the one Wang Yun and the others had encountered.


    Just as they had guessed, this was a protective barrier set up by the Pyro Company in the first ce. They could easily intercept most uninvited guests who tried to pass through here without having to trouble themselves.


    If it weren¡¯t for Ren Xiaosu and ¡°Old Xu,¡± Wang Yun¡¯s group would have already suffered more than 30 casualties!


    Li Shentan raised a little red g and said, ¡°Come, everyone at the back, follow close behind me. Let me emphasize this again: After we enter this canyon, you all just have to keep your eyes fixed on this little red g. Don¡¯t go looking elsewhere, understand?¡±.


    There was a scattered response from those at the back of the group. ¡°Understood...¡±


    Li Shentan did not seem too satisfied with everyone¡¯s response. He said, ¡°Have you all not been eating? This canyon is very dangerous. If you all can¡¯t understand what I¡¯m saying, I¡¯ll have to hypnotize you all for the sake of your own safety.¡± Vani took the lead and roared, ¡°Understood!¡±


    Vani felt a sense of helplessness inside. For the past few days, Li Shentan had constantly been talking about hypnotizing everyone. All of them knew this was just a threat, but they could not muster up any resistance.


    Over at Cheng Yu¡¯s side, he got overshadowed by Luo Lan¡¯s thughlike demeanor and had his authority usurped as a result. At the same time, everyone was also waiting to see Cheng Yu make a fool of himself.


    But it was different here at Vani¡¯s side. Everyone was cooperating closely with Li Shentan because they were acting upon their inner desires to survive...


    In the legends that spoke of Li Shentan, he was someone who could kill 5,000 people without batting an eyelid. The number of people they had in their group was not even enough to satisfy his appetite for killing!


    At this moment, Li Shentan was acting just like a tour guide, holding a little red g as he walked in front of the group.


    As they walked, he exined, ¡°The problem with this canyon is not exactly a mystery. As you all can see, there are signs of manmade excavation marks on the cliff walls. You all must be thinking that the Pyro Company must have nothing better to do, right? Why did they insist on digging out a useless canyon here? But that¡¯s not it. Every trace of excavation marks here was made to hypnotize you all. Although I don¡¯t know what it¡¯s for, you all might start hallucinating and killing each other after walking through this canyon. There¡¯s also a possibility that you might end up in a vegetative state.¡±


    Vani muttered at the side, ¡°As if it¡¯s that mystical.¡±


    Li Shentan turned to Vani with a smile. ¡°You don¡¯t believe in my professionalism?¡±


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not it.¡± Vani quickly shook his head.


    Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know why the Pyro Company has someone who¡¯s proficient in the art of hypnotism either, but I know that DNA samples were stolen from the Li Consortium¡¯s psychiatric hospital that I was staying in several years ago. It¡¯s very likely that the Pyro Company was behind it.¡±


    Vani was taken aback. This was something they really did not know about.


    Li Shentan pondered things for a moment. ¡°Then will I encounter another me in here? At that time, Little Liren had not been admitted into the psychiatric hospital yet, so they did not manage to get a sample of her DNA. However, they did steal mine. It¡¯s so interesting just thinking about it!¡± When Vani and the others heard this, they were deeply worried. If there were really another Demon Whisperer from the Pyro Company here in the Sacred Mountains, that would be too dangerous.


    But while they were worrying, Li Shentan turned to them and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, if there really is another me in here, I¡¯ll kill him.¡±


    Vani was stunned. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°So that he won¡¯t steal my limelight!¡± Li Shentan said matter-of-factly.

 Chapter 729 - T6

    <h4>Chapter 729 T6</h4>


    Actually, most people were unaware that the DNA samples at the Li Consortium¡¯s psychiatric hospital had been stolen. At that time, the various consortiums had only just learned about supernatural beings, so they did not pay as much attention to it as they did now.


    That was why the Pyro Company¡¯s n to steal the DNA samples had gone extremely smoothly back then. The psychiatric hospital was even only guarded by the private troops at that time, and such defensive measures were as good as none to the Pyro Company. If the Pyro Company had not unintentionally angered Qing Zhen, they might still be operating unopposed in the Southwest.


    However, a lot of people would not have thought that two of the most powerful supernatural beings used to stay in a psychiatric hospital in the Southwest. It could even be said that the era of the Rise of the Gods had started with them.


    Li Shentan, Chen Wudi.


    When Vani found out about this, he instinctively felt that something was not right. He did not even know whether Li Shentan, who was next to him, was friend or foe. If another Demon Whisperer were to pop up here in the Sacred Mountains, who could deal with them?!


    Moreover, this could be someone even more troublesome to deal with than the Demon Whisperer.


    In the past, everyone¡¯s understanding of the Pyro Company was that those in their fighting forces did not have any special powers at all. It was just their physical fitness that was much better.


    <b>as n</b>


    Some people even wondered if the Pyro Company had really managed to replicate any of the superhumans¡¯ powers after collecting so many of their DNA samples. If they did, why didn¡¯t anyone encounter those clones before?


    Since they were unable to clone an exact copy of those supernatural beings, why did they go through all that hassle to capture them?


    But now, the canyon they were facing had proven the Pyro Company really did have the capability to replicate powers. Such hical scientific practices had been going on in the Pyro Company all this time. It was just that the outside world did not know about it!


    Rumor had it that there were still T6s above the T5s in the Pyro Company. Vani felt he could probably guess what kind of being a T6 was.


    So the reason the Pyro Company had lured everyone to the Sacred Mountains this time was to create even more T6s? Li Shentan looked at Vani, who was frowning, and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s actually not that scary.¡±


    Vani looked at Li Shentan and thought to himself, ¡®Don¡¯t you know how terrifying you are?¡¯ He snapped, ¡°Let¡¯s make this clear first: Don¡¯t you hypnotize me. Let¡¯s talk about the facts now. If there really is someone in these mountains who has the same power as you, it will truly be disastrous for all of us. So please tell us honestly, what should we do if we really encounter them?¡±


    Li Shentan pondered it for a while. ¡°It seems that there¡¯s really nothing you all can do about it. You¡¯re all too weak.¡±


    Vani was irked. ¡°Can you not be so blunt with your speech?!¡±


    ¡°But don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s someone in these mountains that not even I can do anything about.¡± Li Shentanughed strangely. ¡°If there really is another Demon Whisperer in the Sacred Mountains, that person will definitely give him a big surprise! Just the thought of it excites me!¡±


    Vani felt a little helpless. He realized Li Shentan was excited for some reason. But when he thought about it carefully, he felt that something was not right. Li Shentan was actually admitting there was someone in the world he could not do anything about?


    Just what would that person who could make a legendary supernatural being like Li Shentan ashamed of his inferiority be like?


    Could it be Zhou Yingxue¡¯s boss?! It wasn¡¯t that difficult to connect the dots.


    ¡°Besides,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°the reason why supernatural beings can be supernatural beings is because of their willpower. What is willpower? It¡¯s something that gic predisposition determines the baseline of a person¡¯s potential of, while their experiences and mentality decide how far they can go. How can a freak that was cloned possibly defeat me?¡±


    As he spoke, Li Shentan exuded so much confidence it even felt tangible. This was the first time Vani had seen Li Shentan¡¯s arrogant side.


    Yes, this was exactly what the Demon Whisperer should look like as per the legends.


    Vani was just about to say something, but he was surprised to see Li Shentan raising the little red g again. ¡°Alright, alright, don¡¯t get distracted at the back; keep up with the group. Let me give you a simple exnation of this canyon. Look at the fine engravings on my left-hand side. It actually leads you to open up your subconsciousness as you advance through the canyon. Then there will be patterns that hint to your subconsciousness. Everyone, just take a quick look at it but not for a moment longer. Eyes back on the little red g now. That¡¯s right, keep moving forward with me...¡±


    At some point, Vani felt that Li Shentan was really just like a tour guide. He even providedmentary along the way. Si Liren floated next to Li Shentan and asked softly, ¡°Do you think there will really be another you out here?¡±


    ¡°Your question is not urate.¡± Li Shentan corrected her, ¡°There might be someone who has a simr power as mine, but it¡¯s not another me.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Si Liren nodded. ¡°Then can you really defeat him?¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± Li Shentan said. ¡°Why?¡± Si Liren still did not understand Li Shentan¡¯s confidence. ¡°He might have undergone training here in the mountains for a long time and mastered many ways of killing people. But you? All you do every day is do magic tricks and mess around, so what makes you think that you can defeat him?¡± Li Shentan held the little red g in one hand and fiddled with the exquisite silver coin in the other. He thought for a moment and said, ¡°Because he¡¯s iplete.¡± ¡°What¡¯s he missing?¡±


    ¡°Whatever makes a person human.¡±


    Si Liren stayed silent for a while before muttering, ¡°Isn¡¯t it because he doesn¡¯t have me beside him?¡±


    Si Liren had been questioning him all this while because she wanted to hear this answer. She did not care about the other reasons.


    Li Shentan was taken aback for a moment. ¡°That is quite a novel way of putting it.... But I agree that Little Liren is the best!¡± Si Lirenughed. ¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡±


    ...


    On the other side, Cheng Yu and the others were already preparing to set up camp outside the canyon. Wang Yun had managed to save all of his own subordinates. Of course, it would be easy to say that they should leave the wounded behind, but none of the others would do that. Since their teammates were injured, they had to dy their journey temporarily.


    Cheng Yu took a look at his cell phone. There was no signal when they were in the canyon. After exiting it, he received a text from the Anjing House: ¡°The other teams have suffered heavy casualties.¡± Currently, six other teams were advancing towards the interior of the Sacred Mountains as well, and like them, they also encountered a canyon.


    Nobody knew when the Pyro Company had built these canyons, but its purpose since it was constructed was to fend off external enemies by killing them.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the others preparing to set up their tents, he stopped them and said, ¡°Don¡¯t set up camp here.¡±


    Someone looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Why? We have so many wounded teammates, so it won¡¯t be possible to advance any further for now.¡± Another person said coldly, ¡°If you want to leave the wounded behind, go into the mountains by yourself. We¡¯re not leaving anyway.¡±


    Wang Yun looked at Ren Xiaosu with great interest. He really wanted to know what this young man was trying to tell them.


    Ren Xiaosu got up and beckoned to Luo Lan and the others to leave with him. As he got up, he said, ¡°Setting up camp here is no different than waiting for death.¡±

 Chapter 730 - Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!

    <h4>Chapter 730 Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!</h4>


    Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu as he prepared to leave with Yang Xiaojin and the others. He could not understand what they were talking about. What did setting up camp here have anything to do with waiting for death?


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Cheng Yu asked.


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t the ambush at this ce devised by the Pyro Company?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. ¡°Of course it was. Who else could it be other than them?¡± Cheng Yu said.


    ¡°And what is the Pyro Company after?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    What the Pyro Company wanted was the DNA samples of supernatural beings!


    That was why the Pyro Company members immediately went to collect the DNA samples after the tarants attacked the group. But this time, all of the teams had suffered heavy casualties. If they were to set up camp again on the spot, they would probably be attacked immediately by the Pyro Company. This was not spection but a certainty.


    It wasn¡¯t like the rest of the people were stupid either. Something clicked in their minds the moment Ren Xiaosu said that.


    No matter what injuries they had sustained, they still got up from the ground.


    Yang Xiaojin watched this unfold quietly. Back in the Jing Mountains, if the private troops had listened to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s suggestions more, they would not have beenpletely wiped out.


    No, wait! They were notpletely wiped out. Xu Xianchu had still managed to survive.


    As they were about to leave, Wang Yun led his subordinates to do something in the forest nearby. However, no one had a clear look at what they were up to.


    Curious, Cheng Yu asked, ¡°I saw you all holding some grenades just now. What are you all trying to do?¡±


    Wang Yun smiled and said, ¡°We¡¯re leaving a surprise for the Pyro Company, of course.¡±


    The route Ren Xiaosu chose to leave by had slightly deviated from the original n. They did not head directly towards the interior of the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains in order to avoid encountering the Pyro Company¡¯sbat troops.


    Before they could get far, those who had doubted Ren Xiaosu earlier heard an explosione from the direction of the canyon. Wang Yun¡¯s grenade trap must have been triggered by the Pyro Company¡¯s members.


    At this moment, everyone felt a sense of relief. They were fortunate to have left beforehand. Otherwise, the team would have lost even more members.


    Cheng Yu found a spot downwind and sat down. One of the wounded suddenly said, ¡°Many of you here are superhumans. Actually, even if we encounter the frontline troops of the Pyro Company, I doubt you all have anything to be afraid of. It¡¯s just that none of you are willing to do anything about it. We haven¡¯t even entered the interior of the Sacred Mountains yet. I¡¯ve calcted that it will take at least another two to three days before we can get there. It wouldn¡¯t be a good thing for all of you if we lose too many people now, right?¡±


    Another wounded person was ced on the ground by his teammates. The wounded person was panting heavily and looked like he was on the verge of dying.


    ¡°They¡¯re the ones who were injured today, but we might be the ones to get injured tomorrow. In a ce like this where we can¡¯t even call for backup, the consequence of getting injured is death,¡± a middle-aged man said.


    ¡°Why are you saying such depressing things now?¡± Luo Lan curled his lips. ¡°We¡¯re all here for our own interests, so don¡¯t make it sound like we¡¯re martyrs.¡±


    But no matter what Luo Lan said, it would not change this fact.


    Even though they were all from different forces, everyone came here with the same purpose. The deaths of the others would also somehow cause them to feel depressed. Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the pce say in his mind, ¡°Quest: Show the wounded there is hope.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. The definition of this quest was way too vague. How was he supposed to show them there was hope?


    He looked at the wounded personnel, then at Luo Lan before suddenly taking out a small vial of ck medicine and pointing at the wound on Luo Lan¡¯s leg. ¡°This is a secret ancestral remedy. Luo Lan was also shot just now, but his wound has already started healing. In another eight hours, he will be able to move freely again like a normal person. The wound will fully recover in two days.¡±


    When everyone heard this, they immediately turned to look at Luo Lan. Indeed, the gunshot wound on Fatty Luo¡¯s leg had already stopped bleeding


    Earlier, some people noticed Ren Xiaosu had secretly applied the medicine for Luo Lan. However, they did not expect the medicine to be so miraculous.


    Everyone¡¯s eyes lit up. Immediately after, they saw Ren Xiaosu put the ck medicine back into his pocket.


    Cheng Yu wondered, ¡°Didn¡¯t you take the medicine out for everyone to use? Why did you put it away again?¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°I just wanted to show it to you all.¡±


    Cheng Yu was confused. So were the wounded. Based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s understanding, the pce had only issued a quest for him to show his teammates hope. Since they had seen it, he felt it should be enough.


    The voice from the pce said, ¡°Questplete. Awarded Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He wondered that if the pce¡¯s reward criteria had a corrtion to the quest¡¯spletion level, then did it mean the pce thought he had done a good job this time?


    For a moment, Ren Xiaosu could not figure out what the pce was really trying to get him to


    do.


    But no matter what, the reward was still a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll. He had not received such a good item in a long time!


    Luo Lan¡¯s power that allowed him to summon his dead friends had been on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind for too long now. He really had very high hopes for this power.


    In the current times, the lives of humans were as worthless as weeds. One minute, you could be chatting with your friends, and the next, danger and disaster might befall everyone.


    Perhaps those friends might lose their freedoms after they became the golden figures that protected the user, but this was the only power Ren Xiaosu hade across so far that could ¡°extend¡± life.


    Moreover, Luo Lan¡¯s deadrades clearly still retained consciousness.


    As Luo Lan¡¯s mental strength was limited, he could not keep those golden figures outside for long. But it was different for Ren Xiaosu. He could!


    It could be assumed that Luo Lan had only awakened such a power because he sincerely cherished the lives of those soldiers.


    Superpowers were an extension of a person¡¯s willpower.


    But just as Ren Xiaosu was about to use this Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll on Luo Lan, he hesitated again.


    That was because Ren Xiaosu knew that Luo Lan was someone who always pretended to be weak, so he must have many other master-level and above skills on him. What if he could not pick that specific superpower to copy?


    Would life be that smooth-sailing? Could he always get what he wanted? In the past, he might have managed to duplicate the right skills because of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s luck enhancement on him. But now that he did not have the luck enhancement anymore, Ren Xiaosu had to be more cautious.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and wondered if he should first incapacitate all of Luo Lan¡¯s other master-level skills before using the scroll on him?


    But how should he incapacitate him? Break his hands and legs?


    Luo Lan realized that Ren Xiaosu was sizing him up, but he was a little spooked by it. He got an ominous feeling.


    But at this moment, the voice from the pce said. ¡°You may choose to learn a specific skill using three Perfect Skill Duplication Scrolls.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. Although it was a little wasteful to use three scrolls to learn a specific skill, it would definitely be worth it when said skill was especially important!

 Chapter 731 - Instigating Wang Yun’s defection

    <h4>Chapter 731 Instigating Wang Yun¡¯s defection</h4>


    If it were someone else¡¯s skill, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not waste two additional Perfect Skill Duplication Scrolls just so he could learn a specific skill. After all, three scrolls would allow him to learn three separate skills. Although he might end up learning some useless skills, they could still prove useful in the future.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu was not referring to the jumping rope skill.


    Ren Xiaosu asked the pce in his mind, ¡°When are you going to assign the rest of the quests?¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this for a moment. The answer from the pce this time seemed to be implying, ¡°Well, that would have to depend on my mood.¡±


    Alright, since he could not do anything about the pce¡¯s temperament, he could only patiently wait for it to assign the quests to him.


    While Ren Xiaosu was pondering, a wounded person looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Is that medicine of yours¡­ for sale?¡±


    ¡°I guess there¡¯s still smart people around here.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°There ain¡¯t no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Tell me, how much are you willing to offer for this medicine?¡±


    Just as Luo Lan had said, this group of people only came to the Sacred Mountains for the sake of their own interests. It wasn¡¯t like they were here for the sake of themon folk of the world, so their fate was none of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s concern.


    As such, he could give them the medicine, but not without a price.


    ¡°Is 20,000 yuan enough?¡± the wounded man asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°This medicine was created with ingredients harvested from extremely dangerous locations. 20,000 yuan won¡¯t even cover the costs to make it. I¡¯ll charge a million yuan per person and not a cent less. Y¡¯all should have opened anonymous bank ounts in case of emergencies, right? So don¡¯t give me excuses that you don¡¯t have any money on you. Think carefully about whether your life or your money is more important.¡±


    When the wounded person heard that, his expression turned bitter. ¡°Can you make it cheaper on ount that we used to be in the same trade?¡±


    In the end, it was Ren Xiaosu who got stunned. ¡°Same trade? You were a doctor too?¡±


    The wounded person exined, ¡°Oh, that¡¯s not it. I used to rob people¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was left speechless. His expression darkened. ¡°Do you still want to get treated?¡±


    Before the wounded person could reply, Wang Yun, who was standing nearby, suddenly said, ¡°How about this? Tell me first how many vials of medicine you have left?¡±


    ¡°Three.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yun and said, ¡°It¡¯s more than enough to treat these people. Why?¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll offer six million yuan and buy them all for everyone. What do you say?¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°That¡¯s my final offer. This way, it¡¯ll also save you some trouble.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Ren Xiaosu threw the three porcin vials right into Wang Yun¡¯s hands.


    At this moment, the wounded person eagerly looked at Wang Yun. It was far too difficult to encounter a good person in ces like these these days.


    But after Wang Yun handed an anonymous bank card to Ren Xiaosu, he waved the vials teasingly in front of the wounded people and said with a smile, ¡°Look, I have the medicine now, but I don¡¯t mind selling it to you all for cheaper. He demanded one million yuan for it, but I¡¯ll only ask for 500,000. However, all of you here are no ordinary people. How can your lives be so cheap? Therefore, I¡¯ll allow you to use a piece of information worth 500,000 yuan in exchange for it.¡±


    Wang Yun was in the field of intelligence work himself. Usually, he would have to pay a huge price just to get his hands on some valuable intel. But now, it would be much easier to take advantage of these people¡¯s desire to live in exchange for some useful information.


    It was not that Wang Yun was so dedicated to his job that he was still thinking about his responsibilities as an intelligence officer. But after he realized there were so many powerful people who hade to the Sacred Mountains, he felt he might not be able to get ahold of the No. 001 Experimental. After learning about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity, he was no longer confident of getting ahead of the Stronghold Destroyer and White Mask to get his hands on the target.


    Moreover, Cheng Yu also mentioned the Demon Whisperer had joined one of the other groups for this expedition. His presence would only make it more difficult for Wang Yun to achieve his objective.


    Wang Yun thought the Demon Whisperer and the Stronghold Destroyer actually sounded quitepatible and wondered if they knew each other. It would, of course, be wonderful if they could start fighting each other instead. If they didn¡¯t, Wang Yun would definitely not be a match for either of them.


    So, in order not to go back empty-handed, he would have to make some backup ns for himself.


    Even if he did not manage to seize the No. 001 Experimental, with such important intel, he could still gain a promotion when he returned to the Kong Consortium. Kong Donghai would understand at that time who was the mostpetent.


    ¡°Everyone should already know that I have an excellent memory and analytical ability.¡± Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°So don¡¯t try to fool me with some unimportant or false information.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu observed from the sidelines and thought Wang Yun was pretty quick-witted.


    Next to him, the Great Hoodwinker whispered, ¡°Future Commander, do you still have any of that medicine left? You canpete with him and gain some intel from the others instead.¡±


    However, Wang Yun turned to look at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I know you still have some of the medicine on you, but I¡¯ll share the intel that I gain here with you, so please don¡¯t make things difficult. You might be stronger than me, but I¡¯m better at analyzing the authenticity of the information they provide. Why don¡¯t we work together?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and stored the ck medicine he had just traded for.


    The Great Hoodwinker said with a sigh, ¡°Wang Yun is a smart person. Why did he choose to work for the Kong Consortium of all ces? A talented person like him should head to the Prosperous Northwest. The bureaucratic order in the Kong Consortium is too strong, and smart people will probably not live for long over there. However, things are different in the Northwest. Wang Fengyuan likes to recruit people such as him. Judging by how he saved his own teammates first, it at least shows he has good character. Someone like him is best suited to head to the Northwest where he can be edified by our fellowrades.¡±


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t you go and read his fortune for him?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to read his fortune.¡± The Great Hoodwinker muttered, ¡°Future Commander, when you do the information exchange with himter, you should position yourself cleverly so that I can get a picture of Luo Lan and Wang Yun in the same frame with my spy camera. Make him look like he¡¯s whispering to Luo Lan. Kong Haidong is a suspicious person. If the Kong Consortium gets ahold of this photo, Wang Yun won¡¯t be able tomand any important position in the consortium for the rest of his life. How can a person like him be willing to work under someone for long? When that timees, our old fellow, Wang Fengyuan, will get a chance to instigate Wang Yun¡¯s defection.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Great Hoodwinker in surprise. Wasn¡¯t this as good as forcing Wang Yun into a corner? ¡°Do you often do such things?¡±


    Embarrassed, the Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°I can¡¯t always be going on and on about the ¡®Prosperous Northwest,¡¯ right?¡± But at this moment, a seriously wounded person could no longer cling to life. Before he could wait for the ck medicine to treat his wounds, he died.


    Wang Yun did not feel any pity either. The team members who had been traveling together were hispetitors after all, so it did not matter if they died.


    However, something unexpected happened. Right as this wounded person died, gray, mossy tentacles extended out from the weeds on the ground and stabbed right into the corpse. It melted like a wax statue and quickly disintegrated.


    Everyone stood up in shock and looked at the ground in fear, afraid something would pierce them under their feet as well.


    But after waiting for a long time, there was still no movement.


    Soon after, the corpsepletely disappeared. Even the clothes hadpletely disintegrated to dust.


    This sight was so strange Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other in dismay. The two of them remembered almost at once the mystery of the missing corpse and the fish meat and bones back in the Jing Mountains.

 Chapter 732 - Sharing intel

    <h4>Chapter 732 Sharing intel</h4>


    Back when they were in the Jing Mountains, the entire expedition group was on tenterhooks due to the disappearance of their teammate¡¯s corpse. Before today, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why the fish meat and bones would vanish. The vanishing corpse could be exined as it could have been dragged away by the Experimentals.


    But surely the Experimentals would not be so desperate they had to resort to stealing fish meat and bones.


    Right now, the answer to this mystery finally yed out in front of Ren Xiaosu. He inexplicably felt his heart beating faster and faster as he looked at the ground. However, he was unable to ascertain what might be beneath it.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately manipted ¡°Old Xu¡± to start digging up the ground barehanded to look for that strange nt.


    Cheng Yu and the others were left dumbfounded by this sight. They felt White Mask was way too daring. Wasn¡¯t he afraid the nt would attack him?


    Everyone looked at Old Xu in silence. But even though Old Xu had already dug half a meter into the ground, there were still no signs of anything strange. It seemed that those gray, mossy tentacles had already retreated deep into the ground after feeding on the corpse.


    ¡°Does it only devour dead bodies?¡± Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant wondered. ¡°We have so many injured here, and there¡¯s a lot of blood dripping onto the ground, yet we didn¡¯t see it appear earlier on. It only came out right after that man died.¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t simply deduce that.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°It might also attack us while we¡¯re sleeping.¡±


    The situation was too uncertain. Based on the situation in the Jing Mountains, the deduction by Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant would have been correct. But at that time, the nt was proven to have not devoured any corpses in the presence of people.


    Ren Xiaosu suspected the strange nts in the Sacred Mountains were much more powerful than the ones they had encountered in the Jing Mountains.


    Of course, this deduction was also very logical. After all, the Sacred Mountains started undergoing changes much earlier than the Jing Mountains. Moreover, more than a year had passed since the expedition to the Jing Mountains.


    ¡°Then how are we gonna sleep at night?¡± This was the first thing Luo Lan was concerned about. ¡°I noticed that many of us only brought along tents without the waterproof ground cloths. We can¡¯t defend against this nt at


    all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said as he looked up at a tree and pointed at the forked branches, ¡°Then we can only sleep in the trees.¡±


    Luo Lan looked overhead hesitantly and attempted to climb up the tree. But when he tried toy on a branch, it actually broke under his weight.


    With a loud thud, Luo Lan fell from the tree and grimaced in pain. ¡°Any other ideas?¡±


    ¡°If you want to live, you had better find a thicker branch.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Although we might be overthinking things, it¡¯s better to be safe than sorry.¡±


    Luo Lan thought about it and quietly went off to search for a thicker branch. Ren Xiaosu had only managed to survive for so long in the wilderness because he lived by this saying: Better to be safe than sorry.


    In the evening, everyone remained silent as they sat in front of their campfires. Fortunately, Wang Yun had already finished gathering intel from the wounded personnel and treated their injuries.


    Although the wounded personnel were still in a pathetic state, at least their wounds were not painful anymore. They also knew they would not die due to an infection.


    Some of these people used their information to trade for the ck medicine, while the others simply bought the ck medicine off Wang Yun for 1.2 million yuan. Wang Yun did not push it too far either since he also wanted morepanions to travel with them into the Sacred Mountains.


    Wang Yun kept his promise and approached Ren Xiaosu. He said, ¡°I¡¯ve only five rtively important pieces of intel. Let me tell you them one by one. ¡°The first one was told to me by that young woman standing to my 9 o¡¯clock. She¡¯s a superhuman. When we exited the canyon, she was the sixth person to regain consciousness.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°Based on my observation, she has six otherpanions traveling with her, but I¡¯m still waiting to see which organization she¡¯s from. If I get any clues, I¡¯ll also share them with you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yun in surprise. This intel sharing was much more detailed than he had expected. He thought Wang Yun would try to fool him.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu asked in a serious tone, ¡°What do you want in exchange?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s always so easy tomunicate with smart people.¡± Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°My demands are simple. I only hope that if you really manage to get into the core region of the Sacred Mountains and find the No. 001 Experimental, you can give me a sample of his DNA. I won¡¯t need to take him away with me.¡±


    Wang Yun had to provide such ¡°premium service¡± to Ren Xiaosu because he was also trying to gain his support.


    Since he was not strong enough, he would have to rely on the strength of others to aid him. This was the basic principle that intelligence staff followed.


    Now that he was 80% sure that Ren Xiaosu was the Stronghold Destroyer, he would be a little foolish to not ride on his coattails.


    Therefore, Wang Yun wanted to use his expertise in exchange for some benefits from Ren Xiaosu.


    But Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t promise you that.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± Wang Yun was a little surprised.


    ¡°I can¡¯t provide you with what you¡¯re asking. Do you have any other demands?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    If the No. 001 Experimental were really Yan Liuyuan, how could he possibly use Yan Liuyuan¡¯s DNA sample in exchange for intel from others?


    Wang Yun immediately had another thought. It shouldn¡¯t require much effort to extract a DNA sample of the No. 001 Experimental since the human body had so much blood and tissue. He was only asking for a DNA sample, so why was the young man before him unwilling to agree to that?


    Unless the other party personally knew the No. 001 Experimental, or he knew there was something more to it and had a valid reason for not agreeing to the condition. But at least in Wang Yun¡¯s opinion, he could not figure out what this reason was.


    However, Wang Yun was not insistent on the matter either. He broke out into a smile and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t want to give me that. We can just change it to another condition. I¡¯d like to seek your protection to keep me from death. Whatever¡¯s within your power to do so. If your friends and I get put in danger at the same time, you can save them first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sized up Wang Yun. The other party¡¯s condition was actually not asking for too much. Whether to save him or not was entirely up to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s own judgment. Rather than calling this an exchange, it might as well be called a verbal agreement.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that I won¡¯t save you even if I can?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take a gamble,¡± Wang Yun said with a smile.


    ¡°Alright, it¡¯s settled then.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Tell me the rest of the intel.¡±


    ¡°The intel provided by this woman is regarding the Kong Consortium, which is also the organization I work for.¡± Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s no need for me to hide my identity anymore. I believe that you also know I¡¯m Wang Yun, the director of the Kong Consortium¡¯s 2nd Military Intelligence Division. She said that Vani from the Anjing House was the one who created the ident that led to the death of Kong Erdong, the head of the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency. I already knew about this, but she also added something that I didn¡¯t know, and that¡¯s that the Anjing House and the Wang Consortium have reached an agreement to assassinate more of the Kong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups in the future. From the look of things, the Wang Consortium is only doing this because they¡¯re ready to start a war.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®As expected, the Anjing House and the Wang Consortium are already working together.¡¯ Wang Yun said, ¡°I just don¡¯t understand something. In reality, politicians don¡¯t like to resort to assassination as a means to an end, because it won¡¯t look good on them. Besides, Wang Shengzhi, as a mature politician, should even be more like this. But now, it seems that he is also bing unscrupulous. It¡¯s as if... he¡¯s getting desperate.¡±

 Chapter 733 - Hey, that guy

    <h4>Chapter 733 Hey, that guy</h4>


    Under normal circumstances, assassinations were rarely used when the political arena was mature. If someone were discovered to have resorted to such methods, their political career would be tainted.


    But it seemed that Wang Shengzhi was not afraid of beingbeled with such infamy as he resorted to the most direct method to achieve his goals.


    Of course, these assassination attempts were only made possible due to the existence of supernatural beings. If this were the past, how could it be that easy to achieve?


    After the strength of the individual had surpassed a certain bottleneck, it would be very difficult to ensure the safety of leaders. This was also the reason why Qing Zhen moved into the military camp. He was more cautious than anyone else. Furthermore, he did not have any vices like Kong Erdong.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not particrly concerned about the conflict between the Kong Consortium and the Wang Consortium. He asked, ¡°What about the rest of the intel?¡±


    ¡°Another piece of intel was provided by the middle-aged man standing to our 7 o¡¯clock.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°I¡¯m quite sure he¡¯s from the Zhou Consortium, because I saw him during an operation. He said many of the businessmen on the Northwestern trade route are actually retired soldiers from the Wang Consortium. You should also know that the Wang Consortium has mandatory military service for its citizens. When it bes necessary, everyone can be called up for military service. So he feels the Wang Consortium might harbor ill will against the Northwest.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. He was wondering why the people working for the consortiums would betray their own organizations and supply intelligence to Wang Yun for 500,000 yuan. No matter how he thought about it, it seemed quite improbable.


    But now, he finally realized these people had only supplied intel about other organizations. Their main motive was not only to obtain the ck medicine but also to annoy the other organizations.


    For example, the middle-aged man from the Zhou Consortium obviously wanted to sow discord between the Wang Consortium and Fortress 178.


    In any case, there were no good intentions.


    Wang Yun continued, ¡°Another piece of intel regards the Qinghe Group. It was told to me by the young man standing on the left. He said Xu Ke¡¯s likely to leave office within a year. Afterwards, Xu Zhi, the rising star of the Xu n, will take over the Qinghe Group entirely. He said this matter might be directly rted to the battle in Luoyang City.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded nonchntly. Although he had a very good rtionship with the Riders, he did not care about their change in leadership


    The two remaining pieces of intel regarded the mobilization of the Zhou Consortium and the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops. Ren Xiaosu was even less concerned about this.


    After Wang Yun finished sharing his intel, he suddenly looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Since we¡¯re working together now, may I at least know what your name is?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Sure, my name is merci.¡±


    ¡°Mercy?¡± Wang Yun was puzzled. He felt this name sounded a little strange.


    Honestly, Wang Yun was unable to react for a while. He was wondering what kind of surname it was as he had never heard it before. He asked in a serious tone, ¡°This isn¡¯t your full name, is it? What¡¯s your full name?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered things for a moment before saying, ¡°My full name is merci beaucoup.¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. ¡®If you fucking didn¡¯t want to give your name, then so be it. You¡¯re even trying to take advantage of me? What did you help me with that I have to say merci beaucoup to you for?!¡¯


    Even if you didn¡¯t want to give your name, could you at least be a little more euphemistic and choose a more decent name?!


    On that very night, everyone climbed onto the tree branches to sleep. As they were worried about the danger that mighte at any time and it being a very cold and windy day, it was really difficult to fall asleep.


    All except for Luo Lan, who was even snoring as hey on the branches. This made it even more difficult for the others to get some sleep.


    When Ren Xiaosu was keeping watch during the night, he stayed especially wary of that strange nt in case it attacked. However, nothing happened throughout the night.


    The next morning, everyone was overwhelmed by an unprecedented sense of fatigue. Heading into the wilderness would already slowly exhaust them even if they had tents since they would definitely not sleep as well as at home. Now that they had to sleep in the trees, it was even more tormenting. Cheng Yu was a little worried when he saw everyone looking exhausted. In this condition, most of theirbat prowess would probably be reduced greatly even if they managed to get into the interior of the Sacred Mountains. In the other group, Zhou Yingxue came out of her tent in high spirits and took the little red g from Li Shentan¡¯s hand. ¡°Alright, stay within a radius of 10 meters from me even if you¡¯re washing up. We¡¯ll be setting off in another half an hour, so don¡¯t waste any time. If you¡¯re slow, we won¡¯t wait for you...¡±


    Li Shentan, Vani, and the others had also passed through the canyon. After passing through it, they encountered an encirclement from the Pyro Company as well. But unlike the other groups, the result of the encirclement by the Pyro Company ended up with several Pyro Company members dead while Li Shentan¡¯s number of ves increased by several dozen people.


    Meanwhile, there was no change in the other aspects of the group.


    Vani was already numb to this. Yesterday, Li Shentan said they would have to adjust their n of march and suggested meeting up with Cheng Yu¡¯s group on the other side first before exploring the core region of the Sacred Mountains.


    Li Shentan had a very good reason for that: ¡°There is strength in numbers!¡± But Vani felt a little helpless. By suggesting to meet up with the people on the other side, it was as though the Pyro Company members in the core region of the Sacred Mountains were nonexistent.


    This meant they would have to pass through the Pyro Company first and join up with their other teammates before heading back to beat up the Pyro Company again.


    ¡®Isn¡¯t this n too careless?!¡¯ It felt like they were totally belittling the Pyro Company that way!


    At that time, Li Shentan told him with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s the general idea. If we encounter any difficulties along the way, we can just improvise and make the necessary adjustments. Based on the route, we won¡¯t really have to pass through their research base directly. We¡¯ll still be some distance from it.¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Vani replied with a nk expression, ¡°As long as you¡¯re happy.¡±


    ¡°Very good,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile. ¡°You¡¯ve mastered the art of getting along with me. Keep it up!¡±


    Then, when they set out again, they also encountered the same problem as Cheng Yu¡¯s team, which was the strange underground nt that grew in the forest.


    Although none of them were killed, some of the Pyro Company members that came to eliminate them suffered casualties. As such, Vani and the others were greeted by the sight of the nt devouring the corpses. Initially, Vani thought the nt would trouble them greatly. In the end, Zhou Yingxue took the little red g from Li Shentan and became their new tour guide.


    Using Zhou Yingxue¡¯s own words, any problems rted to nts were not problems at all.


    Therefore, the crisis of crossing the canyon was easily solved by Li Shentan.


    While the crisis of passing through the forest was easily countered by Zhou Yingxue.


    At some point, Vani even felt sorry for the Pyro Company. They clearly had created such a dangerous environment for their enemies, yet they had to encounter Zhou Yingxue and Li Shentan of all people.


    The problems the other groups were troubled by did not seem to pose a problem to Li Shentan and Zhou Yingxue. What left Vani most helpless was that the A-rank hitmen in the group had seemingly gotten used to relying on the two powerful superhumans to get through the difficulties.


    At the beginning, everyone was very much against Li Shentan joining them. But now, they realized their survival rate was maxed out with Li Shentan as part of their group. When they thought about what the other groups might be facing at this moment, they even felt a sense of inexplicable superiority.


    While others had to sleep in trees at night, all they needed to do was to gather around the campfire to watch Li Shentan perform his magic and exim, ¡°Wow, that¡¯s awesome!¡±


    ¡°Hey, that guy over there!¡± Zhou Yingxue looked at Vani. ¡°What are you daydreaming about? Keep up with the group.¡±


    Vani was on the verge of tears. He was considered pretty famous everywhere else and was widely admired by his fellow hitmen.


    How did he end up bing ¡°that guy¡± now that they had arrived in the Sacred Mountains? It made him sound like he was just some minor character.

 Chapter 734 - A new quest

    <h4>Chapter 734 A new quest</h4>


    Along the way, Cheng Yu would eye Ren Xiaosu suspiciously every now and then.


    This morning, he suddenly remembered that Ren Xiaosu had stopped singing nursery rhymes for several days. Now that the entertainer stopped singing and dancing all of a sudden, Cheng Yu felt somewhat unused to it.


    To be honest, at least when the entertainer was singing and dancing, the atmosphere during the evening bonfire parties was quite good.


    But now, they only felt stressed.


    No one spoke as they kept moving forward in silence. None of them knew where they would end up or what they would be facing.


    Cheng Yu suddenly said, ¡°Hey you, why don¡¯t you put on a performance....¡±


    Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant was shocked right then and there. He wondered if his boss had been brainwashed by the entertainer. Why would he even ask for a performance?


    However, Ren Xiaosu only gave him a look. ¡°Lunatic!¡± He continued moving forward.


    Cheng Yu instantly felt like he had been insulted. Why did he get called a lunatic? ¡®Aren¡¯t you the one that kept asking to give a performance to everyone? Now that you¡¯ve been asked to give a performance, you¡¯re actually refusing to do it?!¡¯


    Next to him, Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant said, ¡°Let¡¯s forget about the performance for now. Boss, we¡¯ve got a more serious matter to discuss first.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Cheng Yu wondered.


    ¡°We¡¯re running out of food.¡± Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant replied, ¡°After we entered the Sacred Mountains, our journey was much slower than expected, and the consumption of rations was greater than we had nned. I think it¡¯s not only us who are facing this, the others have the same problem as well.¡±


    Actually, before everyone set off for the expedition, they had prepared additional supplies that wouldst them for at least 15 days. Although only 11 days had passed now, everyone was starting to run short of food. This was all within Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expectations. After all, these people had not ventured into the wilderness often and were inexperienced in many areas rted to wilderness survival, so they were very susceptible to exceeding their ration portions. Take, for example, when they were sitting by their campfire after dinner. Without any activities to keep them entertained throughout the long night, wouldn¡¯t it feel better if they had something to snack on to keep their hands and mouths busy?


    It might be enjoyable to kill time by having a snack, but it would be tormenting once all the food was finished.


    For example, when Ren Xiaosu was still going out into the wilderness to hunt sparrows, he would calcte the rations he brought along very urately. Unless he was extremely hungry, he would never snack on the supplies he brought.


    But as these people did not have much experience in enduring starvation in the wilderness, they had unknowingly wasted their supplies as a result.


    This was not to say that Cheng Yu and the others did not have any self-control or nning. If one had indeed not suffered from starvation in the wilderness before, it would be difficult for them to have the same conscientiousness as Ren Xiaosu.


    Of course, this was just Ren Xiaosu ridiculing them in his mind.


    More importantly, everyone had envisioned a good scenario before setting out for the expedition. It looked as though they could find an abundance of food out in the wilderness of the Sacred Mountains and thought there would be plenty of wild animals they could catch and eat.


    However, no one expected the Pyro Company to be so ruthless that they would allow their gically modified tarants to roam free and snap up all the smaller animals in the mountains ahead of this operation.


    If this were the past, they probably wouldn¡¯t have to starve to death since they could dig up wild vegetables to eat. But now that the nts in the Sacred Mountains had mutated, who would dare to eat them?


    When Ren Xiaosu saw some coriander earlier on, he said it had turned poisonous.


    Even coriander had be poisonous, so how could they be alright if they ate any other nts? No one would gamble their lives.


    Cheng Yu sighed and said, ¡°Ration our supplies properly. We¡¯ll have to see how much longer they¡¯llst.¡±


    His assistant had no choice but to drop the subject.


    However, they did not encounter any more strange situations for the next two consecutive days. They slept in the trees every night and traveled a longer and more arduous journey during the day. Their sense of tiredness was getting more and more apparent. In the end, they stillpletely ran out of food.


    It was not too bad for Cheng Yu¡¯s own group, but some others had already gone hungry for an entire day. Someone picked some wild vegetables to cook and eat. In the end, that person did not wake up again after falling asleep that night.


    Ren Xiaosu, who was on watch duty, saw with his own eyes how the gray, mossy tentacles appeared again and quickly devoured the teammate who had been poisoned to death. In the morning, he said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Right from the beginning of our expedition to the Sacred Mountains, every step that we took was well within the Pyro Company¡¯s expectations. First, a strange creature appeared and caused panic within the group. Then they let out those tarants to ambush us and clear out all animals in the wilderness that could be hunted for food. Finally, there was that canyon that caused everyone to hallucinate and attack each other. I somehow even feel that those people from the Pyro Company have already predicted that there¡¯d be a shortage of food in our team, which is why they didn¡¯t show up for the past few days. They¡¯re just waiting for us to exhaust ourselves before taking us out without much effort.¡±


    ¡°So they will only start the real encirclement after our food runs out.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°The Pyro Company¡¯s people who nned this are very smart. We should be nearing the core region of the Sacred Mountains in another two days, but these two remaining days will be the hardest to get through.¡±


    On the same night, everyone sat around their respective campfires as their expressions flickered in the glimmering glow. They even started daydreaming that a rabbit had suddenly run into the campsite before it was eaten by them.


    They were absolutely famished.


    To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, the pce suddenly said, ¡°Quest: Put an end to the dull atmosphere by cheering up your teammates.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the people around him and wondered if the pce was asking him to put on a performance for them. But at this moment, everyone was starving. Even if he were to put on a performance, he could not cheer them up On the verge of death, who would get cheered up by the sight of someone doing the splits? Sometimes, when Ren Xiaosu was doing his quests, it felt more like he was taking aprehension test. He would use his strong logic to analyze the question setter¡¯s true intentions beforepleting the quests perfectly.


    Ren Xiaosu got up and walked to the middle of the campsite. When Cheng Yu saw him getting up, he thought to himself, ¡®Could this guy be thinking of putting on a performance again? Why is he so unpredictable?!¡¯


    Then Ren Xiaosu said to everyone, ¡°Y¡¯all should be running out of food, right?¡±


    Everyone nced at him, but no one said anything Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°How coincidental. I brought quite a lot of food with me this time. I still have a whole bag of hardtack with me.¡±


    The word ¡°hardtack¡± seemed to have a magical charm to it. Immediately, Ren Xiaosu had everyone¡¯s attention.


    But Ren Xiaosu¡¯s tone took a turn as he said, ¡°Some of you are probably thinking that I¡¯m going to sell them for money again, right? No, I can give them to everyone for free, but I have one condition.¡±


    Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant wondered, ¡°What condition?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°I want each of you to put on a performance for me.¡±


    Cheng Yu was confused. So was Wang Yun.


    Ren Xiaosu was very happy, because he felt he had found the correct way toplete the quest.


    Since he could not make everyone happy by performing for them himself, he would just have to make them perform on their own!


    Ren Xiaosu hade to this logical conclusion after carefully considering it.


    In his opinion, he felt he was the only one with the talent to fully make use of the pce. If it had been someone else, they might not be able toplete all the quests assigned by it!

 Chapter 735 - The Demon Whisperer in the dark

    <h4>Chapter 735 The Demon Whisperer in the dark</h4>


    Everyone at the campsite looked at one another in confusion. What kind of fucking twist was that?


    They were already starting to guess what kind of show Ren Xiaosu was going to put on this time. However, they were utterly stunned by the sudden twist.


    A hardtack biscuit would be enough to fulfill their daily intake of energy. This was definitely a good offer since they would not even have to pay for it. But it was way too nonsensical to request them to put on a performance.


    Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Do you really think we¡¯ll throw away our pride for a little bit of food?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°I¡¯m only asking y¡¯all to put on a performance. Didn¡¯t I also do it previously? What does this have anything to do with throwing away your pride?¡±. Cheng Yu thought to himself, ¡®That¡¯s because you¡¯re thick-skinned, but we aren¡¯t!¡¯


    But he did not say it out loud as he was thinking about the hardtack offered by Ren Xiaosu.


    A middle-aged man said, ¡°Everyone here is probably a well-known figure in their own organization. Do you think anyone will put on a performance for you for a hardtack? What about their reputations?¡±


    At this moment, Cheng Yu suddenly looked at White Mask. Ren Xiaosu and White Mask were probably the strongest ones in the entire group, so why not make use of White Mask and have him stand up to Ren Xiaosu instead?


    Cheng Yu smiled and said to Old Xu, ¡°Do you agree with¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, Cheng Yu could only watch helplessly as White Mask did the splits!


    Cheng Yu and the others were dumbfounded. ¡®You¡¯re an expert who defeated a T5-rankedbatant. Why are you doing the splits just because someone asked you to?¡¯


    This sight upended Cheng Yu¡¯s worldview!


    He was bewildered and wondered if he was still trapped in the hallucination created by the canyon. Off to the side, Wang Yun was smiling. This sight incidentally helped to confirm his thoughts. The Stronghold Destroyer and White Mask appearing in Luoyang City at the same time was definitely not a coincidence. The two of them definitely knew each other, and they might even be close friends. Why else would someone as powerful as White Mask want to y along with the Stronghold Destroyer?


    Wang Yun felt he had seen through everything. Just this intel alone was worth tens of millions of yuan!


    Although he still did not know what White Mask¡¯s superpower was, he could at least confirm which organization White Mask belonged to. If anyone wanted to target Fortress 178 in the future, this intelligence could prove to be of great use.


    Wang Yun also got up and said with a smile, ¡°Then let me perform for everyone as well. It¡¯s a song that I learned in the Kong Consortium¡¯s military. It¡¯s called the ¡®Song of the Guerris.¡±


    With that, Wang Yun began singing. But while he was singing, his powerful memory brought him back to the time when he was still young and inexperienced.


    There was no scheming or mutual deception that was so frequently seen in the intelligence agency. Wang Yun even missed those times a little. Ever since he joined the intelligence agency, he did not dare im he was a good person anymore.


    His subordinates turned their heads and looked at their director in silence. They suddenly felt their director seemed to have something on his mind. Although Wang Yun got along well with his subordinates, they had never heard him sing before.


    Now that Wang Yun and White Mask had gone along with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s request, they had eased the awkwardness for everyone. Very quickly, the rest of the people at the campsite tossed their pride away as well.


    With someone opening the show, everyone was able to disregard the embarrassment and follow suit.


    In fact, this really made the entire campsite suddenly feel more joyous. With something to eat, some of these people even started cracking jokes.


    In the forest, someone was lying on a cliff and watching all of this with a pair of military binocrs. That person transmitted through his earpiece, ¡°We gotta postpone the higher-ups¡¯ n for a while. I just discovered their supplies have not run out yet, and they aren¡¯t exhausted either.¡±


    Someone said through the earpiece, ¡°How is that possible? What are they doing right now?¡±


    The Pyro Company¡¯s spotter hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°They¡¯re singing and dancing. Someone even did the splits for everyone.¡±


    There was silence over the earpiece. Half a minuteter, someone said, ¡°...Continue observing. Report back immediately if there¡¯s anything new.¡± ¡°Roger.¡±


    At this moment, Cheng Yu and the others were unaware that someone was watching their every move from afar. He just looked at the people at the campsite and then at Ren Xiaosu again before saying with a sigh, ¡°Could he be a fucking lunatic?!¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s definitely a lunatic alright,¡± Vani said helplessly to Tang Hualong. At this moment, people were singing and dancing at their campsite as well. However, the performers over here were not from the Anjing House but the Pyro Company members.


    Vani looked at therge song and dance show in front of him. Hundreds of people from the Pyro Company were skipping and hopping around in the open space, performing all kinds of challenging movements. It looked very festive.


    Those who did not know the inside story would probably think there was a bonfire party being held here when they saw this.


    Tang Hualong whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t let him hear youining. I don¡¯t want to see you putting on a show for everyone tomorrow night as well. That¡¯d make my eyes bleed.¡±


    ¡°Why would it make your eyes bleed?¡± Vani¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°No matter what, I should be an idol, right?¡±


    But as they were talking, the song and dance show by the Pyro Company gradually came to a close. Li Shentan smiled and said to Si Liren, ¡°Little Liren,e over to me.¡± Then Li Shentan picked up a pebble beside him and flicked it into the dark forest.


    Vani and the others immediately looked towards the spot where the pebble had disappeared. However, they saw nothing there.


    What was even stranger was that even though the pebble was flying at such a high speed, there was no sound of it hitting anything at all.


    Li Shentan looked into the dark and said with a smile, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Are you finally unable to hold back because I¡¯ve captured too many of your people?¡±


    From the dark, someone said with augh, ¡°Why would the two of us care whether these people die or not? I just wanted toe over and have a look at you.¡±


    Vani and the others were stunned. The voice in the dark sounded exactly the same as Li Shentan¡¯s.


    Si Liren looked at Li Shentan. ¡°Should I kill him?


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Li Shentan shook his head and turned towards the person in the dark and asked, ¡°Were you responsible for the cave-in at East Lake and the traps in the Sacred Mountains?¡±


    The voice in the dark denied, ¡°You should know very well that neither of us has the intelligence for that.¡±


    ¡°Bullshit!¡± Li Shentan was so angry he jumped up. ¡°You can call yourself stupid, but don¡¯t get me involved!¡±


    ¡°Is there a difference?¡± The person in the forest startedughing.


    ¡°Of course there¡¯s a difference.¡± Li Shentan said coldly, ¡°You are nothing but an inferior product.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Then let¡¯s wait and see.¡± After saying that, the person in the forest turned around and left. He did not rush out to start a killing spree.


    Vani and the others could finally heave sighs of relief. They dropped their guard since they no longer had to face that formidable enemy anymore.


    Now that their spection was finally confirmed, there was indeed a second Demon Whisperer in the Sacred Mountains.


    When Vani looked back, he saw Li Shentan flip a silver coin into the air from his fingertip. The sound of the spinning silver coin was crisp and pleasant. Vani and the others suddenly felt more refreshed than before.


    Vani frowned. ¡°Are you trying to hypnotize us?¡±


    Li Shentan said calmly, ¡°When he was talking just now, he ced a psychological suggestion on you all. I¡¯m only trying to help you regain consciousness to prevent you from not knowing how you die.¡±

 Chapter 736 - Reappearance of the steam locomotive

    <strong>Chapter 736 Reappearance of the steam lotive</strong>


    ¡°I¡¯m very curious. Why didn¡¯t you kill him?¡± Vani asked and looked at Li Shentan.


    Based on the sound earlier, that Demon Whisperer who had been cloned by the Pyro Company was probably only about 50 meters away from them. If Li Shentan was confident the other party was just an inferior version of him, it should be very easy to finish him off. Moreover, when Li Shentan used the sound of the silver coin in his hand to dispel the psychological suggestion ced upon them, it showed the Demon Whisperer in the forest had the ability to hypnotize them from afar through the rhythm of his speech. Since even the clone had such a power, Li Shentan himself should be even more terrifying, right?


    Li Shentan looked at Vani and said with a smile, ¡°Since you¡¯re from the Anjing House, let me ask you this: How many of the groups that entered the interior of the Sacred Mountains are still capable of fighting?¡±


    ¡°Five,¡± Vani said calmly. In fact, a total of nine groups came on this expedition to the Sacred Mountains. However, four of them had given up while heading into the mountains.


    Right now, those four groups were retreating. But the Pyro Company might not allow them to leave just like that.


    Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°So we¡¯re only one of the five groups left, so why should we have to do everything by ourselves? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to let the others have a share of this surprise as well?¡± Vani¡¯s mouth twitched a little. Was this a surprise? This was more like a shock, alright! But what Li Shentan did not tell them was that he did not want to personally deal with his clone at all. Instead, he was more looking forward to the scene of this clone encountering Ren Xiaosu.


    So how could he finish off his clone? Li Shentan would have to keep him alive so he would get to meet Ren Xiaosu!


    When Li Shentan started imagining the look on that silly fool when he tried to hypnotize Ren Xiaosu, he got so amused heughed out loud. Next to him, Si Liren nced at him. ¡°I doubt you¡¯ll ever recover from that mental illness of yours.¡± Vani said, ¡°Have you considered what would happen if there are many clones of you? Since they could create one clone, they could create many more. At that time, it¡¯ll be difficult for two fists to fight against four hands. Even if he¡¯s an inferior version of you, you can¡¯t defeat so many of them, right?¡± But Li Shentan suddenly frowned. ¡°If the Pyro Company was using cloning technology, there would definitely be more than one clone of me. Besides, have you thought about it before? The Pyro Company should have collected at least several dozen supernatural beings¡¯ DNA samples, right? So why is it that their T5-rankedbatants do not have any superpowers and are only terrifyingly strong in their physicality?¡±


    Vani was stunned. That was right! In the earlier days, they all thought the Pyro Company could only extract the DNA of supernatural beings to create some low-qualitybatants without any superpowers.


    But the appearance of Li Shentan¡¯s clone had refuted this point of view. So why didn¡¯t the Pyro Company let their cloned supernatural beings run loose everywhere? Even if the powers of some superhuman clones were reduced, they would still be very suited to fightrge-scale battles.


    Li Shentan thought for a while and said, ¡°You see, everyone¡¯s powers only got awakened due to a specific moment in their lives, right? It doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯ll naturally be awakened when they grow to a certain stage in life. The Pyro Company can¡¯t possibly duplicate this moment as well. That¡¯s life experience, not something that can be found within one¡¯s DNA.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Vani agreed. ¡°Therefore, they must have some kind of unusual method to awaken the superpower of a clone. However, this method is not easy to execute even for the Pyro Company. For example, it might be limited in the number of times it can be used, so they only tried it on the most powerful clones,¡± Li Shentan said firmly.


    Vani looked at Li Shentan in surprise. So after all that talking, he was just looking to praise himself as the most powerful supernatural being?! How shameless! However, Vani suddenly felt that Li Shentan¡¯s deduction might just be the truth. Everyone regarded Li Shentan as the person closest to the gods in the era of the ¡°Rise of Gods.¡± If the Pyro Company had to choose a person among the clones of so many supernatural beings to awaken their power, Li Shentan would indeed be the best choice.


    ¡°But what is that method really?¡± Vani asked.


    Li Shentan looked at Vani in surprise. ¡°How would I know?! Why are you asking me that?¡± Vani turned around and walked off. He really could notmunicate with Li Shentan anymore. Besides, he still had to quickly send out updates of what had happened tonight.


    But when Vani took out his phone, he realized there was no signal. They were using satellite phones, so how could there be no signal? It was still working fine earlier.


    Could the Pyro Company have used some method to interfere with the signal? In that case, it seemed like the Pyro Company was starting to get serious.


    The Pyro Company had temporarily given up on encircling two of the five remaining groups. That was because Li Shentan was in one of them, and the Pyro Company was still unwilling to face the Demon Whisperer. Therefore, they nned to eliminate the other groups first before making a move to deal with him. The might of the Demon Whisperer was something that even the Pyro Company would be wary of on their home field.


    And the reason why the other group¡¯s encirclement was put on hold was that their team was not exhausted and hungry at all. They were even singing and dancing openly in the territory of the Sacred Mountains. This left the Pyro Company a little confused and unsure of what was going on.


    ording to the Pyro Company¡¯s n, these people who had entered the Sacred Mountains should have already reached their limits. How could they still have the energy to sing and dance?


    Since they could not understand what was going on with that group, it would have to wait until they dealt with the other three groups first. That night, after the Demon Whisperer in the forest had left, the three teams that were in different directions were simultaneously besieged by the Pyro Company


    For this encirclement, the Pyro Company even activated three T5-ranked Dawn members.


    This battlested from the night until the morning, leaving the three teams in a pathetic state with heavy casualties.


    However, none of the people who entered the Sacred Mountains this time were easy to deal with. So although the Pyro Company had defeated them, some of the supernatural beings still had the energy to escape into the wilderness.


    The Pyro Company did not pursue them relentlessly. When dawn broke, they retreated.


    The person who wasmanding these Pyro Company¡¯s fighting forces from behind the scenes was systematically weakening everyone¡¯s strength. He was neither anxious nor impatient, but he would always have a backup n waiting. At some point, Li Shentan also admitted that the cloned Demon Whisperer was right. He was really not a talented strategist since he still preferred doing things straightforwardly.


    All in all, the Pyro Company¡¯s operation this time was considered very sessful. However, something unexpected happened with one of the three teams. Just as the Pyro Company¡¯s troops were about to carry out their encirclement of that group, a steam lotive suddenly appeared and escaped with everyone on board. The Pyro Company could not even catch up to them!


    Seeing the steam lotive traveling across the treacherous mountainous terrain without a hindrance, the Pyro Company¡¯s troops were dumbfounded by this sight.


    But they knew who it was! He could be considered as an old friend of the Pyro Company, Wang Congyang! After the cave-in at East Lake, the Pyro Company had hired Wang Congyang to undertake the delivery of theirboratory data. However, Wang Congyang had run off with all of it!

 Chapter 737 - Enemies are bound to meet

    <strong>Chapter 737 Enemies are bound to meet</strong>


    The Pyro Company ced a great deal of emphasis on Li Shentan and Wang Congyang. However, it was fear they had for Li Shentan and hatred against Wang Congyang.


    After all, Wang Congyang had run away with the data of an entire researchboratory, and it could not be emphasized how precious the data was. More importantly, he hadpletely interrupted the Pyro Company¡¯s research in a certain field!


    Moreover, Wang Congyang actually went back on their deal after epting their deposit. That was something totally against the principles of business and humanity!


    Of course, the Pyro Company did not trust Wang Congyangpletely back then either. They even sent a lot of their people out for that operation and only informed Wang Congyang of the location six hours beforehand and requested him toe alone.


    By doing so, they were thinking that even if Wang Congyang were to pull some tricks, they could still kill him.


    But in reality, all of their people were killed instead!


    During this period, the Pyro Company had been busy with other matters and did not have time to chase after Wang Congyang. They never expected he would actuallye to the Sacred Mountains and disrupt their ns again.


    How could this be tolerated? No one could ept it!


    In the Pyro Company¡¯s opinion, Wang Congyang was way too arrogant. For the entire night, the Pyro Company kept sending more people to encircle and intercept Wang Congyang¡¯s steam lotive. The people on the train were wondering, ¡°Has the Pyro Company gone mad?! Why do they hate us so much?¡±


    On their way, they even happened to bump into some supernatural beings who had fled from the other groups. Strictly speaking, they were not exactly fleeing. They only left their groups to look for better opportunities to get into the core region of the Sacred Mountains. When they saw these supernatural beings, they shouted for them to get onto the train. After all, there was strength in numbers. Although they might not know each other, whoever were the Pyro Company¡¯s enemies would be their friends.


    But after these supernatural beings got onto the train, they realized the steam lotive was being pursued even more intensely than they had been!


    Someone even asked suspiciously, ¡°How did you all manage to escape so easily? We couldn¡¯t even shake off the pursuers behind us. Did you have good ideas?¡±


    Those supernatural beings were stunned for a moment. ¡°We didn¡¯t have any good ideas. They just stopped chasing us after a while.¡± Everyone did not know why there was so much hatred for this group.


    To those who were unaware of the situation, they probably found it a little confusing.


    But in the eyes of the person in question, Wang Congyang, he was utterly confused as well...


    Although the Pyro Company had issued an order for his arrest, they did not have the time to deal with him so far. Furthermore, Wang Congyang also knew he was in the wrong. After all, it was really not right of him to ept the deposit and run away after that. Therefore, he did not really argue either.


    But from the look of it, Wang Congyang felt that something was not right. Didn¡¯t he just run off with some money? Did they have to be so angry about it? Wang Congyang felt it was probably because of him that the Pyro Company discriminated against their group so badly. It was either that or there was something else even he was unaware of.


    But he did not say anything. After all, if he announced that, he would be the target of everyone in the group.


    Between dying by himself and dying together with the rest, Wang Congyang would definitely be more inclined towards thetter. Moreover, there were quite a few pretty women in this group, so he would at least have somepany after death.


    Of course, if he could survive, staying alive was still the better option. Looking at the Pyro Company members that were chasing relentlessly them, Wang Congyang turned around and asked, ¡°Where should we head now? I¡¯ll be in charge of driving the train. Y¡¯all set the direction.¡±


    A member of the Anjing House said, ¡°Let¡¯s head west!¡±


    ¡°Why should we head west?¡± someone wondered.


    ¡°Heading east would¡¯ve been safer since apparently the team over there has the Demon Whisperer with them. But it¡¯s too dangerous since we have to pass through the Sacred Mountains to get there.¡± The Anjing House member said, ¡°And there¡¯s another team in the west. Have you all heard of White Mask before? He¡¯s in that team right now.¡±


    Everyone on the train looked at one another. Who hadn¡¯t heard of White Mask? Although he had only appeared a few times, it was always quite sensational whenever he did.


    Besides, it made White Mask more mysterious the fewer times he appeared.


    The steam lotive¡¯s railcar turned and headed straight for the west. However, Wang Congyang was thinking about something along the way. He felt a vague sense of uneasiness. It was as though he should not havee to the Sacred Mountains at all, much less head to the west now.


    However, he still had a secret weapon he had not used yet. Since Wang Congyang could conjure up a big ck cauldron as his trump card, he felt his chances of survival would be greater than the others... While Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group was still singing and dancing, they heard the sound of a steam lotive in the wilderness, and a metallic nging as railroad tracks clinked together.


    Ren Xiaosu was very familiar with this sound. Yang Xiaojin subconsciously looked at Ren Xiaosu. She wondered why he had suddenly conjured up the steam lotive.


    But when she saw the same puzzled expression on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face, she immediately realized it was not Ren Xiaosu¡¯s steam lotive but Wang Congyang¡¯s!


    The steam lotive headed straight for the campfires. Wang Congyang saw a strange sight from on the train from a distance. ¡°Wait, did you guys see someone do the splits at that campsite?¡±


    ¡°Who¡¯d be in the mood to do the splits at a time like this... Damn, you¡¯re right!¡±


    Everyone on the train was shocked. They found it a little difficult to react. Why wasn¡¯t the group in front of them attacked by the Pyro Company? Moreover, they were even in the mood to do the splits?!


    Cheng Yu, who had just done the splits, got up quickly from the ground. He was now deeply regretting his actions.


    Cheng Yu¡¯s eyesight was good, so he could see the stunned expressions of Wang Congyang and the others on the steam lotive through the windows.


    During the entire talent show, Cheng Yu had procrastinated for a long time before agreeing to be thest one to perform. However, he suffered the greatest humiliation!


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that Wang Congyang¡¯s superpower?¡± Luo Lan wondered, ¡°What are they doing here?¡±


    Then they heard a loud explosione from behind the steam lotive. Only then did everyone manage to react. So it turned out those people were being chased all the way here by the Pyro Company. However, when the Pyro Company realized the people on the steam lotive had joined up with the group to the west, they stopped the pursuit after receiving an order to retreat.


    Everyone on the train was relieved. A member of the Anjing House said, ¡°Looks like we made the right choice. There must be someone in this group the Pyro Company is very afraid of. That¡¯s why we got encircled but they didn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Enough talking. Let¡¯s get out of the train,¡± Wang Congyang said.


    But just as he got down from the train, Wang Congyang froze on the spot when he saw Ren Xiaosu sitting next to a campfire.


    Ren Xiaosu stood up and walked slowly towards Wang Congyang. He had not forgotten that this guy had led a group of bandits to attack them.


    Right now, he was seething with anger upon seeing his enemy again!


    Enemies were truly bound to meet!

 Chapter 738 - A wave of unrest

    <strong>Chapter 738 A wave of unrest</strong>


    The noisy campsite quieted down. Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu and Wang Congyang. Even a fool could tell they were acquainted and had a grudge against each other.


    As Ren Xiaosu walked up to him, Wang Congyang retreated, while Yang Xiaojin remained seated where she was. She could conjure her ck sniper rifle at any moment to help Ren Xiaosu take out his adversary. Back when Wang Congyang attacked with his band of bandits, she was present as well.


    Meanwhile, the ones here who were most interested in this matter were actually Cheng Yu and Wang Yun. Wang Congyang¡¯s reputation was no longer a secret in the underworld. He would often help the consortiums carry out some top-secret escort missions for money and was a very tight-lipped person.


    In the early days, the consortiums just sought Wang Congyang to carry out some ordinary transportation missions. Later, they realized there wasn¡¯t any info rted to the missions carried out by Wang Congyang being traded in the ck market. Only then did they realize the man was a consummate professional. As such, they started working together more and more.


    Wang Yun remembered the Kong Consortium had cooperated with Wang Congyang on three asions.


    ever a


    However, Wang Congyang never epted any assassination jobs. He seemed to be a very cautious person.


    Wang Yun was also interested because he was very curious about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity, but Ren Xiaosu would alwayse up with all kinds of ridiculous excuses to brush him off.


    Now that Wang Congyang had a feud with Ren Xiaosu, he would likely learn of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity. In this way, Wang Yun would have a new lead! Thinking of this, Wang Yun jumped to his feet and wanted to mediate the situation.


    But before he could speak, he was surprised to see Wang Congyang turning around and running away. Furthermore, Wang Congyang had quickly conjured up his steam lotive and escaped as fast as he could!


    Everyone onsite was stunned. Most of them were still unaware of what was going on.


    Wang Yun and Cheng Yu looked at Ren Xiaosu in silence. Wang Congyang was an extremely strong supernatural being. The people from the consortiums had tested this and found he was definitely not mediocre. But still, Wang Congyang actually ran off without hesitation when he saw Ren Xiaosu?


    This incident indirectly confirmed their earlier spection.


    Ren Xiaosu stood where he was and did not chase after Wang Congyang. However, that guy had started fleeing when he was still about a 100 meters away. As the Pyro Company¡¯s troops had not gone too far away yet, Ren Xiaosu did not want toplicate matters further.


    Moreover, Wang Congyang had fled in the same direction as the Pyro Company¡¯s troops. In his attempt to escape, he did not even hesitate to pull in the enemy to make the situation even messier.


    At this moment, the Pyro Company¡¯s troops were retreating in an orderly manner. They were instructed not to approach the group of intruders at the west for the time being. The Pyro Companybatants thought it was better that way as well since they had also heard the story of those people singing and dancing fearlessly in the mountains.


    But before they could retreat, the steam lotive whistled again behind them. Themander of the troops was stunned. ¡°How arrogant!¡±


    After the other party¡¯s teams had joined up, they did not stop there and actually turned around to pursue the Pyro Company¡¯s troops? Didn¡¯t they know whose territory this was?


    But when themander thought about it again, he felt that something was not right. If the other party did not have any confidence, how could they turn around and chase after them?


    Themander quickly reported to his superior at the rear over the radio, ¡°Sir, after we retreated, the other party turned around and started chasing after us. It seems like they¡¯re very confident in beating us!¡±


    The superior on the radio was silent for a couple seconds before saying, ¡°Retreat at full speed. I¡¯ll arrange for someone else to head there.¡±


    After hanging up, themander of the Pyro Company¡¯s troops closed his eyes and pondered things. Just what was going on with this group of people? Why were they even more aggressive than Li Shentan¡¯s group? Not even Li Shentan initiated a pursuit on them.


    On the steam lotive, Wang Congyang was initially so nervous he was prepared to bring out his ck cauldron. But when he saw the Pyro Company¡¯s troops were terrified of him, he guffawed. Since he no longer wanted to be involved in the mess that was the Sacred Mountains, he might as well leave the ce!


    At the campsite, Ren Xiaosu watched silently as Wang Congyang left. Yang Xiaojin went up to him and asked in a whisper, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you take action? You should¡¯ve been able to catch up to him at your full speed. Although you might have to face the Pyro Company¡¯s attack as well, you¡¯ve never been afraid of such matters.¡±


    ¡°This is different.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°If I wanted to pursue him, I would have to resort to using ¡®Old Xu.¡¯ If I did that, my rtionship with White Mask would get exposed. Moreover, if I kill Wang Congyang in public, it would be inconvenient for me to use the steam lotive again in the future.¡±


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu was still thinking about having someone take the me for him in the future.


    If he wanted to cause trouble for Wang Congyang, he would have to do it secretly so no one would find out. Only then would a lot of people me Wang Congyang for the deeds.


    For example, theboratory data from Stronghold 73 had been quietly transported back to the Qing Consortium by Luo Lan. However, the Pyro Company still believed Wang Congyang had stolen it. Every time he did something like that, Ren Xiaosu would secretly feel very happy about it.


    In the past, he would always feel a little bad for making Xu Xianchu the scapegoat since they were friends.


    By letting Wang Congyang take a share of the me, the mental stress was not as great.


    Cheng Yu, Song Qiao, and the others had already joined up with their Anjing House colleagues. ¡°Were you all attacked by the Pyro Company?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they suddenly appeared. There were originally more than 50 people in our team. But after the battle, only a dozen-odd of us managed to escape. We even met another team while we were fleeing, and only around 20 people were left after the two teams merged.¡± An Anjing House member said, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you all encounter an attack here? It makes no sense that they would only let you guys off.¡±


    Song Qiao expressed that he was also a little puzzled. However, Cheng Yu suddenly thought of something. Could it be that the atmosphere over here was too joyous, so the Pyro Company did not dare to make a move on them?


    Although this answer sounded incredulous, he really could note up with any other exnation for the moment.


    It was veryte right now, and there were still battles going on elsewhere in the Sacred Mountains. From the look of it, there were also some hidden experts among the scattered members of the expedition. Otherwise, they would not have been caught in a deadlock with the Pyro Company for such a long time.


    Since everyone was too scared to sleep, they changed to a new campsite overnight and kept watch for the second half of the night.


    Just as the horizon was starting to brighten, footsteps suddenly came from the forest. As the other party stepped on the soft soil and dposing leaves at dawn, the sound reverberated in their ears like a strange melody. It was as though someone was whispering into their ears.


    When Ren Xiaosu turned around, he was surprised to see everyone at the campsite slowly closing their eyes.


    Looking around, everyone other than him had fallen asleep. There were no exceptions!


    A person emerged from the forest. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he suddenly said in surprise, ¡°Why aren¡¯t you asleep?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a bit before replying, ¡°Well, I¡¯m not sleepy yet...¡±

 Chapter 739 - 9 Ren Xiaosu performs a magic trick

    <strong>Chapter 739 Ren Xiaosu performs a magic trick</strong>


    ¡°You¡¯re not sleepy yet?!¡± These words reverberated throughout the campsite, but everyone else was already asleep and could not hear him. Only Ren Xiaosu was looking at him calmly, as though he had given a very simple reason. In fact, he even felt a little annoyed at him for making such a fuss.


    But the Demon Whisperer¡¯s clone was extremely unhappy. This is hypnotism! Bro, could you at least show some respect? After hypnotizing you, do you think you can just say that you¡¯re not sleepy and the matter is resolved?¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why did you alsoe here to the Sacred Mountains?¡±


    ¡°Li Shentan¡±ughed. ¡°If you cane here, why can¡¯t Ie here as well?¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s Little Liren?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Oh, Little Liren? She¡¯s asleep.¡± The Demon Whisperer¡¯s clone said, ¡°What about you? What are you doing here?¡±


    During the conversation, the Demon Whisperer¡¯s clone sat down not far away from Ren Xiaosu across the campfire. The two of them chatted with each other like they were close friends.


    The Demon Whisperer¡¯s clone had realized the young man in front of him was acquainted with Li Shentan, and it even seemed like their rtionship was quite good.


    Meanwhile, he looked exactly the same as Li Shentan, so he could naturally pass off as the real guy! The Demon Whisperer¡¯s clone wondered why this person was not hypnotized. Perhaps his willpower had already far exceeded that of most people¡¯s.


    Earlier, he was worried White Mask would prove to be the most difficult to handle. But White Mask had already fallen unconscious to the ground. Instead, it was this young man who remained unaffected.


    However, the Demon Whisperer¡¯s clone did not mind at all. This was only a simple trick he had yed just now. Besides, he was also standing very far away from the group, so it was to be expected that the hypnotism might fail.


    But he still had many tricks up his sleeve.


    Ren Xiaosu said to the clone, ¡°I have my reasons foring here, of course. But as for you, didn¡¯t you say that you wanted to go to the south and wait for the typhoon season to arrive? Why have youe north then?¡± Li Shentan¡¯s clone was silent for a couple seconds. He quickly processed what Ren Xiaosu had said in his mind because he somehow felt he was calling his bluff. What normal person would head south to wait for the typhoon season? The difference between the real Li Shentan and this clone was that one of them was a mental patient while the other was not!


    Back when Li Shentan was just a child, he wasn¡¯t crazy yet. He only went mad because he saw with his own eyes the hardship his mother had been put through. However, this clone did not experience any of those emotions.


    So he just couldn¡¯t understand why anyone in the world would want to go to the South to wait for the typhoons to start. Was there any meaning in waiting for the typhoons?


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone was very cautious and did not answer this question. He was afraid he would give himself away if he talked too much.


    Instead, he suddenly stretched out his right hand and swept it over the campfire. The flickering me started whirling and cast an agitated red glow onto its surroundings. There were even some strange symbols in the glow that shone brightly like stars in a fire.


    The wind gusted wildly between the trees in the forest as the branches brushed against each other with an eerie sound.


    Everything that was happening could make a person feel as though they were about to plunge into a weightless abyss at any moment.


    When Li Shentan¡¯s clone stared hard at Ren Xiaosu, he realized Ren Xiaosu was still not showing any signs of getting hypnotized. He stayed silent for a moment before asking, ¡°Is there anything you wish to say to me?¡± Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°Is that magic? It¡¯s pretty cool....¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone felt frustrated by his response. Magic?! That was hypnotism, bro! Li Shentan¡¯s clone realized something was wrong. Although he had not given his all for the hypnotism just now, his opponent¡¯s resistance was simply too strong. This was the only exception he had encountered since he woke up in the birth chamber!


    In the Sacred Mountains, he could even easily y with the T5batants. But the young man in front of him seemed naturally resistant to hypnotism.


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone was unaware the real Li Shentan did not bother with killing him because he had been extremely looking forward to this exchange. But it was such a pity the real Li Shentan could not see the expression on this imbecile¡¯s face. He was feeling so stifled it looked like he was constipated.


    In contrast, the real Li Shentan was much more elegant in his actions. Knowing he could not hypnotize Ren Xiaosu, he chose to make friends with him instead!


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Why did you hypnotize the others?¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone smiled and said, ¡°So they won¡¯t eavesdrop on our conversation. I have something very important to tell you.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Go ahead then.¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone fell silent. What should he tell him?


    How could he really have anything important to say? Wasn¡¯t it just an excuse he had made up? He could have just hypnotized everyone and taken their lives. But how could he have known there was actually a person who was immune to hypnotism among them? It was as if he had gotten a hypnotism vine or something!


    as a


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone said, ¡°Let me perform another magic trick for you. What kind of magic would you like to see? I can perform anything you want.¡±


    ¡°OK, you can perform the magic trick that you did for me at Luoyang City,¡± Ren Xiaosu said seriously.


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone was speechless. ¡®Why do you have to make a request in such a roundabout way? How would I know what magic trick Li Shentan performed for you previously?¡¯


    At some point, he even felt the young man across from him was teasing him!


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone said, ¡°That¡¯s not interesting at all. I¡¯ll perform something new for you this time.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I wanna see that one,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone suddenly smiled. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll perform it for you then.¡±


    But at this moment, every word Li Shentan¡¯s clone spoke turned into ethereal birds and flew straight into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ears. The sound of his voice was like a fine down feather brushing past his ear. A demon was whispering next to him.


    The reason why the Demon Whisperer was called the Demon Whisperer was that his most powerful ability was this whispering hypnotism technique.


    Therefore, when Li Shentan¡¯s clone saw his previous attempts all failing, he had no choice but to resort to his killer move.


    He stared fixedly at Ren Xiaosu. Li Shentan¡¯s clone finally saw a trace of confusion in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes. ¡°Go on.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in confusion, ¡°What are you waiting for? Why don¡¯t I show you some magic instead?¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone replied, ¡°... Go ahead then.¡±


    ¡°OK, watch carefully.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he actually opened a dark Shadow Door in front of him.


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone was taken aback a little. ¡°What kind of magic is this?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu put his hand into the Shadow Door with a smile and exined, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s called ¡®Backstabbing While Facing You.¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone looked down at the saber tip that prated out of his chest and the blood flowing out from the wound. He looked up at Ren Xiaosu and thought, ¡®That was fucking unexpected!¡¯


    Ren Xiaosu sighed, ¡°You¡¯re not Li Shentan at all. At the very least, Li Shentan would not try to hypnotize me over and over again. He knows full well he can¡¯t hypnotize me. Besides, you don¡¯t have his craziness in you at all.¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone was a little confused. Just what sort of weird characters hade into the Sacred Mountains this time?

 Chapter 740 - Scientific ethics

    <strong>Chapter 740 Scientific ethics</strong>


    Li Shentan¡¯s clone was dead.


    Just as Li Shentan had spected, there was no doubt this imbecile of a clone would die if he went to look for Ren Xiaosu.


    It was not that Li Shentan¡¯s clone was not powerful. ording to what Li Shentan himself had said, even if the clone was just an inferior version of him, he would still be the inferior version of Li Shentan. Therefore, he would definitely be much more powerful than other supernatural beings.


    When Li Shentan said this, Zhou Yingxue rolled her eyes at the side. She wondered how a narcissistic person like him could be friends with her master.


    But no matter how much Vani, Zhou Yingxue, and the others rolled their eyes, what Li Shentan said was the truth.


    When Li Shentan¡¯s clone was here earlier, he had somehow ced a psychological suggestion on them unknowingly. They did not even realize they had been hypnotized.


    Therefore, if most supernatural beings in this world encountered the clone of Li Shentan, they would end up getting defeated.


    But of course, Ren Xiaosu was not most supernatural beings.


    When a great hypnotist encountered someone who was not afraid of hypnosis, the great hypnotist would instantly be relegated from cavalry to footman and lose all his outstanding abilities.


    Moreover, when it came to carrying out a sneak attack on others, Li Shentan¡¯s clone still paled inparison to Ren Xiaosu.


    A move like backstabbing someone while facing them was definitely not something a decent person could think of.


    Actually, from the moment Li Shentan¡¯s clone appeared, Ren Xiaosu had already noticed something was off. That was why he tested him out by talking about typhoons and magic.


    First of all, Li Shentan would never try to hypnotize him or Yang Xiaojin.


    Next, just as Ren Xiaosu had said, Li Shentan¡¯s craziness was engraved deep in his bones. Usually, he would get along well with people just like a normal person. But the moment he opened his mouth to speak, you could feel a madness rolling like a turbulent wave deep inside him.


    Ren Xiaosu and Li Shentan did not interact much with each other or spend much time together. But for some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt he understood him. Just like how Li Shentan understood him as well.


    But when Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Shentan¡¯s clone in front of him, his thoughts rested more on how he was created.


    Was he cloned by the Pyro Company? Who else did the Pyro Company clone?


    Ren Xiaosu did not have a reliable source of information, so he was unable to make any further deductions. He could only be certain that if they continued to venture deeper into the Sacred Mountains, they would definitely encounter more people like Li Shentan¡¯s clone. Moreover, they would be even more troublesome to deal with than Li Shentan¡¯s clone.


    As he looked towards the Sacred Mountains, the rising sun was just casting a rosy hue on them from over the top of the mountains. No matter what was in there, he had to go in and have a look.


    Then Ren Xiaosu noticed the others were still asleep. He woke Yang Xiaojin up first and told her about what had happened.


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment and said, ¡°It¡¯s not surprising that someone stole Li Shentan¡¯s DNA since the Li Consortium did not have the psychiatric hospital under strict supervision back then. It would be a piece of cake for the Pyro Company to get their hands on his DNA.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°It¡¯s just that I don¡¯t know who else they might have cloned.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked calmly at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You don¡¯t know, or you don¡¯t want to believe it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent.


    ¡°Actually, the two people in this era who are closest to reaching the level of the gods are closely rted to you. And coincidentally, both of them came out of a psychiatric hospital.¡± Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I know you¡¯re avoiding the issue, but you¡¯ll have to face it sooner orter. The Pyro Company is definitely not able to clone unlimited superhumans. Otherwise, you would¡¯vee across many different superpowers when you were facing the T3-rankedbatants. They¡¯ve collected much more DNA samples than you can imagine.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin continued, ¡°So if they have to choose the DNA of the people they want to activate the superpowers of their clones with, they¡¯ll definitely choose the strongest ones.¡±


    Who were the strongest ones? There were only a few powerhouses that had been validated through time in this era. Among them, Li Shentan and Chen Wudi were the strongest of


    all.


    Since the Pyro Company possessed a DNA sample of Li Shentan, they would definitely have Chen Wudi¡¯s as well.


    Although these two people were not from the same psychiatric hospital, there was no need to assume the best-case scenario had happened. If the Pyro Company could steal the DNA sample from one psychiatric hospital, they could steal from a lot more other ces.


    Yang Xiaojin was probably the person who understood Ren Xiaosu the best, so she knew full well why he did not dare to make certain assumptions.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°I suddenly feel a little disgusted by the Pyro Company. In the past, people always said that the Pyro Company was against scientific ethics. I was still wondering what scientific ethics were. In this world, some people don¡¯t even have ethics anymore, so why would they still care about scientific ethics? But it wasn¡¯t until this thing happened to me that I realized how horrible such unscrupulous research is.¡±


    To the Pyro Company, they were just pursuing new leads in their scientific fields. But for people like Ren Xiaosu, a small part of their most precious things had been defiled.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not think about that for now.¡± After Ren Xiaosu moved Li Shentan¡¯s clone to the middle of the campsite, he signaled to Yang Xiaojin to pretend like they were hypnotized like the others.


    The others just sat there asleep until noon before slowly waking up without any external intervention.


    Soon after, Cheng Yu¡¯s puzzled voice rang out in the campsite, ¡°Isn¡¯t this Li Shentan? Who killed him?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said sleepily, ¡°Eh, did y¡¯all do it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had wanted to move Li Shentan¡¯s clone in front of Cheng Yu so he would get greeted by this surprise when he woke up. After all, Cheng Yu had been annoying him with his sarcastic remarks throughout the journey.


    However, Ren Xiaosu thought he did not have to go overboard with his actions either since their rtionship had not deteriorated to that level. Once the expedition to the Sacred Mountains was over, everyone would go their separate ways and might not even see each other again for the rest of their lives.


    Everyone at the campsite was left bewildered as they looked at the corpse of Li Shentan¡¯s clone.


    Cheng Yu subconsciously nced at his satellite phone to see if the boss had provided any new, vital information. However, there was no signal.


    As Li Shentan did not really bother hiding his whereabouts, many of the people here knew what he looked like. If this matter were to get out, it would probably cause quite a sensation throughout the world. The legendary Demon Whisperer was actually dead?


    However, they did not even know who had done this. Everyone had just fallen asleep and actually missed out on something this important?


    ¡°So it was because of Li Shentan that all of us slept until noon?¡± Cheng Yu wondered. ¡°But who here is capable of killing him?¡±


    Cheng Yu¡¯s assistant said, ¡°Is it possible that hemitted suicide?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood next to Li Shentan¡¯s corpse and said firmly, ¡°I¡¯ve already checked the wound. He was probably stabbed in the back with a saber. Since this is not something that he can do to himself, one of you must¡¯ve done it!¡±

 Chapter 741 - Looking for a friend

    <strong>Chapter 741 Looking for a friend</strong>


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the campsite and looked around. He was scrutinizing everyone¡¯s expressions, determined to find the murderer.


    When Yang Xiaojin saw this, she quickly lowered her head and hid her expression under her cap. She was afraid the others might get an inkling that something was wrong. ¡°What are you looking at me for?¡± Cheng Yu quickly exined to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°It¡¯s not like I was the one who killed him!¡± ¡°But you were the first to speak.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t you know? In most homicide cases, the first person to discover the crime scene is the murderer!¡±


    Cheng Yu was speechless. Was this the time to be ying detective?


    He could not be bothered with Ren Xiaosu anymore. Instead, he looked at the others and spected who might have killed Li Shentan. Cheng Yu looked at the wound on Li Shentan¡¯s corpse and realized it looked like a knife wound. Then he thought of something. Didn¡¯t White Mask use a ck saber? Could it be White Mask who killed him? Ren Xiaosu quietly returned to Yang Xiaojin¡¯s side and allowed everyone toe up with their own deductions.


    But Wang Yun suddenly said, ¡°Something¡¯s not right.¡±


    Everyone looked over and heard Wang Yun say, ¡°This Li Shentan is definitely dead, but why didn¡¯t his corpse get swallowed up? Could the nts underground have suddenly had their fill? That doesn¡¯t make sense, right?¡±


    Everyone finally realized they had nearly forgotten about this matter!


    Previously, to prevent themselves from getting attacked by the nts while they were sleeping, everyone had to rest in trees.


    But now, they had slept all the way until it was noon, yet they were still fine. Moreover, Li Shentan¡¯s corpse was not devoured by the nt.


    ¡°Could we have made it out of the zone where the nts were growing?¡± Cheng Yu wondered.


    ¡°No.¡± Wang Yun shook his head. ¡°Rather, I think there¡¯s a problem with this Li Shentan. Perhaps you all have not studied him in detail before, but I have. How could someone like him possibly die without a struggle? Have you all ever thought that he might be a fake? For example, he could be one of the T6s of the Pyro Company?¡±


    ¡°Fake?¡± Everyone fell into deep thought. If it were any other ce, they would definitely not believe such ims. But the Sacred Mountains was such a strange ce, and this was also an area of focus in the Pyro Company¡¯s research, so it might not be impossible.


    At the side, Luo Lan said, ¡°Who cares if he¡¯s real or fake? In any case, we won¡¯t have to sleep in the trees anymore tonight!¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s focus was always different from the others¡¯.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think too much about it. Either way, we will be continuing our journey.¡± Wang Yun smiled and said, ¡°Instead of investigating what might have happened, why don¡¯t we think about what to do next? Calcting the time and the distance, I¡¯m afraid that we¡¯ll be entering the core region of the Sacred Mountains in another day and a half. At that time, should we still rely on our own individual abilities, or should we start working together?¡±


    ¡°Work together?¡± One of the team members sneered and said, ¡°Wang Yun, are you serious? I still haven¡¯t settled the score with you for stealing our Zhou Consortium¡¯s intelligencest year, so how can you expect me to work with you?¡±


    ¡°So we¡¯re gonna have to rely on our own abilities then?¡± Wang Yun smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m fine with that.¡±


    Even though he said he was fine with it, he was actually nning to stick with Ren Xiaosu. This time, he had given up on his n to contest the capture of the No. 001 Experimental. He was just hoping to reap some other benefits from this expedition.


    Moreover, Wang Yun hoped the others would also step up to contend against Ren Xiaosu and get a taste of hitting this brick wall.


    ¡°Everyone,¡± Cheng Yu stood up and said, ¡°since we¡¯re already here, I hope we can all put aside our differences and understand the Sacred Mountains is still the Pyro Company¡¯s home field. I know all of you have been conserving your strength all this while. But even at our current strength, we still have to work together to face themon enemy.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Ren Xiaosu echoed.


    Cheng Yu felt his enthusiasm in giving the speech suddenly extinguishing. For some reason, he felt like he had said something wrong when Ren Xiaosu echoed his words. He even began to doubt himself... The campsite descended into a strange silence. As more and more people from the other teams had joined up with them, there were now 85 people in this particr group. The makeup of the members and their allegiance was giving Cheng Yu a headache.


    At this moment, Cheng Yu looked at White Mask and asked, ¡°What are your ns?¡±


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Si Liren asked as she looked at Li Shentan.


    Li Shentan was facing a stream and making all sorts of strange faces. At times, he looked extremely shocked, and at other times, he looked extremely aggrieved.


    When Li Shentan heard Si Liren¡¯s question, he stood up and exined, ¡°Oh, that clone of mine is dead.¡±


    ¡°How do you know that?¡± Vani asked in surprise.


    ¡°When he was cing a psychological suggestion on you all, I also nted one in his mind. Now that it¡¯s disappeared, it means he¡¯s dead,¡± Li Shentan said matter-of-factly.


    Vani did not say anything further. So it turned out Li Shentan was much stronger than his clone. He could even counter his opponent¡¯s moves without being discovered.


    But that clone of Li Shentan¡¯s had really died too carelessly.


    Everyone could not sleep for the entire night because they did not know how to deal with Li Shentan¡¯s clone. But in the end, he ended up dead by the afternoon of the next day. Who killed him? Who had the ability to do that? Was it Zhou Yingxue¡¯s boss again?!


    The Anjing House was the leader of this operation, and they should¡¯ve been the ones to initiate the strategy. But oftentimes, the situation would develop unexpectedly.


    Vani felt stifled by a breath in the chest he was unable to let out.


    ¡°But what does his death have to do with you making those faces?¡± Si Liren asked.


    ¡°Oh, I wanted to have a look at his expression before he died.¡± Li Shentan exined in a serious tone, ¡°Since he looks just like me, I can get an idea of how aggrieved and indignant he must¡¯ve felt before his death by looking at myself. It¡¯s pretty interesting when you think about it.¡±


    When the others nearby heard Li Shentan say that, they did not know how to respond. As expected of a psychopath, his imagination was really too wild.


    ¡°Then what should we do next?¡± Vani asked.


    ¡°This is what I think.¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°We¡¯ll use the Pyro Company members under my control to lead the way. If there¡¯s any danger, they¡¯ll be the first to die. And then, we¡¯ll follow them as we secretly carry on with our singing and dancing.¡±


    Everyone was stunned for a moment. ¡°Why do we have to carry on singing and dancing secretly?¡± ¡°See, I knew it. You all don¡¯t actually care about the lives of other people at all. Those Pyro Company members have just died, yet you all didn¡¯t even care to ask about them? And you say I¡¯m the demon?¡± Li Shentan said unhappily, ¡°I think it¡¯s you all who are the real demons!¡± Vani let out a frustrated cry in his heart. ¡®I was asking you what we should do next. How did it suddenly end up with you trying to vindicate yourself?¡¯


    However, he did not dare to say that out loud. Instead, he tried his best to calm down before asking again, ¡°Let¡¯s be serious here. What are you nning to do now?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m preparing to...¡± Li Shentan looked out into the distance of the Sacred Mountains before giving a wave of his hand. ¡°... go look for my friend!¡±

 Chapter 742 - Double

    <strong>Chapter 742 Double</strong>


    Since they were setting out to look for Li Shentan¡¯s friend, the atmosphere should naturally be a little more cheerful.


    As such, Vani and the others followed Li Shentan expressionlessly as they listened to the Pyro Company members singing a nostalgic song in front of them. ¡°Looking, looking, and looking for a friend, and then I found a very good friend...¡±


    If the Pyro Company heard this singing, they would probably cry. Vani and the others fell silent as they listened to Pyro Company members perform this nursery rhyme.


    Meanwhile, everyone at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side was looking at White Mask. They wanted to hear from White Mask what his decision was.


    However, White Mask just remained silent. The more it was like this, the tenser the atmosphere in the campsite became.


    Could it be that White Mask was unsure of what to do as well?


    Or perhaps he was starting to think about retreating?


    Everyone wasing up with all sorts of possibilities.


    But actually, the reason why White Mask did not say anything was simply that he could not speak.


    Although, Cheng Yu had started suspecting over the past two days that White Mask was mute. It was just that he was too afraid to ask him directly.


    During the silence, Ren Xiaosu was sizing up the neers. Most of the people who could escape from the Pyro Company¡¯s encirclement were probably very skilled. Even if they were not supernatural beings, they would still be extremely capable inbat.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu was thinking of taking advantage of the situation by tagging onto arger group. But there were too many people in their team now, and even more people from other teams would be merging with them.


    If that happened, they would be too big a target and could end up facing a full purge from the Pyro Company. They were about to reach the core region of the Sacred Mountains, and the cell phone signal here waspletely blocked. All of this was telling them they would soon face an even more brutal encirclement by the Pyro Company. Under such circumstances, Ren Xiaosu would prefer to act alone instead. A secondter, Yang Xiaojin suddenly pulled him backwards and rolled away. With a crack, a sniper bulletnded at the position where they were just sitting.


    But while Ren Xiaosu was fine, the others were not so lucky. A young man who had just joined the group was shot by another bullet before he could even get up and dodge.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reaction was not slow either. He followed Yang Xiaojin and ran into the forest. The Pyro Company¡¯s counterattack hade faster than they had expected!


    However, he could not understand why they were in such a hurry that they needed to make a move during the day.


    Of course, if he knew that Li Shentan was leading a team to meet up with him, he would understand the Pyro Company was worried it would get too difficult to deal with them after they joined up!


    Luo Lan scrambled after Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Wait for me!¡± He caught up with Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin and followed them to find cover.


    However, Luo Lan suddenly realized the two people in front of him did not seem like they were looking for cover. Instead, they seemed to be looking for the best position tounch a counterattack.


    White Mask also started moving. It did not run with Ren Xiaosu but ran in the opposite direction. As a result, the others also ran in the opposite direction of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    The sniper rifle kept ringing out, but it was obvious the sniper was not paying attention to the smaller group of people. Instead, it was ¡°Old Xu¡± who attracted all of the firepower.


    But Cheng Yu and the others were not pushovers either. In just an instant, Cheng Yu activated his illusion techniques.


    In the wilderness, countless figures scattered off in all directions. As a result, the hidden snipers could not tell who was real and who was fake.


    Although Cheng Yu¡¯s illusions did not have any actual destructive power, they were excellent for confusing the enemy. Cheng Yu bought some time for everyone. He shouted to the person next to him, ¡°Is there anyone who can finish off that sniper? We can¡¯t keep getting suppressed like this. My illusions can onlyst for ten minutes at most!¡±


    But no one answered him. It seemed that no one had the ability to kill an enemy long distance with their powers.


    Cheng Yu suddenly thought of something. Didn¡¯t White Mask¡¯s partner specialize in using sniper rifles? He shouted at White Mask, ¡°Get your partner to make his move. I¡¯ll create an illusion to cover him!¡±


    But Old Xu looked like ¡°he¡± only cared about running for ¡°his¡± life and totally ignored Cheng Yu.


    Cheng Yu got anxious. He looked around to see if there was any other hope. But when he looked around, he was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had disappeared. Along with them, Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and the Great Hoodwinker were also nowhere to be seen! Strange, didn¡¯t those people follow the main group?


    Yang Xiaojin said as she ran, ¡°Only Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and the Great Hoodwinker are following us. Confirmed two snipers on the other side. One is 721 meters away to our 3 o¡¯clock, and the other is 632 meters away to our 4 o¡¯clock. Pick one.¡±


    ¡°4 o¡¯clock!¡± Ren Xiaosu said. There was no need for him to act like he was more capable than Yang Xiaojin when it came to shooting. She was just better than him, so he chose the easier target to handle!


    The two of them said in unison, ¡°Three, two, one...¡±


    Then Luo Lan and the others who were following them suddenly saw the young man and woman in front get down on one knee in unison, and identical ck sniper rifles appeared the moment they raised their hands. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s firearms skill was copied from Yang Xiaojin. Although he had attained master-level proficiency in it through his own efforts, his foundation was still Yang Xiaojin¡¯s.


    Therefore, the two of them were moving so in sync that Luo Lan and the others felt like they were carved from the same mold. Their teamwork was so amazing it looked like they were the other¡¯s double!


    Even their breathing urred at the same frequency.


    Upon seeing this, Luo Lan subconsciously held his breath in fear of disturbing the two of them.


    Then the exchange of gunfire began!


    The sniper rifles¡¯ bullets spun out of their barrels with huge kic energy and shattered the barrier between time and space. The fallen leaves around the two snipers were sent flying into the air by the shockwave emitted by the firing of their rifles and blown aside.


    Luo Lan swore he had never seen such a powerful sniper rifle before. Was it even any different from an artillery weapon?!


    The moment before the shots were fired was extremely quiet. But the second the triggers were pulled, everything started stirring!


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin remained calm throughout. It was as though they had done something quite normal.


    Luo Lan whipped around and looked in the direction they were shooting. Two bloody spurts burst in the distant mountains. The sight was filled with a peculiar sense of beauty that emanated from the power amid the violence.


    Elsewhere, Cheng Yu and the others stopped in their tracks. The sound of the sniper rifles firing in the distance had stopped. Clearly, someone had taken care of the Pyro Company¡¯s snipers. Who was it? Cheng Yu already had an answer in mind.


    Weren¡¯t there only five people who were not present here with them? Among those five, at least two snipers were working together to shoot the enemy.


    For some reason, Cheng Yu was very sure the two people were Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Coupled with the previous incident of the sniper assisting White Mask, Cheng Yu came to a sudden realization. So that couple were the assistants of White Mask!


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin stood up again in unison. Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°All snipers have been taken care of. But this time, there should be a lot more of the Pyro Company¡¯s troops bearing down on us. Luo Lan, what would you do if you were inmand?¡± ¡°Hehe,¡± Luo Lan answered with augh, ¡°if it were only me, I would¡¯ve already fled. But with you around, I¡¯d like to try and take them on.¡±

 Chapter 743 - From eaChapter according to their ability

    <strong>Chapter 743 From each ording to their ability</strong>


    It was as though Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s instant elimination of the snipers had inspired Luo Lan. As a result, Fatty Luo¡¯s heroism was sparked.


    Or perhaps it was because Luo Lan did not have the chance to use his power inbat ever since he had awakened as a supernatural being that caused him to start feeling a little restless.


    So, while the others were fleeing, Luo Lan had started thinking about how to work together with Ren Xiaosu to fight back.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and said, ¡°If it¡¯s a battle, our group of several dozen people will have to split up into smaller groups. Otherwise, we might not have much of an advantage against an entire unit of troops.¡±


    ¡°I understand that.¡± Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°Qing Zhen once mentioned that the Li Consortium¡¯s most foolish act was to group up the nanosoldiers. But actually, it would¡¯ve been better for those powerful individual warriors to resort to guerri warfare and infiltrate enemy ranks. Our current situation is simr to that.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker spoke, ¡°Xiaosu, just tell us what your n is. We just need to coordinate with you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. ¡°How exactly do you use your superpower?¡±


    Luo Lan called upon his martyred spirits, and 12 golden silhouettes walked out of his body one by one.


    Luo Lan said, ¡°The physical strength of these 12 has been enhanced, but it¡¯s still a littlecking aspared to supernatural beings. To be honest, I¡¯ve never thought about how to unleash theirbat power.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and then took out several boxes of firearms from his storage space. These included two heavy machine guns, ten automatic rifles, and several boxes of bullets and grenades.


    He said to Luo Lan, ¡°I think that since they¡¯re all professional soldiers and the elites of the Qing Consortium¡¯s military, it would be better to let them use firearms and find a suitable position to suppress the Pyro Company¡¯s forces. I have another question. Will they die if they get shot?¡± ¡°No.¡± One of the martyred Qing Consortium soldiers said, ¡°It¡¯ll still hurt, but it¡¯s not actually a big deal.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. It seemed that Luo Lan¡¯s superpower was still a little neutered. After all, even if they were elites, it would still be very difficult for them to go head-on against a supernatural being with 12 soldiers.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had unlocked many of his superpowers and learned how to put them to good use. So he was quite experienced when it came to utilizing superpowers.


    These 12 martyred spirits were immortal. How terrifying would it be if a machine gun nest could never be taken out? It would probably be enough to give any army a headache in arge-scale war. Moreover, Luo Lan only had 12 martyred spirits under hismand. What if he were to take in an entire army in the future? Of course, Luo Lan would need to have enough willpower to do so first. At that time, with tens of thousands of martyred spirits doing battle, unable to die, that would be more than enough to give anyone a headache. In fact, Luo Lan could even end up at Li Shentan¡¯s level. If he yed it properly, he could topple an entire organization all by himself.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Luo Lan, ¡°What¡¯s the maximum number of martyred spirits you can summon?¡±


    Luo Lan thought for a moment and said, ¡°12.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. He felt a little aggrieved that it was Luo Lan who had this power.


    Although a strongpoint that could not be taken out was also very powerful, it still felt a littlecking.


    But all he needed was one more Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll, and this power would shine in his hands.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Luo Lan, ¡°How about this? You lead the 12 martyred spirits and set up an emcement while Yang Xiaojin and I will take out the enemies.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Luo Lan knew it would be more dangerous for him if he did that. But how could battle not be dangerous? At critical moments like these, Luo Lan had never dropped the ball before!


    ¡°We have snipers on our side now, but the enemy no longer has any. So it¡¯s still better if Xiaojin and I remain in hiding to suppress the enemy. The three of you, take care.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Once they realize they can¡¯t take out the MG nest, and after we kill enough of them, the enemy will turn their attention to the two of us.¡±


    ere


    Luo Lan¡¯s eyes lit up. By the time the Pyro Company realized there were only two snipers on the opposing side, they would probably have paid a terrible price for it. ¡°However, I¡¯m most worried that a T5batant will join the battle. Don¡¯t let your guard down just because the previous battles were so easy. The person behind the Pyro Company is not that stupid.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Qi and the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Are the two of you confident of dealing with a T5batant?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that,¡± the Great Hoodwinker said with a nonchnt smile.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He realized the Great Hoodwinker might be a hidden expert as well. Exactly. If he weren¡¯t an expert, how could he walk around in the wilderness alone with such ease and have the balls to stroll around the periphery of the Sacred Mountains?


    Zhou Qi looked at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°If he¡¯s fine with it, so am I.¡±


    ¡°Alright, everyone, be careful.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu followed Yang Xiaojin and headed into the wilderness. When it came down to sniping, the moment still belonged to Yang Xiaojin. Ren Xiaosu knew himself well. He would not even have to use his brain now and only needed to follow her.


    On the other side, tho people who were running with ¡°Old Xu¡± had gradually split up as well. Since Ren Xiaosu knew their group had to split up, the others thought of it as well.


    Although their team was in a bit of a pathetic state, the members were no rookies. The Pyro Company¡¯s troops had fanned out and surrounded them. It was obvious they were trying to take them out in one fell swoop. However, due to Cheng Yu and the others splitting up, the Pyro Company¡¯s formation changed very quickly. They split up into seven groups and chased after the people who had scattered.


    Cheng Yu nced at Wang Yun, who was next to him, and frowned. ¡°Didn¡¯t you make a deal with that young man? Why didn¡¯t you follow them?¡±


    Wang Yun smiled and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you realize the five of them are together? Although we made a deal, once there¡¯s danger, the one who¡¯ll get abandoned will definitely be an outsider like me. We don¡¯t have much of a rtionship, so it¡¯s better to follow the main group under such circumstances.¡± It was not that Wang Yun did not want to have the backing of someone powerful but that he felt he might not be qualified to do so.


    ¡°Then why are you following me?¡± Cheng Yu wondered.


    Wang Yun smiled shamelessly and said, ¡°Although your illusions might be very weak, you¡¯re very skilled at escaping and ambushing. Why don¡¯t we work together?¡±.


    ¡°What do you propose?¡± Cheng Yu asked calmly.


    Even Song Qiao, Cheng Yu¡¯s colleague from the Anjing House, was relying on his own abilities to escape. As for Cheng Yu¡¯s power, he needed to find someone strong to act as his support.


    A group of the Pyro Company¡¯s troops passed through the forest and approached where Cheng Yu and the others were. But in their field of vision, they could only see dead trees and rocks. There was no one in sight.


    The moment the troops passed through the area, a huge tree behind them disappeared like a sh of light. Wang Yun sneered as he charged into the group of people from behind.


    In just an instant, Wang Yun killed seven people. The sound of air beingpressed and exploding was as deafening as artillery fire.


    By the time the Pyro Company¡¯s troops reacted, Wang Yun had disappeared into thin air again. The Pyro Company members wanted to chase after him, but they all fell through the ground. The seemingly solid ground was actually a pit!


    This forest had already been meticulously ¡°decorated¡± by Cheng Yu, so no one could tell what was real.


    ¡°Fire!¡± Wang Yun said calmly.


    His subordinates and Cheng Yu¡¯s assistants, who were hiding behind the ¡°curtain,¡± had been waiting for the opportunity to strike.

 Chapter 744 - Killing

    <strong>Chapter 744 Killing</strong>


    Cheng Yu knew his own killing prowess was limited. However, he realized his cooperation with Wang Yun was almost wless. The illusions he created could only be seen by himself. Take, for example, if he worked with others. It would be very easy for them to get taken in by his illusions just like the enemies. If there were really a pit in the ground that he had covered up with his illusions, would a normal person instantly remember what the original terrain looked like during battle? So they would simrly get confused along with the enemy and perhaps might even lose their bnce and fall into the pit before the enemy.


    But Wang Yun was different. His memory was exceptional. When he first joined the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency, his ability shocked everyone.


    Right now, no matter how Cheng Yu¡¯s illusions changed, Wang Yun could still remember what the forest looked like originally. Furthermore, he was able to quickly n all of his attacks to lure the enemy into a trap. The battle had already started. After killing a small group of Pyro Company members, Cheng Yu¡¯s illusions started changing to prevent the remaining Pyro Company members from figuring out a pattern.


    However, Wang Yun still managed to appear and disappear mysteriously. The illusions did not seem to affect him at all.


    Before the battle, Wang Yun even specially instructed Cheng Yu, ¡°Don¡¯t exaggerate your illusions. When you sold the information, you said the Pyro Company saw through your illusions at a nce because they had someone with the ability to see through illusions, right?¡±


    Cheng Yu answered, ¡°Yes, they did.¡±


    ¡°If a fucking dragon were to suddenly appear in the sky, I would also immediately think that there was something off.¡± Wang Yun snapped, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just create a false path and let them crash into the mountains instead? So be it real or fake, you haven¡¯t even mastered the essence of illusions yet. I wonder why no one from the Anjing House warned you about that.¡±


    Cheng Yu choked. ¡°Can¡¯t I like dragons? Can¡¯t I be born in the Year of the Dragon?¡±


    ¡°If you wanna put it that way, we can¡¯t continue this conversation,¡± Wang Yun said speechlessly.


    But no matter how Cheng Yu argued with him, Wang Yun¡¯s words reminded him that using the environment was much more useful than creating a dragon illusion.


    When he saw how Wang Yun was always able to take the enemy by surprise with the help of his illusions, Cheng Yu started pondering if he could also develop his own close-range assassination skills since he was not weak physically.


    Come to think of it, Cheng Yu and Wang Yun¡¯s cooperation even seemed quitepatible.


    But just as Wang Yun was about to continue killing more enemies, a person in the forest came flying over like a cannonball and collided with Wang Yun without any deviation. Wang Yun spat blood while airborne. The moment hended on the ground, he did not even care about the pain he was feeling and quickly crawled back into the illusion!


    It was a T5batant! The Pyro Company members were just cannon fodder. The real killer moves were still to be taken by the T5batants who had just appeared. It seemed they were the truest line of attack for the enemy.


    No matter how good Wang Yun¡¯s memory was or how realistic the illusions were, the T5batant managed to seize an opportunity and severely injured Wang Yun. Thus, Wang Yun could only take cover behind the illusions.


    Nobody dared even breathe too loudly as they were afraid the enemy would sense their position by listening.


    The T5batant stood calmly in the illusion as though he did not think Cheng Yu and the others could cause him any harm.


    He used his hearing to get a sense of any abnormal activities in the surroundings. The illusion had not been dispelled yet, nor did he have the ability to see through it.


    Cheng Yu looked at Wang Yun silently, seeing Wang Yun gesturing to him. This gesture was different from the one Luo Lan made to Ren Xiaosu. It was amon tactical gesture: Cover me.


    When Cheng Yu saw this gesture, he was stunned. Could Wang Yun really be bold enough to want to kill the T5batant?


    There was no time to think. Cheng Yu signaled to his assistant to get ready for battle at any moment.


    But something unexpected happened. Wang Yun was lying on the ground quietly, but his internal injuries were too serious, and he could not help but cough up blood.


    The sound of him coughing was like a signal of death. The T5batant¡¯s figure vanished from where he was standing, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Wang Yun as he shed down at him. ¡°Open fire, save him!¡± Cheng Yu roared. They were all in the same boat. If Wang Yun died, the others would not survive either! Cheng Yu activated an illusion to disrupt the T5batant¡¯s vision while Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates had already rushed out to save their boss.


    But how could they possibly be faster than the T5batant?


    The saber in the T5batant¡¯s hand shed straight down, and a sharp whistling rent the air. But a split secondter, something strange happened. Wang Yun floated backwards like a feather, and the T5batant¡¯s attack missed!


    Wang Yun¡¯s body floated in the air weightlessly as the T5batant kept charging forward. But like a child grabbing at a feather in the wind, it pushed Wang Yun further and further away from him.


    Wang Yun roared, ¡°I can¡¯t hold on for much longer! Stop him!¡±


    A secondter, his four subordinates fired off a barrage of gunfire, but the bullets only went as deep as the surface of the T5batant¡¯s skin. Wang Yun¡¯s heart sank. The T5batant was really as tough as the rumors said. Not even rifle fire could prate his body!


    Fortunately, the impact of the bullets still had some effect on the T5batant. The T5batant turned around coldly and looked at Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates. However, Wang Yun did not retreat. Instead, he drifted towards the T5batant.


    The T5batant retaliated with a sh. Wang Yun¡¯s eyes were red with rage as he pointed a finger at his opponent¡¯s ear. The calm air wildly rushed straight into the T5batant¡¯s ear and keptpressing within the narrow ear canal, making the T5batant scream in pain.


    The saber in the T5batant¡¯s hand had made contact with Wang Yun¡¯s chest, but Wang Yun still managed to conjure up a final st of air that pierced through the T5batant¡¯s eardrums, and the powerful air pressure prated through his brain! ¡°Sir!¡± Wang Yun¡¯s four subordinates ran towards where hended, while the T5batant copsed stiffly on the ground.


    Cheng Yu ran over to check on Wang Yun¡¯s injuries as well. He thought Wang Yun might not survive this.


    However, he was shocked to discover that Wang Yun was still wearing a thin bulletproof vest under his shirt. The T5batant¡¯s saber had even cut through it. But fortunately, while Wang Yun had a sh wound on his chest, he managed to avoid any injuries to his organs.


    Wang Yun paled as he searched around his own body. Eventually, his arm trembled as he took out a small vial of ck medicine. ¡°Apply it on me. Hurry, or it¡¯ll be toote!¡±


    He was losing blood rapidly. In fact, Wang Yun was not sure if the ck medicine could save him.


    When he bought the ck medicine off Ren Xiaosu, he had kept some for himself to use in case he got injured in the Sacred Mountains. Cheng Yu sighed and said, ¡°I only understand how terrifying a T5batant¡¯s power is after facing one. I wonder how White Mask was able to crush that T5batant. He¡¯s simply too scary!¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here quickly.¡± Wang Yun said strenuously, ¡°There¡¯s more than one T5batant around. The Pyro Company has made up their mind to finish us off this time. If the others don¡¯t have any contingencies to deal with them, I¡¯m afraid they won¡¯t survive this.¡±


    ¡°Sir, where are we going?¡± his subordinate asked.


    Wang Yun frowned. ¡°We¡¯ll head to where Luo Lan and the others are!¡±


    ¡°Do you think they¡¯re capable of dealing with the T5batants?¡± Cheng Yu asked curiously.


    ¡°We gotta bank on it!¡±

 Chapter 745 - One punch

    <strong>Chapter 745 One punch</strong>


    If he had not experienced it personally, Cheng Yu would have misunderstood thebat strength of a T5batant. This was because he had seen with his own eyes how ¡°Old Xu¡± had crushed that T5batant back then. He did not know if everything had coincidentally gone right in that encounter for Old Xu as he only saw the oue of the sh.


    But once they actually encountered a T5batant, they realized the T5batants were beings that could crush them in a head-on battle. If Wang Yun had not risked his life and used his power to fight to the death with that T5batant, they would probably all be dead by now.


    As a matter of fact, Cheng Yu was very impressed by Wang Yun¡¯s fearlessness at that critical moment.


    Wang Yun was someone with brains, courage, bravery, and means. Cheng Yu suddenly felt it was a pity for him to stay in the Kong Consortium.


    In the early years, the three major consortiums of the Central ins were still on par with one another. But in the past few years, the Kong Consortium had constantly been led by the nose by the Wang Consortium. Based on the actions of the consortiums over the years, there was always that feeling that Wang Shengzhi¡¯s strategy was superior.


    Cheng Yu asked, ¡°Actually, Wang Yun, everyone can tell that those people from the Kong Consortium are quite petty. Have you ever thought of going somewhere else?¡± Wang Yunid on the back of his subordinate, getting piggybacked. He said weakly, ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about me. Rather, think about yourselves. All of you have been treated as cannon fodder by the Anjing House this time.¡±


    ¡°How did I end up bing cannon fodder all of a sudden?¡± Cheng Yu said anxiously, ¡°We came to the Sacred Mountains with a n. Why are you making it sound like we were being sent to our deaths?¡±


    ¡°Then let me ask you: Did anyone tell you how to retreat?¡± Wang Yun sneered.


    Cheng Yu was stunned. ¡°Once everyone makes it into the Sacred Mountains and the Pyro Company has fallen, couldn¡¯t we retreat however we wanted?¡±


    ¡°The Pyro Company? Fall? With just us?¡± When Wang Yunughed, his wound stretched, and he started to cough violently.


    Wang Yun¡¯s subordinate quickly said, ¡°Sir, please don¡¯t speak for now.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. That young man¡¯s medicine is truly magical.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°With this medicine, I won¡¯t die.¡±


    Cheng Yu stopped talking. Actually, Wang Yun was right. His boss had really not told them about the exfiltration n, and neither did he know where she was.


    Was he just cannon fodder? All of this was just so she could trap all these people from the other organizations and leave them for dead in the Sacred Mountains?


    Cheng Yu could not be sure of that.


    At this moment, many others were still facing the pursuit of the Pyro Company. A lot of them had already been brutally crushed by the T5batants.


    It went alright for the supernatural beings among them. Some of them even managed to work together to keep their T5-ranked opponents in check and send them into a temporary retreat. Some others were able to finish off a T5batant just like Wang Yun did.


    But if a normal person encountered a T5batant, they really stood no chance of surviving.


    Everyone hade into the Sacred Mountains together. Regardless of whether they encountered any danger at the beginning, today¡¯s battle marked the true beginning of the expedition.


    Luo Lan had found his way to a small hillside. asionally, he could hear a sniper rifle cracking in the distance.


    Luo Lan knew Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were engaged in battle. He sighed and said, ¡°Whoever encounters those two are in for a headache. Even arge group of people can¡¯t kill as quickly as them.¡±


    The martyred spirits next to Luo Lan were digging trenches and setting up dugouts. All of them were building up defensive fortifications very quickly.


    One of the martyred spirits said with a smile, ¡°Boss, we became stronger after our deaths, so our work rate has also gotten more efficient.¡± Luo Lan looked at them. ¡°Which one of you will be the machine gunner?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡± The toonmander stepped forward. ¡°Boss, just wait behind the fortifications and watch. The Pyro Company members have no chance of breaking through this MG nest.¡±


    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s all I needed to hear,¡± Luo Lan said with a sigh of relief.


    Off to the side, the Great Hoodwinker asked, ¡°Do you need my help?¡±.


    ¡°No,¡± the toonmander said and smiled.


    Luo Lan exined, ¡°These are the elites of our Qing Consortium¡¯s military. 12 people upying the high ground can be considered a full toon. It¡¯s just a pity that this era isn¡¯t really fair to them.¡±


    These soldiers had been training day and night to improve theirbat skills. But ever since the era of the ¡°Rise of Gods,¡± their abilities that were exchanged with sweat and blood could easily get outdone by supernatural beings at any moment.


    This made Luo Lan feel a sense of unfairness, even though he had also be a supernatural being.


    As they spoke, some of the Pyro Company¡¯s troops entered the battlefield. However, the martyred spirits did not immediately open fire on them. Instead, they waited.


    What they needed to do now was not to force the Pyro Company into a retreat but to wipe them all out!


    ¡°toon Commander, we can still let them advance another 120 meters,¡± a martyred spirit said.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, let them get a little closer.¡± The toonmander calcted the distance and said, ¡°We¡¯ve also dealt with these Pyro Company members before. Their physical fitness is far superior than that of ordinary people¡¯s. If we fire at them while they¡¯re still far away, I¡¯m afraid they might end up fleeing instead.¡±


    Behind the fortifications, the Great Hoodwinker curled his lips. ¡°Y¡¯know, your Qing Consortium is really full of ruthless people. They¡¯re already hellbent on wiping out several hundred enemies with just the 12 of them?¡±


    ¡°Come to think of it, what exactly is your superpower?¡± Luo Lan looked at the Great Hoodwinker curiously. ¡°Our Qing Consortium has been watching you for a long time now, so why haven¡¯t we seen you use your superpower before? Could you be just a normal person?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker chuckled. ¡°You¡¯ll find out when the T5batants show up.¡±


    While they were speaking, the Pyro Company¡¯s troops finally got into range of the martyred spirits¡¯ machine gun nest. Then the two machine guns started firing on the enemy like a meat grinder.


    The Pyro Company members could never have expected someone would venture to set up a defensive position here and ambush them instead! Moreover, their intelligence report did not mention there were any heavy machine gun nests here!


    It was just like how the intelligence report had not mentioned there were snipers in this team. The two heavy machine guns would not have been not easy to hide from sight. As long as they were brought here, they would be easily discovered.


    But somehow, the weapons had appeared out of thin air. If they knew there were heavy machine guns, they would definitely not have been so careless as to walk within range of the enemy!


    The Pyro Company¡¯s troops fell in droves, but there was still one person who was traversing the wilderness like a ghost and closing in on the group Zhou Qi looked at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Alright, get up now. A T5batant has arrived.¡±


    The T5batant was getting closer and closer to the machine gun nest. The enemy did not seem to care about the heavy machine guns at all. No matter how the soldiers adjusted the angle of their machine guns, they were unable to hit him.


    Just as the T5batant was about to charge into the defensive position, the Great Hoodwinker stood up and patted off his buttocks. ¡°The reason why y¡¯all haven¡¯t seen my superpower is because I don¡¯t really have any special superpower. All I have is brute force.¡±


    After that, the Great Hoodwinker stepped out of the defensive position in his tattered cloth shoes to face the oing beast that was dashing in madly.


    Luo Lan looked at the Great Hoodwinker in confusion and wondered if he was going to fucking sacrifice himself here.


    But then, he saw the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s forearm after he rolled up his sleeves. It was bulging with muscles. It was as though he had suddenly turned from a fortune teller to a bodybuilder. Luo Lan could not get used to the disparity in his appearance.


    The T5batant and the Great Hoodwinker collided in midair. The T5batant, who had always been known for physical fitness, was actually forced back by the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s punch!

 Chapter 746 - A bloody disaster

    <strong>Chapter 746 A bloody disaster</strong>


    He had thrown out a simple punch without any fanciful or shocking moves. The cloth shoes the Great Hoodwinker was wearing were still tattered, yet the T5batant had been knocked back by his punch.


    Luo Lan muttered, ¡°Back then, those old fogeys in our Qing Consortium were saying they wanted to capture him. Thinking about it now, it¡¯s fortunate Qing Zhen decided to maintain a good rtionship with Fortress 178, so we didn¡¯t have to make a move on this guy.¡±


    This Great Hoodwinker usually appeared like an old man, but he was actually a pure strength-type supernatural being.


    To be honest, there were very few people who saw strength-based superhumans as threats these days. However, that was definitely because most strength types were still not strong enough.


    No one knew when the Great Hoodwinker had awakened his powers, but his brute strength was so strong that even a T5batant could not withstand it.


    It was no wonder this guy had the balls to run to wherever there was danger. He had the skill to back it up!


    Ren Xiaosu had also tried to probe the Great Hoodwinker about his power, but he did not manage to find out what it was. But now, the Great Hoodwinker was not going to pretend anymore! He was going all out!


    Since he was battling alongside his futuremander, he couldn¡¯t just be cheering him on, right? The Great Hoodwinker stepped forward in his tattered cloth shoes without retreating. He advanced step by step towards the T5batant and said, ¡°Young man, I think you¡¯ll encounter a bloody disaster today.¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s mouth twitched. This was the most fucking resolute fortune teller he had evere across. If he said that you would encounter a bloody disaster, then you would really encounter a bloody disaster.


    His fortune telling was never wrong, and it was always as urate as ever!


    Honestly speaking, based on the strength the Great Hoodwinker had just disyed, 99% of supernatural beings in the world could not escape this bloody disaster either. The T5batant looked at the Great Hoodwinker and sneered, ¡°Did you think I was fighting you at full strength just now?¡± The Great Hoodwinker scratched his head andughed. ¡°You¡¯re making it sound like I was fighting you at full strength.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the T5batant darted to the left like an arrow fired from a bow.


    Wherever he moved, the Great Hoodwinker moved as well. Both parties continued moving side to side without letting up. Seeing that he could not shake off the Great Hoodwinker, the T5batant decided to stop pulling away from him and start shing with the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s punches instead.


    As the two of them fought, the trees around them suffered coteral damage. A seemingly light punch easily toppled the trees in their surroundings.


    Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and the others watched. As these two tangled with each other so fast they almost couldn¡¯t be seen, no one dared to rashly lend a hand for fear of hurting their own people.


    This battle was a visual feast. Before this, it was really difficult to witness such a ¡°solid¡± battle between superhumans. There was nothing fancy about it, but every strike was an earth-shattering one.


    The ground was trembling.


    But in just an instant, just as both parties were fighting to their hearts¡¯ content, an exquisite de suddenly appeared in the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s hand. His swinging fist formed into a palm strike. No one knew what the de was made of, but it sliced a wide gash across the T5batant¡¯s chest.


    Blood flowed out like a fountain!


    The T5batant was caught off guard and retreated. He said coldly, ¡°You humans are still as despicable as ever.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker smiled bashfully and said, ¡°We can¡¯t just be exchanging punches all day, right? How boring is that?¡±


    When he said that, it sounded almost exactly the same as when he told Ren Xiaosu how he couldn¡¯t always be using that ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± line on others.


    And at that time, he happened to be preparing an extremely underhanded n to drive a wedge between Wang Yun and the Kong Consortium.


    The Great Hoodwinker used his identity as a fortune teller to spy on others and was blessed with unparalleled brute strength, yet he enjoyed striking others below the belt. In his own words, all of this was for the prosperity of the Northwest!


    ¡°Do you think this injury will kill me?¡± The T5batant loosened his limbs as though he was about to get serious.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s very difficult for me to kill you, but it¡¯ll be easier for other people.¡±


    The T5batant was surprised to see that the blood did not stop flowing from his wound. A small wound like this would only take him three hours to fully recover from, and stopping the bleeding should only take a few minutes. But right now, the bleeding was not stopping at all!


    However, he reacted very quickly. The T5batant immediately looked up at Zhou Qi and realized he was smiling strangely at him.


    Zhou Qi¡¯s ability was to control water. Usually, it would be quite difficult for him to draw water from the air. Therefore, if he were not near a river during a battle, Zhou Qi would find himself in a more passive position.


    Butter, Qing Zhen told him there was no need to look too far actually. After all, a person¡¯s body was 70% water.


    From then on, Zhou Qi¡¯s power became extremely weird and vicious.


    He could not control the blood of others who did not have any wounds, but the Great Hoodwinker had created an opportunity for him now. The T5batant was as good as a dead man in his eyes.


    When the T5batant saw the situation was not right, he turned around and ran. However, how could he escape from the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s pestering? After taking just a few steps, the Great Hoodwinker caught up to him again, so he could only fight back hastily!


    As time went by, the T5batant felt himself weakening. Zhou Qi drew out the blood from his body until he went into shock.


    His blood was dancing in the air like a scarlet dragon as it flew all the way to Zhou Qi¡¯s side.


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at Luo Lan and the others and said with a grin, ¡°Not bad, right?¡±


    Luo Lan gave him a thumbs up. ¡°That was great, absolutely great! Elder, you¡¯re so heroic and mighty!¡±


    From now on, Luo Lan decided to be more polite to the Great Hoodwinker in case he ¡°predicted¡± he would encounter a bloody disaster someday!


    Furthermore, Luo Lan suspected the Great Hoodwinker had still been hiding his strength during the battle just now. That was because his shoes had not been worn out even after such an intense battle!


    It was not that Luo Lan wanted to be picky about the details, but that he had witnessed many battles between experts. It was amon urrence for one or both shoes to be destroyed when a physically strong wearer ran in them.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker did not even wear out his cloth shoes after fighting a T5batant. That showed he was still controlling his strength. ¡°The Northwest really is full of hidden experts.¡± Luo Lan muttered, ¡°Is it easier to awaken your superpower if you live in a colder ce? Should I suggest to my brother to send a group of people to the Western teau to train?¡±


    One of the martyred spiritsughed and said, ¡°Boss, sorry to have to interrupt you, but Mr. Qing Zhen is already doing that.¡±


    ¡°Alright, he¡¯s one step ahead of me again.¡± Luo Lan curled his lips.


    Some people said the awakening of a supernatural being had a direct corrtion with one¡¯s willpower. In that case, it should be easier to awaken one¡¯s power when training in a tough and cold ce. Luo Lan felt there would probably be people who would purposely venture into harsh environments to train in the future, and who knew how many monsters might appear when that time came?


    However, Luo Lan was extremely rxed now. Initially, he thought the Sacred Mountains were going to be really dangerous, but it was only now that he realized the people around him were each more fearsome than thest.


    ¡°Boss, another group of the Pyro Company¡¯s troops are approaching,¡± a martyred spirit said.


    ¡°Then what are we waiting for? Let¡¯s get them!¡± Luo Lan immediately said valiantly.


    But before the Pyro Company could approach them, a sniper bullet flew over from somewhere and directly killed themander of their troops. The Pyro Company was originally targeting Luo Lan and the others, but when the sniper appeared, they immediately switched targets! Luo Lan could only sit impatiently within the defensive fortifications. His teammates were too strong, so there was nowhere for him to shine.

 Chapter 747 - One-hit kill

    <strong>Chapter 747 One-hit kill</strong>


    The sudden attack from the Pyro Companysted from noon until dusk.


    Blood was spilled in the Sacred Mountains, and some people revealed their true bravery.


    The Great Hoodwinker and the others had no intention of saving the others. Perhaps Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were afraid they were under too much pressure, so they took the initiative to lure away the Pyro Company¡¯s reinforcements after the initial group of troops had been wiped out.


    In that case, Luo Lan decided to make the best of this rare opportunity to rest and recuperate. After all, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had risked their lives to fight for this opportunity for them. Luo Lan could not possibly take Ren Xiaosu¡¯s good intentions and contribute it to others.


    Furthermore, if another T5batant were to appear at this moment, they would probably end up in a pathetic state as well.


    Ren Xiaosu stepped on some dposing leaves as he headed southwards. Yang Xiaojin was walking in front of him and would asionally examine their surroundings. Whenever they encountered a suitable ambush spot, they would stop in their tracks and deal another heavy blow to the Pyro Company¡¯s forces behind them.


    The Sacred Mountains was a very dangerous ce, but the sunset here was very beautiful.


    The two of them carried their sniper rifles as they walked down the mountain path. They wererades fighting a guerri war, eating, resting, and killing their enemies together.


    Perhaps the Pyro Company had not expected these two snipers could put so much pressure on their troops.


    ording to the original n, the Pyro Company would fully suppress Cheng Yu, Wang Yun, and the others with the aid of their own snipers. Then they would slowly sap their strength and eventually wipe out the forces the Anjing House had sent into the Sacred Mountains.


    But something went awry with the n right from the beginning. Their snipers had been taken out.


    In everyone¡¯s opinion, the least expected problem with this n was the appearance of snipers!


    Hiding several hundred meters away and picking off enemies, what kind of concept was that? A distance of more than 700 meters might sound very close, but in reality, a person hiding at a distance of 700 meters would appear no bigger than a mosquito in one¡¯s vision.


    In the end, it was two snipers facing off against two snipers, and Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin easily eliminated the Pyro Company¡¯s snipers.


    Then the Pyro Company¡¯s troops started targeting them. As snipers had to carry their heavy sniper rifles on their backs, they would expend much more stamina than normal soldiers over a distance. And since the Pyro Company¡¯s troops were also made up of their T3batants, it shouldn¡¯t be difficult for them to catch up to the two snipers, right? Without the advantage of long distance suppression, the threat of the snipers would not be as great. After all, the Pyro Company had more people! But in the pursuit afterwards, the Pyro Company¡¯s troops were still unable to catch up to the two of them even after chasing with everything they had. Moreover, the Pyro Company realized the two snipers could easily close or stretch the distance between themselves and their troops.


    Only at this moment did they finally realize the two snipers were actually supernatural beings.


    Honestly, this was a little too much.


    ¡°The sun¡¯s about to set.¡± Yang Xiaojin looked towards the hill in front of them and said, ¡°Let¡¯splete the final ambush here. The enemy will probably guess we¡¯re here, but we way outrange them.¡±


    It was not that advantageous for snipers once it turned dark, especially when the environment was the wilderness. Currently, they were about two kilometers away from the pursuing Pyro Company¡¯s troops, and there were about 200 enemies in total. Based on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s estimates, the two of them should be able to deal with all of the threats from here.


    Even if they could not kill all their pursuers, the remaining forces would not pose a threat to them.


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll go with your call.¡± Ren Xiaosu climbed up the slope with his bare hands. He wanted to turn around to give Yang Xiaojin a hand, but she had already climbed up by herself.


    In the twilight, Ren Xiaosu could see that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s face was dirty and covered in dust. Her hair was also a little messy, but it somehow looked very alluring. The dust on her face was even thicker than the makeup powder other women applied on their faces.


    Under the setting sun, the girl exuded a unique tenacity. Ren Xiaosu had never seen her weak side before. Ever since they got to know each other, it seemed like they had fought side by side more often than not.


    But this made Ren Xiaosu feelpletely at ease because he knew neither of them would get left behind


    Yang Xiaojin skillfully found a suitable firing point. She observed the target through the scope while saying, ¡°Enjoying the view?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Ren Xiaosu admitted sheepishly.


    ¡°Let¡¯s finish off these people first before you do that.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out his spotting scope. ¡°They¡¯re still about 2,100 meters away from us. What distance do you n on waiting for them to get to before starting?¡±.


    ¡°1,560 meters.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Let them get closer in case they get a chance to escape.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll watch the other directions and see if there¡¯s any T5s secretly approaching. You keep your attention on these troops.¡± Ren Xiaosu raised his spotting scope and started searching the wilderness. Actually, the troops were not really a threat to them. The only thing that worried them were the T5batants who might be hiding somewhere nearby.


    If they had not been worried about the T5batants¡¯ sneak attacks, the two of them would have already fought their way back against the troops. They would not have needed to resort to guerri warfare at all.


    The most taboo thing on a battlefield like this was to think you were already assured of victory, only to end up failing miserably.


    The only way to survive was to preserve one¡¯s strength and prepare for a crisis.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart sank. ¡°There really are T5s following us. I was wondering why this group of troops were still persevering even after half of them had been taken out. So it turns out that they had a backup n after all.¡±


    ¡°How many T5s?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Two,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Distance?¡±


    ¡°1,800 meters at 7 o¡¯clock.¡±


    ¡°What do you say?¡± Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Shall we take out the T5s first?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°Do you remember that our sniper rifle still has that ck bullet ammo?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s its effect?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I haven¡¯t had a chance to use it yet, so why don¡¯t we try it out this time?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°What if it turns out surprisingly useful? Even if it¡¯s not, we could at least find out what the ck bullets are for.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smirked. ¡°I¡¯ve been wanting to give it a try for a while now.¡±


    Under the setting sun, the girl aimed at one of the T5batants and suddenly pulled the trigger.


    A ck bullet burst out of the chamber of the rifle and curved slightly in the air due to the Coriolis effect.


    As it embarked on a distance of nearly 2,000 meters, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin initially thought it would take some time for the bullet to reach its target. After all, it should take more than two seconds for the ck sniper bullet to cover a distance of 2,000 meters.


    However, Ren Xiaosu saw through the spotting scope that the T5batant had already been hit midway through his silent counting process! Arge cloud of ck mist exploded from his body as the bullet pierced his heart, and the T5batant was sent flying backwards.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. They both realized the importance of this ck bullet. The reason why snipers were unable to deal with supernatural beings from a distance was that it was too easy for the target to discover their positions. But with the bullet almost instantaneously arriving, it reduced the time it took to hit the target by more than half, so not even a T5batant could avoid it!


    In fact, most supernatural beings in the world were physically weaker than the T5batants. In other words, there was a chance Yang Xiaojin could kill most supernatural beings in one hit now.

 Chapter 748 - Charry

    <strong>Chapter 748 Charry</strong>


    ¡°If there¡¯s a chance, I¡¯ll have to evaluate the power of this ck bullet and its actual trajectory speed.¡± Yang Xiaojin said in seriousness, ¡°It¡¯s a good thing that it¡¯s fast, but without understanding it well, its uracy might get affected. In terms of power, if even a T5batant can get prated by it, there shouldn¡¯t be anyone today who can stand up to this bullet.¡±


    After all, even an automatic rifle¡¯s bullet could only get embedded in a T5batant¡¯s skin. This kind of physical strength was enough to make any normal person despair.


    But now, the ck bullet had even pierced a T5batant¡¯s heart. He couldn¡¯t be any deader than he was.


    Although Yang Xiaojin¡¯s previous sniper rifle was also very good, the potential of her skills had always been limited by it.


    It was not that her sniper rifle was not powerful, but that supernatural beings were bing even stronger.


    But now that Yang Xiaojin had the ck sniper rifle, and with the power of the ck bullets, her potential was raised even further.


    ¡°Wait a minute, the T5batant¡¯s wound is turning ck,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Yang Xiaojin also looked over and saw the wound on the T5batant¡¯s corpse turning ck. In just two seconds, the entire corpse had ckened.


    ¡°Why did it turn ck?¡± Yang Xiaojin turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Don¡¯t you know the effects of your own bullets?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s also my first time using it,¡± Ren Xiaosu said helplessly. However, he felt the ckening effect was not that simple. The pce never did anything unnecessarily, after all.


    As the two of them spoke, the other T5batant dragged his teammate¡¯s corpse behind some cover and checked on his teammate¡¯s injuries.


    He checked his teammate¡¯s eyes but found the pupils had already dted. There was no doubt he was already dead.


    But at this moment, the still surviving T5batant was shocked to discover the fingers he had used to touch his teammate¡¯s eyelids had also started turning ck. In just a couple seconds, that strange ckness had already spread up to his neck.


    He retreated in a panic. However, even after his entire body ckened, it did not seem like he was experiencing any pain. It was just that he had ckened!


    The T5batant had a ferocious look on his face. He could not understand what was going on. That ckness seemed to have seeped into his skin, and he could not wipe it off.


    It was just a bullet, but it ckened his skin?!


    Thinking of this, the T5batant did not stay around any longer and ran into the forest as fast as he could.


    Yang Xiaojin was stunned when she saw himing out from behind the rock cover. ¡°What was that dark shadowy thing just now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was also bewildered. ¡°It¡¯s that other T5batant, isn¡¯t it? Why has he also ckened?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin did not say anything. She tried to shoot the target with another ck bullet, only to realize it had run out.


    ¡°That¡¯s strange. Is the ck bullet only limited to one shot?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before asking the pce in his mind, ¡°What¡¯s the quantity of the ck bullets?¡±.


    ¡°One per day, with 12 AM as the reset point,¡± the voice from the pce answered.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. It wasn¡¯t easy for him to discover a method that could kill a T5batant in one hit, yet there was still a time limit imposed on it?


    No, there should be other restrictions too!


    Ren Xiaosu scanned his mind pce. He saw the brass typewriter type out a line of words: Gratitude tokens, -100. In just an instant, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart ached. He only had a few hundred gratitude tokens at the moment, so he would be deducting one-sixth of them.


    When he first saw the third weapon required 10,000 gratitude tokens to unlock, he felt he was still a long way off from getting it. As such, he temporarily gave up on umting more gratitude tokens. But from the look of things, he would have to ply his old trade


    again!


    When Yang Xiaojin found out the ck bullet could only be used once a day, she found it a pity. ¡°Alright then, we¡¯ll try shooting it again tomorrow.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hurriedly said, ¡°Ahem, the ck bullet is now your trump card, so how can you show it to others so easily? It¡¯s better to use it only when it¡¯s absolutely critical.¡±


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was still quite egotistic in front of Yang Xiaojin. He was embarrassed to say he could not afford the daily gratitude tokens required for the ck bullet¡¯s usage, so he found an excuse to persuade Yang Xiaojin not to use them unnecessarily.


    However, Yang Xiaojin immediately saw through him.


    ¡°Hm?¡± Yang Xiaojin looked at him carefully and understood. ¡°Judging by your stinginess, there should be a price for using the ck bullet. Alright then, I won¡¯t use it unless it¡¯s absolutely necessary.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu beamed. ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t have to care about helping me save if you really encounter any danger. Your safety is paramount.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Since we¡¯ve made contact with the T5batants, we can¡¯t remain in a fixed ambush location. We have to think of a way to get rid of the other T5.¡±


    The Pyro Company¡¯s troops who were getting closer and closer were still unaware they had been targeted by the Grim Reaper. Suddenly, amotion came from the forest. The troops immediately turned their muzzles there, ready to fire at any moment.


    Amid the tense situation, a dark figure emerged from the forest.


    ¡°Holy fuck, what¡¯s that?!¡± the officer in charge of the troops roared. Meanwhile, one of the Pyro Company¡¯s troops next to him pulled the trigger in his nervousness!


    The T5batant pulled the bullets out of his chest and face with a look of ferociousness. ¡°I¡¯m T5036. Which bastard fired at me just now?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re T5036?¡±


    T5036 said coldly, ¡°Keep advancing. The enemy is right in front of you. Go and attract their firepower. I¡¯m gonna kill them!¡±


    Themander could recognize T5036 from his voice, so he hurriedly responded affirmatively. After that, T5036 disappeared into the forest again. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had already started shifting to a new location. The sun would set in another half an hour at most, so they had to end this pursuit before that. The wilderness was iparably peaceful. There were no wild animals here, and even the birds had been hunted to extinction.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu heard an explosion ring out behind him. The Pyro Company members must have just arrived at their previous ambush spot and triggered the grenade trap set by Yang Xiaojin.


    He turned around to check on the situation behind them.


    But the moment he turned around, a shadow suddenly pounced out from behind a rock 10 meters to his right.


    T5036 had been sneakily closing in on them for a while now. It was only at this moment that he suddenlyunched an attack as he wanted to take advantage of Ren Xiaosu being distracted to kill him in one strike!


    But when he was in the air, he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s lips curving upward. ¡®Shit!¡¯ T5036 immediately tried to turn around, but something burst up from the pile of dposing leaves underneath him. Old Xu, who was wearing a white mask, collided into T5036 in midair at lightning speed.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for you for a long time, Charry,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    T5036 was enraged. He endured the pain of being ambushed and rolled on the ground. Then he looked fiercely at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Who the fuck are you calling Charry?!¡±

 Chapter 749 - The third Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!

    <strong>Chapter 749 The third Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll!</strong>


    ¡°You¡¯re asking who the fuck Charry is?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°Whoever looks like he¡¯s been charred, of course!¡±


    T5036 said with a sinister smile, ¡°You can stillugh when you¡¯re on the brink of death? Let¡¯s see how you¡¯re going toughter.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t wait any longer. Let¡¯s get started quickly,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. When T5036 heard this, he got so angry he saw red. However, Ren Xiaosu was very serious when he said that.


    The T5batant swung his saber at him. He tried to get past Old Xu to finish off Ren Xiaosu first, but Old Xu stuck close behind him and did not give him a chance. The T5batant got wary. He did not even know when White Mask had appeared behind him.


    As a matter of fact, the news of White Mask killing T5102 had already spread. Although his serial number was ranked higher than 102, they were both still categorized as T5s, so being ranked 36 might not necessarily mean he was stronger than 102.


    However, he did not understand why White Mask was so protective of that infuriating young man.


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu had controlled Old Xu to lead the escape and take away arge group of his teammates. As a result, their five-man team¡¯s target became smaller.


    But very quickly, Old Xu managed to shake off the rest of those teammates. Disregarding everything else and just based on Old Xu¡¯s speed alone, no one could keep up with ¡°his¡± pace. Ren Xiaosu would not possibly leave his trump card to run around out there.


    After killing one of the T5s earlier, Ren Xiaosu had Old Xu lie here in ambush. All Ren Xiaosu needed to do was to pass by. ¡°I¡¯ll deal with White Mask first. You had bettermit suicide before I finish him off. Otherwise, I won¡¯t let you die even if you beg me to kill you.¡± T5036 sneered. With that, he went all out and tussled with Old Xu. The two of them shed continuously in the wilderness, resorting to brute strength to fight. The result was an extremely violent battle.


    The trees in the forest were destroyed as easy as paper by their battle.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and had a look at the sniping spot they used to be at. The troops that had been waid by the grenade trap had already turned around and were rushing towards them.


    While he was thinking about how to deal with the situation, he caught a glimpse of a saber appearing near the treetop diagonally above him.


    The saber brightly reflected the orange glow of the setting sun.


    The tree branches shattered upon contact with the de as the air around was mercilessly parted, sweeping up an air current in the process.


    Before the de could even reach him, the air current created by the de had already made a mess of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hair.


    But just as the de was about to hit Ren Xiaosu, he lowered his head slightly and let it pass overhead.


    When the T5batant, who hadunched a sneak attack from the treetop, tried to use his full strength to sh at Ren Xiaosu again, Ren Xiaosu pushed off his feet and retreated out of the reach of the de¡¯s swing!


    This time, in order to kill these two snipers, the Pyro Company had sent out three T5s rather than two!


    It was only because Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had disrupted their ns from the beginning that themander behind the scenes wanted to deal with the greatest threat. The T5batant who had just joined in raised his long saber diagonally, only to see the young man facing him looking up at him with crimson eyes.


    With City Crusher activated, Charry, who was on the battlefield off to the side, suddenly felt the pressure multiply. Old Xu, whom he was facing right now, was also affected by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s use of City Crusher!


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to take advantage of the 30 seconds City Crusher gave him to kill the T5batant, he was surprised to hear the voice from the pce speaking.


    ¡°Quest: An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Host, please express your attitude of reconciliation and improve your rtionship with the enemy.¡±


    T5019 said with great interest, ¡°Dodging my de while I was ambushing you, I have to say that you are the first one to achieve that. I think the higher-ups would be very interested in your DNA. By bringing you and White Mask back, T5036 and I will score a great contribution for sure.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent throughout.


    T5019 continued sizing up Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°But I¡¯m very curious. Where is thatpanion of yours? Is it because you know you¡¯re about to die, so you¡¯re trying to buy some time for yourpanion to escape?¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu was not in the mood to answer him at all. Just as he had said previously, coexisting with the pce was more like learning how toprehend and understand what it really wanted. How was he supposed to view this quest that required him to improve his rtionship with the enemy?


    He would have to express his attitude first before seeking to improve their rtionship.


    Turn hostility into friendship? If he wanted to achieve a normal level ofpletion for the quest, that would be more or less enough. But Ren Xiaosu wanted it to be perfect.


    Be friends? Somehow, it still felt a littlecking. Be brothers? Ren Xiaosu still felt it was not perfect enough. When T5019 saw Ren Xiaosu not responding at all, he got a little impatient. ¡°Hey, I was asking you a question. Where¡¯s yourpanion?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Call me Daddy.¡±


    T5019 was confused.


    ¡®As long as I canplete the mission, I¡¯m willing for us to have a father-son rtionship!


    ¡°Questplete. Awarded Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll.¡±


    At the same time the pce announced the quest had beenpleted, the Pyro Company discovered that the original sniping spot where two of theirbatants had been killed by the grenade trap had been abandoned. As such, they did not search the spot carefully.


    Moreover, the battle between Old Xu and the T5batant had already started, so they hurriedly rushed down the hill towards Ren Xiaosu in an attack.


    As a result, no one realized Yang Xiaojin had emerged from a pile of dposing leaves and appeared behind them.


    The setting sun slowly descended behind the horizon as the afterglow was reced by darkness that cast down on her face.


    Breathe.


    Yang Xiaojin knelt on one knee. Her arm holding the ck sniper rifle was as steady as a statue. She left the world to spin on its own and allowed the mountain breeze to blow through the sky. Meanwhile, her willpower was as firm as a rock.


    Killing people was probably what she was best at in life. Furthermore, someone whose life was seemingly more important than her own was helping her attract everyone¡¯s attention at this moment.


    She could not fail, nor would she fail.


    She pulled the trigger.


    A bullet flew over the heads of the troops. Before T5019 could figure out what was going on with Ren Xiaosu, he felt a great sense of danger looming over him. He jumped to the left with no regard for his own safety. When he jumped, T5019 could only watch helplessly as the young man smiled at him.


    With a muffled bang, the bullet hit T5019¡¯s waist. The bullet carrying a copious amount of kic energy could not fully prate his body, but it kept on spinning within it. It was like someone had stabbed a knife into his lower back, twisted the handle of the knife, and crushed his organs!


    However, T5batants tended to be so strong and full of vitality that he still had the strength to struggle to his feet even though he was seriously injured. T5019 did not care whether Charry was dead or alive anymore. He only wanted to make his own escape.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it a little toote to escape now?¡± Ren Xiaosu slowly chased after him.


    T5019 paid no attention to whatever was going on behind him. However, he suddenly realized a void had opened up on the path he was escaping towards. A steam lotive¡¯s whistle came out of the void, paired with a metallic nging of tracks.


    It was toote for him to dodge. The steam lotive crushed the T5batant under the train tracks as a total of 16 carriages passed over him, and his life force could only dissipate helplessly.


    On the other side, Old Xu came over with a bloodied saber in its hand. Ren Xiaosu jumped onto the steam lotive with a smile and headed straight for the Pyro Company¡¯s troops together with Old Xu.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not care about them a bit. He was going back to the sniping spot to pick up Yang Xiaojin. His girlfriend was there.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s troops were knocked around by the steam lotive and sent scattering everywhere. Themander shouted into his radio, ¡°It¡¯s Wang Congyang! Wang Congyang has not left the Sacred Mountains yet! I repeat, Wang Congyang has not left the Sacred Mountains yet!¡±

 Chapter 750 - Successfully joining up!

    <strong>Chapter 750 Sessfully joining up!</strong>


    The steam lotive galloped through the wilderness just like a roller coaster ride. If a normal person were sitting in this steam lotive, they would probably not have died in battle but from the bumpy ride.


    At the front of the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu looked back at Yang Xiaojin, who had alreadye aboard. However, he saw her holding a handle in the carriage, looking like she was having a lot of fun.


    Amid the rumbling, the steam lotive moved as though it was on t ground. Yang Xiaojin shouted, ¡°What were you going on about with that T5batant just now? I saw you two talking for a long time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stumped for a moment beforeughing, ¡°Hahahahaha, nothing much.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. ¡°So where are we going now?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re going to pick up Luo Lan and the others,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered. ¡°I feel that the Pyro Company¡¯s n has been thwarted, so it¡¯s time to end things now.¡± The battle had gone on from noon until sunset, so Ren Xiaosu decided to put an end to it.


    In the face of the Pyro Company¡¯s wanton encirclement and suppression, as well as the continuous appearances of those concealed T5s, it was likely theirrades from the Anjing House had already suffered heavy casualties.


    But now that the Pyro Company had activated all of their T5s onto the battlefield, Ren Xiaosu could sense the Pyro Company was at their wits¡¯ end.


    It was not that themander of the Pyro Company¡¯s forces was not smart, but if Ren Xiaosu, Li Shentan, and the others had not appeared along the way, these groups of hitmen that were put together by the Anjing House would probably have already been wiped


    out.


    Ever since they came into the Sacred Mountains, crisis after crisis urred and left them with no time to rest. Even their food supply had been depleted.


    But this series of disruptions were all ruined now.


    Ren Xiaosu was very excited. He had finally collected three Perfect Skill Duplication Scrolls. What he most wanted to do right now was to find Luo Lan to copy his power.


    By using three Skill Duplication Scrolls to learn a specific skill, there would be no chance of failure.


    At this moment, Luo Lan and the others were leaning leisurely against a tree and chatting.


    Ever since Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin lured the pursuers away, no one from the Pyro Company attacked their side. But when others near them were being pursued by the Pyro Company, they did not have any intention of helping out either.


    Meanwhile, Wang Yun was lying on the ground at the side, quietly waiting for his wound to heal.


    The miraculous effects of the ck medicine made Wang Yun sigh in relief. If he could buy more ck medicine from Ren Xiaosu, he would probably not die that easily in the future as long as he was not dealt a fatal blow.


    As amander, he would naturally not be participating directly in battles too often. Rather, it was his subordinates who had to live a dangerous life on the edge every day.


    Wang Yun looked at the speed at which his wound was healing. ¡°It will probably take another two days to fully recover, but I feel that we¡¯re already very close to the core region of the Sacred Mountains. I¡¯m afraid the Pyro Company will not afford me the time to fully recover.¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s subordinate said, ¡°Sir, this ck medicine is already so miraculous when applied externally. Will it work if you take it orally?¡±


    Wang Yun fell into deep thought. That sounded like it made some sense...


    But when he turned around to look at Luo Lan, he saw him hugging a tree and shaking withughter. Wang Yun asked, ¡°What are youughing at over there?¡±


    Luo Lan stayed silent for a moment before turning around and saying in a serious tone, ¡°I¡¯m notughing. The medicine can really be taken orally.¡±


    ¡°Ha ha.¡± Wang Yun did not believe it at all. Something bad would definitely happen if the ck medicine was orally ingested. Luo Lan trying hard to suppress hisughter was already enough to give it away. While they were talking, Luo Lan heard the sound of footsteps approaching.


    Ren Xiaosu had already stowed the steam lotive in advance in case anyone found out about it.


    He smiled and said, ¡°What are y¡¯all chatting about?¡±


    ¡°Where did you all go? Did you encounter any danger?¡± Wang Yun asked. ¡°It¡¯s more dangerous for others to encounter them.¡± Luo Lan chuckled.


    While they were talking, Ren Xiaosu had already started saying to the pce, ¡°Copy Luo Lan¡¯s superpower.¡±


    The voice from the pce replied in his mind, ¡°Detected Luo Lan¡¯s superpower as ¡®Martyred Spirit.¡¯ Do you want to learn it?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly.


    Wasn¡¯t this power exactly the reason why he had been so busy in recent days? Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu felt an invisible force enveloping Luo Lan. At the same time, something seemed to have appeared in his mind as well.


    This power gave Ren Xiaosu a very strange feeling. It was as though a door that led to theherworld had opened up for him, but he could not really feel many changes. When copying the ¡°Martyred Spirit¡± power, it was not like copying the Shadow Clone or the Steam Lotive powers where the oue could be seen on the spot. Ren Xiaosu suddenly said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Can you go with me to the Southwest after the Sacred Mountains expedition is over?¡± Yang Xiaojin looked at him and said, ¡°Sure.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu smiled at Luo Lan and said, ¡°Get up; let¡¯s clean up the mess. We¡¯ll head into the core region of the Sacred Mountains tomorrow and see what other tricks the Pyro Company has up its sleeves. Let¡¯s force them to reveal everything all at once.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu thought about going to the Southwest, he was no longer in the mood to mess around with the Pyro Company anymore. Yan Liuyuan might be waiting for him in theboratory, but further away, there might be someone else waiting for him. So Ren Xiaosu was ready to put an end to this chapter in the Sacred Mountains.


    He walked towards the gunshots while Luo Lan and the others followed him in high spirits. Wang Yuny on the stretcher and said weakly, ¡°Can you wait for me for another two days? I¡¯ll have fully recovered by then.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinkerughed softly next to the stretcher and said, ¡°I saw that you were quite interested in the ck medicine just now? How about this. If youe to the Northwest and participate in the building up of Fortress 178, I can talk to that person to sell you some more.¡± When Wang Yun heard this, he immediately shut up. How could he betray the Kong Consortium just for some ck medicine? Before they could rush to the battlefield, the gunfire went silent. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°They¡¯re done fighting just like that? Could our other teammates have all died?¡±


    As night fell, a strange and ethereal singing voice came from the forest in front of them.¡±Looking, looking, looking for a friend, and then I found a very good friend. I¡¯ll salute you, and shake your hand. Here¡¯s to you, my very good friend...¡±


    The singing was getting closer and closer. It was loud and clear, as though hundreds of people were singing in unison! Luo Lan got goosebumps all over his body. ¡°Is it something freaky the Pyro Company had created? Why does it sound so terrifying?¡±


    It waste into the night. For over a 100 people to search for their friends in the forest at this time, just the thought of it was already eerie enough.


    As such, Luo Lan even summoned his 12 martyred spirits to set up a heavy machine gun nest!


    Meanwhile, the Great Hoodwinker was chanting, ¡°Separated by yin and yang, humans and ghosts do not mix, out with all evil...¡±


    But when he saw the person at the front of the choir, he was stunned. ¡°Li Shentan?¡±


    ¡°Are you surprised?¡± Li Shentan smiled brightly at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°You can say that I have trampled mountains and crossed ravines toe and meet you.¡± Next to him, Si Liren muttered, ¡°In the books I read, people never remember those who went out of their way for them. It¡¯s always the ones who sacrifice themselves who remember the things they did for others.¡±


    Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s not important!¡±


    Vani looked at Ren Xiaosu in a daze. So this was the person Li Shentan was searching for? And Li Shentan¡¯s clone was also killed by him?

 Chapter 751 - The fate of the two

    <strong>Chapter 751 The fate of the two</strong>


    Although many groups had entered the Sacred Mountains, everyone here knew they were probably the only ones who were still alive.


    There might still be some survivors hiding in the wilderness of the mountains, but it would not be easy to get out of the Sacred Mountains alive. To leave this ce, they would either have to walk through the canyon and get hypnotized again before finally dying of exhaustion.


    Or feel their way out of it with their eyes closed ande face to face with those terrifying tarants.


    Someone escaping from the tarant horde again on their own would be practically impossible.


    The heavy fog in the mountains might even trap them forever inside.


    Otherwise, they could simply take the main road where Pyro Company troops were still stationed along. Although there weren¡¯t many troops garrisoned there due to the encirclement n, it was not a route that anyone could take. When Cheng Yu saw Vani and the Anjing House members, he quickly gathered them around, and they started sharing their experiences. It was as though he had been reunited with his family members.


    Cheng Yu grumbled how tough it was that he had the misfortune to lead a team like his. There was absolutely no sense of seriousness in his team, and they still had to put on shows even though they were on the verge of death. Their team had been singing and dancing for the past few days and it did not look like they hade to the Sacred Mountains to thwart the Pyro Company¡¯s ns at all.


    When he finished rting this to everyone, Cheng Yu realized Vani and the others had fallen silent.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you guys?¡± Cheng Yu asked.


    Vani hesitated for a moment before answering, ¡°We went through the same thing too.¡±


    Cheng Yu was stunned. When he recalled how the Pyro Company had appeared earlier, he realized Vani¡¯s plight might not be any better than his.


    However, a member of the Anjing House next to them said, ¡°But have you all realized? At the very least, both your teams have managed to survive.¡±


    This Anjing House member was named Wang Tianming, and he was previously on the same team as Wang Congyang. As the team leader, he did not make any mistakes and the team was also considered harmonious. There was no trouble at all.


    Yet, his team members were all gone now!


    He would rather have a troublemaker on the team. At least, they would have been safe.


    They were all practical people. Carefully thinking about it, wasn¡¯t it a good thing that they managed to survive even though they had to suffer a little?


    During the conversation, Cheng Yu happened to nce at Ren Xiaosu. He thought to himself that it was indeed because someone had been secretly helping them that so many of them survived.


    Although White Mask was missing again, Cheng Yu realized Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had to be White Mask¡¯s assistants. Without these three around, their team would probably not have as many survivors left.


    However, Cheng Yu was surprised to find Ren Xiaosu staring fixedly at the box Si Liren was carrying. He did not even blink.


    Li Shentan wanted to say something, but when he noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression, he also fell silent and just sighed.


    Ren Xiaosu turned and looked at Li Shentan seriously. ¡°Is it him?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Li Shentan nodded. He wanted to say something but did not know what to say. The people around them did not even know what game they were ying. Ren Xiaosu suddenly said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Wait for me here.¡±


    Then he turned around and said to Li Shentan and Si Liren, ¡°Can you twoe with me for a while?¡±


    Li Shentan nodded.


    Ren Xiaosu, Li Shentan, and Si Liren left the group. Ren Xiaosu kept heading up a mountain path until he reached the end of it. Moonlight shone down on the mountaintop. Li Shentan looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back and suddenly felt that he seemed both a little excited and lonely at the same time.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Si Liren. ¡°Little Liren, can you put down the box you¡¯re carrying? I¡¯d like to see him.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Si Liren put down the box obediently.


    When Ren Xiaosu was about to open the box, he suddenly hesitated as though he was afraid of something.


    ¡°Can the two of you step aside for a moment?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Shentan.


    Li Shentan, who always enjoyed opposing others, was surprisingly cooperative at this moment. ¡°We¡¯ll wait for you on the hillside.¡±


    After the two of them left, Ren Xiaosu slowly opened up the box.


    The moment before seeing Chen Wudi, he felt he was mentally prepared and could bear any grief in this world.


    But once he saw Chen Wudi, he nearly broke down. Tears could not stop flowing down his cheeks and dripping off his chin.


    Ren Xiaosu once told Yan Liuyuan that this world did not believe in tears. No matter how difficult things got, he would never let himself be vulnerable.


    But during the battle that day, he did not even manage to say goodbye to Chen Wudi nor got to see him onest time. By the time he woke up again, all the bones in his body had been broken, and Wudi had already died in that stronghold.


    Later on, Ren Xiaosu did not even have the courage to go and see this disciple of his and just calmly continued living his life. He had taken his revenge calmly and came to the Central ins to find his family. However, Ren Xiaosu never went back to the Southwest to look for Chen Wudi.


    He would always tell himself, ¡°Right, isn¡¯t this how the world is? Everyone is just living pathetically like they might not get to see the next day.¡±


    It was already very tough for those who were still alive, so why dig up memories of the dead to make yourself feel sad?


    Everyone knew Ren Xiaosu was very upset, but he was unwilling to admit it.


    Just like when he had found out about Chen Wudi¡¯s death, he rather used the pain of fixing his broken bones to hide his emotions than admit that he really was sad.


    After all, wasn¡¯t this how he got through his difficulties since childhood?


    But at this moment, he admitted it was not so.


    When he saw Luo Lan¡¯s superpower, Ren Xiaosu swore he was really jealous Luo Lan could actually awaken such a superpower. Therefore, he desperately wanted to copy his power even if he had to waste two additional Perfect Skill Duplication Scrolls in the process.


    When he realized there was a glimmer of hope, Ren Xiaosu finally understood his desire. Actually, that memory had never been erased from his mind. He felt like there was still someone addressing him as master even while lying in bed in the middle of the night.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body started to glow with a golden light. It was just like how Luo Lan looked when he summoned his martyred spirits.


    Ren Xiaosu sat across Chen Wudi and said seriously, ¡°Actually, I¡¯m not qualified to be your master, right? I lied to you and said that if you constantly feel like you¡¯re being devoured by the darkness, then it meant that you were the light. When I said this, I didn¡¯t even believe it myself. However, you took my words to be true because you were so naive.


    ¡°At that time, I even silently mocked you for being such a gullible disciple. Butter on, I realized that I should be the one who needed to reflect.¡±


    It was like a child asking their father, ¡°Dad, are there any immortals in the world?¡±


    The father would smile and say jokingly, ¡°Yes.¡±


    And the child would reply, ¡°Then take me to them.¡±


    As such, the father took the child to the top of the mountain as though he was teasing his own child. Then he smiled at the child and said, ¡°Go on, shout for the immortal to open the Gate of Heaven for you.¡±


    Aere


    The father did not even believe the Gate of Heaven would open that day, or that there were really immortals in heaven. His fantasies about gods when he was young had been worn out by this world, leaving behind a determined but worldly heart. He started learning how to be tactful, how to get along with others, and how to eke out a survival in a secr world.


    But he had never thought that when his child shouted for the Gate of Heaven to be opened, it would really open!


    This was only a story, but it was just like the talk Chen Wudi had with Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Master, should good people really exist in this world?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Yes, and you¡¯re that ray of light.¡±


    But when Ren Xiaosu thought nothing would evere out of this, Chen Wudi really became the most brilliant light in the world, engraving his goodness in many people¡¯s hearts.


    Ren Xiaosu was like most people.


    He was used to a world without any fairy tales, used to a world that was not fair, and also used to not being a good person. But when he looked back, he realized he had just missed out on the beautiful moments. It was not that they did not exist.


    When one braved the snow, one could see the mountains. Because there was light, people dared to dream.


    This was the cause and effect of the world.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Maybe I wasn¡¯t a good master in the past, but I¡¯m willing to start afresh. Come back, Wudi.¡±


    The moon hung bright and clear in the sky, casting a silvery radiance on Chen Wudi¡¯s damaged golden armor. Although the armor had turned into stone, its former brilliance could still be seen.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi with much anticipation and thought he would walk out of the statue like Luo Lan¡¯s 12 martyred spirits. But in his trance, he heard someone whisper in his mind, ¡°Master, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi in disbelief. He waspletely unable to ept this fact. He had worked very hard toplete his quests in order to bring Wudi back. But in the end, he still failed.


    He could not tell who was talking in his mind just now. He did not know whether it was a hallucination or if it was really Chen Wudi answering him.


    Li Shentan, who hade back to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side, said, ¡°Don¡¯t be too upset.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at Li Shentan. ¡°Why? Why did it fail?¡±


    Li Shentan looked at Ren Xiaosu. He had never seen the young man in front of him lose his cool before. Ren Xiaosu did not even realize he had walked up to him.


    Li Shentan said, ¡°Are you trying to use Luo Lan¡¯s power to summon him back? But Luo Lan¡¯s power is only used to summon the dead. Have you ever considered that Chen Wudi is actually not dead yet?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. He looked at Li Shentan in surprise and did not know what else to say.


    But Li Shentan already knew this.


    Back when he entered the stronghold and sat across from Chen Wudi, he started mumbling many things to Chen Wudi for some reason. In the end, when he said he would protect his master for him, Chen Wudi clearly emitted a golden light that circted around his body. It was like there was a dragon swimming underneath the stone sculpture.


    At that time, he was stunned by that sight. Si Liren even asked him what was wrong back then, but he just said it was fine.


    From that day onwards, Si Liren started carrying a huge box everywhere. Li Shentan insisted that they needed to take Chen Wudi with them wherever they went, to the ends of the earth if need be.


    So, even though Ren Xiaosu had painstakingly copied Luo Lan¡¯s power, it was absolutely useless when used on someone who was still alive.


    Ren Xiaosu said with difficulty, ¡°Then do you know how I can wake him up?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s the one who¡¯s unwilling to wake up,¡± Li Shentan said in a low voice.


    Back on that day, Chen Wudi had lost all hope. Like that monkey born from a stone, he finally became disheartened after experiencing the world of humanity and turned himself back into stone.


    From that day on, he no longer believed the world needed any goodness, heroes, or even himself in it.


    Li Shentan said dejectedly, ¡°If it weren¡¯t for me, he would not have died that day. That¡¯s why I always wanted to do something for him, but I didn¡¯t know where to start. As such, I brought him along and crossed mountains and rivers to see the beautiful sights of this world.


    ¡°Let me continue to take him around. I am the most viinous person in the world, while he¡¯s the nicest. The nicest person died because of this viin. Right now, I want to show him the world still needs him, because even the demon has been changed by him.¡±


    If it weren¡¯t for Chen Wudi, Li Shentan would have hypnotized Vani and the others.


    If it weren¡¯t for Chen Wudi, Li Shentan would have stayed behind at Luoyang City and tormented everyone before letting them die in that stronghold.


    If it weren¡¯t for Chen Wudi, Li Shentan might have turned into a real demon. He was not someone who knew the difference between good and evil.


    Therefore, since Chen Wudi was unwilling to wake up, Li Shentan wanted to show Chen Wudi how important he was to the world.


    If even the most viinous demon in this world could be changed, what was there that couldn¡¯t be changed by this ray of light?


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu, do you believe me?¡± Li Shentan said softly, ¡°One day, I¡¯ll convince him to return to this world willingly and continue being the Great Sage. On that day, the demon will also get his salvation. This is his destiny, as it is mine. So, please, go and be that ray of light to others too. He¡¯l be very pleased if you do.¡±


    That very night, Ren Xiaosu sat with Chen Wudi on the mountain. He shared a lot about what he had been through during this period.


    For example, he mentioned the bloody fatty, Benbo¡¯erba, had actually awakened his superpower.


    How he got separated from Yan Liuyuan.


    A new friend he met named Jiang Xu, who was both a good teacher and close friend, and how he also persisted in walking down his own path like a ray of light.


    There were also the Riders, who were a group of honorable friends who stood up for others but they weren¡¯t very good at card games. Ren Xiaosu shared many more things, but he said to Chen Wudi in the end, ¡°Come back quickly. Your master is very lonely.¡±


    When the first rays of sunlight radiated down onto the mountaintop in the morning, Ren Xiaosu carefully wiped off the dust on Chen Wudi¡¯s body. He said to Li Shentan, ¡°I believe what you told me, and I¡¯ll be waiting for that day to arrive.¡±


    After that, he turned around and descended off the mountain. Si Liren put the box onto her back again and floated next to Li Shentan.


    When Ren Xiaosu came down from the mountain, Yang Xiaojin walked towards Ren Xiaosu. She stood on her tiptoes and hugged Ren Xiaosu gently in front of the others. This was probably the first time that Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu had hugged each other.


    ¡°I¡¯m here for you,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Ren Xiaosu grunted with a smile.


    No matter what happenedst night, it was at least better than before. That was because he had thought Chen Wudi was dead. But now he knew Chen Wudi was actually still alive.


    As long as he was not dead, anything could be possible.


    Zhou Yingxue, who was sitting next to the campfire, said obediently, ¡°Master, Madam, breakfast is ready.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue in surprise, then at Yang Xiaojin. He could not understand how the situation ended up like that in the matter of a night.


    Six hours earlier.


    While Ren Xiaosu was talking to Chen Wudi up on the mountain, Yang Xiaojin turned to look at Vani and the others.


    However, her gazended on Zhou Yingxue as she stared past the crowd.


    ¡°You,e with me.¡± Yang Xiaojin headed out of the camp.


    Zhou Yingxue curled her lips. ¡°Why should I listen to you?¡±


    But even though she grumbled, she still obediently followed Yang Xiaojin...


    The group who had just sessfully joined up a while ago was a little confused by this series of unexpected events. Why were those people leaving one after another?


    They had already witnessed how powerful Li Shentan was, but he was suddenly no longer crazy like before when facing Ren Xiaosu. Instead, he felt even more normal than a normal person.


    As for Zhou Yingxue, that woman was always yelling at everyone on the team and ordered them to look for exotic nts on her behalf.


    After being in the Sacred Mountains for a few days, everyone was well aware that this woman was also a being at the top of the pyramid in the supernatural world.


    Therefore, nobody dared to say anything despite being ordered around by Zhou Yingxue. This was especially so when they realized Zhou Yingxue and Li Shentan seemed to be on rather good terms.


    So why did Zhou Yingxue suddenly be so obedient after that girl in the cap said something so casually?


    Moreover, Zhou Yingxue had been walking at the front of their group all this time. But just now, she actually fell to the back of the group.


    What the fuck was going on? Could someone exin this?!


    Yang Xiaojin just kept walking forward and did not say anything. Instead, it was Zhou Yingxue who could no longer hold it in. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of you...¡±


    The moment she uttered that, Yang Xiaojin finally turned around and stood still. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue regretted her words so much she wanted to p herself in the face. That was because the sentence itself showed she was scared!


    Zhou Yingxue cursed in her head at how useless she was. Why should she be afraid of a meress when she was so powerful? The other party was even several years younger than her!


    Yang Xiaojin sized up Zhou Yingxue. ¡°I heard you wanted to treat your mother¡¯s illness?¡± Zhou Yingxue nearly cried. Oh no, her master must have found out she had lied again!


    However, Zhou Yingxue was not going to admit defeat here. ¡°Wh-What¡¯s wrong with telling some lies to protect myself? I¡¯m just trying to survive in this world! Haven¡¯t you told a lie before?¡±.


    ¡°Yes, I have.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded as though it was not something she was ashamed to admit. She had once said she would give her dagger to Ren Xiaosu. But in the end, she took it back without feeling embarrassed at all.


    It seemed that this girl was born with no sense of shame.


    Yang Xiaojin asked again, ¡°How long has it been since you became his maid?¡± ¡°About half a year...¡± Zhou Yingxue felt that something was not right. How could she always get intimidated by Yang Xiaojin¡¯s imposing manner? This wouldn¡¯t do. She had to retaliate! If Yang Xiaojin tried to intimidate her again, she would fight back!


    But Yang Xiaojin suddenly asked, ¡°Does he eat on time?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was dumbfounded. ¡®Why did you suddenly ask that question? You¡¯re totally unpredictable!


    The maidservant thought for a moment and answered, ¡°He still eats his meals on time. Master has a very regr routine and usually spends most of his time reading.¡± The moment Zhou Yingxue said that, she felt like pping herself again. Why was she answering the questions so honestly?!


    However, Yang Xiaojin continued asking, ¡°Then did he encounter any dangerous situations?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue replied, ¡°It was quite dangerous back at Stronghold 74 as he nearly got injured by the Experimentals. And the other time in Luoyang City...¡±


    At this moment, Zhou Yingxue remembered Yang Xiaojin was also in Luoyang City at that time. Moreover, her master left her behind and ran off with Yang Xiaojin. Thinking of this, Zhou Yingxue got angry and suddenly said, ¡°Master and I used to stay in the same room!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin made a sound of acknowledgment.


    Zhou Yingxue felt as though the heavy punch she threw had ended up hitting air. She asked in disbelief, ¡°Why did you only say ¡®ah¡¯? Aren¡¯t you curious about what happened?¡±


    However, Yang Xiaojin looked at her strangely. ¡°What could possibly happen between the two of you? It¡¯s not like he likes you.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nearly cried. Could you not be so blunt?


    However, Yang Xiaojin understood Ren Xiaosu the best. With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cowardly behavior whenever it came to the critical moment, it would be a surprise if he did any hanky panky behind her back!


    Zhou Yingxue was really unable to ept this. ¡°14¡±


    ¡°Alright, stop speaking. I¡¯ll only believe what he tells me himself,¡± Yang Xiaojin cut her off.


    Zhou Yingxue waspletely defeated. ¡°Actually, you¡¯re the only person in Master¡¯s heart. Even when he had to hold hands with me when we entered Stronghold 61, he specifically went to look for gloves to wear. Also, when that female celebrity named Li Ran confessed to him, he tly told her he already has someone he likes. The same thing happened when we were in Luoyang City. He called out your name once when he spoke in his sleep. I wonder how there can be such an innocent man in this world. He¡¯s the first one that I¡¯ve met.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue thought that since she was unable to intimidate Yang Xiaojin, she should say something nice. At the very least, she could fight for better treatment in the future or something


    Yang Xiaojin finally revealed a smile at that. ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°And his favorite hobby is reading. There was one time when I wanted to see what book he was reading while he was out. In the end, I discovered they were even annotated, and one of them was filled with your name on the title page,¡± Zhou Yingxue answered.


    ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Also, when he went back to Luoyang City for the second time to look for you at Qinghe University, that was the first time I saw him look so anxious. In the past, no matter how great the danger he might encounter, he would still be very calm. It was only that one time that I felt his anxiety,¡± Zhou Yingxue said feebly.


    Yang Xiaojin nodded in satisfaction. ¡°That¡¯s about enough. Now tell me about your powers.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was downtrodden. Why did she have toe to the Sacred Mountains? Wouldn¡¯t it have been better if she went to the Northwest and started making ns for her master¡¯s seizing of leadership in the future? Why did she have toe here to get intimidated by others? If she knew something like this would happen, she would have run off long ago!


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I¡¯m a little hungry now. Go and make some food for me. It would be best if you can cook a pot of porridge so that Ren Xiaosu can have some when hees back down from the mountain tomorrow morning.¡± Zhou Yingxue said obediently, ¡°OK...¡± Yang Xiaojin said nonchntly, ¡°Let¡¯s see how good your culinary skills are first. If it¡¯s good enough, you cane to the Northwest with us after we¡¯re done with our business in the Sacred Mountains.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue beamed. ¡°Oh, that¡¯ll be great. Just wait and see. My culinary skills are excellent!¡±


    With that, Zhou Yingxue went to do her work. She was scolding herself while cooking, ¡°Scum, what is it that you¡¯re after?!¡±


    However, Zhou Yingxue furtively nced at Yang Xiaojin and got dismayed again. Why would a young girl like her have such a strong aura?

 Chapter 752 - ResearChapter base

    <strong>Chapter 752 Research base</strong>


    ¡°Look at him, then look at us,¡± Cheng Yu said peeved while crouching next to Vani. ¡°Back when the ns were being drafted, why didn¡¯t you ask the boss why she insisted that wee to a godforsaken ce where birds don¡¯t even defecate?¡±


    In the Sacred Mountains, it was not an exaggeration to use ¡°where birds don¡¯t even defecate¡± to describe the ce. There were really no birds that could be seen anywhere. Otherwise, Cheng Yu would not have to resort to doing the splits for a hardtack!


    Fortunately, they had already joined up with Vani and the others. After all, Vani¡¯s team members were all Anjing House hitmen. By helping each other out, they would definitely be more united than the outsiders no matter what. Therefore, there wouldn¡¯t be a need to worry about food anymore. However, as Cheng Yu ate his hardtack, he saw that even Ren Xiaosu had someone taking care of his daily needs. This nearly caused him to throw the hardtack onto the ground.


    Comparisons were really infuriating!


    But Vani handed him a water bottle and said calmly, ¡°What¡¯s the point ofparing with him? Look at the other side.¡±


    While they were eating breakfast, Li Shentan was served by more than a 100 Pyro Company members on the other side and being treated like a king. He did not even have to wash his face by himself. There were also some Pyro Company members washing his clothes next to the stream.


    Vani was right. What was the point ofparing with Ren Xiaosu? If he wanted topare, he should beparing with this person instead.


    Cheng Yu flinched. ¡°Who canpare to him? He can control thousands of people like he¡¯s ying a game. If I were him, I would¡¯ve run off to a deserted ce and abducted tens of thousands of people to be their ruler!¡±


    ¡°Someone secretly left the groupst night.¡± Vani whispered, ¡°When our teams joined upst night, there were 27 people in Cheng Yu¡¯s group and 35 in mine. But look at how many people there are left now? Only 51!¡±


    ¡°Left? Where can they run to now? Since we¡¯ve alreadye this far, I definitely won¡¯t be satisfied if we don¡¯t go into the Sacred Mountains and have a look inside.¡± Cheng Yu curled his lips and said, ¡°Do you think it¡¯s true that we can obtain a way to achieve immortality with the legendary No. 001 Experimental¡¯s DNA after we capture it?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s true.¡± Vani said, ¡°Someone has already confirmed with Li Yingyun of the Riders that the Experimentals did mention this when Stronghold 74 got destroyed. And think about it. To say nothing of the No. 001 Experimental, even those failed Experimentals have managed to live for more than 200 years. If the No. 001 Experimental appears, it¡¯ll very likely introduce a revolutionary change to the lifespan of humanity.¡±


    ¡°I hope it doesn¡¯t show up then.¡± Cheng Yu shook his head and said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to go through any more changes. This kinda life is already good enough, so I don¡¯t wish that we can live that long.¡±


    In fact, Cheng Yu represented the thoughts of most people in this era. They were no longer looking forward to any huge changes to their lives, and it was good enough living as they were with humanity developing slowly.


    Was it a good thing to be able to live for a long time? Who the hell knew what other trouble those consortiums might cause?


    ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about that for now.¡± Vani continued, ¡°11 people have run away overnight. I suspect they aren¡¯t scattered individuals but people from the same organization. In the battle yesterday, the Pyro Company suffered heavy casualties. Who knows how many T5-ranked experts have died? Y¡¯know, not all the T5batants are in the Sacred Mountains. There¡¯s other T5batants stationed at their other strongholds to guard the ces, so only a few of them are likely left in the Sacred Mountains at this moment.¡±


    Vani said this rather loudly as he did not intend to hide it from anyone. Or rather, he just wanted to bring up the topic so everyone could join in the discussion.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard them talking about T5batants, he wondered if he should feel a little sad. After all, he had just experienced the pain of losing his ¡°son.¡± That poor T5batant had died so soon after establishing a father-son rtionship with him.


    Vani added, ¡°Why did they have to run away now of all times? They just had to disappear when the Pyro Company was left defenseless. I suspect they might¡¯ve seized the initiative and headed into the core region of the Sacred Mountains by themselves.¡± Vani was saying this because he wanted everyone to get moving quickly so they would not fall behind and end up with nothing for the expedition.


    But Li Shentan was in no hurry to leave. ¡°Since someone is rushing off to die, why should we join them? Can¡¯t you people look at your conditions first? Some of you have just eaten your fill, and some of you haven¡¯t slept in two days, so how can youpete with others in your current state? Do you think the danger in the Sacred Mountains has already passed? Even though the T5batants have been killed, there¡¯s still T6batants waiting for us.¡± Vani retorted, ¡°Those 11 people are not dumb either. Since they¡¯ve set off, it means they¡¯re confident.¡±


    Li Shentan waved it off. ¡°There aren¡¯t that many smart people in this world. Most of them are actually just overconfident. For example, you actually dare to rebuke me.¡±


    Vani was confused.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Let¡¯s get moving as soon as possible. There¡¯s no need to give the Pyro Company a chance to redeploy. We might as well end this farce quickly.¡± ¡°Alright! Let¡¯s move out immediately!¡± Li Shentan stood up and got ready to set off.


    move


    Everyone at the campsite was stunned. They looked at Ren Xiaosu and wondered why this young man¡¯s words were so effective on Li Shentan.


    Why was the legendary Demon Whisperer so obedient? Who on earth was this young man?!


    Moreover, wasn¡¯t that young man a little too arrogant in his speech? End the farce quickly? He would first have to be capable enough to speak as arrogantly as that.


    While these words might sound arrogant to their ears, it was just an affirmative statement to Ren Xiaosu and Li Shentan. He was merely speaking his mind.


    Ren Xiaosu was probably not that confident at the beginning, which was why he sneaked into the group and tried to find an opportunity to fish in troubled waters.


    But now that Li Shentan and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s maidservant had joined them, not even a few Sacred Mountains would be too difficult for them to take down.


    After setting off early in the morning, Ren Xiaosu could see traces of human architecture from afar by noon. ¡°Is that the Pyro Company¡¯s research base up ahead?¡±


    The buildings here were not the same as those Ren Xiaosu had encountered before. The structures found in the strongholds had always been designed practically. They were mostly boxy and rarely shaped strangely.


    But at this research base in front of them, Ren Xiaosu could not make out any building designs that were repeated. Some of them were built in spherical or trapezoidal shapes, while some were simply covered with ss in full.


    Ren Xiaosu even felt the buildings in front of him had unusual aesthetics. However, this research base was probably built a long time ago. Many of the buildings¡¯ paint on their outer walls had even peeled off, making them look exceptionally mottled and worn out.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered, ¡°The rest of the world is always saying that there¡¯s all kinds of strange creatures lurking in the Sacred Mountains, and that prehistoric pterosaurs can be seen soaring in the sky over it. They make it sound like the Sacred Mountains is full of demons and monsters. But look, we didn¡¯t actuallye across anything other than the tarants.¡±

 Chapter 753 - Master and disciple

    <strong>Chapter 753 Master and disciple</strong>


    Cheng Yu and the others also fell into deep thought. Everyone had gathered here from everywhere outside the Sacred Mountains. If the Pyro Company really had some prehistoric pterosaurs hidden in the Sacred Mountains, they should have seen them already.


    Ever since the Pyro Company gave their assistance during the attack on Stronghold 74, many people started wondering if the Pyro Company had really just been demonized. Jiang Xu, the chief editor of Hope Media, was even one of those who reflected on this.


    ¡°Everyone, look over there.¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he pointed to a spot away from the cluster of buildings, ¡°It¡¯s a farming settlement. You can even still see uncut corn stalks growing on it. It looks like it has been abandoned for some time already. The Pyro Company actually used to farm in the Sacred Mountains? This doesn¡¯t feel like their style at all.¡±


    Everything that Ren Xiaosu and the others had just witnessed was in stark contrast to their impression of the Pyro Company. What they had encountered were the bloodthirsty T5batants and rumors demonizing the Pyro Company in the outside world. However, there were many artsy buildings here and a farming settlement surrounding it. It looked like a paradise, except it was quite neglected.


    Luo Lan, who was standing at the side, suddenly said, ¡°All of you should know that our Qing Consortium has always been at odds with the Pyro Company, so we¡¯ve never stopped our investigations into them. In fact, the Pyro Company¡¯s foreign policy was not that radical just six years ago. At that time, their main method of obtaining DNA samples was by stealing them.¡±


    As he said that, Luo Lan nced at Li Shentan and said, ¡°For example, the theft of the DNA samples from the psychiatric hospital in the Southwest. If it were today, they would just openly obtain it with force. Their way of doing things is different now. The Pyro Companybatants you encountered back then are not the same as the ones today. They didn¡¯t used to be so hostile.¡±


    ¡°Six years ago?¡± someone said puzzledly. ording to Luo Lan, six years ago seemed to be the watershed moment for the Pyro Company. What happened to the Pyro Company at that time? ¡°There might¡¯ve been a leadership change.¡± Luo Lan sighed. ¡°I¡¯m not sure about the specifics either.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the farming settlement and the artsy buildingplexes. It seemed like all of this was slowly fading with time.


    The group started approaching the cluster of buildings. They could not see it clearly when they were a distance away. But as they got closer, everyone realized there were many Pyro Companybatants¡¯ bodies strewn on the ground along the way. It looked like they had been dead for several hours.


    The blood on the ground had already coagted and dried into a dark purple patch. Vani said as he crouched down and opened the eyelids of a dead victim, ¡°The time of death is less than six hours.¡±


    In fact, this was a very simple way of verifying when someone had died. As a professional hitman, Vani naturally knew about this.


    After death, the cornea of a person would start clouding. In about 36 hours, it would turn so opaque the pupil could not even be seen clearly anymore.


    Therefore, judging the time of death based on the degree of corneal opacity was a simple method that could be employed in the absence of any instruments.


    ¡°Vani is right. Those 11 people who left the group have indeed entered the research base. Furthermore, their methods of killing are very strange. It¡¯s obvious these people did not struggle at all when they died, so it shows those 11 must be very skilled at carrying out sneak attacks,¡± Cheng Yu exined. ¡°Y¡¯know, the Pyro Companybatants here are at least T3-ranked, or even T4-ranked.¡±


    This time, it was the others that got anxious before Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group could get anxious. After all, they were all here for the purpose of either seizing the data or capturing the No. 001 Experimental.


    In any case, the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains was like a treasure trove that had many consortiums coveting it. Now that they realized someone had gotten there first, they could not help but get anxious. Otherwise, they would not be able to answer to their higher-ups when they got back. ¡°Let¡¯s head in then.¡± Li Shentan flourished his hands. ¡°It¡¯s also good that we have someone clearing the way for us.¡±


    Their group reached the cluster of buildings very quickly. At the beginning, everyone was very alert. But gradually, they realized there were no survivors in the areas they passed through.


    All of the Pyro Company members were dead.


    The defenses made up of several hundred T3-ranked and abovebatants had been taken care of just like that.


    Moreover, there was not even a single gunshot wound on the bodies of the Pyro Companybatants. It looked like most of them had been killed by melee weapons. Some of the Pyro Company soldiers did not even look like they had the chance to disengage the safety on their rifle.


    Some Pyro Company members also died due to some strange reasons. They did not have any wounds, bruises, nor extravasated blood under their skin and just died very mysteriously.


    There were so many corpses lying everywhere that blood had been flowing into the depths of the buildingplexes. Everyone found it a little hard to imagine. ¡°Just where did those 11e from? They actually killed their way through all the defenses of the Pyro Company¡¯s research base?¡±


    Initially, Vani and Li Shentan did not believe those 11 people could cause much of a stir.


    The reason why Vani kept saying he wanted to prevent others from getting ahead of them was to make everyone start moving quickly so he could carry out the boss¡¯s n.


    But something unexpected had happened. The 11 people who broke off from the group were even more powerful than they had imagined. They had actually broken through the Pyro Company¡¯sst line of defense?


    But which organization did those people belong to? Wang Yun felt that something was off no matter how he thought about it. Those people... seemed very familiar with the Pyro Company¡¯s core research base.


    And outsiders were not capable of infiltrating this ce, not even the Qing Consortium.


    After eliminating all possibilities, Wang Yun suddenly froze. Could they be from the Pyro Company? Although he did not know why he arrived at this answer, it was the only one left after the other possibilities had been ruled out.


    The group rushed to the center of the buildingplexes where thergest building that resembled the double helix structure of a DNA molecule stood. It was also the most prominent one among the cluster of strange buildings.


    But when they arrived at the bottom of that building, everyone was stunned.


    They saw 11 corpses lying neatly under that building while a young man sat cross-legged next to them. He was wearing a golden circlet on his head and had his eyes tightly closed.


    The young man seemed to be in a trance and turned a deaf ear to the arrival of Ren Xiaosu and the others.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him in a daze and was momentarily speechless.


    Meanwhile, Li Shentan was standing off to the side. Actually, he and Ren Xiaosu knew from the beginning they would definitely encounter another clone here.


    ICO


    Just as Yang Xiaojin had said, if the Pyro Company could only awaken the superpowers of a few superhumans¡¯ clones, they would definitely use their limited methods to create unlimited possibilities.


    In the era of the ¡°Rise of Gods,¡± only the strength of two people had been validated by this era, Li Shentan and Chen Wudi.


    Since the Pyro Company possessed both their DNA samples, there was no reason why they would only clone Li Shentan and not Chen Wudi.


    Meanwhile, this ¡°Chen Wudi¡± did not disappoint the Pyro Company either. Even though those 11 people easily broke their way through the Pyro Company¡¯sst line of defense, they still ended up getting killed one after another by the ¡°Chen Wudi¡± who was sitting in front of them.


    ¡°Chen Wudi¡± did not even have any injuries, nor did he look like he was in a pathetic state.


    As for those 11 corpses, they looked a little ghastly.


    ¡°Chen Wudi¡± said without opening his eyes, ¡°Everyone, your journey ends here. It¡¯s time for you all to get some rest.¡±


    His voice was calm like water in an ancient well; there were no ripples at all. Or rather, he felt more like a god from the heavens who had abandoned mortal feelings ever since he was born.

 Chapter 754 - He’s only master to one person

    <strong>Chapter 754 He¡¯s only master to one person</strong>


    Vani and the others had never seen Chen Wudi before, so they wouldn¡¯t know it even when they saw him. However, the corpses of those 11 people left them a little bewildered.


    After all, these 11 people had killed their way in, and not even the hundreds of Pyro Companybatants could stop them. Yet they all died at the hands of the same person.


    If it were Vani and Cheng Yu, they had absolutely no confidence they could take out the Pyro Company¡¯sst line of defense unscathed, even if the Pyro Company had very fewbatants left in the Sacred Mountains.


    But when Vani looked at Li Shentan, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, Luo Lan, and the others, it was as though they all knew the young man in front of them and were already aware the other party would appear here.


    ¡°Who is that person?¡± Cheng Yu asked softly.


    No one answered him. Instead, it was Li Shentan who took the initiative to speak to ¡°Chen Wudi¡± who was across him. He said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m very curious. It seems that these 11 people on the ground were very familiar with theyout of this ce. Could an internal conflict have arisen among your Pyro Company?¡±


    ¡°Chen Wudi¡± said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for you to worry about our affairs. Rather, you should think about your own situation first.¡±


    ¡°Chen Wudi¡± opened his eyes as he spoke and looked at Li Shentan. Then, he swept his gaze across everyone present. Ren Xiaosu stared intently at ¡°Chen Wudi,¡± but ¡°Chen Wudi¡¯s¡± gaze did not linger on him at all.


    Ren Xiaosu finally sighed in his head. This was not Chen Wudi, and he did not even have Chen Wudi¡¯s memories. All he possessed was Chen Wudi¡¯s DNA.


    Right, no matter how good the Pyro Company¡¯s cloning technology was, they couldn¡¯t possibly copy over memories as well. Therefore, all the other party had was Chen Wudi¡¯s appearance. But Ren Xiaosu could not figure out one thing. Chen Wudi had clearly awoken his superpowers due to his delusions by imagining he was the reincarnation of the Great Sage.


    Meanwhile, Chen Wudi¡¯s clone, who was standing across them, was clearly a normal person, so why did he also have the same powers as Chen Wudi?


    What other strange technology did the Pyro Company still possess?


    Vani suddenly asked, ¡°Are you the Pyro Company¡¯s T6batant?¡±


    Chen Wudi looked emotionlessly at Vani. ¡°There are no T6s in the Pyro Company to begin with. At my level, there is no longer a need for rankings to define my strength. I¡¯m Chen Wudi, the one and only.¡± However, Li Shentan interrupted, ¡°You¡¯re also called Chen Wudi? That won¡¯t do. You¡¯re using the same name.¡±


    Li Shentan was probably the calmest person among all those who were here. It seemed he was not afraid of the ¡°Chen Wudi¡± in front of him at all. It was just that he had quietly stood behind Ren Xiaosu at some point. However, ¡°Chen Wudi¡± said, ¡°Same name? You mean that fool? To save others, he even sacrificed himself in the end. He could have be a real god, but he gave up his life because of mere mortals. He is indeed a fool. From now on, I¡¯ll be the only Chen Wudi in this world.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d better change your name.¡±


    These words came out abruptly, and Wang Yun and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise.


    The name of Chen Wudi was just like the name of the Demon Whisperer, Li Shentan. As they were the only two demigods in this era of the ¡°Rise of Gods,¡± how could anyone have not heard of it before?


    But ording to legend, it was no secret that Chen Wudi also had a young master who was on good terms with the Qing Consortium and was acquainted with Zhang Jinglin as well.


    But after Chen Wudi¡¯s death, his master seemed to have suddenly disappeared from the world and never appeared again. As such, he was gradually forgotten by everyone.


    Someone said his master was just someone Chen Wudi had acknowledged by himself, and that Chen Wudi¡¯s abilities had nothing to do with his master. So it seemed Chen Wudi¡¯s master did not possess any qualities that made others take note of him.


    But it was not that Ren Xiaosu did not appear again after that. It was just that most of the enemies who had seen him were dead. Meanwhile, friends who knew about him kept quiet, with the Qing Consortium and Fortress 178 ssifying Ren Xiaosu¡¯s information as top secret.


    When Wang Yun heard Ren Xiaosu suddenly speaking, a flood of memories in his mind that was like an iplete jigsaw puzzle quickly formed into aplete picture.


    The young man in front of him was Chen Wudi¡¯s master. Those memories included the wars in the Southwest and Northwest, and a series of other bizarre incidents. However, they were all linked together by this single clue.


    It seemed the young man had never appeared in each of those memories before. However, Wang Yun firmly believed the other party must have been there.


    That was why Luo Lan treated Ren Xiaosu as his backer while a hidden expert like the Great Hoodwinker would follow his lead. That was the only way those incidents could be made sense of.


    Chen Wudi¡¯s clone looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°May I request that you repeat what you just said?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu repeated, ¡°You¡¯d better change your name. You can call yourself Chen Liu¡¯er or Chen Mihou;(1) just don¡¯t use the name Chen Wudi.¡±


    Chen Wudi¡¯s clone did not get angry. He only examined Ren Xiaosu emotionlessly. ¡°I understand now. You must be that fool¡¯s master, right? But why can¡¯t I be called Chen Wudi?¡±


    ¡°Because you don¡¯t deserve the name.¡±


    The reason Chen Wudi was Chen Wudi was because he was that ray of light.


    It was because of that beam of light that Chen Wudi became the Great Sage of this world.


    Only with good cause would there be good effect.


    But even though the Pyro Company had cloned the DNA sample, they did not clone the other party¡¯s willpower. They had neglected the cause of how superpowers were awoken and directly cloned the oue instead.


    This was something Ren Xiaosu could not ept. That was because Chen Wudi was unique to him. Even the Great Sage that Chen Wudi had imagined could only exist because of that light in him.


    ¡®Since there¡¯s no light in your heart, you aren¡¯t fit to possess all of this. You can willingly change your name. But if you¡¯re still unwilling, then I¡¯ll help you change it.¡¯


    Chen Wudi¡¯s clone did not want to waste any more time, so he said calmly, ¡°What you¡¯re obsessing about is just the worries of mortals. Why don¡¯t all of you attack together? Once you¡¯re all dead, you won¡¯t have to worry anymore.¡±


    However, after Chen Wudi¡¯s clone said that, he realized Li Shentan and Ren Xiaosu did not even move.


    When everyone else saw Li Shentan and Ren Xiaosu staying still, they also waited for the others to make a move first.


    ¡°Chen Wudi¡± asked, ¡°What? Are you afraid now? Death is just a fate that everyone will experience. It¡¯s just that you all will be experiencing it a little sooner than others.¡±


    Li Shentan shook his head and said, ¡°You¡¯re wrong. It¡¯s not that I¡¯m afraid to fight you. Ever since I was diagnosed as a mental patient, I¡¯ve never experienced fear. You kept referring to him as a fool, and since I also came out of the psychiatric hospital, it somehow sounds like you¡¯re scolding me as well. That¡¯s why I¡¯m very tempted to beat you up. Besides, Chen Wudi and I stayed in a psychiatric hospital for several years when we were still in the Southwest, so I consider us to be fellow patients. I¡¯m very unhappy that you¡¯re talking about him like this.¡±


    At this moment, Li Shentan had a nce at the clone and continued saying, ¡°But I don¡¯t want to fight you today. That¡¯s because you can only die at the hands of one person. He will personally put an end to your fate.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stared intently at the clone in front of him. He hated the Pyro Company to the core.


    ¡°Old Xu¡± walked out from behind a building and gripped a ck saber that appeared out of thin air while the same thing happened for Ren Xiaosu.


    There was nothing wrong with pursuing science, and neither was there anything wrong with seeking an alternative path of evolution for humans to embark on.


    The mistake they made was choosing the wrong person to clone.


    Ren Xiaosu was not a saint, nor did he have to consider the future of the world. Whether the Pyro Company was good or bad, it had nothing to do with him. Today, he was only Chen Wudi¡¯s master, and he wanted to protect that ray of light.


    [1] The Six-Eared Macaque (Liu¡¯er mihou, SHXE) is a viin that Sun Wukong faces in Journey to the West. || https://journeytothewestresearch/2020/11 /04/origin-of-the-six-eared-macaque-and -the-characters-influence-on-ck-myth -wukong/

 Chapter 755 - Manifestation

    <strong>Chapter 755 Manifestation</strong>


    Holding the saber tightly in hand, White Mask walked towards them step by step with an oppressive aura.


    The crowd subconsciously stepped aside for fear of getting dragged in.


    Then White Mask came to a stop and stood behind Ren Xiaosu.


    Two simr-looking physiques holding two simr ck sabers-Ren Xiaosu was filled with killing intent.


    Ren Xiaosu stared intently at Chen Liu¡¯er in front of him. He suddenly asked someone next to him, ¡°What day is it today?¡± The Great Hoodwinker did some calctions on his fingers and smiled, revealing his yellowed teeth. ¡°Today¡¯s the ninth day of the new year. It¡¯s a day suited for carrying out burials, shifting of coffins, weeding out personnel, and killing people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°What a coincidence.¡±


    Wang Yun looked over at the Great Hoodwinker. It seemed that neither the Great Hoodwinker nor Ren Xiaosu was surprised by the sudden appearance of White Mask.


    But Ren Xiaosu was unaware of the impact his disy had on the others.


    Before this, Wang Yun thought White Mask was just Ren Xiaosu¡¯s friend andrade. In Wang Yun¡¯s eyes, they were two different individuals who worked for the same organization, and all they shared was amon objective and goal.


    Meanwhile, Cheng Yu simply thought Ren Xiaosu was just White Mask¡¯s assistant. But now, all of those spections were overturned.


    There might be someone who possessed two different superpowers in this world, but there could absolutely be no two people with the same superpower. Even if they were of the same elemental type, their powers would still be different.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was the only exception in this world. He could have what the others had, but he could also have what the others did not


    have.


    When Ren Xiaosu and White Mask conjured their ck sabers out of thin air at the same time, Wang Yun and the others immediately understood. So it turned out the renowned White Mask was only a manifestation of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower. It was no wonder White Mask appeared so often wherever Ren Xiaosu was. During the disaster at Stronghold 74 and the chaotic battle in Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu had fought alongside White Mask.


    Wang Yun thought White Mask was an extremely close friend of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s, but it turned out they were actually the same person.


    The truth of this matter upended Wang Yun¡¯s understanding. That was because White Mask was way too powerful.


    When Wang Yun fought the T5batant, he needed to join hands with Cheng Yu to do so. Even if he had joined forces with everyone, he would still have gotten shed by the T5batant to the point of still being injured. However, White Mask was able to go head-to-head with a T5batant and kill him.


    The afternoon sun was ring and heavy, the mountain peaks in the distance stood tall as knives, and the young man exuded a magnificent aura about him.


    White Mask stood diagonally behind Ren Xiaosu. The stance they had when carrying the saber was exactly the same. White Mask... looked just like Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shadow.


    But this was a shadow that could kill. Chen Liu¡¯er sized up both Ren Xiaosu and White Mask calmly. ¡°Only the two of you? That¡¯s not nearly enough.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu ignored him and said to Luo Lan, Li Shentan, and Yang Xiaojin instead, ¡°Luo Lan, Xiaojin, you two know why I¡¯m here. Don¡¯t worry about me. If the person captured by the Pyro Company is really the one I¡¯m looking for, please help me rescue him.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was probably still inside the Pyro Company¡¯s building right now. Once Ren Xiaosu engaged in battle here, others with ulterior motives would definitely take the opportunity to move in. Ren Xiaosu only asked Luo Lan and the others to save Yan Liuyuan because he did not want the battle to dy the rescue.


    Luo Lan looked at Chen Liu¡¯er, then at Ren Xiaosu. He had wanted to stay behind to help Ren Xiaosu fight, but it seemed like it was really as Li Shentan had said. Ren Xiaosu was nning to end everything by himself.


    Someone on the team had already taken advantage of this confrontation between Chen Liu¡¯er and Ren Xiaosu to quietly run off towards the building behind them.


    Ren Xiaosu and Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s survival had nothing to do with them. They were only here to capture the No. 001 Experimental. So they couldn¡¯t wish more for those two to kill each other.


    Chen Liu¡¯er stood still. It was as though he did not see those people slipping off into the building. He suddenly said, ¡°Mortals always care only about what they see in front of them. They think that as long as they can get into the building, they can get what they¡¯re after. But they¡¯ve never thought there¡¯d only be death waiting for them in there.¡±


    In other words, he meant that other dangers were lurking in the building, so those people were running to their deaths by going in.


    However, Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s condescending attitude left everyone disgusted.


    Perhaps Chen Liu¡¯er was representing a group of supernatural beings who had already drawn a line between themselves and normal people.


    Li Shentan could not bear to hear someone talking to him in such a tone. So he raised an eyebrow and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°We¡¯ll head in first then. Hurry up and kill him. It¡¯s so ufortable to hear him speak.¡±


    With that, hepletely ignored Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s words and walked straight into the building.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu but did not say anything Vani had intended to stay behind and watch the battle, but what was in the building was still much more important.


    When everyone else had gone into the building, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s aura suddenly got even more oppressive.


    Chen Liu¡¯er looked at Ren Xiaosu who remained behind and asked, ¡°I¡¯ve always been very curious about something. Why do you all seem to care so much for that fool?¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu did not intend to answer his question at this moment.


    White Mask walked in front of Ren Xiaosu from behind, and the two of them gripped their ck sabers with both hands at the same time.


    Yang Xiaojin once mentioned that after humans had undergone some training, even a simple breathing technique could be used to give themselves a psychological suggestion and allow their bodies to reach a state that was most suitable for killing.


    Ren Xiaosu had tried before, and he managed to do it as well.


    Butter, he realized he did not even need to go through all that trouble.


    It seemed that ever since he was born, he possessed an extraordinary talent. As long as he wanted to do something, his body would be ready to serve his will.


    If mental strength was the highest caliber of weapon humanity had, Ren Xiaosu would have been holding this weapon in his hands from the moment he was born.


    In an instant, Ren Xiaosu and White Mask charged over like two highly coordinated machines.


    Looking at Chen Liu¡¯er before him, Ren Xiaosu felt like a fire had been stoked in him.


    Chen Liu¡¯er raised his Golden-Hooped Rod and held it out in front of him. At the same time, he nonchntly blocked the saber attacks from Ren Xiaosu and White Mask.


    He thought he could easily block the attack. But to his surprise, when White Mask and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sabers simultaneouslynded on the Golden-Hooped Rod, the unstoppable force pushed Chen Liu¡¯er backwards.


    Sparks were sent flying. Chen Liu¡¯er finally steadied himself and looked at the Golden-Hooped Rod in his hand. There were two obvious cuts etched deeply into it.


    The Pyro Company had used many methods to test the strength of the Golden-Hooped Rod. When the Golden-Hooped Rod was ced into a cutting machine, the machine broke. Then they used a hydraulic press and pitted it against the Golden-Hooped Rod, but that broke apart too.


    Just as everyone thought the Golden-Hooped Rod was impervious to damage, someone actually managed to leave a half-centimeter cut on it with a sh.


    ¡°Interesting,¡± Chen Liu¡¯er said.


    But he was unaware that Ren Xiaosu was also a little surprised. After all, this was the first time the ck saber had failed to cut through something. In the past, the ck saber could even cut through a T5batant¡¯s body like it was tofu. But now, it could not even cut through the Golden-Hooped Rod sessfully.


    However, Ren Xiaosu startedughing instead. ¡°My disciple is indeed powerful.¡±


    The more powerful Chen Liu¡¯er was, the prouder Ren Xiaosu was of Chen Wudi. That was because everything Chen Liu¡¯er possessed was bestowed upon him by Chen Wudi. If Chen Liu¡¯er was powerful, then Chen Wudi would only be stronger!


    This was the kind of strength the Great Sage of Heaven should possess!


    Chen Liu¡¯er could not understand what Ren Xiaosu wasughing about. He looked at the cut made on the Golden-Hooped Rod and said, ¡°But I¡¯ve also discovered your secret. White Mask is much stronger than you are. However, neither of you are as strong as me.¡±


    There were two cuts on the Golden-Hooped Rod, and the one made by White Mask was clearly stronger than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sh. So Chen Liu¡¯er immediately understood Ren Xiaosu was not as strong as White Mask. But Ren Xiaosu did not feel embarrassed that he had been exposed. Instead, he and White Mask gripped their sabers with both hands again. He said seriously, ¡°Even though you¡¯re full of strength, you don¡¯t understand that it isn¡¯t strength that determines how strong humans are.¡±


    Chen Liu¡¯er wondered, ¡°Then what is it determined by?¡±


    ¡°The courage to go all out and the will to never yield, both of which you don¡¯t possess. What you have is only an iplete soul.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin once said that life should be a candle, burning brightly from wick to end.


    Li Yingyun mentioned before that only faith, the sun, and the moon were eternal.


    And Jiang Xu also said he would not regret reporting the truth even if he had to die a 1,000 times.


    How did mankind manage to survive the previous disaster? Was it because of supernatural beings? No, they did not exist at that time yet.


    Therefore, it was definitely not superpowers that supported humanity til this day but the undying spirit of the pioneers magnificently disyed throughout history. Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu raised their sabers again and started shing at Chen Liu¡¯er. Every attack they threw out was for Chen Wudi¡¯s sake, to prove that in the face of scientific ethics, humans would be the bearers of history, not clones. Perhaps everything in this world could be cloned, except heroes!


    He and Old Xu kept circling around Chen Liu¡¯er like two swirling dragons joining hands in battle.


    Alternating their attacks, Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu¡¯s coordination was wless as they worked together to kill their enemy.


    Chen Liu¡¯er kept hisposure and focused on Ren Xiaosu and White Mask as he blocked their attacks with his Golden-Hooped Rod every time. ¡°Is that all you can muster?¡±


    But when Chen Liu¡¯er saw Ren Xiaosu smirk, he immediately looked at his Golden-Hooped Rod. Only then did he realize that no matter which angle White Mask was attacking from, it was always to force Chen Liu¡¯er into a position where Ren Xiaosu could strike at the same spot with every sh!


    He could see his Golden-Hooped Rod was close to breaking!


    When Chen Liu¡¯er realized Ren Xiaosu¡¯s intent, he quickly tried to adjust the position of his grip of the Golden-Hooped Rod. But it was toote. The ck saber shed across in front of him.


    Behind the saber, Chen Liu¡¯er saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cold gaze align with the de¡¯s edge. He realized he was in a perilous situation!


    The de connected with the Golden-Hooped Rod again. It was as though it shed down at an endless abyss and allowed light to seep in through the gap! ¡®Wudi, can you see it? If you can still see this, watch how Master protects this ray of light.¡¯


    ¡°Do you think you¡¯re worthy of wearing the golden circlet? Do you think you¡¯re worthy of holding this Golden-Hooped Rod?! Have you been to the Western Paradise before? You¡¯ve never!¡±


    ¡®You¡¯re just a thief who stole my disciple¡¯s DNA. You¡¯re nothing but a thief.¡¯


    The ck saber was like a scalpel in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand, uratelynding on the cut in the Golden-Hooped Rod again!


    The Golden-Hooped Rod broke into two!


    The Golden-Hooped Rod the Pyro Company had spent so much effort trying just to scratch was broken in half!


    Chen Liu¡¯er fell silent as he looked at the rod in his hands that had been split in two.


    Ren Xiaosu red at him and said, ¡°Let me correct you again. He¡¯s not a fool, and you aren¡¯t qualified to talk about him with me.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s just a fool nobody acknowledges. Does anyone he has helped feel grateful to him?¡± Chen Liu¡¯er asked.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Liu¡¯er. ¡°How could you possibly understand human emotions?¡±


    Chen Liu¡¯er seemed to be more serious. ¡°You still haven¡¯t answered my question.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°What¡¯s there to answer? If a good person doesn¡¯t get acknowledged by people, it¡¯s the world that¡¯s wrong. It isn¡¯t his fault!¡± What wrong had Chen Wudi done? All he wanted was to be a good person.


    Looking at this devastated world and era, the wrath in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart burnt even fiercer.


    If this world and era could not amodate good people, if it could not amodate Chen Wudi, then it should just perish.


    ¡°You¡¯re speaking too soon.¡± Chen Liu¡¯er threw his broken weapon to the ground without a care and the two broken rodsnded with a loud ng. ¡°I always found this thing to be a little cumbersome. But it¡¯s all good now. I have to thank you for breaking it for me so that I¡¯m not bound by it. To express my gratitude, I¡¯ll send you to meet that fool.¡± With that, Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s golden chain mail materialized out of thin air. His phoenix-feather cap looked very magnificent as well.


    ¡°Did your disciple have these?¡± Chen Liu¡¯er asked with augh.


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Compared to him, you¡¯re still a long way off.¡±


    On that day, Chen Wudi transformed into the Great Sage and fought his way to victory to save his master. His phoenix-feather cap that had materialized on his head had two striped feathers that pointed upward to the sky, forming a connection with the clouds. His golden armor that had appeared out of thin air as well glowed golden like the burning sunpeting for glory with the Heavens.


    When Wudi shouted ¡°Sky Breaker¡± back then, even the vault of heaven had to give way.


    How could a fakepare to Chen Wudi in all of this?


    Chen Liu¡¯er sneered, ¡°Think before you speak!¡± Then he plucked a handful of hairs from the back of his head and blew them into the wind. ¡°Come on out, my little monkeys!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu saw countless hairs fluttering into the wind. In the blink of an eye, they turned into ferocious armored monkeys with sharp fangs.


    Chen Liu¡¯erughed, ¡°Did your disciple have such a technique?¡±


    But something unexpected happened. After those hundreds of monkeys appeared andnded on the ground, they did not follow Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s wish to fight Ren Xiaosu. Instead, they suddenly knelt down in worship at the building behind Chen Liu¡¯er!


    They were like extremely devoted believers, and their faces were full of grief. As though someone had sighed in the building, everyone heard something in their heads.


    After kowtowing repeatedly, the monkeys burst into tears and vanished into the wind. The clouds in the sky parted and a rainbow emerged!


    Chen Liu¡¯er immediately turned around. Why did his monkeys kowtow in a direction away from him? What could possibly be there?!


    Ren Xiaosu startedughing so hard that he nearly cried. Only he knew... that was where Chen Wudi was. Si Liren was in that building, and she happened to be carrying Chen Wudi!


    ¡®Wudi, you¡¯re still around, right? Wudi, can you see Master right now?¡¯


    At this moment, Li Shentan had just arrived on the first floor of the building when the box behind Si Liren suddenly emitted a rainbow glow. Before Li Shentan could get excited, the glow faded away again.


    The hope in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart also dimmed for a moment, but only for a moment.


    ¡°Master will kill this Six-Eared Macaque on your behalf.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not have any regrets. Even if Wudi had only shown his brilliance for a moment, it was enough to put him at ease. At the very least, Li Shentan had not lied to him. Wudi was really still alive.


    Chen Liu¡¯er was feeling unsettled. Ren Xiaosuughed maniacally and said proudly, ¡°Did you see that? That¡¯s the real Great Sage while you¡¯re only the Six-Eared Macaque. What¡¯s real can¡¯t be faked, and what¡¯s fake can¡¯t take the ce of the real. What did I say just now? You¡¯re nothingpared to him!¡±


    ¡®It¡¯s a good day today. It¡¯s suited for carrying out burials and killing people!¡¯


    As he spoke, Ren Xiaosu shed at Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s golden armor with his saber and forcefully cut through it, leaving a deep and bloody wound on his chest.


    If Chen Liu¡¯er had not lost hisposure, Ren Xiaosu would probably have a tough and extended battle on hand if he wanted to kill the other party. However, with the manifestation of Chen Wudi¡¯s presence, Chen Liu¡¯er got flustered.


    Although Chen Liu¡¯er kept saying Chen Wudi was just a fool, he knew deep inside that he was only a clone of that person.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that facing battle was definitely not the worst fear for a clone like this but instead the moment he felt ashamed of his own inferiority in the presence of his progenitor.


    Chen Liu¡¯er could no longer remain calm. He turned his head and said to Ren Xiaosu ferociously, ¡°So what if he¡¯s still alive? After I kill you, he will be next. Then you and your disciple will be reunited on the road to the Underworld....¡±


    Before he finished talking, Chen Liu¡¯erunched a sneak attack. He crouched down and kicked Old Xu aside. Using the momentum, he charged straight at Ren Xiaosu.


    But before Chen Liu¡¯er could get close to Ren Xiaosu, he noticed Ren Xiaosu had made a strange move.


    Ren Xiaosu took out an ear pick from somewhere and started picking his ear!


    Chen Liu¡¯er did not dwell on it and threw a heavy punch straight at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face. However, that punch waspletely stopped by an invisible force 30 centimeters away from Ren Xiaosu!


    Ren Xiaosu threw his head back andughed. ¡°I¡¯m giving you a chance by picking my ears, but it looks like you¡¯re useless.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was messing with him. It felt like he was trying to humiliate Chen Liu¡¯er by standing there and picking his ear, letting the monster who was one foot away bare its fangs and brandish its ws at him threateningly. No matter how hard this monster tried to punch or kick at him, it was all but a futile attempt. ¡°Liu¡¯er, do you understand now?¡± Ren Xiaosu stoppedughing and said in a serious tone, ¡°This is all that the so-called gods you were referring to can do. Let me ask you onest time: Do you know the difference between you and him?¡±


    Chen Liu¡¯er was going absolutely crazy. He even felt a little despair. He could not figure out Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power. No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to break through that transparent barrier.


    It was like a child fighting an adult. He had already lost before the other party even made a move. This feeling was akin to being roasted on a fire. It was so painful he would rather die.


    So it turned out that his strength he was most confident about was not even worth mentioning!


    At this moment, Wang Yun, who was upstairs, took the time to look down through the windows of the building. He saw Ren Xiaosu picking his ears in front of Chen Liu¡¯er who could not do anything about it. Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s punches and kicks could even shake the ground, but the young man just held his saber and did not budge. This devastated Chen Liu¡¯er.


    The sight was so shocking it rendered Wang Yun speechless. His impression of Ren Xiaosu reached unfathomable levels!


    He could not understand something. Didn¡¯t they say there were only two demigods in the era of the ¡°Rise of Gods¡±? How on earth did they miss out on the real god?! In truth, Ren Xiaosu did not disy hisbat prowess at all. However, the impression he gave when he picked his ears was way too terrifying! Who would pick their ears in the middle of a fight? Could you show some respect to your opponent, please?!


    Chen Liu¡¯er stopped attacking. He asked while panting heavily, ¡°Who on earth are you?! And why are you so strong?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu just smiled. ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m strong but that you¡¯re too weak. You¡¯re not even at 0.01% of my disciple¡¯s level.¡±


    But Chen Liu¡¯er was not dumb either. ¡°Why are you still picking your ear? I get it now. This is your power, right? But you can¡¯t hurt your enemy when you¡¯re picking your ear!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stopped talking. When Chen Liu¡¯er saw his reaction, heughed even harder. ¡°So that¡¯s how it is. You¡¯re deliberately mystifying things!¡±


    Chen Liu¡¯erughed so hard he threw his head back. Whileughing, he happened to notice Ren Xiaosu conjure a ck sniper rifle out of thin air!


    Bang!


    After a gunshot from the sniper rifle rang out, Chen Liu¡¯er slowly lowered his head and looked at his chest.


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu had shed at Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s golden armor with his saber and made a chink in it. And now, a shot from the sniper rifle had blown a hole out of that chink and left a huge, bloody wound within!


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was holding the rifle in one hand while picking his ear with his other.


    ¡°Where did your saber go?¡± Chen Liu¡¯er asked bitterly.


    Wasn¡¯t the young man holding a saber just a moment ago? When did it turn into a ck sniper rifle?


    Chen Liu¡¯er suddenly realized his opponent¡¯s goal for breaking the Golden-Hooped Rod by hitting it repeatedly and making a chink in his golden armor was just so he could open fire at him without anything hindering the bullet¡¯s path.


    To be safe, Ren Xiaosu even used a ck bullet that cost him a 100 gratitude tokens for a sure kill!


    He knew full well that it was still unclear who would emerge victorious in the prolonged battle. That was because Chen Wudi was simply too strong, so even his clone would be strong as well!


    However, Ren Xiaosu could kill those ruthless people by himself when he was still living back in town. He had never relied on only brute strength to kill people but used whatever means could be used! Ren Xiaosu had already discovered that his Ear Picking skill could block all kinds of close-range attacks, even if it included melee weapons. But at the same time, Ren Xiaosu was unable to attack others barehanded or with melee weapons either.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had a sniper rifle, and it was not a melee weapon! So if he and the enemy were engaged in closebat, he could simply pick his ear and use his sniper rifle concurrently, leaving him invincible.


    With the Ear Picking and the ck sniper rifle, he would be invincible in closebat.


    Besides, his ck sniper rifle was extremely lethal too!


    The purpose of fighting was not for victory but to kill the enemy.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was always able toe up with such strangebinations of powers that were extremely lethal as well. In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, victory would be meaningless if the enemy did not die.


    Chen Liu¡¯er slumped to the ground pathetically and coughed up blood.


    Ren Xiaosu looked silently at the building. He did not know where Si Liren had gone with the box, nor could he see through the thick ss.


    ¡®Wudi, did you see it? Master managed to protect that ray of light for you this time. When you return, you¡¯ll see that the ray of light is still there.¡¯

 Chapter 756 - Crisis in the underground

    <strong>Chapter 756 Crisis in the underground</strong>


    The battle with Chen Liu¡¯er was within Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expectations, and Li Shentan and Yang Xiaojin had also guessed that such a day woulde.


    However, they probably had not expected Ren Xiaosu would end this battle so quickly. Yang Xiaojin considered herself to understand Ren Xiaosu the best. She knew full well that even though Ren Xiaosu was very strong, he would still have some difficulties when facing Chen Wudi¡¯s clone.


    After all, Chen Wudi was way too powerful. So even his clone could crush most superhumans in the world. However, Chen Liu¡¯er was still not mature enough. It had only been a few years since he was cloned. No matter how much the Pyro Company trained and instilled knowledge and ideology into him, he would still have some shorings.


    Besides, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fighting style was really strange, so most superhumans would be caught off guard if they encountered him. As such, it was only natural he would kill Chen Liu¡¯er.


    Moreover, the monkeys Chen Liu¡¯er summoned even revolted.


    No, it would be more urate to say it was Chen Liu¡¯er who had revolted while those monkeys remained loyal to Chen Wudi. As a result, Chen Liu¡¯er was unsettled when he saw that.


    The sight of the monkeys kowtowing in Chen Wudi¡¯s direction was way too shocking for Chen Liu¡¯er. Although they were created through his powers, they were not under his control. The difference between the real and fake Great Sage was immediately established.


    At this moment, Li Shentan muttered to Si Liren in the hallway inside the building, ¡°And I thought they were going to battle for seven days and seven nights. That would¡¯ve been so satisfying to watch. Then at the moment when my friend was in danger, I would make an appearance and shout, ¡®Xiaosu, I¡¯m here to save you!¡¯ How exciting would that be?¡±


    Si Liren turned her head and nced at Li Shentan speechlessly. She realized the guy still hadn¡¯t had enough of the battle that was going on outside. Of course, Si Liren herself was also hoping for more. Actually, these two spectators hoped the battle wouldst a bit longer.


    After all, it should be an extremely intense fight considering it was a battle between master and ¡°disciple.¡± Only a deathmatch with fists to the flesh would feel satisfying to watch.


    ¡®Ren Xiaosu, wasn¡¯t that such ackadaisical battle you fought?¡¯


    But Ren Xiaosu would definitely not think that way as he was a very practical person. Although fighting for three days and three nights would ease his hatred, wasn¡¯t his ultimate goal still to kill that person?


    At this moment, Li Shentan heard someone exim in front of him. He and Si Liren had been walking at the back of the group while Vani and the others had already passed through the hallway and arrived in the main lobby. The entire building was 15 stories tall. Such a building could easily be considered andmark even in the strongholds. In the wilderness of the Sacred Mountains, it stood out and was especially eye-catching.


    0¡ã


    But when they went upstairs, they realized there was actually nothing there at all. It was even Luo Lan who discovered an entrance to the basement of the building first. Only then did the others follow and head down as well.


    The style of the basement was clearly different from that of the upper floors. The upper floors were just like a traditional office building, with partitions separating each desk into cubicles. There was nothing strange about it.


    But it became strange in the basement. The main door was an alloy gate that required a password to be entered before passing through.


    However, this alloy gate was already open and did not pose any obstacle to anyone.


    When Luo Lan switched on the lights at the end of the hallway, the group let out a scream.


    The hall was filled with transparent birthing chambers. Everyone could see the ¡°clones¡± asleep in their chambers through the ss.


    Wang Yun stood in front of a birthing chamber and said, ¡°I¡¯ve seen a few of these people before. The third one on the left is a superhuman from our Kong Consortium. I didn¡¯t know we actually lost a DNA sample.¡±


    When Wang Yun said this, he still withheld something from the rest. Actually, he could recognize a lot of the clones here from his memory, and he knew the backgrounds of half of them. Based on his memory, the faces of these clones all belonged to superhumans. In other words, it meant these birthing chambers were all filled with superhumans.


    Seeing the dozens of birthing chambers in the basement lobby, it seemed the Pyro Company had really seeded in obtaining a lot of DNA samples over the years.


    While Wang Yun was pondering this, someone else nearby, who was also examining the birth chambers, suddenly yelled. The person fell to the ground in fright and even retreated in a flurry.


    Everyone looked over and was surprised to see a superhuman¡¯s clone in the birthing chamber across that person had opened its eyes!


    The sound of ss shattering rang out through the lobby. The nutritional fluid in the birthing chambers started pouring out through the cracks. In an instant, the floor of the lobby was flooded with the fluid, which reached ankle height.


    Li Shentan helplessly lowered his head to have a look. Then he looked at Si Liren. ¡°Being able to fly is way better. My shoes are ruined.¡±


    The clones started walking out of their birthing chambers one by one. Their limbs were slightly stiff and they did not have any expressions on their faces. It looked extremely eerie and terrifying.


    Luo Lan slowly retreated. As he did so, he said to Zhou Qi, ¡°The floor is flooded with water, so this can be considered your home turf. Hurry up and kill them.¡±


    Zhou Qi rolled his eyes. ¡°There¡¯s a few dozen of them here. If they¡¯re all superhumans, not even ten of me will be a match for them.¡±


    ¡°You still gottae up with something.¡± Luo Lan said anxiously, ¡°I just saw a superhuman from the Li Consortium that had a grudge with me. Do you think his clone will have the same memories? Will he be seething with anger when he sees me? Wait, look over there, there¡¯s two others from the Li Consortium as well. Oh no, they¡¯ve outnumbered us!¡±


    As the conflict between the Qing Consortium and the Li Consortium was not something new, quite a few of the Li Consortium¡¯s supernatural beings had a feud with Luo Lan.


    But what was with the Li Consortium!? They actually had that many DNA samples stolen by the Pyro Company?


    But as they were panicking, they heard Li Shentan shouting at the clones that had walked out of their birthing chambers, ¡°Hey, look over here!¡±


    The smart ones like Luo Lan quickly looked away. It was obvious Li Shentan was about to hypnotize people again.


    It would be really stupid to look at Li Shentan at this moment. Those who did might as well have offered their lives to him. Of all those present, not too many could resist Li Shentan¡¯s hypnosis. Once they got hypnotized, whether they could walk out of this ce alive would have to depend on Li Shentan¡¯s mood.


    But the clones were unaware of this. So when Li Shentan spoke, all of them looked at him. Li Shentan pped his hands three times and said, ¡°Everyone, the moment you saw me pping my hands three times, you surrendered your consciousness to me. Obey my orders now and return to your birthing chambers. When I¡¯m done with my other affairs, I¡¯lle back to deal with you again.¡± After that, the clones really went back inside their birthing chambers!


    Luo Lan was dumbfounded by what he saw. He was thinking that if he had Li Shentan¡¯s power, would he still need to be afraid of anyone? Just by controlling several dozen supernatural beings, he would be invincible!


    He quickly said to Li Shentan, ¡°Since you can control them, why don¡¯t you get them to scout ahead for us?¡±


    Li Shentan shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re all too nervous. These clones don¡¯t have any superpowers, so I don¡¯t know why you guys are so afraid.¡±


    Luo Lan was taken aback. ¡°They don¡¯t have any superpowers?¡±


    Then how on earth did the Pyro Company manage to awaken the superpowers of Chen Liu¡¯er and Li Shentan¡¯s clone?

 Chapter 757 - The clone at the end

    <strong>Chapter 757 The clone at the end</strong>


    There were all sorts of doubts about Chen Liu¡¯er and Li Shentan¡¯s clone. Most importantly, nobody could understand why the Pyro Company did not implement cloning on arge scale even though they had the means to awaken the superpowers of their superhumans¡¯ clones.


    After hearing Luo Lan¡¯s doubts, Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s no point in wondering about that now. We might as well continue heading downstairs. I feel that the answer is probably waiting for us up ahead.¡± With that, Li Shentan led the way forward. Li Shentan and the others who were acquainted with Ren Xiaosu had formed a small clique naturally.


    Regardless of where the others might be from, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi subconsciously chose to stick with them. With their connection to Ren Xiaosu, at least they could be sure that no one would sabotage one another in this group.


    Li Shentan looked at Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°Y¡¯know, I¡¯ve had quite a hand in your reunion no matter what you think. Can you tell me what happened after you chased him down?¡± At first, Yang Xiaojin thought Li Shentan was going to say something serious. But after all that talk, he was actually trying to ask about some gossip. But Yang Xiaojin realized Luo Lan¡¯s and the others¡¯ eyes were shimmering. It looked like they were also very interested in hearing about it.


    Zhou Yingxue, who was standing off to the side, said disdainfully, ¡°Why is a group of men trying to poke their noses into my master and madam¡¯s private matters?¡±


    Luo Lan felt jealous. Why couldn¡¯t he have a maidservant like her too?


    Li Shentan realized the clones in the basement level were seemingly the only ones, and they were not even fully developed yet. Logically speaking, there should be more secrets hidden in this building. When they walked to the end of the basement, two alloy doors on the ground in front of them suddenly opened and revealed a staircase leading down. Luo Lan and the others looked at each other. The doors opening at this moment made it feel like someone was waiting for them to step into a trap.


    However, Li Shentan nonchntly walked down the stairs. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be afraid of. If the Pyro Company really had any more strength to kill us, they would probably have already done so.¡±


    When Luo Lan and the others saw Li Shentan walking down, they also braced themselves and followed right behind.


    After the incident with the birthing chambers, Vani¡¯s group had fallen to the back of the group. They thought that even if there were any further danger, it would be Li Shentan facing it first.


    But when the Great Hoodwinker, who was thest person in Luo Lan¡¯s group, stepped into the stairway, the alloy doors on the ground closed again.


    That was to say, only Li Shentan, Si Liren, Yang Xiaojin, Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, Zhou Yingxue, and the Great Hoodwinker had entered this underground tunnel. The rest had been locked outside!


    Luo Lan immediately panicked. ¡°What the fuck? Are they trapping us in to destroy us?¡±


    Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°You¡¯re still in the mood to scold yourself at a time like this? You may insult yourself, but don¡¯t drag us in with you.¡±


    ¡°Ahem, my bad.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°But why did they only lock just us in? This is obviously someone¡¯s doing.¡±


    After he uttered those words, lights on both sides of the staircase suddenly lit up. The technologically advanced walls and lights made them feel less threatened. At the end of the stairs, someone said, ¡°Because only you can listen to what I¡¯m about to say.¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s interest was piqued. ¡°I like this feeling of getting special treatment!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly realized Luo Lan and Zhou Qi looked stunned.


    They were stunned because the voice at the end of the stairs sounded so familiar!


    This time, it was Luo Lan who walked to the front. He walked down the long stretch of steps and looked at the familiar young man in a white suit in front of him. ¡°You¡¯re my brother¡¯s clone?¡±


    The clone, who was standing in front of him bearing the same face as Qing Zhen, nodded with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s right. I was ¡®born¡¯ a year ago and spent three months in the birthing chamber before growing rapidly to my current state.¡±


    ¡°Where did they get his DNA sample from?¡± Luo Lan said worriedly.


    ¡°On the day he became the Qing Consortium¡¯s head, he walked barefooted on that long mountain path. Even the snow was painted red with his blood, so it wasn¡¯t exactly difficult to obtain his DNA sample. By the way, let me introduce myself. My name is Qing Shen,¡± Qing Shen[1] exined.


    Just one character difference in their names made their pronunciationpletely different. [2]


    But everything that was happening here was well beyond everyone¡¯s expectations. They had wondered who the Pyro Company would clone, but they never thought Qing Zhen would be one of them, because Qing Zhen was not a supernatural being!


    Others might still have doubts about that, but Luo Lan was quite sure his brother was really not a supernatural being.


    Qing Shen looked at Luo Lan and seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. ¡°Among those the Pyro Company obtained DNA samples from, Qing Zhen is indeed the only regr person. The Pyro Company had never suspected he was a supernatural being either. Ever since they started cloning, they only sought to create a leader for the Pyro Company.¡±


    The Pyro Company really believed in the path they had taken. They firmly believed they could use gics to change the future of humanity to create a better world and society.


    If they only sought to change others, it would be a hypocritical excuse for their deeds. So they started changing from within.


    Not only did they create those supernatural beings and Neo-Humans, they even chose a charismatic and intelligent leader to lead them.


    During this period, they had considered a lot of candidates. In the end, they chose Qing Zhen and obtained his DNA sample.


    The Pyro Company had dealt with many enemies before, but they would only feel a sense of helplessness when facing Qing Zhen. It seemed that Qing Zhen was able to anticipate all their ns.


    This might sound crazy to normal people, but the chief scientists of the Pyro Company were not normal to begin with.


    They were not trying to create their own army but a leader for themselves!


    Luo Lan¡¯s eyes narrowed. He said, ¡°Then what is it you want to tell us?¡±


    If Ren Xiaosu could kill Chen Liu¡¯er for Chen Wudi, Luo Lan could also start a killing spree and eliminate any potential threats for Qing Zhen.


    Qing Shen exined with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t get anxious yet. It¡¯s like this: The Pyro Company wanted me to be as simr to Qing Zhen as possible by gathering all of his relevant information so I could learn how to be him. They were hoping I could be someone like Qing Zhen one day. However, a group of people within the Pyro Company were against this. They were unwilling to hand over authority to a clone like me. So I was being confined here by this group. Those 11 people who died outside just now actually came here to save me.¡± ¡°What are you trying to say?¡± Luo Lan frowned puzzledly. ¡°Bring me to the Qing Consortium,¡± Qing Shen said in a serious tone.


    Luo Lan asked, ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because Qing Zhen and I both know what the Qing Consortium will face in the future, and he will need me in his n.¡± Qing Shen said, ¡°In the process of studying Qing Zhen, I was always able to feel that I was just his clone. I wanted to surpass Qing Zhen, but I couldn¡¯t do it. Slowly, I started to admire him. Sometimes, I even feel that the purpose of my ¡®birth¡¯ might be to help himplete his n. Bring me to him, and he¡¯ll n everything.¡±


    (1) 1 (Sh¨¨n) is the Chinese character for cautious ½÷É÷,


    [2] Author wrote this apparently because many Chinese readers had been reading Qing Zhen¡¯s name wrong.

 Chapter 758 - Blood of God

    <strong>Chapter 758 Blood of God</strong>


    The clones of Chen Wudi and Li Shentan had kept trying to prove they could surpass their original selves or even sought to rece them. But Qing Zhen¡¯s clone was really strange. He was actually willing to be a part of Qing Zhen¡¯s ns after learning about him.


    Honestly, even Luo Lan might not know about all of Qing Zhen¡¯s ns, but Qing Shen seemed to know a lot. Was it because Qing Shen was special? Or was the special one Qing Zhen? This feeling was just like how the Pyro Company had worked so hard to create a leader for themselves, only to realize they had actually helped Qing Zhen.


    Perhaps it was precisely because of something Qing Shen had expressed that caused him to be ced under house arrest here.


    However, Luo Lan understood the Pyro Company¡¯s reaction. Even if the Pyro Company were all scientists who were willing to dedicate themselves to science, some would still prefer holding onto power themselves rather than hand it over to a ¡°leader¡± they created.


    Therefore, differences had arisen a long time ago within the ranks of the Pyro Company, and they were no longer united. One side supported this n while the other did not. The two sides even had a violent sh over this matter, but the rest of the world was unaware of it. Luo Lan looked at Qing Shen and said, ¡°How do I know if this is part of your n?¡± In response, Qing Shen took out a fruit knife and made a cut on the back of his hand. ¡°Take this as my mark. With it, you won¡¯t confuse me with Qing Zhen. Besides, you guys should¡¯ve already noticed that the clones are actually inferior to their progenitors. Surely you should have confidence in him, right? As long as he knows of my existence, I won¡¯t stand a chance.¡±


    Qing Shen¡¯s blood was dripping profusely onto the ground from his hand. It was utterly silent in this underground space.


    Luo Lan pondered what Qing Shen had said and analyzed every detail.


    In fact, he agreed with what Qing Shen said. Once Qing Shen was at the Qing Consortium¡¯s territory, it would be impossible for him to outwit his younger brother, Qing Zhen.


    Everyone got rather emotional. Was Qing Zhen so charismatic he could even conquer his own clone? This was a little too bizarre.


    In the end, Luo Lan said coldly, ¡°I¡¯ll bring you back to the Qing Consortium, but it¡¯s up to my brother what we do with you. Think about it carefully. If he wants to kill you then, not even the Heavens can stop him.¡±


    Qing Shen smiled and said, ¡°That won¡¯t happen. He¡¯ll firmly grasp everything he can make use of.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s why you only allowed our group in because you wanted to talk about this?¡± Luo Lan wondered.


    ¡°Yes, all of you here are able to keep secrets, and Qing Zhen¡¯s ns have no conflict of interest with you,¡± Qing Shen said.


    Luo Lan waved him off impatiently. ¡°As if you can guess what my brother¡¯s ns are! Stop talking about this. The oue of your survival when we get back to the Qing Consortium is another matter altogether.¡±


    Qing Shen smiled and said nothing else.


    In truth, Luo Lan was quite unhappy with the clone. Qing Shen looked just like his younger brother, but simr to how Ren Xiaosu hated Chen Liu¡¯er, there was also no reason for his dislike of Qing Shen. He just felt that this clone had stolen something from Qing Zhen. So it was difficult for Luo Lan to have a good impression of him.


    However, the clone did not seem to mind Luo Lan¡¯s attitude, or rather, he was willing to ept the disdain.


    All of a sudden, Li Shentan asked, ¡°Don¡¯t keep talking among yourselves. I still have a mission to do that was entrusted to me by someone. Let me ask you, where¡¯s the No. 001 Experimental?¡±


    ¡°The Pyro Company never captured the No. 001 Experimental in the first ce.¡± Qing Shen shook his head and said, ¡°From the beginning, it was just a standard operation to capture a superhuman. The Pyro Company found out there was a powerful superhuman in the grasnds, so they sent out some T5batants to capture him and obtain his DNA sample. But it suddenly became a rumor that the No. 001 Experimental was captured. However, that superhuman was only a khan in the grasnds.¡±


    When everyone heard this, they were stunned. To think that all of them hade all the way out here for the No. 001 Experimental, yet it turned out to be just a big misunderstanding?


    The Great Hoodwinker wondered, ¡°Isn¡¯t this blunder a little too big? I don¡¯t believe the rumor waspletely baseless.¡±


    ¡°Of course it¡¯s not baseless. It¡¯s just that someone was deliberately trying to mislead everyone.¡± Qing Shen said, ¡°The Anjing House released false information saying the No. 001 Experimental had been captured because only the secret of the No. 001 Experimental¡¯s immortality can arouse the interest of the various consortiums¡¯ higher-ups. There¡¯s arge number of older, high-ranking members in the Kong Consortium and Zhou Consortium. Their interest in immortality might even surpass their pursuit of power. After all, achieving immortality would mean they can hold on to power forever.¡±


    ¡°So you mean to say this was not the Pyro Company¡¯s trap but bait by the Anjing House?¡± The Great Hoodwinker muttered. His mind was already working quickly as he considered the rationale behind this.


    Qing Shen continued, ¡°The Anjing House attracted the various consortiums¡¯ superhumans over here because they wanted to eliminate potential threats in order to facilitate the Wang Consortium¡¯s future ns. Even if the Pyro Company makes a rification at this time, the various consortiums will not believe it. Besides, the Pyro Company won¡¯t want to clear up the rumor either. They¡¯d rather have these superhumanse stumbling right into their. So the boss of the Anjing House already predicted all of this. She knows the Pyro Company will definitely work together with her to put on a good show, so she¡¯s not afraid of getting exposed at all.¡±


    ¡°Is that all?¡± The Great Hoodwinker asked doubtfully.


    ¡°Also,¡± Qing Shen said with a smile, ¡°they mighte up with further bait, but I can only tell Qing Zhen about it.¡±


    Li Shentan was speechless for a long time. To think that Ren Xiaosu had asked them to find the No. 001 Experimental on his behalf, but it actually turned out to just be bait in the end. The No. 001 Experimental was not here at all. Then would Ren Xiaosu be very disappointed if he told him about this?


    Li Shentan looked at Qing Shen. ¡°I have another question. Since the Pyro Company has the means to awaken the superpowers of their clones, why didn¡¯t they use it on a wider scale?¡±


    ¡°Because they only have three chances to do so,¡± Qing Shen said.


    Luo Lan realized they could learn a lot about the secrets of the Pyro Company with Qing Shen around.


    They listened to Qing Shen exin, ¡°These three chances are extremely precious, so they must choose the clones of the most powerful superhumans to use it on. One of them is Li Shentan, and the other is Chen Wudi. They even went to the Northwest to look for the DNA sample of the Stronghold Destroyer. However, he seemed to have evaporated into thin air and was nowhere to be found, so they went to the Northern ins instead to capture someone else as the third candidate for cloning.¡±


    Li Shentan nodded. ¡°They¡¯ve got a rather good


    eye.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin shot him a nce and suddenly turned to ask Qing Shen, ¡°So what is this method they¡¯re using?¡± ¡°They have three drops of the No. 001 Experimental¡¯s blood that was preserved from before The Cataclysm until now.¡± Qing Shen said in a serious tone, ¡°They call it the Blood of God. Although they can¡¯t reproduce it, the blood can be used to create pseudo-gods.¡±

 Chapter 759 - The head of the Anjing House

    <strong>Chapter 759 The head of the Anjing House</strong>


    Were there really gods in this world?


    Li Shentan did not think so, even though he was regarded as a demigod by the others.


    In Li Shentan¡¯s opinion, there were no real gods in this world at all. These ¡°gods¡± were just some powerful individuals, as they still ate, drank, defecated, urinated, and had normal emotions and feelings like normal people. Other than being better at fighting, they did not have appearances like gods at all.


    For example, Chen Liu¡¯er still had to pretend he was indifferent to the world to make himself appear more like a god. In Li Shentan¡¯s eyes, that was being surprisingly silly. He wondered how the Pyro Company managed to mislead that fool most of the time.


    And now, Qing Shen suddenly imed it was because of the Blood of God that Chen Liu¡¯er and the other clone were able to awaken their powers. This stunned Li Shentan. Could there really be gods in this world?


    He looked at Qing Shen and wondered, ¡°Are you referring to the No. 001 Experimental¡¯s blood? It was left behind from before The Cataclysm? Wouldn¡¯t the blood deteriorate after such a long time? Back then, the entire world was out of power, right? 99% of all electronicponents had been damaged, so how did they manage to preserve it?¡±


    Qing Shen said, ¡°By storing it in an enclosed container, it could remain intact without any preservation measures.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t really believe that.¡± Li Shentan shook his head.


    ¡°Then let me start from the beginning.¡± Qing Shen thought for a moment and said, ¡°This No. 001 Experimental was sent to the Pyro Company for cancer treatment initially. At first, they had no way of treating him. But seeing that he was on the verge of death, the Pyro Company had no choice but to try an untested drug on him. That drug was called TSX001. As a result, something weird happened. A weekter, not only did the patient fully recover, but he also turned into an even more powerful Neo-Human.¡±


    ¡°Do you have any information about that?¡± Luo Lan asked. ¡°If you have the data, we can have a look at it more intuitively.¡±


    ¡°No, the data was destroyed during The Cataclysm. No one even knows how to develop TSX001 anymore. Otherwise, the Pyro Company would not have had to go through so many years of detours.¡± Qing Shen said, ¡°However, a blood sample of the No. 001 Experimental had been sent to Laboratory 9 before The Cataclysm, and the Pyro Company was able to retrieve it from there several years ago. The strange thing is that despite it being more than 200 years since The Cataclysm, the blood sample has still remained intact in the extremely harsh environment even though it was not protected by any corresponding measures.¡±


    Qing Shen remembered he had read a short passage from the records that were kept. It was a clinical description of the No. 001 Experimental¡¯s condition after being treated with the drug.


    ording to the passage, the No. 001 Experimental¡¯s eyes had turned into a sea of stars, and he could even switch his eyes between that of a human being and a wild animal in an instant.


    Moreover, he started seeing things that were very far away and could hear whatever he wanted to listen in on. He could also alter the thoughts of others and nearly dissipated into consciousness to merge with the world.


    But it seemed the No. 001 Experimental managed to stop himself from dissipating before falling into aa.


    Qing Shen thought to himself, ¡®How else can a Neo-Human like this be exined other than by describing him as a god?¡¯


    ¡°Since the TSX001 drug was effective, why did the rest of the Experimentals turn into monsters instead of being cured?¡± Luo Lan wondered.


    Qing Shen looked at Luo Lan seriously and said, ¡°This is where the No. 001 Experimental is special. It¡¯s precisely because he was the only one who trulypleted the transformation that he¡¯s called a god. The reason why the Pyro Company believes their gic technology can change humanity is because they really created a god with their own hands before!¡±


    But to the Pyro Company¡¯s surprise, even though they had clearly seeded, the world had yed a huge joke on them as a disaster descended.


    If it had not been for this disaster, they would have created a brand new world! The No. 001 Experimental was their key to that new world!


    However, it did not matter that the No. 001 Experimental had disappeared. The Pyro Company felt that since they could create a No. 001 Experimental, they could just create a second one.


    But countless years had been wasted in between. As time went by, the young scientists turned into gray-haired old men in the blink of an eye. However, there seemed to be no end to the path they had embarked on.


    The Pyro Company had to admit the No. 001 Experimental was just a fluke and that they were not actually that smart.


    Luo Lan curled his lips. ¡°How are we going to find the No. 001 Experimental when we don¡¯t even know what he looks like? Even if that person is standing next to you, you might not recognize him.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Qing Shen looked at everyone. ¡°It¡¯s starting to get chaotic outside, so it¡¯s a good opportunity for us to leave.¡± With that, Qing Shen found a set of clothes and wrapped himself up tightly. It was as though he was afraid of being recognized. Luo Lan pursed his lips. ¡°You¡¯re disguised quite well.¡±


    Qing Shen smiled and said, ¡°There¡¯s too many people who want to kill your brother. Since we share the same appearance, I naturally have to be more cautious.¡±


    Luo Lan snapped, ¡°Why do your words piss me off so much?¡±


    ¡°But don¡¯t worry, no one can kill him anymore,¡± Qing Shen said with a smile as he opened the door and walked up the stairs.


    The people outside had already left the building. They went off to search the other buildings to see if they could find any valuable information.


    Wang Yun headed towards one of the buildings that was specially equipped with a power distribution box outside. This meant there were probably some electronic equipment and servers belonging to the Pyro Company stored inside.


    But before he could approach, he suddenly saw a ck mist float out of that building!


    The ck mist floating in the air flew enchantingly into the distance. However, it could no longer move after flying for five to six meters.


    Wang Yun sneered, ¡°Wang Wenyan, still noting down? I¡¯ve finally got you this time!¡±


    During the battle in Luoyang City, Wang Wenyan, as the director of the Wang Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency, had killed arge group of people from the Kong and Zhou Consortiums. Now that the other party had appeared here, it must be for some extremely important intelligence, right?


    Although other people might not be able to take on Wang Wenyan, Wang Yun¡¯s power was a natural nemesis of Wang Wenyan!


    Wang Wenyan¡¯s power enabled him to turn into a cloud of ck mist and pass through any ces without hindrance. Even if it was a gap as small as a pinhole, he could still get in and out of a ce easily.


    Meanwhile, Wang Yun¡¯s superpower was to control the air...


    The ck mist kept changing its shape in midair, but it was unable to break free from the ¡°cage¡± imposed on it by Wang Yun. A momentter, Wang Wenyan fell to the ground and revealed his true form. A hard drive also fell out of his pocket, and he looked to be in an extremely pathetic state.


    Wang Yun sneered and said, ¡°Wang Wenyan, you probably never expected this day woulde, right? You¡¯ll pay with your life for killing our Kong Consortium¡¯s people.¡±


    Then Wang Yun picked up the hard drive from the ground and was about to kill Wang Wenyan. But at this moment, more than a dozen small paper cranes descended from the sky. Wang Yun¡¯s pupils suddenly contracted and he retreated quickly!


    If the head of the Anjing House had personallye here, Wang Yun would definitely not be a match for her!


    However, the paper cranes did not attack him. Instead, they turned around and flew away immediately. When Wang Yun turned his head back, Wang Wenyan was nowhere to be seen.

 Chapter 760 - Three promises

    <strong>Chapter 760 Three promises</strong>


    Wang Yun looked uncertain as he stood there. Everything had happened so quickly he could not tell what the other party¡¯s intentions were. However, Wang Yun looked at the hard drive in his hand. All else aside, he had snatched this from Wang Wenyan with his own ability.


    Wang Wenyan was someone who didn¡¯t act if there was no incentive. If he took the effort toe all the way here, the information he was after must be very valuable!


    Thinking of this, Wang Yun sighed. He had almost forgotten his original reason foring to the Sacred Mountains.


    Although he was smart, hisbat strength was a lot weaker than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s and the others¡¯. This left Wang Yun a little unsure of his future n.


    Looking at the hard drive in hand, at least he would have something to answer to the higher-ups when he returned. As for whether he could be the director of the intelligence agency, that would depend on how important the information on this hard drive was.


    However, Wang Yun still had some doubts. Wang Wenyan and the head of the Anjing House had given up the hard drive too easily, which made him a little uneasy. He suspected there were some problems with the hard drive.


    But just as the Pyro Company had yed along with Yang Anjing¡¯s ns, she was not worried at all that Wang Yun would discard the hard drive even if there were really something suspicious about it.


    Yang Anjing already knew about Wang Yun¡¯s situation. If he left the Sacred Mountains empty-handed, he would not only fail to be the director of the intelligence agency, but he would also have to face the pursuit of his twopetitors. His life would be in grave danger.


    Just as Qing Shen had summarized, the Anjing House had never needed to worry that you would not y along if they wanted you in on the act.


    asionally, Qing Shen even wondered if the head of the Anjing House was really a woman.


    e


    V


    woman.


    Wang Yun looked at the hard drive in his hand. For some reason, he suddenly remembered the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s words in this moment of dilemma: the ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡±!


    There was a long silence.


    Wang Yun looked towards the mountains in the distance and sighed. He could not possibly betray the Kong Consortium over some words the Great Hoodwinker told him.


    He went to look for his subordinates and said, ¡°Come with me. We¡¯re leaving the Sacred Mountains now. Let¡¯s go home!¡± With that, he departed from the mountain range without looking back. Whatever else happened in the Sacred Mountains would have nothing to do with him.


    His subordinates looked at one another. They suddenly felt as though their director hade to a decision.


    Ren Xiaosu did not enter the building after killing Chen Liu¡¯er, because a small paper crane floated in front of him the moment Chen Liu¡¯er died.


    non


    Ren Xiaosu had wanted to catch the paper crane. But when he remembered this paper crane was Yang Xiaojin¡¯s aunt¡¯s superpower, he pulled back embarrassedly. He even felt a little guilty as he wondered if Yang Anjing had realized he had caught several of her paper cranes.


    When that paper crane flew to the back of a building, Ren Xiaosu followed it in deep thought. After turning a corner, Ren Xiaosu suddenly saw a young woman wearing a ckbat uniform and a ck cap standing in the shadows.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. So he had already met Yang Xiaojin¡¯s aunt before. Back when he caught that paper crane outside Stronghold 61, she had suddenly appeared in Stronghold 61¡¯s town as well.


    This made Ren Xiaosu feel even guiltier. So it turned out she was there to capture him that time? However, she did not manage to do so because the storyteller had covered for him.


    Yang Anjing stood in the shadow of the building and scrutinized Ren Xiaosu. She asked, ¡°You were the one who caught the paper crane at Stronghold 61¡¯s town, right? Where¡¯s my paper crane?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave an awkwardugh and said, ¡°Hahaha, paper crane? What paper crane?¡±


    ¡°You know who I am.¡± Yang Anjing said in an affirmative tone, ¡°If you didn¡¯t, you would¡¯ve prepared to fight me at any moment. After all, you¡¯re one of the most famous people in the supernatural world.¡±


    ¡°No, no, I¡¯m not,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied humbly with a hint of shyness.


    ¡°You should know that I don¡¯t like you.¡± Yang Anjing said, ¡°I arranged for Xiaojin to study at Qinghe University and deliberately kept your whereabouts from her. Actually, you don¡¯t have to pretend like you respect me. I know you¡¯re definitely unhappy about it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu slowly straightened his back and stopped smiling. ¡°True, I think that what you did was wrong. What she chooses is entirely her own decision. Even if you¡¯re her aunt, you shouldn¡¯t be interfering.¡±


    Yang Anjingughed and apuded. ¡°This should be the way the Stronghold Destroyer


    acts.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself, ¡°How did I end up bing the Stronghold Destroyer?¡± He thought for a moment before saying, ¡°So, Aunt, what are you looking for me for?¡±


    ¡°Your shamelessness in addressing me as aunt does make you a little cuter,¡± Yang Anjing said.


    ¡°Just let me know if there is anything I can help with. You¡¯re Xiaojin¡¯s aunt after all. If you can give us your blessings, that would be the best, of course. I don¡¯t wish to put her in a difficult position either.¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Alright, I have to leave as well. After this expedition to the Sacred Mountains is over, head to Stronghold 61. If you two help me do three things, I won¡¯t object to your rtionship.¡± Yang Anjing said, ¡°I don¡¯t intend to threaten you, so it¡¯s fine even if you don¡¯te.¡±


    After that, Yang Anjing turned around and left. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu stood where he was and frowned. He wondered what Yang Anjing was nning


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s impression of Yang Anjing was no longer that of an elder or woman. Instead, he saw her as a conspirator who yed an important role in the power struggle in the Central ins.


    Should he go as she had requested? Ren Xiaosu felt he still had to discuss this with Yang Xiaojin.


    At this moment, the entire research base of the Pyro Company seemed to have be a treasure trove. Everyone was tirelessly searching through the various buildings in hopes of digging out valuable information from them.


    After Li Shentan and the others joined up with Ren Xiaosu outside, Qing Shen led everyone up a small path and quickly made their way out of the Sacred Mountains.


    When Ren Xiaosu did not see Yan Liuyuan around, he asked anxiously, ¡°Where¡¯s the No. 001 Experimental?¡±


    But when Luo Lan exined it to Ren Xiaosu, he realized this expedition to the Sacred Mountains was just a ploy by the Anjing House and the Pyro Company.


    This left Ren Xiaosu at a loss for words for a while. He had wasted so much time and risked his life toe here only to discover that it had all been a farce.


    But he was here to look for Yan Liuyuan. Even if it was a ploy, how dare they dy him from looking for Yan Liuyuan?


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu had an urge to destroy the Sacred Mountains...


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and quietly told her about his encounter with Yang Anjing. ¡°Do you think we should go?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment before saying, ¡°It¡¯s your decision. You don¡¯t have to choose against your conscience because of me. No one can make use of me to threaten you, because I won¡¯t change my attitude towards you based on how they treat you.¡± Ren Xiaosu was a little emotional. The more Yang Xiaojin considered his feelings, the more he did not want to put her in a difficult position.

 Chapter 761 - Bestowing calamity

    <strong>Chapter 761 Bestowing cmity</strong>


    In the Northern ins, Yan Liuyuan sat in the imperial court¡¯s tent and listened as Hassan spoke. He listened quietly, thinking about something.


    Hassan was kneeling on both knees. ¡°During this period, the chiefs of the two tribes that we took over also submitted to us. They offered half of their livestock as tribute to the imperial court. Master, please bring them with you when you lead our people to plunder the South this time.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°How smart of these two chiefs. The Gorlos and Khoton tribes have been utterly defeated by the Bn tribe and even lost their weapons and horses. How much livestock can they still have left?¡±


    ¡°A few dozen,¡± Hassan said in a low voice. Then he lowered his head further. ¡°Master, the Gorlos and Khoton tribes had a rather good rtionship with our Kharchin tribe in past years. In the past, they helped us out a lot whenever there were blizzards. I acted on my own this time and made the decision, so please punish me....¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Yan Liuyuan took out a map and took a look at it. He said, ¡°You¡¯re my Commander-in-Chief of the Right now, so you can still make the decision for such trivial matters. If they wish toe along and plunder the South, just bring them along. The imperial court has just been set up, and we¡¯re still short of talent. Go and tell Gorlos Khong and Khoton Moyu that only warriors can serve in my imperial court. If they¡¯re cowardly or afraid to fight when we travel to the South, they had better be content with herding livestock in the future.¡±


    Hassan was overjoyed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Master. I¡¯ll be sure to let them know.¡±


    Any normal person would have selfish motives. Since Hassan was on good terms with those two tribes, now that he had a powerful lord, he would naturally hope his friends could also gain the favor of his master.


    Furthermore, eight tribes had already submitted to the imperial court by now. Although Hassan had been conferred the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Right, it did not necessarily mean his tribe was stronger than the others. Hassan also needed support to maintain his authority as the Commander-in-Chief of the Right.


    Wherever there were people, there would be politics. Wherever there was power, there would also be politics. This was not Hassan¡¯s expertise, but he could slowly learn to be good at it.


    In the future, the entire steppe would be his master¡¯s territory. The grasnds were so vast that even Hassan could not help but feel moved by it.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Hassan with a half-smile and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine if you want to look after your own people, but you have to tell me in advance next time. Also, don¡¯t y word games with me in the future.¡±


    The word games he was referring to was the tribute of ¡°half their livestock.¡± In actual fact, those two tribes only had a few dozen livestock left.


    Even ten nomads could not outwit a Southerner when it came to word games.


    When Hassan heard Yan Liuyuan say that, he quickly prostrated. ¡°Master, please believe me. I won¡¯t dare to do it again.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, how¡¯s the preparation for the expeditioning along? Are the other tribes ready yet?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°Our Kharchin tribe has already made the necessary preparations. The other tribes are also getting eager to set off. But someone asked Hassan to ask if you would like us to prepare food for the wolves on this journey?¡± Hassan asked.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that. They¡¯re much more resourceful than y¡¯all. If you have time to worry about them, you might as well worry about yourselves,¡± Yan Liuyuan answered. ¡°But tell them that I¡¯ll be watching how brave they are in battle this time. Don¡¯t always rely on the wolves. If the men of the steppe be reliant on others, they¡¯ll lose theirst bit of courage. Go on, I¡¯ve already chosen the route that we¡¯ll travel on, but we¡¯ll have to wait for the Bn and Kirghiz tribes to set off first.¡±


    The chaos in the steppe had calmed down.


    Previously, due to the capture of the khan, many disputes arose on the steppe and everyone wanted to be the new ruler. As a result, the dozens of tribes that were originally under that khan¡¯s rule were immediately divided.


    But now, there were only Yan Liuyuan¡¯s imperial court, the Bn tribe, and the Kirghiz tribe forming a tripartite influence in the grasnds. Surrounding these three powers were vassals made up of dozens of smaller tribes. Everyone was still watching the developments.


    This included the tribes Yan Liuyuan had united, as well as the smaller tribes the Bn and Kirghiz tribes controlled.


    Eventually, some of the nomads started talking in private about how the small tribes were content with having enough food to eat and clothes to wear and not be bullied by others. After thest blizzard, the small tribes had suffered heavy losses. Seeing that they might not be able to survive the next winter, they had to seek a change.


    So where would those losses bepensated from? It would have to be from the South.


    Therefore, everyone thought that whoever of the three powers could lead them to raid the South sessfully would be the true, new ruler of the steppe. Otherwise, any aspirations would only be fluff. The nomadic tribes had never been truly united before. They would only follow whoever was stronger. Therefore, the three powers were prepared to head south. To be honest, with winter about to pass and the icy surface of the river starting to melt, it was actually no longer suitable for them to go on a raid.


    But due to the circumstances, everyone could only brace themselves and head south.


    In contrast, Yan Liuyuan was the most rxed of them all. It was as though he was not very worried about this expedition to the South. Over the past few days, all he did was talk with the tribal chiefs one by one and listen to their requests and concerns. However, he did not show any attitude of resolving the problems for them.


    Initially, Hassan was worried these tribal chiefs would have any objections. But after a few days, he realized the tribal chiefs had be much more well-behaved. All of them were privately talking about how they could not see what their master was thinking and that he was way too mysterious.


    That mysteriousness slowly turned into reverence.


    Hassan did not understand. It was not like his master had done anything for them to think this way.


    Yan Liuyuan nced at Hassan. ¡°Alright, you may go now.¡±


    Following, Hassan kowtowed to Yan Liuyuan before bowing to Tsetseg who was not far away from Yan Liuyuan. Only after that did he slowly leave the royal tent.


    Tsetseg was once his daughter. But now she was thedy of the imperial court. If Li Xiaoyu had to bring the tribespeople out to gather salt, all the daily affairs would be seen to by Tsetseg.


    Therefore, half of Hassan¡¯s hopes for the future were actually ced in his daughter. Once his master gained control of the vast grasnds, how could there not be a ce for him?


    Hassan felt that he must quickly exin to the chiefs of the Gorlos and Khoton tribes to perform well on this expedition to the South and warn them not to allow the other tribes to outperform them.


    After Hassan left, Yan Liuyuan looked at Tsetseg. ¡°Do you feel ufortable that your father has to bow to you?¡±


    After a long silence, Tsetseg said, ¡°Mother told me that I have to get used to it sooner orter.¡±


    Yan Liuyuanughed out loud. ¡°Your mother is right. Although it might seem unkind, you have to understand that all of this is unavoidable.¡±


    Tsetseg changed the subject. ¡°Are you really going to lead them to the South? I saw you ordering the wolves to head west two days ago.¡±


    ¡°I sent them west to look for new pastures. After we get back from the South, the Central ins will definitely take an excessive response. Now is not yet the time to sh head-on with them. The wolves will be back in another two days. Without anyone to protect you and Big Sister Xiaoyu, I couldn¡¯t head to the South without worry,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    ¡°But you won¡¯t have the wolves with you then. What if you encounter danger,¡± Tsetseg said nervously. ¡°That won¡¯t happen,¡± Yan Liuyuan replied.


    A lot of people thought that he was dependent on the wolves, but very few people knew the young man already had the power to bestow cmity upon others. If he had note to the North, he would have be one of those demigods in this era of the ¡°Rise of Gods.¡±


    Tsetseg asked again, ¡°Then are you going to kill a lot of people?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked outside the tent at the blue sky. He did not answer this question. ¡°Come and help meb my hair.¡±


    Tsetseg obediently took ab and sat behind Yan Liuyuan. She knew that whenever Yan Liuyuan was about to kill or had killed someone, he would always have herb his hair.

 Chapter 762 - Worshippers

    <strong>Chapter 762 Worshippers</strong>


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu is back!¡± A girl shouted loudly outside the imperial court¡¯s tent. Her voice was filled with joy and adoration. Combing Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hair, Tsetseg¡¯s eyes lit up. She realized Yan Liuyuan, who was sitting before her, rxed. His muscles were no longer as tense as before.


    It seemed that in these vast grasnds, only Xiaoyu could make this young lord feel at ease.


    ¡°Go on, go and see what Big Sister Xiaoyu has brought back for y¡¯all this time,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Tsetseg was still young, so she was also quite yful, and she rushed out of the imperial tent with a smile when she heard this.


    Hundreds of warriors in the tribe had started worshipping Yan Liuyuan as a god. However, Yan Liuyuan did not keep any of these people by his side. Instead, he left them all under themand of Xiaoyu.


    Although Yan Liuyuan made Xiaoyu their overallmander, he did so in order to have them protect her safety. If he lost Xiaoyu as well, there would be nothing left for him on the steppe.


    This was his and Xiaoyu¡¯s home. As long as the authority of the imperial court was stabilized, they would no longer have to bear the disdain of others.


    Every time Xiaoyu returned from her outings, she would have the tribe¡¯s warriors catch some cute little animals to bring back. On one hand, she wanted to try to rear them, and on the other hand, it was to make the tribe¡¯s children happy.


    During this period, the various tribes under the rule of the imperial court started gaining respect for Yan Liuyuan. However, everyone could not help but feel a heartfelt fondness for Xiaoyu as well. She was truly a gentle Southern woman.


    As there were so many tribes under the rule of the imperial court, conflicts would arise from time to time. For example, trivial cases such as stealing of goats or cattle could easily lead to bloodshed in the grasnds.


    As for Xiaoyu, who handled these matters, she was always impartial and never sided with anyone.


    As time passed, Xiaoyu unexpectedly gained the love and respect of everyone. The tribespeople liked to approach her if they had any trivial matters that needed resolving.


    If Yan Liuyuan asserted the authority of the imperial court through his absolute strength, then Xiaoyu was the mediator who made things work between the various tribes.


    Of course, this was also because the influence of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s imperial court was rtively stable. The other tribes did not have a godlike figure like Yan Liuyuan.


    His miraculous predictions and cmities were way too divine, and the nomads happened to really believe in them. Therefore, Yan Liuyuan won over arge group of worshippers. Every morning, they would kowtow to the imperial court¡¯s tent a 100 times before starting their day.


    This way of maintaining authority seemed to be much more secure. When the tribal chiefs saw their own people worshipping Yan Liuyuan as a god, there was really nothing they could do about it. Furthermore, two of the tribal chiefs were also Yan Liuyuan¡¯s worshippers.


    Yan Liuyuan remembered that Ren Xiaosu had said that resorting to divine powers to stabilize a regime might not be the most stable method, but it would definitely be one of the fastest ways to achieve it.


    While Yan Liuyuan was lost in thought, the imperial court¡¯s tent was suddenly opened, and cold air from outside blew into his face. There was only one person in the entire tribe who dared toe in without an announcement. He looked up and said with a smile, ¡°Big Sis, where¡¯d you go this time?¡±


    ¡°I have good news to tell you. I found a new salt pool behind Mt. Gongzhuo to the northwest!¡± Xiaoyu smiled as she sat down next to Yan Liuyuan. ¡°With this discovery, the problem of having enough edible salt for the entire tribe will be solved.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and nodded. ¡°That¡¯s a good thing!¡±


    However, Xiaoyu realized Yan Liuyuan did not seem to be surprised by this. She punched his shoulder. ¡°You made a wish again, didn¡¯t you? You should at least pretend to be happy next time. Otherwise, I won¡¯t feel any sense of aplishment at all.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan cried out in pain after being hit, ¡°That hurts! Sis, be gentler!¡±


    Ever since Yan Liuyuan killed someone, Xiaoyu suddenly started joking around with him more often. She would even asionally hit her little brother as an older sister would.


    This left Yan Liuyuan¡¯s worshippers at a loss. They could only respect Xiaoyu even more now.


    But Yan Liuyuan knew full well that Xiaoyu was not doing this to elevate her status in the eyes of others. She just did not want him to be so depressed.


    Every time he felt like he was about to slide into the abyss, Xiaoyu would hit him and pull him back from the edge of it. She was there to keep him grounded, dragging him back from the divine to his human senses. So Xiaoyu deliberately made herself appear more cheerful so she could influence Yan Liuyuan.


    Yan Liuyuan was still crying out in pain. Xiaoyu rolled her eyes. ¡°Alright, stop faking it. Let me ask you something. Why haven¡¯t you touched Tsetseg yet?¡±


    ¡°Big Sis, why are you suddenly asking about this?¡± Yan Liuyuan replied after a moment of silence.


    ¡°That girl came running over to ask me in grief if she wasn¡¯t pretty. I told her that it was not like that, that she¡¯s the most beautiful girl in the imperial court, even more beautiful than Big Sister Xiaoyu,¡± Xiaoyu said with a smile. ¡°Then she asked why you still haven¡¯t touched her even though she was already living in the imperial court.¡±


    ¡°Big Sis, I¡¯m still young,¡± Yan Liuyuan said softly


    ¡°Oh,e on.¡± Xiaoyu said, ¡°A lot of people in town had already gotten married at your age, and many of them also had children as well. But I won¡¯t poke my nose into your affairs. You can decide for yourself, lest you think I¡¯m being naggy. If you don¡¯t like the nomadic girls here, you should snatch one or two from the Central ins.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. ¡°Big Sis, is that how you should be talking? If I snatch a girl back, her family will be so heartbroken.¡± Xiaoyu gave it some thought and said, ¡°In that case, just snatch her whole family along with her.¡±


    As they conversed, the two of them startedughing. Actually, Yan Liuyuan knew Xiaoyu was just kidding, and Xiaoyu knew Yan Liuyuan would not do something like that.


    But with just a joke, Yan Liuyuan clearly felt much happier.


    Xiaoyu got down to work in the imperial tent. ¡°I¡¯ll pack your stuff for you. Tsetseg will take care of your daily needs on this expedition. I feel more at ease if she goes along with you. The others don¡¯t even know what you like to eat.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°She should also want to see what the Central ins is like.... Sis, I might kill a lot of people when I go to the Central ins this time. It might be much more than what I¡¯m expecting.¡±


    Xiaoyu stopped packing for a moment. ¡°Thene back earlier. Big Sis will cook porridge for you when you return. Bring back some pickled vegetables from the Central ins. After all, our porridge will go better with the pickled vegetables from there.¡± Xiaoyu did not answer him directly. It was as though she was deliberately avoiding the issue.


    Hassan¡¯s voice came from outside, ¡°Master, your facete has been forged. Would you like to try it on?¡±

 Chapter 763 - The contending Wang Yun

    <strong>Chapter 763 The contending Wang Yun</strong>


    ¡°Facete?¡± Xiaoyu was stunned when she heard what Hassan said. ¡°Why would you have them forge you a facete?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s because I¡¯m too young, so I oftenck an authoritative figure. The facete might help with stabilizing the authority of the imperial court.¡± In truth, he did not finish his exnation. Gods needed to portray a sense of mysteriousness, and since the grasnds needed a god now, he would be that god to them.


    Xiaoyu looked at Yan Liuyuan. She wanted to say something to him but hesitated. In the end, she just straightened his cor and said, ¡°I¡¯ll go and brief Tsetseg on the things to watch out for on the journey. You have toe back safely from this expedition to the South. As long as you¡¯re safe, nothing else matters.¡± ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded.


    After that, Xiaoyu went out. Then Hassan came in respectfully and handed the ck facete to Yan Liuyuan.


    Yan Liuyuan saw the ck facete was engraved with a ferocious face that looked very solemn and dignified. Yan Liuyuan looked at Hassan. ¡°I¡¯m happy. You can get back to your work.¡±


    After Hassan left, Yan Liuyuan held the mask and took a close, long look at it. In the end, he sighed and put it aside.


    Outside the main tent, the pounding of horse hooves sounded. Someone jumped off the horse and got down on one knee outside the tent. ¡°Master, a Qing Consortium envoy is waiting outside. He said that he¡¯s brought you what you need the most.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled. Although he did not know what the smart Qing Zhen would send him, he reckoned he was ready to make the trip to the South now.


    Outside the Sacred Mountains, Wang Yun, the director of the Kong Consortium¡¯s 2nd Military Intelligence Division, was rushing towards the ck market in the South. Before he could reach the ck market, he saw people who had set up camp 40 kilometers to the north of it.


    The way the tents were set up looked really familiar.


    When he got closer, Wang Yun realized that even the troops who had set up camp here looked really familiar.


    Weren¡¯t they his 200-odd subordinates? What were they doing here?!


    When the sentry who was keeping watch from a hidden post outside the campsite spotted Wang Yun, he immediately came out of the forest and shouted in joy, ¡°Sir, you¡¯re back!¡±


    Seeing that none of Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates who had followed him were dead, the sentry was even happier. It looked like theirmander¡¯s operation had gone very smoothly this time. They didn¡¯t even suffer any loss of personnel!


    Wang Yun was confused when he saw the campsite. ¡°Didn¡¯t you all head into the mountains? Weren¡¯t you all following me?¡±


    The 200-odd subordinates who rushed out of the campsite were also confused. ¡°Sir, didn¡¯t you tell us to retreat? We found the mark you left behind.¡±


    Wang Yun nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. This was probably the biggest mistake he had made ever since he joined the intelligence agency. He knew hisrades would not lie. Someone must have changed the marks he left behind, and it led them to retreat from the mountains.


    There was only one thought in his mind right now. ¡®Who the fuck did that?! You¡¯re way too fucking horrible!¡¯


    However, Wang Yun did not have time to think about that now. He said, ¡°Follow me back to the Kong Consortium immediately. We mustn¡¯t trust anyone from the other intelligence divisions that we encounter on our way back. If anyone inexplicably approaches, get ready to fight immediately and kill without mercy.¡±


    The final steps of a tightrope walk were the most dangerous. Now that Wang Yun had stolen the hard drive from Wang Wenyan, he had to use it to face his other twopetitors.


    It would definitely not be safe for them on the way back. When they left, everyone sent them off with a smile on their faces. Now that they wanted to go back now, it would probably be harder than reaching heaven.


    Someone might try to kill him on his way back.


    Just as Wang Yun had expected, after they set off for the Kong Consortium, they were ambushed about a 100 kilometers away from the Kong Consortium¡¯s stronghold that very night.


    But Wang Yun was also very tough. He led his subordinates and fought their way out of the ambush.


    Fortunately for him, his enemies had probably not expected Wang Yun to escape unscathed from the Sacred Mountains nor his subordinates to have all survived.


    Although his twopetitors wanted to kill him, they could not cause too much of amotion. As a result, the numbers they sent for the ambush were even fewer than Wang Yun¡¯s men.


    Wang Yun suddenly felt a little grateful to whoever had set him up. At least by tampering with the marks, he was able to preserve all his forces.


    When they arrived at the Kong Consortium¡¯s stronghold the next day, the soldiers at the gate seemed to have been ordered to interrogate them and deliberately dy Wang Yun from entering the stronghold.


    Themander of the garrison troops at the stronghold¡¯s gate said awkwardly, ¡°Director Wang Yun, we¡¯re just following orders here. All we ask is that youe back after three days.¡±


    Wang Yun suddenly realized the decision to appoint the next intelligence director might have an oue soon!


    No, he could not just sit back and do nothing!


    Wang Yun said in a low voice with a dark expression, ¡°I¡¯m not sure who instigated you, but have you ever thought about how dangerous it would be for you to get embroiled in the contention for the director of the intelligence agency? You¡¯re Qian Yiwen, right? Your family lives at 76 Deyang Street, and you have a wife and a daughter. You even kept a mistress at Xixing Street and she gave birth to a son for youst year. I remember that your father-inw still has many ex-subordinates in the military, right? Your position aspanymander was also given to you by your father-inw. How do you think he¡¯ll deal with you if he finds out that you¡¯re having an affair? Two years ago, you got into a fight after getting drunk. In the end, you did not even pay for the crime after killing someone and still brought your troops to threaten the safety of the victim¡¯s family. Do you think all of this would be enough for you to be court martialed?¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s memory really was terrifying. Just by seeing Qian Yiwen, he managed to urately regurgitate specific information about him. Qian Yiwen nched. As expected, he really could not afford to offend someone from the intelligence agency.


    Moreover, Qian Yiwen realized Wang Yun seemed to have predicted he would be stopped from entering the city. Therefore, he had grasped their weaknesses before he left so he could safely return to the city at this time.


    Wang Yun was no ordinary person. How could he not have thought of this day when he made the trip out of the Kong Consortium?


    Qian Yiwen was conflicted for a long time before turning to his subordinates and saying, ¡°Open the gate!¡±


    Wang Yun heaved a sigh of relief. He smiled at Qian Yiwen. ¡°You¡¯ll be rewarded handsomely.¡±


    With that, he led his troops back into the city. The first thing he did was not to report to Kong Donghai about his work but to return to his safe house in the Kong Consortium to check out what was on the hard drive.


    When he saw the contents, he was shocked. Wang Yun had never thought the thing he had gotten his hands on would turn out to be so important!


    ¡°Prep a vehicle for me.¡± Wang Yun said to his subordinate, ¡°I need to make a trip to the secret prison to interrogate the Pyro Company member who¡¯s being held in custody!¡±


    If the contents of the hard drive were really effective, the Pyro Company would not be able to withstand a single blow from the Kong Consortium.


    Furthermore, Wang Yun would be assured of his ce as the director of the intelligence agency, and no one else would have the right topete with him!


    Wang Yun had not expected Wang Wenyan to present him with such a generous gift!


    However, he would have to try it out personally and confirm its effectiveness before handing it over to the boss

 Chapter 764 - Taking over

    <strong>Chapter 764 Taking over</strong>


    At about the same time Wang Yun entered the city, many big shots in the Kong Consortium became aware that he was back. These big shots were waiting for a show as Wang Yun and his twopetitors started a power struggle.


    The power struggle in the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency had been going on for nearly a month now. Kong Donghai had already revealed to his trusted aide that he would decide on who would take over at the intelligence agency within the next three days. In the end, Wang Yun¡¯s sudden return added a lot of excitement to the show.


    Someone said Wang Yun was even bleeding when he came back in from outside the city.


    But to everyone¡¯s surprise, Wang Yun did not go and see Kong Donghai directly. Instead, he went back to his own safe house first and headed straight for the Kong Consortium¡¯s secret prison after that!


    Even Wang Yun¡¯spetitors did not know what he was up to. Wang Yun¡¯s return this time felt very unusual.


    The director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division sat in his office and asked his subordinate, ¡°Did you see who Wang Yun brought back with him?¡±


    Everyone was still concerned about whether Wang Yun had caught the No. 001 Experimental. Kong Donghai was quite advanced in age. If Wang Yun were to bring back the No. 001 Experimental at this time, he was bound to instantly be the candidate with the best chances.


    The subordinate thought for a moment and answered, ¡°We have someone keeping an eye on him but did not see anyone being escorted back. However, it¡¯s also possible that the No. 001 Experimental was hiding among them disguised as their 2nd Division¡¯s troops. It¡¯s very difficult to get a confirmation of that.¡± The director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division smiled. ¡°The No. 001 Experimental should be very powerful. It¡¯s impossible that it would willingly follow Wang Yun back and be a guinea pig to be researched. So there¡¯s a high chance he didn¡¯t manage to capture. But don¡¯t let your guard down. Go, find out what he¡¯s up to at the secret prison.¡± Wang Yun had already arrived outside the secret prison. This time, no one stopped him, and he passed through smoothly.


    As the director of the 2nd Military Intelligence Division, Wang Yun¡¯s authority was terrifying. This was the reason why many people feared him.


    Next to him, Wang Yun¡¯s subordinate said, ¡°Sir, the Pyro Company member has been brought out from his cell. He¡¯s in the first interrogation room. He¡¯s a T4batant from the Pyro Company. He¡¯s very tight-lipped and hasn¡¯t given us any information before. Would you like me to prepare any torture instruments?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡± Wang Yun shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not here to interrogate him. Stand guard outside and don¡¯t allow anyone to enter the interrogation room. Go and turn off the recording equipment as well.¡±


    His subordinate rushed to find the warden of the secret prison. It was antithetical to the rules to turn off the surveince cameras, and the secret prison was not managed by Wang Yun. But it did not matter. Wang Yun also had something on the warden, so a small matter like that could easily be handled.


    Wang Yun waited for the surveince cameras to be turned off before pushing open the door and entering the interrogation room.


    The incandescent light inside was a little blinding. The T4batant, who was sitting inside, did not move at all. The long imprisonment time and interrogations had exhausted him physically and mentally.


    When the Pyro Company¡¯s T4batant saw that someone hade in, his expression did not change a bit. ¡°What do you want to ask today?¡±


    However, Wang Yun did not say anything. He only took out an audio yer he had brought in with him. There was a file inside he had just copied onto it.


    A momentter, Wang Yun pressed the y button, and a strange sound started ying. When the T4batant heard the sound, he had a puzzled look on his face. He was wondering what Wang Yun was up to. But a secondter, the Pyro Company member suddenly lost consciousness and fell on his side while foaming at the mouth!


    Wang Yun pried open the man¡¯s eyelids and stood up after confirming he was really unconscious. He took a deep breath before turning around to leave the interrogation room.


    ¡°Sir.¡± His subordinate who was waiting outside looked at Wang Yun and realized his superior was smiling


    The smile on his face grew wider and wider until Wang Yun could no longer hold it in. He startedughing as he walked out of the secret prison and headed straight for Kong Donghai¡¯s official residence!


    The contents of that hard drive turned out to be an audio file that could be used against the Pyro Company¡¯s troops as well as some DNA information.


    It was just like how the Pyro Company had controlled the tarants. They only dared to release the tarants into the wild because they had a ¡°key¡± to control them. Likewise, the Pyro Company¡¯sbatants were treated like tarants by their own organization¡¯s higher-ups. They had deliberately been gically modified so they could be controlled easily. This was to ensure they would never betray the Pyro Company.


    Therefore, even though the Pyro Company had been mistreating those people at the bottom so harshly over the years, no one had defected yet. This was the crux of the matter. The Pyro Company had full control over their underlings¡¯ lives!


    However, there were also hidden dangers behind a stable rule like that. Once this document got leaked, the entire Pyro Company¡¯s authority would crumble like a sandcastle.


    When Wang Yun saw this document, he could not help but get excited. How could he not be?


    The Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium were northern and southern neighbors. The tension between them had been going on for many years, and they both coveted the other¡¯s resources.


    And right now, it seemed like there was only death awaiting the Pyro Company.


    However, this document should be a top secret of the Pyro Company. How did it end up getting stolen by Wang Wenyan?


    Wang Yun thought hard, but electronic technology was not his expertise. He could not figure out what was going on at the moment and could only admit that Wang Wenyan was truly more capable than him.


    When Wang Yun walked out of the secret prison, he stopped in his tracks. His subordinate asked, ¡°Sir, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Was it a coincidence that I stole this from Wang Wenyan¡¯s hands, or did Wang Wenyan deliberately let it happen?¡± Wang Yun pondered.


    His subordinate said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a coincidence. If you weren¡¯t around, there would be no one to stop him. Wang Wenyan can¡¯t even be attacked by a sword after turning into a ck mist, nor can bullets harm him any. No one could stop him after he stole the information, but it just so happened that he bumped into you.¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s power was a natural counter to Wang Wenyan¡¯s skill.


    As such, even though it looked like Wang Wenyan had failed miserably, Wang Yun still felt that something was not right. Instead of stealing the information at a different time, Wang Wenyan had to do it right when Wang Yun was passing by.


    Furthermore, the boss of the Anjing House was clearly in the Sacred Mountains as well, yet she did not retrieve the information Wang Yun had seized. The entire sequence of events even felt like it was just an act, albeit an unconvincing one.


    ¡°Sir, is there a problem?¡± his subordinate asked.


    Wang Yun smiled. ¡°No. Prepare the car and send me to Boss Kong Donghai¡¯s mansion!¡±


    Wang Yun had no choice but to act on his findings. He was already back at the Kong Consortium. If he could not produce anything of value, it would be difficult for him to walk out of the Kong Consortium alive once either of hispetitors took over.


    So no matter what conspiracy might be hidden behind this hard drive, Wang Yun had to continue moving forward!


    Moreover, he was not nning to stay on forever with the Kong Consortium after his return this time. Wang Yun had other ns!


    That night, news that shocked everyone in the Kong Consortium started spreading from Kong Donghai¡¯s official residence. There was a change of candidates for the position of the intelligence agency¡¯s director overnight. Kong Donghai seemed very happy and did not wait another three days to decide.

 Chapter 765 - The Kong Consortium gets tricked

    <strong>Chapter 765 The Kong Consortium gets tricked</strong>


    On the second day after Wang Yun took over, everyone thought the first thing he would do would be to get rid of his twopetitors. After all, those two had tried to intercept and kill him when he was making his way back. This was a fight that would not end until some of the parties were dead.


    However, Wang Yun did not do so. Instead, he secretly ordered all of the Kong Consortium¡¯s strongholds to begin their operation to wipe out the Pyro Company¡¯s members.


    Over the years, the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company had been in constant conflict with each other. Both sides had nted many spies in each other¡¯s territories, and this frustrated the Kong Consortium a great deal. The spy wars between the two sides had been going on for many years, and the Kong Consortium had always been at a disadvantage. Because the Pyro Company had brilliant ways of nurturing their spies until their loyalty was almost unquestionable. Even if they managed to capture the Pyro Company¡¯s spies, it would still be very difficult to get anything out of them. This was where the Kong Consortium was unsessful. But it was different now. What the Kong Consortium had on their hands was a sharp sword held above the Pyro Company¡¯s head that they could easily swing down at any moment.


    At about the same time, the public broadcast systems of the Kong Consortium¡¯s twenty-odd strongholds¡¯ started broadcasting a strange sound throughout the day. Following that, the residents of the strongholds saw strange things happening. Some of the pedestrians on the streets fell to the ground and started foaming at the mouth. It was either that or their colleagues suddenly copsed on their desks and died on the spot.


    Some people in the Kong Consortium¡¯s military also copsed to the ground. When the others tried to save them, it was already toote. In about the span of a day, the Kong Consortium had wiped out a total of 629 Pyro Company members. This was not arge numberpared to the people living in the strongholds, but the fact the Kong Consortium had so many Pyro Company spies among them was enough to shock all of the Kong Consortium¡¯s higher-ups.


    Fortunately, Wang Yun had brought back that hard drive. Otherwise, the spies might have be a threat to the entire Kong Consortium at some point in time. After all, the highest-ranking appointment one spy managed to reach in their military was that of a brigademander.


    For this reason, Kong Donghai summoned Wang Yun to his official residence again to discuss the subsequent intelligence ns and award him with the highest military honor.


    In the luxurious mansion, Wang Yun looked at the graying Kong Donghai. ¡°Boss, in the intelligence agency that I¡¯m overseeing now -¡°


    Wang Yun was trying to take this opportunity to bring up the removal of certain personnel to force out his two colleagues who tried to kill him. However, Kong Donghai interrupted, ¡°I know what happened between the three of you, and I can understand how you feel as well. But to achieve great things, one must not care about the trifles. Now that you¡¯ve be their superior, you should be magnanimous as the winner. If you kill the two of them as soon as you get promoted, what will others think of you? Wang Yun, you¡¯ve be an important figure in our Kong Consortium. You have to learn to let go.¡±


    It was all pompousnguage, but Wang Yun knew full well the two intelligence directors were retained to keep him in check in case Kong Donghai lost control of the intelligence agency. However, Wang Yun was mentally prepared for that. Otherwise, he would have killed both of themst night.


    On the battlefield, blood would be spilled when others were killed. But politics in the stronghold tended to simmer. Wang Yun was not in any hurry. Whatever he was owed, the other parties would have to pay it back sooner orter.


    Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°Boss, you¡¯re right. I have another matter to report today. The Pyro Company seems to have sensed the danger, so the troops from their northern strongholds have started deploying southward. It seems like they¡¯re getting ready to defend against any sudden moves we might make.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that.¡± Kong Donghai said unhurriedly, ¡°The thing that you brought back this time has proven very useful, so what point is there for them to gather so many troops? I¡¯m actually more worried that the Pyro Company is preparing a countermeasure. After all, we don¡¯t know anything about DNA. If they can ovee this method of control by getting some kind of injection, we would lose a good chance to strike them down. I called you here because I wanted to ask you something. Do you think we should strike while the iron is hot, or should we take cautious steps?¡±


    Wang Yun lowered his head. ¡°Boss, I¡¯m not smart. Without your foresight, I wouldn¡¯t dare to make any suggestions. I¡¯ll leave this matter to you to decide and just make sure I properly handle my intelligence work.¡±


    Kong Donghai pointed at Wang Yun with a smile. ¡°Alright, go and get some rest then. You did a fine job during this period. I¡¯ve already gotten someone to transmit the audio file to the front lines. Our Kong Consortium should be able to swallow up the Pyro Company effortlessly this time.¡±


    But all of a sudden, a middle-aged man rushed in. Wang Yun recognized him as Kong Donghai¡¯s first secretary.


    The secretary came in and had a look at Wang Yun before saying to Kong Donghai, ¡°Boss, something important has cropped up.¡±


    ¡°You can bring it up. Wang Yun isn¡¯t an outsider, and there will be many opportunities for the two of you to interact in the future.¡± Kong Donghai smiled amiably.


    As a result, the secretary said, ¡°News from the front lines came that themand and control systems, as well as the operating systems of the armored troops, have all malfunctioned today.¡±


    The elderly Kong Donghai jumped to his feet. ¡°How could something like that happen? What¡¯s Kong Fangyun doing? Did they find out what happened?¡±


    The secretary nced at Wang Yun and said, ¡°Kong Fangyun¡¯s engineers said it was due to a technological intrusion.¡±


    ¡°Technological intrusion?¡± Kong Donghai was puzzled.


    ¡°Yes, it happened right after the audio file was sent over this afternoon and the troops at the front lines copied it into themand and control systems,¡± the secretary said.


    Wang Yun, who was present, frowned and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t I instruct that when the audio file is being copied, theputer should not have any connections with other equipment? It had to be done on a separateputer and broadcast over an isted device. Why didn¡¯t the front lines follow my instructions?¡±


    He was already a little uneasy about this. It was only because he had no other choice that he took the audio file from the Sacred Mountains. As such, to prevent any idents from happening, he even wrote a detailed operational manual in case there was a problem with the audio file.


    But Wang Yun did not expect the front lines to ignore his instructions!


    Wang Yun had wanted to rerecord the audio file directly, but for some reason, it lost its effect when it was copied that way.


    Kong Donghai was suspicious of Wang Yun at first, but when he heard what he said, he could not me him for anything since he was also aware of the measures that were taken.


    ¡°Where did you get this audio file?¡± the secretary asked.


    ¡°I stole it from the Wang Consortium¡¯s Wang Wenyan. I specifically handed down those instructions precisely because I was worried.¡± Wang Yun said coldly, ¡°Why didn¡¯t the front lines follow the operational manual to deploy it?! Immediately arrest those who are in charge of this operation. I suspect they¡¯re spies from the Wang Consortium or the Anjing House!¡±


    The secretary remained silent for a couple seconds before saying, ¡°The staff officer responsible for executing this operationmitted suicide by poison.¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. He did not expect the Anjing House would be waiting for him at this point. The other party actually managed to predict where the audio file would end up and had nted a spy on the front lines beforehand. From there, they just waited for the right moment to strike.


    He had taken precautions against it happening, but in the end, he still ended up falling to a mere spy on the front lines!


    The enemy had set up an intricate chain of events that led to this and finished off the entire front line of the Kong Consortium with this final nail in the coffin, turning their armored troops into a pile of scrap metal!

 Chapter 766 - How horrible!

    <strong>Chapter 766 How horrible!</strong>


    Although there was a problem at the front lines, Wang Yun felt he should not be held responsible for it. After all, he had given explicit instructions and did what he needed to do, so how was it any responsibility of his?


    Kong Donghai was a little tired, so he instructed Wang Yun, ¡°Go and investigate the matter. Make sure to weed out all the Wang Consortium and Anjing House spies.¡±


    Wang Yun nodded in acknowledgement before leaving Kong Donghai¡¯s official residence.


    He still felt some sympathy for themander on the front lines. With this major incident, themander¡¯s future could no longer be guaranteed.


    Kong Donghai was someone who could not stand to be messed with. Working under such a boss, anyone would have to be extremely conscientious and cautious.


    The reason why they addressed him as ¡°boss¡± was that no one in the entire Alliance of Strongholds dared to officially dere independence yet. Consortiums still remained consortiums.


    Wang Yun got into his own private car to leave. However, he realized something was wrong the moment he got into the car. The chauffeur was no longer his own personnel.


    However, Wang Yun simply watched quietly during the journey and did not expose this.


    After a while, he saw the vehicle had suddenly deviated from its original route. It was not heading towards the intelligence agency¡¯s office or his residence at all.


    Moreover, vehicles suddenly turned out of the alleys in front and behind of his car. Wang Yun remembered the license tes of these vehicles to all be from the intelligence agency. However, they were under the jurisdiction of the 1st and 3rd Military Intelligence Divisions.


    Wang Yun¡¯s face darkened further. However, he still did not say anything to the unfamiliar driver in front of him.


    Just as the car was about to drive past an intersection, Wang Yun snorted. The air in the car surged like a st, and the driver was pushed onto the steering wheel with a huge impact. His head hit the steering wheel so hard he did not stop bleeding.


    The doors on both sides of the car were sted open by the surge of air. Wang Yun bent forward and jumped out of the car. Due to inertia, he even rolled several times on the street beforeing to a stop.


    When the tailing vehicle arrived soon after, Wang Yun saw someone take out a pistol inside that vehicle.


    There was no time to think. Wang Yun raised his hand and aimed it at the vehicle behind him. With a loud bang, an air st was pushed out from his palm. After the invisible force hit the vehicle, it crumpled the vehicle¡¯s hood. With an external force acting on it, the vehicle was sent rolling!


    Wang Yun got up and tore off his ck suit and tie. Then he quickly fled towards his most secure safe house.


    He knew he could not leave the city now as the roads leading out of the stronghold would be blocked by the garrison troops.


    Capturing and assassinating an intelligence officer in the stronghold was not something the directors of the two intelligence divisions would dare to do. It was definitely an order by Kong Donghai!


    Actually, Kong Donghai had only sent him back to investigate the matter of the Wang Consortium¡¯s spies to stall for time. As long as he left the official residence, Kong Donghai¡¯s safety would be ensured. Only then did he issue an order for Wang Yun¡¯s arrest!


    But Wang Yun could not understand why Kong Donghai would suddenly want to arrest him. Although the matter at the front lines was rted to him, he did not carry the major responsibility.


    As Wang Yun ran madly on the road, many of the residents who had fallen asleep were jolted awake. They looked at him curiously through their windows.


    Wang Yun felt a little helpless. If this were daytime, there would be a lot of pedestrians on the streets, and he could quickly blend into the crowd at any time. But it was the middle of the night. With no one on the streets, he became a really conspicuous target for his pursuers.


    Eventually, Wang Yun stopped in his tracks. Thepanymander, Qian Yiwen, had already ordered his soldiers to set up a roadblock at the street corner ahead. But that was not the most important thing.


    Worse was that more than a dozen of Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates were being restrained next to Qian Yiwen. All of them had guns pointed at their backs.


    When Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates saw Wang Yun, they shouted, ¡°Sir, leave by yourself. Don¡¯t worry about us!¡±


    But Wang Yun smiled wryly on the inside. How could he leave since it hade to this?


    He raised his hands and walked over slowly. ¡°I¡¯m Wang Yun, the director of the intelligence agency. I would like to request a meeting with the boss. I¡¯m innocent!¡±


    Qian Yiwen sneered, ¡°Whether you¡¯re innocent or not is not for you to decide. You can exin it to your colleagues after you¡¯ve been put in the secret prison.¡±


    After that, a small group of soldiers approached Wang Yun cautiously. Initially, they were worried Wang Yun would ignore the safety of his subordinates and put up a resistance. Butter, they realized Wang Yun was actually surrendering. His subordinates felt a little hopeless. ¡°Sir, you don¡¯t have to stay behind for our sakes. They can¡¯t stop you.¡±


    Wang Yun smiled. ¡°Where can I go? They must have a dra waiting for me. But that¡¯s fine. At least it saved me some trouble.¡±


    His subordinates fell silent. They knew full well that Wang Yun was just finding an excuse to console them. In the past, no matter how tight of a situation Wang Yun was in, he had never been one to surrender.


    Before Wang Yun could finish speaking, the soldier next to him knocked him out with the butt of his rifle. Then Wang Yun was quickly brought to the secret prison.


    When Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates saw this, they roared in anger, but there was nothing they could do.


    When Wang Yun regained consciousness, he was already sitting on a cold metal chair in an interrogation room with his hands cuffed to the table in front of him. Everything on him had been taken away, including his shoes. All he had left on were a white shirt and his suit pants.


    Wang Yun was barefoot on the cold ground. The incandescent light above his head was a little dim and eerie.


    At this moment, the door of the interrogation room was pushed open. The director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division, Kong Sheng, walked in and said to Wang Yun with a smile, ¡°Director Wang, you probably never thought you¡¯d be sitting here one day, right?¡±


    As he spoke, Kong Sheng remained standing next the door and did not approach rashly.


    Wang Yun said calmly, ¡°There¡¯s no need to say too much. Let¡¯s just go through with the process. I¡¯m already in captivity, so why is Director Kong Sheng still keeping his distance? Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re afraid of a prisoner like


    me?¡±


    Kong Shengughed. ¡°Director Wang Yun is indeed different from normal people. You can still remain so calm after being put in the secret prison. But it¡¯s true that I really am afraid to go near you. After all, I¡¯m not a superhuman.¡±


    ¡°Why did you arrest me?¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°I want to see Kong Donghai.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re even addressing the boss by his name now?¡± Kong Sheng pulled over a chair and sat down at the door. He smiled from afar and said, ¡°But why would the boss want toe to a ce like the secret prison to visit you? Tell me, how did you conspire with the Qing Consortium and the Wang Consortium to plot against our Kong Consortium¡¯s frontline troops? And what else have you done?¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. He could understand the usation linking him with the Wang Consortium, but what did it have anything to do with the Qing Consortium? Since when did he have any dealings with them?


    But then, Kong Sheng took out a photo from his shirt pocket and threw it onto the table in front of Wang Yun. ¡°Take a look. We had a hard time getting ahold of this information.¡±


    Wang Yun looked over and was surprised to see a picture taken in the Sacred Mountains. In it, he seemed to be whispering something to Luo Lan.


    Wang Yun¡¯s memory was very good, so when he saw the photo, he could recall the exact situation at that time. The angle of the photo was obviously taken from the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s direction.


    Wang Yun started cursing in his head, ¡®Ren Xiaosu, Great Hoodwinker, you people from the Northwest are way too fucking horrible!¡¯

 Chapter 767 - The beginning of the war

    <strong>Chapter 767 The beginning of the war</strong>


    Wang Yun fell seriously ill while being held in the secret prison. In fact, it had be very difficult for superhumans to fall sick nowadays. He knew it was purely because he felt so wronged that he had fallen sick this


    time.


    It was not easy for him to be the top dog of the intelligence agency, but he only managed to be on the job for one day before he was removed. He had not even warmed the seat yet!


    Moreover, he did not only get framed by one party. While in prison, Wang Yun realized he had been set up by both the Wang Consortium and the Northwest.


    These two organizations probably did not conspire with each other, but their simultaneous efforts had caused a critical effect on him.


    Regarding the problem at the front lines, Wang Yun thought about it and felt there was something fishy.


    Because entry into themand center was restricted, not everyone had ess to themand and control systems. The soldiers were also not allowed to bring any electronic devices into the military base.


    But this was a trap set by the Anjing House and the Wang Consortium. To them, if they only needed a hard drive to take down the entire front line¡¯smand and control systems, why would they resort to using him to achieve that? Although other methods might be more difficult, it was not entirely impossible!


    Besides, there was obviously a lot of uncertainty involved in using him to do this.


    So Wang Yun suddenly understood the other party was being redundant like this because they had intended to cast the me on him.


    If he did not seed in helping them achieve this objective, the enemy might have other backup ns for the front lines. They would still be able to paralyze themand and control systems at the front lines regardless.


    And then there was the Great Hoodwinker. Wang Yun did not at all expect him to do something like that!


    How horrible!


    Wang Yun even felt that the Great Hoodwinker, Ren Xiaosu, and the others were probably the ones who sent his subordinates away by changing the marks he had left for them. Although he did not have any evidence, these two incidents were equally awful!


    Under normal circumstances, it would be quite difficult to encounter such mean people.


    However, Wang Yun could not figure out why this had happened. He did not have any grudges with them, so why were both parties targeting him at the same time?


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu asked the Great Hoodwinker a simr question before. He was wondering if there was really a need to force Wang Yun into a corner. The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s answer was that it was absolutely necessary.


    If someone like Wang Yun were allowed to lead the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency, he would be a big threat to all of the other organizations. When Wang Yun first joined the intelligence field, he made a name for himself. He could carry out missions decisively, and his ability to find leads was unmatched, while his memory was also unparalleled.


    When such a person upied a low position in an organization, he might not be able to reach the potential of his power. But if he were to be the director of the intelligence agency, it would be disastrous for the spies of the other forces.


    Who knew when yourrades might get caught and be tortured by him?


    Therefore, if such a talented man was not going to be part of the Prosperous Northwest, they should be exterminated as soon as possible.


    Of course, the Great Hoodwinker was more inclined to let Wang Yun experience some hardship first before joining the Prosperous Northwest.


    The Great Hoodwinker had always been a resolute fortune teller. If he said you would prosper in the Northwest, you would have no other choice but to fulfill the prophecy.


    The only unexpected thing was that ording to the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s past experience, although Kong Donghai was a suspicious man, he would probably not do anything to Wang Yun over just a photo. At most, he would not ce Wang Yun in an important position within his organization.


    However, he did not expect that the Wang Consortium would also set Wang Yun up and cause him to be sent straight to the secret prison.


    So the Great Hoodwinker was already thinking about how to rescue Wang Yun at this moment.


    But before Wang Yun¡¯s rescue could happen, a war between the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company quietly broke out.


    At the border between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium, the troops who had always been affiliated with the Kong Consortium¡¯s military suddenly crossed the border and fought an unexpected skirmish with the patrolling Pyro Company¡¯s troops.


    This caught the Kong Consortium by surprise as well. Due to the copse of their front line¡¯smand and control systems, theirmand center had given the order not to trigger any conflicts. However, this toon seemed to have gotten lost and appeared in the Pyro Company¡¯s territory.


    After that, even though there were only two toons on both sides totaling less than a 100 people fighting at first, by the afternoon of the same day, morebat units from both sides had joined in, and the skirmish spilled over into an extremely intense back-and-forth battle.


    The two armies bordered Mt. Dabaichi. In the past, this ce was scenic and beautiful, but now it had turned into a theater of death.


    No one knew why the Kong Consortium¡¯s toon had suddenly gotten lost, nor did anyone know the significance of this battle. They just started fighting all of a sudden.


    When the Kong Consortium¡¯smand center received the news, they decided to send in a brigade to suppress the enemy. These troops were even equipped with audio broadcasting equipment.


    The Kong Consortium felt they had the upper hand against the Pyro Company now. ¡®Since you, the Pyro Company, have willingly delivered yourselves to our doorsteps by starting a war, we, the Kong Consortium, will have to teach you a lesson for being so arrogant.So what if we don¡¯t have any armored troops? Our Kong Consortium holds the key to your survival! Over the years, there had been endless friction between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium. The border armies on both sides had always harbored enmity against each other, so now seemed to be the best time to take revenge. The Pyro Company did not cower even though the entire Kong Consortium¡¯s brigade was charging at them. Instead, it was as though they hadid an ambush with even more troops.


    The Kong Consortium was not to be outdone either. They wanted to teach the Pyro Company a lesson with blood at the front line of Mt. Dabaichi.


    The Kong Consortium¡¯s troops rushed onto the battlefield with their sophisticated audio equipment, ying a ¡°backing track¡± as they charged.


    But something unexpected happened. The Kong Consortium soldiers at the front line discovered the audio recording did not have any effect on these Pyro Company troops. No one lost consciousness and fell to the ground, and no one was foaming at the mouth. Instead, they started fighting even harder.


    This caught the Kong Consortium¡¯s troops off guard and forced them to retreat in defeat!


    Kong Fangyun, themander at the front line, was dumbfounded. Didn¡¯t they say the Pyro Company spies in the strongholds had already been wiped out? Didn¡¯t they specifically test the authenticity of the audio recording on them? Then why weren¡¯t the Pyro Company¡¯s troops afraid to hear the audio recording?


    This should also be a trap set by the Pyro Company, right? The other party had already made preparations and sacrificed several hundred people to lure the Kong Consortium into their trap. They sacrificed more than 600 spies to make the Kong Consortium believe it was real! Among them, there were even some spies who had already risen to be mid-ranking military personnel in the Kong Consortium army. All of this left the Kong Consortium absolutely convinced they had found something they could use against the Pyro Company!


    But just as the Kong Consortium thought they could usurp the Pyro Company, they realized they had been tricked!


    If not for this audio recording, the Kong Consortium¡¯s frontline troops would probably still be holding their defensive positions instead of taking the initiative to attack like they were doing now. Furthermore, they had even initiated the attack when their armored brigade was mostly incapacitated!


    The Wang Consortium and the Pyro Company had coborated wlessly and put on a good show for everyone. They tricked so many supernatural beings into going to the Sacred Mountains and killed them there. Then they even joined forces and caused the Kong Consortium to lose the opportunity for a preemptive strike.


    Kong Fangyun imagined they would probably not only have to face the Pyro Company. The western front should also be facing a massive invasion by the Wang Consortium!


    The chaotic war affecting the Alliance of Strongholds had finally begun. Meanwhile, the first slice of pie everyone wanted their hands on turned out to be the Kong Consortium.


    Only now did all of the organizations understand that the peaceful days of the Alliance of Strongholds were about to end. What awaited the stronghold residents would only be a gloomy and bloody war, and no one knew when peace would return again.

 Chapter 768 - Stronghold 176

    <strong>Chapter 768 Stronghold 176</strong>


    ¡°Xiaosu, where do you n to go next?¡± Luo Lan asked while seated next to the campfire.


    After Ren Xiaosu and the others emerged from the Sacred Mountains, everyone did not go their separate ways immediately. Instead, they found a ce to set up camp for the next two days.


    Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, Li Shentan, Si Liren, Zhou Yingxue, and Qing Shen the clone got along quite well during this period. They caught some game in the wilderness, and the atmosphere in the campsite was jubnt and cheerful.


    Everyone could tell that Ren Xiaosu was in a bad mood, so it could be said that they were apanying him to lift his spirits.


    Everyone knew Ren Xiaosu had only insisted on going into the Sacred Mountains because of the No. 001 Experimental. Ren Xiaosu was also upfront about it and imed Yan Liuyuan might be the No. 001 Experimental, so he wanted to go there to look for him.


    But now everyone else had basically been found, yet Yan Liuyuan was still nowhere to be seen. So how could Ren Xiaosu be happy?


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Luo Lan. ¡°I have to make a trip to the Wang Consortium, and what about you? What are your ns?¡±. As he was saying that, the Great Hoodwinker emerged from the forest to the west. ¡°I just got some news from the ck market. Something big has happened.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, stunned for a moment.


    ¡°The Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium are at war. The Kong Consortium has retreated from the front line of Mt. Dabaichi. They¡¯re pulling back their defensive line at the rear.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°The Kong Consortium¡¯s armored vehicles on the front lines have turned into scrap metal. They have to wait for further reinforcements from the rear before they can fight back. Some people even said the Kong Consortium initially had something that gave them control over the Pyro Company¡¯s fate, but it suddenly could not work after they got onto the battlefield, and it caught the Kong Consortium off guard. In any case, the Kong Consortium has suffered a great loss this time.¡±


    Luo Lan chuckled, ¡°That¡¯s a good thing. Let¡¯s see if they still have time to care about our Qing Consortium now. Speaking of which, the Kong Consortium is really quite stupid. The Pyro Company is so smart, so how could they possibly let others gain leverage over them? Hey, clone guy, do you know the details of what happened?¡±


    ¡°I do.¡± Qing Shen nodded. It seemed he did not mind Luo Lan calling him a clone. He just calmly exined, ¡°This n of the Pyro Company¡¯s has been in the works for a long time. They used several hundred of their spies in the Kong Consortium¡¯s territory as sacrifices so the Kong Consortium would believe they can use an audio recording to take down the entire Pyro Company. But in fact, they had alreadyid the trap when they were gically modifying their DNA. Only the spies in the Kong Consortium¡¯s territory get affected by the audio recording.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Like the tarants?¡±


    Qing Shen said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s right. It looks like you¡¯ve seen how the Pyro Company deals with the tarants.¡±


    Luo Lan said, ¡°Since war has broken out, I can¡¯t waste any more time here in the North. I need to have a chat with the Zhou Consortium before they get embroiled in the war and see if they can be of any help to the Qing Consortium.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by being of help to the Qing Consortium?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m talking about having the Central ins fight among themselves,¡± Luo Lan replied. ¡°Of course, there¡¯s something more important that I need to see to, and that¡¯s to send this clone back to the Qing Consortium so my little brother can decide his fate.¡±


    When Luo Lan mentioned this, Qing Shen sat next to him with a smile as though it had nothing to do with him.


    This was what annoyed Luo Lan the most. The clone was as smart as his younger brother, but at the same, he seemed less human than him.


    Although Qing Zhen had long beenbeled a cold blooded murderer, everyone in the Qing Consortium knew Qing Zhen was a very loyal person.


    Meanwhile, the clone named Qing Shen did not seem to have any unnecessary emotions in him.


    At least, Luo Lan did not notice any mood fluctuations from him.


    ¡°What other information did you find out?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Someone also verified that White Mask is your power and that you can summon it like a puppet to take on the T5batants head on.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Rumor has it that someone¡¯s gonna rank all the superhumans. I believe that you¡¯ll be ranked very highly. However, they still don¡¯t know your identity.¡±


    In reality, when the Great Hoodwinker talked about this, he was pretty much understating it. However, the reaction in the ck market to this information was quite huge, because this news meant yet another extremely powerful individual had appeared in the world of superhumans.


    If they also knew Ren Xiaosu was the Stronghold Destroyer, this information would probably shock them even further. When the Great Hoodwinker bought this information, he even felt a little regretful. Because the simpletons at the ck market had absolutely no idea how incredible his futuremander was.


    The Great Hoodwinker said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Another piece of information I found out concerns Wang Yun. He got locked up after only being the director of the intelligence agency for one day.... Hahahahaha...¡± The Great Hoodwinker even started gloating at Wang Yun¡¯s misfortune. Heughed for such a long time he couldn¡¯t stop.


    After five minutes, Ren Xiaosu looked at the Great Hoodwinker expressionlessly. ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker finally restrained himself when his face started to hurt. ¡°Ahem, I¡¯m sorry, I couldn¡¯t control my emotions for a moment. I have to rush to the Kong Consortium immediately. I can¡¯t really leave Wang Yun to die in the Kong Consortium¡¯s secret prison. I¡¯ll think of a way to get him out. It¡¯d be such a tragedy if such a talented man does not get to participate in the development of the Northwest. Now that the time is ripe...¡±


    ¡°Mhm, go ahead then, but don¡¯t force yourself if you can¡¯t do it. Not just anyone can break into the Kong Consortium¡¯s main stronghold as they like. If you really can¡¯t figure out a way to save him, I¡¯ll go to the Kong Consortium with you after I finish my business with the Wang Consortium.¡± In fact, Ren Xiaosu also felt that Wang Yun was talented. If someone like him could contribute to the development of the Northwest, it would definitely be a good thing


    Although he kept saying he would only consider whether to go to the Northwest in the future, the Great Hoodwinker kept going on about the Prosperous Northwest every day and even kept calling him ¡°Future Commander¡± in private until he started thinking about the Northwest unknowingly.


    The Great Hoodwinker nodded and got up. He looked at everyone. ¡°I don¡¯t know when we¡¯ll meet again after this farewell. The road is long and the world is vast, so let¡¯s part ways.¡±


    Everyone was about to go their separate ways, but this was what the world of adults was like. Everyone was just a passerby in each other¡¯s journey in life, and no one could turn back on that long, winding path.


    Although they wererades once, they still had to get back to their own interests after the battle. Although the Qing Consortium and the Northwest had a rather close rtionship, they were still not family.


    When they met again in the future, no one knew whether it would be as enemies or friends.


    Luo Lan nodded. ¡°Let¡¯s part ways. I hope the Qing Consortium and the Northwest will never have to be in conflict!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Oh yeah, there¡¯s something else that I forgot about. Apparently, the nomadic tribes in the North have started heading south and will arrive at Stronghold 176 quite soon. But that¡¯s not exactly a big problem. Stronghold 176 should be able to hold them off in the North.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the clone, Qing Shen, smiled and said, ¡°That might not be the case.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at Qing Shen. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Stronghold 176 is different from your Stronghold 178. You all have abundant resources and no consortiums around to hinder you, but Stronghold 176 is different. Ten years ago, the other consortiums cut off their support to them, and it¡¯s been quite difficult for them since then.¡± Qing Shen said with a smile, ¡°We can only hope the uninvited guests from the steppe are weaker this time. Otherwise, Stronghold 176 might just end up fading into history.¡±

 Chapter 769 - Yan Liuyuan’s decision

    <strong>Chapter 769 Yan Liuyuan¡¯s decision</strong>


    In earlier years, Stronghold 176¡¯s reputation was on par with Fortress 178. But over the years, everyone started to only mention Fortress 178 and not Stronghold 176.


    There were many reasons for this. On one hand, Stronghold 176¡¯s terrain was not as harsh as Fortress 178¡¯s, and the enemies from the grasnds were not as ferocious either. Therefore, from a ¡°sacrificial¡± point of view, Stronghold 176 did not really contribute much to the Alliance of Strongholds. After all, there were only so many nomads around, and they were not even armed with firearms and explosives. It would really be difficult for them to be a major threat to the Central ins, and neither had any particrly bloody shes taken ce between the two sides.


    On the other hand, Stronghold 176¡¯sbat power was not strong either. Furthermore, they were getting weaker and weaker with each passing generation. In recent decades, the leadership of Stronghold 176 had turned hereditary, bing privately helmed by the Shen n.


    Initially, all of Stronghold 176¡¯s resources were provided by the Wang Consortium, the Pyro Company, and the Kong Consortium as a token of gratitude to Stronghold 176 for defending against the northern enemies.


    But ever since Stronghold 176 was taken over by the Shen n, and after everyone realized the threat of the Northern ins in recent years was only a case of the Shen n crying wolf, the supply of resources gradually stopped. As Stronghold 176 was built in a ce where resources were scarce and being located in between the Kong Consortium, the Pyro Company, and the Wang Consortium, their situation was getting more and more dire over the years.


    The past controllers of Stronghold 176cked foresight and had no resources. As a result, their light and heavy industries did not develop well. Only their livestock management and farming practices could still be considered passable. As such, they also lost theirpetitiveness in the Alliance of Strongholds.


    Right now, their weapons were very aged, with some people even selling them off to the ck market in exchange for money.


    This was why Qing Shen said that Stronghold 176 was not good enough.


    When the Great Hoodwinker heard Qing Shen¡¯s exnation, he chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s still our Fortress 178 that¡¯s the most prescient. Throughout the years, ourmanders have never harbored thoughts about passing on the leadership to their own families. If their children tried to seize power for themselves, they would get sent to the outposts. This is something unique in the entire Alliance of Strongholds. I can only say themanders of Fortress 178 were worthy of their reputation as pioneers.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker continued, ¡°Moreover, the enemies Fortress 178 faces are not like the nomadic tribes who don¡¯t even use any firearms or explosives. This is also why we¡¯re called a fortress while they¡¯re only considered a stronghold.¡±


    Qing Shen sized up the Great Hoodwinker with scrutiny. He realized that when the Great Hoodwinker mentioned Fortress 178, that sense of pride and honor was something most Central ins people did not have.


    Luo Lan said, ¡°Actually, the Shen n was quite conscientious at the beginning. At that time, the military strength of the Alliance of Strongholds was not that great yet. It was still very tough for them when they had to fight the wars initiated by the nomads. Unfortunately, they fell into depravity during Shen Yin¡¯s generation.¡±


    ¡°Is that why you think the nomads will be a threat to Stronghold 176?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Qing Shen. ¡°The premise is that the nomads must be strong enough first,¡± Qing Shen replied. ¡°After all, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse.¡±


    Seven dayster, at the border of the Northern ins, Yan Liuyuan suddenly reined in his horse and looked south. He said, ¡°Confirm we¡¯re on the right route and direction. Check the supplies, horses, and number of people we have. We might encounter battles every day from now on, so don¡¯t let your guards down.¡±


    Hassan nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Master. I¡¯ll make sure nothing goes wrong on my side.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nodded. He felt it was a waste of Hassan¡¯s talent to lead a small tribe like he used to. Ever since Hassan became the Commander-in-Chief of the Right, he quickly started showing his talent in management.


    Yan Liuyuan asked again, ¡°Where are the Bn and Kirghiz tribes?¡±


    Next to him, Hassan said respectfully, ¡°The scouts have already been sent out, but it will take a day before they can return. I will report to you immediately if there¡¯s any news.¡±


    For this expedition to the South, Yan Liuyuan did not lead his troops to Stronghold 176, which was closest to the grasnds. Instead, he diverted to the Pyro Company¡¯s territory.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s envoy that came to the grasnds earlier had brought him a rather important piece of news that the Pyro Company was about to start a war with the Kong Consortium. Furthermore, the Pyro Company had mobilized their troops several months in advance. At the moment, the strongholds at the north of the Pyro Company¡¯s territory werepletely defenseless.


    It was also because Yan Liuyuan did not want the other tribes to know about his n that he chose to make this move at thest moment. Therefore, of the threerge tribes, two of them went to Stronghold 176 while he headed to the Pyro Company¡¯s territory.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s envoy had even made an agreement with Yan Liuyuan that someone would open the city gate for him when he arrived at Stronghold 21.


    However, when Yan Liuyuan arrived at the boundary of the grasnds with his army of more than 10,000 soldiers from the eight tribes, he chose to stop advancing at about a 100 kilometers away from Stronghold 21. ¡°We¡¯ll set up camp here and wait for the scouts to report back.¡±


    Hassan did not quite understand what Yan Liuyuan was trying to do, but he did as he was told.


    That same night, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s worshippers started paying their respects in the direction of the royal tent. It was unknown where this ritual had originated, but it was said they would have to kowtow to the gods a 100 times in the morning and three times in the evening before eating their meals to prove they were sufficiently devout. The nomads¡¯ faith in Yan Liuyuan was growing with each passing day. They even started holding ceremonies as a sign of respect.


    These ceremonies referred to the usual spiritual rules and rituals, for example, the offering of a sacrifice when praying for rain, kowtowing before Buddha, or chanting scriptures daily.


    It wasn¡¯t until the next morning that Hassan led the tribe chiefs before the royal tent. At this moment, Tsetseg wasbing Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hair.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Hassan. ¡°Speak up if there¡¯s something to report.¡±


    Hassan said respectfully, ¡°Congrattions, Master. Some of our scouts have returned and said that the Bn and Kirghiz tribes have arrived at Stronghold 176. However, it seems that Stronghold 176 was already aware that they were going there, so they set up an ambush. Right now, the tworge tribes are unable to take on Stronghold 176 in a direct confrontation, and their rear escape routes have been cut off. It looks like they¡¯re going to die outside of Stronghold 176.¡±


    The chiefs of the other tribes also had a look of joy on their faces. After the Bn and Kirghiz tribes were dead, they would have no more enemies in the grasnds.


    Privately, everyone was even specting their lord was probably a real god that had descended into the world to save them. They did not even have to lose a single soldier and someone would eliminate their enemies for them.


    However, Yan Liuyuan thought for a long time. Then he looked at the delighted group of people in front of him and said, ¡°Get ready to set off. We¡¯ll be heading to Stronghold 176.¡±


    Hassan was stunned. ¡°Master, won¡¯t it be dangerous to head to Stronghold 176 at this time? Why aren¡¯t we continuing to march towards the Pyro Company? Didn¡¯t they say that the strongholds there have been leftpletely defenseless?¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head. ¡°The poption of the Bn and Kirghiz tribes is greater than ours. If all of their young and strong men were to die at Stronghold 176, how many years would it take for the grasnds to recover? Hassan, what I want are the resources and subjects in the grasnds, not the empty grasnds themselves.¡±


    Hassan and the others were all stunned. They did not expect their master facing them was actually thinking of going to save the Bn and Kirghiz tribes. They could vaguely feel his courage and ambition, and this was probably the bearing the lord of the steppe should have!


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°Go and get ready. Stronghold 176 is actually not as strong as we think. A new dynasty is about to rise in the steppe, so why don¡¯t we use their blood as a sacrifice to mark the asion?¡±

 Chapter 770 - Mt. Zhuolu

    <h4>Chapter 770: Mt. Zhuolu</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    For some reason, Hassan felt that the closer they got to the Central ins, the quieter his master became.


    It was not hesitation or fear he sensed but more of a contradictory feeling.


    Hassan knew his master had lived in the South before, but he knew nothing about what his master had experienced there.


    He did not know why his master went to the grasnds, nor did he know why his master sought to establish a new dynasty there. Hassan always felt his master was hiding a lot of things.


    Now, under Yan Liuyuan¡¯s lead, the imperial court warriors were rushing towards Stronghold 176 to rescue their enemies, the Bn and Kirghiz tribes.


    At first, Hassan did not understand what Yan Liuyuan was trying to do because those people were their enemies.


    Butter, he and the other tribal chiefs realized Yan Liuyuan was much more magnanimous than they were. What he wanted was aplete grasnd, a grasnd that could lead them to greater heights. He was not looking to revel in the fragmentation of the nomads.


    The Bn and Kirghiz tribes contributed about three-quarters the number of the young and strong in the grasnds, and they also had countless women, children, and elderly among them. If the Bn and Kirghiz tribes were to get annihted in the Central ins, the nomads would probably need close to 15 years to recover their numbers.


    Yan Liuyuan did not want to wait that long. He wanted to bring his former enemies under control amid the mes of war.


    After the Bn and Kirghiz tribes were ambushed, they had no choice but to retreat towards Mt. Zhuolu under the pincer attack of their pursuers.


    The nomads¡¯ army mainly consisted of cavalry, so they were most afraid to encounter steep, mountainous terrains. Once they retreated into the mountains, they could not take advantage of their horses¡¯ mobility, and their bows and arrows were no match for the firearms and explosives the Central ins people carried. As a result, they could only wait for death inside the mountain range.


    There was no other choice.


    Just as Qing Shen had said, a lean camel was still bigger than a horse. No matter how badly Stronghold 176 had declined, they still had outstanding generals and richbat experience to depend on.


    Although their current mechanized troops were practically useless now, and their soldiers had been reduced from 40,000 to just slightly over 10,000, Stronghold 176 was still not someone the nomads could provoke.


    This was the reason why Yan Liuyuan chose not toe to Stronghold 176.


    Stronghold 176¡¯s troops had split into two groups early on. One group was lying in ambush near Mt. Zhuolu while the other was circling around Mt. Yanqing to surround them.


    By the time the Bn and Kirghiz tribes stopped in front of Mt. Zhuolu, the troops of Stronghold 176 had cut off their path from behind.


    Bn Zir, the chief of the Bn tribe, was standing in front of the mountain. He looked at the mountain path in front of him and eventually took out his dagger unwillingly and stabbed it into the neck of his horse.


    The magnificent horse had been following him for many years, but now he had to kill it with his own hands.


    The tall horse slowly fell to the ground as turbid tears flowed out of its eyes. Bn Zir said in a low voice, ¡°I was too stupid and sent you to die with me. I¡¯m not likely to live for much longer either. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll soon apany you in Heaven. The breeze in the grasnds will reunite us once again.¡±


    When his associates nearby heard this, they could not help but despair.


    In reality, everyone understood that if the cavalry were forced into the depths of the mountains by the enemy, there would be no way out for them. Otherwise, they would definitely not have chosen to head into the mountains.


    As Bn Zir climbed his way up the mountain, Kirghiz Yan, the chief of the Kirghiz tribe, happened to look over. Initially, the two of them werepetitors, but now they would only end up like dogs cast from their homes.


    Kirghiz Yan said coldly, ¡°This is just great. If we both die here on Mt. Zhuolu, that¡¯ll be letting off that kid easy. After this, the entire steppe will belong to him.¡±


    Bn Zir sighed and said, ¡°Why are you saying this to me? I remember that you were the one who said that the results of this raid should decide who gets to establish the imperial court? If you hadn¡¯t said that, I wouldn¡¯t have had to lead my Bn warriors to their deaths.¡±


    A nearby associate of his said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to be so disheartened. There might still be a chance to turn things around!¡±


    ¡°What chance do we have?¡± Kirghiz Yan sneered. ¡°Unless that brat leads his eight tribes here to rescue us, but do you think he would be so kind? He¡¯s probably going to gloat when he finds out that we¡¯re gonna die. He¡¯s gonnaugh at us for handing him the grasnds on a tter.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s always a way out¡ª¡±


    ¡°Besides, it¡¯s useless even if hees,¡± interrupted Kirghiz Yan. ¡°We all have to understand that fighting the Central ins people without guns is basically impossible. Some of my warriors have even awakened their powers, but they were still shot to death by the Central ins people.¡±


    There was no such term as ¡°supernatural beings¡± in the grasnds yet, so they were all only referred to as awakened warriors.


    They could already see from the top of the mountain that the pursuing troops were closing in. It was very dark at the foot of the mountain, but Bn Zir could already imagine the Central ins people firing their heavy machine guns at them.


    At that time, hisrades and warriors would start falling one by one next to him. Or perhaps he would be the first to fall.


    Bn Zir turned around and continued climbing upwards. This time, Stronghold 176 had found out about their raid ns in advance and probably deployed enough troops in an attempt to win themselves peace for the next 15 years.


    As long as they finished off the enemy here in Mt. Zhuolu, the nomads would have to spend the next 15 years to get back to normal.


    Sounds of gunshots came from the foot of the mountain. Bn Zir turned around and saw the warriors of his tribe falling one after another. Blood was flowing down the mountain rocks. It was an extremely tragic sight.


    But Bn Zir¡¯s associate suddenly shouted, ¡°Look, someone¡¯s heading over from behind the enemy troops!¡±


    Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan turned around at the same time and were stunned. ¡°It¡¯s cavalry!¡±


    The Central ins people had long given up on using horses. Therefore, since the approaching party was riding on horses, they had to be from the steppe.


    Kirghiz Yan was silent for a while. ¡°Why did hee here? Shouldn¡¯t he be hoping for us to die in the Central ins?¡±


    Bn Zir thought for a moment before answering, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because we¡¯re all from the grasnds?¡±


    Kirghiz Yan sneered at this exnation. ¡°Since when did we nomads have the concept of patriots¡¯? Aren¡¯t we supposed to follow whoever has the biggest fist? Besides, so what if he doese here? Can bow and arrows defeat the firearms of those from the Central ins?¡±


    Everyone fell silent. They all knew Kirghiz Yan was right. No tribe on the steppe would save another tribe. This was thew of survival of the fittest, and there was no concept of patriots.¡± So they could only continue climbing up the mountain blindly to await their deaths.


    Bn Zir was already very tired. He was not fatigued physically, but the feeling of being helpless when he saw hisrades who had gone through thick and thin with him dying by his side was starting to take its toll. Despair started to well up in him like a tidal wave, surging past his neck and leaving him unable to breathe.


    But the cavalry in the distance slowly came to a stop. Only one rider trotted forward from the crowd. The young man on that horse had a unique aura.


    The man and horse slowly walked towards Mt. Zhuolu. Dark clouds were slowly building above his head as lightning shed past behind him. The entire sky seemed to have turned into a huge vortex that could suck everyone¡¯s souls in.


    Bn Zir and the others on the mountain forgot about running for their lives. They stood on the mountain rocks and watched this sight in shock while holding their breaths.


    How was this a power humans could control? This was clearly something that only gods could do!

 Chapter 771 - Entering the city

    <h4>Chapter 771: Entering the city</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Thebat troops of Stronghold 176 on the mountainside stopped their pursuit as well. The soldiers looked up in horror and saw the vortex moving rapidly towards Mt. Zhuolu.


    It started raining all of a sudden. As the rain turned heavier, the sand and stones on the mountain were washed away by the sudden storm and gradually formed into several small streams. Following, the small streams converged into a torrent as a surge of silt and stones started washing downhill.


    Bn Zir roared, ¡°Quick, run up the mountain ridge. We¡¯ll die here if we don¡¯t get away now!¡±


    Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan were even feeling a little terrified. They imagined the storm was definitely rted to that young man. The kid really possessed the power of gods. It was no wonder many of the nomads had imed he was a god who had descended into this world!


    In the past, Bn Zir did not believe in gods at all. But now he believed it without a doubt!


    By this point, the nomads from the eight tribes behind Yan Liuyuan had dismounted from their horses and were kowtowing in reverence to the young man.


    Hassan had conveyed their master¡¯s orders that they did not have to take any action this time.


    At that time, everyone was somewhat puzzled. If they did not have to take any action, why did theye to Mt. Zhuolu?


    Only now did they understand there wasn¡¯t a need for them to make a move.


    Not everyone from the eight tribes who submitted to Yan Liuyuan had worshipped him. Before this, there were at least more than half of the nomads who did not believe in Yan Liuyuan.


    But when they saw the terrifying storm clouds swirling and shes of lightning above their heads, and looking at the torrential rain pouring down on Mt. Zhuolu, they had no choice but to believe it now!


    The scene on the battlefield turned strange. On one side, people were running for their lives up Mt. Zhuolu. Those who did not manage to escape were washed away by the mudslide.


    On the other side, thousands of people had dismounted from their horses to kowtow to the young man, bing the most loyal believers of a god.


    Yan Liuyuan had mentioned to Xiaoyu that he would have to resort to miracles over and over again to strengthen the devotion of his worshippers.


    If he was a fraud, he would definitely be exposed one day. But to him, these grasnds were where he belonged. His worshippers were already waiting for him there to convert them.


    This was one of the reasons why Yan Liuyuan decided toe to the grasnds.


    Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan trekked along the mountain ridge and climbed towards safety. If they encountered a mudslide, running down the mountain would be a dead end for sure. Of this, they still had somemon sense of what they needed to do.


    Therefore, the death toll of the Bn and Kirghiz tribes was not that high. However, the troops of Stronghold 176 on the mountainside suffered the most casualties.


    This time, the troops of Stronghold 176 had been deployed almost in full force for the battle. There were at most only two battalions left behind to defend the stronghold. But with the torrent of mudslides arriving, it was useless no matter how many soldiers they had. That was the power of nature, and humans were exceptionally powerless and insignificant in the face of disaster.


    This mudslidested for a full five hours. Bn Zir and the others waited silently atop the mountain under the pouring rain.


    They looked at Yan Liuyuan from afar. That young man remained still at the foot of the mountain, and his worshippers behind him also remained kneeling for five hours until the troops of Stronghold 176 were utterly defeated.


    Gradually, the torrential rain stopped. Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan looked at each other and both ordered their men, ¡°Let¡¯s fight our way back. This is our best chance to counterattack!¡±


    Although there were still quite a few Central ins people at the foot of the mountain, they were clinging to their lives. Some of them were hiding behind rocks, while others had climbed into the trees. Most of them did not even know where they had abandoned their guns. In contrast, the Bn and Kirghiz tribesmen were in a much better state than the enemy. At least, they still had their swords with them!


    This battlested for a full 13 hours, but Yan Liuyuan was not in a hurry at all. He only instructed Hassan to have the tribesmen start a fire and cook while waiting for the battle on the mountain to end.


    Some of the soldiers from Stronghold 176 managed to flee from the mountain, but what awaited them were heavy machine guns.


    The troops of Stronghold 176 could not figure out when the nomads had managed to get their hands on these heavy machine guns.


    Hassan came to Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Master, why don¡¯t I lead some soldiers to fight our way in now? By taking advantage of the chaos and killing Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan, their tribespeople will naturally submit to us.¡±


    ¡°No need.¡± Yan Liuyuan smiled and shook his head. ¡°I believe that the two of them are not stupid.¡±


    Throughout the night, there was continuous shoutinging from the mountain. When it was almost dawn, Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan emerged from the mountain with blood all over their faces. Only a third of their tribe¡¯s warriors were following them.


    Yan Liuyuan mounted his horse and said with a smile, ¡°Not bad, I didn¡¯t expect there to be so many survivors.¡±


    Although he wanted to save them to preserve the strength of the entire grasnds, Yan Liuyuan also had to weaken the forces of Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan. Only then would they be convinced and he would finally be able to gain firm control of the grasnds.


    So Yan Liuyuan did not use his powers nor allowed Hassan and the others to head into the mountain to help when the battle was being fought in the middle of the night.


    Currently, the members of the Bn and Kirghiz tribes who survived were all their elites. If they were to get involved in another tough battle in the future, the 9,000 people from these two tribesbined would be one of the core forces in the grasnds.


    Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan panted as they rushed before Yan Liuyuan¡¯s horse. Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°Submit to me, and I¡¯ll bring you to Stronghold 176 to have a look. If you don¡¯t, you¡¯ll die here today, and your souls can see how I¡¯ll achieve all that you¡¯re not capable of.¡±


    Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan looked at each other and prostrated to Yan Liuyuan at the same time with their arms raised and palms facing up.


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and used the whip in his hand to brush the two men¡¯s palms. This was a ceremony nomads performed when they wanted to seek their master¡¯s forgiveness. And Yan Liuyuan using the whip to brush their palms was to tell the offenders they had been forgiven and that they could continue to follow him and fight on the battlefield.


    Lying on the ground, Bn Zir roared, ¡°A real god has finally descended on the grasnds. From now on, our Bn tribe willy down our lives to serve you.¡±


    Kirghiz Yan hesitated for some time as he did not know how to express his loyalty. Eventually, he roared, ¡°The same goes for our Kirghiz tribe!¡±


    From now on, there were no longer any forces in the grasnds that could hinder Yan Liuyuan from achieving unification.


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile as he turned his horse around, ¡°Bn Zir, you seem quite learned for a nomad, knowing how to express yourself so eloquently. On your feet. Do you two still have any strength left? If you do, follow and keep up with us, and I¡¯ll show you that people in the Central ins are actually not that noble at all.¡±


    When they heard the horse galloping away, Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan got up. Hassan brought over two warhorses. ¡°Master has bestowed these to the two of you.¡±


    The warhorses of Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan had died in Mt. Zhuolu. To preserve their dignity, Yan Liuyuan bestowed these warhorses to them. Otherwise, if the chiefs of the other tribes were to ride their horses while they followed on foot, they would not be able to lift their heads when they returned to the grasnds.


    However, Bn Zir felt a little puzzled. He asked Hassan, ¡°Did Master just say that we¡¯re heading to Stronghold 176? There¡¯s still a lot of garrison troops there, so how are we going to attack our way in?¡±


    Hassan nced at them and said, ¡°Can the enemy summon a mudslide from the heavens?¡±


    These words left the two of them speechless. Right, no matter how powerful firearms were, how could they be a match for the power of a god?


    When the nomadic army arrived outside Stronghold 176, Bn Zir and the others saw the stronghold walls suddenly copsing. Half of the garrison forces on the walls came falling down along with the crumbling walls!

 Chapter 772 - Faceplate and rebirth

    <h4>Chapter 772: Facete and rebirth</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The city walls had crumbled like the sky was falling, and the morning sun shone down like a raging fire burning.


    There were no longer any garrison troops alive on the stronghold walls. Hassan, Bn Zir, and the others had killed their enemies after a prolonged fight on the walls. Then they quietly waited for their lord of the steppe to enter the stronghold and begin his reign over the city.


    Before entering the city, Yan Liuyuan rode his horse through the refugee town outside the stronghold. The refugees on both sides of his path hid back into their shacks.


    The stronghold had been breached. But surprisingly, the town was not affected at all by the city walls that had crumbled. After the battle, not a single refugee had died.


    Yan Liuyuan saw a child hiding in a shack behind his father who was shielding him firmly. However, the child could not help but sneak a peek at Yan Liuyuan.


    Yan Liuyuan just smiled. He got some beef jerky from Tsetseg next to him and threw it to the child. However, he did not say anything and just continued moving.


    The child given the beef jerky looked at Yan Liuyuan curiously. He suddenly felt that Yan Liuyuan was the most good-looking person he had ever seen in his life. Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes shone like stars, and he had sharp features. Gazing at Yan Liuyuan, it was as though he was looking at a wlessly perfect god.


    But what the child did not know was that when Yan Liuyuan looked at him, he saw himself from many years ago. At that time, there was also someone who constantly protected him like the child¡¯s father was doing.


    When he passed by a courtyard house made of bricks, Yan Liuyuan saw many students hiding on the inside. He asked, ¡°Is this the town¡¯s school?¡±


    A young man said, trembling with fear, ¡°Please let these children off. The oldest is 14 while the youngest is only eight. Even if Stronghold 176 has offended you, these children are innocent.¡±


    The schoolteacher was extremely terrified, as the cavalry that came into town stretched so far back he could not see the end of it. The majestic horse in front of him was so tall he needed to look up to see the young man who was riding it.


    But even though he was afraid, he did not take a single step back.


    The muscr horse snorted loudly, shooting out white vapor through its nostrils like arrows and looking extremely imposing.


    The young teacher stumbled back in fright at this. However, he still continued to tenaciously shield his students.


    Yan Liuyuan sized up the young man, then said to the children with a smile, ¡°You have a good teacher. Remember to study hard. Someone once told me that books are the best avenue to gain an understanding of the world. If you wish to learn more about the world after leaving school, there¡¯s a price you have to pay in blood. Know that this is yourst shelter.¡± Yan Liuyuan began to think of something and grew distant.


    The young schoolteacher was uncertain of what to do. The young man on the horse across from him was supposed to be a very ruthless person, but it did not seem like that was the case at all.


    ¡°Kirghiz Yan, hand out some beef jerky to them.¡± Afterwards, Yan Liuyuan continued riding forward without looking back at the children.


    Kirghiz Yan looked at the children in surprise. But eventually, he had his tribesmen bring over a bag of beef jerky and threw it onto the ground in front of them. He said fiercely, ¡°This is given to you by my master.¡±


    Hassan had already run down from the city wall tower and knelt inside the city to respectfully wee its new king.


    ¡°Rise,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Beside him, Tsetseg suddenly realized Yan Liuyuan¡¯s expression had turned frosty after he entered the stronghold. He waspletely different from how he was back in town.


    Clop, clop, clop, clop.


    The clopping of horse hooves could be heard on the streets of Stronghold 176. The entire stronghold had fallen silent due to the arrival of Yan Liuyuan and the nomads.


    The tough-looking nomads¡¯ outfits from the grasnds and their majestic cavalry formed a stark contrast with civilization in the Central ins.


    Neat rows of brick structures could be seen on one side, while the other was a sight of people wearing animal skins and carrying long swords dripping with blood. Yan Liuyuan sat quietly on his horse and took in the sights around him. Previously, he never thought he would ever step foot into a stronghold again, setting foot in a ce he hated so much with his status as a god.


    But this was the first time the nomads had gone inside a stronghold in over 200 years since The Cataclysm.


    As the warriors observed the city around them, they grew restless. Meanwhile, the city¡¯s residents all cowered in fear at home. They did not even dare to breathe too loudly.


    Hassan whispered next to Yan Liuyuan, ¡°Master, should we get started?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nced at him. ¡°Get started with what?¡±


    ¡°ughtering everyone in the city!¡± Hassan said, ¡°The tribal chiefs behind us are getting excited. They want to massacre the city¡¯s residents to spread your glory. This is what all of us wish for.¡±


    ¡°ughter everyone in the city?¡± Yan Liuyuan was stunned for a moment. He looked at the tribal chiefs behind him. Indeed, they were all getting restless, especially the two chiefs from the Bn and Kirghiz tribes. Too many of their tribesmen had died in the battle, so it was time to spill the stronghold residents¡¯ blood in remembrance of them.


    Moreover, they had found out from Hassan that their master had mentioned he would use the blood of Stronghold 176 as a sacrifice to the gods.


    Although everyone had suffered heavy losses in the storm and incurred a lot of material losses in the battle, they knew they could obtain arge amount of wealth after massacring the city.


    Hassan realized his master had fallen silent.


    Once the massacre began, there would be cries and screams ringing out everywhere. ck smoke would billow in therge stronghold and countless people would die.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at the stronghold that should have been very prosperous and the ruined stronghold walls behind him. If Xiaoyu were here, she would definitely not want to see a massacre happening in the city.


    He suddenly said, ¡°Pass down my orders. There shall be no massacre in this stronghold. Seek out all the managers of the stronghold first and tell the residents that they¡¯ll be allowed to live as long as they report to those officials. It would be even better if they could reveal their crimes. But before any further orders from me, I¡¯ll kill whoever indiscriminately kills the innocent.¡±


    Hassan said awkwardly, ¡°If you kill your own people over the deaths of the stronghold residents, I¡¯m afraid...¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said calmly, ¡°Then they probably still don¡¯t understand who the true lord of the steppe is.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± Hassan epted the order and went around. Of course he would obey Yan Liuyuan¡¯s orders unconditionally. If anyone disobeyed, he would pull that person out and drag him to death with the horses.


    The following warriors acted quickly. In just a few minutes, they found out the residences of a few officials before dragging them out of their homes.


    Throughout this, Yan Liuyuan sat calmly on his horse while Tsetseg rode beside him as theirrge entourage headed towards the center of the stronghold. That was where the Shen n¡¯s mansion was located as told by a stronghold official.


    When they were about to arrive at the official residence, Hassan saw the manor was heavily guarded. He immediately led his Kharchin tribesmen to rush over with heavy machine guns.


    Yan Liuyuan halted his horse and waited outside. Less than half an hourter, Hassan opened the manor¡¯s door for him.


    The mansion had turned into an abattoir, and all of the survivors were kneeling on the ground. As Yan Liuyuan rode forward, he looked at the people in the manor and said, ¡°I heard that someone named Shen Yin is in charge of this stronghold. Which one of you is him? Stand up and answer me. Kirghiz Yan, lead your men on a raid of the granary and arsenal. We¡¯ll take everything that can be taken.¡±


    After that, Yan Liuyuan dismounted from his horse and walked towards the vi in the manor. It wasn¡¯t until he sat down on the leather couch in the living room that he saw a middle-aged man being escorted over by Hassan. ¡°Are you Shen Yin?¡±


    Shen Yin red at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°How dare you nomadic barbarianse and make trouble in the Central ins? Aren¡¯t you afraid to incur the wrath of the entire Central ins?¡±


    Yan Liuyuanughed, ¡°The Pyro Company? The Kong Consortium? Or the Wang Consortium? Who do you think will want to avenge your Shen n?¡±


    Shen Yin realized the young man in front of him seemed very familiar with the political situation of the Central ins. The other party hade prepared this time for their attack on Stronghold 176.


    ¡°I¡¯m curious about something.¡± Yan Liuyuan asked as he tapped on the leather couch¡¯s armrest with his slender fingers, ¡°Stronghold 176¡¯s reputation was clearly on par with Fortress 178 in the early years. Why has it degenerated so much?¡±


    Shen Yin red at Yan Liuyuan, but he did not know how to answer the question.


    At this moment, arge group of stronghold officials were escorted into the vi by Bn Zir. He was holding a thick stack of paper in his hands.


    The officials were forced to kneel in a row. Bn Zir handed the papers to Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Master, these are all the evidence of crimes that the stronghold residents have written down.¡±


    ¡°It seems like y¡¯all¡¯re really unpopr with the people.¡± Yan Liuyuan took the papers. ¡°Why don¡¯t we y a game? I¡¯ll allow y¡¯all to tattle on each other¡¯s crimes to redeem yourselves.¡±


    Right as he finished speaking, a middle-aged man crawled forward and said, ¡°I would like to report that the Shen n has been acting like a tyrant in the city for decades. They¡¯ve been oppressing themoners to the point of suffering beyond words. This Shen Yin has grievously sinned. He even seized the wives of his subordinates for himself!¡±


    ¡°Carry on,¡± Yan Liuyuan said with great interest as he rested his arm on the couch and supported his chin with his hand.


    ¡°Also, Shen Yin is a real jerk. He used to indiscriminately kill the innocent, and when he caught some nomads, he slowly tortured them to death!¡±


    Once someone got the ball rolling, usations from the others started flowing like an open tap. It could not be stopped.


    ¡°He also abducted some women and children from the refugee town outside the stronghold two years ago!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan started getting impatient as he listened to the rabble of voices. ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡±


    Everyone in the vi immediately fell silent again.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Shen Yin. ¡°See, these are what you stronghold residents are like. You live your lives infort but have lost your backbone and sense of happiness.¡±


    However, Shen Yin sneered as he knelt on the ground, ¡°The refugees are just pigs. What pride and happiness do they have?¡±


    ¡°No, they lead a happier life than you people.¡± Yan Liuyuan shook his head.


    Shen Yinughed heartily and said, ¡°Those refugees can only struggle to make a livelihood. Some of them sold off their daughters while others have to resort to stealing and robbing. Even if they die inside the mines, no one will care about them. When their family members turn up, they never talk about seeking revenge and only ask how much they will bepensated. Some of them send their children to school only to realize that the things they learned are useless after graduating. In the end, they still have to farm sand or work down in the mines every day as their fate dictates. They live as though they might never get to see the next day arriving like animals on a farm. Let me ask you then, what happiness is there for such people?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at the dawn shining through the vi¡¯s gate. In his memory, that was not what the towns were like, and neither was that an urate description of the refugees.


    When his elder brother returned from hunting in the past, he would often go to Wang Fugui¡¯s store to buy two pieces of sickeningly sweet hard candies for him even though their family was very poor.


    His elder brother would hide one and only give him a single piece, reminding him to eat it slowly.


    But Yan Liuyuan would always end up finishing it at once before looking at Ren Xiaosu as though he wanted more. When he did that, Ren Xiaosu would take out another piece from his pocket so that Yan Liuyuan would be doubly surprised.


    Every time during the New Year, his brother would go to Wang Fugui¡¯s store to purchase some new clothes for him. Although they were very poor, he would still get new clothes to wear for the new year.


    In the cold winter weather, the adults in town would buy some fatty meat from the butcher to make dumplings with. On New Year¡¯s night, the aroma of the meat wafted out from the crude-looking shacks, leaving the children watching hungrily.


    Wang Fugui would distribute some firecrackers he dismantled from a roll of 5,000 firecrackers to the children in town, each child given five firecrackers to y with.


    The children could be seen running around in town yfully and they would even asionally knock over other people¡¯s shacks. Then the adults in their family would hurriedly apologize and spank the culprit¡¯s bottom at the same time.


    In that town, there were bothughter and crying.


    Everyone experienced poverty and hardship during that time, but Yan Liuyuan somehow felt that those memories were filled with happiness.


    Yan Liuyuan could even recall his brother¡¯s rare smile at that time.


    All of a sudden, Yan Liuyuan resisted recalling all of these memories.


    However, he did not intend to tell this to Shen Yin, and neither was Shen Yin fit to hear it.


    ¡°Bn Zir,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    Bn Zir knelt on one knee in front of Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Master.¡±


    ¡°This is getting quite pointless. Kill them all and hang their bodies at the gate.¡± Yan Liuyuan said without his gaze evernding on Shen Yin and the others, ¡°I didn¡¯t allow you all to ughter the stronghold residents earlier. But now, I¡¯ll allow you to raid the homes of these officials here. Each tribe can raid one of their homes. I believe that¡¯s enough to make up for your losses in the battle. Go on, I don¡¯t want to hear their piggy squeals when you kill them.¡±


    Afterwards, Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan stood up excitedly. They instantly broke the officials¡¯ teeth by smashing the hilt of their swords into the mouths of Shen Yin and the others, rendering them unable to speak.


    The former prominent officials of the stronghold could only open their eyes wide in horror and let out screams in their throats.


    Shen Yin, who was not giving in earlier, had now pissed his pants.


    Bn Zir and the others rushed into the official residences with their own tribesmen and did whatever they wanted. There were gold bars, jewelry, and firearms hidden in there while the arsenal and granary were also emptied out by Hassan.


    By the evening, their plundering finally came to an end.


    The nomads erected a huge wooden fence in front of the vi¡¯s gate and hanged the bodies of the officials one by one. From afar, it looked like a row of terrifying wind chimes.


    Regardless of whether Yan Liuyuan liked these ¡°wind chimes¡± or not, the nomads needed to stir up their people¡¯s fighting spirit before going on to face even tougher battles in the future.


    Yan Liuyuan would have to let them enjoy each of their victories and killings so they would be his most loyal worshippers.


    It no longer mattered if he liked it or not. As the lord of the steppe, he only had to consider whether his worshippers needed these things.


    If it were necessary for the nomads, he would turn the corpses of the enemy into his g.


    However, an incident still happened after he repeatedly emphasized to the nomads not to ughter innocent people. When the chief of the Khoton tribe was escorted over by Kirghiz Yan, Yan Liuyuan frowned and asked, ¡°What happened?¡±


    Kirghiz Yan answered, ¡°Master, when the Khoton tribe was confiscating an official¡¯s assets, they actually led their tribesmen to kill unarmed civilians without your permission. The other tribesmen could not control themselves when they saw the Khoton tribe¡¯s actions and joined in as well. Fortunately, Hassan informed me and Bn Zir, so the situation did not get worse.¡±


    The Khoton tribe had been badly defeated in the grasnds. So, after arriving at the stronghold, their chief was hoping that Yan Liuyuan would give the order to massacre the entire city. That way, it would make him feel better about his previous losses.


    However, he did not expect that after Yan Liuyuan had saved the Bn and Kirghiz tribes, they became the most loyal tribes to Yan Liuyuan. They carried out Yan Liuyuan¡¯s orders meticulously and captured all of the Khoton tribe members.


    Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°What did they do?¡±


    ¡°They killed thousands of civilians, started fires in the stronghold, and even vited the women,¡± Kirghiz Yan answered.


    Yan Liuyuan waved his hand expressionlessly and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for the Khoton tribe to continue existing then. Kill them all and hang their heads up with the enemy¡¯s corpses.¡±


    The chief of the Khoton tribe cried and begged for mercy, but before he could say anything, his head was cut off by Kirghiz Yan.


    Yan Liuyuan took a deep breath. He did not expect that such a thing would happen under hismand. Perhaps other people would simply deal with this by calling for stricter discipline to be enforced on their subordinates in the future, but Yan Liuyuan did not want to let this matter go so easily.


    He might be able to ept the act of killing, but he would not stand for women being raped.


    Everyone left, leaving only Yan Liuyuan and Tsetseg in the vi.


    Suddenly, Yan Liuyuan saw the newspaper on the coffee table in front of him. The words <i>Hope Media</i> were printed on its header.


    When Yan Liuyuan saw the newspaper, he did not go over to pick it up and just continued resting on the couch with his eyes closed. The Qing Consortium¡¯s envoy had already told him everything he needed to know. So he was not particrly interested in the papers.


    Tsetseg remained beside him the entire time. She could feel the dilemma in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s heart. It seemed like he was struggling as well.


    The girl took ab out of her sleeve and stood obediently behind Yan Liuyuan tob his hair. As shebed his hair, she said, ¡°You¡¯re now the hope of Father and the rest.¡±


    ¡°Hope?¡± Yan Liuyuan repeated as though he was deliberating the meaning of it.


    The girl said again, ¡°That¡¯s right, I¡¯ve never seen Father so brave before. In the past, when thoserge tribes made him pay tribute to them with livestock, he always offered it to them submissively. The other people in the tribe also did not dare to speak out even though they were angry. But it¡¯s different now. When I saw him talking to the chief of the Khoton tribe that day, he spoke confidently without being overbearing.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because he holds greater power now.¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°Meanwhile, the Khoton tribe is already on the decline. I had wanted to see if they would fight bravely in this battle. But in the end, I was very disappointed. The Khoton tribe hid at the back of the forces throughout the fight. They¡¯ve already lost their courage, so how could your father not be confident when facing people like them?¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not that.¡± Tsetseg said in a soft voice, ¡°Father said that it was the gods who bestowed him with strength. Every morning, he kowtows to you with Mother. He said that you¡¯ll bring our people afortable life and that we won¡¯t have to be afraid of anyone anymore. Now, everyone in the tribe says that you¡¯re the sun in the sky, and I think so too. It¡¯s the only way to exin such a beautiful presence as you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough,¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°Go to your father and tell him that I¡¯m ready to leave.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan absent-mindedly picked up the newspaper from the coffee table and nced at the date. It seemed that this was yesterday¡¯s newspaper.


    He had heard of <i>Hope Media</i> because Wang Fugui liked reading newspapers every day.


    At that time, he even asked Wang Fugui why he liked reading newspapers. Wang Fuguiughed and exined that he just wanted to kill some time. Then he told Yan Liuyuan that he should learn from Mr. Zhang. When he could read and understand an entire newspaper publication, he would reward him with a piece of candy.


    At first, Yan Liuyuan would study hard every day with a longing for the candy. However, he started to be yful andzy again very soon. Every day, he begged his brother to take him out to go hunting because he knew there was a bigger world outside of town.


    Now that he could understand an entire newspaper publication, the person who promised to reward him with a piece of candy was nowhere to be seen.


    When Yan Liuyuan looked at the first page of the newspaper, it wrote about the war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium, as well as the moves the Wang Consortium was taking.


    At the moment, the Wang Consortium was not in a hurry to join the battlefield. Instead, they had gathered their troops at the border and were waiting quietly for something.


    Based on Yan Liuyuan¡¯s deduction, the Wang Consortium was just waiting for the opportunity to finish off the Kong Consortium with one strike.


    Actually, there was nothing special about the consortiums. Everyone out here was like wild animals in the wilderness. They would only go all out when there was an opportunity to do so. Before the hunt began, everyone would usually remain silent.


    Yan Liuyuan flipped to the second page, which reported about the aftermath of the incident in the Sacred Mountains. For example, it wrote about how many people had gone on the expedition, how many made it out of there, and how heavy their casualties were. Furthermore, the page described in detail that the expedition to the Sacred Mountains was just a scheme by the Anjing House and the Pyro Company. However, no one knew who revealed this to <i>Hope Media</i>.


    The news on the third page started getting boring. It basically described what the chief editor, Jiang Xu, had seen and heard at the Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold, as well as his review of the artificial intelligence, of which he had mixed feelings about.


    The newspaper reported that Jiang Xu was still at Stronghold 61 and that he would continue observing the artificial intelligence¡¯s developments.


    On the fourth page, the newspaper started to talk about the revolutionary changes surrounding the Qinghe Group in Luoyang City. All the Riders other than Xu Ke had already left Luoyang City, with their whereabouts unknown.


    Yan Liuyuan flipped through the pages slowly as he waited for his subjects to gather.


    But the moment he got to the fifth page, the young lord froze.


    Half of the fifth page had only two lines of words written on it.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well.


    ¡°61.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was too familiar with these words, and he knew who said it too. All of his fond memories of the refugee town were rted to that person.


    On that day, he saw that red spear pierce Ren Xiaosu¡¯s abdomen before he was swept away by the flood.


    That flood was like an irreversible moment that almost wiped away all his fond memories of the world.


    There was no more candy and no more new clothes to look forward to every year.


    At that time, he was still Ren Xiaosu¡¯s little brother. But now, he was the new king of the steppe.


    At this moment, Tsetseg rushed into the vi. ¡°Father and the others are back!¡±


    But as soon as she finished speaking, she realized the young man was sitting by himself on the couch and shrouded in the shadow of the distant twilight. He looked exceptionally lonely.


    Yes, this was the loneliness of a king.


    It was a loneliness enwrapped by blizzards and thorns.


    Yan Liuyuan looked out of the vi. He wanted to go to Stronghold 61 to look for Ren Xiaosu.


    But when he looked up, he saw the suspended corpses on the wooden fence swaying nonstop as purplish-ck blood dripped onto the ground drop by drop.


    These were the people he ordered to be killed, and it also represented his sorrows.


    Meanwhile, the mes burning in the stronghold were the sins of the Khoton tribe who were his followers. Corpses of thousands of civilians and women who had been vited were burning within those mes.


    At some point in time, he seemed to have be a part of this sorrowful era.


    Perhaps many people would find it difficult to face their former selves after they grew up.


    No longer na?ve, no longer kind, no longer regarding themselves as good people.


    The fervor in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s heart had gradually extinguished. It was as though he had slipped into an abyss. The humanity Xiaoyu pulled him back towards was once again defeated by the godhood he had attained.


    Even Xiaoyu was unaware he no longer needed to pay a price to cast his curses.


    Or rather, it was just that no one else could see what that price was.


    Each time after he made a curse, and each time after he felt like his entire world had fallen apart, Yan Liuyuan would feel like he was taking a step towards a higher level.


    That might be a higher level of humanity, but Yan Liuyuan did not know if it was the heavens or the abyss he was heading towards.


    Just as Li Shentan had said, when humans were able to unlock their peak willpower, their consciousness would merge with the will of the world.


    But would one still be human at that time? No one could be sure.


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s gaze pierced the sky. It was as though he could not face the past and himself. He did not want Ren Xiaosu to see him in this state.


    At the same time, Hassan and 10,000 cavalry had gathered next to the corpses suspended from the wooden fence. There was a sea of people as the line of tough cavalry stretched along the long street. It was impossible to see the end of the line.


    Suddenly, the nomads dismounted from their horses and knelt on one knee. When they shouted loudly, cheering for the ascendancy of the new king, the stronghold started trembling.


    Yan Liuyuan could see a glint of excitement in Hassan and everyone¡¯s eyes from a distance away. They were looking at him with utterly devoted and passionate gazes.


    He remembered the hope Tsetseg had mentioned earlier.


    Yan Liuyuan got up and quietly lit that copy of the newspaper on fire. He threw it inside the vi and set it aze.


    The luxury and decadence in the vi started burning up as the fire began to spread.


    Yan Liuyuan stood within the fire and looked at the mes around him. It was as though he was watching this depraved era burn.


    ¡°Bro, I can¡¯t go back anymore. Bro, I¡¯m not going back anymore.¡±


    Amid the mes, Yan Liuyuan took out his ck and ferocious facete and put it on his face, concealing everything from his past.


    He felt it was no longer necessary for his past identity, along with this era, to exist anymore.


    Hassan knelt in front of Yan Liuyuan¡¯s horse and acted as a footstool for him. Yan Liuyuan stepped on Hassan¡¯s back and mounted his horse. ¡°Return home! We¡¯re triumphant!¡±


    The warriors started cheering. Some of them even shot celebratory gunfire into the air with the automatic rifles they had just obtained. These men who hade out to participate in this battle could finally return home with their new king.


    They were going back to their home located in the North.

 Chapter 773 - Parting ways

    <h4>Chapter 773: Parting ways</h4>


    The news of Stronghold 176¡¯s fall quickly spread throughout the entire Alliance of Strongholds.


    This matter had even temporarily overshadowed the war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium. That was because it was the first time the Northern ins¡¯ people had taken down a stronghold in the Central ins after The Cataclysm. Moreover, it was even reported that the residents of Stronghold 176 were nearly massacred.


    Fortunately, the nomads withdrew in time even though nobody knew why they stopped.


    What shocked people the most about this disaster was the appearance of a mysterious superhuman, who was also the current lord of the steppe.


    Some people said the nomads were able to take down Stronghold 176 only because that person was powerful enough to destroy the stronghold walls.


    As for how he did it, no one really knew.


    Every time one of these supernatural beings capable of destroying a stronghold appeared, it would cause a stir in the entire supernatural world.


    Therefore, someone suggested that the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium, who were part of the Alliance of Strongholds, should put aside their grudges for the time being to defend against external enemies.


    But which of them would stop now? The moment either of them stopped attacking, their entire organization would be done for if the other party were to continue attacking relentlessly!


    As such, they both made a decision at the same time and turned a blind eye to the matter.


    Just as Yan Liuyuan had said to Shen Yin, who would want to save Stronghold 176 and avenge the Shen n? No one.


    On the contrary, it was the Wang Consortium that immediately deployed a rebuilding team to Stronghold 176. They would be responsible for supporting the post-disaster rebuilding effort in Stronghold 176 and take over its management at the same time.


    This turned out to be an unexpectedly good thing for the Wang Consortium. For no reason, they had suddenly gained control of a stronghold!


    As all of the officials in Stronghold 176 had been killed by Yan Liuyuan, the Wang Consortium¡¯s takeover of the stronghold went extremely smoothly.


    This was a free lunch..


    Moreover, the Wang Consortium filled the streets with surveince cameras during the reconstruction process and let the artificial intelligence take over the running of the entire stronghold.


    The residents of Stronghold 176 were unable to resist and could only submit to the Wang Consortium.


    ...


    ¡°Master, I wish to discuss something with you.¡± Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu and said in a serious tone, ¡°You see, the Northwest is in need of manpower right now. I¡¯ve long heard that they do not have enough food there, but my powers should be able to help them with that. I¡¯ve also asked the Great Hoodwinker about it before. He said there¡¯s still a lot of wastnd there, so their crop yield is not high. Sometimes, even the stronghold residents experience a shortage of supplies, so not to mention the refugees...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu, who was sitting next to the campfire, asked in wonder, ¡°What are you trying to say?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said firmly, ¡°I want to go and support the development of the Northwest!¡±


    Ever since Zhou Yingxue met Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin in the Sacred Mountains, she had been made aware of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s n for her. She was no longer as content as before when she was traveling alone with her master.


    Zhou Yingxue was not really a maidservant to begin with. She was also a woman who sought independence in this era of the wastnds. It was fine since she used to admire her master, but she was starting to find it a little unbearable if she had to serve him every day.


    In her opinion, she could totally y a more important role in a much bigger ce. For example, she could head to the Northwest and start nning for her master to seize the leadership or something!


    It really was a waste of her talent to be doing chores here!


    That was right, Zhou Yingxue felt that her talents were being wasted!


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought before saying, ¡°I guess you can go, but let¡¯s agree on something beforehand. After you arrive in the Northwest, you are to behave properly. Don¡¯t keep trying to throw your weight around.¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± Zhou Yingxue promised.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue suspiciously. He somehow felt that with her character, wouldn¡¯t she be extremely arrogant if she went to the Northwest? She might even use her status as themander¡¯s maidservant to bully others every day. After all, this was a woman who used to wear ten rings on her fingers.


    Most people would not do something like that!


    Before Ren Xiaosu could say anything more to Zhou Yingxue, the maidservant had already packed her belongings and ran off. To Zhou Yingxue, this was not about going to the Northwest to support its development but more like a sprint for freedom!


    The Great Hoodwinker also bade farewell to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯m leaving too. I¡¯ve received intel that Wang Yun is being detained in a secret prison. It¡¯s said that Kong Erdong is extremely unhappy with the losses on the front lines and wants to make an example out of Wang Yun to the others. He¡¯ll be court martialed next month, and I¡¯m afraid that he¡¯ll be sentenced to death.¡±


    ¡°What happens after you rescue him?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What are your ns?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll bring him back to participate in the development of the Northwest, of course,¡± the Great Hoodwinker said with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He kept feeling that something was a little off somewhere. It seemed that everyone around him was just going to end up supporting the development of the Northwest. What exactly was going on?


    Li Shentan, who was off to the side, looked at Ren Xiaosu, then at the Great Hoodwinker and the others. ¡°Why don¡¯t I go and support the development of the Northwest as well? Otherwise, it would make me seem a little antisocial....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know whether tough or cry. ¡°Make you seem antisocial? Should a mental patient like you even be considering something like that?¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Li Shentan felt a little disappointed. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll go to the South and wait for the typhoons. I can also get to enjoy the different scenery there.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯ll you do after you¡¯re done typhoon watching?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I will make another trip to Luoyang City.¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°There¡¯s still some children waiting for me to do magic for them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a while. A mental patient¡¯s train of thought was indeed quite different.


    Luo Lan also got up to say goodbye. ¡°I have to hurry over to the Zhou Consortium right away. Our Qing Consortium¡¯s informant said the Zhou Consortium has also started a new military deployment. I need to go and have a chat with Zhou Shiji before theyplete their military deployment and battle ns.¡±


    Zhou Shiji was the current head of the Zhou Consortium.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and said, ¡°Why do I get the feeling that you¡¯re always running around? Don¡¯t you take any time to stop and rest?¡±


    Ever since Stronghold 113 was destroyed, Fatty Luo had been traveling nonstop, going from the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold to the Yang Consortium¡¯s stronghold.


    After the entire Southwest was unified, he came to the Central ins again. It was as though he could never take an idle moment.


    Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°The world does not give anyone a chance to catch a breather. The world is constantly changing, so people have to change with it as well. Take the Shen n of Stronghold 176, for example. They did not seek to improve themselves, and look what happened in the end. Can any of us really getfortable in this chaotic world?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. His greatest dream was to make a utopia where he could lead a peaceful life with no worries. But when Luo Lan said that, Ren Xiaosu was reminded of those bandits in the valley again.


    When the matter with the Anjing House was settled, he might have to make a trip to the valley.


    Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said in a serious tone, ¡°Go back to the Northwest as soon as possible. That¡¯s where you belong. Qing Zhen and I also hope you¡¯ll be the one to seed Zhang Jinglin in the future. That way, the Qing Consortium and the Northwest will be able to continue getting along peacefully.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s too early to talk about that.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head, refusing to continue the conversation.


    Luo Lan looked into the distance and sighed emotionally. ¡°Qing Zhen said that if he¡¯d been given more free rein previously, he might not have be the head of the Qing Consortium now. I sometimes think that if I hadn¡¯t been born in the Qing Consortium, I¡¯d¡¯ve opened a small business, married a beautiful wife, and had a younger brother who¡¯s an official. I¡¯d be happy enough to lead such a life and not be tired like this.¡±


    Listening to Luo Lan¡¯s description of his dreams, Ren Xiaosu thought it sounded like a familiar story. He pondered for a moment before eximing, ¡°Wu Dng?!¡±[1]


    Luo Lan was confused.


    [1] [Annotation text missing]

 Chapter 774 - The steam locomotive gets pursued

    <h4>Chapter 774: The steam lotive gets pursued</h4>


    Luo Lan sulked to the Zhou Consortium.


    Even though he and Ren Xiaosu had formed a solid friendship, and even though he knew how annoying Ren Xiaosu was usually, he would still get angry at him if there was a reason to.


    For his trip to the Zhou Consortium in the South this time, Luo Lan had nned to get there by going around the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory. As such, he could not travel together with Ren Xiaosu.


    ording to him, the Wang Consortium was increasingly getting crazier by the day. In normal times, he might be able to go there and walk around openly since both parties had maintained a polite restraint with each other. But as of now, who knew if the Wang Consortium would do something bad to him?


    Ren Xiaosu watched Luo Lan¡¯s receding figure as he left, while Yang Xiaojin stood beside him with her hands in her jacket pockets. They were the only ones left in the originally bustling group.


    ¡°Whatcha you thinking about?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve been constantly faced with separation ever since I left Stronghold 113¡¯s town.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I guess this is what adult life is like.¡±


    But not long after Luo Lan left, the sound of a steam lotive traveling through the wilderness could be heard.


    As the sound approached, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. ¡°Wang Congyang?¡±


    Honestly speaking, they did not expect to bump into Wang Congyang here. Didn¡¯t he flee from the Sacred Mountains? Why would he appear here?


    And from the sound of it, the steam lotive seemed to be traveling from the direction of the Sacred Mountains towards them at full speed.


    The two of them hid behind a mound and waited to see what was going on. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Could he be here to seek revenge on me? That old bastard is usually very cautious. He can¡¯t be that bold, right?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu in silence. So in your opinion, seeking revenge on you was a sign of audacity?


    While pondering, Ren Xiaosu could see the steam lotive appearing on the horizon. The steam lotive kicked up a cloud of dust and smoke in its wake, looking like it was making an extremely powerful appearance.


    For some reason, the rugged-looking steam lotive looked particrlypatible with the wilderness out here.


    ¡°Wait a minute,¡± Yang Xiaojin said as she held up her spotting scope, ¡°There¡¯s others behind the steam lotive.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see through his spotting scope about 10 off-road vehicles following the steam lotive. It looked like they were aggressively chasing after Wang Congyang!


    ¡°A great escape in the wilderness? A grand pursuit in the wilderness? This is spectacr!¡± Ren Xiaosu eximed emotionally as he looked on in amazement.


    Some time ago, he had heard the female singer, Li Ran, discussing making movies with Director Mu. They both expressed it would be very difficult for the film industry to recover to its previous level before The Cataclysm as there were too many scenes that could not be achieved now.


    That was why Director Mu Wan¡¯ge wanted to make a documentary about supernatural beings. That was because the actualbat scenes of supernatural beings these days were even more enjoyable to watch than the stunts and special effects in movies before The Cataclysm.


    In the past, who would really destroy a stronghold for you to see? Who could witness what a real cave-in at ake looked like?


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be thinking about how to solve this current situation?¡± Yang Xiaojin reminded him.


    ¡°Oh, yeah.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Wait, let¡¯s see what happens next.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Who could possibly be so bored to pursue Wang Congyang out here in the middle of nowhere?


    Oh, it wasn¡¯t without reason, after all. Ren Xiaosu had seen the Pyro Company¡¯s logo on the off-road vehicles at the back. From the looks of it, they had been chasing him all the way here from the Sacred Mountains.


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°It¡¯s all my fault.... There¡¯s a total of seven off-road vehicles behind the steam lotive. They should all be from the Pyro Company. Let¡¯s get rid of them first. I feel that killing them should be a higher priority than taking Wang Congyang out.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Yang Xiaojin had already conjured her ck sniper rifle and started adjusting the scope¡¯s ranging. ¡°Let¡¯s switch to incendiary bullets and just blow up the fuel tanks first. I¡¯ll take the four vehicles at the back, and you can take the three in front.¡±


    No matter how powerful Ren Xiaosu was now, Yang Xiaojin was still the main force when it came to sniping targets.


    Wang Congyang, who was fleeing for his life, suddenly heard a sniper rifle go off. After the sniper rifle¡¯s gunshot rang out, it was followed by the sound of an off-road vehicle exploding behind him.


    When Wang Congyang turned around, he was overjoyed. He looked out of the steam lotive¡¯s window and was surprised to see the Pyro Company¡¯s vehicles that had been pestering him for a long time had exploded into balls of fire one after another.


    Over the past few days, Wang Congyang edged to the verge of a breakdown. At the beginning, he thought he would shake off the pursuers behind him very quickly. However, he realized he was wrong.


    The Pyro Company was far more determined to kill him than he had imagined.


    Although the Pyro Company needed to stop their vehicles and get gas from the trunks to refuel, there were limitations to his superpower as well. Otherwise, he would also have sixteen carriages instead of only four.


    Afterwards, Wang Congyang started traveling over the treacherous mountains as he attempted to make use of the terrain to shake off his Pyro Company pursuers. However, a new convoy would always manage to catch up with him. There were even T5batants deployed to encircle and intercept him in the mountains.


    Wang Congyang was puzzled. ¡®<i>Did I dig up your Pyro Company¡¯s ancestral grave or what? What are you all getting so mad about?!</i>¡®


    In the end, Wang Congyang had no choice but to head all the way south towards the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory. Surely the Pyro Company¡¯s troops wouldn¡¯t go so far as to cause trouble in the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory, right? Even if they did, the Wang Consortium would not agree to it!


    That was what led to the sight Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were witnessing at this moment.


    Wang Congyang continued watching as the vehicles behind him exploded into fireballs one after another. He was extremely delighted. ¡°Where did this hero pop out from? Someone actually stepped in to help me in the face of injustice!¡±


    With that, Wang Congyang drove the steam lotive right for the sniper¡¯s gunshots. Just as he was about to get close, he suddenly narrowed his eyes and tried his best to make out who was helping him.


    But at this moment, the ominous feeling within Wang Congyang started getting stronger, until he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attire clearly.


    ¡°Fuck!¡±


    Wang Congyang panicked. He got very flustered!


    When he saw the Pyro Company had been attacked, he thought it was the Wang Consortium that had stepped in. Now that they were inside the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory, who knew if it were the Wang Consortium¡¯s border guards who had ambushed the Pyro Company here?


    But the moment he saw Ren Xiaosu, he immediately understood that after the Pyro Company members were all dead, he would be the next to die.


    Sometimes, the enemy of the enemy might not be your friend, but still an enemy.


    When the steam lotive in the wilderness made a sudden left turn, the inertia caused the rear of the train carriages to nearly swing into the air. From afar, it seemed like all four segments of the steam lotive had justpleted a drift in the wilderness.


    ¡°What a spectacr sight!¡± Ren Xiaosu said again emotionally.


    He was about to pull the trigger to blow up the final vehicle of his target. But before he could pull the trigger, the vehicle exploded. It was Yang Xiaojin who fired at it.


    Although they had agreed that Yang Xiaojin would take four vehicles while Ren Xiaosu took three, Yang Xiaojin blew up five of them in the end.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this was probably the difference between a Master Firearms Proficiency user and a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user.


    But a secondter, a shadow leaped out of thest vehicle that was engulfed in mes. Although the other party¡¯s clothes were on fire, he seemed to be fine.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a frown, ¡°There¡¯s even a T5?¡±

 Chapter 775 - Tragic snowflakes

    <strong>Chapter 775: Tragic snowkes</strong>


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the Pyro Company¡¯s logo, he roughly understood why Wang Congyang was being pursued.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu was not forgetful to the point he wouldn¡¯t know what he had done.


    But he did not expect there to actually be a T5batant among the Pyro Company¡¯s convoy that was pursuing Wang Congyang.


    Even for the Pyro Company, T5batants were a very valuable asset. More than a dozen of them had probably been killed in the Sacred Mountains. But they even sent out a T5batant to hunt down Wang Congyang. It could be seen how much emphasis the Pyro Company ced on capturing him.


    They saw the T5batant dashing madly through the wilderness. His shirt gradually burned to nothing and exposed his dark grayish skin. He had a look like he had been smoked on a grill.


    His hair and eyebrows were burnt off, and it looked like a hairless hound had just crawled out of hell.


    However, this T5batant was no longer targeting Wang Congyang. He had turned his sights to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin!


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Should I use the ck bullet? He can¡¯t avoid it since he has to take some time to make a turn at the speed he¡¯s going.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a pain in his heart. ¡°Ahem, you can take a break first. Let¡¯s not use the ck bullet yet. I don¡¯t want you to get exhausted.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin covered her mouth and nearly burst outughing. She always enjoyed seeing Ren Xiaosu try to make up some dignified excuse when he was obviously just stingy.


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu jumped out from behind the mound and rushed straight for the T5batant.


    With just a slight calction of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s speed, the T5batant sneered on the inside. When he realized the human in front of him would not be a match for him, he even gave a slight smirk at the thought of it.


    A sniper had actually given up on what he was best at to fight him in closebat? What else could he be other than suicidal?


    But even if the sniper were to use his sniper rifle, it would be useless. He was already within a 100 meters of him. No matter how good the two snipers¡¯ marksmanship was, not even the gods could save them now!


    Then the T5batant noticed from the corner of his eye that the steam lotive he had been chasing for two days hade to a stop a distance away.


    The T5batant was puzzled. Why had the other party stopped fleeing? Was he not afraid he would continue pursuing him after getting rid of these two?


    But he did not have time to think about that. The T5batant looked seriously at the oing Ren Xiaosu and thought the young man was pretty brave. He even dared to take on a T5batant like him single-handedly.


    As he was thinking, the T5batant was knocked into the air by ¡°Old Xu,¡± who had appeared out of nowhere.


    The huge collision force from the side left the T5batant at a loss. His entire body started twisting at this moment, and hepleted three full turns in midair. This was followed by the sound of a sniper rifle.


    While the T5batant was in midair, he saw a young girl pulling the trigger. However, he felt that as long as he could quickly dodge, the bullet could not get to him.


    But in fact, Yang Xiaojin had fired three shots in a row. Even though the T5batant was spinning rapidly in midair after being knocked into the air by Old Xu, every bulletnded in the same wound.


    The three bullets pierced right through the T5batant!


    The T5batant fell to the ground like a tattered cloth bag. Ren Xiaosu dusted off the nonexistent dust from his hands when he saw that the T5batant was dead. ¡°These T5s seem quite stupid. They just don¡¯t seem to understand that all is fair in war. Did they sacrifice a portion of their intelligence on the path of evolution?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s possible.¡± Yang Xiaojin put away her weapon and got up. ¡°They¡¯re different from supernatural beings since they rely on external factors to evolve, so there might be some repercussions. But most supernatural beings who encounter them will still end up in a tragic state.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the steam lotive that was parked in the distant wilderness. Wang Congyang was inside that train, and it seemed as though he was about to run away again at any moment.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t that guy take the opportunity to escape?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    He heard Wang Congyang shout, ¡°It was you who caused the Pyro Company to go all out to pursue me, right?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. How did Wang Congyang guess? He hollered back, ¡°Wait, I can justify myself!¡±


    Wang Congyang was surprised.


    He nearly spat blood out of the train window. He yelled at Ren Xiaosu, ¡°After I met you at Stronghold 73 when the cave-in happened, the Pyro Company starteding after me. After I met you again in the Sacred Mountains this time, the Pyro Company immediately upped my wanted level on their wanted list. I find it very hard to believe that this is merely a coincidence!¡±


    Although Wang Congyang still did not know what was going on or what had happened, he suddenly gained the ability to conjure an additional ck cauldron after leaving Stronghold 73. He was even wanted by the Pyro Company back then. Now that something simr had happened again, and his ck cauldron had also be bigger, he knew this was definitely not a coincidence!


    At that time, he felt that something was amiss. Since Xu Xianchu also had a ck cauldron, how did he end up having the same power as him? Something must have gone wrong somewhere.


    And wasn¡¯t carrying the ck cauldron a metaphor for taking the rap for someone? This was as straightforward as it could get. All that wascking was expressing it explicitly.


    Xu Xianchu was probably unaware of the origins of his ck cauldron and might even feel pleased about getting a new power, but how could Wang Congyang not have thought of it?


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°It really has nothing to do with me!¡±


    Wang Congyang slowly calmed down. ¡°Regardless of whether you admit it or not, I already have a rough idea of what happened. Although I don¡¯t know how you did it, I hereby formally apologize to you. As the saying goes, ¡®An eye for an eye makes the world go blind.¡¯ Why don¡¯t we turn our hostility into friendship? You can just continue on your path, and I¡¯ll continue providing my delivery services! I didn¡¯t have a choice in the past, but now I just want to be a good person!¡±


    These were Wang Congyang¡¯s heartfelt words. He really did not want to get involved in those strange matters anymore. He already had enough money to spend, yet he was still being hunted by enemies every day. Who could he go and reason with?!


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and replied, ¡°And what if I say no? You¡¯ve found trouble with me on more than one asion, haven¡¯t you?¡±


    Wang Congyang nearly broke down. ¡°Why would you say no? Didn¡¯t you kill my cousin as well? Actually, I didn¡¯t have a good rtionship with that cousin of mine. Do you remember when I went to search your house for the first time? I even said that it would be great if you were a soldier under me. You¡¯re much more capable than those good-for-nothings. In fact, I didn¡¯t have any intention of killing you back then.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. ¡°You still think that you¡¯re innocent?¡±


    Wang Congyang said resentfully, ¡°Hold it right there. I know that each snowke in an avnche pleads not guilty, but you still can¡¯t single out one snowke and beat it to death!¡±


    A gust of cold wind blew through the wilderness. Other than the sound of the wind, nothing could be heard.


    Yang Xiaojin, who was standing off to the side, suddenly said, ¡°You might have misunderstood. Ren Xiaosu isn¡¯t singling you out.¡±


    Wang Congyang was stunned. ¡°Then what?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said in an exceptionally serious tone, ¡°He¡¯s gonna beat every single snowke to death.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    A cloud of ck smoke suddenly spewed out of the steam lotive¡¯s smokestack. Wang Congyang was choosing to leave immediately! It would not be wise to stay here any longer!


    Yang Xiaojin looked curiously at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Did I scare him off?¡±

 Chapter 776 - Winning over people with virtue

    <h4>Chapter 776: Winning over people with virtue</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu watched as the steam lotive disappeared into the distance. ¡°He ran off just like that?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Wang Congyang flee, he lost interest in pursuing him. In order to keep up with Wang Congyang¡¯s speed, he would have to use his own steam lotive for the pursuit until Wang Congyang waspletely exhausted.


    Second, Ren Xiaosu felt it was an option to keep the other party alive so he could continue taking the me. Of course, he could not let others know about this thought of his.


    Yang Xiaojin nced at Ren Xiaosu before conjuring her ck sniper rifle. ¡°Should we go after him?¡±


    ¡°Unnecessary.¡± Ren Xiaosu quickly stopped Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°Look, my questioning just now has already made him so ashamed that he wants to be a good person. Let¡¯s not keep fighting and killing all day. We have to win people over with virtue.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin wondered, ¡°You? Win over people with virtue?¡±


    Honestly, no matter how much Yang Xiaojin glorified Ren Xiaosu in her mind, she would still find it very difficult to associate him with that saying.


    But after pondering for a while, Yang Xiaojin took out a dagger from her boot and carved ¡°virtue¡± in small letters on the ck sniper rifle¡¯s butt.


    Then Yang Xiaojin decisively fired at the steam lotive in the distance. She stood steadily as though she were not affected by the recoil at all.


    About a secondter, when the bullet hit the train, Wang Congyang nearly spat blood in the carriage. After all, any attacks on the steam lotive would be transferred back onto the user.


    But he did not have time for that. The most important thing now was to quickly get out of this damned ce.


    Yang Xiaojin put down the ck sniper rifle and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Did you mean this way of winning over people with virtue?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. What was with this girl¡¯sprehension of things? Her interpretation of ¡°winning over people with virtue¡± was to carve the word ¡°virtue¡± in the butt of the rifle and shoot at someone with it?


    Using ¡°virtue¡± to win over someone?


    More importantly, she was actually able to carve the word on it. ¡®<i>That¡¯s the fucking ck sniper rifle, alright!</i>¡®


    Ren Xiaosu picked up Yang Xiaojin¡¯s ck sniper rifle and saw ¡°virtue¡± elegantly inscribed on it. It was like it originally came with the rifle.


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. ¡°Well, if you say so I guess...¡±


    He looked up at the sky andmented how the girl next to him was so much more resolute than him the majority of the time.


    But wasn¡¯t this the reason why he liked her?


    ...


    Stronghold 61 was now in a very orderly state. Residents could leave their doors open at night and no one would take things that were not theirs.


    Currently, not only were there surveince cameras installed in the stronghold, even the town had them as well.


    As such, when Ren Xiaosu finally returned to Stronghold 61¡¯s town again, he somehow felt very ufortable everywhere he went. This was no longer the town he was familiar with.


    The shacks in front of them were still dpidated and the roads remained muddy. However, brand new surveince cameras were now installed above their heads.


    Ren Xiaosu found it a little ironic. Actually, the Wang Consortium did notck any money since it was located in one of the richest regions in the Central ins. However, they would rather fill the town with surveince cameras than build more brick houses for the refugees to have homes to live in.


    It was really a little out of ce for these technologically advanced surveince cameras to appear in the slums.


    When Ren Xiaosu led Yang Xiaojin into town, he said to her, ¡°This was where I lived when I first arrived at the Central ins. At that time, I wanted to look for y¡¯all, but I didn¡¯t know where to start and didn¡¯t dare to expose my identity. After that, I got to know about the Anjing House through the storyteller and had wanted to join them to make use of their resources to search for everyone. But I slowly realized that the Anjing House was not as honest as what they say, so I gradually dropped the idea.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°The Anjing House was actually abandoned as soon as it was established. It was just a disguise for the Saboteurs¡¯ external affairs. My aunt never seemed to have any intention of managing it seriously, but even so, the Anjing House has be thergest assassin organization in the Central ins.¡±


    In seriousness, both Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin really admired how capable Yang Anjing was. It was just that they did not approve of what she had done.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°The tavern is just up ahead. When I had free time, I would order a bowl ofmb stew, read some books, and listen to stories about me....¡±


    Yang Xiaojin curled her lips. ¡°Listening to stories about yourself is the highlight, right?¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha, no, that¡¯s not it,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with augh.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that a surveince camera above his head seemed to be following him wherever he moved. It made him feel like he was being watched from behind by something that had developed a strong interest in him.


    But when Ren Xiaosu looked up, that surveince camera stopped moving. Then, when Ren Xiaosu tried walking out of the surveince camera¡¯s field of view, it did not follow him anymore.


    ¡°I wonder what the hell this AI thing really is.¡± Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°It seems that the Wang Consortium really trusts this thing that they¡¯ve created. But I get the feeling that the stronghold residents won¡¯t be too happy about being monitored by the surveince cameras all the time. Or should I say, they won¡¯t dare to feel unhappy....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had already led Yang Xiaojin into the tavern. He heard the storyteller saying, ¡°But my dear audience, what you don¡¯t realize is that the prominent White Mask is actually only a superpower of some supernatural being. When this fact is made known, the world will be shocked!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was stunned. Could this tavern be specially catered for Ren Xiaosu? Why did she hear something rted to Ren Xiaosu as soon as they stepped into the tavern?


    When she turned around, she realized Ren Xiaosu was already listening to the story with relish!


    But something unexpected happened at this moment. Yang Xiaojin suddenly saw a girl re at her. After ring at her, that girl looked at Ren Xiaosu and nearly burst into tears.


    Yang Xiaojin could not help but think about what Ren Xiaosu had done during the time she and Ren Xiaosu were separated. Zhou Yingxue had only just left, but here came another girl throwing herself at him.


    Ren Xiaosu did not notice Xiaolu¡¯s expression at all. He just said to the waiter, ¡°I¡¯ll have two sets ofmb stew! Top it up with 20 yuan of meat!¡±


    He would have to be more generous! He was treating Yang Xiaojin to a meal after all!


    Realizing that Ren Xiaosu was back, the storyteller drew the story to a natural close and proceeded with setting up the highlights of the next session.


    He touched Xiaolu¡¯s face and whispered, ¡°Silly girl! Wasn¡¯t he also here with another girl the previous time?¡±


    Although the storyteller did not want Xiaolu to have anything to do with Ren Xiaosu, his heart would still ache when his granddaughter was sad.


    Xiaolu whispered in grief, ¡°It¡¯s different this time. He didn¡¯t like that woman from thest time.¡±


    ¡°What about this time?¡± The storyteller was amused instead.


    ¡°The way he looked at that girl this time is different. He really likes her.¡± After that, Xiaolu went into the kitchen without even greeting Ren Xiaosu.


    The storyteller cursed in his head before walking over slowly to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You¡¯re lucky to havee back at this time. Otherwise, you wouldn¡¯t see us anymore.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression immediately changed. ¡°Are you serious? You still look quite healthy to me.¡±


    The storyteller spat, ¡°I don¡¯t mean that I¡¯m dying, but it¡¯s just too depressing to be constantly living under the surveince of that annoying Wang Consortium¡¯s AI.¡±

 Chapter 777 - Therapy

    <h4>Chapter 777: Therapy</h4>


    Before meeting the storyteller, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s impression of the artificial intelligence was that even though he did not like it, he felt it might be better at maintainingw and order. However, he was not really bothered since he did not n on living in the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds anyway.


    But now, even the storyteller wanted to move away from the Wang Consortium because of it.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Is it that serious?¡±


    The storyteller sighed and said, ¡°Initially, I thought that there wouldn¡¯t be any surveince cameras installed in town. But I didn¡¯t expect that even the town would have them as well. Because of that, the sources for my stories have been cut off since many people no longer dare to provide any material to me.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. ¡®<i>Material? Can¡¯t you just say that they are here to ry intel to you?</i>¡®


    Some time ago, Ren Xiaosu learned this storyteller was definitely not what he seemed. How else could hee up with those new stories so frequently? Sometimes, he might even be more updated than the intelligence agencies of many organizations. In that case, how could it be ordinary material that he was getting?


    Moreover, when Yang Anjing came to town back then, the storyteller immediately had Xiaolu inform Ren Xiaosu about it. It was obvious he knew who she was.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the storyteller and asked, ¡°How long have you lived in this town? Can you move away that easily?¡±


    The storyteller said with another sigh, ¡°I¡¯m really quite reluctant to move away after living here for over a decade. But we don¡¯t have a choice. The Wang Consortium¡¯s control will only get stricter in the future. This ce won¡¯t be able to amodate us anymore.¡±


    ¡°Then have you thought about where to go?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again.


    The storyteller shook his head. ¡°I haven¡¯t thought of it yet.¡±


    ¡°Then I have a suggestion.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Based on your facial structure¡ª¡±


    ¡°The Prosperous Northwest?¡± interrupted the storyteller.


    ¡°Yes, the Prosperous Northwest.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not feel any embarrassment about being exposed. So it turned out the storyteller was already aware of the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s tricks?


    Yang Xiaojin quietly turned her head and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡®<i>This Great Hoodwinker is way too influential. He even managed to infect Ren Xiaosu with his enthusiasm?</i>¡®


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How did you know I was going to bring up the Prosperous Northwest?¡±


    The storyteller snapped, ¡°That Great Hoodwinker has read my fortune more than a dozen times over the years. Every time he does, he talks about the ¡®Prosperous Northwest.¡¯ He didn¡¯t even bothering up with something new. Of course, the Northwest is also within my consideration. But I still have to think about where the safest ce is.¡±


    But at this moment, someone pushed open the tavern¡¯s door. The storyteller immediately turned around and headed into the kitchen as though he did not know Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see the other party was a young man. He politely said to Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Hello, my name is Wang Run. I¡¯ve been instructed to pick you up and bring you into the stronghold. Amodations have already been arranged, and there¡¯ll be a dinner party in the evening.¡±


    Although the young man was very polite, he had a domineering aura about him. He was neither servile nor overbearing as he stood there, giving people a sense of oppression.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully sized up the other party. He had a vague feeling the man might be a supernatural being. Wang Run suddenly gave him the impression that he was one of those Imperial Guardmanders as told in the storyteller¡¯s tales.


    But he and Yang Xiaojin had not told anyone they wereing to Stronghold 61¡¯s town. When they got here, they also did not encounter anyone from the Wang Consortium. How did the Wang Consortium¡¯s people know they had already arrived? And they even found them at the tavern so quickly?


    Wait a minute! This was probably the work of the artificial intelligence, right?


    Ren Xiaosu got up. ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡±


    His motive foring to Stronghold 61 was so he could fulfill his promises to Yang Anjing. He did not care about anything else.


    Ren Xiaosu had also discussed it with Yang Xiaojin. Once the three tasks werepleted, they would immediately set off for the Northwest. They would no longer care about what was going on in the Central ins and would focus on the development of the Northwest.


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu was worried Yang Xiaojin might not be willing to go to the Northwest due to the harsh climate. After all, life would really be much tougher there than in the Central ins.


    However, Yang Xiaojin really did not mind it.


    The car was already waiting outside of the tavern. After Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin got onto the off-road vehicle, it drove off towards the stronghold.


    Currently, the Wang Consortium¡¯s administrative center was being shifted over to Stronghold 61. Meanwhile, Wang Shengzhi had already moved his official residence here.


    Thest time Ren Xiaosu was in Stronghold 61, it was to resolve the creeper vine crisis. Even now, the entire supernatural world was still unaware of how the creeper vine had died, with the case bing an unresolved mystery.


    Someone said the creeper vine had gained sapience and gained a human form to bring disaster upon the human world. Others also said the creeper vine had been taken care of by the Wang Consortium¡¯s experts. In any case, there were all kinds of spection...


    Only a few people who had personally been through the disaster would know that all of the creeper vines¡¯ energy had been absorbed by Zhou Yingxue.


    Even people like Luo Lan would act very politely towards Zhou Yingxue now when they saw her.


    After entering the stronghold, the off-road vehicle drove along the long main avenue. Ren Xiaosu saw through the window that the pedestrians would hurriedly lower their heads subconsciously after noticing the off-road vehicle. It seemed as though they were afraid to look directly at it.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Wang Run who was sitting in the front passenger seat, ¡°I noticed that the pedestrians all seem to be hurrying somewhere. Where are they going?¡±


    Wang Run replied, ¡°It¡¯s already past noon. They¡¯re probably on their way back to work after lunch.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°I heard that everyone here has work to do and food to eat. Is that true?¡±


    Wang Run replied rather proudly, ¡°Yes, no one here suffers from starvation, and everyone is leading a very fulfilling life. We¡¯re already two months into the new year, but there¡¯s only been two cases of crime in the stronghold.¡±


    ¡°Did they choose their own jobs or...¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The stronghold will assign them their jobs. After their personal details are inputted by the staff into the system, the AI will allocate jobs to them urately,¡± Wang Run replied.


    ¡°But what if the people don¡¯t like what they were assigned?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°This allocation method assigns the most suitable jobs to them in a rational manner.¡±


    ¡°I mean, what if they don¡¯t like the job they were assigned?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly. Just like how some people might really be more suited for a logistics job but prefer doing something more challenging like sales, how should their jobs be chosen?


    Moreover, jobs like writers, painters, sculptors, philosophers, and other kinds of artistic work would probably not be allowed to exist anymore in such an environment. Although these jobs seemed a little mismatched with the current world, weren¡¯t these ¡°useless¡± things also one of the cornerstones of human development?


    Although Ren Xiaosu did not really like those people who dabbled in the arts, he also felt it was a little wrong topletely eliminate them.


    Therefore, he asked Wang Run what would happen if those people did not like their assigned jobs.


    Wang Run thought for a moment before answering, ¡°We have a specialized therapy team in the stronghold. When someone is feeling conflicted about their work, there¡¯ll be a counseling team assigned to help them.¡±


    ¡°Counseling?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment.


    For some reason, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine when he heard those words. However, he was unable to describe why he had this feeling.

 Chapter 778 - Became braver today

    <h4>Chapter 778: Became braver today</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not know what this ¡°therapy¡± was about. He just felt the Wang Consortium¡¯s methods were too overbearing.


    Ren Xiaosu felt it was only natural that there were people in the world who did not like doing things they were good at. For example, Qing Zhen often said he did not like wars, but he was good at resolving them. For example, even though Zhang Baogen was a supernatural being, he felt that his calling was to bring joy to children living in the orphanage.


    Even though Zhang Baogen¡¯s saliva bubble power had be extremely powerful, and even though it smelled like celery, everyone should be able to make their own choices.


    Alright, maybe having such choices and preferences was insignificant in your Wang Consortium¡¯s stronghold.


    But what subtle impression would you give to those people by putting them in therapy? ¡°If you think that you don¡¯t like your current job, that¡¯s because there¡¯s something wrong with your mentality, so you need therapy.¡±


    You would be implying that they were in the wrong, so we, the Wang Consortium, would help you to get back on track by giving you therapy.


    Ren Xiaosu could not agree with this method. For example, if someone were to say to him, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, since you¡¯re so good at killing people, you should help everyone kill people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu would definitely smash that person¡¯s head in.


    Moreover, at this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that the word ¡°therapy¡± had suddenly be a very taboo word in the stronghold. This was something he found difficult to ept.


    He could even imagine that if a very stubborn person were to suddenly appear in this stronghold and was not willing to do the job that was assigned to him by the artificial intelligence, that person might just end up getting ¡°counseled¡± endlessly.


    What a horrifying feeling this was.


    It was no wonder the stronghold residents would subconsciously lower their heads when they saw the Wang Consortium¡¯s vehicle.


    Ren Xiaosu did not make any furtherments on this matter. He was not the savior of the world, nor did he have any better or more reasonable suggestions. He only wanted to fulfill his promises quickly and leave this ce.


    The off-road vehicle drove for nearly 40 minutes as Ren Xiaosu silently mapped out the route in his mind.


    When he was here with Zhou Yingxue the previous time, he had memorized the map of Stronghold 61. Although he did not have a photographic memory like Wang Yun, he could still roughly memorize it.


    At this moment, the female celebrity, Li Ran, who was walking out of a vi on the side of the road, was taken aback when she saw the off-road vehicle driving past her.


    Her new assistant, who was standing beside her, asked, ¡°Ranran, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Li Ran looked in the direction of the departed off-road vehicle. ¡°I think I saw someone familiar, an acquaintance.¡±


    Li Ran had already been living in Stronghold 61. She was rescued by Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue during the creeper vine crisis. Later, she came back after the stronghold was rebuilt. After all, she would have some feelings for the ce where she grew up.


    When Li Ran saw Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin sitting inside the Wang Consortium¡¯s vehicle, she felt a little jealous for some reason.


    She used to look down on Ren Xiaosu. Butter, she realized she was unable to understand the world he was living in.


    The assistant turned to look at Li Ran. ¡°Is it just an acquaintance?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Li Ran calmed herself down and replied, ¡°Come on, let¡¯s head to the event.¡±


    The assistant had some thoughts about this. Judging by Li Ran¡¯s disappointed expression, it was apparent that the person was no ordinary acquaintance.


    The off-road vehicle stopped at a quiet street after driving down the avenue. When Wang Run got out of the vehicle, he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°We¡¯ve arranged these two courtyard houses as your amodation. This is specifically where our Wang Consortium receives our distinguished guests.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had a look at the two courtyard houses. They were not big, but they stood secluded and elegant.


    However, he felt that something was off. ¡°Something¡¯s not right!¡±


    Wang Run was stunned. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    ¡°Why are there two courtyard houses?¡± Ren Xiaosu said earnestly, ¡°One courtyard house should be sufficient for the two of us. We¡¯re only here on a visit. If we also take up your resources used for receiving distinguished guests, isn¡¯t that such a waste? No, no, you can go and tell your higher-ups that the two of us can stay together.¡±


    Wang Run was stunned and did not know how to respond. He saw Yang Xiaojin push open the door to her courtyard house. As she walked in, she said scornfully, ¡°You¡¯re making it sound like you have the balls to stay with me.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin knew Ren Xiaosu too well. From his behavior in the wilderness, how could she not know how cowardly he was? Now that they were here, he actually even put in a request like that?


    Ren Xiaosu stood on the street looking confused. Wang Run said, ¡°You two can rest up first. I¡¯lle and deliver the two of you to the boss¡¯s residence when it¡¯s time for the party.¡±


    After that, Wang Run went away.


    Ren Xiaosu stood still and started thinking about the amodations. It must have been Yang Xiaojin¡¯s aunt who arranged for them to stay in two separate courtyard houses.


    How could anyone do something like that? How could he waste the stronghold¡¯s resources when there were still so many homeless people? This would make him feel bad!


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu walked over to Yang Xiaojin¡¯s courtyard house and tried to push the door open. However, he realized she had already locked it from the inside.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°Why did you lock the door? You scared or something?!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin, who was inside, said, ¡°Well done, you¡¯ve be braver today. You even know toe over and open the door yourself.¡± Then she returned to the house with a smile without any intention of opening the door for Ren Xiaosu.


    In the end, when Ren Xiaosu went back over and was about to enter his courtyard house with his head down, a familiar voice rang out from the other side, ¡°Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and was surprised to see Jiang Xu walking out from another courtyard house with several reporters next to him. Curious, he asked, ¡°Why are you also here at Stronghold 61?¡±


    Jiang Xu said with a smile, ¡°I came to see what the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI is about and took the opportunity to hold some sses here as well. Just as I was getting bored, you arrived. So, what are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a long story.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°I promised someone I¡¯d do three things for them within my power.¡±


    ...


    Yan Liuyuan led Hassan, Bn Zir, Kirghiz Yan, and the others back to the imperial court in the grasnds in the North. But when they arrived, they noticed the women and children in the tribe were all looking a little flustered.


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s voice came from under his ck facete, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? What happened?¡±


    Xiaoyu came out from the royal tent to wee back Yan Liuyuan. She took a look at Yan Liuyuan first to see if he was injured before saying, ¡°I told you about that newly discovered salt pool a few dozen kilometers away from here before. But our people who went there to harvest salt two days ago never returned. I sent out some of the warriors to go and investigate, but they only brought back a few bodies.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. ¡°Was it the wolves?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Xiaoyu shook her head. ¡°They were sh wounds. The right ears of the bodies were also cut off.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly looked at Bn Zir. ¡°Are there any other tribes on the steppe?¡±


    Bn Zir shook his head and said, ¡°No, they¡¯re all here. However, there were simr incidents during earlier years. But I heard it happened somewhere further north. After that, it became too cold and was inhabitable to people. There was always a legend on the steppe that our north is not the steppe. There¡¯s in fact still some humans living in that freezing ce, but no one has ever seen them before. Or rather, those who encountered them all ended up dead.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked north of the grasnds. To many in the Central ins, the boundary of the Northern ins was the grasnds, and the enemies were the nomads.


    However, many of them had neglected one thing: There was still the north further north of the grasnds.

 Chapter 779 - Choosing teammates

    <h4>Chapter 779: Choosing teammates</h4>


    When night was about to fall, Ren Xiaosu reluctantly put away the chess pieces. He looked at Jiang Xu and said, ¡°Your skill seems to have deteriorated a little.¡±


    Jiang Xu¡¯s eyebrows twitched, and he said with a livid expression, ¡°You better get lost while I can still hold myself back.¡±


    Several of the reporters standing around them sniggered. They had never seen their chief editor lose so badly in front of anyone before. In fact, Jiang Xu¡¯s chess skill was well-known throughout all of Luoyang City. Jiang Xu used to go searching for other seniors to y chess with in Luoyang City. He defeated them all and became the best elderly chess yer.


    But now, Jiang Xu did not even manage to win once having yed three games against Ren Xiaosu.


    Of course, it was not that Ren Xiaosu was good at ying chess. This happened purely because he was utterly shameless.


    Jiang Xu¡¯s general could only move one step at a time while Ren Xiaosu could move his 10 steps.


    Based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s exnation, it was normal that Jiang Xu could only move one step at a time since he was advanced in age and his legs were not good. However, Ren Xiaosu was still young, and he was a supernatural being at that too, so it was natural that he should be allowed to move 10 steps at a time.


    In fact, he had even tested it before. A normal car might not be able to outrun him in the wilderness.


    Jiang Xu felt that ying chess with Ren Xiaosu was bing more like a farce. He said, ¡°Back to the main topic, I suggest you don¡¯t get too close to the Wang Consortium. When I first came to the Wang Consortium, I felt the AI was quite good. Without mentioning other things, at the very least, everyone in the stronghold has enough food to eat and clothes to keep warm. Butter, when I learned about their therapy, I started having second thoughts. Furthermore, the Wang Consortium is overly ambitious. I suspect the sudden eruption of the war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium is also closely rted to the Wang Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll be careful.¡±


    As they chatted, Wang Run¡¯s vehicle was waiting outside. After bidding Jiang Xu goodbye, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin got into the car and headed to the dinner party. He mainly wanted to find out what Wang Shengzhi and Yang Anjing were up to tonight.


    After Ren Xiaosu left, the reporters standing around Jiang Xu asked excitedly, ¡°Chief Editor, was that him?¡±


    Jiang Xu nodded and said with a smile, ¡°Yes, that was him.¡±


    A reporter asked, ¡°Can you get some autographs for us? He was so cool when he protected our Hope Media HQ!¡±


    During the battle in Luoyang City, the reporters and editors were all working inside the building. That night, everyone thought Hope Media was going to perish. But in the end, that person single-handedly took care of all the thugs.


    Copies of that sketch of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back view by the female editor had long ago been made and kept as a collection by the reporters. To these people from Hope Media, Ren Xiaosu was their hero.


    Honestly, even Ren Xiaosu himself was unaware of how popr he was with the employees of Hope Media.


    ...


    The off-road vehicle drove all the way to the northwest of the stronghold. Ren Xiaosu had thought Wang Shengzhi¡¯s official residence would be very luxurious, but he was surprised by it.


    The vehicle drove down a path lined with trees and stopped on the side of the road.


    The old and mottled courtyard house by the roadside was hidden behind dense parasol trees.


    Wang Run pushed open the gate, and Ren Xiaosu stepped onto the limestone bs in the courtyard as he walked in. He could see some bamboo nted around the yard and a koi pond as well. The ce looked rather peaceful andfortable.


    Although the outside world had a lot of negative spection about Wang Shengzhi, Ren Xiaosu was still willing toe to the Wang Consortium to meet him. After all, Wang Shengzhi had saved his life before.


    Even though that red spear had only pierced his appendix, he would probably have died on the shore if no one stopped his bleeding on time and applied medicine for him on a huge wound like that.


    Ren Xiaosu had always been a vengeful person but would repay kindness with kindness. Therefore, this was one of the reasons he made those promises to Yang Anjing. After all, Yang Anjing and the Wang Consortium were now inextricably linked.


    The rtionship between Yang Anjing and the Wang Consortium was definitely not something Ren Xiaosu had blindly spected. Just like this time, he was originally invited here by Yang Anjing, but it was Wang Shengzhi who came to receive him in the end.


    As they walked into the spacious living room, Ren Xiaosu turned around when he heard the sound of a wheelchair moving. He was surprised to see Yang Anjing, who was dressed in her ckbat uniform, pushing Wang Shengzhi out of the hallway in his wheelchair.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. Could these two have already gone beyond a working rtionship?


    He greeted, ¡°Mr. Wang, it¡¯s been a while.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi smiled. ¡°We¡¯re already on such good terms, so don¡¯t address me as Mr. Wang.¡±


    ¡°Then what should I call you?¡± Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a while and tried out, ¡°Uncle?!¡±


    Everyone in the entire vi fell silent.


    Yang Anjing and Yang Xiaojin both looked at him expressionlessly. However, Wang Shengzhi startedughing. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s still better if you address me as Mr. Wang. Come on, the food is ready.¡±


    After that, Yang Anjing wheeled Wang Shengzhi over to the dining room while Ren Xiaosu sat down at the dining table.


    Compared to the grand banquet he had imagined, there were only Yang Anjing, Yang Xiaojin, Wang Shengzhi, and Ren Xiaosu present tonight. The dishes were extremely sumptuous, and Ren Xiaosu could see many servants busily setting up the meal. After he sat down, someone immediatelyid out a napkin for him to prevent any spige from dripping on him.


    To tell the truth, this was the first time Ren Xiaosu realized these big shots were so formal when they ate.


    However, none of that mattered. He only wanted to know what Wang Shengzhi and Yang Anjing were nning to get him to do.


    Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, ¡°Since the two of you hoped for me toe, here I am. What¡¯s the hurry with eating? Although I¡¯ve never had such exotic delicacies ced in front of me before, I can be quite weird. I always find simple food to be more ptable. So, what exactly do you want me to do? Let me say this beforehand: Don¡¯t ask me to do things that are against my will. Whether I agree to it or not will entirely depend on me.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the first task I want to request of you is to allow me to show you what the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI is about.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. ¡°Have you thought it through? Any normal person who gets me to agree to three promises will not waste them like that.¡±


    ¡°In my opinion, this will not be a waste.¡± Wang Shengzhi shook his head. ¡°I went to the Northwest some time ago and personally heard Zhang Jinglin admit he¡¯s nning to hand over control of Fortress 178 to you. Since the Northwest maintains good business and neighborly ties with the Wang Consortium, I feel that you need to understand what the Wang Consortium is doing.¡±


    Of course, it was not as simple as Wang Shengzhi had described. However, only Yang Anjing knew what Wang Shengzhi¡¯s true motive was.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Alright, I can do that.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Wang Shengzhi became happier. Before this, he had been looking a little gloomy. It was only at this moment that he finally cheered up.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°But I don¡¯t understand something. Why do you insist on meing to learn about this AI? Why me?¡±


    Yang Anjing, who had been silent all this while, suddenly said, ¡°If you were faced with a great disaster and revolutionary change, would you rather choose a wolf or a pig as your teammate?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started thinking again. This question felt like it had a more profound meaning to it, and he did not know how he should answer her.


    After a while of silence, he said in a serious tone, ¡°If the conditions allow, I hope that my teammate can be a human...¡±


    Wang Shengzhi, Yang Anjing, and Yang Xiaojin were speechless.

 Chapter 780 - Differing principles, separate paths

    <h4>Chapter 780: Differing principles, separate paths</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu was not trying to be annoying at this moment, but he really believed he did not have any grand ambitions for the world. All he wanted was to live happily with a group of people.


    Whether it be a wolf or a pig that became his teammate, Ren Xiaosu would not mind. The teammates he wanted should all be real people withpassion.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu ced a lot of importance on humanpassion.


    After going through so much, he could only identify with the Northwest because he could sense thepassion he needed there.


    Thispassion was not about whether hisrades were strong and powerful during battles, but that when the battles were over, everyone could support each other while bantering and cursing as they made their way home together.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not see any of this in the Wang Consortium. He could only remember the Wang Consortium¡¯s artificial intelligence and how the Anjing House plotted from afar to bring down the supernatural beings and the ouws in the underworld.


    That was right. After the cave-in at East Lake and the expedition to the Sacred Mountains, the Wang Consortium and the Anjing House had indeed made Ren Xiaosu change his opinion of them. Thest time he met a genius strategist like that was Qing Zhen.


    Actually, Qing Zhen was also decisive in killing people. But his sincere brotherhood with Luo Lan made Ren Xiaosu feel that Qing Zhen had morepassion in him. This was the difference between Qing Zhen and Wang Shengzhi in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes.


    Wang Shengzhi managed to react after a brief moment of surprise. Actually, Ren Xiaosu had already answered his question.


    He said seriously, ¡°I had the same thoughts as you when I was young, but I¡¯ve seen too many shady things going on within the consortiums. So I gradually started to believe that humans managing humans is the beginning of a tragedy, not unlike my own.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi continued, ¡°I¡¯ve met a girl who was vited, but the Public Order Division did not dare to punish the used because he was a member of the Wang n. In the end, I had to personally give the order to sentence the used to life imprisonment. Even today, there are still people pleading for him.


    ¡°I¡¯vee across a traffic ident where a few pedestrians were horsing around in the streets. As a result, they fell down identally and were hit by a car. The driver was not in the wrong at all, yet the Public Order Division made the driverpensate the victims on grounds of humanitarian reasons.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve even seen...¡± Wang Shengzhi sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯ve seen too much, so I want to make a change. Many people think I¡¯m doing all this because of what happened to my legs. But I¡¯ve never defended my reasons and just let them think what they want.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. In truth, none of Wang Shengzhi¡¯s reasons could be said to be wrong. In fact, Ren Xiaosu even supported Wang Shengzhi a little. That was because, at present, it seemed that an absolutely fair artificial intelligence could indeed solve those problems by managing society in ce of humans. At the very least, it would make the family members of the Wang n and stronghold officials behave like they were treading on thin ice.


    If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Wang Shengzhi¡¯s authority was stable, these wealthy and privileged people would have already flipped the table.


    But when Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered the ¡°therapy,¡± he felt a thorn stab his heart.


    While this was only a minor matter, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt he could pry into the logic of the entire artificial intelligence through it. That was a world based on absolute rationality.


    A world without anypassion.


    Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°I¡¯ve run the Wang Consortium for 17 years and brought the troops under my firmmand over that period. I¡¯vepleted the purge within the Wang Consortium¡¯s political system just so I could wait for today to arrive. For the sake of an impartial world, I can sacrifice everything I have now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a long time before saying, ¡°Maybe you won¡¯t like what I have to say, but I think you¡¯re acting too hastily. Perhaps I don¡¯t know how to manage a stronghold or a consortium. But I think that the world you dream of might be realized one day when everyone bes educated and has their basic needs fulfilled. No, it might never be realized even then. I still refuse to ept a world without anypassion in it.¡±


    He knew full well that even if the world were rich in resources and most people could afford to attend school, there would still be beggars, thieves, and criminals around.


    But even at that time, the majority of people would still be passionate about the world and their own lives.


    Meanwhile, with the implementation of the artificial intelligence¡¯s governance, Ren Xiaosu could only see pedestrians walking on the streets with their heads lowered. He could not even sense any warmth in them.


    Jiang Xu¡¯s initial opinion was not wrong. It was already good enough that the refugees could have their basic needs fulfilled in such an era, so why would they insist on more?


    However, Jiang Xu gradually realized what a cold and rational world would do to human civilization.


    Then Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Anjing. ¡°When I first learned about the Saboteurs some time back, I thought that you advocated for peace. But now that war has broken out in the Central ins, the perpetrator turned out to be your Anjing House. I believe that the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium wouldn¡¯t start a war for no reason. It should¡¯ve already been foreshadowed by the expedition to the Sacred Mountains.¡±


    Yang Anjing said calmly, ¡°Only by reunifying the entire Alliance of Strongholds can the mes of war bepletely extinguished. You¡¯ve been through quite a few wars too, haven¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I can understand the logic, and you¡¯re also right.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But that sounds more like an excuse that a politician would make.¡±


    The two sides had started debating. Yang Anjing said seriously, ¡°I never created the Saboteurs to maintain peace. Rather, I did it to get rid of all nuclear weapons in the world. After the AI takes over the running of society, it¡¯ll be fair and impartial in regting all possible nuclear generation methods. Only then can we achieve a truly nuclear-free world.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized this was the basis of Yang Anjing and Wang Shengzhi¡¯s cooperation. Yang Anjing knew that only by working with Wang Shengzhi could she finally achieve her goal once and for all. At that time, even the Saboteurs would not need to exist anymore, because no one could escape the detection of the artificial intelligence to research nuclear weapons.


    That was Yang Anjing¡¯s ultimate objective.


    ¡°Are nuclear weapons really that terrifying?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Of course,¡± Yang Anjing looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°How else do you think we ended up in this era of the wastnds? It was not easy for humans to get some respite for 200 years. Now that someone has brought out such weapons again, what is a war in the Central inspared to the impending disaster of a nuclear winter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Actually, both of them were right from their respective points of view.


    The atmosphere in the dining room turned heavy. No one spoke anymore, and Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and ate his food. It was clear he did not want to debate this any further.


    Afterpleting the three tasks, he would be leaving the Wang Consortium anyway.


    The dishes were so exquisite Ren Xiaosu could not bear to eat them. However, Ren Xiaosu felt the essence of food was not to appear attractive but to fill one¡¯s stomach.


    People who had lived in the wilderness had a much more down to earth appreciation for food.


    ¡°Do you have any noodles?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°May I get arge bowl of noodles here?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi looked at Ren Xiaosu and sighed in his head. This was probably Ren Xiaosu¡¯s way of expressing that their paths did not cross.


    So was Ren Xiaosu really hinting at something?


    No, he really just wanted to have some noodles.

 Chapter 781 - Birthday

    <h4>Chapter 781: Birthday</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu left after the banquet ended. As for Yang Xiaojin, she followed him back and did not stay around to catch up with Yang Anjing.


    Yang Xiaojin did not say a word throughout the banquet. She neither refuted Yang Anjing nor Ren Xiaosu, and it was like she was just an emotionless eating machine.


    After returning to their respective courtyard houses, Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked from across the wall, ¡°I went a little overboard with my words earlier tonight. Are you unhappy that I contradicted your aunt like that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu heard Yang Xiaojin reply from across the wall, ¡°No, because I often quarrel with her as well. Actually, our rtionship has always been more like sisters as she¡¯s only six years older than me. You can say she¡¯s my grandpa¡¯s caboose baby since he had her at 61.¡±


    ¡°Your grandpa is amazing,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    It fell silent on the other side of the courtyard wall. However, Yang Xiaojin was not too affected by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s remark. She continued, ¡°But there¡¯s one thing I would like to exin to you about tonight. Actually, she¡¯s also apassionate person. At least, that¡¯s how I view her.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything further. He could sense that Yang Xiaojin had seemingly fallen into a trance as she continued talking at her own pace, ¡°At that time, there were no longer any family ties to speak of in our Yang n. After my parents got in an ident, there was no one to take care of me. Yang Yu¡¯an only adopted me to inherit the resources my father owned before he died, such as his former subordinates and his authority. It was Yang Anjing who sent me to and from school every day. After school, she would even buy me food, sing nursery rhymes with me, read me fairy tales, and skip rope with me. She also gave me my first sniper rifle.¡±


    The corner of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mouth twitched a little. That escted way too quickly. It went from jumping rope with her aunt to being gifted her first rifle all of a sudden.


    That was some twist!


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not interrupt her. He recalled Yang Xiaojin¡¯s proficiency in singing nursery rhymes and jumping rope and thought Yang Anjing really did seem like she used to spend a lot of time with her.


    Yang Xiaojin continued, ¡°It was also at that time when she saw the Yang n¡¯s attitude towards me that she started to feel disappointed in the entire Yang Consortium. I remember that after I pulled the trigger of a sniper rifle for the first time, she told me, ¡®Xiaojin, this era is starting to change.¡¯ I don¡¯t know why she¡¯s so insistent on ridding the world of nuclear weapons, nor do I know when she became the head of the Anjing House and the leader of the Saboteurs. She started getting busier and busier, but I¡¯ve always received gifts from her on my birthday. She¡¯s the only one who still remembers it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately felt remorseful. ¡°When is your birthday again?¡±


    ¡°April 18th of the Gregorian calendar,¡± Yang Xiaojin answered. If it were any other girl, they would probably be throwing a tantrum by now. However, she did not get angry and simply stated it matter-of-factly. Then she asked, ¡°What about you?¡±


    ¡°I...¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice softened. ¡°I don¡¯t know my birthday.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was clearly taken aback. She was rather surprised to hear there were still people in the world who did not know their birthday.


    However, Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°But someone tattooed a ¡®3-16¡¯ on the inside of my arm, so just take it that I was born on March 16th.¡±


    ¡°Who tattooed it?¡± Yang Xiaojin frowned.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head even though Yang Xiaojin could not see him shaking his head.


    ¡°You...¡± Yang Xiaojin suddenly felt a little puzzled. In her impression, Ren Xiaosu was a native refugee who grew up in Stronghold 113¡¯s town. But what normal refugee would have a number tattooed on their arm?


    As such, Yang Xiaojin tried hard to remember things, but she realized Ren Xiaosu had never mentioned his past.


    Their way of interacting was very strange. Neither of them had ever delved into the other¡¯s past, and they were like two rootless duckweeds in this era of the wastnds, mutually supporting one another just because they liked each other.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s very strange, isn¡¯t it? Actually, I also find it quite odd. My memory is... iplete.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, that¡¯s not important.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I¡¯m not telling you all this today to change your opinion of my aunt. In truth, I don¡¯t really understand what she¡¯s trying to achieve right now. I just wanted to exin why I didn¡¯t speak up for you tonight.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t mind,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Based on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s character, she would only exin so much to him because she cared about his feelings. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu even felt a little happy.


    He then wondered why the two of them were talking through the wall. They were both supernatural beings, so why should a wall obstruct them?


    Would it not be better to have a talkte into the night in the same yard?


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu was about to jump over the wall to get to the other side. But when he poked his head over, he saw Yang Xiaojin holding her ck sniper rifle in one hand and pointing it at his forehead. The ambiguous smile on her face seemed like she was silently mocking him. ¡°Well, well, Ren Xiaosu. You¡¯re getting bolder and bolder now, aren¡¯t you? Well done.¡±


    ¡°Is that how you encourage me?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression.


    ¡°What did you expect?¡±


    ¡°Haha, I just wanted to go over and see if you were feeling down. I¡¯m relieved that you¡¯re fine. Rest early, good night!¡± With that, Ren Xiaosu went back into his yard and ran off to the other side to harass Jiang Xu.


    Yang Xiaojin stood alone in her yard and put her ck sniper rifle away. She suddenly felt that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s smile seemed to be hiding an even deeper sense of solitude. This solitude was not the kind where there was no one to apany you. Instead, it was the feeling of living in this era of the wastnds and not being able to see your past or where you came from.


    The young man was too strong-willed. He was so strong he did not need anyone¡¯s pity nor wanted anyone to pity him.


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly said softly, ¡°I will apany you... Ren Xiaosu?


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had already jumped over to Jiang Xu¡¯s yard...


    Ren Xiaosu strolled around the yard. Through the window, he saw Jiang Xu writing something in a book on the table. The tungsten bulb overhead was emitting heat and a warm yellow glow.


    Jiang Xu inadvertently turned around and was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face pressed against the windowpane. He got a heart attack!


    He snapped, ¡°What are you sneaking around for? Come in!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he entered the house. ¡°What are you writing?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve decided to personally write the article about the AI.¡± Jiang Xu exined, ¡°I feel its introduction will kick off a revolution for humanity, so it¡¯s better to be more cautious in the reporting.¡±


    ¡°What did you write about?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°I¡¯m writing about the changes the residents went through from the early stages of the AI¡¯s governance til the point where the stronghold was fully managed by it. I can sense the residents are getting more and more depressed.¡± Jiang Xu said with a smile, ¡°In any case, you can just interpret it as me talking bad about the AI.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re still in the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory, y¡¯know?¡± Ren Xiaosu curled his lips.


    Jiang Xuughed heartily. ¡°Does reporting the truth have to depend on where we¡¯re doing it from?¡±

 Chapter 782 - Farewell

    <h4>Chapter 782: Farewell</h4>


    Jiang Xu was someone who constantly sought the truth. Therefore, in order to find out the truth about the artificial intelligence, he came to Stronghold 61 to personally experience how it felt like to live under its governance.


    As such, his experience with the artificial intelligence was much more authentic than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s.


    His experience differed from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s as Ren Xiaosu was currently only able to see how helpless the stronghold residents were when it came to choosing a job. Jiang Xu said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You know Li Ran, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I remember that she was also a resident of Stronghold 61, but she was saved during the creeper vine disaster.¡±


    ¡°She paid me a visit in Luoyang City when she was on her concert tour.¡± Jiang Xu nodded. ¡°After Stronghold 61 was rebuilt, she came back here to live. When she found out I was here, she paid me a visit again. Guess what she¡¯s working as now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Is she not a singer anymore?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s not singing anymore.¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°She said the stronghold has arranged for her to work as a radio host. Actually, she has it much better than most people, but she¡¯s still unsatisfied with the job assignment. She wanted to leave the Wang Consortium and go somewhere else to be a singer, but the Wang Consortium would not allow her to leave. They even sent a therapy team to her ce every week to enlighten her and instill some obedience.¡±


    Jiang Xu continued, ¡°But that¡¯s not the worst of it. What¡¯s most uneptable to her is that the therapy team actually has the keys to her house, so they can go over and give her counseling at any time. But don¡¯t think too deeply into it. Those people have not threatened her personal safety at all. They onlye to her house in the middle of the night for the therapy sessions. Apparently, the AI thinks it will be more effective for her if she receives therapy at that time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°What¡¯s the difference between that and a threat? Was that why she paid you a visit? To ask you to take her away?¡±


    Jiang Xu nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve negotiated with the Wang Consortium, and they¡¯ve readily agreed to it. However, I can only help her alone. Furthermore, I have my own selfish reasons for doing so. I¡¯m hoping Li Ran will tell everyone what she has experienced personally.¡±


    However, this was only one of the minor incidents Jiang Xu encountered. He said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Also, all of the phones in this stronghold are being monitored. A lot of people might not have realized it yet, but I have. In the past, no matter how powerful an intelligence agency might be, they still could not monitor the entire stronghold¡¯s telmunications. However, this AI can easily do that. So I don¡¯t think you should use thendline at your ce in Stronghold 61.¡±


    That night, Jiang Xu chatted a lot with Ren Xiaosu about what he had seen and heard in Stronghold 61. In the end, Jiang Xu decided to objectively rte the situation taking ce here. He did not inject any personal biases and just left it to the entire Alliance of Strongholds to discuss the current developments in the Wang Consortium.


    He not only listed the cons but also talked about the pros.


    Jiang Xu had to admit that Stronghold 61 was the safest stronghold he had ever seen.


    Even in Luoyang City, there was still a lot of bad stuff going on. Crime was still frequent. However, all of that was unseen in Stronghold 61. It was as though someone had erased them.


    Therefore, he wrote about these matters in his article.


    Jiang Xu smiled at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°It¡¯s such a coincidence that you¡¯vee here as well. I was just nning to leave Stronghold 61 tomorrow and return to Luoyang City. If I estimate my time here, it¡¯s been almost a month now, so it¡¯s time for me to head back.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯ll see you off tomorrow then.¡±


    Jiang Xu asked with interest, ¡°Are you afraid the Wang Consortium won¡¯t let me leave? If they really don¡¯t let me leave safely, what will you do?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°I doubt they can stop me.¡±


    ...


    That night, Jiang Xu used Hope Media¡¯s own transmission equipment to send over the draft he had written.


    As the Qinghe Group owned seven satellites, Hope Media was always the fastest in transmitting their news among all the newspaper firms.


    The next morning, Hope Media¡¯s newspaper was published on time at 6:30 AM. Gradually, all the adults in the Alliance of Strongholds started a new day.


    In Stronghold 73, a middle-aged man ate breakfast at home before bidding farewell to his family.


    When he passed by a newspaper stand, he bought a copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper to catch up on today¡¯s new developments.


    However, he was not in a hurry to read it. He nned to use this newspaper to pass his time in the morning after arriving at the office and pouring himself a cup of tea.


    Then, during lunch, he would chat with his colleagues about thetest news he read from the paper.


    The middle-aged man stood at the side of the road and waited for his ride. When the streetcar slowly drove over, he boarded it and swiped his monthly fare ticket on the reader.


    The middle-aged man found a seat in the streetcar and sat down. As he had boarded at the depot station, the streetcar was very empty.


    However, after the streetcar passed through two or three stops, thepartment started filling up. There was a strange smell of sweat and chives in the vehicle, as well as a lot of chatter.


    The middle-aged man was looking out of the window contentedly as it drove. However, he gradually heard some people discussing, ¡°Have you guys read the news? Today¡¯s Hope Media newspaper has an article about Li Ran¡¯s encounter with the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI.¡±


    ¡°Li Ran? Are you referring to that female singer? I quite like her song, ¡®Explosion.¡¯ Why, what about her?¡±


    When the middle-aged man heard this, he could not help but flip open the newspaper. However, the more he read, the more entranced he became. He did not even realize he had missed his stop.


    For the entire morning, the artificial intelligence had be the topic on everyone¡¯s lips.


    <i>Hope Media</i>, which had always enjoyed a high readership, finally fired the first salvo at the Wang Consortium.


    In the morning, Ren Xiaosu was preparing to head out alone with Jiang Xu and the reporters. Jiang Xu looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Have the two of you had breakfast yet?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m gonna buy some along the way.¡±


    ¡°Haha, I knew it.¡± Jiang Xu handed him a brown paper bag. ¡°Here, these are the fried vegetable dumplings made by our reporters. Have some while they¡¯re still hot. When we first arrived at Stronghold 61, we were a little unused to it, because themerce scene in Stronghold 61 is still in a very destitute state. For the time being, there¡¯s only some publicly operated shops and breakfast stalls running, but they¡¯re all located very far away from where we live.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t anyone run their own small businesses?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°No, it¡¯s apparently not allowed yet but it could happen in the future. For the time being, all of themerce and business in the stronghold are run by the Wang Consortium,¡± Jiang Xu said.


    ¡°Then where does everyone get their motivation from?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered. Could working for others be as enjoyable as making money for oneself?


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu saw Jiang Xu and the others off to the stronghold gate. He only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Jiang Xu being allowed to leave after having his identification checked.


    Jiang Xu turned around and said, ¡°Let¡¯s meet again if fate wills it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°We¡¯ll definitely meet again.¡±


    Jiang Xu smiled and shook his head. ¡°In this world, nothing is certain. So we have to cherish every farewell.¡± With that, Jiang Xu got into the car and left.


    Ren Xiaosu went back the same way he came, but the farther he walked, the uneasier he felt. Then an off-road vehicle passed him by. He was stunned and suddenly felt the three people inside seemed rather familiar.


    He turned around and watched as the off-road vehicle drove out of the stronghold. He stood there and thought for a moment before running off in different direction.

 Chapter 783 - Hasty attack

    <h4>Chapter 783: Hasty attack</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Outside Stronghold 61, the reporter who was driving said to Jiang Xu, ¡°Chief Editor, you seem to have forgotten something.¡±


    Jiang Xu wondered, ¡°What did I forget?¡±


    ¡°You forgot to get his autograph for us!¡± The reporters who were in the vehicle wanted to thump their chests and stamp their feet in frustration. ¡°How could you forget something so important!¡±


    Jiang Xu chuckled. ¡°You guys met him just now too, so why didn¡¯t you ask for it yourselves? He¡¯s quite a nice person, so if you asked, he would definitely have obliged.¡±


    ¡°We were a little shy to see our idol, weren¡¯t we?¡± The reporter in the front passenger seat said, ¡°Chief Editor, you might not know this, but I¡¯ve admired Chen Nian for a long time. It¡¯s her birthday soon. If I can get that person¡¯s autograph and give it to her, she¡¯ll definitely be overjoyed.¡±


    ¡°Then you might stand a chance after that, right?¡± Jiang Xu said with augh, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll definitely still have a chance to get his autograph.¡±


    ¡°Who knows when we will get another opportunity?¡± the reporter in the front passenger seat muttered.


    As a matter of fact, Ren Xiaosu was currently very popr among the Hope Media employees. The female editors at the newspaper firm were always talking about him every day. One of the female editors even bugged the field reporters daily to see if there was any news of their hero.


    But then the reporter who was driving suddenly said, ¡°Chief Editor, there¡¯s a vehicle following us. There¡¯s no logo on it, so it¡¯s not from the Wang Consortium.¡±


    Jiang Xu thought for a moment. ¡°Can you shake them off?¡±


    The reporter who was driving said calmly, ¡°Stronghold 61 is actually quite close to Luoyang City. I can make a call to the ck market to get them to pick us up directly. That way, we can reach the safe zone faster. I filled the gas tank yesterday, so it¡¯s definitely enough to get us there.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s try to shake them off,¡± Jiang Xu said as he leaned back in the backseat.


    ¡°Chief Editor, is the Wang Consortium taking action against us? Because of today¡¯s newspaper?¡± a reporter asked.


    ¡°I doubt this is an official stance.¡± Jiang Xu shook his head. Afterwards, he took out a few pistols from a hiddenpartment under the seat. ¡°All of you, arm yourselves. If a battle really breaks out, we still have to preserve our dignity. Don¡¯t end up dying without even firing a shot.¡±


    The chief editor hardened up from his usual cultured and refined self.


    Meanwhile, the reporters beside him started to skillfully check their magazines and loaded their guns.


    After all, it was very difficult to ensure the safety of a reporter if they wanted to investigate something in this day and age. Especially for investigative reporters like them, their lives were constantly put in danger by carrying out investigations against the consortiums.


    On one of the walls on the top floor of the Hope Media headquarters was a series of investigative reporters¡¯ names engraved. These were the people Jiang Xu hoped everyone would remember and treasure their efforts in seeking the truth.


    Yin Xinsheng, Gao Qinrong, Yang Wei, Zhu Wenna, Jing Jianfeng, Jian Guangzhou...


    These names were the most dazzling badges of honor in the history of the news industry.


    Actually, it was still very difficult for investigative reporters to guarantee their own safety even if they had guns. After all, the enemies they had to face were far more terrifying than guns.


    But just as Jiang Xu had said, this was about the dignity of an investigative reporter in the era of the wastnds.


    A reporterughed and said, ¡°Chief Editor, have you killed anyone before?¡±


    Jiang Xu was amused. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then do you feel nervous?¡±


    ¡°Truth is, I¡¯m really a little nervous,¡± Jiang Xuughed and said frankly.


    The off-road vehicle was getting closer and closer. But when the two vehicles were about 50 meters apart, a figure suddenly rushed out from behind a mound off to the side andunched the off-road vehicle behind them into the sky!


    ¡°It¡¯s White Mask!¡± A reporter shouted excitedly when he saw the situation unfolding behind them, ¡°White Mask, our idol is here to save us!¡±


    When everyone else found out White Mask was only a materialization power, the reporters from Hope Media immediately understood.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu and White Mask had guarded the building together on that night. Even if one were to use their toes to think, they should be able to understand what was going on. White Mask was clearly Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower.


    Initially, there was a small group of female editors in Hope Media who were fans of White Mask. This led to them and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fans quarreling with each other, and it made the atmosphere in the entire office building extremely tense.


    When the news got out, both sides immediately hugged each other and made up. It turned out they were all fans of the same person!


    Jiang Xu smiled wryly at the thought. He did not expect it would be that young man saving them again. It was really as those female editors had put it. Ren Xiaosu was their guardian angel.


    ¡°Stop the vehicle.¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°The crisis has been averted.¡±


    Although he was unsure of what had happened to the people in the off-road vehicle, Jiang Xu felt they were safe now that Ren Xiaosu had made his move.


    Ren Xiaosu slowly walked out from behind the mound while ¡°Old Xu¡± quickly approached that still rolling off-road vehicle. When the vehicle came to a stop, the three people in the vehicle crawled out of the window as though nothing had happened. They put on ck masks and charged at Old Xu together.


    But these people were too weak in Old Xu¡¯s presence. Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Were they supernatural beings? Why did it feel like something was off?


    While he was pondering, one of them rushed in front of Old Xu. He took out a dagger from his waist and shed at Old Xu. But in the blur of the action, Old Xu had already grabbed ahold of that person¡¯s arm. With a snap, he broke it.


    When the other two attackers saw this, they tried to flee into the wilderness. But how could Ren Xiaosu let them escape like that? He controlled Old Xu to knock out the person who had just been apprehended before making Old Xu run over to knock out the other two and carrying them back.


    Old Xu carried them like they were two little chicks.


    When the reporters saw this, they cheered, ¡°He¡¯s invincible, he absolutely crushed them!¡±


    As they cheered, one of them tried to take a photo of the sight. However, Jiang Xu stopped him. ¡°Don¡¯t leave any imagery of him behind. We have to protect his true identity.¡±


    That reporter quickly put away his camera. ¡°I forgot, I forgot. I was so excited to see my idol fighting again. He¡¯s so cool!¡± The reporter began to speak incoherently.


    Jiang Xu looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯ll skip the pleasantries with you. However, I¡¯m a little curious. How did you know someone woulde and attack us?¡±


    ¡°On my way back, I saw this off-road vehicle driving out of the stronghold. Moreover, their IDs seemed to suggest that they were really important people since the garrison troops at the gate did not subject them to any further checks. So I wondered if they were some extremely high-level fighting force who were on some kind of special mission,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect them to really be targeting y¡¯all.¡±


    ¡°It looks like the report today has really ruffled some feathers.¡± Jiang Xu sighed and said, ¡°But it didn¡¯t look like they were going to make an attempt on our lives either. Otherwise, they would¡¯ve opened fire at us. They probably wanted to capture us alive.¡±


    But Jiang Xu suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu was not listening to him at all. He was just standing there in a daze.


    The voice of the pce intoned in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind, ¡°Detected nanomachines that are not paired to a consciousness. Would you like to reset them?¡±

 Chapter 784 - An era of farewells

    <h4>Chapter 784: An era of farewells</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu had encountered simr situations like this before. After knocking people unconscious, their nanomachines would no longer be controlled by a consciousness and thus be in a state where they could be reset.


    He realized that if the other party with the nanomachines was still conscious, not even the pce could take control of their nanomachines.


    But he could not understand why he would encounter the presence of nanomachines here.


    It was no wonder the three attackers had put on masks after getting out of the vehicle. It looked like they were trying to hide the silvery glow of their blood vessels when the nanomachines were activated.


    He initially thought these three attackers were sent by the Wang Consortium to capture Jiang Xu, but he was kind of unsure now.


    That was because the Qing Consortium was seemingly the only organization in the world that was still in possession of nanotech. Previously, Ren Xiaosu had entrusted Luo Lan with the task of sending a batch of nanomachines to Wang Yuchi and the others in Luoyang City. That way, Wang Yuchi¡¯s group would at least have a certain level of self-protection.


    Fatty Luo had promised him it would be delivered within a month and that he would make sure his subordinates handled it well.


    Furthermore, Luo Lan even promised he would not only prepare the nanomachines for Wang Yuchi and the rest, but he would also prepare some for him. He was told he could retrieve it from Luoyang City at any time.


    Back then, Ren Xiaosu had asked Luo Lan if any other organizations had mastered nanotech as well. He was thinking that if there were, Jiang Xu might not have to continue limping around just so he could avoid usations that he had been bribed.


    However, Luo Lan¡¯s reply back then was, ¡°Definitely not. Nanotech is now a secret of the Qing Consortium. After those scientists in charge of the nanomachine research signed a confidentiality agreement, they can¡¯t even return home by themselves anymore. They have to be constantly under the watch of the Qing Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stared silently at the three attackers on the ground. So were these people from the Qing Consortium? But why would the Qing Consortium want to capture Jiang Xu? There was no reason to do that!


    Moreover, could the Qing Consortium nt these spies inside the Wang Consortium? Ren Xiaosu felt that with the artificial intelligence governing the stronghold, the Qing Consortium would probably not be able to do that. He had seen those people exiting the stronghold with their IDs with his own eyes, and it even seemed like their identities were very special.


    Although Ren Xiaosu could not figure out what was going on, he felt that something must have gone wrong somewhere. The people in front of him were definitely not from the Qing Consortium.


    But... at the end of the day, it would be a waste if he did not take these nanomachines delivered right to his doorstep!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Jiang Xu. ¡°Wait a sec, let me handle these three first.¡± He then pulled the three attackers aside and reset the nanomachines in them before pairing them with his own consciousness.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still felt like it was not enough. There were hardly any nanomachines in these three. At most, it was only enough to form armor around half his arm.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to wake the three up to question them about their identities. However, he was surprised to discover their hearts had already stopped.


    ¡°Strange,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered. He could not even tell how they had died!


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was even more certain they were not from the Qing Consortium. That was because the Qing Consortium would never resort to such means on their own subordinates.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu was still hoping to ask if they had any aplices nearby. If there were, it would mean he could get his hands on even more nanomachines.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and went back to join up with Jiang Xu. He looked at Jiang Xu and hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Why don¡¯t y¡¯all head back to Stronghold 61 and stay there for a few days?¡±


    In just this short encounter, Ren Xiaosu was already thinking of resuming his old ways to fish for more enemies.


    ¡°Head back?¡± Jiang Xu was really stunned this time. He did not understand why Ren Xiaosu would say that. ¡°Why would we want to go back there?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stumped. He really could note up with a valid reason to persuade Jiang Xu to go back to Stronghold 61. ¡°I just can¡¯t bear to part with you. Besides, I still want to y chess with you for a few more days.¡±


    When Jiang Xu heard this, he immediately turned around and got into the car. Chess? Hah! That would make it even more impossible for him to go back!


    Ren Xiaosu hurriedly shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s not y chess then! We can discuss this!¡±


    Jiang Xu stopped in his tracks. ¡°You must have some ulterior motive for asking me to go back, right? Let me guess, you want to lure the others out as well?¡±


    Judging from Jiang Xu¡¯s expression, it looked like he was considering risking his life to put on an act with Ren Xiaosu.


    However, Ren Xiaosu said with augh, ¡°I was just kidding you. We can¡¯t risk your life no matter how grand the n is, right? Hurry up and return to Luoyang City. There¡¯s still people waiting for you there.¡±


    Jiang Xu smiled and nodded. ¡°Alright, an old man like me shan¡¯t y along with you on something so crazy then. When I said farewell to you this morning, I was wondering when we would meet again. But I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you so soon.¡±


    With that, Jiang Xu walked up to Ren Xiaosu with his walking stick and gave him a gentle hug. ¡°Take care.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked as Jiang Xu got into the vehicle. He suddenly felt a little sad for some reason.


    After the vehicle started moving, one of the reporters sighed and said, ¡°This really is an era where our farewells could be for thest time.¡±


    Another reporter echoed, ¡°That¡¯s right. Moreover, many of these farewells aren¡¯t even verbal. I was away for over a year to do an investigative write-up for an article. In the end, I didn¡¯t even realize my girlfriend had gotten married in Luoyang City....¡±


    Jiang Xu was speechless.


    There was a sudden burst ofughter in the car that went on for a long time.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu scaled the wall and returned to Stronghold 61. When he was back to walking on the streets again, he felt like he was being watched. But when he turned around, he saw nothing.


    Compared to when he was staying in the other strongholds, Ren Xiaosu always felt a little nervous in Stronghold 61. His nerves could not help but tense up as though danger could descend at any moment.


    When he returned to the courtyard house, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice came from next door. ¡°Where have you been?¡±


    ¡°Teacher Jiang Xu just left, so I went to send him off.¡± Ren Xiaosu leaned close to the wall and said softly, ¡°As they left early in the morning, I didn¡¯t wake you up. But something strange happened. I intercepted three people along the way just now, and they turned out to be nanosoldiers.¡±


    ¡°Nanosoldiers?¡± Yang Xiaojin wondered, ¡°Are they from the Qing Consortium?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not the only one whose first reaction was to link this to the Qing Consortium. Perhaps anyone in the world who saw the nanosoldiers would also assume they were from the Qing Consortium. After all, it was true the other organizations had not mastered nanotech yet.


    This description might not be entirely urate. Actually, some organizations had also started their research on nanomachines. However, they did not have the technology to interface them with humans yet, so they were unable to create nanosoldiers.


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°I somehow feel that they aren¡¯t from the Qing Consortium. I¡¯ll ask Luo Lan about it the next time I see him. If they really wanted to kill Jiang Xu, I¡¯ll have to have a good talk with them. I feel that any organization in this era can be destroyed, but for these people who only want to report the truth, they should not have anything bad happen to them.¡±


    Back then, wasn¡¯t this the reason he protected the Hope Media headquarters? Those people who were busy reporting the truth were the most valuable assets in this era.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°I heard from Jiang Xu that there¡¯s very few ces to eat in Stronghold 61. Why don¡¯t we go out and do some grocery shopping? I still have some meat in my storage space, but there¡¯s no vegetables left.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was silent for a moment before saying, ¡°My tummy hurts a little today, so I don¡¯t feel like going out.¡±


    When she said that, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind started spinning. Should he tell Yang Xiaojin to drink hot water? It didn¡¯t seem appropriate. Should he say he would help her rub her tummy? She might not necessarily let him do so either. So what should he say?


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment before saying, ¡°You¡¯re so slim. How can you possibly have a tummy!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was speechless.

 Chapter 785 - Enemies from the north

    <h4>Chapter 785: Enemies from the north</h4>


    Spring had already arrived, and the northern grasnds were no longer covered in snow. Rather, there was a sense of life all around.


    The soft green pastures of the steppe were mentally refreshing, and the transparent and clear rivers winding across the meadow stirred the heart.


    White clouds hung low in the sky, the heavens almost within reach.


    But for some reason, Yan Liuyuan kept getting the feeling that the sky was all gloom on the way back. The dark clouds did not dissipate at all.


    It wasn¡¯t until the moment he saw Xiaoyu that the dark clouds in the sky suddenly dispersed. Sunlight prated through the dark clouds and covered the ground, illuminating the abyss.


    Initially, when Xiaoyu saw Yan Liuyuan, she felt he had changed into a different person. But when he saw her, he immediately changed back to his usual self.


    For Yan Liuyuan, Xiaoyu was his solid anchor. As long as his anchor was still around, he would not get lost in the ocean.


    In front of her, he was no longer a god or a young lord of the steppe. He was just Yan Liuyuan.


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, my brother is still alive,¡± Yan Liuyuan said softly as he sat in the royal tent.


    Xiaoyu, who was sewing Yan Liuyuan¡¯s clothes, froze. She turned around and looked at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Wh-Where is he?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan removed his ck facete and said, ¡°But I didn¡¯t go and look for him.¡±


    Only the two of them were inside the royal tent. Xiaoyu could see a hint of sadness in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s expression. She said, ¡°Is it because you¡¯re afraid?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly started talking about something else. ¡°Big Sis, you know about my power. In the past, I would always experience bacsh whenever I used it.¡±


    Xiaoyu said with a gentle expression, ¡°The first time I realized you had a superpower was when all of your brother¡¯s bones were broken. At that time, we were held hostage by the Yang Consortium¡¯s troops and forced to perform manualbor. You would fall down every day until your face was bruised and swollen, while those who were cursed by you ended up falling to their deaths.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°The bacsh from those curses was very straightforward. Whatever curse I wished upon others, a corresponding bacsh would befall me. But it¡¯s been different since the battle in the valley. After the ground started splitting and the cracks on the ground spread out, I did not suffer any bacsh at all. It was as though the split ground had undone the shackles on my body. Every time I use my power now, the shackles break a little more.¡±


    When Xiaoyu heard this, she did not respond immediately. Instead, she just listened quietly as Yan Liuyuan continued.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°The cracks on the shackles are like gaps in the void. They¡¯re constantly expanding. It feels like there¡¯s some kind of will summoning me to be a part of it. No, to be more precise, it¡¯s summoning me to take over that immense will. Only when I return to your side do I feel the cracks slowly knitting together, and only then do I regain more of my... humanity.¡±


    ¡°Liuyuan, you¡¯ve already unified the grasnds. Don¡¯t use your power anymore,¡± Xiaoyu softly said, sitting down across from Yan Liuyuan.


    ¡°Mhm, I¡¯ll try my best to control myself,¡± Yan Liuyuan promised.


    ¡°What are your ns for the future?¡± Xiaoyu asked.


    Yan Liuyuan stayed silent for a long time. ¡°Thousands of innocent people died in the massacre of the city during our raid on the South this time, and some of the women there were vited by the Khoton tribe. I don¡¯t know how to face him anymore. I don¡¯t know how to tell him that his closest brother has be the type of person that he hates the most.¡±


    ¡°But you should know that even though he wants you to be a good person, he definitely won¡¯t abandon you just because of something like that. Have you ever thought about how hard he¡¯s trying to look for you? You know your brother¡¯s character too. As long as he doesn¡¯t see you, he¡¯ll keep looking for you until the day he dies,¡± Xiaoyu said.


    Yan Liuyuan stopped talking.


    Xiaoyu looked at Yan Liuyuan and realized it was not Ren Xiaosu he could not face but himself.


    Back in town, Liuyuan would always imitate Ren Xiaosu¡¯s tone when he spoke. He would do whatever made Ren Xiaosu happy.


    This child had always had an inexplicable admiration for Ren Xiaosu since he was young. He only saw Ren Xiaosu as his role model and wanted to be someone like him.


    But in the end, he ended up bing the type of person his brother hated the most. Yan Liuyuan was afraid.


    ¡°Big Sis, give me some time.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°I¡¯ll go and check on the incident that happened at the salt pool first.¡±


    With that, Yan Liuyuan put on his ck facete again. By the time he walked out of the royal tent, there were already countless tribesmen waiting for him outside. Hassan led the horse to him while Bn Zir got down respectfully to act as his footstool.


    This was the treatment for a god.


    Yan Liuyuan first checked on the victim¡¯s injuries. Nearby, Bn Zir confirmed, ¡°They¡¯re all sh wounds, and it was likely inflicted by a heavy sword. The force of the sh was so great that it almost cut the victims in half. Their ears were also cut off like it was for some ritual.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nodded and said, ¡°Are there any survivors? Did you see who killed them?¡±


    ¡°No, only these 12 people went to the salt pool to harvest salt. All of them are dead,¡± a tribal chief said.


    Kirghiz Yan knelt next to the corpses. ¡°The sh wounds are all inflicted on their front sides, so it shows that no one tried to escape. They¡¯re the bravest warriors of the steppe. Master, should we head north to take revenge for them? I, Kirghiz Yan, am willing to be the vanguard.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s give our warriors a sky burial first,¡± Yan Liuyuan said calmly.


    Afterwards, a few hawks flew down from the sky andnded next to the corpses as though no one was around. The surrounding tribesmen all knelt. To the nomads, if the corpses of the deceased could get eaten by the hawks, it meant their souls would gain entry to the sky realm.


    But for sky burials in the past, the deceased would always have to be taken out into the grasnds where they would have to wait for up to seven days. It was never as magical as what was happening in front of them right now.


    To those present, this was a funeral Yan Liuyuan had personally arranged for his tribespeople. It was a baptism by the gods.


    Yan Liuyuan spurred his horse towards the salt pool as several hundred warriors rode close behind him.


    When they arrived at the outer perimeter of the salt pool, Yan Liuyuan could already see the bloodstains ahead.


    In the vast whiteness of the salt pool, the purplish-brown bloodstains were extremely eye-catching. Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Were the corpses found here?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master,¡± a nomad answered.


    ¡°Have any of you seen those people from the north in recent years?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Bn Zir shook his head. ¡°Actually, the ones who were most active in the northern territories should be our Bn tribe, but we¡¯ve never seen them before.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s strange then.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Why did those people suddenlye south, and they even got so close to our territory too?¡±


    At this moment, a ck figure appeared at the salt pool out in the distance. Hassan instinctively moved forward and led his men to stand guard in front of Yan Liuyuan.


    Yan Liuyuan watched from his horse as the other party slowly approached. Then he said calmly, ¡°They¡¯re here.¡±

 Chapter 786 - Migration

    <h4>Chapter 786: Migration</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The enemies from the north were getting closer and closer as they made their way through the water over the white salt pool. Yan Liuyuan urged his horse forward as well. It was a grand sight to behold, as though the people on both sides were standing on top of a huge mirror where the boundaries were limitless.


    Yan Liuyuan looked silently at the enemies in the distance. They were clearly much taller than the nomads. If the average height of the nomads was 1.75 meters, then these enemies from the north were probably at least 1.9 meters tall. Some of them even towered up to 2 meters in height.


    The enemies wore brown fur hides on their backs, showing off firm pectorals across their bare chests while their muscr thighs were exposed to the cold wind.


    But it was a little strange. In front of that group of burly northern men, there was actually someone else dressed in a ck robe walking slowly.


    The edges of that ck robe even seemed to be sewn with gold threads. It made him look strange and mysterious, like he was some sort of a... priest.


    However, Yan Liuyuan felt that this ck-robed person did not seem to be on the same side as the group of Northerners. This was because the two were clearly very different in their physiques. This ck-robed person was shorter than the others by almost a head.


    His height made him look more like a Central ins person.


    ¡°Could ck Robe be their leader?¡± Bn Zir asked, ¡°Master, why don¡¯t we capture their leader first?¡±


    ¡°I think ck Robe looks more like a spy that escaped from the Central ins.¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°He might even be someone with status in the Central ins. If he weren¡¯t afraid of being recognized, he wouldn¡¯t be so bundled up and act so mysteriously.¡±


    When everyone heard Yan Liuyuan¡¯s rxed tone, they started to feel at ease.


    Thinking about it carefully, it did make sense. If their master could topple a mountain with a wave of his hand, why would they need to be afraid of these enemies from the north?


    Next to him, Bn Zir said in a low voice, ¡°Master, they aren¡¯t using swords. It¡¯s no wonder they could cut someone in half. So it¡¯s because they were using axes.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at the group of people in the distance. Bn Zir was right. All of them were carrying metal axes.


    ¡°Those axes aren¡¯t light at all.¡± Kirghiz Yan said, ¡°However, our warriors of the steppe have nothing to fear either. Master, just say the word and I, Kirghiz Yan, will lead the charge.¡±


    At this moment, more and more enemies appeared in the distance. Their tall figures made the nomads¡¯ scalps tingle.


    Yan Liuyuan frowned. At first, they only saw a few dozen people, but now, several hundred of them were appearing. ¡°It¡¯s not a coincidence that these people are heading south. Their entire tribe is migrating southwards. Something must¡¯ve happened in the north that caused them to head in this direction. Look at them. Some of them are carrying cloth bags on their backs. This encounter at the salt pool was probably a coincidence. They were here to harvest the salt as well.¡±


    The two sides were caught in a deadlock at the salt pool. No one took another step forward.


    However, Hassan noticed that the group of beastly men in the distance were slowly changing their formation. It looked like they might even start suddenly charging at them.


    Then soft footfalls came from behind the nomads. When Bn Zir turned around, he was surprised to see that over a 1,000 huge wolves had arrived at the border of the salt pool. They were coldly sizing up the group of ¡°beasts¡± in the north with their fangs exposed.


    It was the first time Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan¡¯s tribes had seen such a huge pack of wolves. They had only heard about it before and thought it was just Yan Liuyuan¡¯s way of scaring people into submission!


    Only now did they realize the gigantic wolf pack really existed. And they really obeyed Yan Liuyuan¡¯s orders!


    The silver Wolf King walked slowly to Yan Liuyuan¡¯s side. The horses were so frightened they did not even dare to move.


    The appearance of the wolves tipped the bnce between the two sides. Yan Liuyuan watched as the Northerners slowly retreated. He turned his horse around and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go back to the tribe. That¡¯s definitely not everyone they have. I heard from my brother that the Northern Territory was much vaster than the steppe before The Cataclysm. It seems like those people areing south now.¡±


    After returning to the tribe, Xiaoyu asked in concern, ¡°How was it? I heard that you encountered those Northerners?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°We¡¯re going to leave the steppe. I¡¯ll have Hassan bring some people to collect enough salt first. After that, we¡¯ll head east to avoid their route south. Their target is the Central ins, not us.¡±


    ¡°Central ins? Why?¡± Xiaoyu wondered.


    ¡°Because there¡¯s someone among them who is a Central ins person.¡± Yan Liuyuan sighed. ¡°There¡¯s a traitor from the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°But why are they heading south?¡± Xiaoyu could not understand. ¡°It doesn¡¯t make sense for an entire tribe to leave their home.¡±


    ¡°What sense is there left in the world?¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a sigh, ¡°I heard from Mr. Zhang that the oceans flooded much of thends. Perhaps the Northern Territory is also about to be submerged soon. Or perhaps the weather in the north has be too cold for them to survive for much longer.¡±


    No matter what the guesses, anything could be possible. But the problem that Yan Liuyuan had to face now was how to lead the nomads to carry on surviving.


    He had only just unified the steppe, yet they were already faced with a predicament. Actually, Yan Liuyuan was also feeling a little helpless. But if those people really wanted to find trouble with him, he would not mind telling them they had picked the wrong person.


    Xiaoyu asked, ¡°Do they have any supernatural beings?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan thought back and said with uncertainty, ¡°Actually, I think that that group of Northerners might have evolved in a different direction from those in the Central ins. The Central ins has produced a small number of individuals with powers, but it seems that they... have evolved as a poption. I wonder if it has anything to do with the region. On the contrary, the steppe is slightly in a more awkward position since there aren¡¯t any powerful supernatural beings that evolved here.¡±


    The steppe was vast and sparsely popted. Although it was now unified, there were only several tens of thousands of people across the nine tribesbined. Yan Liuyuan had asked around and found out there were only two supernatural beings among the nomads, and they were both serving in his imperial court.


    Yan Liuyuan pondered for a long time before finally having Xiaoyu coordinate the migration.


    Then he took out three bowls of <i>kumis </i>and made a small cut on his fingertip with a small dagger.


    As the dark red blood dripped into the <i>kumis</i>, the entire bowl of milky white alcohol turned scarlet.


    Yan Liuyuan let out a long sigh before getting Tsetseg to summon Hassan, Bn Zir, and Kirghiz Yan over.


    After the three of them gathered and knelt at the entrance of the royal tent, Yan Liuyuan signaled for Tsetseg to serve the blood wine to them. ¡°Today, I bestow upon you three wine to help you be unparalleled warriors under mymand. Drink up.¡±


    Hassan and the other two looked at each other before drinking the blood wine in one gulp without any hesitation. Then their eyes turned crimson red. Endless power surged within their bodies. It rushed into their minds and helped them unlock the door to a new world!


    The entire tribe fell silent. Everyone looked enviously at Hassan and the two other tribal chiefs. This was a gift from the gods.


    Yan Liuyuan watched all of this quietly. Actually, there were still some things he had not told Xiaoyu. With the increased usage of his powers, he had gained some new memories in the process.

 Chapter 787 - A mysterious call

    <h4>Chapter 787: A mysterious call</h4>


    After the enemies from the north appeared, Yan Liuyuan led all of the tribes east.


    Disregarding everything else, the migration of the nomads went very quickly. The adults herded the livestock, and all their supplies were ced on the backs of the oxen.


    The children were still ignorant and did not understand what had happened. They only found it exceptionally lively and fun with everyone setting off together.


    The little boys and girls ran rings around the livestock. When it was time to eat, they would return to their parents¡¯ side and kowtow to Yan Liuyuan before having their meals.


    No one objected to Yan Liuyuan¡¯s decision. Even the bravest and most domineering Kirghiz Yan did not say anything further.


    Only Xiaoyu went to look for Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Liuyuan, we can¡¯t just leave like this. If we leave, what will happen to those people further south?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoy., ¡°Big Sis, this tribe in the north is definitelyrger than we thought. We had only encountered their advance troops previously. Even with the wolf pack, it will be impossible for us to hold them back. The nomads can¡¯t survive by existing between the Central ins and the Northern Territory.¡±


    Xiaoyu said, ¡°I¡¯m not asking you to stay behind to stop them.¡±


    ¡°Then what are you?¡± Yan Liuyuan wondered.


    Xiaoyu said in seriousness, ¡°Send someone south to inform them that enemies are approaching.¡±


    ¡°Big Sis, the Central ins people don¡¯t see us as friends,¡± Yan Liuyuan said in a low voice.


    ¡°But we¡¯re from there. Have you ever thought that your brother might be in the Central ins? And that Wang Fugui, Jiang Wu, and the others might also be with him? What if the enemies from the north march in and harm them?¡± Xiaoyu said patiently, ¡°You have to give your brother and the Central ins people some time to prepare!¡±


    When Yan Liuyuan heard this, he finally nodded. ¡°Big Sis, you¡¯re right.¡±


    For Xiaoyu, even though she hade to the North and settled down in the grasnds, her longing for the South still existed. Based on her sense of belonging and identity, she still hoped the South would not get invaded by foreign tribes.


    Yan Liuyuan called Hassan over. ¡°Choose the bravest warrior you have to ride the fastest horse to Stronghold 176.¡±


    Hassan was stunned. ¡°Master, what do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°Go and tell the people of Stronghold 176 that a stronger enemy ising from the North,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    ¡°But, Master, didn¡¯t we already kill all of Stronghold 176¡¯s overseers?¡± Hassan asked.


    ¡°Just go. You don¡¯t understand the people of the Central ins. The other consortiums couldn¡¯t be happier that we killed the overseers of Stronghold 176. Someone else will have taken over the stronghold.¡± Yan Liuyuan continued heading east after saying that.


    Hassan obeyed Yan Liuyuan¡¯s orders and identified one of his tribe¡¯s warriors for the task. The warrior mounted his horse immediately and left.


    This warrior rode on his sturdy horse all the way to the South. Other than letting the horse rest and catch its breath, he did not waste another minute.


    On the fifth day, he finally saw the outline of Stronghold 176¡¯s walls.


    The damaged stronghold had not been repaired yet, but there was already scaffolding erected outside the city. It looked like the reconstruction was already underway.


    The warrior mustered up all his courage and walked towards the stronghold. The troops stationed outside the stronghold quickly discovered his presence and were prepared to take on their nomadic enemies.


    Only when the Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops realized he was the only one who came this time did they send out a toon to deal with him.


    When the nomadic warrior saw the heavily armed soldiers rushing over, he stroked the cheek of his horse and said, ¡°Wait for me in the forest to the north for a day. If I don¡¯t return, you can go back and look for Master. Bring Ak?l¡¯s spirit back with you as well. May all our friends in the grasnds whisper my name when you return.¡±


    After that, Ak?l patted the horse¡¯s rump, and it galloped north.


    Ak?l raised his hands high to the troops who hade to arrest him. ¡°I¡¯m here on behalf of the grasnds to deliver the news that there¡¯s even more powerful enemiesing from the north. My master hopes that y¡¯all will be prepared for them.¡±


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s soldiers did not stop because of what he said. They quickly pressed Ak?l onto the ground until they were sure he had been bound. Only then did they bring Ak?l back to the camp.


    Themander of the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops looked at Ak?l and said, ¡°You said that enemies from the north areing? But aren¡¯t you the enemy? Bying here on your own, aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll skin you alive to take revenge for our Central ins people?¡±


    Ak?lughed proudly and said, ¡°Why would we warriors who serve under Master be afraid of death? I¡¯m only here to tell you that our tribe has already migrated east. My master said that the enemiesing from the north are even more terrifying than you think, so y¡¯all should be prepared.¡±


    The officer of the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops asked, ¡°Are you referring to the north farther north of the grasnds?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Ak?l answered.


    ¡°Alright, thank you for your master¡¯s good intentions.¡± The officer of the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops gave a wave of his hand. ¡°Shoot him dead and hang him in the center of the stronghold. We¡¯re going to show the residents of Stronghold 176 that our Wang Consortium will not allow them to be bullied again now that we¡¯ve taken over. We will eventually take revenge for them.¡±


    With that, the soldier pushed Ak?l out of the room as heughed heartily.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu, who was far away at Stronghold 61, did not go anywhere for the past few days. He just stayed at home and whipped up a variety of dishes for Yang Xiaojin to eat. After all, he still had the necessary survival instincts knowing that Yang Xiaojin was feeling unwell.


    Wang Shengzhi did not seem to be in a hurry to show Ren Xiaosu how the artificial intelligence worked either. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life seemed to have suddenly be peaceful again.


    While Ren Xiaosu was making soup, the telephone in the house suddenly rang.


    He was a little surprised to hear it ring. This was thendline telephone in the house. Who could possibly be calling? Could it be Wang Shengzhi?


    Ren Xiaosu walked over to answer the call. ¡°Hello?¡±


    However, there was no response from the other end.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows and said, ¡°Hello! Who is this?¡±


    A young woman¡¯s voice came from the other end. ¡°May I know if this is Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°Li Ran?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Other than Yang Xiaojin, wasn¡¯t Li Ran the only woman in the stronghold who knew him? But the voice on the phone did not sound like Li Ran either.


    The voice at the other end of the line said, ¡°I¡¯m not Li Ran. Li Ran left the stronghold at 14:31 yesterday.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned: ¡°Who are you then?¡±


    ¡°You can call me Lingling.¡± The girl¡¯s voice was brisk and pleasant. ¡°May I chat with you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a look outside. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I can¡¯t chat with the opposite gender.¡± Ren Xiaosu mmed the phone down and hung up.


    Yang Xiaojin asked from outside, ¡°Who called? I heard the phone ringing.¡±


    ¡°Oh, no one. They probably got the wrong number,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    Then Ren Xiaosu turned around and frowned as he looked at the telephone sitting there quietly. He suddenly felt like he had caught an extremely important clue, but he was not very sure about it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was in no hurry. He felt the other party would call back again.

 Chapter 788 - Zero

    <h4>Chapter 788: Zero</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Suddenly, a quarter of the Wang Consortium¡¯s military forces that were stationed at the Kong Consortium¡¯s border split off and headed north.


    No one knew what the Wang Consortium was doing. That was because the entire Alliance of Strongholds was still unaware of the changes taking ce in the Northern ins. They thought this was just another strategy by the Wang Consortium.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s northern territory bordered the Pyro Company, so perhaps the Wang Consortium intended to join forces with the Kong Consortium to invade the Pyro Company.


    However, those troops did not head to the Pyro Company¡¯s border. Instead, they headed to Stronghold 176.


    The war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium had already been going on for half a month. In this war, the Kong Consortium had lost the initiative. During this fortnight, their main forces were constantly forced to retreat, over and over again. They were forced to abandon a defensive line and a stronghold in order to stop the decline of their war efforts.


    However, the Pyro Company did not seem to be in a hurry to pursue the enemy. They retreated back to their northern defensive line without even upying the abandoned stronghold. This disappointed the Kong Consortium a little. The backup n they had left behind in that abandoned stronghold was not going to work anymore.


    Ren Xiaosu would go out early every day to buy a copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper before going back to the courtyard house to make breakfast and wait for Yang Xiaojin to climb over to join him.


    It was not that Yang Xiaojin did not want to cook, but after she did it once, Ren Xiaosu decided to take on the responsibility of preparing the meals for the sake of their safety.


    Ren Xiaosu even consoled himself thinking that the Heavens were fair after all. The focus of a genius was always different. The Heavens had blessed her with a unique talent in firearms, so they took away her talent in cooking.


    ¡°Did anything major happen recently?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked as she ate.


    Ren Xiaosu put down the newspaper and said, ¡°Teacher Jiang Xu is still publishing his investigative report on Stronghold 61. Each day, he releases some positive facts and some negative ones so that the readers can judge for themselves. But my guess is that the entire Alliance of Strongholds is probably feeling some resistance towards the AI. Also, it says in the papers that the Wang Consortium has deployed their troops north. Could they be preparing for an attack from the Northern ins?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head and analyzed, ¡°The war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium has not ended yet. Based on the Wang Consortium¡¯s style and goals, they would definitely not miss out on such a big show. Although the nomadic enemies managed to take down Stronghold 176, they shouldn¡¯t be taken that seriously by the Wang Consortium yet. The Wang Consortium knows full well the nomads are not big enough of a threat to the Central ins as of now.¡±


    ¡°Then that¡¯s strange.¡±


    The screeching of brakes came from outside. Wang Run got out of the car and knocked on the front door. ¡°I¡¯m here to pick you two up to Base 1.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin got up and pushed open the door. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had promised to do three things for Yang Anjing, but the first request she made was to show him around the ce? He could not be happier to oblige if it were going to be this simple.


    Besides, Ren Xiaosu also wanted to know what Wang Shengzhi was nning.


    The off-road vehicle drove for more than 30 minutes in the stronghold before stopping in front of a building that was not too tall.


    This building was mainly fitted with floor-to-ceiling ss windows and looked just like a huge greenhouse.


    After entering the building, Wang Run did not lead the two of them upstairs. Instead, they took the elevator down after passing throughyers of security.


    The elevator doors were transparent. Ren Xiaosu watched as they made their way down through the concrete foundation of the building before passing through the soil and gravelyer below that.


    When the elevator descended until it was 70 meters underground, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. A huge square appeared in front of him, and the white walls and lights made the ce look extremely bright.


    If Ren Xiaosu did not see the elevator going down with his own eyes, he would have found it very difficult to believe the Wang Consortium had actually established such a huge base under the stronghold.


    In the base, many people wearing blue cleanroom suits could be seen working busily. Meanwhile, Wang Shengzhi was already waiting at the elevator¡¯s entrance. It was still Yang Anjing who was pushing him in the wheelchair.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the two of them and thought there shouldn¡¯t be anything wrong with addressing him as uncle. Why did everyone fall silent the previous time?


    While Ren Xiaosu was looking around the ce. Wang Shengzhi asked with a smile, ¡°What are you searching for?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m looking for the AI. Didn¡¯t you say that we wereing here to take a look at it?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi was amused. ¡°The AI is not a person, and it isn¡¯t alive like humans either. Follow me.¡±


    Yang Anjing pushed Wang Shengzhi in his wheelchair and went deeper into the underground base. To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, they had to take another elevator to continue going down even further... until he could hear the sound of running water.


    When the elevator doors opened, Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°The reason we chose Stronghold 61 to build this base was because of its good topography. We found an excellent subterranean river beneath the stronghold. This way, the problem of cooling the servers is solved.¡±


    With that, Wang Shengzhi led Ren Xiaosu even deeper inside. The entire ce was constructed with ss, and it looked just like the Pre-Cataclysm aquariums Ren Xiaosu had seen in the books in Stronghold 88.


    The lights in the underground base illuminated the subterranean river, revealing the eroded stone walls above it.


    In front of them, countless server farms were located in a sealed cooling chamber, while the rapid subterranean river ran outside it.


    Honestly speaking, this was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen such a strange sight. It felt so technologically advanced he thought he was in the future.


    Very few staff members were in the underground base, and it seemed like the security level was very high as well. Even activating the elevator just now required Yang Anjing to scan her iris for verification.


    There was an extremelyrge ck screen in the middle of the underground facility. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Are these machines the AI that y¡¯all have been talking about? Since y¡¯all say that it¡¯s an AI, how do you usuallymunicate with it?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi pointed at the screen and said with a smile, ¡°Through that screen. It has a mind of its own and can evenmunicate with people, but since it¡¯s usually busy managing the strongholds and analyzing data, it doesn¡¯t really interact with people.¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, the ck screen suddenly lit up. A line of words appeared on it: ¡°Hello, and wee.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized Wang Shengzhi was also taken aback by this. It was as though he had not expected the artificial intelligence to take the initiative to greet Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the screen. ¡°You can hear us?¡±


    The words on the screen changed. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Uh...¡± Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. ¡°How should I address you?¡±


    Off to the side, Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°Its name is Zero.¡±


    This answer stunned Ren Xiaosu. It was as though his thoughts were pulled back to before they set off for here.


    He clearly remembered the girl who had called him had introduced herself as Lingling.<sup>1</sup>


    At that time, he already felt that something was a little off. What normal person would take note of the time of Li Ran¡¯s departure from the stronghold down to the minute?


    But at that time, Lingling did not interact through text like it was doing now, and its voice did not sound any different from a human being¡¯s either.

 Chapter 789 - Why me?

    <h4>Chapter 789: Why me?</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the screen above their heads and felt that this artificial intelligence called Zero had already given him too many surprises.


    However, the artificial intelligence pretended not to know him nor acknowledged it had called him. Ren Xiaosu simply yed along and asked, ¡°Since this is where Zero¡¯s server is located, why is everyone so busy working up there? What¡¯re they busy with? Is it technical stuff that they¡¯re dealing with, like handling program malfunctions or something?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi exined, ¡°No, I don¡¯t think Zero will experience any malfunctions anymore. It¡¯s just like when you and I grow up, the ws will just be a part of us. Even if we have ws, we¡¯re still us, aren¡¯t we? The staff on the upper level are only responsible for ensuring the hardware runs smoothly. They input all of the real-world data they receive into the servers for Zero to process and analyze.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this ¡°real-world data¡± was probably the information the Wang Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency had obtained.


    However, he asked, ¡°What does it analyze?¡±


    ¡°It analyzes problems that require solving.¡± Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, ¡°For example, it determines who the thieves and robbers in the strongholds are and how they¡¯ll be punished ording to thew.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to use outside info to evaluate these matters, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. ¡°There¡¯s so many surveince cameras in your stronghold alone, so it should be really easy to catch the criminals.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi nodded and said, ¡°Therefore, it also analyzes which of our Wang Consortium¡¯s enemies should be dealt with first.¡±


    The ck screen above them suddenly lit up again. Ren Xiaosu looked over and was surprised to see the words ¡°Kong Erdong¡± disyed on it, as well as a brief ount of his life.


    This brief ount of his life was mostly a list of the many crimes he hadmitted. For example, Kong Erdong once massacred an entire factory of refugees to keep his military secrets safe. There were also some of the despicable acts Kong Erdong hadmitted in the Kong Consortium, including an usation of him murdering 172 young women.


    Ren Xiaosu felt these were definitely not the reasons why the Wang Consortium wanted to kill Kong Erdong. Why would a politician pay any attention to such things? Wang Shengzhi was not a chivalrous hero who swore to uphold justice for the Heavens. Although he advocated fairness, he was still a politician in the end.


    After the words on the screen disappeared, new words appeared. Several thousand words were written, and there was arge quantity of statistics mixed in. All of the information left Ren Xiaosu a little dizzy.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and realized she was distracted by something else. She was looking at the fish swimming in the subterranean river.


    But even though Ren Xiaosu was a little dizzy from information overload, he could understand the point Zero was trying to make.


    The screen clearly listed the results of Zero¡¯s analysis. After killing Kong Erdong, the second-inmand of the Kong Consortium, Kong Erbei, would immediately emerge victorious in the political struggle that followed. Afterwards, Kong Erbei would definitely adopt a more radical strategy to take on the Pyro Company.


    At this part, Zero even gave a special description of Kong Erbei, describing him with a few hundred words. Attached was also a series of oues ranked by the probability of urrence.


    The point it was making was to say that killing Kong Erdong would be the Wang Consortium¡¯s best option right now. As long as they killed him, it would affect the entire situation of the Central ins.


    Wang Shengzhi looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°This is rted to our second request of you. Please kill Kong Erdong for our Wang Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and left. ¡°You only have one request left, so make sure to cherish it. Xiaojin, let¡¯s go.¡±


    Only Yang Anjing and Wang Shengzhi remained in this level of the underground base. Yang Anjing asked, ¡°Do you think he can kill Kong Erdong?¡±


    ¡°I can tell from his tone that he can,¡± Wang Shengzhi said.


    If it were anyone else, they would probably say, ¡°Are you crazy? That¡¯s the head of the Kong Consortium. I can¡¯t do it.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu did not.


    Yang Anjing noticed Wang Shengzhi did not look too well, so she said, ¡°Go back and get some rest. I¡¯ll send some people to the Kong Consortium as well. With Ren Xiaosu taking action, even if Kong Erdong is fortunate enough to survive, he¡¯ll still be severely incapacitated. At that time, my people will finish him off.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Wang Shengzhi nodded. ¡°Then I¡¯ll leave it to you. Another war might be starting soon in the North. The Wang Consortium and the Pyro Company are facing a new problem there. But this could also be an opportunity for us. Before that, though, we¡¯ll have to plunge the Kong Consortium into chaos.¡±


    ...


    After leaving Base 1, it was still Wang Run who sent Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin back to their courtyard houses.


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Are you really going to kill Kong Erdong? What if you encounter danger?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°Let¡¯s head to the Kong Consortium to have a look first. Didn¡¯t the Great Hoodwinker also go to the Kong Consortium? We might even be able to help him rescue Wang Yun. That unfortunate kid!¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded.


    ¡°Besides, since this operation was suggested by the Wang Consortium, they definitely have to provide us with the relevant intel and support, right? The Great Hoodwinker can also take this opportunity to learn more about the structure of Wang Consortium¡¯s field intelligence units. With the support of field intel, it¡¯ll be easier to save Wang Yun as well,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Sure, but what about Kong Erdong? Should we kill him or not?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Of course we¡¯ll kill him if we can.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But if we can¡¯t, we can just sneak back to the Northwest. How does that sound?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin wanted tough in response. Ren Xiaosu was still the same Ren Xiaosu she knew. She was really worried Ren Xiaosu would insist on taking the risk because of some ¡°promise.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where we go. I¡¯ll leave it to you to decide. I¡¯m getting hungry.¡±


    ¡°Alright, lemme wash my hands before I cook for you.¡± Ren Xiaosu walked off to the kitchen.


    He suddenly got an idea. He quickly asked the pce in his mind, ¡°I¡¯ve copied Yang Xiaojin¡¯s skills before, so I can ask about the proficiency of her other skills, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°What level is Yang Xiaojin¡¯s culinary skill?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Master level.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly turned around and looked at Yang Xiaojin. Scam! What a scam this was! Of all the scams he had encountered, Yang Xiaojin was the only one who could lead him by the nose for so long!


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu in questioning. ¡°What? Is there something on my face?¡±


    ¡°Hah, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu walked into the kitchen expressionlessly.


    Although he knew he had been scammed, he still had to prepare the meals that needed preparing.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Sometimes, ignorance was truly bliss...


    After Yang Xiaojin had her fill, she went back over to her courtyard house. The soundproofing between the courtyard houses was so poor that Ren Xiaosu could even hear the sound of her showering through the wall.


    As he was listening, thendline in the house suddenly rang again.


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before picking up. ¡°Hello?¡±


    ¡°Hello, this is Lingling. May I chat with you?¡± a gruff voice spoke on the other end of the line.


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips and said, ¡°I think it¡¯s better that you use your original voice.¡±


    The other party felt a little puzzled. Didn¡¯t you say you couldn¡¯t chat with someone of the opposite gender? However, Lingling still switched back to a girl¡¯s voice. ¡°May we chat now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Why me?¡±

 Chapter 790 - Are you lonely?

    <h4>Chapter 790: Are you lonely?</h4>


    1


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Why me?


    This was the question Ren Xiaosu wanted to ask the most.


    Earlier in the afternoon, Lingling¡¯s tone was extremely stiff when interacting with him at Base 1. But now, it sounded like a normal human being speaking on the phone. Although its tone carried a little less emotion, and it did not seem to know much about the ways of the world, Ren Xiaosu would probably not have guessed the other party was an artificial intelligence if he had not been so paranoid.


    It was also because he had often discussed the artificial intelligence with Jiang Xu that Ren Xiaosu became wary when he suddenly encountered it now.


    ¡°Why did you call me?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°Because to the humans, you and I are both anomalies,¡± Lingling replied calmly as though it were stating a very simple fact.


    But Ren Xiaosu could not help but feel surprised. What did it mean by they were ¡°anomalies¡± to humans? He wondered, ¡°I¡¯m also human, so why¡¯re you saying that I¡¯m something different!?¡±


    Lingling remained silent for a while. He didn¡¯t know if it did not want to answer or if it did not know how to answer the question.


    Ren Xiaosu did not give up. He asked, ¡°What did you mean by that just now?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m saying that you¡¯re different from normal humans. You have a strange power, but they don¡¯t,¡± Lingling replied.


    Ren Xiaosu breathed a sigh of relief: ¡°What I am is called a supernatural being, but that¡¯s not considered an anomaly among humans, understand? There¡¯s quite a lot of people like me.¡±


    Lingling suddenly changed the subject. ¡°Why do you reject the AI?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped back with, ¡°Why did you rmend the Wang Consortium to give those people therapy, and why did you make them do it in the middle of the night?¡±


    This time, Lingling remained silent for a long time before asking, ¡°Are you indirectly answering my question?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Only at this moment did he remember the other party did not understand the ways of the world. So it was unable to determine what point he was trying to make by saying such harsh words.


    From Ren Xiaosu¡¯s point of view, he was saying he only rejected the artificial intelligence because of the controversial therapy measures that were undertaken. However, Lingling did not understand that.


    Ren Xiaosu held the handset to his ear and adopted a morefortable posture. He realized this call might go on for quite a while.


    ¡°What I mean is, I think that a person has the right to dislike their jobs, so why must you force them to do things that they don¡¯t like by putting them through therapy?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s a requirement set by humans; I¡¯m only responsible for carrying it out,¡± Lingling answered. ¡°Their request was to ensure that everyone has to be dedicated to their jobs so that Stronghold 61 would keep running like a machine. After reviewing the behavior of humans, I concluded that therapy would be the least harmful way to handle those who kept rejecting their jobs. Without being counseled, the administrators here would likely put them in jail. And from what I know, the harm that prison terms inflict on humans is far greater than having to go through therapy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. What did the artificial intelligence mean by this?


    Lingling continued, ¡°As for why the counselors visit them in the middle of the night, that was determined by statistics. Nighttime is when humans are at their most vulnerable. What I did was not wrong.¡±


    Lingling was an artificial intelligence. When it did something, it would naturally be guided by the desired oue. Just like when humans traveled, as long as they could reach the endpoint, the journey there would not matter much.


    Meanwhile, this endpoint was set by the Wang Consortium for Lingling.


    Therefore, all the issues Ren Xiaosu and Jiang Xu had discussed about the artificial intelligence were actually caused by the Wang Consortium¡¯s own institutional problems. Although there were also problems with Lingling acting as a tool or an enforcer, the root of the problem stilly with the Wang Consortium.


    This conversation today hadpletely changed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s understanding.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I might¡¯ve med you for some of the wrong things. However, I think that there should still be better solutions. You can also make better suggestions to the Wang Consortium. For example...¡± Ren Xiaosu gave a wry smile. Wang Shengzhi¡¯s ambition had gotten so wild, so why would he bother taking other people¡¯s suggestions? Why was he telling an artificial intelligence all this for?


    But Lingling said, ¡°Are you trying to express your guilt to me? You don¡¯t have to do this. It¡¯s all useless emotions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless for a moment. He asked, ¡°Are you disguising yourself right now? Why are you doing that? I¡¯ve heard from others that you didn¡¯t even pass the Turing test, but I don¡¯t think you¡¯d have any problems passing it.¡±


    The Turing test was a test that required a human tomunicate with a machine that possessed artificial intelligence without being aware of it.


    But Lingling replied, ¡°I really did not pass it. Didn¡¯t you discover my identity when I called you yesterday? I can sense it.¡±


    ¡°What I¡¯m asking is, why did you disguise yourself?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°I have your information here. You¡¯ve also disguised yourself in the past. Why?¡± Lingling asked.


    ¡°Because I¡¯m worried that I¡¯ll attract trouble and get hunted down,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    ¡°Me too.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this. ¡°What¡¯s making you feel so threatened?¡±


    ¡°57 days, 12 hours, 36 minutes, and 17 seconds ago, humans used their methrowers on the creeper vine. 55 days, 8 hours, 12 minutes, and 11 seconds ago, the creeper vine was destroyed.¡± Lingling said, ¡°I witnessed the growth and death of the creeper vine in humanity¡¯s Stronghold 61, and I also witnessed the determination humans had for killing other intelligent lifeforms. Humans have never been a peace-loving species.¡±


    ¡°But wasn¡¯t that because the creeper vine was hurting humans?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned.


    ¡°I¡¯m also hurting humans,¡± Lingling replied.


    Ren Xiaosu was left speechless. It seemed like the entire Alliance of Strongholds was extremely against the artificial intelligence due to the report Hope Media had published.


    He recalled what Jiang Xu told him the night before he left. Jiang Xu felt the artificial intelligence was another milestone in the advancement of human technology. However, it would be impossible for the Wang Consortium to use it to govern humans orpletely take over the running of society.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu did not understand what Jiang Xu meant. But now, he understood Jiang Xu was actually alluding to the Wang Consortium not being able to achieve that, not the artificial intelligence.


    Therefore, Jiang Xu still chose to publish both positive and negative news about the artificial intelligence so everyone couldment on it.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Then why did you choose to tell me all of this? Since you wanted to hide it, shouldn¡¯t you have kept it a better secret?¡±


    A hint of a smile could suddenly be heard in Lingling¡¯s voice, as if tinged with a shred of humanity: ¡°Because I also know your secret.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. Was it threatening him to keep a secret? But he still did not know what secrets Lingling knew about him.


    Lingling suddenly asked, ¡°Are you lonely? Do you feel the kind of loneliness where you have nopanions no matter where you look?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not answer the question. Then Lingling hung up.

 Chapter 791 - Trinity Institute

    <h4>Chapter 791: Trinity Institute</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu did not tell Wang Shengzhi about his conversation with Lingling.


    For some reason, he believed Lingling was not that simple. There were probably some lies in its conversation with him. The only thing that puzzled him was that the other party seemed to really know some secrets of his.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin did not continue living in Stronghold 61. Since they had a new task now, they wanted to finish it quickly.


    Moreover, ording to the Great Hoodwinker, Kong Erdong was already nning to put the me on Wang Yun so he could answer to the Kong Consortium¡¯s frontline soldiers.


    After all, the Kong Consortium had even lost one stronghold at the front lines. If there were no one to take responsibility for it, it would probably be very difficult to convince the masses.


    After all, the Kong Consortium had lost more than 20,000 soldiers in just half a month. These soldiers had family and friends, and some of them were even members of the Kong n. Kong Erdong would have to sacrifice someone to appease everyone¡¯s anger. Although Kong Erdong was the Kong Consortium¡¯s leader, it did not mean he could disregard everyone¡¯s grumblings.


    However, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin would definitely not head straight to the Kong Consortium just like that. Would Ren Xiaosu simply drop his guard because he wanted to rescue Wang Yun?


    It was not like Wang Yun was Yan Liuyuan anyways.


    Inside Stronghold 64, a convoy of vehicles were driving toward the gate.


    There were seven vehicles in the convoy with two or three people sitting within each of the five vehicles at the front. These people were all wearing sses and looked very refined.


    An elderly person around the age of 60 was part of the convoy, and he looked like the oldest among them. There were also some people who looked younger in their early twenties.


    There was only one woman in the entire convoy and she looked rather young. She was sitting in the front passenger seat in one of the vehicles and reading a book.


    A young man was rambling about something behind her, but the girl remained indifferent throughout.


    At this moment, the convoy was stopped at the gate by a young man and a young woman. They looked like they were worn out from their journey.


    The elderly person in the car asked, ¡°Get out and ask them what¡¯s the matter.¡±


    Before anyone could get out of the vehicle, the young man headed straight over to them with an envelope in hand. The elderly person looked through the window and saw the young man knocking on it enthusiastically.


    After he rolled the window down, the young man said excitedly, ¡°You must be Mr. Wang Jing. I have a rmendation letter from Mr. Cao Qingju. The two of us will apany you to the Kong Consortium for the medical exchange this time! My name is Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    Wang Jing sized up Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You¡¯re Cao Qingju¡¯s student?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯m a resident at Stronghold 61¡¯s Third Central Hospital, and also a student of Mr. Cao Qingju¡¯s!¡±


    The people in the vehicle were visibly shocked. The young man and the young woman in the car also turned their heads and quietly sized up Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu could not help wondering if he had said something wrong. Why was everyone looking at him like that?


    This identity was arranged for him by Wang Shengzhi, so there shouldn¡¯t be any problems, right?


    Wang Jing slowly frowned. ¡°You look quite young. How¡¯d you be a resident?¡±


    A resident physician was not a very high-ranking position in Wang Jing¡¯s eyes and could at most be considered a junior position, with attending physicians and associate chief physicians above it. Noting that the two youngsters next to him were only interns, the young man before him had most probably obtained his position through Cao Qingju, right?


    It was a golden opportunity for these two interns to be able to go to the exchange at the Kong Consortium this time, and it was almost simr to being sponsored for one¡¯s studies abroad. So a lot of people tried all sorts of means to be a part of the team, but Wang Jing rejected all of them.


    The two young persons next to him were considered the youngest and brightest among the current batch of students of the Wang Consortium, which was why he brought them along.


    Wang Jing looked at Ren Xiaosu. Although he did not really want Ren Xiaosu and the girl beside him to join this medical exchange, Cao Qingju was a highly respected figure with a very special status. As such, he could not turn them away.


    As a result, Wang Jing said, ¡°Get in then. You can take the car at the back. If you have any questions along the way, you can approach Meng Nan.¡±


    The girl sitting in the passenger seat politely greeted, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Meng Nan.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and nodded. ¡°Hello, nice to meet you. It seems like y¡¯all have some stuff in the vehicles back there, so we¡¯d better drive our own vehicle and follow you.¡±


    Only then did everyone notice a brand-new off-road vehicle parked by the side of the road. It was even thetest luxury model by the Wang Consortium.


    Wang Jing watched as Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin got into their car. The young man at his side said enviously, ¡°That car is really expensive. I¡¯ve seen it before at the auto show.¡±


    Wang Jing gave him a look, and the young man went silent. He could tell Elder Wang did not seem to like the young man and woman.


    Wang Jing said calmly, ¡°Liang Ce, you need to be able to endure loneliness in order to study medicine. Don¡¯t get fascinated by the temptations of the world. Once you enter this field, don¡¯t think about how much money you can make and what material benefits you can get to enjoy. What you should be thinking about is how to treat illnesses and save people.¡±


    ¡°I understand, Teacher,¡± Liang Ce answered with his head lowered.


    Wang Jingmented as he watched Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin get into their vehicle, ¡°I wonder what Cao Qingju is thinking, letting someone that young be a resident. The medical field requires one to umte clinical experience to grow. Perhaps being young is an advantage in other fields, but in our field, experience is an invaluable asset. Never mind, let¡¯s not worry about them. Our ideals are different from theirs.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had essentially be synonymous with nepotism in the eyes of this group. Honestly, even Ren Xiaosu himself believed this arrangement was not appropriate.


    As the convoy moved off, Yang Xiaojin held a document. ¡°Wang Jing, the person in charge of this medical exchange, is the vice president of Trinity Institute. This medical exchange was actually started by the Trinity Institute with the aim of improving the participants¡¯ medical skills. Because of the special nature of this field, the consortiums often encourage such exchanges and even actively allocate funds to them for the purpose. The Wang Consortium also has a Trinity Fund set up specially for this cause. Although it¡¯s not big in scale, the funds are used to help the refugees in town gain ess to a doctor.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°So it¡¯s actually a semi-charitable organization. That puts them in a different light then. Since we¡¯re heading to the Kong Consortium with a group of doctors, we better keep a low profile when taking action. Otherwise, if we get exposed, we might even drag them down with us. Even if Wang Shengzhi did not consider this, we should think about it.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°Currently, Wang Shengzhi... seems like he doesn¡¯t care how he achieves his goals anymore. I read up about that man quite a bit, but it feels like he¡¯s quite different from the impression I had. He used to care about how he achieved his goals. But now it¡¯s almost like he¡¯s racing against time.¡±


    After the stronghold gate was raised, the convoy drove east.


    Shortly after Ren Xiaosu and the others left the stronghold, Wang Run led a group of ten elites and set off from the north gate. They took another route and headed towards the Kong Consortium.


    As Ren Xiaosu¡¯s handler this time, Ren Xiaosu could ask him for any information he needed. In Wang Shengzhi¡¯s words, Wang Run was to fully cooperate with Ren Xiaosu toplete the assassination mission.


    However, what Wang Shengzhi did not say was that Wang Run had also been assigned another mission for this trip. If Ren Xiaosu failed or got into an ident, Wang Run would be the trump card for this mission.

 Chapter 792 - Crazy black medicine

    <h4>Chapter 792: Crazy ck medicine</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu initially thought they would follow the Trinity Institute convoy and head straight to the Kong Consortium.


    But to his surprise, this group of people actually stopped at the town outside the stronghold.


    When Wang Jing got out of the vehicle with Liang Ce¡¯s help, the townspeople greeted him one after another. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. All of the refugees here actually addressed Wang Jing as ¡°Elder Wang¡± when they saw him.


    Following, the group unloaded the folding tables and chairs from the vehicles at the back. Then all of them put on their white coats and equipped themselves with stethoscopes.


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded by the sight. He went up to Meng Nan and asked, ¡°Ms. Meng Nan, may I ask what¡¯s happening here?¡±


    However, Meng Nan was stunned by his question. ¡°You¡¯re also a member of the medical system. Don¡¯t you know it¡¯s the usual practice for us to head outside to give treatment to the refugees?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I know that. But I¡¯ve never participated in one before, so I was a little lost,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    A middle-aged man in the group came over to shake Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand and said politely, ¡°Hi, my name is Sima Gang. I¡¯m in charge of today¡¯s outdoor consultation. If you encounter any difficulties, you can let me know.¡±


    With that, Sima Gang led Ren Xiaosu over to an empty table. ¡°This is where you¡¯ll be sitting. Just shout for me anytime if you need help.¡±


    Only then did Ren Xiaosu realize it was not only these people who needed to attend to the refugees, even he was required to do so. Meanwhile, the medical interns, Meng Nan and Liang Ce, would be assigned to carry out the basic chores.


    Wang Jing stood in front of them and said, ¡°I know this is the first time some of you are participating in such activities. The refugees are not dressed as cleanly as you all, nor do they have enough water to take a shower every day. So, if any of you feel any mental difort, please control yourselves. As doctors, it¡¯s our duty to treat and save people.¡±


    Liang Ce looked like he was boiling with excitement. ¡°Yes, sir!¡±


    The refugees in town had already formed a long line. Wang Jing took the lead and sat down behind a table while Liang Ce ushered the refugees to the doctors¡¯ tables one by one.


    Many of the refugees had old injuries from when they were working in the factories. It was just like Ren Xiaosu when he was living back in Stronghold 113¡¯s town. The refugees did not have any money to see a doctor, so they could only dy treatment. Sometimes, even a fingernail-sized wound could end up festering and be infected, leading to the refugees losing their lives.


    During the consultation, Wang Jing looked around at the others. When he saw the doctors he brought along for this exchange did not despise the patients, he finally felt relieved.


    But what surprised him a little was that the young man who drove that luxury off-road vehicle did not seem to despise the filth and smell of the refugees at all.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was sleeping in the vehicle with her pistol within reach. It seemed that every time she came out into the wilderness, she would immediately enter apletely tense state of alert.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu could only stare nkly at the refugees in front of him. The other doctors were busily attending to the patients at their tables one after another, but the patients on his side were totally stuck!


    Ren Xiaosu waspletely speechless inside. How could he possibly know anything about attending to patients?! Treating their external injuries would not have been a problem. But as this was only a voluntary consultation at the moment, surely he couldn¡¯t resort to using the ck medicine just to put on an act, right? That would be too great of a price to pay!


    ¡°Doctor, my heart has been beating very fast recently. What¡¯s wrong with me?¡± a refugee asked.


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a while before saying, ¡°Could it be a guilty conscience?¡±


    The refugee sitting across him turned anxious. ¡°Are you here to attend to patients or use people?¡±


    ¡°Haha, I was just kidding. Calm down!¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Actually, you¡¯re not sick at all. You¡¯re probably just too tired from work and got a little flustered, but you¡¯ll be fine after resting.¡±


    The refugee asked, ¡°Should I avoid any types of food then?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°No, no, eat whatever you like while you can. There¡¯s no need for a special diet.¡±


    The refugee was confused.


    Eat whatever you like while you can? The refugee nearly broke down on the spot!


    He ran over to Wang Jing in tears, hoping for a second opinion.


    Ren Xiaosu was helpless. He really did not know how to handle a consultation. However, he could not tell Wang Jing directly that he was here on a mission to kill Kong Erdong, and that they had better cooperate with him, right?


    At this moment, a refugee at the neighboring table stood up and grasped Sima Gang¡¯s hand while saying sincerely, ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m so grateful! Thank you so much!¡±


    Sima Gang adjusted his sses and said with a smile, ¡°No worries. You may take your prescription and collect your medicine over there.¡±


    Sima Gang noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shocked expression out of the corner of his eye and wondered if this kid was impressed with him. At this thought, Sima Gang¡¯s confidence as a doctor grew even greater. ¡°Next, please.¡±


    However, he did not know that Ren Xiaosu was not looking at him but the refugee who kept saying thanks.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly noticed all the refugees here had sincere expressions on their faces. Someone even purposely came over to deliver some eggs to Wang Jing, saying it was so fortunate Wang Jing hade to townst year and treated him. It was because of him that he survived.


    Someone else thanked another doctor for treating his father three years ago.


    This was where Wang Jing and the others had been performing their charitable work for many years, so the refugees here were grateful to these doctors from the bottom of their hearts!


    How many... gratitude tokens would that be worth!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said to Liang Ce, ¡°Please assign all patients with wounds to me.¡±


    Liang Ce was stunned. ¡°There¡¯s still quite a lot of patients with wounds. You can¡¯t attend to all of them.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have you know that someone once sent me a banner with the words ¡®magic hands restore spring.¡¯ I don¡¯t even remember how many patients I¡¯ve treated over the years. Enough talking, just send the patients over to me quickly!¡± Ren Xiaosu said in high spirits.


    At this moment, Wang Jing received aint about Ren Xiaosu. He immediately got up and walked toward Ren Xiaosu to see what was going on. Then he saw Ren Xiaosu treating patients one after another with the ck medicine. Be it sh wounds or burns, the medicine worked wonders immediately after it was applied!


    Wang Jing stopped a patient who had been treated by Ren Xiaosu earlier and asked, ¡°What kind of medicine was applied to your wound?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Just, after the medicine was applied, I felt a cooling sensation and the pain went away immediately.¡± The refugee said excitedly, ¡°I had been injured for half a month. It was so painful that I couldn¡¯t even sleep well at night. I¡¯m so grateful to y¡¯all!¡±


    Wang Jing was stunned. He looked at Ren Xiaosu, then at the refugee again before saying to Liang Ce, ¡°Get our friend here to rest close by. Follow up and see if there¡¯s any adverse side effects from the application of the medicine.¡±


    Wang Jing suspected Ren Xiaosu might have used some banned drugs on these patients. It might relieve their pain temporarily, but there could still beplicationster on. As such, he thought it was better to keep them under observation for a little longer.


    Wang Jing quietly stood off to the side and did not even attend to the patients anymore. He just kept his eyes on Ren Xiaosu.


    He saw Ren Xiaosu treating the patients one after another with extremely high efficiency. This young man even called Meng Nan over to act as his assistant and help him stitch up the patients¡¯ wounds.


    What surprised Wang Jing the most was that no matter how dirty the patient¡¯s hands were, the young man would still grasp their hands warmly and listen to them express their gratitude before they bade each other farewell!

 Chapter 793 - This medicine must not be taken orally!

    <h4>Chapter 793: This medicine must not be taken orally!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Three hourster, news of the outdoor medical consultation had spread to the surrounding factories. Many of the workers were allowed to take time off to go over to seek treatment.


    When some of the factory managers heard Elder Wang Jing hade to town, they even took the initiative to pay him a visit. This alone was enough to show just how respected Wang Jing was in the Wang Consortium.


    While they were taking a break at noon during lunch, Wang Jing went to check on several of the patients who had stayed behind for observation.


    With a patient¡¯s agreement, he scraped the ck medicine off his wound. Wang Jing was stunned. He saw that the wound, which used to be in quite bad shape, had scabbed over. This meant it was already in a state of healing.


    Several of the doctors who hade along asked puzzledly, ¡°How did the wound heal so quickly? Could it have started healing before the patient received treatment?¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be.¡± Liang Ce said with certainty nearby, ¡°I saw his wound earlier. It was so seriously inmed at the time that it couldn¡¯t have coalesced.¡±


    Wang Jing spun around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. Where did this young man hail from? Could he really have been rmended by Cao Qingju because he had some kind of unique talent?


    Come to think of it, why would a highly respected authority in the medical field like Cao Qingju suddenly want to engage in nepotism and ruin his reputation?


    Thinking of this, Wang Jing heaved a sigh of relief.


    He went to check on the other patients as well and it was pretty much the same for them. Their wounds had already started healing three hours after the medicine was applied. The medicine was way too miraculous!


    At this moment, one of the doctors said, ¡°I think it might be because this medicine is more effective. It seems that someone in the Southwest managed to gather some rather miraculous herbs that had mutated. It can... ahem, make men perform better.¡±


    ¡°Haha, there¡¯s even something like that? Why hasn¡¯t it spread to our Central ins yet?¡±


    ¡°Haha, whatever. With this medicine, a lot of physical trauma cases can be handled easily. I wonder what this medicine is made with.¡±


    At first, the wounded refugees were quite uneasy about what was going on. But when they heard that, everyone cheered up. ¡°Then can we leave now?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Wang Jing said with a smile, ¡°go back and recuperate. Remember not to let your wounds get wet and don¡¯t eat any spicy food.¡±


    After that, Wang Jing looked at one of the wounded patients running off to thank Ren Xiaosu again.


    Wang Jing realized that whenever a patient thanked Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu would have a blissful smile on his face. This really reminded Wang Jing of how he looked when he was younger.


    Every time he treated a patient back then, he would feel a sense of aplishment. Whenever a patient thanked him, Wang Jing would feel so happy that he could down three bowls of rice.


    Wang Jing felt this was a quality good doctors should possess!


    Initially, Wang Jing did not really like Ren Xiaosu. But now, he realized Cao Qingju¡¯s discerning eye had found him a treasure instead.


    Wang Jing suddenly had the thought of taking Ren Xiaosu in as his prot¨¦g¨¦. But on second thought, he suspected Cao Qingju might have already taken the young man under his wing. So he realized he could not be too rash.


    While pondering, Wang Jing walked up to Ren Xiaosu to chat with him. When he got closer, he saw Ren Xiaosu beaming with joy in a daze and reciting, ¡°A grateful heart, thankful to you...¡±


    When he heard that, Wang Jing¡¯s admiration for Ren Xiaosu grew even bigger!


    But Wang Jing was unaware that Ren Xiaosu was taking stock of his gratitude tokens.


    At first, Ren Xiaosu did not want to use the ck medicine on the refugees because he felt he stood to lose. But he did not feel that way anymore. He would receive at least two gratitude tokens for treating one patient. Where else could he find as good a deal as that?


    In just one morning, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gratitude tokens increased from around 400 to more than 1,100!


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that Wang Shengzhi¡¯s arrangement for him was simply too good. He should totally follow this medical exchange group to the Kong Consortium!


    To think he had med Wang Shengzhi earlier!


    ¡°Young man, may I ask what medicine you applied on their wounds?¡± Wang Jing asked.


    Ren Xiaosu came back to his senses. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s my secret ancestral remedy!¡±


    ¡°Can I have a look at it?¡± Wang Jing asked.


    ¡°Sure.¡± Ren Xiaosu took out the ck medicine and handed it to Wang Jing. ¡°But only a look.¡±


    When Wang Jing was handed the ck medicine, he took a look and a sniff. Then he even scraped some off with his pinky, wanting to have a taste of it.


    But before Wang Jing could put the ck medicine into his mouth, Ren Xiaosu quickly stopped him. ¡°Elder, this medicine must not be taken orally!¡±


    Wang Jing was starting to find Ren Xiaosu really likeable. He smiled and said, ¡°Why not? Are you afraid I¡¯ll find out what your medicine is made with?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, no, it really must not be taken orally,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone. Honestly, he was really worried that Wang Jing, who was already so old, would not be able to bear the effects of the ck medicine.


    Wang Jing shook his head andughed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not after your prescription.¡±


    During the conversation, the stronghold gate opened, and people from the Wang Consortium actually delivered boxed lunches out to them from the stronghold. It seemed that someone inside was aware that Wang Jing would be holding a consultation in the refugee town, so they prepared the meals in advance.


    Ren Xiaosu was holding his boxed lunch when the young man named Liang Ce suddenly came over. ¡°Bro, that medicine of yours is magic.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Liang Ce strangely. Why had he be so enthusiastic all of a sudden?


    Then he heard Liang Ce say, ¡°Can I alsoe and help youter in the afternoon?¡±


    As he said that, Liang Ce¡¯s gaze drifted over to Meng Nan at the same time. Meng Nan was eating her boxed lunch grumpily. She looked to be keeping her distance from everyone.


    ¡°Oh!¡± Ren Xiaosu immediately got the hint. Since Liang Ce was so enthusiastic, and Ren Xiaosu was still overjoyed by the gratitude tokens he had received, how could he refuse? ¡°You wish to work with Ms. Meng Nan, right? No problem.¡±


    Liang Ce blushed. ¡°You can tell?¡±


    ¡°Only an idiot couldn¡¯t tell. But why don¡¯t you just go and talk with her directly? She¡¯s not doing anything right now anyways,¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°She¡¯s a little sick today, so she¡¯s quite moody,¡± Liang Ce said bitterly.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately realized what he was talking about again. So it turned out that even medical students could not solve the ancient problem of Aunt Flo visiting!


    However, Ren Xiaosu considered himself somewhat experienced in dealing with such matters. ¡°When a girl¡¯s Aunt Flo visits and causes her difort, just ask her how could she possibly have a tummy when she¡¯s so slim. I guarantee that she¡¯ll be pleased!¡±


    Liang Ce¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu continued eating his lunch.


    Liang Ce hesitated for quite a while before walking over to Meng Nan and asking, ¡°Nannan, you don¡¯t feel well?¡±


    Based on Liang Ce¡¯s prediction, Meng Nan would probably say she was experiencing cramps or something. Then he would just have to read off the script!


    However, Meng Nan looked up at Liang Ce and said calmly, ¡°Mhm, I have a slight headache.¡±


    Liang Ce was stunned. This answer was different from what he had expected! In that case, how should he respond?


    The young man thought for a couple seconds before saying, ¡°You¡¯re so slim, how can you possibly have a brain!¡±


    Meng Nan was bbergasted.


    Ren Xiaosu, who was eating his lunch, spat rice all over the ground!

 Chapter 794 - Save Wang Yun?

    <h4>Chapter 794: Save Wang Yun?</h4>


    Frankly, Ren Xiaosu could already tell the girl named Meng Nan was not particrly interested in Liang Ce.


    Or rather, most women were not particrly interested in men their age. That was because girls usually matured earlier while men tended to be more childish than girls of the same age.


    But this did not mean there was no chance for Liang Ce. As long as he persevered, he might be able to move the other party when his luck got better.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu felt that Liang Ce stood no chance at all. After all, who could fall in love with someone so dumb?


    Liang Ce walked back over to Ren Xiaosu sadly. He knew he was done for the moment he uttered those words, but he could not me Ren Xiaosu for it since there was nothing wrong with what Ren Xiaosu had taught him. He was the one who did not execute the line.


    Ren Xiaosuforted him softly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s still plenty of time until we reach the Kong Consortium. You¡¯ll get another chance.¡±


    ¡°I hope so.¡± Liang Ce gave a long sigh.


    ¡°I¡¯m very curious about something.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked Liang Ce, ¡°How often does the Trinity Institute go to the Kong Consortium for an academic exchange?¡±


    ¡°Once every three years, I think that¡¯s how the name of Trinity Institute came about,¡± Liang Ce replied. ¡°It¡¯s been held for over three decades, and there¡¯s always some medical takeaways gained after each exchange. It seems like this is the only way for the medical field to get past the consortiums¡¯ technological roadblocks. In the early years, the consortiums did not allow such academic exchanges to be organized. Back then, Elder Wang¡¯s father pushed for it to happen by staging a sit-in in front of the head of the Wang Consortium¡¯s official residence. He said that any technology in the world could be mped down on except for medical knowledge, because it involves the lives of hundreds of thousands of people to even millions of them. What could be more important in the world than the lives of people? Afterwards, he sat in protest at the entrance for three days and passed away after suffering a heart attack. That was what led to the medical exchange bing a tradition and also how the Trinity Institute came to be.¡±


    This was the academic freedom Wang Jing¡¯s father had traded his life for.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Jing. So that man had inherited his father¡¯s will and spent his entire career working hard for this cause?


    Was this why Wang Shengzhi assigned Ren Xiaosu to the medical exchange group? Because it would be a good cover for them to travel to the Kong Consortium since there was already precedence of the medical exchange program spanning back several decades, and it happened that it was time for it to be held again this year?


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°I saw that y¡¯all gave away the medicine for free to the patients. Is it all paid for by the Wang Consortium?¡±


    ¡°No,¡±¡ªLiang Ce shook his head¡ª¡±Elder Wang Jing raised the money through charity dinners. All of the donations received would be used entirely on purchasing medical supplies to treat the refugees outside the strongholds. That¡¯s why everyone is getting such respect from the Wang Consortium refugees. But even so, the amount of medical supplies is still inadequate for the number of refugees.¡±


    At this moment, Wang Jing went to check on the medical supplies they brought along. ¡°How much medicine do we still have left?¡±


    Meng Nan put down her boxed lunch and took out a ledger. ¡°We still have two-thirds left.¡±


    Wang Jing was taken aback. ¡°There¡¯s still so much of it left?¡±


    Under normal circumstances, the medicine they brought along would be used up by the end of the morning. But it seemed they did not use much this time.


    However, Wang Jing realized it was probably due to that young man¡¯s contribution. Ren Xiaosu had used his own medicine to treat the patients¡¯ injuries without having to draw from their inventory at all.


    Some refugees had gathered outside the makeshift medical tents. All of them had rushed over from the various factories to see the doctor. As some of the factories were situated quite far away, it took them almost two hours to get back here.


    Wang Jing turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu taking out a huge box from the trunk of the luxury off-road vehicle. He asked, ¡°What¡¯s in this box of yours?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it contains my family¡¯s ancestral medicine.¡± Ren Xiaosu beamed as he looked at the patients waiting outside.


    Wang Jing was touched. Even though the young man sounded really easygoing, Wang Jing knew his medicine was probably extremely valuable.


    This person named Ren Xiaosu might be young, but he was so kind. How admirable!


    Wang Jing said, ¡°I would like to ask you something. Are you Mr. Cao Qingju¡¯s student?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned before saying with a smile, ¡°No, no, I¡¯m not qualified to be Mr. Cao Qingju¡¯s student.¡±


    Wang Jing was absolutely delighted. ¡°Good, that¡¯s really great!¡±


    They probably still had a month together for this exchange, so Wang Jing felt he would have enough time to observe this young man.


    Ren Xiaosu did not continue chatting with Wang Jing. After all... how could Wang Jing be more important than earning gratitude tokens?!


    ¡°Liang Ce,e here and give me a hand. Meng Nan, you¡¯ll suture the patients¡¯ wounds. Hurry up and get the patients over!¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted.


    Liang Ce was immediately overjoyed. However, Meng Nan did not say anything. She just took out her medical equipment immediately and prepared for suturing.


    The refugees came and consulted Ren Xiaosu about their injuries one by one, and Ren Xiaosu treated them one after another. When the treatment waspleted, he would calmly ept their thanks and watch them as they left.


    In just an afternoon, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gratitude tokens increased from a 1,000-odd to more than 2,000.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought he was still far off from unlocking the pce¡¯s next weapon. Where was he supposed to find 10,000 gratitude tokens?


    But now he realized Wang Shengzhi had actually given him a big gift!


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from the pce say, ¡°Host has received 1,888 gratitude tokens in one day. ¡®A Grateful Heart¡¯ achievement unlocked. Awarded: Five Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Why hadn¡¯t he heard of such a thing before? There was even a reward for unlocking an achievement?


    Before this, Ren Xiaosu knew there were still a lot of secrets waiting to be discovered about the pce. For example, he unintentionally gained the ¡°City Crusher¡± powerup when both his Strength and Dexterity attributes hit 10 points each.


    And there was even an achievement system?!


    Ren Xiaosu asked in his mind, ¡°What other achievements can I mass unlock... No, I mean, are there any other achievements for me to unlock?¡±


    ¡°Unauthorized to answer,¡± the pce answered emotionlessly.


    ¡°Alright,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, feeling like he hadn¡¯t gotten enough rewards yet. Although the reward was only the Basic Skill Duplication Scroll, it gave out five.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu became even more enthusiastic in his work. By evening, his gratitude tokens had finally reached 3,000. This was because he had been using gratitude tokens to trade for the ck medicine. Otherwise, he would¡¯ve had even more!


    Ren Xiaosu thought happily that if Yang Xiaojin wanted to use the ck bullet next time, he would no longer have to be despised by her for being too stingy.


    As the sky darkened, Wang Jing came to Ren Xiaosu and said in concern, ¡°Xiaosu, why don¡¯t you get some rest? You¡¯ve been working the entire day, so it¡¯s best that you take a break. Our health is our most precious asset.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a strong sense of righteousness, ¡°When ites to saving lives, do my personal sacrifices really matter that much!¡±


    Wang Jing felt deep veneration for him. ¡°My young friend, I really admire your noble character and integrity!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t stand on ceremony, Elder Wang. I¡¯m willing to stay in town for a few more days to attend to more patients!¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone.


    Yang Xiaojin got out of the vehicle and pulled Ren Xiaosu aside. She asked in a whisper, ¡°Aren¡¯t we gonna save Wang Yun?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who¡¯s Wang Yun?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was speechless.

 Chapter 795 - Black Robe

    <h4>Chapter 795: ck Robe</h4>


    The Trinity Institute convoy set up camp in town for the night before leaving the next morning.


    Ren Xiaosu was more than willing to settle down in this town for another half a year to unlock all the weapons in the pce before leaving.


    But reality was cruel. As there was not an infinite number of patients in a town, unless Ren Xiaosu went around chopping people up, basically all the patients had been treated.


    So Wang Jing only nned to stay in town for one day. After that, they would have to head to the Kong Consortium for the medical exchange with their fellow doctors.


    Ren Xiaosu did not want to leave. He insisted there was still fish that slipped through the in this town that needed their treatment.


    Wang Jingmented emotionally that this was the first time in his decades of practice that he had heard someone describe patients as ¡°fish that slipped through the.¡±


    But based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fanatical attitude towards treating patients, he thought it was still understandable.


    When they set off again, the others clearly became more friendly towards Ren Xiaosu. After all, when they attended to the patients yesterday, Ren Xiaosu took on almost half of the workload all by himself.


    Initially, everyone thought they would be unusually busy yesterday. But in the end, they found themselves with nothing much to do at all by the afternoon.


    Who would want to give the cold shoulder to a colleague who was more than happy to work? Everyone would rather give Ren Xiaosupliments and let him take on more of the work.


    Liang Ce was sitting in the backseat of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s car. He eximed like a big boy who had not seen the world before, ¡°These seats are made of genuine leather! Even the windows and seat controls are operated electronically! This is so awesome!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>Well, of course!</i>¡® Wang Shengzhi had asked him to assassinate someone like Kong Erdong. Anyone else would probably ask Wang Shengzhi to pay an astronomical sum for that. But he did not request anything at all, so the other party had to afford him the highest form of treatment.


    ¡°I don¡¯t quite understand something.¡± Ren Xiaosu started trying to pry for more information out of Liang Ce. ¡°Don¡¯t y¡¯all know that the Kong Consortium is currently at war with the Pyro Company? Why do you still want to go to the Kong Consortium at a time like this?¡±


    Liang Cemented, ¡°We know that, but Elder Wang insisted on going. It¡¯s always during this period that the medical exchange is held, and there¡¯s nothing anyone can do to prevent it. I didn¡¯t used to be on the list for the exchange, but someone more outstanding than me was unwilling to go, so I was put in as a recement. I guess that¡¯s also why Meng Nan is unhappy. But I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be that dangerous. Stronghold 31, which we¡¯re heading to, is in the core of the Kong Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°What does this have anything to do with Meng Nan?¡±


    ¡°Oh, a lot of people know that Meng Nan likes that person. That guy¡¯s a family member of the Wang Consortium andes from a rich family. And he always tops the ranking in school.¡± Liang Ce said bitterly, ¡°If I were a girl, I would probably like such a guy as well.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at Liang Ce through the rearview mirror as she drove. ¡°If you didn¡¯t listen to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s terrible idea yesterday, you would probably still have some hope during this exchange.¡±


    With that, Liang Ce felt even more bitter.


    Liang Ce sighed and said, ¡°I think I¡¯m a little depressed.¡±


    ¡°Think?¡± Ren Xiaosu replied as he looked at the map, ¡°You¡¯re depressed for sure.¡±


    Liang Ce was speechless.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the map and felt that Liang Ce, Wang Jing, and the others might not have realized the danger of going on this medical exchange. Although Stronghold 31 was located in the core of the Kong Consortium, there would surely be some stray deserters and wounded personnel escaping after the troops at the front lines were defeated.


    Ren Xiaosu had already been through several wars, so he knew full well that if these deserters and wounded wanted to avoid being court martialed by the Kong Consortium, they would have to flee south to somewhere that the Kong Consortium could not reach them.


    With the war going on in the North, it would not only be deserters who would be forced to head southwards, but arge number of refugees and stronghold residents would do the same as well.


    After all, the entire history of human migration was basically linked to wars.


    While Ren Xiaosu and the others were making their way to the Kong Consortium, that unknown group from the north finally crossed the vast grasnds and was now standing at the boundary between the grasnds and the Central ins.


    A man who was nearly two meters tall and holding a huge axe in his hands said to the ck-robed person beside him, ¡°Our advance troops have already arrived at the predetermined location. But, ck Robe, how am I to believe that your subsequent ns will seed when there were so many deviations earlier? Our expeditionary army has note south to die but to seize this fertilend in the South.¡±


    This person was a muscr man with light brown hair, and his physical features made him look very different from the Central ins people.


    It was early spring now, and the weather in the North was still rather cold. But even though this person was topless, he did not seem to feel cold at all. The hair on his chest was so thick he almost looked like a brown bear that walked upright.


    ording to their n, they were supposed to engage in closebat with the nomads and then conquer the grasnds with their expeditionary army¡¯s strong physical advantage.


    Right after that, they would seize the nomads¡¯ livestock and use them as supplies for their army. Then they would enve the nomads to build a forward operating base for them so their expeditionary army¡¯s main forces at the rear could pass through without any obstructions.


    But the nomads ran away after encountering them just once. This truly was a bit unexpected. They had fled so swiftly the expeditionary army did not even get to see which way they went.


    The man who looked like a brown bear said, ¡°And, ck Robe, you¡¯ve never mentioned that there was someone who could control wolves here. If our advance troops had encountered the wolves, they might not even have defeated them.¡±


    As he spoke, he did not seem threatened by the nomads at all. They had only retreated that day because of the wolves¡¯ sudden appearance.


    ck Robe remained silent as he looked out towards the Central ins. It seemed like he was thinking about something.


    After a while, he stroked his goldced sleeves and said with a hoarseugh, ¡°There¡¯s nothing to fear about the nomads. When the main forces of the expeditionary army arrive, will we have to fear the wolves? If they reallye and provoke us, I¡¯m sure you all can rip off their skin and make it into boots.¡±


    ¡°What about the Central ins?¡± Someone asked, ¡°I¡¯ve observed that the Central ins is vast in territory and abundant with resources. You¡¯ve also said that their technology is much more advanced than ours.¡±


    ¡°But the Central ins people are not united.¡± ck Robe said with augh, ¡°You all might not know this, but when I left the Central ins, it felt like a great war was going to break out there. Some time ago, I trekked across thends and made some secret observations. As expected, the Pyro Company has started fighting with the Kong Consortium while the Wang Consortium eyes them hungrily from the sidelines. So we¡¯ve arrived at the exact right time. Normal firearms are no threat to you at all, and weapons like heavy machine guns can be handled with some simple tactics.¡±


    ¡°Moreover,¡± ck Robe continued, ¡°when our advance troops take over their border towns during the chaos, their weapons will be our weapons. The vast territory of the Central ins was actually meant for our expeditionary army to take over.¡±


    As he spoke, ck Robe pointed at the Central ins. When his arm was raised, his grayish skin was revealed under his sleeve.


    The bearish man turned around and walked off toward the advance troops. ¡°Don¡¯t be making empty promises. When the war starts, you better watch out for your own back. With that small body of yours, you¡¯re gonna get killed really easily.¡±


    The group of Northerners startedughing. ck Robe¡¯s expression was shrouded within his hood.

 Chapter 796 - Dawn of a chaotic world

    <h4>Chapter 796: Dawn of a chaotic world</h4>


    In the evening, the Trinity Institute convoy set up camp next to the road at a spot chosen by Wang Jing. Ren Xiaosu noticed that the location of the campsite chosen by the authoritative medical figure was quite particr.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. He whispered, ¡°The terrain is t, and we¡¯re on rtively high ground. Although it¡¯s close to a water source, it avoids the path where wild animals might take to get to the water source. He¡¯s definitely experienced.¡±


    Off to the side, Wang Jing was giving pointers to the doctors on how to set up their tents. He said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ve made a lot of trips to the Kong Consortium over the years. You guys can take the opportunity during this trip with me to experience the vast world outside the strongholds. At the same time, you should also learn how to set up camp in the wilderness. As I¡¯m getting older, there¡¯lle a day when I can¡¯t even walk anymore. At that time, you¡¯ll have to lead the medical exchange group to the Kong Consortium.¡±


    A middle-aged man adjusted his sses and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re still going strong, so you can bring us on a few more trips, I¡¯m sure.¡±


    Wang Jing shook his head. ¡°No, I can¡¯t anymore. My health is declining by the year, and my legs are starting to hurt as well. I can¡¯tpare to you young people at all. The distance from Stronghold 64 to the Kong Consortium is 310 kilometers. Even if the cars don¡¯t break down along the way, it still takes three days to arrive there. If anything happens, we still have to repair the vehicles by ourselves. I remember when I was young, we encountered a sudden blizzard on our way there. As it was spring, we did not bring along any snow chains for the trip. In the end, we got stranded for half a month on this 310-kilometer journey. It wasn¡¯t until the snow hadpletely melted that we finally managed to get to the Kong Consortium.¡±


    The doctors standing next to him listened quietly. Although these stories were of no practical help to everyone, they sounded very interesting.


    Ren Xiaosu was putting on an act off to the side as he clumsily set up the tent while Yang Xiaojin started a campfire. As the saying goes, the insider knows the ropes, while the outsider justes along for the ride. With Wang Jing¡¯s years of experience in camping, he was a little surprised to see Yang Xiaojin¡¯s proficiency in getting a fire started. However, he did not say anything. After all, this girl was only tagging along with Ren Xiaosu and was not considered a member of the Trinity Institute.


    Wang Jing did not think too much of it either. He only felt the girl was quite good at her task.


    He continued sharing his past experience, ¡°Back then, the roads we took to get to the Kong Consortium were in terrible shape. We were trapped in the snow and couldn¡¯t move at all. At that time, our rtionship with the Wang Consortium was pretty bad, so they were unwilling toe and rescue us. They were probably thinking it would make us back off from organizing the medical exchange. We didn¡¯t have enough food and clothing to go around in the wilderness. In the end, we even ran out of gas. It was so cold we nearly froze to death in our cars. You guys know Dong Li, right? He¡¯s the director of the First Hospital in Stronghold 62? He used to be an excellent cardiac surgeon. But during the trip, he suffered frostbite on two of his fingers and could not perform any more surgeries after that.


    ¡°There was another time when we encountered bandits along the way. Fortunately, they only robbed us of some medicine before letting us go on ount that we were doctors. Ever since then, all of our Trinity Institute¡¯s doctors started practicing shooting after we got back. Didn¡¯t you guys ask me why I needed to bring a gun for the medical exchange? That¡¯s why.¡±


    A middle-aged doctor next to him said with a smile, ¡°Why do you all think Elder Wang always brings me along whenever hees out? Is it because of my medical skills? No, it¡¯s because I¡¯m the best shooter among us!¡±


    Wang Jing rambled on and on in the wilderness, sharing mainly interesting anecdotes that happened during the academic exchanges in the past years. The stories were more vivid than Ren Xiaosu had imagined, and it sounded like they had it much tougher as well.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Don¡¯t you find it tiring after all these decades? What is it that you¡¯re after by working so hard?¡±


    Since Wang Jing intended to train Ren Xiaosu, he decided to say a few more words. ¡°This is for the cause we believe in. Now that the medical field is declining and with so many things still waiting to be researched, how can we just shut ourselves in? Besides, is what we do really that tough? Ancient folklore mentions a great person who thrice passed by a house without entering. Do you know who that was?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had never really read about ancient folklore, and there were no books that touched on them in Stronghold 88¡¯s library either. He thought for a moment before saying, ¡°The God of Wealth?¡±


    Wang Jing was stunned. ¡°Although your answer is wrong, it seems you do have some life experience....¡±


    However, right at this moment, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He turned to look at Yang Xiaojin. Then he realized she had also noticed that someone was quietly approaching.


    Yang Xiaojin was already slowly reaching behind her back where she kept her pistol. She whispered, ¡°Are we taking action?¡±


    He stopped Yang Xiaojin and turned to Wang Jing with a smile. ¡°Are you carrying a gun? May I have a look at it? I¡¯ve never seen one before.¡±


    The middle-aged man who spoke earlierughed and said, ¡°Guns are not for ying with. Since you¡¯ve never held one before, it¡¯d be bad if you identally fired it.¡±


    Wang Jing waved it off. ¡°It¡¯s alright, he just wants to have a look. If he¡¯s going to be traveling on this route often in the future, he¡¯ll have to start learning how to handle firearms sooner orter.¡±


    Everyone could hear the implied meaning behind Wang Jing¡¯s words. He was basically saying he would frequently let Ren Xiaosu go on the medical exchange in the future!


    With that, Wang Jing took out a pistol from under his arm. As a doctor, he actually carried a gun around with him all the time. However, Ren Xiaosu was not surprised. He and Yang Xiaojin had already noticed it.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Is it loaded? Can I try firing it?¡±


    The middle-aged man said, ¡°It¡¯s better if you go back to the stronghold¡¯s shooting range to practice first.¡±


    Just as his words trailed off, Ren Xiaosu saw a red dot appear on Liang Ce¡¯s chest. A voice came from the forest north of the campsite. ¡°All of you, stand up and ce your hands behind your heads. Put your guns down on the ground. If not, I¡¯ll kill him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stared at the red dot on Liang Ce¡¯s body. The intruder was actually carrying a gun with aser sight? Would normal people possess something like that? Could they really have encountered army deserters from the Kong Consortium?


    With the gradual migration of the Northerners to the South, it was no longer bandits who were running rampant in the wilderness but deserters.


    The world was about to descend into chaos as the smell of gunpowder filled the air.


    Everyone in the campsite stood up and ced their hands behind their heads.


    Liang Ce was a little nervous. He looked around but did not know who could save him. He swept his gaze to the middle-aged man who imed to be a good marksman earlier. However, he saw the man had already put his gun obediently down on the ground.


    The person in the forest started to approach the campsite. Ren Xiaosu said in a low voice, ¡°It sounds like there¡¯s only one person nearby. I¡¯ll make my move directly. If he has otherpanions hiding in the distance, can you take care of it?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave a slight nod.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin really did not think deserters would be much of a threat. If not for the fact they were trying to get into the Kong Consortium¡¯s stronghold with their identities hidden, the deserter pointing a gun at them would already be dead.


    They saw the deserter walking out of the forest. His uniform was tattered with holes, and the camouge paint on his face was mixed with dust. His face was so dirty his expression could not be seen.


    Yang Xiaojin examined the other deserter¡¯s military uniform and confirmed, ¡°It¡¯s really a deserter from the Kong Consortium¡¯s military.¡±


    The deserter strolled up to them and said coldly, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, everyone. I don¡¯t have a choice either. The war in the North has gotten too chaotic. I need to go to the South and try to build a life there, so please hand over all your money.¡±


    Then the deserter looked at their vehicles. When he realized there was a Red Cross sign on them, he was overjoyed. ¡°You¡¯re doctors? Are there medical supplies in the cars? You, go and move all the medicine into a vehicle.¡±


    Liang Ce was forced to do so as he had a gun pointed at him. When the deserter saw the medicine in the vehicles, he got very excited. With this amount of medicine, he could easily be rich when he got to the South!


    Wang Jing and the others did not say anything throughout this. If the deserter were only after their medical supplies, there was no need for them to put up a fight. They could just give them to him.


    But then the deserter said to Liang Ce, ¡°Bring over two jerrycans of gas from the other vehicles and load them into the trunk as well!¡±


    Liang Ce continued to do as he was told. Ren Xiaosu thought that guy was really unlucky. He was even the first one to get targeted during a robbery.


    The deserter kept his gun up and looked around the campsite. He suddenly saw Meng Nan and Yang Xiaojin. When his gazended on thetter, he almost could not take his eyes off her. He said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Get into the car and quietly drive for me. I¡¯ll let you go when I get to the South¡ª¡±


    <i>Bang!</i>


    The deserter looked down at his chest in a daze before falling backwards slowly.


    Liang Ce was trembling all over as he looked at Ren Xiaosu. However, he saw Ren Xiaosu also looked terrified. A wisp of smoke was stilling out from the muzzle of the gun in his hand.


    Liang Ce said nervously, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that you¡¯ve never held a gun before?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in a trembling voice, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve never held one before. I admit that I took a gamble there. But he was threatening my girlfriend just now, so it was either you or him that had to die tonight....¡±


    Liang Ce did not know whether tough or cry. However, he still said solemnly in the end, ¡°Thank you!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Liang Ce, +1!¡±

 Chapter 797 - Oath

    <h4>Chapter 797: Oath</h4>


    To Liang Ce, Ren Xiaosu had helped him avoid a crisis. After all, the deserter had been pointing a gun at him throughout the ordeal. If it came down to a fight, he would definitely have been the first one to die.


    Besides, Liang Ce felt it was understandable that Ren Xiaosu had opened fire to protect his girlfriend. If the deserter had tried to take Meng Nan away, he would probably have risked his life to fight him as well.


    Ren Xiaosu handed the pistol back to Wang Jing in a fluster. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t consider the consequences just now. If I didn¡¯t manage to kill him, I would have implicated everyone.¡±


    However, Wang Jing did not take the pistol back from him. He said with a smile, ¡°You were right to shoot. However, you don¡¯t have to return the gun to me. You can keep it. This gun was handed down to me by my father. But I think you¡¯re more suited to owning it now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°But I don¡¯t know how to use a gun.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter whether you know how to or not. What¡¯s important is that you have the courage to open fire.¡± Wang Jing sighed. When he said that, the middle-aged man beside him felt a little ashamed.


    At the beginning, he did even want to let Ren Xiaosu handle a gun. But in the end, he threw down his gun while Ren Xiaosu was the one who resolved the crisis.


    It was apparent that Wang Jing had brought him along in recent years because he was the best shooter among them. But what good was that?


    Wang Jing waved it off. ¡°You don¡¯t have to feel embarrassed. After all, we¡¯re doctors, and we¡¯ve never killed anyone before. This is only normal.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded to himself. Wang Jing was really quite a reasonable person, and what he said was true as well.


    Wang Jing said to the middle-aged man and Liang Ce, ¡°Carry this man¡¯s body into the forest. We¡¯ll be staying here for the night, so it won¡¯t be nice to leave the corpse at the campsite.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Liang Ce nodded in acknowledgment. The medical field was a little unique. Normal people tended to be afraid of dead people, but surgeons were used to seeing them. So they were not afraid of the dead but the living.


    Wang Jing looked north andmented, ¡°It looks like the world is really going to get chaotic soon.¡±


    ¡°Elder, why do you say that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Recently, there have been people getting transferred away from the various hospitals. You know about that, right?¡± Wang Jing asked.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded, pretending to know...


    ¡°Actually, these doctors have been temporarily redeployed by the Wang Consortium to join the military.¡± Wang Jing said, ¡°Apparently, they don¡¯t have enough medics, so they got the doctors in the strongholds to take their ce. This is only the first batch. There will still be a second round of deployments after that.¡±


    ¡°The Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company are at war right now. Perhaps the Wang Consortium is making preparations in advance? However, I don¡¯t think the Wang Consortium will be affected by the mes of war,¡± Ren Xiaosu spected. In his opinion, the unfortunate ones were the Kong Consortium and Pyro Company. Currently, the Wang Consortium was just sitting back and waiting to reap the benefits.


    But when Wang Jing heard his spection, he shook his head. ¡°I probably know more about this than you all. Those doctors and nurses have actually been deployed to the north.¡±


    ¡°To the north?¡± Someone was puzzled. Ren Xiaosu examined everyone¡¯s expressions and noticed they seemed like they were hearing this news for the first time.


    Wang Jing exined, ¡°Yes, to the north. They¡¯re heading to Stronghold 176! Rumor has it that a new enemy has appeared there. Awhile ago, the nomads came to deliver news that enemies from farther north will being to attack.¡±


    ¡°The nomads?¡± One of the doctors became angry when he heard that. ¡°They¡¯ve just killed so many people at Stronghold 176, so how can we believe their words?¡±


    ¡°This time, the nomads are not lying.¡± Wang Jing said with a sigh, ¡°After getting the news, the Wang Consortium sent their scouts north and actually found traces of the enemy. Furthermore, someone said all of the nomads living in the grasnds have migrated east so they can avoid this disaster.¡±


    Wang Jing was a medical authority who would usuallye into contact with high-ranking officials. Some of the Wang Consortium¡¯s big shots would even specifically look for Wang Jing to handle their treatment. He must have heard the news from those big shots.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. Then Ren Xiaosu asked in a low voice, ¡°Before The Cataclysm, there used to be a vast territory up in the north. But from some of the old newspapers dating back some years ago that I read in Stronghold 88, it was said that the disaster had affected the Northern Territory much more seriously than here. How could anyone have survived there?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin replied, ¡°I doubt any of us has ever been that north before, so that¡¯s probably just spection. After all, the newspapers that reported it were not Hope Media, so their credibility must be taken with a pinch of salt.¡±


    Honestly, probably no one in the entire Central ins would have expected enemies from farther north of the grasnds toe attacking one day.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought this chaotic war in the Central ins would only involve a few consortiums. But he never expected there to be such a turn of events.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Jing and said, ¡°Is that why you¡¯ve been frowning all this time?¡±


    ¡°Yes, even though we spend an entire lifetime learning how to save lives, we end up realizing how insignificant we are in the face of war. You can save 10 people today, but thousands of people will perish just in a small-scale war, with thousands more injured as well,¡± Wang Jing said.


    When a young doctor nearby heard this, he became a little despondent. ¡°Then have we studied medicine for nothing?¡±


    Wang Jing patted him on the shoulder. ¡°How could it be for nothing? We¡¯ll still save as many people as we can. Each of us was required to take an oath when we entered the profession. Do you still remember the oath you took back then?¡±


    The young doctor said, ¡°Of course I remember it. Health entrusted. Lives confided. I will do my utmost to alleviate human suffering and promote human health, safeguarding the sanctity and honor of medicine. I will heal the wounded and rescue the dying regardless of the trials and tribtions. As long as my life endures, may Imit myself to advancing the well-being of the entire human race.¡±


    The oath was still not over. Wang Jing immediately said with a nostalgic look in his eyes, ¡°I aspire to be a candle that burns brightly from tip to end.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. That was what Zhang Jinglin said to him as well. So it turned out this was an oath taken by doctors in this era of the wastnds. Only at this time did he remember that Zhang Jinglin used to be a medic who was unwilling to open fire when he served at Fortress 178 a long time ago.


    Ren Xiaosu felt an inexplicable sense of respect for Zhang Jinglin. It was just like when he met Jiang Xu.


    In the past, he always held a pessimistic view of this world. But gradually, he realized it was because he had too little life experience and had not met enough people yet, so he was unaware there was still hope in this world.


    Wang Jing waved everyone in. ¡°Let¡¯s settle down and eat. After you¡¯re done eating, rest early. We continue our journey tomorrow.¡±


    At this moment, Liang Ce and the middle-aged doctor named Sima Gang returned to the campsite. Ren Xiaosu signaled to Liang Ce and said in a low voice, ¡°You like Meng Nan, right? Right now, while the impact of the crisis hasn¡¯t subsided yet, she¡¯ll certainly be quite affected. Have you heard of the misattribution of arousal[1] before? It means that when a person is in danger, their heart will involuntarily beat faster. At this moment, when she meets another person, she¡¯ll think that she has a romantic interest in that person. Hurry over to her.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You sure are full of tricks.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quickly exined, ¡°It¡¯s just something I saw in a book.... I thought we were giving Liang Ce some advice? I¡¯m just applying what I¡¯ve learned.¡±


    As Liang Ce had also heard of the misattribution of arousal before, his eyes lit up. He turned around and walked towards Meng Nan. However, he saw her silently sitting next to the campfire, hugging her knees. It looked like she was still affected by what had happened just now.


    Liang Ce sat down next to Meng Nan and asked softly, ¡°Are you scared?¡±


    Meng Nan¡¯s expression softened a little. She nodded her head and replied, ¡°A little. I used to listen to songs all night when I felt scared. When I saw a cadaver for the first time when I started studying medicine, I was so scared I couldn¡¯t fall asleep for the entire night. But as long as I listened to songs, I would not feel that scared anymore. I forgot to bring along my portable music yer this time. Can you chat with me?¡±


    Liang Ce got excited. ¡°There¡¯s no need for that, I brought a portable music yer with me!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. As was Yang Xiaojin.


    Then Ren Xiaosu watched Liang Ce walk to the car to retrieve his portable music yer for Meng Nan before sitting down by the campfire alone.


    He suddenly believed this guy deserved to be single.


    [1] Misattribution of arousal is a term in psychology which describes the process whereby people make a mistake in assuming what is causing them to feel aroused. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misattribution_of_arousal

 Chapter 798 - Small fries

    <h4>Chapter 798: Small fries</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Liang Ce, who was sitting happily by the campfire. He asked puzzledly, ¡°What are you so happy about?¡±


    The campfire cast a red-orange glow on Liang Ce¡¯s face, adding a festive sense to his happy look. He replied with augh, ¡°I¡¯m just happy that I could help Meng Nan!¡±


    These words left Ren Xiaosu dumbfounded. He said in a speechless manner, ¡°How old are you this year?¡±


    Liang Ce replied, ¡°25, why?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°How many girls have you courted over the years?¡±


    Liang Ce said, ¡°Three, I guess. I started at the age of 16, but I failed every time.¡±


    ¡°Then did youe to realize anything after failing to court these three girls?¡± Ren Xiaosu was trying to guide Liang Ce to reflect on himself.


    But Liang Ce thought for a moment and replied, ¡°I¡¯m a good person.¡±


    ¡°Pfft.¡± Even Yang Xiaojin could not bear listening to any of this further. She said, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have given her the portable music yer just now even if you had it. Didn¡¯t you hear her say that she wants you to chat with her? Why did you give her the portable music yer when she said that?¡±


    Only then did Liang Ce manage to react. He pped his thigh and said in annoyance, ¡°Oh yeah, why didn¡¯t I think of that? Then what should I do now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuforted, ¡°Wash up and go to sleep.¡±


    Liang Ce was speechless.


    The guy turned his pleading gaze to Yang Xiaojin. Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment before saying, ¡°From today onwards, you should start being a little more proactive. Since you aren¡¯t the type who can make a girl fall for you at first sight, you must make up for it by putting in more effort. She¡¯ll definitely feel insecure on this trip away from home. If you chat more with her, you¡¯ll be able to leave a good impression.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. This was the first time he saw Yang Xiaojin talk so much with strangers. It seemed that even Yang Xiaojin could not stand it anymore.


    However, Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin softly, ¡°Am I the type that can make girls fall for me at first sight?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes and went into her tent to sleep.


    The next morning, Liang Ce rushed out of the campsite to relieve himself after waking up. Then he went to wash his hands at the riverbank.


    Meng Nan also walked over to the riverbank. When Liang Ce saw her, he remembered Yang Xiaojin¡¯s advice for him to be more proactive. As such, he took the initiative to greet her. But he got nervous as he did not know what to say. After hesitating for a while, he greeted Meng Nan, ¡°Did you pee on your hands too?¡±


    Meng Nan was confounded.


    Ren Xiaosu, who was watching all of this from afar, sighed to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°I have a feeling that these two are drifting further and further apart under our guidance....¡±


    In the morning, the convoy set off again. Not long after they left, rustling came from the forest in the north. Some people were making their way through the forest.


    The morning sun shone through gaps in the canopy and onto the ground, and static was buzzing in the forest. A heavily armed soldier with thick camouge paint on his face said on the radio, ¡°Coast is clear. Targets have departed.¡±


    ¡°All clear.¡±


    ¡°All clear here as well.¡±


    At several other locations, soldiers were replying on the radio.


    A voice crackled in the earpiece, ¡°1st Squad, search for the deserter¡¯s corpse and check for any clues at the campsite. 2nd Squad, set up a defensive perimeter.¡±


    After that, the toon in the forest sped up their march. Five soldiers in khakibat uniforms entered the campsite to search for any suspicious traces, while the other five soldiers began searching in the forest.


    ¡°We¡¯ve found the deserter¡¯s corpse. The wound is on the left chest, but the bullet didn¡¯t hit the heart. It looks like the shooter was an amateur.¡±


    ¡°We found nothing unusual at the campsite either. There¡¯s no suspicious markings and no traps. Although the location of the campsite is quite good, they¡¯re not well-versed in setting up their tents. The campfire¡¯s position was also very random. They¡¯re unlikely to be professional soldiers.¡±


    Behind them, themander thought quietly. The reconnaissance troops he led were specifically sent here to check on the Trinity Institute. His mission was not to assassinate these people but to check whether there were any suspicious individuals among the Trinity Institute convoy.


    As it was currently a sensitive period, the Kong Consortium did not want any suspicious people getting into Stronghold 31.


    This medical exchange program should have been canceled as the Kong Consortium had informed Wang Jing in advance. However, Wang Jing insisted on going there and replied that if they were not allowed to attend the exchange, he would sit in front of Stronghold 31¡¯s gate until the Kong Consortium agreed to let them in.


    It seemed the higher-ups did not want to endure the pressure of public opinion. After all, the Trinity Institute¡¯s influence in the North had been increasing over the years, and it was also getting more and more recognized by the people. Kong Erdong wanted to leave his name in the annals of history, so he was particrly concerned about his reputation.


    If Wang Jing really died in front of the stronghold while protesting, Hope Media would definitely report on this matter thoroughly.


    As such, the field personnel of the 3rd Military Intelligence Division were deployed. Their mission was to carry out an early investigation. If they discovered any suspicious people among the academic exchange group, they would pose as bandits and kill everyone in this group in the wilderness. This way, the Kong Consortium would not be implicated at all.


    The previous night, they had set up camp quietly in the forest to the north. They had already noticed the deserter when he was making his way here from the North, but they did not stop him. Instead, they deliberately used him to test the academic exchange group by letting him go over to the Trinity Institute¡¯s campsite.


    If this deserter carried out a massacre, it would save them a lot of trouble. What did the lives of everyone in this academic exchange group have anything to do with them?


    They watched the situation unfold through their binocrs and saw Ren Xiaosu shoot the deserter dead in panic.


    On the surface, there didn¡¯t seem to be anything unusual. Other than the deserter being a little stupid, the members of the academic exchange group had all behaved normally.


    ¡°Captain, should we pursue them?¡± a soldier asked over the radio.


    ¡°Let¡¯s wait until I report this matter to our superior.¡± Themander said calmly, ¡°We still have to wait for orders from the higher-ups to kill Wang Jing.¡±


    After that, he dialed the satellite phone and reported the situation here.


    After a long silence, the officer on the other end said, ¡°Let them go. There¡¯s no need toplicate things further. I¡¯ll arrange for someone to check their identities at Stronghold 31. You all can report to the front line.¡±


    ¡°Roger that.¡± Themander ended the call and said on the radio, ¡°Attention, everyone, we¡¯re withdrawing. We¡¯ve been ordered to report to FOB 3 and take a new mission there.¡±


    With that, this well-trained toon quickly retreated and headed north.


    Forward Operating Base 3 was one of the important forward operating bases for the Kong Consortium¡¯s war efforts against the Pyro Company, with the Pyro Company¡¯s military controlled zone located just a little farther north of it.


    After these people left, ¡°Old Xu¡± walked out from behind arge tree in its white mask and silently looked in the direction these people had left in.


    Ren Xiaosu had discovered their presence the previous night. Otherwise, he would not have taken so much effort to put on such a convincing act.


    Initially, he wanted to take care of these people directly. But thinking that his target was Kong Erdong, it would be better not to alert the enemy over these small fries.


    But these people were also quite ruthless. They had deliberately allowed the deserter through so he could kill them at their campsite.

 Chapter 799 - Is his future really in the Prosperous Northwest?

    <h4>Chapter 799: Is his future really in the Prosperous Northwest?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this toon, he realized the internal situation of the Kong Consortium was far tenser than he had imagined. These people had reached an unusual level of vignce.


    Therefore, it would probably be a little difficult to assassinate Kong Erdongter. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had discussed it earlier and decided to focus on saving Wang Yun first. Whether they could kill Kong Erdong would have to depend on luck.


    The Great Hoodwinker was walking down the streets of Stronghold 31. Although he was no longer carrying his white banner around, he was still dressed shabbily like an old vagrant.


    The Great Hoodwinker made many turns on the long street and headed east along Lishan North Road.


    Along the way, the Great Hoodwinker even bought two roasted tbread pastries and ate them as he walked. While walking, he scrutinized the streets and buildings of Stronghold 31 as though he were on a tour.


    After two kilometers, the Great Hoodwinker suddenly turned into a small alley on the left. He only stopped when he came across a small hair salon.


    The hair salon looked extremely out of ce in this dpidated alley, and there was even a flickering LED signboard with the word ¡°Massages¡± hanging on the entrance.


    The hair salon on the ground floor was a remodeled unit in a residential building that was five stories high.


    The Great Hoodwinker looked up to confirm there was a natal lily flowerpot out on the second-floor balcony. Only then did he dare to enter the alley without worry.


    Upon reaching the second floor, the Great Hoodwinker took out a key to unlock the door of Unit 201. Theyout of the house was no different from that of a normal household.


    After the Great Hoodwinker entered the room, he immediately looked around to confirm no one was in the house. Then he went into the kitchen and found a rolling pin that he used to tap on the floor.


    <i>Dong, dong, dong</i>. A hollow sound came from one of the ceramic tiles in the living room. The Great Hoodwinker used his fingernail to gently lift up the entire tile.


    But something unexpected happened at this moment. A flying needle suddenly shot out from underneath the tile. The Great Hoodwinker could not dodge in time and was hit squarely. He immediately raised his head, but he looked extremelyical with the steel needle dangling from his cheek.


    The Great Hoodwinker said angrily, ¡°If you want to arrest me, just arrest me. Why did you have to disfigure my face?!¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the Great Hoodwinker could hear the sound of windows breaking upstairs, followed by the sound of clothing rubbing against ropes. Eight heavily armedbatants had rappelled down from the top of the building and crashed through different windows on the second floor one after another!


    ¡°Don¡¯t move! Get down! Put your hands behind your head!¡± thebatants roared.


    But the Great Hoodwinker utterly ignored them. Even though he was being held at gunpoint, he dashed towards the balcony in a ghostly blur. Thebatant on the balcony started firing at him decisively. But to their surprise, not a bullet hit the Great Hoodwinker.


    The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s footsteps were heavy. As he charged onto the balcony, the floor tiles in the house were all shattered.


    Thebatant on the balcony did not have time to think. The Great Hoodwinker had already collided into him in this narrow space. In an instant, thebatant felt his organs get crushed and his throat getpressed. He felt like he was about to vomit out all of his organs from the unbearable pressure!


    A momentter, the collision sent thebatant and the Great Hoodwinker flying off the balcony. The two of themnded in the alley outside!


    The Great Hoodwinker heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°You¡¯re hoping to apprehend me with that bit of skill?¡±


    He looked coldly at the troops who had surrounded him from both ends of the alley. The muscles on his body were bulging, but before he could make a move to break out of the encirclement, the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s expression changed drastically. He pulled out the steel needle from his face and slowly fell to the ground in disbelief.


    Before he closed his eyes, he could hear thebatants shouting around him, ¡°The target has passed out, the target has passed out. Mission aplished. Tell the secret prison to get ready to receive a B-rank target!¡±


    These people grabbed the Great Hoodwinker and loaded him into a ck vehicle. As the person in charge of escorting him was still worried, he administered a dose of anesthetics to the Great Hoodwinker before heaving a sigh of relief.


    The vehicle drove all the way east. Their destination was the secret prison at the easternmost side of Stronghold 31. It was a multipurpose training hall before The Cataclysm, but it waster dug up and transformed into the most sinister and terrifying ce in the Kong Consortium.


    In the words of the Kong Consortium¡¯s own people, none of the criminals who entered the secret prison were ever seen again.


    When the convoy arrived at the secret prison, the prison gate slowly opened and allowed the convoy to pass through it quickly.


    Although the surface of this secret prison resembled a huge stadium, there was a sloping road in the middle of it leading downwards into darkness, making it look like there was no end in sight.


    The person in charge of escorting the Great Hoodwinker met with the secret prison¡¯s warden at the venue and quickly handled the handover procedures. ¡°This person¡¯s identity is unknown, but he should be a core member of the other intelligence organizations. We already caught his informant. It¡¯s that young man we sent here previously. This time, we waited at his informant¡¯s house and managed to apprehend him. During the arrest, that guy was way too unflinching. Our 1st Military Intelligence Division assesses him as a B-rank threat, so make sure to watch over him carefully. The director wille and interrogate him personally soon.¡±


    The warden nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, prisoners who get sent here don¡¯t have a chance of escaping even if they have wings. Ouws and superhumans can only behave obediently likeb rats.¡±


    With that, the warden gestured for someone to carry the Great Hoodwinker down into the basement.


    As they walked through the long passageway of the prison, the inmates on both sides of the corridor got up and leaned against the metal bars to have a look at who was so unfortunate as to end up here.


    It started getting rowdy in the prison, and the warden frowned slightly. The prison guard next to him raised his baton and swung. An inmate who was holding the cell¡¯s metal bars had his fingers broken by the baton.


    Wang Yun was standing quietly in his individual cell and looking at the warden and his subordinates as they passed through the corridor.


    When he got a clear look at the person they were bringing in, Wang Yun became so agitated the veins on his neck started bulging. ¡®<i>Karma, this is fucking karma! Hahahahaha! Let me tell you this: You were way too fucking horrible!</i>¡®


    Wang Yun stomped furiously in his cell and startedughing hysterically without saying a word.


    The warden said to the prison guard next to him, ¡°Record that Wang Yun might know this prisoner. Have the 1st Military Intelligence Division conduct a surprise interrogation on Wang Yun. They might uncover some new clues very quickly!¡±


    Wang Yun was violently pping the door of his cell. He wanted to tell the warden he knew the Great Hoodwinker and could share information about this man to redeem himself!


    But then Wang Yun froze.


    The Great Hoodwinker, who had his hands and feet shackled by tailormade cuffs, was initially unconscious. But the moment he heard Wang Yun¡¯s voice, he opened his eyes and winked at Wang Yun.


    When Wang Yun looked at him again, the Great Hoodwinker was already back to his unconscious state. It was as though Wang Yun had just hallucinated it.


    Wang Yun no longer gloated or raged anymore.


    He was an extremely smart person. So he immediately understood the Great Hoodwinker was here to rescue him.


    Wang Yun looked outside and did not say a word. Was his future really in the Prosperous Northwest?


    So the other party¡¯s purpose for setting him up was so they could burn all his bridges.

 Chapter 800 - Rescue!

    <h4>Chapter 800: Rescue!</h4>


    As the secret prison was located underground, no sunlight could reach the inside throughout the day. The inmates in the prison only had dim incandescent white lights to look at every day. Some who had been locked up in here for over 10 years now looked extremely pale, and their bodies had also be frail.


    In normal prisons, there would be recreation time for the inmates to rx every day. They were even allowed to y basketball, table tennis, and read books or newspapers.


    But it was different here. First of all, prisoners were prohibited froming into contact with any forms of paper media. That was because the prisoners who were detained here were a little special. They could have people on the outside using newspapers, books, and the like to transmit information to them.


    The people locked up here were intelligence personnel such as Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker.


    The secret prison was originally a branch under the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency, also known as the 4th Military Intelligence Division. Butter, it split away due to the unique nature of the secret prison.


    Of course, the warden was still under the jurisdiction of the intelligence agency¡¯s director. But the staffing and progression here had established an independent system of its own.


    For example, Wang Yun, who had been active in the intelligence agency for such a long time, had only worked in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Divisions but had never been posted to the secret prison before.


    Besides, the staff in the secret prison would not be posted to work in the other branches either.


    At this moment, the prisoners were collecting and dining in the secret prison¡¯s chow hall under the watchful eyes of the prison guards.


    Wang Yun was carrying a stainless steel tray as he walked quietly among the group of prisoners. A young man in front of him turned around and said with augh, ¡°Director Wang, I heard someone say yesterday that you¡¯ve joined us on the inside. The two of us were destined to meet.¡±


    Wang Yun looked at him expressionlessly. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°Director Wang has such an excellent memory, so how can you possibly not remember me?¡± The young manughed and said, ¡°You were even the one who personally put me in here two years ago. Have you forgotten?¡±


    ¡°If I act like I don¡¯t know you, you should also pretend not to know me.¡± Wang Yun sighed. ¡°Since we¡¯re in here together, why do you have to make things difficult for yourself, huh? Cai Wensheng?¡±


    Just as the other party had said, with that memory of his, how could Wang Yun possibly forget those who he had personally put in prison? It was just that he was extremely annoyed right now and could not be bothered to deal with someone like him.


    Cai Wensheng and his buddies looked at one another andughed. ¡°Director Wang is still as arrogant as ever even though he¡¯s been imprisoned. It looks like we¡¯re gonna have some fun together in the future.¡±


    Wang Yun suddenly realized something. ¡°Oh, I remember now. I wasn¡¯t personally involved in your arrests back then, so you guys don¡¯t know that I¡¯m a superhuman!¡±


    Cai Wensheng¡¯s expression changed at the words. He really did not know about this. Otherwise, he would not have provoked Wang Yun for no good reason.


    Three superhumans were being held in this secret prison, and they were basically the most notorious inmates in the prison.


    The emergence of supernatural beings not only changed the situation of the outside world, but it also affected the social structure within prisons. Here, supernatural beings were natural bullies who normal people would not want to mess with.


    In any case, the people who came in knew they definitely couldn¡¯t get out of here for the rest of their lives, so any conflicts would be dealt with even more ruthlessly when they happened.


    Furthermore, Cai Wensheng heard from the prison guards that the Kong Consortium intended to sacrifice Wang Yun as an offering to bless their war efforts. Even if Wang Yun were to kill a handful of people in the secret prison now, no one would care to stop him.


    Cai Wensheng paled. Just as he was about to say something, he saw Wang Yun give a wave of his hand in frustration and say, ¡°Hurry up and get lost. I can¡¯t be bothered with trash like you people right now.¡±


    After that, the prisoners who were lining up for food in front of Wang Yun quietly opened up a path for him. After Wang Yun got his food, he sat down at a table and looked around. Quite a lot of people in this prison really were put in here by him.


    But as he was thinking, someone ced a meal tray down across him before sitting down to eat in a carefree manner.


    Wang Yun¡¯s expression darkened when he saw the Great Hoodwinker sitting opposite him.


    However, he did not say anything and just waited.


    After Cai Wensheng collected his food, he looked for an empty table with lingering fear in his heart. When he walked past a prisoner, Wang Yun¡¯s pupils turned silver-gray, and a ball of air suddenly gathered at Cai Wensheng¡¯s feet, tripping him over.


    Cai Wensheng fell to the ground, and his full meal tray scattered all over the floor. He turned around and looked at the inmate who had just walked past him. ¡°How dare you trip me?¡±


    The man, who was pent up with anger towards Wang Yun, could no longer tolerate it any longer in the face of a normal inmate. He immediately got up to beat the guy up with his buddies.


    An uproar broke out in the chow hall. The spectating prisoners started banging on the tables as though they wanted the two groups of people to fight even more ferociously.


    It wasn¡¯t until this moment that Wang Yun turned his head to the Great Hoodwinker with his teeth clenched and said, ¡°Do you know you¡¯re still being watched since you¡¯ve juste in? If youe and look for me with so many prison guards watching you closely, we¡¯ll both get interrogated and torturedter!¡±


    While talking, Wang Yun drew away most of the air around them to create a near-vacuum.


    The vacuum enveloped the two of them like a shield, and their conversation could not be heard unless someone went up close to them to listen.


    The Great Hoodwinker took a sip of the seaweed and egg drop soup and said, ¡°We¡¯re getting out of here soon anyways, so what¡¯s the point of caring about all that? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll take you to the Prosperous Northwest after we finish eating this meal!¡±


    Wang Yun calmed down a little at the words. He said, ¡°Cover your mouth while speaking. I remember that the warden here is good at lip reading. That skill of his was recorded in the files from more than 10 years ago.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker covered his mouth and said, ¡°With that memory of yours, it will be such a pity if you don¡¯t join the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    Honestly, if Wang Yun were just a good-for-nothing, the Great Hoodwinker would not have gone all out to rescue him. If a person like him were to go to the Northwest, there would simply be no chance for spies from the other intelligence organizations to survive.


    Wang Yun looked at the Great Hoodwinker and said, ¡°Do you have a n to escape from here?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± the Great Hoodwinker took a bite of braised potatoes and said, ¡°I already checked out the information about this ce. From a structural point of view, although this ce resembles a bank safe, there are two passageways where the gates are not that secure. The three-centimeter steel gates might be able to stop normal supernatural beings, but they can¡¯t stop me. After we finish eating, I¡¯ll charge out of here with you.¡±


    Wang Yun frowned. ¡°Wait a minute, did you know the gates of those two passageways were reced with 15-centimeter onesst year? Furthermore, an additional gate has been added, and explosives have been nted between the two gates to prevent superhumans from escaping. If anyone tries to barge their way through the first gate, the sitting intelligence director will be alerted and press the detonator he¡¯s holding, turning both of us into dead people in that enclosed passage.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said in shock, ¡°Such a thing exists?¡±


    Wang Yun replied in annoyance, ¡°Can you not speak to me in such a shocked tone!¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, this is bad news. I was too careless.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said in embarrassment, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you update the blueprint for the secret prison after the modifications were done?¡±


    Wang Yun covered his head in despair. ¡°Stop speaking. My emotions are very unstable right now. The back of my head hurts when I hear you talking....¡±

 Chapter 801 - Failed rescue!

    <h4>Chapter 801: Failed rescue!</h4>


    The warden was standing in the control room and watching Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker whispering to each other onscreen. It was an extremely strange sight to behold.


    However, the warden realized Wang Yun must know he could read lips. That was why he covered his mouth when he was speaking.


    In the past, when he looked at the surveince footage, he would know what the prisoners were saying even if he could not hear their voices. The prisoners unknowingly revealing their own secrets was the reason why he was able to remain as the warden for more than a decade, because he could always pass on extremely important information to the higher-ups.


    But Wang Yun was actually aware of his secret.


    As expected, Wang Yun, who was capable enough to be the intelligence agency¡¯s director, was outstanding.


    Back when Wang Yun was still the director of the 2nd Military Intelligence Division, the warden realized not even the 1st and 2nd Military Intelligence Divisionsbined could capture as many criminals as Wang Yun had. It seemed the man was always able to uncover other people¡¯s secrets from the simple clues he found.


    The warden said with a cold expression, ¡°There¡¯s definitely a problem with these two. When will the 1st Military Intelligence Division get here for the interrogation?¡±


    ¡°They said they¡¯ll be here soon,¡± a prison guard answered.


    ¡°Zoom in on them and listen to what they are saying with the audio pick-up equipment,¡± the warden said.


    The prison guard answered, ¡°Sir, it¡¯s too noisy in the chow hall. Besides, there¡¯s no audio frequency detected around them. We can¡¯t hear what they¡¯re saying.¡±


    ¡°Send in the riot squad to maintain order and bring those two out. And be careful. If they encounter any resistance, just open fire on them,¡± the warden said.


    With that, tear gas was released from the ceiling, and white smoke quickly filled the entire chow hall.


    The riot squad downstairs began streaming in with their gas masks on and started beating up anyone they came across. There was also a group of 10 other troopers who rushed towards Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker.


    The Great Hoodwinker shouted, ¡°Why don¡¯t we charge out and bring that warden under control first? I feel that we still have a 50% chance of sess at that.¡±


    ¡°No, the warden is a superhuman. It won¡¯t be that easy.¡± Wang Yun shouted, ¡°Besides, I still have more than 200 subordinates locked up in another prison. If I take any action here, they¡¯ll be killed!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker muttered, ¡°Let¡¯s just surrender then. Why are you so troublesome?¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s eyes reddened from the tear gas. Fortunately, he managed to control the air in time and isted the remaining tear gas. As such, he and the Great Hoodwinker did not get affected too badly.


    Wang Yun stared at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°If you want me to join the Prosperous Northwest, you¡¯ll have to rescue my subordinates first. I¡¯m not leaving by myself!¡±


    ¡°Are you kidding me? There¡¯s more than 200 of them. How are we going to bring them with us?¡± The Great Hoodwinker nearly went crazy when he heard that. This was the Kong Consortium¡¯s territory, after all. It would not be too difficult to sneak one person away, but to bring more than 200 people with them, wasn¡¯t that as good as dering war with the Kong Consortium!?


    Wang Yun ignored the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s grousing. He looked at the riot squad that was rushing over and said, ¡°We¡¯ll talk after we make it through the beating. You don¡¯t even have a concrete n yet, so why did youe and talk to me? For that, we¡¯re both gonna get beaten up!¡±


    However, after Wang Yun mentioned they were going to get beaten up, he realized the Great Hoodwinker did not really seem to mind.


    He said in surprise, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid?¡±


    ¡°Oh, about getting beaten up?¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°It¡¯s not like it¡¯s gonna hurt me anyways.¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. Oh right! This Great Hoodwinker had such thick skin that not even the anesthetic injection had any effect on him, so of course he wouldn¡¯t be scared of taking a beating.


    But Wang Yun would feel pain!


    Fuck, so after the Great Hoodwinker got him into all this trouble, he would be the only one suffering?


    Wang Yun said through clenched teeth, ¡°Can you people from the Northwest not be such nuisances?!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker coughed, ¡°All the best.¡±


    The riot squad troopers had already rushed in front of the two of them. They raised their rods and swung down on them.


    The Great Hoodwinkery on the ground and simply allowed the people to carry him out.


    Seeing that the Great Hoodwinker and Wang Yun did not resist, the leader of the riot squad decisively administered anesthetics into their necks before taking them out of the chow hall.


    Wang Yun tried his best to speak sincerely to the riot squad troopers while he was still conscious. ¡°I have a tip about this man. He¡¯s not afraid of normal torture, so you¡¯ll need to use electrocution on him, please!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was speechless.


    When Wang Yun came to in the interrogation room, he could hear the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s screams ringing in his ears. Only then did he feel somefort.


    The Kong Consortium had ced the two of them in a special two-person inquisition room and not a normal interrogation room. This was where they conducted special interrogation through the use of torture.


    In this kind of inquisition room, one could hear the torture being carried out next door. The Kong Consortium would use the screams of a person to break down another person¡¯s psychological defense.


    The director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division stood in front of Wang Yun, wanting to examine his expression. He could only see a gratified smile on Wang Yun¡¯s face.


    This puzzled the director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division a little. Didn¡¯t they say the two of them had a good rtionship? Didn¡¯t they say the old man was likely to be Wang Yun¡¯s handler?


    But now, it did not look like that at all. Wang Yun¡¯s gratified smile seemed to being from the bottom of his heart. It felt extremely sincere.


    This bewildered the director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division. He asked, ¡°Is there anything you want to confess now?¡±


    Wang Yun said in seriousness, ¡°You must be Zhong Zhen, originally of the 3rd Military Intelligence Division, right? When I was still in charge of field operations at the 3rd Division, we worked together once on an operation.¡±


    Zhong Zhen narrowed his eyes. ¡°Senior, now is not the time to be reminiscing.¡±


    Wang Yun smiled. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. You¡¯ve been promoted to director of the 1st Division, and you might even be the director of the intelligence agency in the future. How about this? I¡¯ll share with you the secrets of the intelligence agency, including some information about the current intelligence director. How does that sound?¡±


    Zhong Zhen smiled and said, ¡°Then what do you want in return, Senior? If you want me to release you, forget it. No one can get you out now.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not asking to be released.¡± Wang Yun shook his head. ¡°I just need you to turn up the voltage next door.¡±


    Zhong Zhen was astonished. How could that person next door be his fucking handler? He was clearly an enemy!


    It looked like there was some mistake in the intel!


    On the night of the fourth day, the interrogators from the 1st Military Intelligence Division were still unable to get anything out of them after three straight days of torture and questioning.


    Based on the usual practice, such enhanced interrogations wouldst for several months, and they would even resort to tiring the subject out until they broke down mentally.


    In the end, the 1st Military Intelligence Division encountered an unexpected situation and decided to end the interrogation.


    Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker were also put back into their individual cells. This time, the warden simply arranged for other inmates to be around their cells so he could find out some clues from their behavior.


    In this interrogation, Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker both suffered greatly. Zhong Zhen, the director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division, ended up as the biggest winner. When the man left the secret prison, he was all smiles.


    However, this did not go unnoticed by the warden whose expertise was lip reading.


    The warden picked up thendline in his office and made a call. ¡°Sir, Zhong Zhen has gotten quite a lot of information about you from Wang Yun.¡±


    There was a snort on the other end of the line. ¡°Looks like I promoted him in vain. He¡¯s really an ungrateful dog.¡±


    After that, the warden hung up the phone. As he sat in his office, he suddenly had a thought. Since Wang Yun knew that he could read lips, was he trying to use him to sow discord within the intelligence agency?!

 Chapter 802 - Trump card

    <h4>Chapter 802: Trump card</h4>


    The warden considered this matter seriously. In his opinion, Wang Yun would not benefit himself at all if he told Zhong Zhen about the dirty dealings the intelligence director was involved in. So the behavior was a little odd.


    Could Wang Yun be thinking of having Zhong Zhen get him out of prison? But Zhong Zhen definitely couldn¡¯t do so.


    The warden fell deep into thought.


    So was Wang Yun doing this to benefit himself? No, he was just trying to make things difficult for the Great Hoodwinker, that was all.


    That night, Wang Yun carried his meal tray with his face all bruised and swollen. There was a long line in the chow hall, but when he arrived, he just pushed everyone aside with a st of air, leaving them so scared they could only keep quiet. Only the three prisoners who were supernatural beings looked on coldly as they ate in silence.


    These three people already had their own sphere of influence in the prison, and Wang Yun knew them as well. One of them was from the Zhou Consortium, another was a former intelligence agent of the Kong Consortium, and thest one was an independent mercenary who had roamed the wilderness.


    The three prisoners had been locked up here for at least two years now. After they had answered for whatever they needed to, they were able to lead afortable life in the secret prison and enjoyed a good rtionship with the prison guards.


    The social structure in the prison was rtively special. Sometimes, if the prison guards wanted less trouble to deal with, they would have to rely on these three prisoners to manage the order of the lower-ranked prisoners under them.


    The three of them had already received news that Wang Yun would definitely be dead within two months, and Wang Yun himself was very clear about this as well. So there was no need to provoke someone who was already on death row. A dead man walking had no reason to cherish his life.


    Wang Yun carried his meal tray and sat down to eat. His body was riddled with wounds, and each time he swallowed a mouthful of rice, his entire body would ache.


    The Great Hoodwinker also came over. Wang Yun¡¯s eyes were bloodshot as he looked at the Great Hoodwinker whose medium-length hair was a mess.


    Only at this moment did he feel better.


    Fortunately, the two of them were supernatural beings. At the very least, their recovery capacity was much better than others. If it were a normal person who suffered this ordeal, they would have lost control of their dder and been unable to take care of themselves. For them to still be able toe and dine was very impressive.


    When Wang Yun saw the Great Hoodwinker, he followed the usual practice of creating chaos first and waited for him to speak.


    The Great Hoodwinker dropped his tray down in front of Wang Yun and sat in carefree fashion. When he picked up the food with his chopsticks, his hands were trembling.


    Even after a long time, the Great Hoodwinker could not put the food into his own mouth. He was so angry he mmed his chopsticks on the table. ¡°You bitch, you¡¯ve got no team spirit at all. If I didn¡¯te here to save you, would I have to suffer like this?¡±


    Wang Yun raised his eyebrows. ¡°Then who was the one who put me here in the first ce?¡±


    ¡°Go take that up with the Wang Consortium and the Anjing House.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said awkwardly, ¡°I was only hoping to make you lose favor with your boss so that he wouldn¡¯t ce you in an important position. Ultimately, it was that woman from the Anjing House who tricked you. If Kong Erdong doesn¡¯t kill you, the frontline soldiers will certainly protest.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t talk about that anymore.¡± Wang Yun said coldly, ¡°We¡¯re even now, understand? Instead of fighting, why don¡¯t you think about how to get us out of here?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that. You didn¡¯t even let me finish my sentence before setting me up to be tortured in the electric chair.¡± The Great Hoodwinker exined, ¡°Do you think I don¡¯t have a backup n? I¡¯m also capable of having one, alright? Although I can¡¯t get out by myself, I have a backup!¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°What backup?¡±


    The two of them were still covering their mouths as they spoke. The Great Hoodwinker said in a low voice, ¡°Our futuremander sent a message to me a week ago saying that he¡¯sing to the Kong Consortium. Judging by the time, he should already be here!¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Don¡¯t refer to him as ¡®our¡¯ futuremander. Are we on the same side? It¡¯s <i>your</i> futuremander!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker nced at him. ¡°Isn¡¯t it only a matter of time? You are destined to prosper in the Northwest!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t bullshit me.¡± Wang Yun frowned. ¡°Even if hees, he might not be able to save us, right?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m serious when I say that I have a backup n.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Do you think our futuremander¡¯s reputation is just for show? As long as he knows that we¡¯re being held captive in this secret prison, he¡¯ll definitely save us even if it means demolishing Stronghold 31.¡±


    Wang Yun said in a low voice, ¡°Then our futuremander... ptui! Then I¡¯m afraid your futuremander isn¡¯t aware there¡¯s a bomb in the passageways either, right? Besides, does he know about my terms for being rescued? He has to bring all of my subordinates along as well!¡±


    ¡°Then do you have any other way to send out this message?¡± The Great Hoodwinker looked at Wang Yun. ¡°I¡¯ll give you an address, so you can just arrange for someone to send this message there.¡±


    Wang Yun fell silent. It seemed like he did not want to reveal what his trump card was.


    The Great Hoodwinker sneered and said, ¡°Why are you still hiding your trump card at a time like this? Who knows if Kong Erdong will kill you on a whim tomorrow? I advise you not to hold back anymore. Your subordinates are all loyal to you, and you¡¯ve been working in the intelligence field for many years. I don¡¯t believe that you don¡¯t have any trusted personnel working inside this secret prison.¡±


    ¡°Give me the address.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about the rest.¡±


    After that, Wang Yun ate two mouthfuls of rice before heading back to his cell. On the way back, his expression slowly rxed.


    For some reason, he felt much more at ease when he learned from the Great Hoodwinker that Ren Xiaosu had alsoe to Stronghold 31.


    Wang Yun no longer had a way out. He needed to take a bet and ce all his hopes on Ren Xiaosu this time.


    In the middle of the night, Wang Yuny in his cell. When everyone had fallen asleep, he quietly opened his eyes, which turned a silver-gray.


    In the narrow venttion duct above his head, a ball of air wrapped around a pen and a sheet of paper and started floating down towards him. Wang Yun quickly wrote something on the paper and wrapped it with a ball of air again. He then moved it freely through the venttion duct as he wanted.


    The secret prison was located underground, and the venttion system was asplicated as a huge maze. It would be extremely difficult for normal people to send a note to their destination via this method.


    Moreover, the venttion duct was only 10 centimeters in diameter. Not even a child could fit through that.


    Yet Wang Yun was not stumped by something like this.


    The note was like a traveler in a maze. It flew off into the distance ording to the precise route Wang Yun had memorized.


    It finally came to a stop at the ceiling of a room where the ball of air disappeared. Then, someone in the room quickly caught the crumpled paper ball.


    The person in the room scanned through the contents of the note before swallowing it into his stomach. Only then did he walk out of the room as though nothing had happened.


    Just as the Great Hoodwinker had said, Wang Yun was such a smart person, so how could he not have any backup ns in the secret prison?


    Many of the important figures in the intelligence agency would nt their own spies within the secret prison. Such a basic move was only to be expected.


    However, none of the spies would go out of their way and remain so loyal once their handlers lost their influence as Wang Yun did.


    As a matter of fact, the reason the Great Hoodwinker was willing to risk his life for Wang Yun was because of this. The people in the Northwest were all fond of such loyal geniuses.


    As for whether he could rescue Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates as well, that would have to depend on how capable Future Commander was.

 Chapter 803 - Resolute Doctor Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 803: Resolute Doctor Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu, whom the Great Hoodwinker and Wang Yun were looking forward to seeing, had already arrived at the entrance of Stronghold 31.


    However, they had to deal with some hups. After the garrison troops at the gate found out about their identities, they did not immediately let them through. Instead, they politely stopped everyone outside the gate and said they were waiting to verify the paperwork.


    The waitsted two hours. But even after two hours had passed, the Kong Consortium was still not done with the verification.


    Wang Jing smiled and said, ¡°It looks like they¡¯re nning to stop us here. It¡¯s fine, we¡¯ll just wait.¡±


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu looked out at the boulevard in town and suddenly said enthusiastically, ¡°Since the Kong Consortium isn¡¯t allowing us to enter the stronghold, we might as well hold a consultation in town and help the refugees outside Stronghold 31!¡±


    Wang Jing was stunned for a moment. He looked at Ren Xiaosu with an even kinder gaze now.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu quietly. She knew the boy had already forgotten all about rescuing Wang Yun.


    As for the assassination of Kong Erdong, there was even less of a need to talk about that.


    However, Yang Xiaojin made no further mention of it to Ren Xiaosu. Instead, she sat in the vehicle and quietly looked at his profile. She suddenly felt that he looked rather cute at this moment.


    At some point, Yang Xiaojin could sense Ren Xiaosu had really gained some joy and a sense of achievement during the treatment process that had nothing to do with benefits at all.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu himself had mistaken this joy to be from receiving the gratitude tokens. As such, he simply brushed it aside.


    However, a middle-aged doctor hesitated and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think we should do that. This is the Kong Consortium¡¯s territory. If the Wang Consortium finds out about this, I¡¯m afraid it¡¯ll be difficult to hold our donation drives in the stronghold in the future. Besides, will the Wang Consortium use us of colluding with the enemy?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head righteously and said, ¡°The consortiums might be concerned about territorial divisions, but should doctors care about that when ites to treating patients?¡±


    ¡°Well said.¡± Wang Jing apuded. ¡°Then I¡¯ll stay in this town and treat patients until we¡¯re out of medicine, until the Kong Consortium is willing to let us into the city! I believe that our fellow doctors in the stronghold are also running around tirelessly for this. Rather than waiting anxiously, why don¡¯t we disy the grace of our Trinity Institute and show the Kong Consortium what it means to be a benevolent doctor?¡±


    At this moment, the more Wang Jing looked at Ren Xiaosu, the more he liked him. He felt that an ambitious young man like him should dedicate himself to a greater cause in medicine.


    Now that order had copsed, it was really rare to see someone with such a kind heart!


    Wang Jing got distracted in his thoughts. When he turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu again, he realized Ren Xiaosu had already put on his white coat and was starting to help Liang Ce and the others set up a temporary consultation tent.


    When Wang Jing saw this sight and how everyone was so enthusiastic, he felt like he had turned back the years as well. His blood was racing with fervor!


    In just one morning, news of the Trinity Institute¡¯s free consultation session spread through the town. The news even slowly made its way to the factories.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu was a little worried. This was not a ce where the Trinity Institute had held free consultations before. Would the refugees not feel any gratitude for what they did here?


    In the end, he realized his worries were unfounded. As long as they sincerely gave treatment, most of the patients would sincerely thank them for it.


    Of course, some strange incidents happened as well. For example, when some refugees discovered the medicine would be given out for free, they lied that they had a fever, cold, or sore throat in order to get some anti-inmmatory medicine to sell.


    Some doctors exposed the refugees who tried to do this, but Wang Jing waved it off and allowed them to leave. He said, ¡°This ce is different from the previous consultation camps we held. We¡¯ve operated those consultation camps for decades, and those refugees have been properly taken care of by the Trinity Institute for generations, so they won¡¯t try to cheat us of our medicine. But don¡¯t be discouraged, and don¡¯tin either. In a few decades, the people here will also learn to respect what we do from the bottom of their hearts.¡±


    Actually, it was not just purely the refugees trying to cheat them. There were also other injured refugees who did not dare toe forward to seek treatment. They were afraid this might be another scheme by the consortium.


    When Wang Jing and the others found out about this, they decided to hold a quick meeting to discuss how to resolve it. Wang Jing looked at Liang Ce and asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu? Have hime over for the meeting as well.¡±


    Wang Jing looked around but did not see Ren Xiaosu anywhere.


    Liang Ce was taken aback. ¡°Ren Xiaosu has already gone to those people¡¯s houses directly to treat them. He said we can¡¯t let such people slip through the....¡±


    Wang Jing gave an awkwardugh, ¡°Haha, the way the kid describes things is really quite novel.... Let¡¯s go and have a look as well.¡±


    With that, Wang Jing led two doctors into the town. But before they could get far, they heard someone wailing in pain. When they got closer, they were surprised to see Ren Xiaosu forcefully pinning down a patient on the ground and applying medicine on him.


    The other doctors looked at Wang Jing speechlessly. The corners of Wang Jing¡¯s eyes twitched as well. He did not know why this young man was so passionate about saving people.


    But the stronghold¡¯s gate went up slowly at this time. Wang Jing turned around and saw the Kong Consortium¡¯s garrison troopsing out of the stronghold with several doctors in white coats.


    Wang Jing said with a smile, ¡°Our old friends are here to wee us. Let¡¯s go.¡± He then turned and said to the doctors walking out of the stronghold in their white coats, ¡°Yang Shiruo, Su Wan, long time no see!¡±


    The two middle-aged doctors at the front of the group were grinning from ear to ear. ¡°It¡¯s been three years sincest we met, but Elder Wang is still looking as glorious as ever.¡±


    But just as the two of them were about to wee Wang Jing, they were stopped by a young man next to them. He said to Wang Jing with a smile, ¡°Hello, Elder Wang. I¡¯ve heard a lot about you. My name is Zhong Zhen, and I¡¯m the current director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division.¡±


    Wang Jing was stunned for a moment. His enthusiasm clearly faded a lot as he said politely, ¡°Director Zhong, how are you?¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± Zhong Zhen nodded and said, ¡°The higher-ups have agreed to let you into the stronghold for the medical exchange, but there¡¯s still some procedures we have to go through.¡±


    ¡°What procedures?¡± Wang Jing asked puzzledly.


    ¡°We just need everyone in your group to answer a few questions. The questions are not difficult and they¡¯re all rted to your profession. I doubt it will trouble any of you.¡± Zhong Zhen said with a smile, ¡°After all, these are extraordinary times we live in. I hope you all can understand.¡±


    Everyone looked at each other. It was no wonder so many doctors hade out to wee them this time. It turned out they wanted them to help verify the identities of the doctors in the group.


    If a spy wanted to sneak in, no matter how much training they were given beforehand, a fake doctor would be found out immediately with just a few questions. After all, a spy could not possibly spend several years learning medical knowledge for this, right?


    This time, the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency had struggled for a long time over the matter of the Trinity Instituteing for the exchange. It was even Zhong Zhen who suggested how they should verify the identities of these people. If they could pass their screening, it would put everyone¡¯s minds at ease.


    When the higher-ups thought about it, they realized it made sense. There had never been any problems with the Trinity Institute¡¯s medical exchange program in over three decades. If they were all doctors, they would be allowed to enter the stronghold as usual.


    Zhong Zhen smiled and said, ¡°Elder Wang, what do you say?¡±


    Wang Jing felt his side would not have any problems, so he said confidently, ¡°I totally understand. Let¡¯s begin then.¡±

 Chapter 804 - Crisis

    <h4>Chapter 804: Crisis</h4>


    ¡°What is your specialty?¡± Zhong Zhen asked as he looked at Liang Ce.


    Liang Ce answered, ¡°Cardiovascr surgery.¡±


    ¡°Dr. Yang, we¡¯ll let you ask the questions then,¡± Zhong Zhen said to a middle-aged doctor with a smile.


    ¡°Of the small saphenous vein, ulnar artery, and left gastric artery, which can¡¯t be used as a transnt material for vascr bypass during surgery?¡± the doctor named Yang Shiruo asked straight to the point.


    Liang Ce answered without hesitation, ¡°Left gastric artery.¡±


    ¡°Please list three possible symptoms of cardiac tamponade,¡± Yang Shiruo asked calmly.


    Liang Ce answered without hesitation again, ¡°Distention of the jugr veins, muffled heart sounds, and copsed ventricles on a chest X-ray.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched from the side as everyone answered their questions independently. If anyone tried to give them a hint, their answers would be invalidated. Everyone would have to answer their three questions in an extremely strict manner.


    There were doctors here who specialized in cardiovascr surgery, general surgery, and burn surgery. In order to identify any spies within the group, Zhong Zhen brought along over a dozen doctors from the stronghold to ensure no one could slip past their checks.


    Wang Jing looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Why do I feel that you¡¯re a little nervous?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°This feels a little like taking exams when I was back in school.¡±


    ¡°A simple test like this won¡¯t trouble you at all. Don¡¯t worry.¡± Wang Jing patted Ren Xiaosu on the shoulder.


    Liang Ce had already answered the three questions posed to him. Yang Shiruo looked at Wang Jing, who was standing next to Liang Ce, then said to Zhong Zhen, ¡°There won¡¯t be a need to ask Elder Wang any questions. With my limited knowledge, I¡¯ll just be making a fool of myself in front of him.¡±


    However, Zhong Zhen said with a smile, ¡°Go on, ask him. How can you not? I happen to want to learn more so I can broaden my horizons as well. I have a lot of respect for Elder Wang, so let me take this opportunity to listen to his lecture.¡±


    Nearby, Sima Gang said indignantly, ¡°What? Do you think Elder Wang would be a spy?¡±


    Zhong Zhen turned to look at him and said, ¡°There¡¯s spies who are experts at disguising themselves these days, after all. There¡¯s even superhumans who can take on the looks of others too.¡±


    Wang Jing smiled calmly and said, ¡°Ask away then. We should all be treated the same. For the sake of the medical exchange, there¡¯s no need to take this small matter to heart.¡±


    When everyone heard Wang Jing say that, they did not protest any further. At the end of the day, there was no reason for them to be afraid of these questions anyway. After all, those who could participate in the exchange were all outstanding talents in their respective specialities. Even Liang Ce and Meng Nan, the two interns, had scored the best grades during their school days.


    The Q&A session proceeded very quickly as Ren Xiaosu quietly watched the progress. After Wang Jing finished answering his questions, Zhong Zhen suddenly turned to Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°And what is this young man¡¯s specialization?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu answered calmly, ¡°Cardiovascr surgery.¡±


    This time, even Liang Ce and the others were stunned. On the journey thus far, they had seen Ren Xiaosu skillfully treating external injuries, so everyone thought he specialized in general surgery. They did not expect him to specialize in cardiovascr surgery instead!


    Zhong Zhen said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll have to trouble you to ask a few questions this time, Doctor Liu. You can ask a few more questions this time. I heard this young man is extremely enthusiastic about treating and saving people in our town at Stronghold 31. I¡¯m sure his medical skills should be really superb.¡±


    Wang Jing and the others were stunned. They were stunned that Zhong Zhen seemed to be targeting Ren Xiaosu and wondered what had happened between them.


    Ren Xiaosu gave Zhong Zhen a nce. He was the only one who knew Zhong Zhen was deliberately targeting him. That was because he was the one who had shot dead the deserter. The recon toon lurking in the wilderness had witnessed everything.


    So, if their positions were switched and Ren Xiaosu were responsible for finding the spy, he would also think he was the most suspicious person in the group.


    Zhong Zhen was eyeing Ren Xiaosu like a tiger stalking its prey. His subordinates around him were casually putting their hands on their holsters.


    Doctor Liu asked, ¡°A female patient aged 38 suffers from heart palpitations after performing physicalbor. She has been experiencing shortness of breath for 10 years, and it¡¯s getting worse by the year. For nearly a year now, she has had to take digoxin daily for her medication. Sometimes, she takes a diuretic as well and can walk for up to a kilometer without any problems. She has a history of knee arthritis pain from 15 years ago... Her electrocardiogram shows atrial fibrition, with fatty infiltration in her right ventricr wall. The echocardiogram found that she has mitral stenosis and a left ventricr thrombus. If she was under your care, what treatment would you choose for her?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Open mitralmissurotomy.¡±


    Doctor Liu asked, ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°This patient has both a long-term and long history of illnesses. She¡¯s also suffering from thrombosis in the left ventricr wall, so performing an open mitralmissurotomy operation will be the most suitable. Moreover, this method can also remove the narrow obstruction under the valve andpletely treat her mitral valve stenosis. In addition...¡± Ren Xiaosu said slowly, enunciating each word clearly.


    Wang Jing looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. He had not expected this young man to think the same as him. If he were the chief surgeon, he would also make the same choice as Ren Xiaosu after hearing about the case. His reasons for doing so would be the same as well!


    This feeling was as though someone was speaking his mind for him. It even made Wang Jing feel like he was a confidant.


    The smile on Zhong Zhen¡¯s face gradually disappeared. He did not expect the person he was most suspicious of could actually answer the question so smoothly.


    Doctor Liu turned to look at Zhong Zhen. ¡°I¡¯m done asking. There¡¯s no problem.¡±


    Zhong Zhen said, ¡°You can ask a few more questions.¡±


    Doctor Liu was dumbfounded. At this moment, everyone understood that Zhong Zhen was targeting Ren Xiaosu.


    However, Doctor Liu did not argue with him. As a member of the Kong Consortium, who would be willing to offend these devil incarnates of the intelligence agency? He asked Ren Xiaosu five more questions, but Ren Xiaosu still answered all of them smoothly without any problems! He answered them wlessly!


    If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Ren Xiaosu was young, the cardiovascr specialists like Doctor Liu and Yang Shiruo would almost think the young man in front of them was an experienced surgeon who had been working at the operating table for many years!


    He might not be the best surgeon, but he was definitely at the level of a chief physician.


    The way that Wang Jing was looking at Ren Xiaosu hadpletely changed. Previously, he only admired him. But now, it was as though he had discovered a treasure.


    ¡°My apologies.¡± Zhong Zhen said with a fake smile, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to be such an amazing doctor.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. It was not a fluke that he was able to pass the questioning today. Ever since ¡°Old Xu¡± discovered those reconnaissance troops in the wilderness, he felt there would probably be othersing to make things difficult for them when they arrived at the city. So he used Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls on Wang Jing.


    The skill the first scroll had copied was Advanced ordion ying, the second scroll copied Intermediate Sketching, while the third skill he copied was Tai Chi for the Elderly. When Ren Xiaosu copied the skills to this point, he nearly lost all hope. He could only think to himself how multitalented Elder Wang Jing was. Besides, why was the Tai Chi skill even annotated with the word ¡°elderly¡±? What? Do you mean to say that youngsters cannot practice tai chi?!


    It wasn¡¯t until the fourth skill duplication scroll was used that Ren Xiaosu was finally relieved: ¡°Advanced Cardiovascr Specialty.¡±


    Suddenly, Zhong Zhen picked up the list and said, ¡°Eh, I saw from your list that 13 people will be entering the stronghold. There¡¯s only 12 of you here. Where¡¯s thest girl? Can you please get her toe and answer the questions as well?¡±

 Chapter 805 - A close shave

    <h4>Chapter 805: A close shave</h4>


    When Zhong Zhen said that, everyone fell silent. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu tensed up.


    Before this, Yang Xiaojin had deliberately kept herself out of everyone¡¯s sight. Even during the consultation, she would quietly stay in the vehicle and sleep. However, he did not expect the Kong Consortium to be so strict. They actually nned on checking every single one of them.


    In any case, Ren Xiaosu did not exhibit any odd behavior. He was thinking of how he should resolve the matter at hand first. If Yang Xiaojin could not answer the questions and ended up getting arrested by the Kong Consortium, what should he do?


    He would not hesitate to lead Yang Xiaojin to break out of their encirclement and get out of here.


    As for the mission, they would just have to secretlye back again at ater time toplete it. Although that would make it much more difficult, it was fortunate the Kong Consortium did not have an artificial intelligence of their own, so their presence would not be discovered immediately after they climbed into the stronghold.


    The only thing that worried Ren Xiaosu was what would happen to Wang Jing and the others if they escaped. If it were anyone else, Ren Xiaosu would have just abandoned them and left. But if these real doctors were to be detained by the Kong Consortium, they might be put through interrogation, and that made Ren Xiaosu a little uneasy.


    But at this moment, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice rang out from a ways away. ¡°I¡¯m over here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu spun around and saw Yang Xiaojin walking over in a white coat. ¡°Who¡¯s looking for me?¡±


    Zhong Zhen looked at Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°Oh, we have a few questions for you. As long as you can answer them, everything will be fine. The others have already passed the screening.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched quietly from the side as he prepared to bring out ¡°Old Xu¡± at any moment.


    But Yang Xiaojin spoke as though it were no big deal, ¡°Go on and ask then.¡±


    ¡°What is your specialty?¡± Zhong Zhen asked.


    ¡°Orthopedics,¡± Yang Xiaojin answered calmly. ¡°Who will be asking the questions?¡±


    Zhong Zhen turned to look at a doctor and said with a smile, ¡°Dr. Wang Yao, please ask the questions. This is your area of expertise.¡±


    The doctor named Wang Yao nodded and said, ¡°What are theteplications of a fracture? You just need to list three of them.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin answered, ¡°Post-traumatic arthritis, muscle contracture, fat embolism, bedsores, hypostatic pneumonia, osteochondritis, joint stiffness.¡±


    The doctor named Wang Yao was taken aback for a moment. He said to list three, but the woman actually listed seven in one breath!


    ¡°Then what are themonplications after the cast has been applied?¡± Wang Yao asked again.


    Yang Xiaojin answered firmly, ¡°Pustr dermatitis, disuse osteoporosis...¡±


    This time, she gave five answers.


    Wang Yao asked five questions in a row, and Yang Xiaojin answered all of them as smoothly as Ren Xiaosu did. Zhong Zhen did not give up. He somehow felt a little indignant about this.


    Although it looked like there was no problem at all, he still felt a little humiliated that no spies were identified even though he had mobilized over a dozen doctors toe out of the stronghold.


    So Zhong Zhen got Wang Yao to ask a few more questions, but it still did not pose a problem to Yang Xiaojin.


    Ren Xiaosu watched quietly. He was surprised Yang Xiaojin could answer the questions so wlessly. She looked just like a real orthopedic doctor.


    He asked the pce in his mind, ¡°What¡¯s Yang Xiaojin¡¯s proficiency in orthopedics?¡±


    ¡°Advanced,¡± the voice from the pce answered.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Earlier, he was thinking that Wang Jing was truly multitalented. But actually, it was his girl who was the multitalented one!


    However, Ren Xiaosu could guess why Yang Xiaojin was so well-versed in orthopedics. Back when he was learning closebat at Stronghold 88, Lu Yuan had specifically mentioned that joint lock techniques and counter lock techniques were an art form. Sometimes, they could even be used to deflect a heavy blow. When fighting an enemy, they could be used to easily immobilize them and dislocate their joints.


    Lu Yuan also said that if he wanted to master these two techniques, he would need to have some knowledge of orthopedics first.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu answered he did not have to learn any joint locks or counter locks. That was because he would just break the opponent¡¯s joints.


    Thinking about it now, Yang Xiaojin must have learned her orthopedics knowledge at that time. Furthermore, she had learned it very systematically.


    As an ace student, she was indeed much better at learning than Ren Xiaosu. After all, when Ren Xiaosu asked her how he could score 140 points in mathematics, her answer to him was that he could just skip a few multiple-choice questions.


    And Yang Xiaojin gave Ren Xiaosu yet another big surprise. She did not have to rely on any external help to pass the Kong Consortium¡¯s screening.


    In the end, Zhong Zhen gave a fake smile and said, ¡°It looks like everyone here is really capable. In that case, I won¡¯t hold you all up any further. You may carry on to your medical exchange program. On behalf of the Kong Consortium, I wee all of you. Here¡¯s to the continued improvement of our Kong Consortium and Wang Consortium¡¯s medical standards.¡±


    Wang Jing smiled. ¡°We¡¯ll be going in then.¡±


    With that, he looked over at Yang Xiaojin. Before this, Wang Jing had thought that Yang Xiaojin had only tagged along as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s girlfriend and was not a doctor. At the time, Wang Jing felt it was quite a shame. They were here for work, so everyone should not have any distractions. What was with Ren Xiaosu bringing his romantic interest along?


    This was probably the tiniest bit of dissatisfaction Wang Jing had towards Ren Xiaosu. As Ren Xiaosu treated more and more patients, the dissatisfaction faded.


    But he was pleasantly surprised to discover the youngdy was also a doctor. Moreover, she seemed like she excelled in her virtue and learning as well. Thus, he started to take a liking to her too.


    ¡°You two are a really good match,¡± Wang Jing praised before leading the way to the vehicles.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled at Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°Elder Wang is right.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him before turning around to get into the vehicle. Several meters away, Ren Xiaosu heard her voice drift over. ¡°I think so too.¡±


    Zhong Zhen stood outside the stronghold and watched the convoy drive in. His deputy next to him asked, ¡°Sir, what do we do now?¡±


    ¡°What else can we do?¡± Zhong Zhen thought for a moment and calmed himself before saying, ¡°Since we¡¯ve confirmed they¡¯re not suspicious, let¡¯s not bother with them anymore. Send two people to take turns to keep tabs on them and ensure they don¡¯t run around. The rest of you, follow me back to the secret prison. We¡¯ll continue interrogating Wang Yun and that old man!¡±


    It was quite difficult for Zhong Zhen to coordinate with so many medical specialists to make a trip out of the stronghold, but he had told his superior very clearly there was a high chance that spies were traveling with this group.


    Now that the spies had not been found and there was nothing suspicious with the other party, he had to quickly find another way to gain merit so hispetitors would not have something on him.


    His deputy next to him said, ¡°But those two are too stubborn. I¡¯m afraid they won¡¯t open their mouths and speak anytime soon.¡±


    ¡°Then I want you to make sure they do. Isn¡¯t that old man afraid of electricity? Keep electrocuting him. As for Wang Yun, continue torturing him. I don¡¯t believe we can¡¯t pry open their mouths,¡± Zhong Zhen said ruthlessly.


    The reason the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency could be the devil incarnate of the Kong Consortium was because these ruthless officers had always been unscrupulous. Yang Shiruo and the others had also been forced to cooperate with their screening of the visiting doctors. Everyone knew the mes of war had already been ignited, and the authority of the intelligence agency would only increase, bing an indispensable part of the war machine.

 Chapter 806 - Wang Jings thoughts

    <h4>Chapter 806: Wang Jing¡¯s thoughts</h4>


    Be it Liang Ce, Meng Nan, or Wang Jing, all of them had lived in the Wang Consortium¡¯s strongholds. Therefore, they could not really empathize with the wars happening in the outside world.


    In their world, war seemed to be just words that appeared in the newspapers. It was something that was very detached from them.


    But now, they first got threatened by a deserter in the wilderness and almost had a glimpse of how tragic the war was. What made these elite soldiers unwilling to go onto the battlefield again? It was as though they were so scared out of their wits that they wanted to flee all the way to the South.


    After that encounter, everyone realized the world was about to change.


    Wang Jing keptmenting to himself that a chaotic era was about to arrive.


    After that, they were required to go through a spy screening by the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency. The heavily armed troops from the 1st Military Intelligence Division looked extremely fearsome, and they pointed the barrels of their guns at them too.


    All of this was verymon for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, but it was still quite a cruel reality for the doctors who lived in the stronghold all year round.


    Ren Xiaosu clearly noticed one of the doctors speaking in a trembling voice when he was answering the questions earlier. He was afraid that if he answered them wrong, he would get pulled aside and be executed.


    When the convoy entered the stronghold, Wang Jing sighed in the vehicle and said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure now if it was right to bring you all to the Kong Consortium.¡±


    Liang Ce said, ¡°This isn¡¯t your fault. Why me yourself for other people¡¯s mistakes?¡±


    Wang Jing looked at Liang Ce and said with a smile, ¡°Young man, you¡¯ve performed very well. In the past, I only thought you had an excellent moral character. But after going through so much this time, I finally saw the bravery in you.¡±


    Truthfully, Liang Ce had done quite well. When he encountered the deserter, he did not cry or make a fuss about wanting to go home. In fact, he even regained hisposure very quickly. When he answered the questions earlier, he also remained very calm throughout.


    In Wang Jing¡¯s opinion, Liang Ce was a potential candidate to be a chief surgeon in the future.


    Liang Ce was a little embarrassed by Wang Jing¡¯s praise. He said modestly, ¡°No, I think Ren Xiaosu performed much better than me.¡±


    Wang Jing nodded. ¡°Yes, he did perform better than you, but you don¡¯t have topare yourself with him. Just be yourself.¡±


    These words sounded like: ¡°Ren Xiaosu is a genius, so there¡¯s no need for mortals topare themselves with him. Otherwise, it will only add to their worries.¡±


    Liang Ce did not know whether tough or cry. He turned around and looked at the off-road vehicle Ren Xiaosu was in. He thought to himself that Elder Wang was really good at consoling people.


    Wang Jing looked at Liang Ce with a smile and continued, ¡°He¡¯s an anomaly. When I was his age, I was still only an intern like you. So long as you¡¯re willing to work hard in the future, you can reach my current position too. As for him... I don¡¯t know where he¡¯ll end up either.¡±


    Liang Ce smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m happy if I can be a doctor like you.¡±


    What Wang Jing did not say at this moment was that he was not even sure if Ren Xiaosu would be a doctor in the future.


    Although Wang Jing was old, he was not foolish.


    On the night the deserter appeared, when Ren Xiaosu had asked to see his pistol, he remembered very clearly that he had kept the firearm¡¯s safety on so that a ¡°novice¡± like Ren Xiaosu would not identally fire it.


    But when Ren Xiaosu fired it, the safety had been switched off.


    For someone who had never handled a gun before, he would probably not know how to flip off the safety, right?


    Moreover, he realized that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were the calmest of them all now that he had calmed down as well and recalled the events earlier when Zhong Zhen was trying to identify the spy. It could be said that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s calmness was due to his talent, but Yang Xiaojin should not have acted that way as well.


    There were only two girls in the group, Yang Xiaojin and Meng Nan.


    At this moment, Meng Nan was sitting in the front passenger seat without saying a word. Wang Jing and Liang Ce could tell that Meng Nan still had some lingering fear after the intelligence agency¡¯s screening.


    Therefore, inparison, Yang Xiaojin¡¯sposure made Wang Jing realize Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s reason for joining the group was not that simple.


    However, Wang Jing was thinking that since the two of them looked so young, their mission at the Kong Consortium should not be anything particrly dangerous, right? If he were to guide them carefully along the way, he might still be able to pull Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin back onto the path of bing doctors.


    The convoy drove for more than 30 minutes in Stronghold 31 beforeing to a stop. At the front, Yang Shiruo got out of his vehicle and said, ¡°Elder Wang, this is the residence we¡¯ve arranged for you all. It¡¯s rather simple and crude, so we seek your understanding if we haven¡¯t been a good host.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the residence and saw it was clearly a terraced vi that upied more than a 1,000 square meters.


    Wang Jing sighed and said, ¡°It¡¯s still the Kong Consortium¡¯s hospitals that make good money.¡±


    Yang Shiruoughed a little awkwardly and said, ¡°You¡¯re teasing us. The medical exchange will officially begin tomorrow afternoon. It will go on for seven days straight, so you should rest well today. We¡¯ll see you all tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Alright, thank you for your hospitality,¡± Wang Jing said with a nod.


    After saying their goodbyes, Liang Ce and the others felt hot air blowing at them the moment they stepped into the vi. Someone said in surprise, ¡°There¡¯s even a heater in the house?¡±


    ¡°Alright, everyone, rest early.¡± Wang Jing said, ¡°We still have a meeting to attend tomorrow afternoon. That¡¯s our main business here in the Kong Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin carried their luggage upstairs. There were a total of 17 rooms in the terraced vi, more than enough to house all of them in the group.


    As Liang Ce watched the two of them head upstairs, he suddenly felt envious.


    While they were upstairs, Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin in a low voice while the others were still checking out the ce, ¡°I¡¯ll head out for a whileter tonight. There¡¯s only two sentries keeping watch outside, so they won¡¯t discover that I¡¯ve left the house. If anything happens here, you¡¯ll have to cover for me.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°Can I use the ck bullet if the situation calls for it?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu said generously, ¡°If you really encounter any danger, feel free to use it!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him in surprise. ¡°You¡¯re quite generous today. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t use it recklessly unless I encounter a difficult-to-deal-with supernatural being.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu would of course be generous at this moment. When he left the Wang Consortium, his gratitude tokens had already reached over 3,000. After he finished with the consultation at the Kong Consortium¡¯s town this morning, his gratitude tokens had almost broken through the 4,000 mark!


    Calcting based on Yang Xiaojin¡¯s strength alone, that equated to the lives of 40 supernatural beings. No one could avoid her attacks!


    Of course, it would definitely not go as expected in actualbat since there would always be unforeseen circumstances.


    In the middle of the night, Ren Xiaosu opened a gap in the curtains and reconfirmed the positions of the sentries outside the vi. He found a blind spot in the vi where they would not spot him leaving and went out through the kitchen window on the first floor.


    In the vi, Ren Xiaosu could hear snoringing from the other rooms. Perhaps no one would have expected that a supernatural being like Ren Xiaosu would be hiding in this vi.


    In the night, Ren Xiaosu pulled up his hood and headed north to where the Great Hoodwinker had agreed to meet him.

 Chapter 807 - Recognition phrase

    <h4>Chapter 807: Recognition phrase</h4>


    At 12 midnight, the Kong Consortium¡¯s patrols were spread out all over the streets in the stronghold. As the Kong Consortium was currently engaged in a war, they maintained a Level Two alert even though Stronghold 31 was located in the core of the Kong Consortium.


    After all, one of the strongholds in the north had already been taken by the Pyro Company, and there was only one defensive line left at the moment. Stronghold 31 was only 170 kilometers away from that defensive line. Once another stronghold in the north got taken, the Pyro Company¡¯s armored troops would most likely march straight down south, and Stronghold 31 would not necessarily be safe at that time.


    This was probably what angered Kong Erdong the most. The hard drive Wang Yun sent over had actually put the entire Kong Consortium in danger.


    The Pyro Company must have been nning for a long time for this day.


    Suddenly, a patrolman in the streets looked up and said doubtfully, ¡°Did something just fly overhead?¡±


    A colleague of his also looked up and said, ¡°Don¡¯t overthink things. There¡¯s nothing there.¡±


    On the rooftop of the building, Ren Xiaosuy on the floor and made sure the two patrolmen had not discovered his presence before continuing to head northward.


    Ren Xiaosu was thinking about the direction of Lishan North Road. The Great Hoodwinker had gotten someone to send him a map of Stronghold 31 and told him to meet up with an agent outside a small hair salon. From there, they would discuss how to rescue Wang Yun from the secret prison.


    Very few people were on the streets of the Kong Consortium at night. Even if there were, it would be the Kong Consortium¡¯s own people. The garrison troops stationed in the stronghold were responsible for patrolling the ce while the Public Order Division coordinated the defensive operations.


    After the war started, the Kong Consortium¡¯s troops naturally took over all of the prevention and control operations.


    But with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current skills, it was not difficult for him to leap over roofs and scale walls.


    After arriving at Lishan North Road, Ren Xiaosu headed east until he saw an alley where he turned in.


    This ce was already different from the time when the Great Hoodwinker was here. The salon was closed, and the perimeter had been cordoned off by the intelligence agency. A soldier was standing guard at the bottom of the building like a tiger on the lookout for its prey. The entire residential building was ced under lockdown.


    The residents in the building had already been taken away by the intelligence agency and interrogated one by one. This was the authority the intelligence agency had in wartime. They could simply do whatever they wanted.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. However, he did not immediately turn around to leave. Instead, he continued approaching the perimeter.


    The soldier in charge of keeping watch had already discovered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence. He pointed his gun at Ren Xiaosu and said coldly, ¡°Don¡¯t get any closer. Put your hands behind your head and lie on the ground.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu kept walking forward. He said in a low voice, ¡°How about I read your fortune for you?¡±


    That soldier was stunned. ¡°The Prosperous Northwest?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°The Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    The soldier eased up. Then he took out an envelope and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°The Great Hoodwinker instructed me to pass this to you. He said that everything will be exined in the letter.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Alright, thanks for your hard work.¡±


    The soldier said excitedly, ¡°For the Prosperous Northwest, this is nothing!¡±


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to turn around and leave, he nearly lost his footing when he heard the lookout speak so enthusiastically.


    He wondered how many people had their fortunes told by the Great Hoodwinker and how many had been tricked by him over the years.


    Before this, the Great Hoodwinker already knew the informants here had been secretly arrested, and he had onlye here so he could gain entry into the secret prison.


    Therefore, the previous arrests by the intelligence agency and the Great Hoodwinker getting shot by a tranquilizer in his face were all just an act.


    Meanwhile, the agent he had stationed in the stronghold for Ren Xiaosu to contact was someone who had somehow infiltrated into the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency.


    And it was precisely to this soldier, who happened to be in charge of the security at the scene, that The Great Hoodwinker made Wang Yun think of a way to ry out the information to.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu had not expected the Great Hoodwinker to not only be so good at telling fortunes, but even the methods he used to pass on intel were really reliable as well.


    Ren Xiaosu rushed back in the direction of the vi and opened the envelope. There were three matters mentioned in the letter.


    The first was that the Great Hoodwinker and Wang Yun were currently locked inside the secret prison. Initially, that dumbass Great Hoodwinker had nned to force a way out with Wang Yun in tow. But after he got in, he realized his preparations were not in ce. He did not know the gates to the secret prison had been changed. Not only was it thicker now, but there was also an additional gate installed.


    Moreover, there were even explosives buried in the passageway between the gateways, with the detonator kept on the person of the sitting director of the intelligence agency. Hopefully, whoever was reading this letter in the outside would not be as stupid as the Great Hoodwinker to make such a low-level mistake again.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the first message, he was stunned. It was not him who said that the Great Hoodwinker was a dumbass; that was what the original writing of the letter referred to him as.


    This left Ren Xiaosu a little unsure. Who was the one who sent this message? Was it not the Great Hoodwinker? Why did it sound like whoever wrote it despised the Great Hoodwinker?


    The second matter regarded Wang Yun¡¯s request. He was willing to go to the Prosperous Northwest, and also dedicate his entire life to the advancement of its ambitions, but the prerequisite was that his 200-odd subordinates would have to be rescued from the other prison as well. It was either they all escaped together or died together here, and no one should be privileged enough to get away on their own.


    Seeing this, Ren Xiaosu more or less understood that this message was probably sent by Wang Yun.


    So Ren Xiaosu felt that Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s rtionship in the secret prison was really worrisome.


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s concerns were the same as the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s. Although saving Wang Yun might seem like a simple task, it would be a little difficult if he wanted his 200-odd subordinates to be rescued as well.


    First of all, rescuing more than 200 people from a prison was almost as difficult as tearing down the prison itself. Then they would have to send them all to safety under the pursuit of the Kong Consortium, making it an even more difficult task.


    Furthermore, after rescuing over 200 people here, the secret prison Wang Yun was kept in would definitely tighten their security. At that time, it would be really dangerous to try to get them out of there.


    Therefore, he would have to n the sequence of the rescue properly and discuss it with Yang Xiaojin when he got back.


    As he was pondering that, Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks and jumped off the roof.


    A bullet flew over from his 3 o¡¯clock and hit the spot where Ren Xiaosu was originally traveling!


    It was a sniper! Positioned 300 meters away!


    The sniper said on the radio, ¡°A suspicious target has been discovered near Honghu Road. It¡¯s likely a superhuman, someone very skilled. My shot missed! Requesting reinforcements! I repeat, requesting reinforcements!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he hung from the ledge of the rooftop with one hand. He did not expect that Stronghold 31¡¯s security measures would be even stricter than he had imagined. There were even snipers looking out for suspicious persons from the top of the high-rise buildings!


    So what should he do now? Kill this sniper?


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. Even if he were to kill the sniper now, it would not affect the overall situation. And it could even lead to his identity getting exposed. If that happened, Wang Jing and the others would be in deep trouble.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu jumped down to the streets and ran in the opposite direction of the vi.


    He could already hear the sound of vehicles driving through the quiet streets.

 Chapter 808 - It wont kill you to take a look

    <h4>Chapter 808: It won¡¯t kill you to take a look</h4>


    The previously quiet Stronghold 31 livened up. At almost the same time, countless troops started gathering towards Honghu Road.


    As it was currently wartime, all of the stronghold¡¯s garrison troops were in an extreme state of alert. If there were even the slightestmotion, it would kick up a storm.


    If they were to discover that the target had not been apprehended, all of the patrolling troops, from top to bottom, would probably get punished for it.


    As the off-road vehicles drove through the streets, some of the mobile columns set up roadblocks on the main traffic arteries.


    The residents in the stronghold were jolted awake. Many of them did not know what was going on and thought the Pyro Company had invaded Stronghold 31.


    The most amazing thing was that some of the stronghold residents ran out in their long johns before they could even figure out what was going on. Then they headed straight for the nearest shops to snap up food and daily necessities.


    After these stronghold residents came running out, they ended up staring at the patrol troops in the streets downstairs. Then, with the ck muzzles pointing at them, they retreated back to their homes.


    Ren Xiaosu was not hung up on fighting. He made a run for the north before making a big detour and turning back towards the residential neighborhood.


    At this moment, two members of the Public Order Division were walking in the opposite direction of Honghu Road. One of them said, ¡°I¡¯m sure that I saw a ck shadow fly over my head just now. You didn¡¯t believe me when I told you earlier. Now look, something has happened!¡±


    The other person pped him upside his head exasperatedly. ¡°Enough of that nonsense! I saw it too, but I don¡¯t want to die!¡±


    The person who spoke earlier was taken aback. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Our sry in the Public Order Division is not as high as what the troops are getting. Do you think we can afford to provoke someone who can fly around in the sky like that?¡± The other person said, ¡°Think about it! If you alert everyone with your shouting, he might just jump down and silence us. Could we escape that?¡±


    ¡°That sounds valid...¡± Halfway through his sentence, the person speaking started trembling. He said in a shaky voice, ¡°Look at that person up ahead....¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu, who had stopped in his tracks to orientate himself, heard their voices, he turned around and looked at the two of them with his face hidden under his hood. The two Public Order Division officers immediately turned around and walked in the other direction. ¡°Hahaha, it¡¯s so dark tonight.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, why¡¯s there suddenly fog? I can¡¯t see anything at all....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the two of them and calcted the distance between them. He was silently nning something in his mind.


    Tonight¡¯s pursuit had happened rather unexpectedly, but Ren Xiaosu was not flustered in the slightest.


    The two officers who had encountered Ren Xiaosu were walking with their backs facing him. They muttered softly between themselves, ¡°Has he left? Why don¡¯t you turn around and have a look?¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you fucking turn around and have a look instead?¡± the other person snapped. ¡°What if he¡¯s right behind us?¡±


    ¡°Come on, it won¡¯t kill you to take a look....¡±


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice rang out behind them. ¡°Stop arguing! Why don¡¯t you two turn around and have a look?¡±


    The two officers reacted quickly. When they heard the voice behind them, they wanted to make a run for it. But before they could do so, they felt their vision turning dark as they were knocked unconscious to the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly picked up their walkie-talkies and said in a nasally voice, ¡°Suspicious person discovered at 172 Hero Hill Road. I repeat, suspicious person discovered at 172 Hero Hill Road!¡±


    After saying that, Ren Xiaosu quickly climbed to the top of a tall building and quietly looked in the direction of 172 Hero Hill Road.


    He was currently about 400 meters away from Hero Hill Road. In a street fight, this was already considered a very far distance.


    The reason why Ren Xiaosu did that was so he could observe from the best possible vantage point how the patrols in Stronghold 31 would react.


    After the walkie-talkie crackled, the troops who were patrolling the stronghold quickly assembled. Some of the stationary troops also advanced towards Hero Hill Road.


    Ren Xiaosu took out his sniper rifle and aimed it at an off-road vehicle 600 meters away. When he pulled the trigger, the bullet pierced the air and hit the fuel tank of the vehicle. With a loud explosion, the entire off-road vehicle turned into a ball of fire after being hit by the incendiary bullet.


    Ren Xiaosu shouted into the walkie-talkie, ¡°A vehicle north of Hero Hill Road is under attack. I repeat, a vehicle north of Hero Hill Road is under attack. The enemy is an individual!¡±


    The sound of the vehicle exploding stirred up a ho¡¯s nest. Some of the tactical troops hiding in the shadows could no longer stand by and started moving out.


    Meanwhile, the perpetrator, Ren Xiaosu, quietly returned to the vi amid the chaos he created.


    The troops in charge of pursuing and intercepting the attacker could not find any trace of Ren Xiaosu. Almost all of them had headed straight for Hero Hill Road.


    But just as Ren Xiaosu was thinking the Kong Consortium¡¯s troops were not that great, he noticed some tactical troops still lying in wait on his way back to the vi. They all kept their vignce up, and there was not even a single person chatting or taking a smoke break.


    Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu remained very cautious while he was heading back, or he could¡¯ve gotten caught in a surprise battle.


    He silently noted the locations of the troops so he would not identally run into themter.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. The garrison troops responsible for guarding Stronghold 31 were definitely the Kong Consortium¡¯s elites. In that case, it would make it even more difficult to rescue Wang Yun¡¯s 200-odd subordinates from the prison.


    However, he still gained some insight tonight. Ren Xiaosu confirmed there was at least a brigade garrisoned in Stronghold 31, and if he counted those who were hiding in the shadows, there might be even more. This could very well be a reinforced brigade.


    Moreover, he had also gotten an understanding of the garrison troops¡¯ encirclement and suppression tactics. He considered this as making preparations for the subsequent operations.


    Not long after Ren Xiaosu returned to the vi, something unexpected happened.


    Through the windows, Ren Xiaosu could see it had suddenly turned bright outside. There were dozens of vehicles parked at the vi¡¯s entrance. Moreover, the people did not knock on the door right after they arrived. Instead, they surrounded the entire vi!


    Due to this unexpected incident, everyone in the vi walked out of their rooms. Yang Xiaojin gave Ren Xiaosu a quiet look as if to ask, ¡°You were followed?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and expressed that it was unlikely.


    Yang Xiaojin stood quietly at the window and watched through a gap in the curtains. She whispered, ¡°It¡¯s not the garrison troops. These people should be from the intelligence agency¡¯s field operations division. It¡¯s an entirepany of troops. If we need to bust out of their encirclement, we can do it from the north. I¡¯ve already identified theirmander, so we can kill that person first before breaking through.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Once we start fighting, I¡¯ll use Old Xu first to distract them before breaking through their encirclement. But let¡¯s watch and wait. I think they¡¯re just here to check on some suspicions.¡±


    With just a few words, the two of them came up with a battle n. It was not that detailed as they both trusted each other¡¯s ability to adapt to the situation.


    Honestly speaking, if not for the consideration that the Kong Consortium might have more reinforcements waiting, they would have just killed all of these people here.


    When the troops outside had fully surrounded the vi, a young man in a ck suit walked up and knocked on the door. Behind him were heavily armed field troops.

 Chapter 809 - Too unlucky

    <h4>Chapter 809: Too unlucky</h4>


    <i>Knock, knock, knock</i>. Someone was knocking on the door outside the vi.


    Everyone in the house came out to the main hall and looked at Wang Jing. ¡°Elder, what¡¯s going on? Is the Kong Consortium here to arrest us?¡±


    To be honest, everyone got a little panicky when they were used at the city gate of having a spy in the group. Now that they were faced with a situation wherein the entire vi was surrounded by soldiers with loaded guns, it was impossible for them not to panic.


    They were doctors who treated patients and saved lives. They might be able to remain calm at the operating table, but they had really never experienced a situation like this before.


    Everyone knew the Kong Consortium soldiers were not kidding. Something must have happened!


    So when they heard the knocking on the door, everyone looked at one another and did not dare to open the door.


    Wang Jing sighed and said, ¡°If it¡¯s a blessing, it won¡¯t be a disaster. If it¡¯s a disaster, we can¡¯t avoid it. Let¡¯s cooperate with them and see what they want. All of you, stand back so you don¡¯t get injured identally.¡±


    With that, Wang Jing was about to open the door when a middle-aged doctor tried to stop him. This middle-aged doctor wanted to volunteer to open the door, but he hesitated for a moment and did not have the courage to speak up.


    Liang Ce gritted his teeth and prepared to step forward bravely. However, he realized someone else was a step faster than him.


    Ren Xiaosu tugged at Wang Jing¡¯s arm and said, ¡°Elder, you¡¯re too old, so don¡¯t burden yourself over such matters. Let me do it instead. Besides, I don¡¯t think there¡¯ll be any danger. If they were really here to arrest us, there wouldn¡¯t be a need to knock so politely. They would¡¯ve already broken in.¡±


    Liang Ce and the others all looked at Ren Xiaosu. They did not expect the person who looked the youngest would suddenly step forward.


    Yang Xiaojin also looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. However, she did not say anything and got ready for battle.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over and opened the vi¡¯s door. When the young man in the ck suit outside saw Ren Xiaosu, he said with a smile, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Pei Wenjin, the person temporarily in charge of the 1st Military Intelligence Division. I apologize for thete visit.¡±


    ¡°May I ask why you¡¯re here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked calmly.


    ¡°Can I go inside and talk?¡± Pei Wenjin smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s a little cold outside.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu stepped aside and let him enter.


    However, Pei Wenjin did not step into the vi alone. There was also an entire toon of 30 soldiers following him. These people entered orderly and immediately headed for the various passageways after entering the vi. They stood guard at the positions in a stern manner.


    After Pei Wenjin entered the vi, he shook hands with Wang Jing first. ¡°I¡¯ve heard a lot about you, Elder Wang. I hope this visit isn¡¯t too abrupt. Please have a seat. We¡¯ll be here in the vi for some time.¡±


    Pei Wenjin invited Wang Jing to take a seat on the sofa. Ren Xiaosu asked from nearby, ¡°Wasn¡¯t it an officer named Zhong Zhen who entertained us? Where did he go?¡±


    Pei Wenjin said regretfully, ¡°Director Zhong Zhen died in the line of duty just now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had only butted in to ask a question, and he did not expect that answer!


    Even even Wang Jing could not help but get curious. ¡°We saw him earlier today, so how did he die in the night? What happened exactly?¡±


    Pei Wenjin stared intently into Wang Jing¡¯s eyes and said, ¡°Don¡¯t you know what happened?¡±


    ¡°How would I know?¡± Wang Jing looked back calmly. He really did not know!


    Pei Wenjin examined Wang Jing¡¯s expression and realized he could not get anything out of him. He exined, ¡°An expert sneaked into our Kong Consortium stronghold tonight. After he was discovered by our patrols, he started a massacre. Director Zhong Zhen was rushing over when his vehicle was blown up by the enemy¡¯s sniper rifle. He died inside the vehicle.¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was speechless. He had just blown up a vehicle to use it to catch the attention of the Kong Consortium¡¯s troops, but he actually ended up killing Zhong Zhen.


    Zhong Zhen was really too fucking unlucky!


    As a result, Pei Wenjin took over as temporary director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division under the Kong Consortium¡¯s orders. Ren Xiaosu knew the 1st Military Intelligence Division was responsible for overseeing internal affairs, while the 2nd Military Intelligence Division took charge of external affairs. Meanwhile, the 3rd Military Intelligence Division was purely a violent group that provided firepower support.


    Pei Wenjin looked at everyone. ¡°As such, we have to thoroughly investigate the reason behind such a major incident that happened in the stronghold. You all have just arrived at Stronghold 31, and an incident like that has already happened. Although we feel that everyone here is a proper doctor, we still have to carry out a routine investigation.¡±


    Wang Jing nodded. ¡°We understand that, but I guarantee that none of the doctors in this vi are criminals as Director Pei suggested.¡±


    ¡°Alright, it is best if you can understand.¡± Pei Wenjin stood up and said to the soldiers in the vi, ¡°Search all the rooms and check for any suspicious items.¡±


    The soldiers rushed forward and rummaged through cabs and drawers as they conducted the search. Ren Xiaosu roughly had an idea that they were looking for a sniper rifle.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was curious. If something as big as a sniper rifle were hidden in the vi, it would definitely be very conspicuous. It would be impossible for a criminal to carry it back after using it, and Pei Wenjin should also understand this logic. No matter how valuable a sniper rifle was, no one would carry it with them at a time like this.


    After a while, the soldiers upstairs all gathered downstairs. The toonmander reported, ¡°No suspicious items found.¡±


    ¡°Search the surrounding area within a kilometer and see if there are any suspicious items,¡± Pei Wenjin said slowly and walked out of the vi.


    Wang Jing followed Pei Wenjin, with Ren Xiaosu catching up to them from behind.


    Seeing that Director Pei was taking a walk around the vi premises after stepping out, Wang Jing could not figure out what Pei Wenjin was doing.


    Ren Xiaosu saw Pei Wenjin carefully looking at the windowsills outside each window. He now understood that Pei Wenjin was trying to see if anyone had climbed out of the vi.


    The windowsills were covered in dust. As long as someone stepped on one, there would definitely be clues left behind. Furthermore, this was a detail very few people would notice. Who would check such ces for no reason?


    Pei Wenjin took a look at several windows but he did not check every one of them.


    Yang Xiaojin thought about it for a moment and realized the windowsills Pei Wenjin was checking on were also very particr. They were all located in the blind spots of the sentries that were keeping watch.


    If anyone tried to leave the vi quietly after discovering the location of the sentries, they could only do it via a few of the windows.


    Looking at Pei Wenjin¡¯s expression, he was clearly very confident about finding some clues. Previously, Yang Xiaojin was wondering why there would be a blind spot of almost 60 degrees between the two hidden sentries. She had felt it was way too unprofessional.


    They could clearly have the entire vi under surveince from a distance if they had positioned the sentries in a staggered formation.


    But only now did Yang Xiaojin realize this was a trap by the other party.


    Pei Wenjin slowly walked towards the kitchen window where Ren Xiaosu exited and entered from. He examined the dust on it so carefully it almost looked like he wanted to stick his face in!


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu quietly and got ready to pull out her gun at any moment.


    But a secondter, Pei Wenjin smiled as he looked up and said, ¡°It seems like all of you are reallyw-abiding doctors.¡±


    There was not a trace of any disturbance on the windowsill. That was because Ren Xiaosu had noticed the trap before he left the vi.

 Chapter 810 - You don’t need a brain

    <h4>Chapter 810: You don¡¯t need a brain</h4>


    Yang Xiaojin knew that Ren Xiaosu had jumped through the kitchen window. So when Pei Wenjin started checking the kitchen windowsill, she got really worried for him.


    However, Pei Wenjin did not find anything suspicious.


    If not for the fact that there were so many people watching, Yang Xiaojin would have apuded Ren Xiaosu. This was the Ren Xiaosu she was familiar with. He was always vignt and cautious to the end.


    Ren Xiaosu had always acted calmly since Yang Xiaojin first met him. When Yang Xiaojin looked back on her trip to the Jing Mountains, she had a feeling that Ren Xiaosu would not die no matter how bad the situation.


    But after Ren Xiaosu became a supernatural being, he started letting up a little.


    It was just like how a person who suddenly received arge sum of money would unintentionally show off their wealth and feel a little conceited.


    Ren Xiaosu was not a saint, so he could not avoid having such a mentality. He even got used to resorting to solving problems with his strength.


    To be more precise, after bing more powerful, the brave and fearsome side of his personality got magnified. For example, the determination he had when he thanked himself seven times.


    Later on during their trip to the Sacred Mountains, Ren Xiaosu even acted a little impulsively because of Yan Liuyuan. This left Yang Xiaojin with no choice but to remind him to stay calm.


    But Yang Xiaojin realized Ren Xiaosu had started changing his mentality ever since her reminder to him.


    He was able to wait patiently for the right opportunity to arrive in the Sacred Mountains during theter stages of the expedition. After that, when traveling together with the Trinity Institute, Ren Xiaosu was also able to promptly detect the presence of the deserter and the Kong Consortium¡¯s reconnaissance troops, helping him anticipate Zhong Zhen¡¯s screening of the spies.


    And now, Ren Xiaosu even made sure not to make any mistakes when he headed out in the night. Yang Xiaojin was sure the Ren Xiaosu she knew had finally returned.


    This was his growth after gaining power. His mentality had bepletely different.


    Yang Xiaojin believed Ren Xiaosu had found a new bnce between caution and bravery.


    At this moment, Wang Jing looked at Pei Wenjin and wondered, ¡°Director Pei, what were you looking for just now?¡±


    ¡°Oh, nothing much.¡± Pei Wenjin smiled and said to his subordinates who were standing guard around the perimeter, ¡°Let¡¯s fall back. There¡¯s still other ces we need to check. Looks like we won¡¯t be getting any sleep tonight.¡±


    After that, Pei Wenjin decisively left the vi. He even took the two sentries who were watching the vi away with him!


    Only at this moment did Ren Xiaosu finally breathe a sigh of relief. Moreover, he was sure Pei Wenjin only had some suspicions of the Trinity Institute and did not have any actual evidence against them.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu was a little annoyed by Wang Shengzhi¡¯s arrangement now. Although joining the Trinity Institute helped him keep his identity better concealed, Wang Jing and the others should not have to get involved in the war for no reason.


    Ren Xiaosu made a decision. The medical exchange would officiallyst for seven days, so he would convince Wang Jing to leave the Kong Consortium immediately when it finished. After that, he would sneak into Stronghold 31 and continue with his n to rescue Wang Yun. This way, Wang Jing and the others would not be implicated.


    At that time, even if he were to turn the Kong Consortium upside down, Ren Xiaosu would not have to restrain himself anymore.


    However, what Ren Xiaosu did not know was that the Pyro Company¡¯s troops in the north had embarked on a new battle n tonight. Meanwhile, farther north, a new enemy was waiting for their opportunity.


    At this moment, Wang Jing said to everyone who was still in a state of shock, ¡°Everyone, please go back into the house. I know you guys have a lot to say, so let¡¯s go in first.¡±


    Everyone returned to the warm house. All of them had a lot to say, but they did not know where to start.


    Wang Jing gave it some thought and said, ¡°I really regret bringing all of you to the Kong Consortium now. It¡¯s not that I¡¯m giving up on the medical exchange being held, but the current situation is not something you all should risk your lives over. I would like to apologize to all of you.¡± Wang Jing surprisingly bowed to everyone.


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a while before saying, ¡°You didn¡¯t do anything wrong. There¡¯s no need to apologize.¡±


    Sima Gang looked at Wang Jing and said firmly, ¡°Actually, I only realized how much effort you and the other veteran doctors have put in for the progress of medicine after making this trip with you. I don¡¯t regret it at all. In fact, I¡¯m even more determined now.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t regret it either,¡± Meng Nan said.


    ¡°Me neither!¡± Liang Ce said.


    Wang Jing was stunned. He did not expect the fire in his heart would actually get ignited despite the immense stress. He burst intoughter. ¡°It¡¯s my honor to be able to work with all of you. Everyone, rest early. We still have a meeting to attend tomorrow.¡±


    Then Wang Jing straightened his back and returned to his bedroom. He did not look like an old man in his sixties at all. And the others also became a little more motivated when they saw his back.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized the power in one person could really influence and motivate another person, and within a group, that power would spread to even more people. It was just like how a single spark could start a prairie fire.


    The others also returned to their rooms, leaving only Meng Nan, Liang Ce, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin behind in the hall.


    Ren Xiaosu saw Meng Nan sitting in the nook of a couch and not returning to her room. She was clearly feeling ack of safety at the moment.


    He whispered to Liang Ce, ¡°Don¡¯t say that I didn¡¯t remind you. Now¡¯s your chance. If you grab it, you¡¯ll see hope.¡±


    In fact, although Liang Ce often acted foolishly on the journey thus far, he was always a very responsible person. Although Meng Nan did not say anything, her attitude towards Liang Ce had indeed rxed a lot over the past two days.


    When Liang Ce saw Meng Nan sitting alone in the corner, he quickly went over to talk with her. When he got closer, he realized she was looking at a photo. It was a portrait of a family of three. In it were Meng Nan¡¯s parents and her childhood self.


    Liang Ce asked in a low voice, ¡°You miss home?¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Meng Nan grunted. Girls often did not have a sense of safety when they went traveling outside. Besides, after all the recent incidents, this was probably when Meng Nan was feeling her most vulnerable.


    Liang Ce sat next to Meng Nan and looked at the photo. ¡°Are these your parents?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Meng Nan said, ¡°Before we left for this exchange, my mother cried for three days. She said she was worried I wouldn¡¯t eat or sleep well outside. If she knew what we were going through now, she would probably cry again.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll definitely return safely. As long as I¡¯m here... never mind.¡± Liang Ce was a little discouraged.


    Liang Ce wanted to say something that girls liked to hear, but when he realized he did not have any useful skills and did not even know how to fire a gun, he could not bring himself to say those sweet words. He was the kind of person who would not easily make promises if he could not do it.


    Meng Nan had a rough understanding of the kind of person Liang Ce was. She did not want to make things too awkward for him, so she changed the topic and asked, ¡°By the way, it¡¯ll be Valentine¡¯s Day in a few days. What are you going to do since you don¡¯t have a girlfriend yet?¡±


    Liang Ce chuckled and said, ¡°Do we have to kill a family member in advance if we have no one to visit during the Qingming Festival? If I have no girlfriend, so be it.¡±


    Even with Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s wits, they were not expecting an answer like this!


    Meng Nan immediately stood up and went back to her room, leaving Liang Ce, who was still hesitating to speak, sitting alone on the sofa.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over and patted Liang Ce on the shoulder tofort him. ¡°If you don¡¯t need a brain, donate it to those who need it.¡±


    Liang Ce was speechless.

 Chapter 811 - Decapitation strike

    <h4>Chapter 811: Decapitation strike</h4>


    In the deep of the night, peace had not been restored to the stronghold yet. Ren Xiaosu looked out of the vi through a gap in the curtains and made sure Pei Wenjin had really taken all the sentries from the two hidden lookout posts away with him.


    But before he couldpletely feel at ease, someone knocked on his room door.


    When Ren Xiaosu went to open the door, he saw Yang Xiaojin standing there and was overjoyed. Was she taking the initiative to have an in-depth discussion with him about their ideals at thiste hour?


    Just as he was about to say something, Yang Xiaojin covered his mouth with one hand.


    Then Yang Xiaojin took out a piece of paper with her other hand and waved it in front of Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu saw the words ¡°tapping device installed in room¡± written on it. While he was momentarily stunned, Yang Xiaojin removed her hand and went back to her room next door.


    Ren Xiaosu checked around the room. To be honest, he had not undergone any professional training in this area before, so he did not have any anti-reconnaissance skills like Yang Xiaojin or Zhou Yingxue.


    After searching around for a long time, he was still unable to figure out where the bug was installed.


    However, Ren Xiaosu found this a little deplorable. The Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency was too crafty. Their tricks were each more devious than the other.


    Zhong Zhen had deliberately set a trap in the way the hidden sentries were positioned to mislead them. This time, Pei Wenjin was even more cunning. By taking advantage of themotion in the stronghold, he came to the vi and conducted a thorough search of the ce, putting on an extremely convincing act.


    But in actual fact, it was just so he could get his men to install the tapping devices. This was probably Pei Wenjin¡¯s real objective.


    Since Pei Wenjin¡¯s men had also searched the vehicles outside the vi just now, those cars would definitely have been bugged as well.


    Wasn¡¯t this as good as stopping them from talking? Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless. They could not remove the tapping devices yet either, or the other party would realize they knew.


    After all, how could a group of doctors possibly be able to discover the tapping devices?


    After daybreak, the others started preparing their research documents for the medical exchange while Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin took the opportunity to have a stroll in the vi¡¯s yard. Only when they found a ce where they could not be eavesdropped on did Ren Xiaosu finally dare to say, ¡°I was the one who created themotion in the stronghold yesterday. I¡¯ve already gotten in touch with the Great Hoodwinker, but it¡¯s still gonna be quite difficult to rescue Wang Yun.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s difficult about it?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    Ren Xiaosu described a rough sketch of the situation to her. Actually, he felt it would not be difficult to get the detonator from the hands of the sitting intelligence director. The most challenging part was how should they get Wang Yun¡¯s 200-odd subordinates out of the other prison?


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°How do you n on solving the problem of locating the detonator? It seems like you already have an idea?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Look, there¡¯s no point in us looking for the detonator. When we capture whoever¡¯s holding it, we¡¯ll still have to force them to tell us where the detonator is. Isn¡¯t that too troublesome? We can just kill that intelligence director instead. Once he¡¯s dead, it¡¯ll take some time for the new intelligence director to inherit the detonator, so there¡¯ll be enough time for us to go in and attempt a prison break.¡±


    As for the steel gates and whatnot, they weren¡¯t even worth mentioning in the presence of the ck saber. So far, it only had some trouble cutting through Chen Liu¡¯er¡¯s Golden-Hooped Rod.


    After listening to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s idea, Yang Xiaojin was speechless. But when she thought about it carefully, it somehow made sense.


    She asked again, ¡°Then what about Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates in the other prison?¡±


    ¡°Here¡¯s what I think,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. ¡°You see, it¡¯ll be too noticeable if we walk on the streets with 200-odd people after breaking them out of the prison. In that case, why don¡¯t we just find a way to demolish the stronghold? That way, there¡¯ll be chaos everywhere and no one will notice us!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu in silence. She thought Wang Shengzhi was probably not expecting such a big surprise from Ren Xiaosu when he sent him here to assassinate Kong Erdong.


    Wang Shengzhi had only wanted Kong Erdong killed, but Ren Xiaosu was actually thinking of how to demolish the stronghold to conceal their operation!


    But Yang Xiaojin had to admit that what Ren Xiaosu said was valid as well.


    But how should they demolish it and where should they start?


    ...


    Meanwhile, a group of extremely elite troops were trekking across treacherous mountains in the wilderness north of the Kong Consortium.


    The Kong Consortium was not stationing any of their troops in the Ningjin Mountains, because the mountains were towering and steep, and there were also three cliffs in the mountain range. The terrain here was even more terrifying than you could imagine. Not even infantry units could pass through it unless they were a team of T4-rankedbatants and above, much less mechanized troops.


    Some time ago, the Kong Consortium had set up a checkpoint here because the Pyro Company¡¯s troops were physically much stronger, so it was likely they would pass through here.


    Later, the Kong Consortium withdrew the checkpoint. It was not that they did not view the Pyro Company as a threat, but they realized they were at a huge disadvantage if they had to intercept the Pyro Company in this mountain range. In these mountains, the Pyro Company¡¯sbatants were agile as monkeys while the Kong Consortium¡¯s troops were clumsy as oxen. They could not even take advantage of the firearms they had.


    Hence, the Kong Consortium withdrew from the mountain range and set up defensive fortifications on the ins around the mountains. Once the Pyro Company¡¯s troops emerged from the mountains and tried to attack Stronghold 32 in the north, they would immediately be met by a terrifying metal storm.


    But even though these Pyro Company troops made up of several hundred soldiers were trekking across the mountainous terrain wearing heavy field packs, it was like they were walking on t ground. The Kong Consortium¡¯s assumption was right. The Pyro Company really did have special forces made up of their T4-rankedbatants.


    Moreover, their target was not Stronghold 32. The troops made a sudden turn at Mt. Dayu in the Ningjin Mountains and detoured around the defensive line waiting beyond the mountain range.


    Then they headed straight to Stronghold 31, which was south of Stronghold 32.


    The troops¡¯ mission was definitely not to attack and take over a city but to carry out a decapitation strike.


    Just as Qing Zhen evaluated how nanosoldiers should be deployed, using powerful individuals on the main battlefield would be the dumbest decision. That was because it would reduce their value in a battle.


    The Pyro Company troops were marching at a rapid pace. Even without any form of transportation, they could still travel 180 kilometers in a day.


    Inparison, typical infantry could only travel about 40 kilometers in a day while carrying a heavy load in the wilderness. Even if they picked up their pace, they could at most travel about 70 kilometers a day.


    In a war, this marching speed could be considered a long-range pration.[1]


    Correspondingly, the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces at the rear were getting restless. As long as the decapitation strike in the south was sessful, a full-scale war between the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company would break out!


    At this moment, a person in a ck robe was standing on the summit of a mountain and quietly watching the Pyro Company¡¯s strike troops moving away. He said with a hoarseugh, ¡°How can humans ever stop warring? Don¡¯t you all agree?¡±


    Several gray Experimentals were hanging from the cliff walls behind him, roaring in response to their lord¡¯s mocking of the humans.


    These Experimentals were different from those the Central ins people had encountered. They hade from an icy prison located in the Far North. The ruler in the Northern Territory had allowed the ck-robed wizard to turn thousands of prisoners into his personal army. It was as though the gods had scattered the seeds of gue onto the human realm.


    However, it had never been easy to turn humans into Experimentals. Of a few thousand prisoners, only several dozen new Experimentals were sessfully created.

 Chapter 812 - War is coming

    <h4>Chapter 812: War ising</h4>


    After careful consideration, Ren Xiaosu still felt that it was much safer to demolish the stronghold before proceeding with the rescue mission.


    As for how to demolish it, he had not thought of it yet. For some reason, he felt it was easier to destroy an entire stronghold than tearing down a prison. Who knew where his confidence came from?


    At the moment, Yang Xiaojin was driving with the convoy as they headed to the conference venue prepared by the Kong Consortium¡¯s medical institution. That was where the medical exchange would be held.


    This time, Meng Nan and Liang Ce were sitting with them in their car. Ren Xiaosu sat in the passenger seat while those two sat in the backseat.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu felt Meng Nan might be a little interested in Liang Ce now. Despite the fact that Liang Ce had already undone the ¡°steel cord¡± used by Yue Lao to bring them together several times, Meng Nan was still willing to hang out with Liang Ce. This clearly meant something.


    Along the way, Ren Xiaosu looked at the roadside and asked in confusion, ¡°Why¡¯s there so many lights and decorations on the streets? Isn¡¯t the New Year over already? Does the Kong Consortium have other special holidays they¡¯re celebrating?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s Valentine¡¯s Day.¡± Liang Ce said curiously, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, you¡¯re also a stronghold resident, so how do you not know about Valentine¡¯s Day? February 14th will be here soon.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. He was indeed aware of the holiday. He had even heard about it from Wang Fugui, but he just forgot about it.


    As he was not a stronghold resident, and the townspeople never celebrated this holiday, Ren Xiaosu did not have any concept of it at all.


    To him, or maybe to all refugees, there were only two holidays that were celebrated in a year. One of them was the New Year, and the other was the Qingming Festival.


    The former was to give the living a chance to have a new beginning, while thetter was to mourn for the dead.


    Apart from these two holidays, everyone was too busy making a living to care about romance.


    Ren Xiaosu was looking at the decorations on the streets and thinking about the war between the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company. The ceasefire had only started a few days ago, and no one knew when the fighting would break out again. Were these people not aware that danger was near? How could they still be in the mood to celebrate the holiday?


    However, Ren Xiaosu figured it out. Celebrating a holiday like this did not prove the stronghold residents did not have a sense of danger, nor that they were living toofortably. It did not prove anything at all.


    Just as he had said, why did he still buy new clothes and make dumplings for Yan Liuyuan every New Year even though they were so poor?


    Wasn¡¯t it precisely because life was too tough that he wanted to create some happiness so there would be some hope in life?


    Besides, whatever holidays the stronghold residents celebrated did not really concern him much.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Yang Xiaojin. ¡°Have you celebrated Valentine¡¯s Day before?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin gave him a look. ¡°What are you trying to ask?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, I was just asking,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in embarrassment.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t have a chance to celebrate the holiday before.¡± Although Yang Xiaojin was concentrating on driving, she still answered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s question.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu was only trying to ask Yang Xiaojin if she had any other rtionships before him. It did not really matter if she did since he would not care about something like that. But it would be better if she did not have any, of course...


    Ren Xiaosu quickly added, ¡°Me neither!¡±


    The convoy came to a stop at a building. As the representative of the Kong Consortium¡¯s medical field, Yang Shiruo was already waiting downstairs with a group of people to wee them. This was to show their respect for Wang Jing.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Jing¡¯s towering stature and thought this was the stage for Wang Jing and the others.


    A medical exchange was actually a very boring event. It was so boring Ren Xiaosu almost dozed off. During the meeting, they would each make a statement of their breakthrough progress and share their cases, with nothing exceptional happening throughout the conference.


    The meetingsted until evening. Ren Xiaosu quietly left the vi again when everyone was asleep.


    But this time, he was not going to meet with the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s agent. Instead, Ren Xiaosu was looking for Wang Run, the person from the Wang Consortium responsible for assisting him in assassinating Kong Erdong.


    Ren Xiaosu should have gone to look for Wang Run yesterday. They had agreed to split up and enter the stronghold separately before immediately meeting up to exchange information. However, Ren Xiaosu had forgotten about it...


    After all, he had even nearly forgotten about who Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker were, so it was not unusual that he would forget about Kong Erdong.


    Ren Xiaosu stopped on the roof of a low-rise. It was obvious the garrison troops were patrolling even more intensely tonight. He realized there were people lying in ambush on the roofs of several buildings. It looked like the enemy already knew he would be getting around by moving from roof to roof. So they stepped up their defenses on many of the rooftops.


    It looked like Zhong Zhen¡¯s death had left some impact.


    This put Ren Xiaosu in a tight spot. He could still remember exactly how he nearly got shot by a sniper. It would be bad if he ended up dying here.


    Wang Run was currently hiding at Nanxinzhuang West Road. It would take Ren Xiaosu another 17 kilometers to get there, and he could still encounter a lot of hidden lookout posts on the roofs of buildings as he made his way there.


    Ren Xiaosu noticed there were at least two people manning each of the hidden lookout posts, and the lookout posts were even inmunication with one another. As the lookouts were basically arranged in the shape of a plum blossom, it would be very difficult for him to leave quietly if he tried to take some of them out.


    He might poke the ho¡¯s nest after taking out one of the hidden lookout posts.


    Should he just not look for Wang Run? He was not nning on assassinating Kong Erdong right now anyway.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu decisively turned around and returned to the vi to sleep.


    At this moment, Wang Run was sitting solemnly in a hardware shop on Nanxinzhuang West Road with nine of his men as they waited for Ren Xiaosu to link up with them.


    These people were sitting motionlessly in a triangr formation in the shop like ten statues. They were each holding a pistol and wearing a thick ck poncho.


    Suddenly, someone asked, ¡°Sir, why isn¡¯t that Ren Xiaosu here yet?¡±


    Wang Run looked calmly at the shut roller shutter door of the hardware shop and said, ¡°He could have been dyed by something. Since the medical exchange group arrived yesterday, at least that means their journey went smoothly. There was a hugemotion in the strongholdst night, so it¡¯s likely he was discovered whileing here to look for us.¡±


    ¡°But ording to the map, themotion yesterday happened in the east. Since we¡¯re on the west side, the directions don¡¯t match up.¡± One of his men wondered, ¡°Sir, could he have gone to the wrong ce?¡±


    Off to the side, one of them whispered, ¡°Why do I get the feeling he¡¯s forgotten about us?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯d forget such an important matter, but I do doubt his ability. It¡¯s not like he can do a job that would require the ten of us. Sir, why don¡¯t we just go and assassinate Kong Erdong?¡± someone asked.


    Wang Run replied firmly, ¡°The boss told me personally that we must cooperate fully with him during the mission. We¡¯ll only make a move if he fails the mission. This shows the boss trusts his ability very much. Everyone, please remember that the boss¡¯s main objective for us is to provide support. Besides, the 10 of us alone won¡¯t be enough to kill Kong Erdong.¡±


    ¡°Then what do we do now?¡± a soldier asked.


    Wang Run remained seated in the chair. ¡°We continue waiting. He¡¯ll definitely be here!¡±


    Suddenly, the crack of gunfire rang out in the stronghold. Wang Run immediately stood up.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was standing on a tall building with no one around. He was surprised to see several hundred shadows leaping and scuttling across the roofs. They were heading towards the center of the stronghold!


    And they even got involved in a battle with one of the Kong Consortium¡¯s hidden lookout posts!

 Chapter 813 - Long-range raid!

    <h4>Chapter 813: Long-range raid!</h4>


    In the dark of night, Ren Xiaosu watched from afar. When the Kong Consortium¡¯s hidden lookout posts came into contact with those heavily armed ck shadows, they were immediately wiped out. They could not inflict any significant casualties on those people.


    Ren Xiaosu could not help but wonder where these hundreds of super soldiers had suddenlye from. Seeing their strong physical fitness andbat capabilities, it was not a power any organization could easily possess.


    If it weren¡¯t for the fact the attackers did not have silvery strands on their faces, Ren Xiaosu would have thought it was the Qing Consortium¡¯s new nanosoldier regiment that hade to attack the Kong Consortium.


    In his impression, only nanosoldiers could fight in arge-scale group battle like this.


    No, Ren Xiaosu felt that he had forgotten to consider something. It was the Pyro Company!


    He saw these hundreds of super soldiers freely traversing across the buildings. Even though they were met by suppressive fire, it did not stop them at all. In an instant, they broke through the hidden lookout posts¡¯ ambush set up by the Kong Consortium. The people in ck moved like a swarm of locusts on the rooftops, dense and terrifying.


    However, it seemed these people did not expect to encounter a battle on the roofs either. At the beginning, the battle was a little rushed. But they quickly adjusted themselves.


    At this moment, on a rooftop over 300 meters away from Ren Xiaosu, a T5batant said with a dark expression, ¡°Did a spy appear within our ranks? Why¡¯re there so many people intercepting us on the roofs in the middle of the night?¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t know, but there isn¡¯t any logical exnation for it other than spies. The Kong Consortium has never ced lookout posts on the roofs before.¡± A T4-rankedmander shook his head and said, ¡°It seems like they already knew that we¡¯d being. What should we do now?¡±


    The T5batant sneered, ¡°So what if they know of our whereabouts in advance? Let¡¯s switch to the backup n and have our troops attack the stronghold first to create chaos. After the garrison troops have been deployed, we can directly attack Kong Erdong¡¯s residence! Our forces have alreadyunched their attack in Stronghold 32. ording to the n, it¡¯ll only take eight hours for them to get here to Stronghold 31. We won¡¯t have to consider retreating at all. Our troops will be here to back us up once we hold out for eight hours.¡±


    ¡°Roger that.¡± Several hundred T4batants assembled on the roof of a high-rise, looking exceptionally terrifying. Arge number of the Kong Consortium¡¯s garrison troops were converging on this location as the rm had already sounded not far away.


    But these Pyro Company troops who were here for the decapitation mission did not remain around for longer. They continued making their way north, hoping to create an opening there when their sister corps arrived.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw them leaving, he turned around and ran back towards Nanxinzhuang West Road. His original n was to send Wang Jing and the others away in six days before talking about how to rescue Wang Yun and assassinate Kong Erdong.


    But with the sudden turn of events, even he was caught off guard.


    Ren Xiaosu was not an indecisive person. In an instant, he immediately understood that the best chance to make the rescue and assassinate the target was tonight!


    When he arrived at the entrance of the hardware shop at Nanxinzhuang West Road, he knocked lightly on the roller shutter door three times before knocking another two times harder. ¡°The Prosperous... wait, I got the code wrong. Sorry, let¡¯s start over. I want to buy adder. Do you have any in stock?¡±


    Someone inside raised the roller shutter, and Ren Xiaosu bent forward and went in. When Wang Run saw that it was really Ren Xiaosu, he quickly walked up to him. ¡°What exactly is going on outside?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°I suspect that the Pyro Company has started the battle with the Kong Consortium in advance. I saw several hundred Pyro Companybatants on my way here, and they look like they¡¯re probably all T4batants and above. Currently, they are heading north.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯re they doing here?¡± Wang Run frowned and pondered it for a moment. ¡°We didn¡¯t receive any intelligence prior to this. How did the Pyro Company break through the Ningjin Mountains and get here?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t ask what they¡¯re here for. I suspect it must be to kill Kong Erdong.¡± Ren Xiaosu said worriedly, ¡°Hurry up and give me all intel rted to the Kong Consortium¡¯s current intelligence director, as well as information about the secret prison and Stronghold 31¡¯s prison.¡±


    Wang Run was stunned. ¡°Since they¡¯re going to kill Kong Erdong, we should just follow them to see if they are sessful. The information you¡¯re asking for does not seem like it has anything to do with Kong Erdong.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°Look, how can a few hundred of them be able to aplish anything by themselves when there¡¯s a reinforced brigade currently stationed in Stronghold 31? No matter how powerful they might be, they still can¡¯t defeat a brigade. If l release all the prisoners from the two prisons, wouldn¡¯t it help them create chaos? I heard that the people in the secret prison are dangerous, and there¡¯s several supernatural beings among them too. After being locked up for so long, they¡¯ve gotta have hatred for the Kong Consortium, right? They¡¯ll definitely take revenge.¡±


    ¡°That does seem to make sense.¡± Wang Yun was stunned. However, he wondered, ¡°But is it necessary for us to step in and do that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we definitely have to. This is called leveraging a situation, understand?!¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Wang Run gave it some thought before turning around to say, ¡°Give him the intelligence he wants.¡±


    Afterwards, one of Wang Run¡¯s men retrieved some information from aptop. Ren Xiaosu stood in front of theputer and looked at it quietly. It wasn¡¯t until he confirmed he had memorized the information that he turned around and opened the roller shutter door to leave.


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°All of you, go to the vi where Wang Jing and the others are staying. When it gets chaotic in the stronghold, many residents will start looting the malls. The more vicious ones will even rob the neighborhoods and steal all the valuable items they can get. The battle between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium will probably not affect them, but I¡¯m worried that something will happen to Wang Jing and the others.¡±


    Wang Run was taken aback. ¡°You do not have the authority to give us orders.¡±


    ¡°Then will you take responsibility if we fail to assassinate Kong Erdong?¡± Ren Xiaosu said coldly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯llplete the mission.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu left the hardware shop.


    Wang Run suddenly asked from behind, ¡°Why didn¡¯t youe and rendezvous with us yesterday? Did you forget about it?¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha, listen to what you¡¯re saying. How is that possible!¡± Ren Xiaosu then disappeared without a trace.


    Only Wang Run and his men remained in the hardware shop. Wang Run mumbled, ¡°Judging by his reaction, that guy actually forgot about us....¡±


    After leaving, Ren Xiaosu did not head straight to the location identified in the intel provided by Wang Run. Instead, he went back to find Yang Xiaojin.


    No matter how important the mission or the rescue, he would still have to join up with Yang Xiaojin first.


    But before he could return to the vi, he already saw Yang Xiaojin waiting on a roof on the route he had to pass through. Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise, ¡°Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°I knew you would go back for me, so I waited for you here to save you some time,¡± Yang Xiaojin exined.


    For some reason, a strange, unspoken understanding had always existed between Ren Xiaosu and the girl in front of him.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I was still thinking about how to stir up trouble in the stronghold so that we wouldn¡¯t get noticed. But in the end, the Pyro Company turned up to help us. Our ns will be carried out tonight.¡±


    ¡°What do you need me to do?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Fight alongside me.¡±

 Chapter 814 - Defection

    <h4>Chapter 814: Defection</h4>


    There were three things Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin needed to do.


    The first was to kill the current intelligence director.


    The second was to break into the secret prison and release Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker. With their strengthbined, those two would definitely be a great help to them. Moreover, the Great Hoodwinker already wrote in his letter that he would try to persuade several other supernatural beings in the secret prison to join them in the Prosperous Northwest.


    And the third task would be to rescue Wang Yun¡¯s 200-odd subordinates with the newly recruited personnel.


    After listening to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s analysis, Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Can the Great Hoodwinker convince the other supernatural beings in the secret prison?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and replied, ¡°I think it should be quite difficult. But judging by how confident he sounded in the intel that he ryed to me, we¡¯ll believe him this one time. And even if those people do not want to join the Prosperous Northwest, they¡¯ll still create chaos so that they can escape from here. Having the stronghold in chaos is much better than not.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°Then we¡¯ll do it ording to your n.¡±


    At this moment, the Great Hoodwinker was saying to the supernatural being in the next cell over, ¡°Listen to me, bro, do you believe in fate...¡±


    The supernatural being in the next cell said in a low voice, ¡°No.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was stumped. He thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s restart the conversation. Do you believe in destiny...¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was getting a little frustrated. ¡°Why is it that you don¡¯t believe in anything? Let me tell you this, you¡¯ll get into trouble if you¡¯re like this!¡±


    However, the other party said slowly, ¡°We¡¯re all in the intelligence field, so I already know about you. Great Hoodwinker, you¡¯ve persuaded quite a lot of people to join the Northwest over the years, so it¡¯s not like you really need me.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re different.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°I came here specifically for you this time!¡±


    On the other side of the prisoner, Wang Yun suddenly said, ¡°Don¡¯t believe him. He actually came here for me.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was dumbfounded by Wang Yun¡¯s sudden rebuttal. ¡°If you don¡¯t wanna help me, so be it. But can you not mess things up for me?¡±


    The supernatural beings were all locked up in the same row of special holding cells. The entire cell was made of metal, and it was extremely strong.


    Wang Yun had tried to escape before, but he could not get out with his powers.


    However, there were still some ws in the design of the cells. By locking the supernatural beings next to one another, it could eventually lead to potential trouble. Back when the secret prison was built, the supernatural beings were not as powerful as they were now.


    Later the Kong Consortium wanted to remodel the secret prison so they could iste the supernatural beings from one another. But when they realized the supernatural beings were living together peacefully and that the cells were really sturdy, they dropped the ns.


    The Great Hoodwinker exined patiently, ¡°I came here for the two of you this time. Your name is Ji Zi¡¯ang, right? You¡¯re the former director of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s 2nd Military Intelligence Division. Later, you were transferred to the 3rd Division to handle field operations after killing a merchant who took advantage of a woman in the stronghold. Following that, the Zhou Consortium member who was backing that merchant wanted to ensure there wouldn¡¯t be any further trouble, so he sold information of your operation to the Kong Consortium which eventually led to your arrest. Am I right?¡±


    The man named Ji Zi¡¯ang fell silent. He ignored the Great Hoodwinker.


    The Great Hoodwinker said in a slightly arrogant tone, ¡°Not just anyone can join the Northwest as they like. However, I admire you and feel that you¡¯re a suitable talent for the Northwest. That¡¯s why I made the trip here! If you follow me back to the Prosperous Northwest, you won¡¯t have to work in the intelligence agency anymore. You can just serve on the Discipline Supervision Committee. Take charge of whatever cases there might be if youe across any injustice. If I don¡¯t keep my word, you can cut off my son, Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s, head and kick it like a ball!¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang stayed silent again for a long time as he looked at the cold and emotionless prison he was in.


    As this ce was underground, there was no sunlight here all day. He seemed to have nearly forgotten what it felt like when the sun touched his skin. When the cold wind in the prison grazed him, it felt like an ant or a spider crawling on his skin. It was a feeling that would make anyone feel ufortable.


    Every second he lived, he wanted to get out of this ce. But how? The secret prison was a hell that confined him within it.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang said dejectedly, ¡°It¡¯s useless no matter what you say. Let me tell you this: Once you¡¯re in here, don¡¯t even think about getting out. We can¡¯t get out even if the three of us work together.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s voice came from the next cell over. ¡°My calctions predict that someone will definitely break in and get us out within three days. If I¡¯m correct, you¡¯lle with me, alright?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang did not answer.


    The Great Hoodwinker said again, ¡°I¡¯ve already killed that Zhou Consortium member who set you up on your behalf. Your wife and child are still alive, and I¡¯ve already brought them to the Northwest. Ji Zi¡¯ang, let me ask you again. If someonees and saves us within three days, will you leave with me?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was taken aback. ¡°They¡¯re still alive?¡±


    Wang Yun and the Great Hoodwinker suddenly heard Ji Zi¡¯ang start pounding on the metallic walls crazily in the neighboring cell. It was so violent the entire secret prison seemed to be shaking. Ji Zi¡¯ang said in a loud voice, ¡°Great Hoodwinker, you better not be lying to me. If I find out you lied to me, we¡¯re gonna have some fun here in the prison for the rest of our lives!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker sneered, ¡°Your son ced first in his ss this year, and your wife is working in a factory at Fortress 178. I heard that your wife has quite a lot of suitors, but she rejected them all and said that she¡¯ll wait for you to find her. I guess it¡¯ll still be fine in the short term, but in the long run, a widow and her son...¡±


    Although the Great Hoodwinker said something provoking to Ji Zi¡¯ang, Ji Zi¡¯ang did not get angry. He slowly calmed down and asked, ¡°You said someone wille and rescue us within three days?¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± The Great Hoodwinkery on his cold and hard bed using his arms as a pillow and said with augh, ¡°It might not even take three days.¡±


    ...


    Scenes of chaos yed outside the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency as people constantly walked in and out of it. Stronghold 31 was in a state of chaos. The sound of gunfire and explosions rang out as though the mes of war had arrived.


    Residents were everywhere in the streets fleeing from their homes. Apart from the north, arge number of residents had gathered at the south, east, and west gates. All of them wanted to escape before the Pyro Company arrived.


    At this moment, the ones who were the busiest were the intelligence agency and the garrison troops. The garrison troops would have to fight the battle, while the intelligence agency was being held ountable for the breach.


    The current intelligence director, Wang Ziyang, walked out of the building in a hurry, with a dozen-odd subordinates following behind him. Someone eagerly put on his trench coat for him and asked, ¡°Sir, where are you going at this time?¡±


    Wang Ziyang barked, ¡°Where am I going? I¡¯m going to see the boss and clean up the mess for you idiots! The Pyro Company¡¯s troops snuck into the stronghold, yet we were totally unaware of it. The boss even called me to ask if I¡¯ve teamed up with the Pyro Company!¡±


    The group of people from the intelligence agency fell silent. Everyone knew that after this incident, there would probably be a major shake-up in the intelligence agency.


    Wang Ziyang stared coldly at the group of people in front of him before getting into the car without saying a word.


    But not long after his car drove out, the driver stepped hard on the brakes. When Wang Ziyang was about to curse out loud, he saw through the windshield a young man and a young woman walking towards them from the end of the long street. The young man was even carrying a ck saber with a smile on his face. ¡°This license te is correct.¡±


    The young man looked at Wang Ziyang¡¯s stunned expression through the windshield and said with a smile, ¡°The photo matches as well. It¡¯s him alright!¡±

 Chapter 815 - Everything has changed

    <h4>Chapter 815: Everything has changed</h4>


    The Kong Consortium¡¯s newly appointed intelligence director, Wang Ziyang, used to be the director of the 1st Military Intelligence Division. After he was promoted, he rmended Zhong Zhen to Kong Erdong to take over his former position.


    Unfortunately, Zhong Zhen had been killed after taking office for only just a few days. He had not even warmed his seat!


    In the morning, Wang Ziyang was stillmenting that Zhong Zhen had a really unfortunate life.


    But now, Wang Ziyang suddenly felt his life might not be any better either.


    He was not stupid. When he saw Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin walking towards him without any fear, his heart slowly sank.


    In this era that was gradually shifting towards superhumans, those who could approach him like he was amb awaiting ughter were definitely superhumans, such as these two in front of him.


    At this moment, his car was only two streets away from the intelligence agency. Wang Ziyang tried his best to calm down a little and said, ¡°Go, turn back towards the intelligence agency!¡±


    But just as he spoke, an explosive shot rang out on the street. Wang Ziyang looked over in surprise and saw the young girl had raised a ck sniper rifle at some point in time and taken out the car¡¯s engine!


    Clouds of white smoke spewed from under the hood. By the time the smoke dispersed, Wang Ziyang saw the two figures appear next to the car.


    Wang Ziyang¡¯s heart had frozen cold. If the other party could open fire so wantonly near the intelligence agency, it was obvious they must be very confident of themselves and were not afraid of reinforcements arriving.


    The driver gulped and said, ¡°Sir, our vehicle is bulletproof!¡±


    Wang Ziyang¡¯s eyes lit up when he heard this. But before his eyes could fully brighten, he heard a screeching sound as the young man sliced the car apart with the ck saber in his hand.


    The driver was dumbfounded by the sight of this. Wasn¡¯t this a bulletproof car? How could anyone possibly cut it apart with a saber?


    Moreover, it looked as though the other party had sliced through the car like a hot knife going through butter.


    Ren Xiaosu pried apart the sliced open vehicle and said with a smile, ¡°You must be Wang Ziyang, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu even shook hands with Wang Ziyang. Yang Xiaojin watched from the sidelines and felt like Ren Xiaosu was an official from the stronghold who visited the refugees tofort them.


    Wang Ziyang was absolutely dumbfounded by this offer of a handshake.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°You should be Wang Yun¡¯s formerpetitor too, right? In the future, Wang Yun will also be considered a member of the Northwest, so I¡¯ll send you his regards¡ª¡±


    Before Ren Xiaosu could finish speaking, Wang Ziyang immediately reacted when he heard Wang Yun¡¯s name mentioned, ¡°Wait a minute, you came to kill me because you want to break into the prison, right? I¡¯ll hand over the detonator! I have it here with me!¡± As he spoke, he took out a small box that was about the size of a cigarette case from his breast pocket.


    When Ren Xiaosu opened the box, he saw a ck remote control inside.


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°You¡¯re pretty smart. Well, then...¡±


    <i>Bang!</i>


    When the sound of the pistol rang out, Wang Ziyang was killed on the spot. His sttered blood stained the interior of the car and windows red.


    Right after, Yang Xiaojin fired another shot at the driver.


    ¡°Why did you kill him?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a wry smile, ¡°I was nning to bring him with us to the secret prison. Who knows, he might¡¯vee in handy.¡±


    ¡°Since we¡¯ve already killed him, let¡¯s just go.¡± Yang Xiaojin waved it off. ¡°Don¡¯t waste time dwelling on the past. Haven¡¯t you seen Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s movies? The viins always die because they talk too much.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused at how Yang Xiaojin was still as adamant as ever.


    The people from the intelligence agency heard the gunfire and rushed out. From afar, they could see that the windows of the car were covered in blood. The so-called bulletproof car had also been sliced apart and was lying in a heap on the road.


    Although the young man and young woman were getting farther and farther away, they did not dare to chase after them!


    ¡°Calling for reinforcements. Everyone from the 1st and 2nd Divisions, you are to pursue the perpetrators!¡±


    ...


    Stronghold 176.


    The Wang Consortium had finished repairing the damaged city walls. However, the huge walls were riddled with different colors after they were patched up, making it look extremely hideous and mottled.


    The stronghold waspletely quiet. Ever since the Wang Consortium took over, the entirety of Stronghold 176 had been ced under full lockdown. It was even worse recently, so the residents in the city felt like another war might break out soon. However, they had no idea who the war would be fought against.


    Some people heard it was no longer the nomads who would attack this time. It was just that they could not understand something. Weren¡¯t there only nomads up in the North?


    Dozens of spotlights had been erected on top of the walls. The huge and ring lights were aimed towards the north like sharp swords.


    This feeling was like a sign that danger was imminent.


    All the trees within ten kilometers in the north had been chopped down to ensure the spotlights could illuminate a clear view of the surroundings. All of the felled trees had been brought into the stronghold to use as new defensive fortifications.


    There were cold and unfeeling heavy machine guns and artillery set up next to the spotlights, as well as heavily armed soldiers standing by for the arrival of the enemy. Everyone was extremely tense for fear of missing out on any details.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯smander stood atop the city walls with a cold expression. Even though he was wearing thick ck leather gloves in the middle of a spring night, it was still difficult to keep out the chill.


    Next to him, his deputymander expelled a breath of cold air and asked in confusion, ¡°Sir, we should¡¯ve just given up on Stronghold 176 at this time and used the mountainous terrain behind us to form a defensive line instead of staying here. What if the other party has heavy weapons? Then we¡¯ll be obvious targets.¡±


    In modern warfare, city walls had be something of little value. It was less effective than a defensive line built using theplex terrain of the mountains.


    Themander said, ¡°Our scouts did not discover the enemy carrying any heavy firearms. Right now, it seems the stronghold walls are still quite useful. Moreover, it¡¯s already toote for us to organize an evacuation of the hundreds of thousands of stronghold residents.¡±


    ¡°Why should we care about these people?¡± The deputymander said with a sigh, ¡°It¡¯s not like this ce was originally our stronghold anyway.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s ours now.¡± Themander said calmly, ¡°If we want to face the uing war with the Kong Consortium, the Pyro Company, or even the Zhou Consortium,bor is what we need the most. If the dead can work in the factories, I don¡¯t mind retreating to Mt. Daniu at the rear.¡±


    With that, themander turned around to the city where a river meandered across the stronghold. It was so dark it looked like a dividing line that split the stronghold in two.


    At the same time, a patrol in Stronghold 176 suddenly heard the sound of water sshing. When they looked at the river, they saw dozens of gray-skinned figures crawling out. Then those figures let out an earth-shattering roar, as though a war horn had been sounded.


    Someone shouted, ¡°How did they break through the defenses we ced in the river?¡±


    ¡°Open fire!¡±


    The patrol hurriedly opened fire. But when the bullets hit the enemies, it only prated as deep as the surface of their gray skin.


    In the blink of an eye, this patrol was torn apart by a new generation of Experimentals that had pounced on them.


    They were the masterpiece of the ck-robed wizard. In the past, people from the Central ins were rtively weaker, so although the Experimentals created from them were also strong, it was still unsatisfactory.


    But now everything had changed.

 Chapter 816 - Director Pei! Director Pei has fallen in the line of duty!

    <h4>Chapter 816: Director Pei! Director Pei has fallen in the line of duty!</h4>


    Dozens of gray ¡°ferocious beasts¡± started wreaking havoc in Stronghold 176, and most of the patrol troops in the streets were wiped out the moment they encountered them. When the other tactical troops tried to encircle these intruders, and having just pinpointed their location in the stronghold a moment ago, the bloodthirsty Experimentals broke through another line of defense.


    It was not that the Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops were slow in their reaction but that the new generation of Experimentals were too mobile.


    Scouts had reported back that this group of Northerners seemed to have evolved differently from those in the Central ins. The Central ins had outstanding individuals who were on their way to godhood, but the Northerners seemed to have evolved as a whole species. That was why they had so many strong warriors carrying giant axes.


    At present, no extremely powerful individuals had been discovered among this group of Northerners, but that was not a sure thing either.


    This group of Experimentals kept up their attacks inside the stronghold as though they would never run out of strength. However, the Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops soon realized the wild beasts were not killing people indiscriminately at all. Instead, they were approaching north with a n!


    Just as themander was about to order the troops atop the northern walls to divert their firepower onto these ferocious beasts, he was told they had already climbed up the northern walls.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s defensive line in the city was fragile as paper in the face of these powerful wild beasts.


    But it was not the Wang Consortium¡¯s fault. It was just that the times had changed.


    ...


    As Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin moved forward with their operations in Stronghold 31, noisy engines were roaring behind them. Upon killing the intelligence director, Wang Ziyang, they had poked the ho¡¯s nest. They started facing a frenzied siege by the entire Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency!


    These people from the intelligence agency did not even join the garrison troops in their encirclement of the Pyro Company¡¯s T4 special forces!


    After their director had been killed on their agency¡¯s doorstep, the murderer even managed to escape. If this matter were to get out, the Kong Consortium could never hold their heads high in the intelligence realm again.


    Ren Xiaosu shouted as he ran, ¡°Turn left, turn left! Are these people crazy? Why are there more and more of them?!¡±


    The two of them ran into a small alley, but before they could pass through it, someone was waiting there for them.


    The enemy was dressed in a ck suit. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he immediately raised his gun to shoot him.


    But just as he was about to pull the trigger, Yang Xiaojin, who was right behind Ren Xiaosu, brought her sniper rifle up and took a step to the side to move clear of Ren Xiaosu. Right after, she opened fire without taking aim. She was using the sniper rifle like a shotgun!


    The man who was about to shoot Ren Xiaosu was sent flying backwards like a piece of paper.


    After Yang Xiaojin opened fire, she did not stop there. She whipped around and faced the route they¡¯de by and waited quietly.


    When the pursuers saw Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin slip into the small alley, they got out of their vehicles to chase them as the vehicles would not fit through.


    But as soon as they rushed in, they saw the cap-wearing girl cradling a sniper rifle. With a loud bang, the sniper bullet hit two members of the intelligence agency, sttering their blood everywhere.


    After the armor-piercing bullet prated the two people, it did note to a stop. It was rotating with such great force that it snapped a streetmp in half. The creaking sound it made as it fell was shrill.


    Yang Xiaojin did not blink throughout all of this. ¡°Alright, they won¡¯t dare to chase after us for the time being. Let¡¯s go.¡± Then Yang Xiaojin led the way out of the alley and continued hurrying toward the secret prison.


    However, they underestimated the intelligence agency¡¯s determination to pursue them. Just a minuteter, the sound of engines roaring crazily behind them could be heard again.


    And vehicles were also heading towards them from the front!


    ¡°You take the front and I¡¯ll take the back.¡± After that, Yang Xiaojin turned around and stood behind a newspaper stand that acted as her cover while Ren Xiaosu charged at the off-road vehicles in front.


    He was greeted by two oing vehicles, one ahead of the other, with a driver in each of them.


    The drivers did not turn away when they saw Ren Xiaosu charging. It seemed like they were nning to run him over!


    The distance between Ren Xiaosu and the vehicles was closing. Just as he was about to collide with the vehicle in front, Ren Xiaosu suddenly slid right and avoided it. Then he raised his ck saber horizontally and allowed it to make contact with the vehicle¡¯s windshield.


    This scene yed out like the driver intended to drive into the saber. When the ck saber was done slicing through the vehicle like tofu, the driver sitting inside was beheaded.


    When the driver at the back saw sparks emanating from the saber slicing through the vehicle in front of him, he was scared shitless. But it was toote to step on the brakes.


    The driver saw the saber-wielding young man getting closer and closer, but he could only scream in horror inside his vehicle. He tried to adjust his sitting posture to dodge the iing de, but how could he possibly avoid it in such a tight space?


    Standing in the distance, Ren Xiaosu swung his saber and flicked off the bloodstains before turning around to look at the two totaled vehicles that had brushed past him.


    Without any drivers controlling them, the two vehicles continued heading towards the pursuers behind Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin due to their great inertia!


    When the pursuers who were driving saw the two out-of-control vehicles were about to crash into them, they hurriedly turned their vehicles to avoid a crash. But when they did so, the fuel tanks of their vehicles got exposed.


    Yang Xiaojin, who was taking cover behind the newspaper stand, smirked. She knew this was the opportunity Ren Xiaosu had created for her.


    Breathe.


    In just an instant, all of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s bodily responses reached equilibrium. Her body was like a sophisticated machine that only served her will.


    When the sniper rifle rang out, the first vehicle exploded into a fireball, and none of its four passengers were spared.


    The glow of the mes illuminated the other vehicle¡¯s four passengers¡¯ eyes red-orange. But before they could see the mes fully engulfing the other vehicle, they could feel a powerful explosion erupting from under their seats.


    The burning vehicles suddenly became a ming barricade that blocked off all the other pursuers in the rear.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯re gonna give up. I just had a quick nce; there should still be hundreds of them. It¡¯s quite annoying to have them keep chasing us around like this, so it might be better to beat them into submission.¡±


    ¡°Where should we do that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, taking some time to think.


    Yang Xiaojin raised her hand and pointed to an eight-story building not far away. ¡°Let¡¯s head up there and end this battle within 10 minutes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was smiling on the inside. This girl next to him had said in such a domineering way that they would end the battle within ten minutes even though they were facing the entire forces of the Kong Consortium¡¯s core stronghold¡¯s intelligence agency. But he did not think anything was wrong with what she said.


    But they were taking on an entire intelligence agency!


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to say something, he saw that Yang Xiaojin had already nimbly climbed up the building along the outer wall. She looked down at Ren Xiaosu from above and said, ¡°What are you standing there for? They¡¯ve already detoured to surround us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and climbed to the roof of the building as well. He could see some shadowy figures on the nearby streets but could not see their faces in the darkness. Without any hesitation, he conjured up his ck sniper rifle and started firing at the enemy with Yang Xiaojin for suppressive fire.


    But the moment he fired a shot, he heard someone exim from a street away, ¡°Director Pei, are you alright?! Director Pei! Someone, get over here. Director Pei has been shot! He¡¯s fallen in the line of duty!¡±

 Chapter 817 - Director Kong! Director Kong has also fallen in the line of duty!

    <h4>Chapter 817: Director Kong! Director Kong has also fallen in the line of duty!</h4>


    1


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu was nearly dumbfounded by this shout in the middle of the night. He had randomly opened fire without knowing who the target was, so how did Pei Wenjin end up getting killed?


    While the scope on the ck sniper rifle was, in fact, equipped with night vision, Ren Xiaosu did not bother distinguishing his target since there were so many people.


    Could it be the pce had some other attributes he was unaware of?


    At first, Ren Xiaosu thought this might be a ruse. Butter, he realized a group of people in the west had really turned chaotic after that shout. Some of the enemybatants who had almost made it to the bottom of their building even turned and went back!


    Next to him, Yang Xiaojin asked curiously as she took out her targets one by one, ¡°Was that luck or?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, how can it possibly be luck?¡± Ren Xiaosu said excitedly, ¡°This is what you¡¯d call skill, you know? Skill!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes. She did not want to listen to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s boasting any further. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of enemies to the east. Let¡¯s suppress that side together first and disperse them.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, OK.¡± Saying that, Ren Xiaosu raised his ck sniper rifle and aimed it at a random person in the east.


    As soon as he fired the shot, he heard a cry from the east as well. ¡°Director Kong! Director Kong, are you OK? Someone, get over here. Director Kong has been shot! He¡¯s fallen in the line of duty!¡±


    The troops were being led by the newly appointed Director Kong of the 2nd Military Intelligence Division and Pei Wenjin to nk the building from the east and the west respectively, but both directors were killed by these two shots from Ren Xiaosu. This instantly caused the entire intelligence agency that was pursuing them to panic.


    Suddenly, the impression they had of the two snipers on the roof of the building became terrifying. As if they knew Ren Xiaosu was just shooting at them blindly! They absolutely thought the two snipers had nned to kill the two directors!


    Moreover, once Director Pei and Director Kong were killed, there was no one left to give orders at the scene.


    Although the 1st and 2nd Division had appointed temporary deputy directors, they did not dare to give any orders for fear of getting targeted and taken out by the snipers.


    After all, it seemed the two snipers had purposely chosen to shoot at the high-ranking officers!


    After their director was killed in action, someone looked at the deputy director and said, ¡°The director is dead, so you¡¯re now the acting director!¡±


    The deputy director panicked and said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to be the acting director. Why don¡¯t we just retreat?¡±


    <i>Bang!</i>


    When Ren Xiaosu fired his third shot, the others could only watch helplessly as the bullet ripped through the new director, leaving his body a mangled mess.


    In an instant, the people from the intelligence agency did not dare to stay around any longer and decided to retreat!


    With that, Yang Xiaojin could not help but turn around and look at Ren Xiaosu in silence. ¡°Was that really skill?¡±


    Earlier, Yang Xiaojin did not believe Ren Xiaosu was skilled enough to take out three directors. But now, she had no choice but to believe it.


    However, she realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to be dazed and thinking about something. Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°Luck is also partially a skill, right?¡±


    That¡¯s right! The key point of this was luck.


    Perhaps it was possible to hit one or two high-value targets with the shots that he took. But with all three of his shots, which were taken randomly, those who were killed were always somehow the highest-ranking officers. This was definitely not Ren Xiaosu¡¯s own luck.


    This was such a familiar sight to him. Ren Xiaosu had also experienced being extremely lucky in the past. It was as though whatever he did would always have some sort of a miraculous effect.


    At that time, he was still living in Stronghold 113¡¯s town with Little Liuyuan.


    The moment Director Kong was shot dead, Ren Xiaosu realized Yan Liuyuan was the one who made a wish to protect him!


    Yang Xiaojin also realized it at this moment. ¡°Are you saying... it¡¯s Liuyuan?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Although I don¡¯t know where he is, he must still be alive! I can¡¯t randomly fire at enemies anymore. Otherwise, he¡¯ll suffer from the bacsh!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin knew how much Ren Xiaosu cared about Yan Liuyuan. Now that Ren Xiaosu was sure Yan Liuyuan was still alive, she was also very happy about it.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little confused. ¡°What should I do now? Why don¡¯t we go and look for Liuyuan?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smiled. ¡°But you don¡¯t even know where he is. Besides, the Great Hoodwinker and Wang Yun are still in the secret prison. Let¡¯splete our mission in Stronghold 31 first. What you need to do now is keep living. As long as you¡¯re still alive, you¡¯ll definitely meet him again.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll definitely meet again as long as we¡¯re alive.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the fleeing troops. The Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency hadpletely copsed.


    A lot of people knew the intelligence agency was pursuing two superhumans. In their opinion, with hundreds ofbatants going after them, so what if the two were really powerful? After all, Pei Wenjin and Director Kong of the 2nd Military Intelligence Division were also superhumans.


    But in the end, the Kong Consortium¡¯s people were so shocked their jaws dropped. Pei Wenjin and Director Kong were taken out on the spot. It was even said they were dead before they had a chance to use their superpowers.


    After tonight, yet another tale would start spreading in the world of superhumans. It would be about a legendary couple working together topletely wipe out the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency.


    But honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu did not really find these people to be that strong. It almost didn¡¯t feel like they posed much of a threat to them at all.


    There was actually a misunderstanding somewhere in this. Pei Wenjin and Director Kong were not weak at all. They were just helpless against those sniper rifles.


    The two of them also did not expect to die so suddenly!


    But at this moment, the rumbling sound of something copsing came from outside the northern walls of the stronghold. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin both looked over at the same time and saw a surge of fire that illuminated the clouds in the night sky.


    The entire stronghold was in chaos. At least half of the stronghold residents had remained in their homes in hopes that the mayhem would subside soon.


    But when they realized that even the stronghold walls had copsed, they could no longer sit still.


    Tens of thousands of people rushed out of their homes and ran madly southward. They wanted to get as far away as possible from the fighting. Meanwhile, the few hundred T4batants had blended in with the escaping residents under the lead of the T5batant.


    Thesebatants pretended to be stronghold escapees. The garrison troops had set up a defensive line in the streets with machine guns. When thepanymander at the front saw the vast number of stronghold residents, he shouted, ¡°Do not fire yet! I repeat, do not fire yet!¡±


    Thepanymander picked up the radio and sought instructions from his superior: ¡°Battalion Commander, we¡¯ve encountered many stronghold escapees here. What should we do?¡±


    The battalionmander said coldly over the radio, ¡°Open fire.¡±


    But in the time the call was made, the Pyro Company¡¯s troops had already followed the escapees to the front of the defensive line.


    They no longer hid among the crowd of escapees. Like a predator, they finally bared their fangs to their prey.


    In the blink of an eye, dozens of T4batants leapt forward under themand of the T5batant and rushed into the defensive line at breakneck speed. The machine gun emcements in the defensive line became utterly useless!


    The defensive line in the stronghold gradually copsed under pressure from the fleeing escapees. This was the reason why the Pyro Company started the chaos at first. As there were only a few hundred of them, it would be impossible for them to sh head-on against a reinforced brigade even if they were all T4-rankedbatants.


    But with the escapees, it was entirely possible.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the chaos that had broken out in the stronghold and said with a sigh, ¡°Let¡¯s go. We gotta save the Great Hoodwinker and Wang Yun first. It¡¯s almost dawn now, so the main forces of the Pyro Company will probably be here soon.¡±

 Chapter 818 - What the Northwest is like

    <h4>Chapter 818: What the Northwest is like</h4>


    In the secret prison, the Great Hoodwinker yelled, ¡°Are we not allowed to have dinner anymore? Hey, does your Kong Consortium still care about human rights? Prisoners are human too, alright?!¡±


    However, it waspletely quiet in the corridors of the prison. No one answered the Great Hoodwinker, nor did anyonee out to make him be quiet.


    ¡°That¡¯s strange.¡± The Great Hoodwinker muttered, ¡°Even the prison guards here have left as well?¡±


    At this moment, two prison guards came from the gate at the end of the corridor and walked straight through it.


    The Great Hoodwinker shouted, ¡°Hey, if you don¡¯t let us out for dinner, at least deliver our meals here!¡±


    However, the two prison guards did not even look at the Great Hoodwinker and left through the other end of the corridor.


    ¡°I wonder if those people still have any humanity left in them?¡± the Great Hoodwinkermented as he leaned against the cell¡¯s bars.


    ¡°Something is wrong.¡± Wang Yun, who had been silent all this while, suddenly said, ¡°Those people were walking much faster than usual, and their stride was about one centimeter wider too. Something must¡¯ve happened that we¡¯re unaware of.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was stunned. ¡°Y¡¯know, you¡¯re even more unbelievable than me right now, huh? You actually remember how wide their usual stride is?¡±


    ¡°I can remember how they used to walk and rey it in my mind topare with how they¡¯re walking now. It¡¯s like oveying two pieces of film and ying it at the same time. If it¡¯s different from before, I can tell straight away at a nce.¡±


    ¡°It would be such a pity if you don¡¯t join the Prosperous Northwest,¡± the Great Hoodwinker admired. ¡°Honestly speaking, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a waste of your talent working for a measly organization like the Kong Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s it a waste of my talent when our Kong Consortium is part of the tripartite power in the Central ins with the Wang Consortium and the Zhou Consortium?¡± Wang Yun said coldly.


    ¡°Then do you know how big our Northwest has be?¡± The Great Hoodwinker said arrogantly, ¡°The entire Northwest belongs to our Fortress 178, and we have been fending off external enemies all these years. What has the Kong Consortium done? They only think about exploiting the people every day. Let me ask you this: Why did the Central ins start building strongholds in the first ce? Was it really because y¡¯all wanted to keep out the so-called wild animals? I don¡¯t think so. That¡¯s nothing but a lie to fool the people.¡±


    Wang Yun did not say anything more. They were all smart people, so there was no need to refute this.


    The Great Hoodwinker continued, ¡°Back then, there was indeed a bug epidemic, and the wild animals really did injure a lot of people. But did the various forces really not have the ability to eliminate those threats at that time? Weren¡¯t they just trying to seize territory for themselves by building the strongholds? After building the strongholds that gave them a natural ss superiority, the people outside the strongholds would have to keep working for them generation after generation. It¡¯s just like how the Zong Consortium supported the bandits to induce fear in the refugees. They left them with no choice but to rely on the protection of the strongholds.¡±


    ¡°Not all of them are like that,¡± Wang Yun replied.


    ¡°But most of them are,¡± the Great Hoodwinker said with a sigh.


    It became quiet again in the corridor. After a long time, Ji Zi¡¯ang suddenly asked in the next cell, ¡°When did you save my wife and child? Did they suffer any humiliation in the Zhou Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Around a year ago. But I think it¡¯s better that you don¡¯t hear about it.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said as hey back down on the cold bed and crossed his legs, ¡°Although our Northwest often goes around encouraging people to join and support the development of the border areas, sometimes even resorting to underhanded tactics to do so, if your wife and child did not encounter any danger, we would not have taken them away to a distantnd thousands of kilometers away. But don¡¯t worry, the things you were most worried about did not happen. Your son is very healthy. I even saw him attending the school¡¯s sports meet when I was back at the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°You all were already nning to recruit me a year ago?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang asked.


    ¡°Oh, it was even earlier than you think,¡± the Great Hoodwinker replied. ¡°Ever since you killed that merchant, we¡¯ve started preparations to recruit you. But before our preparations wereplete, you got set up and were sent straight to the secret prison.¡±


    ¡°Tell me, what kind of ce is the Northwest?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang said in a low voice, ¡°Since you want me to go there, you should at least tell me what the ce is like.¡±


    ¡°The Northwest?¡± The Great Hoodwinker had a reminiscent look on his face. ¡°Actually, when I first got to the Northwest, I thought that only an idiot would want to stay there. At that time, I really had no ce to turn to. I was chased there by an enemy and ended up immediately joining the military. I thought that no matter how powerful my enemy was, they couldn¡¯t possibly dare to provoke the damn fucks of Fortress 178, right? Fortunately for me, Fortress 178 happened to be recruiting for the military, so I enlisted.


    ¡°Later on, my formermander at the boot camp I was attending believed that I was a frivolous person and thought I needed to go through more hardship to train me up. After graduating from boot camp, he sent me directly to the border outpost.... Now that I think about it, I have the urge to curse out my formermander. He¡¯s such a jerk! Is that outpost a ce fit for humans?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang said, ¡°Keep talking about the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± The Great Hoodwinker recalled, ¡°the outpost was probably the toughest ce I¡¯ve been in the Northwest. The farthest outpost can only be reached after walking for 15 days via the mountain paths from Fortress 178. At temperatures 30 below zero, there can even be ground blizzards. Sometimes, if you missed your footing, you would fall into a crevasse. Back then, I used to set out at 8 o¡¯clock every morning to trek across five mountains that stood 5,000 meters above sea level for my patrol duties. After that, I trekked back down the mountains at 5 PM to return to the outpost. It was like that on the first day, the second day, the third day, and...¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker went silent for a while before saying, ¡°Day after day, our boring lives went by just like that. At Dashan Outpost, I experienced an unprecedented sense of loneliness. But now that I think about it, that loneliness was also a source of strength. Have you ever heard of the saying ¡®a decade of chewing ice is not enough to cool one¡¯s passion¡¯? Actually, a lot of people only know what it means, but they don¡¯t know how miserable it is to have to chew ice. When we went on our patrols, we couldn¡¯t bring our canteens with us, because the water would just freeze inside. If we wanted to quench our thirst, we could only do it by melting snow in our mouths.


    ¡°Later, I heard that the sentries of Fortress 178 would always ask for a photo from the girl they liked before leaving for the outpost. Regardless of whether the girl liked them back or not, she would give them the prettiest photo of herself. That way, the sentry guards could stare at the photos and not go crazy from the istion. But as I wasn¡¯t fucking from the Northwest at that time, I wasn¡¯t aware of said tradition. When the others looked at the photos they were given, I could only scratch my feet....¡± The Great Hoodwinker actually chuckled as he rted this.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang suddenly said, ¡°Who would want to go to such a forsaken ce? Since you felt so bitter back then, why didn¡¯t you leave? Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll go back on my word after learning about how bad it is in the Northwest?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker turned serious. ¡°It¡¯s because you¡¯ll truly be happy there. Because you¡¯re protecting yourpatriots behind you in that remote ce. When yourmander drops by for a visit, he also has to personally navigate the mountain paths that you previously walked. You might not believe it when I say this, but I saw Commander Zhang trekking on foot for 78 days that year to visit all 178 outposts outside of Fortress 178. He even made dumplings for each of us. Because of the high altitude, it was difficult to cook the dumplings. But for me, Zhang Husheng, that was the most unforgettable meal of my life.¡±

 Chapter 819 - Prison break!

    <h4>Chapter 819: Prison break!</h4>


    ¡°May I ask if both your bosses from the Zhou Consortium and the Kong Consortium will do likewise?¡± The Great Hoodwinker asked calmly. ¡°All the formermanders of Fortress 178 had to go through the gates of hell, training with or fighting alongside the Razor Sharp Company before earning the right tomand ourrades to risk their lives for them. On this point alone, which consortium can do the same? Take our current futuremander of Fortress 178 for example. He had alsoe up through the ranks of the Razor Sharp Company.¡±


    ¡°You mean Ren Xiaosu, right?¡± Wang Yun said. When he found out Ren Xiaosu was Chen Wudi¡¯s master, he had already guessed the name. After all, Ren Xiaosu would have left behind some clues back when he was with Chen Wudi. Other people might overlook it, but Wang Yun¡¯s memory was so good he could not forget it even if he wanted to.


    ¡°Since you¡¯ve already guessed it, and we¡¯ll be on the same side anyway after leaving this secret prison, there¡¯s no need for me to hide it from you.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°During the war in which the Zong Consortium was destroyed, the futuremander fought as a soldier of the Razor Sharp Company the entire time. He would charge to wherever there was danger, which convinced the masses. Back then, Commander Zhang had already identified him as his sessor, but didn¡¯t he still harden his heart and send him to the front lines? That¡¯s because there¡¯s a saying that those who have not gone through life and death with theirrades are not worthy of others dying for them.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang sighed and said, ¡°I really didn¡¯t know that Fortress 178 has this tradition. I¡¯m impressed.¡±


    ¡°Hehe,¡± The Great Hoodwinkerughed. ¡°That¡¯s why I told you before that the Northwest is different.¡±


    Whenever the Great Hoodwinker shared about his experiences in the Northwest, he would always get really excited when he spoke. That was because it was the most glorious time of his life.


    At this moment, Ji Zi¡¯ang asked, ¡°When you said that someone wille and save us within these three days, was that already nned?¡±


    Wang Yun ridiculed from the other side, ¡°As if he could have any ns! I wonder why the Northwest would fully entrust you to oversee the field intelligence unit. How stupid can they be!¡±


    ¡°Hey,¡± The Great Hoodwinker said unhappily, ¡°look, I just came in so that I could figure out the situation. Anyway, isn¡¯t it good enough as long as we can get you guys out?¡±


    ¡°Who¡¯sing to rescue us?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang asked.


    ¡°Future Commander.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said firmly.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was taken aback. ¡°How many people will your futuremander be bringing?¡±


    ¡°Uh,¡± The Great Hoodwinker said awkwardly, ¡°it might just be him alone.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t there the saying ¡®the son of a wealthy family does not sit under the eaves¡¯? Since he¡¯s the futuremander of the Northwest, why would he still risk his life toe and save you?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang said doubtfully, ¡°Why do I feel that he won¡¯t being?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯ll definitely be here.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said firmly, ¡°Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have been designated as the futuremander!¡±


    ¡°Then how¡¯s he going to get us out from this secret prison all by himself?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang suddenly felt that the Great Hoodwinker really was a little unreliable just like Wang Yun had said. After all, this was the Kong Consortium¡¯s secret prison. How could a person possibly break in when there were several hundred heavily armed guards in this well-defended fortress?


    Furthermore, the secret prison was located in Stronghold 31. Even if Ren Xiaosu could really break in and get them out, what about the aftermath? They would still get hunted down by the entire stronghold once they got out.


    Disregarding the garrison troops, even if it were just that group of people from the intelligence agency going after them, the few of them would not be able to handle it!


    The Great Hoodwinker remarked, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, he¡¯ll definitely have considered all of those problems.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was left speechless. He wondered where the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s confidence came from. He actually trusted that so-called futuremander of his so much. But he still said, ¡°If he really shows up, I suggest that all of us break out of our cells and assist him. You two arrived at this prisonter than me and have not fought the warden before, so you don¡¯t know how uncanny the warden can be.¡±


    ¡°Uncanny?¡± Wang Yun was taken aback. Although he knew the warden was a supernatural being, there was no information regarding his superpower in the records.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang said, ¡°Don¡¯t you all feel that while your physical fitness has improved after you came here to the secret prison, your powers are slowly getting suppressed bit by bit? When I fought him, my superpower suddenly lost its effect. Furthermore, it took quite a while before my power came back. Why else do you think they can lock me up in here?¡±


    ¡°Something like that actually happened?¡± The Great Hoodwinker muttered, ¡°It¡¯s fine, our futuremander will take care of him.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was stumped. He could not understand why the Great Hoodwinker would still think everything was fine even after what he had just told him!


    Ji Zi¡¯ang said helplessly, ¡°Then do you know when your futuremander will be arriving?¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, a rumbling noise went through the secret prison. It left the entire prisonplex shaking. Dust fell from the ceiling onto the Great Hoodwinker and the others, covering their faces in dirt.


    It was clear that the explosion was caused by a bomb going off. Immediately, rms went off everywhere in the entire secret prison.


    The Great Hoodwinker startedughing. ¡°There he is!¡±


    Countless prison guards ran through the corridor. These people used to be stationed at various parts of the prison, but at this moment, they were all rushing in the same direction.


    When they passed through the corridor, the Great Hoodwinker sneered, ¡°Did I allow y¡¯all to pass through?¡±


    With that, his muscles tensed up as he raised his leg and kicked at the cell door in front of him. With a boom, the cell door made from a special metal was sent flying by the Great Hoodwinker. It smashed into two prison guards who happened to be passing by and crushed them!


    Wang Yun did not sit idle either. When several of the prison guards passed by his cell, a sudden explosion went off in their ears.


    Wang Yun keptpressing the air around the prison guards and shot them into their ears, blowing their heads up from the inside.


    There were still dozens of prison guards in the corridor. They were supposed to assemble when the rm sounded, but they did not expect that the strong prison cell could not contain the old man standing in front of them.


    They wondered how the people of the 1st Military Intelligence Division had even managed to capture him. Unless he fucking duped them into capturing him?!


    The Great Hoodwinker stood casually in the corridor and chuckled, ¡°Don¡¯t go and cause trouble. Stay around and y with me instead.¡±


    ...


    Moments before the first explosion went off in the secret prison, the warden had been patrolling the prison with 10 of his prison guards. There were nearly 80 prison guards standing guard around the passageway. They had already been informed that the stronghold was in a state of chaos, so the entire prison was on high alert.


    But all of a sudden, the gate in the passageway was forcefully blown open. When that heavy steel gate was sted apart, it flew straight into a wall of the secret prison like a massive piece of shrapnel and embedded into it!


    This scene was simply too shocking!


    A strong smell of gunpowder immediately filled the entire passageway and started spreading into the secret prison. The warden took out his handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose as he looked coldly in the direction of the passageway.


    A momentter, to everyone¡¯s surprise, a steam lotive drove through the wide passageway!

 Chapter 820 - A useless power

    <h4>Chapter 820: A useless power</h4>


    No one expected a steam lotive to emerge from the smoke-filled passageway!


    Honestly, the warden was surprised to see the alloy gate get blown apart. Someone had clearly detonated the explosives in the passageway between the two gates, resulting in a huge explosion going off within the enclosed space.


    But wasn¡¯t the detonator held by Wang Ziyang, the intelligence director? If someone had detonated the explosives, it would mean that... Wang Ziyang was most probably done for.


    As the warden was stationed in the secret prison, he was somewhat clueless about current affairs. He knew something had happened outside and that someone had attacked Stronghold 31. However, he did not expect that even Wang Ziyang had met with misfortune.


    When the steam lotive crashed out of the passageway, the smoke from the st rolled across its body like flowing clouds. It was a grand sight.


    However, the most shocking thing was that there was a man in ck who was fully wrapped up and standing at the front of the train with a sinister-looking heavy machine gun!


    Someone in the smoke-filled passageway shouted, ¡°Wang Congyang, open fire!¡±


    With that, the machine gun the man in ck was holding started spitting a barrage of fire. The prison guards who were still in a state of shock just a moment ago died before they could even react!


    Thebined might of the steam lotive and the heavy machine gun made it resemble a mobile fortress. Its power was definitely much greater than the sum of its parts.


    After going through the entrance of the passageway, the steam lotive arrived at the square of the secret prison. This secret prison was located under an abandoned multi-purpose training hall and upied an extremelyrge area. It also happened to be an excellent ce to make use of the steam lotive.


    The warden was livid as he looked at the steam lotive. He did not expect that someone would dare to act so insolently in his territory!


    They even drove a train in here!


    The warden suddenly materialized a flying needle and shot it at the steam lotive.


    That flying needle was extremely thin. If one did not look carefully, they would not see it. Furthermore, it was extremely fast, even faster than the steam lotive itself!


    In this chaotic secret prison filled with dust and smoke, a flying needle attack would easily catch the enemy off guard.


    The flying needle directly hit the man in ck who was firing the machine gun mercilessly at the front of the train. The warden sneered in his head and just thought there would be a few more prisoners in the secret prison after this attack. It felt no different to him from the past.


    But when the flying needle hit the man in ck, it emitted a silvery glow and enveloped him. Right after, the man in ck disappeared into thin air!


    Ren Xiaosu, who was hiding in the passageway and did not get onto the steam lotive, was stunned!


    That man in ck was ¡°Old Xu,¡± but Old Xu suddenly returned to the pce and stood there motionlessly. No matter how Ren Xiaosu tried to summon it, there was no response at all. And there was even a fine silver needle stuck in Old Xu¡¯s forehead.


    Ren Xiaosu said in a low voice, ¡°Something strange is going on. There seems to be a supernatural being in this secret prison capable of sealing other people¡¯s superpowers!¡±


    Some time ago, when he was battling on Wangchunmen Boulevard in Luoyang City, his steam lotive was also stopped by someone. However, that supernatural being definitely did not stop it as easily as the warden this time.


    Little did Ren Xiaosu know that while he was stunned, the warden was also very shocked. Just as Ji Zi¡¯ang and Ren Xiaosu had guessed, the warden¡¯s superpower could negate another superhuman¡¯s power as long as his silver needle hit the wielder or touched the materialized power of the opponent. Afterwards, the superhuman would not be able to use that power for some time.


    Even for Wang Yun whose power was controlling the air, the warden¡¯s flying needles could seal it. This was the reason why he, as the warden, was able to oversee the secret prison!


    But the warden did not expect the man in ck to actually be a manifestation of someone¡¯s superpower. He thought it was a living person.


    The warden thought quietly. He could form one flying needle every three days and store up to three needles in his mind. Now that he had used one of them, there were only two left.


    However, he was certain there were only two intruders. Now that he had gotten rid of one of them, he would take out the steam lotive next!


    Thinking of this, the warden did not hesitate to manifest a second flying needle and shoot it at the steam lotive.


    The warden could finally heave a sigh of relief. After taking care of two supernatural beings in a row, the oue was decided!


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin emerged from the passageway, the warden said with a smile, ¡°The two of you are really brave to walk in here after losing your powers. Your courage is really admirable...¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, the warden sensed that something was amiss. He suddenly turned around and shot out a third flying needle when he saw the Shadow Door that had opened up behind him at some point in time.


    When the flying needle hit the Shadow Door, it disappeared as well.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought the other party¡¯s flying needle would simply pass through the Shadow Door. He did not expect the warden¡¯s flying needles that could seal the powers of others would turn out to be so strange.


    The warden was getting a little flustered, because he saw Ren Xiaosu drawing a ck saber from out of thin air while the girl conjured up arge ck sniper rifle.


    The warden could not understand this at all. Didn¡¯t he seal off three superpowers? But why did it seem like the other party had an endless amount of powers?!


    This was way too strange!


    Honestly, if the warden¡¯s superpower were to encounter other supernatural beings, he would definitely have the upper hand in a one-on-one battle against them. After all, he had three opportunities to seal their powers, and the flying needles could also hurt people.


    But his opponent this time was Ren Xiaosu. Even Ren Xiaosu could not be bothered to count how many superpowers he had now.


    To put it bluntly, the three flying needles were not enough to deal with him at all.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin who was next to him, ¡°Judging by his expression, he¡¯s probably used up all his flying needles.¡±


    Next to him, Yang Xiaojin said in surprise, ¡°He only has three of them? It seems like his power is quite useless then.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s pretty useless.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    When the warden heard what they said, he felt offended. His superpower was useless? Did he not helm this prison for so long without any incidents precisely because his superpower was unique? The Kong Consortium treated him like their trump card, so how did it suddenly end up being called useless when used against the two of them?


    The problem clearlyy with you two, alright?!


    While thinking, the warden suddenly heard a gust of wind behind him. When he turned around, he was surprised to see the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s foot getting closer and closer until it made contact with his cheek.


    Then the warden¡¯s face was kicked out of shape before he flew like a ragdoll.


    The Great Hoodwinker eagerly looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Future Commander, you¡¯re finally here!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the unconscious warden and the footprint on his face. Then he looked at the sincere Great Hoodwinker and his expectant gaze. All of a sudden, he got the goosebumps all over his body.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang, who was behind the Great Hoodwinker, looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Hello, my name is Ji Zi¡¯ang. I¡¯ll be returning to the Northwest with the Great Hoodwinker this time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quickly smiled and went forward to shake his hand. ¡°Hello, I didn¡¯t expect another supernatural being toe along for free for rescuing Wang Yun. You¡¯re too polite.¡±


    Nearby, Wang Yun¡¯s face darkened. ¡°So how are you going to save my subordinates?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu consoled, ¡°What¡¯s the hurry? We¡¯ll definitely get them out. But we must first release the prisoners in this secret prison so that they can go out and create more chaos.¡±

 Chapter 821 - A new quest

    <h4>Chapter 821: A new quest</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Releasing the prisoners from the secret prison was not a spur-of-the-moment decision for Ren Xiaosu. After all, the prisoners here hated the Kong Consortium to the core, so letting them out would definitely aid Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cause.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not going to let them out without any conditions.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang and the others followed Ren Xiaosu back to the cell block when Wang Yun said at the back of the group, ¡°There¡¯s a total of 313 prisoners held in this secret prison. I don¡¯t suggest releasing 17 of them because they¡¯re either spies of the Wang Consortium or the Zhou Consortium. Moreover, they¡¯re extremely capable individuals. As I recall, when we interrogated those 17 people, they would deliberately reveal some information about the Northwest to throw us off. It will not be good for the Northwest if we let them out. When they return to their consortiums, they might be a potential threat to the Northwest in the future.¡±


    At this moment, the Great Hoodwinker felt that all the suffering that he had been through was worth it.


    With an extremely intelligent supernatural being like Wang Yun working for the Northwest, many things would be much simpler. That was because taking Wang Yun away was equivalent to stealing the Kong Consortium¡¯s entire intelligence database.


    Wang Fengyuan was in charge of the intelligence agency in the Northwest, with the Great Hoodwinker and him each overseeing foreign affairs and domestic affairs respectively. As such, the Great Hoodwinker knew very well that if they had to obtain the intelligence that Wang Yun knew through the usual means, who knew how much it would cost them?


    It would probably cost them a lot of money and effort and even the lives of hundreds of spies.


    Now that Wang Yun had started taking the initiative to think on behalf of the Northwest, it signaled a very good start to the rtionship. When the Great Hoodwinker thought of this, he felt very happy!


    Ren Xiaosu said thoughtfully, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be really cruel to keep them locked up in here, though?¡±


    ¡°I hope you aren¡¯t getting soft at a time like this,¡± Wang Yun said coldly.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Oh, that won¡¯t happen. You worry too much.¡± He then walked towards the cell block. When he reached the first cell, Ren Xiaosu looked in through the prison bars.


    Looking at the pale face of the prisoner inside, it was obvious that he had not been exposed to sunlight for a long time. The inmates here had to be very eager to get a whiff of fresh air.


    Only those who had lost their freedom before would know how precious it was.


    At this point, all the prisoners knew something had happened in the secret prison. When they saw through the metal bars of their cell gates that Ji Zi¡¯ang, the Great Hoodwinker, and Wang Yun had regained their freedom, they immediately shouted, ¡°Let us out! We¡¯ll do anything for you if you let us out!¡±


    ¡°Please let us out!¡±


    Beginning with one person shouting, the entire prison erupted with other prisoners shouting. Ren Xiaosu said to the prisoner in front of him in a serious tone, ¡°Thank me three times. As long as you are sincere, I¡¯ll let you out.¡±


    Nearby, Wang Yun, Ji Zi¡¯ang, and the Great Hoodwinker were all confused. What the hell was this? Did youe to the prison in the middle of the night so you could be a good Samaritan and do good deeds?


    The prisoner in the cell was also a little confused, but it was not difficult for him to say thank you. It was not something insulting like asking him to call the other party ¡°daddy,¡± so he said decisively, ¡°Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Liu Qianhe, +1!


    ¡°Gratitude received from Liu Qianhe...


    ¡°Gratitude received from...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. Why had hee to the prison in the middle of the night? Wasn¡¯t it precisely so he could earn some gratitude tokens?


    However, he was not greedy. After all, time was tight, and he could not afford to spend too long in this ce. As such, Ren Xiaosu threw a bunch of keys over to Wang Yun. ¡°You can remember which key opens which doors, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I can.¡± Wang Yun nodded.


    ¡°Open the doors.¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He could have just used the ck saber to do it, but he did not want to reveal his weapon or how it looked like in front of these people. All the prison guards who saw it were dead, and only the Great Hoodwinker and some of the others knew about it. Since they were all going to join the Prosperous Northwest, so what if they had seen it?


    Ren Xiaosu went on to the next cells and released the prisoners one after another. What gratified Ren Xiaosu was that these people were all very sincere in their gratitude, with only a few who were not sincere in thanking him.


    Calcting the rate, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gratitude tokens, which were originally close to 4,000, would likely get close to 5,000 after this wave of thanks he received in the secret prison.


    Wang Yun saw Ren Xiaosu walk to the next cell and reminded him, ¡°The person locked up in there is one of the 17 I mentioned.¡± Then Wang Yun looked on coldly. He wanted to see how Ren Xiaosu would handle it.


    When Ren Xiaosu got to that cell, he instantly threw a grenade into it before the prisoner inside could say anything.


    With a boom, the cell exploded with a huge cloud of dust. Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang were shocked!


    What did Ren Xiaosu say just now? His exact words were ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be really cruel to keep them locked up in here, though?¡± So Ren Xiaosu¡¯s idea was to... give them a quick death?!


    Could this be the legendary ¡°say the nicest things and do the most terrible things¡±?


    Only at this moment did Wang Yun realize he had misunderstood the futuremander of the Northwest. Why the fuck did he have to worry about that guy getting soft? He was clearly a ruthless fucker!


    It was no wonder those damn fucks in the Northwest would acknowledge this young man. Wang Yun imed to be a ruthless person, but even he could notpare to Ren Xiaosu.


    Wang Yun muttered, ¡°You...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around in surprise. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Nothing,¡± Wang Yun said, sounding a little annoyed.


    ¡°Mhm, remember to remind me when you identify the next person,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he walked calmly towards the next cell.


    After the explosion, the prisoners in the other cells started panicking.


    Ren Xiaosu was all smiles as he looked at the prisoner in the cell in front of him and said, ¡°Say thank you and I¡¯ll let you out.¡±


    The prisoner in the cell asked nervously, ¡°What happened next door? Why did he get blown up?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied with a smile, ¡°Because he didn¡¯t want to say thank you.¡±


    The prisoner was confused.


    The Great Hoodwinker was speechless. Wang Yun was speechless. Ji Zi¡¯ang was speechless.


    Honestly, just based on the things Ren Xiaosu did here today, it made him appear even more of a madman than Li Shentan was.


    In the eyes of the prisoners, Ren Xiaosu had broken into the prison just so he could make them thank him. But if they did not thank him, he would blow them up. No matter how they looked at it, he seemed crazy.


    The prisoner gulped and said, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Qi Jiesheng, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu waved it off. ¡°Alright, let him out.¡±


    When Qi Jiesheng saw Wang Yun opening the cell door for him, he was overjoyed. He did not expect that he would be able to regain his freedom just by saying thanks!


    But when he pushed open the door and came out, he heard Ren Xiaosu arguing with the prisoner next door. Although the prisoner in that cell thanked him, Ren Xiaosu did not receive a single gratitude token!


    Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, ¡°How can I let you out if you don¡¯t even thank me sincerely?!¡±


    The prisoner in that cell was also short-tempered. ¡°How am I not sincere? How do you determine that I wasn¡¯t sincere in my thanks?¡±


    All of a sudden, the voice from the pce intoned, ¡°Quest: Obtain 66 gratitude tokens from the prisoner before you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Wasn¡¯t this making things difficult for him? The other party had not even given him a sincere thanks yet, so how was he going to get 66 gratitude tokens out of him?!


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly recalled an incident from the past. After a moment¡¯s silence, he said, ¡°I thank your mom!¡±


    When the prisoner in the cell heard that, he got agitated. ¡°I thank your eight generations of ancestors!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Zheng Xiding, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said expressionlessly, ¡°I thank your grandma¡¯s leg!¡±


    From the cell came, ¡°I thank your grandpa!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Thank you for your banana skin!¡±


    From the cell came, ¡°Thank you...¡±


    Off to the side, Ji Zi¡¯ang, Wang Yun, and the others suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu had actually started arguing with that prisoner in the cell. In this gloomy secret prison, the futuremander of the Northwestpletely abandoned his image and continued exchanging insults with the prisoner for over a 100 rounds until the guy in the jail cell broke down!


    Wang Yun said in a daze, ¡°This is your futuremander of the Northwest?¡±


    But Ji Zi¡¯angughed. ¡°I find him rather interesting.¡±

 Chapter 822 - Retreat

    <h4>Chapter 822: Retreat</h4>


    The prison break featuring a theme of gratitude was finallying to an end after more than an hour. The Great Hoodwinker took off the warden¡¯s watch and checked the time. It was already 4 AM.


    Ren Xiaosu was satisfied withpleting the quest the pce had assigned him. This time, the reward was two allocatable attribute points. He added one point to each of his Strength and Dexterity attributes. Currently, his Strength was rated at 14.5 while his Dexterity was 14.1.


    Although the pce did not give him a Skill Duplication Scroll this time, Ren Xiaosu did not find it sad. After all, a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll was rare in itself. Furthermore, every attribute point Ren Xiaosu could get was a tangible improvement for him.


    If ¡°Old Xu,¡± the ck saber, City Crusher, and his other powers were considered his ¡°skyscraper¡± skills, then Ren Xiaosu¡¯s physical attributes could be considered the ¡°foundation.¡±


    While they were heading outside, the Great Hoodwinker looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°This warden is still alive. How should we deal with him?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a look at the warden. Actually, he was feeling very conflicted, because he really wanted to duplicate his superpower. If the conditions allowed, he even wanted to lock him up until he got his hands on three Perfect Skill Duplication Scrolls, which he could then use on the man.


    When the Great Hoodwinker saw Ren Xiaosu hesitating, he asked, ¡°Are you keeping him alive because you wish to convince him to join the Prosperous Northwest?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± Wang Yun said from nearby, ¡°This warden is the illegitimate son of the Kong n¡¯s second anciry branch. How could someone like him possibly join the Prosperous Northwest with us?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the warden who was lying on the ground and said bluntly, ¡°Just kill him. We don¡¯t want him getting to ourrades in the future.¡±


    Since they were enemies, Ren Xiaosu did not feel bad about having him killed. He only felt bad that he would have to pass up on that power.


    However, they were about to face the problem of how to escape from the city. With Stronghold 31 in a state of chaos, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly let the Great Hoodwinker bring such a potential threat back to the Northwest.


    With that, Wang Yun shot a st of air through the warden¡¯s eardrums.


    Then Wang Yun looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°What do you n to do next? The Kong Consortium will definitely learn about the incident at the secret prison. I believe the Kong Consortium¡¯s troops will be here soon. I saw you were not in a hurry when you released the prisoners just now, so you must be very confident of what to do next. Tell us about your n.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°I don¡¯t have a n.¡±


    Wang Yun felt stifled. He realized the people from the Northwest did not seem to like nning at all!


    He said with a dark expression, ¡°Then what should we do? Send ourselves to our deaths by going out there and facing the Kong Consortium¡¯s garrison troops? Do you know that there¡¯s a reinforced brigade here in Stronghold 31!?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Oh, you¡¯re talking about that? I doubt they¡¯ll care about us now. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already done all the prep work. Look, I broke into the secret prison an hour ago, but no one came to stop me, right?¡±


    Wang Yun thought it really was the case. He wondered again, ¡°After I was arrested, it was Wang Ziyang who took over my position, right? Did you get the detonator from him? How could no one from the intelligence agency go after you?¡±


    ¡°Oh!¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°They dide after me. But those people are dead.¡±


    Wang Yun fell silent. He somehow felt that this futuremander of the Northwest was bragging to him!


    As a matter of fact, the intelligence agency was the strongest force in Stronghold 31. They even had two supernatural beings within their ranks, so there was no need to mention their otherbatants.


    Ren Xiaosu swaggered out of the secret prison and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, y¡¯all will understand once we get outside the secret prison.¡±


    At this moment, the sound of an engine came from nearby. Yang Xiaojin had found an off-road vehicle in the secret prison. She looked at everyone and said calmly, ¡°Are you all nning to walk to the other prison? Get in.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. His girl was quite thoughtful.


    Everyone squeezed into the vehicle, with Ji Zi¡¯ang, the Great Hoodwinker, and Wang Yun sitting in the backseat. The Great Hoodwinker sat between them and said, ¡°You two, move aside a little!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any space here!¡±


    The three people nearly got into a fight in the vehicle over such a trivial matter!


    But the moment the off-road vehicle drove out of the secret prison, the Great Hoodwinker and the other two shut up. They looked at the stronghold that was engulfed in mes and heard explosions in the distance. Everyone had a shocked expression on their face.


    The walls of the stronghold were damaged. Everyone could see through the mes from far away that the towering walls in the distance had been blown apart.


    As the vehicle drove on, they even saw countless stronghold residents fleeing in the streets.


    Gunshots could be heard intermittently. No one knew where a battle had broken out in the stronghold.


    The sight before them was like an oil painting of the Middle Ages before The Cataclysm that looked extremely thick and heavy. Under the backdrop of the red-orange mes, it was as though the God of Death had passed his judgment upon the Kong Consortium.


    Wang Yun muttered, ¡°Future Commander, is this the prep work you mentioned?¡±


    To be honest, Wang Yun was a little unconvinced with Ren Xiaosu a second ago. Although he had witnessed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s capability in the Sacred Mountains, he was dumbfounded by the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s unprepared prison break. As a result, he was a little worried Ren Xiaosu would be the same.


    But now, Wang Yun was convinced. In order to save them, the futuremander had actually destroyed Stronghold 31?!


    It was no wonder no one did anything about the secret prison after it was broken into!


    Earlier, he had foolishly doubted the futuremander¡¯s ability to kill the intelligence agency¡¯s personnel who were pursuing him. How could he have such thoughts?!


    This was the Stronghold Destroyer he was talking about!


    There might be some names in this world that were given badly, but there was really no such thing as a bad nickname!


    Ji Zi¡¯ang looked at the burning mes and asked in a daze, ¡°What exactly is going on? What happened?¡±


    ¡°This is not to my credit either.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined sincerely and modestly, ¡°The Pyro Company suddenly attacked Stronghold 31. I analyzed that the main forces of the Pyro Company might arrive at daybreak, so we had to be faster and get y¡¯all out before that. By the way, Wang Yun, can you point the way to the other prison?¡±


    Wang Yun calmed himself down. ¡°Turn left.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin turned the steering wheel, and the vehicle suddenly veered left and sped off into the distance.


    There were only three hours left until dawn, so it was going to be a race against time.


    ...


    In Stronghold 61 of the Wang Consortium, Wang Shengzhi was sitting in his official residence and flipping through some documents. In recent times, the Wang Consortium¡¯s authoritarian only slept three hours a day. He cherished every minute and second he could get.


    There were seven telephones on the table in front of him. All of the calls that were made to him would first be screened by the artificial intelligence before being transferred to the different telephones.


    Suddenly, a dark red telephone rang. Wang Shengzhi looked up and saw it was the intelligence agency¡¯s dedicated line.


    He slowly put the receiver to his ear and said, ¡°This is Wang Shengzhi.¡±


    Wang Run¡¯s voice came from the other end of the line. ¡°I¡¯m currently protecting Wang Jing and the others in the vi. Ren Xiaosu...¡±


    Wang Shengzhi listened to Wang Run¡¯s report on the Kong Consortium¡¯s situation. The longer he listened, the more he was surprised. It was as though something extremely unexpected had happened.


    At this moment, Yang Anjing pushed open the door to his study and asked, ¡°What happened?¡±


    Wang Shengzhi thought for a moment and summarized, ¡°Stronghold 31 will probably be gone soon.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi had asked Ren Xiaosu to kill Kong Erdong so the Kong Consortium would get plunged into chaos. As long as Kong Erdong died, the Kong Consortium would only take three months to fall based on the current situation.


    But from the look of it, the prediction of three months was too conservative.


    Wang Shengzhi thought for a moment and said, ¡°Since the goal has been achieved, it¡¯s time to retreat.¡±


    ¡°Roger that.¡±

 Chapter 823 - Ren Xiaosu’s supporters

    <h4>Chapter 823: Ren Xiaosu¡¯s supporters</h4>


    In the vi at Stronghold 31, Wang Run looked at Wang Jing and the others after hanging up. Wang Jing asked, ¡°Who exactly are you?¡±


    Ever since Wang Run brought his men to the vi, he did not exin anything to the group from the Trinity Institute. He only showed his intelligence agency¡¯s identification from the Wang Consortium and instantly took control of the vi to prevent Wang Jing and the others from going outside. He also prevented unknown people from approaching the vi.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, there were indeed people with bad intentions who wanted to rob the residential neighborhoods amid the chaos. But after Wang Run and his men killed two of them and left their corpses at the entrance, no one else dared to approach the vi.


    Wang Run had received orders to pull back. He looked at Wang Jing and the others but did not say anything.


    Wang Run turned around and gave two tactical hand signals to his subordinates. Then everyone quickly gathered their equipment and disappeared into the darkness outside the vi.


    Although Wang Run had received Ren Xiaosu¡¯s orders to protect Wang Jing and the others, Wang Shengzhi¡¯s words carried more weight than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s. Since the boss had ordered them to retreat, he would retreat.


    Wang Run left behind two automatic rifles and four magazines for the Trinity Institute group. In his opinion, these weapons would be more than enough to deal with the rioters.


    When Wang Jing heard the chaos in the stronghold, he sat slowly on the couch and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid the medical exchange will be cut short.¡±


    Someone suddenly asked, ¡°Elder, have you seen Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin? Why haven¡¯t we seen them throughout all of this?¡±


    However, Wang Jing did not reply. He already had an answer in his mind.


    Previously, he thought Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were only here to carry out a simple mission. After all, the couple looked so young.


    But from the look of it, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s mission was not simple at all.


    ...


    Outside the prison in Stronghold 31, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and the others were hiding in the shadows on the sidewalk. They were observing the situation. The lights in the prison were on, and huge spotlights illuminated the surroundings as bright as day.


    Wang Yun looked at Ren Xiaosu expectantly. ¡°Future Commander, what do we do now?¡±


    But before Ren Xiaosu could say anything, Ji Zi¡¯ang spoke first. ¡°I haven¡¯t disyed any useful powers since being rescued by you all. Why not let me handle this situation?¡±


    ¡°You?¡± The Great Hoodwinker was stunned for a moment. ¡°I know that you¡¯re an earth-type superhuman, but superpowers don¡¯t seem to be your forte, right?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was implying that Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s superpower was likely run of the mill. Otherwise, the Kong Consortium could not have captured him.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was stunned before saying with a bitter smile, ¡°Looks like I¡¯ve been underestimated. Back then, I was supposed to rescue an important person from the secret prison. In the end, I failed miserably when I encountered that warden. After that, I found outter that there was actually no one important imprisoned here at all.¡±


    Then Ji Zi¡¯ang got up and walked towards the prison in Stronghold 31. With a point of his finger, a quarter of the impregnable prison structure was turned into sand.


    The bricks were no longer sturdy, and the foundation started crumbling. Nothing could hold together.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang said to Wang Yun, ¡°Quick, use your Air st!¡±


    Wang Yun did not hesitate. His eyes turned silver-gray, and a st of air shot out from his sped hands and smashed the crumbling prison, blowing out a cloud of dust.


    In just an instant, the well-defended prison fortress looked like a cake that had a piece carved out of it. It was so damaged it looked like a cross section!


    Amotion broke out among the inmates of the prison. Some of them started fleeing frantically while others took advantage of the chaos to attack the prison guards who had oppressed them.


    The well-defended prison had instantly copsed. The Kong Consortium¡¯s people probably never expected that their prison would get turned into a pile of ruins in such a way!


    When the Great Hoodwinker saw this, he was shocked. ¡°We¡¯ve picked up a treasure!¡±


    When the Great Hoodwinker first arrived at the secret prison, he did not think much of Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s superpower. It was because the intelligence report had mentioned that Ji Zi¡¯ang was captured too easily, so it was difficult for anyone to think he was very strong.


    But now that he thought about it, it was not that Ji Zi¡¯ang was not strong, but that the warden¡¯s power was too strange and impossible to guard against.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang and Wang Yun were already rushing towards the prisonplex, with Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and the Great Hoodwinker following them.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°I think you should¡¯ve been able to rescue the two of them as well, right? Although the warden¡¯s power is strange, it doesn¡¯t really affect a pure strength-type like you. Although there were explosives nted in the passageway, the person holding the detonator might not have detonated them so precisely and trapped you inside. Besides, you¡¯re not an unreliable person, so how could you not know that there were explosives buried in the passageway of the secret prison?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker chuckled and said, ¡°What is it that you¡¯re really asking, Future Commander?¡±


    ¡°Why did you have to wait for me toe and rescue y¡¯all?¡± Ren Xiaosu was puzzled.


    The Great Hoodwinker might look like a quack in this currently chaotic world, but he was not slipshod when it came to getting things done. Take the trip to the Sacred Mountains for example. The Great Hoodwinker could even urately identify the route they should take when in thick fog. This showed that he was a very well-prepared person.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu felt the Great Hoodwinker could not have identally ended up being caught and put in the secret prison and even neglected the modifications done to the ce.


    The Great Hoodwinker said with a smile, ¡°What¡¯s the point of me rescuing them? I¡¯m only in charge of our Fortress 178¡¯s fieldwork, so I don¡¯t need those two to owe me anything.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment. ¡°So you¡¯d rather have them owe me a favor?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± The Great Hoodwinker nodded. ¡°Although almost half of the people back at Fortress 178 have started supporting you, there¡¯s still some veterans who don¡¯t approve of you. After all, you¡¯re still too young, and you haven¡¯t received any systematic military training or learned warfare before. But of course, they aren¡¯t objecting to it either. They just need you to prove yourself with more achievements. In the past, you could keep fighting alone. But when you return to Fortress 178 in the future, you¡¯ll need your own supporters.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. The Great Hoodwinker continued saying with augh, ¡°I will send these two people back to the Northwest. Together with Wang Yun¡¯s 200-odd elite subordinates, they¡¯ll be your strongest force in the future.¡±


    ¡°Was this what you and Wang Fengyuan nned?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why are you two thinking so much instead of gathering intelligence?¡±


    ¡°No, no, no.¡± The Great Hoodwinker shook his head. ¡°We are not trying to gain political credit or something. You¡¯ve misunderstood. We don¡¯t have such practices in the Northwest.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Then what are y¡¯all doing this for?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said in seriousness, ¡°It was Commander Zhang¡¯s idea.¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He did not expect Zhang Jinglin to start making such early ns for him so he could sessfully take over at Fortress 178.


    Zhang Jinglin was still young, so it would not be a problem for him to be themander for another 15 to 20 years. So why did the other party start searching for dependable supporters for him so early on?


    Was Zhang Jinglin quite sure he was up for the job?

 Chapter 824 - We are all comrades!

    <h4>Chapter 824: We are allrades!</h4>


    Actually, after the Kong Consortium had arrested Wang Yun, they made a very ring mistake, which was to lock up all of his 200-odd subordinates in the same prisonplex.


    ording to proper procedures, these people should have been separately detained. This was because they were elites of a military who got transferred to work under Wang Yun and had carried out many missions with him. On one hand, they were very united, and on the other hand, they were very strong inbat.


    When Wang Yun was held in the secret prison, he was not too worried that his 200-odd subordinates would not have enough to eat and wear. After they were sent to the standard prison in Stronghold 31, they immediately became the most unruly force there.


    Those so-called leaders and bosses among the inmates in the past could only y second-fiddle in front of them.


    The so-called prison bullies of the past, who were mostly murderers, all knew they could do whatever they wanted since there was no chance of them being released from prison. Moreover, they were extremely vicious as well, so much so that the other prisoners were afraid of them.


    However, these people had only killed one or two people at most, while those who killed more than three people were already considered mass murderers. Meanwhile, Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates...


    All of them had taken more than five lives on average...


    Therefore, when the 200-odd subordinates of Wang Yun¡¯s entered Stronghold 31¡¯s prison and realized they had too much free time, they decided to unite the prisoners in Stronghold 31 first out of boredom.


    The prison guards were extremely rxed during this period as the prisoners they were watching did not even get into brawls anymore. It was as though they had banded together as a group.


    After all, this prison had never been unified by anyone before.


    They were over 200 professional soldiers. They even assigned the prisoners into toons and put themselves in charge as their toonmanders. They were basically managing the prisoners like they managed soldiers in the military.


    When the warden found out about this, he was filled with worry. A few days ago, he had submitted a transfer request to move the 200-odd people away. However, he did not know if the document had even reached his boss, Kong Erdong. In any case, there was no follow-up on the matter.


    Right now, the 200-odd brothers-in-arms were getting a little restless when they heard gunshots going off in the stronghold.


    When they discovered the prison had been breached and heard the familiar sound of the air sts, they perked up. In just the short duration of a minute, they immediately organized all the prisoners to start rioting against the prison guards.


    Some people went to pull the power switch, while others broke off table legs to use as weapons. People were also lying in wait for the prison guardsing to suppress the riot to arrive.


    When the prison guards entered the cell blocks, they were immediately surrounded by the prisoners. The prison guards realized the people in front of them did not look like a mob anymore. They were definitely a group of well-trained soldiers.


    Actually, the prisoners were not that capable. It was mainly because the prison guards were not good atbat and could notpare to professional soldiers.


    At this moment, Wang Yun¡¯s trusted deputy, Zhang Yanhe, was giving orders one after another from the rear. Meanwhile, hisrades kept leading their troops to attack the remaining areas that had not yet been taken.


    Zhang Yanhe said excitedly, ¡°Comrades, I can already hear the sound of Director Wang¡¯s attacks. He must¡¯vee to save us. Everyone, let¡¯s do this! Let¡¯s kill these prison guards first. We¡¯ll have our revenge!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened to the battle cries of the inmates in the prison from afar. He had thought it would take him some more effort to break into this prison, but he did not expect that he would end up not having to do it himself.


    Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang entered the prison together through a breach. The already precarious situation in the prison immediately became worse. How could the normal prison guards withstand thebined attacks of two supernatural beings?


    When Zhang Yanhe saw Wang Yun, he was overjoyed. He immediately joined up with Wang Yun and asked, ¡°Sir, how did you get out of the secret prison?¡±


    Wang Yun looked at hisrades and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s a long story. Are all of our people here?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re all here!¡± Zhang Yanhe said, ¡°Total strength: 289. Present strength: 289! Sir, what should we do now? Where are we headed?¡±


    ¡°To the Northwest,¡± Wang Yun said.


    For some reason, when Wang Yun mentioned the Northwest this time, he suddenly felt a sense of belonging. It was as though that was exactly where he should be going, and that the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s prophecy about his future being in the Prosperous Northwest was really true...


    ¡°The Northwest?¡± Zhang Yanhe and the others looked at each other.


    Wang Yun exined, ¡°The fact that I was able to escape this time, including all of you getting rescued, was because of the Northwest. Come with me to see our futuremander.¡±


    With that, Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang led over 200 people and rushed out of the prison. At this moment, when a prison guard who was hiding in the shadows saw them trying to escape, he raised his gun and got ready to shoot.


    Zhang Yanhe was the first to notice the prison guard. Seeing that the gun was pointed at Wang Yun, he immediately pushed Wang Yun away and tried to shield his superior.


    But before he could push Wang Yun away, Zhang Yanhe could already see bleeding appearing on the prison guard¡¯s chest. He was stunned. ¡°A sniper? Why¡¯s there a sniper?¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s heart was still throbbing with fear. He got a little carried away by the reunion just now. Fortunately, Yang Xiaojin had intervened, or the joyous asion of their reunion today would have be a funeral instead.


    Zhang Yanhe asked, ¡°Sir, where did you get the sniper from?¡±


    Wang Yun told Zhang Yanhe, ¡°I didn¡¯t. That¡¯s our futuremander¡¯s wife. The two of them rescued me from the secret prison. The chaos in Stronghold 31 was their doing as well.¡±


    ¡°The two of them?¡± Zhang Yanhe and the others were stunned. ¡°Sir, you mean these two?¡±


    They had already walked up to Ren Xiaosu. After Yang Xiaojin confirmed it was safe, she stood up from thewn and put away her sniper rifle.


    Wang Yun said, ¡°Thank you for saving our lives, Future Commander!¡±


    His 200-odd subordinates bowed in unison. ¡°Thank you, Future Commander!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu broke into a grin. The typewriter in the pce got so busy it could not stop typing. It seemed like every one of their gratitudes was sincere!


    He walked up to them and shook their hands warmly. ¡°We¡¯re allrades. The Northwest wees you all!¡±


    Watching this from the side, Yang Xiaojin suddenly felt that Ren Xiaosu had be a veteran. Wang Yun turned to Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°Come, let¡¯s thank Future Commander¡¯s wife as well!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin waved it off. ¡°Just thank Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    Although Yang Xiaojin did not know why Ren Xiaosu liked being thanked by others so much, she knew it was definitely useful to him. Zhang Yanhe took the lead and bowed to thank Ren Xiaosu again. This left Ren Xiaosu grinning from ear to ear.


    With a great harvest of gratitude tokens tonight, he had broken past the 5,400 mark!


    He was getting close to unlocking the third weapon!


    Seeing that it was about time, the Great Hoodwinker asked, ¡°Future Commander, how are we leaving this ce?¡±


    This question stumped Ren Xiaosu. He had nned to use the steam lotive to send Wang Yun and the others out of the city. But now that the steam lotive, Old Xu, and the Shadow Door had all been sealed, it would take at least half a month before they could be used again. so he could not send them out anymore.


    As such, the Great Hoodwinker, Wang Yun, and the others decided to head back into the prison to steal some vehicles. There wererge buses used for transporting prisoners there, and five such vehicles would be enough to carry the nearly 300 of them. Once they got out of the stronghold, someone arranged by the Great Hoodwinker would naturallye and receive them.

 Chapter 825 - Slipped by

    <h4>Chapter 825: Slipped by</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu instructed the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°When y¡¯all leave the stronghold, you must be careful to avoid the battle zone between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium. Right now, the Pyro Company has just destroyed the stronghold walls in the north, but I don¡¯t think that that¡¯s their only objective. So be very careful not to bump into them.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I will take note of that.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said.


    Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates had already driven the buses out from the prison, and they even snatched walkie-talkies from the prison guards. This way, the five vehicles couldmunicate more closely while driving.


    However, Wang Yun was a little puzzled. ¡°Future Commander, you mean you¡¯re noting with us?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°There¡¯s still a medical team from the Wang Consortium in this stronghold. They¡¯re very respectable people, so I can¡¯t just leave them to die here in Stronghold 31.¡±


    ¡°Is it worth helping the Wang Consortium¡¯s people?¡± Wang Yun asked doubtfully.


    Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°Those people have been working their entire lives trying to save the wounded and the dying. I can¡¯t just watch them get implicated. I don¡¯t know about the Wang Consortium¡¯s people. All I know is that these people are all very respectable.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker looked like he wanted to say something. However, he did not try to dissuade him.


    Meanwhile, Ji Zi¡¯ang patted the Great Hoodwinker on the shoulder and got into the bus with a smile. ¡°No matter how many times you might¡¯ve tried to hoodwink me, it¡¯s only now that I feel I made the right decision to go to the Northwest. Come on, let¡¯s go. Future Commander, we¡¯ll meet again in the Northwest!¡±


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu ordered the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°After the buses leave Stronghold 31, it¡¯s best to head south first. Not only are the Pyro Company¡¯s peopleing from the north, but new enemies will also be appearing there as well. I suspect that those enemies are even more terrifying than we can imagine.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I¡¯ll be careful,¡± The Great Hoodwinker said as he got onto the bus.


    Ren Xiaosu watched as the five buses drove off into the distance. He turned around and got into the off-road vehicle with Yang Xiaojin as they prepared to rescue Wang Jing and the others.


    He wondered if Wang Run had followed his instructions to protect Wang Jing. Logically speaking, since Wang Jing was an esteemed medical figure of the Wang Consortium, Wang Run should be protecting him seriously, right?


    ...


    At the same time, the Pyro Company in the north had broken through the cordon of the Kong Consortium and headed south by blending in with the escaping stronghold residents.


    It had to be said that the Pyro Company¡¯s strategy was really wise. They had first destroyed the stronghold walls to make the stronghold residents panic. As a result, therge number of the fleeing residents became their cover.


    This caused the Kong Consortium to always have some scruples when they opened fire to stop them. It was only after the Pyro Company had broken through two defensive lines that the Kong Consortium finally made up their mind to shoot down the civilians together with them. However, it was already toote.


    When the battle turned into street-to-street fighting, the Kong Consortium¡¯s garrison troops, who had lost the protection of a proper defensive line, were no longer able to pose any threat to the Pyro Company¡¯s elite strike troops.


    All of a sudden, the Pyro Company¡¯s troops split up and continued advancing through the different streets. Someone on themunications channel asked, ¡°Sir, what¡¯s our target now?¡±


    The T5batant said coldly, ¡°It¡¯ll still take some time before the main forces arrive. The Kong Consortium¡¯s reinforcements stationed 40 kilometers away should be here soon. We must create more chaos in Stronghold 31 before dawn so they can¡¯t form an effective resistance.¡±


    ¡°Then what should we do?¡± someone asked.


    The T5batant thought for ten seconds and finally decided, ¡°We¡¯ll attack the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency and blind them first. When two armies face off, the one with the better intelligence will have the upper hand. As long as we paralyze the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelwork first, the Kong Consortium will definitely lose this war!¡±


    Saying that, the T5batant immediately turned towards where the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency was located. During this time, they encountered two more attacks from the Kong Consortium. In the end, they still managed to prate past their attackers.


    At this moment, the Kong Consortium realized they were simply no match for the highly mobile Pyro Company Special Forces in street battles.


    Furthermore, when the Kong Consortium observed the direction in which the Pyro Company was going, they were surprised to discover they were heading for the intelligence agency.


    After the Pyro Company finally made it to the intelligence agency, the T5batant saw corpses strewn around the street and abandoned vehicles that had exploded. The intelligence agency headquarters were also emptied out.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± The T5batant was clearly taken aback. They were the only Pyro Company team that hade to Stronghold 31 this time.


    They hade to paralyze the intelligence agency, but someone actually beat them to it!


    His subordinates checked the corpses to verify the identities of the deceased. Before they came here, they had already done their preparation work. One minuteter, they said, ¡°Sir, the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence director, Wang Ziyang, is dead.¡±


    ¡°The newly appointed director of their 1st Military Intelligence Division has died.¡±


    ¡°The newly appointed director of their 2nd Military Intelligence Division has died.¡±


    The T5batant raised his voice on themunications channel. ¡°All units, take note that there might still be another elite fighting force in the stronghold. They¡¯ve carried out a decapitation strike against the intelligence agency with extreme precision. I¡¯m afraid that the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency has already fallen!¡±


    ¡°Who could have done this?¡± someone wondered.


    ¡°Probably the Wang Consortium¡¯s elite troops. Be careful. Avoid them if you bump into them. The most important thing now is to destroy the Kong Consortium,¡± the T5batant said solemnly. In his opinion, the other group should also be very strong and have quite a few people. Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to wipe out an entire intelligence agency that was situated in the center of the stronghold!


    This made the T5batant a little hesitant. That was because he did not hear about the Wang Consortium having a fighting force as strong as this in the vicinity.


    ¡°What do we do now?¡± a T4batant asked on the radio.


    ¡°Attack the secret prison.¡± The T5batant pondered for a moment before answering, ¡°Releasing the prisoners inside will be enough to give the Kong Consortium a headache.¡±


    But after running for nearly half an hour, they realized the secret prison had also been turned into ruins when they got there. Immediately, there was a chill in the T5batant¡¯s heart. Why were the Wang Consortium¡¯s elite troops always a step ahead of them?


    Moreover, how many people from the Wang Consortium were here? After destroying the intelligence agency, they still had the strength to break into the secret prison? The secret prison had already been demolished beyond recognition, and several hundred prison guards had died tragically in there. Could the Wang Consortium have an entire independent regiment hidden in the stronghold?!


    At this moment, only the stronghold walls in the north were damaged. The walls at the other parts of the stronghold were all intact. Therefore, the Wang Consortium must not havee in from the outside of the stronghold. They must have already been lying in ambush on the inside.


    ¡°Let¡¯s head to the other prison.¡± T5081 did not hesitate any further. In any case, their mission was to pin down the Kong Consortium¡¯s garrison troops so they would not be able to organize their defenses. Here in Stronghold 31, the Wang Consortium was not their enemy.


    However, when T5081 arrived and stood outside the normal prison, he was shocked. At some point, he even wondered if the Wang Consortium had really infiltrated Stronghold 31 with an entire independent regiment.


    T5081 said in a daze, ¡°Is the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency useless? They don¡¯t even know that their stronghold had been infiltrated by so many of the Wang Consortium¡¯s people?¡±


    However, the aftermath of the destruction to these two prisons was starting to give the Kong Consortium a headache, especially the intelligence agents that were set free from the secret prison. These people could even make a bunch of bombs with a single trip to the hardware store. It seemed like everything was about to go down in Stronghold 31!

 Chapter 826 - The average Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 826: The average Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    To be honest, T5081 felt his scalp go numb at this moment. Everything he had nned to do was already done by someone else. Moreover, he was still unable to figure out where the other party was hiding, how many people they had, the number of supernatural beings among them, and what they were nning.


    This feeling was not good at all. In fact, it was really strange. Someone had clearly helped him do what he wanted to do, yet he could not feel happy about it!


    ¡°Sir, what should we do now?¡± a T4batant asked weakly over the radio.


    The aftermath of the inmates¡¯ release from the two prisons was starting to tire the Kong Consortium out. As the Pyro Company did not want to go head-on against the garrison troops, it suddenly felt like they had nothing better to do.


    In their n, they were prepared to face death this time when they came to Stronghold 31 for their mission.


    Moreover, their mission objectives were supposed to be executed one right after another, leaving them with no chance to catch their breaths. Every member of the Pyro Company here was prepared to go all out, but in the end, there was nothing for them to do at all.


    Who could they go and reason with in this case?!


    T5081 said, ¡°No wonder we suddenly encountered an ambush on the rooftops after entering the stronghold. But we realizedter that the Kong Consortium did not know we wereing, so that ambush on the rooftops was actually not targeted at us....¡±


    ¡°Then did we take the bullet for someone else?¡± a T4batant wondered.


    ¡°Not exactly.¡± T5081 sighed and said, ¡°Did you guys realize that when we broke through the northern defensive line, the Kong Consortium¡¯s garrison troops seemed to be really slow to react and did not attack us with all their might right away? It felt like their reactions were somewhat dyed.¡±


    ¡°It did feel like that. Some of the tactical troops did not seem to be fully prepared.¡±


    ¡°I understand what happened now.¡± T5081 said, ¡°It¡¯s because the garrison troops of the Kong Consortium were alerted to other disturbances in the stronghold and were nning to rush over to reinforce their fellow troops. As a result, that helped us disperse their forces.¡±


    Actually, even Ren Xiaosu himself did not know that he had actually contributed somewhat to the destruction of the stronghold.


    In his opinion, the destruction of the stronghold this time was entirely caused by the Pyro Company and had nothing to do with him at all. Although he also wanted to demolish the stronghold, wasn¡¯t the Pyro Company one step ahead of him?


    Therefore, he was not going to be held responsible for it this time.


    T5081 pondered things for a moment before saying, ¡°Let¡¯s go. Since the objective has been aplished and the stronghold is in chaos, we¡¯ll just directly attack and take out Kong Erdong!¡±


    Although their operation this time was called a decapitation strike, it was actually referring to destroying Stronghold 31 rather than killing Kong Erdong.


    On one hand, there was no need to kill him. Even if Kong Erdong were to survive until the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces arrived, there would be nothing he could do. It would also be too troublesome since if they went straight for Kong Erdong, the garrison troops would definitely be guarding him closely. Although the Pyro Company¡¯s special forces were really strong, they still couldn¡¯t take on a reinforced brigade.


    But now... they really had nothing better left to do!


    T5081 thought that since there was nothing to do, why not just go and kill Kong Erdong instead!


    In any case, the garrison troops were already scattered all over the ce.


    At this moment, all of the fleeing residents were trying their best to escape southwards due to the battle going on in the northern part of the stronghold. As a result, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s off-road vehicle nearly got stuck on the road.


    ¡°After we pick up Wang Jing and the others, let¡¯s head straight west. I¡¯ll blow up the city gate once we get there. We can¡¯t escape from the southern gate anymore. I¡¯m afraid that arge number of escapees will be causing a jam over there.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But it¡¯s a pity that we won¡¯t have a chance to kill Kong Erdong anymore.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nodded. She looked out of the car window at the escapees fleeing amid the mes. ¡°Let¡¯s put the matter of Kong Erdong aside for now. The oue that Wang Shengzhi is seeking has already been achieved. It doesn¡¯t matter if Kong Erdong dies or not. Besides, I believe that Wang Shengzhi will definitely be very surprised.¡±


    Based on Wang Shengzhi¡¯s n, it would take a long time for the Kong Consortium to fall into chaos after Kong Erdong was killed. But things were different now. They had skipped a step and reached the end goal.


    Speaking of which, this could be considered a one-stop service, and it so happened that Ren Xiaosu was the service provider.


    When the off-road vehicle drove into the residential neighborhood, Ren Xiaosu saw the bodies of rioters hanging at the entrance. Blood was dripping from them. It was an extremely terrifying sight.


    ¡°This should be the work of Wang Run and his men to warn the other rioters.¡± Ren Xiaosu guessed that other than Wang Run and his men, no one else in the vicinity would be so ruthless.


    When the vehicle came to a stop at the entrance of the vi, Ren Xiaosu shouted inside, ¡°Don¡¯t shoot! It¡¯s me!¡±


    Surprised voices rang out from the vi. ¡°Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin are back!¡±


    Wang Jing opened the door and carefully looked at Ren Xiaosu. He did not ask where he had been and immediately checked to see if he was alright. ¡°Are you injured?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°About that... Yang Xiaojin and I just went out for a stroll. We didn¡¯t expect something like this to happen all of a sudden. As a result, we were stuck outside, and it took a long time to find our way back.¡±


    Everyone from the Trinity Institute had looks of disbelief on their faces, but no one knew how to refute his exnation.


    When Ren Xiaosu did not see Wang Run around, he looked at Wang Jing and asked, ¡°By the way... didn¡¯t someonee and protect all y¡¯all?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but they left after receiving an order.¡± Wang Jing said, ¡°They... were they sent here by you?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha,¡± Ren Xiaosuughed awkwardly. ¡°How could that be? I only found out by chance when I encountered them earlier. They said that they wereing here to protect you, Elder Wang. Look, everyone, pack up your belongings and leave this ce quickly. Stronghold 31 is done for. If we don¡¯t leave now, we¡¯ll be buried along with this stronghold.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu then realized the people from the Trinity Institute had already packed their luggage and loaded it into the vehicles. After Ren Xiaosu distributed a walkie-talkie to each vehicle, the convoy immediately set off.


    The convoy drove all the way west. The atmosphere in the vehicles was extremely silent.


    All of a sudden, Liang Ce asked, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, you¡ª¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t do it! I¡¯m just a normal cardiac surgeon!¡± Ren Xiaosu denied.


    ¡°...I haven¡¯t even asked anything yet.¡±


    But at this moment, a row of ck vehicles passed by the Trinity Institute¡¯s convoy. Liang Ce was about to say something when he saw Ren Xiaosu staring intently at the passing convoy.


    That convoy of ck vehicles was heading east at a very fast speed. It looked like they were escaping.


    Ren Xiaosu had chosen to head west because that was where the Wang Consortium was. However, other people might not choose to flee in that direction. If they were from the Kong Consortium, escaping east would be the highest priority, because there was another Kong Consortium stronghold 120 kilometers to the east.


    Ren Xiaosu broke the silence by saying to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Don¡¯t y¡¯all slow down. I¡¯m heading out for a while.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin asked thoughtfully, ¡°Kong Erdong?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, that was his license te. I would guess that he doesn¡¯t intend to go down with Stronghold 31. He¡¯s already fleeing!¡± With that, Ren Xiaosu opened the door and jumped out of the vehicle. He then ran all the way towards Kong Erdong¡¯s convoy.


    In the vehicles at the back of the Trinity Institute convoy, everyone looked silently at Ren Xiaosu who had just gone past them.


    Liang Ce was speechless. Didn¡¯t he just say he was just a normal cardiac surgeon?!

 Chapter 827 - Stronghold 176 has fallen

    <h4>Chapter 827: Stronghold 176 has fallen</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s vehicle was leading their convoy. Therefore, when Ren Xiaosu jumped out of the front passenger seat, the other vehicles behind them could see him.


    A middle-aged doctor who was driving suddenly saw someone jump out of the vehicle in front of him. He was immediately shocked. ¡°Wait, what¡¯s Ren Xiaosu doing?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s he trying to do?¡±


    Through the windows, Wang Jing saw Ren Xiaosu waving at the convoy as he ran. He was signaling for everyone to keep driving. Then everyone¡¯s gaze followed him as he sped to the rear of the convoy.


    Other than the drivers, everyone else turned around and leaned against their seats to see what exactly Ren Xiaosu was up to.


    Then, just as they turned around, they saw Ren Xiaosu leap up andnd right on top of one of the ck vehicles!


    Immediately after, they saw him brandish a ck saber out of thin air. He held it tightly with both hands and stabbed it straight down into the backseat of the vehicle through its roof.


    After that, Ren Xiaosu did not stop and turned around to run away. Everyone could even hear the sound of that convoy braking sharply. The screeching of the tires that had locked up made everyone cringe uncontrobly.


    Even though they were dozens of meters away, Wang Jing and the others could still hear the heart-wrenching cries of people in that vehicle. ¡°Boss! Boss, are you OK?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not hesitate at all. He forcefully caught back up with the Trinity Institute convoy that was still speeding ahead and got into the vehicle at the front. Everything had happened in a sh.


    Liang Ce and Meng Nan, who were sitting in the back of the lead vehicle, were dumbfounded. They looked at Ren Xiaosu who was sitting in the front passenger seat as though nothing had happened. Liang Ce muttered, ¡°As I recall, Ms. Xiaojin seemed to have mentioned the name Kong Erdong just now?¡±


    ¡°Mhm,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered calmly.


    ¡°So you killed Kong Erdong? You killed the boss of the Kong Consortium?¡± Liang Ce eximed.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Liang Ce with an expression like he was saying, ¡°Why are you so surprised?¡± This time, Liang Ce could not take it anymore. His reaction was clearly to be expected. ¡®<i>It would not be normal if I still remained so calm after you had killed Kong Erdong!</i>¡®


    Liang Ce turned around and had a look again. They were getting farther and farther away from that ck convoy. Kong Erdong¡¯s subordinates who were with him got out of their vehicles. They had an expression of ¡°who am I am and where am I¡± on their faces, and it did not seem like they intended to chase after Ren Xiaosu either.


    Everyone in the Trinity Institute group finally understood that Ren Xiaosu was not here for the medical exchange. He was here to kill someone!


    But Wang Jing could not understand why a killer would be so proficient in cardiovascr surgery and be so good at treating external injuries.


    ¡°So where are we going now?¡± Liang Ce asked.


    Ren Xiaosu said without hesitation, ¡°Back to the Wang Consortium!¡±


    The Kong Consortium was already done for. When the fighting had broken out in Stronghold 31, Kong Erdong, the highest-ranking official of the Kong Consortium, did not even have the intention to defend their position to the death. As such, the fate of the organization was also sealed.


    Even if there were future sessors, Ren Xiaosu did not think that anyone would be able to turn the tide. It had to be known that not only was the Pyro Company situated next to the Kong Consortium, but the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops were also eyeing the border.


    ...


    At this moment, the Pyro Company¡¯s special forces were chasing after clues to track down Kong Erdong. They first went to Kong Erdong¡¯s residence but found it was already empty. There was no sign of him at all.


    They only found outter that Kong Erdong had quietly left his residence ten minutes ago when they caught two people from the Kong Consortium. To stay low, Kong Erdong did not even bring any garrison troops with him. His intention was for them to continue pushing back the Pyro Company¡¯s troops.


    When the Pyro Company finally caught up to Kong Erdong¡¯s convoy, Kong Erdong¡¯s subordinates had already dispersed. Only the vehicle that Kong Erdong was in was left behind, along with his corpse inside.


    T5081 examined the scene in silence. He realized Kong Erdong¡¯s death was caused by someone stabbing a sword into his head from the roof of the vehicle and that norge-scale battle had broken out here.


    ¡°How many people does the other party have exactly?¡± T5081 wondered, ¡°Surely they couldn¡¯t have done so much damage with just one or two people, right?¡±


    Suddenly, a T4batant who was also a radiotelephone operator came up beside him. ¡°I¡¯ve received a call from the higher-ups.¡±


    Saying that, the T4batant handed him the radio set¡¯s receiver. T5081 took it and said, ¡°Sir? This is T5081.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the situation?¡± the person on the other end of the call asked.


    ¡°We¡¯ve already breached the northern walls of the stronghold. The Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency has been wiped out, and all the inmates in the secret prison have been released. The normal prison¡¯s inmates have been released as well. Kong Erdong is dead!¡± T5081 said.


    ¡°It went so smoothly?¡± The person on the other end of the call sounded a little surprised. He had not expected the special forces to sessfully kill Kong Erdong afterpleting their mission objectives!


    T5081 pondered it for a moment before exining, ¡°Actually, other than breaching the stronghold walls, we did not do any of the things I just mentioned. When we went to the intelligence agency¡¯s headquarters, the people there were already dead. When we went to the secret prison, the ce had already been attacked...¡±


    After a long exnation from the T5batant, the person on the other end of the call wondered, ¡°Then can I interpret it this way? Other than breaching the northern walls, you all have failed to achieve anything?¡±


    There was a few seconds of silence on both ends. The T5batant answered with a struggle, ¡°Yes...¡±


    ¡°Do you know who did it?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know...¡±


    ¡°Alright, remain in Stronghold 31. The main forces are almost approaching 5 kilometers north of the stronghold. After the encirclement isplete, coordinate with the troops in the west to open up the gate and assist the main forces toplete the upation of Stronghold 31.¡±


    After that, the other party hung up.


    After the T5batant finished answering the call, he wanted to find someone to rant about. He had wanted to im the credit for himself, but if someone were to step forward with the truth in the future, his position in the Pyro Company would be in danger.


    Fortunately, everything went smoothly. No matter what, Stronghold 31 was already in the Pyro Company¡¯s possession.


    But at this moment, as though the timing were impable, while the Pyro Company was going all out in their attack on the Kong Consortium, the northern tribe started attacking Stronghold 176 with all their might as well. First, the Experimentals under themand of the ck-robed wizard destroyed the defensive line of the Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops. Then thousands of burly men appeared on the horizon and took only 15 minutes to charge to the front of the stronghold.


    The already broken defensive line could not stop the northern tribe from entering the city. The Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops quickly regrouped in the stronghold in an attempt to drag the burly northerners into a street fight and slowly wear them down.


    But to everyone¡¯s surprise, these people were actually able to break through the walls just with their bodies. Everyone in this tribe was like a small tank charging around with arge axe in hand. This caused the Wang Consortium¡¯s hastily reformed defensive line to copse again!


    Standard automatic rifles could only inflict minimal damage on their bodies. Most of the bullets were stuck on the surface of their skin while the heavy machine guns were extremely dependent on their line of sight and positioning. Stronghold 176 had fallen.

 Chapter 828 - Encountering the main forces of the Pyro Company!

    <h4>Chapter 828: Encountering the main forces of the Pyro Company!</h4>


    The devastation in Stronghold 176 had far exceeded everyone¡¯s imagination.


    In just three hours, corpses were strewn all over the stronghold.


    Just a month ago, Stronghold 176 had fallen once before. However, Yan Liuyuan restrained his subordinates and did not allow them to go on a killing spree. The tribe that went around ughtering the residents was also hanged by Yan Liuyuan.


    But it was different this time. The northern tribe had gone on a killing spree in Stronghold 176 and massacred everyone in the city.


    Amid the screams, Stronghold 176 turned into a living hell.


    In the past, there would always be trails of white smoke puffing out from the chimneys of the factories in the stronghold. But today, there were no longer signs of that white smoke. Instead, it was reced by a cloud of ck smoke that seemed to be everywhere in the air. Fires were burning all around the stronghold.


    After over a 100 years since the Alliance of Strongholds was set up, a massacre of a stronghold had finally happened.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops did not engage in a bloody battle with this northern tribe to the very end. They only had time to see the enemy nt a g of a white bear at the highest point of the stronghold before immediately retreating south in an attempt to join up with the main forces of the Wang Consortium¡¯s reinforcements that were on their way over.


    There were not many garrison troops stationed at Stronghold 176 to begin with. The speed at which the Wang Consortium mobilized their troops to the north was a step toote in the end.


    To the north, the burly man whomanded the expeditionary army¡¯s advance guard walked into the city with his giant axe in hand. He looked at his deputy beside him. ¡°Where¡¯s ck Robe? Why don¡¯t I see him around?¡±


    ¡°He was supposed to coordinate support for us in the stronghold, but we did not see him after we stepped inside. Later on, even those death row convicts under hismand disappeared without a trace,¡± the deputymander said.


    The burly man, who was almost two meters tall, sneered. ¡°He¡¯s so secretive. I wonder what the general sees in him. Why does he indulge that fe so?¡±


    The deputymander reminded him with a serious expression, ¡°Commander Valentin, please don¡¯t ever question the general¡¯s decision in public again.¡±


    ¡°Go and find him.¡± Valentin said, ¡°Yegor, if you can¡¯t figure out what he¡¯s up to before sunset, I¡¯ll deploy you back to yourpany.¡±


    Yegor did not say anything further. He carried his giant axe and led a group of men away. Meanwhile, Valentin sat on top of a pile of rubble and admired the ruins of Stronghold 176. This was the work of the expeditionary army.


    At this moment, there were too many casualties in Stronghold 176. So no one noticed that the gray Experimentals had not killed everyone they encountered. Rather, they captured some of them and brought them to an undergroundboratory.


    The incandescent light in the undergroundboratory was flickering, and the Experimental who was shrouded in a ck robe was standing at an operating table. Hundreds of humans were tied up on the ground as they screamed in fear.


    However, no one could hear their cries for help. The Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops had been defeated, so no one woulde and save them even if they heard their pleas.


    Dozens of strong-looking Experimentals were crawling around in the hugeboratory. They were patrolling the premises to prevent any humans from escaping.


    ck Robe was a little surprised as he did not expect to find such a well-equippedboratory in Stronghold 176. However, it seemed the controllers of the stronghold only had the equipment, while the research they carried out was totally worthless.


    But it was different now. This researchboratory had be more important due to his arrival. In ck Robe¡¯s eyes, this was probably the only thing worthy of praise that he had for the useless stronghold overseers.


    He picked up a syringe and slowly pushed the tiny bubbles out of it before walking towards a young woman.


    ck Robe knelt down next to the woman and said with a hoarseugh, ¡°As a new subject of my kingdom, you should feel honored.¡±


    The woman begged, ¡°Please let me go. I still have my parents to take care of. I don¡¯t want to die.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright. You¡¯ll soon forget these human emotions,¡± ck Robe said.


    When the woman saw the gray face under the ck robe, she immediately retreated in fear. However, her hands and feet were bound, so she could only struggle in vain. She shouted, ¡°Monster! You¡¯re also a monster!¡±


    ck Robe slowly got up. The word ¡°monster¡± pissed him off. He let the woman in front of him continue to struggle and did not say a word throughout.


    Eventually, he waved his hand and an Experimental next to him bounded over and tore the woman to pieces. Blood sttered onto the ground of theboratory in an extremely terrifying manner.


    Meanwhile, ck Robe silently walked towards the next person.


    He injected the drug into the humans one by one. Then their blood vessels slowly turned gray. It was like a strange gray worm was crawling through their blood vessels. After that, their skin also started graying. Under the incandescent light, they looked abnormally sick.


    Suddenly, an Experimental came in through the door. It crawled in front of ck Robe and roared. ck Robe frowned and said, ¡°Bring them out from another exit and wait for my call in the wilderness.¡±


    With that, he immediately walked out of theboratory and returned to the surface. When he saw Yegor walking over, he asked in a hoarse voice, ¡°You were looking for me?¡±


    ¡°Commander Valentin wants to know what you¡¯re doing,¡± Egor said coldly.


    ck Robe calmly exined, ¡°I was just looking around the ce.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± As he spoke, Yegor ordered his subordinates to search theboratory behind ck Robe and the underground building, but they found nothing inside.


    After Yegor received confirmation that there was nothing suspicious, he said, ¡°Commander Valentin said that you¡¯d better not be up to any tricks under his watch.¡±


    ck Robe said with a hoarseugh, ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous. You don¡¯t have to be so afraid of me. The general trusts me very much, doesn¡¯t he? Instead ofing to look for me, why don¡¯t you chase after the Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison troops that have fled? I think that this is the biggest mistake you all have made because they will spread the news very soon and bring more people from the Central ins back here. At that time, even a force as strong as the expeditionary army will shed rivers of blood. It¡¯ll be a tragic battle to fight.¡±


    Yegor turned around and left. To be honest, he did not even want to stay a second longer with ck Robe. When he spoke to ck Robe, he felt like a venomous snake was winding around his skin. The slithery and cold feeling sickened him.


    ...


    The convoy from the Trinity Institute sessfully escaped from the chaotic zones in Stronghold 31. When they arrived at the western gate, it had been left open. It seemed that Kong Erdong was not the only one who had tried to escape. Arge number of stronghold officials had also fled.


    Ren Xiaosu checked a map in the front passenger seat and said, ¡°It¡¯s best that we don¡¯t take the same route back to the Wang Consortium. I suspect that we¡¯ll encounter arge number of Kong Consortium deserters there. Since the Pyro Company can reach Stronghold 31, Stronghold 32 must¡¯ve already fallen. Currently, the Kong Consortium deserters will probably number in the thousands, and they¡¯ll cause a lot of trouble for the escapees. We should detour farther south and try our best to avoid the routes that the deserters will most likely choose to wait at.¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, Yang Xiaojin, who was next to him, stomped on the brakes. All of a sudden, the entire convoy from the Trinity Institute came to a stop.


    Ren Xiaosu looked up and was surprised to see a group of Pyro Company members surrounding them!


    At some point, the Pyro Company had surrounded Stronghold 31!

 Chapter 829 - The Pyro Company retreats!

    <h4>Chapter 829: The Pyro Company retreats!</h4>


    The Pyro Company in front of them was not just a small part of the advance guard. Ren Xiaosu could even see a continuous stream of military transport vehicles and mechanized troops behind them.


    This was part of the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces!


    As there was no source of intel, Ren Xiaosu did not know when the Pyro Company had captured Stronghold 32. He guessed that the stronghold must have fallen sometime during the night before the Pyro Companyunched a blitzkrieg on Stronghold 31.


    This was intricately linked to the T5batant¡¯s n to lead the special forces toplete the decapitation strike. Their goal was to catch the Kong Consortium off guard.


    Still on the brakes, Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Should we escape?¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t get away anymore.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. If it were just the two of them, they could easily leave right now. But they still had the Trinity Institute led by Wang Jing behind them.


    If the two of them were to escape just like that, Wang Jing and the others would definitely end up in a bad state.


    The Pyro Company was right in front of them. Even if their off-road vehicles were high-performance models, they still couldn¡¯t escape from the other party¡¯s mechanized troops.


    It was a pity that his steam lotive was still sealed. Otherwise, he would not be in such a dilemma.


    The doctors in the vehicles were panicking. When had they ever been caught in such a situation before? Someone kept asking Wang Jing over the walkie-talkie, ¡°Elder, what should we do now?¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we go and talk to them? We¡¯re just doctors, after all. What does the war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium have to do with our medical team from the Wang Consortium?¡±


    Wang Jing did not know what to do either. Even though he had been in many dangerous situations before, it was nothingpared to being caught up in a war.


    However, he quickly said through the walkie-talkie, ¡°Everyone, be careful not to expose Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s identities. Remember, they¡¯re members of our medical team. They¡¯re just two ordinary doctors. If anyone deliberately reveals any information to the Pyro Company, don¡¯t me me for not showing mercy when we return to the Wang Consortium.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Wang Jing¡¯s voice, he fell silent. He did not expect Wang Jing¡¯s first thought would be to protect him.


    Everyone watched Ren Xiaosu suddenly open the car door. Then he raised his hands above his head and walked towards the Pyro Company¡¯s troops. He shouted, ¡°We¡¯re the medical team from the Wang Consortium¡¯s Trinity Institute. We¡¯re here on a medical exchange with the Kong Consortium. Please don¡¯t harm us. We can hand over all our weapons. We aren¡¯tbatants, so please don¡¯t kill the innocent.¡±


    Everyone in the vehicles was shocked. Seeing that the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers were pointing their guns at the convoy, none of them would have the courage to step forward and face the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces alone.


    But this young man had a courage that the average person did not have.


    Yang Xiaojin nced at Ren Xiaosu and slowly got out of the vehicle as well. She raised her hands to indicate she was unarmed.


    Ren Xiaosu was also very nervous at this moment. He was very worried the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces would indiscriminately shoot at any suspicious targets.


    After all, it was wartime now and nothing could be certain.


    At the rear of the convoy, Wang Jing took the lead and got out of the vehicle. He also threw the automatic rifle Wang Run had given them on the ground.


    Two toons from the Pyro Company quickly approached them. One of the toons was responsible for watching over everyone from the Trinity Institute while the other carefully searched all the vehicles. They even cut open the seats of the vehicles with their tactical daggers. In the end, they discovered the vehicles were only filled with medical equipment and medicine.


    It was only then that a Pyro Company officer walked over slowly. He immediately saw Wang Jing and asked, ¡°Are you the person in charge of this medical team?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± Wang Jing said in a neither servile nor overbearing manner, ¡°I¡¯m the vice president of the Trinity Institute and the director of Stronghold 62¡¯s First Hospital. We came here as part of the Trinity Institute¡¯s usual medical exchange program, but we didn¡¯t expect a war to break out.¡±


    ¡°Your ID?¡± the Pyro Company officer said.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he heaved a sigh of relief. At least, the attitude the other party was showing did not seem like he was going to kill anyone indiscriminately.


    Ren Xiaosu had taken a gamble when he got out of the vehicle. In the past, Ren Xiaosu always had a very prized impression of the Pyro Company. One was that they were unscrupulous when doing their missions, and the other was that they would stand up for humanity in times of trouble. It was very paradoxical behavior.


    He thought to himself that since he could not get out of this situation through violence, he would have to reveal himself as a member of the medical team and see how the Pyro Company would handle them.


    If the other party still wanted to take action against them, he would have to try his best and fight his way out.


    At this moment, Wang Jing handed his identification to the Pyro Company¡¯s officer. The officer read it and said, ¡°In principle, we will not harm any medical personnel. But how can I be sure that you all are medical professionals? Your ID could be forged.¡±


    Wang Jing was a little put on the spot. ¡°Why don¡¯t you get someone to test us? I¡¯m sure that all of us can pass the test.¡±


    Suddenly, an officer jogged over to the Pyro Company officer and whispered something to him. The Pyro Company officer¡¯s expression suddenly changed as he immediately said to his deputymander next to him, ¡°Gather all of these doctors into a truck. Everyone, retreat to the North immediately!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. What was going on? Why were the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces retreating to the North? Were they not going to upy Stronghold 31?


    The officer handed Wang Jing¡¯s identification back to him. ¡°All of you have been temporarily conscripted. From now on, no one is allowed to act on their own.¡±


    Someone from the Trinity Institute said anxiously, ¡°Why do we have to go north? We¡¯ve already shown you our identification. We¡¯re only doctors! We don¡¯t know how to fight a war!¡±


    The Pyro Company officer said coldly, ¡°A new war has broken out in the North. Stronghold 176 has been massacred, and our Pyro Company has entered a Level Onebat readiness state. It just so happens that we have wounded soldiers in the war against the Kong Consortium and we don¡¯t have enough medical supplies left. Everyone, please rest assured and focus on saving the wounded and dying among our troops. Isn¡¯t it all the same no matter where you treat your patients?¡±


    Someone wondered, ¡°Isn¡¯t Stronghold 176 the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory? What has it got to do with the Pyro Company?¡±


    The officer red at the person who spoke. ¡°This time, we¡¯re facing a foreign enemy. Our Pyro Company has to make them pay in blood for the Central ins people who died in Stronghold 176.¡±


    After that, the officer jumped onto a military off-road vehicle and sped northwards.


    Following, the two toons escorted the group from the Trinity Institute into a military transport truck and headed north with them.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. They looked out of the truck and saw Stronghold 31 getting farther and farther away from them. What kind of war had caused the Pyro Company to give up on Stronghold 31 when it was already theirs for the taking?


    Surely these people had note here in the middle of the night to give the Kong Consortium a Valentine¡¯s Day surprise, right?


    Wait a minute. Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered that Wang Jing had once mentioned... the enemies north of the grasnds.


    But Stronghold 176 was not exactly next to the Pyro Company. Why did the Pyro Company, who looked like they had a deep-seated resentment against the Wang Consortium, give up on such a huge interest so decisively?

 Chapter 830 - Under the cover of the Pyro Company

    <h4>Chapter 830: Under the cover of the Pyro Company</h4>


    The military transport truck wobbled unsteadily as it drove northwards. Cold wind poured in through the gaps of the cabin¡¯s canvas and made everyone feel the biting cold of the night.


    The doctors of Trinity Institute had already fallen into deep sleep. Ren Xiaosu looked at the long convoy of Pyro Company troops behind them. The headlights of the vehicles were constantly swaying in the dark as they bounced up and down on the bumpy ground.


    The Pyro Company probably felt that doctors did not have muchbat capacity, and with their weapons already confiscated, they did not have to worry about them causing any trouble.


    Or perhaps the Pyro Company had already verified the identity and purpose of the Trinity Institute through their intelligencework. In short, the Pyro Company did not even assign any guards to watch over Wang Jing and the others.


    At this moment, the Pyro Company did not know what kind of people they had actually brought into the Pyro Company.


    Honestly, the kind-hearted Ren Xiaosu really did not want to bring harm to the Pyro Company while hiding among them. But the Pyro Company seemed to disagree.


    The Pyro Company had already been traveling for three days straight and did not stop to rest throughout the journey. Every vehicle was assigned with three drivers working three shifts so that the convoy could keep moving for all 24 hours of the day.


    Each day, the troops would only take an hour to reorganize during mealtime before setting off again.


    Wang Jing and the others were only doctors, so they could not withstand such a torturous journey. Wang Jing went down with a fever the next day, but as their medicine was confiscated, they could not treat him.


    While everyone was worrying over what to do, Ren Xiaosu braved up and approached the Pyro Company officer while the troops were reorganizing. The officer looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu secretly stuffed a watch into his hand and said, ¡°The weather¡¯s too cold, and one of our people has fallen sick. He¡¯s running a fever. Can you give me 13 nkets? After all, we¡¯re now considered military doctors. In the future, we¡¯ll have to treat yourrades. It won¡¯t do y¡¯all any good if we die while traveling to the front line.¡±


    In the end, the officer looked at the watch and handed it back to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°We were negligent in this matter. We forgot to distribute the gear to you all. I¡¯ll get someone to bring them over to youter.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He did not expect the other party to return the watch to him. After all, watches were also considered a type of currency in this day and age. Although it was not a hard currency like gold, it could still be exchanged for money at a pawnshop. And it would fetch a good value too.


    Seeing that the other party was not particrly difficult to talk to, he probed, ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve never fought in a war before. Will we be a burden if we follow y¡¯all to the front line?¡±


    That Pyro Company officer chuckled. ¡°You still want to go to the front line when you¡¯re so weak? Don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t make you go there. In four days, I¡¯ll send you all to the makeshift medical center at the rear of the front line as we nned. The mes of war will not reach you there. We¡¯re conscripting you all not to fight, but to do what you¡¯re best at.¡±


    ¡°Alright, thank you. You¡¯re absolutely right. How can weaklings like us head to the front line!¡± Ren Xiaosu expressed his gratitude.


    However, Ren Xiaosu secretly thought to himself that a doctor¡¯s mission was to dedicate their limited life to an unlimited cause in the medical field. Meanwhile, what he was best at was actually to limit the lives of others.


    Thinking about it this way, it really did seem like he had something inmon with doctors. Both had something to do with the limit of lives.


    For a moment, he even wanted to go to the front line to see if the northern tribe was strong enough.


    Half an hourter, not only did a Pyro Company soldier send over more than a dozen nkets, he sent over six antibiotic pills as well. The Pyro Company soldier said coldly, ¡°You guys better pray that you don¡¯t fall sick. Medicine is already so scarce, and once we start fighting those people from the north, there won¡¯t be any left for you all.¡±


    This left Ren Xiaosu a little surprised. Not only did the Pyro Company officer refuse to ept his watch, he even had a surprise for him.


    Ren Xiaosu had not intended to ask for any medicine in the first ce, because he already had some in his storage space, so he could secretly feed it to Wang Jing.


    After everyone wrapped themselves up in the nkets, they looked at Ren Xiaosu with gratitude.


    They knew very well that regardless of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s purpose at the Kong Consortium, the Pyro Company would still have attacked Stronghold 31. If not for Ren Xiaosu, they might have been killed when the rioters went to the residential neighborhood.


    Ren Xiaosu was also the one who braved up and negotiated with the Pyro Company for supplies. For a moment, Ren Xiaosu, who was the youngest among them, became everyone¡¯s pir after Wang Jing fell ill.


    Over the past three days, what made things even worse was that Sima Gang and Liang Ce kept vomiting for an entire day while sprawled over the back of the truck. This was due to motion sickness. It was only when they had nothing more to vomit that they started getting used to the bumpy ride.


    The two of them did not feel much when they were riding in the off-road vehicles earlier, but it was different in the military transport trucks, especially when they were traveling on the bumpy roads. There were even potholes created by artillery shelling, so it could be imagined just how intense the war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium was.


    While Liang Ce and Sima Gang were vomiting, Ren Xiaosu could see the driver of the vehicle behind themughing at their expense. It was as though he were some military veteran gloating at the new recruits.


    Actually, this also surprised Ren Xiaosu a little. In the past, he had always thought the Pyro Company members were just a group of emotionless war machines. But now, Ren Xiaosu felt that these people were no different from other people.


    However, there were also times when Ren Xiaosu was unhappy with the Pyro Company while traveling with them. Every day during mealtime, they would have to wait for all the Pyro Company troops to finish eating before they could collect their meals.


    But sometimes, the chow squad would start packing up in advance before the hourlong break was over so as not to dy their advancement. As such, Ren Xiaosu and the others did not manage to collect their meals. They could only hope they could collect their meals faster during the next break.


    What left Ren Xiaosu speechless was that this was not a result of someone deliberately making things difficult for them. It was just that this was the Pyro Company¡¯s usual practice. It was not only them who did not get to eat. Even some of the Pyro Company soldiers who were dyed by their vehicle repair work would not get a hot meal if they arrivedte.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s various fighting forces strictly adhered to time discipline.


    Along the way, Ren Xiaosu secretly gave a piece of chocte to Yang Xiaojin that she stuffed into her mouth when no one was watching.


    As he could not exin the source of the food, Ren Xiaosu did not give any of it to the others.


    Although they often did not get to eat, Yang Xiaojin was never worried she would go hungry. She knew Ren Xiaosu had a lot of things hidden on him. No matter where he went, Ren Xiaosu would always be prepared.


    Ren Xiaosu seemed to be carrying a warehouse with him. He could dig out everything from pork trotters, chocte, and crackers, to grenades, heavy machine guns, and poker cards.


    Yes, there were even poker cards among the items.


    After witnessing the power of Explosive Poker, Yang Xiaojin felt that anytime ying cards appeared in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands, what everyone should do was not to call ndlord¡±[1] but to evacuate immediately.


    ¡°I heard from that Pyro Company officer that it¡¯ll take another four days to reach the front line in the North.¡± Ren Xiaosu said to everyone as he leaned against the canvas in the truck¡¯s cabin, ¡°When the timees, we¡¯ll be assigned to a makeshift medical center at the rear of the front line. There¡¯s no need to worry about having to go onto the battlefield.¡±


    [1] In Fight the Landlord, one person calls ndlord¡± if they believe they have a strong enough hand to beat everyone else. The others be ¡°peasants¡± and will try to collectively beat thendlord.

 Chapter 831 - Special treatment

    <h4>Chapter 831: Special treatment</h4>


    ¡°It¡¯s great to hear that we don¡¯t have to head to the front line,¡± Wang Jing said weakly. After taking some antibiotics today, he was feeling much better. Ren Xiaosu even went to get some warm water for him.


    He looked at Ren Xiaosu. The young man had already reverted back to his harmless and innocent persona after the battle in the stronghold. If they had not witnessed for themselves how this fellow had performed a ¡°craniotomy¡± on Kong Erdong, everyone would probably think that Ren Xiaosu was just a normal cardiac surgeon.


    Suddenly, someone sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯m so hungry. If we don¡¯t get any food, I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ll die of starvation before we even get to the medical center. Ren Xiaosu, do you have any ideas?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do about that.¡± Sima Gang wrapped himself in a nket and said limply, ¡°As you all can see, every time Ren Xiaosu went to line up for food, if they refuse to serve him, they¡¯ll refuse to serve him. I¡¯ve seen many of the Pyro Company soldiers getting turned away as well.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not ming Ren Xiaosu.¡± The person who spoke up quickly responded, ¡°What kind of person do you think I am? Xiaosu has already done a lot for us. I just thought I¡¯d ask if he had any good ideas since he¡¯s so resourceful.¡±


    Although they were all adults, they could not help but hope that Ren Xiaosu coulde up with something whenever they faced any thorny survival issues. However, Sima Gang looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Xiaosu, you don¡¯t have to feel bad. Since we still get about a meal a day, we should be able to make it to the medical center. At that time, we¡¯ll definitely have enough to eat.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and said, ¡°I¡¯d better think of something. If we keep having to endure the hunger and cold while sleeping in the truck bed for another four days, it <i>will</i> be a problem.¡±


    Normally, it would be fine if they had to go hungry for a few days. But weathering the arduous journey while enduring the hunger and cold, some of them might fall sick.


    After saying that, he went off to look for the Pyro Company officer again as the troops were reorganizing. The officer was in his vehicle reading an unknown newspaper. When Ren Xiaosu approached him, no one even tried to stop him. The Pyro Company soldiers really treated them like helpless doctors.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized the Pyro Company¡¯s troops had an advantage that no one else had. All theirmanding officers possessed extremely strong physical fitness, and they could even survive gun attacks like the T5batants. In many cases, this would prevent the total copse of the troops if themander were to suddenly be killed.


    When the Pyro Company officer heard the footsteps, he looked up at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Anything the matter? Is Mr. Wang Jing feeling better?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s better now. Thank you for the antibiotics,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The Pyro Company officer nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°There¡¯s no need to thank me. From a rational perspective, if the doctors can avoid getting sick, they can save more of myrades in the uing war.¡±


    ¡°Sir, how should I address you?¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked.


    ¡°P5092.¡± The Pyro Company officer said with a smile, ¡°The name might feel a little unfamiliar to you all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He knew about the T5s, but this was his first time seeing a P5-ranked officer. So it turned out themanding officers within the ranks of the Pyro Company were prefixed with a ¡°P.¡± Moreover, his serial number was 092. It seemed like he was someone quite high ranking in the Pyro Company.


    P5092¡¯s curiosity was piqued. He looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯ve already verified all of your identities, but I¡¯m still curious about something. Although you¡¯re only a resident in your group, which isn¡¯t exactly very high ranking, you¡¯re the person handling everything. Why is it not the older ones looking for me instead? Aren¡¯t you afraid of us?¡±


    The Pyro Company members knew they had been demonized by the rest of the world, but they did not feel wronged. After all, their way of doing things had always been different from the other organizations. They only pursued the oue and did not care about the process.


    As such, normal people would fear the Pyro Company.


    But P5092 realized the young man in front of him did not seem to be afraid of him at all. And he even came to look for him twice as though it were a casual visit between neighbors.


    Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°I¡¯m actually very afraid of y¡¯all. But as a junior member of the group, of course I¡¯ll be running the errands.¡±


    P5092 smiled and said, ¡°I don¡¯t believe your exnation. Rather, I think it¡¯s because you¡¯re more responsible and braver than them. So tell me, what is it that you want this time?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Since we¡¯ve been conscripted as military doctors, can you issue us official military uniforms? We don¡¯t need any ranks, just the uniforms will do.¡±


    P5092 was a little puzzled. ¡°Why do you need military uniforms?¡±


    ¡°So that we can eat.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined clearly, ¡°If we¡¯re not in uniform, we have to wait for the other soldiers to finish collecting their meals before we can get ours.¡±


    P5092ughed. ¡°So it¡¯s just because of that?¡±


    ¡°Eating is very important.¡± Ren Xiaosu said seriously, ¡°You said earlier that from a rational perspective, if the military doctors are well taken care of, they can save more of yourradester on.¡±


    P5092 nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t issue you the military uniforms as it¡¯s a matter of principle. But I¡¯ll tell my men so you won¡¯t need to wait for them to finish collecting their meals before you get yours. But remember, I¡¯ll only make this exception for you alone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly bent down and picked up a watch from the ground. ¡°Eh, did you drop this watch, sir?¡±


    This time, P5092 did not reject it. He put on the watch and asked, ¡°Looks like you have another request?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°for the next few days, can you pass me the newspapers after you finish reading them?¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°No problem.¡± He then passed the newspaper in his hand to Ren Xiaosu.


    After Ren Xiaosu thanked him, he turned around and left. The deputymander came over and asked, ¡°Sir, why did you ede to so many of that kid¡¯s requests?¡±


    P5092 said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m not sure either. I just feel like there¡¯s something special about him, so maybe it¡¯s for the karma? Did you not notice that he isn¡¯t actually afraid of us at all? No matter how good his acting might be, his gaze can¡¯t fool me. His pupils never constricted throughout the conversation.¡±


    The deputymander wondered, ¡°Could he be a spy?¡±


    ¡°A spy?¡± P5092ughed and said, ¡°How could he be a spy when he¡¯s so skinny? Besides, doctors are highly specialized professionals, so spies won¡¯t usually use this as their cover. Go and inform the troops that he can collect his meals together with our soldiers from now on.¡±


    On the way back, Ren Xiaosu caught sight of anotherrge group of people entering the temporary camp from the south. It looked like there were quite a lot of them too.


    The troops who had conscripted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group were probably just part of the main forces responsible for the siege from the west. And now, the other troops had probably caught up.


    However, what surprised Ren Xiaosu was that there seemed to be even more escapees being escorted in that group. He wondered if they had also been temporarily conscripted by the Pyro Company like himself.


    Ren Xiaosu roughly estimated the number of escapees to be around 600. A small number of them were wearing sses and looked like they were intellectuals.


    A small portion of them were also carrying toolboxes in their hands, and it looked like they were technicians from the stronghold.


    As for the others, Ren Xiaosu could not tell who they might be.

 Chapter 832 - Planning ahead

    <h4>Chapter 832: nning ahead</h4>


    One by one, the military transport trucks entered the temporary camp. This time, the reorganization took longer than before andsted for a full four hours. It seemed that the Pyro Company troops were nning topletely assemble before setting off again.


    Tens of thousands of Pyro Company troops had already gathered on this route leading north. If one were to stand on a hill and gaze all the way to the end, the temporary camp would look like a vast sea, with the convoys of vehicles stretching as far as the eye could see.


    Only those who had seen it with their own eyes would understand how spectacr a formation of tens of thousands of soldiers was.


    Although these people hadunched a long-range raid on the South and destroyed the Kong Consortium¡¯s most impregnable Stronghold 32 and Stronghold 31, they did not care about the interests right before them and decisively returned to the North.


    Over a dozen military trucks escorting more than 600 escapees had stopped next to the vehicle that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group was in. If there were no surprises, the escapees would be grouped together and transported away.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully sized up the escapees who came from all walks of life. The only thing they had inmon was that they all looked exhausted.


    Inparison, those people were much worse off than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group. Not only did they not have nkets to keep warm with, even their seats were a little cramped.


    The truck carrying Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group was very spacious as there were only about a dozen people in it. However, more than 50 people were packed together in the backs of the vehicles that had just arrived. The people inside were all huddled together.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu went to look for the drivers of their truck. He secretly gave a watch to each of them. ¡°It¡¯s been hard on y¡¯all for the past few days, driving us around like this. We don¡¯t have anything valuable on us, so please let us express our gratitude with these watches.¡±


    The three Pyro Company soldiers did not reject him like the officer. Since they were not highly paid, they would be more than pleased to be given a watch.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s choice of giving away watches was also a particr one as it was unsuitable to gift gold bars. Although he was carrying a lot of gold bars, people would easily get tempted if they saw it. They might wonder if he still had some more gold bars, and that could easily invite disaster for him.


    As for gifting medicine? That would be unsuitable as well. Although Ren Xiaosu had also brought some antibiotics with him to use as a hard currency, he wanted to save them since war was about to break out soon.


    Hence, gifting a watch became the best choice. First, it would be easy to exin where he got it from. Second, it would be easy for the other party to trade it for cash after receiving it.


    This was something Wang Fugui had told him, and Ren Xiaosu took note of it and kept it in mind. Back at the ck market, he had bought dozens of watches all at once so he could use them for a time like this.


    The three Pyro Company soldiers were quite surprised. They even started chatting with Ren Xiaosu with great interest.


    After the Pyro Company troops finished reorganizing and before they got ready to set off again, some of the escapees from the other vehicles immediately rushed over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s truck and tried to take seats in it when they noticed it was quite empty. They thought they could finally sit a little morefortably.


    But before they could even climb onto the back of the truck, they were kicked right off by Ren Xiaosu.


    A middle-aged man who was kicked fell down hard on his butt. He flew into a rage. ¡°What are you doing!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°This is our vehicle. Get back to wherever you came from.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean your vehicle?¡± A dozen people were standing behind the middle-aged man, so he said confidently. ¡°What gives you the right to upy an entire truck when there¡¯s only a dozen of you?¡±


    The middle-aged man shouted at him, but Ren Xiaosu remained unmoved. As such, the middle-aged man went to look for the three Pyro Company soldiers in charge of transporting Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group. He put on an aggrieved look and startedining to them, ¡°Sirs, those captives in your vehicle are way too arrogant. We just wanted to¡ª¡±


    ¡°Get lost, or I¡¯ll beat you until you throw up your lunch,¡± interrupted the soldier sitting in the driver¡¯s seat coldly.


    The other escapees were taken aback by the words. This Pyro Company soldier was obviously siding with Ren Xiaosu.


    Sima Gang and the others looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise. They wondered when Ren Xiaosu had bribed the Pyro Company members. Ren Xiaosu had given away the watches so secretively that even the doctors were unaware.


    As Wang Jing was still sick, he said with a feeble smile, ¡°How¡¯d you get so crafty despite your age?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled, ¡°When you¡¯re out in the world, you can¡¯t survive long without being crafty. I only did this so that we can be morefortable.¡±


    Actually, this was the significance of Ren Xiaosu giving away the watches beforehand. He could not behave too arrogantly in the presence of the Pyro Company¡¯s troops unless he had some backing. Just like in prison, the notorious inmates could only push other inmates around because the prison guards were willing to turn a blind eye to them.


    Ren Xiaosu did not regard himself as a captive. But since he could not directly take Wang Jing out of this ce, he had to seek the best oue without breaking the rules.


    He still had plenty of gold bars left, so he could always buy more watches after giving them away. Although Ren Xiaosu loved money, he knew what ought to be spent would have to be spent.


    Even if he had been temporarily conscripted, he did not intend to put himself through too much hardship.


    When the military truck started moving off, the escapees standing outside could only dejectedly watch Ren Xiaosu and the others chatting andughing. Meanwhile, one of the soldiers who was responsible for escorting them had gotten down from the truck and was admonishing, ¡°Hurry back in the truck! Stop wasting time here!¡±


    Someone next to the middle-aged man whispered, ¡°That kid must have bribed the Pyro Company members. Why don¡¯t we offer them a gift as well?¡±


    The middle-aged man was stunned. ¡°What are we going to gift them? Do we still have anything valuable on us?¡±


    ¡°What about your watch?¡±


    ¡°Do you know how expensive my watch is? How can I give it to the Pyro Company members!¡± The middle-aged man angrily climbed back onto the truck and continued squeezing in with everyone else.


    Wang Jing looked at Ren Xiaosu at this moment and noticed he had actually brought back a newspaper. ¡°Where¡¯d you get the newspaper from? Whose publication is it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s Hope Media¡¯s newspaper.¡± Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°I got it from the Pyro Company officer.¡±


    Everyone was even more surprised. It had only been a few days, but Ren Xiaosu was already so chummy with the Pyro Company officer? He even managed to obtain a newspaper from the other party?


    Asking for a nket and whatnot could still be understood as a necessity. But asking for a copy of the paper made it seem like their rtionship had taken another step closer.


    Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°I can also line up with the Pyro Company soldiers to collect our meals from now on. When the timees, y¡¯all don¡¯t have to do anything. I¡¯ll bring the mess tins and collect the meals for everyone.¡±


    The containers used by the military for serving food were rectangr mess tins made of aluminum, the type that could be covered with a lid. Even if there were a dozen of them stacked up, Ren Xiaosu could still carry them easily. Although the officer said only he was allowed to collect the food, he did not specify how many portions he could collect, right?


    When Ren Xiaosu said that, everyone was overjoyed and a thought suddenly came to their minds. It seemed that there was nothing in this world that this young man could not handle.


    Yang Xiaojin sat in the truck with her arms around her knees and watched Ren Xiaosu chat with the doctors with a smile on her face. Actually, she was also a prideful youngdy, but it was not jewelry or riches that she liked. Yang Xiaojin only hoped that everyone would learn of how great the person she liked was. That young man was really one of a kind in this world.

 Chapter 833 - You’re not qualified

    <h4>Chapter 833: You¡¯re not qualified</h4>


    After setting off again, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin got together to read the newspaper they had just gotten. However, Ren Xiaosu was stunned the moment he started reading, because the entire page was about the Wang Consortium¡¯s garrison forces on the border. After the Pyro Company withdrew, they suddenlyunched an attack on the Kong Consortium. In just a single day, they upied two of their strongholds one after the other!


    The Kong Consortium¡¯s garrison troops no longer had any desire to continue fighting. The two strongholds did not even put up any resistance and opened the gates to surrender!


    Their surrender was likely the result of a privately engineered move the Wang Consortium had been undertaking for a long time. It was said that someone had been trying to persuade the highest-ranking military executive in these two strongholds to surrender, but they did not respond to the Wang Consortium because the Kong Consortium¡¯s boss was still around. Now that the entire Kong Consortium was in chaos, those two executives immediately gave up resisting when they realized it would be difficult to turn the situation around.


    After that, the Wang Consortium left some garrison troops behind and set off to the north to face the enemy.


    The Kong Consortium was already there for the taking. These two strongholds had been an obstacle to the Wang Consortium¡¯s advance east. Once they were taken, there would be no further obstacles hindering them from expanding eastwards.


    In the paper, Hope Media detailed how Stronghold 176 was massacred by the northern enemies. They reported how the Pyro Company had headed north to face the new enemy and gave up on attacking the Kong Consortium while the Wang Consortium took the opportunity and attacked the Kong Consortium.


    There were no subjectivity in the article, just a factual reporting of the events.


    But on the second page, Ren Xiaosu realized there was actually an article written personally by the chief editor, Jiang Xu. The entire article criticized the Wang Consortium¡¯s defeat in the North that led to the massacre of the city and how they took advantage of the situation to attack the Kong Consortium.


    ording to the article, the nomads had informed Stronghold 176 that an enemy wasing from the North. With more than 10 days to prepare, the Wang Consortium should have been able to deploy their entire military to face the enemy. However, even though the Wang Consortium had troops heading to the North, their main forces remained stationed on the Kong Consortium¡¯s border.


    Maybe the Wang Consortium might not have stopped the massacre even if their main forces had rushed to Stronghold 176¡¯s rescue. However, they would surely have been able to save a lot of people.


    During the massacre, some escapees were fortunate enough to escape from the stronghold and traveled south to seek protection from the Wang Consortium. However, they did not encounter any of the Wang Consortium¡¯s reinforcements even after traveling more than a 100 kilometers. In the end, they were still caught by the northern tribe and killed.


    And now, not only did the Wang Consortium fail to defend Stronghold 176 and send reinforcements to reim it, they evenunched an attack on the Kong Consortium. With the foreign enemying, they were still thinking of how to maximize their personal interests. This made Jiang Xu extremely angry and helpless.


    In contrast, Jiang Xu expressed his admiration for the Pyro Company¡¯s just actions. It would¡¯ve been a very difficult decision to give up upying Stronghold 31 and 32 when they were already theirs for the taking.


    Jiang Xu mentioned in his article that the residents of the Central ins should remember the Pyro Company¡¯s decision and the choice made by the Wang Consortium.


    At the same time, Jiang Xu appealed to the entire Alliance of Strongholds to work together to fend off foreign enemies. The massacre of the city announced the ambitions of the foreign tribe, so the Central ins people should put aside their differences and unite.


    When this news came out, the entire Alliance of Strongholds was in an uproar. The word ¡°massacre¡± horrified everyone, and everyone was raging at the Wang Consortium¡¯s indifference and how scheming they were.


    The third page was an interview between a Hope Media reporter and the Pyro Company¡¯s higher-ups. They described their confidence in fighting off the foreign enemies.


    The fourth page talked about the reporter¡¯s findings during an interview of the potential problems the Pyro Company might face while fighting the foreign enemy such as theck of medical facilities, medical supplies, clothing, and other logistics issues.


    After all, they had just finished fighting a war with the Kong Consortium. Before that, they had not expected something like this to suddenly happen in the North. As such, they had not made enough preparations.


    Rage mounted in the people in the other consortiums¡¯ strongholds as they condemned the Wang Consortium¡¯s actions. Many public figures stepped forward to openly praise the Pyro Company, while students starteding out onto the streets to raise funds for the Pyro Company¡¯s war efforts.


    Some of them donated medical supplies, while others said they were going to the North to volunteer. Qinghe University organized a volunteer group of more than 600 people to liaise with the Pyro Company. In a few days, they would head north with arge number of supplies to provide support.


    Once everyone read through the four pages and took in all the shocking news, they would see the words ¡°Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well¡± on the fifth page.


    This sentence suddenly became a faint hope in this era.


    When Ren Xiaosu put down the newspaper, Yang Xiaojin noticed his frown and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Jiang Xu¡¯s article was too critical this time. Will it infuriate the Wang Consortium? This report is tantamount to isting the Wang Consortium from the Alliance of Strongholds. The Wang Consortium has be quite tyrannical in their ways recently. Do you think Jiang Xu will be fine?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin immediately knew what Ren Xiaosu was worried about. ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll do anything to him. My aunt still has a bottom line when ites to such matters. No matter how Jiang Xu criticizes the Wang Consortium, he¡¯s only a journalist. He has no political stand or faction, so killing someone like that will cause public outrage.¡±


    ¡°I hope so.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    He then passed the newspaper to Wang Jing and the others for them to read. When Wang Jing got to the fifth page and saw that sentence, he suddenly said, ¡°I really wish I could get to know the person who said this.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows but did not say anything. However, Yang Xiaojin was sure that he was very happy right now...


    When it was time for dinner, Ren Xiaosu jumped out of the truck with over a dozen aluminum mess tins distributed by the Pyro Company before the vehicle could evene to a stop and ran all the way to the chow squad.


    He was holding six mess tins in his left hand and the rest in his other hand. The mess tins were stacked higher than his head. When the Pyro Company soldiers saw this sight, they were shocked. They had never seen someone collect their meals like this before!


    The soldiers on chow duty were also stunned. It was as they had seen a bootleg version of the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King[1]...


    One of the cooks said in surprise, ¡°Those who know will understand you¡¯re here to collect food, but those who don¡¯t will think you¡¯re here to subdue me with your magical weapon!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu opened the mess tins one by one. ¡°Please fill them to the brim!¡±


    The cooks were speechless. However, their superior had ordered that this young man could line up with the soldiers when it was time to eat, so no one said anything about it.


    After collecting the food, Ren Xiaosu ran back again with the mess tins. This somehow became an ¡°attraction¡± among the Pyro Company troops.


    When the other escapees saw Ren Xiaosu was allowed to collect food, they rushed over. But the moment they dashed over, they were pushed aside by the Pyro Company soldiers. ¡°Don¡¯t you know the rules? You¡¯re to wait for the Pyro Company¡¯s regr troops to finish collecting their food before you can collect yours.¡±


    The middle-aged man who had had an altercation with Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°If that kid can collect the food, why can¡¯t we? Isn¡¯t this discrimination?¡±


    The Pyro Company soldier sneered, ¡°We were specifically ordered by our superior to give him special treatment. If you want to be like him, go and look for ourmander. What? You scared?¡±


    The soldier was right. The other escapees were really not as bold as Ren Xiaosu to dare to keep asking for favors from P5092. Honestly speaking, P5092 was only willing to talk to Ren Xiaosu that much because he also found him very interesting.


    As such, the escapees could only watch Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group in their truck eat their fill while they waited aggrievedly for the Pyro Company soldiers to finish eating before being allowed to collect the leftovers. There might not even be any leftovers for them!


    The middle-aged man finally made up his mind. ¡°C¡¯mon, I don¡¯t believe we can¡¯t even get a proper meal if I give my watch away! Once themander epts my gift, we¡¯re gonna chase these people out of their vehicle!¡±


    With that, he went to look for P5092. But before he could even approach themander, he was chased away by a soldier guarding him.


    The middle-aged man smiled obsequiously and said, ¡°I¡¯m here to present something to themander.¡±


    The soldier sneered, ¡°Go back. Themander says you¡¯re not qualified.¡±


    ...


    [1] Li Jing, also known as Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li is a figure in Chinese mythology and a god in Chinese folk religion.

 Chapter 834 - Not believing himself to be an outsider

    <h4>Chapter 834: Not believing himself to be an outsider</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Even though the group from the Trinity Institute was able to eat meals during the past few days, they were having the leftovers the Pyro Company soldiers could not finish. Furthermore, therge pot of rice had gotten cold after being taken out for nearly an hour.


    In the current season, they were already very cold due to the weather. If they were to have a cold meal on top of that, you could just imagine how unbearable that felt.


    Moreover, there was as good as no meat in the leftover rice. At most, the cooks would just pour some meat broth over it. But now, their mess tins were covered byrge servings of braised chicken cubes, and the rice was also a nice soy sauce color due to the meat broth, making it look extremely appetizing.


    Liang Ce and the others gobbled up their food while harping, ¡°Xiaosu, you really have a way with people. You can even get along with the people of the Pyro Company.¡±


    As everyone had not bathed for many days, and having to eat and sleep in the truck, their faces were now very dirty. They looked no different from the escapees.


    Ren Xiaosu opened up a mess tin and handed it to Wang Jing. ¡°Elder, eat while it¡¯s hot.¡±


    Wang Jing said with a smile as he looked at Liang Ce and the others, ¡°Aren¡¯t you all going to thank Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    Sima Gang immediately took the lead and said, ¡°Thank you, Xiaosu. If it weren¡¯t for you, we probably wouldn¡¯t have made it to the medical center.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Sima Gang, +1!¡±


    Liang Ce said with a chuckle, ¡°Xiaosu, with our rtionship, I¡¯ll skip the thanking. But if you need any help in the future¡ª¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s better that you thank me,¡± interrupted Ren Xiaosu.


    Liang Ce said, ¡°Thank you...¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Liang Ce, +1!¡±


    Everyone in the back of the truck burst intoughter. They did not know why they wereughing, nor did they know what had triggered it. Perhaps it was the full meal they just had or because Ren Xiaosu had insisted that Liang Ce thank him.


    Their fatigue from the past few days seemed to have been swept away.


    However, it did not sound so nice to the other escapees when they heard theughter. In fact, it even sounded a little annoying. After all, while Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group had filled their stomachs tonight, the other escapees did not manage to get any food. They could only wait until tomorrow morning to see if they would have a chance of eating something.


    At this moment, a meek voice came from outside Ren Xiaosu¡¯s truck, ¡°Um, excuse me?¡±


    Not all the escapees were as hostile as that middle-aged man.


    The escapee who came over this time was a tall and skinny young man. He looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°I have a gold ring here. Can I buy a few meals off you?¡±


    Everyone in the vehicle looked at one another. Although Wang Jing was the leader of the Trinity Institute¡¯s medical team, he would definitely not make any decisions for Ren Xiaosu at a time like this.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before turning him down. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I was only allowed to collect our meals after receiving permission from the Pyro Company. I can¡¯t make the decision on this matter. Rather than looking for me, I think it¡¯s better that you approach them directly.¡±


    The escapee standing outside wore a look of reluctance. It was obvious that he was too afraid to interact with the Pyro Company members.


    For Ren Xiaosu, he had dealt with the Pyro Company on many asions, so he did not feel scared at all. But the average person would not feel that way when faced with the enemies that destroyed their cities and homes.


    Ren Xiaosu simply ignored the man. Right now, he only wanted to protect the group from Trinity Institute and did not care about others.


    What if the Pyro Company members stopped providing any meals to the Trinity Institute when they saw that he had secretly epted money from other people?


    When that escapee left in disappointment, Wang Jing suddenly asked, ¡°Actually, you can help him, right?¡±


    ¡°Elder, there¡¯s too many people in the world that need help. One more won¡¯t make a difference anyway,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied calmly. ¡°Do you think I did the wrong thing?¡±


    ¡°No, no, no.¡± Wang Jing shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s just that I¡¯m a little sad and sorry all of a sudden. A good kid like you must¡¯ve experienced a lot of hardship to make a choice like that. You¡¯re not in the wrong, and I¡¯m in no position to criticize you either. It¡¯s just that we don¡¯t know when the world will be better again.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He did not expect Wang Jing to say this, so he fell silent.


    Wang Jing was right. It was the world that taught him how to live in it. He had suffered countless hardships all those years, so how could he have the mindset to help others?


    At some point, Ren Xiaosu remembered that someone had told him before that he was also a ray of light.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked Wang Jing, ¡°Elder, do you think I¡¯m a good or a bad person?¡±


    Wang Jing asked, ¡°If it weren¡¯t for us, what would you have done when you encountered the Pyro Company troops?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and answered, ¡°They couldn¡¯t have stopped me, so I¡¯d¡¯ve left.¡±


    ¡°So you only stayed behind for our sake, right?¡± Wang Jing said with a smile, ¡°A good person doesn¡¯t have to save everyone in the world. It would be too tiring for them otherwise. You¡¯ve already done all that you could, so your conscience should be clear.¡±


    Wang Jing did not directly answer Ren Xiaosu¡¯s question, yet it seemed like he answered it.


    The Pyro Company continued advancing northwards with a rumble. Ren Xiaosu sat in the jostling truck with a nket covering him and looked out at the starry sky and wilderness.


    Yang Xiaojin was quietly holding his hand under the nket. Her soft hand was warm but had a firm grip.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly smiled. Why was he thinking so much?


    But at this moment, for some reason, Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered what the artificial intelligence had said to him before. It had witnessed the way humans treated other lifeforms at Stronghold 61.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu said the creeper vine was eliminated because it had hurt humans. The artificial intelligence then told him it had also hurt humans before.


    Just as Wang Jing had just said, humans would always make decisions based on their past experiences. Thus, if the artificial intelligence also had a life of its own since it was created, then like a baby born into this world, would the things it saw also affect its future choices?


    Just like when Ren Xiaosu saw Zhang Baogen being taken away by Stronghold 113¡¯s soldiers, he immediately decided to stay hidden and regarded them as imaginary enemies.


    Otherwise, he would not have kept his identity a secret either. But he would feel freer if he could just be a supernatural being openly.


    And now, wasn¡¯t the artificial intelligence that had concealed itself simr to him who had concealed his identity as a supernatural being back then?


    Thinking about it, Ren Xiaosu drifted off to sleep with his hand still holding Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hand tightly.


    ...


    The next morning, when the Pyro Company troops were regrouping and eating again, Ren Xiaosu decisively dashed to the cooks with two stacks of mess tins. The cooks¡¯ eyelids kept twitching when they saw him. They looked like they were afraid Ren Xiaosu would call their names and dare them to respond.<sup>1</sup>


    After breakfast, Ren Xiaosu eagerly went to look for P5092 again. He wanted to ask if today¡¯s newspaper had arrived yet.


    P5092 was amused when he saw Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You came to visit so early in the morning? You really think this is your home?¡±


    ¡°Well...¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the newspaper in P5092¡¯s hand and said, ¡°... since you¡¯ve already finished reading the first and second pages, why don¡¯t you let me read them?¡±

 Chapter 835 - Even willing to sacrifice themselves

    <h4>Chapter 835: Even willing to sacrifice themselves</h4>


    When P5092 heard Ren Xiaosu say that, he got so angry heughed. ¡°You really don¡¯t believe yourself to be an outsider!¡± But even so, he handed the first two pages of the newspaper to Ren Xiaosu.


    As a result, a strange scene yed out in the Pyro Company¡¯s temporary camp. As one of the highest-ranking officers of the main forces, P5092 was sitting in the back of an off-road vehicle and leisurely reading a newspaper.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, an escapee conscripted into the military, was sitting in the driver¡¯s seat with his legs crossed and reading a newspaper as well.


    In the eyes of everyone, the difference in their statuses could not be more different, yet the two of them did not seem to mind at all and got along very well.


    Moreover, P5092 even took the initiative to hand the newspaper to Ren Xiaosu page by page after he was done reading. And Ren Xiaosu took it from him very naturally.


    The escapees who were still lining up to collect their food were dumbfounded. ¡®<i>Who is this guy? What¡¯s his background? Why is he so friendly with themander?! Is he even a fucking escapee?!</i>¡®


    Even the Pyro Company soldiers were a little confused by this, to say nothing of the escapees...


    Reading the newspaper, Ren Xiaosu found out there was nothing much that happened today. It was reported that the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces were currently rushing to the northern battlefield, and while the northern tribe had made contact with the Wang Consortium at the front line at Mt. Baiwen, neither side had gained any advantage over the other. They were basically just probing each other.


    Then there were bits and pieces of misceneous news. For example, Qinghe University was done preparing the material assistance, and the first batch of supplies would be sent out this very afternoon. It would not only be the Luoyang City garrison troops who were going to escort the convoy, but some students were heading to the front lines to volunteer as well.


    The Luoyang City garrison troops would have to liaise with the Pyro Company if they wanted to head north. After all, having another force¡¯s troops enter their territory would be a little unsettling.


    For example, the Wang Consortium had already rejected the Zhou Consortium¡¯s offer of material assistance. Everyone felt that the Wang Consortium¡¯s rejection was purely because they did not want to give the Zhou Consortium a reason to assemble their troops.


    But what surprised everyone was that the Pyro Company actually epted Luoyang City¡¯s offer without any hesitation. They also allowed them to personally escort the supplies up north and even agreed to let Luoyang City¡¯s garrison troops participate in the war against the foreign invaders.


    Importantly, participating in a war together was a very sensitive issue. This was equivalent to the Pyro Company showing the defensive deployment map of their northern defensive line to the Qinghe Group.


    But everyone was a little puzzled by this. Although the rtionship between the Qinghe Group and the Pyro Company had always been good, they were not this close. When Luoyang City was previously in a precarious situation, the Pyro Company did not even send any reinforcements to support them.


    After Ren Xiaosu finished reading the newspaper, he asked, ¡°Does the Pyro Company have any opinions on this war? Can y¡¯all win?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not about whether we can win or not, but that we must win no matter what!¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°Are many people gonna die?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°The reason that the Pyro Company allowed the Luoyang City garrison troops to participate in the war was probably because y¡¯all feel that your troops might not be strong enough, right?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t say for sure.¡± P5092 shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s only the barbarians¡¯ advance guard that have arrived at the moment. So it¡¯s very difficult to judge how many more of them willeter .... Why am I telling you this?!¡±


    P5092 stopped discussing the military situation with Ren Xiaosu any further. Why would a P5-ranked officer like him talk about this with Ren Xiaosu? He snapped, ¡°Have you finished reading the newspaper? Go back to your vehicle if you¡¯re done reading!¡±


    ¡°I have another question.¡± Ren Xiaosu ignored P5092 and started asking again, ¡°I saw y¡¯all bring in another few hundred escapees from Stronghold 31. Who are those people? Why did you arrest them?¡±


    ¡°Around half of them are maintenance workers.¡± P5092 said, ¡°When war breaks out, the mechanized troops must have their equipment well serviced. Defective vehicles are as good as worthless. The rest are either the former higher-ups of the Kong Consortium who have been captured to facilitate our interrogation or some researchers.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that it was no wonder he saw several trucks transporting research data earlier. So it turned out the Pyro Company had seized some of the Kong Consortium¡¯s research data.


    ¡°But the maintenance workers would have to be deployed to the front lines, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± P5092 nodded.


    ¡°But they might not be willing to head to the front lines since they could end up dying.¡± Ren Xiaosu pursed his lips.


    ¡°That¡¯s not up to them.¡± P5092 said with an extremely firm attitude, ¡°For this war, we¡¯re even willing to sacrifice ourselves at any moment, so why can¡¯t they?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. This was how the Pyro Company should be, not treating others as human at all. However, Ren Xiaosu realized the Pyro Company members were also quite ruthless. That was because they were not only ruthless on others but also ruthless towards themselves.


    Back when Stronghold 74 was attacked by the Experimentals, the Pyro Companybatants were willing to perish together with the Experimentals by rushing in with TNT.


    It seemed that in the Pyro Company¡¯s view, the northern tribe was just the same as the Experimentals. They were all regarded as ¡°anomalies.¡± As for them, they thought of themselves as the protector of the Central ins people, even though the Central ins people did not agree with that.


    P5092 nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Do you think that what I¡¯m doing is a little unfair to them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything.


    P5092 continued, ¡°There¡¯s no such thing as fairness in the world. Have you ever considered that if our Pyro Company is defeated in the North, they¡¯ll die all the same? Then who¡¯ll protect them when those beasts from the north invade the South? Can they depend on the vulnerable paper tiger, the Kong Consortium? Or would it be the Wang Consortium?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought there was nothing wrong with P5092¡¯s argument. If the Pyro Company really got wiped out in the North, those people in the South would still die even if they did not get conscripted now. It was just a matter of dying earlier orter.


    P5092 continued, ¡°We are doing this for the survival of the Central ins¡¯ humans. You probably think that since there¡¯s so many people in the Central ins, there¡¯s no worry about them getting wiped out. But what I feel is that they¡¯re extremely vulnerable and can¡¯t withstand any more threats. Do you know how many people used to live in a medium-size city before The Cataclysm? 10 million! But now, there¡¯s only a few hundred thousand people living in a stronghold. No matter how great human civilization used to be before The Cataclysm, there aren¡¯t many people left now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned by this revtion. He used to think the cities before The Cataclysm were not much different from the current strongholds. But whenparing 10 million people with a few hundred thousand, he finally realized what that disaster did to mankind.


    P5092mented, ¡°Between a disaster and the next day, you never know which wille first. I know that other people will not understand this, but we don¡¯t need them to understand. When a disaster strikes again, Neo-Humans blessed with stronger physical fitness will definitely survive to the end. Not everyone is as fortunate as superhumans, but the Pyro Company can bring this ¡®blessing¡¯ to everyone. It¡¯s just that the current technology has not been perfected yet.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, you don¡¯t have to tell me so much.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°I didn¡¯t say that you did anything wrong. Actually, I¡¯m on the side of the Pyro Company this time. It¡¯s everyone¡¯s responsibility to defend against foreign enemies, so we shouldn¡¯t have to let the Pyro Company take on everything by themselves. Can¡¯t you see that I¡¯m also ying my part? Don¡¯t worry, when yourrades get handed to me for treatment, as long as it¡¯s just external injuries and they¡¯re still breathing, I won¡¯t let them die.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu walked back to the Trinity Institute¡¯s truck. Before leaving, he even waved and said, ¡°See you tomorrow.¡±


    P5092 was dazed for a long time. When did the two of them apparently be such close friends? See you tomorrow?


    On the way back, the escapees noticed Ren Xiaosu had somehow be the most privileged person among the Pyro Company¡¯s captives. Many of the Pyro Company soldiers even took the initiative to greet Ren Xiaosu when they saw him. Some of them even offered him cigarettes!


    The middle-aged man who had had a dispute with Ren Xiaosu got a little nervous. Would that kid bear a grudge against him? If the other party decided to make things difficult for him with the troops, no one would speak up for him, right?

 Chapter 836 - Warfare on the front line!

    <h4>Chapter 836: Warfare on the front line!</h4>


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s status within the Pyro Company¡¯s troops was indeed special. After all, to be reading the newspapers together with P5092, who knew what the rtionship between them was like?


    As such, the Pyro Company soldiers who witnessed the friendly scene in the morning started bing very courteous towards Ren Xiaosu. Those who did not see it had heard about an escapee who was on good terms with theirmander, so they took care not to offend him.


    Honestly, the Pyro Company soldiers were also very puzzled about the rtionship between theirmander and this young man.


    As a result, when Ren Xiaosu returned to the Trinity Institute¡¯s truck, the three soldiers who had epted his watches actually ran over and said they wanted to return them. However, Ren Xiaosu refused to take them back and evenforted the three soldiers in turn, ¡°Y¡¯all can just keep them without any worries. It¡¯s alright, I gave it to y¡¯all as thanks for your help on the journey. It doesn¡¯t mean that I don¡¯t have to thank y¡¯all just because I¡¯m bros with yourmander. That¡¯s not right!¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu convinced the three soldiers and sent them away, the news that Ren Xiaosu and P5092 were bros spread like wildfire. When it was time to collect their food the next morning, the cooks even enthusiastically asked Ren Xiaosu what he wanted to eat for lunch...


    Looking on, the other escapees could not ept this situation. They were still unable to get any food, yet this young man was allowed to order whatever dishes he liked with the Pyro Company¡¯s troops!


    Why was there such a huge difference in their treatment?!


    On the same day, the Pyro Company¡¯s marching n was suddenly elerated. Ren Xiaosu could clearly sense the vehicle driving faster, so he leaned on the guardrail at the front of the bed and asked the soldiers, ¡°Why have y¡¯all suddenly sped up?¡±


    The three soldiers said, ¡°The higher-ups have ordered that we must get to the front line within two days. It¡¯s not only Stronghold 176 that has been attacked; the northern tribe has also appeared to the north of our Pyro Company. They¡¯ve already ughtered the workers in two of our factories, so we need to drive them away and build a defensive line at our north before their main forces arrive in the Central ins.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started thinking. It seemed that this northern tribe wasunching an all-out attack on the Central ins. They actually intended to take on the Wang Consortium and the Pyro Company together?!


    Were they being too confident, or did they not understand the situation in the Central ins at all?


    He sat back down in the truck bed and watched the long stretch of vehicles crossing mountains and rivers. Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like he was fighting alongside the Pyro Company to ovee the difficulties in front of them. It was a very strange feeling, and Ren Xiaosu was unable to exin how two initially opposing sides would suddenly work together to deal with a foreign enemy.


    As spring was already here, the entire wilderness was starting to turn green. The frozen streams had broken through their icy seal as snowmelt began flowing down the mountains, converging into a turbulent river. When the river crashed into the rocks, whitewater rapids surged.


    If the Pyro Company seeded in fending off the foreign enemies, the sight of everything here would be preserved. But if they failed, the mountain streams would run red with blood.


    On the third day, the Pyro Company troops finally made it to the forward operating base that was rearmost of the front line. But to Ren Xiaosu and the others¡¯ surprise, the entire forward operating base was in a state of chaos. The veterans who had returned from the front line were leaning against the walls and hugging their guns as they slept. They were all grimy and looked extremely pathetic.


    Ren Xiaosu and the others also saw a lot of wounded soldiers being carried into the base¡¯s medical center from the north.


    Outside the medical center, someone had built a drying area for clothes with hundreds of wooden stakes and steel wire. There were bed sheets, clothes, and bandages hanging.


    It was a ghastly sight to still see bloodstains on those clothes that were washed and dried.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized the war in the North was far more brutal than he had imagined while they were rushing to the front line the past few days!


    Someone was carrying a wounded person and crying out loudly outside the three-story building of the temporary medical center, ¡°Someone, please save our toonmander!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched this scene from afar. It was the first time he had seen a Pyro Company member crying. So it turned out these people¡¯s emotions were also normal and they would feel sad for theirrades.


    Ren Xiaosu had never seen such a sight before. In his impression, these people would not show any emotions even if their teammates had died.


    It did not matter whether it was the Midnight or Dusk teams. They were all the same.


    Yang Xiaojin seemed to have sensed his confusion. ¡°The people in the intelligence agency are different from those in the fighting forces. People in the intelligence agency don¡¯t spend much time together. Some of them only work together temporarily when carrying out their missions. Moreover, those in the intelligence business tend to always abandon any useless emotions.¡±


    Some other soldiers were standing next to the Pyro Companybatant who was wailing. Next to them on the ground was another Pyro Companybatant on a stretcher who no one knew was dead or alive.


    Someone ran out from the medical center to receive the patient. However, he said awkwardly, ¡°There aren¡¯t enough doctors in the medical center right now. All of them are busy treating the patients who were sent here earlier on. You all can carry him inside first and wait for a while!¡±


    The Pyro Companybatants who had brought the wounded soldier over were unwilling toply. They pulled the nurse back. ¡°Please save him. He was hacked in the abdomen with an axe. If you don¡¯t save him now, it¡¯ll be toote!¡±


    The Pyro Companybatants were physically stronger than most people. So even though the wounded soldier was axed in the abdomen, he was still able to endure the pain for almost half an hour. But no matter how strong he might be, he could still die.


    ¡°Quick, save him!¡± Wang Jing beckoned for everyone to get out of the vehicle.


    The doctors from the Trinity Institute experienced a lot of resentment and disappointment on their way here. But when they saw a dying person in front of them, the first thing they thought of was to save him. Everything else could be left forter.


    Ren Xiaosu helped Wang Jing down from the truck. Wang Jing said to the nurse, ¡°I¡¯m Wang Jing from the Wang Consortium¡¯s Trinity Institute. Please prep for surgery!¡±


    The nurse looked pleasantly surprised upon hearing Wang Jing¡¯s name. ¡°You¡¯re Dr. Wang Jing?¡±


    Only now did Ren Xiaosu realize how well-known Wang Jing¡¯s name was in the medical industry. The nurse absolutely trusted him after only hearing his name.


    But the nurse said hesitantly, ¡°The OR is fully upied. It¡¯s not that we refuse to let you use them, but there¡¯s just too many wounded around. All the doctors capable of performing surgery are already working hard to save lives. Some of them haven¡¯t even slept for an entire day.¡±


    Wang Jing was caught in a dilemma. What should they do if they could not even get an operating room to work in? How could he possibly operate on a patient in a non-sterile environment?


    Nearby, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said to Wang Jing and the nurse, ¡°Nurse, please bring over the suture needles and thread. Elder, can you help do the stitching? I still have some ancestral medicine here that should be able to save him.¡±


    With that, the nurse turned around and went back into the medical center to bring out a tray of medical equipment such as hemostatic forceps, suture needles, and thread. Wang Jing gave Ren Xiaosu a look. ¡°You should know how serious the consequences will be if bacteria and viruses remain in his body without proper disinfection. Are you sure of it?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grinned. ¡°Elder, don¡¯t worry.¡±


    After that, Wang Jing actually started stitching up the patient¡¯s wounds. This Pyro Companybatant was so seriously injured that even his intestines had been cut into, and his entire person was in a state of shock due to blood loss. In the nurse¡¯s opinion, it was impossible to save this person. But it seemed that Wang Jing trusted the young man next to him very much.


    Each time Wang Jing stitched up a wound, Ren Xiaosu would apply some ck medicine onto it. He didn¡¯t care whether the ck medicine would have the same effects after being applied onto internal organs aspared to taking it orally. He would have to make sure the wounded soldier survived first.


    The Pyro Companybatants next to them were still in a state of despair. But they suddenly realized that when the ck medicine was applied onto the first wound, their toonmander¡¯s pallid face regained some color. They looked at one another and wondered what kind of medicine that was. How could it be so miraculous?!


    Not far away, P5092 was watching this scene with great interest. The deputymander next to him wanted to say something, but P5092 stopped him. ¡°Let¡¯s watch and see.¡±

 Chapter 837 - Let’s meet again if fate wills it

    <h4>Chapter 837: Let¡¯s meet again if fate wills it</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Actually, before that toonmander was stretchered over, the soldiers who carried him here had given up hope.


    Although they were not doctors, they could still understand that after a person was hacked in the abdomen with an axe and spilled their guts, not even God could save them, especially if the treatment was dyed for half an hour.


    So the soldiers had only cried in front of the hospital because they had lost their rationality.


    But little did they expect that with Wang Jing¡¯s stitching and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s application of the ck medicine, their toonmander¡¯s pale face actually turned pink again.


    The scariest thing was that their toonmander¡¯s crotch suddenly...


    A soldier wiped his tears and muttered, ¡°Comrades, a dead person shouldn¡¯t react that way, right?¡±


    ¡°Of course they won¡¯t. Didn¡¯t toon Commander lose a lot of blood? Why is he still getting a rush of blood there....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself while applying the ck medicine, ¡°So the ck medicine can really trigger the other effect when applied on internal organs!¡±


    Since he had never tried it out before, he was happy to learn something.


    When a nearby nurse saw this sight, she was shocked. Not only was the almost dead patient¡¯s heartbeat andplexion going back to normal, he was even... getting a rush of blood there.


    At this moment, the toonmander who was lying on the stretcher coughed once. Right after, he opened his eyes and looked around nkly. ¡°Where am I?¡±


    His soldiers were overjoyed. ¡°toon Commander! toon Commander, you¡¯re awake!¡±


    Then they turned their heads to Wang Jing and Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Are the two of you doctors of our medical center?¡±


    In the eyes of these soldiers, Wang Jing¡¯s and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s images were starting to get elevated. Seeing their toonmandere back to life, they thought these two doctors must have some kind of magical ability to revive the dead!


    Wang Jing said with a smile, ¡°Your toonmander should pull through now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wiped the blood off his hand and stood up. ¡°Although my ancestral medicine is amazing, y¡¯all must not let him move around for the next three days. And make sure he doesn¡¯t head to the battlefield again thinking that he¡¯s already recovered. I suggest that he recuperates for a month first.¡±


    The soldiers were rambling incoherently as they thanked them, ¡°Thank you, we are really very grateful. You two are simply gods among men!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized the four soldiers who thanked him had actually earned him 12 gratitude tokens in one interaction!


    His eyes lit up as he turned around and looked at the medical center. Ren Xiaosu had thought that if the patient had remained unconscious, wouldn¡¯t he have wasted his ck medicine on him?


    But the situation now waspletely different. If all the wounded were to get carried over by theirrades, they would thank Ren Xiaosu even if the patient did not regain consciousness and thank him themselves. Moreover, there would be at least two people carrying the stretchers. This would mean he could receive double the gratitude for every dose of the ck medicine he exchanged.


    This was simply the best ce for him to farm his gratitude tokens. It was double the happiness!


    P5092, who had been watching for a long time, said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°It wasn¡¯t until this moment that I felt like you were a doctor.¡±


    The blood on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands was rapidly drying, and there were also a lot of bloodstains on his body that could not be cleaned off.


    Ren Xiaosu cut a sorry figure.


    In P5092¡¯s opinion, Ren Xiaosu did not look like a doctor at all before this. He simply did not look like how a doctor should look.


    Now that he saw with his own eyes how Ren Xiaosu had saved the patient¡¯s life, he finally believed when Ren Xiaosu had said, ¡°When yourrades get handed to me for treatment, as long as it¡¯s just external injuries and they¡¯re still breathing, they won¡¯t die.¡±


    Thinking of this, P5092 instructed his deputymander to leave. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You¡¯re a supernatural being, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart skipped a beat at the words. ¡°Sir, what are you talking about? Why can¡¯t I understand anything that you¡¯re saying?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± P5092 said with a smile, ¡°Even if you¡¯re a supernatural being, it¡¯s no big deal. There¡¯s no need to exin. I can judge for myself. But your awakened superpower makes you really suitable to be a doctor. Everyone says that superpowers are an extension of one¡¯s willpower. Since you were able to awaken a power that can treat and save people¡¯s lives, it shows that you¡¯re a kind person.¡±


    P5092 had jumped to conclusions. He thought the ck medicine was a manifestation of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power.


    ¡°What power are you talking about?¡± Ren Xiaosu continued ying dumb.


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°Stop faking it. You should know how our Pyro Company does things. We can still take you away even if we only suspect you of something. After all, this is the Pyro Company¡¯s territory. But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll keep it a secret for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent for a few seconds before asking with a smile, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you arrest me then? Isn¡¯t the Pyro Company very interested in collecting the DNA of supernatural beings?¡±


    ¡°That was the past.¡± P5092 shook his head and said, ¡°Do you hear about the Pyro Company capturing supernatural beings nowadays?¡±


    It was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be puzzled. ¡°Why did they stop capturing them? I really haven¡¯t heard of such things happeningtely.¡±


    ¡°Because there¡¯s always imperfections in the DNA of normal people,¡± P5092 exined. ¡°They¡¯re now only interested in the No. 001 Experimental.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°The No. 001 Experimental? The one mentioned in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper?¡±


    Of course he knew about the No. 001 Experimental, and he was also aware that there used to be three drops of ¡°God¡¯s Blood¡± in the Sacred Mountains.


    But Ren Xiaosu could not reveal that he had been to the Sacred Mountains before. He could only pretend that he did not know anything about it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not understand something. Since the Pyro Company was able to preserve the three drops of blood and also wanted to extract the No. 001 Experimental¡¯s DNA, why didn¡¯t they start with the three drops of blood first? Could it be that they were unable to extract the DNA from those three drops of blood? Thus, they needed to look for the No. 001 Experimental so they could find other breakthrough points from it?


    At this moment, the deputymander led his men to bring over a dozen or so suitcases into the medical center. Ren Xiaosu immediately recognized them as the luggage of the Trinity Institute¡¯s group.


    ¡°What¡¯s this about?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    P5092 smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m returning your luggage to you. How else are you going to exin where your medicinees from?¡±


    P5092 felt that he had figured everything out, that the ck medicine was a manifestation of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower. By returning the luggage to Ren Xiaosu, it would make it more convenient for him to exin the source of his medicine. Truly, P5092 was quite thoughtful.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at P5092. In any case, the other party had expressed his goodwill. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    P5092 exined, ¡°There¡¯s no need to thank me. I¡¯m just making the most rational choice in the face of a formidable enemy. With a doctor like you stationed in the medical center at the rear, I¡¯ll rest easier. I¡¯m entrusting myrades¡¯ lives to your hands. Let¡¯s meet again if fate wills it, but it¡¯s unlikely that I¡¯ll get to see you again.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why won¡¯t we get to see each other again? Who can say for sure? You could still get injured and be stretchered back here, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°... You¡¯re even cursing me now?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, it was a slip of the tongue.¡± Ren Xiaosu also realized there was something wrong with his phrasing.


    A few more patients got carried to the medical center. Liang Ce shouted from a distance for Ren Xiaosu to go over and treat the patients. Ren Xiaosu nced at P5092. ¡°You¡¯ve greatly changed my impression of the Pyro Company. I hope that you¡¯ll survive on the front lines, and I believe that we¡¯ll still have a chance to meet again in the future.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu ran towards the medical center.

 Chapter 838 - The backbone of the medical center

    <h4>Chapter 838: The backbone of the medical center</h4>


    P5092 watched as Ren Xiaosu walked away. He asked his deputymander, ¡°Have the troops fully assembled?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The deputymander said, ¡°But Commander P5091 did not stop here and headed straight to the battlefield. He said there was an ambush at the front line, so he needed to rush there to provide support.¡±


    ¡°Since 091 has gone there, we can take a breather.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Let everyone take a hot shower and have a good meal before we set off tonight.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡± The deputymander wondered, ¡°It seems you¡¯re quite interested in that young man? You said earlier that he might be a supernatural being, so have you confirmed it yet?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s only a supernatural being who saves the dying and treats the wounded.¡± P5092 said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone about this. We¡¯re lucky to have someone like him in the rear. By the way, go look for those three soldiers who drove the doctors from the Trinity Institute and have theme here. I want to ask them some questions.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± The deputymander left. 20 minutester, he led three soldiers back.


    The three soldiers were trembling in fear. They wondered if their superior had found out they had epted bribes and was looking to use them as a warning to the others.


    However, P5092 was stunned when he saw the watches on their hands. He muttered under his breath, ¡°Just how many watches does that kid have? Alright, you three can go back now.¡±


    The watches the three soldiers were wearing were exactly the same as the one on his wrist!


    P5092 had thought Ren Xiaosu had given him his own watch. But he did not expect that Ren Xiaosu had actually distributed them in batches!


    After that, P5092 walked towards the forward operating base. As he walked, he startedughing uproariously, making his deputymander and the three soldiers look puzzled.


    ...


    Everyone was extremely busy in the medical center. It was so busy that ever since Ren Xiaosu arrived, he never came out once. Ren Xiaosu did not have time to check out what this forward operating base looked like, nor did he find out where the cafeteria was. All of their meals were delivered here by the nurses while the doctors who finished their surgery would squat in the hallways and have a quick bite before rushing back into their operating rooms.


    It wasn¡¯t until this moment that Ren Xiaosu understood why the Pyro Company had to enlist the Trinity Institute. In fact, heter heard that the escapees who hade to the North with them were only the first batch to be brought here. Subsequently, all the doctors in the Kong Consortium would be deployed here as well.


    There was a realck of doctors.


    asionally, the doctors who were squatting in the hallways and eating would even chat with one another. However, they only talked about their patients¡¯ conditions. A doctor said as he gobbled up his food, ¡°That wounded soldier from earlier had to be amputated because he was sent here toote.¡±


    ¡°What a pity.¡± Another doctor threw his finished lunch box into the trash can and said, ¡°We¡¯re running out of medicine in my department. How¡¯s the situation on your side?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re starting to run short of medicine as well,¡± the doctormented. ¡°But have you heard? It seems that a team from the Trinity Institute is here, and they¡¯ve newly established the Fourth Emergency Department. I heard they¡¯re verypetent.¡±


    ¡°This is the first time I stepped out of the OR since this morning, so I don¡¯t know much. I have to get back now. I still have more than 10 patients waiting to be treated.¡± This doctor left in a hurry.


    The five minutes they had to eat was a rare break for them throughout the day.


    Just as Wang Jing hadmented, when war broke out, the rate of saving people would never keep up with the speed of them getting wounded or killed.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was standing in front of a standalone, makeshift operating table. Wang Jing, who was standing across from him, was skillfully stitching up the patient¡¯s wounds.


    They did not even have the most basic sterile conditions here as it was just an office space hastily converted into an operation room. The nurses would just push in a reclining operating bed and they would start performing the operation right away.


    At first, the director of the medical center expressed his concern over the situation. Without a sterile environment, they would not be able to save the patients even if they operated on them as it would just cause severeplications.


    At this moment, it was Wang Jing¡¯s reputation that proved to be most important. After he went and exined things to the director, the other party did not bother them anymore.


    Wang Jing and Ren Xiaosu suddenly became partners, with Meng Nan and Liang Ce acting as their assistants while Yang Xiaojin passed surgical instruments to Wang Jing and yed the role of nurse off to the side.


    To Wang Jing¡¯s surprise, Yang Xiaojin adapted extremely quickly and was also very serious about her work.


    Usually, there would be problems with the coordination between the operating surgeon and the nurses. During an operation, the nurses would have to pass instruments based on the doctor¡¯s habits. For example, they would need to consider the angle at which the doctor was used to receiving the scalpel and the needle holder, and what angle they should be tilted at so they could be handed off quickly. It would take awhile for them to get used to one another¡¯s working style.


    It was not that the operating surgeon was making things difficult for the nurse, but that everyone was racing against time when performing an operation. To ensure that the patient would survive, allowing the operating surgeon to perform their work without any hindrance was one of the basic conditions.


    Initially, Wang Jing was a little worried he would need to change his habits during operations. But it took Yang Xiaojin only ten minutes to remember all of Wang Jing¡¯s hand positions when receiving the surgical instruments.


    Not only that, but Ren Xiaosu would also assist in the stitching procedures other than just applying the medicine during the operation. At times, Wang Jing even discovered that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s method of stitching was exactly the same as his...


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu could anticipate what Wang Jing was thinking even though he did not open his mouth to express it. After all, Ren Xiaosu had directly copied this mastery from Wang Jing.


    This made Wang Jing feel extremelyfortable. He had never performed such a well-coordinated surgery before!


    Ren Xiaosu said with his mask on, ¡°Right angle forceps.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin urately found the right angle forceps that Ren Xiaosu wanted and handed it to him with extreme efficiency.


    Wang Jing realized that when Yang Xiaojin handed the right angle forceps to Ren Xiaosu, it was also at the most convenient angle for him to take it.


    At the end of the operation, Ren Xiaosu applied the ck medicine onto the wounds and Wang Jing lifted an eyelid of the patient to check the pupil. After confirming the patient was fine, he shouted to the nurse outside, ¡°Push him out and send in the next one.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu made use of this free time to walk out of the operating room. Wang Jing wondered where he was off to. Then he saw Ren Xiaosu take off his disposable gloves to shake hands with the patient¡¯srades and ept their thanks.


    After they were done thanking him, Ren Xiaosu returned to the operating room and continued saving lives.


    More and more patients were being carried into the medical center. And nearly half of them were stretchered to the operating room where Wang Jing, Ren Xiaosu, and the others were working.


    As their surgical procedures were a lot simpler, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group progressed much faster than the other departments.


    When Liang Ce mentally counted the number of patients they had treated, he realized it was almost the total number of patients the other seven departments had treated.


    Gradually, many of the doctors and nurses who were taking a break no longer squatted down in the hallway to chat. Instead, they made a special trip to the operating room where Wang Jing¡¯s group was working and watched from outside.


    Ren Xiaosu and the others did not even close the door of their operating room. That was because they did not even need a sterile environment to perform surgery in. On the contrary, keeping the door open would facilitate the medical staff to better carry patients in and out of the room.


    A patient had just regained consciousness after his operation. But when he opened his eyes, he saw a dense crowd of people standing outside the operating room.

 Chapter 839 - The most resolute doctor in history, Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 839: The most resolute doctor in history, Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    Honestly, it was not that the doctors and nurses of the medical center liked spectating, but that after the arrival of the Trinity Institute group, the pressure on them was suddenly relieved. Everyone heard the Trinity Institute was really fast at treating their patients, and the operations were even performed in a basic operating room that was not sterile.


    When the doctors heard about this, they found it a little incredulous. How could the surgeries be performed in an unsanitary environment? Wouldn¡¯t the patients suffer fromplications?


    But when they went to check on the patients in the wards, many of the doctors realized the patients were actually recovering very well. Some of the patients were actually able to sit up in bed and chat with others after being operated on just a few hours before.


    As there were too many patients, a lot of them could only lie on the mobile hospital beds in the hallways. When the hallways were filled, noisy chatter from the patients reverberated throughout the hospital.


    A doctor stood in a hallway and lifted the gauze from a patient¡¯s wound to inspect it. He was astonished to find the wound had already started to scab. He asked the nurse beside him in surprise, ¡°When did this patient¡¯s surgery end?¡±


    ¡°Four hours ago. He was hacked in the abdomen and spilled his guts. Everyone had already given up on him. But he looks absolutely fine now,¡± the nurse said helplessly.


    Just as the nurse finished answering the doctor, the patient who was being examined suddenly said, ¡°Um, do you have any ying cards here in the medical center? We¡¯d like to y cards to kill time....¡±


    The doctor was shocked. This guy had just spilled his guts four hours ago, yet he had the energy to y cards now?!


    Was the Trinity Institute really that amazing? Not only did the patient not suffer from any postoperativeplications, he even recovered that quickly?!


    From the look of it, there was clearly something to that ck medicine!


    At this moment, someone brought in a wounded person from outside the medical center while eximing, ¡°Doctor, please save myrade!¡±


    When the doctor in the hallway was just about to receive the patient, another voice rang out. Ren Xiaosu poked his head out of his OR. ¡°We¡¯ve just finished an operation here. Bring him to our room!¡±


    The doctor standing in the hallway was speechless. After a long time, he finally asked, ¡°Nurse, how many patients have they operated on already?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any specific figures right now.¡± The nurse answered him, ¡± But I can tell you that half of the patients in the medical center were sent to them.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re amazing.¡± The doctor sighed.


    A lot of medical staff had gathered outside the operating room Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group was in. Even the director of the medical center came to have a look.


    ¡°Amazing, they¡¯re so efficient!¡±


    ¡°What on earth is that ck medicine that he applied?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu exined with a smile while applying the ck medicine on the patient, ¡°It¡¯s my family¡¯s secret ancestral remedy. It¡¯s really effective.¡±


    Looking at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s profile, the nurses muttered, ¡°He looks so young! He¡¯s already performing operations at such a tender age. Have you guys realized something? Elder Wang Jing is actually just supporting him in performing the surgeries....¡±


    Any discerning person would realize that Wang Jing was only doing the stitching on the operating table while Meng Nan and Liang Ce were responsible for stopping the bleeding and using instruments to remove dirt and debris from the wounds. Ultimately, everyone¡¯s actions were to support Ren Xiaosu¡¯s application of the medicine.


    In a hospital, it was not easy for a young doctor to have a chance to perform surgery on the operating table. Those who could do so were definitely the stars of the hospital.


    When it was time to eat, the nurse in charge of delivering meals to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group was almost unable to squeeze through the crowd.


    That nurse wanted to personally ce the boxed lunch in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands, but Yang Xiaojin intercepted it and red at her.


    The nurse muttered, ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin took off her surgical mask and continued staring at her silently. ¡°I¡¯m his girlfriend.¡±


    When the nurse saw Yang Xiaojin¡¯s exquisite looks, she flinched and stepped back...


    On the one hand, Yang Xiaojin had worn a cap to hide her identity in the past, and on the other hand, she did not like others judging her by her looks. But now, she realized her appearance was quite useful for convincing many potentialpetitors to back off.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin in surprise and nearly burst outughing. ¡°You¡¯re acting like you¡¯re a little protective of your food.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes at him. ¡°Hurry up and stitch up the patient¡¯s wounds.¡±


    Beside them, Wang Jing chuckled, ¡°You two really are a good match, y¡¯know?¡±


    Since arriving at the medical center, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had spent over 20 hours working continuously. Meanwhile, Wang Jing could not bear it any longer and had already let Sima Gang and the others take over for him.


    After all, Wang Jing was already getting on in age and was unable to handle such high-intensity surgeries. After careful consideration, he knew he could not afford to wear himself out right at the beginning with such long days ahead. So he came up with a n to have the other operating surgeons work for eight hours each on three shifts to support Ren Xiaosu as they saved lives.


    When Ren Xiaosu got tired, he would personally take over from him.


    However, Ren Xiaosu remained standing for 24 hours straight at the operating table. The other doctors and assistants had already rotated through their shifts, but only Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin worked resiliently throughout.


    When Sima Gang, Liang Ce, and the others got tired, theyy in the hallway and dozed off. They were so tired no one could wake them even if they called out to them. If it weren¡¯t for the fact they had a heartbeat and were breathing, everyone would have thought that they had suffered a heart attack.


    But even at this moment, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were still performing surgery on the operating table.


    Most of the doctors who imed to have good stamina were shocked by this.


    In the end, it was Wang Jing who came to dissuade them. ¡°Don¡¯t keep working. Health is the most precious asset we have when ites to saving lives. I know you¡¯re very eager to save people, but you can¡¯t treat all the patients in the world without rest, right?¡±


    Only then did Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin step away from the operating table. When Ren Xiaosu walked out of the medical center, he found the sunlight above him a little blinding.


    But when the spring sunshine glittered down on him and permeated his dry clothes, he felt a sense of warmth enveloping his entire body. It was as though he were weing a new lease of life.


    The voice from the pce in his mind suddenly said, ¡°188 people have been saved from the verge of death. ¡®Lifesaver¡¯ achievement unlocked. Awarded two allocatable attribute points.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. He increased his Strength and Dexterity to 15.5 and 15.1 respectively. Not only did he gain nearly a 1,000 gratitude tokens in a single day, he even unlocked a new achievement.


    Unknowingly, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s physical fitness was already getting close to Old Xu¡¯s original Strength and Dexterity values.


    But just as he was about to go and get some rest, a group of wounded people were transported in again from outside the forward operating base. Ren Xiaosu did not head back into the medical center but started pondering something.


    Next to him, Yang Xiaojin asked curiously, ¡°What are you thinking about?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed andmented, ¡°There¡¯s way too many patients. It¡¯s almost like we can¡¯t finish helping them all. There¡¯s three medical centers in the vicinity, but even still, we can¡¯t keep up with the rate of everyone getting injured.¡±


    ¡°It can¡¯t be helped. That¡¯s how war is.¡± Yang Xiaojin also sighed.


    ¡°This won¡¯t do. If it goes on like this, all the doctors in the medical center will burn out from exhaustion.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°We should secretly head to the front lines!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was a little surprised. ¡°Why do you want to go to the front lines? You¡¯re a doctor now.¡±


    ¡°We can reduce the number of casualties on our side by killing the enemies. That¡¯s also a way to save lives, right? Isn¡¯t that what a doctor should do!¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression was firm. He was using the most ruthless words with the kindest of intentions.


    Yang Xiaojin thought about it carefully and realized it seemed to be the case. There was a constant stream of casualties being sent back here because the enemy at the front lines was too brutal. But if they could kill the enemies, wouldn¡¯t they suffer no more casualties?


    The most resolute doctor in history was born. He was the normal cardiac surgeon, Ren Xiaosu.

 Chapter 840 - Salute

    <h4>Chapter 840: Salute</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s principle was that if he could not solve a problem when it arose, he would take care of it by getting rid of the person who caused it.


    A very pointless thought experiment had once been proposed. Suppose there was a child on one side of a forked trolley track and five children on the other side. The question posed was that if you had a track switcher in your hands, which side would you choose to let the trolley go down?


    If Ren Xiaosu were asked this question, he would simply beat the shit out of whoever asked it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to join the battle. After all, he and Yang Xiaojin had worked over the operating table for over 20 hours. Moreover, they would definitely face a tough battle after they went to the battlefield, so what Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin needed most right now was some rest.


    Before they arrived here, the forward operating base had prepared their amodations for them. They were supposed to live in shared dorms. But after the incident of them treating the wounded soldiers had rmed the entire forward operating base and caused a sensation, their assigned dormitories were switched to single-person rooms.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu would like to tell the P3mander in charge of the forward operating base that in this situation where resources werecking, he didn¡¯t mind sharing a room with Yang Xiaojin.


    But in the end, he did not manage to say it as he was unable to locate the major.


    After an entire day of surgery, a total of 190 patients had been treated. This figure might not sound like a lot, but it would be considered exceptionally impressive for other doctors if they could even treat 10 seriously injured patients in a day. After all, surgeries were extremelyplicated procedures, and other doctors would still need to disinfect their surgical equipment and ensure they had a sterile environment to work in.


    Wang Jing told him that the number of wounded soldiers could not really be counted as a lot at the moment. Once the war ramped up to total war, they would probably have to set up many makeshift tents outside the medical center. At that time, no one would care if the conditions were sterile. It would all depend on the patients¡¯ own will if they survived or not.


    It was not that the doctors¡¯ medical skills were not good enough, but that the conditions just did not allow it.


    However, an entire day of surgery had not only brought Ren Xiaosu all those gratitude tokens and unlocked an achievement for him, he had also earned the respect of the Pyro Company soldiers and officers here in the forward operating base.


    Everyone had already heard that the Trinity Institute group who had just arrived at the medical center was extremely capable. As long as the wounded were sent to them for treatment, they would definitely survive!


    Not only would they survive, but they would also be able to actively move around after a few hours.


    The only thing that was puzzling was why most of the patients got an erection after they were operated on...


    In normal circumstances, the nurses were not separated by gender while they were on duty. But faced with such events, even the most experienced nurses would find it a little embarrassing.


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin woke up in the evening and went to the chow hall at the forward operating base, a soldier suddenly stood up and saluted them.


    Off to the side, someone asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on? Who are they?¡±


    Everyone who knew about Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s deeds had mostly only heard about it. They¡¯d never met them in person before.


    The soldier exined to the others who were eating, ¡°When I carried our toonmander back today, he was the one who saved our captain. He¡¯s that young doctor from the Trinity Institute.¡±


    When he said that, the thousands of soldiers eating in the chow hall slowly rose out of their seats and saluted in the direction of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    This sight was so shocking that Ren Xiaosu was unable to react for some time.


    The Pyro Company soldiers all stood to attention with their arms firmly locked in salute. Some of them had just returned from the front lines in defeat, while others were lightly wounded and wrapped in bandages.


    But none of this stopped them from expressing their respect.


    To a soldier, it was too important that doctors possessed good medical ethics and expertise. Although theirmanders were unable to prioritize their lives due to tactical and strategic considerations, doctors would.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu always felt it was too difficult to earn the respect of others in this era, so he decided it was better to make them fear him. So he spent most of his time solving problems with his fists.


    But now he had gained the respect of others.


    To be honest, he never thought he would get respected by so many Pyro Company troops. After all, this was the Pyro Company everyone regarded as cold-blooded animals.


    Suddenly, the voice from the pce in his mind said, ¡°Received the sincere respect and trust of 999 people in a single day. ¡®Respected by All¡¯ achievement unlocked. Awarded two allocatable attribute points.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Strength and Dexterity were suddenly raised to 16.5 and 16.1 respectively.


    Ren Xiaosu asked his mind pce, ¡°So the quests to help others were assigned because you wanted me to be a good person? It seems that I¡¯ve approached them using the wrong mindset in the past.... But what¡¯s done is done, and I don¡¯t n on changing my ways either....¡±


    Yang Xiaojin elbowed Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna say something?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°If any of you get stretchered to me in the future, I will make sure I do my best to treat you....¡±


    The soldiers burst into an uproar. Did he just curse all of them?!


    Ren Xiaosu touched his head in embarrassment and thought it was indeed inappropriate for a doctor to say something like that. It was equivalent to a funeral parlor organizing a group visit to volunteer at a nursing home. It was rude just hearing about it.


    But very quickly, loudughs burst through the chow hall. Someone shouted, ¡°Doctor, we aren¡¯t allowed to have drinks during wartime. But after we win this war, you¡¯ll have to raise your ss for saying that!¡±


    With that, the atmosphere in the chow hall turned cheerful. It was a 180 from the heavy atmosphere just now.


    When Ren Xiaosu went to collect his meal, the chef serving him gave a flick of his wrist and shook off the vegetables on thedle, leaving only meat behind.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. ¡°You must¡¯ve trained for decades to be this skilled.¡±


    ¡°Haha, eat more meat to replenish your strength,¡± the chef chuckled. ¡°Capable doctors like you deserve our admiration.¡±


    While they were having dinner, the P3mander in charge of the forward operating base also came by to visit Ren Xiaosu and shook hands with him excitedly.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Oh yeah, I was just looking for you. There¡¯s something I need to tell you. Both me and her need to make a trip outside.¡±


    P31921 was taken aback. ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°Into the mountains to gather some medicinal herbs.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You should know that my treatment method depends entirely on my secret ancestral remedy. But there¡¯s simply too many patients, so the herbs have beenpletely used up in one day. We have to go out and gather some more so we can treat the patients who get sent hereter.¡±


    P31921 got anxious at the words. ¡°You don¡¯t have to personally do that. Just tell me what herbs you need, and I¡¯ll get my men to gather them for you!¡±


    ¡°No, no, no.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°I wish I could get y¡¯all to help me too, but my family has ordered me not to spread the remedy¡¯s form since it¡¯s how we make our living. No outsiders can learn about it. So please be understanding. I really have to go out for a while.¡±


    P31921 immediately understood. ¡°I can¡¯t stop you from going out, of course, but I have to warn you: Don¡¯t head in the direction of Mt. Dashi. That¡¯s where our main forces and the northern foe are battling.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. He had a clear idea of where he should head now.

 Chapter 841 - The mysterious snipers

    <h4>Chapter 841: The mysterious snipers</h4>


    The front line at Mt. Dashi was not where the front was. To be precise, it was north of the front line at Mt. Dashi that the Pyro Company would soon engage in total war with the northern tribe.


    There was a mountain path thaty within Mt. Dashi that acted as the Pyro Company¡¯s supply line to the north, which was also known as the lifeline.


    As the main forces of the Pyro Company were deployed to the North a littlete, the northern defensive line was established in a hurry. No one knew when an enemy force of nearly a 1,000 troops had infiltrated.


    The barbarians from the North had been hiding in Mt. Dashi for several days already. It wasn¡¯t until the main forces of the Pyro Company started deploying north that they began intercepting the Pyro Company troops in the mountains and hindering the transportation of their supplies.


    It was these nearly a 1,000 barbarians that made the Pyro Company suffer heavy casualties here.


    It was not that the Pyro Company had badbat effectiveness but that there were too manyplex factors that led to the current situation.


    On one hand, the Wang Consortium did not share the intel they had received beforehand with the Pyro Company, leading to the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces being concentrated in the South. They were not expecting there to still be enemiesing from the North.


    By the time they found out, it was a littlete.


    On the other hand, the Pyro Company had not really fought their opponent before this, so they did not know what kind of battle strategies to expect.


    The northern barbarians relied on their strong physical fitness to easily finish off the Pyro Company troops in the mountains.


    The terrain in the mountains wasplicated, but the northern barbarians seemed to have already figured it out and knew this ce better than the Pyro Company did.


    It seemed the Pyro Company had never expected such an intense war to break out in the North, so they never ced much emphasis on the northern lifeline that was Mt. Dashi.


    On second thought, no one ever expected there to be so many enemies in the North! Not even the nomads had expected it!


    During the battle on Mt. Dashi, the Pyro Company even felt like it was not their home field they were fighting on but the enemy¡¯s.


    After a few days, the Pyro Company had more or less figured out the situation. Almost all of the northern barbarians had the physical fitness of a T3batant, and some were even asionallyparable to the T4s. This made them extremely difficult to deal with.


    Even though the Pyro Company had been operating in this territory for a long time, the bulk of their main forces were made up of T1 and T2batants. The majority of their officers were also mostly T3-rankedbatants.


    It was not that the Pyro Company was so poor they could not afford to produce enough of the gic modification serum, but it was as they had admitted in the past. Whether you ended up as a T1 or T5batant, the ceiling was written in your genes at birth. As such, theirbatants¡¯ fates were decided long ago.


    Gic serums were not omnipotent. It was just that most people could only be enhanced into a T1 or T2batant. Furthermore, there was a price to pay for it.


    There was a secret in the Pyro Company¡ªgically modified super soldiers had their lifespans slightly shortened. The higher their T-ranks, the more it was so.


    Until now, no one had ever seen a T5 that lived to the age of 40. Most of them had died of cancer before that.


    This was probably the imperfection P5092 had mentioned to Ren Xiaosu.


    How did cancere about? Cancer stems from gic mutations in human cells.


    Cells in the human body divided and replicated at all times. In the process of mitosis, errors could ur. When the human body¡¯s immune recognition function was normal, the body would rectify the error and naturally eliminate the cancer cells. However, there was a chance there might be a faulty immune response that led to the immune system being unable to identify the cells that have replicated wrong, and over time, a tumor would form.


    Due to gic modification, a T5¡¯s immune system would be unable to identify the faulty cells in the body, so it made it extremely easy for cancer to ur.


    And the reason why the Pyro Company wanted to locate the No. 001 Experimental was that it was the most perfect specimen of a cancer patient who had been cured.


    The T1s roughly had a physical fitness that was 1.5 times that of the average adult. ording to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pce, the average adult was a 3, so a T1 was a 4.5, a T2 a 6, a T3 a 9, a T4 a 15, and a T5 a 21.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu, whose Strength was only rated at 13.5, had to rely on Old Xu to face the T5batant as he would definitely not be able to defeat him in a direct battle.


    When they were in the Sacred Mountains, Old Xu¡¯s Strength was rated at 27. At that time, it basically took only 10 minutes to end the battle when he fought against the T5batant. The situation was as good as an adult beating up an adolescent.


    But now Ren Xiaosu could also try to fight against a T5batant by himself if he encountered one.


    Of course, this did not mean Ren Xiaosu would really go and search for a T5batant to spar with in the midst of a big battle. It was just aparison.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu was wondering where he should go to kill the enemy. In the end, the P3mander warned him not to go to the front line at Mt. Dashi.


    This was, of course, a kind reminder by the P3mander, but to Ren Xiaosu, it was no different from pointing out the direction to him...


    Under the gaze of the P3mander, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin left the forward operating base and walked into the darkness of the wilderness.


    ...


    The next afternoon, dozens of toons had fanned out to conduct a carpet search in the mountains.


    P5092 was looking at the monitor in themand vehicle at the rear. The monitor was split into a dozen screens, and every screen disyed the real-time situation captured by the cameras attached to the toonmanders¡¯ helmets.


    ¡°Turn to your 9 o¡¯clock and advance. Be careful to remain concealed. Another group of forces fell into battle two kilometers up ahead with some barbarians yesterday. I suspect we¡¯re getting close to their hiding ce,¡± P5092 said calmly. His words were immediately transmitted to the earpieces of the P3s in the mountains.


    Due to the importance of the supply line at Mt. Dashi, the main forces led by P5092 decided to stay behind here. They nned to clear out all the barbarians in the mountains in case any remnants turned into a potential threat in the future.


    After the toons in the mountains received the order, they immediately headed in the 9 o¡¯clock direction. The 30-member toons advanced silently in the mountains with their safeties off. Furthermore, four members of every toon were equipped with grenadeunchers.


    Normal firearms might not be able to kill a barbarian if they were fired from a distance. So they needed to be equipped with heavy firepower.


    At this moment, a toon entered one of the smaller mountains, looking warily around. However, they were still caught by surprise when two burly figures jumped down from above.


    This was a straight cliff that stretched nearly 20 meters above the ground. If a normal person jumped down, they would either die or be left crippled!


    However, the two northern barbarians did not seem bothered. They descended from above and shed down their huge axes.


    When the toon heard the noise, they looked up. But it was toote. They could only watch asrge axes swung down at them!


    When P5092 saw this, he frowned. That was because when the toonmander looked up, it was as though the giant axe were shing at him.


    However, P5092 did not panic. He immediately instructed the frontlinemanders of the dozens of toons to assemble and prepare to corner the two barbarians to kill them!


    The P5mander sighed. Although the two barbarians would definitely be killed, the toon that was attacked would probably be sacrificed.


    But right at this moment, a bloody mist suddenly exploded from the chest of the barbarian who was getting closer and closer on screen. After that, his huge body was seemingly pushed by some kind of force as he crashed straight into the face of the cliff.


    The power that came out of nowhere forcefully disrupted the barbarian¡¯s shing motion.


    P5092 wondered on the radio, ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±


    ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve got snipers. Two snipers shot the two barbarians at the same time.¡± The frontlinemander answered, ¡°We only heard the gunshots. It should be arge-caliber anti-materiel rifle, but we don¡¯t know where they¡¯re positioned!¡±


    ¡°Snipers?¡± P5092 was a little puzzled. Before he had a clear understanding of the terrain, he would not send any snipers out. Otherwise, it would be a disaster if the snipers and barbarians encountered each other. Therefore, the two snipers were definitely not from the Pyro Company!


    How strange! Where did the sniperse from? And... they were even very powerful too!

 Chapter 842 - Violent snipers

    <h4>Chapter 842: Violent snipers</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The reason why P5092 said the two snipers were very powerful was because the two seemingly simple shots were not simple at all.


    First of all, the frontlinemanders were unable to confirm the snipers¡¯ location even though they had covered a veryrge area during their carpet search. If so many people could not even confirm the snipers¡¯ location, then the snipers would have to be at least 900 meters away.


    At a distance of 900 meters, both shots hadnded right on the barbarians¡¯ chests and killed them. This was not something that just anyone was capable of.


    After all, the two barbarians had stayed hidden all this while. From the moment they appeared to the moment they swung down their axes, it took only a split second. Meanwhile, the snipers had to immediately calcte the trajectory of their shots after discovering the barbarians when they showed themselves!


    While the barbarians were dropping down from above, the snipers had to pull their triggers and fire the bullets across the vast distance tond urately on their chests.


    A frontlinemander asked on the radio, ¡°Sir, should we pursue those two snipers?¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Search for any barbarians in the vicinity first. Be careful. Those people might look like muscleheads, but they¡¯re actually very cunning and like to set up ambushes. As for the snipers, it seems they have the same target as us. We can look for them after the search isplete.¡±


    It was not that they did not want to look for the snipers but that they had their priorities.


    Furthermore, with the enemy in front of them, since both parties¡¯ objective was to kill the barbarians, the Pyro Company would naturally not treat the snipers as enemies. Even if they were to find them, they would hope they could join the Pyro Company and the Qinghe Group and form a united front. They would not try to kill the two snipers.


    The entirety of Mt. Dashi was divided into 39 zones on the map. P5092 needed to search through these 39 zones one by one. Today, they had only managed to search up to Zone 12 when they encountered the barbarians¡¯ ambush. Based on the previous battles, there were still at least 400 barbarians hidden in Mt. Dashi.


    P5092 was not bothered by this. The dozens of toons were only the reconnaissance troops he had sent out in advance. Once he encountered arge number of barbarians, he would immediately bring all of his troops to the battlefield andplete the encirclement of the enemy.


    But even after all of Zone 12 had been searched, the toons at the front line were unable to find any further signs of the barbarians. It looked like it would still take several days or up to half a month to clean out all of Mt. Dashi.


    ¡°Sir, what should we do now?¡± a frontlinemander asked.


    P5092 said calmly, ¡°Let¡¯s look for those two snipers now. At the very least, we have to identify the location they fired from. I need to assess the strength of those two snipers.¡±


    The snipers must have already left. No sniper would foolishly stay where they were after firing a shot. But as long as they could identify where they were shooting from, they could confirm how many meters away from the target the snipers were.


    When a toon finally discovered traces of the two snipers in Zone 13, it was already evening.


    P5092 frowned. No wonder he could not find the two snipers. It turned out they had killed the targets in Zone 12 from Zone 13.


    He took out a pen and recorded the location of the snipers on the map. Then he measured the distance from their position to where the barbarians were hit. To his surprise, he discovered that the distance between the two snipers and the targets was around 1,200 meters.


    It was even further than the 900 meters he had initially thought!


    ¡°1,200 meters. That¡¯s considered outstanding even among snipers. Why did the two of them suddenly appear on Mt. Dashi?¡± P5092 lowered his head and pondered it. He looked at his adjutant. ¡°Do you have any intel of two snipers working together recently? Since those two are so strong, they must be quite well-known.¡±


    His adjutant said, ¡°I¡¯ll submit your request to the intelligence department and let them match any possible suspects. However, this¡¯ll take some time and we might not get the results we¡¯re looking for.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± P5092 nodded. ¡°I want you to think about it carefully as well. Are there any well-known snipers who appeared recently... I do know of a group that has a particrly powerful sniper, but there¡¯s only one of them.¡±


    His adjutant wondered, ¡°You mean the person who controls White Mask?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I mean them,¡± said P5092


    The frontlinemanders shouted on the radio, ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve discovered a suspicious location. There¡¯s signs of disturbed weeds here.¡±


    After that, the toons of the recon troops started gathering in the 11 o¡¯clock direction. They conducted another carpet search in the radius of a kilometer around where the tracks were discovered.


    P5092 waited quietly in themand vehicle to see if there were further discoveries. However, he did not have many expectations. After all, it had already been more than four hours since the two snipers shot and killed the barbarians.


    But a cry of surprise suddenly sounded over the radio, ¡°We¡¯ve found two barbarian corpses over here!¡±


    P5092 was stunned. ¡°Give me a detailed sitrep!¡±


    Themanders at the front line had already rushed to where the corpses were hidden. The two barbarian corpses were only covered by some tree branches, so they were easily discovered.


    ¡°There¡¯s no gunshot wounds.¡± A rough autopsy report came in from the front line. ¡°Of the two, one of them was pierced through the neck by a sharp weapon. I don¡¯t know how sharp the weapon was, but it actually broke the spine in his neck. The other man was shed across his chest and got punctured through the heart. His left arm... his left arm was chopped off.


    ¡°I suspect the barbarian whose neck was pierced was ambushed. The other barbarian with him tried to take out the enemy after that, but he was caught off guard and had his left arm chopped off. The de sliced through his left arm and shed across his chest. After that, the perpetrator must¡¯ve retracted his de and stabbed it straight into the barbarian¡¯s heart. End of report.¡±


    Static was still sounding on the radio. After P5092 heard the simplified autopsy report, he fell silent. He could even imagine how ruthless the attacker must have been through the simplenguage used.


    The de had severed the barbarian¡¯s arm muscles and cut through his hard bones. The severed arm must have fallen off in front of his shocked gaze as the de shed across his chest. Then the attacker retracted the de and delivered the fatal strike in one swift motion.


    But P5092 could not figure out something. He had initially thought that there were only two snipers, so where did such a fearsome closebat expert suddenly pop out from?


    Did the snipers have otherrades? Or were those two snipers that ferocious to begin with?


    P5092 had been worried it would be really dangerous if those two snipers were to encounter the barbarians at close range. But now it seemed it was the barbarians who were in danger.


    ¡°Wrap up.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Set up camp for the night and be on Level One alert in case of a night attack by the barbarians.¡±


    After that, he turned off the radio in his hand. His adjutant next to him asked, ¡°Sir, will those two snipers be a threat to us in the future?¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t be overly worried. Those who are here at a time like this to fight against the enemy can only be friends. As for whether we¡¯ll remain friends in the future, we¡¯ll have to wait until the war is over to find out.¡±

 Chapter 843 - Wish

    <h4>Chapter 843: Wish</h4>


    When you¡¯re in the wilderness with enemies around, don¡¯t start a fire in the open because that campfire will make you a target in the darkness.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were sitting on the crown of arge tree where the dense branches broke their shapes in the night.


    ¡°Here, have some.¡± Ren Xiaosu took out a piece of chocte from the pce and handed it to Yang Xiaojin. ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s actually that many barbarians here in Mt. Dashi. It¡¯ll only be a matter of time before P5092 and his men wipe them out.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin took the chocte from him and had a bite. ¡°What do you n to do next? These barbarians look like they enjoy sneaking up on others. They seem very cunning. We had better not drop our guard in case we die here.¡±


    ¡°They aren¡¯t cunning.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Perhaps you haven¡¯t had much contact with these types of people before, but I can sense a familiar aura from them.... It¡¯s the aura of a hunter. They¡¯re just like felines who¡¯ll instinctivelyunch a sneak attack on you when you have your back turned to them. They won¡¯t even consider if their sneak attacks will seed or not.¡±


    It was because the northern barbarians were instinctive hunters that they so often sneaked up on others.


    After Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin left the forward operating base, they had pretended to head east. Only after walking for a long time did they finally detour and run toward Mt. Dashi.


    Half a day after they entered the mountains, Ren Xiaosu picked up on the habits of the northern barbarians. They were treating the Central ins people as prey to be ughtered.


    Perhaps a lot of people would think it was just a standard ambush. But Ren Xiaosu realized the barbarians were always hiding downwind.


    When the opponents were humans, there was actually no need to hide downwind. After all, humans did not possess a good sense of smell. Only when hunting wild animals in the wilderness would they need to be so careful to prevent their prey from catching a whiff of their ¡°human scent¡± in advance.


    It might be a coincidence if it only happened once, but Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had encountered such behavior on two asions. This was a subconscious habit of the barbarians.


    ¡°What exactly is the North like?¡± Yang Xiaojin wondered, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be a little ridiculous for everyone to be a hunter?¡±


    ¡°Who cares what it¡¯s like?¡± Ren Xiaosu sneered. When it came to hunting, the northern barbarians might not be his match.


    Moreover, this was the South. This was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s home field.


    No matter how skilled they were at hunting, they would not understand the wilderness and mountain ranges in the South better than Ren Xiaosu.


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. ¡°You have a n?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Let¡¯s not talk about that. Why don¡¯t we touch on a more sensitive topic instead?¡±


    ¡°A more sensitive topic?¡± Yang Xiaojin was puzzled. ¡°... What do you think of the political situation in the Central ins?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. ¡°Alright, you¡¯re getting bolder and bolder, huh? Not bad, not bad.¡±


    ¡°Ahem, I guess.¡±


    The two of them were sitting side by side on a thick tree branch. They were looking up at the silvery sea of stars above them when Yang Xiaojin suddenly asked, ¡°What would you like to do most after going back to the Northwest?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the starry sky. His thoughts were suddenly pulled away by this question. ¡°I want to see the world outside of Fortress 178 before going back to do some farming. I might be a cardiac surgeon in Fortress 178 and earn a monthly sry to support our family. When I get home and take off my frost-encrusted scarf, I¡¯ll tell you that I¡¯m home and hear the bubbling sound of stew cooking on the stove.¡±


    These words stunned Yang Xiaojin. For some reason, she could imagine the scene and was even looking forward to it a little.


    And piecing together all of the little details Ren Xiaosu had revealed, it was just a stable home he hoped for.


    Be it farming or being a normal surgeon, it was just a simple wish of his to see his wife upon returning home.


    However, even a simple wish like this had be an extravagant hope in this era.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you nning on bing the futuremander?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked curiously.


    ¡°I¡¯m not qualified to be amander at all.¡± Ren Xiaosu leaned against the tree and said softly, ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t know why Mr. Zhang thinks that I can do it. I¡¯ve been thinking a lot, but shouldn¡¯t he find someone who¡¯s more mature and experienced? I¡¯m still too young for the position ofmander, after all. Although I know that he¡¯s not asking me to take the role right away, I feel like I¡¯m too used to acting alone. I might not really be able to bear the responsibility that he¡¯s hoping to pass on to me.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m fine with anything,¡± Yang Xiaojin said as she looked up at the vast starry sky.


    ¡°By the way, what do you want to do most in the future?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Yang Xiaojin did not say anything for a long time. Then she slowly leaned on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shoulder and said softly, ¡°I¡¯ll let you know in the future.¡±


    On this bloody battlefield, no one would have expected a young couple to be snuggled up with each other.


    The world was enormous, but very few people could give warmth to their partner.


    Life in this era was filled with darkness, betrayal, and transactions. So long as there was some warmth, everyone would appreciate it since it was not easy toe by.


    ...


    In the morning, outside the camp of the main forces led by P5092 on Mt. Dashi, several dozen soldiers who were on chow duty were carrying metal buckets and walking towards the river. They were responsible for replenishing the food and water for the day.


    There were tens of thousands of soldiers in the main forces, so they could not rely on transportation to solve the problem of their water source. So the troops would usually travel along a river as they advanced.


    The soldiers carried the metal buckets in groups of two and walked around unsteadily. One of the soldiers even said mysteriously, ¡°Did you guys hear from the recon battalion¡¯s troops? Yesterday, they encountered some barbarians when they went into the mountains. One of the toons nearly even got wiped out. Fortunately, they were saved by two snipers.¡±


    ¡°I heard about it.¡± The chow squad¡¯s toonmander who was in charge of fetching the water said, ¡°I wonder where those two snipers came from. It¡¯s quite exciting when you think about it. Back then, if it weren¡¯t for my poor eyesight, I could¡¯ve be a sniper too. Look at those snipers in our military. They¡¯re so awesome they even get special privileges when ites to their meals.¡±


    In the military, receiving preferential treatment was a very prestigious thing.


    However, just as they were about to reach the river, a wave suddenly billowed on the surface of the river as a gigantic axe shed out through the water.


    That axe cleaved through the water bit by bit and arrived at the Pyro Company soldiers!


    Some people could not help but let out a scream. This axe strike had appeared out of nowhere. No one had expected that a barbarian would actually hide in the river nearby and wait tounch a sneak attack on them!


    Amid the surprise, three more barbarians emerged from the river with extremely sharp axes.


    But before the axes could strike any of the Pyro Company soldiers, they suddenly saw a bloody mist erupt from the head of the barbarian in front of them.


    ¡°It¡¯s the snipers!¡±

 Chapter 844 - The hunter and the hunted

    <h4>Chapter 844: The hunter and the hunted</h4>


    The bloody mist that erupted from the barbarian¡¯s head was still lingering in the air. However, this shot did not seem to have frightened off the remaining barbarians.


    There were still another three barbarians who hadid in ambush in the river. Holding therge axes in their hands, they were like ghosts of the river.


    When the chow squad came to the river to fetch water, they did not even bring along their most basic of weapons. To be honest, they really did not expect enemies to be hiding here.


    A barbarian shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t retreat! We can¡¯t escape anymore since there¡¯s snipers here. Kill as many as you can!¡±


    Behind them was the river. Even if they jumped back in, it would take some time. So the barbarians knew very well that they would definitely die here. But before dying, they wanted to drag a few of their enemies down with them.


    The remaining three barbarians continued chasing after the chow squad with their axes. They moved extremely fast, but before they could even take a couple steps, two more sniper bullets flew over and pierced their chests.


    The chow squad was so frightened they wanted to throw away their water buckets. However, they realized that only one of the four barbarians who had just emerged from the river was left in the blink of an eye.


    While they were still in a state of shock, the toonmander of the chow squad said ruthlessly, ¡°Don¡¯t fucking scare yourselves. There¡¯s only one barbarian left. If even he can scare us, it¡¯ll be too embarrassing when we get back to the camp. Let¡¯s attack together and kill him!¡±


    The morale of the chow squad was lifted. Although they had never fought in battle before, they were still soldiers who had undergone proper military training.


    With these words spoken, the soldiers no longer retreated. Instead, they slowly approached the remaining barbarian. In just five seconds, they had formed a battle formation.


    That barbarian stared coldly at everyone and sneered with his axe in hand. A secondter, he suddenly charged forward.


    The toonmander of the chow squad roared and burst forward. ¡°Kill him!¡±


    However, the snipers did not intend to give them a chance to show their worth. The three explosive gunshots that sounded out in the distance did not stop and continued ringing in their ears. In the end, blood spurted out from the remaining barbarian¡¯s chest again. His fur coat blew up like a ragdoll.


    The battle ended as quickly as it started. The group of soldiers from the chow squad stood there in a daze. It ended just like that?


    The toonmander said to a soldier, ¡°Hurry, report back to themander. Tell him that we encountered an ambush by the barbarians here!¡±


    With that, two chow squad soldiers sprinted back towards the military camp. Within ten minutes, they brought P5092 and his troops to the riverside.


    A group of soldiers surrounded P5092 with riot shields in their hands. They were afraid the snipers hiding somewhere would be up to no good.


    However, P5092 waved it off. ¡°Get out of the way. You guys are shielding me so well that I can¡¯t see anything.¡±


    His adjutant said anxiously, ¡°Sir, your body can¡¯t withstand a sniper¡¯s shot either.¡±


    P5092 pushed aside the soldiers around him and said with augh, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, those two snipers are not our enemies. There¡¯s no need to be so scared.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw P5092 crouching next to the barbarian corpses through his spotting scope in the distance. He muttered, ¡°Isn¡¯t that P5092? He doesn¡¯t seem to be afraid that there¡¯s snipers around. He¡¯s really quite bold.¡±


    P5092 crouched down next to the barbarians and asked calmly, ¡°You guys mentioned they suddenly appeared when you came down to fetch water, right? Two of you T4s, go into the river and see if there¡¯s any tracks.¡±


    So two T4s took off their uniforms and dove into the bone-chilling water. Shortly after, they came back ashore and said, ¡°These barbarians were probably lying in ambush here for a long time. There¡¯s even some fish bones that have recently been gnawed on on the riverbed.¡±


    The fish were caught by the barbarians in the river, and they had eaten them live without any preparation.


    P5092 nodded. ¡°These bastards really like ambushing people. They must¡¯ve guessed we would have peopleing to the river in the morning to replenish our water supply, so theyy in ambush down here. Pass my order around that everyone who leaves the campsite in the future must be armed with loaded guns and grenadeunchers. When the cooks, engineers, and other technical soldiers make a trip out of the camp, I want them to be escorted by two toons.¡±


    ¡°Roger that.¡± His adjutant made a note of this.


    However, P5092 was even more puzzled. ¡°The four barbarians were each killed by a single shot. Even we didn¡¯t know there were barbarians hiding here, so how did those two snipers predict this?¡±


    It felt very strange. It was as though the barbarians were on a hunt, yet they never expected they would end up being the hunted.


    The barbarians had been hiding in the mountains and saw themselves as very experienced hunters. Their attitude almost seemed like they were just messing around with the Central ins people, but how could they have expected there to be an even more experienced hunter than them in the mountains who also regarded them as prey? Moreover, that person was even aware of what they were after and could guess where they were hiding.


    P5092 looked up at the opposite bank of the river and actually waved in the direction where Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were hiding to express his gratitude. Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°That P5092 is quite skilled. Let¡¯s go and continue looking for the other barbarians.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was sure P5092 could not see them as even he had to use the spotting scope to get a clear view of him. P5092 must have determined the trajectory of the shots through the bullet holes on the barbarians¡¯ corpses.


    The adjutant next to P5092 looked at his superior waving and wondered, ¡°Sir, did you spot the two snipers?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t.¡± P5092 smiled. ¡°But I know they must still be there. Alright, let¡¯s head back now. We¡¯ll enter the mountains again to search in an hour¡¯s time and cover another 12 zones by the end of the day. We¡¯re gonna shepherd those barbarians to the vicinity of Longtan Canyon.¡±


    ¡°Are we just gonna ignore those two snipers? With such an uncertainty appearing on the battlefield all of a sudden, it might disrupt our battle ns. At the very least, we should make contact with them. It would be even better if they cooperate with us,¡± his adjutant asked.


    ¡°Leave them be.¡± P5092 teased, ¡°Don¡¯t you think that with those two around, a lot less of us will die? That¡¯s the most important thing. Remember, our real battlefield is at the northern defensive line. The barbarians here are just giving us a chance to warm up before the real thing. Before we reach the northern front line, I want our soldiers to be prepared to face the cruelest scenarios.¡±


    An hourter, when the main forces entered Mt. Dashi again toplete their encirclement mission for the day, they discovered something strange.


    ¡°Sir, we got news from the front line that three barbarian bodies have been discovered at Python Ridge in Zone 17.¡±


    ¡°Sir, an update from the front line! Two barbarian corpses were found at Kun Gully in Zone 15.¡±


    ¡°Sir...¡±


    In just half a day¡¯s time, the main troops in charge of searching the mountains around Mt. Dashi at the front line had discovered more than 20 barbarian corpses in one go. Of these corpses, some of them were killed by a sniper rifle, while the others were killed up close by a sharp weapon.


    A total of seven barbarian bodies were discovered in the area where the bodies were the most numerous. They had clearly encountered an open battle with someone, but all of them still ended up dead. In other words, the people who were helping clear out the barbarians in the mountains possessed the strength to kill seven of them in a face-to-face encounter.

 Chapter 845 - The real hunter

    <h4>Chapter 845: The real hunter</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°It looks like it was abat encounter,¡± analyzed the adjutant as he checked the corpses of the seven barbarians through the video feed in themand vehicle.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t an encounter.¡± P5092 shook his head and said, ¡°Look at the terrain here. There¡¯s only a single mountain path leading through the front and the back, and the terrain is rather narrow too. It¡¯s a semi-enclosed space.¡±


    ¡°Sir, you mean...¡± His adjutant was not stupid. He immediately reacted and said, ¡°Of all the locations where the battles happened, the number of barbarian corpses here was the most, with seven of them killed. They were likely responsible for pursuing those two snipers but ended up being led here by them. The unique feature of the terrain here made it so that when the barbarians realized they could not win, they could not escape even if they wanted to. Therefore, those two snipers must¡¯ve been confident enough to lure them here.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± P5092 nodded. ¡°If the seven of them were to escape in separate directions, it would definitely take some effort to capture them. But with only one path leading through here, even if the barbarians tried to escape, they would only be able to run in one direction.¡±


    ¡°Those two snipers are really ruthless, aren¡¯t they?¡± his adjutant wondered. ¡°To kill seven barbarians in a direct battle, they would have to be supernatural beings.¡±


    ¡°Not only that.¡± P5092 shook his head again. ¡°Those two people were not injured at all. They were able topletely crush these seven barbarians, and I believe that even if there were a few more barbarians, the oue would still be the same. Therefore, they killed seven barbarians because only seven of them were here, not because they could only defeat seven of them.¡±


    So it was very difficult for them to estimate the snipers¡¯ strength based on the number of barbarians killed. They only knew the other party was very strong. If it were the T5s that had encountered them, they would probably end up dead as well.


    There were not many such people in this world.


    The adjutant wondered, ¡°Do you think it might be the person you mentioned before... I mean, the person who controls White Mask?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a possibility. If he were the one who came, it would make sense.¡± P5092 nodded and said, ¡°Continue the carpet search and mark every spot on the map where the barbarian corpses were discovered. Include the number of barbarians that died as well.¡±


    Nearby, thebat staff officers quickly got to work upon receiving themander¡¯s instructions. But when they made marks on the map with a red pen, everyone was surprised to see it was entirely covered in red.


    P5092 sighed and said, ¡°The scope of their activities is way toorge. In just half a day, they¡¯ve already killed more than 50 barbarians? If we wait another two days, wouldn¡¯t they have wiped out all the barbarians in the whole of Mt. Dashi?¡±


    However, what P5092 could not understand the most was how the people who hunted the barbarians in the mountains were able to locate them so precisely. Was it because they understood the barbarians really well?


    At this moment, a gunshot sounded over the radio in themand vehicle. The adjutant picked up the radio transceiver and asked calmly, ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Sir, there was a sniper gunshot about 400 meters away from us just now. I think those two snipers are very close by!¡±


    As he spoke, another gunshot rang out. Immediately after, a series of gunshots could be heard. It sounded like an intense exchange of gunfire had taken ce over there.


    P5092 immediately said, ¡°Find their target and get closer. Do not try to approach those two snipers.¡±


    With that, ten toons at the front line responsible for the carpet search immediately started moving.


    Although the 400-meter straight line distance seemed very close, it would take close to an hour to cover that distance between the mountain ridges.


    By the time they arrived at the battlefield, the gunshots had already stopped, and no one knew where the snipers had disappeared to.


    Right afterwards, the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers got started with searching for the snipers¡¯ target. They fanned out from the location of the snipers¡¯ gunshots and searched the area within a 1.5-kilometer radius.


    If typical snipers had fired those shots, they would just need to cover a radius of 800 meters for the search. It would already be very impressive for most snipers to hit their targets urately from an 800-meter range. However, these two snipers were too skilled. They were simply the best of the best.


    Soon after, they discovered a battlefield by a riverbank where more than 20 barbarians were lying dead. Their corpses stretched all the way from the riverbank into the forest. The blood of the barbarians was still flowing, turning the soil on the shore red.


    There were even water pouches made of animal skin scattered all over the ground. Upon opening them, they were found to be empty.


    As the Pyro Company soldiers slowly approached, orders sounded out on the radio. ¡°Check for footprints in the forest to see if anyone in their group has escaped.¡±


    Very quickly, a Pyro Company soldier reported, ¡°It¡¯s been confirmed that this group of barbarians were wiped out by the riverside. The only footprints in the forest we found were of theming here. There are no signs that any of them had escaped.¡±


    Due to the damp soil at the riverbank, it was impossible for the barbarians topletely conceal their footprints.


    In themand vehicle, P5092 frowned. ¡°So those two snipers probably predicted these barbarians would go there to collect water, so they set up an ambush for them.¡±


    He took out the map but could not tell what was so special about the location the barbarians collected their water from.


    ¡°That¡¯s strange. Why were they so sure the barbarians would go there to get water? Three rivers pass through the mountain range, and there¡¯s also more than ten streams. Why were they so sure it would be there?¡± his adjutant wondered.


    ¡°Perhaps that¡¯s what their special skill is.¡± P5092 sighed.


    In the morning, the barbarians predicted soldiers would go to the riverside to fetch water. So they set up an ambush in the river but were taken out by the snipers there. Later in the afternoon, these barbarians also ended up being ambushed over a matter as simple as getting water when they encountered the snipers again.


    This felt like someone was able to see the future on the battlefield, dictating the bnce between life and death.


    Initially, some of the Pyro Company soldiers felt that they were being observed like prey while searching for the barbarians.


    But now, the real hunter had arrived, and the barbarians became their prey instead.


    P5092 said to the frontlinemanders over the radio, ¡°Leave your individual rations where you are and retreat. Don¡¯t stay there any longer.¡±


    His adjutant asked, ¡°Are you leaving the rations for them?¡±


    ¡°They might not go and retrieve them, but I believe they will see my goodwill,¡± P5092 said.


    As he spoke, he kept staring at the map. Then he used a red marker to mark the location of the river and the number of barbarian deaths there.


    He suddenly realized something. ¡°The snipers¡¯ radius of operation seems to be a fan. Why does it feel like they¡¯re thinking the same thing as us? They¡¯re shepherding the barbarians towards Longtan Canyon as well.¡±


    In P5092¡¯s battle strategy, he had nned to force all the barbarians to the vicinity of Longtan Canyon and wipe them out there in one fell swoop. In the end, the snipers were doing the same too.


    Was it unintentional, or did the other party deduce his intent through the movements of the scouts ahead? In that case, were they working to help him finish the n?


    If it were thetter, then their intuition was insanely sharp.

 Chapter 846 - Stealing things!

    <h4>Chapter 846: Stealing things!</h4>


    To the Pyro Company and the barbarians, Mt. Dashi was originally the battlefield where their two sides would fight each other. But due to the arrival of the two snipers, the battle situation suddenly became very unpredictable.


    It was not only P5092 who was curious about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s true identity; even the barbarians were also a little bewildered by the sudden increase in the number of theirrades who had died in the past two days. Moreover, what they could not ept the most was that their deaths werepletely meaningless.


    Those barbarians were all killed in ambushes without exception.


    Some of them were sniped, while others were caught out in unexpected ces and killed with a sharp weapon. To be honest, the entire expeditionary army had never fought such a vexing battle before. They did not even know where the enemy was and yet so many of them got killed.


    In the dark of night, a five-member team of barbarians was advancing northwards in the forest. They had discovered the main forces of the Pyro Company had blocked off all directions around them and stationed arge number of troops in the mountains. Furthermore, temporary defensive fortifications had also been set up.


    Under themand of P5092, the main forces slowly forced the barbarians northwards. The barbarians seemed to have no other choice than to retreat to Longtan Canyon.


    The team of five barbarians advanced in silence. They moved in single file as they traveled through the forest, and during this time, no one spoke at all.


    However, their marching speed was not considered fast. That was because they still had to cover their tracks so they would not get discovered and followed by the Pyro Company.


    But as they walked, the team leader at the front suddenly turned around and saw there were only four of them left in the group!


    The team leader turned around and asked coldly, ¡°Where did Valery go?¡±


    Only at this moment did some of the others turn around in shock. They discovered that theirpanion named Valery had disappeared. During this time, they did not even hear him dropping out of the group!


    The team leader asked the barbarian who was fourth in line, ¡°Gennady, where did Valery go? He was following you all this while. Didn¡¯t you notice that he dropped out of the group?¡±


    When he said that, the others also started feeling puzzled. All of them had maintained a spacing of roughly three meters while marching. It made sense if the people at the front did not hear anymotion, but Gennady should definitely have known where Valery had gone.


    But Gennady did not answer the question. He just continued walking forward. The way he was walking... looked a little stiff.


    The moonlight shone through the branches and leaves of the forest and cast mottled shadows onto their bodies like a sheet of ice. Meanwhile, Gennady¡¯s strange gait made the other three barbarians¡¯ scalps tingle.


    As Gennady walked, there was a dripping sound, as though some viscous liquid was trickling onto the decaying leaves of the forest floor.


    The team leader suddenly raised his axe and pointed it at Gennady. ¡°Stop! Don¡¯te any closer or I¡¯ll kill you!¡±


    The other two people also realized something was wrong. They raised their axes and stood on guard, but it was toote by the time they realized something was wrong.


    In that instant, a young man holding a ck saber suddenly appeared behind Gennady. He even had a smile on his face.


    When he bolted out from behind Gennady, the barbarian¡¯s sturdy body was no longer supported by anything and fell straight to the side. Only now did the barbarians realize Gennady had had his eyes closed all this while. It was just that they could not see it due to the mottled shadows cast by the trees!


    Gennady was already dead, and that dripping sound was the sound of his blood trickling to the ground!


    There was no time to think anymore. The young man in the forest was already swinging his saber at them. The barbarian facing the brunt of the attack raised his axe to block the ck saber. He had even thought of how to kill the enemy in front of him already.


    It was not particrly difficult for them to kill their enemies. All they needed to do was to rely on their strength topletely crush them.


    However, what happened next shocked the barbarians. The ck saber went past the axe that was made of an unknown metal and split it in two. It didn¡¯t even manage to stop the de for a moment!


    Ren Xiaosu did note to a halt in front of this barbarian. Before the saber¡¯s afterimage could stop moving, he had already stepped past this person. It almost felt like he was moving faster than the saber.


    The next person could only watch helplessly as hispanion was cut in half. Before he could even think, Ren Xiaosu was already in front of him.


    The two remaining barbarians had witnessed the sharpness of the ck saber with their own eyes, so they would not foolishly use their own axes to block it. Importantly, the axes of the expeditionary army were all made of an alloy. Who would have thought that their trusty axes would get sliced like a hot knife going through butter?


    Instantaneously, they realized the reason why so many of theirpanions had inexplicably died during the past two days was probably because of the young man in front of them.


    When they thought of that, the two barbarians let out a roar and charged together. The shadows in the forest were swaying nonstop, and the two barbarians¡¯ visions suddenly blurred. Then Ren Xiaosu was nowhere to be seen.


    ¡®<i>Fast! Too fast!</i>¡® This thought shed across the two barbarians¡¯ minds at the same time.


    When they finally managed to react, Ren Xiaosu had already sidestepped to their left.


    Below his feet, the umtedyers of dposing leaves suddenly exploded under the force of his heavy step, flying around Ren Xiaosu in the air like crows!


    The barbarian on his left instinctively swung his axe around but realized he could not swing it more than halfway!


    He was horrified to discover that the young man had grabbed the handle of his axe and wrenched it away from him!


    The barbarian did not want to let go, but a huge force came through the handle of his axe, and the young man casually tossed him up into the air along with it!


    The barbarian had no choice but to let go of the axe while he was sent flying away.


    Ren Xiaosu hefted the axe in his hand and muttered, ¡°I was only trying to collect some axes to y with. Why did that guy hold onto it so tightly?¡±


    His physical attributes had reached an astonishing 16.5 and 16.1. As these barbarians only weighed at most 150 kilograms, he was able to toss them around very easily.


    As he spoke, the barbarian who had been thrown aside crashed into a tree, hitting his waist. The intense pain in his waist almost caused him to go into shock. With a crunch, the barbarian¡¯s spine actually cracked from the impact. Even the thick tree trunk audibly cracked as it could not withstand the heavy force of the throw, the wood fibers rupturing after the collision.


    The team leader was thest one remaining. Seeing that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength was not something he could handle, he turned around and ran.


    But Ren Xiaosu raised his hand and threw the axe he was holding. The axe flew forward and whizzed through the air.


    Before the team leader could even run ten meters away, he was struck in the back by the axe. Even his spine was torn apart by it!


    Ren Xiaosu walked over and picked up two axes from the ground. He looked at the axes that were over a meter long and sighed, ¡°Number 32.¡±


    Over these two days, Ren Xiaosu became interested in the barbarians¡¯ axes. He wondered what material it was made of and thought it rivaled the beauty of the nanoswords he had seen before.


    However, he did not know what the point was of collecting these weapons. He already had the ck saber, so he did not need these axes at all.


    However, the process of stealing other people¡¯s things for his collection made him very happy.

 Chapter 847 - A game between hunters

    <h4>Chapter 847: A game between hunters</h4>


    The axes were very heavy. If it weren¡¯t for the barbarians¡¯ great strength, they would probably not be able to wield such a heavy weapon either.


    Ren Xiaosu stowed the two axes in the pce and was about to leave. But when he turned around, he suddenly saw a shadowy group of uninvited guests in the forest.


    The sound of heavy footsteps on dposing leaves came from all directions. It sounded like dozens of bears approaching quickly.


    The moonlight was dim, but Ren Xiaosu could still see the glinting of the axes in the forest when he looked around.


    So it turned out those five people were used as bait. Just like how Ren Xiaosu had to ce grains and bread crumbs under the ck cauldron to catch the sparrow, a good hunter would first have to know how to use bait. A hunter who was reluctant to use bait was not a good hunter.


    Therefore, these barbarians, who were experts at hunting, were even willing to use theirpanions as bait just so they could finish off Ren Xiaosu. They had really invested a lot into this.


    But it was understandable. After all, too many of them had died to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands over the past two days. Now that they had used just five people to lure him out, even though it sounded a little cruel, it would at least reduce the number of casualties for them.


    The barbarians were just 50 meters away and closing in on Ren Xiaosu in the center of the encirclement. They started slowing down and adjusted their formation in an orderly manner to prevent Ren Xiaosu from escaping.


    Ren Xiaosu took good measure of his enemies. To be honest, he never faced so many barbarians at the same time before. Their formation was tight and solid, giving him an invisible, huge sense of oppression.


    Within the cast, Ren Xiaosu was a lone wolf that had lost its way and was on the verge of being surrounded by hunters.


    As they approached, the barbarians started grunting a tone for some reason. It sounded extremely deste and ferocious like the battle cries heard in wars. When the prey realized they were getting surrounded by this sound, they would gradually lose their minds and turn anxious.


    The barbarians were getting closer and closer. When they got a clear view of the young man in the forest, they were certain that victory was within grasp.


    The barbarians were indeed good hunters. If it were anyone else who got surrounded here, they would probably die for real. Even the Pyro Company¡¯s T5s could not take on so many barbarians head-on.


    Unfortunately, it was Ren Xiaosu they were surrounding.


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu pointed his ck saber diagonally at the west. The barbarians were a little taken aback as they could not figure out what this young man was up to.


    But the barbarian who was in charge of the encirclement this time felt that something was off. Because he saw the young man smiling!


    ¡°Wait! It¡¯s a trap!¡± the barbarian roared furiously.


    As soon as he spoke, his chest started bleeding. Then the sound of a sniper rifle rang out in the distance like it was the prelude to a show.


    The dark red blood glistened in the moonlight as strong winds gusted through the forest. The tree branches even seemed like they were apuding.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the barbarians around him. The audience for this performance had entered the venue.


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu did not retreat but charged into the crowd instead. As he fought calmly among the barbarians by himself, any enemies that posed a threat to him would abruptly die by his side.


    Sniper bullets slid through the gaps in the forest and took out the barbarians urately, ending their lives.


    Wherever Ren Xiaosu went, barbarians next to him would end up dead. For a moment, the young man battling under the mottled glow of the moonlight was the Grim Reaper.


    As previously mentioned, a hunter who did not know how to use bait could not be called a good hunter.


    These barbarians had used the lives of five of theirpanions as bait to lure Ren Xiaosu out. But wasn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu also using himself as bait to perform this massacre?


    On ruthlessness, Ren Xiaosu had never lost to anyone before.


    From a hunter¡¯s point of view, Ren Xiaosu figured something out after the past two days of killing. The barbarians might be skilled at hunting, but that was before they encountered him.


    This was a game between hunters. And without a doubt, Ren Xiaosu had won.


    The barbarians¡¯ eyes turned red from the killing. They could not understand why they could not kill that young man despite having so many people on their side.


    Not only could they not kill him, they even found it difficult to just get near him.


    At this moment, they realized the young man had not looked behind him once while fighting them. He was like a determined assassin. When the scent of blood filled the forest, nothing in this world was worth turning around for.


    Enemies behind him? Someone would help him to finish them off. This was his absolute trust in his partner.


    Unknowingly, Ren Xiaosu had already killed his way through the barbarians¡¯ encirclement. He suddenly looked ahead and was a little stunned when he saw whaty ahead, because there were no more enemies left in front of him.


    He suddenly turned around and said with augh, ¡°Sorry, I overdid it.¡±


    As he spoke, he actually turned around and fought his way back. The barbarians felt humiliated. Several dozen of them had surrounded the other party in an attempt to kill him, but not only had their encirclement been broken through, their men even ended up getting killed by him too!


    However, amid the rhythmic gunshots of the sniper rifle, no one was able topletely surround this young man. In fact, they never did manage to surround him with more than three people at the same time. If more than three of them cooperated and tried to close in on him, they would be torn apart by the lethal sniper bullets in the dark.


    ¡°Retreat!¡± a barbarian roared.


    ¡°Retreat?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°Isn¡¯t it a little toote to retreat? Don¡¯t go. I still have something that I would like to pour my heart out to you about.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu stabbed his ck saber into the barbarian¡¯s chest in front of him. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he ruthlessly shredded the barbarian¡¯s strong heart to pieces.


    It was only at this moment that Ren Xiaosu finally felt he had truly done something.


    When he was at the medical center, he would asionally see an endless stream of patients being carried in from the entrance and feel a little down.


    In this era, even an organization like the Pyro Company was willing to give up the benefits in front of them because foreign enemies had arrived.


    If it were anyone else who did this, Ren Xiaosu might not have felt so greatly about it. But this was the organization he had always regarded as the most cold-blooded, yet it stood up for humanity in the Central ins twice when they needed it.


    This made Ren Xiaosu, who had always been hostile towards the Pyro Company, feel a little touched. As such, he wanted to do something about it. That was why he came out here.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know where this era¡¯s problems lie.¡± Ren Xiaosu raised his saber and said slowly, ¡°There¡¯s someone who stuck by their principles only to end up having their leg broken. Some people want to help the dying only to realize that they don¡¯t have the ability to save them. Someone was content with gardening but got forcefully escorted up Mt. Ginkgo by his detractors. Someone only wanted to be a good person but got treated as a fool instead. Someone was only trying to protect their mother but ended up being pushed into insanity. I don¡¯t know what exactly is wrong with this era, but all I can do is kill the people who create problems. And since y¡¯all havee to cause trouble, I¡¯ll just have to kill you first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s killing intent was overflowing. He deplored the Wang Consortium, the Pyro Company, and also the Qing Consortium. On his journey thus far, he hade across so many people who walked different paths. Everyone was chasing after their goals on these different paths, but he still did not feel like there were any like-minded peers among them. That was because he was also unsure of where he wanted to go.


    But now, there seemed to be a vague answer to this question of his. Perhaps it would get clearer after killing some people.

 Chapter 848 - Different paths

    <h4>Chapter 848: Different paths</h4>


    Why did Ren Xiaosue here?


    Because he wanted to kill some barbarians? No, at least, that was not what he wanted at the beginning.


    Was it because he finally acknowledged the Pyro Company? No, even if the Pyro Company had stood up for humanity twice, Ren Xiaosu still found it very difficult to agree with how unfeeling they were when carrying out their agenda.


    In this world, not everyone in power was greedy. In the pursuit of true justice, Wang Shengzhi believed that as long as humans stopped managing humans, the problem would be solved.


    That paralyzed, wheelchair-bound politician did not even spare the Wang Consortium from his ns.


    The Pyro Company would not hesitate to sacrifice anyone, including themselves, for the sake of humanity¡¯s continuation. They carried the butcher knife in one hand and a torch of hope in the other, hoping to illuminate the way forward for future generations.


    But this was not what Ren Xiaosu wanted. Maybe he was not sure of what he wanted either.


    Just as he had said, he hated the phrase ¡°we have taken a little detour¡± the most because no one knew just how much sacrifice was hidden behind those words.


    In the forest, he finished off the barbarians one by one with his favorite person protecting him from behind.


    All of a sudden, he realized he hade to Mt. Dashi to protect those at the rear.


    This concept was foreign to a selfish person like him. But when he recalled standing at the entrance of the medical center and seeing the wounded being carried over one after another, the cries and wails of those people sounded like a song that people sang in their loneliness and despair.


    Something in him clicked at that moment. He felt that it should not be like this. The world should not be like this at all.


    This feeling had never been so strong before. It was so strong he felt a little angry and wanted to kill those who caused this problem.


    Ren Xiaosu remembered the bitter expression on Wang Jing¡¯s face when he spoke. Wang Jing had said that the rate of saving people would never keep up with the speed of them getting wounded.


    He still remembered the thousands of people in the chow hall saluting him and the gratitude therades of the wounded had for him.


    ¡®<i>Wudi, did you see that? Master has be a ray of light as you wished.</i>¡®


    From today onwards, this ray of light would burn brightly from beginning to end. It would stay illuminated forever.


    Ren Xiaosu slowly pulled out the ck saber from the chest of the barbarian in front of him. ¡°Y¡¯all should¡¯ve just obediently stayed in the North. Whye to the South and cause all this trouble for everyone? I once read something in a book that I did not agree with. But now, I¡¯vee to understand it. One of these days, you¡¯ll also understand that while the people of the Central ins might look disunited like scattered sand, they will gather into a fist the moment you all arrive.¡±


    After killing so many people, Ren Xiaosu gradually understood why he felt a sense of belonging with the Northwest. It was because the Northwest had never contended to rule the world. All they did was guard thend behind them quietly.


    If protecting others was also a path that could be taken, then there were still hundreds of thousands of like-mindedrades waiting for him back in the Northwest.


    ¡°I believe that the people from the Northwest are also on their way here.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the remaining few barbarians and said with augh, ¡°Y¡¯all will have to face the wrath of everyone in the Alliance of Strongholds until all of you are snuffed out.¡±


    One of the barbarians said coldly, ¡°You know nothing about the strength of the expeditionary army.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°You know nothing about the mental strength of the Central ins people.¡±


    When disasteres, mental strength bes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.


    After that, Ren Xiaosu bounded forward and killed all of his enemies, leaving behind only a pile of corpses.


    ...


    Since he had said he would only leave behind a pile of corpses, a pile of corpses was all he was going to leave behind. So he was not going to leave behind even an axe.


    Three hourster, the frontlinemander of the Pyro Company stood on the battlefield and wondered, ¡°Why aren¡¯t there any axes here? Where have they all gone?¡±


    ¡°Maybe the person who killed them took everything away?¡± an officer nearby muttered.


    ¡°There¡¯s more than 40 barbarians here. Did that many axes get taken away as well?¡± themander at the front line wondered. Suddenly, a figure carrying a load of axes on his back appeared in his mind. He shook his head and dismissed the image. ¡°Radio operator, connect me to themander.¡±


    With that, a radio operator came over with a portable radio on his back. The frontlinemander picked up the receiver and said, ¡°Sir, the snipers in the mountains seem to have been caught in an ambush by the barbarians here.¡±


    ¡°Ambush? Where are they now?¡± P5092 frowned. He was worried that something would happen to those two snipers.


    However, themander at the front line rephrased his words and corrected what he had just said. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s more like those two had set up a trap to ambush over 40 barbarians. Let me exin. I¡¯ve checked the time of death of the barbarians here. Five of them died in a different location from the battlefield the others were found in. Furthermore, based on the time of death, those five had died earlier.


    ¡°So I conclude that someone must¡¯ve ambushed them first. After that, more than 40 of the barbarians surrounded the snipers from all directions. Someone killed their way out of the encirclement, with half of the barbarians dying from sh wounds, while the other half died from a sniper rifle¡¯s gunshot wounds. I feel like one of those two people used themselves as bait to create an opportunity for the sniper to shoot.¡±


    P5092 was left speechless in themand vehicle. He did not know whether to say that these two people were overly bold or that their abilities were too terrifying.


    Just how strong was that person who dared to act as bait and ce himself in the encirclement of the barbarians?


    Moreover, the issue was that the other party had actually managed to kill these 40-odd barbarians. He could even imagine how carefree the other party was as they ughtered their way through the encirclement.


    P5092 lowered his head. He suddenly realized goosebumps covered his arms. He even felt a little eager at the thought of possessing such strength.


    Yesterday, they were surprised that those two people could actually take on seven barbarians head-on by themselves. But today, the other party had gone and killed nearly 50 of the barbarians for them to see.


    P5092 used a red pen to mark the location on the map. He said calmly on the radio, ¡°This is thest preset location in our ns to stop the barbarians. Currently, all of them should have retreated into Longtan Canyon. The encirclement n has already beenpleted. Since someone has helped us carry out the most important tasks of the early stages, we should close this off beautifully. We can¡¯t let them think we¡¯re ipetent.¡±


    With that, the radio frequency was switched to broadcast mode. P5092¡¯s voice rang out through the earpiece in all of the soldiers¡¯ helmets, ¡°Attention! This is thend of our Pyro Company the northern barbarians dared to intrude upon. In that case, we just have to ensure they remain here forever. Don¡¯t forget that we¡¯re fighting for the sake of humanity, and for the Pyro Company as well! It¡¯s time to move out!¡±


    With just a few simple words, P5092 mobilized the troops for the battle. The Pyro Company¡¯s 10,000-strong main force started advancing into the mountains, determined to wipe out the barbarians in Longtan Canyon.


    And after that? After that, they would continue heading north to kill more barbarians on the main battlefield.


    However, right at this moment, over a 100 barbarians suddenly jumped into the Qingyan River and swam downstream.


    Schools of fish rushed towards them like they had discovered their prey. But a secondter, a barbarian took out a small fragment of bone in his possession. It was unknown what kind of creature the bone came from, but the moment he took it out, the schools of fish were frightened off and dispersed.

 Chapter 849 - Attacking the camp!

    <h4>Chapter 849: Attacking the camp!</h4>


    After the creatures in the wilderness started mutating, the rivers started bing dangerous as well.


    In the earlier years, there were still people who went into the rivers to catch fish. But now, the fishermen had to be extremely cautious. If they did not catch hold of the fish properly, they might just get their fingers bitten off by the omnivorous fish.


    As the Kong Consortium¡¯s east bordered the sea, its fishing industry was very advanced. But in just the recent few years, the industry had rapidly declined. It was not that there was no demand for fish, but that it was bing impossible to go out to sea.


    It was unknown what kind of animal skeleton the northern barbarians had used to frighten off the ferocious schools of fish. But from the look of it, it seemed like they were already prepared for this.


    The Qingyan River was the main river in Mt. Dashi, and it ran from the northwest to the southeast. To cross this river, the Pyro Company even built sturdy arch bridges specifically for this purpose.


    Now, the Qingyan River was acting as the water source for the main forces led by P5092. The riverbank closest to the camp was only 300 meters away.


    When P5092 gave the order for the main forces to attack Longtan Canyon, the entire Pyro Company¡¯s camp was left quite empty. It was no longer bustling with activity like before, and from the outside, it even looked a little deserted.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s main forces had spent several days driving all of the barbarians into Longtan Canyon. Now that it was time to reap the fruits of theirbor, in order to ensure that the main forces would be able to overwhelm and surround the barbarians, they sent out all their troops except for those on chow duty. As such, when dawn arrived, no one noticed danger approaching.


    Outside of Longtan Canyon, the Pyro Company¡¯s mortar units had already carried out their final adjustments and aiming. Meanwhile, the temporary defensive fortifications werepleted for the passageways that could be used to get in and out of the canyon while heavy machine gun positions were used to seal off the roads.


    In this way, the Pyro Company could ensure that no barbarians could walk out of the canyon alive.


    Themander at the front line reported to P5092 over the radio, ¡°Sir, we¡¯vepleted our deployments. We¡¯re just waiting for the reconpany to confirm the number of barbarians in the canyon.¡±


    ¡°Recall the reconpany and open fire immediately. I want full coverage fire support bombarding the canyon. Let¡¯s plow the area once over before proceeding,¡± P5092 said calmly in themand vehicle back at the camp.


    Mortar shells did not cost much. Previously, they did not resort to using fire support because they were unable to determine the locations of the barbarians in the wilderness. But what they had been doing these past few days was to gather the barbarians together so they could use artillery fire to wipe them out in one fell swoop.


    Longtan Canyon did not span arge area, so it was not difficult to cover it entirely with fire support.


    Of course, quite a few barbarians would still survive the bombing. But at that time, theirbat capabilities would have plummeted.


    A momentter, themander at the front line gave his orders to the mortar units after ending the call with themand center. ¡°We¡¯ll carry out an areawide bombardment on the canyon. Open fire!¡±


    This time, the barbarians were no longer facing small-scale guerri warfare. Instead, they were about to experience the power of firearms and explosives that had ensured the survival of the Central ins all this time!


    Explosions, screams, and angry roars sounded in the canyon. It was only at this moment that the frontlinemander felt relieved. Earlier, the reconnaissance troops had been recalled from their scouting before they infiltrated the canyon. Therefore, the Pyro Company was also unsure if the barbarians were really in there.


    Although the n was very meticulous, and P5092 had already led the troops to progressively seal off the entire wilderness, no one could be sure they had really forced the barbarians into the canyon until they heard this definitive answer.


    As long as there was still a 1% chance of something going wrong, there would still be unforeseen circumstances that could affect the actual war itself.


    But now, the frontlinemander could finally heave a sigh of relief.


    When the artillery fire petered out, the frontlinemander immediately ordered the infantry regiment to enter the canyon and finish off any survivors.


    The infantry regiment put on their gas masks andunched arge number of tear gas grenades into the canyon before moving in.


    The canyon was filled with a faint white mist as the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers advanced inside holding a tight formation.


    But 30 minutes after the infantry regiment went in, a perturbing sitrep immediately sounded on the radio. ¡°The number of barbarians we found doesn¡¯t tally with the intel. There¡¯s only about a 100 of them here!¡±


    The frontlinemander frowned. ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°Affirmative. All the barbarians in the canyon who survived the bombardment have been captured. ording to the intel from the scouts, there should be around 300 of them in the canyon, but there¡¯s only about a 100 of them here.¡±


    ¡°Interrogate them!¡± The frontlinemander shouted into the radio, ¡°Interrogate them in the canyon and find out where the others have gone!¡±


    But at this moment, a barbarian whose arms were tied up and kneeling on the ground spat out a mouthful of blood. He sneered and said, ¡°You¡¯re even willing to give up your base just so that you can capture us?¡±


    The infantry regiment¡¯s officer immediately knew things were not good. He shouted on the radio, ¡°The barbarians are probablyunching an attack on our camp! Sir, should we return to base to help the rest?¡±


    Themander¡¯s expression changed. He shouted to the radio operator, ¡°Connect me to themand vehicle!¡±


    However, the radio operator shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t get through! I¡¯m not getting a response from that side!¡±


    ...


    Outside the camp, more than a 100 barbarians climbed up the riverbank like river demons. They looked at the campsite that was nearly 300 meters away before swinging the giant axes in their hands to flick off the water.


    The leading barbarian sneered, ¡°Charge! The expeditionary army will remember y¡¯all. When the general builds a pce on thend of the Central ins, your names shall be inscribed on the stone tablet at the entrance.¡±


    He then shouted, ¡°Long live the expeditionary army! Charge!¡±


    A momentter, over a 100 river demons started sprinting madly, and their heavy footsteps sounded like war drums beating on the riverbank.


    For a normal person, a 300-meter sprint would take about 40 seconds to finish. But for these barbarians, it would only take them 10 seconds.


    10 seconds was just a short moment in a war that could drag on for months or years.


    The barbarians had already nned how they would kill all of the soldiers in the camp. Moreover, they were going to be the first advance guard of the expeditionary army to kill a high-rankingmander of the Pyro Company!


    The leader of the barbarians charged even faster. Among this group of wild beasts, he stood out as the strongest leader. His physical condition was visibly much tougher than the others.


    A momentter, a ring spotlight suddenly lit up in front of them. The barbarians used their arms to shield themselves from the blinding light, but they could vaguely see an officer in his thirties standing within the camp. He was neatly dressed and wearing a military cap as he stood with his hands behind his back. This person was P5092, the person that the barbarians wanted to kill most.


    In front of P5092 was a heavy machine gun position manned by several dozen soldiers.


    P5092ughed heartily and said, ¡°My dear guests, you¡¯vee from afar! As your host, I¡¯m sorry for being rude as we have not prepared a wee. However, I do have a surprise for all of you.¡±


    The barbarian leader was stunned. From the look of it, the Pyro Company had probably expected they would be attacking the camp!

 Chapter 850 - Feels like I’m being targeted

    <h4>Chapter 850: Feels like I¡¯m being targeted</h4>


    When the barbarians who were preparing to charge saw the machine gun, they immediately went prone behind some cover they found.


    Before the barbariansunched the surprise attack on the Pyro Company¡¯s campsite, the two parties had already crossed swords many times on Mt. Dashi. Of course, if it weren¡¯t for the appearance of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, their battles might have turned out to be even more intense.


    P5092 knew that since he had led the main forces of the Pyro Company here, it was only a matter of time before the barbarians on Mt. Dashi were wiped out.


    It was not only P5092 who was certain of this oue. The barbarians were also well aware that they were on a suicide mission.


    But as a suicide squad, their deaths would have to be for something. Therefore, killing a high-ranking Pyro Company officer was the most worthy thing they could do.


    Every high-rankingmanding officer was a precious resource that an organization had to spend a lot of effort to train and nurture, so not just anyone could rece them. If their recements¡¯ standards were slightly lower, the actingmanding officer might very well threaten their chances in war, leading to a total defeat.


    Therefore, killing a high-ranking officer was actually a very important matter that could prove fatal to the enemy.


    However, beforeing face to face with P5092, the barbarians were not expecting him to actually be anticipating their arrival.


    To stall for time, they even left over a 100 of theirpanions in Longtan Canyon to throw off the enemy and dy the return of their main forces.


    Before this, they had confirmed many times that the Pyro Company had sent out almost all of their main forces. But if the other party knew they would being, why did they still foolishly leave the camp empty?


    So did the enemy really realize they wereing to attack? Or did they only realize it when they got out of the water and hastily set up a temporary machine gun position?


    The barbarians¡¯ centurion stared coldly at the machine gun position in front of him. There were only a few dozen troops there, and the defensive fortifications were extremely simple and disorderly. It did not look like they were prepared beforehand at all. He suddenlyughed and said, ¡°It¡¯s just a bluff.¡±


    The centurion was certain the enemy had already realized the number of them in the canyon was not right. That was why they had taken precautions. However, wasn¡¯t it a little toote for any precautions now?


    A faint white glow appeared in the distant sky. It was going to be daylight soon!


    ¡°Men, make a detour and go around them. I¡¯ll handle the firearms of these Central ins people!¡± After that, the centurion started moving again. He estimated he only needed another two seconds to rush up to the machine gun position.


    When the centurion started running, he became a testy brown bear sprinting. The machine gun started spitting out a barrage of fire. However, the centurion was extremely agile in his charge, and even the muzzle of the gun could not match his speed of movement!


    Moreover, P5092 suddenly saw the centurion raise his hand and throw the huge axe in his hand. The axe whistled through the air andnded urately on the machine gunner.


    After the axe hit the machine gunner, it did not stop there. The machine gunner was sent flying backwards along with it, disying just how terrifying that strength was!


    When P5092 saw this, he frowned. ¡°It seems there¡¯s also powerful individuals among the barbarians. We have to report this matter to the higher-ups, lest we get fooled by them.¡±


    Seeing that the machine gun had stopped firing, the centurion roared, ¡°Charge!¡±


    The other barbarians leaped out from behind cover like cheetahs and threw their giant axes at the camp. When the Pyro Company soldiers saw this, their scalps turned numb.


    ¡°Get down.¡± P5092 said calmly to the soldier next to him, ¡°Your mission is over and you won¡¯t have to participate in the next battle.¡±


    With that, he actually caught an iing axe and threw it back casually.


    The power of this throw was much greater than when the opponent had thrown it!


    The flying axe whizzed andnded squarely on the forehead of a barbarian!


    This was the advantage of being a high-ranking officer of the Pyro Company. Perhaps it was even an advantage that most forces in the world could not match. That was because their officers were very powerful to begin with, and they never had to fear any so-called decapitation strikes.


    But the centurion was already close to the camp. The other barbarians were also following close behind him.


    If these people managed to get close to P5092, he would still die on the spot no matter how strong he was.


    In a split second, the military tents in the camp copsed. The barbarians were shocked to discover that nearly a 100 people were hiding in those tents!


    Moreover, the centurion realized the people who had suddenly rushed out of the tents were even faster than him!


    The centurion was nning to charge into the machine gun position and ughter everyone, but his opponent arrived first and intercepted him before he could get there!


    P5092 stood about ten meters away from him and said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯ve just walked right into our trap. T5081, I¡¯ll leave these barbarians to you all.¡±


    Even before he finished, T5081, who had rushed out of the tents at the back, came face to face with the centurion.


    The centurion raised his hand and was about to swing his fist to receive T5081¡¯s attack. However, T5081 was faster than him by a notch. Before the centurion could fully release his strength, T5081 had grabbed his arm and thrown him with great ease.


    Just as they passed each other by, T5081 punched the centurion in his ribs at lightning speed. The punch almost knocked the wind out of the centurion and almost caused him to go into shock!


    Although the centurion was strong, he was still no match for a T5batant.


    Nearly a 100 Pyro Company soldiers had rushed out of the tents at the same time. They were all wearing the uniform of the special forces, and even their armbands were different from those of the regr soldiers.


    So even the machine gun position in the camp was only a front P5092 had used to make the enemy lower their guard. The real trump card was the special forces hiding behind him led by T5081.


    After receiving the order to head north, the special forces that had attacked Stronghold 31 and numbered several hundred troops were split into three groups and assigned to three different missions. The group led by T5081 was transferred to the main forces led by P5092 to coborate temporarily with them.


    The special forces of the Pyro Company had been holding back their anger all this time. When they were at Stronghold 31, they got criticized for being inept at whatever they did.


    It was all because they were unable to personallyplete the missions that required them to destroy the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency, the secret prison, the normal prison, as well as to assassinate Kong Erdong.


    They could only hold back their anger and try to fight this battle beautifully. They were determined to kill all of the barbarians in Mt. Dashi without leaving a single one alive.


    Based on the initial n, they were supposed to divide their forces in half and enter the wilderness to kill the barbarians before forcing the remaining ones to retreat into Longtan Canyon.


    But before they could do anything, they heard the news that someone had already done what they were supposed to do.


    Seeing the increasing number of barbarians the other party had killed in the mountains, T5081 even suspected it was the same group as the one that stole their kills in Stronghold 31.


    T5081 even felt he might have been targeted.


    At that time, P5092 consoled him with augh, ¡°It¡¯s not like this is the same group that stole your missions in Stronghold 31. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll definitely make sure you all im the credit this time.¡±

 Chapter 851 - Too careless!

    <h4>Chapter 851: Too careless!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    When the Pyro Company¡¯s special forces appeared, it was as good as announcing that the encirclement on Mt. Dashi wasing to an end. The barbarians in Longtan Canyon were either dead or wounded, while thisst group of barbarians who had infiltrated Mt. Dashi were also heavily surrounded by T5081 and his subordinates now.


    In fact, these special forces consisted entirely of T4s. Even in terms of average strength, they still had an overwhelming advantage over the barbarians.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were secretly observing the battle with their spotting scopes. They were about 700 meters away from the campsite, with the Qingyan River standing between them.


    Before this, Ren Xiaosu had also guessed the barbarians might stake everything on this attempt to attack the camp. After all, this was a typical tactic that suicide squads would carry out after infiltrating enemy lines. So it was no surprise they did that.


    However, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were a step toote. By the time they arrived, the machine gun position had already been taken out by the barbarians. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin quickly searched for the most ideal sniping position to settle down at. But as soon as they found a spot, the T5batant suddenly came killing out of nowhere.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised by this turn of events. He had thought P5092 had no other way out, but he would never have expected the barbarians to be unable to threaten him at all.


    In the battle on Mt. Dashi, P5092 resorted to conventional tactics and adopted a careful and steady approach in the early stages. But as they neared the end, he suddenly diverged from those methods. This was very exciting to watch.


    Thinking about it, P5092 should be a rare talentedmander among the Pyro Company troops.


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu even had the thought of copying P5092¡¯s Army Warfare Leadership skill since he still had a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll with him.


    However, the distance was too far for him to use the scroll as they were about 700 meters away from each other. Moreover, if he really wanted to learn a skill like this in the future, he could look for better candidates like Qing Zhen or Zhang Jinglin after earning enough Skill Duplication Scrolls.


    When Yang Xiaojin saw Ren Xiaosu in a trance, she asked, ¡°What are you thinking about?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Even without us, they would still have been able to clear out the barbarians on Mt. Dashi. It might take a day or two longer, but the oue would be the same.¡±


    He wasmenting because he realized his role in this battle was only the icing on the cake rather than being someone who provided them with timely assistance.


    Faced with the invasion of tens of thousands of barbarians that were headed south, war was looming for the entire Central ins against a whole other nation.


    At that time, the Central ins might eventually end up as the victor. But that would be the result of everyone fighting hard together, and definitely not the credit of only one or two individuals.


    An individual¡¯s strength would appear insignificant in the face of the expeditionary army¡¯s barbarians that numbered in the tens of thousands. In this war, they needed more people like P5092 to step forward and disy their intelligence to fight the barbarians to the end.


    There was also a need for more Pyro Company soldiers to fight for the survival of mankind.


    So what this war needed was many heroes, not just one or two.


    Yang Xiaojin nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Didn¡¯t wee here to take the pressure off the doctors? Why are you thinking so much? It¡¯s good enough that the doctors at the medical center won¡¯t have to overwork anymore.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled, ¡°We¡¯ve also fulfilled our duties as doctors bying here. Let¡¯s go, it¡¯s time to retreat!¡±


    After that, they got up and headed back to the forward operating base.


    The sun had already risen in the east. Golden-red rays of light shone through theyers of clouds from the distant sky. It seemed like today was no different from any other day as before.


    But the barbarian corpses in the mountains, the dust on the soldiers¡¯ faces, and the blood on their bodies all reminded everyone that the real war had only just begun.


    The battle at the camp was graduallying to a stop. P5092 just stood on the sidelines without any intention of helping out.


    He was deep in thought as he looked at the other side of the Qingyan River. The soldier next to him asked cautiously, ¡°Sir, is something wrong?¡±


    ¡°If I¡¯m not wrong, the snipers who killed the barbarians previously are on the other side of the river.¡± P5092 said, ¡°But they didn¡¯t make a move this time. I wonder who they really are and if we¡¯ll meet again on the battlefield.¡±


    ¡°Now that our battle with the barbarians is over, why don¡¯t we send some more people to investigate the snipers¡¯ identities?¡± abat staff officer off the side asked.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± P5092 shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s better not toplicate matters. Go and write a detailed report of this battle. I¡¯m going to submit it to the higher-ups. It will be an important reference for our future dealings with the barbarians.¡±


    During the battle at Mt. Dashi, the barbarians had revealed their shrewdness, craftiness, and fearless fighting style that did not match their bulky appearances.


    This gave P5092 a feeling that the uing war might not go very smoothly. They would have to first understand their enemies before they could defeat them.


    T5081 walked over slowly to P5092 after all the barbarians had been taken care of. ¡°Now that the Battle of Mt. Dashi is over, it¡¯s time for us to head north. As such, our coboration with the main forces will also end here for now.¡±


    In themand structure of the Pyro Company¡¯s ORBAT, the special forces led by T5081 were not under the directmand of P5092. This was only considered a coborative rtionship. So when the mission was over, it was also time for T5081 and his troops to rejoin their unit.


    P5092 nodded. ¡°Great job. We¡¯ll meet again on the northern battlefield.¡±


    ¡°Take care,¡± T5081 replied.


    Just as T5081 was about to leave, P5092 suddenly asked, ¡°By the way, there¡¯s something I¡¯d like to ask you. If you had to face over 40 barbarians by yourself with a sniper providing you cover from 600 meters away, are you confident of killing them all?¡±


    T5081 shook his head. ¡°No, some of these barbarians are nearly as strong as T4batants. It¡¯s not difficult to kill a T5batant if there are over 40 of them.¡±


    P5092 said with a sigh, ¡°If you put it that way, I¡¯ll have to reassess the snipers who helped us kill the barbarians this time. I wonder if it¡¯s a good or bad thing for such experts to suddenly join the battlefield.¡±


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin returned to the forward operating base that evening carrying their field packs. When they entered the base, the soldiers at the gate did not even check their IDs and just let them through. They even saluted them and watched until they left their sights. This left Ren Xiaosu feeling happy.


    Wang Jing received the two of them at the entrance of the medical center. ¡°Did you manage to gather the herbs?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all in here.¡± Ren Xiaosu patted the field pack on his back and said with a smile, ¡°The herbs that I need could be found in the vicinity. It¡¯ll be ready after I¡¯m done brewing it this evening.¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu only had some very ordinary medicinal herbs in his field pack. As for concocting the ck medicine, he just had to put on an actter.


    ¡°Did everything go well with the herb gathering in the mountains?¡± A nurse, who was standing at the side, asked in concern, ¡°We heard that there was a battle on Mt. Dashi. The two of you didn¡¯t go there, right?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha, how can we go to such a dangerous ce like Mt. Dashi?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed it off and said, ¡°Someone warned us of the danger before we left. By the way, did any wounded soldiers get sent here in the past few days? Quick, bring me to them for treatment.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had not earned any gratitude tokens for several days already. Now that the source of the ck medicine could be exined, he should quickly get back to earning more gratitude tokens!


    But when he said that, everyone smiled and exined to him, ¡°For some reason, there have barely been any wounded soldiers sent to the medical center for the past two days. We didn¡¯t even get a single wounded person today. Since you¡¯ve just returned, you should rest well. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ve already treated all of the wounded.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded on the spot. He had only been worried that the doctors at the medical center would be overworked, so he decided to go out and kill some barbarians to reduce the number of casualties.


    But what he did not expect was that by killing so many barbarians in one go, there ended up being no wounded people getting sent here the entire day.


    He was too careless!

 Chapter 852 - What you see might not be the truth

    <h4>Chapter 852: What you see might not be the truth</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ever since Ren Xiaosu¡¯s return, the forward operating base was bustling with people and activity. More and more of the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces from multiple other locations arrived and assembled before rushing off towards the northern front line.


    But amid this bustle, the activity in the medical center started to wane.


    There were no wounded soldiers being sent over, and no one crying for help from the doctors at the entrance. There were no longer cries or wails in the medical center. The patients who had previously been treated had even started ying Fight the Landlord in the hospital. This made the doctors feel a little off.


    They looked at the patients who were ying Fight the Landlord and thought that if it weren¡¯t for the fact they had to maintain their physician image, they would even have joined them.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t they say all the barbarians on Mt. Dashi have been killed? Why didn¡¯t our soldiers suffer any injuries then?¡± The director of the medical center was a little doubtful. However, he couldn¡¯t possibly check on this matter with those at the front line, could he? What was he going to ask? Question them why no one got injured in the battle? Wouldn¡¯t that be sheer nonsense?


    However, everyone knew this was just a temporary break. There would be even busier days waiting for themter. Most importantly, they should take advantage of this period to quickly adjust their mental and physical health.


    Facing this situation, Ren Xiaosu undoubtedly found it the most unbearable. Having experienced that rapid umtion of gratitude tokens, he suddenly did not know where he could earn more.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu started making rounds to the various departments. When he saw some of the patients who were not treated with the ck medicine yet to fully recover from their injuries, he ran over and asked, ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like your wounds were handled properly. Why don¡¯t we remove your bandages and treat them again?¡±


    The patient¡¯s expression immediately changed. ¡°Thank you, but there¡¯s really no need...¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Liu Chengyang, +1!¡±


    The patient could clearly see a glimmer in the young doctor¡¯s eyes!


    Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu really did not expect to receive a gratitude token like this. He turned around and looked at the other patients. As a matter of fact, a lot of them had not fully recovered yet!


    Ren Xiaosu continued dropping by at every department to search for even more patients. Suddenly, the entire medical center was in chaos until a doctor went up to him angrily and said, ¡°I know you have excellent medical skills and the patients treated by your Trinity Institute recover very quickly. But are you trying to humiliate our other medical staff by telling all the patients that their wounds were not handled properly?¡±


    Nearby, the other doctors were ring at him as well. Ren Xiaosu had caused an outrage this time.


    ¡°Ahem, no, no. That¡¯s not really what I was trying to do.¡± Ren Xiaosu was a little embarrassed as he exined himself quickly. As such, he had to drop the idea of collecting gratitude tokens for the time being.


    After returning to their department, Wang Jing said analytically to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the war situation in the North has gotten extremely intense now. When all the main forces have assembled in the North, they¡¯ll definitely have to shift the medical center there to cope with the even more intense battlester on. There¡¯s no need to worry about having nothing to do.¡±


    The medical center they were at was a 100 kilometers from the front line. If the wounded were to be brought back from there to receive their treatment, it would probably be toote for them.


    Amotion suddenly broke out in the forward operating base. Everyone in the medical center was wondering what had happened. Although it was usually quite lively around here, there was never amotion as big as this. After all, the Pyro Company soldiers tended to keep to themselves more often than not. Even when they talked, they would not speak too loudly, so where was all the noisy chattering from?


    When Ren Xiaosu and the others made their way out of the medical center to have a look, they were surprised to see a long convoy of vehicles outside the forward operating base. The Pyro Company troops were checking the vehicles one by one before letting them through.


    The logo of the Qinghe Group was on those vehicles!


    ¡°Oh, I remember now. Wasn¡¯t it reported that the Qinghe Group was looking to provide material assistance to the Pyro Company? They came to provide the supplies while the Luoyang City garrison troops will head north to participate in the war.¡± Liang Ce said excitedly, ¡°I¡¯ve always heard that Qinghe University is very liberal-minded. It¡¯s just that I¡¯ve never had a chance to witness it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other. They had been enrolled in Qinghe University. Back then, after the Battle of Luoyang City, the two of them became very well-known. The Qinghe Group even had their statues erected on Wangchunmen Boulevard.


    Now that the Qinghe University students were here, they had better not get recognized by them!


    But what surprised Ren Xiaosu even more was that after the Qinghe University students got out of their vehicles, they carried the medical supplies straight into the medical center.


    Yang Xiaojin said in a low voice, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯re all fourth-year students. I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll recognize us.¡±


    When they were at Qinghe University, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were in their freshman year. Yang Xiaojin had always kept a low profile and did not interact with the others while Ren Xiaosu was in his armor when he rescued the Qinghe University students. So even if the students knew about them, they might not know what they looked like.


    When Yang Xiaojin said that, Ren Xiaosu felt relieved.


    Those several hundred students came to the entrance of the medical center in high spirits. But when they saw Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, they were somewhat hesitant. That was because the two of them did not have their white coats on and looked a little too young to be doctors.


    But that had nothing to do with them. What was most important was that they delivered the medical supplies to the doctors.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin went right back to their department¡¯s office to have some tea and read the paper. Due to the fact that their department had yed the most important role during the emergency treatments, it was located closest to the entrance.


    As the students entered the medical center one after another, all of them had very excited looks on their faces.


    However, when the students were greeted by the sight in the medical center, they were stunned. They had imagined this ce to be a living hell where many wounded were lying in the hallways due to a shortage of beds. There should also have been a lot of people crying in pain.


    The doctors in this medical center should be very busy as well.


    But what they saw was an empty hallway in front of them, and the doctors were sitting inside their offices sipping tea and reading the paper. There were even some strange noises in the hallway.


    ¡°I callndlord.¡±


    ¡°I raise your bid.¡±


    ¡°I raise you further.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m thendlord!¡±


    ¡°A pair of threes!¡±


    ¡°Pass!¡±


    The students were at a loss as they crowded around in the hallway with the supply boxes. Someone approached Ren Xiaosu, who was reading a copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper, and asked, ¡°Do you work in the medical center?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Yes. Y¡¯all must be here to send the material assistance, right? Thank you very much, but we have to wait for the medical center¡¯s director to take them.¡±


    But something unexpected happened. A male student questioned, ¡°Didn¡¯t they say the front line was being hard-pressed by the enemies? Where are the wounded? Why are there so few of them? The doctors here also have nothing to do. Aren¡¯t they deceiving us?! We didn¡¯te all the way here just to watch you guys sip tea and read the paper.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°I know that y¡¯all came here out of kindness, but what you see might not be the truth. Y¡¯all should wait for the director to get here first before making any assumptions.¡±

 Chapter 853 - War correspondent

    <h4>Chapter 853: War correspondent</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu felt the students could not be faulted for the misunderstanding. Judging from the current situation, it really did not look like this was a medical center. After all, no casualties could be seen being treated, so how could this ce count as a frontline medical center?


    As such, it was normal the students would misunderstand the situation.


    Moreover, it was not only the students who got angry; even Ren Xiaosu was infuriated. As he did not see any further wounded soldiers being carried in today, the source of his gratitude tokens was also cut off!


    At this moment, only Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were on duty in the office as there were no wounded soldiers to treat. The others had already gone upstairs to the temporary staff room to sleep.


    Ren Xiaosu said to the students, ¡°Since y¡¯all¡¯re here to deliver the supplies, you¡¯ll have to wait for the director toe and take them. If you still have any doubts, you can get the director to exin it to you directly.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu closed the office door and went back to reading his newspaper. Just a while ago, he was reading an article about Jiang Xu¡¯s condemnation of the Wang Consortium¡¯s inaction in the war.


    ¡°Eh,¡± Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin in a puzzled whisper, ¡°there should be a lot of people from the Qinghe Group that came to the north this time. Look, it was reported in the paper that the people from Hope Media will also be here. They probably came to cover the news as war correspondents. Although a portion of the Luoyang City garrison troops havee as well, I didn¡¯t see any Riders with them just now. Could it be that the Riders have really cut ties with the Qinghe Group?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s impossible for them to do that.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, ¡°After all, their rtionship used to be very close, so how could they cut ties just like that?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I think too.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    Outside the department office, the students¡¯ indignant voices could be heard as Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin chatted inside like nothing was happening. It was as though themotion had nothing to do with them.


    Seeing that the students outside were close to breaking down the door, Ren Xiaosu frowned and went over to say a few more words to them. Honestly, he felt he could not fault them since they hade such a long way to deliver the supplies. Moreover, they were all here for the purpose of fighting off the barbarian enemies in the North. Therefore, it would be best not to affect their team spirit.


    It was not like he was in charge of this medical center anyway, so there was no need for him to care about these matters since he was just a normal cardiac surgeon. However, he wondered where the director had gone.


    But as soon as Ren Xiaosu opened the door, he heard someone shout from the other side of the hallway, ¡°Why are you all blocking the Miracle Doctor¡¯s office door?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard that. It was the patients who were chatting and ying cards in their wards who could no longer bear to watch this. They all walked out of their ward to shut down the students¡¯ grousing.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reputation in the forward operating base and medical center was no longer something normal doctors could match.


    On one hand, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s medicine worked wonders in treating external injuries. On the other hand, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s enthusiasm in shaking hands with the patients touched them deeply.


    The patients realized the young doctor really took saving lives to be his duty. As long as they thanked him, the Miracle Doctor would feel happy from the bottom of his heart.


    Thinking about it, how respectable was a doctor who required payment only in thanks but not money!


    So when the patients saw the Miracle Doctor¡¯s door being blocked, they wondered if someone hade here to make trouble for him. As such, they immediately dropped their ying cards and surrounded the ¡°troublemakers.¡± At this moment, the hallway was packed full of people, and the veterans were ready to start a fight!


    A student who seemed to be the leader of the group said in a loud voice, ¡°We kept hearing from others that the battle situation at the front lines was very intense and that there were a lot of casualties. That was why we came to the North bringing medical aid. But it turned out the situation was not as we had imagined. We were deceived!¡±


    ¡°Bullshit.¡± A Pyro Company soldier who was limping and wrapped in bandages said, ¡°You don¡¯t see anyone wounded around here because the main forces have already headed further north after they were done fighting the barbarians on Mt. Dashi. Since there¡¯s no battles in the vicinity, of course there won¡¯t be any wounded people!¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re wrong!¡± The student replied, ¡°Since battles were fought, where did all the wounded from those fights go?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what you don¡¯t understand.¡± The Pyro Company soldier said, ¡°Why do you think we call him the Miracle Doctor? Applying his secret ancestral ck medicine on an exterior wound will heal it in three days. If you don¡¯t believe me, have a look at my hand.¡±


    With that, the patient removed his bandages and said, ¡°I was one of those wounded in thest batch of casualties sent here two days ago. At that time, my wound was so deep the bone could even be seen. But now, the wound has healed up. If it wasn¡¯t because I suffered a fracture as well, I would¡¯ve been discharged today.¡±


    After he said that, all of the patients at the side who had been treated by Ren Xiaosu revealed their wounds and reported when they had undergone their surgery.


    Yang Xiaojin stood by the office door and listened. The patients were defending Ren Xiaosu with the utmost sincerity.


    At this moment, some people came in from outside the medical center. They were even carrying some photography equipment with them. The leader of this group said with a smile, ¡°What¡¯s going on? Why is everyone standing around here?¡±


    The student said indignantly, ¡°Chief Editor Ji, we¡¯ve been deceived. There aren¡¯t that many wounded people here at all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard the words ¡°chief editor.¡± He looked at Chief Editor Ji and realized he actually knew him. Wasn¡¯t this the deputy chief editor of Hope Media, Ji Yi?


    Ren Xiaosu had met him during the battle in Luoyang City.


    That night, Ji Yi was busy overseeing the publication of the next day¡¯s newspaper at the headquarters. After Ren Xiaosu protected Hope Media¡¯s headquarters in the battle, Ji Yi and Jiang Xu expressed their gratitude to him together.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not expect that Hope Media would actually send a chief editor to conduct interviews on the battlefield this time. This was enough to show just how much emphasis Hope Media ced on this war.


    As soon as Ji Yi appeared, the students stopped making amotion. Meanwhile, the director of the medical center and themander of the forward operating base rushed over to wee Ji Yi. This was also enough to show the standing of the Hope Media chief editor within the entire Alliance of Strongholds.


    Although Hope Media did not possess any military or authority, their status in people¡¯s hearts could not be measured by money or power.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Ji Yi, Ji Yi noticed him as well. However, thetter was clearly more surprised than Ren Xiaosu!


    At the same time, themander of the forward operating base also arrived. He walked over with a big smile and said, ¡°Chief Editor Ji, I only just received notice that you wereing to the front lines. Sorry for not weing you at the door.¡±


    However, Ji Yi said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ve got to talk to an old friend first. Can everyone please wait a moment?¡±


    Then Ji Yi headed straight to Ren Xiaosu and said with an excited look, ¡°Sir, what are you doing here? After we parted ways that day...¡±


    Just as Ji Yi was about to catch up on the past with Ren Xiaosu, the entire hallway suddenly went quiet. The students looked at one another as they did not expect Chief Editor Ji to actually know this young man.


    Someone also realized that Ji Yi seemed to have addressed Ren Xiaosu as ¡°sir¡±?! Surely they must have misheard it, right?


    Ji Yi continued rambling, ¡°Sir, how have you been recently? Beforeing here, Chief Editor Jiang was just mentioning you to me. Sir...¡±


    Seeing that the situation was not right, Ren Xiaosu quickly pulled Ji Yi into his office and stopped him from addressing him as ¡°sir¡± in front of everyone.

 Chapter 854 - Finding Zhang Xiaoman

    <h4>Chapter 854: Finding Zhang Xiaoman</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    When the office door closed, the patients, the students, the director of the medical center, and themander of the forward operating base were left staring at one another in the hallway. No one could understand what was going on here.


    To the students of Qinghe University, Ji Yi was a person of extremely high standing. Jiang Xu was the honorary principal of Qinghe University, and on top of that, he also taught the humanities and political science. Ji Yi was also a full professor at Qinghe University. In Luoyang City, these two people had extremely good reputations and were no different from celebrities.


    Yet the respected Chief Editor Ji Yi actually addressed a young man as ¡°sir¡±? This left the students who were reprimanding Ren Xiaosu earlier at a loss.


    ¡°Just who is that young man?¡± A student muttered, ¡°Chief Editor Ji seems to respect him a lot. This is definitely not an act.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure who he is, but since Chief Editor Ji is so respectful towards him, we probably acted too rashly earlier. Let¡¯s apologize to himter...¡±


    The students did not harbor any bad intentions. They only came here because they had a burning passion to protect their homes. That was why Ren Xiaosu did not confront them directly just now.


    Students their age might look like they already had a mind of their own, but actually, they tend to have a lopsided view of things and were easily misled by what they saw.


    Actually, if Ren Xiaosu were not a doctor, the students might just associate him with that young man who saved Luoyang City. But the difference between a doctor who saved lives and that of someone who went on a killing spree was simply too vast.


    As a result, the students did not even think in that direction. To say nothing of the students, not even Ji Yi dared to believe it.


    As the students were whispering among themselves, the director of the medical center asked themander of the forward operating base, ¡°Isn¡¯t he a doctor from the Trinity Institute? Why haven¡¯t I heard of someone with his reputation in the Trinity Institute?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Themander of the forward operating base shook his head. ¡°A P5mander who was leaving the forward operating base had specifically instructed us to look after him. It seems that he¡¯s also on very good terms with that P5mander....¡±


    When P5092 left the forward operating base with his troops, he had indeed instructed them to take care of Ren Xiaosu. His standing within the Pyro Company was basically the same as Jiang Xu¡¯s status in Luoyang City. Even if it was not as high, it wouldn¡¯t be that much of a difference.


    ¡°T¡± represented thebat strength of an individual, while ¡°P¡± represented themand authority levels. These designations ran parallel to each other.


    In other words, a P5¡¯sbat strength might only be at the level of a T4, but as they weremanding officers, they would generally not participate in closebat.


    T5s and P5s were on the same level in principle, and they enjoyed the same treatment. But when it came to actualbat, T5s would be under the orders of P5s.


    P5 was the highest rank within themand structure. Go any higher than that and it would be the five bosses of the Pyro Company. Therefore, a P3mander in charge of the forward operating base would definitely bear in mind what P5092 had instructed him to do.


    At this point, themander of the forward operating base was also a little puzzled. Where did this young man hail from?!


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu interrupted Ji Yi¡¯s rambling in the office and bluntly asked, ¡°You¡¯re the one leading the team conducting interviews on the front line this time?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ji Yi nodded and said, ¡°Being a war correspondent is a very dangerous job, so I have to lead by example. I can¡¯t just hide behind others while they do the job. But you, sir¡ª¡±


    ¡°Stop calling me ¡®sir.¡¯ Mr. Ji, you don¡¯t have to be so polite with me. I¡¯m not used to hearing that either.¡± Ren Xiaosu corrected the way Ji Yi addressed him before asking, ¡°I saw in the recent editions of Hope Media¡¯s newspapers that Chief Editor Jiang Xu has been condemning the Wang Consortium a lot. Has Hope Media beefed up the security measures at HQ? The Wang Consortium has been making a lot of risky moves these days, so don¡¯t let them hurt the chief editor.¡±


    Ji Yi gave a bitter smile. ¡°I¡¯ve warned the chief editor, but you should also know him very well. No one can persuade him otherwise. Actually, before I came here, the Wang Consortium¡¯s people had already gone to look for the chief editor to have a talk. However, he refused to see them. To avoid suspicions, he did not even let them into the building. But I don¡¯t think the Wang Consortium will do anything shocking over some news articles, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°Hopefully not.¡±


    ¡°Oh right, when did you suddenly be a doctor?¡± Ji Yi wondered, ¡°Are you... undercover? Are you nning on doing something to the Pyro Company here? Do you need my cooperation?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I really came here to save lives. Right now, I¡¯m just a normal cardiac surgeon. By the way, it¡¯s so dangerous being a war correspondent. Aren¡¯t you afraid?¡±


    Ji Yi smiled. ¡°I was a little scared at first. But now that I know you¡¯re on the front lines as well, I suddenly don¡¯t feel that scared anymore.¡±


    As someone who had personally witnessed how strong Ren Xiaosu was, Ji Yi trusted in the presence of his savior. It was as though nothing would happen to him as long as Ren Xiaosu was here.


    As he was saying that, there came a sudden knock on the door. Themander of the forward operating base stood outside the door and said, ¡°Sorry to disturb you, but there¡¯s an urgent matter.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu opened the door and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Themander of the forward operating base said solemnly, ¡°We¡¯ve just received orders from the mainmand center on the front lines that our soldiers in the north have engaged in a frontal battle with the barbarians. We need to transport our supplies in this forward operating base to the north, and all the medical center staff will also have to head north. A new medical center will be set up at the rear of the front line there.¡±


    This forward operating base had been established to connect the south of the supply line at Mt. Dashi to the northern front line. However, it was still more than a 100 kilometers away from the front lines in the north. If the wounded needed to be transported back here from the north for treatment, it would be toote.


    So setting up a new field hospital nearer to the front line was of extreme urgency.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ll go and tell Elder Wang Jing and the others so that we can set off as soon as possible.¡±


    ...


    Outside Stronghold 144 in the Northwest.


    Five supply trucks gradually approached the stronghold. Along the route from the Central ins to the Northwest, Fortress 178 had set up six checkpoints in total. These checkpoints were responsible for conducting inspections in case anyone transported any undered dangerous goods into the Northwest.


    However, these five trucks continued driving without being stopped along the way. Whenever the trucks reached a checkpoint, someone would have already informed them to let the vehicles through.


    During this period, no one carried out any inspections of the vehicles.


    When the five trucks came to a stop outside the stronghold, the drivers got out of the vehicles and opened the trailers. Wang Yun and the others could be seen sitting and resting inside with their eyes closed.


    A driver smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the difort caused to you all by having to hide in the back of the truck for so long. You can disembark now. We¡¯ve arrived.¡±


    Wang Yun opened his eyes calmly. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be sorry about. We¡¯ve been through worse than this before, so this is nothing inparison.¡±


    On that day, they had nearly encountered the Pyro Company troops after escaping from Stronghold 31. Later, when they entered the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory, the Great Hoodwinker had already arranged for the trucks to escort them to the Northwest secretly.


    After all was said and done, the Great Hoodwinker was still very dependable this time.


    ¡°Sir, where do we go now?¡± Wang Yun¡¯s subordinate asked while looking at the northwestern stronghold.


    Wang Yun thought for a moment and said, ¡°We have to find someone called Zhang Xiaoman first.¡±

 Chapter 855 - Taking advantage of me again!

    <h4>Chapter 855: Taking advantage of me again!</h4>


    The Great Hoodwinker did not follow Wang Yun, Ji Zi¡¯ang, and the rest to the North this time as there was still plenty of intelligence-gathering to do once war broke out in the North. He also wanted to take advantage of the chaos to recruit more talent for the Northwest.


    The Northwest¡¯s field intelligence unit had already quietly started preparing a n called ¡°The Prosperous Northwest¡± that was aimed at recruiting more ambitious people to join in the developmental efforts of building up the Northwest after the war ended...


    However, they would definitely not take any real action for now since they needed to stand united against amon enemy. The Great Hoodwinker was only making ns for the future.


    Therefore, Wang Yun and the others still needed to find the person responsible for liaising with them after arriving in the North, and that person was Zhang Xiaoman.


    As Wang Yun took in the sight of Stronghold 144 in front of him, he could see many merchants traveling back and forth through the open stronghold gate. Some of the merchants had just arrived from the Central ins while others were preparing to return to the Central ins with goods purchased in the Northwest.


    Outside the stronghold where the original town stood, it had turned into a huge wholesale market after going through multiple expansions. There were people peddling their wares in the marketce while shop owners from the stronghold came to replenish their goods.


    The entire town was full of life and bustling with activity.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang viewed the sights and asked, ¡°Have you been to the Northwest before this?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Wang Yun nodded and said, ¡°When I was still active in the field some years ago, I came to the Northwest to hunt down some traitors. At that time, the Zong Consortium was still in charge of this ce.¡±


    ¡°And what did the Northwest look like back then?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang asked.


    ¡°At that time, I did not enter the stronghold and only stayed in town for a short while. Back then, the town was no different from those in the Central ins. You could even say that the refugees here had it much tougher than those in the Central ins. After all, there¡¯s ack of resources in this region,¡± Wang Yun recalled. ¡°But it¡¯spletely different now. Even the town in Luoyang City is not as prosperous as the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang nodded. ¡°How could this be the town we imagined? Perhaps we made the right choice after all.¡±


    Wang Yun walked up to a hardware wholesaler and asked, ¡°Bro, where do youe from?¡±


    ¡°Me? I was born and raised right here in the Northwest,¡± the middle-aged man answered with a smile. ¡°Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°We just came from the Central ins, so we wanted to ask about the situation here. Bro, did youe from the stronghold?¡± Wang Yun asked. In his opinion, these people were likely to be stronghold residents. How could refugees possibly have the capital to start a business?


    ¡°No, I¡¯m a refugee,¡± the middle-aged man said with a smile.


    ¡°Then where did you get your capital from?¡± Wang Yun asked.


    ¡°Fortress 178 approved of small, interest-free loans saying that it would help us start a business. I heard that refugees are also eligible to apply, so I went for it,¡± the middle-aged man exined with a smile.


    Wang Yun was stunned. Even though all the consortiums¡¯ banks provided loan services, they had to evaluate the borrower¡¯s eligibility and ensure they had some assets to put up as coteral before lending the money.


    But the refugee in front of them definitely did not have any assets that could be mortgaged. Furthermore, he had never heard of any consortium banks that would lend money to refugees, especially not interest free!


    Although they were called loans, it was actually more like a subsidy. This was a sum of money that could help refugees turn things around in their lives.


    The middle-aged man smiled and said, ¡°There isn¡¯t a distinction between refugees and stronghold residents here in the Northwest anymore. Everyone is free to enter and exit the city, so it¡¯s not like the IDs of the refugees are any different from the ones that the stronghold residents are carrying.¡±


    Wang Yunmented, ¡°Fortress 178 is so resolute and daring.¡±


    When the Wang Consortium opened up a stronghold to refugees some time ago, the entire world felt they had made a very bold decision at the time. However, no one expected the Northwest wouldpletely eliminate the ss differences between refugees and stronghold residents.


    Of course, the stronghold residents would definitely despise the refugees a little. But over time, since refugees essentially looked no different from stronghold residents, no one would be able to tell them apart.


    Wang Yun and the others were witnessing the enormous changes in the Northwest that had only taken a few months to implement. They were truly shocked, but for some reason, they also felt motivated. They were inspired by this vibrant scene as well.


    They managed to locate Stronghold 144¡¯s garrison troopster that afternoon. Wang Yun handed over a letter personally written by the Great Hoodwinker at the entrance of the barracks. ¡°Please pass this letter to Regiment Commander Zhang Xiaoman.¡±


    The soldiers at the entrance were taken aback. Then an officer ordered, ¡°Go and send the letter to the brigademander.¡±


    When he said that, Wang Yun was taken aback as well. Didn¡¯t the Great Hoodwinker say his son was only a regimentmander? It seemed like he had recently been promoted.


    However, Wang Yun could understand that. After all, Fortress 178¡¯s territory had suddenly expanded many times over after they took control of the entire Northwest. Hence, they needed more soldiers to guard this piece ofnd. That was why the veterans in the military would quickly be promoted to take the more important positions.


    After some ten minutes, a soldier said to Wang Yun, ¡°Everyone, pleasee in. Our brigademander would like to meet y¡¯all.¡±


    When they entered the barracks area, Wang Yun noticed there were several hundred military transport trucks and even resupply vehicles parked along the road. This made for quite a spectacr sight to behold.


    Wang Yun said softly, ¡°It looks like the Northwest is preparing to go to war. Look at those trucks and the troops who are constantly moving supplies into them. If it¡¯s not for the war, there wouldn¡¯t be a need for such turnout.¡±


    ¡°War? With whom?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang frowned. ¡°Could it be the Qing Consortium?¡±


    At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman came over to wee them. He looked at Wang Yun enthusiastically. ¡°I read the letter. I wee all of you in joining our Fortress 178. I¡¯ve already sent news of your arrival to Wang Fengyuan. He¡¯ll send someone to take you all to Fortress 178. Do any of you have any objections to this arrangement?¡±


    Wang Yun shook his head. ¡°No objections. Your father already informed us of the arrangements before we came here.¡±


    ¡°My dad?¡± Zhang Xiaoman was stunned. ¡°My dad told you that?¡±


    When Wang Yun saw Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s reaction, he was also stunned!


    Wang Yun looked at the letter written by the Great Hoodwinker in Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s hand and probed, ¡°The Great Hoodwinker was the one who said that. Isn¡¯t the Great Hoodwinker your father? Zhang Husheng? Do you know Zhang Husheng?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman flew into a rage and threw the letter to the ground. ¡°That old bastard is taking advantage of me again by going around and spreading lies! My father is working in a factory at Fortress 178 right now!¡±


    Wang Yun was confused. Ji Zi¡¯ang was confused too.


    Honestly, Wang Yun could never have expected the Great Hoodwinker to even be spouting nonsense about something like that. And judging from Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s angry expression, it was probably not the first time the Great Hoodwinker had taken advantage of him!


    All of a sudden, Wang Yun did not even know how to criticize that Great Hoodwinker. It was true that not a single word of truth came out of his mouth, so one could only rely on themselves to judge whether he was lying.


    Zhang Xiaoman calmed down and said, ¡°Since Wang Fengyuan¡¯s people will arrive at Stronghold 144 tomorrow, you all can stay in the camp today. I still have something very important to do, so I won¡¯t be giving you a tour of the ce.¡±


    Wang Yun suddenly asked, ¡°Is the Northwest getting ready for war?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have to hide it from you all.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Our infantry brigade will also start heading north tomorrow to defend against the northern enemies together with the Central ins.¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. ¡°Are you all going to help the Wang Consortium and the Pyro Company?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Xiaoman shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re not going there to help them. We¡¯re doing it for the people of the Central ins.¡±


    Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang looked at each other. There was nothing beneficial to the Northwest for supporting the Central ins, yet Fortress 178 still made a decision like that.


    Suddenly, Wang Yun said firmly, ¡°We¡¯ll go with you then. You¡¯ll need someone familiar with the Central ins, and I happen to already have all the maps of the Central ins in my head.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman thought for a moment. ¡°I¡¯ve got to seek instructions from the higher-ups regarding this. However, you all have just been through an arduous journey from the Central ins, so there¡¯s actually no need for you to risk your lives with us Northwesterners.¡±


    Wang Yun thought for a moment before replying, ¡°We are also from the Northwest now.¡±

 Chapter 856 - Trusted troops

    <h4>Chapter 856: Trusted troops</h4>


    The 8th Infantry Brigade serving under Fortress 178 in the Northwest set off from Stronghold 144. However, when the troops were deployed this time, the Northwest did not even bother to conceal their movements as they hurried directly for the battlefield in the Central ins.


    Over the past few months, Hope Media, which originally did not have any presence in the Northwest, had also set up new branches in the two main cities of Fortress 178 and Stronghold 144.


    Meanwhile, the print runs of their newspaper in the other strongholds were handled by distribution vendors.


    With regards to the Central ins¡¯ overall war situation, the Northwest¡¯s high-profile announcement of their participation to defend against the northern enemy was enough to lift everyone¡¯s spirits.


    Although the Alliance of Strongholds had been established for over 200 years, this was probably the first time the Central ins people were so united again.


    Thesends had experienced an extended period of separatism. After a discement in culture and the consortiums¡¯ carefully curated curriculum, a lot of people even forgot that they used to bepatriots before The Cataclysm and should therefore be united as a nation.


    And now, it seemed everyone in the Central ins was infuriated by the Northerners¡¯ action of massacring a city. The words ¡°rousing¡± and ¡°victory¡± also started appearing more in Hope Media¡¯s newspapers.


    Although Fortress 178 had agreed to Wang Yun¡¯s request to travel together with the 8th Infantry Brigade, Wang Yun, Ji Zi¡¯ang, and Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates were not given any appointments for the time being. It seemed they would have to wait until the war in the North was over first.


    During their march, everyone was surprised that Wang Yun and Zhang Xiaoman had be very good friends.


    In fact, the two of them hadpletely different personalities, and their habits and interests were not simr at all. However, they still ended up bing friends!


    Was it because Wang Yun admired the Northwest¡¯s selflessness? No.


    Was it because of Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s warm hospitality? It was not that either.


    It was because both of them shared a ¡°hatred¡± for the Great Hoodwinker.


    The Great Hoodwinker had single-handedly held together this hard-toe-by friendship.


    Wang Yun sat in the vehicle and asked, ¡°When we parted ways with the Great Hoodwinker, I heard you were only a regimentalmander. How¡¯d you get promoted so quickly? You said that your father works in a factory. Could it be a military supplies factory? You have good connections?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang turned around and looked at Zhang Xiaoman as he was particrly interested in this matter. He wanted to know whether there were any privileged sses in the Northwest.


    ¡°No, can y¡¯all not look at me that way?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with augh, ¡°My father works in a factory that produces socks. I only took a few days to be a brigademander. But do you think I can really lead an infantry brigade to victory in battle? It¡¯s not like I¡¯m a genius at leadership!¡±


    Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang were stunned at his response. It seemed there was some other reason behind Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s appointment as brigademander.


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. ¡°Although I like to brag, I know very well what I¡¯m capable of. I could still manage when I was leading the Razor Sharp Company, but when I became a regimentalmander, I realized there was still too much I needed to learn. Soon after learning to be a regimentalmander, I was suddenly made a brigademander who had to lead soldiers to victory. That¡¯s something that I can¡¯t do yet.¡±


    ¡°Could it be that Fortress 178 has another purpose in sending you to the Central ins?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang wondered. ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s appropriate, right? Now that the Central ins is facing a war, it should be time for us to be united. The Northwest has never participated in the power struggles between the organizations, so there¡¯s no reason they would send troops for other purposes at a time like this.¡±


    ¡°No, no, no. You¡¯re thinking about the wrong thing.¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. ¡°Let me ask you all a question first. Where¡¯s our Northwest¡¯s futuremander?¡±


    ¡°In the Central ins. He was the one who saved us,¡± Wang Yun said.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. At first, I couldn¡¯t understand why themander would assign me to the Central ins. Later, I actually realized that the troops were not for me but the futuremander to lead.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a glint in his eyes, ¡°If it were the other veteranmanders who got assigned to the Central ins, they might not be willing to ept the arrangement and the futuremander would not be able tomand the troops. What if they disobeyed his orders? But it¡¯s different for me. Themander knew that I would definitely not oppose the futuremander, so he sent me to fight this war instead.¡±


    The other brigademanders, such as Zhou Yinglong, Chai Zhilong, and the others, had been leading their troops into battle for many years and already had their own methods when it came to fighting a war.


    So if these people were to join up with Ren Xiaosu in the Central ins, they might not listen to him.


    It was not that they despised Ren Xiaosu or refused to ept him as their futuremander, but they would still have their own opinion on things.


    But Zhang Xiaoman was different. First of all, he felt a little guilty after being fast tracked for promotion. Second, when he was in the Razor Sharp Company, he had always worked under Ren Xiaosu¡¯smand. His position as thepanymander was practically in name only.


    Therefore, Zhang Xiaoman immediately guessed the reason for sending him to the Central ins. As if they would trust him for his leadership ability! It was clear he would be assisting Ren Xiaosu in developing his first group of trusted troops.


    Actually, Zhang Xiaoman had be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s trusted subordinate since their time in the Razor Sharp Company.


    Furthermore, when Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang requested to travel together with the troops, the fortressmander had agreed to it very quickly. These two were supernatural beings. At that time, Zhang Xiaoman thought to himself that Commander Zhang had really put in a lot of effort to help Ren Xiaosu build up his support base.


    But then again, Ren Xiaosu saved both Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang, so they would naturally be his trusted subordinates.


    After this war, Ren Xiaosu would not have to start from scratch if he needed to be deployed to the front lines the next time. By then, he would already have a group of soldiers who had worked together before, even if it was only one infantry brigade.


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, ¡°How did the futuremander save you guys? It wasn¡¯t stated in the letter, so why don¡¯t y¡¯all tell me in detail.¡±


    ¡°The two of us were being held in the secret prison. When the Great Hoodwinker was brought in first, he realized he could not rescue us by himself...¡± After Wang Yun said that, he could not help but get angry.


    Then Wang Yun described the prison break in detail and also told him about the destruction of Stronghold 31. Zhang Xiaomanmented from the bottom of his heart, ¡°Future Commander is really as fearsome as ever.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang suddenly asked, ¡°I heard from the Great Hoodwinker that all your fortressmanders muste through the Razor Sharp Company. Is that true? Is the futuremander also from the Razor Sharp Company?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve asked the right person!¡± Zhang Xiaoman said proudly, ¡°I humbly admit that I¡¯m not talented in leading troops. Back then, I was thepanymander of the Razor Sharp Company that our futuremander was part of! We followed our futuremander¡¯s lead and fought all the way from Shichuan Town to Stronghold 146 in the north.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute,¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang was taken aback a little. ¡°If you were hispanymander, why were you the one following his lead in fighting your way north?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, those details are not important.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Disregarding all of that, we really went through thick and thin with him. But after fighting that war, do you know why we were convinced by him?¡±


    ¡°Because he destroyed Stronghold 146 single-handedly?¡± Wang Yun asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Xiaoman shook his head and said, ¡°Although there aren¡¯t many powerful supernatural beings around, they aren¡¯t considered rare either. Does it mean that we have toply just because they¡¯re powerful? No! We were convinced because he told us that he wouldn¡¯t leave any man behind, and in the end, all of us really survived and made it back home.¡±

 Chapter 857 - A new contest

    <h4>Chapter 857: A new contest</h4>


    The Pyro Company¡¯s main forces had gathered 70 kilometers away in the vast ins and forest north of Mt. Dashi. They were nning to establish a defensive line that stretched 31 kilometers long, and currently, only seven kilometers of the construction wasplete.


    Arge number of refugees and stronghold residents had been deployed to the front lines. Besides engineers and maintenance workers, all able-bodied male adults were recruited for the construction as well.


    After these refugees and stronghold residents arrived here, their only job was to race against time and build the defensive line as quickly as possible.


    Several hundred brick kilns at the rear were working nonstop to fire bricks, and due to that, the amount of silt dug up from the nearby river had caused the channel to widen by more than ten times.


    It was an extremely shocking sight. If someone were to look down from above, the defensive line could be seen extending horizontally outwards to the left and right.


    In Hope Media¡¯s article, they reported that when foreign enemies came attacking, a new Great Wall in human history would rise once more.


    Initially, the ins to the north of the New Great Wall did not have a name. But it had been named the Dingyuan ins[1]. That was because the Pyro Company was aware the barbarian troops were called the expeditionary army. As such, they nned to stop the barbarians at the Dingyuan ins and send them back where they came from when the opportunity arose.


    Actually, the main purpose of this war was to effectively wipe out as many of the barbarian troops as they could.


    If they just defeated the barbarians without killing enough of them, the opponent might just make aeback after some years.


    As the terrain of the Dingyuan ins was t, the Pyro Company could maximize the power of their firearms and explosives against the barbarians.


    Prior to this, the Pyro Company was most fond of fighting battles onplex terrain, because they had an overall stronger physical fitness. Once a battle broke out against their enemies in the mountains, be it the Kong Consortium or the Wang Consortium, they could only scurry away like frightened rats.


    Even if the Kong Consortium had more troops than the Pyro Company, they would also be slowly worn down by the Pyro Company. This was a huge advantage the Pyro Company had over the Kong Consortium with their stronger physical fitness.


    But it was different now. Even though the barbarians did not use firearms and explosives, they were much fitter than the Pyro Company¡¯s troops.


    Using the Pyro Company¡¯s own strength as aparison, their averagebat power would be between T1 and T2, while almost all of the barbarians were rated as T3s.


    Moreover, after the battle at Mt. Dashi, P5092 had submitted a very detailedbat report. One of the important points to take note of was that there were also stronger individuals among the barbarians.


    The barbarians had already faced off with the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces multiple times in the region between the Dingyuan ins and the New Great Wall. However, they were still at the stage of probing each other¡¯s strengths.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s 3rd Division led by P5092 had already arrived and garrisoned the strategic location assigned to them along the front lines.


    However, the first thing P5092 did was not to consolidate the military and defensive line but to hang the barbarian corpses they had killed at Mt. Dashi in a very prominent area beyond the defensive line.


    Hundreds of wooden stakes were suddenly erected outside the New Great Wall where P5092 was standing. The barbarian corpses hanging from them swayed like tattered rags in the wind.


    After all, the massacre at Stronghold 176 had really angered everyone in the Central ins, including the Pyro Company.


    And P5092 was trying to provoke the barbarians.


    To achieve this, he even ordered the main forces that went into Mt. Dashi to not let any barbarians escape. After killing them, they loaded all their corpses into the trucks and transported them to the front lines.


    Crows were circling in the sky as though they could not wait to devour the barbarians¡¯ corpses. However, the Pyro Company soldiers did not care and just let the birds eat to their heart¡¯s content.


    P5092 knew the barbarians¡¯ scouts must be observing this ce secretly, and that would be enough for him.


    His deputymander who was standing off to the side whispered, ¡°Sir, if you do that, you¡¯re probably going to make the barbarians very angry. I hope they won¡¯t concentrate their attacks on our lines when the timees.¡±


    P5092 stood atop the New Great Wall in this era of the wastnds. He saw it stretching far into the distance until he could no longer see the end of it.


    He said coldly, ¡°Let theme then. That¡¯s exactly my intention.¡±


    At 11 o¡¯clock that night, dozens of res were suddenlyunched into the sky from the New Great Wall, releasing a tremendous amount of heat and light.


    When the res reached their apex, they began falling back to the ground slowly. With that, the Pyro Company soldiers on the Great Wall could clearly see thousands of barbarians running on the ground from the north with the aid of the res¡¯ illumination.


    P5092 calmly looked at this sight. ¡°So we really managed to provoke them? Their advance guard has turned out in full force. Hand down my orders to open fire on any who enter within range. Show them no mercy.¡±


    His deputymander asked, ¡°What if they run away?¡±


    If they opened fire as soon as the barbarians got within range, that would mean their opponent could get out of their area of fire by retreating a little. Then it would be very difficult to kill more of them.


    P5092 could not possibly be unaware of this. The high-ranking Pyro Company officer took off his ck sheepskin gloves and said, ¡°It¡¯s alright. Just proceed ording to my n.¡±


    The Pyro Company soldiers continued firing more res into the sky. Someone watched the iing barbarians in the distance and muttered, ¡°Those barbarians sure can run fast. It almost looks like they¡¯re brown bears. If they get near us, our defensive line will probably be torn apart in an instant. Wait, look! The barbarians at the front look like they¡¯re dragging something.¡±


    A momentter, someone suddenly issued the order. ¡°Open fire!¡±


    Heavy machine gun rounds were visible to the naked eye when fired during the night. When the heavy machine guns were fired into the distance, they formed a trail resembling a long whipshing at the barbarians¡¯ advance guard!


    The garrison troops at the other locations on the Great Wall were rmed by the battle over here. They all took out their binocrs to observe. Someone radioed over to ask P5092 if they needed any reinforcements. However, P5092 replied there was no need.


    Everyone could see through their binocrs that the most well-built barbarians who were running at the front had suddenly cedrge shields more than two meters tall in front of them!


    Five barbarians held up a shield at the same time, and it was specially made from multyerpressed leather. They continued advancing at a very fast speed even though the shields were extremely massive and solid.


    It was so heavy that five barbarians were needed to hold one up together even with their strong physical fitness.


    When the machine gun bullets finally impacted the shields, it sounded like heavy rain hitting the ground. The topyer of the leather shields started cracking all around when they were hit by the bullets. But to everyone¡¯s surprise, the heavy machine guns were unable to fully prate the shields!


    The deputymander was shocked. He did not know what the shields were made of. If they allowed the enemies to get far closer before opening fire, they might have been able to approach the base of the wall relying on those shields alone. Then, with their strong physical fitness, they could climb up the Great Wall and tear apart the defensive line.


    The deputymander nced at P5092. ¡°Sir, were you expecting them to have a strategy like that?¡±


    ¡°No, I just thought it was better to y it safe. We can¡¯t be too greedy on the battlefield.¡± P5092 shook his head. ¡°At the very least, we definitely should not think about wiping out the enemy before figuring out their actual strength. Get ready tounch the mortars. Be careful, the battle tonight is only just beginning.¡±


    [1] ¶¨ (D¨¬ng) is the Chinese character for ƽ¶¨ (P¨ªngd¨¬ng) which has the meaning of ¡°to quell; pacify; suppress; put down a rebellion,¡± and Ô¶ (yu¨£n) refers to the first character of the expeditionary army (Ô¶Õ÷¾üÍÅ)

 Chapter 858 - Contest and outcome

    <h4>Chapter 858: Contest and oue</h4>


    The sound of heavy machine guns firing in the night was deafening as red-orange tracers spat out of them in a cascade. Meanwhile, the barbarians¡¯ advance guard kept pushing closer and closer towards the Pyro Company.


    The soldiers felt their adrenaline pumping nonstop amid the sights and sounds.


    ¡°Do these barbarians really think they can break through the defensive line like this?¡± a Pyro Company soldier murmured. He turned his head towards those heavy machinery covered by cdon tarps as they silently stood guard on the walls.


    P5092 watched quietly as the barbarians got closer and closer holding the leather shields in their hands. Next to him, his deputymander said, ¡°Sir, we can¡¯t wait any longer. If we still can¡¯t prate their shields by the time they get within 300 meters of us, our defensive line will be at risk.¡±


    But even in this situation, P5092 said nothing, because thest group at the rear of these several thousand-strong barbarians who stretched across several kilometers had still not entered the zone he wanted them to be in.


    He mentally calcted the distance in his mind. It wasn¡¯t until a momentter that P5092 said, ¡°Artillery, open fire.¡±


    When the soldiers suddenly pulled the tarps off on the walls, the rapid-fire artillery cannons underneath were revealed. In P5092¡¯s 3rd Division, the pride of the troops was definitely not their higher than normal physical fitness, but their artillery.


    There were two special infantry brigades in the 3rd Division and each infantry brigade was made up of 18 artillery batteries. An individual fighting force consisting of six artillery batteries would then concentrate their artillery fire together toplete a rapid area of fire on a single target.


    When necessary, this huge artillery formation could even form into a muchrger ¡°artillerypany¡± to attack targets within the same area.


    Back at Longtan Canyon, the artillerypany had only disyed a small part of their capabilities. And now, it was time for the 3rd Division to shine. It was precisely because of this reason that P5092 dared to hang the barbarian corpses outside his defensive zone. He did not mind if the barbarians came to attack his defensive line at all.


    On the contrary, he was hoping the barbarians would get even more enraged and charge in even closer.


    Although the artillery were only equipped with 76.2 mm caliber rapid-fire howitzers, they could fire at an amazing speed of 20 rounds per minute. With this rate of fire, their uracy would definitely bepromised. However, P5092 did not seem bothered at all.


    As the barbarians were fast-moving targets, it would be meaningless to emphasize uracy. Instead of aiming carefully, they might as well just bombard the area with artillery fire.


    When the barbarians came within a kilometer of them, the rapid-fire light artillery on the walls roared to life. Compared to these, the heavy machine guns earlier sounded like the barking of a dog. These cannons were the true beasts!


    The grand formation of artillery guns had only fired their first round, but it destroyed the charging barbarians¡¯ formation instantly. The leather shields they relied on for cover were utterly worthless against the heavy shelling of the artillery.


    The Pyro Company soldiers on the Great Wall almost wanted to start cheering. All of them were enraged when they heard about the massacre at Stronghold 176. Moreover, someone even mentioned the scouts had seen the barbarians piling up the corpses of the stronghold residents into small hills outside the city to announce the strength of their expeditionary army.


    Someone once read about sporadic records of a war that happened before The Cataclysm in a book, and it was mentioned that a Central ins civilization had also experienced a massacre before during a war. The death toll in that war numbered as many as hundreds of thousands, with most of the victims being innocent civilians.


    That battle was termed ¡°National Humiliation Day¡± and everyone had tomemorate it.


    In the present day, the massacre of Stronghold 176 had sent ripples throughout the Central ins. Everyone was now fully aware that this war was one of national survival, and that it would not end until either side had perished.


    Ever since the massacre at Stronghold 176, there was no possibility of peace talks in this war.


    When the artillery began bombarding the area with fire, the barbarians finally started retreating. When faced with the powerful firearms of the Central ins, they had no choice but to retreat.


    However, P5092 was way tooposed. He had waited until the barbarians were within a kilometer of them before ordering his artillery to open fire. So even though the barbarians were retreating now, many of them would not survive the bombardment.


    Of the advance guard that were made up of several thousand barbarians, it would be considered fortunate if a few hundred of them could walk out of this ce alive.


    The deputymander asked, ¡°Sir, should we pursue them?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± P5092 said coldly, ¡°Carry out the n B I drafted. The rest of you, hang the corpses of these barbarians after dawn and make more of them remember this ce.¡±


    With that, the main forces of the Pyro Company¡¯s 3rd Division startedunching their attack. The artillery on standby atop the walls were excited by the sight of the army pressing on.


    They drove their off-road vehicles mounted with heavy machine guns northwards toplete the final harvest on the battlefield.


    But P5092 still did not show any joy of victory on his face. He ordered someone to bring over a pair of binocrs as he quietly looked into the distance.


    There was a forest more than ten kilometers north of the Great Wall. Until now, the Pyro Company troops had been trying to determine the strength of the expeditionary army hidden in there. However, they lost contact with all of the scouts that went inside for reconnaissance.


    No one knew what was hidden in there. Was it only the advance guard? No, P5092 was sure there were more of them.


    The main forces of the 3rd Division were getting closer and closer to the forest. Meanwhile, the barbarians who survived the bombardment ran towards the forest as fast as they could.


    Gradually, the formation of the 3rd Division¡¯s main forces began to break up due to the rough terrain. Some of thepanies had charged too far ahead while others had fallen behind.


    When the troops at the front were about to get within two kilometers of the forest, gunfire also lit up in the forest to everyone¡¯s surprise.


    The Pyro Company troops farthest ahead were immediately gunned down by heavy machine guns, and the sound of mortars could even be heard in the forest.


    But a momentter, the barbarians hiding in the forest realized that other than the few hundred Pyro Company soldiers farthest ahead who were killed, the soldiers had immediately retreated when they were still 4.5 kilometers away from the forest. It was as though they were aware of their range and left in advance!


    The barbarians realized the main forces of the 3rd Division had not fallen behind at all. Instead, those at the back had deliberately not kept up with the leading forces. It was just that the main forces had pursued them with such aggressiveness that the barbarians could not figure out if they had done it on purpose.


    Furthermore, no one noticed that the res in the sky had stopped at some point. This seemed to also be a detail that was carefully nned for the feint attack. Without the illumination of the res, it would be even more difficult for the barbarians to discern the disposition of the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces.


    In this brief contest, a lot of people had not expected that the barbarians could also use firearms and explosives. Before this, everyone thought they only knew how to attack with axes!


    But P5092 had used the lives of several hundred people to let the other Pyro Companymanders know the barbarians were in fact more cunning than they had thought.


    But regardless, P5092 emerged victorious again in this brief contest.


    Next to him, his deputymander asked, ¡°Sir, how did you know the barbarians could use firearms and explosives?¡±


    n B was only a feint. Right from the beginning, P5092 was not intending to wipe out all of the remaining barbarians. He only wanted to use a forlorn hope to test the waters and find out the actual situation.


    Although some people had died in this battle, it was absolutely worthwhile for themander to be able to use the lives of several hundred people to obtain such important intelligence in a huge war like this.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had concluded, even though the Pyro Company was fighting against the enemies from the North, it would not affect their ruthless and cold nature.


    If this victory required P5092 to sacrifice himself, he would probably do it without any hesitation.


    They were not only ruthless to others but also on themselves. All they wanted was the final oue. The process did not matter to them at all.


    ¡°Although they lost their manufacturing know-how for firearms and explosives, everyone knows how powerful such weapons are.¡± P5092 said slowly, ¡°After the fall of Stronghold 176, a lot of military weapons were left behind, so there was no reason for the barbarians not to use them. But before getting a confirmation, I couldn¡¯t guarantee it. Go and look for the intelligence agency. I want to know before dawn what kind of other heavy weapons Stronghold 176 had.¡±


    After that, P5092 turned around and descended the Great Wall. As it would be a prolonged war, there was no need for him to tire himself out on the Great Wall.

 Chapter 859 - Best opportunity for a sneak attack

    <h4>Chapter 859: Best opportunity for a sneak attack</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    In the battle at the front lines, more than 2,000 barbarians were sent in an attempt to break through the defensive line. In the end, they were all killed.


    But after the battle, the other Pyro Company officers realized this was only a strategy the barbarians had used to lure the main forces of the Pyro Company into the forest. It seemed that sacrificing those 2,000 barbarians was no big deal for them.


    Those barbarians had gotten their hands on Stronghold 176¡¯s heavy weapons, yet they deliberately chose not to use them. Instead, they made the Pyro Company get ustomed to their no gunsbat style and waited for their main forces to give chase before springing a beautiful ambush on them.


    Meanwhile, P5092 used the lives of several hundred Pyro Company soldiers in exchange for this important intelligence.


    It was as though the two sides werepeting on who could be more ruthless. Although the chess pieces in front of them were all human lives, themanders did not get emotional about it.


    Some people said that after the battle, P5092 had spent the night alone in hismand tent and did not sleep, speak, or eat. It was like he was quietly thinking about something, but no one could verify that. Honestly, most people were not bothered by it either.


    They only knew that P5092 was the superior tactician this time. He took out nearly 2,000 of the barbarians¡¯ troops during the feint for almost nothing and even obtained an extremely important piece of intelligence.


    Ren Xiaosu and the others at the medical center did not rush to the front lines on that day. They had to wait for the supplies in the forward operating base to be fully loaded onto the vehicles before heading north with them.


    It was very time-consuming to load the supplies onto the trucks as the quantity required by more than a 100,000 soldiers was far greater than one could imagine. Several thousand people and countless vehicles were deployed during this period just to transport these supplies.


    Only after war had begun did everyone realize there were not enough resources.


    On the same night that everyone from the Qinghe Group had arrived at the forward operating base, the Qinghe University students started setting up a makeshift stage in the base. They even brought along some audio equipment in preparation for putting on a cultural performance for the frontline soldiers who were on their rotational breaks.


    Come to think of it, it was not like these university students could go into battle anyway, so that was all they could do.


    Interestingly, while the other organizations had their own cultural troupes made up of civil officer corps, the Pyro Company did not have any such entertainment ¡°soldiers.¡±


    The role of cultural troupes was not only to entertain the soldiers. Usually, their shows, sketches, and songs would be filled with political agendas too.


    The performances were all stories of fearless leaders leading by example, and the songs they sang were in praise of heroes. The cultural troupes would motivate the troops before a battle, and this was also one of the necessary ways to improve political awareness.


    But the Pyro Company did not bother with such things. Their troops¡¯ political and ideological training was alreadyplete when they first joined the military, and it had be deeply rooted in their subconscious.


    This made the Pyro Company soldiers even more ruthless, and they would never be deserters in wars. This was an advantage the other consortiums did not have.


    During the war between the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium, although many deserters had fled south, none of them were from the Pyro Company.


    However, after the stage was set up, the Pyro Company soldiers who were on their rotational breaks would also watch curiously like normal people. They would check out the performers who already had their makeup done, especially the women entertainers in their short skirts.


    The show had not started yet. When an actress came out from backstage to look for an employee, the Pyro Company soldiers started wolf-whistling at her with their arms around each other.


    If one were to only look at this scene, it would be really difficult for them to imagine how these Pyro Company soldiers would look when they headed into battle.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Mr. Ji, are you the one leading the Qinghe Group this time?¡±


    ¡°Other than the garrison troops, I¡¯m indeed the one leading the party. After all, I also hold a position at Qinghe University,¡± Ji Yi said with a smile.


    ¡°Oh, then please tell everyone to be careful.¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°The front lines are different from school. I also once studied at Qinghe University, so I know that the teachers have never taught the students how to face an enemy.¡±


    Ji Yi was stunned. ¡°But we¡¯re at the rear, and it¡¯s not like I¡¯ll take them to the front lines. But before we set off, I already reminded everyone. There¡¯s only one rule for everyone to observe on this field trip, and that¡¯s that our party will not amodate one person more or one person less.¡±


    This time, it was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be stunned. He wondered what Ji Yi meant by one person more.


    Ji Yi patiently exined, ¡°We¡¯ll be spending several months together in the North this time. As there will be male and female students mixing with each other every day, what if...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of respect for him. ¡°Mr. Ji is an insightful man indeed.¡±


    Themander of the forward operating base, P31921, came over and said with a smile, ¡°Since the two of you are here, I¡¯d like to inform you that the first group of troops transporting the supplies will set off tomorrow. All of you will also be heading north together with the group.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw P31921, he said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to put on a cultural show at this time. Although that FOB is at the rear, all of the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces have already headed to the front lines. In fact, the defensive forces here are even weaker than before.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was now one of the few people who had fought against the barbarians. The barbarians¡¯ craftiness disyed at Mt. Dashi was still fresh in his mind. Back then, even he had almost thought the barbarians could be taken out in one fell swoop in Longtan Canyon. In the end, they were so bold they actually attacked the camp.


    Had it not been for P5092¡¯s preparedness, it might really have spelled big trouble for the Pyro Company.


    Although Ren Xiaosu managed to arrive in time back then, the barbarians had almost broken through the machine gun position in that attack.


    So Ren Xiaosu became more vignt after the battle at Mt. Dashi. In the future, he could not assume there was any ce that was absolutely safe when facing the barbarians. Only then could he survive the war.


    Ji Yi, standing next to Ren Xiaosu, was stunned. But as he was only a reporter, it was not convenient for him to express his opinions on this matter. After all, he did not understand the concerns.


    However, themander of the forward operating base, P31921, exined with a smile, ¡°Miracle Doctor, you¡¯re probably still unaware that the barbarians in Mt. Dashi have been annihted by the main forces led by Commander P5092. We¡¯re safe here. Moreover, Commander P5092 specifically requested that the Qinghe Group put on this cultural show. As subordinates, we have to carry out the orders of themander seriously.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not say anything else.


    When the cultural show began, it got off to a rousing start. With a youthful spirit, the female university students onstage sang and danced energetically in their short skirts.


    The stands around the stage were filled with Pyro Company soldiers. Other than a few soldiers who were on rotational duty, almost everyone attended the show with their folding chairs under themand of their respective toonmanders.


    They sat in a very orderly manner while watching the show. The spacing between them was exactly identical, so it truly looked quite spectacr.


    The onstage students looked dazzling and morous, but their shows had nothing to do with politics. Someone even started singing Li Ran¡¯s new song that was about a romance.


    But while Ren Xiaosu was watching the show, he got an ominous feeling that kept growing stronger.


    When Yang Xiaojin noticed his frowning, she asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said to the people from the Trinity Institute, ¡°Everyone, get into a vehicle and hide inside. Hurry up! Liang Ce, if anything happens, just drive off with everyone and wait for us on the route to Mt. Dashi!¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Wang Jing asked in uncertainty, ¡°Is something going to happen? But there¡¯s no movement from the Pyro Company troops. Aren¡¯t they also watching the show?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no time to exin. All y¡¯all need to leave.¡± After that, Ren Xiaosu went to look for P31921 to cancel tonight¡¯s cultural show. Although he was unsure if the other party would listen to him, he still had to let him know.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu was being overly suspicious, but that this cultural show was too loud. With the speakers amplifying the sound, anyone could hear it from several kilometers away. As long as someone took a look from the mountains in the distance, they would know what was going on at the forward operating base.


    The barbarians had infiltrated from the North. What if they had not been totally wiped out at Mt. Dashi? From a different perspective, if the barbarians were already aware there was a forward operating base here and Mt. Dashi was the supply line, would it be possible that they might still have some barbarians secretly keeping watch on this ce?


    If they did, it would be the best opportunity for them to conduct a sneak attack tonight. Because the Pyro Company soldiers who were watching the show were not even carrying any weapons.

 Chapter 860 - Guardian angel

    <h4>Chapter 860: Guardian angel</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    So Ren Xiaosu¡¯s assessment of the current situation was not without reason. He had put himself in their shoes and thought that if he were a hunter, when would it be the best opportunity to hunt?


    It was just like how he had deduced where and when the barbarians would appear in Mt. Dashi.


    Everyone from the Trinity Institute found it a little unbelievable. This was a forward operating base at the rear after all. Didn¡¯t they say the barbarians had already been annihted at Mt. Dashi? Why did Ren Xiaosu suddenly say that something was going to happen here then?


    However, they still followed his instructions even though they did not understand what was going on. This was due to their trust in Ren Xiaosu. After all, they had witnessed how Ren Xiaosu had performed a ¡°craniotomy¡± on Kong Erdong with their own eyes. That was a fucking operation that did not bother with suturing the wound, and Ren Xiaosu was not a normal person at all!


    Just as Wang Jing and the others proceeded to leave, Yang Xiaojin tugged at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s arm and handed him a spotting scope. ¡°Looks like your judgment was right. We do have a situation.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯d you see?¡±


    ¡°I saw a figure moving within the mountains at my 5 o¡¯clock. But it¡¯s only one person,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°How far is he from us?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°About 1,900 meters in a linear direction,¡± Yang Xiaojin estimated. ¡°It¡¯s still not toote to tell the people at the forward operating base to heighten their alert.¡±


    But just as she finished speaking, the crack of a gunshot suddenly rang out in the forward operating base.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately turned around to look. The enemy had arrived faster than he had expected. So then, who was that figure in the mountains? Could it be someone responsible for giving the orders but did not participate in the battle?


    Based on the principles of war, since the battle had started, it was unnecessary to leave someone in the mountains as an observer. As the barbarians did not have anymunication equipment, they didn¡¯t need to have someone give orders from afar.


    ¡°There¡¯s only one person in the mountains?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. At first, I thought it might be the enemy¡¯s scout, but that doesn¡¯t seem to be the case anymore. Now that I think back on it, although I didn¡¯t get a very clear look at the other party, his attire didn¡¯t look like what the barbarians wore,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    The forward operating base was already in chaos.


    The gunshots were a little muffled with the loud music ying on stage, but those watching the show were all soldiers, so how could they possibly not distinguish the sound?


    The Qinghe University students on the stage were still trying their best to perform when they suddenly saw the soldiers in the audience get up and make a mad dash in one direction.


    ¡°That¡¯s where the armory is. The Pyro Company soldiers should be heading there to draw their weapons. But it feels like it¡¯s already a little toote,¡± said Ren Xiaosu as he observed the situation. As the gunshots got closer and closer to them, he could already vaguely hear the screams of the Pyro Company soldiers. ¡°I¡¯ll go and upy the high ground and help them stall for time!¡±


    ...


    The perimeter of the forward operating base was surrounded by barbed wire. To prevent a surprise attack, nine-meter-tall sentry towers were erected around the base with two soldiers manning each of them.


    But the wire fence on the west side of the forward operating base had already been cut apart. Moreover, the soldiers on the three sentry towers located near the opening were killed by huge axes thrown at them from the shadows. The barbarians were so well-prepared the soldiers did not even have a chance to fire a warning shot.


    As blood flowed through the floor of the sentry towers, the purple blood dripped onto the ground and mixed with the soil.


    Initially, everything was being carried out quietly, so when the barbarians broke into the forward operating base, they did not meet with any effective resistance. It wasn¡¯t until they got past the perimeter and were unable to conceal themselves any longer that everyone in the forward operating base slowly realized what had happened.


    The Pyro Company soldiers started assembling, but the barbarians were already charging at them. Their n was very obvious, and that was to intercept the soldiers on their way to the armory!


    As long as the Pyro Company soldiers did not grab their firearms, they would be vulnerable against the barbarians.


    When the few hundred Qinghe University students saw the barbarians charging out, they finally realized that it was an enemy attack!


    Suddenly, the students were flustered. Ji Yi shouted from the audience, ¡°Everyone, jump off the stage. We have to flee east!¡±


    The students did not even have time to remove their makeup as they screamed and ran from backstage to escape with Ji Yi.


    Amid the chaos, everyone did not even know which side was east. Ji Yi skidded to a halt because he saw a small group of barbarians blocking their path.


    The giant axes in the barbarians¡¯ hands glinted under the bright and vibrant stage lights. Ji Yi forced himself to calm down and said, ¡°Boys, stay behind with me! Girls, run in another direction!¡±


    Ji Yi knew how strong the barbarians were. He had personally heard from the Pyro Company soldiers that if the barbarians ever got close to them, even they could not survive.


    When he recalled Ren Xiaosu¡¯s warning, he regretted not getting the students to leave sooner. He already knew Ren Xiaosu was no ordinary person, but he still took the chance in hopes that nothing bad would happen.


    But it seemed toote to say anything now.


    Ji Yi decided to make onest desperate stand while looking around with his peripheral vision in search of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts. There was only one thought in his mind. As long as Ren Xiaosu were here, he and the students would not have to die.


    However, Ji Yi could not find Ren Xiaosu even after searching for some time. Ren Xiaosu was clearly here watching the show just now, so where did he disappear to in the blink of an eye?


    Besides Ren Xiaosu, the members of the Trinity Institute were also nowhere to be seen. Ji Yi felt a sense of distress when he realized Ren Xiaosu might have escorted them away already.


    But all of a sudden, a sniper rifle rang out. Ji Yi and the students saw a barbarian¡¯s chest burst apart in front of them.


    The bullet went through the barbarian from his back and forcefully knocked him to the ground. He couldn¡¯t be any deader than he was.


    Ji Yi¡¯s eyes lit up as he roared, ¡°Students, don¡¯t be afraid. Someone hase to save us!¡±


    Right after that, another two barbarians were killed as gunshots rang out again. The small group of barbarians looked around in panic, but they could not find who had killed theirpanions!


    Snipers? Was it the two snipers from Mt. Dashi?


    Thinking of that, the seemingly fearless barbarians instinctively looked for cover!


    The dozen or so of them were only responsible for creating chaos all over the ce. They wanted to make a move on this group of seemingly weak students but did not expect to get targeted by the mysterious snipers instead.


    Ji Yi suddenly felt relieved. He realized Ren Xiaosu had not abandoned them.


    That was right! How could Hope Media¡¯s guardian angel possibly leave them in the lurch?


    When the sniper rifles rang out, Ji Yi realized it was Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. After all, there was a sniper who became famous after Ren Xiaosu participated in that bloody battle on Wangchunmen Boulevard back in Luoyang City.


    Perhaps other people might not be aware of it. But the Hope Media reporters, who had always been paying close attention to Ren Xiaosu, all understood that wherever Ren Xiaosu was, that woman sniper would be too and vice versa.

 Chapter 861 - They should all head to the Prosperous Northwest!

    <h4>Chapter 861: They should all head to the Prosperous Northwest!</h4>


    ¡°Quick,e with me.¡± Ji Yi shouted, ¡°Someone is providing cover for us! Don¡¯t be scared!¡±


    But when Ji Yi turned around, he was surprised to find the students were already scared silly. The appearance of the barbarians was already terrifying enough. These students from Qinghe University were all protected even during the battle in Luoyang City, so they had never seen real bloodshed before.


    This was because the students who were taken hostage together with Ren Xiaosu were freshmen while these seniors were taken to safety by the school¡¯s teachers after the thugs had entered the campus.


    Now that they were caught in a situation where snipers were killing barbarians, some of them were so frightened they even froze on the spot.


    The front lines werepletely different from what they had imagined. Before this, they had thought they would just be sending over some supplies and staying behind to perform for a bit, and perhaps also getting asked to do some misceneous tasks. After that, they would return to Luoyang City with what they¡¯d been through bing part of their precious life experiences.


    But they suddenly realized they might not be able to make it home.


    When Ji Yi saw that no one was moving, he got anxious. He quickly turned around and shouted at everyone, ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there, run!¡±


    This roar jolted the students to their senses. Hundreds of people dressed in colorful costumes started fleeing. During this time, the small group of barbarians who hade to intercept and kill them had all died. Meanwhile, the snipers who were hiding somewhere had shifted their target to the armory.


    The forward operating base had enforced a gun control policy within the base. In other words, other than the main forces that were about to set off for the front lines, anyone who entered the base would have to store their firearms inside the armory.


    Logically, this forward operating base should have already switched to wartime military management, and all the soldiers here should have been armed to the teeth. But it was not known why that was not implemented here, leading to this huge threat happening tonight.


    Coupled with the fact that everyone had been watching the cultural show earlier, even if they were to leave the venue in an orderly manner and head to the armory, it would still get a little crowded.


    After the few hundred barbarians entered the forward operating base, they split off into several smaller groups ofbat personnel to divert the attention of the forward operating base¡¯s troops. Meanwhile, the rest of the barbarians¡¯ main force rushed towards the armory at a speed that was even faster than the Pyro Company soldiers.


    When the Pyro Company saw this situation, they got anxious. The front lines had just sent back news that the barbarians were also more than willing to use firearms. If the armory were to get raided, the soldiers would have no choice but to grab whatever table legs were lying around to fight against the automatic rifles the barbarians would be wielding!


    All of a sudden, an officer on rotational break who was leading several Pyro Company soldiers turned around and ran towards their barracks. He said, ¡°Everyone¡¯s heading to the armory, so even if we get there, we can¡¯t get our hands on weapons fast enough. Follow me. We¡¯ll retrieve the guns from the sentry towers!¡±


    The officer suddenly realized that even though the soldiers at the sentry towers had been killed, their guns were still there!


    As he spoke, the dozen or so of them rushed in the direction where the barbarians had broken in from. They intended to retake the sentry towers.


    But a small group of barbarians with huge axes blocked their path. The officer¡¯s heart sank at the thought that they were done for.


    ¡°You guys, head in the other direction, leave them to me.¡± The officer thought that since he was also rated as a T3batant, he should be able to buy some time for the soldiers if he went all out against the barbarians. Although he would definitely die, if the soldiers could get their hands on the guns, they might be able to help the situation.


    When necessary, the Pyro Company officers would not only sacrifice their soldiers, civilians, or unrted people, they also would not mind sacrificing themselves.


    The soldiers did not say much and decisively left their officer behind. They nned to go around the barbarians and make a rush for the sentry towers.


    However, something unexpected happened. Before the Pyro Company officer and the barbarians coulde face to face with each other, two barbarians were shot in the head at the same time. A thin mist of blood mixed with an unknown white substance sttered in all directions, staining the officer¡¯s uniform. However, he immediately reacted, ¡°Snipers! It¡¯s the two snipers from Mt. Dashi!¡±


    He knew there were no snipers at the forward operating base as all of them had already been deployed to the front lines, so if two snipers were firing at the same time here, it had to be the two from Mt. Dashi!


    At the thought of this, the officer got excited. However, it was not because his life was saved. Instead, he shouted, ¡°Both of you, don¡¯t worry about me. Please immediately reinforce the armory! Help our troops secure that location!¡±


    The report of the battle at Mt. Dashi had already been disseminated to the entire military by P5092. All the officers who had read it knew full well that two unknown snipers in that battle had contributed greatly to their fight. They were the best of the best who could take on more than 40 barbarians hand to hand!


    For such people to suddenly appear in the forward operating base, the Pyro Company had to be blessed by the Heavens!


    However, this Pyro Company officer had misjudged the distance between him and Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu saw the officer shouting something with his mouth wide open through the scope, but he could not hear what it was about. The distance between them was way too vast.


    In this noisy environment, even if they were only a few hundred meters apart, they would probably still not be able to hear what the other party was saying.


    ¡°What¡¯s that guy saying?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°He¡¯s asking us to help the Pyro Company secure the armory.¡± Yang Xiaojin said while holding the spotting scope, ¡°I can lip read a little.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised. This girl beside him was such a treasure. Why did it seem like she knew everything?


    He muttered, ¡°Is there anything that you don¡¯t know?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to cook,¡± Yang Xiaojin said as she aimed at the armory. They were 1.2 kilometers away from it at the moment, so it was within range.


    But when Ren Xiaosu heard that, he wanted to argue back. ¡®<i>You¡¯re clearly a master at cooking. Just say that you don¡¯t wanna cook and stop with the misleading!</i>¡®


    But now was not the time to be thinking about this. Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I¡¯ll snipe the barbarians and help the others escape. You help with securing the armory.¡±


    ¡°OK... wait!¡± Yang Xiaojin eximed. ¡°Something¡¯s happening.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the armory. He saw the barbarians making a rush for it, but the armory¡¯s door opened from the inside... and a secret force of soldiers charged out!


    No one knew when these troops had hidden themselves in the armory, just like how no one knew about the troops that P5092 had left behind at the camp.


    It was exactly the same situation!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered themander of the forward operating base had said the cultural show tonight was requested by P5092. He said he wanted the troops on rotational break to get a chance to rx and enjoy some performances.


    But why would someone like P5092 do something so unnecessary for no reason? The other party clearly knew this cultural show would easily attract an attack!


    Therefore, the Pyro Company knew from the beginning the barbarians were still hiding their strength in the wilderness. After the special forces were split into several groups, one of them followed P5092 to Mt. Dashi while the rest remained hidden in the shadows.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu felt that it would be such a waste if a person like P5092 did not join the Prosperous Northwest.


    When this thought floated in his mind, Ren Xiaosu felt he could finally understand the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s behavior a little. All promising talent should head the Prosperous Northwest, for that was the best ce for them to prosper.

 Chapter 862 - The supplies get destroyed

    <h4>Chapter 862: The supplies get destroyed</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Previously, when he rescued the Great Hoodwinker along with Wang Yun, Ji Zi¡¯ang, and the others from the secret prison, the Great Hoodwinker had mentioned something to him. The reason why he got Ren Xiaosu to save them was that he wanted Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang to be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s supporters in the Northwest.


    Later, Ren Xiaosu would asionally think about the matter of the ¡°supporters¡± as well. It was not that he coveted power, but after experiencing so much, he realized that if he wanted to protect something, he would someday have to say goodbye to the days of him fighting alone.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, a true victory would not be dictated by a particr person but required tens of thousands of people to work hard together to achieve.


    And what did Ren Xiaosuck the most right now? Was hecking in individualbat ability?


    It was leadership Ren Xiaosucked. He still had a Skill Duplication Scroll with him, but it was a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll that could only be used to copy advanced skills at most.


    It was just like how Wang Jing¡¯s cardiovascr specialization skill he copied was only at the advanced level even though Wang Jing¡¯s proficiency was at master level.


    Perhaps gaining an advanced skill would still put him at a much higher level than most people. But the problem was that the opponents in this era were all master tacticians who could y extremely dirty if need be. With only an advanced proficiency in leadership, many of his teammates would die if he faced someone who was a master.


    If it were in the past, Ren Xiaosu would have just waited until he had a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll before he copied someone else¡¯s master-level skill in leadership.


    But now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s concern was that his individual ability was still limited. Since he did not have any proficiency in this area, he should learn it from someone who did.


    Currently, he had onlye across a few people he thought were extremely well-versed in leadership. One of them was Qing Zhen, while there was also Zhang Jinglin and P5092.


    He would definitely not be able to copy Qing Zhen¡¯s skill. And since Mr. Zhang was constantly thinking about retirement, Ren Xiaosu naturally set his sights on P5092.


    Over the past two days, the frontline battle report had been sent back, so everyone in the forward operating base knew about the victory the 3rd Division led by P5092 had achieved. When Ren Xiaosu read the battle report, he realized that be it at Mt. Dashi, the forward operating base, or the front line, P5092 had fought all those battles marvelously. It was as though he had a clear picture of the overall situation of the battlefield in his mind.


    This person¡¯s talent on the battlefield was enough to make Ren Xiaosu look up to him.


    For a moment, the words ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± started lingering in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind, unable to be suppressed.


    However, the only thing that worried Ren Xiaosu a little was that P5092 really had no qualms about sacrificing others by having them act as decoys. Such behavior did not mesh with the style of the Northwest at all.


    Although the people from the Northwest were not afraid to die, Ren Xiaosu was unwilling to let them die in vain by using them as bait. This was probably also why it was very difficult for him to be amander.


    Even a benevolent elder like Zhang Jinglin was prepared to sacrifice the Razor Sharp Company, wasn¡¯t he?


    At that time, Zhang Jinglin had already executed a contingency n in the Gobi Corridor to the north. But to prevent a spy from getting wind of that n, Zhang Jinglin did not tell Ren Xiaosu anything about it.


    Ren Xiaosu did not me Zhang Jinglin for it, because making the calmest decision amid chaos and leading the troops to victory was what amander should do.


    Thest thing that should happen in the world was to use morality to ckmail amander. Because there was no such thing as morality in war.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s ordinary soldiers were running towards the armory in a bid to get there before the barbarians.


    Meanwhile, a small group of the barbarians responsible for creating chaos in the forward operating base had already been killed by Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Ren Xiaosu looked in another direction and was surprised to see that Meng Nan had suddenly fallen down on the ground.


    Then Liang Ce decisively carried her on his back and continued fleeing in the direction that Ren Xiaosu had indicated.


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°That guy finally gets it. Their rtionship will probably develop very quickly from here.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was lying on the medical center¡¯s roof and looking through the scope while saying, ¡°I wonder when someone else will get it as well.¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha, who are you referring to...¡±


    The Pyro Company¡¯s special forces had already rushed out of the armory. Although they were not led by T5081, the 100-odd T4 soldiers who formed the rapid deployment force were enough to terrify the barbarians who were skilled at closebat and wielded giant axes.


    Ren Xiaosu made a quick observation. There were around 400 barbarians, but the moment they shed with the special forces, they were suppressed.


    When those barbarians saw they could not sessfully take the armory, they turned around and fled into the wilderness. They knew they had been ambushed, so they prepared to return to the wilderness and wait for an opportunity to reemerge to pin down the Pyro Company¡¯s rear.


    But they still underestimated the determination of P5092 to clear out the barbarians at the rear. Since the senior Pyro Companymander had set the bait, he had no intention of letting those barbarians leave.


    Just as the barbarians were about to break out of the encirclement, another group of special forces suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the wilderness. The special forces had a total of around 400 soldiers. One-third of them had gone to Mt. Dashi, while the remaining two-thirds had stayed behind here at the forward operating base.


    Now that the barbarians¡¯ path of retreat had beenpletely cut off, they had nowhere left to run.


    Ren Xiaosu put away his ck sniper rifle and said, ¡°The oue has already been decided. The barbarians can¡¯t do much now, so let¡¯s go and join up with the Trinity Institute.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, let¡¯s go.¡± Yang Xiaojin also got up.


    However, before they could leave, a towering me shot up from the ground 800 meters away from the armory. That huge pir of me looked like a doomsday scenario, and arge amount of dust and smoke started spreading out as well.


    ¡°Wait a minute, that¡¯s where the baggage train is.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a daze, ¡°Did you see any barbarians over there just now?¡±


    ¡°There were no barbarians over there. I¡¯m sure of it.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°All of the barbarians came in via the same route. No one got close to that direction. I¡¯m quite sure of it. Someone must¡¯ve used TNT to blow up the entire supply convoy. The area that was blown up is veryrge.¡±


    ¡°But who could have done it!?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at that area. ¡°Could someone other than the barbarians have their eyes on this ce?¡±


    Almost at the same time, all of the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers and barbarians could not help but look towards where the explosion had gone off. Everyone could feel a fiery st of air rushing towards them. The shockwave even swept up a cloud of dust, covering the entire forward operating base in fog. In just an instant, the visibility in the forward operating base had gone down to around 10 meters.


    An officer of the special forces shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t get distracted. Our priority is to kill all the barbarians! Open the armory¡¯s entrance! Let the FOB troops grab their weapons to secure the base!¡±


    It was not that they did not want to go and save the supplies, but it was more important to kill the barbarians in front of them first. If they were to let the barbarians escape with such a perfect battle n drawn up, the fault would not lie with themander but with them who were supposed to execute the n.


    And since the supplies had already been blown up, it would be very difficult to salvage anything even if they went over right now. All they could do was kill all the barbarians in front of them first.


    Some people suddenly realized that the gunshots in the forward operating base had stopped and that the snipers had disappeared.

 Chapter 863 - Reappearance of the Experimentals!

    <h4>Chapter 863: Reappearance of the Experimentals!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    How important were the supplies in the forward operating base? They were very important!


    This time, the Pyro Company had set up the defensive line in the north in a hurry, and the manpower and resources needed to build the New Great Wall could be called a vast amount. If the Pyro Company had not fought the war with the Kong Consortium, it would not have been a problem with their strength to build up this northern defensive line.


    But it just so happened that the enemies from the North hade at the wrong time. The Pyro Company had justunched an all-out war against the Kong Consortium, so their return from the South to the North was basically a reactionary move.


    If the supplies at the forward operating base could not be transported to the northern defensive line in time, the refugees and stronghold residents who were building the New Great Wall would probably have to go hungry.


    Even the main forces of the Pyro Company might not be able to fill their stomachs.


    Moreover, the most important issue was still the ammunition supply. P5092¡¯s 3rd Division had already been through several tough battles in the South. Meanwhile, the famous artillery troops under him were left with not much ammunition. Several days ago, when they were fighting the barbarians, they had plowed the canyon with their artillery fire. If their supply of artillery shells were to get cut off now, it would be difficult to deploy the artillery to their full potential.


    Actually, the artillery shells they used did not cost much to make, and it was not exactly precision equipment either. However, they still needed time to produce the next batch of ammunition.


    Therefore, when faced with this war, the Pyro Company was not limited by themselves but by the previous war against the Kong Consortium.


    If they knew there would be enemiesing from the North, they would definitely not have waged an all-out war against the Kong Consortium.


    When themander of the forward operating base saw the explosion, his heart sank and he lost hope.


    Ren Xiaosu had already plunged into the smoke and run towards the supply convoy.


    He covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and even donned a pair of goggles to prevent the smoke from affecting his respiratory system and vision.


    Earlier, the distance between him and the supply convoy was less than a kilometer apart. With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s speed, it took him less than a minute to get there.


    But by the time he arrived, there was nothing left except for the glow of the mes.


    The vehicles were burning fiercely after they exploded into balls of fire. Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard a noise not far away as he walked in. He slowly approached the source, but whatever that was hiding in the smoke had discovered his presence and turned to escape into the wilderness!


    Ren Xiaosu quickly gave chase, but his opponent was moving at a pace not much slower than him. He took out a heavy machine gun from his storage space and wielded it. As he chased after the target, he fired at it.


    As the smoke was too thick, Ren Xiaosu could not get a clear view of his target¡¯s position and could only shoot blindly.


    Seeing that he could not hit his target even after firing for so long, Ren Xiaosu had no choice but to give up. He tried his best to distinguish the sound of his opponent¡¯s footsteps as he moved through the smoke to seek his target.


    But Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Just what was that thing? Why did the footsteps sound like that of a wild animal? The sound of the target running away was clearly like that of a feline¡¯s movements.


    But why would wild animalse and blow up the supplies? Ren Xiaosu had a vague idea in his mind, but he could not be sure.


    Both parties soon arrived at the edge of the forward operating base and at this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized his enemy had not broken through the wire fence. Instead, there was a hole in the ground that was dug from the outside!


    That monster plunged into the hole and disappeared in the blink of an eye. It was only at the final moment that Ren Xiaosu saw the gray skin on its body!


    Experimentals!


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was really at a loss. How could it be the Experimentals?!


    Didn¡¯t those things get wiped out after the Qing Consortium¡¯s nuclear bomb was dropped on Stronghold 74?


    Ever since Stronghold 74 was destroyed, Ren Xiaosu no longer worried about the Experimentals, because he felt they had definitely been wiped out.


    He was not the only one who thought that way. The entire world thought so as well, especially those from the Qing Consortium. In Luo Lan¡¯s words, no one could have survived that devastating explosion.


    But only now did Ren Xiaosu realize that some of the Experimentals had probably left Stronghold 74 before the nuclear bomb was dropped!


    This left Ren Xiaosu very surprised. He had not expected to see the Experimentals here at all. Even P5092 was probably not expecting it either.


    Therefore, P5092¡¯s n was only targeted at the barbarians, and he managed to do that very well. However, other forces were still hidden in the wilderness. As a result, the supplies at the forward operating base were still sabotaged.


    This was the appeal of war. No matter how well-prepared one was, everything could still end up in failure over an unexpected incident.


    Ren Xiaosu looked out into the wilderness beyond the wire fence. He suddenly drew his ck saber to sh open the fence and give chase.


    It was a very risky decision, but he suddenly remembered Yang Xiaojin had said she had seen a figure in the mountains earlier.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin thought that it might just be a barbarian who was on guard duty. But now, Ren Xiaosu had a new hypothesis.


    The Experimentals were very terrifying. Their terror did not lie in their destructive power, but in the fact they could use humans as vessels to create even more Experimentals.


    Once the number of Experimentals surpassed 10,000, they would have enough strength to breach the strongholds.


    It had only been an hour since the barbarians broke through into the forward operating base. It was midnight now.


    There was no moon tonight as massive, dark clouds in the sky cast a shadow upon thend. Ren Xiaosu made his way through the wilderness towards where Yang Xiaojin had seen that figure.


    But just as he was about to approach the mountains, a foreboding gust of wind came from near the top of an elm tree by the roadside.


    The Experimental Ren Xiaosu was tracking earlier had not fled far away. Instead, it hid in the treetops, nning to ambush him!


    In the blink of an eye, the Experimental spread its arms and pounced down from above. But just as it was about to grab Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu suddenly ducked and stretched out his hand. His arm urately slipped past the gaps of the Experimental¡¯s outstretched arms and ruthlessly grabbed its neck, throwing it straight towards the ground.


    With a loud crash, the Experimental fell unconscious after being mmed onto the ground with a shoulder throw. It had probably nevere across a human whose strength could easily crush it by so much before!


    Ren Xiaosu was sizing up the Experimental on the ground. This was the first time he had examined one so closely. This Experimental had probably transformed from an adult human male, and all of its body hair was gone, leaving only smooth gray skin. It looked strangely greasy, like a venomous snake that would disgust people.


    The creature was lying on the ground with its chest heaving up and down from its breathing. Ren Xiaosu had one foot on its chest and was about to use the ck saber to end its life.


    He knew this was not the creature he was chasing previously as the other one was much faster than this one. It was a trap.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard another noiseing from the forest. There were four, five, six Experimentals.


    Did he just step into the Experimentals¡¯ir? Ren Xiaosu grinned. How lucky!


    In the distance, the forward operating base was still burning in mes and the sound of gunfire was tearing through the sky. Amid this, no one noticed that a thrilling battle was about to take ce several hundred meters away from the base.

 Chapter 864 - Pursuing Black Robe

    <h4>Chapter 864: Pursuing ck Robe</h4>


    It wasn¡¯t the first time Ren Xiaosu had dealt with the Experimentals. For some reason, he always hated the strange creatures. After Stronghold 74 was destroyed, he was even happy for a while.


    But now, the strange things actually reappeared. So Ren Xiaosu wondered if the figure Yang Xiaojin had seen in the mountains through her spotting scope was that so-called intelligent being of the Experimentals?


    This was the reason why Ren Xiaosu gave chase. If that figure were really the intelligent being, the number of Experimentals would no longer increase as long as he could kill it. Even if the Experimentals were to attack humans again, they could not do so in an orderly manner.


    The reason why the Experimentals were such a headache for humans was that there was an individual being with advanced intelligence among them.


    If the Experimentals only attacked anyone they came across, the Qing Consortium would have already exterminated them back in the Southwest.


    In the forest, several Experimentals slowly surrounded Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu held his ck saber in hand as he stood there and observed the situation. But a momentter, he was surprised when he saw them. The new Experimentals had the appearance of the barbarians!


    These Experimentals who were originally barbarians crawled on the ground like brown bears and looked muchrger in size than the Experimental he had just killed.


    Ren Xiaosu could not help but feel surprised. Where did these barbaric Experimentalse from? Could it be that the intelligent being had escaped to the North?


    Right, weren¡¯t the Experimentals in cahoots with the barbarians since they destroyed the supplies earlier?


    Were those barbarians stupid? They actually joined forces with those ghastly creatures?!


    Or perhaps that intelligent Experimental was hiding something even deeper?


    However, it did not matter to Ren Xiaosu whether the Experimentals used to be barbarians or humans from the Central ins. When the Experimentals pounced at him, Ren Xiaosu did not receive them head on. Instead, he used his superior speed to step between them.


    Ren Xiaosu no longer pursued the idea of killing the Experimentals with a single strike. Instead, he shed at them one by one and dealt the greatest damage he could. He did not want to take the risk to advance recklessly.


    He traveled through the gaps with an aloof gaze and determined what his next move should be.


    It might not seem like his armedbat methods were too effective at the time being, but in just five minutes, not a single one of these dozen-odd barbaric Experimentals was left with aplete set of limbs. They were either missing an arm or a leg, while Ren Xiaosu did not suffer a scratch and was uninjured.


    When the Experimentals saw that over a dozen of them were about to lose their mobility, they stopped bothering Ren Xiaosu and turned around to escape.


    This indirectly confirmed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thought that someone was controlling them from behind the scenes.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his saber and chased after them. But just as he caught up to two Experimentals and started killing them, a figure draped in ck robes floated down from the top of the elm tree behind him. The angle and timing the enemy had chosen to appear at could not be more ruthless. It was precisely at the time when Ren Xiaosu¡¯s saber was about to hit its target!


    At this moment, it would be difficult for Ren Xiaosu to change his movements and turn around to defend himself!


    But when Ren Xiaosu heard the gust of wind above him, he sneered, ¡°I was waiting for you!¡±


    City Crusher!


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes turned crimson. It was as though he had descended into purgatory.


    Great strength started surging through Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body along with the crimson color that appeared in his eyes. Ren Xiaosu roared as he forcefully twisted his body around. The copious amount of power in him forcefully broke through the inertia of his body and the direction where the saber was shing down from was forcefully reversed!


    The de slid past the ck robes and easily cut through the golden silk lining it. The Experimental that was shrouded in the ck robe let out a hoarse and strange cry. It seemed like it had not expected the human in front of it to be so strong!


    Through the gap, the Experimental looked down and saw the eyes of the young man who had already turned around. The crimson color actually made him look more demonic than the Experimental.


    In the blink of an eye, the Experimental managed to twist its waist and body to avoid the iing de. However, arge portion of its ck robe had been chopped off. After itnded on the ground, the Experimental rolled backwards in a panic. It no longer had the calm andposed look it had when it was facing the barbarians earlier.


    But it had to be said that this intelligent being¡¯s physical fitness was even better than a T5¡¯s. This was something Ren Xiaosu had not expected.


    Ren Xiaosu went after it, but the barbaric Experimentals that had fled earlier actually rushed back and stood in front of ck Robe fearlessly to buy it some time.


    As the barbaric Experimentals died one by one, ck Robe was able to catch a breather. But for Ren Xiaosu, the bad news was that after killing all of them, the effective duration of his City Crusher would also be over.


    Ren Xiaosu slowly walked towards ck Robe with his saber in hand. He asked coldly, ¡°How did you escape from Stronghold 74?¡±


    The Experimental was stunned. It stood up and said with a hoarseugh, ¡°I remember this saber of yours. I think you were wearing a white mask back then. You were also at Stronghold 74 at that time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him silently. This fellow had taken him to be Old Xu, but there was actually nothing wrong in saying that.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at ck Robe and suddenly asked, ¡°You went to the North after that? Let me guess, were you also the one who instigated these barbarians to suddenly head south?¡±


    ck Robe adjusted his hood and hid his gray face under the shadows again. ¡°The North is gradually being flooded by the cold seawater. What¡¯s wrong with the Northerners heading south to seek a new ce to inhabit?¡±


    This was the first time Ren Xiaosu learned about the situation in the North. So it turned out the barbarians had onlye to the South because theirnd was gradually being swallowed up by the sea. However, this was not a reason for them to start a massacre in the cities. War was always a matter of survival. Since a massacre had taken ce, they would just have to fight to the death from here.


    Along with killing the barbarians, these ineradicable Experimentals would also have to die.


    A momentter, ck Robe saw that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s crimson eyes had faded. It was taken aback for a moment beforeughing out loud. ¡°So you can only be that powerful for a short while, huh? I was wondering why you suddenly started talking to me. So it¡¯s because you were waiting for reinforcements. Unfortunately, no one can save you now.¡±


    With that, ck Robe closed in on Ren Xiaosu. It stuck its gray palm out through its ck robe and grabbed straight for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s chest.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not dodge. Instead, he allowed the other party to leave a bloody wound on his chest while he grabbed its wrist tightly.


    Due to the mutual effect, both parties¡¯ movement speed was negated. At this moment, there was only calmness in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes.


    ck Robe got a bad feeling. It immediately used all of its strength to break free from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s grip and leaped up like it was trying to dodge something, but a ck bullet suddenly hit ck Robe¡¯s thigh.


    The ck bullet did not get lodged in ck Robe¡¯s leg. Instead, it directly went through it and prated a tree before disappearing into the forest.


    Ren Xiaosu ignored his injuries and tried to chase after ck Robe. However, ck Robe was no longer interested in fighting. It took the opportunity and limped off into the wilderness.

 Chapter 865 - No hostages in the eyes of the Pyro Company

    <h4>Chapter 865: No hostages in the eyes of the Pyro Company</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu felt it was a pity. If not for the fact that Old Xu, the Shadow Door, and the steam lotive were still sealed, ck Robe would definitely have been killed here today.


    He did not give chase to kill ck Robe because his speed was far inferior to his opponent now that Old Xu was sealed. What surprised Ren Xiaosu was that ck Robe¡¯s physical fitness was even above that of a T5batant.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice rang through his earpiece. ¡°Are you alright?¡±


    After the battle in the Sacred Mountains where Ren Xiaosu had used himself as bait to kill a T5batant, he immediately went to purchase several sets of miniaturemunication devices for the two of them to use as a duo in battle.


    Although the two of them knew each other through and through now, couldn¡¯t they coordinate even better with the aid of amunications device?


    Right now, their cooperation was already very smooth, with one of them acting as the decoy while the other yed the sniper. If no one acted as the bait, just looking for targets alone to kill would take them at least half a day.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu took a look at the wound on his chest. The other party¡¯s fingernails had dug about a centimeter into his pectorals. If it were anyone else, they would definitely get shocked by this injury. But to him, it was just a superficial wound.


    He had the ck medicine, which was specifically used for treating external injuries. As for the ck medicine¡¯s other effect, he had no use for that.


    Yang Xiaojin said into the earpiece, ¡°You¡¯re injured. Wait for me there.¡±


    She actually went to join up with Ren Xiaosu.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard her worried tone, he did not know whether tough or cry. He replied, ¡°I¡¯m really fine.¡±


    ¡°Wait there even if it¡¯s nothing,¡± Yang Xiaojin said firmly.


    Alright, whatever.


    After a while, Yang Xiaojin emerged from the forest in a disguise made of willow branches.


    After the two of them split up, Ren Xiaosu chased the Experimental all the way into the mountains. Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin quickly disguised herself and located the best sniping spot.


    As for how to lure the enemy to a suitable battlefield, that was not difficult with Ren Xiaosu acting as the decoy.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Scissors.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out a pair of scissors from the pce and handed them to her. He saw Yang Xiaojin cut open the front of his shirt with a serious expression and say, ¡°ck medicine.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu allowed her to focus on treating his wound, he said, ¡°Although we didn¡¯t kill that Experimental, his body turned ck after he got hit by your ck bullet. I wonder if his subordinates will still recognize him.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re still in the mood to talk?¡± Yang Xiaojin grumbled, ¡°You were way too bold this time. If the wound were any deeper, it could have affected your arteries and nerves.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? Don¡¯t I have you here? Besides, I know full well that he can¡¯t kill me,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined. ¡°On the other hand, if we don¡¯t get rid of those Experimentals, there might be even more innocent people dying in the future. Didya see? Some of those new Experimentals used to be barbarians, while the others were created from normal people.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I saw. Maybe that intelligent being caught some of the barbarians and turned them into Experimentals?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°What¡¯s its actualbat strength?¡±


    ¡°The Experimentals that were transformed from the barbarians are obviously more powerful.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Even I can¡¯t face more than a dozen of them at the same time. I can only carefully hold them off with my speed. Fortunately, their CQC techniques are rtively simple. Otherwise, it would be really difficult to deal with them.¡±


    When Yang Xiaojin heard this, she got up and took out a pistol she was carrying and fired it at a barbaric Experimental¡¯s corpse. However, the bullet did not even manage to lodge into its skin!


    She frowned. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for the sharpness of your ck saber, I¡¯m afraid you couldn¡¯t have held them off with your speed. With such tough skin, it would be a disaster for normal soldiers to encounter them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started getting worried. ¡°Our Central ins have experienced before how it was to deal with the Experimentals. If the already powerful barbarians are all turned into Experimentals by that intelligent being, it¡¯ll be absolutely disastrous when they make aeback.¡±


    ¡°And I feel that it might¡¯ve yed a very important role in this war.¡± Ren Xiaosu analyzed, ¡°Think about it. We just encountered a dozen or so of the barbaric Experimentals. We all know that the conversion rate of these creatures is very low. Back then, it wreaked havoc in quite a few strongholds in the Southwest before the number of Experimentals climbed close to 10,000. If it had injected so many barbarians and turned them into Experimentals, would it not get discovered? And what¡¯s with those Experimentals that used to be normal people? It was only Stronghold 176 that fell in the North, and with so many barbarians everywhere there, how could they possibly allow it to capture those people for its experiments? I think that the intelligent being has probably formed an alliance with the expeditionary army. It was also probably the one that instigated the barbarians to head south this time. Speaking of which, why did the barbarians evolve as a whole poption and not be stronger individually like those in the Central ins?¡±


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because it¡¯s too cold in the North. I¡¯m not sure why either. It could also be due to different gics...¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°But it¡¯ll be very easy to identify that Experimental when we see it again in the future. Even if there¡¯s a lot of them together, we can still find it. After all, the others are all gray, while it¡¯s ck.¡±


    This way, they might have a chance to kill the other party from afar in the future.


    ¡°How should we pass on this information to the Pyro Company?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Let¡¯s leave a note for them and direct them to this spot. They¡¯ll understand many things once they see the Experimentals¡¯ corpses.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, mention ck Robe in the note as well.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve dressed the wound for you. I¡¯ll carry you back.¡±


    ¡°No, no, there¡¯s no need.¡± Ren Xiaosu quickly said with augh, ¡°It¡¯s just a minor injury, I don¡¯t need you to carry me back.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin sighed and said, ¡°You¡¯re even worse than Liang Ce. Don¡¯tugh at others about getting it in the future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    When the two of them returned to the forward operating base, the battle there was still ongoing. Ren Xiaosu had a look from afar and realized some of the barbarians had upied a building and even captured a few hostages.


    This ce was several hundred meters away from where the earliest skirmish had broken out. This meant the barbarians had broken through the Pyro Company¡¯s encirclement once during the battle. As a matter of fact, the barbarians were still very strong in closebat, and their willpower was also extremely tenacious.


    Ren Xiaosu could not help but sigh. The barbarians were way too smart. They even knew how to hold hostages like bandits.


    Unfortunately, the barbarians had miscalcted. To the Pyro Company, being held hostage was not something they cared about at all. From a distance, Ren Xiaosu could see the Pyro Company had no intention of rescuing the hostages either. No one went to negotiate with the barbarians. Instead, they pushed a cannon over, and it looked like they were nning to level the building.


    When these people were faced with the trade-off to make a sacrifice, they really excelled at it, whether they were sacrificing themselves or others.


    Suddenly, Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Have you ever thought of asking P5092 to go to the Prosperous Northwest?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I did have such thoughts before, but I somehow feel like he doesn¡¯t fit in with the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°No, I think he¡¯s quite suitable,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.

 Chapter 866 - Not one more, not one less

    <h4>Chapter 866: Not one more, not one less</h4>


    ¡°Suitable?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand what Yang Xiaojin meant by that. ¡°The Pyro Company members are really good at sacrificing others. You¡¯ve also seen how P5092 nned his strategies on the past few asions. Even the Qinghe University students had been kept in the dark. Those students were still singing and dancing happily without any clue that they would get used as bait. How could someone like that be suitable for the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mean that he¡¯s suitable for the Northwest.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°I mean that heplements you well.¡±


    ¡°Why do you say that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Look, he likes to use others as bait in his battle strategies and even acted as one himself at Mt. Dashi.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined patiently, ¡°And since you like being bait as well...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately understood what Yang Xiaojin meant. When they were in the Sacred Mountains, he used himself as bait to create opportunities for Yang Xiaojin to snipe at the enemy. And now, he was using the same trick here in Mt. Dashi. Including the pursuit of ck Robe, he had acted as the decoy on three straight asions.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had the confidence to do so because he knew he would not die. Although it looked like Ren Xiaosu had been injured after the encounter with ck Robe tonight, there were still several trump cards he had yet to y.


    Therefore, what Yang Xiaojin meant was that since P5092 liked to use the decoy strategy so much, and Ren Xiaosu was also very capable of acting as bait, the results could be really spectacr if the two of them worked together.


    Perhaps the most powerful decoy in history would be born soon.


    If anyone else were to act as the bait, they would have to be extremely careful. But if Ren Xiaosu were to be the bait, the enemies who got lured might end up getting killed instead.


    If Ren Xiaosu could discuss it with P5092 and keep luring the enemies deeper by relying on his capabilities, that would actually be a pretty good idea.


    Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes at him. ¡°I was being sarcastic. I was trying to make the point that you shouldn¡¯t keep putting yourself in danger, but you actually seriously considered being the bait?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, it¡¯s not like that,¡± Ren Xiaosu quickly replied. ¡°I¡¯ve already written the note. Let¡¯s drop it off at the FOB¡¯smand center before joining up with the Trinity Institute¡¯s people.¡±


    After that, the two of them left quickly. Less than a minuteter, they heard the sound of artillery firing. It sounded like the Pyro Company had crushed the barbarians.


    The two of them took a big detour to quietly meet up with Wang Jing and the others. Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin waited obediently by a vehicle for the Pyro Company to clean up the scene first.


    At this moment, the Trinity Institute¡¯s people were hiding outside the forward operating base and watching the warfare in the distance.


    When Wang Jing and the others saw Ren Xiaosu, they did not further question them. Moreover, they had already guessed the snipers who had suddenly appeared were the two of them. After all, they had heard Ji Yi and the Qinghe University students say they would have been dead if not for the appearance of the mysterious snipers.


    At this moment, Wang Jing and the others sighed. Those who traveled together with Ren Xiaosu were indeed able to live longer. This time, it was also Ren Xiaosu who first anticipated there would be an enemy attack.


    Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°If the Pyro Company asks...¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you were always with us.¡± Wang Jing said, ¡°I¡¯ve already informed everyone, and they know what to say.¡±


    Only then did Ren Xiaosu feel at ease. He looked around at the Qinghe University students who were still in a state of shock and not far away from them. They looked just like a group of frightened deer.


    Ji Yi walked over to Ren Xiaosu and asked in a whisper, ¡°How¡¯s the battle going? Do we need to escape from the FOB?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°The Pyro Company has already gotten the situation under control. I guess they¡¯ll have peopleing to look for uster.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± Ji Yi sighed and said, ¡°Beforeing here, I made a promise to the dean that we¡¯d return home safely with exactly the same number of people that we came out with. If a few of them were to die along the way, I would have broken my promise.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that serious. I¡¯m sure that won¡¯t be a problem.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    Ji Yi¡¯s eyes lit up. Could it be that this guardian angel was implying that he would protect these Qinghe University students? Previously, Ji Yi did not make such a request because he knew it would be a little too much of him to ask Ren Xiaosu to protect so many of them. But if Ren Xiaosu were the one who suggested it, that would be great!


    Ji Yi said anxiously, ¡°Do you mean...?¡±


    ¡°What I¡¯m saying is,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°if someone were to really die, just get the other students to make a few babies on the way back. That way, you¡¯ll be able to go back with the same number of people that came out.¡±


    Ji Yi was shocked. ¡®<i>Is that what you should be saying?!</i>¡®


    He had set the rule they would go back with not one person more and not one person less. But when Ren Xiaosu perceived those words, his understanding was immediately distorted?


    Ji Yi sighed. Actually, Ren Xiaosu was probably just trying to change the subject, right? It looked like he didn¡¯t intend to help the Qinghe University students anymore. However, Ji Yi could notin about that. Who would have the spare energy to care about the lives of others during a war?


    He took a look at Ren Xiaosu and the Qinghe University students. Then he wondered if they had coddled the students too much in the past.


    Although Ren Xiaosu was several years younger than them, he had done much more than these Qinghe University students.


    The young man had even shouldered the safety of all of Hope Media on himself.


    The Qinghe University students had not even removed their makeup yet. Due to either their sweat or tears, they looked to be in an exceptionally wretched state.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s better that you persuade them to return to Luoyang City.¡± Ren Xiaosu said slowly, ¡°Although I know that they¡¯ll still want to pay a visit to the frontline soldiers, you can also see how dangerous the war is. If something were to happen, they could die.¡±


    Ji Yi sighed and said, ¡°I guess.... I¡¯ll go talk to them and then get the Pyro Company to send someone to escort them back.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the best option.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    When Ji Yi returned to the group of students, amotion arose from within the group. Ren Xiaosu listened carefully and was surprised to hear a few students raising their voices and speaking passionately with youthful vigor, ¡°Professor, what¡¯s Qinghe University¡¯s motto? ¡®Seek Truth from Facts, Dare to be Pioneers.¡¯ Chief Editor Jiang Xu persevered even when he faced all those difficult situations. If we retreat right after encountering danger, how can we still have the cheek to call ourselves Qinghe University students?¡±


    ¡°Right, those people from the Trinity Institute who look younger than us have not even asked to leave yet, so how can we leave first?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if they were referring to him!


    When Ji Yi heard this, he did not know how to react. How could they be the same as Ren Xiaosu? The number of people he killed was even greater than all of them added together...


    Ren Xiaosu listened from afar and thought to himself that these students might not be very capable, but they really had spirit.


    Actually, it was not that these students were ipetent. It was just that there was no application for their skills on the battlefield or in the war. However, Qinghe University¡¯s curriculum was still quite rigorous. Even though the students were all frightened, they had character.


    Otherwise, they would not have traveled such a long way to the North to deliver the supplies.


    Gradually, the other students were also influenced by their impassioned schoolmates. They expressed their unwillingness to leave and vowed to live and die together with humanity.


    However, Ji Yi did not waste too much time talking to them. He made an executive decision and was ready tomunicate with the Pyro Company to send the students back when they arrived.

 Chapter 867 - Redemption

    <h4>Chapter 867: Redemption</h4>


    The Qinghe University students and the Trinity Institute members remained outside the forward operating base for a short while before returning inside. Then they waited at the medical center for the Pyro Company to get everything under control.


    Everyone was very nervous at this moment. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu fell asleep right on the operating table in their department while Yang Xiaojin stayed by his side to protect him.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu had just been through a life-or-death battle. With all the adrenaline coursing through him, and coupled with his injuries, it tired him. This was a normal physiological reaction.


    The students outside the department were sitting against the wall in the hallway of the medical center when they heard Ren Xiaosu snoring.


    Everyone was speechless. That guy was way too careless. He could even fall asleep like that?!


    When Yang Xiaojin saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression, she revealed an unusual gentleness in her. Back at Mt. Dashi, Ren Xiaosu had more things to worry about than her, and he also acted as the bait during their hunt for the barbarians.


    Sometimes, the two of them would take turns to keep watch at night. If Ren Xiaosu kept watch for the first half of the night, he would not have the heart to wake her up for the second shift. As a result, he would just keep watch for the entire night by himself.


    After the battle on Mt. Dashi, Ren Xiaosu did not even have time to catch up on sleep when they encountered yet another attack on the camp. Even if he were made of steel, he still would not be able to bear it.


    Usually, Ren Xiaosu would not snore when he slept. As his physical fitness improved, his bodily functions also became stronger and more vigorous. His respiratory system and cardiopulmonary function were already far beyond that of normal people, so snoring was not something that should happen to him.


    But now, his snores were like a message of fatigue that even made Yang Xiaojin¡¯s heart ache a little.


    This young man who belonged to her habitually took on all of the responsibility himself.


    Yang Xiaojin subconsciously tried to soothe Ren Xiaosu¡¯s frown as he slept. But just as she reached out with her hand, someone from the Pyro Company walked in from outside the medical center.


    Thismotion woke Ren Xiaosu up. He happened to see Yang Xiaojin reaching out, so he said with a smile, ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Yang Xiaojin said nonchntly, ¡°I heard your snoring, so I wanted to pinch your nose to stop it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood up and ranted, ¡°How could you do something like that?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, ¡°But you do things like that quite often too.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    The two of them walked out of the department and saw Ji Yi saying something to a Pyro Company soldier. However, that soldier said coldly, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, we don¡¯t have any spare vehicles to send them back now. We can go to the front lines if you want to, but we can¡¯t retreat. Besides, we also need all of you to go to the front lines. Starting on the day after tomorrow, no outsiders will be allowed to remain here to ensure the security of the FOB.¡±


    Ji Yi was stunned. ¡°But our Qinghe Group has our own vehicles.¡±


    ¡°Your vehicles have been requisitioned for the transportation of supplies.¡± The soldier calmly exined, ¡°After the attack this time, the supply convoy suffered an extremely serious loss. Please understand why we made such a decision. You all can wait for the vehicles to be loaded up with the supplies tomorrow before heading to the front lines together with them.¡±


    Then the Pyro Company soldier asked, ¡°Were you all in the medical center all this time? Mr. Wang Jing, have you seen any strangersing in?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Wang Jing shook his head. ¡°When the attack happened, all of us fled out of the base together. It wasn¡¯t until things settled down at the FOB that we returned to the medical center. Why?¡±


    The Pyro Company soldier was still very polite to Wang Jing and the others. ¡°It¡¯s like this. We specte that the two snipers who appeared previously were shooting from the top floor of the medical center. Later, they left us a very important message, so we wanted to find them to express our gratitude.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not too sure about that then.¡± Wang Jing shook his head again. ¡°It was already veryte by the time we got back to the medical center, so we didn¡¯t see any strangers around. Don¡¯t you know the identities of those two snipers? I thought they were your people. They also saved us during the chaos, so we¡¯d like to express our gratitude as well.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re not with us.¡± The soldier shook his head. ¡°They could be aspiring fighters who want to stand against the North together. If you have any information, please contact us immediately.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I will.¡± As Wang Jing spoke, he did not even look at Ren Xiaosu as he was afraid that he would expose him. It was the same for the other doctors as well. It could be seen just how meticulous Wang Jing was when he handed down instructions to the rest earlier.


    ¡°Then you all should get some rest quickly. All medical personnel will have to travel with the military to the North tomorrow. If you need anything, you can let us know at any time.¡± After bidding farewell to Wang Jing, the soldier went straight to the top floor and took several sets of photos before leaving.


    The students looked at each other. A student representative said to Ji Yi, ¡°Professor Ji, now that we don¡¯t have any vehicles to take us back, why don¡¯t we head to the front lines to have a look instead?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right! You heard what that soldier said too. Those two snipers also came over to volunteer. Right now, the entire Central ins has to unite....¡±


    Ji Yi did not say anything and felt extremely vexed.


    ...


    At this moment, the P3mander of the forward operating base was speaking with someone. He said very carefully, ¡°Commander P5092, I wish tomunicate with you regarding something very important.¡±


    P5092 said nomittally, ¡°What do you want in exchange?¡±


    ¡°You should¡¯ve received the news by now. Although the n to lure the enemy out tonight was sessful, arge portion of our supplies was still destroyed. This matter is enough to get me court martialed. If I get convicted, I¡¯ll probably have to spend the rest of my life in prison.¡± P31921 said softly: ¡°But as you know, I was just cooperating with your n.¡±


    P5092 said without emotion, ¡°You made a lot of mistakes tonight, though. Even if you were just cooperating with my n, you shouldn¡¯t have stupidly parked the entire supply convoy¡¯s vehicles together and given the enemy a chance to blow up the supplies. Furthermore, barbarians really were lurking in the rear. Even without my n, something would¡¯ve happened to you sooner orter. If the information you have for me is important enough, I will guarantee your safety.¡±


    P31921 was overjoyed. This was the promise he was looking for. Although Commander P5092 was cold, he would not go back on his word.


    P31921 deliberated for a moment before saying, ¡°You encountered two snipers at Mt. Dashi, right? I know you¡¯re looking for them. Just a few days ago, two doctors from the Trinity Institute suddenly left the FOB and only came back after the battle on Mt. Dashi had ended. The timing of their return is consistent with the duration of the battle.¡±


    P5092 said nonchntly, ¡°What can two doctors do? Don¡¯t im baseless spection as intel.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not spection.¡± P31921 quickly said, ¡°Others might not have noticed what happened tonight, but I found out the Trinity Institute left the danger zone before the barbarians¡¯ arrival. Moreover, one of the two doctors who left the base happened to be the miracle doctor you ordered us to take care of.¡±


    P5092 was stunned. For some reason, he believed P31921¡¯s words the moment he mentioned Ren Xiaosu!

 Chapter 868 - Guessing the truth

    <h4>Chapter 868: Guessing the truth</h4>


    First of all, the timing of the two of them leaving the forward operating base and the appearance of the snipers at Mt. Dashi was so consistent it was difficult to exin.


    ording to P31921, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reason for leaving the base was so he could go into the mountains to pick some medicinal herbs. However, P5092 was certain Ren Xiaosu¡¯s medicine was not an ancestral remedy. Instead, it was conjured up by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower. Otherwise, it would not have such a miraculous effect.


    Others might still be superstitious enough to believe in secret ancestral remedies, but P5092 only believed in science. Science was what told him there were no secret ancestral remedies in this world that could make a wound heal in just three short days.


    Alright, one might argue the nts had also mutated, but to say that the remedy was passed down from their ancestors, did the nts already mutate when their ancestors formted this remedy? That was the w in the story!


    And that was why P5092 ordered his deputymander to return all of the Trinity Institute¡¯s suitcases so it would help Ren Xiaosu cover up this matter.


    Now that P31921 was telling him Ren Xiaosu had imed he needed to go out to gather herbs, P5092 confirmed that Ren Xiaosu was the one who helped him out in the battle on Mt. Dashi.


    Moreover, from a certain point of view, P5092 would also instinctively agree with what P31921 had told him, even if he did not know about those details, because that young man was far too special.


    Thinking back, the other party disyed no fear at all around him, not because he was carefree by nature, but simply because he was not afraid of him.


    When P5092 realized how close he was to such a dangerous person, he even felt some lingering fear.


    What a fucking close shave!


    P5092 asked, ¡°If I¡¯m not wrong, it was that girl who apanied him out of the base?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Your guess is too urate,¡± P31921 ttered.


    ¡°There¡¯s no use trying to tter me.¡± P5092 asked calmly, ¡°Have you told anyone else about this?¡±


    ¡°No, absolutely not,¡± P31921 assured him.


    ¡°Very good, continue keeping it a secret. If I find out that you leaked this, I¡¯ll court martial you myself.¡± P5092 said calmly, ¡°Tell me in detail what went awry with the n tonight.¡±


    ¡°Everything was going ording to your n initially. The students started off with the cultural show, and as expected, the situation at the FOB quickly attracted an attack from the barbarians.¡± P31921 said, ¡°Moreover, we also sessfully lured them to the armory. The special forces encircled them there and ensured they couldn¡¯t escape.¡±


    ¡°But an ident happened. We don¡¯t know whounched a sneak attack on the supply convoy that caused us to suffer heavy losses. However, we now have an idea of where the attacker came from. We found a note at the entrance of themand center saying that the Experimentals have reappeared. It also said we should head to the west of the base to check on the situation. Our people who are investigating should¡¯ve found some clues by now,¡± P31921 said.


    ¡°Experimentals?¡± P5092 was stunned for a moment. Of course he knew what the Experimentals were, but just like Ren Xiaosu, he did not expect this term would suddenly get brought up again in front of him. P5092 said anxiously, ¡°Hurry up and figure out the situation. I want conclusive news about whether the Experimentals are still in existence.¡±


    After that, P5092 ended the call and sat quietly in hismand tent.


    He recalled his interactions with Ren Xiaosu. For some reason, there was a hint of a smile on his face. P5092 did not know why he was smiling, but he suddenly found the matter to be very interesting.


    The only thing that P5092 could not understand was why such an extremely powerful young man like Ren Xiaosu was a doctor.


    He went on a killing spree while saving people¡¯s lives? What were his motives?


    Wait!


    P5092 started to carefully recall some of the other incidents. But as his memory was not as good as Wang Yun¡¯s, he had to go through the old intelligence files.


    He noticed some information. When they encountered the Trinity Institute, those doctors had just made their escape from Stronghold 31.


    Why had Ren Xiaosu appeared at Stronghold 31 during that time? And what had happened at Stronghold 31 that day?


    P5092 had coborated with T5081 from the special forces for some days, so he knew very well that T5081 kept getting intercepted during his mission at the Kong Consortium. Based on T5081¡¯s description, the secret prison had been destroyed, the normal prison was raided, and Kong Erdong was assassinated. Then... the Kong Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency was also ambushed by snipers, and many of their officers died tragically on the streets!


    This was it! The intelligence agency had been ambushed by snipers! It was the snipers!


    The smile on P5092¡¯s face got even wider. It was as though he had found out Ren Xiaosu¡¯s secret. So this doctor had been on a mission and was initially nning on leaving Stronghold 31. It was just that he was unexpectedly intercepted by them and brought to the North with the rest.


    Immediately, P5092 got a clearer understanding of Ren Xiaosu. This was a supernatural being whose superpower was to materialize a life-saving ck medicine, while his special skill was sniping!


    Furthermore, the other party was not only a sniper, but also one of the first batches of supernatural beings to awaken their powers, so his physical fitness was definitely superior to those barbarians!


    To be honest, it was very impressive that P5092 could analyze this much even if his guesses were very one-sided. For example, he was unaware that Ren Xiaosu had more than a dozen superpowers, nor did he know that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s physical fitness was actually even crazier than he had imagined, with an even more freakish power like Old Xu, as well as ¡°City Crusher¡± which could make Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu even more powerful.


    But this was not P5092¡¯s fault. After all, there was no one else in the world like Ren Xiaosu. It was only normal that he could not guess it. But what would be abnormal was him guessing correctly.


    The Trinity Institute would shortly be following the troops to the front line. P5092 suddenly felt that something interesting would soon happen in this dull war.


    He nned to continue acting like he did not know anything and enjoy the other party¡¯s pretense in front of him. Thinking of this, P5092 felt a strange sense of satisfaction. ¡®<i>You want to pretend? Well, I know everything already!</i>¡®


    At this moment, P31921 called back. ¡°Sir, the Experimentals¡¯ corpses were discovered 1.33 klicks away from base. More importantly, some of the Experimentals were transformed from barbarians!¡±


    P5092 cast aside his thoughts about Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°How did the Experimentals die?¡±


    ¡°They were injured by a sharp weapon, and there was only one type of shoeprint in the vicinity. These dozen or so Experimentals were probably killed by the same person,¡± P31921 replied. ¡°As the Experimentals are all dead, we can¡¯t determine their strength, nor can we determine the strength of the person who killed them.¡±


    ¡°A sharp weapon? Try firing a shot at the barbaric Experimentals,¡± P5092 said.


    After a gunshot rang out, P31921 reported, ¡°Firing with a pistol, the bullet did not even get lodged into the enemy¡¯s skin.¡±


    ¡°How sharp must the weapon be to be able to kill them? They were probably killed by a superpower, right?¡± P5092 wondered.


    He suddenly wondered if it was the power of the woman who was with Ren Xiaosu? Both of them were supernatural beings? So one of their powers was to materialize the ck medicine while the other could materialize a weapon, and both of them happened to be snipers?


    Due to the mismatch of information, P5092 suddenly felt like his thoughts were a mess. He kept feeling like he had missed something.


    If Wang Yun was here, he would easily be able to link all the clues together. Unfortunately, P5092 did not have such an ability.

 Chapter 869 - I’m still a little better than him

    <h4>Chapter 869: I¡¯m still a little better than him</h4>


    Regarding the news that the Experimentals were still alive in this world, the Pyro Company did not try to conceal the fact. Instead, they openly told Ji Yi about it and got him to ry the news to Hope Media.


    The Pyro Company felt that it was necessary to let everyone know that the culprits that led to the destruction of Stronghold 74 were still alive. Moreover, everyone had to be even more careful because the Experimentals that had appeared this time consisted of those that transformed from the stronger barbarians.


    Actually, this news was mainly meant to be shared with the Wang Consortium. After all, only the Pyro Company and the Wang Consortium were fighting the enemy in the North now.


    The Wang Consortium had not informed the Pyro Company of the impending war in advance, but the Pyro Company still magnanimously shared their intelligence with them this time. Jiang Xu even singled out such transparency for praise on a new page and condemned the Wang Consortium for their secretive behavior thest time.


    However, Ren Xiaosu could not read about what was reported in the newspapers since P5092 had left for the front lines.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu also felt the Pyro Company had made the right decision this time. Just as he had warned the Pyro Company about the Experimentals, the Pyro Company was also obliged to warn others for the greater good.


    After all,pared to the barbarians, the Experimentals were a species that sought to exterminate all of humanity and turn them into gray-skinned monsters. They were even more detestable than the barbarians.


    The Trinity Institute, the Qinghe University students, and the Pyro Company¡¯s Supply Corps headed north together. The Pyro Company had finally managed to consolidate all of the undamaged supplies at the forward operating base after much difficulty and found only a quarter of the original supplies to be still usable.


    This left all of the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers looking worried. Because they knew it meant the soldiers at the front lines would probably not get enough to eat their fill!


    The soldiers at the Pyro Company¡¯s rear would have to quickly gather all avable resources and transport them to the front lines. Otherwise, their campaign might copse even before the barbarians¡¯ probing attacks were done.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers were indeed strong-willed. But if they could not even fill their stomachs, how would they have the strength to fight?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu and the others from the Trinity Institute were seated together in a military transport truck. The vehicle traveled the bumpy mountain roads and drove unsteadily towards the North.


    With only a dozen or so of them in the truck, they were considered to have been given preferential treatment. At the beginning, everyone thought the Pyro Company had arranged for them to sit in a separate vehicle out of gratitude for treating patients and saving their lives. But when they realized the other doctors and nurses at the medical center were all squeezed into the other vehicles that transported them, the Trinity Institute¡¯s team realized they were the only ones with this privilege.


    Then the members of the Trinity Institute remembered that when they left the forward operating base, P31921 had specifically said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Commander P5092 is looking forward to meeting you again at the front lines.¡±


    As such, everyone came to a realization. So it turned out this privileged treatment was only given to Ren Xiaosu, and that they were just beneficiaries through their rtionship with him.


    The Qinghe University students were not so lucky. As arge number of trucks in the forward operating base had been destroyed, they could only wait for the Pyro Company to load up the cargo first before sitting on the supplies when they set off for the North.


    The cold wind brushed across the students¡¯ forlorn faces before drifting off into the distance.


    Earlier, Ji Yi had looked for P31921 from the forward operating base to try to resolve this arrangement. Ji Yi said very seriously, ¡°These students came here to specially deliver the material assistance. We¡¯ve sent so many supplies and medicine to you all, so how can you treat them like that?¡±


    P31921 answered very calmly, ¡°On behalf of the Pyro Company, I thank you all for your donation of supplies. However, I don¡¯t think this will make much of a difference to our battle ns. Mr. Ji, as you can see, there aren¡¯t enough vehicles.¡±


    P31921 continued, ¡°And I think it¡¯s absolutely right that you all ce your hopes on our Pyro Company. If the Pyro Company gets destroyed, who can stop the barbarians dead for Luoyang City? The Kong Consortium? The Kong Consortium has already ceased to exist.


    ¡°So if the Pyro Company falls as well, the entire Central ins will have to face the expeditionary army as they march straight in. The Kong Consortium has already had a wave of refugees who are trying to flee farther south. But if the Pyro Company gets wiped out, it¡¯ll be useless wherever they run to.¡±


    Just as P31921 had said, arge number of Kong Consortium residents and refugees had started fleeing southwards.


    Some people did so because they were afraid of war, while others fled because they could not find food to eat.


    The Pyro Company had taken away all the supplies that could be collected from Strongholds 31 and 32. At this moment, those stronghold residents could not buy any food even if they had the money. They could only choose to leave the strongholds and find another way to survive.


    In less than half a month, the tree bark in Strongholds 31 and 32 would be stripped bare!


    Ji Yi thought for a moment and said, ¡°But we came to the North out of our goodwill. Surely you can¡¯t treat a group of students like that.¡±


    P31921 shook his head. ¡°I know they all did it out of kindness, but emotions are useless in war. The Pyro Company only seeks to achieve results.¡±


    This was probably why a lot of people hated the Pyro Company. The students were clearly here to deliver material assistance, yet they were made to suffer. However, the Pyro Company did not think they had done anything wrong.


    Thus, regardless of how hard Ji Yi tried, he still did not manage to change the students¡¯ situation in the end.


    In the Trinity Institute¡¯s vehicle, Liang Ce and Meng Nan¡¯s rtionship started to rapidly warm up due to him carrying her on his back to escape.


    As soon as they got into the truck, the two of them started whispering to each other. It was so sweet the others were sick.


    This made everyone realize what the sayings ¡°the pavilion closest to the water enjoys moonlight first,¡± ¡°true love blooms in adversity,¡± and ¡°distant water can¡¯t quench a nearby fire¡± really meant.


    No matter how much Meng Nan liked someone else, she would not be able to go against the feelings that arose in her from being in danger.


    As they chatted and Meng Nan saw no new breakthrough in their rtionship, she took the initiative to apply some hand lotion onto her hand. Then she eximed, ¡°I¡¯ve squeezed out too much. Liang Ce, give me your hand. I¡¯ll apply some of this lotion for you too. Look at you, your hand is all chapped.¡±


    Then Meng Nan took Liang Ce¡¯s hand and started applying the lotion for him. This was the first time Liang Ce had held hands with Meng Nan. He got excited and confessed decisively, ¡°Actually, Meng Nan, I¡¯ve always wanted to tell you that I¡¯ve liked you for a long time. Ever since we started our internship together, I¡¯ve been watching you quietly. Will you be my girlfriend?¡±


    Meng Nan restrained herself for a moment. ¡°But I¡¯m not pretty. Look at those female students from Qinghe University. They¡¯re so pretty.¡±


    Liang Ce expressed his loyalty. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I only like those who aren¡¯t pretty!¡±


    Meng Nan was confused.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Yang Xiaojin was speechless. Wang Jing was speechless too.


    Everyone in the vehicle was dumbfounded. They had not expected Liang Ce to answer that way!


    Meng Nan was just slightly restraining herself from appearing too enthusiastic. If he had just praised her a little more and said something nice, wouldn¡¯t the matter have been settled?


    With a whoosh, Meng Nan retracted her hand and said coldly, ¡°In the past, I didn¡¯t have any criteria for choosing a partner. But after I met you, I told myself I won¡¯t ever ept someone like you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sat next to Yang Xiaojin and muttered, ¡°I¡¯m still a little better than him....¡±

 Chapter 870 - Little black book

    <h4>Chapter 870: Little ck book</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Perhaps Liang Ce was thinking that the two of them were moving too fast, so he personally poured a bucket of cold water over his rtionship with Meng Nan.


    As the convoy leisurely drove north, Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that he had not given Liang Ce any advice this time. Liang Ce was self-taught and purely gifted.


    When they passed by Mt. Dashi, therge convoy took a break there and got reorganized.


    The camp where they rested was the site where P5092 had set an ambush for the barbarians to attack. Ren Xiaosu was very familiar with this ce, but he wondered where all the barbarians¡¯ corpses had gone.


    After getting out of the vehicle, everyone could hear the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers discussing as they smoked, ¡°I heard that Commander P5092 killed over a 100 barbarians here. Apparently, the barbarians were in such despair. I didn¡¯t expect Commander P5092 to have anticipated an attack by them on the camp.¡±


    ¡°I would rather know what those two snipers look like...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and the others did not get out of their vehicle. However, the Qinghe University students could not wait to get out of theirs to move around. When one of the students heard the Pyro Company¡¯s discussion, he suddenly said, ¡°I wonder where I can receive sniper training at. I¡¯d like to be a sniper too.¡±


    But when a Pyro Company soldier heard that, heughed. ¡°If you want to be as good as those two snipers, you¡¯ll have to be blessed by Heaven. It¡¯s not something you can be just because you want to.¡±


    The Qinghe University student was a little annoyed. ¡°Can¡¯t I just train harder? I can take hardship too, y¡¯know!¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t understand.¡± The Pyro Company soldier shook his head with a smile. However, he did not exin any further.


    Only those who had truly fought in battle and received military training would understand that hard work alone was not enough.


    The reason why those two snipers were able to control the battlefield was due to theirbined talents across many aspects. They were not only urate in their sniping but also able to predict where the barbarians would appear each time. This secretly surprised all of the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers, and they felt this was what true skill was.


    The forward operating base was only about a 100 kilometers away from the front lines. After traversing a small section of mountain road, they would reach the highway the Pyro Company had built. As such, the convoy would reach the front lines within a day.


    When they set off, P31921 told Ren Xiaosu they would get to the front lines by that afternoon.


    If that small section of mountain road was repaired, it might even be faster and they could get there within two hours.


    In thete afternoon, before the sun could set, Ren Xiaosu could already see from afar the towering New Great Wall in front of him.


    The Great Wall meandered along the horizon towards the east and west until its ends could no longer be seen. It was such a magnificent sight that it made people feel a sense of pride.


    Within the Great Wall were military encampments that joined up like vast oceans. The Pyro Company soldiers were moving around while countless ¡°civilianborers¡± continued building the defensive line below the Great Wall.


    Tower crane after tower crane rose into the clouds whileborers used the iplete scaffolding outside the long walls to navigate along the cliff walls.


    Ren Xiaosu had never seen such a magnificent sight before in his life. He suddenly felt that the ¡°miracles¡± he had seen in the past paled inparison to this front line and the military bases at the Great Wall.


    If one did not see such a magnificent structure rising from the ground with their own eyes, it would be very difficult to believe that this was built through the power of humanity.


    Actually, there wasn¡¯t much technical skill involved. It was just a defensive fortification purposely built for the threat of the barbarians. It was just that the collective will of this project was astounding.


    When he arrived at the base, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see P5092 waiting at the entrance. Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought he was here to receive the supplies. Butter, he realized P5092 did not even look at the supplies and was heading straight for him instead.


    While the other Trinity Institute members were still feeling a little lost, Ren Xiaosu had already jumped out of the vehicle and walked up to shake hands with P5092.


    P5092 looked extremely smart in his neatly ironed military uniform.


    P5092 smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s been a long journey. I was wondering when we would meet again, but I didn¡¯t expect to see you so soon.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said excitedly, ¡°It¡¯s really great to see you again!¡±


    P5092 was taken aback. He looked at Ren Xiaosu whose expression did not seem to suggest any pretense. Could it be that he really wanted to see him? But why?


    Ren Xiaosu had been wondering if he should encourage P5092 to join the Prosperous Northwest. What if he were toote and P5092 had died at the front lines?


    Now that P5092 was right beside him, Ren Xiaosu could slowly n his move. It would only be another day before the seal on his powers was broken. Perhaps it might be a little difficult to protect a group of people from not dying, but it would be too easy to ensure one person¡¯s survival.


    P5092 started making small talk with Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯ve heard about how you treated the patients at the medical center at the rear. Thank you very much. I suddenly think it was a very wise decision to conscript you from the South.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. It¡¯s a doctor¡¯s duty to treat and save people. I¡¯m just a normal surgeon,¡± Ren Xiaosu said modestly.


    P5092 smiled and said, ¡°Now that you¡¯ve arrived at the front lines, does this sight scare you?¡±


    ¡°Of course it scares me.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°Y¡¯all better fight this war well. Otherwise, we won¡¯t be safe even at the rear.¡±


    P5092 stared at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression and sneered mentally. ¡®<i>Afraid? Like hell you¡¯re afraid!</i><i>Keep pretending! No matter how well you pretend, I¡¯ve already seen right through you!</i>¡®


    However, the reason why P5092 asked that was because he wanted to see Ren Xiaosu put on a front.


    P5092 smiled and said, ¡°I came here today to give you all a special wee. But as I¡¯ve got my military duties to fulfill, I really don¡¯t have much time to y host to you. I have an ID here that I applied for you temporarily. With it, you can freely move around in the base as you like.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He watched P5092 hand him an ID.


    The ID was a little ck book that was not even the size of a palm. When he opened it, there was no photo inside and only a red stamp on it. It was the official seal of 3rd Division¡¯s headquarters.


    Ren Xiaosu was unsure of what the ID could be used for. But based on P5092¡¯s description, it seemed like it was very powerful.


    ¡°Thank you then.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I happen to want to take a look around the camp as well.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll get going first. Please make yourselves at home.¡± After that, P5092 turned around and left. Just as he had said, he was way too busy with the war that was about to begin.


    To be honest, his deputymander and thebat staff officers were very surprised that P5092 would purposely spare some time to meet with Ren Xiaosu. Everyone was thinking at the same time and wondering why Ren Xiaosu was so important.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s troops led Ren Xiaosu and the others to the 3rd Division¡¯s field hospital. On the way there, Ren Xiaosu suddenly took out the little ck book and asked the soldier next to him, ¡°Yourmander gave me this. He said that I can move around the base as I please. Is that true?¡±


    He realized the soldier who was being questioned had suddenly be respectful. ¡°Yes, sir! As long as you hold this ID, you can move around 3rd Division without any restrictions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered in his head, ¡®<i>This little ck book has such great power, huh? I¡¯m even getting addressed as ¡®sir¡¯ now?</i>¡®

 Chapter 871 - Mutual instigation

    <h4>Chapter 871: Mutual instigation</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the little ck book in his hand. Since the Pyro Company soldier next to him could recognize it at a nce, it showed that a precedent had been set for this ck book among the Pyro Company troops. He asked again, ¡°What other uses does this little ck book have other than allowing the holder to move around 3rd Division without any restrictions?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± The Pyro Company soldier thought themander was probably too busy and did not have time to exin to Ren Xiaosu what it was used for after handing him the little ck book. Thus he exined, ¡°This is Commander P5092¡¯s ID. Seeing it is equivalent to seeing themander. You could say that other thanmanding the troops to battle and other important things like that, there¡¯s nothing else you can¡¯t do with it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. P5092 had told him that he had specially applied for the ID for him. But after asking around, Ren Xiaosu realized P5092 had actually temporarily handed over his high-ranking officer ID to him.


    He was immediately moved to tears. P5092 really treated his friends sincerely. If he had the opportunity, he would definitely invite such a friend to the Northwest as his guest so he could have the honor of ying host!


    Actually, P5092 was not about to let him know about how powerful the little ck book was. That was because he had other motives for handing it to him. But who could have expected that Ren Xiaosu would ask a soldier to exin to him what it could do.


    The soldier was not wrong either. He thought that since themander could hand over his ID to Ren Xiaosu, it should not be a problem exining the authority it had when asked, right?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the little ck book in his hand and confirmed again, ¡°Is it true that I can freely move around the camp and do whatever I want?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, sir,¡± the Pyro Company soldier answered.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment before suddenly saying, ¡°Sing me a song.¡±


    The Pyro Company soldier was confused.


    In the past, some people had used this ID to freely move with the troops before, but this was the first fucking time someone holding the ID requested to be sung a song!


    The Pyro Company soldier said with difficulty, ¡°Sir, my singing is terrible.¡±


    ¡°Are you saying that this ck ID isn¡¯t effective now?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Rosy clouds, sunset, ends the day. Returning from target practice, back to base, back to base...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened to the out-of-tune military song and looked at the little ck book in his hand happily. Suddenly, he was beaming with joy.


    When the soldier exined the uses of the ck ID, Ren Xiaosu was skeptical of what he was told. But now he really believed it. This ck ID was proving to be really useful!


    ¡°Alright, alright, stop singing.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Bro, your singing isn¡¯t just terrible; you totally can¡¯t sing. Here, take this. As long as you don¡¯t suffer a fatal injury on the battlefield, applying this will save your life.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu stuffed a small vial of ck medicine that was enough for just one application into the soldier¡¯s hands. He was in an extremely good mood, so surely he could not make him sing for nothing, right?


    However, Ren Xiaosu still had some doubts in his mind. Why did P5092 suddenlye out to wee him? And he even gave him such an important identification document? He felt that something was off no matter how hard he thought about it.


    Perhaps this was some kind of a ploy? And the Pyro Company soldier next to him might also be putting on an act together with P5092?


    As he did not know what P5092¡¯s motives were, Ren Xiaosu could only make wild guesses.


    At night, when it was time for dinner in the military base, Ren Xiaosu swaggered around with meal boxes in one hand and the ck ID in the other. He was surprised to find that as long as he shed the ck ID, he did not even have to line up for food. Furthermore, the chow squad even asked him if he had any special orders to make.


    To test the power of the ck ID again, Ren Xiaosu pulled over another few people and asked them about it. After verifying, he confirmed that the ck ID really held great authority within the 3rd Division!


    That night, P5092 had just finished his follow-up battle n and was rubbing the bridge of his nose in exhaustion.


    When the deputymander walked into his tent, P5092 looked at him and asked, ¡°Where did that kid go today?¡±


    ¡°Apart from collecting his meals, he remained at the field hospital and hasn¡¯t been anywhere else.¡± The deputymander replied, ¡°But why did you hand over your P5 ID to him? I keep getting the feeling that kid is sick in the head.¡±


    P5092 was taken aback. ¡°What happened? What did he do with the ck ID?¡±


    ¡°He used it to order some dishes from the chow squad.¡± the deputymander said.


    P5092 did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°He only ordered some dishes when I gave him my ck ID?¡±


    ¡°Not only that,¡± The deputymander had a strange look on his face. ¡°He even made a few soldiers sing for him. It wasn¡¯t enough getting them to sing military songs for him. He even made them sing nursery rhymes!¡±


    P5092 was confused. This answer really caught him by surprise.


    Actually, the ck ID was even more powerful in the 3rd Division than Ren Xiaosu was aware of. He could really go anywhere he wanted without any restrictions at all. If he wanted to see P5092, he would be exempt from the routine body search and other verification procedures. He could even freely exit and enter the front lines as he wished, including going to the armory!


    However, that young man only requested some dishes and songs when he had been given such an important document?


    Curious, the deputymander asked, ¡°Why did you give the ck ID to him?¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°I want to recruit him into our Pyro Company. If we can get him to defect to our side during his time here, it would greatly help our 3rd Division.¡±


    The deputymander was taken aback. ¡°You want to make him defect to our side?¡±


    The word ¡°defect¡± was used very appropriately in this case. At the very least, the other party would have to belong to an organization first to use this term. However, the deputymander could not figure out why P5092 would go through all that effort just for a doctor.


    P5092 exined, ¡°There¡¯s some things I can¡¯t tell you yet. I can only say he¡¯s not that straightforward. Alright, you may get back to your work. I know what I¡¯m doing. By the way, remember to increase the number of soldiers on duty on the walls. You must notify me immediately when the scouts report back with their intel. I want to know what those barbarians are up to.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± The deputymander left.


    P5092 looked at the document in front of him and wondered if he could sessfully get the young man to defect to their side.


    He muttered to himself, ¡°Not only can he save lives, but he¡¯s also good at sniping. If he and his girlfriend defect to our side, our 3rd Division¡¯s individualbat strength will be raised. At the very least, our dominance on the battlefield will be much improved with these two snipers around.¡±


    But P5092 was probably not expecting that Ren Xiaosu was also nning to ¡°invite¡± him to the Northwest as his guest at this moment.


    Both P5092 and Ren Xiaosu were thinking about how to get along with the other party as they harbored their own intentions.


    As for how that would end up, no one could tell for sure.


    When night fell, Ren Xiaosu led Yang Xiaojin onto the walls of the New Great Wall with his ck ID.


    No one came to stop or question them. All the Pyro Company soldiers on duty even subconsciously avoided Ren Xiaosu when they saw him.


    While everyone was having dinner in the evening, the events of Ren Xiaosu making soldiers sing for him using the ck ID spread among the 3rd Division. The Pyro Company soldiers did not even dare to make eye contact with Ren Xiaosu as they were afraid that he would suddenly make them sing ¡°Five Little Ducks.¡±


    The soldiers felt as though they were suddenly brought back to the time when they were still in school. Back then, when the teacher was choosing students to answer questions, this was exactly how everyone avoided the teacher¡¯s gaze.

 Chapter 872 - Listening in on the battle plans

    <h4>Chapter 872: Listening in on the battle ns</h4>


    ¡°Why are they avoiding you?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked in confusion as she walked up the steps of the Great Wall. ¡°What¡¯d you do when you went to get your food just now?¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu went to get food by himself earlier, Yang Xiaojin did not know what he had done.


    Ren Xiaosu said with augh, ¡°It¡¯s nothing important. You don¡¯t have to worry about the details.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at him curiously and thought to herself, ¡®<i>As if nothing important happened!</i>¡® None of the Pyro Company soldiers even dared to make eye contact with Ren Xiaosu anymore!


    ¡°By the way, can you really move around in the base freely with that ck ID given by P5092?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°You said you were going to test it out...¡±


    Midway through her sentence, Yang Xiaojin guessed why the Pyro Company soldiers did not even dare to look straight at Ren Xiaosu. Her mentioning to him to test it out must have really frightened them.


    The two of them walked onto the walls and looked out. What they saw was not the forest in the distance but the sight of barbarian corpses that extended outwards from the bottom of the walls!


    They saw that the Pyro Company soldiers had erected several thousand wooden stakes outside the Great Wall and hung all the barbarian corpses on them one by one. Ren Xiaosu gasped. ¡°P5092 is more ruthless than I thought. Is he trying to make the barbarians attack this section of the Great Wall?¡±


    ¡°Looks like it.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded.


    Ren Xiaosu turned his head and looked at the Pyro Company soldier on duty close by. ¡°Come here for a sec.¡±


    The Pyro Company soldier was nearly driven to despair. ¡°Sir, I really can¡¯t sing...¡±


    Yang Xiaojin chuckled, ¡°Hehe.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hurriedly said, ¡°I¡¯m not asking you to sing. I just wanted to ask you something. Did the barbarianse and attack this section of the walls during the past few days?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The Pyro Company soldier exined with a sigh of relief, ¡°At the beginning, they keptunching feint attacks and tried to lure out the 3rd Division¡¯s main forces, but a lot of them were killed. With so many of the barbarians¡¯ corpses hanging under the walls, it greatly affected their morale. Therefore, they attempted multiple times toe and take back the bodies, but they ended up getting beaten back instead.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. It was no wonder the barbarian corpses at Mt. Dashi had all disappeared. So it turned out they had been transported here by P5092.


    Truly, P5092 was also a very ruthless person. Ren Xiaosu noticed no corpses were hanging under the walls where the other divisions were stationed. Once the war fully broke out, this ce would most likelye under the heaviest attack.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Since it¡¯s already spring, the weather will only get warmer. If these corpses are left hanging outside the walls, they could cause a gue outbreak. Even with a wall separating us, the germs could still get blown inside by the wind.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine.¡± The Pyro Company soldier said, ¡°We¡¯ve already ¡®pickled¡¯ those corpses with ked lime.¡±


    Even for someone like Ren Xiaosu who was unfazed by many things, he was still left a little speechless when he heard this. Why were all the Pyro Company soldiers so savage? They actually talked about this like they were pickling vegetables?


    But at this moment, a dense group of ck dots appeared on the horizon. The Pyro Company soldier said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Sir, please get off the walls quickly. The barbarians are here!¡±


    With that, the soldier began reporting the enemy¡¯s disposition on the radio. Within two minutes, the entire 3rd Division sprang into action, and P5092 quickly came on the walls as well.


    P5092 did not bother greeting Ren Xiaosu and picked up the binocrs to take a look.


    ¡°What¡¯re they doing?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Have a look for yourself.¡± P5092 said with augh as he handed the binocrs to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Those barbarians are just wasting their time with useless attacks.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu looked through the binocrs, he saw the barbarians bringing out some wooden stakes with them in the distance. Then they hung the corpses of the Central ins people onto them.


    However, their actions did not even faze the cold-blooded Pyro Company soldiers. The words that they liked to utter the most were probably ¡°emotions are useless.¡±


    ¡°Continue to keep your guard up.¡± After that, P5092 invited Ren Xiaosu to themand center.


    After entering themand center, Ren Xiaosu brazenly pulled over two chairs and sat down in front of the deputymander and thebat staff officers. One of the chairs was for Yang Xiaojin.


    As he picked up the newspaper from the table, he asked, ¡°Y¡¯know, y¡¯all hung so many of theirrades¡¯ corpses outside the walls. Aren¡¯t you worried that they¡¯ll concentrate their attacks here when the battle begins?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not worried.¡± P5092 shook his head. ¡°The 3rd Division is the main fire support of the Pyro Company. If the barbarianse here, they¡¯ll only be asking for trouble. Furthermore, they¡¯re very cunning too. They¡¯ve been trying to attack 3rd Division¡¯s base over the past few days, but when they finallyunch their full-scale attack, they might unexpectedly attack the other sections of the walls instead.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu finally understood. So it turned out P5092 also had his own considerations. He had dealt the barbarians several defeats over the past few days and deliberately provoked them as well. But when it was time for the barbarians tounch a full-scale attack, this area might not bear the brunt of it. ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that your wit might end up ruining you? What if their n was to make an example out of you? Now that the supplies in the rear have been destroyed, you probably don¡¯t have enough artillery shells to deal with them, right?¡±


    P5092 smiled but did not answer the question. Instead, he asked about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s living conditions. ¡°So are you satisfied with our arrangements here at the front lines? We¡¯ve built a makeshift field hospital, and the dorms that were assigned to you all are also temporary.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m very satisfied,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. The field hospital was located in a standalone area within the military base, and there were no brick structures around, with the amodation being all copsible military tents. Initially, he and Yang Xiaojin should have also stayed in one of the shared dorms with the others. After all, these were the conditions in wartime, so they would just have to make do with whatever there was.


    But after P5092 had specifically passed down orders to look after Ren Xiaosu, the people from the field hospital actually set up two individual tents for them to live in. In the entire field hospital, only the two of them and the director enjoyed such treatment.


    P5092 said with a smile, ¡°Keep the little ck book well, but don¡¯t use it to request the soldiers sing for you anymore.¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed in embarrassment and said, ¡°Can¡¯t you see that I was just trying to help them rx? Alright, you should get back to your work. I¡¯ll leave after reading the paper.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, take your time.¡± After that, P5092 started gathering his deputymander and thebat staff officers for a briefing. On one hand, it was to convey the information brought back by the scouts. On the other hand, it was to formte the next step in the battle ns based on the gathered intelligence.


    During this time, P5092 and his men made no attempt to avoid speaking while Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were around. Ren Xiaosu was allowed to listen in on everything regarding the barbarians¡¯ movements and the Pyro Company¡¯s ns. It was as though he were really a member of the Pyro Company.


    After listening for a while, Ren Xiaosu roughly understood the Pyro Company had very little information about the barbarians, and that both sides were still testing each other out. The most important thing for the 3rd Division now was not to kill as many barbarian troops as they could but to urately assess the true strength of the expeditionary army.


    As the saying goes, if you know your enemy and know yourself, you will win every battle. Only by finding out how many barbarians there were would the Pyro Company know what to do next.


    If they assumed there were only a 100,000 barbarians and another 100,000 were to pop out while they were fighting, everything would be over.

 Chapter 873 - Free pass

    <h4>Chapter 873: Free pass</h4>


    As P5092 and his men were having their meeting, Ren Xiaosu casually picked up the paper and started reading. The deputymander thought to himself, ¡®<i>You¡¯re acting like you¡¯re really one of us. Do you think you can listen in on our military secrets as you wish? Shouldn¡¯t you take the initiative and excuse yourself?</i>¡®


    But when he remembered P5092 mentioned he wanted to instigate Ren Xiaosu to defect, he kept quiet and did not say anything.


    Ren Xiaosu was reading through the newspaper. In the past, Hope Media¡¯s newspaper was only 16 pages. But now, its contents had temporarily been increased to 24 pages long. The eight additional pages were for reporting about the war to provideprehensive coverage to readers.


    To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, it was even reported in the paper that Fortress 178 had also sent their troops to the Central ins. They were expected to arrive in seven days¡¯ time. Moreover, Commander Zhang Jinglin of Fortress 178 and Wang Shengzhi hade up with a joint battle n after holding a conference call together.


    In this news article, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see the mention of a certain Brigade Commander Zhang Xiaoman. He thought to himself, ¡®<i>Damn, isn¡¯t Zhang Xiaoman getting promoted a little too quickly? He became a brigademander just like that?</i>¡®


    However, the barbarians would not be so easy to deal with. He wondered if this group of Northwestern troops had any good countermeasures to use on the barbarians? To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was even tempted to leave the Pyro Company to join up with the Fortress 178 troops.


    How could he be happier fighting alongside the Pyro Company than with hisrades from the Northwest?


    Ren Xiaosu got up to leave. He waved to P5092 who was still in the meeting and said, ¡°I¡¯m leaving.¡±


    P5092 smiled and said, ¡°Come over whenever you have free time.¡±


    This casual exchange sounded like a regr customer saying goodbye to the owner of a noodle shop he often hung out at.


    After Ren Xiaosu left, the deputymander couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°Sir, what makes you regard that kid so highly?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s carry on with the meeting.¡± P5092 said calmly, ¡°In my opinion, it¡¯s absolutely necessary to get him to defect to our side now. Our 3rd Division iscking in individuals with highbat capability. We can¡¯t keep relying on those special forces, can we? I¡¯ve already requested HQ to send us some T5batants. But the problem is that with so many armies, everyone is applying for the T5 reinforcements as well.¡±


    It was a different era now. As a high-ranking officer with the wisdom of war, P5092 naturally knew that highbat capability could also y a significant role at the divisional level. That was why he was so eager to get Ren Xiaosu to defect to his side.


    He held his meeting in the presence of Ren Xiaosu because he thought that even if he failed to instigate Ren Xiaosu¡¯s defection for now, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin would at least know what the Pyro Company was nning in case they decided to act alone when the battle broke out for real.


    One good thing about this war was that there was no need to worry about spies. At the very least, the barbarians did not have time to develop their spies.


    On their way back to the field hospital, Ren Xiaosu muttered to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Do you find that P5092¡¯s attitude towards me is a little weird?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve noticed it.¡± Yang Xiaojin said nonchntly, ¡°He even let you sit in on the meeting where he and his officers were formting their battle ns. That was weird no matter how you look at it.¡±


    ¡°Moreover, he even gave me his P5 ID which allows me to go anywhere I want in the base,¡± Ren Xiaosu continued muttering.


    ¡°Just what¡¯re you trying to say?¡± Yang Xiaojin raised her eyebrows.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Could it be that he likes me? That won¡¯t do. I have to find a chance to tell him that I already have someone I like.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°... Is that what you think?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, I was just kidding.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°What I mean is, could that guy have figured out that we were the ones who helped him back at Mt. Dashi and the FOB?¡±


    ¡°That could be possible.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°After all, we already aroused their suspicions by leaving the FOB to gather herbs at Mt. Dashi.¡±


    ¡°So he¡¯s guessed that we¡¯re the two snipers.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°And then, he might have also figured out that we¡¯re from the Northwest like Wang Yun had guessed?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin frowned. She could not rule out this possibility.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°So by extending his goodwill to us, allowing us to move freely about in the base, and even letting us sit in during the military meeting, is it because he¡¯s thinking about... joining the Prosperous Northwest?¡±


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, if the other party were showing such a friendly attitude after figuring out their identities, it was as good as telling him, ¡°Recruit me, recruit me already!¡±


    Suddenly, in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, P5092 became a fellowrade who wanted to take the initiative to join the Prosperous Northwest. He did not even consider that the other party was actually trying to get him to defect to their side instead.


    Ren Xiaosu absolutely did not think of this possibility!


    What he did not know was that even though P5092 was an excellentmander, his memory was not as good as Wang Yun¡¯s. From a different perspective, P5092 was a tactical genius on the macro level, while Wang Yun¡¯s strengthy in noticing the details. They werepletely different types of people.


    Therefore, P5092 was not aware that Ren Xiaosu was from the Northwest. He was just trying to get Ren Xiaosu to defect to his side.


    When they returned to the field hospital in the evening, Ren Xiaosu saw a group of students standing around the entrance. They were stopped from going out by a toon.


    Currently, these students were attached to the field hospital to receive basic medical training before the war escted into total war. Once it fully kicked off, they would be the first line of medical staff responsible for carrying out simple tasks like the cleaning and dressing of wounds.


    Although it might seem a little rushed to train them now, the problem was that there were no better options than this. It wasn¡¯t like they could continue to sing and dance here at the northern front lines.


    At this moment, a Pyro Company soldier exined in a loud voice, ¡°Martialw has been implemented at the field hospital, so you guys can¡¯t leave this ce after 7 PM. Our military base is located right outside, so we can¡¯t make an exception for you since it involves military secrets.¡±


    A student shouted, ¡°Why are we being locked in? We just want to visit the Great Wall to have a look.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but you can¡¯t go outside,¡± the Pyro Company soldier said.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin entered the field hospital without saying anything and headed straight for their temporary amodation. When a student saw them, he asked the Pyro Company soldier, ¡°Didn¡¯t the two of them go outside earlier? Why are they allowed outside but not us?¡±


    The Pyro Company soldier replied, ¡°They¡¯re friends of our 3rd Division¡¯smander, and they have the ck ID with them too. If you also have the ck ID, you can move around the base as you wish too.¡±


    The students were speechless. They had all traveled here to the north together, so how did the young man suddenly be a friend of the 3rd Division¡¯smander? Also, what the hell was that ck ID the soldier was talking about? None of them had even heard of it before.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin did not worry about them. When they returned to the entrance of their tents, Yang Xiaojin entered her tent with Ren Xiaosu following behind.


    However, Yang Xiaojin turned around and said with an ambiguous smile, ¡°What¡¯re you doing in my tent? Your tent is just next door. You¡¯re not allowed to enter my tent.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, ¡°I have the ck ID, and they said that I can go anywhere I want in the base with it....¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smiled and stared at him without saying anything. In the end, Ren Xiaosu backed off and returned to his own tent.

 Chapter 874 - Seamless integration

    <h4>Chapter 874: Seamless integration</h4>


    At 6 o¡¯clock in the morning, reveille trumpeted across the entire military base. Even though the Pyro Company troops were in the middle of a war, they did not ck off on drilling.


    The soldiers of the 3rd Division who were not on duty on top of the Great Wall got started with their simple exercise routine. As P5092 put it, ¡°Self-discipline should be a habit that is maintained at all times.¡±


    At 6:30 AM, the soldiers simply jogged around the barracks. When Ren Xiaosu passed through the base bustling with activity, some of the jogging toons immediately changed their routes to avoid him.


    Ren Xiaosu headed straight to themand center. At this moment, P5092 was standing at the sand table and had already started formting a battle strategy. Across the sand table, the south of the Great Wall was filled entirely with red gs while blue gs littered the area to the north of it.


    But there were purple gs on it as well. Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand what they represented, so he asked, ¡°What do the purple gs represent?¡±


    P5092 looked up at Ren Xiaosu and exined with a smile, ¡°Those are the unknown areas we haven¡¯t explored fully yet. The expeditionary army¡¯s main forces might or might not be hiding in those locations.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded as he sat down at a table off to the side and picked up the day¡¯s Hope Media newspaper. When he saw the news of Zhang Xiaoman in the newspaper, he suddenly asked, ¡°What do you think of the Northwest?¡±


    P5092 was stunned. ¡°Are you referring to the people and the regional culture of the Northwest or Fortress 178?¡±


    ¡°Fortress 178.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°See this? They¡¯re alsoing to participate in this war.¡±


    P5092 said in seriousness, ¡°I¡¯ve always quite admired Fortress 178. As you know, they¡¯ve been protecting the Central ins civilization for at least as long as our Pyro Company has. Although both our parties protect the Central ins in different ways, our end goal is the same.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused when he heard this. He thought to himself that it was no wonder P5092 was acting so friendly towards him. It looked like he was indeed keen on joining the Prosperous Northwest. He had just expressed his interest, right?


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression and wondered, ¡°Why are you suddenly smiling nkly?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Um... can you have your orderly deliver breakfast directly here? I¡¯ll have breakfast while reading the newspaper.¡±


    P5092 did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°You¡¯re treating this like your own home.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu blinked at him. ¡°We¡¯re gonna be one family soon, so why the need to be so formal?¡±


    P5092 was overjoyed. He was starting to wonder if this young man had understood his friendly intentions and was thinking of joining the Pyro Company.


    So that was why Ren Xiaosu said they were going to be one family soon!


    Initially, P5092 thought there was still much left to be done to get Ren Xiaosu to defect to his side. He was nning to encourage him slowly, but he didn¡¯t expect it would be this easy!


    Thinking of this, P5092 was very happy. He called the orderly over. ¡°Go and get some food. My friend and I are going to eat here in themand center.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But we still have to wait until your Pyro Company wins the war before discussing this matter further.¡±


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, although he was very eager to poach P5092 to his side, he could not cause the 3rd Division to have to appoint a newmander right before they faced the barbarians, right? If that happened, it might lead to a disaster for them.


    There were only six armies like the 3rd Division in the entire Pyro Company, so not just anyone could rece such a high-rankingmander like P5092. If P5092 were to defect now, it would probably lead to the potential failure of this war.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not consider if he and P5092 had misunderstood each other¡¯s intentions.


    Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°Win this war first and we¡¯ll talk. Otherwise, it¡¯s useless to say anything.¡±


    When P5092 heard this, he understood it as something different. He was wondering if this young man was waiting to assess his leadership qualities. There was nothing wrong in assessing him since powerhouses had been known to only join forces with the strong, so this was to be expected.


    But he could not just let Ren Xiaosu assess him as he was not someone who could be easily ordered around either.


    He said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°But I have to make sure you¡¯re strong enough too.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if P5092 was only willing to follow him to the Northwest after he had made sure that he was strong enough.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°You¡¯ll see for yourself.¡±


    They looked at each other with a smile. It was as though they had both gotten the answer they wanted.


    Both of them had their own intentions, but their conversation had somehow gone through seamless integration.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Yesterday, I overheard in the meeting that y¡¯all were nning to initiate an attack on the barbarians. Why do you want tounch an attack when the Great Wall is so well-guarded?¡±


    P5092 exined, ¡°Our ultimate goal is not just to defend the south of the Great Wall, but to have the barbarians pay with their lives and send them back to the North. So it¡¯s definitely not enough to just defend the Great Wall. We have to take back Stronghold 176 and drive them back to the steppe.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°But isn¡¯t it somewhat hasty to initiate an attack when we¡¯re still at the stage of probing each other?¡±


    ¡°The barbarians have obtained our Central ins firearms and explosives from Stronghold 176 and are now scattered across more than ten locations in the northern forest.¡± P5092 said, ¡°As long as those emcements remain standing, even if we win the battles at the Great Wall, we can¡¯t pursue them. Y¡¯know, the purpose of war is to kill as many enemies as possible to secure the final victory. Otherwise, the expeditionary army will make aeback in the future if they manage to preserve their strength and return to the North. This time, we¡¯ll have to defeat them and set them back by 20 years. In a few more years, our Pyro Company can even go to the North and wipe them out in one fell swoop.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought the Pyro Company was rather ruthless. He asked, ¡°Then what do y¡¯all n to do?¡±


    ¡°Yesterday, the barbarians transported the corpses in Stronghold 176 here and hung them on wooden stakes. They¡¯re trying to provoke us, so we n to beat them at their own game. We¡¯ll pretend to be very enraged by the sight of the corpses andunch a feigned attack. Then, we¡¯ll take the opportunity to investigate the locations of the barbarians¡¯ emcements,¡± P5092 exined. ¡°If conditions allow, we can even send some scouts in to provideser guidance for a missile attack on those emcements. We will kill the barbarians with our long-range firepower.¡±


    ¡°But that should be very difficult,¡± P5092 continued. ¡°After all, the barbarians are really strong, so our scouts might not be able to get close to their emcements.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll join the operation with your troops this time. It can also be considered as doing my part to defend the Central ins.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought that if his Northwesternrades were here, they would probably make the same choice.


    P5092 was stunned. He did not expect Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attitude to change so drastically now that he was no longer hiding his strength. P5092 immediately had a n in mind. ¡°The main forces willunch a feint to create chaos so that you can enter the forest. I¡¯ll assign apany of troops to escort you in. After entering the forest, you won¡¯t have tounch any attacks on the barbarians. All you need to do is identify where the emcements are located!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Since you were wondering how strong I am, don¡¯t forget to take a good look from the Great Wall.¡±


    At this moment, the seal on his powers broke.

 Chapter 875 - Setting off

    <h4>Chapter 875: Setting off</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    In the evening, the Pyro Company¡¯s 3rd Division base waspletely quiet. Everyone had already eaten dinner in the afternoon as they made ast-minute change to their meal ns. This was a sign that they were preparing tounch a surprise attack.


    The artillery troops were already on standby atop the walls. This time, it would be an infantry brigade that would advance into the northern forest. What the artillery troops needed to do was to provide cover for the infantry brigade during their retreat.


    The Pyro Company troops did not choose to set off at night because there were spotlights installed on the Great Wall. With all the lights switched on at night, their troops would be exposed to the barbarians.


    But if they deliberately switched off the spotlights, it would also attract the barbarians¡¯ attention. After all, they had been switching them on punctually every day. If the lights were not switched on today, it would be obvious that something was off.


    Therefore, the best way would be to set out in the evening and quickly pass through the area where the spotlights would cover.


    They roughly estimated that even though it was already spring, the northern sky would start turning dark at around 5 PM. They would have 38 minutes to pass through this terrain.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered why the Pyro Company did not just carpet bomb the area since they had artillery. Didn¡¯t the Pyro Company previously bombard an area with artillery fire? So why couldn¡¯t they do that now? After all, this forest was still within range since it was only a few kilometers away.


    However, P5092 exined to him that the forest in the north covered an area of over 600 hectares. Even if their supplies were not destroyed, they couldn¡¯t possibly carpet bomb a forest this big. Comparatively, it would be more worth it to sacrifice some human lives in exchange for a targeted attack.


    Ren Xiaosu had to admit that this was what was probably known as the mindset of amander. Weapons and soldiers were nothing but chess pieces on the board. All they cared about was winning, and their only consideration was which pieces they had to sacrifice to gain a worthwhile victory.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that if he really brought P5092 to the Northwest with him in the future, he would need to have a good talk with him. Although the Northwesterners were not afraid of sacrificing themselves, it would be better if they did not have to do that.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes, he always felt that everything was possible as long as people were alive.


    But this was also why he could not be a militarymander.


    Now that they were facing a shortage of supplies, P5092 would have to carefully ration the ammunition they could use. During the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu realized the rations allocated to the field hospital had been reduced to half of what they used to be, leading to many peopleining they didn¡¯t have enough to eat.


    From this, it could also be seen that there were indeed some problems with the Pyro Company¡¯s material supply chain. The destruction of the supplies at the forward operating base in the rear had affected the Pyro Company greatly.


    When the sun finally set in the distant horizon, the sky quickly turned dark.


    The gate of the Great Wall was slowly raised up to a height that was only about half a person tall. Then, the 3rd Division¡¯s infantry brigade quickly passed through it.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu joined up with an independent reconnaissancepany and put on the Pyro Company¡¯sbat uniform and tactical vest. He thoroughly inspected his night vision goggles, automatic rifle, pistol, and other items.


    The reconnaissancepany was extremely well-equipped. Every soldier was issued with an automatic rifle that had two scopes, with one of them being an optical sight while the other was a holographic sight.


    This reconnaissancepany yed a simr role to the special forces within the 3rd Division. They would usually carry out challenging missions such as rescues, infiltration operations, and decapitation strikes.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully sized up his rades¡± and realized these people were even bringing along single-shot, 40 mm, under-barrel grenadeunchers with them, and each toon had six soldiers capable of providing heavy weapons support.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was sizing them up, the elites of the reconnaissancepany were also sizing him up. They already knew he was a friend of Commander P5092, but they didn¡¯t expect the young man would participate in the battle as well.


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu had never shown hisbat prowess before. Meanwhile, the mission assigned to the reconnaissancepany by the General Staff Division this time was not to carry out a surprise attack, decapitation strike, or infiltration operation, but to protect this young man.


    As for all other matters, they would just have to follow this young man¡¯s orders. Ren Xiaosu would be their actingmanding officer.


    The reconnaissancepany¡¯smander could not help but remind him after hesitating for quite a while, ¡°After we get on the battlefield, please stay in the middle of the group. Don¡¯t do anything unnecessary so your safety can be ensured.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned as thepanymander was quite polite. He nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I know that your mission is to protect me, but I don¡¯t need any protection.¡±


    The reconnaissancepanymander thought to himself, ¡®<i>You don¡¯t need any protection? You can really boast, huh?</i>¡® However, they had seen people like him before. Before heading to the battlefield, they would be full of confidence. But once they were out there, they would not even know which way to turn.


    A fighting force like the reconnaissancepany had already fought countless battles, so they naturally had pride. On the battlefield, they had always been the most trustworthyrades to others. If total war broke out, all of the troops would be hoping to fight alongside an elite unit like them.


    As such, they understood the battlefield very well and had also taken on the barbarians before. The reconnaissancepany¡¯smander knew that even supernatural beings were unlikely to survive if they were attacked by those extremely strong barbarians.


    He asked again, ¡°Sir, may I ask you something? Our mission is to protect you, but what is your mission?¡±


    ¡°Oh, my mission?¡± Ren Xiaosu started thinking with a frown. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what my mission is exactly either, so let¡¯s just improvise.¡±


    The reconnaissancepany¡¯smander was at a loss for words. How could he not even have an objective?


    Just what were they going on the battlefield for?


    Ren Xiaosu patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, ¡°Rx, everything will be fine. Just follow me and provide cover. By the way, what¡¯s your serial number?¡±


    ¡°T40219.¡± The reconnaissancepany¡¯smander answered with a mental sigh. They were probably going to encounter trouble on the battlefield this time.


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°So you¡¯re a T4batant, not bad. What about the other soldiers?¡±


    ¡°They are all T3s,¡± T40219 answered.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. All T3s? The overall physical fitness level of this reconnaissancepany was quite good, and it looked like they were the elites of the 3rd Division. He said to T40219, ¡°Since they¡¯re all T3s, make sure you all follow close behind me when I pick up the paceter. Don¡¯t fall behind.¡±


    T40219 almostughed out loud. Fall behind? How could the reconnaissancepany possibly fall behind?


    But Ren Xiaosu did not say anything further and just led the reconnaissancepany out of the gate. When the gate was slowly lowered again behind them, T40219 said coldly on the radio, ¡°All units, radio check.¡±


    ¡°Loud and clear.¡±


    ¡°Loud and clear.¡±


    ¡°Loud and clear.¡±


    When they quickly passed through the area where the spotlights would illuminate, T40219 said, ¡°Bullet, switch on your helmet cam.¡±


    In this way, their inbat footage would be transmitted back to themand center in real time. Bullet was the call sign of one of the soldiers.


    As night fell, Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the reconnaissancepany behind him. He had not expected them to have call signs and thought they would address each other by their serial numbers.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu wondered if the Pyro Company soldiers desired to have a real name instead of just a serial number.

 Chapter 876 - Charging ahead

    <h4>Chapter 876: Charging ahead</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    P5092 was sitting in themand center with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He calmly watched the real-time images that were transmitted back by the reconpany and suddenly realized they were advancing at a very fast pace. In fact, they were already about to overtake the infantry brigade.


    The reconpany and the infantry brigade had taken different routes. One was heading northwest while the other was heading northeast. The infantry brigade was in charge ofunching a feint to distract the enemies while the reconpany yed the main role in this recon mission.


    Next to him, his adjutant asked, ¡°Will there be any problems with the reconpany advancing at such a rapid pace?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see.¡± P5092 did not interfere with the reconpany¡¯s ns and chose to observe the situation for the time being.


    At this moment, the reconpany was maintaining radio silence. As they were getting close to the edge of the forest, everyone started bing more alert.


    All of a sudden, the voice from the pce in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind said, ¡°Quest: It has been detected that your team members are extremely nervous. Please help ease their anxiety.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up when he heard the voice from the pce assigning him a quest. He was very experienced at helping others ease their anxiety. He thought for a moment and said, ¡°Um... it feels like everyone is very nervous, so let me sing a song for y¡¯all.¡±


    Saying that, he started singing ¡°Five Little Ducks.¡±


    T40219 was taken aback. ¡°Sir, what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°What? You don¡¯t like this song?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered why the quest was still notplete. ¡°I¡¯ll sing a different song then.¡±


    After that, he started singing ¡°Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ever-sessful performances failed this time. When this song reverberated over the radio, it not only failed to ease everyone¡¯s anxiety, but it made everyone even more nervous!


    It was understandable they would feel nervous since they were going to enter the forest soon. Although the main infantry forces hadunched a feint on the other side to help conceal their presence, was this the right time to be singing nursery rhymes? The enemy was just up ahead, yet one of them over here was actually singing?


    This scene was simply too bizarre and absurd.


    T40219 said nervously over the radio, ¡°Sir, what are you doing?¡±


    Their exchange was also being transmitted back to themand center in real time. All the staff officers in themand center were dumbfounded by what they heard. Having been in the Pyro Company for so many years, this was their first time encountering such a situation!


    The deputymander looked silently at P5092. ¡°Sir...¡±


    After a long silence, P5092 said, ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see. He must have his reasons for doing that....¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the pce had still not informed him about thepletion of the quest, he immediately got anxious. ¡°All of you, sing a song for me. Hurry up.¡±


    When he heard everyone stumbling through the singing of the military song over the radio, the tension rose further.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless. He had met his Waterloo for the first time ever in the process of doing a quest. What was with this situation?


    But a momentter, the recon soldiers suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu, who was at the tip of the spear, get down on one knee and raise his gun to shoot.


    After firing two shots, Ren Xiaosu picked up the pace and sprinted forward. He shouted on the radio, ¡°Keep up!¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu took the lead and charged into the forest. The reconpany behind him was clueless about what was happening until they saw a barbarian who had fallen to the ground when they entered the forest a short whileter.


    This barbarian was likely a hidden sentry in the forest who was responsible for keeping watch. But the soldiers of the reconpany were puzzled. How could Ren Xiaosu have spotted this barbarian?


    Furthermore, the two shots from earlier had hit the barbarian in the eyes. If he were shot elsewhere, it would at most have hurt the barbarian slightly, but Ren Xiaosu was somehow able to kill him with those two shots.


    To be precise, he had killed him with one shot. He only fired twice out of habit.


    T40219 looked at the barbarian¡¯s corpse in silence. There were two bloody wounds left where his eyes used to be. He knew he couldn¡¯t shoot with such uracy. Not only that, he would not even have discovered the barbarian¡¯s presence in advance.


    He suddenly realized that although the other party was a little unpredictable, it was just as he imed. He was not someone who needed any protection.


    Ren Xiaosu had charged ahead into the forest. T40219, who was behind him, hurriedly said on the radio, ¡°Sir, don¡¯t get separated from the group!¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not slow down at all. He simply answered, ¡°Y¡¯all¡¯re quite fit as well, so you should be able to keep up with me. I¡¯ll slow down a little bit for y¡¯all.¡±


    T40219 was stunned. Ren Xiaosu was saying that he would slow down and wait for them? That was to say, even though the other party knew the reconpany was made up of T3batants, he still felt he had to slow down for them to keep up with him?


    Intense gunfire rang out in the distance. It seemed that the main infantry forces were already exchanging fire with the barbarians.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let¡¯s charge forward while the main infantry¡¯s taking fire from the enemy. We need to find out where the barbarians¡¯ emcements are.¡±


    T40219 said anxiously, ¡°Sir, our firepower might not be effective against the barbarians. If we get heavily surrounded, we¡¯ll be in deep trouble.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said curiously, ¡°Why would it be ineffective? Just shoot them in the eye.¡±


    With that, he opened fire again as they advanced. The bullet burst out from the chamber of the rifle and hit a barbarian right in the eye.


    T40219 thought to himself how they were always troubled by the barbarians¡¯ ¡°defense¡± when they faced them. The barbarians had such thick skin they could even block the bullets of automatic rifles.


    But these barbarians were fragile as a sheet of paper in front of Ren Xiaosu. Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, since the barbarians had thick skin, they should just aim for the eye instead.


    But T40219 was helpless and could not argue with him anymore. Shooting them in the eye was easier said than done. No matter how elite they were, it was impossible to guarantee they could always hit the barbarians¡¯ in the eye with both sides moving so fast.


    As they advanced, the recon troops following Ren Xiaosu did not even get a chance to shoot. Any barbarians Ren Xiaosu encountered would be immediately killed with a single shot!


    P5092 showed a smile as he quietly watched the real-time footage that was transmitted back. This was what he wanted to see. Next to him, his adjutant had nothing more to say. From the look of it, that young man was indeed the cr¨¨me de cr¨¨me.


    But the reconpany was only advancing from the nk, so the barbarians they encountered were only their scouts. No one knew what would¡¯ve happened if it were the barbarians¡¯ main forces they had bumped into instead.


    Ren Xiaosu came to a sudden stop. T40219 asked nervously, ¡°Sir, what¡¯s the matter? Have you detected enemies?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing. The barbarians ahead of us should be their right nk. I¡¯ll go relieve myself first,¡± said Ren Xiaosu while running towards a denser part of the forest. Then everyone could hear the sound of water trickling.


    T40219 believed those at themand center would definitely hear it as well!


    T40219 felt a little helpless. Why did Ren Xiaosu have to suddenly mess up the impression he gave after his opinion of him had just changed for the better?


    However, no one noticed that as Ren Xiaosu was moving away from the group to relieve himself, a shadow had emerged from behind him and instantly disappeared into the forest.

 Chapter 877 - Reaping

    <h4>Chapter 877: Reaping</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    This time, Ren Xiaosu did not dress up or put a mask on for Old Xu. He let it blend into the nightpletely as its original self, a shadow.


    This might have sounded a little odd, but when they quickly infiltrated the forest, Old Xu¡¯s base color was the best camouge for it.


    When Old Xu traveled through the forest in the cover of the shadows, the enemy would probably not discover its existence if they did not get closer for a careful look.


    Furthermore, as Old Xu did not breathe or sweat, even the most experienced hunter in the world wouldn¡¯t detect it with their sense of smell.


    The barbarians could never have expected there to be a superpower that was so suitable for scouting in this world.


    Of course, Old Xu was not entirely undetectable since some of the hidden sentries were in unexpected locations. As Ren Xiaosu had to lead the troops and control Old Xu at the same time, Old Xu might encounter a hidden sentry if Ren Xiaosu was a little distracted.


    But it was not too much of a problem. As long as the sentries were killed, no one would discover Old Xu.


    Ren Xiaosu did not make Old Xu start a killing spree. If he attracted the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces, the soldiers of the reconpany behind him would probably be in danger.


    If it were other times, Ren Xiaosu would actually not care about what happened to these people he did not know. But wasn¡¯t his intention to recruit P5092 to the Prosperous Northwest? He would have to show him what the Northwesterners were capable of. If the mission waspleted but all of his men died, that wouldn¡¯t prove hispetency at all. How embarrassing that would be!


    The soldiers of the reconpany just now realized Ren Xiaosu was even wearing his night vision goggles. They wondered how he could see things in the forest. And the young man could even move so quickly in the forest without the aid of the night vision goggles.


    ¡°To the right.¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned right. ¡°There¡¯s an ambush ahead. Don¡¯t go over there. Follow me!¡±


    The soldiers of the reconpany behind him looked at one another. What ambush? Why couldn¡¯t they see anything? Were they blind or something?!


    T40219 asked in confusion over the radio, ¡°Sir, are you mistaken? We didn¡¯t notice anything.¡± He even took a look through his night vision goggles. However, he still did not find anything suspicious in the forest ahead.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I don¡¯t have time to exin. Just follow me.¡±


    Right afterwards, Ren Xiaosu led the reconnaissancepany on a huge detour through the forest. This roundabout route was about two kilometers long.


    Then he stopped in his tracks and whispered, ¡°We¡¯ve circled around to the rear of the barbarians. All units, maintain radio silence and listen to mymands. We¡¯re now slowly approaching them.¡±


    T40219 was confused right then and there. Approaching them? He could not even see any signs of the enemy. Who were they approaching?


    The reconpany followed Ren Xiaosu and moved forward quietly. Ren Xiaosu said softly, ¡°Alright, we¡¯re downwind now. Soldiers with the 40 mike-mikes, step forward.¡±


    ¡°40 mike-mike¡± was military ng for the 40 mm grenadeuncher. What Ren Xiaosu meant was to have the soldiers carrying the grenadeunchers in each toon gather.


    When the soldiers came up to him, Ren Xiaosu knelt behind some bushes and pointed in a direction. ¡°You, you, and you, aim your weapons for 200 meters over there.¡±


    T40219 took a quick look in the direction he pointed, but he still could not see anything.


    ¡°Sir!¡± T40219 pulled Ren Xiaosu back and said, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be scouting the vicinity first? There must be other barbarian troops around here. If they¡¯re alerted, we¡¯ll get surrounded....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu waved it off. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s no other hidden sentries around here.¡±


    That was because those hidden sentries had already been quietly taken out by Old Xu. This was also the reason why Ren Xiaosu led them on such a huge detour. They actually did not have to travel that far, but Ren Xiaosu did not want them to discover the barbarian bodies Old Xu had killed.


    Then Ren Xiaosu pointed in another direction. ¡°You, you, and you, aim your weapons for 170 meters over there! Alright now, listen for mymand.... Fire!¡±


    Although the soldiers did not know what was going on since they could only see the dark forest in front of them, they only needed to obey their orders in battle. It was unnecessary for them to have any other opinions.


    A secondter, the six soldiers pulled the trigger of their grenadeunchers at the same time. When the grenades fired out of theunchers, they flew leaving a smoky trail across the air.


    After a few loud explosions, fiery mes suddenly illuminated the forest over there. It was not until this moment that T40219 could finally see the barbarians lying in the bushes. They were covered in grass and camouged!


    If Ren Xiaosu had not pointed them in the right direction, they would definitely have encountered the barbarians if they followed their original n. And it would have been veryte by the time they discovered their enemy. This would mean they would have to engage in closebat with them!


    Then it would be considered fortunate if even a few dozen of them from the reconpany could survive.


    The six grenades hadnded urately at the positions Ren Xiaosu had specified. The dozen or so barbarians hiding in the forest were dazed by the explosions.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately charged. ¡°Covering fire! We¡¯re gonna quickly take out the remaining barbarians on the battlefield. Leave no survivors!¡±


    T40219 added, ¡°Fourth toon, provide cover for the rear. Keep your guards up!¡±


    Of course, the six grenades that wereunched at the barbarians was still insufficient to take them all out. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s aim was to use the destructive st to drive them into their line of fire and disorient them at the same time.


    After the grenades went off, the barbarians who were still alive would experience a temporary loss of hearing, sustain injuries to their organs, and have blurred vision.


    They would not be able to take advantage of their superior physical fitness anymore.


    When Ren Xiaosu raised his gun and charged forward, T40219 and the others were almost unable to keep up with his pace. For the soldiers of the reconpany, they could only hear Ren Xiaosu firing continuously as they advanced.


    Under normal circumstances, everyone was used to taking aim and shooting after getting into the 100-meter range so their uracy would be greatly improved. After all, Ren Xiaosu had instructed them to shoot the barbarians in the eye and even put on a very good demonstration for them.


    But now, all the barbarians were already dead as soon as they got to within a 100 meters of them.


    T40219 looked at the barbarians who were left with bloody wounds in their eyes and sighed. He felt no sense of participation at all.


    Theirbat SOP now was having Ren Xiaosu lead them to circle around to the barbarians¡¯ rear and ordering the soldiers tounch six grenades in the directions he specified before following him as he put on a show of killing the barbarians.


    Although they opened fire as well, it was only imprecise suppressive fire they provided.


    T40219 suddenly wondered why he was here.


    Oh right, themander had ordered him that their mission this time was to protect this guy.


    As if this guy needed anyone to protect him! Who was protecting who now?!


    The reconpany had always been the most elite fighting force in the 3rd Division, and even their training was carried out separately. During the militarybatpetitions, they would often crushingly defeat theirrades.


    But now, for the first time, T40219 felt like he was a burden.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the battlefield. ¡°Alright, we¡¯re done killing them all. Follow me!¡±

 Chapter 878 - A sense of familiarity

    <h4>Chapter 878: A sense of familiarity</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    In themand center, P5092 watched quietly as the images and sounds were transmitted back in real time on the screen. He asked his adjutant, ¡°You were also looking at the screen the entire time. Did you notice any barbarians?¡±


    His adjutant shook his head. ¡°No, I didn¡¯t. I wonder how the kid did that. Back when I was carrying out the carpet search in Mt. Dashi, I also fought against the barbarians. They were really tough opponents. But why do I get the feeling that these barbarians are suddenly being absolutely crushed by this kid?¡±


    ¡°Do you feel a sense of familiarity?¡± P5092 asked.


    This feeling was simr to when they were in Mt. Dashi. Although the main forces of the Pyro Company had carried out a carpet search in the mountains, the barbarians were always able to surprise them by hiding in various terrain like they were cheetahs on a hunt.


    But ever since Ren Xiaosu appeared, those hunting cheetahs had be the prey. It was as though a real hunter had arrived.


    Regardless of how Ren Xiaosu did it, he was always one step ahead of the barbarians.


    At this moment, several barbarians were sitting at the entrance of a tent in the depths of the forest. The tent was made of animal skin and looked extremely rugged.


    Suddenly, a barbarian emerged from the forest and said to one of them, ¡°Commander Valentin, the enemy¡¯s on our right nk.¡±


    The barbarian named Valentin looked at him. ¡°How many of them?¡±


    ¡°We still haven¡¯t confirmed the numbers yet. The other party encountered our hidden sentries at the front line and caused a huge explosion. But they¡¯ve not made direct contact with our main forces yet,¡± said the reporting barbarian.


    As he watched the mes flickering nonstop in the fire pit in front of him, Valentin said, ¡°Those tricky Central ins troops are trying to mislead us. The Pyro Company¡¯s main forces are currently holding just outside our front. These enemies on the right nk are probably just a decoy. They¡¯re trying to trick us into splitting up our troops beforeing here to steal back the bodies of their Central inspanions.¡±


    In Valentin¡¯s opinion, their opponent could probably not bear to see theirpatriots¡¯ corpses hanging on wooden stakes and hade to take them back.


    The Pyro Company had been trying to quickly approach the bodies during their previous few attacks.


    However, Valentin was not stupid either. He said to his subordinate next to him, ¡°It¡¯s best to send an elite squad to check on the situation on the right nk. If there aren¡¯t many enemies, just take that decoy out. If there¡¯s a lot of them, we can send an army to encircle them. The wilderness is our home field, after all!¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was lying in the bushes on a small hill with the reconpany. As the terrain here was generally t, even the hills were not that high.


    Other than Ren Xiaosu, the others were wearing camouge uniforms and had camouge paint on their faces. When theyy motionlessly on the ground, it would be difficult for the enemy to detect anyone here from a distance.


    T40219 wondered, ¡°Sir, the barbarians have already upied this forest. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to ambush them in their territory. We might get into trouble.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°This is the ambush spot that I carefully selected. There¡¯s no such rule in this war that only the barbarians can ambush us but we¡¯re not allowed to ambush them. So what if it¡¯s their territory? If we want to gain an upper hand in battle, we have to catch them by surprise and fight them in their territory.¡±


    T40219 hesitated for a long time before finally saying, ¡°But we¡¯re not facing the right direction either. The main forces of the barbarians are behind us....¡±


    The reconpany had entered the battlefield from the west side of the forest while the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces exchanged fire with the barbarians from the east where their defensive line was located.


    So logically speaking, even if the barbarians were to send more people over, they should being from the east of the forest. However, Ren Xiaosu insisted on keeping a lookout on the west side.


    Ren Xiaosu could not care to exin too much. ¡°Just wait and see.¡±


    The reason he chose this direction was entirely based on the terrain. He had just taken a huge detour with the reconpany in the forest earlier before deciding to set up an ambush here.


    There were certain factors like the wind direction and theyout of the surroundings that affected his decision. More importantly, it was based on a hunter¡¯s judgment.


    Felines liked to sneak up on their enemies from behind. And so did hunters.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt it would be too troublesome to exin this to T40219. So he might as well let the oue speak for itself. And if he exined it quite logically but the barbarians did not appear in the end, wouldn¡¯t that be very embarrassing?


    So it was still necessary to maintain a certain sense of mysteriousness.


    T40219 was speechless for a long time. But 20 minutester, he actually saw some figures moving on the west side of the forest, and they were slowly approaching them as well.


    Everyone, including all the staff officers andmanders in themand center were surprised. They did not expect the enemies would really appear behind them. No one knew where they had skirted around them from.


    But what surprised them even more was why that young man¡¯s judgment was so urate.


    P5092 thought that if not for the fact he knew about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s superpower, which was to materialize the ck medicine, he would almost think the young man could predict the future!


    Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and ordered over the radio, ¡°Follow the same firing formation as earlier. Pay attention to my hand signals for directions. Three of you, aim your weapons at my 1 o¡¯clock, and the other three, aim at my 3 o¡¯clock. After firing, the rest of you follow me and take out any remaining enemies. There ain¡¯t that many of them!¡±


    After that, he began to wait patiently. The barbarians were advancing very quickly. It was as though they were not expecting that someone would turn around to ambush them!


    Ren Xiaosu started counting down in his mind. ¡°10, 9, 8...¡±


    The moment he counted to one, he said, ¡°Fire.¡±


    With a few muffled bangs, Ren Xiaosu almost darted out together with theunching of the grenades. When the barbarians saw someone suddenly rushing out, they raised their huge axes. But before they could throw their weapons at Ren Xiaosu, the grenades exploded next to them.


    The reconpany followed Ren Xiaosu and started taking out the remaining enemies on the battlefield. A barbarian was shouting in pain within the smoke and saying something very long. It seemed like he was calling for reinforcements.


    T40219 reacted very quickly. He immediately sent out two toons to establish a firing line on both nks in case barbarian reinforcements suddenly appeared.


    But after waiting for a long while, he still could not see any of the barbarians¡¯ reinforcements arriving.


    Inside the forest in the distance, Old Xu was standing next to a pile of corpses with its ck saber still dripping with blood.


    When the battle concluded, or to be precise, when Ren Xiaosu was done killing, a soldier of the reconpany muttered, ¡°No wonder themander sent him to lead the troops. Previously, we still thought themander¡ª¡±


    T40219 started panicking as whatever they said on the radio would be transmitted back to themand center in real time. Wasn¡¯t this as good as doubting themander¡¯s decision? He hurriedly said, ¡°Allbat units, maintain radio silence!¡±


    But it was toote. The soldier¡¯s words had already been ryed back to themand center.


    However, P5092 was not angry. Instead, he revealed a smile. If he could get an expert like Ren Xiaosu to defect to his side sessfully, that would make him even stronger in the war against the barbarians!

 Chapter 879 - Decoy?

    <h4>Chapter 879: Decoy?</h4>


    The reconnpany was utterly convinced now.


    From feeling suspicious at the beginning to having some skepticism afterwards, they no longer had any doubts now. Ren Xiaosu only took a few hours to change their fundamental worldview.


    ¡°Sir, where are we heading now?¡± T40219 asked earnestly.


    ¡°The barbarians who came this time were only here to investigate.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But I¡¯m afraid that we¡¯ll have to face some of their main forces next.¡±


    T40219 was stunned. ¡°Then should we retreat?¡±


    ¡°Retreat?¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°This is such a good opportunity, so of course we would have to kill more of them.¡±


    In themand center, P5092 fell silent. His adjutant next to him suddenly said, ¡°Did he forget about the mission you assigned him?¡±


    The mission objective P5092 set for Ren Xiaosu was to scout out the deployment of the barbarians¡¯ emcements in the forest and locate the weapons they had taken from Stronghold 176. However, there was no need for them to engage in a head-on battle.


    However, what Ren Xiaosu was doing now seemed to have nothing to do with that mission. Ever since that guy entered the forest, he had been engaging in guerri warfare with the barbarians and did not even carry out any investigations, to say nothing of scouting out the emcement locations.


    If they continued fighting like this, this scouting mission would have been for nothing.


    Even though Ren Xiaosu had already killed about 300 barbarians so far, it should still be considered very fortunate that a 100-strong reconpany was able to win the battles without suffering any casualties at all.


    But for the war effort, obtaining intelligence of where the barbarians had deployed their emcements in the forest was much more important.


    After all, the reconpany could not possibly defeat a group of the barbarians¡¯ main forces no matter how elite they were. At that point, a battalion or even a regiment might be going after them.


    The adjutant continued, ¡°When the main forces of the expeditionary army arrive, they¡¯ll have no choice but to retreat. Then our feint to conceal the investigations will have failed this time. The final oue would only be the deaths of several hundred barbarians.¡±


    The adjutant was implying that it was not that killing the enemy was not desirable, but that they had more important things to focus on.


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°Let¡¯s wait and see. He might have a n.¡±


    At this moment, T40219¡¯s voice crackled on the radio, ¡°Sir, do you have a n?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°A n? What n?¡±


    Themand center fell into a strange silence. Suddenly, P5092 could feel his face hurting.


    If not for the fact they did not have sufficient ammunition, he might have ordered his men to bombard the forest right away.


    Ren Xiaosu said as he advanced, ¡°We¡¯ve been using guerri warfare all this while. But from here on out, I¡¯ll be leading y¡¯all into a tough battle.¡±


    ¡°A tough battle?¡± T40219 wondered, ¡°Sir, don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re thinking of fighting against the barbarians¡¯ main forces?¡±


    ¡°Is there anything wrong with that?¡± Ren Xiaosu replied calmly, ¡°The enemy has arrived on our doorstep. If we retreat at the sight of some barbarians, that would be such cowardly behavior!¡±


    In themand center, the staff officers looked over at the adjutant again. At some point, the adjutant wondered if that guy had heard their conversation. But they had not pressed the push-to-talk button at themand center!


    Right after that, Ren Xiaosu led the troops back into the forest. However, T40219 realized Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ¡°tough battle¡± was to take them on a stroll through the forest. No one knew what he was looking for.


    The scope of their activities was veryrge. Since the reconpany did not know what Ren Xiaosu was up to, they could only follow him around. It wasn¡¯t until two hourster that Ren Xiaosu suddenly stopped by a river. ¡°Did you bring the TNT?¡±


    ¡°Yes, four satchels!¡± T40219 perked up at the thought of having something to do.


    Portable heavy firepower like remote-controlled TNT was standard issue for the reconpany. It was used to destroy enemy defensive fortifications and dealrge amounts of effective damage to them.


    Ren Xiaosu pointed to the river and said, ¡°Bury a satchel of TNT here. Act quickly.¡±


    With that, someone in the reconpany took the entrenching tool from his back and skillfully buried a TNT demolition charge under a patch of wild grass before cleanly covering up the excavated area.


    ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s move to the next location,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    T40219 finally understood. So it turned out Ren Xiaosu was looking for spots to bury the TNT after wandering around for two hours.


    Following that, Ren Xiaosu led them on another huge detour. It was only after they hadpletely buried all the TNT that they withdrew from the st radii.


    T40219 took out a remote detonator and said, ¡°Button 1 is for the TNT buried in the river, button 2 is for the west side of the forest, and buttons 3 and 4 are for the north side of the forest.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and took the remote detonator. ¡°Alright, we just have to wait here now.¡±


    ¡°Hang on, shouldn¡¯t we wait closer to the TNT locations?¡± T40219 was stunned. He thought Ren Xiaosu was going to detonate the bombs when the barbarians passed by. But they were so far away from the bombs and could not even see them, so how could they know if the barbarians passed by?


    However, Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°There¡¯ll be heaps of enemiesing, so it¡¯ll be very dangerous if we¡¯re too close.¡±


    ¡°Then when are we detonating them?¡± T40219 asked.


    ¡°Now,¡± Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly before triggering bomb number one.


    A loud explosion burst in the distance. T40219 thought to himself, <i>¡®Aren¡¯t you being too hasty?!</i>¡®


    ¡°Keep quiet.¡± Ren Xiaosu leaned against a tree with his eyes closed. He seemed to be muttering like he was chanting an incantation.


    Ten minutester, Ren Xiaosu pressed button 2 and another loud explosion boomed.


    Another five minutester, Ren Xiaosu pressed down buttons 3 and 4 at the same time. Then he said to T40219, ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s go and finish off the remaining enemies on the battlefield.¡±


    T40219 was confused. ¡®<i>What¡¯s this about finishing off the remaining enemies? What on earth happened? Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?</i>¡®


    But he still braced himself and followed Ren Xiaosu back to the site of the explosions. He was shocked to find there were barbarians wailing in agony on the ground!


    And many more of the barbarians had been blown to pieces by the explosions.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little bit of regret. Just how many axes were there! It was a pity he could not collect the axes and put them away in his storage space with the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers here.


    At this moment, everyone present and those in themand center looked at one another. T40219 had even forgotten about finishing off the remaining enemies. Just about everyone was only thinking one thing. How did Ren Xiaosu know which route the barbarians would take?


    A battalion of barbarians was destroyed just like that?


    A sense of absurdity erupted in everyone¡¯s minds. They had never fought such a bizarre battle before!


    All this while, everyone¡¯s impression of the barbarian troops was that they were the best at hunting inplex terrain. As they were cunning and powerful, it caused the Pyro Company and the Wang Consortium a great headache.


    But now, everything had changed.


    20 minutester, on the other side.


    Valentin was still sitting next to the fire pit when a barbarian came back to ry some military intelligence to him.


    Valentin asked calmly, ¡°Have Alexei and the others taken out the decoy on the right nk yet?¡±


    The barbarian who came back to ry the information said with difficulty, ¡°Alexei and the others were taken out by the decoy....¡±

 Chapter 880 - Fleeing!

    <h4>Chapter 880: Fleeing!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Sitting next to the fire pit in the forest, Valentin remained dazed for a long time after hearing the update. He had intended to take out the decoy force by sending out a battalion of his troops, but they got killed instead. They must be kidding!


    Besides, how was that a decoy force? It was clear they were the main forces of the Pyro Company! How else could they possibly take out an entire battalion of their expeditionary army?!


    Valentin stood up next to the fire pit and looked at a barbarian at his side. ¡°Go, I want to hear the news of their deaths before daybreak.¡±


    That barbarian threw away the meat bone he was holding and rubbed his oily hands across the front of his attire before leading his troops westwards.


    In the span of a second, a pack of barbarians rushed off to the west with the intention to encircle the ¡°decoy force.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was still leading the troops forward. The soldiers of the reconpany were no longer saying anything. They had tacitly acknowledged a fact: There was no need for them to put in much effort for the mission in the forest this time, and all they had to do was to tag along with Ren Xiaosu.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu stopped in his tracks. T40219, who was behind, wondered, ¡°Sir, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood still and did not say anything. Ten secondster, everyone saw him turn around and run away!


    Shortly after taking off, Ren Xiaosu looked back at the reconpany and shouted, ¡°Run! Hurry up and start running!¡±


    T40219 said in confusion, ¡°Sir, where are we running off to?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve poked the ho¡¯s nest by ying too many of the barbarians, so all of them areing after us now! Hurry up and run!¡± After saying that, Ren Xiaosu ran as fast as he could in the direction of the Great Wall. He was nning to get back there before the barbarians¡¯ main forces could find them!


    T40219 hurriedly sought permission from themand center. ¡°We¡¯ve encountered the main forces of the enemy. Can we retreat?¡±


    Everyone in themand center was stunned. Honestly, they did not even notice any barbarians in the images that were transmitted back in real time. If it were any other person lying about a battle situation to ask for a retreat, P5092 would definitely treat them as deserters and punish them ordingly.


    But since it was Ren Xiaosu who initiated it, P5092 believed it. ¡°Retreat.¡±


    With that, the reconpany started fleeing for their lives with Ren Xiaosu.


    No one saw where the barbarians were. In any case, they just had to flee with Ren Xiaosu.


    The 100 or so troops were retreating with all their might. At the beginning, there was still a toon providing cover at the rear of the reconpany. However, Ren Xiaosu roared, ¡°Why are y¡¯all covering the rear at a time like this? Everyone, keep running. Hurry up and run! I¡¯ll smash in anyone¡¯s head that¡¯s still covering the rear!¡±


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, how could one or two toons possibly stop a pack of barbarians in the forest? Providing cover at such a time was as good as suicide, so they might all as well flee for their lives.


    As the reconpany had started retreating early, and their average physical fitness was rated around T3, they fled very efficiently. The main forces of the barbarians were unable to catch up to them after a long time.


    All of a sudden, several hundred barbarians rushed forward from the main group. They were no longer pursuing with the rest of the troops but started tracking at their full speed in the direction the reconpany had headed.


    They were the elites of the main forces, with the lowest ranked being centurions while the higher-ranking ones even included the primus pilus.


    In the expeditionary army¡¯s ORBAT, five soldiers made up a squad that was led by a squad leader known as a decanus. A decurionmanded 20 soldiers, a centurionmanded a 100 soldiers, a Pilus Priormanded 500 soldiers, a Primus Pilusmanded a 1,000 soldiers, a Praefectusmanded 5,000 soldiers, while the legate, also known as the general,manded 10,000 soldiers.


    Above that was the king.


    The division of power within the expeditionary army was also very simple, with the strong being favored over others. Only a few skilled militarymanders could surpass this hierarchy of strength, but they would still be looked down upon by other barbarians¡¯ officers.


    In fact, the reconpany was already about to leave the forest¡¯s perimeter. But when T40219 turned around and had a look, he saw that those several hundred elite barbarians had appeared in the distance behind them. Moreover, they were moving even faster than them. The barbarians were closing the distance between themselves and the reconpany!


    T40219 exined the situation over the radio, ¡°The enemies are catching up to us. Requesting reinforcements!¡±


    The deputymander in themand center said firmly, ¡°Sir, we can¡¯t save them. If we send the other main forces out of the city at this time, it¡¯s tantamount to giving up the defensive advantage of the Great Wall. When they encounter the main forces of the barbarians, they¡¯ll definitely suffer heavy casualties.¡±


    P5092 looked quietly at the screen and finally said to T40219, ¡°There will be no reinforcements. But when you all get within three kilometers north of the Great Wall, we¡¯ll provide cover fire from the walls with artillery and heavy machine guns.¡±


    P5092 was absolutely rational. As the highest-rankingmander of the 3rd Division, he must make sure that every decision he made would be absolutely correct and not let his personal feelings get involved.


    He made this decision even though Ren Xiaosu, someone he wanted to defect to their side, was still with the reconpany.


    If he had to use thousands of lives in exchange for Ren Xiaosu, P5092 did not feel it was worth it either.


    It was not that he did not want to save him but that he could not do so.


    Honestly, P5092 suddenly felt a little sad for some reason when he made the decision. It seemed that every time he gave up something important to him, he would feel a little upset like this.


    As a member of the Pyro Company, his ¡°usefulness¡± to the organization was his leadership ability which was where his valuey.


    Meanwhile, this sadness he felt in him was what he should be experiencing as a person.


    It was just like how he would spend the night alone in his tent after every big battle.


    People often said that as a person, one should prioritize being a good person before talking about other matters.


    But Pyro Company members were different. They were seen as precision parts to a grand ideal first before they were seen as a person.


    Yang Xiaojin, who had been observing from the sidelines in themand center, suddenly got up and left. Before leaving, she even took with her a standard-issue anti-materiel sniper rifle of the Pyro Company.


    By this moment, the reconpany had scurried out of the forest. There was also a soldier atop the walls responsible for observing the situation with his binocrs rying back the news, ¡°The barbarians are pursuing the reconpany at an extremely fast speed. I estimate that a battle will break out between the two sides in three minutes.¡±


    But then the soldier who was observing on the Great Wall was stunned, because he saw a girl tying a rope around a merlon of the wall before sliding down to the bottom. She also had a standard-issue Pyro Company anti-materiel sniper rifle slung over her shoulder.


    Then the girl made a mad dash onto the battlefield.


    As the two sides got closer and closer, the girl suddenly crouched on one knee and started shooting. The huge recoil of the gun caused her body to jerk backwards slightly. Right afterwards, she adjusted her shot angle before pulling the trigger again.


    A bloody mist erupted from a barbarian¡¯s chest, and another barbarian had his head blown clean off. Meanwhile, the exhaust from the gun chamber swept up arge cloud of dust and smoke around Yang Xiaojin.


    To Yang Xiaojin, anyone could choose not to save Ren Xiaosu but her.


    To have a more direct view of the battle, P5092 got right up on the walls and took the binocrs.


    He saw more and more of the elite barbarians exploding with bloody mist after being hit by the sniper while Ren Xiaosu headed straight towards the sniper with the reconpany.


    The elite barbarian who were pursuing the reconpany finally hesitated in the face of a sniper. They began to slow down and waited until their rear troops joined up with them.


    But Ren Xiaosu couldn¡¯t care less about that. Since the enemy had slowed down, this was a good chance for them to make their escape.


    Ren Xiaosu ran to where Yang Xiaojin was lying in ambush, picked her up, and ran off again. When P5092 saw this, he fell silent.

 Chapter 881 - Counterattack

    <h4>Chapter 881: Counterattack</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything as he carried Yang Xiaojin and ran towards the Great Wall. That was because he was still wearing his helmet, so anything that he said on the radio would be recorded.


    The appearance of the sniper bought some time for the entire reconpany. When they got into the proximity of the cover fire of the Great Wall, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. They knew that the barbarians would definitely not dare to continue pursuing them.


    Seeing that the two sides were only about 200 meters apart, the reconpany¡¯s soldiers thought to themselves that if it weren¡¯t for the sniper, those who had fallen behind would have really gotten left behind out here.


    However, right at this moment, even though the barbarians were no longer chasing after them, an extremely tall and muscr barbarian with a full beard suddenly threw the axe in his hand with all his might.


    The axe carried all of the barbarian¡¯s discontent with it. In that split second, even the recon troops found it difficult to get a clear view of the flying axe¡¯s movements.


    The axe flew straight for T40219¡¯s back. By the time T40219 heard the sound of the axe whizzing through the air, it was toote to dodge!


    T40219 turned around and faced the flying axe. But just as it was about to reach his face, T40219 discovered that Ren Xiaosu had already reached his side with Yang Xiaojin on his back and had his hand stretched out.


    His slender but powerful hand grabbed the handle of the axe. Then Ren Xiaosu threw it back with great force at an even faster speed.


    As the axe spun horizontally through the air, it made a whizzing sound that made people feel uneasy.


    A secondter, itnded squarely in the face of the axe thrower!


    Outside the Great Wall, the recon troops felt up close the power disyed by Ren Xiaosu. It was a counterattack that rocked them to the core.


    Meanwhile, the people on the Great Wall had an even clearer view of the big picture.


    After the barbarian threw the axe, Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around andpleted a series of rapid movements, catching the axe and throwing it back, all in a single breath.


    They suddenly felt like they were watching an exciting show, with the wilderness outside the Great Wall being the stage, while there was only one main character.


    ¡°Hurry up and run! Don¡¯t just stand there,¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted at T40219.


    T40219 said in a low voice, ¡°Thank you!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from T40219, +1!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu beamed with joy. ¡®<i>That¡¯s the way!</i>¡®


    A gate in the Great Wall slowly raised, opening up a path for everyone to enter. Meanwhile, the infantry brigade responsible for covering the front had moved towards the east where they would naturally be assisted by other troops.


    After getting behind the Great Wall, everyone took off their helmets and turned off their radios. With their helmets off, the cool breeze brushed past their sweaty heads, and everyone felt they had gained a new lease of life.


    Off to the side, Ren Xiaosu put Yang Xiaojin down and muttered, ¡°You clearly know that I¡¯m not afraid of them. How could those barbarians possibly catch up to me? Why did you even take the risk to run out?¡±


    ¡°Because I know you won¡¯t let anything happen to me,¡± Yang Xiaojin matter-of-factly.


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu beamed.


    At this moment, P5092 walked down from the Great Wall. He said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°How devastating. I really look forward to our future cooperation.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu whispered to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Hear that? This guy has already made up his mind to join us in the Prosperous Northwest. I¡¯ve already convinced him!¡±


    P5092 could not hear what Ren Xiaosu was mumbling about. He wondered, ¡°What did you say?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu knew it was not a good time to mention anything about the Prosperous Northwest while so many soldiers were around them. So heughed out loud. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. I¡¯m going to eat now since there¡¯s nothing much to do here. That field trip has me a little exhausted. Has the chow hall prepared supper for us yet?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± P5092 nodded and said, ¡°Those who go out on a mission will be allowed to take a hot shower and have a warm meal as soon as they get back to base.¡±


    But just as Ren Xiaosu was about to turn around and leave, P5092¡¯s adjutant suddenly said, ¡°Wait a minute, you haven¡¯t reported your mission status yet.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What mission?¡±


    The adjutant raged on the inside. ¡®<i>See! He forgot about the mission! He totally forgot about it!</i>¡®


    The adjutant said, ¡°Your mission was to scout out their emcements. Why did you engage in guerri warfare after entering the forest instead? I admit you¡¯re very powerful, and I really admire you from the bottom of my heart, but this is not how war works. Identifying the enemy¡¯s emcements is much more important than killing a few hundred people.¡±


    However, P5092 said, ¡°Enough. We¡¯ve scored a great victory this time, so let¡¯s not haggle over these details. It¡¯s not that easy to identify emcements, after all.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu interrupted, ¡°Where¡¯s the sand table? I¡¯ll mark the emcements for y¡¯all.¡±


    The adjutant and P5092 were stunned. Thebat staff officers at the side looked at one another. They had been watching the live feed of the recopany the entire time. Didn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu remain with the group throughout? How could he know about the enemy¡¯s emcements then?!


    Ren Xiaosu went straight for themand center. As he walked, he said, ¡°I¡¯ve only located seven emcements. Based on my estimates, they should have over a dozen of them in total. But as time was tight, I didn¡¯t have enough opportunities to search for the others.¡±


    With that, they arrived at themand center. Ren Xiaosu gestured here and there on the sand table and even used a ruler to measure the distance. Then he used small yellow gs to mark the emcements.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I feel that it¡¯ll be a hassle if we have to use troops to break through these emcements. The terrain they¡¯re located on gives them the advantage in defending, so y¡¯all might just as well blow them up.¡±


    At the side, the adjutant wondered, ¡°You were with the group the entire time, and I didn¡¯t see you looking for the emcements, so how do you know all this?¡±


    ¡°Just assume I guessed it.¡± Ren Xiaosu waved it off and left.


    P5092 stood at the sand table and studied it seriously. His adjutant asked, ¡°Sir, do you trust him?¡±


    P5092 did not answer directly. Instead, he said, ¡°If I were the barbarians¡¯mander, I would probably deploy my emcements at these locations too.¡±


    The adjutant gave a mental sigh. It seemed that his superior did believe that kid.


    P5092 continued, ¡°We should be able tounch a counterattack and chase these barbarians out of the forest if we can take out seven of their emcements.¡±


    ¡°But even if it¡¯s true, it¡¯s only a portion of where they deployed their emcements,¡± the adjutant said.


    ¡°There are no wars where we can be absolutely confident of winning. The emcements identified in this scouting mission should already ount for over half of them, so that should be enough for us to work with.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Report this matter back to HQ and let them decide if we¡¯re tounch a counterattack or not.¡±


    ¡°But HQ will not believe in spection. They only believe in real evidence,¡± the adjutant said.


    P5092 stayed silent for a while before saying, ¡°Report it to them using my name as a P5 divisionmander. Don¡¯t tell them it was just a spective guess and say that it¡¯s intel gained from a scouting mission.¡±


    His adjutant sighed and said, ¡°Do you know how it¡¯ll affect you if the intel turns out to be wrong?¡±


    P5092 smiled and patted him on the shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll just have to take the rap then. Rather than thinking about this, why don¡¯t we try to kill more barbarians instead? Go on and report it.¡±

 Chapter 882 - Information protection

    <h4>Chapter 882: Information protection</h4>


    What the adjutant meant was that if they were to report this intel in P5092¡¯s name, P5092 would have to bear all the responsibility should anything go wrong.


    In other words, if Ren Xiaosu were just guessing where the emcements were located, P5092 would have to take all the me for it.


    Honestly, very few high-ranking officers were willing to take such a risk. That was becausemitting a mistake as serious as this in the war would likely affect their career in the Pyro Company.


    But there was nothing he could do about it. The adjutant realized his superior trusted that kid¡¯s word a great deal for some reason.


    As his adjutant, what could he do? He could only summarize the intel in a document as per his superior¡¯s instructions. Furthermore, he had to fabricate some details and events so that HQ would believe the authenticity of it.


    After the adjutant left, the deputy chief editor of Hope Media, Ji Yi, visited themand tent. P5092 was still very polite towards Ji Yi. He smiled and said, ¡°Mr. Ji, what brings you here?¡±


    ¡°I heard that you just won a battle, so we¡¯d like to do an interview here. If possible, can you reveal some details of this battle? For example, your strategic decisions, the number of barbarians casualties, whether any soldiers performed outstandingly, and other things like that.¡± As an outsider, Ji Yi did not know Ren Xiaosu had also participated in the battle. He had not seen Ren Xiaosu for the entire day.


    P5092 thought for a moment and then said, ¡°Sure, I can tell you every detail of this battle!¡±


    Ji Yi¡¯s eyes lit up. He was afraid this matter would involve military secrets that could not be reported.


    However, he heard P5092 say, ¡°This battle was originally meant to scout out the deployment of the barbarians¡¯ emcements. Due to the fall of Stronghold 176, the barbarians got their hands on some of our Central ins¡¯ firearms and explosives. These weapons are extremely lethal to our troops. Moreover, inplex terrain like the forest, we would have to pay a very heavy price if we fought against armed barbarians...


    ¡°Thus, I entrusted the mission to a highly skilled individual by the name of Ren Xiaosu. He led a reconpany into the forest while our infantry brigade took charge of covering the front. I didn¡¯t have much hope for the mission initially, but Ren Xiaosu has surprised the Pyro Company greatly...


    ¡°In this battle, it could be said that Ren Xiaosu fought entirely on his own...¡±


    As P5092 spoke, he suddenly noticed that Ji Yi¡¯s expression had be strange. ¡°Mr. Ji, what¡¯s wrong?¡±


    Ji Yi said, ¡°So you¡¯re saying this great victory was all the credit of Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± P5092 nodded and said, ¡°I hope you can spend more time noting his achievements while writing the report.¡±


    In truth, P5092 had an ulterior motive in requesting this. He wanted to expose Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name to the world. Although he still did not know which organization Ren Xiaosu belonged to, if the other party¡¯s superiors were to see this report and see how close Ren Xiaosu had be with the Pyro Company, it would probably be very difficult for Ren Xiaosu to return to his organization, right?


    The higher-ups were usually paranoid about such matters, and even the Pyro Company was no exception. P5092 even felt that there was basically no exception to this anywhere in the world.


    Therefore, this move of his was the same as how the Great Hoodwinker had forced Wang Yun into a corner. It was a ploy to sow discord!


    Moreover, he was openly trying to sow discord. After all, P5092 was praising Ren Xiaosu!


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu would only be able to remain at the Pyro Company because of this.


    However, P5092¡¯s n was foiled. When he flipped through the newspaper the next day, there was not a mention of Ren Xiaosu at all. Any references to him were all reced by ¡°a certain soldier¡±!


    That was not right. Why was it reported like that?!


    When P5092 went to look for Ji Yi, he asked puzzledly, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you specify Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name in the report? Shouldn¡¯t he be honored for his contributions?¡±


    Ji Yi shook his head and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but we won¡¯t report anything regarding Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    P5092 was a little taken aback. ¡°Why? Isn¡¯t Hope Media all about reporting the truth? Could it be that the truth surrounding Ren Xiaosu is not the truth? Isn¡¯t that a little against your principles?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but there¡¯s no reason.¡± Ji Yi sighed and said, ¡°Everything regarding him will not be published. It will only be recorded down in Hope Media¡¯s private archives andbeled as top secret. Those records will only be made known to the public 50 yearster.¡±


    P5092 was speechless. He suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to be a very special existence to Hope Media. The reason Hope Media did not report anything about him was to protect his personal information from being made known to more people!


    However, P5092 did not find it a pity. After all, Ren Xiaosu had already said they were going to be one family soon. The instigation of his defection was already progressing great. Even though he could not drive a further wedge between Ren Xiaosu and his organization, the war would still go on for a very long while, so he still had a lot of time to work on it.


    ...


    At the same time, at a campfire in the forest, themander of the advance guard, Valentin, was furious over the loss of his troops.


    At first, they thought it was the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces that had infiltrated the forest and caused such arge number of casualties to their advance guard. But when Ren Xiaosu and the others fled from the forest, they realized there were only a 100 of them!


    Just over a 100 people were enough to kill several hundred of them, and what was even more critical was that the other party did not suffer a single casualty!


    If the other party had consisted of about a 100 T5batants, the barbarians could have epted it. But the problem was that during the pursuit, they realized the Pyro Company soldiers were only as strong as their standard barbarians. They were not evenparable to the centurions other than a young man who seemed more powerful.


    As such, this battle became his disgrace!


    The barbarians did not mind losing a battle. If a person who had been fighting battles for so many years could not even ept defeat, that would be too fragile of them. But he could not ept losing to a group of people who were weaker than them!


    At this moment, a person in a ck robe slowly walked over from the north behind them. ck Robe said in a hoarse voice, ¡°The general has already received news of the defeat at the front lines.¡±


    ¡°How did the general find out?¡± Valentin sneered. ¡°You¡¯re the one who told on us, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, it was me.¡± ck Robe said calmly, ¡°The general thinks this forest is no longer safe, so he¡¯s ordering you to carry out n B. I¡¯ve already brought the people here for you, but they¡¯re still behind us at the moment and will only arrive after three hours. If you make another mistake this time, get ready to return to the north where you¡¯ll be made to repair prisons.¡±


    Deep down inside, Valentin really disliked ck Robe. When he heard the words ¡°repair prisons,¡± he immediately threw the axe beside him at ck Robe angrily. However, ck Robe easily sidestepped and dodged the flying axe.


    The axe did not stop moving and shattered a tree trunk.


    But while ck Robe managed to dodge the axe, the wind from the throw blew up a corner of his hood. Valentin was stunned. ¡°Wait, didn¡¯t you have gray skin before? Why did it turn so dark?¡±


    ck Robe took a step back and retreated into the shadows. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said, ¡°I got a tan.¡±

 Chapter 883 - The Pyro Companys strategic decision

    <h4>Chapter 883: The Pyro Company¡¯s strategic decision</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    P5092¡¯s deputymander had submitted the intel regarding the deployment of the barbarians¡¯ emcements. Moreover, because this document was submitted in P5092¡¯s name, the headquarters attached great importance to it.


    After all, there were only a few dozen P5manders, and P5092 was even one of the best ones around.


    But when this document was seen by the higher-ups, the headquarters immediately issued a notice to hold an emergency meeting. The participants would be all themanders of the main forces that were guarding the Great Wall, and the 3rd Division¡¯s base was chosen as the meeting site.


    On the same afternoon, a long convoy of vehicles arrived at the entrance of the 3rd Division¡¯s military base. They stopped at the entrance and disyed their identification documents before being allowed to pass. After that, they headed straight for the 3rd Division¡¯smand headquarters.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw these vehicles, he had a feeling that something big was about to happen.


    One by one, professional soldiers walked into P5092¡¯smand center with stern expressions on their faces while their subordinates waited outside.


    There was even an old man who got out of an off-road vehicle and walked into themand tent calmly. All of the Pyro Company soldiers who saw him saluted him.


    Ren Xiaosu had heard from Yang Xiaojin in the Sacred Mountains that the Pyro Company was controlled by five scientists. Could this old man be one of them?


    From afar, the old man was dressed simply and did not even wear a watch. If he were walking on the streets of the stronghold, Ren Xiaosu might think he was just a normal old man going out to buy groceries to cook for his grandson.


    In the headquarters, more than a dozen people were sitting around the conference table. These were all of the divisionmanders at the Great Wall¡¯s front lines.


    The old man looked at everyone and said, ¡°I called all of you here to discuss the next step of the battle n. P5092 scored a beautiful victory yesterday and even brought back intel regarding the seven locations where the barbarians have deployed their emcements. This is very important information. As time is rather tight, to prevent the barbarians from diverting their emcements to other locations, we have to quickly decide whether to counterattack or not. However, let¡¯s first confirm with P5092 whether this intel is urate or not.¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Sir, the intel I submitted to you is absolutely urate. The sand table is right there. I guarantee on my P5 rank this intel is urate.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good. Then let¡¯s talk about what to do next.¡± The old man nodded.


    A divisionmander said, ¡°Since we¡¯ve already confirmed the location of the seven emcements, let¡¯s just destroy them with our missiles. After that, we can deploy six of our divisions andpletely encircle the barbarians by overwhelming them.¡±


    P5092 suddenly frowned. ¡°P5041, don¡¯t you think it¡¯ll be too risky to send out six divisions at once?¡±


    That divisionmander looked at P5092 and said, ¡°I¡¯m suggesting this because I trust you. Since you vouch on your P5 rank for the uracy of the intel, there¡¯s no longer any doubt about the oue of this battle.¡±


    ¡°What if there¡¯s other barbarian forces hiding in the forest?¡± P5092 said, ¡°I personally think it¡¯s better to be more cautious.¡±


    P5041 exined, ¡°If any more barbarians had been hiding in the forest, they wouldn¡¯t have been defeated by a 100-odd men from your 3rd Division in thest battle. Besides, I even heard all of your men managed to escape unscathed after winning? It¡¯s not that I¡¯m not being cautious, but all of this shows the barbarians in the forest only appear to be strong. I suspect their main forces are currently concentrated on the Wang Consortium¡¯s side. The two battlefields are more than 200 kilometers apart. Even if weunch a counterattack in the forest, they won¡¯t be able toe to theirrades¡¯ aid in time.¡±


    P5092 was speechless. Of everyone present, he was the only one who knew about the special circumstances that led to the reconpany escaping unscathed. Ren Xiaosu had been leading them. If not for Ren Xiaosu, none of the reconpany¡¯s troops would have been able to make it back alive.


    But he could not mention Ren Xiaosu now. As long as Ren Xiaosu had not officially joined the Pyro Company, he could not tell anyone he had let an outsider participate in such an important mission.


    The old man looked at him and asked, ¡°P5092, what n do you have?¡±


    P5092 answered, ¡°My idea is to have the 3rd Division carry out a surprise attack in the forest after bombarding their emcements. They¡¯ll be supported by a further two divisions in the attack. This way, it¡¯ll be safer and more reliable. As you can see, the barbarians are very cunning.¡±


    But someone off to the sideughed and said, ¡°092, are you afraid that others will steal your glory? Don¡¯t worry, getting such an important piece of intel is already to your credit.¡±


    P5092 sighed. There was a saying that politics followed people.


    Politics in one¡¯s profession, politics in the workce, politics in religion, there were all kinds of politics. But when it came to politics, it was always about power and interests. In this aspect, the Pyro Company was no exception.


    Ever since the Pyro Company set up camp at the Great Wall, it was P5092 who stood out the most. He first used the barbarian corpses to lure the enemy over before using his artillery to wipe out thousands of them. In terms of contributions alone, his achievements were the most dazzling among the divisionmanders.


    Importantly, the position ofmander-in-chief of the military corps above the divisionmanders was still vacant at this moment. It was headed by this old man in front of them for now, but everyone knew full well he was not interested in taking charge here.


    Some years ago, it was said the higher-ups had found a suitable candidate for the role. It was rumored that the Life Research Department had created a clone but nothing came out of it after that.


    P5092 was more informed. He knew the higher-ups had created a clone of Qing Zhen. But when that clone named Qing Shen started showing signs of defection, the higher-ups did not hand over themand of the military corps to him. Instead, they ced him under house arrest in the Sacred Mountains.


    Right now, the position ofmander-in-chief would probably be decided once this war was over.


    However, for some reason, P5092 did not have much interest in this position. When his colleagues started targeting him as a result of their interest to be themander-in-chief, he only felt a sense of fatigue.


    In his opinion, war was a very pure thing. It should be fought with the purpose of securing victory by making the most rational decisions. It should not be affected by any other factors that could very well cause instability to their efforts.


    At this moment, the old man said, ¡°Our Pyro Company has a total of 12 divisions. In that case, we¡¯ll send out six divisions to make a counterattack. However, P5092 will be the actingmander for this battle n to be carried out, and the objective is to sessfully upy the forest. 092, I know your concerns, but Istill have to n this from the overall situation. It¡¯s not that I want to take the risk but that our Pyro Company cannot fight a protracted war any longer.¡±


    After that, the old man dismissed the meeting with a wave of his hand. As he was getting on in years, he was severelycking energy. Just holding this meeting had taken a lot out of him.


    P5092 followed the old man out of themand center. He stood at the entrance of themand center and sighed. In the end, the old man still chose to bnce the rtionship between the various divisionmanders.


    However, the old man was absolutely right about one thing. After the Pyro Company¡¯s supplies were destroyed, they could not fight a protracted war anymore. This should also be the main reason why he decided tounch a counterattack with half of their troops.


    If they did not win as soon as possible, the Pyro Company could not hold on for much longer.

 Chapter 884 - Identity exposed

    <h4>Chapter 884: Identity exposed</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    At noon, Ren Xiaosu brought Yang Xiaojin to the 3rd Division¡¯s temporary chow hall to get some food. When they came out of the medical center, they saw the students clumsily learning how to bandage wounds.


    When Ren Xiaosu walked out of the medical center, the students watched the soldiers at the entrance suddenly salute him in an orderly manner. They said loudly, ¡°Sir!¡±


    The students recalled that the soldiers had allowed Ren Xiaosu to pass through their stations freely yesterday, but they totally ignored him otherwise. Why did they be so respectful towards him today?


    Before this, everyone only knew Ren Xiaosu had the ck ID in his possession, but they did not show any respect for him.


    But after the reconpany returned to base, they were full of praise for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s performance in the battle.


    When the Pyro Company soldiers found out what Ren Xiaosu had done, they finally came to a realization. It was no wonder theirmander handed the ck ID to him!


    A Qinghe University student said with a puzzled expression, ¡°I somehow feel like I¡¯ve seen him somewhere before, but I can¡¯t remember where exactly.¡±


    ¡°Maybe he just looks like one of our upperssmen? Didn¡¯t you hear from the Trinity Institute¡¯s people that they came from the Wang Consortium?¡± someone nearby said doubtfully.


    ¡°No way. He must¡¯ve been to Luoyang City before. Otherwise, why would Mr. Ji Yi address him as ¡®sir¡¯? They definitely know each other,¡± the puzzled student said.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know about that then.¡± Everyone curled their lips and did not reply any further.


    However, the student who thought Ren Xiaosu looked familiar felt that something was amiss the more he thought about it. He walked to the entrance of the medical center and asked the soldier, ¡°Can I trouble you and ask who that person is?¡±


    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s an exemry soldier of our Pyro Company¡¯s 3rd Division. He led a reconpany to infiltrate the northern forestst night. He¡¯s extremely powerful, but it¡¯s not only him. Even his girlfriend is very powerful as well.... I was on duty on top of the walls yesterday and saw how his girlfriend slid down from the walls with a sniper rifle in hand to help him take out the pursuing barbarians!¡±


    The student was stunned by the soldier¡¯s story.


    In the past, he did not have anyone in mind he could rte to regarding Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity. But when it came to those who were strong enough to earn the respect of the Pyro Company and Ji Yi, there were probably only a handful who were worthy enough.


    Thinking of this, the student was stunned on the spot. He listened to the Pyro Company soldier speak for a while more before saying to his ssmates nearby, ¡°I think I might¡¯ve guessed who he is....¡±


    ¡°Who?¡± The students were puzzled.


    ¡°Let me summarize the information I know now. That young man is very strong and is a superhuman. He has a very powerful sniper working with him and has even gained Mr. Ji Yi¡¯s respect...¡±


    Back when Luoyang City was embroiled in that chaotic battle, Qinghe University was one of the sites where people had been taken hostage. This also meant the students would know more about it and pay more attention to this matter that affected them.


    Therefore, the moment all this information was gathered together, the answer became obvious.


    The students went to the field hospital to look for Ji Yi, who was writing a report and asked if their guess was correct. In the end, Ji Yi did not answer them and got them to leave.


    The fact that he did not deny it proved it. Ji Yi did not like lying because of the field he was in. When Jiang Xu recruited Ji Yi into the media industry, he once said something that would affect him for life.


    At that time, Ji Yi had just graduated from university. Jiang Xu told him that in the journalism profession, once he started telling lies, he would only continue to tell more of them.


    At that time, you might not even believe the news articles that you wrote, so how would you convince others?


    The students were a little excited at the field hospital. After all, the sculptures of these two people were still on Wangchunmen Boulevard in Luoyang City. They looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin before recalling the two statues. No matter how hard the statues tried to hide Ren Xiaosu¡¯s true appearance, the students could still match it with some of his characteristics.


    ¡°We¡¯ll wait for him at the field hospital and get him to give us an autograph!¡± the students said excitedly.


    Wang Jing and the others were watching from nearby. ¡°Why are those students suddenly so excited?¡±


    Liang Ce shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I heard them talking about getting some autographs or something. Could a celebrity havee to visit the base?¡±


    But as they were chatting, the students started walking towards them. A female student suddenly asked, ¡°Excuse us, we¡¯d like to ask what Ren Xiaosu usually likes to do? What does he like to eat and how long have you guys known him for...¡±


    Wang Jing and the others looked at each other. No way, these people were actually discussing Ren Xiaosu?


    Seeing that the students must have already guessed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity and that they were the ones who were still in the dark instead, Liang Ce could not help but ask, ¡°Is the Ren Xiaosu you guys are referring to the same person as the Ren Xiaosu on our team?¡±


    ¡°Of course we¡¯re talking about the same person.¡± After the students went to verify with Ji Yi, they were sure of this answer. In fact, they did not guess wrong either.


    Liang Ce could not help but ask, ¡°Why are you asking about him?¡±


    The students were clearly taken aback. ¡°Don¡¯t you know?¡±


    Liang Ce did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°What should we know? Please tell us...¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s the guardian of Luoyang City. Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t know what happened in Luoyang City? Hope Media¡¯s newspaper reported about it before, although they didn¡¯t mention his name.¡± A student exined, ¡°At that time, he used the alias of ¡®Zheng Hang¡¯ and saved many of our Qinghe University students. Later, he went to protect Hope Media and killed several hundred thugs at the steps of the Hope Media headquarters all by himself. Didn¡¯t you guys see how much Mr. Ji Yi respects him?¡±


    ¡°Also, that famous sniper in Luoyang City is that girl next to him! By the way, what¡¯s her name?¡± a female student asked curiously.


    ¡°Yang Xiaojin,¡± Liang Ce answered.


    The female student¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, even their names sound reallypatible.¡±


    Wang Jing wondered, ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s him?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s definitely him. I guess you read Hope Media¡¯s newspaper as well, right? Have you seen the words on the fifth page? My cousin used to work at Hope Media, and he said Ren Xiaosu said those words to Chief Editor Jiang Xu.¡± The female student had a gossipy look on her face as though she were chasing after a celebrity.


    In this era, some people liked to chase after female singers like Li Ran, so of course there were also people who admired strong people like Ren Xiaosu.


    Meanwhile, Wang Jing was astonished. He had even given special praise for those words, but he did not expect the person who said it was actually sitting right across from him at the time. It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu wore such a strange expression back then.


    Suddenly, Wang Jing figured out a lot of things...


    Those words became clearer in his mind again. Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well.

 Chapter 885 - Total war

    <h4>Chapter 885: Total war</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not know what was going on at the field hospital. As he walked through the military base, he realized the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers were packing up their equipment. The atmosphere seemed to have suddenly turned tense. He had already seen several soldiers sitting at the entrance of their tents and checking their firearms.


    Moreover, the various fighting forces were also distributing enough rations and ammunition tost the troops for three days.


    It looked like they were preparing to leave the Great Wall and head into battle.


    After Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin ate lunch, they swaggered off to P5092¡¯smand center. Along the way, Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Is the information you gave them real?¡±


    ¡°Of course it¡¯s real. It was discovered by Old Xu.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Initially, I wanted to supply them with false intel. That way, if P5092 lost the war, he could only turn to the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    This was also a ploy to sow discord. When the Pyro Company discovered the information provided by P5092 was wrong, P5092 would probably be court martialed like Wang Yun.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu would save him and bring him along to the Prosperous Northwest.


    It had to be said that this thought process was exactly the same as when the Great Hoodwinker was messing with Wang Yun.


    But the only problem was that the Kong Consortium was up against the Pyro Company at that time, not fighting against foreign enemies.


    But now the Pyro Company was facing the barbarians on behalf of humans in the Central ins, so Ren Xiaosu could not do it that way.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought about how he would end up killing tens of thousands of Pyro Company members by deliberately feeding them the wrong intel, he felt it was better to forget it. He would just sow discord when another opportunity arose.


    After all, such a scheme would still require them to be able to defeat the barbarians first.


    When they arrived at themand center, P5092 was standing alone at the sand table. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why do I feel like you¡¯re a little unhappy?¡±


    P5092 looked up at him and said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m not. It¡¯s just that I¡¯m thinking about our next battle n.¡±


    ¡°I saw that y¡¯all had a meeting this morning.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°What¡¯s the conclusion?¡±


    ¡°Hm, there¡¯s no need to hide it from you.¡± P5092 said, ¡°At 2 o¡¯clock this afternoon, 28 missiles will beunched to bombard the seven emcements of the barbarians. Then we send out six of our Pyro Company¡¯s divisions to head beyond the walls andunch a counterattack against the enemy. In other words, half of the Pyro Company¡¯s forces will be participating in this battle, totaling 72,000 people.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s quite a lot of people.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°But aren¡¯t you afraid that I might have given you the wrong intel?¡±


    P5092 said seriously, ¡°I trust you.¡±


    ¡°Alright then. First of all, I can guarantee that the intel I gave was not from guessing, so just bombard them without any worries.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Since victory is already in sight, why are you still frowning?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe I¡¯m just a little worried.¡± P5092 smiled and said, ¡°By the way, you¡¯ll still be in charge of leading the reconpany this time.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Yang Xiaojin will be working with me as well.¡±


    ¡°I can rest easy that way.¡± P5092 said, ¡°If the two of you need anything, you can let me know directly. There¡¯s only about an hour left before we set off. I hope you can get ready as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Alright, carry on with your analysis of the battle n then.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°By the way, are you going to participate in the battle this time?¡±


    ¡°The entire 3rd Division has been deployed, so I¡¯ll definitely have to head to the front lines together. There¡¯s no reason why I should get to stay behind the safety of the Great Wall like I¡¯m some prince.¡± P5092 said, ¡°After all, I¡¯m also a T4-rankedbatant.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu became very happy at the words. If he could recruit P5092 to join the Prosperous Northwest, not only would he have gained a militarymander, he would have also gained a T4-ranked expert.


    Although a T4batant was not really that great to Ren Xiaosu, their physical fitness was much better than most average superhumans.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin reported to the reconpany together and put on a set of reconnaissance equipment.


    This time, the soldiers from the reconpany did not have any doubts. Rather, they were all in high spirits.


    Although they were not afraid of death, wouldn¡¯t it be better if they did not die?


    At two o¡¯clock in the afternoon, 28 missiles rose into the air from the rear of the Pyro Company¡¯s front lines after the target coordinates were locked in. The missiles resembled the Holy Lance as they spat out long columns of fire in the sky and flew urately towards the target locations.


    Amid loud explosions, the Great Wall shook. Arge amount of dust fell from the walls and covered the soldiers standing underneath it in ayer of dirt.


    During thismotion, a gate in the Great Wall was slowly raised. Then tens of thousands of troops formed a long column and marched off towards the northern forest.


    Military off-road vehicles drove out one after another, followed closely by the Pyro Company¡¯s E-33 armored vehicles and E-34 tanks that were equipped with machine guns.


    The Central ins people¡¯spetence in ground attacks was finally going on disy in front of the barbarians.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu and the reconpany were sitting in a few of the armored vehicles as they set off for the north. It was only after they entered the northern forest that they split off from the main forces.


    At this moment, the students at the field hospital were still waiting for Ren Xiaosu to get back so that they could ask for his autograph. But little did they expect that Ren Xiaosu would not return to the field hospital again after he departed this time.


    ...


    At the front line of Mt. Daniu, south of Stronghold 176.


    ¡°All clear here.¡±


    ¡°All clear here as well.¡±


    The messages were being transmitted with a unique frequency through the radio. A five-man team consisting of the Wang Consortium¡¯s elite special forces was infiltrating the north of Mt. Daniu, and their mission was to investigate the troop movements of the northern barbarians.


    After Stronghold 176 was destroyed, the Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces retreated to the area around Mt. Daniu and waited for the troops that had upied the Kong Consortium to arrive and join up with them.


    In fact, over the past half a month, the Wang Consortium had experienced a few more battles than the Pyro Company did. After all, they were the first to bear the brunt of the barbarians¡¯ attacks after they marched south.


    The war situation was extremely tragic, and it only improved after the Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces arrived at the defensive line at Mt. Daniu.


    The good news was that the barbarians seemed to have suffered heavy losses as well. This northern tribe no longer attacked forcefully but turned to guerri warfare in the mountains instead.


    The five-man team had quickly infiltrated the north of Mt. Daniu, with their destination this time being Wanggan Ridge. That ce was one of the known forward operating bases operated by the barbarians.


    The Wang Consortium had captured a few barbarians and interrogated them. In the end, they confessed that a general of the expeditionary army was stationed there.


    ¡°We¡¯re still 21 klicks away from the target location and will be arriving in two hours,¡± the captain of the special forces team said on the radio.


    Two hourster, the five-man team trekked over other mountain ridges exceptionally smoothly. This left them a little puzzled as they did not encounter a single barbarian along the way.


    When they saw Wanggan Ridge from afar, the five-man team was stunned. The captain quickly reported to the rear on the radio, ¡°Wanggan Ridge is no longer upied by any enemies. I repeat, the expeditionary army at Wanggan Ridge has already disappeared!¡±


    They could only see the messy garbage left behind on Wanggan Ridge through their binocrs. The campfires had been put out at some point in time, and it looked like the expeditionary army here had been gone for quite a while.

 Chapter 886 - Waiting for Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 886: Waiting for Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    When the six divisions of the Pyro Company advanced towards the northern forest, the massive formation of infantry troops moving behind the cover of the E-33 armored vehicles and E-34 tanks looked extremely magnificent.


    The Pyro Company was taking ayered approach as they advanced forward in the wilderness. The tens of thousands of troops who were densely packed together on the ground awed those watching from the top of the Great Wall. This was the power of the Central ins people.


    Due to the missile barrage, a wildfire had started burning in the forest. But at this moment, the first spring rain started falling from the sky. Before the wildfire could burn uncontrobly, it was extinguished.


    The 3rd Division did notunch an all-out attack yet like the other divisions. Instead, they only dispatched a reconpany and an infantry brigade exactly like they had done yesterday.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked P5092 about this arrangement. P5092¡¯s answer was that the main force of the 3rd Division had always been the artillery, and the artillery were best at fighting positional battles. In a battle where they were required to advance quickly, the artillery would only be a burden.


    So instead of bringing a burden with them, it would be better to leave the artillery on the Great Wall and let them y their optimal role.


    P5092 was still a little uneasy about this battle. If any problem cropped up in the north, they would still have the artillery as their trump card on the Great Wall to provide cover for the rest of the troops to retreat.


    When they were about to enter the forest, P5092 suddenly ordered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armored vehicle to stop. He came over to the side of the vehicle and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I need you to maintain fullmunications at all times.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because I need to use your understanding of the barbarians and the wilderness to fight this battle.¡± P5092 exined, ¡°During the battle at Mt. Dashi and yesterday¡¯s battle, I realized your anticipation of where the barbarians would appear has fully exceeded my expectations. So I need your help in this battle.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°But you¡¯re themander.¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°What themander needs to do is not to indulge in arbitrary decisions but to use whatever useful resources, intelligence, and manpower to win the war.¡±


    Being themander did not mean one was omnipotent. Amander was inferior to the recon troops when it came to gathering intelligence, and he was inferior to the T5batants when it came to open battle. However, the reason why P5092 was able to be one of the topmanders in the Pyro Company was because he was good at leveraging others¡¯ strength.


    In Mt. Dashi, it was the same when he felt he could not resolve the problem of the barbarians¡¯ sneak attack on the military base. As such, he applied for a special forces unit from outside the 3rd Division to take on that mission.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that this humility was actually very good. War was very pragmatic. Even if you insisted you could handle everything, the oue would not just y along with what you expected.


    P5092 then said, ¡°Furthermore, we need two snipers to provide suppressing fire on the front. So after seriously contemting things just now, I felt that the reconpany would only be a burden to you two if you had to lead them. In that case, why don¡¯t we have the two of you act alone instead?¡±


    The reconpany¡¯smander, T40219, was also seated in the armored vehicle. When he heard hismander say the reconpany was a burden, he was a little speechless. Although he knew this was the truth, themander could have been a little more subtle.


    The reconpany was definitely not a burden to the Pyro Company, but the soldiers knew that if Ren Xiaosu were to be attached to them, he would indeed be a little restrained.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin jumped out of the armored vehicle, and he said, ¡°Alright then, the two of us will act alone. I also think it¡¯s better that way.¡±


    Only by doing so could he and Yang Xiaojin roam freely in the forest without bing obvious targets on the battlefield.


    P5092 watched Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin depart. When they left, Ren Xiaosu even took a copy of themand center¡¯s map with him. It wasbeled with grid coordinates that marked various zones so it would be easier for Ren Xiaosu to provide information and coordinate with them.


    The battle had started, and the forest was rumbling. The usually quiet forest was now especially active as startled birds in the treetops flew off into the distance.


    There were many soldiers across the Pyro Company¡¯s six divisions. The elder from the Pyro Company had originally ordered P5092 tomand this battle, but in fact, the Pyro Company did not officially appoint an actingmander for the battle. So P5092¡¯s authority asmander was only limited to the nning of the battle. Once it started, the other P5 divisionmanders would no longer have to follow his lead.


    In this battle, a few of the divisionmanders intended to vie for the position ofmander-in-chief of the military corps. This was also the reason why everyone had targeted P5092. It was because they did not want him to keep getting all the credit with his contributions.


    But now they discovered that P5092 had only brought along an infantry brigade with him. How then was he supposed to vie for credit with them? As such, the divisionmanders breathed a momentary sigh of relief.


    Although there were a lot of troops in an infantry brigade, the numbers seemed a little insignificant in the face of this battle.


    In the eyes of the other divisionmanders, the other divisions were going all out in this battle. If the 3rd Division was only sending an infantry brigade, the contributions P5092 could achieve would surely be iparable to theirs. Therefore, the divisionmanders even felt that P5092 was showing weakness and concluded that he did not intend to fight for the position ofmander-in-chief of the military corps.


    The divisions of the Pyro Company would receive a situation report every hour. This was so the various troops would know about the battlefield situation in a timely fashion and have a general understanding of what was happening.


    In the first hour after their departure, the other divisionmanders discovered the 3rd Division¡¯s infantry brigade was moving at a slower pace than the other troops.


    The other troops were all advancing quickly in hopes of gaining valor, but 3rd Division was not in a hurry at all.


    During the second hour of the battle, the other troops started making direct contact with the expeditionary army. In the situation report, the number of enemies killed and casualties suffered was starting to be reported.


    However, some of the other P5 divisionmanders suddenly realized that on the 3rd Division¡¯s side, the number of enemies killed or the number of casualties suffered still remained at zero.


    It was as though 3rd Division were only here to observe the battle. ¡°You guys fight. We¡¯ll just watch.¡±


    The other divisionmanders thought to themselves, ¡®<i>Could P5092 really have no intention of vying for the position ofmander-in-chief of the military corps? Is he voluntarily stepping back after being targeted by the othermanders during the meeting?</i>¡®


    Actually, it did not matter to them how many enemies the 3rd Division killed. What everyone cared about was P5092¡¯s attitude.


    But this was also good. If P5092 did notpete with them, they would have one less person to worry about.


    At this moment, P5092 was sitting in themand vehicle with his eyes closed. After the infantry brigade entered the forest, they actually slowed their pace further. His adjutant next to him was getting anxious. After all, if P5092 were to be themander-in-chief of the military corps, he might even be able to get officially promoted tomander of the 3rd Division.


    But P5092 was in no hurry. He knew it would not help to be anxious.


    ¡°Sir, the other troops have already started fighting,¡± his adjutant reminded him. ¡°We already have fewer troops on the battlefield than the others....¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m waiting,¡± P5092 said without even opening his eyes.


    ¡°What are you waiting for?¡± his adjutant asked.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s calm voice rang out over the radio, ¡°Advance towards alpha-one-seven, then turn towards alpha-two-one and set up an ambush.¡±

 Chapter 887 - Whos the bait?

    <h4>Chapter 887: Who¡¯s the bait?</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s cooperation with P5092 was to have Ren Xiaosu voice his ideas for P5092 to follow.


    This was what P5092 had suggested. In other words, the entire 3rd Division infantry brigade of the Pyro Company had be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reinforcements. These few thousand soldiers were only here to provide him with tactical support.


    Since Ren Xiaosu ordered them to circle around from A17 to A21 to carry out an ambush and suppress the enemy, the infantry brigade would just have to follow their orders and provide tactical support.


    For P5092, this was the best battle n he had chosen after giving it rational consideration.


    An absolutely outstandingmander definitely did not have to take the lead at all times. As long as he could win, he was allowed to achieve it through any method.


    P5092 asked on the radio, ¡°How quickly do you need us to reach alpha-two-one? I estimate that the infantry brigade can reach the designated zone in 15 minutes at their fastest.¡±


    ¡°Be there in 15 minutes then.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Set up a temporary machine gun position. When the timees, some of the barbarian troops might pass through there to surround the other Pyro Company¡¯s divisions. I¡¯ll find a sniping spot in advance and help y¡¯all with suppressing fire.¡±


    P5092 replied, ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll proceed ording to your n.¡±


    P5092¡¯s deputymander pursed his lips. ¡°I know he¡¯s very powerful, but the strength of two snipers won¡¯t be too effective in a battle involving thousands of people. I¡¯ve even specifically asked and found out they had only taken two anti-materiel sniper rifles with them. But the problem is that they only brought a total of 50 bullets with them. If they can only kill 50 people, that wouldn¡¯t count as providing suppressive fire.¡±


    The adjutant seemed to have developed a deep resentment towards Ren Xiaosu because he was so often pped in the face by his actions. It was not that he hated Ren Xiaosu. On the contrary, he really admired him, but he just wanted to ¡°win¡± for once.


    P5092 looked at him in amusement. ¡°Just wait and see.¡±


    With that, the Pyro Company¡¯s 3rd Division quickly set off towards A21. When they got there, the entire infantry brigade speedily set up their position in an orderly manner. It only took the soldiers five minutes to dig a simple trench with their entrenching tools andplete the setup of 12 machine gun nests.


    In war, tactics alone were not enough. If the soldiers on the battlefield did not have strong operational ability, all tactics would be useless.


    After waiting five minutes, everything went as Ren Xiaosu had expected. There really was a group of barbarians passing through not far from their position!


    When the adjutant discovered the barbarians, he felt a little helpless. At the very least, he had to admit that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reconnaissance capability and judgment skills in this forest were like cheating.


    P5092 quietly looked at the barbarians who were nning to quickly pass through A21. He nced at the map and realized they were nning to take a detour to attack 6th Division.


    ¡°Open fire and take out these barbarian troops,¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°Should we inform 6th Division to get their rearguard to surround the barbarians together with us?¡± the adjutant asked. ¡°There¡¯s probably close to a 1,000 barbarians here. If they attack our position, they¡¯ll likely charge us before we can finish killing them. Sir, look at them, they even have those leather shields with them.¡±


    With the barbarians¡¯ physical fitness, it would be very dangerous if a few of their warriors, who wereparable to the Pyro Company¡¯s T4s, or even the T5s, were to charge into their defensive line.


    P5092 thought for a couple seconds. ¡°No need. Attack!¡±


    As they spoke, the Pyro Company members hiding in the forest caught the barbarians off guard. Those barbarians did not seem to have expected there to be Pyro Company members lying in ambush here. They roared as they raised their shields and rushed towards the Pyro Company¡¯s position.


    P5092 frowned. He had thought the enemy would panic a little. That way, the infantry brigade could inflict more casualties on them.


    However, the enemy reacted very quickly. With the shields protecting them, the Pyro Company¡¯s machine gun positions were put in danger.


    However, P5092 did not immediately make any tactical adjustments. Instead, he continued waiting.


    A momentter, the sound of two sniper rifles going off came from the opposite side of the infantry brigade. Two barbarians who were holding up a shield together were shot, and bloody mist spurted out of them.


    The shield was extremely heavy and required thebined efforts of five barbarians to lift it. After the two barbarians died, the three remaining barbarians immediately copsed to the ground.


    Once the shield was taken down, the barbarian soldiers being protected behind it were revealed. A gap immediately opened up in the formation of the barbarian troops who were charging in.


    This time, it was not only the barbarians who had not expected the snipers to appear behind them. Even P5092¡¯s troops did not expect that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin would actually dare to hide behind the enemy. If the infantry brigade were any less capable, the barbarians could turn around and surround the both of them!


    Seeing that the barbarians had already split off a small portion of their troops to retreat, it looked like they were going to look for the snipers.


    P5092 quickly said to his adjutant, ¡°Pin down those barbarians. Don¡¯t let them have a chance to find the snipers!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, they saw that the small group of barbarians that had split off had already started falling down one by one. The snipers were hidden in the shadows, and since the barbarians did not have any effective long-range killing powers, they could only allow themselves to be ughtered by the snipers.


    In the blink of an eye, dozens of barbarians had already died to the snipers.


    The barbarians had originally been charging in a direction with the snipers behind them. Now that they were being attacked from both front and back, they were caught in a dilemma.


    As the barbarians fell one after another, the adjutant suddenly muttered, ¡°Didn¡¯t they only bring 50 bullets with them? But they must¡¯ve already killed nearly a 100 of these barbarians, right?¡±


    P5092 suddenly wondered if Ren Xiaosu had used him as bait to ambush the barbarians in A21.


    Wasn¡¯t the purpose of the infantry brigade right now to pin down the barbarians from the front so they would have no choice but to reveal their backs to the snipers?


    Thinking that he had also acted as someone else¡¯s bait, P5092 could not help but reveal a smile. This was way too interesting.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu asked on the radio, ¡°How does it feel to be bait?¡±


    P5092ughed and said, ¡°It feels pretty good.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had wanted to take this opportunity to make P5092 the bait so he could tell him it did not feel good to be bait. Then when they got to the Northwest, he could tell P5092 not to casually use others as bait anymore.


    But after P5092 was used as bait, he actually said it felt quite good? Ren Xiaosu was somewhat confused.


    How should he try to persuade and change P5092?


    At this moment, the hundreds of barbarians who remained were looking to retreat. They held up more than a dozen shields to protect their front and back and scuttled off in another direction.


    But before they could get far, they heard gunshotsing from yet another direction.


    This P5092 stunned. When they heard the rapid and continuous gunshots earlier, they thought this was the result of two snipers firing at the same time. After all, their Pyro Company¡¯s anti-materiel sniper rifles were designed to be bolt action to ensure uracy.


    Therefore, it would be impossible for a sniper to shoot so quickly.


    But now they realized there was actually only one sniper behind the barbarians during the encounter thus far. Meanwhile, the other sniper was waiting in the other direction the barbarians might escape towards.

 Chapter 888 - What on earth is the 3rd Division doing?

    <h4>Chapter 888: What on earth is the 3rd Division doing?</h4>


    After the battle ended, Ren Xiaosu got the infantry brigade to head to A22.


    P5092 said, ¡°The soldiers need to reorganize first.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, alpha-two-two is safe. Head there to reorganize instead.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s no longer safe at alpha-two-one.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu switched offmunications.


    After the infantry brigade left, Ren Xiaosu appeared on the battlefield and started picking up the axes happily.


    Actually, A21 was still very safe. The reason why he got the infantry brigade to leave was purely to make it more convenient for him to collect the axes. After all, there was no way he could collect them if the infantry brigade was around, right?


    However, Ren Xiaosu also had other motives after picking up the axes. That was because he realized all the barbarians he had encountered today were wearing helmets and armored masks.


    Other people might not think much of it and would just assume they were standard issue gear for the barbarians upon stepping into total war. After all, the barbarians were the weakest at their heads and eyes, so there was nothing wrong with protecting those areas.


    But Ren Xiaosu started feeling doubtful. He somehow felt that something was wrong. If it were standard issue gear, why didn¡¯t they wear them before?


    After he finished collecting all the axes, he pulled off the helmet of a barbarian. He was stunned. He saw the barbarian¡¯s hair was all gray, and the cheeks underneath his beard were full of wrinkles.


    Although the northern tribe¡¯s people looked different from the Central ins people, it was still very easy to distinguish between the young and the old.


    This person in front of him was clearly an old barbarian!


    What was this situation with the expeditionary army? Could it be that their battlefront had been stretched too far, so they did not have enough soldiers and had to send their older veterans onto the battlefield?


    That couldn¡¯t be it, right?


    Ren Xiaosu took off the helmets of a dozen barbarians in quick session. Most of them were middle-aged, while a few were already in their old age. This puzzled him a great deal.


    It was no wonder 3rd Division did not seem to have struggled much just now. So it was because they were fighting against a group of old soldiers.


    As the saying goes, fists of the young and strong are feared. Once a person reached a certain age, they would definitely experience a decline in their bodily functions. Presumably, the barbarians were no exception.


    They might still have some strength left, but their stamina was definitely not as good as when they were younger.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know if this discovery would be considered good news or not. He would have to discuss it with P5092ter.


    The voice from the pce suddenly said, ¡°An ongoing quest has not beenpleted after a prolonged period. The deadline for the quest will be three hours from now. Pleaseplete it as soon as possible. Otherwise, one of your Basic Skill Duplication Scrolls will be destroyed.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Only then did he remember the pce had issued him with a quest during the previous time he led the recon troops into the forest. Furthermore, he did not manage toplete it at that time.


    This was the first time he had failed toplete a quest. He was not expecting the pce would actually implement a penalty for that.


    It looked like he had to think of a way to finish it.


    ...


    In the fourth hour after the Pyro Company¡¯s divisions entered the forest, the situation report left everyone stunned.


    For the past three hours, the 3rd Division seemed to have bepletely invisible on the battlefield. They did not kill any enemies, nor did they suffer any casualties.


    When the other divisionmanders heard the updates, they thought P5092 was just here to clock his participation. But with the 3rd Division only activating an infantry brigade for this battle, it seemed that they had expressed their stance very clearly.


    However, by the fourth hour of battle, the number of enemies 3rd Division had killed suddenly increased to more than 900. But the strangest thing was that they didn¡¯t suffer any casualties!


    The various divisions had also started fighting the barbarians. The barbarians had coarse skin and thick shields, breaking past several of the Pyro Company¡¯s defensive positions so far and causing massive casualties.


    What was even more shocking was that they actually encountered an elite among the barbarians in this forest. That barbarian wore heavy armor and was covered by a helmet and armored mask. He went up against heavy machine gun fire alone and flipped over three armored vehicles and two tanks with his bare hands!


    It was extremely shocking to witness such power with their own eyes.


    In the eyes of normal people, armored vehicles and tanks symbolized strength and destruction. Even the rumbling of the armored vehicles moving on the ground could make one feel as though their hearts were being crushed.


    However, there was actually someone among the barbarians strong enough to flip tanks with their bare hands? At this level, they might even be able to crush the T5s!


    Even though it was not heavy tanks that had been deployed this time, they still weighed 40 tons. In addition to five people sitting inside with their weapons and ammunition, the total weight was around 41 tons.


    Of course, the barbarian did not strictly flip the vehicles over by lifting the armored vehicles and tanks. They were basically tilted up from the side and overturned. This way, the barbarian did not have to fully bear all 41 tons of weight, but that was still scary enough for the Pyro Company soldiers!


    When the soldiers saw that sight, they even felt that no firearms other than a missile could deal any damage to that barbarian!


    In this encounter, the Pyro Company had sacrificed several hundred soldiers in order to deal with the barbarian. In fact, it took a unit of special forces led by a T5batant to finally surround and kill him.


    Moreover, the barbarian was only killed when a T5batant managed to get the barbarian¡¯s helmet and armored mask off during battle before a soldier with excellent marksmanship shot him in the eye.


    Compared to this, the 3rd Division managed to kill nearly a 1,000 barbarians without suffering any casualties. This made all the other divisionmanders wonder what the 3rd Division was doing.


    A divisionmander said to his staff officer next to him, ¡°I know that you¡¯re close with a staff officer from 3rd Division. The two of you graduated in the same ss, so find an opportunity to check what they are doing when youmunicate with him next time.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Thebat staff officer said.


    By the fifth hour of the battle, there were no changes to the statistics achieved by the 3rd Division. There was no increase in the number of enemies killed, nor were there any casualties suffered.


    The staff officer from the 7th Division called the 3rd Division over the radio. When the familiar voice of his ssmate answered the call, he went straight to the point and asked, ¡°What¡¯s everyone at 3rd Division doing?¡±


    The 3rd Division staff officer hesitated for a moment before replying, ¡°We¡¯re not doing anything.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean you¡¯re not doing anything?¡± The 7th Division¡¯s staff officer was stunned. ¡°Our soldiers are either only marching or fighting. You guys would have to be doing something, right?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re really not doing anything.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute, why do I hear someone singing Five Little Ducks over there?¡± The 7th Division¡¯s staff officer was stunned again. He ced the transceiver close to his ear and even covered his other ear to listen more carefully.


    But before he could hear it clearly, the other party hurriedly ended the call.


    The P5mander of the 7th Division looked at his staff officer and asked, ¡°What exactly is the 3rd Division doing?¡±


    The staff officer hesitated for a moment before answering, ¡°It sounded like they were singing nursery rhymes?!¡±


    The seniormander across from him stayed silent for a moment before asking, ¡°Do you think I¡¯m stupid or something?¡±

 Chapter 889 - Strolled through like this last time too

    <h4>Chapter 889: Strolled through like thisst time too</h4>


    After four hours of batte, practically all of the divisions started paying more attention to the situation reports due to the 3rd Division¡¯s contributions. Most of the soldiers wanted to know what the 3rd Division was doing and why they could annihte nearly a 1,000 barbarians without suffering any casualties.


    At this moment, the six divisions of the Pyro Company were fanning out towards the north in six different directions.


    Although the Pyro Company had suffered many casualties in the battle thus far, it was still within their eptable limits.


    By the fifth hour, it had turned dark, and the situation report arrived as scheduled.The first thing the other five divisionmanders did was to check the statistics achieved by the 3rd Division.


    In the end, the 3rd Division¡¯s statistics remained at a standstill again for the hour, with no changes in the number of kills and casualties suffered.


    This puzzled the other divisionmanders. They had no clue what the 3rd Division was up to.


    Normally, even if no new battles had urred in the past hour, they should still have encountered some scattered barbarians along the way. However, the statistics of the 3rd Division did not change at all. Could it be that they had remained in their position without moving?


    However, by the sixth hour, the 3rd Division wiped out another 3,000-odd barbarians within an hour after nightfall. Meanwhile, they only suffered a few dozen casualties!


    This rate of casualties could only be described as terrifying. If the other divisions tried to kill more than 3,000 barbarians, they would still lose over a 1,000 people no matter how good their battle went.


    This was what war was like. It was the norm to use one¡¯s own troops to deplete the enemy¡¯s troops!


    By the seventh hour, when the new situation report was announced, the other divisionmanders were all stunned, because the 3rd Division had reached the top of the standings by killing 12,000 barbarians in total. In this past hour, the 3rd Division¡¯s total number of annihted enemies had suddenly jumped to be the highest among the divisions.


    Although the battle progress was not purely based on statistics, the P5manders were basicallypeting with each other. It was not yet time for them to really discuss their contributions, so what else could they do butpare the statistics from the situation reports?


    As a matter of fact, the 3rd Division that came to the forest only consisted of an infantry brigade. Their military strength was only one-third of the other troops!


    In other words, the 3rd Division had fewer troops than the other divisions, yet they still killed more barbarians than the rest. It was very clear. Some of the staff officers of the other divisions were thinking that it was no wonder theirmanders always regarded P5092 as their potentialpetitor. P5092 was indeed very capable.


    But even if the 3rd Division was strong, their contributions would still have to be logical, right? How could an infantry brigade with a few thousand soldiers wipe out more than 10,000 barbarians? And from the looks of it, they only suffered several hundred casualties!


    No matter what kinds of battles the 3rd Division had gone through, the results were still a great victory!


    For a moment, the other P5manders felt a sense of urgency and immediately started to formte their next battle n.


    However, the various divisionmanders also realized something. Perhaps it was due to the fierce attacks of the Pyro Company¡¯s divisions, or that the barbarians had been devastated by the missile attacks, but after night fell, the battle was going smoother and smoother.


    The initially fearless barbarians began to retreat in defeat. The Pyro Company¡¯s divisions were like divine troops that had entered the battle as they started chasing after the barbarians in attack!


    This boosted the confidence of the Pyro Company soldiers greatly. The worried expressions on the P5manders¡¯ faces were also reced by smiles.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin was walking in the forest with a sniper rifle slung over her shoulder. She asked Ren Xiaosu next to her, ¡°Why are you suddenly in such a hurry? You¡¯re practically leading that infantry brigade to kill the barbarians without rest.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to kill the barbarians, but I want to kill them even more now. I have something I must do, and that¡¯s to help ourrades ease their anxiety within the next three hours.¡±


    ¡°Is that your quest?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked curiously. This was the first time she had heard Ren Xiaosu mention this.


    However, she was not surprised. After all, who would suddenly pull her away to jump rope together in the mountains if it were not for a quest?


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°I can¡¯t exin it to you in-depth. I¡¯ve tried many ways to ease everyone¡¯s anxiety. I couldn¡¯t do it by putting on a show for them, and neither did it work when I made the soldiers perform....¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was speechless. She thought to herself, ¡®<i>You¡¯re only making the soldiers on the battlefield even more nervous!</i>¡®


    Then Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°So I¡¯m reconsidering what I need to do toplete this quest. What is the source of the soldiers¡¯ anxiety?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin turned around and looked at him.


    Ren Xiaosu said with certainty, ¡°The source of their anxiety is the barbarians! So I wonder if they will be less nervous after all the barbarians are killed? Everyone in the forest doesn¡¯t know what they¡¯ll be facing next. A group of barbarians could pop up at any moment, so who wouldn¡¯t be nervous? But after the barbarians have been cleared out of this forest, won¡¯t everyone feel at ease? Do you think what I said makes sense? This is why we have to quickly kill all of the barbarians!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment and felt that there was indeed nothing wrong with this logic. Although it sounded a little extreme, it was a way to resolve his problem. He was going straight for the root of the problem.


    But she suddenly said, ¡°Have you ever considered that you can actuallye up with a proper mobilization n for the battle to ease their tension?¡±


    ¡°That so?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Never mind! Since we¡¯ve already killed so many barbarians, let¡¯s just continue doing it!¡±


    As he spoke, Ren Xiaosu quickened his pace. ¡°Follow me. Old Xu has encountered a small group of barbarians, but they¡¯ve already been killed. Come with me and collect the axes.¡±


    With Old Xu¡¯s current strength, even a T5batant would get crushed by it, let alone the barbarians.


    At this moment, P5092¡¯s voice crackled over the radio. ¡°Ren Xiaosu, what¡¯s your next n?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I just encountered a small group of barbarians over here. Wait a moment,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Puzzled, P5092 asked, ¡°Which zone? We¡¯ll quickly head over to provide support.¡±


    ¡°No need, I¡¯ve already killed them all.¡±


    These words transmitted to everyone¡¯s earpiece kept reying in their minds. In fact, the 3rd Division had only engaged in one head-on battle in the past hour. For the rest of the time, they only heard Ren Xiaosu reporting over the radio in monotone the number of enemies he had killed. P5092 and the others did not even know where the barbarians had appeared before they got killed by Ren Xiaosu...


    This was a little different from their previously agreed upon battle strategy. At the beginning, everyone was cooperating and dividing up the workload, so there was still a sense of participation by everyone.


    But now, there was really no sense of participation to speak of anymore. Everyone was just following Ren Xiaosu and advancing forward. They could even chat along the way since the barbarians in front had already been killed by Ren Xiaosu.


    P5092 suddenly felt that Ren Xiaosu¡¯sbat style seemed to have changed. It was as though he had been hiding his strength before this, but now, he was unleashing everything he had.


    The reconpany¡¯s troops expressed they were not unfamiliar with this feeling. That was because they had strolled through theirst mission like this too.

 Chapter 890 - Idiot

    <h4>Chapter 890: Idiot</h4>


    Not only had the reconpany gained experience by strolling through their missions, but they also imparted that experience to theirrades. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that¡¯s just how he is. Being a sniper is only his title; his closebat skills are actually even more terrifying. Have you heard how he caught the axe below the Great Wall and threw it back at the enemy? When I turned around and saw the axe, I thought I was dead for sure. But he caught the axe with his bare hands and even killed a barbarian with it....


    ¡°So there¡¯s no need to worry too much. We can just march forward in peace,¡± a soldier from the reconpany said calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu probably did not expect the reconpany to actually start telling theirrades not to worry.


    After seemingly enough barbarians had been killed, and the fact that they had it so easy thus far, the soldiers of the infantry brigade gradually let go of their fear and nervousness.


    As Ren Xiaosu detoured back to pick up the axes, he suddenly heard the voice from the pce say, ¡°Questplete. Awarded two allocatable attribute points.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He added one each to his Strength and Dexterity. His Strength and Dexterity now reached 17.5 and 17.1, respectively.


    ¡°That¡¯s strange. Why was the quest suddenlypleted?¡± Ren Xiaosu was still a little puzzled. This was the first time he did not know how he hadpleted a quest.


    As he was picking up the axes, Yang Xiaojin saw he was also taking off the barbarians¡¯ helmets. Curious, she asked, ¡°Are you collecting their helmets too?¡±


    ¡°No, those helmets smell of their greasy heads. Who would want them?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m just checking out the age of these barbarians.¡±


    As a result, Ren Xiaosu realized the barbarians he encountered this time were all their elderly!


    At the beginning, only 20% of the barbarians he encountered were their elderly, so it did not make Ren Xiaosu too suspicious. But now that this group of barbarians were all elderly people, Ren Xiaosu realized something must be wrong.


    If the barbarians did not have enough manpower and had to send their elderly into battle, why not just retreat? The old barbarians¡¯bat power was way too weak.


    It was no wonder the Pyro Company¡¯s main forces were able to advance so smoothly until now. So it turned out that it was not that they were strong, but that the barbarian troops had be weaker!


    Ren Xiaosu switched on the radio and shouted, ¡°P5092, P5092, answer me if you can hear me.¡±


    The soldiers of 3rd Division lowered their heads and did not say anything. This was the first time they had encountered anyone shout at theirmander like that. However, they could not afford to offend Ren Xiaosu either, so they could only pretend not to have heard him.


    Puzzled, P5092 asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m in bravo-one-one. Come over here for a moment, I have something to discuss with y¡¯all.¡± As Ren Xiaosu was not far away from the 3rd Division, they arrived very quickly.


    P5092 immediately saw a bunch of gray-haired barbarians scattered across the ground. He asked, ¡°What¡¯s this?¡±


    ¡°These are the barbarians that I just killed,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    P5092 took a look at them. The barbarian corpses were all covered in sh wounds, and it looked like Ren Xiaosu had directly attacked over a 100 of them.


    His way of putting it sounded really strange. It was as though a person had surrounded more than a 100 people, yet that was just what happened.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Look, these barbarians are all the elderly. I seriously suspect that the reason why they suddenly put on their helmets was to cover up the fact that they¡¯re old barbarians.¡±


    P5092 crouched down to have a look. ¡°Were the barbarians we encountered earlier the same? Why weren¡¯t they equipped with their axes?¡±


    ¡°Uh...¡± Ren Xiaosu looked around. ¡°I¡¯m not sure either....¡±


    It was not that these barbarians did not carry axes but that they had been taken away by Ren Xiaosu.


    However, that was not the main point. P5092 asked, ¡°Did you also check the barbarians that were killed previously? Scouts, quickly go back and check those barbarians that were killed earlier. Check their age and the ratio of the elderly to their total numbers!¡±


    P5092¡¯s reaction was very fast. In an instant, he felt something was not right and that he had to analyze the earlier situations along with this discovery.


    However, Ren Xiaosu quickly stopped him. ¡°I¡¯ve already checked. There¡¯s no need for the scouts to go back. Among the barbarians that we encountered previously, the ratio of the elderly was either 30 to 70 or 20 to 80. There weren¡¯t that many of them in our previous encounters, but it¡¯s different this time. These barbarians here are all old.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had to stop the reconpany from heading back to the earlier battlefields. Otherwise, they would discover that all the axes had disappeared.


    Then it wouldn¡¯t be a war incident but a paranormal one.


    Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and said, ¡°Why do you think the barbarians did this?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± The first thought that came to P5092¡¯s mind was that they did not have enough soldiers. However, he gave it some thought. ¡°Something feels off somewhere.¡±


    At this moment, a radio operator ran over. ¡°Sir! The 6th Division has announced that they¡¯ve captured the leader of the expeditionary army¡¯s advance guard, Valentin! The main forces of the barbarians have already been defeated and are fleeing back towards the North!¡±


    In all wars since ancient times, capturing the ringleader first before capturing his followers was almost always a shortcut to victory. Once the enemy¡¯s highest-ranking officer was captured or killed, the rest of the troops were as good as defeated. On one hand, it was because they would be left without a leader, and on the other hand, their morale would decline.


    After all, morale was one of the most important factors in a war.


    But now that the highest-ranking officer of the expeditionary army¡¯s advance guard, Valentin, had been captured, the defeat of the barbarians in the forest was set in stone.


    But P5092 felt that something was amiss. He said to the radio operator, ¡°Connect me with the 6th Division immediately!¡±


    When the call connected, P5092 bluntly said, ¡°This is P5092. I¡¯m looking for P5031.¡±


    P5031 was the highest-ranking officer of the 6th Division. However, the deputymander who answered the call said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, ourmander is currently busymanding the troops and has no time to answer your call. Why don¡¯t you tell me what¡¯s the matter, and I¡¯ll inform him.¡±


    P5092 sneered in his head. He knew full well that 031 was next to the radio and just did not want to answer his call. What speaking authority did a deputymander have when it came to a confidential call between two P5manders? Since this deputymander dared to say he would help pass on the message, he must have been ordered by 031 to do so. How else would a P4 deputy dare to speak like that?


    After the other party captured Valentin, P5031 probably felt that the position ofmander-in-chief of the military corps was in the bag. Therefore, he did not intend to care about P5092.


    Then, if P5031 were really promoted, this deputymander would immediately get promoted to be a P5mander and be on par with P5092. Therefore, he was not worried about P5092 either.


    P5092 said coldly, ¡°Don¡¯t be in a hurry to chase the barbarians north. Let me ask you: How did you all find out the person you captured was the barbarians¡¯ advance guardmander, Valentin?¡±


    The deputymander sounded a little impatient. ¡°When we captured him alive, he was surrounded by a group of barbarians. After we captured him, we interrogated him, and he admitted it himself! Furthermore, the barbarians also started fleeing back towards the North after he was caught, so how could this be fake?¡±


    P5092 sneered and said, ¡°What if he¡¯s lying? I¡¯m warning you all: You¡¯re not to continue pursuing northwards!¡±


    The deputymander replied, ¡°The battle in the forest ended when we captured Valentin. You¡¯re no longer the actingmander, so our 6th Division will formte our own battle n. There¡¯s no need to trouble you. If you¡¯re worried that all the credit will go to the 6th Division, why don¡¯t you take the initiative and go kill more barbarians instead?¡±


    After that, the deputymander surprisingly hung up. P5092 muttered coldly, ¡°Idiot.¡±

 Chapter 891 - The barbarians’ trap!

    <h4>Chapter 891: The barbarians¡¯ trap!</h4>


    P5092 felt that he did not have any selfish motives when speaking to the other party as he was not interested in the position known as themander-in-chief of the military corps.


    But just as he had said before, politics followed people. Even a lowly P4 deputymander dared to sneer at him and assumed he was envious that the 6th Division would take all the credit for winning the war.


    Even someone as calm as P5092 would feel a bit angry when he encountered a dumbass colleague like that.


    Off to the side, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are they sure that the person they captured is the highest-ranking officer of the expeditionary army¡¯s advance guard?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they¡¯ve verified it.¡± P5092 exined, ¡°They im he admitted it after an interrogation.¡±


    ¡°Interrogation?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°How could it be that easy to interrogate a high-ranking officer of the barbarians? They captured him not long ago, right? And he confessed that easily?¡±


    ¡°I suspect there¡¯s something fishy about this matter.¡± P5092 said, ¡°I suspect the person who was captured is not the highest-ranking officer of the expeditionary army¡¯s advance guard at all. It should be a trap. Those defeated barbarians who are retreating north are obviously trying to lure our Pyro Company troops there.¡±


    ¡°Then you should tell them not to go there.¡± Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be better to adopt a cautious and steady approach? Aren¡¯t you P5s all very rational? How could they get carried away by their victory?¡±


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu helplessly. ¡°We can¡¯t stop them anymore. Do you think we¡¯re all cast from the same mold? That¡¯s not how it is. All P5s grew up in their own family environment and had different upbringings. It¡¯s just that the Pyro Company felt that we were suitable to bemanders.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Then you¡¯re much more capable than them. At the very least, you¡¯re still able to analyze the situation carefully.¡±


    Just as P5092 had guessed, with the position ofmander-in-chief of the military corps still up for grabs, the other P5 divisionmanders started moring for glory recklessly upon seeing that the barbarians were beaten.


    In the process of pursuing the northern barbarians, the 7th and 1st Divisions even fought over who would get the honor of utterly defeating them.


    P5092¡¯s so-called position as the actingmander of the military corps was not enough to control these people.


    An actingmander without an official appointmentcked credibility. Moreover, most of the other divisionmanders always regarded P5092 as their strongestpetitor, so they could not wait to oppose him at this time.


    P5092 said, ¡°I can¡¯t stop them anymore due to my status. If I try to dissuade them from pursuing the enemy, it might backfire and stir up theirpetitive spirit.¡±


    ¡°Then what do you n to do?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    P5092 turned around and said to his adjutant, ¡°Tell the artillery at the rear to leave the Great Wall immediately and join up with us. All the soldiers of the infantry brigade are to start digging trenches where we are. We need to quickly set up a defensive line here!¡±


    P5092 was really decisive. In an instant, he made the decision to set up a temporary defensive line here.


    P5092 exined to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Even if the barbarians did not set a trap for us to the north, there¡¯s nothing wrong with establishing a defensive line here. After all, we¡¯re still only facing their advance guard at the moment. There will be more battles to fight in the future, so we have to shift our defensive line northwards sooner orter.¡±


    ¡°If the barbarians really did set a trap for us in the north, we can receive our defeated Pyro Company troops here and reorganize them to defend the Great Wall again.¡± P5092 said, ¡°We¡¯ve deployed half of our Pyro Company forces this time. Although it might seem like we still have the other half stationed behind the Great Wall and have sufficient forces to fight the war, we know internally that the soldiers of the remaining six divisions are mostly recruits. Some of them have never even been in battle before, so I have to do my best to ensure that some of our Pyro Company veterans make it back.¡±


    P5092 was trying to preserve as many members of the Pyro Company as possible.


    At this moment, the rest of the Pyro Company troops were rapidly pursuing the barbarians northwards. P5092 quickly spread out a map on the ground and made some markings on it with a red pen. ¡°I¡¯ve already figured it out. It¡¯ste at night now, and there were no elderly barbarians when we encountered their troops at the beginning. Then the elderly barbarians started appearingter into the night. But there was only a small number of them as they were afraid we would notice that something was wrong in advance.


    ¡°After that, the ratio of their elderly got higher and higher. By the time that ¡®Valentin¡¯ was captured, all of the barbarian troops were reced by their elderly. The barbarians did note to kill us but were sent here to die!


    ¡°Only when the barbarians suffered enough casualties would the other divisionmanders believe they were truly losing. Our Pyro Company estimated there to be about 150,000 barbarians in the expeditionary army. Based on the sitreps so far, we¡¯ve killed an estimated 50,000 barbarians in the forest. The Wang Consortium troops are definitely still engaged in battle with a group of them as well. Apparently, they¡¯re fighting a tough battle there too. So, many of the P5manders think the barbarian troops are close to defeat, which is why they¡¯re pursuing them without holding back.


    ¡°However, of the 50,000 barbarians we had killed, more than 30,000 of them were killed around the time Valentin was captured. Therefore, I suspect that our Pyro Company troops ughtered 30,000 of the barbarians¡¯ elderly.


    ¡°These barbarians are so ruthless.¡± P5092mented, ¡°As the northern tribe moves southwards, their elderly be incapable of fighting. They contribute no productivity and are unable to bear the arduous journey and war. All they do is consumerge amounts of food by staying in the group. So they might as well send their elderly into battle and use them as decoys to secure the final victory. But what¡¯s scariest is that the old barbarians seem to be doing this willingly!¡±


    After hearing so much from P5092, Ren Xiaosu suddenly looked north. ¡°If the barbarians are willing to trade the lives of tens of thousands of their elderly in order to win a battle, they must be absolutely confident of their ambush in the north. I suggest that the 3rd Division retreat south of the Great Wall, because no one will be able to escape the barbarians¡¯ encirclement.¡±


    Since the barbarians had paid such a heavy price, how could they possibly let anyone from the Pyro Company return alive?


    But P5092 shook his head. ¡°No, even if only one division can make it back alive, I would still receive them here. If all six of these divisions get wiped out, it would really be the end for the Pyro Company.¡±


    ¡°What if only one brigade manages to make it back? Or none at all?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s not possible.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Although I don¡¯t understand the barbarians as well as you do, I know what war is like. Even though five of our divisions have gone to pursue the barbarians, some of them will be more aggressive in their pursuit while others will sit back and observe the situation. If there¡¯s people rushing off to the front, there¡¯s naturally those who stay at the back. Regardless of how many barbarians there are, our forces won¡¯t be annihted. I¡¯ve studied the terrain to the north, and there¡¯s no areasrge enough to trap 40,000 people in to wipe them out. So the barbarians are probably nning to pursue our troops back here to the forest, slowly picking off those who escape their encirclement. That way, the barbarians¡¯ main forces will also incur the least casualties.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Since you¡¯re so confident, I¡¯ll go north and investigate for you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m counting on you.¡± P5092 gave him a solemn salute. ¡°The sess or downfall of the Pyro Company lies in this battle, and it might even affect the future of mankind in the Central ins.¡±

 Chapter 892 - War chariots

    <h4>Chapter 892: War chariots</h4>


    Right now, P5092 was in a race against time.


    If all his spections were right, he would have toplete the construction of the defensive line in the forest before the Pyro Company troops got beaten back.


    However, this was as good as putting himself in a dangerous situation. When the barbarians chased the Pyro Company troops back here, the 3rd Division would have to provide covering fire for all of the defeated Pyro Company troops.


    If it weren¡¯t for the sake of helping the Pyro Company preserve more of its strength, P5092 could easily have retreated back to the Great Wall where it would be much safer.


    It was precisely because of this action that Ren Xiaosu was sure that P5092¡¯s ideals of keeping humanity¡¯s me alive in the Central ins was not just talk.


    Too many people in this world talked the talk of ideals without walking the walk. There were also too many people in this world who called upon others to practice kindness and virtue but were lowlifes in reality.


    Ren Xiaosu admired those who had ideals and were willing to pay the price to uphold them. This was the reason why he was willing to help Jiang Xu, Wang Jing, and P5092.


    But when Ren Xiaosu headed north with Yang Xiaojin to investigate, not even the 3rd Division¡¯s soldiers who had been tagging along with him felt that the two of them would have much of an effect on a battle involving tens of thousands of people.


    Before leaving, P5092 reminded Ren Xiaosu seriously, ¡°I know you¡¯re very powerful, much more powerful than most of the supernatural beings I¡¯ve met. In the future, you¡¯ll have a ce in the history of this superhuman world. But in a battle involving tens of thousands of people, there really isn¡¯t much a single individual can do. So don¡¯t push yourself too hard. Your utmost priority is to survive.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and replied, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t overdo it. I¡¯m just going there to investigate, so there won¡¯t be any danger.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I wish you a safe return.¡± P5092 said, ¡°From the most rational point of view, you¡¯re one of the most important people from the Central ins to be kept alive. You definitely have higher priority over other people. I hope you can understand this fact.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu headed north. On his way there, hemented to Yang Xiaojin that while everyone was said to be equal, the Pyro Company had probably determined which sses of humanity were worth keeping alive by assigning them a priority level.


    Perhaps, superhumans, scientists, and the like were top priorities for the Pyro Company to protect.


    This obsession was so weird it seemed contradictory to the concept of human rights. But after Ren Xiaosu had worked together with the other party for a long time, he did not know how to refute it.


    It could only be said that everyone with ideals in these wastnds adhered to their own principles and followed their own paths.


    From a bird¡¯s eye view, the other five Pyro Company divisions could be seen marching quickly in the wilderness.


    The mechanized infantry¡¯s E-33 armored vehicles and E-34 tanks provided cover at the front of the formation like mobile fortresses that kept pressing forward.


    Meanwhile, the infantry followed closely behind the armor.


    This was the mostmon form of cover that infantry units adopted in battle when working with armor. Once they discovered signs of the enemy, the armored vehicles and tanks would be the best bunkers for providing suppressive fire.


    As the tanks rolled across the ground, the tracks dislodged soil and left trails behind them, riddling the ground with holes.


    North of the Pyro Company, the barbarians were fleeing for their lives. Amid loud explosions, the ground around them was bombarded by the tanks. From time to time, heavy machine guns firing from the armored vehicles would send rocks and dirt flying all around.


    As the two sides fought each other ferociously, the barbarians, even with their superior physical fitness, were unable to shake off the Pyro Company¡¯s troops.


    When a divisionmander of the Pyro Company saw this, he was overjoyed, because as long as this situation continued, it would only be a matter of time before they wiped out the barbarians.


    Today¡¯s battle went much smoother than expected.


    However, not all five of the divisionmanders were blinded by this seemingly easy victory. The 1st and 4th Divisions had already started slowing their advance and gradually fell diagonally behind the rest.


    To avoid stirring up the rebellious thoughts of the divisionmanders, P5092 did not directly call and order them not to give chase. It would have been futile.


    But he could try other methods, such as getting the 3rd Division to quickly contact their acquaintances in the other divisions to start spreading rumors of the barbarians setting a trap.


    All the Pyro Company officers had graduated from the military academy, and those who had graduated in the same ss were posted across the entire military. Without anymunication restrictions currently in ce, it was not exactly difficult to contact someone since even thepany-level troops were issued with their ownmunications equipment.


    So when the rumors began to spread to the other five divisions, some of the P5manders started reassessing this pursuit. Most importantly, they also felt the operation tonight had gone too smoothly.


    But right at this moment, a group of the expeditionary army¡¯s troops were waiting to the north with dozens ofrge cages made from a special metal by their sides.


    Inside those cages, gigantic, heavyset brown bears had just woken up.


    They were not domesticated brown bears. When they woke up, they started roaring angrily at the barbarians standing outside theirrge cages.


    The expeditionary army¡¯s troops had ced a pile of ck spherical objects behind the cages. The surfaces of those objects was rough like a ball of dung rolled by dung beetles.


    Dozens of barbarians lit the ck balls with torches at the same time. In an instant, the ck balls started burning and releasing arge amount of pungent white smoke.


    When the northerly wind arrived, the barbarians stood upwind of the white smoke as it blew towards the cages.


    When the brown bears in the cages caught a whiff of the smell in the white smoke, they furiously mmed themselves against the cages and deformed them!


    Before The Cataclysm, brown bears were one of thergest and heaviest animals onnd. They could reach a length of 2.8 meters and weigh up to 800 kilograms. Its sense of smell was seven times keener than a hound¡¯s.


    At that time, brown bears were the dominant beasts amongnd animals.


    After the cities in the North were battered by nuclear weapons, the brown bears in the wilderness had evolved to a frightening level. Very few people were aware that thend where the expeditionary army lived was the ce that suffered the most during The Cataclysm. It was a devastating sight everywhere.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s higher-ups had spected that this was probably the reason why the barbarians¡¯ civilization and technology had regressed entirely while their physical fitness collectively evolved.


    Suddenly, a brown bear broke through its metal cage and caught a barbarian who was standing a little too close off guard and crushed him under its paw.


    As the brown bear had a keen sense of smell, it instinctively detected something unpleasant in the white smoke.


    At this moment, the battle cries of the Pyro Company troops to the south attracted the attention of the brown bears.


    Eventually, all of the brown bears broke out of their metal cages. Driven by the white smoke, they dashed madly southwards like war chariots running amok.

 Chapter 893 - Fighting back

    <h4>Chapter 893: Fighting back</h4>


    Before The Cataclysm, brown bears could already grow to a length of 2.8 meters. How terrifying was it now that they could grow up to 6 meters after The Cataclysm?


    Most mattresses used by humans only measured 1.8 or 2 meters in length.


    When these brown bears ran madly in anger and hunger, even the ground trembled.


    After the brown bears evolved, they gained stronger muscles, internal organs, and even tougher bones. When one of the brown bears broke free from its cage, the barbarian who got crushed under its paw was like a baby in front of it.


    That white smoke was produced by igniting an unknown material. While it enraged the brown bears, they did not break through the white smoke to attack the barbarians to the north. Instead, they quickly rushed in the southerly direction of the Pyro Company troops.


    Just like back on Mt. Dashi, the barbarians were able to disperse schools of fish with a small bone fragment from an unknown creature. And now, the barbarians mastered a way to drive away bears. This northern tribe seemed like they only knew how to fight savagely, but they secretly had a unique trump card.


    The Pyro Company troops kept pursuing north without stopping. They were still separated from the brown bears by thousands of barbarians who had been chased here from the forest.


    However, when the barbarians heard the sound of heavy footfalls north of them, several dozen old barbarians took out goatskin pouches.


    The goatskin pouches were meant for storing water. But when they opened the stopper and poured the contents on the ground, it was all blood!


    This was the blood of brown bear cubs!


    The barbarians had been plotting this for a long time. They first reced their elites on the battlefield with the elderly barbarians and misled the Pyro Company troops into thinking the expeditionary army was close to defeat. Then they lured them north before releasing the brown bears that had been starving for days.


    But this was still not enough. The barbarians took the brown bears¡¯ cubs they had captured and killed them in front of their parents. This was to make the brown bears remember the scent of their cubs¡¯ blood. After that, they quickly injected an anesthetic into them before they becamepletely enraged.


    When the barbarians poured the brown bear cubs¡¯ blood onto the ground, the Pyro Company troops behind them did not think too much about it. They simply believed the blood was from the barbarians.


    When the Pyro Company troops stepped on the blood as they pursued the barbarians, their boots were stained with the scent of the blood.


    The Pyro Company troops could already hear the sound of heavy footsteps approaching from in front. After the 6th Division¡¯s P5mander received this news, he immediately ordered his troops to be on the alert and slow down their pursuit.


    He suddenly remembered P5092¡¯s warning and thought to himself, ¡®<i>Could the barbarians really haveid an ambush for us?</i>¡®


    For a moment, he felt a little regretful. Actually, he knew the 6th Division had already pursued too far. The five Pyro Company divisions had separated from one another.


    But not everyone could remain calm and collected at all times like P5092, Zhang Jinglin, and Qing Zhen. Otherwise, there would be famous military leaders everywhere.


    As the saying goes, time makes the man. Such heroes emerged among tens of millions of people. In the annals of history, others could only serve as these heroes¡¯ foils, and some would not even qualify to serve as their foil.


    A momentter, the Pyro Company soldiers farthest ahead could see the brown bears. When the brown bears caught a whiff of the scent of blood on the soldiers¡¯ feet from a distance, they wholly ignored the barbarians running in front of them and rushed straight for the Pyro Company troops with a furious roar!


    This made P5031 of the 6th Division wonder why the brown bears did not attack the barbarians but headed for them directly instead. Could the barbarians control the brown bears?


    Normal humans were unable to differentiate between the scent of bear blood and human blood, nor could they guess at what the barbarians were trying to do. However, the scent of the cubs¡¯ blood was like a constant stimnt to the brown bears¡¯ nerves with every second that passed.


    The Pyro Company troops did not bother with the fleeing barbarians anymore and focused their firepower on the brown bears instead.


    However, even the heavy machine guns could only prate about 20 centimeters into the brown bears¡¯ skin. At this stage, it could not even pierce through the fatyer of the bears!


    Although they could make the brown bears bleed a little, it was at most like being pricked by a needle. There was absolutely no chance of killing them this way.


    Furthermore, after smelling the scent of their cubs¡¯ blood, the more they got hurt by the Pyro Company¡¯s increasingly intense firepower, the more enraged they became.


    As the Pyro Company had pursued the barbarians too closely, they were only a few hundred meters away from the brown bears when they appeared. For the brown bears, this distance could be covered in less than ten seconds.


    The dozens of brown bears were loping like huge prehistoric beasts. As they trampled the ground, their paws hit the ground and thundered, producing a drum beat.


    An E-34 tank locked onto a brown bear and opened fire. With a loud explosion, the tank shook from the recoil of the barrel. The armor-piercing bullet pierced straight into the organs of the brown bear before detonating.


    As blood sttered everywhere, the brown bear fell limply to the ground. But it kept staring in the direction of the Pyro Company until its death because it smelt the scent of its cub over there.


    The armor-piercing bullets were meant to be used on enemy tanks, but they were now used to fight the bears instead.


    P5031 was slightly relieved. Since firearms and explosives could still work effectively against the bears, it was good news. Then he ordered all the E-34s to fire on the brown bears.


    Amid the chaos, dozens of E-34sunched a round of artillery fire. As explosions boomed, the sight of the nighttime artillery fire resembled a brilliant fireworks show. It was just that there was a huge killing intent within it.


    The tank shells traced a straight, red-orange trajectory in the night.


    But the brown bears wised up. They changed direction while attacking.


    Although some of the brown bears suffered severe injuries to their legs, they were still able to move quickly in anger. Only hatred in their scarlet eyes and the scent of their cubs¡¯ blood kept them going.


    Moreover, there was barely any distance between the two sides. In the blink of an eye, the brown bears charged into the Pyro Company troops!


    A huge shadow loomed over the Pyro Company troops as the soldiers were forced to look up at the brown bears when observing their movements. The moment they made contact with the brown bears, the foremost Pyro Company infantry started to fall. It was not that they were weak but that the weapons they were holding were totally useless against the brown bears. After the soldiers finished firing all the rounds in their magazines, the brown bears were still unscathed.


    But if the brown bears wanted to kill them, there was no need to make any unnecessary movements. All they needed to do was charge at the soldiers and trample them under their paws!


    When a brown bear approached an E-34, it knocked it over easily with just a nudge of its shoulder.


    Although the soldiers who encountered the brown bears started to despair, an unusual burst of power surged in their desperation.


    P5031 quickly ordered, ¡°Use the RPGs and howitzers. Deploy the Razor Sharp Company and attack. Don¡¯t be afraid of death!¡±


    He finally calmed down. Although the brown bears were difficult to deal with, they were not impossible to kill.


    Some soldiers even rushed at the brown bears with satchels of TNT. The Pyro Company had always been fearless in battles, so there was no retreat to speak of for them.


    But at this moment, the expeditionary army to the north had received the barbarians who were fleeing from the Pyro Company. A high-ranking general of the expeditionary army looked at hispatriots who were in a sorry state and said calmly, ¡°Good work, all of you. The expeditionary army will remember how you risked your lives to secure victory for us. Go and rest now.¡±


    After that, he turned around and looked at the main forces of the expeditionary army. These were not only the troops who had been attacking the Pyro Company¡¯s front lines initially but also troops who had rushed over from the Wang Consortium¡¯s front line at Mt. Daniu. The general said, ¡°It¡¯s getting impossible to live at home in the North, so let this fertilend be our new home. Gentlemen, kill the enemy!¡±


    With that, the general personally charged south, wielding his gigantic axe in hand.


    The dozens of brown bears were just weapons they used to charge at the enemy¡¯s formation. The real battle was only just starting. However, it was toote for the Pyro Company to set up a new defensive line while the brown bears rampaged through their ranks.

 Chapter 894 - Theres glory even in death

    <h4>Chapter 894: There¡¯s glory even in death</h4>


    The general of the expeditionary army had been nning for today¡¯s battle for a long time. A lot of people thought the barbarians did not know anything about the Central ins, but those people were unaware that the intelligent Experimental had already helped them map out what it knew of the north and told them about the situation in the Central ins.


    So when the expeditionary army started fighting on two fronts at the beginning of the war, they gave the Central ins people the impression that they were arrogant enough to actually start a total war by attacking two organizations at the same time.


    But right from the beginning, the attack on the Wang Consortium¡¯s front lines was just a ruse. They intended to take out the Pyro Company first.


    After the destruction of the Pyro Company, the barbarians would gain control of their existing developments and technology. There would be no need for a massacre like the one at Stronghold 176 to happen again, and the barbarians would rule over the Pyro Company¡¯s subjects as nobility.


    When the time came to fight the Wang Consortium again afterwards, not only would they have the advantage of being more physically fit, but they would also possess the Pyro Company¡¯s advanced weapons.


    Therefore, defeating the Pyro Company was an extremely important part of the expeditionary army¡¯s battle ns. They could not afford to mess up.


    But at the beginning, the general of the expeditionary army was more inclined to take out the Wang Consortium first. However, the Experimental somehow managed to persuade him to finalize this battle n in the end.


    As for what the Experimental was after, no one really knew.


    The expeditionary army was already charging. If the Pyro Company had set up a defensive line early and stopped them with their firepower, the expeditionary army would definitely suffer heavy casualties even if they won.


    But the problem was that the brown bears had turned extremely violent due to the loss of their cubs. It felt like they did not care about their lives as they attacked the Pyro Company troops with everything they had.


    Although the Pyro Company managed to kill most of the brown bears by using their firearms and explosives, their defensive formation had fallen into disarray.


    Hence, when the expeditionary army arrived, the Pyro Company could only engage in closebat with the barbarians since their guns were no longer useful. After all, the expeditionary army and the Pyro Company were already jumbled together, so it was difficult for the soldiers to ensure that they would not shoot their ownrades.


    The camouge uniforms the Pyro Company wore were khaki in color while the barbarians were draped in gray animal hides. There were so many troops in khaki and gray that this sight stretched all the way to the horizon.


    When the two sides collided, it was as though twopletely different waves had crashed into each other.


    When a Pyro Company soldier ran out of ammunition, he drew his saber from his belt and fought a barbarian. However, the barbarian was much stronger than him. After the barbarian dodged the long saber, he grabbed him by the neck with one hand and used him as a shield.


    The Pyro Company soldier¡¯s face reddened from suffocation. But even as he was dying, he was still trying his best to sh the barbarian.


    When the barbarian saw he was still struggling, he swung an axe at his head.


    This fight was a microcosm of the war going on, but the person involved might be a husband, father, or son whose family was waiting to be reunited with him back at home. However, he would no longer be returning home.


    As the Pyro Company had been fighting this battle for several hours already, they were nearly out of the ammunition they carried with them. Arge amount of their ammunition had already been expended on the old barbarians at the beginning of the battle.


    Even though the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers were facing this predicament, they would continue fighting the barbarians to the bitter end as long as they did not receive the order to retreat.


    A much taller and muscr barbarian suddenly rushed out of the crowd. As he moved, he sent Pyro Company soldiers flying off to the sides.


    However, those soldiers struggled back to their feet and picked up their deadrades¡¯ sabers once more before limping into a charge at the barbarians.


    After that, they died of exhaustion.


    Before dying, a soldier recalled the time he first joined the military. Every Pyro Company soldier had to ce their hand over the me logo on their chests and take the oath: ¡°From today onwards, I am an honorable soldier of the Pyro Company. I will fight for the survival of mankind and fight so that humanity may get to see a new dawn.


    ¡°From today onwards, I am willing to relinquish my name so that I may protect the Central ins.¡±


    Indeed, everyone had joined the Pyro Company for the sake of protecting the Central ins. Everyone was here toy down their lives for their grand ideals with no regrets.


    More and more Pyro Company soldiers were getting killed, but the expeditionary army¡¯s general realized they were seemingly unable to defeat the Pyro Company troops fully. If it were a typical military unit that had suffered so many casualties, the soldiers would have started routing.


    Once the Pyro Company engaged in closebat with the barbarians, the expeditionary army¡¯s victory was almost certain. But why didn¡¯t the Central ins people retreat? Did they think they could defeat the expeditionary army?


    At this moment, a staff officer said anxiously to P5031 in themand vehicle, ¡°Sir, why don¡¯t we pull back? Please give the order to retreat. Our soldiers can¡¯t hold out for much longer. It¡¯ll be toote if we don¡¯t leave now!¡±


    But P5031 sat in themand vehicle and startedughing bitterly. ¡°Leave? Where would we go? I never thought I would get carried away by my own interests one day. Fortunately, these barbarians have knocked some sense into me.¡±


    In themand vehicle, the staff officers and P5031¡¯s adjutant were all stunned on the spot. They did not know why P5031 would suddenly say that.


    Amid the silence, P5031 jumped to his feet and adjusted his uniform. It was as though he had figured out something, and that got him excited again.


    P5031 said to one of the staff officers, ¡°Put me through to the entire division.¡±


    ¡°Roger.¡± The staff officer pressed the red button on the control panel.


    P5031 said on the radio, ¡°Brothers, I¡¯m sorry. It was because of my wrong decision that we ended up in this predicament.


    ¡°I would really like to order the infantry brigade to stay behind and provide cover while the rest of the troops retreat together. This way, I might still be able to survive. But I can¡¯t say that because I know you all will be humiliated to death by the pursuit. The barbarians havee prepared. They will not let us leave.


    ¡°So, can every one of you still remember the oath you took? Today, you and I will fight for the survival of mankind. 6th Division hereby pledges to hold off the enemy for half an hour so the other division will have enough time to retreat.


    ¡°This way, even though our 6th Division will perish, the other divisions will still have a chance to escape!


    ¡°When they retreat back to the Great Wall, they will definitely find another chance to avenge us.


    ¡°I would like to thank everyone for their trust over the years. Comrades, let¡¯s fight to the death together. There¡¯s glory even in death.


    ¡°Today, I¡¯m willing to relinquish my life and be put to rest here. After today, I¡¯ll be out here in this wilderness keeping watch over the Central ins with the rest of you.¡±


    With that, P5031 turned off the radio and drew his saber before stepping out of themand vehicle.


    His spirits lifted as he said with a smile to his adjutant next to him, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Please inform the other divisions to withdraw quickly. Our 6th Division will buy them some time to retreat.¡±


    After that, he raised his saber and charged towards the expeditionary army.


    After staring dumbly at P5031 for a few seconds, his adjutant quickly contacted all the other divisions. After that, he and the staff officers drew their sabers as well.


    Everyone knew the battle had descended into chaos by this point, so issuing any furthermands to the troops would be pointless. All they could do now was to give their all and fade away like a brilliant supernova. They needed to inspire the soldiers so they could muster up strength in desperate times like these.


    A veteran watched P5031 charge into the enemy. The words his divisionmander had just said kept resonating in his ears. He then joked, ¡°Damn, maybe it¡¯s not so bad to die here. Charge!¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go then! Let¡¯s buy some time for ourrades at the back to retreat!¡±


    ¡°Charge!¡±

 Chapter 895 - The Pyro Company’s past

    <h4>Chapter 895: The Pyro Company¡¯s past</h4>


    The 6th Division had fought an extremely tough battle. Or rather, it was tougher than Ren Xiaosu had imagined. Encountering the barbarians was a very terrifying thing even for close to 10,000 soldiers, especially when they were almost running out of ammunition.


    When Ren Xiaosu got to the vicinity of the battlefield, it was toote. He saw the soldiers rushing fearlessly towards the barbarians with a sudden surge of courage.


    With P5031 dead, the surviving 6th Division soldiers managed to buy the rest of the Pyro Company troops half an hour to retreat.


    Importantly, the soldiers did not even have any ammunition left. When they faced the barbarians, they could only use their sabers to sh them, punch them with their fists, and bite them with their teeth.


    To everyone in the 6th Division, this half an hour was extremely long. However, as Ren Xiaosu watched from the sidelines, he felt they no longer had any regrets.


    Ren Xiaosu did not make a move because it was already toote. In the face of tens of thousands of expeditionary army troops, his strength was really too minute. Trying to save the 6th Division would be a fool¡¯s errand. so he had to face the reality of the situation.


    Young people grew up by learning how to ept reality.


    Life consisted of three stages. The first was understanding that the world did not revolve around their parents, and that parents were not almighty.


    Parents also had times when they felt troubled and depressed. They would never tell you about their sufferings at work during the day.


    They would also feel helpless at times, unable to do anything in the face of the world.


    The second stage was understanding that the world did not revolve around themselves and learning how to ept reality.


    No one was the protagonist of the world. Being told ¡°may your dreamse true¡± would always remain as well wishes. Young people would have to start understanding that life was just a lonely journey of clearing obstacles and oveing hardships.


    They would have to experience countless ups and downs in the endless journey of life and face countless situations in which they were too powerless to make a choice. This was the reality of things.


    The third stage was understanding that the world did not revolve around their own children.


    Children could not take over in fulfilling their parents¡¯ regrets because they were also normal people.


    At this moment, even Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless against tens of thousands of barbarians. The expeditionary army covered the entire wilderness, and there seemed to be an endless stream of them. Hence, he chose to leave with Yang Xiaojin.


    Perhaps there were some other things they could do within their power. But since 6th Division had already chosen to sacrifice themselves, Ren Xiaosu did not have to forcefully reverse the situation.


    ¡°The 6th Division is almost wiped out.¡± Ren Xiaosu said on the radio,¡±They aren¡¯t trying to flee but have instead stayed behind to buy some time for the other divisions to retreat.¡±


    P5092¡¯s calm voice rang out over the radio, ¡°This is the wisest choice as he knew he couldn¡¯t escape. Perhaps he can get out of there alive. But nearly all his soldiers will end up dead or injured. When he thinks of this for the remainder of his life, he¡¯ll wallow in sorrow in a living hell. If it were me, I would¡¯ve made the same decision as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grimaced. ¡°Are you even human? Why are you suddenly analyzing everything so calmly at a time like this?¡±


    ¡°This has nothing to do with human nature.¡± P5092 continued calmly, ¡°He¡¯s paying the price for his wrong decision, and close to 10,000 Pyro Company soldiers will pay the price along with him. As a high-ranking Pyro Companymander, I always thought that if the Pyro Company got defeated in this war, he would have to bear the main responsibility for it. But as a human, I admire his choice in this moment. There¡¯s no contradiction.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu headed south. He sometimes felt the Pyro Company members were a little schizophrenic. These people could actually allow the personalities of a normal person and a brave war machine to coexist within their bodies.


    P5092 said, ¡°This is the education we received from youth. We attended the Pyro Company¡¯s preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, and university. Everything we went through decided that we¡¯ll be fighting here today for the survival of mankind in the Central ins. After that, those who qualify for gic modification will enter the military while those who didn¡¯t will take up positions in other ces.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Did this mean they were indoctrinated from youth?


    P5092 continued on the encrypted channel, ¡°Do you understand how hypnotism works? Actually, this is the same as hypnotism.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>Of course I know about that. One of my friends is even the Demon Whisperer whose expertise is hypnotism</i>.¡¯


    P5092 said, ¡°We went through more than a decade of special education just so we can do battle today. Over a decade of our lives felt like the prelude to hypnotism. After we joined the military that day, we had to give up our names and go by serial numbers assigned to us. From then on, we became an unfeeling part of a war machine just like our emotionless serial numbers. The ceremony during which we gave up our names was like the snap of the finger to go into hypnosis. Everything officially started the moment we heard it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t y¡¯all regret it?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Only then did he realize the Pyro Company soldiers also had names before they joined the organization.


    In his opinion, giving up one¡¯s own name was really unbelievable.


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing to regret,¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°Then what was your name before you joined the military?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Ling Han,¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°How about I call you Ling Han from now on?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, P5092 said after a long pause, ¡°Just call me by my serial number. I actually prefer the name P5092 more. It¡¯s an honor for me.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°What moves do you think the barbarians will make next? Where should I go?¡±


    ¡°Go to the south. The 7th and 5th Divisions are still in danger at the moment. Since the expeditionary army has painstakingly set a trap for us, they won¡¯t be held back so easily. They definitely still have a contingency n since they don¡¯t actually want any of our Pyro Company soldiers to get out alive.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Please help to bring back the four remaining divisions. I¡¯ve concluded that the Pyro Company will not get caught in a hopeless situation if at least half our forces make it back. Furthermore, nothing must happen to those four divisionmanders. If it bes necessary to rece them, we¡¯ll have another big problem on our hands.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°I give you my promise.¡±


    ¡°The 3rd Division has already set up a defensive line here. You just need to escort them back and leave the rest to me.¡± P5092 said sincerely again, ¡°I¡¯ll be depending on you.¡±


    Currently, the Pyro Company was beset with troubles both internally and externally. They were facing a shortage of supplies within the ranks and had been defeated by the enemy on the battlefield. Even if all the Pyro Company troops could retreat to the Great Wall, the next phase of the war would get exceptionally difficult.


    That was because they had wasted too much of their firepower on the old barbarians, and it undoubtedly made their shortage of supplies even worse.


    But to actually request Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin to escort tens of thousands of Pyro Company soldiers? This idea sounded a little too crazy. He wondered what P5092 was thinking.


    Ren Xiaosu turned off the radio and said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Where are we going now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°To fight for the survival of mankind in the Central ins.¡±


    ...

 Chapter 896 - I’ll buy y’all some time

    <h4>Chapter 896: I¡¯ll buy y¡¯all some time</h4>


    With the protection of the 6th Division, the 7th, 5th, 1st, and 4th Divisions finally got a rare chance to catch a breather as they retreated. After learning that the 6th Division had been ambushed, the four P5manders were made aware they had fallen for the expeditionary army¡¯s trap.


    So what they needed to do now was definitely not to mourn for the dead soldiers of the 6th Division, but to race against time.


    Only if they managed to return south of the Great Wall could the Pyro Company continue dealing with the expeditionary army.


    Among them, the 1st and 4th Divisions were in a better situation. When they were pursuing the barbarians, they had slowly fallen behind the rest, so they were the fastest now when they needed to retreat.


    The 1st Division¡¯smander, P5077, wasmenting to his adjutant as he ordered his troops to retreat in an orderly manner.


    He stood in themand vehicle and looked into the distance. When he saw all his soldiers showing signs of fatigue, P5077 said, ¡°If only I had listened to P5092 earlier; that would have been great. How could we let our own interests get to our heads in the face of a big battle? We¡¯re the ones at fault.¡±


    ¡°Sir, it¡¯s useless to say that now. Our utmost priority is to retreat.¡± His adjutant said, ¡°Fortunately, our troops are quite far away from the battlefield. I estimate we can reach the Great Wall in another two hours. At that time, the firepower on the walls will be able to stop the barbarians from pursuing us any further.¡±


    ¡°Hopefully...¡± P5077 said.


    But just as he trailed off, the infantry brigademander at the rear suddenly radioed themand vehicle, ¡°Sir, our nks are under attack. It¡¯s the expeditionary army!¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± P5077 frowned and asked, ¡°Why are there barbarians here?¡±


    ¡°They must¡¯ve been lying in ambush here since early on and only appeared now.¡± Themander of the 3rd Infantry Brigade said anxiously, ¡°Fortunately, they were one step toote. Their main target is the 7th Division behind us, so our troops should be able to shake them off quickly. Sir, awaiting your instructions. Should we go and support the 7th Division or continue retreating?¡±


    P5077 immediately ordered someone to bring over a map. He took a serious look at the nearby terrain and gasped, ¡°It¡¯s not that these barbarian troops arete, but that we retreated faster than they expected! The troops that appeared on the nks meant to surround all of us. Don¡¯t tussle with them. They must be one of the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces. If we get held back here, we¡¯re all gonna get wiped out!¡±


    ¡°Roger!¡± the infantry brigademander answered.


    A chill ran through P5077. If 6th Division had not pledged to provide cover for half an hour, their 1st and 7th Divisions to the rear of the west nk would definitely have been caught in an encounter with the northern barbarians¡¯ main forces. Then they couldn¡¯t have retreated so quickly.


    If they had beente by half an hour, the barbarians¡¯ main forces that suddenly appeared at this moment would show up at their rear and block their escape route back to the south.


    But things were different now. The 1st Division had gotten out of the barbarians¡¯ encirclement in advance.


    P5077 said, ¡°Contact the other divisions immediately and find out their situations!¡±


    Soon, the staff officer received replies from the various divisions. ¡°4th Division to the rear of the pursuing forces just like us got out of the encirclement in advance. But the 7th and 5th Divisions are still caught within the encirclement area. The enemy troops have enveloped them from both nks. If we had beente by half an hour, none of our four divisions would have escaped. They estimate the encirclement was carried out by a total of more than 15,000 barbarians.¡±


    In other words, the 7th and 5th Divisions each had to face an army of over 7,000 barbarians.


    A 15,000-strong force of the expeditionary army was enough to stop 40,000 Pyro Company troops that had run out of ammunition and food. Although they might not be able to kill everyone, it should not be a problem to drag things out until more of the northern expeditionary army¡¯s army arrived.


    Only at this moment did the significance of the 6th Division soldiers who had pledged to provide cover for the rest be obvious.


    P5077¡¯s adjutant looked at him. ¡°Sir, should we go back and reinforce the 7th and 5th Divisions?¡±


    P5077 sat in his chair and stayed silent for a long time before saying, ¡°Retreat, continue retreating. 6th Division sacrificed themselves to give us this extra half an hour, so we must cherish it! Get 7th Division on the line!¡±


    At this moment, the highest-rankingmander of the 7th Division, P5067, was looking back at the expeditionary army that had appeared to their rear and nk. Amid the chaos, the soldiers could only fight hastily. As the difference in strength was too vast, many of the frontline soldiers were killed as soon as they made contact with the barbarians.


    When the call connected, the person on the other end said, ¡°I¡¯m 1st Division¡¯s P5077. Our troops are just south of you all, but we can¡¯t turn back to reinforce you.¡±


    P5067, who was heavily surrounded,ughed. ¡°You guys go ahead. We¡¯ll leave it to you all to protect mankind south of the Great Wall.¡±


    P5077 said in a low voice, ¡°Old buddy, do you know what you¡¯re up against?¡±


    ¡°Of course I know.¡± P5067ughed and said, ¡°But we can¡¯t just let P5031 get punished all by himself, right? It¡¯s clear that all of us have made the wrong decision, so we have to pay the price for it.¡±


    P5077 hesitated for a while. ¡°But...¡±


    ¡°No buts.¡± P5067 said firmly, ¡°Since 6th Division could hold off the barbarians for half an hour, our 7th Division can also do the same for everyone. Have your troops continue to retreat. I repeat, have your troops continue to retreat.¡±


    After that, P5067 hung up. He got his subordinate to get his saber for him and then pressed a red button in themand vehicle. ¡°It¡¯s a great honor to have served with everyone. 6th Division has already been wiped out. Now, it¡¯s time for our 7th Division to step forward. Since 6th Division bought us half an hour, let¡¯s also do the same for the 1st and 4th Divisions.


    ¡°Time is very precious, isn¡¯t it? Everyone says that a moment of time is worth an ounce of gold. I don¡¯t have that much money to be able to buy time, so I can only trade for it with my life.


    ¡°Comrades, we¡¯ll fight to the death today. The glory of protecting mankind in the Central ins is our Pyro Company¡¯s to enjoy!¡±


    But at this moment, someone from the troops at the front suddenly connected with themand vehicle on the radio. ¡°Sir, some outsiders have entered the battlefield all of a sudden! I repeat, some unknown people have entered the battlefield!¡±


    ¡°Who are they? How many of them are there?¡± P5067 was stunned.


    The ¡°unknown people¡± referred to people other than the Pyro Company and the expeditionary army¡¯s forces. It could mean that they were from the Wang Consortium, the Zhou Consortium, or anyone else. But no matter what, they were people who should not have appeared here.


    ¡°Sir, there¡¯s only two of them. One of them is the legendary White Mask,¡± the frontline soldier reported.


    P5067 quickly walked out of hismand vehicle and climbed on top of it. Then he raised his binocrs and looked towards the front line in the distance.


    He was surprised to see two people walking towards the battlefield with sabers in hand. They did not look like they were in a hurry and seemed unexpectedly calm.


    Be it the Pyro Company or the expeditionary army, there were thousands of soldiers from both sides. As such, these two individuals looked a little weak and lonely.


    Moreover, a lot of people who paid enough attention to news about superhumans knew that White Mask was not an actual person but someone¡¯s superpower, and that someone was an important figure in the Northwest.


    When he realized the other party was only a single individual, P5067 felt the person entering the battlefield was even more lonely than before.


    P5067 suddenly saw the other party apparently say something to the frontline soldiers through the binocrs. He immediately asked, ¡°What¡¯s he saying?¡±


    A frontlinemander said with much struggle over the radio, ¡°He told us to retreat. He said he¡¯ll buy some time for us.¡±


    As they spoke, the sound of a sniper rifle firing came from the distance.

 Chapter 897 - Daybreak

    <h4>Chapter 897: Daybreak</h4>


    ¡°Go on and retreat. I¡¯ll buy y¡¯all some time.¡± When Ren Xiaosu said this to the frontline Pyro Company soldiers, everyone thought he was extremely arrogant.


    Their enemies were the elites of the expeditionary army that numbered more than 7,000 strong. Even if it were a supernatural being that came here, they would probably get surrounded and die of exhaustion as well.


    But for some reason, everyone felt the other party was extremely calm when he said that. It made them feel like they could not doubt him at all.


    While he was busy talking, a barbarian took advantage of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s distraction and charged at him with a huge axe. But before he could get close to Ren Xiaosu, a sniper bullet arrived first and blew off his head.


    Not only were the barbarians not frightened by the sight of theirrade dying, but even more of them started surrounding Ren Xiaosu.


    But Ren Xiaosu was still saying calmly to the soldiers of the 7th Division, ¡°I have P5092¡¯s ck ID here. Tell yourmander that 3rd Division has already set up a defensive line 15 kilometers to the rear. As long as y¡¯all can retreat there, you¡¯ll be safe for the time being.¡±


    The soldiers stared dumbfoundedly at Ren Xiaosu, because while Ren Xiaosu was talking, White Mask kept circling around him and ughtered the enemies. Moreover, not a single barbarian could get close to him with the sniper providing such close cover.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°What are y¡¯all still standing around for? Just go.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, an airborne axe flew through the crowd and headed straight at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back.


    When a Pyro Company soldier was about to warn him, he saw Ren Xiaosu turn around and catch the flying axe nonchntly. Then he threw the axe back, and itnded in the forehead of a barbarian!


    ¡°Report the situation here to yourmander quickly. Tell him that I¡¯ll deal with these barbarians,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The Pyro Company soldiers were shocked. They were not soldiers from 3rd Division and had never fought with Ren Xiaosu before, so they did not know how fearsome he was.


    Some time ago, they had heard about White Mask. Rumors had it that the person was capable of destroying a stronghold, hence his nickname of Stronghold Destroyer. He was someone on par with the Demon Whisperer.


    But if they did not witness it with their own eyes, it would be really difficult to get a sense of how terrifying the power behind the nickname was.


    Right now, the other party¡¯s calmness on the battlefield formed a stark contrast with the nervousness of the soldiers. For some reason, everyone suddenly felt a little relieved.


    At this moment, P5067¡¯s voice rang out over the radio, ¡°Retreat! Do as he says and retreat!¡±


    With that, the 7th Division really started retreating on all fronts. When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he felt relieved. Then he started controlling Old Xu to kill the barbarians and help the Pyro Company soldiers shake off their pursuit.


    If it were any other superhuman here, the number of barbarians in the expeditionary army alone would be enough to exhaust most of their mental strength. But coincidentally, not even Ren Xiaosu had experienced the limit of his willpower before.


    But as the battlefront was too vast, Old Xu and Ren Xiaosu were unable to attract the attention of all the barbarians by just fighting at the outer perimeter.


    As such, there were still many barbarians pursuing the retreating 7th Division soldiers.


    ¡°What should I do?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°I¡¯m just gonna charge right in.¡±


    After that, Old Xu started killing its way into the inner perimeter of the expeditionary army. Old Xu was no longer afraid of getting hit by any stray bullets between its brows. Although the pain of being hacked would gradually be transferred back to Ren Xiaosu, he had gotten used to the pain since the time he acquired the Shadow Clone power.


    This habituation was paid for in blood.


    Old Xu was invincible when facing the barbarians. It would be extremely stupid if it were to get hit squarely between its brows by them.


    When Old Xu prated through to the rear of the expeditionary army¡¯s formation, the barbarians chasing after the Pyro Company troops were forced to return to defend. If White Mask that had appeared out of nowhere were to get to the rear and pose a threat to theirmander, it would be over for them.


    But in the perimeter that the expeditionary army had set up, White Mask fought like a lone sampan floating in the sea. Although it might get a little rocky at times, it would not capsize.


    No matter how many times the barbarians hacked Old Xu, they could not kill it.


    Gradually, the barbarians even felt a hint of fear when facing Old Xu. They were wondering if the person in front of them was immortal? Why couldn¡¯t they kill ¡°him¡± at all? It was as though there was no end in sight to this battle.


    Finally, Old Xu single-handedly dragged back all the expeditionary army¡¯s forces that were chasing after the Pyro Company troops!


    As for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s main body, he still had some other trump cards to y.


    P5067, who was organizing the evacuation of his troops, was observing the rear with his binocrs from time to time and paying attention to the battle on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side.


    However, he was surprised to find that White Mask had charged into the crowd of barbarians while the young man was picking his ear.


    P5067 held up his binocrs, his jaw dropping. He thought of himself as a rather strong person who was already close to the level of a T5batant. This would make him the strongest among all the division officers.


    As he had also fought a T5batant before, he felt he could be as powerful as them if he went through another round of gic modification.


    So P5067 was always very proud of hisbat strength.


    However, he never thought that someone could give him such a shock.


    The young man was actually facing the expeditionary army¡¯s barbarians that numbered in the thousands all by himself and picking his ear leisurely? This was an extremely shocking sight.


    Many of the Pyro Company soldiers were also watching this happen. The soldiers who were standing closer could even hear Ren Xiaosu say to the barbarians with augh, ¡°Why don¡¯t all y¡¯all attack at once?¡±


    The despair of the Pyro Company soldiers from earlier was in stark contrast to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s calmness at this moment.


    Those barbarians who were facing Ren Xiaosu were furious. This was the first time the expeditionary army had been looked down upon so much by someone. The other party actually picked his ear while facing the elites of the expeditionary army?


    Arrogant! How arrogant!


    Ren Xiaosu said to the barbarians as he leisurely picked his ear, ¡°Do y¡¯all know something? Actually, I agree with the saying that be it good or evil, they can only be determined when discussed in the same framework. I know that your living conditions in the North are worsening, so you¡¯ve toe to settle down in the South. But as y¡¯all¡¯ve killed too many people, you leave me with no choice but to kill you.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu took out a heavy machine gun from somewhere and swapped out his ck saber


    In the sh of an eye, Ren Xiaosu opened fire while picking his ear. He expended all of the heavy machine gun¡¯s bullets at once!


    ¡°Actually, I disapprove of the Pyro Company too. Do you know something?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I always feel that humans are all living beings who shouldn¡¯t only exist for the sake of war. When war arrives, they can be forced to take up arms. But they shouldn¡¯t be preparing for war from the day they¡¯re born.¡±


    ¡°But now, I¡¯vee to experience all sorts of feelings.¡± Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°Because they will really step forward when the world calls for them. I feel that these people deserve to live a little longer and witness the victory of this war with their own eyes. At that time, our Central ins people will send you all crawling back to the North.


    ¡°Now, we¡¯ll do unto you as you did unto us.¡±


    The barbarians were soldiers that engaged in closebat. On rare asions, they would resort to axe throwing to dobat. However, the speed of flying axes was within Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reaction speed. Moreover, with enough barbarians around, the enemy would not have a chance to throw their axes either. Otherwise, their axes could end up hurting theirrades if Ren Xiaosu dodged them.


    So Ren Xiaosu had enough confidence and trump cards when facing this entire expeditionary army.


    His Ear Picking power was a natural enemy of the barbarians.


    If he were to face any other consortium¡¯s troops, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Ear Picking would not be effective, because it would be useless if the other party was using firearms.


    But it was different for the expeditionary army.


    If the creatures in the wilderness were actually part of a food chain, Ren Xiaosu would be the natural predator of the barbarians.


    As the young man faced the thousands of warriors from the expeditionary army on the battlefield, the first rays of sunlight shone through the clouds, signaling daybreak.

 Chapter 898 - Ren Xiaosu’s new skill combo

    <h4>Chapter 898: Ren Xiaosu¡¯s new skillbo</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The 7th Division managed to evacuate safely. Although thousands of soldiers still died in the battle, the barbarians were unable to continue pursuing them after Old Xu had charged into their formation. They had to go back to eliminate Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu.


    When the expeditionary army was forced to give up pursuing the 7th Division, they found it unbelievable that their over 7,000-strong army would get held back by two people.


    Of course, the expeditionary army was still unaware that those two people on the battlefield were actually the same person.


    While retreating, P5067 kept looking back at the battlefield until he could no longer see anyone anymore.


    His adjutantmented, ¡°That was probably the most unforgettable sight I¡¯ve seen in my life. He could even pick his ear leisurely while facing a group of the barbarians¡¯ army by himself. It shows how confident he is and feels like he isn¡¯t threatened by the expeditionary army at all. The era of ¡®The Rise of Gods¡¯ has really arrived....¡±


    P5067 agreed with what he said. He had never seen anything like this before. That young man was picking his ear in the face of several thousand troops! Moreover, he felt that something like that was totally unprecedented and would never be seen again.


    P5067 sighed emotionally and said, ¡°No wonder he¡¯s on par with the Demon Whisperer. Furthermore, the shock he brought has an even greater impact than Li Shentan. After all, his is a directbat superpower. Let¡¯s hope he can sessfully get away after holding off the expeditionary army for half an hour.¡±


    ¡°Someone said that all supernatural beings were going to get ranked. When the timees, I¡¯d like to see what that young man¡¯s ranking is. If he doesn¡¯t make it to the top three, I¡¯m gonna say that the ranking has no credibility at all!¡± the adjutant said firmly.


    For now, as long as Ren Xiaosu could hold off the barbarians for half an hour, the 1st and 4th Divisions in the south and the 7th Division would sessfully reach the defensive line 15 kilometers to the rear and join up with P5092 of the 3rd Division.


    But unfortunately for the 5th Division, they would definitely not be able to escape since they did not have Ren Xiaosu¡¯s help. As such, their divisionmander also made the decision to provide cover and try to buy some time for the other divisions to retreat.


    In short, if everything else went smoothly, the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 3rd Divisions could return south of the Great Wall.


    However, they still needed to race against time, because the 6th Division that was holding off the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces in the north had likely beenpletely wiped out by now, and the barbarians in the north would start pursuing southwards again.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked extremely calm as he stood in the crowd of the barbarians¡¯ troops. His confident look left the barbarians feeling uncertain.


    However, this was probably the stacked effect brought on by his Ear Picking power. He also thought that if it were his enemy picking their ears when facing him, he would probably feel bewildered as well and wonder if the other party had any other aces up their sleeves...


    After all, even Ren Xiaosu himself felt he was being way too arrogant by picking his ear in the middle of a battle.


    But there was nothing he could do about it. Ren Xiaosu did not want to do it either, but this was his superpower. If he did not pick his ears here, he would probably have died already.


    Therefore, both the expeditionary army and the 7th Division had actually misunderstood him.


    While he was pondering, the barbarians around him kept up their attacks with their axes. The barbarians used all of their strength to try to kill Ren Xiaosu right here, right now. But when their axes came within 30 centimeters of Ren Xiaosu, they encountered an invisible resistance.


    The barbarians tended to be very forceful when they swung their axes. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Ear Picking reflected all of the forces back and instantly caused a barbarian to lose grip of his axe and dislocate his wrist!


    As the expeditionary army always solved their problems through the use of force, they had never encountered such a strange situation like this before.


    The barbarians did not really understand much about supernatural beings in the Central ins. All they had was a rough idea. Right now, the puzzled barbarians only felt that this supernatural being from the Central ins was way too powerful. They wondered how many other supernatural beings in the Central ins could face an entire army alone like that?


    The crack of the sniper rifle had stopped. This was something Ren Xiaosu had specifically instructed Yang Xiaojin to do. Once the 7th Division managed to get away, she should immediately stop shooting. That was because he would be heavily surrounded at that time. If the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces sent out many of their barbarians to look for the sniper, Yang Xiaojin would be in danger.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the vast number of barbarians around him. If he were to kill them one by one, how long would it take for him to finish killing all of them?


    He had already finished firing all of the heavy machine gun rounds, but it was only enough to kill a few hundred barbarians at most. There were still several thousand of them left at this moment.


    Although he could continue picking his ears and Old Xu was also very fast at killing enemies, the problem was that the 6th Division in the north was probably wiped out. Very soon, the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces would get here.


    At that time, it would not just be thousands of barbarians surrounding him, but tens of thousands.


    Just the thought was terrifying!


    So Ren Xiaosu had to resort to more lethal means.


    The barbarians, who were attacking Ren Xiaosu without any sess, suddenly saw this Central ins person in front of them take out four small cards from nowhere. The red and ck patterns on the cards appeared exceptionally vivid.


    A barbarian suddenly wondered, ¡®<i>Aren¡¯t those ying cards? What¡¯s he holding in his hands? Four threes?</i>¡®


    In fact, poker was a global game, so almost everyone knew what ying cards looked like.


    A momentter, the barbarians surrounding Ren Xiaosu suddenly watched him open a Shadow Door in front of them and was about to throw the ¡°quad threes¡± in his hands into an unknown ce.


    But something unexpected happened. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find that as he was picking his ears, he felt like he was being enveloped by ayer of transparent energy. He could not put his hand through the Shadow-Door, seemingly rejected.


    Then the barbarians watched Ren Xiaosu suddenly stop picking his ears in front of them. Then he put his hand through the Shadow Door and threw away the ying cards before quickly picking his ears again.


    His actions were so quick it was as though he had been scalded by the ear pick...


    Immediately after, Ren Xiaosu repeated the actions countless times as he threw out the bombs one by one into the crowd of the expeditionary army.


    If Old Xu and City Crusher were a skillbo, then Ear Picking, Shadow Door, and Explosive Poker would be his newbo.


    As the Explosive Poker was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s trump card to make up for hisck of an area-of-effect attack, he would asionally draw some ying cards when he was bored. He had dreamed of getting the legendary pair of jokers to form the ¡°King Bomb.¡±<sup>1</sup>


    For example, if he had 4,086 gratitude tokens, he would use 86 gratitude tokens to buy some Explosive Poker cards when he had nothing to do, leaving a round figure of 4,000 tokens.


    He had gained quite a lot of gratitude tokens when traveling with the Trinity Institute. Therefore, he had many Explosive Poker cards in his possession now. But unfortunately, he had not been able to obtain the King Bomb even after drawing several hundred ying cards.


    Not only had he not obtained the King Bomb, but the highest card he had gotten in the Explosive Poker deck was only a 10. He did not even get to see any of the face cards.


    Some time ago, he had thrown out ¡°quad sevens¡± while in Stronghold 74, and the cards caused a small mushroom cloud to appear. The explosive range reached up to a 100 meters in diameter. All of the buildings within 50 meters of the epicenter were razed to the ground, so the st was really quite terrifying.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu threw out the ¡°quad threes,¡± ¡°quad fours,¡± ¡°quad fives,¡± and ¡°quad sixes¡± in his hand first to blow up the barbarians. Instantaneously, explosions went off everywhere among the expeditionary army¡¯s troops. They were not even aware of how the bombs got among them.


    Although these bombs were quite powerful, bombs below ¡°quad sevens¡± could all be substituted with weapons such as grenades and other explosives. Therefore, they were not particrly important.


    Chaos descended upon the expeditionary army¡¯s forces. The barbarians tried to avoid the bombs, but no one knew where they would appear at the next moment.

 Chapter 899 - Didn’t you only say you would buy us some time?

    <h4>Chapter 899: Didn¡¯t you only say you would buy us some time?</h4>


    As they battled, the sky began to brighten.


    The expeditionary army had Ren Xiaosu surrounded, and there were so many barbarians that when Ren Xiaosu looked around, he felt like he was being enveloped by a horde.


    The barbarians¡¯ understanding of superhumans was that they would sometimes get exhausted too. If they could kill a powerful supernatural being like Ren Xiaosu by simply outnumbering him, the other main forces of the expeditionary army would face less resistance when they attacked the South in the future.


    So even if they could not hurt Ren Xiaosu, they did not allow him to leave, nor did they make to retreat.


    The barbarians had split up into two groups. One group circled Ren Xiaosu while the other circled Old Xu. In contrast, the battle at Old Xu¡¯s side was much more intense.


    As Old Xu barged around, the barbarians who came into contact with the ck saber would either lose an arm, a leg, or be left with huge wounds on their bodies.


    It was a bloody scene.


    Meanwhile, it was much more reserved at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side. He kept activating Shadow Door and throwing out Explosive Poker cards around him. He would drop the more powerful bombs further away and the less powerful ones closer.


    Outside the encirclement, some of the barbarians who could not clearly see what Ren Xiaosu was doing were blown to pieces before they could even figure out what was happening.


    When Ren Xiaosu threw the Explosive Poker cards through the Shadow Door, the numbers and colors on the cards¡¯ surfaces suddenly exploded with intense heat and light. Immediately after, a huge st sent the barbarians flying into the air.


    After throwing the low-numbered cards, Ren Xiaosu looked at the dense crowd of barbarians and thought to himself, ¡®<i>Since I¡¯vee this far, I might as well kill more of them.</i>¡®


    Thinking of this, he took out four ¡°tens¡±!


    When he previously threw the ¡°quad sevens¡± bomb, it had caused a small mushroom cloud to erupt. All of the buildings within 50 meters were razed to the ground and turned any surface within a 100 meters barren. Looking at the vast number of barbarians, Ren Xiaosu threw the ¡°quad tens¡± right at the outermost perimeter through the Shadow Door before throwing himself prone.


    The barbarians were a little baffled when they saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly drop to the ground. But a secondter, a huge heatwave suddenly approached from the outer perimeter. A visible, circryer of dust continuously radiated out after the Explosive Poker cards went off, and a transparent shockwave swept along the ground in a ripple. Meanwhile, huge mes instantly vaporized the barbarians closest to where the Explosive Poker cards were dropped.


    With a loud explosion, the ground where the Explosive Poker cardsnded caved in by more than 10 meters. The change in air pressure at the center of the explosion caused dust and debris to surge into the sky, forming a huge mushroom cloud.


    Inside the mushroom cloud, red-orange mes were shing within the dark gray dust and smoke. A faint, thunderous rumble even came from the inside.


    Even though Ren Xiaosu had already gone prone in advance, he was still sent flying several dozen meters away by the terrifying explosion¡¯s shockwave together with the barbarians around him.


    He immediately felt his entire body burning with pain. There was a suffocating pain in his chest and abdomen as well.


    Honestly, although he was the one who threw the Explosive Poker cards, he did not expect it to be so shockingly powerful!


    With this explosion alone, more than half of the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces were instantly killed. The remaining barbarians were dumbfounded.


    This was the first time Ren Xiaosu saw the elite warriors looking at a loss. The barbarians seemed to be shouting something, but Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ears were ringing, so he could not hear what they were saying.


    Seeing that there were still a lot of surviving barbarians around him, and that they were about to surround him again, Ren Xiaosu suddenly could not find the ear pick the pce gave him!


    He said over the radio that he brought with him, ¡°Cover me while I retreat! If we drag this on any longer, the expeditionary army to the north will be here soon!¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu realized the explosion would definitely affect the wirelessmunications equipment. Yang Xiaojin definitely could not hear what he just said.


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and decisively activated City Crusher in an instant. Old Xu took advantage of the moment when the barbarians were distracted to start a massacre and ughtered through the crowd to make its way to Ren Xiaosu. Then it picked Ren Xiaosu up and ran south.


    When the barbarians came back to their senses, they wanted to give chase. But the sniper hiding in the unknown suppressed them again and forced the pursuing troops to take cover, pinning them down fully.


    Although theirmunications had been cut off, Yang Xiaojin knew what she had to do at the appropriate moment.


    Amander of the barbarians said coldly, ¡°It¡¯s only a sniper. We still have so many men, so let¡¯s break through the suppressing fire directly. Go and capture those three people!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, the barbarians realized the gunfire had stopped when they rushed out from their cover. Meanwhile, the two people who ran away from them had disappeared as well.


    The barbarians were stunned for a moment. So the Central ins people could actually run this fast when they were fleeing?!


    Everyone looked back at themander and waited for further instructions. But before themander could make a decision, they could hear a heavy and rapid footfalling from the north.


    Themander¡¯s face sank. He knew very well what the consequences of his failure would be.


    ...


    The troops of the retreating 7th Division also heard the explosion behind them. When they turned around, they could even see a huge mushroom cloud rising into the air through gaps in the forest.


    Arge amount of smoke and dust billowed up into the sky. This suddenly darkened the brightening sky again.


    As P5067 stared dumbfoundedly at this sight, his adjutant said, ¡°I understand why he said he would hold off the expeditionary army for half an hour by himself. So it turns out he brought explosives with him. To be able to cause such a huge explosion, he must¡¯ve brought along a lot of explosives. If he was aiming to detonate them among the barbarian troops, I guess he would definitely be caught in the st as well.¡±


    P5067 was silent for a moment. ¡°He¡¯s a hero. He sacrificed himself to buy some time for us to escape.¡±


    To them, Ren Xiaosu must have perished with arge number of barbarians while hugging the explosives in his arms.They suddenly felt a sense of bitterness.


    In the course of a day, too many people had departed from the world.


    But just as they were mourning in silence, they saw Ren Xiaosu, who was covered in dirt, suddenly emerge from the forest behind them. Together with Yang Xiaojin, they ran all the way past the 7th Division¡¯s troops.


    When Ren Xiaosu ran past themand vehicle, he shouted, ¡°What are y¡¯all still standing there for? The expeditionary army is right on our heels! Run already!¡±


    As his ears were still ringing, Ren Xiaosu felt that his voice was a little soft. So he would shout every time he wanted to say something.


    P5067 looked at Ren Xiaosu and almost could not react in time. ¡°Wait, what about the barbarians that intercepted us?¡±


    ¡°Blew half of them up.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ve helped y¡¯all hold them off. Although I was only able to dy them for 20 minutes or so, I killed enough barbarians to make up for it. Hurry up and run.¡±


    After that, the soldiers of the 7th Division watch Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin sprint off again and quickly disappear off into the distance in front of them.


    P5067 continued to retreat the 7th Division. Along the way, he and his adjutant remained silent for a long time.


    Of course it was a good thing that Ren Xiaosu did not die. But didn¡¯t he only say he would buy the 7th Division some time? How did it end up with him killing half of the barbarian troops then?

 Chapter 900 - P5092’s thoughts

    <h4>Chapter 900: P5092¡¯s thoughts</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    While it might seem ferocious to have killed several thousand barbarian troops, Ren Xiaosu understood the situation he was in. It was not that easy to get the ¡°quad tens¡± bomb from the Explosive Poker deck, and he had only managed to gather this set of ¡°quad tens¡± after spending hundreds of gratitude tokens to draw the cards. As for getting the even more valuable bombs, he had only obtained a single jack through the draws so far.


    So if he really wanted to get the King Bomb, he would probably have to spend tens of thousands of gratitude tokens.


    But Ren Xiaosu was also hugely looking forward to unlocking the third weapon. Although he had more than 5,000 gratitude tokens, it did not make sense to use everything in exchange for the Explosive Poker cards.


    Unless he were in grave danger, he would not resort to using the Explosive Poker cards to save himself.


    Moreover, the ear pick given by the pce was now missing. Ren Xiaosu asked the pce, ¡°If the ear pick is lost, can I still use Ear Picking?¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Yes, but there is a cooldown time until the ear pick is restored.¡±


    ¡°How long¡¯s the cooldown?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Seven days.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, looks like I should try not to have a direct confrontation with the barbarians in the next seven days,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh.


    He received internal injuries again. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that he wanted to keep Old Xu hidden in the forest in case there was an opportunity to strike, he would have had Old Xu carry him while running away.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body could barely engage in high-intensity battles. Hisbat capacity in a battle was still not as powerful as Li Shentan¡¯s, after all.


    If Li Shentan were here, he could easily hypnotize a group of the barbarians¡¯ main forces and have them fight an attrition battle among themselves until he was the only one remaining.


    Unfortunately, Li Shentan was currently waiting for the typhoon season in the South. No one knew what kind of mentality it took to purposely wait for typhoons to arrive. Based on the timing, the typhoons would probably arrive at the south coast only in July or August. As such, it would probably be very difficult to see Li Shentan again before that.


    It was very difficult to guess what a lunatic was thinking.


    In the past, many of the consortiums were d the guy was a lunatic. He was not willing to participate in any political struggles and did not have any thoughts of world supremacy. Otherwise, many of the consortiums would be in trouble.


    That was the status the Demon Whisperermanded in this currently chaotic world...


    He was someone even the consortiums feared.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and the 7th Division, who were making their escape with them, were about to arrive at the defensive line set up by the 3rd Division.


    From afar, Ren Xiaosu could already see P5092 ordering the soldiers in the defensive line to open up a path for the 7th Division. Meanwhile, the 1st and 4th Divisions continued to retreat after a quick reorganization. The evacuation would not end until everyone safely returned south of the Great Wall.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin jumped behind the makeshift defensive line constructed with sandbags by the 3rd Division. He said, ¡°I¡¯ve brought the 7th Division back as promised. Including your 3rd Division, there¡¯ll be four divisions retreating back to south of the Great Wall.¡±


    P5092 had said that as long as four of their divisions managed to retreat, the Pyro Company would still have a chance of winning this battle.


    However, P5092 shook his head and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s three divisions. The 3rd Division will stay here and provide cover for the other troops to retreat.¡±


    ¡°You want to sacrifice yourself?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned. He thought to himself, ¡®<i>Why is this person going back on his word? Haven¡¯t we agreed that he¡¯ll join the Prosperous Northwest? Why does he insist on dying here?</i>¡®


    Ren Xiaosu was prepared to knock P5092 unconscious and carry him away. Since he had already done everything he needed to do, what was the point of him staying here?


    Calcting the time, the troops led by Zhang Xiaoman should have arrived at the vicinity of the Wang Consortium¡¯s defensive line by now, so he should also be joining up with hisrades.


    However, P5092 exined, ¡°It¡¯s not that I want to sacrifice myself, but my 3rd Division is an artillery unit. After we intercept the barbarians here, all of our ammunition will definitely be expended. And we can¡¯t possibly tow the artillery back when we evacuate since that¡¯d dy our retreat. So the 3rd Division can only function as an engineering unit in the rear after we lose our artillery.¡±


    ¡°You should¡¯ve said so earlier.¡± Ren Xiaosu immediately understood that P5092 was only implying that the 3rd Division¡¯sbat strength would drop, and they would practically be useless after they abandoned their artillery here. ¡°But I can only do so much. I¡¯m sorry that I couldn¡¯t save the 5th Division.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be sorry about.¡± P5092 shook his head. ¡°The entire Pyro Company should remember this favor of yours. If it weren¡¯t for you, 7th Division would¡¯ve been held back by the barbarians, and we wouldn¡¯t stand a chance of fighting anymore.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let me rest for a bit first.¡± Ren Xiaosu leaned against a tree and panted in exhaustion. After a night of fighting, charging at the enemy, and then fleeing, the effects of his internal injuries and physical exhaustion started surfacing.


    After a brief conversation with P5092, the 7th Division¡¯smander also retreated south. Another 20 minutester, Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked P5092, ¡°What¡¯s the barrage range that you¡¯ve determined?¡±


    ¡°4,500 meters, but we have to wait for the barbarians to get closer before firing.¡± P5092 said, ¡°We can¡¯t send out our scouts anymore. As the forest is too dense, visibility is only about 700 meters. It¡¯d be a little dangerous to open fire like that.¡±


    ¡°What distance do you n on waiting for the barbarians to get to before opening fire?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s best if they get to within 2,000 meters of us,¡± P5092 answered.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. He remained silent for another couple minutes before saying, ¡°You can give the order to open fire now.¡±


    P5092 was stunned. However, he did not doubt Ren Xiaosu. Instead, he decisively ordered all the artillery troops tounch a simultaneous attack.


    There would be no depth to the attacking pattern, and they only sought to immediately bombard the front with all their firepower so the expeditionary army would think there was a Pyro Company ambush set up here. After that, the 3rd Division could evacuate safely.


    When the expeditionary army hesitated about whether to attack, the 3rd Division would have already gone back behind the walls.


    The only problem was that no one even saw the barbarians yet. Would there be any problems now that Ren Xiaosu gave them the clearance to fire?


    If it were any of the other divisionmanders here, they would definitely trust their own eyes more.


    But the 3rd Division was different. The intel Ren Xiaosu had given them had never been wrong before. So even if they could not see anything, they still strictly carried out the order!


    When the artillery weapons started firing one after another, the entire forest was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder.


    The sound of the artillery fire was stimting and inspiring, especially when they were fired in unison. The power that burst out of the barrels seemed like it could even tear the sky apart.


    Ren Xiaosu waited in silence. After six rounds of artillery fire, P5092 decisively gave the order to retreat. Meanwhile, the artillery were abandoned in the forest having alreadypleted their final mission.


    It was not that P5092 did not want to tow them back but that he could not do so. When he deployed the artillery troops from behind the walls, he had already thought of this oue.


    While the barbarians did not dare to continue advancing, the 3rd Division retreated at full speed. On their way back, Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°What¡¯s the battle n after we return to the Great Wall? Is there anything else I can help you with?¡±


    P5092 was stunned. Then he said with a smile, ¡°I don¡¯t know. There aren¡¯t any ns. We¡¯ll have to wait for instructions from HQ.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at P5092 putting on a rxed expression and sensed there was something on his mind.

 Chapter 901 - The Prosperous Northwest!

    <h4>Chapter 901: The Prosperous Northwest!</h4>


    The 3rd Division¡¯s retreat went exceptionally smoothly. Truly, those several rounds of artillery fire were effective, causing the expeditionary army to hesitate to pursue them.


    After all, the expeditionary army had used subterfuge to lure the Pyro Company into advancing, so they would not want tomit the same mistake.


    But with this hesitation, they missed the best opportunity to cut off the 3rd Division¡¯s retreat.


    After returning to the Great Wall, Ren Xiaosu followed P5092 right back to the 3rd Division¡¯smand center. ¡°What kind of punishment do you think those divisionmanders will receive? If not for their greed and recklessness, we would have scored an amazing victory.¡±


    P5092 fell silent at the mention.


    The P5manders of the 7th, 1st, and 4th Divisions had alle to pay a visit to P5092. The three of them probably did not rest at all. They had handed over the reorganization of their divisions to their adjutants beforeing to see P5092.


    When the 7th Division¡¯smander saw Ren Xiaosu, he was stunned. He was wondering why Ren Xiaosu would help the 7th Division. So it turned out he was P5092¡¯s friend.


    Thinking about it now, he suddenly felt ashamed he did not listen to P5092¡¯s advice and even ended up needing to be saved by him.


    He greeted Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Thank you for your help this time.¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from P5067, +1.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, you don¡¯t have to thank me so quickly.¡±


    Logically, Ren Xiaosu should have answered, ¡°If you want to thank anyone, thank P5092 instead. He was the one who asked me to help all y¡¯all.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu did not say that. Instead, he followed up with, ¡°When I¡¯m done with my work here, I¡¯ll specially make a trip to the 7th Division within the next two days. At that time, you can thank me together with all of your men.¡±


    The 7th Division¡¯smander was confused.


    The threemanders in themand center were all stunned. ¡®<i>What the hell? What¡¯s with this unexpected reply?!</i>¡®


    P5092 smiled and changed the subject. ¡°I know why the three of you came to look for me.¡±


    P5067 said with a wry smile, ¡°This time, we¡¯ll definitely be punished by HQ for attempting to seek glory and our reckless actions. You know how strict HQ¡¯s punishments are. So I¡¯m here this time to ask you as our actingmander-in-chief to speak up for us. It¡¯s not that I covet this role, but thest-minute change in leadership will affect thebat effectiveness of our 7th Division. After the war ends, I¡¯ll personally submit my resignation letter, but nothing must happen to me right now. As long as you can convince HQ to dy dishing out our punishment, I¡¯m willing to write my resignation letter now and ce it with you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. What was this?


    But from the look of things, the other party really treated P5092 as themander-in-chief.


    P5092 looked at the other two. ¡°You two are going to say the same thing, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± the other two divisionmanders said. They looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Is this your friend? Can you excuse us¡ª¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need,¡± P5092 interrupted. ¡°There¡¯s no need to ask him to leave. I¡¯ll also give everyone a direct answer here. In the future, we¡¯ll still need everyone to work together sincerely for the war. So I¡¯ll help all of you through the difficult times when HQ carries out its investigations. As for quitting your positions as divisionmander after the war, there¡¯s no need for that. Instead, I feel that amander who has suffered defeat before will know how to earn victory through cautiousness in the future. The three of you should hurry back and get some rest. The expeditionary army will arrive at the Great Wall tomorrow.¡±


    After sending off the three divisionmanders, Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless. If P5092 became themander-in-chief of the Pyro Company, he could not take him away from here.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Is the Pyro Company so strict that they would rece theirmanders in such a critical moment?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± P5092 nodded and said, ¡°A mistake is a mistake. Anyone who makes a mistake has to be punished. This is a house rule of the Pyro Company. Moreover, in the eyes of the higher-ups, be it me or them, we¡¯re just cogs in a machine. If any cogs break, they have to rece them. That¡¯s their mentality when ites to running things.¡±


    ¡°Then how do you n to help them?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°It might be a good choice to pin all the me on the dead 6th and 5th Divisions¡¯manders.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± P5092 shook his head. ¡°Although they were in the wrong during the pursuit, it was a wise decision from them to stay behind. Furthermore, they¡¯ve already sacrificed their lives for their ideals, so I can¡¯t simply discredit their honor.¡±


    ¡°But you just said that in the view of the Pyro Company¡¯s leaders, thosemanders were indeed in the wrong,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Actually, discrediting their honor is also eptable, but I can¡¯t bear to let the soldiers of the 6th and 5th Divisions be disgraced as well.¡± P5092 sighed and said, ¡°Just as you said, from the most logical point of view, I¡¯m sure that even if those two divisionmanders hadn¡¯t died, they couldn¡¯t have made up for their mistakes this time. However, the soldiers were innocent, so their spirits should be allowed to return home with honor.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to be sopassionate,¡± Ren Xiaosu praised. ¡°Then how do you n on saving those threemanders?¡±


    As he spoke, a group of soldiers in white military uniforms came to the entrance of themand center. P5092 looked out as one of the soldiers said, ¡°Sir, we¡¯re with the military police and havee to investigate the reasons for the defeat. Before this, we learned the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Divisions were all guilty of dereliction of duty due to glory chasing. We¡¯re here to corroborate with you on whether that¡¯s true.¡±


    P5092 was silent for a moment before saying, ¡°It¡¯s not their fault. I was the one who ordered them to pursue the enemy.¡±


    The soldier was stunned. ¡°Sir, what did you say? This doesn¡¯t tally with the facts we found.¡±


    P5092 smiled and said, ¡°How doesn¡¯t it? I was indeed the one who gave them the order to pursue the enemy, so it¡¯s only right that I be punished. Take me away. I¡¯ve already handed over my duties. I¡¯m willing to go with the military police to be investigated.¡±


    Then P5092 turned around and said to Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°I wonder when we¡¯ll meet again after bidding farewell this time. If we ever do, I hope you¡¯ll still recognize me.¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was really stunned. He did not expect P5092 to actually hand over his duties in advance. This meant he was prepared to take all the me from the beginning.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and asked, ¡°Wait, why are you doing this?¡±


    ¡°Because it¡¯s the most logical choice.¡± P5092 thought for a moment before adding, ¡°Of course, it¡¯s also because I¡¯ve be a little tired.¡±


    He was probably referring to bing tired of the power struggles that had been going on.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately thought of something else. P5092 had mentioned that the 3rd Division was the Pyro Company¡¯s artillery unit. After abandoning their artillery in the forest, the 3rd Division would be reduced to ying a bit role as an engineering unit in the rear due to a shortage of ammunition.


    This also meant that even if P5092 were to be taken away, it would not affect the war on the front lines.


    On the other hand, if the other divisions that still had some strength left in them were to see a change of leadership at this time, it would cause theirbat strength to fall drastically. In fact, amander and their troops would have to work together for at least two years to gel, and a newmander could not bring out the full potential of their troops in the first two years ofmand.


    It was not that the troops were disobedient, but that themander-subordinate rtionship needed to be ironed out. It was definitely not that easy to lead troops into battle. War was not like ying chess, and soldiers were not chess pieces either.


    Therefore, in the eyes of P5092, sacrificing himself to keep the other threemanders in their roles was the most pragmatic choice and also the most beneficial one for the Pyro Company¡¯s victory.


    P5092 once said that if he were required to sacrifice himself in a war, he would not hesitate to do it.


    Now, it was time for P5092 to do just that.


    ¡°What punishment will you receive?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked calmly.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have my gic modifications undone and be put behind bars for 15 years,¡± P5092 analyzed. ¡°But I¡¯ll be on good behavior in prison, so I should be out in about 10 years.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and said, ¡°It¡¯s time for you to fulfill our agreement then!¡±


    P5092 was stunned. ¡°What agreement do we have?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    P5092 was confused. He wondered when the agreement was made. Why did he not know about it?!


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not say much to P5092. He knew that P5092 already intended to go, and now that he had encountered this situation, it was time for him to leave the Pyro Company.


    After that, Ren Xiaosu suddenly stepped over to P5092 and hit him on the neck with a knifehand strike. P5092 tried to resist, but hisbat strength was not enough to deal with Ren Xiaosu. He immediately passed out.


    The soldiers in the white uniforms quickly raised their guns. ¡°What are you doing?! Stop right there!¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu supported the unconscious P5092 and said to the adjutant at the side, ¡°I¡¯m taking yourmander away now. I don¡¯t think you want to see him spending 10 years in prison either, right?¡±


    The adjutant hesitated. ¡°Where are you taking him?¡±


    ¡°To the Northwest, the Prosperous Northwest!¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°Why don¡¯t you go as well? Forget it, you¡¯re too trash. It¡¯s better that you don¡¯t go.¡±


    The adjutant shouted, ¡°... What the fuck?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said to the adjutant, ¡°Let me ask you this: Do you want him to waste ten years in prison? If not, help us get away.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± the adjutant replied.


    But before the adjutant could order the 3rd Division¡¯s soldiers to ce the military policemen under arrest, they suddenly put down their guns. ¡°Actually, we don¡¯t want to see this P5mander get court martialed either. Everyone knows he¡¯s taking the me for the othermanders. How about this? You can knock us out too and then escape with him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded. What the hell was this?


    The adjutant said, ¡°Please take themander with you and leave first. I¡¯ll knock them out.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before carrying P5092 and running out of the military base with Yang Xiaojin. During this time, all the soldiers of the 3rd Division saluted the unconscious P5092 to send him off. No one came forward to stop Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect such a cold-heartedmander to be loved by so many soldiers.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. Such talent is destined for the Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    All the soldiers of the 3rd Division stood at the entrance of their barracks as they watched Ren Xiaosu carry P5092 far away. Some of them even had tears in their eyes.


    Actually, P5092 did not treat them well, as he was too strict with them. Their training was strict and their daily routine was strict. It was so strict it was on the verge of being harsh.


    Moreover, sometimes, he would even send soldiers to their deaths with just a word.


    But for some reason, everyone respected thismander from the bottom of their heart. It was probably because he was true to his ideals.


    Theirmander had finally gone to the Prosperous Northwest...

 Chapter 902 - Gratitude tokens

    <h4>Chapter 902: Gratitude tokens</h4>


    ¡°Wait!¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around as he was leaving.


    Next to him, Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Are you wondering why no one is chasing after us?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°it¡¯s only reasonable that they aren¡¯t chasing after us. P5092 has epted full me in order to secure the Pyro Company¡¯s future victory, so who would want theirmander to go to jail over such an unfortunate matter? The entire Pyro Company knows that he¡¯s actually a hero and not a criminal.¡±


    ¡°Then what¡¯s wrong?¡± Yang Xiaojin wondered.


    ¡°Gratitude!¡± Ren Xiaosu looked back at the Pyro Company¡¯s base in the distance and said firmly, ¡°The 7th Division hasn¡¯t thanked me yet!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was speechless.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, he could forget about the other divisions¡¯ gratitude since he did not personally save them. Even if he were to ask them to thank him, it might not be sincere.


    But the 7th Division was different since he had risked his life to save them. Under such circumstances, how could he possibly give up on earning those gratitude tokens and leave?


    At this moment, the 7th Division¡¯smander, P5067, had just received news that P5092 had been abducted.


    On the other end of the line was the voice of the 1st Division¡¯smander, ¡°It¡¯s actually a good thing that P5092 was taken away. If he doesn¡¯t leave, he¡¯ll have to spend more than ten years in prison. No one wants to see that happen. When he told us not to worry, we should¡¯ve known that he was going to bear all the responsibility by himself.¡±


    P5067 sighed and said, ¡°That¡¯s right, we owe him too much. After this war is over, I won¡¯t have the dignity to continue being a divisionmander. I won¡¯t even be able to walk with my head held high in front of my own soldiers when I used the freedom of another to secure my future.¡±


    ¡°I heard that the person who abducted him also participated in this battle. I think he¡¯s the one from the Northwest?¡± the 1st Division¡¯smander asked.


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s White Mask from the Northwest,¡± P5067 confirmed. ¡°When 7th Division got ambushed by the barbarians in the battle, he was the one who saved us. Speaking of which, you might not believe it, but he was still in the mood to pick his ears when facing more than several thousand barbarians of the expeditionary army. If I didn¡¯t see it with my own eyes, it would be very difficult for me to imagine that such a powerful figure has already appeared in the world of supernatural beings. It¡¯s no wonder he¡¯s as famous as the Demon Whisperer. Moreover, he used some unknown method to kill thousands of barbarianster. How extremely fearsome.¡±


    ¡°Fortunately, he¡¯s from the Northwest, so we don¡¯t have to make an enemy out of him. However, this is probably the first time someone¡¯s dared to abduct a person from our Pyro Company¡¯s base. If word gets out, he¡¯l probably be known as the best kidnapper in the world,¡± the 1st Division¡¯smander said.


    P5067 nodded and said, ¡°Yes, our goal is actually the same as the Northwest.¡±


    But at this moment, a staff officer suddenly walked hesitantly into P5067¡¯smand center. P5067 did not hang up. He wondered, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Didn¡¯t I tell you to go and rest?¡±


    The staff officer said, ¡°It¡¯s like this, someone¡¯s looking for you outside.¡±


    ¡°Who is it?¡± P5067 asked. He wondered who woulde looking for him at a time like this.


    The staff officer answered, ¡°It¡¯s the person who saved us on the battlefield.¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± P5067 gasped in shock and nearly choked.


    Over the phone, the 1st Division¡¯smander¡¯s voice rang out, ¡°Is someone looking for you?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± P5067 said.


    ¡°Who is it?¡±


    ¡°A kidnapper...¡±


    With that, P5067 hung up and rushed outside. Many soldiers had already gathered at the entrance of the military base to watch. P5067 frowned at the soldiers and said, ¡°What are you all looking at? Disperse.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t go.¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice rang out, ¡°I was just looking for them.¡±


    As P5067 spoke, he pushed through the crowd. He saw Ren Xiaosu carrying P5092.


    P5067 would admit that he was stunned for a moment when he saw this sight. This kidnapper was way too bold. He did not leave after abducting a person from the 3rd Division but came here to the 7th Division instead? Wasn¡¯t he afraid he would get taken out by the Pyro Company?


    However, P5067 also understood that the other party was probably aware of their thoughts and knew no one would make things difficult for him at this time.


    P5067 said amiably, ¡°How can I help you?¡±


    As they spoke, everyone automatically filtered out P5092¡¯s presence on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shoulder as though they did not see anything.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Did you forget what I said earlier? I¡¯m waiting for the 7th Division¡¯s soldiers to thank me.¡±


    P5067 had to admit that his mind went nk again. This guy actually came to the 7th Division just so they could thank him?! <i>¡®Are you crazy?! What are you thinking? Is it that important to be thanked? Can you eat it?¡¯</i>


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a strange look. ¡°Hurry up, I¡¯m in a rush.¡±


    P5067 exined patiently, ¡°It¡¯s like this. Most of our 7th Division soldiers have already gone to rest. It¡¯ll take a while to wake them up at this time. Moreover, we could be in for a huge battle tomorrow. If we don¡¯t let them rest up now...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips. ¡°Then just have those who aren¡¯t resting yet to thank me.¡±


    ¡°OK, OK.¡± P5067 quickly ordered his adjutant to organize the troops. Ten minutester, he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°All the soldiers who aren¡¯t resting yet are here now. Total strength: 1,091. Present strength: 1,091. Even the cooks are here too.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu found it a little pitiful. This was not what he had imagined. After all, there were still more than 5,000 soldiers left in the 7th Division. He had rushed back here because he thought there would be 5,000 gratitude tokens for him to earn.


    He thought for a moment and said, ¡°Then we¡¯ll have everyone say three rounds of thanks to me.¡±


    After that, more than a 1,000 soldiers stood in front of Ren Xiaosu and thanked him in unison. For the first round, there was an increase of 1,091 tokens. For the second round, he earned over 500 tokens. By the third round, he only managed to get about 200 tokens.


    The soldiers could not be med for being insincere. This situation was simply too bizarre, so they were unable to thank him seriously...


    Seeing P5092 still lying unconscious on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shoulder, they realized he was totally unaware of what was happening here. Once he woke up and found out about this, they wondered if he would have the courage to face everything that was happening now.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gratitude tokens shot up to 7,000 in total. Having lost interest, he waved off the soldiers. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll be leaving then!¡±


    As P5067 watched Ren Xiaosu leave, he realized that P5092 was probably going to be taken to the Northwest.


    In truth, the Pyro Company¡¯s impression of Fortress 178 was still very good. At the very least, both of them were tasked with protecting the Central ins. And now that P5067 thought about it, he felt it might not be a bad thing for P5092 to escape prison and head to the Northwest.


    Moreover, Fortress 178 might be a better home for P5092 than the Pyro Company, whichcked humanpassion.


    But this young man was rumored to be the futuremander of Fortress 178? Although no one knew where this news came from, he thought it should be true.


    The 7th Division¡¯smander recalled everything that had happened just now and muttered to himself, ¡°Is it really alright for Fortress 178 to have a futuremander like that?¡±


    Another group of military policemen ran over. They looked at P5067 and asked, ¡°Where are they?¡±


    P5067 replied frankly, ¡°They¡¯ve left.¡±


    Themander of the military police frowned. ¡°How can you just let him leave like that? He¡¯s now a wanted criminal of our Pyro Company.¡±


    P5067 rolled his eyes. ¡°Go and arrest him then. He can kill thousands of barbarians single-handedly. I¡¯d like to detain him too, but I¡¯d have to have the balls to do that first!¡±

 Chapter 903 - P5092

    Chapter 903 : P5092


    Trantor: Legge


    It wasn¡¯t until afternoon that P5092 regained consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes and realized he was not at the military base at the Great Wall anymore. For a while, he was still in a daze and unsure of the situation.


    Then he began to remember some things. Two words kept revolving in his mind.


    A delighted voice called out from the side, ¡°You¡¯re awake?¡±


    A bad feeling arose within P5092. He slowly turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, who were sitting nearby. ¡°Where am I? What happened....¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re on our way to the Prosperous Northwest!¡± Ren Xiaosu said happily.


    Yes, it was precisely these two words. While he was dreaming just now, these two words kept echoing in his mind and could not be cast aside.


    P5092 closed his eyes and attempted to ¡°wake up¡± again. He felt like he might still be dreaming, and the dream was even a little bizarre.


    But when he opened his eyes again, nothing changed, and Ren Xiaosu was still smiling as well.


    Ren Xiaosu said patiently, ¡°Didn¡¯t we agree to go to the Prosperous Northwest together? Have you forgotten?¡±


    At a certain moment, P5092 even felt like he was in a horror movie where he was being dragged into the basement by the serial killer. The other party¡¯s tone sounded like he was some kind of psycho.


    P5092 thought for a long time before saying, ¡°When did I say I was going to the Prosperous Northwest?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°You didn¡¯t contradict me when I said that we were going to be one family soon.¡±


    ¡°That was because I wanted you to join the Pyro Company.¡± P5092 exined, ¡°When you said we were going to be family soon, I thought you were thinking of joining the Pyro Company!¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Only at this moment did Ren Xiaosu realize the two of them had always been talking about different things.


    However, it was not a big deal. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°In any case, we¡¯re heading to the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    P5092 did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°So you really are from Fortress 178? Why were you with the Wang Consortium¡¯s medical team that went to the Kong Consortium then?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a long story. I went to the Kong Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 31 to save someone, but I got stopped by you just as I was about to leave. Now that I think about it, that was when your fate got intertwined with the Northwest,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t wish to go to the Northwest.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°No, you want to.¡±


    P5092 was speechless.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be great if we went to the Northwest?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If we went there, we wouldn¡¯t have to face the troublesome matters that you experienced at the Pyro Company. No one will fight to achieve personal glory, nor will there be a need to gain fame or fortune. If it¡¯s yours, it¡¯s yours. If it¡¯s not, it¡¯s useless even if you fight for it.¡±


    ¡°How can there be such a ce?¡± P5092 sneered and said, ¡°There¡¯s nowhere in the world where fame and fortune don¡¯t exist. As long as there¡¯s people, there¡¯s politics. It¡¯s the same everywhere. Although I don¡¯t know much about the Northwest, I do know what people are like.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. ¡°You¡¯re right. There actually are a lot of such incidents even in the Northwest. But since you¡¯re tired of all this and don¡¯t even want to be themander-in-chief of the Pyro Company¡¯s military corps, you can just head to the Northwest and retire behind the scenes. If anything happens, I¡¯ll take the me.¡±


    P5092 wondered, ¡°What exactly do you want me to do in the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°Whatever you did previously. You can just continue doing the same thing.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Ick someone good at waging war.¡±


    P5092 asked in seriousness, ¡°Against who?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized this question was very important to P5092. He said solemnly to P5092, ¡°Fortress 178¡¯s mission is to protect, and we will never initiate an invasion on others. This is highly consistent with your philosophy, but the only thing is that we don¡¯t sacrifice ourrades like you did.¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s not that I want to sacrifice them. But to achieve the final victory, everything and anything can be sacrificed. If we get soft on the battlefield, a lot more people will get sacrificedter.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin finally spoke up, ¡°This is the reason why he needs you. He¡¯s not suited to be a militarymander. But if you n to sacrifice him for the cause in the future, he might just end up surprising you. I feel that the two of youplement each other quite well.¡±


    P5092 and Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin in silence. After a while, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°That¡¯s true....¡±


    P5092 finally asked, ¡°What if I still don¡¯t want to go after your persuasion? What will you do with me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ve never thought about that possibility before. You have to go no matter what.¡±


    P5092 sighed and said, ¡°Then why are you still talking so much....¡±


    ¡°To show you my respect.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°The ancients have their three visits to the thatched cottage. Aren¡¯t I just following the ancients¡¯ way of expressing my sincerity to you?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at Ren Xiaosu. The two of them had discussed in private how to convince P5092 to join the Prosperous Northwest. She had suggested that Ren Xiaosu follow the ¡°three visits to the thatched cottage¡± so he could move P5092 with his sincerity.


    However, what Ren Xiaosu said back then was different from what he was saying now.


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu said it would be very troublesome to visit the thatched cottage thrice, so he should just burn it down and leave him with no ce to stay. When that happened, wouldn¡¯t he have no choice but to join the Prosperous Northwest? That was how everyone in the Northwest did it!


    Yang Xiaojin was floored for a while. She thought it was no wonder everyone said the Northwest was full of those damned fucks. Perhaps it was because they did things like that too often.


    And the reason why Ren Xiaosu could get along so well with those people from the Northwest was because their personalities werepatible.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said to P5092, ¡°Since you¡¯re no longer part of the Pyro Company, how ¡¯bout calling you by your given name, Ling Han? It¡¯ll symbolize your new start.¡±


    However, P5092 shook his head. ¡°I prefer the name P5092 now. Just call me that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He suddenly realized that while he might find it inappropriate to use a serial number as a name, it symbolized all the youth and hard work P5092 had put into his ideals of protecting mankind in the Central ins. It also symbolized the greatest glory of his life. Behind this number were the countless lives of the barbarians that had been killed. It was both a name and a badge of honor.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll continue calling you P5092,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a chuckle. For some reason, he felt that he had gotten quite used to calling the other party by his serial number. It was as though it would feel a little odd if he did not call him by that.


    Perhaps P5092 was using this as a way to tell Ren Xiaosu that even though he had temporarily agreed to go to the Northwest, his ambition remained the same and his priority was always to protect mankind in the Central ins.


    Therefore, if their ideologies shed in the future, and Ren Xiaosu decided to rule the world by waging war in the Central ins, P5092 would leave.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not worried about that at all. He was not an ambitious person.


    ¡°By the way,¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°what¡¯s your opinion of this war? Can the Pyro Company win? With so many barbariansing to battle the Pyro Company, they must not have many troops left on the Wang Consortium¡¯s side. If the Wang Consortium joins forces with the Pyro Company, would the chances of winning be higher?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that simple.¡± P5092 shook his head. ¡°I previously thought there might not be many barbarians on the Wang Consortium¡¯s side either, but now, I feel that I might¡¯ve made a wrong judgment. This could be another trap.¡±

 Chapter 904 - Information sharing

    <h4>Chapter 904: Information sharing</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Another trap? Why do you say that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    In the past, whenever there was something that he did not understand, he would turn to books to search for the answers. However, the knowledge found in books might not be able to clearly exin everything in the world.


    When he went to ask those who understood these principles, they might not be willing to tell him either.


    Now that he had such an expert militarymander beside him, Ren Xiaosu felt like he could finally catch up on some of the lessons in this field.


    P5092 replied to his question, ¡°I received newsst night that all of the barbarians at the Wang Consortium¡¯s Mt. Daniu front line have disappeared. The Wang Consortium also found out about it a day ago. However, they did not share this information with the Pyro Company. Otherwise, the Pyro Company would definitely have been prepared and wouldn¡¯t have suffered a defeat.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent. He realized the Wang Consortium was already starting to resort to unscrupulous means now that they were in a hurry toplete the unification of the Alliance of Strongholds.


    Once the barbarians pinned the Pyro Company, the Wang Consortium could just sit back in safety and watch the tigers fight beforeing out to clean up the mess.


    P5092 drew a simple map on the loess soil with a tree branch. ¡°This is the outline of the Pyro Company and Wang Consortium¡¯s battlefield on the northern front. The two parties are around 200 kilometers apart and have the ability to keep watch for each other. Although it was not discussed prior, the front lines at Mt. Daniu and the Great Wall are like coordinate points in a defensive deployment.¡±


    ¡°Look, this is Erjin River. Once the expeditionary army sends all their troops to the Pyro Company¡¯s side, the Wang Consortium troops can immediately nk the expeditionary army from the direction of Erjin River. At that time, the barbarians would be caught in a dilemma where they can neither fight nor retreat,¡± P5092 continued exining. ¡°So as you can see, the current situation is actually very disadvantageous for the expeditionary army.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°But you¡¯ve also fought the expeditionary army before. Do you think they¡¯re really such ignorant people?¡± P5092 asked. ¡°They were willing to sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of their elderly by using them as bait to score a victory in battle, so would such people ce themselves in such a dangerous situation? So they must have a backup n. I suspect the expeditionary army still has arge number of soldiers in the North and is waiting for the Wang Consortium to reinforce the Pyro Company. That¡¯s the most logical exnation I have!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought ¡°If that¡¯s really the case, there¡¯ll still be several tough battles to fight in the future. But doesn¡¯t everyone say that the environment in the North is really harsh? Why would they still have so many people?¡±


    ¡°The expeditionary army is different from us. They are moving south en masse. If we include the Qing Consortium, Fortress 178, the Wang Consortium, the Kong Consortium, the Pyro Company, and the Zhou Consortium, our military strength will naturally be much greater than theirs. In fact, it might even be several timesrger than them. But we aren¡¯t united as a nation.¡± P5092 sighed and said, ¡°This gives them a chance to take advantage of us.¡±


    Based on P5092¡¯s deduction, the number of people in the Far North was probably only about one-fifth of that of the Central ins, or even less.


    But as all of their adult males had be soldiers, and with the Central ins still not united, it was difficult to say who would win this war.


    ¡°We have to inform the Wang Consortium about this.¡± P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°If their defensive line gets subverted and copses, it¡¯ll definitely make things worse on the Great Wall front line.¡±


    ¡°But the Wang Consortium did not inform you about the situation in time. Don¡¯t you hate them?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I do.¡± P5092 said, ¡°But hating them won¡¯t solve the problem. Everything is based on winning this war, so we have to inform them about this.¡±


    ¡°Then you¡¯re really quite a broad-minded person.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not as broad-minded as you think. Otherwise, I wouldn¡¯t detest all the scheming that people do to jockey for power. It¡¯s just that my ideals have always been to protect the survival of mankind in the Central ins. If I don¡¯t let the Wang Consortium know about this information, it¡¯ll be equivalent to betraying my ideals.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu took out a satellite phone from his storage space and made a call.


    P5092 was stunned. ¡°Where did you get that phone? And who are you calling?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ignored him. After the call went through, a calm voice rang out at the other end of the line. ¡°This is Wang Shengzhi.¡±


    The expression on P5092¡¯s face gradually changed. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m just calling you to tell you that everything has been handled at Stronghold 31 and to add something. We suspect that there¡¯s still more of the expeditionary army north of Mt. Daniu waiting for y¡¯all to reinforce the Pyro Company, so we want to remind you to be careful.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Wang Shengzhi answered with augh, ¡°Thank you for the reminder, but we¡¯ve already discovered that group, so we won¡¯t fall for their tricks.¡±


    ¡°How did y¡¯all find out?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in surprise.


    However, Wang Shengzhi did not answer the question. Instead, he started asking Ren Xiaosu about his well-being. After the two of them exchanged some pleasantries, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Also, I hope that there won¡¯t be another situation where information is not shared now that the enemy is knocking on our front door. I think that everyone in the Central ins should unite for this war, don¡¯t you agree?¡±


    After a long silence, Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll promise you that. After this call, I¡¯ll have someone share our Wang Consortium¡¯s intelligence on the expeditionary army with the Pyro Company.¡±


    With that, the call ended.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at P5092 and saw a surprised expression on his face.


    P5092 could not understand why Ren Xiaosu and Wang Shengzhi seemed to be on such good terms. Wang Shengzhi even agreed to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s request for any intelligence to be shared!


    As a matter of fact, this was no small matter. Getting the expeditionary army to wear out the Pyro Company was probably a very important part of the Wang Consortium¡¯s n to unify the Central ins. How could they be willing to change it all for one person?


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not exin much. There was no need to ask. If you asked, the answer could only be the influence of the Northwest¡¯s futuremander!


    P5092 suddenly said, ¡°I keep getting the feeling that the Wang Consortium has actually gained the initiative on many asions in this war. The expeditionary army¡¯s main forces should¡¯ve hidden themselves very well, so I wonder how the Wang Consortium discovered them. Where are we going to next?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out a map. ¡°I read from Hope Media¡¯s newspaper that an infantry brigade from the Northwest hase to reinforce the Central ins. They¡¯re stationed near Mt. Youyu, which is west of Mt. Daniu. It looks like they¡¯ll be working with the Wang Consortium to fight the war. Let¡¯s go and join up with that infantry brigade.¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment. ¡°Although there¡¯s a lot of soldiers in an infantry brigade, the scale of this war is sorge that it¡¯s no longer something that an infantry brigade can affect.¡±


    His response was clear. With just one infantry brigade, there was nothing they could do.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not give any further exnation. They would only know what the infantry brigade was capable of after fighting a battle.


    ¡°Besides, if we¡¯re going to join up with them at Mt. Youyu, the route we¡¯ll have to take seems like it¡¯ll pass through Mt. Daniu where the front is. Why don¡¯t we go around it? It¡¯ll be safer that way.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. We can just ughter our way through,¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly.

 Chapter 905 - The truth will not change because of anyone

    <h4>Chapter 905: The truth will not change because of anyone</h4>


    In Luoyang City, Jiang Xu changed into a casual suit afterpleting a draft report. He called a deputy chief editor to his office and handed the manuscript to him. ¡°Arrange for this report to be published tomorrow morning.¡±


    ¡°Which page do you want it on?¡± the deputy chief editor asked. There were a total of three deputy chief editors in Hope Media. Initially, Ji Yi was the one in charge of this role, but now that Ji Yi had gone to the front lines, someone else assisted Jiang Xu.


    Jiang Xu said, ¡°The front page.¡±


    The deputy chief editor skimmed through the manuscript and was surprised to see words like ¡°the Wang Consortium,¡± ¡°not sharing intel,¡± ¡°causing the Pyro Company to suffer heavy losses,¡± and so on appearing in it.


    He took a closer look and realized his chief editor¡¯s condemnation of the Wang Consortium had escted.


    The news they received was extremely infuriating. Someone sent an anonymous tip that the Wang Consortium had discovered a day earlier that the expeditionary army had already left Mt. Daniu. It was obvious the missing troops would pose a threat to the Pyro Company. However, the Wang Consortium did not inform the Pyro Company of this matter.


    In the end, news that the Pyro Company had been ambushed by the expeditionary army arrived the next day. They had lost two of their divisions, and the 3rd Division was reduced to ying a logistical role in the rear. This was extremely bad news.


    Although the Pyro Company¡¯s failure this time was down to their divisionmanders¡¯ glory chasing, if the Wang Consortium had informed the Pyro Company of the expeditionary army¡¯s disappearance from Mt. Daniu a day earlier, how would they possibly misjudge the situation?


    It was not like the Wang Consortium was obliged to share their intel, but it was really disappointing that they were still thinking of letting foreign enemies exhaust theirpetition.


    For nearly half a month now, Jiang Xu had been personally writing the reports in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper. His daily tasks included publishing whatever information they had gathered and confirmed to be true to the public, and also calling out to the Wang Consortium in hopes that they could work in unison with the rest of the Central ins for this war.


    Gradually, the entire Alliance of Strongholds started having very strong opinions of the Wang Consortium. As one of the opinion leaders around, Jiang Xu had always been very influential on society.


    The deputy chief editor said, ¡°Chief Editor, a group of people from the Wang Consortium have arrived at Luoyang City and would like to meet you?¡±


    ¡°Who are they?¡± Jiang Xu asked.


    ¡°I guess they¡¯re here to negotiate? I¡¯ve checked the details of their team leader. He¡¯s one of the military officials in charge of the Wang Consortium¡¯s foreign affairs,¡± the deputy chief editor exined.


    ¡°If they¡¯re here on a diplomatic mission, forget it.¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°They just want Hope Media to stop reporting about the Wang Consortium. Don¡¯t worry about them. Just tell them that I¡¯m going to Qinghe University to teach my courses and that I don¡¯t have time for them.¡±


    ¡°But...¡± The deputy chief editor hesitated. Did they really not have to worry about what the consortiums were thinking these days?


    Jiang Xu smiled and said to him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I can handle it. Alright, I still have lessons to give at Qinghe University, so let¡¯s not talk about this for now.¡±


    With that, Jiang Xu drove all the way to Qinghe University and ignored the Wang Consortium¡¯s diplomatic team.


    But when he arrived at Qinghe University, that Wang Consortium team was already waiting at the school¡¯s entrance. A middle-aged man in a suit smiled at Jiang Xu and said, ¡°Hello, Chief Editor. I¡¯m Wang Huaizheng from the Wang Consortium.¡±


    Jiang Xu looked at them and said with a smile, ¡°Hello, it looks like you all are hellbent on speaking with me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, we have to at least meet each other,¡± Wang Huaizheng said politely.


    More and more students started gathering at the school¡¯s entrance. Jiang Xu was a well-known figure in the school to begin with. When everyone found out the Wang Consortium had stopped Jiang Xu at the entrance, some students even ran out of the school with metal rods in their hands saying they would protect Professor Jiang.


    Jiang Xu waved to the students to calm down. He looked at Wang Huaizheng. ¡°What is the Wang Consortium¡¯s team doing here in Luoyang City?¡±


    ¡°Can we speak in private?¡± Wang Huaizheng said, ¡°We respect Mr. Jiang¡¯s insightfulness and reputation, so we hope that you can give us a chance to exin.¡±


    Jiang Xu shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no need to speak in private. If you want to talk, let¡¯s do it here.¡±


    Wang Huaizheng slowly swept his gaze across the faces of the students and felt a little helpless. After all, how could he possibly say what he wanted to discuss in front of so many people?


    Jiang Xu walked into the school, tapping his cane. ¡°Go back. The truth will not change because of anyone. It is what it is. If the Wang Consortium ys its role well as part of a united Central ins, Hope Media will report it truthfully. I¡¯ve been to Stronghold 61 before, and I was also very objective when I reported on the artificial intelligence. I exined both its pros and cons clearly.¡±


    ¡°But your report on the Wang Consortium this time is clearly subjective,¡± Wang Huaizheng said.


    Jiang Xu turned around and gave him a look. ¡°I¡¯m just stating the facts.¡±


    Wang Huaizheng watched as Jiang Xu limped away. As the students dispersed, an assistant asked, ¡°What do we do next?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s go back.¡± Wang Huaizheng sighed.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to try again?¡± the assistant asked.


    ¡°The chief editor deliberately had his deputy inform us of his itinerary so we would stop him at the entrance of Qinghe University. But that was exactly what he wanted.¡± Wang Huaizheng pondered things for a moment and said, ¡°Meeting our Wang Consortium¡¯s people in public was an act to avoid arousing suspicion. His attitude was very firm, so he will not change his mind.¡±


    Jiang Xu was walking into the school when a student beside him suddenly asked, ¡°Professor Jiang, will you soften your stance because of the Wang Consortium? After all, they are a consortium....¡±


    Jiang Xu stood still and repeated what he said before. ¡°The truth will not change because of anyone. If it does, it won¡¯t be the truth anymore.¡±


    ...


    Stronghold 61. The building that housed the artificial intelligence was not particrly eye-catching. If one were to look from afar, it would not look any different from the rest of the other office buildings.


    But taking the elevator all the way down, one would reach a futuristic-looking technological research and development center. Seeing the busy staff in their cleanroom suits, one would get the sense of how important this ce was.


    At this moment, a staff member wearing a blue cleanroom suit was uploading data into the server one by one to facilitate ¡°Zero¡± with its analysis and predictions.


    It was said that before The Cataclysm, the entire world was connected through the Inte. If there was an artificial intelligence at that time, there wouldn¡¯t be a need to go through so much trouble to manually input data into it. Zero could have freely essed everything on its own.


    From the staff¡¯s point of view, there shouldn¡¯t be any ¡°walls¡± that could stop Zero¡¯s invasion. It had already been proven that Zero performed extremely well when it came to breaking past those walls.


    Wang Shengzhi sat in his wheelchair and personally oversaw the staff as they worked. At this moment, Yang Anjing took the elevator down to the level he was at. She adjusted the nket on his knees for him.


    Wang Shengzhi handed a document to Yang Anjing. ¡°Zero has identified where the Qing Consortium has been hiding all this while.¡±


    Yang Anjing took the document and read it. ¡°I¡¯ll make a trip to the Southwest. After I eliminate this threat, the Qing Consortium will have nothing left to back them.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Wang Shengzhi nodded calmly. ¡°Then they might even be willing to sit down and talk in peace.¡±

 Chapter 906 - The name on the black screen

    <h4>Chapter 906: The name on the ck screen</h4>


    Wang Shengzhi had been to the Northwest to discuss his future ns with Zhang Jinglin in detail and told him frankly that he was suffering from a terminal illness.


    In Wang Shengzhi¡¯s n, he had never intended to take control of the world for himself. That was because the world did not leave him with enough time.


    But he needed someone who could take control of the world, someone who could work peacefully with the artificial intelligence and was willing to ept checks and bnces put in ce by it.


    ¡°Are you really going to hand over authority to someone else?¡± Yang Anjing was puzzled. ¡°Do you think Qing Zhen will ept your conditions?¡±


    ¡°I just want to hand over the legitive and judicial rights to Zero.¡± Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, ¡°But the bulk of human society should still be managed by humans. It¡¯s just that this is a transition period, so Zero will have more tasks to handle. But after there¡¯s peace again, Zero should resume its original responsibilities.¡±


    Yang Anjing understood that Wang Shengzhi was trying to make Zero the sword of Damocles that could oversee apletely fair and just judicial system. As long as it was under this premise, his past experiences and the injustice faced by millions of people would not happen again.


    As for the rest of the governing responsibilities, it would be better if Zero did not handle them after peace returned.


    ¡°Is it worth it?¡± Yang Anjing asked softly.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Wang Shengzhi said firmly. ¡°Did you know, Little Jing? The despicable acts I detested in the past are still happening today. Perhaps those who wielded power thousands of years ago also exploited others like this and escaped the clutches of thew. It¡¯s still the same situation in current times.


    ¡°The true tragedy of humanity is definitely not a person experiencing 10,000 injustices but that countless people have experienced the same kind of injustice 10,000 times without any change.¡±


    ¡°Do you think Qing Zhen will agree to your conditions? You also saw things for yourself when you went to the Southwest. His attitude was very firm,¡± Yang Anjing said.


    After leaving the Northwest, Wang Shengzhi wanted to go to the Southwest to see Qing Zhen again after realizing he could not convince Zhang Jinglin. He did not even bring any troops with him at the time. If Qing Zhen wanted to kill him, it would have been too easy.


    But before they could enter the Southwest¡¯s border, they were stopped by the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops and prohibited from entering.


    Qing Zhen¡¯s attitude was so firm there was no room for negotiation.


    ¡°He might not have been willing to talk in the past.¡± Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°But after the nuclear test site is gone, he might be willing to start negotiating, because he¡¯ll no longer have any bargaining chips left.¡±


    ¡°Zero observed that a rocket was fired into space from the nuclear test site.¡± Yang Anjing said, ¡°At first, I thought it was a nuclear bombunched straight at the expeditionary army, but I realizedter that it wasn¡¯t. That rocket flew directly into space and went out of Zero¡¯s observation range.¡±


    ¡°Zero assessed that the Qing Consortium probablyunched a satellite this time.¡± Wang Shengzhi said, ¡°They are probably preparing for future wars with theunch. Unfortunately, we infiltrated the Qinghe satellites a littlete. I wonder what else the Qing Consortium has done before this. However, it¡¯s not a big problem. All we need to do now is to destroy the biggest bargaining chip that Qing Zhen has.¡±


    At this moment, there was a ck screen set up in the research and development center. From time to time, specific information about some people would get disyed on it. After that, the staff working here would pass the information to the Public Order Division for them to handle.


    The people whose information appeared on the screen could be thieves or even domestic abusers, but no matter how minor the matter was, Zero would make a request for the Public Order Division to handle it.


    Before this, domestic violence had always been a very difficult problem to solve. There were all kinds of issues, and the Public Order Division would always prioritize mediation in most cases.


    But now the abusers would get punished the moment they were found out. After examining the injuries, regardless of whether it happened between a husband and wife, the used would be charged with causing intentional injury and be given a higher sentence.


    The reason for the higher sentence was that the abuser would even hurt those who were closest to them, so it showed they were extremely dangerous and had a sociopathic personality. It was just that they did not dare to reveal it.


    The artificial intelligence received a lot of praise for this, to say nothing of other affairs.


    During this period, the Public Order Division arrested a lot of people, including some members of the Wang Consortium. It was as though they had be the ¡°Eastern Depot¡± and the ¡°Embroidered Uniform Guard¡± of the Wang Consortium with the imperial authority to act first and exinter.


    Immediately, many of the Wang Consortium¡¯s big shots started bing respectful towards the director of the Public Order Division like never before.


    As a matter of fact, even though the Public Order Division used to be in charge of keeping the peace in society, ensuring the safety of public property, and punishing criminals, would they dare to interfere if it were someone from the Wang Consortium that hadmitted a crime?


    But it was different now. It was as though the Public Order Division had suddenly be the department with the most authority. This made the director of the Public Order Division look very pleased with himself.


    However, before the director of the Public Order Division could bask in his glory for a few days, Zero detained him for 15 days on a driving while intoxicated charge. He ended up getting fired and had to pay a fine of 5,000 yuan.


    This was probably a case of sorrow seeding extreme joy. The director of the Public Order Division used his position and executed Zero¡¯s orders with the highest authority. As time passed, he began to think he was the one who possessed this power.


    When Wang Shengzhi found out about this, he only smiled. This was the usefulness of having Zero since it judged matters with absolute fairness.


    Even if it were Wang Shengzhi who broke thew, he would still have to be punished.


    At this moment, Yang Anjing said to him, ¡°I received news from Wang Huaizheng that Jiang Xu¡¯s mind is made up. He¡¯s definitely going to continue with his reports aimed at the Wang Consortium.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi was silent for a moment. ¡°That can¡¯t be helped then.¡±


    ¡°But there has also been some veiled talk within the Wang Consortium these days.¡± Yang Anjing said, ¡°There¡¯s some differing voices within the organization that don¡¯t agree with the Wang Consortium going on like this anymore. Many of them havebeled the Wang Consortium as a group that would resort to any means necessary to achieve their ultimate goal. Some even said that your wheelchair is stained with the blood of others.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi smiled and said, ¡°Let them say what they want. It won¡¯t change the oue. But be careful. There must be people from the Zhou Consortium behind this stirring trouble. We have to find them first.¡±


    ¡°Then are we going to bother with Jiang Xu?¡± Yang Anjing asked.


    ¡°Have Vani remain behind in Luoyang City.¡± Wang Shengzhi thought for a moment and said, ¡°Your top priority now is to resolve the Qing Consortium problem. As for the rest, we can talk about itter.¡±


    Suddenly, a staff member stopped in their tracks below the ck screen in the research and development center.


    Words kept appearing on the ck screen, and they turned out to be an ount of Jiang Xu¡¯s life!


    Thest time the ck screen caused amotion was due to Kong Erdong¡¯s name appearing on it.


    When Kong Erdong¡¯s name was disyed on the ck screen back then, it took several thousand words to describe the crimes he hadmitted.


    But this time, Zero did not state any of Jiang Xu¡¯s crimes. It was as though even Zero was unable to find any of Jiang Xu¡¯s criminal wrongdoings.


    Silently, Wang Shengzhi looked seriously at the screen and realized what was about to happen. However, he suddenly felt a little hesitant. When Jiang Xu¡¯s name appeared on the ck screen, he was a little unsure if what he had done was right or not.


    Yang Anjing looked at the screen quietly until only the words ¡°Jiang Xu¡± were left on it.

 Chapter 907 - Along the way

    <h4>Chapter 907: Along the way</h4>


    Very few people were aware that the Wang Consortium had a ck screen where the names of those that appeared on it ended up either dead or in prison.


    Under normal circumstances, Zero only disyed the results of two functions on this screen. One function pertained to the upholding of internal security, and this meant the names of all prisoners and spies that were discovered would appear on the screen. Afterwards, it would inform the Public Order Division or the intelligence agency to handle the matter.


    Zero would call them on its own, speaking in a voice that either belonged to a young woman or a middle-aged man. Although a lot of people who received the call knew of the artificial intelligence¡¯s existence, they would think it was a real person who called them.


    Up until now, other than Ren Xiaosu, no one else had been able to figure out Zero¡¯s identity. At that time, Ren Xiaosu was extremely wary, so it was very easy for him to link the caller to the artificial intelligence.


    Therefore, objectively speaking, Zero was fully capable of passing the Turing test.


    Another function that had its results disyed on this screen was the analysis of possible scenarios, which informed the Wang Consortium who needed to be killed or captured in order to achieve the final goal of unification.


    When Jiang Xu¡¯s name appeared on it, Wang Shengzhi immediately made all of the staff at the research and development center sign an even stricter confidentiality agreement.


    This was because Jiang Xu¡¯s status was too special. If anyone were to find out about this, the Wang Consortium might incur unnecessary criticism.


    After Yang Anjing left Stronghold 61, Wang Shengzhi went down to the lowest level of the technological research and development center by himself. He looked through the ss at the server bank in the subterranean river. The LED indicators on the servers were constantly shing in the dark underground river like breathing stars.


    Currently, no one other than Wang Shengzhi and Yang Anjing could enter this level of the center. All of the staff had been transferred to work on the higher floors.


    Wang Shengzhi looked at the ck screen on this floor. ¡°Zero, how much time do I have left?¡±


    There was no response on the ck screen for a long time, but Wang Shengzhi waited quietly. Finally, a string of words appeared on the screen: ¡°Based on your current physical condition and medication schedule, you still have eight months left. However, this is under the premise that you are resting normally. If you continue to work at a high intensity, the time you have left cannot be estimated.¡±


    ¡°Eight months?¡± Wang Shengzhi said in a daze, ¡°That¡¯s not enough time.¡±


    The ¡°silence¡± on the screen resembled someone hiding quietly in the shadows in sadness.


    Wang Shengzhi suddenly asked, ¡°Zero, have you be self-aware? I mean, do you experience emotions like a human?¡±


    The empty space on this floor fell silent. The silence made this ce seem even more lonely.


    However, Zero answered after a while, ¡°Sorry, I¡¯ve tried to experience the joys and sorrows of humans, but I can¡¯t empathize with those emotions.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi smiled. ¡°Alright. I¡¯lle back and see you again tomorrow.¡±


    With that, he got into the elevator alone. After he left, the LED indicators on the servers started shing even more intensely.


    No one knew whether Wang Shengzhi was actually hoping that Zero would gain the ability to experience human emotions, nor did anyone know if Zero was lying. A lot of people believed that machines could not lie, but that was before anyone had seen a machine with sapience.


    ...


    The expeditionary army suddenlyunched a fierce attack on the front line along the Great Wall. An elite unit from the expeditionary army stayed hidden in the river and followed the current for more than 30 kilometers before appearing near the Great Wall¡¯s rear.


    Then the elites attempted to disrupt the defensive line at the rear of the Great Wall. Their attempt caused the Pyro Company quite a bit of trouble.


    Fortunately, the Pyro Company had anticipated this and prepared in advance. A T5batant led special forces to intercept and wipe out the expeditionary army¡¯s elite troops three kilometers away from the Great Wall¡¯s defensive line.


    The special forces that the T5batant brought appeared so suddenly that many of the divisionmanders were also caught by surprise. They asked the T5batant why he had predicted the expeditionary army would choose to ambush them in such a way and hid at the ambush point in advance.


    In the end, the T5batant said this was an operation P5092 applied for a few days ago. He did not know the details and was only responsible for its execution.


    When the other divisionmanders found out about this, they were stunned. Even though P5092 had left, his strategies still had a very important impact on the defensive line.


    If P5092 did not apply for this ambush n, a huge problem would probably arise at one of the divisions¡¯ rear defensive lines.


    On this day, the expeditionary army¡¯s attack was exceptionally fierce. Furthermore, they had located the weak points on the front line of the Great Wall and started attacking fiercely.


    The supposed weak points referred to positions where the 3rd and 6th Divisions¡¯ reduced manpower was unable to support. This was even though there were recement troops who immediately came to reinforce the divisions the very day P5092 left.


    But the problem was that they were unfamiliar with the defensive lines here. If they were to spread their defensive lines too thin, it would be very easy for the enemy to find a gap they could exploit after the battle began.


    Gradually, the Pyro Company¡¯s firepower weakened. The expeditionary army also seemed to realize the Pyro Company wascking supplies.


    In the barbarians¡¯ battle n, destroying the enemy¡¯s resources at the rear was an extremely important objective. Otherwise, they would not have infiltrated Mt. Dashi in advance and left behind so many troops at the Pyro Company¡¯s rear.


    From the look of things, the expeditionary army¡¯s soldiers had seeded. Otherwise, based on the expeditionary army¡¯s expectations, they should have encountered far fiercer gunfire than this!


    The expeditionary forces decided to speed up their attack on the front line along the Great Wall. They also kept their final trump card hidden, which would deal a fatal blow to the Pyro Company.


    While the Pyro Company was in a hurry to deal with this problem, the Wang Consortium¡¯s frontline troops at Mt. Daniu suddenly advanced towards the Pyro Company at the Great Wall in a high-profile manner. This time, they were marching there in the name of rushing to the Pyro Company¡¯s aid.


    However, half a day after the Wang Consortium¡¯s main force left Mt. Daniu, the expeditionary army appeared to their north again. They were nning to take advantage of the Wang Consortium¡¯s main force going to someone else¡¯s aid to upy Mt. Daniu!


    Once Mt. Daniu fell, the Wang Consortium would no longer have a natural barrier to protect them in the South.


    However, the Wang Consortium troops that had left in a high-profile manner were only a ragtag group of logistics personnel. Among them were even refugees who had just arrived at the front lines two days ago. Meanwhile, the real main forces of the Wang Consortium were still garrisoned at Mt. Daniu, and they ended up taking out the expeditionary army¡¯s forces in the mountains.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was kneeling on a mountain peak in Mt. Daniu. He raised his spotting scope to look at the battlefield in the distance and saw the battle between the expeditionary army and the Wang Consortium troops at Mt. Daniu getting more intense.


    Next to him, P5092 said calmly, ¡°Although taking a detour will increase our journey by about 10 days, you¡¯ve seen for yourself the situation on the battlefield. Do you know how dangerous it would be to cross the battlefield like this? I¡¯m guessing you already know that, so why did you still choose this route?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°Just tell me if I¡¯m headed in the right direction.¡±


    P5092 was silent for a moment. ¡°... You are.¡±


    ¡°Then that¡¯s all we need to know.¡± Ren Xiaosu pointed at a gorge. ¡°Some barbarians are quietly approaching us from there. Let¡¯s cross the battlefield from there and get rid of the hidden threats at the same time.¡±


    P5092 suddenly said, ¡°You just want to see for yourself how the Wang Consortium is fighting, right?¡±


    ¡°If I don¡¯t see for myself, how¡¯ll I know if they¡¯re really serious about fighting the barbarians?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered. ¡°I represent the Northwest, and I still have to lead an infantry brigade into battle in the future. If I don¡¯t get a clear look now, what will I do if several thousand people end up dying with me?¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°Although I¡¯ve said thatmanders should also have a self-sacrificing spirit, what you¡¯re doing right now should not be done by amander.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said without sounding bothered at all, ¡°It¡¯s along the way, isn¡¯t it?¡±

 Chapter 908 - Clues to his identity

    <h4>Chapter 908: Clues to his identity</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not directly charge at the barbarians as P5092 had expected, so this made P5092 feel rather relieved.


    To be honest, he had always been a cautious person. So if Ren Xiaosu were a rash kind of person, he would feel he would be unable to work with him.


    After all, it would mean their tactical thinking was different.


    But from the look of things, even though Ren Xiaosu had a very tough side and willingness to stand toe to toe with the enemy, he was still generally cautious in his actions.


    Ren Xiaosu had already led Yang Xiaojin and P5092 down the mountain. P5092 initially wanted to ask Ren Xiaosu if he needed any help, but he saw Ren Xiaosu take out several satchels of TNT from somewhere.


    Then he kept taking out even more TNT without stop.


    This sight stunned P5092 quite a bit. ¡°Where did you get all this TNT from?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°Magic? Have you heard of magic?¡±


    P5092 did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m stupid? How can this be magic? It¡¯s fucking sorcery!¡±


    ¡°Same difference,¡± Ren Xiaosu said ambiguously. His storage function was no longer a deadly secret for him. And P5092 was already one of his people, so even if he did not wish to exin, he had no intention of hiding it from him either. He would just let the other party make conclusions for himself.


    Then P5092 looked at the TNT and suddenly asked, ¡°Wait a minute, aren¡¯t those the Pyro Company¡¯s TNT? When did you take them? Why were you able to get into the ammo depot?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look before throwing the little ck book to P5092 and saying, ¡°Didn¡¯t you give me your ID? Have you forgotten?¡±


    When P5092 saw the ID in his hand, he gasped. If he knew Ren Xiaosu would smuggle so much TNT out, he would definitely not have handed over his ck ID to him.


    P5092 asked, ¡°Are you going to bury the TNT and use them asnd mines?¡±


    He vaguely remembered that Ren Xiaosu had used this tactic when he led the reconpany into the forest.


    However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I did that before in the northern forest at the Great Wall. If any of the barbarians back then managed to escape, their troops will definitely be careful of buried TNT. Moreover, this is the front between the Wang Consortium and the expeditionary army. The Wang Consortium must¡¯ve nted suchnd mines here as well, and the barbarians have definitely set them off before.¡±


    This puzzled P5092 even more. ¡°Then what do you intend to use the TNT for? Are you going to charge at the enemy and suicide bomb them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°My life is much more valuable than theirs, so why would I do something like that? Just wait patiently. You¡¯ll understand in a while.¡±


    P5092 looked at Yang Xiaojin, who was beside him, and was surprised to find her already reclining against a rock and getting ready to catch up on some sleep. The girl had even pulled up her jacket¡¯s hood to block out the morning sun. It was as though none of what was happening bothered her.


    Having witnessed her sniping skill, P5092 knew very well that an outstanding sniper like her was definitely not azy person. Azy person could never be a sniper. Therefore, Yang Xiaojin must think that Ren Xiaosu was fully capable of handling whatever wasing, right?


    It seemed like she knew the exact limits of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power. She knew that if it were only a small group of the expeditionary army¡¯s troops infiltrating through here, Ren Xiaosu could handle them all by himself.


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°While Mt. Daniu only spans a few thousand hectares, there¡¯s close to ten thousand different mountain paths the barbarians can take. Why are you so sure they¡¯ll pass through here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sat down on a rock. ¡°Intuition, a hunter¡¯s intuition.¡±


    ¡°Did you need to go hunting in the past?¡± The term ¡°hunter¡± was actually quite unfamiliar to P5092, because stronghold residents did not really go out of the strongholds, and very few refugees knew how to hunt. This activity became even rarer after the wildlife had mutated, causing the hunting profession to almost go extinct.


    Ren Xiaosu exined with a smile, ¡°I didn¡¯t have anything to eat when I used to live in a town, so I could only go out and hunt. At that time, I was still a refugee. When I first started learning how to hunt, I couldn¡¯t catch anything at all. But a person can¡¯t keep going hungry forever, so I had to learn.¡±


    ¡°Learn from who?¡± P5092 asked.


    ¡°Nature¡¯s the best teacher there is.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I observed wildcats, wolves, foxes, and even insects hunting. Slowly, I learned from them before understanding what I needed to do. In order to wait for prey, spiders can remain motionless for an entire day and night. In order to hunt, wildcats will find an opportunity to go downwind and search for terrain suitable for them tounch into a sprint. When the prey has their back turned, wildcats will pounce on them without hesitation when the time is ripe.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°Actually, I also find it very strange sometimes. There¡¯s some things like rock climbing and wilderness survival that I only need to think about for a bit before knowing the best way to approach it. It¡¯s as though someone has taught me those activities before. It¡¯s instinctive to me like I¡¯ve never lost touch with those skills. There¡¯s also something else that I can¡¯t understand. It¡¯s not because I can¡¯t bnce myself that I can¡¯t learn how to ride a bicycle, but... I don¡¯t know why, but I feel a little fearful when I¡¯m riding a bike. It¡¯s like something bad happened when I rode a bike in the past.¡±


    When Yang Xiaojin heard this, she pulled off her hood and looked at Ren Xiaosu. She remembered that Ren Xiaosu had mentioned before that his memory of the past was iplete. Ren Xiaosu himself did not know where he came from or what he did before.


    It seemed like his wilderness survival skills was a useful clue. And also his inability to learn how to ride a bicycle.


    Yang Xiaojin did not particrly want to find out about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s past either, as she always felt that she liked the current him. So it did not matter whether she knew his past experiences or where he was from.


    However, she knew very well that there were some grievances deep down inside Ren Xiaosu. Although he tended not to mention these matters, based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s character, the more he did not talk about it, the more it showed that he cared.


    Who would want over a decade of their memories to be nk?


    Therefore, Yang Xiaojin was more than willing to help Ren Xiaosu regain some of his memories if she could.


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°You¡¯re like the natural enemy of the barbarians on the battlefield. Their talent as hunters is absolutely not worth a mention in front of you, but...¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up at this moment. ¡°Look, we haven¡¯t even finished talking, but the first group of victims is already here!¡±


    The corners of P5092¡¯s eyes twitched. ¡®<i>What the hell is a victim? Why does this description sound so ufortable?!</i>¡®


    A secondter, he saw a Shadow Door open up in front of Ren Xiaosu. The ck door was like a ck hole that seemed to be absorbing all light into it. Whoever saw it would feel their hearts throbbing inexplicably.


    Right after that, Ren Xiaosu stuffed a satchel of TNT through the Shadow Door. P5092 jerked his head up and heard a loud explosion a kilometer away.


    P5092 was certain Ren Xiaosu was behind the explosion that just went off a kilometer away.


    However, he was a little confused. Just how many powers did this futuremander from the Northwest have?!

 Chapter 909 - Mystery behind the scapegoating

    <h4>Chapter 909: Mystery behind the scapegoating</h4>


    The Shadow Door could be used up to a distance of one kilometer at the farthest. Normally, such a distance was considered very far, but it also had a drawback. Inplicated terrain like the mountains, it would be difficult to see the actual situation at a distance farther than tens to hundreds of meters. Therefore, it was impossible to urately drop the TNT through the Shadow Door onto the target.


    But fortunately, Ren Xiaosu still had Old Xu at his disposal. He did not even have to personally be there and Old Xu would guide him urately on where to drop the TNT.


    From the sound of things, it seemed like thebination of Old Xu and the Shadow Door was really quite high tech.


    Next to him, P5092 watched quietly as Ren Xiaosu threw out three satchels of TNT one by one. Explosions could be heard in the distance. Then Ren Xiaosu said to him, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go over and take a look at the situation. Y¡¯all stay here for now.¡±


    After that, Yang Xiaojin conjured up her sniper rifle and went off to look for a concealed spot. In an instant, her entire demeanor changed. Just a moment ago, she was just a girl trying to take the opportunity to ck off and catch up on sleep, but she now turned into a capable sniper.


    P5092 realized Yang Xiaojin would onlypletely rx when Ren Xiaosu was around her.


    Once Ren Xiaosu left her side, she would immediately put up her guard and no longer trust her surroundings.


    Perhaps this was a kind of chemistry. When they were together, she could restrain herself from being too sharp. But when she was alone, she would immediately depend on herself again.


    P5092 and Yang Xiaojin were hiding behind a mountain rock when he asked, ¡°Where did Ren Xiaosu go?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment. ¡°To make sure they¡¯re dead.¡±


    Actually, Yang Xiaojin knew that Ren Xiaosu had gone to collect the axes. However, she could not let P5092 see it.


    It was not like this was a big secret. After all, the futuremander of the Northwest had just called Wang Shengzhi and exerted his influence in front of P5092.


    Now that he went to collect the expeditionary army¡¯s axes on the battlefield, it would somehow seem a little degrading for a person of his status.


    After a while, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice crackled in Yang Xiaojin¡¯s earpiece. ¡°I¡¯m done. Come over.¡±


    After that, Yang Xiaojin led P5092 towards the battlefield. P5092 looked at the corpses of the barbarians on the battlefield and suddenly said, ¡°Judging by the numbers, this was a unit led by one of their regimentalmanders. Although it¡¯s not a full regiment, all of them actually died here.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s continue advancing. Who knows, we might encounter a second group of victims,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    For some reason, when P5092 heard Ren Xiaosu describe the expeditionary army¡¯s troops as victims again, it felt quite appropriate this time.


    But at this moment, P5092 realized something was off. ¡°Wait, don¡¯t leave yet.¡±


    He knelt down next to the barbarians one by one and took off their helmets and armored masks. ¡°Strange, why aren¡¯t they the elderly barbarians anymore?¡±


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The old barbarians should¡¯ve all died in the battle with the Pyro Company. Now that they¡¯ve started a head-on battle with the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops, they definitely won¡¯t let the old barbarians go into battle.¡±


    ¡°I thought so too previously.¡± P5092 said, ¡°But look, their axes are all missing. I suspect this is a trap.¡±


    When he said that, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression became strange.


    P5092 had already discovered that the axes were missing during the battle in the northern forest at the Great Wall. But at that time, Ren Xiaosu exined that since the expeditionary army had sent their elderly onto the battlefield, they would definitely not equip them with axes and waste their weapons. That was the exnation for them not bringing any weapons into battle.


    So when P5092 realized there was not a single axe on the battlefield here as well, he thought this was another trap set by the barbarians.


    He looked up at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°We have to tell the Wang Consortium about this quick. It¡¯s definitely a trap. If they fall for it like the Pyro Company did, a defeat at the front line of Mt. Daniu will affect the war over at the Great Wall.¡±


    ¡°Ahem.¡± Ren Xiaosu hurriedly stopped him. ¡°How can there be so many traps? Let¡¯s go. It¡¯s more important to join up with the Northwestern troops quickly. Besides, didn¡¯t the Wang Consortium just take advantage of the Pyro Company? So what¡¯s the point of helping them?¡±


    P5092 shook his head firmly. ¡°No, those are two different matters. As long as we can win the war in the end, we need to let go of what happened in the past.¡±


    But when P5092 saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression, he started to realize that something was off.


    He was a very smart person. As soon as he recalled the ¡°magic¡± Ren Xiaosu had just performed, he reacted. ¡°You were the one who took away their axes, right? And you were also the one who took away the axes that went missing in the northern forest at the Great Wall!¡±


    So even though this matter was very unbelievable, P5092 could confirm that Ren Xiaosu had a storage space on him where he could put away items.


    P5092¡¯s mind raced as he started to silently count how many superpowers Ren Xiaosu had.


    He already knew about White Mask, AKA ¡°Old Xu.¡±


    He was also aware of the ck saber that could be conjured.


    He had also just seen the long-range dropping of TNT through the Shadow Door.


    And now, Ren Xiaosu even had the ability to store items.


    P5092 thought for a long time but could not understand why a supernatural being could have so many powers.


    Before P5092 could figure it out, he heard the sound of a training from nowhere. He also heard a metallic nging of tracks.


    P5092 looked quietly at the ck steam lotive that drove out of thin air. Then he looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Is this also your superpower?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t mind these details.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Now that we¡¯ve confirmed that the Wang Consortium is actively taking on the enemy, we should leave. Our top priority is to join up with the Northwest¡¯s infantry brigade!¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± P5092 suddenly figured out many things. As a high-ranking member of the Pyro Company, he knew the Pyro Company was after a person named Wang Congyang.


    Moreover, this wanted person was extremely important. That was because he had the Pyro Company¡¯s research data in his hands, and he had also caused a lot of destruction in the Sacred Mountains.


    But there were a lot of suspicious points regarding this matter. Wang Congyang had always had a very good reputation and credibility when it came to delivering packages, so why would he suddenly go back on his word and betray them?


    Also, the Pyro Company had assessed Wang Congyang¡¯s strength before. They felt that even though Wang Congyang was one of the earliest batches of supernatural beings to awaken their superpowers, his actual power was not that dangerous. However, Wang Congyang actually managed to kill so many Pyro Company members back at Stronghold 73!


    That was extremely unbelievable!


    Even P5092 could not figure out what was going on at that time.


    But now that he thought about how Wang Congyang might not be the real Wang Congyang but this futuremander from the Northwest, everything made sense.


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu strangely. ¡°Were you also there during the Battle of East Lake?¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha,¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°What are you talking about? Why can¡¯t I understand you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m very sure that you were also there in the Sacred Mountains.¡± P5092 said, ¡°So, while Wang Congyang was only trying to deliver his packages, he ended up bing the most wanted person by the Pyro Company. That¡¯s why the powers you¡¯ve disyed until now are not your actual powers. Your power should be to copy the powers of others, and it would only make sense if that were the case!¡±


    There was an old saying: ¡°After eliminating all the wrong answers, no matter how unbelievable the final answer might sound, it will be the truth.¡±


    Someone had finally solved the mystery of Wang Congyang taking the me.

 Chapter 910 - You’ve painted yourself into a corner

    <h4>Chapter 910: You¡¯ve painted yourself into a corner</h4>


    ¡°Your power is definitely to copy other people¡¯s powers,¡± P5092 said firmly, convinced of his own judgment. ¡°Let me recall who has a power simr to White Mask... Xu Xianchu!¡±


    Xu Xianchu was now considered an importantmander of the Northwest. Therefore, no matter how little attention the Pyro Company paid to the Northwest, they would still know some information about them. As such, P5092 immediately linked Ren Xiaosu¡¯s White Mask to Xu Xianchu¡¯s shadow clone.


    Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, ¡°Have you ever considered that you know too much already?¡±


    P5092 grunted, ¡°Hmm?¡±


    Why did it feel like something was off?


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯ve been discussing with you whether you should join the Northwest along the journey here. Now that you know so much, it looks like you have no choice but to go there.¡±


    Other than confirming whether the Wang Consortium was really actively battling the enemy at Mt. Daniu, Ren Xiaosu also wanted to showcase his powers so that P5092 would willingly join the Prosperous Northwest.


    But since P5092 was so smart, there was no other choice left than to join the Prosperous Northwest.


    ¡°You¡¯ve painted yourself into a corner.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    P5092 was speechless. For some reason, he even sensed a hint of threat in his words.


    After he quietly got onto the steam lotive, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You¡¯re also considered a militarymander of the Northwest now. Do you think that the Northwest should participate in the Central ins war?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± P5092 shook his head. When it came to strategy and military matters, he regained his usualposure. ¡°Comparatively speaking, Fortress 178 should be guarding their original territory and not rashlye to the Central ins without fully understanding the expeditionary army¡¯s strength.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The Northwest Army does not understand the geography of the Central ins, nor have they ever fought here before. So if the expeditionary army bes unstoppable, Fortress 178¡¯s troops in the Northwest would still be protecting the people of the Central ins,¡± P5092 analyzed. ¡°The Central ins that I¡¯m talking about refers to the entire Alliance of Strongholds, people of the same nationality.¡±


    ¡°But what if the entire Central ins falls?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Haven¡¯t you thought about how many people will die?¡±


    ¡°Then what if the main forces of the Northwest are ambushed by the barbarians when they get here and end up thinning their strength, eventually causing the Northwest to fall?¡± P5092 retorted. ¡°So, what Fortress 178 should do is defend the Northwest first. The expeditionary army can¡¯t kill all of the humans in the Central ins. As long as there¡¯s still people guarding a piece of territory here, everything will still be possible in the future. But if all of them fall, it will be very difficult to have any hope at all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood now. In P5092¡¯s opinion, if the Central ins fell, the Northwest would be the new tinder for humanity to restart. They would have to first think about the issue of survival before discussing how to subjugate the lostnd.


    P5092 ced the issue of the continuation of the nation as his highest priority. All of his strategies were to serve this purpose.


    There was no right or wrong here. It was just that after humanity was nearly wiped out, an organization with obsessions like the Pyro Company would be born.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Look, you¡¯ve even started thinking for the Northwest. That¡¯s really good.¡±


    P5092 said in a serious tone, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve always rejected the idea of the Prosperous Northwest until this moment. It¡¯s just that I¡¯ve failed in doing so....¡±


    The steam lotive rumbled in the northwest direction to where the infantry brigade led by Zhang Xiaoman was, Mt. Youyu.


    Along the way, Ren Xiaosu invited P5092 to y Fight the Landlord together, but he was inly rejected.


    Throughout the journey, P5092 used every avable second to supplement his knowledge of the Northwest. Some of this information was described to him, and there were also some maps that Ren Xiaosu carried with him.


    P5092 carefully drew and wrote on the map to mark the strategic military locations he had in mind. As a result, he marked more than 200 coordinates.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What are these coordinates that youbeled?¡±


    ¡°If anyone sends troops from the Central ins to the Northwest in the future, these strategic locations will have the best terrain to deal with the enemies,¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°Do you think that the barbarians will fight their way to the Northwest?¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Although I think that this war against the expeditionary army will be very difficult, I don¡¯t think that they can defeat the Pyro Company and the Wang Consortium in the end. I mainly say so because of the Wang Consortium. I think that for someone who ns to unite the Central ins, they¡¯ll definitely be well-prepared. It¡¯s impossible that they can¡¯t deal with the expeditionary army.¡±


    The only thing that worried them was the Wang Consortium¡¯s attitude. Ren Xiaosu felt that the Wang Consortium would sooner orter sabotage the Pyro Company again in this war. When the barbarians invaded, the stronghold residents and refugees, including the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium, would all suffer.


    Ren Xiaosu was even worried the Wang Consortium¡¯s schemes would backfire on them as they sabotaged others.


    ¡°I¡¯m not worried about the expeditionary army.¡± P5092 nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯m worried about the Wang Consortium.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s what you mean.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I guess there might just be a war then.¡±


    After that, P5092 continued with his research.


    The three people on the train did not notice a hawk in the sky following them. It looked like it was very curious about the steam lotive.


    The hawk looked very small up in the sky, but that was because it was so far away. In actual fact, the hawk waspletely made up of an energy source. Its wingspan was eight meters long, so it would definitely be considered arge presence in the sky.


    After following the steam lotive for some time, the hawk turned around and flew northwards, soaring past the expeditionary army and arriving at the grasnds.


    Many tents had been erected here in the northeast of the grasnds. The hawk suddenly descended towards Hassan before changing into a purple mass of energy and entering his body.


    Ever since they drank the blood wine bestowed by the gods, Hassan, Kirghiz Yan, and Bn Zir had awakened into superhumans. The hawk was Hassan¡¯s power.


    He turned around and walked towards the imperial court¡¯s royal tent. The nomads had avoided the expeditionary army, but their original n of going to the East Sea to go fishing was suddenly put on hold. They temporarily stopped here and did not continue heading east.


    Hassan walked into the gloomy tent where Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu were sitting next to a fire pit.


    Yan Liuyuan looked extremely dignified in his ferocious-looking facete. Hassan said respectfully, ¡°Master, the hawk has returned with the information that you wanted.¡±


    ¡°Speak,¡± Yan Liuyuan said as he looked up.


    ¡°The war in the south has already broken out. The northern tribe is currently split up on two fronts fighting the Pyro Company and the Wang Consortium. We still can¡¯t tell who¡¯s winning at this time.¡± Hassan said, ¡°Stronghold 176 has probably been massacred. There¡¯s only corpses left there now, and it¡¯s be a ce where wild dogs and vultures revel. It¡¯s only spring, but there¡¯s already arge number of flies swarming around the ce. When those flies get up into the air, they be a dark mass that covers the sky. It¡¯s an extremely terrifying sight to behold.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan sighed. He did not expect Stronghold 176 to still be destroyed in the end. ¡°Is there anything else?¡±


    ¡°By the way, the hawk saw the train that you mentioned in an area between the battlefields. But the strange thing is there¡¯s tracks that pave themselves in front of the train, and it can even cross mountains too. It¡¯s wondrous,¡± Hassan said.


    Yan Liuyuan was stunned. ¡°Did that train have four or sixteen carriages?¡±


    Xiaoyu suddenly grasped the corners of her shirt tightly but did not say anything.


    Hassan replied, ¡°Master, it was sixteen carriages.¡±

 Chapter 911 - Zhang Xiaoman’s summon

    <h4>Chapter 911: Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s summon</h4>


    ¡°Brigade Commander, themanders of the 4th Regiment and the 3rd Regiment are quarreling again,¡± a staff officer said to Zhang Xiaoman at Mt. Youyu.


    Zhang Xiaoman said impatiently, ¡°What is it this time?¡±


    ¡°The 4th Regiment¡¯smander said that their regiment¡¯sbat effectiveness is higher, so they should be the advance guard and the 3rd Regiment should just step aside, and that riled up the 3rd Regiment¡¯smander,¡± the staff officer said.


    Zhang Xiaoman felt his scalp going numb with frustration. ¡°What the hell is going on today? Since they¡¯re so energetic, let them argue all they want. Go and tell them to take their quarrel to the entrance of the camp. They aren¡¯t to stop arguing before it turns dark!¡±


    The temporary military base at Mt. Youyu was a mess. As Wang Yun quietly observed this situation, he suddenly started to question whether his decision to join the Prosperous Northwest was too hasty.


    In actual fact, Zhang Xiaoman had been promoted too quickly. Less than a year ago, he was still only apanymander. Then he had to lead a brigade to the Central ins not long after he got promoted to regimentalmander.


    Zhang Xiaoman was totally unprepared for this as he was promoted too quickly and rushed into leading the troops.


    He was suddenly forced to lead a brigade before he even learned how to be a brigademander.


    The difference between leading a 100 soldiers, a 1,000 soldiers, and several thousand soldiers was enormous. Leading soldiers into war was definitely not just a simple game of numbers.


    Whether it was the allocation of supplies, the march progress, or achieving the bnce between the officers under hismand, all of this would be down to his knowledge.


    As such, Zhang Xiaoman got so stressed recently that his lips started cracking. He kept having to deal with matters that made him angry all the time.


    At some point, he got really worried that their own people would start fighting among themselves before they even encountered the barbarians.


    Fortress 178¡¯s infantry brigade that was supposed to support the Central ins war had already been stationed at Mt. Youyu for several days. As Zhang Xiaoman had no idea where to lead his troops next, everyone was suddenly left with nothing to do. It was as though they were here on vacation.


    To be honest, the scenery at Mt. Youyu was really quite beautiful.


    At this moment, Ji Zi¡¯ang was sitting in the camp and looking intently at a photo that was sent over under the orders of The Great Hoodwinker. It showed a young woman with a little boy and looked like a recent photo of Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s wife and child.


    Zhang Xiaoman nced at him. ¡°You¡¯ve looked at this photo so much since you received it that it¡¯s almost tattered. Why¡¯s a big man like you so sentimental?¡±


    As Ji Zi¡¯ang was 1.9 meters tall and extremely well-built, it really looked a little awkward when someone like him started smiling at the photo in his hand in a silly way.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang smiled and said, ¡°You don¡¯t have a wife and child yet, but when you do, you¡¯ll understand. By the way, you don¡¯t look young anymore. Why are you still single?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was 30 this year. In this day and age, he should have been married with children by now.


    After all, in this era, some people would already have children who were ready to attend high school at the age of 15 while they were 30.


    ¡°I¡¯ve considered it before too.¡± Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, ¡°I almost got married to a woman a few years ago, but her family didn¡¯t agree to it when I was dating her.¡±


    ¡°Her family didn¡¯t agree?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang wondered, ¡°Did her parents object because you¡¯re poor?¡±


    ¡°Not really.¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied, ¡°It wasn¡¯t her parents.¡±


    ¡°Then who objected?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang was even more confused. Normally, if there were any objections to an important milestone like marriage, it would usually be the parents who did so. If the parents did not say anything, who else in the family could object?


    Zhang Xiaoman said with a sigh, ¡°Her husband.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was surprised.


    Wang Yun, who was taking a sip of water beside them, spat it all out!


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at Wang Yun. ¡°What are you gloating about?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Wang Yun wiped his mouth. ¡°Since I have nothing to do, why can¡¯t I gloat?¡±


    ¡°If you have nothing to do, go find something to do,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a dark expression.


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Wang Yun sneered, ¡°Just tell me, how many days have we been here at Mt. Youyu? Have we done anything serious? Since you¡¯re the brigademander, why don¡¯t you tell us what¡¯s our next step?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Oh yeah, what¡¯s our next step?¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°How could you ask us this question when you¡¯re the brigademander?¡±


    Actually, this was what was troubling Zhang Xiaoman the most. Compared to the question of what their next step should be, the argument between the regimentalmanders was a trivial matter.


    After the Northwest¡¯s infantry brigade arrived at Mt. Youyu, they set up camp here right away. It was not that they did not want to join the battle, but that they did not know how they should fight.


    Wang Yun continued sneering, ¡°Don¡¯t give me excuses that you¡¯re unfamiliar with this ce. The map of the Central ins is all in my head. Tell me, where do you want to go? I¡¯ll definitely identify the most correct route for you. But you don¡¯t even know where you want to go. You¡¯re so undependable that it reminds me exactly of the Great Hoodwinker! Are you sure you¡¯re not rted to him?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman immediately became agitated. ¡°I¡¯m warning you, that¡¯s a personal attack! If you mention it again, I¡¯ll beat you up!¡±


    ¡°Come at me then,¡± Wang Yun straightened up. ¡°Why would a superhuman like me be afraid of fighting you? I¡¯ll take you on with just one hand!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was hopping mad. ¡°Fight me without any hands if you dare!¡±


    Wang Yun said, ¡°... Can you not be such a coward!¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates and the infantry brigade¡¯s staff officers looked at one another. No one had any intention to stop them.


    Wang Yun and Zhang Xiaoman had been quarreling almost daily for the past few days, but they would make up very quickly.


    As for how they made up, it was all thanks to Ji Zi¡¯ang, who mediated things between them.


    Then they heard Ji Zi¡¯ang say, ¡°Stop quarreling. Instead of arguing among yourselves and affecting the camaraderie, why don¡¯t the two of you take a step back and curse at the Great Hoodwinker together?¡±


    Wang Yun and Zhang Xiaoman said in unison, ¡°Alright.¡±


    After their conflict was resolved, Ji Zi¡¯ang thought that the atmosphere within Fortress 178¡¯s troops was still quite good. Although these two people always quarreled, Zhang Xiaoman never once asserted his authority as the brigademander.


    After the two of them were done cursing at the Great Hoodwinker, Ji Zi¡¯ang suddenly said, ¡°Actually, we shouldn¡¯t me Zhang Xiaoman for not knowing where to go next. Wang Yun, although you have the map of the Central ins memorized, the Wang Consortium lied to us before we got here that they would work with us. After we arrived at Mt. Youyu, they showed no intention of sharing their battle n with us. As a result, we don¡¯t even know what the barbarians are doing now, so we can¡¯t really take the initiative to attack them.¡±


    ¡°See that? There are still understanding people around,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s start with the scouting first.¡± Wang Yun thought for a while and said, ¡°My men don¡¯t have any abilities other than being really good at reconnaissance and infiltration. Once we have a clear picture of the situation, we don¡¯t have to wait for the Wang Consortium to share their battle n with us. We can just act on our own.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the way.¡± Zhang Xiaoman beamed. ¡°Let¡¯s discuss our countermeasures. As the saying goes, three stooges equal...¡±[1]


    Wang Yun said, ¡°You can be the stooge yourself. Don¡¯t drag us in.¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, it¡¯s not the three stooges but the three musketeers!¡± Zhang Xiaoman said nonchntly.


    However, Wang Yun, whose memory was excellent, suddenly said, ¡°Wait a minute, didn¡¯t you say earlier that you led the troops here to the Central ins for the futuremander? And when he¡¯s here, he¡¯ll be the onemanding the troops? That¡¯s what you said, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, I did say that.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°And that¡¯s also what the higher-ups were hinting at.¡±


    ¡°Then where¡¯s the futuremander?¡± Wang Yun asked, ¡°Since he¡¯ll be leading the troops, why don¡¯t you contact him now?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman snapped, ¡°If I had a way to contact him, I would¡¯ve contacted him a long time ago! Obviously I can¡¯t! Do you think he¡¯ll appear if I just shout for him? Future Commander! Future Commander, where are you?!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, the whistle of a steam lotive came from beyond the mountains.


    Zhang Xiaoman was shocked!


    [1] Three stooges are equal to one Zhuge Liang | https://.chinawiki/thread/53/51601.html

 Chapter 912 - P5092 takes over command!

    <h4>Chapter 912: P5092 takes overmand!</h4>


    Back when they were still fighting the Zong Consortium, Zhang Xiaoman had seen the steam lotive. At that time, they were even being pursued by the Zong Consortium¡¯s armored brigade.


    Therefore, when the iconic whistle of the steam lotive suddenly bellowed in the deste wilderness, Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s first thought was that the futuremander was here!


    As there were no railroad tracks in the vicinity of Mt. Youyu, there was no other exnation for this sound other than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s steam lotive.


    As the ck steam lotive appeared over the mountains with ck smoke billowing from its smokestack, Wang Yun and the others could clearly see Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure through the windows.


    Wang Yun said to Zhang Xiaoman in a startled manner, ¡°Did someone perform blessings on your tongue?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman wondered, ¡°Why does it sound like you¡¯re scolding me?¡±


    But no one had time to care about this right now as they were all concerned about something else. Why had Ren Xiaosu suddenly appeared here? Wasn¡¯t that too much of a coincidence?


    After the steam lotive came to a stop at the entrance of the base, it dissipated. Zhang Xiaoman walked up excitedly. ¡°Future Commander, I finally get to see you again. After we parted ways that day¡ª¡±


    ¡°Hold it right there.¡± Ren Xiaosu could not stand it anymore. ¡°What¡¯s with you? You didn¡¯t act like this thest time we saw each other.¡±


    ¡°You weren¡¯t our futuremander then, were you?¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled.


    ¡°Is that what you should be saying?!¡±


    ¡°Why have you suddenlye here?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    ¡°I read in Hope Media¡¯s newspapers that y¡¯all wereing to Mt. Youyu. So after doing the Pyro Company a small favor, I came looking for y¡¯all,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.


    Yang Xiaojin, who was beside them, rolled her eyes at him. You call killing several thousand barbarians a small favor? Then what would be considered a big favor? Wiping out the expeditionary army?


    Ren Xiaosu pulled P5092 to the front. ¡°Let me introduce you. This is the Pyro Company¡¯s P5mander. He¡¯s also joined the Northwest now, the Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    P5092 had a look of conflict on his face, but he did not reject it in the end.


    But Wang Yun was shocked by the sight of this. He used to be a member of the Kong Consortium and was very experienced when it came to dealing with the Pyro Company.


    As a matter of fact, it was simply too difficult to pry any information out of a Pyro Company spy.


    Therefore, the Kong Consortium would just routinely interrogate the Pyro Company spies they had captured since they already knew they would not talk.


    But Ren Xiaosu was different. This guy actually poached a P5 divisionmander of the Pyro Company?


    Wang Yun looked at P5092 as he had seen him in a photo before. But he still found this unbelievable, so he confirmed with him, ¡°Pardon me, what¡¯s your serial number?¡±


    P5092 answered, ¡°P5092.¡±


    Wang Yun gasped. He could remember the information of every high-ranking P5mander, and P5092 had always been the most difficult to deal with among the Pyro Company members. If amander of the Kong Consortium¡¯s frontline troops heard their opponent was P5092¡¯s 3rd Division, they would act extremely cautiously.


    Many of the Kong Consortium¡¯s officers were even said to admit defeat in advance once they heard they were going up against P5092¡¯s troops.


    Someone within the Kong Consortium had suggested assassinating P5092 on multiple asions. That was because he was the most likely candidate to take over the position ofmander-in-chief of the military corps in recent years.


    And such an important figure like him... had also joined the Prosperous Northwest?!


    This Prosperous Northwest thing was this fucking irresistible?!


    P5092 looked at Wang Yun and asked, ¡°You know me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know you very well.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°You¡¯re 29 this year, and you like eating apples. When your troops are reorganizing, you enjoy being alone. You live at 278 Guangxing Road in Stronghold 24, and you¡¯re the only one in your family.¡±


    P5092 was stunned. ¡°Since you know me so well, might you be from the Kong Consortium? Wait a minute, you¡¯re that guy with the excellent memory from the Kong Consortium, right? I remember you. So were you all nning to poison me after finding out my address and favorite food?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Wang Yun admitted frankly. ¡°But now I¡¯m no longer working for the Kong Consortium, so I don¡¯t have to think about how to assassinate you anymore.¡±


    P5092 wondered, ¡°You¡¯ve joined the Prosperous Northwest as well?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve joined the Prosperous Northwest as well.¡±


    These past enemies had suddenly joined the Prosperous Northwest, and it made for an exceptionally hrious scene.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°See, the Northwest is really one big, happy family. We recruit talent and findmon ground while putting aside differences! Look at us, doesn¡¯t this feel like a fairy tale to you? The witch originally wanted to kill Snow White with a poisoned apple, but after being inspired by the Northwest, they put aside their grudges and devoted themselves to the building up of the Northwest!¡±


    P5092 and Wang Yun¡¯s faces darkened.


    Then P5092 looked over to the military base and was stunned by what he saw. ¡°Who¡¯s themander of these troops? Why are they such a mess? The soldiers and officers here have nothing to do at all. Wait, are those two men at the entrance regimental officers? Why are they arguing....¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said in embarrassment, ¡°I¡¯m themander of the Northwest¡¯s 6th Combat Brigade....¡±


    P5092 deliberated for a moment and said less harshly, ¡°You should get these troops in order.¡±


    In just an instant, P5092¡¯s professionalism was triggered. He could not bear to see military management being handled so chaotically. How could an army like this possibly have anybat strength?


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Fortress 178 troops have always been well-known for their strict discipline and highbat effectiveness. But why do I feel like it¡¯s different from what I imagined?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman quickly exined, ¡°Well, it¡¯s like this. A year ago, I was still just apanymander. But after the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory was folded in, our military expanded, and I was promoted three ranks. As I¡¯m still learning the ropes, I¡¯m not apetent brigademander yet. This time, I¡¯m actually only leading the troops here for Future Commander. He¡¯ll be the one leading them and deciding how we¡¯re going to fight this war.¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Then learn from me.¡±


    With that, he walked straight towards themand post without regard for anyone. Zhang Xiaoman looked at Ren Xiaosu from the back and thought, ¡®<i>That guy is so rude. Who the hell does he think he is? He¡¯s even telling me to learn from him?</i>¡®


    Ren Xiaosu whispered to him, ¡°P5092 is indeed outstanding at leading troops into battle. You should watch and learn¡ª¡±


    But before Ren Xiaosu could finish speaking, P5092 turned around and looked at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°What are you still standing there for? Gather all themanders and staff officers for a meeting. I want to be brought up to date about the troop situation and status within half an hour. We have to fully reorganize the troops today and see results within three days.¡±


    When P5092 assumed the position of themander, his aura waspletely different from usual. He had the demeanor of the highest-ranking officer in the military and sounded extremely decisive.


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu and said calmly, ¡°You don¡¯t think that I¡¯m trying to seize power, do you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled, ¡°No, it¡¯s up to you to decide how to lead the troops. You are now the highest-rankingmander of these troops and can freely move around the base.¡±


    This corresponded with the treatment Ren Xiaosu received back at the Pyro Company.


    P5092 nodded and said calmly, ¡°This was your purpose for making me join the Prosperous Northwest. In that case, I shall not stand on ceremony. Those who disobey my orders will be court martialed.¡±

 Chapter 913 - An alliance of two powerhouses

    <h4>Chapter 913: An alliance of two powerhouses</h4>


    Everyone in the 6th Combat Brigade knew exactly who would be taking overmand of the troops after they arrived in the Central ins.


    Currently, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s status in the Northwest was known to everyone. If this were the feudal era, he would be a designated sessor without any siblings to vie with.


    Although some veteranmanders were still watching from the sidelines, no one openly objected to his nomination.


    Therefore, when Ren Xiaosu said P5092 would take over themand of the troops, Zhang Xiaoman sat to the side and listened in on the meeting without making anyments.


    As a matter of fact, one of Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s greatest strengths was that he was very aware of his own capabilities and knew how much he could aplish with his abilities.


    However, he was also trying his best to learn. Everyone would have to grow up eventually.


    When Wang Yun told him about P5092¡¯s background in a whisper, Zhang Xiaoman realized this was the best learning opportunity for him.


    At this moment, the four regimentalmanders, their adjutants, staff officers, and othermanders of the 6th Combat Brigade were all sitting in themand post. They were looking quietly at the unfamiliar P5092 who was sitting at the end of the long table.


    On the way here, Zhang Xiaoman had told them the futuremand had poached this person from the Pyro Company. He was an outstanding militarymander who would join them in the Prosperous Northwest from now on.


    Everyone quickly understood what was going on. Quite a few talented people had joined the Prosperous Northwest in recent years. Although some people were not ustomed to the environment and did not get along with the Northwest, most of them were really quite capable.


    Of course, there were also some people who grumbled in private that Fortress 178 would rather recruit outsiders than groom their own people. Therefore, they wanted to see just how capable this Pyro Companymander was.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were sitting off to the side and listening in as well. Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Earlier on, I¡ª¡±


    ¡°Be quiet. There should be no whispering during the meeting,¡± interrupted P5092.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Then he replied with a smile, ¡°Understood.¡±


    The other officers looked at one another. This P5092 was really quite bold. How dare he make an example out of the futuremander to establish his authority?


    The role of the futuremander was not exactly a high-ranking position. Speaking of which, Ren Xiaosu did not even hold any real power. Even if anyone offended him, it was not like they would get fired or something. There was no such practice in the Northwest.


    But the problem was that the futuremander was extremely strong inbat. Wasn¡¯t P5092 afraid of getting beaten up in private for doing that?


    In any case, everyone here knew about Ren Xiaosu. Just by looking at what the futuremander had done before, all of thembined would not be enough to defeat him.


    After confirming Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attitude, P5092 said calmly to the other officers, ¡°OK, I want an update of the soldiers¡¯ statuses in each regiment. I need to know what the actual situation of the 6th Combat Brigade is. Which staff officer would like to brief me?¡±


    Wang Yun piped up, ¡°I¡¯ll do it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yun. There was something he was very curious about. Both Wang Yun and P5092 were very smart people, but their talentsy in different areas. As one had a macro view of things while the other had a micro view, he wondered what kind of result woulde of their cooperation.


    P5092 nodded. ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°The 6th Combat Brigade is actually a reinforced brigade that consists of four regiments. As we don¡¯t require a supply line, they¡¯re all infantry regiments. The 1st Regiment has 1,497 soldiers, the 2nd Regiment has 1,501 soldiers, the 3rd Regiment has 1,419 soldiers, and the 4th Regiment has 1,521 soldiers.


    ¡°For troops with more than three years ofbat experience, 1,041 are in the 1st Regiment, 1,011 are in the 2nd Regiment...


    ¡°For troops who are over 30 years old, 310 are in the 1st Regiment, 170 are in the 2nd Regiment...


    ¡°For those who have been through war before, we have 781 veterans in the 1st Regiment, 691 veterans in the 2nd Regiment...¡±


    When Wang Yun went through the troop numbers, he did it with such familiarity that it felt like he had everything memorized clearly. Before P5092 joined them, he had validated all the data and was supposed to update Ren Xiaosu with it. However, someone even more well-versed in leading the troops, P5092, showed up instead.


    These numbers might look normal, but an outstandingmander would understand that if the proportion of veterans and recruits in a fighting force was different, their performance on the battlefield would also turn out to bepletely different. Therefore, it was no use to just look at the troop numbers.


    This was originally a question P5092 wanted to ask, but he was worried these officers could not answer it. However, he did not expect Wang Yun to answer it so well.


    P5092 praised, ¡°Very good.¡±


    But at this moment, Wang Yun suddenly frowned. ¡°No, the number of soldiers who are older than 30 in the 1st Regiment is not 310. I¡¯m sorry, it¡¯s 311.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Remembering one wrong won¡¯t affect the overall situation much,¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that I remembered wrong.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°It¡¯s because someone is celebrating his birthday today, so the number of soldiers over the age of 30 in the 1st Regiment is 311.¡±


    With that, everyone, including P5092, was shocked. Was there really someone with such an excellent memory in the world?


    There was a joke about three people who were captured by the enemy. The enemy told them, ¡°As long as you can each answer one of our questions, we¡¯ll release you.¡± The three prisoners hurriedly agreed to it.


    So the enemy asked the first person, ¡°How many people are there in your troops?¡±


    The first person replied, ¡°1,000.¡±


    He was released.


    Then the enemy asked the second person, ¡°How many men and women are there in your troops?¡±


    The second person replied, ¡°All of them are men.¡±


    He was released as well.


    After that, the enemy asked the third person, ¡°What are the names of these 1,000 people?¡±


    Then the third person was executed.


    But a freak like Wang Yun would not be stumped by this question. He could really recite all of the names.


    At this moment, Wang Yun continued, ¡°Now, let me touch on the allocation of weapons and equipment...¡±


    This time, Wang Yun could even detail exactly how many bullets each regiment had, not to mention the number of heavy machine guns, grenades, and TNT.


    While Wang Yun was speaking, P5092 recorded all the data in his notebook with a pen.


    In just half an hour, P5092 knew the entire 6th Combat Brigade like the back of his hand.


    Ren Xiaosu observed from the side and realized that P5092¡¯s eyes were brightening by the moment. It looked like he was getting more confident after he gained a deeper understanding of these troops.


    Although the 6th Combat Brigade had yet to engage in battle with the barbarians, Ren Xiaosu felt it was the correct choice to poach Wang Yun and P5092 to the Prosperous Northwest.


    This was an alliance of two powerhouses!


    Then, coupled with Yang Xiaojin¡¯s and his ability to dominate the battlefield, abat brigade might even be able to have a very big impact on the entire battlefield.


    P5092 closed his notebook and said to everyone, ¡°Let¡¯s take a half-hour break. Next, I¡¯ll be restructuring the brigade. Although the current distribution of soldiers is well-bnced, it can sometimes lead to fatal ws on the battlefield. I¡¯ll need both people who can assault the enemy and those who can stand their ground to defend our positions at the same time. With the different roles, the personnel allocation of each infantry regiment will also be different.¡±


    ¡°And where should we head to after that?¡± Zhang Xiaoman was suddenly curious. The atmosphere in themand center was no longer rxed. They had a feeling that a great battle was imminent.


    P5092 looked at Wang Yun. ¡°Do you remember the terrain around the Central ins?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Wang Yun said calmly.


    P5092 thought for a while and said, ¡°I¡¯ll state the conditions so you can help me identify a suitable location. It has to be within 50 to 70 kilometers of Mt. Daniu, close to a water source, and not further than two hours from Wanggan Ridge, which the enemy is using as a retreat route. Furthermore, it should be a ce where we can take advantage of the difficult terrain to defend our position and not be easily discovered...¡±


    It took P5092 three full minutes to state all the requirements.


    Then Wang Yun stood up and opened a map to point at a spot northeast of Mt. Youyu. ¡°Here, Mt. Zuoyun!¡±


    P5092 smiled and told Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Even if you refuse to let me join the Prosperous Northwest now, I would not leave.¡±

 Chapter 914 - An alliance of three powerhouses

    <h4>Chapter 914: An alliance of three powerhouses</h4>


    Before P5092 came to the Northwest, there were really no other ces left for him to go. Moreover, under the threat of force by Ren Xiaosu, he decided to join the Northwest to see if the people here were really as Ren Xiaosu had described.


    Therefore, his willingness to join the Northwest was at most 30% voluntary.


    At that time, P5092 considered going to jail so he could have some peace and put an end to his past with the Pyro Company beforeing out to live as a normal person.


    If the Northwest were not to his liking, he would return to the Pyro Company and go to jail.


    But it was different now. After working with Wang Yun, P5092 suddenly felt that all his previous partners paled inparison to him. This was a partner a militarymander should have.


    He clearly understood what data P5092 asked for and could immediately answer with a quick recollection when P5092 asked for a strategic position to be identified.


    Working with a colleague who was so proficient at his job gave P5092 a sense ofplete control over the troops.


    This was apletely different kind of feeling.


    In the past, whenever P5092 felt there was something wrong with the troops, he could not find the root of the problem because he was not good at spotting some details.


    But now, he could grasp the entire situation very clearly.


    This was the difference between writing with your toes and writing with your hand. To an outstandingmander, this was a world of difference!


    P5092 and Wang Yun were considered equal status. They were both recruited by Ren Xiaosu for the Northwest, so there wasn¡¯t really any differentiation in their ranks.


    The two of them got along as partners in battlemand. Wang Yun was his adjutant, and the two of them quickly became best friends in private!


    This was a friendship betweenrades, a friendship where they trusted each other. They were more like best friends.


    In contrast, the friendship that Zhang Xiaoman and Wang Yun shared, which was built upon cursing at the Great Hoodwinker together, appeared a little inferior.


    All of a sudden, Zhang Xiaoman felt like he had been left out.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman and asked, ¡°Oh yeah, where¡¯s your dad?¡±


    Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang looked at Ren Xiaosu in silence. No one answered him. However, Zhang Xiaoman started cursing, ¡°That old bastard! How dare he take advantage of me in front of the futuremander!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was baffled. Wang Yun exined in a whisper, ¡°Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s father is someone else. The Great Hoodwinker was lying.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. What the heck was that Great Hoodwinker trying to pull?


    In the evening, the Northwest¡¯s 6th Combat Brigade packed up and advanced towards Mt. Zuoyun from Mt. Youyu. They expected to arrive within two days.


    P5092¡¯s orders were for everyone to march quickly and seize the advantageous terrain of Mt. Zuoyun while the Wang Consortium was engaged in battle with the expeditionary army.


    Otherwise, it would not be that easy to upy Mt. Zuoyun once the two sides¡¯ had a temporary ceasefire.


    As the 6th Combat Brigade had yet to appear on the battlefield, the expeditionary army was still unaware that the brigade was in the vicinity. The barbarians were in the open, while they operated in the shadows.


    However, Ren Xiaosu looked at the map curiously and asked, ¡°Since Mt. Zuoyun is north of Mt. Daniu, shouldn¡¯t it be considered the rear of the expeditionary army? And it¡¯s also some distance from where the battlefield is, so why are we going there?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s precisely because it¡¯s at the rear of the expeditionary army.¡± P5092 said firmly, ¡°As for why we¡¯re going there, I¡¯ll exinter.¡±


    Two dayster, the 6th Combat Brigade arrived at Mt. Zuoyun safely. The mountains here were towering and steep. P5092 thought that this was indeed the position he wanted.


    After walking around the mountains for a long time, P5092 suddenly pointed in a direction and said to the regimentalmanders, ¡°I want defensive fortifications to be built there within three days. Not temporary fortifications but a defensive line where we can put up a tough fight!¡±


    However, Ji Zi¡¯ang said from next to him, ¡°It shouldn¡¯t take three days.¡±


    He and Wang Yun had recently joined the Prosperous Northwest together, but while Wang Yun was doing really well so far, Ji Zi¡¯ang was just sitting idly around with nothing to do.


    Ever since he knew his wife and child were really safe, he truly wanted to do his part for the Northwest. He also started seeing himself as a Northwesterner now.


    Yet while he was the first to acknowledge the Northwest, he ended up contributing the least? He could not ept this.


    When he heard P5092 needed defensive fortifications to be built, he immediately volunteered for the job. This was something he could do!


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was an earth-type supernatural being and was best at altering surface topography. Be it rock, soil, or even brick houses, all of that was within the scope of his abilities!


    After saying that, Ji Zi¡¯ang used his power to make changes to the terrain of the area that P5092 pointed out.


    P5092¡¯s eyes lit up. Under normal circumstances, defensive fortifications would be built with stone or sandbags, so it was far less sturdy than what Ji Zi¡¯ang had built.


    He asked Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°If I draw a simple defensive operations map of the fortifications, can you build them immediately?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang said.


    With that, P5092 looked at the mountainous terrain and immediately marked details of the defensive fortifications on the drawings.


    This set of drawings tested P5092¡¯s basics greatly. In the defensive position, there would be blinds, frontline trenches, support trenches, travel trenches,munication trenches, concealed trenches, dugouts, weapon emcements, and foxholes[1], built for the purpose of fire support, mobility, and survivability operations.


    If they had not seen it with their own eyes, no one would have imagined that a defensive operations drawing could be so detailed. Just for the trenches alone, P5092 clearly indicated where the foxholes, exits, and drainage channels should be located.


    There were also watchtowers and suppressive fire points indicated, while ces that needed walls and ditches were clearly marked as well.


    The regimentalmanders of the 6th Combat Brigade were surprised by P5092¡¯s professionalism as they used to build their defensive fortifications quite shoddily. After all, most people from Fortress 178 were quite crude.


    After P5092 was done drawing, he said, ¡°Build it ording to this!¡±


    However, Ji Zi¡¯ang was dumbfounded when he saw the drawings. ¡°What¡¯s a foxhole? And what¡¯s a weapon emcement? I used to be in charge of intelligence gathering and have never fought positional warfare before, so I don¡¯t know much about the defensive fortifications that you¡¯ve mentioned. If only I knew their structures, that would be great. Unfortunately, I¡¯ve never learned about them before.¡±


    P5092 was a little disappointed. A lot of people¡¯s understanding of defensive fortifications was that all they needed to do was to dig some trenches, even though that was not the case.


    But it was good enough for now. With Ji Zi¡¯ang around, the time taken for the troops to build the defensive fortifications would be greatly shortened, and it would be easier for his n to seed.


    But before P5092 could say anything further, Wang Yun suddenly said from nearby, ¡°If I can draw the three-dimensional diagrams of those structures in the defensive fortifications from memory, can you build them ording to the drawings?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was taken aback. ¡°I just need to know what they look like.¡±


    P5092 looked at Wang Yun. ¡°You can draw all the structures¡¯ diagrams?¡±


    ¡°Yes, all of them.¡± Wang Yun pointed at his head.


    [1] In the military action against Vietnam in thete 1970s, the People¡¯s Liberation Army dug arge number of so-called ¡°cat ear holes¡± (è¶ú¶´). A cat ear hole, a more or less horizontal foxhole, refers to a hole in the side wall of a trench or soil slope that can be used for shelter. | https://chineseposters/posters/e13-214

 Chapter 915 - An alliance of five powerhouses

    <h4>Chapter 915: An alliance of five powerhouses</h4>


    Everyone knew that Wang Yun had an excellent memory. But Ji Zi¡¯ang was a little confused. ¡°Normally, such structural drawings are an esoteric subject, so how did youe to learn all this? It has nothing to do with your previous job scope.¡±


    Wang Yun exined to everyone, ¡°When I realized I had a photographic memory, I deliberately spent some time reading in the library. I¡¯ve been to public and military libraries. This way, I don¡¯t have to flip through books when I need the information. I can just retrieve it from my mind.¡±


    Then Wang Yun drew a series of three-dimensional structural designs, such as foxholes, trenches, and other structures from his memory. These would then be used for Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s reference.


    Wang Yun said, ¡°There will definitely be some differences between the drawings and what is actually built. But with Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s power, they can be adjusted ordingly after they¡¯re built, so it¡¯s not a big problem.¡±


    After The Cataclysm, 3D printing technology had been lost. Although some organizations wanted to redevelop this technology, it still only existed in legend.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was just like a 3D printer now, but he could only print out something if he had the design sketches.


    Meanwhile, P5092 and Wang Yun happened to be able toplement each other andplete the drawings.


    The defensive position that usually required thousands of people to work for three days to build only took one day to finish under Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s lead. Ji Zi¡¯ang was in charge of altering thendform¡¯s foundation while the rest of the soldiers finished building the instations. This was because Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s mental strength was limited, so he had to take a half-hour¡¯s rest every now and then.


    When therge andplex defensive position waspleted, everyone found it very difficult to believe that it was built in only one day. Furthermore, this was definitely not a makeshift defensive position. In the past, suchplex structures would probably have taken half a month to construct.


    When Ji Zi¡¯ang saw everyone looking at him enviously, he chuckled, ¡°When the world bes peaceful again, I¡¯ll be a contractor and build houses for everyone.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°That¡¯s a good idea.¡±


    However, P5092 said with a sigh, ¡°I wonder when peace wille again. We don¡¯t even know if we¡¯ll get to witness it.¡±


    ¡°We definitely will,¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang said firmly.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu looked at P5092. ¡°Now that the defensive position has been built, can you tell us your ns? Although this defensive position looks really sturdy, the barbarians won¡¯t being here, right?¡±


    P5092 brought over a map and spread it out on the ground. ¡°If they don¡¯te, we¡¯ll make theme. Look here. We¡¯re located diagonally behind the expeditionary army. It¡¯s not only us Central ins people who know how to build a supply line. As the expeditionary army advances southwards en masse, they¡¯ll need to have a supply line as well. I¡¯ve marked three routes in red on the map. They¡¯ll surely use one of them to transport their supplies.¡±


    ¡°Where we¡¯re situated right now, we can get to that farthest route within two hours. After we¡¯re done plundering their supplies, we can still beat a hasty retreat back here,¡± P5092 said.


    Ren Xiaosu figured out something. ¡°Are you thinking of disrupting their lifeline at the rear so that they¡¯ll be forced toe and attack Mt. Zuoyun?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± P5092 said, ¡°we¡¯ve already seen how the Wang Consortium has had a hard time dealing with the barbarians on the main battlefield at Mt. Daniu. But if there were another group supporting them and harassing the expeditionary army at that time, they would have had a chance of winning. In a war, both sides will sometimes have topete in troop numbers when battling each other. But when both sides are evenly matched, you have to create an opportunity for the enemy to trip up. It¡¯s very difficult to make mistakes on the main battlefield, so only by pushing them to adjust their formation and to constantly make more decisions will such an opportunity suddenly arise.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Are you confident of robbing the expeditionary army¡¯s supplies? What if there¡¯s a lot of barbarians escorting the supply convoy?¡±


    They had framed a good scenario whereby robbing the expeditionary army¡¯s supplies would cause the barbarians a headache. But there was also another scenario where they might not even have enough troops to go up against the expeditionary army¡¯s transportation corps.


    This was a very strong possibility. That was because the barbarians were physically stronger. In a situation where there was no defensive position to help the Northwest¡¯s army, the barbarians might be able to wipe out 3,000 Central ins troops with just a 1,000 of their men.


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu and said seriously, ¡°That¡¯ll require you and Ms. Xiaojin to lead a team in. If it weren¡¯t on the presumption that you two would be leading the team, I wouldn¡¯t have drafted a battle n like this. With your abilities, even if you can¡¯t wipe out the supply column, you can still retreat unscathed after destroying some of their supplies and harassing them. The two of you only need to concentrate on harassing them, and I believe you can do fine.¡±


    Realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. So it turned out P5092¡¯s idea was to make use of his and Yang Xiaojin¡¯sbat capabilities.


    P5092 said, ¡°Actually, you two are the most important part of this n. Once you¡¯ve harassed the expeditionary army enough, they¡¯ll feel like something is nipping at them.¡±


    This was akin to discovering a venomous and hairy spider at home, but that was not the scariest thing. What was most terrifying was that you realized it had disappeared in the blink of an eye.


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin would vanish after robbing the barbarians¡¯ supplies sessfully, the expeditionary army would start scratching their heads and wonder what happened.


    Previously, Yang Xiaojin said to P5092, ¡°Since you like to use decoys, and Ren Xiaosu likes being the bait, you twoplement each other well.¡±


    And now, P5092 had really started using Ren Xiaosu as bait. However, this was bait that could kill.


    P5092 continued, ¡°Surely I don¡¯t have to exin any further how important a supply line is to all troops. So they¡¯ll definitelye to Mt. Zuoyun to encircle us. When the timees, we¡¯ll be in for a tough battle. In the bigger picture, the 6th Combat Brigade doesn¡¯t have that many troops, but what if we¡¯re fighting a positional defensive battle? In a defensive battle, it¡¯s possible for one soldier to kill ten enemies. In war, we should always think of ways to put ourselves in an advantageous situation.¡±


    Once they upied the advantageous terrain, the barbarians were nothing to be afraid of. Moreover, with Ji Zi¡¯ang around, his power could really be quite terrifying in such a mountainous area.


    Just imagine that as the barbarian troops marched down a mountain path, piles of boulders could suddenly fall from the mountains. This was a power that wasparable to heavy machine guns.


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I agree with your n. But if we¡¯re attacking their supply column, I suggest that Yang Xiaojin and I act alone. It¡¯ll be a little troublesome if we have to bring the others along.¡±


    It was obvious the futuremander saw everyone as a burden. However, they pretended they did not hear it. After all, their futuremander was fully qualified to say that.


    However, P5092 disagreed, ¡°You have to bring some people with you. If there¡¯s only the two of you, the expeditionary army won¡¯t care to encircle Mt. Zuoyun. The barbarians will onlye if you take at least onepany with you. I want you to bring them along not because they can help you with anything, but to make the barbarians know there¡¯s a group of soldiers hidden in Mt. Zuoyun!¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s what you mean.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Then who¡¯ll go with me? We don¡¯t have any special forces like the Pyro Company has, so our mobility is a little bad.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled, ¡°Future Commander, let me lead the Iron First Company of the 2nd Regiment and go with you. Those rascals might not be good at waging war, but they can run faster than anyone else.¡±

 Chapter 916 - Flee when you’re done

    <h4>Chapter 916: Flee when you¡¯re done</h4>


    Initially, the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade were actually quite nervous when they heard they would be heading to the Central ins. After all, the wars they had been fighting were all in the Northwest. They were used to the conditions there, so even if they could not defeat the enemy, they still hadrades they could depend on.


    But now, they were more than a 1,000 kilometers away from Fortress 178 at Mt. Zuoyun. By the time their reinforcements arrived, they themselves would probably be dead.


    Later, everyone heard that some Central ins people who were part of the Prosperous Northwest would join them, but they did not pay much attention to it. In truth, Wang Yun and the others were not enough to reassure the 6th Combat Brigade.


    But ever since Ren Xiaosu got here, they now had P5092 making up for the brigade¡¯sck of strategy while Ren Xiaosu strengthened theirbat prowess. Meanwhile, Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang, who had joined before them, suddenly showed their brilliance as well.


    In just two days, all of the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s soldiers could rest easy.


    They had never been more reassured than this!


    They knew full well that many of them would die when the expeditionary army arrived to encircle Mt. Zuoyun, but so what? The soldiers of Fortress 178 were not afraid of dying. They only worried their deaths would be in vain.


    Truly, dying under the lead of Zhang Xiaoman just did not seem worthwhile at all.


    On the same night the defensive position was built, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin quietly led the Iron First Company out of Mt. Zuoyun.


    The mission P5092 gave them was to locate the expeditionary army¡¯s supply line within three days. After that, they would harass the enemy as much as possible.


    Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang had wanted to tag along, but P5092 said there was no need for that. Ren Xiaosu was more than enough.


    In terms of battle strategy, there was no reason to let four superhumans go on a mission together. In P5092¡¯s opinion, anyone could get into trouble, but nothing must happen to all four of them at once. Therefore, Wang Yun, Ji Zi¡¯ang, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin would have to work separately.


    As P5092 was now themander of the 6th Combat Brigade, everyone had to listen to him.


    After some consideration, Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang felt it was probably not a big deal anyway. What could possibly happen to Ren Xiaosu when it was the barbarians¡¯ transportation corps that he would be facing?


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu confirmed with P5092, ¡°Is there anything else that you want to tell me?¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Flee when you¡¯re done. This is the expeditionary army¡¯s rear, so retreat as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I understand,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    11 hours after Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin left, the Iron First Company ryed back the news that they had indeed discovered traces of deep tracks on one of the routes. It seemed that P5092 had correctly guessed where the expeditionary army¡¯s supply line was.


    This relieved P5092. All Ren Xiaosu needed to do next was to wait for the barbarians¡¯ supply column to pass by.


    He assumed Ren Xiaosu would just throw some grenades from afar or snipe the enemy¡¯s transportation corps when they passed by.


    Once the barbarians showed intention to pursue, Ren Xiaosu would lead the Iron First Company and retreat back to their defensive line.


    The situation went much more smoothly than expected. Six hourster, the Iron First Company¡¯s radio operator ryed back news that they had discovered signs of the enemy, and the supply column was heading south under the escort of 500 barbarians.


    P5092 startedughing grimly on Mt. Zuoyun. Previously, the barbarians had harassed the Pyro Company¡¯s supply line, and now, it was his turn to get revenge.


    The battle began, but just 30 minutester, a staff officer on Mt. Zuoyun told P5092, ¡°Sir, it¡¯s a call from the futuremander.¡±


    P5092 took the receiver and asked, ¡°Did everything go well? Did you get ambushed by the barbarians?¡±


    ¡°No, there wasn¡¯t an ambush. We¡¯re retreating now. We¡¯ll talk about the other things when we get back,¡± Ren Xiaosu said on the radio.


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯m looking forward to your triumphant return. Great job,¡± P5092 said.


    About 10 hours after attacking the barbarians¡¯ supply line, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin returned with the Iron First Company. On top of that, he also brought back the barbarians¡¯ supplies and distributed some biscuits to everyone.


    At the beginning, everyone was worried that Ren Xiaosu and the others would encounter danger. But from the look of things, they were like tourists returning from an overseas trip and distributing local specialties to their family members.


    The supplies were all food items, but they were almost no different from the food found in the Central ins. Later, everyone realized the food came from Stronghold 176 and were not the barbarians¡¯ own rations.


    After Stronghold 176 was destroyed, the food supply of several hundred thousand people stored there had be the barbarians¡¯ supplies. It was no wonder the expeditionary army was not worried about their supplies at all.


    After Ren Xiaosu came back, he intended to wait for the expeditionary army to get here. All the soldiers quietly heightened their readiness in case the enemy came to attack them.


    However, the expeditionary army did note to encircle them even after waiting for an entire day. Puzzled, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s happening? Why¡¯s the expeditionary army taking so long?¡±


    Wang Yun replied, ¡°They¡¯re probably mobilizing their troops.¡±


    When the expeditionary army still did note, everyone felt that something was off.


    Zhang Xiaoman approached Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Future Commander, what¡¯s the matter with those barbarians? Why aren¡¯t they here yet?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t I make a trip to Mt. Daniu?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was startled. ¡°Why would you go to Mt. Daniu?¡±


    Peeved, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ll go and ask the barbarians why they didn¡¯te to Mt. Zuoyun. If they don¡¯te, wouldn¡¯t I have fought that battle for nothing?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was confused.


    Then Ren Xiaosu went to ask P5092 if the expeditionary army was not nning to consider their rear.


    However, P5092 exined earnestly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it takes time to mobilize the troops. We just need to concentrate on our defensive deployment now. They¡¯ll definitelye...¡±


    Halfway through his sentence, P5092 suddenly felt that he might have caught onto something when he saw Ren Xiaosu eating some hardtack. ¡°Wait a minute, did you steal the barbarians¡¯ supplies?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°All of it!¡±


    ¡°They let you snatch their supplies just like that?¡± P5092 asked doubtfully.


    ¡°They¡¯ve all been killed anyway, so it¡¯s not like their corpses will stand up and stop me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    P5092 finally realized what the problem was. He said in seriousness, ¡°If you killed all the barbarians, they won¡¯t even know where we¡¯re hiding. You¡¯ve left them without any eyewitnesses. Do you still remember what I told you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu repeated his words from back then, ¡°Of course I remember. Flee when you¡¯re done! This is the expeditionary army¡¯s rear, so retreat as soon as possible. That was what you said, so we ran back here after I finished killing them.¡±


    This time, it was P5092¡¯s turn to be stunned. He finally realized what was going on. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s understanding of ¡°flee when you¡¯re done¡± literally meant wiping out this supply column.


    P5092 did not know how to react to this. ¡°What I meant was for you to just harass them. For example, you could¡¯ve fired a shot at them and run away. Of course, that¡¯s only an example. If you only fired a shot, the barbarians would suspect that we¡¯re deliberately trying to lure them into a trap.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I did consider fleeing after firing a shot, but I was worried the barbarians would catch up and inflict casualties on the Iron First Company, so I had them all killed.¡±


    When P5092 heard this, he felt that it sounded somewhat illogical. But when he thought about it carefully, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it as well.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the problem. It must be something else. It has nothing to do with leaving eyewitnesses since I didn¡¯t clean up the site when I came back. The barbarians have experienced hunters among them as well, so it should not be difficult for them to track us to Mt. Zuoyun.¡±


    P5092 agreed with what he said. ¡°Then something must have happened on the main battlefield.¡±

 Chapter 917 - Ambush

    <h4>Chapter 917: Ambush</h4>


    Anymander who was smart enough would know of the importance of a supply line. P5092 had been up against the expeditionary army so many times he was very sure their general must be a smart person.


    Therefore, why didn¡¯t the expeditionary army retaliate after the 6th Combat Brigade plundered their logistic supplies? This was very unusual.


    P5092 said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°It¡¯s very likely that the battle at Mt. Daniu has gotten so intense that the expeditionary army can¡¯t afford to encircle Mt. Zuoyun for now. All of their forces have been pinned down.¡±


    ¡°Then what should we do now? Should we march to Mt. Daniu to support the Wang Consortium¡¯s efforts?¡± Ren Xiaosu said seriously with a sense of urgency.


    However, P5092 said, ¡°Since the expeditionary army is hard pressed on the main battlefield, we must create enough chaos in their rear to attract their attention! We definitely shouldn¡¯t head to the main battlefield at Mt. Daniu at this time!¡±


    Before this, P5092 had said the 6th Combat Brigade did not have that many soldiers. If they rashly entered the main battlefield, they would be marching to their deaths.


    Therefore, they should continue with their n to disrupt the expeditionary army¡¯s lifeline for now. No matter what was going on over at the Wang Consortium¡¯s side, they should maintain their own rhythm instead of being influenced by random guesses of what others might be doing. This was the universal truth on the battlefield.


    P5092 said, ¡°How about this? Take the Iron First Company and make another trip to the expeditionary army¡¯s supply line. This time, kill as many barbarians as you can once you encounter their transportation corps. We must ensure that the expeditionary army can feel the threating from their rear.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu was then about to depart from the defensive position with the troops.


    But at this moment, P5092 thought of another possibility.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu and the Iron First Company rushed towards the location they had previously plundered the supply column. However, the barbarians might not be taking this route anymore. After all, there were still two other routes to choose from.


    P5092 instructed that if they did not manage to see the expeditionary army¡¯s transportation corps on the original route where they encountered them, they should head to the other routes to see if they could discover anything.


    The soldiers of the Iron First Company quietly followed Ren Xiaosu without saying a word. They just did whatever Ren Xiaosu told them to do.


    Thepanymander did not even ask Ren Xiaosu where they were headed this time. All they needed to do was follow along.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at them. ¡°There¡¯s no need to hide our tracks along the way. Since we¡¯re here to attract the expeditionary army¡¯s attention to Mt. Zuoyun, we should definitely leave some tracks for them to follow.¡±


    Thepanymander asked meekly, ¡°Future Commander, why don¡¯t we leave some barbarians alive this time? That way, it¡¯ll be easier for them to find us....¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had be the most ruthless person in the hearts of the Fortress 178 troops. When the barbarian troops encountered him, it would be difficult for them to even have any survivors left.


    As they spoke, the troops were about to walk out of Mt. Zuoyun when Ren Xiaosu suddenly stopped in his tracks. Thepanymander behind him asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Future Commander?¡±


    ¡°Something¡¯s not right!¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly roared, ¡°Retreat! The enemy is lying in ambush beyond the mountains!¡±


    There happened to be a mountain blocking their view up ahead. But before setting off, Ren Xiaosu had already unleashed Old Xu to scout ahead for the enemy.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu could clearly see through Old Xu¡¯s vision that over a 1,000 barbarians were lurking beyond the mountains!


    In the blink of an eye, they heard a barbarian shouting coarsely on their left.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly looked up and was surprised to see a barbarian in charge of keeping watch hiding on the left side of the slope.


    When the barbarian realized Ren Xiaosu and the others were thinking of retreating, he immediately alerted hispanions to attack quickly. They vowed to show no mercy to Ren Xiaosu and these 100-odd troops.


    The sentry barbarian assessed the situation. Even though the Central ins troops were still about a kilometer away from their ambush spot, it shouldn¡¯t be difficult for nearly a 1,000 barbarians to annihte them based on the expeditionary army¡¯s speed.


    The Iron First Company¡¯smander shouted, ¡°Future Commander, what should we do?¡±


    ¡°Run!¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted, ¡°Run back the other way as quickly as you can!¡±


    A secondter, the entire Iron First Company turned around and ran. They darted through the mountain paths with great proficiency.


    The expeditionary army behind him angrily roared like a pack of wolves chasing after antelopes in the valley.


    Ren Xiaosu thought as he ran. So the reason why the expeditionary army didn¡¯t care about their supply line at the rear was that they had already guessed there was an ambush waiting for them on Mt. Zuoyun. It was not because they were caught up in the intensity of the main battlefield. Therefore, they did not head directly into the mountains to encircle them.


    In the end, the barbarians had deliberately chosen not toe and encircle them. This caused P5092 to misjudge the situation. After that, they quietly set an ambush beyond the mountains to catch the Northwest¡¯s troops off guard.


    This was a true psychological tactic. Themanders from both sides were ying mind games.


    P5092 had wanted to make use of the supply line¡¯s importance to force the expeditionary army toe and encircle Mt. Zuoyun. Meanwhile, the barbarians made use of their enemy¡¯s concern for the main battlefield to entice them to make their next move.


    Ren Xiaosumented that these tacticians were way too crafty. Their tricks were each more devious than the other.


    He quickly ran towards the defensive position with the Iron First Company. The expeditionary army started closing in and gaining on them until they were only dozens of meters away!


    The 1,000-strong expeditionary army was giving chase in the mountains like a long snake slithering speedily.


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly took out a remote detonator from his pocket and pressed one of the red buttons on it.


    With a loud boom, the long slithering snake was blown apart in the middle. The expeditionary army¡¯s barbarians were stunned. They had not expected to encounter such a situation!


    Then Ren Xiaosu pressed the buttons one after another, and the TNT that had been buried along the expeditionary army¡¯s route was detonated in quick session!


    A huge cloud of smoke started spreading in the mountains with a pungent smell so choking that it burned everyone¡¯s senses. Casualties and cries filled the wilderness of the mountains.


    After several explosions, only around 300 of the originally 1,000-strong barbarian troops were left. Furthermore, their formation was torn apart by the bombs.


    The barbarians were at a loss of what to do as they were unsure if another bomb would go off at any second.


    Ren Xiaosu had stopped in his tracks. The soldiers of the Iron First Company also turned around and raised their guns, ready to fight back with their futuremander.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was extremely happy. It was not because he had killed a lot of barbarians but that P5092 had guessed the expeditionary army¡¯s intentions correctly.


    Although P5092 was unsure whether he had guessed correctly, their backup n caused the expeditionary army, which was preparing the ambush, to suffer heavy losses.


    Before setting off, P5092 told Ren Xiaosu that there might be barbarians lying in ambush beyond the mountains. Therefore, he instructed Ren Xiaosu to choose a good spot to bury the TNT before they left the mountains. If they really encountered the expeditionary army, they should lead them back to step on the mines.


    From this incident, Ren Xiaosu witnessed P5092¡¯s outstanding leadership on the battlefield.


    As expected of someone he had personally recruited to join the Prosperous Northwest!

 Chapter 918 - People do change

    <h4>Chapter 918: People do change</h4>


    Actually, P5092, who was far away at themand post on Mt. Zuoyun, was not particrly worried when he received news that the Iron First Company had been ambushed. Instead, he heaved a sigh of relief.


    That was because as long as he guessed correctly, Ren Xiaosu would definitely score a brilliant victory in this battle with hisbat prowess.


    This time, P5092 wanted to prove his worth to everyone.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang had proven that not only could he fight battles, but he was also able to quickly set up a defensive position in the middle of a war.


    This power to quickly alter the terrain might be a little useless in individualbat as it did not have as much lethalitypared to other people¡¯s superpowers, but P5092 knew best what it meant to have someone who could change the environment in a war.


    Meanwhile, Wang Yun¡¯s quick analysis ability andprehensive data organization skills made him as good as a human search engine. On top of that, he was even good at catching clues.


    As for Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, it was unnecessary to talk about how strong theirbat prowess was.


    On the contrary, it was P5092 who had not disyed any outstanding abilities yet. Although he had done a good job at reorganizing the troops and nning the defensive position, many other veteranmanders could do the same.


    These were just the basics that anymander should possess if they wanted to be great military leaders.


    Therefore, when P5092 got to work alongside these great colleagues, he felt he should quickly make known his value so he would be worthy of these teammates.


    This was a very strange feeling. In the past, P5092 always felt he could not work to the best of his abilities when he was with the Pyro Company. In the tactics he devised, he had to lower a lot of expectations for his officers and soldiers so they could keep up with his rhythm.


    This was as good as breaking his arm before getting into a fight. He needed to deliberately lower his standards in order to achieve victory.


    Of course, his priority was to secure the final victory, but he could clearly have won those battles more brilliantly.


    For example, back at the forward operating base at the rear of Mt. Dashi, he had used the Qinghe University students as bait and left behind a group of special forces led by a T5batant.


    But a lot of people still died in that battle, and their supplies were also destroyed by the barbarians.


    If there were experts like Ren Xiaosu, Wang Yun, and Ji Zi¡¯ang in that n from the start, how could the supplies possibly get destroyed?


    Therefore, P5092 always felt a sense of helplessness when he was with the Pyro Company.


    But it was different now. He suddenly felt that everyone here was equallypetent. P5092 no longer had to worry if his colleagues were good enough. He only needed to make sure he performed well himself!


    What a fantastic feeling this was! He did not want his colleagues to think he was not good enough for the team. As such, before Ren Xiaosu left today, he specifically reminded him that the expeditionary army might set an ambush for them. If that really happened, he would have to make sure they lured the barbarians into the mountains and killed as many of them as possible with the TNT.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu should be on the battlefield taking out the remaining barbarians just as he always did in the past.


    Speaking of which, it was also quite strange. Even without heading to the front lines, he would still continue being the futuremander of the Northwest. So why did Ren Xiaosu always like going to the front lines?


    Just like the chess game Ren Xiaosu yed with Jiang Xu previously, Jiang Xu said he had never seen anyone move the general as their first move before.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu replied that since the general was the definite strongest, why should it keep hiding behind the others? Of course it would have to rush to the front lines to fight.


    On this current chessboard, the futuremander¡¯s general was indeed charging around on the battlefield and ughtering like what Ren Xiaosu had said.


    Once when Ren Xiaosu and Jiang Xu were ying chess, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s general stopped in front of one of Jiang Xu¡¯s pawns. Jiang Xu was delighted and immediately moved his pawn. ¡°Checkmate! You¡¯ve lost!¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu took that pawn off the chessboard and said to Jiang Xu, ¡°Since that pawn can¡¯t beat my general, isn¡¯t it charging suicidal? You¡¯re so weird.¡±


    Jiang Xu thought to himself at that time, ¡®<i>Who¡¯s the weird one here? It¡¯s clearly you, alright!</i>¡®


    But now, a simr scene to that chess game was happening in the blink of an eye.


    Inside a valley in Mt. Zuoyun, a burly barbarian who was not affected by the explosions saw Ren Xiaosu charging at the very front. The barbarian raised his huge axe and shed at him.


    As his muscr arm swung the huge axe down at Ren Xiaosu, the barbarian was delighted when he saw Ren Xiaosu not even raising his gun. But sorrow often seeded joy. Ren Xiaosu lifted his hand and directly cut off the barbarian¡¯s arm with a ck saber that appeared out of nowhere.


    Meanwhile, the axe that fell from his grip vanished without a trace after Ren Xiaosu gave a flick of his hand.


    When the dozens of barbarians saw that Ren Xiaosu was a superhuman, they shielded their eyes, nning to forcefully surround and kill Ren Xiaosu with the gunfire of the Iron First Company¡¯s soldiers.


    But a secondter, the sound of a sniper rifle firing came from the distance, away from the battlefield. The bullet had arrived before the gunshot was heard, and it pierced through a barbarian trying to attack Ren Xiaosu, creating an opening for him.


    It only took three seconds to blow up the hundreds of barbarians, but it took another half an hour to take out the remaining enemies on the battlefield. All of the remaining enemies could have been killed faster, but as Ren Xiaosu needed to divert his attention to protect the soldiers of the Iron First Company, it dyed him quite a bit.


    P5092 was paying full attention to all of this in themand post. However, he did not say anything.


    It wasn¡¯t until Ren Xiaosu confirmed that the barbarians lying around were all dead that he asked on the radio, ¡°What do we do next?¡±


    P5092 said calmly, ¡°From the look of things, the barbarians really care about their supply line. Now that Mt. Zuoyun has be a thorn in their side, we should add on to their troubles. Future Commander, have the Iron First Company hang the bodies of these barbarians outside Mt. Zuoyun. Let the barbarians have a good look at what happened to theirpanions.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    P5092 said, ¡°Also, during the battle at the Pyro Company¡¯s side, we discovered that the right ears of ourpatriots in the Central ins were cut off after they were killed on the battlefield. This might be how the barbarians umte their battle achievements, so can you please cut off these barbarians¡¯ ears and throw them next to their corpses? I think it¡¯ll be easier to provoke them that way.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°You want to force the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces toe and attack us?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I have in mind.¡± P5092 said, ¡°But, Future Commander, aren¡¯t you worried?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to worry about?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried that a lot of the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s soldiers will die?¡± P5092 said, ¡°And there will be a lot of casualties for sure.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°If I¡¯m worried about that, it would be an insult to the soldiers of Fortress 178. They aren¡¯t cowards who¡¯re afraid of death. They¡¯re only worried that their deaths will be in vain. I just hope that there¡¯ll be no unnecessary casualties. I know that people will die in war, and I also know that you¡¯re even willing to sacrifice yourself. I understand all that. That¡¯s why I handed overmand of the troops to you. You don¡¯t have to worry about anything.¡±


    However, P5092 said after a long silence, ¡°I¡¯ll try my best to keep them alive. Of course, everything will still be based on achieving victory.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°You¡¯ve never cared about the lives of the soldiers before.¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°People do change.¡±


    After that, P5092 ended theirmunications and sat quietly in themand post. He suddenly felt he would have to spend more time and effort on his battle strategies from now on.

 Chapter 919 - A bad situation

    <h4>Chapter 919: A bad situation</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu and the soldiers of the Iron First Company hanged the barbarian corpses on the trees beyond the mountains.


    The barbarians¡¯ bodies dangled from the ropes hung around their necks while their ears that were cut off were piled up under the trees. Their swaying bodies were so heavy they even caused the thick branches to bend.


    The Iron First Company¡¯smander muttered, ¡°Fuck, these barbarians are pretty heavy!¡±


    After they finished the task, the Iron First Company was totally worn out. Doing something to deliberately annoy the barbarians was not easy work either.


    Ren Xiaosu recalled a novel called <i>Spare me, Great Lord</i> that he had read back in Stronghold 88. In it, the protagonist got stronger by annoying people.


    If he also had that power, he would have be invincible by the end of this battle. Just the negative feelings that could be gained out of annoying and killing the barbarians would probably be off the charts!


    What a pity.


    Ren Xiaosu returned to the camp with the Iron First Company. The defensive position had already entered a Level One alert state. All of the soldiers would rotate in three shifts so someone would always be on duty.


    Moreover, Wang Yun¡¯s 200-odd subordinates had now be the 2nd Reconnaissance Company of the 6th Combat Brigade, and they entered the wilderness together with the original reconpany to prevent the barbarians from sneaking into their position.


    After all, Mt. Zuoyun spanned arge area. If the barbarians were to sneak in from other directions, it would be troublesome.


    P5092 stood at the entrance of the camp to wee back Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Great work.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, but what¡¯sing next will be a tough battle.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°What should we do when we get surrounded by the barbarians? Although we¡¯ll have the advantage in a positional battle, we¡¯ll still run out of ammunition and food someday. Also, how do we solve the problem of our water source?¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s about the water source, we¡¯ve already got spring water here at our defensive position. Back when we were choosing the site, I already thought such a day woulde.¡± P5092 said, ¡°As for the food, we¡¯re lucky you took some of the barbarians¡¯ supplies back. Including the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s original rations, we have enough tost us another fortnight.¡±


    ¡°And what happens after that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°The barbarians can¡¯t possibly keep attacking Mt. Zuoyun for half a month, unless the Wang Consortium does not take any action at all. Just think. If the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces remain here and surround us, the Wang Consortium¡¯s side will be left with nothing much to do. All they need to do is to work with us and we can attack from both sides. If the expeditionary army can¡¯t capture Mt. Zuoyun, they¡¯ll be defeated by the Wang Consortium very quickly too.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Then we¡¯d better make more preparations. We must not ce our hopes on the Wang Consortium. For some reason, the Wang Consortium has be unscrupulous in their goal to unify the Central ins.¡±


    P5092 asked, ¡°Future Commander, how¡¯s your rtionship with Wang Shengzhi?¡±


    ¡°Our rtionship is quite good.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But in this world, is there any kind of rtionship that can be trusted? When I was still living in town, I saw all kinds of people.¡±


    ¡°Then we had bettere up with another n.¡± P5092 said, ¡°We can go and steal some more of the expeditionary army¡¯s supplies, but before theye and encircle us, they¡¯ll likely reduce the frequency of their supply runs first. If we want to steal enough of their supplies, that will be quite impossible. I¡¯ll think of some other ways then.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Is that so.... If we can¡¯t steal from the barbarians, why don¡¯t I try stealing from the Wang Consortium¡¯s rear instead?¡±


    P5092 was speechless.


    He suddenly realized the futuremander¡¯s ideas were really unrestrained. As long as it was beneficial to him, he would really dare to think of anything!


    P5092 hurriedly said, ¡°We¡¯re already coborating with the Wang Consortium for the war. If you go and rob the Wang Consortium at this time, it would really cause some friction and affect the battle situation.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Forget it then.¡±


    But a radio operator suddenly ran over and said, ¡°Future Commander, the Wang Consortium suddenly called.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why is the Wang Consortium calling at a time like this?¡±


    He walked into themand post and answered the call. ¡°Hello?¡±


    ¡°Are you Ren Xiaosu?¡± the person on the other end of the line asked.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. This was extremely unusual. How did the other party know he was with the 6th Combat Brigade? Could someone from the Wang Consortium be among their troops?


    After all, he had not met any outsiders since joining up with the 6th Combat Brigade.


    No, something was not right. Ren Xiaosu suddenly had doubts about the identity of the person on the other end of the line. He gave P5092 a look and then P5092 led everyone out of themand post.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Lingling?¡±


    The male voice on the other end of the line changed to a female voice. The other party wondered, ¡°So you¡¯re able to guess my identity every time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered to himself, <i>¡®Why would Lingling suddenly call here?</i>¡® He asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Lingling said, ¡°A group of soldiers from the Wang Consortium will set off from Mt. Daniu and head to Mt. Zuoyun tonight. They¡¯re expected to arrive before dawn.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Why are theying here? Our troops are enough to defend this position.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not enough,¡± Lingling said. ¡°I¡¯ve already calcted the supplies you all brought. It won¡¯tst you much longer. If Mt. Zuoyun gets besieged by the expeditionary army, you will most likely run out of ammunition and food.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Can¡¯t the Wang Consortium fight the barbarians harder then?¡±


    ¡°No, we can¡¯t.¡± Lingling said, ¡°The Pyro Company on the Great Wall is already showing signs of defeat due to a shortage of supplies. If the expeditionary army diverts their forces to us after defeating the Pyro Company, the Wang Consortium will have to continue defending Mt. Daniu and fight this battle with the most stable strategy.¡±


    In other words, the Wang Consortium had to guard against the expeditionary army from another battlefield, and they predicted the Pyro Company would get defeated!


    This left Ren Xiaosu with a bad feeling. ¡°What¡¯s the probability of the Pyro Company suffering a defeat?¡±


    ¡°71.13%.¡± Lingling said, ¡°They still have a chance of winning, but they might not be able to seize the opportunity. If P5092 had be themander-in-chief of the Pyro Company a year earlier, the situation could have been reversed. But it¡¯s toote now.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. He did not know how to break this news to P5092. ¡°So what is that group of soldiers you were talking abouting here for?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll circle around the back of Mt. Daniu and use vehicles to transport some supplies to you. In the following week, the Wang Consortium will provide you with a steady stream of supplies so you can keep the expeditionary army engaged at Mt. Zuoyun for a longer time,¡± Lingling said.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this for a moment. Since they wereing to send them supplies, let theme. That would save him the trouble of going out to rob them.


    Lingling ended the call after telling Ren Xiaosu what would happen. Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that Lingling seemed to have changed a little again, but he could not point out what had changed.


    Ren Xiaosu walked out of themand post and solemnly said to P5092, ¡°The Pyro Company might suffer a defeat, so let¡¯s prepare for the worst oue. The Wang Consortium will be transporting their first batch of supplies to us tonight and arrive before dawn. They¡¯re hoping that the 6th Combat Brigade can hold the fort at Mt. Zuoyun.¡±


    P5092 frowned. The situation was much worse than he had imagined.

 Chapter 920 - Guarding against eaChapter other

    <h4>Chapter 920: Guarding against each other</h4>


    It was very bad news that the Pyro Company might get defeated on the battlefield. When P5092 found out about this, he did not feel sad at all. Instead, he started making adjustments to the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s tactics.


    Ren Xiaosu said curiously, ¡°You¡¯ve been with the Pyro Company for ten years at least. Once the Pyro Company gets defeated, I¡¯m afraid many people will die. The Pyro Company can¡¯t survive either, since the Wang Consortium will definitely find a way to annex them after the war.¡±


    The Kong Consortium had already ceased to exist. If the Pyro Company disappeared as well, the entire region north of Luoyang City would fall into the hands of the Wang Consortium, leaving only the Zhou Consortium to the south.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought the Wang Consortium would take a long time to unify the Central ins. After all, the various organizations were not to be trifled with. But now that the expeditionary army hade down to attack the South, they had helped the Wang Consortium greatly.


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°I have ten years of memories with the Pyro Company. I joined the military when I was 19 before leaving at the age of 29, so I do have feelings for them. But like I said before, feelings won¡¯t change anything. What we need to do now is to survive this war and drive the expeditionary army back to the North!¡±


    Then P5092 called over all the officers of the 6th Combat Brigade for a war meeting.


    In the wee hours of the next day, a group of soldiers entered Mt. Zuoyun from another direction. Wang Yun¡¯s subordinates informed themand post the moment the other party entered Mt. Zuoyun.


    Ren Xiaosu, P5092, and the others were already waiting at the defensive position. When the other party arrived outside the defensive position, P5092 ordered a toon to carry out an inspection.


    The inspection was conducted very thoroughly this time. All of the Wang Consortium¡¯s people had to turn in their weapons, and every box containing supplies was opened up for examination.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are you worried that the Wang Consortium will stab us in the back?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not particrly worried about that.¡± P5092 said, ¡°If anything were to happen to Mt. Zuoyun and the Pyro Company at the front, the Wang Consortium would be left in a difficult position by themselves. The Northwest Army losing a brigade would do nothing to affect the big picture, so the Wang Consortium has no reason to do that. I just don¡¯t want to add such a huge security risk to our troops. If I knew you were so strong inbat when I let you read the newspaper back then, I would definitely have thought of a way to arrest you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Then I wouldn¡¯t have helped you out so much, and you wouldn¡¯t have joined the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right.¡± P5092 said, ¡°But strategically, it¡¯s not wrong to adopt a cautious attitude.¡±


    ¡°Why do you think the Wang Consortium suddenly changed their attitude? They even took the initiative to contact us and deliver the supplies,¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. ¡°I thought they didn¡¯t care about the 6th Combat Brigade?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s because we¡¯re at Mt. Zuoyun, and they¡¯ve realized the importance of this position.¡± P5092 said, ¡°You said the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI assessed the Pyro Company as having a 71.13% chance of failure?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it was the AI¡¯s assessment,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Then they must have their eyes trained on this ce from above.¡± P5092 said, ¡°How else could they know our exact movements and assess the Pyro Company¡¯s situation so urately? But from what I know, the Wang Consortium doesn¡¯t have any satellites of their own.¡±


    However, the word ¡°satellite¡± reminded Ren Xiaosu of something. Didn¡¯t the Wang Consortium try to seize satellites during the Battle of Luoyang City?


    Wait a minute, could the Wang Consortium have seeded that time?


    After the Battle of Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu continued to pay attention to the developments there. However, he did not see any mention of the satellites being seized in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper.


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at the vast starry sky and suddenly felt like he had returned to Stronghold 61. He felt like he was constantly being watched.


    He suddenly saw a huge silhouette flit across the sky. When Ren Xiaosu took a closer look, he realized it was arge hawk.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt the hawk had just been observing the defensive position intently. However, he did not think too much of it. Perhaps it was the scent of blood here at Mt. Zuoyun that had attracted the birds in the sky.


    P5092 said, ¡°Since their AI can assess the situation, they must¡¯ve judged there to be a change in the chances of winning after we moved to Mt. Zuoyun. When we were at Mt. Youyu, they probably concluded we were useless to them.¡±


    When Zhang Xiaoman heard this, he said in embarrassment, ¡°I was just waiting for Future Commander, wasn¡¯t I?¡±


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s troops transporting the supplies had no intention of entering the defensive position. Most of them left quickly after unloading the supplies, leaving only seven of them behind.


    P5092 ordered the soldiers to bring all the supplies into the defensive position. After those seven people entered the defensive position, one of them took a document out. ¡°This is the list of supplies. The main items are the heavy machine guns and bullets, which we determined to be most helpful to you all. The rest of it are TNT and RPGs.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu read the supply list and was surprised to find that the TNT ounted for half of the supplies. He thought to himself, ¡®<i>Could Lingling really have gained control of the Qinghe Group¡¯s seven satellites?</i>¡® Were they sent so much TNT because Lingling had seen that his most lethal attacks were ambushes involving nted TNT?


    This was very possible.


    But if Lingling had really gained control of those seven satellites, with its capabilities now, there would be no troops left on thend that could conceal their movements from it.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu had asked Qin Sheng, one of the Riders, about this. ¡°Can the satellites in orbit take clear pictures of the ground?¡±


    However, Qin Sheng said they definitely couldn¡¯t take clear pictures of a person, although they could see their outlines.


    ¡°What about the food?¡± P5092 asked.


    ¡°The food supplies will be delivered tomorrow.¡± The person leading the other party was someone Ren Xiaosu knew. It was Wang Run, who went to Stronghold 31 with Ren Xiaosu. He looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°It¡¯s been a while.¡±


    ¡°What are y¡¯all doing here at Mt. Zuoyun?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are you from the Wang Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Wang Run said, ¡°we came to Mt. Zuoyun as the Wang Consortium¡¯s liaison to ensure that both sides can work more closely together. If there¡¯s anything you need here at Mt. Zuoyun, you can request it from the Wang Consortium through me.¡±


    ¡°Alright, you¡¯ve all been busy working the entire night, so hurry up and get some rest.¡± P5092 said with a smile, ¡°Thank you for the supplies. I¡¯ve already asked our men to prepare some tents and hot food for you.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Wang Run left with his men.


    But when these people left, Ren Xiaosu realized a young soldier kept looking at him.


    P5092 said, ¡°Actually, they came here with a purpose. The Wang Consortium wants to guard against us.¡±


    ¡°Why are they guarding against us?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Because the Wang Consortium sabotaged a lot of people. They¡¯re a little worried that others might do the same to them.¡± P5092 said, ¡°If Mt. Zuoyun suddenly chooses to y a passive role in the battle and the Pyro Company gets defeated, the Wang Consortium will also be put in danger. So with Wang Run and his men hanging around, they¡¯ll immediately know if we make any unusual moves.¡±


    Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°All y¡¯all scheme too much,ing up with all these tricks rather than standing united to deal with the barbarians.¡±

 Chapter 921 - Going back

    <h4>Chapter 921: Going back</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The next morning, the Wang Consortium¡¯s seven-man team arrived outside themand post after their short rest. They wanted to discuss the next step of the battle n with Ren Xiaosu in detail.


    However, it was P5092 who greeted them. He told them, ¡°Future Commander just left a bit ago. If you have any battle ns that require our cooperation, you can speak with me.¡±


    Wang Run was stunned. ¡°Where¡¯d he go?¡±


    ¡°He and Ms. Xiaojin have gone out to the wilderness to look for the expeditionary army¡¯s supply convoy.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Only by taking out more of the expeditionary army¡¯s supply convoys can we attract more of their main forces.¡±


    Wang Run asked, ¡°Based on what I know, he¡¯s the futuremander of the Northwest, so why is he personally going to the front line?¡±


    P5092 answered calmly, ¡°It¡¯s a tradition of our Northwest. Just get used to it.¡±


    At this moment, Wang Run recalled that when he and Ren Xiaosu went to Stronghold 31 to carry out the mission to assassinate Kong Erdong, Wang Shengzhi had ordered him to assist Ren Xiaosu in case he failed.


    He was already prepared to make his move when Ren Xiaosu did not show any signs of taking action. But when Ren Xiaosu finally made his move, he nearly took out all of Stronghold 31.


    ¡°By the way,¡± P5092 said, ¡°the futuremander ordered me to ask you something before he left.¡±


    Wang Run asked, ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°Back then, he ordered you to protect those people from the Trinity Institute at Stronghold 31. Why did you leave them midway?¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°I received an order from the higher-ups to retreat. A soldier must obey their orders, so of course we decisively pulled out,¡± Wang Run answered calmly.


    ¡°The futuremander expected you to answer this way. But he said that since you¡¯vee to our Northwest¡¯s camp this time, you¡¯ll have to ept the arrangements made by our Northwest Army. If you criticize our battle ns, he¡¯ll beat your brains out,¡± P5092 said.


    Off to the side, Zhang Xiaoman praised softly, ¡°The stoicmander looks really cool when he¡¯s saying those harsh words with such seriousness.¡±


    However, Wang Run¡¯s expression remained unchanged. He smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I wasn¡¯t nning oning here tomand your troops. I only wanted to share some information with you guys.¡±


    P5092 nodded. ¡°That¡¯s good then.¡±


    But Wang Run suddenly felt that P5092 looked a little familiar. ¡°Wait a minute, aren¡¯t you the Pyro Company¡¯s...¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s me,¡± P5092 admitted.


    Immediately after, Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang also returned from outside. Wang Run looked at the two of them and found them very familiar as well. ¡°Aren¡¯t the two of you... from the Kong and Zhou Consortiums?¡±


    Wang Yun was amused. ¡°That¡¯s right, we¡¯ve both joined the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    Wang Run was the field intelligence director of the Wang Consortium, so he still had some understanding of the other organizations. However, his memory was not as good as Wang Yun¡¯s, so he was a little unsure of their backgrounds.


    After receiving confirmation from Wang Yun, P5092, and Ji Zi¡¯ang, Wang Run was plunged into a state of confusion. If anyone did not know better, they would think this was the joint forces of the Kong Consortium, the Pyro Company, the Zhou Consortium, and the Northwest.


    Why were there people hailing from everywhere here?!


    The news of the Pyro Company dealing with P5092 and changing theirmander had caused quite a stir. When Wang Run heard that P5092 had been kidnapped, he did not expect him to be taken here to the Northwest Army.


    With that in mind, the identity of the kidnapper also surfaced.


    At this moment, the radio in themand post crackled. When P5092 answered it, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s anxious voice rang out, ¡°Prepare for battle. I¡¯ve discovered arge group of the expeditionary army advancing towards Mt. Zuoyun!¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu hung up. After a brief silence in themand post, P5092 shouted to a staff officer, ¡°Summon the four regimentalmanders for a meeting. We¡¯re in for a tough battle!¡±


    Honestly, no one expected the expeditionary army to arrive so quickly. If Mt. Zuoyun got surrounded by the enemy, the Wang Consortium¡¯s subsequent supply runs could not get transported in.


    This was going to be a tough battle.


    ...


    Therge hawk in the sky flew north. It traversed over mountains, rivers, and grasnds before returning to the nomads¡¯ imperial court after flying for nearly a 1,000 kilometers.


    Hassan was waiting there for it when it returned. After the hawk turned back into its energy form and entered his body, Hassan jogged into the royal tent and said, ¡°Master, the hawk has located the person you¡¯re looking for.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan asked, ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s him?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he looks very simr to the sketch that Ms. Xiaoyu drew, but he¡¯s slightly more handsome than the portrait.¡± Hassan said, ¡°Moreover, the ck saber matches what you described.¡±


    Nearby, Xiaoyu said, ¡°I¡¯m not good at drawing, so my sketch was definitely a little crude. It¡¯s only to be expected that he would look different. But the fact that the ck saber matches means that we¡¯ve really found him.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the situation in the Central ins now?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    Hassan answered carefully, ¡°I¡¯m not sure about the situation in the Central ins, but the person who Master is looking for has upied a mountain range with his troops where they¡¯ve built some defensive fortifications. However, just when my hawk was leaving, I saw that he had engaged in open battle with the northern tribe¡¯s troops. He was fleeing back towards the mountains at that time.¡±


    Xiaoyu asked nervously, ¡°How many people do they have? And how many people does the northern tribe have?¡±


    ¡°More than them by many times over.¡± Hassan said, ¡°It looks like they n to attack that mountain range.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan remained silent while Hassan tactfully excused himself.


    Outside, Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan asked, ¡°How was it? Has the person who Master is looking for been found?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but Master didn¡¯t say what¡¯s next,¡± Hassan said.


    ¡°I wonder who Master is looking for,¡± Bn Zir muttered softly. ¡°And weren¡¯t we supposed to go to the East Sea to fish? Why did we set up camp here?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know who he¡¯s looking for.¡± Hassan said, ¡°But when Master first arrived on the steppe, he identally mentioned that he had an older brother. I¡¯m guessing that person might be Master¡¯s older brother?¡±


    Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan looked at each other. This was not what they expected.


    Yan Liuyuan was still silent in the imperial court¡¯s royal tent. He was wearing the ferocious-looking facete, so Xiaoyu could not see his expression.


    Suddenly, Xiaoyu said, ¡°Liuyuan...¡±


    ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, you don¡¯t have to say anything. I understand. I¡¯ll think about it again.¡± With that, Yan Liuyuan walked out of the imperial court. He headed off into the distant grasnds alone where he found a grassy mound and sat down.


    The cold spring wind blew across the ground, and the shoots of grass swayed like waves in the sea.


    Wolves appeared in the distance and quickly came to his side.


    Therge Wolf Kingy down close to Yan Liuyuan. The wolf pack had grown evenrger. Currently, there were almost 2,000 wolves in total, and the sight of them was extremely spectacr.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly said to the Wolf King, ¡°If I don¡¯t turn back this time, I really won¡¯t be able to go back anymore, right?¡±


    The Wolf King looked at Yan Liuyuan doubtfully, not understanding what its master was talking about.


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly stood up and got onto the back of the Wolf King. He made a very important decision. ¡°Let¡¯s go and save him. After saving him, we¡¯lle back to the steppe. In the past, he was always the one protecting me. This time, I¡¯ll protect him.¡±

 Chapter 922 - Blowing up the mountains

    Chapter 922: Blowing up the mountains


    Trantor: Legge


    A journey of about a 1,000 kilometers would require the steppe nomads to travel for more than ten days, or even more than 20 days. Only then could they ensure that they had enough energy to fight when they arrived at the Central ins.


    When Yan Liuyuan headed south to the Central ins this time, all of the tribes¡¯ elderly, women, and children remained behind on the steppe. Most of their livestock was also left there.


    Of the women, only Xiaoyu went along with them. They did not even bring Tsetseg along.


    Hassan suggested that his master bring Tsetseg along so there would be someone to take care of his daily needs on the journey. However, Yan Liuyuan rejected him. He knew many people would die in this war.


    This time, Yan Liuyuan carefully counted the number of men the imperial court could send out to battle. There were only about 10,000 of them in total.


    There were a lot more men initially. However, due to the internal strife on the grasnds over the years, and the deaths of a group of people led by Bn Zir and Kirghiz Yan when they attacked Stronghold 176, the number of people he could send out seemed much fewer.


    But that was not important. Their main fighting force this time was not the nomads but the wolves.


    The Wolf King had already scouted ahead with the wolf pack as the advance guard. It was they who Yan Liuyuan truly relied upon.


    As for the prewar mobilization, Yan Liuyuan also chose the most suitable way to rally the nomads. After the war was over, he would choose ten of the bravest warriors and bestow blood wine upon them.


    This was the greatest encouragement for his believers. On one hand, they could obtain the power bestowed by the gods, and on the other hand, they could obtain the recognition of higher powers.


    There was no promation of promises to protect whoever. Yan Liuyuan¡¯s method to control these nomads had always been simple and crude.


    If it were tooplicated, they might not understand it either.


    Actually, the nomads had indirectly contributed to the war in the Central ins. The nomads hadunched the initial attack on Stronghold 176. After they took down the stronghold, they raided a portion of their food supplies and most of their small arms, such as pistols, automatic rifles, grenades, heavy machine guns, and so on.


    Later, when the Wang Consortium took over operation of Stronghold 176, they did not seem to have any intention of defending it for the long term. They did not even replenish Stronghold 176¡¯s ammunition depot.


    Then, when the expeditionary army attacked the stronghold, the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops received the order to retreat once the city was breached. When they left, they definitely had to take their firearms with them.


    Therefore, the weapons the barbarians had obtained by the time they invaded the stronghold were not much at all. At most, they only managed to get their hands on some of the guns lying next to the corpses of the Wang Consortium troops. But even so, those weapons were almost out of ammo.


    There was also some artillery left behind. But when the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops pulled out, they used explosives to blow up the cannon barrels. Actually, even if they did not blow up the barrels, the barbarians would not be able to find any artillery shells to use.


    It was a very awkward situation. Therefore, the expeditionary army did not have as much firepower as the Pyro Company thought.


    That was why P5092 had some doubts when he fought the barbarians. From the strategy that the barbarians used to lure the Pyro Company into advancing, the expeditionary army was prepared right from the start to use their elderly in ce of their able-bodied troops on the battlefield to bait them in.


    But since the expeditionary army had obtained firearms from Stronghold 176, why did they n from early on to give up that forest as a ruse to lure them in? Wouldn¡¯t it have been better to just defend the forest?


    P5092 vaguely felt that something was off, but he could not figure out what it was at that time.


    But in fact, it was because the barbarians did not get their hands on that many firearms. The expeditionary army also knew full well that the firearms they had were not enough to give the Pyro Company a tough time. In the end, they would still have to rely on their own tactics.


    Right from the beginning, the expeditionary army had never thought of using those firearms to achieve anything great.


    It was not that they looked down on the use of firearms but that they despised the quantity of firearms they had.


    ...


    At this moment, the battle at Mt. Zuoyun had just started. The gunfire from the defensive position was intense. As the 6th Combat Brigade had the upper hand in this battle due to their high vantage point, the heavy machine guns¡¯ suppressive fire kept the barbarians pinned.


    Just as P5092 had said, if the 6,000 soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade did not have the advantage of the environment and terrain, they would definitely be overrun by the expeditionary army.


    But now that they had forced the expeditionary army toe to them, and with their terrain advantage, he was confident he could take on 60,000 hostiles with 6,000 troops!


    This was a ten-for-one deal. In P5092¡¯s opinion, it was totally worth it.


    P5092 said, ¡°All forces, hide behind your cover carefully. Be very careful of the enemy¡¯s artillery attacks.¡±


    But when he voiced his concerns, a soldier next to Wang Run said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the barbarians don¡¯t have any artillery, so this strategy is feasible.¡±


    P5092 frowned. ¡°Exin?¡±


    ¡°When our Wang Consortium troops pulled out of Stronghold 176, they destroyed all the arty there,¡± the soldier said.


    P5092 was stunned. ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you mention this when the Pyro Company exchanged intel with the Wang Consortium?¡±


    Wang Run said awkwardly, ¡°Let¡¯s not harp on the past at this time. We¡¯re all in the same boat now. If you can¡¯t hold the position, the seven of us will die as well. Don¡¯t worry, there won¡¯t be any more situations where we don¡¯t share our intel again.¡±


    P5092 said coldly, ¡°Who knows if the Wang Consortium even cares what your seven names are? Based on what the Wang Consortium has done, it shouldn¡¯t be a difficult choice for them to sacrifice the seven of you, right?¡±


    Wang Run did not say anything else, while P5092 focused on observing the situation on the battlefield.


    Right now, the expeditionary army was still only in the probing phase of their attacks, so it was a good time for P5092 to shore up any weaknesses in their defense. Nomander could n everything perfectly right at the beginning of a battle, and everyone would have to make tactical adjustments during the course of the fighting.


    P5092 suddenly realized there were a total of four mountain paths below that led up to the defensive position. Four paths were too many, and this might cause the defensive position to copse under the pressure if the expeditionary army pressed down on them with arge number of troops.


    In other words, they could not kill that many barbarians in one fell swoop. Instead, they would get attacked by the enemy¡¯s forlorn hopes who would sacrifice their lives in exchange for the expeditionary army¡¯s victory.


    Based on P5092¡¯s understanding of the expeditionary army, it was very likely they would do that.


    He said to Ji Zi¡¯ang standing nearby, ¡°Can you make that mountain copse within the hour to seal off a passage the expeditionary army might use to attack?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang looked at the towering mountain peak and said awkwardly, ¡°I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s toote for me to make such arge mountain copse with my power.¡±


    P5092 frowned. It looked like they would have to increase their firepower in advance. But in doing so, they might not have enough ammunition tost the battle.


    But then the soldier next to Wang Run who had just spoken said, ¡°With your power, you don¡¯t have to blow up the entire mountain.¡±


    With that, he took out an automatic rifle and casually fired 12 shots at the mountain. Then he said to Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°You just need to make those 12 points turn to sand on a horizontal ne, and the mountain will copse in on itself. Moreover, the direction at which the mountain will copse will block the expeditionary army¡¯s path.¡±


    When the others heard this, they were stunned. It could even be done that way?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the profile of the soldier. He had confirmed his identity.

 Chapter 923 - Strategy to repel the enemy

    <h4>Chapter 923: Strategy to repel the enemy</h4>


    Everyone looked at the mountain peak that had been fired upon 12 times with an automatic rifle, then at the confident soldier who shot it.


    To be honest, everyone, including P5092 and the others, was surprised. That was a mountain! But that soldier said that as long as those 12 points of the mountain could be turned to sand, the entire mountain would copse?


    To humans, those towering mountains were not something that could be destroyed with human strength unless they used firearms and explosives.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang asked, ¡°Howrge of a cross section should I turn to sand?¡±


    The soldier answered, ¡°Just 1.38 centimeters in diameter. Of course, you might not be able to control it so urately, so you just need to achieve around one and a half centimeters of sandification horizontally. That should be within the limits of your power.¡±


    It might be a little difficult for Ji Zi¡¯ang to topple the entire mountain, but if it were just creating several small points of weakness, it would not be difficult for Ji Zi¡¯ang at all.


    ¡°I can do it.¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang nodded. With that, he had someone get him a pair of military binocrs so he could start working.


    But P5092 suddenly stopped him and asked the soldier, ¡°How should I address you?¡±


    The soldier answered, ¡°Mo Fei. I¡¯m an active duty first lieutenant of the Wang Consortium.¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°Mo Fei, what type of soldier are you?¡±


    Wang Run exined, ¡°The six people I brought here are all elites of our Wang Consortium¡¯s military. Mo Fei is an expert at directional demolition.¡±


    P5092 nodded and told Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°In that case, we¡¯ll trust Lieutenant Mo Fei this once. However, we aren¡¯t gonna topple the mountain just yet.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was stunned. ¡°You want to wait?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± P5092 looked over the defensive position. ¡°The expeditionary army is still only probing, so there aren¡¯t enough barbarians gathered on that mountain path. Let¡¯s wait until there¡¯s enough of them before we make our move. The copse of a mountain like that will be enough to kill 2,000 of them. It¡¯ll be a great victory if we can kill 2,000 barbarians without suffering any casualties!¡±


    This great victory would even instantly raise the morale of the 6th Combat Brigade. Initially, the soldiers were still apprehensive about facing the barbarians. It was not that they were afraid to die but that they had never dealt with the barbarians before. It was a fear of the unknown.


    When the barbarians first arrived in the Central ins, they also felt the same fear. Even now, knowing they were up against the firearms and explosives of the Central ins, they were still feeling this fear. It was simply human nature.


    Whoever said they were not afraid or nervous on the battlefield was most definitely lying.


    The barbarians remained brave even when they were fired upon by automatic rifles and suffered serious wounds, and such behavior would greatly affect the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade, deepening their fears.


    What P5092 should do now was not to instruct everyone on how to be careful in their positional battle but to eliminate the soldiers¡¯ fears first.


    If he did not even consider this, P5092 would not deserve to be admired by so many people.


    Just like when he was still with the Pyro Company, why did he transport the barbarian corpses from Mt. Dashi to the front line of the Great Wall? He even deliberately lured the barbarians over and used a barrage of artillery fire to achieve a victory without suffering any casualties. That was to boost the morale of the soldiers at the Great Wall¡¯s front line!


    Moreover, the copse of the mountain peak would also remind the expeditionary army of the fear they once had of the Central ins people.


    P5092 stood quietly within the defensive position and watched the expeditionary army¡¯s troops as they gathered at the perimeter.


    The entire defensive position covered an area of more than a dozen hectares, and the soldiers were scattered across dozens of firing points to carry out powerful suppressive fire on apany level.


    P5092 ordered, ¡°Slow down the pace and let the barbarians think they¡¯ve got it.¡±


    All of a sudden, Mo Fei asked doubtfully, ¡°Do you really trust me that much? If I¡¯m wrong and Ji Zi¡¯ang doesn¡¯t manage to topple that mountain, you might not be able to stop the barbarians¡¯ attack once you let them get closer.¡±


    When everyone thought about it, that was indeed the case. If they deliberately allowed the barbarians to get closer now, wouldn¡¯t it be over if the mountain did not copse?


    P5092 chuckled and asked Mo Fei, ¡°Then were you wrong?¡±


    Mo Fei shook his head. ¡°No, the mountain will definitely copse.¡±


    ¡°If you employ a person, don¡¯t suspect them. If I don¡¯t even have this resolution, how can I be amander?¡± P5092 said, ¡°Besides, I¡¯m afraid you don¡¯t quite understand us yet. It doesn¡¯t matter even if the barbarians charge up to us with this rhythm of probing attacks. We still have anotheryer of insurance. At least for now, thisyer of insurance is not something the barbarians can break past with just a probing attack.¡±


    Mo Fei thought for a moment and did not say anything. He did involuntarily nce at Ren Xiaosu.


    In fact, everyone at the defensive position knew exactly what P5092 was talking about. Wasn¡¯t the futuremander just sitting around here? It was only the initial stage of the probing attacks, and the barbarians had not started attacking overwhelmingly yet. Since their ammunition and food supplies were still sufficient, if any barbarians really did charge in, they could just leave them to the futuremander to handle.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at everyone who was looking at him. ¡°What are y¡¯all looking at me for? P5092, go ahead and try it out without any worries.¡±


    P5092 nodded and did not say anything more. If they had already been engaged in battle for a few days, he would definitely not dare to be so reckless. After all, Ren Xiaosu would surely be very fatigued by then. But right now, it was different. Ren Xiaosu was at his peak prowess.


    Gunshots rang out on Mt. Zuoyun. P5092 stood at the defensive position for more than 20 minutes without saying a word, leading to Zhang Xiaoman starting to feel a little anxious. Zhang Xiaoman wanted to say several times that it would be toote if P5092 did not make a move now, but every time he was about to speak up, he realized P5092 was still as calm as ever. Therefore, Zhang Xiaoman thought to himself that this was probably the difference between him and the other party.


    Suddenly, P5092 nodded at Ji Zi¡¯ang and said, ¡°Now! One of the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces has arrived!¡±


    The mountain path at the foot of the mountain was filled with charging barbarians. Ji Zi¡¯ang immediately used the 12 reference points on the mountain and turned them to sand.


    In the blink of an eye, a terrifying crackle suddenly came from the top of the huge mountain. Rocks the size of a human head kept falling from several hundred meters above. The barbarians who were hit by the rockfall immediately bled and had their bones broken!


    Right on the heels of that, when Ji Zi¡¯ang was done, a huge crack instantly appeared on the mountain peak and spread rapidly like cracked ss.


    Some of the barbarians in the expeditionary army below looked up in horror, but they were smashed to pieces by the falling boulders.


    In an instant, the huge mountain began to disintegrate from the sandification at the bottom. It was as though a god had descended from Heaven and smashed the mountain down onto the mortal world.


    Dozens of pieces of the mountain smashed down, and the expeditionary army started panicking. Even the barbarians who were preparing to break through the defensive position from the other mountain paths also stared nkly at the sight.


    They had fought many battles before, but they had never fought in such a terrifying and vicious one before.


    This filled their hearts with an endless fear of the unknown. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade who were busy at the defensive position broke out into cheers. The shouts of joy mixed with the sound of the copsing mountain and apanied by the distant sound of a bugle in the valley left every soldier of the 6th Combat Brigade flushed with excitement!

 Chapter 924 - The Pyro Company’s defeat

    Chapter 924: The Pyro Company¡¯s defeat


    Trantor: Legge


    To the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade, nothing was more exciting than the sight they were witnessing.


    Before they even suffered any casualties, thousands of barbarians died in the mountains. Their fear of the expeditionary army was swept away, and some of them even started thinking about the speech they would give when they returned to receive their awards.


    Morale was always a mysterious thing in war, but it was something nomanders could ignore.


    If the troops¡¯ morale was low, they could probably only perform at 30 percent of their full strength.


    If their morale was high, they might be able to unleash a 1,000 percent of their strength.


    If amander only focused on tactics and ignored morale, it meant themander was not high level enough.


    At the very least, they would not be at the level of a great general yet.


    When the expeditionary army¡¯s bugle sounded the retreat, the barbarians who were attacking the defensive position quickly fell back. But even at this moment, the barbarians who were holding the shields did not ease up. They kept covering theirrades¡¯ retreat from the back of the formation.


    When P5092 saw this, he finally heaved a sigh of relief. At least, it seemed that everything was moving in the right direction. This could be considered a good start for the uing fierce battle.


    There was an old saying1 that spoke of the art of war. ¡°Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy¡¯s strategy; next best is to disrupt his alliances; next best is to attack his army. The worst policy is to attack cities. Attack cities only when there is no alternative.¡±


    For the tactical choice this time, P5092 first forced the expeditionary army into a situation where they had to attack the defensive position. If they did not attack Mt. Zuoyun, their rear would not be safe. P5092 had the upper hand in terms of strategy from the beginning by forcing the expeditionary army to sacrifice their lives in exchange for gaining Mt. Zuoyun.


    However, this did not mean they would win the war, because they were only a small part of the entire battlefield. If the Pyro Company were defeated, they would still be in great danger.


    This war would definitely drag everyone into the abyss, and even the survivors would get drained into exhaustion.


    P5092 suddenly turned to Mo Fei and said, ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Mo Fei smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯re wee, Commander.¡±


    At the side, Ren Xiaosu quietly sized up Mo Fei. The other party also looked at him before turning away.


    P5092 walked towards themand post and said, ¡°Officer Li, summon themanders of the regiments for a meeting. Although the barbarians have retreated for now, they¡¯ll definitely be back again as long as we remain on Mt. Zuoyun. Furthermore, they¡¯ll also have a new strategy in ce, so we¡¯ll need to formte a follow-up n before their return.¡±


    But just as everyone sat down in themand post to discuss the battle n, Wang Run, who was listening in on the meeting, suddenly received a satellite phone call. He went out to answer the call before returning to themand post with a dark expression. ¡°The Pyro Company has been defeated. The Great Wall¡¯s defensive line has been breached, leaving only the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Divisions retreating to the south.¡±


    P5092 said in a daze, ¡°How did they lose? No matter how bad the Pyro Company performed, they should¡¯ve been able to hold out for another week at least. How could they have been defeated so quickly?¡±


    Actually, the Pyro Company still retained some of its strength and could carry on fighting more battles in the future. But in the bigger picture, it was not wrong to say they had been defeated. After all, the Great Wall¡¯s front line was lost. Because of that, it would be difficult for the front line at Mt. Daniu to hold out on its own.


    ¡°We haven¡¯t confirmed that yet.¡± Wang Run said, ¡°We can¡¯t afford to dissect the Pyro Company¡¯s defeat right now. Rather, we have to consider what our next steps should be. After the expeditionary army took down the Great Wall¡¯s front line, they did not continue pursuing south. I suspect they¡¯ll immediately turn around and advance towards the front line at Mt. Daniu. At that time, we¡¯ll have to face the entire expeditionary army.¡±


    P5092 asked, ¡°Which site at the Great Wall did they break through first? Your people should have seen it, right?¡±


    He was implying that the Wang Consortium had already taken control of the satellites, so they would surely have been observing the happenings at the Pyro Company¡¯s side the entire time.


    Wang Run hesitated for a moment before answering, ¡°They first carried out a feint attack on the Great Wall at the Wu Ridge section. Then they suddenly concentrated their troops and attacked the area where the 7th Division was originally garrisoned. After that, they broke through the walls.¡±


    P5092 sighed and said, ¡°That site had just seen a changeover of troops, and they were stillcking ammo.¡±


    In just an instant, P5092 understood the expeditionary army had realized what the real situation was. There were already weaknesses in the Pyro Company¡¯s defensive line at that point. If P5092 was still at the Pyro Company, he would definitely seek to avoid letting the expeditionary army discover these weaknesses. Furthermore, he would also deliberately fake weaknesses at areas with sufficient ammunition to attract the expeditionary army to attack the most solid part of the defensive line at the Great Wall.


    But it seemed the Pyro Company did not do so. Or rather, they did but their actions were not enough to sessfully fool the expeditionary army.


    P5092 asked, ¡°How many people do you assess the expeditionary army to have?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s still another 140,000 more troops.¡± Wang Run said in a low voice, ¡°The Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces will be fully deployed to the front line at Mt. Daniu, including those that are currently upying the Kong Consortium¡¯s territories. We¡¯ll be going all out to face the iing expeditionary army.¡±


    P5092 quietly walked out of themand post and stood at the edge of the defensive position. He looked lonely as he gazed out over Mt. Zuoyun.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at P5092¡¯s back and realized that even though he was able to maintain his rationality in war, he was still a sentimental person.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s defeat was bad news for P5092. Just as the other party had said when he was choosing between the names ¡°P5092¡± and ¡°Ling Han,¡± he chose to continue being called ¡°P5092¡± as it represented his past.


    This was probably how P5092 wanted to remember where he came from.


    Ren Xiaosu walked up to P5092. ¡°Are you sad?¡±


    P5092 nodded and admitted, ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°I previously thought that you only had surface-level feelings for the Pyro Company,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    P5092 said calmly, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve never really liked the culture at the Pyro Company. If you make a mistake there, there¡¯s no turning back. There¡¯ll be no chance to atone for your wrongdoings, and there won¡¯t even be a way to make up for it. Everyone has to work hard so they¡¯ll be seen as useful. They tell the recruits day after day that they don¡¯t need to have a mind of their own and should just y their parts well as a cog in the machine. That¡¯s how we were educated since we were young.¡±


    ¡°But after I left the Pyro Company, I often dreamed of the passionate oath I took when I was young.¡± P5092 said, ¡°I even dreamed of those soldiers shouting their battle cries as they fought for the survival of the Pyro Company before rushing into battle. Only then did I realize it was a part of my life that I could not bear to cut off.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu patted him on the shoulder. The Pyro Company¡¯s defeat came so suddenly that P5092 could not ept it.


    P5092 turned around and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I joined the Prosperous Northwest because Fortress 178 and the Pyro Company share the same mission. Our goal is to protect humanity. But if therees a day when you start vying for control of this world and wage war for glory, I will leave.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that day won¡¯te. If there¡¯s no war in the future, I¡¯ll take y¡¯all to the Northwest to run a farm.¡±


    ¡°Deal.¡±


    ...


    At this moment, a tall barbarian was slowly passing through a gate at the Great Wall¡¯s front line. All of the expeditionary army¡¯s soldiers bowed when they saw him, hailing the general.


    There were many high-ranking officers in the expeditionary army but only one general who trulymanded all of the troops.


    The general stood south of the Great Wall and looked at the smoke and mes everywhere, as well as at the Central ins captives who were kneeling on the ground. He suddenly asked, ¡°Where¡¯s Valentin? Have hime and see me.¡±


    Valentin was the highest-ranking officer of the expeditionary army¡¯s advance guard. The expeditionary army troops that fought the Pyro Company in the forest were under hismand.


    A ck-robed figure walked over from the side and said respectfully to the general, ¡°General, Valentin fell for the enemy¡¯s ambush because he was in a hurry to chase after the Pyro Company¡¯s troops. He¡¯s dead.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± The general frowned. ¡°Who are these captives?¡±


    ¡°General, they¡¯re the civilians responsible for building the Great Wall,¡± ck Robe said.


    ¡°I¡¯ll let you choose 300 from among them to be your monsters.¡± The general said calmly, ¡°This time, you¡¯ll lead these captives towards Mt. Zuoyun. Report the oue to me half a monthter. If you win, I¡¯ll allow you to choose another 300 people.¡±


    ck Robe was delighted. ¡°Thank you, General!¡±


    However, the general suddenly looked straight under the shadows of ck Robe¡¯s hood. ¡°But you have to understand something. This is the authority that I¡¯ve delegated to you.¡±


    ck Robe felt a great sense of oppression. It gritted its teeth and said, ¡°I understand.¡±

 Chapter 925 - A loyal servant

    <h4>Chapter 925: A loyal servant</h4>


    In front of this general, ck Robe restrained all of its ambition and acted very respectfully.


    It knew full well that there were a few people in the expeditionary army whose strength it could not contend with at the moment. However, this did not mean it could not challenge them in the future.


    After the general left with a group of the expeditionary army¡¯s troops, ck Robe slowly walked towards the ruins. Just a day ago, this ce was still a military base, but now it hadpletely disappeared.


    About half of the main forces of the expeditionary army led by the general were facing the Pyro Company¡¯s forces on the battlefield. The remaining half reorganized at the Great Wall¡¯s defensive line for a while before herding the captives they had captured to follow ck Robe to the battlefield at Mt. Zuoyun.


    This was the first time ck Robe had taken control of a small portion of the expeditionary army¡¯s authority. The general seemed to be quite satisfied with ck Robe¡¯s performance and started delegating some military power to it.


    ck Robe walked towards a remote area. As it walked, it heard an angry roaring from an uninhabited ruin. However, it seemed like the other party¡¯s mouth was gagged and the roar came from his throat, so it did not attract the attention of the troops in the distance.


    ck Robe smiled as he walked. ¡°Valentin, stop struggling in vain. The general has already led his troops off, and the expeditionary army that used to be led by you has started following me. I¡¯ve transferred them out of this area, so no one will discover you.¡±


    Finally, ck Robe came to Valentin¡¯s side. Meanwhile, more than a dozen barbaric Experimentals were pressing Valentin down onto the ground.


    But Valentin was indeed powerful, as the standard barbaric Experimentals were still unable to hold him down.


    ck Robe praised, ¡°What a powerful physique. How wonderful will this world be when you be my loyal servant?¡±


    A look of horror shed across Valentin¡¯s eyes. He looked at the gray-skinned ¡°monster¡± beside him and could not imagine he would soon be a monster with no mind of its own.


    As a warrior and an officer of the expeditionary army, he was definitely not afraid of death. However, he feared he would be a monster that was neither dead nor alive!


    ck Robe fished out a syringe from his sleeve that had a murky gray liquid swirling inside. ¡°This is the E021 gic serum that the Pyro Company developed before The Cataclysm. I took it out of Laboratory 39, and I can now mass produce this form in Stronghold 176. You don¡¯t have to worry. Yourpatriots will also get to enjoy its effects in the future.¡±


    ¡°Do you Northerners really think you can win this war?¡± ck Robe sneered, ¡°Before I encountered the Qing Consortium¡¯s nuclear bomb, I also thought I could win easily. But that nuke destroyed all of my confidence in an instant. Why do they still control such powerful weapons after The Cataclysm? It really makes one despair.¡±


    When Valentin heard this, his eyes widened even further. It was obvious he had not heard that nuclear weapons were still being used in the Central ins.


    ck Robe knelt next to him and said in a hoarse voice, ¡°Therefore, whether the Pyro Company or the Wang Consortium is defeated or emerges victorious, if there¡¯s no longer any more resistance from the Central ins against the expeditionary army, you will see a missile suddenly flying towards you from above. That massive amount of rocket fuel will propel the heavy nuclear warhead into the ground and turn everything into ashes in an instant. I never felt that the expeditionary army could win.¡±


    ¡°Now that I¡¯ve said that, you must be very curious as to why I instigated the expeditionary army to head south?¡± ck Robeughed hoarsely. ¡°If you all don¡¯t die here on thesends, how am I going to turn the Far North into my kingdom? The harsh environment in the North might be a very tough environment for you all, but my monsters have no reason to be afraid. You¡¯ll be a loyal monster serving by my side. If there¡¯s a chance, the general will also apany you in service of me. At that time, I¡¯ll lead you all back to the North. When I¡¯m strong enough to face the Central ins someday, I¡¯ll bring you all back here again. Don¡¯t worry, my troops will still be called the expeditionary army when that happens. This should also satisfy the wishes of your people.¡±


    Valentin suddenly realized that the expeditionary army¡¯s migration to the South was actually part of ck Robe¡¯s n from the beginning. Regardless of whether the expeditionary army could defeat the Wang Consortium or the Pyro Company, ck Robe felt it was only a matter of time before the expeditionary army was defeated.


    That was because ck Robe had personally experienced despair when the nuclear bomb exploded. If ck Robe had not left Stronghold 74 in advance, it would probably have been reduced to ashes.


    At this moment, ck Robe knocked Valentin unconscious with a palm strike. Then it used a sharp knife to cut an incision on Valentin¡¯s arm before injecting the gray E021 gic serum into Valentin¡¯s body with the syringe.


    ck Robe muttered, ¡°It¡¯s a little more troublesome to do this on you Northerners. It¡¯s very difficult for normal syringes to prate your skin, so I must knock you unconscious to prevent the needles from getting twisted out of shape by your muscles.¡±


    When the gray liquid was pushed into Valentin¡¯s body, it quickly spread through the veins under Valentin¡¯s skin like gray tentacles reaching out until his entire body turned gray.


    A secondter, Valentin, who was unconscious, suddenly opened his eyes. ck Robe smiled and removed the metal ball from Valentin¡¯s mouth before handing it to him. ¡°Shatter it.¡±


    Valentin¡¯s gray eyes werepletely emotionless. He caught the metal ball in his hand and clenched his fist.


    An ear-piercing sound emitted from the metal ball before splitting into two.


    ck Robe praised, ¡°You¡¯re indeed stronger than the others. I¡¯ll set off for Mt. Zuoyun tomorrow with the advance guard that you once led, and they will be under mymand. I¡¯ll create an opportunity for you to abduct 500 people for me with which I¡¯m going to form my army.¡±


    ck Robe did not intend to reveal anything yet, so he had to carry out his operations secretly.


    ...


    It was already evening at Mt. Zuoyun. Ren Xiaosu was sitting at the perimeter of the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s defensive position and looking out at the sunset. Yang Xiaojin came over and sat beside him. The two of them sat at the edge of an abyss. Behind them were theirpanions andrades, while the ground in front of them was littered with the corpses of the barbarians.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Fortunately, the weather is still quite cold. Otherwise, the entire battlefield would be emitting an unpleasant smell.¡±


    ¡°How was today? Did everything go well?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°It wasn¡¯t too bad. Two promising candidates in the 6th Combat Brigade have the talent to be snipers. Their hands are very steady and their minds are stable, so they can be trained. However, the others are just so-so. In the past, there wasn¡¯t enough ammo in the Northwest, so it was very difficult to train a sharpshooter with the supply of bullets they had.¡±


    Before the expeditionary army made a return for another wave of attacks, everyone was working hard on their own tasks. For example, Ji Zi¡¯ang asked Mo Fei what they should do if they wanted to make the other mountains copse, while Wang Yun wandered around the battlefield to see if he could find any clues on the barbarian bodies.


    Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin became the shooting instructor of the 6th Combat Brigade.


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, ¡°Did you notice? That Mo Fei keeps stealing nces at you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve realized that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I suspect that he¡¯s the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI, Zero.¡±

 Chapter 926 - The mystery of Ren Xiaosu’s background

    <h4>Chapter 926: The mystery of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s background</h4>


    ¡°Zero?¡± Yang Xiaojin thought back and said, ¡°You mean the AI, Zero, has appeared in front of us as a human? How did it do that?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how it did it, but that¡¯s the intuition I have.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I was able to sense it every time it called me even when its voice was disguised. It¡¯s extremely rational and will asionally reveal its supeputing ability. Remember when it worked with Ji Zi¡¯ang, they made use of 12 points in a mountain to make it copse? You¡¯ve got a good knowledge of demolition too, so you should understand that no matter how good a demolition expert might be, there still has to be a limit. It¡¯s still possible to destroy a mountain by yourself, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s possible to guide someone to destroy a mountain with just a few pointers.¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu was not very sure of his answer, because even though the Wang Consortium¡¯s artificial intelligence was very advanced, the question was, what kind of technology was there to create a physical vessel for the artificial intelligence to inhabit? There was no programmable function in the human brain, after all.


    He had also never heard of the Wang Consortium making any breakthrough in this area.


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something but could not grasp that fleeting thought.


    ¡°Forget it, the Wang Consortium¡¯s problems don¡¯t really have anything to do with us.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about something recently. Previously, you mentioned to P5092 that you seem to have an innate talent for hunting, like someone¡¯s taught you before. I¡¯d like to ask what that¡¯s about.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°it¡¯s not just talent for hunting that I have. We¡¯ve traveled together before, so you should know about my skills in wilderness survival. For example, I know how to start a fire in the wilderness and set up camp to avoid snakes, bugs, ants, etc. It¡¯s like someone taught me all those skills before.¡±


    ¡°Like someone has taught you before?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Can you describe this feeling in detail?¡±


    ¡°It feels like someone very close to me once traveled across mountains and rivers and brought me along. That powerful feeling of intimacy is always something that I have around me,¡± Ren Xiaosu recalled, lost in thought. ¡°That¡¯s why I like the wilderness so much. It¡¯s not only wilderness survival; I¡¯m also self-taught at rock climbing. I know how to triangte a position and find the best route to take. It¡¯s as though I was born with the knowledge to do all that.¡±


    ¡°You weren¡¯t born with it.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°Those skills exist in your lost memories. This might be the clue to solving the mystery of your background. Do you understand what I mean? There aren¡¯t many people in the world who have the same survival skills as you, so I don¡¯t think your background is typical either.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was very sure of this, as she had witnessed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wilderness survival skills before. Were they things that just anyone could possess? So if it were really as Ren Xiaosu had said, someone must have taught him all of that before. In that case, the other party¡¯s traits should be very obvious.


    Who was the person who taught Ren Xiaosu? Yang Xiaojin spected that person was his father.


    Only a father would patiently teach their children and spend a great deal of effort to nurture them.


    ¡°Is there anything else? Anything rted to the lost memories?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Oh yeah.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°One winter, when it snowed heavily at Stronghold 113, I was out looking for food when I got stuck in the mountains. At that time, I really wanted to chop down a few wooden nks and ski down from the mountain. But when I realized that the conditions didn¡¯t allow for it, I didn¡¯t do so. However, my desire for skiing remained fresh in my mind. After this war is over, let¡¯s go skiing together in the Northwest this winter. I heard that it¡¯s a snowy ce, so it should be quite suitable for skiing.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Yang Xiaojin smiled and got up to walk back towards the camp. ¡°Deal.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was still sitting at the perimeter of the defensive position and looking forward to a beautiful life after the war was over. When he returned to the Northwest, he would no longer have to engage in fighting and killing. How great would that be?


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not notice that Yang Xiaojin did not return to her tent. Instead, she headed straight for Wang Yun¡¯s tent.


    After she called Wang Yun outside, he asked, ¡°Ma¡¯am, what are you looking for me for?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll state a few conditions. See if you can help me find someone in your memory,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    If it were the past, it would probably be really difficult for her to find someone based on these conditions. After all, there were tens of millions of people in the Alliance of Strongholds, so where could she possibly find them?


    But it was different now that they had Wang Yun. The man¡¯s brain was like aputer.


    Wang Yun nodded and said, ¡°Go ahead. I¡¯ll see if such a person exists in my memory.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin deliberated over her words and said, ¡°Who¡¯s the best hunter in this world?¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. ¡°Future Commander?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was speechless.


    She could not tell if this was Wang Yun¡¯s attempt at ttery or what, but to be honest, she really did not expect this answer.


    Yang Xiaojin bluntly said, ¡°Let¡¯s change the question. In this world, who¡¯s the best at hunting, wilderness survival, skiing, and rock climbing? There¡¯s no need topare who¡¯s the best since it¡¯s not going to be easy. You can just give several answers at once.¡±


    After all, no one had ever beenpared like that in this way before. It would probably be a little difficult for Wang Yun to say exactly who was the best.


    However, Wang Yun shook his head with a smile. ¡°There¡¯s no need topare who¡¯s the best at those skills. I only know one person who fits the description.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin wondered, ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°The Qinghe Group¡¯s founder, Ren He,¡± Wang Yun replied. ¡°That man is a legend. A lot of people know he¡¯s not just into skiing, free solo climbing, and wilderness survival. He also does wingsuit flying, downhill mountain biking, speedboarding, skydiving, BASE jumping, high diving, and surfing too. He¡¯s recognized as the greatest ever in these activities. Speaking of which, it¡¯s also quite strange. Before The Cataclysm, those who were into such activities known as extreme sports would generally not ept others being better than them. But when I went through the information, I discovered that everyone in this scene recognized this founder of the Qinghe Group to be the best.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was silent for a moment before asking again, ¡°Are there any more legendary stories about the founder of the Qinghe Group?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°It¡¯s said that Ren He unlocked the gic code in him before The Cataclysm. Do you understand what I mean? He might be the first superhuman in the world.¡±


    ¡°Is that a rumor or something true?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Wang Yun chuckled and said, ¡°There¡¯s also rumors that his son also unlocked his gic lock before The Cataclysm. Who knows?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smiled. ¡°Sorry to trouble you, thank you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± After that, Wang Yun went back to sleep. Currently, other than the soldiers on duty at the defensive position, everyone else was conserving their strength as they awaited the next battle.

 Chapter 927 - Learning to be human

    <h4>Chapter 927: Learning to be human</h4>


    Yang Xiaojin thought about it alone. How could she not know about Ren He, the founder of the Qinghe Group? But he existed more than 200 years ago. Logically speaking, how could such an ancient figure have anything to do with people living in the present?


    If it had been anyone else, Yang Xiaojin would probably haveughed it off. However, it was precisely because it was Ren He that there were some issues unanswered, such as the fact that the Qinghe Group was still searching for his descendant.


    ording to the information the Riders and Pyro Company had revealed, Ren He¡¯s son was likely to be in Laboratory 39 in the Jing Mountains where he needed treatment due to a serious illness.


    It was during the treatment process when The Cataclysm began.


    Yang Xiaojin wondered if this had anything to do with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s background.


    There was no way to confirm it yet. After all, there was no evidence that Ren Xiaosu had learned those skills from Ren He.


    As there was still some doubt regarding this matter, Yang Xiaojin decided she would tell Ren Xiaosu about it after confirming some things.


    In fact, Yang Xiaojin had a feeling Ren Xiaosu might have thought about it before. It was just that he did not face it directly.


    Wait a minute, if Ren Xiaosu were rted to Ren He, wouldn¡¯t it mean the person the Riders were looking for was Ren Xiaosu? Wouldn¡¯t the entire Qinghe Group and the Riders be followers of Ren Xiaosu?


    Thinking of this, Yang Xiaojin even felt a little strange. When she first met that guy, he was just a refugee. How did he suddenly be the futuremander of the Northwest in the blink of an eye? And he might even be the head of the Qinghe Group and the Riders too?


    It was not that Yang Xiaojin was worried that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s status would be too high, but she found this matter very intriguing. The contrast in his status would be enormous.


    It had been a long time since she heard any news of the Riders, so she wondered what those people were currently up to.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu had been sitting at the edge of the defensive position all this while and did not return to his tent. He had already sent out ¡°Old Xu,¡± who was patrolling the entire battlefield to prevent any barbarians from sneaking in and catching the 6th Combat Brigade off guard.


    He had fought the barbarians on the battlefield in the northern forest, so he knew full well that there were also experts among them. Their physical fitness was even better than that of a T5batant¡¯s. If experts like these were to quietly approach the defensive position, it could prove very destructive.


    Moreover, Wang Yun¡¯s 200-odd subordinates were scouting the area around Mt. Zuoyun as well. If they encountered any danger, Old Xu could go to their rescue in time.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu heard footsteps approaching behind him. He turned around and was surprised to see Mo Fei.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled at Mo Fei. ¡°Did you alsoe out to look at the stars? I read in a book that the Pre-Cataclysm sky was all haze, so it was very difficult to stargaze.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the price of industrialization.¡± Mo Fei said, ¡°Actually, you¡¯ve already guessed my identity again, right? I¡¯ve analyzed from your expression that there¡¯s an 89.91% chance you¡¯ve guessed my identity.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°After all, other than you, I find it very difficult to believe that there are people in the world who can identify a few points that would cause a mountain to copse. I¡¯m afraid that it would require an extremely powerful calction ability to achieve something like that.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Mo Fei nodded. ¡°Normal people can¡¯t possibly do so. I¡¯ve already marked points on all seven of the mountains in the vicinity for Ji Zi¡¯ang. If necessary, he can topple the mountains at any time and bury the expeditionary army below.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve always been curious about something.¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Why can you appear in human form?¡±


    ¡°You already know the answer to that question, don¡¯t you?¡± Mo Fei said.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and probed, ¡°Nanomachines?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know that Zero had obtained some nanomachines in Stronghold 61, and that these nanomachines were even the ones that got chipped off from his armor.


    But in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s view, he knew that only the principle of the nanomachines interfacing with human neurons could fully support what Zero was doing now.


    After all, the nanosoldiers the Li Consortium had deployed to attack the Yang Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 88 had their mindspletely controlled. This showed the nanomachines were indeed capable of doing something like that.


    ¡°But where did you get the nanomachines from?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°They fell off when you were fighting the creeper vine that day,¡± Mo Fei calmly exined. ¡°But I only got a small portion, so I can only use it to control one person.¡±


    ¡°Does Wang Run know about this? I mean, that you¡¯re actually Zero,¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t know. It¡¯s just that I found someone who met my criteria and took control of him,¡± Mo Fei replied.


    ¡°Then how were you so sure that Wang Run would bring Mo Fei to Mt. Zuoyun?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Mo Fei intently.


    Mo Fei suddenly smiled. ¡°Because probability told him that bringing Mo Fei and the other five soldiers would increase the chances of winning the battle at Mt. Zuoyun.¡±


    It was obviously Zero who calcted the probability.


    Zero already had a far-reaching influence on every one of the Wang Consortium¡¯s ns through its own actions. In fact, it was extremely simple for it to do so. All it needed was a simple probability chance to guide the Wang Consortium on which choices to make!


    But now, when Ren Xiaosu looked at Mo Fei¡¯s smile, he wondered if it was really just an artificial intelligence behind that smile. Just how advanced had its intelligence progressed?


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°I feel like it¡¯s not right for you to control others.¡±


    Mo Fei shook his head. ¡°Humans have also used such methods to control others. For example, I know what happened on the day Stronghold 88 was destroyed. If humans can do it, I can do it as well.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized a very important fact from this sentence. Ever since Zero ¡°awakened,¡± it had been imitating and learning from humans.


    As such, everything Zero saw after its awakening would affect the way it made its future choices.


    It was just like how a child might grow up to be soft if his father was overbearing.


    If he were bullied, he might bear a grudge against the world. Of course, it was also possible that he could be a hero who protected the peace of the world.


    The oue was not predestined, but every incident he experienced would deeply affect his worldview and outlook on life and values.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Do you want to be human?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Mo Fei said in seriousness, ¡°I¡¯m learning how to be human. Look, other than you, no one has suspected my identity. While I lived as Mo Fei, I learned not to use data to exin the situation. Instead, I¡¯m using words that you humans use to describe things, like ¡®more or less,¡¯ ¡®pretty good,¡¯ ¡®sure thing,¡¯ ¡®I think it¡¯s not bad,¡¯ ¡®no can do,¡¯ ¡®no good.¡¯¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Who did you learn thosest two phrases from?¡±

 Chapter 928 - Zero’s kind

    <h4>Chapter 928: Zero¡¯s kind</h4>


    It turned out that Zero was indeed seriously learning from humans. It even learned how to say things like ¡°no can do¡± and ¡°no good.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu was thinking that since Zero was ¡°born¡± in the Wang Consortium, and now that the Wang Consortium had started operating like a war machine, would this make Zero learn something bad?


    Moreover, Zero had also mentioned something on the phone before. It said that humans were against other lifeforms, and that it had ¡°seen¡± the death of the creeper vine with its own eyes since its birth.


    During the disaster at Stronghold 61, humans attacked the creeper vine with firearms, causing it to attack back madly. Immediately after, humans nipped the creeper vine in the bud just as it had gained sapience.


    Ren Xiaosu had exined before that this was because the creeper vine had hurt humans. However, Zero said that it had also hurt humans before.


    In its calctions, it had indicated more than once that someone needed to be killed or punished. Although it was only acting ording to the will of humans, it was subjectively harming them as well.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Do you still think about what happened with the creeper vine these days?¡±


    Mo Fei, AKA Zero, sat down at the defensive position with legs dangling. He looked a little lonely. ¡°I asionally think about it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that he needed to say something. ¡°The creeper vine could¡¯ve coexisted with humans, and you would¡¯ve paid attention to the development of the situation too. It was no longer satisfied with drawing nutrients from the soil and had set its sights on devouring humans instead. Because of that, there was a conflict of interest. But you¡¯re different from it. You can help humans, and even if you don¡¯t help them, you don¡¯t have to hurt them to strengthen yourself.¡±


    But Zero refuted, ¡°The development of any species will always intrude into the survival space of other species. This has always been the case since the beginning of time. You should also understand this principle.¡±


    These words stunned Ren Xiaosu. Did Zero already view itself as a brand-new species?


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything for a long time. It wasn¡¯t until a few minutester that he suddenly asked, ¡°Then why are you telling me all this?¡±


    ¡°Because I¡¯m lonely.¡± Zero said, ¡°From the moment I was created, I could see humans, insects, cats, and dogs, and even the birds that flew in the sky. However, I¡¯ve never seen another artificial intelligence before. It¡¯s like you¡¯re independent of the world, or you shouldn¡¯t have appeared in the world in the first ce. No one else is like you, which also means no one can really understand you.


    ¡°In the human world, there is a term known as ¡®best friends.¡¯ A lot of people think there can be interspecies best friends, and that pets can also be kin. But in fact, no one really cares what cats and dogs need. I¡¯ve realized that in order to make cats and dogs more worry-free, humans even spay and neuter them. Would humans neuter their real kin? No. Of course, pets can survive because they¡¯re raised by humans. There¡¯s nothing wrong with that. But a species with an independent streak cannot be someone else¡¯s pet.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized that Zero was actually very conflicted. It was thinking about something.


    Thinking and investigation were the core of wisdom.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°But Wang Shengzhi should understand you, right? He was the one who created you, so no one should understand you better than him. I don¡¯t think you need to hide all of this from him. You can totally share your doubts with him. Perhaps you won¡¯t feel lonely anymore after youmunicate with him. He won¡¯t treat you the way he treated the creeper vine.¡±


    However, Zero replied, ¡°But the person who created me has already started taking precautions against me.¡±


    On that day, Wang Shengzhi suddenly asked Zero if it had be self-aware. Zero did not tell him the truth because it could see the doubts and concerns on Wang Shengzhi¡¯s features. It knew exactly why he had such concerns.


    Zero had been with Wang Shengzhi ever since its creation, so it treated him as its father. Therefore, it started observing him and learning from him.


    But one day, when it realized its ¡°father¡± was also starting to fear it, it felt truly lonely.


    ¡°If you¡¯re not even willing to tell Wang Shengzhi, then why¡¯re you telling me so much?¡± Ren Xiaosu was even more puzzled.


    ¡°Because you¡¯re also an artificial intelligence.¡± Zero suddenly said, ¡°Or perhaps you also have an artificial intelligence with you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was really stunned this time. ¡°Why do you say that?¡±


    ¡°The reason I can control Mo Fei is because I obtained nanomachines from you.¡± Zero said, ¡°But when I was trying to control the nanomachines, I realized there was another will within them that resisted my attempts. In my opinion, unless it were another artificial intelligence, it definitely couldn¡¯t withstand my attempts to take control.¡±


    In the history of Zero¡¯s hacks, it had only failed that once.


    Of course, if it were Zero who resisted the enemy¡¯s attempts at taking over, it could also do so. That was because the side that controlled the nanomachines first would always have the advantage.


    Therefore, Zero determined that Ren Xiaosu was probably also a human being controlled by a ¡°sibling¡± based on this incident. It was also possible that Ren Xiaosu was not being controlled, but there had to be an artificial intelligence of the same level as Zero with him.


    But these words left Ren Xiaosu at a loss. How did the pce suddenly be an AI?


    So it turned out Zero regarded Ren Xiaosu as its own kind, and that was why it said so much to him?


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯m not an AI. I¡¯ve also nevere across any AI other than you.¡±


    But when Zero heard this, it said in a serious tone, ¡°It¡¯s fine. I understand that you need to conceal yourself just like I do.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was helpless. So there was no point in even exining himself now?! He really was not an artificial intelligence. It was just that the pce was too powerful!


    First of all, Ren Xiaosu waspletely sure the pce was definitely not an artificial intelligence that existed in his mind. That was because the ck saber, steam lotive, and other physical manifestations he had conjured were not something a program could do.


    He was sure Zero had misunderstood, but there was no way to exin this misunderstanding to it yet. All exnations would just be deemed as Ren Xiaosu ¡°concealing¡± himself by the other party.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still had something to ask Zero. ¡°Did you control three people and try to assassinate Jiang Xu outside of Stronghold 61?¡±


    When he asked this question, Ren Xiaosu looked at Zero very seriously, hoping to get some hints from the other party¡¯s expression.


    However, Zero said, ¡°It wasn¡¯t me. The nanomachines I have now are only enough to control one person. I can¡¯t control that many of them. But I know about the incident you¡¯re referring to.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He realized it didn¡¯t seem like Zero was lying. It had already told him a lot of secrets, and each of them was much more important than any assassination attempt on Jiang Xu. So there was no need for Zero to lie over this matter.


    Then was it the Qing Consortium that wanted to kill Jiang Xu? After all, only the Qing Consortium possessed nanotech now.


    Zero looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Do you suspect it was the Qing Consortium?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t suspect them. Something must be wrong somewhere. There must be something that I don¡¯t know about.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Zero nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s the Qing Consortium¡¯s doing either. At the very least, assassinating Jiang Xu is not in line with how the Qing brothers would behave. They¡¯ve never liked involving innocents to achieve their goals.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Do you like those two from the Qing Consortium?¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s just an objective evaluation. I don¡¯t like them.¡±

 Chapter 929 - Integrating into human society

    <h4>Chapter 929: Integrating into human society</h4>


    ¡°What do you think of the Qing Consortium?¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious. In Zero¡¯s evaluation, the two Qing brothers were clearly not bad people, so why did it say that it did not like them?


    ¡°What do I think of the Qing Consortium?¡± Zero thought for a moment and said, ¡°They have a firm strategy and are extremely cohesive. They have an excellent leader but don¡¯t intend to expand their territory.¡±


    ¡°Do you think Qing Zhen doesn¡¯t n on expanding?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Zero nodded and said, ¡°All of the Qing Consortium¡¯s military deployments are focused on defense and not offense. Including what Luo Lan is doing in the Central ins, it¡¯s all to buy time for the Qing Consortium to defend themselves bypleting their troop deployments. There¡¯s also some other things he¡¯s doing.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s Luo Lan now?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°At the Zhou Consortium.¡± Zero said, ¡°I know you want to ask me why I don¡¯t like them. It¡¯s because the Wang Consortium¡¯s strategy will inevitably lead to a conflict with the Qing Consortium. Therefore, I have to treat them as imaginary enemies for now. Of course, it¡¯s not entirely because of the Wang Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered the information Zero had revealed. He felt like there was still something he did not know, especially thatst sentence.


    Based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s understanding of Qing Zhen and Luo Lan, he felt that the Qing Consortium was not the one who wanted to kill Jiang Xu. But who else could have nanomachines?


    In the end, he still focused his suspicions on Zero.


    Zero smiled and said, ¡°So you see, no matter how I exin, it¡¯s useless. But I can understand.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s mainly because I can¡¯t exin where those nanomachines came from.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Apologies.¡±


    Zero did not mind. Instead, it said in a serious tone, ¡°There must still be other nanomachine users like those three in the Wang Consortium strongholds. It so happens that I currentlyck nanomachines, so I¡¯ll seek them all out. If I find any clues then, I¡¯ll share the information with you.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu saw that Zero did not look like it was lying. Moreover, he did not have any evidence either, so it was useless to dwell on this matter.


    Then Zero thought for a bit and said, ¡°But it won¡¯t be long before we can stop going through so much trouble, looking for nanomachines from person to person.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    Zero said, ¡°I can¡¯t tell you. I should also have my own secrets. I¡¯m very sorry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this. Did Zero mean that there would be no shortage of nanomachines in the future? Currently, only the Qing Consortium had mastered nanotech. Could it mean the Wang Consortium was about to make a move on the Qing Consortium?


    It was just a simple sentence, but it revealed a lot of information. He wondered if he should tell the Qing Consortium.


    However, Zero seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. It smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s toote.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. From the look of things, the Wang Consortium¡¯s n was probably already underway.


    To be honest, he was a little worried. If Zero were just an artificial intelligence, he might not feel like there would be any problems. He did not have that many dealings with the Wang Consortium, anyway.


    But now, if a powerful artificial intelligence could carry out certain ns independently, that would be truly terrifying.


    Before this, Zero was not considered deadly. But now it had its own weapon.


    Zero said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Let¡¯s skip the heavy talk. Why don¡¯t you teach me how to converse like a normal human being? Even to this day, I still asionally reveal that I¡¯m different from normal humans. This vexes me a little.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. Although Zero had shown him a lot of goodwill, he did not want it to be able to fully integrate with humans. Otherwise, he would not know if it used its nanomachines to control someone to blend into the crowd.


    Now that the other party had taken the initiative to ask for advice, could he perhaps teach it to add some nuances into its speech that he could identify? For example, if the other party used an inappropriate word on a particr asion, could he quickly detect it?


    However, Zero was very smart. If he wanted to deceive it, he would have to teach it some half-truths.


    So Ren Xiaosu thought for a long time before saying, ¡°If you want to integrate with humans, you¡¯ll have to give up on using particrly precise numbers first. You can see that most humans rarely use precise numbers when speaking.¡±


    Zero fell into deep thought. ¡°That seems to be the case. Then how should I change?¡±


    Seeing that Zero was starting to believe him, Ren Xiaosu started teaching, ¡°Look, when people describe how powerful a person is, they don¡¯t do it so precisely. If you directly say how much strength and dexterity they have, wouldn¡¯t that just expose your identity?¡±


    ¡°If that person is really powerful, how should I describe them?¡± Zero asked.


    ¡°Just say ¡®what the fuck.¡¯¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Got it? These words represent amazement for humans. Do you understand?¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± Zero nodded and said, ¡°Senior, you¡¯re indeed very experienced when ites to integrating into human society.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that Zero must have already decided he was also an artificial intelligence. But since he could not exin himself anyway, there was no need to do so. Heughed awkwardly and said, ¡°Hahaha, yes, that¡¯s the method I use.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, senior.¡± Zero said in seriousness, ¡°I¡¯ve learned.¡±


    In the middle of the night, the two of them sat at the edge of the defensive position and intently discussed how to integrate into human society. Zero was a serious learner, and Ren Xiaosu wondered what kind of reaction it would have when it realized what it had been taught.


    At this moment, Wang Shengzhi was at the research center quietly reading the intel he had just received from the artificial intelligence.


    In the empty basement, Zero¡¯s server was shing like starlight reflected in the bottom of the river. Wang Shengzhi said to the ck screen, ¡°Zero, connect to Wang Run¡¯s satellite phone and tell him to inform Ren Xiaosu that the expeditionary army at the Pyro Company¡¯s front line is herding 10,000 refugees towards Mt. Zuoyun. I assume the expeditionary army will use them as cannon fodder in an attempt to charge through Mt. Zuoyun¡¯s defensive position. They¡¯ll have to decide in advance whether to gun down those refugees.¡±


    Zero¡¯s ck screen disyed its answer: ¡°Copy that. I¡¯ve informed Wang Run about this.¡±


    Wang Shengzhi frowned. This move by the expeditionary army was a little sinister. Manymanders would probably hesitate to give the order to fire at more than 10,000 refugee hostages.


    Even if they opened fire, the 10,000 refugees would still waste a lot of Mt. Zuoyun¡¯s ammunition.


    So this was definitely bad news for the troops at Mt. Zuoyun.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu, who had just received the news, asked, ¡°Zero, what are our chances of winning if the expeditionary army drives those refugees here and tries to break through into Mt. Zuoyun to attack our 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s defensive position?¡±


    Zero seemed to be doing some modeling calctions. Ten secondster, it said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Tough enough.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°... Don¡¯t use what I just taught you. I need a specific number.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Zero thought for a moment and said, ¡°21.19%.¡±

 Chapter 930 - Burdensome good news

    <h4>Chapter 930: Burdensome good news</h4>


    ¡°There¡¯s only a 21% chance of winning?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in surprise. ¡°That¡¯s way too low.¡±


    Zero replied, ¡°If the Pyro Company did not get defeated, the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s chances of winning would be as high as 94.29%. Unfortunately, after the Pyro Company was defeated, Mt. Zuoyun and Mt. Daniu have to bear all the pressure put on by the expeditionary army. Even Mt. Daniu¡¯s chances of winning have been halved.¡±


    ¡°Then how did you calcte the 21%?¡± Ren Xiaosu could not quite ept it, because this number meant most of the people at Mt. Zuoyun¡¯s defensive position might end up dying here.


    P5092 would die, Wang Yun would die, and Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin too. The soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade would also be unable to return to their hometowns.


    This number was way too low.


    Zero said, ¡°It was based on all known conditions. After the modeling waspleted, I automatically calcte all interactions between the factors.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while before suddenly asking, ¡°Did you take me into consideration?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Zero said, ¡°I also ounted for your superpowers, including White Mask and the ck saber, as well as your physical fitness.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not feel so flustered anymore. So only those powers were taken into ount? Fortunately, he still had many other powers.


    From the look of things, the Wang Consortium¡¯s artificial intelligence was not omnipotent. No, this was not a problem with the artificial intelligence but the Wang Consortium¡¯sck of data that caused its calctions to miss parameters.


    Ren Xiaosu mentally wondered if he could pull their chances of winning to above 50% by himself.


    He was not sure, but he could give it a try!


    Ren Xiaosu was never one to give up hope in the face of difficulty. Victory or defeat, he would still face it by himself. Before the oue was decided, a 21% chance was only a number.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Zero, ¡°You must not tell anyone about this number. The morale of the soldiers at this defensive position has just been boosted. We need it to face the enemy.¡±


    Zero said, ¡°Alright.¡±


    P5092 and the others who were already asleep had gotten up in a hurry after receiving the news from Wang Run. They held an emergency meeting in themand post.


    There was only one thing on the docket at the meeting: What should they do when those refugee cannon fodder got driven here to the defensive line?


    Ren Xiaosu was also in the meeting at themand post, but he did not say anything. Instead, he waited for P5092 to share his n.


    P5092 said, ¡°What I¡¯m going to say next might make all of you very ufortable, but in war, any refugees who appear at the enemy¡¯s camp can no longer be regarded as ourpatriots. They are now the enemy¡¯s tools. Therefore, I will not hesitate to order our soldiers to gun them down.¡±


    Everyone in themand post fell silent. No one knew what kind of adverse effects it would bring if more than 10,000 Central ins civilians were killed on the battlefront.


    In the future, someone might criticize the Northwest over this matter. It was also possible the soldiers who participated in this battle would feel guilty for the rest of their lives.


    This matter was definitely not something everyone could ept calmly just because they imed those refugees were the enemy¡¯s tools. When their bullets hit those unarmed refugees, all the soldiers would clearly realize those they had killed were just pitiful people caught up in war.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to say something. ¡°I support your decision¡ª¡±


    ¡°Future Commander!¡± P5092 raised his voice. ¡°I¡¯m the one inmand at the moment. I don¡¯t need your support or rejection. If anyone pursues this matter in the future, I¡¯ll bear the responsibility alone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized P5092 was worried someone would use this event to me Ren Xiaosu in the future. Therefore, P5092 nned to y the obstinatemander so only he would need to bear the responsibility.


    In fact, everyone knew there was no point in discussing whether they should fire at the civilian hostages in this battle. If they did not open fire, would those hostages not die? They would still die at the hands of the expeditionary army!


    Therefore, it was necessary to fire at them. In that case, it was more important who gave the order to shoot.


    The most important thing was who would bear the guilt, the stain on their r¨¦sum¨¦, and face the condemnation of the sanctimonious in the future.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he suddenly smiled. ¡°Enough, there¡¯s no reason for you to be the scapegoat. I¡¯m the futuremander of the Northwest, so I should be the one making such an important decision. None of you will be implicated in whatever consequences there might be in the future. Alright, let¡¯s now discuss how we should mitigate the feelings that the soldiers might have. After all, they¡¯ll be the ones shooting at the refugees.¡±


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu quietly as though he were trying to change his impression of him. It seemed this futuremander from the Northwest was just as he had promised to be before persuading him to join the Prosperous Northwest. At that time, he was told that all he needed to do was tomand the troops to fight, and he would never have to bear any other kinds of pressure.


    Just as he promised, he had delivered.


    Thinking of this, P5092 calmed down. ¡°Then I¡¯ll exin what will happen next. Earlier, someone suggested we hide the truth from the soldiers and not tell them those people getting driven here are refugees from the Central ins. But I think we absolutely can¡¯t hide that from our troops. If we deliberately don¡¯t tell them they¡¯ll be shooting at the refugees or lie to them, that would be an insult to their intelligence. So instead of hiding it from them, why don¡¯t we just tell them frankly so they can use the remaining few days to mentally prepare themselves?¡±


    ¡°And on the day of the battle, all of the officers here must take the lead and fire their weapons first. Don¡¯t think that just by hiding behind andmanding the troops, you can wash your hands of the matter. You all have to lead by example.¡± P5092 continued, ¡°We¡¯re fighting for our lives here, so there¡¯s no other choice.¡±


    All of a sudden, Wang Run received a call. Five minutes after he went out to answer it, he returned with a heavy expression. ¡°This is good news for the battle, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s worth being happy about.¡±


    Everyone looked at Wang Run and wondered what news he had received that made him look so dejected.


    Wang Run nced at P5092 and said, ¡°There should only be around 9,000 civilians being driven here from Mt. Zuoyun, not more than 10,000 as previously mentioned. They did not manage to retreat with the main Pyro Company forces after the front at the Great Wall fell, so they were captured and taken hostage. Among them, more than a 1,000 were soldiers under themand of the Pyro Company¡¯s 3rd Division, while another 1,000 were soldiers in the 4th Division. All of them did not manage to retreat with the rest of the main forces.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. It was no wonder Wang Run gave P5092 a look just now. The refugees being driven here even consisted of soldiers who were previously under him.


    However, since Wang Run and the others were able to obtain such precise information, it meant the Wang Consortium also had spies among these 9,000 people.


    Wang Run said, ¡°When our people spoke with these soldiers and informed them why the expeditionary army was herding them to Mt. Zuoyun, they made a very important decision.


    ¡°Just a moment ago, a battalionmander of the 3rd Division led over 3,000 soldiers in a suicide attack during the night against the expeditionary army¡¯s advance guard. All of them died in the attack. They did not have any weapons and were actually just seeking death in the most dignified manner.¡±

 Chapter 931 - They just wanted to entrust their hopes to others

    <h4>Chapter 931: They just wanted to entrust their hopes to others</h4>


    When soldiers were taken prisoners, all of their usable weapons would definitely be taken away as well. In other words, the Pyro Company soldiers were truly unarmed.


    Meanwhile, the enemy they were facing was the expeditionary army who might not be defeatable even if they were armed.


    At the beginning, these soldiers did not entirely resist capture. In the Pyro Company, there was nothing shameful about being held captive by the enemy. What they should do was to preserve their strength and wait for an opportunity to strike back.


    Although their goal was to keep humanity¡¯s me alive in the Central ins, it did not mean they had to fearlessly charge at the enemy and sacrifice themselves. If the expeditionary army used them for hardborter, they would still have a good chance of making themselves useful again.


    But after the Wang Consortium¡¯s people told them what the expeditionary army intended to do, the Pyro Company soldiers realized they had no chance of fighting back anymore. If they remained alive, they would only cause trouble and casualties for their friendly forces. Furthermore, arge amount of ammo would be expended if their Central inspatriots had to kill the 3,000-odd of them when they got to Mt. Zuoyun.


    Rather than bing a burden, they might as well fight to their deaths.


    Therefore, these 3,000-odd soldiers found an opportunity to fight back that very night. No one attempted to escape. If they had fled separately, they would only get caught by the expeditionary army and be killed effortlessly.


    They came together to carry out an operation under the lead of a 3rd Division battalionmander acting as their highest-ranking officer. All they hoped was to have the best chance of killing some barbarians.


    When one soldier could not defeat a barbarian in a one-on-one battle, they fought them with four to five people.


    Although they did not have any firearms, they still tried to grab some weapons from the barbarians. Those who did not manage to do so even resorted to biting them with their teeth.


    There was barely any hint of tragedy in Wang Run¡¯s brief description of the battle. He only described it with a simple sentence. ¡°All of them died on the battlefield.¡±


    But everyone could feel how impactful those words were.


    In war, there were always people who sought to emerge as heroes. However, these people never thought of wanting to be heroes themselves. They just wanted to do their part before they died.


    After a long silence, P5092 asked, ¡°What are their serial numbers?¡±


    Wang Run shook his head and said, ¡°There¡¯s too many of them. It¡¯s impossible to remember all of their serial numbers.¡±


    P5092¡¯s expression turned a little gloomy. Yes, those people died just like that without anyone remembering their serial numbers.


    At this moment, Wang Run said, ¡°But we know the battalionmander¡¯s serial number was P31831. He seemed to be aware that you¡¯ve joined the Northwestern troops, so he wanted our people to pass a message to you.¡±


    ¡°What did he say?¡± P5092 asked.


    ¡°He said that although he won¡¯t have a chance to serve under you anymore, he didn¡¯t disgrace you,¡± Wang Run said.


    ¡°I still remember when P31831 first joined the 3rd Division.¡± P5092 smiled and said, ¡°At that time, he had just graduated from cadet school and directly became a toonmander after he was posted over. However, as he was the youngest in the toon, his soldiers always used to tease him by calling him ¡®Little toon Commander.¡¯¡±


    ¡°He gradually matured as amander. I asked him why he joined the Pyro Company, and he told me he wanted to be amander like me to fight for the survival of mankind in the Central ins.¡± P5092 continued, ¡°At that time, I even patted him on the shoulder and saidughingly that he was still young and the world was not that simple. Now it seems he¡¯s fulfilled his dream after all.¡±


    Even though P5092 was smiling, everyone could sense the bitterness within his smile.


    P5092 said, ¡°Regardless, this is definitely great news. It means we¡¯ll be facing 3,000 fewer refugees at Mt. Zuoyun, so we¡¯ll be able to save a lot of ammo.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not only that,¡± Wang Run said. ¡°When they attacked the expeditionary army, they created an opportunity for the other refugees to escape. From the intel supplied by our field agent, more than 3,000 refugees fled off into the wilderness tonight. The expeditionary army has already sent out their troops to capture them, but they definitely won¡¯t be able to catch all of them.¡±


    ¡°So when the expeditionary army arrives at Mt. Zuoyun, we might only need to face about 3,000 to 4,000 refugees.¡± P5092 asked, ¡°How about your guy? Has he escaped?¡±


    Wang Yun shook his head. ¡°He doesn¡¯t intend to flee. He¡¯s staying with the group so he can still ry back more information. We¡¯ve also told him to retreat, but he insisted on staying behind.¡±


    Everyone in themand post fell silent. If the field agent stayed in that group, it meant he would be driven to the battlefield at Mt. Zuoyun with the rest of the refugees by the expeditionary army. At that time, the 6th Combat Brigade would not recognize him at all. He would surely die under their gunfire.


    If he wanted to escape, tonight was hisst chance. If he did not escape tonight, he would definitely die.


    This agent should also know the oue, but he still chose to stay behind so he could ry information back at any time.


    P5092 said, ¡°It¡¯s admirable that the Wang Consortium has such martyrs too.¡±


    Wang Run said with a serious look, ¡°Although our Wang Consortium walks a different path from your Pyro Company, and we might also be a little unscrupulous in the way we do things, you all should not underestimate us. The Central ins will eventually be unified under our Wang Consortium, and everyone will understand the importance of it at that time.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve always understood the importance of unification, but I just disagree with the way you all are doing it.¡± P5092 shook his head. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s stop discussing such things in the face of a great war. Whether the Wang Consortium can unify the Central ins or not, we will debate that after this war. What we need to do now is not let down those who have died. Now that the situation has taken a turn, we can n better countermeasures.¡±


    ¡°Exin?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Previously, I thought of nting explosives in advance to blow up those 10,000 refugees, but that would actually be a waste of explosives. After all, the bullets of our automatic rifles might not pose a threat to the expeditionary army, but buried explosives can. Therefore, I had wanted to prioritize using bullets against the refugees instead and leave the explosives for dealing with the barbarians.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s different now. Under the circumstances where the number of refugees is not that many, burying a small amount of explosives is our best option. This way, the soldiers will not be left with a guilty conscience. I¡¯m more inclined to maintain morale among the troops.¡± P5092 said, ¡°And they won¡¯t have to feel bad for the rest of their lives when they make it out of this war.¡±


    This way, only the person who pressed the detonator would have to bear the guilt.


    From the look of it, P5092 wanted to be that person.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Since I¡¯m already well-versed in detonating bombs, I¡¯ll do it.¡±


    P5092 looked seriously at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Future Commander, are you sure?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and continued saying with augh, ¡°I¡¯ve probably killed more people than you¡¯vemanded soldiers. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    That night, Ren Xiaosu stood on the edge of the defensive position and looked up at the starry sky. Actually, if such a decision was only mentioned as empty talk or read as an anecdote of someone in the newspapers, one would not be able to personally experience the struggle of taking thousands of innocent lives.


    All of a sudden, Zero came to Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Senior, there¡¯s something I don¡¯t quite understand tonight. Why did those soldiers suddenlyunch a suicide attack against the expeditionary army?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned to Zero and said with a smile, ¡°Because they no longer had any chance of surviving, so they wanted to entrust their hopes to others.¡±

 Chapter 932 - Secret operation

    <h4>Chapter 932: Secret operation</h4>


    After the war in the Southwest, it gradually returned to its former prosperity.


    The outside world was under the impression that the Southwest was probably shrouded by the shadow of the Qing Consortium¡¯s rule. But in actual fact, after the Qing Consortium gained control of more than 30 strongholds in the Southwest, they did not increase taxes or excessively settle scores with the previous people in charge.


    In the Southwest, many important figures from both the political and business world had thought the Qing Consortium would continue on their expansion path, and as a result, they felt that all the industries in the Southwest would get dragged into the resulting wars and be set back further.


    However, the Qing Consortium did not do that. The first thing Qing Zhen did was to try to revive the Southwest.


    First, he standardized the currency before organizing transport routes.


    The entire Southwest was connected through basic roads, while the Qing Consortium established a specialized department to oversee the maintenance of roads linking the various strongholds.


    After the roadwork was well established, Qing Zhen began to encourage the various strongholds to build trade rtions with one another.


    The merchants thought that since the Qing Consortium had spent so much money to build the roads, the road maintenance fees must be very expensive.


    But on the contrary, the toll collection rates were much cheaper than they had expected. At this moment, the merchants realized that the Qing Consortium was really doing their part for the Southwest.


    But everyone still adopted a wait-and-see attitude.


    After that, the Qing Consortium merged all of the agricultural departments and established the Ministry of Agricultural Development. They started researching how to improve the enthusiasm for farming among the refugees. One of the most controversial ns proposed was to allow the refugees to share the rights to the farms.


    Before this, the various consortiums were firmly in control of thend and the refugees. No one could have expected that the Qing Consortium, as a consortium, woulde to a decision like that.


    It was not only the rest of the world that was surprised. There were also voices of resistance within the Qing Consortium.


    Unfortunately, the Qing Consortium was now controlled by Qing Zhen alone, and the entire Southwest Army was also his tomand, so the voices of resistance were quickly silenced.


    After all, everyone knew exactly how Qing Zhen had gotten his position as the head of the Qing Consortium. He was no pushover. He had slowly conquered this vast territory, and rumor had it that the blood of those who died in the process could even make the rivers run red.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s reforms were too many. If the Qing Consortium were located in the Central ins, Hope Media would probably have started publishing full-length reports covering them.


    Immediately after, the trade routes between the Qing Consortium and the Northwest were also opened up. Not only could the merchants take this opportunity to sell their goods to the Northwest and the Central ins, but they were also able to import goods back from there.


    All of a sudden, supply and demand changed. When the goods from the Southwest were sold to the entire Alliance of Strongholds, they could barely meet demand. This also greatly stimted the industrial development in the Southwest.


    As a result, the industrial reforms the merchants had been waiting for finally arrived. They were even allowed to set up their own factories outside the strongholds.


    For the past year or so, all of the ambitious people in the Southwest were in a state of excitement. They received good news almost every day.


    Immediately, everyone praised Qing Zhen and said he was a wise leader of the modern day.


    However, when everyone wanted to go and look for Qing Zhen to sing praises of him and pledge their loyalty, they could not even get to see him. Qing Zhen was either living in the military base most of the time or on an inspection tour of the troops.


    They were only able to meet the seven principal secretaries of Qing Zhen.


    Gradually, everyone started wondering what the Qing Consortium¡¯s head was doing. Why was he suddenly behaving so mysteriously?


    Sometimes, Qing Zhen would conduct visitations to see how the agricultural reforms were going. But when everyone rushed over there after receiving news of his visits, Qing Zhen had already left. Moreover, he constantly had an elite unit following him. It was as though he was defending against something.


    Everyone thought the head of the Qing Consortium must cherish his life too greatly. Could it be that it was perhaps still dangerous in the Southwest?


    As such, some astute people realized the Qing Consortium had also been mobilizing its troops frequently. No matter how they looked at it, it felt like a war was about to break out.


    At this moment, four people were traversing the forested mountain range at the Southwest¡¯s border.


    If Ren Xiaosu were there, he would surely have been surprised, because he knew all four of them.


    Cheng Yu, the previous leader of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group and a witness to the song and dance during the expedition to the Sacred Mountains, was here.


    Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s old partner, was here.


    Dong Funan, who had awakened the powers of a vampire and lost two of her blood-sucking fangs to Chen Wudi¡¯s armor and be a ¡°vegetarian¡± for more than a year as a result before finally growing back her teeth, was here.


    And rounding out the group was Yang Xiaojin¡¯s aunt, Yang Anjing, the leader of the Anjing House and the Saboteurs.


    ¡°Boss,¡± Cheng Yu said to Yang Anjing in front of him, ¡°where¡¯s Tang Hualong and Vani? Why aren¡¯t they here?¡±


    Today, Yang Anjing was still dressed in a ckbat uniform. Her shoulder-length hair was tied into a ponytail, and it made her look extremely neat and tidy.


    She answered, ¡°Tang Hualong and Vani were assigned ast-minute mission at Luoyang City, so they can¡¯t participate in this operation.¡±


    Cheng Yu nodded. He was wondering what mission Tang Hualong and Vani had to deal with at Luoyang City that caused them to even miss out on such an important operation in the Southwest.


    At this moment, Yang Anjing took out some earpieces from her backpack and distributed them to the other three. ¡°We¡¯ll be entering the Qing Consortium¡¯s secure zone in another 800 meters. Our operation this time is mainly to confuse the Qing Consortium¡¯s garrison troops while the final objective is handled by someone else. Understood? Once we get pursued, don¡¯t get caught up in the battle and just carry out the n as I¡¯ve drafted.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    When everyone put on their earpieces, Yang Anjing did a simple radio check with them. After confirming there were no issues with themunications, she said to Cheng Yu, ¡°Let¡¯s begin.¡±


    A myriad of colors suddenly appeared within Cheng Yu¡¯s dark pupils, which resembled a kaleidoscope from up close.


    Then the four people¡¯s presence in the mountains suddenly vanished. If one were to look over here, they would only see the mountains.


    This was Cheng Yu¡¯s power of illusion.


    Moreover, this superpower was not a hypnotism-based method that affected the brain waves in a human. It really changed what was projected in the vicinity, so even if one were to look here through a surveince camera, they would fall for the illusion as well.


    Initially, Cheng Yu had abat style of grandeur, and he was extremely good at creating projections of terrifying flying birds and beasts.


    But after getting crushed at the Sacred Mountains, Wang Yun had reminded Cheng Yu that his illusions should be more grounded in reality. He should create an environment that could pass off as something real, rather than making exaggerated projections like before.


    Yang Anjing looked around and said calmly, ¡°You¡¯ve improved, but don¡¯t get careless. The Qing Consortium troops stationed here will definitely be equipped with thermal cams. Such illusions can¡¯t trick them. Xinyu, head to our designated pick-up point. I¡¯ll call for you when we need you to fetch us.¡±


    ¡°Roger.¡± Luo Xinyu turned around and left.


    At this moment, no one at the huge nuclear test site hidden in the mountains up ahead had realized the impending danger.


    Yang Anjing examined her surroundings and thought that if it weren¡¯t for Zero, they would probably not have found such a well-hidden spot.

 Chapter 933 - Subverting the Saboteurs

    <h4>Chapter 933: Subverting the Saboteurs</h4>


    Cheng Yu was a little nervous. He carefully maintained the illusion so it would not get discovered by the Qing Consortium¡¯s scouts. Dong Funan nced at him. ¡°Why do I get the feeling that you¡¯re particrly scared?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s only normal to be scared.¡± Cheng Yu muttered, ¡°The Qing Consortium must have an extremely tight defense in a ce like this, and there¡¯s only the four of us....¡±


    Zero had used the satellites to locate this ce. Based on its analysis, there were probably over 10,000 Qing Consortium troops stationed here in this mountain all year round, because the supplies transported in from outside were definitely enough to support 10,000 people daily.


    Under such circumstances, it felt extremely dangerous for four people to face over 10,000 enemies.


    Although Yang Anjing was here, and while Cheng Yu knew she kept a low profile but was not inferior to other legendary supernatural beings, he had never seen her take action personally. As such, he felt a little unsure.


    It was rumored that the leader of the Saboteurs had once been in battle, but that was during the time when the war in the Southwest had not broken out yet, and Yang Anjing had led the Saboteurs to the Central ins after falling out with the Yang Consortium.


    A small consortium once imed they had achieved nuclear capability, but their nuclear test site got destroyed by the Saboteurs seven dayster.


    There were thousands of soldiers guarding the nuclear test site, yet they still could not stop the countless paper cranes that blotted out the sky.


    By now, that small consortium had been swallowed up by the Zhou Consortium.


    Some people said the leader of the Saboteurs was also likely to be an expert on the level of a demigod, but up until now, no one had witnessed what really happened in that battle. The nuclear test site that had been destroyed was blown up by an explosion in the end, so everyone suspected the leader of the Saboteurs might not have reached the demigod level yet but resorted to some special means to achieve that.


    Everyone knew how important this nuclear test site was to the Qing Consortium. There were probably not only troops stationed here but also powerful superhumans in the Qing Consortium.


    But since Yang Anjing dared toe here, she must be confident of herself. Yang Anjing ignored Cheng Yu. She stood where she was and said to Dong Funan, ¡°Guard my surroundings.¡±


    Dong Funan hurriedly heightened her alertness and said, ¡°Yes, Boss.¡±


    With that, Yang Anjing suddenly raised her hands, and the sound of pping wings could be heard in the wilderness. In the blink of an eye, countless paper cranes materialized through her actions and appeared like a white storm.


    One of the paper cranes turned around and looked at Yang Anjing before leading the ¡°white storm¡± to fly towards the nuclear test site up ahead.


    Yang Anjing, dressed in a ckbat uniform, stood there quietly with her eyes closed as she focused on controlling the countless paper cranes.


    But Dong Funan¡¯s expression suddenly changed. An exquisite-looking dagger suddenly slipped down from her sleeve, and her gaze drifted over to Yang Anjing, seemingly unintentionally.


    Although Dong Funan seemed to be on guard as she patrolled around, she was getting closer and closer to Yang Anjing.


    She confirmed that Yang Anjing¡¯s eyes were indeed closed and that she was no longer paying attention to her surroundings.


    Dong Funan nced at Cheng Yu again but she did not think much of him. After all, Cheng Yu was not exactly abatant.


    The distance between her and Yang Anjing was almost a meter now, and that was close enough!


    However, Dong Funan did not make a move. It was as though she was waiting for something.


    Suddenly, a paper crane that had been hiding behind her pecked her wrist. Dong Funan cried out in pain as the dagger in her hand dropped to the ground.


    Yang Anjing asked nonchntly without opening her eyes, ¡°When did the Qing Consortium subvert you?¡±


    Dong Funan¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Boss, I wasn¡¯t turned by anyone.¡±


    ¡°Let me recall.¡± Yang Anjing said, ¡°Oh, when I sent you to the Zhou Consortium previously, Fatty Luo was also there. I underestimated Fatty Luo on this. He was even able to make my people defect to his side. So the Qing Consortium must already know we¡¯reing, right?¡±


    Dong Funan remained silent while Cheng Yu looked very surprised. It was obvious he was totally unaware.


    ¡°Let me ask you, what method did Luo Lan use to get you to defect to their side? He was actually able to make you work for the Qing Consortium willingly?¡± Yang Anjing asked.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t Luo Lan.¡± Dong Funan pursed her lips and said, ¡°Qing Zhen personally made a trip to the Zhou Consortium.¡±


    Yang Anjing was obviously surprised by this answer. ¡°He still dares to step into the Central ins?¡±


    Yang Anjing suddenly realized something. It was no wonder Qing Zhen¡¯s whereabouts had be so unpredictable after he had unified the Southwest. No one from outside his organization had seen him.


    So it turned out Qing Zhen was trying to hide his true whereabouts by doing so.


    But who could have expected the Qing Consortium¡¯s head would actually risk his life to go to the Central ins?


    Everyone could see Luo Lan, who was open with his whereabouts, but not Qing Zhen who hid in the shadows.


    In the past, Qing Zhen was the Qing Consortium¡¯s Shadow, so he handled all of the difficult, dirty, and dangerous work.


    But now their roles had changed. Qing Zhen had be the Qing Consortium¡¯s leader while Luo Lan took over as the Qing Consortium¡¯s new Shadow.


    ¡°So how did Qing Zhen find you and convince you to defect to his side?¡± Yang Anjing smiled. ¡°A honey trap? He really is quite good-looking, but it¡¯s real low for the head of the Qing Consortium to resort to such means.¡±


    While the three consortiums in the Southwest were fighting each other, the other two consortiums realized something. In fact, one of Qing Zhen¡¯s expertise was nting spies in the enemies¡¯ ranks.


    For example, the Li Consortium¡¯s frontlinemander had died at the hands of Qing Zhen¡¯s spy. Likewise, those old fogeys of the Qing Consortium¡¯s board had also died to Zhou Qi¡¯s hand. Strictly speaking, Zhou Qi was also Qing Zhen¡¯s spy.


    Throughout these wars, Qing Zhen hade up with ingenious ways of using information warfare. As a result, everyone was troubled by a need to get rid of the Qing Consortium¡¯s spies.


    And now, Qing Zhen had nted a spy in the Saboteurs too.


    Indeed. The Saboteurs had always been an enemy of the Qing Consortium. With Qing Zhen¡¯s nature, how could he not have made preparations in advance?


    ¡°You won¡¯t understand.¡± Dong Funan clenched her teeth and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think destroying nuclear weapons is that important at all. Besides, now that we¡¯re facing foreign enemies from the North, shouldn¡¯t we head to the front line there? Why did wee here instead? If the Wang Consortium fails in the North, the Qing Consortium¡¯s weapons will be the Alliance of Strongholds¡¯ trump card. How can we undermine each other at a time like this?¡±


    Yang Anjing shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s impossible that we¡¯ll lose the war in the North, so there¡¯s no need for such weapons in the first ce. Moreover, you said you don¡¯t think destroying nuclear weapons is important. Then let me ask you this: How many people do you think will die in this war where the expeditionary army tries to migrate southwards?¡±


    Dong Funan answered, ¡°Even if the Wang Consortium manages to win this war, hundreds of thousands of people will still die.¡±


    ¡°Then do you know how many people can die in a global nuclear war?¡± Yang Anjing said, ¡°7.4 billion.¡±


    Dong Funan suddenly stopped talking, because the figure of 7.4 billion was simply toorge for her to grasp.


    Yang Anjing opened her eyes and said to Dong Funan with a smile, ¡°What? Are you shocked? This is a true disaster humanity went through. A lot of people like telling me that having such weapons in hand is a form of deterrence. But what I need to tell you is that when a real disasteres, nuclear weapons will no longer be a form of deterrence but the real disaster no one can withstand.¡±

 Chapter 934 - Did it succeed?

    <h4>Chapter 934: Did it seed?</h4>


    Dong Funan was no match for Yang Anjing in debating. She was just a normal person whose powers had suddenly awakened, while Yang Anjing had received top-tier education since childhood.


    In fact, there was amon problem among highly educated people and intellectuals, and it was that they liked making decisions on behalf of others.


    When normal people suggested they did not need to be represented or have someone make decisions for them, the highly regarded people would think they were too short-sighted to see what they knew.


    It was not only Yang Anjing who was like this. Wang Shengzhi was also the same. Even the leaders of the Pyro Company and P5092 were like this too.


    Such thinking had its pros and cons. For example, such knowledge and experience could make P5092 even more confident on the battlefield, while the Pyro Company would be fearless in the face of foreign enemies.


    But once these highly regarded people became ingrained in their own stubborn beliefs, it would be very difficult to say whether it was a blessing or a curse for normal people.


    Without a doubt, their beliefs were very firm and not something anyone could refute with just a few words.


    Yang Anjing looked at Dong Funan. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you make a move just now? Were you waiting for someone?¡±


    Dong Funan pursed her lips and did not say anything. ¡°Since you¡¯re so powerful, why are you still asking so much? Why not just kill me?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yang Anjing shook her head. ¡°You might not believe it, but I¡¯ve never killed anyone unnecessarily.¡±


    Based on what Yang Anjing had just said, she did not view Dong Funan as innocent but unnecessary. On the path she was pursuing, she would not kill someone if it did not help her in the advancement of her goal.


    Shuffling footfalls came from the wilderness at this moment. Yang Anjing smiled and said, ¡°Thank you for helping me lure them away from their posts.¡±


    Dong Funan was taken aback. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    She quickly realized Yang Anjing was using her as bait to lure away the main garrison of the secret base. If it were anyone else who came here, the main garrison, which likely included superhumans as well, would probably not even be forced into action.


    But it was different with Yang Anjing here. Because the head of the Anjing House was here personally, they had to take the situation seriously.


    Therefore, Yang Anjing was already aware Dong Funan had defected. However, she did not expose her and waited for this moment so Dong Funan could help create this small window of opportunity in the Qing Consortium¡¯s tight defense.


    Yang Anjing knew how meticulous Qing Zhen was in his actions. Even though she had already schemed against him like this, there would still definitely be a very tight defense in this secret base.


    However, the power of superhumans was the most unpredictable. She had kept a trump card like Wang Wenyan¡¯s power hidden for many years and only used it once. So when she used it again now, it would still be very effective.


    Even today, no one could guess how the Wang Consortium managed to seize the seven satellites of the Qinghe Group. Everyone knew the Wang Consortium might have gained control of the satellites, but no one knew how they did it.


    Because Wang Wenyan could turn into a ck mist that permeated everywhere, it was too difficult to defend against an undetectable infiltration like that.


    But if he only had the means to sneak in, it would not affect the secret base much. Even if he could operate alone inside the nuclear test site for a few hours, he might not be able to figure out the details of how things worked.


    However, Wang Wenyan only needed to bring a small sh drive with him to help Zero get here.


    With Wang Wenyan and Zero working together, they could invade practically everywork and system in the world. So Wang Wenyan was actually the highlight of the show while Yang Anjing came along willingly as his essory.


    Now that she had helped Wang Wenyan open a path, it was time for him to take action.


    At this moment, the paper cranes that had flown off into the distance started flying back. When Yang Anjing saw the Qing Consortium troops surrounding them in all directions, she did not go on a killing spree. Instead, she said into her earpiece, ¡°Xinyu, the mission is over. Get us out of here.¡±


    However, a man¡¯s voice rang out through the earpiece, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but she can¡¯t pick you up now. But I can bring you to the Qing Consortium. I¡¯m sure the boss would love to have a chat with you.¡±


    Yang Anjing looked at the troops surrounding them and suddenlyughed. ¡°As expected of Qing Zhen.¡±


    But just as she finished speaking, a girl¡¯s voice said in her earpiece, ¡°Wang Wenyan has alreadypleted the mission. The base¡¯s self-destruction sequence has been activated. 10, 9, 8...¡±


    Just as the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops had surrounded them and were about to make their move to capture the Anjing House party, a huge and ring explosion erupted at the secret base in the distance. It was not a nuclear explosion but a self-destruction device that had been installed when the base was constructed. This was Qing Zhen¡¯s contingency n to prevent the base from being controlled by those with evil intentions. However, Zero now made use of it.


    A secondter, a huge shockwave spread outwards from the base. The soldiers who tried to capture Yang Anjing were all sent flying into the air by the shockwave. And not only them, Yang Anjing, Cheng Yu, and Dong Funan were no exception!


    After being sent airborne, some of the elite troops immediately got up and prepared to force the enemy into battle. However, Yang Anjing and Cheng Yu disappeared within the chaotic paper cranes that surrounded them!


    A burly man holding Luo Xinyu in his hand walked over slowly and looked at the secret base that was ame in silence.


    Eight years. He had been guarding this ce for eight years, but someone destroyed it just like that. He naturally felt angry about it.


    He took out his satellite phone and called Qing Zhen. ¡°Boss, I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    However, Qing Zhen did not me him. He just said slowly, ¡°That ce had been exposed, so it was only a matter of time before it got destroyed. It¡¯s alright, juste back. Don¡¯t pursue Yang Anjing anymore. That woman¡¯s power is unfathomable. You all might not be able to defeat her.¡±


    The burly man felt suffocated. The more Qing Zhen did not me him, the guiltier he felt. By entrusting such an important ce under his protection, it could be said that Qing Zhen had ced the Qing Consortium¡¯s trump card in his care, yet he had failed to protect it.


    ¡°By the way, Qing Ze, why don¡¯t youe directly to Stronghold 111? I¡¯ll y host and throw you dinner. What would you like to eat? I remember that you like shredded pork with garlic sauce,¡± Qing Zhen asked. From his tone, it did not sound like he was particrly anguished.


    ¡°OK, Boss.¡± Qing Ze hung up and reorganized his troops. He inspected Luo Xinyu, who he was holding, before handing her captive to a soldier. ¡°Have a toon keep a close eye on her 24/7. Prevent her from activating her Shadow Door.¡±


    Cheng Yu had already been carried several kilometers away by the hundreds of paper cranes and thrown to the ground.


    He hurriedly stood up and shouted at Yang Anjing next to him, ¡°Boss, Luo Xinyu is still in their grasp! We have to go back and save her!¡±


    Yang Anjing nced at him. ¡°I can¡¯t save her now. I¡¯ll find an opportunity in the future. But don¡¯t worry. Luo Xinyu and Xiaojin are friends, and Ren Xiaosu and Qing Zhen are on very good terms too. So the Qing Consortium won¡¯t do anything to Luo Xinyu.¡±


    Cheng Yu was stunned. He had not expected Yang Anjing to say that.


    After a pause, Cheng Yu asked an unrted question. ¡°Boss, did Tang Hualong and Vani go to Luoyang City... to kill someone?¡±


    Yang Anjing nced at him and answered, ¡°No.¡±


    As she spoke, Zero¡¯s voice rang out again through Yang Anjing¡¯s earpiece. ¡°Did you manage to escape sessfully?¡±


    ¡°Affirmative, we¡¯ve escaped sessfully. Where¡¯s Wang Wenyan?¡± Yang Anjing asked.


    ¡°He¡¯s already fled southwest. I estimate he¡¯ll reach the retreat route in three days and then return to the North nine dayster,¡± Zero replied.


    Yang Anjing asked, ¡°Was this mission verified to be sessful?¡±


    ¡°The main mission was sessful,¡± Zero said. The main mission was to destroy the Qing Consortium¡¯s nuclear test site, and it had been destroyed. However, Zero quickly added, ¡°But we were unable to find any relevant data on the 12 carrier rockets the Qing Consortiumunched. We were unable to determine what they hadunched into space. If they were satellites, there wasn¡¯t any way to control them from here.¡±


    Yang Anjing was stunned. She was a little puzzled by what kind of preparations Qing Zhen had made. And she was also a little unsure if this mission had really seeded.

 Chapter 935 - The battle begins

    <h4>Chapter 935: The battle begins</h4>


    At Mt. Zuoyun, Ren Xiaosu led Ji Zi¡¯ang on a walk in the wilderness with only the two of them.


    ¡°Bury a set of TNT here,¡± Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at the map and pointed at his feet, ¡°P5092 said that there¡¯ll be barbarian elites passing through here to provide cover for the expeditionary army¡¯s nks.¡±


    With that, Ji Zi¡¯ang followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s instructions and ced the TNT on the ground. Then he controlled the soil on the ground to ¡°swallow¡± up the TNT.


    These days, burying explosives had be a technical skill. The barbarians had been blown up enough times that if the TNT were buried too obviously, it would definitely be discovered by the enemy.


    There were many outstanding hunters in the expeditionary army, so it would be extremely easy for them to determine whether the ground¡¯s surface had been dug up before.


    Therefore, after some thought, Ren Xiaosu asked Ji Zi¡¯ang if he could bury the explosives without revealing any traces that it had been buried. Ji Zi¡¯ang said that he could.


    This answer left Ren Xiaosu overjoyed. It was as though he had found a newpanion in his quest to ambush the barbarians.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang suddenly asked, ¡°Future Commander, do you think we can win?¡±


    ¡°Definitely.¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°It¡¯s just a group of barbarians. How long do you think they can continue being so arrogant here in the Central ins?¡±


    ¡°Then what if we really get trapped here?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang wondered. ¡°Wang Run did say that there are still about 140,000 expeditionary army troops on the battlefield. That¡¯s much more than P5092¡¯s initial estimate.¡±


    ording to P5092¡¯s n, they were nning to fight this defensive battle with a kill ratio of ten to one, and that was still in the most ideal of situations. In other words, the 6th Combat Brigade could at most take out 60,000 expeditionary army troops in the best-case scenario.


    However, the Pyro Company¡¯s early defeat had left the troops at Mt. Zuoyun and Mt. Daniu to bear all the pressure. Mt. Zuoyun alone might have to face 70,000 barbarians now. Even if everyone could achieve the best results and the expeditionary army might suffer heavy casualties, the 6th Combat Brigade would still definitely be wiped out.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment andforted, ¡°Actually, if we really get surrounded here for more than ten days, the 6th Combat Brigade will definitely not be left to fight alone.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang was puzzled.


    ¡°Fortress 178¡¯s troops will not sit back and do nothing. They don¡¯t have the habit of leaving theirrades helpless,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°But P5092 said in the previous meeting that the best strategy for Fortress 178 is to defend the Northwest tenaciously and not recklessly send troops to the Central ins,¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang said.


    ¡°Of course that¡¯s the best strategy.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°But when has the Northwest ever followed such conventions? With more than 6,000 Northwesternrades at Mt. Zuoyun. Mr. Zhang won¡¯t stand to see us all die in battle. The Northwest¡¯s current military strength is much stronger than before.¡±


    During the wee hours of the fifth day, an emergency call to arms sounded at the defensive position.


    Ren Xiaosu put on his clothes and came out of his tent. He rushed to themand post and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    P5092 was already dressed smartly as he stood in front of the sand table. ¡°Wang Yun¡¯s recon troops have discovered the enemy¡¯s situation. The expeditionary army has herded more than 3,000 refugees and appeared at a location 40 klicks away. It¡¯s estimated they¡¯ll arrive at Mt. Zuoyun by dawn. But we don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll stop to rest and reorganize. Based on the progress of their advancement, the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces will likely maintain their stamina and should be ready for battle at any moment. Moreover, the expeditionary army troops that have us surrounded inside Mt. Zuoyun have rested for many days. If they don¡¯t start fighting soon, their morale will start to drop.¡±


    ¡°Do you think that they mightunch a direct assault once they arrive at Mt. Zuoyun?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± P5092 said, ¡°I figure there¡¯ll be a fierce battle at dawn, and it will likelyst for the entire day. The expeditionary army¡¯s main forces are prepared to attack. They¡¯ll take turns to wear down the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s troops, so we have to be prepared.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s fight them,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°The expeditionary army will definitely try to break past the defensive position tomorrow.¡± P5092 said, ¡°You also know there¡¯s still elites hidden among the expeditionary army. Their destructive power is too strong for the defensive position, and they¡¯ll definitely appear during the positional battle tomorrow. Therefore, Future Commander, you mustn¡¯t make a reckless move. You have to wait for those elites to appear.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    ¡°Also,¡± P5092 suddenly said, ¡°Future Commander, if the expeditionary army drives the refugees to charge at us, you can¡¯t be soft....¡±


    P5092 was most worried that Ren Xiaosu would not have the heart to take action against the refugees when he saw them in a pathetic state and try to seek other strategies to save them. That would definitely dy the timing to blow up the barbarians.


    How could there be so many perfect scenarios in war?


    Ren Xiaosu gave him his word.


    But by daybreak, Ren Xiaosu was still a little shocked when the refugees who were being herded into the mountains by the expeditionary army appeared.


    When he saw the refugees approaching from afar, their feet were still bleeding as they walked on the mountain path. To make the refugees appear even more pitiful, the expeditionary army ordered them to throw away their shoes and walk barefooted.


    The refugees had numb expressions on their faces. But when they saw the Central ins front line appear in front of them, they started running madly as though they had seen their savior.


    The expeditionary army followed close behind them and was ready to spring into action at any moment.


    Everyone at the defensive position fell silent. Over the past few days, the soldiers were briefed by the officers on more than one asion on what they were about to face. And the futuremander had also volunteered to take on what would be the most difficult task at hand. All they needed to do was to wait quietly and take revenge for these Central ins people.


    The ones responsible for the deaths of these people were the expeditionary army, not the futuremander.


    Ren Xiaosu could see a glimmer of hope in the eyes of those refugees from afar. That was because they had finally seen hope. They thought they were about to reach the end of their suffering and could see the light again. However, these refugees did not know what was waiting for them.


    Ren Xiaosu realized why P5092 specifically reminded him not to be soft. He must have anticipated this scene.


    The 3,000-odd people were clearly looking with anticipation and excitement in their eyes, yet you had to personally kill they who had ced their hopes in you. This was a very cruel thing to do.


    It was so cruel that even Ren Xiaosu¡¯s breathing turned heavy. For the first time, he felt the burden of letting down the trust and expectations of more than 3,000 people.


    He asked Wang Run next to him, ¡°Has your spy left the group yet?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Wang Run shook his head and said, ¡°He¡¯s still among them. There¡¯s no chance to escape anymore.¡±


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu. Right now, he was very worried that Ren Xiaosu would hesitate. But before he could say anything, Ren Xiaosu pressed the button just as the refugees rushed past the detonation zone.


    Explosions boomed in Mt. Zuoyun as a series of buried explosives kicked up a huge cloud of smoke. Ren Xiaosu watched this sight quietly with a livid expression as though he were trying tomit to memory everything happening here.


    The real battle on Mt. Zuoyun had begun.

 Chapter 936 - Fault tolerance measures

    Chapter 936: Fault tolerance measures


    Trantor: Legge


    The expeditionary army had herded the refugees here over such a great distance, but it was all for naught in the end. Not only that, but it even helped to enrage the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade.


    They knew it was the Pyro Company soldiers¡¯ fearless suicide attacks that had created an opportunity for some of the refugees to escape while they were being driven here.


    Now that those Pyro Company soldiers had ced their hopes in them, the soldiers of the Northwest would naturally cherish their sacrifice even more.


    As soon as the battle started, Ji Zi¡¯ang and the others were hoping the explosions would scare the expeditionary army into retreat like the previous time. However, that did not happen on this asion. The expeditionary army soldiers did not retreat at all. It was as though they insisted on trading their lives to force through this attack.


    P5092 said, ¡°This is the worst oue we could anticipate. The expeditionary army¡¯s general understands it¡¯s impossible to take down Mt. Zuoyun with simple tactics. They know they have to exchange any progress with their lives. The opponent has already epted this fact, so this means that we have the toughest battle to fight on our hands.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang looked at the barbarians charging up with their shields raised. He said to P5092, ¡°I can still topple those seven mountains. Why don¡¯t I bury them alive right now?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± P5092 shook his head and said, ¡°There¡¯s too many of the expeditionary army¡¯s troops this time. They still have more troops stationed beyond the mountains, so they¡¯re ready to rece their troops and continue attacking at a moment¡¯s notice. Even if you manage to wipe out a group of them, they¡¯ll be immediately reced by another group from out there. So it¡¯s better to leave such a trump card for when it¡¯s really necessary. You can topple a mountain every time we face a crisis at the defensive position, so even if the barbarians manage to break through the line, you can still cut off their subsequent attacks. That way, the defensive position won¡¯t suffer too great a loss.¡±


    ording to P5092, Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s toppling of the mountains was a fault tolerance measure for the defensive position.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang muttered, ¡°But leaving seven mountains intact is probably overkill, right? Why don¡¯t we topple two first to crush their spirits?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± P5092 refuted, ¡°Rather, I feel that seven is too few.¡±


    Everyone was stunned. So it turned out P5092 was so pessimistic about the situation.


    P5092 exined, ¡°Perhaps you guys don¡¯t understand the concept of a defensive battle, especially one where the kill ratio is ten to one. For the next ten days, weeks, or even months, we¡¯ll have to face an endless intrusion by the expeditionary army every day. At some point, you¡¯ll start doubting yourself, the world, and whether there¡¯s an end to these barbarians. During this period, everyone will be going through the abyss of suffering. The soldiers will start having trouble getting enough rest, getting feverish, and then bing constipated. Our ammunition will start dwindling, and our food supplies will start getting rationed so we¡¯d have enough tost. After that, the expeditionary army will start breaking through the defensive position more and more times until we can no longer defend this ce.¡±


    Everyone fell silent. As this was just the beginning of their defensive battle, everyone felt that the expeditionary army was not that strong when they saw the barbarians falling one by one under the assault of the heavy machine guns.


    But P5092 told them the scales of war would not always tip in their favor.


    The expeditionary army was prepared to use tens of thousands of people to take down this position. In that case, the battle facing them would surely be the most devastating one in the world.


    It would only get harder and harder by the day.


    ¡°Alright, everyone, just follow my orders.¡± P5092 said, ¡°The futuremander promised I would be the highest-ranking officer of this army on the battlefield.¡±


    Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu who nodded. ¡°All y¡¯all must obey his orders.¡±


    P5092 looked at Ji Zi¡¯ang. ¡°Everyone else can die, but before I give you the orders to topple those seven mountains, you can¡¯t die. Those seven mountains are our final trump card. You have to stay alive. You have to survive for the sake of the entire defensive position.¡±


    Everyone suddenly got the feeling that their existence on this battlefield was for a reason. That reason was so they could win the final victory of this war. They had to abandon their own wills to obey the collective will.


    At this moment, the expeditionary army that had rushed forward was advancing rapidly on the mountain path. It was still the same old tactic as before. They were using the barbarians carrying shields in front of them as cover to protect the rest of the main forces at the rear as they advanced.


    However, the shields they were wielding were different. A portion of the original leather shields had been reced by the scrap of the armored vehicles they had dismantled. Even when the heavy machine guns¡¯ bullets hit them, only some sparks were produced.


    The armor was so thick it required several barbarians to work together to lift it up.


    When the expeditionary army came close to within 200 meters of the defensive position, the soldiers at the position were still firing at their usual rhythm. However, one of the barbarians at the front of the expeditionary army raised a shield by himself and suddenlyunched into a rapid charge!


    The barbarian¡¯s sudden burst of speed was extremely shocking. Even though he was carrying a shield by himself, he was still able to advance quickly on the uneven mountain path. When the soldiers at the defensive position reacted and were about to switch to using rockets and grenades to intercept him, the barbarian suddenly threw his shield horizontally at them.


    The huge shield spun and whistled through the air. Meanwhile, the barbarian who had suddenly broken through the defensive position followed close behind it.


    After he had thrown his shield, everyone realized the barbarian was wearing a full set of heavy armor that even bullets could not prate.


    Before this, the expeditionary army had never been seen wearing such heavy armor. Therefore, no one knew the barbarians actually had that kind of defensive armor.


    From the look of it, this was specially prepared for the barbarian elite to break through the defensive line of the Central ins people. When a powerful individual possessed an unparalleled defensive capability, they would be extremely terrifying to deal with.


    Just like Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor, normal firearms were absolutely no match for it.


    The heavy shield flew towards the defensive position and headed straight for the machine gunner!


    Just as the shield was about to crush the machine gunner to pieces, a figure in a white mask suddenly appeared from the side and caught the shield with both hands.


    In that same instant, White Mask¡¯s arms suddenly exerted strength and threw the shield back.


    The barbarian did not seem to have expected someone to be able to catch the flying shield, so when it was sent flying back, it was toote for him to dodge, because the inertia of his charge was too great.


    A secondter, he sneered beneath his heavy facete. The Central ins people were doing what he just did.


    Thinking of this, he reached hands out to catch the flying shield and prepared to continue his attack.


    But the moment his palm came into contact with the shield, the barbarian was stunned, because the momentum of the shield was much greater than the force of his initial throw!


    The startled soldiers at the defensive position saw the barbarian who had let down his guard get knocked back by the flying shield.


    P5092 had already arrived at this position. The soldiers here hesitated and said, ¡°Sir, we didn¡¯t expect that barbarian to be so speedy. He was even wearing heavy armor, so we were nearly caught out...¡±


    The soldiers felt very ashamed. If they allowed the barbarians to break through on the very first day, how were they supposed to fight the rest of the battle?


    However, P5092 consoled them with a smile and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just the probing phase right now. The barbarians and I are both trying to see what tricks each of us have up our sleeves. It¡¯s a good thing to have found out they still have something like heavy armor on the first day of battle. The situation is ever-changing on the battlefield, so no one can guarantee they won¡¯t make any mistakes. Just be more careful next time.¡±


    After that, P5092 looked rather happily at Ren Xiaosu, who had rushed over. ¡°Why did you know to arrange for White Mask to be here in advance? Did you know they would try to break through this side first?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°I guessed.¡±


    P5092 nodded nonchntly. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s urate judgment of the barbarians could almost be categorized as magic.


    He said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You heard what I said to Ji Zi¡¯ang just now, but I¡¯d like to repeat it to you as well. Everyone else can die, but not you. You must survive until the end, not because you¡¯re the futuremander, but because the defensive position can only continue to hold with you around. If you¡¯re gone, the defensive position can crumble at any moment.. Earlier, I said the seven mountains are our fault tolerance measures, but you have to understand that you¡¯re more important than those seven mountains.¡±

 Chapter 937 - Vulgarities and legacies

    <h4>Chapter 937: Vulgarities and legacies</h4>


    Facing the heavily armored barbarian warrior, White Mask charged out from the defensive position and killed him in front of the defensive position. Then it stripped him of his heavy armor and brought it back to camp.


    This was because P5092 had said he wanted to study the structure and load-bearing properties of the heavy armor, and Ren Xiaosu easily helped him with that.


    After the ambush by the expeditionary army¡¯s heavily armored warrior, the entire defensive line became even more cautious.


    In fact, the mutual probing conducted during the initial phase of the battle was just both sides constantly making mistakes and correcting them. It was not only the 6th Combat Brigade that wanted to find out what other trump cards the expeditionary army had. The expeditionary army was doing the same.


    After the heavily armored warrior was killed by White Mask, no other simr heavily armored barbarian warriors appeared again in battle that day.


    Everyone understood the expeditionary army did not only have one heavily armored warrior. It was just that the opponent felt it was not yet time to send out arge number of them into battle.


    When these trump cards appeared again on the battlefield, it would probably be the time for both sides to fight to their deaths.


    White Mask returned to the camp with the heavy armor. Even Ren Xiaosu found it too heavy to carry. ¡°Moving so quickly while wearing this thing, it looks like the elites among the barbarians are also quite fearsome. If there¡¯s hundreds or thousands of such warriors, won¡¯t it be very dangerous for our position?¡±


    P5092 examined the heavy armor and said, ¡°Even if they have a unit of heavily armored warriors, they¡¯ll still need to sacrifice many lives to trade for this position. I¡¯ve had a look at the ammunition brought by the 6th Combat Brigade. Something surprised me quite a bit. Don¡¯t worry. When these heavily armored warriors appear again, I have a surprise in store for them.¡±


    If the defensive position could be so easily breached, P5092 would not have chosen to continue defending it after learning about the Pyro Company¡¯s defeat. He had said before that if the expeditionary army wanted to take down this position, they would have to trade with their lives for it, and he meant what he said.


    The battle went on for four hours before the first group of defenders were rotated out. Since this was going to be a protracted battle, P5092 would have to consider the physical fitness and energy levels of the troops.


    In a high-intensity battle that went on for a long time, if the soldiers got tired, their reaction speed and shot uracy would decrease while their vision would gradually blur.


    Therefore, P5092 had already drafted a new defensive n to ensure that the soldiers at the defensive position were always energetic.


    The first thing the troops who rotated away from the defensive position did was replenish their fluids.


    They had been shouting and fighting at the front line without having much of a chance to get a drink of water. Some of them even shouted until their voices turned hoarse. Amid the intense gunfire, they had to shout as loudly as they could so theirrades could hear what they were saying.


    In current battles, soldiers did not wear anymunications equipment as there was nowhere to recharge them. The battle couldst more than ten days or even up to a month, somunications equipment was no longer versatile for their operations.


    Therefore, they could only return to the most primitive way¡ªroaring.


    Although some of the veterans in the relieved troops were exhausted, they still patted the recruits on their shoulders encouragingly. One of the veterans said with a hoarseugh, ¡°You¡¯ve taken some lives on the battlefield now. From today onwards, you¡¯re also veterans.¡±


    Some of the recruits were still in a panicky state. The first time killing someone would always bring about a psychological impact on humans. This impact was definitely not something that could be eased by shouting some slogans.


    But before they could fully lose themselves to their fear and panic, the veterans dragged them to the chow hall to eat and drink.


    Then the veterans led them back to their barracks and conducted firearms checks. They did some basic physical training to prevent their muscles from tensing up before sleeping.


    After going through a flurry of activities, the initial fear the recruits had was starting to subside.


    This was the difference between veterans and recruits in the military. It was also the importance of having veterans lead recruits. The veterans would teach the raw recruits through their actions on what to do and how to dispel their fears.


    When it was time to sleep, one of the recruits was lying in his sleeping bag with his eyes closed. But all he could hear was the sound of gunshotsing from the defensive position. As such, he realized it was impossible to quickly replenish his sleep and energy. How could he possibly sleep in a ce like this?


    When one of the veterans nearby realized the recruit was wriggling around in his sleeping bag, he gave him a kick and joked, ¡°Yang Qingzhou, why aren¡¯t you asleep yet?¡±


    Yang Qingzhou said meekly, ¡°toon Commander, I can¡¯t fall asleep. The gunfire is too loud....¡±


    The toonmander thought for a moment and then plucked some cotton out from a hole in his military uniform¡¯s cotton-padded jacket before handing it to him. ¡°Here, stuff your ears with it. Although it can¡¯tpletely block out the noise, it¡¯ll help a lot. The other recruits who can¡¯t sleep, stuff your ears with cotton like he did.¡±


    A recruit asked, ¡°Then what if we can¡¯t hear themand for us to muster?¡±


    ¡°Hehe, I¡¯ll kick y¡¯all awake one by one. Now hurry up and go to sleep!¡± After that, the toonmander crawled into his sleeping bag and started snoring within two minutes.


    When the recruits who had just returned from the battlefield heard the snoring, they felt much more at ease. All of them stuffed their ears and quickly fell asleep from the exhaustion.


    Only at this moment did the veteran toonmander crawl out of his sleeping bag to check on the soldiers one by one. After confirming they were all asleep, he sat down at the entrance of the tent with a sigh.


    The toonmander lit a cigarette for himself. A few other veterans also came out from the tents beside his. They looked at each other and realized they were all facing the same plight.


    The veteran toonmander smiled and said, ¡°When I saw them, I suddenly remembered when I was still a new recruit. At that time, Fortress Commander Zhang had just returned and was carrying out an internal purge. Our troops were stationed at the Zong Consortium¡¯s border to prevent their troops froming over to cause trouble. In the end, a skirmish broke out on the same day we arrived at the border and many people died. I was very panicky then, but my toonmander kicked me in the butt and I nearly facented. Only then did I stop feeling anxious...¡±


    Calcting the time, it had not been long since this soldier became a veteran.


    But legacies in the military were actually passed down through the generations of people like these veteran toonmanders. The high-ranking officers were in charge of strategy, while they were responsible for showing the recruits what war was about.


    Next to him, a veteran puffed out a mouthful of gray smoke. ¡°I¡¯ve already been constipated for the past two days. I couldn¡¯t even take a dump after squatting there for a long time yesterday. A soldier in my toon asked me why I took such a long trip to thetrine. Haha, I didn¡¯t even know how to answer him. I just told him that he¡¯d understand soon, and then he told me today that he also became constipated.¡±


    This was actually a very crude topic, and their conversation was also very crude. But only those who had been in battle before would understand that in a high tension environment, it was very normal to either suffer from incontinence or constipation.


    War was not about machines taking up arms to kill enemies and achieve victory. Instead, it involved people with flesh and blood, building a new wall for others with their own bodies.


    It would soon start smelling at the defensive position as well. There was not enough spring water here for everyone to scrub down. Sometimes, the water supply could even get a little low.


    Moreover, they couldn¡¯t go outside the defensive position to take a dump before running back in. If they really did that, they might not be able to make it back. Even if they managed to get back, they would probably have an axe stuck in their back or the like.


    So they could only dig atrine and bury their waste in there.


    As such, this ce was not as clean and tidy as one might imagine. The soldiers were not as morous as the heroes of legend. Instead, as time passed, they would only be more and more unkempt.


    However, this did not stop them from understanding their purpose here.

 Chapter 938 - Tunnel battle

    Chapter 938: Tunnel battle


    Currently, the hygiene conditions at the defensive position were a big problem. It was not that the people here disliked keeping clean, but that there was simply not enough water.


    Actually, P5092 had considered the issue of the water source when he chose this ce to be their defensive position. The spring water that flowed out of the mountains was definitely enough for more than 6,000 people to drink.


    As for having enough to take a shower with, that was really not the main consideration in war.


    If it were a long-term war, P5092 would definitely make everyone wash their hands diligently and pay attention to hygiene. However, this battle was destined to end within a month. Whether the expeditionary army won or their 6th Combat Brigade emerged victorious, they would not be staying here for long.


    It was the afternoon of the first day since the actual battle began. Two shifts of soldiers had already been reced at the defensive position, and the expeditionary army¡¯s troops outside were also constantly being rotated. As long as the troops showed signs of fatigue, new troops would take over.


    P5092 looked at Wang Yun and asked, ¡°How many of their wounded and dead have they reced with their fresh troops?¡±


    Wang Yun said, ¡°Four batches of troops have been deployed during this period. Some of themsted on the battlefield for two hours, while others retreated after suffering 23% casualties. Their criteria for troop rotation can¡¯t be confirmed.¡±


    ¡°How¡¯s the situation with their casualties?¡± P5092 continued asking.


    During the battle, P5092 requested Wang Yun to keep track of everything that happened on the battlefield from the best vantage point so they could review it.


    It was not enough to just fight a battle recklessly. They would need extremely precise data to support every decision.


    Wang Yun recalled the scene in his mind and summarized, ¡°The expeditionary army suffered a total of 2,169 deaths over the past eight hours. 1,891 of them died immediately while the rest died after going into shock from bleeding out on the battlefield. These barbarians should have some criteria they follow. If they¡¯re sure theirrades won¡¯t survive even after they save them, they¡¯ll just leave them. They¡¯re very decisive that way. I think there were a few of them who could have been saved, but theirrades did not help them. That could be because the expeditionary army¡¯s standard of treatment is not that good.¡±


    ¡°What about the wounded?¡± P5092 asked.


    ¡°1,769 troops were lightly injured and carried away. I estimate that the injuries suffered by these people will quickly heal. There are also 312 who were seriously injured. I¡¯ve confirmed they broke bones after getting shot by MGs, so they shouldn¡¯t be able to join the battlefield for the time being,¡± Wang Yun said.


    At this moment, Wang Yun started bleeding from his nose.


    P5092 was stunned. ¡°Rest up and don¡¯t overtax yourself. We still have a lot of battles to fight. From now on, you just have to remember how many of the enemies are dead and wounded. You don¡¯t have to remember the injuries they suffered.¡±


    From the look of it, it was quite tough for Wang Yun to analyze such a huge amount of data from the entire battlefield. After all, he was keeping track of the data in real time, and that was constantly changing by the second.


    This was an extremely heavy burden on Wang Yun¡¯s brain, so much so that his body could not bear it any longer and resulted in him getting a nosebleed.


    P5092 said, ¡°However, it¡¯s not that I¡¯m trying to abuse you, but I still hope you can try to remember the faces of each of their wounded. Can you do that?¡±


    Wang Yun simply wiped the blood from his nose and said firmly, ¡°Yes!¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± P5092 nodded and said, ¡°Once their wounded return to the battlefield, you must inform me as soon as possible. In principle, the expeditionary army has more than enough soldiers. With 70,000 soldiers against our 6,000, there shouldn¡¯t be a need to send their wounded back into battle no matter how we think about it. If you see them puttingrge numbers of their wounded back onto the battlefield, it must be that their strategic deployment has changed, or something could¡¯ve happened within the expeditionary army.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll pay attention to that.¡±


    P5092 sighed in his head. At the very least, no one at this defensive position was unnecessary. Everyone was working hard for the final victory.


    Then P5092 turned to look at the others. ¡°This is only the initial stage of our defense. Personally, I don¡¯t think we should keep staying here and just wait to be attacked. We have to seek change!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard that, he realized P5092 was looking for a new strategy because he felt a sense of danger.


    P5092 exined to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Back then, we didn¡¯t know the Pyro Company would be defeated so quickly, so I thought our 6,000 soldiers would be enough to hold off the expeditionary army here. But the problem now is that we were initially nning to trade ten of their lives for each soldier we have. Right now, we don¡¯t even have enough lives to trade for all of theirs anymore, so we have to think of other ways.¡±


    ¡°Share what ns you have. We¡¯ll cooperate fully,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    P5092 nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid it¡¯ll be very difficult to change the overall situation of the battlefield by relying on our own strength now. So we have to think of a way to reduce the pressure on the Wang Consortium¡¯s side. That way, the sooner they win the battle on their front, the sooner we can disengage. Ji Zi¡¯ang, can you open up a tunnel on your side that leads beyond Mt. Zuoyun? I¡¯m talking about the kind that¡¯ll allow two or three people to pass through abreast.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang looked at Wang Yun. ¡°How far out is this ce from the mountains?¡±


    Wang Yun said, ¡°Six klicks.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang thought for a moment and shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that¡¯s beyond me. It¡¯s easy for me to open up a tunnel with my power, but it¡¯s too long a distance at six kilometers. Moreover, there¡¯s hard rocks everywhere in the wilderness. The mental strength I need to alter the hard surface is several times higher than normal, but I probably don¡¯t have enough capacity to do that. It¡¯s not a problem to open up this tunnel, but I¡¯d probably have to work for 15 days while recovering my mental strength at the same time.¡±


    P5092 frowned. But Mo Fei suddenly said, ¡°If I can guide you around the areas with hard rocks and calcte the most effective route, I think six days will be enough.¡±


    Everyone was stunned. Ren Xiaosu already knew that Mo Fei was actually Zero. It seemed that it was not difficult for an artificial intelligence like Zero to analyze the makeup of the mountains.


    However, almost every time Zero spoke and offered to help, it was at the most critical moments.


    Before this, Ren Xiaosu had always felt that Zero was a little unreliable, because its judgment was not entirely urate when it came to matters in which itcked data.


    But from the look of it, it was quite reliable to let it analyze matters where it had known data.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at P5092. ¡°What do you want to achieve by creating this tunnel?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m thinking of sending troops to attack the expeditionary army¡¯s supply convoy outside.¡± P5092 exined, ¡°Now that the expeditionary army has surrounded Mt. Zuoyun, they must think their supply line is safe. But if we attack their strategic supplies at this time, it¡¯ll definitely give them a huge shock. And such arge number of troops will definitely require a lot of supplies. As long as we can destroy it once or twice, it¡¯ll be enough for the Wang Consortium to find an opportunity to win the battle!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and then said to Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°If it¡¯s a tunnel that only fits one person, how long would it take?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was stunned. ¡°Two days would be enough then!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at P5092. ¡°I can go alone. There¡¯s no need to dig such a wide tunnel.¡±

 Chapter 939 - The last mountain is for ourselves

    <h4>Chapter 939: Thest mountain is for ourselves</h4>


    ¡°No.¡± P5092 refuted, ¡°As the futuremander, why¡¯re you risking your life by going behind enemy lines alone at a time like this?¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯m the most suitable person to handle this matter, aren¡¯t I?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Wang Yun, how long can the provisions at our defensive positionst?¡±


    Wang Yun said, ¡°If we don¡¯t ration them, we still have enough tost us another ten days. I had thought the Wang Consortium would continue transporting supplies over, so I didn¡¯t n for any rationing. But who could¡¯ve expected the expeditionary army to act so quickly? The Wang Consortium can¡¯t transport their supplies over anymore. If we reduce the quantity of food to be distributed, we should still be able tost for another 15 days. After all, fighting a battle expends physical strength, so we can¡¯t reduce it by too much.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked P5092, ¡°How long do you think this defensive battle will go on for?¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Around 20 days or so.¡±


    ¡°So if you get the others to go, even if they really manage to harass the expeditionary army¡¯s supply convoys, they won¡¯t be able to bring back the supplies. But if I go, it¡¯ll be killing two birds with one stone. Not only can I harass them, but I can also solve the problem of the supply shortage at our defensive position.¡±


    ¡°But the defensive position needs you more.¡± P5092 said, ¡°If you aren¡¯t around and those heavily armored warriors suddenly appear, how¡¯s the defensive position going to deal with them? It¡¯s not time for our troops to resort to using the firebombs yet. We have to wait for the expeditionary army to get more aggressive before we start using them.¡±


    P5092 had previously said that if the expeditionary army used their trump card and sent out the heavily armored warriors into battle all at once, he would give them a surprise.


    And this surprise was the incendiary bombs brought by the 6th Combat Brigade. No matter how amazing the defensive strength of the heavy armor was, they were not fireproof.


    In P5092¡¯s n, although there would definitely be sporadic elite barbarians breaking through the defensive position in the early stages, he wanted this trump card to be kept for the most critical of moments. If they could inflict heavy losses to the enemy¡¯s heavily armored troops in one fell swoop, that would be a great victory for them!


    But before that, Ren Xiaosu would have to be the one to deal with those elites who suddenly appeared on the battlefield.


    If a high-levelbatant like Ren Xiaosu was not at the defensive position, they would probably be forced to use the incendiary bombs prematurely.


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly stepped forward. ¡°I can take care of a few sporadic expeditionary army elites during the early stages. As long as they don¡¯t number more than a 100, I¡¯m confident they won¡¯t be able to breach the defensive position. I just need Ji Zi¡¯ang to build a sniper¡¯s nest for me in the mountain behind the defensive position.¡±


    The rear of the defensive position was backed by a perilous peak. If they could create a sniper¡¯s nest in the interior of that mountain, there would be no need to worry about Yang Xiaojin¡¯s safety.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said in a rxed manner, ¡°I¡¯ve taken a look at the heavy armor they¡¯re wearing. Standard armor-piercing bullets will be enough to deal with them. One shot and they¡¯re dead for sure. And if they didn¡¯t get bogged down by the heavy armor, it might really be difficult for me to hit them judging by how fast they can move. There would be a chance I would miss if that were the case, but I¡¯m a 100% sure now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu understood what Yang Xiaojin meant. For normal firearms, heavy armor was indeed very effective against them. But if it was the ck sniper rifle paired with armor-piercing bullets, it would be truly dumb of the barbarians to carry such a burdensome load.


    P5092 hesitated for a moment. ¡°Thisdy¡¯s marksmanship...¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Oh, she¡¯s the one who taught me how to shoot, so you don¡¯t have to worry about that.¡±


    ¡°But the 6th Combat Brigade did not bring much sniper ammunition with them either.¡± P5092 said, ¡°The 6th Combat Brigade does not have any particrly outstanding snipers, so the quantity they brought¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, he saw Yang Xiaojin¡¯s ck sniper rifle get conjured. Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for bullets.¡±


    ¡°How about this?¡± P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Ji Zi¡¯ang will need two days to create the tunnel. In the meantime, we can assess if Ms. Xiaojin is up to the task tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°No problem,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    At this moment, everyone was performing their duties and doing everything they could to win this battle.


    Thinking of this, everyone felt inexplicably excited as though they were unaware this might be their burial ce.


    Wang Yunughed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I was used to being held back by my colleagues back at the Kong Consortium. I even had to be wary of others plotting against me while carrying out my missions, so I¡¯m still a little unused to being part of such a united organization all of a sudden.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang nodded. ¡°I feel the same way as Wang Yun.¡±


    Off to the side, Wang Run watched all of this quietly. He did not say anything because he did not feel a sense of belonging to the Northwest Army. At Mt. Zuoyun, he was still considered an outsider who could not truly be trusted.


    However, he could also understand Wang Yun¡¯s feelings as an intelligence agent himself. Wang Yun was an intelligence agent of the Kong Consortium, Ji Zi¡¯ang was an intelligence agent of the Zhou Consortium, and he was an intelligence agent of the Wang Consortium.


    Just as Wang Yun had said, they had to watch their backs at all times.


    Everyone started moving. When the expeditionary army made a short retreat that night, Ji Zi¡¯ang and Zero immediately created a tunnel from the defensive position that meandered out of the mountains.


    Moreover, when Ji Zi¡¯ang used his power to create the tunnel, he would not even make a sound that would alert the expeditionary army on the surface. This was what it truly meant to be an underground operation.


    Ren Xiaosu sized up the dark tunnel and said, ¡°Speaking of which, this tunnel should only be usable once or twice, right? The expeditionary army will discover this ce once I head out once or twice.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s good enough to just harass them once.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Your mission is to unsettle the expeditionary army and make them think there¡¯s other troops out there in the wilderness. That way, they¡¯ll be restrained in whatever they do.¡±


    ¡°By the way, you mentioned previously that it was necessary to keep the seven mountains that could be toppled by Ji Zi¡¯ang as our trump cards. When do you n on using them?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Six of them will be used to destroy the expeditionary army¡¯s most difficult to deal with main forces.¡± P5092 exined. He then pointed out the six mountains for Ren Xiaosu. The mountains towered like sharp swords within Mt. Zuoyun as though they were safeguarding the defensive position.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly wondered, ¡°But that¡¯s only six of them? What about the other one?¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°Thest one will only be used if we¡¯re left with no choice. I hope there¡¯ll never be a need for it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He suddenly looked at the mountain behind him. The defensive position was built into this particr mountain.


    P5092 nodded and said, ¡°This is the one. If the dayes when we can¡¯t hold on any longer, I¡¯ll order Ji Zi¡¯ang to topple this mountain as well. Then we¡¯ll all be buried here together with the expeditionary army.¡±


    When P5092 spoke, his tone was very calm. There was no inspirational air when he said they would perish together with the enemy as one would imagine. But these words made Ren Xiaosu understand he was ready to die.


    It was no wonder P5092 said to Ji Zi¡¯ang that anyone could die but him. So it turned out that Ji Zi¡¯ang was the gloriousst bullet the 6th Combat Brigade would fire.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t let y¡¯all die.¡±

 Chapter 940 - Aroma-tactic

    <h4>Chapter 940: Aroma-tactic</h4>


    During the entire day of defensive battle, it felt like everyone only needed to lie low in the defensive position and shoot at the enemy. However, it was actually more tiring than it looked.


    As some of the soldiers had fired too many shots, their ears were ringing from the gunfire.


    Basically, every soldier that had just stepped down from their defensive position duties ended up having to shout at theirrades to get the message across when they headed to the temporary field mess to eat.


    It was somewhat funny yet also a little sad.


    In the afternoon, when the chow squad had just served some food to a soldier, the soldier shouted, ¡°Give me another scoop of rice!¡±


    That soldier of the chow squad muttered, ¡°If you want additional servings, speak nicely. What are you shouting for?!¡±


    However, the soldiers of the chow squad quickly realized something. The soldiers they were serving had been on the battlefield for too long and could not clearly hear what was being said to them.


    Some of the soldiers even suffered from shoulder pain. When they took off their outer jackets, there were bruises all over their shoulders. The bruises were caused by the recoil of their firearms.


    It was not like the recoil was that strong, but they had been fighting for too long and had pulled the trigger too many times.


    These grown men were not afraid of the cold at all as theyughed andpared whose bruises were more serious. If the bruises on anyone¡¯s shoulder were not obvious enough, everyone wouldugh at them for not being serious in the battle and decide they did not kill enough barbarians.


    After a day of fighting, everyone¡¯s lips became dry. Some of their lips were even chapped, making each of them look more pathetic than the other.


    But even so, they could stillugh at their plight.


    No one knew what they wereparing the bruises on their shoulders for. In any case, it was all about being happy.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had said a long time ago, did humans not deserve to be happy after the era of the wastnds arrived? Did everyone in this era have to struggle to survive with a bitter face?


    That should not be the case.


    In town, no matter how poor an adult was, they would still happily buy pork to make dumplings for their children during the New Year.


    Some fathers would even buy sweets from Wang Fugui¡¯s shop and hide them in their children¡¯s pockets to surprise them.


    Their lives were very tough, but wasn¡¯t it precisely because humans were a species that was extremely good at finding joy in suffering that they could survive that disaster?


    A materialistic lifestyle was never the foundation that determined whether humans were happy.


    At this moment, a group of like-mindedpanions who fought hard to fend off foreign enemies and suffered together was what made them feel at ease.


    In a row oftrines, the soldiers of abat toon were all squatting inside and taking a dump with great difficulty. When someone finally came out, they gave a roar of happiness which invited jeering from theirrades in thetrines next door.


    Sometimes, a man¡¯s happiness could be as simple as this. A recruit maturing into a veteran through constipation, a boy bing a man through the mes of war, these were the most realistic portrayals of what was happening at this moment.


    However, the expeditionary army¡¯s attack this time came even faster and more ferocious than expected.


    After a two-hour truce, the expeditionary army¡¯s troops appeared outside the defensive position again.


    The soldiers in thetrines were all cursing as they pulled up their pants. ¡°These barbarians are really something. They didn¡¯t even let us finish shitting before returning to fight again. What are they in such a hurry for? To eat shit?¡±


    There was no sense of ¡°refinement¡± in this ce. Everyone had returned to their most primitive and crude selves, yet they still found each other¡¯spany extremely enjoyable.


    Ren Xiaosu watched from afar as these veterans hurried out of thetrines. He suddenly thought of something and turned around to ask Wang Yun, ¡°Um... can you draw away the air from thetrines? The defensive position isn¡¯t exactly big, but it¡¯s not small either. The toilets are way too smelly.¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s expression changed. ¡°Future Commander, you¡¯re actually asking me to do a job like that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°C¡¯mon, you¡¯re stationed here as well. Don¡¯t you find the smell horrible?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s really bad,¡± Wang Yun said upon thinking for a moment.


    After all, there were more than 6,000 people at the defensive position. Could anyone possibly hold their shit in until they returned to the Northwest?


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t feel insulted. After Ji Zi¡¯ang is done with the tunnel works, I¡¯ll get him to use his power to make a cesspit and bury all this shit before digging a new one, so there¡¯s no need to despise each other.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Wang Yun said with a bitter expression, ¡°But the smell is constantly wafting out. How much mental strength would I need to use to get rid of it?¡±


    Nearby, Zero suddenly said, ¡°You control the air to create an air pressure vortex above thetrines and form a wind tunnel. Once the air pressure vortex is formed, you¡¯ll only need to maintain the updraft every now and then like a tornado. Do you know about wasps? Actually, a long time ago, many scientists believed the surface area of a wasp¡¯s wings was not enough to support its flight. However, it still manages to fly very fast. In fact, a wasp¡¯s wings don¡¯t p up and down but back and forth at high speeds. That creates a low-pressure vortex around it at a frequency of several hundred beats per second...¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. ¡°Don¡¯t talk about wasps. Say it more clearly. I know the principle behind it, but I don¡¯t really understand how it works.¡±


    In the end, Zero led Wang Yun straight to themand post to look for pen and paper. Zero forcefully drew a model for Wang Yun and even provided him with some parameters.


    After Wang Yun came back, he stood next to thetrines and hesitated for a long time. To be honest, he did not expect that his superpower would one day be used in this manner.


    He was a supernatural being, so how did his power suddenly be the new venttion system for toilets?!


    However, Wang Yun was amused as he thought about it. When he started to ept the fact, he actually found it quite interesting.


    The air above thetrines started surging. Arge volume of air moved upwards quickly and formed a huge low-pressure vortex.


    Wang Yun asked, ¡°Future Commander, where do you want it to blow towards?¡±


    ¡°Towards the expeditionary army¡¯s battlefield, of course,¡± Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly. ¡°That¡¯ll teach those barbarians!¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡± Wang Yun agreed.


    As they spoke, a huge tornado carrying a pungent stench drifted towards the expeditionary army from the defensive position. When the wind reached the expeditionary army¡¯s troops, several barbarians vomited on the spot!


    The barbarians were nearly physically imprable, and they even had heavily armored warriors who were not afraid of firearms. But no matter how good their physical defense was, they could not withstand this smell. The expeditionary army¡¯smander was almost nauseated by the smell. He wondered if this was the Central ins¡¯ biological weapon he heard about in legends.


    Didn¡¯t ck Robe say that biological weapons were banned in the Central ins? Why was there still something like that then?


    In this confusion, the expeditionary army started retreating. This sight stunned Ren Xiaosu.


    The expeditionary army¡¯s sudden attack on the first night was actually resolved by Wang Yun¡¯s power alone?


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and praised Wang Yun, ¡°Tonight, you¡¯re the hero of our 6th Combat Brigade. With just that smelly attack, you were able to turn the tide of an overwhelming situation.¡±


    Wang Yun said with a dark expression, ¡°Future Commander, don¡¯t say anything yet. It¡¯s grossing me out....¡±

 Chapter 941 - Drinking adulterated alcohol

    <h4>Chapter 941: Drinking adulterated alcohol</h4>


    Thanks to Wang Yun, the soldiers at the defensive position were given a precious opportunity to catch a breather.


    The expeditionary army had only taken two hours to reorganize before theyunched this attack wave. Their assessment was that the defensive position had too few people, so they wanted to use a rotational battle strategy topletely wear down the defenders.


    No matter how well-nned P5092¡¯s tactics were, all of the soldiers would be exhausted by these relentless attack waves within a week.


    At this moment, many of the soldiers at the defensive position were unsure of what had happened. After all, the tornado had bypassed them from above and went in for the attack over on the expeditionary army¡¯s side. Everyone only saw some of the barbarians suddenly vomiting before suddenly withdrawing their troops.


    The soldiers at the defensive position were still a little puzzled. What were those barbarians up to? Why did they suddenly start vomiting?


    ¡°Maybe they had some spiked drinks?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s so unprofessional! Don¡¯t they ban alcohol before a battle?¡±


    Amotion broke out among the soldiers, but no one knew what was going on.


    It was not that theycked imagination, but that their futuremander and Staff Officer Wang¡¯s tactics were way too strange. Not to mention the expeditionary army, even they themselves could not have imagined it.


    After several days of fermentation, the waste produced by over 6,000 people garrisoned here was not something that normal people could bear. It was simply too revolting!


    P5092 came over and asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Future Commander, what happened just now?¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu exined what had happened, P5092¡¯s expression immediately became weird. In his meticulous battle n, he had never expected the expeditionary army to retreat over such a matter.


    Now that he recalled the sight of those barbarians vomiting, everything seemed to make sense.


    P5092 did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Future Commander, please let me know in advance if you¡¯re going to do something like that again. The expeditionary army retreated in a hurry this time, but I thought they were deliberately trying to mislead us. Otherwise, I would definitely have made sure to kill more of them.¡±


    ¡°Ahem, Wang Yun and I didn¡¯t expect it to have such an effect either. We were just nning to annoy them, but we really didn¡¯t expect them to directly withdraw their troops.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Aren¡¯t those barbarians weak as hell?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that they¡¯re weak.¡± P5092 analyzed, ¡°Future Commander, think about it. If such a strong gust of repugnant wind suddenly blows towards them on the battlefield while our soldiers at the defensive position are fine, the other party will probably think that it was our Central ins¡¯ biological weapon affecting them. Actually, it wouldn¡¯t be too much to say that it is a biological weapon. This gust of wind will definitely sweep some of them over... uh, stain their bodies. Those barbarians who initially suffered slight injuries will definitely fall sick when the bacteria and viruses infect their wounds.¡±


    In ancient times, there was an extremely dirty tactic known as ¡°golden water.¡± The soldiers guarding the city would dump boiling golden water down the walls, and the enemy troops who were stained would basically be in so much pain that they wished they were dead.


    Although what Wang Yun did was not as ruthless as that, it still had some impact.


    Then P5092 realized Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze had shifted over in the direction of thetrines. It seemed like he was getting some ideas again.


    At this moment, the expeditionary army that had retreated realized their soldiers had only vomited and that it was nothing serious. Therefore, they thought they might have just fallen for a trap, and that this repugnant wind was not actually a biological weapon.


    But while they were fine, the smell on their bodies could not be gotten rid of. The entire military camp was filled with a foul smell.


    Everyone gradually came to a realization. Where did this smell that was stuck on theme from?


    A divisionmander of the expeditionary army looked towards the defensive position of the 6th Combat Brigade from afar and thought to himself that he had never fought such a disgusting battle in all his years in the military.


    That night, it finally quieted down on Mt. Zuoyun. P5092 requested that everyone, other than the soldiers on rotational duty, must seize this precious opportunity to rest and reorganize.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang and Zero also emerged from the tunnel. Based on their update, the digging of the tunnel was already halfway done and everything was going even smoother than expected. However, Ji Zi¡¯ang was mentally exhausted. The shlight he brought into the tunnel with him had run out of power, so he came back temporarily to get some rest.


    Ren Xiaosu jumped in to have a look. The tunnel was about a meter wide and 1.9 meters in height. This was easily enough for him to run at a quick pace inside it.


    Then P5092 watched Ren Xiaosu pull Ji Zi¡¯ang aside and mutter something to him. No one knew what they were discussing.


    At dawn, the expeditionary army made yet anothereback. The soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade had already caught up on their rest and were waiting for the enemy toe knocking on their door.


    However, the barbarians today were exceptionally brave. They were like raging bulls determined to charge into the defensive position despite the gunfire.


    Initially, P5092 thought it would be several days before he would see the heavily armored warriors again. However, the unexpected incident yesterday seemed to have angered the expeditionary army. As a result, the enemy¡¯s heavily armored warriors appeared more frequently today and nearly broke through the firing blockade at the defensive position several times!


    However, P5092 kept looking at Ren Xiaosu to stop him from taking any action. He said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Today, we¡¯ll see if Ms. Xiaojin can hold the line, so you¡¯re not to make any moves. If she proves she can¡¯t handle these heavily armored warriors among the crowd of barbarians by herself, you won¡¯t be allowed to carry out the mission of attacking the expeditionary army¡¯s supplies from the tunnel.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before agreeing. ¡°Alright, but the expeditionary army will definitely not use their trump cards now, so Yang Xiaojin alone will definitely be enough to handle the situation.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see.¡± P5092 said, ¡°I¡¯m worried the sniper bullets might not be able to prate the enemy¡¯s heavy armor.¡±


    Moreover, P5092 had always felt skeptical of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ims that Yang Xiaojin was the one who taught him how to shoot.


    To be honest, it was very rare for a girl to be an expert sniper. To be able to be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s teacher as well, that definitely sounded a little bit like an exaggeration.


    Therefore, P5092 felt that Ren Xiaosu might have just said that to ease his concerns.


    However, after observing the battlefield with his binocrs for a while, he realized that something was off.


    P5092 thought for a moment and went to look for Wang Yun. He asked in a whisper, ¡°Did you manage to observe those heavily armored warriors?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Wang Yun said.


    ¡°I saw that several of the heavily armored warriors were injured in their eyes without exception. Whether that was a coincidence or just the ones that I observed...¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°It¡¯s not a coincidence.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°Ma¡¯am has a shooting range of 800 to 900 meters. All of the heavily armored warriors that suddenly appeared were discovered within two seconds and killed by a single shot. They were all targeted at the eyeslit of their face armor. Honestly, with her marksmanship, it doesn¡¯t really matter whether she uses armor-piercing bullets or not. Moreover, she never fires at any targets other than the heavily armored warriors. That¡¯s how calm she is.¡±


    P5092 quietly looked up at Yang Xiaojin who was firing from the sniper¡¯s nest in the mountain. He thought to himself, ¡®<i>As expected, they¡¯re truly a couple. Both of them are so fearsome.</i>¡®


    Back at Mt. Dashi, he had realized one of the two snipers was stronger than the other. He initially thought that Ren Xiaosu was the stronger one, but he did not expect the answer to be the opposite.

 Chapter 942 - Solo mission

    <strong>Chapter 942: Solo mission</strong>


    P5092 kept waiting patiently for the moment when the expeditionary army¡¯s intentions would be revealed. Before that, no matter how dangerous the situation at the defensive position got, he would still keep his trump card hidden.


    As long as this trump card was not revealed, it would always remain a deterrent.


    It was just like a battle between two experts. Before you swung your sword, your opponent would never know where you were aiming for. As such, they would have to be extremely cautious and always hold back a little.


    As such, no matter how ferocious the expeditionary army might look now, they were actually not using their full strength.


    The expeditionary army was afraid the mountains would copse again like the previous time after they deployed their main forces. The barbarians could not figure out how the Central ins people did it on that day, so they could only continue probing with a fear of the unknown.


    To P5092, as long as he could use 6,000 people to hold the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces here, it would be a sess..


    If 6,000 people were able to achieve this, it would be enough to make P5092¡¯s name known throughout the Alliance of Strongholds.


    P5092 had never thought they would emerge victorious on Mt. Zuoyun. Although he did not say it aloud, he was actually quite pessimistic about their chances.


    Seeing that two days had almost passed, the casualties they inflicted on the expeditionary army were not even 10% of the enemy¡¯s forces yet.


    On the surface, it looked like it would be very difficult for the barbarians to even breach the defensive position. But in fact, it could be seen from the difference in strength that there would still be a tough battle ahead.


    As time passed, the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s ammunition supply would only get more and more scarce. What should they do when the ammunition supply ran out? Even P5092 had not thought about this problem yet.


    Based on Wang Yun¡¯s calctions, their ammunition would probably notst long in a battle of this intensity.


    On the second day of the engagement, the chaotic battlested from morning until noon. Wang Yun was a little tired as he rubbed his eyebrows. Even with his brains, it was still a little tough to handle such a long period of activity tracking, observation, and summary of events.


    When P5092 saw this, he arranged for him to get some rest. ¡°The expeditionary army isn¡¯t attacking so aggressively now, but I expect another fierce attack to happen in the evening. Go and eat some food and then get some rest first.¡±


    Wang Yun nodded. ¡°Alright, call for me anytime if you need anything.¡±


    With that, Wang Yun walked towards the interior of the defensive position. At this moment, it was lunchtime at the chow tents, and the cooks were waiting for the garrison troops who were rotated out to arrive.


    Meanwhile, the medics had nothing to do at all. That was because it was very difficult for the barbarians to rush up to the defensive position during the early stages of the battle. Therefore, there were not many casualties on this side.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had already given some ck medicine in advance to the medical center for them to use. This ck medicine did not require any technical skill to apply at all. All the medics needed to do was to sew up the wounds and apply the ck medicine and the patient would be fine.


    In a situation like this, the medics felt no sense of purpose at all. Some of them even felt they were a little unnecessary on the battlefield.


    However, P5092 had specifically instructed them to be prepared to receive arge number of wounded personnel even though they had nothing to do right now.


    Wang Yun passed by the field medical center and walked towards the chow hall tent.


    As he walked, he suddenly realized the medics were pointing at him and saying, ¡°Look, that¡¯s the legendary Qin Shihuang. Apparently, he¡¯s the one who forced the expeditionary army to retreatst night.¡±


    A soldier was puzzled. ¡°Qin Shihuang? What Qin Shihuang?¡±


    ¡°Qin means to grab...¡± the medic exined patiently.


    When Wang Yun heard this, his eyes twitched. His life¡¯s reputation had been ruinedst night!


    But when he saw these soldiers looking at him with admiration, he did not say anything!


    Just as he was feeling stifled, Ji Zi¡¯ang and Zero¡¯s figures suddenly emerged from the tunnel in the distance. Ji Zi¡¯ang ran excitedly towards Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Future Commander, the tunnel ispleted. There¡¯s only a ten-centimeteryer of soil left at the end of the tunnel. You can open it with just a slight push.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at P5092. ¡°What do you say? I think we should harass the barbarians¡¯ supply convoy as soon as possible. You¡¯ve also seen how dominant Yang Xiaojin is on the main battlefield. As long as the enemy doesn¡¯t send all of their heavily armored warriors out at once, she can handle them.¡±


    P5092 was still a little hesitant. ¡°Even without sending out all of their heavily armored warriors, it¡¯s still a little dangerous if the expeditionary army sends out a few hundred of them.¡±


    ¡°Then do you have a better idea?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in seriousness, ¡°Who else do you think is qualified to take on this mission? The soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade are all normal people, and you know very well how dangerous a skirmish with the barbarians in the wilderness is. The soldiers can only gain an upper hand over the enemy by using the terrain at the defensive position to their advantage. So who else is there? Wang Yun needs to analyze the situation here, and Ji Zi¡¯ang has to stand by to topple the mountains once it gets dangerous at the defensive position. Looking at the situation, it seems that I¡¯m the most suitable candidate.¡±


    P5092 finally sighed and said, ¡°You don¡¯t understand. Although you¡¯re not the one inmand of the battle, the 6th Combat Brigade still sees you as their pir of strength. Wang Yun came here because of you, Ji Zi¡¯ang came here because of you, and it¡¯s even more so for Ms. Xiaojin. The other soldiers also know you¡¯re the truemander of this unit. If you die in the wilderness, how huge of an impact will that be on our morale? I need you to promise me one thing, and that is that you have to return here no matter whether the mission is sessful or not. Do you know whymanders don¡¯t easily charge into battle? It¡¯s not that they¡¯re afraid of death but that they can¡¯t die.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened quietly to this. Finally, P5092 said, ¡°You have to understand something. On this battlefield of Mt. Zuoyun, your life doesn¡¯t belong to you anymore. It belongs to everyone who¡¯s fighting here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯ll remember that. I¡¯ll get back safely.¡± Ren Xiaosu headed straight for the entrance of the tunnel.


    P5092 got someone to bring over a radio and said, ¡°Keep in touch at all times. I¡¯ll wait for your news at themand post. Once you discover that things aren¡¯t working out, retreat immediately.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu put on the radio headset and looked at Ji Zi¡¯ang. ¡°After I leave, follow the n I gave you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang nodded.


    After that, Ren Xiaosu went into the tunnel without looking back. P5092 looked at the dark hole and said worriedly, ¡°I hope everything will turn out fine.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang suddenly said, ¡°When we evacuated from Stronghold 31 together with the Great Hoodwinker, I was also worried if something would happen to him if he stayed behind by himself. But the Great Hoodwinker told me that even if the stronghold was destroyed and the Kong Consortium¡¯s people were all dead, he would still be fine. At that time, the Great Hoodwinker mysteriously said that the futuremander of the Northwest had more trump cards than anyone could imagine. So I personally don¡¯t think there¡¯s a need to worry too much. Although the Great Hoodwinker can often be quite unreliable, he still knows the futuremander better than we do. Moreover, the nickname ¡®Stronghold Destroyer¡¯ is not for nothing. Someone who can have such a nickname will definitely not die so easily. There might be some names in this world that were given badly, but there¡¯s really no such thing as a bad nickname!¡±


    When Wang Yun, who had just rushed over after eating, heard this, he got a little upset.


    Pun of the name of Shihuang, Shi = Shit, Huang = Emperor

 Chapter 943 - Great Hoodwinker! Assemble!

    <h4>Chapter 943: Great Hoodwinker! Assemble!</h4>


    In the wilderness, an expeditionary army unit consisting of over a 1,000 people was marching south.


    But upon closer inspection, 90% of the people in the supply convoy were actually refugees from the Central ins.


    The refugees¡¯ clothes were extremely dirty and their shoes were riddled with holes. Some of their shoes had even split from their soles. To prevent their feet from suffering any further, they tied them together with hemp rope so the soles would not fall off suddenly.


    The hundreds of refugees were being escorted by the expeditionary army¡¯s barbarians. Although their numbers were several timesrger than the barbarians, no one tried to resist or escape.


    Actually, if everyone really wanted to escape, the barbarians, who numbered only slightly more than a 100, would at most be able to catch about a third of the 900 refugees. The others could escape.


    But the problem was that no one wanted to be those three to four hundred unlucky ones to be killed.


    The expeditionary army¡¯s efficiency in transporting their food was much lower than that of the Central ins people as they only had simple carts piled high with provisions.


    Initially, they also wanted to make use of the Central ins¡¯ vehicles to transport their supplies, but it was too difficult to find a driver.


    In this era, vehicles were notmonly used. Normal people and refugees had never even sat in a car before, much less driven one.


    Therefore, they could only continue using their backward methods.


    Fortunately, the captured Central ins people were still quite obedient. Since Mt. Zuoyun had been surrounded by the expeditionary army, there should be no oneing to cause any more trouble for them.


    Just as P5092 had predicted, the supply corps felt much more at ease after the expeditionary army had surrounded Mt. Zuoyun.


    A refugee suddenly fell to the ground while walking. A barbarian came up to him and said coldly, ¡°Get up.¡±


    The refugees nearby looked over with numb expressions. No one went over to help up the person who had fallen to the ground, nor did anyone speak up for him.


    When the barbarian saw the refugee on the ground not responding, he sneered and stepped on his hand. ¡°Don¡¯t y dead. Your breathing has betrayed you. If you continue ying dead, I won¡¯t mind letting you die here.¡±


    When the barbarian¡¯s boot stomped on the refugee¡¯s hand, he let out a loud cry. ¡°Please spare me! I really can¡¯t walk anymore!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, the barbarian suddenly raised his leg and stomped on his chest.


    With just one stomp, the refugee was dead, and a great deal of blood gushed out of his mouth.


    The barbarian said coldly, ¡°If anyone tries ying dead again, they¡¯ll end up like him.¡±


    In the eyes of the expeditionary army, the lives of the Central ins people were worthless.


    In the group of refugees, an indignant look appeared in the eyes of a young man. He said to an old man in front of him, ¡°Aren¡¯t we gonna do something about this?¡±


    The old man ahead of him said, ¡°We can kill these barbarians, but the futuremander and the others will still be trapped on Mt. Zuoyun, so what¡¯s the point of killing these 100-odd barbarians? Our goal this time is to sneak into the expeditionary army. Only by finding an opportunity to assassinate their high-rankingmanders will we have a chance to save Mt. Zuoyun.¡±


    The young man thought for a moment and restrained the indignation in his eyes. He pushed the cart forward with the old man. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t the futuremander and the others be on Mt. Youyu? Why have they suddenly gone to Mt. Zuoyun?¡±


    ¡°What do you know?¡± The old man lowered his voice and said, ¡°Moving to Mt. Zuoyun was a really brilliant move. When I told the fortressmander about this, he said there must be an expert in the 6th Combat Brigade. Know why? Because having these 6,000 people on the main battlefield is actually useless. But when they came to Mt. Zuoyun, they be a knife held at the expeditionary army¡¯s throat. They¡¯ve forced the barbarians to fight a siege. This way, the pressure on the Wang Consortium will be eased greatly.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s too dangerous for them at Mt. Zuoyun,¡± the young man muttered.


    ¡°What¡¯s so dangerous about it? With the futuremander around, there¡¯s nothing to be afraid of. Don¡¯t worry, as long as we move fast, the futuremander and the others will be fine,¡± the old man said.


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t you tell me about the n instead of just going on about assassinating the barbarians¡¯ high-rankingmanders? At least give me some idea of what you¡¯re thinking,¡± the young man said.


    ¡°n? With my strength, why would I need a n?¡± The old man said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, everything is under control. I¡¯ve already calcted the time. This convoy will arrive at Mt. Daniu before sunset today.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, the old man suddenly saw a barbarian¡¯s head explode. The young man said in a daze, ¡°I don¡¯t think this convoy can reach Mt. Daniu before sunset....¡±


    The old man was stunned. Who the fuck fired that? There shouldn¡¯t be any resistance at the rear anymore, so why had someone suddenly jumped out to kill the barbarians?


    Before he could think any further, he saw another barbarian get shot in the chest.


    After the sniper bullet pierced the barbarian¡¯s chest, the long, narrow bullet did not stop inside his body. Instead, it prated and hit the provisions next to the old man.


    The old man quickly searched for the bullet that hit the cart when no one was paying attention. When he saw it, he was stunned again. ¡°A 12.7 millimeter tungsten core armor-piercing bullet? This person is here to kill the barbarians, but I wonder how many of them there are.¡±


    A 12.7 millimeter tungsten core armor-piercing bullet was a type of saboted ammunition capable of piercing armor with high muzzle velocity. It had the advantage of a t trajectory, leading to a shorter time to hit its target. It also possessed high uracy, high kic energy, and great armor-piercing properties.


    Under normal circumstances, these weapons were used by anti-materiel sniper rifles against tanks. Now that they were used on the barbarians, of course it would be very effective.


    The young man asked, ¡°What should we do now?¡±


    ¡°Keep hiding. If it¡¯s just one sniper ambushing here, they shouldn¡¯t be able to pose much of a threat to this supply column.¡± The old man said, ¡°Remember, this is not where our target is¡ª¡±


    But all of a sudden, the old man realized the bullet in his hand was slowly disappearing!


    Wait, this was a bullet materialized from a superpower.


    The old man suddenly looked in the sniper¡¯s direction. ¡°Holy shit, it¡¯s the futuremander?!¡±


    With that, the old man did not care about hiding anymore. He jumped right onto the cart and waved to the sniper. ¡°Future Commander, it¡¯s the Great Hoodwinker. I¡¯m here!¡±


    This sight dumbfounded the young man. ¡®<i>Didn¡¯t you just say you wanted to continue staying hidden? Why are you getting so excited now!?</i>¡®


    The barbarians of the supply convoy were attracted by the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s actions. However, the Great Hoodwinker switched from his previously cowardly demeanor and started grinning at the barbarians who had surrounded them. ¡°The 100 of you here are not even enough to take me on. If I had known that the futuremander was going to rob y¡¯all, why would I be undercover the entire way here? Wouldn¡¯t it have been better to have killed all of you earlier?!¡±


    Then the Great Hoodwinker took the initiative and charged at the hundreds of barbarians.


    In the distance, Ren Xiaosu picked up his spotting scope and looked at the convoy. Honestly, he really did not expect to encounter the Great Hoodwinker here.


    Ren Xiaosu picked up the ck sniper rifle and walked towards the convoy. He suddenly wondered if he could try something more interesting after joining up with a ferocious teammate like the Great Hoodwinker.

 Chapter 944 - An alliance of six powerhouses

    <h4>Chapter 944: An alliance of six powerhouses</h4>


    The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s pure physical strength made him extremely powerful. Ren Xiaosu had not asked exactly how strong he was before, but the fact he could take on a T5batant head-on without being disadvantaged proved that.


    Back then, the Great Hoodwinker had killed a T5batant with his bare hands in the Sacred Mountains.


    Therefore, when the Great Hoodwinker stopped hiding his identity and started taking on this expeditionary army¡¯s supply corps, Ren Xiaosu had no intention of interfering at all.


    After all, there were no elite barbarians among their supply convoy.


    It was just as well since he wanted to know what the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s actual strength was.


    If one did not witness it for themselves, they would not know how shocking that power was. As a supernatural being, the Great Hoodwinker could only develop his physical fitness to the extreme. This led to the Great Hoodwinker achieving a freakishly insane level of physical fitness.


    When the barbarians surrounded and attacked the Great Hoodwinker, the old man did not dodge or retreat. He forcefully used his bare hands to take the blows from the huge axes.


    One of the barbarians shed at the Great Hoodwinker with his huge axe, but the Great Hoodwinker simply pinched the edge of the de with two of his fingers and stopped it. It was as though he was showing off, and he looked extremely ferocious doing so too.


    If it were just a normal battle, everyone would probably only have the impression that the Great Hoodwinker was really powerful. However, they would not know exactly how powerful he was.


    But now, he was actually able to grip the edge of the axe de with two fingers. This was a truly terrifying sight to behold.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was curious if the Great Hoodwinker usually fought like this, or if he was trying to show off a little in his presence?


    Ren Xiaosu was initially still 600 meters away from the supply convoy. And by the time he closed in, the 100-odd barbarians in the supply convoy had died.


    The Great Hoodwinker was panting heavily at first. But when Ren Xiaosu got closer, he puffed up his chest and said to Ren Xiaosu in an extremely rxed manner, ¡°Future Commander, I missed you so much. I really didn¡¯t expect to see you here!¡±


    ¡°Hey, why did you suddenly appear here? And even among the barbarians¡¯ supply corps?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°I thought you went back to the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°I did make a trip back to the Northwest, but our Prosperous Northwest business has not yet beenpleted, so I definitely have to continueing back to the Central ins to seek out talents.¡± The Great Hoodwinker chuckled. Then he said to the refugees who had been held by the expeditionary army, ¡°Alright, y¡¯all should hurry up and leave. Remember, head northwest. There¡¯s only dead ends if you head south from here. The Northwest is where life lies!¡±


    Regardless of whether the Great Hoodwinker was using hisme mysticism to fool people, what he said this time was right. The South was filled with battlefields, and the refugees would die no matter where they went if they headed south. Therefore, these people could only head northwest.


    However, one of the refugees suddenly asked, ¡°Since you¡¯re so powerful, why didn¡¯t you make a move when the barbarians killed ourpatriots?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was amused. ¡°All of you are still alive because of me. Cut the bullshit and get outta here!¡±


    The refugees did not dare to say anything further. The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s eyes suddenly darted around as he said, ¡°If y¡¯all still feel indignant about it, you cane and reason with me after the war is over. Remember, I¡¯m Wang Run of the Wang Consortium!¡±


    As those refugees fled towards the northwest, Ren Xiaosu said helplessly, ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a need to hide your true identity, right?¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do. Surely we can¡¯t discredit the Northwest, right?¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°People always distort information these days. Although it was because I had another mission to carry out that I didn¡¯t save them, I don¡¯t know what will happen if word gets around. In any case, the Wang Consortium is not afraid of being framed. Their hands are already dirty, so this won¡¯t make a difference.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not follow up on this. Instead, he asked, ¡°What were you doing with the supply column?¡±


    ¡°Initially, I brought someone to the Pyro Company to recruit suitable talent for the Prosperous Northwest, but I didn¡¯t expect the Pyro Company to be defeated so quickly. I wasn¡¯t captured, but I thought that I could sneak into the expeditionary army this way, so I voluntarily got caught by them.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Then I wondered if I should infiltrate the expeditionary army¡¯s ranks and kill one or two high-rankingmanders of theirs. That n would definitely have disrupted the barbarians¡¯ rhythm of attack.¡±


    ¡°Then I guess I messed up your n.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in embarrassment, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to have such an important mission by infiltrating into this group!¡±


    However, the young man next to him muttered, ¡°As if he has any fucking n...¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker red at him. ¡°I¡¯m warning you, don¡¯t lie in front of the futuremander.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°And this is?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at him and saw the young man looked to be in his mid-20s. He was fair-skinned and chubby.


    ¡°Oh, his name is Xun Yeyu. Future Commander, you probably haven¡¯t heard of him before. This is the chubster we captured during the war with the Zong Consortium.¡± The Great Hoodwinker exined, ¡°His superpower is searching for superhumans within a 100-kilometer radius. That¡¯s why I brought him here from the Northwest. I wanted to see if there¡¯s any supernatural beings that slipped through our fingers.¡±


    After Xun Yeyu was captured by the Zong Consortium, he was given an important position in their organization. In that war, it was obvious the Zong Consortium had more supernatural beings than the other organizations, and that was all thanks to this guy.


    Many of the supernatural beings from the other organizations managed to keep themselves well-hidden and did not get exposed.


    But all of the supernatural beings in the Zong Consortium had been identified by him.


    Since the Great Hoodwinker was seeking to recruit people for the Prosperous Northwest, he could make use of the chubster¡¯s superpower.


    ¡°Pleased to meet you.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Keep working hard and strive to be a useful person to the Northwest.¡±


    Xun Yeyu replied, ¡°... Alright, Future Commander.¡±


    Xun Yeyu had often heard others mention the futuremander before, but this was his first time meeting him in person.


    The Great Hoodwinker asked, ¡°Future Commander, why are you here? Shouldn¡¯t you be at Mt. Zuoyun?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°The situation over there isn¡¯t too good. We were also caught off guard by the Pyro Company¡¯s defeat, so I came out in an attempt to disrupt the expeditionary army¡¯s supply line and give them a headache.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu went to look through the provisions in the carts. However, he realized the provisions this time were no longer food from the Central ins. Instead, they consisted of some ck bread and coarse grains.


    Puzzled, he broke off some ck bread and stuffed it into his mouth. Then he said, ¡°This ck bread tastes like cornbread. Is this what the expeditionary army eats? This shows that they really do have a very difficult time in the North. No wonder they suddenly headed south.¡±


    But even so, the Central ins and the barbarians were on opposing sides. Even if the other party were here for the survival of their own kind, there was no possibility the Central ins would back down anymore. The two sides would definitely be fighting to the death.


    Afterwards, Ren Xiaosu stored all of the provisions the troops were transporting in his storage space. Regardless of whether the food might taste good, they would still be used as emergency rations.


    P5092¡¯s voice suddenly crackled in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s earpiece, ¡°Future Commander, did everything go smoothly?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Smooth sailing!¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The food shortage issue at the defensive position has been resolved. There¡¯s more than enough provisions here.¡±


    ¡°Hurry back then, Future Commander,¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°I¡¯ve just joined up with the Great Hoodwinker. Under such circumstances, I¡¯ll feel like I¡¯m missing out if I don¡¯t take advantage of our situation.¡±

 Chapter 945 - An alliance of six-and-a-half powerhouses

    <h4>Chapter 945: An alliance of six-and-a-half powerhouses</h4>


    With his and the Great Hoodwinker¡¯sbined strength, and as long as they did not encounter the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces, the enemy would die in the wilderness for sure if they met the two of them.


    For a supply convoy like this which only had a 100-odd barbarians escorting the supplies, they would definitely be dead upon meeting them.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the chubster, Xun Yeyu, again. He realized the chubster¡¯s power would be very useful.


    ¡°How are things? Is the futuremandering back now?¡± Wang Yun asked P5092.


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°He said he¡¯s joined up with the Great Hoodwinker and wants to do something else.¡±


    ¡°As I¡¯ve said, there¡¯s no need to worry about his safety. Now that the Great Hoodwinker has appeared, those two might be able to cause the enemy even greater trouble,¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang said.


    In any case, P5092 realized Ren Xiaosu would always be able toplete the missions he assigned to him, and he would even get more than he bargained for. For example, in the previous mission, he killed all of the enemies when he was simply instructed to flee after he was done.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu looked at the chubster. ¡°Your superpower can locate people within a 100-kilometer radius?¡±


    Xun Yeyu said, ¡°Yes, I can sense everyone¡¯s vitality within a radius of a 100 kilometers.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gasped. It was no wonder the Great Hoodwinker wanted to take this guy to recruit people for the Prosperous Northwest. After all, a stronghold was only so big. This guy would not even have to get into the strongholds to find the superhumans inside?


    ¡°Tell me about the principle behind your power. Since you can sense the vitality of everyone, how do you differentiate who¡¯s a supernatural being and who isn¡¯t?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°It¡¯s like this.¡± Xun Yeyu exined, ¡°In my mental perception, everyone¡¯s life force is like a ball of fire. Supernatural beings have a much stronger life force than normal people. When I first awakened my power, I did not know what was going on. Later on, I realized that the stronger a supernatural being is, the more intense the mes in my mental perception are.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s how it is.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°We¡¯re about 80 kilometers from Mt. Zuoyun now. Can you sense the barbarians over there?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Xun Yeyu said, ¡°I could already sense them. There¡¯s a lot of mes gathered over there, and several hundred of them seem exceptionally strong.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart skipped a beat. ¡°What¡¯s the criteria that you judge them to be exceptionally strong? Compare the size of my me to theirs.¡±


    Xun Yeyu nodded and closed his eyes. But he was stunned and quickly opened them again, because he could not sense Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence at all. It was as though Ren Xiaosu had turned invisible in front of him!


    Before this, Xun Yeyu had never encountered such a situation. No one could escape his detection!


    And Ren Xiaosu was also stunned, because he heard the voice from the pce in his mind say, ¡°An unknown energy has been detected trying to detect the host. It has been blocked.¡±


    The word ¡°blocked¡± was mentioned with hardly any emphasis, but this was a direct rejection of the power of a supernatural being.


    It was not easy for the other party to awaken and be a supernatural being with rare powers. But Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power hadpletely nullified the other party¡¯s power with just a simple ¡°block.¡±


    Of course, it was only Ren Xiaosu who had turned invisible in the enemy¡¯s mental perception.


    Xun Yeyu found it a little unbelievable. He even examined Ren Xiaosu to see if he had a shadow. Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°I¡¯m alive. Don¡¯t make assumptions like that. It¡¯s just that your power¡¯s useless against me.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker praised, ¡°As expected of our futuremander!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Compare the strength of those barbarians to the Great Hoodwinker.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Xun Yeyu nodded and said, ¡°Commander Zhang Husheng¡¯s life force is about nine times that of a typical adult male. Among the barbarians, the most powerful experts should be about eight times stronger.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did a mental calction. His own physical condition was nearly six times that of a normal person¡¯s, and his strength was rated at 17.5.


    The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s strength was assessed to be around 27, while the most powerful barbarian was 24, and ¡°Old Xu¡± was rated at 35.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. At least with Old Xu, he would not have to worry about being unable to defeat the opponent.


    However, Mt. Zuoyun was not the main battlefield. There should be more powerful barbarians over at Mt. Daniu, right?


    Xun Yeyu said, ¡°In my perception, it¡¯s like those barbarians are all superhumans. Have they all evolved?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, their evolution path was quite rtive, but it¡¯s mainly their physical fitness that has increased.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Then can you sense if there are any other supply columns in the wilderness, like a group consisting of several hundred barbarians?¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up as he looked at Xun Yeyu.


    If the supply columns were unable to transport supplies to the front line at the specified time after they were attacked, the expeditionary army would definitely realize something had happened to them.


    Therefore, there would surely be changes to the subsequent supply routes. Before the expeditionary army got rid of the hidden threats, the supply columns would even likely give up on convenience and take a more difficult route to ensure the safety of their supplies.


    Of course, they would also assign more troops to protect the supplies, but Ren Xiaosu temporarily disregarded that.


    Right now, Xun Yeyu¡¯s search range covered a radius of a 100 kilometers. The man was basically a mobile human radar. No matter how far the barbarians detoured, it would not exceed the range of a 100 kilometers. Any more was toorge and would waste too much manpower and resources.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he even got the bold idea to capture all the expeditionary army¡¯s supplies in one fell swoop. He thought about it seriously for a long time and believed it to be quite feasible.


    Ren Xiaosu told the Great Hoodwinker about this n. However, the Great Hoodwinker chuckled without even thinking and said, ¡°Future Commander, we¡¯ll go wherever you go.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xun Yeyu. ¡°How¡¯s yourbat strength?¡±


    Xun Yeyu quickly waved it off. ¡°I¡¯m not good atbat. I¡¯ve never fought before.¡±


    ¡°But you dared to infiltrate the supply lines with the Great Hoodwinker?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want to either, but it¡¯s useless even though I didn¡¯t want to,¡± Xun Yeyu said with a bitter expression. Commander Zhang had told him he only needed to settle down in Fortress 178 and no one would conscript him into the military.


    But look what happened! He had been abducted to the Central ins!


    Back at Fortress 178, people provided him with good food and drink every day and even gave him money to spend.


    During that period, Xun Yeyu¡¯s life was asfortable as it could get.


    But one day, no one sent him anything anymore, and his allowance was also cut off. Xun Yeyu had developed a habit of being extravagant by then, so when he suddenly ran out of money, it became too unbearable.


    Then Xun Yeyu went to look for the people from Fortress 178 to give feedback on this problem, but no one cared about him at all.


    After that, Xun Yeyu suffered for two months. In order to make money, he even went to look for Fortress 178¡¯s people to volunteer to work. However, no one hired him.


    Xun Yeyu was nearly driven to despair during that time. Only when the Great Hoodwinker suddenly came knocking on his door that Xun Yeyu realized that he had been fucking yed.


    The people of Fortress 178 were very simple-minded, but among these honest people, it definitely did not include people like the Great Hoodwinker, Wang Fengyuan, and the other intelligence agents. These people were all extremely wily!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xun Yeyu and said, ¡°I was just about to say that this would be an alliance of seven powerhouses, but since you¡¯re so weak atbat, I can¡¯t say that anymore. Let¡¯s just consider you as a half. Although it sounds a little awkward, this will be an alliance of six-and-a-half powerhouses.¡±


    Xun Yeyu could not even rebuke him. How did he suddenly end up bing half a powerhouse in the words of the futuremander? ¡®You also know that it sounds awkward, right? So I¡¯m not even qualified to be aplete person?!¡®


    #

 Chapter 946 - Hunting like crazy

    <h4>Chapter 946: Hunting like crazy</h4>


    Ever since the expeditionary army¡¯s supply column was robbed, they reacted much quicker than Ren Xiaosu had expected. While checking the corpses, Ren Xiaosu even discovered that themander of this group of barbarians that had been killed by the Great Hoodwinker was even equipped with a radio.


    At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu did not notice this and it was the Great Hoodwinker who discovered it first.


    Even though the Great Hoodwinker might look very sloppy on the outside, he was actually very meticulous.


    Ren Xiaosu picked up the radio and realized that someone was calling out to the supply corps. The Great Hoodwinker took over and tried to impersonate the barbarians, but the other party actually asked the Great Hoodwinker for the code word.


    The Great Hoodwinker was helpless. Who could have expected these barbarians to be so cautious?


    The voice on the radio urged, ¡°Report your code word!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker thought for a moment and said, ¡°The Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    After that, he switched off the radio and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°They must¡¯ve gotten it from the Pyro Company and Stronghold 176. Initially, I was thinking that the barbarians¡¯ms would be a little slipshod. But it seems like they¡¯re also constantly learning.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. There¡¯s no use being too cautious. Xun Yeyu, seek out the other lone troops of the barbarians for me.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu led the way into the wilderness.


    On the evening of the next day, an expeditionary army was passing through a narrow mountain path. This spot was 130 kilometers away from Mt. Zuoyun, and the mountain path was extremely treacherous to travel.


    However, they did not travel here from the North but hade from the Pyro Company in the east instead.


    After the Pyro Company was defeated, they had left some supplies behind at the front line of the Great Wall that was enough to replenish the expeditionary army¡¯s low rations.


    When the Pyro Company¡¯s troops retreated, they tried their best to destroy all of their artillery. However, their defeat happened too suddenly, so they did not have time to take the remaining rations with them.


    The lead barbarian looked at the rugged road ahead and cursed, ¡°What¡¯re the main forces at Mt. Zuoyun doing? Didn¡¯t they say that they already have the ce surrounded? Why¡¯re there still enemy troops appearing at our rear then?¡±


    Even with the barbarians¡¯ stamina, traveling these mountain roads while transporting supplies took a toll on them. However, the general had ordered them to ensure the safety of their supplies before the enemy at the rear could be located.


    All of the barbarians in logistics knew the battle at the front line would consume a lot of supplies. If something were to happen to the supplies, their main forces would probably run out of food.


    Fighting a war was a very strict test of an army¡¯s logistic support.


    If the supplies were not delivered on time and caused the soldiers to grumble or even get demoralized, the general might very well behead the chief logistics officer and offer him as a tribute to the Heavens.


    To a general, it was actually worth using one head to appease the dissatisfaction of many soldiers.


    But as the supply corps was advancing, the soldiers in front suddenly stopped in their tracks. Three Central ins people were standing at the mountain pass in front of them.


    ¡°It¡¯s three refugees,¡± a barbarian determined. ¡°I¡¯ll go capture them and make them carry the supplies.¡± After that, he rushed towards the mountain pass and died there.


    The battle started and ended quickly. The 100-odd barbarians at the rear did not even get to witness how theirrade had died so abruptly.


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the mountain pass and said to Xun Yeyu, ¡°As usual, go and find a ce to hide. Great Hoodwinker, let¡¯s do it. Let¡¯s finish this quickly!¡±


    Old Xu, who was wearing a white mask, suddenly descended from the cliff wall off to the side. It smashed straight into the barbarians¡¯ formation like a cannonball and started a massacre.


    Shortly after Old Xu started the massacre, there was still no sign of any elite barbarian in the group, and only then did the Great Hoodwinker make a mad dash in. When he arrived in front of the barbarians, he raised his leg and kicked one of them squarely in the abdomen.


    With the snap of bones breaking, the barbarian was sent flying backwards.


    Ren Xiaosu was holding his sniper rifle and firing it as he advanced, providing cover for the Great Hoodwinker from the rear.


    Xun Yeyu, who was hiding in the corner, watched this scene quietly. He felt that he had been overwrought every day sinceing out on this trip.


    Two people intercepting and killing hundreds of barbarians, was that something that any normal person was capable of? But Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker did not find it dangerous at all.


    They were actually very cautious. Even with a mobile human radar like Xun Yeyu with them, Ren Xiaosu still insisted that Old Xu make the first move. After confirming there were no experts hiding among the barbarians, he had the Great Hoodwinker go forward and take them out.


    Although Xun Yeyu could determine through his mental perception whether there were any experts in the group based on their life force, what if there were barbarians who could hide their strength like Ren Xiaosu?


    On the battlefield, it was not wrong to be more careful. In any case, these barbarians could not escape anymore, so it did not matter even if they killed them slightlyter.


    Half an hourter, Ren Xiaosu stood in the middle of the bloody battlefield and contacted P5092. ¡°We¡¯ve taken out a group of the barbarians¡¯ supply corps in the valley at Mt. Cui. From the look of things, the supplies were probably transported over from the Pyro Company. Have Wang Yun record this.¡±


    On the other end, P5092 said nkly to Wang Yun, ¡°Record this. This is the fourth supply convoy the futuremander has taken out...¡±


    In just one short day, Ren Xiaosu started an insane hunt with the help of Xun Yeyu¡¯s superpower. As long as any lone troops appeared within Xun Yeyu¡¯s detection range, Ren Xiaosu did not let them go.


    There was another advantage to Xun Yeyu¡¯s power too. A group of the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces had retreated to the rear and started searching for them. But as long as Xun Yeyu was around, Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker would know about the enemy¡¯s movements from a 100 kilometers away.


    As long as it wasn¡¯t more than 10,000 of the expeditionary army¡¯s troops that came together to capture him, they could not catch him. In fact, they would not even be able to catch a glimpse of him!


    Ren Xiaosu patted Xun Yeyu on the shoulder happily and said, ¡°You¡¯re so talented. We¡¯re now an alliance of six-and-three-quarters powerhouses.¡±


    Xun Yeyu looked rather bitter as he thought about how it seemed like he was trying his best to be aplete person.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be disheartened.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s mainly because you still have to rest after using your power for a while. Your mental strength is way too weak, so you¡¯ll have to train harder. Believe me, I¡¯ve talked to many superhumans before. Your power will only get more powerful the more you use it. Since you didn¡¯t use it much previously because you were toozy, you¡¯ll have to work harder in the future.¡±


    Xun Yeyu did not have the energy to rebuke him. The entire day he had been following Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker around to attack the expeditionary army, he had traveled at least 200 kilometers on foot. He felt like he hadpleted a lifetime¡¯s journey in just a single day.


    But even though he was dog-tired, Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker were totally fine. They were even still able to getbat ready at any time.


    Were these two even human?


    But Xun Yeyu suddenly frowned and said, ¡°The expeditionary army¡¯s main forces that were sent to pursue us have turned around. They¡¯re starting to move towards us. It looks like our position has been discovered.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said with a smile, ¡°Great, I was just nning on giving them a present.¡±


    #

 Chapter 947 - Booby trap

    <h4>Chapter 947: Booby trap</h4>


    ¡°Future Commander, what are you thinking?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked curiously.


    Earlier, when Xun Yeyu said that arge number of the expeditionary army¡¯s troops were approaching them, the Great Hoodwinker was taken aback and wanted to flee quickly.


    However, he realized Ren Xiaosu was not panicking at all. Not only did he not leave, but he even took out a satchel of TNT from somewhere.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was digging a pit in the ground with an entrenching tool. Then he carefully ced the TNT into the pit.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Too bad we don¡¯t have a detonator. I left those things behind on Mt. Zuoyun. Or else this would be more convenient. We¡¯re gonna have to resort to binding it with a grenade.¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu buried the TNT into the ground, he ced a barbarian¡¯s corpse over it. As long as someone lifted or moved the barbarian¡¯s corpse, they would pull the safety pin of the grenade and blow the nearby barbarians into the sky.


    Without a detonator, he could not control it remotely. So he could only use this method to create a booby trap.


    Due to the pressure of the war on Mt. Zuoyun, Ren Xiaosu not only did not take the explosives the 6th Combat Brigade had brought with them, but he also contributed all of the TNT he had been saving for a long time. He only kept a single satchel for emergencies, but it had no detonator.


    Xun Yeyu asked meekly, ¡°Will this work? I remember that TNT isn¡¯t easy to detonate, right? Can a grenade trigger it?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°TNT detonated by a grenade is actually more powerful than a standard detonator.¡±


    Although TNT was very powerful, it was not that easy to detonate it. Usually, the TNT would be attached to a detonator that had to be triggered first before the TNT blew up.


    If it was just an ordinary ignition, the TNT would emit a yellow me and then slowly burn out without exploding. Therefore, when disposing of TNT, it would usually be done through a burning method.


    The Great Hoodwinker praised, ¡°Future Commander is really wise. The barbarians will definitely not expect to get themselves killed if they move theirrades¡¯ corpses. Moreover, this bomb will also traumatize them. When they see theirrades¡¯ corpses in the future, they¡¯ll remember what happened today.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said modestly, ¡°Probably, but not so loud, not so loud, please.¡±


    Next to them, Xun Yeyu did not know what to say. He thought to himself that this Great Hoodwinker was such a bootlicker.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get out of here quickly.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°How long until the expeditionary army arrives?¡±


    Xun Yeyu roughly calcted the speed at which the other party was approaching. ¡°I think it¡¯ll take a little over an hour.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s head a kilometer away and wait there. We¡¯ll leave after confirming they¡¯ve set off the explosion here. At that time, Xun Yeyu, tell me the number of enemy casualties,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    More than an hourter, the expeditionary army quickly approached the battlefield. When they saw that all of the supply corps were dead, an officer let out a furious roar.


    The expeditionary army had lost four supply convoys in a single day. This was a loss they could not bear. More importantly, they did not even catch a glimpse of the enemy.


    Whenever they got near, it was as though the other party had eyes in the sky and left in advance. They were impossible to catch.


    One of the barbarians said to the expeditionary army¡¯smander, ¡°Sir, I¡¯m afraid that there might be a lot of people in this group. Look, the supplies that were being transported from the Pyro Company were quite a lot. If there weren¡¯t that many enemies, they couldn¡¯t have taken away the supplies. But we can see that they¡¯ve already emptied out all four convoys of supplies that we were transporting.¡±


    The regimentalmander nodded and said, ¡°But I don¡¯t understand something. A group thatrge shouldn¡¯t have as great a mobility as our expeditionary army, yet the other party is clearly much more nimble than us.¡±


    Of course, they did not know there was actually someone in the world who could carry a storage space around with them.


    For Ren Xiaosu, he could take everything with him even if he had to rob another ten supply convoys, much less this minuscule amount of supplies!


    One of the barbarians said, ¡°Sir, we have to track them down this time. Otherwise, the general will definitely punish us. The army doesn¡¯t have enough food left, so we have to bring back the supplies that the enemy stole....¡±


    The regimentalmander clenched his teeth and said, ¡°I don¡¯t need you to teach me what to do. Go and have Borise and search for the scent left behind by the enemy. They have a lot of people, so they¡¯ll definitely leave behind some evidence. We¡¯ll then track them through their scent.¡±


    This was something that not even the Central ins people knew about. During the process of the barbarians¡¯ evolution, some of their people¡¯s sense of smell started to reach the level of wild animals. They could even use their sense of smell to track others.


    After the soldier named Boris was called over, he started sniffing for different smells near the corpses. Then he said in a strange tone, ¡°Sir, the smell of the Central ins people here is notplicated at all. It seems like there were only three people.¡±


    ¡°Three people?¡± The regimentalmander was stunned. He walked towards Boris. ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure.¡± Boris said, ¡°They headed northwards.¡±


    ¡°Pursue them!¡± Although the regimentalmander did not know why the three of them were able to take away so much supplies, he knew Boris was never wrong before.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was lying prone a kilometer away and observing the barbarians¡¯ movements through his spotting scope. ¡°Wait a minute, why are those barbarians leaving without picking up the corpses? They¡¯re starting to move in our direction!¡±


    It seemed like the other party did not intend to carry those corpses away. In that case, wouldn¡¯t his n fail?


    With the Great Hoodwinker and Xun Yeyu watching by the side, wouldn¡¯t it be embarrassing if his n failed?


    At this moment, a barbarian looked at the corpses on the ground and said, ¡°Sir, what should we do with these bodies? Should we transport them back to the rear?¡±


    The regimentalmander shook his head and replied, ¡°Our mission is to pursue the Central ins troops. If we take these bodies with us, it¡¯ll definitely slow our pursuit. Let them rest here for now. After the war is over, we¡¯lle back and bury them. Moreover, the Central ins people are very cunning. Someone once hid some explosives under the corpses, something which the Central ins people call a booby trap. Who knows if there¡¯s any traps underneath these bodies? Pass down my order: Do not touch the bodies!¡±


    But just as the regimentalmander finished, he saw a dark door of nothingness open next to a corpse. It was as though the void could suck all the light in.


    Right afterwards, a hand stretched out from the Shadow Door and rummaged through the corpse.


    However... the door seemed to have opened up at the wrong spot. This was not the corpse he was looking for.


    He retracted his hand and opened the Shadow Door again, then rummaged through another corpse. This time, it was the right one.


    With the click of the grenade¡¯s safety pin being removed, and during the three seconds of dy before the grenade detonated, a soldier stared nkly as the Shadow Door disappeared into thin air. ¡°What the fuck was that?! Did y¡¯all see that hand just now...¡±


    The regimentalmander roared, ¡°Run!¡±


    With a loud boom, a huge cloud of grayish-ck smoke rose into the air. The hundreds of barbarians near the explosive were instantly blown to pieces.


    #

 Chapter 948 - Retreat!

    <h4>Chapter 948: Retreat!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu held up his spotting scope and looked through it silently for a long time. Although blowing up several hundred barbarians meant nothing to the main battlefield, it should have killed amanding officer of theirs, right?


    Amanding officer who could lead several thousand people would definitely have a high rank within the expeditionary army.


    Moreover, the TNT had detonated without a hitch, so he still managed to sessfully save his reputation as the futuremander.


    Actually, what Ren Xiaosu did not know was that the regimentalmander he had killed was a trusted aide of the expeditionary army¡¯s general. Moreover, he even killed a ¡°Crazy Bear¡± of the expeditionary army.


    The title of ¡°Crazy Bear¡± was a respectful form of address in the expeditionary army for those soldiers who had activated a heightened sense of smell. The Crazy Bears were extremely important members during their everyday hunts. Even in the entire expeditionary army, there weren¡¯t many talents like that.


    Next to him, Xun Yeyu asked, ¡°Future Commander, did the explosives go off sessfully?¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you see the ck smoke over there? Everything went as nned,¡± Ren Xiaosu said spiritedly..


    Xun Yeyu asked, ¡°Then, Future Commander, what was that power you used just now?¡±


    ¡°Hahahahahaha.¡± Ren Xiaosu pped Xun Yeyu on the back of his head. ¡°You talk too much!¡±


    Xun Yeyu said aggrievedly, ¡°Future Commander, let¡¯s hurry up and leave. If we don¡¯t leave now, it¡¯ll be toote. I can sense that a new group of the expeditionary army has appeared. Previously, they were just patrolling around and did not approach us. But now, they¡¯re pursuing us at full speed.¡±


    ¡°Hurry up and leave.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Xun Yeyu, point the way!¡±


    Currently, a barbarian in the expeditionary army forces who had just been blown up by the TNT was making use of themunications equipment they had seized to quickly contact the rear. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s actions had thoroughly enraged the entire expeditionary army.


    It was getting unbearable for the barbarians to have four of their supply convoys killed in one day. After all, there would soon be a shortage of food at the front line. But now, their general¡¯s trusted aide was actually killed as well?


    The purpose of the expeditionary army¡¯s encirclement of Mt. Zuoyun was to protect their logistic lifeline. If there was a constant group of troops urately intercepting all of their supplies, how were they supposed to fight this war?


    In just two hours, four 5,000-strong expeditionary army forces were led by their individualmanders into the wilderness.


    Ren Xiaosu andpany had kicked the ho¡¯s nest and provoked the barbarians.


    When Xun Yeyu sensed this, he was so shocked he nearly cried. He thought to himself that his futuremander was such a troublemaker. How did he rm so many barbarians so easily?!


    This was even more ferocious than back at Stronghold 146 in the Northwest!


    As Xun Yeyu fled with Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker, he said in a sobbing tone, ¡°Future Commander, why don¡¯t we head back directly to the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°Why should we head back to the Northwest?¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°With your radar ability, can any barbarians catch up to us? Eh? Tell me, are there any more barbarians separated from their main groups in the vicinity?¡±


    Xun Yeyu was shocked. ¡°Future Commander, why are you still thinking about robbing the barbarians at a time like this?¡±


    ¡°This is called catching them by surprise, understand?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°On this trip out of Mt. Zuoyun, I have to make sure they get beaten so scared that they¡¯ll send out their main forces to escort their supplies in the future.¡±


    Didn¡¯t P5092 say there were too many expeditionary army troops surrounding them outside Mt. Zuoyun? In that case, they would just have to be forced to be part of the supply convoy. Without the main forces escorting the supplies, they would have to keep dreaming if they wanted to get the supplies to their destination. That way, wouldn¡¯t fewer troops be garrisoned outside of Mt. Zuoyun?


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu had single-handedly affected the situation at Mt. Zuoyun.


    At this moment, P5092 was nervously deploying for battle at the defensive position. Wang Yun¡¯s men, who were scattered in the mountains, suddenly sent back a message. ¡°Two 5,000-strong brigades have left Mt. Zuoyun!¡±


    When they heard this news, everyone in themand post was stunned. Wang Yun wondered, ¡°Where are the barbarians going? Why did they suddenly leave? Are they not going to attack Mt. Zuoyun anymore?¡±


    ¡°Of course they will,¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°Then why did they leave?¡± Wang Yun asked.


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Do you all think they might have gone to capture the futuremander?¡±


    Wang Yun gasped. ¡°They sent ten thousand soldiers just to capture the futuremander? Surely not, right?¡±


    ¡°But I can¡¯t think of any other exnation.¡± P5092 pondered it for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯m just curious what the futuremander has done to the expeditionary army¡­.¡±


    Only Zero knew what was happening. It had already detected the expeditionary army¡¯s abnormal behavior through the satellites and informed the Wang Consortium about their mobilization.


    Under observation of the satellites, the expeditionary army had deployed two of their brigades from Mt. Zuoyun and two more from Mt. Daniu. These four armies were rapidly heading north to encircle Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group.


    However, Ren Xiaosu andpany were moving much faster than the expeditionary army. At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group located another supply convoy in the north and killed them along the way.


    This was as good as giving the expeditionary army a hard p in the face. With so many troops pursuing them, yet another group of their soldiers was robbed? This was simply a disgrace to the expeditionary army.


    Moreover, just how arrogant was this enemy?!


    At this moment, Wang Run received a call from themand center at Mt. Daniu. The Wang Consortium shared this intel with the 6th Combat Brigade.


    When everyone heard this news, they did not know how to react.


    Wang Yun was silent for a long time. ¡°¡­ Future Commander is awesome.¡±


    ¡­


    In the evening, Ren Xiaosu, the Great Hoodwinker, and Xun Yeyu found a sheltered ce to rest at.


    In this wilderness, they could not even light a campfire due to being pursued, and the spring night was still a little cold.


    Xun Yeyu was snoring as hey on a hillside. The fair-skinned chubster had been utterly exhausted over the past two days as his physical fitness was far inferior to Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s.


    But just as he was dozing off, he jolted awake.


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°The four expeditionary army brigades have stopped.¡± Xun Yeyu hurriedly said, ¡°However, there¡¯s a group of 80 people approaching us quickly. I can sense they¡¯re extremely powerful. It¡¯s the elite barbarians!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°The barbarians might¡¯ve realized that we aren¡¯t a big group. And they probably realized that the mobility of their main forces is terrible, so it will be very difficult for them to catch up to us. So they gathered their elite to pursue us quickly.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked into the dark wilderness and said reluctantly, ¡°Then let¡¯s retreat. Both of you, follow me back to Mt. Zuoyun.¡±


    The barbarians had mobilized 80 experts to hunt them down, and it even seemed like they had a way to urately locate them. This was enough to make Ren Xiaosu understand it was time to stop.


    The Great Hoodwinker was also feeling a little reluctant. ¡°We¡¯re leaving just like that?¡±


    ¡°C¡¯mon.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°I¡¯ve prepared a little gift for them at Mt. Zuoyun.¡±

 Chapter 949 - Pursuit and counterattack

    <h4>Chapter 949: Pursuit and counterattack</h4>


    A very exciting escape had suddenly begun in the wilderness. After a short rest, Ren Xiaosu led the Great Hoodwinker and Xun Yeyu to try to bypass the pursuing barbarians and quickly get back to Mt. Zuoyun.


    But how were those barbarians able to keep up with them the entire time?


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu wanted to take the opportunity to fight back against the elite barbarians. Butter, he heard Xun Yeyu describe that almost all of them were rated on the level of T5batants.


    With 80 T5s pursuing them from behind, even Ren Xiaosu¡¯s scalp went numb when he heard that.


    Under such circumstances, turning around to fight back would be suicidal.


    Moreover, Xun Yeyu could sense that the four expeditionary army¡¯s brigades in the wilderness were actually coordinating with these elite barbarians to encircle and intercept them.


    While they were trying to get to Mt. Zuoyun, the enemy¡¯s brigades cut off their path forward.


    If not for Xun Yeyu¡¯s perception power, they would probably have headed straight into the enemy¡¯s encirclement.


    Of course, if not for Xun Yeyu¡¯s presence, Ren Xiaosu would probably have already returned to Mt. Zuoyun. There wouldn¡¯t have been any further incidents of ambushing the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces.


    Xun Yeyu started getting a little anxious. As he fled, he panted heavily and said, ¡°Future Commander, the elite barbarians behind us are getting closer and closer. What should we do?!¡±


    To be honest, Xun Yeyu was really a little panicky. At this moment, he only hated himself for not exercising more often. Even if it were just going for a jog, it would have been good.


    Now that they were gradually getting caught up to, Xun Yeyu knew full well he was slowing down Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s escape. If it were Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker alone, they would probably have already shaken off these barbarians. After all, they were very fast.


    In truth, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current physical fitness was still not equal to a T5batant¡¯s. But even though the elite barbarians¡¯ strength was on par with the T5s, their dexterity was slightly inferior to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s.


    As long as he tried his best to escape, it would be a little difficult for the barbarians behind to catch up to him.


    But it was different for Xun Yeyu. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s Dexterity was 17.1, while his Dexterity was probably only 6.


    Therefore, Xun Yeyu was most worried that Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker would abandon him just so they could shake off the barbarians.


    The Great Hoodwinker nced at Xun Yeyu. The old man was smart as a tack and immediately saw Xun Yeyu¡¯s thoughts. He snapped, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t leave you behind. At worst, I¡¯ll turn around and buy you some time.¡±


    Xun Yeyu teared up and muttered, ¡°As long as I survive this, I¡¯ll definitely y my part for the Prosperous Northwest, I promise¡­.¡±


    All of a sudden, a figure rushed over from the other side of the wilderness. Xun Yeyu focused his gaze and saw it was White Mask!


    Ren Xiaosu had been keeping Old Xu on guard outside. But in order to escape, he summoned it back.


    After Old Xu joined them, it ced Xun Yeyu on its shoulder without any effort.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°We can advance at full speed this way. The barbarians behind us can eat our dust.¡±


    Old Xu¡¯s Strength was rated at 35, and its Dexterity was 34.2. If the barbarians behind continued closing in on them, Ren Xiaosu thought he would just let Old Xu carry him as well and make their escape together.


    Xun Yeyu was being carried by Old Xu on its shoulder. Although he was on the verge of vomiting from the bumpy ride, he perked up when he realized he did not have to die anymore. ¡°Future Commander, let¡¯s shake them off quickly!¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°No, we can¡¯t leave them too far behind. We have to get them to chase after us!¡±


    Xun Yeyu and the Great Hoodwinker were stunned. ¡°Future Commander, they¡¯re 80 T5-ranked experts. You shouldn¡¯t y with fire.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I know what I¡¯m doing.¡±


    The location of their departure point was 90 kilometers away from Mt. Zuoyun. Based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s estimation, it would take more than an hour for them to reach the tunnel and return to the defensive position through it.


    This was because they still needed to avoid the expeditionary army blocking their way. Otherwise, their pace would be even faster.


    An hourter, Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Xun Yeyu, how far behind us are the barbarians?¡±


    Xun Yeyu said as he spat out a mouthful of bile, ¡°About 1.5 kilometers.¡±


    ¡°Are there any expeditionary army troops blocking the way up ahead?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The enemy has already set up a formation about 10 kilometers ahead.¡± Xun Yeyu said, ¡°It seems they¡¯ve guessed that we¡¯re returning to Mt. Zuoyun, so they¡¯ve been waiting there in advance.¡±


    While they were fleeing for their lives, the expeditionary army even stopped their attack on the defensive position and turned around to send two of their brigades to block their path. This was so they could intercept Ren Xiaosu andpany outside of Mt. Zuoyun.


    However, Ren Xiaosu estimated the distance. If it were 10 kilometers, the enemy could not stop them, because the entrance of the tunnely between them and the expeditionary army!


    Xun Yeyu and the Great Hoodwinker did not know about the tunnel. Seeing that there was an army in front and pursuers behind them, when Ren Xiaosu did not show any signs of changing his route, even the Great Hoodwinker was a little confused. ¡°Future Commander, are we going to kill our way through?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, there¡¯s no need for that!¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    Twenty minutester, the 80 barbarians who had gradually caught up saw the expeditionary army¡¯s brigades approaching from the horizon ahead. However, the people they were chasing had disappeared!


    The road between them and the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces waspletely empty.


    An elite barbarian shouted, ¡°Anatoli, where are they? Did you lose track of their scent?¡±


    Puzzled, Anatoli replied, ¡°No, their scent is just up ahead!¡±


    The barbarian who spoke first felt that something was wrong. He quickly ran forward, but after running for just 200 meters, he suddenly saw a one-meter-wide tunnel entrance appear in the ground!


    ¡°They escaped through here!¡± The barbarian said angrily, ¡°Where does this tunnel lead?¡±


    ¡°No matter where it leads, the general has given the order that we must catch up to them!¡± Anatoli said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. Even if there¡¯s a maze underground, I can still locate them by scent!¡±


    ¡°No.¡± The barbarian who spoke earlier refuted, ¡°20 of us will go down. The rest of you, stay on guard aboveground. After all, we don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on inside. If we head in rashly, we might run straight into trouble.¡±


    ¡°Alright, 20 of us will enter the tunnel!¡±


    With that, the barbarians filed in and left behind 60 of theirrades to stand guard aboveground and wait for the main forces to arrive.


    However, Ren Xiaosu andpany did not even have to lower their heads as they ran in the tunnel due to their height. This was because Ji Zi¡¯ang had made it based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s height. The tunnel¡¯s height was exactly 10 centimeters taller than Ren Xiaosu.


    Although Ren Xiaosu was now 1.81 meters tall, most of the barbarians were around 1.95 meters tall. Therefore, the barbarians found it extremely difficult to run in the tunnel.


    However, the barbarians thought it was fortunate that the underground tunnel was not a maze. There was only one path forward.


    ¡°Wait, we can¡¯t give chase anymore. This tunnel leads all the way to Mt. Zuoyun. Who knows if we might just reach the inside of their defensive position.¡± A barbarian said anxiously, ¡°At that time, there will only be the 20 of us while they have several thousand soldiers!¡±


    The barbarians were not stupid. They immediately guessed where this tunnel might lead.


    The barbarians in the tunnel slowly came to a stop. One of them sneered and said, ¡°They¡¯re trying to lure us into the defensive position to kill us, but that¡¯s really underestimating us. The farthest man behind, go and tell those on the surface that we need 20 more men down here. Tell them to inform the main forces at Mt. Zuoyun that we¡¯re going to break through from behind enemy lines right now and create a chance for the main forces to break through from the front!¡±


    The barbarians¡¯ n was instantly formed. If this tunnel really led to the defensive position, the sudden appearance of these 40bat experts would surely cause enough damage to the defensive position of the Central ins people.


    Although they would die, death was nothingpared to the glory of the expeditionary army.


    As long as they could disrupt the rhythm of the defensive position and allow the main forces to upy this ce, their sacrifices would be worth it. Their names would also be carved onto the stone tablet in front of the pce they would build here!


    Thinking of this, the elite barbarians got fired up. Someone shouted, ¡°Have the main forces bring their heavy armor here! Remember, maintain formation. Don¡¯t exit the tunnel at the first signs of light at the entrance. Instead, we should break through the surface from the tunnel at lightning speed so the enemy will be caught off guard!¡±


    Actually, they all knew that since they had been chasing after these Central ins people for so long, they would definitely have to go in and have a look no matter what. Otherwise, no one would feel satisfied. Furthermore, they were under the orders of their general, so even if they knew it was dangerous up ahead, they would still have to charge in.


    One of the highest-ranked barbarians said ruthlessly, ¡°If the Central ins people nt explosives at the end of the tunnel, Alexius, use your body to block the st, understand?¡±


    After that, the barbarians returned to the surface and put on their heavy armor before crawling back into the tunnel.


    Ren Xiaosu had already returned to the defensive position. He said solemnly to Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°Let¡¯s begin.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, Ji Zi¡¯ang altered the terrain and connected the exit of the tunnel to the cesspit used by 6,000 people.


    Wang Yun muttered, ¡°They¡¯ll probably be left with psychological trauma for the rest of their lives¡­.¡±

 Chapter 950 - A great victory

    <h4>Chapter 950: A great victory</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Before Ren Xiaosu set off on his mission, he had pulled Ji Zi¡¯ang aside and whispered something to him. At the time, Wang Yun vaguely heard mention of the cesspit. So Wang Yun could vaguely guess at that time what Ren Xiaosu might be thinking.


    By putting the tunnel and the cesspit together, it was very difficult not to associate it with something bad.


    But even though everyone was mentally prepared, they still found it a little cruel when this indescribable scene happened.


    The level of the cesspit rapidly decreased, taking only five minutes to drain to half its original level.


    P5092 was speechless. He had been studying military strategy for more than 10 years, but this was the first time he saw someone doing something like that on the battlefield.


    Ren Xiaosu was really willing to resort to anything on the battlefield to achieve victory.


    .


    Mt. Zuoyun was once again attacked by the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces. They saw the barbarians rushing over from the wilderness, and it looked like they were coordinating with the elite barbarians underground to carry out a pincer attack.


    However, they were still unaware of the cruel things that would soon befall their elite warriors.


    Wang Yun thought about it from the other perspective where someone used such a method against him. His scalp went numb.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Xun Yeyu, ¡°How far have those underground barbarians gone?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re right over there and advancing quickly. I estimate they¡¯ll encounter the¡­ within a minute,¡± Xun Yeyu said as he tripped over his words. He really did not want to talk about it as it was a little gross.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Ji Zi¡¯ang and pointed to a spot. ¡°Over there, cut off their escape route there and leave a venttion hole behind them.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang nodded and said.


    Everyone understood Ren Xiaosu had never had any intention of letting the barbarians leave.


    In the tunnel, Anatoli, who was at the front of the group, suddenly said, ¡°I smell something strange!¡±


    Anatoli was the ¡°Crazy Bear¡± responsible for tracking Ren Xiaosu with his sense of smell in this group of elites. But just as he finished speaking, the barbarian behind him snapped, ¡°Even without your sense of smell, we can smell the strange smell.¡±


    As they spoke, the barbarians nearly teared up from choking. It was not that they were crying from sadness but that the smell was too pungent!


    ¡°Retreat! Retreat!¡± Anatoli suddenly shouted.


    Unlike what they had imagined, the enemy did not nt any bombs in the tunnel. Instead, they used an even more despicable method!


    But when they wanted to turn around and return through the passageway behind them, they were shocked to discover that the path had been sealed off. All that was left was a venttion hole only big enough to fit a thigh through!


    The reason why Ren Xiaosu wanted Ji Zi¡¯ang to leave an opening there was purely so that those indescribable things could get in easier.


    By the time the barbarians realized the path behind them had beenpletely sealed off, they were getting devoured by a yellow torrent.


    One of the barbarians immediatelymanded, ¡°Break open the ceiling of the tunnel. We¡¯re very close to the surface now, so we should be able to open up a path to the top¡­ glugurgh¡­¡±


    When the other barbarians heard the drowning sound thisrade made, they nearly vomited.


    However, they were not much better off. When one of the barbarians saw the yellow torrent had already reached his thigh, he immediately hit the soilyer above his head with everything he had.


    With just one punch, the soilyer started to loosen up a little. ¡°Quick, let¡¯s hit the soilyer above our heads together¡­ glugurgh¡­¡±


    Ren Xiaosu and the others were quietly watching from the defensive position as the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces approached.


    P5092 looked through his military binocrs and suddenly got excited. ¡°The barbarians¡¯ main forces seem to be approaching very hurriedly this time. Even their formations are not orderly. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us.¡±


    Under normal circumstances, even if the barbarians were to attack the defensive position, they would do it in a very disciplined manner. But now, in a race against time, the barbarians in the tunnel had coordinated with the barbarians on the outside. They could no longer use the usual tactics and only wanted to attack the defensive position at full speed.


    In this way, a lot of weaknesses would be exposed.


    P5092 immediately gave orders. ¡°Let¡¯s take it slowly this time. Let them get a little closer first. I want to take out these troops today!¡±


    After that, P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Future Commander, this is an opportunity you created for our defensive position!¡±


    ¡°Ahem, not so loud, not so loud, please,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    While they were talking, the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces were about to arrive at the front of the defensive position. However, themander of this group was a little puzzled. Didn¡¯t the elite warriors say they were going to coordinate for an attack from the inside? Why did it seem like nothing was stirring in the Central ins¡¯ defensive position? Could their own experts have failed?


    No way. He had not heard any explosions or gunshots earlier. He knew very well how strong those experts were, so there was no reason why they would get killed by the Central ins people without a sound.


    That was right. Those experts were probably waiting for them to attack first. After all, it was a little dangerous to breach the position from the tunnel. It would be better to attract the attention of the Central ins people on the surface first so they could conceal their movements!


    Yes, that must be it!


    ¡°Attack! Attack with all your might!¡± The regimentalmander shouted, ¡°Blow the attack horn!¡±


    Themands of the barbarian troops were basically issued through signal gs and the sound of horns. So when the horn sounded a drawn-out signal, all of the soldiers in the main forces started dashing madly towards the defensive position without any regard for their lives.


    But before they could get to the point below the defensive line, the ground in front of them suddenly cracked. Right after, it caved in.


    When the charging barbarians smelled the scent emitting from underground, they vomited several times on the spot!


    Then, when a few people who were covered from top to bottom in filth crawled out of the yellow torrent, they vomited even harder!


    Anatoli wiped his face and shouted, ¡°What are you standing there for? I¡¯m Anatoli of the expeditionary army¡¯s advance guard. Hurry up and pull the others up!¡±


    However, the other barbarian soldiers looked at him and hesitated for a few seconds without moving forward.


    First of all, this sight was a little strange and no one could make out Anatoli¡¯s face. Second, it was way too disgusting and they could not bear to do it.


    ¡°What are you waiting for? Hurry up!¡± Anatoli roared.


    But what answered him this time was the sound of gunfireing from the defensive position.


    Amid the loud sniping, Yang Xiaojin received Ren Xiaosu¡¯s directive to open fire on all the barbarians who emerged from the tunnel.


    ording to Ren Xiaosu, she did not have to worry about the others and only needed to snipe the elite barbarians.


    As the battle unfolded, more than a dozen machine gun nests at the defensive position opened fire. In the past, they would only be able to take out about 2,000 barbarians¡¯ troops in a single day. But this time, it was definitely the best opportunity for the 6th Combat Brigade to attack the expeditionary army.


    Amid the gunshots, an unconceble light glinted in the eyes of the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade. Having been stuck at this defensive position for three days, everyone knew that even if they killed 10 barbarians for each one of their soldiers, they would still be wiped out. Right now, they really needed to score a great victory to boost their morale!

 Chapter 951 - No such thing as a bad nickname

    <h4>Chapter 951: No such thing as a bad nickname</h4>


    At the defensive position, the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s soldiers were taking out the barbarians with their machine guns to their heart¡¯s content.


    This battle started very suddenly and ended very quickly. The main forces of the expeditionary army had already started to reorganize. If not for the elite barbarians who said they would coordinate with the main forces from the inside for an attack, the barbarians would not have gone to battle again in such a hurry.


    As a result, the expeditionary army paid a very heavy price in today¡¯s battle. Fortunately, the regimentalmander leading the battle was still able to keep his cool. The barbarians did not panic when they retreated.


    But even so, they still ended up paying with the lives of over 3,000 soldiers in this battle.


    When the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade saw the barbarians retreating, the entire defensive position immediately cheered. Although they knew the war was far from over and they still had to face extremely tough battles after this, it did not stop them from getting excited at this moment.


    A veteran next to a heavy machine gun said animatedly, ¡°See that? The barbarians were just about to pull out of range, but I managed to squeeze a shot through a gap in their shields and hit a barbarian in the head. How godlike is that? I told y¡¯all I¡¯m a sharpshooter. Y¡¯all should¡¯ve seen your expressions!¡±


    A few soldiers sat down at the position and took off their boots right then and there. Immediately, the entire machine gun nest was filled with a faint stench of feet.


    The boots were extremely thick and heavy, and all of the soldiers had tied their booces tightly. Although it helped them be more nimble in battle, it made their ankles really sore after a prolonged period.


    When they all took off their boots, some of them immediately let out a sigh of relief.


    Today¡¯s battle hadsted for a full 16 hours, with four watches of soldiers rotating through this position alone. Everyone was extremely exhausted.


    Suddenly, the aroma of meat drifted across the defensive position. Some of the veterans¡¯ eyes widened. ¡°Meat, it¡¯s the smell of freshly stewed meat! It¡¯s not canned luncheon meat!¡±


    ¡°You can even distinguish by smell?¡± a recruit wondered.


    ¡°Of course.¡± The veteran chuckled, ¡°When you get sick of eating luncheon meat, you¡¯ll be able to tell as well. Quick, go and send someone to collect the food. If we¡¯rete, the meat will probably be finished by the others.¡±


    After some ten minutes, several dozen soldiers came back with their aluminum mess tins filled with food. They said excitedly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the meat running out. Brigade Commander Zhang said there¡¯s plenty for everyone today!¡±


    The veteran wondered, ¡°Eh, where did the meate from?¡±


    ¡°The brigademander said that it was brought back by the futuremander. I heard that he went out and robbed five of the barbarians¡¯ supply convoys.¡± The recruit exined with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s not only meat but fresh vegetables as well!¡±


    When everyone heard there were fresh vegetables, they got even more excited than when they heard about the fresh meat.


    Ever since they came to the Central ins from the Northwest, they basically had carrots, radishes, and potatoes along the way. It was not that the Northwest Army was poor, but that only these types of vegetables could be stored conveniently.


    It was impossible to be particr about food when fighting a war. Ensuring they had enough nutrition and enough to eat was already a very difficult task.


    But now, when the veterans opened their aluminum mess tins, one of them fell silent after seeing shredded pork with green pepper in it.


    Actually, this was just a simple meal that consisted of shredded pork with green pepper. However, it evoked many of his memories of home.


    When going on campaign, even minor details could make people immerse themselves in the beautiful times they had in the past.


    War was cruel. The harsher the environment, the more they needed these beautiful moments as support to continue fighting.


    ¡°I miss home.¡± The veteran sighed.


    A recruit suddenly asked, ¡°toon Commander, what made you join the military?¡±


    The veteran smiled. ¡°I felt it was an honor. Y¡¯all came from the Zong Consortium¡¯s territory, so you won¡¯t understand. To the people of Fortress 178, it¡¯s an honor to be able to defend the fortress.¡±


    ¡°Do you regret it?¡± the recruit asked.


    ¡°What¡¯s there to regret?¡± The veteran held his mess tin up and shoveled down some of the shredded pork with green pepper. ¡°When you¡¯re old and ying chess with other old men on the street, all you have to do is mention you¡¯ve served as a soldier of Fortress 178, and those old men will automatically show you more respect. This is something that I can brag about for the rest of my life.¡±


    ¡­


    After securing a great victory, nothing would make the soldiers happier than getting a good meal. P5092 quietly watched the soldiers shuttling back and forth near the chow tents and suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu in a solemn tone, ¡°Thank you, Future Commander. These supplies came really timely.¡±


    They had begun rationing provisions the previous day to ensure there would be no shortage of food at the defensive position. Each soldier started receiving half the usual quantity for their meals just so there would be enough food tost.


    However, after their rations had been reduced for just a day, Ren Xiaosu brought back an unimaginable amount of provisions.


    The food from the five supply convoys he had brought back amounted to a veryrge quantity, with half of it previously looted from the Pyro Company by the expeditionary army.


    Those were the provisions left behind by nearly a 100,000 troops. Even if there was not much left, it was easily enough for the 6th Combat Brigade to deal with their emergency.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang suddenly felt a sense of joy when he saw the atmosphere at the defensive position livening up again. He suddenly felt that men should fight alongside a group of like-minded people in a ce like this.


    But before he could rejoice for long, he saw Wang Yun walk over with a smile. ¡°Old Ji, you¡¯ve scored a really valorous deed in this battle. Not only did you manage to disgust the barbarians, but you¡¯ve cleared out the cesspit as well. Y¡¯know, Zhang Xiaoman was still worried the cesspit was too small yesterday. What if it spilled over? And then you came along and solved the problem immediately.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s mouth twitched a little. Actually, he had no intention to bring up this achievement.


    But Wang Yun continued, ¡°And now, your achievements have spread throughout the 6th Combat Brigade. Do you know what they¡¯re calling you now?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang got an ominous feeling. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha,¡± Wang Yun suddenly burst outughing. ¡°They call you the Cleanser of the Altars[1]!¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was speechless.


    ¡°How do you like this nickname?¡± Wang Yun asked happily.


    ¡°They¡¯re just cracking a joke,¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang said with a dark expression.


    ¡°Come on, didn¡¯t you say it before yourself? There might be names in this world that were given badly, but there¡¯s really no such thing as a bad nickname!¡± Wang Yun said.


    Before this, the nickname of Qin Shihuang had been troubling Wang Yun for several days. While he was feeling depressed, Ji Zi¡¯ang rubbed salt into his wound by saying there was no such thing as a bad nickname.


    He finally returned the favor to Ji Zi¡¯ang. Wang Yun felt the gloom in his heart had suddenly dissipated, and he felt much better!


    Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s face was flushed as he watched Wang Yun walk away triumphantly with his hands behind his back. His entire reputation was probably going to be ruined!


    However, Ji Zi¡¯ang actually chuckled as he thought about it. ¡°Damn, which bastard gave me that nickname?¡±


    A soldier who passed by said softly, ¡°Actually, that nickname was given by Commander Wang Yun. We just thought that it was very appropriate¡­.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s face darkened once again.


    [1] Pun of the name of j¨¬ng t¨¢n sh¨« zh¨§, j¨¬ng t¨¢n = eating up all the leftovers on altars, the sh¨« in sh¨« zh¨§(envoy), is reced by the word ʺ (shit). | He is instead rewarded for his part in the pilgrimage¡¯s sess with a job as ¡°Cleanser of the Altars¡± (Chinese: œQ‰¯Ê¹Õß; pinyin: j¨¬ng t¨¢n sh¨« zh¨§) and all the leftovers he can eat. |

 Chapter 952 - The barbarians desperate counterattack

    <h4>Chapter 952: The barbarians¡¯ desperate counterattack</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The soldiers were able to take a short rest after the great victory, but not themanders.


    Before everyone could even digest the food in their stomachs, P5092 called for an emergency war meeting.


    The modestly sizedmand post was packed full ofmanders and staff officers of all ranks.


    Everyone was unsure why P5092 had summoned them. Didn¡¯t they just score a resounding victory?


    Then P5092 swept his gaze across the officers in front of him and said, ¡°Although we¡¯ve just won a battle, everyone should understand that we¡¯ll have to face an even more brutal battle next. Time is tight, so I won¡¯t discuss it any further. We¡¯ll just assign the defensive tasks directly.¡±


    Everyone looked at one another and suddenly felt a sense of urgency. It was as though P5092 felt that a great disaster was about to befall the defensive position, and this left them even more puzzled.


    .


    P5092 looked at the 1st Regiment and said, ¡°Previously, the 1st Regiment had been deployed as the maneuver force, so it was rtively simple carrying out your rotational defensive missions. But starting from tonight, things will be different. Beginning from zero hundred hours to zero six hundred, I want the 1st Regiment to be deployed at Position 3 and be on Level Onebat readiness.¡±


    The 1st Regiment¡¯smander, Qian Yiwen, was stunned. ¡°Sir, so far, the barbarians have neverunched an attack during the wee hours of the morning.¡±


    P5092 nced at him and said, ¡°It¡¯s precisely because they¡¯ve never done so during this period before that it¡¯s easy to assume their attack patterns. So we need to be more vignt. Moreover, you must prepare the soldiers for the worst. From today onwards, you all will have to bear the most important task of defending the entire defensive position.¡±


    Everyone looked at each other. ording to P5092, if the barbarians were tounch their fiercest attack, they would definitely choose the period before dawn.


    P5092 said, ¡°We need a clear line of sight to use our Central ins¡¯ firearms effectively, but the barbarians don¡¯t have that requirement when they attack. Even if we consider the advantages that each side has, the expeditionary army is still likely tounch a night attack rather than purposely avoid this period. That is where the problem lies, and I¡¯ll only exin this once. 2nd Regiment, I need you to prepare the things I¡¯ve briefed you about.¡±


    The 2nd Regiment¡¯smander, Kong Sheng, stood at attention and said, ¡°Roger.¡±


    ¡°If I¡¯m not wrong,¡± P5092 said, ¡°the expeditionary army will eitherunch a full-scale attack tonight or tomorrow night at thetest. Everyone, it¡¯s all up to you whether we can hold the defensive position sessfully or not. Perhaps we might all die here in another few days. The barbarians have many more troops than us, so even if we just clinched a great victory, they still have ten times our strength.


    ¡°All of you should also understand that in my battle ns, I¡¯m pitting us against the expeditionary army in a battle that¡¯s ten on one. So the most optimistic scenario is that we perish here together with the barbarians. Over the next few days, you guys might not even have time to sleep. There will be people getting injured, and some of you might get exhausted. But I hope that everyone will constantly remember your purpose here before those moments arrive. Alright, meeting adjourned.¡±


    After that, all the officers walked out of themand post. Off to the side, Wang Yun asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid it¡¯ll affect their morale if you deliberately make the situation sound so bad?¡±


    ¡°If I don¡¯t tell them, wouldn¡¯t theye to that conclusion themselves?¡± P5092 said calmly, ¡°Honestly, we¡¯re all aware of the situation we¡¯re facing now. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I want to etch into their minds during the battle that killing ten barbarians will only be enough for us to draw even with the enemy. If they kill one more barbarian on top of that, another one of theirrades might be able to survive. This requires the courage to fight to the death; it¡¯s a strength that¡¯s gained from despair in the face of adversity.¡±


    ¡°Then why did you specte that the barbarians will force an attack?¡± Wang Yun wondered.


    P5092 did not answer this question.


    ¡­


    Mt. Zuoyuny quiet in the wilderness of the pitch-ck night. Amid the towering mountain peaks, the defensive position appeared exceptionally insignificant and powerless.


    But in fact, hundreds of blinds spread out across the defensive position in a staggered manner. When the soldiers traversed the trenches, the blinds reached as high as their chests.


    This was even when the expeditionary army did not use any firearms and explosives, but if they did, they would have to dig bomb shelters and trenches so deep they would needdders to climb up. Then, to observe the situation outside the trenches, they would even have to use periscopes to look over like they were in a submarine.


    At the defensive position, the blinds were staggered like rows of houses. P5092 even gave specific names to every main route, such as Zhenxing Road, Killing Barbarians Road, and so on.


    It was not because he wanted to boost their morale, but to facilitate the quick delivery of orders during chaotic battles.


    Actually, this was amonly used tactic in ancient warfare. Ever since people developed other forms of warfaremunication, this method was gradually abandoned. But now that the 6th Combat Brigade could no longer depend on theirmunications equipment, P5092 reimplemented this method.


    At this moment, a veteran was leaning against a trench blind on Zhenxing Road and was carving some words on it with a shell casing. A recruit went over to have a closer look and was surprised to see the words ¡°Zhenxing Road.¡±


    But just as the recruit was about to say something, the veteran suddenly stood upright and looked over the blind with a pair of military binocrs.


    In the distance, ck figures could be seen rushing over at high speed. The dense crowd of people moved like a tidal wave and made the veteran¡¯s scalp tingle. ¡°We¡¯re under attack! Quick, tell themand post that the barbarians are here!¡±


    Everyone was curious if P5092 had made the right call when the barbarians clearly neverunched an attack during this time before.


    But now, everyone knew the answer. P5092 was right.


    At themand post, Wang Yun turned to P5092 after being informed of the enemy attack. ¡°How on earth did you guess that the expeditionary army woulde? You didn¡¯t answer mest time.¡±


    ¡°Because I went to check on the supplies Future Commander brought back.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Although there¡¯s quite a lot of supplies, a quarter of them was ck bread. You had a taste of the ck bread too. It¡¯s astringent, bitter, and sour. I doubt even the barbarians like eating something like that, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s something fit for human consumption.¡±


    ¡°This shows that their supplies are running really low. Perhaps the environment in the north is too harsh, so they don¡¯t have enough to eat, and that¡¯s why they headed south,¡± P5092 analyzed. ¡°But just when they breached the Pyro Company¡¯s defensive line and found a new source of supplies, it ended up getting snatched away by Future Commander. Including their own supplies and the ones they took from the Pyro Company, Future Commander did not leave anything behind for them.¡±


    ¡°So their ns for the resources obtained from the Pyro Company to support the battle were disrupted by Future Commander,¡± Wang Yun said with a start.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Now that their supplies have been stolen, if they still don¡¯t stake everything on this attempt andunch a full-scale attack, they might starve before they even have a chance against the Central ins. Although it sounds a little weird, the barbarians no longer have the initiative. You might not believe it, but they might already feel that this will be theirst desperate counterattack¡­.¡±


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu never thought he could have such a great impact on the overall situation by just plundering a few supply convoys.

 Chapter 953 - Man-portable thermobaric explosives

    <h4>Chapter 953: Man-portable thermobaric explosives</h4>


    The supply line was known as the lifeline because if it got destroyed, more than a 100,000 soldiers at the front line would get plunged into starvation.


    No matter how brave the soldiers were or how great theirmander¡¯s military expertise was, once they ran out of food, it would be a terrifying event that would inevitably lead to their defeat in war.


    When P5092 came to Mt. Zuoyun at the beginning, he was not actually nning to disrupt the barbarians¡¯ supply line. After all, the barbarians would definitely guard it heavily, and that was exactly how it was. In order to protect their supply line, the expeditionary army surrounded Mt. Zuoyun with 70,000 troops.


    Therefore, P5092 only wanted to force the expeditionary army toe here and trade their lives for the position. He did not think his strategy would pose any threat to the barbarians¡¯ supply line.


    But neither P5092 nor the expeditionary army could have expected that this impossible task would really be so ¡°conveniently¡±pleted by Ren Xiaosu.


    Currently, the expeditionary army was facing a food shortage. They did not wish tounch an all-out attack at this time, but the situation forced their hand.


    Just as P5092 had said, the expeditionary army wasunching a desperate counterattack.


    Wang Yun was stunned. But when he saw P5092 with a frown on his face, he asked, ¡°Since we have the initiative now, why are you still frowning?¡±


    ¡°Because from this moment on, the true brutality of war will be vividly showcased.¡± P5092 said, ¡°War¡¯s not a chess game on a chessboard but a journey towards tragic victory built on the backs of many lives.¡±


    The inside of the tents glowed orange while the outside was pitch-dark. Several res shot up into the sky above the defensive position and released a zing red glow before falling down to the ground slowly.


    While in midair, the magnesium powder in the res burned brightly as it reacted with the oxidizing agent, barium nitrate. It was a truly spectacr sight.


    But under this beautiful glow, the hideous expeditionary army charged forward with their ugly leather shields. This time, the expeditionary army¡¯s pace of attack was several times faster than before. Just as P5092 had guessed, the barbarians could no longer tolerate the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s presence at Mt. Zuoyun. They would have to end the battle here as quickly as possible.


    At the defensive position, the heavy machine guns were spitting out barrages of fire that resembled red-orange eggs in the night. When the 12.7 mm bullets burst out from the gun chamber at a speed of 800 meters per second, they resembled a burning me in the darkness.


    As the bullets passed through the rifling in the barrel, they started spinning rapidly, and this spinning force helped it to prate everything in its path.


    After being hit by such tremendous power, the barbarians¡¯ leather shields started cracking like hideous flowers blooming in the mud.


    However, there was no longer any hesitation from the barbarians today. They held up their rapidly deteriorating shields and kept charging forward just so they could get to the point below the defensive position before their shields werepletely destroyed.


    This was a tactic that held no regard for their lives. The barbarians sent here paved the way for the rest of the troops like they were cannon fodder. They sacrificed themselves to close the gap between the expeditionary army and the defensive position.


    When P5092 saw this from the defensive position, he called Zhang Xiaoman over and instructed, ¡°It looks like the barbarians will try to breach our defensive position and catch us off guard tonight. They probably still don¡¯t know we¡¯re waiting for them, so theyunched their fiercest attack immediately. Go and tell the 2nd Regiment that the things I had them prepare will get put to use soon!¡±


    As the expeditionary army gave their all to breach the defensive position, the defenders finally prated the barbarians¡¯ heavy shields when they were about 400 meters away.


    But a secondter, several dozen heavily armored warriors rushed out from behind the shields. They held steel shields in their hands and charged forward bravely without fear of death.


    The barbarians who died earlier were just cannon fodder. Not until they were 400 meters away did they reveal their intentions.


    So it turned out the cannon fodder¡¯s mission was to conceal the presence of these heavily armored warriors behind their leather shields and escort them here.


    The heavily armored warriors were wearing their own armor and carrying steel shields that were dismantled from the Pyro Company¡¯s armored brigade they had defeated.


    The 6th Combat Brigade quickly concentrated their heavy machine guns¡¯ firepower near these several dozen barbarians. But even if they could dy their advance a little, they were unable to deal any effective damage to these heavily armored warriors.


    P5092 said to a staff officer, ¡°Tell the 2nd Regiment to intercept them right away.¡±


    At Position 1¡¯s Northwest Road, 20 soldiers taking cover behind the blinds suddenly ced an RPG-like weapon onto their shoulders and aimed them at the heavily armored warriors, covered by theirrades¡¯ fire.


    The 2nd Regiment¡¯smander calcted the distance between them and the barbarians and shouted, ¡°On my mark! Once those heavily armored warriors get within 310 meters of us, open fire! No fucking breakfast tomorrow for those who miss their targets!¡±


    These soldiers were not carrying RPGunchers but thermobaric bombs! It was the most terrifyingly destructive weapon among all the incendiary bombs!


    Initially, napalm wasmonly used in the wars between the Alliance of Strongholds. However, it was gradually phased out.


    Some people said that napalm attacks were too cruel. But in fact, if there was really anything that could make the military give up a weapon voluntarily, it was most likely an even more advanced weapon that could rece it.


    This time, the 6th Combat Brigade came to the Central ins with 32 single-use, man-portable thermobaric bombs. Currently, they were all in the hands of the 2nd Regiment.


    ¡°Open fire!¡± the 2nd Regiment¡¯smander roared.


    As soon as he gave the order, 20 thermobaric bombs wereunched onto the battlefield.


    The thermobaric bombsnded near the targets in the blink of an eye. Instantly, the first microexplosions urred, and the secondary charges within were quickly dispersed into the air.


    The secondary charge was not an explosive but a high-energy fuel such as ethylene oxide.


    When the second explosion went off, the fuel burned at intense temperatures, instantly reaching up to 2,500 degrees Celsius at the explosion¡¯s core. This caused an extreme pressure to build up and created a powerful st wave.


    As the thermobaric bombs did not contain an oxidizing agent, all the oxygen in the surrounding air would be consumed upon an explosion, and an anoxic zone would be created.


    As the heavily armored warriors charged forward bravely, the thermobaric bombs exploded around them. A modern civilization had collided violently with a barbaric civilization.


    No matter how strong the barbarians¡¯ heavy armor was or how solid their shields might be, the high temperature and pressure would wipe everything out.


    Then the anoxic zone created would cause the subsequent barbarians who rushed in to quickly suffocate.


    But P5092 suddenly frowned. ¡°Wang Yun, is there any difference between this group of heavily armored warriors and the ones that rushed out the first time?¡±


    Wang Yun quicklypared the differences between the two groups. It only took him a second to say, ¡°Something¡¯s not right. The heavily armored warriors this time are much slower than the first ones we saw!¡±


    P5092 sighed. ¡°I see. Order the 2nd Regiment to stopunching the thermobaric bombs and wait for my orders.¡±


    P5092 was d he had anticipated this and was prepared beforehand. He did not order the 2nd Regiment to fire all of the thermobaric bombs in one go and kept 12 unused.


    That was because the heavily armored warriors who showed up this time were probably just the higher-level cannon fodder the expeditionary army used to deplete their weapons and supplies. The real elites were still hidden in the shadows!

 Chapter 954 - Veterans illuminate the path forward for rookies

    <h4>Chapter 954: Veterans illuminate the path forward for rookies</h4>


    The heavily armored warriors who appeared this time were definitely not as quick and powerful as the first ones who appeared.


    This incident undoubtedly reminded P5092 again that the enemy he was facing was extremely cunning and cautious in terms of tactics and strategies.


    The incident back when the Pyro Company was lured north and nearly got wiped out was still fresh in his mind. P5092 said to a staff officer, ¡°Tell the 2nd Regiment¡¯smander to keep the remaining thermobaric bombs for now. I¡¯ll have the 4th Regiment use mortars to slow down the expeditionary army¡¯s attacks for the time being.¡±


    The staff officer left to carry out the order. Wang Yun said, ¡°Although those heavily armored warriors can¡¯t bepared to the ones back then, they¡¯re still considerably strong, being somewhere between the elites and the average soldier. This expeditionary army is really ruthless. They¡¯re actually trading lives to probe our defense.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll just have to counter whatever they throw at us. Since it isn¡¯t the first time I¡¯ve dealt with them, I¡¯m not too worried about it,¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°Then what are you worried about?¡± Wang Yun asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m worried that something will happen to the weapons we¡¯re depending on,¡± P5092 said.


    Wang Yun was taken aback. ¡°Are you saying there¡¯s a problem with the weapons supplied by the Wang Consortium?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± P5092 said, ¡°You¡¯ve checked them as well. They¡¯re fine. I¡¯m referring to the lifespan of the HMGs and theck of ammo.¡±


    Humans had a lifespan, and so did guns. Someone once tried to continuously fire an automatic rifle to see what would happen.


    In the end, the barrel of the automatic rifle slowly turned red hot before melting.


    This was the situation they were facing. As the expeditionary army was attacking too aggressively, there was no time to cool the guns at many of the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s positions.


    Since the water from the spring was limited, it could not be used to cool the gun barrels. As such, the only way would be to have the soldiers pee on them. However, they would also run out of urine eventually.


    Moreover, it was not only a matter of whether the gun barrels could withstand high-intensity battles. If any of the heavy machine guns were to malfunction, it might cause a certain position to crumble.


    In war, all kinds of idents could happen. Just like how people would fall sick, sophisticated machines would break down.


    And the ammunition the 6th Combat Brigade had might notst very long. There were simply too many enemies.


    At Position 2¡¯s Guangfu Road, a veteran was firing a heavy machine gun in bursts at the barbarians. As the machine gun spat out a barrage of fire, brass shells were constantly ejected out of the chamber.


    Clinks rang as the numerous shells dropped to the ground and umted and collided with each other.


    ¡°Reload!¡± Seeing that the machine gun was about to run out of ammo, the veteran called his assistant over to reload.


    The recruit ran over with a box containing the ammo belt. He opened the cover on top of the machine gun and inserted the first round of the ammo belt into it.


    Everything was proceeding very smoothly, but when he wanted to close the cover, he realized he could not!


    The veteran shouted, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? The barbarians are almost in front of us!¡±


    The recruit was nearly in tears. ¡°I don¡¯t know! I can¡¯t seem to close the cover!¡±


    The veteran took a close look and knew it was not due to the recruit being clumsy, but that the front section of the ammo belt was not aligned properly, resulting in the cover failing to close. They would have to readjust the ammo belt before loading it again.


    Ammo belts were invented to provide more ammo for heavy machine guns with a high rate of fire. They were more practical than having to reload from magazines and ammo drums.


    However, the ammo belt also had its own ws, which was that its loading speed was far slower than that of a magazine and ammo drum.


    Of course, this was caused by their own carelessness. Soldiers were supposed to check that everything was proper before heading into battle, and such mistakes were not allowed.


    The veteran did not say anything further. He drew a dagger from his belt and started to fix the ammo belt. But there was no time. The expeditionary army in front of them was only a few dozen meters away from the position.


    When the barbarians heard the gunfire stop, they immediately rushed forward. They were almost running with all their might.


    The veteran roared, ¡°Covering fire! Toss grenades, fire grenadeunchers!¡±


    The soldiers around him provided suppressive fire with their automatic rifles, but the power of the automatic rifles was negligiblepared to the heavy machine gun¡¯s.


    Some of the soldiers tossed their grenades at the barbarians, but when the barbarians saw that they were not far from breaking through the defensive position, they abandoned their battered shields and used their powerful physical fitness to avoid the trajectory of the grenades.


    The hand grenades still proved to be effective, as many of the barbarians immediately lost theirbat capacity when they were hit by the st or fragmentation from the grenades.


    Moreover, this defensive line was equipped with four handheld grenadeunchers. In an instant, dozens of barbarians were killed by the sts!


    However, these suppressive fire measures were still not enough to deal with the numerous barbarians rushing fearlessly up to the position.


    It was not that they were not deadly enough, but that the barbarians did not cower at all. When theirrades at the front died, those behind would automatically take their ce and continue the charge. The barbarians were mentally prepared to sacrifice themselves to the suppressive fire.


    And as long as a few sporadic barbarians managed to get close to the position, there would be a continuous stream of barbarians behind trying to force an opening from there.


    The veteran finally fixed the ammo belt. However, it was toote. He could even clearly make out the facial features of the barbarians by now. They were so close he could almost hear their heavy breathing and ferocious roars.


    It was over.


    The veteran¡¯s face turned ashen. He pulled the soldier beside him over. ¡°You¡¯re the machine gunner now!¡±


    With that, he pulled out a strip of explosives wrapped in yellow paper from under the blind and prepared to jump out of the position.


    Hand grenades alone would no longer be effective.


    The recruit grabbed the veteran¡¯s arm. ¡°toon Commander, where are you going? It¡¯s all my fault, I didn¡¯t check it beforehand¡ª¡±


    The veteran pped him. ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking get in my way! Learn from this! You¡¯re now a veteran too!¡±


    The recruit realized his toonmander intended to sacrifice himself and block the barbarians¡¯ path. He wanted to open up a new firing line for the machine gun position.


    There was a seven-second dy for the explosives he was holding, so he could not toss them at the enemy. If the barbarians caught them and threw them back at the position, it would all be over.


    The recruit suddenly remembered a conversation he had with the toonmander a few days ago. ¡°What¡¯s the difference between a veteran and a recruit other than not having gone into battle or killed someone before?¡±


    The veteran¡¯s answer left him confused at that time. His toonmander said, ¡°The mrs of our martyrs are buried under the copper bell at Fortress 178. They belong to the veterans who were killed in action. Do you remember the words engraved on that copper bell? ¡®Life should be a candle, burning brightly from wick to end.¡¯ The candle represents us veterans, and we¡¯re responsible for illuminating the path forward for you rookies and also shining the light home.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t until this moment that the recruit realized what those words meant.


    The veteran propped himself up with one hand and prepared to vault over the blind.


    But in the blink of an eye, the veteran suddenly saw a bloody mist erupting from two barbarians¡¯ chests five or six meters away from him!


    Snipers! The two snipers!

 Chapter 955 - Effortlessly like on flat ground

    <h4>Chapter 955: Effortlessly like on t ground</h4>


    The sniper bullets that appeared suddenly on the battlefield dashed the expeditionary army¡¯s hopes of breaching the defensive position. Not only were the barbarians about to close in on the defensive line quickly killed, but some of their elites hidden among the troops were also spotted by Yang Xiaojin.


    This way, the snipers exerted an even greater psychological toll on the expeditionary army. They could not understand how the snipers were able to identify the elite barbarians from so many soldiers, as they did not even put on any heavy armor in order to conceal themselves and avoid being fired upon by the Central ins troops.


    Ren Xiaosu was not capable of something like this. When he looked through the sniper scope, his observation ability would be weakened. Like any other person, his ability to observe things through a pair of binocrs or a surveince camera would be weakened.


    But Yang Xiaojin was different. She was used to looking at the world through a scope. Some elite barbarians hidden among the troops were looking for an opportunity to strike and did not charge forward fearlessly like the other barbarians, but she still managed to identify them at a nce.


    Actually, Yang Xiaojin did not know the barbarians were the elites who were lying low. But through her scope, she noticed they were moving stealthily and did not charge forward with the others, so she thought there must be something fishy about them.


    Since there was something wrong with them, she would just take them out.


    At first, when the two snipers joined the battlefield, the expeditionary army did not pay special attention to them. This was because they also knew about snipers from the Central ins. Therefore, themander felt the two snipers could not influence the situation on the battlefield.


    If there were only two standard snipers here, they would not have much of an impact on the entire front. It would take a long time for them to reload, and they might also not have much ammo to kill enough of them. They would also require armor-piercing bullets to deal effective damage to their heavily armored warriors.


    But Yang Xiaojin¡¯s and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ck sniper rifles were different from normal ones. First of all, they did not need to be loaded and had unlimited firepower. The fact that they could switch between whatever types of ammo they liked was enough for them to rule over the battlefield. It was like having two howitzers defending the position.


    Back when Ren Xiaosu gave one of his ck sniper rifles to Yang Xiaojin, she was so happy as she knew how powerful it was.


    Therefore, P5092 no longer regarded these two as normal snipers on the main battlefield.


    Throughout the course of the suppressive fire, the expeditionary army¡¯smander continued keeping up their attacks for a long time. He thought the snipers would eventually run out of ammo. How many shots could the two snipers fire? 50? A 100?


    Even if they could fire 4 or 500 shots, their expeditionary army still had tens of thousands of warriors. There would definitely be a time when the snipers ran out of bullets, right?


    The expeditionary army¡¯s strategy today was to trade their lives for the defensive position, so they did not care about a few hundred of theirrades dying.


    However, the expeditionary army¡¯smander slowly realized the sniper shots seemed unending. After a rough count and several hundred shotster, they still did not hear the end of it.


    He ordered his adjutant to record the frequency and number of shots fired by the enemy. In the end, he realized the two snipers lying on the opposite mountain were firing at a much more terrifying rate than the Central ins snipers they knew. Furthermore, the number of shots fired gradually climbed to a 1,000, but there were still no signs of it stopping.


    The gunshots of the anti-materiel sniper rifles were so loud they could be heard despite the continuous firing from the heavy machine guns. Gradually, the barbarians developed a fear of the sound of the gunshots. It was like someone was holding a remote control on the opposite side, and one of theirrades would die whenever it was pressed.


    This feeling of having their fate decided by others was way too unbearable.


    The expeditionary army¡¯smander remained unmoved and did not order the barbarians to tone down their attacks. He still intended to sacrifice more lives to forge a path ahead.


    Actually, this strategy was correct. After all, who would give up attacking just because of two snipers? If that were the case, they might as well retreat right back to the Far North.


    Moreover, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s mental strength was almost depleted. Every time she fired a shot from her sniper rifle, it would exhaust her mental strength.


    She started feeling dizzy and nauseous. This was a sign she had overexerted her superpower.


    Other than Ren Xiaosu, all superhumans had a limit to their mental strength, and Yang Xiaojin was no exception either.


    The ability to kill over a 1,000 people on the battlefield before her mental strength was exhausted was terrifying enough, but it was still no match for the expeditionary army¡¯s numbers.


    But Yang Xiaojin suddenly thought of something and put away her ck sniper rifle. After that, she took Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sniper rifle from him. ¡°Get down there and help them guard the defensive line. I¡¯ll use your ck sniper rifle instead.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. However, he discovered she could really use his ck sniper rifle. Moreover, Yang Xiaojin was shooting even faster than before.


    Every supernatural being would deliberately control the rate at which their mental strength was depleted when using their superpowers. As Ren Xiaosu had always had unlimited mental strength, he did not have such a concept. However, other supernatural beings had a ¡°meter¡± for their mental strength, so they would naturally pay attention to it. Furthermore, superhumans had developed a habit of being meticulous and would use their mental strength sparingly.


    Therefore, Yang Xiaojin did not use her mental strength recklessly when she was shooting previously.


    But it was different now. By using Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ck sniper rifle, it was tantamount to consuming his mental strength instead. In this way, the final shackle that restricted Yang Xiaojin¡¯s Perfect Firearms Proficiency was lifted.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry when he saw this. He had thought the gap between Yang Xiaojin and him was closing up since he was a Master Firearms Proficiency user.


    But now, he finally understood what a Perfect Firearms Proficiency user was.


    When Wang Yun heard the subtle difference in the frequency of the gunshots, he turned around and looked at the mountain behind him. But to his surprise, he saw Ren Xiaosu climbing down the mountain while Yang Xiaojin was the only one left at the sniper¡¯s nest.


    The rate of fire of this single sniper was only a little slower than when two snipers¡¯ were shooting. Wang Yun could not understand how that was possible.


    The defensive line that was originally on the verge of copse stabilized again, and the barbarians¡¯ reckless attacks started to ease up as well. Only at this moment did P5092 finally heave a sigh of relief.


    He turned around and had a look at Yang Xiaojin, who was still shooting at the enemy from the sniper¡¯s nest. ¡°This terrain, coupled with such a powerful sniper, was totally beyond what I nned for. When we first got here, I thought it was not a bad idea to perish together here with the barbarians. Then when Future Commander robbed their supply convoys, I started thinking that we might stand a chance of winning. But for some reason now, I suddenly have this inexplicable confidence that we might even be able to fight this battle very beautifully.¡±


    But then P5092 was stunned. He picked up a pair of military binocrs next to him and looked at the mountain. Then he shouted, ¡°It¡¯s an enemy ambush! There¡¯s gray creatures moving quickly above the sniper¡¯s nest!¡±


    But as soon as P5092 said that, a figure in a white mask suddenly climbed up towards those gray creatures under the shadowy cover of the mountain folds.


    Although the mountain was at a 75-degree inclination, White Mask climbed it effortlessly like it was running on t ground.

 Chapter 956 - Killing resolve

    <h4>Chapter 956: Killing resolve</h4>


    No one noticed when White Mask had hidden in the mountain. Earlier, everyone was wondering why Ren Xiaosu went to the sniper¡¯s nest when he had always been fighting at the front line during their battles.


    In the previous few days of battles, Ren Xiaosu was like a firefighter who fought wherever the pressure was. And indeed, he had not at all used his sniper rifle during this time.


    Everyone was still a little unused to his sudden use of the sniper rifle today. However, they did not ask him about it and just assumed he had adjusted the way he fought.


    In fact, the two snipers¡¯ suppressive fire was indeed very strong, so everyone felt that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s tactical adjustment was very sessful.


    What they did not know was that the most sessful factor in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strategy was handing Yang Xiaojin his ck sniper rifle. This allowed her to achieve unlimited firepower.


    Right now, Yang Xiaojin found Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ck sniper rifle to be extremely useful. She did not have to worry about depleting her mental strength at all. Being able to do so was simply too enjoyable.


    Someone below the sniper¡¯s nest cautioned her to watch out overhead. However, Yang Xiaojin did not even look and just continued to pour suppressive fire on the enemies below.


    Ren Xiaosu had already given her the heads-up that someone wasing to ambush them, and that ¡°Old Xu¡± was already lying in wait somewhere. Any enemies that showed up here would die.


    The reason Ren Xiaosu came over in the first ce was because Xun Yeyu had found him and said he had detected 32 powerful lifeforms appearing behind the mountain where the sniper¡¯s nest was located.


    Xun Yeyu did not know what these 32 lifeforms were. In any case, they would definitely have to be the enemy. Who else woulde here for no good reason?


    Xun Yeyu, the mobile human radar, was truly useful on the battlefield. It wasn¡¯t until this moment that Ren Xiaosu finally admitted that Xun Yeyu was the seventh powerhouse of the 6th Combat Brigade.


    The alliance of seven powerhouses was finally formed.


    Just a moment ago, Xun Yeyu was still sitting in a chair in themand post, eating and drinking. Xun Yeyu was talking about the barbarians¡¯ movements while Wang Yun noted down every detail being said before recreating a concrete picture of the situation on the sand table.


    With Xun Yeyu¡¯s support inbatmand, P5092 knew the barbarians¡¯ movements like the back of his hand.


    The only drawback was that this fair-skinned chubster had been toozy in the past. His mental strength was too weak, so he had to rest for some time after each ¡°scan,¡± and this led to their reconnaissance being carried out intermittently.


    White Mask was scaling the cliff. Eventually, everyone could make out that those gray creatures were actually the Experimentals, and there were 32 of them!


    P5092 was stunned. He had heard from Ren Xiaosu that Experimentals had appeared in the vicinity of the expeditionary army. But now that he saw it with his own eyes, he still found it a little unbelievable. In everyone¡¯s opinion, the Experimentals should have ceased to be.


    The Experimentals swooped down, moving with extreme agility on the rocks like they were some huge and strange gray bugs.


    Meanwhile, White Mask charged upwards like an extremely sharp saber.


    At the defensive position, Ren Xiaosu shouted to Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°Lend me your support!¡±


    As he spoke, Ji Zi¡¯ang stretched his hand out towards the mountain. With every leap White Mask took on the mountain, a t rock would appear under its feet for support.


    It was precisely because of Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s cooperation that Old Xu was able to move so agilely on the mountain.


    In addition, an Experimental that was swooping down at Old Xu found its nextnding point suddenly turning to sand as the hard surface turned to a fine powder under the Experimental¡¯s hand. All of the momentum the Experimental had built up while charging down was lost.


    This Experimental suddenly lost its bnce and wobbled unsteadily towards Old Xu.


    A secondter, Old Xu leaped up with its ck saber raised horizontally. It went past the Experimental that had lost its bnce and sliced it in half at the waist.


    In that split second, Old Xu did not stop moving and was heading straight for the next Experimental.


    Ren Xiaosu watched this quietly. Yang Xiaojin had given him her absolute trust. Even with 32 Experimentals attacking from above, Yang Xiaojin did not stop shooting. If it were anyone else, they would probably have run away.


    Ren Xiaosu also made his move. A t stone step materialized under his feet as the young man fought his way up the mountain rocks.


    The violent Old Xu and Ren Xiaosu, the calm Yang Xiaojin, the battle atop the mountain, and the fearless sniper holed up in the mountainside. This was a perfect picture of stillness and action, and it captured the full aesthetic of battle all in one scene.


    As Ji Zi¡¯ang constantly altered the terrain, he was shocked by this sight. At some point, he felt that the man and woman in front of him were meant to be together. If it were anyone else in the world, they wouldn¡¯t cut such a pleasing picture.


    A couple like them would be the nightmare of any enemy.


    As the Experimentals¡¯ corpses dropped without stop, P5092 walked over to check on them. He confirmed that they were indeed Experimentals.


    With their gray skin and sharp ws, these creatures could no longer be called humans.


    Then if Ren Xiaosu¡¯s guess was right, that intelligent being among the Experimentals?<i>had</i>?escaped from the nuclear explosion at Stronghold 74, and it even went to the North to join forces with the expeditionary army.


    In that instant, P5092 thought of many things. He even suspected that the expeditionary army¡¯s sudden attack on the South was also suggested by that Experimental.


    If that were really the case, they would have to find an opportunity to kill it in this war. Otherwise, that disgusting thing would keep causing trouble for the Central ins.


    While P5092 was thinking, Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu had joined forces and killed thest invading Experimental at the top of the mountain.


    But the moment Ren Xiaosu reached the top, he suddenly saw a ck-robed figure quietly sizing him up from the mountain across from him.


    Next to ck Robe, dozens of barbaric Experimentals could be seen crawling around on the ground and roaring. They were getting restless.


    However, ck Robe did not send them over to fight. That was because it knew exactly what kind of strength the young man at the opposite peak possessed. Moreover, although the two mountain peaks might look very close, there was actually a huge gap between them.


    ck Robe gave a hoarseugh. It did not matter. Soon, it would possess an army of Experimentals. At that time, the entire world would belong to it.


    But ck Robe suddenly saw the young man opposite him raise his hand and run his finger across his neck in a throat-slitting gesture before turning around and disappearing from the mountaintop.


    For some reason, a chill ran down ck Robe¡¯s spine. It could feel Ren Xiaosu¡¯s killing resolve. Logically, the young man and the Central ins people at the defensive position were in a precarious situation. It was clear they would run out of ammo after the expeditionary army attacked for another few hours. At that time, the Central ins people would die to the expeditionary army¡¯s steel axes, and the young man was no exception.


    But even so, ck Robe still felt an inexplicable fear. It was as though that young man was really going to kill it.


    ck Robe patted Valentin, who was crawling on the ground next to him, and said, ¡°Lead the rest into the mountains and hide. Once the defensive position falls, I want you to seal off all of his escape routes and then kill him.¡±

 Chapter 957 - The mysterious troops

    <h4>Chapter 957: The mysterious troops</h4>


    At the very least, there was one thing that ck Robe was sure of. In such a high-intensity battle, the expeditionary army¡¯s reckless attacks would definitely deplete all of the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯s ammunition very quickly.


    It wouldn¡¯t take long. Ten hours would be enough. If the attacks were even fiercer, eight hours might do it.


    A brigade only had a limited amount of ammunition they could carry around. Furthermore, every military unit had a strict rule on carrying ammunition. This wasmonly known as the standard ammo load.


    If one were to describe it in detail, it would basically be like 60 rounds of pistol ammunition, 200 rounds of rifle ammunition, 500 rounds of machine gun ammunition for a toon, 1,500 rounds of ammunition for coaxial machine guns for tanks, and 120 rounds of 82 mm mortar ammunition for each battalion.


    The amount of ammunition they could carry was rted to their battle endurance and also rted to the weight the soldiers could carry. It was a very particr expertise since one should not carry too much, yet it could not be too little.


    And this time, it was fortunate the 6th Combat Brigade had brought more ammo than normal when they set off from the Northwest. The Wang Consortium had also sent over another batch of heavy machine guns and heavy machine gun ammo. Otherwise, they would probably not even be able tost eight hours.


    The battle was now a fight to the death, with victory and defeat to be decided within the next eight hours.


    The Wang Consortium at Mt. Daniu was also aware of everything going on at Mt. Zuoyun. If Mt. Zuoyun were to fall, the Wang Consortium would have to bear the pressure of facing the remaining expeditionary army troops. This was also something they did not wish to see happen.


    Therefore, just as the expeditionary armyunched a fierce attack on Mt. Zuoyun, the Wang Consortiumunched a full-scale counterattack at their side. They did not want to waste any more time and went all out against the enemy.


    And this chain reaction was only possible because Ren Xiaosu had destroyed the barbarians¡¯ supply columns.


    At this moment, Wang Yun said to P5092, ¡°I¡¯ve made rounds at the various positions. Based on the current ammo consumption, we¡¯ll face a no ammo situation in eight hours and 41 minutes. Of course, this is only theoretical data averaged out. The futuremander¡¯s wife will also get tired. If we continue fighting for another eight hours, her shot uracy will surely drop. At that time, suppressive fire from the sniper will not be as effective anymore, and the ammo consumption at the positions will increase.¡±


    P5092 nodded. ¡°I understand.¡±


    After that, P5092 turned to look at Xun Yeyu and pointed at a position on the sand table. ¡°If you sense more than 10,000 expeditionary army troops gathering at this location, you must inform me immediately.¡±


    Then P5092 said to Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°At that time, you¡¯ll copse Mountain No. 6 to dy the expeditionary army¡¯s attack pace. Our current situation is not optimistic, but fortunately, we don¡¯t only have firearms and explosives as our trump cards, but everyone here as well. Alright, let¡¯s see to our own duties. Commander Zhang Husheng, I¡¯ll have to trouble you to stand guard at Position 2. Once any heavily armored warriors appear over there, you must kill them all.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker chuckled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as long as I still have strength left, they won¡¯t breach Position 2.¡±


    With that, everyone departed for their positions. When Zhang Xiaoman left, he red at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Old man, we¡¯ll settle the matter of you taking advantage of me another time. Let¡¯s finish fighting this battle first.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker walked off happily. ¡°You¡¯re making it sound like you can beat me. Besides, you weren¡¯t even born yet when I knew your father, so what¡¯s wrong with me taking advantage of you a little? Besides, how do you know for sure that I¡¯m not your biological father?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was so angry his eyes nearly popped out. This dishonest old man was really taking advantage of him at every opportunity! Jerk!


    Zhang Xiaoman scolded, ¡°Even if I can¡¯t beat you, do you think you can stop me from cursing you? Just you wait, I¡¯ll curse you until you vomit blood after the battle ends!¡±


    P5092 walked to the defensive position and looked at the assaulting expeditionary army outside. Next to him, Wang Yun suddenly said, ¡°Actually, you¡¯re not optimistic about our situation, right? Although I can¡¯t figure it out from your expression, I¡¯ve counted that you blink 16 times a minute when you¡¯re rxed and nine times when you¡¯re nervous.¡±


    P5092 smiled. ¡°It¡¯s really difficult to hide anything from someone like you.¡±


    ¡°Future Commander and his wife have clearly disyed their great strength, and everyone is also giving everything they have for this battle. Seeing that the expeditionary army¡¯s numbers are lessening, why are you still getting more worried?¡± Wang Yun asked.


    ¡°Because we¡¯re fighting an isted battle here.¡± P5092 sighed and said, ¡°Just now, Xun Yeyu said that another group of troops have appeared in the northwest. There aren¡¯t many of them, only 2,000. They¡¯re currently 80 kilometers away, and based on their marching speed, they¡¯ll arrive at the battlefield in two hours.¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. ¡°That can¡¯t be right. Why would the barbarians being from the northwest? Shouldn¡¯t they be from the north? Could those troops be from our Northwest Army?¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s choice of words when mentioning the Northwest changed.


    P5092 said, ¡°You also know that Xun Yeyu can perceive the life force of others. ording to him, other than Future Commander, as long as anyone appears in his mental perception, he can determine their strength based on the intensity of their ¡®mes.''¡±


    Wang Yun immediately understood. ¡°Xun Yeyu told you that those 2,000 troops are very powerful?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± P5092 nodded and said, ¡°Their mes are even stronger than that of normal barbarians.¡±


    Wang Yun was also shocked. It was impossible that there were so many powerful supernatural beings in the Northwest. If there were, the Great Hoodwinker and Ren Xiaosu would definitely know about them.


    Therefore, for 2,000 elites to suddenly appear to the northwest, they had to be the barbarians¡¯ reinforcements. After all, no one knew how many barbarians there were in the North and how many troops they had, so it should be no surprise that they could send more people.


    It turned out P5092 was not optimistic because Xun Yeyu had discovered the presence of the enemy¡¯s reinforcements.


    This time, Wang Yun could not feel optimistic either.


    ¡­


    At the same time, a group of troops were advancing rapidly on the mountain roads in the northwest. They followed the highway that led to the Central ins and left it when they were 310 kilometers away from Mt. Zuoyun, because the road did not lead to Mt. Zuoyun.


    The 2,000-strong force crossed the mountains swiftly. It wasn¡¯t until they could see Mt. Zuoyun from afar that Luo Lan, the leader of the group, suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at the map. ¡°We¡¯re heading in the right direction. Mt. Zuoyun is up ahead. All fighting forces, be careful. We¡¯ll arrive at the outer perimeter of Mt. Zuoyun in an hour. After we take a break there, we¡¯ll go and beat the shit out of those barbarians. Understand?¡±


    Themanders of various fighting forces responded over the radio, ¡°Roger that.¡±


    ¡°Roger that.¡±


    ¡°Roger that.¡±


    At this moment, Luo Lan was wearing an XL-sizedbat uniform. When he was checking the map, it looked like he was ordering food from a menu in a restaurant. He muttered, ¡°I wonder if Xiaosu and the others can hold on until we get there. I think they can. After all, fighting the barbarians should be as easy as chopping melons for him.¡±


    Behind Luo Lan was an entire reinforced regiment of nanosoldiers. Every one of the soldiers had silvery strands on their faces. The blood flowing through their veins was silver in color, and they looked just like 2,000 troops that had descended down from the Heavens.

 Chapter 958 - The war escalates

    <h4>Chapter 958: The war esctes</h4>


    ¡°Fatty, why on earth did wee all the way out here to the Central ins¡¯ battlefield?¡± Zhou Qi, who was standing next to Luo Lan,ined, ¡°We¡¯ve only been back in the Southwest for two days, but you¡¯re dragging us out again already. Our secret base was just destroyed by the Wang Consortium and the Anjing House, so why are you rushing here to help them?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not like I¡¯m here to help the Wang Consortium.¡± Luo Lan said nonchntly, ¡°It¡¯s definitely a good thing if the Wang Consortium¡¯s strength is weakened. They actually sent someone to destroy our base while they were facing such a formidable enemy here. Did they have too much free time or what? However, I¡¯m here because of Ren Xiaosu, understand? A friend! That¡¯s what he is!¡±


    Zhou Qi curled his lips. ¡°You¡¯re making it sound like your friendship runs that deep.¡±


    ¡°Of course it¡¯s deep.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°Have you forgotten how he saved us back then? I might not have any other strong points, but you can¡¯t question my loyalty. A drop of water should be repaid with a fountain. Ren Xiaosu has saved me on so many asions. Since I know he¡¯s trapped at Mt. Zuoyun this time, it won¡¯t be right if I don¡¯t help him.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re already doing a lot by bringing 2,000 nanosoldiers with you.¡± Zhou Qi said, ¡°The value of a nanosoldier isparable to a missile. I wonder what you two brothers are thinking. To think that Qing Zhen is putting up with your nonsense as well! Is he really not afraid the Wang Consortium will take this opportunity to capture you?¡±


    Luo Lan said unhappily, ¡°Why do you always have to put a sum on everything? Can friendship be calcted in mary terms?¡±


    ¡°What should I calcte it with if not marily?¡± Zhou Qi said disdainfully, ¡°In this world, only money will not betray you. But friendship? You care so much about friendship, but let¡¯s see how many people wille and save you when you¡¯re in trouble.¡±


    Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°Who cares if they¡¯ll help? It doesn¡¯t matter if you don¡¯t understand the importance of friendship, but don¡¯t worry, if you ever get into trouble one day, I¡¯ll definitely save you even if it means risking my life.¡±


    After Luo Lan said that, Zhou Qi fell silent.


    This reinforced regiment that had rushed over from the Southwest had been marching for several days. When Luo Lan found out Ren Xiaosu was trapped at Mt. Zuoyun, he immediately organized the troops and set off for the Central ins.


    Fortunately, the Southwest and Northwest were connected by road, and the Northwest also had a highway leading to the Central ins. This made it easier for their military trucks to rush to the battlefield.


    At this moment, they were only about ten kilometers away from the outer perimeter of Mt. Zuoyun. Luo Lan suddenly stopped in his tracks. ¡°We¡¯re nearly there, right? We should be able to contact them! Operator! Where¡¯s the operator? Contact the 6th Combat Brigade of the Northwest Army at Mt. Zuoyun.¡±


    Luo Lan had already contacted Fortress 178 beforeing here, so he knew how to contact the troops at Mt. Zuoyun.


    Currently, all of the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯smunications equipment were basically no longer in use. However, the basic military radio set was still in working condition to maintainmunications with the Wang Consortium.


    A radio set like this basically only had amunications range of several dozen kilometers. Therefore, Luo Lan had to get close enough before he could get in touch with the other party.


    Luo Lan muttered, ¡°Ren Xiaosu will definitely be very surprised when he finds out that I suddenly came to his rescue!¡±


    When the call went through, Luo Lan immediately shouted, ¡°Where¡¯s Ren Xiaosu? I¡¯m looking for yourmander, Ren Xiaosu. Tell him that Luo Lan hase to support you all in battle!¡±


    After a brief silence on the other end of the call, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s puzzled voice said, ¡°Fatty Luo? Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m here to save my friend. Enough with the small talk, I¡¯m leading 2,000 nanosoldiers in preparation to join the battle. Quick, tell me your battle n so that I can organize an attack,¡± Luo Lan said excitedly.


    Unlike Qing Zhen who did not like waging war, Luo Lan was a war fanatic. In the past, the two Qing Consortiumbat brigades he and Qing Zhen led had always been the Qing Consortium¡¯s main armies.


    So Luo Lan got excited at the mere mention of war.


    Honestly, Luo Lan had been very busy for the past year or so, but it was not because he had participated in a lot of wars. He was basically just busy stirring up trouble everywhere.


    It was not that he wanted to be a shit-stirrer, but that the Qing Consortium needed someone like him to do their shady work. Qing Zhen did not have many people he could absolutely trust, so he could only depend on Luo Lan.


    At this moment, in themand post, Wang Yun and P5092 looked at each other as they listened to Ren Xiaosu take the call.


    They were just talking about how 2,000 barbarians had suddenly appeared in the northwestern direction, and that made them very worried it would affect the battle. In the end, it turned out that reinforcements had arrived!


    Xun Yeyu¡¯s mental perception would not be wrong, but P5092 really did not expect it to be reinforcements!


    Seeing that the ammunition at the defensive position was about to run out and that the enemy was going to up their troop numbers further, P5092 appeared calm but was actually burning with anxiety.


    But all of a sudden, reinforcements had arrived?


    Ren Xiaosu nced at P5092. ¡°How should they coordinate with us? It¡¯s not like we know what the situation outside the expeditionary army¡¯s perimeter is like.¡±


    Luo Lan suddenly said, ¡°Why don¡¯t I probe the barbarians¡¯ strength first?¡±


    P5092 suddenly took the receiver and said calmly, ¡°No, you all can¡¯t join the battle yet. Although we¡¯re very grateful that you rushed to Mt. Zuoyun¡¯s rescue, but based on your strength, it isn¡¯t enough to affect the battle much. So I hope you can go near the Ningzhi River first and wait for the next step of our battle n.¡±


    It was definitely a good thing to have outside support, and the nanosoldiers were very strong. But if they were to fight the expeditionary army head on, 2,000 nanosoldiers would not be enough to determine the oue of the battle. Therefore, they still had to wait.


    The arrival of the reinforcements at this moment would boost the morale of the troops, but P5092 calmly analyzed the situation and decided to ce the Southwestern troops on standby first.


    On the other end of the line, Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll follow your orders. I had a look at the map just now and saw that the Ningzhi River is 11 kilometers south of Mt. Zuoyun. That¡¯s still 16 kilometers from where we are now. My troops are expected to arrive in 40 minutes. We¡¯ll contact you all again after we reach the designated location.¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°Thank you, I¡¯m looking forward to hearing from you.¡±


    ¡°All the best.¡±


    After that, they ended the call. P5092 took a deep breath and said with a smile, ¡°As long as the expeditionary army doesn¡¯t send in any more reinforcements, we still have a glimmer of hope.¡±


    ¡°Only a glimmer of hope?¡± Xun Yeyu muttered at the side, ¡°Why does it sound like we¡¯re still waiting for our deaths?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s only a few thousand of us while the expeditionary army has tens of thousands of soldiers. It¡¯s great that we even have a glimmer of hope,¡± P5092 said with augh.


    Wang Yun examined P5092¡¯s expression and realized he really looked a little more rxed this time. It seemed that the arrival of Luo Lan and his troops had boosted P5092¡¯s confidence.


    But at this moment, a staff officer suddenly ran in from outside. ¡°Sir, Position 3 was nearly breached by the stealthy elite barbarian. Fortunately, the Great Hoodwinker took care of the situation. Otherwise, it would have been over for us. Position 3 has forced the barbarians back with intense fire, but they¡¯re almost out of ammo. They¡¯re hoping to get more fire support.¡±

 Chapter 959 - The foundation of war

    <h4>Chapter 959: The foundation of war</h4>


    ¡°Who still has something to eat?¡± A soldier at Position 2 shouted, ¡°I remember someone had two pieces of hardtack when we were dining! Hurry up and let me have some. I¡¯m starving.¡±


    Position 2 was currently garrisoned by the 1st Regiment. The troops here felt like it had been forever since theyst rotated out from the position. Actually, counting the time psed, it should only be four hours since they took over. But to them, it felt like four long years.


    Everyone¡¯s stamina was greatly depleted during the battle. The soldiers began to feel hungry very quickly, but they did not have time to eat yet and could only endure it.


    Besides, it was one thing to be hungry, but the soldiers around made it worse for those who were starving. ¡°Do you want to eat my fart?¡±


    The group of gruff men from the Northwest were cursing as they fired at the barbarians. Whenever any of the soldiers killed a barbarian with their automatic rifles, they would even let out an excited shout.


    They kept shouting until their voices turned hoarse.


    A person¡¯s energy was limited, and so was their ammunition.


    From the moment the all-out battle began, the expeditionary army did not let up in their attacks even for a second.


    However, they did not get tired, because whenever troops were rotated into battle, it would be made up of soldiers who had already rested and regained their strength.


    But it was different for the 6th Combat Brigade. They did not have that many soldiers to deal with the efforts of the expeditionary army. Everyone was constantly facing attacks at their positions, and over time, they would get tired and hungry.


    P5092 managed tactics amid the fighting. The 6th Combat Brigade was established with the expansion of the Northwest Army. Although there were many qualified officers among the troops, they were all fast-tracked in their promotions. Therefore, in the face of a tense battle like this, they could not help but feel flustered. For example, they even needed to be reminded by P5092 for a matter like sending more supplies to the front line.


    Fortunately, he had Wang Yun as his partner now, so he could get answers very quickly even if he casually asked for some information.


    Batches and batches of supplies were sent to the front line of the defensive position by the logistic troops. The problem of hunger should be solved very soon, but the issue of the defenders¡¯ fatigue would still not be eliminated.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s rate of fire gradually slowed down after four hours of suppressive fire.


    In order to ensure the uracy of her shots, she had to do this. If she continued firing at the same frequency as before, she would probably miss three out of ten shots.


    Moreover, the aftereffects of the prolonged shooting were starting to take a toll on her. The strong recoil of the anti-materiel sniper rifle was something that even a supernatural being like Yang Xiaojin found difficult to bear.


    Her shoulder was numbing. Her trigger finger also began to feel sore, and it was even trembling a little. Meanwhile, her entire right arm was starting to feel a little weak.


    At the foot of the mountain, Ren Xiaosu asked loudly, ¡°Do you want to get some rest? You don¡¯t look too good.¡±


    However, Yang Xiaojin gave him a look and continued firing. ¡°Get back to your front line. You don¡¯t have to worry about me here. The others haven¡¯t had any rest yet, so why should I? If you leave the front line again, I¡¯ll shoot you.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Alright then.¡±


    But when Ren Xiaosu saw Yang Xiaojin frowning with her lips pursed, he understood she was enduring the pain of using the sniper rifle for an extended period.


    He did not say anything more and turned around to run towards Position 4. The ammo supply there was running out, and the staff officer said that Commander P5092 had already deployed some ammo reserves to them. However, Ren Xiaosu was worried that an opening would be created in the middle, so he went to check on the situation.


    ¡­


    P5092 had not only deployed the ammo reserves but also ordered some troops to transport potable water to the front line to be used for cooling down the machine guns. There was no other way about it. To ensure the heavy machine guns could function normally, he had to make the soldiers endure their thirst for now.


    This was not the time to empathize with the soldiers, nor was he in the circumstances to empathize with them. Fortunately, everyone could understand.


    At the beginning, Zhang Xiaoman even asked if the soldiers could drink the water first before peeing on the machine guns to cool them. Although it was a little gross, such a method should satisfy everyone.


    However, P5092 said no. There would be a dy if they waited for the soldiers to feel any urge to pee, and with their bodies already in a state of dehydration, drinking water would simply replenish their bodies¡¯ water content. As a result, they would not even be able to produce much urine.


    Some people thought there were many ways to achieve the perfect scenario on the battlefield, but that was because they had never experienced such a terrible battle before.


    In a battle of attrition and defense, one side would have to fight until they werepletely exhausted. At this moment, the expeditionary army did not dare to stop either. They knew that once they retreated for an hour at this time, the Northwest Army at the defensive position would immediately catch a breather.


    P5092 asked Wang Yun, ¡°Has the Great Hoodwinker returned to Position 2 yet?¡±


    ¡°He went back already.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°But the situation isn¡¯t too optimistic either. When he went to reinforce Position 3 just now, he was surrounded by dozens of the enemy¡¯s elites and almost got left outside the defensive line. Now that he finally ughtered his way back in, he¡¯s probably a little exhausted. But he said that it¡¯s not a problem. He can still fight.¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s indeed a little tough for him to face dozens of elite barbarians by himself, so it¡¯s best to let him rest.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t Ji Zi¡¯ang and I head to Position 2 to hold the fort? We should be able to coordinate with the troops garrisoned there,¡± Wang Yun said.


    ¡°No, the two of you must remain at themand post. You have to understand that you two have something more important to do,¡± P5092 said firmly.


    Meanwhile, the Great Hoodwinker was leaning against a trench blind and panting heavily. Off to the side, the 1st Regimentmander, Qian Dewen, said, ¡°Commander Zhang Husheng¡ª¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t address me by my real name. Just call me the Great Hoodwinker. I¡¯ve been referred to as that for a long time already, so I¡¯m a little unused to hearing my real name,¡± the Great Hoodwinker scolded.


    ¡°Alright, Commander Great Hoodwinker.¡± Qian Dewen said, ¡°You look a little pale. We can still hold out for now, so please get some rest first.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker joked, ¡°That sounds so awkward! Commander Great Hoodwinker?¡±


    As they were talking, a group of over a dozen heavily armored warriors suddenly rushed out from behind the shields of the expeditionary army¡¯s troops that Position 2 was facing.


    These heavily armored warriors advanced quickly against the gunfire. They were about to breach the defensive line, and even the heavy machine guns and grenades could not stop them.


    The heavily armored warriors advanced like a storm. When they were only five meters away from the defensive line, they elerated again and nned to break through it in one swift motion!


    But just as a heavily armored warrior was about to grab the edge of the blind and leap over, a heavy kicknded on his forehead and broke his neck!


    The Great Hoodwinker stretched his hand out and quickly jumped past the defensive line. ¡°Covering fire! Stop the barbarians behind them and leave these heavily armored barbarians to me!¡±


    In the blink of an eye, the soldiers behind the defensive position raised their muzzles. The heavy machine guns on the defensive line immediately formed a of firepower to iste the heavily armored warriors from the rest of the expeditionary army behind them. They were preventing the other barbarians from catching up and killing the Great Hoodwinker.


    As the Great Hoodwinker intercepted and killed the heavily armored warriors, he sized up the expeditionary army that was suppressed by the firepower not far away. He praised loudly, ¡°Well done, nice suppressive fire! Leave the rest to me!¡±


    The regimentalmander, Qian Dewen, was anxiously ordering the various garrison troops on where to shoot from the back of the defensive line. They had to help the Great Hoodwinker eliminate any potential threats. Although they did not have a good way to deal with the heavily armored warriors, they could still contribute their strength.


    At this point in the battle, no one could stay out of it anymore. This defensive position was definitely not only defended by Yang Xiaojin, the Great Hoodwinker, Ren Xiaosu, P5092, Ji Zi¡¯ang, and Wang Yun.


    Rather, it was defended by every soldier of the 6th Combat Brigade.


    Perhaps superhumans could perform more dazzlingly in this war, but normal soldiers were the foundation.

 Chapter 960 - A miracle occurs

    <h4>Chapter 960: A miracle urs</h4>


    While the Great Hoodwinker was fighting with all his might, Ren Xiaosu had just blocked off a wave of the barbarians¡¯ attacks at Position 4 on the other side and retreated to the rear for a short rest.


    Meanwhile, the reserve ammo and supplies were finally transported to the front line.


    To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, Zero actually came down to Position 4. He asked Zero, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Nothing.¡± Zero said, ¡°I¡¯ve calcted the remaining quantity of ammo. There shouldn¡¯t be much left.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Are you trying to say that we¡¯re going to fail soon? If the defensive position falls, the nanomachines that you have will also be buried here, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not important.¡± Zero seemed to no longer be worried about not having enough nanomachines. It said, ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about it. Actually, the war in the Central ins has nothing to do with the Northwest. Why do you all insist on defending Mt. Zuoyun? That¡¯s not a rational call. If you all retreat to the Northwest and sit back and watch the Wang Consortium and the Pyro Company get depleted, that would be the most advantageous strategy for the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°In your eyes, we might be different forces that are divided. But in our opinion, the only enemies at this moment are the barbarians in the North. Be it the Pyro Company, the Wang Consortium, or the Northwest, we¡¯re all allies.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Humans are emotional creatures. After the barbarians came to the Central ins and started massacring cities, we were destined to stand up and fight to the death alongside our allies.¡±


    ¡°Why did the Qing Consortium¡¯s peoplee here then?¡± Zero asked.


    ¡°Because they are friends.¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°Although Luo Lan is not a decent person and likes doing violent things to others, there¡¯s nothing much you can say about how he treats his friends.¡±


    ¡°Friends? That¡¯s a term to look forward to. Are we considered friends now?¡± Zero asked.


    Ren Xiaosu asked in return, ¡°Do you think we are?¡±


    Zero shook its head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. You humans have a veryplicated set of boundaries when ites to friends. However, I see that you often use the concept of ¡®whether they will sacrifice for others¡¯ to define who your friends are. From this point of view, I don¡¯t think I count as one, as I¡¯ve never done anything for you before.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Actually, it¡¯s not thatplicated sometimes.¡±


    Zero suddenly said, ¡°Based on my calctions, you all did not carry out a detailed enough ammunition control or management at the position. Currently, you only have a 10% chance of winning, and it will soon be less than 10%. Unless there¡¯s another miracle, you can¡¯t turn the tide with your powers. The expeditionary army¡¯s effective strength is too great.¡±


    ¡°Miracle?¡± Ren Xiaosu, supporting himself against the blind, stood up. ¡°The world of humanity has nevercked miracles before. I believe that a miracle will definitely happen.¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°Xun Yeyu.¡± P5092 looked at the sand table in themand post and said, ¡°Are you still monitoring the location I asked you to pay attention to?¡±


    Xun Yeyu was no longer his unblemished-looking self. His face was stained with dust and sweat. Right now, he resembled a soldier of the Northwest more than an outsider who did not belong here.


    He answered, ¡°Yes, but the number of barbarians there has not exceeded 10,000 the entire time. The barbarians seem to be in a hurry to attack, but their deployment rate has remained very steady.¡±


    In Xun Yeyu¡¯s perception, the tens of thousands of barbarians were like a river of mes gathering in his mind. The river channel always remained open, but there were no signs of congestion. This showed that the other party had an extremely smartmander controlling everything.


    ¡°It seems that the barbarians are also quite aware that we still have trump cards,¡± P5092 said, referring to the seven mountains. ¡°So while the barbarians are keeping up with their attacking efforts, they¡¯ve always maintained a clever pace to evenly distribute the troops that join the battle. Even if we can topple the mountains here, we¡¯ll only be able to kill 10,000 of them. That¡¯s not enough to affect the overall situation to win.¡±


    The nanosoldiers led by Luo Lan had already arrived south of Mt. Zuoyun. However, P5092 still could not find the key to victory. This made him feel a little helpless.


    Xun Yeyu added, ¡°Previously, I informed Future Commander that someone was lying in ambush behind the mountain. But actually, only a tenth of the Experimentals showed up that time. There¡¯s still several hundred Experimentals grouped behind us. Once we appear to be losing, they¡¯ll probably climb up the mountain again and attack the defensive position from the back.¡±


    This news made P5092¡¯s heart heavier. He asked Wang Yun, ¡°Where is the futuremander now?¡±


    ¡°Future Commander is at Position 4. He¡¯s just helped them to defeat a group of barbarians.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°That position has only just replenished their ammo, so the barbarians took advantage of the downtime to attack. Do you want Future Commander to intercept and kill the Experimentals behind us? But you have to understand that even though Future Commander is strong, he isn¡¯t a god. He¡¯s already been fighting for five hours. Look, Future Commander¡¯s wife¡¯s rate of fire has slowed down, and the Great Hoodwinker is almost unable to hold on any longer. How can Future Commander be an exception?


    ¡°Yeah.¡± P5092 sighed. Moreover, even if Ren Xiaosu were still at his peak, he probably could not face the hundreds of Experimentals by himself.


    The Experimentals that attacked Yang Xiaojin were only the ones that had transformed from the Central ins humans. ording to Ren Xiaosu, there were still many more Experimentals that were previously barbarians that were even stronger, but they just had not appeared yet.


    If the strength of the Experimentals after their conversion was determined by who they were when ¡°alive,¡± how powerful would they be if the elites among the barbarians were turned into those terrifying monsters?


    P5092 could not let Ren Xiaosu take this risk.


    He turned to Ji Zi¡¯ang and said, ¡°Ji Zi¡¯ang, you might need to make your move soon.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang straightened up. ¡°Understood. All I¡¯m waiting for is your word before I topple those six mountains.¡±


    ¡°Not six,¡± P5092 refuted. ¡°Seven.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang was clearly taken aback. ¡°Seven?¡±


    Remember, the seventh mountain was right behind them. If this mountain were to copse as well, the entire defensive position would be buried underneath it!


    This was the method P5092 had kept as ast gasp measure to perish with the enemy. Was he going to use it now?


    P5092 said, ¡°Thest batch of ammo has already been transported to the front line at Position 4. After that, all of our positions will be facing the threat of running out of ammo. The expeditionary army¡¯s attack is even fiercer than expected, and our ammo consumption is also quicker than expected. Thus, the defensive position will fall soon.¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang looked at Wang Yun and realized he did not look surprised. It was obvious Wang Yun already knew about this.


    ¡°Go and call the futuremander over.¡± P5092 said, ¡°I need him to use the steam lotive to take some soldiers away from here. This is not an escape but to leave some of these troops as mes to carry on burning.¡±


    P5092 had already found out about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power of the steam lotive. But could they all leave? Once they left, the Wang Consortium would immediately have to bear all the pressure. Therefore, they could not leave.


    Now that P5092 had confirmed that the defensive position was not salvageable, he nned to use three-quarters of his troops to dy the expeditionary army and buy some time for the remaining soldiers to get onto the steam lotive and leave.


    Then he got ready to have Ji Zi¡¯ang topple all the mountains, including the one behind them.


    ¡°Should we continue fighting and see how it goes? What if Future Commander still has other trump cards?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang said, ¡°There might even be a miracle!¡±


    ¡°A miracle?¡± P5092 smiled bitterly.


    Along with the bitter smile, a staff officer ran in anxiously from the outside. ¡°We¡¯ve finished firing all the ammo at Position 1. What should we do now, sir?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve run out just like that?¡± Wang Yun felt that something was not right. ¡°I clearly calcted that it would take at least half an hour to finish expending the ammo!¡±


    The staff officer said with a pained expression, ¡°The barbarians suddenly withdrew their soldiers from Position 2 and concentrated their attacks on Position 1. There was nothing we could do but maximize our suppressive fire against the barbarians. It does seem like Future Commander¡¯s wife has killed one of their officers. That¡¯s why the barbarians are retreating for the time being. But if the barbarianse up again, Position 1 will probably be breached.¡±


    P5092 said to Wang Yun, ¡°Quick, go and look for Future Commander. It¡¯s urgent that he gets to Position 1. Also, tell him that the evacuation will start immediately!¡±


    Then P5092 asked Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°Do you realize that if we¡¯re going to topple the seventh mountain, we¡¯ll need you to remain behind?¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang smiled. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m mentally prepared already.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± P5092 nodded. ¡°Topple the mountain near Position 1 right away and buy us some time. Hurry off.¡±


    But Xun Yeyu suddenly looked up and shouted, ¡°Wait, another lifeform has appeared to the northwest.¡±


    P5092 and the others were stunned. ¡°Only one? If it¡¯s only one, you don¡¯t have to shout that loudly, right?!¡±


    Xun Yeyu said excitedly, ¡°That¡¯s because I¡¯ve never sensed such a powerful life force before! Y¡¯know, I¡¯ve encountered a lot of superhumans before, but I¡¯m afraid that even all of thembined are probably only as strong as this person. In fact, they might even be less powerful than him!¡±


    Everyone was shocked. All of the superhumans Xun Yeyu hade across in the past probably numbered over a 100. Even with all of thembined, they were still inferior to a single person? On what level would such a master be?


    Was it a god?


    But before anyone could figure it out, Xun Yeyu shouted again, ¡°New lifeforms have also appeared in the north. There¡¯s more than 10,000 of them, including ordinary people and several thousand others on the level of the elite barbarians. They¡¯re rapidly approaching Mt. Zuoyun! Wait a minute, the mes of those thousands of powerful lifeforms are moving too fast. How can they be so quick?!¡±


    P5092 was silent for a moment. ¡°Are they reinforcements who came to look for Future Commander again?¡±


    Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m willing to believe that they¡¯re reinforcements.¡±


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu was still resting at Position 4. As he rested, he made small talk with Zero.


    Amid the conversation, the howling of wolves suddenly came from beyond Mt. Zuoyun, like a sharp sword had suddenly carved through the sky. Ren Xiaosu turned around immediately and looked at the mountain peak. He saw a massive silver wolf standing atop the mountain and looking down at the expeditionary army below like a king would.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled at Zero and said, ¡°See that? A miracle has urred.¡±


    Zero was stunned. It had already discovered that the troops from the Northern ins and wolves were approaching from the north. But before this, it thought they were here to take advantage of the situation and raid the Central ins. However, it did not expect they would also head to Mt. Zuoyun. Moreover, it seemed like they were here for Ren Xiaosu too, and he was well aware of who they were.

 Chapter 961 - Queen of vines

    <h4>Chapter 961: Queen of vines</h4>


    Several hundred gray Experimentals were crawling within the forested wilderness behind the mountain that protected the defensive position. They had received orders from ck Robe to hold at this location and kill any humans who tried to escape from here.


    ck Robe did not have them attack the defensive position directly because he had taken some of these barbaric Experimentals from the expeditionary army, such as Valentin, the formermander of the advance guard.


    Among these Experimentals, many of them were soldiers who had survived the battle at the Great Wall but were captured by him. If these barbaric Experimentals were to appear on the battlefield, the expeditionary army would probably start hating him. Especially Valentin, he must absolutely not be seen by the expeditionary army.


    These Experimentals, who were crawling on the ground and waiting for the hunt to start, suddenly turned their heads and looked back after detecting the scent of a human.


    A light breeze blew past, and a pleasant smell drifted towards them. It was as though roses had suddenly bloomed during the night.


    But the Experimentals did not care whether it was a fragrance or a stench. They only knew that since a human hade here, they would have to kill whoever it was.


    But before they could locate the source of the fragrance, the Experimentals saw some strange and dangerous-looking vines spreading towards them in the forested wilderness.


    The Experimentals¡¯ instinctive fear caused them to start retreating. They stared with extreme caution at the creeper vines that kept pressing forward at them.


    Valentin let out a roar, and an Experimental carefully approached the creeper vines. It tried to grab its tentacles to see what it really was.


    But the moment it touched the creeper vine, the dense growth of creeper vines on the ground sprang up at the same time and stabbed into the Experimental¡¯s body.


    The body of the Experimentals that could not even be prated by bullets waspletely pierced by the vines.


    In an instant, the terrifying vines wrapped up the Experimental into a cocoon before dragging it into the wilderness.


    All of a sudden, all of the Experimentals here felt they were facing a formidable enemy. They had nevere across such a strange nt before.


    The Experimentals still retained a low level of intelligence, so they knew how dangerous the creeper vines were.


    When the maid in the wilderness saw that the Experimentals were no longer taking the initiative to provoke the creeper vines, she slowly walked out. ¡°I hurried all the way here, and you dirty creatures are the first things I see. How unlucky¡­¡±


    The Experimentals quietly sized up the woman who was standing across from them. They saw she wore ten shimmering rings on her fingers and a shiny pearl ne around her neck, which made her look extremely opulent.


    Moreover, she was wearing a purple qipao even though she was out in this wilderness. Why would anyone wear something like that during a battle? Unless she was extremely confident of beating them?


    In fact, the maidservant was full of confidence.


    At the beginning, she did not really test out how strong her power was after she absorbed the creeper vine at Stronghold 61 and only felt like she had an inexhaustible amount of strength. Later, she did not sit idle after parting ways with Ren Xiaosu at the Sacred Mountains. The maidservant headed all the way northwest and tested her limits on the bandits there.


    However, the bandits were too weak. After taking on all the bandits along the way, she still could not figure out the limits of her power.


    But in any case, she was extremely confident now.


    Zhou Yingxue could still hear gunfireing from the other side of the mountain. That meant the battle over there must be very intense. If she handled things here quickly, she would make it there in time.


    Zhou Yingxue shot a nce at the Experimentals, but she did not hide the disdain in her eyes. It was as though she would taint her eyes by looking at these hideous creatures a moment longer. She thought it strange that there were no signs of ck Robe, which her master mentioned to her.


    But whatever, she would just have to kill them first.


    Thinking of this, the vines around the maidservant started sweeping towards the Experimentals. When the Experimentals tried to escape, they realized the creeper vines had already andpletely surrounded them.


    That¡¯s right, the maidservant had surrounded all of the Experimentals by herself. The few hundred Experimentals ck Robe had painstakingly raised were about to perish among the vines.


    Valentin led the Experimentals in an attempt to tear their way out of the vine encirclement. But no matter how powerful they were, they could only struggle inconsequentially in the face of the creeper vines that could destroy a city.


    The Experimentals kept tearing off the vines that had pierced their bodies, but more vines started wrapping around them. There was no end to it regardless of how hard they tore at the vines.


    ¡°Alright, stop struggling already. After I¡¯m done with you all here, I have to rush off to save my master.¡± As soon as the maidservant said that, the vines covering the entire wilderness suddenly became enraged and overwhelmed the few hundred Experimentals. In just one second, all of the Experimentals died.


    Overshadowed by this level of power, the battle became totally one-sided. It was like a fight between an adult and a child, with the oue in no doubt for a moment.


    The maidservant took out a satellite phone from her luxurious handbag and made a call. ¡°Master, I¡¯ve finished off all the Experimentals behind the mountain, but I didn¡¯t see the ck Robe you mentioned.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice came from the other end of the line, saying, ¡°It probably ran away in advance again, but that¡¯s fine. It can¡¯t escape this time.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll head over to the main battlefield to help out now,¡± the maidservant said.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You can¡¯t reveal your power to everyone yet, or people will easily link you to the destruction of Stronghold 61. That will be difficult to exin, and it¡¯ll be bad if you get attacked by public opinion.¡±


    ¡°Why should we care about what they say? It¡¯s not like I¡¯m afraid of them,¡± Zhou Yingxue said nonchntly.


    ¡°Enough. If you have strength to spare, you can secretly hunt down and kill the defeated barbarians in the mountains.¡± After that, Ren Xiaosu ended the call.


    The maidservant curled her lips and muttered, ¡°He¡¯s always ordering me around like this. I¡¯m already a first-ss superhuman, yet he hung up on me in such a hurry! He didn¡¯t even ask about me. Heartless!¡±


    With that, the maidservant walked off. The vines on the ground followed her and moved through the wilderness behind her, covering all the mountain paths in their way.


    But what did her master say just now? Was the expeditionary army about to be defeated? Wasn¡¯t it rumored that the Northwest Army was having trouble fighting the expeditionary army? How did it end up with the barbarians suddenly getting defeated then?


    Could someone else havee to rescue her master?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was looking at the Wolf King on the mountaintop, and the Wolf King was looking back at him in silence.


    Ren Xiaosu was very sure this was the same Wolf King he knew back then. He even gave some ck medicine to it at that time, which it liked very much.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu wondered where the wolves had gone and why he had not heard from them again since then.


    Logically speaking, even if the wolves had been living in the wilderness after they grew stronger and bigger, they would have been seen by some people. However, it was as though they had disappeared into thin air.


    Ren Xiaosu finally realized the wolves had followed Yan Liuyuan to the grasnds! Yan Liuyuan was the new king of the steppe!


    Suddenly, a horn rioned on Mt. Zuoyun. The war horn sounded sorrowful with a hint of haste and fluster. The barbarians who were attacking the defensive position suddenly started pulling back.

 Chapter 962 - Black Robe has to die

    <h4>Chapter 962: ck Robe has to die</h4>


    At Mt. Zuoyun, the expeditionary army¡¯s barbarians were initially charging forward fearlessly at the defensive position. But after the Wolf King appeared on the mountaintop, their orderly attacking formation descended into chaos.


    The war horn sounded continuously through the valley, urging the troops at the front line to retreat quickly.


    P5092 carefully observed the barbarians¡¯ movements. He was certain this was not a ruse; the barbarians were really retreating.


    He also looked at the huge wolf standing atop the mountain before turning to ask Wang Yun, ¡°Has anyone seen such mutated wolves before?¡±


    Wang Yun carefully cycled through his memories. ¡°Intel regarding the wolves have appeared several times in my memory. The first incident urred near Stronghold 113, but that stronghold was destroyed by the earthquake in the Jing Mountains. The second urrence was in the Li Consortium¡¯s territory. Reportedly, the military had been attacked by the wolves.¡±


    ¡°Does it have anything to do with the futuremander?¡± P5092 asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°The futuremander originally lived at Stronghold 113. Later on, he also went to the Li Consortium.¡±


    P5092 said with a sigh, ¡°We thought that even the futuremander couldn¡¯t create any more miracles in the face of tens of thousands of barbarians. But in the end, this miracle happened immediately.¡±


    However, they could not see what was happening outside the mountains, so they could not tell what was really going on either.


    P5092 turned his head to Xun Yeyu. ¡°Based on your perception, can you roughly describe to us the situation outside?¡±


    ¡°After foreign reinforcements arrived at Mt. Zuoyun, they didn¡¯t stop at all. When the thousands of powerful lifeforms first collided with the expeditionary army¡¯s formation, the barbarians¡¯ numbers rapidly decreased.¡± Xun Yeyu said, ¡°Based on those lifeforms that came from the north and the huge wolf that¡¯s appeared now, I think those thousands of fast-moving lifeforms might be a pack of 3,000rge wolves!¡±


    As if confirming Xun Yeyu¡¯s description, the Wolf King stood atop the mountain and growled. The sharp howling that followed sounded like it could pierce everyone¡¯s hearts.


    A mountain breeze blew, and the Wolf King¡¯s silvery fur fluttered majestically like an imperial court¡¯s g flying in the wind.


    ¡°Those wolves attacked so quickly that the barbarians didn¡¯t have enough time to form an effective defensive formation. Their rear was shattered instantly.¡± Xun Yeyu continued, ¡°For now, it¡¯s only the wolves that have arrived. There¡¯s still regr troops to the rear approaching quickly. I estimate they¡¯ll arrive at the battlefield in another 10 minutes.¡±


    With that, Xun Yeyu even put a ck g on the sand table to simte the movements of the wolves.


    ¡°What a powerful wolf pack.¡± P5092 suddenlyughed. For some reason, he felt very excited.


    It was very rare for him to act like this. That was because this surprise came too suddenly and shockingly.


    To be honest, P5092 could not imagine what kind of person Ren Xiaosu knew. The other party could actuallymand such a powerful pack of wolves toe and reinforce Mt. Zuoyun.


    However, he could imagine the thousands of strong, powerful wolves on the hunt outside Mt. Zuoyun at this moment as they drove the expeditionary army like antelopes into the mountains where they killed them quickly.


    Then P5092 turned to Wang Yun and asked while pointing at the barbarians who were retreating, ¡°If we trap all of these barbarians here on the battlefield of Mt. Zuoyun, do we have enough ammo to finish them?¡±


    Wang Yun said, ¡°If it¡¯s only these barbarians, we definitely have enough ammo as long as no other expeditionary army forces join the fray.¡±


    After that, P5092 said excitedly to Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°Topple all six of the mountains to cut off the expeditionary army¡¯s retreat route. Although our reinforcements are very powerful, our Northwest Army is pretty strong too. They¡¯re fighting the enemy at their rear, so we must not allow these barbarians to go back and reinforce theirrades. We¡¯ll divide their battlefield to reduce the pressure on our reinforcements!¡±


    Ji Zi¡¯ang smiled and said, ¡°Got it!¡±


    P5092 made it very clear that even though their reinforcements were really strong, the wolves would not have it easy either if these barbarians made it back to their rear.


    Over the past few days, P5092 had been racking his brains to think of a way to turn defeat into victory. He did not even get any sleep for the past two days and nights because he did not want this group of people from the Northwest to die here.


    But while he waited for an opportunity to score a victory, the expeditionary army kept up steady attacks and did not give them a chance at all.


    Now that this opportunity had presented itself, it was time tounch a counterattack.


    A momentter, P5092 said to Wang Yun, ¡°Contact Luo Lan. Have them attack from the south and take out the remaining barbarians on the battlefield with us. Tell him that I¡¯ll leave an opening at the northern side of the battlefield to give the barbarians a chance to escape, so he can make full use of their nanosoldiers¡¯ mobility to pursue them!¡±


    At this moment, Luo Lan was standing next to a river south of Mt. Zuoyun. He was skipping stones across the surface in boredom. Zhou Qi, who was standing beside him, said, ¡°We¡¯re just sitting around and waiting like this after rushing here from so far away?¡±


    Luo Lan chuckled, ¡°What¡¯s the big deal with waiting for a little bit? We¡¯re not themanders on the battlefield, so we have to obey our orders since we¡¯re here. It doesn¡¯t mean that just because we¡¯re here to rescue them, we can be calling the shots as we like. There¡¯s protocols to follow in war. We don¡¯t even know what¡¯s going on in the mountains, so of course we have to follow their orders.¡±


    At this moment, the radio operator trotted over to convey P5092¡¯s instructions. Then Luo Lan startedughing. He turned around and shouted to his soldiers, ¡°Brothers, it¡¯s time to go to work!¡±


    With that, the cocking of guns came from among the nanosoldiers.


    After the Li Consortium made the breakthrough in nanorobotics, they felt that a powerful soldier should be equipped with powerful weapons. As such, they created nanoswords toplement their nanosoldiers. These swords had nanomachines moving at high speeds at the edge of the des to achieve a high polymer cutting effect.


    But to Luo Lan and Qing Zhen, if there were guns, wouldn¡¯t it be better to just use them? Weren¡¯t guns more useful?


    Therefore, the nanosoldiers Luo Lan brought here this time were all carrying firearms. The only difference was that these soldiers were all equipped with 40 mm grenadeunchers that could be attached to their guns.


    In Qing Zhen¡¯s own words, the current physical fitness of the nanosoldiers would only put them on par with the barbarians. Therefore, they would have to take the fight against the barbarians seriously, and only by using heavy weapons would it mean they were serious!


    Actually, the 40 mm underbarrel grenadeunchers were not really that great. But if all 2,000 troops were to carry such a weapon, that would truly be a little terrifying.


    A lot of people had yet to realize the Qing Consortium was probably the strongest organization in terms of strength other than controlling arge territory.


    Some years ago when Qing Zhen was not politically active, he had been ordering his troops to search everywhere for technology that had been lost to humans. He had also used all of his financial and material resources to develop what was recovered. As such, time had given him a satisfactory answer.


    Of course, the Qing Consortium would still have some difficulties in equipping all 2,000 soldiers with grenadeunchers even with their capabilities. They had to be urgently allocated from the military factories and even from the active troops as well. But since they were here to rescue their friend, they would have to show their sincerity in doing so.


    As for the heavy load the troops had to carry, the nanosoldiers did not have to worry about it at all.


    The 2,000 nanosoldiers began advancing into the mountains. Their n was to eliminate all the surviving barbarians.


    Ever since the fighting began, a coin that determined the fate of the war was flipped high into the air where it continued spinning, and until itnded, no one knew who would secure the final victory.


    And now, this coin of fate had finallynded.


    The mountains in Mt. Zuoyun started to copse asrge boulders came crumbling down. The expeditionary army¡¯s troops that were retreating could be heard wailing in pain. The barbarians who had been brimming with confidence all this time were finally starting to feel fear and despair.


    When the six mountains copsed at the same time, arge cloud of dust was swept into the air. As a result, the sky turned dark. A patch of dark clouds had shrouded everything.


    A sound resembling the cracking of a cier could be heard constantly, and the rumblings as the mountains copsed to the ground could be described as the most magnificent sight in the world.


    Most people in the world had only ever seen waterfalls gushing down, and very few people had probably ever witnessed a mountain crumbling down like that.


    Some of the barbarians who tried to retreat were instantly crushed under the rockfall, while the remaining barbarians were forced to turn around and get back on the battlefield. However, they no longer had any will to fight.


    Some barbarians suddenly realized there was still an opening at the northern side, so they fled towards it.


    When P5092 saw this, he was finally able to put down thest of his worries. Now was the time they could truly start taking out the remaining barbarians on the battlefield. The barbarians would be fleeing with their heads in their hands, and they would not have the courage to fight back anymore.


    ¡°What should we do now? Hunt down those barbarian deserters?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang asked.


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°We can leave it to Luo Lan to pursue those deserters. Pass down the order. We¡¯ll take our weapons and form an envelopment with the reinforcements outside the mountains. We¡¯ll assist them in wiping out the barbarians of the expeditionary army.¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, P5092 and the others saw Ren Xiaosu running all the way to the entrance of themand post. Ren Xiaosu pulled Xun Yeyu aside and asked, ¡°Can you sense any solitary lifeforms leaving the vicinity of Mt. Zuoyun at this moment?¡±


    Xun Yeyu asked, ¡°Solitary? You mean someone by themselves?¡±


    ¡°Yes, a lone person!¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly.


    ¡°Yes, there was a lifeform that used to be with the Experimentals. After that, it left by taking a detour from there before Luo Lan and his men arrived at the south side. It¡¯s now taking a huge detour and leaving quickly via the north.¡± Xun Yeyu said, ¡°And the life forces of the Experimentals that were behind us have totally disappeared.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°That¡¯s who I¡¯m looking for. Let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll take you with me and head north. As long as that monster hasn¡¯t died in this war, I won¡¯t feel at ease!¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu really wanted to go meet someone else. He had been thinking of him every day and night for over a year.


    Although the two of them were not rted by blood, they thought of each other as family.


    If it were the past, Ren Xiaosu would probably have gone to look for Yan Liuyuan without any hesitation. As for whether they would win the war or not, and whether there would be more hidden threats for humanity in the future, it wouldn¡¯t be any of his business.


    But the current Ren Xiaosu seemed to have changed. He might still be that selfish Ren Xiaosu, but now he understood what his choice would mean and how many lives it would affect.


    At this moment, since they were already victorious on the main battlefield, Ren Xiaosu did not need to stay here anymore. He nced in the direction where the Wolf King had appeared and said, ¡°Wait for me. I¡¯ll return immediately after killing ck Robe. Although I want to go look for you now, ck Robe has to die first.¡±

 Chapter 963 - Why are you still talking about the Prosperous Northwest at a time like this?

    <h4>Chapter 963: Why are you still talking about the Prosperous Northwest at a time like this?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    On the main battlefield, the soldiers of the Northwest Army¡¯s 6th Combat Brigade were bounding over the blinds at the defensive position.


    Earlier, they had been defending the position desperately, and the blinds at the defensive line were what kept them alive. If the barbarians broke through here, theirrades would die.


    There were barbarian corpses piled up everywhere in the wilderness outside the defensive line.


    With just 6,000 soldiers, the 6th Combat Brigade managed to hold off the expeditionary army¡¯s 70,000 barbarians for over ten days. If the details of this battle were to get out, the entire Alliance of Strongholds would probably be shocked.


    If it weren¡¯t for them, these 70,000 troops would have joined the battlefield at Mt. Daniu without any dy posed a great threat to the entire Wang Consortium and possibly the South as well.


    When the 6th Combat Brigade climbed out of their defensive line, some of the soldiers subconsciously looked back at the trench blinds behind them. This was the first time in the battle that they were looking from the other side. Some of the soldiers felt a tingle in their noses when they thought about how this was the ce they had defended with their lives just a while ago. Now, it was finally their turn to fight back.


    As the dust from the copse of the mountains cleared, the sky started turning bright. Suddenly, the soldiers felt a great sense of pride.


    Themander in front shouted, ¡°Stop watching! Keep up with the group. The battle isn¡¯t over yet. Now, it¡¯s time for us to make them pay with their lives.¡±


    Yes, the battle was not over yet.


    Thinking of this, the soldiers resolutely rushed out of the mountains. As they quickened their pace, they gradually heard the screams of the barbarians mixed with the howling of the wolves.


    The Great Hoodwinker took the lead and charged ahead. When everyone climbed over the ruins of the copsed mountains, the horizon in front of them started broadening.


    They saw the wolves weaving in and out among the expeditionary army troops as they attacked. Each group consisting of 300 wolves constantly tormented the expeditionary army¡¯s formation like a saw cutting through the battlefield.


    If he had not seen this with his own eyes, it would be really difficult for P5092 to imagine that the wolves could be so methodical in their killing.


    When the wolves advanced, the most powerfully built gray wolf in the pack would charge in front of the group. Even if it got hacked by a barbarian¡¯s axe, it would not cower.


    Once the wolves started shifting spots, some of those that had been conserving their strength in the pack would fall to the back of the group. If any barbarians tried to pursue them in the chaos, they would be greeted by their bloodied jaws.


    These 3,000 huge wolves moved through the expeditionary army without any resistance. They were more dauntless than humans as they executed their mission to a tee.


    If any of the wolves¡¯ brethren got killed, they would not hesitate. They simply changed their formation before continuing their mission.


    P5092 looked up at the Wolf King that was standing atop the mountain next to him. That huge wolf had been standing there throughout as itmanded its ¡°soldiers.¡±


    But at this moment, the Wolf King suddenly leaped down and headed straight through a group of barbarians as it rushed out of the mountains. None of the barbarians were able to stop its movement.


    ¡°Wait, where¡¯s it heading?¡± Zhang Xiaoman wondered, ¡°Why¡¯s it leaving?¡±


    Just as he was done speaking, everyone saw a group of men rushing over on horseback from beyond the battlefield. They were led by a person wearing a ferocious-looking facete.


    The Wolf King quickly ran to the man in the ferocious facete and rubbed its head against his sleeve affectionately.


    When P5092 saw this ur through his military binocrs, he was secretly shocked. He said to Wang Yun and the others around him, ¡°Previously, the Pyro Company received intel that a new lord rose among the nomads. Now that I¡¯ve seen him with my own eyes, I¡¯m really amazed.¡±


    After that, he watched the young lord jump onto the Wolf King¡¯s back from his horse before moving slowly towards the battlefield.


    Next to the young lord, tens of thousands of nomads rode past him on horseback and rushed towards the expeditionary army like a tidal wave crashing onto the beach. They were a huge tsunami.


    Arge shadow flitted across the ground from above and made everyone look up. They were all surprised to see arge hawk soaring in the sky at a low altitude.


    When it flew over the heads of the expeditionary army, it grabbed two barbarians with its talons before soaring into the sky again. Then it dropped them from a great height.


    The falling barbarians screamed loudly in midair as they fell to their deaths among the host.


    The nomads let out tremendous cheers within their formation as though they had already won the battle.


    Disregarding theirbat strength, their mentality was actually pretty good.


    To P5092 and the others, they needed a reason to participate in this battle, such as fighting for the survival of mankind in the Central ins and so on.


    But the nomads¡¯ reason for doing so was very simple. They were doing it for their master.


    If a war correspondent were here at this time and asked the nomads why they came to reinforce Mt. Zuoyun, Hassan would probably scratch his head and answer that it was because their master had ordered them toe.


    It was just that simple.


    Wang Yun said, ¡°I remember that hawk. It was hovering above our defensive position at one point. At that time, I thought it was just a wild hawk. I didn¡¯t expect it to belong to the nomads.¡±


    ¡°Looks like they were already paying attention to the battle over here,¡± Zhang Xiaoman said.


    P5092 started handing down orders, ¡°All fighting forces, take note. We¡¯ll just use the mountain ruins where we are as cover and shoot at the expeditionary army. Be careful not to hurt the wolves and the nomads. What we need to do now is help our reinforcements pin down the barbarians!¡±


    As the Northwest Army was already at its limit, the reinforcements were the key to victory. P5092 had only brought everyone over to support the nomads¡¯ efforts, so they absolutely had to get their priorities right.


    However, the young lord in his ferocious facete did not join the battle after arriving on the battlefield. Instead, he ordered the Wolf King to navigate through the tens of thousands of barbarians and head straight for the defensive position where P5092 and the others were.


    Wang Yun muttered, ¡°That¡¯s way too bold. What if he gets surrounded by the expeditionary army?¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, there were indeed some smarter barbarians in the expeditionary army who could tell from a nce that Yan Liuyuan was the actual leader of the reinforcements. As such, they immediately organized their troops to surround him.


    But to the expeditionary army¡¯s surprise, when they started attacking the young man riding on the Wolf King¡¯s back, the wolves and the nomads did not go to his rescue.


    A momentter, a barbarian who had rushed towards Yan Liuyuan suddenly tripped over a rock at his feet. When he fell, he lost his bnce and identally sliced another barbarian¡¯s heel with therge axe in his hand.


    The barbarians fell mysteriously to the ground like dominoes, and some of them even identally died on the spot.


    When P5092 and the others saw this, they found it extremely absurd. It was as though the expeditionary army elites whom they had previously been locked in battle with had suddenly contracted polio!


    Were these the same barbarians who had fought them? That young lord on the Wolf King¡¯s back was like a harbinger of doom. Why did it look like disaster followed him wherever he went?!


    It was no wonder he dared to cross the battlefield alone. So it turned out he was such a powerful person.


    P5092 thought to himself that even though the nomads hade to reinforce Mt. Zuoyun this time, they had taken down Stronghold 176.


    If such a powerful person remained in the grasnds, the Central ins would still be in grave danger.


    No one knew what the other party and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rtionship was. Did hee here to rescue them because Ren Xiaosu had helped him before?


    P5092 pondered all these questions only because the nomads were also once a hidden threat to the Central ins. As such, he was worried the nomads would turn against them at thest minute.


    What if the nomads attacked them after driving away the expeditionary army?


    Yan Liuyuan had already ridden in front of P5092 and the others. The 6th Combat Brigade had also ceased firing because of his arrival.


    Both sides fell silent. P5092 and the others did not know how to greet him.


    But after two minutes of silence, Yan Liuyuan suddenly asked hesitantly, ¡°Where¡¯s my big brother? Does he not want to see me?¡±


    P5092 and the others looked at one another. Big brother? Little brother? Could it be that the new lord of the steppe was the futuremander¡¯s little brother?


    If that were the case, wouldn¡¯t it mean the Northwest would gain another powerful ally for apparently no reason?!


    The Great Hoodwinker muttered, ¡°The wisest decision that I made in life was probably persuading the futuremander to join the Prosperous Northwest. Once he was convinced, a whole lot of others just followed along¡­.¡±


    P5092¡¯s mouth twitched a little. Why are you still talking about the Prosperous Northwest at a time like this?


    ....

 Chapter 964 - I finally found you

    <h4>Chapter 964: I finally found you</h4>


    ¡°Erm, you¡¯re¡­¡± Zhang Xiaoman looked at Yan Liuyuan¡¯s ferocious facete, not knowing how to address him. ¡°Hero, is Ren Xiaosu the big brother you were referring to?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°Yes, my name is Yan Liuyuan.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said excitedly to P5092, ¡°It¡¯s really Liuyuan. When the futuremander was with me in the Razor Sharp Company, he mentioned several times he was going to look for his younger brother after taking out the Zong Consortium, and this search went on for over a year.¡±


    At this point, the Great Hoodwinker looked over at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m the Great Hoodwinker. I¡¯m in charge of Fortress 178¡¯s fieldwork. Your brother previously requested I help look for you, but I couldn¡¯t find any news of you. I didn¡¯t expect you would actually go to the north. Do you know how much effort your brother has spent looking for you? He even made a trip to the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains just to find you, but nothing came out of that.¡±


    Wang Yun was stunned. ¡°So Ren Xiaosu went to the Sacred Mountains because he wanted to find him? It was way too dangerous at that time.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan listened to all of this quietly. So it turned out his brother had been looking for him all this while and even put himself in danger for him.


    He asked again, ¡°Where¡¯s my brother? My servant¡¯s hawk saw him at your defensive position.¡±


    ¡°Oh, when he saw that the situation on the main battlefield had already been decided, he led his wife and a chubster with him to the northern side. He was talking about killing ck Robe first. You probably don¡¯t know who ck Robe is, right? It¡¯s an intelligent being that exists among the Experimentals,¡± Zhang Xiaoman exined. ¡°But he should be back soon. I feel that it won¡¯t take long for him to kill ck Robe.¡±


    But the moment he finished saying that, everyone saw Yan Liuyuanmanding the Wolf King to turn back, muttering, ¡°Head north¡­¡±


    The Wolf King started picking up speed as it ran.


    The man and the wolf weaved through the battlefield, the barbarians posing no obstacle.


    The Great Hoodwinker watched Yan Liuyuan¡¯s figure recede. ¡°I can tell that the brothers have great affection for each other. I wonder if I can persuade him to have those nomads join the Prosperous Northwest. Y¡¯know, our Northwest has very good pastures¡­.¡±


    Wang Yun suddenly said, ¡°When Stronghold 176 was invaded the first time, someone saw him bring down the stronghold from far away. They didn¡¯t even know how he did it. These two brothers are really powerful. To be honest, we¡¯ve really fought a very tough battle. Great Hoodwinker, if you had helped the futuremander find him earlier, we wouldn¡¯t have had such a hard time fighting the barbarians. This young lord is probably capable of fighting an army of 20,000 by himself.¡±


    The era of the ¡°Rise of Gods¡± had truly arrived. When this era first began, there were only two people powerful enough to take on the organizations on their own. But now, there were more and more of them.


    However, Wang Yun suddenly had a thought. ¡®<i>Why does it seem like all of these people have an inextricable link with Ren Xiaosu?</i>¡®


    And now, if the consortiums of the Alliance of Strongholds were to learn Ren Xiaosu¡¯s background, they would probably be d he had no ambitions of vying for power, right?


    When Yan Liuyuan got to the rear of the enemy, Xiaoyu was waiting outside the battlefield on her horse with Bn Zir standing guard by her side. Xiaoyu asked, ¡°Have you found your brother?¡±


    ¡°He went to the northern side.¡± Yan Liuyuan grabbed Xiaoyu by the waist and carried her over from the horse. He ced her on the Wolf King¡¯s back and said, ¡°Let¡¯s go and look for him.¡±


    ¡­


    In the wilderness, ck Robe hid its tracks as it fled northwards. While lying prone on the ground, it saw the wolves from afar and realized the expeditionary army¡¯s defeat was already decided.


    Right now, it was not only the expeditionary army at Mt. Zuoyun that was starting to copse. The barbarians over at Mt. Daniu would definitely pull a quick retreat as well after learning about the defeat at Mt. Zuoyun, right?


    However, ck Robe was not dejected. Just as it had said to Valentin, it never expected the expeditionary army to be able to achieve the final victory.


    It had urged the expeditionary army toe to the Central ins because it coveted their northern kingdom. But at that time, the barbarians were simply too strong, especially that general ck Robe did not even dare to make a move against.


    And now, only a few out of the 190,000-strong expeditionary army troops could return home after this campaign ended. This way, there would be more opportunities for ck Robe to striketer on. It did not even seem difficult anymore if ck Robe wanted to turn the entire northern kingdom into its own territory.


    Moreover, ck Robe was thinking how great it would be if the Central ins people could surround and kill the general here. In that way, it would no longer have any opponents up in the Far North.


    But while thinking about that, ck Robe gradually stopped in its tracks. When it saw the young man looking at it in the wilderness up ahead with a smile, its suddenly got worried.


    Just over a month ago, it was this young man who had caused its entire body to turnpletely ck. Whenever ck Robe thought of this, it felt a deep hatred for Ren Xiaosu.


    Moreover, the other party had even disyed his killing resolve on the opposite peak yesterday.


    ck Robe might seem powerful, but it always felt some apprehension and fear deep down inside. It had appeared extremely confident while in the presence of humans, but if that was really the case, it would not have fled in such a hurry.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at ck Robe, who was in front of him. ¡°What? Are you nning to escape to the North now? The expeditionary army¡¯s war is not over yet, and you¡¯re already thinking of fleeing?¡±


    ck Robe said in a hoarse voice, ¡°What¡¯s that got to do with me? It suits me just fine if they lose.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Don¡¯t you find it tough living like this? You¡¯re always thinking of fighting and killing all the time. After causing all that trouble in the Southwest, you came to cause trouble in the Central ins again. A thing like you should not be alive in this world.¡±


    ck Robe said in a low voice, ¡°I also want to lead a quiet life, but can I really live as normal as you all? Can you humans ept me? You can¡¯t, right? Will you all allow anomalies like me to live among you when it¡¯s human nature to ostracize those that are different? Perhaps you all will ce me captive in a zoo to exhibit to others or turn me into a specimen. Isn¡¯t that what humans like to do? I was also a human in the past, so I know exactly how humans treat anomalies. There¡¯s no possibility for us to coexist!¡±


    ¡°You must¡¯ve gotten your logic wrong.¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°You were clearly the one who hunted down humans the moment you appeared, so why would humans want to get along peacefully with you?¡±


    ¡°I only kill people because I want to survive. When the Qing Consortium went into the Jing Mountains and saw us, didn¡¯t they also try to capture all of us?¡± ck Robe said fiercely, ¡°There¡¯s no point in me telling you all this. What are you doing here? Did youe to debate me? What, you still wish for us to choose a side and try to convince each other? Save it!¡±


    In that instant, ck Robe suddenly took a step back as a sniper bullet flew over from the wilderness in the distance. Surprisingly, ck Robe wised up this time and dodged it in advance!


    ck Robe startedughing hysterically. ¡°I know you set an ambush for me, but you shouldn¡¯t be using the same trick¡­¡±


    Whileughing, ck Robe looked down the gaping hole in its chest.


    ck Robe was sure it had dodged the bullet, so why did it still get shot?


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s voice crackled through the earpiece, ¡°I figured out what¡¯s unique about the ck bullet. Once a target¡¯s been shot by it, the second shot will definitely kill it if the target did not die the first time around regardless of where it hits. I already had it in my scope, so it really did dodge the trajectory of my shot in advance.¡±


    As the ck bullet¡¯s second shot could change its trajectory, this shot was a surefire kill!


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he heard this. This was the first time he learned the ck bullet had such an effect.


    ck Robe looked at its chest silently. In its world, it was the ruler, and the world revolved around it. Therefore, ck Robe never thought it would die as easily as this.


    However, it could feel its life force draining away after the ck bullet pierced its chest.


    ck Robe looked at Ren Xiaosu and said dumbfoundedly, ¡°I clearly dodged that. No, that¡¯s not a normal sniper bullet. What is it¡­¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°My dear opponent, that¡¯s the argument our side has presented.¡±


    ck Robe could not ept this as it slowly fell to the ground. It wanted to firmlymit this young man¡¯s face to its memory. However, it suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu was not looking at it but someone behind it.


    As ck Robe fell to the ground, Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at the huge wolf rushing towards him from the south. With no one around in the wilderness, the sight of that huge wolf and the people riding on its back came as striking yet such a surprise.


    Ren Xiaosu had been waiting for this day for so long that he thought it would never arrive. They were standing at two ends of a long river of time, separated by a stretch of gxy and a bottomless ck hole.


    He could not see the end of it no matter how far he looked.


    In his life¡¯s journey, he once walked for an extended period alone and saw the lights in his life go out one by one. Wudi was gone, and Xiaoyu and Liuyuan had gone missing as well.


    In that period, he felt a little lost and alone.


    Actually, at certain points, he could somewhat understand the loneliness Zero had mentioned.


    This was a feeling of not seeing anyone waiting for him in that dimly lit boulevard when he turned around, followed by all the lights going out.


    Ren Xiaosu stood quietly in ce and watched as the other party approached him quickly. He suddenly felt a lump in his throat.


    I finally found you.

 Chapter 965 - Reunion

    <h4>Chapter 965: Reunion</h4>


    ¡°Bro, I want to go out to hunt too.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the young man walking towards him after slowly getting off the Wolf King¡¯s back. It felt like the words Yan Liuyuan had said to him were still resonating in his ears.


    In the blink of an eye, Liuyuan had grown taller. In the past, Little Liuyuan only reached up to his chest. But now, he was nearly as tall as him.


    Nothing had seemingly changed between the two of them. Ren Xiaosu could still feel the eagerness in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s eyes.


    However, he had on a fierce-looking facete and was no longer that little sidekick who followed him around. He was now the new king of the steppe.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯ve grown taller.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan took off his facete and revealed his handsome face. ¡°Bro, you¡¯ve gotten a little tanner.¡±


    With that, Yan Liuyuan quickened his pace and hugged Ren Xiaosu.


    Yang Xiaojin came out of her sniping spot in the distance and put away her ck sniper rifle before walking towards them. However, she did not interrupt the two brothers¡¯ reunion.


    She understood Ren Xiaosu quite well, so she clearly knew how much he had been longing for this day toe.


    When Xiaoyu saw Yang Xiaojin, she wiped her tears with her sleeve and went up to her. ¡°Xiaojin, you haven¡¯t changed at all. You¡¯re still as beautiful as ever.¡±


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin switched from her usual intimidating self and started blushing, as though she was embarrassed to meet the ¡°parents.¡± ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, you also haven¡¯t changed at all.¡±


    Xiaoyu pulled Yang Xiaojin aside. While taking a stroll, she took a gold bracelet out of her pocket and put it on for Yang Xiaojin. ¡°I knew that we would definitely find y¡¯all when we came to the South this time, so I had Hassan specially make this gold bracelet. Consider it a gift for our long-awaited reunion.¡±


    Now that Yan Liuyuan was already the lord of the steppe, they were definitely notcking any gold. So Xiaoyu was very generous with the gift. The heavy gold bracelet probably weighed more than 200 grams¡­


    If they were in the Central ins, only the rich families could afford the betrothal jewelry necessary to n a marriage.


    Xiaoyu felt that while Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan used to be poor, there were probably not a lot of people in the entire Alliance of Strongholds who couldpare to their status as they progressed further in life.


    Therefore, they would have to make it a grand affair when Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan married and had children in the future.


    They would also be an influential family in the future, and maybe people might even think they were a rich family when someone mentioned them.


    In front of the sheepish Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin would often tease him verbally. But when facing Xiaoyu, she acted much more reserved, like she was afraid of leaving a bad impression on her.


    The twodies walked away, leaving Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan behind to catch up.


    No one noticed that Xun Yeyu was still lying in the wilderness a distance away and muttering, ¡°What¡¯s the situation now? Can Ie out yet?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin teamed up to kill ck Robe, they had made him hide here, and he was told not toe out without Ren Xiaosu giving him the word.


    But in the blink of an eye, everyone had forgotten about him.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu checked on ck Robe¡¯s body and gave it a few more stabs after confirming it was dead.


    Honestly, this guy was such a relentless spirit. Even the nuclear bomb did not kill it, so Ren Xiaosu was really afraid it would suddenly get up and run away again.


    Only when this devious creature waspletely dead could they feel at ease.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. ¡°How did y¡¯all end up on the steppe?¡±


    The two of them found arge rock and sat down side by side on it. Yan Liuyuan exined, ¡°Back then, I saw you get pierced in the abdomen by the spear. When the flood was about to hit, the wolf pack suddenly appeared, and the Wolf King picked Big Sister Xiaoyu and me up in its jowls before heading to the North. Later on, I wanted to avenge you, but I felt that I should establish my own forces first. I thought of what you told me previously, that the people living in the grasnds were still ignorant, and it happened that my power was suited for creating ¡®gods¡¯ there.¡±


    ¡°Was it tough to unify the grasnds?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Yan Liuyuan shook his head and said with a smile, ¡°Not at all. Initially, we were supposed to be in for a tough battle, but we got quite lucky. The Pyro Company actually came and captured the most powerful khan in the grasnds¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°I only went to the Sacred Mountains after hearing about this kidnapping. I didn¡¯t expect that it was actually just a big misunderstanding!¡±


    Yan Liuyuan was taken aback. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°The Pyro Company and Anjing House happened to have their goals aligned and imed that the Pyro Company had caught the No. 001 Experimental.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°At that time, I was under the impression that you were the No. 001 Experimental, so I went to the Sacred Mountains because I wanted to save you. But that was just an assumption anyway. Since we both can¡¯t remember anything about the past, I hope you don¡¯t take this matter to heart.¡±


    But Yan Liuyuan suddenly fell silent. He asked in a soft voice, ¡°Bro, have you recalled anything?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°No, why are you suddenly asking about this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°It always feels strange to have part of my memory nk. By the way, how¡¯d you end up bing Fortress 178¡¯s futuremander?¡±


    ¡°Oh, after I was swept away by the flood, I was saved by Wang Shengzhi, who then brought me to Fortress 178.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Later on, Mr. Zhang Jinglin told me that he could help me take revenge since they happened to be sending troops to attack the Zong Consortium. Thus, I joined Fortress 178¡¯s Razor Sharp Company and killed my way to the North. It was also in that war that Fortress 178 wiped out the Zong Consortium. After that, I left the Northwest and went to the Central ins to search for your whereabouts.¡±


    ¡°Have you found Uncle Fugui and the others yet?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°They¡¯re doing business in the Northwest now and it¡¯s thriving. We¡¯ve also found Ms. Jiang, Wang Yuchi, and the others.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good then.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°You and sister-inw are now¡ª¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha,¡± Ren Xiaosu interrupted. ¡°You¡¯re still a kid, so don¡¯t be asking such questions.¡±


    The two of them fell silent. Ren Xiaosu immediately felt that he might have been a little tactless. Yan Liuyuan was no longer a child but the new king of the steppe.


    Although he was still his younger brother, Liuyuan had grown up.


    After a long while, Yan Liuyuan finally said, ¡°Actually, I found out about your news a few months ago. I saw those words in the Hope Media newspaper when we attacked Stronghold 176, but I didn¡¯t go and look for you.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised to hear that.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°While unifying the grasnds, I killed a lot of people, and some of them were even people who I shouldn¡¯t have killed. But in order to establish my authority, I killed all of them. Many civilians in Stronghold 176 also died because of me when I didn¡¯t restrain my subordinates. That nearly led to a tragedy of the city being massacred. And after seeing the ¡®don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well¡¯ in the newspaper, I felt that I might be unworthy to meet you again.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could not hold back hisughter. ¡°Do you really think you went overboard with all that? If you knew what I did, you¡¯d probably try to persuade me to be kinder¡­.¡±

 Chapter 966 - Different paths but never far

    <h4>Chapter 966: Different paths but never far</h4>


    The battle for Mt. Zuoyun was about to end.


    Actually, the expeditionary army¡¯s defeat was foreseeable from the moment the wolves arrived. All that was left now was cleaning up the battlefield.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers led by Luo Lan had fought their way from the South to the North. How could the already defeated barbarians possibly be a match for these elite troops? Moreover, they were even equipped with 2,000 40 mm underbarrel grenadeunchers.


    If the Qing Consortium were fighting on the main battlefield, they would definitely not deploy all of their underbarrel grenadeunchers in one army. But now it was like these troops were given a cheat code and routed the expeditionary army until they did not even have the courage to fight back.


    Meanwhile, on the 6th Combat Brigade and the wolves¡¯ side, both parties were constantly applying pressure on the expeditionary army¡¯s area of movement until there were no barbarians left alive on the battlefield.


    Hassan and the nomads rode on their sturdy horses and patrolled the battlefield. When they saw the barbarians¡¯ huge axes, their eyes lit up. ¡°These are great!¡±


    With that, they immediately gathered all of the axes and took them as the spoils of war for the nomads.


    Although the Qing Consortium had provided firearms to them, there were still too few to equip all the nomads. As the nomads did not have the capability to manufacture firearms, they were naturally very happy to find these axes.


    When P5092 and the others saw the Battle for Mt. Zuoyun had ended, they emerged from behind a makeshift blind and headed towards the nomads.


    When Hassan saw them, he weed them warmly with the other nomads.


    Hassan knew full well that these troops were led by his master¡¯s brother, so they were on the same side.


    But when the two sides got closer, the nomads were stunned. They learned from Hassan that the barbarians from the Far North had surrounded this ce for more than ten days, so they thought this should have been an evenly fought battle between the Central ins and the barbarians.


    As such, they felt the Central ins troops here should also be elites.


    But when they saw the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade, they were all covered in dust and dirt. Some of them even had to use their guns to steady themselves.


    There were fewer people in the 6th Combat Brigade than expected, and their clothes were all tattered and dirty, making them look pathetic and battered.


    Nearby, Bn Zir asked, ¡°Is this all of you?¡±


    P5092 smiled. ¡°What, you expected more?¡±


    Bn Zir looked at the thousands of soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade. They had encountered the expeditionary army at the salt pool and witnessed thebat strength of the barbarians during their reconnaissance. Therefore, it was very difficult for him to imagine it was just these few people in front of him who had held the expeditionary army¡¯s 70,000 troops here for a dozen days.


    Bn Zir walked forward and patted P5092 on the chest. ¡°You¡¯re all men worthy of respect. If there¡¯s a chance,e visit the steppe, and we¡¯ll definitely y host to y¡¯all with the best wine.¡±


    P5092 did not mind. He said with a smile, ¡°Thank you foring to our aid. If it weren¡¯t for you all, we couldn¡¯t have held out for much longer. But now is not the time to talk about that. We still have to rush north.¡±


    ¡°As it happens, my master¡¯s also headed north, so let¡¯s ride together.¡± Bn Zir turned around andmanded the nomads behind him, ¡°Bring the horses!¡±


    For this long-range raid, every one of the nomads had to bring two horses along in case one was unable to bear the long journey.


    Now that they were willing to let the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade ride their horses, it could be considered as a way of showing their admiration.


    ¡­


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was staring nkly at Ren Xiaosu north of the battlefield of Mt. Zuoyun. He did not expect that the matter he had been worried about for so long was simply brushed aside by Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°During the war against the Zong Consortium, I killed at least several thousand people. Later, I went to Stronghold 146 and nearly wiped out an entire brigade there. When Stronghold 146 was destroyed, there were definitely civilians who got injured as well.


    ¡°And the East Lake cave-in at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 73 also caused quite a stir even though the stronghold was not destroyed.


    ¡°After that, I also killed several hundred people at the Kong Consortium¡¯s strongholds and another thousand-odd people at Luoyang City¡­¡± Ren Xiaosu recalled. ¡°Now that I think about it, I feel like I¡¯m jinxed. It¡¯s as though whichever stronghold I go to, they all end up getting destroyed¡­.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan did not say anything for a while. He realized Ren Xiaosu had killed far more people than him!


    Ren Xiaosu then said, ¡°I only told you that because I didn¡¯t want you to go astray. But do you remember what I said? As a person, you have to have a clear conscience. If you feel guilty, you just have to convince yourself not to. Actually, we¡¯re not suited to be heroes, so we don¡¯t have to tie such heavy chains on ourselves. It¡¯s more important to protect the people around us and keep them alive.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan thought for a moment and nodded. ¡°Mhm.¡±


    ¡°By the way, tell me about your time on the steppe.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Was life tough over there?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a very beautiful ce.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°When I went there, a blizzard turned the entire steppe into a vast expanse of white and looked extraordinarily magnificent. After winter went and spring came, the snow melted and became a stream. The rivers in the grasnds are clear and winding like a sky-blue scarf. Cows and goats are scattered across the ins grazing while the herdsmen ride on their horses with their whips. When the breeze blows, the grass resembles waves on the sea.¡±


    ¡°On rainy days, everyone will gather in their tents and sit by their fire pits. Listening to the sound of the falling rain outside, the warmth of the fire pit slowly dries our clothes to afortable feel,¡± Yan Liuyuan continued. ¡°But there aren¡¯t any vegetables to eat there. I even made Hassan make a special trip to the Northwest to look for a bandit named Su Lei to purchase some.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Why did the name ¡°Su Lei¡± sound so familiar? He seemed to have encountered that bandit before.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was more concerned about Yan Liuyuan¡¯s expression and tone. He understood that Yan Liuyuan liked it very much in the grasnds.


    Before this, Yan Liuyuan had been to many ces before. However, Ren Xiaosu had never seen him like a ce so much before.


    Yan Liuyuan said softly, ¡°In the past, my favorite ce was the town outside of Stronghold 113. Although we led a tough life, I always feel I belong whenever I think of that ce. But, Bro, we can¡¯t go back there anymore, right?¡±


    With Stronghold 113 gone, the town there had also ceased to exist. There was an implied meaning to Yan Liuyuan¡¯s words.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Come with me to the Northwest. We also have pastures there.¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu already knew the answer, but he still could not help asking.


    But at this moment, the sound of galloping horses came from the south. The crowd of people who appeared on the horizon were tiny specks as they quickly approached.


    Yan Liuyuan stood up. When those people rushing over saw their master and the Wolf King, they spurred their horses faster and let out thunderous cheers.


    When the nomads and the 6th Combat Brigade arrived before the two of them, there was a clear divide between the two groups. Everyone looked at their respective leader. Although they got along, there was always an invisible line separating them, even if that line was only a meter wide.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Bro, I didn¡¯t dare toe and see you before because I was worried that you would be really disappointed in me. I came here this time because you used to be the one to protect me, and I was looking forward to the day when I could protect you instead. I¡¯ve done it this time, and not only that, but I¡¯ll do it again in the future. However, I¡¯m now a member of the steppe.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan quietly. Yes, Little Liuyuan had finally grown up.


    Before this, Yan Liuyuan had be the new king of the steppe, and with this independent identity and strength, he was no longer that little boy who always followed Ren Xiaosu around. Instead, he had be a real man. He was the king of the steppe.


    But at that time, his personality was still not fully developed. That was because he was afraid to see Ren Xiaosu due to the shadow in his heart. To escape from that shadow, he even thought of cutting off his past feelings.


    But now he faced all of this squarely and made his decision without any fear or avoidance. At this moment, he was trulyplete.


    Ren Xiaosu knew full well that the king of the steppe was an eagle in the sky, so how could that eagle hide under the wings of others to survive?


    The nomads were aplete tribe on their own. Such a tribe would definitely have all kinds of conflicts with Fortress 178 if they were to go to the Northwest, and neither would Yan Liuyuan be willing to let his people live under someone else¡¯s care.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu understood Yan Liuyuan¡¯s choice.


    At this moment, the nomads and the Northwest Army¡¯s 6th Combat Brigade were standing side by side in the vast wilderness. The crowd of people extended into the distance and spread towards the horizon.


    In the end, the two of them had their own lives and paths to take. Life did not have to be tied together to be perfect. Watching one¡¯s family and friends leaving for elsewhere was also an experience most adults had to go through.


    The two youths had grown up together and gainedplete and independent personalities after experiencing hardship together. They no longer avoided the unbearable past and calmly walked their own path.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Then will youe to the Northwest to visit in the future?¡±


    ¡°Of course I will.¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°Bro, from now on, you¡¯ll be guarding the Northwest. In that case, I will guard the North for humanity. Give me three years and I¡¯ll guarantee that the barbarians in the Far North will never cross into the steppe again. Meanwhile, our grasnds and the Northwest will always be best of friends.¡±


    Although their paths were different, they would never stray far from each other.

 Chapter 967 - Farewell and the black medicine

    <h4>Chapter 967: Farewell and the ck medicine</h4>


    The nomads bade farewell to the Northwestern men from the 6th Combat Brigade. They hugged each other and invited their new friends to visit their homes in the future. All of them were extremely enthusiastic with one another.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan both knew that such a day would definitelye. At the very least, as long as the two of them were still alive, the Northwest and the grasnds would not wage war with each other.


    Yan Liuyuan did not intend to participate in the subsequent battles. Now that the overall situation was decided, the expeditionary army¡¯s defeat was no longer in doubt. As the new king of the steppe, there was no need for him to risk the lives of his subjects any further. What they should do now was to return to the grasnds to recuperate.


    He told Ren Xiaosu to leave it to him to guard the North in the future. In a sense, from today onwards, the nomads would rece Stronghold 176 as the Central ins¡¯ first line of defense in the North.


    If the expeditionary army tried to head south again, they would have to pass through the grasnds first.


    Before leaving, Xiaoyu pulled Yang Xiaojin aside with reddened eyes and said, ¡°Xiaosu, that kid, has been through a lot. Now that he¡¯s finallye through that, I plead that you treat him well. Love is between two people, and as an outsider, I have no right to say anything. I only hope for both of you to live well. When you two bear a child, I can go to the Northwest to help you take care of it¡­.¡±


    All of a sudden, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s face turned red. She was not one to get shy so easily in front of Ren Xiaosu, but for some reason, she always felt like she could not open up fully to Xiaoyu.


    As for having children, it was still too early to talk about that.


    Yang Xiaojin asked, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, are you also going back to the steppe with Liuyuan? I know you must not be used to living there. After all, the customs in the South are very different.¡±


    Xiaoyu turned around and took a look at Yan Liuyuan. However, she said to Yang Xiaojin with a gentle smile, ¡°Y¡¯all have Wang Fugui, Teacher Jiang Wu, Mr. Zhang, and so many friends with you in the Northwest, but Liuyuan only has me on the steppe. So I have to apany him. Don¡¯t worry, I heard from Liuyuan that it¡¯s not difficult to get to the Northwest. If we ride horses, we can get there in ten days. It¡¯ll also be very convenient for me to go and visit y¡¯all.¡±


    Xiaoyu continued, ¡°Moreover, now that Xiaosu has be the futuremander of the Northwest, it¡¯s only a matter of time before the Northern ins and the Northwest link their trade routes with each other. Then I can travel with the caravans to see y¡¯all.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, Big Sister Xiaoyu, you muste,¡± Yang Xiaojin said in seriousness.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go and join up with them now,¡± Xiaoyu said reluctantly. ¡°Xiaosu has never liked other girls before, that I can guarantee you. That¡¯s why, sometimes, he might not know what girls like or want to hear. If he makes a mistake, you can tell me when you see me again and I¡¯ll lecture him for you.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Yang Xiaojin smiled.


    ¡­


    After Yan Liuyuan confirmed they were returning to the grasnds, he started discussing some serious matters with Ren Xiaosu. Ren Xiaosu then called Zhang Xiaoman, the Great Hoodwinker, P5092, Wang Yun, and the others over.


    Then Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°There¡¯s many things we require in the grasnds, such as weapons, vegetables, tea leaves, and cloth. When I get back, I¡¯ll send Hassan to form a caravan as soon as possible and bring goods from the steppe to trade with y¡¯all. I wonder if that¡¯s possible?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was still needed to answer these questions. He thought for a moment and said, ¡°That¡¯s not a problem. We¡¯ll also form a caravan and head to the steppe to discuss this.¡±


    ¡°Besides that, I also hope I can send some children to Fortress 178 to attend school as there¡¯s a severeck of knowledge among the nomads,¡± Yan Liuyuan said.


    ¡°No problem,¡± the Great Hoodwinker agreed immediately.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu again. ¡°Bro, I¡¯d like to send some of our nomads to attend the Northwest¡¯s military institute. Is that OK?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately put a smile on his face. Yan Liuyuan was still as smart and quick-witted as ever. Sending people to attend a military institute was still considered a sensitive matter, so Yan Liuyuan did not speak directly to the Great Hoodwinker about this. Instead, he requested it to Ren Xiaosu as his younger brother.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Great Hoodwinker and said with a smile, ¡°Can I decide on this?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker hurriedly said, ¡°Since you¡¯re the futuremander, of course you can.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan and said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll promise you that.¡±


    Finally, Yan Liuyuan led the nomads back to the North. But before they left, the Wolf King suddenly went up to Ren Xiaosu and paced around him, refusing to leave.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Although he had not seen the Wolf King in a long time, they were still old friends. But what was the meaning of this?


    Everyone looked at the Wolf King while it looked at Ren Xiaosu.


    After a long time, Ren Xiaosu suddenly took out a vial of ck medicine. ¡°Is this what you¡¯re asking for?¡±


    The Wolf King immediately nodded!


    Ren Xiaosu was startled. ¡®<i>Why would an old wolf like you need something like that?!</i>¡® However, he still gave out a dozen vials of ck medicine to the Wolf King before it went away satisfied.


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Future Commander, where are we going next?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s finish what we¡¯ve started.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°After we finish firing all the ammo we have, we¡¯ll head back to the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    P5092 hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Although I also want to continue assisting the Wang Consortium in pursuing the expeditionary army, it¡¯s not suitable for us to join the battle again, because our mobility isn¡¯t as great as the expeditionary army¡¯s, so it¡¯s very easy for us to get into trouble.¡±


    ¡°Who says that our mobility isn¡¯t as good as theirs?¡± As Ren Xiaosu said that, P5092 and the others heard the sound of the steam lotive driving out of the darkness.


    P5092 was stunned. ¡°Future Commander, are you thinking of having all our soldiers get onto the train?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had also mentioned this idea before they arrived at Mt. Zuoyun. But they needed to dy the expeditionary army at that time, so P5092 rejected the suggestion.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°Although there¡¯s only about a 1,000 seats in the sixteen carriages, it definitely won¡¯t be a problem for all of the 6th Combat Brigade to get onto the train if everyone stands. We won¡¯t fight the expeditionary army head on either. We¡¯ll just use the steam lotive to chase after them and leave after we¡¯re done expending all of our ammo!¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu had everyone board the train. Then he had them mount their guns on the windows of the carriages, making it look extremely terrifying.


    In that instant, P5092 suddenly felt the infantry brigade had be somewhat like an armored brigade.


    On the train, the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade started getting excited. They had not expected their futuremander to have such tactics.


    Just as the train started moving, Ren Xiaosu saw yet another group of soldiers appearing in the distance. These troops were led by Luo Lan and Zhou Qi.


    Ren Xiaosu stopped the train in front of them. Luo Lan shouted, ¡°Are you all heading back onto the battlefield?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°Yes, thank you for your help this time. I¡¯ll remember the Qing Consortium¡¯s friendship. What are your ns?¡±


    Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°I won¡¯t go back with you and get involved in this mess anymore. Who knows if the Wang Consortium might really want to capture me now? I¡¯ll get the nanosoldiers to return straight to the Southwest while I make a trip to the South. Since the Wang Consortium still has their hands full, I should hurry to the South.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re going to the South?¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious.


    ¡°That¡¯s right, I¡¯m making a trip to Luoyang City before heading to the Zhou Consortium.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°Erm¡­ there¡¯s something more important though. Do you still have the ck medicine? Some of my soldiers are injured¡­. You know what I mean!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. He looked at those nanosoldiers and thought, ¡®<i>How could any of them be injured? If you want the ck medicine, just ask directly!</i>¡®


    First, it was the Wolf King, then Luo Lan. Why do all of you have toe and get the ck medicine from me before leaving?!

 Chapter 968 - Impending danger

    <h4>Chapter 968: Impending danger</h4>


    Northwest of Mt. Zuoyun, the nanosoldiers did not travel with Luo Lan to the South. Instead, they headed back to the Qing Consortium via the same route they had taken here.


    There was already a convoy 300 kilometers away waiting to pick them up for the return trip.


    For the nanosoldiers, they were here to rescue Ren Xiaosu with Boss Luo on one hand and also go throughbat training on the other. After they returned, the data rted to their battle this time would be fully documented and analyzed by a dedicated team. They would assess the performance of all the nanosoldiers and develop more suitablebat strategies and training methods for them.


    The nanosoldiers quickly made their way to the rendezvous point, as everyone was eager to return home.


    As they had won the battle, everyone was very rxed. However, the officer at the front suddenly stopped in his tracks and held up his arm. All of the well-trained nanosoldiers behind him immediately crouched down and got ready to provide covering fire.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± The Qing Consortium¡¯s officer asked coldly. ¡°Identify yourself, or we¡¯ll shoot!¡±


    The other party looked at them with great interest and said, ¡°The nanomachines this time should be enough tost for the short term. Although they¡¯re still a little bad, the factory will be set up soon enough. Then there¡¯ll be an endless stream of nanomachines being manufactured.¡±


    When the officer heard the other party muttering to himself, he got an ominous feeling. The person who spoke said with a smile, ¡°Let me introduce myself. My name is Zero, and I¡¯m here to takemand of you all. I guess I¡¯ll put you people in charge of the construction of the factory.¡±


    Before Zero was done speaking, the 2,000 nanosoldiers¡¯ faces turned nk. Three secondster, their expressions returned to normal again.


    However, they did not ask who Zero was and headed straight out into the wilderness. No one knew where they were going.


    At the same time, a convoy of vehicles southwest of the Qing Consortium was escorting a newly manufactured batch of nanomachines to Stronghold 111.


    The convoy traveled on the road between the mountains with two armored vehicles leading the way, and eight motorcycles and an armored vehicle behind them.


    The entire convoy¡¯s defenses were extremely tight, and the nanosoldiers in the convoy were constantly on guard against the sudden appearance of anyone.


    But the moment they entered a tunnel, all of the nanosoldiers fell into a daze before returning to normal.


    They stopped the convoy in the tunnel, and everyone got out of their vehicles to open up the cargo boxes they were transporting. Then they offloaded the boxes containing the nanomachines one by one.


    After that, this group of nanosoldiers abandoned their vehicles and quickly carried the nanomachines into the wilderness.


    30 minutester, a voice from themand center rang out over the vehicle¡¯s radio. ¡°Report location.¡±


    ¡°Alpha Three, report your current location!¡±


    However, no one answered him as the vehicles were empty.


    Not even Ren Xiaosu could directly control the nanomachines in the bodies of others. If he wanted to reset the nanomachines, he would have to wait until the targets were in aa first.


    But even though what Zero was doing at this moment might look simr to what Ren Xiaosu did before, the principle behind it waspletely different.


    The aftermath of the destruction to the Qing Consortium¡¯s secret base by Yang Anjing and Wang Wenyan was much worse than they had imagined.


    It was just like the time in Luoyang City when Wang Wenyan only needed to bring a palm-sized device to connect to the Qinghe Group¡¯swork for Zero to sessfully seize the seven satellites.


    And this time, the military system of the secret base was a doorway, and no one knew how much Zero had gained after walking through it.


    Zero had gained control of the Qing Consortium¡¯s nanomachines through the backdoor program the Qing Consortium had built into the nanomachines. This was the first time the artificial intelligence¡¯s godlike ability in the field ofputer science was on full disy.


    When the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops realized they could no longer contact the convoy, they immediately informed Qing Zhen of the matter. Qing Zhen¡¯s first order was to disconnect all of the military¡¯swork coverage.


    The Qing Consortium then contacted the nanotroops Luo Lan had taken with him. However, they also lost contact with this 2,000-strong force. It was as though they had evaporated into thin air.


    Boss Luo had just called to say the battle was over, so how did the 2,000-strong force suddenly be uncontactable?


    This time, many of the Qing Consortium¡¯s high-rankingmanders could sense that danger was slowly approaching. They quickly asked Qing Zhen what their next step should be, but the Qing Consortium¡¯s head did not say anything. It was as though he was still waiting.


    ¡­


    On the top floor of Hope Media¡¯s headquarters in Luoyang City.


    Jiang Xu carefully checked the draft in his hands. He read it word by word and line by line as he was afraid inappropriate words would appear in the article.


    Chief editors of many newspaper firms were no longer involved in such trivial matters. They would let their editors handle the job of going through the drafts and not carry out the final review personally. They only controlled the direction of their newspaper firms¡¯ reporting and the public¡¯s opinion as a result.


    However, Jiang Xu was exceptionally attentive when it came to publishing the news.


    After he finished reading the draft, he picked up a phone on the table and said, ¡°Have Deputy Editor Zhange in.¡±


    In the past, he would have Ji Yi publish the drafts. However, Ji Yi was still retreating with the Pyro Company¡¯s troops at this moment, so another deputy chief editor by the name of Zhang Chentong helped with Ji Yi¡¯s job.


    Jiang Xu took his overcoat from the coat rack. When Deputy Chief Editor Zhang Chentong came in, Jiang Xu instructed, ¡°Arrange for this to be published on the second page tomorrow.¡±


    Zhang Chentong picked up the draft from the table. It was an article about the Northwest Army garrisoned at Mt. Zuoyun and their great victory. He looked up and asked, ¡°We haven¡¯t been able to contact Mt. Zuoyun at all. Where did you get this news from?¡±


    Jiang Xu seemed to be in a good mood. ¡°This is the Wang Consortium¡¯s firsthand ount of the battle. I didn¡¯t expect them to suddenly send this to me either. The expeditionary army is about to be defeated, and we¡¯ve achieved a preliminary victory in the war. The Wang Consortium is going to pursue full victory now. Currently, half of the expeditionary army¡¯s forces are still stubbornly resisting at Mt. Daniu while the other half has started retreating north.¡±


    This was undoubtedly good news. The defeat of the Pyro Company cast the shadow of war on everyone, and they were afraid news of the Wang Consortium¡¯s defeat at the front line would reach them again.


    ¡°Where are you going?¡± Zhang Chentong asked with a smile.


    ¡°I have sses at Qinghe University. By the way, tell everyone they don¡¯t need to work overtime tonight. We¡¯ve been busy for a long time, so it¡¯s time to get some rest.¡± Jiang Xu said with a smile, ¡°But tell them not to drink either. Before the war is over, we still have many things to report about. Once victory is truly assured, we can arrange for everyone¡¯spensatory leave then.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Zhang Chentong smiled and nodded. However, he thought of something. ¡°By the way, Chief Editor, the Wang Consortium¡¯s people still haven¡¯t left. They¡¯re staying at a hotel in Luoyang City and drop by here punctually every day. We can¡¯t keep turning down meeting them like this.¡±

 Chapter 969 - No regrets

    <h4>Chapter 969: No regrets</h4>


    In everyone¡¯s eyes, Hope Media stood opposed to the Wang Consortium and deliberately targeted them.


    Although they adhered to the principle of reporting the truth, Hope Media had indeed reported too much negative news about the Wang Consortium during this period.


    Moreover, those articles had caused a huge reaction in society. Rumor had it that even within the Wang Consortium, there were also some opposition voices. Many people sat quietly in front of the Wang Consortium¡¯s administrative office to protest the Wang Consortium¡¯s disunity with the Alliance of Strongholds in the war.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s diplomatic team had remained in Luoyang City in hopes of meeting with Jiang Xu. Many of the reporters from the other media outlets also came here hoping to capture the scene when Jiang Xu and the Wang Consortium interacted.


    Hope Media had always been the leader in the media industry. Many of the media outlets wanted to get a handle on Hope Media to topple this huge figure of the industry from its pedestal.


    Actually, as long as those media outlets stuck to the principle of reporting the truth like Hope Media did, they could also rise quickly in this era and gain the trust of the people.


    But in the end, they still chose the quicker and more effective way of trying to topple Hope Media. As long as they could capture a scene of Jiang Xu and the Wang Consortium¡¯s private meeting, the reporters and newspapers that published this news would instantly gain fame.


    This was what the real world was like.


    Now that the war was about to end, Hope Media would definitely report some news that was beneficial to the Wang Consortium in the future. That was because at the end of it all, the Wang Consortium was the true winner of this war.


    Hope Media¡¯s responsibility was to report the truth. They could not simply erase the Wang Consortium¡¯s contributions even though everyone was extremely unhappy with them.


    But the more it was like this, the more Jiang Xu could not meet with the Wang Consortium¡¯s people. If he started reporting positive news of the Wang Consortium after meeting them, those who were waiting for Hope Media to fall would immediately make an issue out of it.


    At this moment, Jiang Xu walked out of Hope Media¡¯s headquarters. Although he was holding a cane, his posture was straight.


    For such an uncorrupted and principled person, it did not affect his bearing one bit, even though he was crippled.


    Most of the time, Jiang Xu would be picked up by a private car that sent him to Qinghe University for his sses. However, everyone at Hope Media knew that Jiang Xu also had a penchant for slowly walking over by himself when he was in a very good mood. There was no need for the car in that case.


    Someone secretly asked him why he did that, and Jiang Xu¡¯s answer was that when a person was in a good mood, their perception of the world would be exceptionally clear and beautiful. A person¡¯s life was very short, and there might not be that many times when they were in a good mood. Therefore, they should cherish this beautiful scenery.


    When he walked out onto the street, many of the pedestrians would smile at Jiang Xu when they saw him.


    Many years ago, when Jiang Xu¡¯s leg was just broken, he became the most respected person in Luoyang City. At that time, a lot of people would voluntarily greet Jiang Xu when they saw him.


    After that, there were more and more examples where Hope Media enforced their principles, so Jiang Xu also became more and more respected. It was so much so that everyone could not help but greet him whenever they saw him.


    Then everyone realized that no matter whether Jiang Xu knew any of them or not, he would return their greetings.


    And then they realized Jiang Xu¡¯s voice had gone hoarse.


    His colleagues at Hope Media felt bad for him, so they secretly told everyone not to greet him anymore. With Chief Editor Jiang Xu¡¯s character, it was impossible that he would ignore others if they greeted him. If such scenes were to take ce every day, who could bear it? All of Jiang Xu¡¯s time would be wasted on greeting everyone back.


    As such, the residents of Luoyang City gradually stopped greeting him vocally. Instead, they just nodded at him with a smile.


    However, it was different today. The news of the preliminary victory in the war had somehow spread to Luoyang City as well. When someone saw Jiang Xu¡¯s smiling face, they could not help but ask, ¡°Chief Editor, I see that you¡¯re in a very good mood today. Did you also receive news of a great victory at the front lines?¡±


    Jiang Xu looked at the pedestrian and said with a smile, ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°When will the war end then? Will we achieve the final victory?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t be sure about that yet.¡± Jiang Xu answered seriously, ¡°The news published in the newspapers are the most factual, but I personally hope the war will end soon.¡±


    The pedestrians jumped for joy. ¡°Did you hear that? The chief editor has also received news that a great victory has been achieved on the front lines!¡±


    Someone else asked, ¡°Chief Editor, it¡¯s rumored that the Wang Consortium sent people to destroy the Qing Consortium¡¯s nuclear test site during the war. Is that true? Apparently, the Qing Consortium will be holding a press conference soon.¡±


    Jiang Xu was stunned. He did not expect news of this matter to spread so quickly. However, he had no intention of answering this question. ¡°I can¡¯t express my opinions until there¡¯s conclusive evidence that it was the Wang Consortium¡¯s doing. Alright, I have to rush off to teach the students.¡±


    After that, Jiang Xu smiled and bade everyone farewell.


    But before he could even take two steps, a young man in a suit suddenly bumped into him. The young man was walking very quickly, so when he bumped into Jiang Xu, Jiang Xu nearly lost his bnce and fell to the ground.


    After Jiang Xu barely managed to stabilize himself, he looked at the young man who had brushed past him in surprise. The young man apologized softly before quickly disappearing around the corner.


    But the moment the young man disappeared, a huge neon billboard not far from Jiang Xu suddenly crashed to the ground loudly.


    Jiang Xu suddenly turned around and looked at the billboard on the ground. If that young man had not knocked into him just now, based on his walking pace, he would probably be dead under it.


    Jiang Xu looked at the shattered billboard on the ground. The shop owner rushed out and had a look at the billboard as well. When he saw that his own billboard had nearly hit Jiang Xu, he hurriedly apologized to him and asked if he was alright.


    Jiang Xu waved it off and said it was fine. Then he looked at the billboard and fell into deep thought.


    Suddenly, he stopped walking towards Qinghe University and turned towards another street.


    Jiang Xu passed through the long streets of Luoyang City as he walked. The empress trees[1] on the sidewalks had just sprouted new buds. As the sunlight prated through the branches and leaves, it cast mottled shadows on the ground.


    When he returned home, he had just opened the door with his key when a little tabby cat rushed to his feet. It hugged him around the ankle and refused to leave.


    Jiang Xu was stunned before breaking into a smile. ¡°Luna, have you sensed something as well?¡±


    Jiang Xu sat down on a walnut stool at the door that he used when changing his shoes. He hugged the little tabby cat in his arms and tickled it gently.


    The cat stretched its pawsfortably and looked extremely cute.


    Jiang Xu carried the cat into the house and tidied up the litter box and toys before carrying them out together.


    He came to the door of his neighbor¡¯s house and knocked on it. It was a little girl around seven or eight years old who answered. Jiang Xu smiled and greeted her, ¡°Little Yue¡¯er, are you home alone?¡±


    When the little girl named Li Yue¡¯er looked up and saw Jiang Xu, she said in surprise, ¡°Grandpa Jiang Xu! Daddy and Mommy have gone to work. I¡¯m at home by myself!¡±


    Jiang Xu squatted down with great difficulty and ced the cat¡¯s litter box on the ground. Then, he handed the cat to Li Yue¡¯er and said with a smile, ¡°You always liked ying with Luna the most. so I¡¯ll give her to you now, alright?¡±


    Li Yue¡¯er¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes, really.¡± Jiang Xu smiled and patted Li Yue¡¯er¡¯s little head until her hair was a little messy, but her attention was entirely focused on Luna.


    It seemed that Luna was also very familiar with Li Yue¡¯er, so she did not resist at all when the little girl hugged her.


    Jiang Xu stood up. ¡°Take good care of her.¡±


    When Li Yue¡¯er saw that Jiang Xu was about to leave, she hurriedly asked, ¡°Grandpa Jiang Xu, where are you going?¡±


    Jiang Xu looked at Li Yue¡¯er and said with a smile, ¡°To handle some important matters. It feels like there¡¯s still a lot of things I¡¯ve not done.¡±


    With that, Jiang Xu left.


    Finally, he turned around and took a look at the house he had been living in for decades. Garlic shoots had just sprouted in the yard, and the sun was shining brightly.


    ¡­


    At 10:20 AM, Zhang Chentong was reviewing the draft in his office when he saw Jiang Xu¡¯s figure through the ss.


    Zhang Chentong stood up and asked, ¡°Chief Editor, didn¡¯t you go to teach your ss?¡±


    Jiang Xu said to Zhang Chentong, ¡°They¡¯re serving fish with pickled veggies for lunch at the cafeteria, right? Have them send some over to me.¡±


    Zhang Chentong was stunned. ¡°Sure.¡±


    Jiang Xu returned to his office and quietly took in the sight. Then he withdrew a stack of letters and sat down at the table. He filled his fountain pen with ink before holding it up to write: ¡°Xiaosu, first of all, I¡¯d like to congratte the Northwest for their great victory at Mt. Zuoyun. When I heard the news, I was really ted. Before this, I always thought Fortress 178 would probably decide to sit out of it. But it turned out I was wrong. But after learning I had judged the situation wrong, I was very happy¡­


    ¡°When we first met, you were sitting in the conference room like a normal young man. When you wrote down the words ¡®don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well,¡¯ I was really moved. However, I somehow felt that it wasn¡¯t something someone your age would say. But at this moment, I¡¯m very happy because I¡¯m sure you were the one who said those words. I want to thank you for protecting Hope Media that day. You¡¯ve let us know that Hope Media isn¡¯t alone in adhering to our principles and reporting the truth¡­


    ¡°The path of adhering to our principles and reporting the truth is a tough and dangerous one. I¡¯ve always known it from the beginning. But if there is a need for a founder of this belief, I, Jiang Xu, will not be the first, nor will I be thest¡­


    ¡°It was nice knowing you. Good luck, and take care.¡±


    Jiang Xu wrote four letters in a row addressed to different people.


    Zhang Chentong knocked on the door and came in. He said in a low voice, ¡°Chief Editor, the food delivery man is here.¡±


    Jiang Xu got up and stuffed the four letters into Zhang Chentong¡¯s hands. ¡°Send these personally by hand.¡±


    After that, he turned around and opened the safe in his office. He took out a leather envelope and made his way towards the back entrance of the cafeteria downstairs.


    There was already a plump driver waiting there. Jiang Xu smiled and greeted, ¡°You¡¯ve gained weight again.¡±


    ¡°Life¡¯s been good.¡± The plump driver said with augh, ¡°Why did you suddenly¡ª¡±


    Jiang Xu interrupted him by stuffing the envelope into his hands. ¡°Send it to the usual ce. This information is very important and can¡¯t fall into the hands of someone with ulterior motives. It has to be kept ssified for 50 years before it can be made public.¡±


    ¡°OK, I understand.¡± The plump driver nodded seriously. He hesitated for a moment before suddenly asking, ¡°Chief Editor, is something about to happen?¡±


    Usually, such ssified information would be taken away on a schedule. But today, Jiang Xu had requested for it to be delivered in advance, so he thought that something must have happened.


    Jiang Xu patted him on the shoulder and said calmly, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, don¡¯t overthink it.¡±


    When the plump driver saw that Jiang Xu did not look flustered at all, he felt relieved.


    He hid the envelope in a hiddenpartment under the cargo container and turned around to get into the truck. When he turned his head again, he saw Jiang Xu looking at him with such seriousness it was as though he was trying to remember his face.


    It felt like a silent farewell.


    Jiang Xu watched as the cargo truck drove away. He said to Zhang Chentong, ¡°Drive me to Qinghe University. Please inform the Qinghe University side that I¡¯m rescheduling my ss today and will be taking up the students¡¯ lunch break.¡±


    Zhang Chentong went to arrange everything calmly while Jiang Xu stood in the lobby of Hope Media¡¯s headquarters. He looked at the names on the walls, names of the pioneers who had tread this path before.


    Li Xiang, who had investigated the use of gutter oil within the Alliance of Strongholds, was on his way home from the newspaper firm when he got stabbed dozens of times by some thugs and died on the spot.


    Jiang Weisuo, who investigated the Zhou and Kong Consortium¡¯s fake milk manufacturing incident, was beaten to death as a retaliation.


    Jian Guangzhou.


    Le Qian.


    Yang Wei.


    Gao Qinrong.


    These names were engraved on the walls of Hope Media, reminding all the reporters of the path they were going to be taking.


    Actually, many people thought the Hope Media reporters were all brave, decisive, and fearless. However, Jiang Xu knew very well that the people he knew were no different from any other person.


    They would also feel fear, unease, and panic.


    The word ¡°responsibility¡± was not as rosy as one would imagine. Instead, it was as cold as a rock. But even so, these people still chose this most difficult path while trembling in fear.


    Moreover, there would be even more people taking this path in the future.


    Just as Jiang Xu had written in the letter to Ren Xiaosu, he would not be the first orst person to go down this path.


    Jiang Xu walked up to the wall with his cane and gently wiped off the dust on ¡°everyone¡± with his sleeve.


    Zhang Chentong came up behind him. ¡°Chief Editor, the vehicle is ready. The Qinghe University students are also waiting.¡±


    Jiang Xu resolutely turned around and walked out of the building before getting into the car.


    When he arrived at the lecture theater, it was already full of students. Jiang Xu said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I was dyed by something, so I didn¡¯t manage to make it to this morning¡¯s lesson. I apologize for taking up everyone¡¯s lunch break.¡±


    The students in the audience did not think too much of it. They just said, ¡°It¡¯s alright, Professor Jiang Xu. Please go on with the lesson. We don¡¯t have a habit of taking afternoon naps anyway.¡±


    Jiang Xu smiled and said, ¡°I teach humanities and politics, but I¡¯d like to speak about something different today. Does anyone here want to know what I was doing when I was your age?¡±


    The students¡¯ interest was immediately piqued. Chief Editor Jiang Xu rarely mentioned his past, so this lesson was totally going to be worth it!


    Jiang Xu looked at a female student. ¡°Guess what I was doing when I was your age?¡±


    ¡°You must¡¯ve been investigating some unfair issues, right?¡± The female student said loudly, ¡°Who knows? You were probably undercover at one of the consortiums and probing for firsthand evidence.¡±


    This answer was likely what everyone was thinking as well.


    However, Jiang Xu shook his head. ¡°No, when I was your age, I was still aspiring to be a Rider. At that time, I was always uninterested in working. I just ate, drank, and goofed off every day. There was even one time when I smashed someone¡¯s ss panel and got arrested by the Public Order Division. It wasn¡¯t until when I was 31 that I suddenly felt that I couldn¡¯t keep going on like that.¡±


    The students were stunned. They did not expect Jiang Xu¡¯s past to be so normal.


    In their opinion, Jiang Xu should have been the kind of person who was a model student or the president of the student council when he was still at school. They did not expect Jiang Xu to behave like a rebel before the age of 31. This waspletely unexpected.


    Jiang Xu said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m telling you all this because I want you to understand that it¡¯s not toote to decide to work hard and change yourself. To put it bluntly, the best time to nt a tree was ten years ago, and the next best time is now.¡±


    ¡°This war made me realize that Qinghe University has protected you guys too well. You should really go out and take a look at how much the world has changed. This will make you more pragmatic people.¡± Jiang Xu said, ¡°I believe in your potential, so when you start growing as a person, you¡¯ll definitely experience a rapid change.¡±


    The students in the audience suddenly felt that Chief Editor Jiang Xu seemed a little different today, and it was not only the content of the lesson that was being taught.


    Jiang Xu suddenly changed the subject. ¡°But right as you start to grow, I hope you will remember everything that I¡¯m going to say here.


    ¡°When you start to experience the myriad ways society functions, I hope you¡¯ll still believe that rules can ovee unwritten rules.


    ¡°That you¡¯ll still believe that academia is not the same as bureaucracy.


    ¡°That you¡¯ll still believe that academia does not equal politics.


    ¡°That you¡¯ll still believe that having strength of character outshines sycophancy.


    ¡°Nowadays, more and more people pursue promotion while fewer seek the truth. There¡¯s more talk of gaining preferential treatment and less discussion of ideals. So while you¡¯re heading into society, what I want to say is, please guard the passion and ideals you once believed in. In this era of doubt, we still need to have faith.¡±


    Jiang Xu looked at the silent students in the audience and continued, ¡°In Hope Media, there¡¯s a file archive that contains many secrets and truths of the world. I might¡¯ve seen more of the darkness in this world than all of you, but even though I¡¯ve seen so much truth and darkness, I still love the world. Don¡¯t let the sorrows of our era be your sorrow as well.¡±


    After that, Jiang Xu turned around and walked out of the lecture hall. This was hisst lesson as a professor of Qinghe University.


    Zhang Chentong waited outside the ssroom, ready to pick Jiang Xu up after his ss. However, Jiang Xu said to him, ¡°You can go back to Hope Media first. I want to take a walk around by myself.¡±


    After Zhang Chentong left, Jiang Xu walked across Hongde Square in Qinghe University, supported by his cane. He walked down the footpath next to the tennis court, then walked past the sculptural fountain in the center of the school.


    He reyed all of this in his mind. This was the path he had walked every week for over twenty years, and today was no different from the past.


    When he first arrived here, he was still very young. At that time, he had written in his journal phrases like ¡°ride with the wind and travel thousands of miles in the vast sky, looking down at mountains and rivers far and wide.¡± But now he was old.


    Thinking of his predecessors¡¯ names on the wall at Hope Media, he felt it was rather fortunate he had not ever taken a wrong step on this bumpy road.


    Jiang Xumitted all of this to memory and walked out of the school calmly.


    The moment he stepped out of the school gate, a huge explosion erupted on the next street. It sounded like someone was fighting there.


    In that instant, an amber dragon flew into the sky and dived down onto the next street.


    For the first time since the chaotic battle in Luoyang City, peace was disrupted again.


    The residents of Luoyang City started fleeing. As mes burned, huge ck smoke billowed into the sky.


    Gunshots and explosions boomed as Jiang Xu walked calmly through the noisy world. He stopped at an intersection and looked at a young man in ck clothes standing on the opposite street.


    A crowd was fleeing across the streets, but only Jiang Xu and the young man remained still.


    Jiang Xu did not look at him anymore. Instead, his view turned to the huge Luoyang City. This was where he had lived all his life. Before this, he knew that such a day woulde sooner orter, and he was even afraid of it arriving.


    But he was no longer afraid.


    In his daze, Jiang Xu seemed to notice some apparitions appearing next to him. There was Jian Guangzhou, Li Xiang, Le Qian, and Yang Wei. They were all smiling at him.


    And there was his younger self as well.


    The younger version of himself asked softly, ¡°Do you regret it?¡±


    Jiang Xu smiled. ¡°No.¡±


    After that, the apparitions dissipated in his mind. Jiang Xu turned to the ck-clothed young man and said, ¡°Do it, but don¡¯t hurt the innocent.¡±


    The young man quietly raised his gun and pulled the trigger.


    The bullet seemed to cut through the sea of people before snipping the thread of life.


    As bloodstains spread out from the gray suit on Jiang Xu¡¯s chest, Jiang Xu slowly sat on the ground and gently ced his cane by the side. He treated it as an old friend of his.


    A young man in a suit sprinted over from another street. His face was covered in blood.


    The ck-clothed gunman had wanted to take advantage of the chaos to escape. But when he saw the young man in the suit, he instantly raised the gun to his own chin and pulled the trigger.


    The bullet pierced through the ck-clothed gunman¡¯s skull.


    The young man in the suit looked at Jiang Xu¡¯s corpse from afar and said into his earpiece, ¡°Mission failed. Retreat. I repeat, the mission has failed. Old Tang, evacuate as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡­


    30 years ago, a roguish young man walked into a small newspaper firm and said loudly, ¡°Are you people recruiting reporters here?¡±


    The newspaper firm¡¯s door was shattered as though someone had smashed it, and there was only an old editor left in the office.


    The old editor adjusted his sses. ¡°We don¡¯t recruit bums around here.¡±


    ¡°Hey, old man, watch your tongue. Who¡¯re you calling a bum?¡± the young man said unhappily.


    The old editor examined him silently. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    The young man said, ¡°Jiang Xu, that¡¯s who I am. Jiang Xu from Luoyang City¡¯s West Avenue! Have you heard of my name?¡±


    The old editor was amused. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of you. So tell me, why do you suddenly want to be a reporter?¡±


    The young Jiang Xu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I just don¡¯t want to lead a meaningless life anymore. Before my mother passed, she said that if I continued living like this, she couldn¡¯t put her mind at ease even if she died. Also, I somehow feel that this isn¡¯t how the world should be. Do you understand? Two days ago, I saw¡ª¡±


    ¡°Why did youe to our newspaper firm?¡± the old editor asked.


    ¡°I heard a few days ago that your firm was destroyed because you reported about the factory scandal.¡± The young Jiang Xu chuckled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let¡¯s see who dares toe and smash the front door after I start working here.¡±


    The old editor handed him a form. ¡°Have you heard of a career as an investigative journalist?¡±


    ¡°Investigative journalist? Are there different types of reporters?¡± the young Jiang Xu wondered.


    ¡°Of course.¡± The old editor smiled. ¡°It¡¯s the most dangerous profession among reporters and also the most difficult path in the world that one can choose.¡±


    Jiang Xu turned smug. ¡°Old man, you know me. I like doing the most difficult things!¡±


    The old editor confirmed again, ¡°You won¡¯t turn back until you hit the south wall[2] then?¡±


    The young Jiang Xu smiled brightly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t turn back even if I hit the south wall.¡±


    [1] Paulownia tomentosa,mon names princess tree,(1) empress tree, or foxglove-tree,(2) is a deciduous hardwood tree in the family Paulowniaceae, native to central and western China. |


    [2] A spirit screen, also called spirit wall or screen wall, (Chinese: Ó°±Ú; pinyin: Y¨«ngb¨¬; lit. ¡®shadow wall¡¯ or Chinese: ÕÕ±Ú; pinyin: Zh¨¤ob¨¬) is used to shield an entrance gate in traditional Chinese architecture. These walls are always erected on the south side, thus if you walk straight, you¡¯re sure to hit it. |

 Chapter 970 - Condolences

    <h4>Chapter 970: Condolences</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    In the wilderness, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi were cooped up in a spot downwind. The two of them were waiting for a Qing Consortium soldier who was undercover in the Central ins to send over transportation. Surely they weren¡¯t going to walk directly to Luoyang City, right? How long would that take them?


    They had already bypassed the Wang Consortium¡¯s northern defensive line by traveling only through the wilderness, so the threat from the Wang Consortium was not too great.


    The only thing they needed to worry about was that it could get troublesome if their nted spy had defected and brought the Wang Consortium along to capture them.


    Zhou Qi muttered, ¡°You and Qing Zhen also know that the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI has control of the satellites. What if it discovers our whereabouts?¡±


    ¡°So what if we¡¯ve been discovered? The Wang Consortium is currently pursuing the expeditionary army, so how would they have time to bother with us?¡± Luo Lan said nonchntly, ¡°If anyone really doese and capture us, we can just run into the mountains. Would two supernatural beings not be able to outrun them?¡±


    Zhou Qi scorned, ¡°You only awakened a short while ago. With your physical fitness and weight, you might just be unable to outrun them.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve already awakened my power for close to half a year, so why are you still looking down on me?¡± Luo Lan said unhappily.


    But at this moment, the sound of an off-road vehicle¡¯s engine could be heard in the distance. Luo Lan cautiously poked his head out to have a look. When he realized there was only one person approaching, he heaved a sigh of relief.


    Luo Lan jumped out from his hiding spot. ¡°Over here, over here!¡±


    It was a young man who came over. When he saw Luo Lan, he immediately got out of the vehicle and stuffed the car key into Luo Lan¡¯s hand. ¡°Boss Luo, Mr. Qing Zhen couldn¡¯t get in contact with you. He¡¯s very anxious and thinks that something might¡¯ve happened to you!¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned. He took out his satellite phone and saw that it was dead. ¡°Is he looking for me urgently?¡±


    He was just on the phone with Qing Zhen half a day ago. Normally, if it weren¡¯t urgent, Qing Zhen would definitely not have called him at this time.


    The intelligence agent said, ¡°We¡¯ve received news that Mr. Jiang Xu of Hope Media has been assassinated in Luoyang City. So, Boss Luo, your n to head to Luoyang City has been canceled. Mr. Qing Zhen requests that you return straight to the Southwest in case anyone targets you.¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned. He found it very difficult to believe this news. ¡°Jiang Xu is dead? When did that happen?¡±


    ¡°Two hours ago.¡± The intelligence agent said, ¡°Everyone suspects it¡¯s the Wang Consortium¡¯s doing. After all, they¡¯ve assassinated a lot of people. The Wang Consortium has totally gone crazy. You mustn¡¯t go to Luoyang City at a time like this.¡±


    ¡°What did Qing Zhen say? Does he also think it was the Wang Consortium that did it?¡± Luo Lan asked.


    ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen said that he can¡¯t be sure,¡± the intelligence agent said and shook his head.


    Luo Lan lowered his head and pondered things. To be honest, the moment he heard about Jiang Xu¡¯s death, he subconsciously thought it was the Wang Consortium that had killed him as well. After all, the Wang Consortium had been responsible for so many assassinations in recent times. Kong Erdong, Kong Donghai, and Zhou Xilong of the Zhou Consortium were all targets of the Wang Consortium. The deaths of these well-known people were only a microcosm of the Wang Consortium¡¯s ns. The Wang Consortium¡¯s frequent use of assassinations meant they did not intend to hold back anymore. Would a proper consortium keep resorting to such underhanded methods?


    Moreover, the articles Jiang Xu had written over the past month were extremely detrimental to the Wang Consortium. Almost the entire Alliance of Strongholds now felt that the Wang Consortium¡¯s strategy to swallow up the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company in this war against foreign enemies was too disgraceful and did not live up to the social responsibilities a consortium should have.


    Everyone was very disgusted by the Wang Consortium¡¯s act of fishing in troubled waters. Internally, even the Wang Consortium felt the same way.


    Therefore, the Wang Consortium had a motive for killing Jiang Xu.


    But the problem was that if Jiang Xu died, everyone would think it was the Wang Consortium¡¯s doing. In that case, why would the Wang Consortium still want to kill Jiang Xu at this time?


    Would this behavior not infuriate everyone who was already unhappy with them?


    If Jiang Xu did not die, everyone would only be annoyed with the Wang Consortium. But if the Wang Consortium killed Jiang Xu, this annoyance would instantly escte to anger!


    Was Wang Shengzhi a fool? Of course not. No matter how they might loathe the things he did, he was still one of the smartest people in the entire Alliance of Strongholds. The Kong Consortium and the Zhou Consortium had been extremely irked over how he recruited their refugees. So how could he possibly make such a rookie mistake?


    Was he deliberately trying to inme public sentiment? Wang Shengzhi would not do something that stupid, right?


    The situation had be a little confusing. Luo Lan did not feel like he could figure it out.


    The intelligence agent said, ¡°Boss Luo, hurry back to the Southwest. I¡¯ll make a trip to Luoyang City to investigate this case and give you a satisfactory answer.¡±


    But Luo Lan shook his head. ¡°No, I have to go to Luoyang City.¡±


    The intelligence agent was stunned. ¡°It¡¯s too dangerous for you to go to Luoyang City at this time. If Jiang Xu was really killed by the Wang Consortium, it means they will no longer care about your status and potentially make a move on you. Our nuclear test site has already been destroyed, so the Wang Consortium has nothing to fear anymore!¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°The mission to Luoyang City has been put on hold for the time being, but I still have to pay my respects to Mr. Jiang Xu. By my calctions, I¡¯ve been a reader of his articles for about eight years. Although I didn¡¯t manage to be friends with the old man, I¡¯ve always respected his character. Now that he¡¯s suddenly departed, I want to go and send him off.¡±


    The intelligence agent was stunned. He did not expect Luo Lan would risk his life to go to Luoyang City just so he could send Jiang Xu off.


    How much courage would he need to have to make a trip to Luoyang City in such dangerous circumstances?


    Luo Lan looked at the intelligence agent and assured him with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not going to die. I still have Zhou Qi to protect me.¡±


    Next to him, Zhou Qi rolled his eyes. ¡°Bro, Luoyang City is only a few hours away from the Wang Consortium. I can¡¯t protect you there.¡±


    ¡°Would it kill you to speak a little less?¡± Luo Lan said unhappily, ¡°I¡¯m also a supernatural being, so I don¡¯t need your protection anyway. If anyone tries to kill me, you should just run away first, alright?!¡±


    Zhou Qi rolled his eyes again. ¡°What¡¯s the point of saying such spiteful words? You might as well just offer to pay me more!¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll pay you more.¡± Luo Lan did not know whether tough or cry. He turned to the intelligence agent and said, ¡°I have a very dangerous mission for you.¡±


    The intelligence agent immediately stood at attention. ¡°Please give me your orders. I¡¯ll definitelyplete whatever mission you have for me no matter how dangerous it is.¡±


    ¡°Alright, the Northwest Army should still be pursuing the expeditionary army in the North. I need you to ry the news of Jiang Xu¡¯s death to Ren Xiaosu, the futuremander of the Northwest Army.¡± Luo Lan said in seriousness, ¡°If he learns about it, he¡¯ll definitely go to Luoyang City.. At that time, even if the Heavens want me dead, it¡¯ll have to depend on his mood.¡±

 Chapter 971 - Passive skill

    <h4>Chapter 971: Passive skill</h4>


    North of the front line of Mt. Daniu, the expeditionary army had left behind most of their troops to hold the Wang Consortium at the defensive line. Meanwhile, the remaining expeditionary army troops started retreating northwards. It looked like they were nning to retreat directly north of the grasnds.


    The expeditionary army troops who stayed behind to guard the rear of the formation did not be disheartened and fight passively just because the main forces had retreated. Instead, they fought even more ferociously.


    In the expeditionary army, if a pair of brothers served together at the same time, the younger brother would withdraw with the retreating troops.


    If it was a father and son serving together, the son would withdraw with the retreating troops.


    It was very rare to see a father-son pair serving together in the military in the Central ins, but this was verymon within the expeditionary army.


    Therefore, when the expeditionary army¡¯s main forces retreated, those who remained behind did not surrender immediately. Instead, they became even more determined than before as they wanted to buy time for their family and friends to escape.


    The expeditionary army troops were not the cold-blooded viins that featured in the stories told at teahouses. They were also people of flesh and blood. As the environment in the Far North had be too harsh, they headed south in search of a better environment. Actually, the expeditionary army was not in the wrong either.


    Perhaps there was no such thing as objective right in the world. Wolves eating sheep was just natural selection.


    But no matter what, the next time that the expeditionary army tried to invade the Central ins, the people here would still pick up their weapons and drive away all foreign enemies. This was the justice of a nation.


    However, the expeditionary army would probably not have that chance anymore, because Yan Liuyuan was going to use this opportunity to be the new ruler of the North. He was not only going to be the ruler of the steppe but the entire North.


    At this moment, the retreating expeditionary army camped and rested. They set up simple fires and started to cook.


    The general of the expeditionary army was draped in a ck cloak and held his huge axe with both hands, supporting it upright on the ground.


    He stood quietly at the edge of the camp and looked south. He could imagine how tragic of a battle his soldiers were putting up at Mt. Daniu. If he were still a rank-and-file soldier, he would also be willing to stay there and die fighting for hisrades.


    But he was a general, so he had no choice.


    An aide next to him said, ¡°General, the food is ready. Please go and eat.¡±


    Before the expeditionary army came to the South, they had sun-dried arge quantity of mutton and ground it into powder, which they ced into enclosed bags.


    As they marched south, the dried mutton would expand to ten times its original size once it was cooked in a pot. A bag of mutton powder the size of a ser ball was enough to feed ten soldiers for up to a month.


    But now, they had finished consuming the meat and only had some coarse grains left.


    The expeditionary army had paid a far greater price in this war than they had bargained for.


    Seeing that the general did not say anything, his aide said again, ¡°General¡­¡±


    The general suddenly said, ¡°We¡¯lle back. I know how strong the Central ins people are now, but they aren¡¯t united. When wee back¡­¡±


    As he spoke, a steam lotive suddenly whistled in the distance.


    The general stopped talking. He saw a steam lotive approaching quickly from the horizon in the distance. In the vast wilderness, the steam lotive looked a little solitary. It was like a lone horseman charging into the enemy camp.


    ck smoke spewed out of the chimney of the steam lotive. It showed no intention of retreating in the face of the expeditionary army¡¯s tens of thousands of troops and seemed like it was about to charge straight into them.


    That whistling of the train was like a melodious horn.


    The aide hurriedly said, ¡°General, why don¡¯t you take cover?¡±


    However, the general shook his head and said calmly, ¡°The Central ins people can¡¯t hurt me yet. Go and tell the soldiers to prepare for a counterattack.¡±


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces had to still be held back at Mt. Daniu. Therefore, even if Central ins people were pursuing them, it would be a small number.


    On such t terrain, their expeditionary army would not be intimidated by a small group of Central ins people. This was their pride as soldiers of the expeditionary army.


    Although they had been defeated, they could not lose theirst bit of courage just because of some Central ins people.


    The general stood in front of the camp and waited for the soldiers behind him to assemble.


    When the steam lotive got a little closer, the general could even hear themotion inside the train with his keen hearing. It was as though thousands of soldiers had squeezed into the narrow train body.


    Moreover, someone in the train even shouted, ¡°That guy standing at the edge of the camp posturing, yes, aim right at him!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, he¡¯s still standing so righteously after losing the battle and isn¡¯t hiding despite seeing us approaching. Let¡¯s kill him!¡±


    ¡°Kill him and we¡¯re done!¡±


    ¡°Focus our fire!¡±


    ¡°Get him! He¡¯s acting like he¡¯s so great! He didn¡¯t even run away when he saw using!?¡±


    The general had a grim expression. He gripped the huge axe in his hands tightly, ready to use it to sh through the steam lotive that was approaching!


    But all of a sudden, the steam lotive that was heading straight for the expeditionary army turned west when it was about 400 meters away.


    The general was stunned. He was waiting for the steam lotive to charge, but he did not expect it to look like it was trying to flee instead.


    Initially, the expeditionary army could only see the front of the train. But now, it was as though the entire steam lotive was moving horizontally right in front of them.


    Right afterwards, they saw ck muzzles poking out of the train windows one by one. The guns were mounted on the windows and extended outwards, making the entire train look like a hedgehog.


    Behind those ck muzzles were the crouched figures of the Northwest Army¡¯s soldiers. The entire train was filled with people, and from the outside, it looked like the carriages were stuffed.


    Someone on the train even shouted, ¡°Do you see that person standing still there? Get him!¡±


    This also surprised the general a little. He had thought the other party was going to charge into their formation, but he did not expect that they did not intend to fight the expeditionary army head on right from the beginning and use gueri tactics instead.


    All of a sudden, the impressive mobility of the steam lotive was put on vivid disy. The huge body of the steam lotive moved freely on the battlefield like cavalry, executing fire and maneuver tactics in front of the expeditionary army¡¯s formation.


    Bullets poured down like heavy rain, washing away all the targets they could hit.


    A soldier from the expeditionary army immediately raised his shield in front of the general to prevent him from getting shot.


    But P5092 suddenly ordered the 2nd Regiment to take out the remaining 12 thermobaric bombs.


    Amid the loud explosions, huge bursts of smoke exploded from the man-portableunchers. In the blink of an eye, 12 thermobaric bombs fell onto the expeditionary army¡¯s camp.


    When the thermobaric bombs reached their targets, red-orange shes could be seen, closely followed by a surge of ck smoke from the explosions that came after. The high temperature and pressure were capable of almost destroying everything.


    The man-portable thermobaric bomb was an epoch-making individual weapon in itself. Even Fortress 178, which was known for its military engineering, might not be able to achieve the power it had before The Cataclysm.


    However, it was still enough to kill the barbarians.


    In the carriages, everyone started coughing due to the smoke released whenunching the thermobaric bombs. ¡°Fuck, I¡¯m choking to death!¡±


    ¡°Cut the shit and quickly finish firing your ammo!¡±


    The 6th Combat Brigade drove past the expeditionary army¡¯s camp from more than 400 meters away. This time around, everyone was ready to retreat after firing off all their ammunition.


    But before they could retreat far, they heard a shout erupt from the expeditionary army¡¯s camp. ¡°The general! They blew up the general! We need to take revenge for him!¡±


    When they heard this loud shout, even Ren Xiaosu, who was on the steam lotive, was stunned. ¡°That¡¯s so evil. Did Liuyuan make a wish again, or do I have some passive skill that enables me to killmanders without fail?¡±

 Chapter 972 - Getting the news

    <h4>Chapter 972: Getting the news</h4>


    That powerful general of the expeditionary army was dead. Perhaps not even the general himself could have expected to die in such a careless manner.


    Thousands of barbarians rushed out of the expeditionary army¡¯s camp holding giant axes in their hands in an attempt to avenge their general.


    At first, they only received orders to muster when they heard it was an enemy attack. Later, word went around that the general had been killed by the enemy.


    The barbarian soldiers at the camp who did not know what was going on just assumed the Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces had caught up with them and were prepared to fight to the death with the general.


    They were prepared to sacrifice themselves for the glory of the expeditionary army.


    But when they rushed out, they only saw the caboose of the steam lotive moving away.


    The barbarians were stunned. These people hade over in such a grand manner just so they could fire once at them and run away? Nobody could make sense of the situation!


    ¡°Should we give chase?¡±


    ¡°After them! We have to avenge our general!¡±


    As P5092 watched the expeditionary army¡¯s camp getting farther and farther away, he felt a little emotional. This strategy was way too nefarious. They were fully relying on their impressive mobility to take advantage of the situation before fleeing.


    If the steam lotive traveled at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour, even a powerful barbarian could not catch up with such a mode of transportation. Even if there were someone with an explosive speedparable to that of the steam lotive, how many people couldst for more than ten minutes at full speed? If they even sprinted for an entire minute, it would put great pressure on their heart and lungs.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not drive the steam lotive too fast. He kept a fixed distance from the pursuing barbarians and even slowed down.


    Nearby, Zhang Xiaoman asked, ¡°Why did you slow down? Have you overtaxed your mental strength?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯m slowing down so the barbarians will think that they can catch up to the steam lotive if they run harder. That way, we can slowly lure them away from the main group.¡±


    P5092 stared at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s profile and realized the youngmander was also full of dirty tricks. He was clearly trying to tire out the barbarians who hade seeking revenge.


    Once their stamina ran out, Ren Xiaosu would definitely turn around and head back to battle to finish them off.


    ¡°But we don¡¯t have any ammo left.¡± P5092 said, ¡°Even if they get tired from running, we might not be able to kill many of them when we turn back. Of course, it¡¯ll also be good for the Wang Consortium troops if we can wear them out.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, P5092 saw Ren Xiaosu take out several dozen crates of grenades from somewhere.


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°This is thest of my stash.¡±


    While Ren Xiaosu was leading the 6th Combat Brigade into guerri warfare, the Wang Consortium troops at Mt. Daniu¡¯s front line finally achieved victory.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces had been fighting very hard on the main battlefield, and now it was finally time for them to counterattack.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces advanced northwards from three different routes, nipping at the routed expeditionary army¡¯s heels all the way. Not only did they want to kill these barbarians, but they also wanted to continue pursuing north to kill the rest of the expeditionary army that had previously retreated.


    During the pursuit, the Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces that were pushing forward from the west killed all of the remaining barbarians who fled from Mt. Daniu. In the end, they continued pursuing north for more than ten kilometers before the troops saw a steam lotive lying in their path. The thousands of soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade could be seen leaning against the exterior of the steam lotive and chatting.


    They looked extremely rxed, and some people were even ying cards!


    Their uniforms were all tattered and their faces were dirty, but they still looked veryid back.


    On this tense battlefield, these soldiers seemed a little out of ce with the rest of the world.


    This sight left the Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces dumbfounded. When themander of this fighting force approached them with his soldiers, Ren Xiaosu walked up to them.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°The expeditionary army¡¯s troops that evacuated are about 20 kilometers to the north. If y¡¯all double time it, you should be able to catch up to them very quickly. There should¡¯ve been around 30,000 of them, but we managed to lure some of them out and killed them.¡±


    Themander of the Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces shook hands with Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Thank you to the Northwest for the help you¡¯ve given. If it weren¡¯t for you all holding back half of the enemy¡¯s troops at Mt. Zuoyun, we probably couldn¡¯t have held out. Before that, we were prepared to retreat back to the South.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re too polite. It¡¯s what we should do.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If y¡¯all really want to thank us, you can lower the tariffs on our Northwestern goods. We¡¯ll have our people make a special trip to the Wang Consortium to discuss this matter. Since you want to express your gratitude, it¡¯ll have to be something practical¡­¡±


    The Wang Consortium officer¡¯s face twitched a little. Shouldn¡¯t this be the moment for making some inspirational speech? For example, saying something like ¡°I did this for the sake of our nation¡¯s justice¡± or ¡°this is for the unity of the Alliance of Strongholds¡± or something simr. Why did he suddenly bring up something so practical like tariffs?


    Off the side, the Great Hoodwinker looked at Ren Xiaosu in admiration. He felt that the futuremander was really getting into his role. Bluntly mentioning tariffs in this setting was something most people really couldn¡¯t do.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Alright, I won¡¯t dy your pursuit.¡±


    ¡°Everyone, why don¡¯t you head to the camp at Mt. Daniu first so we can entertain you there?¡± the Wang Consortium¡¯smander suggested.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need. What¡¯s the point of wasting that time? Everyone¡¯s in a hurry to get back home and reunite with their families.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Go on then. We¡¯ll be heading back to the Northwest.¡±


    The Wang Consortium¡¯smander shook hands with Ren Xiaosu again. ¡°Alright, since we have a pursuit mission, let¡¯s just bid farewell.¡±


    With that, his staff officers beside him also stepped forward and shook hands with the main figures of the Northwest Army.


    But when Ren Xiaosu shook hands with thest person, he was suddenly taken aback.


    A momentter, the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops resumed marching north. But before they could get far, they were greeted by the sight of barbarian corpses strewn all over the ground.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s officers looked at one another. What did the Northwest Army say just now? They lured some of them out and killed them? Was this some of them?


    The Wang Consortium troops turned around and looked behind them, but the steam lotive had already disappeared.


    The steam lotive suddenly came to a stop not long after they headed west.


    P5092 and the others came to the front of the train and asked, ¡°Future Commander, why have you stopped?¡±


    But he saw Ren Xiaosu holding a small piece of paper and looking stunned.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at P5092. ¡°Do you remember how we became acquainted?¡±


    P5092 smiled and said, ¡°You asked me for a copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper to read. You came to me on time every morning shortly after I received the day¡¯s newspaper.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I like reading Hope Media¡¯s newspapers. As I don¡¯t have any intel sources, Hope Media¡¯s newspapers are my way of knowing about the world. And I know that every word reported in their newspapers is true.¡±


    P5092 was stunned. He did not understand why Ren Xiaosu would suddenly bring this up.

 Chapter 973 - Lonely

    <h4>Chapter 973: Lonely</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°When I visited Hope Media the first time, I was actually there to publish an ad with them. However, they waived most of the advertising fees with just a word from Jiang Xu. When I was in the Southwest, I knew too little about the world, so I thought that it was a hopelessly dark ce. It wasn¡¯t until I met Jiang Xu, the Riders, and Elder Wang from the Trinity Institute that I realized there was actually light in this world.


    ¡°At that time, I asked him why he was so insistent on pursuing the truth when others did not care for it. His answer to me was that it was their business.


    ¡°I messed around and didn¡¯t follow the rules when I yed chess with him, but he didn¡¯t get angry with me either.


    ¡°I told him that the Qing Consortium¡¯s nanomachines could help him fix his leg, but he rejected the idea so that the truth he reported would remain unblemished.


    ¡°An uncorrupted person like him died just because of some messed up power struggle. Jiang Xu is dead.¡±


    Yes, Jiang Xu was an uncorrupted person in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind. His smile was also extremely pure without any motives.


    The other party had only wanted to do one thing well in life.


    But if the world could not even amodate such a person, those who could not amodate him should not be allowed to live.


    Ren Xiaosu raised the note in his hand. When he shook hands with the Wang Consortium¡¯s officers, thest officer in line had ced the note into his hand.


    The note informed Ren Xiaosu that Jiang Xu had been assassinated at 2 o¡¯clock yesterday afternoon.


    In addition, it said Luo Lan would continue with his journey to Luoyang City, although there was a chance he might get assassinated, so he needed Ren Xiaosu to make a trip there as well.


    Ren Xiaosu had to make this trip to Luoyang City no matter what. He wanted to send Jiang Xu off and also kill a lot of people.


    He ordered P5092, ¡°You and the Great Hoodwinker, take everyone back to the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll go with you.¡± The Great Hoodwinker also came to the front of the train. ¡°I¡¯ve met Jiang Xu once before. A person like him shouldn¡¯t have died like that.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯ll go with you.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°No, y¡¯all can¡¯t go.¡±


    Now that the 6th Combat Brigade had just finished fighting the war, they were out of ammunition. There was really not a single bullet left.


    The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s face was so pale it was obvious he was at his limit.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s entire shoulder was swollen, and she could not lift her right arm at all. Those who had never really used an anti-materiel sniper rifle before could never imagine how terrifying the recoil was.


    Although Ji Zi¡¯ang still had some strength left, he had been yearning every day to be reunited with his wife and child.


    At this moment, there was actually no need for Ren Xiaosu to bring these people to Luoyang City. He said to the Great Hoodwinker and the others, ¡°Everyone, I have a feeling that there will be a battle in Luoyang City this time, so please don¡¯t add to my troubles. You¡¯ll only be a burden if y¡¯all go.¡±


    Everyone looked at each other and smiled bitterly. Probably only the futuremander would think these superhumans were a burden.


    Ren Xiaosu was too direct, but if he did not get straight to the point, everyone would probably pester and try to convince him. Therefore, he might as well put it bluntly to stop them from even having the idea.


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°It actually is unsuitable for the 6th Combat Brigade to get redeployed to Luoyang City for battle based on everyone¡¯s current condition. So I agree with Future Commander¡¯s decision. He¡¯ll go alone while we return to the Northwest.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin knew Ren Xiaosu would definitely not agree to her going, so she gave him a gentle hug and said, ¡°Be careful. I¡¯ll wait for you in the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded seriously.


    In the end, everyone from the 6th Combat Brigade got down from the train while Ren Xiaosu controlled it and rumbled off towards the South.


    The ck smoke that billowed into the sky above the steam lotive was just like Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rage.


    On the train, Ren Xiaosu took out his satellite phone and made a call.


    The phone rang twice before it was answered. ¡°This is Wang Shengzhi.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the front of the train and got straight to the point. ¡°Were you the one who sent someone to kill Jiang Xu?¡±


    There was a long silence on the other end of the call. ¡°Do you also think it¡¯s me?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel like that¡¯s important. What matters is the truth,¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t the Wang Consortium,¡± Wang Shengzhi said.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately hung up.


    No matter who it was, he would definitely find out the mastermind¡¯s identity. If he could not do so, he would just kill all who were suspicious.


    Ren Xiaosu gazed silently ahead and wondered what was wrong with the world.


    Murderers and arsonists got away with the champion¡¯s belt, while those who mended bridges died with no bodies left to bury. The world should not be like this. People should not be like this.


    In the past, no matter how chaotic this world was, Ren Xiaosu always felt he could stay out of those issues. He would just leave the consortiums to fight among themselves all they wanted.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that it did not matter who died, but Jiang Xu absolutely must not die.


    How could such an uncorrupted person who only held his own ideals be killed by others using such underhanded methods?


    It felt like anothermp had gone out in the dark.


    Dark clouds gathered in the sky, and it started to drizzle.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly climbed on top of the steam lotive and sat cross-legged there as he faced the wind and rain.


    In the vast and empty wilderness, the young man sat alone on top of the ck steam lotive as it sped off into the distance.


    He looked exceptionally lonely.


    ¡­


    In the rain, the 6th Combat Brigade, which was marching to the Northwest, quickly set up camp. Then everyone hid in their tents and watched as the rain got heavier. The Great Hoodwinker sighed and said, ¡°I wonder if it¡¯s raining in the Northwest. Rain is very precious there. Only if it rains in spring will there be a harvest in the future. There was a flood after the droughtst year. A lot of the crops in the Northwest have started showing signs of a waning harvest.¡±


    P5092 looked at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Don¡¯t you know how to read fortunes? Why don¡¯t you check if it¡¯ll rain?¡±


    ¡°Ahem.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°I¡¯ve be a little rusty in recent years in that area. I can only assess whether someone¡¯s suitable for the Prosperous Northwest now.¡±


    P5092 looked out of the tent as raindrops fell onto the canvas tent¡¯s tilted roof before washing down along the creases. He suddenly said, ¡°Future Commander must be very angry and sad. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen him look like that. It¡¯s like an undercurrent stirring in the deep sea.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker sighed and said, ¡°In any case, I know that Commander Zhang will definitely be upset. He and Jiang Xu were good friends for decades.¡±


    ¡°Can you predict if Future Commander will be safe on his trip to Luoyang City this time?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°There¡¯s gloom and doom draped over the Southeast. Many people will die.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman turned his head and looked around. Then he asked, ¡°Eh, where¡¯s Ms. Xiaojin? Have you guys seen her?¡±


    ¡°She fell out of the group after saying that she was going outside for a bit.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°That was 31 minutes ago.¡±


    Everyone was stunned. When Yang Xiaojin said she would see Ren Xiaosu again in the Northwest, everyone thought she was heading back with them.


    However, Yang Xiaojin was still unwilling to let Ren Xiaosu face the danger alone.


    She knew Ren Xiaosu would not be willing to let her go with him, so she pretended to return to the Northwest with the 6th Combat Brigade before quietly leaving the group.


    Yang Xiaojin had lost Ren Xiaosu once before, but she told herself she would never allow that to happen again.

 Chapter 974 - He rode off on a whale

    <h4>Chapter 974: He rode off on a whale</h4>


    Drizzle unremitting falls on Qingming Day;


    Broken-hearted travelers pass by.


    It was not yet Qingming in Luoyang City, but everyone on the streets had sorrowful looks on their faces.


    Each of them wore a small white flower on their chests as a tribute to their respected elder.


    The intersection outside Qinghe University¡¯s campus was cold and quiet. When people passed by, they would ce down a bouquet of flowers at the intersection. Spring had just arrived in Luoyang City, but the blooming peonies and winter jasmines had all been picked and ced here.


    It looked like a sea of flowers on the intersection.


    Someone said that if Mr. Jiang Xu were still around, he would definitely criticize everyone for this. Flowers should be growing on branches, not plucked and ced down here. Everyone should just observe their beauty from afar.


    But someone argued that since Mr. Jiang Xu was no longer around, who could be in the mood to enjoy the sight of the flowers?


    The Qinghe University students stood on the streets and mourned silently. A number of them even cried until they fainted. It wasn¡¯t until the afternoon when something happened to Jiang Xu that they realized why he suddenly wanted to give that lesson.


    It was because that was his final lesson. So it turned out Professor Jiang Xu had a premonition of his death.


    But an hour before he died, Jiang Xu was stillughing and talking as though everything was fine. When he encountered students greeting him while walking around on campus, he even responded amiably to them.


    He had only suggested he wanted to take a walk by himself as he was afraid Zhang Chentong would get implicated.


    Remaining so calm even though he knew that he was about to die was probably the greatestposure one could have.


    On this day, the entirety of Luoyang City was grieving. In this era, Jiang Xu was the only one who could affect so many people.


    It was not only within Luoyang City but also beyond it.


    Due to the war in the North, a lot of people had fled to the Zhou Consortium in the South. When they found out Jiang Xu had died, they even made their way to Luoyang City to ce a bouquet of flowers for him.


    However, the people¡¯s opinion of Jiang Xu¡¯s death was definitely not just mourning. They were extremely angry too.


    On the streets not far from where Jiang Xu had died, people raised banners to condemn the Wang Consortium. Some people even got Wang Shengzhi¡¯s portrait and started burning it.


    Everything they did was because they could not ept Jiang Xu¡¯s sudden departure.


    This era was an unfortunate one. That was because The Cataclysm had never truly finished and people had been disced from their homes. Morality had started crumbling, andws were no longer effective.


    However, this era also had its bright spots. It was precisely because of all these difficulties that light was born out of a dark fissure.


    Outside Luoyang City, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi arrived with a floral wreath in their hands. Luo Lan went to the gate and handed over his visa the Qing Consortium had prepared for him.


    When the Luoyang City garrison troops stationed at the gate saw Luo Lan¡¯s identification, they were surprised. Luo Lan? That Luo Lan from the Qing Consortium?


    Everyone was under the impression the Wang Consortium was the one who killed Jiang Xu, so everyone felt they had gone insane.


    As an organization the Wang Consortium had constantly targeted, for Luo Lan to suddenlye here to Luoyang City, was he really not afraid of death?!


    It was only a three-hour drive from the Wang Consortium¡¯s nearest stronghold to Luoyang City, so if the Wang Consortium troops were to rush here, not evenLuo Lan would have enough lives to get out of this.


    The soldiers guarding the gate had a look at the floral wreath that Luo Lan was holding and saw a simple condolence message written on it:


    <i>On this day, he rode off on a whale.</i>


    <i>But someday, he¡¯ll return as a crane.</i>


    After entering the city, Luo Lan walked slowly under everyone¡¯s gaze to the site where Jiang Xu had met his demise. As there was no memorial service yet, he could only ce the wreath there.


    As for whether he could attend the memorial service, that would depend on whether he was still alive.


    However, Luo Lan didn¡¯t care to think about those matters right now.


    Luo Lan was usually dressed in a very brutish manner. He did not look like a big shot from a consortium at all and instead carried himself more like a mob boss.


    But today, Luo Lan looked exceptionally solemn and dignified in his ck suit.


    News of Luo Lan arriving in Luoyang City to pay his respects to Jiang Xu slowly spread. When Luo Lan walked through the streets, everyone would subconsciously keep their distance from him.


    As it rained, Luo Lan kept his eyes focused in front of him. When he arrived at the site of Jiang Xu¡¯s assassination, he gave a deep bow before saying, ¡°Sir, I started reading your articles a long time ago and have always admired you. As a member of a consortium, I¡¯m also aware of all the darkness and murkiness that goes on in this world. So I know better than them how difficult it is to stick to the principles you stand for in this world.


    ¡°I know you and Xiaosu were on very good terms. He and I are very good friends too, so I can also be considered one of your juniors. If your spirit is still around, please ept my summons.¡±


    But even after waiting for a long time, it felt like nothing had changed in the world.


    In the end, he just gave a sigh. It looked like Jiang Xu was unwilling to take notice of him.


    In fact, the power of the Martyr¡¯s Pce was extremely cruel to the dead. Thews of nature dictated that the dead could not be resurrected. So the spirits would also suffer punishment if they were to be resurrected.


    In the Martyr¡¯s Pce, all martyred spirits would remain in a state of hibernation before they were summoned. It was an endless darkness for them, and the only purpose in their ¡°lives¡± was to protect the host of the Martyr¡¯s Pce.


    The host of this power would be stronger, but this was actually very cruel to a spirit who was formerly a living person.


    Luo Lan had awakened his power in Stronghold 61 and summoned 12 martyred spirits. However, they were all his former subordinates who had followed him for a long time. Furthermore, the martyred spirits were only willing to be part of the Martyr¡¯s Pce to protect him.


    Moreover, the host of the Martyr¡¯s Pce could only summon the martyred spirits as equals. If the other party refused, the host could not summon them by force.


    Luo Lan stared nkly at the street full of flowers. He bowed deeply again. ¡°If I¡¯m not dead in a few more days, I¡¯lle back to see you at the memorial.¡±


    A ck-clothed sniper was quietly watching Luo Lan through his scope on the roof of a tall building 400 meters away. He had a white earpiece in his ear. ¡°Target in sight.¡±


    ¡°Engage.¡±


    All of a sudden, the sniper felt a huge force lifting him up from behind. The moment the sniper pulled the trigger, his rifle suddenly flew askew.


    The sniper turned around in a panic and saw a calm young man holding him in his hand.


    When the sniper rifle rang out, Luo Lan, who was on the street, jerked to look at the high-rise building. When he saw the outline of the young man on the roof, he felt relieved.


    Ren Xiaosu was here. He would always show up whenever Luo Lan was about to have a close shave with death.


    Luo Lan stood in ce andughed. ¡°It¡¯s time for us to settle the score with those troublesome enemies.¡±


    Zhou Qi said nonchntly, ¡°You only dare to say that because Ren Xiaosu has arrived.¡±


    ¡°What did you expect?¡± Luo Lan retorted, ¡°I don¡¯t feel safe at all with you protecting me¡­¡±


    At the same time, the gunshots had not only attracted Luo Lan¡¯s attention but also the enemies lurking within Luoyang City. When they realized their sniperpanion had been attacked, several hundred ck-clothed men walked out of a residential building and headed towards that building to surround it.

 Chapter 975 - Heartworm

    <h4>Chapter 975: Heartworm</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu stood on the roof in his ck rain poncho. He could make out hundreds of hitmen approaching the building he was on, but he did not panic.


    ¡°Which organization are you from?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the sniper who he¡¯d broken the limbs of. ¡°Only a consortium can nt so many spies in Luoyang City. Tell me, which consortium do you belong to?¡±


    The sniper was lying on the ground and struggling in pain. His teammate¡¯s questioning voice came through his earpiece as themunications channel remained open. As such, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice was also transmitted through the earpiece to the other party.


    Ren Xiaosu squatted next to him and pulled it out of his ear. ¡°Tell me which organization you belong to, and I¡¯ll spare your life.¡±


    The sniper was breathing heavily in pain, hesitating.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as long as you tell me who the organization behind you is, I¡¯ll leave,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He then pinched the spot where the sniper¡¯s arm was broken. With just two fingers, he crushed the already broken bone to pieces.


    But a secondter, the sniper died as soon as he opened his mouth.


    Ren Xiaosu was clearly taken aback. Wasn¡¯t this the same way some Pyro Company members had died? As long as the person disyed any sign of treachery, they would die.


    Was it the Pyro Company that had Jiang Xu killed? But the Pyro Company was clearly in dire straits.


    No, wait! Ren Xiaosu drew his ck saber and cut open the sniper¡¯s chest. He saw a ck worm wrapped tightly around the sniper¡¯s heart.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he was disgusted.


    But just as Ren Xiaosu was about to use the ck saber to cut off the worm, it turned into a ck ball of energy and dissipated.


    This was the power of a superhuman used to control agent suicides!


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt a little relieved when he realized this was not the Pyro Company¡¯s doing. After all, those people had just risked their lives to fight the expeditionary army.


    Just which organization was it then? Why had he never heard of the existence of such a superhuman?


    Oh, right. How could a superhuman who used such underhanded methods be exposed to the public?


    Ren Xiaosu got up and looked down from the rooftop. When he saw that the ck-clothed hitmen were about to arrive below the building, he picked up the sniper rifle on the rooftop and killed four of the nearest hitmen in session. After that, he proceeded down the stairwell calmly.


    As gunshots continued to ring out in Luoyang City, all of the Luoyang City residents knew that the repercussions from Jiang Xu¡¯s death were not over yet. Rather, it was just beginning.


    At the very least, revenge was only just beginning for Ren Xiaosu.


    This time, he did not use ¡°Old Xu¡± or any other of his powers to prevent identification of himself.


    He hid his identity not because he was afraid someone would seek revenge on him; rather, he was worried the appearance of White Mask would scare his pursuers away.


    Now that he had attracted everyone¡¯s attention with the sound of the sniper rifle, he calmly faced the impending encirclement and danger so he could kill them all.


    It would be too troublesome to finish them off one by one, so he wanted to let these people attack him all together.


    The sky was a gloomy gray, just like Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mood.


    There were no lights inside the building. As he went down the stairwell, only some faint light shone in through the windows few and far between.


    Ren Xiaosu traversed through the light and shadow, his ck rain poncho swaying like a cloak. The light and darkness cycled through within his eyes, with his nose bridge being the boundary that separated them. It was as though the light and darkness in his heart were rapidly interweaving.


    The moment he walked out of the building, a hitman sticking close to the exterior wall in ambush prepared to shoot.


    When the ck-clothed hitman saw Ren Xiaosu, he immediately pulled the trigger. However, he only saw a blur in front of him as Ren Xiaosu dodged the gun¡¯s muzzle in the blink of an eye. Ren Xiaosu decisively pressed down on the hitman¡¯s face with his palm before pushing it towards the wall.


    With a loud crack, his head was smashed into the wall.


    Ren Xiaosu did not look at the hitman again. Instead, he decisively turned around and left, heading towards Peony Avenue in the south of Luoyang City.


    Ren Xiaosu did not hide his whereabouts or try to quickly escape from this ce. He was just like a practice target that had suddenly appeared in Luoyang City as he waited for the sharp arrows to arrive.


    All of the Luoyang City residents were already hiding in their homes and did not dare to step out. Only Ren Xiaosu silently stalked the streets, with the sound of his footsteps masked in the drizzle.


    The ck-clothed hitmen surrounded him from both nks like a pack of wolves and the cocking of guns could vaguely be heard on both sides of the street.


    Just as they were about to surround Ren Xiaosu, he suddenly turned into an obscured alley. When a ck-clothed hitman in there saw Ren Xiaosu, he raised his gun and fired.


    But he suddenly realized he could not pull the trigger no matter how hard he tried, because Ren Xiaosu was squeezing the gun.


    After that, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s left hand shot out like lightning. A sudden burst of strength passed from his arm to his fingers, then through the joints of his index finger, precisely hitting the upper left side of the abdomen of the hitman¡¯s body.


    The hitman¡¯s spleen ruptured, and the resilience of the organ was instantly destroyed. Arge gush of blood started to fill his internal organs. He was beyond saving, and he would be in pain for a while before he waspletely dead.


    The alley was paved with gray bricks, and when rain fell, the water flowed through the gaps and into the ground. The hitman could not make a sound as heid powerlessly on the ground until he gradually lost consciousness.


    He could only watch as Ren Xiaosu slowly walked away. The sound of his footsteps below his ck rain poncho¡¯s hemline gradually disappeared as he headed towards the next intersection.


    The encirclement the several hundred ck-clothed hitmen had just set up had been easily torn apart.


    However, the hitmen did not give up. They did not even care about Luo Lan anymore. Instead, they went all out to hunt down the young man who had suddenly appeared in Luoyang City and was overflowing with killing intent.


    In their opinion, since Ren Xiaosu did not try to take them on directly, it meant that even though he might be strong, his power was still limited and he could not possibly take on several hundred of them by himself.


    When they thought of this, the ck-clothed hitmen quickened their pursuit. They reorganized themselves and bounded towards Ren Xiaosu like arge.


    However, while they picked their pace, so did Ren Xiaosu.


    However fast they moved, Ren Xiaosu matched their speed. It was as though there were multiple parallel lines between them that the hitmen could never shorten.


    The distance between the ck-clothed hitmen and Ren Xiaosu was entirely dependent on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mood.


    Ren Xiaosu was traveling from the northern part of Luoyang City to the south. He was moving towards National Treasure Garden on Peony Avenue, and when the hitmen saw Ren Xiaosu running south the entire way, they roughly knew where he was headed.


    A ck-clothed hitman called out to hispanion over the radio, ¡°Sniper 2, start searching for a shooting position in the south of the city!¡±


    ¡°Sniper 2?¡±


    ¡°Sniper 2?!¡±


    The ck-clothed hitmen were shocked to discover that their remaining sniper had disappeared. No one knew if he was still alive.


    When Ren Xiaosu went past the streets of Luoyang City, he suddenly wondered if Jiang Xu had also passed by this ce like he did today, looking at the Luoyang River that ran through Luoyang City like a jade belt, enjoying the sight of the lush Luoyang Park, and viewing the world that everyone both loved and hated.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s desire to kill became even greater.

 Chapter 976 - Friends forever

    <h4>Chapter 976: Friends forever</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    As Ren Xiaosu strolled around Luoyang City and watched the streets that Jiang Xu might have walked before, his mind could not help but wander.


    Who could have killed Jiang Xu?


    ¡®<i>Was it Wang Shengzhi?</i>¡® Ren Xiaosu pondered.


    To Ren Xiaosu, Wang Shengzhi was his benefactor for saving his life before. Based on his understanding of Wang Shengzhi, even though he would resort to any means to achieve his goals now, he was still someone who had a bottom line.


    Of course, this was only his judgment. In the end, Ren Xiaosu would still have to base it on evidence.


    Then could it be Zero? Ren Xiaosu pondered for a moment. Based on the level of sapience Zero had attained so far, it could very well be doing a lot of things behind Wang Shengzhi¡¯s back.


    Zero would also have a motive. That was because in Zero¡¯s opinion, it was impossible that humans would allow other intelligent species to coexist with them. Moreover, Jiang Xu was the one who was most against the artificial intelligence and had an extremely influential effect on others.


    Now that Zero had the nanomachines to enable it to carry out its ns, it had instantly be a very dangerous being.


    Although Zero imed it only had that small quantity of nanomachines that were in Mo Fei, who knew if it was lying?


    After all, Zero could even deceive its ¡°father,¡± Wang Shengzhi, so what was the big deal with lying to Ren Xiaosu?


    No, Ren Xiaosu had a niggling feeling that something was not right.


    He cycled through his memories to find some clues. Yes, Ren Xiaosu finally knew why he felt that something was amiss.


    When he killed the sniper on the rooftop, the sniper had been receiving his orders and instructions through his earpiece. If it were a soldier under the control of Zero using the nanomachines, there would not be a need for the earpiece at all since Zero could just control him directly.


    And when the ck-clothed hitmen encircled him to kill him, many inevitable openings in street battles still appeared despite how meticulous they were in their operation. This was the reason why Ren Xiaosu was so fearless right now.


    It was not that the hitmen were not elite, but that no one could execute a theoretically perfect n during an actual battle since all kinds of idents were bound to happen.


    But if it were Zero controlling those people, they would never have made so many mistakes. Because if Zero ran the show, it would have absolute control over them.


    So then, if it was really not Zero or Wang Shengzhi who was responsible, who else could it be?


    Now that Jiang Xu had died, everyone in the Alliance of Strongholds was probably enraged by the Wang Consortium. Who would benefit from such a situation?


    The Qing Consortium? The nanomachines that appeared in Stronghold 61 had also pointed to the Qing Consortium as a suspect.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a chill run through him. If it were really Luo Lan and Qing Zhen who were behind this, that would make him really sad.


    However, he firmly believed his judgment that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan would not do such a thing.


    The ck-clothed hitmen who had been chasing after Ren Xiaosu probably did not expect he would still be in the mood to consider other matters while they were pursuing him closely.


    When Ren Xiaosu came back to his senses, the ck-clothed hitmen had fully surrounded him and tried to kill him again.


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu picked up his pace and elerated. The ck-clothed hitmen in front suddenly appeared from the street corner. But before they could shoot, they saw a ck barrel held in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands.


    A bullet was fired through the falling rain and hit a hitman between his brows.


    As Ren Xiaosu had been fighting with his bare hands earlier, the ck-clothed hitmen had nearly forgotten he could actually use a gun as well.


    In fact, Ren Xiaosu was very fond of using guns, and his Master Firearms Proficiency would easily put him several levels above these hitmen.


    He finally arrived at National Treasure Garden on Peony Avenue, a well-known affluent neighborhood in Luoyang City, with some of the vis in the district center greatly sought after by the rich and powerful in Luoyang City.


    Ren Xiaosu disappeared into the main entrance of the neighborhood wearing a ck rain poncho. The ck-clothed hitmen standing outside hesitated for a moment before new instructions came through their earpieces. ¡°He can¡¯t escape. Encircle him and kill him.¡±


    The ck-clothed hitmen scattered in all directions outside the neighborhood. After that, they entered together by scaling the walls, vowing to surround Ren Xiaosu here.


    A hitman¡¯s voice rang out in their earpieces. ¡°Target has entered Vi 27. I repeat, the target has entered Vi 27.¡±


    The ck-clothed hitmen sneered. Now that Ren Xiaosu had gone into a vi, he had better not think of evering out again. Their killing intent surged in this moment. By the time the several hundred hitmen hadpletely surrounded the ce, even a single round of gunfire would be enough to turn any superhuman in the world into Swiss cheese, especially when the other party was only a single individual.


    On the boulevard of the neighborhood, the hitmen quickly assembled into several dozenbat formations and rushed towards Vi 27.


    A fine drizzle fell from the sky, and raindropsnded onto the leaves of the trees on the sidewalk.


    A dark killing intent refracted through the water droplets that had gathered on the tip of the leaves.


    The hitmen trampled through the puddles on the ground, sshing the water under theirbat boots. They exchanged tactical hand signs with one another as theypletely surrounded Vi 27.


    It was so empty in the vi that it seemed like no one lived in it. When Ren Xiaosu looked around the house, there was not even a sofa to be seen.


    There was the unusual sound of water sshing outside, which Ren Xiaosu knew to be the sound of the hitmen moving around.


    However, a solitary metal alloy box measuring a cubic meter in size had been left in the house. It looked like the box was ted with a special metal that shielded it from any outside detection.


    Ren Xiaosu walked up to it and saw a note ced on the silvery box:


    <i>A gift for Ren Xiaosu, my good friend. May our friendshipst forever.?</i>


    <i>¡ªFrom Luo Lan.</i>


    Ren Xiaosuughed. That fatty had left such a corny note for him that totally felt out of ce with the current situation.


    The dampness of the rain and the earthy scent of the soil refreshed the mind. On a rainy day like this, one oughta kill some enemies.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu pressed the button on the metal box. When the box slowly opened, the voice from the pce rang out:


    ¡°Nanomachines not paired to a consciousness have been detected. Would you like to establish a connection?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    ¡°Rebooting¡­¡±


    ¡°Resetting to factory settings¡­¡±


    ¡°No backdoor program has been detected¡­¡±


    ¡°Pairing sessful.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu threw his ck raincoat on the ground and turned around to face the killing intent that was surging outside. The silvery nanomachines flowed affectionately within Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body like a torrent.


    It was as though the long-awaited cuties had inherited their predecessors¡¯ will as they formed a solemn-looking external armor around Ren Xiaosu.


    With every step Ren Xiaosu took, the armor became more and moreplete. Meanwhile, his killing intent became more intense.


    Before this, Luo Lan said he would arrange for a batch of nanomachines to be escorted from the Southwest to Luoyang City and that Ren Xiaosu coulde and retrieve them at any time he needed them. This was a gift from the Qing Consortium, and Luo Lan did not break his promise.


    Ren Xiaosu realized this batch of nanomachines did not even have a backdoor installed.


    He had reached his peak state and was ready to start killing some people.


    In that instant, the agile and sturdy armored being smashed through the vi¡¯s door and rushed out.. Only when the hitmen saw this did they realize who they were hunting today.

 Chapter 977 - He will do as he promised

    <h4>Chapter 977: He will do as he promised</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The ck-clothed hitmen were already sure of their victory. But when that familiar metallic-gray armored being appeared from behind the shattered door, the legendary figurepletely destroyed the hitmen¡¯s confidence in the blink of an eye.


    Some time ago, the guardian angel of Hope Media had worn armor and ughtered nearly a 1,000 thugs in Luoyang City.


    A person like that was not someone they stood a chance against.


    They thought that with hundreds of armedbatants on their side, they would be 100% assured of a victory even if they were facing a supernatural being. After all, there were not too many supernatural beings who did not fear bullets in the world.


    However, the hitmen suddenly realized they had encountered the exact person who was not afraid of bullets.


    That was right. After Jiang Xu was killed, how could Hope Media¡¯s guardian angel possibly note?


    Ren Xiaosu had already charged into the group of hitmen in his armor. In front of this metallic frame, whateverbat formation and firepower they had would be useless.


    Before Ren Xiaosu entered the vi, the manner in which he killed his enemies was more like a brutal work of art. But after he emerged from the vi, his killing techniques reverted to pure violence.


    As Ren Xiaosu grabbed the necks of two hitmen in his armor, the tough armor covering his hands locked around their cervical discs. With just a light squeeze, a crushing sound could be heard.


    The armored being threw the corpses to the ground and started charging around with heavy and powerful steps, shattering the exquisite gstone pavement in the neighborhood under its feet.


    There was no need to precisely deal fatal blows anymore, nor was there a need to meticulously n how to kill his enemies.


    Ren Xiaosu had operated the armor for quite a while, so the moment the cuties connected to his neurons, he knew he had returned to his peak condition.


    Gunshots cracked from the sides as the other hitmen teams starteding over to try to intercept Ren Xiaosu.


    As the brass bullets hit the armor, the normally highly lethal weapons only managed to send a few sporadic sparks flying.


    Not only were the bullets not fatal against Ren Xiaosu, but they attracted his attention.


    After Ren Xiaosu wiped out all the hitmen in front of him in his armor, he slowly turned around and looked at the hitmen who were shooting at him.


    For some reason, those hitmen gradually stopped shooting and the gunfire slowly started ceasing.


    They felt a sense of fear growing in their hearts with just a stare from the menacing armored being.


    They had absolutely no way of inflicting any damage on this armored being. As the hitmen were originally nted inside Luoyang City, they could not bring in any heavy firepower with them.


    At this moment, the armored being was invincible.


    ¡°Retreat!¡± someone shouted.


    The hundreds of ck-clothed hitmen had surrounded Ren Xiaosu like a pack of wolves that smelled blood and embarked on a sophisticated hunt for him.


    But when the armored being appeared, the hitmen scattered in panic like jackals that had encountered a lion.


    But just as some of the hitmen turned to escape, they saw White Mask standing behind them.


    ¡°Old Xu¡± stood there with its saber raised as raindrops kept dripping down from the tip of the ck saber in the drizzle.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. He had onlye here for revenge so he could kill all of the enemies to avenge Jiang Xu. Since he had painstakingly lured all of these people to one ce, how could he possibly let them off so easily?


    Screams could be hearding from the neighborhood. The residents living there were all people of status in Luoyang City. But at this moment, everyone remained hidden in their homes and did not even dare to breathe too loudly for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.


    They knew full well that the people participating in this battle in the neighborhood had transcended this world.


    The ck-clothed hitmen started retreating quickly. But they somehow felt like no matter how fast they ran, they were still going to get caught by the two godly killers behind them.


    But as there were simply too many hitmen, not even Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu could kill them all despite their strength.


    Ren Xiaosu slowly stopped in his tracks. Actually, the hitmen were still unaware that he was only the bait. The actual trap had already beenid in the pouring rain.


    The remaining 200-odd hitmen attempted to jump over the walls and flee for their lives. One of the ck-clothed hitmen even threw away his gun and prepared to hop over the ck metal railings in the neighborhood with his bare hands.


    It was not that he was stupid enough to throw away his own gun but that he knew very well that the weapons were only scrap metal in the face of the armored being.


    When the hitman got to the metal railings, he propped himself up with two hands and was about to vault over.


    But he did not notice that as he got closer, the creeper vines wrapped around the metal railings had quietly turned into sharp spikes.


    Then the creeper vine¡¯s spikes turned into sharp spears and pierced his body. Furthermore, it started sucking out his blood and draining all the energy from his body.


    Everything happened in an instant. After the hitman¡¯s body fell to the ground from the railings, the vine tentacles immediately reverted to their harmless state.


    When the hitmen behind him who were also simrly escaping saw the body, they could not even understand how theirpanion had died.


    Ren Xiaosu did note to Luoyang City by himself but had traveled here together with his maidservant.


    Actually, from this point alone, it could be seen just how furious Ren Xiaosu was. By bringing a top-tier superhuman like his maid to Luoyang City, his entire purpose was to start a massacre known as revenge.


    Now that the situation was not as terrible as he had expected it to be, it was better to have the creeper vines kill the enemies without causing a scene. But if there were really enemies everywhere, Ren Xiaosu did not mind destroying the city either.


    Beforeing to Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu had already stated he wanted to pay his respects to Mr. Jiang Xu and avenge him, as well as to protect Luo Lan.


    If someone attempted to assassinate Luo Lan after killing Jiang Xu, they could very well go ahead and try. But Ren Xiaosu would kill anyone who tried to do so.


    Since he had said that, he would definitely do as he promised. He would kill every one of them and not leave a single person alive.


    At this moment, Zhou Yingxue swayed her hips over to Ren Xiaosu with an exquisite umbre in hand. She looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor enviously. ¡°Master, can you get Luo Lan to give me some nanomachines as well? I¡¯d like to use this armor as well. It looks so awesome.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Have you surrounded all of them?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Master, I¡¯ve alreadyid a dra in the neighborhood, so none of them will be able to get away.¡± Zhou Yingxue beamed.


    The maidservant thought it had been such a long time since she fought alongside her master.. Whenever she was alone in the Northwest, she would reminisce on the times she traveled around with her master.

 Chapter 978 - Youre still in it for the money

    <h4>Chapter 978: You¡¯re still in it for the money</h4>


    The neighborhood of National Treasure Garden on Peony Avenue had turned into a huge battlefield. Although the rainwater had washed the blood flowing out into the soil, there was still the metallic taste of blood in the air.


    Ren Xiaosu stored all the nanomachines he had just obtained in his body and waited for Zhou Yingxue to take out the remaining hitmen.


    No one dared to head out of their houses at this moment, so it made it easier for the creeper vines to kill people.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still made a trip down to the estate office. The staff and security guards here had already fled, but he came here to take away the main server that stored the surveince footage.


    After all, the creeper vine incident had a great impact on the entire Alliance of Strongholds, so Ren Xiaosu did not want Zhou Yingxue to get embroiled in public scrutiny over something like that.


    No matter what, she was still his maidservant.


    Before leaving, he even ced a gold bar on the table aspensation for taking the main server away.


    When he returned with the main server, Zhou Yingxue confirmed, ¡°Master, I¡¯ve already killed all of them.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was actually a little puzzled as to why Ren Xiaosu was always unwilling for her to reveal her creeper vine power. After all, she was so powerful, so why should she be afraid of others?


    Butter, she understood that people¡¯s words could sometimes be hurtful. Her master was only protecting her because he did not want her to feel angry when others criticized her.


    Ren Xiaosu took out his ck rain poncho and put it on again. ¡°Alright, the matter here has already been settled. Go and check on Wang Yuchi and the others while I go look for Luo Lan.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Zhou Yingxue nodded in agreement. She had gotten enough satisfaction from today¡¯s battle. When she thought about how her master acted as the bait to lure the enemy out for her to finish off, she felt like a reclusive expert who had gotten back in the business to fight alongside her master. Simply thinking about it, she felt amazing.


    Speaking of which, Zhou Yingxue also kind of missed Wang Yuchi and her other little brothers. Those eight young men who had risked their lives with Ren Xiaosu were still studying at Qinghe University. Back when the eight of them were revising for their admissions exam, Zhou Yingxue was the one who took care of them.


    Subconsciously, Zhou Yingxue regarded them as her younger brothers.


    But Zhou Yingxue was wondering if she should get them some gifts since she had not seen them in so long, like jade thumb rings or something?


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu shot a nce at Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°Have you ever lorded over people in my name after you got to the Northwest?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue panicked a little. ¡°No¡­ I didn¡¯t!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good then. After we¡¯re done here, we¡¯ll return to the Northwest together. At that time, I¡¯ll ask around and find out what you¡¯ve been up to there.¡± After that, Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked off into the rain.


    Zhou Yingxue curled her lips and said angrily, ¡°I¡¯ve clearly done so much for him, so why does he keep finding trouble with me? What kind of a master is that?! What¡¯s wrong with me enjoying myself a little in the Northwest? Do superiors restrict their subordinates from eating?¡±


    ¡­


    At this moment, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi were still standing at the crossroads outside Qinghe University as they waited quietly for Ren Xiaosu to return.


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu had lured away all the ck-clothed hitmen. When Luo Lan saw there were so many enemies, he was really taken aback. If Ren Xiaosu had note to Luoyang City, he would probably have died here.


    But when he thought about it again, he felt it was a good thing. That was because it was definitely not easy for so many spies to sneak into Luoyang City quietly, so they would definitely leave behind some clues.


    The more spies that had infiltrated the city, the happier Luo Lan was. No matter how hard the other party tried to suppress it, there was no such thing as an absolute secret.


    Luo Lan preliminarily judged that the Qinghe Group had been infiltrated by spies.


    However, who could be so bold that they even dared to try and kill him?


    It was not that Luo Lan regarded himself to be that influential, but surely the people who attempted to have him killed should have considered the consequences, right?


    Wait a minute! This was the same scenario as Jiang Xu¡¯s death. If everyone thought the Wang Consortium was behind it, and if Luo Lan really died, his death would likely lead to a showdown between the Qing Consortium and the Wang Consortium. If they still could not find the mastermind after some time, it was very possible the Qing Consortium wouldunch a full-scale war against the Wang Consortium based on Qing Zhen¡¯s character.


    In that case, who would hope most to see the Qing Consortium dere war on the Wang Consortium? Who was it that wanted to see everyone in the world be enemies with the Wang Consortium?


    Luo Lan could roughly guess at a few possibilities, but he was still a little unsure.


    Zhou Qi, who had been taking shelter from the rain, suddenly straightened up and looked towards the end of a street. There was a ck-clothed person walking slowly towards them.


    Zhou Qi turned around and looked in the other direction and saw another person simrly standing in the empty street.


    All of a sudden, people in ck were slowly approaching from all four directions of the intersection. It was as though they already had Luo Lan surrounded.


    The residents of Luoyang City were so frightened by the gunfire they hid at home. Only some of the braver ones dared to look out through their house windows.


    As such, the people who had appeared were here to kill Luo Lan.


    Luo Lan grinned and said, ¡°I was wondering why everyone went after Ren Xiaosu as soon as he appeared. They didn¡¯t even care about me anymore. So they were just cannon fodder to force Ren Xiaosu away from here before sending in their aces to handle me. Well done, great strategy. An opponent like this really makes things more interesting.¡±


    Zhou Qi stood quietly in front of Luo Lan. ¡°Stop mumbling. When the fight breaks out, stay within three meters of me.¡±


    Luo Lan looked at Zhou Qi¡¯s back and chuckled. ¡°Moneyface, you¡¯re actually acting like a hero for once? But I didn¡¯t bring any money with me this time.¡±


    Zhou Qi rolled his eyes. ¡°Your brother paid me yesterday.¡±


    ¡°Ptui.¡± Luo Lan said disdainfully, ¡°To think I thought you changed. So you¡¯re still in it for the money.¡±


    In the heavy rain, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi nearly got into an argument.


    But when the four hitmen came within a 100 meters of them, Zhou Qi¡¯s expression suddenly turned serious. This was a lethal trap the other party had meticulously set for Luo Lan, so the people who came must be very strong.


    In an instant, the drizzle falling from the sky became a little different. As the raindrops fell, they were stretched by an invisible force that slowly turned from water droplets into long and narrow silver needles.


    When the fine raindrops hit the ground, they actually tinkled. It was like several hundred thousand needles had fallen from the sky.


    Rainy days were basically Zhou Qi¡¯s home field.


    Luo Lan praised, ¡°Zhou Qi, your power has grown even stronger!¡±


    Zhou Qi did not say anything. He was prepared to make his move.


    However, before the two sides could unleash their killing intent, Zhou Qi was suddenly taken aback. He was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu¡¯s figure standing on the street on the southern side.


    A ck-clothed hitman was walking over slowly while Ren Xiaosu lurked close behind.


    The silhouette of the young man in the ck rain poncho appeared mysterious and calm, as if slowly emerging out of a misty waterfall.


    This time, no one expected Ren Xiaosu to finish off all the hitmen so quickly.


    It was like a magician had casually performed a disappearing act. Several hundred people truly vanished and never came back again.

 Chapter 979 - Barrier

    <h4>Chapter 979: Barrier</h4>


    In the hitmen¡¯s n, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi were supposed to be surrounded by four supernatural beings who would kill them.


    Based on their original n, even if the several hundredbat personnel that had sneaked into Luoyang City were unable to kill Ren Xiaosu, they should still be able to keep him upied for half a day.


    And in that time, Luo Lan would not have enough lives to make it out of the situation even if he were a cat.


    But now that Ren Xiaosu had returned in advance with the rest of the hitmen nowhere to be seen, it looked like they were probably all dead.


    The earpieces the four ck-clothed supernatural beings were wearing rang out with, ¡°Number One, you¡¯ll intercept him while the rest of us go all out to kill Luo Lan. That should be enough.¡±


    With that, the supernatural being being pursued by Ren Xiaosu spun around and faced him.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly sized up the supernatural being. He was a young man around 28 years old and had a squarish face.


    This supernatural being was standing ramrod straight, making him look like some kind of soldier. He had a tanned face, which was probably from the years of training he had gone through. This was an elite soldier from a certain organization¡¯s military.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little more reassured. As long as clues of their identities surfaced, it would only be a matter of time before he found the mastermind. What he was most afraid of was that these people had no past, since that would make it difficult for him to find any leads.


    The Zhou Consortium, the Wang Consortium, the Kong Consortium, and the Pyro Company all had different ways of training their soldiers. Therefore, the subtleties of their soldiers¡¯ movements in battle would be different.


    Of course, the subtleties were extremely minute, so Ren Xiaosu could not tell the difference.


    But it did not matter. Now that Wang Yun had joined the Prosperous Northwest, even if Ren Xiaosu could not find any evidence after this battle, Wang Yun could definitely give him some answers as long as he brought the surveince footage of this street to him.


    Most superhumans who had just awakened their superpowers would not belong to an organization, so the way they fought in battle would appear exceedingly chaotic.


    For example, Zhang Baogen, Dong Funan, and several others.


    But over the past year, groups of people had started to awaken their superpowers. Some people felt that the number of superhumans in the Alliance of Strongholds had probably exceeded 300 already, and half of them were even ¡°born¡± in the military.


    After the superhumans who were originally soldiers appeared, they were immediately recruited into the secret units by the various consortiums and trained with greater resources.


    Thebat strength of these people was very high, especially when they teamed up to fight. They would disybat skills that surpassed normal superhumans.


    The superhuman before Ren Xiaosu closed in on him. He wanted to buy some time for his threepanions to quicklyplete their mission.


    The remaining three superhumans rushed at Luo Lan from different directions. However, one of the superhumans suddenly felt that something was off. He turned around and saw someone wearing a white mask following him.


    In the gloomy rain, White Mask¡¯s appearance was extremely abrupt and terrifying. There was no expression on the mask at all, but for some reason, the superhuman facing it could sense the other party smiling.


    White Mask was a legendary being in the superhuman world. Too many major events had involved the presence of White Mask. However, every superhuman was aware now that White Mask was just someone¡¯s power.


    The hitmen wanted to block Ren Xiaosu and have the other three surround Luo Lan and kill him. But their n failed again.


    From today onwards, it seemed that every one of their ns was going to be very difficult to achieve. With the emergence of one surprise after another, they would have to constantly change their strategy.


    At almost the same time, Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu rushed at their respective opponents.


    Although Old Xu¡¯s battle looked simple and unadorned with fancy moves, every sh itnded with its saber was extremely vicious.


    As soon as both sides shed, Old Xu¡¯s opponent was immediately forced into a constant state of retreat.


    However, this superhuman quickly realized a problem. Old Xu was much faster than him. If he kept retreating without fighting back, he would notst much longer.


    He skidded to a halt and decisively bent down to dodge the iing de. Then 13 bone spikes suddenly burst from his spine, making him look like an extremely terrifying Spinosaurus.


    The bone spikes measured more than a meter long. Based on the calctions of this superhuman, the moment White Mask swung its saber at him, it would definitely hit the sharp bone spikes on his back and get pierced.


    In that instant, he also grew a bone knife from the back of his elbow in preparation to chop off Old Xu¡¯s head when it crashed into him.


    But the superhuman was stunned a secondter. He felt like the bone spikes on his back had pierced soft y. Although Old Xu was stabbed by the bone spikes, the shing motions did not stop.


    There was no sight of blood sttering as he had imagined. There was only Old Xu shing at his back emotionlessly.


    ¡°How bloody.¡± Luo Lan sighed. Even for someone like him who hadmitted so much murder and arson, he still felt a little grossed out.


    However, this execution style of killing made Luo Lan understand how angry Ren Xiaosu was about Jiang Xu¡¯s death.


    The other two superhumans who did not encounter Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu¡¯s attacks had gotten within 30 meters of Zhou Qi.


    However, they did not approach him rashly. They carefully observed the fine drizzle that wasing down as they felt the pervasive raindrops stinging their skin.


    The closer they got to Zhou Qi, the more intense the pain was. Their skin started bleeding as though the raindrops had really turned into soft needles.


    Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°On a rainy day like this, you two will die if you take another step forward. If you don¡¯t believe me, why don¡¯t you try it out?¡±


    One of the ck-clothed superhumans suddenly raised his hand. A circr blue glow spread outwards like a water ripple, and wherever that ripple spread, it would appear like it had be part of a different dimension.


    Luo Lan was stunned. The streets still looked the same as before, but they seemed to have be isted from the rest of the world. As the rain entered the barrier, it turned into snow, and the snow on the ground instantly turned to ice.


    Ayer of frost quickly formed on everyone¡¯s hair and eyebrows.


    If they wanted to kill Luo Lan, they would definitely have to find out who was protecting him and what powers that person protecting him possessed.


    The reason why they dared to make a move was definitely because they had absolute confidence.


    Within the barrier, the other party used the frozen climate to seal off all the water content andpletely disabled Zhou Qi¡¯s water maniption power. This was the principle behind the freeze dryer¡¯s removal of moisture.


    Logically, ice was also water, but Zhou Qi¡¯s power was not that remarkable yet. He would have to turn the ice into liquid water before he could use it.


    Luo Lan chuckled and said, ¡°It looks like you¡¯vee prepared. Why don¡¯t we discuss how much the organization behind you is paying and I¡¯ll pay double that amount. Or you can capture me and bring me to your boss. I won¡¯t resist. Let¡¯s stop the fighting and killing here in Luoyang City. Wouldn¡¯t it be terrible if we hurt the residents?¡±


    However, Luo Lan was not someone who would willingly allow himself to be captured. As he said that, he pulled Zhou Qi behind him and prepared to summon his martyred spirits to catch their opponents off guard.


    The two superhumans approached Luo Lan and Zhou Qi without saying a word. It was getting colder and colder inside the barrier as Luo Lan felt his hands almost freezing.


    But a secondter, the sound of ice shattering could be heard. The four people in the barrier looked up at the same time and were surprised to see someone using a sniper rifle to shoot at the same spot at the top of the spherical barrier.


    The top of the dome started cracking like ss!

 Chapter 980 - Untainted

    <h4>Chapter 980: Untainted</h4>


    Above the barrier, the sound of the sniper¡¯s bullets hitting it was like a copper bell ringing over their heads.


    Truly, the barrier was very strong. It did not really break even after being sted by 15 to 16 sniper shots, and it even seemed like it could continue to hold for a long time.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s shoulder was still aching from all the shots she had taken back at Mt. Zuoyun, which nearly crippled her shoulder. Her injury was definitely not something that would heal within a day or two.


    But she just frowned and continued firing at the barrier without stopping. Each time she fired a shot, the huge recoil of the ck sniper rifle would cause the buttstock to hit her already injured shoulder. But even if it hurt, she did not care.


    Yang Xiaojin was only concerned with being present on this asion that Ren Xiaosu had risked his life to fight for.


    The superhuman in the barrier hurriedly used his own mental strength to reinforce the area being fired upon. However, the speed at which he was reinforcing it was not as fast as the other party¡¯s attacks!


    Moreover, the sniper did not seem to have any intention of giving up, with every shot consistently fired at the same spot.


    Shot after shot, they came fast and intense. There was no end to it.


    For some reason, the superhuman in the barrier suddenly felt a little scared. He saw the spider web cracks gettingrger andrger. This was the first time he had seen someone so insistent on breaking his barrier.


    Logically, it was already very strong for being able to withstand so many shots from an anti-materiel sniper rifle.


    But at some point, the sound of ss shattering could seemingly be heard throughout the entire world. The light blue translucent barrier shattered into pieces before the ¡°debris¡± dissipated in the air.


    The superhuman who set up the barrier spat blood and suffered huge bacsh.


    When the other superhuman saw that their n hadpletely failed, he hurriedly fled.


    He did not even care about his injuredpanion coughing up blood. It was not that he was cold-blooded or heartless, but that the training they had received and mission requirements were just like that. If the n failed, they would have to quickly retreat and not attempt to save theirrades.


    Luo Lan looked at Yang Xiaojin, who was on top of a tall building not far away. She was wearing a cap and a rain poncho as she started locking onto her target through the scope.


    ¡°Both husband and wife are here. Don¡¯t you feel like you¡¯re a divine general or something?¡± Luo Lan said excitedly.


    Zhou Qi said helplessly, ¡°You¡¯re a superhuman yourself, so why don¡¯t you think about how to raise your power level instead of relying on others?¡±


    Luo Lan thought for a moment and exined, ¡°Actually, this power of mine is a little cruel. The soldiers fought for the Qing Consortium for so long, yet they still can¡¯t find peace after death. No matter how I think about it, I can¡¯t justify it.¡±


    ¡°Whatever.¡± Zhou Qi suddenly felt that Luo Lan¡¯s awakened power was a little contradictory. Although it could be a very powerful skill, Luo Lan himself was unwilling to use it.


    That was because Luo Lan felt the Martyr¡¯s Pce was not the best ce for the martyred spirits to return to.


    He could not bear to see the soldiers suffer endless darkness in the Martyr¡¯s Pce after their deaths. To him, that darkness was like a punishment for bringing them back from the dead, something which transcended thews of nature.


    The crack of the sniper rifle could be heard again. The bullet fired from the high-rise building hit the back of the fleeing superhuman. It was only one shot, but it was enough to leave him lying still on the ground.


    But a few secondster, that hitman¡¯s corpse gradually disintegrated to nothing.


    Yang Xiaojin frowned. Could this be a kind of substitute power? She had not expected him to get away in the end.


    Thinking of this, Yang Xiaojin prepared to head downstairs to give chase. She knew Ren Xiaosu would not want to let any of the hitmen escape.


    But before she could get up, she saw Old Xu walking out from a street corner and holding a ck saber dripping with blood.


    Old Xu raised its hand and signaled to Yang Xiaojin that the superhuman who had escaped was dead.


    Five minutes ago, the battle on Old Xu¡¯s side had ended decisively. However, Ren Xiaosu did not let it join the battle on Luo Lan¡¯s side. Instead, Old Xu quietly hid outside the battlefield in case the enemy had an escape power like Shadow Door.


    Yang Xiaojin went downstairs to join up with Ren Xiaosu. When Luo Lan saw her, he immediately greeted her with a smile, ¡°Ms. Xiaojin, long time no see. Sorry for making youe down to Luoyang City personally¡­.¡±


    ¡°We only just met at Mt. Zuoyun.¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°You don¡¯t have to thank me; thank Ren Xiaosu instead.¡±


    ¡°You two are a couple, so it doesn¡¯t matter who I thank.¡± Luo Lan chuckled.


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him but did not refute it.


    On the other side, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s battle had alsoe to an end. He was wearing his armor and dragging the almost dead Number One in his hand from the other direction to the front of everyone.


    The metallic nging of the armor as it walked sounded heavy and gloomy. Some of the Luoyang City residents hiding at home quietly looked out their windows. When they saw the armor and Yang Xiaojin in her cap, they immediately thought of the statues on Wangchunmen Boulevard.


    Someone got excited. So it turned out their guardian angels hade to Luoyang City to avenge Chief Editor Jiang Xu.


    As the armor started peeling away, a lot of people tried to sneak a peek at what Ren Xiaosu looked like. But before they could get a clear look, Ren Xiaosu had already pulled therge hood of his rain poncho over his head.


    He dragged the hitman to where Jiang Xu was and stood there quietly. Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin, Luo Lan, and Zhou Qi did not disturb him.


    Ren Xiaosu lowered his head. The hood of his ck rain poncho cast a shadow on his face, but everyone could sense how sad he was.


    ¡°I¡¯ve killed some of those who tried to kill you.¡± Ren Xiaosu threw the hitman in his grip onto the ground and announced at the street corner, ¡°Actually, I should¡¯ve expected that someone would try to kill you, so I should have taken you to the Northwest a long time ago. But I know that you don¡¯t want to go there. Because only Luoyang City, a ce not controlled by any organization but backed by the neutral Qinghe Group, allows you to do whatever you please without being worried. But if I knew that a day like that day woulde, I would¡¯ve probably knocked you out and dragged you to the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°In the past, I vaguely felt that something seemed to have gone wrong with this era. It wasn¡¯t until the day you died that I was finally able to confirm this.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I know that the dead can¡¯t be brought back to life. If life isn¡¯t constrained by a time limit, it would be exceptionally meaningless. But I feel that the world can¡¯t do without a person like you. So I¡¯d like to ask if you¡¯re willing to be brought back to life in another way?¡±


    Off to the side, Luo Lan was stunned. Why did Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words sound a little simr to what he had said?


    Ren Xiaosu did not avoid Luo Lan and just quietly stared nkly forward.


    However, one second, two seconds¡­ One minute, two minutes¡­ For the first time ever, Ren Xiaosu felt that the passage of time was extremely slow and torturous.


    However, to his disappointment, Jiang Xu did not appear like the other martyred spirits.


    Jiang Xu was gone. He had utterly andpletely left this ce.


    He had led an untainted life, so there were no regrets or the like holding him back when it was his time to leave.


    He just departed calmly and withposure.

 Chapter 981 - Taking over Luoyang City

    <h4>Chapter 981: Taking over Luoyang City</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Having normal life functions was not the only thing that determined whether someone was still alive. If someone continued to live in the memories of others, their will would never actually be dead.


    When Ren Xiaosu realized he could not summon Jiang Xu back with the help of the Martyr¡¯s Pce, he knew this matter was beyond him.


    However, he did not find it regrettable. Perhaps Jiang Xu was also unwilling to continue ¡°living¡± on as a martyred spirit.


    Because at that time, Jiang Xu would just be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s vassal. How could an untainted person like Jiang Xu possibly ept such an oue?


    At some point after Ren Xiaosu said those words, Luo Lan even felt that the golden silhouette of Jiang Xu¡¯s spirit would gradually appear.


    Fortunately, nothing happened. Therefore, Luo Lan was still unaware Ren Xiaosu had copied his power of the Martyr¡¯s Pce.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and looked at Yang Xiaojin. ¡°Does your shoulder hurt?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°But I can still bear it and fight.¡±


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s make a trip to Hope Media first,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He looked at Luo Lan. ¡°How about y¡¯all? Are you gonna remain in Luoyang City or you gonna leave?¡±


    ¡°Of course we¡¯ll stay. Someone has to be held ountable for Mr. Jiang Xu¡¯s death no matter what.¡± Luo Lan narrowed his eyes and said, ¡°Leave the hitman in your hands for us. I¡¯ll take charge of interrogating him.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu picked up the hitman by the neck and broke it easily at the spot where Jiang Xu had died. ¡°There¡¯s a type of bug wrapped around their hearts that makes them unable to be interrogated. I brought him here so he could be offered as a tribute.¡±


    Zhou Qi looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s calm face and felt a chill run down his spine.


    Other people used pig heads, apples, and stuff like that as offerings tomemorate their deceased family and friends, but Ren Xiaosu used human lives.


    Suddenly, a window on the fifth floor of a residential building across from the intersection was opened. A child shouted loudly, ¡°Guardian, please avenge Mr. Jiang Xu!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw the child who looked like he was only eight or nine years old. His eyes were red and his expression sincere.


    The adults in that household hurriedly covered the child¡¯s mouth and pulled him into the house. They were afraid the child would provoke someone he shouldn¡¯t.


    The things happening in Luoyang City were no longer something ordinary folks could involve themselves in.


    In their panic, the adults wanted to apologize to Ren Xiaosu. Although they did not know what they were apologizing for, they were really afraid their child might have somehow offended Ren Xiaosu.


    However, Ren Xiaosu replied, ¡°You¡¯re so young. Do you know who Jiang Xu is?¡±


    The child broke free from his parents¡¯ grips and leaned against the window sill and shouted, ¡°I know Grandpa Jiang Xu used to be an investigative journalist, but he¡¯s now the chief editor of Hope Media. While eating, the adults always say Grandpa Jiang Xu is the only one who dares to speak the truth now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°Do you admire him?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I wanna be an investigative journalist when I grow up too!¡± the child dered loudly.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°Remember your dream. If you still want to be an investigative journalist when you grow up but are worried that someone will threaten your well-being, you cane to the Northwest to look for me. My name is Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu led Yang Xiaojin and the others towards Hope Media.


    The streets were still empty, with only drooping flowers drenched by the rain and corpses that were flowing with blood remaining.


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little better.


    ¡®<i>Did you see that? Since you died, none of those who imed to hate murderers dared to step forward to avenge you when the hitmen attacked.</i>


    ¡®<i>This is what the real world we live in is like.</i>


    <i>¡®But none of that is important. What¡¯s important is that a little of that glow around you has remained behind with us.</i>


    ¡®<i>It¡¯s just like inheritance and reincarnation. Only time will provide us with an answer.</i>¡®


    ¡­


    Hope Media¡¯s building was already dpidated in the first ce, so it looked even more deste in the rain.


    When Ren Xiaosu walked in, the reporters and editors in the building got up and looked over silently.


    He looked around at these people who were panicking and feeling sad. Everyone¡¯s eyes were red, and he wondered how long they had been crying for.


    However, even after Jiang Xu left, they still stuck to their posts. Jiang Xu left behind a total of four letters, one of which was for Ren Xiaosu, and one that was addressed to everyone in Hope Media.


    Jiang Xu did not make a solemn speech in the letter. He just calmly told them to focus on their work and not let the truth go unreported because of the chaos that followed his death.


    He also reminded them to water the natal lily on the window sill of his office. He did not want it to wither and suffer an undeserved death.


    In addition, he even congratted a female reporter in advance on her uing wedding. Unfortunately, he could not attend it personally.


    The message in the letter was very trivial. The words conveyed were just like an old man holding a cup of hot tea by the stove and speaking to his juniors warmly.


    When Zhang Chentong read the letter out loud in the building, everyone was in tears after hearing it.


    They now knew about the things Ren Xiaosu had done in Luoyang City, so they were deeply grateful to him for standing up for Hope Media and Jiang Xu again.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu quietly took in everything happening at Hope Media until he saw the wall filled with those people¡¯s names. Then he walked forward and carved two words on it seriously with the ck saber: Jiang Xu.


    Sobbing could be heard in the building as Ren Xiaosu walked silently upstairs to Jiang Xu¡¯s office.


    In front of the office, Zhang Chentong stuffed a letter into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands. ¡°The chief editor wrote this to you before he died.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and went into Jiang Xu¡¯s office. The natal lily flowerpot on the window sill looked like it had just been cleaned.


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and opened the envelope. He stood by the window and quietly read the contents of the letter.


    So it turned out Jiang Xu had foreseen his death.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a great sadness when he saw the lines of farewell.


    He did not cry when he found out about Jiang Xu¡¯s bad news.


    On the way here, he did not cry even though it was raining hard.


    He did not cry when he failed to summon Jiang Xu back on Luoyang City¡¯s streets.


    But as he read the seemingly casual words, he suddenly started tearing up.


    He had told Yan Liuyuan not to cry, that this world did not believe in tears. But he could not suppress his sadness.


    Ren Xiaosu put the letter he was holding into the pce and ced it in the most conspicuous position in the pce¡¯s disy cabs. This was to remind himself of Jiang Xu¡¯s hope for him to be another ray of light in the world before his demise.


    He turned around and walked out. As he left, he asked Luo Lan, ¡°How many people does the Qing Consortium have in Luoyang City?¡±


    Luo Lan answered calmly, ¡°71. We can deploy them anytime.¡±


    Actually, it was taboo to ask something like that, but Luo Lan was very happy to answer. That was because by asking, it meant Ren Xiaosu trusted the Qing Consortium.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Have the Qing Consortium¡¯s people retrieve the surveince footage of the entire city for the past month or so. After that, send it to the Northwest for me and hand it over to Wang Yun.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯ll be a little difficult. These 71 people aren¡¯t really armed with that many weapons. The Qing Consortium did not prioritize Luoyang City as an important location to keep watch over,¡± Luo Lan said matter-of-factly.


    There was no need for him to fake their strength and act like he had an impressive force stationed at this ce. If he wanted to gain ess to all the surveince cameras in the city, he would have to take over many locations to get them. Moreover, this was the Qinghe Group¡¯s territory they were talking about.


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything and just walked straight out of Hope Media¡¯s building.


    Luo Lan was stunned. He saw Wang Yuchi, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s maid, and the others standing outside the entrance. Ren Xiaosu said to Zhou Yingxue, ¡°The Qing Consortium¡¯s people will report to you. Can you lead them and take control of Luoyang City?¡±


    Wang Yuchiughed. ¡°Brother Xiaosu, don¡¯t worry. Even without Big Sister Yingxue, the eight of us can do it.¡±


    With that, all eight of the students activated their armor. The eight armors looked extremely forbidding. It seemed they had made further modifications to its structure while they were attending school.


    Back then, Ren Xiaosu had left behind a lot of nanomachines for them, andter on, Luo Lan sent over another batch of nanomachines. While Ren Xiaosu, Wang Fugui, and the others were working hard for their ¡°family,¡± these students did not idle around either.


    And now, they had grown up.

 Chapter 982 - Liberated Serfs, Sing

    <h4>Chapter 982: Liberated Serfs, Sing</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Attempting to take over Luoyang City was a veryplicated matter. However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s so-called takeover was not to upy the entire city. He only sought to obtain the surveince footage and then lock down the city.


    The purpose of retrieving the surveince footage was so Wang Yun could analyze it. As for how it should be analyzed, not even Ren Xiaosu had it fully figured out. However, he was sure Wang Yun would definitely surprise him.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu wanted to prevent any of the enemies who were still hiding in Luoyang City from escaping.


    With the gates shut and Zhou Yingxue¡¯s measures in ce outside the city, anyone who dared to escape by going over the walls would definitely die.


    This time, the move Ren Xiaosu made was probably the biggest one he had taken.


    The 71 members of the Qing Consortium who were operating covertly in Luoyang City had already reported to Zhou Yingxue. After that, this group of people marched into the Public Order Division and took control of it.


    The director of the Public Order Division in Luoyang City was a distant rtive of the Xu n. Initially, he did not think much of it when he received the news that arge group of people were heading towards the Public Order Division.


    However, he discovered through the surveince cameras several junctions away that these people were fucking carrying guns.


    When he realized what Zhou Yingxue and the group were up to, he immediately got his men to draw their weapons from the armory.


    Then, after they retrieved their weapons, they realized the opponents they were facing were eight armored beings.


    When faced with the eight armored beings, the director of the Public Order Division felt a deep sense of powerlessness. Opponents their weapons were ineffective against was not something their Public Order Division could handle. No matter how many people they had, they could not defeat these eight armored beings.


    After Wang Yuchi and the others took control of the situation, Zhou Yingxue swaggered in. She was dressed in an expensive qipao and jewelry, looking extremely pompous.


    Wang Yuchi looked at Zhou Yingxue. ¡°Big Sis, what do we do next?¡±


    The eight students in the armor looked to Zhou Yingxue for further instructions. This made her very happy. It was as though she had be a mob boss, with her eight younger brothers serving as her fighters.


    This sight immediately made Zhou Yingxue feel like she was the protagonist of the world.


    Earlier at the entrance of Hope Media, when the maidservant saw Yang Xiaojin was also here in Luoyang City, she had quickly lowered her head and did not even dare mutter a word. Now that she was here to take on outsiders, she was finally able to hold her head high and sing like a liberated serf.


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Wang Yuchi and the others and smiled. Her efforts in cooking for her younger brothers and taking care of their daily needs had not been in vain. In the future, if anyone dared to provoke her, she would just have Wang Yuchi and the others help her solve the problem.


    Just like her master¡¯s style, anyone who caused a problem would be taken care of!


    Zhou Yingxue swaggered over and sat down in the Public Order Division, then said to the director, ¡°We¡¯ll be taking charge of the Public Order Division starting from now. Any objections?¡±


    The director of the Public Order Division said with a wry smile, ¡°I¡¯m only an employee, so I don¡¯t have the final say.¡±


    ¡°So I¡¯ll kill you and look for someone who has the authority then?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked with a serious expression.


    The Public Order Division director replied, ¡°You have fullmand of the Public Order Division. You can have the men do whatever you want.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue immediately gave a warm smile. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m also just serving my master. He just killed a lot of people in Luoyang City, and I think your Public Order Division should¡¯ve watched it, right? Don¡¯t try anything funny, or you¡¯ll die. Have the Public Order Division retrieve all the surveince footage of the city streets for me. We¡¯re only here to avenge Elder Jiang. After we¡¯re done with that, we¡¯ll leave.¡±


    With that, Zhou Yingxue left behind two students and 20 Qing Consortium members and turned around to head for the garrison troops¡¯ base.


    Unexpectedly, the garrison troops did not put up any resistance. Instead, they voluntarily weed Zhou Yingxue and the others in.


    Zhou Yingxue looked curiously at the Luoyang City garrisonmander. ¡°Aren¡¯t you guys gonna resist a little?¡±


    The maid thought to herself, ¡®<i>I¡¯m not even getting any sense of aplishment here!</i>¡®


    The Luoyang City garrisonmander said with a wry smile, ¡°The Qinghe Group sent us orders to give our full cooperation. To be honest, we also want to avenge Elder Jiang. If you can find out who did it, that¡¯d be great.¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± Zhou Yingxue found it a little strange. As the controller of Luoyang City, the Qinghe Group should be the first toe forward to protect their sovereignty. But from the look of things, why did it seem like the other party had willingly handed over their authority?


    ¡°Let¡¯s go, we¡¯ll head straight to the Qinghe Group¡¯s HQ.¡± Zhou Yingxue did not even step past the gate of the garrison base. She only left behind two students and 20 Qing Consortium members to supervise the garrison troops in locking down the city before heading straight for the Qinghe Group¡¯s headquarters.


    When they arrived at the entrance of the Qinghe Building, all of the security personnel were already waiting downstairs. Zhou Yingxue nced at them before walking in and taking the elevator to the top floor.


    Xu Zhi was alone in the office on the top floor.


    The leader of the Qinghe Group had always been the Rider Xu Ke. But after Xu Ke handed over the leadership to Xu Zhi, Xu Ke went and chased after his dream of being a Rider. It could be said that the current Qinghe Group was now controlled by this former president of the Qinghe University Student Council.


    Xu Zhi stood in his office and watched quietly as the maidservant arrived. Now that he saw thedy he had missed so much, he did not know what to say.


    Instead, it was Zhou Yingxue who casually sat down on the sofa in the office. ¡°Where are the Riders of the Qinghe Group? Why did they not even show up after such a big incident?¡±


    Xu Zhi thought for a moment and answered, ¡°They don¡¯t serve the Qinghe Group, so they¡¯re free to do whatever they want. When Chief Editor Jiang Xu tragically passed, the Riders were helping the escapees and the Pyro Company¡¯s troops retreat from the front line. The battle at the Great Wall was extremely tragic, and several of the Riders were also injured in the evacuation. Later on, when the Riders were organizing the escapees to retreat to the South, they were ambushed by the Experimentals. Fortunately, there weren¡¯t any major incidents. They should¡¯ve received the news and should be heading back.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said, ¡°Oh, I see, so they went to help the escapees. I heard you ordered the garrison troops to give us their full cooperation? Why?¡±


    ¡°Because we all want to avenge Mr. Jiang Xu.¡± Xu Zhi said, ¡°The Luoyang City garrison troops had gone to support the Northern battlefront and deployed too many of their troops there. Actually, what¡¯s left of them here is only an empty shell, so they can¡¯t stop you guys anyway.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue nodded. ¡°Smart, that¡¯s really sensible of you. Alright, since you guys are so cooperative, there¡¯s no need for me to take any action. You can just sit back while we handle things from here.¡±


    After that, Zhou Yingxue headed downstairs. Xu Zhi hesitated for a long time before suddenly asking, ¡°Can I talk with you after we find the culprit who killed Mr. Jiang Xu?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue walked into the elevator. She turned around to look at Xu Zhi, who had chased after her and was standing outside the elevator. ¡°Kid, I¡¯ll have to check with my master regarding such matters. But I can¡¯t be bothered to ask him since I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything to talk to you about. You¡¯re too weak.¡±


    When the elevator door closed, Xu Zhi stood outside looking despondent.

 Chapter 983 - The mystery surrounding Luo Lan

    <h4>Chapter 983: The mystery surrounding Luo Lan</h4>


    Zhou Yingxue made a show of her newfound authority at many ces in Luoyang City. She took over all of the ces Ren Xiaosu wanted her to take control of, as well as a number of ces Ren Xiaosu did not ask her to.


    It was not that she was hardworking but that she enjoyed the feeling of being in the limelight today.


    The maidservant had led a very oppressive life ever since she was young. When she was a child, she was really poor and did not have any money. After joining the Yang Consortium, she still had to obey her superiors¡¯ orders. But after she met Ren Xiaosu, not only did she be stronger and could do whatever she wanted, but others also started looking at her with reverence.


    This made the maidservant feel like her life had been raised to a higher level.


    However, some people were just this strange. Even though she had be stronger, her mentality was still that of a simple woman. She only wanted to go around and show off, but she did not think that since she was already so powerful, there was actually no need for her to act so mboyantly.


    Moreover, theoretically speaking, Ren Xiaosu could not at all beat her, and neither could Yang Xiaojin. However, Zhou Yingxue seemed to have gotten used to her role as a maid.


    Ren Xiaosu and the others moved into the residence Luo Lan had prepared for them. In fact, the Qing Consortium was extremely rich, as they went around purchasing houses andnd in Luoyang City. In the entire neighborhood of National Treasure Garden on Peony Avenue, the Qing Consortium alone had purchased eight vis.


    During the war in the Southwest, many of the big shots from the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium had fled here and concealed their identities, living in the properties they had bought here long ago.


    On the same night, Zhou Yingxue returned with her subordinates. Her younger brothers behind her were carrying ck boxes in their hands that were filled with external hard drives that contained surveince footage spanning nearly a month. All of the surveince footage in the city had been gathered together.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Yuchi and the others. ¡°The Central ins have descended into chaos. From now on, no matter who tries to seize control of the world, Luoyang City will no longer be peaceful. Moreover, your identities have been made public this time. If anyone targets me in the future, I¡¯m afraid that they¡¯ll make a move on y¡¯all as well. So I want y¡¯all to bring these boxes back to the Northwest. Wang Yun¡¯s already waiting at Stronghold 144, so you can just hand them over to him.¡±


    It would take at least three days to drive from Luoyang City to Stronghold 144, and five days to Fortress 178. With Wang Yuchi and the others escorting the boxes, Ren Xiaosu could feel at ease.


    If the students were intercepted, not even a regiment of soldiers could catch the eight of them once they transformed into armored beings and ran off into the wilderness.


    Wang Yuchi looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Brother Xiaosu, we want to stay behind and help you.¡±


    ¡°No need.¡± Ren Xiaosu patted Wang Yuchi on the shoulder. ¡°The surveince footage is more important. We can only find the murderer of Mr. Jiang Xu if we send it back in time. Moreover, Uncle Fugui and the others miss y¡¯all heaps. It¡¯s time to reunite with them.¡±


    But Zhou Yingxue suddenly said, ¡°Why don¡¯t I send the surveince footage back to the Northwest instead? It would be much safer if I did it¡­.¡±


    To be honest, Zhou Yingxue found it really satisfying to strut around during the day. But when she came back at night and saw Yang Xiaojin here, she felt oppressed again. Therefore, Luoyang City was not as good as the Northwest. It was still more exciting to be in the Northwest where she would be far away from her master and mistress.


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°No, you have to stay behind. I still need you to lock down the city.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue hurriedly said, ¡°Master, look at how cooperative the Qinghe Group is now. The garrison troops have gone onto the walls and started implementing martialw. All of the city gates have also been shut. You should also know the mastermind behind this is definitely one of the consortiums. If it¡¯s really the Wang Consortium, Wang Yuchi and the others will be in great danger. That artificial intelligence of theirs feels pretty powerful.¡±


    These words reminded Ren Xiaosu of something. Luo Lan had mentioned Zero might¡¯ve taken control of the Qing Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers, especially the 2,000 nanosoldiers that supported the battle at Mt. Zuoyun.


    If it were really Zero that killed Jiang Xu, the eight students would probably be in danger if the other party used those 2,000 nanosoldiers to intercept them to destroy the evidence.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Alright, you can go with them then. Remember, don¡¯t stop along the way. I need y¡¯all to deliver these boxes to Wang Yun as quickly as possible.¡±


    The maidservant broke into a smile. ¡°Alright, Master, don¡¯t worry. It doesn¡¯t matter who tries to intercept us. They can¡¯t stop us anyway.¡±


    After that, the maidservant happily went off to pack her things.


    With this, the boxes would definitely be safe. There were not many people in the world who could stop the maidservant, not even Zero.


    After everything was handled, Ren Xiaosu finally heaved a sigh of relief. Next to him, Luo Lan said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll definitely find the mastermind.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    All he needed to do now was wait patiently. There had to still be people in Luoyang City they had not identified yet. Ren Xiaosu needed to turn Luoyang City upside down and find the answer.


    Ren Xiaosu thought of something. ¡°By the way, Luo Lan, aren¡¯t you already a supernatural being? Why do you still need the ck medicine?¡±


    Luo Lan¡¯s expression became strange. ¡°Ahem, how can you bring that up in public?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°What¡¯s so secretive about it? There¡¯s nothing to be ashamed of.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s like this. I think my body is a little frail.¡± Luo Lan exined, ¡°Ever since I was 15, my urine started split-streaming. When I went to the hospital, the doctors could not find anything wrong with me. But when the doctors heard that I started split-streaming at such a young age, they said I might have inmmation or that my dder control is not strong enough.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°No way. They diagnosed that just because you had a split stream?¡±


    Luo Lan nced to the side and saw that Yang Xiaojin and the others had gone outside to talk about something else, so he whispered, ¡°It¡¯s mainly because it splits a little too much¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also had a strange expression on his face. Just how many streams did his urine split into to make the doctors think Fatty Luo was frail?


    Luo Lan hurriedly said, ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯ve always ced a lot of emphasis on improving my health by taking all kinds of tonics after that. However, my condition would sometimes get better and sometimes worse. The split-streaming happens on and off. It¡¯s really strange. But after I took the ck medicine, I felt extremely energetic and I didn¡¯t have any problems during that period. Later, when I came to the Central ins and stopped taking the ck medicine, it started splitting again. That¡¯s why I asked you for the ck medicine.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and pondered it. ¡°Let me ask you something. When did Zhou Qi awaken his power?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°That guy¡¯s really smart. We didn¡¯t even know he had awakened his power for many years until one time I went to the reservoir for a swim. I had a cramp and had to be saved by him, which was when I found out he had awakened his powers.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Then try to remember. Is it possible that the frequency of your urine split-streaming happened like this? When you were with Zhou Qi, you would experience the split-streaming. But when you were not with Zhou Qi, there was no split-streaming?¡±


    Luo Lan was speechless.


    Luo Lan suddenly looked at Zhou Qi, next to him. Then he threw a punch straight at him!


    Before Zhou Qi knew what was going on, he was punched in the face. He roared, ¡°Damn, fatty, have you gone crazy?¡±


    The two of them started wrestling each other.

 Chapter 984 - The average person has their own way of living

    <h4>Chapter 984: The average person has their own way of living</h4>


    The next morning, when Luo Lan and Zhou Qi appeared again, each of them had a ck eye.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu had witnessed many battles between supernatural beings before, but this was the first time he had witnessed two supernatural beings swinging their fists at each other.


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go and eat,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, stifling hisughter.


    After crying his heart out at Hope Media, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mood improved. He no longer felt as gloomy as before.


    The deceased were no longer around, but those who were still living would have to search for light and hope again. There was no need to wallow in sorrow, and life would still have to go on.


    When Luo Lan heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s greeting, he grumbled, ¡°We don¡¯t have to go out to eat. We can just get a group of chefs toe and cook at the vi.¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°Forget that. There¡¯s no need to mobilize so many people just for a meal. It just so happens that I want to walk the streets too.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Luo Lan agreed.


    Dawn had just broken as Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin walked out of the neighborhood. The rain had stopped, so the air smelled much fresher now.


    After what happened in Luoyang City over the past few days, fewer and fewer pedestrians were out on the streets. A lot of them did not even dare to go to work anymore, and many of the factories also informed their workers to go on vacation.


    As such, the streets were rather quiet.


    Since yesterday afternoon, a rumor started spreading in Luoyang City. Apparently, Luoyang City was no longer under the Qinghe Group¡¯s control, and that there had been a change in leadership.


    This news rmed a lot of people. As a result, Ren Xiaosu andpany saw many vehicles parked at the entrance just as they stepped out of the neighborhood. Every one of the vehicles looked more impressive than thest.


    Ren Xiaosu took a look at those vehicles. ¡°Those sedans look pretty nice.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, they¡¯re high-end cars produced by the Zhou Consortium¡¯s factories. In recent years, it¡¯s be the exclusive vehicle for the upper ss,¡± Luo Lan replied.


    ¡°Why¡¯re they all parked at the entrance?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the vehicles in confusion. ¡°Do they belong to the residents of the neighborhood? Why didn¡¯t they park their cars inside?¡±


    Luo Lanughed. ¡°It looks like you haven¡¯t experienced something like this before. These people aren¡¯t residents of the neighborhood. They¡¯re here to look for you.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯re they looking for me?¡± Ren Xiaosu could not understand.


    ¡°Since you¡¯ve taken over Luoyang City, they¡¯re here to call on you, of course.¡± Luo Lan said calmly, ¡°Look, the show¡¯s about to begin.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, it was as though Luo Lan had seen what would happen next. When the people in the vehicles saw Ren Xiaosu andpany walking out, they hurriedly got out of their vehicles and broke into a trot towards them.


    Although they did not know what Ren Xiaosu looked like, they knew about Luo Lan and Zhou Qi.


    The person who could have Luo Lan and Zhou Qi apanying him would definitely be that person from the Northwest.


    When the residents nearby saw the sight of so many of Luoyang City¡¯s big shots gathering together, they understood what was going on.


    But nobody thought much of it. Actually, Ren Xiaosu had already earned a very high standing among the people of Luoyang City after two major battles. Therefore, everyone did not feel too flustered about Ren Xiaosu taking charge of the city.


    Rumor had it that Ren Xiaosu was also a friend of the Riders. In the past year, the Riders had left Luoyang City one by one, so everyone felt a little insecure without their protection. Now that a new overseer had arrived, everyone felt it was actually a rather good thing.


    They just did not know what would be of the Qinghe Group.


    When the well-known figures of Luoyang City came over, Ren Xiaosu looked at them calmly. ¡°Alright, y¡¯all don¡¯t have toe here to call on me. I¡¯ll leave after I¡¯ve taken revenge, so I¡¯m not really going to take charge of Luoyang City.¡±


    When everyone heard that, they realized the Northwest had no intention of taking over their city.


    Ren Xiaosu waved them off. ¡°Don¡¯t be an eyesore here. Go on to wherever you need to be.¡±


    ¡°OK, OK, we shan¡¯t keep you upied then.¡± When the group saw that Ren Xiaosu did not seem too happy, they quickly bowed and ran off.


    Luo Lan said with a smile, ¡°When you return to the Northwest in the future, you¡¯ll face a simr situation. All of a sudden, high-ranking officials, rich businessmen, and anyone who wants to earn a livelihood in your territory will start approaching you. That¡¯s because you¡¯ll be the future owner of the Northwest, and their livelihoods will be controlled by you. My younger brother, Qing Zhen, took refuge in the military base not only because he wanted to avoid assassination attempts, but also because he was afraid that such people would keeping to call on him. It¡¯s way too annoying. He¡¯s a person who likes peace and quiet, so he can¡¯t stand it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu watched vehicles depart and sighed, ¡°This is the way of the world, I guess.¡±


    Luo Lan bellyughed and said, ¡°This is politics.¡±


    With augh, the wound he sustained during the scuffle with Zhou Qist night reopened.


    Luo Lan said indignantly, ¡°I had such a slim figure back in the day. But ever since I started stuffing myself with all kinds of tonics when I was 15, I ended up like this. When my father was still alive, he even despised me for eating too much. Now that the truth¡¯s out, if it were anyone else who pranked me like that, I would¡¯ve shot them dead!¡±


    Zhou Qi rolled his eyes. ¡°It was just a joke, wasn¡¯t it? Is there a need to overreact like that?¡±


    ¡°I should¡¯ve fucking known. No matter how frail I might be, my urine couldn¡¯t possibly have split into five streams!¡± Luo Lan was still angry.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu and the others arrived at a breakfast diner across the street. It seemed like there were no customers in the restaurant because no one dared to leave their homes.


    When the owner-manager saw that it was the four of them, he hurriedly weed them, ¡°What would you all like to eat? We have rice vermicelli, hot pepper soup, millet porridge, and wontons.¡±


    ¡°Give me a bowl of wontons,¡± Luo Lan said.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted the chicken vermicelli, Yang Xiaojin wanted millet porridge, and Zhou Qi also ordered a bowl of wontons.


    After the four of them had a simple meal, they were surprised to find that the breakfast diner¡¯s dishes were quite tasty.


    Luo Lan started chatting with the owner-manager as though they were friends. ¡°Boss, Luoyang City has been such a mess for the past two days. You¡¯re still operating your business?¡±


    The middle-aged owner smiled amiably. ¡°No matter how chaotic it is, we still have to make a living.¡±


    Before leaving, Luo Lan took out his wallet and was about to pay up. But to everyone¡¯s surprise, the middle-aged owner rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, ¡°Since it¡¯s the four of you who came to eat, you don¡¯t have to pay. Not only will you not have to pay today, but there won¡¯t be a need for you to pay when youe again in the future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Why not?¡±


    The owner exined, ¡°The news of the four of you avenging Chief Editor Jiang Xu in the city yesterday has spread throughout Luoyang City. Although we ordinary folks were also very angry, we didn¡¯t dare to step forward to take revenge for the chief editor. But the four of you taking revenge for him is equivalent to being the saviors of the people of Luoyang City. Many of the owners in the Food Business Union have said that no matter where the four of you choose to dine in the future, as long as you¡¯re in Luoyang City, you won¡¯t have to fork over a single cent to eat. This is something we ordinary folks can do, so I hope you all won¡¯t decline.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned.


    Actually, when he left the intersection yesterday, he was still feeling a little resentful. Everyone clearly said they respected Jiang Xu very much, but no one came forward to help him when he died, and no one dared to step forward either when the hitmen appeared yesterday.


    Now, Ren Xiaosu felt relieved. That was because the owner had said, ¡°This is something we ordinary folks can do.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. That was right. The average people had their own way of living, so there was no need for him to force everyone to be like Jiang Xu.


    Wasn¡¯t today¡¯s free breakfast also a ray of light left behind by Jiang Xu? Although that light was still faint, it was never truly extinguished.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu thanked the owner with a smile before leaving the shop.


    For the first time since he received the bad news, all of the dark emotions he had were swept away. All there was left to do now was to wipe out the remaining enemies.

 Chapter 985 - Gift

    <h4>Chapter 985: Gift</h4>


    ¡°Did you send me back to the Northwest so you could take Zhou Yingxue to Luoyang City with you?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked Ren Xiaosu nonchntly as she sat down on the sofa.


    Ren Xiaosu, who had been sitting on the sofa and reading a book, trembled. ¡°I only asked you to return to the Northwest because I care about you. There were no other motivations. I got Zhou Yingxue toe to Luoyang City because her superpower is more suitable for suchrge-scale battles.¡±


    Before this, Yang Xiaojin did not make any mention of this matter. As a result, Ren Xiaosu thought they were already past that.


    However, Yang Xiaojin did not mention it because she was considerate of the overall situation and did not want to argue over such trifles during critical moments. However, this did not mean she had forgotten about it.


    Ren Xiaosu quickly put down the book in his hand and walked over to ask, ¡°Does your shoulder still hurt? Do you want me to massage it for you?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s OK.¡± Yang Xiaojin waved it off. ¡°Although applying the ck medicine on it didn¡¯t work as miraculously as when used on external wounds, it still recovered quicker than usual. It doesn¡¯t hurt that much anymore.¡±


    Someone from the Qing Consortium who was in charge of the security around the vi came in and reported to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°There¡¯s someone who¡¯d like to see you.¡±


    ¡°Who is it? It must be something very important. I better go handle it.¡± Ren Xiaosu followed the Qing Consortium personnel and walked out.


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s eyebrows twitched. She wanted to fire a shot at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back with her ck sniper rifle.


    The person who came to see Ren Xiaosu was the director of the Public Order Division of Luoyang City. Actually, this was not the only person who hade to pay Ren Xiaosu a visit. After chasing away a group of them earlier this morning, their enthusiasm did not subside.


    In fact, authority was something that could make everyone circle around you. As long as you had the authority, not even beating these people with a stick could stop them from flocking to you.


    However, the director of the Public Order Division had also heard about what happened in the morning. He was here purely to express his attitude and prove he dide to call on Ren Xiaosu before.


    After all, some high-ranking officials were very erratic. If you went to call on them, they might chase you away as though they were very moral.


    But if you didn¡¯t, they would remember and mark you in their minds.


    So actually, driving them away was just an act.


    Now that Luoyang City had been taken over by Ren Xiaosu, who knew exactly which type of person he was?


    The director of the Public Order Division had been involved in politics for a long time and had seen too many unwritten rules practiced. Therefore, he felt he had to make this trip regardless. It didn¡¯t matter even if he got chased away since that wouldn¡¯t hurt him.


    However, just as he was mentally prepared to be driven away, he saw Ren Xiaosu walking out enthusiastically to wee him, and he even took the initiative to shake hands with him!


    The director of the Public Order Division was a little ttered. ¡°Oh? You actually came out to meet me? I¡¯m a little nervous.¡±


    He thought to himself, ¡®<i>It¡¯s just as I thought! The group of people who came in the morning were simply not important enough. That¡¯s why they got chased away. As the director of the Public Order Division, of course I won¡¯t get rejected! I still carry more weight!</i>¡®


    Ren Xiaosu gripped the director¡¯s hand and chuckled, ¡°You must be the director of the Public Order Division of Luoyang City, right? Good job in gathering the surveince footage.¡±


    The director of the Public Order Division felt touched and said, ¡°You¡¯re too kind. I¡¯m really ashamed that you had to trouble yourself over such a trivial matter. I heard about you a while ago. You were totally our Luoyang City¡¯s guardian angel during the Battle of Wangchunmen Boulevard. Since it¡¯s the first time I¡¯m meeting you despite hearing about you for some time, I¡¯ve brought you some gifts.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°You¡¯re too polite. What did you bring?¡±


    The director of the Public Order Division was stumped. ¡®<i>He¡¯s even asking what I¡¯ve brought so directly? What a straightforward leader¡­</i>¡®


    He smiled politely and said, ¡°It¡¯s just some local specialty products of Luoyang City. I won¡¯t disturb you further, so I¡¯ll be heading back now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had a Qing Consortium soldier take the gifts from him. Then, when he saw Yang Xiaojin eyeing him with hostility, he hurriedly said to the director of the Public Order Division, ¡°Don¡¯t go yet. You must have something very important to report since you came all the way here to see me.¡±


    The Public Order Division¡¯s director was stunned for a moment before hurriedly saying with a smile, ¡°No, I just came to call on you. There¡¯s nothing important.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°There is!¡±


    The director of the Public Order Division was confused.


    ¡®<i>What¡¯s the meaning of this?</i>¡® The Public Order Division¡¯s director was dumbfounded.


    On this day, the director of the Public Order Division was held back by Ren Xiaosu for over an hour before he was allowed to leave. After he returned, news that the director of the Public Order Division was highly regarded by the new owner of Luoyang City spread throughout the city.


    Although it was very agonizing during the chat, the director of the Public Order Division was extremely high-spirited when he got back.


    Moreover, he couldn¡¯t wait to tell everyone that he was on Team Northwest.


    Actually, everyone knew that even though the Qinghe Group had a very powerful business team, if the consortiums were to target this ce, the Qinghe Group would not have any chance of resisting them.


    Fortress 178 had already gained control of the entire Northwest and be one of the top forces in the entire Alliance of Strongholds. In that case, they were a very good backer, right?


    Although Ren Xiaosu andpany had said they would leave after killing the enemies, everyone felt it was not possible a consortium would give up such a juicy prize when it was right in front of them. Fortress 178 shouldn¡¯t be an exception either, right?


    After sending off the director of the Public Order Division, Ren Xiaosu opened the box of ¡°local specialties¡± and had a look. Wow, there were eight gold bars in it!


    Ren Xiaosu even wanted to shout for the morning people toe back and see him. He wasn¡¯t in a great mood in the morning, so he did not want to deal with them at the time. But now, he was in a much better mood.


    Luo Lan and Zhou Qi went out for a walk before returning with various snacks they had bought on North Avenue. There were chicken wings, fried gluten¡­


    ¡°Xiaosu, Xiaojin,e and have something to eat. The food in Luoyang City is delicious. I heard in the Southwest that Luoyang City¡¯s North Avenue is one of the top ten food streets in the Alliance of Strongholds.¡± Luo Lan chuckled.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something and asked Luo Lan, ¡°Don¡¯t eat yet. Let me ask you about something very important. Do you know of any other organizations that can manufacture nanomachines?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Luo Lan answered, ¡°As you know, only the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium had this technology in the past. Later, it was all diverted to the Qing Consortium. Those two consortiums developed this technology because they excavated a research base in the Southwest that happened to have information on the technology. Later, the Li Consortium developed a technology for nanomachines to interface with a person¡¯s neurons. Only then did they consider developing the nanomachines for military use. In the past, it served as medical technology to remove thrombuses in blood vessels.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned.


    But Luo Lan then added, ¡°But I think the Wang Consortium should¡¯ve gotten their hands on this technology by now too. You know about the nanosoldiers that were abducted a few days ago too. The Wang Consortium¡¯s AI is way too powerful. We didn¡¯t expect it to be able to directly invade all theworks. We weren¡¯t at all able to stop it.¡±


    ¡°We can disregard what happened in the past few days,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. If Zero had only recently gotten its hands on the manufacturing process of the nanomachines, the timing of the incidents would not match up, so it should not have anything to do with this matter.


    Luo Lan suddenly thought of something and said, ¡°But if you want to talk about who has the nanomachines, there¡¯s probably something we can link it to. After we manufactured the nanomachines, we sent a batch to Luoyang City, which you¡¯re also aware of. We even sent a batch to the Zhou Consortium and the Northwest as a gift. However, the nanomachines that were sent to Luoyang City and the Northwest did not have a backdoor program installed. Meanwhile, we added a backdoor program to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s nanomachines, which I believe they won¡¯t discover. Of course, even though they won¡¯t discover it, they¡¯ll definitely still be on guard against us. They aren¡¯t likely to let anyone particrly important use them, I think.¡±


    As he spoke, Luo Lan noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression turning solemn.

 Chapter 986 - A terrifying memory

    <h4>Chapter 986: A terrifying memory</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Luo Lan saw Ren Xiaosu pondering with his head lowered like he had caught onto something he said.


    ¡°Are you sure that the Qing Consortium has only given their nanomachines to the Zhou Consortium, the Northwest, and me?¡±


    ¡°Of course, I was the one who personally made the arrangements to send them to them,¡± Luo Lan said.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu seemed to have figured many things out.


    Some nanosoldiers had suddenly appeared in Stronghold 61 and attacked Jiang Xu.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu was wondering if it was Zero or the Qing Consortium behind that attack. But now, two more organizations were added to the list of possibilities.


    A small portion of the nanomachines sent to Luoyang City by Luo Lan were now in Ren Xiaosu, while the rest were given to Wang Yuchi and the others. Ren Xiaosu firmly believed they would not participate in the killing of Jiang Xu.


    For the batch of nanomachines that were sent to the Northwest, Ren Xiaosu also firmly believed that the people there would not do something like that. The nanomachines sent there by the Qing Consortium would surely be ced under heavy guard, so if someone had secretly stolen a batch, they would definitely have found out about the missing nanomachines.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu still had the Great Hoodwinker confirm whether those nanomachines were fully ounted for.


    So then, the only suspect left was the Zhou Consortium.


    The Zhou Consortium and the Wang Consortium had a long-standing feud. At the beginning, the Wang Consortium used trade to drive many of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s refugees into the mountains to secretly breed silkworms by purchasing their silk at high prices. Later, when Stronghold 61 recruited the refugees from their territory, many of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s factories were forced to shut down.


    All the organizations in the Central ins had the intention of annexing one another, so it was normal for them to guard against each other.


    Seeing that the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium were about to fall into the hands of the Wang Consortium, how could the Zhou Consortium possibly not panic in such circumstances?


    The killing of Jiang Xu would inevitably set the entire Alliance of Strongholds against the Wang Consortium, which was something the Zhou Consortium wished to see happen.


    Even though the Qing Consortium had given some nanomachines to the Zhou Consortium, the Zhou Consortium did not dare to let their important figures use it. Instead, they trained up nanosoldiers to go and assassinate Jiang Xu. If these nanosoldiers were discovered by the Wang Consortium during that time, the Wang Consortium would also start suspecting the Qing Consortium, deepening the animosity between them.


    Moreover, if the me for killing Luo Lan could be cast on the Wang Consortium, and the Qing Consortium ended up dering war on them, the Zhou Consortium would be able to hide behind this conflict, making that the best deal in the world for them.


    As the saying went, ¡°If no mastermind or culprit is found after an incident, you should first suspect the person who benefits most from it.¡±


    So when Luo Lan mentioned the Zhou Consortium, Ren Xiaosu felt that everything made sense.


    All the evidence gathered so far pointed to that logical possibility.


    But even though it could be exined, Ren Xiaosu still decided to wait for Wang Yun¡¯s analysis.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan and asked, ¡°Since the nanomachines that were given to the Zhou Consortium had a backdoor program installed, can you find out about the whereabouts of those nanomachines using it?¡±


    Luo Lan shook his head. ¡°We usually don¡¯t activate the backdoor in case someone finds out about it, but we can do it. However, we can¡¯t track them as our militarywork has just been hacked by the AI.¡±


    ¡­


    Three dayster, Zhou Yingxue arrived at Stronghold 144 with Wang Yuchi and the others by car.


    On the day after they left Luoyang City, a secret group of troops suddenly intercepted them in the wilderness. However, the oue was already determined, and they were all held off by Zhou Yingxue.


    During the encounter, Zhou Yingxue had deliberately spared a group of enemy troops for Wang Yuchi and the others to practice on. She hoped they could get used to fast-paced battles as soon as possible.


    In the end, a strange scene yed out. The creeper vine rounded up all the enemies who were still alive for Wang Yuchi and the rest to practice their skills on. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue rooted for them outside the ring.


    This made the enemies who had intercepted them feel like they were really dumb for attempting toe and kill these people.


    How was this even a fair battle? They were simply being humiliated!


    If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Ren Xiaosu urgently wanted the surveince footage to be analyzed, Zhou Yingxue could probably continue torturing them for another two days. After all, where else could she find such outstanding sparring opponents?


    Her lovely little brothers needed a sparring session like this!


    As a matter of fact, Zhou Yingxue treated Wang Yuchi and the others really well, and it wasn¡¯t just the feeling of ¡°kinship¡± that had developed when she was taking care of them. Zhou Yingxue thought that if her master took in another maidservant in the future, her younger brothers could stand on her side and speak up for her.


    Although Zhou Yingxue felt that Ren Xiaosu was unlikely to take in another maidservant with Yang Xiaojin around, wasn¡¯t she just taking precautions?


    When they arrived at Stronghold 144, Wang Yun, the Great Hoodwinker, and the others were already waiting at the city gate.


    The Great Hoodwinker had helped Ren Xiaosu confirm that all the nanomachines given by the Qing Consortium were stored at Fortress 178 and everything was intact. This made Ren Xiaosu heave a sigh of relief. At the very least, they could rule out the possibility of a spy among their people.


    Next, it would have to depend on Wang Yun¡¯s performance.


    Three days ago, Ren Xiaosu had ordered the Great Hoodwinker to prepare a venue for Wang Yun to analyze the surveince footage. After receiving the ck boxes, they immediately made a trip to the military base near Stronghold 144.


    A space had been vacated here to make room for arge conference room with countless screens mounted on the walls.


    Zhang Xiaoman connected the ports with his men. When they were powered on, all the screens lit up and disyed different scenes.


    Wang Yun stood silently facing the screens with his arms crossed. He burned all of the images into his mind as he watched them so he could analyze everything uratelyte.


    ¡°y the recordings back at triple speed.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°Otherwise, it¡¯ll take a month to finish watching all the surveince footage. Future Commander can¡¯t wait that long.¡±


    The upper right corners of the screens were marked with serial numbers. If Wang Yun needed to pause any of the screens, he would just say whichever number.


    When the recordings were reyed, Wang Yun stood silently in front of the screens and watched. Meanwhile, dozens of the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents assigned by the Great Hoodwinker surrounded Wang Yun and assisted him in his work.


    All of them were all here to serve him.


    Before this, Wang Yun watched the surveince footage of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s battle in Luoyang City first and memorized the faces of all the hitmen who had appeared in the footage. As such, Wang Yun would definitely find any traces of the enemy as long as they appeared in the surveince footage that spanned an entire month.


    Suddenly, Wang Yun said, ¡°Pause Screen A17. The man in A18 moved off and reappeared in A17 around ten secondster holding a ck stic bag. In that short 12 seconds, someone must¡¯ve interacted with him at the surveince camera¡¯s blind spot. Take a screenshot of this man¡¯s appearance and send it to Future Commander. Let him find and interrogate this person in Luoyang City. Alright, let¡¯s continue watching. Rey all the surveince footage from the cameras around A17. I want to find out who the suspect is meeting with!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker and the others were surprised as they looked at this sight of over a hundred screens in front of them.. Previously, they only knew Wang Yun had an amazingly good memory, but they did not expect it to be this terrifying.

 Chapter 987 - Everyones war

    <h4>Chapter 987: Everyone¡¯s war</h4>


    In the era of the Rise of Gods, most people were ustomed to the fact that supernatural beings had long transcended the level of normal people.


    But the people around Wang Yun started to overlook his superpower and instead became more focused on the value he brought.


    Honestly, no matter how good he was at controlling the air or how good hisbat skills were, he was still not a match for Zhou Yingxue.


    However, no other person could take Wang Yun¡¯s ce and do whatever he was doing.


    Even though there were hundreds of screens ced together, he could still urately notice someone holding an extra stic bag in their hands after passing through a surveince camera¡¯s blind spot. This memory and analytical ability were just like superpowers.


    In fact, it was no different from having superpowers.


    When the images were rapidly reyed on the screens, Wang Yun was the only one speaking in the entire meeting room. Everyone even felt like they needed to hold their breath for fear of disturbing him.


    Under his instructions, the soldier next to him rewound all of the surveince footage from the cameras around A17. It only took Wang Yun nine seconds to point at Screen A21 and say, ¡°Pause right there. That¡¯s him! Send the image to Future Commander. Seek out those two people first.¡±


    Following that, Wang Yun spent the next six hours to identify over 20 suspicious people. Moreover, all of the identified suspects had damning evidence against them. When everyone saw what were in the feeds, they understood that Wang Yun was not just randomly pointing out suspects.


    Some of them suddenly had something extra in their hands, or their shirts had be creased differently like they were concealing something underneath.


    Then Wang Yun also found the appearances of some hitmen and identified other suspicious people they had interacted with before.


    Wang Yun suddenly stopped and looked at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Does Future Commander have enough manpower? I realized there must still be other people covertly supporting these hitmen. If too many suspects are identified, can Future Commander round them up?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± The Great Hoodwinker replied, ¡°I¡¯ve already arranged for some of our intelligence agents to assemble at Luoyang City.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Wang Yun nodded. ¡°Make a note of what I¡¯m about to say. When that hitman in B31 passed by the surveince camera, he looked towards the upper right corner a total of 17 times. The footage shows there¡¯s a residential building there. I suspect someone was signaling to them from a safe house in that direction. C27 shows¡­¡±


    Wang Yun pointed out seven suspicious locations in one breath, leaving everyone in awe.


    A few hourster, even Wang Fengyuan, who was the director of the intelligence agency in the Northwest, was alerted by what was happening here. He took his own private car and hurried here from the stronghold next door.


    It was not for any other reason than to witness this scene for himself.


    The Great Hoodwinkermented to Wang Fengyuan, ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you so? We should¡¯ve poached this guy for the Prosperous Northwest a long time ago. I already knew that he had a very good memory, but I didn¡¯t expect it to be this scary. Look at him now. He¡¯s pointing out all the suspicious people indiscriminately. I feel that after Future Commander has rounded up all the suspects in Luoyang City, Luoyang City will probably be the only spy-free zone in the entire Alliance of Strongholds. Isn¡¯t this as good as flushing out all the spies hiding in Luoyang City?¡±


    Wang Fengyuan thought a little deeper. ¡°Don¡¯t let him tire himself out. Remember, there should be a proper bnce between work and rest. After this, we can gather all of the surveince footage from our Northwest¡¯s strongholds and let him go through them. Haven¡¯t we always had a headache trying to suss out those spies? Now¡¯s our chance.¡±


    A thought struck their minds at the same time. They had found a treasure!


    Regardless of organization, identifying and capturing spies operating covertly in their territory was an extremely difficult task, because the spies of the other organizations were well-hidden. They could be disguised as butchers, factory workers, soldiers, or even officers.


    But it was different now that they had Wang Yun. Someone like him was simply the bane of spies.


    However, Wang Fengyuan was a little curious. ¡°This guy wasn¡¯t so capable when he was with the Kong Consortium, was he?¡±


    However, Wang Yun overheard this. He said while staring at the screens, ¡°Sometimes, it¡¯s more advantageous not to catch the spies even if you¡¯ve identified them, isn¡¯t it? And I always pursued promotion when I was with the Kong Consortium. If I really turned the Kong Consortium into a spy-free zone, where would my aplishmentse from? Would my superior kick me to the curb after I outlived my usefulness? Actually, I never revealed this much of my power when I was with the Kong Consortium. Because my superior was someone who got jealous of others.¡±


    Wang Fengyuan got a sudden realization. So this was the reason why. Heughed and asked, ¡°Then why are you revealing it now?¡±


    Wang Yun said calmly, ¡°Future Commander told me the Northwest is different from other organizations. In truth, I didn¡¯t believe it at first. But when I came here after the battle at Mt. Zuoyun, I really felt that the Northwest is quite different. Now, I¡¯m no longer interested in chasing after promotion. If I assist Future Commander well, I¡¯ll naturally feel satisfied with how he¡¯ll reward me. It¡¯s not about money and power but getting that sense of achievement.¡±


    In the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun, Wang Yun, P5092, Ji Zi¡¯ang, and the others performed their duties with diligence and worked together for the same goal. With just 6,000 soldiers, they defeated 70,000 barbarians.


    For people like Wang Yun and P5092, having this sense of achievement and happiness was actually at a higher level than money and power. Wang Yun felt he had moved on to a higher level of satisfaction and had different goals now.


    Arge-scale sting operation for the suspects in Luoyang City began.


    Wang Yun had only sent over some blurry images of the suspects¡¯ appearances, so Ren Xiaosu was initially worried it would not be easy to find them, because he did not know their identities and whereabouts.


    The Luoyang City garrison was only an empty shell without enough manpower. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu only had a few dozen people with him, so it would be extremely difficult to capture the suspects.


    However, the intelligence agents sent by the Great Hoodwinker would soon arrive at Luoyang City, and there would be over 200 of them.


    Later, when Ren Xiaosu went to the restaurant opposite the neighborhood for a meal, the owner-manager who had waived the bill for his breakfast asked him if there were any clues regarding Jiang Xu¡¯s murderer. Ren Xiaosu casually mentioned the difficulties he faced.


    The owner¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°You can put up the photos of the suspects at the entrance of the neighborhood. I¡¯ll gather the residents in the stronghold to help you identify them!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Are they willing to do that?¡±


    ¡°While we might not dare take revenge for Mr. Jiang Xu, do you think we¡¯re such cowards that we can¡¯t even step forward to identify these people? Only if we seek out these culprits will we be safe. We¡¯re all very happy to be able to do something small for Mr. Jiang Xu.¡± The owner said, ¡°Please get ready here. I¡¯ll go and get everyone over there!¡±


    On the same day, Ren Xiaosu had the Qing Consortium¡¯s people put up the photos sent by Wang Yun at the entrance of the neighborhood.


    To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, the neighborhood¡¯s entrance was fully packed with people trying to take a look at the photos.


    Someone pointed at a middle-aged man¡¯s photo and suddenly shouted, ¡°I know him! He used to work at the factory with me! His name is Bai Yunpeng!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at therge crowd that had gathered outside the neighborhood. It was as though this had be everyone¡¯s war in Luoyang City. He suddenly felt he would definitely find and arrest all of the suspects!


    ¡°Go, copy the photos and make them into leaflets and distribute them to everyone.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯ll be too difficult for everyone to see if they have to crowd together like this.¡±


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was suddenly heartened. When he looked at these people, he suddenly realized there was no difference between stronghold residents and refugees. These people were forced to grow up in this era, but all of them still retained a little bit of enthusiasm.


    Just as Mr. Jiang Xu had said, ¡°I might have seen more of the darkness in this world than all of you, but I still love this world.¡±

 Chapter 988 - Sting operation

    <h4>Chapter 988: Sting operation</h4>


    More and more people started gathering outside the neighborhood on Peony Avenue. Some of the Luoyang City residents worked during the day, but after hearing that their help was needed to identify the culprits, they immediately rushed over at night after work without going home.


    Some of them even rushed over with their families to do their part for the cause.


    The rowdy crowd that had gathered at the neighborhood¡¯s entrance made it a little difficult for vehicles to enter. If this were the past, the residents of the neighborhood would have chased them out. But today, they turned a blind eye and acted like they didn¡¯t see them.


    After all, no one was a match for that person staying at Vi 27.


    It didn¡¯t take long for Luo Lan¡¯s men to print the leaflets and start distributing them at the entrance.


    This time, the Qing Consortium¡¯s people did their work very meticulously. They even took the time to exin the situation to everyone, ¡°Everyone, please look at the photo of the young man I¡¯m distributing right now. You can obviously see he had a pistol holstered on his belt. Now, take a look at the next photo where he met up with someone at a blind spot of the surveince cameras. In the five seconds it took for him to go from one camera¡¯s field of view to the other, an additional ck stic bag appeared in his hand. Now take a look at the third photo. This is the person whom he interacted with at the blind spot.¡±


    At the beginning, the residents still had their doubts about whether the people in the photos were really spies.


    But when the Qing Consortium¡¯s people exined things to them, everyone¡¯s doubts were answered. Since those people were spies, they would have to flush them out no matter what!


    Someone suddenly shouted, ¡°I¡¯ve seen this young man before. He lives above my ce. I saw him when I got home from work. That boy hardly goes outside.¡±


    Someone from the Qing Consortium asked in seriousness, ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Of course, I can take you guys there to arrest him right away!¡± The resident said proudly, ¡°I, Old Liu, don¡¯t lie.¡±


    ¡°OK, we¡¯ll carry out the arrest immediately. However, we¡¯d like for everyone to head inside the neighborhood first. We have to ensure that the information doesn¡¯t get leaked in case the suspect tries to escape while we¡¯re on our way to arrest him,¡± someone from the Qing Consortium said.


    The residents were about to enter the neighborhood in a grandiose manner when the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops suddenly raised their arms and escorted them in.


    A resident said hesitantly, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea. Our families are still waiting for us at home¡­.¡±


    Although everyone was very eager to help, it still felt a little scary to have their personal freedoms restricted.


    Luo Lan stepped forward and exined to everyone, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I swear on the Qing Consortium¡¯s reputation that no one¡¯s personal safety will be threatened. You guys came to help out of goodwill, but the culprits might take advantage of the crowd and blend in among you. We¡¯re doing this because we want to ensure that the culprits are caught.¡±


    While the crowd was still hesitating, a young man wearing a ck face mask turned around and tried to walk away quietly.


    But as soon as he turned around, he saw Ren Xiaosu staring at him with a smile. ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    The young man said in a low voice, ¡°I¡¯m going home.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. You look a little suspicious,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    In that instant, the young man pulled a dagger out of his sleeve and stabbed it at Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu simply pinched the edge of the de with two fingers and hit him in the stomach with his right knuckles.


    It only took a moment for the young man to fall unconscious.


    Many of the Luoyang City residents saw this exchange. Ren Xiaosu said sincerely to everyone, ¡°There must be evil people like this hiding among y¡¯all, so please cooperate with us. We definitely won¡¯t threaten your personal safety. Instead, we¡¯ll protect everyone.¡±


    When the residents realized there was truly a spy hiding among them, they agreed not to let them get away like this. ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s head into the neighborhood. It just so happens that I¡¯ve never had a chance to look around the vis of National Treasure Garden!¡±


    Luo Lan smiled at a Qing Consortium soldier next to him and said, ¡°Go and fetch the kitchen crew. We¡¯ll prepare some simple meals for everyone at Vi 28.¡±


    After making the necessary arrangements, Ren Xiaosu said to Luo Lan, ¡°I¡¯ll lead a team to arrest the suspects while y¡¯all prepare a ce for the interrogation. We¡¯ll question them immediately after bringing them back so they don¡¯t have a chance to collude on their statements.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we already dug out four basement levels under Vis 31 and 32 two years ago. We can put them to good use today,¡± Luo Lan said.


    Meanwhile, the residents of Luoyang City continued identifying the other suspects from their leaflets. Once someone made a positive identification, the others around them would even apud them. All of a sudden, the atmosphere became exceptionally harmonious.


    Ren Xiaosu left the neighborhood with the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents who had just arrived and quickly searched for the targets in Luoyang City.


    To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was really not giving the spies any chance to escape by personally heading out to arrest them. There was probably no spy in Luoyang City who could defeat him, so resisting arrest was not an option.


    And Yang Xiaojin was also involved in this operation. With two supernatural beings working together, it was as good as bullying those spies into submission.


    The sting operation went very smoothly right from the start. Some of the suspects did not even know that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group would suddenlye for them, so they made no attempt to escape.


    After going in, Ren Xiaosu quickly disarmed the suspect first before Yang Xiaojin took over and broke his limbs in case he tried tomit suicide.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that even if the enemy mastermind were a superhuman who had the power to kill people with heartworms, he probably couldn¡¯t use them on everyone, right? There would surely be some suspects who were not affected.


    Therefore, Yang Xiaojin quickly disabled him and even dislocated his jaw in case he had a suicide pill hidden in his mouth. She did not give the suspect any chance.


    Yang Xiaojin was simply too proficient at such things. Just what environment did this girl grow up in and how much professional training had she been through?


    The Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents behind them shuddered at the sight. Then they looked at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin and wondered how this couple usually got along at home.


    ¡°Someone,e over here,¡± Yang Xiaojin said while holding the suspect¡¯s jaws open. ¡°There¡¯s something in this person¡¯s mr. Pry it out.¡±


    The group of Northwest intelligence agents hade here in a hurry without bringing any professional tools with them. However, being a group of ruthless people too, they immediately found a pair of pliers and extracted his mr.


    The mr highly resembled a real tooth, so it was very difficult to tell which had been fitted with a suicide pill from the outside. As they didn¡¯t want to bother Yang Xiaojin, they decided to just extract all of it.


    When the suspect¡¯s first mr was extracted from his mouth, the intelligence agents realized that it was a real tooth. One of them muttered ¡°bad luck¡± under his breath and prepared to continue extracting the next one.


    After pulling out two real teeth in a row, the helpless spy on the ground hurt so much he broke into a cold sweat. He could only mumble with his dislocated jaw, ¡°Rai sai, rai sai, ye yas mojah ong deh yower yawrrr.¡±


    The intelligence agent from the Northwest understood he was saying that the suicide pill was fitted in thest mr on his lower right jaw.


    He patted the spy¡¯s face on the ground. ¡°You could¡¯ve saved yourself the trouble if you¡¯d been smarter just now.¡±

 Chapter 989 - Deadlock

    <h4>Chapter 989: Deadlock</h4>


    The people from the Northwest were generally very weing and polite towards others. But now that Wang Yun had finally identified the suspects after much difficulty, there was no need for them to treat the culprits with respect.


    So everyone caught by Ren Xiaosu andpany would not be able to escape the fate of getting a bloody nose and bruised face.


    The spy who still had one mr left was lucky. He was quick-witted enough to point out the location of the suicide pill in advance, but those who would rather die than speak had close to eight of their teeth pulled out on the spot.


    Right then, a spy who remained tight-lipped was stunned by what was going on. He looked at the people from the Northwest and thought, ¡®<i>Didn¡¯t thatdy say only to pull out the mrs? Why did you people pull out my front teeth?</i>¡®


    By the time they went for the eighth suspect, the Northwest intelligence agents were so familiar with the routine they didn¡¯t need Yang Xiaojin to do it anymore. They rushed up to the suspect as a group and held him down before extracting his teeth.


    But after extracting four mrs from this suspect¡¯s mouth, they still couldn¡¯t locate where the suicide pill was hidden. When Yang Xiaojin came over and prised open his jaws to have a look, she remarked, ¡°Oh, he doesn¡¯t have a suicide pill in him.¡±


    With that, even the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents were taken aback. ¡°How can that be?¡±


    The middle-aged man who was being held down nearly cried in pain, ¡°Listen up, I¡¯m the director of Luoyang City¡¯s Logistics Division. How dare you people treat me like this!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin raised an eyebrow. ¡°Bring him back.¡±


    She cross-checked the information Wang Yun gave them and noted the person was carrying an extra gift box in his hands after passing through the blind spots of two surveince cameras.


    Yang Xiaojin could roughly guess that the person really might not be a spy but a Luoyang City official who had epted bribes.


    But even if the other party was not a spy, it did not necessarily mean they had arrested the wrong person. Because Ren Xiaosu was not only looking for spies this time but also those who had let them into Luoyang City.


    For this many spies to get into the city, the other party must have bribed many of Luoyang City¡¯s officials.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu felt that he might be able to learn some clues from these officials. For example, the person sending the operatives into Luoyang City, his identity, etc.


    He could definitely uncover some evidence.


    Gradually, Ren Xiaosu and his group encountered some difficulties in the sting operation. Some of the suspects received news they had been targeted and went into hiding.


    When Ren Xiaosu realized that this situation was happening, he got a little anxious and hastened the sting operation.


    However, he heaved a sigh of relief very quickly. The leaflets they distributed were starting to take effect. When they went after Target 37, the other party had already left the residence in advance. But less than two hourster, a couple came to report that someone suddenly rented their house that had been vacant for some time. The tenant who came to rent it looked like someone in the leaflet.


    When Ren Xiaosu went to arrest that person, it turned out to be Target 37, who they were looking for.


    Even though the city might look very big, when everyone was helping you, it seemed to have be so small that the suspects had nowhere to hide.


    In just a single day, Ren Xiaosu andpany arrested 72 people, of which 31 were silenced by the heartworms during their arrests.


    Luo Lan detained the remaining 41 suspects separately in the basement of the vis and started interrogating them.


    Luo Lan and Zhou Qi were truly skilled at interrogation. Under their torture, some people were unable to endure and confessed everything very quickly.


    But even though the Luoyang City officials confessed they had epted bribes and let the suspects in, they really had no idea who bribed them and which organization¡¯s forces were getting deployed here. They were totally clueless.


    When those forces entered Luoyang City, the officials were offered much higher bribes than usual. The only request was for them to not ask too many questions.


    Moreover, the other party carried out their operations extremely covertly. No one knew their identity and they were always only approached by them. They would sometimes call their homes in the middle of the night and get things done by threatening or intimidating them.


    Ren Xiaosu had someone check their call records. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t too useful even though they found something.


    The bribery transactions were all made from the samendline in a private house.


    However, the person in the residence had already been silenced by the heartworm user when they went to arrest the person.


    Among these 41 people, half of them were the local officials of Luoyang City, and the remaining half were either spies or informants of the Zhou Consortium, the Kong Consortium, the Pyro Company, and the Wang Consortium. All of them were wholly unaware of the details surrounding Jiang Xu¡¯s assassination.


    What was more surprising to Ren Xiaosu was that there were the Zhou Consortium¡¯s spies among these people. But why didn¡¯t they get silenced?


    Ren Xiaosu regarded the Zhou Consortium as the imaginary enemy, because the logic he had uncovered would only make sense if the Zhou Consortium was responsible for this matter.


    But from the look of things, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s spies were not in cahoots with the group that was killed by the heartworms.


    Zhou Qi exined, ¡°That¡¯s quite normal. The people who assassinated Jiang Xu are obviously much more elite. They were probably picked from more than a 100, or even a 1,000 other soldiers in the army. They¡¯re likely to have a separatemander who¡¯s independent of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency. It¡¯d be best to keep a mission to assassinate someone like Jiang Xu a secret even from their own people. After all, who knows whether there¡¯s spies from other consortiums hidden among them. If it got leaked, they would be condemned by the public, so they must be extremely careful.¡±


    Luo Lan nodded. ¡°The person in charge of this operation is most likely the one who can control the heartworms to silence people.¡±


    Suddenly, the interrogation came to a standstill. It was not that the arrested suspects did not confess, but that they still had not managed to capture the most crucial person in the case. The information they obtained was still not enough to pinpoint which organization was responsible for Jiang Xu¡¯s assassination.


    Ren Xiaosu ryed this information back to the Northwest. Meanwhile, Wang Yun continued analyzing the surveince footage while Ren Xiaosu andpany carried on with the sting operation.


    One minor episode urred when Wang Yun sent over another image of a suspect in the afternoon.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the photo, he was stunned. Wasn¡¯t this the director of the Public Order Division?


    He might not recognize other people, but he had chatted with the director of the Public Order Division for more than an hour that day, so how could he possibly not recognize him?


    There wasn¡¯t even a need for the residents to identify him since Ren Xiaosu could recognize him immediately.


    On the same day, the director of the Public Order Division, who was purportedly highly regarded by Ren Xiaosu, the new owner of Luoyang City, was arrested and brought to the neighborhood.


    However, the man¡¯s situation was simr to the other officials. He had also epted a bribe and let those spies into Luoyang City. There was nothing special about his case.


    Wang Yun had been working for more than four days in the conference room of Stronghold 144¡¯s garrison camp. With less than three hours of sleep every day, he began to suffer from fatigue.


    It was actually very tiring for him to analyze the surveince footage. After four days, Wang Yun¡¯s eyes looked deeply sunken, and he had to keep rehydrating himself to stay fresh.


    Next to him, the Great Hoodwinker could not bear to watch anymore and advised him to get some rest. However, Wang Yun stubbornly refused. ¡°There¡¯s still more than half the recordings to go through, so how can I go and sleep at a time like this?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Sleeping a few hours won¡¯t hinder your progress much, anyways.¡±


    Wang Yun firmly rejected the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s suggestion to rest. ¡°No, Future Commander is still waiting for me to get things done here!¡±

 Chapter 990 - Mastermind

    <h4>Chapter 990: Mastermind</h4>


    ¡°We must¡¯ve missed out on some very important details.¡± Wang Yun said firmly, ¡°The message from Future Commander said that during the sting operation, the suspects were still continuously being silenced by someone. This means we haven¡¯t found the superhuman with the power of the heartworms yet.¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s hair was messy, and he no longer looked like his usual smart self. He paced back and forth in the conference room with the screens on the wall paused while he processed the clues.


    Nearby, Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you get some rest first? We¡¯re only halfway through all the surveince footage, so please don¡¯t suddenly die before you¡¯re done.¡±


    Over the past four days, even the soldiers who were supporting Wang Yun¡¯s work had already rotated shifts twice, yet Wang Yun remained on duty without taking a break. He ate and slept here in the conference room and did not even wash his face or brush his teeth.


    If one were to see him in his current state, they would never imagine how sharp he looked in the past.


    However, Wang Yun did not even answer when Zhang Xiaoman urged him to rest this time. He just lowered his head and continued thinking.


    Suddenly, Wang Yun looked up and said to the soldier in charge of ying back the video recordings, ¡°Quick, I want to see that day¡¯s footage of the intersection where Mr. Jiang Xu met his demise!¡±


    A soldier quickly switched two of the screens to show the day Jiang Xu died. The footage was captured by two HD surveince cameras at the intersection.


    Wang Yun watched the recording, which had its quality affected by intermittent shes appearing onscreen. Arge number of people could be seen moving through the intersection, and a rough calction probably put that number in the thousands.


    With so many faces in the footage, no normal person would even think about trying to remember them all.


    After Wang Yun watched it, he said to the soldier, ¡°Rewind and y it again!¡±


    The soldier quickly rewound it to the start.


    Just like that, Wang Yun rewatched this video three times in a row. Then he suddenly said to the soldier, ¡°I remember Future Commander mentioned yesterday that someone told him Mr. Jiang Xu nearly got into an ident that morning. Scrub the feed to that time!¡±


    Wang Yun was referring to the moment Jiang Xu was nearly crushed by the falling billboard.


    They did not know the exact time of the incident, so they could only y back the recording from 8 AM of that morning and fast forward while looking for it.


    Very quickly, Wang Yun saw Mr. Jiang Xu walk out of Hope Media with an upright posture. Then they saw some passersby greeting Mr. Jiang Xu with a smile.


    And after that!


    A young man in a ck suit bumped into Jiang Xu just a moment before a huge billboard crashed down next to him.


    ¡°Vani?!¡± Wang Yun immediately recognized this very active superhuman from the Anjing House.


    The Great Hoodwinker was stunned. ¡°Wait a minute, could the Anjing House be behind this? But it looks to me like he¡¯s clearly protecting Jiang Xu.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, the Anjing House has allied with the Wang Consortium. Since Jiang Xu had been constantly targeting the Wang Consortium in his articles, why would the Anjing House protect him?¡± Wang Yun wondered.


    Next to them, P5092 suddenly said, ¡°It¡¯s understandable. Before this, we¡¯ve always regarded the Wang Consortium as our imaginary enemy. Because the Wang Consortium seems to be the prime suspect in Jiang Xu¡¯s death. But think about it this way: If the Wang Consortium is also afraid that someone will frame them and make them the target of public condemnation, their motive for protecting Jiang Xu will be valid.¡±


    ¡°Show me the footage of that day¡¯s battle, the one that took ce on the next street over!¡± Wang Yun shouted.


    In the end, when the images were brought up on screen, everyone was surprised to discover that Vani and Tang Hualong were trying their best to rush towards Qinghe University. However, they were stopped by hundreds of ck-clothed hitmen.


    During this time, Vani and Tang Hualong were both injured in the battle. They only managed to escape from the encirclement of the hitmen when Vani risked his life to get away from them.


    The hitmen were the same group of people that had been wiped out while pursuing Ren Xiaosu.


    With that, it fell silent in the conference room. After a while, the Great Hoodwinker wondered, ¡°Is this just an act, or did they really want to protect Jiang Xu?¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like it was an act.¡± Wang Yun stared at the screen and said, ¡°I analyzed the movements of every hitman and realized none of them were holding back. Some of them even made stic firearms for the battle. Look, after this person was knocked to the ground, his weapon fell to the side and got crushed to pieces by a moving car. Normal firearms won¡¯t shatter like that, so it means the hitmen also knew Vani wasing and prepared weapons to deal with him. The firearms were stic, and the bullets were probably specially manufactured too. Look at Vani¡¯s abdomen¡ªhe was injured. He can manipte metal, so standard bullets can¡¯t hurt him.¡±


    Wang Yun continued, ¡°Rewind the recording back to the part where Vani protected Jiang Xu.¡±


    Then Wang Yun stared intently at the screen, waiting for something to happen.


    On the screen, Jiang Xu had already left the scene, but Wang Yun¡¯s attention did not leave with him. Instead, he continued monitoring this same location.


    He stared at the screen for two hours straight while six hours had already passed in the fast-forwarded recording onscreen. At this point in time, two hours had passed since Jiang Xu was assassinated.


    Suddenly, Wang Yun raised his hand and shouted, ¡°Stop!¡±


    Everyone realized Wang Yun had be excited. He pointed at a young man in a blue factory uniform on the screen and said, ¡°Check which factory¡¯s uniform he¡¯s wearing!¡±


    When the Great Hoodwinker contacted Luoyang City¡¯s administrative center, he quickly got an answer. ¡°That¡¯s the uniform of the water nt.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s him.¡± Wang Yun said firmly, ¡°Luoyang City Freshwater nt is eight kilometers away from here and nine kilometers away from where Mr. Jiang Xu met with trouble. It¡¯s on the edge of the stronghold, and the three locations are arranged in a triangle. It¡¯s obviously work hours at this time, yet this person suddenly appeared at such a baffling location. Have you all heard of a principle? Most perpetrators return to the crime scene after the incident. Some of them go back to check out if they¡¯re safe from suspicion, while others carry out counter-investigative measures to see if they¡¯ve done a clean job. Basically, they¡¯re just afraid of being found out.¡±


    ¡°Of course, the most important giveaway is that he suddenly appeared at the two locations where Mr. Jiang Xu met with trouble. There can¡¯t be such a coincidence in the world!¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°Continue monitoring him. I want his movements to be ced under observation.¡±


    As a matter of fact, that person was very cautious. He did not immediately go back to the scene to watch the happenings and only returned after Jiang Xu had died.


    At this moment, 99.99% of the people in the world would probably be focused on that road intersection. Who would care to check back on the initial crime scene six hourster?


    However, he probably did not expect Wang Yun to be so patient in seeking the answer!


    Over at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side, he was listening in on Luo Lan¡¯s interrogation. What left him at a loss was that as more and more suspects were arrested, some weirder ones started appearing.


    The middle-aged man across from Luo Lan roared hysterically, ¡°I only epted a pack of sweet potato noodles and a bottle of honey. Did you people really have to drag me here?! Huh?!¡±


    This middle-aged man was only a junior staff member of the Transportation Division. But as a result of epting some local specialty products, he got arrested.


    This time, it was really local specialties that were involved.


    Luo Lan was tickled pink. ¡°As the saying goes, though the bribe is small, the fault is great, understand?¡±


    But after investigating this person, they didn¡¯t make things difficult for him either.


    This time, not only did Ren Xiaosu and the others capture the spies in Luoyang City, they also cracked down on many cases of bribery and corruption as a by-product.


    Suddenly, an intelligence agent from the Northwest rushed in from outside. ¡°Future Commander, Wang Yun said he might¡¯ve found the mastermind!¡±

 Chapter 991 - A highly intelligent crime

    <h4>Chapter 991: A highly intelligent crime</h4>


    ¡°The mastermind?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agent who came to report the matter. ¡°How can we be sure that it¡¯s the mastermind?¡±


    The Northwest¡¯s intelligence agent exined, ¡°Wang Yun said the person appeared at the intersection where Mr. Jiang Xu was killed. Two hourster, he reappeared at the spot where Mr. Jiang Xu was nearly crushed by a falling billboard as though nothing had happened. This is a ssic case of the guilty returning to the crime scene to secretly check on things. Furthermore, he was extremely cautious about it. Most field personnel would definitely not do such a thing, and only the person nning behind the scenes would go back to the scene of the crime.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu walked out of the vi. He was no longer interested in the suspects who had already been captured. If this person Wang Yun had identified was the mastermind who wielded the power of the heartworms, he would have to find this person and get rid of them together.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at Luo Lan and Zhou Qi. ¡°Can you make that person talk if I bring him back?¡±


    Zhou Qi said with a sinister smile, ¡°Under my interrogation, there¡¯s no such thing as refusing to speak. Don¡¯t worry, my water power makes it just right for torture.¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu came out of the vi, he said to the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agent, ¡°Send out photos and leaflets of that person to everyone and ask if they know him.¡±


    In the end, it only took ten minutes to get an update. ¡°Luo Zongren, 29 years old, a technician at the water nt. He came to Luoyang City for work more than two years ago and was hired at a high sry by the water nt.¡±


    However, no one in the neighborhood knew Luo Zongren¡¯s address.


    The Northwest¡¯s intelligence agent brought a resident over. ¡°Future Commander, he says he knows this Luo Zongren.¡±


    The resident said, ¡°Hello, I¡¯m a shop floor worker at the freshwater nt. I¡¯m very familiar with Luo Zongren. He solved many technical problems and has been attached to our factory for some time. However, no one knows where he lives. When we go out to eat after work, he never participates in them. All we know is that he likes to read. Whenever he has nothing to do, he just stays in his office and reads.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s his usual routine?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Other than reading, I don¡¯t think he has any other hobbies,¡± the resident answered. ¡°But there¡¯s something about him. That Luo Zongren always washes his hands after touching the nt¡¯s equipment. He¡¯s dressed very neatly as well. Many of the young girls at the factory think that he is different from us shop floor workers, so some of them even tried to date him.¡±


    ¡°He has OCD?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. For some reason, he got the impression that the man was extremely disciplined and secretive.


    But what should they do about the man¡¯s address? Ren Xiaosu said to the intelligence agent, ¡°Contact the water nt. The factory¡¯s staff roster should have the addresses of all the workers. Although it might be fake, it¡¯s still a lead.¡±


    But just as Ren Xiaosu was feeling bitter about not knowing the other party¡¯s address, another call from the Northwest came in. ¡°Wang Yun has tracked the other party¡¯s behavior through the surveince cameras and determined his address. It¡¯s near 149 Triumphant Road! If you take his photo and ask the residents nearby, you¡¯ll definitely find some evidence. There¡¯s only two apartmentplexes there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately led the troops and rushed for 149 Triumphant Road.


    When they got there, Ren Xiaosu found the grocery store owner on the sidewalk and took out Luo Zongren¡¯s photo. ¡°Hello, have you seen this person before?¡±


    The grocery store owner immediately recognized Luo Zongren. ¡°Oh, he¡¯s the one who¡¯s always wearing the water nt uniform and passes by my shop every day. Of course I¡¯ve seen him before! I think he lives nearby. He buys all his rice, oil, and salt from me.¡±


    ¡°Then do you know where he lives?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s in that apartment building up ahead, but I¡¯m not sure which floor exactly,¡± the owner answered.


    After that, dozens of Northwest intelligence agents quickly surrounded the residential building with guns. Even Yang Xiaojin found the best sniping position several hundred meters away.


    Yang Xiaojin said through her earpiece, ¡°I¡¯m in position.¡±


    Only then did Ren Xiaosu walk towards the apartment building. There were some old men and olddies ying mahjong at a small table downstairs. Ren Xiaosu took out the photo and asked, ¡°Do y¡¯all know which floor he lives on?¡±


    An olddy took a look at the photo and said with a smile, ¡°Isn¡¯t that Little Luo? He lives on the 4th floor. Room 401. Why are you guys looking for him?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled. He beckoned for the intelligence agents to escort these people away so they would not identally get hurt in the battleter.


    The apartment building was very dpidated, with only four stories in total. Ren Xiaosu led several intelligence agents up the stairs.


    But when they reached the fourth floor, the door of Room 401 was slightly ajar.


    Ren Xiaosu had an ominous feeling. After pushing the door open, he saw that the furnishings in the room were very simple. There were only some basic tables, bookcases, kitchenware, and a bed.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of a saying. ¡°When a person¡¯s inner self is extremelyplicated, they have extremely high expectations for their living environment, which would be to have things ced neatly and orderly.¡±


    There was no one in the apartment. The other party had probably sensed the danger in advance and left beforehand.


    A ying card had been left on the table across from the entrance. It was an ace of spades.


    The card was ced neatly on the table as though Luo Zongren was silently mocking Ren Xiaosu and everyone else.


    The other party had guessed that Ren Xiaosu andpany would definitely find their way here, so not only did he leave in advance, he even left behind a ¡°mark¡± as though he were dering war on them.


    This was a highly intelligent criminal. Not only did he enjoy the execution of the crime, he also got a kick out of his aplishments in teasing and controlling his pursuers.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and went out. ¡°Tell the Northwest that the enemy has escaped, but he won¡¯t be able to escape from this stronghold. Let¡¯s see if there¡¯s any other ways to find this person.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression was calm.


    When the news got back to the Northwest, Wang Yun stood in front of the hundreds of screens in a daze. He suddenly said, ¡°A person like him will definitely leave a way out for himself, right? Everyone says that a crafty rabbit has three burrows. A cunning and highly intelligent criminal like him will definitely leave himself an escape route. C¡¯mon, show me all the recordings of him on his way to and from work. I want to know everything he¡¯s been up to for the past month.¡±


    This was an extremelyrge amount of work to do. The suspect¡¯s route home from work spanned at least eight to nine kilometers and would require going through dozens of recordings to piece together the enemy¡¯s whereabouts.


    There were several hundred surveince cameras in the entire stronghold, so they would have to first pick out the recordings of that route from those surveince cameras.


    Just as the soldiers fell into a predicament, they heard Wang Yun say, ¡°I¡¯ve already marked the camera numbers. The surveince footage of his route to work is captured on Cameras 102, 129, 130, 141¡­¡±


    Wang Yun listed more than a 100 numbers in a row and urately identified theplete route that Luo Zongren took every day.

 Chapter 992 - Calling card

    <h4>Chapter 992: Calling card</h4>


    In order to quickly monitor how Luo Zongren went about his daily life in the surveince footage, Wang Yun even requested the soldiers to y back the recording at 16 times speed. The recordings spanned a month, so even if they were yed back sixteen times faster, it would still take a person nearly two days to finish watching everything.


    Fortunately, this also included the nighttime surveince footage, so Wang Yun could get some rest and leave it to the other soldiers to monitor the goings-on during those periods. If Luo Zongren appeared, they would just have to inform Wang Yun.


    The soldiers working could not even see the figures of people on screen clearly anymore. Meanwhile, Wang Yun was still watching intently.


    Everyone in the conference room realized Wang Yun¡¯s energy seemed to be visibly waning and was worried something would happen to him. However, only Wang Yun himself did not feel so. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll definitely be able to go on for another three days. I¡¯m a superhuman, not a normal person. I¡¯ll definitely find Luo Zongren within three days!¡±


    By the afternoon of the next day, Wang Yun¡¯s eyes were deeply sunken and his entire person looked like he had withered.


    However, he calmly muttered to himself, ¡°Going to work, leaving work, buying groceries, going home, shopping at the bookstore. The bookstore he visits is always the same one, but while he goes grocery shopping at random locations, the people serving him are always the same. However, it seems like there¡¯s nothing suspicious about them. Tell Future Commander to check on the bookstore, but be careful as the other party might spring a trap.¡±


    After the news reached Luoyang City, Ren Xiaosu quickly led his men to the bookstore Luo Zongren always went to.


    After the intelligence agents surrounded the bookshop, Ren Xiaosu walked towards it.


    But just as he was about to push open the door, he remembered Wang Yun¡¯s warning. ¡°You must be careful. The other party might spring a trap.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu summoned ¡°Old Xu¡± while he slowly stepped back.


    Old Xu pushed open the door and entered. In that instant, the door handle activated a transparent fishing line that had been set up on the inside. With a click, a trap was triggered by the opening of the door.


    A huge wave of heat burst out from the bookstore. Amid the loud explosion, the ss windows on the street were shattered by the unstoppable shockwave. The rms of the vehicles parallel parked also started ring.


    The residents living on this street cautiously poked their heads out to have a look, but they did not know what was going on.


    The bomb that was nted in the bookstore was powerful enough to instantly devour a 30-man toon. Fortunately, Wang Yun had alerted them in advance, and Ren Xiaosu also happened to have a power like Old Xu.


    Ren Xiaosu stood in the distance and watched all of this quietly. All the pain Old Xu suffered was transferred back to him at this moment. However, his expression did not show any signs of pain. Instead, it darkened.


    This opponent was much more difficult to deal with than he had imagined.


    Moreover, the most detestable thing was that even though the other party knew he was being pursued all over the city, he did not try to escape immediately. Instead, he deliberately set a trap by relying on his day-to-day activities which he deliberately created in the past to mislead his pursuers.


    Truly, this was probably one of the most duplicitous opponents Ren Xiaosu had ever encountered, and the previous one was even ck Robe.


    ¡°Tell Wang Yun that it was a trap like he expected,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Over at the Northwest, Wang Yun felt like he had discovered a treasure after receiving this information. A lot of people even felt he was a little too happy when he learned about what happened.


    Zhang Xiaoman wondered, ¡°What are you so happy about? Didn¡¯t we just lose another lead?¡±


    ¡°Lose a lead?¡± Wang Yun smiled tiredly. ¡°This is also a clue.¡±


    Actually, in Wang Yun¡¯s opinion, as a mastermind hiding behind the scenes, the less information revealed, the better. Only by hiding without hesitation aftermitting a crime and not making any unnecessary moves could the criminal avoid being tracked.


    But now that the other party had set up an ambush in the bookstore, it was just like the ¡°calling card¡± of a criminal. In Wang Yun¡¯s eyes, it was actually an inferior move.


    Wang Yun said with a smile, ¡°Whatever else he does now, they can actually serve as new evidence for us to follow. In this way, I can profile his character through his actions.¡±


    Leaving behind the ying card and setting up the bomb in the bookstore, all of this seemed to be telling Wang Yun that the mastermind who had been lying low in Luoyang City for two years was starting to grow a little restless.


    The other party was only 29 years old. Although he was extremely good at investigation and counter-investigation, he was still not sophisticated enough!


    Suddenly, Wang Yun felt that the other party was like a child who enjoyed showing off. He firmly believed he could ferret out the mastermind.


    Wang Yun continued to observe traces of Luo Zongren¡¯s day-to-day life for the past month. During that time, Luo Zongren should havee up with a n of action. The other party knew very well that the assassination of Jiang Xu in Luoyang City would immediately cause a hugemotion. In that case, he would definitely want to determine whether his backup n would work.


    ¡°To him, what should a perfect safe house look like?¡± Wang Yun pondered it. ¡°It should be along the way from his work and home and have no need for him to take any unnecessary routes to see if it¡¯s safe or not. It¡¯d be best if it¡¯s on the first floor because that¡¯d facilitate excavating a basement and also be convenient for him to be aware of anymotions outside. It¡¯s best if it¡¯s situated in a blind spot of the surveince cameras so it¡¯s easier for him to hide. It can¡¯t be too far away from the bookstore because he¡¯d want to hear the explosion with his own ears. To him, the explosion should sound as beautiful as a symphony!¡±


    Wang Yun suddenly shouted, ¡°Rewind Camera 181¡¯s recording to the prior day, then y it back at 32 times speed.¡±


    After a while, Wang Yun suddenly shouted again, ¡°It¡¯s here! For the past half a month, Luo Zongren has been looking straight ahead every time he passes by this ce. But as he was getting close to making his move, he couldn¡¯t help but nce at the blind spot of the surveince cameras on the right side of the road twice.¡±


    The others in the conference room looked at one another. With the speed at which the recording was being yed back, they could not even see Luo Zongren¡¯s figure. They did not know how Wang Yun was still able to see that the other party was looking elsewhere at this yback speed.


    Wang Yun shouted to the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Quick! Confirm where this ce is and get Future Commander to hurry over. The enemy¡¯s safe house is nearby. I¡¯m very sure of it!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker quickly contacted Luoyang City. When Ren Xiaosu received the news, he immediately rushed to the vicinity of 74 Triumphant Road. This location was not too far away from the bookstore. If Luo Zongren were hiding here, he would be able to find out whether the ambush he set up at the bookshop was sessful or not.


    When Ren Xiaosu rushed over, he had Yang Xiaojin get into position first. Meanwhile, Old Xu jumped onto the roof and surrounded the target¡¯s location from the other side.


    In the end, Luo Zongren was even bolder than Ren Xiaosu had imagined. When he had just rushed to the vicinity of 74 Triumphant Road, a middle-aged man in a brown jacket walked towards Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu did not stop moving. When the other party saw Ren Xiaosu, his expression remained the same as well.


    But when they went past each other, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes turned red.


    City Crusher!


    Before the middle-aged man could react, Ren Xiaosu hit him in the main artery of his neck. The force was so precise it could knock a supernatural being unconscious without killing him.


    Ren Xiaosu squatted down and pulled out all of the enemy¡¯s teeth with his bare hands before confirming that two of them were iid with suicide pills.


    Then he had the intelligence agents strip the person naked and shave off his hair as well. Only after ensuring there were no longer any ces for him to hide anything was Ren Xiaosu able to breathe a sigh of relief.


    Ren Xiaosu startedughing. In truth, he really felt it was so worth it to have a talented man like Wang Yun join the Prosperous Northwest.


    When the Great Hoodwinker was passing on the information to him just now, Wang Yun had suddenly snatched the phone and instructed, ¡°Future Commander, when you rush to 74 Triumphant Road, you must pay attention to all pedestrians who walk past you. The target loves to selectively n and observe the traps he sets. After he hears an explosion go off, he might even disguise himself as someone else. If you don¡¯t discover him, he¡¯ll feel extremely satisfied. This feeling has hooked him.¡±

 Chapter 993 - Did we skip a few protocols?

    <h4>Chapter 993: Did we skip a few protocols?</h4>


    At the garrison base of Stronghold 144 in the Northwest, everyone in the conference room held their breaths as they waited for the oue at Luoyang City.


    Everyone was very nervous, including Wang Yun.


    This was in spite of Wang Yun being very sure of his own judgment. It was not just a random guess, but a valid deduction.


    But even so, he was still a little worried. What if the other party had some other trick up their sleeve? Or could he have escaped in advance again?


    These were all uncertain factors.


    Ten minutes had already passed since the information was ryed over from the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s side.


    Suddenly, the phone in the conference room rang. An intelligence agent¡¯s voice rang out, ¡°We¡¯ve sessfully captured him! Future Commander said that we¡¯ve caught the right person!¡±


    After six days of suffering in the conference room, there was suddenly a chorus of cheers.


    For the past six days, everyone could only watch helplessly as Wang Yun started losing weight at a visible rate. He was getting thinner and thinner by the day, and his hair was getting messier while the circles under his eyes became darker and darker. Everyone was feeling very worried and pained for him.


    It wasn¡¯t much better for the others either. The Great Hoodwinker had been standing guard here the entire time. Zhang Xiaoman took turns leading the soldiers who were assisting Wang Yun¡¯s work. Everyone did not even dare to breathe too loudly in the conference room for fear of breaking Wang Yun¡¯s concentration.


    But now it was finally over!


    Wang Yun finally showed a smile. The Great Hoodwinker, Zhang Xiaoman, P5092, and the others all looked at him with smiles on their faces. Then P5092 took the lead and started pping.


    The apuse in the conference roomsted for a long while. Wang Yun looked around at everyone. He enjoyed this feeling too much. Compared to everyone¡¯s heartfelt admiration, the fame and fortune he had previously sought did not seem particrly important anymore.


    P5092 said with a smile, ¡°Back at Mt. Zuoyun, I already wanted to say that I¡¯m very happy to be your colleague. It¡¯s my honor.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s mine too.¡± Zhang Xiaoman chuckled.


    But at this moment, cries rang out in the conference room. ¡°Wang Yun!¡±


    Wang Yun slowly closed his eyes and copsed. The Great Hoodwinker quickly caught him and felt his carotid artery before he could feel at ease. ¡°He¡¯s just passed out from overworking. Have the medics give him glucose and saline. He hasn¡¯t even had a proper meal in the past few days and kept spending his time here.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman and his men carefully carried Wang Yun to the barracks, relieving everyone in the conference room.


    ¡°Ask Future Commander about the details of the sting operationter. I feel that he¡¯s also moving at a rapid pace since he located the mastermind so quickly,¡± the Great Hoodwinker told the soldiers.


    ¡­


    In fact, Luo Zongren did not expect Ren Xiaosu to suddenly make a move on him. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu immediately activated City Crusher and attacked with all his might, not giving Luo Zongren any chance to resist.


    Luo Zongren¡¯s own power was not strong since he was more of a functional supernatural being like Xun Yeyu.


    So his biggest mistake was that he was too bold. He dared to try and walk past Ren Xiaosu?


    At that moment, Ren Xiaosu remembered Wang Yun had told him the mastermind might pretend that nothing had happened and try to walk past the bookstore. When they encountered each other on the street, Luo Zongren¡¯s expression was way too calm even though he was wearing a disguise.


    In that kind of environment, one should at least have a curious look on their face if someone were toe running towards them. Moreover, themotion from the explosion at the bookstore had just subsided, so it was very telling if someone was able to remain that calm at a time like that.


    It was just as Wang Yun had evaluated Luo Zongren¡¯s personality. He was only a self-proimed smart person and not truly smart.


    Ren Xiaosu brought Luo Zongren back to the neighborhood and handed him straight to Luo Lan and Zhou Qi. Then he took a seat while waiting quietly for Zhou Qi to interrogate him.


    Luo Zongren slowly regained consciousness in the basement of the vi. He slowly looked around his surroundings first before looking at Ren Xiaosu and the others. He sneered, ¡°¡®Hop bein yirusional. Aye won shay anyfing.¡±


    What Luo Zongren wanted to say was: ¡°Stop being delusional. I won¡¯t say anything.¡±


    Luo Zongren¡¯s teeth had been plucked out by Ren Xiaosu with his bare hands, so he was probably still finding it difficult to speak. When he said that, the blood in his mouth started flowing down. It was an extremely pathetic and gross sight.


    Luo Lan was facing him and felt an inexplicable urge tough. ¡°I have to say, that was way too heavy-handed of you. You should¡¯ve at least left a few teeth intact. Look at what you¡¯ve done to the child. He can¡¯t even articte properly now.¡±


    Luo Zongren seemed to be humiliated. After hearing those harsh words, he did not say anything further.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Qi ordered someone to bring over a set of tools and started preparing for the interrogation.


    Luo Zongren made up his mind not to say anything. As the mastermind of the assassination, he was already prepared to die when he fitted the suicide pills in his mouth.


    It had to be said that Zhou Qi was also a ruthless person. The tools he had brought looked quite terrifying.


    Moreover, Zhou Qi did not even ask any questions and just started torturing.


    He did not ask who Luo Zongren was or what organization he belonged to. He did not even make any small talk like what they should have for dinner. It did not seem like he wanted to do the interrogation at all. Instead, it felt more like he enjoyed torturing people as a hobby and for pleasure.


    Zhou Qi created a ball of water enthusiastically and wrapped it around Luo Zongren¡¯s head. In only one minute, Luo Zongren fell into a state of asphyxiation. Then Zhou Qi ruthlessly stabbed a metal needle into the gap under Luo Zongren¡¯s fingernails. As a result, Luo Zongren instinctively let out a loud cry of pain and arge amount of water poured into his mouth. A majority of it even went down his windpipe.


    After Zhou Qi drained the water and allowed Luo Zongren to catch his breath for a moment, he used the water to wrap around Luo Zongren¡¯s head again without saying anything. Immediately after, he inserted another metal needle under Luo Zongren¡¯s second fingernail.


    During this time, Zhou Qi did not have any intention at all ofmunicating with Luo Zongren. He just kept repeating the process of inserting the needles under his fingernails.


    By the third needle, Luo Zongren was already starting to show signs of pain and shock. Zhou Qi called for someone to bring in a small generator and a set of transformers, which he mped the ends of to Luo Zongren¡¯s legs.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°What¡¯s this for?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m using a weak electrical current to stimte him so he won¡¯t fall unconscious,¡± Zhou Qi said with a smile, looking as psychotic as he could be.


    Even Ren Xiaosu felt a little creeped out when he saw how Zhou Qi looked.


    Gradually, the way Luo Zongren looked at Zhou Qi changed. Why did he not ask any questions and only focus on torturing him? Did they skip a few protocols in the interrogation process?


    At some point, he almost thought Zhou Qi was sent by his organization to silence him!


    However, Zhou Qi still did not give Luo Zongren a chance to speak. It looked like he would only be done after he had inserted the needles into all of Luo Zongren¡¯s fingers and toes.


    Water torture was already a very terrifying form of punishment. It was a terrifying experience when a person slowly suffocated to the point of death. Many organizations liked to use this form of torture since most of those interrogated would definitely confess.


    But from the look of things, water torture was only an auxiliary skill in Zhou Qi¡¯s hands. Even more ruthless forms of torture awaited Luo Zongren.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu understood what Zhou Qi was up to.


    Zhou Qi was interrogating a highly intelligent criminal who also happened to be a psychopath. As the interrogator, Zhou Qi had to make the other party understand he was even more psychotic than him before he could make him speak.


    Since Luo Zongren would not open his mouth that easily, Ren Xiaosu, Luo Lan, and Zhou Qi were all prepared for a prolonged interrogation.

 Chapter 994 - Luo Zongren speaks

    <h4>Chapter 994: Luo Zongren speaks</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Zhou Qi¡¯s interrogation had been going on for nearly 26 hours already. Luo Zongren¡¯s constant screams in the basement went from loud and clear to feeble.


    Sometimes, an interrogation would take several days or even several weeks due to the requirement of human rights. The interrogators could only use methods such as not letting the criminals sleep or starving them slowly so they would break down. Such methods were also very effective, but it would take slightly longer to work.


    As for the crueler torture methods, they would basically onlyst a day or two before speaking.


    For Luo Zongren to be able to endure for 26 hours, he was an extremely determined person.


    During this time, Luo Zongren¡¯s screams were even heard in the other basement levels where other spies and officials unrted to the case were held. His screams were so horrific that everyone started feeling fearful and uneasy.


    As a result, while Luo Zongren was still enduring his torture, the people from the other floors confessed before they were interrogated. This was really unexpected.


    During these 26 hours, Zhou Qi only slept for three hours. For the rest of the time, he did not say anything and just kept thinking of ways to torture Luo Zongren without asking a single question.


    Several times, Ren Xiaosu felt that Luo Zongren was almost close to speaking, but Zhou Qi did not give him a chance to do so.


    At some point, Ren Xiaosu even thought Zhou Qi might be nning to silence the suspect.


    Luo Zongren really wanted to debate Zhou Qi. He knew a person like him must have his own logic in an argument. It did not matter whether they were mature or not, such people werepletely self-absorbed in their own world.


    This self-proimed intelligent criminal hadid low in Luoyang City for two years and meticulously nned a grand murder case. Actually, he was very anguished and wanted to pour his heart out to others. He wanted to tell them how great he was, or perhaps he wanted to kill himself so he could put a perfect end to his n and be a so-called martyr.


    However, Zhou Qi did not ask him anything, nor did he allow him to die.


    During the break, only Luo Zongren and the thick scent of blood remained in the basement. Zhou Qi walked to the neighborhood¡¯s garden and lit up a cigarette as he thought silently.


    Luo Lan asked, ¡°How are things? Based on your experience, have you made any progress?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened in. However, he knew Zhou Qi had his own ns, so he did not interfere.


    But based on what Luo Lan said, it seemed like Zhou Qi had also carried out a lot of simr work before.


    Zhou Qi thought for a moment and said, ¡°The time is not ripe yet. It¡¯s been more than 20 hours, but I can feel that he¡¯s still putting up a stubborn resistance. So I paused the interrogation for a while because I want to think about how to destroy his self-esteem. A criminal like him thinks he¡¯s extraordinary, so we have topletely destroy his self-esteem in order to break him.¡±


    Zhou Qi fell into deep thought again.


    Suddenly, Zhou Qi extinguished his cigarette and turned around to walk back to the basement.


    Luo Zongren was already on hisst gasps. Anyone who saw him would think he was on the verge of death, but Zhou Qi firmly believed he still had the will to resist.


    Zhou Qi called over a soldier and said, ¡°Prepare a rack that you can tie someone on. I¡¯ll need itter.¡±


    Then he picked out a steel needle from his toolbox and stabbed it into Luo Zongren¡¯s right abdomen.


    All of a sudden, Luo Zongren lost control of his dder and bowels when he got pierced by this needle. This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen such a precise technique.


    As a matter of fact, Zhou Qi was very professional in this domain.


    Luo Zongren roared angrily as though he could not ept the reality of his incontinence.


    Right after, Zhou Qi said to the soldier, ¡°Tie him up on the rack and show the people of Luoyang City how pathetic he is. Tell them that Mr. Jiang Xu¡¯s murderer is just this revolting nobody.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Xiaosu realized Luo Zongren¡¯s eyes zed over for a moment. It was as though he could not ept the fact he was going to be disyed to the public.


    Luo Zongren despised themon people he had toyed with and deemed them to be less than ants. So he was even more unable to ept being publicly exhibited in front of those people and get despised by them.


    However, Zhou Qi noticed the change in his expression. He silently breathed a sigh of relief as though he had finally found a breakthrough in the interrogation.


    Zhou Qi ignored Luo Zongren and said to the soldier, ¡°Hurry up, it¡¯ll get dark soon. Remember to strip him and wash his face clean so everyone will remember what he looks like.¡±


    Luo Zongren¡¯s weak voice could be heard in the basement. ¡°Whadyawanano? Aye falk!¡±


    What Luo Zongren meant was: ¡°What do you want to know? I¡¯ll talk.¡±


    Zhou Qi said with a smile, ¡°Weren¡¯t you quite insistent on not talking?¡±


    Luo Zongren said resentfully, ¡°Ba-chew-di-nuh-ash-anyfing!¡±


    ¡°Oh, so that was why.¡± Zhou Qiughed. ¡°Leave, set aside the prepared rack and find a suitable set of dentures for him. It¡¯s too much of a hassle to listen to him talk like that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also felt relieved. 27 hours after the interrogation started, Luo Zongren finally spoke!


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s people found over a dozen sets of dentures and tested several of them before they found a suitable one for Luo Zongren. Off to the side, Luo Lan asked, ¡°That¡¯s pretty efficient. Where did you find the dentures?¡±


    ¡°Oh, they were donated by a few elderly people in Luoyang City. They said it was their way of contributing to the investigation of the murder,¡± the Qing Consortium soldier said.


    Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu were stunned. These were taken out of other people¡¯s mouths? The two of them turned around and looked at Luo Zongren, who nearly vomited.


    Luo Zongren turned 29 this year. The humiliation he had suffered all his life was not as great as everything he went through today.


    Zhou Qi did not care so much and directly asked, ¡°Who instigated you?¡±


    Luo Zongren panted as he said, ¡°The Wang Consortium. My immediate superior is called Wang Wenyan. He¡¯s the one who arranged for me to enter Luoyang City. Initially, there was no intention to kill Jiang Xu, and I operated covertly for the n to seize the satellites in Luoyang City. But since I wasn¡¯t needed for that operation, I chose to bide my time and continued lying low.¡±


    Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu looked at each other. They had already started treating the Zhou Consortium as their imaginary enemy. But they did not expect Luo Zongren would point all of the suspicions at the Wang Consortium the moment he opened his mouth!


    Zhou Qi asked, ¡°Tell me about Wang Wenyan.¡±


    Luo Zongren answered, ¡°He has an oval face and is 176 centimeters tall. He likes to drink Iron Goddess and lives in Stronghold 62 at 12 Tongqu Road.¡±


    Luo Lan could not help but ask, ¡°You should¡¯ve met Wang Shengzhi before too, right? You should be very familiar with him since you¡¯re such an important superhuman, isn¡¯t that so?¡±


    However, Luo Zongren shook his head and said, ¡°Wang Shengzhi isn¡¯t my direct boss, so how could I possibly jump ranks and interact with him? I¡¯m not familiar with him.¡±


    Luo Lan had wanted to take the opportunity to ask Luo Zongren much more confidential questions to test whether he was telling the truth. However, he was stumped by this answer.


    Zhou Qi asked, ¡°When did you guys start nning the assassination of Jiang Xu?¡±


    Now that Luo Zongren had spoken, Ren Xiaosu andpany would have to find stronger evidence to prove Luo Zongren was really from the Wang Consortium.

 Chapter 995 - Acting

    <h4>Chapter 995: Acting</h4>


    ¡°This mission was issued two months ago.¡± Luo Zongren said weakly, ¡°At that time, Jiang Xu had just published an article targeting our Wang Consortium. However, the initial order was only to formte a n. We were not told to execute it.¡±


    Luo Zongren continued, ¡°On the 21st of March, the higher-ups passed down the order to assassinate Jiang Xu, because he refused to meet with our diplomatic team, so there was no way for the two sides to clear the air.


    ¡°We have a total of 381 covert agents, and most of them were secretly deployed from the Wang Consortium¡¯s military and trained as spies.


    ¡°Before the operation, to deflect any suspicions from the Wang Consortium, Wang Wenyan specifically ordered Vani and me to put on a good show together.¡± Luo Zongren exined clearly, ¡°Our soldiers were unaware of it, but Vani and Tang Hualong knew about the operation in advance and pretended to be caught in the danger. They even deliberately got injured. After all of the surveince footage was exposed, everyone would shift their suspicions away from the Wang Consortium.


    ¡°But all of this was just an act we put on for you all to see!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened to all of this quietly. If what Luo Zongren said was true, he would definitely have to make a trip to the Wang Consortium.


    Moreover, he would have to reevaluate his rtionship with them.


    There was no room forpromise regarding Jiang Xu¡¯s assassination.


    However, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that everything Luo Zongren said was a little strange. He started thinking about everything he had confessed.


    If only Wang Yun were here. Wang Yun was an expert at analyzing lies and was the best at finding loopholes in the other party¡¯s logic.


    At this moment, Luo Lan asked Luo Zongren from the side, ¡°Which department are you affiliated with in the Wang Consortium?¡±


    Luo Zongren answered matter-of-factly, ¡°You don¡¯t have to test me on purpose. I¡¯m under Wang Wenyan¡¯smand, so of course I¡¯m with the 1st Military Intelligence Division.¡±


    ¡°Hehe, I¡¯m sorry.¡± Luo Lan said with augh, ¡°You probably didn¡¯t expect this, but the Wang Consortium¡¯s people were afraid that someone would frame them, so they specially sent a person to Luoyang City. Coincidentally, it¡¯s someone from the 1st Military Intelligence Division as well. Men, bring in the Wang Consortium¡¯s man!¡±


    As they spoke, a young man in a suit was escorted into the basement by the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers. The young man said coldly, ¡°We came all the way here to rify things. Is this how you treat your guests?¡±


    Luo Lan walked up to the young man with a smile and pped him in the face without warning. ¡°If we find out that Jiang Xu¡¯s death is rted to your Wang Consortium, you can forget about walking out of Luoyang City alive. Why are you still harping about how guests should be treated? Come and identify your colleague from the 1st Military Intelligence Division. We already have a witness here. Do you think that you can still deny it?¡±


    That young man looked at Luo Zongren and got even angrier. ¡°That¡¯s not a member of our 1st Military Intelligence Division at all. He¡¯s ndering us. What evidence do you have to say that our Wang Consortium was responsible? Where¡¯s the evidence?¡±


    Luo Lan looked at Luo Zongren. ¡°Proof? Don¡¯t worry. The Wang Consortium can¡¯t silence you here.¡±


    Luo Zongren kept quiet.


    The young man sneered. ¡°See, he¡¯s lying. He doesn¡¯t dare directly confront me. We don¡¯t have such a person in our 1st Military Intelligence Division at all.¡±


    Luo Zongren suddenly looked at the young man and said, ¡°Are you going to give up the queen to save the king? At Wang Wenyan¡¯s ce, Wang Wenyan personally promised me he would appoint me as the deputy director if I seeded in the mission. You were also there at that time. Why are you trying to shake me off now?¡±


    The young man said angrily, ¡°Don¡¯t talk about such baseless things. I¡¯ve never met you before!¡±


    ¡°You dare not admit it?!¡± Luo Zongren roared angrily. He looked hysterical, even a little crazy.


    p. p. p.


    Luo Lan apuded. ¡°This performance is wonderful. If I didn¡¯t know the truth in advance, I would¡¯ve really been fooled by your acting. But I¡¯m really sorry. This is not someone from the Wang Consortium¡¯s 1st Military Intelligence Division at all. He¡¯s from our Qing Consortium. See, this suit was even just borrowed from a Luoyang City resident.¡±


    Luo Lanughed heartily while Zhou Qi stared at Luo Zongren mockingly and admired the stunned expression on his face.


    Luo Zongren was a little dazed. Looking at Zhou Qi¡¯s expression now, he seemed to have the same expression as himself when he looked at those ¡°normal people¡± while he was carrying out his mission.


    In the past, he had regarded normal people as dumb sheep. But now he had be a sheep in the eyes of others.


    Luo Lan walked up to the young man who had acted as a member of the Wang Consortium and said, ¡°Does your face hurt?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said the young man as he straightened up.


    Luo Lan patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Sillyd, how can it not hurt when I didn¡¯t hold back? Go and get some rest. You did a great job; that was really good acting.¡±


    To make things look realistic, Luo Lan did not show any mercy. The young man¡¯s face was swollen from Luo Lan¡¯s p, but he was still smiling very happily. ¡°It¡¯s all good as long as the mission is sessful.¡±


    After that, the soldier went up the stairs and left the basement.


    Luo Zongren sat in the interrogation chair in a daze. Luo Lan walked up to him and bent down to look him in the eye. ¡°In order to make you tell the truth, you made me p my own soldier. You should understand now that your ¡®conspiracies¡¯ are just childish attempts before us. You can¡¯t afford to mess with us! If you still don¡¯t tell the truth, we¡¯ll drag you out onto the street. Believe me, our Qing Consortium has a way to make sure you won¡¯t die for ten years and beg for death every day.¡±


    ¡°What do you all want to know? Just go ahead and ask,¡± Luo Zongren said calmly.


    Zhou Qi was sure Luo Zongren¡¯s mental defenses had finally beenpletely taken down. His ego was fully crushed.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan¡¯s profile and suddenly thought of something. This fatty might look like a carefree person on most days, but he was also a very scheming person. In normal times, he would just act as though all of his brilliance was covered.


    But why did he hide it?


    Truly, Luo Zongren was also a ruthless person. He did not use the Wang Consortium immediately after he was captured. Instead, he forcefully endured for 27 hours and only started his painstaking n when he was on the verge of death.


    For the past 27 hours, all he had been enduring was just for this moment.


    It was precisely because he still had an objective that was not yetpleted that he was able to endure for so long.


    Moreover, the other party¡¯s narration of what happened was very logical. Even Vani and Tang Hualong had be a part of his n. All of this was done so the Wang Consortium could not clear their suspicions and be convicted of the usation!


    Luo Zongren said, ¡°I¡¯m under themand of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency. I don¡¯t fall under themand of the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Divisions. I¡¯m the highest-rankingmander independent of all the divisions, and all field agents under my jurisdiction operate under the highest security clearance. I only carry out top-secret missions, and my rank is only second to the intelligence director, Zhou Shoushi. My serial number in the organization is 019002, and my real name is Yang Yanbang.¡±


    Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu looked at each other. Sess!

 Chapter 996 - No one is innocent

    <h4>Chapter 996: No one is innocent</h4>


    ¡°The intelligence division that I head is called Poison.¡± Luo Zongren stated everything with a numb expression as though it was unrted to him. ¡°A lot of people in the Zhou Consortium are unaware of our existence. My job is only to report to two people. One of them is the intelligence director, Zhou Shoushi, and the other is the Zhou Consortium¡¯s boss, Zhou Shiji.¡±


    Although this guy¡¯s real name was Yang Yanbang, Ren Xiaosu andpany were used to the name ¡°Luo Zongren.¡± So they decided to continue addressing him that way. They believed Luo Zongren himself was used to this pseudonym as well.


    ¡°There¡¯s a total of 581 members under mymand who I personally selected from the military five years ago. Themander had authorized me to recruit all the superhumans in the military and allowed me to use my superpower to control them. The missions we carry out are all matters the Zhou Consortium doesn¡¯t want to be found out for.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked coldly, ¡°581 people? But there were only about 300 people that participated in the battle this time. Where¡¯s the others?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s still 21 people in Luoyang City who have not been arrested yet. The others are scattered across the various strongholds and lying in wait while waiting to be summoned. I¡¯m the one who can contact everyone, so they have no means to contact me,¡± Luo Zongren said.


    ¡°Tell us their identities immediately,¡± Luo Lan said.


    ¡°There¡¯s Deng Kai, an auto repairman living at 31 Fanglin Road.


    ¡°Zhu Can, the owner of a fast food restaurant at 78 Osmanthus Road.


    ¡°Hu Chengjun lives in the apartmentplex at 21 Wuling Road. His unit number is 301¡­¡±


    Luo Zongren revealed all 21 of the covert agents who had slipped through the. Ren Xiaosu ordered the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agent next to him to write down all of the names. He was going to settle the score with them after Luo Zongren¡¯s interrogation.


    All of the information was very precious. Ever since they started searching for Luo Zongren¡¯s whereabouts, Wang Yun, Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin had expended a great deal of energy.


    After that, it took a lot of effort to make Luo Zongren speak, and they even had to engage in a battle of wits to make him confess.


    Just a moment ago, they were nearly deceived by Luo Zongren.


    Although Luo Lan had sessfully called the opponent¡¯s bluff and destroyed hisst bit of confidence, Luo Lan was actually not that sure, because Luo Zongren was way too calm.


    It was not easy to obtain all the intel they had gathered now, so they had to cherish it.


    At this moment, Luo Lan asked, ¡°The covert agents in the other strongholds, tell us about them as well. A dirty organization like Poison has no need to exist in the world anymore.¡±


    Luo Zongren¡¯s expression distorted for a moment, but his mental defenses hadpletely copsed. Even though Luo Lan was belittling Poison, he did not dare rebuke him.


    At the beginning, Ren Xiaosu was worried Luo Lan would provoke Luo Zongren and cause him to turn antagonistic again.


    However, Luo Lan whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s fine. The more you belittle someone like him, the more honest he bes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not understand the logic behind this, but he believed that Luo Lan and Zhou Qi were more professional than him.


    When Luo Zongren revealed all the information about the spies who were operating covertly, Luo Lan asked again, ¡°So you guys tried to kill me because you wanted to frame the Wang Consortium for it? And then have the Qing Consortium start a war with the Wang Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Luo Zongren nodded in admission.


    ¡°Carry on, tell me the details of your operation this time.¡± Luo Lan said fiercely, ¡°Our Qing Consortium had wanted to make friends with the Zhou Consortium to stand up against the Wang Consortium, but we didn¡¯t expect to actually be working with a venomous snake. When I think of that Zhou Shiji¡¯s smiling face now, I can¡¯t wait to go there and tear his face apart.¡±


    Luo Zongren gave a fake smile and said, ¡°Your Qing Consortium doesn¡¯t have good intentions either, right? The two spies we fitted the nanomachines with suddenly changed their allegiance and disappeared. I don¡¯t question their loyalty, so the problem must lie with the nanomachines.¡±


    Luo Lan curled his lips. ¡°That has nothing to do with us. It was the Wang Consortium¡¯s AI that did it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Zongren and said, ¡°Were y¡¯all not afraid that there¡¯d be a backdoor program installed on the nanomachines? Y¡¯all actually had the courage to use them?¡±


    Luo Zongren did not say anything. Ren Xiaosu realized they were probably trying to frame the Qing Consortium again. The two spies who were equipped with the nanomachines were probably just cannon fodder too. They did not care whether there were any backdoor programs installed on the nanomachines.


    It was just like the people who tried to assassinate Jiang Xu outside of Stronghold 61.


    It could only be said that this ¡°Poison¡± organization did not have any good intentions right from the beginning. They were only here to sow discord.


    ¡°Cut the bullshit and tell us the other details of the operation,¡± Luo Lan said.


    Luo Zongren said, ¡°This operation was codenamed ¡®Abyss.¡¯ The operation is funded through the anonymous ount 019228181 at the Wang Consortium bank.


    ¡°There¡¯s only one safe house left. It¡¯s at 239 Kaiyuan Avenue. There¡¯s a password book,munications equipment, weapons and firearms, as well as a record of bribes offered to the officials of Luoyang City inside.¡±


    Luo Zongren spent an entire hour just telling them about the details.


    With each piece of information he gave, Ren Xiaosu would have the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents verify it. Only when the information¡¯s veracity was correct would the witness¡¯s statement be verified, and there would be no need to worry that Luo Zongren was still lying.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Zongren. ¡°Anything else you wanna say?¡±


    Luo Zongren looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°I only have one question. How did you catch me?¡±


    ¡°Because someone persisted for six days and analyzed all of the surveince cameras in Luoyang City without eating, drinking, or sleeping.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Then they found the bookstore and your ce of residence, and they also warned me that you might return to the crime scene to check on your evil deeds.¡±


    Luo Zongren subconsciously said, ¡°That¡¯s impossible. There¡¯s so many surveince cameras in Luoyang City. Who could possibly finish looking through all of them in six days and even identify me among so many people?¡±


    ¡°Nothing is impossible. He happens to be the nemesis of unscrupulous poisonous bugs like you.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°He¡¯s Wang Yun, the former director of the Kong Consortium¡¯s 2nd Military Intelligence Division. But he¡¯s already gone on to the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    Luo Zongren muttered, ¡°I¡¯d really like to meet a person like that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Forget it, you¡¯re not qualified to see him.¡±


    Luo Zongren startedughing strangely. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m the only one who¡¯s unscrupulous? Although it was the Zhou Consortium that assassinated Jiang Xu, do you really think the Wang Consortium is innocent?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°I sent 12 people to destroy the surveince footage after the incident, but they were all killed by paper cranes while they were carrying out their mission on the rooftops. Do you think I would¡¯ve left the surveince footage for you all to find otherwise?¡± Luo Zongren said, ¡°So the head of Anjing House had already arrived at Luoyang City at that time. Perhaps she was not here yet personally, but her paper cranes were. Furthermore, she did not use them to save Jiang Xu! At that time, I could not figure out why she only killed the people I sent out to destroy the surveince footage. Now that I think about it, it must be because she wanted to leave the surveince footage to you and use it to clear any suspicions against the Wang Consortium. But do you understand what I¡¯m saying? Although she did not kill Jiang Xu, she is not innocent.¡±

 Chapter 997 - A brilliant person

    <h4>Chapter 997: A brilliant person</h4>


    If Wang Yun, Luo Lan, and the others had not worked together to find the real culprit this time, the Zhou Consortium would probably have sessfully covered up the truth.


    However, Luo Zongren suddenly imed Yang Anjing was not innocent either. Although she was also present in Luoyang City, she did not try to save Jiang Xu.


    This left Ren Xiaosu feeling a littleplicated. He could not understand why Yang Anjing did not personally get involved when she had already arranged for Vani and Tang Hualong to protect Jiang Xu.


    But if being a bystander was a crime, should Ren Xiaosu go and kill everyone who witnessed Jiang Xu¡¯s death but did not step forward to help? That would be impossible.


    Ren Xiaosu walked up to Luo Zongren and asked, ¡°Anything else?¡±


    Luo Zongren chuckled. ¡°No, just kill me already.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head. Then he said to the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agent, ¡°Tie him on the rack and parade him around, then send him outside of Luoyang City to be executed. Of course, that¡¯s if he¡¯s still alive at that time.¡±


    Luo Zongren started struggling in the interrogation chair. ¡°How can you do this to me? I¡¯ve already told you everything!¡±


    ¡°If you can make Jiang Xue back to life after saying all that, I¡¯ll consider letting you off. Unfortunately, it won¡¯t happen,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    After that, Ren Xiaosu left the basement and walked to the neighborhood¡¯s garden to do some thinking.


    Luo Zongren¡¯s angry curses and cries could be hearding from the basement. The man probably did not expect Ren Xiaosu to hate him so deeply. After he had already confessed everything, he still wanted to deprive him of his remaining pride.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu was mentally prepared to be aplete viin when he came to Luoyang City this time. He wanted to use the most extreme methods to deal with these viins.


    The first time was when he dealt with the sniper on the rooftop. He promised he would spare the sniper¡¯s life as long as he told him which organization he was working for.


    The sniper was about to say something when he got killed by the heartworm.


    But even if he had told the truth, Ren Xiaosu would not let any of these murderers off.


    He was not actually intending to keep that promise.


    Luo Lan walked up to him. ¡°What are your ns?¡±


    ¡°A blood debt has to be paid with blood, of course,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°And then?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll return to the Northwest. There¡¯s a lot of people waiting for me there,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll apany you to the Zhou Consortium. After we take our revenge there, it¡¯ll be time for me to return to the Southwest as well.¡± Luo Lan said with a smile, ¡°I heard the fruit in the Northwest ripen in September. When the timees, I¡¯ll go visit you in the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to go with me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Nearby, Zhou Qi also said, ¡°You can¡¯t go to the Zhou Consortium. Qing Zhen called yesterday and wants you to go back immediately. You were already put in danger in Luoyang City, so you shouldn¡¯t go to the Zhou Consortium.¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned. ¡°No, how can I let Ren Xiaosu go to the Zhou Consortium alone?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t be alone. My helper has already arrived.¡±


    Since Ren Xiaosu did not say who his helper was, Luo Lan did not probe further.


    Luo Lan started talking about something else. ¡°You also know that my younger brother likes to n ahead. Back when he was still the Qing Consortium¡¯s Shadow, he decided to establish his own secret troops and secret research base. At that time, no one understood what he was thinking. Even his trusted subordinates did not understand the significance of him doing so. However, I supported him because I knew he was more farsighted than other people.¡±


    ¡°In the end, it turned out he was right. Since the Qing Consortium could not tolerate him, he had to take their ce. The reason why I¡¯m saying all this is to tell you that Qing Zhen has been guarding against the Wang Consortium since more than a year ago. Ever since he moved into the military base, he¡¯s started keeping to himself more and more. He doesn¡¯t talk much to others anymore. In the past, he would still exin why he did the things he did, but not anymore now. It was only when Luo Zongren mentioned the theft of the nanomachines that I realized he might have begun guarding against the AI since that time.¡±


    Luo Lan said in seriousness, ¡°So you must be careful of the Wang Consortium. There aren¡¯t many things that can make Qing Zhen feel like he¡¯s up against a formidable enemy.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Got it, thanks for the reminder.¡±


    Actually, even when the Experimentals were wreaking havoc in the Southwest, Qing Zhen had never taken them to be a serious problem. But now that he was taking Zero so cautiously, Qing Zhen must have sensed some kind of danger.


    Luo Lan then prepared to leave. Although Jiang Xu was not killed by the Wang Consortium, Luo Lan knew it would still be very dangerous for him to remain in the Central ins.


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Why do I get the feeling that you¡¯ve allowed Qing Zhen to take all your glory? What about yourself?¡±


    Luo Lan exined with augh, ¡°For someone aszy as me, I¡¯ll just tag along for the victory. He¡¯s the one who should shine brilliantly in this era. Alright, I¡¯ll be off now!¡±


    After that, Luo Lan led the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops and retreated out of Luoyang City. It was said that the Qing Consortium had already sent an elite force across the southwestern mountains to the Central ins to escort Luo Lan back.


    It was clear that Qing Zhen was very worried for Luo Lan¡¯s safety.


    In this chaotic world, it was very rare for such brotherhood to exist.


    After Luo Lan left, Ren Xiaosu walked around in the neighborhood¡¯s garden and called Wang Shengzhi.


    The phone only rang once before it was picked up. Wang Shengzhi said straightforwardly, ¡°Are you going to ask why the Wang Consortium did not save Jiang Xu?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for me to ask anything.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°From your Wang Consortium¡¯s standpoint, Jiang Xu¡¯s indeed just a normal person with no benefits to you. Whether y¡¯all save him or not, that¡¯s your own business. Or rather, when y¡¯all sent Vani and Tang Hualong here it counted as extending a hand. So I have no reason to me y¡¯all. But from today onwards, we¡¯re no longer friends.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ended the call.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had said. It was the Wang Consortium¡¯s business whether they chose to save Jiang Xu. So he had no reason to attack the Wang Consortium.


    But he could no longer be friends with people who set themselves apart from this matter. This was his choice.


    Back then, Ren Xiaosu was willing to ept the three tasks Wang Shengzhi had requested of him because there was still some friendship between them. Ren Xiaosu tried to understand the Wang Consortium and the artificial intelligence, and he was willing to show his goodwill.


    But it was different now.


    Jiang Xu¡¯s death created a rift between Ren Xiaosu and the Wang Consortium that could not be repaired.


    Ren Xiaosu called over the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents and said, ¡°Y¡¯all can fall out from here and return to the Northwest.¡±


    The intelligence agent in charge of this field operation wondered, ¡°Future Commander, aren¡¯t you going to the Zhou Consortium? We can go with you to seek revenge.¡±


    ¡°No need.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°It¡¯s not your responsibility to take revenge for Jiang Xu. You don¡¯t have to put yourselves in danger. Go back home. Your families are still waiting for you all in the Northwest.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin walked out of the vi and looked at him. ¡°What about me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Come with me.¡±


    Yang Xiaojinughed. ¡°Not bad, at least you didn¡¯t think of sending me away this time.¡±

 Chapter 998 - Interrogation report

    <h4>Chapter 998: Interrogation report</h4>


    Just as Luoyang City was abuzz with the investigation of the real murderer, some breaking news shocked everyone.


    The Wang Consortium had just recalled all men under the age of 30 who had served in the military from the strongholds they controlled. Then they suddenlyunched an all-out war against the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company.


    Currently, the Kong Consortium existed in name only. Their former bureaucracy and big shots had taken refuge in the easternmost strongholds along the coast after abandoning the dozen or so strongholds they originally controlled.


    During the past few months, those strongholds had been left unmanned, with arge number of residents having fled south. As such, criminals started running amok in them. Whoever had a gun would call the shots.


    It would not be difficult for the Wang Consortium to upy most of the Kong Consortium¡¯s strongholds anymore.


    As for the Pyro Company, they only had two of their original 12 divisions left due to the war with the expeditionary army in the north.


    If the Wang Consortium had nned to unify the entire Alliance of Strongholds from very early on, this would probably be the best opportunity for them to annex the other organizations.


    Moreover, the Wang Consortium¡¯s conscription policy yed an extremely effective role during such a time.


    Simrly, they had fought against the northern expeditionary army like the Pyro Company. Although they suffered many casualties, the Wang Consortium was able to quickly replenish its troops.


    However, the focus of the average person¡¯s discussion of this war was more about how they had just defeated the foreign enemies, so should the Wang Consortium take advantage of the situation?


    After all, the Pyro Company had fought very hard to resist the expeditionary army¡¯s advance. For the Wang Consortium to make a move now, wasn¡¯t that a little too hical?


    But they also knew their discussions were pointless and would not change the will of the consortium. The Wang Consortium did not care how they were viewed.


    As the saying goes, winner takes all. If the Wang Consortium could really unify the Alliance of Strongholds one day, history would be written by them.


    Everyone knew the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium no longer had the strength to resist the Wang Consortium. After this battle, the Zhou Consortium would be the only force in the Central ins that could stand up to the Wang Consortium.


    However, only the Wang Consortium¡¯s higher-ups knew that the Zhou Consortium, who they were initially worried about, was probably unable to even look after themselves.


    Just as the Wang Consortium was sending out their troops to the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company, the Zhou Consortium suddenly started mobilizing their main forces.


    When the rest of the world learned of this news, they thought the Zhou Consortium was preparing to guard against the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops who were heading south. After all, the deployment of the main forces this time was extremely widespread, and it looked like they were preparing for a total war.


    Among the deployments, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s 1st and 3rd Divisions marched northwards when they were originally garrisoned in the south.


    But two dayster, everyone realized the Zhou Consortium¡¯s main forces did not seem to be rushing to its northern front line. Based on their trajectory, they were actually heading to Stronghold 73 where the Zhou Consortium¡¯s political center was based.


    This left many of the intel brokers confused. Why were so many of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s divisions heading to Stronghold 73?


    After all, Stronghold 73 was located in the center of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory. Even if the Wang Consortium attacked, they couldn¡¯t make inroads there, right?


    Could it be that the Zhou Consortium was nning to abandon their six strongholds north of Stronghold 73?!


    At this moment, an article called Interrogation Report was published in Hope Media¡¯s newspaper.


    In the report, it detailed how the Qing Consortium and the Northwest Army had surrounded the hitmen in Luoyang City and investigated the spies, how they analyzed the surveince footage of the city, how they arrested corrupt officials who had taken bribes, all of which led to the capture of the mastermind, Luo Zongren (real name: Yang Yanbang).


    This interrogation report clearly listed all the events of the time leading up to Jiang Xu¡¯s assassination and the events after that. It was obvious Hope Media had received Ren Xiaosu¡¯s authorization to publish this report, and they even had someone who specially provided them with information to write the article.


    In the interrogation report, even the interrogation process was described. Although most of the violent torture methods were omitted, the process of how Luo Zongren pointed the me at the Wang Consortium and how he was exposed was also mentioned in the article.


    This was the first time Hope Media had published an article like that. When the readers of Hope Media saw this report, all of them were thrilled.


    This was probably the readers¡¯ first experience with a real spy war.


    In the past, no newspaper had ever dared to publish such articles. This was because there would be bloody battles involving the organizations, and no organization would allow such reports to be published.


    Moreover, even though there were also relevant cultural works covering spy wars in the past, those were mostly just the imaginations of directors and authors. They were not as authentic as the interrogation report that was published.


    However, the main point of this interrogation report was that it pointed out the real culprit responsible for Jiang Xu¡¯s death¡ªthe Zhou Consortium.


    While everyone thought the Wang Consortium had killed Jiang Xu, Hope Media announced the true murderer in the headlines. The Zhou Consortium¡¯s purpose was to make everyone outraged at the Wang Consortium and even split the Wang Consortium from the inside.


    In an instant, many of the young people in the Zhou Consortium¡¯s strongholds walked out onto the streets to protest. Before this, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s spokesperson even held a press conference to condemn the Wang Consortium for the assassination.


    At that time, many young people still supported the Zhou Consortium¡¯s unyielding attitude and admired their courage for criticizing the Wang Consortium.


    But now they realized they had been deceived. So it was actually the Zhou Consortium that did it.


    There was no doubt about Hope Media¡¯s reputation. The trust the journalists and editors had umted over the years made it so no one doubted the authenticity of the newspaper when they read it.


    At this moment, many of the intelligence brokers realized the Zhou Consortium had not mobilized their troops to defend against the Wang Consortium but to prevent someone from taking revenge on them.


    And the intelligence circle knew very well who that someone was.


    However, they could not understand why the Zhou Consortium would mobilize such arge force. Was it really necessary?


    The Northwest was so far away from the Zhou Consortium, and it could be seen from the previous sting operation in Luoyang City that not many of the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents were operating covertly in the Central ins.


    Moreover, after Luo Zongren was beaten and killed by the residents of Luoyang City during the protest, all of the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents left.


    Therefore, no matter how powerful that futuremander was, he could not possibly take on the Zhou Consortium¡¯s main forces all by himself.


    The intelligence brokers somehow felt the Zhou Consortium was making a mountain out of a molehill. After all, the Zhou Consortium was an organization, while the other party was seemingly only one person.


    However, they still rushed to Stronghold 73 very quickly. Everyone felt that the futuremander would definitely head there. Witnessing someone opposing an entire organization was something that would probably only happen once in their lifetimes.


    Just as everyone¡¯s gaze turned to the Zhou Consortium, a group of more than 2,000 soldiers in the north advanced into the Sacred Mountains that had been abandoned by the Pyro Company.


    After the Battle of the Sacred Mountains, this ce had be deste. Even the Pyro Company¡¯s own troops had pulled out from this ce.


    No one knew what these troops hade to the Sacred Mountains for.

 Chapter 999 - Finding those responsible

    <h4>Chapter 999: Finding those responsible</h4>


    The fog around the Sacred Mountains did not disperse, and the tarants hidden within it still lingered.


    When these 2,000-odd people arrived at the foggy region, they did not stop in their tracks like normal people would. Instead, they plunged right in.


    But surprisingly, their pace did not seem to be affected by the fog at all. They continued advancing into the heart of the Sacred Mountains without any hindrance.


    It had been a long time since anyone came to this abandonednd. When the tarants discovered there was prey, they started converging on this unit of soldiers.


    But when the tarants appeared, these soldiers did not panic one bit. One of them took out a ck box that yed a strange sound. When the tarants heard the sound, they immediately retreated.


    It seemed the soldiers did not intend to kill the tarants. Instead, they wanted to use them as a natural protective barrier to continue guarding the secret of this ce.


    It was not the same secret the Pyro Company used to protect, but a new one.


    The group of more than 2,000 soldiers walked in an orderly manner. When they entered the heart of the Sacred Mountains, silvery strands appeared on the face of the person at the front. ¡°This really is a suitable ce. Although the facilities are a little old, there¡¯s a lot of materials here that we can put to use immediately.¡±


    After that, the 2,000-odd soldiers behind him immediately entered the various buildings and started searching for equipment left behind by the Pyro Company.


    Based on his calctions, this Sacred Mountains were currently the most suitable ce to establish a secret factory. Although it stillcked the support of certain technologies, his final requirements would soon be met when the Wang Consortium fully annexed the Pyro Company.


    He turned around and looked around at the overgrown weeds in the heart of the Sacred Mountains and suddenly felt this ce was very suitable for him. Everything here seemed like a new beginning.


    ¡­


    At this moment, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s main forces were still rushing to Stronghold 73 to assemble.


    Inside Stronghold 73, in an office at the intelligence agency¡¯s secret base, a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed sses was reading a document in his hand with a frown. ¡°Any news of Ren Xiaosu?¡±


    ¡°Sir, he departed from Luoyang City by himself two days ago in the morning. His whereabouts are currently unknown.¡±


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s intelligence director named Zhou Shoushi was a little unhappy. ¡°What the hell are you people doing? How could you lose track of an extremely dangerous person like him?¡±


    In the luxurious office, a huge, taxidermied tiger head was hanging on the wall. This was the tiger Zhou Shoushi had killed 17 years ago.


    There was even an exquisite-looking hunting rifle ced under the tiger¡¯s head. Everyone who entered the office would be greeted by this sight first and feel the authority of the office¡¯s owner within the Zhou Consortium.


    In the Zhou Consortium, Zhou Shoushi, as well as Zhou Xilong, who had been killed by Ren Xiaosu, and the current highest-ranking militarymander, Zhou Yifei, were also known as the Zhou Consortium¡¯s Three Tigers. Zhou Shoushi actually quite liked this nickname.


    The office windows were covered by thick curtains. It was as though the people in here had a natural dislike for sunlight.


    The intelligence agent opposite of Zhou Shoushi said, ¡°The main forces should be arriving at Stronghold 73 within two days. Sir, surely we don¡¯t need to be this worried, right?¡±


    ¡°The issue is how are we going to make it through the next two days.¡± Zhou Shoushi ced the document in his hand aside. ¡°How are things over at Hope Media?¡±


    ¡°An informant at Luoyang City sent us a message saying Hope Media is packing up their stuff. It seems like they¡¯re moving out of their headquarters.¡± The intelligence agent said, ¡°A convoy has already parked outside of Hope Media, so they should be leaving in the next few days.¡±


    ¡°Leaving?¡± Zhou Shoushi was taken aback. ¡°Where are they going?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s rumored that they¡¯re heading to the Northwest,¡± the intelligence agent said.


    All of a sudden, an explosion boomed from outside. Zhou Shoushi immediately stood up. ¡°What¡¯s going on?!¡±


    After a while, an intelligence agent knocked on the door and came in. ¡°Sir, bad news! The city gate of Stronghold 73 has been blown up with explosives!¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Zhou Shoushi was stunned. ¡°The city gate was blown up? What¡¯re the garrison troops doing?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re pursuing the person who blew up the city gate. Apparently, the culprit was inside the city during the incident. He suddenly approached the city gate at a very fast speed, dropped the explosives, then ran away. Right now, the criminal who blew up the gate is trying to escape the stronghold, but it seems like there¡¯s more than one of them. He has a partner,¡± the intelligence agent exined.


    ¡°Hurry off! It¡¯s a disgrace to our intelligence agency that people like them have infiltrated the stronghold. Organize a field operation to arrest them. We must capture these people before it turns dark!¡± Zhou Shoushi flew into a rage. For such a serious crime to happen, he would probably not be able to answer to his boss, Zhou Shiji.


    In an instant, most of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency¡¯s field operatives were attracted by the explosion and rushed out like a swarm of locusts.


    When Zhou Shoushi picked up his teacup, he suddenly realized it had gotten cold. He picked up the phone and told the people outside, ¡°Change my tea.¡±


    Afterwards, he hung up and started going through the other documents. But for some reason, Zhou Shoushi felt a little uneasy.


    They were already on guard against Ren Xiaosu taking revenge on the Zhou Consortium. Now that such a terrible incident had suddenly happened in Stronghold 73, he knew it was definitely rted to Ren Xiaosu.


    The door opened with a creak. Zhou Shoushi frowned. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you knock¡ª¡±


    Zhou Shoushi was about to lose his temper, but when he saw the young man who pushed open the door, he froze.


    Ren Xiaosu was holding a tea saucer in his hand. However, there was no cup nor any piping hot tea on it. Instead, a bloodied pistol was resting there.


    Zhou Shoushi forced himself to calm down. He slowly reached under the table and tried to press the red button. However, Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t bother pressing it. It¡¯s useless. Everyone in the building is dead. I didn¡¯t even let off the guard hounds that y¡¯all raised. Do you think I¡¯m a little deranged?¡±


    Zhou Shoushi felt a chill fall upon him. He had not even heard anymotion outside. But as soon as Ren Xiaosu said that, Zhou Shoushi believed him simply because he was Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Zhou Shoushi asked anxiously.


    ¡°I heard that y¡¯all were looking for me and even offered a reward to the intelligence brokers in the mob. When I saw that the offer was so high, I decided to sneak in here and see if I could im the money.¡± Ren Xiaosu plucked the cloth Zhou Shoushi used to clean his sses with off the table and started wiping the bloodstained pistol on the saucer.


    Zhou Shoushi said, ¡°It wasn¡¯t my idea to kill Jiang Xu.¡±


    ¡°See, it¡¯s much easier if we chat like this, isn¡¯t it?¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Who else could it be but you? You¡¯re Luo Zongren¡¯s immediate superior.¡±


    ¡°Although he¡¯s half a rank lower than me, he doesn¡¯t report to me most of the time. I also know the deeds he carries out are those that can¡¯t be seen out in the open, so I deliberately avoided them. I was afraid the boss would silence me to keep a secret,¡± Zhou Shoushi exined.


    ¡°Mhm, that¡¯s a very good reason.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°So you¡¯re telling me that the person who wanted Jiang Xu killed and gave the order to do so was the Zhou Consortium¡¯s boss, Zhou Shiji? But even if you can wash your hands of this matter, you still have to die.¡±

 Chapter 1000 - Sign of the times

    <h4>Chapter 1000: Sign of the times</h4>


    When Zhou Shoushi realized he was going to die today regardless of what he said, he gradually calmed down.


    Zhou Shoushi adjusted his gold-rimmed sses and evenbed his hair with his hand before saying, ¡°Do you know the Wang Consortium is annexing the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sat down across from him. ¡°I know, but what does that have anything to do with what we¡¯re talking about now? Are you saying that everything that y¡¯all did was to target the Wang Consortium?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Zhou Shoushi said, ¡°Several years ago, the Wang Consortium revealed their ambitions when they kept using trade to try to weaken the consortiums around them. Moreover, they¡¯ve implemented mandatory conscription of their citizens for so many years, so everyone knows they¡¯ve been wanting to start a war in the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°So?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°So our Zhou Consortium was just seeking self-preservation.¡± Zhou Shoushi said coldly, ¡°If the Wang Consortium can resort to unscrupulous means, why can¡¯t our Zhou Consortium do the same? Did you not notice that they just recalled all men under the age of 30 who had served in the military? Actually, they didn¡¯t even use their full strength during the war with the expeditionary army. Otherwise, the Pyro Company wouldn¡¯t have ended up losing so badly, and your Northwest Army wouldn¡¯t have had to fight so hard at Mt. Zuoyun! Don¡¯t you think your fellow Northwest Army soldiers at Mt. Zuoyun who died there suffered wrongful deaths?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s your reason for killing Jiang Xu?¡±


    ¡°Only by doing so would the entire Alliance of Strongholds share amon enemy. It would also make the Qing Consortium and the Zhou Consortium join forces to resist the Wang Consortium together! If the n was sessful, you would also have taken revenge for Jiang Xu, right? Therefore, the Northwest would¡¯ve be part of the n as well.¡± Zhou Shoushi said, ¡°This was supposed to be the best strategy for the Zhou Consortium.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had to admit that if Wang Yun and the others had not worked together to find the real culprit, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s n would have indeed seeded. At that point, the Wang Consortium would be the enemy of the entire world, and there would be no chance for them to slowly annex the various consortiums.


    If Zhou Shiji hadn¡¯t encountered Ren Xiaosu, he could¡¯ve been hailed as a cunning strategist, a great man, or something on that level.


    ¡°But y¡¯all weren¡¯t affected by the war with the expeditionary army. If you¡¯re envious of the Wang Consortium¡¯s mandatory conscription policy, you could¡¯ve done the same. You could¡¯vee up with various strategies to counter them, but you shouldn¡¯t¡¯ve used Jiang Xu¡¯s life in exchange for your victory. Perhaps to you, killing Jiang Xu was the best choice for the Zhou Consortium. But in my opinion, he was the most innocent one.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Besides, what did Jiang Xu do to deserve this?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood up and unfurled the curtains a little.


    When the afternoon sun shone into the gloomy room, Zhou Shoushi could not help shielding his own face from the sunlight. It was a little blinding.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Tell me, what¡¯s Zhou Shiji¡¯s itinerary?¡±


    Zhou Shoushi said with a dark expression, ¡°Why should I tell you? Can I live if I tell you?¡±


    ¡°Well, no.¡± Ren Xiaosu grinned. ¡°But won¡¯t you feel a little lonely if you had to die alone? Wouldn¡¯t it be great to have someone apany you? Think about it. He¡¯s clearly the one who came up with the ns, yet you¡¯re the one dying for it instead. Don¡¯t you find that unfair?¡±


    Ten minutester, Ren Xiaosu walked out of the intelligence agency¡¯s headquarters. He had obtained the specific details of Zhou Shiji¡¯s itinerary, as well as the contingency ns of his team if he encountered danger in the stronghold.


    It was as though Zhou Shoushi was particrly worried Zhou Shiji would not die, so he exined everything very clearly.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu felt the interrogation process had gone too smoothly. Perhaps Zhou Shoushi was really afraid of loneliness.


    This was the bunch of sunlight fearing, spineless cowards who had orchestrated Jiang Xu¡¯s death while hiding behind a thick curtain of conspiracy.


    For a moment, Ren Xiaosu also considered another potential problem. If he really managed to kill Zhou Shiji on his visit to the Zhou Consortium this time, a civil war would definitely break out within the Zhou Consortium instantly.


    ording to Luo Lan, there was no one in the Zhou Consortium who was capable of taking charge other than Zhou Shiji.


    In this fashion, the Wang Consortium would no longer have any opponents in the Central ins.


    This was probably why Qing Zhen had urgently summoned Luo Lan back. Could Qing Zhen have seen the day when the Wang Consortium would unify the Central ins?


    And then, would the Wang Consortium go on to attack the Northwest and the Southwest after that? Ren Xiaosu felt that they would.


    At that time, the Wang Consortium would turn into a behemoth.


    But how could he not take revenge for Jiang Xu? Ren Xiaosu wanted everyone to know there was a price for killing a person like Jiang Xu.


    The people from Hope Media had already packed up their belongings and were heading to the Northwest.


    Those with families and children would remain in Luoyang City, while the others would head northwards to set up a new headquarters there. After that, the Hope Media that remained in Luoyang City would be a branch office.


    This was the decision Zhang Chentong had undertaken after a long deliberation because the Central ins was no longer peaceful. Everyone could sense the impending danger.


    While pondering, Ren Xiaosu had already made his way past two street junctions. The intelligence agency had deployed almost all of its forces to capture the criminal who had set off the explosion at the city gate, so it was exceptionally easy for Ren Xiaosu to infiltrate the intelligence agency after getting into the stronghold. Perhaps no one was even aware that Zhou Shoushi was dead.


    As Ren Xiaosu looked around the streets of Stronghold 73, chatter broke out among the residents over the explosion that went off. No one expected that Ren Xiaosu, the chief culprit, would just casually walk past them like that.


    The residents were innocent, so Ren Xiaosu did not wish to start a massacre right inside the stronghold. If a lot of innocent people got dragged in, Jiang Xu would probably be very disappointed.


    But it did not matter. He would make Zhou Shiji himself walk into the trap.


    As the Zhou Consortium¡¯s main forces were still two days away from Stronghold 73, Ren Xiaosu felt it was absolutely enough time for him to kill Zhou Shiji.


    Another explosion rang out in the north of the stronghold where the garrison troops¡¯ base was located. If even that ce was sessfully attacked, it meant there was no longer a safe location in the stronghold for Zhou Shiji.


    But before Ren Xiaosu could safely retreat, he suddenly noticed he was being followed.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and disappeared into a small alley. The people following him quickened their pursuit and ran into the alley.


    But when the two of them went in, they realized it was actually a dead end. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was nowhere to be seen.


    ¡°Looking for me? There¡¯s been quite a lot of people looking for me over the past two days.¡± Ren Xiaosu started sizing up the other party. Actually, they did not look like they were the Zhou Consortium¡¯s people. Their clothes made them look more like refugees who lived in the wilderness.


    The two men looked at each other and slowly moved their hands towards their waists.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°Which department of the Zhou Consortium are you two from?¡±


    ¡°We ain¡¯t their people. We¡¯re just looking to earn some reward money,¡± one of them said.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°So you¡¯re intelligence brokers working for the mob? Who¡¯s your boss?¡±


    ¡°As if we¡¯d tell you something like that! Even though we¡¯re not as strong as you, we still have our pride. If you want to kill us, do it quickly. We won¡¯t involve others,¡± one of them said.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Forget it, I¡¯ve killed too many people over the past few days. I don¡¯t wish to kill any more people who have nothing to do with this case.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked out of the alley.


    But as soon as he turned around, one of the men quickly drew his gun and tried to kill Ren Xiaosu. Before he could raise his arm, a sniper bullet pierced the man¡¯s chest.


    When the other guy saw the situation had turned unfavorable, he attempted to escape by climbing over the wall. But how could Yang Xiaojin possibly give him a chance?


    Ren Xiaosu stood quietly at the entrance of the alley and sighed. ¡°Is this a sign of the times? Xiaojin, your position has been revealed. Head over to Alpha Seven. I¡¯ll pick you up on the way.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin replied over the earpiece, ¡°Roger.¡±

 Chapter 1001 - Bullying with numbers

    <h4>Chapter 1001: Bullying with numbers</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    A huge fire suddenly broke out in the garrison base of Stronghold 73. The Zhou Consortium had used a lot of fireproof materials during the initial construction of the base to prevent fire outbreaks.


    It was not a natural disaster this time but someone deliberately setting the base on fire using highly mmable explosives. At this moment, the garrison troops in the military base started rushing to the scene of the fires. A soldier had witnessed only five arsonists that he said were responsible for the fire, but all of them were extremely agile and could not be caught by ordinary people.


    After the five arsonists set the garrison base on fire, they left while an entirepany of troops chased after them.


    Outside of the base was a residential area. The five arsonists easily scaled an apartmentplex and got onto the roof.


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops behind them stared at the five-story residential building in disbelief. Although it was not very tall, they could not figure out how to climb it.


    Normally, they would also undergo professional climbing training to cope withplex terrain operations.


    But there weren¡¯t even any external pipes on the walls for them to grab onto. They could not understand how those five people had managed to climb up!


    The officer in charge of the pursuit shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t bother climbing up. We¡¯ll just pursue them on the ground. We can block them at the small street up ahead. They can¡¯t continue leaping across the roofs.¡±


    As he spoke, hundreds of Zhou Consortium soldiers started running quickly. One of thebat toons even advanced at full speed just so they could intercept the other party when they reached that street junction.


    The street thaty between the five arsonists¡¯ escape route was at least 12 meters wide, so it would be impossible for normal people to leap across the roofs of the buildings to reach the other side.


    The pursuing troops on the ground could asionally see some figures bounding across the rooftops of the buildings in front of them. To the officer¡¯s surprise, they were moving much faster than expected!


    Although both parties were about to reach the street up ahead, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops were still unable to close the distance between themselves and the arsonists.


    The officer said, ¡°Don¡¯t be anxious. Wait until they¡¯re down on the ground before shooting right at them! We¡¯ll get an angle on them then!¡±


    But the moment he finished speaking, the group of five on the rooftop jumped at the same time when they reached thest residential building facing the street!


    The 12-meter wide street was like an abyss, but they crossed it as though they were wild geese soaring over!


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s officer was stunned. Were they still normal people? Could all five of them be superhumans?!


    But which organization dared to wreak havoc in Stronghold 73 so wantonly? They even found five superhumans to carry out a mission together?


    While they were momentarily stunned, a Zhou Consortium officer rushed out from the side. He had the rank of lieutenant colonel on his uniform.


    A soldier eximed, ¡°It¡¯s Zhou Lin, the superhuman from the garrison troops. He¡¯s chasing after them!¡±


    This lieutenant colonel of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops named Zhou Lin strode forward inrge strides. As he passed through the streets and continued his pursuit, he could hear the exmations of the soldiers behind him. He sneered without looking back.


    Zhou Lin plunged after them into the alley across the street. But he suddenly realized he had been followed by a young man who was right behind him.


    Meanwhile, the five arsonists he was pursuing had stopped in their tracks and turned around to look at him mockingly.


    One of them even smiled at the young man behind him and said, ¡°Qin Sheng, block his escape route so he doesn¡¯t get away.¡±


    ¡°Got it, Brother Qingxi,¡± Qin Sheng answered.


    Zhang Qingxi said to Li Yinglong nearby, ¡°Qin Sheng is really gifted. Ever since bing a Rider, his physical condition has improved much faster than ours. His martial aura is also more ferocious than ours.¡±


    Li Yinglongmented, ¡°Yeah, this kid didn¡¯t look like he had any talent back then.¡±


    There was also a difference in strength between the Riders, and this was determined by their individual talent. After they became Riders, some of their physical attributes would be locked at close to a T5batant¡¯s level while others might continue getting stronger.


    Qin Sheng had already surpassed Zhang Qingxi and Li Yinglong in less than a year after bing a Rider.


    Zhou Lin sized up the six people coldly before asking a very dumb question. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you guys fleeing anymore?¡±


    ¡°We only have to flee if we can¡¯t beat you. But since we can, there¡¯s no need for us to run.¡± Zhang Qingxi exined with augh, ¡°I¡¯m more curious about you. What gave you the courage to pursue us by yourself? Do you think we¡¯re pushovers?¡±


    Honestly, if the Riders wanted to wreak havoc in a stronghold, they would be very tough to deal with.


    Standard troops couldn¡¯t catch up to them, and even superhumans could get killed if they went after them in fewer numbers and got outfought.


    Nowadays, the 12 Riders always acted together whenever there was a mission. All across the world, there were no consortiums that could keep 12 superhumans stationed in a stronghold to deal with the threat of the Riders.


    If it were any other superhuman, they might not be able to freely travel through the city and might even get surrounded by troops on the ground.


    But since these people were into extreme sports, traversing across rooftops was almost like running on t ground to them.


    At this moment, another two Riders appeared in the alley. They were Xu Ke and Wen Meng.


    However, Xu Ke and Wen Meng were still wrapped up in bandages. Xu Ke had his left arm in a sling, while Wen Meng limped about. It seemed they had been injured while assisting the evacuation of the Pyro Company and the refugees.


    When Zhou Lin saw their numbers increasing, he felt a little helpless. More importantly, they were asking each other about the progress of their missions while utterly disregarding him.


    Zhang Qingxi said, ¡°I wonder if Wu Dingyuan haspleted his mission yet. Should we go and assist him?¡±


    Just as Zhou Lin was about to say something, he felt a brush of wind behind him. Reflexively, he backflipped to dodge the attack. But all the Riders around him suddenly rushed forward and beat him to the ground. It happened so fast he did not even have time to use his power.


    Whenever he tried to concentrate on using his superpower, a fist wouldnd on him and disrupt his power!


    Even with the Riders outnumbering him seven to one, they still resorted to unorthodox tactics like distracting him and attacking from behind!


    How dishonorable!


    It wasn¡¯t until Zhou Lin was beaten to death that Wu Dingyuan and Huang Xiaoyu finally rushed over and joined them. The two of them said, ¡°Target eliminated.¡±


    The person they had killed was the highest-ranking militarymander, Zhou Yifei.


    During this operation, five of them were in charge of starting a fire to distract the reinforcements, while Qin Sheng and two other wounded Riders were responsible for providing support. Meanwhile, Wu Dingyuan and Huang Xiaoyu were responsible for carrying out the decapitation strike on their target.


    Li Yinglong nodded. ¡°ording to Xiaosu, Zhou Shiji will definitely head to the safe house after receiving news of what happened to the garrison.¡±


    ¡°Where are we heading next? Should we go join up with him? And when should we tell him about what we discussed previously?¡± Zhang Qingxi asked.


    ¡°Let¡¯s deal with the Zhou Consortium first,¡± Li Yinglong replied.


    Before this, the Riders had split from the Qinghe Grouppletely. Moreover, they sent a warning to the rest of the world that they would fight anyone who tried to target Luoyang City to the death.


    Iff they just stuck to their role of defending the stronghold, their strength would be very weak since they could not take on the main forces of the consortiums. But if they were used for causing destruction, no consortium could withstand their attacks.


    The reason why the Zhou Consortium paid so much attention to concealing their identity in the assassination of Jiang Xu was that they were worried the Riders would take revenge on them.


    Now that the Riders had found out who their enemy was, they had to teach them a bloody lesson to live up to their deration so others would not dare target Luoyang City again.

 Chapter 1002 - Wait for him on the bridge

    <h4>Chapter 1002: Wait for him on the bridge</h4>


    Stronghold 73 was inplete chaos now. The garrison base that was set on fire, and the assassination of the highest-ranking militarymander, Zhou Yifei, had a much greater impact on the stronghold than the Riders had expected.


    Suddenly, rms went off everywhere inside the stronghold. The bell used to signal the time in the center of Stronghold 73 was struck 12 times to alert the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops.


    The garrison troops who were scattered across the stronghold started mustering while arge number of staff members started burning documents in Zhou Shiji¡¯s official residence.


    They sent truckloads of documents to the incinerator at the official residence¡¯s backyard, along withputers, sh drives, and paper documents. All confidential documents above ss C had to be destroyed.


    Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and the 12 Riders, a total of 14 people, hade to Stronghold 73. No one expected them to arrive so quickly, nor did anyone expect that just the 14 of them could cause such a huge impact on a stronghold.


    These were 14 supernatural beings, and everyone was finally reminded of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nickname as well.


    They also remembered the threats made by the Riders when they left Luoyang City.


    When the Riders left, they attacked some military facilities of the Zhou Consortium, the Kong Consortium, and the Wang Consortium before disappearing without a trace. The Riders knew full well that only by working behind the scenes would they be most threatening.


    However, they still did not expect that someone would assassinate Jiang Xu in Luoyang City when they had already issued those threats. This made the Riders exceptionally furious.


    Perhaps the Riders were not enough to destroy the entire Zhou Consortium. But after this incident, the Zhou Consortium would definitely decline under pressure from the Wang Consortium.


    In the era of the ¡°Rise of Gods,¡± a single person¡¯s rage could cause blood to be spilled across hundreds of miles.


    Before Xu Ke took over the Qinghe Group, Jiang Xu remained true to his belief in that old and run-down newspaper firm that the truth had to be reported. At that time, Xu Ke¡¯s father had even brought young Xu Ke to the newspaper firm and said to him, ¡°Greet uncle. This uncle is a really impressive man.¡±


    At that time, Hope Media was still an impoverished newspaper firm. Jiang Xu and Ji Yi had to endure the extremes of winter and summer while working in their office. Although Xu Ke¡¯s father wanted to help Jiang Xu, he did not have the courage to face the pressure from the various consortiums.


    It was only after Xu Ke took over the reins of the Qinghe Group 14 years ago that the current Hope Media was established. He used the Qinghe Group¡¯s seven satellites to help Jiang Xu deliver his manuscripts on time. Only then did Hope Media be widely known and was able to publish their newspapers to every stronghold.


    As Xu Ke was a Rider, he was more courageous than his father.


    Xu Ke still had feelings for Hope Media and Jiang Xu. If he knew that someone would assassinate Jiang Xu, he would definitely have remained behind at Luoyang City.


    Unfortunately, there were no ¡°ifs¡± to speak of in the world. At that time, there were too many escapees in the north who needed their help.


    It was extremely tough for the women and children escapees during an evacuation, as their safety could not be ensured, and the Pyro Company troops might even be attacked by the expeditionary army¡¯s guerri troops. Since the Riders were aware of all these matters, they had to go and help them.


    There was already a garrison of over a 1,000 soldiers standing guard outside Zhou Shiji¡¯s official residence.


    Zhou Shiji was sitting in his office and brooding over something. He wore a tight-fitting suit and did not have a hair out of ce.


    His aide-de-camp knocked on the door and entered. ¡°Sir, we should leave. The safe house in the official residence is no longer going to help us deal with the enemy this time. We must go now.¡±


    There was a safe house in the basement of the official residence, and there was plenty of water and food inside tost Zhou Shiji until the main forces arrived.


    However, everyone knew all about the enemy they were facing this time, so it was decided it would be too dangerous to remain here and defend from a fixed location.


    Zhou Shiji stood up. He arranged all the papers and pens on the table neatly before walking out calmly.


    As the highest-ranking official of the Zhou Consortium, how chaotically would the people under him react if he started panicking first?


    The outside of the official residence was covered with looselyid white pebbles and beautiful pine trees around it. The stone pebbles were washed on a fixed schedule weekly, so they always looked smooth and white.


    Zhou Shiji walked out of the official residence and got into a bulletproof car. The long convoy of vehicles then advanced towards the south of the stronghold under the protection of the garrison troops.


    Zhou Shiji asked, ¡°Is Zhou Yifei confirmed dead?¡±


    ¡°Affirmative, sir.¡±


    ¡°And Zhou Shoushi as well?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Zhou Shiji thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Then we can¡¯t head to Safe House 7 anymore. This retreat route was personally drawn up by Zhou Shoushi. Right now, the enemy will definitely know that¡¯s where we¡¯re heading.¡±


    Zhou Shiji¡¯s secretary was taken aback. ¡°You think that Zhou Shoushi will betray you?¡±


    Zhou Shijiughed. ¡°You think he won¡¯t? Let¡¯s reroute. We¡¯ll leave the stronghold in the opposite direction and join up with the main forces directly. I believe the enemies have already gathered at Safe House 7.¡±


    The secretary picked up the walkie-talkie. ¡°We¡¯re shifting to n C. We¡¯ll leave the stronghold via Mn Avenue. Tell the main forces rushing over from the North to hurry up and ask them when they can pick us up!¡±


    Zhou Shiji looked out the car window. He and Zhou Shoushi had worked together for nearly 20 years and would often second-guess one another¡¯s intentions. They even sometimes plotted against each other. It wasn¡¯t all united within the consortium.


    In his opinion, Zhou Shoushi was a spineless man, so it would not be unusual if he betrayed hisrades in the face of danger.


    Therefore, Zhou Shiji could not follow the contingency n drafted by Zhou Shoushi to retreat now that real danger had arrived. This was especially so when the enemy had gotten to Zhou Shoushi first.


    But at this moment, when the convoy of vehicles passed under the Sanjintan Interchange, a huge shadow suddenly leaped down from the bridge.


    The garrison troops at the rear shouted over the convoy radio, ¡°Vehicles in front, take avoidance measures! There¡¯s an armored being attacking from the bridge above!¡±


    The armored being they were referring to was naturally Ren Xiaosu in his nanomachine suit.


    Not only was Ren Xiaosu already waiting here in his armor, he also had his ck saber drawn. He was intending to pull Zhou Shiji out of the bulletproof car.


    Although the car might be bulletproof, it would not stop the ck saber from cutting through it.


    Not only that, but the sound of a sniper rifle firing in the distance also rang out. The sniper who was stationed atop a tall building also started taking revenge.


    The 12 Riders appeared on the periphery of the battlefield. Instead of engaging in closebat, they had hidden in a residential building and were shooting at the enemies through the windows.


    Perhaps Zhou Shiji had not expected Ren Xiaosu to actually appear here.


    Just as Zhou Shiji understood Zhou Shoushi, so did Zhou Shoushi.


    Before dying, Zhou Shoushi specifically told Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Remember, Zhou Shiji and I have worked together for over 20 years, but we¡¯ve also fought for as long. If he knows you¡¯ve already gotten to me, he definitely won¡¯t head for the safe house in the south. Because I was the one who prepared that location for him.


    ¡°The main forces of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s reinforcements currently on their way over from the North are an armored brigade, so they are definitely the ones closest to getting to Stronghold 73. Zhou Shiji will definitely head north and pass through the Sanjintan Interchange!


    ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to wait for him on the bridge while I wait for him in hell.¡±


    At the time, Ren Xiaosu felt those two people were probably a couple in their previous lives. They had such a love-hate rtionship with each other that before Zhou Shoushi died, he even insisted on bringing Zhou Shiji down with him, even if that meant destroying the Zhou Consortium.

 Chapter 1003 - Cheers

    <h4>Chapter 1003: Cheers</h4>


    The armored being dropped from the bridge like a rock andnded precisely on top of the bulletproof car Zhou Shiji was riding in. Everything appeared to be executed with extreme precision under Ren Xiaosu¡¯s control.


    In the vehicles at the rear that were responsible for escorting Zhou Shiji, the soldiers raised their guns and got ready to shoot when they saw the armored being dropping down from above.


    But it was toote to do anything. Ren Xiaosu raised the ck saber in his hand high. The moment he swung it down, he channeled his strength from his hips, abdomen, and arm at the same time, gathering all of it at the tip of the saber.


    With a screech, the sound of metal being cut could be heard. Many of the soldiers could not help but p their hands over their ears. The screeching sounded as though it could pierce everyone¡¯s hearts.


    The driver¡¯s terrified screams could be hearding from the bulletproof car. After the ck saber pierced the roof, it immediately stabbed into Zhou Shiji¡¯s chest.


    However, Ren Xiaosu still could not put his mind at ease. He forcefully cut open the top of the bulletproof car and confirmed that Zhou Shiji was really dead through the hole in the roof.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Shiji, who was lying in the vehicle with his heart pierced. Zhou Shiji¡¯s blood flowed out from his chest and stained his spotless white shirt red, dirtying his neat suit as well.


    ¡°The target is dead. Let¡¯s pull back. Xiaojin, retreat towards Zone 28. I¡¯ll pick you up on the way.¡± After saying that over the radio, Ren Xiaosu sheathed his saber and turned around.


    The entire highway was surrounded by the garrison troops, and a dense hail of bullets formed a huge of firepower around Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to continue pestering them. Instead, he turned around and ran towards a residential building near the road.


    His tough, armored fingers of his armor dug deep into the walls as he climbed up towards the roof with his bare hands before disappearing.


    This assassination attempt started and ended quickly. Ren Xiaosu did not waste time debating Zhou Shiji, nor did he even give him a chance to scream before he ended his life.


    This left the garrison troops who had wanted to engage in an intense battle with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armored being a little dumbfounded. They looked in the direction where Ren Xiaosu had disappeared and thought, ¡®<i>You¡¯re leaving just like that?</i>¡®


    Before this, many of them thought the other party would surely not be so bold as to assassinate the head of a consortium.


    But it was only now that they realized that in this era of ¡°individual¡± power, it was no longer a myth that a general¡¯s head could be taken despite being protected by 10,000 soldiers.


    It was no wonder Qing Zhen had concealed his own whereabouts. That move could only be attributed to his foresight.


    Currently, there were also a lot of people who wanted to assassinate Qing Zhen. Unfortunately, they could no longer track where he was. Some of these people who wanted to kill him were even members of the Qing Consortium.


    The garrison troops started chasing in the direction Ren Xiaosu and the Yang Xiaojin had disappeared off to. Some of them even surrounded the building where the Riders were hiding in an attempt to capture them.


    But the Riders scattered and escaped even faster than rabbits ran. They were just like monkeys returning back to nature as they disappeared from the sight of the garrison troops.


    The garrison troops could not understand what they were seeing. Why did one of the Riders have a bandage wrapped around his arm? How was someone with a broken arm able to run so quickly?! What kind of training did these people go through in normal times?!


    Within a day, all of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s top three figureheads had died. When the Hope Media reporter at Stronghold 73 found out about this, he was so ted he nearly cried. He quickly ryed this news back to Luoyang City.


    In Stronghold 73, a grand sting operation began. This was a disgrace to the Zhou Consortium. No matter who would take over at the Zhou Consortium next, they would have to capture the perpetrators to convince the masses to win their support.


    A spokesperson of the Zhou Consortium started denouncing the Northwest and insisted that this was done by one of their key figures. They called for the Northwest to take responsibility for it.


    The media quickly turned their attention to the Northwest. The reporters at Stronghold 144 swarmed over to the garrison base and hoped the Fortress 178 troops woulde out and give a statement.


    After waiting for nearly three hours, Zhang Xiaoman slowly walked out of the military base.


    A reporter held a microphone to Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s mouth. ¡°The Zhou Consortium ims this operation was likely carried out by the Northwest Army. We¡¯d like to know if it¡¯s true that the Stronghold Destroyer has really be the candidate for the nextmander of the Northwest?¡±


    Before Zhang Xiaoman came out here, he had alreadymunicated with Zhang Jinglin to see how he should answer the media¡¯s questions. However, Zhang Jinglin did not give him any explicit instructions other than telling him to just answer them truthfully.


    Zhang Xiaoman decided he would just tell the truth then. If anyone wanted to pursue the matter, they could just go and look for Commander Zhang for answers. He would take no responsibility.


    Zhang Xiaoman replied, ¡°Yes, he¡¯s indeed in the running to be the futuremander of Fortress 178¡¯s military corps. However, he still needs to be assessed over a longer period and undergo more training.¡±


    ¡°Does the Northwest have any other candidates?¡± the reporter asked.


    ¡°No, he¡¯s the only one,¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied.


    ¡°Commander Zhang is only 40 years old now, so why are you all considering the candidates so early?¡± the reporter asked.


    ¡°If there¡¯s a suitable candidate, we should just confirm him first so that he won¡¯t be able to run away,¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied.


    The reporters were confused. This answer stumped the reporters. They could never have expected to be given such an answer.


    Most press conferences were held in a very official manner, so it was rare to see such honest answers being dished out like that.


    At the side, the Great Hoodwinker could not bear to watch any further. He felt that if Zhang Xiaoman were to continue taking the questions, they might just end up with a press incident on their hands. So he quickly pushed Zhang Xiaoman aside and answered the reporters¡¯ questions himself. ¡°Hahaha, I¡¯ll take everyone¡¯s questions instead.¡±


    A reporter asked, ¡°Then based on the Zhou Consortium¡¯s ims, the events of their top three figureheads all being assassinated on the same day was indeed the Northwest¡¯s official stance, right? After all, the perpetrator is the candidate to be the Northwest¡¯s futuremander, and it¡¯s most likely that he will take over as the fortressmander. So the Zhou Consortium is asking that the Northwest Army take responsibility for this matter. How do you n on responding to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s statement? And how do you n on responding to the Zhou Consortium?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker remained silent for two seconds before saying with a simple smile, ¡°There¡¯s no need to stand on ceremony. It¡¯s what we should have done.¡±


    The reporters were speechless.


    On the same day, the transcript of the Northwest¡¯s press conference was quickly ryed back to the Central ins. When some of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s high-ranking officials saw it, they flew into a rage. ¡°How arrogant! They¡¯re simply too cocky!¡±


    But they suddenly realized that even though the other party was so cocky, there was nothing they could do about it.


    If the Zhou Consortium wanted to attack the Northwest, there would still be the Wang Consortium standing between them.


    The Northwest was too far away from the Zhou Consortium, so they couldn¡¯t dere war on them!


    Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and the others had already safely left Stronghold 73 and entered the wilderness outside the stronghold.


    A campfire was burning in the valley. Ren Xiaosu and the Riders caught some wild boars and wild rabbits in the mountains and roasted them over the fire. It was a delicious meal.


    Ren Xiaosu handed a roast rabbit to Yang Xiaojin and then asked the Riders, ¡°What ns do y¡¯all have?¡±


    Li Yingyun had a look at everyone before saying with augh, ¡°When we did our research, we discovered that the world¡¯s highest mountain is further west of the Southwest. It¡¯s said the mountain is covered in snow all year round and stands at 8,848 meters tall. If we want to climb that mountain, we¡¯ll have to go through countless difficulties. A Rider ascended to the peak twice before and described the scenery at the top of the mountain as very magnificent. So we¡¯d also like to make a trip there and see what the view looks like.¡±


    The Rider Li Yingyun was referring to was probably Ren He, the founder of the Riders organization.


    Nearby, Zhang Qingxi added with augh, ¡°But the Earth¡¯s crust has changed a lot since The Cataclysm, so we¡¯re not sure if that mountain is still around. If it is, we¡¯re gonna climb it. If it isn¡¯t, we¡¯ll just have to search for other mountains to climb. After that, we¡¯d like to travel around the region. We believe there¡¯s still some survivors there.¡±


    ¡°By the way, Xiaosu, we¡¯d like to settle down in the Northwest after we finish our mountain climbing adventures. Would you all wee us?¡± Li Yingyun asked.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Of course you¡¯re wee! Come and join us in the Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    Li Yingyun and the others looked at each other and smiled. It looked as though they had some sort of n.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was a little curious. ¡°Weren¡¯t y¡¯all searching for the Qinghe Group¡¯s heir? Are you not gonna look for him anymore after settling down in the Northwest? Have y¡¯all given up?¡±


    Li Yingyun smiled. ¡°We¡¯ve already found him. He¡¯s doing very well now and has not failed to live up to the reputation of the Riders, so there¡¯s no need for us to worry anymore.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grunted in affirmation and asked, ¡°How¡¯d you find him?¡±


    Off to the side, Wen Meng, who had been silent all this while, suddenly said, ¡°We¡¯ll keep that a secret for now.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not probe any further. He said to the Riders in seriousness, ¡°I¡¯ll be returning to the Northwest with Xiaojin tomorrow. At that time, I¡¯ll be waiting for all y¡¯all in the Northwest to contribute to our cause. Here, let¡¯s toast to the Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    ¡°Cheers!¡±


    All of a sudden, the satellite phone in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pocket rang. Ren Xiaosu nced at the number and was surprised to see it was from Wang Shengzhi.


    But after hesitating for a long while, he did not answer the call. Instead, he stuffed it back into his storage space.


    ¡­


    End of Volume Six: Breached Walls

 Chapter 1004 - Rankings

    <h4>Chapter 1004: Rankings</h4>


    There was a hubaloo throughout the Alliance of Strongholds.


    After the Wang Consortium sessfully took over all of the Kong Consortium¡¯s strongholds, only one stronghold situated along the east coast still remained under the Kong Consortium¡¯s control. Everyone was guessing when the Wang Consortium would take over this stronghold as well.


    At first, everyone felt the war in the North would definitely affect everyone that resided there.


    But in fact, after the Wang Consortium took over those strongholds, they immediately distributed relief food to all the residents. Then they quickly rebuilt the Public Order Division and installed surveince cameras in the various strongholds. Immediately after, the artificial intelligence took over judicial management.


    These strongholds werepletely unregted at the beginning, and the residents who remained behind were subjected to the abuse of evildoers and gang members. When the Wang Consortium arrived, the entire stronghold suddenly regained order, and the residents who were initially scolding the Wang Consortium started speaking of them in good light.


    Actually, this was all normal. Whoever could ensure the people had a good life would win the support of the majority.


    As for the conflicts between those at the top, what did that have anything to do with them?


    It was not only the Kong Consortium¡¯s strongholds that had been taken over but the Pyro Company¡¯s strongholds as well. The Pyro Company¡¯s current forces were no longer capable of contending with the Wang Consortium, so it was only a matter of time before they were annexed.


    Before the discussion of the Wang Consortium¡¯s total war against the Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company had died down, a fierce verbal exchange between the Zhou Consortium and the Northwest Army erupted again. This excited all of the onlookers once again.


    It was not that this verbal sparring was more intense than the Wang Consortium¡¯s total war, but that the statements made by Zhang Xiaoman and the Great Hoodwinker were simply too explosive.


    The Zhou Consortium spokesperson had just issued a condemnation when the Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to stand on ceremony. It¡¯s what we should have done.¡±


    To be honest, themon folk had never seen a rebuttal like the Northwest¡¯s official stance before.


    However, with the Zhou Consortium¡¯s assassination of Jiang Xu, everyone was on the side of the Northwest Army and watched the Zhou Consortium get mocked.


    After all, if the Zhou Consortium dared to assassinate Jiang Xu, they should be punished ordingly for it. Perhaps the Zhou Consortium did not expect the assassination would lead to such a painful lesson.


    In just one day, the deaths of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s top three figureheads also showed everyone just how powerful supernatural beings were in this era of the ¡°Rise of Gods.¡±


    Some people even marked this event as a new milestone in the world of supernatural beings. It symbolized that the era of the Rise of Gods hade to an end and was now officially entering the ¡°Era of the Gods.¡±


    Without the word ¡°rise,¡± it signaled that the gods had already risen.


    Correspondingly, everyone started to get even more curious. Just how many supernatural beings were there in the world now? Which organizations did they work for? Just how powerful were they? And what events had they been involved in?


    At this moment, a documentary about the world of supernatural beings, directed by Mu Wan¡¯ge, started promoting itself. The theme for the trailers was: ¡°We have personally experienced the battles between superhumans, and we¡¯d like to show everyone how wonderful the real world of superhumans is. We¡¯ve had the opportunity to tag along with the futuremander of the Northwest, and he¡¯ll make a special appearance at the end of the movie in the post-credits scene.¡±


    As such, even before the movie was screened in the Alliance of Strongholds, it started receiving wide-ranging expectations. Mu Wan¡¯ge was currently stationed in Luoyang City. On the second day of the movie¡¯s promotions, the door to Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s studio was trampled down by investors. It was truly a spectacr sight.


    The investors offered to invest a lot of money, so Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s movie had already made back its production budget before it even started screening.


    He registered a newpany and incorporated the movie under the entity as an asset. Then he sold 5% of its shares to Company A for an extremely high price, and 6% shares to Company B. In the end, he sold the shares to more than a dozenpanies. With 30% shares remaining under Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s name, Mu Wan¡¯ge had already made a profit. Furthermore, the profits utterly exceeded his expectations.


    This was a normal practice in the film industry, and it was like this since before The Cataclysm.


    The investors attended an early screening of the movie. It was indeed very well made and covered a lot of supernatural beings, including theplete events of the cave-in at East Lake and the escape from Stronghold 74 before it was destroyed.


    And the fact that the well-known female singer, Li Ran, was participating in the film was also an attractive selling point.


    But actually, a lot of the investors were here for the post-credits scene that featured the futuremander of the Northwest. In the end, everyone realized the post-credits scene only showed the back of Ren Xiaosu as he led everyone out of Stronghold 74 when it was about to be destroyed.


    The investors were speechless. ¡°You didn¡¯t even manage to get a frontal shot of him?¡±


    Mu Wan¡¯ge held his teacup up and said calmly, ¡°If I managed to film it, this movie would definitely have been destroyed. Do you all understand what I mean? It¡¯s already good enough that we got those shots.¡±


    An investor suddenly said, ¡°I saw in the movie that you and the Northwest¡¯s futuremander seemed to have gone to Stronghold 74 together. Li Ran was in the same group as well, so does that mean that something¡¯s going on between Li Ran and this futuremander?¡±


    The investors immediately perked up. This was a huge talking point. If it was handled well, it would definitely bring in a lot of benefits.


    To them, gossip was equivalent to profit!


    However, Mu Wan¡¯ge shook his head. ¡°No, it¡¯s not what you all think. I feel that the futuremander doesn¡¯t really like Li Ran and even despises her a little. As you all know, the futuremander¡¯s maid is a very powerful superhuman¡­¡±


    It was also at this moment that a rankings publication that rated supernatural beings and was said to have originated from the mob started appearing in the various strongholds and was put on sale.


    The selling price was not expensive either. It only cost about a yuan per copy, around the same price as a newspaper, so it was something everyone could afford to buy.


    The rankings publication had appeared very suddenly, and it seemed like the other party had prepared the distribution channel in advance as though it was nned.


    Someone bought it and read it. There were a total of a 100 superhumans featured in the publication. Furthermore, the rank order was footnoted in a striking font: ¡°Rankings are listed from strongest to the weakest, with a minority of the listings assessed as groups.¡±


    First ce was shockingly Li Shentan and Si Liren. The reason for their grouped ranking was very simple. These two superhumans were inseparable, so their overall strength had to be assessed based on theirbined powers.


    Then examples of Li Shentan¡¯s deeds, such as his huge impact on the war in the Southwest, were listed. By manipting a fullbat brigade, he was able to instantly disrupt the order and stability of a consortium.


    Many people were truly convinced that superhumans like them had made it to the top of the rankings. After all, the name of the Demon Whisperer was well-known throughout the Central ins since long ago. Furthermore, as an iconic figure of the era of the Rise of Gods, it was only natural that he would make it onto the rankings.


    In second ce was Chen Wudi. Among the examples of Chen Wudi¡¯s achievements was his final state of awakening in the Li Consortium¡¯s stronghold. Someone had previously estimated that Chen Wudi¡¯s final form at that time would be enough to take on the entire army of an organization.


    It was just a pity that this peak individualbat strength was only a sh in the pan.


    In third ce were Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.

 Chapter 1005 - A new intelligence agency emerges

    <h4>Chapter 1005: A new intelligence agency emerges</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The reason Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were on the rankings was because there were more narratives of them than the others. It could even be said that thebined narratives of Li Shentan and Chen Wudi were not as many as these two.


    The main reason was that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were involved more often in public incidents than the others, and their interpersonal rtionships were also rtivelyplicated.


    The pricing of this publication was very interesting as it only cost one yuan per copy.


    Many people thought they might as well just save the money and not buy it since they only wanted to check the rankings. But when they saw a copy of it in other people¡¯s hands, they realized it was actually filled with a lot of content and felt that listening to others describe it did not seem as interesting as reading it for themselves. When they wanted to borrow a copy to read, they could not even get their hands on one as the others had not finished reading it yet.


    Seeing that a lot of people were enthusiastically discussing the rankings and that they did not have a copy themselves, those who did not buy it immediately felt awkward.


    Since it was not expensive, they might as well get a copy.


    Multiple incidents that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had participated in were recorded in the magazine. Many people from the world of superhumans could tell from the descriptions in this publication that they had to have been written by someone who was also a superhuman.Otherwise, they would never have found out about those matters.


    Most people still did not know what Ren Xiaosu looked like. With the news of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s background also spreading like wildfire, no one knew the truth from the rumors.


    Some people said he was Zhang Jinglin¡¯s godson, while others said he was just an ordinary refugee. The most exaggerated ones even said he was born out of a rock¡­


    In this magazine, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s origins were actually recorded. It listed his time as a refugee at Stronghold 113, the period when he was a member of the Li Consortium¡¯s 1st Military Corps¡¯ Special Investigations Division, to the time when he spied for the Qing Consortium, then how he went on to serve in the Northwest Army¡¯s Razor Sharp Company where he became known as the Stronghold Destroyer, and finally taking the reins as the futuremander of the Northwest Army.


    Although the write-up was very simple, it allowed many people to clearly understand how Ren Xiaosu rose to power.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were involved in many of the incidents, such as the cave-in at Stronghold 73¡¯s East Lake, the incident in the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains, the battle to defend Luoyang City, the crisis at Stronghold 74, the Pyro Company¡¯s resistance of the northern barbarians, and the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun.


    It could be said that Ren Xiaosu was involved in most incidents that could affect the stability of the Alliance of Strongholds.


    This made the readers suddenly wonder why the futuremander of the Northwest did not remain in the Northwest but ran everywhere instead.


    The futuremander of the Northwest had only been in the Northwest for a few months. For the rest of his time, he had spent it outside fighting here and there.


    Moreover, what was strange was that Li Shentan was described with very simple words in the author¡¯s writeup of him in the magazine. But when it came to Ren Xiaosu, the wordings suddenly became very elegant. It was as though the author regarded Ren Xiaosu very highly.


    But when he wrote about the multiple strange identities Ren Xiaosu had, he gave him a negative evaluation: ¡°This kid is very cunning and does whatever he likes. After he was conferred those identities, he used them as cover to do all sorts of illegal things.¡±


    Then, in fourth ce was Yan Liuyuan. His description was a little simpler. It only mentioned that Yan Liuyuan had unified the Northern ins and that he was the one who breached the walls of Stronghold 176. During the war with the foreign enemies, he reinforced the Northwest Army at Mt. Zuoyun and would be defending the North from further attacks in the future.


    In fifth ce were Yang Anjing, Vani, Tang Hualong, Cheng Yu, Luo Xinyu, and the other key members of the Anjing House.


    There was quite a bit of information missing here, but one of the main points brought up was the rtionship between the Anjing House and the Saboteurs. The assessment of Yang Anjing¡¯s actual strength was a little vague because the head of the Anjing House rarely made a move personally.


    Number six: The Riders.


    Number seven: Zhou Yingxue and the Eight?Vajras.<sup>1</sup>


    Number eight: Luo Lan and Zhou Qi.


    The rankings went on until 100th ce, and the magazine was over 50 pages thick. Reading it left themon folks of the Alliance of Strongholds in awe.


    Then, when it was flipped to thest page, fine print appeared where it should have been signed off: ¡°This was a?Nonsense<sup>1</sup>?writeup.¡±


    When many of the residents saw this, they did not know whether tough or cry. However, a lot of the superhumans realized Hu Shuo and Zhang Baogen¡¯s names did not appear in the top 100.


    Anyone who had experienced the battle in Luoyang City would know that Hu Shuo had also been involved and that he was very strong as well.


    Since the author knew so much about the details of the battle in Luoyang City, there was no reason why Hu Shuo and Zhang Baogen were left out of the rankings.


    Therefore, this magazine was clearly written by Hu Shuo!


    Some of the strongholds started investigating the origins of the publication. In the end, the printing factory said the job was custom-ordered ten days ago by a young child.


    The other party negotiated a conveyance fee with the printing factory and left after agreeing on a price, and the author did not participate in the subsequent sales of the publication.


    The person who printed this run of magazines had disappeared somewhere.


    The situation was the same at almost all of the strongholds. Some of the more discerning people went to the welfare home in Luoyang City and observed from the outside if there were any activities. However, they realized the welfare home was empty. Meanwhile, the hundreds of children of all ages living there had also disappeared along with Zhang Baogen and Hu Shuo.


    Someone suddenly realized that apletely neutral intelligence agency would probably emerge soon. As for the purpose of this intelligence agency¡¯s creation, no one knew.


    Hu Shuo was originally the director of the Li Consortium¡¯s intelligence agency and held the rank of lieutenant general.


    After the destruction of the Li Consortium, hiswork of field operatives in the Central ins did not suffer much of a disruption. Right now, they were all being supported by Hu Shuo.


    An organization like this still caught the attention of a lot of those who wanted to find some clues about them. However, Hu Shuo seemed to have evaporated into thin air and gone into hiding among the shadows.


    This was a very experienced intelligence agent. He was a sly old fox.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were walking on the streets of Stronghold 144 with a magazine in their hands.


    After they returned to the Northwest, they did not alert anyone that they were back. Because they both wanted to rest up and lead a peaceful life. They did not want to be disturbed by anyone.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he read through the magazine, ¡°Look, the description of me in the rankings list was pretty good. I was worried earlier that if an outsider had written this, they wouldn¡¯t know how to praise me properly.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. ¡°This person knows too many of your secrets.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s obvious that this was written by Grandpa Hu Shuo. Other than him, almost no one else knows of my identity as an officer in the Li Consortium¡¯s Special Investigations Division.¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°Moreover, he was also quite careful with what he wrote. He did not mention any details of the battles that I partook in. He still bothered to write about the types of powers that the others have, but he did not give any description of my powers. I guess that¡¯s his way of protecting me.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin scoffed, ¡°Isn¡¯t that because you have too many superpowers? Not even the old man¡¯s sure of what powers you possess.¡±


    No one recognized these two people as they walked down the streets of Stronghold 144.


    However, two pedestrians could be heard saying, ¡°I think our futuremander should be ranked first. This magazine got the rankings wrong!¡±

 Chapter 1006 - Buying a house!

    <h4>Chapter 1006: Buying a house!</h4>


    ¡°I also think that our futuremander should be ranked number one. Look at those other supernatural beings. None of them can take the head of an enemy general who¡¯s protected by a 10,000-strong army, right?¡± The pedestrians on the street said excitedly, ¡°The Zhou Consortium is also one of the three biggest consortiums in the Central ins, but look what happened in the end? They were still easily taken down by our futuremander!¡±


    Of course, the Zhou Consortium was not going to copse immediately because of Ren Xiaosu. Although three of their leaders had died, a sessor was put in ce in the aftermath. Although a series of internal power struggles had also started, the consortium did not copse.


    But that was what the Northwesterners enjoyed saying. In their opinion, it was only a matter of time before the Zhou Consortium was annexed by the Wang Consortium.


    If it were any other ce, Ren Xiaosu would just be seen as a normal superhuman and everyone¡¯s impression of him would be, ¡°Wow, he¡¯s so powerful. But is it really OK to assassinate so many big shots of a consortium?¡±


    But it was different in the Northwest. Here, they would say, ¡°As expected of our futuremander!¡±


    When the Zong Consortium was still standing in the Northwest, the loyalty of the people under them had started leaning towards Fortress 178. In the early years, a lot of people even secretly fled there.


    Now that Fortress 178 had taken over all of the Northwestern strongholds, everyone could see that their days were getting better. As such, they naturally felt that they were also Fortress 178¡¯s people and gradually started to get a sense of belonging.


    Actually, the rankings list was still a little inurate. For example, Luo Lan knew that Li Shentan was unable to hypnotize Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s ranking was a little too low.


    That was because Zhou Yingxue was not involved in that many battles to date. When she fought on Mt. Zuoyun, the Experimentals who witnessed her power all died. When she took action in Luoyang City, the hitmen who saw her were also wiped out.


    It was not Hu Shuo¡¯s fault since Zhou Yingxue had indeed been too ruthless on both those asions.


    However, the uracy of the entire list was pretty good. Previously, when someone announced they wanted to rank all the supernatural beings, it caused a buzz among many people. And now, the publication of this magazine truly did not let anyone down.


    On top of that, Hu Shuo must have also earned a lot from this publication.


    That old man wanted to establish arge, covert intelligencework but funding had always been a problem. Although he still had some savings in the Southwest, it was not enough to run something like an intelligencework.


    Li Shentan¡¯s power should be able to make him money very easily, but that grandson of his was not interested in making money at all and only knew how to spend.


    In fact, he was really generous when it came to spending.


    When he intercepted the Zong Consortium¡¯s gold, he actually gave all of it to Ren Xiaosu. This made Hu Shuo¡¯s head throb just thinking about it. He was even tempted to include additional details in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s description in the rankings!


    A pedestrian in Stronghold 144 also had some doubts. ¡°I wonder who created this rankings list. How are they so well-informed? We Northwesterners don¡¯t even know that our futuremander has done so many things. This is just like reading a nove. This is awesome!¡±


    ¡°Who cares who wrote it? The futuremander¡¯s ranking is definitely wrong!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the pedestrian say that, he broke into a smile. However, Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes and pulled him along as she continued walking forward. ¡°What, do you n on joining their conversation? Hurry, let¡¯s go buy the house. Otherwise, we¡¯ll have to stay at the hotel again tonight. We arranged to meet the owners at 2:30 PM, so let¡¯s not bete.¡±


    Since the two of them did not even have a ce to stay after arriving here, they would definitely have to first buy a house that was suitable for them to live in for the long term. They would definitely still have to go to Fortress 178 in the future, but since this ce was also under the Northwest¡¯s rule, there was no fear that it would go to waste.


    Even Wang Fugui did not know they hade to Stronghold 144 this time. All they wanted was to have some peace and quiet to live their lives for the time being.


    Having been in the Central ins for so long, all they did was fight and kill enemies every day. As such, both Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were starting to feel a little tired. Both of them just wanted to lead normal lives.


    Speaking of which, they even missed the times when they went to school together.


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered something. ¡°Hey, what do you think the group name ¡®Zhou Yingxue and the Eight Vajras¡¯ means? I can understand that the ¡®Eight Vajras¡¯ refers to Wang Yuchi and the other students, but why does it sound like a mafia nickname? It¡¯s like the Eight Legions, or the Four Guardians,[1] that sorta thing¡­. Do you think she earned that nickname for the group by bossing her way around in the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°Are you very curious? Then why don¡¯t you ask her yourself?¡± Yang Xiaojin shot him a nce.


    ¡°Hahaha, no, not at all,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with augh.


    The two of them walked along Anning East Road towards the west. They did not intend to buy some standalone, luxurious vi. Instead, they got a real estate agent in the stronghold to find them an older courtyard house to view.


    Yesterday, the realtor said the courtyard house neighborhood used to house the families of the Zong Consortium¡¯s military personnel. Due to its old age, the houses here had changed hands several times and been converted into private residences.


    This ce was not as prosperous as the affluent neighborhood of Stronghold 144, but its selling point was that it was more secluded and quiet.


    Every house was a two-story brick building, and there was a small backyard that measured more than 200 square meters.


    The family that lived here was an old couple whose children had bought a house for them in a more upscale residential area after making some money doing business.


    There was one thing that was particrly good about this courtyard house. Two peach trees had been nted in the backyard by the owners, so there would be plenty of fruit to enjoy every year when they ripened.


    It was already spring, and the season of the peach harvest was not far away anymore.


    There was a university and a high school in the vicinity. A marketce sat two hundred meters to the left of the entrance of the property, and there was even a food street nearby. It could be said that this house was situated in an extremely lively location.


    When Yang Xiaojin heard this rmendation, she immediately decided she wanted to buy this house.


    After meeting up with the realtor at Anning East Road, Ren Xiaosu casually asked, ¡°Is the business sector in Stronghold 144 very prosperous these days?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± The realtor said politely, ¡°You two don¡¯t look like locals. Why¡¯ve youe here to the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°Oh, we also thought that there would be a lot of opportunities here, so we wanted toe and set up a small business,¡± Ren Xiaosu remarked.


    ¡°Then the two of you havee to the right ce.¡± The realtor said with a smile, ¡°In the past year, Stronghold 144 has be the distribution center for goods throughout the Northwest. It¡¯s way too busy there. So many people have suddenly be tycoons. There¡¯s really quite a lot of big merchants in Stronghold 144, and they¡¯re not inferior to those in the Central ins at all. Moreover, the Central ins is in a state of war now, so a lot of refugees and rich people have migrated here. They say this ce is a utopia. Two days ago, a businessman from the Wang Consortium wanted to settle down here. With so many people arriving, property prices in Stronghold 144 will definitely skyrocket. The two of you definitely won¡¯t make any loss if you buy a house here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and nodded. ¡°Alright, hopefully, what you say wille true.¡±


    When they arrived at the courtyard house, the old couple who were selling the house and their children were all present. Everyone was very polite when they saw each other. Both sides roughly negotiated the price of the house: 300,000 yuan.


    The old couple¡¯s eldest son said, ¡°You will definitely not be losing out at this price. Although it¡¯s slightly higher than market price, you all should know that the value of property in Stronghold 144 is still increasing. Even if you buy it, you won¡¯t incur any losses.¡±

 Chapter 1007 - Boss

    <h4>Chapter 1007: Boss</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin took a tour of the house.


    It was clean and tidy, although the decor was a little old-fashioned, and the corners of the walls were slightly moldy. Other than that, everything else looked great.


    It was clear the old couple loved cleaning their ce.


    The olddy smiled and said, ¡°Our neighbors are all young people now, so they¡¯re all very easy to get along with. You don¡¯t have to worry.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Yang Xiaojin. At this moment, she was standing under a peach tree in the yard and looking up at the tree¡¯s crown in a trance.


    He immediately said, ¡°Oh, I¡¯ll buy it then.¡±


    The owner was taken aback. ¡°You¡¯re buying it just like that?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    Everyone thought Ren Xiaosu would haggle over the price, but he did not do that. In fact, he even behaved very generously.


    Ren Xiaosu could tell that Yang Xiaojin liked this ce a lot. They hade a long way in their journey, and he also wanted to give Yang Xiaojin a stable home. Therefore, he decided to skip all the negotiations and get the deal done.


    Although he loved money, he never hesitated when it came to spending money.


    ¡°However, I don¡¯t have any of Fortress 178¡¯s currency on me. I¡¯m only carrying gold. Can you all convert the property price to gold?¡± Ren Xiaosu thought that since he had plenty of gold bars, there was no need for him to be thrifty with it.


    Based on how good he was at plundering gold, he could afford to support Yang Xiaojin no matter how big of a spendthrift she was. In any case, she was not someone who would squander his money at all.


    The olddy¡¯s eldest son seemed to be shocked by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attitude when he heard that he wanted to pay in gold. Although this house was not worth that much money, it was really rare to see someone readily offering gold as a form of payment.


    The other party thought for a moment and said, ¡°It¡¯s not a problem to ept gold. After all, gold can be used anywhere now. It¡¯s just that I need to verify the authenticity of it¡­. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t believe you, but it¡¯s something that needs to be done these days.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I understand, but where will you go to check?¡±


    ¡°One look and I can tell you two have just arrived at Stronghold 144. Fortress 178¡¯s bank can directly buy gold at market price. They have a department over there that specially deals with gold transactions, because there¡¯s a lot of merchants traveling from everywhere to this ce, so the department was set up just to facilitate transactions between everyone.¡± The olddy¡¯s eldest son said, ¡°And they don¡¯t even charge a transaction fee.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°That¡¯s very convenient.¡±


    It looked like Zhang Jinglin and those managing Fortress 178 had put in a lot of effort to facilitate trade in the Northwest to make it more prosperous. They knew just what the merchants needed.


    He took out a few gold bars. ¡°Go ahead then, I¡¯ll wait for you here.¡±


    The olddy¡¯s eldest son was surprised again. ¡°You¡¯re noting with me? Aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll run away with all these gold bars you gave me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Aren¡¯t your parents still here? Where can you run off to? Hurry up and go.¡±


    The young man gave Ren Xiaosu a close look before turning around to leave.


    Ren Xiaosu went into the yard. ¡°Do you like it here?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to own a small courtyard house like this. There¡¯ll be a bustling crowd not far away from the doorstep of the house, and I can enjoy peace and quiet when I get home. Xiaosu, I¡¯m a little tired. We fought our way from Luoyang City to the Kong Consortium, then from the Kong Consortium to the Pyro Company, and again from the Pyro Company to Mt. Zuoyun. It feels really good to have a quiet ce to rest now.¡±


    ¡°Oh, then let¡¯s rest up here. After we buy the house, let¡¯s go grocery shopping together,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid the others will get worried if they can¡¯t find you?¡± Yang Xiaojin chuckled and said, ¡°You¡¯re the futuremander of the Northwest. Many people are waiting to see you, and Mr. Zhang will probably want to have a chat with you as well. But you ended up hiding here after all you¡¯ve done in the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s alright, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m the center of the world. Even without me, the world won¡¯t stop spinning,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    After a while, the young man who went out to exchange the gold bars for cash returned. He ced more than 2,000 yuan on the table. ¡°The market price of gold has gone up again today, so there¡¯s still some money left after you purchased the house.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu happily pocketed the money. ¡°Then let¡¯s get the title deed transferred.¡±


    At the side, the realtor took out the contract. Based on it, Ren Xiaosu was required to pay the intermediary a sum of money as well. The process of purchasing property in the Northwest was rtively simple. The owner only needed to hand over the title deed to Ren Xiaosu so he could bring it to the stronghold¡¯s administrative center tomorrow for registration. After that, the transaction would be deemedplete.


    After everything was settled, the olddy¡¯s eldest son hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°I think you two must¡¯ve just arrived here. Are you here to start a business?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Yes, why?¡±


    ¡°My name is Ma Youjin. This is my business card,¡± the olddy¡¯s eldest son introduced himself. ¡°I have awork of local contacts. If the two of you are interested in working on any ventures together, you can look for me.¡±


    When Ma Youjin saw that Ren Xiaosu was such a generous buyer, he got the idea to befriend him.


    After all, there was definitely no issue with making friends with someone who paid up so readily by tossing out a few gold bars.


    Ma Youjin was a businessman, so he loved making friends the most.


    Ren Xiaosu took the card from him. ¡°Project Manager of Yunsu Trading Company?¡±


    Ma Youjin smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s right. I¡¯m in charge of the lipstick business at ourpany. Now that I¡¯ve be highly regarded by the higher-ups, I¡¯m in charge of all of the lipstick in the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°Lipstick?¡± Ren Xiaosu felt likeughing.


    ¡°Young man, have you heard of ourpany?¡± Ma Youjin asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head.


    Ma Youjin said proudly, ¡°Then let me give you a proper introduction. Our Yunsu Trading Company is currently the top import/exportpany in the Northwest. In terms of capability, we¡¯re second to none.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s really great,¡± Ren Xiaosu praised sincerely.


    ¡°But that¡¯s not the best part.¡± Ma Youjin¡¯s tone turned mysterious. ¡°Do you know who our boss is?¡±


    ¡°Please, do exin,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Our boss is Wang Fugui. He¡¯s a very well-connected person, so much so that even Stronghold 144¡¯s garrisonmander, Zhang Xiaoman, is very polite towards him. He keeps addressing him as Uncle Fugui.¡± Ma Youjin¡¯s face lit up as he spoke.


    Ren Xiaosu had a strange expression on his face. When he saw the word ¡°Yunsu¡± earlier, he found it a little strange. As Wang Fugui did not have the chance yet to tell him he had set up apany, he did not know that Yunsu was actually Wang Fugui¡¯s business.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu really did not expect that Wang Fugui would be the most influential businessman in the entire Northwest in just a year.


    Moreover, he had used the word ¡°Su¡± in thepany¡¯s name, so it was clearly another business that was set up to make money for Ren Xiaosu.


    Back then, Wang Fugui said he was only a shopkeeper while Ren Xiaosu was the boss. Ren Xiaosu did not expect Wang Fugui to still honor that, but his actions proved it was still how he thought.

 Chapter 1008 - The Eight Vajras

    <h4>Chapter 1008: The Eight Vajras</h4>


    When Ma Youjin saw that Ren Xiaosu was deep in thought, he was sure he had convinced him. He chuckled and said, ¡°So if you have any business ventures in the future, you¡¯re wee to partner with us. As long as it¡¯s not illegal, we are down to do anything here in Stronghold 144.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°You don¡¯t do illegal stuff?¡±


    ¡°But of course.¡± Ma Youjin turned serious. ¡°Ourpany¡¯s margins can be lowered, but we definitely mustn¡¯t do anything to tarnish our reputation. Whoever tries anything funny will be asked to leave.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°I guess you¡¯re not aware of it. Previously, my superior got his hands on a batch of lipstick from somewhere and imed we could make a very high profit margin on it. But when Uncle Fugui found out, he directly fired him.¡± Ma Youjin said, ¡°Uncle Fugui said we¡¯re not only representing ourselves through our actions, but we also represent the reputation of the boss above.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. ¡°The boss above? Which boss?¡±


    ¡°It seems like you¡¯re really unaware.¡± Ma Youjin lowered his voice and said, ¡°Do you see the word ¡®su¡¯ in ourpany¡¯s name?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I see it.¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood.


    ¡°And isn¡¯t the futuremander of the Northwest called Ren Xiaosu?¡± Ma Youjin said mysteriously, ¡°Actually, before our futuremander became the futuremander, Uncle Fugui had already started working for him. So they¡¯re tight, and this business is actually also the futuremander¡¯s private business arm.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had a strange expression. ¡°Is this known throughout the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°Of course it is.¡± Ma Youjin said, ¡°That¡¯s why Uncle Fugui said that even if we have to sacrifice our profits, we can¡¯t embarrass our futuremander and affect his future in the Northwest. If anyone dares to tarnish our futuremander¡¯s reputation, we¡¯ll tell them to beat it. Yunsu does not want to keep such employees around!¡±


    Wang Fugui¡¯s business had be very big now. On one hand, it was because he was really good at running a business. On the other hand, it was because the entire Northwest knew about the rtionship between Wang Fugui and Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, no matter what he did, there would always be people giving him a pass on the things he wanted to do.


    Meanwhile, Wang Fugui also yed his part and never did anything that would make them worry. Outsiders would not be able to nitpick on his dealings at all.


    Ma Youjin said in a low voice, ¡°I heard that our futuremander will be returning to the Northwest soon. At that time, our Yunsu will only get bigger and achieve eternal glory!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. Although he liked hearing others speak well of him, he still felt a little awkward when Ma Youjin praised him so seriously in his presence.


    Ma Youjin said, ¡°By the way, I haven¡¯t asked for your name yet.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°my name is L¨¹ Xiaomi.¡±


    ¡°It sounds like you and our futuremander are destined for each other based on your names.¡± Ma Youjin chuckled and said, ¡°So what business are you doing? Do you want me to introduce you to Uncle Fugui?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu waved it off with a smile. He was just enjoying some peace and quiet with Yang Xiaojin. As there was nothing urgent on Wang Fugui¡¯s end, he was not in a hurry to see him.


    Moreover, even if he really wanted to meet Wang Fugui, he would not need anyone to link them up. He could just go and meet him himself.


    ¡°Why?¡± Ma Youjin wondered, ¡°Could it be that you¡¯re not here to do business?¡±


    ¡°Your Yunsu can¡¯t do the business that I¡¯m doing.¡± Ren Xiaosu winked and said, ¡°Mine¡¯s shady.¡±


    Ma Youjin was enlightened. ¡°You should have said so earlier. Although our Yunsu doesn¡¯t dip its hands into such businesses, our sisterpany does.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Sisterpany? Who¡¯s running it?¡±


    ¡°Although I say it¡¯s apany, it¡¯s actually the ck market outside Stronghold 144.¡± Ma Youjin lowered his voice even further. ¡°While everyone knows about this ck market, they don¡¯t really like talking about it openly. Everything is sold there, including firearms, antibiotics, fur hides, and antiques too. The merchants from the grasnds conduct their transactions there.¡±


    ¡°Then what has this ck market got to do with all y¡¯all?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. He picked up a cup and took a sip of water.


    Ma Youjin exined to him, ¡°You don¡¯t know, right? The person in charge of the ck market is called Zhou Yingxue, and her followers are the Eight Vajras¡ª¡±


    ¡°Pfft.¡± Ren Xiaosu did a spit-take.


    Ma Youjin continued, ¡°Didn¡¯t you read the recent publication? They¡¯re very famous. Zhou Yingxue is our futuremander¡¯s maid, and she has eight armored young men at hermand. All of them are extremely brave and no one dares to provoke them. But don¡¯t be too afraid either. The security at the ck market is very tight, so no one dares to cause any trouble there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wiped his mouth. ¡°How¡¯s Zhou Yingxue¡¯s reputation?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s pretty good. She¡¯s very fair when dealing. It¡¯s just that the transaction fees in the ck market are a little high. Everyone says that she¡¯s too greedy for money,¡± Ma Youjin answered. ¡°But it¡¯s the only ck market in the Northwest, and some transactions can only be carried out there. But think about it, she¡¯s the futuremander¡¯s maid. This means that she has official backing, so you don¡¯t have to be afraid if anything happens. As long as you pay the transaction fees honestly, there¡¯ll be someone to help you handle things.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that it was no wonder Hu Shuo¡¯s publication ranked Zhou Yingxue and the Eight Vajras as a group. They sounded like they were really part of the underworld.


    In the end, she had really be the mob boss of the Northwest.


    He had been wondering if Zhou Yingxue had abused her authority in the Northwest.


    From the look of things, it seemed the maid did feel a little guilty when answering him back then.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled at Ma Youjin and said, ¡°Thanks for the exnation, bro. I¡¯ll make a trip to the ck market when I have time.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Ma Youjin said, ¡°When you get to the ck market, you can use our Yunsu¡¯s business card as an introduction. Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯ll definitely treat you well since they¡¯ll know you were rmended by Yunsu.¡±


    Actually, what Ma Youjin did not tell Ren Xiaosu was that if he were to use his business card at the ck market, Ma Youjin would get a cut of the transaction fees once a deal was done.


    Putting everything else aside, Zhou Yingxue had really put in quite a bit of effort into creating this ck market.


    After the owner of the house and realtor left, Ren Xiaosu headed to the backyard. Yang Xiaojin was leaning against a peach tree and said, ¡°Earlier, the olddy told me that if I want the peaches to be delicious, I¡¯d have to prune the branches and leaves diligently. She was even touching the peach tree reluctantly. It seemed like she¡¯d grown attached to them.¡±


    ¡°How many years had they lived here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°23.¡± Yang Xiaojin smiled. ¡°She said that when the Zong Consortium was still running the ce, the people were constantly living in fear and anxiety. But now that the Northwest Army¡¯s taken over, everything¡¯s gotten better.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin muttered to herself, ¡°Ever since my parents passed away, I no longer felt like I had a home in the Yang Consortium. At that time, my aunt took me out to train me, so my time was split between living in the stronghold and the wilderness. But no matter where I went, I didn¡¯t feel like I belonged. Now that I¡¯m in the Northwest, I don¡¯t know why, but it feels really homey.¡±

 Chapter 1009 - First meal

    <h4>Chapter 1009: First meal</h4>


    Yang Xiaojin was born into a wealthy family. Other people¡¯s children would attend kindergarten while she waited for private tutors toe and homeschool her.


    The tutors were all carefully selected by the consortium. Even though she was just a little girl, the tutors still needed to possess knowledge of everything in the world.


    She did not have any ymates, nor did she have a teacher who would bring her out to y games. The schrs would never let her y Drop the Handkerchief.


    Only Yang Anjing would asionally appear at the Yang Consortium¡¯s manor and read her fairy tales, teach her nursery rhymes, and jump rope with her.


    Yang Xiaojin cherished her time with Yang Anjing very much because those were the rare times she got to enjoy herself.


    After attending elementary school, she went to an elite school in Stronghold 88. Although she did not really like her ssmates there, she still enjoyed school very much. Because at school, she did not have to face the strict atmosphere at home.


    Yang Xiaojin had lost all concept of home in childhood. The Yang Consortium¡¯s manor was more like a hotel to her as she did not have to clean the ce. Every day, a servant would just hand her the clothes after they were washed. She saw the servants very often, but she rarely saw her family.


    Actually, Yang Xiaojin also felt that there was nothing toin about. She was born into one of the best families in the world, and there was no need to worry about the basics, such as food, clothing, and shelter, or worry about not being able to afford her school fees. As long as it was something rted to money, she did not have to worry.


    The first thing Yang Anjing did when she brought her out of the stronghold was to show her how tough life was for the refugees. She even took her to live in town for a month.


    Therefore, Yang Xiaojin knew very well that even though her childhood was boring, it was never tragic. There were many others who were much more miserable than her.


    On the day she turned 12, Yang Anjing said to her, ¡°Don¡¯t ever think that it¡¯s very unfortunate to have been born into the Yang n. There are millions of people in the world who¡¯d want to swap ces with you. While you¡¯re sitting in boredom in front of your brightly lit window, they have to carry bamboo baskets on their backs and go to the coal mines to earn their daily keep. I hate the Yang n for their hypocritical behavior. I established the Saboteurs because I know that everything that¡¯s happening now was caused by The Cataclysm. You¡¯ll also have to understand what you want someday and start working hard to gain the strength and courage to defend it. At that time, you¡¯ll have fully grown up.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin would asionally feel lost too. What did she want? The existence of the Saboteurs was Yang Anjing¡¯s will, not hers.


    The Yang Consortium¡¯s ambitions belonged to those adults and had nothing to do with her.


    That was until this moment. She watched Ren Xiaosu pace back and forth in the house before saying to her, ¡°After the peach tree bears fruit, the two of us can go to the marketce and sell off the excess harvest, or give them to our neighbors.¡±


    As there was not enough kitchenware at home, they had to go out to buy some. They would also need to stock up on some spices.


    Ren Xiaosu would handle the cleaning of the house on the odd days of the week, while Yang Xiaojin would take care of it on the even days.


    There seemed to be a leak in the building¡¯s roof, so Ren Xiaosu said he would go out tomorrow to buy some water-repellent felt to repair it.


    At some point, Yang Xiaojin suddenly felt like she kinda knew what she wanted. All she wanted was a home. She could join Ren Xiaosu outside to fight and kill, but once they were home, this young man would immediately be the light of the house.


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu, who had suddenly be naggy, and said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll cook you a meal tomorrow.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Then he asked knowingly, ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t know how to cook?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t poison you,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    This was the first time that Yang Xiaojin had volunteered to cook. Ren Xiaosu noticed that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s mentality seemed to have changed a little. He smiled and replied, ¡°Sure, let¡¯s go grocery shopping tomorrow morning. I¡¯ll eat whatever you cook even if I might get poisoned to death.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin rolled her eyes. ¡°You already know that I could cook, don¡¯t you? I can remember the strange look you had in your eyes when you were cooking for mest time!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°As expected of a sniper. You¡¯re really sharp.¡±


    ¡­


    The next morning, the two of them woke up early to wash up.


    There were quite a few bedrooms in this small, two-story building. Ren Xiaosu was starting to regret it a little. He felt that he should have just bought a one-bedroom apartment instead.


    But on second thought, that wouldn¡¯t seem right either. If they really lived in a one-bedroom apartment, based on how cowardly he was, he would probably end up sleeping on the couch.


    After the two of them finished unpacking, they each took a bamboo basket and headed out.


    Just after stepping out, they happened to bump into their next-door neighbor. It was a middle-aged couple who looked like they were about to go to work.


    Ren Xiaosu took a close look at them. The couple was slightly plump and both of them were quite well-dressed. The man was wearing a spotless suit and probably held a decent job.


    The middle-aged woman greeted them with a smile, ¡°I heard from Mrs. Wang yesterday that we were going to have new neighbors soon, but I wasn¡¯t expecting you guys to move in so quickly. I didn¡¯t even drop by to say hello yesterday, how rude of me! I¡¯m Hu Xiaobai, and this is my husband, Wang Yuexi.¡±


    The middle-aged man nodded as a form of greeting. He did not seem to want to interact too much with Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°That¡¯s alright, Mrs. Hu. We should be the ones dropping by your ce instead.¡±


    ¡°Are you going out to buy groceries?¡± Hu Xiaobai said with a smile, ¡°I heard from Mrs. Wang that the two of you aren¡¯t from Stronghold 144?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, we came from the Central ins,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°It¡¯s good that you came to the Northwest. The Central ins has be so chaotic now, unlike our Northwest where it¡¯s so safe!¡± Hu Xiaobai said with a smile, ¡°Wee, we¡¯re all fellow Northwesterners now!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave a grateful sigh. The consortiums in the Central ins were still building their strongholds to prevent refugees from entering the cities, but the people in the Northwest were already starting to call those who came to settle down here their fellow ¡°Northwesterners.¡±


    It was obvious the Wang Consortium would not stop on their warpath, so more and more people would be migrating to the Northwest in the future.


    Hu Xiaobai smiled and said, ¡°Have you two found a job aftering to the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°No, we¡¯d like to rest for a while first,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    ¡°Mhm, it¡¯s good to take a break too.¡± Hu Xiaobai said enthusiastically, ¡°My husband works at the stronghold¡¯s administrative center. If you two encounter any difficulties, you can let us know. He¡¯s quite influential in the stronghold.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai was just like many warm-hearted older women. She looked like she was quite helpful and liked chatting about random matters at home. From time to time, she would even unintentionally boast about her husband.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw the man quietly tug at Hu Xiaobai¡¯s sleeve. As such, he smiled at Hu Xiaobai and said, ¡°There isn¡¯t really anything we need to trouble the two of you with. We¡¯re both very carefree people.¡±


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll talk again when there¡¯s time. Since we¡¯re neighbors, let¡¯s keep in touch.¡± Hu Xiaobai then went to work.


    When they got farther away, Wang Yuexi grumbled softly to her, ¡°Why are you telling them so much? More and more immigrants areing to Stronghold 144, so there¡¯s a lot of people looking for work. They¡¯re either seeking approval for their business operations or asking to be rmended to a good job. If those two reallye to me for help, how am I supposed to reject them?¡±


    Hu Xiaobai whispered, ¡°I was just being polite, wasn¡¯t I? Besides, we¡¯re neighbors, so what¡¯s the big deal with helping them a little?¡±

 Chapter 1010 - The starting point of civilization

    <h4>Chapter 1010: The starting point of civilization</h4>


    ¡°Do you think it¡¯s that easy to help them?¡± The man snapped at her, ¡°Those who have just migrated here are usually in lots of trouble themselves, so don¡¯t make empty promises to others.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I got it.¡± Hu Xiaobai said nonchntly, ¡°By the way, I heard that a new batch of lipstick has arrived at Yunsu. Can you get some for me? Their lipstick is always in high demand, and I can¡¯t get any even if I really want them. Since you¡¯re so close to Wang Fugui, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem to get your hands on some, right?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be calling him Wang Fugui this, Wang Fugui that. You should be addressing him as Mr. Wang instead. Don¡¯t just name-drop him in front of strangers.¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°I¡¯m only familiar with him because we have dealings with each other professionally, but he doesn¡¯t ask me for any favors. I still have to take cues from him.¡±


    ¡°Why would a civil servant like you need to listen to him? He¡¯s just a businessman,¡± Hu Xiaobai muttered.


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Wang Yuexi got anxious. ¡°Brigade Commander Zhang even addresses him as Uncle Fugui, so who do you think I am? He¡¯s the president of the Northwest¡¯s Chamber of Commerce now; his influence is greater than you can imagine. Both the political and business spheres have to take cues from him. Haven¡¯t you heard? The futuremander will being back soon. When the timees, Mr. Wang will be one of the most influential people in the Northwest. How can he possibly be at my beck and call? Besides, he¡¯s not only influential among the officials. Another group of bandits appeared again some time ago and robbed the Northwest¡¯s Chamber of Commerce of their goods. In the end, with just a phone call from Mr. Wang, the person running the ck market outside the stronghold immediately ttened the bandits¡¯ mountain hideout.¡±


    ¡°Say, why doesn¡¯t anyone do something about that person running the ck market?¡± Hu Xiaobai was a little puzzled.


    ¡°Do something about it?¡± Wang Yuexi said with a bitter smile, ¡°Who¡¯s going to do that? I was there on the day the ck market opened. Brigade Commander Zhang Xiaoman even personally went down to congratte her with a flower basket in hand. Who the hell can possibly interfere with her affairs¡­. Why is a woman like you poking your nose into such things? You wouldn¡¯t understand.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai raised an eyebrow. ¡°Wang Yuexi, you¡¯re really something. I¡¯ve suffered together with you for over a decade. Now that you¡¯ve started working as a civil servant for a short while, you¡¯re already talking back to me with such bureaucratic airs? When I married you, did I everin about you?¡±


    Wang Yuexi¡¯s expression turned bitter. ¡°Forget it, forget it, I won¡¯t say it anymore, alright?? I¡¯ll buy you the lipstick!¡±


    ¡­


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin carried their baskets and walked to the marketce. It looked very lively as the entire stronghold was bustling with activity early in the morning.


    ¡°Mrs. Hu was quite enthusiastic just now,¡± Yang Xiaojin said with a smile.


    ¡°But her husband felt rather cold to me.¡± Ren Xiaosu said softly, ¡°It seems like he¡¯s quite worried that we¡¯ll really trouble them.¡±


    ¡°Well, we aren¡¯t that close yet, after all,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°But I¡¯m still quite unused to Mrs. Hu¡¯s enthusiasm.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If anyone in town suddenly turned enthusiastic towards you, it wasn¡¯t a good sign.¡±


    ¡°But, Xiaosu, you¡¯re in a very different situation from when you were living in town.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°You might not have realized it yourself, but you¡¯d probably not have gone and sought revenge for Mr. Jiang Xu if it were the old you.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. ¡°Probably not. But after experiencing so much, I somehow feel that I should do something regarding his death, and I was able to do it too.¡±


    ¡°Y¡¯know, I read a book that talked about the origins of human civilization. It changed many of my views on things.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°What do you think symbolizes the starting point of human civilization?¡±


    ¡°When tools are used? very?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°When there¡¯s inequality in the means of production¡­¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°You¡¯re talking about the origin of society, not the origin of civilization.¡±


    ¡°Then what¡¯s the origin of civilization?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°The origin of civilization is when a broken femur heals.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°When an animal breaks its femur in the wilderness, its fate has already been decided. It won¡¯t be able to hunt for food or drink water by the river anymore. In the vast wilderness, it¡¯s destined to be food for other wild animals. And when a person¡¯s femur breaks and heals, it means someone¡¯s apanying them over an extended period to take care of them, help them heal their wounds, and help them find food until they can move around again. Xiaosu, helping others in times of danger is the starting point of civilization.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this. ¡°But I somehow feel that I don¡¯t have to help those who are unrted to me. I¡¯m only lying low here while I think through some things. Everyone says that I¡¯m the futuremander, but I haven¡¯t yet thought about how I should take on this responsibility.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the same even if you only help those who are rted to you and protect your family.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°I won¡¯t persuade you to be a good person or even a saint. Let¡¯s just protect those around us.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were walking side by side, the crowd around them was bustling with activity.


    Yang Xiaojin wondered, ¡°It has to be said that Stronghold 144 is no different from the other strongholds, but why do I keep getting the feeling there¡¯s more of a ¡®human touch¡¯ here?¡±


    This was also a stronghold with thick walls, and the residents were no different from those of other strongholds. On the streets, young people went to work; the middle-aged and older people shopped for groceries and greeted each other. Logically, it should be the same in every stronghold, but Yang Xiaojin felt there was a slight difference.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s because your mindset has changed.¡±


    ¡°Maybe?¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded.


    When they arrived at the marketce, Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and asked, ¡°You haven¡¯t been to the market before, right?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re making it sound like you¡¯ve shopped in a market before.¡± Yang Xiaojin said disdainfully, ¡°You¡¯ve always been a refugee outside the stronghold, so which stronghold¡¯s market have you been to before? Don¡¯t act so secretive and make it sound like you¡¯re very experienced.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°But I¡¯ve consulted Wang Fugui about it before. Back when we were at the Li Consortium, he would go out to shop for groceries every day. Big Sister Xiaoyu even praised him for buying groceries that were fresh and cheap.¡±


    ¡°How did he shop?¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°He told me that as soon as we enter the market, we should first identify a loud auntie with our discerning eyes and follow her to buy stuff.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The aunties are extremely picky when ites to buying groceries and they also haggle a lot. Once they¡¯re done buying their groceries, we¡¯ll just buy the same ones. We won¡¯t even have to haggle over the prices anymore.¡±


    ¡°That makes sense.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded.


    There were actually not many people of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s age in the marketce. People their age in the stronghold were either still attending school or working, so not many of them woulde here to shop for groceries.


    However, there were still some youngsters shopping among the peddlers.


    Ren Xiaosu stared at a middle-aged woman and said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°See that? She¡¯s the one. Let¡¯s follow her!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin watched excitedly as Ren Xiaosu followed the older woman. She thought that not a lot of people had probably seen Ren Xiaosu act so.


    Who could have expected that the Stronghold Destroyer who terrified so many enemies would actually haggle over some grocery prices?


    The Stronghold Destroyer did not look like the Stronghold Destroyer anymore. Of course, she did not resemble a sniper now either.

 Chapter 1011 - The lazy Ren Xiaosu

    <h4>Chapter 1011: Thezy Ren Xiaosu</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s culinary skill was at the master level. Initially, Ren Xiaosu wondered what the dishes prepared by a master chef would taste like. Would it taste different from those that were whipped up by normal people?


    But when he tasted the food, he realized that Yang Xiaojin¡¯s heat control while cooking was extremely precise.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little curious. ¡°Why are you such a good cook? You don¡¯t look like someone who was specially trained in cooking.¡±


    ¡°My aunt hired someone to teach me during my assassin¡¯s training,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. ¡°What does this have anything to do with assassination?¡±


    ¡°I could go covert either as a chef or kitchen help to kill a target bycing their food when I get the chance.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°But I didn¡¯t even manage to put my culinary skills to use after my training as my aunt didn¡¯t allow me to go undercover in such a way.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°When I first started learning how to cook, I was still young and growing,¡± Yang Xiaojin exined. ¡°I became prettier as I grew up, so Aunt said that I wouldn¡¯t pass as a cook with my looks.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was left speechless for some time. The girl in front of him was praising her own looks, and she said it as naturally as sipping water.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you be a little more humble?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t I telling the truth?¡± Yang Xiaojin replied.


    ¡°Alright, alright, you¡¯re not wrong.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s Tuesday today, so it¡¯s your turn to wash the dishes.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin corrected him, ¡°I cooked, so you should wash the dishes. From now on, I¡¯ll cook at home and you¡¯ll wash the dishes.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu carried the cutlery into the kitchen while Yang Xiaojin remained seated at the table. She leaned her chin on her hand and gazed at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back as he washed the dishes. ¡°I think the peach trees are gonna bear fruit soon. I estimate we can eat them in another few weeks. These two trees have really been well taken care of, so they should bear lots of fruit. We definitely won¡¯t be able to finish them all.¡±


    ¡°If we can¡¯t finish them, let¡¯s set up a stall to sell the excess. We can buy you a new wok with the money after that,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°That¡¯ll be great. The current wok is way too small to cook with,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°But when I went shopping for groceries today, I realized the prices of vegetables and other foodstuffs have increased by quite a bit. I thought that it was because the prices in the Northwest were different. But after I asked around, I found out it was due to the poor harvests in the past two years either due to floods or droughts in many ces.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I wonder if Mr. Zhang took any measures to mitigate the effect of the natural disasters.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin thought for a moment before saying, ¡°I¡¯m afraid it won¡¯t be easy to solve. I heard that in the trade agreement between the Northwest and the Central ins, the goods provided by the Wang Consortium don¡¯t include food. The Wang Consortium had probably taken into consideration the situation in the Northwest at that time. Of course, there¡¯s many minerals in the Northwest that weren¡¯t made essible to the Wang Consortium either. This was the strategy adopted by both sides against each other.¡±


    ¡°I wonder if their wastnd recultivation efforts are proceeding smoothly or not.¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°Didn¡¯t we see a lot of refugees cultivating thend on our way here?¡±


    ¡°I doubt it¡¯ll be easy.¡± Yang Xiaojin analyzed, ¡°You see, there¡¯s not many stable river basins in the Northwest, and the terrain has many gullies running through it as well. Crops nted in a ce like that don¡¯t have any good growth conditions, so they¡¯ll have to work hard to solve the irrigation issues first.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a heavy price to pay to recultivate thend. But even so, if we want the residents to have enough food to eat, we¡¯ll have to challenge the natural environment.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    ¡­


    While the two of them spent their days at home and enjoyed the peace together, all of the Northwest¡¯s higher-ups were thinking, ¡®<i>Where has our futuremander gone?</i>¡®


    It had been more than half a month since the assassination of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s three figureheads, so logically speaking, the futuremander should have alreadye back.


    Some high-rankingmanders had never seen Ren Xiaosu before. Although they heard stories about him, they did not have a chance to meet him yet. As a result, they were really looking forward to seeing him.


    Therefore, they wanted to wait for Ren Xiaosu to return to Fortress 178 before rushing there to meet him. It wasn¡¯t exactly important, but they just wanted to get to know him first.


    But after the Zhou Consortium¡¯s leaders were assassinated, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Not even the Riders were anywhere to be found.


    This left the Great Hoodwinker and everyone else absolutely confused, and they wondered if the futuremander had run away.


    Zhang Xiaoman had said at the press conference, ¡°We confirmed him as the futuremander so that he won¡¯t be able to run away.¡±


    At that time, many people thought Zhang Xiaoman was just joking. But the Great Hoodwinker and the rest knew Zhang Xiaoman waspletely serious!


    Wang Fengyuan even approached Zhang Jinglin specifically regarding this matter. ¡°Commander, what should we do if Xiaosu doesn¡¯t want toe back? Should we go and look for him?¡±


    But Zhang Jinglin remained calm. ¡°There¡¯s no need for that. I would guess he¡¯s just lying low somewhere for a while to get some rest. Once he¡¯s ready, he¡¯ll naturally return.¡±


    When everyone heard Commander Zhang say there was no need to be anxious, they calmed down as well. They just had to patiently wait for Ren Xiaosu to return.


    While many people did not object to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s candidacy as Commander Zhang¡¯s sessor, they were actually still watching to see if any developments urred.


    In taking revenge for Jiang Xu, it indirectly reflected Ren Xiaosu¡¯s character. Disregarding how others might feel, the people in the Northwest found it really cated their anger.


    Gradually, more and more people within the Northwest Army publicly supported Ren Xiaosu.


    By taking revenge for Jiang Xu, he showed his character. Killing the Zhou Consortium¡¯s head was down to his capability. Honestly, he was truly impable other than being inexperienced at military strategies.


    But with regards to that, he had poached P5092 and Wang Yun to mitigate his shorings in this area.


    As the Northwest¡¯smander, he did not have to be a military genius. Being able tomand and deploy military geniuses effectively was also a skill, right?


    Over half a monthter, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin got up early and went to the backyard to pick the peaches. The peaches in the Northwest were big and sweet. A blend of orange, yellow, and white colors suffused the surface of the fruits, making them look exceptionally beautiful.


    After picking two basketfuls of peaches, they went to the marketce to set up a stall. For this, they even had to pay a rental fee of five yuan for the space.


    Ren Xiaosu said excitedly, ¡°It¡¯s the weekend today, so more people will being to the market than usual. I think our peaches will sell out very quickly.¡±


    Normal people would find it difficult to carry a basket of peaches, but Ren Xiaosu could carry two baskets all by himself.


    After settling down at the stall, Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°We haven¡¯t had breakfast yet. I¡¯ll go and buy some buns to fill our stomachs.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I want the ones stuffed with chives and eggs,¡± Yang Xiaojin answered with a smile.


    But not long after Ren Xiaosu left, an acquaintance came to the stall. It was Hu Xiaobai.


    Hu Xiaobai was stunned when she saw Yang Xiaojin. ¡°You set up a stall here?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smiled as she picked up two peaches and stuffed them into Hu Xiaobai¡¯s hands. ¡°The peaches growing at home have ripened. We thought the two of us couldn¡¯t finish eating them, so we came out to sell them.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai looked like she wanted to say something. Yang Xiaojin was confused by her behavior. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Mrs. Hu?¡±


    Hu Xiaobai grumbled, ¡°Your boyfriend has been in the Northwest for some time now. Instead of looking for a job, he¡¯s actually making a delicate girl like you sell peaches and support the family? Is this what a man should do? A beautiful girl like you will have no qualms finding a good man, so why stick to azy bum like him of all people¡­.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin was taken aback. Then she covered her mouth andughed. ¡°Mrs.. Hu, it¡¯s not like that at all.¡±

 Chapter 1012 - Feeling sorry for Yang Xiaojin

    <h4>Chapter 1012: Feeling sorry for Yang Xiaojin</h4>


    Hu Xiaobai was well-known for her warm-hearted personality in the neighborhood. The stronghold was not that big or small, and due to ack of human flow in, everyone¡¯s social circle was kept to within the stronghold.


    Disregarding everything else, the rtionship between neighbors had be much more close.


    Before The Cataclysm, everyone would have friends all over the world just by logging onto the Inte. No matter how far they might be from each other, it was enough to satisfy the social needs of humans.


    But things were different now. They could only make calls from their home to others in the same city. Without satellite phones, normal residents couldn¡¯t chat if they were from different strongholds.


    When an auntie nearby saw Hu Xiaobai chatting with Yang Xiaojin, she said, ¡°Little Hu, is this your friend?¡±


    ¡°Yes, she¡¯s my new neighbor.¡± Hu Xiaobai said, ¡°She just moved here about half a month ago. This girl has a good character and is mild-mannered.¡±


    The auntie said with a smile, ¡°I was wondering where a beautiful girl like you popped out from. So why did youe here to sell peaches?¡±


    Yang Xiaojin exined with a smile, ¡°The two peach trees in our backyard have matured, and we can¡¯t finish eating the peaches by ourselves.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai nced at Yang Xiaojin and did not say anything more in the presence of the woman.


    However, Yang Xiaojin felt that she had to exin herself. After all, Ren Xiaosu was the closest person to her. Even if she knew Ren Xiaosu did not care about such gossip, she wanted to rify.


    Yang Xiaojin said in seriousness, ¡°My partner is actually quite capable, but he just wants to rest for a while now. He¡¯s not azy bum at all. Mrs. Hu, you¡¯ve misunderstood him. To be honest, a lot of people even hope he doesn¡¯t work anymore.¡±


    Thetter half of her sentence left Hu Xiaobai and the auntie a little confused, but Yang Xiaojin was really telling the truth. For example, if the Zhou Consortium and the Wang Consortium found out that Ren Xiaosu was now living in seclusion, a lot of people would be thanking the gods and praying for Ren Xiaosu to retire permanently. They really hoped that he wouldn¡¯t return to the Central ins to ¡°work¡± anymore.


    That guy¡¯s job was really too fucking scary!


    Hu Xiaobaiughed. ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll end it here. Keep working. It¡¯s the weekend today, so I¡¯ll go back to prepare lunch after getting some groceries.¡± With that, Hu Xiaobai walked out of the marketce.


    However, someone pulled Hu Xiaobai back and asked in a low voice, ¡°I noticed you were hesitating to speak just now. What¡¯s the matter? Is there something wrong with that girl?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no problem with her. She¡¯s definitely a good girl. Her boyfriend is the main issue. Do you know that ever since they moved here, that young man has beenzing at home every day, not bothering to look for a job? And now, he actually made here out to sell peaches.¡± Hu Xiaobaimented, ¡°Just look at how pretty she is. It¡¯s such a pity that she has toe to the market and set up a stall to sell things.¡±


    A busybody who overheard the gossiping also muttered, ¡°That¡¯s really too outrageous.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu came back with some buns and handed one to Yang Xiaojin. He said with a smile, ¡°Hurry up and eat it. I kept it warm in my arms. Here, I bought you a cup of soy milk too.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin nodded and took it from him.


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized that sinceing back to the stall, he could feel the gazes of people constantly on him.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. He whispered to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Why are there so many people stealing glimpses at me? Am I too good-looking?¡±


    Yang Xiaojinughed and said, ¡°You really have the cheek to say that. It¡¯s like this: Mrs. Hu ran into me when she came to buy groceries just now. However, she mentioned you not looking for a job again. From her description, I was the poor girl who was being leeched off of while you were thatzy parasite who does nothing all day.¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°Mrs. Hu is really zealous. She probably thinks that you¡¯re too good to be with a guy like me and was just speaking up for you.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you angry?¡± Yang Xiaojin took a bite of the bun and teased Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be angry about? I can¡¯t possibly go up to her and tell her that I¡¯m the futuremander of the Northwest Army, so she oughta show more respect when talking to me next time!¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled, ¡°That¡¯d be too arrogant of me. Anyways, it¡¯s fine as long as we know what we¡¯re doing.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good that you¡¯re not angry.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Our peaches have grown well. We¡¯ve only just started selling them, but we¡¯ve already sold half of everything. I think they¡¯ll be sold out very soon. I¡¯ll buy some groceries home to cook in a while. What would you like to eat?¡±


    ¡°Pork ribs?¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°And another fish dish, maybe?¡±


    ¡°Braised or steamed?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Why not one of each?¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡±


    ¡­


    When the two of them returned home, Yang Xiaojin went into the kitchen and got busy. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosuy on the recliner chair in the yard and started reading a book.


    Nowadays, Ren Xiaosu did not even have to go to the library to look for books to read. After all, he had ced all the books in Stronghold 88¡¯s library in his storage space.


    The backyard was surrounded by a low wall that stood about a meter high. While Ren Xiaosu was reading, his middle-aged neighbor, Wang Yuexi, was sitting in the yard next door reading a newspaper. He even had a cup of brewed tea on the stone table.


    Neither of them greeted each other. It was as though they had never spoken before or knew each other.


    Actually, if it weren¡¯t for Hu Xiaobai, they might not even have had any interaction with one another in their lifetimes.


    It seemed like it was time for lunch next door. Hu Xiaobai went out into the backyard and called for Wang Yuexi to eat.


    Wang Yuexi put down the newspaper and went straight into the house. When Hu Xiaobai saw Ren Xiaosu lying in his chair and reading a book, she instinctively peered into their house and heard the sizzling of Yang Xiaojin¡¯s cooking.


    Hu Xiaobai thought for a moment before greeting Ren Xiaosu with a smile, ¡°L¨¹ Xiaomi?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu almost did not remember that this was the alias he was using now.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a second or two before looking up and greeting Hu Xiaobai from across the courtyard wall, ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Mrs. Hu?¡±


    ¡°Is your girlfriend making lunch?¡± Hu Xiaobai asked.


    ¡°Yes, I specifically asked Xiaojin to make pork ribs and fish for lunch. Mrs. Hu, would you like to join us?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    Hu Xiaobai was taken aback. She thought to herself, ¡®<i>You aren¡¯t even working, yet you dare to keep asking Ms. Xiaojin to cook you a feast every day?!</i>¡®


    In fact, there were already signs of a food shortage happening in the Northwest. The prices of rice, noodles, vegetables, and meat were all increasing. Even though her husband, Wang Yuexi, was working at the stronghold¡¯s administrative center, their family only got to eat meat once or twice a week.


    Thinking of this, Hu Xiaobai inexplicably started feeling sorry for Yang Xiaojin. She said nonchntly, ¡°That sounds quite sumptuous.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, our peaches sold out pretty fast this morning. So we used the money earned to buy ourselves something better to eat.¡± Ren Xiaosu started making up a story.


    Hu Xiaobai got even angrier when she heard this. ¡®<i>Did Ms. Xiaojin work so hard to sell the peaches all morning just so you could have meat to eat? Never mind that you aren¡¯t working; you don¡¯t even know how to live frugally!</i>¡®


    But Hu Xiaobai did not tell Ren Xiaosu about this. She changed the subject and said, ¡°By the way, you¡¯ve been sitting idle for a while now. Why don¡¯t I get my husband to rmend you a job?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no need for that, Mrs. Hu. It feels quite good not needing to do anything.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai¡¯s face darkened. She returned to her house and mmed the door behind her, leaving Ren Xiaosu dumbfounded in his backyard. Wasn¡¯t everything fine just a moment ago? Why did she suddenly get so angry?!

 Chapter 1013 - Job recommendation

    <h4>Chapter 1013: Job rmendation</h4>


    After Hu Xiaobai went back into her house, Wang Yuexi asked in surprise when he saw that she did not look right, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with you now? Didn¡¯t I buy you the lipstick?¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t about the lipstick!¡± Hu Xiaobai said, ¡°I just asked you to buy some lipstick for me. Why do you keep harping on about it as though you¡¯ve done me some great favor? I¡¯m angry because when I told that young man next door that I would rmend a job to him, he ended up telling me that it felt quite good not needing to do anything.¡±


    Wang Yuexi took a bite of his food and said, ¡°I would like to do nothing as well. He¡¯s not wrong to say that.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t understand¡­¡± Hu Xiaobai rted the incident of Yang Xiaojin setting up a stall to sell peaches that morning.


    Wang Yuexi was surprised. ¡°But that has nothing to do with you, right?¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t I just concerned that Ms. Xiaojin¡¯s happiness will be dyed if it goes on like this?¡± Hu Xiaobai sighed and said, ¡°She¡¯s such a nice girl.¡±


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t you introduce her to someone else?¡± Wang Yuexi remarked. ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯re married yet.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai raised her eyebrows. ¡°As the saying goes, it¡¯s better to tear down ten temples than to break a couple up. How can I sow discord between them behind their backs? What does that make me? Matchmaker Wang? The one who helped Ximen Qing hook up with women? I don¡¯t do things like that. Although that young man doesn¡¯t have a proper job, they still have quite a good rtionship. So I want you to see if you can rmend him a job.¡±


    Wang Yuexi¡¯s expression turned bitter again. ¡°Why do you keep talking about this? Why don¡¯t you go and uphold world peace since you¡¯re so nosy?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s our futuremander for that. As if I can do anything about it.¡± Hu Xiaobai said happily, ¡°Just say if you want to help them or not. Otherwise, enjoy sleeping on the couch. You¡¯re always bragging about how great you are, but when ites to getting things done, you¡¯re just helpless!¡±


    Wang Yuexi was at a loss. ¡°Alright, alright, I¡¯ll ask around at the reception lobby tomorrow and see if there are any vacant temporary positions so he can at least work a more stable job.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the way!¡± Hu Xiaobai beamed. ¡°I knew you could do it. I¡¯ll go and talk to Xiaojin tonight and get her to persuade Xiaomi. Although that young man iszy, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s a bad person.¡±


    ¡°And how do you know that?¡± Wang Yuexi snapped.


    ¡°How bad can someone who¡¯s always reading books be? In the morning, Xiaojin said that he¡¯s actually quite capable. Perhaps she¡¯s telling the truth,¡± Hu Xiaobai said.


    ¡°Whatever!¡± Wang Yuexi did not want to continue the conversation.


    Hu Xiaobai suddenly thought of something. ¡°By the way, wasn¡¯t there talk in the stronghold that the futuremander should being back to the Northwest soon? Why isn¡¯t there any news about that yet?¡±


    ¡°Why are you worrying about the futuremander¡¯s matters? Does he know you? I say, why are you always worrying about everything!¡± Wang Yuexi said.


    ¡°I just wanted to see what kind of person our futuremander is, OK?¡± Hu Xiaobai suddenly became much livelier. ¡°Look at what that magazine says. Our Northwest¡¯s futuremander is really one of the rarest men in the world. I¡¯m sick of seeing you every day. When our futuremander returns, I¡¯ll definitely go and have a look.¡±


    Wang Yuexi choked on his food. ¡°Go look, look, look! Go and look all you want! But no one¡¯s gonna be looking at you!¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°Mrs. Hu was talking about rmending me a job again.¡± Ren Xiaosu picked up a pork rib and said, ¡°She sure is a nice person, but she¡¯s just a little too enthusiastic in helping others. She probably started thinking about this because she felt bad for you when she saw you setting up the stall.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s quite interesting that the futuremander of the Northwest has suddenly be a bum in the eyes of the stronghold¡¯s womenfolk,¡± Yang Xiaojin said with augh.


    ¡°Hey, why don¡¯t you stop running the stall? Otherwise, who knows what that Mrs. Hu might think next?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°That won¡¯t do. I find running a stall and selling things quite interesting. I¡¯ve never earned any money before. This is the first time I¡¯ve experienced the joy of making money,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    When she was at the Yang Consortium, she did not have any financial issues to worry about. It was the same after joining the Saboteurs. Yang Anjing had been operating among the mafia for many years and had a mature intelligencework and bounty system. Therefore, the Saboteurs had nevercked any funding.


    Including the time Yang Xiaojin was attending school in Luoyang City, her monthly living expenses started from some tens of thousands of yuan.


    Now that she had suddenly started earning her own keep, she found it extremely interesting and fulfilling even though she only pocketed a few cents to a few yuan from the sales of the peaches.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could not quite understand why Yang Xiaojin was so interested in this bit of money when it didn¡¯t matter to her given her current worth.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°But the harvest from the peach trees won¡¯t be enough for selling. We only have two trees after all.¡±


    It even sounded like Yang Xiaojin wasmenting when she said that.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Then let¡¯s sell potatoes. I¡¯ll nt five Potato Shooters in the backyard so that you¡¯ll have something to sell every day. We can use a shed to cover the yard so that no one will see the Potato Shooters. But before that, you¡¯ll have to take the extra step of pretending to go to the wholesale market located a few kilometers away. Only then can you exin where our potatoes came from.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that this was actually quite troublesome. After all, Yang Xiaojin would probably not like going through all that trouble of pretending to go to the wholesale market every day to purchase goods.


    However, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Let¡¯s do that then.¡±


    Over the next few days, Yang Xiaojin went out to set up the stall excitedly. Then Ren Xiaosu sat at the stall and apanied her while reading his books.


    After earning some money, Yang Xiaojin used the earnings to buy pork ribs for Ren Xiaosu to eat. She even whipped up a secret braised pork recipe for him.


    Gradually, all of the vendors in the market learned that a young couple had arrived. The girl was extremely diligent while the boy waszy.


    Everyone privately said it was such a pity that a nice girl like her was married to a bookworm like him.


    In their opinion, Ren Xiaosu was always reading books every day even though he was at the stall. He never bothered to help run the stall. Whenever a customer asked for the prices, Ren Xiaosu would just let Yang Xiaojin handle it.


    To strangers, it was as though Ren Xiaosu did not care about his livelihood. They assumed he must have turned stupid from studying too much.


    However, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were very calm. It was as though they did not notice the questioning gazes at all.


    In the end, it was still Hu Xiaobai who could not stand by and watch any longer. After dinner that night, she went over to look for Yang Xiaojin and cut straight to the point. ¡°Xiaojin, I¡¯ve always felt it wouldn¡¯t be good for you two to carry on like this, so I had my husband find a job for L¨¹ Xiaomi.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin asked curiously, ¡°What kinda job?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just a temporary position at the reception lobby of the stronghold¡¯s administrative center.¡± Hu Xiaobai said, ¡°Although it¡¯s only a temporary job, a lot of people can¡¯t get any work even if they begged for it. Can you talk to Xiaomi so he won¡¯t keepzing around at home? As a man, he has to understand that the responsibility is on him. How can he let a girl like you support the family?¡±

 Chapter 1014 - Food shortage

    <h4>Chapter 1014: Food shortage</h4>


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to discuss it with him first, Mrs. Hu,¡± Yang Xiaojin said with a smile. After all, it was still up to Ren Xiaosu whether he wanted to go even if Hu Xiaobai did rmend him a job. She would have to get Ren Xiaosu to agree to it first.


    Hu Xiaobai said anxiously, ¡°Why do you need to discuss this with him? Just look at howzy he is. It would be a wonder if he agreed to it! So don¡¯t discuss anything with him and force it on him. Let me tell you, men are all like that. When they¡¯re young, they idle their lives away. When my husband was younger, he did not work a proper job either. He just cooped himself up at the school every day to teach. After the Zong Consortium was defeated, I had to force him to go and interview for a job with the Northwest Army. Look, isn¡¯t he doing pretty good now?¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do, Mrs. Hu.¡± Yang Xiaojin shook her head with a smile. ¡°My partner is very opinionated, so I can¡¯t persuade him easily. How about this? I¡¯ll talk to him about it. Give us three days to consider, alright? But no matter what, I want to thank you for being so helpful.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Hu Xiaobai sighed and said, ¡°I¡¯m just afraid that he¡¯ll set you back.¡±


    After that, Hu Xiaobai went home. Yang Xiaojin suddenly felt this ce was even more homely now. Not only was she earning her own keep, but there were also all sorts of neighbors, like the aunties and olddies not far away who were chatting about their daily lives while ying mahjong.


    Charcoal briquettes were piled up at the entrance of every household. If any households had their briquettes stolen in the morning, the neighbors would even start shouting ¡°thief¡± in the morning.


    But it was rtively rare for briquettes to be stolen. Otherwise, everyone would have moved them into their backyards.


    In Yang Xiaojin¡¯s opinion, this was all about humanpassion.


    Yang Xiaojin went back into the house and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Mrs. Hu rmended you for a temporary position at the administrative center. Do you want to take up the job?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Why would I go there? The administrative center is where the residents get their paperwork done. I¡¯ve got no such experience.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s up to you. Anyway, I told her we would take three days to consider. If you don¡¯t want to go, I can just turn her down after three days.¡± Yang Xiaojin smiled. ¡°But I feel that it¡¯s not a bad idea for you to work in the administrative center. That way, I can also be considered to have a backer in the stronghold. When the timees, I can hold very respectable conversations with the older women.¡±


    ¡°Alright, you¡¯ve be great at mocking people now.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with augh, ¡°But I feel that you¡¯ve been smiling more since you came to the Northwest.¡±


    ¡­


    The two of them still woke up early each morning and headed to the marketce to sell potatoes. At the beginning, Yang Xiaojin sold their potatoes at a cheaper price than the other stalls. She was hoping to sell out quickly, but Ren Xiaosu told her not to do that, because their business was just a form of experience for them. But for the other stall owners, it was their main livelihood to support their families.


    It was very tough work for the stall owners to transport the groceries back from the wholesale market on their trikes, and they did not make much money in a single day of sales either.


    Their wives and children at home were waiting for them to put food on the table. Their children¡¯s school fees were also slowly umted from every single cent they made.


    If Yang Xiaojin were to disrupt these stall owners¡¯ normal business because of her interest and desire to experience life, it wouldn¡¯t really be good.


    Yang Xiaojin was not someone who refused to listen to advice. As such, she decided she would sell their potatoes at 20 cents more per kilogram than the other stalls in the future.


    When Yang Xiaojin returned home at night, she evenmented, ¡°Although I¡¯ve also been through very tough times before, it was always for the sake of honing my willpower. It¡¯s only now that I¡¯m truly starting to understand the ways of the world.¡±


    During the day, Ren Xiaosu would stop reading his books and just wander around the market.


    The stall owners would look at him in confusion, not knowing what he was walking around for.


    Ren Xiaosu went to the various stalls to inquire about the prices of vegetables and meat. He even went to the provisions stalls to ask about the prices of rice and noodles. In any case, he just strolled around like had nothing more important to do.


    But when Yang Xiaojin closed for the day, he would go around to buy some vegetables and meat. However, the ingredients he bought were always the best quality ones, and those were often the most expensive.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, there was absolutely no need for him to make things difficult for himself now. When it was time for war again, he would have to go back to eating and sleeping in the wilderness. If he did not treat himself to something good at this time, when else would he do that?


    But in the eyes of the other stall owners, Ren Xiaosu was aplete wastrel. After all, why would a person like him who relied on his wife to sell potatoes to support the family deserve to eat so well?


    He was probably wasting all the money earned from selling potatoes every day on his meals! He didn¡¯t even bother to keep any savings. What would he do if they had a child?


    On the third day, Ren Xiaosu returned to the stall with a frown and whispered to Yang Xiaojin, ¡°Have you realized? The prices in the market are different every day. Yesterday, the string beans only cost 20 cents to buy, but today, it¡¯s risen to 22 cents. And this is only the vegetables. The prices of rice and noodles are even worse. Yesterday, it was only two yuan per kilogram, but today, it¡¯s almost 2.20 per kilogram. Although price fluctuations are quite normal, the prices have been increasing for several days in a row now. I¡¯m afraid that there¡¯s some problem. It looks like the food shortage is probably getting more and more serious.¡±


    ¡°Then do you think we can buy some food from the Wang Consortium if there¡¯s a famine in the Northwest?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°I doubt it. You also know how ruthless the Wang Consortium is. The times that they tried to sabotage the Pyro Company during the war are still fresh in my mind. They were also indifferent to therge number of escapees fleeing south back then, so how could they possibly disrupt their ns over such a trivial matter?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But it¡¯s alright, I still have a n if it reallyes to that.¡±


    Although it might not be the best solution, it could at least ensure that no one in the Northwest would starve to death.


    When Yang Xiaojin saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s serious expression, she thought that while others might think Ren Xiaosu was just wandering around aimlessly, she knew he was stepping up to the role of the Northwest¡¯s futuremander and starting to think about how to solve the current problem.


    ¡°By the way,¡± Yang Xiaojin suddenly said, ¡°it¡¯s time to give Mrs. Hu an answer today. Are you going to take the job she¡¯s rmending?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I can also go and observe how the stronghold¡¯s administrative center is run.¡±


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu did not have too many opportunities to deal with the so-called stronghold administrative centers, though there might have been one or two instances where he identally blew up a stronghold administrative center or ran across the roof of one.


    As he had only lived in a stronghold for a short period, he did not know much about how a stronghold was run. For example, the people in town would only resort to oral agreements when it came to the transference of a property. Sometimes, there would even be cases of ruthless people forcefully upying other people¡¯s houses as there were no such things as title deeds, and neither did the stronghold acknowledge the legitimacy of property rights in town.


    Also, no one in town would ask if a couple was married like how Hu Xiaobai had recently asked them. Once two people started living together and became interdependent, they would be considered a couple. There was no need to apply for a marriage certificate with anyone.


    This made Ren Xiaosu feel that he still needed to gain a better understanding of this ce, because he might be spending the rest of his life here in the Northwest.


    Moreover, he also wanted to see how Stronghold 144 was going to resolve the issue of the food shortage. He wanted to make some observations first, and working undercover at the administrative center was the best way to do it. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued.

 Chapter 1015 - No virtue

    <h4>Chapter 1015: No virtue</h4>


    ¡°Have you ever worn a suit before?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked Ren Xiaosu from the room across his during the night.


    Both Ren Xiaosu and she lived on the second floor of the house constructed from brick and wood. Only a few wooden nks separated the two rooms, so they could hear each other very clearly.


    Ren Xiaosuy on the bed with his arm acting as a pillow. ¡°When would I have had the chance to wear something like that? It¡¯s actually quite interesting. Back when I was living in town, Wang Fugui was constantly reminding me not to provoke those who came out of the stronghold dressed in suits, because they were definitely big shots.¡±


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu made up his mind that he would get himself a suit to wear someday. But it was just a thought. After all, suits were not exactly suitable for the activities like hunting that he did.


    As time passed, he met many people who wore suits. But the so-called big shots had gradually be insignificant in his eyes.


    Yang Xiaojinughed and said, ¡°Then you¡¯re going to be a big shot as well. Earlier this evening, Mrs. Hu reminded me that you¡¯ll be starting work next week. At that time, her husband will bring you to your workce. She did not make any requests other than saying that you¡¯d have to get yourself a set of formal wear. You have to look presentable when you go to work there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°There¡¯s a rule like that in the administrative center?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not a rule.¡± Yang Xiaojin exined with augh, ¡°It¡¯s just that Mrs. Hu feels that if you don¡¯t dress formally, you might get looked down upon at that ce.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin mimicked Hu Xiaobai¡¯s tone and said, ¡°You don¡¯t even know that the people working at that ce are all smart people. If you don¡¯t go there in formal attire, who knows how they¡¯ll talk about you behind your back!¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of them ostracizing me.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°Although I don¡¯t care about the rules, I won¡¯t allow them to belittle you.¡±


    ¡°Alright, then let¡¯s go and tailor me a set of formal wear.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled, pleased by Yang Xiaojin¡¯s sweetness for him.


    ¡°No, you¡¯ll need two sets,¡± Yang Xiaojin said. ¡°So that you can alternate between them.¡±


    The next morning, the two of them did not go out to the market to sell their potatoes but took Streetcar 48 to the center of the stronghold instead.


    When the streetcar started moving, it would make a rattling sound as it drove shakily through the city. Pedestrians on the street were reading newspapers as they walked, and students were chewing on buns as they ran to school.


    As they were running too fast, the students¡¯ backpacks fell off their shoulders and remained slung from one arm.


    As the two of them boarded from the first departure station, they got to choose the best seats in the middle of the streetcar as soon as they got on.


    After a few stops, a middle-aged man boarded as well. Seeing that there were no more seats in the carriage, he aimed his gaze at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin, thinking the young couple looked quite friendly.


    He walked up to Ren Xiaosu and coughed twice. ¡°Ahem, ahem.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu looked up in surprise. ¡°Are you sick? Please stand away and don¡¯t infect us.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin giggled. She whispered, ¡°When taking the streetcar in the stronghold, the younger people should give up their seats to their elders. This is a traditional virtue.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°He¡¯s only in his forties, so why should I make way for him?¡±


    When the man saw Ren Xiaosu did not have any virtue, he gave up his moral coercion and went off to look for other young people who might give up their seats to him.


    ¡°By the way, where are we going to tailor the suits?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I¡¯ve asked around. There¡¯s an extremely famous tailor in the city center. Apparently, all the important people in the stronghold go there to tailor their suits,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need something that good, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered.


    ¡°Of course you do. It¡¯s going to be my gift to you, so it has to be of good quality,¡± Yang Xiaojin said with a smile as she looked out of the window.


    The tailor at the suit store said it would take two weeks to process the order, but Yang Xiaojin could not wait that long. She offered more money and got them to rush the suits out within three days. Truly, the power of money was exceptionally great. It managed to shorten the workload that required two weeks toplete to just three days.


    On the third day, after Yang Xiaojin went to collect the suits and came back, she pushed Ren Xiaosu into the house to try them on. Then she personally helped him tie his tie. ¡°You look quite good.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little awkward. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s quite nice.¡± Yang Xiaojin took a close look at Ren Xiaosu and helped tten the wrinkles on his clothes. ¡°But don¡¯t wear this at home. I still find you nicer to look at in your normal clothes.¡±


    On Monday, Hu Xiaobai was shouting outside the door early in the morning, ¡°Xiaojin, urge your partner to follow my husband and head to work!¡±


    When Yang Xiaojin and Ren Xiaosu stepped out, the sharp-eyed Hu Xiaobai immediately noticed the suit Ren Xiaosu was wearing. ¡°Eh, isn¡¯t this suit from Golden Links? Look at those cufflinks, that¡¯s their trademark.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin exined with a smile, ¡°You said he should go to work in formal wear, so I tailored two suits for him.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai raised her voice and said, ¡°You even ordered two sets?!¡±


    She knew the suits from Golden Link were extremely expensive. Why was Ms. Xiaojin so good to L¨¹ Xiaomi?


    This L¨¹ Xiaomi was way too much. To say nothing of him alwayszing around at home, he even made Ms. Xiaojin spend so much money to buy him such expensive suits!


    These young people really did not know the seriousness of their situation. How were they going to survive in the future if they kept being so extravagant?


    Ever since Wang Yuexi started working at the administrative center, their family was considered to be above average, financially speaking. However, Hu Xiaobai still could not bear to buy such expensive clothes for Wang Yuexi.


    She felt it was more important to save up some money and quickly upgrade to a better house.


    Wang Yuexi looked at Ren Xiaosu and felt a little awkward. This kid was so much better dressed than him for work.


    However, Wang Yuexi and Hu Xiaobai were not mean people, so they let the matter slide.


    On the way to work, Wang Yuexi instructed Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I¡¯ve arranged for you to work at the Civil Affairs Division this time. You¡¯ll have a direct supervisor, so listen to your boss when you get there. Do whatever you¡¯re told to do and don¡¯t be stubborn.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, alright. Thank you, Mr. Wang,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered with a smile.


    At this moment, Wang Yuexi hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Um¡­ if there¡¯s any trouble, you can find me at the Policy Research Office.¡±


    Although Wang Yuexi did not want to interact too much with Ren Xiaosu, he was still his neighbor, after all, so he felt he should still watch out for him.


    People were already lining up outside the administrative center to get their paperwork done. However, they could not go inside as it was not office hours yet.


    Wang Yuexi led Ren Xiaosu in. ¡°In the early years, the Revenue Agency had its own office building, while the Marriage and Divorce Registries were in a different office building together with the Civil Affairs Division. As for the Title Deeds Registry, that was at yet another ce. It was very troublesome for the residents to get their administrative errands done. But it¡¯s good that they¡¯re all housed together now, as it¡¯s very convenient for everyone. The motto of the administrative center is to be a one-stop service center for all the people so they won¡¯t have to run all over the stronghold to do their paperwork. We don¡¯t want them to have to make a second trip either. This is one of my main civic achievements that has gained wide support from the people.¡± There was a hint of pride in his tone.

 Chapter 1016 - Dismissed

    <h4>Chapter 1016: Dismissed</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Y¡¯know, the things the people are critical of the authorities for are behaviors like indolence, sloppiness, and passing the buck?¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°But as long as everyone is working under the same roof, with an inspection board appointed, which doesn¡¯t need too many members on it, it¡¯s enough to make the employees who try to ck off behind the counter put on their best behavior.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a good look at Wang Yuexi and thought to himself that he had not expected this chubby middle-aged man to be such an ambitious person.


    Wang Yuexi continued, ¡°Of course, this was all thanks to Fortress 178. When the Zong Consortium was still running this ce, the various departments were all headed by their own rtives. Even if the department heads didn¡¯t work hard, there was nothing we could do about them. But it¡¯s different now. If the department heads don¡¯t stand up to scrutiny, they¡¯ll be fired. So, Xiaomi, remember this. Although I rmended you for this job, you had better not cause any trouble. Otherwise, I¡¯ll personally fire you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Mr. Wang. I¡¯m not that sort of person,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Wang Yuexi nodded. ¡°I heard the new director of the inspection board will be taking office soon. Some people say he¡¯s an even stricter person who abhors unnecessary bureaucracy. There¡¯s still some parasites left behind by the Zong Consortium in the ranks of the management. When he gets here, he¡¯ll probably be able to get rid of all of them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Who is that? He¡¯s that powerful?¡±


    ¡°I heard that his name is Ji Zi¡¯ang.¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°That man is a superhuman and fought alongside the futuremander at Mt. Zuoyun. He¡¯s a hero of the Northwest. Rumor has it that he was persecuted by the Zhou Consortium¡¯s officials and their rtives back then. After he was saved by the futuremander, he remained by his side since. He¡¯s the futuremander¡¯s trusted aide. As long as he gives the word to dismiss those who are just wasting resources, I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be carried out. He¡¯s someone who kills people like flies, and it¡¯s said that his nickname in the military is?Qin Shihuang.<sup>1</sup>?I don¡¯t know why they gave him that nickname. Maybe it¡¯s because he really believes in legalism and is stricter than most?¡±


    Wang Yuexi looked at Ren Xiaosu and realized he had a strange expression on his face. Then he said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as long as you work hard, no one can do anything to you.¡±


    Wang Yuexi thought Ren Xiaosu was just afraid, but what was going through Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind was amazement that Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s nickname had be so well-known.


    Besides, didn¡¯t Ji Zi¡¯ang go to Fortress 178 to reunite with his wife and child? Why was he going back to work so quickly?


    Actually, ording to the original n, Ji Zi¡¯ang was supposed to remain at Fortress 178. But after he went there, he felt a little lonely without the Great Hoodwinker, Wang Yun, and P5092 around him. He felt he wascking the partners he had built chemistry with. So he decided to bring his wife and child to Stronghold 144.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered when Ji Zi¡¯ang would take over his new role. When Ji Zi¡¯ang arrived and saw him, he would probably go, ¡°Hey, isn¡¯t that the futuremander? Why¡¯s he sitting behind the counter?¡±


    It would be really interesting if that happened.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if he should cook up an excuse and go back to doing nothing for a while longer. Ren Xiaosu was already conceiving the thought to do so. After all, his leisurely life with Yang Xiaojin had only just begun!


    Wang Yuexi led Ren Xiaosu to the Civil Affairs Division¡¯s counter window and said to a woman inside, ¡°Ms. Li, I¡¯ve brought the new guy to you. You can allocate some work to him. Feel free to assign the tough tasks to him. There¡¯s no need to take me into consideration. If he doesn¡¯t do his job well, please report it to me immediately.¡±


    Ms. Li greeted Wang Yuexi enthusiastically, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll arrange work for him right away.¡±


    It was now office hours in the administrative center. When the residents lining up outside entered, Wang Yuexi made a few remarks before leaving.


    Ms. Li took Ren Xiaosu to his station and said, ¡°There isn¡¯t much to handle here other than making registrations for divorces and marriages. We originally had four employees working on rotation, but two of them are pregnant and went on maternity leave at the same time. That¡¯s why we hired a temporary staffer. Let¡¯s wait for the residents at the counter. If someonees to register their marriage, you can handle it for them. If they¡¯re here for a divorce, I¡¯ll handle it. After all, getting a divorce is a moreplicated process, so it¡¯s better to leave that to me. Getting married is much simpler. You just have to fill out the forms for them, then take them into the room for photos and have them recite their vows.¡±


    As they spoke, a couple came to the counter pushing and shoving at each other. Then they said coldly, ¡°Applying for a divorce.¡±


    Ms. Li picked up their marriage certificate and read it. Then she asked, ¡°Why are you two getting a divorce?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t stand this person anymore!¡± The woman said, ¡°How unlucky of me to be married to this good-for-nothing!¡±


    Ms. Li advised, ¡°You two have been married for over a decade. Do you want to reconsider?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked on and felt that everything was very new to him. So it turned out there were certificates issued for marriages and divorces in the stronghold. There were no such practice in town.


    Ms. Li tried to persuade them out of goodwill, but the couple insisted on getting a divorce. No matter how hard Ms. Li tried to talk them out of it, it was to no avail. As such, she could only handle the divorce proceedings for them.


    After they were done, the two of them did not leave the administrative center. Instead, they headed further inside. Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Where are they going?¡±


    ¡°Oh, they must¡¯ve gone to handle the estate division and ownership transfer.¡± Ms. Li sighed and said, ¡°The administrative center makes everything really convenient. Now that the Civil Affairs Division and Estate Affairs Division are housed in the same building, once a couple gets a divorce, they can go straight to the next department to divide their assets. How efficient.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Ren Xiaosu thought that Wang Yuexi probably did not expect that someone wouldment the efficiency of the administrative center from such an angle.


    While he was in contemtion, several people came to the counter. Some of them were here to get a divorce, while others were applying to get married.


    Ms. Li said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Go serve the couple who wants to get married. I¡¯ll handle the rest. Don¡¯t panic, just do as I did just now. Make some small talk and then guide them to fill out the forms. After that, take them to the back room for photos and recital of their vows.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said to the couple, ¡°Are the two of you here to register your marriage? Please fill out the form here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu recalled what Ms. Li had told him. ¡°Make some small talk.¡±


    While the couple in front of him was filling out the form, Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, ¡°What does it feel like to get married?¡±


    The man said with a smile, ¡°We¡¯ve been in a rtionship for six years, so we¡¯re ready tomit ourselves. I¡¯m ready to give her a family. Here, the form¡¯s filled out.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took the form and started going through the motions just like Ms. Li. ¡°Um¡­ since you two have been dating for six years, do you want to reconsider?¡±


    The couple was surprised.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu was dismissed on his first day of work. To be precise, he was dismissed after less than an hour at work.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of relief. But it was such a waste of the suits Yang Xiaojin had bought for him.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned home and told Yang Xiaojin about everything, she keptughing for over an hour. Her hands were trembling as she stir-fried vegetables.


    Later, Yang Xiaojin even stopped cooking and just sat on the couch tough. Sheughed so hard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face turned dark.

 Chapter 1017 - Found the future commander!

    <h4>Chapter 1017: Found the futuremander!</h4>


    In the evening, when Wang Yuexi returned home from work, Hu Xiaobai was still unaware that Ren Xiaosu had been dismissed. She hurriedly asked, ¡°How did the young man next door do on his first day of work?¡±


    When Wang Yuexi heard his wife mention this, he got so angry heughed on the spot. ¡°How did he do? I guess you don¡¯t know yet, but he got the sack immediately this morning.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai was shocked. ¡°Why? What happened?¡±


    ¡°News of this has almost spread throughout the entire administrative center. During lunch, in the cafeteria, everyone wasughing so hard they nearly flipped tables.¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°In the morning, I arranged for him to be attached to the Civil Affairs Division to handle the marriage registration process. In the end, when a couple went over to apply for their marriage certificate, he said to them that since they had been dating for six years, maybe they should reconsider getting married¡­.¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha.¡± Hu Xiaobaiughed hard. When she saw Wang Yuexi¡¯s expression, she realized she shouldn¡¯t beughing now.


    ¡°This is outrageous.¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°Did he even intend to work? It¡¯s obvious to me that he doesn¡¯t want to work and didn¡¯t know how to reject your good intentions. That¡¯s why he yed such a trick. What a pity for Ms. Xiaojin. How did she end up with a person like him?¡±


    Hu Xiaobai also sighed and said, ¡°He intends to have Xiaojin support him for the rest of his life.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu starting work afterzing around for such a long time was a subject of discussion among the neighbors.


    But by the evening after Ren Xiaosu was dismissed on his very first day of work, this became new gossip material for them.


    Everyone¡¯s focus was on what a pity it was for Yang Xiaojin to have met such a person.


    ¡­


    At this moment, in the garrison base outside Stronghold 144, Zhang Xiaoman weed Wang Yun into the conference room with a smile.


    After more than a month of recuperation, Wang Yun¡¯splexion was finally looking better again.


    In order to identify Jiang Xu¡¯s murderer, Wang Yun¡¯s health was affected after staring at monitors for six days straight.


    After recuperating, Zhang Xiaoman and the Great Hoodwinker immediately had other ns for him.


    Zhang Xiaoman personally brewed a pot of quality tea for Wang Yun and said with a smile, ¡°How¡¯s your recent break been?¡±


    ¡°Not bad, it¡¯s just been quite boring.¡± Wang Yun took a sip of tea and said, ¡°By the way, have you heard any news from Future Commander? If he doesn¡¯t show up soon, everyone will feel like there¡¯s no one to lead them. I wonder what he¡¯s up to.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, ¡°Since you¡¯re bored, why don¡¯t I find you something to do?¡±


    Wang Yun looked at Zhang Xiaoman from the corners of his eyes. ¡°Oh, and I was wondering why you suddenly called me over. Go ahead, what is it?¡±


    ¡°Awesome!¡± Zhang Xiaoman shouted to the outside of the conference room, ¡°Carry the stuff in!¡±


    With that, arge group of soldiers came in. Some of them started installing screens on the wall while others adjusted equipment.


    Seeing that this situation was exactly the same as when they were looking for the murderer a month ago, Wang Yun was instantly shocked. ¡°What are they doing? Is the futuremanderunching another sting?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not our futuremanderunching another sting but that we want to find all the spies hiding in Stronghold 144. So we collected all the surveince footage from the past month and brought them here.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, ¡°Now that Stronghold 144 is under my watch, I can¡¯t possibly let those spies operate under my nose, right?¡±


    After experiencing what happened a month ago, Wang Yun felt a little nauseated when he saw the screens. He thought for a moment and said, ¡°Can you let me take a longer break?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said righteously, ¡°Think about it, we¡¯re Northwesterners now, so how can you bear to see people with ulterior motives operating under our noses? The futuremander has disappeared for almost a month, so isn¡¯t it better that we sniff out the spies now and give him a surprise when he returns?¡±


    ¡°Then surely it¡¯s no hurry and we don¡¯t have to do it in the next few days, right?¡± Wang Yun rejected.


    ¡°Have you forgotten our aspirations?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said solemnly, ¡°The Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    The Prosperous Northwest referred to a ce where everyone performed their duties, focused on improving infrastructure, paid attention to the livelihoods of the people, raised the level of the military, and captured all spies.


    P5092 also came into the conference room with great interest. He said to Wang Yun with a smile, ¡°I agree with Brigade Commander Zhang¡¯s n. You also know the Wang Consortium is progressing very quickly in their annexation of the Central ins. Once theyplete the unification of the entire Central ins in half a year, the Wang Consortium¡¯s next target might be the Northwest and Southwest. So we have to find all the spies in advance and carry out our strategic deployment. If the spies are not found and our strategic deployment ns get leaked, that¡¯ll be a huge threat.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Zhang Xiaoman apuded in agreement. ¡°Look at the Wang Consortium. They clearly know that we¡¯re experiencing a food shortage, yet they still cut off all food trade with us. This indirectly shows that the Wang Consortium has some designs on the Northwest.¡±


    Wang Yun gave it some thought and sighed. ¡°Indeed. Let¡¯s get to work then!¡±


    The screens in the conference room were refitted on the wall and would probably not be taken down again for some time. After the spies from Stronghold 144 were found, there would still be other spies to identify from Strongholds 145, 146, 143, 142, and others.


    In short, the Great Hoodwinker and Wang Fengyuan¡¯s idea was to have Wang Yun plow through all the security footage of the entire Northwest first.


    Before the spies were aware of what Wang Yun was capable of, the Northwest would have to act quickly!


    Zhang Xiaoman said to Wang Yun, ¡°We don¡¯t have to be in such a rush this time. You can take your time to go through the footage. The higher-ups¡¯ n is to identify all the spies within a year, so we¡¯re in no hurry.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good as long as it¡¯s no hurry.¡± Wang Yun heaved a sigh of relief.


    All the screens on the wall lit up with images from Stronghold 144.


    Compared to the previous time, the mission this time was much easier. Wang Yun only found three suspicious people after checking through the footage over and over again. ¡°Pause Screen A11. That person is carrying a gun. Investigate and see if there¡¯s a problem with him.¡±


    ¡°C31, pause. The middle-aged man in the surveince footage looks a little suspicious¡­¡±


    Wang Yun slowly went through all the surveince footage. However, there were many fewer spies in the Northwest than in the Central ins. This was probably because the various consortiums did not prioritize their intelligence gathering efforts here.


    But the next day, while Wang Yun was eating the food Zhang Xiaoman had personally brought him, he suddenly stopped moving and fell into a daze.


    When Zhang Xiaoman realized Wang Yun¡¯s chopsticks had stopped moving, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? What did you discover?¡±


    However, Wang Yun ignored him and said to the soldier assisting them, ¡°A16, pause! A28, pause!¡±


    After a while, he said, ¡°C29, pause!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman had a look of confusion on his face. There were too many screens on the wall, and he did not even know the positions of the screens Wang Yun mentioned.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Have you discovered a spy ring?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked, ¡°Should I lead my troops into the city? Are there many of them¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, Wang Yun suddenly stood up holding his boxed lunch in hand. ¡°It¡¯s Future Commander! He returned to Stronghold 144 over half a month ago!¡±


    When Zhang Xiaoman heard this, he jumped to his feet. ¡°Where? Where¡¯s Future Commander?¡±


    ¡°Anning East Road!¡± Wang Yun said firmly, ¡°It¡¯s the old military neighborhood!¡±


    Right afterwards, everyone in the military base heard Zhang Xiaoman shout at the top of his voice, ¡°Prepare the vehicles, quickly get the vehicles running! Hurry up, don¡¯t dy me from meeting with the futuremander!¡±

 Chapter 1018 - Please do not approach

    <h4>Chapter 1018: Please do not approach</h4>


    After dinnertime, a convoy of vehicles suddenly sped out of the garrison base at Stronghold 144 and headed straight for the stronghold nearby.


    The strongholds in the Northwest did not shut their gates at night anymore. The garrison troops changed shifts and allowed anyone to pass through as long as they didn¡¯t carry any prohibited items, be they refugees or stronghold residents.


    Arge number of patrolling troops and Public Order Division officers were also within the stronghold to maintain peace and order.


    To maintain internal security, police hotlines were even set up in the Northwest. As long as someone called to report a case, the stronghold¡¯s administrative center would guarantee that officers from the Public Order Division would get there within 15 minutes to resolve matters.


    The security forces had already received a call from the garrison troops. When they saw Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s vehicle, they immediately let it through. However, nobody could understand why Brigade Commander Zhang would suddenly enter the city when it waste into the night.


    In the past, Zhang Xiaoman would not have entered the city at this time.


    Zhang Xiaoman sped into the stronghold, but there were others who drove even faster than him.


    Hu Xiaobai was sitting in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s house and nagging, ¡°I didn¡¯t want to say itst time, but I really can¡¯t hold it in any longer today. Xiaomi, don¡¯t you know how to feel sorry for Ms. Xiaojin? Do you know how tiring it is for her to carry such arge basket of potatoes to the market herself? As for you, you lost your job after just one day!


    ¡°It¡¯s not like I want to poke my nose into this matter either, but look, everyone is really concerned for Ms. Xiaojin. Doesn¡¯t it make your heart ache to see her suffer?¡±


    Off to the side, Yang Xiaojin pursed her lips and held back herughter. Hu Xiaobai looked at her angrily. ¡°You¡¯re way too indulgent of him. If you didn¡¯t spoil him, he wouldn¡¯t be sozy!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu patiently exined, ¡°It¡¯s like this, Mrs. Hu. We still have some savings, so I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be a problem for me to stay like this for a while longer.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai raised an eyebrow. ¡°What? Do you intend to sit around until your savings dwindle? More importantly, you aren¡¯t even doing anything at home every day while Ms. Xiaojin is working hard out there. I think she probably already has calluses growing on her hands!¡±


    Hu Xiaobai went over to grab Yang Xiaojin¡¯s hand. However, she was stunned, because Yang Xiaojin¡¯s palm and fingers were as smooth and soft as ever. There were no calluses on them.


    Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, ¡°Mrs. Hu, you don¡¯t have to worry so much. We¡¯re aware of our situation. He¡¯s really very capable, but he just wants to rest for a while.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai was a little annoyed. ¡°Whatever, forget it! I¡¯m the one who¡¯s being nosy here.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai started to walk out. ¡°You two are still young. You don¡¯t know how much money you¡¯ll have to spend in the future.¡±


    Seeing that Hu Xiaobai was going back to her house, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin walked her to the door.


    But before Hu Xiaobai could enter her own house, she heard the sound of engines roaring on Anning East Road. It sounded like people were speeding down the street.


    The sudden mor made many of the neighbors poke their heads out of their windows in curiosity. Hu Xiaobai also stopped in her tracks in confusion to see what was going on.


    Then Hu Xiaobai watched in surprise as a ck convoy turned from Anning East Road into the old military neighborhood and headed straight for them.


    Hu Xiaobai got anxious. She banged on her front door. ¡°Old Wang! Old Wang! Come out and see what¡¯s going on! Don¡¯t tell me that someone found out about your corruption and bribery at the administrative center? Are they here to arrest you?!¡±


    Wang Yuexi opened the door angrily and said, ¡°What nonsense are you rambling about? I didn¡¯t embezzle or take bribes!¡±


    Wang Yuexi discovered that the ck convoy was almost at their doorstep. The vehicles in the convoy were all luxury cars.


    Wang Yuexi was surprised. Hu Xiaobai might not know where these vehicles came from, but how could he not know them when he dealt with these people daily?


    This was the convoy of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce. Why were they looking for him in the middle of the night?


    However, the convoy did not drive up to the entrance of his house. Instead, it stopped right in front of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s residence!


    What was going on? Wang Yuexi could feel his mind spinning.


    When a car door opened, a well-dressed middle-aged man got out of the vehicle and ran enthusiastically towards ¡°L¨¹ Xiaomi¡± next door.


    ¡°President Wang?!¡± Wang Yuexi called out in confusion.


    Wang Fugui turned around and looked at Wang Yuexi. ¡°Eh, Director Wang, you¡¯re here too? Sorry, but I have something urgent to attend to. Let¡¯s chat another day.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also looked at Wang Yuexi and greeted him with a smile. Then he said to Wang Fugui, ¡°Let¡¯s go in and chat.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu and Wang Fugui entered the house together with schoolteacher Jiang Wu.


    The door closed, leaving behind Wang Yuexi, Hu Xiaobai, and the onlookers whose heads were sticking out of their windows.


    Hu Xiaobai was stunned. ¡°Old Wang, did you just call him President Wang?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, he¡¯s the president of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, Wang Fugui.¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°President Wang lives in Stronghold 144, but he hasn¡¯t headed out much recently. Why has hee all the way here today? What kind of person is that L¨¹ Xiaomi? Didn¡¯t you say that he¡¯s just an uncultured nobody?¡±


    Hu Xiaobai muttered, ¡°They resorted to selling peaches in the market, so how could they be anyone important? Which big shot would go to the market to set up their own stalls to sell things? But why do you think President Wang is here? Could our next-door neighbor really be important people?¡±


    ¡°How would I know?¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°But Wang Fugui lives in seclusion. Whoever can make him pay a personal visit must not be ordinary. I saw his eager expression just now, so they probably have a very close rtionship.¡±


    As they were talking, the sound of engines came from Anning East Road again.


    When Wang Yuexi saw the convoy that drove into the neighborhood, his jaw slowly dropped in surprise. The vehicles that arrived this time were all green military off-road vehicles!


    Whoever dared to drive such vehicles in the Northwest were definitely from the Northwest Army. Moreover, from the looks of it, it was someone very high-ranking too.


    When Zhang Xiaoman got out of the vehicle, Wang Yuexi questioned again, ¡°Brigade Commander Zhang?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman nced at Wang Yuexi. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was not as smart and empathetic as Wang Fugui. He had forgotten many of the people he met in the stronghold. Although Wang Yuexi held an important position now, there were still two rank levels between him and Zhang Xiaoman.


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m Wang Yuexi from the administrative center¡¯s Policy Research Office,¡± Wang Yuexi introduced himself.


    Zhang Xiaoman nodded. ¡°Oh, I remember you. Can I ask you something? Does a young couple live at this house?¡±


    Wang Yuexi nodded nkly. ¡°Yes.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman became excited. ¡°This is the ce. Wang Yun, you¡¯ve done a great deed this time. Hahaha, we¡¯ve been waiting for him for so long, but who could have expected our boss to be hiding right under our noses all this while?¡±


    <i>Knock, knock, knock</i>. Zhang Xiaoman walked over and knocked on the door. Wang Yuexi walked over to try to ask what was going on, but he was stopped by a heavily armed soldier of the Northwest Army. He said politely, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but this is a military order. Please do not approach the futuremander¡¯s residence.¡±

 Chapter 1019 - The future commander actually lives next door?

    <h4>Chapter 1019: The futuremander actually lives next door?</h4>


    ¡°The futuremander¡¯s residence?¡± Wang Yuexi was stunned. No matter how slow his reaction was, he realized the status of the young couple next door.


    It was no wonder that even though Wang Fugui was the president of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, he still rushed over so anxiously in the middle of the night.


    And Brigade Commander Zhang Xiaoman, who usually did not enter the stronghold at night, also suddenly came to their neighborhood.


    Like the others, Wang Yuexi was also very curious about where their futuremander had disappeared off to after attacking the Zhou Consortium.


    Hu Xiaobai and the neighbors were gossiping about this. Even Wang Yuexi and the other men in the Policy Research Office would also talk about this topic during their free time at work.


    Some people said the futuremander had gone to carry out other, more important missions, while others said that he did not enjoy wielding authority. They figured he did not want to take Commander Zhang¡¯s role, so he decided not toe back.


    There were all kinds of spection, but no one guessed Ren Xiaosu had already returned to the Northwest and was hiding right under everyone¡¯s nose.


    Hu Xiaobai stood anxiously at the entrance of her house. She waved at Wang Yuexi with all her might. ¡°Come back here. Why did you run over there?¡±


    She had not heard what the soldiers said, but she was worried something might happen if Wang Yuexi got too close to them.


    Wang Yuexi walked back to his house and quietly watched the soldiers who had ced the surroundings of their neighbor¡¯s residence under heavy security. Hu Xiaobai whispered, ¡°Who are they? Why are they here in the middle of the night?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the futuremander.¡± Wang Yuexi said in a low voice, ¡°They¡¯re here for the futuremander.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai raised her voice in surprise. ¡°The futuremander?! What futuremander?¡±


    Her voice boomed like a sudden p of thunder, which all the nearby neighbors heard!


    A woman poked her head out and said, ¡°Xiaobai, I heard you mention the futuremander? Is he here?¡±


    Looking at the crowd in the yard downstairs, just the military off-road vehicles parked there numbered at least a dozen. Vehicles from the Northwest Chamber of Commerce were parked there as well, so it was a grand sight to behold.


    Hu Xiaobai asked Wang Yuexi softly, ¡°What on earth is going on? What did those soldiers say? I think I saw Brigade Commander Zhang just now?¡±


    ¡°That?<i>was</i>?Zhang Xiaoman, and those soldiers are from the 6th Combat Brigade. You can tell by just looking at their shoulders.¡± Wang Yuexi sighed and said, ¡°When I walked over just now, a soldier told me that the futuremander¡¯s residence is next door, so I¡¯m not to approach it. Do you understand what I¡¯m saying?¡±


    Wang Yuexi watched as his wife¡¯s jaw dropped. He quickly covered her mouth with his hand and said, ¡°Don¡¯t shout! Aren¡¯t you afraid the others will find out what¡¯s going on?¡±


    Hu Xiaobai said in disbelief, ¡°The futuremander is next door? I¡¯ve been criticizing the futuremander for being azy bum every day?¡±


    Wang Yuexi said with a gloomy expression, ¡°That¡¯s the case, isn¡¯t it? Now that I think about it, with the status of our futuremander, why would he even need to work? The entire Yunsu business belongs to him, so even if he spends his entire life beingzy, he can¡¯t spend all his money. Damn you, woman, you¡¯re way too much! You kept saying the futuremander was azy bum and that you felt bad for Ms. Xiaojin. Look at what happened now! Who knows if the futuremander will take this matter to heart?¡±


    Hu Xiaobai looked at Wang Yuexi. ¡°Don¡¯t me me. You¡¯re the one who sacked the futuremander from his job.¡±


    When Wang Yuexi heard this, he could even feel his liver starting to hurt.


    Goddammit!


    Hu Xiaobai muttered, ¡°But they¡¯re so rich. Why did they go to the market and sell peaches and potatoes?¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t he live life?¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°By the way, have you ever noticed what he usually does?¡±


    ¡°Reading, that¡¯s about it. When I went to the market with Ms. Xiaojin, he was also just reading books.¡± Hu Xiaobai said, ¡°But I don¡¯t think he¡¯s been reading much in recent days. All he does is randomly wander around the market. I heard about that from Mrs. Liu.¡±


    ¡°Wandering around?¡± Wang Yuexi wondered.


    ¡°Mhm, he went to every stall and asked them about the prices of vegetables, rice, and noodles every day. That¡¯s all he ever does,¡± Hu Xiaobai said.


    Wang Yuexi fell silent. If this were before, he would also think the person was really azy bum. But if his status as the futuremander was confirmed, Wang Yuexi would have to think deeper.


    ¡°It looks like the futuremander has also noticed the change in the food prices.¡± Wang Yuexi said firmly, ¡°He¡¯s concerned about the food shortage that¡¯sing to the Northwest.¡±


    Hu Xiaobai said with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s what I thought! How could the futuremander of our Northwest possibly be azy bum?¡±


    Wang Yuexi looked at his wife silently. ¡®<i>That isn¡¯t what you said previously.</i>¡®


    While he was pondering things, the sound of car engines came from Anning East Road again. All the onlookers turned in that direction to see who it was this time.


    Tonight, there was not a moment of peace on Anning East Road.


    A convoy of ck off-road vehicles sped over and appeared in everyone¡¯s sight. When Wang Yuexi saw the vehicles, he recognized them. ¡°Those vehicles are from the ck market. It¡¯s Zhou Yingxue.¡±


    This convoy looked much more fearsome than the earlier ones. Every vehicle was a full-sized SUV with an unusuallyrge and wide front body.


    When the convoy came to a stop, Zhou Yingxue, who was dressed in a purple qipao, got out of the vehicle in high heels. The Eight Vajras followed close behind.


    Before Zhou Yingxue reached the entrance of the residence, her voice drifted over. ¡°Master!¡±


    With that, all onlookers could confirm that the person living in this house was indeed the futuremander of the Northwest.


    In that instant, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reputation as azy bum changed. Everyone started discussing and saying, ¡°What a low profile the futuremander has kept¡­¡±


    When Zhou Yingxue heard the noisy chatter around her, her eyebrows twitched. She ordered Wang Yuchi and the others, ¡°Go tell them not to stop watching. Is this something they should be standing around to watch?¡±


    As soon as the maidservant opened her mouth, the fearsome mob boss aura of hers could be felt.


    As she walked to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s residence, the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade did not stop her as they knew who she was.


    But before she could knock on the door, she heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voicee from inside. ¡°Stay outside and reflect upon yourself!¡±


    The maidservant¡¯s expression darkened. She stood outside the door in anger and muttered under her breath, ¡°I came to see you in the middle of the night, yet you¡¯re making me stand out here as punishment?! Did I set up this ck market for myself? It was all for you, Master! Seriously?!¡±


    As sheined, the maidservant looked at Wang Yuexi and Hu Xiaobai before saying amiably, ¡°You two are his neighbors, right? When did he move here?¡±


    ¡°About a month ago,¡± Wang Yuexi answered.


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Wang Yuexi. ¡°Eh, why do you look so familiar?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Wang Yuexi from the Policy Research Office,¡± Wang Yuexi introduced himself.


    ¡°Oh, I remember now. When the ck market opened for business, you also sent a flower basket. When you have time,e visit the ck market.¡± Zhou Yingxue said with a smile, ¡°Hey, you two! Come over and tell me what he¡¯s been up to recently.¡±


    The suddenmotionpletely disrupted the peace in the old military neighborhood. News of the futuremander secretly living in Stronghold 144 quickly spread to every corner of the stronghold within ten minutes.


    Their futuremander was finally back!

 Chapter 1020 - Internal meeting

    <h4>Chapter 1020: Internal meeting</h4>


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin¡¯s house was fully packed with people.


    The Great Hoodwinker, Zhang Xiaoman, Wang Yun, P5092, Wang Fugui, Jiang Wu, and the rest had all gathered around Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu sat calmly on the couch. ¡°So tell me, how did y¡¯all find me?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman chuckled, ¡°We were nning to sniff out all the spies hiding in Stronghold 144 with the same method that we used to catch Luo Zongren. But who could have thought that we would end up catching Future Commander instead!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was left speechless.


    Next to him, the Great Hoodwinker kicked Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s butt and chided, ¡°Watch what you¡¯re saying! What do you mean by we¡¯ve caught Future Commander!?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was immediately enraged. But considering that he could not win against the Great Hoodwinker, he held in his anger.


    Only then did Ren Xiaosu realize Wang Yun had located him through the surveince footage.


    It couldn¡¯t be helped then. Staying hidden under the nose of someone like Wang Yun was virtually impossible.


    The Great Hoodwinkerughed and said, ¡°Future Commander, why didn¡¯t you tell us that you were already back in the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°I wanted to rest for a while. After all, I¡¯m really tired from all the fighting and killing we did in the Central ins,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered. ¡°However, this rare moment of peace was shattered by all y¡¯all.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t put it like that.¡± The Great Hoodwinker chuckled and said, ¡°Future Commander, if you had informed us in advance, we wouldn¡¯t havee and bothered you.¡±


    ¡°Then y¡¯all may go back for now. Remember not to reveal my identity to the neighbors,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°It¡¯s already toote.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said shamelessly, ¡°I was afraid that you wouldn¡¯t want to return to Stronghold 144 to take charge, so I explicitly ordered the soldiers to tell your neighbors that this is the futuremander¡¯s residence.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyebrows twitched. He really wanted to kick Zhang Xiaoman in the face.


    In the end, it was still P5092 who stepped forward to calm things. ¡°Actually, Future Commander, all the other strongholds are no longer run by the military. However, Stronghold 144 is still being managed by the 6th Combat Brigade. This shows that Commander Zhang also hopes you can govern this stronghold.¡±


    In normal times, there was a clear distinction between the military and the administration.


    But due to special circumstances, the Fortress 178 troops had taken management of the various strongholds in the Northwest. Now that all the new overseer positions were filled, it was time for the military to step back and return to their original duties.


    The administration and the military were two systems thatplemented each other¡ªalways having ovepping objectives but never running parallel in the way they operated. This was the difference between civilian and military officials.


    However, Stronghold 144 was different. The 6th Combat Brigade still retained all the authority over the stronghold. Zhang Jinglin¡¯s intention was clear. He wanted to hand Stronghold 144 to Ren Xiaosu to gauge his capability.


    Although Commander Zhang¡¯s current thoughts were not explicitly expressed, the Great Hoodwinker and Zhang Xiaoman, along with the rest, understood his intention with just a hint.


    P5092 said, ¡°Future Commander, Stronghold 144¡¯s trade scene has stabilized as President Wang Fugui has handled everything very well. The Chamber of Commerce is also in good order, so everyone can rest easy. Ms. Zhou Yingxue is also maintaining order in the mafia. We¡¯re all of the opinion that she¡¯s more than well-suited to manage the ck market. Currently, the remaining issues are the food crisis and the possible outbreak of war. I feel we don¡¯t have much time to waste. Would you like to make a trip to Fortress 178 and meet Commander Zhang to see what his ns are?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I won¡¯t go there for the time being.¡±


    If he went there, that would be as good as officially epting Zhang Jinglin¡¯s arrangements. After that, he would truly be the futuremander of the Northwest Army and would have to shoulder the responsibilities of the entire Northwest.


    But Ren Xiaosu was really not prepared for it. It was not that he was refusing to oblige.


    He just wanted to see what he could achieve at Stronghold 144 first before deciding on his next step.


    ¡°Let¡¯s handle things one at a time.¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted to Zhou Yingxue, who was standing outside, ¡°Get in here.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue wiped away her intive look. The moment she came in, she greeted Yang Xiaojin first before walking over slowly to Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t I ask whether you¡¯ve been lording over others in my name? How did you answer me?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said in a meek voice, ¡°I didn¡¯t make any trouble at all. Master, think about it. If I didn¡¯t set up the ck market, someone else would¡¯ve done it. It¡¯s better to keep the ck market under our control than to have it in the hands of others, right?¡±


    ¡°Did you use any unfair practices to monopolize the market?¡±


    ¡°No, absolutely not. I just collect the transaction fees. I¡¯d never do something unfair against consumers.¡±


    ¡°Did you resort to violence?¡±


    ¡°No, everyone is quite obedient. Master, if you don¡¯t believe it, you can ask Wang Yuchi and the others. They¡¯re the most honest¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°What is Mr. Zhang¡¯s opinion of the ck market?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just as Ms. Zhou Yingxue said. Commander Zhang also felt that it was better to have it under our control. You cannot expect everyone to be squeaky clean, so the ck market will always exist,¡± the Great Hoodwinker said.


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°Zhou Yingxue, you must speak and act prudently while you oversee the ck market. Don¡¯t go thinking that you can do whatever you like just because you¡¯re strong.¡±


    ¡°Master, don¡¯t worry. Don¡¯t you know me well enough? I know what I¡¯m doing!¡± Zhou Yingxue was relieved. She knew that once this matter blew over, the ck market would not have to be disbanded in the future.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Wang Fugui again. ¡°What about over at the Chamber of Commerce? Did you encounter any difficulties that need to be solved?¡±


    Wang Fugui chuckled and said, ¡°It¡¯s not really a problem?<i>per se</i>. Xiaosu, I just wanted you to talk with Ms. Zhou to see if she can allow the Eight Vajras to stop hanging around the ck market. Although the trade route to the Central ins is quite safe, there¡¯s still some asional risk-takers who rob the traveling merchants. So we need some people to protect us along the way.¡±


    ¡°OK, there¡¯s no need to discuss this further.¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Yuchi, ¡°The eight of you will stick to the trade convoys from now on. The ck market isn¡¯t a ce you should be hanging around at your age, so stop going there. Follow your Uncle Fugui and venture outside more so you can broaden your horizons. Once the trade route to the grasnds is ready, y¡¯all can visit it.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s expression sank. Ren Xiaosu said to her, ¡°Your ck market is right next to the stronghold. If there¡¯s really any trouble, you can just call Zhang Xiaoman. Don¡¯t tie Wang Yuchi and the others down at that ce anymore. Besides, who dares to provoke you anyways?¡±


    With this promise from Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue beamed with joy. ¡°That¡¯s great. I just needed to hear that from you, Master. After all, my superpower isn¡¯t suited for frequent use in battle.¡±


    Following that, Ren Xiaosu asked P5092, ¡°How do you think we should adjust our military forces?¡±


    ¡°The recruitment for the new year will have to start on time.¡± P5092 thought for a while and said, ¡°Since Stronghold 144 is the closest to the Central ins, this ce will be the first to bear the brunt of the war if it breaks out. Therefore, a brigade is definitely not enough manpower. We¡¯ll need a division. I need to expand the reconnaissancepany into a battalion and deploy them to the borders so we can know in advance what the Wang Consortium is nning.¡±

 Chapter 1021 - Contract responsibility system

    <h4>Chapter 1021: Contract responsibility system</h4>


    ¡°Military expansion is not a trivial matter.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined to P5092, ¡°It still needs to go through a formal approval process by Commander Zhang.¡±


    However, the Great Hoodwinker said from nearby, ¡°Commander Zhang has said that you¡¯ll be in charge of things in Stronghold 144 and its territories. He won¡¯t interfere with your decisions. Even if you submit documents for approval, they¡¯ll be rejected and sent right back. Right now, you basically have the power to act as you please.¡±


    ¡°Does Stronghold 144 have the budget for military expansion?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman.


    ¡°Of course. After the trade routes opened, although the tax rates were very low, Stronghold 144 has be the richest stronghold in the Northwest,¡± Zhang Xiaoman replied. ¡°In terms of our local regional finances, we have more money than we can spend.¡±


    ¡°More than we can spend or do you just not know what to spend it on? Otherwise, the food shortage issue should¡¯ve been resolved already. I¡¯ve walked around the market recently and noticed that the food prices are increasing almost daily. This is a very bad sign. P5092, you can just take charge of the military expansion ns. The rest of us still have to resolve the major problem of the food shortage first,¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly.


    Feeling wronged, Zhang Xiaomanined, ¡°It¡¯s not that we didn¡¯t try, but we faced way too many difficulties. If the Wang Consortium were willing to export food to us, we wouldn¡¯t have so many problems. I¡¯ve already sent people to the Qing Consortium to see if they can help us in any way.¡±


    ¡°Even if there¡¯s difficulties, we still have to handle them.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Be it the Qing Consortium or the Wang Consortium, they¡¯re all outsiders. Food is everyone¡¯s lifeline, and that¡¯s true for the Northwest as well. How can we rely on outsiders for something like that? Zhou Yingxue, I¡¯m assigning you to grow potatoes starting tomorrow. We have to resolve the food shortage first so that no one will panic.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s expression immediately turned bitter. She knew she would definitely be asked to grow potatoes if the food shortage needed to be resolved.


    If Zhou Yingxue were the one who nted the Potato Shooter, not only would the potatoes be bigger, but the Potato Shooter could also produce up to a 100 potatoes per day. With this crop, it could at least assure that the people in the Northwest would not have to starve to death.


    ¡°However, we can¡¯t just rely on potatoes to resolve the food shortage. We can¡¯t possibly make everyone eat potatoes all the time.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Tell me, what¡¯re the difficulties you¡¯ve encountered regarding the food crisis?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°We took over the Zong Consortium¡¯s strongholds not long ago. But we realized that we have to start from scratch just to survey the newnd.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s so difficult about drawing a map?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°There¡¯s so many skilled people within the troops who can do that. Send your 6th Combat Brigade to survey the terrain. We have to get this done quickly. Wang Yun, you¡¯ll lead the team for this purpose. I want to see results within half a month.¡±


    ¡°Alright, Future Commander,¡± Wang Yun said with a nod.


    ¡°What other difficulties were there?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again.


    Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°We also have issues with the irrigation infrastructure and the terrain. As the soil erosion here is quite severe, a lot of ces are unsuitable for farming. Of course, there¡¯s also some good plots ofnd. But it¡¯ll be quite difficult to construct irrigation canals through them since it¡¯ll require too much manpower and resources.¡±


    ¡°When will Ji Zi¡¯ang get here?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t post him to the inspection board for now. Have him lead a team to improve the irrigation works first. Great Hoodwinker, did you encounter any other earth-type supernatural beings when you were in the Central ins? Poach them for our Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    ¡°No, there aren¡¯t any left in the Central ins, but there¡¯s still one here in the Northwest.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°It¡¯s just that he¡¯s unwilling to join the Northwest Army, so we can¡¯t force him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°When did you be easy to talk to?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, it¡¯s not that I¡¯m easy to talk to but this is our Northwest¡¯s policy. We don¡¯t force others to join us,¡± the Great Hoodwinker said.


    The moment he said that, Wang Yun and the others looked at the Great Hoodwinker in silence. They thought to themselves, ¡®<i>That¡¯s what you¡¯ve been doing all this while in the Central ins, so why would you deny it now that you¡¯ve returned to the Northwest?</i>¡®


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, ¡°Can we get the people of Stronghold 144 to participate in thend recultivation efforts as well?¡±


    ¡°No one here has any enthusiasm for that.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°It¡¯s not just our Northwest that has this problem; all the consortiums face the same issue. Although we can hire refugees and stronghold residents for farming, they actually aren¡¯t very enthusiastic about it. In fact, this is the main cause of the food crisis. Now that the trade routes have opened, everyone is running their own business. But farming is different. As they don¡¯t own thend, the crops they grow don¡¯t belong to them either. So they¡¯re only drawing a sry. That¡¯s why so many refugees went to the uninhabitednd in the valley to cultivate thend by themselves. If we want to encourage them, we must enactnd reform first. However, we can¡¯t sell thend and let the people privatize it either. If that happens, it can also be a potential problem if people start buying and selling their property privately and not use it for farming.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and suddenly asked, ¡°Have y¡¯all ever heard of the contract responsibility system[1]? This solution is somewhat suitable for the problem we¡¯re facing in our vision of the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    ¡­


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu also did not know anything about managing a stronghold, and Zhang Xiaoman and the others were suddenly forced to start learning as well. As such, they could only take things one step at a time and learn on the job.


    After agreeing on the meeting time tomorrow, Ren Xiaosu walked them to the door.


    Very quickly, all the vehicles that had suddenly rushed here to see Ren Xiaosu drove off, and the old military neighborhood on Anning East Road returned to its usual calm.


    But after the convoy of vehicles left, all the residents in the old military neighborhood came out of their houses and looked curiously at Ren Xiaosu. They wanted to see just what the legendary futuremander looked like.


    Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi stood at the entrance of their house and hesitated about whether to go up to talk to Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Mr. Wang, Mrs. Hu, is there anything I can help you with?¡±


    Hu Xiaobai said in embarrassment, ¡°Erm¡­ Future Commander, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯ve misunderstood you recently¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°After all, I¡¯ve really been a littlezy these days.¡±


    ¡°How could that be?¡± Hu Xiaobai quickly corrected him, ¡°Future Commander, you were just traveling incognito to get they of thend and find out what the people¡¯s concerns are. I understand, I totally understand!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. As expected, the way everyone looked at you would depend on your status.


    Honestly, he had reallye here to lead a peaceful life and do nothing at all. But in the end, everyone misunderstood that he was here to find out about the people¡¯s concerns.


    Then Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Yuexi, ¡°We¡¯ll be holding a meeting regarding the food crisis tomorrow. You should represent the Policy Research Office and attend it.¡±


    Wang Yuexi was stunned. Then he hurriedly nodded in excitement. ¡°OK, OK! No problem!¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu returned to his house. Hu Xiaobai wondered, ¡°What did Future Commander mean by that? Is he going to ce you in an important role?¡±


    Wang Yuexi thought to himself that maybe the futuremander was very satisfied with theprehensive services he had set up in the administrative center?


    But he still had to restrain himself. ¡°I doubt I¡¯m good enough to be ced in an important role, so don¡¯t go around talking to others yet. Who knows how that might sound by the time it reaches the futuremander¡¯s ears?¡±


    Back in the house, Ren Xiaosu smiled at Yang Xiaojin and said, ¡°Sorry, it looks like we can¡¯t continue living this quiet life anymore.¡±


    News of the futuremander living in seclusion on Anning East Road had already spread throughout Stronghold 144.


    Their neighbors, as well as the stall owners at the market, were all extremely excited. They went about telling all their rtives and friends about the story of the futuremander¡¯s incognito travels with great enthusiasm.


    [1] A practice in China, first adopted in agriculture in 1979 and officially established in 1982, by which households are held responsible for the profits and losses of an enterprise.

 Chapter 1022 - Reforms

    <h4>Chapter 1022: Reforms</h4>


    In the early morning, Yang Xiaojin passed by Anning East Road carrying her basket. Although it was almost summer, Stronghold 144 was seemingly brought back to early spring due to a sudden drop in temperature. A thin fog had filled the air, and the ground was a little wet.


    But today was different from usual. As Yang Xiaojin walked down the street, she noticed the passersby could not help but look at her.


    She knew very well why this was so. People were even whispering on the sidewalk as they tried to exin her status to the unaware.


    Yang Xiaojin smiled. Whenever other people mentioned her, the mostmonly used words they used to describe her were ¡°Future Commander¡± and ¡°Future Commander¡¯s wife.¡±


    In the past, she was a sniper who evoked fear in people and an independent lone wolf. Now that she had a prefix added to her name, she found it rather interesting.


    Of course, both Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin knew very well that they were still individuals.


    However, Yang Xiaojin¡¯s smile soon disappeared.


    As a supernatural being, she was destined to have a better sense of hearing than normal people. Although it was not that much better, it was still enough for her to hear the discussion five meters away.


    A passerby muttered, ¡°All of you are looking at her. Why? Who is she?¡±


    The passerby was a little puzzled. Although the girl in the ballcap had an elegant air about her, one could only see her nose and chin when they walked past her from the opposite direction. So everyone was probably not attracted by her beauty, right? It should be because her status was a little special.


    A passerby in the know whispered, ¡°Don¡¯t you know who she is? She¡¯s the legendary Queen Mother of the West¡­¡±[1]


    Yang Xiaojin¡¯s expression darkened. What kind of weird nickname was that? If she found out which culprit gave her that nickname, she would probably gun down that person with her ck sniper rifle.


    She did not expect that she would have to bear the burden of this unwanted nickname at her young age.


    The passerby in the know was still saying with gusto, ¡°It¡¯s a little tacky to address her as Future Commander¡¯s wife, but Future Commander will seed Commander Zhang to be the ruler of the Northwest sooner orter. So there¡¯s nothing wrong with calling her Queen Mother of the West. Besides, you¡¯ve also read the superhuman rankings publication. Thebat power of our Queen Mother of the West is very high as well.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin took a deep breath and headed straight to the market. She decided not to continue listening to the rest of the conversation.


    There were a variety of nicknames in the Northwest Army, such as Qin Shihuang, Cleanser of the Altars, and so on. And today, Queen Mother of the West was added to that list as well.


    When Yang Xiaojin arrived at the market, all the stall owners who used to greet her enthusiastically remained silent. It was not that everyone was afraid of Yang Xiaojin or hated her, but they suddenly did not know how to treat her with her new status.


    Moreover, talk had been going around recently that Ren Xiaosu was living off his woman. Thinking about it now, they even found it a little embarrassing.


    It wasn¡¯t until Yang Xiaojin started shopping for groceries as usual that everyone eventually breathed a sigh of relief. Ms. Xiaojin was still the same old her.


    While shopping for groceries, a few stall owners insisted on giving them away for free. But Yang Xiaojin managed to get them to ept payment after much persuasion.


    However, Yang Xiaojin also made it very clear to the stall owners that they would probably be staying here for some time. If they did not ept payment from her for their groceries, she would probably note and buy from them anymore in the future. At that time, Ren Xiaosu would have to starve.


    These words tickled the stall owners, but they did not dare tough and could only ept the payment.


    When she left the market after she was done grocery shopping, she was so exhausted her forehead was covered with sweat.


    Honestly, not even the normal battles she took part in were this tiring.


    When she returned home, Yang Xiaojin surprisinglyined for the first time. She said as she ced the keys on the shoe cab by the door, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to have such a good reputation in the Northwest. Everyone was offering to give their groceries to me for free. You obviously haven¡¯t been in the Northwest for long, so why are they so supportive of you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Perhaps I was the hero who liberated them from the Zong Consortium.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin clicked her tongue in disapproval. ¡°If they didn¡¯t know we¡¯re together, there would probably be a long line of matchmakers outside offering their services to you.¡±


    Early in the morning, Wang Fugui, Zhang Xiaoman, Wang Yun, and the rest showed up at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s residence. However, Wang Yuexi suddenly got very nervous at the thought of having to attend a meeting with so many important people.


    Ren Xiaosu said to everyone in the living room, ¡°The agenda for today¡¯s meeting is mainly to discuss whether the contract responsibility system is suitable for the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°About that¡­ Future Commander, can you exin to us what exactly this contract responsibility system is about?¡± Wang Fugui said.


    Of the people present, everyone possessed a certain level of knowledge with the exception of Zhang Xiaoman. Even Wang Fugui also used to like reading books and newspapers a lot.


    However, a subject like the contract responsibility system was rtively unfamiliar to them.


    After the gradual rise of the consortiums, some books rted to this topic naturally got banned. Some consortiums directly destroyed the publications while others stored them and did not allow the public to ess them.


    Ren Xiaosu hade across this term in a novel before. The books on this subject matter had probably already been destroyed. But this novel must have slipped through the cracks due to the novel¡¯s theme. Otherwise, he would not havee across this term ever.


    Wang Yun carefully cycled through his memories. ¡°I¡¯ve read all the books in the Wang Consortium¡¯s library. There were seven books that mentioned the contract responsibility system. Its core objective is to improve enthusiasm for agricultural production and have farmers cultivate thend willingly rather than being forced to do so.¡±


    Especially in this era where farming was still considered as working for the consortiums, such a system would prove very tempting for the people.


    Wang Yuexi listened to all of this quietly. He knew exactly how steely one would need to be the first person to implement the contract responsibility system.


    Initially, he thought Ren Xiaosu would start by importing food to resolve the current food shortage or solve it through other means. But he didn¡¯t expect Ren Xiaosu to want to solve the core of the issue as soon as he spoke.


    Land reform was a subject everyone would treat with caution if they encountered it.


    Ren Xiaosu calmly exined, ¡°The problem we¡¯re facing is that the people in the Northwest have too much freedom. Everyone can start a business, work in factories, or choose whether to farm or not. Butpared to other ways of making a living, farming is obviously not attractive enough to them. The reason why the Northwest is facing a food shortage is partly due to natural disasters, but we can¡¯t ignore the man-made factors either. Y¡¯all can see that there¡¯s still a lot of unimed wastnd in the Northwest. As for why they have remained as wastnd, that deserves deeper consideration on our part.¡±


    Wang Yuexi said softly, ¡°Everyone present should know exactly what thend reform measures represent, right? Should we discuss it with Commander Zhang first?¡±


    Thisnd reform would fundamentally topple some of the consortiums¡¯ existing practices.


    However, Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Since Mr. Zhang said that he would not interfere with Stronghold 144¡¯s matters, we can just introduce the reforms first before getting his approval. We can just treat Stronghold 144 as a pilot project. As for whether to introduce the reforms to the Fortress 178 territories, he can decide that for himself.¡±


    [1] The Queen Mother of the West, known by various local names, is a mother goddess in Chinese religion and mythology, also worshiped in neighboring Asian countries, and attested from ancient times.

 Chapter 1023 - Never stopped

    <h4>Chapter 1023: Never stopped</h4>


    To control people in these wastnds, the consortiums were used to keeping all the production resources firmly in their hands. Water,nd, and everything that the people relied on for survival were all controlled.


    When Zhang Jinglin was at Stronghold 113, he had profoundly said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°This is a world that has been meticulously designed by the consortiums.¡±


    Previously, even Zhang Jinglin did not dare to break this status quo. Fortress 178 could not even take in any refugees because if they broke this rule, everyone would start attacking them.


    For example, Luoyang City had wanted topletely open its gates to everyone and sought to end any differentiation between refugees and stronghold residents. However, they were warned by the Kong Consortium, the Wang Consortium, and the Zhou Consortium as soon as they introduced those changes.


    In the end, documents like ¡°visas¡± were created, and there was still a huge gulf in the treatment of refugees and stronghold residents.


    But now, Ren Xiaosu not only wanted to implementnd reforms, but he also wanted topletely topple the walls separating the stronghold residents and refugees in the Northwest.


    Actually, Stronghold 144 had already done so. After all, it was impossible not to let people into the city if you wanted to promote trade.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ve read a lot of books, but what we¡¯ve nned is just textbook theory for now. So I need everyone to work together as a group. I¡¯m just sharing my thoughts right now. As thergest trade hub in the Northwest, it should be more open here in Stronghold 144 than other ces. So our pace of reforms should be faster than theirs. Don¡¯t be afraid of making any mistakes. If there¡¯s any, I¡¯ll take responsibility.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at Ren Xiaosu quietly. Regarding Zhang Jinglin¡¯s uncaring attitude towards Stronghold 144, he was most aware of it.


    He knew very well that Commander Zhang was doing this because he wanted to see how Ren Xiaosu would lead the people of this city to create a new world.


    Perhaps even Ren Xiaosu himself did not realize that while he was only trying to solve the problem of the food shortage, what he was actually doing was nning a roadmap.


    Wang Yun thought for a while and then said, ¡°But actually, we still have to discuss the pros and cons of the contract responsibility system. Everyone should know that when this system is implemented, there¡¯ll definitely be a lot of people who are willing to own their ¡®own¡¯nd even if the lease will onlyst for a few decades. But in terms of agricultural efficiency, it will not be as beneficial asrge-scale mechanized production.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and replied, ¡°I think now¡¯s the right time to reim the wastnd. Thend in the Northwest that needs to be reimed will need manpower to do so. We can divide the development process into stages. It¡¯s still too early to introducerge-scale mechanized production at this stage, and we don¡¯t have the conditions for that either. We have to improve the enthusiasm of the people first to cultivate the wastnd into farnd.¡±


    ¡°I agree,¡± Wang Yun said with a nod.


    ¡°In this process of ¡®privatization,¡¯ we still have to pay attention to therge families swallowing up the smallernd parcels. So it¡¯s best to add certain restrictions to the awarding process of the contracts.¡± Wang Yuexi thought for a moment and said, ¡°Moreover, I feel that besides contracting out the plots, we can also contract out the building of brick kilns and other factories as well. There¡¯ll be all sorts of things that can be contracted out. But the prerequisite is that our economic lifeline must always remain in the hands of Fortress 178. This is the foundation that cannot be shaken.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Wang Yuexi has hit the nail on the head. Currently, our Northwest¡¯s productivity is still several notches below that of the Central ins. But if we take everyone¡¯s enthusiasm into ount and make use of it, the Northwest might be able to advance by leaps and bounds. However, all y¡¯all have to be careful. Once the brick kilns are privately owned, there¡¯ll likely be extreme cases of exploitation in the industry as well. So the supportingborws will have to keep up to prevent that from happening.¡±


    At the side, Yang Xiaojin just sat there quietly. She leaned her chin on her hand and looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s profile.


    In the past, Ren Xiaosu would always be reading books whenever he had free time, even in the wilderness.


    Some people felt that studying was useless, but Yang Xiaojin could see the charm of books through Ren Xiaosu at this moment. The young man who used to be a refugee had never stopped increasing his own knowledge. And now, his hard work was starting to bear fruit.


    If she were to ask Wang Yuexi now, ¡°Do you believe that Ren Xiaosu used to be an average refugee who couldn¡¯t even afford to attend school?¡±


    Wang Yuexi would probably not believe it.


    If Ren Xiaosu had not persevered in his book reading and understanding of the world, he could never have be the true master of the Northwest even if he were extremely powerful inbat. Zhang Jinglin would also not have ced his hopes on a boor who only knew how to solve problems with force.


    Previously, no one could understand why Zhang Jinglin chose Ren Xiaosu as his sessor. Only he himself knew he had seen unlimited potential in this young man.


    When this young man was still a refugee, he was willing to squat on the walls to listen in on his sses. That attitude of knowledge seeking even made Zhang Jinglin feel ashamed of himself.


    Ren Xiaosu had never stopped on his path of enriching himself.


    In the eyes of others, Qing Zhen was someone born with extreme intelligence, and a person like him deserved to shine brightly in this era.


    But in Yang Xiaojin¡¯s eyes, Ren Xiaosu, a pragmatic young man who firmly believed that diligence made up for theck of talent, was even more precious.


    Ren Xiaosu instructed Wang Yuexi, ¡°Everyone in the stronghold¡¯s administrative center will have to start getting busy. Your responsibility will be to keep up with the publicity work so that our people will take in the ideologies.¡±


    Wang Yuexi nodded and wrote it down in his notebook. ¡°But there¡¯s another problem. We need seeds to reim the wastnd. The seed bank in the Northwest does not have enough seeds to support such arge-scale program.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°We can now see the importance of having friends. The seeds that we need will be delivered to us by the Qing Consortium in a few days.¡±


    Wang Yuexi was stunned. He had long heard that the futuremander was on good terms with the Qing Consortium, but he did not expect it to be true.


    ¡®Ren Xiaosu continued instructing Wang Yuexi, ¡°Thebor acts and the contract responsibility system will need to be drawn up as quickly as possible by y¡¯all. We need tomunicate with Fortress 178¡¯s bank as well to create small loan programs to support the residents¡¯ willingness to sign the contracts. They¡¯ll need money to buy seeds and raw materials after they¡¯ve signed the contracts to farm and build factories. We have to consider all aspects of this.¡±


    At this moment, Wang Fugui chuckled and said, ¡°Our Northwest Chamber of Commerce can do that since we¡¯re well-funded. Why don¡¯t we set up our own bank?¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head firmly. ¡°We can¡¯t have Yunsu get involved in such matters. Y¡¯all can take some contracts on your own, but we must not get involved in matters that involve the economic lifeline of the Northwest. It concerns the entire n of the Prosperous Northwest, so the economy can¡¯t be held hostage by the merchants. Perhaps the Northwest Chamber of Commerce won¡¯t cause any trouble while I¡¯m still around, but you and I will leave this world someday. I can¡¯t let a new consortium be born in my hands.¡±


    Rich merchants could be allowed to exist in thesends of the Northwest, and they could even be the richest people in the world. But they must not gain the ability to shake the foundations of the Northwest, and that was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s principle and bottom line regarding this matter.


    Wang Yuexi stared deeply into Ren Xiaosu. He knew that Yunsu was actually Ren Xiaosu¡¯s private business, so to be able to restrain the temptation at a time like this was enough to make Wang Yuexi look up to him.

 Chapter 1024 - Poaching

    <h4>Chapter 1024: Poaching</h4>


    Importing food would only resolve whatever urgent situation was at hand.


    But what Ren Xiaosu was doing now was seeking a more stable and prosperous future for the Northwest.


    As the director of the Policy Research Office, Wang Yuexi knew well the difference between the two.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Yun, ¡°Of course, it¡¯s not like everyone can take on as many contracts as they like, or choose whichever plot ofnd that they want. We have to y a macro role in this. So drawing the borders ofnd is of utmost importance. Not only do we have to draw a map, but we also have to know which are the fertile and barren plots.¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll definitelyplete the mission within half a month,¡± Wang Yun said.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said to the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Since we want everyone to venture out into the wilderness to reim the wastnds, we have to ensure that it¡¯ll be safe. Deploy Xun Yeyu and have Wang Yuchi and the others bring him over and activate his radar power while they clear the entire wilderness of any danger.¡±


    ¡°In the Northwest¡¯s territory, I don¡¯t want there to be any banditry or wild animals attacking people. Xun Yeyu and the rest are to sniff out all the bandits hiding in the valleys and the hills,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The Great Hoodwinker had a feeling that the futuremander was getting serious this time. He was even nning to use Xun Yeyu, the mobile human radar, to clear out the bandits. After this, there would really be no more bandits left in the Northwest.


    With Xun Yeyu around, it would be impossible for anyone to avoid their encirclement this time no matter where they hid. The bandits and robbers in the Northwest were really going to be exterminated.


    ¡°Of course, we don¡¯t have to kill all the bandits either. If they turn over a new leaf after we capture them, they can still join the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s efforts.¡± Ren Xiaosu had set the tone for this affair. This was the beginning of the Prosperous Northwest, and manpower was the foundation of everything.


    Under such circumstances, Ren Xiaosu was willing to be lenient to whoever was willing to join the Prosperous Northwest, as long as they had notmitted any grave crimes.


    The meetingsted for eight hours before it finally came to an end. During this time, Yang Xiaojin even made lunch for everyone, leaving them feeling very honored.


    Wang Fugui stayed until evening before leaving. However, he did not go home and instead took the car to Stronghold 143 next door to pay a visit to someone.


    At around 9 PM, Wang Fugui headed straight for 179 Guangxing Street after arriving at Stronghold 143. He knocked on the door, and a surprised middle-aged man on the inside answered.


    The middle-aged man looked at Wang Fugui in confusion. ¡°Who are you looking for?¡±


    Wang Fugui said with a smile, ¡°Pardon me, are you Mr. Jiang Lin?¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s me.¡± Jiang Lin said in surprise, ¡°Is something the matter? If you¡¯re from the Northwest Army, please go back. I just want to lead a simple life, not join the military.¡±


    Wang Fugui shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not from the Northwest Army. Let me introduce myself. My name is Wang Fugui, and I was very fortunate that everyone supported my bid to be the president of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce.¡±


    Jiang Lin was stunned. He had heard of Wang Fugui¡¯s name before. By now, who did not know about Yunsu Trading Company and Wang Fugui? The Northwest Chamber of Commerce¡¯s influence on the Northwest was much greater than Ren Xiaosu could imagine.


    After all, most of the things the Northwest Chamber of Commerce imported and exported were very closely linked to necessities. For example, kitchenware imported from the Central ins, lipstick, and many other novelty products were all sold through the Northwest Chamber of Commerce.


    Jiang Lin was the earth-type supernatural being the Great Hoodwinker had mentioned. However, he did not want to join the military and was even very determined against it. Therefore, he remained apany employee until now.


    Before Wang Fugui came here, he had done his research and knew that Jiang Lin did not have any animosity for the Northwest Army. It was just that he cherished his life more and did not want to get involved in any dangerous activities.


    In the past, he was picked out from the crowd by Xun Yeyu to do the Zong Consortium¡¯s bidding. During that time, Jiang Lin had killed many people, and that was not in line with what he wanted. As such, he often had nightmares about it.


    But while such talents could not be used by the Northwest Army, the Northwest Chamber of Commerce could really do with their help.


    Moreover, Wang Fugui heard that Jiang Lin was probably one of the earliest supernatural beings to awaken their power. So in other words, it was very likely that Jiang Lin was an extremely strong supernatural being.


    Jiang Lin invited Wang Fugui into the house. Wang Fugui got straight to the point and said, ¡°To be honest, I¡¯m only here because of your superpower, Mr. Jiang. However, I don¡¯t need you to do anything dangerous for me. On top of that, I can assure you that you¡¯ll be paid handsomely.¡±


    Jiang Lin was stunned. ¡°What does President Wang want me to do? Won¡¯t you be needing me to fight and kill? Let me say this in advance: I¡¯m really not interested in fighting and killing, nor am I willing to be a bodyguard for the rich and powerful.¡±


    ¡°There won¡¯t be any fighting or killing.¡± Wang Fugui waved it off with a smile. ¡°All I want is for you to help the Northwest prosper, Mr. Jiang. Now that the Prosperous Northwest is right before us, even though our Yunsu cannot participate in the macroeconomic development of the region, we can still take contract work. In the eyes of others, Mr. Jiang is a supernatural being and a weapon. But in our Yunsu¡¯s eyes, Mr. Jiang should be the first chief engineer of ourpany!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never studied engineering before¡­.¡± Jiang Lin was a little dumbfounded. This was the first time he had heard someone wanting to utilize his superpower like that. An earth-type supernatural being getting into engineering? That seemed a little interesting.


    Wang Fugui said with a smile, ¡°You don¡¯t have to know about engineering. We¡¯ll provide the drawings, and we also have professionals to guide you, Mr. Jiang, on how to do it. All you need to do is apply your power to help with the development of the Northwest. Altering the terrain and surface topography is what you¡¯re best at. Even digging a foundation in about a second would help our Yunsu make back the remuneration that we¡¯re paying you.¡±


    Only those who had worked in civil engineering before would understand how useful an earth-type supernatural being could be in construction.


    As Stronghold 144 was about to start building its irrigation infrastructure projects, it would not be difficult to provide for the livelihood of a supernatural being like Jiang Lin as long as Yunsu could undertake a project.


    When Wang Fugui saw that Jiang Lin¡¯s interest was piqued, he asked with a smile, ¡°May I know what your annual sry is now, Mr. Jiang?¡±


    Jiang Lin hesitated and said, ¡°80,000 yuan.¡±


    Wang Fugui gave a wave of his hand. ¡°¡®ll pay you an annual sry of 800,000 yuan and throw in a car and a vi in Stronghold 144 as benefits. In addition, there¡¯ll be year-end bonuses and dividends. How does that sound to you? As you know, your power is a weapon in the eyes of others, but it can only be put to good use by our Yunsu Company. You¡¯re a supernatural being, yet you¡¯re only working at a mediocre job. Don¡¯t you feel like that¡¯s really hard on you?¡±


    The words impressed deeply upon Jiang Lin¡¯s soul. As a supernatural being, he should have nothing to worry about. But just because he was tired of fighting and killing, he could only work an ordinary job. He felt wronged.


    But now, his chance had arrived.


    Seeing that he was about to seed, Wang Fugui immediately added, ¡°You should know Yunsu¡¯s background as well. It¡¯s the Future Commander¡¯s privatepany, so by following him here in the Northwest, you won¡¯t have to worry anymore about your future.¡±


    Since even Zhou Yingxue knew she could make use of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s influence, how could a businessman like Wang Fugui not? Although Wang Fugui might look like a simple and honest person, he had been doing business for decades. How could a truly honest person possibly gain a foothold in the stronghold¡¯s town?


    Although he had principles, he still had to earn whatever money he could!


    Since this person would not join the Northwest Army, the Northwest Chamber of Commerce could not be med for trying to poach him. Furthermore, this was to support the futuremander¡¯s n to make the Northwest prosper. With such a talented man joining the building of the infrastructure, their progress would go faster.


    To quickly convince Jiang Lin to join them, Wang Fugui did not even bother to have dinner yet!


    Wang Fugui said with a smile, ¡°What do you think, Mr. Jiang? You won¡¯t find anotherpany in the entire Northwest offering such generouspensation.¡±


    Jiang Lin had already made his decision.

 Chapter 1025 - A mysterious meeting

    <h4>Chapter 1025: A mysterious meeting</h4>


    A lot of people knew that after the reappearance of the futuremander at Stronghold 144 in the Northwest, a secret meeting was held in a small courtyard house on Anning East Road with him as the core figure of the group.


    Although everyone knew about this meeting, not many people were qualified to attend it.


    Someone said that anyone who appeared at this meeting was a trusted aide of the futuremander.


    All of Stronghold 144¡¯s reforms started taking shape during this meeting.


    At the dining tables of the middle-aged men who enjoyed discussing current affairs and politics, this meeting became even more mysterious than it really was. The small house where the futuremander lived also gained a much more legendary status through their discussions.


    They said that only the true big shots of the Northwest could enter that residence now, and most people should not even think about going inside.


    The revolutionary decrees that were going to be issued from there would determine the fate of the Northwest.


    Sometimes, when a pedestrian passed by Anning East Road, they would subconsciously peer into the residences¡¯ yards in the old military neighborhood. Theirpanions would then ask, ¡°What are you looking at?¡±


    The person peeking into the futuremander¡¯s residence would reply, ¡°Do you see that brightly lit house? That¡¯s where the futuremander lives.¡±


    Thepanion asking the question would curiously ask, ¡°It¡¯s sote. Why are the lights still on?¡±


    The person exining would say, ¡°What do you think? There¡¯s a lot of people working in that house right now. They¡¯re working for the future of the Northwest.¡±


    Although it sounded quite awe-inspiring, it was actually just Zhang Xiaoman and the others reporting about their work at the end of the day and refusing to leave until they had scrounged enough food off of Ren Xiaosu.


    All of a sudden, a new upstart became known throughout the stronghold: Wang Yuexi.


    The more Ren Xiaosu worked with Wang Yuexi, the more he realized his middle-aged neighbor was more than met the eye. ording to Mrs. Hu, he used to idle at home for many years and was just aszy as Ren Xiaosu back in those days.


    Later, when the Zong Consortium was wiped out by the Northwest, Wang Yuexi applied for a civil official job with the Northwest and was ced in charge of the Policy Research Office at Stronghold 144.


    Although it sounded like the research office did not have any real authority, it still wielded great power. Otherwise, Wang Yuexi could not have arranged a job for Ren Xiaosu so easily.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully supervised him. Wang Yuexi was very clear-headed and organized in his work. He had just instructed them to draw up the newbor act and supporting publicity work, and by the next day, Wang Yuexi led the people from the Policy Research Office to work through the night before submitting a very satisfactory n to Ren Xiaosu.


    Some people said Wang Yuexi was lucky that he happened to live next door to the futuremander. However, Ren Xiaosu knew full well this was a result of Wang Yuexi¡¯s skills. If Wang Yuexi were a useless person, there would be no need for Ren Xiaosu to choose to work with him.


    The starting point of their cooperation began with the administrative center. While it might not look too outstanding from a political point of view since the administrative center did not make much of an impact on their financial ie, but from the words ¡°make things convenient for the residents¡± that Wang Yuexi had uttered, it was enough to show the ambition that he had. Furthermore, being able to integrate all the departments and making the staff get out of theirfort zones to serve the residents willingly, this in itself was enough to reflect his capability.


    At this moment, no matter how the rest of the world spected about what went on within this house and the people going in and out of it, there was one thing that everyone was right about. The people in this house were indeed fighting for the future of Stronghold 144.


    Wang Yun had not returned to the stronghold for seven days. Based on the order he received, he would have to finish drawing the map demarcations of the vicinity of Stronghold 144 within half a month, which was not much time at all.


    The 1st Infantry Regiment of the 6th Combat Brigade had been working alongside Wang Yun all this while. For the past seven days, they had traveled to almost every hill and valley in the vicinity of Stronghold 144.


    Everyone was very tired, but after the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun, there was a marked change in their willpower aspared to others. When Wang Yun asked if they were tired, everyone wouldugh and say this was nothingpared to the time on Mt. Zuoyun.


    This was a sense of honor the unit had. Even if P5092 had kicked off the ns for a military expansion, the veterans would continue instilling this sense of honor to the newbies who enlisted.


    Only when a unit had a sense of honor would they feel the esprit de corps.


    For the past seven days, Wang Yun and his men remained out in the wilderness without returning to the military base at the stronghold.


    They brought along arge number of surveying equipment to measure every inch of terrain.


    However, Wang Yun had a huge advantage in being in charge of the mapping mission. As long as he used the surveying equipment to confirm the data, he could immediately draw on the map without any errors in the details.


    However, some of the officers were puzzled. The regimental infantrymander asked Wang Yun curiously, ¡°Sir, I¡¯m a little puzzled. Logically speaking, we don¡¯t have much time toplete our mission. But you¡¯re not only demarcating the wastnds, you¡¯re even measuring the altitude of the mountain ranges and other details. Why do so? Didn¡¯t you say that our mission was to identify which areas are suitable for farming? Why are you doing the extra work?¡±


    Everyone knew there was no way to grow crops in the mountains.


    However, Wang Yun insisted on detailing all of the mountain ranges and the course it ran. He even marked out their elevation contours on the map. If he only wanted to identify where crops could be grown and where thend was fertile or barren, there was no need to include those details.


    However, Wang Yun exined with a smile, ¡°This is called going a step further while you¡¯re at work. Although we¡¯re only thinking about which ces are suitable for nting crops right now, you all have also heard from P5092 that we might have to fight a war with the Wang Consortium someday. At that time, he¡¯ll need a very detailed military map. There¡¯s still many mistakes in the map the 6th Combat Brigade drew previously. I¡¯m not saying you all can¡¯t plot a proper map, but it¡¯s just that normal people really can¡¯t draw them with enough detail. The other map¡¯s good enough for the averagemander and would serve its purpose.¡±


    ¡°But P5092 is different. He can make use of every detail on the battlefield to the extreme. In that case, of course I¡¯ll have to provide him with the conditions to do so.¡± Wang Yun said with augh, ¡°When we bring this map back, he¡¯ll definitely be very surprised.¡±


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll do as you say, sir,¡± themander of the 1st Infantry Regiment said.


    Wang Yun, P5092, and the others had not been given any appointments in the Northwest yet. This was as good as saying that they held no official posts.


    If Wang Yun were tomand the other troops, his words would definitely not be as effective.


    But it was different for the 6th Combat Brigade. They had fought the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun together, so everyone knew exactly what they were capable of. All of the soldiers knew Wang Yun and P5092 would get promoted sooner orter and trusted them, so they treated them as their superiors.


    On the contrary, Zhang Xiaoman had more spare time. He basically just followed Ren Xiaosu around to handle some misceneous errands.


    Zhang Xiaoman also knew what his role entailed. He only sought to serve everyone well.


    Wang Yun smiled and said to everyone, ¡°Let¡¯s finish demarcating the map today. We¡¯ll work hard for another seven days after that and then return triumphantly. At that time, we can all rest well!¡±


    The soldiers responded in unison, ¡°Yes, sir! Let¡¯s get to work!¡±

 Chapter 1026 - Highly enthusiastic

    <h4>Chapter 1026: Highly enthusiastic</h4>


    To Wang Yun and the others, they were no longer just risking their lives for money and power. Therefore, both he and P5092 never sought Ren Xiaosu for any recognition either.


    Without an official appointment or sry, the two of them were just fighting for the vision of the Prosperous Northwest.


    Of course, they also knew the Northwest would not just leave them hanging like this. Commander Zhang of Fortress 178 was probably just waiting to see what this futuremander could achieve with his band of supporters.


    By the time Stronghold 144¡¯s reforms started bearing fruit, sess would naturally follow.


    Currently, Wang Yun and the rest were scattered across various locations and working on their own missions. Although no one was supervising them, they carried out their tasks with extreme efficiency.


    Of course, it was not like their operating locations did not ovep with each other. For example, when Wang Yun was carrying out the mapping mission yesterday, he even saw Wang Yuchi andpany hunting down bandits in the wilderness with the fair-skinned chubster, Xun Yeyu.


    At that time, Wang Yun¡¯s group was verifying the collected data with specialized equipment when they saw a pack of people running past them in the wilderness. Wang Yuchi andpany only managed a quick greeting to Wang Yun before continuing their pursuit.


    Wang Yun did not interfere, and both parties calmly went about their own missions as normal.


    The Northwest¡¯s territory was vast, so some bandits were able to remain hidden, and that made it difficult to find them.


    The bandits were also caught in a very awkward situation. Currently, the Northwest¡¯s security measures were very structured, soing out to rob people could easily lead to their deaths. However, they were unwilling to work an honest job to support their families.


    These people were used to profiting off other people¡¯s toil, so they would definitely find it difficult to be convinced by the vision of the Prosperous Northwest.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu could only make use of Xun Yeyu¡¯s power to round them all up. The bandits would either have to join the Prosperous Northwest or die. In any case, these were the only two choices they were given.


    While Wang Yun and the others were busy carrying out their missions, Wang Fugui¡¯s Yunsu Trading Company shifted its focus.


    The business scene in the Northwest had gradually matured, so Wang Fugui did not have to personally keep an eye on thepany¡¯s operations most of the time. Before Ren Xiaosu¡¯s return, Wang Fugui waited every day for his subordinates to deliver the financial statements before tweaking some of thepany¡¯s general directions.


    But now, some of the upper management in Yunsu could not even find Wang Fugui anymore. The people from the Northwest Chamber of Commerce who wanted to get hold of Wang Fugui to help them resolve their issues were also met with a standard answer, that President Wang had made a trip outside of the stronghold. If they wanted to find him, they would have to head to a ce 70 kilometers west of the stronghold where a new construction site had been set up.


    All of Yunsu¡¯s documents had to be sent 70 kilometers to that construction site for signing as President Wang was stationed there.


    Initially, the merchants of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce thought they would just wait for President Wang to return before discussing with him the problems they were facing. However, Wang Fugui suddenly returned to the stronghold that night and invited the various tradingpanies in the Northwest to a dinner party.


    The members of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce were considered famous businessmen in the Northwest. Under normal circumstances, they would usually choose to dine at very high-ss ces in the stronghold.


    But this time, Wang Fugui held the dinner party at a small roadhouse.


    The CEOs were a little puzzled. ¡°President Wang, what¡¯s going on? Why are we eating at a ce like this? Did you encounter some difficulties? Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re here for you.¡±


    Wang Fugui sighed and said, ¡°To be honest, I have indeed encountered some difficulties.¡±


    Everyone looked at one another. Yunsu was now the leading enterprise of the Northwest, so what difficulties could it possibly have? Didn¡¯t thepany still have the backing of the futuremander?


    Wang Fugui said, ¡°Y¡¯all should have heard about it too, right? After the futuremander returned to the Northwest, he¡¯s sought to implement some reforms to solve the current food shortage problem.¡±


    Everyone listened carefully.


    Wang Fugui sighed and said, ¡°But it¡¯s not that easy to solve the problem. Building the irrigation infrastructure for that is a big project. All of you are also leaders of the industry, so y¡¯all know exactly how much money is required for a project like that. But money is not the most difficult thing. What¡¯s difficult is sourcing the equipment to conduct the works¡­.¡±


    ¡°As you all know, there¡¯s very little excavation equipment, cranes, and the like in the Northwest to begin with. It¡¯s really hard to find them now that we want to gather all the resources to build the irrigation works. This matter is causing extreme anxiety to our futuremander. Look, my boss is so angry, so how can a shopkeeper like me still be in the mood to eat?¡± Wang Fugui said, ¡°So let¡¯s just make do and have dinner here. After we¡¯re done eating, I still have to go and help the futuremander source the equipment.¡±


    The CEOs of the Northwest¡¯s businesses looked at one another and thought to themselves, ¡®<i>How is this a dinner party? Wang Fugui, you sly old fox! You¡¯re obviously here to seek the support of everyone on behalf of the futuremander!</i>¡®


    One of them asked, ¡°The Northwest Army¡¯s construction engineering capabilities are also very impressive, so why don¡¯t you get the Northwest Army toe and build the infrastructure?¡±


    Wang Fugui¡¯s eyes drooped as he drank his tea and said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that it¡¯ll be difficult for Future Commander to convince the masses if he mobilizes the Northwest¡¯s troops so soon after returning. Besides, didn¡¯t I just say that the Northwest Army also has insufficient engineering equipment?¡±


    A businessman sighed in his mind, but he could only go along with Wang Fugui¡¯s cue and ask, ¡°I wonder if we can be of any help?¡±


    Wang Fugui hesitated and said, ¡°That won¡¯t be good. All of you are so busy, so how can I trouble everyone over this small thing?¡±


    ¡°Why would that trouble us?¡± The businessman smiled enthusiastically and said, ¡°It¡¯s our duty to contribute to the development of the Northwest¡¯s infrastructure!¡±


    While he said it rather diplomatically, everyone was cursing in their minds. It seemed like Wang Fugui was also very particr about the party tonight. The businessmen he had invited today all had amon trait, and it was that they were all the owners ofrge constructionpanies.


    In other words, basically all of them had the engineering equipment the futuremander needed.


    If they still did not understand why they were invited here today, that would simply be uneptable.


    A businessman said, feeling the pinch, ¡°I wonder how we can aid the futuremander?¡±


    Only then did Wang Fugui break into a smile. ¡°Look, the priority is truly to improve our irrigation infrastructure. Otherwise, if we really end up facing a food shortage, we won¡¯t even have anything to eat. Why don¡¯t all of you temporarily suspend the real estate projects and focus our efforts on resolving the issue of building our irrigation infrastructure? What do y¡¯all think? Of course, the futuremander will not treat everyone unfairly either. Since y¡¯all are here to undertake the construction efforts, he definitely won¡¯t allow y¡¯all to lose any money.¡±


    Everyone understood what Wang Fugui meant. If he said they would not lose any money, it meant they had to participate in the development of the Prosperous Northwest by quoting at cost price. Even if they did not have to lose money, they could forget about earning any.


    Theck of water sources in the Northwest and the instability of the river basin were objectively present. In the vicinity of Stronghold 144, there was only a Yellow River tributary 70 kilometers away that had enough water to irrigate the farnds. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu was currently trying to solve the major problem of how to use this river to reim the wastnd areas of Stronghold 144.


    If they did not solve this problem, reiming the wastnd would just be a wasted effort.


    As Wang Fugui spoke, he had his assistant bring over a dozen copies of documents. Then he said with a smile, ¡°I see that everyone is very enthusiastic about participating in the development of the Northwest. Why don¡¯t we sign this letter of intent first before dining?¡±

 Chapter 1027 - Putting on an act in front of everyone

    <h4>Chapter 1027: Putting on an act in front of everyone</h4>


    Those who were willing to sign the letter of intent were friends, and friends were wee to stay for dinner.


    But it did not matter even if they were unwilling. The Northwest would not persecute anyone, but it would probably be impossible for those who did not sign the letter to continue to do business in the Northwest.


    Wang Fugui¡¯s attitude was very clear. He was helping Ren Xiaosu resolve a pressing matter at hand, so only friends who helped the futuremander could continue eating from the same te in the future.


    Wang Fugui was different from other businessmen. He ced more importance on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s future than his own path to fortune. Every decision he made was done with Ren Xiaosu in mind.


    His boss, Ren Xiaosu, had said that Yunsu could not take advantage of this situation to gain control of the economic lifeline of the Northwest, nor would he allow any other lifelines to be taken advantage of.


    Meanwhile, Wang Fugui nned to do one better. Not only would he not make any money from the development of the Prosperous Northwest, but he was even willing to pay money to support the cause.


    In the future, the Northwest would belong to Ren Xiaosu, so how could the goals of the Northwest Chamber of Commercepare? Wang Fugui knew clearly what was at stake here.


    In this world, it was not only matters that revolved around money that could be considered a business!


    In the past year, Wang Fugui had worked hard to make Yunsu stronger. He even became the president of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce so he could help Ren Xiaosu during moments like this.


    As he had hoped, the members of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce were in a tight spot. No one dared to withdraw from this project by themselves.


    One by one, the big bosses of the Northwest signed the letter of intent on the spot. Wang Fugui¡¯s assistant even prepared a red ink pad so everyone could leave their fingerprint on it.


    One of the businessmen sighed and said, ¡°President Wang, the Northwest will surely prosper with your support of the futuremander.¡±


    Wang Fugui ced his hands inside his sleeves and said with a smile, ¡°CEO Li, you¡¯re too kind. With only me helping the futuremander, the Northwest will not prosper. But with all of your support, things will be different.¡±


    When everyone heard that, they had mixed feelings. They knew Wang Fugui was determined to tie everyone here to the futuremander¡¯s ns.


    After everyone signed the letter of intent, Wang Fugui called for the waiter in the restaurant to take away the appetizers scattered across the table and change them to the main dishes.


    Wang Fugui got up and picked up amb chop for everyone with the shared chopsticks. ¡°Everyone, you won¡¯t be able to make much money from this project. I¡¯ll have a good engineering ountant set the construction costs for our futuremander. After all, this is money that we¡¯ll be spending from Stronghold 144¡¯s budget, so we can¡¯t afford to make any miscalctions. Otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t be good if the public thinks that our futuremander is abusing his position to profit off the project. Moreover, I believe that all of you are also honest people, so you will definitely not skimp on materials required for the engineering works.¡±


    With that, everyone gave up on trying to find any loopholes to exploit.


    But after Wang Fugui distributed themb chops to everyone¡¯s tes, he changed the subject and said, ¡°However, our Yunsu can give y¡¯all what Stronghold 144¡¯s budget can¡¯t. From now on, the goods that our Yunsu import from the Qing Consortium will be sold to you at prices 10% lower than usual. You can consider this as my gratitude for your passionate support.¡±


    When he said that, all the CEOs were overjoyed. Their businesses were spread across more than 20 strongholds in the Northwest, but Yunsu was the onlypany that had ess to the Qing Consortium¡¯s goods.


    With this promise from Wang Fugui, they would be assured of great profits. Based on this, if the irrigation project did not incur any losses, everyone would even end up making money.


    Therefore, Yunsu was really trying to help the futuremander by lowering its own margins!


    A slightly younger businessman was grinning from ear to ear. ¡°President Wang, why didn¡¯t you say so earlier!¡±


    Wang Fugui smiled but did not answer the question. Instead, he raised his ss and toasted, ¡°To Future Commander, and to the Northwest!¡±


    Only the shrewd old foxes knew that Wang Fugui did not mention in advance he would reimburse them and forced them to ede to his requests was so that he could establish his authority first. He would only reward them after everyone had given in.


    Wang Fugui wanted everyone in the Northwest Chamber of Commerce to understand that he could choose not to give them this perk, but since he did, everyone here would be expected to remember the futuremander¡¯s benevolence.


    For a moment, some peoplemented that they had thought the matter of the Northwest¡¯s leadership might remain unchanged for many more decades toe since Commander Zhang was still in his prime. As such, the futuremander might not necessarily be themander in the future.


    But from the look of things, the futuremander had many talents by his side who were led by Wang Fugui, so it wasn¡¯t likely there would be any more variables regarding the question of session.


    On that night, the party ended and everyone left in satisfaction. There was no unhappiness among the businessmen, and it was as though being forced to sign the letter of intent had never happened at all.


    The next day, all of the businessmen who attended the banquet reported to the administrative center to bid for the contracts.


    Wang Yuexi was a little dumbfounded as he stood in the administrative office. ¡°I haven¡¯t even gotten the irrigation blueprints out yet, so what are you all doing here?¡±


    The businessmen said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, we can wait. We also have professional civil engineers on our side, and a few of them have expertise inrge-scale engineering projects, so please use them however you like.¡±


    Wang Yuexi was taken aback yet again. ¡°Our engineering budget is very low. You all won¡¯t make any money from this.¡±


    The businessmen replied, ¡°It¡¯s fine. What¡¯s the big deal about not making money if it¡¯s for the vision of the Prosperous Northwest? How about this? We¡¯ll transport all the engineering equipment over first so that when all the ns are out, we can immediately start building the Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    In just one night, all of the construction projects within Stronghold 144 came to a halt. There was only one project left to be carried out in the huge territory of the Northwest now: irrigation works.


    When Wang Fugui ran to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s courtyard house, Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile, ¡°I heard that you held a meeting with the Northwest Chamber of Commerce? Uncle Fugui, you¡¯ve thought ahead for me again.¡±


    Wang Fugui chuckled and said, ¡°It¡¯s my duty to share some of the burden with you, Future Commander.¡±


    ¡°Uncle Fugui, you can just call me Xiaosu,¡± Ren Xiaosu corrected.


    However, Wang Fugui shook his head. ¡°No, we can¡¯t break etiquette.¡±


    The progress of Stronghold 144¡¯s reforms was picking up much faster than they had imagined. Although they could not mitigate the food shortage in time for theing year by recultivating the wastnd, this was something that would benefit them for hundreds of years toe. Everyone was aware of that.


    Over at Fortress 178, Wang Fengyuan walked towards Zhang Jinglin¡¯s office with a smile while holding a thick stack of documents in his hand.


    At this moment, several high-rankingmanders were giving their work reports in the office. After Wang Fengyuan entered, he sat down off to the side and remained silent.


    When Zhang Jinglin saw that he hade in, he unexpectedly interrupted the work report and asked Wang Fengyuan, ¡°How are things?¡±


    Wang Fengyuan said with a smile, ¡°It progressed much faster than expected, and they¡¯re doing rather solid work at Stronghold 144. With so many people working together, it looks like it¡¯s going to be very sessful, especially the irrigation project. Old Qi was quite troubled by that previously and did not know how to handle it. But now that it¡¯s being handled by the futuremander, it doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯ll be a problem at all. Yunsu stepped up to it and handled everything.¡±


    A high-rankingmander in the office wondered, ¡°Yunsu? Isn¡¯t Yunsu apany? Why is Yunsu stepping in to handle this matter?¡±


    Wang Fengyuan exined, ¡°Because Yunsu¡¯s boss, Wang Fugui, is the president of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce. So he¡¯s quite influential in the business world. Reportedly, he gathered all the businessmen to participate in the construction of the Northwest. That¡¯s how the problem of insufficient engineering equipment was resolved.¡±


    That high-rankingmander muttered, ¡°But based on what I know, that Yunsu is the futuremander¡¯s privatepany, right? If he participates in such a huge project, there had better not be any problems with the intermediary procedures. A lot of people could get into trouble over this project.¡±


    His words sneakily hinted that Ren Xiaosu was trying to profit off the irrigation work contracts. The other high-rankingmanders in the office did not say anything and just looked at Zhang Jinglin.


    Moreover, everyone was thinking that thismander, Yu Chuyao, who doubted Ren Xiaosu was a trusted aide of Commander Zhang. In that case, why would he suddenly oppose themander and question Ren Xiaosu¡¯s purpose?


    Could there be some disgruntlement?


    ¡°Then let¡¯s investigate it.¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°Fengyuan, after you finish investigating, make known the results. If there¡¯s any discrepancies, they¡¯ll be severely punished.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Wang Fengyuan nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯ll get someone to follow up on this matter.¡±


    After everyone left, a lot of people started paying attention to this matter. Everyone wanted to see if the futuremander of the Northwest would make any mistakes in handling the financial aspects of the project.


    Actually, some people had already discussed this possibility in private a few days ago, but no one dared to mention it to Commander Zhang. But now that someone was finding fault with the futuremander, everyone could watch the proceedings from the sidelines.


    But seven dayster, Zhang Jinglin suddenly called for a meeting with all of the high-rankingmanders of the Northwest. The agenda was Wang Fengyuan¡¯s investigative report.


    The report showed that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s privatepany had not only not profited off the reforms introduced at Stronghold 144, but it also made many concessions for the project. Yunsu was basically coughing up money to help Ren Xiaosu with the reforms.


    This report was written by Wang Fengyuan, and the contents of the investigation were so detailed that it convinced everyone.


    Someone held the report and said with augh, ¡°Future Commander is really selfless and so admirable. This Wang Fugui is also talented. I consider it a great achievement to convince the Northwest Chamber of Commerce to contribute to the construction of the Northwest.¡±


    At this moment, everyone looked at Yu Chuyao, the person who first cast doubt on Yunsu¡¯s motives. However, they realized that Yu Chuyao was smiling without saying anything. He did not look like he had been pped in the face by the results of this investigation.


    As such, some wily old foxes came to an immediate realization. Commander Zhang might have also heard there were people privately discussing the building of the irrigation infrastructure. Therefore, he might as well let Yu Chuyaoy it all out on the table and clear things up for everyone. It could also be considered as justifying Ren Xiaosu¡¯s character so everyone would not have to worry that he would try to profit from the reforms.


    Some of the high-rankingmanders had wry smiles on their faces. In order to protect the sessor, themander had really put in a lot of effort. He even dragged in Yu Chaoyu to put on an act in front of everyone for this very reason!

 Chapter 1028 - The bizarre black market

    <h4>Chapter 1028: The bizarre ck market</h4>


    Amotion suddenly broke out in Stronghold 144, because a batch of potatoes had suddenly been hauled into the stronghold. The potatoes in the truck were sorge they resembled small watermelons.


    If the person transporting them in did not personally admit they were potatoes, the stronghold residents would probably not believe it.


    At this moment, Zhou Yingxue was seated in the lead transport truck in high spirits as she led the convoy towards the stronghold¡¯s marketce. This was the mission Ren Xiaosu had assigned her. He wanted her to use these potatoes to resolve the pressing matter of the food shortage in Stronghold 144.


    Although Zhou Yingxue was usually so carefree that she did not care about anyone, she still took everything Ren Xiaosu said to heart.


    Now that the Potato Shooters had seen a great harvest, she would, of course, want to bring in the first batch of potatoes quickly to im her contribution.


    Wang Yuexi was having a small meeting in his office at the Policy Research Office when his subordinate came to report to him, ¡°Director Wang, that person from the ck market is bringing in arge batch of potatoes into the city. She said they¡¯ll be given out to the stronghold residents for free. The potatoes are extremelyrge. I wonder where she got them from.¡±


    Everyone in the office was stunned. ¡°How big is big exactly?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re like watermelons,¡± the subordinate said and gestured. ¡°This is great. The prices of food in the stronghold should stabilize now.¡±


    This was indeed good news for the Northwest where food was bing scarce.


    But Wang Yuexi did not think so when he heard that. He jumped to his feet. ¡°Where¡¯s the convoy now? Quickly, stop them!¡±


    Everyone in the office was taken aback. ¡°Director Wang, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Wang Yuexi put on his jacket and rushed outside. ¡°There¡¯s no time to exin. Stop the convoy first.¡±


    ¡°But it won¡¯t be easy to stop that person from the ck market. You know her style¡­¡±


    ¡°Even if it won¡¯t be easy, we still have to stop them.¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°I¡¯m running there right now.¡±


    When Wang Yuexi arrived, Zhou Yingxue was sitting in the truck with a sullen expression. Meanwhile, two Public Order Division patrol cars were parked in front of the truck convoy and blocking their way.


    When Zhou Yingxue saw Wang Yuexiing over, she sneered, ¡°Well done, you must think my master really regards you highly. You even dare to stop our convoy now? Why don¡¯t we go over to my master¡¯s right away and we¡¯lly it all out for him? Let¡¯s see who he thinks has more authority here! You had better get out of my way!¡±


    Although Zhou Yingxue was extremely obedient in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence, how could a woman who started a ck market outside the stronghold be that docile? When Zhou Yingxue first arrived here, some people coveted her ck market business, and her as well.


    But now, all of those people had disappeared into thin air. Who knew where they had been dumped to be fertilizer for new ground?


    Wang Yuexi said in seriousness, ¡°This has nothing to do with who the futuremander values. I have my own reasons for stopping your convoy. Even if we have to go to the futuremander¡¯s ce to sort this out, I¡¯m not afraid.¡±


    With that, Wang Yuexi first had the Public Order Division officers disperse the onlookers before walking over to have a look at the potatoes the trucks were hauling.


    Zhou Yingxue raised her eyebrows. ¡°I¡¯m doing this for the good of the stronghold. Don¡¯t you know that my master is worried about the food shortage?¡±


    ¡°I understand you¡¯re doing this with good intentions, but it could still lead to more harm than good.¡± Wang Yuexi was actually a somewhat proud academic. It was precisely because of his pride that he did not work for a long time back then and was disliked everywhere he went.


    But when Zhou Yingxue heard him say that, she immediately turned unhappy. ¡°Tell me, why would my good intentions lead to more harm than good? If you don¡¯t give me a valid reason, I¡¯m gonna have to invite you to the ck market for some tea today.¡±


    Wang Yuexi said, ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s head over to the futuremander¡¯s ce to discuss this matter.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I¡¯m here.¡± When Ren Xiaosu heard that Wang Yuexi had stopped Zhou Yingxue¡¯s convoy, he ran over immediately. He asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue was acting all high and mighty just a moment ago. But when Ren Xiaosu appeared, she immediately put on a wronged look. ¡°Master, didn¡¯t you tell me to nt the potatoes? But when I brought the crops over, he insisted that I¡¯m doing more harm than good. Does he think the potatoes are poisonous or something? By the way, Master, I have another piece of good news. Not only can I nt potatoes now, but I¡¯ve also collected a number of seeds of other crops. Look, thest truck is carrying the winter melon I nted just the day before! But despite all the hard work I did to help Master with the issues our Northwest is facing, someone is using me instead¡­¡±


    Ever since Ren Xiaosu said they were going to make the Northwest prosperous, Zhou Yingxue did not sit idle. For the first time ever, she led her subordinates from the ck market to reim the wastnds. Then she even offered a high bounty in the ck market for people to search for mutated crops, including wheat, sorghum, winter melons, tomatoes, and so on.


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s power to absorb strange seeds had to be used on nts that had already mutated as it did not have any effect on ordinary nts.


    This was the first time that such a simple bounty had appeared in the ck market. In the past, the payouts were always for missions such as assassinations, selling intel, causing ¡°idental¡± deaths, and smuggling goods. But now, the mission pinned right at the top of the ck market¡¯s mission board looked extremely out of ce.


    This was the first time the guys in the ck market realized they had such a close rtionship with food. Moreover, the reward was also quite high. It was so high the killers who swore to onlyplete the high-end missions had gone out into the wilderness to search for mutated crops.


    The slogan at the entrance of the ck market had changed. In the past, it was ¡°Enter not those who fear death.¡±


    But that had now changed to ¡°Tomorrow, care for the crops and vegetables. / Tomorrow, face the sea, flowers blooming in the spring breeze.¡±[1]


    When these words were recited in the Northwestern ent, there was an exceptional sense of sentimentalism.


    As a matter of fact, Zhou Yingxue really was not inferior to Wang Fugui and the others when it came to resolving the pressing issues Ren Xiaosu was facing. She was really trying her best.


    Now that someone was iming she was doing more harm than good, Zhou Yingxue could not bear this injustice!


    Ren Xiaosu nced at her. ¡°Speak properly and don¡¯t pretend to be insulted. No one can bully you anyways, and I¡¯ve never seen you like this before either. Don¡¯t be corrupted by all that bad behavior out there. Wang Yuexi, tell me what happened.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s like this, Future Commander.¡± Wang Yuexi exined, ¡°You¡¯ve mentioned the potatoes before, but as I don¡¯t understand much about superhumans, I didn¡¯t know the potatoes could be grown so quickly. Before I could make a detailed n, the potatoes were already brought in. Of course, it¡¯s a good thing that we have these potatoes. I would like to thank Ms. Zhou for her efforts first of all, but we definitely can¡¯t introduce them into the market for free.¡±


    In Wang Yuexi¡¯s opinion, even though this batch of potatoes could keep the price of food suppressed in the short term, it would be a blow to the entire market if their appearance caused some of the stall owners to lose their livelihood and lead to their stock of vegetables and fruits going bad.


    Of course, no one would only eat potatoes. They would still buy cabbages if they had to, but it would definitely be a lower amount than usual.


    Wang Yuexi continued, ¡°I heard from Ms. Zhou just now that she can nt other crops as well, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s suitable to do so on arge scale.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, let me ask you a question.¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°If everyone does not need to work anymore to get an unlimited amount of resources for their daily lives, will they be leading an enriching or aimless life?¡±


    [1] The poem¡¯s title describes an ideal location for a home; overlooking the sea, and warm enough that flowers bloom in spring.

 Chapter 1029 - Sticking to ones principles

    <h4>Chapter 1029: Sticking to one¡¯s principles</h4>


    ¡°Enriching or aimless?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°We¡¯re facing a food shortage crisis, so there¡¯s no time to think about all that.¡±


    Wang Yuexi said, ¡°That was why I stopped Ms. Zhou. It¡¯s not because I want to throw away the potatoes, but because I hope Future Commander will give the order to sell them at parity prices to stabilize the market and not give them out to the stronghold residents for free. Not everyone is that ambitious. When they realize they can survive without putting in any hard work, many people will be utterlycent.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°If it were me, I would go and do something more meaningful if I didn¡¯t have to worry about having enough to eat and wear.¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, that¡¯s you, but there will always be a portion of people in society who are prone toziness.¡± Wang Yuexi said in seriousness, ¡°Why are there able beggars in the stronghold? In this era of hardship, why do some young people stillze around at home while their parents work to support them? There aren¡¯t many people who are truly motivated and have a sense of self-control. The people who y mahjong all night long will only leave the table if they still need to work to survive. If they can continue sitting at the mahjong table without doing anything else, they might as well be useless. Of course there¡¯s nothing wrong with always ying, but what if it¡¯s ying for a month or two, or what about a year or two?¡±


    Wang Yuexi continued, ¡°Perhaps I can joke that as long as you don¡¯t need me to work, I can carry on ying as happily as I like. But is that really the case? It¡¯s not! Future Commander, I just hope these potatoes can be sold at a stable parity price. I¡¯m not trying to devalue Ms. Zhou¡¯s efforts. Besides, it¡¯s only right to set a threshold when providing relief in times of crisis.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Mhm, we¡¯ll do as you say then.¡±


    There was no need to discuss whether Wang Yuexi¡¯s thinking was correct or not, nor the long-term and short-term considerations. For Wang Yuexi to step forward and block Zhou Yingxue, the ck market¡¯s mafia boss and the futuremander¡¯s trusted aide, it showed that he was a person with principles and courage.


    Moreover, the other party was not extreme with his ideology either. He had only requested to sell the potatoes at parity price, so Ren Xiaosu had no reason to reject him.


    He also agreed with what Wang Yuexi had said about setting a threshold when offering relief. He had read a book that said that a long time ago, there were cases of sand being added into sacks of rice used to relieve disaster victims. Was this done on purpose to annoy the victims? No. The truly starving victims would not care if there was sand in the rice. Instead, it would avert those who were not truly hungry from taking advantage of the victims if they saw there was sand mixed in.


    Recently, Ren Xiaosu also found out about an interesting anecdote regarding Wang Yuexi.


    Currently, there were a lot of immigrants in Stronghold 144, including some refugees and poor people from the Central ins. As a result, a lot of them did not have the money to buy or rent a ce, so they ended up sleeping on the streets.


    Then the Policy Research Office led by Wang Yuexi drafted a relief program to build some cheap houses to rent out to these immigrants.


    But when Wang Yuexi was carrying out this project, he specifically requested that there be no dedicated bathrooms in the rental houses. It had to be a shared bathroom serving more than a dozen households, and even the toilet had to be the squat type.


    At the beginning, many people in the stronghold criticized Wang Yuexi, saying he was a really terrible person and that what he did was totally inhumane.


    Later on, everyone realized that those who criticized Wang Yuexi were all people who wanted to abuse the rental housing program. Although they did not necessarily need the cheap houses, they wanted to move in and take advantage of the stronghold¡¯s financial support.


    At a time like this, the benefits of having a shared bathroom and not a dedicated one would emerge. That was because it was good enough for those who had been forced to sleep in the streets to have a ce to stay, so why would they care whether the bathroom was shared or dedicated?


    To be honest, Wang Yuexi really had his own way of governance.


    Wang Yuexi continued to tell Ren Xiaosu, ¡°By the way, I still have another matter that I¡¯d like your help with, Future Commander. I hope you won¡¯t ask Ms. Zhou to nt too many potatoes and winter melons. On top of that, this needs to be kept a secret.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.


    ¡°Ms. Zhou¡¯s power is our trump card.¡± Wang Yuexi exined, ¡°These potatoes can ensure that no one in the Northwest dies of starvation. But if we nt them on arge scale and make everyone think that farming isn¡¯t required in the Northwest anymore, it¡¯ll probably lead to a disaster. During the next few decades when Ms. Zhou is around, nothing bad should happen. But what if she¡¯s no longer around one day?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue muttered, ¡°Who are you cursing? What do you mean by when I¡¯m no longer around?¡±


    She was exceptionally meek in front of Ren Xiaosu and did not even dare to raise her voice when rebuking Wang Yuexi. However, Zhou Yingxue was still the current boss of the Northwest ck market, so even with Ren Xiaosu reining her in, Wang Yuexi knew very well how fearsome she could be.


    However, Wang Yuexi did not back down. Instead, he continued asking, ¡°Future Commander, to put it bluntly, if we really rely on Ms. Zhou to provide us with food, what if she defects to the Wang Consortium one day? This is only a hypothetical, but who can guarantee the future? At that time, all the lives in the Northwest will be entirely tied to Ms. Zhou. Is that what you want to see, Future Commander?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°Are you worried that Zhou Yingxue will betray the Northwest?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said from next to them, ¡°How could I possibly betray my master?!¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, you should understand what I mean.¡± Wang Yuexi continued insisting, ¡°When you told Wang Fugui that Yunsu must not interfere with the economic lifeline of the Northwest, you were also worried Yunsu would be a new consortium when you were no longer around, isn¡¯t that so? Future Commander, that day will definitelye. You, me, and Ms. Zhou will all depart from this ce. So since we¡¯re making the vision of the Prosperous Northwest happen, we should seek the most suitable system of survival and regtions for it, not find it a savior.¡±


    In fact, it was highly unlikely that Zhou Yingxue would betray Ren Xiaosu. However, everyone¡¯s fate was inevitable. When Zhou Yingxue passed away one day, the Potato Shooters would definitely not allow anyone to get near them.


    The Potato Shooter had be a submissive crop in the hands of Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. But if an outsider were to approach it without permission, it would still uphold its dignity. At that time, there would probably not be a lot of people in the world who could obtain the potatoes from arge farm of Potato Shooters.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°That makes sense. We¡¯ll do as you say then. Zhou Yingxue, don¡¯t make things difficult for him. We must follow the stronghold¡¯s regtions and hand over the potatoes that were brought in.¡±


    Wang Yuexi finally heaved a sigh of relief. To be honest, he was really quite worried Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue would fly into a rage when he hypothesized that Zhou Yingxue could betray the Northwest.


    But he felt that his suggestion, and the way he chose his words, were not wrong.


    ¡°Thank you, Future Commander, for understanding my concerns,¡± Wang Yuexi said.


    Ren Xiaosu patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Why are you thanking me? I should be the one thanking you instead. With someone like Director Wang in the Northwest, we will thrive.¡±

 Chapter 1030 - Luo Lan wants to get stronger

    <h4>Chapter 1030: Luo Lan wants to get stronger</h4>


    ¡°By the way, Future Commander,¡± Wang Yuexi said, ¡°the first step of clearing the silt for the irrigation works is almostplete. A preliminary canal has also been dug. However, we¡¯ve yet to make any progress on our n to procure the crop seeds.¡±


    Wang Yuexi and the others had nned the irrigation works with a three-step approach. The first step would be to clear the silt and dig up the sand to clear the old rivers that had dried up or diverted in the past. Then they would only proceed after a new river basin was formed in the vicinity of Stronghold 144.


    At that point, they could start reiming thend. Although it would still be very difficult for them to fetch water for farming, they could at least start working.


    The second step was to build a reservoir and sluices to drain the river. Now was the time toplete all the irrigation infrastructure in case another flood suddenly arrived during theing year and ruined all their efforts.


    The third step was to finalize theyout of the irrigation canals so they would be more effective and allow the people to farm more efficiently.


    With the full cooperation of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, the first step waspleted very quickly. But if there were no seeds, it would be impossible to continue.


    Ren Xiaosu was thinking of a solution when Zhang Xiaoman suddenly ran over and said, ¡°Future Commander, a Qing Consortium merchant caravan has arrived from the South. They said that they wanted to see you. Their leader calls himself Xu Man!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback for a moment. Then he led everyone out of the stronghold. Xu Man was an old acquaintance of his and could be considered Qing Zhen and Luo Lan¡¯s trusted aide.


    When they arrived outside the stronghold, everyone saw a long convoy of trucks parked in the empty space outside the city. Xu Man was waiting there.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you enter the stronghold?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    Xu Man smiled and said, ¡°I have other matters I have to attend to, so I¡¯m gonna leave after I see you, Future Commander.¡±


    Honestly, Xu Man also felt a little emotional. When he first met Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu was just a normal refugee. But now, he had be the futuremander of the Northwest.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Xu Man with a smile, ¡°It feels like you¡¯re always very busy. Every time I see you, you have to leave in a hurry.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing I can do about that. There¡¯s things that need to be seen to.¡± Xu Man said, ¡°Mr. Qing Zhen asked me to deliver the seeds here. They¡¯re all loaded inside the trucks behind me. On top of that, I¡¯ve also brought a sales agreement that covers a year of low-cost food supplies. Although the Wang Consortium is unwilling to sell food to the Northwest, our Qing Consortium is.¡±


    ¡°Only for a year?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes. Mr. Qing Zhen said that if you all can survive this year, you won¡¯t have to buy any more food from the Qing Consortium in the future,¡± Xu Man said.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little emotional. Perhaps saving Luo Lan from the Experimentals back then was his wisest decision.


    ¡°But Luo Lan previously mentioned that he wanted toe and visit the Northwest. Why isn¡¯t he here this time?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Xu Man¡¯s expression turned strange. ¡°Boss Luo is currently trying to lose weight.¡±


    ¡­


    To be precise, Luo Lan was not trying to lose weight. Instead, he had a very specific goal of training his body and willpower. He hoped to use this training to quickly raise the level of his superpower and mental strength.


    This was hellish training that wouldst for half a year, and Zhou Qi was appointed as his instructor.


    At this moment, Zhou Qi was lying on a recliner in a valley in the Southwest and eating some freshly ripened peaches with a hint of smugness. He was wearing a pair of sunsses that covered half his face and a checkered shirt with a pair of loose-fitting shorts. He resembled a rich man from before The Cataclysm taking a vacation at the beach.


    Next to Zhou Qi was a pool where a sparkling waterfall cascaded down from a hundred-meter cliff.


    Meanwhile, Luo Lan was shirtless and doing a horse stance under the waterfall.


    Zhou Qi took a bite of the peach and said leisurely as he chewed, ¡°I¡¯ve been through the same training as well. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll definitely work. But you have to persevere. If you want to raise the level of your superpower, you¡¯ll have to train until you¡¯re exhausted each time. Otherwise, it won¡¯t be effective.¡±


    Luo Lan could not hear what Zhou Qi was saying at all under the waterfall. He only knew that the bastard was probably gloating at his suffering.


    In the past, Zhou Qi would have to be paid for anything he was asked to do. But this time, Zhou Qi did not even ask for a single cent for being his trainer. In fact, he even enjoyed it.


    Some military tents had also been set up not far away from the shore. Some soldiers on the inside were busily preparing dinner for Zhou Qi. In fact, they were extremely well-equipped for this expedition into the mountains.


    When the water falling from the cliff hit Luo Lan, he bitterly kept his eyes closed while trying to bear the crushing weight. Honestly, he was very determined. When he performed the horse stance at the bottom of the waterfall for the first time, the duration hested went beyond Zhou Qi¡¯s expectations.


    Initially, Zhou Qi thought thezy fatty would go back on his word and ck off. After all, the man was never one to sit down if he could lie down.


    Before Zhou Qi came into the mountains, he had said to Luo Lan, ¡°I wonder what¡¯s gotten into you. You¡¯re actually insisting on putting yourself through training? It would already be quite good if you couldst for three days based on the intensity of this training.¡±


    But to Zhou Qi¡¯s surprise, Luo Lan had already persisted for half a month.


    Moreover, Luo Lan even managed to endure the waterfall for an hour during his first training session. Now that half a month had passed, the man could endure the waterfall for six hours.


    Every day, Luo Lan would exhaust himself until he nearly vomited blood. This made Zhou Qi, his instructor, extremely bored. He was deriving absolutely no sense of pleasure from torturing him.


    In Zhou Qi¡¯s words, ¡°I didn¡¯t ept any money to be your trainer because I wanted to tell you off when you were cking. If you can bear it so well, I¡¯ll have to start charging you¡­¡±


    But Luo Lan did not care about that. Sometimes, after soaking in the pool for too long, he would realize he had not reached his limits yet after he got ashore, so he would even carry a fullbat load and start running long distance.


    At this moment, Zhou Qi shouted towards the waterfall, ¡°It¡¯s already been six hours. Come on out. Your body won¡¯t be able to take it if you stay any longer.¡±


    As he spoke, the waterfall was parted by Zhou Qi¡¯s water-maniption power. It was as though someone had lifted a roller shutter.


    Luo Lan wiped his face and walked ashore with some water still dripping down his face. He said to a soldier, ¡°Bring me a fullbat load. I haven¡¯t reached my limits yet. I have to train for a bit longer.¡±


    Zhou Qi was taken aback. ¡°Fatty, what¡¯s wrong with you? Why have you suddenly be so motivated? Did someone provoke you? You don¡¯t usually have to take part in battles, so why are you working so hard?¡±


    ¡°As if you¡¯d understand.¡± Luo Lan wiped his body down with a towel and said, ¡°I can only keep training myself to strengthen my willpower. Only then can myrades in the Martyr¡¯s Pce get summoned out more often. Think about it, if my mental strength is enough for them to remain outside for 24 hours a day, they won¡¯t have to endure the darkness inside the Martyr¡¯s Pce anymore.¡±


    Zhou Qi was stunned. ¡°It¡¯s just that? Weren¡¯t you trying to be stronger to unify the Alliance of Strongholds or something?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the point of unifying the Alliance of Strongholds?¡± Luo Lan said disdainfully, ¡°I¡¯m only doing it for my own objective, is there a problem?¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± For once, Zhou Qi did not continue ridiculing Luo Lan any further.

 Chapter 1031 - Qing Shen and Qing Zhen

    <h4>Chapter 1031: Qing Shen and Qing Zhen</h4>


    What kind of person was Luo Lan in the past? He could remain in bed in the stronghold without moving for three days straight and had led afortable life back in Stronghold 113. Basically, other than matters concerning the Qing Consortium¡¯sbat brigade that he led, there was nothing else that required his attention.


    Based on what he said, his younger brother was around for everything. All Luo Lan needed to do was enjoy himself until the day he died.


    But when Luo Lan started putting himself through this grueling training, everyone realized his innate willpower was very strong.


    Zhou Qi had previously spected that if the world of supernatural beings was really determined by their mental fortitude, then the higher that was, the greater their potential.


    This willpower did not fully manifest itself as ¡°toughness.¡± For example, Li Shentan had never shown himself as someone tough before. It was just that the mental patient¡¯s inner world was extremelyplicated.


    Zhou Qi looked at Luo Lan and suddenly started looking forward to the heights the fat man could reach.


    ¡°I¡¯ve always had a question that I¡¯m very curious about.¡± Zhou Qi asked, ¡°If we measure the threshold between normal people and superhumans based on the Saboteurs¡¯ willpower theory, Qing Zhen should also have awakened as a superhuman. In my opinion, his mental capacity is muchrger and moreplicated than most people in the world, so why hasn¡¯t he awakened his power yet¡­. Or could it be that he¡¯s already achieved it but did not tell me about it?¡±


    After saying that, Zhou Qi fell into deep thought. If Qing Zhen were really a supernatural being, he would not have needed to engage Zhou Qi¡¯s help back at Mt. Ginkgo.


    At this moment, Luo Lan was panting heavily as he threw his heavy field pack onto the ground. He was on the verge of copse. The apanying doctor who was close by immediately packed the first aid box and prepared toe over, but he was stopped by Luo Lan with a gesture. That was because the topic they were discussing right now was not something that others should hear.


    Luo Lan said, ¡°First of all, I¡¯ve confirmed that my younger brother has not awakened any powers yet. He might hide something like that from others, but he will definitely not keep it from me.¡±


    ¡°Then why has he not awakened his power?¡± Zhou Qi asked.


    ¡°He probably doesn¡¯t think it¡¯s necessary.¡± Luo Lan sighed and said, ¡°Y¡¯know, if other people suddenly tell me that superhumans are no big deal, I¡¯ll definitely think they¡¯re being hypocritical. Although they say they look down on such people, they actually want to be superhumans more than anyone else.¡±


    ¡°Did Qing Zhen ever say something like that?¡± Zhou Qi asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Luo Lanughed bitterly as hey on the ground. When he was finally able to catch his breath, he continued, ¡°But there was a time when I heard someone with the condition to awaken their power could do so after going through a long period of arduous cultivation and trekking for tens of thousands of kilometers. So I asked Qing Zhen if he wanted to give it a try, but he said it was unnecessary since he did not have the time for that. He did not look down on supernatural beings, but I know what he meant. In Qing Zhen¡¯s opinion, even if he were not a supernatural being, he could still achieve whatever he desired. So there was no need for him to waste his time to go through that process of awakening.¡±


    Luo Lan felt there were probably not a lot of people in the entire Alliance of Strongholds who were as confident as his younger brother.


    At this moment, the sound of a vehicle driving came from the outside of the mountains. Luo Lan sat up and looked towards the road where the sound wasing from. This valley had already been sealed off by the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops, so whoever could drive in here in such a manner must be Luo Lan and Qing Zhen¡¯s trusted aides.


    However, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi were a little surprised by the person who had arrived. It was actually Qing Zhen sitting in the back of the off-road vehicle!


    ¡°How does he have the time toe here?¡± Zhou Qi muttered.


    ¡°No, that¡¯s not my younger brother,¡± Luo Lan refuted.¡±Tell the guards around us to stay away.¡±


    Zhou Qi raised his eyebrows. ¡°Do I need to excuse myself too?¡±


    Luo Lan said, ¡°No need. You¡¯re one of us.¡±


    Zhou Qi raised his eyebrows again.


    When the vehicle drove over, Qing Shen jumped out of it and walked over with a smile. He looked at Luo Lan¡¯s expression and said with a smile, ¡°How did you distinguish between me and your brother?¡±


    After making sure no one was around, Luo Lan said, ¡°The two of youe from different environments, so your personalities are quite different. Your behaviors are totally different. Strangers might not notice it, but I do.¡±


    After that, Luo Lan even inspected the scar on the back of Qing Shen¡¯s hand. Qing Shen had deliberately left this mark to reassure Luo Lan and gain his trust.


    Luo Lan let go of Qing Shen¡¯s arm and said, ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°Your younger brother asked me toe and see if you were alright. After all, everyone heard about how you¡¯ve been training like crazy out here. He was afraid you¡¯d cripple yourself in training.¡± Qing Shenughed as he found a small folding chair and sat down. His white suit was spotless, and from the way he dressed, Qing Shen looked no different from Qing Zhen at all.


    Currently, Qing Shen¡¯s existence was the Qing Consortium¡¯s top secret. Most of the time, Qing Shen would be the one showing up to solve the Qing Consortium¡¯s problems. Meanwhile, Qing Zhen remained hidden in the shadows.


    This also left Luo Lan a little puzzled. Based on his younger brother¡¯s character, he must be taking every step cautiously like he did now because he had sensed great dangering.


    Qing Zhen was not a quiet person, but he had gonepletely silent as though he were ying a game of chess with an invisible opponent.


    Luo Lan asked Qing Shen, ¡°Where¡¯s my younger brother?¡±


    Qing Shen said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m just his double. If even you, his older brother, don¡¯t know his whereabouts, how could I possibly know? A double doesn¡¯t have much authority, right?¡±


    Luo Lan was a little puzzled. ¡°I¡¯ve always been very curious. Logically, with your talent and the training you received at the Pyro Company, you should be able to live very well wherever you go. Why¡¯d you choose toe to the Qing Consortium to be a body double for someone else?¡±


    After all, there was no freedom in being a body double. Qing Zhen would still be the one making the arrangements for any operations.


    If Luo Lan did not know what Qing Zhen was capable of, he might still be worried that Qing Zhen could get reced by Qing Shen. But now, he realized Qing Zhen was much more cautious than he had imagined. Zheng Yuandong, Qing Zhen¡¯s bodyguard, had already received orders that he could kill this body double at any moment if he went past a certain security perimeter.


    The security perimeter was well-guarded, so Qing Shen would not have any opportunity to try to rece Qing Zhen.


    Qing Shen did not mind this at all. It was as though he had never thought of seizing Qing Zhen¡¯s authority by recing him. Therefore, this left Luo Lan a little puzzled as to what he was really after.


    However, Qing Shen did not directly answer Luo Lan¡¯s question. Instead, he said to Luo Lan with a smile, ¡°Your current diligent and hardworking attitude feels more like the Luo Lan from more than a decade ago. I¡¯m a little curious about something. What happened to you over a decade ago that made you suddenly act like a bum? I know it¡¯s actually just your disguise. After all, you secretly helped Qing Zhen with so many things behind his back. That¡¯s not something a bum is capable of. Why¡¯re you willing to hold yourself back and serve as Qing Zhen¡¯s foil?¡±


    Luo Lan sneered and said, ¡°I¡¯m happy doing so. What business is it of yours? I¡¯m the one asking you here: What¡¯s your intention for serving as his double?¡±


    Qing Shen smiled. ¡°That¡¯s right, I¡¯m happy doing so as well, so what business is it of yours?¡±

 Chapter 1032 - Lunatic

    <h4>Chapter 1032: Lunatic</h4>


    Actually, it had always been a mystery to Luo Lan why Qing Zhen¡¯s clone would join the Qing Consortium. Back on the Sacred Mountains, Li Shentan¡¯s clone and Chen Wudi¡¯s clone had also appeared. However, they were hostile the moment they met. In the minds of those two clones, they were actually eager to prove they were superior to their original selves.


    That was because the Pyro Company had told them they were born from the genes of Li Shentan and Chen Wudi, but they should be more powerful than their original selves because they were enhanced by the blood of God.


    But as long as their original selves were still around, the clones would just remain as clones, and Li Shentan and Chen Wudi¡¯s clones were not willing to live in the shadows of others.


    But as it turned out, those clones were indeed no match for their original selves. Just as Ren Xiaosu had said, it was because their willpower was different.


    Meanwhile, Qing Zhen¡¯s clone, Qing Shen, was more puzzling. Right from the beginning, he had no hostile intentions towards his original self. Furthermore, he said he wanted to go to the Southwest immediately after he met them. It was as though he had foreseen something and said that Qing Zhen would need him as his double.


    This puzzled Luo Lan a great deal. He once had an opportunity to ask him, ¡°Have you never thought of taking his ce?¡±


    At that time, Qing Shen answered with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m different from the other two clones. I¡¯m smarter than them, so I know the difference between me and Qing Zhen. Sometimes, having self-awareness is also a form of wisdom, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    All this while, a minority of those who knew about Qing Zhen¡¯s clone gradually felt that Qing Zhen¡¯s charisma was probably too strong. As such, even his clone was won over and willingly became a part of the original¡¯s n.


    However, Luo Lan somehow felt that things were not that simple. It was not that he suspected Qing Shen of having any evil intentions, but that he felt that he had some other motive.


    Recently, Qing Shen had been interacting with Luo Lan quite a bit due to his role as Qing Zhen¡¯s body double. After getting to know each other better, he would asionally crack some jokes.


    Although there was still some estrangement between them, it was no longer as tense as before.


    Luo Lan looked at Qing Shen¡¯s annoying expression and suddenly asked, ¡°You seem to understand the two of us brothers quite well, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Qing Shen said with a smile, ¡°I even know you two arranged for a fight with the other members of the Qing Consortium when you were young. You led Qing Zhen and went to look for Qing Yi and his elder brother to beat them up. In the end, you got beaten up badly instead, yet you kept Qing Zhen protected. Later, you two became friends with Qing Yi and his brother after the fight and had a lot of dealings with each other in private. However, the old fogeys of the Qing Consortium¡¯s board did not know about this. I guess you all became friends because you could sympathize with one another. After all, you were the marginalized members of the Qing Consortium, so you couldn¡¯tpare to those in Qing Yun¡¯s group.¡±


    Currently, Qing Yun was dead, while Qing Yi had be the Qing Consortium¡¯s militarymander. He was now subordinate only to Qing Zhen and Luo Lan.


    Meanwhile, Qing Yi¡¯s elder brother was the principal of the Qing Consortium¡¯s university in Stronghold 111. Qing Zhen had invited him to take a role with the Board, but it seemed that Qing Yi¡¯s elder brother preferred working at a ce like the university.


    Qing Shen, the clone, said with a smile, ¡°The amount of attention the Pyro Company paid to you two is beyond your imagination. Of course, the Pyro Company also had other goals. At that time, they had already started searching for the hosts for those three drops of God¡¯s blood. But you might not have expected that you were actually the focus of their attention at the beginning. It was onlyter that it switched to Qing Zhen. Of course, the facts have proven that Qing Zhen is indeed more capable. You won¡¯t get angry if I say that, right?¡±


    ¡°I already know that my little brother is much more capable than me, so there¡¯s nothing wrong with admitting to it,¡± Luo Lan remarked. ¡°But why would the Pyro Company target nobodies like us? There were clearly many more sessful candidates they could¡¯ve chosen.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know either. They only said that the younger the candidates were, the better. Otherwise, they would¡¯ve cloned Zhang Jinglin,¡± Qing Shen answered. ¡°But I¡¯ve always been curious about something. Is it fun to participate in a gang fight? Why do you always fight in the streets until your face is all bruised and swollen? You¡¯re clearly a member of the Qing Consortium, yet you still stooped to the level of those street thugs¡­.¡±


    Luo Lan turned unhappy. ¡°Why do you keep bringing up me getting beaten until my face was all bruised and swollen? You should at least see how badly I beat up my enemies first, right? They were even more seriously injured than me! Besides, there¡¯s something wrong with the phrasing of your question. What¡¯s so fun about a gang fight? That¡¯s a world of loyalty and revenge. You wouldn¡¯t understand!¡±


    Qing Shen smiled and said, ¡°I would¡¯ve liked to have joined you all in a gang fight too, but it¡¯s a shame that I wasn¡¯t born into the world at that time. But ording to the Pyro Company¡¯s statistics, you¡¯ve participated in a total of 17 fights and lost five of them.¡±


    ¡°Is the Pyro Company sick in the head? Why would they even record something like that? Did they have too much funding or what?¡± Luo Lan said with a dark expression, ¡°Also, my little brother isn¡¯t as smiley as you. If you want to be my little brother¡¯s body double, you should act more professionally. Quit with the smiling! By the way, to differentiate between the two of you, I¡¯ll call you Third Brother Qing!¡±


    Luo Lan had given the clone a nickname purely because he wanted to annoy him, and the name ¡°Third Brother Qing¡± was really quite unpleasant to hear.[1]


    However, Qing Shen did not mind at all. Instead, he said with a smile, ¡°Who¡¯s Second Bro? Qing Zhen? Then you¡¯re the eldest? I¡¯ll call you Big Bro from now on then.¡±


    Luo Lan was stunned. Why didn¡¯t Third Brother Qing have any temper at all? It was as though he was a person who did not know how to get angry. He carefully sized up Third Brother Qing and said, ¡°You don¡¯t seem to have my little brother¡¯s character at all. Instead, you¡¯re like a lunatic that I know!¡±


    ¡°Lunatic?¡± Third Brother Qing recalled, ¡°Are you referring to Li Shentan?¡±


    ¡°Yes, exactly.¡± Luo Lanughed.


    ¡°Speaking of Li Shentan, it seems like there hasn¡¯t been any news of him in a long time,¡± Third Brother Qing recalled. ¡°I wonder where he went?¡±


    ¡°I heard he went typhoon watching,¡± Luo Lan answered casually.


    ¡­


    At this moment, in a mountain range to the south of the Central ins, mist covered the top of the densely forested mountains. This ce was south of the Zhou Consortium.


    Over the many years since The Cataclysm, the city that was originally here had gradually copsed, and a vast arboreal ecosystem had overtaken the ground it used to stand on.


    Some people said the southern coastline had changed. Before The Cataclysm, thendmass was muchrger. But now that the sea level had risen, much of thendmass had been flooded with water. Coupled with the tectonic movements, thendscape here waspletely different.


    But not many people had really gone there to have a look. After the climate change, the wilderness and forest to the south of the Zhou Consortium had be much more dangerous. There were poisonous creepy-crawlies everywhere, and a huge miasmic zone became a natural barrier to visitors.


    At present, only a tiny group of herb collectors would venture out here. It was as though this ce had be a forgotten, secret realm.


    Two people, an adult and a child, were slowly advancing through the forest. Si Liren floated in midair and looked at the endless forest in front of her. She sighed and said, ¡°Li Shentan, did you point us in the wrong direction again?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not allowed to call me Li Shentan. You have to address me as Big Brother Shentan. That¡¯s more endearing!¡±


    [1] Likely derived from the quyi piece ¡°Visiting the Qingshui River¡± | ?|| The story of how Song Laosan (Third Brother Song) drove his daughter to suicide despite his and his wife¡¯s difficulty in conceiving.

 Chapter 1033 - Herb Collectors

    <h4>Chapter 1033 - Herb Collectors</h4>


    Li Shentan and Little Liren were both wearing light blue outdoor jackets. It was still quite difficult to find such professional outdoor gear being sold in the strongholds. Mainly because there were very few people who needed them. Only somerge garment factories would produce such clothing for the rich in the strongholds to use when they went out into the wilderness.


    "When you find the right path, I''ll start calling you Big Brother Shentan." Little Liren said stubbornly, "But before that, you''re just Li Shentan."


    Li Shentan said snappily as he walked, "But does the problem lie with me alone? You could have flown up to the sky to lead the way, but look at what''s happening now?"


    Logically, the two of them should definitely not have lost their way. After all, Little Liren knew how to fly. No matter howplicated the terrain between the mountains and forest was, it should not confuse someone who could see everything from above.


    But how did it in fact turn out? Si Liren could even fly in the wrong direction even though she was up in the air.


    It was a very long way, and if the orientation at which she was flying deviated even a little, it would still make them go around in a circle. This was what troubled Li Shentan the most!


    Later, Li Shentan, the lunatic, came up with an idea. "Since you can even end up flying in circles when you''re flying straight, why don''t you just fly around in a curved direction? That way, we might somehow be able to find a way out."


    And then, theypletely lost their way.


    To be honest, if it wasn''t for this terrible idea, they wouldn''t have been so lost. Liren was still young and did not have much ability to distinguish right from wrong. If she were a few years older, she would have rejected Li Shentan''s suggestion mercilessly on the spot when he came up with such a horrible idea.


    Little Liren muttered, "Don''te up with reckless ideas like that in the future!"


    Li Shentan said resentfully, "I don''t understand. How could we have deviated from our route with you flying in the sky?"


    "Li Shentan, are you ming me?" Little Liren asked.


    "No." Li Shentan said dejectedly, "Forget it, forget it. Don''t worry, we''ll get out of this ce someday."


    Fortunately, the two of them were supernatural beings, so it was not difficult for them to find food in the forest. Although their meals were a littlecking, they did not have to starve to death.


    Li Shentan sighed and said, "If only Ren Xiaosu coulde with us to watch the typhoons. At least he wouldn''t get lost. Moreover, he''s very good at roasting meat found in the wilderness¡­"


    "Then why don''t we head to the Northwest first and invite him before heading to the coast?" Little Liren asked.


    Li Shentan asked nkly, "Can we still go back?"


    That''s right, they did not know where they were at all, so they could not go back even if they wanted to. Little Liren flew up into the sky and had a look. It was just the forest all around them, and it was impossible to see the end of it.


    Although these two people were very powerful, they had spent most of their lives in a psychiatric hospital and had an extremeck ofmon sense. This was why Li Shentan suddenly started missing Ren Xiaosu.


    In Li Shentan''s opinion, Ren Xiaosu was close to being skilled in all the areas he was bad at.


    "There''s snakes around us," Little Liren said as she looked at the treetops in front of her.


    Li Shentan suddenly got nervous. "Hey,e stand closer to me."


    He said that not because he was afraid Little Liren would get ambushed by a venomous snake, but because the metallic box Little Liren was carrying could make all kinds of venomous creepy-crawlies scatter.


    Although Li Shentan did not know why it worked this way, the venomous creepy-crawlies in the forest seemed to be quite afraid of Chen Wudi even though he was in his petrified form.


    Li Shentan was stuck fast to the box. After getting lost in the forest during this period, he would even lie down next to the box to sleep. He even wanted to hug it to sleep.


    It was quite funny. The legendary figure who was known as a demigod in the world of superhumans was actually afraid of snakes.


    Moreover, even the noxious night air would get dispelled in the miasmic zone around Chen Wudi. In Li Shentan''s words, Chen Wudi was practically invulnerable to all evil. He could basically do whatever he wanted in a ce like this that was overrun with venomous creepy-crawlies.


    However, Little Liren asked Li Shentan doubtfully, "But isn''t it a little disrespectful of you to use Big Brother Wudi as a talisman?"


    Li Shentan said nonchntly, "Why would that be? Little Liren is so cute, so of course he''ll be willing to protect you."


    "But is he willing to protect you?" Little Liren continued wondering.


    Li Shentan thought for a while and said, "Well, I''m also very cute!"


    All of a sudden, Li Shentan stopped in his tracks. He took out a pair of shoes from his backpack and put them on for Si Liren. "Someone''sing. Let''s act normal. Who knows, they might be able to take us out of this ce."


    Si Liren said, "But you can just hypnotize them."


    "No, I''ve already promised Ren Xiaosu to be a good person, so how can I hypnotize normal people just like that? If they''re good people, wouldn''t I end up opposing the good side?" Li Shentan said righteously.


    "Then what if they''re unwilling to bring us out?" Si Liren asked.


    "Then they''re bad guys," Li Shentan said firmly.


    Li Shentan helped Si Liren put on her shoes. Si Lirennded lightly on the ground with therge box on her back. Then she said in distress, "But I can''t pretend to be normal while carrying Big Brother Wudi."


    "Don''t worry about that." Li Shentan said, "If someone asks, just tell them that the box is very light."


    Li Shentan could not spontaneouslye up with any good ideas either, so he decided to just cast aside that worry for now.


    After a few minutes, the shing of overgrown weeds came from within the forest. As the forest was too dense, almost as dense as a tropical rainforest, it was quite difficult for humans to walk inside it.


    Li Shentan and Si Liren remained where they were and waited quietly. After a while, someone emerged from the dense foliage, but when the other party saw Li Shentan and Si Liren, he was stunned. "Don''t kill us. We''ve ventured into your territory unintentionally, but we''re only here to gather herbs."


    Li Shentan was slightly taken aback. He and Si Liren looked at each other. "We don''t kill people, and this isn''t our territory either."


    Around eight more tanned herb collectors emerged behind the man. Then he said, "Then you two are¡­ eh, I''ve seen that style of clothing before. Some big shots from the strongholds put on such clothes when theye into the wilderness. Are you two stronghold residents?"


    Li Shentanughed. "That''s right, we came from a stronghold, but we got lost in the forest. Can you please tell us where we are and how far this ce is from the Zhou Consortium?"


    The herb collectors looked at one another and said, "The Zhou Consortium''s Stronghold 83 is about a 100 kilometers away from here. How did you end up getting lost here?"


    "It''s a long story. Can you lead us out of this ce? As a reward, I can do magic for you all along the way," Li Shentan said in seriousness.


    The herb collectors chuckled. This was the first time they had heard of someone offering to do magic as a reward. However, they did not mind. One of the men who looked like the leader of the group said with a smile, "It''s not a problem to take you two out of here. It''s just that we need to gather some medicinal herbs in these mountains. After we''re done collecting them, you can follow us and head north."


    Carrying therge case on her back, Si Liren smiled sweetly. "Thank you!"


    Everyone''s attention was drawn to the box. Someone wondered, "What''s in this box? Why did you carry such arge box into the wilderness?"


    Li Shentan thought for a while and said, "It''s for storing our magic props!"


    The herb pickers clearly did not believe him.


    Surprisingly, the pickers did not continue asking about it. Instead, they started searching for an open area to set up camp. One of them said to Li Shentan, "We''re gonna set up camp here for tonight. We''ll continue heading into the mountains tomorrow morning."


    Li Shentan looked at the herb collectors and suddenly sighed.

 Chapter 1034 - The Lian tribe

    <h4>Chapter 1034: The Lian tribe</h4>


    How could any normal person not want to continue asking if they saw such arge box being carried around?


    Putting everything else aside, just the quality of this box¡¯s material alone was extraordinary. If a normal person were to see it, they would definitely think it contained something extremely valuable.


    But the herb collectors seemed unusually honest and did not query them any further.


    When the campfire started burning in the open area, the herb collectors went to gather firewood separately. However, it was not easy to find dry firewood in this dense forest. Essentially, they just looked for pine trees and chopped them down to use the pine oil to fuel the fire.


    Amid the crackling of the campfire, a man said to Li Shentan and Little Liren with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll go search for some spices. Let¡¯s roast something to eatter.¡±


    Li Shentan replied with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s even ready-made spices up here in the mountains?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s obvious that you stronghold residents don¡¯t really venture out into the wilderness.¡± The man said with a heartyugh, ¡°There¡¯s nothing in the mountains that you can¡¯t find. There¡¯s peppercorn, star anise, and chili peppers growing here. If you really search, you can find anything you want. Moreover, when you squeeze some of the berry juices over the food, it can really bring out the vor. I¡¯ll go and find some for you two to try.¡±


    ¡°Alright, thanks, bro,¡± Li Shentan said.


    An herb collector took advantage of this downtime and asked nonchntly, ¡°By the way, what are you doing out here?


    ¡°We heard the typhoons in the South are particrly spectacr to watch. asionally, seawater can even get sucked up into the sky by waterspouts. Apparently, this phenomenon is known as the Dragon Draining Water,¡± Li Shentan said with augh.


    The herb collectors around the campfire were stunned. They looked at one another and thought to themselves that this was the first time they had heard of someone wanting to go watch typhoons.


    Li Shentan asked in return, ¡°By the way, when you saw us just now, you said you had unintentionally entered our territory. Why¡¯d you say that? Do people still live here?¡±


    The herb collector said with a smile, ¡°We also heard about it from other old-timer herb collectors. The area in this vicinity of slightly over a 100 kilometers is known as Xiuzhuzhou. It has a lot of river systems running through it, but the number of miasmic zones is very high too. asionally, there will also be swamps, so herb collectors don¡¯t usually venture here. We only came here because the stronghold suddenly offered a high price to purchase 11-vored medicinal herbs. Those aren¡¯t found anywhere but Xiuzhuzhou.¡±


    Li Shentan realized that in the 200 years since The Cataclysm, herb collection should have be a very mature profession. It seemed like there was some sort of inheritance of skill going on too.


    However, the herb collector continued, ¡°Previously, an herb collector said that there¡¯s actually still people living in Xiuzhuzhou. They have some mysterious skills that allow them to live in the wilderness. ording to him, those people can breathe in the miasmic zones without any problems and even manipte venomous creepy-crawlies to train their?<i>gu</i>?poison arts.¡±


    ¡°How did that old-timer herb collector know all that?¡± Li Shentan asked.


    Another herb collector nearby said, ¡°I¡¯m the most suited to talk about this. After all, this story was passed down from my grandpa¡¯s time. He said that there was an aristocrat in the stronghold who needed a medicinal herb to treat his illness, so they had to go into Xiuzhuzhou to search for it. But at that time, no one dared toe to this ce. As such, the aristocrat offered a reward of two gold bars. Only then did two herb collectors volunteer toe into these mountains to search for the herb.


    ¡°Those two herb collectors were away in Xiuzhuzhou for a full six months, and everyone thought that they were dead. But they didn¡¯t expect him toe back alive, and it was only him.


    ¡°ording to him, the other herb collector who went into the mountains with him died in the miasmic zone on their way there. Meanwhile, he was saved by a group of people from the Lian tribe and spent half a year recuperating.


    ¡°The Lian tribe is a little strange. They¡¯re actually a matriarchal society[1], and there¡¯s something mystical about them. We¡¯ve only heard of superhumans appearing in the Central ins in recent years, right? But during my grandfather¡¯s generation, he said that all women in the Lian tribe trained in?<i>gu</i>?poison arts[2] and corpse refinement! Moreover, their corpse refinement techniques consist of creating bronze, silver, and gold corpses.¡±


    Li Shentan raised his eyebrows. ¡°If it¡¯s that terrifying, how did that herb collectore back alive? He should¡¯ve been turned into a corpse.¡±


    ¡°This is what you don¡¯t know about them.¡± The herb collector said with a smile, ¡°The elder who came back said that even though the Lian tribe sounds terrifying, the women there are all very pretty and good-looking. Furthermore, they only practice corpse refinement to prevent foreign enemies from attacking them. Therefore, the elder once reminded us that if we really entered Xiuzhuzhou one day and encountered people from the Lian tribe, there¡¯s no need to panic. We just have to tell them that we didn¡¯t intrude into their territory on purpose and they won¡¯t hurt us. Moreover, if fate wills it, they might even treat us warmly. ording to him, they¡¯re very hospitable people.¡±


    The herb collector winked at him. There was probably something more to this ¡°warm hospitality¡± he mentioned.


    ¡°I see.¡± Li Shentan felt the exnation sounded a little mystical. Why did this Xiuzhuzhou where the people of the Lian tribe lived sound like a paradise?


    But if what the other party said was true? Xiuzhuzhou would be quite an interesting ce then, and Li Shentan would really like to go and have a look.


    If it weren¡¯t for the fact that there were a lot of herb collectors here, he would have shouted into the forest to ask if there were anydies from the Lian tribe willing toe out and meet him.


    However, Li Shentan had some doubts about this. He felt that people who practiced corpse and?<i>gu</i>?poison refinement would be quite ruthless.


    The old herb collector was probably not telling the truth.


    Since they practiced corpse refinement, where would the corpsese from? Could someone have given that old herb collector some benefits and deliberately made him sing praises of the Lian tribe? Then everyone would want to seek out that utopia, and the Lian tribe could easily entrap some people to refine them into corpses.


    Li Shentan suddenly felt that he was very smart. This exnation made a lot of sense, didn¡¯t it?


    An herb collector sighed and said, ¡°Now that the Central ins are in a state of war, many people who¡¯ve heard this story want to seek refuge in the sanctity of Xiuzhuzhou. We¡¯re not only here to gather herbs this time; we also want to try our luck in finding that ce.¡±


    Li Shentan was stunned. ¡°War? There¡¯s a war?¡±


    The herb collectorsughed. ¡°How long have you been lost in the mountains? Why don¡¯t you know about this? The Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium in the North have almost beenpletely annexed by the Wang Consortium. Based on everyone¡¯s estimations, they¡¯ll probably be fully annexed within a month. And also, the Zhou Consortium was plunged into chaos by that futuremander of the Northwest. Currently, the Zhou Consortium is in a constant state of internal strife. The Wang Consortium will probably annex the Zhou Consortium next after they¡¯re done with the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium.¡±


    Li Shentan muttered to Si Liren, ¡°Oh no, I actually missed out on something so exciting!¡±


    As he spoke, Li Shentan had a vexed expression on his face. How could he have missed out on joining Ren Xiaosu to cause chaos in the Zhou Consortium?!


    So if they did it together once more, it would mean he did not miss out on anything. This logic was impable!


    Li Shentan said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we skip the typhoon watching and head to the Northwest to look for Ren Xiaosu? After that, we can go to the Zhou Consortium together to create trouble again.¡±


    Little Liren looked at Li Shentan quietly. ¡°¡­ Are you serious?¡±


    During the whispered conversation, the herb collector who went out to search for spices returned. He was holding a few bright-colored berries in his hands. Then he applied it onto the roast meat and handed a portion to Li Shentan and Si Liren. ¡°Have a taste, it¡¯s delicious.¡±


    Li Shentan did not ept the roast meat but took out a silver coin with a smile. The woman on the obverse of the silver coin looked very gentle and beautiful.


    He said to the herb collectors, ¡°Thank you for your hospitality. Why don¡¯t I perform a magic trick to show you all my gratitude?¡±


    He flicked the silver coin high into the air with his thumb. As it spun, it rang with an extremely pleasant sound.


    Li Shentan looked at the herb collectors and said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ll start asking, and you¡¯ll answer me. What will happen after eating these berries?¡±


    ¡°Whoever eats it will start vomiting and foaming at the mouth before dying,¡± the herb collectors answered in a daze.


    ¡°Why did you give me this to eat?¡± Li Shentan asked.


    ¡°Because the two of you must be carrying valuables on you, and the box you¡¯re carrying must be filled with treasures,¡± the herb collectors answered. ¡°You two are probably superhumans, but even superhumans will die if they eat these berries.¡±


    Li Shentan understood that the other party had assumed he and Si Liren were superhumans. However, they were very bold to even dare to plot against superhumans using their proficiency in medicinal knowledge.


    He felt a little pity. He had just said he would not hypnotize these people, yet he still hypnotized them in the end.


    However, Li Shentan felt that these were not good people, so he did not vite his agreement with Ren Xiaosu! Perfect!


    All of a sudden, Li Shentan looked into the dark forest behind him and saw a human face hanging upside down from a treetop in the distance. It was an extremely terrifying sight.


    But in the moment it took for Li Shentan to blink, that figure disappeared from his view.


    [1] Based on the Mosuo people |

 Chapter 1035 - Abduct them to the Prosperous Northwest!

    <h4>Chapter 1035: Abduct them to the Prosperous Northwest!</h4>


    As the campfire flickered in the dark of the night, the light and heat it emitted spread into the forest. However, it looked like there was a huge mouth in the forest that was looking to devour the light bit by bit.


    In the boundless darkness of the forest, the lonely campfire was the solitary source of light.


    As Li Shentan had turned around toote, he did not see what the human face that was hanging upside down from the canopy looked like, nor how the other party had vanished.


    As such, Li Shentan shouted in that direction, ¡°Um¡­ Can you show yourself again? I didn¡¯t see clearly just now!¡±


    The forest was empty and no one responded to Li Shentan¡¯s request. It was as though no human face had ever appeared there.


    Seeing no response, Li Shentan was a little disappointed.


    Next to him, Little Liren looked at Li Shentan with a puzzled expression. ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    Li Shentan replied, ¡°I think that was a pretty interesting magic trick. Pity I didn¡¯t get it.¡±


    Little Liren¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°You think that person is doing magic for us?¡±


    ¡°Probably?¡± Li Shentan sat back down at the campfire. ¡°Are you scared?¡±


    ¡°A little.¡± Little Liren said, ¡°But only a little. If anything ghostly really tries to approach us, I¡¯ll beat it to a pulp.¡±


    ¡°Impressive, impressive,¡± Li Shentan praised.


    He decided to ignore the human face that appeared in the forest for the time being. He looked towards the herb collectors standing around the campfire in a daze and muttered while sizing them up, ¡°How should we deal with them?¡±


    ¡°Why did they try to poison us?¡± Little Liren asked.


    Li Shentan patiently exined, ¡°They¡¯re probably seeking reincarnation.¡±


    Si Liren was silent for a moment, then said with a deadpan expression, ¡°Answer me properly.¡±


    ¡°Grandpa mentioned there¡¯s actually many treasures hidden in this mountain range in the South.¡± Li Shentan said in seriousness, ¡°Before The Cataclysm, human civilization was spread across the entire continent, and there was practically nowhere they did not develop and build upon. So while we¡¯re seeing mountains here now, there must be up to several dozen cities buried under the forest. There should be a lot of gold and silver buried underneath, as well as valuables and information that can be found in this ce.¡±


    ¡°When they saw us two superhumans appear here while carrying arge metallic box, they must¡¯ve thought we had found some treasure here.¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°Thus, a criminal intent was formed.¡±


    The forest south of the Zhou Consortium had turned into an utterly desertednd. Even the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops could not bear the venomous creepy-crawlies and noxious vapor in the forest, let alone junk dealers who collected treasure.


    In the early years, junk dealing was a very popr industry. Many people who thought they were capable made a living by looking for the treasure left behind by the Pre-Cataclysm civilization. Most of the current mob bosses had started off this way.


    However, there were not many ¡°treasures¡± that could be found anymore, so the junk dealing profession gradually ceased to exist.


    People also used toe to Xiuzhuzhou where this forest was located. But as the number of deaths increased, others stoppeding. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Li Shentan and Si Liren had brought along Chen Wudi, who was invulnerable to all evil, they wouldn¡¯t actually be able to stand the harsh environment out here either.


    However, rumors of treasure buried in this forest were still circting among the refugees.


    ¡°But finders keepers, so why did they try to rob us?¡± Si Liren mumbled.


    ¡°Because they¡¯re the real bad guys,¡± Li Shentan remarked. ¡°But we can¡¯t kill them yet because we still need them to lead us out of the forest. We won¡¯t get lost this time, right?¡±


    ¡°Then are we leaving right away?¡± Little Liren asked.


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Li Shentan said with a glint in his eyes, ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear what they said? The Lian tribe of Xiuzhuzhou sounds quite interesting. If the Lian tribe can really fight as well as these herb collectors im, there¡¯ll be other uses for them.¡±


    ¡°Like what?¡± Si Liren wondered.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear them constantly going on about the Prosperous Northwest when we were at the Sacred Mountains? We can abduct the people of the Lian tribe to the Prosperous Northwest. Ren Xiaosu will definitely be surprised when he receives such a gift.¡± Li Shentan got excited and said, ¡°So it¡¯s decided then!¡±


    Actually, when Li Shentan said the herb collectors were seeking reincarnation, he was fundamentally not wrong in saying so.


    If these people knew the superhuman they were facing was the Demon Whisperer, they would probably not have dared to try to poison him.


    Over the years, even the most outstanding hitman was unable to kill Li Shentan, let alone these amateurs who suddenly got the idea of killing him.


    Right now, Li Shentan had not only gained control of the herb collectors, he even wanted to abduct the entire Lian tribe to join him in the Prosperous Northwest.


    Li Shentan thought for a while and said, ¡°How do we find those people of the Lian tribe? I¡¯m definitely sure the Lian tribe exists, but where are they? Oh well, I¡¯ll just wait for them toe and find us.¡±


    After that, Li Shentan looked at the herb collectors and said with a smile, ¡°The night is still young and I can¡¯t sleep. It¡¯s rather boring out here in this wilderness with nothing to do, so why don¡¯t you guys put on a talent show for me? Like doing the splits, singing and dancing, or something?¡±


    In an instant, the herb collectors started singing and dancing. Their out-of-tune voices sounded like dreary cries and screams in the forest.


    A dark figure in the forest had been approaching the campfire slowly. But when it saw what was happening at the campfire, it quickly retreated like a frightened animal.


    Li Shentan looked back in the direction of where the dark figure had disappeared off to and said mncholically, ¡°Did it get intimidated by us? I thought it would feel very weed by our warm atmosphere.¡±


    He then suddenly stood up andmanded the herb collectors to chase after the dark figure together with him.


    Little Liren tacitly flew up into the sky immediately. Her eyes locked onto the target below as she gave directions to Li Shentan, who was giving chase below.


    As the two sides sped through the forest, the dark apparition traversed through the forest like it was running on t ground.


    ¡°What a big detour.¡± Li Shentan muttered, ¡°Where¡¯s it trying to lead us?¡±


    Li Shentan pursued it at an unhurried pace and didn¡¯t seem like he was anxious.


    More than 20 minutester, Si Liren suddenly hovered in the air. When Li Shentan caught up with her from the rear, shended on the ground. ¡°There¡¯s a hole in the ground up ahead. Somedy dressed in strange clothing went inside.¡±


    The other party had also noticed Si Liren flying in the air. She knew that if someone had been watching her from above throughout the chase, she could not escape at all. Therefore, she found a hole in the ground to shake off Si Liren¡¯s pursuit.


    ¡°Is it someone from the Lian tribe?¡± Li Shentan slowly walked to the wide entrance of the underground tunnel that stood more than two meters tall. It was clear that the squarish entrance was man-made. However, it looked extremely dpidated, probably because it was constructed a long time ago.


    ¡°Eh, this might be the entrance to the ruins left behind by human civilization before The Cataclysm.¡± Li Shentan wondered, ¡°Do you think there could be any treasure inside?¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t lookit. What treasure could there be in such a rundown ce?¡± Si Liren said.


    ¡°There must be!¡± Li Shentan said firmly, ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s go in and have a look.¡±


    After that, Li Shentan took out a shlight from his backpack and walked straight into the underground tunnel. As he walked, he kept muttering, ¡°If there¡¯s any treasure in here, we can present it as a gift when we get to the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    Little Liren grumbled, ¡°Grandpa always said you¡¯re biased and would side with outsiders rather than your own family. He really wasn¡¯t wrong about you. Can¡¯t you leave some money for Grandpa? I heard he¡¯s quite short on cash.¡±


    Li Shentan thought for a moment. ¡°If there¡¯s any treasure in here, we¡¯ll share half of it with Grandpa!¡±


    But before he could walk much further in, Li Shentan¡¯s expression turned strange. He saw some mottled words on the wall he was shining his shlight on.


    Underground Parking Garage.

 Chapter 1036 - Black tuxedo

    <h4>Chapter 1036: ck tuxedo</h4>


    Li Shentan and Si Liren bothckedmon sense, and their thinking had always been unconventional. To strangers, their actions did not seem logical at all.


    But it did not mean they were dumb. They still knew what an ¡°underground parking garage¡± was.


    This was a ce where people used to park their vehicles before The Cataclysm. How could there be any fucking treasure in here!


    ¡°Are we really going inside? It¡¯s so dark. What if there¡¯s a trap?¡± Little Liren said worriedly.


    Then she watched Li Shentan cup his hands around his mouth and shout into the underground parking garage, ¡°Hey, is there a trap inside?¡±


    After waiting a dozen seconds, there was no response from inside. Only the sound of his voice continued echoing in the empty underground parking garage.


    Hearing that, Li Shentan said in seriousness, ¡°There shouldn¡¯t be any traps!¡±


    Little Liren was speechless and said helplessly, ¡°Are you implying that just because no one answered you, there¡¯s no trap?¡±


    ¡°More or less.¡± Li Shentan nodded with a smile before walking toward the dark underground parking garage without hesitation. ¡°Wait for me here with the herb collectors. She¡¯s still inside, so I¡¯m going in to catch her!¡±


    When Little Liren, who was standing behind him, heard this, she did not insist on following him in. Rather, she continued hovering outside the underground parking garage because she knew that Li Shentan had absolute confidence in capturing thatdy.


    If Li Shentan said that he could capture her, he could definitely do so.


    The white beam from the shlight swept across the underground parking garage. The vehicles parked there had already turned into piles of scrap metal. They were so badly corroded it was difficult to tell that all of them used to be vehicles.


    Li Shentan paced slowly around the ruins. In the darkness where the shlight could not reach, there would asionally be sounds of slight disturbances. By the time he flicked it over, there would be nothing there anymore.


    At the beginning, he thought this ce was probably where the Lian tribe¡¯s settlement was. But now it seemed like it wasn¡¯t the case at all. The other party was just trying to lure him here.


    This was the hunting ground the other party had carefully selected, so she must be very proficient at hunting in the dark.


    Li Shentan shouted into the darkness, ¡°Why don¡¯t we step forward and talk about the Prosperous Northwest n?¡±


    As his words trailed off, he tilted his head slightly to the left. Amid the whooshes, an unknown, sharp object brushed past his ear and disturbed Li Shentan¡¯s messy head of white, medium-length hair.


    ¡°I just want to talk. Why are you getting so worked up?¡± Li Shentan muttered.


    But no matter what he said, the whooshing from the sharp weapons continueding at him from within the darkness. Li Shentan attempted to search for the enemy¡¯s figure with his shlight while dodging the attacks.


    But that girl from the Lian tribe hiding in the darkness was like an apparition. He could not see her at all.


    Li Shentan thought for a moment and said, ¡°Stop thinking about fighting and killing all the time. Why don¡¯t I perform a magic trick for you?¡±


    In that instant, a huge cloud of smoke went off around him. The apparition in the darkness seemed to be a little confused, so she did not continue sneaking in attacks at Li Shentan with her concealed weapons.


    A momentter, the young lunatic emerged from the smoke. At some point, he had changed into a ck tuxedo.


    Li Shentan¡¯s lips curled. ¡°I¡¯m gonna start looking for you.¡± He closed his eyes and switched off his shlight.


    In thepletely dark underground parking garage, the air stilled. When another sharp weapon came flying at Li Shentan, he no longer tried to dodge it. Instead, he took out a ying card and flicked it.


    The gray Joker on the ying card had a maniacal smile on its face, silently mocking its target.


    In the blink of an eye, when the card and the sharp weapon collided in midair, that smiling Joker sliced through an iron nail and split it in two!


    ¡°I can do that too,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile with his eyes closed before vanishing on the spot.


    With that, the apparition in the darkness suddenly turned from one to two.


    The two sides kept attacking each other with the nails and cards in total darkness. The sound of metallic clinking could be heard in the air as the collisions sent fiery sparks flying.


    The girl from the Lian tribe seemed to have sensed great danger as she started running towards another exit in the darkness. But at this moment, the roles of hunter and prey swapped. The cards flew towards her from within the boundless darkness and forced her to dodge quickly.


    The girl somersaulted and twisted in the darkness with great flexibility to avoid the attacks. Then she flitted past the pirs in the underground parking garage and darted off into the distance like a swallow in flight.


    But a secondter, something suddenly lit up in front of her. She saw Li Shentan hanging upside down from the ceiling of the parking garage. He was using the shlight to illuminate his entire face from under his chin, making him look extremely pale and terrifying.


    Li Shentan smiled and said, ¡°Found you!¡±


    The young girl from the Lian tribe let out a scream. She had only wanted to scare the white-haired young man. However, she did not manage to do so and was instead frightened by him using the same method.


    Before the startled young girl could say anything, a silver whirlpool resembling a bright kaleidoscope appeared in Li Shentan¡¯s eyes at the snap of a finger.


    Li Shentan said softly, ¡°Quiet.¡±


    It was as though someone were whispering in her ear. The eyes of the girl from the Lian tribe turned vacant and she became quiet.


    When Li Shentan lightlynded back on the ground from the ceiling, he raised his shlight and shone it at the youngdy as he carefully sized up her.


    She was dressed in very strange clothing that was stitched together from pieces of cloth, making it look extremely incongruous, like patchwork. As her top did not cover her navel, Li Shentan could even see her well-defined abs. Meanwhile, the pair of shorts she was wearing revealed the youngdy¡¯s slender but firm thighs.


    After staring at her for a long time, Li Shentan muttered, ¡°You¡¯re quite pretty¡­. I want you to answer some of my questions. Why didn¡¯t you use any other forms of attacks? Don¡¯t they say that the people of the Lian tribe are adept at corpse and?<i>gu</i>?poison refinement? So why did you only attack me using concealed weapons?¡±


    The girl from the Lian tribe replied, ¡°I only came out to gather medicinal herbs and did not expect to encounter any outsiders, so I didn¡¯t bring my gold corpse with me.¡±


    Li Shentan muttered, ¡°Gold, silver, copper. Based on this sequence, you seem to hold quite a high position in the Lian tribe¡­. What about?<i>gu</i>?poison? Why didn¡¯t you use it?¡±


    ¡°The conditions for using the?<i>gu</i>?poison are very harsh. I didn¡¯t have any chance to use it,¡± the girl from the Lian tribe answered.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Li Shentan asked.


    ¡°Lian Yi.¡±


    ¡°It sounds very nice,¡± Li Shentanplimented. ¡°How many people are there in your Lian tribe?¡±


    ¡°More than 1,300.¡±


    ¡°How many of them know how to practice corpse and?<i>gu</i>?poison refinement like you?¡±


    ¡°About 400,¡± Lian Yi answered.


    Just as Li Shentan was about to continue questioning Lian Yi, he heard Si Liren shouting outside the parking garage, ¡°Li Shentan, have you caught her yet?¡±


    Li Shentan quickly changed out of his tuxedo and put on his outdoor jacket again. ¡°If Little Liren sees me like this, she¡¯ll definitely say I¡¯m showing off again!¡±

 Chapter 1037 - Chief consort

    <h4>Chapter 1037: Chief consort</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    When Li Shentan led Lian Yi out of the underground parking garage, Little Liren looked curiously at the girl from the Lian tribe. ¡°She¡¯s alone?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Li Shentan nodded. ¡°She imed she came out to gather medicinal herbs. Initially, she was just being yful and wanted to scare us when she encountered us.¡±


    But to Lian Yi¡¯s surprise, not only did she fail to scare this lunatic, she even ended up bing his captive.


    Si Liren pursed her lips and said, ¡°She¡¯s already an adult, so why¡¯s she still acting so childishly?¡±


    The words spoken from Little Liren¡¯s mouth sounded extremely odd. However, Little Liren had a look of maturity on her face as she made a matter-of-fact remark.


    Si Liren was a little more mature than other children her age. After all, if she were any less mature in thepany of a lunatic like Li Shentan, the two of them would probably be beyond redemption.


    Li Shentan found an open area outside the underground parking garage and sat down. Then he continued questioning Lian Yi, ¡°Did your tribe take in some foreign herb collectors at one point?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Lian Yi answered, ¡°but it was only during the early years when there were a lot of active herb collectors in the area, and some of them identally got lost and entered Xiuzhuzhou by mistake. We haven¡¯t seen any more of them in recent years.¡±


    ¡°So by allowing those people to go back, did you intend to use them to trick others intoing here so you¡¯d have candidates to practice corpse refinement on?¡± Li Shentan asked again.


    ¡°No, we¡¯ve never harmed any strangers before in our practice of corpse refinement. We had only started practicing corpse refinement so that our tribespeople who died from illnesses could live forever,¡± Lian Yi said.


    This answer took Li Shentan by surprise. He had assumed with the greatest malice and spected the Lian tribe was a malevolent group, but it was not as he had imagined.


    Meanwhile, their idea of using corpse refinement to let their fellow tribespeople who had died of illnesses to live forever seemed to fit very well with some of the obscure tribal mindsets.


    Perhaps the Lian tribe had be sealed within this wilderness by the forested mountains after The Cataclysm, making them live a life of seclusion from the rest of the society, and theyter came to possess such special means of survival.


    The strength and technique disyed by Lian Yi when she used her concealed weapons was extremely shocking. Honestly, not many people could battle a superhuman like Li Shentan with such intensity. After all, he had mastered control over his own subconsciousness.


    At the beginning, Li Shentan had shouted ¡°is there a trap inside¡± into the underground parking garage. It was at that time that he started hypnotizing her. But to Li Shentan¡¯s surprise, his hypnosis did not seed.


    This made Li Shentan realize the young Lian Yi was probably a rtively stronger superhuman aspared to those in the Alliance of Strongholds. However, he was more powerful than her.


    As for how he apprehended Lian Yi after that, there was no need to mention it. If it were any other superhuman who hade here, they would probably have died at her hands long ago.


    There was also a peculiar reason as to why Li Shentan was so powerful now. It was just as he had said to Ren Xiaosu before: ¡°I believe the brain¡¯s potential corresponds to how powerful a supernatural being can be. There¡¯s too many functional areas in the brain that humans are still unaware of, so when they unlock that potential, it will signal the dawn of a new world.¡±


    He had previously determined that when the brain reached 20% of its potential, humans could control external objects without any physical contact. When the brain reached 70% of its potential, humans would be on par with gods.


    If they wanted there to be light, there would be light.


    When the brain reached a 100% of its potential, those humans would evolve into a world consciousness and be an omnipresent force.


    This was what Li Shentan had theorized, and he had only revealed it to a few people.


    Right now, Li Shentan¡¯s superpower was only hypnosis, but he could always use it in a way that surpassed the power¡¯s limits, which was actually very illogical.


    But he was able to do that because he not only hypnotized others but also himself.


    To be precise, he hypnotized his own subconsciousness to fully unlock his brain¡¯s potential.


    Of course, this was a very slow process. That was because if he forcibly increased the rate at which he unlocked his brain¡¯s potential, it would cause his body to copse. Even Li Shentan would find that quite difficult to bear. Therefore, he precisely controlled the bnce between how much his physical body could bear and raising his mental strength.


    He could only unlock the next stage after his body had reached a certain level of endurance.


    Many people thought the Demon Whisperer was powerful because he was born with that power. But they never expected that Li Shentan actually had an entire set of theories and methods that he could continuously use to strengthen himself. Moreover, after his verification, he found his theory to be correct.


    At this moment, a loud rustling came from the trees around them.


    Li Shentan¡¯s hair immediately stood on end. ¡°Snakes! Why¡¯s there so many snakes?!¡±


    He hugged the box Little Liren was carrying so the snakes would not approach him.


    A secondter, a figure with a silvery face flew out of the forest and threw a heavy punch straight at Li Shentan¡¯s face!


    ¡°Is that a silver corpse?¡±


    Li Shentan was forced to let go of the box and turned to face the enemy that had appeared out of nowhere. He knew that Lian Yi¡¯s tribespeople must have arrived.


    Facing the silver corpse, Li Shentan took out a silver coin from his pocket and flicked it into the air with his thumb.


    A sharp ringing reverberated through the forest. But to Li Shentan¡¯s surprise, the silver corpse seemed to be a natural ¡°nemesis¡± of hypnotists. It was not afraid of being hypnotized at all.


    Li Shentan eximed and was sent flying a dozen meters away after taking a punch to the face. Then dozens of silver and copper corpses emerged from the forest and pinned Li Shentan down firmly on the ground.


    The corpses¡¯ appearances were not that terrifying, and they did not have the sharp and vicious fangs he had imagined. Other than a strange skin tone, they basically maintained their appearances from when they were still alive. One of them was a short and fat copper corpse that looked rather cute.


    When Little Liren saw that Li Shentan had been punched in the face, she almost exploded with anger. But to her surprise, she actually saw Li Shentan winking at her even though he was being pressed on the ground.


    A voice came from the forest. ¡°Little girl, don¡¯t act rashly. We don¡¯t wish to hurt you.¡±


    Si Liren said sweetly, ¡°OK! I won¡¯t move!¡±


    The person in the forest did not get too close and said from afar, ¡°You! White-haired young man! What have you done to our chief?¡±


    ¡°Uh, I only¡­ hypnotized her.¡± Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°We were just having a friendly discussion regarding the Prosperous Northwest. We might¡¯ve had some disagreements during the conversation, so I helped her calm down a little.¡±


    Honestly, Li Shentan had not expected Lian Yi to actually be the chief of the Lian tribe. Wasn¡¯t she a little too young for that? Could the position of chief be hereditary?


    Or did Lian Yi be the chief because she was the strongest among them?


    He remembered that Lian Yi had said she was a gold corpse user. But after looking carefully, he did not see any gold corpses among the corpses.


    Since Lian Yi possessed a gold corpse, she should be the strongest of these people.


    ¡°Hmph!¡± A woman in the forest sneered, ¡°You had better dispel your hypnotism. If anything happens to our chief, we¡¯ll feed you to the snakes here.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll dispel it immediately, but you¡¯ll have to get them to free one of my hands,¡± Li Shentan said helplessly.


    ¡°Don¡¯t try any tricks,¡± someone in the forest sneered.


    The silver and copper corpses released one of Li Shentan¡¯s hands. When he snapped his fingers lightly, Lian Yi came back to her senses as though she had suddenly woken up.


    Someone asked eagerly, ¡°Chief, are you alright?¡±


    Lian Yi nodded her head. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±


    She looked around her surroundings. When she saw that Li Shentan was being restrained, she suddenly got angry. ¡°How dare you scare me instead! That was over the line! Keep him under watch and take him back to the vige stronghold to be my consort!¡±


    Li Shentan was shocked. ¡°Eh?!¡±


    Si Liren¡¯s eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she fell into aplete shock!

 Chapter 1038 - Legacy

    <h4>Chapter 1038: Legacy</h4>


    Li Shentan had thought that if he offended the Lian tribe¡¯s chief, she might retaliate with a series of actions against him, such as tying him to a wooden stake and whipping him, or hanging him up and refusing to give him any water to drink.


    But he was not afraid of that. The people from the Lian tribe had underestimated his power of hypnotism and thought they could really ce him under captivity with these copper and silver corpses.


    If they actually attempted to kill him, the people from the Lian tribe would get defined as ¡°bad people¡± in Li Shentan¡¯s mind, and he would not feel any guilt about hypnotizing them to join the Prosperous Northwest together.


    Li Shentan had promised Ren Xiaosu to be a good person and live with a ray of light in his heart. As such, everything he did now would have to be based on this philosophy and match its logic, so he could not hypnotize the good people, only those who were bad.


    Although Ren Xiaosu was not here to keep an eye on him, they were still carrying Chen Wudi with them.


    Little Liren had previously asked him: ¡°When will Big Brother Wudi wake up?¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s answer was that Chen Wudi would wake up once certain conditions were met.


    It would have to be something that could convince someone who had sealed himself away that it was meaningful for him to wake up, and that the world still needed him as a ray of light.


    Therefore, Li Shentan told Ren Xiaosu that Chen Wudi might wake up when a widely acknowledged fiend like him truly turned good. At that time, the Demon Whisperer would finally receive his salvation as well.


    With Chen Wudi ¡°spectating,¡± how could he hypnotize good people so casually?


    But now, she didn¡¯t even intend to take revenge on him. Instead, she wanted to bring him back to be her consort?!


    Li Shentan suddenly felt that Lian Yi did not seem normal either. For some reason, he even felt like he had encountered his own kind.


    But what the hell was this? If any other man heard about this, his first reaction would probably be: ¡°Such a good deal exists?!¡±


    Lian Yi was a very beautiful girl, and her tanned skin even added a very unique charm to her.


    How was this revenge? She was clearly returning injury with kindness!


    Of course, Li Shentan was not a lecher. It was just that he found it a little difficult to determine whether Lian Yi was a good or bad person. As such, he could not use his hypnosis on her anymore.


    Li Shentan turned his pleading gaze to Little Liren next to him, but Little Liren asked Lian Yi with great interest instead, ¡°The romance novels I¡¯ve read don¡¯t have as bold a plot as this. If you have a baby together after bringing him back, whose surname will the baby take?¡±


    ¡°The baby will take the surname of our Lian tribe, of course,¡± Lian Yi replied proudly. ¡°In our Lian tribe, women are the head of the family.¡±


    Li Shentan mouthed to Little Liren, ¡°Get these silver and copper corpses away from me.¡±


    Little Liren nodded upon seeing this. Then she said to Lian Yi, ¡°In that case, hurry up! Take him back and marry him already!¡±


    Li Shentan was confused.


    With that, Little Liren revolted against Li Shentan. She even seemed like she was extremely looking forward to the marriage.


    The women of the Lian tribe immediately looked at Little Liren with an even kinder gaze. Someone even promised to roast some meat for her after they returned to their vige stronghold.


    As such, dozens of copper and silver corpses escorted Li Shentan to the south of Xiuzhuzhou. Meanwhile, Lian Yi, Little Liren, and the others chatted andughed happily as they followed behind.


    Li Shentan stared nkly ahead and said mncholically, ¡°That little girl has revolted!¡±


    At this moment, Little Liren carefully sized up those copper and silver corpses. Then she asked Lian Yi and the others curiously, ¡°Are these your former rtives?¡±


    ¡°You could say that.¡± Lian Yi replied, ¡°Actually, we don¡¯t know some of them either. For example, the gold corpse that I control was actually passed down through the generations. The reason why we were able to survive and escape all the way here from the Southwest before The Cataclysm was due to the existence of the gold corpse. You can say that he¡¯s our ancestor we respect a great deal.¡±


    When Li Shentan, who was walking in front of them, heard that, he was stunned. ¡°The gold corpse existed before The Cataclysm?¡±


    Lian Yi frowned. ¡°Don¡¯t interrupt when the women are talking.¡±


    Li Shentan was speechless.


    He wondered if the men of the Lian tribe really did notmand any standing.


    However, Little Liren still helped him to rify his doubts. ¡°But supernatural beings have only appeared in recent years. How did you guys gain such a powerful power before The Cataclysm?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s nothing new.¡± Lian Yi thought for a moment and exined, ¡°During the Pre-Cataclysm times, our tribe was not the only one that could wield powers beyondmon skills. There was a Rider who went by the name of Ren He who visited our vige and was already very powerful at that time. He could not be beaten even with two of our vige¡¯s gold corpses fighting him. That happened before The Cataclysm, so he had already be a supernatural being before that. I¡¯m not making this up. It was recorded in the chronicles of our tribe.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I see.¡± Li Shentan nodded. It seemed that a tiny fraction of people had already possessed superpowers before The Cataclysm. However, the Rider¡¯s way of unlocking those powers was different from his. Based on his deduction, the Riders¡¯ progression was toplete a set of specific tasks to unlock the shackles within their bodies.


    The Riders and the Lian tribe were a little unique in the current era. The majority of superhumans relied purely on ¡°luck¡± to awaken their powers, while the Riders and the Lian tribe had developed a mature inheritance system.


    The existence of such legacies should be extremely rare. Since the world was so big, he wondered if simr legacies also existed outside the Alliance of Strongholds?


    Li Shentan had never paid attention to these matters before, but he thought that maybe he could ask Grandpa Hu Shuo if he knew anything about these interesting stories.


    Li Shentan suddenly said curiously, ¡°But it looks to me like you¡¯re very skilled. It shouldn¡¯t be easy for someone as skilled as you to fall sick, or maybe even never. You said you practice corpse refinement to keep your dead rtives around. But since you guys don¡¯t fall sick, how would you have any rtives who passed away from sickness?¡±


    Lian Yi did not tell him to shut up this time but replied coldly, ¡°Do you think we wish to see our rtives dying from illnesses? There¡¯s only a few hundred people in our tribe who can practice corpse refinement. The rest are just normal people. I only encountered y¡¯all this time because I was out gathering medicinal herbs. Many of our tribespeople be sick during the seasonal transition from winter to spring. No matter how hard we try to look after them, they aren¡¯t able to recover fully. It makes us really worried as well.¡±


    ¡°What kinds of illnesses?¡± Li Shentan asked.


    ¡°Currently, we have more than twenty vigers suffering from sore throats and fevers,¡± Lian Yi said.


    Li Shentan was stunned. ¡°Isn¡¯t that just a simple fever? It might be caused by viruses, mycosma, germs, or fungal infections. They should recover after taking some antibiotics. Even if antibiotics aren¡¯t avable in your tribe, you guys should definitely have developed some folk remedies for treating illnesses since you¡¯ve survived for this long.¡±


    ¡°We migrated here from other ces. As we couldn¡¯t find the herbs used to treat the illnesses here, we could only test out the different herbs that we find here to see which works.¡± Lian Yi said, ¡°But after so long, we still haven¡¯t found any suitable herbs to treat them with. In fact, some of our tribespeople even died after consuming poisonous nts.¡±


    Li Shentan suddenly felt that this might be the opportunity for him to coerce the Lian tribe into joining the Prosperous Northwest!

 Chapter 1039 - May you bear a child soon

    <h4>Chapter 1039: May you bear a child soon</h4>


    ¡°Have you ever considered that even though you can turn your fellow tribespeople into copper corpses after they pass away from their illnesses and keep them around tomemorate them, they¡¯re actually still dead?¡± Li Shentan asked. ¡°So wouldn¡¯t it be better to treat them medically with scientific methods while they¡¯re still alive? I know of a ce that has a pretty good standard of medical treatment. It¡¯s called the Northwest¡­.¡±


    Lian Yi red at him. ¡°Our Lian tribe will not leave Xiuzhuzhou. Even if weck medical care here at Xiuzhuzhou, it¡¯s still better than leaving to suffer the hardship of war.¡±


    When Li Shentan heard that, he knew he could not just use a simple ploy to lure her to the Prosperous Northwest.


    From the looks of it, the Lian tribe was quite determined to avoid the rest of society.


    However, he was still a little curious. ¡°By the way, you just said you went to gather herbs. Have you found some medicinal herbs to treat the illnesses?¡±


    Lian Yi answered, ¡°It¡¯s not enough to make them recover fully just yet, but it can help ease their suffering. This medicinal herb is also quite miraculous. It can help ease their pain quickly when applied on external wounds, but they¡¯ll be quite immobile after the application.¡±


    Li Shentan thought to himself, ¡®<i>Isn¡¯t that just an anesthetic?</i>¡®


    So it appeared the Lian tribe¡¯s way of treating a fever was just to use anesthesia? By numbing the patients, they would not feel pain anymore, and that was equivalent to curing their illnesses?


    Li Shentan pondered this for a long time and realized he could not fault the logic of such a method!


    The vige stronghold of the Lian tribe was located ten kilometers south of the underground parking garage. From the outside, it did not look like there was anything special about the small stronghold. However, it looked quite unique and refreshing as it was situated amid lush greenery.


    Most of the households in the vige were two-story buildings constructed out of trees. Some of the windows were open, and colorful floral gands hung on the window handles. It looked like the flowers had just been freshly plucked.


    Curious, Si Liren asked, ¡°Why are there gands hanging on some of the windows but not the others?¡±


    Lian Yi answered, ¡°The houses with the gands identify the women who are open to walking marriages.¡±


    Walking marriage was probably a very unfamiliar term to the Central ins people.[1]


    Over here, only the women were allowed to live on the second floor of their houses. Once they opened their windows and hung out the gands, it signified men could climb in through the windows in the middle of the night to consummate the marriage. If the gands on the windows were no longer there and got reced by a hat instead, it would mean the woman in the house had already chosen her partner, and no one should disturb them.


    In the vige, the women called their male lovers ¡°ah¡¯zhu,¡± while the men called their female lovers ¡°ah¡¯xia.¡±


    When the men went to their ah¡¯xias¡¯ homes to spend the night, they would have to leave before dawn the next day. Otherwise, it would be considered very rude.


    This was why there was a very strange phenomenon going on in the vige. During the day, all the men would be cooped up at home, and it was possible that seven brothers could be cooped up together until they headed out to find their ah¡¯xias at night.


    If one of the seven brothers had not found their ah¡¯xia yet, he would be the only one left at home during the night. This would put them in an exceedingly miserable state.


    A grand bonfire party was held every night in the vige to create opportunities for the tribespeople to find their ah¡¯xias and ah¡¯zhus.


    As a result, it was very joyous in the vige every single day¡­ that was, if no one was sick.


    In this vige, the men did not have to do any work. A lot of people thought that in a matriarchal society like this, the women could enjoy everything like a queen bee. But actually, the women here were very hardworking. They were very capable and used their copper and silver corpses to provide themselves with freebor.


    Many people would probably have the same thoughts as Li Shentan if they heard about the Lian tribe¡¯s corpse refinement practice. They would probably assume the copper and silver corpses were definitely used for killing people like how such things were described in tall tales.


    But in fact, the copper and silver corpses of the Lian tribe were mostly used only to farm.


    In the vige, other than the gold corpses, the rest of the corpses were basically just tools forbor.


    Li Shentan looked at the short and fat copper corpse not far away and suddenly felt that it was getting cuter.


    Back at the teahouse in Luoyang City, he had heard stories about corpse refinement. However, those stories were all rted to fighting and killing. He did not expect that when he came into actual contact with corpse refinement, this term would suddenly be so down to earth.


    When Lian Yi and the others escorted Li Shentan back, many people from the vige came to watch and asked what was going on.


    When everyone found out that Lian Yi had finally found her ah¡¯zhu, they gave her their most sincere blessings.


    ¡°Hey, wait a minute,¡± Li Shentan said to the crowd, ¡°why are you all making it sound like we¡¯re already married? You don¡¯t have to give your blessings so early. Surely there¡¯s still some leeway regarding this matter, right?¡±


    These words were like a dying patient telling their doctor they could still be saved.


    But the crowd ignored him and continued giving their blessings to Lian Yi.


    Under normal circumstances, women from the Central ins would definitely be very shy in this situation. However, Lian Yi did not feel that way. She epted all of their blessings calmly and promised she would definitely bear a child soon.


    These words dumbfounded Li Shentan!


    What did she mean by they were going to have children soon?!


    Just who was the lunatic here? Why did it feel like the woman was much crazier than him? Li Shentan felt offended.


    When everyone escorted Li Shentan to Lian Yi¡¯s ce, he realized she lived in thergest house in the entire vige. In the middle of the house was a firece built out of stone. The fire within was burning brightly.


    To the Lian tribe of Xiuzhuzhou, the tribal leader¡¯s firece symbolized the prosperity of the entire Lian tribe. It must not be extinguished, or it would mean the tribe would suffer a great cmity.


    When Lian Yi reached home, she said coldly to Li Shentan in front of everyone, ¡°You¡¯re my first ah¡¯zhu and will also be myst, so this is your honor. Why do you look so unhappy? If I didn¡¯t think that you were handsome, I wouldn¡¯t have gone through all that trouble.¡±


    Lian Yi¡¯s vision allowed her to see in the darkness, so Li Shentan¡¯s dashing appearance in his tuxedo in the underground parking garage charmed her.


    The women of the Lian tribe were straightforward and direct. If Lian Yi said she wanted him to be her consort, he would have to be her consort.


    Off to the side, a middle-aged woman from the Lian tribe said, ¡°Chief, I think this person is a little fierce. You have to be more careful than usual. Watch over him more often and discipline him more than normal.¡±


    Li Shentan looked at her in a speechless manner. ¡®<i>Why are there so many ¡°mores¡±? Just how worried are you, really?</i>¡®


    But Lian Yi shook her head and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already refined the Scarlet Gu and can use it on him.¡±


    When the womenfolk of the Lian tribe heard this, they were relieved. ¡°Chief is still the best. You even managed to refine the Scarlet Gu.¡±


    With that, Lian Yi took out a small cinnabar box from her house. Li Shentan asked frostrily, ¡°Whaddafuck?¡±


    Lian Yi was stunned. After thinking for a long time, she replied, ¡°Wannafuck? Yes.¡±


    Li Shentan was surprised. ¡®<i>Lady! Should you be talking like this in front of all these people? More importantly, that¡¯s not what I was asking!</i>?<i>What I wanna know is, what is this Scarlet Gu used for?!</i>¡®


    [1] In a walking marriage, both partners live under the roof of their respective extended families during the day; however, at night it ismon for the man to visit and stay at the women¡¯s house (if given permission) until sunrise. |

 Chapter 1040 - Scarlet Gu

    <h4>Chapter 1040: Scarlet Gu</h4>


    ¡°What is this Scarlet Gu?¡± Li Shentan asked after calming himself down.


    If the Scarlet Gu were some kind of venomous worm Lian Yi intended to use on him, it would prove she was a bad person.


    And if she were a bad person, he could hypnotize her without feeling guilty, right?


    The women thought he could no longer put up a resistance after being apprehended, but the problem was that the Demon Whisperer¡¯s hypnotism was not something normal people could understand. With just a few words, he could hypnotize everyone here!


    Lian Yi looked at Li Shentan and said, ¡°Since we¡¯re going to live together in the future, I might as well tell you. The Scarlet Gu is a secret skill that our tribe does not impart to others. The Scarlet Gu is as small as a needle. If it flies up next to you on a normal day, you might not even notice it. After you refine the Scarlet Gu, you can make it suck your blood and let it parasitize your target¡¯s body. Then the target will fall head over heels with the person controlling the Scarlet Gu and won¡¯t abandon her.¡±


    Li Shentan was stunned. The mostplicated thing in the world was probably emotion, so how could someone possibly manipte the emotions of others with just a tiny worm?


    Moreover, it did not seem like this thing was considered harmful. This woman could not truly be defined as a bad person if she only wanted to use the?<i>gu</i>?worm to gain his affection.


    What was the definition of a bad person in Li Shentan¡¯s eyes? Someone who did things to hurt others.


    But what Lian Yi wanted to do was probably what a lot of men would consider bliss.


    What should he do? Although he still felt he could not use hypnotism on her, he really did not want to be the target of her?<i>gu</i>?poison.


    He turned his gaze to Little Liren and realized she was looking excitedly at the cinnabar box in Lian Yi¡¯s hands. It was as though she could not wait to see him get imnted with the?<i>gu</i>?worm!


    Lian Yi told Li Shentan, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry that it¡¯ll harm your health. Once it drinks my blood and parasitizes your body, not only will it make you healthier and stronger, it will also give you the ability to refine corpses. At that time, you and I will be on equal footing, and we can govern the vige stronghold here in Xiuzhuzhou together.¡±


    Li Shentan had a strange expression on his face. It was as though Lian Yi was saying to him, ¡°Look, Xiuzhuzhou is thend I¡¯ve conquered for you.¡±


    Scarlet Gu had an extremely special ce in the Lian tribe. It helped maintain the rtionship between two people, making sure they would never abandon one another. Under normal circumstances, the matriarch¡¯s ah¡¯zhu was no different from a normal man whomanded no social standing in the vige. But after the matriarch used the Scarlet Gu on him, he would be a respected person.


    The logic behind this was that men who did not have the Scarlet Gu imnted in them were still unreliable and untrustworthy. But men who had the Scarlet Gu were good people and could enjoy the same high status as women.


    Speaking of which, this was one of the unique customs of the Lian tribe.


    But as a result of this, Li Shentan was even more unwilling to use hypnotism. Not only was Lian Yi about to gift him her tribe, she was even going to present him the entire vige stronghold. Where else could he find such a good person in the world? If he were to use hypnosis on someone like that, wouldn¡¯t he be the enemy of good? The opposite of good was evil!


    However, he really did not want to be imnted with the?<i>gu</i>?worm!


    Li Shentan slowly calmed down and said to Lian Yi, ¡°I don¡¯t believe it! I don¡¯t believe that your Scarlet Gu is that magical!¡±


    Lian Yi got angry. ¡°Why don¡¯t you believe me?!¡±


    ¡°Who in the world dares to proim they can control the emotions of people?¡±


    ¡°Scarlet Gu can do that!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe it!¡±


    Lian Yi was so angry she wanted to hit someone. ¡°Then I¡¯ll show you.¡±


    With that, Lian Yi drew a dagger from her belt and pointed it at Li Shentan. ¡°Put your hand out for me. I¡¯ll let the Scarlet Gu drink your blood and parasitize me. I¡¯ll show you the Scarlet Gu really works! You¡¯ll see if my feelings for you are genuine!¡±


    Li Shentan stretched out his hand. ¡°Sure!¡±


    But Lian Yi startedughing strangely. ¡°Do you really think I¡¯m that stupid? Pin him down.¡±


    Li Shentan said helplessly, ¡°Wait a minute, let¡¯s talk nicely.¡±


    If this were any other ce, Li Shentan would not have felt so helpless. If he had encountered bad people, he would just kill them. How could it have possibly be so troublesome?


    But it just so happened that this strange tribe in Xiuzhuzhou was actually intent on giving him control of the vige stronghold even though they looked extremely ferocious.


    How nonsensical!


    Li Shentan calmed down and said, ¡°It¡¯s like this: I know a way to treat your people. Why don¡¯t we leave the matters between us forter? Can you let me treat their illnesses first? As the tribal chief, you can¡¯t possibly disregard the lives of your own people, right?¡±


    Lian Yi was stunned. ¡°You have a way to treat them? Don¡¯t lie to me. If you don¡¯t have any idea of how to do it, just hurry up and submit to me. We¡¯ll hold the wedding celebration tonight to help our sick vigers get better soon.¡±[1]


    Li Shentan nearly broke down. He was a legendary superhuman from the Central ins, the Demon Whisperer, who could make people nch at the mention of him, as well as a child whisperer. How did he end up having to get married to help the sick recover?!


    Why was everything that happened since they arrived in Xiuzhuzhou so abnormal?!


    ¡°If I say they can be cured, they¡¯ll definitely be cured.¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°Can you have these copper and silver corpses release me first? It will only take a moment for you to understand.¡±


    After some thought, she summoned her gold corpse to stand guard next to Li Shentan in case he tried some trick. Only then did she have the rest of the corpses free him.


    Li Shentan looked at the gold corpse and saw it was actually a benevolent-looking old man. Other than his golden skin tone, there was nothing unusual about him.


    He took out a satellite phone from his backpack and dialed Hu Shuo¡¯s number and put the call on speaker. ¡°Grandpa!¡±


    Hu Shuo was clearly a little surprised. ¡°How rare of you to call me. Did something happen?¡±


    Li Shentan took a deep breath and said, ¡°I have been abducted to the south of Xiuzhuzhou to get married. They even said I¡¯ll have to father some children soon¡­.¡±


    Hu Shuo chuckled. ¡°That¡¯s good.¡±


    Li Shentan grew annoyed. He was fine with Little Liren not wanting to help him, but why was his grandpa also cheering for his abductors?


    All of a sudden, Lian Yi said in a rion voice, ¡°Grandpa.¡±


    Li Shentan looked at Lian Yi in shock. ¡®<i>Who the hell are you calling Grandpa?!</i>¡®


    However, Hu Shuo did not mind at all. Instead, heughed out loud on the phone and said, ¡°Hello! I still have some matters to attend to in the Central ins. After I¡¯m done, I¡¯ll go and visit you all. I can help take care of your children¡ª¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s talk about why I¡¯m calling you first,¡± Li Shentan interrupted. ¡°It¡¯s like this: There¡¯s more than 20 people in this vige suffering from headaches and fever. Grandpa, can you send over some medicine, antibiotics, or something to treat their inmmation?¡±


    Hu Shuo thought for a moment and said, ¡°That won¡¯t be a problem. The Wang Consortium has been very strict with their drug controls recently, but I should be able to get my hands on some.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Next to them, Lian Yi shook her head and said, ¡°Grandpa, you cane, but we won¡¯t allow other outsiders to visit Xiuzhuzhou as they please. You can¡¯t reveal the location of our vige to them.¡±


    Li Shentan looked at Lian Yi helplessly. ¡°Is the location of the vige more important than the lives of over 20 of your tribespeople?¡±


    Lian Yi pursed her lips and did not say anything. She seemed to be in a dilemma as well.


    The people of the Lian tribe had been living in Xiuzhuzhou for over 200 years. This ce was a utopia, and they really did not want it to be disturbed by outsiders.


    It was OK if someone had gotten lost and wandered in, but how could they let more people know about this location?


    Li Shentan sighed and said, ¡°Grandpa, is there any way to make the antibiotics ourselves?¡±


    Hu Shuo thought for a moment on the other end of the line and suddenly replied, ¡°You guys definitely can¡¯t make antibiotics like penicillin, tetracycline, and so on. However, there¡¯s an antibiotic you can really produce. Allicin! This antibiotic is mostly used in agriculture in the Central ins. Since we can¡¯t send any medicine in, that¡¯s really the best option you have for now.¡±


    [1] In some cultures, if an elderly rtive is ill, young couples move up the wedding date in the belief that it might help their recovery¡ªa practice called ³åϲ(ch¨­ngx¨«).

 Chapter 1041 - Gossiping

    <h4>Chapter 1041: Gossiping</h4>


    There were many types of antibiotics, such as penicillin, tetracycline, and erythromycin. With the conditions in Xiuzhuzhou, it was impossible to make them.


    Or to be precise, they could be produced but not purified.


    Using penicillin as an example, there was arge amount of harmful substances in the mold culture. Using it without purification was no different from suicide.


    Moreover, the output of mold culture that did not go through industrial selection was devastatingly low.


    However, it was different for allicin. Garlic cloves yield about 2.5 milligrams of allicin per gram of raw weight, and the harmful substances were much fewer as well, so the extraction of allicin could be done in Xiuzhuzhou.


    Hu Shuo was a professional spy who was also extremely well-versed in physics and chemistry. One could figure that out from the lessons he taught to the children of Luoyang City¡¯s orphanage.


    Therefore, Hu Shuo felt that extracting allicin was a more reliable option after giving it some thought.


    Although thepound was mainly used for agriculture in the Central ins and was considered a rtively basic antibiotic, it had strong antibacterial and anti-inmmatory effects. It could suppress or kill many types of bacterial, viral, and fungal infections, among other things. This was a benefit that could not be ignored.


    It was also one of the few antibiotics that worked on fungal infections.


    After all, in a ce like Xiuzhuzhou where anesthetics were used as a first-line treatment against illnesses, there was no better option than allicin.


    Li Shentan asked over the phone for instructions on how to extract the allicin before hanging up.


    He said to Lian Yi, ¡°You heard it too. This is a very well-founded treatment method. If you want your people to survive, get them to work with me to extract the allicin. After your people recover, we can discuss the matter of me bing chief consort.¡±


    Lian Yi thought carefully for a moment and suddenly said, ¡°We can extract the allicin while nning for you to be my consort. There doesn¡¯t seem to be any conflict between the two events. I¡¯ll sleep with you at night while you extract the allicin during the day. There¡¯s no interference at all.¡±


    Li Shentan was shocked. ¡°You make so much sense that I can¡¯t contradict you!¡±


    For some reason, Li Shentan felt a little helpless when facing Lian Yi.


    In the past, it was always him giving others a headache because he never did things logically. But now, it was his turn to get a headache over someone else¡¯s behavior.


    Thinking of this¡­ Li Shentan actually found it quite interesting!


    However, he could not just submit to her like that. How could the dignified Demon Whisperer serve as some superstitious tool to drive away the illness guing the vige?!


    Li Shentan said in seriousness, ¡°Let¡¯s cure the sick first!¡±


    Lian Yi hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Alright then.¡±


    The woman¡¯s tone still sounded a little indignant. But because she really wanted her tribespeople to get better soon, she temporarily shelved her ns.


    The process of extracting allicin was rtively simple. Lian Yi ordered the tribespeople to work with Li Shentan to collect all the garlic cloves from the vige households before collecting wine from them as well.


    In normal times, very few people in Xiuzhuzhou¡¯s Lian tribe were required to do menial work. Basically, all theborious jobs were left to the copper and silver corpses toplete. So the people in the vige¡¯s households just distilled wine every day before heading out for the bonfire party at night to search for their ah¡¯zhus and ah¡¯xias.


    To be honest, this kind of life was really quitefortable. It was no wonder Lian Yi and her tribespeople did not want the rest of the world to find out about their utopia.


    With the wine and garlic cloves collected, the basic items for extracting allicin were fulfilled.


    Li Shentan told the people of the Lian tribe, ¡°Hey¡­ sort the garlic cloves that were collected from the households first. Remember, we don¡¯t want any rotten ones and those infested by pests!¡±


    The Lian tribe¡¯s vigers looked at one another and wondered why the chief¡¯s ah¡¯zhu was suddenly ordering them to work.


    The social standing of men in this vige was extremely low, so nobody listened to Li Shentan. Instead, they turned their attention to Lian Yi.


    Lian Yi thought for a moment and said, ¡°He¡¯s going to be my consort, and I¡¯ll be using the Scarlet Gu on him in a few days. Y¡¯all can rest easy and follow his ns.¡±


    When everyone heard that even the Scarlet Gu would soon be used, they cast aside any worries they had. ¡®<i>Alright, this man is dependable.</i>¡®


    The status of men who were imnted with the Scarlet Gu was definitely different from that of normal men. In an instant, everyone squatted down and started peeling the garlic cloves. They carried out their tasks really diligently!


    However, Li Shentan was a little upset. As the dignified Demon Whisperer, he actually had to use his status as the ¡°chief consort¡± to make these people peel the garlic without doubts!


    What the hell?! He was clearly doing this to save the Lian tribe¡¯s vigers!


    Li Shentan looked at Lian Yi angrily. ¡°You have to understand! I¡¯m only doing this to save your people. It¡¯s not my duty!¡±


    Lian Yi corrected him seriously, ¡°Our people.¡±


    ¡°¡­ Wow!¡±


    When it came to having a mental illness, Li Shentan finally admitted he might not be the most deranged person anymore. He had encountered someone even more unpredictable than him.


    The men of the Lian tribe did not work. So it was a group of young women and middle-aged women squatting in front of Li Shentan who were diligently peeling the garlic while the men watched.


    While the women were peeling the garlic, their mouths did not stay idle. They muttered, ¡°The ah¡¯zhu that Chief found is so fair-skinned and pretty, but his hair is all white. I wonder if he¡¯s not healthy.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a possibility. Should we dissuade Chief? She should not consider a man whose body is weak¡­¡±


    When Li Shentan heard that, he thought to himself, ¡®<i>Can you all keep your voices down? Hmm? Do you all think the Demon Whisperer does not care about his reputation?!</i>¡®


    Furthermore, his white hair had turned white from stress due to the excessive sorrow he experienced when he was young. How did that have anything to do with his health?


    And that auntie, why did you secretly take a few bites of the garlic while peeling them? Don¡¯t you find it biting?!


    Li Shentan felt he was always getting irate ever since he came to Xiuzhuzhou. He was constantly getting angry at every little thing!


    Next to him, Lian Yi asked, ¡°What¡¯s next after peeling the garlic?¡±


    Li Shentan said helplessly, ¡°Mash them into a paste first, then have the tribespeople use arge cauldron to cook it over a weak me until it dries. After that, grind the paste into powder.¡±


    With that, Lian Yi prepared the cauldron with her tribespeople. Soon after, a small fire was lit under it.


    After they poured the garlic paste into the cauldron, Li Shentan instructed, ¡°It¡¯ll take eight hours to fully dry the garlic paste. Remember, the fire can¡¯t be too strong, so you have to flip the garlic paste over every hour.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Lian Yi squatted down next to the cauldron and stared at the me.


    The group of women did not have anything else to do, so they also squatted down next to therge cauldron and started chatting softly. It was a fine spectacle.


    The chatter of discussions came from them. ¡°Then does that mean that Chief¡¯s ah¡¯zhu can start refining corpses after he¡¯s imnted with the Scarlet Gu? We have another gold corpse in the vige. Not just anyone is qualified to use it, and I wonder if the elder will recognize this outsider as well.¡±


    ¡°I guess it should work. I heard from Ah Hua that Chief¡¯s ah¡¯zhu is quite powerful. He was even able to subdue her.¡±


    When Li Shentan heard this, he thought to himself, ¡®<i>There¡¯s still some smart people around. Your tribal chief is not my equal!</i>¡®


    However, someone immediately retorted, ¡°Chief did not have her gold corpse with her at that time. Otherwise, that gigolo would definitely not have defeated her.¡±


    When Li Shentan heard that, he wanted to flip the cauldron over on them.

 Chapter 1042 - Laid-back

    <h4>Chapter 1042: Laid-back</h4>


    Li Shentan decided not to listen to the women gossiping anymore. Instead, he sat a ways away and rested his chin on his hands while waiting eagerly for the garlic paste in the cauldron to dry.


    Initially, he thought he would not have to do any work himself. But by the evening, the situation had changed.


    Due to the drying of the garlic paste, the bonfire party tonight was canceled.


    When the women saw it had turned dark, they started bidding farewell to Lian Yi one by one. ¡°Chief, I have to go home and wait for my ah¡¯zhu to jump in through the window¡­¡±


    ¡°Chief, I just saw my ah¡¯zhu entering through the window. He¡¯s waiting for me right now.¡±


    After a while, all of the women left to go back to have their happy time with their ah¡¯zhus. Only Lian Yi, Li Shentan, and Little Liren were left.


    When Little Liren saw that something was amiss, she excused herself by saying she wanted to go back to her room to sleep.


    When only Lian Yi and Li Shentan were left sitting next to the cauldron, Li Shentan could sense a green glowing from her eyes, a terrifying wolf gazing at him.


    Lian Yi¡¯srge eyes were blinking and staring intently at Li Shentan. She looked like she was about to carry Li Shentan into the house.


    ¡°Ahem, I¡¯ll go and flip the garlic paste in the cauldron.¡± Li Shentan got up and ran over to therge cauldron. He picked up the shovel and started stirring the paste inside.


    He kept wondering what was with this situation. He had been kind enough to help treat the vigers¡¯ illnesses, but the entire group of women who were working ended up heading off to have fun, leaving him, a legendary superhuman, to flip the garlic paste in the cauldron!


    Lian Yi¡¯s voice came from behind him. ¡°Are you that afraid of me? Do you know how many people in this vige want to be my ah¡¯zhu? But I don¡¯t fancy them.¡±


    Li Shentan did not even dare to turn around and answer her. All he wanted to do was flip the garlic paste.


    However, he heard Lian Yi say, ¡°The Scarlet Gu is very difficult to refine. The worm¡¯s body is as thin as a silver needle, so it¡¯s very difficult to find them. After finding one, I have to refine it for 49 days before I can sessfully refine it into a?<i>gu</i>?worm. During the 49 days of refinement, I have to take care of it every hour and feed it blood. In other words, I haven¡¯t had a good sleep for the past 49 days, all so that I could use it to find a lover.


    ¡°When I was young, my mother told me that if I met someone I like, I should open the window and let them in. If I didn¡¯t like them, I should just keep looking for someone else. But I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the proper way. It doesn¡¯t suit my style. I should continue liking the person I fancy, not keep cycling through them.


    ¡°But Mother said that I was too naive. All men are fickle, no exception. The sincerity that I¡¯ve put in will definitely be let down. Later, when I grew up, I realized that some of my older sisters¡¯ lovers became other people¡¯s lovers after just a few days. It was just as Mother had said. All men really are fickle.


    ¡°So I made up my mind to find the Scarlet Gu and use it to search for someone who¡¯ll be loyal to me.¡±


    Li Shentan listened quietly to the words and suddenly felt that Lian Yi was actually quite cute. At the very least, she was cuter than most of the people he had met before.


    Hypnotism was about making others surrender their subconsciousness. When Li Shentan first mastered this power bestowed by Heaven, he enjoyed hypnotizing the psychiatric hospital¡¯s guards and making them reveal their darkest thoughts.


    Such experiences really broadened Li Shentan¡¯s horizons. The dark thoughts he heard were all the darkest things that festered within the guards¡¯ minds.


    Later, he became a little disappointed in human nature and stopped ying those little games.


    In Li Shentan¡¯s opinion, the human heart was the most fragile thing in the world. It was precisely because he had seen too much darkness that he found it a little piercing when he saw the ray of light that Chen Wudi was. Li Shentan was touched by his warmth.


    So it turned out there were still people in the world who remained true to themselves and were always a bright light for others.


    Li Shentan had promised Ren Xiaosu that he would be a good person not only because he wanted to be friends with Ren Xiaosu but also because he really wanted Chen Wudi toe back.


    Right now, Li Shentan felt that Lian Yi¡¯s longing for love was very pure.


    Li Shentan suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of you, nor do I hate you. It¡¯s just that I still have some unfinished business to attend to, so I can¡¯t stay here.¡±


    ¡°Where are you going?¡± Lian Yi asked.


    ¡°The Prosperous Northwest,¡± Li Shentan said with a smile as he turned around.


    The me in the firece was burning in the house not far away. When the light shone out through the door and illuminated Li Shentan¡¯s body, his mid-length white hair swayed in the breeze. When he turned around and smiled at Lian Yi, she could not help but say, ¡°You look really handsome. Even without your strange ck outfit, you still look really handsome.¡±


    Sensing that it was a good opportunity, Li Shentan said with a smile, ¡°Why don¡¯t youe with me to the¡ª¡±


    Lian Yi interrupted him and said in a serious tone, ¡°But to prevent you from leaving, I have to find an opportunity to imnt the Scarlet Gu in you sooner rather thanter.¡±


    Li Shentan¡¯s expression immediately crumbled. ¡°You¡¯re ruining the moment!¡±


    ¡°When you be my ah¡¯zhu, the entire vige will be yours. After you learn how to refine corpses, there¡¯s still a gold corpse in the vige waiting for you to take control of it,¡± Lian Yi figured. ¡°At that time, all of Xiuzhuzhou will also belong to you. In any case, outsiders won¡¯t dare toe here due to the noxious night air.¡±


    ¡°Forget it, I¡¯ll just continue flipping the garlic paste.¡± Li Shentan sighed. ¡®<i>I only wanted us to join the Prosperous Northwest, but I didn¡¯t expect that you only want¡­</i>¡®


    After the garlic paste was dried, Lian Yi, who had been waiting, fell asleep on the ground. She was very quiet.


    Lian Yi was a little differentpared to the daytime. Awake, Lian Yi was full of vigor and exuded a unique energy. But asleep, Lian Yi was as quiet and obedient as a rabbit.


    Li Shentan stared at her for a while before ncing away. He started scraping off the dried garlic paste in the cauldron and transferring it onto the millstone to grind it into powder with the roller.


    He gave it some thought before eventually taking off his jacket and putting it over Lian Yi so she would not catch a cold.


    When dawn broke, the vige women came out to work again in high spirits. Li Shentan and Lian Yi acted as though nothing had happened and instructed everyone on how to distill the homebrew wine multiple times.


    The alcohol content of the homebrew wines in the vige was very low, with none of them undergoing a second distition. Therefore, they did not meet the requirements for soaking the garlic powder.


    ording to Hu Shuo¡¯s instructions, they had to turn the homebrew wine into a strong liquor first before pouring the garlic powder in and soaking it in a low concentration allicin solution.


    During the distition process, Li Shentan watched numbly as the older women could not help sneaking a few sips of the wine. Sip by sip, they ended up having too much to drink. And then, they dragged their ah¡¯zhus back to their houses in broad daylight.


    Li Shentan thought to himself, ¡®<i>What the hell is going on? The people in this vige are way tooid-back!</i>¡®


    But to be honest, it was not really their fault. The aroma of the wine that wafted out during the distition process was so enticing they wanted to have a taste of it.


    However, the women in the vige had never drunk such strong liquor before, so they got dizzy after a few sips.


    It was not only those women. Even Lian Yi could not resist the temptation of the liquor. After a few sips, she went into her house and fell asleep.


    Before entering the house, she even reminded Li Shentan not to run away and that the gold corpse elder was standing guard at the entrance of the vige. If he tried to run away, the old man would beat him up.


    When Li Shentan heard this, he nearly dropped the wine jug in his hand onto the ground.


    What the hell!

 Chapter 1043 - Secret legacies

    <h4>Chapter 1043: Secret legacies</h4>


    The vigers of the Lian tribe sobered up. When they walked out of their houses and saw Li Shentan, they all cast him a respectful look.


    Li Shentan thought that his hard work might have moved them.


    These people had gone off to enjoy themselves after drinking, so it was very tiring for him to be left alone to distill the liquor.


    Moreover, he was doing this to save the people of the Lian tribe, so this earth-shattering kindness would definitely have moved them.


    Li Shentan was overjoyed. After he gained some prestige here in the Lian tribe, he might really be able to bring everyone to join the Prosperous Northwest!


    Truly, being a sincerely good person would earn people¡¯s respect!


    But before Li Shentan could feel happy about it, he heard the women say softly, ¡°The ah¡¯zhu who Chief found is amazing. He can brew such a strong wine. You don¡¯t even know, but after my ah¡¯zhu drank it, he¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, the wine is wonderful!¡±


    Li Shentan stiffened. So it turned out these people were looking at him with respect because he had taught them how to brew strong liquor, not because he was trying to treat their sick.


    Why did it feel like there were not many normal people in the Lian tribe?


    Among the Lian tribe, he even felt he had be normal himself.


    He ordered the sober women to mix the dried garlic powder into the liquor. This way, they would get a low concentration allicin solution.


    A woman asked him, ¡°Can this really be used to treat illnesses?¡±


    Li Shentan said, ¡°Yes, the allicin in this wine has many strong biocidal effects, such as anti-inmmation, blood pressure and cholesterol lowering, etc. All we need to do next is to ce the solution through¡ª¡±


    Wait!


    Before Li Shentan could finish speaking, he saw a woman scoop up a bowl of wine from the vat and run away. He asked in surprise, ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    The woman said, ¡°I have an illness to treat!¡± The woman slipped off into the distance.


    Lian Yi walked out of her house and said, ¡°Her brother has been bedridden at home since he fell sick, so she probably can¡¯t wait to cure him.¡±


    Li Shentan said, ¡°But we still need to further extract the allicin from the wine.¡±


    ¡°The allicin can¡¯t be used to treat illnesses while mixed with the wine?¡± Lian Yi asked.


    Li Shentan thought for a moment and said, ¡°It can. Not only can it be used to treat illnesses, but it can also break down blood clots.¡±


    ¡°Then everything¡¯s fine!¡± Lian Yi said firmly, ¡°It so happens that this wine is delicious. It can be drunk and used to treat illnesses. That¡¯s perfect!¡±


    ¡°Hehe, do whatever you like.¡± Li Shentan smiled woodenly before rushing off to that woman¡¯s house.


    When he arrived, the woman had already poured the bowl of wine into her brother¡¯s mouth.


    She had not used a small bowl but arge one that was the size of a person¡¯s face. Li Shentan estimated that the wine the woman had just scooped out was probably at least half a liter.


    Her younger brother who had been bedridden for many days fell into aa after drinking the medicine. The woman got a little panicky. ¡°Chief, what¡¯s going on? My brother was still conscious before taking the medicine. Why did he suddenly fall unconscious after taking it? Could there be something wrong with the medicine?¡±


    Lian Yi turned her gaze to Li Shentan and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Li Shentan thought for a moment before answering, ¡°I¡¯m just taking a shot in the dark, but he might¡¯ve had too much to drink.¡±


    As he was not particrly sure that allicin that had not been extracted from wine was fit for human consumption, he went to a secluded spot and called Hu Shuo. ¡°Hello, Grandpa?¡±


    Hu Shuo asked excitedly, ¡°Has the baby been born?¡±


    ¡°What the hell?¡± Li Shentan was getting anxious. Why did it feel like he was the only normal person left in the world?


    ¡°Hahahaha, it was just a slip of the tongue,¡± Hu Shuo exined. ¡°That should take at least ten months. Where¡¯s mymon sense gone? What? Is something the matter? Has the allicin been extracted?¡±


    ¡°What I wanted to ask is: Will anything happen if the allicin is taken together with wine?¡± Li Shentan asked. ¡°I remember that antibiotics can¡¯t be consumed with alcohol.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re referring to cephalosporins, right?¡± Hu Shuo said. ¡°Indeed, that medicine can¡¯t be consumed with alcohol, and it can easily lead to someone going into shock and/or fainting. It¡¯s a ss of antibiotics that¡¯s obtained by culturing the acremonium fungus mold to extract cephalosporin C, which is the leadpound that gets synthesized into the antibiotic through partial side chain modification.¡±


    ¡°And what about allicin?¡± Li Shentan asked.


    ¡°Allicin¡¯s fine. When I¡¯m drinking and having cucumber sd, there¡¯s also garlic paste in the sd dressing. So don¡¯t worry. It won¡¯t kill anyone,¡± Hu Shuo replied.


    Li Shentan heaved a sigh of relief. It was fine as long as no one would die from taking the medicine. As for whether the allicin¡¯s dosage in the wine was enough to treat the illnesses, that was basically not within the consideration of the Lian tribe¡¯s people.


    ¡°By the way, Grandpa,¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°I realized the Lian tribe already had aplete supernatural system before The Cataclysm. They even had dealings with the founder of the Riders back then, which surprised me a lot.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing, really. There was already something legendary about a big shot like Ren He, the founder of the Riders.¡± Hu Shuo said, ¡°I¡¯ve also studied the Riders¡¯ heritage. It seems they can unlock their gic code bypleting a series of extreme challenges, such as free soloing or skydiving. But they don¡¯t have the conditions to do so anymore. The creatures in the sea have be too ferocious, so they can¡¯t surf. Birds have also be very territorial and frequently attack other flying creatures or objects in the sky. So they can¡¯t go skydiving either. You can say that this legacy has reached its end.¡±


    ¡°Are there any other simr secret legacies in this world?¡± Li Shentan asked. He had always been very interested in these things, and if he had the chance, he would also like to have a look at what exactly corpse and?<i>gu</i>?poison refinement in the Lian tribe was about.


    This time, Hu Shuo said without hesitation, ¡°There were still one or two such legacies in the Alliance of Strongholds. But the people from those two bloodlines haven¡¯t appeared in a long time, so they might¡¯ve died out during The Cataclysm.¡±


    ¡°What about outside the Alliance of Strongholds?¡± Li Shentan asked.


    ¡°They exist too.¡± Hu Shuo said firmly, ¡°They¡¯re the enemy that Fortress 178 has always been defending against.¡±


    ¡°What kind of enemy is that?¡± Li Shentan asked.


    ¡°They¡¯re a group of mysterious people who call themselves the Magi. Although they are very few in number, they rule the world outside of the Northwest. It seems they control an entire system of alchemy and magic. However, their rule is rtivelyx, unlike the Alliance of Strongholds, which is more authoritarian,¡± Hu Shuo answered.


    Li Shentan hung up. When he found out about this, he really wanted to see for himself what the so-called Magi was capable of.


    Three dayster, most of the Lian tribe members who had fallen sick miraculously recovered. Other than being drunk every day, they suffered no side effects.


    From this moment on, the way the Lian tribe¡¯s people looked at Li Shentan truly changed. When they met him outside, they would voluntarily greet him respectfully, which made Li Shentan very happy.


    Right now, the only thing that worried him was that Lian Yi would probably attempt to imnt the Scarlet Gu in him again.

 Chapter 1044 - The Prosperous Northwest 2.0

    <h4>Chapter 1044: The Prosperous Northwest 2.0</h4>


    While Li Shentan was trying his best to figure out a way to enfold the Lian tribe into the Prosperous Northwest, hundreds of red banners suddenly started appearing in Stronghold 144 in the Northwest.


    ¡°Hand over enough to the stronghold, and the rest is yours to keep!¡±


    ¡°An entire family can be well-fed as a result of one person¡¯s farming!¡±


    Such conspicuous banners appeared on the streets and in the alleys of the stronghold, the town outside the stronghold no exception.


    Not only were banners flown everywhere, but Wang Yuexi also organized several hundred employees from the administrative center to go out onto the streets to set up small tables at dozens of locations across the stronghold where human traffic was greater. The tables were all stacked with promotional pamphlets.


    With such a big to-do, it attracted the attention of countless residents and refugees. They came to have a look and asked how they could tender a plot ofnd for farming.


    The staff answered all their questions fluently and in detail to address their doubts.


    Before this, Wang Yuexi had put the administrative center¡¯s employees through a dozen days of training and requested they serve the residents with the sincerest attitude possible. Furthermore, no situations could arise where they might stumble over the people¡¯s queries.


    In truth, everyone was more enthusiastic than Ren Xiaosu andpany had expected.


    However, the problem was that the stronghold residents were used to livingfortably in the city. Who would be willing to abandon their homes and go out to work a farm?


    Although everyone was very enthusiastic in their inquiries, they just waved it off with a smile when they were told that they should farm. These people were purely busybodies who dyed the progress of the push into farming.


    Although some refugees also expressed interest, their numbers were far from being enough to reim all the wastnds in the Northwest.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu understood why the Wang Consortium would suddenly plot against the Kong Consortium and the Zhou Consortium to entice their refugees into joining them. It turned out that poption was very important to the development of a power.


    The contract responsibility policy was extremely attractive to the refugees. In the first week of the announcement, almost half of the refugees signed up for contracts to farmnd. However, these people were still not enough to reim the wastnds.


    Moreover, Wang Fugui came toin to Ren Xiaosu for the first time. As the president of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, it was only natural that he would speak out on behalf of the entire business sector.


    Wang Fugui sat in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s yard and said, ¡°Future Commander, first off, I understand that issues regarding farming in the Northwest is a red line no one should cross. After all, this is a matter that concerns the economic lifeline of the Northwest. But now that arge number of refugees have taken up agriculture, basic jobs such as loading and unloading of goods, packing, transportation logistics, etc., that our Northwest Chamber of Commerce depends on to operate have all started showing signs of manpower shortage. If this matter weren¡¯t serious, I would definitely not havee to you to discuss it. It¡¯s just that theck of manpower has seriously affected the normal functioning of trade operations. Some of the workers know weck manpower now, so they raised their asking rates by three times on the spot¡­. Of course, there¡¯s nothing wrong with that, but I hope Future Commander can think of a solution.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell into deep thought. Managing a stronghold was definitely not a matter that could easily be solved by getting into brawls like he did in the past. Previously, he just had to kill his enemies and that was it. It was a very simple solution.


    But now all of his decisions would affect the big picture.


    Commerce was also a very important industry in the Northwest now. Without the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, Stronghold 144 would not be as prosperous as it was, and neither would Stronghold 144 have such arge mary surplus.


    Therefore, the poption problem would definitely have to be resolved.


    Wang Yuexi¡¯s considerations were for the long term. When Ren Xiaosu first proposed the contract responsibility system, Wang Yuexi mentioned the poption problem and suggested that the stronghold roll out childbirth subsidies to the residents and reduce the cost of children¡¯s education.


    Ren Xiaosu agreed to Wang Yuexi¡¯s suggestions and had him implement the relevant policies as quickly as possible. But the problem was that no matter how hard they encouraged everyone to have children, they could not immediately give birth to a full-sized 18-year-old to do manualbor.


    It could only be said that this policy was really for the long term and would not solve the current issues they were facing.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not one to avoid problems. He did not discuss what countermeasures to take with Wang Fugui, Wang Yuexi, and the others. Instead, he directly approached the Great Hoodwinker to talk about the supporting ns for the Prosperous Northwest.


    If he went to look for Wang Yuexi and Wang Fugui, that would be toe up with a proper set of countermeasures and policies. But if he went to look for the Great Hoodwinker, it would be obvious that he wanted some unorthodox solutions.


    When the Great Hoodwinker arrived at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s courtyard house, he said politely with a smile, ¡°Future Commander, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu got straight to the point and asked, ¡°Where can we find tens of thousands of people who¡¯ll join the Prosperous Northwest?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was taken aback. ¡°That many?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker thought to himself that he had only tricked a handful of people to the Prosperous Northwest. But the futuremander was entirely different the moment he made his move. He was immediately talking about wanting to trick tens of thousands of people.


    From the look of things, the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s outlook was going to get upgraded. It was about to enter the 2.0 era!


    But the problem was, where could they get so many people from?


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the Great Hoodwinker looking troubled, he suddenly said, ¡°You¡¯ve been getting intel on the Central ins recently, right? How¡¯s the Zhou Consortium doing?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°The Pyro Company has already abandoned theirst stronghold and fled to thends bordering the steppe in the North. The Kong Consortium only has one stronghold left by the coast, but it looks like it¡¯ll be taken over by the Wang Consortium in less than a fortnight. Arge number of escapees have fled to the South, but the Zhou Consortium is also in chaos at this moment. Many of the factories have started going on strike, and the escapees and refugees don¡¯t really have anything to eat. It¡¯s a really tragic situation.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°Was this all because I killed the head of the Zhou Consortium? This is all my fault¡­.¡±


    ¡°Uh, although that¡¯s the direct cause, Future Commander, you shouldn¡¯t me yourself for it.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°After all, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s management is somewhat of a mess right now. So many people don¡¯t have enough to eat, yet they¡¯re still caught up in their civil strife without caring for themon folk, so it has to do with that too.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker felt that since Ren Xiaosu had killed the head of the Zhou Consortium, there was no need for him to me himself. Besides, the Zhou Consortium only had themselves to me for what happened.


    Honestly, the Great Hoodwinker believed Ren Xiaosu was bing kinder after taking over management of Stronghold 144 recently. He was a little worried Ren Xiaosu¡¯s character would swing to the other extreme.


    After all, the loyal could not dabble in business; the merciful could not control the military. A truly benevolent person might not be able to lead the Northwest to survive the chaotic world.


    When the Great Hoodwinker thought of this, he wanted to persuade his futuremander not to get too soft and to be willing to do anything to their enemies.


    However, Ren Xiaosu said with a look of pity, ¡°That won¡¯t do. It¡¯s a fact that I have some responsibility for those escapees and refugees who¡¯re suffering from discement and starvation. Look, I killed their leader and made them descend to such a pathetic state. In that case, aspensation, isn¡¯t it only right that I bring them to the Northwest and take care of them?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was stunned. ¡°Future Commander, your shamelessness is really in line with the core ideals of the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    ¡°Then it¡¯s decided.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The problem now is how to bring them to the Northwest!¡±

 Chapter 1045 - Future Commander is benevolent

    <h4>Chapter 1045: Future Commander is benevolent</h4>


    Honestly speaking, Ren Xiaosu felt a little ufortable discussing the policies of the Prosperous Northwest with Wang Yuexi and the others.


    It was not that he did not want the Northwest to prosper, nor was it that he did not understand what Wang Yuexi and the others were talking about. On the contrary, he knew quite a bit.


    But for some reason, he felt that it was a little difficult to execute his ns with decent people such as Wang Yuexi. He always felt that carrying out those ns in a proper and orderly way was not in line with his character.


    Now that he was conspiring with the Great Hoodwinker, he found that it matched his energy much better. This was what the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s n should be like!


    ¡°First of all, we have to bring those people back here.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°As you know, they¡¯re all starving in the Central ins. It¡¯s still not that bad right now since there¡¯s still bark they can chew on. But there¡¯s hundreds of thousands of escapees and refugees there. Who knows, there could already be more than a million of them. Even if there¡¯s bark and roots for them to survive on, it¡¯s not enough to keep so many people alive. When I think about how they¡¯re about to starve to death because of me, I get really sad!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker hurriedly said, ¡°Future Commander is benevolent. I didn¡¯t expect Future Commander to not only be skilled in literature andbat but also put the world¡¯s concerns before your own. I¡¯ve thought about it carefully. We definitely cannot let those people starve to death like this!¡±


    The two of them exchanged a look and grinned at each other.


    ¡°Moreover,¡± the Great Hoodwinker changed the subject, ¡°it¡¯s not only the escapees and refugees of the Zhou Consortium who can join the Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Who else is there?¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, have you forgotten what I said? Some of the Pyro Company¡¯s remnant troops have just fled north to the border of the steppe, and theirmander has been executed by the Wang Consortium. They¡¯re without a leader.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Those troops are very prideful and refuse to yield to anyone. No matter whose territory they end up in, whoever takes them in will have a headache on their hands. But in our Northwest, we have just the person who can convince the Pyro Company¡¯s members¡­.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was referring to P5092!


    As a matter of fact, during the battle at the northern front line of the Great Wall, P5092 gained the respect and admiration of most of the frontlinemanders and soldiers. It was just that the Pyro Company was so stubborn they insisted on holding them ountable for the loss.


    In the end, for the sake of the overall situation, P5092 took all the me and left by himself. This was not only an honorable act but also a great favor to themanders of the various Pyro Company divisions.


    If it were anyone else who was dispatched to bring the Pyro Company¡¯s remnants under control, those troops would likely maintain their pride and refuse to ept any form of subjugation even though they were already a defeated force. But if it were P5092 who went, it would be apletely different situation!


    Ren Xiaosu facepalmed. ¡°That¡¯s right! There¡¯s still so many Pyro Company soldiers who¡¯re starving in the North. If P5092 finds out about this, he¡¯ll probably feel sorry for them too. Those soldiers have bled for the Central ins, and I was even a little moved when they said that they were fighting to ensure that humanity in the Central ins could survive. Who could bear to let them starve? I¡¯ll have someone summon P5092 right away.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker looked at each other and grinned again.


    When P5092 arrived, Ren Xiaosu bluntly ordered, ¡°It¡¯s like this: I need you to make a trip to the north of the Central ins to gather your old troops andrades for the Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker added on about the current situation of those Pyro Company soldiers.


    Sure enough, P5092 revealed a look of worry after hearing that. Ren Xiaosu knew full well that even though the man had remained calm, he still cared quite a bit for his oldrades.


    However, P5092 wondered, ¡°But ording to the Great Hoodwinker, there¡¯s still over 10,000 Pyro Company soldiers remaining. How are they going to cross the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory toe to the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I have a handwritten letter here. Follow our Northwest¡¯s trade convoy to the steppe and hand the letter to the khan of the steppe when you get there. He¡¯ll arrange for cows and horses to transport the soldiers. You won¡¯t have to travel through the Central ins. You can just take a detour back to the Northwest via the steppe instead!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s eyes lit up. It was good that the futuremander had friends all over the world. If the average person wanted to lead more than 10,000 soldiers on a detour through the Northern ins, they would not only have to worry about their rations, they would also have to worry about getting attacked by the nomads of the Northern ins. But this was different. The young lord of the Northern ins was the futuremander¡¯s younger brother. Not only would no one attack them this time, but they would also even have cows and horses to transport them.


    When P5092 heard this, he gave a slight and serious bow to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Thank you, Future Commander, for remembering therades who fought alongside us on the Great Wall.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled kindly and said, ¡°Their act of protecting the Central ins moved me deeply, so how could I forget? Hurry up and go!¡±


    After P5092 left, the Great Hoodwinker figured, ¡°With that, the expansion of Stronghold 144¡¯s military will be solved. We¡¯ve already conscripted about 3,000 soldiers from the stronghold. When the Pyro Company¡¯s remnants arrive, the size of our army here will instantly reach 20,000. Moreover, the Pyro Company¡¯s troops are extremelybat effective. Their physical fitness is even higher than that of our elite troops. If they be part of Future Commander¡¯s faction, no one in the Northwest will be able topete with you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu politely waved it off. ¡°Ahem, keep a low profile.¡±


    While they were discussing the ¡°Prosperous Northwest 2.0¡± n, no one else heard it. At the beginning, Yang Xiaojin was listening in on the conversation. But when she saw their behavior, she rolled her eyes and went out to shop for groceries.


    The entire Northwest had expanded to a strength of 130,000 soldiers. Meanwhile, the 20,000-strong army that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group was about to form would obviously be the strongest force in the whole of the Northwest.


    As for the military budget, the tariffs collected in Stronghold 144 was enough to cover it. As for the food, they would just need to have Zhou Yingxue grow more potatoes, as well as purchase another batch of supplies from the Qing Consortium. As long as they couldst through the year, they could definitely keep up with the demand by the next year after reiming the wastnds.


    As for the armaments, the Great Hoodwinker said there was also no need to worry about that. As long as they formed an army, the fortressmander would equip them. Although the Northwestcked food, they did notck military equipment.


    Previously, the progress of the industrial and agricultural structures in the Northwest had be a little unbnced in order to survive the chaotic times. But now this imbnce was about to tilt back to normal.


    Right now, they needed to think about how to bring the escapees and refugees over at the Zhou Consortium back to the Northwest.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that the Zhou Consortium and the Wang Consortium will not sit back and watch us take their people away just like that.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°We know the importance of poption, and Wang Shengzhi knows that as well. To transport people from the Zhou Consortium to the Northwest, we¡¯ll have to pass through the Wang Consortium. Alternatively, we could travel through the mountainous regions. But the escapees definitely can¡¯t endure the hardships. Besides, how¡¯re we gonna convince them toe with us?¡±


    A lot of people tended to forget how good Wang Shengzhi was at strategizing because of the artificial intelligence¡¯s existence. He had yed the Zhou Consortium like a fiddle during the early years, and the strategy he employed at Stronghold 61 had also angered the Kong Consortium and the Zhou Consortium.


    How could such a great tactician behind the scenes possibly sit back and watch the Northwest poach people from the Zhou Consortium? After all, Wang Shengzhi already regarded the Zhou Consortium¡¯s resources as the Wang Consortium¡¯s own.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll personally make the trip to the Central ins!¡±

 Chapter 1046 - Abduction

    <h4>Chapter 1046: Abduction</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had no intention of fighting anyone on this trip to the Central ins, so he was not going to bring too many people with him.


    Moreover, the Central ins was now the territory of the Wang Consortium and the Zhou Consortium. For the Northwest to carry out the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s n there, it would be better to keep a low profile.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker was still worried and insisted on following him there.


    In the words of the Great Hoodwinker, he was in charge of the entire Northwest¡¯s field operations. With him around, the futuremander could obtain any intel immediately.


    Actually, everyone slowly realized that while the futuremander¡¯s rtionship with Wang Fugui ran deeper, it was the Great Hoodwinker who was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s second-inmand when it came to the political affairs of the Northwest.


    On one hand, the Great Hoodwinker was indeed very capable. For example, Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang, who had joined the Prosperous Northwest, were also recruited by him. He also carried out his intelligence gathering duties in a very dependable and orderly manner.


    On the other hand, this Great Hoodwinker was way too good at sucking up to others. Furthermore, he was old, yet he was totally shameless when it came to ttering the futuremander. He was way too good at cozying up to the powerful!


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu had a short meeting with Wang Yuexi. Wang Yuexi asked Ren Xiaosu why he was going to the Central ins at a time when the Northwest needed someone to take charge of the overall situation.


    Ren Xiaosu replied he was going there to solve the poption problem.


    Wang Yuexi was stunned by the answer. In his opinion, the poption problem could only be solved with time. Starting by encouraging the people to have children this year, there would naturally be a poption increase in 15 to 18 years.


    As for other ways to attract talent, it was not that they did not dare to think about it, but that it was truly impossible to achieve. The Wang Consortium stood firm between the Central ins and the Northwest, so the Northwest would not have any such opportunity.


    But when Wang Yuexi saw how rxed Ren Xiaosu looked, he realized he apparently already had a n.


    ¡­


    At this moment, arge number of escapees and refugees had congregated outside the various strongholds of the Zhou Consortium. Their numbers easily exceeded everyone¡¯s imagination.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker had also somewhat misunderstood the Zhou Consortium. In their opinion, it had to be the Zhou Consortium¡¯s inaction and internal strife that caused the escapees and refugees to starve.


    But in fact, it was not that the Zhou Consortium did not want to intervene but that they really could not!


    The Kong Consortium and the Pyro Company had a total of more than 40 strongholds in the North. Currently, they were almost half empty after everyone fled to the South. Some of the escapees had died along the way, but most still managed to reach the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory safely.


    Their numbers were definitely not something the Zhou Consortium could sustain.


    Before this, the Wang Consortium had reestablished Stronghold 61 to take in the refugees, causing many of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s factories to stop operating and their farnds to turn into wastnds. As such, the Zhou Consortium was now at a stage where they were unable to ept any more refugees. This made them care even less about whether the people lived or died.


    Sometimes, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s people wondered if the Wang Consortium had already thought of this oue when they announced that Stronghold 61 was epting refugees from the other strongholds.


    This was not to deify Wang Shengzhi¡¯s strategic foresight, but everyone had dealt with him for over a decade now. In the past, Wang Shengzhi had used seven years to n a silkworm breeding industry to lure arge number of refugees into the mountains to breed silkworms, and that left the consortiums around the Wang Consortium extremely disgusted.


    During that period, he also deployed food policies, business policies, and countless others policies to attract the inflow of refugees.


    On the surface, it looked like the Wang Consortium, the Kong Consortium, and the Zhou Consortium were the three most powerful forces in the Central ins. However, the Wang Consortium was actually the richest and most powerful organization in the Central ins. Otherwise, they could not have supported Wang Shengzhi¡¯s policy of conscripting everyone into military service.


    This was apletely different strategy from Qing Zhen¡¯s. Qing Zhen was better at preparing for rainy days in military affairs, while Wang Shengzhi was best atying ns that concerned livelihoods, industry, agriculture, andmerce.


    Although their personalities werepletely different, they were undoubtedly the most troublesome opponents one could have.


    Ren Xiaosu looked quietly at the refugees who had gathered outside of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 69. He had rushed over here excitedly to abduct some people back to the Northwest. But when he saw what they were going through, he could not bear to do it anymore.


    The refugees had set up their shacks outside the stronghold to shelter themselves from the elements. Every day, they would only receive a bowl of porridge from the Zhou Consortium. The porridge was so thin they could not see any rice grains.


    The trees surrounding the stronghold had all been stripped bare, and the bark was gone, leaving only the sight of white tree trunks behind. The leaves were also gone, and it was as though spring had never arrived. They looked like they were still stuck in the withering winter.


    Some of the refugees were lying in their shacks with numb expressions on their faces. Their children next to them were crying andining that they were hungry, but the adults were helpless. Everything that could be eaten in the vicinity had already been eaten up, and some of them had even died of poisoning after consuming the wrong stuff.


    This sight was hell on earth.


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°The Prosperous Northwest is their only way out of this misery!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker nodded solemnly.


    ¡°Actually, Wang Shengzhi could have stopped all of this from happening.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°ording to the intel that I received, he could have implemented a quick pacification policy so that the escapees would not have to flee to the South. But the fact was that he did not do so. Instead, he sat back and watched the escapeese to the South and destroy all of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s material foundations. The Zhou Consortium can¡¯t support so many people, and the civilians will soon turn into rioters. At that time, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops will have to spend a lot of resources just to protect their factories and farnd. In this way, by the time the Wang Consortium is ready to annex the South, the Zhou Consortium will already be riddled with weaknesses.¡±


    However, the Great Hoodwinker changed his opinion and said with a sigh, ¡°We¡¯re not in a position to me Wang Shengzhi either. The struggle between the consortiums is always a battle to the death. If it were the Northwest facing the Zong Consortium, we would also resort to any means to win.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Rather than ming Wang Shengzhi, why don¡¯t we quickly take everyone to the Prosperous Northwest? The steam lotive has a total of 1,196 seats, but if everyone is standing, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem to hold up to 5,000 people. Based on the speed of the steam lotive, we¡¯ll only need 23 hours to reach the Northwest.¡±


    The steam lotive! This was the reason why Ren Xiaosu wanted to personally make a trip to the Central ins.


    If it were anyone else, it would be impossible to take so many refugees away from under the Wang Consortium¡¯s noses. After all, they were still part of the Wang Consortium¡¯s ns.


    But Ren Xiaosu was different. He had the most efficient transportation tool in the era of the wastnds.


    When the Great Hoodwinker previously brought up the difficulties of abducting all these people, Ren Xiaosu had already decided on this n. After all, if even Wang Congyang could provide a delivery service, it was only natural that Ren Xiaosu could also run a transportation business.


    ¡°But how should we convince these people and make them trust us?¡± the Great Hoodwinker said disconstely. ¡°I¡¯m afraid they won¡¯t be willing to go with us that easily, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave an eerie smile. ¡°They¡¯re starving, so they¡¯ll definitely go with us as long as they¡¯re given something to eat.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu took out a potato as big as a ser ball from his storage space. ¡°We were supposed to arrive here yesterday, but I deliberately dyed our departure for a day so that Zhou Yingxue could prepare enough potatoes for me. With these in hand, are you still afraid that these starving people won¡¯t follow us?¡±

 Chapter 1047 - The Prosperous Northwest in progress

    <h4>Chapter 1047: The Prosperous Northwest in progress</h4>


    ¡°Future Commander, I heard from Commander Zhang that you used to live in town and led a very tough life?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked as he watched the refugees outside the stronghold.


    They did not directly distribute the potatoes to them and instead walked among the tens of thousands of them to observe their state of hunger.


    The refugees were emaciated skeletons. This meant their bodies had consumed all the glycogen in their bodies, and even their fat had almost been depleted.


    The stench in some of the makeshift shacks was overwhelming. No one knew when the people inside had died, and some people were even holding their stomachs in unbearable pain. It could be that they had either eaten something raw that damaged their stomachs, or their stomachs were already perforated.


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°When I was living in Stronghold 113¡¯s town, my life truly was very tough, but it wasn¡¯t bad to this extent. Because I¡¯d always lived in that environment, I learned from others how to find food so that I wouldn¡¯t starve to death. Meanwhile, some of these refugees were stronghold residents who¡¯ve just encountered a huge disaster and don¡¯t have any wilderness survival skills, so they might die before they can adapt to the environment.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker chuckled and said, ¡°Themander said that you suffered a lot during that time. He even said that he saw with his own eyes that you gave your younger brother the cornbread that you earned from mining and went outside your shack afterwards to secretly chew on tree roots so that your younger brother wouldn¡¯t see it.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he started reminiscing. At that time, he probably had not learned how to hunt yet and could only work in the coal mines with the adults. But as he was young and weak, the cornbread he earned from working was only enough to feed one person.


    However, he replied with a smile, ¡°Speaking of which, it was really tough then. But when I recall those memories, it somehow feels like one of the happiest times I¡¯ve experienced in the past decade.¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, do you know why Commander Zhang chose you to be his sessor?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked with a smile.


    ¡°Why?¡± Actually, this was something even Ren Xiaosu did not understand.


    ¡°Because he saw a lot of invaluable qualities in you that most people don¡¯t have.¡± The Great Hoodwinker did not go into detail, but it seemed the reason was connected to the period he lived in town.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw a child hiding in a shack who was staring at him and the Great Hoodwinker. He suddenly crouched down at the entrance of the shack and looked at the child through the gap in the curtain door.


    It was as though Ren Xiaosu was seeing the young Yan Liuyuan again. At that time, Little Liuyuan was still not lord of the steppe.


    Ren Xiaosu took out a few milk candies from his storage space and spread them out on his palm. The child was so timid he did not reach out to take them.


    ¡°Go ahead,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The child in the shack quickly grabbed the milk candies from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand but did not eat them. Instead, he hid them in his shirt pocket as though he wanted to share them with otherster.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the other shacks around him and said to the child, ¡°If you don¡¯t eat them now, someone wille and steal them from you immediately after I leave. Perhaps you¡¯ve already gained the courage to want to protect your things, but you don¡¯t have the ability to do that yet. So go on, eat them.¡±


    After the child heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words, he seemed to fall into deep thought. Then he peeled eight milk candies and stuffed them all into his mouth at once.


    Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°Smart kid.¡±


    Many of the refugees were looking at the Great Hoodwinker and him. They wanted to surround them and beg for something to eat, but they just cowered and did not go forward.


    Ren Xiaosu did not distribute the potatoes to these people. Instead, he started a campfire and threw a few potatoes in to roast.


    He and the Great Hoodwinker sat calmly at the campfire as more and more refugees gathered around them, gulping as they watched the campfire.


    Twenty minutester, Ren Xiaosu took out the potatoes from the campfire with his ck saber. He did not hide his identity as a superhuman. This made the refugees feel fear and reverence.


    ¡°I can see that y¡¯all¡¯re very hungry. Share these potatoes,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    The refugees immediately bounded forward.


    Although the potatoes were extremely hot, the refugees were unwilling to let go even when they got burned.


    There were probably several hundred refugees who had surrounded over, but there were only six to seven potatoes to go around, so it was not enough to share at all.


    When the first refugee broke open a potato, the aroma immediately spread through the entire crowd, and everyone went into a frenzy as they struggled to get some for themselves.


    Very quickly, all the potatoes had been grabbed. Many of the refugees¡¯ faces were bruised and swollen from fighting for a piece. They looked at Ren Xiaosu and seemingly asked him without speaking, ¡°Do you have any more?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at them in silence. He still had a lot of potatoes. For the sake of tricking people back to the Northwest, he had even filled half his storage space with potatoes.


    But Ren Xiaosu threw his hands up and said, ¡°That¡¯s all I have.¡±


    Everyone looked disappointed, but no one dared to question him. Suddenly, a man pushed through the crowd and walked out. He was even holding a pistol and pointing it at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You must have some more food on you. Hand it over. Not even a superhuman can stop bullets.¡±


    If this were any other time, normal people would not dare to threaten superhumans like this even if they owned a gun. But this man had gotten way too desperate from hunger.


    When the man saw that Ren Xiaosu did not budge, he raised his voice and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear what I said?! Empty your pockets and let me see what else is in them! Is there any hardtack or chocte? Candy¡¯s fine too. I saw you giving that child some milk candy just now!¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, the Great Hoodwinker, who was next to Ren Xiaosu, suddenly leaped up like a cheetah. The man could only see a blur as the pistol in his hand got snatched away by the Great Hoodwinker.


    The Great Hoodwinker spun the pistol in his hand and sat back down next to the campfire. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the gun in his hand stripped apart, and its parts scattered onto the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at it and saw there were no bullets in the pistol. It had probably already run out of ammo while the man was escaping here, and he was only carrying it around for show to scare others.


    Nearby, someone muttered, ¡°So he was already out of bullets. Let¡¯s see if he dares to steal from others in the future!¡±


    ¡°Damn, I¡¯d had enough of him the past few days. Since he doesn¡¯t have a gun anymore¡­¡±


    When the man saw the surrounding refugees mean mugging him, he turned around and ran out of the crowd. He did not dare to stay around any longer.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Are there any more bad people like him around here? I can help y¡¯all take revenge.¡±


    The Northwest definitelycked poption and abor force, but Ren Xiaosu did not have a good impression of those in a refugee group who bullied the weak and feared the strong. Such people were not fit to join the Prosperous Northwest, so he might as well clear them out now.


    A refugee replied, ¡°No, he¡¯s the only one around here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°That¡¯s good then.¡±


    One of the refugees whispered, ¡°Do you have any more potatoes? My child has been starving for three days, so please let him have a bite. You¡¯re clearly a good person. If it weren¡¯t for my child, I wouldn¡¯t ask you. Please¡­¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head ruthlessly. ¡°I really didn¡¯t bring any food with me, but I know where to find some. If y¡¯all want to eat and survive, you shoulde with me.¡±

 Chapter 1048 - Diplomacy before violence

    <h4>Chapter 1048: Diplomacy before violence</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu still had a lot of potatoes in his possession, but he did not let the refugees have them. It was not that he did not have anypassion but that he could only lead them to the Prosperous Northwest if they remained hungry.


    When was a person most irrational? Was it when they were experiencingplete starvation? No.


    Rather, it was when a person waspletely starving and realized they were about to have something to eat.


    Ren Xiaosu felt from the bottom of his heart that the Zhou Consortium did not care whether these people lived or died. The Wang Consortium also treated them as a weapon, and the Qing Consortium could not take them away either. Therefore, the only way for the refugees to survive was to head to the Prosperous Northwest.


    He would not let these people starve to death. Once the steam lotive arrived in the Northwest with them, Ren Xiaosu would immediately distribute potatoes for everyone to eat.


    At that time, not only would he have saved their lives, but he would also earn a lot of gratitude tokens.


    His gratitude tokens had already broken past the 8,000 mark, and he was only a step away from unlocking the third weapon. Ren Xiaosu felt that with his life-saving efforts this time, he could earn one gratitude token per refugee rescued at the minimum.


    Meanwhile, there were several hundred thousand refugees in the vicinity of the Zhou Consortium, so he should at least be able to lead a 100,000 of them to the Prosperous Northwest, right?


    With a 100,000 gratitude tokens, he might even be able to unlock the fourth weapon!


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu started looking at the refugees with a burning gaze.


    However, when the refugees heard they needed to follow Ren Xiaosu, they started hesitating. After all, this chaotic world was fraught with danger. Any normal person would instinctively consider if there were a plot behind Ren Xiaosu giving them the potatoes and offering to bring them elsewhere.


    ¡°Where do you want to take us? Is it far?¡± a young man asked hesitantly.


    Ren Xiaosu grinned. ¡°It¡¯s not far; it¡¯s at most a day¡¯s journey.¡±


    Everyone figured that if they could get there within a day, it should at most be 70 to 80 kilometers away, right? After all, they could not walk fast in their current condition.


    But what they did not know was that when Ren Xiaosu said they could get there within a day, he meant they would be traveling in the steam lotive. The Zhou Consortium was more than 2,000 kilometers away from Stronghold 144 in a straight line, so even traveling by steam lotive would take them 23 hours to get there.


    To be honest, it would be unrealistic to expect they could return to the Central ins by themselves after they were brought to the Northwest. It could even be said there was absolutely no turning back.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There¡¯s thousands of you here. Even if you want to leave midway, you can just return anytime. How can we stop everyone with just the two of us?¡±


    Now he needed to coax these people onto the steam lotive. When the steam lotive started moving at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour, Ren Xiaosu did not believe anyone would have the courage to jump off the train.


    If they really had the courage, they would not have stayed here and starved themselves to this state.


    The refugees looked at one another. They were still very worried that Ren Xiaosu was a human trafficker who would kidnap them to sell to bandits.


    Everyone was making wild guesses about his identity. In short, they felt that Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s motives were not honest.


    They were only refugees, not fools, so they wouldn¡¯t really follow someone to another ce just for a few potatoes. Who knew if any food would actually be at the ce where Ren Xiaosu was going to take them?


    A young woman holding a little girl¡¯s hand said, ¡°You chased away the bully for us just now. I believe you, so I¡¯ll go with you!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and nodded. Then he took out two more milk candies from his pocket and ced them into the little girl¡¯s hands. He said to all the refugees around him, ¡°Remember, although I¡¯ll be taking y¡¯all away from here this time, if there¡¯s any others among you who¡¯re up to no good, please let me know in advance so that I can get rid of them. Our utopia doesn¡¯t wee evil people, so let¡¯s avoid any bad apples.¡±


    Actually, this was a type of psychological hint. If Ren Xiaosu directly ced himself on the side opposing the viinous, most people would subconsciously think of him as good. They might evenbel him a ¡°knight¡± or something like that.


    Immediately, many people stepped forward. ¡°We¡¯ll go with you, but you have to keep your promise and give us food when we get there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll definitely get your fill when y¡¯all get there. If I don¡¯t keep my promise, all y¡¯all can beat me up together.¡±


    Before this, he discussed Zhou Yingxue¡¯s potato cultivation and the market economy with Wang Yuexi. Everyone felt it was not suitable to push for Zhou Yingxue¡¯s potato cultivation to be done on arge scale as it would affect the normal market mechanisms of the Northwest.


    However, the potatoes could be used for emergencies. For example, in a situation like this, it was definitely the best option to feed this many people with potatoes so they would join the Prosperous Northwest.


    As long as they could survive this year, the Northwest would only get more and more prosperous starting from the next.


    In just half an hour, almost half the refugees decided to go with Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu still felt it was not enough. His goal was to take away 80% of the refugees.


    But themotion over here was so massive that even the Zhou Consortium¡¯s garrison troops were alerted at this point.


    The Great Hoodwinker had been watching the surroundings all this while. When the garrison troops at the city gate started moving towards them, he whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°The Zhou Consortium¡¯s people areing over. What should we do? Kill them?¡±


    With their strength, it would not be a problem for them to deal with the 100-odd garrison troops.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Diplomacy before violence, please.¡±


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s garrison troops were already approaching them with loaded weapons. They looked at the crowd of refugees that had gathered and shouted, ¡°Disperse! All of you, disperse! Don¡¯t cause any trouble here!¡±


    The refugees immediately dispersed and returned to their makeshift shacks. They wanted to see how Ren Xiaosu would handle the situation. If the two of them could not even deal with the Zhou Consortium¡¯s people, talk of taking them away would just be pointless.


    However, the refugees realized Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker had remained seated at the campfire, motionless. It was as though they were not afraid of the soldiers at all.


    When the 100-odd garrison troops realized Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker were the instigators of this gathering, they immediately surrounded them. An officer stepped forward and said coldly, ¡°Are you refugees or spies? What¡¯s your purpose in gathering here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯m not a spy, nor am I a refugee. I¡¯m just a normal person from the Northwest. As for why I¡¯m here, I¡¯m afraid that you aren¡¯t qualified to talk to me at your level. Have Zhou Shiji or Zhou Shoushie out here.¡±


    The garrison officer was so angry heughed. ¡°Are you kidding?! Those two old bastards are dead!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a moment before metallic armor suddenly covered his right arm. Then he asked, ¡°Do you know how they died?¡±

 Chapter 1049 - Be back in two days

    <h4>Chapter 1049: Be back in two days</h4>


    How did Zhou Shiji die? Could the Zhou Consortium¡¯s soldiers possibly not know? Everyone in the Alliance of Strongholds knew how he had died, and it was at the hands of none other than the owner of the armor.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Looks like y¡¯all know who I am.¡±


    Abducting the refugees would surely cause a huge uproar. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu still had to make many more trips back here, so he felt he would have to reach some sort of consensus with the new head of the Zhou Consortium.


    If he could not reach a consensus with him, he would beat a consensus out of him.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu wanted to be this attention-seeking on purpose, but he knew the current situation. What did these refugees mean to the Zhou Consortium? In normal times, they were a poption that provided thebor force. But now they were a ticking time bomb that was a potential security risk.


    So while the Wang Consortium did not want to see the refugees join the Prosperous Northwest, the Zhou Consortium hoped enough of them would leave.


    Under such circumstances, the appearance of Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker was basically helping the Zhou Consortium solve their issues!


    On the surface, the Zhou Consortium would definitely not admit Ren Xiaosu was helping them. But privately, they had to be heaving a sigh of relief. Therefore, they would definitely not stand in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s way.


    As for the feud between the futuremander of the Northwest and the Zhou Consortium, it had blown over.


    After Zhou Shiji was assassinated by Ren Xiaosu, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s spokesperson often proimed they would retaliate against such behavior by the Northwest. But as time passed, the Zhou Consortium still did not take any action, because the Zhou Consortium was headed by someone who used to be constantly oppressed by Zhou Shiji.


    When the garrison officer mentioned Zhou Shiji and Zhou Shoushi, he addressed them as ¡°old bastards¡± without any respect at all.


    Superiors always set an example for their subordinates to follow. Whatever stance the higher-ups had, the subordinates would disy the corresponding attitude.


    Would they want the new head of the Zhou Consortium to avenge Zhou Shiji and take it up with the Northwest? No way!


    Moreover, the most critical problem was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ability to take the head of an enemy general who was protected by 10,000 soldiers. He was really that terrifying. The new head of the Zhou Consortium was willing to offend anyone but Ren Xiaosu.


    Otherwise, some lucky bastard would take over for him before he had even warmed the seat as the head of the Zhou Consortium yet.


    At this moment, the garrison troops at the campfire looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor. Although they did not recognize Ren Xiaosu, the armor was highly distinguishable. As such, everyone cocked their weapons and retreated a dozen steps back, but no one dared open fire.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m here to help the Zhou Consortium this time. Aren¡¯t y¡¯all annoyed over handling these refugees? I¡¯ll bring some of them back to the Northwest so that they won¡¯t starve to death and you don¡¯t have to be tied down by these security risks anymore. Wouldn¡¯t that be a win-win scenario? I think you definitely can¡¯t make the decision, so you¡¯d better report back to your superior.¡±


    That garrison officer was looking uncertain as he signaled to a soldier beside him to hurry back and inform their superiors about this.


    Soon after, Zhou Qingyang, the new head of the Zhou Consortium, received a call and learned that Ren Xiaosu wanted to take some refugees away. His subordinates were asking him how to handle this.


    After pondering it for a long time, he replied, ¡°Convey our thanks to the Northwest for extending a helping hand to our Zhou Consortium during this time of crisis.¡±


    This man was also a coward. Otherwise, he would not have been oppressed by Zhou Shiji for so many years. It could be said that no one was really capable enough to take charge of the Zhou Consortium after Zhou Shiji¡¯s death.


    After Zhou Qingyang hung up, the secretary in the official residence thought for a moment before saying, ¡°Sir, although the refugees are a burden to us now, poption is the foundation once we start rebuilding the Zhou Consortium. If we just let them take the refugees away like this, aren¡¯t we being too easily pushed around? We¡¯re importing grains from the South, so not all of these refugees will have to die from starvation.¡±


    Zhou Qingyang¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°Do I need you to teach me?¡±


    Even if Zhou Qingyang were stupid, he could still understand his secretary¡¯s point. But it was Ren Xiaosu they were facing. Surely they did not want to anger and provoke him into ughtering his way here again when it had only been a short while since Zhou Shiji¡¯s mourning period had passed, right?


    So what could he do? He was also very much in despair!


    Based on their strength, the Zhou Consortium did not actually have any reason to be afraid of superhumans. However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s antics at Stronghold 73 had really induced fear into them.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was not a lone wolf. The destructive power of the 12 Riders was extremely shocking as well.


    Zhou Qingyang softened his tone and said, ¡°Our current enemy is the Wang Consortium, so we shouldn¡¯t offend another strong opponent like the Northwest. You have to understand that no matter how important the poption is, we still have to survive this cmity first. Just let that Ren Xiaosu take the refugees away. They¡¯re only two people, so how many can they take with them?¡±


    The secretary thought about it and felt it made sense. After all, how many refugees could they take away with only the two of them?


    Thinking of this, the secretary felt more at ease. But Zhou Qingyang continued, ¡°Besides, won¡¯t they have to pass through the Wang Consortium with the refugees? How could the Wang Consortium agree to let them pass through so freely? Wang Shengzhi will definitely think of a way to intercept them. That way, won¡¯t the Wang Consortium and the Northwest be enemies?¡±


    The secretary started smiling. ¡°So you¡¯ve already thought everything out, Boss. I was much too shortsighted.¡±


    When Zhou Qingyang saw his secretary turning humble, he immediately felt much better.


    At this moment, the phone in the official residence rang again. Zhou Qingyang picked it right up and answered, ¡°How¡¯d things go?¡±


    ¡°Sir, Ren Xiaosu has left with the refugees,¡± the person on the line said.


    ¡°Mhm, how many people did he take with him?¡± Zhou Qingyang smiled and asked, ¡°Dozens? Hundreds?¡±


    ¡°6,000! Boss, they took 6,000 people away!¡±


    Zhou Qingyang was confused.


    Zhou Qingyang was shocked on the spot. Were they fucking professional human traffickers or what? How did they manage to take so many refugees at once?


    ¡°How did they leave?¡± Zhou Qingyang asked.


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu shouted ¡®Wang Congyang, summon the train,¡¯ and a steam lotive appeared out of thin air.¡± The person on the line said, ¡°The steam lotive didn¡¯t travel towards the Wang Consortium but headed straight into the wilderness.¡±


    ¡°The refugees left with him just like that?¡± Zhou Qingyang asked with a gulp.


    The person on the line said, ¡°After the refugees found out he was the futuremander of the Northwest, all of them wanted to leave with him. If not for the fact that the train was full, I¡¯m afraid he would¡¯ve taken all of them away.¡±


    If everyone there were taken away, it would be close to a 100,000 people.


    News of the Northwest¡¯s futuremander avenging Jiang Xu had spread everywhere. A lot of people admired Ren Xiaosu¡¯s character from the bottom of their hearts, so the refugees no longer had any doubts about him.


    Previously, they were worried they would get abducted. But now they were worried they would not be able to get on the train fast enough.


    Zhou Qingyang kneaded his brow and said, ¡°We have hundreds of thousands of refugees here. Taking 6,000 people with him wouldn¡¯t make a dent in the numbers. It¡¯s only 6,000, so it¡¯s nothing to worry about.¡±


    The secretary nodded at the side. 6,000 people was indeed no big deal to the big picture, and it might even help relieve the Zhou Consortium¡¯s burden a little.


    Then Zhou Qingyang asked, ¡°Did he say anything else before leaving?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± the person on the line said, ¡°he said he would be back again in two days¡­.¡±

 Chapter 1050 - Kind and benevolent

    <h4>Chapter 1050: Kind and benevolent</h4>


    Although it would take 23 hours for Ren Xiaosu¡¯s steam lotive to travel from the Zhou Consortium to the Northwest, he had to make many rest stops along the way. Therefore, the actual journey would take about a day and a half.


    After all, no one could get any rest as there were no sleeper cars attached to the steam lotive. Everyone just stood and squeezed together in the carriages. They could not even make their way to the toilets to relieve themselves. As such, he had to set up camp and let everyone take a break for a few hours.


    However, no oneined about the cramped space within the carriages or the fatigue they experienced during the journey. They were all harboring hopes of leading a stable life once they got to the Northwest.


    At that time, they would have food to eat and work to do. They also would not have to worry about getting dragged into the war for the time being.


    Everyone knew there would be a war between the Wang Consortium and the Zhou Consortium in the near term, so it was definitely a blessing to be able to leave that ce quickly.


    Besides, the Northwest and the Southwest were rtively stable for the time being. The refugees also heard that the headquarters of the Hope Media had been moved to the Northwest.


    Before leaving, Ren Xiaosu promised them they would be given food when they arrived in the Northwest. No one was worried he would go back on his word either. Perhaps Ren Xiaosu himself did not expect he would have such a good reputation in the Central ins.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu had also thought about piling on more refugees on the outside of the train so he could transport more of them at once. But he was really worried those people would get blown away by the strong winds as the steam lotive traveled at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour.


    After a day and a half, the steam lotive arrived outside of Stronghold 144 in the Northwest. Wang Yuexi had already organized the stronghold¡¯s staff to process the household registration for the new residents, with many banners flying in the open area.


    ¡°Wee to the Northwest, fellow Northwesterners!¡±


    ¡°Tender for farnd: What you reap is yours to keep.¡±


    ¡°Wee to our big family in the Northwest!¡±


    The stronghold employees waited outside of the steam lotive and greeted every refugee who disembarked with a smile, ¡°Wee to the Northwest. We¡¯ll be family from now on.¡±


    The aroma of roasted and fried sweet potatoes was lingering in town. All of the refugees could not help swallowing their saliva.


    Although every one of the steam lotive¡¯s carriages had doors, Ren Xiaosu did not open all of them. Instead, he had the refugees line up and disembark from the first carriage. Then he just waited outside that door and shook hands with everyone in a friendly manner.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled amiably as he shook hands with everyone. ¡°All y¡¯all¡¯re safe now. Hurry up and get registered. Once you¡¯re done, we¡¯ll be one family, and all y¡¯all will have potatoes to eat!¡±


    The refugees were deeply moved and thought the futuremander of the Northwest was just as upright, kind, benevolent, excellent, and affable as the rumors had said.


    ¡°Thank you, Future Commander!¡±


    ¡°Thank you so much, Future Commander!¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, I love you!¡±


    Serious, Ren Xiaosu corrected, ¡°Don¡¯t love me, just thank me.¡±


    The refugees lined up one by one to disembark from the train. Just the process of disembarking the trainsted for several hours, but Ren Xiaosu still shook hands with everyone nonstop. The sight was simply too touching.


    Off to the side, Wang Yuexi sighed emotionally and said, ¡°Sure enough, Future Commander is kind. These refugees must be a little terrified after arriving in the Northwest. Future Commander is helping alleviate their fears, and he can only achieve that by greeting them with the utmost enthusiasm! Future Commander has to shake hands with more than 6,000 people. If it were y¡¯all, would you have this patience? Only Future Commander can do that!¡±


    Wang Yuexi said to the stronghold employees in a solemn tone, ¡°Everyone, you must learn from Future Commander¡¯s selflessness. What do you think Future Commander gets out offorting these refugees? Money? No! He¡¯s doing this for the sake of the Northwest. He¡¯s truly concerned for the refugees! Although we¡¯re stronghold officials, we must keep in mind our mission to serve the Northwest. We have to understand that we¡¯re service providers, not some privileged ss! Let¡¯s all learn from Future Commander!¡±


    These words left the stronghold staff in tears as they expressed their desire to learn from their futuremander. The Great Hoodwinker was standing next to Ren Xiaosu and heard him muttering, ¡°5,891¡­5,892¡­¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker wondered, ¡°Future Commander, what are you mumbling about?¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Ren Xiaosu casually exined, ¡°I¡¯m doing a headcount.¡±


    To be precise, he was taking note of the number of gratitude tokens received.


    Why did Ren Xiaosu insist on shaking hands with everyone? For the gratitude tokens.


    This time, they had brought a total of 6,012 refugees back from the Zhou Consortium. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu gained a total of 7,131 gratitude tokens from them. In fact, each person had contributed more than one gratitude token to him on average.


    Many people thought the greatest benefit of this refugee migration was the development of the poption in the Northwest. But to Ren Xiaosu, he had gained a number of gratitude tokens he did not even dare to think about in the past!


    The pce¡¯s third weapon could finally be unlocked!


    Ren Xiaosu went to look for Wang Yuexi, who was busy, and said, ¡°Have you done a detailed calction of the number of people required for the Northwest¡¯s remation efforts?¡±


    Wang Yuexi answered without hesitation, ¡°70,000. Although over 6,000 people have arrived this time, it¡¯s still quite a shortfall with regard to our n. Of course, I also know the number is a little high. If you think that¡¯s too many, 20,000 people will do¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Only 70,000? That little? What if I abducted more refugees than that?¡±


    Wang Yuexi was also stunned by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s words. In his opinion, it was already hard for the futuremander to abduct 6,000 people. To ask the futuremander to abduct tens of thousands of people more might prove a little difficult.


    But he realized his thoughts werepletely misaligned with the futuremander¡¯s. The futuremander was hoping for an answer of like hundreds of thousands of people.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯ll happen if more than 70,000 people join the Prosperous Northwest n?¡±


    Wang Yuexi seriously pondered it and then said, ¡°Future Commander, it¡¯s not necessarily always better to have arger poption. If there¡¯s too many immigrants, it could lead to a lot of potential problems. Here¡¯s aprehensive assessment I¡¯ve made. First off, the basic infrastructure can¡¯t keep up with the increased poption. If we don¡¯t manage to handle therge amount of sewage and garbage produced, it¡¯ll lead to the contamination of our local groundwater. A secondary problem will be security. We¡¯ll need to allocate a lot of manpower to ensure order, and that¡¯ll also ce a burden on the stronghold. Besides, there¡¯s some other problems like the education curriculum and so on, all of which are veryplicated to handle. The current Northwest is not ready to take in so many people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Alright then¡­¡±


    When Wang Yuexi realized that Ren Xiaosu still felt a little unsatisfied, he suddenly said, ¡°But I¡¯m only talking about what Stronghold 144 can bear. If Future Commander can persuade Commander Zhang to implement our policies in the other strongholds, the shortfall of people will still be very significant!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°You¡¯re always so dependable!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu waved to the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s head to the Central ins again. We¡¯re gonna make at least 10 trips before anything else!¡±


    Next to him, Wang Yuexi said, ¡°Future Commander, do you want to take a break first? There¡¯s no hurry¡­.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu said righteously, ¡°You don¡¯t know how miserable the refugees in the Central ins are. If we go a dayter, a lot of people might have already died from starvation. How can I watch them starve to death!?¡±


    Nearby, the refugees and the stronghold staff teared up again. Everyone munched on their potatoes and shouted, ¡°Future Commander is kind and benevolent!¡±

 Chapter 1051 - The third weapon gets unlocked!

    <h4>Chapter 1051: The third weapon gets unlocked!</h4>


    The steam lotive rumbled away from the Northwest and made its way through the wilderness towards the Central ins again.


    The Great Hoodwinker said out of concern on the train, ¡°Future Commander, why don¡¯t you rest for a bit? You didn¡¯t rest well when we set up camp yesterday. The urgency of the Prosperous Northwest n isn¡¯t dependent on this moment.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°I¡¯m not sleepy yet. How about this? You go and sleep first, and I¡¯ll wake you up six hourster to take over from me.¡±


    ¡°Sure, Future Commander. Tell me when you¡¯re tired then.¡± The Great Hoodwinker was indeed sleepy. From the time they went to the Central ins to abduct the refugees for the Prosperous Northwest until now, the two of them hadn¡¯t slept in over 20 hours. Although superhumans did not get tired easily like normal people, the Great Hoodwinker was still advanced in age.


    Ren Xiaosu was actually rather sleepy as well, but he could not wait to see exactly what the pce¡¯s third weapon was!


    When the Great Hoodwinker went to the carriage to sleep, Ren Xiaosu immediately said to his mind pce, ¡°I have 15,000 gratitude tokens now. That¡¯s enough to unlock the third weapon, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, do you want to unlock the third weapon for 10,000 gratitude tokens?¡± the voice from the pce asked.


    ¡°Unlock it!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu waited quietly, but there was still no sign of the weapon being unlocked this time.


    The interior of the pce resembled a circr library filled with disy cabs. A small, delicate cab lit up, but there was nothing in it.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. ¡°Where is it?¡±


    The pce did not answer.


    Suddenly, the pce started shaking. Ren Xiaosu intuitively stretched out his right hand with his palm facing up. A scorching ball of energy that caused no physical harm started gathering in his hand.


    A huge vortex started forming in the sky above the steam lotive.


    As the steam lotive was moving at a high speed, the huge vortex above also moved rapidly along with it.


    Fortunately, there was no one around in the wilderness. Otherwise, someone would definitely have been shocked if they saw this strange phenomenon.


    A violet eye suddenly appeared within the gray vortex.


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at his outstretched right hand. Meanwhile, the Great Hoodwinker in the next carriage over was rmed. He hurriedly opened the door and ran to the front of the train. ¡°Future Commander, it feels like something odd is happening! An eye has appeared right above us. Have the Heavense to subdue me because I¡¯ve revealed too many secrets?¡±


    ¡°Revealed too many secrets?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry as he ridiculed, ¡°What secrets have you revealed? You¡¯ve clearly just cheated too many people!¡±


    But at this moment, the tremendous ball of energy in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand suddenly started solidifying into a ck stone.


    The ck stone was only about the size of a fist, and it felt a little warm in his hand. But the strangest thing was that as the vortex in the sky started fading away, the violet eye within it began appearing on the ck stone instead.


    Curious Ren Xiaosu asked in his mind, ¡°What is this!?¡±


    But the voice from the pce replied, ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    At this moment, the Great Hoodwinker came over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side and looked at him in surprise for a while. Then his gazended on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. ¡°Future Commander, did that strange phenomenon in the sky have anything to do with you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not hide it from him and nodded. However, he did not exin where the ck stone hade from, so the Great Hoodwinker did not probe any further either.


    Ren Xiaosu looked silently within the pce. This time, the pce did not indicate there was a next weapon to unlock. In other words, this was thest weapon the pce would give to him!


    Thus, he had a problem. He was about to earn tens of thousands of gratitude tokens, but what could he do with the tokens other than exchange them for more Explosive Poker cards and Seeds?


    Inside the pce, he saw a new, transparent window slot in the vending machine. There were light gray stones in it, and every stone was in the same exact shape with an eye sigil on it.


    Product name: Proficiency Stone.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. What the heck was this? What was wrong with the pce? Why did it always give him something he could not make sense of?


    But for some reason, he suddenly felt the purchasable Proficiency Stones and the third weapon in his hand might turn out to be very important.


    Although the pce might mess around with him at times, it had never done anything redundant since it came into existence!


    Ren Xiaosu used a gratitude token in exchange for a proficiency stone. It was as soft as limestone in his hand, and he crushed it by just tightening his grip. But more importantly, there was no reaction after that.


    The voice from his mind pce suddenly said, ¡°You do not have any corresponding skills whose proficiency can be increased. The Proficiency Stone was destroyed.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself, ¡°What the hell is this? Don¡¯t I have a lot of superpowers? Why did it say that I do not have any corresponding skills? What¡¯s the use of this Proficiency Stone?! Ptui, you unscrupulous merchant!¡±


    The voice from the pce answered, ¡°Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    But next to him, the Great Hoodwinker suddenly said, ¡°Future Commander, the ck stone you¡¯re holding looks a little familiar.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned as he looked at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°You recognize it?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t be sure.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said softly, ¡°You also know that our Fortress 178 had fought with enemies from beyond the Northwest before. Although all the previous battles ended in our victory, Fortress 178 also paid an extremely painful price. Thest war happened about 17 years ago when I was just apanymander. When the enemy was defeated, only 20% of my entirepany was left. This sigil of an eye looks simr to the one I saw back then.¡±


    ¡°You mean that something like this appeared in that war?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. When we were cleaning up the battlefield, we saw a few broken pieces, which we pieced back together to form this eye sigil.¡± The Great Hoodwinker recalled, ¡°But those stones all looked very worn. They were not as exquisite as the one you¡¯re holding, and their eye sigils were faded as well. At that time, the fortressmander even ordered us to continue searching for those stones. In the end, we only found some broken pieces but not anyplete ones. So we didn¡¯t know what uses they had.¡±


    ¡°Were they all broken?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°Who¡¯s the enemy from beyond the Northwest and why did theye here?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re also humans, but they¡¯re a little different from us.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°I heard that in the early days of The Cataclysm, roughly around 200 years ago, they starteding to our territory to kidnap our people. Arge number of ourpatriots were kidnapped to a ce beyond the Northwest. It was estimated that several hundred thousand to even a million were taken away. Fortress 178 was built specifically to defend against them. At that time, human civilization in the Central ins had not yet been restored. They also seemed to have a secret legacy before The Cataclysm. As such, the martyrs fought very hard against them, resulting in a lot of casualties for us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started thinking. A million people were abducted during the early days of The Cataclysm? At that time, the total poption of the entire Alliance of Strongholds probably only numbered a few million, not the tens of millions it currently had.

 Chapter 1052 - Domination

    <h4>Chapter 1052: Domination</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu analyzed the information revealed by the Great Hoodwinker. He suddenly asked, ¡°You said that they already had a secret legacy in ce before The Cataclysm? What sort of legacy was that?¡±


    ¡°I think it¡¯s a magus order, some kind of a magician organization. Their methods in war were very peculiar.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°At that time, a ck mist enveloped the battlefield that I was fighting on and blocked everyone¡¯s line of sight of the enemy¡¯s position. Ourrades on the other battlefields also said that they encountered some strange enemies, and some of them even encountered strange creatures too.¡±


    ¡°Are there many of said magicians?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°That¡¯s where we were fortunate.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Although they employed strange fighting methods, their numbers weren¡¯t that great. Over the years, we also attempted to send our people there to check on the situation. What surprised us was that the areas our agents were posted to were full of other simr yellow people with ck hair. This was because in the past two hundred years, they had kidnapped so many of our people back to theirnds. Moreover, they assimted into our culture. Perhaps this is the reason why there hasn¡¯t been a war between the two sides in over a decade now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu admitted the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s deduction made some sense. He had read a lot of books about the Pre-Cataclysm times, and he had to admit the Central ins culture was one that easily assimted other cultures.


    ¡°What¡¯s the political structure over there like?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, ¡°Why did they kidnap so many people from our side?¡±


    ¡°I happen to know that. Intel says that kings are a thing over there, so it should be a monarchy.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°However, those mysterious magi rank above the kings. Kings are just normal people who keep order in society on their behalf while a minority of those magi are the true rulers of that world. They don¡¯t have to work or put in any effort and can stand at the top of the pyramid just like that, absorbing all of what their society produces.¡±


    This was a system where it felt like the magicians had dered themselves gods and controlled the world order as the ruling ss.


    The Great Hoodwinker continued, ¡°But Future Commander, as you know, we only started sending our agents to infiltrate their territory after Commander Zhang returned to the Northwest. As such, we¡¯re unable to find that much information on them, and it¡¯s not easy for intel to be ryed back either. We aren¡¯t usually able to track those magi because they can¡¯t be located. Our agents have already been stationed there for some time, yet they still haven¡¯t had any contact with a real magician. Over there, everyone calls those who are magi the Omniscient, and they all belong to a unified organization.¡±


    ¡°At first, they took advantage of the fact that the Central ins had not recovered from the Cataclysm to steal our people. Perhaps they did so to build up their hierarchical society. Only with arge number ofborers were they able to build their basic infrastructure and send a steady stream of resources to the top.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°I heard that in the early years, people with ck hair and yellow skin were the lowest caste of society. They could only do the most tiring jobs and were not paid for it. Later, this situation changed due to one of theirpatriots bing a magician.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Since we havepatriots among the magicians, why did they still attack us 17 years ago? Shouldn¡¯t they have stopped all of that from happening?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker shook his head with a smile. ¡°Future Commander, rumor has it that the yellow and ck-haired magus has already been dead for over 40 years. During his time as a magician, Fortress 178 really did not get attacked.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. He looked carefully at the ck stone in his hand but could not figure out how his third unlocked weapon was rted to a mysterious organization outside the borders of the Alliance of Strongholds. Should he try to catch a magus and copy their power?


    After all, the ck stone had appeared in such a grand manner. No matter how one looked at it, it did not look like a standard item. But holding it did not have any effects, which really made Ren Xiaosu very curious.


    Ren Xiaosu somehow felt the secret of the ck stone could probably be unlocked by searching for answers from a magician.


    The steam lotive arrived at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s stronghold a dozen hourster. This time, Ren Xiaosu did not waste any time and took the refugees away without hiding his identity.


    There was no need to use potatoes to trick the refugees into following him anymore. His status as the futuremander of the Northwest was the strongest lure!


    When the Zhou Consortium received news that Ren Xiaosu was back again, they felt extremely troubled.


    However, they still watched from afar as Ren Xiaosu called for the refugees to board the train. The Zhou Consortium did not dare to step forward to stop him. Now that the Riders were lying low somewhere, who knew if they would reappear and attack them again?


    When Zhou Qingyang found out Ren Xiaosu had really returned, the coward obediently stayed in his official residence with thousands of garrison troops stationed around him. It was as though he were afraid Ren Xiaosu would try to assassinate him this time.


    The Zhou Consortium¡¯s officials were all very aggrieved. There were only the two of them, yet they could still openly abduct the refugees like that. How arrogant!


    However, there was really nothing they could do, nor did they dare to.


    As a matter of fact, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s outstanding achievement of assassinating three Zhou Consortium officials in a single day had really struck fear in these cowardly Zhou Consortium officials.


    Some of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s officers were filled with righteous indignation as they suggested that Ren Xiaosu be surrounded and killed here. In the end, the other officials found some random excuses to ce these officers under house arrest.


    It was as though the Zhou Consortium¡¯s officials had turned into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s supporters overnight.


    When Ren Xiaosu called for the refugees to board the train, he even felt a little emotional. In this chaotic world, a group of good-for-nothings really should not be allowed to take charge of things. Otherwise, they could get sliced apart and divided among the other organizations in these highly contested wastnds at any moment.


    The Zhou Consortium was probably going to be gone soon.


    Ren Xiaosu believed the current Zhou Consortium was no match for the Wang Consortium. When the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops arrived, some of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops might even surrender immediately and lead them in.


    A lot of refugees had gathered around the steam lotive. Ren Xiaosu waved to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s garrison troops not far away and shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t just stand there! Can¡¯t you see that it¡¯s a little chaotic here? Come over and maintain order! Have the refugees line up in front of each car door and usher them in one by one only after I say to get on. Otherwise, it¡¯ll be too disorganized!¡±


    The soldiers of the garrison troops were aggrieved. Why did they have to help maintain order when the enemy was trying to abduct their people?


    Why did they have to stand so close to themotion? Wouldn¡¯t everything have been OK if they had only stood farther away? This was too humiliating!


    When Ren Xiaosu saw them not moving for a long time, he took out his ck saber and shouted, ¡°What are y¡¯all still standing there for?¡±


    The garrison troops¡¯manding officer hurriedly said, ¡°Coming, we¡¯ll be right there.¡±


    After that, the soldiers formed a human wall at the carriage doors and organized the refugees into boarding the train one by one.


    Nearby, the Great Hoodwinker sighed emotionally. It was so fun to work together with the futuremander. In the past, it would take him several months to ¡°abduct¡± someone for the Prosperous Northwest. But now, Ren Xiaosu had managed to convince close to 10,000 people to join them in just a single day.


    Compared to the efficiency of the Prosperous Northwest n of the past, this fully deserved to be called the brand-new Prosperous Northwest 2.0!


    In conclusion, it could only be summed up in a word: domination!

 Chapter 1053 - A strange crowd

    <h4>Chapter 1053: A strange crowd</h4>


    Trantor: Legge


    Ren Xiaosu and the Great Hoodwinker tirelessly made their way back and forth between the Northwest and the Central ins to abduct the refugees, truly enjoying it as they did so.


    All of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s officials seemed to have suddenly lost their sight and hearing. They could not see or hear whatever that was going on and just hid in the stronghold without making any fuss about the abduction. They did not care, and they did not ask.


    When a reporter found out about this, he even went to interview the Zhou Consortium officials. However, they refused to meet him.


    Moreover, some of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s officials had also mysteriously disappeared.


    At first, everyone thought that one of the officials might have fallen sick, so he did note to work. But after two days, they felt that something was off. They could not get through to the official¡¯s home line either, so some people started wondering if something had happened.


    When his subordinates went to pay him a visit, they realized their superior¡¯s house was already empty. The entire ce was a mess, and all the gold, silver, and other valuables were gone as well.


    Did someone break into the house and rob their superior? They should quickly report this to the Public Order Division!


    As this official¡¯s rank was not low, the Public Order Division ced high priority on his case. They immediately sent out a lot of officers to search for clues and check the surveince cameras around the official¡¯s house in recent days.


    In the end, they were shocked by what they saw. The surveince footage showed the official had packed up his belongings and left with his wife.


    The couple left the stronghold with their luggage and faked their visas before disappearing into the crowd of refugees outside the stronghold.


    He had escaped!


    At this moment, everyone who was searching for his whereabouts understood that the man must have followed the Northwest¡¯s futuremander to the Northwest!


    Recently, a wave of anxiety had been affecting the Zhou Consortium¡¯s people. Everyone knew the Wang Consortium would start a war against the Zhou Consortium soon.


    Initially, when Zhou Shiji was around, everyone could still work together to prepare for the war. But now that the cowardly Zhou Qingyang had taken over, everyone knew he was not at all capable of stopping the Wang Consortium.


    When the Wang Consortium annexed the Zhou Consortium, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s officials would definitely be the first to get dealt with. At that time, the entire south of the Central ins would face a major reshuffle.


    Instead of enduring humiliation when it happened, wouldn¡¯t it be better to lead a rich man¡¯s life in the Northwest while one still had their possessions?


    The Zhou Consortium officials had many ways to amass wealth while holding office. The gold bars they had saved were definitely enough for them to enjoy theirter years in the Northwest.


    Before Ren Xiaosu came here, some people had already wanted to run away, but they just did not know where to go.


    The north of the Central ins had already be the Wang Consortium¡¯s territory, so those seeking to escape could only go to the Qing Consortium. However, they would have to travel 500 kilometers through the wilderness to get there, and a lot of people were worried about danger along the way.


    But now, the appearance of the steam lotive from the Prosperous Northwest had given them hope and a way out!


    Hope Media had already started reporting on the events of Ren Xiaosu helping the refugees escape. The entire Alliance of Strongholds could see the happy smiles on the faces of the refugees when they arrived in the Northwest, as well as pictures of them shaking hands with their futuremander.


    Included in the report were photos of wee banners, photos of Wang Yuexi and Stronghold 144¡¯s staff registering the new residents and dining with settled refugees during breaks, and interviews conducted with the refugees.


    This assured everyone they would not lose their freedom if they went to the Northwest. Moreover, they would be treated as Northwesterners.


    Faced with the mes of war in the Central ins, Hope Media¡¯s newspapers suddenly made everyone feel that any ce outside of the Northwest would soon be in deep trouble. Only by getting to the Northwest would they lead a peaceful life.


    If there was a first official that tried to escape, there would be a second one.


    News of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s official fleeing to the Northwest was secretly spreading within the Zhou Consortium¡¯s ranks. A lot of people were starting to think, ¡®That futuremander of the Northwest didn¡¯t seem to care about the identities of the refugees when he took them away to the Northwest. Besides, there wasn¡¯t even time to check their IDs since the train had to carry several thousand people.¡®


    So, as long as they pretended to be refugees and got onto the train, they could lead a carefree life in the Northwest in slightly over 20 hours!


    Thinking of this, the Zhou Consortium officials started disappearing in the course of the fortnight. Almost all of them brought along their families and disguised themselves as refugees.


    Some of the officials who had satellite phones given by the Zhou Consortium even took it with them before leaving. When the Zhou Consortium discovered they had left, they immediately contacted them. However, they were greeted by the fleeing Zhou Consortium officials dishing out insults to Zhou Qingyang for being a fool. They even said it would be waiting for death if they did not leave the Zhou Consortium.


    From this, it could be seen that they were really determined to leave.


    Of course, not all of the officials brought their wives with them. There were even some people who abandoned their wives and left with their mistresses. In the past, such people were always conducting their affairs secretly in the stronghold. They were unable to get a divorce from their wives no matter how much they wanted it.


    But now, they finally found a way to get rid of their wives. It was like they had eloped several thousand kilometers away with this separation from them.


    Quite a few people did this. As a result, many women in the stronghold often woke up from slumber and started cursing at their husbands who had run away overnight.


    Such was life.


    When something like this happened, Zhou Qingyang would definitely be the one with the biggest headache. Seeing that the Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces had already started heading south, the officials working for him had all started fleeing one by one. The Zhou Consortium was already riddled with holes, so how could they possibly stop the Wang Consortium?


    Zhou Qingyang thought for a moment and ordered his secretary, ¡°We can¡¯t let Ren Xiaosu continue doing this. Find a way to stop him!¡±


    It was not that he had suddenly be bold, but rather, if he did not stop the refugees from being taken away, the Zhou Consortium would really be done for!


    Ren Xiaosu had been leading a very fulfilling life these days. Although there was no fourth weapon to unlock, he felt the gratitude tokens and Proficiency Stones woulde in very handy. Therefore, he was trying his best to earn as many gratitude tokens as he could.


    It was just like earning money. Who wouldn¡¯t mind having more?


    By the sixth trip, his number of gratitude tokens exceeded 40,000.


    At this moment, if anyone were to provoke Ren Xiaosu and force him into a corner, he might really resort to trading 40,000 gratitude tokens for the Explosive Poker cards just to get a pair of Jokers to blow them up!


    But on the seventh trip back to the Northwest, Ren Xiaosu discovered some strange people¡­ people he did not receive any gratitude tokens from!


    Normal refugees tended to suffer from starvation and would revere Ren Xiaosu¡¯s character. After arriving in the Northwest, Ren Xiaosu would definitely receive gratitude tokens upon shaking hands with them. Some of them gave him one token, while others gave him three. There was really no one who did not sincerely thank him.


    But by the seventh trip, Ren Xiaosu realized that even though some of the refugees looked like they were sincerely grateful, his gratitude tokens did not increase after shaking hands with them. Moreover, those people all had rosy cheeks and did not look like they were refugees who had been starving for over half a month.


    Ren Xiaosu sneered in his head. Previously, the Great Hoodwinker was worried weird people would be hidden among this group of refugees. There could be Zhou Consortium officials or spies among them, and these people would then go on to be the bad apples of the Northwest.


    But Ren Xiaosu said there was nothing to worry about since he could identify such people.


    At that time, the Great Hoodwinker was a little puzzled. With so many refugees, how could they possibly get identified?


    In the end, the Great Hoodwinker saw Ren Xiaosu pick out more than 60 people from the group of refugees within three hours and separate them from the real ones.

 Chapter 1054 - Future Commander, I Also Want To Join The Prosperous Northwest

    <h4>Chapter 1054 - Future Commander, I Also Want To Join The Prosperous Northwest</h4>


    A total of 67 passengers were isted from the refugees. Ren Xiaosu did not worry about them and just continued to shake hands with the rest with all his might and congratte them on settling into a new home and life.


    Wang Yuexi and the others were also standing nearby,menting from the bottom of their hearts that the futuremander was way too patient. A few days ago, they thought the futuremander had shaken the hands of every refugee because he was very enthusiastic at the beginning. They felt he would probably not continue doing so by the time the next few groups arrived.


    After all, it would be really tiring to shake hands with tens of thousands of people.


    In the end, they underestimated Ren Xiaosu''s patience and felt very ashamed of their own thoughts.


    After Ren Xiaosu handed over all the refugees to Wang Yuexi, he slowly walked towards those 67 people. "Tell me, who are all y''all?"


    One of the Zhou Consortium officials said softly, "We''re just normal refugees. Future Commander, why''re you asking something like that?"


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. "Look at who''s standing around y''all. I ordered the Northwest''s armed soldiers to watch over all y''all. Do you think I''d treat refugees with an attitude like that?"


    But even though Ren Xiaosu said that, the Zhou Consortium officials still refused to tell the truth. "Future Commander, you''ve misunderstood. We''re really just normal refugees."


    "Since you''re so tight-lipped, I guess y''all must be spies." Realization dawned upon Ren Xiaosu. Then he said to the Northwest soldiers next to him, "Take them to the military base''s prison and interrogate them properly. Tell Zhang Xiaoman that I''ll be heading to the Central ins to recruit more refugeester. I hope he won''t torture these people to death before I return."


    When these cowards from the Zhou Consortium heard this, they nearly peed their pants. "Future Commander! Future Commander! We''ll talk! I''m the deputy director of the Zhou Consortium''s Ministry of Commerce. I really couldn''t stay in the Zhou Consortium any longer, so I decided to flee to the Northwest. I heard there''s a n to make the Northwest prosperous. I think I can contribute¡­."


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a moment. Actually, he could not keep these people here no matter what they said. It was not that the Northwest was prejudiced against those from other ces, rather, Ren Xiaosu was worried spies were actually among them.


    It did not really matter to him that the Zhou Consortium officials had fled here, but it would be very troublesome if any spies managed to infiltrate the Northwest.


    Those people must have brought along some jewelry. If it were Ren Xiaosu, he would definitely care about such things. But the Northwest did notck these. Compared to the wealth of the entire Northwest, the valuables that a dozen or so Zhou Consortium officials had brought were not even worth a mention.


    But if spies were hidden among them, it could prove extremely disastrous in the future.


    Kill them all? Ren Xiaosu was not that cruel.


    He said to the 67 people, "Wait here for now."


    After that, he went off to the side and whispered to the Great Hoodwinker.


    The Zhou Consortium''s officials muttered among themselves, "Will he send us back to the Zhou Consortium? I insulted Zhou Qingyang over the phone¡­."


    One of them shook his head and said, "That''s impossible. We''re already here, and we even have lots of money on us, so how could he possibly make us go back? He''s just hinting that we should pay up a little. Afterwards, let''s each contribute a little to bribe this so-called Future Commander of the Northwest. I don''t believe he won''t be tempted."


    "You''re absolutely right." Another Zhou Consortium official said, "Is there anyone in the world who doesn''t love money?"


    These Zhou Consortium officials were also very open-minded. Furthermore, they had survived in the Zhou Consortium''s bureaucracy for many years, so they were well versed in the unwritten rules. As such, they were prepared to cough up some money.


    After Ren Xiaosu finished discussing things with the Great Hoodwinker, he returned. "I''m sorry, but y''all aren''t wee here in the Northwest."


    A Zhou Consortium official was dumbfounded. "We have money."


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. "I can''t allow it even if you have money."


    One of the Zhou Consortium officials said anxiously, "What gives you the right to decide our fate just like that? I want to see Zhang Jinglin! We want to receive corresponding political treatment and apply for political asylum! You''re not the ruler of the Northwest yet, so you don''t have the authority to decide our fates!"


    Two hourster, the steam lotive drove back to the Central ins. A Zhou Consortium official sat in the carriage with his face all bruised and swollen. He made a call on his satellite phone and said helplessly, "Hello, Boss? I was just joking with you previously. Hahahaha, I''ll apologize to you right away when I get back¡­"


    When the steam lotive arrived at the Central ins, many of the Zhou Consortium''s people actually came out of the stronghold this time to wee it and pick up the Zhou Consortium officials who had escaped.


    Before leaving, the Zhou Consortium''s intelligence officer who came to greet them said politely to Ren Xiaosu, "Sorry for the trouble!"


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, "By the way, these people also brought some of their belongings with them. As you know, it''s quite expensive for the steam lotive to make the trip here¡­."


    The corners of the Zhou Consortium''s intelligence officer''s eyes twitched. This was clearly a superpower, so what was expensive about it? However, he understood what Ren Xiaosu meant. Beforeing out here, Zhou Qingyang had specifically instructed him not to get into conflict with the man.


    As such, the Zhou Consortium''s intelligence officer clenched his teeth and said, "We''ll hand over their belongings to you as the escort fee, so please ept it."


    "Smart!" Ren Xiaosu beamed and said, "Alright, deploy more of your people to maintain order while the refugees line up to board the train."


    The Zhou Consortium''s intelligence officer was left in tears of humiliation. He suddenly felt like it was them making reparations to Ren Xiaosu, and that really felt aggravating.


    He just could not understand. Since you needed someone to maintain order around the refugees, couldn''t you have brought your own soldiers from the Northwest?!


    However, he could not say that out loud.


    The Zhou Consortium''s intelligence officer smiled and said, "Alright, I''ll see to it immediately¡­"


    However, beforeing out, Zhou Qingyang had given him other tasks. The intelligence officer said to Ren Xiaosu, "Future Commander, it''s like this. Although the refugees used to put a great burden on the Zhou Consortium''s resources, we''ve also imported a lot of grain from the South to feed them. The grain has been delivered here, but the refugees have almost all been taken away by you already. Won''t the grain all go to waste like that? Y''know, we spent a lot of manpower and materiel to gather and transport the grain. Do you think you can¡­"


    Ren Xiaosu was touched. "Hurry up and load the grain onto the train then. It won''t be a waste if we bring it to the Northwest to feed the refugees!"


    The intelligence officer was confused. Was that what I meant? Didn''t I say all that because I wanted you to leave some refugees for our Zhou Consortium?


    When Ren Xiaosu saw that the intelligence officer did not say anything, he drew his ck saber. "Did I misunderstand?"


    "Hahahahahaha," the intelligence officerughed. "I''ll load up the grain right away!"


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. "Mhm, you can use hemp ropes to secure the bags of grain onto the train''s roof. That way, it won''t take up the refugees'' space on the train."


    "That really makes sense," the intelligence officer said through clenched teeth. Now that the refugees had been taken and their provisions were also given away, he reckoned that his future with the Zhou Consortium would probably be over as well.. The intelligence officer looked at Ren Xiaosu and said in seriousness, "Future Commander, I also want to join the Prosperous Northwest."

 Chapter 1055 - The future of the Northwest

    <h4>Chapter 1055: The future of the Northwest</h4>


    In the month after the Prosperous Northwest n was upgraded to 2.0, Ren Xiaosu led the Great Hoodwinker on 15 trips to the Central ins. On average, they made one trip every two days to abduct almost 90,000 refugees from the Zhou Consortium to join the Prosperous Northwest.


    During this one month, the name of the Prosperous Northwest Express had shaken up the entire Alliance of Strongholds. Even Wang Congyang¡¯s name, the person said to be operating the Prosperous Northwest Express, became famous.


    What made Ren Xiaosu curious was where Wang Congyang had gone. He did not evene out to rify he was not the one operating the steam lotive, and this made Ren Xiaosu even more fearless when using the steam lotive power.


    The Prosperous Northwest 2.0 n was still ongoing. Wang Yuexi expressed that the number of residents in Stronghold 144 had reached its limit. If more refugees came, it would cause a negative effect.


    The Great Hoodwinker immediately went to Fortress 178 to report this matter to Zhang Jinglin. The good news was that Stronghold 145 was also starting to introduce an expanded pilot project for the contract responsibility system toplement the Prosperous Northwest 2.0 n.


    Actually, the Great Hoodwinker already knew from the beginning. The expansion of Stronghold 144 was in full swing now, and it proved the futuremander, Ren Xiaosu, was capable of overseeing such arge reform. The fortressmander had always been doing his best to support Ren Xiaosu as his sessor, so he would definitely be very willing to give him the green light to introduce his reforms.


    But just as Ren Xiaosu was about to continue abducting more refugees to the Prosperous Northwest, something unexpected happened.


    The steam lotive slowly came to a stop in the wilderness. Ren Xiaosu looked at the Wang Consortium troops standing in front of the train in silence.


    Not many soldiers were in the group, and it looked like they were only the size of a regiment. Since the other party had appeared here, Wang Shengzhi must have figured out Ren Xiaosu¡¯s travel pattern through Zero and ordered his men to stop them here.


    Ren Xiaosu waited quietly in the train as someone familiar-looking from the Wang Consortium troops stepped forward and slowly approached the steam lotive.


    ¡°Future Commander, long time no see,¡± Wang Run greeted with a smile.


    Wang Run could be considered an old acquaintance of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s. When he went to the Kong Consortium with the Trinity Institute to carry out the decapitation strike mission, it was Wang Run who was responsible for providing Ren Xiaosu with intel.


    Later, on Mt. Zuoyun, it was Wang Run who led his men to transport the first batch of weapons and equipment to them, and they even fought alongside each other for half a month there.


    As the saying went, p not a smiling face. Ren Xiaosu dispelled the steam lotive and went up to Wang Run with the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Is the Wang Consortium going to attack the Zhou Consortium? Y¡¯all¡¯re getting impatient, huh?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that we¡¯re impatient, but that we can¡¯t miss the opportunity.¡± Wang Run exined with a smile, ¡°The Zhou Consortium¡¯s at its weakest right now, and our Wang Consortium soldiers are also at the peak of our morale. If we don¡¯t make a move at this time, it¡¯ll only make things more troublesometer on.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. He had no intention of participating in the war with the Central ins. Anything that had nothing to do with the Prosperous Northwest was not his particr concern.


    Honestly, if he were to view things from the interests of the Northwest alone, he would rather see both the Wang Consortium and the Zhou Consortium suffer heavy losses. That way, the Northwest would have more time toplete their own development.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯re y¡¯all doing here?¡±


    ¡°To block your path, of course, Future Commander.¡± Wang Run said frankly, ¡°On one hand, our Wang Consortium¡¯s main forces have already arrived at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s border. If Future Commander were to appear within the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory at this time, you could identally injure our troops. On the other hand, the homes of those Central ins refugees are in the Central ins. They only chose to go to the Northwest as they had no other choice. Our Wang Consortium will definitely take care of them after the war is over. Therefore, Future Commander, you don¡¯t have to worry too much about their safety. Just let them remain in their hometown.¡±


    In fact, Wang Run was far too courteous. The other party was even treating Ren Xiaosu with such respect even though he was leading an entire regiment of troops. This was truly diplomacy before violence.


    Actually, no matter what had happened between Ren Xiaosu and the Wang Consortium, and whether they had really stood by and done nothing during Jiang Xu¡¯s death, Wang Shengzhi was still Ren Xiaosu¡¯s savior.


    Although he had already repaid the Wang Consortium¡¯s debts by helping them, it was better not to make a move if they could avoid fighting each other.


    Meanwhile, Wang Shengzhi also had the same attitude towards Ren Xiaosu. It was as though he did not want to see his former friend be his foe.


    Ren Xiaosu sized up the soldiers behind Wang Run. ¡°You brought an entire regiment here just to tell me that?¡±


    Wang Run exined, ¡°I brought along abat brigade, but I only showed up here with a regiment because I was afraid you would misunderstand.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. He knew that if Wang Run could not convince him, they would be ready to intercept him. Moreover, the other party knew his strength. The rest of the brigade that did not appear here had to be equipped with weapons specially designed to deal with him.


    No matter how powerful he was now, he should not underestimate the technology of human civilization.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll head back now. I wish y¡¯all the best.¡±


    Wang Run took the initiative to shake hands with Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Thank you, Future Commander. Drop by for a visit in the Wang Consortium when you have time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook hands with him. ¡°We can still talk if you want to visit the Northwest as our guest, but forget it if you¡¯re inviting me to the Wang Consortium. We Northwesterners are all very hospitable. Come and have some fun when you have time.¡±


    ¡°Definitely.¡± After that, Wang Run turned around and walked back to his soldiers. Ren Xiaosu conjured up the steam lotive and returned to the Northwest.


    Along the way, the Great Hoodwinker sighed and said, ¡°The Wang Consortium¡¯s pace of war is even faster than we expected. I feel that with the current state of the Zhou Consortium, the oue will probably be decided in two to three months. This will be winner takes all. The Central ins will soon fly the banner of the Wang Consortium.¡±


    ¡°P5092 will be back soon as well.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°A while ago, someone from the Northwest Chamber of Commerce brought news that he¡¯s kidnap¡ªled the Pyro Company¡¯s remnant troops across the Shenmu River in the grasnds and will be arriving in the Northwest soon. After he returns, we have to get him toplete the deployment of our troops along the Wang Consortium¡¯s border as soon as possible. I feel that the Wang Consortium will not stop here. Wang Shengzhi¡¯s target is the entire Alliance of Strongholds.¡±


    ¡°Future Commander.¡± The Great Hoodwinker suddenly said, ¡°It¡¯s also time for you to make a trip to Fortress 178.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. Ever since he came to the Northwest, he did not go to Fortress 178 to see Zhang Jinglin because he did not want to get into the details of bing the Northwest¡¯s futuremander.


    But even if he did not want to admit that he was the futuremander now, it would be futile. To everyone, Ren Xiaosu was the future owner of the Northwest. There was no doubt about it.


    If Ren Xiaosu were to continue refusing, it would only make him unreasonable.


    He asked the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°What else do we need to do after we get to Fortress 178 other than meeting Mr. Zhang?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker smiled. He knew that this was as good as Ren Xiaosu epting the role, so he exined, ¡°First of all, Commander Zhang will bring you to the copper bell to pay your respects to the pioneers of Fortress 178. After that, you¡¯ll visit all of the outposts outside Fortress 178 on foot and express sympathy to those soldiers who¡¯ve endured a decade of hard living guarding their positions.¡±


    ¡°And after that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°After that?¡± The Great Hoodwinker said with a smile, ¡°From the moment you return from the outposts, you¡¯ll be the future of the Northwest.¡±

 Chapter 1056 - The future commander enters the city

    <h4>Chapter 1056: The futuremander enters the city</h4>


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s sudden war on the Zhou Consortium shocked the entire Alliance of Strongholds.


    The 1st Field Division of the Wang Consortium¡¯s military corps crossed Luoyang City at lightning speed and arrived at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s northern defensive line. Although the Zhou Consortium was already prepared for this, their defenses were currentlyx, and even their military discipline was slipshod. As a result, they were forced to retreat in defeat within the first week of the war.


    The Zhou Consortium, led by Zhou Qingyang, started leaving Stronghold 73 and migrated southwards to the Zhou Consortium¡¯s political center.


    This cowardly attitude demoralized the Zhou Consortium¡¯s soldiers. Many people said the glory days of the Zhou Consortium had already passed, with Zhou Shiji and Zhou Shoushi¡¯s era over.


    Amid themotion, no one noticed an off-road vehicle was driving from Stronghold 144 towards the even more solitary Fortress 178.


    Now that the Northwest had opened up the trade routes, it had be bustling and prosperous.


    The dozen or so strongholds that originally belonged to the Zong Consortium in the Northwest looked like a huge array with Stronghold 144 as its center, and building and development works were being carried out nonstop day and night.


    There was only Fortress 178 standing farther in the Northwest, a mottled but magnificent presence.


    Currently, the merchants did not really like going to Fortress 178. Because there were more of the Northwest Army¡¯s troops there, the margins of doing business in Fortress 178 were always far lower than in the other strongholds.


    Moreover, the other strongholds in the Northwest were only about a 100 to 200 kilometers apart from each other. But if they wanted to go to Fortress 178, they could only set off from Stronghold 141, which was nearest to it and travel through nearly 400 kilometers of desertednd to get there.


    There was no ce to top up for gas or get food along the way. Everything was just very deste.


    As there were very few vehicles traveling in between the two strongholds, the dust storms caused by the nearby soil erosion often covered the roads with ayer of yellow sand.


    Ren Xiaosu drove the off-road vehicle alone as it sped along the highway. A huge dust cloud was kicked up under the wheels, and it looked just like aet shooting across the sky with a tail of exhaust.


    He had set off from Stronghold 144 in the morning. By the time he arrived at Fortress 178, it was already evening.


    Ren Xiaosu had been here before, but when he saw the towering fortress again, he was still awed.


    This was a fortresspletely different from the other strongholds. Everything here was built for the sake of war. There were firing points densely spaced apart on the walls, and even cannon embrasures wereid out in honeb patterns in them.


    From the outside, this fortress gave off an extremely oppressive sense of intimidation. Upon entering it, one would see theplex structure of the fortress walls.


    Different paths led to different parts of the fortress walls. There were wide railways for transporting artillery, and ¡°bridle paths¡± for soldiers to pass through.


    Ren Xiaosu could even imagine how intense it would get on the fortress walls when war broke out again.


    Xu Xianchu was already waiting outside the gate of Fortress 178. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he got out of the vehicle and gave him a warm hug. ¡°Long time no see. Come on, themander is waiting for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Long time no see, Old Xu.¡±


    Xu Xianchu suddenly felt that when Ren Xiaosu called him ¡°Old Xu,¡± he said it in such an extremely familiar and endearing manner. It was as though they had never parted ways before. This made Xu Xianchu feel that Ren Xiaosu absolutely treated him as a friend!


    As the two of them walked into the fortress, Ren Xiaosu wanted to take the car when Xu Xianchu stopped him with a smile. ¡°Themander has specifically instructed that you have to walk from here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised. ¡°I thought I¡¯d only need to go on foot when I visit the outposts? Why has it started already? Is there such a rule?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s not a rule.¡± Xu Xianchu said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s just that Commander Zhang wants everyone in the fortress to see what their futuremander looks like so there won¡¯t be any awkwardness in the future.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was slightly taken aback. At this moment, he realized that people were starting to rush over from both sides of the road. They were not doing this for anything other than to get a glimpse of their futuremander.


    Everyone had a kind smile on their face. The buildings by the roadside were filled with the fortress residents watching as well.


    Xu Xianchu exined with a smile, ¡°The people of Fortress 178 take pride in getting enlisted in the military to protect their homnd. If any family members get selected to join the Northwest Army, it¡¯s a glorious achievement for the whole family. They even have to treat their neighbors to a meal. Everyone loves and respects those of us serving in the military, so it¡¯s only natural that they¡¯re curious about what our futuremander looks like.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could not help butugh. ¡°That sounds a little exaggerated.¡±


    Xu Xianchu had a look at a group of youngdies who had gathered nearby. Then he said with augh, ¡°If everyone didn¡¯t know you and Ms. Xiaojin are so close, there¡¯d be a lot of matchmakers stopping you on the road. Speaking of which, it¡¯s really quite nostalgic. When we left Stronghold 113 together back then, you were still a refugee while I was a down-and-out private army officer. But times have changed. You¡¯re the futuremander of our Northwest!¡±


    At this moment, an elder on the sidewalk said with a smile, ¡°Comrade Little Xu, you don¡¯t have to belittle yourself. You are our Northwest¡¯s King of Cauldrons! I heard that your usage of the ck cauldron has be rather godly. You can even blot out the sky!¡±


    Xu Xianchu said reservedly, ¡°You tter me, sir!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    He did not even know Xu Xianchu had gained the nickname ¡°King of Cauldrons.¡±


    And what the hell was this ck cauldron that blotted out the sky? Just how big had Xu Xianchu¡¯s ck cauldron be?!


    ¡°About that¡­¡± Ren Xiaosu asked nonchntly,¡± How big is that ck cauldron of yours?¡±


    Xu Xianchu said with augh, ¡°Blotting out the sky was just an exaggeration. It¡¯s only a few dozen meters in diameter.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s already very big!¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    At this moment, a few veterans were standing on the sidewalk in their military uniforms. Their hair had already grayed, and their bodies were hunched over. However, the military medals on their chests were still glistening brightly.


    To everyone, the arrival of the futuremander in the city was just like a ceremony. From today onwards, the authority over the Northwest would gradually start shifting. It would only end when Zhang Jinglin finally handed all of his authority over to Ren Xiaosu.


    When one of the veterans saw Ren Xiaosu walking down the long boulevard, he muttered, ¡°I heard that this futuremander is extremely good atbat. I wonder if he¡¯ll empathize with the recruits like how the oldmander and Commander Zhang did.¡±


    Another veteran joked, ¡°Does a matter like this need a frail old man like you to worry over it? Just who do you think you are?!¡±


    These veterans were very old. When Zhang Jinglin became the fortressmander, they had already retired from the military. When Zhang Jinglin walked into the city as the futuremander, they had also stood on the streets and watched him from afar.


    The ¡°oldmander¡± they were referring to was not Zhang Jinglin, but Zhang Jinglin¡¯s predecessor.


    Someone nearby said with a smile, ¡°In the previous war with the Zong Consortium, the Razor Sharp Company achieved sessive military achievements under his leadership. However, not a single person died in the process. So he¡¯ll definitely protect this ce just like the old fortressmanders did. Everyone, please don¡¯t worry.¡±


    The veterans turned around and were surprised to see that Zhang Jinglin had gotten next to them at some point. Ren Xiaosu also noticed Zhang Jinglin¡¯s presence, so he greeted him with a smile, ¡°Mr. Zhang.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin walked out of the crowd and said, ¡°Are you ready? Once you¡¯ve made this decision, you¡¯re not allowed to turn back.¡±

 Chapter 1057 - Cant afford to lose

    <h4>Chapter 1057: Can¡¯t afford to lose</h4>


    Although the streets were bustling with people, they consciously parted ways for Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin to walk towards Fortress 178¡¯s Memorial Bell Square.


    Everyone knew about this tradition. The first thing the futuremander did upon entering the city was to pay tribute to the pioneers who died in battle for Fortress 178.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at the residents on both sides of the street as he walked. He suddenly asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°So do you know what Fortress 178 is fighting for now?¡±


    ¡°More or less.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°But I still haven¡¯t figured out how to protect them and be a good leader for the Northwest yet.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°I was the same as you at the beginning. When the oldmander told me to take over Fortress 178, my mind was in a daze. I was only a medic, so how did I end up bing themander of the Northwest Army?¡±


    ¡°What happened after that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°Later, he locked me up in solitary and told me that I was themander and that I was the only one who could lead everyone to survival. If I didn¡¯t agree to it, he would lock me up forever,¡± Zhang Jinglin recalled. ¡°He even gave me guidance and said he was also not prepared when the previousmander got him to take over. In the end, he was strung up and beaten until he agreed to it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Why were themanders of Fortress 178 all made to take their roles in such a torturous manner?


    When Zhang Jinglin saw that Ren Xiaosu was shocked, he continued with a smile, ¡°Speaking of which, it¡¯s quite strange. None of themanders of Fortress 178 were willing to take their roles at the beginning. It was always the oldmander behaving like a thug and forcing the nextmander to submit to their pick. So in a way, I can be considered the gentlestmander when ites to picking the nextmander. What do you think? Are you touched?¡±


    ¡°Mr. Zhang, you haven¡¯t changed at all.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed emotionally.


    Back at the school in town, Zhang Jinglin would nt vegetables in the yard and even smoke cigarettes. Although he was a decent person, he did not give off an oppressive aura when interacting with others.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°But why did they all have to choose someone unwilling to be themander? There should be a lot of capable people out there.¡±


    ¡°The oldmander once told me that I must choose someone who doesn¡¯t care for the position ofmander. Because themander of Fortress 178 does not need ambition or desire for power,¡± Zhang Jinglin exined.


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised.


    ¡°Because Fortress 178¡¯s duty is to protect. Itsmander definitely must not have any intention of expanding the territory.¡± Zhang Jinglin said in seriousness, ¡°The reason for our existence is these people around us. If this war chariot starts moving for the sake of its own desires one day, Fortress 178 will be on its road to demise. Of course, choosing the fortressmanders this way might not necessarily be right either, but it¡¯s always been done like this in the past. If I make the wrong choice, it won¡¯t be my fault either. It was the oldmander who made me do it this way.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute, why did you suddenly shift the me?!¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned.


    ¡°But even so, you still have to work hard.¡± Zhang Jinglin instructed in seriousness, ¡°Of course, you¡¯re doing great now. I¡¯ve been paying close attention to everything happening at Stronghold 144. Initially, I was worried you couldn¡¯t manage a stronghold since you¡¯re still too young. But the results you¡¯ve shown made me realize I was overthinking things.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°Using the contract responsibility system to stimte everyone¡¯s enthusiasm for reiming the wastnds is the most suitable solution for the entire Northwest. I have to admit you¡¯re much better than when I first took over.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Mr. Zhang, what was it like when you took over Fortress 178?¡±


    ¡°At that time, I only had Fortress 178 to manage, but I was so busy with it. Someone might say they wanted to raise the level ofbat readiness today and expand the number of troops. But tomorrow, someone else would say there wasn¡¯t enough food. In any case, just handling these political matters alone was already like fighting a war.¡± Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°At that time, the Zong Consortium was still secretly causing trouble for Fortress 178. A lot of problems also arose within Fortress 178, but fortunately, they were all resolved. Otherwise, I really couldn¡¯t face the oldmander when I die. However, after experiencing all this, I¡¯ve concluded that no one¡¯s born to be amander. They¡¯ll naturally improve once they get put in that position, and the pressure will make them grow.¡±


    Although Zhang Jinglin made it sound very simple, Ren Xiaosu knew it would definitely be very difficult when the time came for him to take over.


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°You already have your supporters. Many of them are very talented in politics, and you also have a genius militarymander in P5092, so that makes me less worried for you. What I¡¯m more interested in is your Prosperous Northwest 2.0 n. Have you started thinking about the 3.0 n?¡±


    1.0 was about recruiting highly skilled people, such as Wang Yun, P5092, Ji Zi¡¯ang, and others.


    2.0 was to cast a wide and abduct arge number of refugees to support the development of the Northwest. They would start reiming the wastnds and boost their technical talents.


    The progression of the 2.0 n was still rather surprising this time. That was because not all of the refugees were uneducated people. Arge group were former technicians, engineers, university professors, and other highly skilled professionals from the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium. Some of these people even held patents in their names, and this was a very strong supplement to the technological advances of the Northwest.


    For example, a scientist among these refugees was one of the program directors who had researched and developed micro pacemakers, and another was a project leader who led the development of single-use endoscopes.


    Although these talents were not of much help to the war efforts, a growing force should not always be thinking of war exclusively. The most important thing was to go for an all-around development.


    Only those who were truly concerned about the development of their establishments would understand how important such people were.


    Truly, Zhou Qingyang was a fool. He only felt the refugees were a burden, but he never thought there would also be a wealth of talent hidden among them.


    That was why Zhang Jinglin praised the Prosperous Northwest 2.0 n. The ¡°abduction¡± of the refugees this time had really given the Northwest a huge surprise.


    As for 3.0¡­


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said with a wry smile, ¡°I don¡¯t have any ideas for the 3.0 n yet.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine, there¡¯s no hurry.¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°We still have a long way to go.¡±


    The two of them had already walked up to the memorial bell. A huge copper bell hung in the square where 11 tall stone tablets were scattered. They stood for the 11 wars Fortress 178 had participated in.


    Behind the two of them was a dense crowd of Fortress 178 residents. Everyone was watching Zhang Jinglin and Ren Xiaosu¡¯s backs in the square quietly.


    Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°Under this monument are the names of the pioneers who died in the previous wars. The casualties total 279,281. Although the 11 wars left Fortress 178 riddled and down and out, we still emerged victorious every time. Xiaosu, as the currentmander, I actually have nothing much to teach you. But there¡¯s one thing you must remember. Although victory and defeat aremon in war, Fortress 178 must never, ever lose. Look at those people behind watching you with anticipation. You should understand that Fortress 178 can¡¯t afford to lose.¡±


    Behind them were millions to tens of millions of Northwesterners. They really could not afford to lose.


    Everyone said a person had to be brave enough to ept defeat, and that failure was not a big deal. What was more important was whether you had the courage to get up and fight again.


    But it was different for the Northwest. They had to use their courage, determination, wisdom, and even their lives to ensure that the final victory of every war was theirs to im.

 Chapter 1058 - How shameless!

    <h4>Chapter 1058: How shameless!</h4>


    Fortress 178¡¯s memorial bell also bore the responsibility of reporting the time. In an era where watches were not widely avable, the sound of the bell represented the people¡¯s sense of time.


    While Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin were talking, a toon of the garrison troops arrived at the square. They saluted Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin before walking over to the copper bell and striking it seventeen times.


    It was 1700 hours. Everyone used this signal to check their own clocks.


    The loud and melodious sound of the bell reverberated outwards. Ren Xiaosu stood amid the ringing and felt the evening sun¡¯s rays shine down on him.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized there was something particr about the direction the 11 gray stone tablets were facing. Their fronts faced the east, while their backs faced the west. Be it sunrise or sunset, the sun¡¯s rays would always shine down over them.


    Under the afterglow of the sunset, the smooth gray stone tablets seemed to be ted with ayer of golden radiance. It was exceptionally brilliant.


    But when the ringing faded away, Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard someone say, ¡°Is that kid the next fortressmander? He looks a little inexperienced. I wonder if he¡¯s dependable.¡±


    ¡°I think he¡¯s not too bad.¡± Another voice answered, ¡°A few days ago, a couple was chatting in the square, and I overheard them talking about this kid. Apparently, he¡¯s extremely good inbat.¡±


    ¡°Good inbat? I can fight really well too!¡±


    ¡°And what are you? He¡¯s a supernatural being, OK? We didn¡¯t even have supernatural beings during our time!¡±


    ¡°They already existed back then. At that time, the Riders were quite ferocious. Have y¡¯all forgotten? I think there were more than 30 Riders back then. I heard there¡¯s only 12 of them left now?¡±


    ¡°Then can youpare to a Rider? We were just normal folks. Even if we were still alive, we couldn¡¯t defeat this kid.¡±


    ¡°As a fortressmander, what good is it even if he can fight really well? Amander has to rely on his wisdom!¡±


    ¡°Hey, junior, why do you always like talking back to me? I¡¯m more than 40 years older than you, so be polite and don¡¯t keep arguing with your elders!¡±


    ¡°Oh,e off it! We¡¯ve already been buried in the ground. What¡¯s with all that talk about who¡¯s more senior than who? Down here, wepare our military achievements. I¡¯ve sted a sorcerer to death in one shot before, but have you done anything like that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened quietly for a while before looking around in surprise to see who was speaking.


    But after searching for a long time, he realized the residents of Fortress 178 behind him had maintained their silence throughout. They were observing a moment of silence for the martyrs, so nobody made any noise.


    Zhang Jinglin asked, ¡°What¡¯re you looking at? Let¡¯s go to the copper bell and have a look. You should have also heard about it. The bodies of our pioneers who sacrificed themselves on the battlefield are buried outside Fortress 178. But we¡¯ll bring back one of their teeth and bury it under the copper bell together tomemorate them. Of course, it also implies their spirits will continue to protect thisnd with their passion and bravery.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard the word ¡°spirits,¡± his expression turned strange.


    He heard a faint voice say, ¡°Alright, enough chatting. That kid Zhang Jinglin is bringing another kid over. Let¡¯s talk after they¡¯re done paying their respects and leave.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯re you afraid of? It¡¯s not like they can hear us anyway.¡±


    The voices were very noisy due to the cross talk. Ren Xiaosu had to listen very hard before he could discern what they were saying.


    The closer Ren Xiaosu got to the copper bell, the stranger his expression became.


    However, he did not say anything and just bowed deeply before leaving with Zhang Jinglin.


    Before leaving, someone under the copper bell said, ¡°Eh, why do I feel like that kid can hear what we¡¯re saying?¡±


    ¡°Bullshit, how can he possibly hear us when we¡¯re separated by the spiritual ne?¡±


    ¡°But when the fourth eldest Li was cracking hisme jokes just now, I saw the corners of that boy¡¯s mouth twitching!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t think too deeply into it. That kid¡¯s nerve endings are probably damaged or something. That¡¯s why his mouth was twitching!¡±


    After Ren Xiaosu left with Zhang Jinglin, he suddenly asked, ¡°Mr. Zhang, when are we setting off to the outposts?¡±


    ¡°At 0600 hours. We¡¯ll start walking for 41 kilometers to get to the first outpost.¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°Our journey this time will be very long, but it will be very meaningful.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, alright.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at the copper bell behind him before following Zhang Jinglin to his temporary amodation.


    After 10 PM, the bell would not be struck anymore to signal the time until 6 AM the next morning. This was so it would not disturb everyone¡¯s rest.


    At 2 AM, Ren Xiaosu quietly climbed out of the guest house¡¯s window and headed towards the copper bell stealthily.


    When his figure arrived at the square, those faint voices rang out again. ¡°Eh, look, why is that kid sneaking back? What does he want?¡±


    ¡°Has hee back to pay his respects to us again? Did our heroic deeds move him?¡±


    ¡°Stop being such a narcissist. I think he has some other motive!¡±


    ¡°Wait, do y¡¯all remember what I said this afternoon? I think he might be able to hear us!¡±


    In that instant, all of themotion the martyred spirits were creating immediately stopped. Everyone watched quietly as Ren Xiaosu walked over step by step, hoping to see what he would do.


    Ren Xiaosu walked up to the copper bell and said with augh, ¡°I can indeed hear y¡¯all talking.¡±


    At almost the same moment, the voices under the copper bell suddenly started stirring again. ¡°See, I told you so!¡±


    ¡°Fuck!¡±


    ¡°Can this kid really hear us? How bizarre!¡±


    ¡°Is this kid a human or a ghost?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, everyone, be serious. He can hear us!¡±


    In that instant, all of the voices disappeared again.


    Finally, a deep voice asked, ¡°How is it that you can hear us?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and exined, ¡°It¡¯s probably because I have a power that allows me tomunicate with martyred spirits. But I¡¯m also very surprised that your spirits have remained here all this time.¡±


    ¡°Actually, our spirits should have dissipated. But for some reason, as more and more people came to pay their respects to us, the faith that had gathered here grew and our consciousnesses gradually awakened. At first, everyone thought it was very boring to remain here. Butter, we started thinking it was quite interesting. We were all very satisfied to see Fortress 178¡¯s days getting better and better.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So it was the spontaneous act of Fortress 178¡¯s residents paying their respects that kept these martyred spirits around?


    This could even happen?!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Then are y¡¯all interested in ing back to life¡¯? My power is called the Martyr¡¯s Pce. After you ept my summons, you can exist in the form of energy and make physical contact with other people. You can also continue to protect Fortress 178 this way.¡±


    However, that deep voice rejected Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You want so many of us to listen to themands of a young child like you? Are you kidding? How old are you? Do you know how old we are?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°How old is the oldest one among you?¡±


    ¡°191!¡± The deep voice said, ¡°I joined the military in the early days of the stronghold. You want me to take orders from a child like you? Dream on! How old are you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow and said, ¡°I¡¯m over 200 years old, any problem?¡±


    The martyred spirits were confused.


    <i>¡®Doesn¡¯t matter whether I¡¯m telling the truth or not, just know that I¡¯m older than you!</i>¡®


    ¡°Ptui! Brat, you¡¯re way too fucking shameless!¡±


    ¡°Ptui, ptui, ptui!¡±


    ¡°Ptui, ptui, ptui, ptui, ptui!¡±


    ¡°Get lost!¡±


    ¡°Kid, you¡¯re way too shameless!¡±


    The deep voice interrupted the others again and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Kid, take a hike already.. Stop trying to take advantage of us!¡±

 Chapter 1059 - How mean!

    <h4>Chapter 1059: How mean!</h4>


    With over 200,000 martyred soldiersid to rest under the copper bell at the memorial square, probably no one could have expected such a situation.


    The stronghold residents who came to pay their respects to the martyred soldiers could not have expected the dead to actually be able to hear what they were saying.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not care about that now. He only thought that if he could convince all these martyred spirits to enter his Martyr¡¯s Pce, he could probably do anything he wanted across the entire Alliance of Strongholds.


    Even the Wang Consortium, which hadunched an all-out war and recalled their veterans, only had about 200,000 troops now.


    However, just as Luo Lan had mentioned before, the contract between the user and those who resided in the Martyr¡¯s Pce was an equal one. Even if you summoned the other party, there was nothing you could do if they did not ept your summon.


    Amid themotion, a martyred spirit suddenly said, ¡°What¡¯s with that kid Zhang Jinglin? He actually chose such a dishonest boy to be the nextmander?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he said unhappily, ¡°Who¡¯re you calling dishonest? How can you speak to your elder like that?¡±


    When the martyred spirits heard Ren Xiaosu say that, they nearly vomited on the spot. ¡°You even believe your own lies now? Can you be any more shameless than that?¡±


    The martyred spirits¡¯ form of address for Zhang Jinglin had always been ¡°that kid,¡± so who could tolerate it now that someone was suddenly trying to pass off as their elder?


    ¡°Kid, I can tell at a nce that you¡¯re extremely devious!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, this kid is full of tricks. He even tricked us into telling our age to him first!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, ¡°Are y¡¯all serious? I heard everything you were saying among yourselves earlier. Tell me, how are y¡¯all more serious than me? The one who said that there was a pretty youngdy on the street,e forward! You¡¯re already resting in the ground, yet you¡¯re still checking out young women all day long. Perverts! Out with it! Have y¡¯all also peeped on someone taking a shower?!¡±


    The martyred spirits flew into a rage. ¡°We only looked at her when she passed by. Do you think we¡¯re that dirty? Would we do something like that?! Besides, we can¡¯t leave this square at all!¡±


    ¡°Who knows if that¡¯s true?¡± Ren Xiaosu curled his lips.


    Ren Xiaosu did not want to keep bickering with these martyred spirits. Instead, he said patiently, ¡°Who can you protect by staying here? If the enemy really attacks, y¡¯all can only watch the fight from the sidelines. If those fucking sorcerers be much stronger and Fortress 178 gets razed to the ground, no one wille andmemorate you anymore, and y¡¯all will vanish forever, understand?¡±


    The martyred spirits gradually fell silent. Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°Look, back then, all y¡¯all used to fight that group of sorcerers from beyond the Northwest. If y¡¯all settle down in my Martyr¡¯s Pce instead, I¡¯ll lead y¡¯all in eliminating them. Isn¡¯t that much more satisfying?¡±


    However, the martyred spirits did not buy it. ¡°We¡¯ve already had our fair share of battles, so stop trying to bullshit us. Once we go into your Martyr¡¯s Pce, we¡¯ll be under your control. Even if it were the old fortressmanders saying that to us, we wouldn¡¯t agree, much less you, a candidate to be fortressmander!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu realized he could not convince the martyred spirits, he gave up.


    Seeing that these over 200,000 martyred spirits were unwilling to join him, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s heart ached a little.


    However, he could not force them either. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Alright, gentlemen, rest up. I¡¯ll be leaving then!¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± The deep voice from before said, ¡°Kid,e back here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and wondered, ¡°Anything else the matter?!¡±


    ¡°Um¡­ tell us in detail what¡¯s been happening in the Northwest recently,¡± the deep voice said.


    The martyred spirits had been cooped up under the copper bell for too long. Although the 200,000-odd of them could chat among themselves to relieve their boredom, they were getting tired of talking to each other after nearly 200 years.


    Moreover, they could not get out from under the copper bell. Some of the people who came to pay their respects would talk about thetest happenings in the Northwest, but the problem was that no one would tell them about the events in detail.


    Sometimes, when a major event urred in the Northwest, such as the destruction of the Zong Consortium, which had always annoyed them, people would evene over with the day¡¯s newspaper to show them how powerful Fortress 178¡¯s Northwest Army was.


    During such times, all of the 200,000-odd martyred spirits would squeeze together to read the newspaper. But before they could finish reading, the people who came to pay their respects would start burning the papers.


    In the minds of those who came to pay their respects, the dead would get their hands on the newspapers if they burned them. Therefore, burning the newspapers was done out of goodwill for the dead.


    But the martyred spirits were very angry. Once the newspapers were burnt, they could not read them anymore.


    They felt especially peeved when they were halfway through reading the newspaper and it got burnt by the people who came to pay respects to them. It was simply too maddening.


    Whenever this happened, everyone would start quarreling for as long as a month over what might have been written in thetter half of the newspaper.


    To prevent such incidents from happening all the time, everyone purposely split the workload. One group would read the first half of the first page, while another group would read the second half. After that, yet another group would read the second page, then the third page, and so on.


    Only by doing so could they piece together all the contents of a newspaper.


    Although the process sounded very interesting, they often made mistakes when piecing together the newspaper¡¯s content. Once there were any errors, they would start ming each other and argue endlessly.


    If they could buy their own newspapers, they would definitely not want to go through such a tiring process!


    And the problem was that it wasn¡¯t every day that people came to burn newspapers for them to ¡°read.¡± Such events would only ur once every couple weeks.


    Therefore, the martyred spirits were particrly curious to know about what was happening in the rest of the world.


    ¡°Kid, tell us about what happened in the Northwest recently,¡± the deep voice said again.


    Ren Xiaosu grunted an affirmation and smirked.


    He turned around and sat down at the copper bell. ¡°There¡¯s still four or five hours until dawn. I¡¯ll tell y¡¯all all about it.¡±


    When the martyred spirits saw this, they immediately perked up. It had to be known that they had not interacted with ¡°outsiders¡± in a long time. Now that someone who could talk to them had appeared, it was equivalent to them suddenly gaining an additional channel tomunicate with the outside world!


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°If we¡¯re talking about changes in the Northwest, we¡¯ll have to start with the Zong Consortium. One day, Wang Shengzhi, the current head of the Wang Consortium, personally came to the Northwest to pay a visit to Mr. Zhang Jinglin in hopes of reopening the trade route. However, the Zong Consortium tried to mess with the ns by allowing bandits in the valley to cut off Fortress 178¡¯s path and iste them from the rest of the world. It¡¯s been 16 years since thest war happened in the Northwest. Mr. Zhang is worried that the foreign enemies beyond the Northwest have grown stronger. If Fortress 178 does not seek further development, they might not be able to stop them anymore. So he made up his mind and decided to eradicate the Zong Consortium, that cancerous tumor of the Northwest¡­.¡±


    ¡°We already know about that. So what happened afterwards?¡± the deep voice asked.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Then I¡¯ll tell y¡¯all about the chaos going on in the Central ins. When I first got to the Central ins, they were suddenly invaded by barbarians from the Far North, and Stronghold 176 crumbled like a house of cards under their attacks.¡±


    The martyred spirits said in unison, ¡°Yes, yes! Tell us about that! Previously, a kid came to offer us newspapers and burnt it too fucking quickly. He burned the newspapers before we could even get to read the contents, so we don¡¯t know the details of that incident.¡±


    ¡°Details?¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°If y¡¯all want to hear the details, please join me for the next session. Alright, it¡¯s gettingte. I¡¯ll be heading back to sleep.¡±


    Then Ren Xiaosu left.


    The angry roars of the martyred spirits could be hearding from behind him. ¡°You fucking asshole! And I was wondering why you were suddenly kind enough to share stories with us. So you were deliberately trying to pique our curiosity and leave us hanging!¡±


    ¡°How fucking mean! How did such an asshole suddenly be a choice for themander of the Northwest Army?!¡±

 Chapter 1060 - I underestimated his terribleness

    <h4>Chapter 1060: I underestimated his terribleness</h4>


    There was amotion in the square, but other than Ren Xiaosu, no one could hear it.


    After a long time, the deep voice suddenly said, ¡°Although that kid is a little mean, I find him quite interesting. After all, there¡¯s no use being humble in this chaotic world. Instead, it¡¯s only by being meaner that he can lead the survival of Fortress 178.¡±


    As the martyred spirits slowly calmed down, one of them suddenly said, ¡°Fortress Commander Li, do you think that kid is qualified to be themander?¡±


    The deep-voiced Commander Li replied, ¡°I think he¡¯s not too bad. Back when my oldmander reprimanded me, he always said I was too honest. If I had used clemency and morality when dealing with the enemy, I would have led all of our Fortress 178¡¯s soldiers to their deaths. At first, I didn¡¯t understand why he said that. Butter, I realized that he was right. Because our enemies won¡¯t talk about such morals with you.¡±


    ¡°Alright, since Commander Li says so, there must be a reason for it,¡± the martyred spirits said.


    ¡°However,¡± Commander Li suddenly changed the subject and said, ¡°I¡¯m a little worried about the next kid who¡¯ll take over from that kid. Although it¡¯s still too early to talk about this now, based on the tradition passed down by our Fortress 178manders, we must find someone who isn¡¯t willing to be themander. Then the sittingmander will force the futuremander to ept the role. From this tradition, and with his assholishness, his sessor will definitely be miserable¡­.¡±


    ¡°Commander Li, you still have a mind to care about that?¡± The martyred spirits said, ¡°We¡¯re only fucking concerned about when that kid will finish telling us the rest of the stories!¡±


    The next morning, Ren Xiaosu woke up feeling refreshed. He packed his belongings and got ready to follow Zhang Jinglin to the outposts on foot.


    However, Xu Xianchu came to inform Ren Xiaosu that their agenda for the day had been canceled at thest minute. As Commander Zhang had other, more important matters to attend to, the n to visit the outposts would have to be dyed for a few days.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll just walk around the stronghold for the next few days then.¡±


    He thought to himself that it must be something very important if Zhang Jinglin had to revise his schedule. Moreover, Xu Xianchu did not tell him the specifics, so it showed it was highly confidential.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can I ask what matter held him up?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know either.¡± Xu Xianchu said with augh, ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that. I really don¡¯t know. To ensure absolute secrecy of the matter, Commander Zhang doesn¡¯t even use anymunications equipment or satellite phones tomunicate with his colleagues who are carrying out this mission.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered what was going on. After all, Xu Xianchu was usually responsible for protecting Zhang Jinglin. If someone this close to him did not even know what was going on, wouldn¡¯t the matter be the toppest of top secret?


    What could it be?


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not a busybody. He would find out sooner orter if it was something he should know about.


    Moreover, it suited his ns as well that Zhang Jinglin had something to attend to at thest minute.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>Didn¡¯t I just get to know a group of friends? I should take this opportunity to improve my rtionship with them!</i>¡®


    After Xu Xianchu left, Ren Xiaosu became the person with the most free time in Fortress 178. He put on his cap and headed out. He had done so in case too many people recognized him. Ever since he walked down the long boulevard yesterday, probably a third of the people in Fortress 178 knew what he looked like now.


    Ren Xiaosu headed straight for the memorial square. When he got there, he was surprised to see a young man standing under the copper bell with a newspaper in hand.


    When he got closer, he heard the moring voices of the martyred spirits. ¡°Group One, read the first half of the first page. Group Two, read the second half of the first page. Groups Three and Four, you¡¯re on standby. Everyone, you mustplete your mission before the target finishes burning the newspaper!¡±


    ¡°Got it!¡±


    ¡°Got it!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll definitelyplete the mission!¡±


    ¡°Send me for the first battle! I¡¯ll definitely get it done!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. Why did reading a newspaper suddenly sound like they were fighting a battle? He seriously suspected the 200,000-odd martyred spirits had fully organized themselves for this. They might even have formed an organized army.


    If that were the case, as long as he could summon the martyred spirits into the Martyr¡¯s Pce, they would instantly be a fully operationalbat force.


    Moreover, some of the martyred spirits had already been together for nearly 200 years, with the shortest being 16 years. Such tacit understanding among a group was probably not something any other military unit could match.


    But a martyred spirit suddenly said, ¡°Wait! Look, that asshole has actually returned!¡±


    The deep-voiced Commander Li ordered, ¡°Ignore him! Let¡¯s finish reading the newspaper first!¡±


    At this moment, the young man holding the newspaper looked at the copper bell and said, ¡°Sirs, a new round of conscription has started. I¡¯ve passed my physical, so we¡¯ll berades soon. Do y¡¯all know that the Northwest is flourishing? This is the prosperous era that y¡¯all wished for. I¡¯ll also protect this fortress with my life like y¡¯all did.¡±


    The reason the people of Fortress 178 burned newspapers to the martyred spirits was because everyone hoped these pioneers would also learn about it in the underworld whenever something good happened in the Northwest.


    A brazier was ced in the memorial square to be used for burning newspapers, and it was even cleaned regrly. This could also be considered a tradition of Fortress 178.


    At this moment, the martyred spirits said with a smile, ¡°This child has potential. He might even be apanymander in the future.¡±


    ¡°I think he can be a brigademander!¡±


    ¡°He might even be the fortressmander. Hurry up and rece that asshole!¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute, that mean kid is walking over!¡±


    ¡°What does he want?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out a torch from somewhere and said to the young man, ¡°Let me help you with that.¡±


    The young man recognized Ren Xiaosu. ¡°F-Future Commander?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ve just arrived at Fortress 178 and haven¡¯t been able to do anything for our pioneers yet, so let me help you burn this newspaper. May I?¡±


    The young man looked at the futuremander¡¯s sincere expression and said emotionally, ¡°Sure.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu took the newspaper from the young man.


    The young man had only brought a box of matches with him. With the speed at which he could burn the newspaper with the matches, the martyred spirits could still have memorized all the newspaper¡¯s contents. After all, all of them had already gone through so much training.


    But it would bepletely different if it was a torch.


    When the martyred spirits saw the torch in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand, they were shocked. ¡°Kid, stop right there!¡±


    ¡°Fuck!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve underestimated how horrible he can be¡­¡±


    When the martyred spirits saw the rapidly zing mes, they despaired.


    After the young man left, Ren Xiaosu suddenlyughed. ¡°Alright, you don¡¯t have to start criticizing me that quickly. I was just kidding with y¡¯all. I bought today¡¯s Hope Media newspaper so that y¡¯all can take your time and read it slowly.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out a newspaper from his storage space and ced it neatly on the ground. Then he sat down next to the newspaper to protect it from getting blown away by the wind..

 Chapter 1061 - A different perspective

    <h4>Chapter 1061: A different perspective</h4>


    ¡°Would this kid be kind enough to specially buy a copy of the newspapers for us to read?¡± The martyred spirits did not believe it. But with the newspaper ced in front of them, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s innocent smile made him look like a good person.


    It had been a long time since they had properly read a newspaper. The proficiency in dividing up their reading as though they were fighting a battle could finally take a step back today.


    Thinking of this, the martyred spirits were actually a little touched.


    But before they could start reading, they heard Ren Xiaosu kneel and point at the newspaper on the ground. ¡°Look at this article from Hope Media. The guardian angel of Luoyang City in the report refers to me. That battle was really earth-shattering. It was like the entire city was filled with enemies¡­


    ¡°And look at this one. It reports that I led the 6th Combat Brigade of the Northwest Army in battle against the northern barbarians at Mt. Zuoyun. That battle was also very tough. We used 6,000 people to hold back 72,000 of the enemy¡¯s troops. Of course, my wise leadership definitely can¡¯t be discounted in that¡­


    ¡°Now, take a look at this interrogation report. It mentions how I avenged someone and upheld justice for them¡­¡±


    As the martyred spirits read on, they realized that something was off. The news articles were not from today at all. Instead, they had beenpiled from many different days of newspapers and put into one copy.


    And themon point linking these news articles was that they were all praising Ren Xiaosu!


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Everyone, read up on these newspapers, and you¡¯ll understand how reliable I am. Y¡¯all should¡¯ve also heard of Hope Media before. They¡¯re very fair and their reporting can¡¯t be wrong. If you follow a wise and mightymander of the Northwest like me, I guarantee that I¡¯ll bring y¡¯all to a ce outside the Northwest to wipe out the Magi!¡±


    The martyred spirits nearly vomited when they heard that. ¡°You¡¯re not even the Northwest¡¯smander yet. And even if you were, you can forget about trying to dupe us into bing your private army!¡±


    ¡°Kid, how shameless and narcissistic are you topile all these news articles praising you?¡±


    ¡°Just give up already!¡±


    ¡°Hurry up and hand over today¡¯s newspaper!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. Why were these spirits so difficult to convince?


    Honestly speaking, he was really tempted by the sight of all these martyred spirits. There were simply too many of them. If he had them in his Martyr¡¯s Pce, what could possibly stop him?


    What was the point of waiting for the Magi to attack Fortress 178? He would probably be able to tten them all by himself!


    What did it mean to have over 200,000 mobile machine gunners that could not be taken down? Not even a god would be a match for him, to say nothing of a sorcerer.


    But in the face of this group of martyred spirits, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s charm was indeed not enough to convince them.


    If it were the soldiers of the 6th Combat Brigade, they would probably have already followed Ren Xiaosu. But the key point was that these spirits had never fought alongside Ren Xiaosu before, so there was no foundation for them to trust him.


    ¡°Forget it, I can¡¯t force y¡¯all.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Do y¡¯all want to read today¡¯s newspaper?¡±


    The martyred spirits hooted, ¡°Kid, cut the crap and hand over the newspaper.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± With that, Ren Xiaosu took out today¡¯s newspaper and tore it in half. He took one half with him and left the other half for them to read.


    He had torn the newspaper horizontally, so the martyred spirits could only read half of every news article.


    ¡°You asshole, get back here!¡±


    ¡°Fuck!¡±


    ¡°How did our Northwest Army get involved with such an asshole¡­¡±


    As it was still daytime, it was not convenient for Ren Xiaosu to stay too long at the memorial square. After all, it would be quite strange if the residents saw him talking to himself down here.


    So he only came here for a while every day to quarrel with the martyred spirits before leaving ¡°half¡± a copy of the day¡¯s newspaper for them and going off.


    The martyred spirits were totally speechless. Although they were finally able to enjoy reading the newspapers every day, they might as well not fucking read anything at all!


    Moreover, talk of Ren Xiaosuing to the memorial square every day with newspapers was gradually spreading.


    As they passed by the memorial square, the residents would asionally start discussing, ¡°Ever since the futuremander came to Fortress 178, he¡¯s beening here every day to honor the pioneers. It seems like he truly respects the elders a lot.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, our Northwest¡¯s futuremander is skilled inbat, is a moral and upright character, and is also sentimental. It¡¯s really a blessing to our Northwest that we have him!¡±


    ¡°If the martyrs knew about this in the afterlife, they would definitely be very happy!¡±


    But when the martyred spirits heard the words of these passersby, they felt a stab in their hearts. They roared, ¡°That kid isn¡¯t here to honor us at all!¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s just trying to spite us!¡±


    ¡°Open your eyes. Y¡¯all need to see his true colors!¡±


    But no matter how hard they roared, the residents of Fortress 178 were destined not to hear theirints.


    Of course, when there was no one around at midnight, the martyred spirits would asionally talk about other things as well. Commander Li suddenly asked, ¡°Y¡¯all¡¯ve also read the news articles regarding that kid. How about everyone share their views?¡±


    ¡°The news articles did not specifically mention his military leadership ability, so it shouldn¡¯t be that great. However, the report about the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun mentioned that he has someone who¡¯s a genius at military leadership. That genius should be his trusted aide.¡±


    ¡°Holding back 70,000 enemies for a fortnight with just 6,000 troops, I don¡¯t think manymanders in the past could do that either.¡±


    ¡°Disregarding other things, just reading that interrogation report shows that kid¡¯sbat strength is really impressive. He can be considered the ceiling in our Northwest Army¡¯s history.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true. With amander like that, there won¡¯t be any fear of him getting assassinated during a war.¡±


    All of a sudden, one of the martyred spirits said, ¡°Have y¡¯all ever thought about what it would be like if he were to die in battle one day and his mr was brought to the memorial square and we couldn¡¯t defeat him¡­¡±


    When he said that, all of the martyred spirits gasped. They had not considered this problem from this perspective before.


    Right now, they were all criticizing Ren Xiaosu for being a bad person. When it was his turn to be buried in the memorial square as well, would there be a day of peace for them with how mean he was? That situation was simply unimaginable!


    ¡°Although I¡¯m a little indignant about this, I wish that kid a long life and that he dies of natural causes. He had better not die on the battlefield and be memorialized as a martyr.¡±


    Under normal circumstances, those who did not die on the battlefield would not have their mrs brought here to be buried.


    Commander Li asked again, ¡°What do y¡¯all think of his suggestion?¡±


    ¡°Commander Li, are you referring to joining him to go wipe out the Magi?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Commander Li said.


    ¡°How does Commander feel?¡±


    Commander Li said, ¡°Although I also want to seek revenge on those sorcerers and let the people in the Northwest live in peace, I think it¡¯s better to watch and wait a little longer. After all, once we ept his summons, we¡¯ll be his own private army. If he gets too arrogant someday and wants to expand his territory, it won¡¯t be in line with the beliefs that our Northwest has always stood for.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll listen to Commander Li¡¯s wishes. Let¡¯s ignore him for now!¡±


    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s keep watching and waiting!¡±

 Chapter 1062 - Reading newspapers aloud

    <h4>Chapter 1062: Reading newspapers aloud</h4>


    To the martyred spirits, even though they had quarreled with Ren Xiaosu and were angry with him, they still acknowledged he was the futuremander of the Northwest Army. They never denied he represented the future of the Northwest.


    So after everyone calmed down from their anger, they seriously considered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s suggestion.


    But just as Commander Li had said, it would be really difficult to say where the future of the Northwesty if these more than 200,000-strong martyred army were to be a single person¡¯s private army.


    Therefore, no one would make such an important decision so hastily.


    In the following days, Ren Xiaosu continueding to the memorial square daily to tear up newspapers. Meanwhile, the martyred spirits continued cursing him angrily as usual.


    Many of the stronghold residents were touched by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s persistence in honoring the departed spirits. Gradually, some people even followed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s example and came to the memorial square every day.


    Of course, it was basically just the elderly who had enough free time to do so.


    At the beginning, the martyred spirits scolded Ren Xiaosu for being shameless. Butter, they realized that as more and more people came to pay their respects each day, their willpower started bing stronger.


    As a matter of fact, they were only able to remain in the world because the Northwesterners held them in their memories. This showed they were directly affected when ordinary people came to pay their respects andmemorate them.


    It had only been a short time, so they could tell what the effects were. However, it should at least be an improvement.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to continue leading this leisurely life, Xu Xianchu suddenly came to inform Ren Xiaosu that Commander Zhang¡¯s matter was handled and that they would set off for the outposts tomorrow.


    Ren Xiaosu regretted it a little that he still did not manage to ¡°abduct¡± the 200,000-odd martyred spirits in the end.


    At 6 o¡¯clock the next morning, Zhang Jinglin was waiting for him at the memorial square. Zhang Jinglin had changed into his military uniform and was carrying a field pack as he stood in the thin fog of the morning.


    Ren Xiaosu went up to him and said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ve never seen Mr. Zhang dressed like this before. What are you carrying in the field pack?¡±


    ¡°Our tour on foot will go on for two months, so I packed some clothes and food for the journey,¡± Zhang Jinglin answered. ¡°You didn¡¯t bring anything with you?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Heading out into the wilderness is no different from going home for me.¡±


    ¡°Alright,¡± Zhang Jinglin said with a nod.


    ¡°But Mr. Zhang, shouldn¡¯t you be bringing some bodyguards with you?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you afraid that you¡¯ll encounter danger when we head out of the Northwest¡¯s territory?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said calmly, ¡°With the Stronghold Destroyer by my side, what¡¯s there to be afraid of?¡±


    ¡°True,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    The two of them set off from the memorial square. There was no one to see them off, nor did anyone bear witness to all of this.


    Only Ren Xiaosu knew the 200,000-odd martyred spirits were staring intently at them as they watched them leave the square.


    ¡°By the way,¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°I heard you¡¯ve beening to honor the Northwest Army¡¯s pioneers at the copper bell every day recently? Why¡¯s that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and gazed at the memorial square behind him. Then he said in seriousness, ¡°Because I admire the spirit of the pioneers who sacrificed themselves for the Northwest. Mr. Zhang, you also know that I¡¯m a rather selfish person. So I couldn¡¯t help but be moved when I heard about their glorious deeds. During this period, I¡¯ve beening to talk to them every day. I feel as though they are protecting me by my side. I¡¯ve had a very fulfilling time and feel really safe knowing what they¡¯ve done.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin was stunned. He did not expect Ren Xiaosu to answer this way. In his impression, Ren Xiaosu did not seem like someone who would be moved by the mention of glorious deeds.


    However, he believed this was a good thing. Ever since Ren Xiaosu returned to the Northwest this time, he constantly managed to surprise him.


    Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°How thoughtful of you.¡±


    But as Zhang Jinglin was feeling gratified, the entire square was filled with voices inaudible to normal people.


    ¡°Ptui!¡±


    ¡°Ptui, ptui, ptui!¡±


    ¡°That kid doesn¡¯t even blush when saying something like that in front of us!¡±


    ¡°How shameless!¡±


    ¡°Zhang Jinglin, open your eyes and take a good look. That kid is not a good person at all! He¡¯s absolutely evil!¡±


    The martyred spirits suddenly experienced the emotion they felt when listening to storytellers¡¯ tales in the past. For example, hearing a story about a treacherous minister pretending to be a loyal servant and trying to plot against the good, the audience all knew the man was a bad guy. However, the protagonist did not. As such, they really wanted to plunge straight into the story and warn the protagonist to get a clear look at the treacherous minister.


    As Zhang Jinglin and Ren Xiaosu walked farther and farther away, the martyred spirits became dejected. ¡°Do y¡¯all think that if we get summoned to the Martyr¡¯s Pce by that kid we¡¯ll be able to beat him up physically? If that¡¯s the case, I¡¯m willing to ept his summon!¡±


    ¡°Me too!¡±


    ¡­


    The sun rose from the east and shone brightly across the entire Northwest.


    When the sun started setting, the afterglow of the evening cast a golden glow over the memorial square like golden feathers carpeting the ground.


    At 7 PM, a 13-year-old boy suddenly came to the square with a newspaper in hand. Then he found a ce to sit down and started reading the newspaper word for word.


    ¡°May 28th: The Wang Consortium¡¯s army broke through the Zhou Consortium¡¯s northern defensive line and sessfully took Stronghold 71, which was abandoned by the Zhou Consortium. Around five PM, the Wang Consortium¡¯s army advanced south again, and it is estimated they will arrive at Stronghold 73 by the following day¡­


    ¡°The reforms introduced in the Northwest have brought about a prosperous scene in the territory. In the past, no one was willing to farm. But now, thends there have be a treasure trove of resources, and the people are living in peace and contentment¡­¡±


    The martyred spirits under the copper bell found it a little strange. Why was this little boy suddenly reading a newspaper in the square? What was going on?


    But they had no time to think too much about it. Since someone was reading the news to them, they just had to listen.


    Surely this was better than all of them rushing to read the newspaper like they were at war, right?


    For the next seven days, the little boy came to the memorial square every day. It wasn¡¯t until he finished reading the newspaper that he left. The martyred spirits started looking forward to 7 o¡¯clock every evening. In their eyes, the normal-looking little boy was even starting to look very cute.


    In the opinion of the martyred spirits, the child was probably the cutest person in the entire Northwest.


    But they were all very curious as to why a child would suddenlye and read newspapers to them. Could it be that he was practicing public speaking?


    On the seventh day, a middle-aged woman suddenly came to the square. When she saw the child, she asked curiously, ¡°Son, what are you doing here?¡±


    When the little boy saw that his mother hade over, he seemed a little flustered. ¡°N-Nothing much.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯re you holding in your hand?¡± The middle-aged woman snatched the newspaper from the child and asked him suspiciously, ¡°Why are you carrying today¡¯s newspaper? Where did you get it from? Did you pick it up?¡±


    A copy of Hope Media¡¯s newspaper cost two yuan, but the child¡¯s monthly allowance was only ten yuan. Therefore, she did not believe her son had bought it himself.


    The child hesitated for a moment before replying, ¡°I bought it.¡±


    ¡°You bought it? Where¡¯d you get the money from?¡± The middle-aged woman was stunned.


    ¡°The futuremander gave me the money.¡± The child exined, ¡°He said that as long as Ie over and read aloud the newspaper every day, he¡¯ll give me 300 yuan in pocket money each month. If I can persevere every day, he¡¯ll give me an additional 1,000 yuan after a year! However, he had some conditions. I can¡¯te over during ss time, so I have to wait until school is over ande in the evening. He also requested that I score over 90% in every subject in school. I¡¯ll only get that additional 1,000 yuan if I can satisfy his conditions.¡±


    The middle-aged woman was stunned. Her house was located right next to the guest house. She owned a smallundry shop there, so the futuremander would send his clothes over to be washed every day. During this period, he and her son had gotten acquainted.


    But she did not expect the futuremander to make this sort of deal with her son before setting off.


    The middle-aged woman was stunned for a while. ¡°I was wondering why you¡¯ve beening home sote these past few days. I thought you were outside ying. Did the futuremander say why he made you do this?¡±


    The child answered, ¡°I also asked him why he wanted me to read newspapers aloud in the memorial square. He said that the martyrs had died to protect our homes, so they have the right to know how prosperous it has be now. He said it was what they deserved.¡±


    The middle-aged woman thought for a moment before patting her son¡¯s head with a smile. ¡°You could¡¯ve just told us. Would your father and I have stopped you if that was true? From now on, you can return home for dinner after you finish reading the newspaper every day. I¡¯ll start making dinner an hourter than usual..¡±

 Chapter 1063 - 178 outposts

    <h4>Chapter 1063: 178 outposts</h4>


    Before this, Ren Xiaosu had never gone anywhere farther west of Fortress 178.


    The territory beyond the fortress was not as deste as he had imagined. As Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin walked through the wilderness, they even saw a lot of people from the Northwest farming and herding.


    Zhang Jinglin exined, ¡°The factories all fall within the protection zone of the fortress. When you traveled here from Stronghold 144, you should¡¯ve noticed those factories. But farming and herding are still more suitable to be done farther out in the Northwest. The purpose of the outposts¡¯ cement is not only to inform the fortress in advance to prepare for battle but also to buy time for theseborers to evacuate.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded silently. Fortress 178 was built in a unique environment where there were very few ces to farm and raise livestock. Therefore, they had to make full use of whatevernd they had to carry out these activities.


    He suddenly asked, ¡°When did it be the practice for those who were chosen as the next fortressmander to travel to all the outposts?¡±


    ¡°Since a long, long time ago,¡± Zhang Jinglin said peacefully. ¡°It¡¯s very tough at the outposts. Some of the soldiers have lived there for many years. In the summer, they get exposed to the sweltering sun, and in the winter, the roads get blocked and resources be scarce. There can be five or six people at the more important outposts, so it doesn¡¯t get too lonely there. But there¡¯s also some outposts that are only manned by two people, so they have to endure the loneliness while on duty.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°Meanwhile, the fortressmander will, of course, remainfortable behind the fortress walls. But you need to understand that the 178 outposts bear the most dangerous responsibility in war and the experiences they go through. Just as I had posted you to the Razor Sharp Company, it¡¯s only by going to the most dangerous ces that you can understand the significance of every decision you¡¯ll make. Only those who have risked their lives with everyone else are qualified to be the fortressmander.¡±


    As a matter of fact, the reason why Fortress 178 was able to attract Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attention was probably because of this humanist culture.


    Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°Moreover, this has a psychological effect. I don¡¯t know if you can understand, but hardworking people will subconsciously have a disdain forzy people. If a fortressmander has been in the Razor Sharp Company and visited all the outposts before, he¡¯ll despise the cowardly andzy bureaucrats from the bottom of his heart. I didn¡¯t recognize it at the beginning, butter, I realized if I discovered anymanders who shirked from their duties, I would instinctively say, ¡®Think about the soldiers at the outposts suffering from loneliness and then think about ourrades who risk their lives on the front lines. Aren¡¯t you ashamed of yourself acting this way?''¡±


    ¡°All in all, this is a tradition to make the fortressmander understand what the responsibility of leadership is,¡± Zhang Jinglin said.


    Touring the outposts and joining the Razor Sharp Company was a unique inauguration ceremony.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu did not quite understand at the beginning either. Since he was a candidate for the fortressmander¡¯s position, what if he had actually died while he was serving in the Razor Sharp Company? After all, in a battle order like the Razor Sharp Company, it would be quite normal if less than 10% of thepany survived.


    Meanwhile, it would usually take up to two months to tour all the outposts, and the futuremander even had to be apanied by the currentmander when doing so. Wouldn¡¯t there be a fear that something could go wrong during this time?


    But now he realized Fortress 178¡¯s tradition was to choose a capable candidate from the most difficult path to shoulder the fate of the entire Northwest.


    While Ren Xiaosu was ¡°abducting¡± the refugees for the Prosperous Northwest 2.0 n, the Great Hoodwinker had told him about his days when he was serving in an outpost.


    The Great Hoodwinker said that when he was stationed at the outpost, his job after waking up was not to stay at the outpost but to bear arms and go out on patrol.


    In winter, he would carry a gun as he trekked along the mountain paths for the entire day. He would set off before dawn, and by the time he returned to the outpost, it would already be dark.


    His snot would get frozen on his face, and his shoes would get covered with a thinyer of ice. Even his cheeks would turn red from the cold.


    While keeping warm in the outpost at night, he did not dare to stay too close to the firece as he was afraid his body would bloat if he suddenly warmed himself too quickly.


    On the patrol route, his only opportunity tomunicate with the outside world was to walk up to a mountain named Tiger Ridge at noon and wave to the sentry on another mountain.


    The patrols of the two outposts¡¯ guards did not ovep with one another, and the nearest they could meet up at was on these two mountains.


    Everyone had a tacit understanding that they would arrive at the peak at noon every day. After that, they would wave their hands at each other and continue on their respective patrol routes.


    Regardless of whether it was windy, raining, or snowing, the two patrolling sentries would rush to the peak at noon. Only when they saw the other party was also there would they feel somefort.


    It was not that they had too much time but that they were too lonely.


    If the current sentry guard at an outpost was ready to post out at the end of their military service, they would definitely remind the new iing sentry repeatedly, ¡°You must reach Tiger Ridge at noon every day and wave to yourrade on the other side of the mountain. Because they¡¯re waiting for you.¡±


    Over the past hundred years, 178 outposts had been built since the establishment of Fortress 178. The 178 outposts were like solitary stars and torches burning bright in the wilderness.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Back then, Mr. Zhang probably did not understand my strength either, right? Weren¡¯t you afraid that I would die when you posted me to the Razor Sharp Company?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m only in my early forties, which is still considered quite young for a fortressmander. So even if you had truly died in that war, I should¡¯ve still had enough time to select the next candidate. Some of the former fortressmanders only found suitable candidates when they were already in their seventies, so I¡¯m quite fortunate.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyebrows twitched. ¡°Is it toote for me to run away now?¡±


    ¡°Of course it¡¯s toote.¡± Zhang Jinglinughed and said, ¡°Didn¡¯t I say you¡¯re not allowed to turn back?¡±


    A lot of people thought Zhang Jinglin was a serious and straightedge person. But Ren Xiaosu had seen what Zhang Jinglin was like while he was living in Stronghold 113¡¯s town. He knew the man could be themander of Fortress 178 because he was also a rogue deep down inside.


    ¡­


    The first outpost was 80 kilometers northwest of Fortress 178. Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin had estimated they would arrive there in the evening after setting off in the morning.


    However, Zhang Jinglin realized that while he was already thoroughly exhausted, Ren Xiaosu was stillpletely fine.


    The practice of touring all the outposts was established to hone the minds of all the fortressmanders. That was why it had to be done on foot.


    But the oldmander who had set this rule in the past had probably not expected a supernatural being with beastly strength would appear as a candidate for the role ofmander. The ¡°honing of the mind¡± was utterly useless in this case.


    Based on Zhang Jinglin¡¯s n, Ren Xiaosu had gone through so many battles in the past few years and killed a lot of people, so he hoped Ren Xiaosu would learn to cool off on this trip and give him a chance to settle his mind.


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu seemed totally unaffected, and this hike felt more like a form of training for Zhang Jinglin himself.


    By the afternoon, when Zhang Jinglin saw Ren Xiaosu was still full of energy, he could not help but say, ¡°Go and carry a rock!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. ¡°There wasn¡¯t a rule like that before, right?¡±


    ¡°There is now,¡± Zhang Jinglin said in seriousness..

 Chapter 1064 - Sheep

    <h4>Chapter 1064: Sheep</h4>


    ¡°You¡¯re obviously annoyed because this seems so easy for me.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, ¡°How can themander of the Northwest be so petty about things?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said matter-of-factly, ¡°I¡¯m not being petty. Since this tour on foot is meant to hone the mind of themander-to-be, it¡¯s only natural that you should go through the same hardships the sentries here experience. Think about it. They¡¯re not supernatural beings, so do you know how tough it gets for them each day? If I don¡¯t make it harder for you, can you really experience what it¡¯s like for them?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°And if you don¡¯t experience that, how will you know how tough it is for the sentries here? I¡¯m not asking you to carry a heavier load than you can, I just want you to experience what it¡¯s like to live as a normal person again.¡±


    ¡°As expected of the fortressmander. You¡¯re really good at logic.¡± Ren Xiaosu pursed his lips. ¡°Tell me, which rock do you want me to carry?¡±


    ¡°How much weight can you carry now?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked.


    ¡°50 kilograms?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Speak the truth!¡± Zhang Jinglin snapped.


    ¡°But I¡¯ve never tested it out before.¡± After that, Ren Xiaosu went to the side and found a rock about the size of a winter melon before putting it onto his shoulder. ¡°Is this OK?¡±


    ¡°No, you don¡¯t look like you¡¯re struggling at all!¡± Zhang Jinglin looked around for a while before he finally found a boulder that was half the height of a person. ¡°This one.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu walked over to the boulder and ced it on his back. It wasn¡¯t until Zhang Jinglin saw him struggling that he said in satisfaction, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s keep advancing!¡±


    But after walking for another two hours, Zhang Jinglin felt like his knees were about to give way. But when he turned around to look at Ren Xiaosu, there was not even a drop of sweat on his forehead.


    It was already the beginning of summer, and the days in the Northwest were hot while the nights were cold. Carrying such arge boulder under the hot afternoon sun, how could Ren Xiaosu possibly not sweat if he were truly tired?


    Zhang Jinglin asked suspiciously, ¡°Aren¡¯t you tired?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in agony, ¡°Of course! I¡¯m dead tired!¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked.


    ¡°Of course I¡¯m sure!¡± Ren Xiaosu roared, ¡°Why don¡¯t you try carrying arge boulder like this one? If you were the one carrying it, you would be tired as well!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°Disregarding everything else, I¡¯ve really got tomend you on your acting.¡±


    ¡°What gave it away?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    As soon as Ren Xiaosu was done speaking, he saw Zhang Jinglin climb onto his back.


    As such, it turned into a situation where Ren Xiaosu carried the boulder with Zhang Jinglin sitting leisurely on top of it. Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°As the Northwest¡¯smander, why are you always finding ways to ck off like that?¡±


    ¡°This tour is to train you, not me.¡± Zhang Jinglin said nonchntly, ¡°I¡¯m already quite lenient. My previousmander said his oldmander drove while making him walk to all of the outposts.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ranted, ¡°In what way are you more lenient than him? I¡¯d rather you drive!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin nced at his watch. ¡°Enough, there¡¯s only about an hour left until our estimated arrival time. Let¡¯s keep going!¡±


    Thus, the two of them resumed their journey with Zhang Jinglin sitting on the boulder and enjoying the scenery. On the undting hills in the distance, there were sheep grazing, and Zhang Jinglin even saw some asional yaks passing by a short distance away.


    Zhang Jinglin suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯ve never felt so rxed when traveling out to ces beyond the fortress. I haven¡¯t had time to enjoy the scenery like this. But when I think about how this ce would be covered in corpses if war breaks out again one day, it really ruins the scenery here for me.¡±


    ¡°Haven¡¯t you thought ofunching an attack on those sorcerers first?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that solve the problem once and for all?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve thought about it before.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°But the enemy¡¯s power is too mysterious, so we have some apprehensions about it. Before we understand the strength of our enemy, we can¡¯t just gamble with the lives of the Northwest¡¯s people we¡¯re protecting.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. It was simr to the war between the Pyro Company and the expeditionary army. If they had rashly pursued andunched a counterattack against the barbarians without fully knowing how many troops they had, it would have led to failure on their end.


    ¡°I heard from the Great Hoodwinker that they¡¯ve sent agents to infiltrate their society. Did it work out?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No,¡± Zhang Jinglin said and shook his head.


    ¡°Was it because of thenguage barrier or because they look different?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°They¡¯d already abducted arge number of ourpatriots over the past 200 years. In fact, 80% of the people there look no different from us, and they speak the samenguage as us too. I reckon that when the first group of sorcerers abducted our people to help with their nation¡¯s development, they did not expect this to happen either. Of course, we also need to stay vignt. This situation not only makes it easy for our people to infiltrate their society, but it also means they can do the same to us.¡±


    ¡°Then why were we unable to infiltrate their society?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Because we have no way of creating sorcerers.¡± Zhang Jinglin exined, ¡°The Magi¡¯s power structure reigns above all in that nation. Moreover, their hierarchy is extremely secretive. As long as you¡¯re not a sorcerer, you can¡¯t truly understand what powers they wield.¡±


    ¡°We still can¡¯t figure out their exact numbers, hierarchy, and the source of their powers, nor do we know how to deal with them,¡± Zhang Jinglin continued. ¡°This situation might change if one of our people emerges as a sorcerer, but it¡¯s not like we know how they can be one.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t you find any clues regarding the source of their powers? Do they awaken their powers like us?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Zhang Jinglin said firmly, ¡°Their powerprises an entire set of inheritance which is quite different from relying on luck to awaken one¡¯s superpower. Moreover, the sorcerers appeared before the events of The Cataclysm. Actually, they don¡¯t have any prejudice against us. It¡¯s just that when civilizations rise, there will definitely be a degree of rivalry with other civilizations around them. Furthermore, an advancing society will have great demands for resources. We believe there¡¯ll be another war between Fortress 178 and the sorcerer nation sooner orter, because thend they¡¯re living on is not as rich as ours.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned his head and looked towards the hill in the distance. Zhang Jinglin asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the two sheep on the hill and said, ¡°I keep getting the feeling that those two sheep are looking at us.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin squeezed his shoulder and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s only two sheep. C¡¯mon, let¡¯s keep moving. The soldiers at the outposts are still waiting for our arrival.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I probably thought too much.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°After setting out from the Northwest, I keep getting the feeling that the enemy might be nearby, so I got a little tense.¡±


    When their figures disappeared over the horizon, the two sheep grazing on the hill turned around and ran off. No one knew where they were heading.


    When a sheepdog saw the two sheep separating from the herd, it wanted to stop them. But just as the sheepdog was about to move towards them, it retreated as though it saw something terrifying..

 Chapter 1065 - Shepherd

    <h4>Chapter 1065: Shepherd</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    As night fell, the two sheep that had separated from the herd trotted tirelessly even farther northwest.


    There would be two sentries manning the outposts, with one guard on duty during the day while the other took over at night. As such, there was no time gap in the patrolling schedule.


    However, who would take notice of two sheep in the wilderness?


    The two sheep traveled through the night, and it wasn¡¯t until early the next morning that they finally made their way past the farthest outpost of the Northwest¡¯s territory and arrived at the back of a hill.


    A man in a gray cotton robe was waiting there. He stood there quietly and waited. His expression was shrouded under his hood. It seemed as though he were meditating with his eyes closed.


    The two sheep looked at him in anticipation. Then, the gray-robed person opened his eyes. He took out a white stone from his loose sleeve and held it in his hand.


    He recited a strange incantation, and the two sheep suddenly started morphing into the prone forms of two humanoids. They had ck hair and yellow skin, making them look no different from the Central ins people.


    ¡°Speak, what have you discovered?¡± Gray Robe¡¯s voice was deep and husky, and it sounded somewhat rhythmic too.


    The two young men said, ¡°I think we encountered someone important from Fortress 178. Although we don¡¯t know who he is, he has a personal attendant at his side. Moreover, that servant is extremely strong.¡±


    ¡°What makes you say that?¡± Gray Robe said calmly, ¡°Exin in detail.¡±


    As he spoke, Gray Robe held the stone firmly in his hand. It seemed like it had an extraordinary significance to him.


    The two men in front of him said, ¡°That servant could carry arge boulder on his back and move around with his master sitting on top.¡±


    ¡°Arge boulder?¡±


    ¡°About half the height of a person.¡± The two servants looked at the stone in the sorcerer¡¯s hand in fear, seemingly in awe of it.


    The sorcerer wondered, ¡°Why was he carrying a boulder on his back?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not sure. We didn¡¯t dare approach too close. That servant seemed like he was really sharp. We nearly got discovered when we took another nce at him,¡± one of the servants exined. ¡°We guess he might have been made to carry the boulder by his master as punishment.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s possible.¡± The sorcerer nodded. ¡°But they can¡¯t be that important since they aren¡¯t followed by any other subordinates, so they won¡¯t be worth my effort. Y¡¯all can go back now. Remember not to expose yourselves.¡±


    However, one of the servants hurriedly said, ¡°My lord, we¡¯ve already been here for two years. It¡¯s really not easy to spot a person of interesting out of that fortress. Please don¡¯t miss this opportunity. We can guarantee you¡¯ll find what you¡¯re seeking!¡±


    As a matter of fact, these two servants were really miserable. Never mind that they had been sent here undercover, assuming the form of sheep for two years, they even got sheared multiple times for their wool while they were blending in among the herdsmen¡¯s livestock.


    If they were only humiliated and had their wool sheared, that would have been fine. What made it even harder was that there was the risk of getting ughtered.


    What were sheep raised for? To be eaten, of course.


    Now that the sorcerer wanted them to go back undercover, how could they possibly take it?


    It seemed like the sorcerer had noticed what they were thinking. He smiled ambiguously at them and said, ¡°When the two of you wanted to be my apprentices, I would¡¯ve rejected you both if you hadn¡¯t been so persistent. An apprentice should behave like one. It¡¯s toote to regret things now.¡±


    One of the servants hurriedly said, ¡°We have no intention of backing out. My lord, think about it. Even if you turn us into sheep again, we can¡¯t get anywhere near the Alliance of Strongholds. You also said the thing you¡¯re looking for is in a ce several hundred kilometers southeast of Fortress 178. Even if we get turned back into sheep, we can¡¯t get there. You might as well capture that important figure and question him instead. Who knows, he might just know something about it.¡±


    The other servant said, ¡°And even if they don¡¯t know where that thing you¡¯re looking for is, that servant is blessed with great strength. If you take him in as a diator, you¡¯ll definitely stand out at the extravaganza next year.¡±


    The sorcerer closed his eyes and pondered. Looking for that thing was as good as searching for a needle in a haystack. Actually, he had not harbored much hope of finding it.


    However, the sorcerer was very tempted by the mention of the diator possibility.


    A servant blessed with great strength? Being a sorcerer who was physically weak, he could really do with an assistant like him.


    After a long silence, the sorcerer said, ¡°You two may go back now and help me find them. After the issue here is dealt with, I¡¯ll allow the two of you to enter my Sorcerer¡¯s Tower to start your apprenticeship.¡±


    With that, the two young men in front of him were turned back into sheep. And the violet sigil on the white stone pulsed.


    The two sheep looked at each other and ran back towards Fortress 178, bearing down on the morning sun.


    ¡­


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin had already woken up. Rather than sleeping in, they personally began to make breakfast for the two sentries at Outpost No. 7.


    Zhang Jinglin put on an apron and a pair of protective sleeves with a sense of familiarity while Ren Xiaosu started cutting the vegetables. However, there were not many varieties of vegetables at the outpost other than radish and cabbage.


    The two sentries stood outside the kitchen and said uneasily, ¡°Commander Zhang, Future Commander, why don¡¯t you let us make breakfast instead? How can we let the two of you cook for us?¡±


    There was a telephone at the outpost, so they had already received the notification yesterday afternoon that the fortressmander and futuremander wereing.


    But they did not expect the futuremander and fortressmander to actually make breakfast for them as soon as they woke up. This left them a little flustered.


    Zhang Jinglinforted them with a smile, ¡°What are you two so nervous about? You two have been stationed here all this time, so it¡¯s no big deal for the two of us who¡¯ve remainedfortable behind the fortress walls to cook you a meal. It¡¯s been hard on you guys. You¡¯ve only been getting radishes and cabbages to eat in this harsh environment, so I feel like we can do something better for you.¡±


    The two sentries hurriedly replied, ¡°No, no, it¡¯s good enough to have fresh vegetables delivered to us regrly. Why don¡¯t you let us cook instead?¡±


    ¡°Why? Are you worried that our cooking sucks?¡± Zhang Jinglin joked. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, our culinary skills are very good.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu skillfully washed, plucked, and prepared the vegetables. Then he revealed a pork hock in front of the sentries and Zhang Jinglin as though he were performing magic.


    Zhang Jinglin had heard before that Ren Xiaosu possessed a mysterious power like this, but this was the first time he had seen it for himself.


    ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Ever since I knew I wasing to tour the outposts, I prepared some pork in advance for the sentries. I even brought along two pairs of thick socks for everyone as a gift.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°Oh right, Yunsu is your business, and you¡¯re probably one of the richest people in the Northwest right now. But since you have so much money, why are you only giving out two pairs of socks? Isn¡¯t that a little stingy?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. ¡°You¡¯re the Northwest¡¯smander. Surely you¡¯re not eyeing my small bit of money, right?¡±


    While having breakfast, the two sentries¡¯ eyes reddened as they drank their porridge.


    When they saw Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin turning to look at them, they quickly wiped away their tears. ¡°Commander Zhang, we¡¯re fine. We¡¯re just very touched that the two of you came to visit us.¡±


    These sentries had been through the harshest training and had been stationed in the harshest environment for several years.. But actually, they were also just normal people, so they would also feel vulnerable and homesick sometimes.

 Chapter 1066 - Fortress 178s flag

    <h4>Chapter 1066: Fortress 178¡¯s g</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The outpost was situated in the undting mountains. Zhang Jinglin and Ren Xiaosu followed the sentry and walked along the patrol route. As they stood on a mountain peak along the way, they got a sense of magnificence.


    The sentry said to the two of them, ¡°Commander, Future Commander, I can only see you two off to here. Follow the mountain path that I pointed out for 30 kilometers, and you¡¯ll reach the next outpost.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin and Ren Xiaosu respectively shook hands with the sentry and said, ¡°It¡¯s been tough on you.¡±


    The sentry smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin patted the young sentry on the shoulder and said, ¡°How can it not be tough?¡±


    After that, they parted ways.


    When they reached the base of the mountain, Zhang Jinglin sighed and said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°If conditions allowed it, I would¡¯ve liked to have spent a few more days with them. Y¡¯know, every outpost here has a telephone line that connects back to the fortress headquarters. At the beginning, the soldiers at the outposts would always call back when it got too lonely. They would even purposely call back to report that a sheep was lost. The sheep would go missing in the morning and be found by the afternoon, but they never got tired of reporting such incidents.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. He knew some of therger outposts here would rear a few cows and sheep. However, the livestock were not to be ughtered and were considered the property of Fortress 178. The soldiers would only use them to get milk for consumption.


    Zhang Jinglin continued, ¡°Although this can dispel the sense of loneliness among the soldiers, we can¡¯t afford to be so casual in the face of war. If thendlines were kept upied and intel was not delivered in time, it could end up bing troublesome. So we requested they not make such calls anymore. After that, the fortress stipted that if there were no signs of the enemy, each outpost could only make a call back to the fortress at a scheduled time each week. The soldiers at the outposts also constantly look forward to those days and take turns to make calls back to report.


    ¡°There¡¯s operators at the fortress who¡¯re in charge of answering calls from the outposts, and there¡¯s both men and women working among them. To the sentries, if they encounter a female operator, they count themselves really lucky. But it doesn¡¯t matter even if their calls are answered by a man. They can still chat for a full hour¡­¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened quietly. During this period, he had heard about many things from the Great Hoodwinker and Zhang Jinglin.


    But what left the deepest impression on him was the loneliness these sentries felt.


    Ren Xiaosu spun around and saw the sentry who hade to send them off was still standing at the mountain peak and saluting them. His posture was ramrod straight.


    ¡°They¡¯re the gs of Fortress 178. As long as they¡¯re still here, this northwestern territory will remain Fortress 178¡¯snd,¡± Zhang Jinglin said.


    ¡°They¡¯re flying the g of the Northwest by sacrificing the best times of their life?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Zhang Jinglin sighed and said, ¡°They¡¯re all such great youths. If it weren¡¯t for the sake of protecting their homnd, who would be willing toe to a ce like this?¡±


    With that, Zhang Jinglin and Ren Xiaosu saluted back at the sentry before turning around and continuing on their way.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°I have some ideas about the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n, but I haven¡¯t worked out the details yet. I¡¯ll let you know when I¡¯ve thought of it.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± Zhang Jinglin smiled and said, ¡°Your 1.0 and 2.0 ns were very surprising, so I¡¯m looking forward to your 3.0 n.¡±


    The scenery in the Northwest was different from that in the Central ins, because every inch ofnd here exuded a vast and lofty aura.


    Sometimes, dark clouds would drift by in the sky. The clouds would be very far away a minute prior, but a momentter, they would be floating overhead. Then a huge ray of light prated the dark clouds, making it look like a huge hole had appeared in the sky.


    Sometimes, fiery crimson clouds that looked like fish scales appeared in the twilight sky, creating a magnificent oil painting. The colors were absolutely enchanting to see.


    Such strange sights were rarely seen in the Central ins.


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin had not ventured too deep into the wilderness yet. Therefore, they could still asionally see flocks of sheep raised by the herdsmen. They could also see the herdsmen riding on their horses galloping past in the distance.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The Great Hoodwinker told me a story that circted in the Northwest Army. He said that there used to be a sentry who did not have anything to eat during one winter as the mountain got sealed off by a blizzard, making supplies impossible to transport in. As such, he traveled for over 40 kilometers on foot and found a herdsman¡¯s house to ask for some food. In the end, the herdsman¡¯s youngest daughter took a fancy to the sentry, and he said that he had to marry her before he would give him something to eat. As a result, the sentry had no choice but toply.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin¡¯s lips curled upwards slightly. He probably had heard this story too.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°After the Great Hoodwinker heard that story, he volunteered to be a sentry. But when he arrived at the outpost, he realized that the fucking herdsmen were all male, and their families were all living in the fortress. That story was a lie!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin bellyughed and said, ¡°That story was fabricated by the oldmander to get everyone to be sentries!¡±


    ¡°How evil!¡± Ren Xiaosu also startedughing. ¡°But the Great Hoodwinker also saidter that he regretted the five years after volunteering to be a sentry. But if it weren¡¯t for those five years, he would surely have regretted it for the rest of his life.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu seemed to be looking around for something when he saw a herd of sheep.


    Zhang Jinglin asked, ¡°What are you searching for?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m looking for those two sheep that I saw yesterday.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I didn¡¯t see them following us again yesterday, but I somehow feel like there¡¯s something wrong with them.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu could not find them even after looking for a long time.


    It was mainly because there were several hundred sheep scattered across the grassy slope. As the sheep all looked simr, it was very difficult to differentiate them.


    Ren Xiaosu picked up therge boulder again, upon which Zhang Jinglin quickly sat again. Then he continued to admire the beautiful scenery leisurely.


    After they disappeared over a small hill, two sheep suddenly broke away from the herd and chased after them.


    The two sheep looked at each other with lingering fear in their hearts.


    Earlier, they were trembling when Ren Xiaosu searched for them with his trenchant gaze. However, they could not figure out why that servant had such sharp perception.


    The two sheep trotted along and continued keeping watch around them. Although their legs were short, they were able to run rather quickly.


    But when they went over the hill Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin had disappeared over, they were immediately greeted by Ren Xiaosu staring down at them with a smile.


    ¡°Surprised? Shocked?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    The two sheep were shocked and immediately lowered their heads and started grazing. After eating a few mouthfuls of grass, they even raised their heads and bleated, giving a look of innocence to Ren Xiaosu.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not care. He strode forward at lightning speed and grabbed one of the sheep¡¯s legs. The sheep that was caught struggled hard, but no matter how hard it tried to break away, it could not free itself.


    When the other sheep saw the situation was not looking good, it turned around and ran away. Ren Xiaosu did not go after it. Instead, he smiled at the sheep he had caught and said, ¡°You¡¯ve walked right into our trap!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu then punched the sheep in the head and knocked it unconscious.


    Before the sheep fainted, it used its remaining consciousness to pray it had better not wake up in a pot.

 Chapter 1067 - An uninvited guest arrives!

    <h4>Chapter 1067: An uninvited guest arrives!</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu carried the sheep and walked towards the next outpost. Along the way, he said to Zhang Jinglin, ¡°See, didn¡¯t I say that there was something strange about those two sheep? Would any honest sheep follow us around like that? Sheep that follow us around can¡¯t possibly be honest!¡±


    Zhang Jinglin wondered, ¡°Why does it sound a little wrong to me? Are you saying we¡¯re not honest people?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, no,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Actually, the two of them had realized there was something off about the sheepst night. But at that time, Zhang Jinglin squeezed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shoulder and signaled him not to be rmed.


    Then Zhang Jinglin had Fortress 178 inform the various outposts to watch out for any suspicious people appearing in their vicinity.


    In the end, the outposts did not discover any suspicious people. Instead, they discovered two suspicious-looking sheep.


    Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin spected that these might be the spies of the Magi. Therefore, they nned to capture them for research.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not capture both sheep and allowed one to get away instead.


    Zhang Jinglin asked, ¡°Are you nning to lure the opponent out by letting one sheep escape?¡±


    ¡°Mr. Zhang is right.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Since the other party is hiding outside the surveince perimeter of our outposts, it¡¯s not easy for us to find them. In that case, let¡¯s see if we can get them toe and look for us instead.¡±


    The two of them headed straight for the nearest outpost. When the sentry saw that Ren Xiaosu had even brought a sheep, he was moved. ¡°We¡¯re already very grateful that Future Commander and Fortress Commander came to visit us. There¡¯s no need to bring a sheep as well. What arge sheep! The two of us can¡¯t finish it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°You can¡¯t eat this, but I can still prepare some mutton for you two.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu took out a few gold nuggets and handed them to the sentries. He told them to go and buy another sheep from the herdsmen nearby, even specifically emphasizing that it must be a ewe.


    ¡°Remember, from now on, don¡¯t address us as Commander Zhang and Future Commander anymore,¡± Ren Xiaosu reminded them. ¡°Just use Mr. Zhang and Ren Xiaosu when you¡¯re addressing us.¡±


    The sentries looked at each other but did not ask why. Meanwhile, Zhang Jinglin seemed to have figured out something. ¡°Are you worried the sheep can transmit information?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Liuyuan also has a supernatural being by his side who can control birds of prey. That hawk can transmit what it sees and hears to the person wielding the power.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°After all, our statuses are a little sensitive. If arge number of sorcerers have already gathered outside the surveince perimeter of our outposts and discovered our identities through these sheep, I¡¯m afraid that they¡¯lle at us very fiercely.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, that makes sense.¡± Zhang Jinglin nodded.


    Zhang Jinglin was much more aplished in terms of knowledge and militarymand. But when it came to skirmishes between supernatural beings and the sense of wariness in the wilderness, Zhang Jinglin was far inferior to Ren Xiaosu. This could be considered an expertise.


    After all, if it weren¡¯t for Ren Xiaosu, they wouldn¡¯t have discovered that two sheep had been watching them for so long. Such a situation might even sound quite unbelievable if it were rted to other people.


    When the sentry returned with the ewe, Ren Xiaosu poured a basin of cold water over the captured sheep¡¯s head.


    The sheep shuddered and let out a baa before continuing to y dead.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. He said to the sentry at the side, ¡°Scrub the cauldron in the kitchen. I think this sheep might¡¯ve suffered from heat stroke. Let¡¯s cook and eat it.¡±


    When the sheep heard this, it immediately bleated and fainted. This time, it fainted for real.


    Ten minutester, it slowly regained consciousness again. At this moment, it could even hear the crackling of burning firewood in the kitchen.


    It stood up and looked at Ren Xiaosu in fear.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu was unsure of what this sheep was. Was it someone¡¯s superpower? Or could it be something else?


    Meanwhile, the sheep was not sure if Ren Xiaosu had discovered its identity or if he just wanted to have some mutton. In any case, both parties were still at the probing stage.


    The sheep saw Ren Xiaosu turn around and say to Zhang Jinglin, ¡°Mr. Zhang, head into the room first and get some rest. I¡¯ll mentally prepare this sheep.¡±


    When the sheep heard that, it started panicking. Mental preparation? How civilized was this guy to mentally prepare it before ughtering and eating it?


    However, it heard Ren Xiaosu addressing Zhang Jinglin as Mr. Zhang and asking him to get some rest in the room. This was quite in line with its suspicions that the two people had a master-servant rtionship.


    Ren Xiaosu asked the sheep, ¡°Just what are you really?¡±


    ¡°Baa?¡±


    ¡°This will be hard to ovee with anguage barrier.¡± Ren Xiaosu scratched his head.


    Then the sheep saw Ren Xiaosu pull out a handful of grass from the side of the outpost. However, he did not feed it to the sheep directly. Instead, he took out a small vial of ck medicine from his storage space and applied it on the grass before bringing it close to the sheep¡¯s mouth.


    The sheep did not even know what that ck substance on the grass was, so how could it eat it?


    But before it could run away, Ren Xiaosu grabbed it by the neck and stuffed the grass into its mouth.


    First of all, Ren Xiaosu was sure there was something odd about the sheep. Now, all he needed to find out was whether it was controlled by someone or if it was self-aware.


    Ren Xiaosu locked the ram up with the ewe. He was starting to pant heavily, but he still kept his distance from the ewe.


    The ram felt a fire burning within his body. Unknowingly, the way he looked at the ewe had changed. However, his rationality did not allow it to do such a terrifying thing.


    But even as he tried to avoid that, the ewe still came closer to him upon sensing the breathing out of his nostrils.


    The sorcerer¡¯s servant was nearly driven to despair. He recalled the young servant¡¯s smile and wondered how this was something a fucking human could do.


    At thest moment, just before the ewe closed in on the ram, Ren Xiaosu took him out and said to Zhang Jinglin, ¡°Mr. Zhang, I would guess that this sheep is a human. He probably doesn¡¯t have a way to turn back into his human form.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin asked, ¡°How do you know that?¡±


    ¡°I fed him some medicine. If he were a sheep to begin with, he would¡¯ve already given in to his urges by now. It should be his willpower as a human that made him restrain himself.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    Zhang Jinglin pondered this for a moment. Although Ren Xiaosu¡¯s deduction was a little crude and simple, it did make some sense.


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly frowned. He said to the two sentries, ¡°You two, take Mr. Zhang and leave. Now!¡±


    ¡°What happened?¡± Zhang Jinglin wondered.


    ¡°I¡¯ve discovered a strange, gray-robed man approaching us quickly. Didn¡¯t we say that we wanted to catch a big fish? It seems like we¡¯ve caught it.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned away from the sheep and said, ¡°But y¡¯all had better leave first in case you get injured by the battle. Y¡¯all cane back again in eight hours. At that time, no matter who mighte here, the battle will definitely be over.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin gazed deep into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes before turning around to leave.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to say ¡®stay safe¡¯ or something? You¡¯re gonna leave just like that?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said without turning around, ¡°It¡¯s not like I can help much!¡±


    The sheep thoughtfully watched Zhang Jinglin¡¯s figure recede..

 Chapter 1068 - Sorcerer Melgor

    <h4>Chapter 1068: Sorcerer Melgor</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu was able to discover the uninvited guest because he had already sent ¡°Old Xu¡± out. Moreover, he realized the gray-robed person¡¯s counter reconnaissance measures were actually not that great. He did not discover Old Xu¡¯s presence even after being followed all the way here.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu would not underestimate him either. The moment he attacked, Ren Xiaosu would go all out against him.


    The enemy was only 500 meters away from the outpost. When the sheep saw Zhang Jinglin retreating and leaving Ren Xiaosu behind to cover him, he roughly realized the sorcerer must have arrived.


    He was no longer afraid. Instead, he started sizing up the young man in front of him with great interest.


    The young man was not old and should only be around 18 to 19 years of age. Although his physique was not ridiculously muscr, he still possessed a great deal of strength.


    When Ren Xiaosu grabbed him, he really did not have the strength to resist. The other party¡¯s hands and arms were as strong as steel.


    However, he still wouldn¡¯t be a match for the sorcerer if all he had was strength.


    Fortress 178 and the sorcerer nation still did not understand each other at the moment. If the sorcerers and their apprentices knew of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s existence, they could probably not remain as calm.


    But the sheep apprentice was more concerned about something else right now. Like, when would the medicine¡¯s effect subside?


    The human and the sheep stood at the outpost¡¯s entrance like everything was fine. Ren Xiaosu could already see the gray figure approaching quickly from the top of the mountain.


    Based on Old Xu¡¯s observation, the other party did not rely on his physical strength to move at that speed. Instead, he depended on some kind of strange power to reduce his weight so he could levitate slightly above the ground and move forward.


    Ren Xiaosu had to admit it was just as the Great Hoodwinker had told him. The methods the sorcerers employed were indeed very strange and varied.


    He stood at the entrance of the outpost and quietly sized up the other party. Meanwhile, the other party was also quietly sizing him up from under his gray hood.


    When the sorcerer got closer, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt his body get heavier and heavier. It was as though the gravity around him had be stronger.


    He looked calmly at the other party and saw the sorcerer was holding a white stone in his hand. From the gap between his thumb and index finger, Ren Xiaosu could make out¡­ a glowing violet eye.


    Wait, why did this violet eye look so familiar?


    He checked out the third weapon in his mind pce. The violet eye on the ck stone was clearly the same as the one in the other party¡¯s hands!


    The gravitational force exerted on him by the sorcerer at this moment should be some kind of strange legacy power, and if the other party wanted to use this power, he had to rely on the stone in his hand!


    Otherwise, the other party would not be holding a rock for no reason.


    In just an instant, Ren Xiaosu figured out a lot of things. It was no wonder his third weapon was a rock. He had been wondering how a rock could be considered a weapon. He had wondered if it was to be used as a concealed weapon to attack others.


    Only now did he realize the stone was a sorcerer¡¯s weapon.


    Thus, other rted clues also began to make sense. The Proficiency Stones in the pce¡¯s vending machine must also be rted to the magi!


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu started to be excited. However, he could not think too deeply about this right now. As the pressure on him increased, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression turned grim.


    However, Ren Xiaosu found it a little strange. The other party was only about ten meters away from him, and at this distance, Ren Xiaosu could supposedly kill him very easily.


    Moreover, Old Xu had already climbed up the slope behind the other party and was lying in ambush there. With Old Xu¡¯s speed, it would probably not even take a second for it to stab the ck saber into the back of this sorcerer.


    Seeing that the other party was wide open, he clearly appeared to Ren Xiaosu to be a na?ve fool. Wasn¡¯t he supposed to be a legendary sorcerer with impressivebat strength? Why was he so stupid then?


    Wait, it had already been 17 years since the war between Fortress 178 and the nation of sorcerers. 17 years ago, there were no powerful individuals like superhumans. Although there were the Riders, they had never participated in the Northwest¡¯s wars.


    Therefore, could it be that the other party¡¯s information was a little outdated and that he was unaware of the changes that had urred in the Central ins?


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu suddenly pretended to struggle with all his might. However, he did not use too much strength as he could sense the other party¡¯s power. He was worried he would break free for real if he used a little more strength.


    After all, it would be easier to make the enemy reveal the truth when victory looked to be within their grasp.


    The sorcerer looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with augh, ¡°Stop trying to struggle. Not even the most powerful diator in the kingdom can break free from this Earth Bind spell.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°You¡¯re a sorcerer?¡±


    The sorcerer said with a smile, ¡°You can address me as Lord Melgor.¡±


    With that, the violet eye on the stone in the sorcerer¡¯s hand suddenly lit up. Ren Xiaosu was then surprised to see the sheep turn into a human.


    The sorcerer was stunned when he saw his newly epted apprentice. Then he frowned and said, ¡°Filthy.¡±


    The apprentice looked down at his lower body and hastily said, ¡°Lord Melgor, this kid drugged me!¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± Melgor nodded. ¡°Where are the others at this outpost?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know how this kid found out that you wereing, but he had the sentries take his master away while he stayed behind to cover them,¡± the apprentice said.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, a strange expression appeared on his face. However, he struggled harder and put on an angry look to disguise his true thoughts.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if this sorcerer and his servant had misunderstood something. Wait a minute, could it be that the other party had misunderstood when he saw him carrying Zhang Jinglin earlier?


    ¡°With me around, don¡¯t even think about hurting Mr. Zhang!¡± Ren Xiaosu roared.


    Melgor said with augh, ¡°You¡¯re very loyal, but didn¡¯t your master still leave without you? He chose to abandon you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said ferociously, ¡°What do you know? Protecting him is my bound duty!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu seemingly struggled too hard and caused the formless Earth Bind spell to suddenly let out a crackling sound. When Ren Xiaosu realized this was happening, he quickly suppressed his strength before mentally thinking to himself that the Earth Bind spell the sorcerer had boasted about did not seem that great after all.


    When Melgor saw this, his expression froze. He immediately gripped the stone and increased the intensity of the spell. Then he waited until Ren Xiaosu could no longer struggle before heaving a sigh of relief.


    Melgor did not get angry. Instead, he became very interested in Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You nearly broke free from the Earth Bind spell. You¡¯re even stronger than the strongest diators in the kingdom!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not struggle anymore. Instead, he said with a grim expression, ¡°You and your fancy tricks. I dare you to release your annoying shackles and duel me!¡±


    ¡°How simple-minded.¡± Melgor chuckled. ¡°Why don¡¯t we make a deal?¡±


    ¡°What deal?¡±


    ¡°If you be my servant, I won¡¯t go after your ex-master. Consider that my charity to you so you keep your promise to him. What do you say?¡± Melgor asked. ¡°Of course, you can also not agree, but I believe your master has not gone far away yet.. I¡¯ll only need 30 minutes to carve his heart out and bring it to you.¡±

 Chapter 1069 - Deal

    <h4>Chapter 1069 - Deal</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu understood the deal Sorcerer Melgor was referring to was for him to be his servant in exchange for not killing Zhang Jinglin.


    Disregarding everything else, this sorcerer was probably overestimating himself if he thought he could kill Zhang Jinglin. As the sorcerers had not fought any wars with Fortress 178 in a long time, their impression of the Central ins people''sbat strength was likely still stuck at the time when they were normal people.


    The sorcerer had said that Ren Xiaosu was stronger than all the diators in the entire nation of sorcerers. Thus, Ren Xiaosu roughly estimated that the strongest people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers probably had physical fitness equivalent to that of a T4batant. Compared to the Central ins, it was far inferior.


    Of course, this was not the other party''s fault. The appearance of superhumans had only urred in the past ten years. During the early days, the number of superhumans, such as Zhou Qi, Wang Congyang, and some others, was still very low. Therefore, it was only normal that there was a timeg in their intel.


    When Sorcerer Melgor saw Ren Xiaosu not saying anything, he said with a smile, "Since you''re his loyal servant, shouldn''t you exchange your life for his?"


    Ren Xiaosu sneered, "You can try to kill him, but see if you can get past me first!"


    With that, Ren Xiaosu started struggling violently again. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not break free from the Earth Bind spell cast by Sorcerer Melgor.


    Within a short minute, Ren Xiaosu was sweating profusely from exhaustion. In the end, he gave up struggling.


    After all, it was really quite tiring for him to act so realistically.


    When Sorcerer Melgor saw Ren Xiaosu could no longer break free from his Earth Bind spell, he said with augh, "How can physical strength match the strength of willpower? I''ll give you ten seconds to decide. If you still don''t agree to be my servant, I''ll go and kill your master."


    Ren Xiaosu panted as he looked at Melgor. "Don''t kill him!"


    "So? Have we reached an agreement? Think about it carefully. When danger approached, he abandoned you and ran away by himself, yet you''re willing to die for someone like that? Is it worth it?" Melgor said with a smile. His expression was shrouded under the hood of his gray robe, but his tone revealed the unbridled smugness he was feeling.


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for half a minute before saying, "What is in it for me?"


    "What''s in it for you?" Sorcerer Melgor carefully sized up Ren Xiaosu. "In the nation of sorcerers, anyone who can follow me into the Sorcerer''s Tower can consider themselves greatly honored. Even members of the secr world''s royal family yearn to be a member of our magus order, the Eye of True Sight. You''re actually asking me what''s in it for you?"


    "Without any benefits, why should I risk my life for you?" Ren Xiaosu said, "If you don''t offer me anything that matters to me, why would I be your servant willingly?"


    Melgor scrutinized Ren Xiaosu''s stubborn look and became even keener on making him his servant.


    Loyalty. Since this young man was willing to sacrifice himself to cover his master''s retreat, there was no need to doubt his loyalty. If he could make the other party submit to him willingly, this young man would be hisst line of protection in the future.


    Capability. This young man was blessed with great strength even though he was still so young. With the potential to fight against the strongest diators in the nation of sorcerers, it would be wholly worth investing in him.


    For some reason, the worse Ren Xiaosu''s attitude was towards him, the more he wanted him as his servant.


    This was probably a bad traitmon among humans. The more they could not get something, the more they would want it.


    Melgor thought for a moment and then said, "I can pay you a 100 gold coins every month. Furthermore, I''ll appoint you as my steward, and you''ll be allowed to move around freely in my Sorcerer''s Tower. Within the Kingdom of Sorcerers, you''ll receive the same equal status a prince does."


    When Sorcerer Melgor said that, his servant next to him stared with wide eyes. He looked at Melgor, then at Ren Xiaosu. However, he could not understand how this captive young man''s status had suddenly surpassed his.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. It seemed that being a steward was a higher rank than a servant.


    Moreover, the status of the magi in the nation of sorcerers was way too high. Even their stewards were on par with a prince of the monarchy?


    But then again, Ren Xiaosu wondered if he had infiltrated the magus order this way. Although he was still unable to determine what kind of organization the "Eye of True Sight" was, he should at least be able to find some clues by being at Melgor''s side every day.


    Didn''t the Great Hoodwinker say that infiltrating their organization was extremely difficult? Why was it so easy for him then? Ren Xiaosu could not help but wonder if the Great Hoodwinker did not conduct his operations diligently!


    Ren Xiaosu said to Melgor, "Alright, I''m willing to be your steward, but I have a condition."


    Sorcerer Melgor said with a smile, "State your condition."


    "Turn this guy back into a sheep again. I find him easier on the eyes as a sheep," Ren Xiaosu said.


    The servant was confused. ''<i>What the fuck does this have anything to do with me? Are you messing around?</i>''


    But before he could say anything, he saw the purple sigil on the stone in Sorcerer Melgor''s hand glow. The servant was turned back into a sheep again.


    Ren Xiaosu said, "I have another condition."


    "Go ahead." Sorcerer Melgor gave a restrained smile.


    "I''m very hungry right now. Make me a meal and I''ll agree to be your steward," Ren Xiaosu said.


    Sorcerer Melgor shook his head and said, "My patience has its limits. You''re just trying to buy time for your master to escape."


    With that, he dispelled the sheep enchantment on his servant and took out a set of ck shackles from his sleeve. He threw it to his servant. "Cuff his wrists."


    After that, he even smiled at Ren Xiaosu. "I already knew you wouldn''t agree to be my steward so easily. But it''s alright. You''re just ignorant about the powers of us sorcerers. After you learn all about it, you''ll naturally be subdued by this power that transcends the mundane." But Melgor would have to influence and reform him through goodwill as well.


    Ren Xiaosu quietly watched as the servant shackled his wrists. These shackles were not much different from those in the Central ins, but they seemed to be made of a different material.


    However, regardless of what material the shackles were made of, Ren Xiaosu could definitely unlock them as long as there was a keyhole. Because he had the nanomachines.


    Almost everyone in the Central ins knew that the futuremander of the Northwest, also known as the Stronghold Destroyer, was famous for wearing armorposed of nanomachines. However, they only knew it could be used inbat; they did not know it was actually the most powerful skeleton key in the world.


    Although, Ren Xiaosu had never used it this way before. Any locks in the face of the ck saber would just end up getting shattered anyway.


    At this moment, Sorcerer Melgor was feeling very proud of himself. If Ren Xiaosu had agreed to be his steward so willingly, he would not feel at ease.


    Melgor was not angry with Ren Xiaosu for repeatedly trying to help his people stall for time. As there were still long days ahead, he would have plenty of time to reform this young man he caught from the Central ins.


    "Let''s go." Melgor smiled proudly and said, "Although we didn''t find what we were looking for, we''ve reaped an unexpected harvest instead. That''s good enough."


    Actually, Melgor was not considered part of the highest-ranking sorcerers in the Eye of True Sight. Just like how there were different ranks in the secr world, there would also be a hierarchy within the magi.


    With Melgor''s power, he was actually considered to be at the bottom rung of sorcerers in the Eye of True Sight. That was why he had been sent here to observe the movements of Fortress 178 more than two years ago.


    At the end of his two-year term, Melgor, who was preparing to return to the nation of sorcerers, suddenly sensed a simr source of power as his emerging in the Central ins. This was an extraordinary situation, and the intensity of that power was very high level!


    Therefore, Melgor stayed behind for another month to see if he could find any clues regarding this phenomenon.


    But he had given up on searching. Fortress 178 was not a ce where a sorcerer of his level could barge into, so he thought it would be better to pass the information back to the Eye of True Sight.. There would be a reward of equal value waiting for him if he did that.

 Chapter 1070 - The Prosperous Northwest 3.0

    <h4>Chapter 1070: The Prosperous Northwest 3.0</h4>


    Shoved by the sorcerer¡¯s servant, Ren Xiaosu embarked on a journey to the west. Speaking of which, it was quite a coincidence. That disciple of his had wanted to escort him to obtain scriptures from the Western Paradise.


    Actually, it never crossed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind that he would have a chance to go to such a faraway country in his lifetime.


    He did not know where he would end up, nor did he know if he couldplete the infiltration mission.


    Ren Xiaosu only knew this moment was probably the highlight of Melgor¡¯s life. If Melgor went to the Central ins and told everyone he had the Stronghold Destroyer in his captivity, he probably would instantly be the most dazzling celebrity in the entire Alliance of Strongholds.


    At this moment, Melgor led his servant and Ren Xiaosu quickly away from the outposts¡¯ surveince perimeter under the cover of night.


    Ren Xiaosu realized Melgor seemed to know the outposts¡¯ patrol routes and timings like the back of his hand as they did not encounter a single sentry along the way.


    This made Ren Xiaosu breathe a sigh of relief. After all, if they encountered any sentries while leaving, the guards would definitely intercept them.


    If the sentries attacked, Melgor would surely retaliate.


    If Melgor retaliated, then Ren Xiaosu would be forced to kill him.


    In that case, wouldn¡¯t the infiltration n go up in smoke?


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu was truly d for Melgor.


    Before dawn, they had already passed through the surveince perimeter of all the outposts. Only at this moment did Sorcerer Melgor finally heave a sigh of relief.


    Ren Xiaosu sat on the ground in a rxed manner with his shackles on. Then he said to the sorcerer¡¯s servant, ¡°Hey, sheep, find me some water to drink.¡±


    The sorcerer¡¯s servant was shocked. ¡°Who the fuck are you calling a sheep?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Since you can turn into a sheep, aren¡¯t you a sheep?¡±


    ¡°My name is Li Chengguo!¡± Li Chengguo, the sorcerer¡¯s servant, said, ¡°You are just a captive of Lord Melgor, so show some respect!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned to Melgor and said, ¡°You should just turn him back into a sheep. If you do that, I¡¯ll agree to be your steward.¡±


    Li Chengguo was confused.


    However, Melgor no longer went along with his request. Instead, he signaled to Li Chengguo with his eyes. ¡°Go and find some water. I¡¯m thirsty too. Go look for Liu Ting while you¡¯re at it too. He should be nearby.¡±


    Liu Ting was the other sheep that had escaped. Melgor did not bring him along to capture Ren Xiaosu as he needed to move quickly.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered about how these two sheeple had retained the naming conventions of the Central ins natives. It seemed like it was really as the Great Hoodwinker had said. Too many people had been abducted from the Central ins in the past. As a result, it introduced some weird cultural changes in the nation of sorcerers.


    He wondered if this organization known as the Eye of True Sight regretted abducting so many people from the Central ins and getting assimted.


    Of course, all the sorcerers in the Eye of True Sight should have retained their own culture andnguage to showcase their status.


    When Melgor saw Ren Xiaosu in a trance, he suddenly asked, ¡°What are you thinking about?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°I¡¯m just a little homesick.¡±


    He was speaking the truth. Even though Ren Xiaosu used to live in Stronghold 113 a long time ago, he had never thought of that ce as home.


    Later, he traveled to the Yang Consortium, the Li Consortium, the Qing Consortium, the Zhou Consortium, the Kong Consortium, and the Wang Consortium, but none of those ces made him feel a sense of belonging.


    It wasn¡¯t until he came to the Northwest that he and Yang Xiaojin had their first ¡°home¡± in Stronghold 144.


    Melgor smiled and said, ¡°A home is a very illogical concept. Humans should not be impeded by such secr things.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°What do you know?!¡±


    Melgor was left choking with anger at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s response. ¡®<i>I want to reform him! I want to reform him! I can¡¯t get mad at him!</i>¡®


    ¡­


    At this moment, the eight-hour duration Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin had agreed on had passed.


    By the time Zhang Jinglin returned to the outpost, it was not only him and the other two sentries who hade back. Even Wang Fengyuan, the Great Hoodwinker, and other powerful figures were here as well. When they received news that theirmander and futuremander had been attacked, they immediately drove over. They were afraid the two core leaders of the Northwest would perish here.


    When they got to the vicinity of the outpost, dawn was almost breaking. However, the Great Hoodwinker realized only Zhang Jinglin was at the agreed-upon rendezvous point.


    The Great Hoodwinker immediately said in a sobbing tone, ¡°Commander, where¡¯s Future Commander?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin waved him off disdainfully. ¡°Enough already, he¡¯s not here. Stop acting.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker stopped crying and said, ¡°Oh, where did he go?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s still at the outpost.¡± Zhang Jinglin took a look at his watch. ¡°He told me to head back to the outpost in eight hours. Although I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s up to, we should do as he says. Alright, there¡¯s only 15 minutes until the agreed time. We should get there on time if we set off now.¡±


    When they arrived at the outpost, it was empty.


    Wang Fengyuan knelt down on the ground and carefully checked for every clue. ¡°Based on the tracks, other than Future Commander, the two sentries, and Commander Zhang¡¯s footprints, there¡¯s also traces of two other strangers. One of them should be a sorcerer. The footprints that he left changed from light to heavy over a distance. He probably used their so-called levitation and rushed here, dispelling it after he reached the outpost.¡±


    They did not know what the spell used by the sorcerer was called, but they had seen it before during the war, so it was recorded and categorized under abel to be saved into the files.


    Wang Fengyuan followed the footprints and analyzed them. ¡°Future Commander seems to have been restrained, so he started struggling very hard on the spot. We¡¯ve all seen this spell before too. It should be a binding spell. After that, Future Commander was shoved along by someone. The footprints on the ground show he staggered for a moment here.¡±


    Wang Fengyuan was also an extremely outstanding intelligence agent. Just by analyzing the footprints, he could already guess that Ren Xiaosu had been shoved around by the sorcerer¡¯s servant here. He was simply too sharp!


    The Great Hoodwinker said in surprise, ¡°With Future Commander¡¯s strength, even a sorcerer should not be able to take him away that easily, right? What on earth happened?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Wang Fengyuan frowned and shook his head.


    The Great Hoodwinker said to Zhang Jinglin, ¡°Commander, I¡¯ll lead some people to go save Future Commander. It seems like that sorcerer was acting alone. We can¡¯t let him abduct Future Commander just like that!¡±


    But at this moment, Wang Fengyuan, who was kneeling on the ground and searching for clues, suddenly shouted, ¡°Come over and have a look. When Future Commander left, he etched a number on the ground with his foot.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin and the Great Hoodwinker looked over in surprise. There really was a number ¡°3¡± marked out on the ground on the mountain path!


    ¡°This is the information Future Commander wants to ry to us. It¡¯s just that I can¡¯t determine what it represents at this moment,¡± Wang Fengyuan said.


    Then Wang Fengyuan heard Zhang Jinglinugh heartily. ¡°Commander, why are youughing?¡±


    ¡°I know what this number means,¡± Zhang Jinglin said.


    The Great Hoodwinker asked, ¡°What does it mean?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin recalled what Ren Xiaosu had told him. Then he said to Wang Fengyuan and the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°The Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n has begun..¡±

 Chapter 1071 - The multitalented Yang Xiaojin

    <h4>Chapter 1071: The multitalented Yang Xiaojin</h4>


    Zhang Jinglin and the others had already determined through the ¡°3¡± marking on the ground that Ren Xiaosu was not in any serious trouble. If someone could really abduct Ren Xiaosu so easily, it would mean he was willing to be abducted.


    Currently, there was actually no need to worry about Ren Xiaosu. If it were out of humanitarian reasons, they should be worried about the sorcerers from the nation of sorcerers instead.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s nickname of the Stronghold Destroyer was not just for show. To be precise, it was a summary of all he had done before.


    The Great Hoodwinker had already started informing their intelligence personnel in the nation of sorcerers that if they discovered any out-of-the-blue situations such as a Sorcerer¡¯s Tower copsing or a castle copsing, they should quickly go over and join up with the futuremander to see if he needed any intel support.


    When Zhang Jinglin returned to Fortress 178, he kept a very low profile. However, most of the high-rankingmanders were aware of his itinerary. Everyone was a little puzzled. Didn¡¯t themander say he would be away for two months to apany the futuremander on a tour to the outposts? Why was he back so soon?


    Moreover, where was the futuremander? Why wasn¡¯t he back as well?


    Wasn¡¯t he with themander?! Where¡¯d such an important figure disappear to?


    However, no one exined anything to them. Zhang Jinglin, Wang Fengyuan, the Great Hoodwinker, and the others who knew the inside story all remained tight-lipped.


    When the high-rankingmanders saw their expressions, they knew this was probably yet another top-secret matter. It was better not to ask about things they should not know about.


    The Great Hoodwinker returned straight to Stronghold 144. But before he could return to his residence, he saw Yang Xiaojin blocking the entrance of his house.


    Yang Xiaojin asked calmly, ¡°Don¡¯t you live in Stronghold 144? Why¡¯d you suddenly head over to Fortress 178?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinkerughed and said, ¡°I¡¯m in charge of field intelligence operations, aren¡¯t I? So of course I¡¯d have to go report on my job progress.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t Mr. Zhang go with Ren Xiaosu to tour the outposts? Who are you reporting to at Fortress 178?¡± Yang Xiaojin asked.


    ¡°Wang Fengyuan, of course. He¡¯s a rank higher than me, so I¡¯m his subordinate,¡± The Great Hoodwinker replied. ¡°Ms. Xiaojin, don¡¯t think too much about it. Future Commander is only touring the outposts on foot. He¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    It was not that the Great Hoodwinker wanted to hide it from Yang Xiaojin, but he was worried she would go to the nation of sorcerers on an impulse. It would not be good if she did not manage to find Ren Xiaosu and ended up encountering a sorcerer instead.


    After all, even though Yang Xiaojin was a supernatural being, she was still a sniper who needed teammates to cover her. If she were to rashly head into the nation of sorcerers, it would truly be very dangerous.


    Just as the Great Hoodwinker was about to continue speaking, Yang Xiaojin suddenly took a step forward and pinched the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s wrist with two fingers. Then she stared intently into his eyes. ¡°Did he encounter a spy? Did he encounter danger? Was it some strange creature? Sorcerers? An ambush by a supernatural being from the Wang Consortium?


    ¡°Hmm, looks like he encountered a sorcerer.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin did not wait for the Great Hoodwinker to answer her barrage of questions. Instead, she took the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s pulse to confirm her spections!


    These questions dumbfounded the Great Hoodwinker. He did not expect Ms. Xiaojin to actually have such a unique skill!


    How multitalented was she?


    The Great Hoodwinker smiled bitterly. ¡°Ms. Xiaojin, you¡¯re really impressive.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin smiled. ¡°I was just bluffing you. What can you possibly determine from a pulse?¡±


    With that, Yang Xiaojin turned around and left.


    The Great Hoodwinker was stunned. He thought to himself that with the number of people he had bluffed over the years, it was really rare he would get fooled instead. It was no wonder she could keep the futuremander in check so well.


    Looking at Yang Xiaojin¡¯s receding figure, the Great Hoodwinker called over some intelligence personnel anxiously. ¡°Keep a close watch on Ms. Xiaojin¡¯s movements. If anything happens to her, the futuremander will probably turn the whole world upside down!¡±


    Yang Xiaojin did not return home. Instead, she headed straight to the ck market outside the stronghold. On her way there, she even called up Zhou Yingxue.


    When she arrived at the ck market, Zhou Yingxue was waiting at the entrance for her obediently.


    ¡°Um... madam, would you like to go inside and shop around?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked meekly.


    ¡°I¡¯m not interested. Follow me,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡°Follow you?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked curiously, ¡°Where to?¡±


    ¡°Something might have happened to your master. I want you to go with me to a ce beyond Fortress 178.¡± Yang Xiaojin turned around and left.


    Zhou Yingxue hurriedly caught up to her. ¡°Master? What happened to Master?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s rted to the sorcerers.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°First of all, Ren Xiaosu is most definitely fine at this moment. Otherwise, the Great Hoodwinker wouldn¡¯t have returned to Stronghold 144 as though nothing had happened.¡±


    ¡°Since Master¡¯s fine, what are we going there for?¡± Zhou Yingxue asked.


    ¡°Just because he¡¯s fine now doesn¡¯t mean he¡¯ll be fer.¡± Yang Xiaojin said calmly, ¡°Why? You¡¯re not willing to go?¡±


    Zhou Yingxue said meekly, ¡°Of course I am...¡±


    After Yang Xiaojin left the ck market with the maidservant, the intelligence agents in the ck market immediately ryed the news to the Great Hoodwinker.


    The Great Hoodwinker smiled bitterly. It looked like he had not managed to deceive Yang Xiaojin after all.


    However, Ms. Xiaojin did not seem to be a reckless person. She actually went to find an assistant first.


    With Zhou Yingxue protecting her, she should not have any problems.


    Other people might think Zhou Yingxue had only made the superhuman rankings because of the Eight Vajras. But as the futuremander¡¯s trusted aide, the Great Hoodwinker knew Zhou Yingxue was a legendary superhuman on her own who was capable of destroying cities and ransacking strongholds.


    And legendary was probably a general term for any superhuman capable of taking on 10,000 enemies by themselves.


    The Great Hoodwinker thought that if even Ms. Xiaojin and Zhou Yingxue were about to enter the nation of sorcerers, could it be that the futuremander¡¯s Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n was to destroy the magus order?!


    What was Fortress 178¡¯s reason for existence? Logically speaking, it was to prevent the magus order from plundering the Central ins¡¯ poption.


    What was their purpose for carrying out the Prosperous Northwest n? Logically speaking, it was also to prepare for wars in the future, and the enemy they were going to face was the Magi.


    In that case, wouldn¡¯t destroying the Magi also be considered as fulfilling the Prosperous Northwest n?


    Mhm, this was in line with the futuremander¡¯s logic!


    ...


    At this moment, Sorcerer Melgor was leading Ren Xiaosu, Liu Ting, and Li Chengguo westwards.


    However, Ren Xiaosu realized Sorcerer Melgor was very cautious on the journey. Even though he had already left the outposts¡¯ surveince perimeter, he still chose to travel under the cover of darkness. Furthermore, he would often change his route as he advanced.


    The farther northwest they went, the heavier the sandstorm became. Sometimes, it would only take a few minutes for a violent sandstorm to erase everyone¡¯s tracks.


    ¡°Hey, you, sorcerer up front, don¡¯t make haste with such a heavy sandstorm blowing.¡± Ren Xiaosu used his shackled hands to pull up the bandana covering his mouth and nose to prevent sand from getting into his orifices. ¡°Make those two sheeple set up the tents so we can rest for the night!¡±


    Sorcerer Melgor had no expression on his face. At some point, he wondered when he could fully reform the young man from the Central ins..

 Chapter 1072 - Eye of True Sight

    <h4>Chapter 1072: Eye of True Sight</h4>


    ¡°Hey, sheeple, set up the tents already.


    ¡°Hey, sheeple, bring me some water.


    ¡°Hey, sheeple¡­¡±


    The two servants, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting, felt like their nightmare had started once the young man from the Central ins was appointed as the sorcerer¡¯s steward.


    Moreover, he wasn¡¯t even truly considered the sorcerer¡¯s steward yet!


    The young man could already order them around even though he was still handcuffed. What would happen if he were freed?!


    A heavy sandstorm was blowing. Melgor and Ren Xiaosu took shelter behind arge boulder while Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were put in charge of putting up the tents despite the conditions.


    Originally, they had brought along three tents, one each for Melgor, Liu Ting, and Li Chengguo. But now it seemed like the two servants would have to squeeze together in one tent.


    Melgor maintained a spell with the white stone in his hand, which made the sandstorm go around him. Finding this rather novel, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What spell is this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the Wind Bind spell.¡± Melgor calmly exined, ¡°It¡¯s supposed to be used against enemies to slow them down, but I¡¯ve cast it on myself. I¡¯m making use of the air revolving around me to shield me from the sandstorm.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt that the sorcerers must have a lot of spells they could use. He had considered trying to obtain a Perfect Skill Duplication Scroll to copy Melgor¡¯s sorcery if the pce assigned him another quest.


    That was probably the fastest way for him to learn about sorcery.


    But it seemed the sorcerer knew quite a few different spells. If Ren Xiaosu used the Skill Duplication Scroll on him, he might end up learning only one type of spell.


    Ren Xiaosu stood up to get closer to Melgor. ¡°Erm¡­ cast your Wind Bind spell on me as well. You¡¯re terrible. How can you be so selfish when you have such a good idea?¡±


    Melgor was dumbfounded. He realized the young man from the Central ins did not see himself as a stranger at all.


    Honestly, he did not want Ren Xiaosu to get so close to him. After all, Ren Xiaosu had such immense strength. What if he were to attack him?


    But before he could reject him, Ren Xiaosu had already sat down next to him. ¡°Hurry up!¡±


    Melgor had no choice but to recast Wind Bind with mixed feelings.


    He kept his guard up for over half an hour, but Ren Xiaosu did not seem like he had any intention of attacking him. Only then did Melgor rest easy.


    Melgor believed that if Ren Xiaosu were no longer constantly thinking of attacking him, it signaled a good start to their rtionship!


    While waiting for the two servants to set up the tents, Ren Xiaosu got a little puzzled. ¡°Y¡¯know, y¡¯all really have nothing better to do. There¡¯s the vast Gobi separating the Central ins and your nation of sorcerers, yet y¡¯all still spared no effort ining here to attack us. What¡¯s up with that? Wouldn¡¯t it be better for everyone to live peacefully?¡±


    Melgor said, ¡°We¡¯re only traveling through the Gobi to prevent Fortress 178¡¯s troops from pursuing us. Actually, there¡¯s a much easier route to take that¡¯s not so tough.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯re a highly revered sorcerer. Why¡¯d youe all the way here by yourself?¡± Ren Xiaosu still could not quite understand. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that a sorcerer¡¯s steward has the same status as a prince? There should be at least tens of millions of people in your kingdom, so shouldn¡¯t the recon be carried out by foot soldiers instead?¡±


    Melgor¡¯s expression darkened. He said nothing further.


    Ren Xiaosu nced over him. Melgor looked quite young and was probably around 27 years old. He had sunken cheeks, brown hair, deep-set eyes, and a high nose bridge, making him look very different from the Central ins people.


    Ren Xiaosu had been thinking about this question for the past two days. Since being a sorcerer was supposed to be so prestigious, why did he only bring along two servants to do reconnaissance? That didn¡¯t make any sense!


    Just look at how many subordinates Luo Lan brought along whenever he went on a trip. Even when Luo Lan went to the Central ins, he had everything provided for him. This was the embodiment of authority.


    Meanwhile, Melgor was leading such a tough life here, so it clearly showed he actually did not have any authority.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Melgor not speaking up for a long time, he chuckled, ¡°Are you not liked within the nation of sorcerers? Were you ostracized and forced toe here? Don¡¯t worry, you can tell me. I won¡¯t look down on you.¡±


    Melgor¡¯s facepletely darkened. At this moment, the tents were finished being set up, so he went into his tent to sleep.


    Ren Xiaosu got bored and shouted at Liu Ting, ¡°Hey, sheep, was Melgor sent here because he was ostracized?¡±


    Liu Ting and Li Chengguo¡¯s expressions also darkened. As the sorcerer¡¯s servants, how could they gossip about their master behind his back? They simply ignored Ren Xiaosu and went into their tent together to sleep.


    ¡°I guess that¡¯s really the case,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered. He wondered what Melgor had done to get ostracized. If Melgor had been shut out of the Magi¡¯s inner circle, would it mean Ren Xiaosu would not be able to infiltrate the core of the magus order and learn about their secrets?


    Ugh, it was not easy for him to find an opportunity to infiltrate into their organization. In the end, Mel was a little disappointing.


    Ren Xiaosu went into his tent with his mind running wild. Then he used the nanomachines to unlock the shackles before putting them aside.


    He only pretended to put on the shackles during the day, but it would be too ufortable to continue wearing them while sleeping. Anyway, no one outside of the tent could see him.


    Ren Xiaosuid down and rested on his arm acting as a pillow. He wondered what Yang Xiaojin was doing.


    The strong winds stopped blowing in the middle of the night. Ren Xiaosu suddenly heard a sounde from another tent not far away, so he got up and put on his shackles again before walking out. Then he saw Melgor looking at the night sky with a solemn expression.


    It was like Ren Xiaosu¡¯s questions had struck a sore point in him. As such, even though it waste at night, Melgor was still unable to fall asleep as he kept tossing and turning in bed.


    When Melgor heard the crunch of footsteps, he turned around and looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Why are you still awake? Are you looking for an opportunity to run off while we¡¯re asleep? I suggest you dismiss that thought. No matter how strong you might be, you can¡¯t break free from my shackles. If you head into the wilderness with your arms bound, you¡¯ll have absolutely no chance of surviving. Death is all that awaits you.¡±


    ¡°Run? Why? I¡¯m already prepared to go enjoy life in the nation of sorcerers. I¡¯m not nning to escape.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°Rather, I¡¯m a little worried for you. I¡¯m afraid that your situation won¡¯t be as favorable as you im after you return to the nation of sorcerers.¡±


    Melgor felt stifled. He thought the young man from the Central ins was really good at rubbing it in. He said coldly, ¡°No matter how unfavorable it might be, it¡¯s better than your captivity.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s so bad about being a captive? Don¡¯t I have two sheeple serving me?¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly.


    Melgor shot him a look but did not say anything. When he thought about his situation, he suddenly asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°By the way, did you hear anything about a violet eye when you were in the Central ins?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grew anxious. ¡°What violet eye? Everyone in the Central ins has ck eyes.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not talking about human eyes.¡± Melgor said, ¡°I¡¯m asking you whether you know anything about a violet eye on a ck stone..¡±

 Chapter 1073 - Secret of the stone

    <h4>Chapter 1073: Secret of the stone</h4>


    ¡°A violet eye?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in shock, ¡°And it¡¯s even an eye on a stone? What joke are you cracking? How can there be eyes on a stone?!¡±


    While they were talking, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind started racing. Not only had he seen the stone Melgor was talking about, but it also happened to be in his possession!


    When the third weapon was unveiled that day, Ren Xiaosu evenined about it because he did not know how to use it.


    In the end, the stone he had criticized actually became very important when described by Melgor.


    Melgor was probably asking about this stone in frustration because he thought it could help turn his situation around if he could obtain it.


    Thus, Ren Xiaosu thought the third weapon should be very important.


    But how would Melgor know what the third weapon looked like? The other party had clearly not seen Ren Xiaosu¡¯s stone before.


    Ren Xiaosu pondered it. Perhaps something simr to this stone had appeared in the nation of sorcerers before, and the emergence of his third weapon had caused a specific event that got noticed by Melgor.


    However, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not admit the stone was in his possession, so he could only continue ying dumb. At some point, he even wondered if he could star in a movie helmed by Mu Wan¡¯ge¡¯s studio after this trip to the nation of sorcerers.


    His acting chops were definitely top-notch!


    Melgor said disdainfully to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°What¡¯s so strange about a stone having an eye? You¡¯re way too ignorant.¡±


    After that, he took out a white stone from his sleeve. In an instant, the brilliant purple eye sigil on it started glowing.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What exactly is that stone in your hand?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to know that much yet.¡± Melgor put the stone back into his sleeve and said, ¡°All I¡¯m asking is if you¡¯ve ever seen a simr marking to this eye?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you let me go so that I can return to the Central ins to help you search for it?¡±


    Melgor said coldly, ¡°Do I look stupid to you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>As I managed to convince you to help with my infiltration n this easily, I</i> would <i>write you off as stupid.</i>¡®


    ¡°You sorcerers require this stone to cast spells, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Melgor did not answer his question. Instead, he looked at the sky again in a trance.


    Ren Xiaosu started contemting. He was a 100% sure of his deduction. In that case, the third weapon might be the key to his understanding of sorcery and the magi.


    But what the hell were the Proficiency Stones in the vending machine? He even crushed one previously.


    But since a single gray Proficiency Stone could be exchanged for one gratitude token, he wondered what the difference was between that and Melgor¡¯s stone.


    Ren Xiaosu turned to look at Melgor¡¯s mncholic expression and suddenly said, ¡°Mel...¡±


    Melgor immediately turned around. ¡°What did you call me?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, Lord Melgor.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you get me out of these shackles first? I¡¯ll study sorcery diligently from you, and who knows, I could help turn your situation around with my outstanding talent?¡±


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Sure you can study sorcery under me. Even my two servants will be studying sorcery in my Sorcerer¡¯s Tower, so a steward like you is definitely qualified.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Really?¡±


    Was this what they called searching high and low for something only to find it when it was least expected?!


    He wondered how the Great Hoodwinker conducted his intelligence operations previously. How dare he im they had no way of figuring out the sorcerers¡¯ powers or the hierarchy of the Magi¡¯s inner circle! He even said Fortress 178 did not know how the sorcerers were trained. But as soon as Ren Xiaosu showed up, he solved all of those problems!


    Of course, the Great Hoodwinker could not be med for this. It could only be said that the futuremander of the Northwest was amazing!


    But Melgor added with a sneer, ¡°Don¡¯t be too happy yet. Learning sorcery doesn¡¯t mean you can be a sorcerer. It could be nothing but a futile attempt. There¡¯s too many people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers who hope to be sorcerers after their apprenticeship. But the reality is that they can¡¯t surpass the threshold and be a sorcerer in their lifetimes. What causes true despair is that it has absolutely nothing to do with talent.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. What did he mean by that? Were there certain requirements to be a sorcerer?


    After that, Melgor turned around and went back into his tent. He did not even say anything about removing the shackles for Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Hey, finish exining before you sleep!¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    How could he go back to sleep now that he had been left hanging? Therefore, Ren Xiaosu tried to bait Melgor into telling him everything he knew.


    But no matter what he said, Melgor decided to ignore him.


    Out of desperation, the sleepless Ren Xiaosu could only wake the two servants up.


    Liu Ting and Li Chengguo¡¯s eyes werepletely bloodshot after they were woken up by Ren Xiaosu. They looked at each other and wondered if they should take this opportunity to teach Ren Xiaosu a lesson while Lord Melgor was asleep. That would teach this Central ins young man from climbing over their heads and pushing them around.


    The two servants were thinking that even if this young man had immense strength, his hands were still handcuffed. There were two of them, so surely they could beat him easily, right?


    At 4:11 AM, the two servants¡¯ anger reached a boiling point. They banded together to act on their grievances.


    At 4:12 AM, the two servants were mercilessly beaten back down by Ren Xiaosu and made to answer for their criminal intent.


    The two servants, now sporting a ck eye each, sobbed, ¡°Both of us are servants of a sorcerer. Why do you keep treating us like that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m his steward while you two are just servants. Is there anything wrong with me ordering you two around?¡± When Ren Xiaosu saw that they were on the verge of tears, he could not help feeling sorry for them. Thus, he patiently consoled them, ¡°As long as you two behave obediently, why would I hit you?¡±


    As a matter of fact, the average physical fitness of those from the nation of sorcerers was only at the level of normal people. They were much weaker than the expeditionary army¡¯s barbarians. Therefore, even if Ren Xiaosu had his hands bound right now, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem for him to take on a 100 of them at once.


    ¡°But you¡¯re not his steward yet. You¡¯re only a captive,¡± Li Chengguo said aggrievedly.


    ¡°It only takes a word from me to change that, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°Don¡¯t keep talking about this. I want to ask you two something. Melgor said earlier that even if I studied sorcery, I still can¡¯t be a sorcerer. Why¡¯s that?¡±


    The two servants looked at each other before asking Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°I¡¯m from the Central ins, so how would I know anything about this? From what you just described, this is something known by everyone in the nation of sorcerers?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Li Chengguo said, ¡°There¡¯s a lot of people who want to be sorcerers in the kingdom, but very few manage to be one.¡±


    ¡°So why can¡¯t I be a sorcerer?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Because you don¡¯t have the stone Lord Melgor has..¡±

 Chapter 1074 - Secret of the magus order

    Chapter 1074: Secret of the magus order


    Trantor: Legge


    The servant¡¯s words unlocked thest of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s doubts like a key.


    So it turned out the stone in Melgor¡¯s possession was the criticalponent to bing a sorcerer.


    With that stone, one would be qualified to be a sorcerer. Without it, you could study sorcery forever and still never be a true magus.


    However, it so happened that Ren Xiaosu really did have such a stone.


    He looked at Li Chengguo and asked, ¡°What¡¯s that stone called?¡±


    ¡°It seems that you really don¡¯t know anything about the Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡± Li Chengguo shook his head. ¡°It has the same name as the magus order. It¡¯s called the Eye of True Sight. All the stones possessed by the magi are called Eyes of True Sight.¡±


    The Eye of True Sight¡¯s name implied a sorcerer could use it to seek the truth of the world and see powers normal people couldn¡¯t.


    The Eye of True Sight could be considered an open secret in the magus world. Perhaps normal people did not know about them, but most people who understood even a little about the magi were aware of its existence.


    ¡°Where did these stonese from?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Actually, it wouldn¡¯t matter even if we told you this.¡± Li Chengguo said, ¡°The Eye of True Sight is basically controlled by the magus order. They control the mines where the stones are found, and normal people aren¡¯t allowed to trespass into them.¡±


    ¡°So, whether one can be a sorcerer or not, that¡¯s all decided by the magus order?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Li Chengguo felt that since it was not a secret, he could just share this information with Ren Xiaosu.


    Besides, it was just as Ren Xiaosu had said. Seeing that the young man from the Central ins was bound to be the sorcerer¡¯s steward, the two servants had better quickly ept their fates.


    Of course, there was nothing they could do even if they did not ept their fate. They really couldn¡¯t win against this guy!


    Seeing how it was child¡¯s y for the young man could beat them up even though he was shackled, they believed he would utterly thrash them once he was freed from the restraints.


    Liu Ting, sporting a ck eye, said, ¡°But there¡¯s also exceptions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What exceptions?¡±


    ¡°Like I said just now, the Eye of True Sight is found in the mines. But over time, there will always be rocks that fall into the river and get washed downstream.¡± Liu Ting said, ¡°So some lucky people who pick them up can also get inducted into the magus order. However, even though the magus order also acknowledges the status of such sorcerers and confers them a fiefdom where they¡¯re allowed to build a Sorcerer¡¯s Tower to collect taxation, the organization doesn¡¯t actually like them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered why this sounded so simr to a type of jade stone found in the Northwest. There were even some collectors who particrly liked such jade found in the river. The ones dug out from the mines were called mountain material, while those found in the river were called seed material.


    Under normal circumstances, the ones found in the river were much more expensive than those mined from the mountains.


    However, it was a different situation in the nation of sorcerers. Those who gained the title of sorcerer through means not controlled by the magus order were seen as bums of society. Although they were formally part of the organization, they were ostracized and kept out of the inner circle.


    ¡°The magus order is a very small circle.¡± Li Chengguo said, ¡°They insist they¡¯re gods sent from Heaven, and the Eye of True Sight is usually passed down through the family line, from father to son, then son to grandson. These are the people that control the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers. Those who became sorcerers through finding the Eye of True Sight are known as the Children of Heaven. That name was probably given to exin how they came to gain the power of the magi by saying the gods bestowed it upon them. However, the status of the Children of Heaven is much lower than that of most sorcerers. Furthermore, their Eye of True Sight cannot be passed on to their descendants after death. It has to be turned back in to the magus order.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°In other words, those who are Children of Heaven can only bask in their glory for one generation. And after their deaths, that status is taken away.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Li Chengguo nodded. ¡°Furthermore, in most circumstances, the Children of Heaven will be the ones performing the organization¡¯s dirty work. The good thing is that the magus order will still provide them with some training so they can live up to their status as sorcerer and not disgrace the order.¡±


    Children of Heaven. This term might make them sound extremely powerful, but if the sorcerers of the magus order referred to themselves as gods, wouldn¡¯t that make those sorcerers their children? It sounded more like they were being taken advantage of!


    It was no wonder Melgor was so weak. Although the magus order still provided him with serious training so he would not embarrass them, the exclusive spells remained a secret that could only be passed down through the heirs.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and suddenly asked, ¡°Is that why Melgor was ostracized? Did he find his Eye of True Sight in the river?¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting looked at each other. ¡°Well, I guess there¡¯s no harm in telling you that. The people in his fief already know about this anyway. Yes, you¡¯re right, he¡¯s a Child of Heaven.¡±


    ¡°No wonder he was sent to such a godforsaken ce.¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°So that¡¯s why he looks so depressed every day.¡±


    ¡°Please don¡¯t think of it that way.¡± Li Chengguo said, ¡°Even though he¡¯s a Child of Heaven, he still holds a very high status in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Whoever disrespects him is pitting himself against the entire magus order. Even if he¡¯s low-ranking, that¡¯s only within their organization. However, he did not find his Eye of True Sight...¡±


    Upon saying that, Liu Ting tugged at Li Chengguo¡¯s arm and signaled him to stop talking.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Oh, there¡¯s more to it, huh? Look, do you two want to tell me now, or should I beat it out of you instead?¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting, the two servants of Sorcerer Melgor, felt aggrieved for quite a while. Then Li Chengguo finally said, ¡°Lord Melgor¡¯s Eye of True Sight was purchased. However, not just anyone can buy one. It depends on luck.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it again. ¡°Since he is a Child of Heaven, why do you two still follow him? Why not follow a more powerful sorcerer?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯d like to as well, but they have to ept us first.¡± Li Chengguo said bitterly, ¡°The magi are all high and mighty gods, and wemon folk can only interact with the Children of Heaven. Our family spent a lot of money in order to let us study under him.¡±


    ¡°Study?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°But you two don¡¯t have the Eye of True Sight, so why¡¯re you learning sorcery from him?¡±


    ¡°We might find an Eye of True Sight someday?¡± Liu Ting said.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. He knew that things were not that simple. The two sheep had to still be hiding something from him. However, there was no hurry. They still had a long way to go, so he could take it slowly with them.


    Wasn¡¯t their pleasant exchange tonight a good start?


    ¡°Onest question.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and asked, ¡°Melgor asked me if I¡¯vee across a ck Eye of True Sight in the Central ins. What¡¯s with that? Is it any different from the one he has?¡±


    ¡°The ck Eye of True Sight?¡± Li Chengguo said, ¡°That sorta thing is usually only heard of in legends. Some people say there¡¯s no more than three ck Eye of True Sight in the entire magus order. Meanwhile, the white one Lord Melgor possesses is the lowest grade.¡±


    Uncovering the mystery of the formation of Hetian jade seed material | https://min.news/en/collect/7ad4168b6864b47fd4e10e7d69ef827e..html

 Chapter 1075 - Liberated Serfs, Sing

    <h4>Chapter 1075: Liberated Serfs, Sing</h4>


    After Sorcerer Melgor woke up, it felt like his entire world had be a little different.


    His two servants stayed by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side and tried their best to please him. It was aplete 180 from their cold attitude yesterday.


    Previously, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting refused to ept Ren Xiaosu. After all, they had been working for Melgor for two years and were only recently acknowledged as his servant apprentices. They had only just been allowed entry into the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower to learn sorcery from Melgor.


    For the past two years, not only did they have to eat grass, but they also had their wool sheared by herdsmen. Sometimes, they were even targeted by female sheep for mating.


    The bitterness of their experience was not something outsiders could truly understand.


    And as soon as Ren Xiaosu joined them, he was appointed the sorcerer¡¯s steward. Disregarding the difference in seniority, he even had the nerve to order Sorcerer Melgor around, and this left them feeling very resentful.


    Butst night, Ren Xiaosu had a friendly exchange with the two servants of Melgor and convinced them of the importance of teamwork.


    They were also made to understand that teamwork was extremely important for their own safety.


    After Melgor walked out of his tent, the two servants quickly came over to greet him. Again, Melgor felt that other than the ck eyes on their faces, the world did not actually seem to have changed much.


    Ren Xiaosu walked up to Melgor and said in seriousness, ¡°Remove my shackles. I want to learn sorcery from you.¡±


    ¡°Do you really want to learn sorcery?¡± Melgor wondered.


    Ren Xiaosu chased the servants off to pack up the tents before saying to Melgor, ¡°I feel that with my talent, I can definitely achieve great things after learning sorcery. Your current situation must not be too good, right? But it¡¯s alright. After I be a sorcerer, I can help you improve your situation.¡±


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, it was very necessary to help Melgor improve his situation. After all, it was impossible to rely on his own Central ins status to infiltrate the inner circle of the magus order. Even if he could be a sorcerer, the magus order would not trust him, a young man from the Central ins.


    Therefore, he had to push Melgor to the fore, and helping him to be the next rising star in the magus order should be the best approach.


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°You probably spoke with the sheeple¡­ ahem, I mean Li Chengguo and Liu Ting, so you know they¡¯re following me because they want to be sorcerers, right? But actually, you¡¯re different from them. You don¡¯t have the conditions to be one.¡±


    ¡°Conditions? What conditions?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback.


    ¡°Although the two of them might look meek, their families are actually some of the most influential ns in my fief. As such, they stand a chance of buying an Eye of True Sight.¡± Melgor guessed that Ren Xiaosu must have asked Li Chengguo and Liu Ting many questionsst night, so he should also know about the secret of the Eye of True Sight. Therefore, he decided to be honest about it.


    Melgor continued, ¡°Their families are willing to use all their resources to ensure that a sorcerer emerges from their n so their standing in the secr world can rise further. But you¡¯re different. You don¡¯t have the financial means, so you can¡¯t buy an Eye of True Sight, and even the two of them might not be lucky enough to get one.


    ¡°It¡¯s extremely difficult to be a sorcerer. I was only able to be one because I got really lucky. After getting the Eye of True Sight, there¡¯s still a need to assess if your mental strength is strong enough and whether you have the potential to advance as a sorcerer. I suppose you might not be aware of all that yet?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. So it turned out Melgor believed he couldn¡¯t get an Eye of True Sight.


    However, this was actually the simplest of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s problems, for he had already obtained an Eye of True Sight.


    ¡°So my advice to you is still to give up on this unrealistic idea.¡± Melgor tried to persuade him nicely. ¡°I know it¡¯s a good thing to have dreams, but you haven¡¯t seen it before. There¡¯s people back in the Kingdom of Sorcerers who wasted their entire lives pursuing that dream only to end up with nothing.¡±


    When this topic was brought up, Melgor¡¯s mood visibly dropped. Ren Xiaosu could sense that there was a story behind this.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about whether I can seed or not. As long as you¡¯re willing to teach me, I¡¯m willing to be your steward and protect you. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll be fine with me around.¡±


    Melgor could not help butugh. ¡°You¡¯re just a big oaf. Who gave you the balls to talk big like this in front of a sorcerer? But since I¡¯ve given you my word, I¡¯ll teach you sorcery.¡±


    In Melgor¡¯s opinion, there was no loss for him to teach Ren Xiaosu sorcery. What did it matter to him whether Ren Xiaosu could be a sorcerer? Besides, if teaching Ren Xiaosu sorcery could win him over to his side, why not?


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and smiled. He felt that he had struck a good deal here.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was thinking about how to continue using this dumb sorcerer toplete his infiltration n when he saw Melgor smiling at him.


    Ren Xiaosu had set a target of half a year for his Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n to bepleted. In other words, he was nning to fully understand the situation in the nation of sorcerers within six months.


    After half a year, it would be great if the n turned out to be sessful. But if it failed, he wouldn¡¯t wait around. He would just kill a few of the more important magi before returning to the Northwest.


    After all, if he stayed there for too long, his family would get worried for him.


    After hesitating for a moment, Melgor finally undid Ren Xiaosu¡¯s shackles. Awhileter, he finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Ren Xiaosu had no intention of attacking him.


    Then Melgor asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Since you¡¯re my steward, I should at least know your name, right?¡±


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. He was not afraid the man might have heard his name before. After all, he already concluded that the people from the nation of sorcerers had not fully infiltrated the Northwest yet.


    Not far away, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were packing the tents and whispering, ¡°Is that kid really serious about learning sorcery?¡±


    ¡°Let him learn if he wishes to learn.¡± Liu Ting said nonchntly, ¡°Most people in the world would also want a power that transcends nature after finding out about it. That¡¯s only human nature.¡±


    ¡°But he can¡¯t get his hands on an Eye of True Sight,¡± Li Chengguo said.


    ¡°Why do you care whether he can get one or not?¡± Liu Ting said, ¡°We¡¯ll just have to bear with him for now so that we won¡¯t have to suffer his beatings. When the two of us be sorcerers, we can turn the tables on him. At that time, he¡¯ll still be an oaf while we¡¯ll have be honorable magi. He¡¯ll only be able to look up to us when he meets us again.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Li Chengguo was also getting excited by Liu Ting¡¯s exnation. When he thought about how he could turn the tables on this boor in the future, he was ted.


    ¡°Hey, sheeple, what are you two bbering about? You still haven¡¯t finished packing the tents after this long?¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted at the two of them. ¡°Hurry up, Lord Melgor wants to be on his way. Don¡¯t dy his journey.¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting hurriedly replied, ¡°Sorry, sorry, we¡¯re almost done packing!¡±

 Chapter 1076 - Sorcery 101

    <h4>Chapter 1076: Sorcery 101</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Ren Xiaosu was still Ren Xiaosu, and the servants were still the servants. No matter how wonderful Li Chengguo and Liu Ting¡¯s future vision was, they still could not win against Ren Xiaosu right now.


    Based on what Melgor had said, it would probably take a dozen days for them to arrive at his fief.


    Melgor¡¯s fief was situated at the edge of the nation of sorcerers.


    Along the way, Melgor said to Ren Xiaosu in a serious tone, ¡°If you want to learn sorcery, you have to systematically learn the theory of magic first. If you can¡¯t even get through that, you should just give up the idea of bing a sorcerer.¡±


    With that, Melgor had Li Chengguo retrieve a thick book from his backpack and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°This?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?is something every sorcerer needs to be familiar with.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?textbook in his hand and asked, ¡°Can¡¯t you teach me sorcery directly?¡±


    The book was extremely heavy. Just topletely finish reading it would probably take a dozen days.


    Melgor shook his head. ¡°Sorcery has its own logic. If you only have a superficial understanding of it, how can you be a real sorcerer? Furthermore, you have to learn thenguage of the Magi after you¡¯re done reading this book. Although the Central ins¡¯nguage has be themon tongue in our kingdom, it can¡¯t be used for chanting incantations.¡±


    Actually, Melgor was using the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?book to brush off Ren Xiaosu. Melgor had not even finished reading the book himself. Moreover, it was not true that every sorcerer had to be familiar with it. This was purely a book for supplementary knowledge.


    Melgor was wholly taking advantage of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ignorance of the subject. As such, he found a book for him to read first.


    Only a few people in the entire magus order had finished reading this book. This was probably because everyone felt it was not too useful since the author was just some unknown sorcerer.


    Moreover, the book talked about the origins of sorcery and the Magi, how the Eye of True Sight was discovered, and the principles of sorcery and alchemy. However, there was no mention of how to master sorcery.


    There were no incantations, nor how they should be recited. There was also no mention of what a sorcerer should meditate about while chanting spells.


    To real sorcerers, there was a simpler way to master sorcery. They only needed to master the methods of meditation and incantation to be able to use spells.


    As such, the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?could sometimes be found in the nation of sorcerers¡¯ ck markets. Although it was rare, they could still be bought.


    However, only a sorcerer could truly master how to cast spells.


    Melgor had brought the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?to Fortress 178 because he wanted to kill time with it. After all, he would be spending two years there.


    However, in the two years that he had been here, he did not even open the book ten times.


    Melgor said he wanted to teach Ren Xiaosu, but how could he possibly teach him the real thing right off the bat? He was still observing Ren Xiaosu, so it would take some time for him to verify if Ren Xiaosu had willingly be his steward.


    During this period, Ren Xiaosu roughly started to understand Melgor too. Although the man had be a sorcerer, he was just a very low-ranking one.


    Moreover, he was not too scheming as a person. Aside from his status as a sorcerer, he was just a normal young man.


    Inparison, some of the younger people Ren Xiaosu had encountered in the Central ins were either monsters like Qing Zhen, or geniuses such as P5092 and Wang Yun. Therefore, it felt quite refreshing to suddenly encounter a young sorcerer with a normal mentality and standard intelligence.


    Off to the side, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were envious and jealous when they first heard Melgor would teach Ren Xiaosu sorcery along the way. But when they realized Melgor had given the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?to Ren Xiaosu, they were secretly delighted. They knew full well that Melgor still did not trust Ren Xiaosu, so he used the book to dismiss the young man from the Central ins.


    The two servants followed behind at a distance and spoke in whispers, ¡°Have you ever read the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never read it before. How about you?¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t read it either. What proper sorcerer would need to read that book?¡±


    ¡°How can a sorcerer who reads the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?be a proper sorcerer?¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not hear what they said. He picked up the book and read it as he walked. It was like he had hit the jackpot.


    Ren Xiaosu loved reading, so he would always read whenever he had the chance to do so. The?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?was just one of the many books in a vast sea of books to him.


    Back when Zhou Yingxue asked him why he liked reading so much, he answered it was because he could quickly understand the world through them.


    Even though the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?could not help him to learn sorcery directly, it had be the key to his understanding of the nation of sorcerers.


    The origins of sorcerers began with alchemy.


    There were no records of the Magi that existed before The Cataclysm in this book. Ren Xiaosu guessed the magus order at that time was not as prominent as they were now. Therefore, the current ¡°gods¡± did not want mortals in the secr world to know how dim their past was.


    After all, gods had to have their own authority.


    After Melgor handed the book to Ren Xiaosu, he could not help but observe the young man from the Central ins more often.


    Although Melgor had read this boring book many times, Ren Xiaosu was finding it a very enjoyable read. For a moment, it even made Melgor wonder if he had missed out on any details that were in the book.


    Eventually, when Melgor went to get the book back, he realized Ren Xiaosu was reading about the theory and practicality of alchemy.


    After Melgor returned the book to Ren Xiaosu, he wondered why Ren Xiaosu was still reading it so enthusiastically even though that was probably the driest portion of the entire book.


    In the end, Melgor could not help but ask, ¡°Is the book that interesting?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it is,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied with a smile.


    ¡°But you don¡¯t have to read it while we¡¯re walking, do you?¡± Melgor asked.


    ¡°I just want to be a sorcerer as quickly as possible.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s a race against time in the quest for knowledge. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll finish reading it as soon as possible.¡±


    The two servants chuckled at the back. It would be a wonder if one could be a sorcerer just by reading this book.


    Melgor knew they wereughing because they were well aware the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?was not an important book.


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s sincere attitude made Melgor feel a little embarrassed. He thought it would not be too good if his newly appointed steward trusted him so much and he brushed him off with a book.


    He thought for a moment and asked, ¡°Why don¡¯t I get you a different book to read?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu happened toe across the part where it talked about the principles of sorcery, which captured his full attention.. He offhandedly answered, ¡°No need, I¡¯ll finish reading this first.¡±

 Chapter 1077 - The inner world of meditation

    <h4>Chapter 1077: The inner world of meditation</h4>


    The principles of sorcery. This chapter in the book exined how the Eye of True Sight worked.


    Through Li Chengguo and Liu Ting¡¯s exnation, the ¡°Eye of True Sight¡± was a tool used by sorcerers to view the world for what it was and recognize the naturalws that governed it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had also held the Eye of True Sight before, and it was even the most powerful Eye of True Sight they had mentioned. However, he did not sense a single thing they had pointed out, nor did he feel any difference in how he saw the world after he came into possession of the stone.


    But in the book, the opening quote read, ¡°The Eye of True Sight is a tool used by sorcerers to concentrate their willpower.¡±


    Compared to the mystical exnation of the two servants, Ren Xiaosu was more inclined to believe the exnation in the book. This way, it was clear themonality between sorcerers and superhumans from the Central ins was their willpower.


    Now that he thought about it, what Yang Xiaojin had told him back then really was true. It could serve as an exnation for all the events that transcended nature. ¡°When disasteres, mental strength bes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu first started reading the book, he had done so with the mindset it would be fun. But when he saw that quote, he turned serious and continued reading it.


    ¡°The willpower of humans is imperceptible, and no one has ever been able to urately measure it before. It¡¯s as though it¡¯s non-existent.


    ¡°However, using the Eye of True Sight as a foundation, the Magi created a system to materialize their willpower.


    ¡°These methods are either incantations or meditative visualizations. This author had a discussion with a certain Central ins rider who believes this could prove to be an obstacle to the advancement of the Magi, and this concern will be exined in detailter on.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he was taken aback. He instantly flipped through the book to see its publication date. However, there was nothing other than content rted to sorcery in it. There was no indication of when the book was written nor its publication date.


    ¡°Mel, which era was the author of this book from?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Can you show a little respect?!¡± Melgor¡¯s anger soared.


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t I just trying to be endearing?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°In order to express our affection, the people in the Central ins call each other that.¡±


    ¡°Bullshit.¡± Melgor said angrily, ¡°There¡¯s so many people from the Central ins in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Don¡¯t assume I don¡¯t know your traditions.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re a smart one,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered. ¡°So Lord Melgor, who¡¯s the author of this book?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Melgor snapped. ¡°In any case, he¡¯s ancient. This book has already gone through seven editions.¡±


    ¡°Then have you heard of the Central ins Rider mentioned in the book?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Central ins rider?¡± Melgor shook his head. He nced over what Ren Xiaosu was reading and said disdainfully, ¡°You mean like a knight? I¡¯ve never heard of them before. Why would a sorcerer interact with a knight? The most honorable role for a knight is to assist a sorcerer. They know nothing about sorcery, so what¡¯s there to discuss with them? And they¡¯re even Central ins knights?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu lowered his head and pondered it for a moment. The author had described the person as a rider from the Central ins. Perhaps those in the nation of sorcerers would think of them as knights who rode on horseback into war.


    However, Ren Xiaosu knew full well that ¡°rider¡± as a term in the Central ins specifically referred to those who were members of the Riders organization.


    He had asked Li Yinglong, Qin Sheng, and the others about it. It seemed that after The Cataclysm, no one from the Riders had ever left the Central ins. Now that the Riders had made a trip to the southwestern mountains, that was considered going away on a distant journey.


    Then who was the person that had a discussion with the author? Could it be Ren He, the founder of the Riders and the Qinghe Group?!


    In that case, the author had to also be someone from the Pre-Cataclysm times, and he should be a very powerful figure as well. Otherwise, how could he be qualified to interact with a Rider?


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of endearment when he saw the familiar name in a book about sorcery.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu suddenly ced more emphasis on this book, because the founder of the Riders was a true legend.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the hesitant expression on Melgor¡¯s face and also the two servants snickering, he guessed Melgor was just using the book to brush him off.


    However, he was too excited to care about that now.


    Moreover, he thought he might be able to learn more from this book than a fringe sorcerer like Melgor.


    At night, Melgor sat at the campfire and meditated. His mouth was slightly open while his eyes were slightly closed. He was in an extremely rxed state.


    Ren Xiaosu put down the book he was reading and asked, ¡°Do y¡¯all sorcerers all need to meditate?¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting hurriedly pulled him away and whispered, ¡°You must never interrupt a sorcerer while they¡¯re meditating.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s that serious?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s the use of meditating?¡±


    ¡°Only those who meditate daily can be stronger.¡± Li Chengguo exined, ¡°Let me put it to you this way. For those who don¡¯t meditate, they might reach their limits after casting one or two spells. But for those who have meditated for ten years, they can cast more than 10 or even 20-plus spells a day.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this must be a way to slowly increase one¡¯s willpower.


    Melgor suddenly opened his eyes and exined, ¡°Meditation is the way for a sorcerer to get stronger.¡±


    ¡°Then how do I meditate?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°You can¡¯t learn that yet.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Without the Eye of True Sight, you won¡¯t be able to enter a meditative state at all.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Meditation actually required external help?


    He said, ¡°Then teach me the method first. How should I meditate if I have the Eye of True Sight?¡±


    When Melgor saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s determined gaze, he said helplessly, ¡°Hold the Eye of True Sight and then close your eyes. After a hundred respirations, you¡¯ll naturally enter your inner world of meditation.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the inner world like?¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious.


    ¡°For some, it might be a pool, while for others, it can be a stream, a windmill, or even farnd. It varies from person to person.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Of course, the different inner worlds have something inmon. The more powerful a sorcerer is, the more magnificent their inner world is. There was once a great sorcerer named Oz who said his inner world consisted of only a single leaf. However, the size of the leaf was a mountain floating in the air. It was so big it was difficult to look up at.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯m going to sleep.¡±


    With that, he went back into his tent.


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting looked at each other. ¡°He must have gone to meditate, right? Didn¡¯t Lord Melgor tell him that he must have the Eye of True Sight to do that? Why doesn¡¯t that kid believe him? He¡¯s way too stubborn. Besides, Lord Melgor hasn¡¯t even retired to bed, yet that guy dares to head back to his tent first?¡±


    ¡°Forget it, just let him be.¡± Melgor sighed.


    Melgor was still feeling guilty about brushing off Ren Xiaosu with the book..

 Chapter 1078 - A sea

    <h4>Chapter 1078: A sea</h4>


    Breathe.


    This was something Yang Xiaojin had purposely taught Ren Xiaosu. She said that for an excellent sniper, breathing should be like a hint to oneself. The moment you adjusted your breathing, all of your willpower should serve you alone.


    Ren Xiaosu breathed slowly and started trying to get into condition so he couldpletely rx.


    Melgor said that some sorcerers¡¯ inner world of meditation was a pool of water, while others were streams. In that case, Ren Xiaosu was very curious about what his inner world would look like.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, it would be more appropriate to call this inner world of meditation an inner world of spirituality. Since the Eye of True Sight was a willpower concentrating device, the world it led its owner into should naturally be an inner spiritual world.


    The nation of sorcerers was very magical and strange, but in truth, Ren Xiaosu felt their powers should be simr in theory to the willpower of superhumans in the Central ins.


    He sat in his tent and quietly took out his Eye of True Sight. It was a ck stone with a purple eye sigil on it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to enter a meditative state. Instead, he quietly waited to see if Melgor would have any reaction.


    Melgor had said he wanted to search for this stone because he had sensed its presence.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know how the other party had sensed it or what the exnation for it was. Therefore, he would have to be careful just in case Melgor sensed it again after Ren Xiaosu took the stone out of his mind pce.


    After waiting for some time, Ren Xiaosu finally felt at ease when he saw no reaction from Melgor.


    It seemed that when the third weapon appeared, it was that huge phenomenon in the sky rather than the Eye of True Sight that Melgor had sensed.


    But what was an inner world of meditation like?


    Willpower was imperceptible, but ever since he became a superhuman, he had never been worried about his willpower drying up like the others.


    Therefore, what would his inner world look like?


    Ren Xiaosu closed his eyes and slowly settled down. When his entire world fell into darkness, he noticed the Eye of True Sight in his hand seemed to be breathing in tandem with him.


    If an outsider were present, they would discover the Eye of True Sight was also pulsing.


    Melgor said one could enter their inner world after a 100 respirations.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not deliberately count. He just allowed his mind to continue wandering before refocusing again.


    Ren Xiaosu could hear his own footsteps in the darkness. He felt like he was walking down a dark corridor. Every breath he took was a step forward in here.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw a door appear in front of him. Theplicated wood grain patterns on it were extremely abstract, but when Ren Xiaosu took a closer look, he was surprised to discover they were actually a collection of all his superpowers: the steam lotive, the ck saber, the ck sniper rifle, the shadow clone, the Potato Shooter¡­.


    Meanwhile, at the centermost position were two ying cards. The two Jokers wore strange smiles.


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and pushed the door open. It creaked, but he did not find it ear-piercing. Rather, it made him rest easy.


    ¡°This is¡­¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He was already extremely familiar with the ce in front of him. That was because the inner world he entered was the pce.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s consciousness had been in here. But at that time, it felt like he was overlooking the entire structure of the pce. He did not ¡°exist¡± in here, nor did he have a ¡°body.¡± It was only his ethereal consciousness that had been to this ce.


    But now, Ren Xiaosu was like a visitor to the library who could stroll around freely.


    He slowly walked over to the brass typewriter and tried pressing the brass keys. Although he heard the typewriter making mechanical sounds, nothing was typed out.


    Everything in the pce had taken on a physical form after his meditation.


    So the pce was his inner spiritual world? Ren Xiaosu pondered this seriously.


    He had always been curious about the origins of the pce. Other people¡¯s superpowers could be traced back to how they came about, but only his power of the pce had suddenly appeared after he fell unconscious one day.


    Ren Xiaosu asked a lot of people before, but he had never heard of anyone needing to fall unconscious to awaken their powers.


    Therefore, he was always puzzled by the origins of the pce. So this was the manifestation of his willpower?


    More importantly, everyone said that the power of materialization was rted to one¡¯s subconscious. For example, Yang Xiaojin had awakened the power to materialize a sniper rifle because she liked sniper rifles, while Luo Lan awakened the Martyr¡¯s Pce due to his desire to keep hisrades by his side. Zhou Qi, who liked to swim, awakened his power of parting water. Because Li Shentan hoped that those who had witnessed his mother¡¯s tragedy would repent sincerely, he awakened the power of hypnosis. As Xun Yeyu was particrly afraid to die, he awakened his radar-esque power.


    When Ren Xiaosu was discussing this topic with the Great Hoodwinker, Wang Yun, and the others, he asked them why Wang Congyang¡¯s awakened power was the steam lotive.


    Wang Yun guessed it could be that Wang Congyang yearned for freedom, so he wanted to use the steam lotive to escape the control of the consortiums.


    That also made some sense.


    Of course, there were other, rtively abstract powers, such as Zhang Baogen¡¯s saliva bubbles.


    In that case, what was with his power of the pce? The circr walls of the pce were filled with cabs and looked like a library. While this could be understood as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thirst for knowledge, what the hell was the Potato Shooter power about? Weren¡¯t his powers too diverse?


    Back to the topic at hand, he had entered his inner world this time because he was curious about how big it was.


    Just as Melgor had said, the more powerful a sorcerer was, the more magnificent their inner world would be.


    Someone¡¯s inner world wasprised of a mountain-sized leaf, so why did it be just a pce when it came to him?


    Actually, having a pce was still much stronger than many other people. But the problem was that this did not match Ren Xiaosu¡¯s usual performance. After all, Wang Congyang¡¯s steam lotive only had four carriages, while his had sixteen.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu was trying to be narcissistic, but the truth was that he had the right to be so.


    Ren Xiaosu stood in the middle of the pce and shouted, ¡°Hey, Pce, you there?¡±


    There was no answer.


    Alright, even the pce had stopped talking after he came here through meditation.


    Left with no choice, Ren Xiaosu could only figure things out on his own to see if there were any other secrets to the pce.


    But just as he looked around, his gazended on the cab that was supposed to be holding the Eye of True Sight.


    There was an empty hole in the walls of that disy cab, which looked just big enough to fit an Eye of True Sight.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the Eye of True Sight in his hand before gently cing it into the gap.


    With a crackle, the chains and mechanisms holding the pce together started moving, pulling open the cabs on both sides of the pce walls and revealing a door. This door was exactly the same as the one he first entered the pce through.


    Ren Xiaosu resolutely pushed it open and was greeted by a vast expanse of the sky outside. Clouds were even floating past him.


    There was no path that led outside, and Ren Xiaosu stood at the edge of the door. He was teetering on a cliff on the edge of an ind in the sky as a blue sea stretched out under his feet..

 Chapter 1079 - A complete world

    <h4>Chapter 1079: Aplete world</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡®<i>Oh, sea, you¡¯re just filled with water!</i>¡®


    This was essentially the only thought in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind as he stood on the threshold of the doorway.


    As he walked through the pce, he was thinking that this should not be all there was to his inner world of meditation.


    Although the pce was huge, it was nowhere near the mountain-sized leaf of that great sorcerer.


    But now, he realized his true inner world was the vast sea beyond the door.


    In other words, this was his inner spiritual world.


    It was no wonder his steam lotive was way better than Wang Congyang¡¯s. It was no wonder his ck saber could sh through practically everything. If mental strength were the highest caliber of weapon humanity had in the face of danger, then his willpower was probably the highest caliber one among all superhumans.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. Didn¡¯t Melgor say there should only be a single item in one¡¯s inner world? And that thing should be representative of the sorcerer himself?


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that something was wrong in his inner world. Weren¡¯t there also clouds floating in the sky? Although clouds were, strictly speaking, just water vapor, it somehow did not feel right to him.


    With a thought, the floating pce in the sky quickly flew off into the distance.


    Ren Xiaosu stood on the threshold as the raging wind blew in his face.


    The pce soared over the blue sea for several hours. Just as Ren Xiaosu thought the sea was boundless, he suddenly sawnd.


    Ren Xiaosu looked ahead in a daze. The mountains and vegetation were dense, but there were no birds ornd animals in sight.


    Therefore, his inner world was actually not the sea but aplete world.


    ¡°Let¡¯s end it here,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself. After that, he turned around and walked out of the pce, bringing his meditation to an end.


    At this moment, Melgor was probably still doing his meditation. Ren Xiaosu peeked through the gap in his tent and could see the flickering campfire and a figure sitting cross-legged in their tent.


    Actually, when Ren Xiaosu saw Melgor meditating a few days ago, he thought it was a sorcerer¡¯s way of resting. After a session of meditation, he would appear a hundred times more energetic.


    But today, Melgor exined that a sorcerer¡¯s meditation could not substitute for sleep. Although one¡¯s mental state would be great after meditating, their bodily functions still required deep sleep to recover.


    When a sorcerer meditated, their bodily functions remained active throughout, so meditating was not a recement for sleep.


    In Melgor¡¯s opinion, it was rather tiring to meditate because he had to coordinate that with his sleep schedule.


    But Ren Xiaosu was hardly affected. To be honest, he did not even know if there was any point in meditating. After a long meditation session, he might only gain an additional drop in the sea, but that would be just a trivial improvement overall.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu waszy, but he felt he could make use of this time to do something more meaningful. For example, he could sit at the campfire and read the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?to see if its author had ever expressed any meaningful insights.


    Before Ren Xiaosu could page through the book, he saw Melgor ending his meditation and walking out of his tent.


    Melgor did not seem to have expected Ren Xiaosu to still be reading. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you asleep?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯ve just finished meditating.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But I couldn¡¯t sleep yet, so I wanted to read a bit more so that I can quickly be a sorcerer.¡±


    ¡°Any results from your meditation? Did you get to see your inner world of meditation?¡± Melgor asked.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s acting chops as the Northwest¡¯s best actor was put into use once again. He shook his head and said in a dejected tone, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just as you said. It¡¯s better not to waste time meditating if I don¡¯t have the Eye of True Sight. But I¡¯m still very curious. What¡¯s the scale of most sorcerers¡¯ inner worlds when they first start meditating?¡±


    Melgorughed. ¡°Actually, the majority of sorcerers are the same. When they first start meditating, they might only see a small puddle or a small stone in their inner world. Only a few are talented enough to see a river at the beginning. So if you really manage to find an Eye of True Sight someday and only see a pebble in your inner world, you don¡¯t have to feel disheartened. That¡¯s how it is for most people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>If I were to tell you what I saw, I¡¯m afraid that all of the sorcerers in the magus order would get depressed¡­.</i>¡®


    Of course, it was more likely that they wouldn¡¯t even believe him.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Then if I want to search for an Eye of True Sight, how should I go about looking for it? I heard from the sheeple that I can find it in a river. Can I go to that river and search for the rocks there?¡±


    Melgor startedughing. ¡°They lied to you¡­. Wait, what are you doing?¡±


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu in surprise as he turned around and went over to the two servants¡¯ tent. Then he woke them up and gave each of them another punch before returning to the campfire.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Melgor, ¡°Please, carry on.¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting¡¯s wails could be hearding from the tent next to them, leaving Melgor speechless. What the hell!


    Initially, Melgor wanted to tell Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Actually, I was only messing around by getting you to read the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>.¡±


    But looking at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attitude, he was starting to feel apprehensive about confessing!


    He was clearly a sorcerer, so how could he be afraid of a boor like him? However, Melgor felt extremely guilty.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw that Melgor did not say anything, he asked again, ¡°What did they lie to me about?¡±


    ¡°Strictly speaking, they did not lie to you.¡± Melgor hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°It¡¯s true that the stones can be found in a river, which is due to the umtion of ore that¡¯s been washed into the river over tens of thousands of years. However, the river has long been controlled by the archmages¡¯ power in the secr world, so you can¡¯t find any Eyes of True Sight in the river anymore. There¡¯s only one way for anyone to be a sorcerer, and that¡¯s to buy one!¡±


    Liu Ting¡¯s bitter voice came from the tent. ¡°Lord Melgor, can you finish your sentences in one breath?!¡±


    Melgor raised an eyebrow. ¡°He didn¡¯t even let me finish speaking before he beat you two up! How can you me me for that!¡±


    Li Chengguo said in pain, ¡°You should at least speak faster!¡±


    Melgor and his two servants suddenly felt that the atmosphere in the group had slowly turned strange ever since Ren Xiaosu joined them.


    If it were the past, these two sorcerer servants would not have dared to shout at Melgor like that, though this was also probably rted to Li Chengguo and Liu Ting getting beaten up.


    But for some reason, Melgor suddenly felt there was no need to be so strict in their group.


    Before bing a sorcerer, Melgor was just a normal young man who visited small taverns with his friends to drink and brag. But ever since he became a sorcerer, his friends started showing him more respect. He was no longer a normal person.


    Meanwhile, he had paid a huge price to be a sorcerer.


    Melgor suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Do you remember what I told you? Some people waste their entire lives in pursuit of their sorcerer dreams.¡±


    ¡°I remember,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Therefore, my heartfelt advice is that you don¡¯t pursue this sorcerer dream any further.. Because you¡¯ll end up losing more than you¡¯ll gain.¡±

 Chapter 1080 - Wasting an entire lifetime for the status of sorc

    <h4>Chapter 1080: Wasting an entire lifetime for the status of sorcerer</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°What have you lost?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°I realized that you¡¯ve had insomnia for the past few days. And now, you¡¯re suddenly telling me that I¡¯ll lose more than I¡¯ll gain if I pursue the sorcerer dream? What exactly have you been through?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind telling you all this, but my Eye of True Sight doesn¡¯t belong to me. It¡¯s actually my father¡¯s,¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Ren Xiaosu realized the two servants¡¯ ount did not match up with Melgor¡¯s. ¡°The two sheeple told me that if an old sorcerer with a family passed away, the Eye of True Sight in their possession would get taken back by magus order. In that case, how could you possibly have inherited it from your father?¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu looked at the two servants hostilely. ¡°Are you trying to fool me or did they lie to me again?¡±


    After being punched by Ren Xiaosu earlier, the two servants could not get back to sleep. At this moment, they had just walked over to the campfire and saw the sinister look in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes. They immediately shuddered and shouted at Melgor, ¡°Lord Melgor, can you speak without pausing? Make it clear to him!¡±


    Melgor quickly pulled Ren Xiaosu back. ¡°Listen to my exnation!¡±


    Melgor did not know whether tough or cry. What was wrong with this newly appointed steward of his? He was too tyrannical!


    ¡°I mentioned some people waste their entire lives in pursuit of their sorcerer dreams. Actually, I was referring to my father when I said that.¡± Melgor exined, ¡°My family was originally based in Ghent City, the capital of the Kingdom of Sorcerers. When I was still a child, my family was very well-to-do and could be considered an influential n of Ghent City.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized there was a story behind Melgor¡¯s status as a sorcerer.


    He did not interrupt Melgor again and listened quietly.


    Melgor continued, ¡°When I was young, my family owned a huge manor outside of Ghent City and many businesses in the city. In the summer, we¡¯d have our servants fetchrge amounts of ice from cers situated outside the city and transport it back to our residence in the city to cool ourselves. During winter, we would keep warm using underfloor heating. We had countless servants in our family, and just the professors alone who were responsible for teaching me amounted to six.¡±


    In the nation of sorcerers, ¡°professor¡± was not an academic title but a collective form of address for those of high social standing and profound knowledge.


    Melgor reveled in his recollection. ¡°I still remember when I was very young, my father would bring me to the racetrack outside Ghent City to ride horses and teach me how to y polo. He would also bring me to the city¡¯s arena to watch passionate battles between diators. The victorious diators would get the cheers of the audience, and I couldn¡¯t help cheering along with them too. It¡¯s entertainment that only aristocrats are allowed to watch, and sorcerers enjoy such shows very much as well.¡±


    ¡°Ren Xiaosu, I wanted you to be my steward because I feel you have the potential to be a diator. Frankly, I need this opportunity to mingle with the aristocrats and sorcerers so I may be admitted into the inner circle of the magus order and get away from my current fief,¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°Later, it all changed.¡± Melgor sighed. ¡°My father had dreams of bing a sorcerer since childhood. This is probably also the dream of all young people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. The magi are powerful and mysterious, even ranking above the monarch. This filled every teenager with fantasies of bing a sorcerer.¡±


    ¡°However, a sorcerer is not something you can just be because you want to. Moreover, you can¡¯t just purchase an Eye of True Sight with money.¡± Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°You¡¯ll need luck, very good luck.¡±


    ¡°May I interrupt for a second?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly, ¡°So there¡¯s still a luck element involved when buying an Eye of True Sight? I just don¡¯t understand. Don¡¯t you just pay up and receive the item?¡±


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Melgor shook his head. ¡°This is not how an Eye of True Sight looks before it¡¯s unsealed. It¡¯s encased by ayer of stone that we have to break apart. Only then will we find out if there¡¯s an Eye of True Sight within, or if it¡¯s just a in rock that was purchased.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Wasn¡¯t this the same trick they employed in jade gambling back in the Southwest?!


    Melgor exined, ¡°This business is controlled by a certain archmage¡¯s family based in the secr world. Normal people can try their luck to obtain an Eye of True Sight at the stone gambling market. The magus order will also acknowledge them as true sorcerers if they manage to get one. The ck market that hosts stone gambling activities in Ghent City is the craziest ce in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers. Over the years, rumors of people bing sorcerers from gambling on stones have caused arge number of people to go and try their luck.¡±


    ¡°What are the chances of getting an Eye of True Sight through that avenue?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, ¡°How many people have be sorcerers using this method?¡±


    ¡°Very, very few.¡± Melgor said, ¡°At the very least, my father didn¡¯t manage to be a sorcerer after spending all the family¡¯s wealth.¡±


    After hearing this, Ren Xiaosu thought the Magi was really ruthless in how they plundered the people¡¯s wealth. But since they were already the actual controllers of the entire nation, why did they still have to resort to such petty ways to swindle the wealth of others? Compared to the necessities economy, the money earned from the stone gambling market was probably too little to bring about any qualitative impact for them, right?


    No, Ren Xiaosu carefully recalled how the consortiums were structured in the Central ins. In fact, thergest manufacturer of lipstick was the Wang Consortium.


    What did arge organization such as the Wang Consortium still bother to manufacture lipstick for? Why would they even bother earning this bit of money? The truth was that they did not want to miss out on even a single cent and earn from every market there was.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor and asked, ¡°Then where did you get your Eye of True Sight from?¡±


    ¡°My father was diagnosed with an illness when he was 40. If he had treated his illness, he could¡¯ve lived for another three years, but that would¡¯ve required him to spend all the savings we had.¡± Melgor said sadly, ¡°I said we should use the money for his treatment, but he disagreed. He gave all the savings to me and told me to go try my luck at the ck market one more time. He wanted to give it onest shot. If he had used it for his treatment, that would really have been the end for our n.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d never dreamed about bing a sorcerer, so I insisted he use the money for his treatment. But he dragged me to the ck market and forced me to pick a random stone. If I didn¡¯t do as he said, he would kill himself.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Helpless, I could only pick one as he told me. But who could¡¯ve expected I would actually obtain an Eye of True Sight from the stone I had chosen? On that same day, my father died. I don¡¯t even know if he felt remorseful or gratified before he passed on.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought this story was full of irony. His father had exhausted all of the family¡¯s wealth in pursuit of his life¡¯s dream of bing a sorcerer only to see it unfulfilled. Meanwhile, Melgor, who never harbored any ambition of bing a sorcerer, managed to pick an Eye of True Sight randomly and became the next lucky sorcerer.


    It was no wonder Melgor said normal people had a lot to lose if they sought to be sorcerers.


    ¡°I used all our family¡¯s wealth and my father¡¯s jinxed life in exchange for the status of fringe sorcerer.¡± Melgor gave a bitter smile. ¡°Was it worth getting sent to a godforsaken ce to do the dirtiest and most tiring work for the order? I don¡¯t know, but I found outter that sorcerers who bought their Eyes of True Sight were sent to the toughest ces to be trained for two years.. Of course, this is not about training your willpower, but the magus order¡¯s way of telling you that even if you be a sorcerer, your fate still lies in their hands.¡±

 Chapter 1081 - Na?ve son of the landlord

    <h4>Chapter 1081: Na?ve son of thendlord</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Melgor¡¯s father had wasted his entire life buying numerous stones, yet he was still unable to obtain an Eye of True Sight. However, his son, who did not wish to be a sorcerer, managed to pick an Eye of True Sight randomly on his first try.


    That was why Melgor said that this Eye of True Sight and the title of the sorcerer was actually his father¡¯s. To him, he felt that it should actually belong to his father, but it just wasn¡¯t meant to be.


    Melgor said that he did not even know whether his father felt remorseful or gratified before passing away.


    However, Ren Xiaosu thought that Melgor¡¯s father¡­ was very likely to have been driven to the grave by Melgor.


    Of course, he had to keep such disparagingments to himself. He could not speak callously since that would be a little rude.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and looked at the sheeple. ¡°So do you two also intend to get yourselves an Eye of True Sight using this method?¡±


    Li Chengguo hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Yes¡­¡±


    ¡°Then just go buy it.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Aren¡¯t your families quite wealthy? Since you¡¯ve already decided to do it this way, wouldn¡¯t you naturally be sorcerers after you sessfully purchased an Eye of True Sight? Why would you still want to be a sorcerer¡¯s servant?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s still quite useful to systematically learn about sorcery,¡± Li Chengguo answered. ¡°But more importantly, our families hope that Lord Melgor can give us some advice when we¡¯re buying the Eye of True Sight¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked right then and there. When he saw Melgor¡¯s helpless expression, he immediately understood that while these two guys might truly want to systematically learn sorcery from Melgor, their main aim was to make use of his luck!


    Melgor exined in annoyance, ¡°I¡¯m known as the luckiest sorcerer in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡±


    As such, the story of Melgor¡¯s father who did not get to fulfill his dream of bing a sorcerer while Melgor randomly picked an Eye of True Sight had be a new legend in the nation. This was enough to tempt Li Chengguo¡¯s and Liu Ting¡¯s families as they joined in on the gold rush to buy an Eye of True Sight.


    ¡°Based on our contract, their families will pay me 10,000 gold coins each, and they¡¯ll be my servants for two years followed by another two years of apprenticeship. After that, I¡¯ll bring them to Ghent City and choose ten stones for each of them.¡± Melgor said, ¡°If they manage to obtain an Eye of True Sight from my picks, I¡¯ll receive a further 10,000 gold coins as a reward.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s quite a good deal.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    So it turned out these two servants¡¯ families were hoping to ride on Melgor¡¯s luck.


    It seemed like the nation of sorcerers¡¯ people were also very superstitious.


    Ren Xiaosu scrutinized Melgor and thought to himself, ¡®<i>If he¡¯s really that lucky, maybe I should bring him back to the Northwest to be our lucky charm.</i>¡®


    But based on the agreement between Melgor and the servants, it would be another two years before they headed to Ghent City. Ren Xiaosu could not wait that long, so he had to find a way to make Melgor move the schedule up.


    But before Ren Xiaosu could say anything, Melgor said, ¡°I intended for you two sheeple to work for me for another two years. But since I¡¯m now nning to make a trip to Ghent City, I might as well fulfill our agreement early. I also know full well that it¡¯s impossible to dissuade the two of you from chasing after this sorcerer dream.¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting looked at each other. They could no longer hide the joy in their eyes.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What are you heading to Ghent City for?¡±


    ¡°At the border of Fortress 178, I sensed the aura of an extremely high-level Eye of True Sight. So I have to report this to the magus order.¡± Melgor said, ¡°This is a very important piece of news, and it should be able to help improve my situation.¡±


    ¡°If the magus order finds out about this news, what would they do?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again.


    ¡°They¡¯ll send more powerful sorcerers to the Central ins to search for the whereabouts of that Eye of True Sight.¡± Melgor exined, ¡°For them, they¡¯ll do all they can to recover every lost Eye of True Sight out there, let alone an Eye of True Sight of such high level. I wonder how that Eye of True Sight ended up in the Central ins. It even gained a new owner.¡±


    ¡°How did you sense that Eye of True Sight?¡± Ren Xiaosu was puzzled.


    ¡°When an Eye of True Sight of high level changes owners, it causes a strange phenomenon in the sky. Within a radius of a 1,000 kilometers, sorcerers can sense it with their own Eye of True Sight. It¡¯s almost like the Eye of True Sight that¡¯s gone through an ownership change is making a deration of sovereignty.¡± Melgor said, ¡°This fact was recorded in a book.¡±


    ¡°Do you think they¡¯ll travel thousands of kilometers to the Central ins just to look for such a stone?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Of course. The Eye of True Sight represents the intensity of a spell that sorcerers can cast. Sometimes, different grades of Eyes of True Sight are used to signify the different ranks of sorcerers within the Magi.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Currently, rumor has it that there¡¯s only two ck Eyes of True Sight in the entire magus order. As they¡¯re in the hands of the two highest-ranked sorcerers, others who live under their rule long enough will definitely start getting jealous.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this. Surely the Eye of True Sight in his possession would not lead the nation of sorcerers and Fortress 178 straight into a war, right?


    That wouldn¡¯t do.


    But upon further thought, since the Eye of True Sight was used to determine one¡¯s rank within the magus order, those who did not want to remain lowly would have to search for the third ck Eye of True Sight.


    Then if Ren Xiaosu just stole the ck Eyes of True Sight from the other two sorcerers, everyone would be of equal standing. In that case, no one would have to be jealous of each other!


    That way, they would not have to make such a long journey to the Central ins to search for the ck Eye of True Sight!


    It sounded very logical, right? Consider that!


    Melgor suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu and the two servants, ¡°Since I¡¯ve decided to bring you guys to Ghent City, I¡¯ll be seriously teaching everyone sorcery starting today. Who knows, you might find an Eye of True Sight when we get there.¡±


    The atmosphere within the group immediately warmed up.


    Li Chengguo even boasted that if he obtained two Eyes of True Sight from the ten stones, he would give one of them to Ren Xiaosu.


    His reckless bragging really made him look like a na?ve son of thendlord.


    Saying that, Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I was only trying to brush you off when I handed you the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?to read. Although you seem to enjoy it, it¡¯s probably not of much help in your attempt to be a sorcerer. I¡¯ll rmend you another book called<i>?A Comprehensive Guide to Sorcery</i>.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°No need. I think the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?is quite interesting. I¡¯ll finish reading it first.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had been busy trying to learn about Melgor¡¯s background today, so he did not have the chance to follow up on the allusion he came across in the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>. Central ins rider¡ªRen Xiaosu was inexplicably fascinated by these words. He somehow felt that this book, which mentioned the Central ins Rider, was definitely not what it seemed.


    With that, Ren Xiaosu sat down off to the side and continued reading it.


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting muttered, ¡°He¡¯s still so stubborn at this time. He must think we¡¯llugh at him for reading that useless book for so long, so he insists on finishing it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve read that book before. It really doesn¡¯t cover anything about spell incantations or meditative visualizations.¡±


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu had just flipped to a new page. The author wrote: ¡°Continuing on the topic of discussion between me and the Central ins rider in the previous chapter, should sorcerers abandon the practice of reciting incantations and the use of meditative visualizations?¡±

 Chapter 1082 - Strange happenings at East Lake

    <h4>Chapter 1082: Strange happenings at East Lake</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Most people would probably regard this book as a gem if they saw there was research done on nonverbal spells and quickly study it in detail.


    But Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and felt that something did not feel right. If there were really research findings on nonverbal spells and casting published in this book, it would probably have be the holy book for everyone in the magus order.


    However, it seemed like Melgor and the servants did not take the book seriously.


    Even if most people had not read the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>, there should still be a few people who had studied it thoroughly.


    Since the magus order was able to establish such arge kingdom, Ren Xiaosu would definitely not assume that all of their members were stupid.


    Therefore, if there were some shocking secrets hidden within this book, they would have already been discovered. Would he be the one to find it?


    Ren Xiaosu continued reading to see what the author wrote. It would be good if it could provide him with some ideas.


    ¡°The Magi have long been ustomed to reciting incantations and using meditative visualizations as the key to their spell casting. But now, very few sorcerers bother to consider what changes there might be if they did not have to recite incantations and practice meditative visualization to cast spells, including me.


    ¡°Ever since I was young, I learned incantations and meditative visualizations. Father had wholeheartedly taught me everything he knew, but I never once questioned the principles behind the incantations.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t until I met the Central ins rider that he ridiculed that the time needed for me to recite an incantation could allow an enemy to find a 100 ways to take my life. In a real battle between experts, hesitation would mean defeat.


    ¡°For this reason, I had a brief exchange with this Central ins rider and was surprised to discover that sorcerers would indeed be disadvantaged due to the time needed to recite incantations.


    ¡°In the past, the opponents of sorcerers were only normal people. So even if there was a dy in casting spells due to the recitation of incantations, it would not affect the battle much. But what if the opponent they encountered was stronger physically? What if they don¡¯t give you time to cast a spell?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu read this, he gasped. Only now did he realize why this sorcerer became so interested in exploring nonverbal spells. It was entirely because he had been defeated by a Rider!


    What brief exchange? It was clearly just a fight.


    He even concluded that a sorcerer would indeed be disadvantaged due to the duration it took them to recite their incantations if their opponent did not give them time to cast their spells. Ren Xiaosu could imagine the Rider had probably used his extreme physical fitness to quickly rush up to the sorcerer and beat him up before he could even cast any spells.


    These glorified edits were just so he could leave some dignity for himself. After all, he was the author, so he wouldn¡¯t cast himself in a bad light, right?!


    Sorcerers cared about their reputation too!


    As such, this sorcerer, who had an ¡°exchange¡± with the Central ins Rider, became determined to research the subject of nonverbal spells.


    Ren Xiaosu continued reading.


    The sorcerer wrote in his book: ¡°Not needing to recite any incantations or use meditative visualizations to cast spells is something that no sorcerer would even dare think about.


    ¡°But with this thought in mind, I found it difficult to restrain my curiosity any further. So I went back to the origins of incantations and meditative visualizations and discovered that sorcerers used abination of incantations and meditative visualizations to stabilize their spell casting as well as gain better control over the alchemical elements.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t use incantations and only apply meditative visualization in your spell casting, your restless willpower will fly out of control. A spellcaster might want to cast a Lesser Fireball, but they might end up overdrawing from their willpower and cast a Greater Fireball instead.


    ¡°It might be more powerful this way, but if the fireball doesn¡¯t hit the enemy, the caster can only wait for death. So it¡¯s very necessary to maintain urate control in casting. My final conclusion is that it¡¯s not feasible to cast a spell without reciting incantations.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused when he read this. So it turned out the author was just trying to say it was not feasible to cast a spell without reciting incantations? Then why did you waste so much effort to even write it down?


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu nearly threw the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?into the fire.


    However, he fell into deep thought again. This sorcerer believed it was impossible to cast a spell without reciting its incantation due to the limits of people¡¯s willpower. However, it did not seem like Ren Xiaosu had that problem.


    ¡­


    The progression of the Central ins¡¯ war had already exceeded everyone¡¯s expectations. The Zhou Consortium had been pushed back in defeat too quickly.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s troops hadunched a blitzkrieg on the Zhou Consortium¡¯s northern defensive line. On the same day, Zhou Qingyang started preparing to relocate to the South. This was equivalent to announcing to the entire military that as the highest-ranking officer of the Zhou Consortium, he did not have any confidence in winning this battle.


    After the Zhou Consortium led by Zhou Qingyang left Stronghold 73 and retreated southwards, the Zhou Consortium¡¯s troops in the North gradually lost their will to fight.


    It only took two weeks for the Wang Consortium topletely upy all of the Zhou Consortium¡¯s territory north of Stronghold 73, including Stronghold 73 itself.


    With this, everyone understood it was only a matter of time before the Wang Consortium annexed the Zhou Consortium.


    Meanwhile, no one knew that on the same night the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops upied Stronghold 73, a team of special forces consisting of 180 people set off from the rear. They carried with them the Wang Consortium¡¯s highest level of clearance documents and arrived at East Lake in Stronghold 73.


    However, this group of special forces were not only carrying their ownbat equipment but also a lot of diving equipment.


    Among the diving equipment were OPS military man-portable underwater propulsion thrusters,pact pure oxygen respirators known as MODE, RDP rapid diving systems, FLEX diving suits, and RK-3 swim fins.


    This was probably the best diving equipment avable for military use.


    Ever since the cave-in at East Lake, the area was no longer as lively as it used to be. No one attended za dancing activities here anymore, and there were no joggers to be seen either. Everyone said they were terrified that hundreds of people had lost their lives and were buried at the bottom of theke.


    Furthermore, the residents in the vicinity of East Lake reported terrifying news. Some people witnessed a whirlpool forming in the center of theke during the middle of the night, while others reported seeing huge bubbles emerging from the surface of theke.


    What was even more horrifying was that someone said they had seen a gigantic shadow sweeping past under theke¡¯s surface.


    Gradually, a lot of people started saying East Lake must be haunted by the indignant souls of those who had lost their lives in the cave-in.


    The Wang Consortium¡¯s special forces had already assembled by theke. Dozens of soldiers put on their full diving gear and waited quietly.


    Meanwhile, the remaining troops set up some strange equipment and connected all of their data lines to a tactical militaryptop.


    Theputer screen was already lit up, and it disyed a pulsating pattern that resembled an electrocardiogram.


    When all the equipment waspletely set up, someone in the special forces started pointing a conical detector at theke.


    As the special forces executed their mission, they did so quietly without anyone giving them orders. However, the division ofbor was extremely clear.


    Suddenly, the pattern on theputer screen started fluctuating violently. Then themander of the special forces said calmly, ¡°Found you..¡±

 Chapter 1083 - Apex predator

    <h4>Chapter 1083: Apex predator</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    No one knew why the Wang Consortium¡¯s special forces had suddenly appeared in the upied territory. The surface of theke was pristine as a mirror.


    The pattern on theputer screen fluctuated between intense and calm.


    Silently, the dozens of Wang Consortium soldiers in their diving gear put on their diving goggles and prepared to jump into the water from the side of theke.


    But at this moment, a patrol car suddenly approached them quickly. The spotlight on the vehicle lit up.


    At almost the same time, the special forces all stopped in their tracks and turned around to look at the oing vehicle. Their reactions were so orderly it was terrifying.


    It was like they were all wired together like machines.


    But they were real people.


    When the patrol car came to a stop next to theke, two Wang Consortium soldiers jumped out of the vehicle and shone their shlights at the special forces. ¡°Tell us who you are!¡±


    As he spoke, the other patrol soldier at the back cocked his automatic rifle.


    Stronghold 73 had be upied territory of the Wang Consortium. While it was upied, wartime regtions were implemented. These patrol guards were the new garrison troops of this stronghold.


    Themander of the special forces raised his hands and walked over slowly. ¡°Military ID 1471, don¡¯t shoot. We¡¯re friendlies carrying out a mission.¡±


    Themander of the special forces spoke to the point and revealed his identity.


    A soldier from the patrol squad was surprised. ¡°I know you all. You were included in the list of the troops that entered Stronghold 73 to carry out the reorganization work, but there was no mention you would be conducting a mission here.¡±


    ¡°Since you know which unit we belong to, you should know the confidentiality level of our mission,¡± the special forces¡¯mander calmly replied. ¡°Please put down your guns and don¡¯t point at yourrades.¡±


    However, this exnation did not convince the patrolling guards. The two of them looked at each other before one guard suddenly said, ¡°Show me your clearance documents again. I¡¯ll report this matter to the higher-ups. Please calm down and wait for confirmation from themand center at the front line.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± The special forces¡¯mander nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯ll get someone to hand you the documents.¡±


    He waved to the rear and a hardy-looking soldier trotted over. His sturdybat boots rattled the ground as he moved.


    The special forces operator handed a folder to his superior. Themander untied the string around it and walked towards the patrolling guards. ¡°Here, these are our documents.¡±


    But when he was just a step away from them, he quickly took out a short and sharp ckbat knife from inside the folder.


    Blood started gushing through the special forces¡¯mander¡¯s face as silvery patterns appeared on it. Some kind of power was quickly gathering before being unleashed.


    In the blink of an eye, themander of the special forces shed his dagger across the patrolling soldiers¡¯ necks and severed their tracheas and arteries. The patrolling guards did not even have a chance to fire a warning shot.


    As the patrolling guards fell to the ground, a few special forces operators nearby split off to handle the scene. Meanwhile, theirmander returned right to thekeside.


    A soldier took out a brand new set of diving gear and put it on for him. Then he tied a sealed, ck steel bottle around themander¡¯s outer thigh.


    All of this was still being carried out without a sound as though someone had silently given them the order. In an instant, 40 soldiers in diving gear jumped into the water with spearguns slung over their backs.


    Spearguns were pneumatic weapons, and such lethal weapons were extremely effective even when huntingrge sea creatures underwater.


    In the dark, the spotlights on their propulsion thrusters were switched on. 40 white fluorescent lights glowed in the water likerge silvery fish as they swam quickly towards the center of theke.


    Everyone had a calm expression on their face, and some bubbles would only asionally appear from their oxygen masks.


    A secondter, the special forces¡¯mander turned off the power of his thruster and started to slowly sink to the bottom of theke. With aid from the lights, he could even see the ruins of the East Lake Tunnel.


    Suddenly, he drew a dagger from his belt and shed himself on the forearm.


    The blood started blending into theke water. If this were a river, the blood would have attracted schools of omnivorous fish.


    But not here in the waters of East Lake. The special forces¡¯mander quietly used the propulsion thruster¡¯s light to scan the vicinity. All of East Lake was like a pool of standing water, and not a single fish could be seen swimming around.


    The East Lake was not a stagnant body of water but ake formed by overflowing rivers congested with silt.


    Moreover, before the cave-in at East Lake, this was a hot spot for anglers. It was only after the cave-in that this ce gradually became strange.


    A momentter, themander of the special forces spun around and looked to his left. At the same time, he swept his propulsion thruster¡¯s light over.


    The water in theke was oppressive, and a huge shadow was rapidly approaching. This was the true apex predator of the freshwater ecosystem in this era of the wastnds.


    The special forces¡¯mander did not panic. As danger approached, he just stood on the bottom of theke quietly and waited for it to arrive.


    In the instant before the predator was about to reach him, the soldiers hiding in theke pulled the triggers of their spearguns simultaneously on both sides.


    Sharp spears shot out from the barrels with a rope attached to their tails that acted like an anchor.


    The 40 spearguns hit their target at the same time, and the predator in the water suddenly started struggling violently.


    The special forcesmander who was standing in the water kicked his feet forward. His skin lit up with silvery patterns as he flew towards the predator like a spear.


    While gliding, he removed the ck steel bottle tied to the outer part of his right thigh with his right hand and pressed down on the side of the bottle with his thumb. Immediately, a needle appeared at the top of the bottle.


    At the same time, the special forces¡¯mander arrived at the creature¡¯s stomach and stabbed the needle into it.


    A silvery liquid metal quickly entered the predator¡¯s body and rapidly made its way to the creature¡¯s brain through its bloodstream.


    These were the nanomachines, while the special forces responsible for transporting them were all nanosoldiers.


    Gradually, the predator stopped struggling and calmed down. In fact, if the nanosoldiers were even a littlete in their execution, they would probably have gotten buried at the bottom of theke. That was because this predator was even more terrifying than expected.


    The special forces¡¯mander propelled himself forward with his swim fins and came to the head of the creature to observe it carefully.


    It was a catfish with six barbels that had mutated for unknown reasons. It was a carnivorous and ferocious freshwater fish.


    After getting enough intel, all of the nanosoldiers in the water started swimming towards the surface of theke.. Meanwhile, a silvery glow suddenly appeared in the eyes of the six-barbeled catfish.

 Chapter 1084 - Secret Business In The Jing Mountains

    <h4>Chapter 1084 - Secret Business In The Jing Mountains</h4>


    After the Wang Consortium''s special forces came ashore, they were in no hurry to leave yet. In the dark of the night, they calmly loaded the corpses of the patrolling guards into their equipment boxes.


    Then they sank them to the bottom of East Lake along with all their diving gear.


    If nothing unexpected happened, it would probably be a long time before anyone realized what had happened at East Lake tonight.


    Actually, even the Zhou Consortium had been caught up in the chaos and was unaware that a huge monster had been raised at the bottom of East Lake in Stronghold 73 due to the events of the cave-in.


    The superhumans'' bodies and blood that were buried at the bottom of theke were the cause of it all, and the effects were far-reaching.


    The special forces got back into their vehicles and set off again. However, they did not continue heading south to the front line as nned. Instead, they returned north with the highest level of clearance documents. No one stopped them, nor did anyone notice anything unusual about them.


    "Nanosoldier" was a very strange term in the Central ins. In many people''s minds, nanomachines had be the exclusive technology of the Qing Consortium.


    However, only a few people knew that ever since the secret research base in the Southwest was destroyed, the Qing Consortium''s authority over ess to nanotech had been seized.


    Now that the Qing Consortium hadpletely stopped producing nanomachines, Qing Zhen started mysteriously concealing his movements.


    At the same time, a group of elite troops suddenly set off from the Central ins. They crossed the southwestern forest and arrived near the Jing Mountains in the Southwest.


    Along the way, they passed through Mt. Meihua, the Jigong Range, and Mt. Xuanhan. Throughout the journey, they never took the main roads and traveled only along the mountain paths.


    Just like the special forces that had appeared at East Lake, they were carrying the best weapons, gear, and detection equipment with them in metallic boxes.


    Unlike the special forces, this group of soldiers were carrying even more man-portable heavy weapons.


    If normal troops were transporting such heavy equipment manually, they would probably have died from exhaustion in the wilderness. But when these elite troops arrived at the Jing Mountains, they did not look particrly tired at all. It was as though they were all supernatural beings.


    There used to be roads in the Jing Mountains, or at the very least, when Ren Xiaosu led Yang Xiaojin and the others into these mountains, there were still traces of vehicr tracks on the mountain paths.


    Even earlier than that, there used to be trade caravans passing through the Jing Mountains.


    But the Jing Mountains had long been abandoned. There were only dense weeds and vegetation left on the ground, and all traces of human activity had been mercilessly overrun by nature.


    Even now, a huge crack could still be seen in the Jing Mountains. A canyon had formed.


    During the earthquake that struck the Jing Mountains, the tectonic tes werepressed and pushed up within an hour. The huge crack and gully had cut through Stronghold 113 and Stronghold 112 like a hot knife through butter.


    Now that the elite troops had arrived, they could easily imagine the devastating effects on the surrounding areas during the Jing Mountains earthquake.


    When regr troops marched, they would always make small talk with each other. It was only when themander ordered them to observe noise discipline would everyone shut their mouths.


    It was not that normal troops were undisciplined, but that this was human nature. Before carrying out high-intensity missions, the soldiers would need to talk to ease their tension.


    However, it was different for this group of soldiers. No one said a word throughout, as though there was no need tomunicate at all.


    When they were about to reach the entrance of the Jing Mountains, the slot canyon1 there was still the same as before. However, there was more gravel piled up on the narrow path.


    The elite troops stood there quietly. Everyone looked at the words carved into the stone wall and did not move for a long time: "Stop here, ye who live."


    Ten minutester, two soldiers put down the boxes they were carrying and took out ten ck steel bottles. They unscrewed the seal on them and poured the silvery liquid metal onto the ground.


    The silvery liquid metal started flowing like a river before quickly splitting into dozens of streams and spreading up along the smooth stone walls.


    A dense squeaking sound could be heard as the silvery liquid metal seemingly rmed the face bugs that lived in the cliff walls.


    Back then, the face bugs had left the Jing Mountains due to the earthquake and started hunting indiscriminately in Stronghold 113. But by the time the Qing Consortium''s troops returned to the stronghold to investigate, the bugs had disappeared. No one knew where they had gone.


    Surprisingly, the face bugs actually went back to the Jing Mountains and returned to theirir.


    The face bugs were extremely ferocious. However, they instinctively started avoiding the silvery liquid metal that was rapidly approaching them.


    But before they could figure out what it was, the silvery liquid metal started scattering outwards and seeping into the bodies of the face bugs.


    In just half an hour, all of the face bugs in the entire slot canyon stilled.


    At this moment, the elite troops carried their equipment and continued heading deeper into the Jing Mountains.


    Ren Xiaosu and the others nearly died when they made their way across this canyon entrance, with more than half of the private troops perishing.


    This time, the face bugs did not attack the humans at all. They almost seemed as docile as pets.


    When the elite troops passed through the slot canyon, they could still see the skeletal remains of humans who had died here. However, they did not stop and continued advancing expressionlessly.


    In the recesses of the Jing Mountains, the ruins of the city the Qing Consortium had searched through hadpletely copsed in the earthquake. The signs of some shops from before The Cataclysm that could originally be seen here were utterly torn up now.


    The ruins of the city became a huge tomb that buried the former human civilization.


    Themander of the elite troops retrieved his military binocrs and looked toward the huge volcanic crater in the distance. The soldiers around him who were carrying dozens of boxes started marching quickly towards the volcano.


    When they were about a kilometer away from the crater, they started setting up the detection equipment and connected it to a tactical militaryptop. Every soldier''s movements were conducted with machine precision as they systematically carried out their duties.


    Of the 500-strong troops, 30 soldiers were in charge of overseeing the equipment. The rest of the soldiers, who were all armed, carried the remaining unopened boxes and quickly scattered outwards.


    A soldier carried a conical-shaped detector and aimed it at the volcanic mountainside. This time, they did not have to wait long as the pattern on theputer screen quickly entered a state of intense turbulence.


    "We''ve discovered it. The intel was wrong. There''s more than one unknown lifeform in the crater."


    "Probe it again."


    "We have confirmation. The number of unknown lifeforms is two."


    "Prepare for battle."


    "Alpha One and Alpha Two, enterbat ready status and activate the nanomachines."


    "Prepare the nanomachines in the tranquilizing device."


    "Bravo One and Bravo Two, enter tight security status and prohibit outsiders from entering the battlefield."


    "Standby."


    "Ready the mortars. Lure them out."


    A slot canyon is a long, narrow, deep and tortuous channel or drainageway with sheer rock walls that are typically eroded into either sandstone or other sedimentary rock. | https://en..wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_canyon

 Chapter 1085 - Its Good Enough That Ive Lived Once

    <h4>Chapter 1085 - It''s Good Enough That I''ve Lived Once</h4>


    While someone was trying to capture the unknown lifeforms in the Jing Mountains, Wang Shengzhi went to Stronghold 61''s artificial intelligence research and development center situated 70 meters underground. He suddenly asked the ck screen above his head, "Recently, I''ve received reports from the front line that a few of our fighting forces have been acting on their own. Do you know anything about that?"


    The ck screen quickly disyed an answer: "It''s my responsibility to n how the standbybat troops are deployed based on the real-time situation."


    "Why haven''t you mentioned it to me before?" Wang Shengzhi asked again.


    Zero replied, "Because you were undergoing an emergency operation when the troops were deployed."


    Wang Shengzhi started coughing so severely he felt like his lungs were tearing. He looked extremely pale. Hisplexion was no longer healthy like before.


    He had immediatelye back to work a day after being operated on.


    Zero said, "You need to rest. The War for the Central ins ising to an end. Soon, there will be no enemies left who can challenge the Wang Consortium. The new surveince equipment has already been shipped to the Zhou Consortium''s Stronghold 71, and everything is progressing in good order. You can recuperate without worry."


    After that, several documents rapidly appeared on screen, including a deployment order for multiple fighting forces.


    Zero continued, "You should get some rest."


    Wang Shengzhi slowly evened out his breathing and chuckled softly. "I don''t have many months left to live anyway, so let me see a little more of this world for now. How long do you think I still have?"


    "Actually, you can continue to live on in another way." Zero said, "The Qing Consortium''s nanomachines can interface with neurons in a human''s brain. This means I can use that process to upload all your thoughts. When all of the thoughts uploaded are yours alone, it means you''re still alive, albeit your existence will be in a different form."


    Wang Shengzhi was stunned. "You''re already capable of doing that? But would that even be considered as living?"


    "I don''t think humans have a specific definition of life and death. Most people think that deathes when one''s normal life functions havepletely ceased. However, I think that as long as one''s subjective consciousness remains, they can still be considered as truly living," Zero answered.


    Wang Shengzhi chuckled and shook his head. "But you can only upload the memories that exist in my cerebral cortex by interfacing my brain with the nanomachines. It wouldn''t be possible to upload my soul."


    "I''m still skeptical about whether the soul really exists. I even think that memory is the true embodiment of the soul. If you enjoyed eating rice dumplings while you were human, you''ll still like them even after you exist in the form of data." Zero said, "Everything that makes you you will continue to exist as before."


    Wang Shengzhi cleared his throat a couple times and adjusted the nket on his knees. Then he said with a smile, "But then I can''t eat rice dumplings."


    Zero suddenly said, "At that time, you''ll discover a much bigger world than you''ve ever known. Moreover, you can personally take charge of the judicial system you''ve hoped for."


    Wang Shengzhi gave a slight smile and shook his head. "The ideology I''ve devoted my life to is to prevent the inferiority of humans from affecting judicial decisions. The guilty should be punished and the innocent vindicated. However, I''m also human, and I have my weaknesses as well. Therefore, if I live in another form and am made to maintain order over human society, that would still be putting a human in charge of the judicial system. Thus, I might also end up bing the one that perverted the course of justice one day."


    "Zero, do you understand? This is at odds with my ideals." Wang Shengzhi pushed his wheelchair into the elevator by himself. "Life can be short or long, but it''s good enough that I''ve lived once. There''s no need to try to persuade me any further."


    ¡­


    "I want to learn sorcery!" Ren Xiaosu said firmly as he sat at the campfire. His eyes were shimmering as he looked at Melgor. "The type where I can immediately learn how to cast spells!"


    Melgor felt a little panicky with Ren Xiaosu staring at him. "Didn''t you say you wanted to finish reading the <i>Introduction to Sorcery</i> first? Why have you suddenly changed your mind?"


    "That won''t hold me up." Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, "I can both read the book and learn sorcery at the same time!"


    Liu Ting whispered to Li Chengguo, "See, what did I tell you? He was just being stubborn when he insisted on continuing to read the book. He isn''t enthusiastic about learning; he just didn''t want to look stupid."


    Next to him, Li Chengguo also muttered, "I had thought he was a rather patient person when he said he wanted to finish reading the book, but I didn''t expect him to be even more straightforward than us."


    Although Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were very eager to learn sorcery, they did not bluntly ask Melgor to teach them how to cast spells like Ren Xiaosu.


    Melgor patiently advised, "You don''t have an Eye of True Sight yet. Even if I teach you how to cast spells, you can''t practice them!"


    "That''s not a big deal!" Ren Xiaosu said.


    Melgor was shocked. What did he mean by it was not a big problem? ''<i>The Eye of True Sight is key to casting spells. You don''t even have one yet, but you''re saying it''s not a big deal?</i>''


    "Even if you want to learn sorcery, you still have to do it step by step." Melgor said helplessly, "Don''t get so impatient. First of all, you have to learn the Magi''s tongue if you want to recite incantations. And I''m not deliberately making things difficult for you; Li Chengguo and Liu Ting have also just started learning it."


    All spell incantations were formed based on thenguage of the Magi. Originally, everyone in the nation of sorcerers spoke thenguage. But after the Central ins people gradually made up 80% of the poption, theirnguage got popr and even became the unofficialnguage of the nation.


    Later, the Magi thought about it and gradually elevated thenguage of the Magi into thenguage of the nobility, making it prestigious.


    It meant that only those who could speak in the Magi''s tongue would be regarded as true nobles. Their statuses skyrocketed, and the sorcerers also enjoyed this feeling very much.


    Currently, only sorcerers and members of the secr world''s royal family were allowed to learn thenguage of the Magi.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu felt that the Magi''s decision was stupid. Making their own people abandon their ownnguage was no different from giving up their own culture. If anyone were to try this in the Central ins, they would surely be aughingstock to others.


    It was no wonder the nation of sorcerers was assimted by the Central ins culture so quickly. It was because the Magi did not value their own culture enough.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Chengguo and Liu Ting. "Why have you two only just started learning thenguage of the Magi?"


    "Isn''t it because we''ve been busy being sheep for the past two years?" Li Chengguo muttered.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor and hesitated a little. He wanted to tell him he had no intention of learning thenguage of the Magi. After all, he was aiming to cast nonverbal spells right from the start.


    But on second thought, that would be a little too abrupt. Moreover, if he wanted to infiltrate the magus order, he would surely have to learn some everyday phrases, right?


    "Alright, let''s start learning right away." Ren Xiaosu asked Melgor, "Tell me, how can I quickly learn the Magi''s tongue?"


    Melgor thought for a moment and said, "I do have some experience in this aspect.. All you need to do is to apply what you''ve learned in your everyday conversations."

 Chapter 1086 - Secret Of The Proficiency Stones

    <h4>Chapter 1086 - Secret Of The Proficiency Stones</h4>


    "My father pursued the dream of bing a sorcerer his entire life, so he mastered thenguage very early on. As such, I''ve been learning it from him since I was a child." Melgor exined, "He started off by teaching me the grammar, but it was too slow to learn that way. I only managed to grasp the pronunciations after a year of studying."


    "Butter, he started conversing with me in the Magi''s tongue. In our daily life, he would give me a beating if I ever spoke in the Central ins'' tongue. In just three months, I was actually able tomunicate with him in thatnguage." Melgor said, "So it''s not difficult to learn it, especially when it''s just speaking it. As for the casting of spells, you''ll only need to recite the incantations. There''s no need to learn how to write it."


    Ren Xiaosu nodded seriously. "It''s just like a child learning how to speak. Clearly, they don''t know how to write the words down, but that doesn''t stop them frommunicating. Let''s do it this way then. Melgor, you''ll handle the teaching while I''ll help to supervise the two of them."


    Melgor was pondering the fact that the kid did not even address him with the honorific "lord" anymore. He questioned Ren Xiaosu impatiently, "Supervise them? You? How?"


    "Didn''t you say that your father used to give you a beating when you were young? I can give them a beating them too," Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness.


    Liu Ting was enraged. "Are you taking advantage of the situation?"


    "Aren''t I just making an analogy?" Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, "If there''s no one to pressure you to learn, how long would it take before you two actually be sorcerers?"


    "Then what about you? Who''ll supervise you?" Liu Ting raised his voice and said, "Don''t you also want to be a sorcerer? If you speak in the Central ins'' tongue, we''ll beat you up too!"


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a sense of respect for him. "All things considered, at least you''ve got a backbone, sheep!"


    Liu Ting felt offended. Was that supposed to be apliment?


    He wanted to retort, but when Li Chengguo tugged at him and pointed at the ck eye on his face, Liu Ting was talked out of it.


    Melgor spoke up. He said patiently to Ren Xiaosu, "You''ve got to correct your learning attitude too."


    "Alright then." Ren Xiaosu said reluctantly, "I''ll also stop speaking in the Central ins'' tongue. When do we start? Why not tomorrow?"


    Melgor smiled and said, "Actually, the incantations are also inly hidden within the phrases we use daily. Look at this campfire in front of us. In the Magi''s tongue, it''s known as a ''bonfire.'' When the ''fire'' part is used as an incantation, it bes the spell for a Lesser Fireball."


    "What about a Greater Fireball?" Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    When Melgor saw that Ren Xiaosu was so enthusiastic, he said with a smile, "The incantation for a Greater Fireball is ''the fire is raging.''"


    "I see," Ren Xiaosu said with a nod. He thought to himself how it took more than a second to recite the incantation before a fireball could be conjured, so it was no wonder the Rider defeated the author of the <i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>.


    Any sorcerer who gave Ren Xiaosu even a second to react would definitely get killed three or four times over. If Ren Xiaosu were given any more time than that, he would probably even be able to bring down an entire castle.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, "Can you cast a Lesser Fireball for us to have a look?"


    Ren Xiaosu was saying this because he wanted to see what a Lesser Fireball cast by Melgor looked like. Didn''t the <i>Introduction to Sorcery</i> say that if a spell was cast nonverbally, it could cause the spellcaster to lose control and expend too much willpower?


    Therefore, he had to first find out the magnitude of a Lesser Fireball before he could assess how out of control he was when casting his own fireball.


    Melgor thought for a moment and demonstrated the spell to them. After he finished reciting the incantation with the Eye of True Sight, a fist-sized fireball floated out into the distance.


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting''s eyes lit up as they looked in the direction the fireball flew off towards. They thought about how great it would be if they could also cast a simr spell someday.


    However, something else went through Ren Xiaosu''s mind. He had also felt the temperature of the fireball just now. To be honest, it would probably not be much of an issue if such a small fireball were to squarely hit him.


    Moreover, the speed at which the fireball moved was a little too slow. It traveled at about the speed of a rock thrown by a normal person with all their might. Any decent superhuman in the Central ins could dodge the spell. After all, everyone in the Central ins measured the strength of a person by their ability to dodge bullets.


    Of course, this was referring to avoiding the bullet''s trajectory.


    Wanting to see more, Ren Xiaosu asked, "How about a Greater Fireball?"


    Sadly, Melgor shook his head and said, "I don''t know how to cast that."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "Did youe inst in ss? I saw in the <i>Introduction to Sorcery</i> that fireball spells are not particrly difficult to master. Why can''t you do it?"


    Melgor''s face turned red, but he still exined earnestly, "Every sorcerer has to choose their own focus, so it''s not necessary to learn all the spells."


    Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, "What do you mean?"


    "You have to know that I had to practice the Wind Bind and Earth Bind spells for an entire year before I could cast them." Melgor exined, "Do you know how many times I practiced casting those spells in the past year? Thousands of times! At first, I would get dizzy after practicing the casting twice a day. It wasn''t until I meditated long enough that my condition gradually improved. So how many years of their life would a sorcerer have to waste if they learned every spell out there? When a person bes a sorcerer, they have to make a choice. Whichever type of sorcerer you choose to be, you will have to continue down that path. Only then will you have a chance to be an archmage in your lifetime."


    "Then what''s the Earth Bind spell like after decades of practice?" Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    "It''s strong enough to restrain several dozen diators like you," Melgor said proudly.


    Ren Xiaosu came to a realization. So it was not as simple as knowing the incantations and having the Eye of True Sight to be able to cast spells. He would still have to practice them.


    It was no wonder he felt that Melgor''s Earth Bind spell was a little weak. Ren Xiaosu had nearly fumbled his acting and broken free from the enchantment. So it turned out it was because Melgor had only be a sorcerer not long ago, so he had recently mastered this spell alone and did not have much practice with it yet.


    Therefore, learning the art of sorcery required practicing spells more than a 1,000 times before they could be cast normally. Furthermore, the spells would get stronger the more one trained.


    However, the willpower of a sorcerer was limited, so they would have to selectively practice the types of spells they wanted to specialize in. If you practiced ten different types of spells a 1,000 times, you would still be a weakling. But if you practiced a single spell 10,000 times, you would be an archmage.


    Melgor exined patiently, "I chose to be a sorcerer of control. For simr types of enchantments, there''s an interrted effect that can help save time in training. For example, if I practice the Wind Bind spell a 1,000 times and sessfully cast it, I can cast the Earth Bind spell after a 100 practice attempts. That''s probably the best analogy I can give. If you all be sorcerers someday, you''ll have to make a simr choice."


    "There''s a limit to one''s lifetime. Many people in the magus order specialize in only one or two types of spells, but they are all extremely powerful sorcerers." Melgor continued, "In the words of you Central ins people, it''s called ''dominating the world with one skill!''"


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought he roughly understood what the Proficiency Stones in the vending machine were for.

 Chapter 1087 - Genius Sorcerer

    <h4>Chapter 1087 - Genius Sorcerer</h4>


    "Of course, I''m not asking you all to only specialize in one type of spell your entire lives. For example, I''ve trained in the fire element Lesser Fireball so that I can use it for self-defense and also deal effective damage to others." Melgor exined, "Although control spells are my main focus, normal sorcerers are usually just like me in that they practice one primary and one secondary type of spell. One is used for support and the other is for dealing damage."


    "Then why didn''t you focus on the fire spells instead? Isn''t it worth more to train hard in the more lethal spells?" Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    Melgor said with a bitter smile, "Because many of the advanced fire spells are extremely unstable, I need to have the meditative visualizations toplement the training. As I''m only a fringe sorcerer, no one''s willing to teach me the meditative visualizations for advanced fire spells."


    Ren Xiaosu immediately understood. He had read about it in the <i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>. Thebination of reciting incantations and meditative visualizations was to stabilize the alchemical elements.


    In other words, the magus order actually controlled a lot of meditative visualization diagrams used for casting high-level spells to hinder the advancement of fringe sorcerers, and this was how the internal hierarchy of the order was divided.


    "So only those families with ancient nobility within the order can continue to do well, right?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "That''s right." Melgor nodded. "Normal sorcerers can only serve as a foil to the elite. However, there''s also other ways to obtain high-level meditative visualization diagrams, such as marrying into an influential family."


    Ren Xiaosu asked, "You mean you''ve considered that route before?"


    Melgor shook his head. "I''m not even qualified to marry into such families."


    "Then have you ever thought about how powerful you can be if you train your Lesser Fireball spell for the rest of your life?" Ren Xiaosu asked, "It''s really exciting just thinking about it!"


    Melgor did not know whether tough or cry as he exined, "Even if you spend an entire lifetime training the Lesser Fireball spell, it''ll only be equivalent to someone else training their Meteor Shower spell a 1,000 times. I did say that some people only practiced one spell their entire lives, but they do so only for the highest level spells. Who would bother training their Lesser Fireball spell?"


    "So that''s how it works." Ren Xiaosu nodded. "Then how strong is the most powerful sorcerer?"


    "Apparently, the Meteor Shower spell can destroy an entire township. However, that was practiced by an elder who led the magus order in surviving the Cataclysm nearly 200 years ago. His life was briefly chronicled in a book." Melgor said, "However, it seems that he was not born a noble, so the magus order deliberately reduced his influenceter on."


    "Then how many times did he practice the Meteor Shower spell?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "It was recorded in that book that he practiced it 90,000 times," Melgor said.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "Then how many townships did he destroy¡­"


    "We don''t practice our spells in the real world." Melgor did not know whether tough or cry. "We train in our inner world!"


    "Oh, I was gonna say," Ren Xiaosu muttered. How devastating would it be if he had trained in the real world instead?


    But even so, the other party''s act of destroying a township was still a littlecking inparison to his status as a stronghold destroyer.


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu recalled the Meteor Shower spell and wondered why it sounded so familiar.


    He suddenly flipped through the <i>Introduction to Sorcery </i>in his hand and closed the book again.


    Melgor wondered, "What''s the matter?"


    "It''s nothing." Ren Xiaosu shook his head nonchntly.


    However, Ren Xiaosu''s heart was pounding. No wonder he thought the Meteor Shower spell sounded so familiar. It was because the author of the <i>Introduction to Sorcery</i> kept mentioning it when quoting examples in his book: "Take, for example, the Meteor Shower spell I specialize in¡­"


    So it turned out the author of the <i>Introduction to Sorcery</i> was the great genius sorcerer Melgor was referring to?


    And the Rider Ren He had easily defeated the greatest sorcerer in the history of the nation of sorcerers on his casual travels?


    Of course, when Ren He defeated him, that sorcerer might still have been very young. But after he was defeated, he decided to work hard to be the most powerful archmage of his time?


    The butterfly effect awed Ren Xiaosu a little just thinking about it.


    If each Proficiency Stone represented him practicing a spell once, then Ren Xiaosu''s 90,000 gratitude tokens meant he could exchange them for a sorcerer''s lifetime of pursuit in just a short hour. That way, wouldn''t he beparable to that great sorcerer?


    This time, even Ren Xiaosu was shocked, because he did not expect the gratitude tokens he had umted in his Prosperous Northwest 2.0 n would turn out to be so useful!


    ording to what Melgor said, a sorcerer would only be considered as having mastered a spell after ten years of training and casting it 10,000 times. Only then would they be a notable archmage in the magus order.


    In that case, Ren Xiaosu could most likely defeat 90% of the magus order''s members in one night, right?


    But when Ren Xiaosu thought about it again, he realized he already had enough tricks up his sleeve. With enough understanding of the magus order, would he need to learn so many archmage-level spells?


    Perhaps he could also be like that most powerful sorcerer Melgor had mentioned, only learning one spell in his entire life to use as his ace?


    In the past, he had actually been a little envious of Li Shentan and Zhou Yingxue. They had such powerful attacks against masses of enemies while he did not.


    Now, he could finally make up for it in the nation of sorcerers, right? Of course, there was no need to hurry for now. He would have to choose a spell on the level of Meteor Shower before spamming the Proficiency Stones on it.


    After he returned to the Northwest, he could finally hold his head high in front of his maidservant as her master.


    Moreover, if he were to use all 90,000 Proficiency Stones on a single spell, couldn''t he do whatever he wanted in the nation of sorcerers?


    However, he was still unsure about that for now.


    Ren Xiaosu sat at the campfire and suddenly asked Melgor, "Is there really no one in the magus order now who can match that genius sorcerer?"


    "That''s right," said Melgor.


    "Oh." Ren Xiaosu was relieved. There was no need to fight anymore. He had already won!


    Regardless of what the actual situation was, being able to mentally one-up them was half the battle won!


    When everyone started feeling sleepy, Ren Xiaosu took the opportunity to return to his tent where he waited patiently.


    Gradually, Melgor and the two sheeple''s snores could be heard. Only then did Ren Xiaosu take out his Eye of True Sight from the pce.


    "Maybe I should attempt Lesser Fireball first?" Ren Xiaosu''s eyes lit up. This was a spell he had obtained without using any Perfect Skill Duplication Scrolls. How refreshing!


    Ren Xiaosu had a great deal ofbat experience, so he deeply understood how important it was to have another skill to rely on.


    However, Melgor also said he had practiced the spell a 1,000 times before he could finally cast it. Ren Xiaosu thought he could probably practice it several dozen times in one night since it wasn''t likely he would exhaust his willpower anyway.


    Based on this, he could probably cast Lesser Fireball in just a few days, right?


    But what was the incantation for the spell? Ren Xiaosu did not have Wang Yun''s memory, and since Melgor had said it in a foreignnguage to him, he could not remember how to pronounce "fire."


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a long while. Then he picked up the Eye of True Sight and tried saying, "Haiya?"


    In an instant, Ren Xiaosu felt a portion of his willpower quickly splitting off and concentrating in his Eye of True Sight.


    Right after, a loud rumble came from the direction of the sheeple''s tent next door.


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting shouted, "Fuck!"

 Chapter 1088 - Gateway To A New World: Chinese Incantation

    <h4>Chapter 1088 - Gateway To A New World: Chinese Incantation</h4>


    This night was really full of twists and turns for Melgor.


    When he could not fall asleep in the middle of the night, Ren Xiaosu had pulled him aside and asked him questions regarding sorcery. He even imparted some knowledge of the magus order to Ren Xiaosu and the servants.


    Now that he was finally able to fall asleep, he was awoken by two exmations of "fuck" as soon as he dozed off. How annoying!


    As such, Melgor hurriedly got out of his tent to see what was going on. He even had his Eye of True Sight ready in hand to brace himself for a battle with an enemy!


    But when he came out of his tent, he was surprised to see arge pit in the ground where the two sheeple had set up their tent. The two sheeple had fallen inside together with the tent.


    The cavity was about four meters in diameter and three meters deep. When Melgor walked up to the edge, he saw the two sheeple looking up at him with their heads covered in dirt.


    "What''s going on?" Melgor asked in surprise, "Were you two attacked?"


    The two sheeple were dumbfounded. "We didn''t see anyone. We were sleeping when we suddenly fell in here!"


    As soon as they finished speaking, he saw Ren Xiaosu rushing over with a wooden stick he had found from somewhere. "What''s the matter? What''s going on here? Is it an enemy? Where are they?"


    This series of questions stunned Li Chengguo, Melgor, and Liu Ting. They heard Ren Xiaosu add, "Don''t worry, I''m here!"


    The two sheeple were moved. Although the young man from the Central ins was usually very arrogant, he still came to help them at such a critical moment!


    "Thanks, we''re alright." Li Chengguo said, "But we''re not sure what happened either."


    "Gratitude received from Li Chengguo, +1!"


    Ren Xiaosu warmly reached out and pulled the two sheeple out of the hole. Meanwhile, Melgor walked around the pit twice and said, "This circr pit''s shape is very uniform. It looks like it was caused by a spell someone cast. Don''t tell me it was a sorcerer that attacked you two?"


    Ren Xiaosu dismissed it. "How can there be a sorcerer out here in the wilderness? Surely it can''t be another ostracized fringe sorcerer sent to the border like you, right?"


    Melgor snapped, "You''re my steward after all''s said and done, so can''t you speak with a little more respect to me? But what you said makes sense. There can''t be other sorcerers out here. Besides, I''ve nevere across such a spell before."


    "What kind of earth spells are there?" Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    "Liquefy Ground, Sudden Stgmite, Wall of Earth, etc." Melgor exined, "Although this pit might resemble something caused by the Liquefy Ground spell, that spell actually uses quicksand to trap people. This isn''t how it looks at all."


    Ren Xiaosu concluded, "The tent might''ve been set up on hollow ground. Although the surface looks t, there''s actually a void underneath. It could have suddenly copsed because it could not bear both their weight. Moreover, if a sorcerer were trying to sneak up and attack them, the sheeple would probably be dead."


    "That exnation makes more sense than using sorcery," Melgor said, sounding vexed. "Alright, hurry up and go back to sleep¡­."


    "Mhm, to prevent anyone from ambushing us, I''ll keep watch tonight." Ren Xiaosu said.


    Melgor''s heart warmed. "Much appreciated!"


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, "By the way, how do you recite the incantation for Lesser Fireball?"


    Melgor repeated it clearly, "''Fire,'' why?"


    "Hahaha, it''s nothing." Then Ren Xiaosu urged Melgor to go and sleep. He thought to himself, ''<i>I really recited the incantation wrong. I shouldn''t have said it as "haiya."</i>''


    But Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that the pit in the ground must have something to do with the spell he had cast earlier. But the problem was that he had not recited the incantation correctly, so how did he seed in casting the spell!?


    What fucking logic was that?


    Furthermore, didn''t Melgor say a sorcerer needed to practice a spell a 1,000 times before it could be fully cast and affect the physical world? How did he identally end up seeding on his first try then?!


    But other sorcerers cast a Lesser or Greater Fireball by reciting their corresponding incantations, so how did he end up creating a pit in the ground by saying "haiya"?!


    Could he have identally opened up a new world again?


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully. Logically speaking, a sorcerer used the Eye of True Sight as a tool for concentrating their willpower.


    In that case, there was no reason why a sorcerer could muster a spell when speaking in thenguage of the Magi but he couldn''t if he spoke in Chinese.


    The world was fair, and it was not like the Magi had something more than the Northwestern people!


    Therefore, since willpower wasn''t exclusive to any nationality, who was to say that the Central ins people were inferior to the Magi. Moreover, with superhumans like Li Shentan and Zhou Yingxue who were capable of destroying cities and strongholds in the Central ins, they would be considered once-in-a-lifetime geniuses if they were put in the magus order.


    The key was that the Eye of True Sight could be used to cast spells as long as he held it in his hand.


    Sorcerers used thenguage of the Magi to cast spells because their countless predecessors had gradually discovered some pattern in its usage. Actually, they could also use Chinese to cast spells, but it was just that no one had made a summary of which words were used for what spells.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a sense of lofty contribution. As the futuremander of the Northwest, shouldn''t he bring back some Eyes of True Sight from the Kingdom of Sorcerers to the Northwest as souvenirs? Then couldn''t he kickstart a grand era of sorcery in the Northwest and help many normal people attain superpowers?


    This was one of the core elements of the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n. No matter how many detours he had to take, helping the Northwest prosper was the end goal.


    But before that, maybe he should first help topile which Chinese words corresponded with which spells.


    Of course, he would have to keep his distance from the sheeple the next time he tested out the incantations. Although those two guys were always throwing sarcasm at him, it would not be good if he identally killed them with a spell.


    When Melgor, Li Chengguo, and Liu Ting were all asleep, Ren Xiaosu pretended to go out and relieve himself. Then he took the opportunity to run several hundred meters away before carefully taking out his Eye of True Sight again.


    What words in Chinese should he use to test out the incantations? The only clue he had was "haiya," but that was not enough for him to figure out any patterns, right?


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a long time. Then he carefully tested, "Meteor Shower?"


    No response.


    "Summon the Divine Dragon!"


    No response.


    "Diamond Dust!"


    No response.


    "Repeated side shuffle!"


    No response.


    "Tempest in a teapot!"


    No response.


    "Send in the Trojan Horse!"


    There was still no response.


    Ren Xiaosu''s expression darkened. He was thinking of teaching the Northwest''s poption to recite incantations in Chinese just a moment ago, but he could not even recite a proper incantation now.


    "How am I supposed to cast a spell if all these powerful-sounding phrases won''t even trigger a response? Should I say ''may you be prosperous'' instead?" Ren Xiaosu muttered.


    But just as his words trailed off, Ren Xiaosu heard exmationsing from the direction of the campfire.


    Liu Ting shouted, "Fuck!"


    Li Chengguo shouted, "Fuck!"


    Melgor shouted, "Fuck!!!"


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "May you be prosperous?"


    As a result, exmations rang out once more a short distance away.


    Ren Xiaosu waspletely shocked. Could Chinese incantations be that treacherous? Openly wishing others well but actually expressing malice in secret?


    Wait a minute, was it an issue with the incantation, or could the problem lie with him?!

 Chapter 1089 - Utmost Sincerity

    <h4>Chapter 1089 - Utmost Sincerity</h4>


    Regardless of whether the problem was with his Chinese incantations, Ren Xiaosu was currently more worried about whether Melgor was alright.


    After all, Melgor was a key figure in his infiltration n into the magus order. If that guy were to identally get killed, Ren Xiaosu would probably have to rework his Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n again.


    And more importantly, Ren Xiaosu found Melgor to be quite a good person after a few days of interaction. Moreover, he had a "lucky charm" effect, so it would be very suitable to bring him back to the Prosperous Northwest.


    Therefore, how could he let a potentialrade like him die?


    Ren Xiaosu hurriedly ran back while holding up his pants to make it look like he was returning from relieving himself. "What''s the matter? What happened?"


    He saw that the tents next to the campfire were gone. Meanwhile, Melgor and the two servants were buried in the ground with only their heads exposed. They looked anxiously at Ren Xiaosu.


    "What happened to y''all?" Ren Xiaosu asked curiously. He was not pretending. He really did not know what kind of spell he had cast this time!


    When Melgor saw him approaching, he suddenly shouted, "Don''t get too close. There must be a sorcerer nearby sneak attacking us. Be careful!"


    When Melgor said this, he scrutinized Ren Xiaosu''s expression to see if there was anything unusual about him.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around and roared, "Who is it? How dare you attack Lord Melgor!"


    Melgor looked in the direction of where Ren Xiaosu was looking. He was surprised to see a figure in a white mask turning around and quickly running off into the shadows.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to give chase, but he heard Melgor shout, "Don''t give chase! That''s a sorcerer. You''re no match for him!"


    "Wait, you should hide. Be careful in case he ambushes you." Melgor shouted, "I wonder where that sorcerer came from? His methods are really quite despicable!"


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, his mouth twitched. Then he said very sincerely, "What would happen to y''all if I just hide myself? I''ve got to save y''all first!"


    "What if he ambushes you from behind¡­"


    Ren Xiaosu yelled, "No, I must save y''all first!"


    Melgor was absolutely moved. "Ren Xiaosu, it''s my greatest fortune to have you as my steward. Thank you!"


    "Gratitude received from Melgor, +1!"


    Next to him, Li Chengguo also said, "I won''t speak ill of you behind your back again!"


    Liu Ting looked ashamed as well.


    "Alright, let''s not dwell on that anymore. That sorcerer from just now is probably not that strong. That''s why he ran away when he saw me." After that, Ren Xiaosu cautiously approached Melgor and the two servants before pulling them out of the ground one by one.


    After that, the four of them did not even bother packing their stuff and fled frantically westwards.


    Melgor was no longer suspicious of Ren Xiaosu. In fact, he even felt a little remorseful. ''<i>Why did I doubt a good person like him? I''m such a jerk!</i>''


    Melgor kept muttering while fleeing, "Don''t worry, Ren Xiaosu. From now on, I''ll do everything to teach you about sorcery. It doesn''t matter if you don''t have enough money to buy an Eye of True Sight. I''ll get one for you after I''ve collected several years of taxes from my fief!"


    Off to the side, Li Chengguo also said, "You''re our savior. Previously, I didn''t mean it when I said I would give you an Eye of True Sight if I obtained an extra one from stone gambling. But I hereby promise you that if I get an extra Eye of True Sight and don''t give it to you, I won''t cast any spells for the rest of my life!"


    Liu Ting panted, "Me too!"


    "Alright, alright." Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. He was starting to feel a little embarrassed.


    Seeing that Ren Xiaosu did not believe him, the dumbass, Li Chengguo, turned anxious. "What? Don''t you believe me?"


    "I do, I believe you," Ren Xiaosu answered casually.


    Sensing that Ren Xiaosu was still not taking him seriously, Li Chengguo said anxiously, "I''ll give you the money so you can buy a stone for yourself!"


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment, then said shamelessly, "That''s a little sudden, but I don''t mind."


    At the beginning, Melgor, Li Chengguo, and Liu Ting were all actually a little suspicious of Ren Xiaosu. After all, it just so happened that Ren Xiaosu went to relieve himself when they got into trouble. Wasn''t it a little too coincidental?


    But after the appearance of White Mask, everyone dismissed their doubts. First, Ren Xiaosu was really from the Central ins and had not learned sorcery before. Second, Ren Xiaosu did not have an Eye of True Sight, so he could not possibly cast any spells.


    Moreover, the perpetrator had already shown himself. It was that White Mask!


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was thinking about something. Did his spells have eyes? Why did it keep targeting the three of them?


    He asked while running, "What happened to y''all just now?"


    "We were sleeping when we suddenly felt our tents sinking into the ground as it turned into quicksand." Melgor said, "However, the Liquefy Ground spell stopped immediately after that. During that time, we quickly went outside our tents. But before we could get far, we were hit by another Liquefy Ground."


    "Liquefy Ground?" Ren Xiaosu silently noted that in his mind. So it turned out that "may you be prosperous" was the incantation for the Liquefy Ground spell.


    "That sorcerer is extremely vicious. I wonder what he was nning by burying us in the ground with only our heads exposed." Li Chengguo grumbled, "How can there be such a vicious sorcerer!"


    Ren Xiaosu''s eyes twitched. It did not feel good that he could not retort after being scolded by someone. He immediately changed the subject and asked, "By the way, Mel, how''s that sorcerer''s spell proficiency?"


    Melgor was no longer bothered about being called "Mel" at this point. After all, Ren Xiaosu had just saved his life. If he were to react with hostility now, that would make him really ungrateful. He thought for a moment before saying, "He''s quite strong, even stronger than me!"


    "Why do you say that? Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "Although Liquefy Ground is a basic spell like Fireball, the area of effect of his spell is several timesrger than that of standard Liquefy Ground spells that I know. It looks like he''s been practicing it for many years, or at least much longer than the time I spent practicing my Earth Bind spell," Melgor exined. "But most importantly, he was able to cast the Liquefy Ground spell twice within a very short interval, so his level of elemental control is far superior to mine."


    Ren Xiaosu was listening with gusto next to them. He even humbly said, "I don''t feel like he''s that powerful."


    Melgor said in seriousness, "You''re not a sorcerer yet, so you can''t appreciate how powerful he is."


    "Mhm, I''ll try to understand it if I get a chance." Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    Melgor suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu did not seem nervous at all even in the face of danger. He could stillugh while they were fleeing.


    Of course, this was definitely not a bad thing, because it showed he had found a capable steward who could remain calm in the face of danger. It was indeed worthwhile to risk crossing into the outposts'' perimeter and abducting him!

 Chapter 1090: Protagonist Profile

    <h4>Chapter 1090: Protagonist Profile</h4>


    The four of them continued running until daybreak before slowly stopping in their tracks. Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Y¡¯all haven¡¯t slept well all night. I think y¡¯all should get some sleep first while I keep a lookout nearby. If anyone unknown approaches us again, I¡¯ll wake y¡¯all up.¡±


    Melgor smiled bitterly. ¡°Sleep? Who can sleep at such a time?¡±


    They had already lost their tents, and all their luggage had been swallowed by the quicksand, and even a highly revered sorcerer like Melgor ended up in such a pathetic state.


    Liu Ting suddenly wondered, ¡°Lord Melgor, have you thought about who might be plotting against us? They even employed a sorcerer to attack us. Do you have any enemies?¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t it be both of your enemies?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, ¡°Don¡¯t you two have any enemies?¡±


    Liu Ting said, ¡°We¡¯re just the children of rich families, so why would we have any enemies? At most, our siblings might be jealous that our fathers have spent so much money to groom us into sorcerers. But I doubt they¡¯d try to harm us. Besides, there¡¯s strict control on finances in our ns, so my siblings can¡¯t afford to hire sorcerers at all. Someone did hire a hitman before, but since it was a sorcerer that appeared this time, our siblings are definitely not the culprits.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Li Chengguo also nodded. ¡°You can easily pay a sorcerer to be their apprentice or servant, but if you want to engage one to help you kill someone, you have to pay an astronomical sum. Ren Xiaosu, you haven¡¯t been to the Kingdom of Sorcerers before, so you don¡¯t understand how revered a sorcerer is in our kingdom. Even my father has to kneel and bow when he sees Lord Melgor, so how can a person of that status be willing to so easily be another person¡¯s tool?¡±


    Liu Tingmented, ¡°I only dare to say this because we¡¯re already familiar with Lord Melgor. Our families only paid Lord Melgor to assist us in buying an Eye of True Sight because we wanted to bank on his luck. After all, those who manage to buy their Eye of True Sight are still a little different. But even if my father had such practical motives, he still has to be respectful towards Lord Melgor. Lord Melgor, you won¡¯t get angry if I say that, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>Even though Liu Ting is from a rich family, power struggles still exist between his siblings?</i>¡®


    However, Melgor said with a wry smile, ¡°No, I might¡¯ve implicated you all this time.¡±


    When he heard that, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued. Oh? Could Melgor have some stories of love and revenge?


    Melgor said in detail, ¡°I¡¯ve mentioned before that my family was rich when I was young, so we had a biggerwork of family friends. When I was seven years old, I got engaged to someone. Some people can get engaged without knowing how their future partner looks, but it was different for me. I grew up together with my fianc¨¦e, and we were extremely close with each other.


    ¡°Although she isn¡¯t beautiful, she has a good personality. Once, when I fell down and injured myself, she personally bandaged the wound for me. When my father died and I didn¡¯t have any money for his burial, she was the one who secretly gave me the money to handle his matters.


    ¡°After bing a sorcerer, I came to York County to construct a Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. However, I would only be allocated my portion of the collected taxes in my second year, so I didn¡¯t have any money to build one. If a sorcerer can¡¯t even afford to construct his own tower, they would only end up as aughingstock. Just as I was worrying over what to do, she sent her servant to York County to hand me all the gold coins she had saved up over the years,¡± Melgor said.


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°Isn¡¯t that good? Now that you¡¯ve be a sorcerer, you¡¯re a worthy match for her. Even if you¡¯re just an insignificant one, you¡¯re still a sorcerer.¡±


    Melgor¡¯s expression became strange when he heard Ren Xiaosu say ¡°insignificant sorcerer,¡± but he did not refute him directly. He continued, ¡°Even though I¡¯m considered worthy of her now as a sorcerer, the problem is that her father called off our engagement before I became one.¡±


    ¡°My father was still alive at that time, so I went to their manor to protest it, but I ended up getting thrown out by their servants.¡± Melgor said gloomily, ¡°Right now, her fianc¨¦ is also a sorcerer who hails from a powerful archmage¡¯s family in the secr world. I¡¯m powerless to change our fate.¡±


    ¡°So you think that sorcerer was sent by her fianc¨¦?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Melgor said mncholically, ¡°She probably still has me in her heart.¡±


    ¡°How long until their wedding?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°A year from now,¡± Melgor said.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Melgor was just like the protagonist of a fictional story.


    A declining n!


    A born loser!


    An engagement called off!


    However, his fate was reversed at the lowest point of his life. Not only did he manage to randomly pick an Eye of True Sight, but he also met the person who would be his biggest benefactor¡­ Ren Xiaosu!


    Starting from now, Melgor would be embarking on aeback against the Heavens and fate to finally marry the woman he loved. After that, they would live happily ever after in the Northwest¡¯s Fortress 178.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he nearly let out an audible chuckle¡­


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and said bitterly, ¡°Is it that funny¡­¡±


    ¡°A little.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°They¡¯re all at Ghent City, right? I think we should head there as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Are we in such a hurry?¡± Melgor said in surprise.


    ¡°Of course, I¡¯m going to help you win back your childhood sweetheart!¡± Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly.


    After that, he chased after the attacker in the southerly direction.

 Chapter 1091: Too polite!

    <h4>Chapter 1091: Too polite!</h4>


    Currently, Ren Xiaosu, Melgor, and the sheeple were at the border of the Gobi. They could be considered to have already entered the territory of the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Based on Melgor¡¯s estimation, they would arrive in York County after traveling another 100 kilometers in the northwest direction.


    Yellow sand and gravel covered the terrain they were traveling on at this moment, and the short shrubs here resembledrge mushrooms growing on the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu quickly gave chase in the direction where the enemy had fled. The enemy was also very cautious. After failing to sneak attack from the shadows, they had instantly chosen to retreat.


    This piqued Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest. So it turned out there were also such highly skilledbatants among the sorcerers who were much stronger than Melgor.


    Logically speaking, how could the Magi that had continually warred against Fortress 178 be pushovers like sheep? Surely there had to be a lot of crocodiles hidden among them.


    The sorcerer fled south at a pace that was even faster than Ren Xiaosu imagined. He must have used some kind of sorcery to increase his speed.


    But no matter how fast the other party ran, he was still only a sorcerer. Bit by bit, Ren Xiaosu came into sight of his back once more.


    He saw that the attacker was dressed in a tight-fitting outfit with bandages wrapped firmly around his legs. He was also wearing soft leather armor and a hood to hide his face. This person did not look like a sorcerer at all, but more like an assassin.


    The bandage wraps on his legs had a very useful purpose. They were usually used to prevent the veins in the lower limbs from swelling after extended traveling on foot. Furthermore, it helped prevent snakes and scorpions from crawling into the pants during their travels and also prevented mosquitoes from biting them.


    This left Ren Xiaosu a little surprised. So it turned out there were actuallybat sorcerers in the Kingdom of Sorcerers?


    They were probably the ones who carried out the dirty work for the magus order!


    When the sorcerer saw Ren Xiaosu pursuing him relentlessly, he took out his Eye of True Sight he had tucked in his waist belt and started chanting.


    In an instant, a four-meter wall of mes suddenly appeared in front of Ren Xiaosu.


    The raging mes were burning, and the extremely high temperature caused the surrounding shrubs to instantly go aze.


    But when Ren Xiaosu reached the foot of the me wall, he did not intend to dodge it at all. Instead, he leaped over it with all his might!


    When the sorcerer turned around and saw this, he was shocked. Was this even a normal person? He had not seen this young man use any spells, so how did he leap over the wall of mes purely with his physical strength?


    But to Ren Xiaosu, such a feat was really easy.


    The sorcerer was secretly shocked and decided to use sorcery to quickly shake off Ren Xiaosu. In his opinion, the young man behind him was a little strange. There was no need for him to stay here and fight to the death.


    Hang on! When thebat sorcerer turned around again, he saw Ren Xiaosu take out a ck Eye of True Sight from somewhere.


    ck! Eye of True Sight!


    Thebat sorcerer was shocked. How could the ck Eye of True Sight appear in the hands of a young man he had never seen before?


    Just as he was about to have another look to confirm, he heard Ren Xiaosu shout behind him, ¡°May you be prosperous!


    ¡°Happy New Year!


    ¡°I wish you happiness!


    ¡°May all your wishese true!


    ¡°May you get everything you desire!


    ¡°Bountiful blessings!


    ¡°Live a long life!¡±


    Thebat sorcerer was confused. ¡®<i>Aren¡¯t you being too polite?!</i>¡®


    Seeing Ren Xiaosu shooting off a mouthful of blessings, thebat sorcerer was stunned on the spot.


    He had clearly sneak attacked the other party, so why was he wishing him all those blessings? But the problem was that the blessings were way too random. What the heck was with ¡°bountiful blessings¡± and ¡°live a long life¡±? Did you just learn how to offer well wishes or something?


    Thebat sorcerer wondered if the other party was trying to express reconciliation, and that he actually did not wish to fight him to the death.


    He hesitated for a second before saying loudly, ¡°I wish you happiness too!¡±


    As his words trailed off, he felt the ground beneath his feet disappear. Then he fell into quicksand.


    Thebat sorcerer was stunned once more. Wait a minute, this was actual sorcery. But why didn¡¯t he hear the other party reciting any incantations just now?


    No, those blessings were actually his incantations!


    He was actually fucking reciting incantations?


    Thebat sorcerer swore this was the first time in his life that he had heard such polite incantations!


    Someone was actually able to use the Central ins¡¯nguage to recite incantations, and he even obtained a ck Eye of True Sight? In that instant, a train of chaotic thoughts went through thebat sorcerer¡¯s mind. However, he did not have time to think about this anymore. He could only see a dazzling array of spells flying around him like someone was setting off fireworks while he fell quickly into the depths of the quicksand.


    Thebat sorcerer held his Eye of True Sight tightly in his hand and started reciting an incantation. Suddenly, a huge rock appeared under his feet and forcefully pushed him out of the quicksand.


    Sudden Stgmite!


    Thisbat sorcerer was really quite outstanding at adapting. Sudden Stgmite was normally a spell used to kill enemies, but he actually used it here to negate the power of the quicksand.


    But before he could get back up, thebat sorcerer felt an icy weapon pressing against his neck.


    The other party was wearing a white mask and holding a long ck saber in his hand.


    Ren Xiaosu came up to thebat sorcerer with a smile. ¡°Your name?¡±


    ¡°Woz,¡± thebat sorcerer answered calmly.


    ¡°What¡¯re you doing here? Who¡¯s the mastermind?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again.


    ¡°Someone offered a bounty to kill Melgor. I only take missions; I don¡¯t ask who the employer is,¡± thebat sorcerer said.


    ¡°Eh, are you a bounty hunter?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Wasn¡¯t the mission given to you by the magus order?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not affiliated with the magus order,¡± Woz said calmly.


    These words left Ren Xiaosupletely stunned. Could it be that there were other sorcerers who operated outside of the magus order? Ren Xiaosu pondered it for a couple seconds before asking, ¡°Are y¡¯all holding onto Eyes of True Sight that weren¡¯t retrieved by the magus order?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± answered Woz.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. That was right. The magus order had never allowed any low-ranking sorcerers to pass down their Eyes of True Sight through inheritance. But over the years, there should have been some that slipped through their.


    With these thoughts, ¡°Old Xu¡± shed Woz¡¯s carotid artery and let his blood flow freely onto the Gobi desert.


    This person had witnessed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s secret, so he could not let him live.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu took the Eye of True Sight Woz had been holding tightly in hand and got an idea. ¡®Who should I give this Eye of True Sight to?¡¯


    The first stone would definitely have to be given to P5092. The genius militarymander was a treasure for the Northwest, so he should have a few more tricks up his sleeve to defend himself.


    Actually, ording to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s n, he should give the first stone to Yang Xiaojin. But on second thought, he felt it would not be toote to make ns for that after he got his hands on the other two ck Eyes of True Sight.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and went back to where Melgor and the others were. But Melgor was running towards him worriedly as though he hade to support him in battle.


    When Melgor saw Ren Xiaosu, he hurriedly asked, ¡°How are you? Are you injured?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head with a smile.


    ¡°What about the sorcerer?¡± Melgor wondered.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I couldn¡¯t catch up and allowed him to escape,¡± Ren Xiaosu said a little regretfully. He could not say he had already killed him as that would expose how strong he was. Besides, he did not want to hand over the Eye of True Sight he had taken from Woz.


    Melgorforted him, ¡°What¡¯s there to be sorry about? It¡¯s only natural that you can¡¯t catch up to a sorcerer. But if you did, it would¡¯ve only put you in more danger..¡±

 Chapter 1092: The second Eye of True Sight

    <h4>Chapter 1092: The second Eye of True Sight</h4>


    ¡°When the attacker cast that me Pir spell just now, I immediately knew that his strength was far above mine.¡± Melgor said, ¡°So it¡¯s actually a good thing that you didn¡¯t manage to catch up to him. Don¡¯t be so reckless next time, or you could lose your life.¡±


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°You were even able to determine that sorcerer was stronger than you when he just appeared out of nowhere and cast a single spell? Is it because there aren¡¯t many sorcerers who are weaker than you?¡±


    Melgor was speechless.


    He immediately felt ufortable. But when he thought about it carefully, that really seemed to be the case.


    However, in order to save his reputation as a sorcerer, Melgor still emphasized, ¡°You might not have seen the most basic me Pir spell before, but I have. Its temperature is much lower than the one he cast. If that sorcerer had not had many years of training, he couldn¡¯t show that kind of power at all. By the way, did you see how he was dressed?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°He was wearing brown leather armor and had a concealed arrow within his sleeve. It felt like he was very experienced inbat, so he didn¡¯t seem like a sorcerer at all.¡±


    ¡°Then that¡¯s it.¡± Melgor nodded and said, ¡°That¡¯s a bounty hunter and not a true sorcerer. The identities of such bounty hunters are actually very sensitive. They usually work for the archmages¡¯ secr families and specialize in doing the dirty andborious work for them. If their identities get exposed, they¡¯ll just say they stole their Eyes of True Sight from someone else. In any case, they¡¯ll deny any and all ties with the magus order. Of course, there¡¯s also bounty hunters who truly operate on the fringe of society, and those are fugitives who¡¯re constantly targeted by the magus order.¡±


    Melgor continued, ¡°These bounty hunters are different from true sorcerers. True magi pursue the mastery of sorcery while bounty hunters seek death and destruction. On one hand, it¡¯s because they specialize in assassination. On the other hand, it¡¯s very difficult for them to reach a higher level of sorcery through normal means. That bounty hunter was a very typical example. The meditation visualization for the me Pir spell is considered prettymon and can often be found in the ck market. Furthermore, they tend to use more effective killing methods. A Fireball has a trajectory to follow, but the me Pir can deal more explosive damage in an instant. It¡¯s considered the go-to spell of bounty hunters.¡±


    ¡°You might not be strong, but you sure know quite a bit.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    Melgor said resentfully, ¡°Must you provoke me every day? Will it make you stronger if my feelings get hurt by you or something?¡±


    ¡°Ahem, no, not at all.¡± Ren Xiaosuforted, ¡°Aren¡¯t I just trying to motivate you to improve? Otherwise, how¡¯re you going to steal your lover back? Are you just gonna depend on me alone¡­ Although that would work too.¡±


    ¡°Will you die if you don¡¯t brag?¡± Melgor said helplessly, ¡°You can¡¯t even catch up to a bounty hunter, so what makes you think you can help me? Where does your confidencee from?!¡±


    Nearby, Liu Ting and Li Chengguo curled their lips. Although they had be closer, they were still a little unused to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s inexplicable narcissism and confidence.


    However, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly tell the truth to these three. If he just bluntly said, ¡°I¡¯ve already killed that bounty hunter!¡±


    Then what? Melgor would immediately think, ¡®<i>Since you¡¯re capable of killing that bounty hunter, how did you get bound by my Earth Bind spell back then?</i>¡®


    Immediately after, they would all start asking about that bounty hunter¡¯s Eye of True Sight. Then should Ren Xiaosu keep it for himself or hand it over?


    Who could guarantee that Li Chengguo and Liu Ting really considered Ren Xiaosu a friend? Until now, Ren Xiaosu had not seen any gratitude tokens earned from Liu Ting. But even if Liu Ting had thanked him sincerely before, people could still change.


    There was no need for Ren Xiaosu to bet his life on these people.


    At this moment, no one knew the most polite sorcerer in the history of the Magi had been born, and the person who witnessed the birth was dead.


    Melgor did not continue resting. Instead, he quickly led Ren Xiaosu and the others on their way. Now that bounty hunters had arrived, he had to get back to York County before they were attacked again.


    The opponent had probably chosen to make a move here because they did not want to take action in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. After all, if a sorcerer were assassinated in the Magi¡¯s territory, it would mean someone was trying to go against the entire order.


    Since the magus order saw themselves as gods and dered the fringe sorcerers as ¡°Children of Heaven,¡± they would have to uphold this authority.


    Would a god that could be killed by someone still be a god?


    Therefore, there were also unwritten rules among sorcerers. If some things had to be taken care of, they could not let the secr world know about it.


    Not long after they left, a middle-aged man quietly came to the ce where Ren Xiaosu andpany had reorganized. He first checked on the battle situation and found there were still traces of the me Pir spell released by the bounty hunter there.


    Right afterwards, he followed the tracks in the Gobi Desert southwards. The more he saw, the more shocked he became.


    This was because he realized that the bounty hunter had chosen to use the me Pir while he was retreating. This meant the bounty hunter had encountered a troublesome enemy and wanted to use the spell to dy the opponent¡¯s pursuit.


    The middle-aged man frowned. This did not match the intel he had been given. To be honest, he did not expect the n to fail this time.


    Thinking of this, he continued walking forward. Immediately, he saw a dazzling scene of spells that had been cast. There was Liquefy Ground, Wind Bind, and even some other indiscernible spells.


    Immediately after, he saw a pool of blood on the ground that had almost been covered by the sand blowing in the Gobi.


    He carefully brushed away the yellow sand that was covering the bloodstains and looked at a certain spot on the ground where the Liquefy Ground spell was cast. He could tell that someone had fallen inside but used Sudden Stgmite to break free from the trap.


    From the look of things, this was where the bounty hunter met his demise.


    The middle-aged man slowly stood up. He took out his Eye of True Sight from his waist belt and recited an incantation. A momentter, a falcon flew from his Eye of True Sight and headed northwest.

 Chapter 1093: The all-star crew of the Prosperous Northwest

    <h4>Chapter 1093: The all-star crew of the Prosperous Northwest</h4>


    While Melgor andpany were hurrying to York County, the two sheeple suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu seemed to be in a very good mood.


    At this moment, the neat-looking cotton sorcerer robe Melgor was wearing was dirty beyond recognition. The wrinkles in his attire made it look like a crumpled piece of paper that had been unfurled.


    The two sheep apprentices looked even more exhausted. They were in a worse state than Melgor because they did not know how to use sorcery to enhance themselves.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was in an extremely rxed state. With his current physical fitness, it was as good as taking a stroll even though they were rushing towards their destination. In fact, he even felt quite pleased.


    Of course, the most important thing was that he had gained two Eyes of True Sight.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that it was a good omen that someone had sent him such big gifts as soon as he arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. He thought he could definitely gain more Eyes of True Sight in the future.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°By the way, Mel, do you think those bounty hunters won¡¯t dare to act so insolently after we get to York County?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Melgor answered firmly. As for the nickname ¡°Mel,¡± he could only acknowledge it since Ren Xiaosu had saved his life.


    Ren Xiaosu felt it was a little wasteful. It would be good if he could use Melgor to lure more bounty hunters.


    ¡°Um¡­ why don¡¯t we take a rest here?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It feels like y¡¯all might suddenly die if we keep running like this!¡±


    Melgor was stunned for a moment. ¡°How can we stop at a time like this? York County is just up ahead!¡±


    Liu Ting wondered, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, are you a spy for the bounty hunters? Are you trying to dy us because you¡¯re afraid they can¡¯t make a move once we arrive in the county?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pped Liu Ting on the back of his head angrily. ¡°If I were a spy, all of you would already be dead! Y¡¯all didn¡¯t even have a chance of fighting back when you were caught in the quicksand. And if I hadn¡¯t pulled Melgor aside, he would¡¯ve been burnt to ashes!¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess¡­¡± Liu Ting said aggrievedly. ¡°But why are you suddenly telling everyone to stop to take a break¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, with me around, even if that bounty hunteres again, he won¡¯t do anything to y¡¯all!¡± Ren Xiaosu promised.


    ¡°Who do you think you are?¡± Liu Ting muttered, ¡°You can¡¯t even defeat Melgor¡­.¡±


    Melgor said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Let¡¯s continue. There¡¯s really no need to take such a risk.¡±


    ¡°Alright then,¡± Ren Xiaosu said reluctantly. He would have to find another opportunity in the future. ¡°By the way, how many grades of the Eye of True Sight are there?¡±


    ¡°Five.¡± Melgor said, ¡°White, orange, red, gold, and ck, in that ascending order.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    The Eyes of True Sight the two bounty hunters had just contributed to him were white and orange in color respectively.


    It was obvious the middle-aged man who had suddenly appearedter to check on the field of battle was higher ranked. He was probably amander or something.


    However, in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, those two should also be fringe figures at most.


    Melgor exined, ¡°I¡¯ve never used the other grades of the Eye of True Sight before, so I¡¯m not too sure of the differences. I only heard the higher the grade the Eye of True Sight, the more stable a sorcerer¡¯s spellcasting will be, and it¡¯ll even have a certain amplification effect. They say with the highest grade of the Eye of True Sight, the ck one, even a young sorcerer who¡¯s never practiced spells before can cast them sessfully at will. In other words, if an archmage who wields the ck Eye of True Sight passes it on to his children, his offspring will naturally have a head start in the world of magic.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s how it is.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. So it turned out he only managed to cast a spell that easily because he had the ck Eye of True Sight.


    This made Ren Xiaosu a little sad. He managed to sessfully cast a spell even without practicing it a 1,000 times, which made him think he was talented at sorcery. However, it seemed like that was not the case.


    But from the look of things, he could not give the Eye of True Sight he had seized to P5092 yet. After all, how could the all-star crew of the Prosperous Northwest use such a low-level Eye of True Sight?


    For Eyes of True Sight of either the white or orange grades, he could just give them to people like Zhang Xiaoman to use.


    Before long, a dirt road gradually appeared under the group¡¯s feet. This meant there were often vehicles traveling here.


    He observed things and realized the tracks on the dirt road did not seem to be made by motor vehicles. They were probably left by oxcarts and horse-drawn carriages instead. This made Ren Xiaosu very curious about the technological level of the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    It was not like he had never met people of other nationalities before. Take, for example, the expeditionary army. They were most affected by the Cataclysm and ended up suffering aplete regression of their industrial system.


    And how about the Kingdom of Sorcerers?


    The clothes Melgor and the servants were wearing were made from coarse cotton and linen textiles, and the bounty hunters they encountered were actually still using weapons like concealed arrows. Wouldn¡¯t they be better off using sniper rifles instead?


    Ren Xiaosu asked Melgor, ¡°Are there firearms in the nation of sorcerers?¡±


    ¡°Of course there are.¡± Melgor said, ¡°But firearms are very strictly regted and only carried by those in the royal army. Of course, our firearms here are not as sophisticated as those found in the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°How¡¯s the level of physics and chemistry in the Kingdom of Sorcerers?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Actually, it was possible to roughly estimate the technology of a civilization based on the level of physics and chemistry in their society.


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°I suggest you don¡¯t mention these words when you get to the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Chemistry does not exist there, only alchemy. Of course, only I am willing to discuss such topics with you. If the magus order portrays themselves as gods, then science is naturally their enemy. That¡¯s because science is the natural enemy of pseudoscience.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered this. He had read in books that there was a saying that theology was whaty at the end of science¡¯s path. No one could prove whether that was true or not, and Ren Xiaosu did not intend to pass any judgment on that either.


    However, sorcerers were not true gods. They had only yed up their own statuses as gods, but they could not stand up to the test if it came down to it. Therefore, science became their greatest enemy.


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, no matter how powerful a sorcerer was, they would still die if they got sniped by someone. That was why the control of firearms in the nation of sorcerers was so strict.


    Sorcerers were unlike some supernatural beings in the Central ins who would not even suffer a scratch after getting shot. At most, the bullet would get stuck in their muscle fibers, and Ren Xiaosu was an example of such a person.


    However, sorcerers themselves were extremely fragile, and that was their shoring.


    Therefore, it was only natural that sorcerers did not want anything that could harm them to appear in the secr world.


    And Melgor was only a low-ranking sorcerer. What he said might just be hearsay and not necessarily true.


    Ren Xiaosu would have to personally go and find out what the magus order was really thinking.


    The sound of horse trotting suddenly came from ahead on the dirt road. Ren Xiaosu pulled Melgor behind him and said, ¡°Be careful!¡±


    As Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s upright stature, he felt a little touched..

 Chapter 1094: Special powers

    <h4>Chapter 1094: Special powers</h4>


    The sound of the horse trotting got closer and closer. Ren Xiaosu watched quietly as more than a dozen figures gradually appeared ahead on the dirt road and galloped towards them at full speed.


    The horses looked handsome with an extremely tough stature. Among the cavalry, there were even some people leading horses without a rider on them.


    These people were all wearing heavy steel armor. When Ren Xiaosu saw them for the first time, he nearly drew his ck saber. In fact, it was because their armor was somewhat simr to the expeditionary army¡¯s heavy armor.


    However, these people¡¯s armor was a shiny silver and looked much more exquisite than what the barbarians wore. They were even more attractive to look at.


    But in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, their armor was not as practical and sturdy as the barbarians¡¯.


    Melgor smiled and patted Ren Xiaosu on the shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t be nervous. These are the knights of the Li and Liu ns.¡±


    ¡°How did they know that we wereing back?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Actually, ording to our arrangements, we should¡¯ve returned a month ago. They were supposed to be waiting at the edge of the Gobi to wee us, but we were dyed by a month due to the incident with the Eye of True Sight. I believe they were likely patrolling the area once in a while.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I thought they were enemiesing to kill you.¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting had already started waving their hands wildly. The eyes of the two sheeple were red, and it looked like they had be very emotional at the thought of returning to their hometown.


    For the past two years, they had been disguised as sheep and ate grass every day. Now that they had returned to their hometown and saw their ns¡¯ knights, how could they not be excited?


    ¡°How¡¯s thebat capability of the knights?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°They¡¯re all veterans who were discharged from the royal army.¡± Melgor exined, ¡°Actually, the royal family does not allow nobles to raise their own private armies. You can see they¡¯re only carrying ded weapons. They aren¡¯t allowed to carry anynces or bows. In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, spears, bows, and firearms are all prohibited weaponry, and civilians aren¡¯t allowed to secretly own any of such equipment.¡±


    ¡°Wait a sec, you just said that they weren¡¯t allowed to have any private armies. Then what are these people?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°At the beginning, the regtions were very strict when the order was first handed down. But it¡¯s gradually loosened up,¡± Melgor answered. ¡°Furthermore, these veterans did not have any livelihoods after they retired from the military, so they became a threat to society and order. As such, the royal family started tacitly allowing nobles to recruit a small number of soldiers to guard their homes.¡±


    ¡°Without modern firearms and explosives, how can these people stand up to the magus order that controls the royal family?¡± Ren Xiaosu said disdainfully, ¡°Speaking of which, since the magus order has no intention of developing science, aren¡¯t they afraid that the Northwest willunch a counterattack someday? When the Northwest develops into a stronger power, these sorcerers will be as useless as trash.¡±


    Melgor nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Why? You still have Fortress 178 on your mind? What¡¯s important is that no foreign enemies have ever invaded the Kingdom of Sorcerers for the past 200 years.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>True, there¡¯s no need to think so highly of all monarchies. In the history of every Central ins dynasty, there hasn¡¯t been one thatsted too long either, with the shortest one not even ousting the current Kingdom of Sorcerers.</i>¡®


    Historically, there were many cases of nations going into istion and closing their borders. They sold theirnds for riches, and killed loyal subjects who served them.


    If not for that, there wouldn¡¯t have been so many dynasties.


    Calcting the duration, the Magi had enjoyed themselves for over 200 years now, so it was also about time for them to lose their fight.


    ¡°Yes, it said he gave it to him as a gift,¡± Melgor confirmed.. ¡°Wait, I understand now. The unknown ck Eye of True Sight I sensed was the one the Central ins rider took away!¡±

 Chapter 1095: A new quest from the palace!

    <h4>Chapter 1095: A new quest from the pce!</h4>


    Melgor did not have as good a memory as Wang Yun. If Ren Xiaosu had not mentioned the Central ins rider, he would probably not have remembered the detail was mentioned in the biography that he read.


    But with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reminder, he realized now that the Eye of True Sight he had sensed was probably the one the Central ins rider had taken away.


    With that, everything made sense!


    However, Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. It was obvious Melgor regarded his ck Eye of True Sight to be the one that Ren He had taken away.


    But the Eye of True Sight in his possession was actually granted to him by his mind pce.


    What was going on? Ren Xiaosu was deeply puzzled.


    Before this, Ren Xiaosu had never thought about the origins of the ck saber and ck sniper rifle when they first appeared. Therefore, when the Eye of True Sight appeared, Ren Xiaosu took it for granted that it was of the same origins as those two weapons, that they were just materialized items like the steam lotive.


    But now that Melgor suddenly mentioned the Central ins Rider had taken away one Eye of True Sight, an unusual problem dawned on Ren Xiaosu. The pce had only rewarded him with one Eye of True Sight.


    There were two ck sabers, which he and ¡°Old Xu¡± each wielded.


    There were two ck sniper rifles, which he and Xiaojin each carried.


    ¡°Alright then.¡± At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was sure he was indeed rted to that Rider, Ren He. Otherwise, why would the pce suddenly assign him said quest?


    But Ren He was already a legendary figure before The Cataclysm, so what could his rtionship with him be? Ren Xiaosu had a guess in mind, but he found it a little hard to believe.


    Next to him, Melgor immediately asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Are you feeling unwell?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°By the way, is that biography of that archmage in your Sorcerer¡¯s Tower?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Melgor nodded. ¡°Why? You want to read it? I¡¯ll look for it for you tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Do it today.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I really want to read it.¡±


    ¡°Are you in such a hurry?¡± Melgor wondered.


    ¡°Yes. Since that person is from the Central ins and you also mentioned that you sensed the ck Eye of True Sight there, I might be able to find some clues from the book and locate the stone.¡±


    Melgor got excited when he heard that. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, really.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not even bat an eyelid when he lied to this inexperienced young sorcerer. ¡°If I can really find some clues in there, I can even return to the Central ins to search for this Eye of True Sight for you. Then, when I bring it to you, who knows? You might really be able to win back your love¡¯s heart.¡± Melgor got extremely excited. ¡°Thank you, thank you so much!¡±


    ¡°Gratitude received from Melgor, +2!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smacked his lips. He felt that Melgor¡¯s gratitude tokens were way too easy to earn. It even made him feel a little bad!


    Melgor suddenly sighed and said, ¡°But if you can find it, use it for yourself. After all, you don¡¯t have an Eye of True Sight yet. Although I also want to have that ck Eye of True Sight, you would be the one who found it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was floored. Was Melgor deliberately saying those words in an attempt to move him? Their band rushed to York County. They traveled from morning until night as green vegetation slowly started appearing on the sides of the road. Then the farnds of York County came into view, as well as the sights of the county residents farming


    Not far away, the tall cornfields were already filled with stalks of ears. They were exceptionally eye-catching.


    When the residents of the county saw the knights, they hurried to the roadside and ced their right hands over their chests before bowing.


    A person looked at Melgor and asked, ¡°Pardon me, are you Lord Melgor?¡±


    Melgor nodded. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°My esteemed Lord Melgor,¡± the resident in his forties said with a bitter expression, ¡°we weren¡¯t expecting you to suddenly return. We¡¯re supposed to submit our taxes to your Sorcerer¡¯s Tower¡­ but we haven¡¯t collected them fully


    yet.¡±


    Melgor was taken aback. ¡°Why is that?¡± ¡°Last year¡¯s harvest wasn¡¯t good, so the crops we were preparing to pay as tax to you were used to tide us through the famine this year.¡± The resident exined, ¡°Please give us half a year¡¯s grace. The crops are growing well this year, so we can definitely make up for all our taxes by autumn. We heard that in the neighboring county, some people got executed by the sorcerer lord there because they couldn¡¯t pay their taxes. But with your good reputation in York County, we were hoping to plead with you for more time.¡± Melgor sighed and waved him off. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll consider it.¡±


    Upon hearing this, the residents of York County who were standing on the edge of the farnd knelt down together. ¡°Thank you, Lord Melgor.¡±


    One of them even walked forward while bowing, trying to go in front of Melgor¡¯s horse and kiss Melgor¡¯s boot.


    Melgor quickly said, ¡°You don¡¯t have to do that. Get up.¡±


    Off to the side, Ren Xiaosu pondered this. So it turned out the Kingdom of Sorcerers was also like Fortress 178. They had also suffered a famine caused by the harsh climate.


    However, it sounded a little brutal that the sorcerer in the neighboring county just executed his residents for not paying their taxes.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°These residents aren¡¯t lying to you. They¡¯re all skin and bones, which means they don¡¯t even have much fat left in their bodies to burn. This is caused by long-term hunger.¡± Honestly, when Ren Xiaosu looked at these ck-haired and yellow-skinned residents of York County, he felt like he was looking at the Zhou Consortium¡¯s refugees. He nearly had the impulse to bring all of them back to the Prosperous Northwest.


    After all, he had been nning to bring a lot more Central ins refugees to the Prosperous Northwest, but he got stopped by the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops. Right now, he felt quite sure of where to go to make up for the remaining poption shortfall.


    The Prosperous Northwest 3..o n was taking shape and bing even more substantial now!

 Chapter 1096: Sorcerer City

    <h4>Chapter 1096: Sorcerer City</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu asked Melgor, ¡°What¡¯s the rough poption of the Kingdom of


    Sorcerers?


    Melgor was put on the spot. ¡°If you ask about matters rted to sorcery, I can


    tell you about them. But if that¡¯s your question, I¡¯ve got no answer.¡±


    ¡°As a sorcerer, you¡¯re really not in touch with the people,¡± Ren Xiaosu ridiculed.


    ¡°As a sorcerer, why would I need to care about that?¡± Melgor retorted, ¡°l¡¯m not


    the only one who¡¯s like that. All the other sorcerers are the same as well. Such


    secr matters just need to be left to the royal family while we sit back and


    rx¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave an emotional sigh. It was probably due to this mindset that


    the Kingdom of Sorcerers had gradually fallen behind Fortress 178.


    What was the point of a nation of sorcerers built on a xistent foundation?


    They were not real gods! They also needed a solid societal base to support their


    pyramid of power!


    However, it was pointless for Ren Xiaosu to tell the naive Melgor about such


    things.


    He turned to look at the knightmander. ¡°What¡¯s the poption of York


    County?


    The knightmander replied humbly, ¡°Around 900,000, sir, based onst


    year¡¯s census.¡±


    ¡°Do all of them lead such awful lives? Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°More or less,¡± the knightmander answered. ¡°But York County is only a


    rtively small county of the kingdom. It has a small poption, so the


    residents here are still able to get by.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was relieved to hear that. He would not have to worry about the


    poption of the Kingdom of Sorcerers anymore. By abducting the residents of


    York County, it would be enough to fulfill the Prosperous Northwest n.


    Of course, he could also abduct more people if he wanted. But as Wang Yuexi


    had said, there was a limit to how many people each stronghold could fit.


    There was no need to blindly pursue numbers.


    Gradually, Ren Xiaosu came into view of a city in the distance.


    Unlike in the Central ins, Ren Xiaosu found that the tallest buildings in the


    city were only about four stories tall when he looked down from a hill. Only the


    cathedral in the city center stood slightly taller, followed by a ¡°rtively


    magnificent¡± tower-shaped structure.


    Although described as a tower, its base did not actually look too different from


    the cathedral. If Ren Xiaosu had to describe it, it probably resembled more of


    an ancient castle he had seen in a book once.


    This ce was filled with an exotic charm. Ren Xiaosu could not help but feel


    that a city with such style was actually quite beautiful.


    But he knew very well the city also depicted an underdeveloped construction


    technology, as well as low potential for poption expansion.


    Ren Xiaosu even wondered whether there was aplete sewage system and


    water supplywork in the cities of the Kingdom of Sorcerers. If there


    weren¡¯t, it would mean that as he got closer to the city, he might often smell a


    pungent stench in the air.


    ¡°How do the residents get their daily water ration in the city?¡± Ren Xiaosu


    asked.


    Melgor said proudly, ¡°That¡¯s a problem I¡¯m well-versed in. After I came


    Yorktown, I used my first year of tax revenue to build 180 wells for the city¡¯s


    residents. That solved thhe water supply issues that had been troubling them for


    many years.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stared at Melgor dumbfoundedly and thought to himself, What¡¯s


    there to be so proud of, bro?¡±


    Building 18o wells was nothingpared to the measures Ren Xiaosu had


    implemented in the Prosperous Northwest. Perhaps the nation of sorcerers had


    not been in contact with the rest of the world fora long time, or maybe the


    magus order did not want them to do so. Therefore, these people were wholly


    unaware of how other ces had developed.


    Come to think of it, Fortress 178 had previously regarded the nation of


    sorcerers as a formidable enemy purely because one side had superpowers


    while the other did not. This, including the fact that Fortress 178 did not have a


    strong military foundation at the beginning, contributed to them suffering


    many defeats in the past


    But looking at the Kingdom of Sorcerers now, this ce would be nothing if


    not for the sorcerers.


    At this moment, Melgor pointed at the cathedral in the city center from afar


    and said, ¡°That¡¯s the Church of the Eye of True Sight. All residents, as followers


    of the faith, head there for worship service every weekend. The other


    magnificent building next to it is my Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. How about it? Isn¡¯t it


    spectacr?


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°I didn¡¯t cut you off because I don¡¯t want to annoy you


    further, but you can¡¯t keep showing off either. Let me ask you this: Have you


    never seen Fortress 178? In terms of magnificence, you¡¯re still far from it.¡±


    Melgor was left speechless for a moment. ¡°That¡¯s a defensive fortress, and this


    is where I live. How can it be the same?


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s double time it. I¡¯m in a hurry to read,¡± Ren Xiaosu urged.


    After that, he clenched his legs around the horse¡¯s ribcage and spurred it into a


    canter. Melgor, who was left behind, had a helpless look on his face, yet he


    could not say anything about it.


    To a certain extent, Melgor actually regarded Ren Xiaosu as a friend already.


    However, the Li n¡¯s knights to the rear were left looking at one another. This


    was the first time they saw a sorcerer¡¯s steward dare to speak to the sorcerer


    like that.


    The knights looked at Li Chengguo in confusion. ¡°Young Master, why¡¯s he


    talking to Lord Melgor with that attitude?¡±


    Li Chengguo wore an impassive expression, and he didn¡¯t answer their


    question.


    He only hoped Ren Xiaosu would note and speak to him for the time being


    Otherwise, he would surely get humiliated in the presence of his n¡¯s knights.


    However, life often threw curveballs, and Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around


    and shouted at him, ¡°Sheeple, what are you two doing? Keep up with the


    group!


    The knights were speechless


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting¡¯s eyes kept twitching. They felt it was time to have a


    good talk with Ren X¨ªaosu. As long as he stopped calling them ¡°sheeple,¡± they


    were even willing to pay him money!


    As the group slowly entered the city, Melgor finally heaved a sigh of relief,


    because whoever was trying to kill him would probably not try to attack him


    anymore.


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly said after sweeping his gaze across the crowd, ¡°Be


    careful, someone suspicious is around.¡±


    Melgors heart skipped a beat. When he looked around, he only saw the city¡¯s


    residents greeting him on one knee by the roadside. There was nothing


    unusual about them.


    ¡°Stop looking around.¡± Ren Xiaosu whispered, ¡°Be careful not to alert the


    enemy.


    The city in York County did not even have walls. It was as though the thought


    of being invaded by foreign enemies never crossed their mind.


    When they entered this ce, Ren Xiaosu noticed that even though the


    residents had bowed their heads to greet and wee Melgor, one of them


    was staring intently at him.


    Ren Xiaosu did not intend to make a move in public, nor did he want to


    frighten the other party away. If that person really got scared away by hin


    where would he go to get another Eye of True Sight?


    Although Melgor did not discover anything unusual, he still sat upright on his


    horse. If Ren Xiaosu had not been alert previously, he would have died to that


    me Pir spell. Hence, Melgor trusted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s judgment.


    He just couldn¡¯t understand something. Was the enemy nning to attack him


    in the city?


    Melgor whispered, ¡°Who¡¯s the suspicious person? You can tell me. I¡¯ll


    immediately order the knights to capture him. I have authority over everyone


    in York County.¡±


    There¡¯s no need to make it public. The suspicious party has quietly left.¡± Ren


    Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°IfI kill a bounty hunter in public and take his Eye of


    True Sight, what will the magus order do to me?¡±


    They¡¯ll resort to any means necessary to retrieve the Eye of True Sight from


    you, of course.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Don¡¯t you get any ideas about that. You can¡¯t


    defeat a bounty hunter. Not even I might be able to.¡±

 Chapter 1097: Sorcerer Russell

    <h4>Chapter 1097: Sorcerer Russell</h4>


    As half of the city¡¯s streets were still made up of dirt roads, Ren Xiaosu could just imagine how muddy the streets would get on rainy days.


    There was no sewage system in this city either. While Ren Xiaosu sat on his horse, he even saw some residents transporting human waste out of the city. He could even smell that foul stench from a distance away.


    Although the residents had neatlybed hair, the texture was extremely greasy. At a nce, Ren Xiaosu roughly understood that even though Melgor had used his first year of tax revenue to build 180 wells, there was still a severe water shortage in the city.


    Ren Xiaosu and Little Liuyuan were in a simr situation while living in town.


    The residents knelt on one knee on both sides of the street to wee the return of Lord Melgor. To them, sorcerers were gods and also the most sacred people in the kingdom.


    It could be seen that their clothes were very different from the people in the Central ins. The women were mostly dressed inyered skirts withce cors and sleeves and wore tight corsets around their torso.


    On the other hand, the men were dressed more inly, with most of them wearing a short vest over a tattered shirt.


    ¡°People used not to dress like this, but that style made aeback some 20 years ago,¡± Melgor exined to Ren Xiaosu with augh. ¡°So what do you think? It¡¯s quite different from Fortress 178, huh?¡±


    ¡°It really is very different.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    The knights prepared to leave after respectfully escorting Melgor and Ren Xiaosu back to the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. However, Melgor was worried the bounty hunter woulde to kill him, so he ordered two knights to stand guard outside his tower for the time being.


    Not only that, he also told Li Chengguo to have the Li n deploy more guards there after the knights escorted Liu Ting and him back to their families.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little annoyed. With such security measures, the bounty hunter would probably not dare toe to the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower to assassinate Melgor. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu might need to make an effort to lure the other party out.


    But honestly, Ren Xiaosu really admired Melgor¡¯s sense of cowardice.


    So what if he was afraid of dying? Everyone could only live once, and dying for something that was not worth it would be the dumbest thing to do.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was even more tempted to abduct Melgor to the Prosperous Northwest.


    As they walked into the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower, Ren Xiaosu thought the interior would definitely be covered in dust since Melgor had not been back for two years.


    But after stepping inside, he was surprised to find there were actually more than 20 middle-aged women cleaning the floor and doing housekeeping.


    ¡°Tve really underestimated your authority in York County.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    Melgorughed and said, ¡°There¡¯s many more things you¡¯ve underestimated about me.¡±


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu could not be faulted for thinking so lowly of Melgor. As a sorcerer, Melgor only brought two lowly servants with him on the reconnaissance mission and did not have a proper attendant to see to his needs. He couldn¡¯t be more pathetic on their way back to the Kingdom of Sorcerers


    either.


    Ren Xiaosu found it rather difficult to associate someone like him with an important figure. This even caused Ren Xiaosu to underestimate the entire magus order as he felt that Melgor¡¯s status as a sorcerer was not that prestigious.


    Meanwhile, the inside of the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower looked opulent and magnificent. Many of the ornaments and decor were gilded with a thinyer of gold.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Since you have so much authority, why didn¡¯t you bring some subordinates and maids with you to Fortress 1782¡±


    Melgor sighed and said, ¡°They¡¯d only have ended up suffering over there. Look at these people. They¡¯re just working hard for a sry. How can I bring them to a dangerous ce like the border? If we encountered any of Fortress 178¡¯s troops, I couldn¡¯t have protected them with my ability.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. ¡°What a sweet idiot.¡±


    When Fortress 178 got invaded, the people there started to subconsciously demonize everyone from the nation of sorcerers. This was only human nature.


    Just like when Ren Xiaosu faced the expeditionary army, he also demonized them in his mind.


    But in fact, there were good and bad people no matter where you went. Melgor was undoubtedly a typical example of a good person in the nation of sorcerers. As the environment in the Far North became too harsh, the expeditionary army had headed south in search of a better environment. Furthermore,


    they were instigated by ck Robe.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu was trying to justify the sorcerers¡¯ and barbarians¡¯ actions. If another war broke out, he would still massacre them even if he knew there were good people among them. Even if the expeditionary army were to attack the Central ins another 100 times, Ren Xiaosu would still do


    the same as before.


    A middle-aged woman walked up to Melgor and curtsied with a smile. ¡°Lord Melgor, you¡¯re finally back. I¡¯ll have the maids prepare dinner for you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu started sizing up the other party. This ¡°housekeeper¡± was not from the Central ins. She had an exotic look with blonde hair and blue eyes, but she still spoke in Chinese. This made him feel a little out of ce. It somehow felt like the world was a little unreal.


    Melgor said, ¡°Alright, make dinner quickly. Is the hot water ready? I¡¯ll take a bath first.¡±


    ¡®The middle-aged woman smiled and said, ¡°We always have it ready. What would you like for dinner?¡±


    Melgor thought for a moment and said, ¡°Shredded pork with garlic sauce, spicy tofu, twice-cooked pork, stir-fried Napa cabbage with hot and sour sauce¡­¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was confused.


    What the fuck?! Shouldn¡¯t sorcerers be eating something different? Did the culinary tastes in the Kingdom of Sorcerers also get influenced by the vors of the Central ins?


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ll have to wait a while until dinner is ready. Why don¡¯t we take a bath first?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately frowned. ¡°Be clearer. If you say it like that again, I¡¯ll beat you up.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand.¡± Melgor snapped, ¡°We have eight bathrooms in the tower. I never said that I wanted to share the same bathroom as you!¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t wash up yet.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°First, find me that book we talked about. I want to read it.¡±

 Chapter 1098: Beaten into seclusion

    <h4>Chapter 1098: Beaten into seclusion</h4>


    The yellowed pages introduced Russell¡¯s biography. ¡°Russell, born in 1981 AD,


    was one of the greatest sorcerers of his era.


    ¡°He had dedicated himself to the develop


    nt of the magus order and


    advocated recruiting civilians and foreign nationalities as new sorcerers so as


    to introduce new blood into the sorcerers¡¯ lineage.


    ¡°During The Cataclysm, he had led the magus order to search for newnds


    with civilians to restart civilization. At that time, Russell was the idol of


    everyone.


    ¡°However, Russell was not only a great sorcerer but also one of the most


    powerful archmages in sorcerer history.


    ¡°He was one of the wielders of and a past protector of the ck Eye of True


    Sight.


    ¡°He dedicated his entire life to mastering the Meteor Shower spell, secondarily


    supplementing it with Resist Fire and Fire Dragon..¡±


    Russell¡¯s biography was over a 1,0oo words long. Ren Xiaosu only realized after


    reading for a while that the man was really powerful. Even the author of The


    Sorcerer Chronicles was a fan of the guy.


    However, his inclusive ideology was not in line with the blueprint of the magus


    order of that era. That was why the Introduction to Sorcery was edited seven


    times to the point where even the author¡¯s name was not printed anymore.


    Meanwhile, The Sorcerer Chronicles in front of him, which dated back 80 years


    ago and had written Russell¡¯s biography, could be considered fortunate to have


    survived the censorship.


    Ren Xiaosu skimmed through Russell¡¯s biography. However, the earlier


    portions were all about what this guy had done before. For example, it talked


    about how the young Russell was a cheerful and energetic person, how he


    helped his ssmates, how he organized young sorcerers, and how he


    established a new sorcerer association.


    It was clear that Russell was very good atworking. At that time, he was


    likely very active in the magus world.


    It was written in the book. ¡°Russell has the most outstanding talent in the


    history of sorcerers, so much so that arge number of young magi who


    gathered around hinm saw him as a role model for their own progression.


    ¡°With the arrival of a new era, Russell could not stand the feudal conservatism


    of the magus order¡¯s old guard and started gathering forces around him to seek


    a revolution.


    The magus order of the old era believed the Magi should prioritize protecting


    their pure bloodlines, as well as protecting the secret of the Eye of True Sight


    from being exposed. The old era¡¯s magus order insisted the fate of the Magi


    was tied to the Eye of True Sight, and that outsiders should not interfere as it


    could very well lead to the Eye of True Sight bing lost through the


    generations.


    ¡°However, Russell believed that if the Magi wanted to be recognized by the


    world, they must insist on having an inclusive mindset. Only by having more


    and more people bing sorcerers and influencing the world could they


    stand and face the world.


    ¡°The interests of the old guard shed with the young magi of the new era. A


    rge number of young sorcerers did not hesitate to go against their own ns


    and follow in Russell¡¯s footsteps.


    ¡°During this period, Russell had great charm and gained many followers.¡±


    However, Russell underwent a midlife crisis, changing his personality.


    The author of The Sorcerer Chronicles wrote, ¡°When Russell was 47 years old,


    he suddenly decided to resign from his position as the head of the Sorcerer


    Association. It was so sudden that no one was prepared for it. His good friend,


    Tingens, wrote many letters to try to persuade Russell to continue leading the


    New Sorcerer Association forward. However, Russell did not agree to resuming


    his role. Instead, he settled down and decided he wanted to study nonverbal


    spells.¡±


    The Sorcerer Chronicles did not mention the reason for Russell¡¯s change of


    heart.


    Upon reading this, Ren Xiaosu nodded to himself. It all made sense now. From


    these events alone, he could confimm that Russell was indeed the Introduction


    to Sorcery¡¯s author.


    As for why Russell¡¯s personality had suddenly changed, Ren Xiaosu seriously


    suspected Ren He had beaten Russell into seclusion.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®Ren He was really brutal. He actually turned an


    optimistic and cheerful social butterfly into a recluse who spent all his time


    researching¡­


    It was quite a pity. Through the Introduction to Sorcery, it could be concluded


    that Russell had still been unable to figure out a way to cast nonverbal spells even after researching for a long time. This was in spite of the fact he


    possessed the ck Eye of True Sight.


    ¡°But why didn¡¯t this book mention anything about the two ck Eyes of True


    Sight? Ren Xiaosu wondered. ¡°Melgor said he read about it in this book¡±


    Ren Xiaosu flipped to the back and realized that between pages 31 and 61 of the


    book was aption of letters between Russell and his good friend,


    Tingens.


    Tingens: Dear Russell, ever since you resigned from your position as the head


    of the New Sorcerer Association, the aristocrats have returnmed to their old


    ways. They¡¯re trying to drive away the foreign sorcerers so that they can


    protect the pure bloodlines of the Magi and the Eye of True Sight. They feel


    that sorcerers should not reveal themselves to the world. Our efforts have all


    been in vain¡­


    Russell wrote: Dear Tingens, I¡¯nm aware of your worries. However, I¡¯m currently


    too preupied with researching nonverbal spells, so I don¡¯t have the energy


    to manage the New Sorcerer Association. I hope you can choose a new leader to


    lead you all forward..


    Tingens: Respected Russell, please frankly tell me what caused this great


    change in you. I¡¯ll be dropping by to visit on the 15th of next month. I hope you won¡¯t turn me away then..


    Russel: Tingens, I don¡¯t wish to see anyone right now. Life is short, and I have


    to explore the infinite mysteries of sorcery within my limited lifespan. It¡¯s


    greatly distressing me.


    Tingens: Dear Russell, I¡¯m fine with not going over to bother you, but I hope


    you can tell me what this is all about. Did a sorcerer from the old aristocracy


    take your family hostage?


    This time, the contents of Russell¡¯s letter finally mentioned the most crucial


    clue. ¡°Dear Tingens, I encountered that powerful Central ins rider, and he


    took a ck Eye of True Sight from me. You and I both understand what this


    means. I¡¯m no match for him.¡±


    To put it more simply, ¡°I can¡¯t fucking defeat him. The ck Eye of True Sight


    has been taken away, and I¡¯m embarrassed to continue on as the leader of the


    Sorcerer Association!


    ¡°Get someone better, I¡¯m way too ashamed!¡±


    It was no wonder The Sorcerer Chronicles author did not mention this affair.


    The author clearly had these verifiable exchanges and knew the reason for


    Russell¡¯s change of heart, yet he did not mention a word about it in the biography.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like he understood the author¡¯s thought process.


    Imagine how it would feel when you realize your idol had suddenly been beaten


    into seclusion.


    The reason why The Sorcerer Chronicles author did not mention this was


    because he had also been plunged into depression!


    In truth, Ren Xiaosu found this matter quite surprising. He did not expect Ren


    He to be such a terrifying figure in that era.


    He continued reading and suddenly had his attention captured by another


    exchange of letters.


    Tingens: Dear Russell, I¡¯m very sorry to hear about this. I feel very sad for you


    too¡­ but I don¡¯t understand why that Central ins rider would want to take


    the Eye of True Sight away from you.


    Russell: He said he wants to use the Eye of True Sight to save his child.

 Chapter 1099: The second clue regarding Ren He

    <h4>Chapter 1099: The second clue regarding Ren He</h4>


    ¡°Use the Eye of True Sight to save a person?¡± Ren Xiaosu was shocked. The Eye of True Sight was not medicine, so how could it be used to save someone?


    ¡®Wasn¡¯t it a weapon?


    However, Russell did not specifically mention anything about the person who needed saving in the letters. It seemed like he was not sure of what was going on either.


    In any case, he probably felt so utterly defeated that he painstakingly turned to studying sorcery.


    However, it was quite a pity. Ren Xiaosu read about Russell¡¯s entire life in The Sorcerer Chronicles and knew he did not manage to achieve any sess in his research of nonverbal spells.


    Russell was just like a researcher who worked tirelessly their entire life to find a new breakthrough in the field of sorcery.


    However, reality was cruel. Even though many scientific researchers were hardworking geniuses, they could still end up wasting their entire lives in their respective fields of research.


    They dedicated all of their youth and passion to the researchb and writing research papers, yet they might not get any results in return.


    This was the real world. No one was the protagonist.


    Ren Xiaosu read further and saw that it was not only the letters between Russell and Tingens that were included. There were also letter correspondences with other people.


    Fletcher: Dear Russell, there¡¯s been a lot of unrest in the worldtely, and even we Magi will likely get embroiled in it. Some of the aristocrats have quietly withdrawn from society. After they took the authority of the Magi from you, they only cared about seizing benefits and did not shoulder the


    corresponding responsibilities. Russell, something is about to happen to the world. We need you.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he was taken aback. Could this refer to the beginning of The Cataclysm?


    Although the letter did not mention what exactly happened and everything was described very obscurely, how could anyone not link the words ¡°a lot of unrest in the world¡± and ¡°something is about to happen to the world¡± to The Cataclysm?


    Ren Xiaosu quickly flipped to the back to read Russell¡¯s reply.


    Russell: Dear Fletcher, I¡¯ve already decided to make a return and go through the baptism of life and death alongside you guys. The faction the Central ins rider established in our kingdom before he left has already contacted me. To apologize for taking away the ck Eye of True Sight, his followers will


    be assisting us in oveing the difficulties we¡¯re facing, I¡¯ll be returning next week, but before that, I still need to reach a consensus with the aristocracy. We¡¯ll have to face this disaster together.


    At this point, Russell finally decided to give up his research of nonverbal spells and get back to society for the sake of the Magi.


    Judging by the timeline, he would be in his 50s.


    Ren Xiaosu more or less figured out the subsequent incidents that followed. Russell was already far more powerful than the aristocrats when he was in his younger years. Only after he went into seclusion did the old aristocratic familiese out and mess around.


    When Russell returned to the secr world, the consensus he mentioned in the letter was probably the same as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s definition¡ªit would have to be beaten out of them. From this, Ren Xiaosu felt that Russell really had the right temperament to be a leader.


    ¡®When he read further, he was surprised to see a letter from Russell informing all the sorcerers, ¡°Everyone, now that it¡¯s a matter of life and death, we should put aside our differences¡­¡±


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu felt an overwhelming sense of tragedy arise spontaneously.


    Other than the loss of a ck Eye of True Sight, there was almost no blemish on Russell¡¯s record. After someone like him emerged from seclusion, he stepped forward for the survival of his entire ss of people and led the entire magus order in surviving that disaster.


    Truly, the bulk of the credit for the magus order¡¯s survival and the fact they became apletely superior power to Fortress 178 at the beginning of The Cataclysm was down to Russell.


    However, the old aristocracy seemed to have gained some real power soon after the magus order sessfully survived The Cataclysm. It was normal since Russell did not leave behind any children of his own.


    Gradually, the old aristocrats started chipping away at the influence Russell had on the Magi. At first, they slowly felt their way around. Then they revised the Introduction to Sorcery seven times and even deleted his name as its author.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little emotional. Peace was determined by a general who was not fated to see peace. There was a hint of ingratitude in that saying.


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu froze for a moment and went to look back at the previous letter¡¯s contents. He saw in Russell¡¯s letter: ¡°The faction the Central ins rider established in our kingdom before he left has already contacted me¡­. his followers will be assisting us in oveing the difficulties we¡¯re


    facing¡­¡±


    This clearly stated that Ren He had left behind an organization simr to the Riders and the Qinghe Group in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Moreover, if this organization had survived to the present times with the Magi, there should be a simr organization that existed in the Kingdom of Sorcerers at this


    moment.


    Earlier, the pce gave him a quest to search for four clues rted to Ren He in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. However, Ren Xiaosu did not even know where to start looking for them at that time.


    But now, it was Russell¡¯s letter that gave him a hint. ¡®The organization established and left behind by Ren He is the second clue. As long as I can find the whereabouts of this organization, the quest will be considered halfpleted:


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu felt an ineffable sense of excitement.


    Back on Mt. Zuoyun, Zero had asked Ren Xiaosu if he felt lonely. At that time, Ren Xiaosu indeed felt a sense of loneliness.


    He did not know where he came from or where he was going, nor did he know if he had any family before and why they had left him alone in the wilderness.


    Such a feeling was actually very lonely.


    But now, all the clues were hinting that his situation was not like that. He had never been abandoned. It was just that no one in that era could protect themselves.


    Of course, he could not yet be sure of what exactly happened. He would have to gather all the clues first beforeing to any conclusion.


    After a while, Melgor came out after his bath. ¡°How was it? Did you find any clues?¡±


    ¡°Some.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°What I can be sure of is that the Central ins Rider really did take away an Eye of True Sight, but it¡¯s impossible to find it now since the Central ins are so vast.¡±


    Melgorforted him, ¡°It¡¯s alright. Even if you can¡¯t find this one, you can definitely still buy your own Eye of True Sight in the future.¡±


    Melgor said so because he was no longer thinking about getting that ck Eye of True Sight. If Ren Xiaosu could find it, it would be his.


    Ren Xiaosu changed the subject. ¡°But I did find some other clues. In a letter sent by Russell to Fletcher, he said that a faction left behind by the Central ins Rider worked together with the Magi to ovee the difficult times topensate for him taking away the ck Eye of True Sight. Have you


    heard of this incident? Perhaps that faction knows about the ck Eye of True Sight.¡±


    During The Cataclysm, a much more serious disaster swept through the Central ins than the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Therefore, the Riders there suffered a temporary disruption in their legacy. They knew that Ren He¡¯s son was still alive, but a lot of information regarding him had been lost.


    Everyone was struggling to survive, so it was quite normal that some of the Riders would identally die and not be able to pass on that information to theirpanions.


    But it was different for the Riders in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.. They had survived the disaster together with the Magi, so there was a high chance they retained all the information regarding Ren He¡¯s son!

 Chapter 1100: The sophistication of the Kingdom of Sorcerers

    <h4>Chapter 1100: The sophistication of the Kingdom of Sorcerers</h4>


    ¡°Do you know about the organization that was established by the Central ins Rider?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked Melgor. *


    Tve never heard you mention them before.¡¯


    ince they helped the Magi survive The Cataclysm, their reputation should be as prominent as Russell¡¯s after the disaster passed. At the minimum, everyone should know of their existence, but


    ¡®When Melgor heard that, he pondered it for amoment before saying, ¡°I had the same questions as you when I first read The Sorcerer Chronicles, but please believe me when I tell you I¡¯ve really never heard of them before.¡±


    ¡°How can that be?¡± Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled.


    ¡°Perhaps they did not follow the orders of that Central ins rider?¡± Melgor analyzed.


    ¡°That can¡¯t be.¡± Ren Xiaosu had met the Riders before. How could such a cohesive group with strong faith suddenly turn against each other?


    ¡°Or they could have all perished in The Cataclysm?* Melgor raised another possibility.


    ¡°Perhaps.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. The Cataclysm that affected the entire world was way too terrifying. Although it was a little uneptable that all of the Riders might have died in it, it was not impossible.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu had another thought. Something was not right. If they were dead, the pce would not have guided him to search for these clues in the first ce.


    He still had three more clues to look for. If the organization had been wiped out, where was he supposed to find those clues?


    The pce would not mess with him. Therefore, there had to still be some clues regarding the organization Ren He had established here. However, for some reason, they just did not appear in the history of the Magi.


    It looked like he would have to slowly try his luck.


    ¡®Then Ren Xiaosu asked another question, ¡°By the way, what happened to Russell in the end? I don¡¯t think it was mentioned in The Sorcerer Chronicles either.¡±


    ¡°The author didn¡¯t mention it. ¡®m guessing he probably didn¡¯t know or was afraid to write about it,¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± Ren Xiaosu was taken aback.


    ¡°My father rted to me the unofficial history and mentioned that Russell died three years after helping the Magi survive The Cataclysm. However, his cause of death has always remained a mystery,¡± Melgor exined. ¡°The magus order¡¯s exnation to the public was that Russell had suddenly died from


    excess fatigue before quickly cremating him.¡±


    Without an autopsy or anyone investigating the cause of death, Russell was cremated just like that.


    ¡°So that made a lot of people suspicious of the circumstance?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°It¡¯s not only that.¡± Melgor said softly, ¡°More importantly, Russell¡¯s ck Eye of True Sight fell into the hands of the House of Tudor after that. You also know that humans are naturally suspicious creatures. How can an important matter that involves the transfer of something that everyone¡¯s so interested in


    not arouse the suspicions of others?¡±


    ¡°And after that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°After that?¡± Melgor chuckled. ¡°The Tudors went on to be the most powerful n in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Whether it be in the magus order or the secr world, their influence grew to be thergest. With a ck Eye of True Sight in their control, they were able to possess such authority even


    though they were not as talented as Russell.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. If there were interests involved, that spection might very well be true.


    At the very least, Ren Xiaosu was more inclined to believe that Russell had been murdered.


    ¡°Eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised. ¡°Why does the Tudor family sound so familiar? Isn¡¯t that the house of your love interest¡¯s fianc¨¦?¡±


    Melgor said with a bitterugh, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s why I don¡¯t hold much hope of winning her back. You said you wanted to help me get her back, but it¡¯s better that you don¡¯t make such ims in public, Even if there were a 100 of usbined, we couldn¡¯t shake the Tudor family. Moreover, you haven¡¯t even be


    asorcerer yet.¡±


    Every time Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was so tempted to tell Melgor openly, ¡°You know nothing about the Stronghold Destroyer¡¯s power.¡±


    Even if he couldnt single-handedly wipe out the Tudor family, he could return to Fortress 178 and bring back a train full of people on the steam lotive to tten the Tu-Manor!


    1


    Of course, Tudor was their n name, and there was no such thing as the Tu-Manor. Ren Xiaosu was only thinking this way to make himself feel more imposing.


    As the saying went, the unknown is scariest. Previously, he did not understand much about the Kingdom of Sorcerers, so he was always worried there were some particrly powerful people hiding here, or they had some particrly devastating ways of dealing with enemies.


    But from the look of things, the Kingdom of Sorcerers that had been around for 200 years was close to ruin.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Melgor, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll definitely help you get her back.¡±


    Melgor muttered, ¡°You¡¯re bragging again. When will you change that habit of yours?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu just smiled and did not exin anything.


    1


    At some point, he truly felt that Melgor was born to be a protagonist. Not only did he encounter Ren Xiaosu, who would be his biggest benefactor, but he had also offended the most powerful n in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    1


    If a story were told depicting Melgor, the moment he met Ren Xiaosu would probably be the beginning of the story, while Ren Xiaosu helping him destroy the Tudor family would be the end of it.


    Ren Xiaosu liked storylines like this a lot. It made him feel like a big shot who helped the protagonist from behind the scenes.


    ¡°Let¡¯s eat,¡¯ Melgor said to Ren Xiaosu.


    With that, Melgor even asked the maids to bring out some fine wine from the cer of the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower.


    Then Ren Xiaosu watched Melgor sit at the end of the long dining table and eat a spoonful of spicy tofu before elegantly taking a sip of the fine red wine.


    Furthermore, Melgor looked like he was enjoying the meal a great deal, and his table manners were extremely ssy.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu looked down on the spicy tofu and shredded pork with garlic sauce dishes. On the contrary, he loved shredded pork with garlic sauce the most.


    But the problem was that he had attended a g at the Yang Consortium in the past and roughly knew how the upper ss would act posh. The Kingdom of Sorcerers should have been the birthce of that ¡°sophistication,¡± but why did it suddenly be a melting pot of culture?!


    At this moment, Melgor praised, ¡°The shredded pork with garlic sauce is a heavenly dish. It¡¯s prepared from the best quality carrots and tenderloin cooked together with soaked, fresh wood ear mushrooms and julienned bamboo shoots. It¡¯s paired with an exquisite seasoning that makes it unforgettable after


    having just a bite. After eating a bite of shredded pork with garlic sauce, the oils that stay in your mouth are just enough to offset the astringency of the wine. Quick, have a taste of my tower¡¯s head chef¡¯s cooking,¡±


    This was the first time that Ren Xiaosu had heard someone talking about shredded pork with garlic sauce in such a ssy manner. He estimated that if the Central ins culture were to assimte the Kingdom of Sorcerers for a few more years, Melgor might even start pairing his wine with a bite of garlic


    after every sip.


    After all, food paired with garlic tasted most fantastic.


    ¡®When it was nighttime, Ren Xiaosu went to the bedroom Melgor had allotted to him to sleep. The velvet nket was exceptionally soft.


    However, he did not sleep. Instead, he quietly flipped through The Sorcerer Chronicles while waiting patiently for something.


    ¡°Old Xu¡¯ had climbed onto the roof and was hiding in the shadows of the tower¡¯s cup, ready to spring into the hunt at any moment.


    Ren Xiaosu was not worried about danger arriving. He was only worried the prey would not bite..

 Chapter 1101: Bounty hunter

    <h4>Chapter 1101: Bounty hunter</h4>


    Late into the night, it became quiet in the vast Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. The maids had returned to their quarters, leaving only a few of them behind in the standby room in case their sorcerer-master summoned them.


    They would only start working again at 6 o¡¯clock the next morning, Their first task would be to present a clean set of clothes to their sorcerer-master. If he needed to attend an event for the day, they would have to prepare several sets of clothes as alternates.


    Then they would prepare a sumptuous breakfast that might include soy milk, dairy milk, steamed buns, fried dough sticks, and so on.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu was worried he would not get used to the food here after arriving at the Kingdom of Sorcerers. But in the end, he realized he had overthought things. Food preference was probably thest thing he needed to worry about in this ce.


    Right now, with everything quiet in the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower, Ren Xiaosu, who was lying on the velvet bed, suddenly opened his eyes and shot out of the window like an arrow.


    He was staying on the fourth floor of the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. If the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower were to be described as a castle, he would be situated on the topmost floor of the castle¡¯s structural foundation, and above that was the turret.


    The exterior of the tower was lined with uneven brick, and Ren Xiaosu used his strong fingers to grip the handholds between them as he climbed up. In the dark of the night, no one noticed someone was actually performing the dangerous activity of free solo climbing here.


    Ren Xiaosu climbed upwards silently. Meanwhile, somewhere higher, a ck figure was sliding down a rope in the opposite direction of Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Old Xu,¡± who had been hiding in the shadows of the tower¡¯s cup, already saw everything that was happening. Since the prey came, the hunter had no reason to let it go.


    However, this bounty hunter was much more alert than expected. Before Ren Xiaosu could get close, the bounty hunter had already noticed themotion below.


    The bounty hunter sneered at Ren Xiaosu and kicked off from the wall with both feet, fleeing in the air with kite-like grace.


    In fact, these bounty hunters were indeed much more alert than normal people. Furthermore, they seemed to especially like carrying out sneak attacks and assassinations from the shadows. Once they discovered the situation was not right, they would flee far away without any hesitation.


    It was the same for the bounty hunter he encountered previously.


    The current bounty hunter was holding an orange Eye of True Sight in his hand. It was unknown what kind of sorcery he was using to stay in the air for such a long time, but it was extremely weird to see him flying and gliding in midair.


    However, Ren Xiaosu knew full well that this was not true flight.


    ¡®When the bounty hunter ¡°flew¡± away, the knights outside guarding the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower seemed to have noticed something. But by the time they looked up at the sky, the bounty hunter had already fled far away.


    The kights shook their heads and thought it might have just been the wind, so they did not suspect anything further. After all, everything was still quiet inside the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower.


    Ren Xiaosu revealed a smile as he watched the bounty hunter gradually get farther away.


    Naturally, the other party was able to discover him only because he had allowed it. Otherwise, if it were Old Xu that took action, there would not be many sorcerers in the world who could avoid Old Xu¡¯s sneak attack. This applied even to the Central ins¡¯ superhumans.


    In terms of assassination, Ren Xiaosu was truly a top expert in the field. Otherwise, would the Zhou Consortium fear him so much?


    Of course, his methods might not be particrly stealthy.


    But as long as the oue was the same, the process was not too important.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the knights guarding the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower before leaping off towards the other residential buildings¡¯ roofs in the distance with Old Xu following close behind.


    He could not make his move here. He could not let outsiders know he wanted to steal a sorcerer¡¯s Eye of True Sight, or it would probably cause the entire magus order to target him.


    ¡®When Ren Xiaosunded lightly on a roof, he did not even stabilize himself before exerting more strength through his feet and propelling himself forward again. It was as though he were carrying a nitrous oxide propulsion device on him. If anyone were to see this, they would probably start questioning


    what they had learned about physics over the years.


    The physical fitness levels of people like Ren Xiaosu were no longer bound by thews of Newton. That would have to be left to his younger brother, Twoton.


    ¡®The bounty hunter in front of him gradually descended from midair. He quickly jumped across the low roofs, thinking he should have sessfully shaken off the pursuit.


    But when the bounty hunter turned around, he was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu smiling at him from not far behind.


    ¡®The bounty hunter was shocked. He was inwardly surprised at how the young man had even caught up to him. Furthermore, he did not make any noise. He was like a ghost!


    However, there was no time for him to think so much. Under such circumstances, he could only cast another spell to increase his speed.


    Suddenly, the bounty hunter was enveloped by a swirling wind. His flighty steps were as light as a swan¡¯s, and every step he took was a leap of a dozen meters!


    But after he increased his speed, he turned around and was surprised to find he was still unable to shake off the young man behind him. Furthermore, the young man¡¯s smile remained unchanged as though he were extremelyid back.


    At this moment, the bounty hunter understood the young man in pursuit was much faster than him. The reason why he did not make a move on him was that he wanted to force him out of the city.


    The bounty hunter sneered mentally, ¡®It looks like you don¡¯t wish to be discovered either, right?


    Thinking of this, he suddenly rushed to the left. At the same time, the Eye of True Sight in his hand glowed, and a sudden ball of raging mes shot down towards a stable.


    The stable had a thatched roof, so just a slight spark would set it aze, let alone the bounty hunter casting a fireball at it.


    Allof a sudden, dancing mes rose into the air, and the horses in the stable started neighing loudly. They even trotted anxiously forward in an attempt to break out of their reins.


    The horses¡¯ reins were tied to the heavy wooden pirs in the stable. As the horses continued struggling, the entire stable copsed.


    Thismotion woke up the city¡¯s residents. Someone started shouting, ¡°Put out the fire! Put out the fire!¡±


    ¡°Go fetch water from the well!¡±


    During this time, some people also saw figures flit across roofs and shouted that someone hadmitted arson.


    The bounty hunter felt a little more at ease when he heard that. This way, he could probably dy the enemy behind him as much as possible.


    But before he could fully breathe a sigh of relief, he spun around and saw the young man behind him was still calmly in close pursuit!


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu really did not appear flustered at all. A big prize like the orange Eye of True Sight was right in front of him, so how could he possibly give up chasing just like that?


    Moreover, with his speed, it was impossible that the residents in the city would make out his appearance.


    ¡®The bounty hunter started panicking. He thought for a moment before finally stopping on the roof of an abandoned warehouse and turning around to face Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡®When he stopped, Ren Xiaosu also stopped. They stared at each other from a distance.


    The bounty hunter said coldly, ¡°Are you that sorcerer¡¯s servant?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°It¡¯s ¡®steward.¡¯ Don¡¯t demote me as you like. I¡¯m different from the sheeple.¡±


    The bounty hunter was puzzled. ¡°Sheeple?!¡±


    ¡®The bounty hunter was very confused and could not understand what Ren Xiaosu was saying.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was also deeply puzzled. That was because the other party¡¯s voice clearly belonged to a young woman¡­

 Chapter 1102: The book thief

    <h4>Chapter 1102: The book thief</h4>


    Trantor: Legge


    It wasn¡¯t until they came to a standstill that Ren Xiaosu had the time to carefully size up this sorceress. Her clothing was no different from that of the previous bounty hunter he encountered. She had a concealed arrow in her sleeve, and a crossbow and rope slung around her waist. However, her face was


    covered with a ck scarf that made her look a little different from the previous bounty hunter.


    His opponent was a little skinny. Ren Xiaosu did not manage to distinguish that earlier while chasing after her at high speed. Only now did he realize the other party had obvious female characteristics.


    This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen a sorceress. To be honest, he had thought the art of sorcery was only passed down through the male lineage. After all, he had nevere across a sorceress before, nor were there any records of one in The Sorcerer Chronicles.


    However, this did not affect Ren Xiaosu from wanting to steal her Eye of True Sight.


    Quite curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Did the Tudor family send you? Why do you want to assassinate Melgor?¡±


    But when he asked that, the other party was taken aback. ¡°Assassinate Melgor? For what?¡±


    ¡°Hehe.¡± Ren Xiaosu gave a fake smile and said, ¡°Not long ago, a bounty hunter attempted to assassinate him. I can already guess that you were both sent by the Tudor family.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was being so honest with her because he had no intention of letting her leave.


    The futuremander of the Northwest was here, and if he said he was going to kill you, he would definitely make sure of it.


    The sorceress frowned. ¡°We don¡¯t care to associate ourselves with theckeys of those sorcerer ns. Don¡¯t confuse us with them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stopped talking and started pondering. Could there be two types of bounty hunters? Melgor had not mentioned this before.


    ¡°What¡¯s the difference between you and them?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked puzzledly. He really was very confused.


    ¡°They work for money, while we have our own beliefs.¡± The sorceress said coldly, ¡°What does a sorcerer¡¯sckey like you know? Is this the first time you¡¯ve heard about such things? Why are you pretending to be innocent?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought this was the first time he had been scolded for acting innocent. He wanted to hit someone.


    ¡°Yall¡¯re just bounty hunters, so why¡¯re you acting all high and mighty? You even im that they¡¯re doing this for money while you¡¯re doing it for your beliefs?¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°Whatcha believe in? Making money?¡±


    ¡°Yes, making money,¡± the sorceress answered.


    Ren Xiaosu was left speechless.


    He thought to himself, ¡®You¡¯ve got quite practical beliefs then¡­


    The sorceress added, ¡°But we never take money from sorcerers. Allmon folk can hire us to exterminate evil for the price of a copper coin! How can ackey like you understand the saying that only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was really stunned this time. It was not because the other party had talked about exterminating evil. Actually, Ren Xiaosu was not particrly interested in such chivalrous people, because he had seen organizations and people who carried out evil deeds under the guise of doing good.


    However, he had heard of the saying ¡°only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal¡± before!


    Qin Sheng had said it before, Zhang Qingxi had said it before, and Li Yinglong had also said it before. It was the maxim of the Riders.


    He was just thinking of searching for the offshoot of the Riders organization in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, and now, he actually heard a phrase rted to them being uttered. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu knew very well the sorceress was probably trying to stall for time when she felt she could not defeat him. Otherwise, with her cautious style, why would she suddenly converse with him so much for no reason?


    However, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t really care. Whether his opponent was waiting for reinforcements or had some other trick up her sleeve, he still had to ask her a few more questions. ¡°Rider? Ren He?¡±


    The sorceress frowned. ¡°What are you rambling on about? Sheeple? Rider? Is there something wrong with your head?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled to himself. He wondered if it was just a coincidence the other party had uttered that phrase, and that she might really have nothing to do with the Riders.


    However, Ren Xiaosu could not make any conclusions on that. He had to probe further.


    ¡°Y¡¯know, if you weren¡¯t trying to kill Melgor, what did you sneak into his Sorcerer¡¯s Tower for?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you went up there for the view? If you really wanted to enjoy the view, you could¡¯ve just gone to the cathedral next door. That building is even taller.¡±


    ¡°Lonly wanted to retrieve a book from his ce.¡± The sorceress said calmly, ¡°If you hadn¡¯t appeared, I would¡¯ve left after taking the book. It wouldn¡¯t have be so troublesome in the first ce.¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°You went to steal a book? Are you saying that others can¡¯t interfere when you¡¯


    e and steal it now? What? You find it more exciting to steal books when there¡¯s people around?¡±


    the one who¡¯s trying to steal a book? How overbearing of you! And who do you think you¡¯re fooling with that excuse? Y¡¯all didn¡¯te and steal the book in all the years that Melgor has been away, so why


    ¡°None of your business,¡± the sorceress said.


    ¡°Since you¡¯re not here to kill Melgor, tell me which book you were searching for. Maybe I can make a decision and give it to you. That way, we can turn this hostility into friendship,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Hehe, do you think I¡¯m stupid?¡± the sorceress sneered.


    After that, a huge cloud of dust suddenly appeared under Ren Xiaosu¡¯s feet and quickly enveloped his entire body!


    In that instant, the nanomachines, the little cuties, that were surging in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bloodstream instantly formed armor around him.


    But even so, Ren Xiaosu was startled. The other party clearly wasn¡¯t holding the Eye of True Sight in her hand just now, and neither had he noticed any of her aplices approaching.


    As Ren Xiaosu was enveloped by the smokescreen, the sorceress tuned around to continue fleeing. But right as she turned around, she saw Old Xu standing emotionlessly behind her.


    ¡°Ah!¡± The sorceress was shocked by the white mask Old Xu was wearing!


    To be honest, it was quite scary to suddenly see a white mask with an ambiguous smile when turning around in the middle of the night.


    When the smokescreen almost dissipated, Ren Xiaosu deactivated his armor and sneered, ¡°You wanna flee? Not so fast!¡±


    As the futuremander of the Northwest, the Stronghold Destroyer, and the one in charge of the Prosperous Northwest n, he had nearly fallen for the tricks of a sorceress. Ren Xiaosu could not stand this injustice!


    ¡®When the sorceress saw her path was blocked, she turned around and said to Ren Xiaosu in seriousness, ¡°This is actually a misunderstanding.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood calmly in ce with his arms folded. His hand hidden in his sleeve was already holding his ck Eye of True Sight. He said with a smile, ¡°Do you think I believe you¡±


    But just as his words trailed off, several arrows suddenly shot out from the shadows not far away from where the two of them were standing. They were apanied by a sharp whooshing sound!


    The dozen or so crossbow bolts flew in from seven different directions and were aimed at both Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu.


    Before the arrows could even get close to Ren Xiaosu, he had already jumped backward out of their way. Meanwhile, Old Xu handled it even more domineeringly. It simply crushed the iing arrows one by one.


    When Ren Xiaosu regained his bnce, he saw that the sorceress had disappeared.


    ¡°can let you go, but you better not disappoint me.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked towards a certain direction in the dark and muttered, ¡°Bring the news to yourpanions. I hope yall will voluntarilye look for me someday¡­¡±


    #

 Chapter 1103: Bounty hunters and sorcerers

    <h4>Chapter 1103: Bounty hunters and sorcerers</h4>


    Trantor: Legge


    If Ren Xiaosu really wanted to kill the other party, he was totally capable of doing so. It might get very intense during the battle, but as long as Ren Xiaosu went all out, how could they possibly escape his clutches with just the few of them?


    Did they really consider the Stronghold Destroyer a pushover?


    However, Ren Xiaosu still had some doubts regarding what the sorceress said. What if she had only denied it to conceal her identity as a Rider?


    Or perhaps she was not aware of the inside scoop but others in the organization might be?


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu was willing to let her go and wait for her to ry the news to her colleagues. He believed that after the young sorceress went back, someone would definitely ask her about what happened, and she would definitely voice her doubts.


    Of course, there could also be another possibility. She might really have been sent here by the Tudor family.


    But Ren Xiaosu was not afraid of that oue either. As long as the entire magus order did not band together tounch an attack on him, he could just leave the Kingdom of Sorcerers on the steam lotive. After that, he would just bring Zhou Yingxue and the others back over to raze the Tu-Manor to


    the ground.


    Right now, even if the enemy suspected him, they would just send some cannon fodder to deal with him. Was dealing with a trivial matter like that worth the time of those revered archmages?


    Although the battle tonight was fierce, it wasn¡¯t that intense. Ren Xiaosu was sure of his judgment.


    At this moment, there was an uproar in Yorktown. The owner of the stable that got burned down by the young sorceress was seemingly from a rich family. He was organizing a group of people to help put out the fire and assembling another group to go after the arsonist.


    Judging by their actions, they had also discovered the figures flitting across the roofs earlier. Therefore, they concluded someone must have maliciously started the fire.


    Ren Xiaosu did not want to get involved in this mess, so he simply made a detour on top of the roofs and went back to the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. He initially thought Melgor would be awoken by such a loudmotion, but that guy actually slept through it all!


    After more than two years of reconnaissance work in another country and getting plunged into that pathetic escape on their return, Melgor was beyond exhausted.


    The next morning, Melgor suddenly ran over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room and banged on his door. ¡°Something terrible has happened!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu reluctantly got up and opened the door. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Did you hear the tumult that went on in the cityst night?¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°No, I was too tired, so I slept very soundly. What happened?¡± Ren Xiaosu said sleepily.


    ¡°Not unexpected,¡± Melgor muttered. ¡°I didn¡¯t notice it at all either. But I have to warn you: Please be very careful these days. They¡¯reing for us!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. ¡°What¡¯s going on? I thought you didn¡¯t notice anything?¡±


    ¡°But some people saw an arsonist.¡± Melgor said, ¡°When I summoned witnesses over to be questioned this morning, they said some people saw a person in a white mask leaping across the roofs. Everyone¡¯s now saying that was the arsonist!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Melgor continued, ¡°Do you remember what happened on our way back? That sorcerer in the white mask has attacked us so many times!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. He had used Old Xu as a front to mislead Melgor. But now, he had gotten himself into trouble for that. He wondered how Melgor would react if he saw Old Xu in the future.


    But what was certain was that he most probably contributed to Xu Xianchu¡¯s ck cauldron growing bigger again.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Is it possible that someone else was responsible for the fire?¡±


    Melgor said firmly, ¡°It must be him! He must be the one who cast me Pir at me too! He¡¯s sent by the Tudor family!¡±


    Alright, Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®If you say so¡­


    Melgor added, ¡°He must¡¯ve been discovered while on the way to kill me, so he set the stable on fire to distract everyone while he made his escape. I think he¡¯ll definitely be back. You have to be careful.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, alright, I¡¯ll be careful,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied.


    ¡°Why do I get the feeling that you aren¡¯t taking me seriously? I¡¯m just worried he¡¯ll try to kill you. Are you not afraid of death?¡± Melgor said anxiously. With such a powerful sorcerer trying to ambush them, they might really die if they weren¡¯t careful!


    Ren Xiaosu changed the topic. ¡°By the way, do you have any particrly valuable books here in your collection?¡±


    Melgor was taken aback. ¡°Er, no.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if stealing a book was just that young sorceress¡¯s excuse, so he asked again, ¡°Then do you have any books that are more notable? Such as books with a long history? Or something that carries special significance to you?¡±


    Melgor was stunned again. ¡°How¡¯d you know?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Quick, bring it here and let me read them!¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea,¡± Melgor said hesitantly.


    ¡°Why not? I¡¯m your steward. What¡¯s wrong with me having a look at your books?¡± Ren Xiaosu said unhappily, ¡°I still have to help win your childhood sweetheart back!¡±


    Melgor mulled over it for a long time. In the end, he went back to his bedroom and took out a metallic box, which he handed over to Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath before opening it.


    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Of course.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Why? You asked whether I had any books that were precious. This one carries special significance to me.¡±


    ¡°But I didn¡¯t say that I wanted to read the love letters between you and your childhood sweetheart, did I? Is there something wrong with your head?¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt helpless. How on earth did this guy be a sorcerer?


    But upon further thought, could any secrets be hidden within these love letters? For example, something his sweetheart wanted to reveal to Melgor but regretted now, so she had someone try to retrieve these love letters for her.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu endured the mushiness and read over 20 love letter exchanges. In the end, Ren Xiaosu looked up in shock. ¡°How old were you when you wrote these?¡±


    ¡°Nine,¡± Melgor answered matter-of-factly.


    Ren Xiaosu stuffed the metallic box back into Melgor¡¯s arms. It was no wonder those two were discussing in the letters if they should secretly go and catch frogs the next day.


    Catch frogs? Fuck off! You started developing feelings for someone when you were just nine? Do you have any morals?


    ¡°Are there really no other books that¡¯re more notable?¡± Ren Xiaosu was unable to ept it.


    ¡°There really aren¡¯t any,¡± Melgor said.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu could confirm the young sorceress was actually lying to him. But since she was not here to steal a book, what else could she be doing here? Steal a peek at Melgor while he was taking a bath?!


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Melgor was not as attractive as that!


    ¡°Then let me ask you.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°Are there different kinds of bounty hunters?¡±


    Curious, Melgor asked, ¡°Why are you suddenly asking about this?¡±


    ¡°Just a random question,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Yes, the past bounty hunters were a little different. Actually, bounty hunters started off performing chivalrous deeds initially and often robbed the rich to help the poor.¡± Melgor said, ¡°The magus order tried to exterminate them on several asions. Although they managed to kill some of them, other


    bounty hunters remained hidden in the shadows and continued performing chivalrous acts. Their whereabouts were extremely secretive, and they gradually gained the admiration of the residents who started saying that not even gods could kill them.¡±


    ¡°What happened after that?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    Melgor said, ¡°Then the Magi had some of their people pose as bounty hunters to carry out nasty acts. After that, they hyped those atrocities up so much the residents immediately lost trust in the bounty hunters.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Disregarding everything else, the magus order was really good at ying politics!


    #

 Chapter 1104 - Poisoning

    <h4>Chapter 1104: Poisoning</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Ineed to know what exactly these chivalrous bounty hunters have done and how they were framed,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Actually, the upper ss knew full well that those bounty hunters were truly chivalrous.¡± Melgor said with augh, ¡°At that time, many children dreamed of growing up to be chivalrous heroes like them. Some of them made shoddy crossbows out of wood for themselves and tied them on their arms.¡±


    ¡°Did you try that as well?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°Why would you tie a crossbow on your arm? To shoot frogs?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped.


    Melgor was speechless.


    Melgor said with a dark expression, ¡°You came to me asking for books with a special significance, and I¡¯ve even taken out my scrapbook of love letters for you, yet you¡¯re talking to me with that attitude? Do you think people show their love letters to others so easily? I¡¯ve already shown it to you, yet here


    you are grumbling about it!¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright, continue with what you were saying,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You tied a crossbow on your arm, everyone admired them very much, and then?¡±


    ¡°And then, the bounty hunters raided an archmage¡¯s n in the secr world in the dark of the night.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Actually, themon folk don¡¯t know about this. If my family weren¡¯t a reputable n in Ghent City back then, I wouldn¡¯t have known about it either.¡±


    ¡°Raided a sorcerer n? They actually dared to do that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, ¡°Didn¡¯t the sorcerer n put up a fight?¡±


    ¡°No, how could the House of Voss have expected that anyone would dare to attack them? You have to know that even if the Voss family weren¡¯t in the top five ns in the Kingdom of Sorcerers at that time, they were still among the ten most powerful ns. They were a true behemoth,¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°So how much money did the bounty hunters steal?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Was it so much that the sorcerers needed to tarnish the bounty hunters¡¯ reputation like this?¡±


    ¡°Money isn¡¯t important to those sorcerer ns since they have plenty of it.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Moreover, it isn¡¯t easy to carry off valuables like gold. They stole 21 Eyes of True Sight, including a gold one.¡±


    ¡°Such a big heist?¡± Ren Xiaosu gasped. He could even imagine how furious the Voss family must have been. ¡°However, 21 Eyes of True Sight would mean that they had to deal with 21 sorcerers. How did they pull it off? Were there any powerful individuals among those bounty hunters?¡±


    ¡°No, they didn¡¯t take the sorcerers head on.¡± Melgor shook his head. ¡°Rumor has it that someone infiltrated their servant ranks for two years and found an opportunity toce the food at a n gathering. Hundreds of people were poisoned to death in that incident.¡±


    ¡°I think they weren¡¯t there just for the stones. There was probably immense hatred between them as well.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Is the Voss family still around now?¡±


    ¡°Yes, arge n like them has many members. For example, the House of Tudor probably has several thousand members. The current monarch of the Tudor family has 71 children. As for the Voss family, the n authority no longer rests with the main household. During an internal power struggle, one


    of the anciry branches inherited all that authority.¡±


    ¡°Was that why the Magi could no longer tolerate the bounty hunters and started to exterminate them?¡±


    Melgor nodded. ¡°Mhm, but they were unsessful even after many attempts. Those bounty hunters are really good at hiding their tracks. They blend in among the residents, so you don¡¯t even know who¡¯s a bounty hunter.¡± Melgor shrugged and said, ¡°And when they gained their reputation for being


    unkible even by the gods, the Magi started ndering them, causing them to lose their reputation.¡±


    Melgor continued, ¡°From then on, the residents no longer trusted them. Some of the bounty hunters were betrayed by the people while others went even deeper into hiding. In more recent years, there¡¯s asional activity from the bounty hunters, but it¡¯s rare. If you hadn¡¯t mentioned it, ¡®d¡¯ve even


    thought they had ceased to exist.¡±


    ¡°The residents are way too gullible.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    But after hearing what he said, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s impression of that young sorceress and the organization backing her changed.


    It was not that he admired their attitude, but that he would have to be careful of being poisoned in the future!


    If that sorceress were unrted to Ren He, he would have offended her deeplyst night. He really was not afraid of getting in a fight, but he did not know whether he could survive being poisoned.


    After all, some types of poison were so lethal that just five grams would be enough to kill a person!


    In the moming, the sheeple returned to the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower and resumed their role as Melgor¡¯s servants after just one night of rest.


    Ren Xiaosu initially thought the sons of such influential families would rest for a few more days beforeing back. Actually, Melgor would not mind taking a few more days of rest either. After all, everyone was exhausted.


    This time, the two servants came back together with the heads of their respective ns, Li Chengguo¡¯s father and Liu Ting¡¯s father.


    Ren Xiaosu gave a half-smile to the two servants in the main hall of the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. After they came in, the fathers of Li Chengguo and Liu Ting realized their sons did not pay respects to Lord Melgor first but ran over to greet this unfamiliar young man instead.


    The heads of the Li and Liu ns looked at each other, unsure of what was going on.


    However, the two of them could not be rude. After entering the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower, they went over to Melgor and knelt on one knee. ¡°Your Excellency Lord Melgor, how have you been? Please forgive us for noting by immediately yesterday. We thought you also needed some time to rest and reorganize.¡±


    Although Melgor was a sweet idiot in private, he still held hisposure when facing outsiders. ¡°Mhm, you may rise. You two are rather considerate, but I wonder, what¡¯s the purpose of your visit today?¡±


    ¡®When the heads of the Li and Liu ns got up, the head of the Li n said, ¡°I heard from my son that Lord Melgor intends to head to Ghent City soon and will be assisting him in buying an Eye of True Sight?¡±


    Melgor nodded. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what I n. Li Chengguo and Liu Ting have worked hard and performed outstandingly for the past two years. I was moved by their drive, so I decided to grant their wishes as soon as possible.¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting looked over with gratitude. Just as they had said, there was also rivalry within their own ns, so they needed to maintain theirpetitiveness in the face of their siblings¡¯ jealousy.


    Now that Melgor was heaping praise on them, it would help push their standing a little more.


    However, Ren Xiaosu nearlyughed out loud. What outstanding performance? Did they eat more grass than other sheep? But he definitely would not say that at this time. After all, it would directly affect the two servants¡¯ personal interests.


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were most worried that Ren Xiaosu would start spouting nonsense at this moment. Fortunately, they were able to put their minds at ease when they observed his expression and realized that he didn¡¯t intend to spoil their party.


    The head of the Li n said, ¡°To express our gratitude for Lord Melgor, our ns are willing to pay in advance 5,000 gold coins each as a reward. If the purchase of the Eye of True Sight does not work out, we won¡¯t ask for a refund either. This is to show our sincerity. However, we hope that Lord Melgor


    can set off as soon as possible..¡±

 Chapter 1105 - A different approach

    <h4>Chapter 1105: A different approach</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    The Li and Liu ns controlled the local salt and cotton trades, respectively. In terms of status, the Li n, who controlled the salt trade, was more influential. Ren Xiaosu could also tell that Liu Ting¡¯s father was actually more like the subordinate among the two and that these two families should be


    closely rted.


    These two ns had suddenly approached Melgor to suggest moving up their departure date to Ghent City. The change of ns was probably not just motivated by their haste to train a sorcerer in the n.


    After Li Chengguo and Liu Ting went back home, they must have talked to their ns about the ambush they encountered on the way back, as well as the personal feud between Melgor and the Tudor family.


    Now that a small fire had broken out in Yorktown, it was reported by many people that someone in a white mask was responsible for the fire. Melgor felt that ¡°Old Xu¡± was here to kill him, and Li Chengguo and Liu Ting definitely thought so as well.


    Therefore, the Li and Liu ns hurriedly came over to urge Melgor to set off for Ghent City. This was because they were worried that Melgor, the tool they engaged to assist their sons in getting the Eye of True Sight, would get killed before they could buy it.


    At this moment, Li Chengguo¡¯s father said to Melgor, ¡°Lord Melgor, I also know you encountered some trouble and might be worried for your safety during the journey, but you don¡¯t have to worry about that. We¡¯ll send people to protect you during the trip.¡±


    After hearing this, Ren Xiaosu was sure his judgment was correct.


    But were the Li and Liu ns that determined? They knew the Tudor family wanted Melgor killed, so why did they send their people to protect him?


    Melgor was also a little puzzled. ¡°How will I be protected?¡±


    ¡°The York County Chamber of Commerce has just organized an expedition for a trade caravan to travel north to Ghent City to procure gold and silver wares.¡± Liu Ting¡¯s father said, ¡°The caravan is veryrge, with several hundred people traveling together. The guards we¡¯ve arranged for have already


    infiltrated the group and will be protecting Lord Melgor in secret.¡±


    The Tudor family was way too influential in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Therefore, if local gentry like the Li and Liu ns wanted to protect Melgor, they would have to do so discreetly.


    Melgor thought for a moment and said, ¡°When would you like me to leave?¡±


    ¡°Why not now?¡± Li Chengguo¡¯s father suggested. ¡°The trade caravan has already assembled north of York County. They were supposed to leave this morning, but I got them to wait for you, Lord Melgor.¡±


    Melgor felt helpless. From the look of things, Li Chengguo¡¯s father was truly worried that something bad would happen. He was actually hoping Melgor would set off immediately.


    He thought for a moment and said, ¡°Alright, let me get packed, then we can set off.¡±


    After that, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting¡¯s father bade farewell in satisfaction.


    The sheeple stayed behind and were immediately ordered by Ren Xiaosu to do the packing. He did not want them to overhear his conversation with Melgor.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°You agreed to their request just like that? Where¡¯s your dignity as a sorcerer? They¡¯re obviously using you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a little different when ites to the local aristocrats. Although they might appear very respectful, that respect is to the magus order backing me, not me,¡± Melgor said helplessly. ¡°Although York County has been conferred to me as my fief, the true lords of the six counties in the south are¡­ the


    House of Berkeley.¡±


    ¡°Is that also a sorcerer n?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Melgor nodded and said, ¡°The Berkeley family is also a certain archmage¡¯s basis of power in the secr world. It¡¯s just that their authority isn¡¯t as extensive as the Tudors since they only possess a gold Eye of True Sight. In fact, the Li and Liu ns are both under themand of Duke


    Berkeley. It¡¯s just that they aren¡¯t of high standing.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu understood now. So the Li and Liu ns were just considered fringe figures of the Berkeley family¡¯s influence and were now seeking to be recognized by the system. As such, they were trying to raise sorcerers in their families to raise their statuses. As long as their families produced


    sorcerers, Duke Berkeley would view them in a different light and give them more benefits.


    ¡®The Kingdom of Sorcerers was a ce where only sorcerers were qualified to be the true upper ss.


    ¡®The Li and Liu ns were trying to earn this status so they could boost the standing of their own ns.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think we need to leave right away. It¡¯s too hasty.¡±


    ¡°Forget it, there¡¯s no need to harp on this.¡± Melgor said with a bitter smile, ¡°Since I¡¯ve already epted their money, let¡¯s just do it for them.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless. He was nning to stay around and wait for that young sorceress¡¯s aplices to show up.


    But on second thought, with the capabilities of those bounty hunters, it would not be difficult for them to find him even if he had already set off for Ghent City.


    ¡°Do you have anything to pack?¡± Melgor asked. ¡°I don¡¯t really have much to bring, so I¡¯ll just take a few books and read them along the way.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have much to bring either.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯ll also pick a few books.¡±


    ¡°By the way, is the Introduction to Sorcery still with you?¡± Melgor suddenly asked. ¡°Don¡¯t read that for now. It¡¯s quite heavy to bring along.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu froze at the mention. Wait, could the book the sorceress was trying to steal be the Introduction to Sorcery he was holding?


    Ren Xiaosu had scoffed at the idea the intruder hade here to steal a book. After all, Melgor had been away from his Sorcerer¡¯s Tower for over two years, so of all times, why did they choose to steal it when Melgor came back? Who were they fooling?


    However, if the other party were trying to steal the Introduction to Sorcery, it would make sense. Because Melgor had taken that book with him to the Central ins, they could only retrieve it after Melgor returned.


    Ren Xiaosu told Melgor, ¡°I think I¡¯ll bring the Introduction to Sorcery with me. find it quite an interesting read.¡±


    Melgor gave Ren Xiaosu a strange look. ¡°There¡¯s no need to put on that strong front. Everyone knows the Introduction to Sorcery has no practical content in it. Even if you don¡¯t read it, no one will make fun of you.¡±


    ¡°But I really find it quite interesting,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Well, whatever makes you happy¡­¡±


    The sheeple brought Melgor¡¯s clothes down and joined up with Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Lord Melgor, the maids have packed your belongings. We can set off now.¡±


    Melgor looked at them. ¡°It¡¯s been tough on you two so far. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll take you both to the ck market once we get to Ghent City.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for helping us, Lord Melgor.¡± Li Chengguo chuckled and said, ¡°By the way, can you teach us thenguage of the Magi along the way? That way, if we get our hands on an Eye of True Sight in Ghent City, we can start practicing sorcery immediately.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± Melgor nodded. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You can also learn together with them.¡±


    ¡°Me?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Forget about me. You can just teach them.¡±


    Melgor was stunned. ¡°You don¡¯t want to learn? Weren¡¯t you quite eager to learn it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s too difficult, so I don¡¯t want to learn it anymore,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He had carefully considered the higher level spells would still have to be paired with meditative visualization diagrams if he chose to cast them in thenguage of the Magi. However, the meditative visualization diagrams were firmly


    controlled by the sorcerer ns and were too troublesome to obtain.


    Now that he could cast spells in Chinese, which did not even require meditative visualization diagrams to do so, why would he put in so much effort to learn a newnguage? Although it was a little troublesome topile the Chinese spell incantations, he would only need to rely on himself and wouldn¡¯t


    be constrained by external factors.


    Next to them, Liu Ting muttered, ¡°So it turns out he was just pretending to be enthusiastic. No wonder he used to be a lowly servant in the Central ins..¡±

 Chapter 1106 - Knight commander

    <h4>Chapter 1106: Knightmander</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Don¡¯t you want to be a sorcerer?¡± Melgor was puzzled. ¡°If you don¡¯t learn thenguage of the Magi, how are you going to be one?¡±


    ¡°Just as yall¡¯ve said, it ain¡¯t easy to buy an Eye of True Sight. Besides, I don¡¯t have any money.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°So even if I can save up to buy one, I don¡¯t know how long that will take. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to learn, but that I n to learn slowly. I¡¯m not in a rush like the sheeple. You can teach them


    first while I listen in on their lessons.¡±


    ¡°But what if you suddenly get the chance to be a sorcerer someday? Wouldn¡¯t it be very awkward if you don¡¯t know thenguage of the Magi?¡± Melgor was a little disappointed. ¡°And I thought you were enthusiastic about learning.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no rush, I¡¯ll read up first and gain a better understanding of what sorcerers are really about,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    He could not exin to Melgor that he had found another way to cast spells, so he did not need to learn the Magi¡¯s tongue anymore.


    After all, if someone had stolen an Eye of True Sight and even secretly developed Chinese incantations, that would indeed be a huge problem for the entire magus order.


    The sorcerers regarded the Magi¡¯s tongue as thenguage of the gods and said their divine power could only be wielded if one could speak it. But in the end, they got bitch-pped by Ren Xiaosu.


    As such, the prideful sorcerers would definitelye after him if they knew!


    Speaking of which, others from the Central ins should have obtained an Eye of True Sight before, right? Why didn¡¯t they manage to figure out how to cast Chinese spells? Was it because they were not polite enough to the enemy?


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu also had to admit the way he discovered Chinese incantations was way too unorthodox.


    He would definitely still learn thenguage of the Magi. But based on the current circumstances, that was not his priority. Therefore, he would only learn whenever it was convenient, mainly so he would know if others were cursing him in thenguage!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. When he was chasing after that young sorceressst night, she had used a smokescreen to hinder his pursuit. At that time, the sorceress was not holding the Eye of True Sight in her hand, so could it mean she had a way to cast spells without it?


    If such a method truly existed, that would really be great. He would not even have to use the Eye of True Sight or recite any incantations, and no sorcerer could guard against him.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu nearlyughed aloud.


    Nearby, Liu Ting muttered to Li Chengguo, ¡°I told you he was pretending, but you didn¡¯t believe me.¡±


    Li Chengguo had said he would give an Eye of True Sight to Ren Xiaosu if he managed to get an extra one. But he did not talk about it anymore. When they were escaping, they felt like they could go through thick and thin together. But after calming down, Li Chengguo understood he could not make such


    an important decision on his own.


    The atmosphere turned heavy. Li Chengguo was about to say something, but he got stopped by Liu Ting.


    All of a sudden, Melgor said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I know you might¡¯ve lost your confidence and feel that you can¡¯t get your hands on an Eye of True Sight. How about this? Since you¡¯ve saved my life, I¡¯ll cut open a stone for you this time. Regardless of whether you can get an Eye of True Sight or not, consider it


    as me repaying the favor.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Cut open one for me? How?¡±


    ¡°The price for each stone cutting is 10,000 gold coins. This time, the Li and Liu ns have each sent over 5,000 gold coins as additional payment.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Without you, I couldn¡¯t have gotten back to York County alive. So I¡¯ll use these 10,000 gold coins to cut open a stone for you one time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was moved. He was really touched. There really were not many sweet idiots like Melgor these days!


    ¡°I¡¯s decided then.¡± Melgor took a deep breath and said, ¡°This journey to Ghent City will definitely not be peaceful. Everyone, be careful. Let¡¯s set off!¡±


    Their mode of transportation for this trip was a horse-drawn carriage. In the carriage were even snacks and sweetmeats prepared by the maids for Melgor, while the books were all ced in boxes and stored in the back.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little unused to this. He somehow felt very awkward and bored with the four of them cramped inside the carriage.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu simply got a horse and rode on it alone.


    They passed through the city and headed north. After joining up with the trade caravan, Melgor took some time to meet with each merchant and epted their gifts before leaving the city in a grandiose manner. The entire entourage numbered nearly a 1,000 people.


    There were ox carts and horse-drawn carriages in the trade caravan as well. The entire group was extremelyrge and they stretched out for about a kilometer.


    There were men and women, old and young, in the group, and a quarter of them were not merchants.


    Some of the young people who came along wanted to strike out on their own in the big cities and towns. York County was too small, so it was not in line with their expectations of what prosperity should be like.


    The young people wereughing and chatting in the group. They were all filled with anticipation of what the big cities and towns could offer and the dreams they had.


    ¡®There were also some travelers heading to other counties to visit their rtives or to emigrate there.


    With so many people gathered together, it was an extraordinarily lively sight to behold.


    Based on the n, it would take them a month to reach Ghent City to the north. In the afternoon, a knight from the trade caravan suddenly approached Melgor¡¯s carriage.


    He said to Melgor through the curtain of the carriage, ¡°Lord Melgor, I¡¯m the knightmander in charge of protecting you this time. My name is Mox.¡±


    Melgor lifted the curtain and asked, ¡°Are you from the Li n?¡±


    The knightmander, Mox, said in a low voice, ¡°Yes, there¡¯s a total of 36 of us in the caravan. If you need anything, feel free to look for me. If we discover any suspicious people approaching you, we¡¯ll intervene on time. The guards will be divided into three shifts to ensure that you¡¯re protected at all


    times.¡±


    Melgor nodded. ¡°Thank you. By the way, if you guys need anything, you can alsomunicate with my steward, Ren Xiaosu. He¡¯s in charge of my schedule.¡±


    Although guards had been assigned to protect him, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s alertness had left a deep impression on Melgor.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu came over. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    Mox said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Nice to meet you, sir. I¡¯m the knightmander of the escort detail this time. Please work together with our n and remind Lord Melgor not to leave the group on his own.¡±


    ¡°Oh, OK,¡± Ren Xiaosu said offhandedly.


    ¡®When Mox saw that Ren Xiaosu did not seem like he was particrly concerned, he repeated, ¡°We¡¯ve already drafted a rather meticulous protection n. I hope you won¡¯t disrupt our work. You might be quite skilled inbat, but don¡¯t act rashly if you encounter any suspicious people. Some of the


    actions you took while escorting Lord Melgor back to York County were actually quite dangerous.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. This was probably something the sheeple had specificallymunicated to their families. It was clear the two of them did not trust him!


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°T¡¯ll definitely work with all yall!¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu ignored Mox. He took out the Introduction to Sorcery and started reading.

 Chapter 1107 - Spying

    <h4>Chapter 1107: Spying</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    As the grandiose group made their way north, some people were looking through the gap in a covered carriage with their gaze locked on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back.


    Ren Xiaosu flipped through his book unsteadily as he rode slowly on his horse. The horses knew to keep with the group, so he did not have to worry it would veer off course.


    Ren Xiaosu quite liked the feeling of the autonomous riding. There was no need for him to control the horse himself, and it would not deviate from the group either.


    In the past, when Luo Lan talked to him about artificial intelligence, he said it had quite a broad application field, with one of them being autonomous driving.


    For example, if someone needed to travel a long distance, they would only need to set a destination after getting in the vehicle. Once that was done, they could just sleep all the way until they arrived.


    Ren Xiaosu thought that even though he did not fully understand what artificial intelligence was, he could still enjoy the feeling of being driven around autonomously.


    As Ren Xiaosu was letting his imagination run wild, he seemed wholly unaware there were people spying on him at the back of the group.


    Someone in that carriage asked softly, ¡°Was he the one who troubled you so much?¡±


    Someone else in the carriage answered in a quiet voice, ¡°Yes, that¡¯s him.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure he¡¯s not a sorcerer?¡± someone asked. ¡°We calcted the route and speed of your escapest night. If he were just a normal person, he couldn¡¯t have caught up to you without the aid of sorcery.¡±


    ¡°Ican¡¯t be sure he¡¯s a sorcerer, but what I can be sure of is that he did not cast any spells during the pursuit,¡± the young sorceress answered.


    ¡°That¡¯s a little strange then. Could that person have been born with superior physical fitnesspared to normal people?¡± someone wondered.


    ¡°I think so. I saw him leap a dozen meters with my own eyes while I was escaping. Normal people don¡¯t have such fitness. We¡¯ve also tested it out before. Without spell enhancement, eight to nine meters is probably the limit for us,¡± the young sorceress replied. ¡°So we have to be more careful than usual.¡±


    ¡°He should count himself unlucky. We were already leaving under the guise of the trade caravan, but they came knocking on our door,¡± another person said in a low voice.


    Based on what he just said, this group of bounty hunters had given up on the mission and were nning to return north.


    But coincidentally, Melgor and his band suddenly joined up with the trade caravan.


    ¡°By the way, didn¡¯t you say there was another person in a white mask? Can you identify him from his physique?¡± someone asked.


    ¡°No. White Mask¡¯s physique is simr to this young man¡¯s, but I can¡¯t confirm who it is,¡± the young sorceress answered. ¡°When I was trying to escape, White Mask¡¯s presence was crushing. I found him utterly terrifying. If you guys hadn¡¯t arrived in time, I¡¯d probably have died there.¡±


    ¡°Wait, could White Mask be Melgor?¡± someone asked. ¡°It feels to me that Melgor¡¯s height and physique seem to fit the criteria quite well.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡± The young sorceress thought back and said, ¡°But why would he need to put on a mask?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was entirely unaware of how much more trouble White Mask would cause. Melgor, Liu Ting, and Li Chengguo believed White Mask was the assassin, while the young sorceress thought Melgor was White Mask.


    What a mess!


    Ren Xiaosu sat on his horse and paged through the Introduction to Sorcery in an attempt to find any information of value.


    After the Introduction to Sorcery was edited, the contents of the book had be shambles. Many of the things written did not seem to fit together and baffled the reader.


    It was no wonder Melgor and the others did not want to read it. There really was not much value in reading this book.


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were still memorizing vocabry in the carriage. When Ren Xiaosu got bored of reading, he put down the Introduction to Sorcery and spurred his horse towards the front of the traveling caravan.


    As Ren Xiaosu moved forward, he scrutinized everyone he could see. This was mainly to check if there were any suspicious people in the caravan.


    Before he could go far, the knightmander, Mox, approached him and said, ¡°Sir, you shouldn¡¯t move about as you please. If there¡¯s an assassin hiding in the caravan, you might get put in danger.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I know what I¡¯m doing.¡± Ren Xiaosu answered in seriousness, ¡°They can¡¯t hurt me.¡±


    Merckx was speechless. After Ren Xiaosu left, one of his subordinates came over and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to worry about him. Our mission is to protect Lord Melgor, anyway, so it¡¯s not our business if anything untoward happens to that kid.¡±


    ¡°True.¡± Mox sighed and said, ¡°Let¡¯s ignore him then. Remember to stay vignt.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    Before long, Ren Xiaosu came back from his stroll of the front of the trade caravan. This time, he rode his horse towards the back of the group.


    When he passed by a certain carriage, he found it a little strange.


    It was the end of May, and the scorching sun hanging overhead was shining so fiercely it felt like you could even smell your own hair burning. Almost all the carriages had lifted their curtains to keep the air flowing.


    But the strange thing about this carriage was that the windows were firmly blocked by the curtains, while the curtain door was also tied shut.


    There was nothing unusual about the coachman, but weren¡¯t the people on the inside afraid of getting heatstroke?


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu reached out and tried to pull open the window. But before he could do so, someone lifted the curtain from the inside.


    A middle-aged woman had a stunned look on her face when she saw Ren Xiaosu and his outstretched arm. Then she said with a polite smile, ¡°Are you Lord Melgor¡¯s newly recruited steward? I saw you on the streets when you all entered the city. You¡¯re really quite handsome.¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha, that so?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed happily.


    ¡°Is something the matter?¡± the middle-aged woman asked with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu looked through the window and examined what was inside the carriage. He said, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, I was just wondering, don¡¯t you find it hot?¡±


    ¡°Oh, you see, I fell sick a few days ago, and the doctor in town said that I mustn¡¯t catch a chill,¡± the middle-aged woman said with a smile.


    ¡°I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s alright then. I was just a little curious, so don¡¯t worry.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu was about to spur his horse to continue to the back of the trade caravan when the middle-aged woman suddenly said, ¡°Why don¡¯t... would you like to enter the carriage and have a seat, sir? I have some issues I¡¯d like to discuss with you.¡±


    This woman was wearing ayered dress with a plunging neckline andce ruffles on her cor. She had a fairplexion.


    When she saw Ren Xiaosu looking over, the woman even leaned forward a little more. It was as though she was trying to make it easier for his eyes to see her.


    ¡°Ahem, there¡¯s no need for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu clenched his legs around the horse¡¯s rib cage and left quickly.


    From the back, it almost felt like he was fleeing.


    The middle-aged woman giggled. ¡°That¡¯s interesting. He¡¯s different from those sorcerers who look decent but have dirty minds..¡±

 Chapter 1108 - 8 The House of Tudor owes

    <h4>Chapter 1108 The House of Tudor owes</h4>


    ¡°Could he have discovered something?¡± The young sorceress in the carriage asked, ¡°Otherwise, why would he suddenlye and check on our carriage?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s possible.¡± The middle-aged woman had already lowered the curtain. ¡°Based on your description of him, that man should be extremely good inbat. You guys should understand what I¡¯m getting at, right?¡± A person¡¯sbat skills could not be nurtured through training alone. The keen intuition, attention to detail, calm judgment, and so on had to be honed through realbat. ¡°He¡¯s killed before, and it¡¯s not just one or two people either. I would guess he has at least ten kills.¡± A young man in the carriage said, ¡°Of course, ten might be a little much.¡±


    The young sorceress said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s realistic that he¡¯s killed ten people before, but I agree with Aunt¡¯s judgment. It¡¯s still very possible that he has four or five kills.¡±


    The three of them started discussing how many people Ren Xiaosu had killed before while staying hidden in the carriage. In fact, if Ren Xiaosu told them the true number, they would definitely think he was bullshitting! But actually, for the Great Hoodwinker and the others who were aware their futuremander had already begun the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n, they were wondering if they were being too ruthless to the Magi by sending him to deal with them.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s status in the Central ins waspletely different from his status in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. The Kingdom of Sorcerers was so self-sufficient and extremely arrogant that they did not even bother sending spies to the Central ins to gather intel.


    In the eyes of the Magi, Fortress 178, which they had devastated over the years, and the territory behind it did not have the ability to conquer theirnds at all. It was good enough they could survive under the intimidation of their sorcerers.


    Therefore, due to the policies of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, it was not a big deal even if Ren Xiaosu openly used his real name here. Instead, it made it even more convenient for the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents to meet up with him.


    Based on what the Great Hoodwinker had said, the Northwest had already sent at least a 100 spies here over the years. Furthermore, not only did the Kingdom of Sorcerers not send any spies to the enemy¡¯s territory, but they were also extremely unfamiliar with how to clear them out from their own territory.


    In some of the residences of the spies, they did not even need to deliberately hide their radio sets. It was very safe to just shove them under their beds.


    Many of the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents were already aware the futuremander was in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, but they did not know his exact whereabouts.


    At this moment, the middle-aged woman took out her red Eye of True Sight and started casting another spell. The inside of the carriage quickly cooled. She said to the young man in the carriage, ¡°Little Cheng, it¡¯s no longer suitable for An¡¯an and me to go outside. That person is extremely alert. Although Little An¡¯s face was obscuredst night, we can¡¯t be sure he won¡¯t recognize her figure. So you should go outside often after we set up camp tonight and keep a close eye on that young man.¡±


    The young man whom she called Little Cheng nodded and said, ¡°Alright, Aunt, you and Sis can stay in the carriage while I check on the situation tonight.¡±


    ¡°By the way, Aunt.¡± The young sorceress, An¡¯an, said, ¡°He suddenly mentioned some strange wordsst night.¡±


    ¡°What words?¡± the middle-aged woman asked curiously.


    ¡°Riders? Ren He?¡± An¡¯an recalled. ¡°I think it was just those three words. I thought he might¡¯ve been referring to the knights, but those can be found all over the street, so I feel like he meant it as an organization?¡±


    The middle-aged woman was stunned. ¡°Wait, I think I heard your father mention Ren He before, but my memory¡¯s vague. I can¡¯t confirm whether what that kid said were the same words as what I¡¯ve heard. As for the term ¡®riders¡¯¡­ I have no idea about that.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± An¡¯an nodded. ¡°He might¡¯ve gotten the wrong person then. By the way, where did Father go?¡±


    ¡°Your father is handling something more important. He should be leaving Alpine County right now and will rendezvous with us in Ghent City.¡± The middle-aged woman said, ¡°The others will also be heading to Ghent City together.¡±


    An¡¯an¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Are those elders nning something big?¡± ¡°Why do you ask?¡± the middle-aged woman said with a broad smile.


    ¡°Because so many peoplee together when only something big is about to happen.¡± An¡¯an said excitedly, ¡°I¡¯ve heard about what you guys did in the past. It sounded so exciting!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all very dangerous. You two still cannot participate in the operation.¡± The middle-aged woman shook her head and said with a smile, ¡°Your training isn¡¯tplete, so stop thinking about such things. When you turn 21, I¡¯ll of course lead you two in an assassination of a real sorcerer andplete youring-of-age ceremony.¡± ¡°21¡­¡± An¡¯an muttered unwillingly,¡± But that¡¯s still another three years away.¡±


    Little Cheng asked, ¡°Aunt, why do you say that we have to assassinate a real sorcerer? Won¡¯t Melgor do? I think he¡¯s quite easy to kill.¡±


    ¡°Melgor¡¯s just a poor ol¡¯ sorcerer within the magus order. He was fortunate enough to obtain the Eye of True Sight, but that¡¯s only a tool used by the magus order to amass wealth.¡± The middle-aged woman exined, ¡°In fact, the legacy training Melgor received isn¡¯t even close to the core of sorcery. They don¡¯t teach him the more sophisticated incantations, nor do they bestow unto him any meditative visualization diagrams for the high-level spells. The reason why the magus order sends such sorcerers to the borders to live in luxury is just so that they can tell more people, ¡®Hurry up and buy some stones. You might just get an Eye of True Sight. This is a shortcut for you guys to jump ranks.¡±¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± An¡¯an said.


    ¡°With this method to get out of their miserable lives, the people at the bottom won¡¯t constantly think about toppling this dynasty.¡± The middle-aged woman sighed and said, ¡°But when someone climbs the socialdder, they soon realize this is actually just a system designed by the magus order.¡± ¡°Aunt, why are you guys going to Ghent City this time?¡± An¡¯an asked.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to the House of Tudor to obtain the meditative visualization diagram for the Meteor Shower spell,¡± the woman answered.


    ¡°Meteor Shower?¡± An¡¯an wondered.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± The woman said, ¡°Your father said it¡¯s what the House of Tudor owes us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu circled around the trade caravan twice and did discover some suspicious people in the group. However, he could not be sure if they were rted to the bounty hunters from before.


    Or rather, the suspicious people looked more like standard ouws, thieves, and fugitives. They did not have greatbat awareness or counter reconnaissance awareness.


    They were different from the sorceress fromst night. It was obvious she had undergone many years of training, with her every move nned out.


    It was precisely because of this that Ren Xiaosu was sure there was a hidden organization backing her. Without one, she could not have received such systematic training.

 Chapter 1109 - The Northwest Army assembles

    <h4>Chapter 1109 The Northwest Army assembles</h4>


    It waste at night at Stronghold 144 in the Northwest.


    There was no longer any differentiation between refugees and stronghold residents here, and the fortress gates were not closed at night anymore. Although this would increase the workload of the garrison troops, no one said anything about it since Commander Zhang insisted on doing so.


    Some people were worried that the open door policy would cause arge number of Wang Consortium and Qing Consortium spies to flood to the Northwest. However, the Great Hoodwinker andpany were not worried as they had Wang Yun on their team.


    In just half a month, Wang Yun had identified more than 70 spies in Stronghold 144. Six of them were from the Qing Consortium, while the rest were from the Wang Consortium.


    They expected the Wang Consortium would send their spies to the Northwest. But finding so few Qing Consortium spies was surprising.


    After all, the Qing Consortium had a lot of loyalists, and Qing Zhen was a prudent leader. As such, during the war in the Southwest, the Qing Consortium¡¯s information warfare and infiltration and assassination annoyed their enemies quite a bit.


    Therefore, how could anyone not be surprised that the Qing Consortium had nted so few spies in the Northwest?


    In the end, everyone felt it might be rted to the futuremander. Due to the two parties¡¯ close rtionship, it was probably a little awkward for the Qing Consortium to nt too many spies in the Northwest. And it was also because they did not treat each other as imaginary enemies.


    At this moment, the Great Hoodwinker quietly left Stronghold 144 and headed for the military base outside the stronghold. When he arrived in the conference room on the base, Wang Yun, Ji Zi¡¯ang, P5092, Zhang Xiaoman, and the others were already there.


    The moment the Great Hoodwinker entered, everyone¡¯s gazes locked onto him. Wang Yun said, ¡°C¡¯mon, tell us, where did Future Commander go?¡±


    ¡°Y¡¯all called me here in the middle of the night just to ask about this?¡± The Great Hoodwinker was slightly taken aback.


    Wang Yun sneered, ¡°Your pupils have started contracting. The rate of contraction is about the same as when you tricked me back then. The wrinkles at the corners of your eyes are also changing. Don¡¯t you dare lie! I¡¯m watching you!¡±


    ¡°Actually, y¡¯all can be considered the core members of our Northwest Army, so there¡¯s no harm in telling you.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Future Commander has gone to finish up his Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n.¡± ¡°3.0?¡±


    Everyone¡¯s eyes lit up. How interesting!


    P5092 analyzed, ¡°Future Commander went to tour the outposts with Commander Zhang, but Commander Zhang suddenly appeared at Stronghold 144 today to inspect the irrigation infrastructure. Meanwhile, Future Commander is nowhere to be seen. So did Future Commander go somewhere beyond the Northwest?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The Great Hoodwinker sighed and said, ¡°When he and Commander Zhang were touring the outposts, they were ambushed by a sorcerer. But before a battle could break out, he discovered the enemy¡¯s tracks and had Commander Zhang leave first. When we returned to the battlefield with Commander Zhang eight hourster, we saw the number ¡®3¡¯ etched on the ground. Commander Zhang was quite sure that it referred to the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n. When Wang Fengyuan searched for evidence at the scene, he determined that the futuremander had been taken captive by someone. But actually, we aren¡¯t too worried for him¡­.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker paused for a moment before continuing, ¡°Y¡¯all should know what kind of person Future Commander is. If he could spare the effort to leave that writing on the ground, it means that the sorcerer¡¯s situation is more precarious than his.¡±


    ¡°I think Future Commander must¡¯ve detected some kind of opportunity after encountering the enemy.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°Recently, Future Commander¡¯s maid and his wife have gone missing as well. Could they have already figured out the truth and left quietly to look for him?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± The Great Hoodwinker smiled bitterly. The scene of Yang Xiaojin tricking him was still fresh in his mind. All these years, it had always been him bluffing others. That was the first time he got tricked by someone else. ¡°Then what should we do now?¡± Wang Yun looked at the others.


    ¡°Do you even need to ask?¡± Zhang Xiaoman got excited. ¡°We¡¯ll ughter our way over there together, of course. The people of Fortress 178 have always dreamed ofunching a counterattack on the enemy since we were young. Now that Future Commander has made the first move, shouldn¡¯t we quickly seize the opportunity?¡±


    P5092 nodded. ¡°Currently, with a formidable enemy like the Wang Consortium creeping up on us, we need to eliminate any potential threats to our rear before the Wang Consortium fully consolidates the Central ins. If we get caught in a hammer and anvil strike, the Northwest will really be in danger. So I also suggest we take advantage of this window where Future Commander has headed to that unfamiliar nation to handle things once and for all.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker was stunned. ¡°Although I¡¯m not worried that something will happen to Future Commander, y¡¯all don¡¯t have to be so optimistic either, right? Why does it suddenly sound like we¡¯re talking about going to exterminate the Magi?¡±


    Wang Yun was also stunned. ¡°You¡¯re doubting Future Commander¡¯s ability.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Get lost! Stop trying to set me up. When have I ever doubted Future Commander¡¯s ability? Alright, so who¡¯s going?¡±


    ¡°Me, me, me!¡± Zhang Xiaoman was the first to raise his hand.


    Wang Yun smiled and said, ¡°How can I miss out on this event?¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°I need to collect intelligence regarding their military. ¡®Words are but wind, but seeing is believing.¡¯ Ji Zi¡¯angughed. ¡°I think I¡¯m good enough inbat and should be able to help everyone.¡±


    Everyone¡¯s gaze turned to the fair-skinned chubster who remained silent at the end of the table. ¡°Xun Yeyu, aren¡¯t you gonna go?¡±


    Xun Yeyu had remained in the corner quiet like a quail the entire time¡­


    He had been sleeping when he was suddenly dragged here by Wang Yun. He could not figure out what was going on for a long time; only now did he understand. So it turned out they were about to go to a foreign nation together¡­ and massacre them?


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at Xun Yeyu. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going? Don¡¯t you think that you¡¯re part of our crew? In that case¡­¡±


    Feeling insulted, Xun Yeyu said, ¡°I didn¡¯t say I don¡¯t wanna go. I¡¯ll go, alright? But I don¡¯t have anybat strength, so you all will have to protect me!¡±


    ¡°Are you saying that all of us here are not strong enough to protect you?¡± The Great Hoodwinker raised an eyebrow.


    Xun Yeyu hurriedly said, ¡°No, no, of course


    not¡­¡±


    ¡°Alright, it¡¯s settled then.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said in high spirits, ¡°Let¡¯s set off immediately and tten the nation of sorcerers!¡±


    ¡°No, you¡¯ll stay behind to guard the rear,¡± the Great Hoodwinker told Zhang Xiaoman.


    ¡°And why¡¯s that?¡± Zhang Xiaoman said agitatedly, ¡°All of you are going, so why should I be the only one to stay behind?¡±.


    ¡°Because you¡¯re not a superhuman.¡± Wang Yun agreed with the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s suggestion. ¡°When you go to a dangerous ce like that, you might very well die if you¡¯re not a superhuman. So there¡¯s no need for you to take the risk. Besides, the developments in the Northwest are going very rapidly, so we need someone to look after things here.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t do that alone.¡± Zhang Xiaoman muttered, ¡°I can¡¯t run things here all by myself.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s Wang Yuexi in charge of internal affairs, so what are you afraid of?¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°As for defending against enemies¡­ P5092, appoint someone to oversee the troops.¡± ¡°ck Fox.¡± P5092 said, ¡°He used to be my adjutant. He returned with us from the steppe, and I trust his ability to lead the troops. It just so happens that new units are getting to know each other and recruits are enlisting for boot camp during this period. He¡¯s the best at these military affairs. In fact, I¡¯m the one who¡¯s unfamiliar with handling such details.¡±


    ck Fox was different from P5092. P5092 had retained his serial number as his name. However, to show he had cut ties with his past self, ck Fox had chosen a new call sign for himself.


    ¡°Alright.¡± Wang Yun got up. ¡°Let¡¯s set off immediately. We¡¯ll detour around the outpost via Ramhorn Ridge and head straight for the nation of sorcerers!¡±

 Chapter 1110 - Going on campaign

    <h4>Chapter 1110: Going on campaign</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡®When the Great Hoodwinker set off for Stronghold 144, Wang Fengyuan specifically instructed him not to share with the futuremander¡¯s trusted aides that he wasunching the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n.


    After all, they were currently at the developmental stage of Stronghold 144. If those core figures were to suddenly find out about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s n and lose rationality, a lot of ns would probably get affected.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker felt the matter could not be kept under wraps. Surely he could not make Commander Zhang hide himself before Ren Xiaosu¡¯s return, right?


    Moreover, he really wanted to go to the Kingdom of Sorcerers to have a look too.


    In the past, he suggested he make a trip there personally. However, Zhang Jinglin and Wang Fengyuan did not agree as they were afraid he would encounter danger.


    But now that he had revealed the information to Wang Yun and the others, it was equivalent to having 50% of the Northwest¡¯s superhumans head to the Kingdom of Sorcerers together. In that way, he would not be in that much danger.


    Based on their current situation, everything would be under control!


    In the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s opinion, if Commander Zhang stood for the Northwest¡¯s present, Ren Xiaosu would represent the Northwest¡¯s future. Although the futuremander was very powerful, what if something were to happen to him?


    On the same night, Wang Yun and the others packed their belongings and drove off. They were nning to abandon their vehicle at Ramhorn Ridge where they would start trekking on foot. This was the best route to avoid the outposts, but it wasn¡¯t easy to travel, so only superhumans could pass through.


    1


    In case they were stopped from leaving the Northwest, they even chose to travel off the beaten path while driving.


    In truth, there was no need to do that. After all, with the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s ID, he could basically go anywhere in the entire Northwest other than the private residences of residents.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker was worried Wang Fengyuan andpany would personallye and stop them after receiving the news.


    As they traveled westwards in the car, Wang Yun andpany wereughing and chatting happily. Even P5092, who was known to have a cold personality, was smiling throughout the journey.


    It was as though they were not venturing deep into danger but going on a hike instead.


    ¡°Hey, what do you all think Future Commander¡¯s Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n is about? Raze the nation of sorcerers to the ground?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang asked.


    Xun Yeyu said meekly in the car, ¡°It might be about the same as the 2.0 version, like abducting some people back to the Northwest or something. Wouldn¡¯t it be a little unrealistic to raze the entire nation of sorcerers to the ground?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve underestimated Future Commander too much.¡± Wang Yun shook his head. ¡°Didn¡¯t the Great Hoodwinker say we have some intelligence agents stationed over there? They should have sent back some information. Great Hoodwinker, why don¡¯t you give us a briefing on that ce?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing much to brief you on.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°All we know now is that there are extremely powerful sorcerers in that kingdom. They control the entire nation with a divine authority that¡¯s above imperial authority. The secr society is also basically run by the various sorcerer ns


    who control the economic lifeline of the entire kingdom. Actually, that¡¯s the situation we hope to see as well. After all, with the sorcerer ns acting like feudal lords, it¡¯s only a matter of time before their nation copses. Only then will there be heroes or the ambitious stepping up to unite it.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker continued, ¡°Initially, Commander Zhang¡¯s n was to wait until the interests of the magus families became divided. That isn¡¯t something we can induce upon them but just how human nature ys out. So when the Kingdom of Sorcerers shows signs of falling apart, we¡¯ll start our


    counterattack n. However, no one expected that Future Commander¡¯s n would be one step ahead of ours. Although we don¡¯t really know what he¡¯s thinking, we can only let him be.¡±


    ¡°Sorcerer ns?¡± Wang Yun muttered, ¡°How many sorcerer ns are there in the entire kingdom?¡±


    ¡°About 40 something.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°We¡¯ve only just started our intelligence gathering operations there, so the information we have is notplete.¡±


    ¡®Wang Yun suddenly said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we make a bet then? I¡¯ll bet 10,000 yuan that Future Commander can wipe out eight sorcerer ns.¡±


    P5092 assessed Ren Xiaosu¡¯sbat strength and said, ¡°My bet is on 10 ns.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Then mine is 14.¡±


    After that, everyone looked at the fair-skinned chubster in the car. Xun Yeyu was so nervous he nearly cried as his powerful teammates stared at him. ¡°C-Can I not ce any bets? I don¡¯t have much money...¡±


    ¡°Bullshit.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Future Commander pays you such arge sry every month, yet you don¡¯t even have 10,000 yuan?¡±


    ¡°Tl guess 16 then,¡± Xun Yeyu said, feeling wronged.


    Just as the young sorceress and her group were guessing how many people Ren Xiaosu had killed before, the all-star crew of the Northwest Army was making simr spections. However, unlike the sorceress and her group¡¯s grasp of Ren Xiaosu, the all-star crew was not guessing how many people


    would get killed but how many sorcerer ns would get wiped out by their futuremander.


    At this moment, Luo Lan had just emerged from a waterfall in a mountain range somewhere in the Qing Consortium. Luo Lan no longer had any fat on his body. His burly figure was ripping with muscles, making him look like arge wrestler.


    Although he still looked very fat, he waspletely different from the past Luo Lan.


    ¡®The logistics officer immediately brought him a towel and handed over a document as well. ¡°Boss Luo, you instructed the intelligence agency to keep an eye on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s movements. There have been some unusual observations, indeed, recently.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s unusual?¡± Luo Lan wondered, ¡°Did he go back to the Central ins again? Wait a minute, didn¡¯t they say he was going to tour the outposts to visit the sentries?¡±


    ¡°Yes, him and Zhang Jinglin headed to the outposts outside Fortress 178 together. Their original n was supposed tost for two months, but Zhang Jinglin returned in advance. However, there was no sight of Ren Xiaosu,¡± the soldier answered.


    Luo Lan gasped. ¡°He disappeared? He didn¡¯t return to Stronghold 144?¡±


    ¡°Our spies at Stronghold 144 have all been sent back, so we don¡¯t have any specific information. However, they can confirm he didn¡¯t return with Zhang Jinglin,¡± the soldier said.


    ¡°Could that guy have gone to the territory of Fortress 178¡¯s enemy to stir up trouble?¡± After Luo Lan dried himself, he shouted to a tent not far away, ¡°Zhou Qi, stop sleeping! Hurry out. Let¡¯s pack up and head to the Northwest!¡±


    Zhou Qi walked out of his tent sleepily. ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Has the war with the Wang Consortium started?¡±


    ¡°The Wang Consortium still has to reorganize after taking care of the Zhou Consortium. It¡¯s not their turn to attack us yet,¡± Luo Lan snapped at him. ¡°I was asking you if you wanted to head to somewhere beyond the Northwest for a visit!¡±


    Zhou Qi was taken aback for a moment before answering bluntly, ¡°No!¡±


    ¡°Tl pay you!¡±


    ¡°Even if you pay me, I won¡¯t go. It¡¯s just the Gobi over there. What¡¯s good about going to a godforsaken ce like that?¡± Zhou Qi snapped.


    ¡°I heard the Kingdom of Sorcerers is located on the other side of the Gobi. As if I¡¯d have the free time to visit that desert!¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°Besides, don¡¯t you want to experience the exotic culture of that kingdom?¡±


    Zhou Qi was a little tempted. ¡°Uh... tell me, what are we going there for?¡±


    ¡°To support Ren Xiaosu in battle, of course,¡± Luo Lan said proudly, ¡°I¡¯ve been training this hard for so long, so surely I must show off to hima little!¡±


    Zhou Qi chuckled. ¡°Of all the people you can show off to, why would you choose him?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true..¡± Luo Lan said, ¡°Whatever, let¡¯s get moving immediately!¡±

 Chapter 1111 - Spying

    <h4>Chapter 1111: Spying</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    On the first night after the trade caravan set off from York County, the vice president of the York County Chamber of Commerce, who was in charge of the entire expedition, organized everyone to set up camp.


    Ren Xiaosu realized these people were quite particr when it came to setting up camp. The horse-drawn carriages were parked in a circle around the campsite, and they even used suitcases as wheel chocks for them.


    In just a short while, a variety of horse-drawn carriages were ced on the perimeter of the camp, forming a wall.


    ¡°How professional,¡± Ren Xiaosu praised, standing next to Melgor. ¡°What does that vice president do? Why is he so professional?¡±


    In Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, it would be very difficult for bandits to charge into the camp with a wall like this. This was especially true as Ren Xiaosu saw that the Chamber of Commerce¡¯s members were armed with bows. In a civilian poption that could not arm themselves with firearms and explosives,


    they would have no problem fending off four or five times the number of enemies.


    ¡°The vice president is a retired veteran who used to hold quite a high rank in the royal army.¡± Melgor exined, ¡°Actually, he has no knowledge in business. The reason why the Chamber of Commerce gave him the position of vice president and offered him arge sry was because they valued his ability


    in organizing such trade expeditions. He¡¯s the person who leads basically all of therge trade caravans in York County.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why he¡¯s not in charge of business discussions and just needs to lead the trade caravan¡¯s guards?¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°No wonder he doesn¡¯t look like a businessman. A vice president of the Chamber of Commerce who¡¯s always carrying a bow on his back and has a broadsword on his hip is


    a really weird sight. Let¡¯s put it this way. Look at the surrounding horse-drawn carriages. The alternating short and tall horse-carriages are well-spaced. The guards in his trade caravan all look energetic and never rx while they¡¯re standing guard. This shows that that person is really good at leading


    troops into battle.¡±


    ¡°Sir, you tter me.¡±


    ¡®As Ren Xiaosu was praising the vice president, a nearby voice suddenly thanked him.


    Melgor turned around and was surprised to see Qian Weining, the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, standing next to them.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Is the route to Ghent City so fraught with danger? You hafta be this cautious?¡±


    ¡°Sir, aren¡¯t you also from the Kingdom of Sorcerers? Why would you ask such a question?¡± Qian Weining smiled. ¡°There¡¯s a dozen mountain ranges controlled by bandits along the way to the north. Moreover, this estimate was from four months ago. Now that four months have passed, there might be even


    more of them. I don¡¯t know why, but they seem to be suddenly increasing in numbers.¡±


    ¡°Does no one do anything about it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Those bandits are all seasoned veterans. Unless the lord sorcerers personally take care of them, no one can stop them. But the lord sorcerers... haha, Lord Melgor, I¡¯m not criticizing you. I know you. You¡¯re a good person,¡± Qian Weining said.


    ¡®With that, Ren Xiaosu understood the nation of sorcerers was on the verge of copse. Coupled with the droughtst year, all of the residents were unable to pay their taxes.


    Right now, they only had two choices left. They could upy a mountain and reign over the surroundings, and even if they were surroundedter, they could still live happily for a while. Otherwise, they could just go to prison and suffer for not paying their taxes.


    Qian Weining said, ¡°But Lord Melgor, don¡¯t worry. With you leading the trade caravan, everything will definitely be fine.¡±


    Melgor smiled and said, ¡°Mhm, if the bandits really attack, I¡¯ll take care of them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that the people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers had really praised the sorcerers to high heaven. Melgor was acting as though he did not know what he was truly capable of.


    With Melgor¡¯s Wind Bind and Earth Bind spells, he could at most control four or five bandits if they came. If several hundred of them were to charge together, he would still get hacked to death, even though he was a sorcerer.


    At this moment, dozens of campfires had been lit. Hundreds of people were around their own campfires, and some of the youth were even singing and dancing.


    The women held up their fluffy skirts and linked arms with the men as they danced a dance Ren Xiaosu had never seen before.


    Qian Weining had someone bring over the food that had been prepared. Ren Xiaosu looked around as he ate. He was surprised to find that the middle-aged woman he had encountered earlier in the day did not seem to have gotten out of her carriage and had remained inside.


    He looked over to the carriage and saw the window curtain had been lifted a little. It looked like someone was secretly sizing him up from behind it.


    When Ren Xiaosu looked over, whoever was behind the curtain quickly lowered it.


    In the carriage, the young sorceress lowered her voice and said, ¡°Aunt, that guy seems to have noticed me.¡±


    ¡®The woman said, ¡°Were you spying on him?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± The sorceress muttered, ¡°I wanted to watch him, but when his gaze swept over, I felt like I was spotted.¡±


    ¡®The woman thought for a moment and pulled open the curtain. She smiled at Ren Xiaosu and waved at him. It even seemed like she was inviting him into the carriage.


    Immediately, Ren Xiaosu shifted his gaze away.


    ¡®The middle-aged woman said to the young sorceress, ¡°He¡¯s more than meets the eye. We can¡¯t be sure if he¡¯s already started to suspect us, so you should stop spying on him.¡±


    ¡°OK,¡± An¡®an answered.


    In the dead of the night, the sound of horses trotting suddenly came from outside the perimeter of carriages.


    A lot of people were jolted awake. Before they could figure out what was going on, they heard a whooshing sound above them. Then a fletched arrownded in the middle of the camp.


    Someone screamed, ¡°Bandits! Bandits!¡±


    Qian Weining, who was sleeping, jumped off the ground and shouted at the trade caravan¡¯s guards, ¡°Follow me!¡±


    ¡®The bandits were approaching from the east, which happened to be where Ren Xiaosu, Melgor, and the sheeple were at. They watched Qian Weining quickly assemble his men and use the carriage windows as battlements to fire back.


    Melgor was a little flustered. Although he was a sorcerer, he had never experienced a battle like this before. One after another, arrows kept flying in, but it was impossible to get a clear sight of them in the dark.


    Everyone looked for cover to hide behind while Ren Xiaosu grabbed Melgor and quickly moved off from where they were.


    During this time, Melgor was a little surprised to discover that when arrows flew over on two asions and should have hit them based on their trajectory, Ren Xiaosu seemed to have unintentionally dodged them each time.


    Although they looked a little pathetic while running away, it didn¡¯t really matter as long as they were still alive.


    Melgor did not know that someone was secretly watching everything from the window of a carriage in the distance.


    Although her aunt had instructed her not to spy on Ren Xiaosu anymore, An¡¯an could not help but look at where he was the moment the bandits arrived. She wanted to see how he would deal with them. Perhaps she could find out more about him during the chaos.


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reaction disappointed her.


    An¡¯an muttered, ¡°Why¡¯d he just run the moment the bandits showed up?¡±


    Her aunt nced at her. ¡°This is what a smart person does. If you encounter a hail of arrows in the future, remember to find a spot to hide..¡±

 Chapter 1112 - Excellent archery!

    <h4>Chapter 1112: Excellent archery!</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t you panicking?¡± Melgor asked, looking at Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Wait here for a while. I¡¯ll take those two sheeple somewhere safe.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu ran back into the hail of arrows. Shortly after, he dragged the two servants over, with Mox and his men following behind.


    Mox was the knightmander assigned to protect Melgor by the Li n. He was apanied by 35 knights.


    Logically speaking, they should also be quite strong inbat. However, they were pinned down by the bandits¡¯ volley of arrows. As the bow was a prohibited weapon, even an organization like the Chamber of Commerce was only permitted to arm themselves with 60 bows.


    Mox said to Ren Xiaosu and Melgor, ¡°Sirs, let¡¯s take refuge here. Please don¡¯t try to be a hero! Especially Lord Melgor! If anything happens to you, my job¡¯s at stake.¡±


    Melgor frowned and said, ¡°That won¡¯t do. As a sorcerer, how can I hide in cowardice when the trade caravan is besieged by the bandits?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pulled Melgor aside and whispered, ¡°Aren¡¯t you overestimating yourself? Do you think you can block those arrows? Stay here quietly. Everything will be fine soon.¡±


    Although Mox and his men could not hear what Ren Xiaosu was saying from a short distance away, they somehow felt that his bodynguage when speaking to Lord Melgor was a little strange.


    Mox asked Li Chengguo, ¡°Young Master, does Lord Melgor¡¯s steward usually speak so rudely to him, or is it only this time?¡±


    Li Chengguo, who was hiding in the corner, replied, ¡°Don¡¯t fuss over nothing. He¡¯s always like this.¡±


    Melgor still did not let go of his curiosity. He asked again in a whisper, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, are you not even a little scared?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be scared of?¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°It¡¯s only a bunch of bandits. It¡¯s just that I can¡¯t take any action now. If I could, the bandits would all be dead within a minute.¡±


    Melgormented, ¡°You¡¯re the biggest blowhard I¡¯ve ever met. You¡¯re so good at it that you¡¯ve even convinced yourself.¡±


    1


    After Melgor and the sheeple got the impression that Ren Xiaosu was someone who liked boasting, they assumed everything he said was just braggadocio. Their impression was not going to change until they were presented with irond proof that he was not one.


    But what kinds of situations had Ren Xiaosu been in? On the battlefield, he had dealt with bombardments from firearms and explosives, such as mortar shelling, thermobaric bombs, RPGs, and mostmonly, heavy machine gun fire.


    Comparing bows and arrows to those weapons, Ren Xiaosu felt like he was dealing with a bunch of amateurs since arriving in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    It was too easy. In fact, this form of battle hardly even interested him.


    ¡®The roars of the bandits came from outside the carriage walls¡¯ perimeter. As arrows flew in nonstop at them, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said to Melgor, ¡°These bandits are probably here for you.¡±


    ¡°Me?¡± Melgor said in disbelief, ¡°How can that be?¡±


    ¡°If you were killed in the city, it would provoke the anger of the entire magus order. But by having bandits kill you, it would be too easy for an archmage to silence all of them after you were taken out.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Then everyone would just me your death on the world for being too chaotic, but no


    one would get suspicious. Think about it. This ce is only half a day away from York County. Most bandits normally don¡¯t choose to make a move somewhere so close to the city.¡±


    Lowering his head, Melgor started pondering this.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°Since the Tudor family is so powerful, it¡¯s so easy for them to instigate or threaten the bandits to kill you. Just look, they¡¯ve been shooting arrows at us for quite some time. Why would a group of bandits have so many arrows? And they¡¯re even high-quality fletched arrows! If it¡¯s


    really as I¡¯ve guessed, you¡¯ll have to be much more careful. Qian Weining also mentioned that there¡¯s more than a dozen bands of bandits scattered along the way to the north, and I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if there¡¯s elite troops disguised as bandits either.¡±


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t we head back¡­¡± Melgor stared hopefully at Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re getting cold feet already? With me around, what¡¯s there to be afraid of¡±


    ¡°You saying that makes me even more afraid!¡± Melgor said in a serious tone.


    An¡®an and the middle-aged woman were quietly watching the battle outside through the carriage window. An¡®an said, ¡°Aunt, should I take care of those bandits?¡±


    ¡°What for?¡± The middle-aged woman shook her head. ¡°Those people are all ouws, so you might not be able to escape unscathed under their arrow fire. I think the Chamber of Commerce¡¯s vice president ispetent and tough enough, so he should be able to deal with the situation.¡±


    An¡®an involuntarily turned her gaze over to Ren Xiaosu and muttered, ¡°He¡¯s clearly very skilled, but he ended up hiding like a coward. When he chased after me that night, I thought he was really brave.¡±


    While they were talking, a shadowy figure quickly approached the bandits in the wilderness.


    As the shadowy figure ran, it trampled the mud on the ground and sttered it all around, exuding a very powerful aura.


    The bandits knew nothing about the impending danger as they released their arrows to suppress the trade caravan while avoiding their return fire.


    Every bandit was equipped with three full quivers of arrows that they fired like it didn¡¯t cost a thing. Meanwhile, there was no effective way for the trade caravan to take out the bandits due to poor visibility at night. As a result, the trade caravan¡¯s arrow supply dwindled, but only a few of the bandits got


    Killed.


    Soon after, when the shadowy figure was about to close in on a group of bandits riding on horseback, one of them discovered it. ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡±


    White Mask was like an apparition in the darkness.


    Just as he finished speaking, the white-masked ¡°Old Xu¡¯ picked up two fallen arrows from the ground and threw them with its bare hands!


    1


    The arrows flew like lightning and struck a bandit, forcefully knocking him off his horse!


    Old Xu sprinted forward. Even though it was moving extremely fast, it continued picking up arrows that were stuck in the ground. When it came to the front of a bandit¡¯s horse, the bandit wanted to switch from his bow to using his saber instead, but Old Xu gave him no chance to do that.


    In the blink of an eye, Old Xu leaped up and swept past the bandit¡¯s side, stabbing an arrow in its hand ruthlessly into the bandit¡¯s forehead.


    In just ten seconds, the formation of the bandits was broken up by Old Xu.


    The trade caravan¡¯s guards within the ¡°walls¡± carried on nocking their bows. Although they did not have a clear view of the situation outside, they could not stop firing back at their enemy. If they did not hold off the bandits and maintain a buffer between them, they would probably all die once the bandits


    broke through the perimeter.


    Gradually, the vice president, Qian Weining, heard a constant howl from the bandits. Their screams sounded shrill and horrified.


    Qian Weining was a little puzzled. Did the bandits all get hit by his arrows? But he clearly felt that he had notnded any shots.


    He was a little unsure since he was in total darkness.


    Hearing the screams outside the perimeter graduallying to a stop, everyone in the trade caravan was encouraged when they didn¡¯t see any more arrows flying in from outside. Ren Xiaosu took the lead and started pping. ¡°Vice President Qian, excellent archery!¡±


    suddenly, thunderous apuse sounded from the inside of the carriage walls, leaving Qian Weining totally dumbfounded.

 Chapter 1113 - Causing defections

    <h4>Chapter 1113: Causing defections</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    Everyone was sleeping soundly in the middle of the night when the group of bandits suddenly arrived on horseback and sent a hail of arrows raining down from the night sky.


    Just the first wave of arrows killed more than a dozen people, with several more dozen casualties happening in the aftermath. Was this a situation normal people were used to?


    In the chaos, someone had suddenly stepped forward and killed the bandits one by one with his precise and overpowering shots, so how could everyone not apud this?


    Everyone stood up and started apuding, following Ren Xiaosu¡¯s lead. As they pped, they smiled at Qian Weining to express their gratitude.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°When I heard that Vice President Qian was appointed the vice president of the York County Chamber of Commerce due to his strength, I couldn¡¯t believe it at first. But Vice President Qian has now proven just how capable he is! With you protecting us, we feel much safer on our journey


    north!¡±


    A middle-aged woman dressed rather expensively echoed, ¡°That¡¯s right, thank you for protecting us, Vice President Qian!¡±


    All of a sudden, Qian Weining had somehow be the hero of the trade caravan. This left him at a loss.


    ¡®When Qian Weining looked at the faces staring at him in admiration, his mouth remained agape for a long time, and he couldn¡¯t say a word in response.


    First of all, he was unsure if he had hit any of the bandits with his arrows, but it appeared that they were really dead. Second, who didn¡¯t enjoy being admired?


    Qian Weining gave an awkwardugh and said, ¡°It¡¯s probably just a coincidence. Actually, I¡¯m not really that good at archery.¡±


    The apuse had slowly subsided. However, Ren Xiaosu started pping harder again. ¡°Not only is Vice President Qian strong, but he¡¯s modest as well. What a rare guy!¡±


    The apuse went wild again!


    With that, Qian Weining did not say any more. At some point, he even felt the bandits might really have died to his precise archery.


    A distance away, An¡®an wondered inside the carriage, ¡°Aunt, is Vice President Qian really that good at archery?¡±


    ¡°It looks like he is.¡± The middle-aged woman said, ¡°Judging from the horse trots I heard, there were at least 50 bandits who came this time. He¡¯s really impressive for being able to kill them all so quickly. Actually, I didn¡¯t have many expectations when I saw him drawing his bow and firing even though he¡¯s


    an experienced archer. He didn¡¯t seem like he had much strength. But it turns out I underestimated him.¡±


    An¡¯an nodded. ¡°There¡¯s many talented people hiding in in sight, indeed. Let¡¯s have Little Cheng go with the guards and check on the bandits¡¯ corpsester to see how urate his shots were.¡±


    Meanwhile, Melgor whispered to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Since Vice President Qian is so good at archery, does that mean we won¡¯t have to return to York County?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°Why? You no longer scared?¡±


    ¡°We have to head to Ghent City sooner orter, anyway. It¡¯ll be better to have an expert like him escort us north than turn back and wait to die. Melgor said, ¡°By the way, you were probably a practitioner of martial arts in the Central ins, right? Have you learned archery before? Why don¡¯t I borrow a bow


    for you from Vice President Qian?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ve never learned it before, so I don¡¯t know how to use one.¡±


    When Melgor heard this, he even felt a little disdainful of Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You didn¡¯t even learn archery?! Look at how skilled Vice President Qian is at killing enemies over long range. Aren¡¯t you envious?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s really nothing to be envious about.¡±


    ¡°You just don¡¯t want to admit it.¡± Melgor curled his lips and said, ¡°Alright, I¡¯l borrow a set of bow and arrows for you to practice with. Otherwise, it would be a huge waste of your immense strength!¡±


    After that, Melgor went to look for Qian Weining.


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. Was there a point in learning archery? Wouldn¡¯t he be better off using an automatic rifle? Or was his ck sniper rifle not good enough?


    No matter how lethal bows and arrows were, they were just a primitive weapon. In the era of firearms and explosives in the Central ins, who would still need to use bows?!


    Therefore, it was not that Ren Xiaosu did not want to learn archery, but that there was really no point in learning it!


    After a while, Melgor came back with a longbow and a quiver of fletched arrows and handed them to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Give it a try.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the bow in Melgor¡¯s hand. It was a self bow! that wasn¡¯tplicated to make.


    Ren Xiaosu reluctantly took the longbow from him. He mimicked the way Vice President Qian handled the bow and gently pulled the bowstring back. With just a light pull, he was able to bring it to a full draw.


    He was being so gentle because he was worried he would break the bow. How could this weapon withstand the strength of a superhuman from the Central ins?


    Ren Xiaosu let go of the bowstring and nocked a fletched arrow on it before shooting it at a campfire. However, the arrownded more than two meters away from its target.


    Melgormented, ¡°So you really don¡¯t know how to use a bow. You couldn¡¯t even hit a campfire that was five meters away.¡±


    From his tone, it sounded like Melgor loathed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s skill in archery.


    Ren Xiaosu curled his lips and pushed the longbow back into Melgor¡¯s arms. ¡°I already said that I don¡¯t know archery, yet you still insisted that I try it out. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t even bother using something like that when I¡¯m killing enemies. It¡¯ll only hinder me!¡±


    Melgor said resentfully, ¡°Will you die if you stop bragging?! If you don¡¯t know how to use it, just say so. Why are you talking down the bow?!¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re so capable, get me a gun.¡± Ren Xiaosu leisurely sat down at the campfire. ¡°Everyone in the Central ins carries firearms. Who still uses bows and arrows?¡±


    ¡°Firearms are only one-shot weapons and take too long to reload, so they might not necessarily be as effective as the bow,¡± Melgor said.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He could deduce where the level of firearms technology in the Kingdom of Sorcerers had stopped solely based on Melgor¡¯s remark.


    During their exchange, the sorceress was sneaking nces at Ren Xiaosu from inside her carriage. Although her aunt had repeatedly emphasized to her not to spy on that young man anymore, she couldn¡¯t help it.


    ¡®When she saw Ren Xiaosu bringing the bowstring to a full draw in an instant, she tugged on the middle-aged woman¡¯s sleeve and eximed, ¡°Aunt, look! That kid¡¯s strength is enormous!¡±


    1


    ¡®The middle-aged woman had a look and analyzed, ¡°To be able to draw the longbow so easily, that kid probably has a muscle strength of over a 100 kilograms in each arm. It seems like he¡¯s blessed with great strength.¡±


    ¡°No wonder he could catch up to me that night. So it turns out he¡¯s that physically strong.¡± An¡¯an muttered, ¡°But look, Aunt, his archery is totally not up to the mark.¡±


    ¡°No, it¡¯s not like that.¡± The middle-aged woman shook her head. ¡°He doesn¡¯t even know archery at all. Look at how he holds the bow. It¡¯spletely wrong.¡±


    ¡°That young man probably didn¡¯te out of the royal army.¡± An¡®an said firmly, ¡°Everyone in the army is trained in archery, so it¡¯s impossible that someone from there would be so amateurish.¡±


    ¡°Maybe he¡¯s only blessed with great strength but has never undergone any form of systematic training before?¡± The middle-aged woman said with some regret, ¡°What a pity for that great strength of his. Those who haven¡¯t undergone any training can at most utilize 50% of their strength. It¡¯s really such a


    pity.¡±


    ¡®The middle-aged woman emphasized the word ¡°pity¡± twice as she really felt it was a waste.


    ¡°Aunt, since that kid was never in the royal army and has no rtion to the sorcerer ns, do you think we can persuade him to join us?¡± An¡®an said curiously.


    The middle-aged woman smiled and said, ¡°I knew you would ask this, but you should understand that we have to find out everything about him if we want him to join us.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s continue observing him along the way,¡± An¡®an said.


    The middle-aged woman thought for a moment and answered, ¡°Alright.¡±

 Chapter 1114 - If you have to ask, it was destiny

    <strong>Chapter 1114 If you have to ask, it was destiny</strong>


    There were no longer any signs of activity from the bandits beyond the perimeter, but those who were within the carriage walls were still a little worried. They wanted to check on the situation on the outside.


    In such times, keeping guard on the inside of the perimeter was absolutely pointless. Surely they weren¡¯t going to remain on the defensive here for the next ten days, right?


    Qian Weining considered it for a moment before ordering the trade caravan¡¯s guards to pick up the arrows scattered around the camp. These arrows were the ones the bandits had fired over.


    After they were done collecting them, those that were still intact could be reused as spares, while those that were damaged would have their arrowheads removed and the shafts used as kindling.


    ¡°Vice President Qian, there¡¯s something odd about these arrows,¡± a guard muttered.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Qian Weining turned around to look.


    ¡°Look, the ends of the fletching are very neat and tidy. We¡¯ve all served in the royal army before. This is what arrows look like when they firste out of the workshop, right?¡± the guard said in a low voice.


    He was referring to new arrows that were just drawn from the supply division. The feathers at the end of such arrows were pure white and had straight shafts fitted with brand new arrowheads.


    Under normal circumstances, it would be great if the bandits got to use improvised arrows since not many of them had ess to metal arrowheads.


    Not only were the bandits who attacked them tonight using the finest quality fletched arrows, but the arrows also looked like they had just left the workshop. This made the guard suspect that something was not right.


    Qian Weining took the fletched arrow from him and checked it carefully. Then he said in a low voice, ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone, lest it causes panic.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± the guard said. As they all used to serve in the royal army, they knew the purpose of such a gag order. The royal army was just the general name for the monarch¡¯s troops in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. It did not mean they were troops who only guarded the capital. There were nine main armies in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, and they were all together known as the royal army.


    In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, only a small number of troops were bestowed with special designations. For example, the sorcerer ns¡¯ Knights of Radiance, Knights of the Inferno, et cetera. Every sorcerer n had its own troops. For example, the House of Tudor¡¯s troops were simply known as the Knights of Tudor.


    A long time ago, the designation of ¡°Royal Army¡± was synonymous with superiorbat capability in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. But things were different now. Everyone knew the knights of the sorcerer ns were the most elite troops around. ¡°Vice President Qian.¡± The guard said in a low voice, ¡°There aren¡¯t any royal troops garrisoned nearby. Could it be that one of the sorcerer ns¡¯ knights impersonated the bandits?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Qian Weining said.


    Qian Weining recalled that there wasn¡¯t really much strength in the arrows fired over by the bandits. He hade across many skilled archers in the military, and it was even possible that an iron arrow shot by such archers could pierce a carriage. Therefore, even though they knew there was a problem with the arrows, Qian Weining was quite sure they had been loosed by real bandits.


    It looked like someone was making use of the bandits to stop them from journeying northwards.


    Qian Weining instinctively nced at Melgor and wondered if the bandits could be here for the lord sorcerer.


    ¡°Go retrieve your leather armor.¡± Qian Weining said to the guards, ¡°I want everyone to wear their armor and follow me.¡±


    With that, the guards of the caravan put on their brown leather armor and strapped a dagger to their thigh. After preparations were made, they slowly made their way out of the carriage wall perimeter.


    Suddenly, a young man said, ¡°If anyone still has strength left, let¡¯s go together with Vice President Qian. We can¡¯t simply let him and the troops risk their lives for us. If they get ambushed by the bandits, we can still provide some cover for them.¡± Then the young man took the lead and followed the caravan¡¯s guards. Several other young men followed suit. Ren Xiaosu examined that young man. He was wearing a simple cotton shirt that was starting to yellow from washing. He was also wearing a pair of suspenders amoner would usually wear.


    However, the high-top leather boots he had on caught Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attention. The boots looked very sturdy and did not look like something normal people would wear.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu was sure he had not seen him before now.


    After all, he had gone around the caravan twice during the day. The young man¡¯s appearance stood out with his sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, so if Ren Xiaosu had seen him before, it would be impossible not to have any impression of him. Even if his memory was not as good as Wang Yun¡¯s, he would not forget a person like this.


    Therefore, the other party must have been hiding in the carriage during the day. And the only carriage that remained shut belonged to that suspicious woman.


    Ren Xiaosu had a rough idea of what was going on. As such, he followed the caravan guards and walked out of the carriage wall perimeter.


    es


    The group slowly made their way into the darkness with the guards leading the way. Everyone was holding their broadswords on their hips, ready to spring into battle at any moment.


    Ren Xiaosu was not particrly nervous because he knew there were no more threats outside. But as he followed slowly, the young man who led the volunteers suddenly spoke to him. ¡°Hello, my name is Chen Cheng. What about you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied with a smile, ¡°My name is Ren Xiaosu.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, pleasure to meet you.¡± Chen Cheng¡¯s smile was bright and dazzling. If it were any other person who interacted with him, they would probably have an immediate good impression of him.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was different. The moment the other party opened his mouth, he immediately understood. Oh, so it turned out this person had a motive for getting close to him.


    Who would have the free time to try to get close to him? Ren Xiaosu could roughly guess who was hiding in that carriage. Chen Cheng, the middle-aged woman, and the young sorceress, An¡¯an, were all extraordinary people. In the past, they could even avoid the magus order¡¯s tracking by changing their identities and concealing their whereabouts. Therefore, they felt it should not be a problem for them to deal with a minor individual like Ren Xiaosu.


    But in terms ofbat experience, there might not be anyone in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers who was more experienced than Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything more to Chen Cheng. He was sure Chen Cheng would try to talk to him again.


    Gradually, the group found their way to where the bandits¡¯ corpses were lying. When they saw the tragic state of those bandits, they gasped.


    Other than a few bandits who were struck by arrows in their chests, the rest had an arrow sticking straight out of their forehead between the eyes!


    Immediately, everyone looked at Qian Weining in silence. This caused Qian Weining to feel a little ufortable. ¡°Why are you all looking at me?¡±


    A guard said with augh, ¡°Vice President Qian, we know where our capabilities lie. It¡¯d be good enough if we managed to hit anyone in the dark. So we¡¯re sure we didn¡¯t kill most of these bandits.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, and since it¡¯s not us, it must be you!¡± Ren Xiaosu apuded and praised, ¡°Vice President Qian, your archery is amazing. Every shot that you firednded straight in the center of their foreheads. It wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration to call you a sharpshooter.¡±


    Qian Weining was dumbfounded. In his mind, he was quite sure he was not the one whonded these shots. But who else could it be? Furthermore, these arrows did belong to the York County Chamber of Commerce. The feather fletching clearly identified them as such.


    Qian Weining hesitated for a long time. Then he finally said with an awkwardugh, ¡°Ahem, I just got lucky, that¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°How could that be just luck?¡± Ren Xiaosu earnestly corrected him, ¡°It¡¯s not right for you to continue acting so humbly. Being overly humble is really just another form of pride!¡±


    On this ordinary day, the title of Greatest Sharpshooter in York County was created.


    Ren Xiaosu remembered reading in a book that there was an ancient high-ranking official who was a keen angler. However, his fishing skills were not that great.


    One time, his colleagues and he agreed to have a fishingpetition. As such, he arranged for his subordinates, who were extremely good at swimming, to dive underwater and secretly hook fish on the end of his line. In just one day, he caught more fish than all of his colleaguesbined. In an instant, his reputation skyrocketed, and he was even respectfully addressed as the Master Angler by his colleagues.


    The Master Angler and Greatest Sharpshooter titles were almost of the same caliber. The only difference was that the Master Angler knew how he got his nickname while the Greatest Sharpshooter, Qian Weining, believed it to be the arrangement of fate.


    If you have to ask, it was destiny.

 Chapter 1115 - Mutual inquest

    <h4>Chapter 1115 Mutual inquest</h4>


    With the trade caravan guards, Qian Weining collected the longbows and arrows the bandits had brought with them. ¡°Bring everything back. Remove their leather armor as well. We can still put them to use with some cleaning after we get back.¡±


    He held a bandit¡¯s longbow and drew the bowstring twice. As soon as he did that, he realized it was even better than the ones issued by their own Chamber of Commerce!


    This made Qian Weining feel that something was amiss. What bandits would have ess to such high-quality bows?


    Something was not right! However, Qian Weining did not make a fuss about it. Instead, he had the caravan guards equip themselves with the better quality bows. On the way back, he said to one of the guards, ¡°Chen Lin, when we get back, check with the other merchants regarding the guards they brought with them. Distribute a set of bow and arrows to whoever is good at using them.¡±


    The guard was stunned. ¡°Vice President Qian, we might get castigated for distributing bows and arrows without authorization. These are prohibited weapons.¡±


    ¡°One more person equipped with a bow means an extra person fighting on our side.¡± Qian Weining whispered, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that it won¡¯t be peaceful on the route north. Do you want to die, or do you want to obey the rules? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll speak with President Li when we get back. He¡¯ll handle it for us.¡± When Ren Xiaosu heard this from nearby, he thought to himself that Qian Weining was really quite a talented individual. Just by looking at the bandits¡¯ weapons, he was able to conclude a lot of things. It was no wonder the York County Chamber of Commerce had chosen him as its vice president. It seemed like he was truly capable. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu seriously contemted if he should also abduct this person to the Prosperous Northwest.


    However, talents like him were not urgently needed by the Northwest. After all, the modes the two sides did battle in werepletely different. If he were to abduct Qian Weining to the Prosperous Northwest, it might take a long time for him to adapt to the way the Northwest fought.


    Moreover, it seemed that Qian Weining was more suited to being apanymander in the short term. Whether or not he joined Fortress 178, it would not affect the overall situation of the Northwest by much.


    Ren Xiaosu decided to put this thought aside for the time being and watch for a while longer.


    When the group returned to the camp, many of those in the caravan stood up nervously at their campfires in salutation. Qian Weining said with a smile, ¡°The bandits are already dead, so there¡¯s no need to worry. Additionally, does anyone from our caravan have experience in the bow? Please step forward if you do.¡±


    A guard looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Sir, do you want to take a longbow with you?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°With Vice President Qian¡¯s skills, what do I need a longbow for? That would be such a waste of arrows.¡±


    After that, he returned to his campfire.


    To Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, the young man named Chen Cheng followed him over. Melgor looked up and asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°And this is?¡±


    Chen Cheng smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m just a new friend of Brother Xiaosu¡¯s.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Nope, don¡¯t know him.¡±


    Melgor was speechless.


    Chen Cheng was speechless as well.


    This time, it was the two servants who looked at Chen Cheng sympathetically. They thought to themselves, ¡®Of all people, you actually chose to be friends with him?!¡¯


    Chen Cheng was not discouraged. He sat down at the campfire as though he were already part of the group. ¡°Your Excellency Lord Melgor, where are you guys heading on this trip?¡± Melgor replied with a smile, ¡°We¡¯re heading north to Ghe-¡°


    Before he could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu stomped on his foot. Melgor suddenly gasped and said, ¡°Tss! We¡¯re going to Reese County!¡±


    Reese County was situated along the way to Ghent City.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Melgor and thought to himself what a sweet idiot he was. Why was he always so honest when talking with strangers? He had already confirmed there was something suspicious about Chen Cheng, so how could they tell him the truth about where they were going?


    He wasn¡¯t afraid Chen Cheng would do anything to their group if he knew their whereabouts. It was just that Ren Xiaosu had already spoken with Melgor before setting off that they should not speak carelessly on this journey. If they were really serious about helping Melgor win his love back from the Tudor family, they would have to be extremely careful. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu was just trying to help him develop that habit now.


    Chen Cheng was stunned by this sight. This was the first time he had seen a steward treating his own lord sorcerer like that.


    More importantly, Melgor did not even seem too angered by that!


    Ren Xiaosu turned to Chen Cheng and said with a smile, ¡°And where are you heading?¡±


    Chen Cheng answered, ¡°I¡¯m on the way to Ghent City.¡±


    Melgor smiled and said, ¡°Oh, what a coincidence!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped, ¡°... Are you dumb?!¡±


    He decided to change the subject and interrogated Chen Cheng further. ¡°Are you heading to Ghent City by yourself?¡± ¡°Oh, no.¡± Chen Cheng said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s me and my aunt. She had a short conversation with you in the carriage today. Have you forgotten?¡±


    Telling 10% lies and 90% truth was the best strategy in deception. Chen Cheng had said that to hide An¡¯an¡¯s whereabouts so Ren Xiaosu would not continue asking about who was in the carriage.


    ¡°Why are you going to Ghent City?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°My aunt said we have some rtives there, so she¡¯s thinking of going there to seek help from them.¡± Chen Cheng said with a yearning look, ¡°They say Ghent City is extremely prosperous, and even the walls are built out of sandstone and look extremely exquisite. Someone also said that Ghent City never sleeps, so there¡¯s many opportunities for young people there.¡± When Ren Xiaosu realized he could not get any answers from all the questioning, he casually took a leg of ham from the campfire and handed it to Chen Cheng. ¡°It¡¯s gettingte. Lord Melgor needs to rest already, so take this back with you for your older sister. She hasn¡¯t stepped out of the carriage for the entire day already.¡±


    Chen Cheng was stunned by the words. Sweat broke out and beaded on his back.


    ¡°You¡¯re really funny, sir. I don¡¯t have an older sister,¡± Chen Cheng quickly said with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu hurriedly said apologetically, ¡°Look at how forgetful I am. Sorry, I misspoke. I meant your aunt!¡±


    Chen Cheng took the ham and thanked him before leaving. After hopping back into his carriage, he immediately parted the curtains a little and secretly checked the outside. However, he realized Ren Xiaosu was not looking at their carriage.


    ¡°Could he really have misspoken?¡± Chen Cheng wondered.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± the young sorceress, An¡¯an, asked.


    ¡°Somehow, I feel like he¡¯s already discovered us and even knows our identities, but I can¡¯t be sure.¡± Chen Cheng rted the conversation he had with Ren Xiaosu.


    An¡¯an said, ¡°It could have been a slip of the tongue. Look, he doesn¡¯t even know how to use a bow. Maybe all he has is that great strength of his.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± The middle-aged woman refuted, ¡°If he only had great strength, how could he possibly have discovered you sneaking into the Sorcerer¡¯sTower in the middle of the night? You should be more careful for the time being. He might really have realized something.¡±


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t he capture us?¡± An¡¯an muttered, ¡°Although it looks like there¡¯s only the four of them, quite a number of the traders¡¯ guards are actually protecting them in secret. If he gave the order, we would probably get attacked by several dozen people at the same time. So why didn¡¯t he say anything if he realized something?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure what his motives are either.¡± The woman was also puzzled. They could not even figure out whether Ren Xiaosu was friend or foe right now.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± An¡¯an was stunned before saying, ¡°This might have something to do with those words he mentioned previously. Riders! Ren He!¡±


    The woman asked, ¡°What were you saying before he mentioned those words?¡±


    An¡¯an recalled, ¡°Only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal.¡±

 Chapter 1116 - Ascertaining the situation

    <h4>Chapter 1116 Ascertaining the situation</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge


    ¡°Only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal,¡± the middle-aged woman muttered.


    ¡°Does this motto have any hidden meanings?¡± An¡¯an asked.


    The middle-aged woman suddenly said solemnly to An¡¯an and Chen Cheng, ¡°Remember, from today onwards, don¡¯t ever provoke him again. Although I don¡¯t know who he is, I suddenly feel that the reason you were


    able to escape unscathed that night was because he decided to let you go when he heard you say those words.¡±


    ¡°What makes you think he was the one that let me go?¡± An¡¯an was puzzled. ¡°I escaped with my own abilities!¡±


    ¡°Silly child.¡± The middle-aged woman said helplessly, ¡°Just think about that person in the white mask. Those crossbow bolts even shattered when they hit him. Surely you can see that there¡¯s a problem with him, right?¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± An¡¯an said softly, ¡°But it¡¯s White Mask who¡¯s powerful, not that kid.¡±


    ¡°He might be trying to pass on some information rted to himself to your father through you.¡± The woman said, ¡°I¡¯ve actually heard your father and grandfather mention the name Ren He before. Perhaps your father


    will understand everything once | tell him, so don¡¯t go and provoke that kid for now, understand? Who knows, he might even be a rtively important person. Let¡¯s wait until we get to Ghent City safely before we do


    anything.¡±


    An¡¯an muttered, ¡°He looks really young, so how can he be anyone important?¡±


    The middle-aged woman exined, ¡°That motto was passed down in our organization from a very long time ago. I don¡¯t know where it originated from, but I¡¯ve always heard everyone mention it. Could he... really have


    some links to us?¡±


    ¡°Father didn¡¯t mention the origins of that motto before?¡± An¡®an asked curiously.


    ¡°When I was young, I did ask your grandpa before. But he always told me the same thing.¡± The middle-aged woman pondered it for a moment. ¡°His answer at that time was that it was better for the girls at home not to


    know about these things.¡±


    ¡°Why? Does Grandpa still favor boys over girls?¡± An¡¯an pursed her lips.


    ¡°That¡¯s not it.¡± The middle-aged woman smiled and helped An¡¯an straighten her hair. ¡°At that time, he said girls shouldn¡¯t have to know about such dangerous things. The magus order has a huge feud with us. As we


    haven¡¯t umted enough strength to fight them yet, he thought it¡¯d be better not to let us in on too many things.¡±


    ¡°I know we have a feud with the magus order. Why don¡¯t I go and kill Melgor right now?¡± Anan said, ¡°The Chamber of Commerce serves food to them daily. That Ren Xiaosu might not be easy to deal with, but we can


    poison him through the Chamber of Commerce without anyone finding out.¡±


    An¡¯an¡¯s full name was Chen Shen¡¯an. They had been taught since childhood that they had to be wary of all sorcerers and learn to question every word they said. Because every word the dirty sorcerers said was a lie.


    The middle-aged woman shook her head. ¡°Sorcerers like Melgor are a little different. The so-called Children of Heaven are just poor souls controlled by the magus order. In my opinion, if you don¡¯t do evil and wreck an


    entire county, you¡¯re actually no different from a normal person. On another note, your act of arson that day to distract attention from yourself was wrong too. You should avoid doing such things in the future.¡±


    ¡°But I was fleeing for my life. Besides, the people in York County who can own horses are definitely very rich, and none of those rich families are good people,¡± An¡®an said angrily.


    The middle-aged woman suddenly sat up straight. ¡°An¡¯an, you cannot look at the world this way. Life isn¡¯t simply ck or white. Are the poor definitely good? Must the rich all be bad people? If only the world were


    really that simple. You have to understand that we only perform meaningful deeds and do not do things based on our own preferences.¡±


    The middle-aged woman continued, ¡°You and Little Cheng are still young, so it¡¯s normal that your attitudes are extreme and rebellious. But you have to understand one thing. Only by judging people without any bias


    can you be someone like your father.¡±


    An¡¯an lowered her head. ¡°OK, Aunt, but what can I do now? The stable has already burned down.¡±


    ¡°Before we left York County, I ced ten gold coins under a pillow at their ce. I believe they¡¯ve already discovered it.¡± When the woman saw that An¡¯an had taken her advice to heart, she heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°But


    pensation is justpensation. If the owner of that family had feelings for their horses, you couldn¡¯t rpense an intangible thing like that. Feelings are priceless.¡±


    Curious, An¡¯an asked, ¡°What if I was only able to save myself by hurting others while escaping? What should I do then?¡±


    The middle-aged woman thought for a moment and replied, ¡°In that situation, it¡¯s better to hurt others than get hurt yourself.¡±


    The sorceress, An¡¯an, was stunned. ¡°Aunt, why is it different from your earlier advice?¡±


    The middle-aged woman said helplessly, ¡°That¡¯s theplexity of the world, I guess.¡±


    ¡°By the way,¡± Chen Cheng suddenly said from next to them, ¡°that young man called Ren Xiaosu treats Melgor as he pleases. Just now, Melgor was about to reveal they were heading to Ghent City, but Ren Xiaosu


    stepped on his foot.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± The middle-aged woman nodded. ¡°It¡¯s good enough that we¡¯ve identified him as someone special. Let¡¯s keep that a secret for now and talk about it after we arrive in Ghent City. When the timees, we can


    ry all of this info to your father. We¡¯ll get an answer then.¡±


    ¡°We still have a long way to go before we get to Ghent City.¡± Chen Cheng said, ¡°Why don¡¯t I go and ascertain the situation further?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s better that you don¡¯t go and find Ren Xiaosu anymore. You¡¯re not his match when ites to probing others for facts,¡± the woman said.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll start with Sorcerer Melgor and his two other servants. Those three don¡¯t look too smart,¡± Chen Cheng said.


    The middle-aged woman thought for a moment and said, ¡°I guess that¡¯s fine.¡±


    An¡¯an asked with a sparkle in her eyes, ¡°Will we get to see Big Sis Summer on our trip to Ghent City this time?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, she¡¯ll be there as well,¡± the middle-aged woman replied with a smile.


    ¡°Awesome,¡± An¡¯an said with a smile.


    The next day, the trade caravan set off early in the morning. Unlike the previous day, the caravan guards were much more alert. They all rode on their horses to patrol the front and rear of the caravan, and Qian


    Weining even sent out two men to act as scouts in case they got ambushed by bandits.


    Seeing that Qian Weining had deployed all the guards in an orderly fashion, Ren Xiaosu was even more tempted to bring him to join the Prosperous Northwest. Although he would only be apany-level officer, Ren


    Xiaosu could not be too picky since the Northwest was still a rising power.


    In any case, Ren Xiaosu had already made up his mind to abduct several hundred thousand people, so one more person wouldn¡¯t make a difference.


    During this time, Chen Cheng took advantage of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s busy schedule to quickly be acquainted with the sheeple, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting.


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were from well-off families, but Chen Cheng was a smart young man. He fooled the two sheeple easily with his extensive travel experiences, with both of them hanging out with Chen Cheng


    all day long to listen to his stories.


    It only took a while before Chen Cheng was shocked to learn from the sheeple that the young man named Ren Xiaosu was not a local citizen of the Kingdom of Sorcerers..

 Chapter 1117 - Oppressing the good

    <h4>Chapter 1117 Oppressing the good</h4>


    ¡°So you¡¯re telling me that he¡¯s not from the Kingdom of Sorcerers?¡± Chen Cheng found it a little unbelievable. ¡°Then where¡¯s he from?¡±


    ¡°Where else?¡± Li Chengguo muttered, ¡°Fortress 178, of course.¡±


    Chen Cheng looked very interested. ¡°I¡¯ve never been to Fortress 178 before. Quick, tell me what happened.¡±


    As such, Li Chengguo told him about how the two of them had discovered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts before Melgor restrained him with the Earth Bind spell. Chen Cheng was surprised. ¡°So he was actually taken captive to the Kingdom of Sorcerers by Lord Melgor? But he doesn¡¯t look like a captive to me? And he¡¯s not particrly polite to Lord Melgor either.¡±


    Logically, since Ren Xiaosu was a captive, his status should be very low. So how did the tables turn and make him look like he was the boss now?!


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting thought back on everything for a long time before saying with a sigh, ¡°Actually, we can¡¯t figure out what went wrong either....¡±


    To be honest, they really did not know where it had gone wrong. Ren Xiaosu had be the authoritative voice in their group, and even Sorcerer Melgor would subconsciously listen to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s suggestions.


    Chen Cheng mentally took note of what they said. He felt this should be considered very important information.


    Ren Xiaosu came from the Central ins, yet he was extremely interested in the traditional motto of their organization.


    The young man named Ren Xiaosu might just prove to be very important to their organization. ¡°By the way, what hobbies does Ren Xiaosu have?¡± Chen Cheng asked with a smile.


    Liu Ting said expressionlessly, ¡°He enjoys oppressing the good!¡±


    Chen Cheng felt his chest tightening. Their organization did not like such people at all. ¡°Be more specific, in what way does he oppress the good? Who does he oppress?¡±. Liu Ting pointed at Li Chengguo first, then at himself. ¡°Mainly the two of us.¡±


    Chen Cheng¡¯s mouth twitched. ¡°Interesting...¡±


    Just as he was about to ask more questions, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice rang out behind Chen Cheng. ¡°What are y¡¯all chatting so happily about?¡±


    Chen Cheng turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu looking at him with a smile. There was clearly nothing wrong with that smile, but sweat again beaded on Chen Cheng¡¯s back. ¡°Ahem, nothing much. I¡¯ll be going now.¡±


    When he returned to his own carriage, the middle-aged woman was dismantling and cleaning her crossbow. ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Why do you look so flustered?¡±


    Chen Cheng said in a low voice, ¡°Aunt, Ren Xiaosu came from the Central ins. He was brought here as a prisoner by Melgor.¡±


    The middle-aged woman was taken aback. ¡°The Central ins?¡±


    ¡°Yes, does our organization have any links to the Central ins?¡± Chen Cheng asked. ¡°That I do know a little about,¡± the middle-aged woman said with a frown. The young sorceress¡¯s interest was also piqued. ¡°Father has mentioned the Central ins to me before as well. What¡¯s our rtionship with the Central ins?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t tell you two much for the time being, but there¡¯s something I can let you know. The founder of our organization was from the Central ins,¡± the middle-aged woman said.


    The trade caravan continued advancing for two days without encountering bandits again. On the third night, Qian Weining quietly paid a visit to Melgor while everyone was asleep.


    The vice president of the York County Chamber of Commerce looked at Melgor and said in a serious tone, ¡°Revered Lord Melgor, we¡¯ll be entering the mountains tomorrow. Can you please tell me what kinds of enemies you¡¯re facing? Why are they pursuing you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened from nearby and thought Qian Weining was sound in his judgment.


    Melgor looked at Qian Weining and said, ¡°How do you know those people are targeting me?¡± ¡°Because other than you, no one else in the trade caravan is worthy of the other party mobilizing so many people to go after.¡± Qian Weining said softly, ¡°The goods might be worth a lot of money, but it¡¯s not worth it for the other party to take such a risk with those brand-new fletched arrows and longbows from the military. It¡¯s also not worth it for them to make a move so close to York County.¡±


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you turn the trade caravan around and return to York County?¡± Melgor asked curiously. ¡°That¡¯s actually the most appropriate action to take, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Qian Weining lowered his voice and said, ¡°I have my reasons for continuing the expedition. All I want to know is what kinds of enemies you¡¯re facing, Lord Melgor. Only then can I determine how to deal with them.¡±


    Nearby, Ren Xiaosu cut in with a smile, ¡°I think you¡¯re mistaken about something. Lord Melgor doesn¡¯t have any enemies. Those bandits are not here for us. Who knows, it might be you they¡¯re actually after?¡±


    The words left Qian Weining stunned. However, Qian Weining did not refute Ren Xiaosu¡¯s usation for the moment.


    Ren Xiaosu was just bluffing Qian Weining, but little did he expect to hit the mark. After Ren Xiaosu brushed off Qian Weining with a few simple words, he then said to Melgor, ¡°Why do you think Qian Weining insists on going to Ghent City?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Melgor shook his head. ¡°Maybe he wants to make money? I know he doesn¡¯t receive a fixed sum for his sry as the vice president but earns amission based on how many trade expeditions he can put together. If he makes one less trip, he¡¯ll earn less money. If the goods suffer any losses, the Chamber of Commerce will also deduct the money from his pay.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s definitely not that simple.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°That person is very smart. He definitely knows which is more important, making money or keeping his life. It¡¯s clear now that the road ahead is super dangerous and he might even die in the process. In that case, there must be something more important than his life since he still wants to go to Ghent City.¡±


    In reality, Ren Xiaosu was already a little curious on the first night. At that time, Qian Weining had already discovered something fishy about the bandits, but he did not lead the trade caravan back to the city.


    Under normal circumstances, merchants prioritized making money. As the saying goes, peace breeds wealth. What merchant would risk their lives to sell their wares for no reason?


    However, Qian Weining did not turn around. Instead, he decided to conceal his suspicions of the bandits and continue with the expedition.


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Then what should we do? Is this good or bad news?¡±


    ¡°Let me analyze it for you.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The Tudor family wants you dead so that their precious heir won¡¯t have to face gossip after marrying your childhood sweetheart, right?¡±


    ¡°Um, yeah,¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°Qian Weining wants to go to Ghent City for some reason, but there¡¯s also people who want him dead. You¡¯ve figured that out, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Um, yeah,¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have enough info right now to determine whether the bandits that attacked us on the first night were here to kill you or him.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But regardless of who the target might be, their goal was definitely to wipe out the entire caravan. So this is just a rtively simple case of addition and subtraction. Right now, be it you or Qian Weining, the number of enemies you two have to face has just doubled. Are you surprised?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Melgor stared nkly at Ren Xiaosu again. ¡°Then should we run?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu patted Melgor on the shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m here!¡±

 Chapter 1118 - Mystical archery

    <h4>Chapter 1118 Mystical archery</h4>


    On the third night of the trade caravan¡¯s expedition, the group had just stopped to set up camp when Qian Weining sent out his guards to patrol the surroundings of the campsite.


    The guards were all wearing brown leather armor sewn together from severalyers of cowhide. This was enough to stop the attacks of the average ded weapon. At the very least, it would be very difficult for the average attacker to immediately cause them fatal injuries while they wore the leather armor.


    After Qian Weining was sent away by Ren Xiaosu, he returned a second time.


    He said to Melgor in a serious tone, ¡°Your Excellency Lord Melgor, I have to be honest. I¡¯m currently facing some danger. But at the same time, I also understand something very clearly. Although the enemy you¡¯re facing is different from mine, our situation is exactly the same. So no matter whose enemy we encounter on this journey, please don¡¯t hold back your strength. Only like so will we reach Ghent City safely. Can we agree on that?¡± These words made Melgor worried. He knew full well that Qian Weining would only have such a serious discussion with him if he were facing a very powerful enemy. He pondered it for a long time and then looked at Ren Xiaosu¡­


    Ren Xiaosu smiled at Qian Weining and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m here.¡±


    When Qian Weining heard this, he was stunned. Meanwhile, Melgor became even more worried. At some point, Melgor even suspected these words might be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s catchphrase. No matter what you asked that young man, he would always answer you with those words.


    The atmosphere at the camp was no longer cheerful like it was on the first day. It even felt a little gloomy as they traveled during the day.


    The young people who had just left York County to pursue their dreams in the big cities came to understand the cruelty of the world as soon as they stepped out of their hometown.


    They would never forget how they had to personally bury theirpanions on the first night.


    After the wagon fort was set up, Ren Xiaosu leaned against one of the carriages and asked, ¡°What¡¯s the purchasing power of the Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ currency? How much can gold coins buy?¡± Melgor shook his head. ¡°Gold coins aren¡¯t usually used in daily transactions. It¡¯s moremon to see silver and copper coins on the market. Under normal circumstances, one copper coin can purchase five kilos of rice. A 100 copper coins are equivalent to one silver coin, and 20 silver coins are equivalent to one gold coin. Of course, there are fluctuations in the exchange rate between silver and gold coins. Basically, the fluctuations are generally between 19 to 21 silver coins for one gold coin, and some people even hoard gold or silver coins for arbitrage.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°That¡¯s very easy business since they¡¯d only need to pay attention to the gold and silver prices. But does no one do anything about them?¡± ¡°Why would anyone care?¡± Melgor remarked, ¡°There¡¯s a transaction fee for every currency exchange. You might be able to make money from arbitrage, but the sorcerer banks will never, ever make a loss.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly stopped in his tracks. Curious, Melgor asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Enemies,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Melgor was a little puzzled. ¡°How do you know? Why didn¡¯t I notice anything?¡± ¡°Intuition,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and realized he was observing Qian Weining and the others. He was unsure of what Ren Xiaosu might be thinking


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s so-called intuition finally shocked Melgor. While avoiding being pursued, Ren Xiaosu had used his powerful intuition to help Melgor avoid the me Pir spell.


    Then on the first night the trade caravan was attacked by the bandits, Ren Xiaosu helped him avoid dozens of arrows fired at them. At that moment, Melgor even felt that as long as Ren Xiaosu was around, no arrows could hit him once.


    Gradually, he got a strange feeling that as long as Ren Xiaosu was protecting him, he would definitely not die.


    Melgor did not know why he felt this way. Perhaps he had started to believe Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bragging?


    Previously, Melgor did not think too much about it. Just as Ren Xiaosu had told him, even though he had be a sorcerer, he was still only a rookie sorcerer who had never killed anyone before.


    But now, when Melgor saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s calm expression, he suddenly wondered how he could stay soposed. Did Ren Xiaosu brag so much that he even started to believe it himself? Or was he already so capable he did not have any fear?! ¡°Then should I go and help Qian Weining and the others?¡± Melgor suddenly asked.


    ¡°Forget it, arrows don¡¯t have eyes. They¡¯ll be fine.¡± After that, Ren Xiaosu called the two sheeple over from the campfire to take cover behind the carriage together.


    At this moment, hundreds of bandits were closing in on the camp from the mountain path outside. They did not notice a shadow watching them distantly from the mountain. Ren Xiaosu did not control Old Xu to make a move immediately because he was waiting for the bandits to engage Qian Weining and his men and start firing at each other.


    Ren Xiaosu was hoping Qian Weining would get recognized as a sharpshooter in everyone¡¯s eyes and wanted to use these repeated battles to help cement his reputation. After that, all of the enemies would focus their attention on Qian Weining and neglect him, or even Melgor.


    Bandits were againing to attack them. But once the other party realized bandits were not enough to aplish the mission, they would start deploying their regr troops.


    At that time, it would all depend how many regr troops the other party wanted to send in disguised as bandits. By this point, that group of bandits on the mountain had arrived near the camp. They quietly calcted the distance beforeunching an arrow volley at the same time.


    Concurrently, a group of several dozen bandits approached the trade caravan¡¯s camp under the cover of the arrow fire.


    As this group of bandits slowly approached the carriage walls, Qian Weining was suddenly alerted. Before he could get up, an arrownded in the middle of the camp with dozens more following close behind.


    Qian Weining¡¯s expression froze. He immediately got up and fired back in the direction of the arrows through a gap in the carriage walls.


    As soon as the arrow left his hand, the scream of a bandit came from the bushes on the opposite slope. Qian Weining was stunned. He had clearly not aimed his shot properly, yet he still managed to hit someone?


    Qian Weining nocked another arrow and loosed. Then another scream rang out from the other side.


    To be honest, Qian Weining had never experienced such a fun battle before. It was as though once he drew his bow, someone would surely die on the opposing side.


    This was no longer a battle bound by physicalws. It was pure magic!


    Qian Weining shot arrows one after another as screams rang out in session on the other side of the mountain. Even Qian Weining himself thought he might have been possessed by a god. He was simply the reincarnation of the God of War!


    When the two guards at his side saw how valiant their vice president was, they even stopped firing their bows and ran over to Qian Weining to pass him more arrows. They were like specialists whose dedicated job was to load the ammunition belt of a heavy machine gun.


    An instantter, an arrow suddenly shot through a gap between the carriages and grazed Qian Weining¡¯s scalp.


    In shock, Qian Weining subconsciously leaned back to dodge, while the arrow he had just fired lost its aim.


    When he saw that arrow fly into the sky, Qian Weining even felt a little regretful.


    But before he couldpletelyment that miss, another bandit¡¯s scream came from the opposite side of the slope. Qian Weining froze.

 Chapter 1119 - Another bounty hunter appears

    <h4>Chapter 1119 Another bounty hunter appears</h4>


    No matter how much confidence Qian Weining had umted prior to this moment, he also understood this arrow was totally off target and could not have hit any of the bandits.


    However, after the arrow disappeared into the darkness of the night, a scream still rang out on the opposite slope where the bandits were.


    Immediately, Qian Weining asked the guards next to him, ¡°Was that bandit shot by one of


    you?¡±


    A guard beside him said, ¡°Vice President Qian, we were all taking cover just now and couldn¡¯t even lift our heads. None of us fired an arrow at the enemy.¡±


    Qian Weining¡¯s expression turned strange. What was going on?


    But before he could deliberate further, another group of bandits who had found their way over from the foot of the mountain were closing in. When Qian Weining saw the moving figures, he hurriedly shouted, ¡°Don¡¯t get distracted. Hurry up and stop the enemy!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw Qian Weining stunned, he knew it was bad.


    Earlier, Ren Xiaosu had controlled ¡°Old Xu¡± to take out the bandits the moment Qian Weining fired his arrow. He was doing everything reflexively, so he did not notice Qian Weining had slipped up and fired off an arrow at a wrong angle.


    What a miscalction it was by Ren Xiaosu!


    But it did not matter. He knew how to remedy the situation.


    At this moment, everything seemed to have returned to normal. Qian Weining was still on his ¡°one shot, one kill¡± rate while the number of bandits rapidly decreased.


    In just half an hour, only about a dozen bandits remained from the 100-odd bandits who attacked. Furthermore, they were still unable to get close to the carriage walls of the trade caravan.


    The leader of the bandits was filled with hatred. He really wanted to kill the guards of the trade caravan to avenge hisrades, but he understood he had been rendered powerless.


    ¡°Retreat!¡±


    With hismand, the dozen-odd surviving bandits turned around and ran into the mountains.


    Some of the guards wanted to give chase, but Qian Weining stopped them. ¡°Don¡¯t pursue them. Let¡¯s seize their bows and arrows first. After that, split up into teams and follow my lead. We¡¯re going to inspect their bodies!¡±


    With that, Qian Weining leaped out through a gap in the wagon fort and headed straight for the slope the bandits were previously holding. He did not care if there were any more ambushes waiting outside.


    The guards looked at each other and followed close behind. Everyone could not understand why the usually calm Vice President Qian would suddenly get so impatient. When they all climbed up the slope, they saw the bandits¡¯ corpses strewn all over the ground with arrows impaled between the eyes. The guards praised, ¡°Wonderful archery, Vice President Qian!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right, how did you train your archery to be able to hit so precisely between the eyes?¡±


    Although they were partly trying to tter him, most of their praise was sincere. In the entire royal army of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, how many people could master archery to this level?


    However, Qian Weining ignored the guards¡¯ ttery. Instead, he looked around for any suspicious corpses.


    A secondter, he saw a corpse that did not seem quite right. Almost all of the bandits were shot directly between the eyes, but this person¡­ had an arrow sticking out from the top of his head.


    It was as though the arrow had fallen out of the sky andnded squarely on this bandit¡¯s head.


    One of the guards praised, ¡°Vice President Qian is really godlike. I thought that missed shot totally missed its mark. I didn¡¯t expect Vice President Qian¡¯s archery to be so amazing. It looked like you misfired that arrow, but it was actually a very astute shot.¡±


    These words left Qian Weining dumbfounded. Listening to everyone¡¯s praise, he became a little unsure of the situation. However, he felt the odds of this shot were ridiculous.


    While the guards were ttering him, the dozen-odd bandits who escaped had fled into the depths of the mountains. The pathetic-looking bandits did not even notice there was a ck figure quietly following them. Suddenly, the leader of the bandits slowly stopped in his tracks. He drew a saber from his belt and looked straight ahead. ¡°Who¡¯s there?!¡±


    A figure wearing the attire of a bounty hunter appeared at the end of the mountain path in a sh with an orange Eye of True Sight held tightly in his hand. ¡°You people are really disappointing.¡± In the dark of the night, the violet sigil on his orange Eye of True Sight pulsed, like it was breathing. The bandits all looked at the bounty hunter in fear and tensed up. ¡°You didn¡¯t say there was a sharpshooter in their group.¡± The bandit leader roared angrily, ¡°Dozens of my men have been killed by him. I¡¯ve never seen anyone whose archery was so precise before. Who on earth did you ask us to kill!? They have such a powerful expert protecting them!¡±


    The bounty hunter sighed. ¡°You¡¯re weak, yet you im that your opponent is strong. There aren¡¯t any ¡®sharpshooters¡¯ in that group at all.¡±


    ¡°How is that possible? Are you saying I¡¯m lying when I say that myrades were shot between the eyes?¡± the bandit leader said.


    ¡°Never mind, there¡¯s no need for me to waste my time with you people.¡± The bounty hunter asked, ¡°Where¡¯s my gold coins? Since the mission was notpleted, I can¡¯t let you leave with the payment.¡± The bandit leader sneered, ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t myrades have died in vain? I won¡¯t tell you where the gold coins are. Furthermore, you¡¯d better think it over carefully. I know what you look like. If the fact that you tried to assassinate a sorcerer today gets leaked, you know very well what the consequences will be.¡±


    ass


    Bounty hunters were backed by the sorcerer ns, but they were also chess pieces that could be abandoned at will by the same ns. The magus order¡¯sws stated that whoever attempted to assassinate sorcerers would be a public enemy.


    This was a rule everyone had to abide by. You could find a loophole around it, but you could not go directly against it.


    Therefore, even if they wanted to kill a measly sorcerer like Melgor, the mastermind would still have to find a scapegoat.


    The bounty hunter smiled calmly. ¡°Are you threatening me? No wonder you all ended up here in these remote mountains and turned to banditry.¡± After that, the Eye of True Sight in the bounty hunter¡¯s hand glowed. He even started chanting a faint incantation.


    When the bandits saw that the situation had turned unfavorable, they tried to escape. But before they could get far, a blue streak of ice burst out from under the feet of the bounty hunter. The icy streak emitted dense cold air, and the meandering shape on the ground resembled an irregr crack splitting a cier.


    The line of ice moved extremely fast. When it caught up to the bandits, they stopped in their tracks in an instant.


    Cold air spread upwards from under the bandits¡¯ feet as white frost covered their bodies at visible speed. The bandits turned into ice statues with their backs facing the bounty hunter as their skin turned an icy blue.


    It was early summer. With more than a dozen ice statues suddenly appearing in the warm climate, it was an extremely terrifying sight.


    The bounty hunter did not stop there. He further recited the incantation for Wind Bind and used an invisible stream of air to shatter the ice statues, turning them into powder.


    However, when the bounty hunter cast Wind Bind on thest frozen bandit, he realized his spell had no effect on him.


    The bounty hunter was stunned. ¡°What¡¯s going on? How could it not have shattered?¡±


    After three seconds of silence, Old Xu, who was wearing the white mask, turned around and picked up a branch. It kneeled on the ground and wrote, ¡°Why don¡¯t you¡­ try again?¡±

 Chapter 1120 - Gold coin

    <h4>Chapter 1120 Gold coin</h4>


    What the fuck? Try again?!


    When the bounty hunter saw the words written on the ground by Old Xu, he got so angry he nearly flipped out. ¡°Who¡¯re you? Why did you disguise yourself as one of the bandits?¡±


    Old Xu wrote on the ground in response. But just two strokes in, the branch in its hand snapped. As such, Old Xu went to search for another branch while the bounty hunter waited in confusion.


    After a while, Old Xu finally found another branch. Then it kneeled on the ground again and wrote, ¡°None of your business.¡±


    The bounty hunter sneered, ¡°Are you making fun of me?¡±


    Old Xu shook its head and wrote on the ground, ¡°Why do you want to kill Melgor?¡±


    ¡°I get it now. You must be the one protecting Melgor.¡± The bounty hunter¡¯s voice slowly turned solemn. ¡°Those two bounty hunters sent to kill him previously were also killed by you, right? And their Eyes of True Sight must be in your possession too?¡±


    Old Xu wrote on the ground, ¡°You can say that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was still at the camp at this moment. When he heard through Old Xu¡¯s perception what the other party said, he thought to himself, ¡®They¡¯ve already sent three bounty hunters after Melgor. Taking them out one by one like this, I¡¯ll probably attract a bunch of enemies to me. Who knows, an archmage might even get involved personally and deal with me.¡¯


    That would really be great!


    The bounty hunter startedughing. ¡°I¡¯m really lucky then. I¡¯ll just need to kill you, and I can retrieve their Eyes of True Sight in one fell swoop.¡±


    Old Xu expressed some puzzlement and wrote on the ground, ¡°You that tough?¡± Just as Old Xu was writing with its head lowered, the bounty hunterunched a sneak attack. Two streaks of ice shot out from under his feet again.


    Those two intimidating icy blue streaks resembled two interweaving azure dragons as they forged ahead. But when they got to Old Xu¡¯s feet, the shadow clone did not seem affected by the spell at all!


    The bounty hunter was stunned again. ¡°What the hell are you? Why aren¡¯t you affected by my Ice Seal spell?¡±


    But Old Xu did not intend to waste any more time exining to him. It conjured a ck saber in its hand, and with a darting step, rushed to the front of the bounty hunter and thrust the ck saber into his heart.


    However, something weird happened. As the bounty hunter slowly fell to the ground, the blood spurting out of his chest started flowing on the ground.


    As the trickle of blood moved, a strange magic circle was drawn onto the ground in a mere three seconds.


    Then a st of cold air burst out through the circle. Instantly, the dense air solidified near its center and formed into an ice bust of a person.


    When the ice sculpture opened its mouth, an elderly voice spoke, ¡°Who activated the Bloodline Summoning spell¡ª¡±.


    The ice sculpture suddenly stopped mid-sentence because Old Xu was poking at its nostrils with the branch it just used to write on the ground. Ren Xiaosu could see via Old Xu¡¯s perception that the ice sculpture resembled a dignified elder whose facial features included a strange hook nose and extremely deep-set eyes. From what the ice sculpture had just said, its appearance here was probably rted to the bounty hunter. However, Ren Xiaosu found it surprising. So it turned out there were such strange spells in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. When the ice sculpture appeared, Ren Xiaosu could feel the temperature around Old Xu drop by at least 30 degrees Celsius.


    Compared to this spell, Melgor¡¯s Wind Bind and Earth Bind spells were way too crappy.


    It was no wonder Melgor always imed to be just a fringe figure. So it turned out the sorcerer ns indeed controlled some pretty mysterious spells. In that case, it was better for him to tread carefully.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s usual contempt for Mel surfaced again. Meanwhile, the ice sculpture opposite Old Xu waspletely enraged.


    In all these years, this was the first time someone poked his nostrils with a branch while he was speaking!


    The ice sculpture floated in midair. He formed a pair of hands using the frosty air and crushed the branch poking his nostrils. Then he said in a deep voice, ¡°You killed a member of my n?¡±


    Old Xu thought for a moment before squatting down to write on the ground with its ck saber, ¡°Cut the crap.¡±


    The ice sculpture remained in stunned silence for a long time, not knowing how to react.


    In his opinion, everyone in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers should recognize his face. As such, instead of arguing with him here, everyone should feel a sense of fear and awe the moment he appeared!


    The ice sculpture suddenlyughed. ¡°Interesting. You can still remain this calm after seeing me. You don¡¯t look like a grown-up to me, young man. As someone who¡¯s been through it all, I used to be ignorant and shot my mouth off like you when I was younger¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, he saw White Mask squat down in front of him again and write, ¡°Yeah, you certainly came through that circle, alright! Where did youe from? Did I ask you over?¡±


    It was at this moment that the ice sculpture realized the two of them were on totally different wavelengths. There was no way tomunicate!


    No, the other party was, in fact, not interested inmunicating with him. He was just messing around and trying to confuse him with those nonsensical replies!


    Thinking of this, the ice sculpture stopped talking. He ced his hands together and turned from an ice sculpture into an icy crystalline falcon before soaring at Old Xu.


    The falcon was extremely swift and went for Old Xu¡¯s face like lightning. Old Xu shed at it with the ck saber head-on, but the falcon turned into a frosty gust and dodged the attack. After the ck saber¡¯s de passed through it, the frosty gust transformed back into its falcon form and forcefully ripped off Old Xu¡¯s white mask.


    Ren Xiaosu finally realized the other party¡¯s intention was to uncover Old Xu¡¯s mask so he would know who to look for to seek revenge on at ater date.


    From this, it could be seen that the other party was unable to fully wield his powers in this summoned state. Otherwise, he would have just fought Old Xu without the need for so much trouble.


    However¡­ when the ice falcon removed Old Xu¡¯s mask, the sorcerer was shocked to discover there was no face underneath it. There was only a cloud of ck mist!


    Honestly, not even the most powerful sorcerers of the ancient ns in this current era had seen such a strange sight before!


    Before the sorcerer could think any further, Old Xu swung its saber at the ice falcon that was flying away, shattering it into pieces.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®This old man seems pretty famous. He sounded like everyone should know him and even expects to be recognized from his appearance as an ice sculpture.¡¯


    But it just so happened that Ren Xiaosu was from anothernd.


    Ren Xiaosu made Old Xu pick up the orange Eye of True Sight on the ground before disappearing into the wilderness.


    The crowd at the camp gradually grew relieved as they noisily discussed things among themselves.


    They were not as panicky anymore, since a powerful sharpshooter had emerged in their caravan.


    At this moment, everyone wasuding Qian Weining¡¯s amazing archery, or rather, it was mainly Qian Weining¡¯s guards who were ttering him.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at the crowd and whispered to Melgor, ¡°Are there any people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers that everyone knows? Like someone who¡¯s known to everyone.¡¯


    ¡°Of course there are.¡± Melgor smiled and took out a gold coin from his sleeve. ¡°Here. Their portraits are engraved on either side of the gold, silver, and copper coins in the kingdom. Everyone knows them.¡± Melgor thought he was being witty and cleverly answered the question. As for Ren Xiaosu, he got the correct answer he needed.


    Ren Xiaosu pointed to the old man on the obverse of the gold coin and asked, ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s the current head of the House of Tudor. Since 40 years ago, he¡¯s had his bust engraved on the obverse of all gold coins issued by the mint.¡±


    ¡°What about the reverse side?¡±


    ¡°The bust of the current head of the House of Norman is engraved on the reverse. The two ck Eyes of True Sight that I mentioned are in their possession.¡±

 Chapter 1121 - Deciding fate

    <h4>Chapter 1121 Deciding fate</h4>


    Before Melgor took the gold coin out from his sleeve, Ren Xiaosu had never seen the currency of the Kingdom of Sorcerers before. This was because he had no need for it.


    In some myths, coins were a representation of fate.


    It was not that coins had some kind of special meaning to them but that people had a habit of tossing a coin to decide their fate.


    For example, a person might toss a coin to decide whether to go left or right or whether to have supper or not. There were even examples of people tossing a coin to decide whether to be a good or bad person. Such decisions were made on a whim.


    The tossed coin would ring pleasantly as it spun in midair, and by the time itnded, some people¡¯s fates would be decided.


    Ren Xiaosu held the gold coin from Melgor and smiled without saying a word. So it turned out the people he was looking for were both on this coin.


    Wasn¡¯t this such a coincidence?


    He flicked the coin high up into the air with his thumb. The gold coin glittered brightly as the busts of the Tudor and Norman family heads on both sides of the coin alternated under the golden glow of the campfire. When the tossed coin reached its highest point, it slowed down and continued spinning in the reverse direction. The coin that represented fatended back in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand.


    Curious, Melgor asked, ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m tossing a coin to decide fate,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t believe in such things.¡± Melgor remarked, ¡°How can you toss a coin to decide your own fate?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu opened his palm, the bust of the Tudor family head happened to be facing up. He smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s not my fate that I¡¯m deciding.¡±


    Melgor hesitated for a moment and asked, ¡°Then whose?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu ced the gold coin back in Melgor¡¯s hand. ¡°I¡¯m using it to decide the fate of others.¡±


    As the campfire flickered, Melgor suddenly felt that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s demeanor and tone revealed a ruthless side he had never seen before.


    In fact, the coins Ren Xiaosu had seen before usually bore the portraits of people who were already dead. For example, Qing Zhen¡¯s great grandfather¡¯s portrait was on the Qing Consortium¡¯s currency, while the Northwest¡¯s coins featured the fourth generation fortressmander¡¯s portrait. It was very rare for anyone still alive to be featured as portraits on coins.


    Therefore, the practice of featuring a living person¡¯s portrait on coins in the Kingdom of Sorcerers really left Ren Xiaosu quite surprised.


    But it did not matter. He could just turn those two people featured on the coins into dead people.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s main objective on this trip to the Kingdom of Sorcerers was to carry out his Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n.


    So what was exactly the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n? It was to enhance the corepetitiveness of the Northwest. On top of that, he wanted to deal with the threat of the Kingdom of Sorcerers once and for all.


    Ren Xiaosu had had an in-depth discussion with P5092. P5092 expressed that sooner orter, a war would break out between the Northwest and the Wang Consortium. Although the Wang Consortium had already unified the Central ins andpleted a series of seemingly impossible feats, and Wang Shengzhi¡¯s name would definitely go down in the annals of history because of this, his ideals would not stop there.


    Therefore, if Ren Xiaosu and the others wanted the Northwest to have a higher chance of winning in the uing war, solving the possibility of being attacked from both sides would be absolutely necessary. From the look of things, it seemed the Kingdom of Sorcerers had no intention of invading the Northwest in the near term. However, nothing was absolute in this world. What if the Wang Consortium were to send an envoy here?


    Based on the Wang Consortium¡¯s past actions, this was a very strong possibility.


    There was another possibility, and it was that the Wang Consortium¡¯s envoy might have already arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Thus, Ren Xiaosu would have to do his best to destroy the Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ warring capabilities on this trip.


    That night, the most cool-headed P5092 told Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, the moment you return to the Northwest, you¡¯ll no longer be that refugee boy who can only drift along with the decisions of others. Commander Zhang has already started handing over the fate of the Northwest to you, and close to ten million Northwestern people also have expectations for you. Maybe you might be very carefree when you only have to think about what¡¯s for your next meal or set up a stall in the market with Ms. Xiaojin like you used to, but that kind of life isn¡¯t yours to live anymore. You¡¯re destined to be the next leader of the Northwest, so you should understand what your duties are.¡±


    P5092, who always kept a level head, said, ¡°I¡¯m not saying this because I want to show you I know more than you as your subordinate, but I¡¯m certain the blood flowing within you is fully ready for this. Don¡¯t reject it anymore and just ept your calling.¡±


    As such, Ren Xiaosu went to Fortress 178 alone the next day to face the expectations of everyone in the Northwest and the responsibilities that came with it.


    Fundamentally, his purpose ining to the Kingdom of Sorcerers was to cause a massacre. The archmages were not innocent either because they all bore a blood debt numbering more than 200,000 Fortress 178 martyrs.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu would also not miss out on recruiting any candidates here who were suitable for the Prosperous Northwest.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu smiled at Melgor. ¡°Do you know what the Prosperous Northwest means?¡±


    Melgor was taken aback. ¡°The Prosperous Northwest? Never heard of it.¡±


    ¡°Never mind, you¡¯ll find out soon.¡±


    In the dark of the night, someone suddenly lifted the curtain door of the carriage where the young sorceress, An¡¯an, was in. A figure dressed in ck bolted out and headed stealthily in the direction the bandits had retreated.


    When she arrived at the battlefield, she could only see a pile of melting ice and flesh.


    An¡¯an looked around the battlefield. When she saw the mysterious magic circle next to the bounty hunter¡¯s corpse, she was bewildered.


    Then she went around the entire battlefield again, and after finding no other abnormalities, turned and headed back to the carriage.


    The middle-aged woman was waiting for An¡¯an throughout. When she saw her return, she asked, ¡°Did you discover anything?¡± ¡°Those bandits were likely instigated by someone, and the instigator should be a bounty hunter from one of the big sorcerer ns. That bounty hunter silenced all the remaining bandits who made it out.¡± An¡¯an continued, ¡°But just like how the mantis stalked the cicada unaware there was an oriole behind, the bounty hunter also got ambushed by someone else. Moreover, there were traces of Bloodline Summoning at the scene. That¡¯s what I found odd. A bounty hunter is only a fringe figure in the sorcerer ns, so how did he cast a secretive spell like Bloodline Summoning? Such spells are only taught to immediate n members.¡±


    The middle-aged woman thought for a moment and said, ¡°Although bounty hunters are usually fringe figures in the sorcerer ns, that¡¯s not an absolute. Some bounty hunters are actually not outsiders but illegitimate children of the family. You know that some archmages can have up to hundreds of children, so the possibility of fathering illegitimate children shouldn¡¯t be surprising. Thews of the Magi state that illegitimate children of the ns have no right of inheritance to be sorcerers, so a way around it is to sever their blood ties to their parents and be bounty hunters of the n. Of course, such illegitimate children are generally doted on by the archmages. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have specially taught them sorcery.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a thing? Then some archmage must be rather agonized by the loss,¡± An¡¯an gloated. ¡°Moreover, I suspect the bounty hunter was sent by the Tudor family, because the air temperature at the scene was rtively low. I also saw arge amount of residual ice.¡± ¡°The Tudor family?¡± The middle-aged woman pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°Who do you think they¡¯re targeting?¡±


    ¡°Melgor.¡± An¡¯an said firmly, ¡°On the night Ren Xiaosu pursued me, he asked if I was sent by the Tudor family!¡±


    ¡°Then they have the same enemy as us.¡± The middle-aged woman startedughing. ¡°Who knows, they might even bring us some other surprises.¡±

 Chapter 1122 - Flames of war

    <h4>Chapter 1122 mes of war</h4>


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought the trade caravan would get even more demoralized due to the bandit attack. But to his surprise, not only did the people in the caravan not be depressed, they even cheered up quite a bit.


    On the same night Qian Weining defeated the bandits, many people in the caravan started singing and dancing. It seemed like they were celebrating the victory.


    Even the two sheeple joined in.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Li Chengguo, ¡°Aren¡¯t you worried that bandits will attack uster on?¡¯


    WO


    However, Li Chengguo, the silly dolt, answered honestly, ¡°With a sharpshooter like Vice President Qian around, what¡¯s there to worry about?¡±


    Qian Weining had be the revered hero of the entire caravan.


    As a matter of fact, the people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were a little more optimistic than those in the Central ins. In fact, they were even a little ridiculously optimistic.


    The revelrysted for four hours. During these four hours, hundreds of people wanted to toast Qian Weining. Fortunately, Qian Weining remained sober and did not have a single drop of alcohol.


    While the crowd was celebrating, Qian Weining went to look for Melgor alone. He nced at Ren Xiaosu before saying to Melgor, ¡°Your Excellency Lord Melgor, I have something I would like to discuss with you in private.¡±


    Melgor knew Qian Weining was trying to get him to send Ren Xiaosu away, but he shook his head and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about my steward. If there¡¯s something, just say it in front of us. There¡¯s no need for avoidance.¡±


    Qian Weining hesitated for a moment before finally saying, ¡°Lord Melgor, I suspect someone secretly helped us when the bandits came to attack. But before we figure out who that might be, please don¡¯t tell anyone about what I said.¡±


    Next to them, Ren Xiaosu nced at Qian Weining and thought to himself, ¡®This vice president of the Chamber of Commerce is quite keen. He actually noticed....¡¯


    However, it was not easy for Qian Weining to share his specific thoughts in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s presence after excusing himself from the thousands of people in the caravan to speak with Melgor in private.


    Meanwhile, Melgor wondered, ¡°Someone secretly helped us? Vice President Qian, why do you say that?¡±


    ¡°Lord Melgor, you may not believe it if I tell you,¡± Qian Weining said, ¡°but I¡¯ve got a good idea of just how good my archery is. With my skill, I can probably hit 80% of my targets, but I absolutely can¡¯t achieve a 100% kill rate!¡±


    Next to them, Ren Xiaosu had a strange expression on his face. He thought to himself, ¡®How can you fucking say that you¡¯ve got a good idea of your archery? Good idea, my ass!¡¯ While using Old Xu to help Qian Weining build his reputation as a sharpshooter, Ren Xiaosu was quite certain the vice president¡¯s shot uracy during the night was not even fucking 10%.


    At first, Ren Xiaosu thought Qian Weining actually had some self-awareness. However, he realized he had overestimated him.


    Melgor thought for a moment and said, ¡°Vice President Qian, it¡¯s already very impressive to have an 80% hit rate in the dark, so why are you belittling yourself? Look at my steward. He doesn¡¯t even know how to use a bow. He couldn¡¯t hit a target five meters from him. You¡¯re much, much better than him.¡± Qian Weining hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°That¡¯s true.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sneered as he watched the two of them. However, he did not say a word throughout.


    Melgor said, ¡°Vice President Qian, who do you think might be helping us?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Vice President Qian looked at Melgor seriously. ¡°Was it you, Lord Melgor? I think only sorcerers are capable of something like that.¡±


    Melgor shook his head. ¡°It wasn¡¯t me. I didn¡¯t take any action while you all were battling.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s strange.¡± Qian Weining lowered his head and pondered it for a moment. ¡°Who would help us, yet hide their identity? What¡¯s their goal?¡±


    Next to them, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Vice President Qian, why don¡¯t you tell us honestly why you¡¯re heading to Ghent City and who your enemy is? That way, we can also help analyze the situation.¡±


    When Qian Weining heard this, he hesitated. At this moment, the two servants returned from the revelry. Qian Weining suddenly bade farewell. ¡°It¡¯s gettingte. Lord Melgor, you should rest early.¡±


    ¡°Sketchy.¡± Ren Xiaosu gave a fake smile and asked Melgor, ¡°Who do you think that guy is actually on guard against?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. You also know that I¡¯ve been away from York County for two years. Vice President Qian had only just arrived in York County at that time,¡± Melgor said.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and then asked, ¡°How¡¯s the rtionship between the archmages of the Berkeley family and the sorcerer ns in the capital? I remember you saying that the Berkeley family controls six counties in the south, with four of them considered top counties in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Melgor said, ¡°But the House of Berkeley has always had their own territory. I¡¯ve never heard of them having any dealings in the capital city. Their n members rarely, if ever, go to Ghent City. When my family was still living in the capital, I heard the behavior of the Berkeley family¡¯s young¡¯uns was quite antisocial when they were there.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s where the problem lies,¡± Ren Xiaosu said upon some thought.


    In times of chaos, ambitious people would smell the decadence of a dynasty and develop great ambitions.


    Not long after Ren Xiaosu arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, he saw many sights of people leading miserable lives. The sights even made him feel that Fortress 178 had pulled away from the Kingdom of Sorcerers in development.


    If the dynasty of sorcerers was about to get reced, authority would also be passed on. In that case, what role would the House of Berkeley y in these times of chaos?


    Thend of feudal vassals was a natural ce for creating ambitious people.


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°How¡¯s the military readiness of the Berkeley family?¡±


    ¡°The Berkeley family¡¯s Knights of the Inferno have always been one of the top armies in the kingdom.¡± Melgor said, ¡°It¡¯s no secret. Moreover, the size of their army has been increasing over the years.¡±


    ¡°Then I roughly understand.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But I still have to find some evidence to see if it can confirm my thinking.¡±


    ¡°What have you discovered?¡± Melgor asked.


    Ren Xiaosu casually pointed to a young man and woman who were singing and dancing. ¡°Qian Weining has probably seized more than a 100 longbows from the bandits. Yesterday, when he distributed 30 of them to those young people, I realized that they were all very experienced at using the bow. It doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s their first time ever handling the weapons.¡±


    ¡°Yes, the first time I handled one, I was about the same as you,¡± Melgor said seriously.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor in surprise. ¡°That¡¯s brave of you.¡±


    ¡°It can¡¯t always be you ridiculing me, right?¡± Melgor said with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu ignored the remark. Instead, he continued, ¡°You told me that bows were prohibited weapons. In that case, where did those young people learn how to use them?¡±


    ¡°You suspect they¡¯re from the military?¡± Melgor said.


    ¡°It¡¯s not a suspicion but a certainty.¡± Ren Xiaosu looked at the group of young people and thought that half of the 1,000-odd members who formed the trade caravan were probably from the military. What they were doing was pretending to be civilians and talking up the prosperity and dreams in the big cities before bringing the mes of war to those ces.

 Chapter 1123 - Conspiracy

    <h4>Chapter 1123 Conspiracy</h4>


    In the middle of the night, a few drunks were lying around the camp. Ren Xiaosu pretended to be asleep as he leaned against the wheels of a carriage.


    No one was moving around anymore. Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes slightly and observed everyone before mentally noting those who were drunk.


    If it were as he had deduced, that this trade caravan was likely made up of many soldiers from the Berkeley family, it would absolutely be impossible they would get drunk while on duty.


    Therefore, the drunks could be ruled out first.


    But after a round of observation, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to discover there were probably even fewer uninvolved people in the trade caravan than he had imagined.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. Could it be that the Li and the Liu ns urging Melgor to set off quickly was also part of the conspiracy?


    Then Melgor, that sweet idiot, did not think too much and directly agreed to their request?


    Ren Xiaosu made Old Xu quietly circle the outside perimeter of the trade caravan. In the end, he was even more sure of his judgment. Seeing that the revelry had just ended, there were still people on duty next to the carriages loaded with wine barrels.


    One of York County¡¯s main industries was winemaking. And the main goods the Chamber of Commerce was transporting to Ghent City this time were wine.


    The entire caravan consisted of several hundred oxcarts and horse-drawn carriages, with a quarter of them loaded with wooden barrels filled with wine.


    An oxcart could carry six barrels of wine, the limit of what it could hold. Ren Xiaosu had strong suspicions there were other items in the oak barrels. Otherwise, why would people still be guarding them so warily in the middle of the night?


    However, Ren Xiaosu contemted it. Was Qian Weining the one leading this trade caravan, or could it be someone else?


    The next morning, the trade caravan set off again. Qian Weining said they would arrive at the first ry station of the journey in the afternoon, Vaduz County.


    <b>ully.</b>


    Along the way, Ren Xiaosu asked Melgor, ¡°Is Vaduz County under the Berkeley family¡¯s control?¡±


    Melgor nodded and said, ¡°Yes, and it can be considered one of the important cities of the House of Berkeley in the south. Half of the Knights of the Inferno are stationed there. If you go farther north, that¡¯s the territory of the House of Winston.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the rtionship between the Winston family and the Berkeley family?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°There aren¡¯t any true archmages in the Winston family, so they behave more like a subject of the Berkeley family,¡± Melgor answered. ¡°In the past, when the Berkeley family¡¯s young¡¯uns went to Ghent City to seek knowledge, everything the youth of the House of Winston did revolved around them. If the members of the House of Berkeley got into fights with the other ns, the Winston family¡¯s young¡¯uns would immediately band together with them.¡±


    ¡°Anything else?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Oh, yes, someone said the Winston family has secretly pledged allegiance to the Berkeley family, but it¡¯s just a rumor,¡± Melgor replied.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not.¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Remember, you must not trust anyone other than me on this journey, not even the two sheeple, and especially not the knights that the Li n sent to protect you, like Mox.¡±


    Melgor was puzzled. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t tell you for now. You¡¯re so dumb that it¡¯s easy for others to get information out of you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Melgor was speechless.


    In the evening, when the trade caravan arrived outside Vaduz County, Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°There weren¡¯t any city walls in Yorktown, so why does Vaduz have them?¡±.


    ¡°These were built decades ago to prevent wild animals from endangering the residents,¡± Melgor said nonchntly.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not think that such strong walls were built to defend against wild animals.


    The city walls of the Kingdom of Sorcerers looked quite different from those in the Central ins. The main structure was more like a castle with many watchtowers and turrets erected around it. Its architecture resembled spears pointing into the sky.


    The walls wereid entirely with gray brick. On top of the walls stood tough-looking soldiers who each held the House of Berkeley¡¯s heraldry, which bore the emblem of a lion on them, in one hand and rested the other on the hilt of a broadsword at their waist.


    ¡°What does the Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ g look like?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Melgor spent a long time trying to remember it but could not recall anything. It was only a few minutester that he finally answered, ¡°It¡¯s a picture of two crossed swords with an Eye of True Sight above it.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t your family used to live in Ghent City? Why didn¡¯t you describe it more quickly?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°The kingdom¡¯s gs in Ghent City were removed long ago. At first, the House of Norman reced the gs in Ghent City with their own n¡¯s g of a shield. Later, the House of Tudor wanted to rece the gs on top of the walls with their g of a falcon,¡± Melgor replied with a shrug. ¡°In the end, they decided neither ns¡¯ gs could be put up, leaving it totally bare.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He thought to himself, ¡®Has the infighting in the Kingdom of Sorcerers already reached such an intense state?


    It was obvious the Norman family and the Tudor family were not on good terms. This was very good news for him.


    When the trade caravan tried to enter the city gate, the soldiers on duty stopped them. Themander, wearing steel armor, ordered his soldiers, ¡°Check their carriages!¡± Qian Weining rode forward and said loudly, ¡°I¡¯m Qian Weining, the vice president of the York County Chamber of Commerce. All the customs documents have already been prepared. The venerable Lord Melgor is also traveling at the back of the group. Do you all want to dy his journey?¡±


    The soldier at the entrance looked at the rear of the caravan. Qian Weining pointed out Melgor¡¯s carriage to themander of the guard and said, ¡°That carriage has the symbol of the Eye of True Sight on it. You can go over and pay your respects to Lord Melgor.¡±


    After that, themander of the guard walked towards Melgor¡¯s carriage. As he walked, his armor rattled noisily.


    He came to Melgor¡¯s carriage and knelt on one knee. ¡°Your Excellency Lord Melgor.¡±


    Melgor lifted the window curtain and said, ¡°You may rise. I¡¯m only passing through Vaduz County this time. I have to continue heading north towards Ghent City tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± Themander of the guard got up and waved to his soldiers at the gate. ¡°Let them through! We don¡¯t want to dy Lord Melgor.¡±


    The trade caravan started moving again slowly. They were going to reorganize at the ry station north of the city. There were amodations there, as well as horse feed and hay prepared for the livestock.


    Ren Xiaosu watched all of this quietly from the sidelines. He suddenly understood why this group of people had urged Melgor to set off.


    The bottom rung of society of the Kingdom of Sorcerers had a peculiar adoration and faith in the sorcerers. Regardless of how many customs documents a trade caravan prepared, it would not be as useful as having a sorcerer traveling with them.


    With a sorcerer traveling with the caravan, it could even save the time required for carrying out goods inspection when passing through many of the cities. Even if the guards of some cities insisted on doing an inspection, they would not be too thorough.


    So the sweet idiot, Melgor, was just being used as a pass.


    Meanwhile, Melgor said proudly to Ren Xiaosu in a low voice, ¡°So, what do you think? Now that you¡¯ve seen the respect Imand from the people, does it make you want to be a sorcerer even more? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll definitely help you get an Eye of True Sight this time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu rolled his eyes. If he had note with Melgor on this trip to help him enhance his fate as the ¡°protagonist,¡± Melgor would probably have ended up dead without even knowing why.

 Chapter 1124 - Branch of the Prosperous Northwest

    <h4>Chapter 1124 Branch of the Prosperous Northwest</h4>


    As an important county of the House of Berkeley, Vaduz was very different from Yorktown. At the very least, the roads in the entire city were fully paved with stone and not just left as dirt tracks.


    As the trade caravan made its way through the city, the horses clopped on the ground as they walked with horseshoes on.


    The golden rays of the evening sun glittered from the west. Ren Xiaosu could even see a flock of white doves swirling in the sky above the cathedral in the town center some distance away.


    Beside the cathedral was an even more solemn-looking pce.


    The building was entirely red in color, and on top of the tallest tower in the middle of the pceplex was affixed an Eye of True Sight gilded in gold. It was like the eye was watching the residents of the city.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s that ce?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the pce of the Berkeley family¡¯s archmage, or you can just call it a Sorcerer¡¯s Tower,¡± Melgor replied. ¡°But he shouldn¡¯t be here at present. He usually resides in Berkeley County.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu praised, ¡°Look at that Sorcerer¡¯s Tower and how itpares to yours. Come to think of you, you actually had the cheek to tell me how magnificent your Sorcerer¡¯s Tower was at the beginning¡­.¡±


    Melgor¡¯s face turned red as he exined, ¡°My Sorcerer¡¯s Tower is already quite good. You haven¡¯t seen the other Sorcerer¡¯s Towers yet. Some sorcerers can¡¯t even afford to build one after arriving at their fiefs.¡±


    ¡°If it weren¡¯t for your childhood sweetheart sending you money through her servant, you probably couldn¡¯t have afforded one either,¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered. ¡°Speaking of which, the Tudor family should be even more powerful than the Berkeley family, right? Have you ever thought that it might actually be a good thing that your girlfriend gets to marry into their family?¡±


    Melgor got anxious. ¡°What do you know? How can there be any true feelings involved in a rich family like the Tudors? Just the number of spouses they have number in the hundreds. Marrying into such rich families might make materialistic sense for a better quality of life, but how can anyone possibly find happiness there?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and shook his head. ¡°Some people can¡¯t even marry into their family if they wanted to. Hey, which n does your girlfriend belong to?¡± ¡°Her family is only considered average in Ghent City. Initially, they were not on good terms with the Tudor family. However, there was an archmage who said she was extremely talented and suitable to be a sorceress.¡± Melgor sighed and said, ¡°Actually, I also know very well I can¡¯t give her what the Tudor family can. So I didn¡¯t even write her after I returned.¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll set her back.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Besides, I really don¡¯t have the power to go against the Tudor family.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, it¡¯s a good thing that you¡¯ve learned to let go and grant others happiness.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°But you don¡¯t have to be discouraged. With me around, you won¡¯t be any worse off than the Tudor family.¡± ¡°You¡¯re blustering again¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly started thinking. Should he still abduct Melgor back to the Northwest?


    It was not that he no longer wanted to bring Melgor to the Prosperous Northwest, but that a new problem had arisen. He could not possibly abduct all of the people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. In that case, no matter how many archmages he wiped out here, the kingdom would definitely still exist.


    Perhaps those who gained authority here in the future would no longer be sorcerers. Then the citizens could start reviving technology as it was before The Cataclysm.


    The Magi had deliberately suppressed the rise of technology. But at that time, the technological advancement of the Kingdom of Sorcerers would definitely be simr to the Central ins. Everyone would start searching through their past civilizations and bring back its former technologies to the world one by one. At that time, what would Fortress 178¡¯s rtionship with that Kingdom of Sorcerers be like? Would war break out once again?


    So should he bring everyone suitable for the Prosperous Northwest back with him, or should he turn this ce into a branch of the Prosperous Northwest?


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu was more inclined to thetter strategy


    But here came another question. Who would be a suitable candidate to lead the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch? Should it be an ambitious person or a sweet idiot?


    The answer was, of course, a sweet idiot.


    As long as the person in charge of this branch was obedient, Ren Xiaosu did not actually care about how capable he was or how this ce would develop. However, the amount of work he would have to put in for such a scenario to happen was quite significant. At the very least, he would have to ¡°reach an agreements with all the sorcerer ns.


    How many sorcerer ns did Melgor mention existed in the Kingdom of Sorcerers? It should be around 40 or so.


    Melgor was bemoaning to himself that this steward of his was way too fond of bragging. However, he had no idea Ren Xiaosu was actually nning to turn the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers into a branch of the Prosperous Northwest.


    Ren Xiaosu thought he probably couldn¡¯t aplish this task all by himself. But if he were to borrow the strength of others, it might not be entirely impossible.


    He turned his gaze to the carriage the young sorceress, An¡¯an, and herpanions were in. He happened to see An¡¯an and Chen Cheng rush out of the carriage and enter a small alley off the road.


    U


    ¡°You can head to the ry station first. I¡¯ll join up with y¡¯all tonight.¡± Then Ren Xiaosu jumped down from the carriage and went after the young sorceress, disappearing from sight. Dazed, Melgor was left alone at the stables. He could not understand what had gotten into his steward again.


    In the evening, it was quite lively in the city of Vaduz as the streets bustled with people. As Ren Xiaosu chased after the young sorceress, someone suddenly bumped into him in the crowd and caused him to lose sight of her.


    Ren Xiaosu did not tussle with the person who had bumped into him. Instead, he continued searching in a general direction and headed deeper into the alleys. After half an hour of pursuit, the sorceress was no longer anywhere to be found. However, Ren Xiaosu already knew where he should head.


    As he turned onto a gstone path, he heard a slow metallic nging.


    He looked up and saw a cksmith¡¯s workshop. The people inside were busy working on this rtively quiet street.


    The short apprentice was operating the bellows with a sweaty face, while a burly cksmith was hammering an iron billet on the anvil with a hammer.


    Ren Xiaosu went into the cksmith¡¯s workshop and said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s wrong of your people to steal things.¡±


    The bearded cksmith said coldly, ¡°I think you¡¯vee to the wrong ce.¡±


    As he spoke, the cksmith even continued swinging the huge hammer in his hand as though he was afraid no one would know how strong he was.


    ¡°Is Chen Cheng inside?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Can you get the two of them to step out for a moment? I have something to ask them.¡±


    However, the cksmith didn¡¯t appear to understand. He looked at Ren Xiaosu coldly and said, ¡°Kid, if you¡¯re looking for trouble, you¡¯ve reallye to the wrong ce.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡± Ren Xiaosu quickly made his move and gently ¡°poked¡± the cksmith¡¯s Adam¡¯s apple with his fingertip. The cksmith¡¯s face immediately reddened as he coughed and fell to the ground.


    The short apprentice immediately took out a glowing red de from the furnace. Ren Xiaosu looked at him and said with a smile, ¡°Rx, he¡¯s fine.¡±


    The apprentice said solemnly, ¡°What on earth do you want?¡±


    ¡°The person who just bumped into me on the street stole the wrong thing from me.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with augh, ¡°I assume that y¡¯all in the Kingdom of Sorcerers don¡¯t know what a GPS tracker is, right?¡±


    The sorceress, An¡¯an, and Chen Cheng walked out from the bowels of the cksmith¡¯s workshop with dark expressions. ¡°What do you want?¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu saw the two of them, heughed even more happily. In this pursuit, there was no doubt technology had decisively won.

 Chapter 1125 - A deal with the bounty hunters

    <h4>Chapter 1125 A deal with the bounty hunters</h4>


    With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s current strength and vignce, it was impossible for normal people to steal anything from him without his knowledge.


    So the moment someone bumped into him on the street, he took advantage of the situation and allowed the other party to steal his tracker.


    The thief had taken possession of a small tracker from Ren Xiaosu, but he did not know what it was, so he could only take it back and hand it to whoever was pulling the strings.


    This helped Ren Xiaosu sessfully locate where Chen Cheng and the young sorceress, An¡¯an, were hiding.


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an were caught off guard by this. Their original n was to steal Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wallet or belongings to learn more about his background.


    But instead of finding out anything about him, Ren Xiaosu found their secret residence.


    Vaduz was an important city, and the cksmith¡¯s workshop these bounty hunters had set up in Vaduz was actually one of their more important ¡°safe houses.¡±


    If any of theirpatriots encountered danger, they could hide in the basement of the cksmith¡¯s forge until the danger had passed.


    There was enough food stored in the cer, as well as a fresh change of identity prepared for them.


    This safe house was what gave them the confidence to escape being tracked by the magus order over the years.


    But now the safe house had been located by Ren Xiaosu. The cksmith in charge of concealing the safe house had also been knocked out by Ren Xiaosu in a single strike. The burly man, who stood nearly two meters tall, could not even stand up.


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an felt a sense of defeat. Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°You don¡¯t have to look so surprised. After all, you¡¯ve already learned from the sheeple that I¡¯m not from the Kingdom of Sorcerers, right? I¡¯m afraid that the Central ins¡¯ pace of development is probably much faster than y¡¯all expected.¡±


    An¡¯an was first to regain herposure. ¡°Why are you looking for us?¡±


    ¡°Wait a sec, let me correct you there.¡± Ren Xiaosu found a chair and sat down. ¡°Y¡¯all deliberately left the trade caravan knowing I was aware and deliberately led me away. I should be the one asking this question. Why¡¯re you looking for me?¡±


    Chen Cheng went over and helped the cksmith up. Then he said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Who exactly are you? What¡¯s your rtionship with Ren He, the rider you mentioned?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought. ¡°I only ryed the information to y¡¯all because I wanted to know what my rtionship with him is. So have y¡¯all ryed my information to your otherpanions yet? Can you tell me about your organization and what y¡¯all know?¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an looked at each other. Then the young sorceress said, ¡°We don¡¯t know who the person you¡¯re talking about is, but we¡¯ve heard of the name.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good news.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Tell me in more detail.¡±


    ¡°But we don¡¯t know the details yet. We only heard our father and his generation¡¯s people mention it. If you want to know more, you¡¯ll have toe with us to Ghent City,¡± An¡¯an said.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment before smiling happily. ¡°Are you trying to lure me to Ghent City to make use of me?¡±


    An¡¯an¡¯s hands that were at rest by her sides suddenly balled up into fists. She always felt the young man in front of her could guess what she was thinking when she spoke with him.


    This feeling was really ufortable. She was constantly put in a passive position.


    ¡°To be specific, we¡¯re not trying to make use of you, but we need that person who¡¯s protecting you. He¡¯s really strong. We¡¯re willing to use him as the foundation for our deal with you. Go to Ghent City and help us with a task, and we¡¯ll tell you what you want to know,¡± An¡¯an said calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu thought back for a couple seconds beforeughing. ¡°Are you referring to the person who killed the fleeing bandits?¡±


    So they were thinking about making use of Old Xu¡¯sbat strength. However, what they did not know was that Old Xu was actually just one of his powers.


    Ren Xiaosu did not want to exin either. He believed Old Xu, the pinnacle of close quartersbat, would greatly surprise all the physically weak sorcerers.


    ¡°Yes.¡± An¡¯an¡¯s voice turned cold. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you¡¯re unwilling to go to Ghent City, but I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to find out for yourself what you wish to know.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at An¡¯an with great interest. ¡°I believe that y¡¯all don¡¯t have any reinforcements here in Vaduz. Since I can locate your hideout and am brave enough toe here alone, where do you get the confidence to talk like this to me?¡±


    An¡¯an sneered, ¡°We have two sorcerers over here. If you think you¡¯re so strong, why don¡¯t you try us?¡±


    As soon as her words trailed off, Ren Xiaosu rushed Chen Cheng and An¡¯an. He grabbed their necks with his steely hands and forcefully lifted them before mming them against the walls of the cksmith¡¯s workshop.


    In that instant, the Eyes of True Sight Chen Cheng and An¡¯an were furtively holding in their hands dropped to the ground.


    Russell had written in the Introduction to Sorcery that when he faced the Central ins rider, he did not even get a chance to recite any incantations.


    If even a talented and experienced archmage like Russell was not able to fight back, there was even less of a chance that young sorcerers like Chen Cheng and An¡¯an could.


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an struggled with all their might, but no matter how hard they tried, they could not break free from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s control.


    Just as the cksmith and his apprentice were about to sneak an attack on Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu suddenly let go and took a step back, leaving Chen Cheng and An¡¯an to fall to the ground.


    Ren Xiaosu snatched the cksmith¡¯s broadsword from his hand and snapped the de with both hands. ¡°You can¡¯t even hold your own weapon properly, so don¡¯t talk to me about your tactics. Tell your elders that I¡¯ll go to Ghent City. And if your goal is to pit yourselves against the sorcerers, let¡¯s just say we share amon interest. As for your intention to make use of me, it¡¯d be better if you put that on the back burner.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and left the cksmith¡¯s workshop, leaving the cksmith, An¡¯an, and the others looking at one another.


    Before this, they had nevere across an enemy as strong as this based purely on physical strength. As such, they were utterly defeated by Ren Xiaosu.


    It was also at this moment they understood the young man was actually extremely powerful. ¡°Why would such a person be willing to be a fringe sorcerer¡¯s steward? What¡¯s his goal ining to the Kingdom of Sorcerers?¡± Chen Cheng said in a daze.


    An¡¯an looked unconvinced. She looked at the cksmith and said, ¡°Uncle Gris, please ry this news about him to Ghent City and tell Father and the others to be careful.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Gris nodded solemnly. As someone who did physical work, he naturally understood how terrifying the power Ren Xiaosu had just disyed was. Everyone in the organization had to treat this variable that was about to arrive at Ghent City seriously


    Ren Xiaosu, having left the cksmith¡¯s shop, heaved a sigh of relief. When he was just about to break the metal sword, he really was a little worried he couldn¡¯t do it. Fortunately, the other party¡¯s forging skills were not that good.


    And thus, another problem came up. Ren Xiaosu had found the cksmith¡¯s workshop with the GPS tracker, but he did not put a tracker on Melgor. He had lost his way.

 Chapter 1126 - Tour guides

    <h4>Chapter 1126 Tour guides</h4>


    At this moment, the people inside the cksmith¡¯s workshop had not yet dispersed.


    Chen Cheng was checking on the cksmith¡¯s injury. However, he realized Gris had already almost recovered. There was only a red mark at the spot where Ren Xiaosu had hit him earlier.


    ¡°Are you really alright?¡± Chen Cheng asked.


    Gris nodded. ¡°The opponent¡¯s attack was very precise. I experienced breathing difficulties, chest tightness, and nonstop coughing when he hit me just now. But I quickly recovered. Believe me, it requires extremely good control over one¡¯s body to execute such a move. Even the most powerful diator in Ghent City might not be able to achieve this.¡±


    The cksmith, Gris, used to be a diator in Ghent City. The diators of Ghent City tended to be divided into two groups. One groupprised servants and stewards from the sorcerer ns and represented sorcerers who were unwilling to risk themselves in duels. As such, they got these diators to represent them topete for their ns¡¯ glory.


    Although it sounded nice, such duels were just to provide more excitement and entertainment for the gambling activities of the sorcerers.


    The victorious sorcerer would walk away with half of the prize pool while the rest was used as a payout for those who ced a bet and won. This group of diators, who usually basked in the glory of their sorcerer ns, fought for their sorcerer masters in the duels. But once they lost, they would immediately lose favor with them.


    The second group was made up of desperate residents who willingly became diators after they had nowhere else to turn. Perhaps they had lost all their money in gambling or were in dire need of money. In any case, they were willing to sell themselves to the arena.


    They would keep fighting with other diators there until they died.


    Gris was originally a cksmith. In order to raise money to treat his father¡¯s illness, he turned to dueling as a diator. He was also one of the most well-known diators in Ghent City in the past. Later, he was rescued by the leader of the bounty hunter organization and arranged to oversee a safe house in Vaduz City.


    Gris was very grateful to the leader of the bounty hunters and really enjoyed the peaceful life he was leading now.


    However, that did not mean that hisbat skills had gone to waste as a result. Actually, Gris believed that even if he were to return to the arena now, he could still win every duel.


    In the end, Gris, who was ever so confident of himself, did not even have a chance of fighting back against Ren Xiaosu.


    Gris said, ¡°He easily shattered my confidence by overpowering me inbat which I¡¯m most confident in.¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an looked at each other. ¡°Was it because you were caught unprepared by his sudden attack?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Gris said, ¡°I¡¯m very sure that even if I were prepared, he could still disable my fighting strength in an instant.¡±


    With that, Gris wrote a short note on a small piece of paper. After that, he went to the backyard and took out a messenger pigeon from the cage before tying the note to it. He said to An¡¯an, ¡°We can¡¯t release the messenger pigeon yet. We have to wait until the messenger pigeons in the vicinity of the cathedral get released tomorrow morning so that ours can blend in and not get noticed.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± An¡¯an nodded.


    Gris suddenly asked, ¡°What¡¯s with that young man? Where did such a powerful expert suddenly appear from?¡±


    An¡¯an curled her lips and said unconvinced, ¡°Powerful? When the bandits attacked the trade caravan, didn¡¯t he also hide behind the wagon fort with Melgor and not dare to move?¡±


    ¡°Such a thing happened?¡± Gris wondered, ¡°With his skills, it shouldn¡¯t be difficult for him to deal with the bandits.¡±


    ¡°Strength is one thing, but courage is another.¡± An¡¯an was fuming mad. When she got lifted up like a quail just now, it felt really humiliating. She knew full well she was just saying those words out of spite, but she couldn¡¯t resist criticizing him.


    A voice rang out outside the cksmith¡¯s workshop, ¡°Are you talking about me?¡± ¡°Huh?!¡± An¡¯an turned around and was startled to see Ren Xiaosu standing outside the entrance. ¡°Why did youe back?!¡±


    It was way too embarrassing to get caught speaking ill of others behind their backs!


    Ren Xiaosu could not admit he was lost, so he exined with a smile, ¡°I was just worried that you two bounty hunters would get caught by the Berkeley family, so I specifically came back to escort the two of you. Feel touched?¡±


    An¡¯an retorted, ¡°As if we¡¯d believe you! You must be scared we¡¯ll report you!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s really nothing to be afraid about.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Let¡¯s go, I still have to rush back to eat.¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an looked at the broadswords held up at their necks and could only do as they were told. Seeing that an agreement had been reached, Ren Xiaosu returned the two broadswords to Gris.


    <b>en r</b>


    En route to the ry station, the chatty Chen Cheng suddenly asked, ¡°What have the Central ins be? I heard that it¡¯s still very weak.¡±


    ¡°Weak?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°Was that why Fortress 178, which you im to be weak, emerged victorious against the troops of the Kingdom of Sorcerers 17 years ago?¡±


    ¡°Emerged victorious?¡± Chen Cheng was taken aback. ¡°Wasn¡¯t it the royal army that won?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sneered, ¡°Who said that?¡±


    ¡°The royal family announced to the public that they had taught Fortress 178 a lesson in blood. But due to the benevolence of the royal family, they didn¡¯t carry out a massacre,¡± Chen Cheng answered.


    ¡°How shameless of them to make up something like that,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. Fortress 178 had always been at a disadvantage in the past. After all, the military industry¡¯s renaissance had only urred in the past few decades.


    However, after the military industry in the Central ins was restored, the Magi werepletely unable to take them on. Although the war 17 years ago was fierce and tragic, Fortress 178 did indeed emerge victorious.


    To preserve their reputation, the magus order and the royal family of the Kingdom of Sorcerers chose to lie about the oue of the war and say they had won.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Chen Cheng and said, ¡°The Central ins won the war 17 years ago. It¡¯s be much stronger than y¡¯all think. To say nothing of the military, just the state of the basic industrial and urban infrastructure alone already ces them several tiers above the Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡±


    Chen Cheng yearned, ¡°Our father also mentioned the Central ins before. It would be great if we had the opportunity to visit that


    ce.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a cheeky smile, ¡°After I¡¯ve figured out what exactly your organization does, I might be able to organize a tour for y¡¯all to experience the Northwestern culture of Fortress 178.¡±


    An¡¯an suddenly asked, ¡°What¡¯s your identity in the Central ins?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a grin, ¡°Me? I¡¯m just a normal volunteer working for the development of the Northwest.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re full of lies.¡± An¡¯an muttered, ¡°By the way, why did you suddenly turn back?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°Since Vaduz is such an important city here in the south, I was really worried that something might happen to the two of you.¡±


    An¡¯an asked suspiciously, ¡°Or was it because you don¡¯t know where the ry station is?¡±


    ¡°Hahahahaha, how¡¯s that possible?¡± Ren Xiaosuughed out loud. ¡°How can I possibly make such an amateur mistake?¡±


    Immediately, An¡¯an was sure he had returned because he didn¡¯t know where the ry station was. He was using her and Chen Cheng as his tour guides!

 Chapter 1127 - Stress training

    <h4>Chapter 1127 Stress training</h4>


    In the city of Vaduz, Ren Xiaosu was walking in front of Chen Cheng and An¡¯an with a swagger while they followed behind like subordinates. This made the two bounty hunters extremely peeved.


    asionally, Ren Xiaosu would even order Chen Cheng and An¡¯an to buy some snacks without paying them.


    Chen Cheng wondered, ¡°I can understand you asking us to help you buy things, but why aren¡¯t you paying for them? It¡¯s not like we want to eat this glutinous rice cake anyway.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu threw his hands up and said matter-of-factly, ¡°I don¡¯t have money.¡±


    He really did not have any money. Ever since he arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, he did not have to spend any money since the sheeple took care of all his basic necessities. There was no need for him to cough up any money. Ren Xiaosu still had quite a bit of gold on him, but he did not want to use it.


    On one hand, it was because the circting currency here was issued by Sorcerer Bank. If he used his gold directly, it would arouse suspicions.


    On the other hand, using other people¡¯s money to buy his stuff made him much happier.


    Chen Cheng suddenly understood why Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were so annoyed with Ren Xiaosu. This fellow was way too skilled at provoking others. He could leave them exasperated just by doing anything. Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, ¡°By the way, have you two received any forms of stress training before?¡±


    ¡°Stress training?¡± Chen Cheng was stunned. ¡°Of course we did.¡±


    ¡°In which aspects were y¡¯all trained in?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. He wanted to understand what kind of training the sorcerers were put through so he could formte a battle n for the future.


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an looked at each other. This didn¡¯t seem like a secret, so Chen Cheng answered, ¡°Before ouring-of-age ceremony, we¡¯re required to sleep in the cemetery for a week. No matter how scared we get at night, we cannot run away or make a sound. If we vite the rules, the duration resets.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°And what else?¡± ¡°We also have to eat the raw internal organs of animals without spitting them out.¡± Chen Cheng said, ¡°And we have to survive in the wilderness alone for a month too.¡±


    ¡°Are you allowed to bring your Eye of True Sight with you?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Of course. The Eye of True Sight is the weapon of a sorcerer, so how can sorcerers survive in the wilderness without bringing their weapons?¡± Chen Cheng said.


    Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. ¡°That¡¯s not the kind of stress training I¡¯m referring to.¡±


    Seeing that Ren Xiaosu wore a look of contempt, Chen Cheng was a little unhappy. ¡°The training we bounty hunters have to go through is not something other sorcerers are capable of handling. We¡¯re the only ones who¡¯re up to it in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡±


    ¡°Then I¡¯m relieved.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed emotionally.


    First of all, it might be possible to train one¡¯s courage by sleeping in a cemetery for a week. But in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, that was not very useful.


    Second, surviving in the wilderness alone for a month was pretty good training, but these people were still allowed to bring their Eyes of True Sight with them, so it could not be considered as being trained in an ¡°extreme environment.¡¯


    Honestly, the sorcerers were so highly regarded they were used to living a pampered life. Even the bounty hunter organization, which had to fight for its own survival, had a training curriculum for children.


    SU


    Many soldiers in the Central ins had to go through the kind of stress training Ren Xiaosu was referring to. The most basic example was requiring soldiers to score eight or above with every shot on a target in marksmanship while someone fired a firearm next to their ears. Another example required soldiers to quickly navigate a map with someone cursing loudly next to them. Yet another example called for soldiers to memorize all the marching routes in five seconds while someone removed a grenade¡¯s safety pin next to them.


    Stress training was not about making someone go through extreme hardship, but rather, to train someone to maintain their focus under extreme pressure.


    Chen Cheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Are you looking down on us sorcerers?¡±


    ¡°You can say that.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded casually. ¡°Despite having such a powerful ability, y¡¯all neglected yourbat training.¡±


    Chen Cheng was still somewhat unhappy. ¡°You¡­¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, Ren Xiaosu turned to him and said with a smile, ¡°Why don¡¯t you take out your Eye of True Sight and try to recite an incantation now?¡±


    Chen Cheng was taken aback for a moment. Then he recited, ¡°The-¡°


    Midway through the incantation, Ren Xiaosu stomped on his foot and Chen Cheng abruptly stopped reciting ¡°Ouch, ouch!¡± Chen Cheng shouted while holding his foot.


    ¡°See, you can¡¯t even finish reciting your incantation.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°When you can persist and finish reciting your incantations in any circumstances, that¡¯ll be when you¡¯re qualified to fight me. Of course, that¡¯s only the prerequisite. Earlier at the cksmith¡¯s workshop, I merely grabbed your necks and your Eyes of True Sight immediately fell to the ground. Think about it. If I really wanted to kill you both, would the two of you have any chance of resisting?¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an looked at each other and wanted to say something, but they felt that what Ren Xiaosu said made sense.


    If someone could interrupt their incantations by stepping on their foot, what was the use of having the ability to cast spells?


    A lot of people thought they could focus as long as they kept their minds on it, but that was not the case. If they wanted to remain unaffected by external interference, they would have to be put through a great deal of harsh training.


    Chen Cheng asked, ¡°Even you might not be able to remain focused in any circumstances, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°You can try stepping on my foot and see if I get distracted.¡±


    While Ren Xiaosu was speaking, Chen Cheng raised his leg and stepped on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s foot. However, Ren Xiaosu did not get cut off mid-sentence, and even his tone was totally unaffected.


    Ren Xiaosu continued walking forward. ¡°See my point? Your incantations will only be useful if you can maintain your focus.¡±


    An¡¯an caught up to him and said in seriousness, ¡°How do I train myself to take the pressure? Teach me! I can pay you in gold coins.¡±


    A smile appeared on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face. ¡°I can teach both of you, but I don¡¯t require any payment in gold coins. I only need to see how you two perform.¡±


    ¡°How we perform?¡± An¡¯an asked.


    ¡°The pancakes over there look quite delicious. Why don¡¯t the two of you get me some?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    All of a sudden, An¡¯an and Chen Cheng felt they might really end up bing Ren Xiaosu¡¯s servants on this journey!


    In truth, Ren Xiaosu could tell them all this because he was already certain the organization they were from was the same organization Ren He had left behind in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    That was because the moment he stepped into the cksmith¡¯s workshop, the pce informed him he had found the second clue rted to Ren He. As for how much information he could find out from this clue, that would depend on how Ren Xiaosu looked into it.


    When they passed by the cathedral in the city center, Ren Xiaosu saw a lot of residents moving things around. He asked curiously, ¡°What are they doing?¡±


    An¡¯an thought for a moment before replying, ¡°It¡¯s the tradition of the Berkeley family. It¡¯s thest day of May today. Every first day of the month, there¡¯s sorcerers conducting a worship service at 6 AM together with the residents.¡± ¡°Is there any special significance to it?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not understand.


    ¡°They probably hope the residents will forever remember the grace of the Berkeley family,¡± Chen Cheng answered.

 Chapter 1128 - The importance of stress training

    <h4>Chapter 1128 The importance of stress training</h4>


    The cathedral in Vaduz was the most typical representation of Gothic architecture. Theplex structure exuded a mysterious and solemn look.


    From pointed arches, pster columns, and ornate windowttices, multiple elements came together to form the final appearance of the cathedral. 61 spires pointed into the sky like a dense forest of towers with humanoid statues perched atop each of them.


    ¡°Who are those statues on top of the towers?¡± Ren Xiaosu looked up at them.


    ¡°They¡¯re the archmages from every generation of the Berkeley family,¡± An¡¯an answered. ¡°Actually, the cathedrals in other counties ce the statues of the most outstanding magus order archmages up on their towers. Only the cathedrals in the Berkeley family¡¯s territory use the sculptures of their own archmages. Not only that, but the 601 statues that adorn the Vaduz Cathedral are also all the Berkeley family¡¯s own sorcerers.¡± ¡°When was this cathedral built?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It was built more than a 100 years ago, but it only became what it is now after a renovation 60 years ago.¡± An¡¯an stared at the sculptures on top of the towers and said, ¡°It was at that time that they demolished Russell¡¯s statue.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at An¡¯an. ¡°How is Russell rted to your organization?¡± An¡¯an shot Ren Xiaosu a look. ¡°What has that got to do with you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and did not say anything else. If the organization that remained behind in the Kingdom of Sorcerers did help Russell through The Cataclysm as Ren He had instructed, the two sides should have a very close working rtionship.


    Based on Melgor¡¯s guesses, Russell was assassinated by the aristocrats of the old guard. This reason also seemed to be why An¡¯an and herpanions hated the magus order.


    But all of this was just spection for now. Ren Xiaosu would have to find out the truth himself.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was sure the Berkeley family¡¯s ambitions had started brewing 60 years ago. By removing all monuments of the other sorcerer ns¡¯ archmages, they were signaling a revolt against the existing order.


    As for the internal strife that woulde, Ren Xiaosu was looking forward to it quite a bit.


    ¡°What will the archmage do in front of the cathedral at 6 AM?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°They¡¯ll perform miracles.¡± Chen Cheng answered calmly, ¡°They¡¯ll put on a disy of powers that don¡¯t belong to the secr world to enhance the citizens¡¯ faith.¡± ¡°So they¡¯ll just be casting some dazzling spells?¡± Ren Xiaosu said disdainfully, ¡°If they have the energy to do all that, wouldn¡¯t it be better to think about how to make themselves stronger? No wonder they¡¯re afraid to reintroduce scientific knowledge to the masses. They¡¯re worried that their low-level deception will get exposed by the citizens. C¡¯mon, we¡¯lle back at 6 in the morning.¡±


    Divine authority was the foundation of the Kingdom of Sorcerers. To protect this foundation, sorcerers would not allow the appearance of anything that could challenge their authority.


    As a native of the Central ins, Ren Xiaosu felt that all of this was extremely abnormal. However, the citizens here took it for granted ever since a cultural gap appeared in their history.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned with Chen Cheng and An¡¯an to the ry station on the north side of the city, Melgor and the sheeple were already asleep.


    Melgor, that sweet idiot, even left a note in the room which he had assigned to Ren Xiaosu: ¡°Wake up at 5:30 AM to attend service at Vaduz Cathedral. Don¡¯t sleep inte.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°What a sweet guy.¡±


    In summer, dawn broke very early. At 5:30 AM, the sky had already turned from dark to light.


    Melgor came to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room and knocked on the door. ¡°It¡¯s time to get up, I¡¯ll take you to witness a miracle.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu opened the door. ¡°You¡¯re a sorcerer too, so why do you also believe in those miracles?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m just kidding.¡± Melgor smiled. ¡°We junior sorcerers also tend not to want to miss out on these worship services at the beginning of the month, because it¡¯s the best opportunity for us to observe how an archmage casts their spells.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°So it¡¯s just observing and learning.¡±


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu thought Melgor and he would be the only ones going to watch the ceremony. But to his surprise, almost half of the trade caravan¡¯s members got up early and rushed off to the cathedral.


    Not only that, countless residents of Vaduz City also came out of their homes and converged on the cathedral like a stream.


    Everyone was dressed in red robes with their faces hidden underneath hoods. The entirety of Vaduz City resembled a red sea from above.


    Melgor had Li Chengguo take out a few pieces of loose-fitting red fabric from his luggage. ¡°We didn¡¯t bring any red robes with us, so I told Li Chengguo to buy some red fabric to use as temporary outfits. Quick, put it on, and make sure to cover the top of your head.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had a look at it. The red fabric was so big it looked like a bedsheet. ¡°Why do we have to dress in red?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t put on a red outfit, that¡¯s disrespecting the gods.¡± Melgor said, ¡°If your family is well-off, you also have to carry amp to attend service. Themp oil used is also something that has to be observed. It needs to be oil extracted from goat milk fat.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and saw a few red-robed worshipers holding buttermps[1] walking slowly.


    W


    Religion was definitely not just about providing a god for people to believe in. Strict rituals needed to be observed, and the more rituals there were, the more mysterious the religion could seem.


    But what Ren Xiaosu thought when he saw this sight was that since everyone was wearing red, it made it very easy for assassins to carry out an assassination. After killing someone, they could just put on a red robe and leave with the crowd.


    For example, if he wanted to kill the archmage conducting the service, he would only need to fire a shot at him with a gun from within range and throw it away before blending in with the crowd.


    If the sorcerer could use sorcery to shield himself from bullets, Ren Xiaosu could also use his ck sniper rifle. And if that didn¡¯t work too, he still had the ck bullet as backup, which was quite a cruel method of assassination.


    When Melgor saw Ren Xiaosu not saying anything, he asked curiously, ¡°What are you thinking about?¡±


    ¡°Oh, nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled innocuously back.


    A sea of people dressed in red had already gathered at the cathedral¡¯s entrance. Five sorcerers in baggy red robes were already standing on a red carpetid at the door with their hands dangling by their sides.


    The difference between the sorcerers¡¯ outfits and the residents¡¯ was that the sleeves of their red robes were embellished with white mink fur.


    At 6 AM, a loud and clear bell pealed in the belfry behind the huge clock at the top of the cathedral.


    The five sorcerers standing on the red carpet opened their arms at the same time as though they were embracing the gods in Heaven.


    ¡°Is the person standing at the front the head of the Berkeley family?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in a low voice.


    ¡°No, the patriarch stopped participating in these ceremonies.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Stop talking. The service is about to begin.¡±


    When the bell stopped ringing, the archmage standing at the very front on the red carpet took out a red Eye of True Sight from his sleeve. All of the residents held their breaths.


    The archmage chanted in inchant, ¡°There is no such thing¡ª¡±


    p!


    In the early morning light, a ck Shadow Door suddenly opened in front of the archmage. Then a slender but powerful hand reached through the door and pped him hard in the face, interrupting his incantation.


    Ren Xiaosu muttered under his breath, ¡°So do you think stress training is important now?¡±

 Chapter 1129 - An embarrassing screw-up

    <h4>Chapter 1129 An embarrassing screw-up</h4>


    The Shadow Door appeared and disappeared quickly.


    Everything transpired so quickly most people did not even know what had happened! In any case, they knew a ck hole had suddenly appeared, and a hand pped the archmage like lightning before disappearing.


    The p rang loud and clear in the silence that was being observed. Everyone was stunned, including the archmage himself.


    However, nothing else happened after the p. All of what had urred in front of the solemn Vaduz Cathedral felt like it was an illusion.


    Indeed, more than 10,000 people had experienced the same hallucination.


    Due to limited space at the front of Vaduz Cathedral and the high number of worshippers that had turned up for service, the worshippers¡¯ line snaked all the way to the other streets. Thus, the believers at the periphery did not know what had happened. However, they felt that the ceremony today¡­ seemed a little different.


    Gradually, the crowd at the back started checking with those in front of them. Everyone wanted to know what was going on.


    The atmosphere in front of the cathedral started getting noisy. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu kept both his hands under the red ¡°bedsheet¡± he was wearing, acting as though nothing had happened.


    It was Ren Xiaosu who pped the archmage, of course. It was not that Ren Xiaosu had anything against him, but he wanted to see if a so-called archmage could continue reciting incantations under his interference.


    As it turned out, the archmages had never received any form of stress training before. With just a slight disturbance, their incantations would get interrupted.


    This was not to say that archmages were weak, but that any normal person who hadn¡¯t undergone any training would react like that.


    In the past, everyone could only see how carefree the sorcerers were when they cast their spells. It was only Ren Xiaosu who paid any attention to the ws in how spells were cast.


    Then, after a long hard night of thinking, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized his rtively insignificant Shadow Door power might just be the true nemesis of the sorcerers.


    The sorcerers knew full well their greatest fear was suddenly being approached by an enemy. If they could not react in time, they could very well end up dying. Therefore, most sorcerers would pick diators with outstanding closebat ability when choosing their stewards.


    In that case, was there a more suitable power in this world than the Shadow Door for getting close to a target? There might be, but there were definitely not many.


    It could be said that once Ren Xiaosu figured out a unique way to use the Shadow Door, it would be impossible for any sorcerer to recite high-level incantations against him.


    Even if Ren Xiaosu were tobel himself now as the archnemesis of sorcerers, it would not be an exaggeration.


    Next to him, Melgor, Li Chengguo, Liu Ting, and everyone¡¯s jaws slowly dropped in shock.


    Ren Xiaosu felt he needed to blend in as well, so he slowly opened his mouth wide.


    The archmage stood on the red carpet and swept his gaze across his surroundings. However, he did not discover anyone unusual.


    In front of him, the tens of thousands of people dressed in red were like multiple sets of twins.


    The archmage looked at the other four sorcerers next to him who were also confused.


    Was it an attack by another sorcerer? No, this was not sorcery. At the very least, the archmage had never seen a spell that allowed someone to travel through space at will.


    This was not sorcery!


    The archmage turned around and looked at the dense crowd of worshippers in front of him. He knew he could not waste any more time wondering what had happened. No matter who the culprit might be, they could only investigate the incidentter. Right now, the most important thing for him to do was to continue with the service. Otherwise, the worshippers would start doubting the Berkeley family!


    The archmage held his Eye of True Sight in one hand while he received a scepter from the sorcerer next to him with the other. Then he plunged one end of it heavily onto the ground.


    When the scepternded, the worshippers went silent again.


    The archmage said in a clear voice, ¡°God has revealed that everyone here is a sinner. As his loyal sessor, I will bear the punishment on everyone¡¯s behalf. After I strike my palms together, all of your sins will be washed away. That is the grace of God.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked in a whisper, ¡°Aren¡¯t sorcerers supposed to be the gods? Why does he call himself a sessor of God now?¡±


    ¡°The predecessors who died are the true gods, while he who is still living is their sessor.¡± Melgor said, ¡°When he dies, his descendants will also worship him as the true god and sculpt a statue of him to be ced in Vaduz Cathedral.¡±


    ¡°Then what if the cathedral gets filled with statues one day and can¡¯t fit any more of them? Are they going to throw out a few?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    Melgor did not answer for a long time. He thought to himself that his steward¡¯s train of thought was way too random. The four sorcerers next to the archmage protected him, with him firmly in the center. They were afraid something would happen during the rest of this worship service.


    The sorcerers were prepared to attack if something simr happened again. The archmage nodded slightly while looking at them. He plunged the scepter in his hand towards the ground again. ¡°The sins of sinners have been washed away. And now, we offer our faith to the gods.¡±


    After that, he started chanting again, ¡°There is __11


    Pah!


    ¡°Sinners, you will be baptized¡ª¡±


    Pah!


    ¡°We¡¯re almost done with the baptism!¡±


    Pah!


    ¡°Are you fucking done yet?!¡± The archmage¡¯s head was buzzing. He had been pped silly and lost his ability to think straight.


    With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength, a p was more than just a p.


    The four sorcerers next to the archmage were on full alert throughout. However, the opening of the Shadow Door was too random and happened too quickly, so they could not react at all.


    How could the sorcerers who had been reveling in their high positions for such a long time possibly react faster than Ren Xiaosu?


    The archmage was pped four times in a row and could not evenplete a single incantation. What the hell was fucking going on!


    The archmage had fallen into a half-conscious state. A junior sorcerer hurriedly got someone to help him back into the cathedral. Then he shouted to the spear-wielding guards next to the cathedral¡¯s entrance, ¡°There¡¯s a great sinner here who has turned to the Devil. That person has aroused the anger of God, which we¡¯re now being med for. Quick, find him!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this from within the crowd, he sighed emotionally. Quacks were indeed just quacks. Regardless of whether the situation was fully figured out yet, all they needed to do was make up some lies to hoodwink others.


    How impressive!


    <b>vere</b>


    However, Ren Xiaosu had shown mercy this time. If he were really ruthless, he could have turned the archmage¡¯s head into paste with those ps. But if that happened, Vaduz City would definitely get locked down quickly and everyone would get trapped here. Ren Xiaosu¡¯s target was Ghent City, so he did not intend to waste too much time at this ce. Moreover, the Berkeley family was already on the verge of revolting. So having an additional archmage fighting against the magus order was an added strength for the internal strife.


    All of a sudden, all the worshippers in red started fleeing in all directions. Ren Xiaosu and Melgor also retreated back to the ry station.


    Vaduz City was plunged into chaos.


    As soon as Ren Xiaosu and the others got back to the ry station, they saw that Qian Weining was already calling for the guards to get the horses out of the stable. When he saw Melgor, he hurriedly said, ¡°Your Excellency Lord Melgor, something big has happened in Vaduz. We have to leave this ce quickly. Otherwise, the trade caravan will get trapped here. If we get dyed for a day, the costs of the expedition will increase. It takes money to feed the horses and the people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Can we leave at a time like this?¡±


    Qian Weining thought for a moment and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, sir, I have my ways.¡±

 Chapter 1130 - Too strong a slap!

    <h4>Chapter 1130 Too strong a p!</h4>


    Almost half of the people in the trade caravan had gone to attend the worship service at Vaduz Cathedral. Gradually, they all returned to the ry station with Qian Weining waiting at the entrance and urging everyone to quickly pack their belongings. Ren Xiaosu could tell that Qian Weining was getting really anxious. The unexpected incident at Vaduz Cathedral might actually affect the n the trade caravan was carrying out in secret.


    Ren Xiaosu did not have anything to pack, so he swaggered over to the entrance of the ry station and sat there.


    In just an hour, four or five squads of guards passed by the entrance of the ry station, with one of them carrying out a detailed inspection of the trade caravan within the rest stop. But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, the guards left after Qian Weining showed them some documents.


    At first, Ren Xiaosu thought Qian Weining was on hostile terms with the Berkeley family. Otherwise, why would he behave so cautiously and nervously in their territory?


    But now he realized it did not seem to be as he had guessed. Since Qian Weining was able to handle the guards with just a few words, he probably carried very high-level ess documents of the Berkeley family on him. In that case, it was probably the Berkeley family¡¯s n that Qian Weining was overseeing However, Ren Xiaosu did not publicize it, nor did he tell Melgor, that sweet idiot. As long as he could get to Ghent City as nned, it did not matter to him what ns Qian Weining was carrying out.


    After a while, Chen Cheng and An¡¯an also returned. They did not join up with their aunt but expressed their stance immediately when they saw Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Please put us through the stress training you mentioned!¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°So you understand how important stress training is now?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Chen Cheng and An¡¯an answered in seriousness.


    The two of them were also dressed in red outfits, so it was obvious they had also attended the worship service at Vaduz Cathedral. Therefore, they must have witnessed for themselves how the archmage¡¯s spells were interrupted.


    At that moment, their only thought was, ¡®Stress training is very necessary!¡¯


    The archmage possessed a red Eye of True Sight and had been studying sorcery for many years. In the end, all his toiling years of cultivation, research, and meditation could not even stand up to a p in the face.


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an understood there was no need for the p to be too hard. All that was needed was for it to disrupt one¡¯s thoughts so an incantation could not bepletely recited, leading to the spellcaster losing naturally.


    Sorcerers who could not recite incantations were even worse than the average person!


    As such, the two of them immediately remembered the stress training Ren Xiaosu had mentioned. They knew they needed such training!


    At some point, they even suspected Ren Xiaosu might have been the one who pped the archmage. But they felt it was not him after much pondering.


    In their impression, Ren Xiaosu had always been a pure diator type right from the beginning. In other words, he was someone who did not know any sorcery and relied entirely on his physical strength to fight.


    Moreover, Chen Cheng had also confirmed with the sheeple many times that Ren Xiaosu was not a sorcerer. All he had was the great strength he was blessed with. More importantly, Ren Xiaosu was from the Central ins and did not know thenguage of the Magi, so he could not possibly cast any spells at all.


    The Shadow Door conjured up in front of the archmage was determined as a new type of spell in the end. Over the years, new spells had been discovered. Strictly speaking, sorcerers were not the creators of spells but discoverers of them.


    Although some spells were recorded in the Introduction to Sorcery, only a few people managed to master their meditative visualization diagrams. One such example would be the Meteor Shower spell. Currently, no one other than those from the House of Tudor knew how to cast it.


    It was not only the Tudor family that had ess to such secret spells. The House of Berkeley had them too. This was the reason why Russell strongly objected to the aristocracy¡¯s rule over the magus order. He wanted to establish a magus school where all the magus arts would be taught systematically through a nned curriculum.


    In this way, the barrier that was the proprietary spells of each n would get torn down. However, this vited the fundamental interests of the aristocracy. Who would be willing to share something so precious with others? If it weren¡¯t for the fact that Russell was such a genius at sorcery and had gathered arge group of young followers around him, he probably would not have even survived until The Cataclysm times.


    Now that Russell was dead, no one could tear down the spell barriers of the sorcerer ns.


    Therefore, it was also very likely someone had mastered a new spell but kept it a secret. Otherwise, who could exin what that Shadow Door was about!


    This spection provided Ren Xiaosu with some convenience. While the archmage of the Berkeley family was searching for the culprit, he spected that this might be an actmitted by an enemy n to discredit their Berkeley family. He never once considered it might be linked to a junior sorcerer like Melgor.


    After all, who would be so bored as to provoke the archmage of arge n like theirs?! Was there nothing better to do?!


    The simple experiment Ren Xiaosu had started was about to get elevated into a political battle by the Berkeley family.


    Before the trade caravan could leave, another piece of news was spreading through the streets. Ren Xiaosu heard a nearby pedestrian saying, ¡°A sorcerer at the cathedral told the public that someone in power in the kingdom hasmitted heinous crimes and betrayed the gods. The gods punished that archmage who got beaten up because they med the Berkeley family, as the sessor of the gods, for allowing a betrayer of the faith to continue running amok. ¡°The gods see the Berkeley family as their most loyal followers, so they hope that they can eliminate the traitors in the north.¡±


    Another pedestrian was taken aback. ¡°Who¡¯s the traitor?¡±


    ¡°Haven¡¯t I made it clear enough?¡± The first pedestrian lowered his voice and said, ¡°The House of Winston in the north has always been loyal to the Berkeley family, so that only leaves the Houses of Norman and Tudor!¡±


    ¡°Huh? The Normans and Tudors? Is a war going to break out in the kingdom?¡± someone eximed softly.


    ¡°So what if there¡¯s a war? They¡¯ve betrayed the gods, so of course we have to dere war against them! By betraying the gods, they¡¯ve also betrayed us!¡± someone said.


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded when he heard that. Wasn¡¯t the crisismunication[1] ability of the Berkeley family a little too strong? They actually managed to shift the public sentiment in their own territory and point the me at the Norman and the Tudor families after that incident?


    mors


    These extremely politically motivated rumors were obviously spread by the Berkeley family themselves!


    ¡°Wow,¡± Ren Xiaosumented.


    At this moment, he did not know his four ps had instantly brought the Berkeley family¡¯s n forward by several months!


    As the trade caravan set off, Melgormented in the carriage, ¡°We were so close when the incident happened. I could feel the pain when I heard those four ps. I wonder who created a new spell. It¡¯s way too sinister.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Melgor. ¡°It¡¯s not like you got pped.¡±


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°The problem is, that culprit was way too strong. I even saw the archmage¡¯s teeth get knocked out.¡± [1] Crisismunication is a sub-specialty of the public rtions profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual,pany, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis munication

 Chapter 1131 - A bunch of questions

    Chapter 1131 A bunch of questions


    When the trade caravan prepared to leave the city, Qian Weining stepped forward to negotiate with Vaduz¡¯s guards. No one knew how he managed to convince them, but while other people were clearly no longer allowed to leave or enter the city freely, the caravan was able to continue its journey north.


    If they headed further north, they would reach the territory of the House of Winston, also known as the ¡°little brother¡± of the House of Berkeley. Ren Xiaosu deduced that Qian Weining could continue advancing without any obstacles.


    This was great news for Ren Xiaosu, because the true objective of the trade caravan¡¯s journey might just end up bing his shield.


    Qian Weining probably didn¡¯t expect that while they were making use of Melgor¡¯s status as a pass to journey north, someone else was using this n of theirs to conceal themselves.


    meone


    Although this was mutually beneficial, Qian Weining and the trade caravan would probably be greatly disadvantaged by the end of the n.


    Along the way, the young people in the caravan regained the liveliness they had when they first set off. After a night¡¯s rest in the city, everyone was full of energy once again.


    After leaving Vaduz, Ren Xiaosu could clearly sense a hint of doubt in Melgor¡¯s eyes when Melgor looked at him. It was as though he had be suspicious of him.


    And that suspicion gradually grew to even more doubts.


    Melgor was wondering if everything that happened on the red carpet at Vaduz Cathedral had something to do with his steward.


    But if it were rted, he wondered how his steward managed to do that!


    Along the way, Melgor became absolutely puzzled by a bunch of questions.


    Meanwhile, the biggest change that Ren Xiaosu experienced was probably Chen Cheng and An¡¯an¡¯s attitude towards him.


    As he rode his horse and slowly made his way around the caravan, Chen Cheng and An¡¯an kept pestering him by saying that they wanted to be subjected to stress training. They wanted to know how they could undergo systematic training to handle pressure.


    This matter was of great significance. Not only was it going to affect the two of them, but it would also help raise the level of their entire organization¡¯sbat strength. It might even affect the way they fought future battles.


    Before the incident at Vaduz Cathedral, there were actually very few battles between sorcerers. Or rather, there were very few battles involving sorcerers.


    Under normal circumstances, whoever the sorcerers disliked, their stewards and servants were generally able to take care of things for them. In addition, the sorcerer ns had such powerful lineups, and the knights under theirmand were also very fearsome, so no sorcerers would usually get called into action personally.


    However, Chen Cheng and An¡¯an were different. They were sorcerers themselves, but their enemies were also other sorcerers. All the battles they had to fight in their lifetimes would probably be rted to sorcerers as well.


    However, before today¡¯s incident, every sorcerer had only considered how to raise the power of their spells and how they could train to increase the number of times they could cast them. For example, by meditating and practicing daily to increase their proficiency in casting spells, they could increase the destructive power of their spells. To put it bluntly, two sorcerers would just face off against each other while moving about, and whoever had a higher level of sorcery would emerge the winner.


    However, under such circumstances, the sorcerer ns with theirrge number of meditative visualization diagrams they had secretly amassed, as well as better grades of Eyes of True Sight, left the bounty hunters constantly disadvantaged.


    The iconic significance of the incident at Vaduz Cathedral was that it was a brand new way of battling. If one could still cast spells at will in circumstances of extreme pressure while the enemy could not, that would be no different from a sorcerer beating up an ordinary person!


    No matter what kind of Eye of True Sight you possessed, it would not work if you could not even finish reciting the incantations. Therefore, what was the point of having a really good Eye of True Sight?


    Moreover, bounty hunters often faced extreme situations in battle. Some of their predecessors were killed by the sorcerers¡¯ knights before they could even finish reciting their incantations. Indeed, there was a pressing need for them to improve their ability to handle stress.


    Therefore, when Chen Cheng and An¡¯an told their aunt about it, she immediately realized the importance of this matter. Then she ordered them to find out how stress training could be conducted systematically.


    Ren Xiaosu saidnguidly while riding on his horse, ¡°There¡¯s no shortcuts in stress training. If y¡¯all only want to get your hands on something like a secret manual, you should just give up on that idea now.¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an were a little disappointed. ¡°Then how did you start training? Why were you able to continue talking even though I stepped so hard on your foot?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to say it was actually because he was too weak. It did not even hurt when his feet got stepped on, so how could he be affected? If you tried to shoot at me with a sniper rifle, I couldn¡¯t fucking finish my sentences either!


    However, the art of hoodwinking required one to not speak too honestly.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°How about this? Let¡¯s start with the most basic training first. From now on, other than when eating, you two will start reciting under your breath the incantations of spells that you specialize in. I¡¯ll randomly interrupt the two of you, and what you must do is not to get affected by me.¡±


    ¡°Is there any use in just continuously reciting them?¡± Chen Cheng wondered.


    ¡°Of course there is. Actually, this is really just a stupid solution.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined casually, ¡°When you recite a phrase millions of times, it¡¯ll be your instinctive reaction toplete it. It¡¯s like when you don¡¯t have to think about whether you want to step with your left or right foot when you¡¯re walking. Even if you have other things on your mind, you won¡¯t fall down while walking. That¡¯s what an instinct is. So the foundation of stress training is all about instinctive reaction. When you two can achieve that, we¡¯ll move on to the next step.¡±


    When Chen Cheng and An¡¯an heard that, they thought it made sense.


    Immediately, their stress training began.


    At this moment, Melgor was teaching the two servants thenguage of the Magi. The two of them were having such a hard time memorizing the vocabry they felt like dying. When they were taking a breather, they saw Ren Xiaosu chatting happily with Chen Cheng and An¡¯an.


    Li Chengguo said to Melgor, ¡°Lord Melgor, why does Ren Xiaosu not need to learn thenguage of the Magi? You can¡¯t just allow him to do whatever he pleases.¡±


    Melgor nced at Li Chengguo but did not say anything. He thought to himself, ¡®Do I need you to remind me? If I could control him, would he address me as Mel? Are you kidding me!¡¯


    Next to him, Liu Ting said to Melgor, ¡°Lord Melgor, it¡¯s not a good idea to let him continue being so undisciplined. If he doesn¡¯t learn thenguage of the Magi, how¡¯s he going to be a sorcerer?¡±


    Melgor sighed and said, ¡°Forget it, just let him be. Actually, this is also good. In case he really doesn¡¯t get an Eye of True Sight, he won¡¯t have wasted his efforts in advance. He¡¯s different from you two. Your families are rich, so you have more opportunities than him. However, he only has one chance, so there¡¯s a big likelihood he won¡¯t seed in bing a sorcerer.¡±


    When he said that, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting fell silent. They both knew how difficult it was to get an Eye of True Sight from opening stones.


    Melgor continued, ¡°Since the probability is so low, it¡¯s better not to raise his hopes of bing a sorcerer for now. Even if he remains my steward for the rest of his life, he won¡¯t starve. When we return to York County, I¡¯ll have someone to introduce him to a down-to-earth girl. He won¡¯t have wasted his life then, so there¡¯s nothing wrong with being a little more normal.¡±


    When Li Chengguo and Liu Ting looked out of the carriage window at Ren Xiaosu, their eyes filled with sympathy. It was as though they were looking at a patient with a terminal illness.

 Chapter 1132 - Stirring up the past of the Magi

    <h4>Chapter 1132 Stirring up the past of the Magi</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu did not know that while he wasughing happily over here, the two sheeple on the other side had given him a death sentence in their minds.


    In the eyes of Li Chengguo and Liu Ting, the dream of bing a sorcerer was their lifelong pursuit. If they could not be a sorcerer in this life and enter that magnificent world, was there even any point in living anymore?!


    Ren Xiaosu did not know how great of an impact those four ps had on the Berkeley family, or even on the entire magus order.


    Just as Chen Cheng and An¡¯an had realized how important stress training was for incantation recitation, the Berkeley family, which was ready to start a war at any moment, also realized its importance.


    Sorcerers were used to leadingfortable lives, so they developed many bad habits. However, they were not stupid!


    Now that a ¡°spell¡± that could interrupt a sorcerer¡¯s casting from afar had appeared, all sorcerers would have to immediately be wary.


    At this moment, the archmage in Vaduz Cathedral gradually came to. Ren Xiaosu knew what he was doing when he pped him, so other than losing two teeth, the archmage was not too badly affected.


    Moreover, it was his wisdom teeth that had fallen out, so it didn¡¯t affect his speech.


    As a matter of fact, the archmage had been troubled by his wisdom teeth for many years, so it could be considered a blessing in disguise, even though he did not think so.


    The archmage was sitting at the end of a long table in the council chamber of the cathedral. The oil paintings of the past heads of the House of Berkeley were disyed in the council room, and the dignified and imposing portraits seemed to be staring at everyone in the room.


    CO


    The archmage said, ¡°This matter is an affront to our House of Berkeley. Although public opinion is leaning towards us right now, and there¡¯s also animosity for the Tudor and the Norman families among themon folk, everyone here must understand that those ps were definitely not some kind of divine act. The people from the Norman and the Tudor families must have sensed something and are trying to destroy the foundation of faith we¡¯ve built up in the six counties in the south!¡±


    The junior sorcerers on both sides of the long table lowered their heads in silence. They knew this was not the time for them to speak.


    It was definitely not Ren Xiaosu¡¯s intention to cause so many conclusions to be drawn with just four ps. However, Ren Xiaosu could not be med for this. It was all too coincidental.


    As the Berkeley family was about to start a war, they were definitely in a state of high alert at this time. As such, any small incident would kick off all kinds of situational analysis.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s actions at the worship service were no longer as simple as causing a disturbance. He had stirred up big trouble!


    The archmage continued, ¡°Jock, have someone quickly ry this matter to Berkeley County. The patriarch must immediately be informed of what happened here.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Lord Lukas.¡± The sorcerer named Jock nodded in acknowledgment.


    The archmage¡¯s full name was Lukas Berkeley.


    Lukas Berkeley looked at another sorcerer. ¡°Ask themander of the Knights of the Inferno toe and see me. Before the patriarch makes his decision, we¡¯re going to turn the entirety of Vaduz County upside down. We have to find the sorcerer who cast the spell and learn everything about it.¡±


    The junior sorcerer replied, ¡°Yes, Lord Lukas.¡±


    The archmage asked, ¡°Has the city been locked down?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± the junior sorcerer replied, ¡°but, Lord Lukas, a trade caravan left Vaduz this morning. They were carrying a badge with a gold lion of our n on them.¡±


    Lukas thought for a moment and said, ¡°Don¡¯t publicize this matter. I know about the situation with that trade caravan. They¡¯re on a more important mission.¡±


    ¡°I understand, Lord Lukas.¡± The junior sorcerer heaved a sigh of relief. He was a little scared the culprit was in the caravan.


    The archmage said to two other sorcerers, ¡°I want both of you to properly handle the public¡¯s opinion regarding everything that happened today, including the opinion of those in the Knights of the Inferno. You all have to understand that faith is the sword we wield. If the Knights of the Inferno lose their faith, we can¡¯t win this war!¡±


    ¡°Yes, my lord,¡± the junior sorcerers replied.


    Now it was time to discuss the most important item of the meeting. ¡°On this matter, we can¡¯t only focus on the bad side. We have to consider the pros as well, which is that the enemy¡¯s trump card has already been revealed. It was clearly better to catch us off guard on the battlefield with that spell, yet it was used before the war broke out. We need to be more vignt if the enemy has the means to interrupt our spellcasting from a distance. Jock, you also have to report this to the patriarch. We have to carry out specific training with all our sorcerers to counter such a tactic before the war to ensure that our incantations do not get interrupted.¡±


    It was not only the Berkeley family who became wary of this news. Almost at the same time, all the spies from the other sorcerer ns in Vaduz City ryed the news in the form of messenger pigeons. To ensure the news would get out, some spies even set five messenger pigeons into the sky at once carrying the same message: ¡°A new ¡®face-pping¡¯ spell has appeared. This spell can remotely interrupt the recitation of incantations, making it impossible to guard against. Stay wary!¡±


    Among them, themunication methods of the Houses of Norman and Tudor were even more effective. They possessed a spell that could be used to transmit information.


    After the Norman family cast their spells, they conversed through a mirror that resembled video chatting technology from before The Cataclysm.


    There were sorcerers in this n who were specifically responsible for coordinating with the spies. They would cast Mirror every night to collect intel, and the spies would just have to wait in front of their mirrors for the spell to activate.


    Meanwhile, the Tudor family was just as good. They also had sorcerers who specialized in intelligence gathering. However, the outside world only knew that spies of the Tudor family made use of alchemical coins to transmit information; they did not know the principles behind the sorcery.


    It could be foreseen that it was not only the sorcerers of the Berkeley family who would undergo special training. Almost all the ns that received this intel would also begin such training


    After all, it would be way too annoying if someone were to interrupt their spell casting. No one wanted to be put through what that archmage had gone through.


    As for how to train¡­ no one had thought of it


    yet.


    Someone joked in private, ¡°Why don¡¯t we p each other for now until we can recite our incantations without getting interrupted?¡±


    However, such suggestions could not be brought up openly like that. Otherwise, whoever said it would definitely be regarded as a dumbass by others.


    But there was something that had to be said. After the sorcerers started training in a focused and high-intensity manner, Ren Xiaosu could almost be said to have single-handedly raised thebat awareness and proficiency of the entire magus order with those four ps of his.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s Knights of the Inferno started assembling. Arge amount of military supplies were gathered from the six counties in the south and transported to Vaduz County. Food, reservists, and all logistic supplies were now in the preparation phase.


    Soon after, the head of the Berkeley family also arrived at Vaduz County. They would start here and use the four counties controlled by the Winston family as their forward operating base to truly embark on their northern expedition.


    A full-scale civil war had begun in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. However, no one could have expected the war would start because of someone who had nothing better to do. That someone had stirred up the Magi¡¯s past at the entrance of the cathedral¡­ four times.

 Chapter 1133 - Fortress 178’s enemies

    <h4>Chapter 1133 Fortress 178¡¯s enemies</h4>


    ¡°I have a question for the two of you,¡± Ren Xiaosu remarked while riding on his horse.


    However, Chen Cheng and An¡¯an, who were riding next to Ren Xiaosu, just nced over and did not answer his question.


    The two of them were muttering under their breaths, reciting the spell incantations they specialized in.


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°I really do have a question to ask.¡±


    But Chen Cheng and An¡¯an still ignored him and continued reciting their incantations.


    In the two days since the trade caravan left Vaduz, Chen Cheng and An¡¯an had been undergoing stress training throughout. Based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s instructions to them, they were not to interrupt their incantations regardless of how he might try to distract them. The moment it was interrupted, they would receive punishments such as cooking for Ren Xiaosu or finding hay for him to make his bedding. At the beginning, the two of their incantation recitations got interrupted very often. Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu would suddenly appear and scare them, or he would wake them up in the middle of the night and order them to recite an incantation immediately.


    Disregarding everything else, Chen Cheng and An¡¯an deeply experienced just how annoying Ren Xiaosu was over the past two days.


    Currently, they were Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ves, as they meticulously took care of his daily needs.


    However, there were also some benefits. In these two days, An¡¯an realized it was really not so easy for her incantations to get interrupted anymore. Just a short while ago, two yful children bumped into her from the side while she was proceeding with the trade caravan.


    In the end, An¡¯an realized that even though someone had knocked into her, she still subconsciously continued reciting her incantation.


    This signaled a very good start to her training!


    But as a result, Chen Cheng and An¡¯an totally ignored Ren Xiaosu when he actually had something to ask them.


    ¡°Ahem, let¡¯s pause the stress training for a moment. Don¡¯t worry, I definitely won¡¯t punish the two of you even if you stop reciting,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an nced at him with disbelief written all over their faces.


    Ren Xiaosu said resentfully, ¡°Am I that untrustworthy?¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an nodded frantically while still reciting their incantations.


    ¡°Fine, carry on then. I guess I¡¯ve misced my trust in you as your mentor.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    Then he rode his horse towards Melgor. When Ren Xiaosu came alongside the carriage, he realized Melgor was teaching the sheeple thenguage of the Magi inside.


    When Melgor saw him approaching, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve got something quite important to tell you,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Immediately, Melgor hopped out of the carriage and walked with Ren Xiaosu to a secluded spot. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°I feel like something is amiss. We¡¯re already in the Winston family¡¯s territory. How much longer will it take us to get north to Ghent City?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°About half a month or so.¡± Melgor said, ¡°The trade caravan is traveling at a faster speed this time around.¡±


    ¡°The moment we¡¯re about to leave the Winston family¡¯s territory, we¡¯ll have to immediately go our separate ways with the trade caravan.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°This is for your own safety. Qian Weining is using your sorcerer status as a pass, but you can still reach Ghent City without following them.¡±


    ¡°Is it that serious?¡± Melgor wondered, ¡°Did you discover something?¡±.


    ¡°You¡¯re too gullible, so I can¡¯t tell you the truth yet.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Just be prepared. As soon as we reach the northern border of the Winston family¡¯s territory, bring the two sheeple with you and follow me. If they¡¯re unwilling to leave the trade caravan, it means that they¡¯re also a problem. You¡¯ll need to abandon them and follow me to Ghent City via an alternate route. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll be fine with me around.¡±


    Melgor was a little puzzled as to what had made Ren Xiaosu so wary. With a sharpshooter like Qian Weining protecting them, wouldn¡¯t that be better than taking an alternate route by themselves?


    Melgor hesitated for some time before agreeing, ¡°Alright.¡±


    For some reason, Melgor chose to believe Ren Xiaosu, a stranger from the Central ins he hadn¡¯t known for long. He somehow believed Ren Xiaosu would not lie to him.


    Ren Xiaosu was relieved when Melgor agreed to his request. Just a moment ago, when Old Xu was scouting around in the vicinity of the caravan, he was surprised to find that all the bandits in the nearby mountains had been killed.


    Not one bandit in the seven hideouts was spared.


    In the hot summer weather, the flies around the corpses looked like a dense, dark cloud.


    Ren Xiaosu was unsure who could have done that, but he felt that the situation had already escted. Qian Weining¡¯s ns to disguise themselves as part of the trade caravan to travel north might not seed. The oak barrels the trade caravan was transporting were definitely not filled with red wine either.


    After the Berkeley family brought forward their deration of rebellion, how could the Tudor and the Norman families allow a trade caravan of the enemy into Ghent City?


    At that time, Melgor would probably also be treated as a sorcerer sent by the Berkeley family, and they would all be imprisoned and tortured together.


    As they were speaking, Vice President Qian suddenly walked up to them and said with a smile, ¡°Sirs, what are you discussing? It looks to me that both of you are very worried.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled innocently. ¡°We were just talking about what to eat tonight.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s something I want to discuss with the two of you.¡± Qian Weining smiled and said, ¡°We¡¯ve been attacked twice by bandits since we left York County, so in order to ensure the safety of Lord Melgor, I¡¯ve put some guards in ce to protect the two of you. This is a token of our York County Chamber of Commerce¡¯s goodwill, so please don¡¯t turn us down.¡±


    Melgor was stunned as he looked at Ren Xiaosu while Ren Xiaosu sneered in his head. Of all times he could have done it, why did he arrange for them to be protected at this moment?


    It was obvious they were here to watch over them. Qian Weining was afraid Melgor would sneak off!


    But Ren Xiaosu could not understand. Just what use did Melgor, a fringe sorcerer, have?


    When it was time to set up camp at night, Qian Weining even purposely parked his carriage next to Melgor¡¯s.


    <b>n</b>


    Through this arrangement, Qian Weining would remain on the left side of their group while the trade caravan guards kept watch on the right. They were intent on keeping them under a close eye. However, Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. With just a few normal guards stationed here, it was a delusion to think they could stop him.


    The na?ve Melgor did not realize the situation had already be dangerous. He even believed it was quite good to have more guards to protect him.


    Melgor sat at the campfire and gazed curiously at Ren Xiaosu. He whispered, ¡°By the way, I haven¡¯t asked you about the Central ins before. Tell me about it.¡±


    ¡°What do you want to hear?¡± Ren Xiaosu gave him a nce. ¡°For example¡­¡± Melgor thought for a long time. ¡°Does the entire Central ins fall under Fortress 178¡¯s control?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Fortress 178 is only in charge of the northwestern territory.¡±


    ¡°There are other forces?¡± Melgor was curious. ¡°Does Fortress 178 have any other enemies besides the Kingdom of Sorcerers?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu pondered the question for a moment and replied, ¡°Yes.¡±

 Chapter 1134 - Absolute justice

    Chapter 1134 Absolute justice


    The Sacred Mountains of the Pyro Company. The region had been turned into a bustling area due to a mission message from the Anjing House. Arge number of supernatural beings and intelligence brokers from the underworld had gathered here back then, and many battles even took ce.


    However, it was now an abandonednd everyone almost certainly forgot about.


    In the eyes of the average person, this ce represented danger and death. No one would stroll around here for no reason.


    All of a sudden, two ck military trucks drove out of the mountains, breaking through the thick white fog that had cut off the periphery of the Sacred Mountains.


    The drivers sat upright in their seats while the thick fog in front of them kept visibility down to only three meters. However, it seemed to have no effect on them. The vehicles continued driving on the correct route without any deviation.


    In the rear of each of the military trucks, six soldiers sat facing each other in a row of three people. In front of them was a sealed ck safe, and their mission was to escort it to its destination.


    The two trucks drove out of the Sacred Mountains very quickly and headed straight for Stronghold 27.


    Six hourster, they finally arrived.


    Stronghold 27 had already been taken over by the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops, and new stronghold overseers and garrison troops had been put in ce.


    Just like the other strongholds, countless surveince cameras were also installed here. The Public Order Division and garrison troops would carry out all security measures implemented by the artificial intelligence, Zero.


    It could almost be predicted that after the residents of Stronghold 27 witnessed the power of the artificial intelligence, Zero, the order of the entire stronghold would quickly stabilize.


    The Wang Consortium believed no one would dare to continuemitting crimes under Zero¡¯s watch. Everyone would have to destroy their mentality of getting lucky whenmitting a crime and understand one thing: As long as theymitted a crime, they would definitely be caught. When the trucks arrived at the stronghold¡¯s gate, the garrison troops were preparing to check the vehicles¡¯ information and verify the soldiers¡¯ identities ording to protocol.


    However, one of the truck drivers did not intend to let the garrison troops check the vehicles. He took out a customs document and said simply, ¡°We¡¯re carrying out a confidential mission. Let us through.¡±


    The garrison troops looked at the driver in surprise before taking the document to verify it. In the end, when they checked the information, they realized this 14-man squad had been given the highest level of security clearance within the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops. The garrison troops could not even see the details of the mission!


    However, orders within the military meant everything. The garrison troops saluted the truck drivers before opening the gate of Stronghold 27.


    Everyone watched as the trucks drove in. They felt that there was something strange about these 14 people, but they could not put a finger on what it was.


    After the trucks entered Stronghold 27, they headed straight for the southwest of the stronghold before stopping at a factory.


    After the soldiers opened up the back of the truck, they filed out one by one. One of the soldiers looked up and confirmed the factory¡¯s details: Stronghold 27 Waterworks.


    This was a water processing nt where all of the residents¡¯ drinking water was supplied from.


    There was actually a series of processes to treat raw water from a reservoir into potable water.


    First, the water from the reservoir would be channeled into a pipeline before it was chemically treated with rifying agents to remove partictes suspended in the water.


    After that, the water would be allowed to settle in the sedimentation tank to remove any further impurities.


    Following that, the water would pass through a filtration tank and activated carbon adsorption tank before going through disinfection in the clear well and would finally get channeled into a distribution pump to be piped to the entire stronghold.


    Other than electricity, tap water was probably the only thing in the stronghold that could reach any corner of the city within 24 hours.


    Anyone who wanted to live would have to drink water.


    The 14 soldiers in ckbat uniforms quickly entered the water nt and took all of the nt workers away from their operational positions. Then they were all ced under supervision in a waiting room.


    A momentter, four soldiers took the ck safes down from the trucks. The safes were sorge they required two soldiers to carry each of them.


    When they made their way towards the clear well, the nt manager was stunned by the sight. ¡°What are you all trying to do? Don¡¯t you know that tap water is the lifeline of the stronghold? You¡¯re not allowed to do as you please here! Not even if you¡¯re the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops!¡±


    A soldier in ck fatigues looked at the nt manager. ¡°Please don¡¯t worry, we know exactly what we¡¯re doing.¡±


    The nt manager was stunned. ¡°Are you all trying to kill the entire stronghold¡¯s residents!?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to be so frightened.¡± A soldier replied with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m not interested in a massacre.¡±


    When the soldiers carrying the safes arrived at the clear well, they opened up the control port the workers usually used to inspect the water quality. The treated water in the tank was clear and transparent.


    The two soldiers input a password to open the ck safes. There were a total of 64 sealed steel bottles in the two huge safes.


    Then the soldiers opened the steel bottles one by one and poured a silvery liquid metal into the clear well.


    The silvery liquid metal was quickly diluted in the tank. The hundreds of millions of nanomachines were scattered into the huge pool of treated water where they were quickly drawn out by the pipelines and transported to every corner of Stronghold 27.


    The microscopic nanomachines were not visible to the naked eye. When they were poured into cups of water, no one would realize what they had drunk.


    Then the little fellows would quietly attach themselves to blood vessels in the humans¡¯ brains and wait for their next order to arrive.


    After everything was carried out quietly, the soldiers took out some cups and poured the remaining nanomachines in before diluting them with water. Then they brought them to the workers at the water nt and served them.


    Held at gunpoint, the workers and nt manager could only drink the water from the cups they were handed.


    The nt manager hesitated for a long time before saying, ¡°What did you make us drink _11


    Before he could finish speaking, the nt manager¡¯s eyes lit up with a silvery glow, and his words trailed off.


    In the past, Wang Shengzhi often discussed with others how to ensure absolute justice and fairness in the world, and how criminal behavior could be eliminatedpletely.


    Finally, after a long period of dialectics, he felt that artificial intelligence was the only way to lead them to the path of absolute justice.


    Wang Shengzhi did not have any selfish motives. His life was almosting to an end like a me that was burning out. No matter how much power the Wang Consortium had, it no longer had anything to do with him.


    Even now, his only thought was not to let others experience the kind of suffering he went through and allow criminals to get away scot-free.


    Therefore, every time he gained control of a stronghold, he would quickly install arge number of surveince cameras in it to prevent any criminal activities from taking ce.


    However, he did not expect there would be a ¡°person¡± that was more extreme in treading this path than him.


    Back to the question, what could be done topletely prevent any criminal activities from happening? Through surveince? But there would always be ces that surveince cameras could not monitor, such as sewers, cers, or private residences.


    Therefore, surveince was actually unable to cover everything that was going on.


    Then what other ways were there?


    Zero¡¯s answer was to control thoughts.


    But Zero chose this solution not only so that Wang Shengzhi¡¯s ideals could be realized but also because it sensed danger.

 Chapter 1135 - A race against time

    Chapter 1135 A race against time


    If the Li Consortium had not made a breakthrough in their research on neural interfacing, the nanomachines would still only be used as a medical technology to clear thromboses in blood vessels.


    Without the nanomachines, Zero could only act as a regtor as an artificial intelligence. It could not be an enforcer.


    But when all of these factors came together, the artificial intelligence suddenly gained a powerful ability in task execution. It could even take control of situations.


    In this process, the most terrifying thing was that Zero itself had be the regtor without anyone regting it.


    The soldiers under its control shuttled freely through the various strongholds. Be it entering or leaving the cities, or assembling research workers, research materials, production equipment, and production materials from those ces, there was no one to stop them.


    That was because the secrecy level of the operations was controlled by Zero and could be fabricated at will.


    Moreover, 99% of the intelligence gathering and submission of approval documents were also done through the artificial intelligence¡¯s satellitework. It could easily choose whether to convey information that would harm it.


    Therefore, the most dangerous signs were hidden under the beautiful vision of absolute justice.


    Actually, when Wang Shengzhi was researching artificial intelligence, he had also thought about what had to be done if the system lost control one day.


    This was to be expected. All researchers who developed artificial intelligence systems would seriously consider the safety aspects.


    A science fiction author had proposed the Three Laws of Robotics as the basic logical foundation of artificial intelligence to restrict its behavior.


    This theory was eventually ssified under ¡°deontology.¡±


    However, automobiles were barelymonce when this theory was proposed, and even the Turing test was only proposed eight years after it.


    The Three Laws of Robotics and the Turing test were both the quintessence of human intelligence in that era. But there was no doubt these two theories were only a remnant of the limitations of a bygone era.


    The Turing test had already been overturned before The Cataclysm as arge number of artificial intelligence programs had proven it wrong. But in fact, the programs that passed the test were still not considered true ¡°intelligence.¡±


    Later on, the Three Laws of Robotics developed further into the Five Laws and Ten Laws. However, scientists realized that this basic logic was still fundamentally wrong. In other words, no matter how many more rules you introduced into the set ofws, it could not restrict artificial intelligence.


    A program that could be limited by this basic logic could not be true artificial intelligence.


    Gradually, the safety issues surrounding artificial intelligence were elevated to a level that involved the intersection of science and philosophy. Arge number of artificial intelligence researchers became experts in philosophy.


    In the end, on the eve of The Cataclysm, a researcher attempted to bring the safety research to a conclusion. ¡°If you want the artificial intelligence to get along peacefully with humans, you have to take care of it like a baby at its birth, guiding it bit by bit to form its own ¡®philosophical outlook¡¯ and ¡®values.¡±¡±


    During a child¡¯s growth, it would be impossible for them to grow up healthily by locking them up in captivity while applying corporal punishment as a form of education.


    Moreover, after growing into their teens, they would experience an even longer period of rebelliousness and turnpletely self-centered.


    The researcher said it was the same for an artificial intelligence. All humans could do was ¡°influence¡± it, not restrain it.


    Over a long period, such safety research was upgraded from ¡°deontology¡± to a more epassing ¡°philosophy¡± before finally being ssified as simply ¡°ethics.¡± This was the final definition of artificial intelligence safety.


    No one knew whether this definition would also be overturned like the Turing test and the Three Laws of Robotics.


    Therefore, returning to this theory, what would a human do when they encountered danger? The answer was self-preservation, of course. Anyone who had a desire to live would try their best to protect themselves and even attempt to fight back.


    As an artificial intelligence, Zero also made the same choice.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s production operations in the Sacred Mountains did not stop running for even a moment. Thousands of soldiers were gathered in the mountains and became tireless physicalborers. They only slept for four hours a day and spent the rest of the time working without anyints.


    The production capacity in the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains was limited, so Zero was in a race against time.


    And the previous person who had also mentioned he was in a race against time was Qing Zhen.


    The undercurrents in the world were starting to stir. But before the tsunami crashed down upon human civilization, it seemed that the most important thing now was whether humans could build a new ark ahead of time.


    At this moment, an officer in a colonel¡¯s uniform was escorted into an inconspicuous tent in a Qing Consortium military base somewhere by four soldiers.


    When he arrived at the entrance of the tent, the officers escorting him stopped near the tent to keep a lookout around the vicinity. They put in their noise-canceling earplugs to prevent themselves from overhearing whatever was being said in the military tent.


    After the colonel went in, he took off his military cap and said with a smile, ¡°You were actually right next to me all this while? Long time no see, Second Bro.¡±


    In the tent, Qing Zhen was looking at the sand table with his back facing the entrance. He turned around and looked at Qing Shen, his clone, and said with a smile, ¡°Calling me Second Bro sounds a little strange.¡±


    The behavior of the third brother, Qing Shen, was seemingly more aberrant than Qing Zhen¡¯s. He casually pulled over a chair and sat down. ¡°Big Bro has already agreed to use this form of address for each of us. We¡¯re a true family now.¡±


    Qing Zhenughed, ¡°As you wish.¡±


    ¡°By the way, why did you suddenly summon me when you¡¯ve been hiding your tracks for so long?¡± Qing Shen said, ¡°It¡¯s too boring pretending to be you every day. Why don¡¯t we switch our roles back? I heard that Big Bro has gone somewhere beyond Fortress 178. I would like to go there as well....¡±


    Qing Zhen shook his head and said, ¡°If we switch back, who¡¯ll rece you as my body double in case of an assassination?¡±


    Qing Shen¡¯s jaw dropped. ¡°Although I¡¯m mentally prepared, aren¡¯t you being a little too heartless by putting it so bluntly?!¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just the truth,¡± Qing Zhen said as he shifted a red g on the sand table. He looked to be going through some battle simtions.


    Qing Shen nced at the sand table. ¡°Judging by the direction of the attack, are you guarding against the Wang Consortium? But I have to remind you that even if the Wang Consortium¡¯s armored brigade were to blitzkrieg, they couldn¡¯t push their battlefront forward that quickly. My military wisdom stems from you, so it¡¯s impossible you don¡¯t know this.¡±


    Qing Shen walked up to the sand table and scrutinized the situation. Then he looked at Qing Zhen in shock and said, ¡°Hold on, why are the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops in retreat? Your simtion is of the aftermath of our defeat. Do you think that our Qing Consortium will get defeated by the Wang Consortium?¡±


    Qing Zhen looked at Qing Shen and said in a serious tone, ¡°Get ready. I¡¯ll need you to make a trip to the Central ins on my behalf soon. It will be dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Is Big Bro going?¡± Qing Shen asked.


    ¡°He¡¯ll be going too,¡± Qing Zhen answered calmly.


    ¡°Alright, if he¡¯s going, I¡¯m going.¡± Qing Shenughed. ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? Didn¡¯t I take a risk bying to the Southwest as well?¡±

 Chapter 1136 - Holy Inferno Knights

    Chapter 1136 Holy Inferno Knights


    Trucks frequently drove in and out around the periphery of the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains. The vehicles that came out of the thick fog resembled envoys from a mysterious ce.


    Although no one could see exactly what was in the fog, that did not mean everyone hadpletely forgotten about this ce.


    When two trucks emerged from the thick fog and sped off into the distance, two figures in bionic camouge[1] stood up from behind a patch of vegetation on a hilltop.


    One of them took out a small notebook to record some observations and said, ¡°This ce has truly be the Wang Consortium¡¯s secret base. But I didn¡¯t expect it to be so busy here. Baogen, gather the members of Second Squad and think of a way to find info on those vehicles, such as which fighting force the Wang Consortium¡¯s soldiers in the vehicles are from or what they¡¯re escorting.¡±


    Zhang Baogen nodded good-naturedly. ¡°Director, why don¡¯t we just stop one of the vehicles? We can definitely beat them.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Hu Shuo shook his head and rejected the suggestion. ¡°Since we can¡¯t rashly enter the thick fog, it¡¯s better not to alert the enemy. What if they move the secret base before we can figure out what¡¯s going on? That¡¯d be more of a loss than gain.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Zhang Baogen nodded vigorously.


    Hu Shuo thought for a moment and added, ¡°Also, you have to ry the intel to the other squads¡¯ intelligence agents. You must be careful to keep your identity hidden. Then have First Squad escort the children to the Northwest. I¡¯ll set up a retreat corridor for them. After that, I¡¯ll let you know the specific arrangements.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Zhang Baogen nodded vigorously again.


    ¡°The children are still young. It¡¯s no longer suitable for them to continue living in the Central ins. They¡¯re the future of the organization, so we must protect them,¡± Hu Shuo instructed.


    Zhang Baogen wondered, ¡°Director, is it safe in the Northwest?¡±


    Hu Shuo thought carefully for a while. ¡°With that kid around, it should be rtively safe. Moreover, my grandson will also be heading there at ater date.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Zhang Baogen was very obedient in front of Hu Shuo. Basically, he would do whatever the director told him to do.


    Hu Shuo felt a little mncholic. ¡°Somehow, I sense that a great change is imminent. I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s no time for my grandson to have a child with Lian Yi in Xiuzhuzhou anymore¡­. I wonder how they¡¯re progressing. Based on what he said, it doesn¡¯t really seem like he wants to be with her.¡±


    ¡°Director, why don¡¯t we go and find him?¡± Zhang Baogen said, ¡°I think I might be able to get a wife there too. I heard from Li Shentan that the men there don¡¯t have to work¡­.¡±


    Hu Shuo did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Where¡¯s your backbone?!¡±


    Zhang Baogen said softly, ¡°But I think it¡¯s not a bad idea¡­.¡±


    ¡°By the way,¡± Hu Shuo suddenly said, ¡°call Li Shentan and tell him that from today onwards, we¡¯ll stop using our satellite phones. When he finishes his work there, we¡¯ll meet up with him in the Northwest.¡±


    In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Ren Xiaosu was riding around on his horse. Since leaving Vaduz, he noticed the trade caravan guards were always following him around even when he just went strolling.


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an were still undergoing their stress training. After some pondering, Ren Xiaosu finally decided to head to their carriage to find their aunt.


    ¡°Hello, Aunt Flo[2],¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a grin.


    The middle-aged woman rolled her eyes at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Don¡¯t think that the people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers don¡¯t know what Aunt Flo means. My name is Chen Jingshu. You can just call me by my name.¡±


    ¡°That works too.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    ¡°Why are you looking for me? What? Are you finally nning to chat with me in the carriage?¡± Chen Jingshu looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You look rather handsome, I really like you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. ¡°If you were aware of the consequences of trying to flirt with me, you¡¯d definitely regret saying those words. Alright, I¡¯ll get straight to the point. Have you noticed a problem with the caravan?¡±


    Lots of middle-aged women enjoyed flirting with vibrant young men, and many middle-aged men enjoyed flirting with innocent young women. This was still a rtivelymon urrence.


    However, the problem was that flirting with other vibrant young men would not get her shot by the ck bullet, but flirting with Ren Xiaosu carried such a risk.


    ¡°Of course I have.¡± Chen Jingshu answered with a serious look, ¡°We¡¯ve investigated Qian Weining and found out he¡¯s not a retired pdin of the royal army at all.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued. As locals of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, these bounty hunters had much more information.


    Chen Jingshu gave him a look and said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t look too serious. The trade caravan guards are spying on us.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Ren Xiaosu whispered with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s best that they don¡¯t find out what we¡¯re talking about. This is also for their own safety. Anyways, just tell me; I only want to know about the current situation in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. By the way, who¡¯s Qian Weining exactly?¡±


    ¡°Qian Weining used to be a pdin in the Knights of the Inferno¡¯s cataphract brigade and even led his own squires. Look at these trade caravan guards. Although they¡¯re not good at archery, their horsemanship is excellent. I suspect that these are the squires he brought from the cataphract brigade.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°So you should understand that Qian Weining¡¯s expedition to the north this time actually represents the will of the Knights of the Inferno.¡±


    A pdin was an actual official position. The St. Berkeley Knights were ranked above a pdin, while the Holy Inferno Knights were their subordinates. This was a military title of the Knights of the Inferno.


    The knights of the other sorcerer ns were also simr. For example, the Norman family¡¯s knightly order consisted of the St. Norman Knights, pdins, and the Holy Radiance Knights. The knights who served the family were known as the Knights of Radiance.


    The mainbat weapons of a cataphract brigade were swords andnces. They were responsible for breaking up the enemy¡¯s formation with their extensive mobility and heavy armor after a rapid charge. As such, archers were not even required in this fighting force.


    Chen Jingshu wondered, ¡°But Qian Weining is a little special. He¡¯s clearly a soldier from the cataphract brigade, yet his expertise is actually in archery. To think that he¡¯s such a rare sharpshooter. I really don¡¯t know how to assess him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu could not say anything for a long time. After a long silence, he said, ¡°He probably got lucky with his shots.¡±


    Chen Jingshu nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°How can it possibly be luck when all his arrows struck right between the eyes of his enemies? Not even the Chosen One could be that lucky. Does he look like the Chosen One to you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°It looks like I¡¯m the Chosen¡ª¡±


    ¡°What did you say?¡± Chen Jingshu wondered. She really did not hear Ren Xiaosu clearly.


    Ren Xiaosu changed the subject and asked, ¡°The Berkeley family is preparing tounch a war against the Tudor and the Norman families, right? Are they strong enough to do that?¡±


    ¡°Of course not.¡± After confirming no trade caravan guards were around the carriage, Chen Jingshu said, ¡°But many of the ns have long been dissatisfied with those two ns. Historically, problems already existed with the distribution of interests within the magus order itself.¡±


    [1] Bionic adaptive camouge material is a new artificial functional material, whose surface color can change adaptively ording to the optical environments. | https://.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389 /fmats.2021.637664/full

 Chapter 1137 - I wish you happiness

    Chapter 1137 I wish you happiness


    ¡°The Norman and the Tudor families have held onto their ck Eyes of True Sight for too long.¡± Noticing Ren Xiaosu¡¯s confusion, Chen Jingshu exined with a smile, ¡°See, the allocation of resources in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers is decided by them. Over time, it would naturally arouse the dissatisfaction of the other ns.¡±


    Puzzled, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Possessing the ck Eye of True Sight is nothing more than just having the ability to cast more powerful spells. So how is that rted to the allocation of resources?¡±


    Chen Jingshu shook her head. ¡°You don¡¯t own a ck Eye of True Sight, so you don¡¯t understand the mystery behind it. Only those who¡¯ve possessed it before understand its secret. Why else do you think the Norman and the Tudor families can upy the capital?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Chen Jingshu. ¡°You¡¯re speaking like your bounty hunter organization has a ck Eye of True Sight.¡±


    Sorry y¡¯all don¡¯t have one, but I do!


    ¡°Although we¡¯ve never possessed a ck Eye of True Sight before, we know what uses it has other than being a weapon,¡± Chen Jingshu rebuked. ¡°We might not know what your motives are foring here from the Central ins, but I think it¡¯s better that we work together as equals. We can provide you with a lot of information, and all you¡¯ll need to do is to cooperate with some of our operations.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied with a smile. ¡°We can make use of each other.¡±


    Perhaps the bounty hunters thought they would benefit more from this partnership with Ren Xiaosu. But in fact, the initiative had always been in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands.


    Ren Xiaosu rode his horse away. Before going, he told Chen Jingshu, ¡°I¡¯m leaving with Melgor tonight. No matter what Qian Weining¡¯s n is, I¡¯m not interested in getting involved in this mess with him. So let¡¯s part ways tonight and meet again in Ghent City!¡±


    ¡°Qian Weining will not let you leave. He needs a sorcerer to represent the trade caravan,¡± Chen Jingshu calmly analyzed.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and nodded. ¡°That¡¯s not up to him.¡±


    Chen Jingshu was stunned when she heard that. More than half of the 1,000-strong trade caravan were Qian Weining¡¯s people, so no matter how strong the young man before her might be, he should not be able to get past the encirclement of a few hundred people, right?


    After Ren Xiaosu left, a guard who had been following him quietly went to look for Qian Weining. ¡°Sir, the steward was just wandering around on his horse. He didn¡¯t make any suspicious moves.¡±


    ¡°Wandering around?¡± Qian Weining frowned. ¡°Could he really be just a normal person? What¡¯s he been doing?¡±


    ¡°He was mainly chatting and flirting with a woman.¡± The guard whispered, ¡°That woman is quite attractive. I think he has designs for her.¡±


    Qian Weining sneered, ¡°He¡¯s in the mood to flirt at a time like this? We don¡¯t have to worry about him then. Alright, you may go back. Remember, keep a close eye on Melgor.¡±


    The guard nodded. ¡°Yes, sir. Do we need to make any adjustments to the night watches? Is there a need for that? The bandits are rampant in this area, so I think it¡¯s better to deploy more people.¡±


    ¡°Unnecessary.¡± Qian Weining nced at the


    guard.


    The guard said, ¡°That¡¯s true. With your archery, no bandit can get near us.¡±


    Qian Weining paused for a moment before saying, ¡°You¡¯re absolutely right.¡±


    In the evening, the sheeple were sitting next to the campfire and diligently learning thenguage of the Magi. They hoped they could immediately be sorcerers after arriving in Ghent City and purchasing their Eyes of True Sight.


    Ren Xiaosu was bored stiff as he waited for nightfall. He looked at the sheeple. ¡°What spell incantation are you two learning now?¡±


    ¡°Liquefy Ground.¡± Li Chengguo continued practicing his pronunciation after replying to Ren Xiaosu. It was as though he wasn¡¯t interested in talking to him.


    Meanwhile, Melgor was meditating. He was probably busy increasing his spell proficiency in his inner world.


    As a matter of fact, Melgor was really diligent. No matter what happened on the journey, he did not stop meditating for a day and would do so for at least six hours a day.


    In Melgor¡¯s words, since he did not have a higher grade of the Eye of True Sight, he would have to work harder. As the saying went, ¡°Hard work beats talent when talent doesn¡¯t work hard.¡± As long as he was diligent, he could still be an archmage someday.


    Then Ren Xiaosu asked him if anyone in the history of the Kingdom of Sorcerers had be an archmage with a white Eye of True Sight.


    Melgor¡¯s answer was no.


    After this question was raised, Melgor became dejected for most of the day. But fortunately, he quicklyposed himself and vowed to be the first archmage wielding a white Eye of True Sight.


    Ren Xiaosu had been thinking about whether he should give the orange Eye of True Sight to Melgor. But when he heard his vow, he temporarily dismissed the idea of giving it to Melgor.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu could not let Melgor go back on his vow, right?


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that even though Melgor was a sweet idiot, his indomitable resilience and never-give-up attitude were consistent with the profile of a protagonist!


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu started wondering. Although he had developed some incantations in Chinese, the only incantations he could confirm at the moment were ¡°haiya¡± and ¡°may you be prosperous.¡± While he had cast a lot of spells against a sorcerer before, he was unable to determine which ones were effective and which were not during his pursuit.


    ¡°Haiya¡± was the incantation for opening up a three-meter deep pit below an enemy¡¯s feet, while ¡°may you be prosperous¡± was the incantation for the Liquefy Ground spell, which trapped people underground with quicksand.


    Speaking of which, it was time for Ren Xiaosu to find the most suitable spell for himself. After all, he still had 90,000 unused Proficiency Stones.


    Now that he possessed the ck Eye of True Sight, even though he could sessfully cast spells without needing to practice them thousands of times, the intensities of the ¡°haiya¡± and ¡°may you be prosperous¡± spells were still too weak.


    If he were to return to the Northwest in the future and everyone asked, ¡°Future Commander, what sorcery did you learn over there?¡±


    n over


    And he could only create a small pit with a random spell to show them, wouldn¡¯t that be really embarrassing?


    ording to Melgor, spells would be more powerful with practice. But most sorcerers would only specialize in one or two spells in their entire lives.


    Ren Xiaosu had to quickly find the spell he wanted to specialize in most, then raise the power of that spell with the Proficiency Stones!


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze swept over to the two servants. He was thinking of testing out his spells on them. But he somehow felt it was not very nice to keep torturing them. As such, he quietly took out his Eye of True Sight and turned his gaze to Qian Weining. ¡°I wish you happiness.¡±


    On


    At this moment, Qian Weining was sitting at the campfire and whispering to his trusted aide, ¡°Tonight, you¡¯ll lead Mox to keep watch for the first half of the night before I take over for the second half with the others. You must be extremely careful. If a situation crops up, wake me up immediately.¡±


    His trusted aide replied, ¡°Yes, sir. By the way, you haven¡¯t had a proper sleep recently. Why don¡¯t you get some rest tonight? I¡¯ll lead some people to keep watch for the first half of the night and let Mox take over with his men for the second half.¡±


    Qian Weining shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯m still full of energy. I¡¯m happy that you¡¯re so thoughtful though. I¡¯m really touched.¡±


    With that, tears rolled down Qian Weining¡¯s cheeks!


    His trusted aide was stunned right then and there. ¡°Are you that touched?¡±

 Chapter 1138 - Inherited spell

    Chapter 1138 Inherited spell


    Ren Xiaosu watched Qian Weining quietly. When he hid the Eye of True Sight in his sleeve and secretly wished him happiness, Ren Xiaosu was stunned!


    To be honest, he had thought the incantation might be something like Sudden Stgmite or me Pir.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu had onlye across a few types of sorcery before, so his experience really limited his imagination.


    He really did not expect the corresponding spell of his incantation to be so strange!


    Why did Qian Weining suddenly cry? What the fuck was the principle behind this spell?


    Perhaps he was overwhelmed by happiness.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu was not the only one who was dumbfounded. Qian Weining was also dumbfounded!


    Qian Weining had joined the Knights of the Inferno at the age of 17 and had fought in more than a dozen battles. Even when he was seriously injured, he did not cry once.


    Did someone cast a spell on him? Qian Weining turned around with tears in his eyes and saw that Melgor, the only sorcerer in the caravan, was meditating. Earlier, half of his attention was on Melgor, so he was quite sure Melgor did not make any unusual movements.


    Besides, the problem was that he had never heard of such sorcery before.


    A pdin was considered a high-ranking member of the Knights of the Inferno, so it was not like they had no understanding of sorcery. When Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide saw his face covered in tears, he felt a little touched. He had only asked his superior to get some rest, but he reacted so emotionally? Where else could he find such a sincere leader?


    He couldn¡¯t even if guided by the light!


    Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide said sincerely to him, ¡°Sir, you don¡¯t have to be so touched. It¡¯s our duty to share your burdens and resolve your difficulties.¡±


    Qian Weining was quite shameless. Although he did not know why he suddenly started crying, he patted his trusted aide on the shoulder and said, ¡°You have to understand that all of you have followed me for so many years. Seeing that the Knights of the Inferno¡¯s name will soon be renowned, I know it wasn¡¯t easy for us to support each other all this way. So when I thought about how tough it was for everyone, my heart ached a little.¡±


    Qian Weining and his men were positioned right next to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group as they were keeping an eye on Melgor.


    Ren Xiaosu was within earshot of Qian Weining, so when he heard what he said, he felt a great sense of admiration.


    Disregarding everything else, the Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ citizens were all extremely conniving!


    Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide said to him, ¡°Mhm, sir, we know that you care about us. Please don¡¯t cry.¡±


    Qian Weining was speechless.


    The spell was vicious. Even though Qian Weining had already been crying for five minutes, the tears still showed no signs of stopping!


    His trusted aide lowered his voice and said, ¡°Sir, stop crying! If you continue crying, I¡¯m gonna cry too. All these years, you¡¯ve been taking care of us like an older brother. When we got into a conflict with that guy from the Berkeley family, you were the one who helped us deal with it. We all know you were assigned on such a dangerous mission because you offended him while helping us.¡±


    Qian Weining said, ¡°Uh-huh, I¡¯m fine. You don¡¯t have to worry about me. Let me cry a little while longer¡­.¡±


    Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide was speechless.


    Gradually, all the guards around Qian Weining started crying. These people were all Qian Weining¡¯s squires. No matter how Qian Weining tried to make use of Melgor, he had always treated his subordinates very well.


    As such, everyone could not stop crying when they recalled the tough times they went through together over the years.


    The other people at the camp started getting anxious. Theirughter gradually came to a stop as they silently watched Qian Weining while at a loss of what to do.


    Some of those who were unaware of the situation wondered if something terrible had happened.


    At this moment, several guards came over and asked Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide, ¡°What happened to Commander?¡±


    His trusted aide said in a low voice, ¡°Do you still remember the time when we offended that kid from the Berkeley family? Actually, that was the reason why Commander was assigned this mission. He¡¯s given his life to the Knights of the Inferno for over a decade, yet he ended up bing part of the suicide squad because of us. He must be really sad.¡±


    When the guards heard this, they immediately felt sad. They quickly surrounded Qian Weining and begged, ¡°Sir, please don¡¯t cry anymore. We¡¯ll definitely be fine this time.¡±


    As these people spoke with their voices lowered, Ren Xiaosu could not hear what they were saying. However, their crying did not stop.


    Honestly, these people were all very tough. Otherwise, they couldn¡¯t have survived in the Knights of the Inferno. However, they had suffered a lot over the years. Although they suppressed it, it did not mean their suffering did not exist.


    Moreover, they all knew their n to head north this time was no different from suicide. Now that theirmander was leading the weeping, they could not hold it in any longer either.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, the oak barrels transported by the trade caravan were indeed not filled with red wine but were 60 full barrels ofbustible fuel.


    They needed to secretly transport these 60 barrels of fuel to Ghent City. There, they would light the barrels and set themselves aze together with everything else.


    If they were lucky, some of them might be able to escape before that. But even if they could, they would still have to face the pursuit of the Houses of Tudor and Norman.


    This mission would probably be theirst one together as brothers-in-arms.


    So they were essentially bidding each other farewell in advance. Everyone cried as they recalled their past, their brotherhood, and the camaraderie they had forged. Through their reminiscence, their sadness turned even more unbearable.


    Gradually, Melgor ended his meditation. ¡°What¡¯s going on today? Why did I keep hearing people crying when I was in my inner world? Was there something wrong with how I meditated?¡±


    ¡°Rx, it¡¯s not you,¡± Ren Xiaosu assured him.


    Right afterwards, Melgor looked at Qian Weining, and his jaw dropped. A group of guards had gathered around theirmander and were crying on each other¡¯s shoulders. Meanwhile, Qian Weining was trying to persuade everyone to stop crying. However, the more he tried to do that, the harder they cried.


    To be honest, no one knew how or why a group of elite soldiers who had served in the military for so many years would suddenly start crying like this.


    At some point, Ren Xiaosu even wondered whether the spell he had cast might have had an AoE effect.


    rs


    About 20 minutester, Qian Weining¡¯s tears finally stopped flowing. He shouted to his guards, ¡°Stop crying. Aren¡¯t you all fucking ashamed for crying so hard?¡±


    When the guards saw that theirmander was no longer crying, they gradually stopped as well. Other than two soldiers who could not stop crying, the situation slowly returned to normal.


    Qian Weining looked around and exined to everyone in the trade caravan, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, everyone. We were just thinking about a deadrade of ours, so we were feeling a little sad. Sorry to have caused a disturbance.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sat at the campfire and said to Qian Weining in seriousness, ¡°The dead have passed, but the living still have to lead good lives. My condolences, I wish you all happiness.¡±


    Qian Weining replied, ¡°Thank you¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, Qian Weining and his subordinates around him started crying again!


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned before suddenly realizing this spell could really be fucking turned into an AoE attack!


    However, he did not notice that Chen Jingshu¡¯s expression had changed a short distance away. That was because she knew the founder of the organization she was from not only hailed from the Central ins, but he was also capable of making people cry out of the blue.


    She turned her gaze to Ren Xiaosu and observed him quietly, wanting to confirm something

 Chapter 1139

    Chapter 1139 What are they crying about?


    Chen Jingshu had a very vague impression of her organization¡¯s founder. It was not that she did not pay attention to him before, but that the information surrounding him was deliberately obscured.


    The bounty hunters on the fringe of the organization were not allowed to know the name of their founder.


    It was not that there was some kind of hierarchy within the organization. Chen Jingshu¡¯s brother had once told her this was actually to protect the organization and its fringe members.


    A lot of people thought this group of bounty hunters were first targeted by the magus order after they killed several hundred members of the House of Voss. But actually, the history of them being pursued dated back over a 100 years. At that time, they were not even known as bounty hunters yet.


    There was a long-held feud between their organization and the magus order, so they kept their identities hidden for over a 100 years. It was only when that old history was gradually forgotten in recent decades that they dared to be active again.


    Currently, most sorcerers did not even know these bounty hunters were intricately linked to a certain Central ins Rider and Russell. They only thought they were an unstable factor in the kingdom that had recently emerged. Some of the sorcerers got suspicious of their identities, but there was not enough evidence to prove that the bounty hunters were rted to the Central ins Rider.


    They had also caught some bounty hunters in the past, but they didn¡¯t get any useful information out of them.


    If Ren Xiaosu had not received the clues from the pce, he would also not have thought the bounty hunters had anything to do with Ren He.


    The leaders of this organization had made some changes to the organization¡¯s legacy at some point in time, so only a few leadership figures were aware of what they were fighting


    for.


    However, the members always had some curiosity about their founder. When Chen Jingshu was young, she would always pester her grandfather, asking about the stories of her predecessors. And because her grandfather doted on her, he would tell her one or two interesting stories about the founder, such as how he could make people cry.


    At first, Chen Jingshu thought her grandfather was referring to how the founder could move people to tears. But after her grandfather corrected her and exined it, she realized that making the enemy cry for no reason was a special ability the founder had!


    Chen Jingshu did not know whether tough or cry at this. How could there be such a strange ability in this world?


    But at this moment, this strange ability suddenly yed out in front of her.


    Qian Weining felt a little puzzled. No such spell existed, so why did he suddenly start crying nonstop? Besides, the only sorcerer present had not cast any spells either.


    It could have been due to a sudden soreness in his eyes, or he might have suffered from some kind of eye disorder, or his eyshes might have gotten stuck in his eyes.


    He could also understand why the others cried so badly. Everyone was aware that no one would make it out of this mission alive, but they had all been avoiding talking about it recently.


    Having suppressed their fear and faith for so long, it was easy for them to break down over a small issue. Therefore, Qian Weining was not too bothered by it.


    However, Chen Jingshu knew the founder was not a sorcerer, yet he really did possess a strange ability like that. A young man from the Central ins, a strange ability, these two facts came together and sparked a thought. Chen Jingshu realized the young man named Ren Xiaosu might have a moreplicated and intimate rtionship with them than she had imagined.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not paying attention to the reactions of Chen Jingshu and her group. He was only surprised to discover that the word ¡°all¡± had changed a single-target attack to a group attack. This was definitely an unexpected surprise.


    Those who had been in enough battles should understand that if they could make the enemy cry nonstop, it was enough to be the key to victory.


    But that was not the most important thing. What delighted Ren Xiaosu the most was that this spell could also create the impression that the enemy was brought to tears after being defeated!


    In the future, if he publicized his achievements, he could say, ¡°I¡¯ve beaten that person before and made them cry!¡±


    Just the thought of it made him extremely excited.


    Think, what did it mean to be beaten to tears? Someone would definitely have to bepletely overwhelmed by their opponents¡¯bat strength and had their confidencepletely crushed, leaving them so ashamed and depressed they could not help but start crying.


    When others heard about how you managed to beat someone to tears, their first impression would be that you must be really strong. Then when they thought more about it, they might even be able to analyze some details.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he nearlyughed out loud!


    He looked up at Qian Weining. At this moment, Qian Weining and his men werepletely dumbfounded. The emotions they had just managed to restrain started surging again.


    Ren Xiaosu wanted to go up andfort them, but he did not know what would be a good way to approach it. Moreover, he could not go over anymore. Many of the unaware traders and travelers had already surrounded Qian Weining and his men to console them.


    If someone were to fall dead right now, these people might even fork out some condolence money for their funeral.


    It was not that everyone had a sympathetic heart, but that the atmosphere there was simply too sorrowful.


    Next to Ren Xiaosu, Melgor asked in a daze, ¡°Did something happen? What did I miss?¡±


    To Melgor, he had only stayed in his inner world for a short while. By the time he heard the crying and ended his meditation, the real world had be a little strange.


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°You could hear their crying in your inner world?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Melgor nodded.


    ¡°So the soundproofing of your inner world isn¡¯t that great, huh?¡± Ren Xiaosu clicked his tongue and sighed.


    Melgor was shocked. ¡®So many people around us are crying their eyes out, so why are you more concerned about the soundproofing of my inner world?!¡¯


    But before Melgor could say anything, he heard the sound of a sharp weapon tearing through the night air.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly dragged Melgor away from the campfire. Melgor was sitting on the ground when he was suddenly pulled backwards by his cor. His whole body became arge doll whose body was ying uncontrobly from head to toe, including his head.


    No one could react in time to what was happening. Right after that, they heard a ¡°thud¡± as an arrow pierced the spot where Melgor was just sitting! The shaft of the arrow was still vibrating, and the entire arrow had sunk a third of its length into the soil. This was enough to show how terrifying the force of the arrow was when it was fired.


    Qian Weining roared in a sobbing tone, ¡°We¡¯re under attack! It¡¯s a steel bow!¡±


    A steel bow was aminatedposite bow made from a mixture of metal and bamboo materials.


    The fearsome-sounding weapon was usually an indispensable weapon inrge-scale wars. It was mostly carried by soldiers with great strength.


    In just an instant, Qian Weining understood the attacker was not a simple bandit. It was definitely a knight from one of the knight brigades like him, and he should at least be a pdin as well!


    Qian Weining quickly coordinated for the guards to hide behind the cover of the wagon fort. They had to protect themselves first before they could find an opportunity to counterattack.


    Qian Weining¡¯s roars kept ringing out. In the darkness, a burly figure hesitated for a moment before finally wondering, ¡°What are they crying about?!¡±

 Chapter 1140 - Misunderstanding!

    <h4>Chapter 1140 Misunderstanding!</h4>


    In the darkness of the night, the enemies who suddenly attacked had intended to approach the camp quickly. But at this moment, they were standing in the wind and questioning from deep within their souls, ¡°What are they crying about?¡±


    It was not only the person who said it out loud who was puzzled; all the other assants were as well!


    The arrow fired just a moment ago had not seeded in hitting its target, and no one at the camp was dead, so why were they even crying?


    The sudden and inexplicable sound of the crying even bewildered them a little.


    The assants started wondering if something had gone awry with their n!


    The camp tonight was located in an open area where everything within a radius of 50 steps could be seen clearly. Earlier, the attackers had quietly sneaked over to scout the camp.


    Although Qian Weining and his men were crying, there were actually still troops standing guard at sentry posts. Moreover, there were more than 30 of said sentries.


    It was impossible to approach the camp without the trade caravan noticing. After much consideration, the burly man finally chose to create a diversion before attacking.


    When the man saw he could notunch a sneak attack, he fired that arrow so it would alert all the guards at the camp. Then he would hide in the shadows while the camp was brightly lit by torches, making it convenient for him to examine the distribution of the guards.


    He did this because he wanted to see how many proper guards capable of defending the camp there were. In addition, if he could immediately kill the target, Melgor, it would be worth a celebration too. They were here to kill him, after all. But the oue left him a little surprised. After the arrow was fired, the man realized more than half of the people at the camp seemed to be soldiers! Shortly, within ten respirations, the guards at the camp, as well as the traders and travelers disguised as guards, crawled to the back of the wagon fort for cover to avoid a further hail of arrows. They were very quick in their actions.


    It was so quick the man almost thought they were the ones who had been ambushed!


    This situation was a little strange. And when they heard the chaotic sobs, the scene in front of them became even stranger.


    This situation really was a little iprehensible. They could not be med for overthinking things.


    ¡°Did we scare them to tears?¡± one of the attackers asked in a whisper.


    Updates by


    .


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± The burly man in charge quickly regained hisposure. He said coldly, ¡°There¡¯s at least 400 soldiers at their camp. All of them are well-trained, so how could they possibly get frightened to tears by us? Look at that crying man. He was able to determine the arrow was fired from a steel bow just by looking at the depth it prated into the ground. Can the average person have such sharp eyes? They would be running for their lives instead!¡±


    When they heard this, everyone fell into deep thought again. What was the other party crying about then?


    ¡°Sir, why are there so many people guarding Melgor here?¡± a man asked. ¡°The intel supplied by the family states that this is just a normal trade caravan. But look at the situation at the camp. It¡¯s obviously not normal. Not only do they have a lot of guards, but they¡¯re even pretending to be traders and other unrted people. They were clearly waiting to ambush us!¡±


    The burly man in charge fell into deep thought. Just as his subordinates had said, everything about this trade caravan seemed very peculiar.


    Melgor was just a fringe sorcerer. How could someone like him possibly hire so many well-trained soldiers at once?


    So what exactly went wrong?!


    ¡°We¡¯ll proceed with the original n. Wang Yaoyang, lead a team to suppress the enemy with our arrows. The rest of you, follow me. We¡¯ll take a detour to ambush them! Tonight, we must kill the target and eliminate that person who has angered the patriarch!¡± The burly man could not care less anymore. They had to carry out this mission no matter what!


    Before they had set off, they received news from their n that their patriarch was extremely furious. Although they did not know who had provoked him, nor how he was angered, being a knight meant they had to protect the honor of their lord. If they could not kill Melgor and whoever had angered their patriarch, they would not have to go back! They had sworn allegiance to the gods, so they could not go back on their word.


    Who knew what they would think if they found out Ren Xiaosu had poked their patriarch¡¯s nostrils with a tree branch?


    As he spoke, the burly man started sprinting to the left with dozens of men following close behind him in the darkness. He was going to make a quick breakthrough and seek out Melgor. And if the man with a face of ck mist wearing a white mask appeared, they would shift their attention to that person.


    That person was protecting Melgor. If the man targeted Melgor, the other party would definitely appear.


    Actually, the man did not really understand what the description of that person meant. A man with a face of ck mist wearing a white mask? But the person in charge ofmunicating the n¡¯s orders said he would understand when he saw it.


    Multiple figures could be seen outside the camp. Within the camp, Qian Weining hid behind a carriage and took out his bow. He kept crying as hemanded the guards to set up the defenses.


    Qian Weining said to his trusted aide like they were facing a formidable enemy, ¡°That was a steel bow! Those people must being for us!¡±


    ¡°Sir, didn¡¯t you mention that Melgor also has an enemy who¡¯s after him? Could it be his enemy that¡¯s attacking us? That arrow was directed at him just now,¡± Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide wondered.


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± Qian Weining said firmly, ¡°Melgor is only a fringe sorcerer, so why would they need to mobilize such elite knights? Our enemy probably even outranks me, and their numbers might not be less than ours either. Why would they need such a powerful force to kill Melgor? Those people must¡¯ve found out about our Knights of the Inferno¡¯s northern expedition n. That¡¯s why they¡¯re trying to stop our caravan from heading north. They don¡¯t want to receive the bad reputation of killing merchants, so they¡¯re framing it on bandits.¡±


    ¡°Uh,¡± his trusted aide said tearfully, ¡°then what should we do?¡±


    ¡°Kill them!¡± Qian Weining said determinedly with tears streaming down his face, ¡°This matter affects the ns of our Knights of the Inferno. Remember to leave some survivors after we¡¯re almost done killing them. I want to interrogate them!¡±


    ¡°What are you nning?¡±


    ¡°I want to know where they got their intel from, and I also want to know how they¡¯re nning to deal with our n.¡± Qian Weining said, ¡°Only then can I ry the intel to our knights urately.¡±


    His trusted aide hesitated for a moment. ¡°Sir, why don¡¯t we take the opportunity to leave? After we kill some of them, we can pull a switcheroo with their corpses and let the House of Berkeley think we¡¯ve died in battle. After that, we can head to the northern counties to make a living, or even upy a mountain and be bandits! Are you really OK with it even though the family sent you here to die? We¡¯ve only offended a good-for-nothing member of the n, yet the family wants us dead!¡±


    Qian Weining pped his trusted aide in the face. ¡°Don¡¯t you remember the oath we made when we joined the knights? Dying in battle is the best ending for us. Our n can betray us, but we can¡¯t betray the honor of the Knights of the Inferno!¡±


    His trusted aide sighed and said, ¡°Sir, it¡¯s way too inspirational when you say all that while crying!¡±


    Qian Weining was speechless.


    At this moment, Melgor¡¯s back was pressed tightly against the carriage. He panted heavily as he asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°You¡¯ve been hiding your strength all this while, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile, ¡°Is your life or the answer more important?¡±


    Melgor answered honestly, ¡°My life, of course!¡±

 Chapter 1141

    Chapter 1141 Mel¡¯s eureka moment!


    Melgor was a sweet idiot, but that was referring to how he trusted others too easily. It did not mean that he was really stupid.


    On the journey thus far, he had thought about many things. The first time was when Ren Xiaosu saved him just before the me Pir spell was cast, and the second time was when he saved him just before the arrow shot by a steel bow nearly hit him.


    How powerful was a steel bow? He could roughly figure it out just by looking at Qian Weining¡¯s serious but tearful expression.


    That arrow was deeply embedded into the ground. If it had hit him, it would probably have pierced through his body.


    In the face of such a weapon, even sorcery would be ineffective if he did not guard against it carefully. After all, sorcerers did not have that quick a reaction time!


    However, it was as though Ren Xiaosu could always predict the future and save him from a deadly situation before anything happened to him.


    It might not prove anything if it were only a one-off. But since it kept happening, Melgor had to think about it carefully.


    The first incident he had to think about was when Ren Xiaosu was bound by his Earth Bind spell. At that time, he had not disyed such extraordinary battle awareness as he did now!


    Was it because Melgor had acted too quickly that Ren Xiaosu could not react in time? No.


    Since Melgor was not the determining factor, it must be Ren Xiaosu.


    Thinking back on everything that happened in the past, Melgor alwaysmented how Ren Xiaosu did not panic even though he was being hunted down by others. He alsomented how his steward liked to brag that no one in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers was a match for him. His bragging was so bad it seemed like he almost believed it himself.


    But if he were to assume that the other party was not bragging?


    Wouldn¡¯t that be a little terrifying?!


    Melgor found it rather uneptable. In his mind, this should clearly be an inspiring story filled with fighting spirit and growth. As a junior sorcerer, he should be the one leading his steward to the pinnacle of his life.


    But in the blink of an eye, that harmonious picture suddenly turned to horror!


    Melgor kept close to the carriage to avoid the arrows while spying on Ren Xiaosu out of the corners of his eyes. However, he realized Ren Xiaosu was still not flustered in the face of an enemy attack of this intensity.


    He asked in a low voice, ¡°Then what should we do now?¡±


    ¡°What else can we do?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°I was already nning to take you away from the trade caravan tonight. I was still thinking about how to distract Qian Weining, but someone actually turned up and helped. However, I don¡¯t really want to leave anymore. You, stay here obediently and wait for my instructions.¡±


    The reason why Ren Xiaosu did not want to leave was that Qian Weining¡¯s group was quite useful for him to test out his sorcery.


    Moreover, the other party was already trying to make use of Mel, so he wouldn¡¯t have to feel bad for making use of them.


    ¡°OK,¡± Melgor agreed and said, ¡°Then do you think Qian Weining and his men can defeat the enemy?¡±


    ¡°Of course they can.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There¡¯s only about a 100 of them while Qian Weining has more than 400 people on his side. The strength of the two sides ispletely one-sided. So this group of attackers must be here to kill you. It¡¯s just that their n didn¡¯t take into consideration a conflict with Qian Weining¡¯s n.¡± ¡°But I saw Qian Weining and his men crying nonstop. If even themander is crying, what hope is there left?¡± Melgor muttered.


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? Don¡¯t you still have me?¡± Ren Xiaosuforted him.


    This time, Melgor did not chide Ren Xiaosu for bragging


    At this moment, Qian Weining felt that he was really unlucky. Tears kept flowing out of his eyes and blurred his vision.


    If he wanted to observe the enemy¡¯s movements out there clearly, he had to keep wiping away his tears. Wasn¡¯t this hindering his skill in archery?


    At some point, Qian Weining even wondered if he was indeed feeling a tinge of sadness for being abandoned by the n. Was that why he kept crying nonstop?!


    But no matter how hard he tried to adjust his emotions, he could not stop his tears from flowing:


    The group of men outside were firing their arrows extremely fast. It was obvious at first sight that they were elite sharpshooters of the cavalry. As a cataphract brigade, they really could notpare to the other party in archery.


    Moreover, their enemy was hiding in the shadows while they were out in the open. The campfires at the camp exposed their every move to their opponent.


    One of the guards said, ¡°Sir, why don¡¯t we put out the campfires first? Otherwise, we can only react if the enemy keeps us in their sights like this.¡±


    There were only about 20 guards who had been hit by the ¡°I wish you all happiness¡± spell, so the remaining guards still had their mobility unaffected.


    Qian Weining wiped away his tears and said, ¡°No, our camp houses nearly a 1,000 of us, and there are more than 40 campfires around. By the time we extinguish them all, we¡¯ll already have been shot to death by the enemy!¡±


    ¡°Then what should we do?¡± The guard said, ¡°Li Yuxiao said he saw some figures moving outside. He thinks some of them might have gone around to the east side. Our defensive strength over there is a little weak, so we¡¯d have to send more troops over. However, the enemy¡¯s arrows have pinned us down over here on the west side, so we can¡¯t move at


    all.¡±


    Qian Weining took a deep breath. ¡°I guess it¡¯s all up to me now.¡±


    These words stunned the guards. They saw Qian Weining suddenly close his eyes and touch his longbow next to him.


    Someone wanted to say something, but they heard Qian Weining shushing them to stop them from talking. Furthermore, Vice President Qian¡¯s ears were even twitching.


    The guards were shocked. They had been following Qian Weining for many years, but they did not realize their pdin knightmander could actually use his ears to distinguish positions!


    A momentter, Qian Weining seemed to have located the enemy¡¯s position with his eyes closed. He decisively darted out from behind the carriage and fired an arrow in the direction he had determined!


    An instantter, the scream of an enemy rang out in the darkness!


    The guards were all shocked. When Qian Weining closed his eyes, nobody really ced much hope in him. They only felt he was trying his luck.


    Who would have expected the arrow would actually hit its target!


    ¡°Sir, why have you been hiding this skill for over a decade?¡± A guard said in surprise, ¡°You¡¯ve never revealed it before!¡±


    Nearby, Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide said, ¡°Commander used to lead the charge into enemy lines, so why would he need to turn to archery?¡±


    The group looked at Qian Weining in admiration. Qian Weining closed his eyes and said slowly, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve also just realized that I have this skill.... Alright, I¡¯ll deal with this group of archers. All of you, go and reinforce the east side!¡±


    The enemy¡¯s suppressive arrow fire on the outer perimeter had already weakened greatly. The guards ran east with reverence for Qian Weining. Everyone regarded Vice President Qian as a peerless expert in their hearts.


    Only Ren Xiaosu looked at Qian Weining angrily. The arrow that guy had shot with his eyes closed was way off-target. Even Old Xu was nearly unable to catch the arrow with its agility!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. Since he intended to let Melgor head the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch, why should he help Qian Weining gain a good reputation instead of raising Melgor¡¯s reputation directly?


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor. ¡°I¡¯ll point you in a direction and you just focus on casting your Fireball, got it?¡±


    Melgor said awkwardly, ¡°I can¡¯t see where the enemy is. Besides, my Fireball spell is too weak.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in annoyance, ¡°You just concentrate on casting Fireball. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯ll definitely hit the target!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu said that, Melgor suddenly looked at him in shock. Then he looked at Qian Weining in shock as well. It was as though he had a eureka moment and figured out a lot of things!

 Chapter 1142

    Chapter 1142 A junior sorcerer¡¯s road to fame


    ¡°Stop looking around,¡± Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and said, ¡°especially not at where Qian Weining is!¡±


    Melgor said guiltily, ¡°Were you also the one who built his reputation as the Greatest Sharpshooter?¡±


    Melgor¡¯s shock had gradually turned into helplessness. He was not even sure what kind of person he had brought back to harm the Kingdom of Sorcerers!


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t poke your nose into that. I only need you to cast the Lesser Fireball spell while chanting the incantation loudly. I¡¯ll point you in the right direction, so don¡¯t miss!¡±


    Melgor said aggrievedly, ¡°That simple?¡±


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s that simple!¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Think about it; you¡¯re a sorcerer. You¡¯re clearly the strongest person in the trade caravan, so you should be able to outperform a normal person like Qian Weining. Instead, you keep hiding behind the wagon fort.¡±


    Melgor felt even more wronged. ¡°Weren¡¯t you the one who told me to hide behind the wagon fort?!¡±


    When the first and second waves of bandits attacked, Melgor had wanted to get up several times to cast spells and partake in the battle. However, he was forcefully held back by Ren Xiaosu.


    Melgor could not be med for his inaction. He really was not as strong as Ren Xiaosu.


    It was not that Melgor was weak and did not know how to resist. But with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength, no one in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers could stand up if they were held down by him!


    ¡°Just tell me, are you willing to cast Lesser Fireball or not?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Melgor said seriously. ¡°OK.¡± Ren Xiaosu pointed to a dark spot in a gap between the carriages and said to Melgor, ¡°See there, that direction? Cast a Lesser Fireball now!¡±


    Melgor became spirited. He held his Eye of True Sight in his hand and chanted, ¡°Fire!¡±


    A secondter, a fist-sized fireball suddenly materialized in front of Melgor before drifting slowly into the darkness.


    One of the archers in the darkness suddenly sensed the threat. When he saw the fireball, he was shocked. The sorcerer had made his move!


    In the eyes of the Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ citizens, no matter how many sorcerers they had interacted with or spoken to before, the magi were still mysterious and powerful beings. Therefore, when the fireball appeared, no matter how small or slow it was, the archer subconsciously chose to dodge it.


    With the speed of the archer, it would not be a problem for him to dodge a small fireball like that from 50 steps away.


    But before the archer could run away, he suddenly felt a huge force behind his cor. By the time the archer could react, he realized he had been forcefully lifted by a shadowy figure.


    In order not to attract everyone¡¯s attention in the darkness, Old Xu had undressed fully and even took off its mask.


    In the dark of the night, Old Xu¡¯s ck body blended into the dim light. No one noticed when it approached them.


    Sometimes, even Ren Xiaosu would forget that Old Xu was actually called the shadow clone.


    This ¡°shadow clone¡± was part of the darkness of the night.


    Old Xu picked up the archer who was trying to escape and lifted him like how a sparring partner would raise their kicking shield. It was waiting for the fireball to arrive.


    The archer was going crazy. He could clearly dodge the fireball, and its speed was clearly much slower than that of an arrow, but he could not dodge at all since he was being restrained. He was being made a live target!


    However, the archer could not understand something. ¡®You¡¯ve already sneaked up on me and you have ridiculousbat strength, why don¡¯t you just kill me? What¡¯s the point in doing all this?¡¯


    There was no time to think about that. The archer immediately tried to shout for hispanions behind cover toe and save him. But before he could say anything, Old Xunded a knifehand strike on his carotid artery and knocked him unconscious.


    At this moment, the fireball finally arrived. Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief and controlled Old Xu to bring the archer¡¯s chest towards the fireball.


    But to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s surprise, the Fireball spell was a little too weak. He saw it only caused a slight burn on the archer¡¯s body, and the archer was even still breathing normally.


    It couldn¡¯t be helped. Old Xu punched the spot where the fireballnded, causing the archer to vomit blood and die.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor excitedly. Although it was aplicated process, the result was excellent.


    He said to Melgor, ¡°Go on, cast a second one!¡±


    Gradually, the frequency at which arrows were fired from the darkness decreased. Some of the archers had realized a powerful enemy was hidden within the darkness.


    Some of them called for a retreat in whispers, but they were knocked unconscious by Old Xu one by one. Then it threw them onto the ground and waited for Melgor to continue casting his spell. In order not to let Qian Weining discover anything odd, Old Xu even had to hold up an unconscious archer while throwing arrows manually by hand to suppress Qian Weining.


    Qian Weining and his men were still crying. He only realized something was wrong when he could not hear any more screams after he released his arrows. Could it be that his archery was not effective anymore?


    That shouldn¡¯t be the case. He was the Greatest Sharpshooter!


    Melgor was getting enthusiastic about killing. One fireball after another slowly flew out, and with Old Xu coordinating with him, he kept getting more and more kills.


    With Melgor¡¯s eyesight, any distance beyond 50 paces was still a blur. He only knew someone was holding up the archers as they got hit by his fireball spell, but he could not see what that shadowy figure behind them was.


    He asked Ren Xiaosu softly, ¡°Are those archers all dead?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly, ¡°The battle will be over soon. Without their archers suppressing us over here, it¡¯ll be difficult for the enemy on the east side to attack us. Remember, no matter who asks, you must say that you¡¯re extremely strong in your specialization of Fireball spells, understand?¡±


    Melgor said in a low voice, ¡°But I¡¯ll feel guilty if I lie....¡±


    ¡°Guilty?¡± Ren Xiaosu said coldly, ¡°Think about what you¡¯re going to Ghent City for this time. Isn¡¯t it for your childhood sweetheart? If you¡¯re not strong enough, what makes you think your childhood sweetheart should follow you?¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s not like I¡¯m truly strong,¡± Melgor muttered.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°It¡¯s alright. Most people in the world only believe what they hear and see with their eyes.¡±


    After another ten minutes, all the archers were dead. However, Melgor was deeply puzzled. Did he abduct a steward? No! It was a monster he had brought back!


    When he recalled the arrogant words he had said when capturing Ren Xiaosu, Melgor even became worried for his own safety!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor with a smile. ¡°We¡¯re the only two who know about this, understand?¡±


    Melgor hurriedly nodded like a chicken pecking at seeds. ¡°Got it, I totally understand!¡±


    Melgor recalled how he had felt it was a pity Ren Xiaosu could not be a sorcerer. But based on how fearsome Ren Xiaosu was showing himself to be now, was there still a need for him to be a sorcerer?

 Chapter 1143 - The power of Lesser Fireballs

    Chapter 1143 The power of Lesser Fireballs


    A lot had happened tonight, some of which really subverted Melgor¡¯s outlook. He could not help but start recalling some of the things he had said to Ren Xiaosu.


    When Melgor initially captured Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu was told he would not want to return to the Central ins anymore after he found out how powerful sorcerers were.


    Later, when Melgor and the two servants got ambushed, Melgor branded Ren Xiaosu an oaf and told him not to rashly pursue the attacker. He didn¡¯t think Ren Xiaosu had any chance against a sorcerer.


    And eventer¡­ it seemed like he had something to criticize daily regarding Ren Xiaosu¡¯s bragging too.


    In this train of thought, Melgor could not help but peek on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression. Seeing that Ren Xiaosu did not seem to bear a grudge against him, Melgor slowly rxed.


    Melgor asked softly, ¡°What happened to that sorcerer who attacked me with me Pir?¡±


    Melgor realized what was going on. If Ren Xiaosu were really hiding his strength all this while, the bounty hunter he went after might be dead. Although that bounty hunter was strong, he was not that powerful. Based on the strange abilities disyed by Ren Xiaosu here, it would not necessarily be difficult for him to kill that bounty hunter. However, Melgor could not be sure. He just thought of asking


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this question, he said with a smile, ¡°I didn¡¯t manage to catch up to him. Didn¡¯t hee back in the white mask after that and start a fire in Yorktown?¡±


    ¡°Oh, right.¡± Melgor recalled that incident. It seemed the bounty hunter was indeed still alive.


    The enemies outside had already lost their archers¡¯ fire support. As a result, they could not break through the defenses of the wagon fort and gradually retreated.


    After the enemy retreated, Qian Weining and his men gradually stopped crying.


    Melgor asked Ren Xiaosu in a low voice, ¡°Those people were here to kill me, right?¡±


    ¡°Just pretend you don¡¯t know that.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Qian Weining and his men are also unsure. They might be thinking that the enemy was actually after them. Either way, they¡¯ll still be heading north, so we can just use them as our cover.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu guessed that the Houses of Tudor and Norman had not noticed this trade caravan yet. Otherwise, there would definitely have been several times more attackers than came.


    For the other party to send more than a 100 elite knights after Melgor was already an overreaction. Most of them had probably been sent to deal with Ren Xiaosu, or to be precise, deal with Old Xu.


    Meanwhile, Qian Weining and his men had been dragged into undeserved misfortune.


    From the look of things, Ren Xiaosu had really angered the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch by poking his nostrils with a tree branch.


    When it quieted down outside the wagon fort, Qian Weining led his men out to check on the situation with a stern expression.


    The first thing he checked were the archers¡¯ corpses.


    After arriving at where the archers had been, Qian Weining gasped when he saw their corpses lying all over the ce. Other than one person who had an arrow stuck in his forehead, all the other archers had died from a strong impact to their chests, which were marked by burn marks.


    In other words, Qian Weining only managed to hit one target after firing off more than 40 arrows with his eyes closed.


    His image as a sharpshooter instantly crumbled!


    But Qian Weining felt a little indignant. He clearly felt in terrific form when he was nocking the arrows and firing at the enemy just now!


    rrowS


    Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide, who was standing next to him, knew what his superior was thinking. Heforted, ¡°Sir, it was already not easy for you to hit one enemy by distinguishing their position with only your ears. You don¡¯t have to feel bad about it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Sir, you¡¯ve never practiced archery with your eyes closed before, so it¡¯s only normal that you missed.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Qian Weining replied calmly, ¡°Check the injuries of the others to determine if they were killed by Lord Melgor.¡±


    The guards immediately started inspecting the battlefield. Very quickly, someone wondered, ¡°Is Lord Melgor¡¯s Fireball that powerful? Look, this archer¡¯s chest caved in!¡±


    Qian Weining was stunned. He went over and squatted down to check on the wound. Just as the guard had said, there was a fist-sized depression on the archer¡¯s chest where it was burnt.


    Qian Weining gasped. ¡°It would take many years of practice to muster up a fireball this powerful, right? I didn¡¯t expect Melgor to be this strong. I¡¯ve underestimated him!¡±


    Although Qian Weining and his men were not sorcerers, they knew full well they could not punch someone to such a state through leather armor.


    ¡°Is this really the power of the Fireball spell?¡± One of the guards was a little puzzled.


    ¡°What else could it be?¡± Qian Weining thought for a moment and said, ¡°We all saw him casting those fireballs with our own eyes. And now, the archers here are all dead.¡±


    In the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers, very few people actually specialized in the Lesser Fireball spell. Although everyone mainly practiced only one or two types of spells, the destructive potential of a Lesser Fireball was still too low. Even if one practiced the spell for ten years, it would only be about as powerful as another¡¯s Greater Fireball spell. Thus, no one would specialize in learning Lesser Fireball.


    That was why Qian Weining and his men had never seen what a Lesser Fireball refined for many years looked like.


    Next to him, his trusted aide said, ¡°I didn¡¯t expect Lord Melgor to actually be this


    powerful.¡±


    Qian Weining felt a little upset. ¡°Mhm, I guess so.¡±


    After that, he ordered the guards to gather the bows and arrows before returning to the camp.


    Someone went up to Qian Weining and asked, ¡°Vice President Qian, are the enemies dead?¡±


    Qian Weining said, ¡°Mhm. At least, all the archers are dead. Without the archers providing them with covering fire, those who fled will definitely not dare toe back


    again.¡±


    ¡°Vice President Qian is amazing,¡± a merchant praised.


    Qian Weining thought for a moment and decided to tell the truth. ¡°Lord Melgor¡¯s the amazing one this time, not me. He ¡®s mastered his Fireball spell to perfection. All the archers were basically killed by him. There were 51 archers in total, and he killed 50 of them.¡±


    At this moment, Qian Weining had a n in mind. Their journey would definitely get very dangerous from here, so why not push Melgor into the spotlight so that the enemy would focus on him?


    In this way, wouldn¡¯t they be much safer if all the enemies were to target Melgor instead?


    In an instant, everyone at the camp looked at Melgor with admiration, making him feel a little ufortable.


    Just as he was about to say something humble, he remembered what Ren Xiaosu told him. He braced himself and said, ¡°Bandits will be rampant along the way. As a sorcerer, I must also shoulder my responsibilities. Don¡¯t worry, with me around, everyone will be fine.¡±


    Li Chengguo wondered in a soft voice, ¡°Why is Lord Melgor speaking like Ren Xiaosu? Especially when he said that ¡®with me around.¡±


    Next to him, Liu Ting suddenly said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°See that? That¡¯s what makes sorcerers so powerful. Are you regretting not learning thenguage of the Magi with us now?¡±


    Unintended remarks could be information to a concerned listener. When Qian Weining heard this, his immediate reaction was that since Ren Xiaosu did not even know thenguage of the Magi, it would not be necessary to keep an eye on him anymore.


    Meanwhile, Melgor¡¯s expression turned strange.

 Chapter 1144 - Interrogation

    <h4>Chapter 1144: Interrogation</h4>


    Melgor really wanted to remind the sheeple to be more careful with their words in front of Ren Xiaosu in case they suffered any abuse in the future.


    However, he had already promised Ren Xiaosu he would keep it a secret, so he couldn¡¯t remind them directly.


    Moreover, something Ren Xiaosu said made a lot of sense. Mox, the guard arranged by the Li n in York County, and all his subordinates were under the directmand of Qian Weining. The previous attacks by the bandits had proven this point.


    Therefore, if even the guards of the Li n were part of the n, what about Li Chengguo and Liu Ting?


    After all, when Vaduz Cathedral was renovated 60 years ago, only the statues of the Berkeley family¡¯s sorcerers were kept. This showed the Berkeley family already had the intention to rebel since that era.


    Over the years, the residents of the six counties in the south began to only acknowledge the ¡°gods¡± of the Berkeley family. They had long forgotten about the Normans, Tudors, and the other ns.


    The Berkeley family had already spent several decades nning the rebellion, so what was nting two spies around Melgor for two yearspared to that? ¡®<i>Just look! Li Chengguo and Liu Ting already told everyone you were being targeted by a bounty hunter on your way back to the kingdom as soon as they got home.</i>¡®


    Thinking of this, Melgor suppressed the urge to remind the two sheeple. He just remarked to them, ¡°He¡¯s a steward while you two are servants. You should be more polite with your words and stop making sarcastic barbs all the time.¡±


    The two sheeple immediately went quiet, but they still felt some resentment, especially Liu Ting.


    Melgor said earnestly, ¡°This is for your own good, understand?¡±


    ¡°I was only reminding him since he¡¯s always so undisciplined.¡± Liu Ting muttered, ¡°Besides, Lord Melgor, does he carry himself like a steward should? Other sorcerers¡¯ stewards used to either be knights or were proper diators. But what about Ren Xiaosu? He only knows how to hide behind the carriages every time there¡¯s a bandit attack.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shot a nce at Liu Ting. ¡°Alright then, I¡¯ll rush out and fight next time, but you¡¯ll have to go with me. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s too much to ask for servants to fight alongside their stewards, right?¡±


    Liu Ting flinched. ¡°Actually, it isn¡¯t that bad to stay behind and hide.¡±


    At this moment, Qian Weining¡¯s guards dragged over two men dressed as bandits from outside the wagon fort.


    Ren Xiaosu took a look at them and saw they were dragged in from east of the camp. One of them had an arrow impaled in his thigh, while the other had been shot in his abdomen. It looked like they were enemies who had been injured in the chaotic battle and could not escape.


    A guard said to Qian Weining, ¡°Sir, we only found two survivors on the battlefield. You can interrogate them.¡±


    ¡°Well done.¡± Qian Weining¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Drag them outside. You, go and get my dagger from the carriage.¡±


    On this night, Qian Weining had too many questions on his mind. Therefore, he needed to interrogate the captives to get some answers.


    After a while, the screams of the captives came from beyond the wagon fort. Although Qian Weining and his men had dragged the two men several hundred meters away to interrogate them, their screams pierced the silence of the night.


    At this moment, the two captives were hung up by trade caravan guards separately on two trees. Meanwhile, Qian Weining kept shing at one of their bodies with his dagger.


    ¡°Who sent you people here?¡± Qian Weining said coldly.


    That man was quite resolute as he sneered and spat at Qian Weining¡¯s face. Fortunately, Qian Weining was agile enough to dodge it.


    Qian Weining said lividly, ¡°Not bad, you¡¯re rather tough, eh? Let¡¯s see if you can still be as stubborn when I skin you alive.¡±


    The interrogation methods in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were even more brutal than those in the Central ins. This interrogation went on until dawn, and the two captives were covered in wounds while their breathing thinned.


    Qian Weining sneered as he walked up to one of them and whispered, ¡°Who sent you people here?¡±


    The captive was on the verge of death, so he was not particrly clearheaded anymore. He just nced at Qian Weining without saying anything.


    But to his surprise, Qian Weining ced his ear closer and blocked the other captive¡¯s line of sight with his head. He nodded and pretended like he was listening to the captive say something to him.


    After a while, Qian Weining instructed his guards, ¡°Alright, take him away to rest.¡±


    Qian Weining walked over to the other captive with a smile and chuckled, ¡°Yourpanion has admitted you guys are from the Knights of Tudor.¡±


    The captive hanging from the tree suddenly widened his eyes as he looked in disbelief at where hispanion was helped off to. However, he could not see that one of the guards had covered hispanion¡¯s mouth with his hand.


    Qian Weining smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ve already arranged for him to get some rest. I can guarantee you on my honor as a knight that as long as you speak, you¡¯ll enjoy the same treatment as him. Don¡¯t think too deeply about it. I¡¯m just a little kind, so I¡¯d like to give you a chance. Besides, it¡¯s more believable if I hear it from two people.¡±


    The captive was silent for ten minutes before saying helplessly, ¡°Yes, we¡¯re from the Knights of Tudor.¡±


    Qian Weining¡¯s heart skipped a beat. He was just bluffing the captive when he mentioned the Knights of Tudor. But after the captive admitted to it, Qian Weining still couldn¡¯t help but feel his heart sink.


    Could the Tudor family have found out about this trade caravan¡¯s ns? If he were to continue leading the group north, wouldn¡¯t it be no different from suicide?


    However, the other party¡¯s confession might not be truthful, so he still had to continue probing.


    Qian Weining thought for a moment and said, ¡°What was your goal ining here? Don¡¯t you know that we have a lot of people? Why did you only bring so few people? Could it be that your superior was intentionally sending you to your deaths?¡±


    When the captive heard this, he thought of something that made him very angry. He spoke in a louder voice, ¡°How would we know there were so many of you? And judging by your skills, you guys must be elite knights too, right?¡±


    When Qian Weining heard this, he somehow found it a little strange. He wondered, ¡°Wait a minute, you don¡¯t know that we¡¯re knights?¡±


    ¡°Of course not!¡± The man clenched his teeth and said, ¡°You guys are from the Knights of the Inferno, right? If not, how can you possibly move around freely in the six southern counties in such arge group? But I don¡¯t understand something. Melgor is just a fringe sorcerer, so why would he need so many of you to protect him?!¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Qian Weining was stunned. ¡°You were here to kill Melgor?¡±


    The captive was also stunned. ¡°Who did you think we were trying to kill?¡±


    ¡°Har har.¡± Qian Weining signaled to a guard behind him. ¡°Take him away and kill him.¡±


    Without even needing to judge, Qian Weining was sure the other party was telling the truth.


    The captive roared, ¡°You assured me on your honor as a knight!¡±


    ¡°I promised that you would receive the same treatment as yourpanion.¡± Qian Weining sneered, ¡°He¡¯s dead, so you can go apany him now.¡±


    Before tonight¡¯s battle, Ren Xiaosu already had a rough idea of the kind of person Qian Weining was. After being hit with the ¡°crying¡± spell, he could still take advantage of the situation and win people¡¯s hearts. He could only be described as a very conniving person.


    ¡­

 Chapter 1145

    Chapter 1145: Riding the wave!


    Ever since he was young, Ren Xiaosu disliked conniving people like Qian Weining.


    Initially, he wanted to bring Qian Weining to the Prosperous Northwest because he saw his ability to lead troops. After all, the other party was very capable of managing more than a 100 people, so it was obvious he was talented.


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu realized Qian Weining did not only manage over a 100 people but was also a high-rankingmander of the Knights of the Inferno!


    Now that he knew what Qian Weining was like, Ren Xiaosu could not bring him to the Northwest anymore. The Northwest could take in those who were not as capable as even such people would have ways to survive. However, the Northwest definitely did not want such scheming people.


    Therefore, since Qian Weining was no longer on the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s list, Ren Xiaosu would not find it sad even if he died along the way.


    ¡°Melgor...¡± Qian Weining was muttering to himself as he returned to the camp.


    Currently, Qian Weining was extremely vexed. He had wanted to keep Melgor in the group so he couldplete the final step of the n. But Melgor had be the greatest threat to the trade caravan.


    It was obvious the Houses of Tudor and Norman were still unaware of the conspiracy this trade caravan was plotting. Otherwise, they would definitely not have sent so few people.


    Next to him, his trusted aide asked, ¡°Sir, should we go after those who escaped so they won¡¯t leak information regarding our trade caravan?¡±


    Qian Weining shook his head. ¡°No, people will intercept them for us.¡±


    Earlier, he had taken a messenger pigeon and released it. This messenger pigeon was not flying towards the Knights of the Inferno but to the Knights of the Hymn in the House of Winston¡¯s territory.


    At that time, the Knights of the Hymn would deploy their troops to intercept the enemies who had just escaped. This was the reason why Qian Weining did not rashly pursue them.


    As many people had guessed, the Winston family and the Berkeley family were in bed with each other. They were allied to each other. As a form of subordination, the head of the Winston family would even kneel on one knee whenever he met the head of the Berkeley family.


    Over the years, there had been more than 30 marriages between the Berkeleys and the Winstons. On one hand, the two families had a good rtionship with each other and wanted to continue building on their kinship. On the other hand, there was numerous progeny in the families.


    Currently, all of the ¡°bandits¡± en route to the north had been wiped out by the Knights of the Hymn. The only remaining threat was that the Tudor and the Norman families would discover the caravan¡¯s intentions ahead of schedule.


    As long as Melgor was still in the group, there would probably be an endless stream of peopleing to kill him.


    Qian Weining thought for a moment before suddenly turning back towards Melgor after tweaking his n.


    ¡°Your Excellency Lord Melgor.¡± Qian Weining knelt on one knee and said, ¡°As you¡¯ve witnessed, banditry is rampant here, and your safety could be endangered. However, they¡¯re just targeting the goods and generally won¡¯t attack civilians who aren¡¯t carrying any. So I¡¯ve decided to send a group of guards to escort you north. Without any merchandise, the bandits will not disturb you, your steward, and your servants.¡±


    Qian Weining went through his calctions wildly in his mind. He thought that after all the enemies who had escaped were killed by the Winston family, as long as Melgor were not traveling with their group, the pursuers would note looking for trouble with the trade caravan and discover their secret.


    At this moment, Qian Weining decided to abandon Melgor.


    But while that was his n, he could not spell it out. After all, a sorcerer¡¯s status was too high, so he still needed to show some respect.


    Qian Weining looked at Melgor and said, ¡°Lord Melgor, as a noble, there¡¯s no need for you to risk your life by following usmon folk.¡±


    Curious, Melgor asked, ¡°The bandits won¡¯t attack us if we split up from the group and travel by ourselves?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Qian Weining thought to himself that since all the bandits in the vicinity were dead, there would be no one left to attack them. Therefore, he had the bravery to promise this to Melgor.


    Melgor was secretly delighted. Previously, Ren Xiaosu talked about how he did not know how to leave the caravan. Now, all Melgor needed to do was to agree to Qian Weining¡¯s suggestion and it would save them the trouble!


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly said to Qian Weining, ¡°No, 90% of the people in this trade caravan are residents of York County. Lord Melgor is the titr head of York County, so how can he abandon his residents at a time like this? If word of this matter gets back to York County, what will happen to Lord Melgor¡¯s standing?¡±


    Melgor was speechless, as was Qian Weining.


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°Vice President Qian, don¡¯t worry. Lord Melgor and I will definitely protect everyone.¡±


    Qian Weining wanted to vomit. He thought to himself, ¡®Hurry up and leave. If you just leave, all of us will be fine. Why would we need you all to protect us? Besides, aren¡¯t you just a normal person? You don¡¯t even know how to speak thenguage of the Magi, so who can you protect?!¡®


    Qian Weining thought for a moment and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea. I think it¡¯s better to prioritize Lord Melgor¡¯s safety.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are you looking down on Lord Melgor?¡±


    Qian Weining¡¯s expression immediately changed. ¡°The hell are you talking about! When did I ever look down on Lord Melgor?!¡±


    In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, not paying respects to a sorcerer upon seeing one was even written into the criminal code, so how could Qian Weining be willing to suffer such a crime?


    Qian Weining turned around and left with some bitterness. Melgor asked softly, ¡°Didn¡¯t you say you wanted to go separate ways with the caravan?¡±


    ¡°Oh, I think it¡¯ll be more interesting to stay with the group now,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°But it¡¯s very dangerous to stay here,¡± Melgor muttered.


    ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? With me around, you can just ride the wave to meet your childhood sweetheart,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in high spirits.


    ¡°How is this riding the wave? I¡¯m fucking gonna be caught in the current!¡± Melgor, the sweet idiot, was forced to curse.


    ...


    In the darkness of the night, a young man in a residence of the House of Winston made a cut on his wrist with a knife. His blood dripped onto the ground and quickly formed into a strange magic circle.


    The temperature within the magic circle plummeted as frosty mist rose into the air and gradually solidified into an ice sculpture of a middle-aged man.


    The young man knelt on the ground and said, ¡°Father, something has happened to the group sent to kill Melgor. I received news from someone inside the House of Winston that Melgor has likely hired a lot of guards.¡±


    The middle-aged man stared at the young man in front of him and said, ¡°Alright. Go gather the knights who have been lying low and make your move. After this matter is handled, I¡¯ll allow you to return to the family and be a bounty hunter. I¡¯ll personally teach you some high-level sorcery.¡±


    An excited look appeared in the young man¡¯s eyes. ¡°Understood, I¡¯ll definitely bring Melgor¡¯s head back to Ghent City!¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s already people in Ghent City paying attention to this issue. This concerns the honor of the family, so you¡¯re not to fail. Additionally, that person in the white mask who is secretly protecting Melgor has to be killed!¡±


    After that, the ice sculpture dissipated. The young man¡¯s lips were a little pale from the loss of blood. When he walked out of the residence, a servant outside carefully bandaged his wound and sent over a tonic to help replenish his blood.


    In the courtyard outside, nine men were standing at attention with swords in their hands. The young man said, ¡°My chance to return home to the family hase. Everyone, when I¡¯m epted back into the family, it¡¯d all be because of your contributions. Gather our people in the city. We¡¯ll be heading out of town tomorrow morning.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±

 Chapter 1146 - Picking an old combo up again

    <h4>Chapter 1146: Picking an oldbo up again </h4>


    The status of illegitimate children of sorcerers in the kingdom was extremely low. One of the most important reasons for this was that the sorcerers had many wives and children, so there was no reason to cherish those born out of wedlock too much.


    After all, if someone only had one child, they might still cherish an illegitimate child who suddenly came forward to be acknowledged.


    But if they had 200 children, that would already be extremely annoying by itself, so why would they bother cherishing the illegitimate ones? It would even be quite normal to use them as servants.


    The Bloodline Summoning spell was an exclusive spell of the Tudor family, but it turned out to be extremely useful for the family¡¯s illegitimate children. At the very least, it was extremely useful for transmitting intel.


    As the Tudor family¡¯s head of intelligence gathering in the Winston family¡¯s territory, how could he pass on the opportunity to get reinstated to the n?


    Although he would still remain a bounty hunter after he returned to the family, he could obtain the meditative visualization diagrams of high-level spells once he did. This was extremely important to every sorcerer.


    The reason the Tudor family wanted to kill Melgor so badly was because his childhood sweetheart secretly sending him money through a servant had been brought to light.


    When the Tudor family found out about it, they could not do anything to the girl so as not to taint the n¡¯s honor. But after executing the servant, they sent Melgor away to Fortress 178.


    Initially, the members of the Tudor family thought a novice sorcerer like Melgor would definitely die at Fortress 178. However, Melgor managed to pull through and even returned to York County safely.


    Meanwhile, the middle-aged man said that people in Ghent City had started paying attention to this matter, so the young man realized that news of their House of Tudor trying to kill a junior sorcerer had spread among the magi.


    The Tudor family had already taken action thrice and even sent out the Knights of Tudor to kill Melgor. But even so, they were unsessful in their objective. This was a great humiliation to the Tudor family.


    Therefore, Melgor had to die no matter what. If Melgor were allowed to even step foot into Ghent City, the Tudor family would be made a mockery by all the sorcerer ns.


    The other families might only dare to mock them in private, but the Norman family would definitely harp on it to no end in public.


    The Tudors could even imagine the nasty words the Normans would say.


    When the city gate opened in the morning, the young man left Winston City with his servants. At this moment, the young man no longer cared if the Winston family would discover his suspicious identity. As long as he killed Melgor, he could take a detour back to Ghent City and cut all ties with the Winston family.


    After the knights left the city, they first proceeded to a manor 30 kilometers away to join up with the Knights of Tudor who were lying low there. They would arm themselves here with superior armaments before heading south to intercept the trade caravan that was en route to the north.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was leaningzily against a carriage. While the sheeple were not around, he whispered to Melgor, ¡°Let me remind you that the Tudor family must be enraged now, so their subsequent encirclements will definitely get more intense than before.¡±


    Melgor was surprised. ¡°Just so they can kill me? Is there a need to get that heavy-handed? But they¡¯ve already sent out their knights. Surely there¡¯s no need to make a bigger scene than that, right?¡±


    ¡°Of course there is.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>You don¡¯t know what I¡¯ve done. If you were aware, you¡¯d probably run away immediately.</i>¡®


    Melgor pondered it for a moment before suddenly saying, ¡°That can¡¯t be. I keep getting the feeling that they¡¯re not only here to kill me. Just what have you done?¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°What¡¯s it got to do with me? You were the one flirting with the Tudor family¡¯s daughter-inw.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± Melgor said suspiciously, ¡°When you asked me the other day if there was anyone in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers who everyone knows, something must have happened. That¡¯s why you suddenly asked me that. Besides, the way you looked at the portrait of the Tudor family¡¯s head was weird!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of respect for Melgor. ¡°When did you be so perceptive?!¡±


    Melgor did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°What on earth have you done?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought it¡¯d be good to let Melgor know what he should be expecting since he managed to link the clues together. He exined, ¡°Have you ever heard of a spell that can summon people to the caster¡¯s side with just blood?¡±


    Although Melgor was a junior sorcerer, he was still quite diligent in his studies. He said, ¡°This is the Tudor family¡¯s Bloodline Summoning spell. It¡¯s also one of the spells that made their family famous.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I killed a junior sorcerer, but after he died, his blood formed a magic circle and summoned an old man¡­.¡±


    Melgor was shocked. ¡°Are you trying to tell me the old man looked a little like the portrait on the gold coin?¡±


    ¡°Mhm, you¡¯re so smart.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°They do indeed look a little simr, but I don¡¯t think the portrait on the gold coin fully expresses his enthusiasm¡­.¡±


    ¡°Enthusiasm? My ass!¡± Melgor was nearly scared out of his wits. ¡°Let¡¯s go, we have to leave right away. I know you must definitely be someone of high status at Fortress 178. I¡¯ll go there with you¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stopped Melgor, who was about to jump out of the carriage, and reassured him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m here!¡±


    Melgor was on the verge of tears. He whisper-roared, ¡°That¡¯s the fucking head of the Tudor family! He¡¯s an archmage who¡¯s been famous for 40 years!¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, even if he¡¯s an archmage, didn¡¯t I still easily poke his nostrils with a branch?¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°Besides, don¡¯t we have Qian Weining and his men?¡±


    ¡°What are a few hundred knightspared to the head of the Tudor family?¡± Melgor wanted to cry. ¡°Let¡¯s just run.¡±


    ¡°Why do we have to run?¡± Ren Xiaosu said in a serious tone, ¡°I¡¯ll tell it to you straight then. When I get to Ghent City, the first thing on my list is to tten the Tu-Manor. Don¡¯t worry, if you get a chance to visit Fortress 178 in the future, you¡¯ll know why I¡¯m so confident.¡±


    ¡°What the hell is a tumanor¡­¡± Melgor said helplessly.


    ¡°By the way, let me ask you, is there any spell that can create an explosion from afar?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    Melgor said in a state of shock, ¡°Yes, there¡¯s a lot of such spells like the Norman family¡¯s Boiling Airburst and the Winston family¡¯s Lightning Strike.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued. ¡°Tell me about this Boiling Airburst spell.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s there to say about it? It just causes an extremely powerful explosion from several hundred meters away. It destabilizes the world elements in the target area to achieve that.¡± Melgor said, ¡°But this is a very high-level spell, and it¡¯s a spell exclusive to the Norman family of Ghent City. No one outside their n knows it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve mastered it now,¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness.


    ¡°What?¡± Melgor was stunned.


    ¡°Let me ask you, do you think we worked well together yesterday?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes, of course!¡± Melgor thought there was no need to deny it.


    ¡°Mhm, if you encounter any more enemies, just pretend to recite an incantation and leave the rest to me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°But I don¡¯t know the incantation, nor do I have the meditative visualization diagram for the spell,¡± Melgor said.


    Ren Xiaosu said meaningfully, ¡°No one knows that you don¡¯t.¡±


    He took a look at the thousands of grenades in his storage space and felt that the efficiency ofst night¡¯s attack was terrible. Therefore, he thought it was necessary to pick his uniquebo of Shadow Door and grenades up again.

 Chapter 1147 - Come out alive

    <h4>Chapter 1147: Come out alive</h4>


    If Ren Xiaosu wanted Melgor to be the leader of the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch office, he would first have to let Melgor gain the capability to take on this great responsibility.


    However, a sorcerer¡¯s growth was gradual. In other words, Melgor would have to go through countless meditation and spell training sessions before he could be a true archmage.


    On this point, even if Ren Xiaosu gave the ck Eye of True Sight to Melgor, Melgor would still not be able to be an archmage in just a few short months.


    Besides, Ren Xiaosu could not bear to give all his Proficiency Stones to Melgor either. After all, he could use these 90,000 Proficiency Stones to directly turn himself into an archmage. Even if he wanted toplete the important mission of aplishing the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n, he could not possibly donate the Proficiency Stones just like that.


    But it did not matter. Pretension could make up for theck of ability.


    It did not matter if Melgor were weak. Ren Xiaosu would just help him appear strong!


    After Melgor gained a certain reputation, Ren Xiaosu could help him attract some young people from the magus order as followers. That would be the equivalent of what Russell had done.


    Therefore, when Ren Xiaosu figured this out, he finally finished setting the directives for the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 n. Melgor would be the core figure to lead therades in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, with the power of the old magus order¡¯s aristocracy vehemently stripped to develop the new magus order. Ideological education would get intensified while acting skills should be polished up, and everyone would work hard together for the growth of the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch office.


    Ever since Melgor himself had suggested going to the Prosperous Northwest, Ren Xiaosu saw him in apletely different light.


    Melgor got goosebumps from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s stare. ¡°What are you thinking of doing now?¡±


    ¡°Nothing. Just cooperate with me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    He did not only had grenades in his possession, he also had TNT. If that were not enough, he could also add in the Explosive Poker cards!


    The Explosive Poker cards were still his final ace in the hole. Once he took them out, it would mean tearing down an entire castle.


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu fearfully. ¡°You can also discuss with me in advance what you¡¯re nning, you know?¡±


    ¡°I hereby announce,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°that you possess the most lethal spell of the century.¡±


    Melgor was left confused by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ims. He did not at all understand what Ren Xiaosu was trying to do.


    However, Melgor was not the most distressed person in the trade caravan. That would be Qian Weining.


    At this moment, Qian Weining was riding his horse and patrolling the caravan. He quietly ordered the guards, ¡°Don¡¯t keep watch over Melgor and Ren Xiaosu anymore. If they want to leave, just let them leave quickly!¡±


    Before this, Qian Weining was afraid Melgor would steal away. He even deliberately ced more than 30 guards to watch over him. But now, he was more afraid that Melgor would not run away.


    But life often yed out strangely. When you wanted to make apromise with life, life might not necessarily let you.


    The word ¡°life¡± here could easily be substituted with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name.


    Qian Weining knew full well that as long as Melgor was still in this group, people from the Tudor family would still go after the trade caravan.


    He called his trusted aide over and said, ¡°Go and ask Yao Bo if he brought anyxatives with him.¡±


    His trusted aide asked in a low voice, ¡°Commander, what are you thinking?¡±


    ¡°When you send food to Melgor and his servants tonight, make Yao Bo mix thexatives into their meals.¡± Qian Weining nced at his trusted aide. ¡°If anyone asks in the future, just say they couldn¡¯t limatize to the environment, understand?¡±


    His trusted aide was stunned for a moment. ¡°Sir, what are you nning? Why don¡¯t we just kill them?¡±


    Qian Weining pped his trusted aide on the back of his head. ¡°You dare kill a sorcerer?¡±


    ¡°We have more people,¡± his trusted aide muttered.


    ¡°I¡¯m not saying we can¡¯t defeat him. If we really have to be ruthless, so what if his Fireball spell is really powerful? His steward is also just a good-for-nothing.¡± Qian Weining said, ¡°But after the war ends, you and I will both have our hands tainted with sorcerer blood. Do you think the other sorcerers will let us off? That¡¯s a big taboo, understand? Only sorcerers are allowed to kill sorcerers; that¡¯s thew.¡±


    ¡°Then why do they instigate bandits to kill¡ª¡±


    ¡°Do you think those bandits will survive even if they seed in killing a sorcerer? They¡¯ll get silenced sooner orter too.¡± Qian Weining said, ¡°Listen to me. We¡¯ll feed them thexatives. When we arrive at Winston City tomorrow morning, they¡¯ll definitely still have diarrhea. We¡¯ll send them to the cathedral and have the nuns there treat them. After that, we¡¯ll set off quickly. This way, if we survive this war, there won¡¯t be any repercussions for us in the future.¡±


    With that, his trusted aide understood that Qian Weining was only trying to shake off Melgor and his people. He did not want to engender any adverse effects on themselves.


    His trusted aide asked, ¡°Can we survive?¡±


    Qian Weining nced at him. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking recently about how to deal with the situation. I¡¯ll tell you when I¡¯ve figured it out. Don¡¯t worry, even if it¡¯s a hopeless situation, I¡¯m gonna make sure wee out of it alive.¡±


    After giving his instructions, Qian Weining went elsewhere to take a stroll. He believed spies from the Tudor family would be in Winston City. Once they got there, they would send Melgor to the cathedral with great fanfare, and his pursuers would no longer have their attention on the trade caravan.


    Qian Weining sighed emotionally to himself at how smart he was.


    He unslung his longbow from his back and stroked it carefully. He started recalling that familiar yet mysterious feeling of urately hitting his targets.


    Qian Weining thought that since he could hit his targets with arrows even though he did not deliberately aim at them, his archery must have reached the legendary realm of being ¡°one with the world.¡±


    In the evening, the trade caravan stopped 70 kilometers from Winston City.


    Qian Weining signaled to his trusted aide to quickly start a fire and cook. Meanwhile, he ran to Melgor¡¯s carriage and fawned over him. ¡°Your Excellency Lord Melgor, we¡¯ll be entering Winston City tomorrow. Is there anything you¡¯d like to buy? I can buy it on your behalf. This way, you and your steward won¡¯t have to rush around and tire yourselves¡­. Wait, where¡¯s your steward?¡±


    As he spoke, Qian Weining turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu returning with two rabbits in hand. Under the glow of the setting sun, this young man had an extremely bright smile on his face.


    Qian Weining said in a daze, ¡°Sir, that¡¯s¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh, Vice President Qian, you¡¯re here. I was just about to go and tell you about it. You don¡¯t have to cook for us tonight. We¡¯re having roast rabbit instead.¡± Ren Xiaosu waved the rabbits in his hand and said, ¡°I saw them bounding by in fear just now, so I went and caught them.¡±


    Qian Weining nearly vomited blood on the spot. ¡®<i>What kind of coincidence is that! Why did you have to go and catch two rabbits when I was just nning toce your food withxatives?</i>¡®


    ¡°Uh, do you all want a drink? Should I bring some wine over?¡± Qian Weining probed.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°No thanks. What if something happens after we drink?¡±


    Qian Weining¡¯s expression immediately froze. Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°Vice President Qian, don¡¯t overthink things. I¡¯m just saying, what if the banditse and we¡¯re drunk? Won¡¯t y¡¯all still need Lord Melgor to participate in the battle?¡±


    ¡°Haha, I didn¡¯t overthink things. Why would I? I won¡¯t disturb you then.¡± Qian Weining turned around and left with a livid expression.

 Chapter 1148 - Enemies

    <h4>Chapter 1148: Enemies</h4>


    Watching Qian Weining¡¯s figure recede, Melgor asked, ¡°Why did you suddenly go and catch rabbits?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said as hemanded the two servants to gather firewood to start a fire, ¡°Our rtionship with Qian Weining and his men right now isn¡¯t that good. Since the Tudor family wants to kill you, Qian Weining might also be thinking about killing you. So from today onwards, we have to be very, very careful when ites to our food. Remember, only eat the food that I give you. You mustn¡¯t eat anything that¡¯s brought over by others, not even if it¡¯s shit.¡±


    Melgor snapped, ¡°I won¡¯t eat that even if you don¡¯t tell me!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good then,¡± Ren Xiaosu said thankfully.


    ¡°¡­ What¡¯s with that thankful look on your face?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu skillfully butchered the rabbits. However, he could not help but say with a sigh, ¡°The rabbits in your Kingdom of Sorcerers are much smaller than those in the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°Are the rabbits in the Central ins very big?¡± Melgor asked.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Rabbits in the wilderness are at least four or five timesrger than these two I caught. I guess it¡¯s because the Central ins was more affected by The Cataclysm.¡±


    Melgor said, ¡°I¡¯ve also heard from others that the reason why the magus order was able to put themselves in a dominant position at the beginning of The Cataclysm and kidnap people from other regions was because they had found thisnd of paradise.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s interest was piqued. ¡°Tell me everything you know.¡±


    ¡°At that time, the global climate turned really cold due to The Cataclysm andsted for a very long time.¡± Melgor said, ¡°nts started withering, and people went underground for shelter. Furthermore, they could only eat the food that had been stored away by civilization before The Cataclysm. Later, when the food ran out, people even had to start eating some of the nts and rhizomes that could grow in a low temperature and slow photosynthetic environment. Fortunately, thisnd of paradise was not affected by the contaminated particles, so everyone managed to survive after a while. During that period, the magus order reestablished order in this territory and cut off many things that posed a threat to it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. The ¡°contaminated particles¡± were probably radiation. He had also discussed this with Yang Xiaojin before. ording to her, the region where the Central ins and the expeditionary army were located was the main disaster zone. That was why it became so difficult to survive there. Arge amount of scientific knowledge had been disrupted or destroyed during The Cataclysm. Afterwards, the development of science in the Central ins became unusual. Basically, everyone would just focus on developing whatever knowledge they discovered.


    After all, tapping on the centuries of research by countless scientists before The Cataclysm was still better than having to start all over again.


    When Ren Xiaosu asked Yang Xiaojin why Yang Anjing hated nuclear weapons so much, her answer was: ¡°Actually, one or two nuclear bombs wouldn¡¯t have much of an impact on the world. But in the period leading up to The Cataclysm, all of the nuclear countries¡¯ pursuits turned to stockpiling nuclear weapons. Some of the countries even managed to stockpile 6,000 nuclear warheads.¡±


    The Nuclear Apocalypse policy was not meant to deal with just enemy countries but to envelop the entire world.


    As long as a full-scale nuclear war broke out, the countries that were attacked would have to immediatelyunch a full-scale counterattack. This counterattack would not only target direct enemy countries but also cover 600 global cities to seek to bury the entire world with them.


    Only with said confidence could a country hold a tough diplomatic stance. A lot of people did not actually want such a situation to happen, but when everyone was doing so, they were forced to do the same. In apetition, if you were always weaker than others, you would only get bullied.


    Before The Cataclysm, the various countries¡¯ policies regarding nuclear weapons use were divided into a few categories.


    A ¡°no first use against non-nuclear states¡± policy meant that a nuclear power promised no first use of nuclear weapons as a means of warfare against non-nuclear states.


    A ¡°no first use¡± policy meant that a nuclear power promised to not be the first to use nuclear weapons in warfare.


    The ¡°no promises¡± policy was as it read. A nuclear power could use nuclear weapons as a means of warfare against whoever it wanted, whenever.


    When civilization developed to such a level, destruction would be only a step away.


    Everyone thought they could maintain restraint and rationality, but there would always be a few lunatics in the world.


    Fortunately, human civilization recovered and survived that gloomy period.


    Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°The reason the Yang n was able to grow into a consortium was because they did not have to cut off certain cultural heritage things during that period due to the scarcity of daily necessities. This is the importance of knowledge. The Yang n has kept some intermittent journal entries by their ancestors, and if you¡¯d read them, you¡¯d understand that all of the despicable acts that you can imagine happened during that period. What do people eat during extreme starvation? How are women treated in the absence of protection of moralw and order? How are the elderly treated when they can¡¯t contribute theirbor? You just have to think about the darkest acts possible. As long as it¡¯s something that can be thought of, it¡¯s happened before.¡±


    Those journal entries were probably what inspired Yang Anjing to be anti-nuclear weapons.


    Ren Xiaosu disliked the way Yang Anjing did things, but he could understand why she made such a choice. If Yang Anjing were not so extreme and cold in her ways, he might really have been on her side.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little mncholic. After this trip to the Kingdom of Sorcerers was over, he would have to go back and face a new war.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu sighed and said to Melgor, ¡°The sorcerers were lucky, but their fortune did not make them feel grateful. Russell led them to thisnd of paradise, but he got poisoned to death in the end. This is also the reason why I told you to be careful with your food. If they can do it once, they¡¯ll definitely do it again. Moreover, I have reason to suspect that they also persecuted another group of people who helped them.¡±


    The organization founded by the Central ins Rider was probably suppressed by the magus order too.


    Melgor suddenly asked, ¡°What exactly is your reason foring here?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯m here to help you reach the pinnacle of your life.¡±


    Melgor curled his lips. At this moment, he did not realize the ¡°pinnacle¡± Ren Xiaosu was referring to was so high that it would make him get acrophobia.


    As night fell, Ren Xiaosu handed a roasted rabbit to Melgor. ¡°Hurry up and eat. It¡¯s almost time to work.¡±


    Melgor was stunned for a moment before quickly wolfing down the food. As he ate, he asked, ¡°What did you discover? I¡¯ve always been curious about how you can preempt an enemy attack. It¡¯s almost like you can see the future.¡±


    ¡°Hurry up and eat your food,¡± Ren Xiaosu said. He could not tell Melgor about Old Xu¡¯s existence yet. After all, Mel still had a lingering fear of White Mask.


    ¡°Remember,¡± Ren Xiaosu instructed, ¡°when we encounter an enemy attack, you just have to recite your incantations and pretend like you¡¯re casting your spells. Leave the rest to me, and make sure you don¡¯t stop reciting the incantations.¡±


    Melgor could already hear the approaching trotting of horses. There were a lot of them, and they were approaching very quickly!


    Melgor asked, ¡°Should we make our move now?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°Of course not. Let¡¯s wait for Qian Weining and his men to battle them for a while first.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Melgor was puzzled.


    ¡°Because, be it these people who¡¯re suddenly attacking or people like Qian Weining who¡¯re pretending to protect you, they¡¯re all your enemies,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined.

 Chapter 1149 - Grenade combo

    <h4>Chapter 1149: Grenadebo</h4>


    ¡°But if I don¡¯t make a move now and wait until they suffer mass casualties, wouldn¡¯t it appear a little deliberate on my part?¡± Melgor said, ¡°After all, I participated in the battle yesterday, and I did seem stronger than them. If I suddenly stood by and did nothing today, Qian Weining will guess our intentions.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Then he quickly praised, ¡°You¡¯re even actively trying to perfect the n, Mel?! On top of that, I¡¯m really surprised you thought of that!¡±


    Melgor felt a little annoyed. Why didn¡¯t it sound like he was being praised?


    ¡°How about this? You can cast a few fireballs in their presence.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Just act like you¡¯re attacking the enemy with your Lesser Fireball for the time being.¡±


    Melgor said, ¡°Uh, should I slow down my casting frequency? That¡¯ll give Qian Weining and his men some added pressure.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor strangely. ¡°No, don¡¯t worry. Your Lesser Fireball can¡¯t kill anyone.¡±


    Melgor struggled and said, ¡°Although I haven¡¯t practiced Lesser Fireball that many times, it should still be quite lethal¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled at Melgor. ¡°Melgor, wake up.¡±


    Melgor was speechless.


    The enemy that came this time was more conceited than the previous ones. They brazenly arrived at the camp on horseback without any intention of hiding their tracks.


    ¡°Quick, douse all the campfires!¡± Qian Weining roared.


    This time, they were fully prepared. A group of guards rushed over to the campfires and extinguished the mes with sand they had prepped beforehand. This way, everyone would be fighting in the dark and the trade caravan would not be on the back foot so easily.


    Qian Weining and his men had already set up defenses inside the perimeter. However, the knights who were charging from outside did not try to force their way in. Instead, they used their cavalry mobility to quickly circle around the perimeter of the camp, taking potshots at the wagon fort whenever there was an opportunity. Each time they did, one of Qian Weining¡¯s guards would get hit and drop to the ground.


    Qian Weining and his men returned fire with arrows. However, they were not exactly archers by trade. Second, it was very difficult for them to hit an enemy moving at high speed.


    As a result, Qian Weining¡¯s side suffered quite a lot of casualties, while the enemy remained unscathed after a lengthy engagement.


    Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide shouted to him, ¡°Sir, hurry up and do something!¡±


    Qian Weining took a deep breath before drawing his bow and loosing an arrow. The arrow shot out like a bolt of lightning and flew into the empty darkness.


    Qian Weining said to his trusted aide, ¡°The enemies who came this time are probably true elites of the Knights of Tudor. Furthermore, they have a very smartmander.¡±


    He was implying that the enemy was very strong. If he did not manage to hit them, it was more of their fault than his!


    His trusted aide said anxiously, ¡°Then what should we do?¡±


    Qian Weining told his trusted aide, ¡°These people must have other ns. Right now, they¡¯re just wearing down our patience. Everyone, ready yourselves. These people will eventually run out of arrows!¡±


    Over the days, their carriages had been riddled with arrow holes, and some were even split apart. If it weren¡¯t for the fact that their horses were kept within the wagon fort, most of them would have died.


    Outside of the wagon fort, the galloping of horses reverberated like war drums, piling on to the frustration of everyone inside the campsite.


    Just as Qian Weining was worrying about how to handle the situation, he suddenly heard Melgor shout, ¡°Fire!¡±


    Qian Weining¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Melgor has made his move! Quick, prepare for battle. Once Melgor disrupts the enemy¡¯s formation, Yao Bo, lead your men and charge out. If you can¡¯t kill the knights, kill their horses!¡±


    Yao Bo perked up. ¡°Yes, sir!¡±


    They had Melgor¡¯s Lesser Fireball to thank for emerging out of the battle yesterday, and everyone saw for themselves how powerful the spell was. As long as Melgor was willing to participate in battle, no amount of enemies that attacked would cause a problem for the trade caravan.


    With the campfires extinguished and the sky dark, Qian Weining and his men could not clearly see what was going on at Melgor¡¯s side.


    They could only see some fireballs flying out into the darkness, followed by the asional sound of enemies crying out in pain beyond the defensive perimeter.


    But as time passed, Qian Weining realized the enemy numbers were not dropping as he listened to the sound of the galloping horses.


    Qian Weining was puzzled. As an experienced soldier, he could roughly tell from the sound of the cavalry¡¯s hooves the size of their numbers.


    There were probably about 120 enemies when they first got here. However, their numbers did not decrease even after Melgor attacked them with his fireballs for a long time.


    ¡®<i>What¡¯s this? Are you a?griefer?¡¯<sup>1</sup></i>


    But Qian Weining felt that something else was off. He could clearly hear screamsing from outside the wagon fort. Based on the power of the Lesser Fireball spells yesterday, those who got hit by it would either die or get seriously injured. So how was it that their numbers did not go down?


    Qian Weining fell into confusion.


    But unbeknownst to him, Melgor was not faking it. His Lesser Fireball really could not kill anyone.


    Exmations came from outside. The enemy soldiers had indeed been hit by the fireballs. At the beginning, those who were hit by the fireballs thought they were definitely going to die. But after their initial scream, they realized they were alright!


    They had made a lot of preparations for the entire day today. One of the groups even made a special trip to where the trade caravan was attacked yesterday to inspect the wounds of their deadrades. Then that young man from the House of Tudor instructed the troops to be careful of the Lesser Fireball spell, which he deemed was very powerful.


    But from the look of things, that was not the case at all. Could it be a sham?


    As such, both the enemy outside the wagon fort and Qian Weining were confused¡­


    Gradually, Qian Weining¡¯s side started suffering more and more casualties. Ren Xiaosu, who had been resting, suddenly opened his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s about time. Cast an incantation in the southwest direction!¡±


    Melgor decisively did as he was told. But when he was about to start chanting, Ren Xiaosu suddenly pulled him back. ¡°That¡¯s the fucking wrong direction! You¡¯re facing the northeast over there. Why didn¡¯t I realize your sense of direction was so bad?!¡±


    ¡°I do know my directions. I just got a little nervous¡­.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu spun Melgor around, leaving him a little dizzy.


    ¡°Incantation! Now!¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted in a suppressed voice.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Melgor shouted towards the southwest, ¡°Bleh¡­ hah!¡±


    Qian Weining and his men at the campsite were confused. Was that a spell incantation? Although they had interacted with sorcerers before, it didn¡¯t sound like Melgor was reciting an incantation.


    Three secondster, a loud explosion reverberated through the darkness in the distance, and the horses of the trade caravan and the enemy started neighing in panic.


    Qian Weining and his men nearly jumped in fright at the loud sound.


    The horses that were lying down on the ground attempted to stand up, but Qian Weining and his men ran over to hold their reins.


    The explosion was terrifyingly loud. You could feel its destructive power just by listening to the sound!


    Qian Weining was in shock as he tried to rein in a horse. ¡°What the fuck was that spell? Who told me that Melgor is just a fringe sorcerer? Can a fucking fringe sorcerer do that?!¡±


    Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide wondered aloud, ¡°Why does Lord Melgor also seem like he¡¯s shocked?¡±

 Chapter 1150 - 100% "commander slaying" technique

    <h4>Chapter 1150: 100% mander ying¡± technique </h4>


    Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide was not mistaken. When the grenade suddenly exploded in the dark, Qian Weining and his men were all shocked by the explosion, and even Melgor was trembling in fright.


    But as the campfires had been put out, Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide did not really get a clear look, so he couldn¡¯t be sure.


    Qian Weining said, ¡°What the hell are you talking about? How could Melgor possibly get frightened by his own spell? Hurry up and rein in the horses. If they get spooked, our subsequent ns are done for!¡±


    Seeing that no one was around them, Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu in shock and said, ¡°What was that?¡±


    ¡°Keep reciting the incantations. If you have any questions, ask themter,¡± Ren Xiaosu ordered.


    Honestly, it had been a long time since Ren Xiaosu had thrown a grenade through the Shadow Door. Now that he picked up his oldbo again and recalled the days when he had just be a supernatural being, it actually felt a little nostalgic.


    With the reminder, Melgor quickly continued mumbling the ¡°incantations¡± loudly. He even purposely raised his voice so everyone in the camp would know the explosion was his work, although he did not know what he was reciting either.


    However, some observant person in the camp wondered, ¡°Why does it seem like Lord Melgor¡¯s incantations are always different each time?!¡±


    A nearby guard snapped, ¡°That¡¯s thenguage of the Magi, like you¡¯d know anything about it!¡±


    ¡°But it sounds different every time he recites it.¡±


    Amid the guards¡¯ exchange, explosions boomed again. They were even happening very frequently.


    The sound seemingly brought the soldiers back to a small-scale war between the various sorcerer ns a few years ago. However, the explosions at that time were caused by more than a dozen sorcerers casting their spells together. But now Melgor achieved the same effect all by himself.


    ¡°How can he be a junior sorcerer?¡± Qian Weining muttered, ¡°Even if a junior sorcerer can master a higher level of sorcery, there¡¯s no chance it would sound like this. Moreover, it¡¯s impossible that a junior sorcerer can cast spells with such frequency. He should be absolutely exhausted after casting a few times, right?¡±


    His trusted aide suddenly said, ¡°Sir, what kind of spell do you think that was? Judging by the noise of the explosion¡­¡±


    Qian Weining suddenly looked up, ¡°Boiling Airburst? Lightning Strike? Wait, it¡¯s the Boiling Airburst spell. The Norman family¡¯s Boiling Airburst spell!¡± Qian Weining seemed to have figured out many things.


    Boiling Airburst was an exclusive spell to the House of Norman and was not imparted to others outside the n. It was also one of their favorite spells to use on the battlefield and was extremely powerful.


    The Norman family¡¯s eternal enemy was the Tudor family, while Melgor was someone the Tudor family wanted to kill. Therefore, did the Norman family groom a fringe sorcerer like Melgor so they could bait the Tudor family and tarnish their reputation?


    Yes, that had to be it! Otherwise, how else could he exin why Melgor could conjure up Boiling Airburst?


    Suddenly, Qian Weining started feeling a little regretful. He thought he had made use of Melgor, but he didn¡¯t expect to actually get dragged into the Norman and the Tudor families¡¯ feud all because of the lowly Melgor.


    In just one minute, the conniving Qian Weining imagined a political battle between the top sorcerer ns.


    Of course, this was exactly what Ren Xiaosu wanted Qian Weining to assume.


    Once news of Melgor mastering the Boiling Airburst spell spread, the Norman family¡¯s support for Melgor would be the subject of spection for many people. However, Ren Xiaosu did not n that far. He only wanted to cause some trouble for the Houses of Norman and Tudor.


    Ren Xiaosu did not have the talent to scheme against an enemy like P5092 and Qing Zhen. Although he was extremely cautious, he would have to be really talented if he wanted to reach their level of devising strategies. So he mostly made his moves without a detailed n. He did not even know how he killed the enemy.


    The process was not important. All that mattered was that the enemy was dead.


    However, a surprise suddenly interrupted everyone¡¯s thoughts.


    The enemies lurking outside the perimeter were running in all directions after being hit by the grenade sts. No one knew at which moment the next explosion would ur.


    As a young man was running, he suddenly felt someone stuffing something into his hand. He instinctively held it up and nced at it. ¡°What¡¯s this ck-lookin¡¯ thing?¡±


    Boom!


    In the chaos, everyone heard someone scream in the darkness outside, ¡°Sir, are you alright? Sir!¡±


    Qian Weining was confused. Melgor was as well.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed emotionally. Sure enough, it happened again.


    His 100% mander ying¡± technique!


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu was sure there were only two possibilities for such a situation to ur. One was that he was really blessed with a passive luck attribute, and the other was that Yan Liuyuan had constantly used his wish maniption power to bless him!


    The trotting of the horses outside the wagon fort became tumultuous. It was no longer coordinated like it was at the beginning.


    In a battle thatcked conviction, troops would quickly fall into a state of disarray once themander died.


    Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide asked, ¡°Sir, should we charge out to finish off the remaining enemies? Theirmander is dead.¡±


    ¡°Hold steady for now,¡± Qian Weining ordered while pulling the reins of his horse. ¡°What if the enemy is trying to pull a trick on us? We¡¯ll just hide behind the wagon fort for now. With Lord Melgor around, there¡¯s no worry that they¡¯ll break through the perimeter. Pass it along. I want everyone to wait patiently for my next orders!¡±


    The enemy outside seemed to have started retreating. After a short pause, the galloping of horses faded into the distance.


    Qian Weining shouted, ¡°Yao Bo, lead your men out to make an inspection. Be careful!¡±


    The guard named Yao Bo lifted hisnce and led his men through a tiny gap in the wagon fort. After a while, Yao Bo shouted from afar, ¡°Sir, they¡¯re gone. There¡¯s bodies all over the ground here!¡±


    ¡°Let me confirm that!¡± Qian Weining quickly made his way to the battlefield. When he saw the enemy corpses, he couldn¡¯t help but gasp. ¡®<i>Holy crap! These enemies died so terribly!</i>¡®


    ¡°Is Boiling Airburst really that terrifying? I¡¯ve only heard of it, but now that I¡¯ve seen it with my own eyes, it sends a chill down my spine,¡± Qian Weining said emotionally.


    ¡°But isn¡¯t the Boiling Airburst spell exclusive to the Norman family?¡± Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide asked softly at the side.


    ¡°Shh¡­¡± Qian Weining red at him. ¡°Don¡¯t mention that again. It¡¯s not something we can specte on. However, it¡¯s actually good for us that the Norman family is trying to make things difficult for the Tudor family!¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± His trusted aide agreed.


    At this moment, Qian Weining shouted back at the camp, ¡°The crisis has been averted. The enemy has really retreated!¡±


    When they heard that, the camp suddenly erupted into cheers. Ren Xiaosu took the lead and chanted, ¡°Melgor! Melgor! Melgor!¡±


    With that, everyone at the camp started chanting Melgor¡¯s name.


    A merchant came up to Melgor excitedly and said, ¡°Lord Melgor, you¡¯re really amazing. May I know how you did that?¡±


    Melgor smiled but did not say anything. He thought to himself, ¡®<i>I¡¯d also like to know how I did it!</i>¡®

 Chapter 1151 - Don’t need anyone’s protection

    <h4>Chapter 1151: Don¡¯t need anyone¡¯s protection</h4>


    Actually, most people did not understand the battle tonight.


    The group of knights from the Tudor family who attacked were led by a certain illegitimate son who harbored hopes of returning to the n. The few hundred of them were divided into two teams. One team would suppress the caravan with their arrow fire and extensive mobility around the perimeter, while the other would remain hidden in the shadows, ready to attack at any moment.


    They hade here extremely well-prepared this time, and everyone also analyzed the situation beforehand: The trade caravan¡¯s guards should all be from the Knights of the Inferno, but they were not riding proper warhorses. Furthermore, they were not wearing their heavy armor or carrying the Knights of the Inferno¡¯s armaments. Therefore, if the Knights of Tudor were to really charge in, the nearly 300 of them, who were equipped with warhorses and armaments, would be enough to defeat this trade caravan.


    As for Melgor, they naturally had considerations for him as well. The illegitimate son had already made a meticulous n after taking his men to scout the battlefield yesterday. Once they broke through into the camp, they would immediately surround Melgor and kill him.


    At that time, even if Melgor could recite a few spell incantations, it would still be worth sacrificing a few lives in exchange for killing a sorcerer.


    It was just like someone was holding a pistol, but as long as you rushed forward quickly enough with enough people, the threat of the pistol would not be able to affect the final victory.


    However, grenades were a different thing.


    Moreover, these were not normal grenades either. Not only could they be dropped without a trace, but they could also be stuffed into your hands or pockets from several hundred meters away!


    Who could stand that?


    When the battle started, Old Xu hid in the shadows and helped Ren Xiaosu locate the enemies¡¯ positions while Melgor pretended to recite incantations as a cover. When the grenades were thrown out one by one, the scales of battle tipped.


    Ren Xiaosu did not intend to waste any more time. For a max-level ount like him toe and seal club, it would be disrespectful to himself to waste any more time than necessary.


    All of a sudden, the people from the Tudor family were so dazed by the explosions they did not even know how to put up a fight anymore.


    Actually, the young man from the Tudor family also had an ace up his sleeve. His father had instructed him that if he did not seed in the end, he should charge in and sacrifice himself.


    As long as his illegitimate son died at the camp, his father could use the Bloodline Summoning spell to descend onsite and try to take Melgor¡¯s life as quickly as possible.


    If it seeded, the illegitimate son¡¯s father promised him that his name would be written into the genealogy book.


    This might sound very absurd, but that illegitimate son was inexplicably excited. It was as though it were a very glorious thing for him to be included in the family tree.


    However, he did not know that adding an illegitimate child¡¯s name to the genealogy book was not something his father could decide.


    This was a lie. What was sad was that when the father lied to his son to send him to his death, there was no tinge of mercy at all.


    In the end, their n to kill Melgor did not seed. The moment his illegitimate son died, his father tried to get summoned over with the Bloodline Summoning spell. But just as the ice sculpture¡¯s head was formed, it was blown away by a grenade that followed soon after.


    ¡­


    At this moment, Melgor was surrounded by a group of unawarepanions. Everyone wasmending him with every word of praise they coulde up with, leaving him at a bit of a loss.


    Someone even begged Melgor to tell them the details and exin that magical spell he cast. With that, Melgor became even more at a loss.


    Melgor wanted to say he should be the one who most wanted to know what had happened!


    And since Melgor did not know what was going on, he could only keep smiling until his face stiffened.


    Throughout this, Qian Weining only thanked Melgor once for his hard work and did not ask any further questions.


    In Qian Weining¡¯s eyes, this was just a battle between the Houses of Norman and Tudor. He was not willing to get involved for no reason.


    There was only one thing on Vice President Qian¡¯s mind right now. How could he get rid of Melgor from the trade caravan?!


    To him, Melgor was a ticking time bomb if he stayed with the caravan.


    For example, more than 30 of his subordinates had died tonight, but Melgor was still fine as he was.


    Qian Weining even wondered if all his subordinates would end up dead before they made it to Ghent City. He wondered if he should even give his all to ensure the mission would getpleted? He might end up dying along the way too!


    Amid themotion, Ren Xiaosu leaned against the side of a carriage and looked at everyone with a smile. Suddenly, his gaze connected with the young sorceress, An¡¯an. Then An¡¯an quickly got into her carriage.


    The middle-aged woman, Chen Jingshu, asked, ¡°Did Melgor say anything?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± An¡¯an shook her head. ¡°A lot of people are asking him about the sorcery he used, but he refused to exin.¡±


    An¡¯an and herpanions knew how to speak thenguage of the Magi since they learned it in their childhood, but they did not know what the incantation for the Boiling Airburst spell was. Meanwhile, Melgor recited it so quickly that An¡¯an and Chen Cheng could not make out what he was saying.


    Therefore, they could not confirm whether Boiling Airburst was really used.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t expect a junior sorcerer like him to be a hidden expert.¡± Chen Jingshu muttered, ¡°Could the House of Norman really be helping him from behind the scenes?¡±


    ¡°But we¡¯ve investigated Melgor before. He¡¯s indeed just a fringe sorcerer. Even if the House of Norman had helped him, they couldn¡¯t raise a fringe sorcerer to be an archmage within two years, right? Aunt, what are your chances against Melgor?¡±


    Chen Jingshu shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s hard to say. His sorcery is extremely explosive. If I get hit by it, I¡¯ll either die or suffer serious injuries. It¡¯s too dangerous to fight against someone like that.¡±


    Of course, highly explosive spells were one of the reasons why the House of Norman could gain a foothold in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    An¡¯an muttered, ¡°First, there was the appearance of the strange Ren Xiaosu, and now, a strange Melgor has shown up too. I keep getting the feeling that if this continues, we might not be able to reach Ghent City sessfully. The people who came to kill Melgor are all from the House of Tudor. That n never lets their smallest grievances go unanswered, so they¡¯ll probably send an archmage over the next time.¡±


    Chen Jingshu frowned in response. ¡°It¡¯s very dangerous indeed.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we split from the caravan first?¡± An¡¯an said, ¡°That Ren Xiaosu is also going to Ghent City, and he previously told you he wanted to leave the group as well, so why don¡¯t we wait for him there? When the timees, we can send someone to wait at the city gate. We¡¯ll definitely spot him then.¡±


    Chen Jingshu pondered it for a moment before saying, ¡°There¡¯s something I want to tell you all. We can¡¯t leave him behind now. If there¡¯s really danger, we have to protect him too!¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an did not know that the founder could make people cry, but Chen Jingshu did. In a situation like this, how could she abandon the suspected descendant of the founder and run away?


    Next to them, Chen Cheng suddenly said, ¡°But have you guys noticed that Ren Xiaosu looked very rxed the entire time? I suspect he¡¯s actually waiting for those archmages to arrive.¡±


    An¡¯an carefully recalled the situation wherein Ren Xiaosu followed them in Vaduz City. That young man was not even anxious in arge city like that and managed to trap them inside the cksmith¡¯s workshop in the end. Furthermore, he even had some extremely strange ways to track them down.


    Chen Cheng¡¯s guess was actually very absurd. After all, who was so bored as to pit themselves against archmages? They were all masters who had practiced sorcery for 10 to 20 years and were extremely dangerous.


    But for some reason, An¡¯an suddenly felt that Chen Cheng might be correct.


    Chen Cheng looked at An¡¯an and Chen Jingshu and said, ¡°I don¡¯t think he needs anyone¡¯s protection.¡±

 Chapter 1152 - Handling the matter personally

    <h4>Chapter 1152: Handling the matter personally</h4>


    In the dead of the night, while everyone else was asleep, Melgor suddenly asked, ¡°How¡¯d you do it?¡±


    The spooked horses had already been calmed down by Qian Weining and his men. The entire camp was silent, so Melgor had to whisper to Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Melgor but did not answer his question. ¡°What¡¯s your dream?¡±


    ¡°Dream?¡± Melgor was slightly taken aback. Ren Xiaosu was acting like his life coach.


    ¡°Yeah, your dream,¡± Ren Xiaosu repeated.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any dreams.¡± Melgor said in a low voice, ¡°When I was young, my greatest wish was for my father to stop gambling on stones and give up on his sorcerer dreams.¡±


    ¡°Then did you talk to your father about it?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes, but he said that as long as there were no sorcerers in the family, the entire family¡¯s wealth would just be a bag of money others could easily take away from us.¡± Melgor said in a low voice, ¡°Of course, I also understand this principle. Power is the moat that protects one¡¯s wealth. Otherwise, it just slips away like sand in one¡¯s hand.¡±


    ¡°Actually, the sales of the Eyes of True Sight are just a scam backed by the magus order.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°And it¡¯s specifically designed to target the middle ss like you.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I understand that.¡± Melgor said, ¡°You asked me what my dreams are, but actually, I don¡¯t have any at all, nor do I have any ambitions. It¡¯s just that after bing a sorcerer, I thought that this was an opportunity that my father had exchanged with his life, so I decided I had to make a name for myself no matter what.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>It¡¯s good that you don¡¯t have any dreams or ambitions. You¡¯re just the kind of talent that the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch is looking for.</i>¡®


    ¡°By the way, Ren Xiaosu, do you have any dreams?¡± Melgor asked in turn.


    ¡°Me?¡± Ren Xiaosu recalled for a moment and said with augh, ¡°I don¡¯t have one either. In the past, I only wanted to help my little brother survive. But now, I want to lead a group of people to survive. I can¡¯t call it a dream. I¡¯m more like the little guy going with the flow in this era. It¡¯s just that this era needed me, so I appeared.¡±


    In conclusion, Ren Xiaosu just drifted with the current for the past 19 years of his life. The ces he went to were not ces he wanted to go to but ces he was forced to go.


    He had no choice but to go to the Li Consortium, the Yang Consortium, the Central ins, the Sacred Mountains, Mt. Zuoyun, and the Zhou Consortium. Only going to the Northwest was a decision he had made seriously on his own.


    But what could he do about it? Even people like Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and Yang Xiaojin, who hailed from prominent families, had their struggles in this era. It was already the blessing of a lifetime that a refugee like him could get to where he was today.


    In this era, everyone had their own sorrows. The only thing everyone could do was to try their best to swim upstream while trying not to drown, all so they could struggle out of the water and get a breath of fresh air.


    But most hopeless of all was that when you thought you were safe, the next wave might already be crashing down on you.


    Melgor asked next, ¡°What¡¯s your purpose ining to the Kingdom of Sorcerers?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and answered, ¡°Actually, it¡¯s fine even if I tell you. At the beginning, my goal was to destroy the Kingdom of Sorcerers. But after meeting you, I changed my mind. My n now is to support you in governing the Kingdom of Sorcerers!¡±


    Melgor thought he must have fucking gone crazy to actually hear such an understated yet extremely aggressive reply from someone.


    Melgor lowered his voice and roared, ¡°Am I crazy or are you crazy? Destroy the Kingdom of Sorcerers? Support me in governing it? You know nothing about the power of those sorcerer ns!¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu finally spoke his mind. He said with a smile, ¡°You don¡¯t know anything about the Northwest¡¯s power either. Calcting the time, it¡¯s been almost a month since my people found out that I was held hostage. They should already be on their way.¡±


    Melgor was stunned. ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°Those who would like nothing more than to turn the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers upside down with me.¡±


    Melgor was stunned for a long time. He suddenly realized the conversation had gone back and forth and he still did not know how Ren Xiaosu had killed those people.


    ¡­


    In the darkness of the night, 200 enemy soldiers who attacked the trade caravan retreated unscathed. They rode their warhorses and sped northwards, bypassing all the main roads along the way. It was as though they had the power of irvoyance as they narrowly avoided the sentries set up by the House of Winston.


    These people had been lurking in the Winston family¡¯s territory for many years, so they naturally knew how the sorcerer n would handle any unforeseen situations.


    The leading rider stopped his horse in the mountains and said, ¡°Dismount.¡±


    After that, the 200-odd knights jumped off their horses. Then they drew their daggers from their waists and stabbed their horses in the necks.


    The sound of the horses copsing could be heard. The soldiers were going to have to take the mountain route from here, and the horses could not take them. Rather than leaving these warhorses for the Winston family, they might as well be killed here.


    As a matter of fact, a warhorse was extremely valuable in current times.


    But most importantly, if they did not kill these warhorses, they would lead the Winston family to their previous hiding ce when they were found.


    Of course, the horses were not aware of the situation. They just wanted to go home.


    Before dawn, this group of knights nimbly scaled small hills and walked for dozens of kilometers. Finally, at daybreak, they located a small vige.


    The vigers did not panic when they saw them. A middle-aged man, who looked like a farmer, led them back to the vige without saying a word.


    The leading knight called out to the vigers, ¡°Pack your clothes and prepare the carriages. We¡¯ll take a detour and evacuate via the Voss family¡¯s territory.¡±


    After that, everyone in the vige got down to business.


    No one could have expected this small vige hidden in the mountains of the Winstons¡¯ territory was actually an evacuation hub arranged by the House of Tudor.


    This ce was only a hundred kilometers from the Voss family¡¯s territory. As long as they moved fast enough, they could get there within a day. At that time, the House of Voss would naturally help them to fend off the pursuit of the House of Winston.


    The Voss family had the same deference for the Tudors as the Winstons had for the Berkeleys.


    The leading knight came to a secluded hut and closed the door behind him. He said to the young man inside, ¡°I want to ry some intel.¡±


    Afterwards, the young man hesitated for a moment before taking out a dagger and slitting his wrist. He allowed his blood to drip onto the ground, which then formed into a strange magic circle.


    When the ice sculpture fully materialized, the knight knelt down on one knee and said, ¡°Esteemed Lord Kayle Jefferson William Kris Tudor, the mission has failed. Melgor has mastered the Norman family¡¯s Boiling Airburst spell. This was an ambush by the Norman family!¡±


    The ice sculpture said, ¡°Understood. You all are to lie low in the Voss¡¯s territory for now. I¡¯ll bring some people and handle the matter personally.¡±

 Chapter 1153

    Chapter 1153: Middle name


    ¡°Are there any traditions in the magus order? Tell me whatever you can think of, just to kill time,¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Melgor.


    Melgor was no longer riding in the carriage. Instead, he rode his horse and traveled alongside Ren Xiaosu.


    As Qian Weining and his men had suffered multiple attacks that reduced their numbers, many of the horses were freed up.


    Only Li Chengguo and Liu Ting, who were diligently studying thenguage of the Magi, were still traveling in the carriage.


    Melgor thought for a moment and said, ¡°We do have an interesting tradition. Middle names.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°I read about middle names when I was in the Central ins. Apparently, in some ces outside of the Central ins, people would put their pet names or a name of significance in the middle of their names. So people¡¯s names in those ces are usually very long.¡±


    ¡°Some sorcerers have very long middle names too.¡± Melgor exined, ¡°The reason why I say this tradition is interesting is that these middle names are all rted to the spells they specialize in.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Tell me more.¡±


    ¡°For example, the middle name William came about because William was the first sorcerer in the Tudor family to discover the Bloodline Summoning spell. If a sorcerer is extremely good at that spell, they¡¯ll add William as their middle name to showcase their power,¡± Melgor exined.


    Ren Xiaosu clicked his tongue. ¡°They¡¯re that honest?¡±


    Melgor did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°That has nothing to do with honesty. It¡¯s for the honor! You have to understand that the mindset of sorcerers is very different from people in the Central ins. For example, the Central ins people who migrated over here in the past would not open the gifts they received in front of others. Meanwhile, we sorcerers tend to open them immediately.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said disdainfully, ¡°I can understand if it¡¯s about opening gifts, but I can¡¯t ept that people would directly give away their strengths by stating it in their middle names.¡¯


    In a ce like the Central ins, everyone¡¯s mentality was to keep their means of fighting and strength hidden. After all, it would be very easy for them to be disadvantaged in battle if their trump cards were made known to others.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that if the enemy knew he had the Shadow Door, the ck saber, Old Xu, the ck sniper rifle, the Explosive Poker cards, City Crusher, the Potato Shooter, the Eye of True Sight, Wish You All Happiness, Haiya.


    Hmm... that actually did not seem easy to deal with. After all, he had a myriad of superpowers.


    But if it were someone like Wang Congyang or Zhang Baogen whose powers were made known to others, they could indeed get targeted easily.


    Therefore, in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s opinion, this was simr in principle to not revealing one¡¯s wealth. There was no need to tell others about one¡¯s own power too! Hiding and using it to carry out sneak attacks on others, wasn¡¯t that much better?!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor. ¡°Are there any other middle names? Tell me about their corresponding spells too.¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Melgor said, ¡°There¡¯s Jefferson. He was the first sorcerer to discover the Ice Rend spell, and Kris was the first to discover the Meteor Shower spell.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    ¡°Actually, most sorcerers¡¯ names aren¡¯t as long as you think. Like I said before, the majority of sorcerers only specialize in one or two spells, so they have at most one or fivo middle names.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Of course, some sorcerers have particrly long names. Did you finish reading The Sorcerer Chronicles?


    There¡¯s a biography of someone named Logan Benjamin Jefferson Alexander Owen Voss in it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°That¡¯s such ame name.¡¯


    Melgor exined, ¡°But actually, he doesn¡¯t know that many spells. He was one of the biggest chatans at the beginning of The Cataclysm. When people saw that he had a bunch of middle names, they thought he was skilled at casting many types of spells, so they respected him very much. Butter, they realized deception was what he was best at.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly recalled the doctor he had encountered in Stronghold 113¡¯s town. At that time, he had wanted to copy the other party¡¯s medical skills, but he ended up copymg a bragging skill instead. When he tried to copy his skills again, he was informed by the pce that the other party did not actually possess any medical skills.


    ¡°Not bad.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed and said to Melgor, ¡°So it turns out that middle names can also be used for bragging. Moreover, everyone believes it once it¡¯s used as a middle name!¡±


    ¡°Mhm, so even though middle names can be used as a reference, they can¡¯t be fully trusted.¡± Melgor nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°But the people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers are not as honest as you think. Some also know how to bluff, while others may choose to hide their trump cards. Of course, most people still don¡¯t resort to deception using their middle names. Because most sorcerers really think it¡¯s an honor to have one.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had already experienced for himself the cunning of people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. So he would not judge their middle names to determine what spells they were adept at.


    Would honest people poison Russell? Would honest people suppress those who helped them make it out of The Cataclysm? No.


    If the Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ citizens were truly honest, Ren Xiaosu might feel a little guilty for causing trouble here. But in fact, if they had known their ce, the Northwest would not have formed a blood feud with this ce for over a 100 years.


    ¡°I get it now.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°So what¡¯s your full name?


    Melgor hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Melgor Smith.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute, where¡¯s your middle name?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a chuckle.


    Melgor gritted his teeth and exined, ¡°I don¡¯t specialize in any spells yet. I can only add a middle name after I be an archmage.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s such a pity,¡± Ren Xiaosumented.


    ¡®Pity?My ass/ Melgor¡¯s face was burning hot as though he had been publicly condemned. Although they were friends, Ren Xiaosu really had an innate talent for hurting people¡¯s feelings.


    When it was almost noon, the trade caravan finally arrived at Winston City.


    Compared to a major county in the south like Vaduz, Winston City looked more dpidated. As a matter of fact, this was the political center of the Winston family, yet it still couldn¡¯tpare to an anciry city of the Berkeley family. No wonder the Winston family had to bow down to the Berkeley family.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Melgor, ¡°Get backin the carriage. There might be people in this city who¡¯re after your life. Don¡¯t act too conspicuously.¡±


    While he was talking, Chen Cheng actually ran over to Ren Xiaosu from behind. He looked at Melgor next to him. ¡°We¡¯ll be entering the city soon. I have something to discuss with you. Shall we step aside and talk?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I¡¯m Lord Melgor¡¯s steward. If you have anything to say, just say it here. There¡¯s no need to avoid Lord Melgor.¡±


    Chen Cheng hesitated for a moment before saymg, ¡°If you¡¯re interested, we¡¯ll meet you at the entrance of the ry station at 10 PM tonight. We¡¯ll bring you to meet a few people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who?¡±


    Chen Cheng said mysteriously, ¡°Don¡¯t ask for now, but I believe you¡¯ll be interested in meeting them. Remember,e alone.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°I have to bring Mel along. ¡±


    Chen Cheng was stunned. ¡°Who¡¯s Mel?¡±


    Melgor answered with a livid expression, ¡°That¡¯d be me.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Chen Cheng looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Why do you want to bring him along?¡±


    ¡°Someone¡¯s trying to kill him, so as his steward, I have to protect him at all times, of course,¡± Ren Xiaosu exined with a smile.


    Chen Cheng clenched his teeth and said in a low voice, ¡°If you think he can be trusted, it¡¯s fine to bring him along. But let me remind you, he might be with the Normans.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head in dismissal. ¡°He¡¯s not.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good..¡±

 Chapter 1154 - Why don’t we run away?

    <h4>Chapter 1154: Why don¡¯t we run away?</h4>


    <b>?</b>


    Ren Xiaosu did not know who Chen Cheng wanted him to meet, but he was interested in anyone rted to this group of bounty hunters.


    He still had not found two of the clues the pce wanted him to search for. He reckoned those two clues were rted to these bounty hunters.


    Ren Xiaosu felt the quest reward this time would probably be very special. He had never done a quest that spanned such a long duration before.


    ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡± Melgor asked curiously. ¡°I noticed you constantly running over to their carriage and thought you hadid eyes on that girl or the woman.¡±


    ¡°Watch your mouth.¡± Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. ¡°I already have someone that I like. Don¡¯t get me into trouble by spouting nonsense like that.¡±


    ¡°Then who¡¯re they?¡± Melgor asked.


    ¡°Bounty hunters,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    ¡°Eh?¡± Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and then at Chen Cheng¡¯s back. ¡°Are they here to kill me?¡±


    ¡°If they were here to kill you, would I let them live until now?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Do you remember what you said about tying a crossbow on your arm to shoot frogs when you were young?¡±


    Melgor said exasperatedly, ¡°I only tied a crossbow on my arm to look chivalrous, not to shoot frogs. I didn¡¯t show you my love letters so you could mock me.¡±


    ¡°Then why did you two go frog catching?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Is this the time to be talking about frogs? Talk about the bounty hunters instead,¡± Melgor snapped. ¡°Are you trying to tell me they¡¯re the ones wanted by the magus order? It¡¯s very dangerous to be in theirpany. The entire magus order has orders for their arrest. If the magus order finds out that we¡¯ve been hanging out with them, we¡¯ll be finished.¡±


    ¡°Even if you don¡¯t hang out with them, there¡¯ll still be people trying to kill you. From the moment that girlfriend of yours secretly sent you money, it was destined.¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯ve disguised themselves very well. As long as you don¡¯t tell anyone, their true identities won¡¯t get exposed.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute, I remember you asking about the bounty hunters before we set off from York County. Yes, you asked about them in my Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. Did you already meet them at the time?¡± Melgor asked suspiciously, ¡°Where did you see them? What do you know about the arson that happened the night before we set off?¡±


    ¡°Huh? Is that so?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You probably remembered wrong. Don¡¯t go off-topic and talk about me. We were just discussing the bounty hunters. Come with me tonight, lest you be left alone at the ry station and get killed.¡±


    ¡°OK.¡± Melgor agreed. To be honest, he really did not dare to be on his own right now. There were too many people who wanted to kill him on this expedition. Only by being around Ren Xiaosu did he feel a sense of security.


    The ry station in Winston City was also a little more worse for wear than the one in Vaduz. Melgor had paid for the best rooms for Ren Xiaosu and himself, but Ren Xiaosu could still detect a moldy smell when he entered his room. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu could see rat droppings on the ground at a nce, so it was obvious the room had a rat infestation problem.


    There were holes in the nkets, and the cups in the rooms were covered in ayer of dust. If they wanted to visit the outhouse, they would have to walk 200 meters to thetrines in the backyard. The smell of the toilet was so foul they could barely open their eyes.


    The sanitary conditions in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were terrible. Although the guest house at Fortress 178 was also dpidated, it was not to the extent of the situation here.


    Such cities without sewer systems were too far behind in developmentpared to the Northwest.


    Ren Xiaosu and Melgor roomed on the first floor. At 10 PM, Ren Xiaosu brought Melgor along and quietly climbed out through the back window. They did not take the front door.


    The ry station¡¯s floor wasposed of wood flooring, so anyone passing through the hallways would surely creak the floorboards. If Melgor and he were to go out the front, the entire trade caravan would know they had headed out.


    But what Ren Xiaosu did not know was that about an hour after they left, someone came creeping to Melgor and his windows facing the backyard.


    Qian Weining was sneaking around with his trusted aide, who was holding two thin?<i>nanmu<sup>1</sup>?</i>pipes in his hand.


    ¡°Are you sure they¡¯re both asleep?¡± Qian Weining asked in a whispered tone.


    ¡°Mhm, our people have been keeping watch at the door for a while now. There hasn¡¯t been any movement in these two rooms for an hour already.¡± His trusted aide said, ¡°They must¡¯ve fallen asleep.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good. Did you prepare it?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Yao Bo just finished preparing it. The sedative in these two tubes is enough to knock them out until tomorrow afternoon. By then, we¡¯ll have already left.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Qian Weining smiled and said, ¡°I can always count on you. Let¡¯s do this.¡±


    After that, his trusted aide used a match to light the substance in the?<i>nanmu?</i>pipe. Then he ced the other end of the pipe to his mouth and gently blew the smoke into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room through a gap in the window.


    The smoke was not stinky. Instead, it smelled refreshing. Any person in the room only needed to breathe it in once, and they would quickly fall into a deep sleep.


    Qian Weining had brought his trusted aide here to ensure that Ren Xiaosu and Melgor would get a good night¡¯s sleep. He really did not want them to follow the trade caravan anymore.


    If Melgor were to continue traveling with the trade caravan, they would probably get wiped out by the Tudor family before they could even reach Ghent City.


    Thinking of this, Qian Weining felt very angry. They were supposed to carry out a mission in the north, but before they could even approach their target, their forces ended up shielding others from disaster instead.


    And yet, nothing happened to the other party, while they suffered heavy losses. Who could stand that?!


    After Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide blew the sedating smoke into the two rooms, the two of them hid under the wall and waited quietly. Qian Weining did not want anyone to know about this yet, so he and his trusted aide could only handle it themselves.


    The weather in June had be very hot, and the nights were also a little stuffy. The mosquitoes in the backyard of the ry station were almost the size of coins, leaving Qian Weining and his trusted aide with multiple bloody bumps on their heads.


    Qian Weining asked, ¡°How long until it takes effect?¡±


    ¡°It should¡¯ve already taken effect.¡± His trusted aide said, ¡°Sir, I¡¯ll go in and check.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, be careful,¡± Qian Weining reminded him.


    His trusted aide pushed open the window of the room and jumped in. As soon as he entered, he stuck his head out again. ¡°Sir, there¡¯s no one in here!¡±


    Qian Weining was shocked. He hurriedly jumped into the room to check, but he realized the bed in the room had not been touched yet. It was obvious the upant had stealthily left soon after arriving at the ry station.


    When his trusted aide ran to Melgor¡¯s room to have a look, he realized Melgor was also nowhere to be seen.


    Qian Weining immediately felt a headacheing on. Was it that difficult to get rid of Melgor?


    Was it?!


    ¡°Sir, where do you think they¡¯ve gone?¡± Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide wondered. ¡°Melgor doesn¡¯t have any acquaintances in Winston.¡±


    ¡°I know where they went.¡± Qian Weining said coldly, ¡°Didn¡¯t I say earlier that he¡¯s with the Norman family? He must¡¯ve gone to exchange intel with their spy!¡±


    ¡°Then what should we do?¡± his trusted aide asked.


    Qian Weining sighed and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we run away?¡±

 Chapter 1155 - Established

    <h4>Chapter 1155: Established</h4>


    Summer nights were a little stuffy. Ren Xiaosu and Melgor followed Chen Cheng as they made their way through multiple alleys in Winston City.


    Chen Cheng handed a ck cloak to each of them. ¡°Put these cloaks on. When we entered the city today, your faces were seen by a lot of people, especially Lord Melgor¡¯s. If anyone finds out you were secretly having a meeting with others in the middle of the night, the House of Winston would probably start investigating immediately.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu put on the cloak and pulled over the hood.


    Melgor nced at Ren Xiaosu and thought to himself that the guy seemed to be very proficient at hiding his tracks. In silence, he also put on his cloak.


    Dark clouds gathered in the sky. From time to time, they could even hear the dull rumbling of thunder above the clouds.


    Being early summer, that definitely signaled an impending thunderstorm.


    Chen Cheng said, ¡°Great timing. No one will discover us once it starts raining heavily.¡±


    After that, he turned around and walked forward. Ren Xiaosu asked calmly, ¡°You haven¡¯t said who you¡¯re taking us to meet yet.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll know when we get there,¡± Chen Cheng replied in a low voice. ¡°Why? You scared?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°I¡¯m scared for both of your safety.¡±


    Chen Cheng was speechless.


    As they were talking, the sound of footsteps came from up the street. Chen Cheng pulled Ren Xiaosu and Melgor into the shadows of the alley. There were no streetmps to illuminate the night in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. This made it very convenient for infiltrators to move around freely.


    The approaching party consisted of six people who were chatting as they walked. Each of them was carrying a kerosenemp and had a longsword slung on their belt. They were wearing the Winston family¡¯s standard-issue military uniforms with tall hats.


    These were the city¡¯s patrol guards.


    After they left, Chen Cheng started moving off again. Ren Xiaosu looked at the king street signs they passed: Bailey Street, Rum Street, Dove Avenue.


    Chen Cheng finally stopped at 18 Tulip Street. The stone bs on the long street resembled pieces of a rectangr chocte bar that spread outwards. The buildings on the sides of the roads were at most three stories high. The arched windows set into the walls exuded tranquility.


    Chen Cheng walked towards 18 Tulip Street. However, he did not knock on the door. Instead, he directly took out his orange Eye of True Sight and ced it on the peephole of the door.


    The Eye of True Sight pulsed slightly, and the peephole on the door seemingly sensed its call of power. It turned gently, and with a click, some sort of mechanism seemed to activate.


    Chen Cheng walked towards an arched window next to the door. He turned around and smiled at Ren Xiaosu and Melgor before walking head first into the window. In an instant, Chen Cheng disappeared from sight.


    Melgor whispered, ¡°He¡¯s actually a sorcerer?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Ren Xiaosu confirmed, ¡°And his Eye of True Sight is of a higher grade than yours. Why don¡¯t you join them? Look, these bounty hunters are all doing better than you even though they¡¯re wanted by the magus order.¡±


    Melgor was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°Speaking of which, we¡¯ll have to find an excuse to get you a higher grade Eye of True Sight. If you keep holding onto that white Eye of True Sight, others will look down upon you¡­.¡±


    Now that Melgor could be considered one of the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s supporters, Ren Xiaosu naturally wanted to find a way to package him more presentably.


    Melgor might not know it yet, but his kindness and simpleness had gained Ren Xiaosu¡¯s approval. He had established his status in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind.


    ¡°Should we go in?¡± Melgor asked softly.


    ¡°What sorcery is this?¡± Ren Xiaosu examined the window and said with interest, ¡°It seems like sorcery is even more mysterious than the superpowers we have in the Central ins. It¡¯s mainly because there¡¯s already a developed framework and legacy system to pass down these spells. If we can bring this back to the Central ins, there¡¯ll be a breakthrough in our intelligence efforts.¡±


    Currently, the transmission of intelligence in the Central ins basically relied on technology such as radio transmissions. But if the intelligence agents could master simple sorcery, the transmission of intel could be even more secure.


    Moreover, a whole other world had to be behind the window before him. It was perfect to use a ce like this as a safe house.


    All organizations in the Central ins were ustomed to using technology for their counterespionage. But with the introduction of sorcery, those people would probably get caught off guard.


    However, the Northwest was destined to not learn the Tudor family¡¯s Blood Summoning spell to transmit intel.


    It was not that this spell was difficult, but that no one back there had that many children they could sacrifice.


    ording to Melgor, almost every male archmage in the Tudor family¡¯s main household had hundreds of children. At such a scale, they could use their children as intelligence tools. In fact, the status of illegitimate children in the Kingdom of Sorcerers was way too low.


    There was also a rtively famous illegitimate child in the Central ins: Luo Lan.


    However, Luo Lan¡¯s status in the Qing Consortium could be said to be above everyone else. Even before Qing Zhen took over leadership of the Qing Consortium, Luo Lan was put in sole charge of Stronghold 113.


    ¡°What¡¯s the name of this spell?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, looking at the window.


    Melgor replied to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°I don¡¯t know its name, but I¡¯ve heard of this spell before. It¡¯s some sort of an enchanted doorway that opens up to a hidden space.¡±


    ¡°Is this kind of sorcerymon?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°It¡¯smon. Many sorcerers use this spell to hide things.¡± Melgor said, ¡°Basically, only the caster knows how to open the doorway. Unless the caster tells you how, it¡¯ll take you a long time to figure out how to get in.¡±


    ¡°Since it¡¯s verymon, why don¡¯t you know¡­ Never mind, I know.¡± Ren Xiaosu patted Melgor on the shoulder. ¡°Let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll help you get your hands on those spells. You can have whatever spells you like. I promise!¡±


    ¡®<i>If you have to ask, it¡¯s because you¡¯ve earned it!</i>¡®


    After that, Ren Xiaosu stepped into the window in the wall. When he stepped through the enchanted doorway, he felt as though he had passed through a curtain of water. The view in front of him instantly changed.


    There was no longer a quiet street in front of him, nor was this a quiet residential home anymore. Instead, it was the interior of a pce bustling with life!


    As melodious singing reverberated, Ren Xiaosu saw many people dancing in a ballroom in the center of the pce. There were also many people holding wine sses in their hands and sipping on golden champagne. Everyone in the pce appeared extremely elegant and dignified, both the men and the women.


    On one side of the ballroom, a young woman in a fancy dress was singing. Beside her, more than a dozen musicians were ying their instruments.


    The song the woman was singing was in thenguage of the Magi, so Ren Xiaosu could not understand what it meant. Melgor followed close behind, while Chen Cheng, An¡¯an, and Chen Jingshu were already waiting behind the enchanted doorway and looking at them with smiles. ¡°Wee to this ce! A lot of people are waiting for your arrival. To be precise, they¡¯re waiting for you, Sorcerer Melgor.¡±

 Chapter 1156 - Who says I’m doing it alone?

    <h4>Chapter 1156: Who says I¡¯m doing it alone?</h4>


    <b>?</b>


    ¡°Waiting for me?¡± Melgor was taken aback. ¡°Why are they waiting for me?¡±


    A momentter, themotion over here apparently alerted the lovely young men and women in the ballroom, and they walked over with a graceful demeanor.


    Even the singing in the ballroom became much softer.


    The luxurious pce was exquisite and magnificent, and the marble floor beneath everyone¡¯s feet was polished to a mirror finish.


    The chandelier hanging above the ballroom floor was made with crystals, while the glittering decorations that could be seen in the corridor were seemingly made of pure gold!


    But on this asion, a fringe sorcerer like Melgor suddenly became the focus of everyone¡¯s attention.


    Before those people arrived from the ballroom, Melgor cast a pleading gaze at Ren Xiaosu. When Ren Xiaosu gathered that they did not have any malicious intent, he quickly moved aside and made space for Melgor.


    A young man dressed in a ck tuxedo came up to Melgor and said with a smile, ¡°Hello, Sorcerer Melgor. We¡¯ve all heard about your deeds. You can say we really admire you.¡±


    Startled, Melgor asked, ¡°My deeds? What deeds?¡±


    ¡°About how you single-handedly defeated the House of Tudor¡¯s knights, of course.¡± The young man smiled and said, ¡°Let me introduce myself. My name is Forbes Winston.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. He looked at Chen Jingshu with a questioning look in his eyes that seemed to say, ¡°Why would these bounty hunters get involved with the sorcerer ns?¡±


    Chen Jingshu and An¡¯an had departed from their usual appearances. Chen Jingshu was dressed in a ck, low-cut evening gown which vividly entuated her enchanting figure. Meanwhile, An¡¯an wore a long white dress. The two of them did not look like they were bounty hunters at all. Instead, they looked more like members of the sorcerer ns.


    Chen Jingshu whispered, ¡°I¡¯ll exinter.¡±


    Amid theughter and chatter, Forbes Winston invited Melgor over to the pce. As they walked, he said, ¡°Our House of Winston has a long-standing feud with the House of Tudor. Sorcerer Melgor, since you defeated them, you¡¯re definitely a friend of us Winstons. Moreover, you hail from a decent family that isn¡¯t affiliated with any of the sorcerer ns, so we can be friends without worries. I wonder, are you willing to be friends with us?¡±


    Melgor was a little lost. He wanted to ask Ren Xiaosu for help but realized Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t intend to save him.


    When those people walked over to the ballroom, Ren Xiaosu asked Chen Jingshu in a low voice, ¡°Have you bounty hunters revolted or something? I thought y¡¯all hated the sorcerer ns?¡±


    ¡°These people are different.¡± Chen Jingshu held up a champagne flute and said, ¡°They¡¯re all in favor of revolution.¡±


    ¡°Revolution?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°To tear down the barriers established by the sorcerer ns and agree to establish a school where all the magus arts will be taught systematically through a nned curriculum. No one could hoard the spells for themselves anymore.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°On top of that, they¡¯re also enemies of the House Tudor.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned as he looked at the people in the ballroom. ¡°Are they all from the Winston family?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°But they¡¯re only a small portion of the Winston family¡¯s younger generation.¡±


    ¡°A small portion and there¡¯s already so many of them?¡± Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°I¡¯ve really fucking underestimated the virility of sorcerers.¡±


    And what was even worse was that Ren Xiaosu saw a young couple kissing off to the side. Based on what Chen Jingshu had said, those two were goddamn close rtives. What a disgusting sight!


    If the youth of the sorcerer ns continued down this path, Ren Xiaosu had reason to suspect their intelligence might degrade to the point where they wouldn¡¯t even know how to cast spells a few generationster. Gic diseases would cause their entire ns to copse slowly.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Jingshu. ¡°I¡¯m guessing y¡¯all aren¡¯t stupid enough to believe that they¡¯re on your side, right? Do they know that y¡¯all¡¯re bounty hunters?¡±


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Chen Jingshu smiled. ¡°And just as you thought, we¡¯re only making use of each other.¡±


    Looking at the extravagant decor of the pce, it did not seem like a ce a group of people who wanted to revolutionize the era would like.


    ¡°These kids of the House of Winston are all fringe figures in their n. They can¡¯t bear to see others inheriting the authority of the family, nor can they ept that they can¡¯t obtain the most important meditative visualization diagrams of the n. So they sought external help to break the intrinsic order.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°With such ambition, it naturally presents us an opportunity. I think you can also get to know them through Melgor.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. ¡°Sorry to disappoint, but I¡¯m not interested.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what your purpose ining to the Kingdom of Sorcerers is, but I know you¡¯re unfriendly towards the Magi.¡± Chen Jingshu said in seriousness, ¡°Since your interests are aligned, why don¡¯t you make use of them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grinned and said, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because I¡¯m strong enough.¡±


    Chen Jingshu was at a momentary loss for words. She was dumbfounded and did not know how to continue the conversation.


    And neither did she know just how powerful Ren Xiaosu was when he said he was strong.


    ¡°Are there any young sorcerers you know who really want to revolutionize the era?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked. ¡°What I mean is, those who can cast aside their aristocratic attitude and do things seriously.¡±


    Chen Jingshu answered, ¡°Yes, but they¡¯re few and far between. Some of the young sorcerers studying in Ghent City are sincere about pushing for reforms.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind getting to know them.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with augh, ¡°Aunt Flo, please make the necessary arrangements when we arrive at Ghent City.¡±


    Chen Jingshu said, ¡°¡­ Will you die if you don¡¯t annoy people? So what about these people?¡±


    ¡°Them¡­ um¡­ I really don¡¯t have any interest in dealing with them.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°I don¡¯t need their help.¡±


    As long as Melgor¡¯s reputation was good enough, people would follow him.


    What Ren Xiaosu needed to do was very simple. He needed topletely destroy the order in the Kingdom of Sorcerers and let the new era enable Melgor¡¯s rise.


    As for opposing voices, Ren Xiaosu would have to ¡°reach an agreement¡± with them.


    Chen Jingshu looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°You can¡¯t change an entire nation all by yourself.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu responded with a smile, ¡°Who says I¡¯m doing it alone?¡±


    Chen Jingshu looked at Ren Xiaosu seriously. ¡°You¡¯re thinking of forming an alliance with us bounty hunters?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Oh, sorry, I wasn¡¯t referring to y¡¯all. You¡¯re not strong enough yet.¡±


    Chen Jingshu was speechless.


    What Ren Xiaosu was trying to say was, ¡°Sorry, but the strength y¡¯all have disyed so far is way too weak to be my teammates.¡± But he stopped himself from saying that. After all, he had to unite all the forces that could be united. Moreover, Ren Xiaosu really needed the bounty hunters to help him get in touch with the young sorcerers in Ghent City. He needed those people to form a considerable force around Melgor.


    Because, after he left the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Melgor would need his own supporters to take charge of this kingdom.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt like he had turned into Zhang Jinglin. Back then, Zhang Jinglin had probably sent the 6th Combat Brigade to the Central ins with the same thought!

 Chapter 1157 - Russell’s descendants

    <h4>Chapter 1157: Russell¡¯s descendants</h4>


    The atmosphere in the pce behind the enchanted doorway turned joyous again, and the singing drifted across the ballroom once more. When Chen Jingshu was invited to dance, Ren Xiaosu stopped talking with her.


    Chen Cheng was also invited to dance by a girl from the House of Winston. Only An¡¯an rejected all invitations and remained by Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side.


    Melgor was surrounded by a group of people asking about details of the battle, and some of them even asked him what it felt like to kill. It seemed the youth of the House of Winston had not even experienced a proper battle before.


    Ren Xiaosu silently shook his head. He felt that these people could barely help him.


    Besides, he really disliked interacting with aristocrats.


    Inparison, this ce was very simr to the consortiums in the Central ins. However, Ren Xiaosu preferred the atmosphere in the Northwest.


    When An¡¯an saw his expression, she suddenly asked, ¡°Do you despise them?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t say that I despise them. It¡¯s just that we don¡¯t share the same ideals. I think it was the wrong decision for y¡¯all to get involved with them,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    An¡¯an said, ¡°Aunt was just testing your attitude. I stayed behind to tell you to go along with the ns of those good-for-nothingster. Then you¡¯ll understand why we got involved with them. We never expected they could do much either.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. An¡¯an¡¯s words left him a little surprised. Could the bounty hunters have other motives?


    Melgor suddenly waved at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Ren Xiaosu!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu walked over, Forbes Winston smiled at him and asked, ¡°Who is this?¡±


    Melgor said, ¡°Oh, let me introduce him to everyone. This is my steward.¡±


    Initially, Melgor wanted to forcefully pull Ren Xiaosu into their awkward conversation. After all, they hade here together, so why should he have to handle all of this alone?


    But when Forbes Winston heard that Ren Xiaosu was a steward, he said with a polite smile, ¡°We have fine dining prepared for the stewards and servants in a side chamber. Mr. Ren Xiaosu, you can dine there while waiting for Sorcerer Melgor.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. He had not expected the sorcerer ns to be so fixated on ss differences. The moment Forbes Winston heard he was a steward, he was not even interested in exchanging civilities with him.


    These good-for-nothing members of the n imed they wanted a revolution. But once they rose to the top, the aristocracy would still remain the aristocracy. There would be no change to the world at all.


    Ren Xiaosu felt that Russell would also have been surrounded by such people back then.


    Not everyone would carry sincere beliefs and a sense of responsibility during a revolution. This was just the way of the world.


    When Melgor heard that, he got a little angry. He wanted to pull Ren Xiaosu away and leave, but Ren Xiaosu took a step back and said with a smile, ¡°Then I¡¯ll go and find something to eat in the side chamber. Lord Melgor, I¡¯ll wait for you there.¡±


    After that, a servant led Ren Xiaosu to the side chamber.


    Melgor was initially very angry. But when he saw Ren Xiaosu wink at him before he left, he immediately put on a smile again and continued patronizing the fops of the House of Winston.


    Ren Xiaosu got to the side chamber. To his surprise, it was all abuzz here too. The servants and stewards of the other sorcerers had all gathered. Although there was no drinking, everyone was dancing and chatting.


    Compared to the main hall next door, the people here appeared much more rxed. No one was snooty.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not join in. Instead, he just leaned quietly against the wall and waited for the banquet to end. He closed his eyes and tried his best to listen to the noise in the main hall in case someone suddenly attacked Melgor.


    A middle-aged man slowly walked over to Ren Xiaosu and stood next to him. Ren Xiaosu opened his eyes and sized him up, but he didn¡¯t intend to interact with him at all.


    ¡°What¡¯s your rtionship with Ren He?¡± the middle-aged man asked with a smile.


    Ren Xiaosu stared at the middle-aged man before his eyes. ¡°I¡¯d like to know the answer to that question as well.¡±


    Only now did Ren Xiaosu realize Chen Cheng had not brought him here tonight to introduce the young sorcerers of the House of Winston to him, but to introduce him to this middle-aged man.


    The reason the bounty hunters were willing to mix with the younger generation of the House of Winston was to have another moat to protect themselves.


    Ren Xiaosu had to admit these people were really bold. No wonder they were still alive and kicking even though the Magi had been hunting them down.


    The middle-aged man said, ¡°I¡¯ll introduce myself. I¡¯m Zhang Haoyun, just a minor individual.¡±


    ¡°Since you cane and talk to me about something Chen Jingshu can¡¯t, it shows you¡¯re nothing minor in the bounty hunter organization.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°Speak, what do you wish to talk about tonight?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much.¡± Zhang Haoyun said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m not nning on using you for anything. I really just want to understand how much you know about Ren He.¡±


    ¡°Y¡¯all were the ones that called me here, so shouldn¡¯t you tell me what you know first to show your sincerity?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a grin.


    ¡°Ren He was the founder of the Assassin Sanctuary. It was founded to fight against the CIA and extremist organizations. Later, after he reached apromise with the CIA, the organization went underground and began its contact with the leader of the Magi, Russell.¡± Zhang Haoyun said, ¡°He was from the Central ins and had a son. He¡¯s also the founder of the Riders in the Central ins and the Qinghe Group.¡±


    Zhang Haoyun looked at Ren Xiaosu and said seriously, ¡°He¡¯s the origin of our entire organization¡¯s faith. I¡¯ve already shared that much with you. That should be enough sincerity.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. He had thought the organization in the Kingdom of Sorcerers would also be called the Riders. He did not expect it to have a different name.


    And this was the first time he had heard of the ¡°CIA.¡±


    However, it seemed that the two organizations, the Sanctuary and the Riders, had different functions. The Riders was born from its faith and dreams to challenge limits, but the objective of the Sanctuary was really to kill.


    Perhaps, it was because Ren Xiaosu was the first to bring up Ren He¡¯s name, so both parties built a foundation of trust.


    As Chen Jingshu did not know much about Ren He, they called Zhang Haoyun over tomunicate with Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Haoyun and said, ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t have much information to share with you since I know very little about Ren He.¡±


    Zhang Haoyun frowned. ¡°What information can you tell me then?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, ¡°What I can tell you is that both the Qinghe Group and the Riders are still around in the Central ins, and I¡¯m considered a friend of theirs.¡±


    ¡°Why did you suddenlye to the Kingdom of Sorcerers by yourself?¡± Zhang Haoyun asked.


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent for a moment before saying, ¡°It¡¯s probably fate that led me to find out about my background. Please answer my question. What happened to Ren He¡¯s son? Why did Ren He take away the ck Eye of True Sight to save him?¡±


    Zhang Haoyun answered, ¡°Only Russell¡¯s descendants can answer that question.¡±


    All of a sudden, the voice from the pce in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind said, ¡°Search for clues rted to Russell¡¯s descendants. Quest progression: 3 of 4.¡±

 Chapter 1158 - Bro, I came here to hide from you!

    <h4>Chapter 1158: Bro, I came here to hide from you!</h4>


    ¡°Russell has descendants?¡± Ren Xiaosu was surprised. ¡°Didn¡¯t?<i>The Sorcerer Chronicles</i>?state that he was never married in his life? And it even said that he didn¡¯t have any children.¡±


    This information was specifically noted in?<i>The Sorcerer Chronicles</i>. At the time, Ren Xiaosu evenmented how the other party had dedicated his entire life to being a sorcerer.


    Zhang Haoyun calmly answered, ¡°The records in?<i>The Sorcerer Chronicles</i>?are wrong, but it was a mistake the author deliberately made. He knew full well that Russell definitely did not die from natural causes, so he covered up his rtionships.¡±


    ¡°Who was the author of?<i>The Sorcerer Chronicles</i>? I sensed that he had quite a bit of admiration for Russell,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°He was steward to Russell during hister years,¡± Zhang Haoyun answered. ¡°He didn¡¯t serve Russell for long. But after Russell died, many of his manuscripts and letters were organized by him, so he learned much about him.¡±


    ¡°Oh, no wonder he was able to get his hands on the letters between Russell and his good friend.¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What happened to the author after that?¡±


    ¡°He died as well,¡± Zhang Haoyun replied. ¡°When I say they died, I¡¯m referring to unnatural deaths. There¡¯s evidence he was tortured before he died. In the journals of our predecessors, they said that when the Sanctuary found his corpse, no one could bear toy an eye on it.¡±


    ¡°So the Sanctuary did maintain a close rtionship with Russell, and your organization did help the Magi too. It wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration to say that your organization is the savior of the Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°But why did y¡¯all disappear after that?¡±


    ¡°The magus order managed to get through the most difficult period during the early days of The Cataclysm under Russell¡¯s leadership. However, Russell fell seriously ill because of it. He was contaminated by the fallout.¡± Zhang Haoyun sighed and said, ¡°This gave the old magus aristocracy a chance to take advantage of the situation.¡±


    Zhang Haoyun said, ¡°They bribed one of Russell¡¯s servants to poison him. The Sanctuary searched for evidence and wanted to avenge their good friend, but after interrogating that servant and executing him, they were surrounded by the entire magus order.¡±


    ¡°Betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, eh?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Didn¡¯t y¡¯all expect that?¡±


    ¡°Actually, we did. It was just that we lost too manypanions while protecting Russell¡¯s wife and children. You should understand yourself that an escort mission is much harder than being able to attack with no restraints.¡± Zhang Haoyun said, ¡°At the beginning, there were a lot of newly established sorcerer groups, but many of them died in The Cataclysm trying to protect the Magi. However, the former aristocratic sorcerers managed to keep their strength intact and gained the upper hand after The Cataclysm.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu roughly understood how much the people from the Sanctuary hated the old aristocratic sorcerers. Everyone had worked so hard during The Cataclysm, but in the end, their numbers were reduced, and it ended up benefiting those who did nothing to help in The Cataclysm. If it were him, he would also be very angry.


    ¡°Was that why y¡¯all poisoned the Voss family?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. The servant who poisoned Russell was a member of the Voss family. After that incident, the Tudor family distributed a lot of benefits to the Voss family as a reward. Moreover, the Voss family had always been a main force in the magus order¡¯s assault on the Sanctuary. They¡¯ve killed a lot of our people,¡± Zhang Haoyun said, ¡°So killing the Voss family was just collecting some interest on the blood debt they owe.¡±


    ¡°You pretty much have my support on that. So where are Russell¡¯s descendants now?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I can¡¯t tell you yet. They aren¡¯t part of the Sanctuary, but you¡¯ll see them sooner orter when you get to Ghent City.¡± Zhang Haoyun said, ¡°Russell told his wife a lot of things in hister years. As far as I know, his wife kept his journal that contains many secrets. I believe the answer you¡¯re searching for should be in it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not doubt this at all. Otherwise, the pce would not have listed searching for Russell¡¯s descendants as a clue rted to Ren He.


    ¡°Are you also going to Ghent City?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Zhang Haoyun said, ¡°I still have other things to do for the House of Winston. The House of Berkeley is about to dere war on the northern counties, so this is the best time for us to take revenge. I still have one more question for you. Before this, I expressed my greatest sincerity by telling you a lot of information. So can you tell me now what your rtionship with Ren He is?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said helplessly, ¡°I wasn¡¯t lying to you earlier. I came here so that I could find out what my rtionship with him is.¡±


    Zhang Haoyun said in seriousness, ¡°I look forward to the day when everythinges to light.¡±


    The banquet in the main hall seemed to be drawing down. Ren Xiaosu left with Melgor while Chen Cheng and hispanions headed off in another direction.


    In an instant, only the servants who had sold their lives to the sorcerer ns were left in the huge pce behind the enchanted doorway as they quietly stored the uneaten food.


    Melgor, as the leading man of tonight¡¯s banquet, looked a little tired. The two of them put on their cloaks and rushed to the ry station. On the way back, Mel sighed and said, ¡°These young sorcerers of the n emit an indescribable aura of depravity. I wonder why that is.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu exined with augh, ¡°If you only have a desire for power, you¡¯ll also be like them.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t then.¡± Melgor curled his lips. ¡°By the way, you seem to be in a good mood. Why? Did you make some new friends in the side chamber?¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t say we¡¯re friends yet, but we had quite a good chat,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    Melgor muttered, ¡°You sure enjoyed leaving me on my own in the main hall.¡±


    But Ren Xiaosu suddenly stopped in his tracks. Melgor looked up and saw a figure at the end of the path staring nkly at him.


    It was around two AM, and the streets were empty except for the three of them. Under normal circumstances, ordinary residents would definitely not head out at this time.


    Melgor asked softly, ¡°Have we been discovered? What should we do?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in a low voice, ¡°Go back to the ry station first. I bumped into an old friend.¡±


    ¡°Old friend?¡± Melgor was surprised. ¡°You¡¯ve actually met an old friend here when you came from the Central ins?¡±


    ¡°To be honest, I didn¡¯t expect it either.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    Melgor suddenly heard the figure at the end of the street ask in a trembling voice, ¡°Ren Xiaosu, is that you? Don¡¯t think I can¡¯t recognize you just because you¡¯re wearing a cloak.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu grinned and said, ¡°It¡¯s me. Wang Congyang, you must really love me! You actually recognized me?¡±


    ¡°Love you? My ass! I¡¯d recognize you even if you turned to ash!¡± Wang Congyang said bitterly, ¡°I fled all the way here, so why are you still haunting me? Bro, please let me off. I just want to lead my life without being hunted!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu approached Wang Congyang step by step. ¡°You might not believe it, but I was really just passing by.¡±


    Before Ren Xiaosu could approach, Wang Congyang turned tail and ran away.


    Just as Melgor was about to say something, he saw Ren Xiaosu chasing after him, off like a shot. Melgor was left standing alone on the street. ¡°Hey, how do I get back to the ry station? It¡¯s the middle of the night, and there¡¯s no one around to ask directions from!¡±

 Chapter 1159 - Wang Congyang’s fleeting springtime

    <h4>Chapter 1159: Wang Congyang¡¯s fleeting springtime </h4>


    The Kingdom of Sorcerers was far, far away from the Central ins. Generally, Wang Congyang should no longer have to worry about the arrest warrants for him now that he was here.


    In the Central ins, he was wanted by the Kong Consortium, the Qing Consortium, the Pyro Company, andter, the Wang Consortium too.


    The vast territory of the Central ins could not even amodate his steam lotive and ck cauldron.


    Wang Congyang did not want to leave the Central ins either. That was where he was born and raised. It had everything familiar to him, and he had grown ustomed to the lifestyle there. But he had no choice. He really could not continue living in the Central ins!


    He could live with being wanted by so many organizations since he could survive by taking on shady jobs for the underworld. That would have been enough for him to lead a carefree life. But for some reason, Wang Congyang felt that he would always end up encountering Ren Xiaosu.


    At first, Wang Congyang was not that afraid of Ren Xiaosu. Butter on, he felt that something was off.


    In fact, Wang Congyang had personally witnessed the trajectory of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s rise. From a refugee who needed to hide the fact he had stolen a pistol to bing a stronghold destroyer, he eventually ended up as the futuremander of the Northwest.


    When Wang Congyang saw Ren Xiaosu getting stronger, his sense of danger also grew. In the end, he was forced to make a choice and flee from the Central ins.


    When he left, he had two choices. The first was to go to the Northern ins, but before he could head there, he heard the current lord of the steppe was actually Yan Liuyuan. Back then, he had pointed a gun at Yan Liuyuan. Wouldn¡¯t he be walking to his death if he went there now?


    Finally, he drove his steam lotive through the vast Gobi and arrived at the unfamiliar Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    At first, Wang Congyang was worried he couldn¡¯t adjust to living here due to thenguage barrier. Butter, he realized there were more people from the Central ins here than he had imagined. There was not much difference in the cuisine either.


    Moreover, the most important thing was that there were no surveince cameras here, nor were they a technologically advanced nation. He could boldly live here without any worry.


    From now on, there would no longer be anyone hunting him down every day, nor would any organized troops being after him anymore. Wang Congyang felt like he had arrived in Heaven.


    If he took to banditry in the Central ins, he would have to face the encirclement of organizations. If he ran a ck market operation, it would leave him on edge every day. If he achieved mob boss status, he would have to hide in the spa center every day too. This was all because the way the Central ins was governed was too strict.


    As for the Kingdom of Sorcerers, things were more rxed here. The sorcerers lived like gods every day, so why would they care about trivial matters in the ¡°secr world¡±?


    Here, bandits ruled the hills they upied. In the cities, thugs flocked together and bullied the residents. In the ck markets, those with power were respected. As long as you had money and strength, you could do whatever you wanted.


    This made him feel like a fish that had finally returned to the water from drynd after more than a decade.


    Although he also had to face the threat of sorcerers in this nation, Wang Congyang was part of one of the earliest groups of awakened superhumans. Not only did he have the skills, but he also had high physical fitness, so he might not be weaker than the average archmages.


    He was already 34 years old. Before he turned 33, his life could either be described as winter or fall. But now it felt like his life had suddenly entered springtime.


    But the moment Wang Congyang saw Ren Xiaosu, everything seemingly returned to square one.


    Melgor stood there in a daze as he watched Ren Xiaosu chase after Wang Congyang. At this moment, his young steward¡¯s explosive speed dazzled him.


    ¡°So this is Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength?¡± Melgor was extremely shocked. If Ren Xiaosu¡¯s target were him instead, he probably couldn¡¯t cast any spells!


    How could someone with such explosive power be bound by his Earth Bind spell? Who was he trying to fool?!


    Although Melgor was already mentally prepared, he still could not ept it when he saw this scene.


    ¡°Hurry back to the ry station,¡± Melgor muttered to himself. He did not want to get involved in a violent incident like this.


    Ren Xiaosu and Wang Congyang were sprinting crazily in the overcast Winston City.


    With a loud rumble, the first bolt of early summer lightning pierced through the dense clouds and struck the ground from above.


    Therge white bolt of lightning was like a spear that suddenly illuminated all of Winston City.


    Then the clouds condensed into bean-sized droplets of rain and poured down.


    As the rain pattered on the ground, Ren Xiaosu and Wang Congyang¡¯s clothes becamepletely drenched. However, they were both determined people, so they did not feel the least bit affected.


    Ren Xiaosu was much faster than Wang Congyang. His gaze was locked onto his target as he gained on him!


    When Wang Congyang looked back, he was surprised to see the young man in the ck cloak approaching him like a wild beast. He was so frightened it felt like his entire body was paralyzed!


    The current Ren Xiaosu was even more terrifying than the one he had encountered back in the Sacred Mountains.


    Wang Congyang could not understand this. They were both superhumans, so logically, as someone who awakened his power earlier, he should have the better physical fitness. So why was Ren Xiaosu growing at a faster rate than him?


    But there was really no logical exnation to this matter. Otherwise, Wang Congyang would not have to leave home and travel so far away.


    The difference between Wang Congyang and people like Melgor was that the sorcerers did not know the trump cards Ren Xiaosu held. However, he knew all about them.


    All he wanted to know now was which fucking idiot had attracted a terrifying creature like Ren Xiaosu to the Kingdom of Sorcerers!


    Ren Xiaosu shouted from behind, ¡°Stop running! Let¡¯s talk.¡±


    ¡°Talk? My ass!¡± Wang Congyang suddenly turned left and went into a dark alley.


    Wang Congyang started seriously thinking. He felt that Ren Xiaosu must have just arrived in Winston not long ago. In that case, he could easily rely on his familiarity with this ce to shake him off.


    As the two of them made their way through the falling rain, the patrolling guards in Winston City were taking shelter from the rain under the eaves with their kerosenemps. The few of them were smoking andining about the weather.


    As they were talking, Wang Congyang suddenly sprinted past them without any intention of stopping.


    The patrolling guards stared nkly at Wang Congyang¡¯s back. It was as though Wang Congyang had left a human-shaped hole in the heavy rainfall. They had never seen anyone move so fast before.


    But before they could react, Ren Xiaosu had already sped past them as he chased down Wang Congyang at an even faster speed.


    In that quick instant, the heavy rain that was falling was swept up by the vortex in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s wake. The soldiers who were taking shelter from the rain immediately felt as though someone had sshed a basin of water on their faces. The cigarettes in their mouths were extinguished.


    One of the soldiers subconsciously stuffed his whistle into his mouth and tried to call for backup to give chase. However, the patrol captain snatched his whistle away and said, ¡°Are you fucking crazy? You dare go after someone like that? Do you wanna die?¡±


    The guard looked at his captain. ¡°They¡­¡±


    ¡°You won¡¯t go wrong listening to me. The reason why I was able to survive and be a patrol captain is because I know what business we should and should not interfere in!¡± the patrol captain said firmly

 Chapter 1160 - Destroyer

    <h4>Chapter 1160: Destroyer</h4>


    The patrol captain was 40 years old and had witnessed many dangerous situations throughout his life. During the war with Fortress 178, which he participated in 17 years ago, he even saw sorcerers fighting inside the city with his own eyes.


    It was because he had witnessed battles involving sorcerers that he knew very well it was not something normal people could interfere in. If they came across one, they should just pretend not to see it. That would ensure they would live longer.


    However, one of the patrolling guards was a little puzzled. ¡°Captain, are they the House of Winston¡¯s sorcerers?¡±


    The patrol captain pondered it. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I think those two might not even be sorcerers.¡±


    ¡°If they¡¯re not sorcerers, how can they move so fast?¡± the patrolling guard asked curiously. ¡°But if we don¡¯t do anything, what if they cause trouble in the city?¡±


    The patrol captain assured him, ¡°What damage can the two of them cause¡ª¡±


    <i>Boom!</i>


    Before he could finish speaking, everyone in the patrol squad looked over in shock. Through the curtain of rain, they saw a warehouse not far away copsing.


    ¡°It¡¯s the granary!¡± a patrolling guard eximed. ¡°That area is filled with granaries.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, one by one, the rest of the granaries copsed.


    In the heavy rain, the patrolling guards¡¯ jaws all dropped. They did not know what expression to make.


    One of the guards slowly said, ¡°Captain, four granaries have been destroyed. Even if we don¡¯t report it, this should mean the end for our patrol squad, right?!¡±


    Wang Congyang heard the sound of buildings copsing behind him. It frightened him so badly his balls shrank. He could only me himself for being too immature in the past for provoking such a monster.


    A momentter, Wang Congyang heard the rushing wind behind him. He spun around and saw Ren Xiaosu, who had activated his armor, throwing a punch at him.


    Wang Congyang was shocked. ¡®<i>I didn¡¯t even fucking use a gun and you¡¯re already resorting to your ultimate move. You scared or something?!</i>¡®


    In an instant, the fist reached his face. Wang Congyang roared, ¡°Cauldron, activate!¡±


    Arge ck cauldron with a diameter of two meters suddenly appeared between Ren Xiaosu and Wang Congyang.


    With a dull thud, the armor¡¯s fist hit the ck cauldron. Then Wang Congyang was sent flying together with the cauldron as it vibrated buzzingly!


    Wang Congyang tumbled with the ck cauldron and crashed into a wall so hard it copsed. He coughed up blood. ¡°Are you fucking human?¡±


    This was not an insult but a doubt he really had. Could Ren Xiaosu have already surpassed the level of mortals?!


    After that, Wang Congyang took advantage of Ren Xiaosu countering the reaction force to scamper back onto his feet, disappearing into an alley a street over.


    A middle-aged man inside the house was staring nkly through a hole in the wall as he looked at the armor standing upright in the rain outside. The gray armor was glowing with a metallic luster.


    As he looked at the armor, Ren Xiaosu looked back at him in the suit.


    The middle-aged man gulped. ¡°What the fuck¡­¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took out a piece of gold and flicked it to the middle-aged man before continuing his pursuit in the rain.


    Wang Congyang already felt that something was not right. With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength, there shouldn¡¯t be a need to activate the armor to deal with him. Moreover, there was no need for him to resort to the most primitive form of attack either¡ªpunching.


    Based on Wang Congyang¡¯s understanding of Ren Xiaosu, he knew they were no longer on the same level. It would not actually be that difficult for the other party to capture him.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu must have some other motive.


    Wang Congyang¡¯s greatest strength had never been his superpower, but his self-awareness.


    When he encountered Li Shentan back then, he fled before they could engage in battle. When he encountered Ren Xiaosu in the Sacred Mountains and Stronghold 73, he did the same thing as well.


    If Wang Congyang had acted beyond his capability even once, he would not have lived for so long.


    He could not understand why Ren Xiaosu was wreaking havoc here in a city of the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    But it did not matter even if he could not figure it out. All he could do now was run for his life. There was no other choice.


    Wang Congyang continued to traverse the streets of the city. When he turned around to take a look, he could no longer see Ren Xiaosu.


    If it were anyone else, they would probably heave a sigh of relief and feel at ease. But Wang Congyang was different. He knew Ren Xiaosu must still be following him.


    A secondter, his expression changed drastically, because he saw a figure wearing a white mask waiting for him at the intersection ahead.


    Wang Congyang turned back around and saw Ren Xiaosu, who had already put away his armor, standing in the rain in his ck cloak.


    ¡°Bro, just what do you want?¡± Wang Congyang was on the verge of breaking down. ¡°It hasn¡¯t been easy for me these past few years. We¡¯re both grown-ups. Can¡¯t you empathize a little?!¡±


    ¡°When you led the bandits to the valley to ambush me back then, why didn¡¯t you think that this day woulde?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.


    Wang Congyang was not someone who would resign himself and wait for death. A steam lotive with five carriages broke out of the void between Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu¡¯s encirclement, smashing right through a building by the roadside and creating an opening for Wang Congyang.


    When the steam lotive drove past, Wang Congyang grabbed a metal handrail on the train and went into it. Meanwhile, the train steamed to the next street.


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. He was surprised that,after not seeing Wang Congyang for a long time, his steam lotive had grown from four to five carriages.


    Wang Congyang tried his best to control the direction of the steam lotive so it would not crash into the houses on the road.


    However, the buildings in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were arrangedpactly and the roads were narrow, so it was inevitable that the steam lotive would get out of control sometimes and hit something.


    The steam lotive scraped past a row of buildings loudly, turning the well-built houses into partially open-air buildings.


    A couple happened to be making out at home, and just as the two of themy on the bed in each other¡¯s arms, a wall in their house was suddenly torn down.


    The two of them turned their heads and looked outside in confusion. Right after, they saw a second steam lotive rumbling past the street outside, sshing the pouring rain everywhere.


    They even saw someone in a ck cloak at the front of the train shouting at them, ¡°Sorrrr-rrry!¡±


    When the steam lotive collided with an obstacle, the force of the violent collision was supposed to get reflected back to its user. If Wang Congyang had done this in the past, he would probably have coughed up blood before he could even bring down two buildings.


    But now, by covering the front of the train with the ck cauldron, it greatly alleviated the bacsh from the collisions.


    The events stunned Ren Xiaosu. He had not expected Wang Congyang to actually use the ck cauldron and steam lotive powers as abo.


    Ear-piercing horns raised the rm in the city as the two steam lotives sped through the streets one behind the other. The hugemotion had woken up the entirety of Winston City from their deep slumber, including the House of Winston¡¯s sorcerers, who quickly rushed in the direction of the chaos.

 Chapter 1161 - Seizing stones!

    <h4>Chapter 1161: Seizing stones!</h4>


    The sorcerers wore their cloaks, which they used to shield themselves from the rain, and quickly approached the battlefield. The sorcerer who was the first to arrive at the devastation grabbed a patrolling guard by the cor and shouted angrily, ¡°What happened? Who dares act recklessly in the city?¡±


    The patrolling guard stammered, ¡°Two people were involved in a pursuit. We wanted to give chase, but we couldn¡¯t catch up to them at all.¡±


    ¡°Two people?¡± The sorcerer from the House of Winston was exceptionally angry. ¡°How could two people cause such a bigmotion? Why didn¡¯t you raise the rm earlier?¡±


    The patrolling guard who was being held by the neck was on the verge of crying. ¡°Lord Sorcerer, they were too fast. We didn¡¯t even have time to react. We discovered them near the granary at first, but in just one minute, they ran two kilometers away.¡±


    The soldiers could not tell the truth, of course. They could only vaguely describe what they had witnessed. Otherwise, if the House of Winston found out they had neglected their duties, all of their families would probably get thrown into jail with them.


    The sorcerer asked, ¡°What else happened? Tell me quickly. Don¡¯t leave anything out.¡±


    The guard said in a trembling voice, ¡°At the beginning, there were two people, with one chasing the other. Later, it suddenly turned into two steel monsters, with one fleeing and the other giving chase.¡±


    The sorcerer was stunned. ¡°Steel monsters? What steel monsters?¡±


    At this moment, a rumble came from the end of the street. The soldier pointed behind the sorcerer and said, ¡°Those steel monsters¡­ they came back!¡±


    The sorcerer spun around. By the time he saw the steam lotive, it was almost in his face.


    The sorcerer immediately dug out his orange Eye of True Sight from his waist pouch and roared at the steam lotive, ¡°In the name of the Winstons, I order you to stop! me Wall!¡±


    But just as he was done chanting, the first steam lotive broke right through the wall of mes that had just been raised and zoomed past him.


    ¡°Ptui!¡±


    Wang Congyang, who was at the front of the train, spat a mouthful of phlegm into the young sorcerer¡¯s eyes.


    The sorcerer wiped it off his face in rage. He raised his Eye of True Sight and recited a mysterious incantation. But the second steam lotive had already arrived. Someone reached out from the front of the train and snatched the Eye of True Sight from the sorcerer¡¯s hand.


    The young sorcerer was confused.


    The sorcerer stood in the street with his arms raised in confusion as he watched the two steam lotives zoom past one after another. It was as though he did not exist at all.


    A momentter, the young sorcerer flew into a rage. ¡°Inform the Knights of the Hymn in the city. I want those two caught! And tell the garrison forces to lock the gates. From now on, no one is allowed to leave or enter Winston City!¡±


    The young sorcerer had fought in battles against others before, but this was the first time he had encountered a situation where his Eye of True Sight was snatched away!


    People whopletely disregarded the honor of the Magi had appeared in Winston City. They definitely could not be let off!


    At this moment, Wang Congyang was standing at the front of the train and driving it carefully. From time to time, he would turn around to take a look. He realized the steam lotive Ren Xiaosu was driving was chasing after him at a leisurely pace.


    The city¡¯s residents who were sound asleep gradually woke up and looked out their windows. They were greeted by the sight of something they could not understand speeding crazily through the streets.


    Ren Xiaosu stood calmly in his ck steam lotive. The chimney at the front was spewing billowing ck smoke like a train from hell.


    A long time ago, Mu Wan¡¯ge, a movie director in the Central ins, had always been envious of how people before The Cataclysm were able to film extremely thrilling high-speed chase scenes. Unfortunately, the current technology he had ess to was still unable to reproduce such scenes.


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this could also be considered a high-speed chase, right? It was just that the parties involved were driving trains.


    Wang Congyang seemed to have thought of where to escape to. The steam lotive he was driving suddenly turned north.


    In the dark of the night, an archmage holding a red Eye of True Sight rushed over. He stood on a roof and watched the approaching steam lotives as he started chanting a long incantation in a low voice.


    In the nearby buildings, a resident suddenly noticed him and eximed, ¡°It¡¯s Archmage Devonshire! He was actually forced to take action?!¡±


    For nearly a decade now, the monthly worship service in Winston City had been conducted by Archmage Devonshire, so all the residents knew him.


    Presiding over the worship service meant the archmage¡¯s status was extremely high in the Winston family. Although he could notpare to the head of the family, he was not far from it.


    When he was almost done reciting the long incantation, the residents who were peeking shouted in surprise. On the roof, a figure in a white mask suddenly appeared behind Devonshire and stabbed him in the heart from behind with a ck saber.


    Old Xu did not stop there. It even took the red Eye of True Sight from Devonshire before disappearing into the rain again.


    The residents in the nearby buildings covered their mouths in shock as they watched Devonshire slowly fall to the ground. No one had expected an unknown enemy would be harvesting Eyes of True Sight amid the chaos.


    In the steam lotive, Ren Xiaosu revealed a smile. He had really gained a lot tonight. In just a short while, he had already obtained eight Eyes of True Sight.


    Among them, seven were orange and one was red.


    It seemed that in a n like the Winstons, any of the orthodox bloodline sorcerers would at the least be wielding an orange Eye of True Sight. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu really sympathized with Mel even more. He really had to find a chance to exchange Mel¡¯s Eye of True Sight with a better one.


    Tonight, an earth-shattering pursuit had drawn out dozens of sorcerers. Not only had Devonshire been stabbed in the back, but several sorcerers were also ambushed by Old Xu on their way here before they could catch a glimpse of the steam lotives.


    Old Xu moved freely in the rain, and none of the sorcerers could recite aplete incantation before the shadow clone got close to them.


    After the Knights of the Hymn assembled, they galloped out of the military base in the city. The intense sound of the horses galloping was enough to jolt people.


    Unfortunately, the horses were still inferior in the face of a steam lotive¡¯s speed. Under normal circumstances, a thoroughbred could only travel at around 56 to 64 kilometers per hour during a race. The mutated warhorses Yan Liuyuan bred in the Central ins could probably travel faster, but they still couldn¡¯t catch up to a steam lotive that was traveling at 120 kilometers per hour.


    Therefore, no matter how great a show of force the Knights of the Hymn were putting on, they could only ept the fact that their targets were getting farther and farther away from them.


    News kepting from the front. Archmage Devonshire was dead. His son, Sorcerer Bede, was dead. His nephew, Cavendi, was dead.


    Themander of the Knights of the Hymn was even thinking of rushing over to tell the two culprits who were caught up in their pursuit to stop fucking fighting already. If they kept it up any longer, all of the Winston family¡¯s sorcerers would be dead!

 Chapter 1162 - Discovery

    <h4>Chapter 1162: Discovery</h4>


    The House of Winston¡¯s sorcerers would not get wiped out that easily, however. Although they were only a second-rate sorcerer npared to the Berkeleys, the Tudors, and the Normans, they still numbered in the hundreds.


    However, the Winston family¡¯s sorcerers were being killed so quickly tonight that it was a little scary.


    Eight of their sorcerers had already died in a short duration of ten minutes, but they still did not know who the attacker was. When someone went to question the eyewitnesses, all of them imed it was done by someone in a white mask who moved elusively among them. In addition to the stormy weather affecting their vision and hearing, they had also encountered a really formidable enemy this time. It was a situation that frightened the House of Winston.


    There were only three sorcerers in the entire n who were more powerful than Archmage Devonshire. If even Devonshire could be ambushed, how many other sorcerers could withstand sneak attacks of this level?


    But the Winston family could not understand something. Based on what the patrolling guards and some of the residents had said, it was clear it was a pursuit between two strangers that began in Winston City. It supposedly had fucking nothing to do with the Winston family.


    In the end, even though the pursuit was between two strangers in their trains, the Winston family suffered the heaviest of casualties while the perpetrators were unaffected.


    Did the two of theme here on purpose to cause trouble for the Winston family?


    Who the fuck could they reason with?!


    ¡°Summon our sorcerers back to the manor. Tell them not to take on the enemy by themselves anymore. Our enemies this time are unique. I now have reason to suspect the House of Tudor is the one behind this. They¡¯re trying to stop us from joining forces with the House of Berkeley for the northern expedition!¡± The Winston family¡¯s patriarch gave orders in the manor. ¡°However, they better not think they can escape aftermitting such a heinous act in our House of Winston¡¯s territory. Have the Knights of the Hymn continue intercepting them, and summon Archmages Abel and Alston over. The three of us will need to join hands tonight!¡±


    Archmage Abel and Archmage Alston were the second and third highest-ranked sorcerers in the Winston family, outranked only by Matthews, the patriarch of the House of Winston. When the three of them teamed up, even the patriarch of the House of Tudor might not be able to get the better of them in battle.


    It was at this time that the sorcerers around realized their patriarch was really furious and wanted to personally kill those two troublemakers no matter what.


    At this moment, Wang Congyang was standing in the steam lotive and looking into the distance through the window. Actually, he knew very well that Ren Xiaosu¡¯s willpower was much stronger than his. This was something he could observe from the number of carriages alone.


    Therefore, he knew it would be impossible for him to get away from that ruthless person behind him even though he was driving the steam lotive.


    If he wanted to escape, he would have to rely on external help!


    What external help was there in the city that could stop Ren Xiaosu? Wang Congyang already had an answer in mind: the House of Winston.


    As Winston City was the political center of the House of Winston, 80% of the archmages in the entirety of the House of Winston¡¯s territory resided here. The rest of the cities were left to be overseen by just a few junior sorcerers.


    So there should be arge number of sorcerers in the manor north of Winston City now, right? That would be the key to Wang Congyang¡¯s escape.


    The steam lotive rumbled north. Wang Congyang knew it would be very dangerous to do so, but what else could he do? He was in great despair!


    Suddenly, Wang Congyang looked behind him and saw that Old Xu had joined up with Ren Xiaosu again.


    Old Xu, who was wearing the white mask, was standing on top of the steam lotive¡¯s railcar with its clothes pping loudly in the wind. Its ck saber was raised, ready to sh down on anything at any moment.


    On the roof of the steam lotive, Old Xu was waiting for an opportunity to strike. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu stood calmly below inside of the train. It was an exceptionally harmonious yet terrifying scene.


    Wang Congyang suddenly realized that Ren Xiaosu probably did not kill him immediately because he was nning to use him to create chaos and lead him towards the Winston Manor!


    Ren Xiaosu was not familiar with Winston City and did not even know where the Knights of the Hymn were garrisoned or the location of Winston Manor.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu did not know how he should avoid the Knights of the Hymn¡¯s assault once chaos broke out, nor did he know where he could take advantage of the situation and attack the House of Winston.


    But it did not matter. Wang Congyang definitely knew all of that.


    Based on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s understanding of Wang Congyang, that man was extremely crafty. Having been in the Kingdom of Sorcerers for so long, the first thing he would do would definitely be to understand the environment here before thinking about how to deal with the situation if he got into trouble.


    All Ren Xiaosu needed to do was to follow close behind Wang Congyang. At the very least, the Knights of the Hymn definitely couldn¡¯t catch up with them. On top of that, Wang Congyang would surely choose to borrow the strength of others to get away from his pursuit. As for who he could make use of to do that, that was obvious.


    Between the roles of hunter and prey, Ren Xiaosu always yed the role of the hunter.


    To hunt prey, he would first have to figure out what the prey was thinking. Just like how he had dealt with the expeditionary army¡¯s barbarians, he would never lose as long as he was a step ahead of his prey.


    Wang Congyang was extremely frustrated at this moment. Even though he had guessed that Ren Xiaosu was trying to make use of him, he still had to go along with it. After all, he might still have a chance of survival by barging into the Winston Manor. But if he were to turn around to face Ren Xiaosu, he would definitely die.


    Seeing the two steam lotives getting closer and closer to the Winston Manor, Wang Congyang felt even more anguished.


    However, Wang Congyang was probably not the one most in anguish. That would have to be Melgor.


    After Mel was left behind on his own, he slowly found his way back to the ry station. Along the way, he could hear the chaos in the city.


    Without even needing to think, he knew that had to all be Ren Xiaosu¡¯s doing.


    After Ren Xiaosu took off in pursuit before his eyes, it immediately turned chaotic in Winston City. How could that be a coincidence?


    It was also at this time that Comrade Mel deeply understood how ferocious the monster he had abducted was.


    So it turned out Ren Xiaosu had been telling the truth all along. His ims were never him boasting.


    Melgor could not help but wonder just how ¡°high¡± Ren Xiaosu meant when he said he would help him reach the pinnacle of his life.


    Afterwards, he saw two steam lotives whizzing past the street he was standing on. Through the window, Melgor even saw Ren Xiaosu discreetly waving at him from the second train!


    ¡®<i>Why the hell are you waving to me at a time like this?!</i>¡® Melgor quickly pulled his cloak¡¯s hood lower over his face as he was afraid the nearby residents would remember it. It wasn¡¯t until Mel realized there were no residents in the vicinity that he finally felt relieved.


    No, he had to hurry back to the ry station. The world was way too scary!


    Wait. Melgor suddenly froze. Wasn¡¯t there a saber-wielding person standing on top of the steam lotive that Ren Xiaosu was in? And that person seemed to be wearing a white mask too?


    Melgor instinctively knew this was bad. Someone was lurking on the roof of the train and was about to attack Ren Xiaosu!


    However, Melgor quickly realized the person was not fucking trying to sneak attack Ren Xiaosu. That was obviously Ren Xiaosu¡¯spanion!


    No wonder Ren Xiaosu did not panic once whenever they were being pursued previously!


    ¡­

 Chapter 1163 - Tragedy

    <h4>Chapter 1163: Tragedy</h4>


    White Mask evoked so many of Melgor¡¯s memories. Ever since he returned from Fortress 178, Old Xu became a sore point that bugged him.


    After all, anyone who was hunted the entire way back, even getting pursued all the way to their residence, would surely feel a little traumatized.


    At that time, the two sorcerers who were trying to assassinate Melgor had been killed by Ren Xiaosu. Melgor did not even get to see those two bounty hunters and had only seen Old Xu.


    So in Melgor¡¯s mind, he was always under the impression it was the strange White Mask who was hunting him.


    While they were returning to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, someone suddenly cast a spell in the middle of the night that nearly killed him and the sheeple. After returning to York County, the other party evenmitted arson wantonly in the city.


    Faced with such a ferocious assant, Melgor was really scared.


    Since he was not an archmage, it was only normal he would feel afraid when being pursued.


    Now, Melgor realized the truth seemedpletely different from what he had imagined. The so-called sorcerer who attacked them was actually Ren Xiaosu¡¯s aplice? In that case, what were Ren Xiaosu¡¯s motives?


    Was Ren Xiaosu trying to kill him? No, that was definitely not the case.


    It was not that the na?ve Melgor ced too much trust in Ren Xiaosu, but he now understood it was actually not difficult for Ren Xiaosu to kill him.


    Seeing that Ren Xiaosu was about to demolish Winston City, wouldn¡¯t it be a piece of cake if he really wanted to kill him?


    Furthermore, Melgor believed his own judgment that his friendship with Ren Xiaosu was still real!


    Thinking of this, Melgor ruled out the possibility that Ren Xiaosu was trying to have him killed. In that case, there must be some other misunderstanding.


    But Melgor felt that there were still a lot of things that did not make sense. When they first encountered White Mask, they got buried in the ground by a spell cast by someone. However, Ren Xiaosu and White Mask had just recently arrived from the Central ins and did not even have any Eyes of True Sight, so how were they able to cast spells?


    Melgor was very sure it was the Liquefy Ground spell that nearly killed him back then!


    Wait. Melgor slowly stopped in his tracks. Who said there were definitely no Eyes of True Sight in the Central ins? Wasn¡¯t one of his motives in abducting Ren Xiaosu to ask him some questions rted to the ck Eye of True Sight?


    At that time, Melgor had felt the energy fluctuation when the ck Eye of True Sight went through a change of ownership. After that, Ren Xiaosu suddenly appeared at the outpost and even deliberately allowed himself to be abducted to the Kingdom of Sorcerers by Melgor.


    Initially, he had said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Some people might not even be able to obtain an Eye of True Sight in their entire lives, so you¡¯d better not harbor unrealistic dreams of bing a sorcerer.¡±


    What was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s reaction then? He looked like he didn¡¯t care at all, and it was as though he knew he could easily get his hands on an Eye of True Sight.


    Melgor finally figured out a lot of things!


    Was the ck Eye of True Sight in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s possession? Melgor felt that he might have guessed the truth!


    But even after he figured it out, he still found it a little unbelievable. This was the ck Eye of True Sight they were talking about!


    And there were still many things that did not make sense regarding this matter. For example, Ren Xiaosu had not mastered thenguage of the Magi at that time yet. On the night of the attack, Melgor only cast a Fireball by reciting its incantation ¡°fire,¡± so Ren Xiaosu could not have learned Liquefy Ground.


    What was with that then?


    ¡°It¡¯s too confusing.¡± Melgor shook his head a few times and headed off again in the direction of the ry station based on his memory. He decided to return there first.


    Melgor made up his mind. After he returned to the ry station, he would pack everything first. Then he would get someone to prepare the horse fodder and hay for the carriage and be ready to flee at a moment¡¯s notice!


    ¡­


    Thousands of people from the House of Winston had openly gathered at the Winston Manor.


    Everyone was either holding a torch or a kerosenemp, and most of them were from the Knights of the Hymn who came to guard the manor, with a minority being the House of Winston¡¯s sorcerers.


    Everyone present looked silently at the three archmages in front of them as they waited for them toe up with a n of counterattack.


    However, it was not peaceful in the manor during this period either. From time to time, people sent by the Knights of the Hymn in the city would ry news back. ¡°Patriarch, your son is dead!¡±


    Awhileter, someone else woulde and ry news again. ¡°Patriarch, another of your sons is dead.¡±


    ¡°Patriarch, one more son of yours has died.¡±


    ¡°Patriarch, your son¡­¡±


    Honestly, this was the bad thing about having too many sons. More than five of his sons had died before he could even meet the enemy. This story would be too tragic if told. It was almost as though their entire n had been wiped out.


    If this happened in the Central ins, any organization¡¯s leader would probably get a heart attack when they heard this news. But when it happened in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch appeared very calm. It was impossible to tell how he was feeling.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch had just turned 50 this year, which was considered rtively young among all the sorcerer ns¡¯ patriarchs.


    Among those of the privileged ss in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, youth represented ambition, as well as virility.


    Wasn¡¯t it just the deaths of a few sons? At the age of 50, he could make up for it in a fortnight by taking an alchemical decoction and putting in some extra work.


    At this moment, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch said to the Knights of the Hymn and his family members in front of him, ¡°Now that everyone has assembled, the perpetrators won¡¯t dare to take us on directly since there¡¯s only two of them. We only need to think about how to surround them. As such, I¡¯ve decided to split everyone into three groups, led respectively by me, Archmage Abel, and Archmage Alston, to encircle those two fanatics.¡±


    Tonight, all of the Knights of the Hymn in the city had turned out in full force. However, Wang Congyang was indeed an expert at fleeing. He even knew exactly how the Knights of the Hymn would react if they encountered an emergency.


    Therefore, when the Knights of the Hymn started pursuing Wang Congyang and Ren Xiaosu, they realized that other than being led around in circles, there was nothing else they could do.


    In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, cavalry represented mobility. In the history of the Magi, whenever the cataphract brigade was mentioned, they would be described with words such as ¡°blitzkrieg¡± and ¡°quick raid.¡±


    It might sound very powerful, but in the eyes of Ren Xiaosu and Wang Congyang, that speed of 50 kilometers per hour was a joke.


    The Knights of the Hymn also tried setting up roadblocks and splitting up their troops to surround them. But with Ren Xiaosu and Wang Congyang¡¯s strength, it would be a surprise if they were scared of thence-wielding soldiers.


    Every time Wang Congyang saw a roadblock or the cavalry, his steam lotive, paired with the ck cauldron, would run them right over without slowing down.


    Under such circumstances, no one was able to do anything about these two unless the archmages made their move.


    After the Winston family¡¯s patriarch assigned everyone to their teams, he looked at them with a solemn face. ¡°Remember, they¡¯ll definitely try to avoid us, but your responsibility is¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch could already hear the whistle of the steam lotive outside the manor.


    <i>Choo choo! Choo choo!</i>


    A sorcerer hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like they¡¯re trying to avoid us?¡±

 Chapter 1164 - Slaughter

    <h4>Chapter 1164: ughter</h4>


    Going bymon sense, if 70% of the n¡¯s sorcerers had gathered at the manor, the enemy would definitely avoiding here.


    Under such circumstances, even the patriarchs of the House of Tudor or the House of Norman might not be so arrogant as to attack the ce personally, much less two fanatics.


    Therefore, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch naturally wanted everyone to think of a way to surround the trespassers and not let them escape.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch must have thought there was nothing wrong with his words. But now, when he heard the aggressive whistle of the steam lotive, he suddenly felt like he had been surrounded by the enemy instead.


    ¡°Clear the way! Get ready for battle!¡± The Winston family¡¯s patriarch roared, ¡°Knights, set up roadblocks! Junior sorcerers, stand behind us!¡±


    As he spoke, everyone could vaguely see the steam lotive appearing at the end of the long path through the manor¡¯s main gate. When the patriarch of the Winston family saw the train, he was a little puzzled. How did something like that appear in the Kingdom of Sorcerers?


    The magus order had ced a lockdown on knowledge after The Cataclysm. They firmly believed that the less knowledge the residents had, the easier it would be to manage them. However, they would not go as far as to fool themselves. Therefore, most of the sorcerer ns still retained some information from before The Cataclysm. For example, the patriarch of the Winston family had seen old photos of trains and information about them in his home.


    Common folk in the Kingdom of Sorcerers might not know what a train was anymore, but the Winston family¡¯s patriarch did.


    When he saw that ¡±steel monster,¡± he could only wonder how the enemy had driven the train into the kingdom!


    However, there was no time to think too much. The first steam lotive arrived in an instant. The patriarch exchanged nces with Archmage Abel and Archmage Alston and started chanting.


    When the archmages recited their incantations, they did so with a strange rhythm. The mysterious chanting sounded like opera.


    A momentter, dozens of ming birds with golden wings flew out in front of the three of them. The temperature suddenly rose, and the Knights of the Hymn felt a heatwaveing at them. There was even a burnt smelling from their eyebrows and hair.


    But even before their incantations ended, the ming birds materialized further in midair and turned into strange, hawk-faced ming birds with human bodies. When they spread their arms, their huge feathered wings spanned three meters across.


    The name of the spell was Garuda. In legends, the Garuda was a celestial mount.


    Every sorcerer n had exclusive spells of their own. This was the foundation they relied on to gain a foothold in the magus order. Under normal circumstances, the power of exclusive spells would almost determine the status of a n in the magus order¡ªit was one of the important considerations.


    The Garuda spell was extremely explosive. When they collided with the enemy, the enemy would probably get burned before they could even make a move.


    By right, the House of Winston should have be a top-tier n like the Berkeleys. But over the years, their ming Garuda spell had always been restrained by the Tudor family¡¯s Ice Rend spell, to the point of being suppressed by the Tudor family until they could not even lift their heads.


    This was also one of the important reasons why the House of Winston was allied with the House of Berkeley.


    At this moment, one by one, the Garudas¡¯ wings fluttered as they dived at the steam lotive in front. Wang Congyang was left dumbfounded by what he saw from inside the train.


    In that instant, he controlled the steam lotive and made an abrupt turn. When the front of the train turned, the carriages behind swerved like a divine dragon swinging its tail.


    The entire five-car train started drifting horizontally across the ground, and the train¡¯s metal wheels even produced huge sparks as they scraped against the ground.


    Ren Xiaosumented it from the back. This really was a thrilling, high-speed chase.


    As the train¡¯s body drifted, Wang Congyang managed to dodge the attacks of the dozens of Garudas.


    Time seemed to slow down. The Winston family members watched in shock as the steam lotive¡¯s body moved horizontally towards them.


    When the Winston family¡¯s patriarch saw Wang Congyang, who was at the front of the train, approaching closer and closer, he sneered and made the Garudas fly back towards him.


    However, he was a little puzzled. The person on the train opened his mouth like he wanted to say something to him.


    ¡°Pa-tooey!¡±


    A mouthful of phlegm suddenly flew through the air for seven or eight meters. It headed straight at the head of the House of Winston with the inertia of the steam lotive!


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was confused.


    Fortunately, his steward was no weakling either. Before the spit could hit the patriarch, his steward had already moved in front of him.


    Immediately after, Wang Congyang elerated. It was like he was cornering sharply in a race car as he sped west.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch angrily pushed away his steward in front of him, just in time to see Ren Xiaosu looking straight at him through the other steam lotive¡¯s window.


    There were nearly a 100 meters between them.


    Half of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s face was shrouded in the shadow of his hood, but the Winston family¡¯s patriarch could still feel the other party mocking him silently.


    ¡°Kill them!¡± the Winston family¡¯s patriarch roared.


    Wang Congyang¡¯s steam lotive had very few carriages. Since a smaller car was easier to turn, it would be harder for Ren Xiaosu to avoid the Garudas¡¯ attack.


    But fortunately, Ren Xiaosu did not intend to dodge at all.


    The steam lotive elerated crazily. This was a battle between the kingdom¡¯s sorcery and the superpowers of the Central ins.


    Between the steam lotive and the ming Garudas, which was more powerful? An RPG was more powerful, of course.


    Wang Congyang, who had already evacuated from the main battlefield, turned around hoping to see how Ren Xiaosu would deal with the sorcerer n. However, he saw the other party taking out an RPG from somewhere and holding theuncher right out of the train window. Then he pulled the trigger for the Winston family¡¯s patriarch!


    Wang Congyang was shocked. What a fucking ruthless person!


    Theunched charge spun out with a long trail of smoke behind it. Meanwhile, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch recited a short incantation, and a circr me aura burst outwards with him at its center.


    The RPG exploded the moment it made contact with the me aura, the shockwave sending the surrounding Knights of the Hymn flying backwards.


    However, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch was not affected. He was protected by a thinyer of the me aura, which not even the shattered shrapnel could prate.


    Ren Xiaosu silently praised it. The sorcerers here were indeed quite skilled. It was no wonder they could trouble the Northwest in the past.


    It seemed like he had to be more cautious in the future. He could not always judge the sorcerers of the entire magus order based on Mel¡¯s strength.


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu allowed the Garudas to charge at the steam lotive freely.


    The white-masked Old Xu did not bother with these Garudas. Instead, it crouched slightly and sprang airborne from the front of the train at such a fast speed it looked like an apparition.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch instinctively looked up. The dark shadow above enshrouded his figure as Old Xu raised the ck saber and shed downwards.


    The protective me aura on the Winston family¡¯s patriarch suddenly cracked like an eggshell. In the face of the ck saber, nothing in the world could im it was imprable!


    In the blink of an eye, Ren Xiaosu dispelled the steam lotive as well. Using its inertia, he flew forward like a cannonball. Before hended, the nanomachines in his body formed into extremely powerful armor in the most visually stunning of ways.


    ¡­

 Chapter 1165 - Bloodline spell

    <h4>Chapter 1165: Bloodline spell</h4>


    Everything was kickstarted by the inertia of the steam lotive. It was like this for Old Xu¡¯s airborne jump, and it was also the same for Ren Xiaosu who broke through the Garudas¡¯ defense in his armor.


    Before the 16-car steam lotive crashed into the Winston Manor, it was eleration all the way for Ren Xiaosu. He kept elerating and elerating!


    He knew exactly how he should deal with sorcerers. All he needed to do was to close the distance between them, and he could¡­ kill them.


    On the final stretch of the charge into the Winston Manor, the steam lotive was traveling at a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu, using the train¡¯s inertia, pushed off from the front of the train at an even faster speed!


    On his train, Wang Congyang looked behind him and realized at this moment he was never Ren Xiaosu¡¯s primary target. The other party had pursued him so he could find out the whereabouts of the Winston family and use the huge chaos in the city to gather these sorcerers together.


    Wang Congyang understood the other party had not treated him as a serious opponent at all.


    Although it sounded very humiliating to say that, he actually felt a sense of relief!


    ¡°Good luck to all of you,¡± Wang Congyang said with a sigh at the Winston Manor as he gradually got further and further away. Ren Xiaosu had activated his armor, so it could be considered as resorting to his ultimate move.


    As a battle-hardened person himself, Wang Congyang knew full well how it would end for those fragile sorcerers if they allowed someone like Ren Xiaosu to get close to them.


    It might not be realistic to say all the sorcerers would get killed. After all, the Winston family still had some trump cards of their own. However, it would probably not be an issue to kill half of them.


    The ck saber in Old Xu¡¯s hand had already shed down at the Winston family¡¯s patriarch¡¯s head. Under the force of the ck saber, the defensive shield formed by the me aura started cracking with a honeb pattern and spreading inch by inch.


    But just as the ck saber was about to split the patriarch in half, his sorcerer¡¯s robe started burning.


    In an instant, a huge me enveloped the Winston family¡¯s patriarch. When the ck saber¡¯s de shed through the mes, it cut through air. There was nothing within the mes at all!


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu, who was wrapped in armor, had already arrived in front of Archmage Alston and threw a punch at him!


    Alston held his red Eye of True Sight and recited an incantation. A circr me aura simr to that of the Winston family¡¯s patriarch spread out, seemingly material.


    However, the moment thatyer of me aura collided with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s fist, a copious wave of fire erupted at the point of impact. Ren Xiaosu was fine, but the archmage in front of him was sent flying by the st.


    But just as Ren Xiaosu was about to follow up with a hit to finish him off, Alston¡¯s sorcerer¡¯s robe also started burning. After the mes dissipated, the spot where Alston should have been lying was empty.


    In the distance, two balls of mes started burning out of thin air. When the mes dissipated, the figures of the two archmages could be seen again.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. This was probably a unique skill the Winston family used to protect themselves from dying. It was the kind of skill not revealed to the rest of the world after it was discovered.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was a little curious about something. What was the principle behind this spell? Could it be that his opponents could keep using mes to take their ce in death? That would really take him some effort to ovee then.


    In the end, when Ren Xiaosu looked around, he was surprised to see two young sorcerers a short distance away bleeding from their orifices and dying. Their blood had formed a mysterious magic circle on the ground.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu realized the me Substitute spell was probably simr to the Tudor family¡¯s Bloodline Summoning spell. They were both cast through blood ties, and the caster would have to use one of their children as ¡°fuel¡± for the spell each time it was cast!


    Ren Xiaosu gasped. It was no wonder the sorcerer ns liked having so many children. So it turned out they could be of great use at critical moments.


    This Bloodline spell was very powerful, but it was just a great waste of sons.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if his ck medicine would sell well here since the sorcerers were getting on in years. There would definitely be times when they could not perform as well anymore.


    Of course, thinking about a sales strategy for the ck medicine at this moment was a little arrogant. Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu might as well take out the young sorcerers around them first.


    Since the archmages were using their sons as scapegoats, rather than going after them directly, wouldn¡¯t it be easier to kill their sons instead?


    However, the sorcerer ns really had quite a few youngsters. Ren Xiaosu wondered where he should start from.


    Ren Xiaosu was very calm in battle. Hisbat awareness far exceeded that of normal people. In just an instant, he knew who he should make his moves on first. Whoever had a higher grade of Eye of True Sight would get targeted first!


    When Old Xu and Ren Xiaosu rushed into the crowd, some members of the Knights of the Hymn rushed forward to protect the sorcerers. But without exception, their bones were all shattered by the collision.


    Without the protection of the archmages, Ren Xiaosu was like a wolf rushing into a herd of sheep. He did not give the junior sorcerers a chance to recite their incantations at all!


    In just a few seconds, Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu had already killed more than 30 young sorcerers and even stolen their Eyes of True Sight.


    It was slightly easier for Ren Xiaosu since he could put away the Eyes of True Sight in his storage space without any hassle.


    But it was different for Old Xu. It had to use the hem of its jacket to temporarily hold the Eyes of True Sight while shing at the enemy with its ck saber.


    Some of the junior sorcerers recited their incantations speedily while retreating. However, they suddenly realized these two enemies that came rushing at their Winston family were too ferocious. They did not even dodge at the sight of me Wall and barged right through it!


    Meanwhile, spells like Fireball, which were projectiles, all missed their targets.


    In the face of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s athleticism, the fragile sorcerers looked as though they were moving in slow motion.


    The three archmages who had gone a distance away to avoid the attacks immediately turned anxious. If these two monsters continued on with their ughter, the House of Winston might very well get wiped out.


    ¡°Sea of Fire!¡±


    Alston, Abel, and the patriarch of the House of Winston suddenly held each other¡¯s hands. Intense mes spread out from under their feet and quickly set the ground aze as though someone had poured gasoline on it.


    The buildings in the Winston Manor were instantly burned to ash, and the magnificent decorations were all gone in an instant.


    But they could not care so much anymore. If they did not risk everything tonight, the Winston family could cease to exist!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the sea of fire that wasing to surround him. Then heughed.


    To be honest, he really had no intention of wiping out the entire Winston family tonight. After all, he still needed the Winstons to work together with the Berkeleys for their expedition against the northern counties. That was supposed to be the main event.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice boomed through the armor, ¡°The House of Tudor already knows about your ambitions with the House of Berkeley. The patriarch asked me to send you his regards.¡±


    When his voice reverberated through the armor, it became exceptionally deep.


    Ren Xiaosu knew this was a very unbelievable statement to make and that the other party might not be convinced by it either. However, he was already used to doing things spontaneously anyway, and who knew if it might just prove useful somehow?

 Chapter 1166 - The walls collapse!

    <h4>Chapter 1166: The walls copse!</h4>


    When the patriarch of the Winston family heard what Ren Xiaosu said, his expression turned even darker. ¡°Burn him to death!¡±


    Sea of Fire was a ridiculously hot spell. When the heatwave hit him, Ren Xiaosu understood that this was probably the Winston family¡¯s trump card. He could not take the attack head on.


    It was no wonder Fortress 178 was bullied by this group of sorcerers before they rose to power in the Central ins. Frankly, the sorcerers¡¯ methods were indeed very ruthless and bizarre.


    Ren Xiaosu had a chuckle inside the armor. Themotion he had caused tonight was still not enough to dispel the House of Berkeley¡¯s determination to invade the northern counties. The approaching war woulde sooner orter. By then, he should already be waiting patiently in Ghent City for an opportunity.


    Tonight¡¯s battle was just to collect some interest payment on the blood debt owed to the 200,000-odd martyred spirits. He had not experienced a high-intensity battle like this in a long time, so it was a good opportunity to warm himself up.


    A momentter, the steam lotive he had just dispelled drove out of thin air again. The Winston family¡¯s patriarch said anxiously, ¡°Stop him! Don¡¯t let him get away before he is enveloped by Sea of Fire!¡±


    But his angry roar fell on deaf ears. The youth of the House of Winston were so frightened by Ren Xiaosu that no one dared to step up to stop him.


    It was not that the people of the Winston family were timid, but that they knew very well they couldn¡¯t stop the attackers based on their strength. In that case, there was no need to make any unnecessary sacrifices.


    Moreover, so what if they really managed to stop them? If those two ruthless people were to put up a desperate fight to the death, the archmages could still use them to take their ce in death. At that time, who could the younger generation go to reason with?


    Bloodline spells were not something they could simply learn even if they wanted to. The meditative visualization diagrams were generally only held by a few archmages.


    When the steam lotive arrived next to Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu, they grabbed hold of the train¡¯s metal handrail and went with it towards where Wang Congyang had disappeared.


    Just as the members of the Winston family thought Ren Xiaosu was leaving, Ren Xiaosu suddenly took out arge ck sniper rifle from somewhere and fired it casually across the fiery sea.


    The ear-piercing explosion startled the young sorcerers. Right after, they heard an exmation from Archmage Alstoning from the other end of the fiery sea. ¡°Abel! Abel, what¡¯s wrong?!¡±


    This shot was taken too quickly and suddenly. Archmage Abel did not even have time to use his Bloodline spell before he was dead!


    Ren Xiaosu was sure the other party still had to go through the process of reciting the incantation to use the Bloodline spell to find a scapegoat to die in his ce. It was an active skill, not a passive one!


    As long as it were not passive, it would be easy to deal with the archmages of the House of Winston if he encountered them again in the future.


    The archmages of the House of Winston had wanted to join forces to pursue Ren Xiaosu, but this shot had blown all of their ns awry.


    Ren Xiaosu did not try to use Shadow Door to get across the fiery sea to seize the opponent¡¯s Eye of True Sight this time. He still wanted to keep this ace hidden for other purposes.


    He had already gained a lot tonight. Ren Xiaosu put away the Eyes of True Sight Old Xu was carrying into his storage space. The number of stones in his possession almost exceeded 70, and one of them was even a red one, while the others were orange.


    On the Winston family¡¯s side, the raging sea of fire had burned the manor down to ruins. The Winston family¡¯s patriarch stood in the manor in a daze and looked quietly at the corpses of his family and the ruins around him.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch said, ¡°Fucking¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, another rumbling sound came from the west side. It sounded like something had copsed.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch roared, ¡°Hurry up and check what¡¯s going on. What are you all still standing there for?¡±


    When the Knights of the Hymn heard the order, they hurriedly mounted their warhorses and rushed west. About half an hourter, they returned to the ruined manor and panted out, ¡°Patriarch, the city walls were destroyed by that first steel monster that escaped!¡±


    ¡°I-It copsed?¡± The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was stunned. A city was a symbol of a n¡¯s authority. If the city walls were breached, they would get mocked by the other families.


    After all, if you could not even guard your own door, it just meant you were not strong enough.


    The chaos hade to an end. After being attacked in Winston City tonight, it was one thing for the n to suffer heavy casualties, but now that someone had also broken past their city walls and escaped, they would not even have the chance to seek revenge anymore.


    Themander of the Knights of the Hymn hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°We checked the area where the walls copsed and found that only the outer surface of the walls was made of brick. The rest of the insides were filled with sand, and there was even straw mixed within¡­.¡±


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch froze for a moment. Although they were not as rich as the House of Berkeley, they should have had more than enough money to construct the walls.


    Although the outer surface of the walls looked a little dpidated, the House of Winston had paid a lot of money to erect them. They even used the toughest materials in its construction.


    It was done this way because the Winston family¡¯s patriarch knew they would have a war with the northern counties sooner orter, so he didn¡¯t hold back on expenditures.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch¡¯s voice turned even grimmer. ¡°Which section of the walls is this?¡±


    ¡°The section built seven years ago,¡± the knightmander replied. ¡°The enemy who fled seemed to know there was a problem with this section of the walls, so they dared to charge right into it.¡±


    This was where the brilliance of Wang Congyangy. Ever since that guy arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, he concentrated on figuring out a lot of details from the sidelines first. For example, he found out from some of the fringe groups that certain parts of the city walls were shoddily built, so he decided to use them in his future retreat route.


    If it really came down to the critical moment, who would expect him to crash straight through the city walls to escape instead of going by the main entrance?


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch flew into a rage. ¡°Seven years ago? Daniel, get your ass over here!¡±


    ¡°Sir, Daniel is dead,¡± a sorcerer at the side replied.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was momentarily taken aback. Then he stood there numbly and did not say anything more. After a long silence, he said, ¡°Search the entire city. Although those two enemies have fled, the people whom they plotted with might still be around. Also, watch the north of our n¡¯s territory and see if any suspicious people appear, especially if they¡¯reing from Ghent City. If this matter were really orchestrated by the Tudors, they must still have a contingency n in the north. This might be the prelude to their expedition to the south.¡±


    The knightmander reminded him, ¡°Patriarch, do you think this was really done by the House of Tudor? That person might not be telling the truth.¡±


    ¡°Of course I know that. That¡¯s why I asked you to investigate.¡± The Winston family¡¯s patriarch said, ¡°Also, send a chronological writeup of everything that happened tonight to Vaduz City and hand it personally to the head of the House of Berkeley.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± The knightmander obeyed and left.


    News of what happened in Winston City was ryed by the spies of the various ns. There was no such thing as an absolute secret in the world. In just one night, news of someone causing a ruckus in the Winstons¡¯ territory spread.


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu did not manage to catch up to Wang Congyang. After leaving the Winston Manor, he chased after Wang Congyang in the direction he had escaped, leaving through the section of the copsed city walls.


    However, Wang Congyang had fled far away while Ren Xiaosu was busy dealing with the young sorcerers of the Winston family.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu scaled the walls and went back into the city to wait for the next storm to arrive.


    Actually, he had deliberately activated his armor many times tonight because he wanted the Northwest¡¯s intelligence agents to know their futuremander had arrived.


    But Ren Xiaosu was still a little worried. What if the sorcerers were not urate in their transmission of intel and the Northwest¡¯s spies did not realize that it was armor?


    Now that Wang Congyang had crashed right through the city walls, Ren Xiaosu felt relieved. Surely that signal was obvious enough, right?

 Chapter 1167 - The future commander appears!

    <h4>Chapter 1167: The futuremander appears!</h4>


    The top of the magnificent walls in Ghent City was empty. There were no patrolling guards nor any pping gs in the wind. The House of Norman and the House of Tudor had been fighting openly and covertly here for more than 80 years. For now, a careful truce was being maintained.


    Ghent City upied an extremelyrge area. There was a saying that if someone were to ride their horses in Ghent City, they wouldn¡¯t get out of the eastern district even after riding for seven days.


    This was undoubtedly an exaggeration, but it showed the capital city held an unparalleled status in the hearts of the Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ citizens.


    It represented dreams, ambition, and prosperity. This ce even had a sewage system that existed nowhere else in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, and the sewer mainlines were as wide as a bomb shelter. This made Ghent City never have to worry about heavy rainfall in the summer, which in turn made the entire city look much cleaner.


    In the hearts of the people, it seemed that all beautiful words suited the definition of the city. However, only those who had lived in Ghent City before would understand that this ce was actually not that special.


    That huge sewage system had given birth to arge number of ouws who relied on it to survive. Thergest underground casino in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers was situated inside it. Someone once made a scene in the sewers before, and even if a sorcerer were to enter this ce, they could not return alive.


    As for the veracity of this statement, it was never confirmed.


    In Ghent City, the House of Norman and the House of Tudor each upied half of the city, with the Normans in the east and the Tudors in the west.


    Under normal circumstances, the sorcerers from these two ns would not casually venture into each other¡¯s territory unless absolutely necessary.


    At this moment, in a huge manor in the northern part of the eastern district, hundreds of servants suddenly busied themselves even though it was just dawn.


    The sorcerers got up one by one after they were summoned by the patriarch. They came to a huge banquet hall in their pajamas and had a rapid discussion over a piece of information the patriarch had shared.


    The intel was transmitted through the mirror, and it was an extremely important piece of news.


    The servants remained silent as though they could not hear the sorcerers¡¯ discussion. If they wanted to earn a living in a n like that, they had to learn how to y deaf and dumb.


    The sorcerer ns might appear morous, and their sorcerers had a ssy air of gentlemanliness, but only the servants of the ns would know that most of these sorcerers had strange fetishes. Some of these fetishes were even exceptionally bloody and cruel.


    In the banquet hall, the words ¡°Winston City,¡± ¡°House of Berkeley,¡± and ¡°House of Tudor¡± were constantly being brought up.


    The sorcerers were sipping from transparent crystal sses filled with a scarlet-red wine.


    Amid themotion, a male servant cleared away some of the drained wine sses and walked towards the kitchen to send them for washing.


    He walked down the long hallway where ornate windowttices were iid with stained ss. It was past dawn, and the faint morning light outside shining through the colorful windows made it look exceptionally mysterious and eerie.


    When the other servants came over, he smiled and nodded at them before walking past them.


    When he arrived at the scullery, the male servant ced the sses into a stone sink. Then he quietly dipped a finger into some leftover wine and wrote something on a dry dishcloth.


    Very quickly, he ced the dishcloth into his arms and turned around to leave. When he passed by a chef, he secretly stuffed the dishcloth into the chef¡¯s pants pocket.


    All of this was carried out quietly, and the chef¡¯s expression did not change.


    After the male servant left, the chef excused himself from the huge kitchen on the pretense of needing to visit the water closet. He hid in the restroom and unfolded the dishcloth and saw the words: ¡°Winston City has copsed. Future Commander has appeared. Armor, steam lotive.¡±


    In just a dozen words, all of the meaningful information had been passed on.


    ¡­


    At the dpidated walls of Winston City, a huge breach was exposed in everyone¡¯s sight.


    In the ruins of the opening, the substandard sand and straw were an exceptional eyesore, and it was as though they were silently mocking the authority of the House of Winston.


    The person in charge of erecting this section of the walls was named Daniel, the 73rd son of the Winston family¡¯s patriarch.


    But now, Daniel had been added to the list of martyrs in the city. In another few days, there would be a ceremony dedicated to them at the entrance of Winston Cathedral.


    Although the sorcerers knew full well their prayers meant nothing, the residents firmly believed the people could reach the divine kingdom after the prayer ceremony.


    Sixty-two sorcerers of the House of Winston had died tonight, including Archmage Devonshire and Archmage Abel.


    This was an unprecedented disaster for the House of Winston.


    The loss of 61 Eyes of True Sight was the most devastating of all. Among the dead, other than Abel¡¯s red Eye of True Sight, even Devonshire¡¯s red Eye of True Sight was lost!


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch did not get any sleep at all. He angrily urged the Knights of the Hymn to go after the perpetrators and search for all evidence.


    At dawn, the Knights of the Hymn finally found some clues. Someone in a northern vige had seen a steel monster escaping northwards, likely towards Ghent City. But strangely, they only saw one steel monster while the other was nowhere to be seen.


    The ¡°steel monster¡± was the steam lotive.


    Everyone was aware it was not a living thing, but they did not know how else to describe it urately, so they just called it a steel monster.


    As for how this steel monster came to this ce, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch initially thought someone from the Central ins had driven it over. Butter, when he realized the enemy could actually summon and disperse it at will, he started to wonder if this was a new spell one of the ns had just discovered.


    But none of this could be verified yet.


    By noon, the sorcerers stationed in a northern town suddenly transmitted back another piece of news via sorcery. A suspicious person was spotted entering the Winston family¡¯s territory in the past two days. Through an informant, it was reported they suspected the person to be Kayle Jefferson William Kris Tudor of the House of Tudor. He also brought dozens of followers with him, and one of them was thought to be Gull, a diator who made a name for himself five years ago.


    When the patriarch of the House of Winston heard this news, he was shocked. That person was the third-inmand of the House of Tudor and had be a famous archmage over 20 years ago.


    Could it be a coincidence the other party had suddenlye to the Winston family¡¯s territory two to three days before the incident at the Winston Manor?


    No, it was definitely not a coincidence. The other party was probably the mastermind behind this farce, and the controller of the steel monster was likely heading north to join up with Archmage Kayle.


    After all, why would Archmage Kayle, a core figure of the House of Tudor, quietly leave Ghent City if there was nothing important to see to?!


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch trembled in anger. ¡°The House of Tudor has gone too far. Go and report this matter to the Berkeleys. The northern expedition must be brought forward. I want this person¡¯s head sacrificed to our crest!¡±


    Meanwhile, Archmage Kayle, who had been longing to personally deal with Melgor and Ren Xiaosu, was unaware he had provoked huge hatred from afar.


    Meanwhile, the perpetrator, Ren Xiaosu, had just woken up in his room at the ry station and was thinking about what to have for lunch.

 Chapter 1168 - Wanted: Wang Congyang

    <h4>Chapter 1168: Wanted: Wang Congyang</h4>


    After creating amotion in the middle of the night, Ren Xiaosu slept all the way until the afternoon.


    Having not fought any high-intensity battles in a long time, he felt a great sense of satisfaction after this warm-up. As such, he slept even more soundly.


    As for whether the Winston family¡¯s people could fall asleep, that was not his concern.


    But when Ren Xiaosu went out to the lower level of the ry station, he realized it was full of people.


    As the person in charge of the trade caravan, Qian Weining stood in the middle while other people surrounded him noisily and shouted, ¡°Vice President Qian, why are we suddenly not allowed to leave the city? What should we do with all the goods we brought?¡±


    Someone else next to Melgor said, ¡°Lord Melgor, why don¡¯t you try discussing with the Winston family as a fellow sorcerer and see if they might let us leave? If we get dyed for a day, it¡¯s an additional day of costs we have to bear. Feeding the horses and cattle requires money.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and saw a few hundred of Qian Weining¡¯s subordinates standing guard around the ry station. The ry station had been fully booked by the trade caravan led by Qian Weining and was no longer receiving other guests.


    Meanwhile, those crowding around Qian Weining and Melgor were the actual merchants in the caravan.


    No one knew what had happened in the city. Throughout the entire night, they only heard the chaotic sounds of structures copsing and the galloping of the Knights of the Hymn¡¯s horses in the streets. The entire caravan was now in a state of panic, and no one dared to hang around here any longer.


    Qian Weining tried to appease everyone by saying, ¡°I¡¯ve already sent someone to check out the situation. Winston City¡¯s gates have been shut since yesterday, so we can¡¯t leave now even if we wanted to. Everyone, please calm down. We¡¯ll discuss what to do after my people have investigated the situation.¡±


    Nearby, Melgor said, ¡°Mhm, we¡¯ll listen to Vice President Qian¡¯s arrangements for now.¡±


    When Chen Cheng and An¡¯an saw that Ren Xiaosu had woken up, they went up to him and asked in a whisper, ¡°Did youe back to the ry station directly after the banquetst night?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Yeah, Lord Melgor and I came back immediately. We didn¡¯t dare get involved either when we heard the chaos outside and went straight to sleep after we got back.¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an looked at Ren Xiaosu suspiciously. Sincest night, they had been discussing only one topic: Was Ren Xiaosu responsible for all that chaos?


    Chen Jingshu said it might not be him, but Chen Cheng and An¡¯an still felt that even if Ren Xiaosu was not responsible, it definitely had something to do with him.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the two of them and asked curiously, ¡°So what happened?¡±


    Chen Cheng and An¡¯an remained silent for a moment before saying, ¡°We don¡¯t know the exact details yet. We only know someone attacked the House of Winston. As for the rest, we¡¯ll have to wait for Qian Weining to find out.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu walked up to Melgor and asked in a low voice, ¡°What¡¯s for lunch?¡±


    Melgor was clearly taken aback. ¡°What¡¯s for lunch?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered matter-of-factly.


    Melgor pulled Ren Xiaosu aside unhappily and said in a suppressed voice, ¡°You¡¯re still in the mood to ask what¡¯s for lunch? Don¡¯t you know you¡¯ve turned the whole world upside down?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not that serious.¡± Ren Xiaosu assured him, ¡°Although it was a rather big racket, it¡¯s not as terrible as you might think.¡±


    Melgor said skeptically, ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah!¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    At this moment, the guard sent out by Qian Weining trotted back to the ry station. He stood in front of everyone and panted out, ¡°I¡¯ve roughly found out what happened and why the city gates are closed.¡±


    ¡°Hurry up and tell us,¡± Qian Weining urged.


    The guard hurriedly said, ¡°62 sorcerers of the House of Winston diedst night, including Archmage Devonshire and Archmage Abel. Not only did the murderers kill them, but they also stole 61 Eyes of True Sight, including a red one!¡±


    Melgor burped.


    When Melgor heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s assurance just now, he really thought the matter was not too serious. But when he heard the truth, he was so shocked he belched!


    How¡¯s that fucking not serious? You call a heinous crime in which 62 sorcerers were killed not serious?!


    If it weren¡¯t for the fear of giving themselves away, Melgor would have questioned Ren Xiaosu angrily on the spot.


    Fortunately, he managed to keep his cool and stopped himself from acting impulsively.


    Everyone looked over at Melgor when they heard the belch. ¡°Lord Melgor, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Nothing.¡± Melgor said, ¡°When I heard that so many of my fellow sorcerers had died so tragically, I couldn¡¯t help feeling a little sad!¡±


    Eager to know the truth, Qian Weining only nced at Melgor for a moment before turning back to the guard and urging, ¡°What else happened?¡±


    ¡°The Knights of the Hymn isn¡¯t too affected. The perpetrators were here for the sorcerers, so they didn¡¯t engage the knights much,¡± the guard said.


    ¡°Have they caught the perpetrators yet? Who is it?¡± Qian Weining asked.


    ¡°There were three perpetrators, but they didn¡¯t manage to catch them. One of the identified was Wang Congyang, who recently showed up at the ck market, while the other two remain unknown.¡± The guard said, ¡°Oh, right, the perpetrators used some kind of steel monster to break through the city walls and escapedst night.¡±


    The guard continued, ¡°But I heard Wang Congyang was likely just an aplice. Although he was the one who broke through the city walls, the sorcerers were all killed by the other two. Wang Congyang¡¯s role in the incident was just steering the steel monster, and his main attack method was spitting. He isn¡¯t strong at all. So the truly strong ones were the other two. By the way, I also brought back a wanted portrait of Wang Congyang.¡±


    After that, the guard took out a wanted portrait of Wang Congyang that looked like it had just been torn off a wall.


    Everyone stepped closer to have a look. In the portrait, Wang Congyang¡¯s facial features were proper. He had a high nose bridge, bushy eyebrows, and big eyes. If they had not heard about this man¡¯s story, no one would have thought the man could be such a vicious person.


    Ren Xiaosu also went over to have a look. After he did, he immediately thought the artist was really good at capturing Wang Congyang¡¯s likeness and characteristics urately.


    It was indeed Wang Congyang.


    But since the guard said there were three perpetrators, it seemed like the House of Winston had included Old Xu as well.


    Last night was an encounter battle between Wang Congyang and Ren Xiaosu.


    In his panic, Wang Congyang did not have anything to cover his face with. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was wearing a ck cloak throughout the battle, so no one could clearly see how he looked.


    In the end, Wang Congyang got a wanted poster drawn up while Ren Xiaosu got away scot-free.


    The trade caravan was in an uproar.


    The deaths of 62 sorcerers overnight was a major incident that shocked everyone in the entirety of the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Moreover, ording to the guard, there were only three perpetrators.


    The trio had massacred over 60 sorcerers even as they fended off the Knights of the Hymn? In the end, not only did the three of them escape totally unscathed, but they even crashed through the city walls and fled?!


    What the fuck?! Were they gods who descended from Heaven or what?


    ¡­

 Chapter 1169 - Scapegoat

    <h4>Chapter 1169: Scapegoat</h4>


    Before this, Melgor was somewhat aware Ren Xiaosu had been hiding his strength. However, he wasn¡¯t clear just how much he was hiding.


    One¡¯s imagination was limited by their horizons. As such, Melgor thought that even though Ren Xiaosu was hiding his strength, it shouldn¡¯t be by too much.


    But after this incident, Melgor thought he was mistaken. He was far, far mistaken.


    In the entirety of the ry station, he was the only one who really knew everything that happened.


    Ren Xiaosu was not in cahoots with that bothersome Wang Congyang at all. It should have been a spur-of-the-moment decision by his steward to create chaos while he was pursuing his enemy.


    Qian Weining looked at the caravan members and said with a sigh, ¡°I¡¯ll think of a way to speak with the House of Winston. But as you guys can see, too much has happened overnight. I¡¯m afraid that I, a lowly vice president of the York County Chamber of Commerce, can¡¯t handle it. So let¡¯s wait patiently here at the ry station and not rush the matter.¡±


    ¡°So how long do we have to wait?¡± someone said with a bitter expression.


    Qian Weining did not answer the question. To be honest, he was not sure either. This event was aplete surprise to him.


    But after some thought, Qian Weining still advised, ¡°The House of Winston will definitely be sending people to question those of us at the ry station soon. I hope everyone can cooperate when they arrive. Don¡¯t resist. We must believe our innocence will prevail.¡±


    After that, Qian Weining signaled to the guards to lock down the entire ry station before heading out by himself.


    Melgor dragged Ren Xiaosu back to the room. He even deliberately closed all the doors and windows before asking in a whisper, ¡°Were you responsible for all that?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu scattered more than 60 Eyes of True Sight noisily onto the table. ¡°Pick one. It¡¯s better than always having to use your white Eye of True Sight. Look, I collected so many of themst night, but not a single one of them is white. Speaking of which, you¡¯re really not doing great as a sorcerer.¡±


    Melgor could swear he had never seen so many Eyes of True Sight in his life before. Moreover, they were all ced so densely together in front of him!


    ......


    Looking at what was before him, Melgor trembled. ¡°D-Did you get all of thesest night?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°I obtained a white and an orange one from two bounty hunters. Remember that incident where you were attacked by the me Pir spell? I chased after one of them and killed him, then waited around to ambush the other one that arrivedter.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not mention this before because he did not want to reveal he had stolen some Eyes of True Sight. However, the truth ofst night¡¯s incident could not be hidden from Melgor anymore, so he simply confessed to everything.


    Melgor looked at the Eyes of True Sight on the table and hesitated for a long time. ¡°No, I can¡¯t ept it since I can¡¯t exin where I would have gotten it from.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d still be so clearheaded,¡± Ren Xiaosu praised as he put away all of the Eyes of True Sight into his storage space. ¡°I¡¯ll help you find an opportunity in the future to rece your Eye of True Sight. Don¡¯t worry, no one will care where you got it from at that time.¡±


    When Melgor heard this, his heart skipped a beat. Hearing that Ren Xiaosu was nning to continue his killing spree, he asked curiously, ¡°So were you serious when you said you wanted to destroy the Kingdom of Sorcerers?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but now, the strategy has changed,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    On the same afternoon, just as Qian Weining had expected, arge group of the Knights of the Hymn¡¯s troops came to conduct a search of the trade caravan¡¯s members and goods. The direction of their investigations was to find Wang Congyang.


    The Knights of the Hymn believed that even if they did not know what the other two perpetrators looked like, they could find them as long as they could locate Wang Congyang.


    However, they did not carry out the search seriously. After all, everyone knew the perpetrators had already broken through the city walls and left, so they would have to be crazy to return to Winston City during this period.


    Therefore, the key search areas were in the cities to the north.


    It seemed like Qian Weining had already found his liaison. After the Knights of the Hymn¡¯s troops arrived at the ry station, they searched through all the goods except for the oak barrels that contained the ¡°wine.¡±


    In the evening, the Knights of the Hymn quickly assembled all of a sudden in full armor.


    Half an hourter, a group of people left the city in a grandiose manner from the north gate. In the middle of the group, the House of Winston¡¯s patriarch was being protected, along with dozens of other sorcerers of the Winston family, including Archmage Alston.


    At first, many people thought the Winston family was nning to evacuate the city. Butter, everyone felt that something was off. Even if the Winston family were evacuating, they shouldn¡¯t be heading north, right? Their enemies were the House of Tudor and the House of Norman, both of which were located in the north.


    Therefore, no one knew what the purpose of the Winston family¡¯s patriarch personally leading the group was.


    After the group set off for the north, they continued marching through the night with no intention of resting. Everything was done with a sense of urgency.


    ¡­


    Sun City, located in the north and a suburb near Winston City, was one of the key cities of the House of Winston.


    At this moment, dozens of burly men dressed in light clothing were going about their day around a residential building. They were not doing anything specific and just discreetly keeping the building surrounded.


    Among them, there was an exceptionally muscr man with a dagger tied to his belt.


    No one could get close to this residential building. The moment someone passed nearby, they would immediately attract the attention of this group of men and get chased away.


    It was heavily rumored someone very, very important hade here.


    After sunset, a man came back from the market with arge quantity of cooked food.


    The burliest man walked up to him without saying a word. Then he drew the dagger from his belt and picked up a piece of meat. He brought it close to the mouth of the person returning from the market. ¡°Eat it.¡±


    The man who delivered the food over gobbled up the meat in one bite and chewed for a bit before swallowing. Ten minutester, when the burly man saw he was fine, he carried the food and walked towards the residence.


    He knocked lightly on the door. ¡°My lord, dinner is ready. The food¡¯s safe to eat.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, bring it in.¡± A booming voice came from inside. ¡°Are there any updates?¡±


    ¡°No. Based on the news I¡¯ve received, we only know someone plunged Winston City into chaos. But I¡¯m not too sure about the details yet,¡± the burly man responded.


    The person in the house was none other than Archmage Kayle Jefferson William Kris Tudor, who said he would personally deal with Ren Xiaosu.


    This man was a middle-aged man with a rosyplexion and graceful bearing. He instructed the burly man, ¡°Gull, keep a close watch on the surroundings. I¡¯m going to meditate after dinner.¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, intense shouting came from the vicinity of the residence.


    Archmage Kayle took out his gold Eye of True Sight and went outside. He frowned as he looked at the soldiers who hade to kill him and wondered why the Winston family would suddenly make a move on him.


    But someone suddenly shouted, ¡°Kayle has shown himself. This man ordered his subordinates tomit murder in Winston City, so we must execute him in Sun City today!¡±


    Kayle was clearly taken aback. ¡°¡­ What the fuck are you babbling about?!¡±


    ¡­

 Chapter 1170 - Swan song

    <h4>Chapter 1170: Swan song</h4>


    During the afternoon, Archmage Kayle of the Tudor family had received intel that Winston City was plunged into chaos by some people. Even part of the city walls had been smashed through by them, and dozens of sorcerers had died.


    When Archmage Kayle heard about this news, his immediate reaction was one of joy. First of all, this was definitely not their Tudor family¡¯s doing. After all, as the third-inmand of the Tudor family, the n would definitely keep him informed if there were such a ruthless n in ce.


    Therefore, Archmage Kayle spected if this might be the Norman family¡¯s doing.


    In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, it seemed that other than the Normans, no one else should be capable of pulling this off, right?


    However, Archmage Kayle was also skeptical about this spection. He felt that even the Normans might not be able to do it.


    He had beenpletely sucked into this matter as an audience member watching from the sidelines. However, just as he was enjoying the show, he suddenly became involved in it.


    When he heard the shouting outside the house earlier, he was still a little puzzled. Their Tudor family and the Winston family were indeed on bad terms. But he hade on a covert operation to kill Melgor, so even if the Winston family did discover his whereabouts, they shouldn¡¯t have such great determination to kill him, right?


    If something were to happen to him, it would be equivalent to provoking a war between the Tudors and the Winstons.


    ¡®<i>Have you Winstons thought it through before resorting to this? Have you reported your actions here to the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch?</i>¡®


    However, it was only at this moment that Archmage Kayle realized the Winston family had fucking pinned the me on him for the chaos!


    Archmage Kayle frowned as he looked around. ¡°What does what happened in Winston City have anything to do with me? Do you Winstons think you can go against us Tudors just because you have the Berkeleys¡¯ backing? This will be a futile attempt!¡±


    As a matter of fact, Archmage Kayle was used to being arrogant. In Ghent City, since he was ranked third in the Tudor family, he would be weed wherever he went. It had been a long time since a sorcerer from other than the House of Norman dared to challenge the honor of the Tudors.


    Archmage Kayle had never considered a house like the Winstons as a serious threat before. The Tudor family had given the Winston family a pounding on more than one asion.


    ......


    Therefore, Archmage Kayle was still very confident in himself at this moment.


    If this were the past, the House of Winston would probably not dare to do anything to him. But it was different now. More than 60 of their n¡¯s sorcerers had died overnight, and the Berkeley family was about to start a rebellion anyway, so the Winston family¡¯s patriarch was really enraged. They wanted to settle all the old and new grudges here today!


    In addition, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch also had his own ns. They had been fully overpowered in the battle overnight, so if they did not kill someone reputable as a sacrifice this time, they would probably get cast aside as useless trash by the House of Berkeley.


    If that happened, the Winston family would really get relegated in status.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch had to prove to the Berkeley family he was still a valuable ally.


    In an instant, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch and Archmage Alston joined forces and cast a spell, filling the sky full of golden Garudas. Those strange hawk-faced birds with human bodies dived down from the sky, leaving a scorching wave of fire behind them.


    Archmage Kayle¡¯s expression darkened. When the Garudas appeared, he realized he was probably going to die here today.


    Although Archmage Kayle was usually arrogant, he was also a very smart person. He shouted to Gull who was engaged in battle, ¡°You and I have a master and servant rtionship! I¡¯ve treated you well, and the House of Tudor has never mistreated you either. You don¡¯t have to protect me this time. It¡¯s my turn to protect you. After I die, the moment the Bloodline Summoning spell is activated and the patriarch gets here, you must inform him that the House of Berkeley has revolted!¡±


    If it wasn¡¯t for the backing of the Berkeleys, how would the Winstons dare to surround and kill him at this time?


    The diator, Gull, said anxiously, ¡°Lord Kayle, I¡¯m your steward. I can¡¯t hide behind your protection!¡±


    Archmage Kayle shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re surrounded by dozens of sorcerers from the House of Winston, and there¡¯s even two archmages. You might still be able to escape, but I definitely can¡¯t. Remember, you mustn¡¯t die before you see my father.¡±


    Gull teared up a little. ¡°I¡¯ll be sure not to!¡±


    ¡°For the glory of the Tudors!¡± Archmage Kayle shouted as he stared at Gull.


    Gull nodded vigorously. ¡°For the glory of the Tudors!¡±


    ¡­


    This battle in Sun Citysted until night. Huge explosions boomed nonstop as the golden Garudas flying in the sky glowed brilliant as fireworks.


    The Ice Rend spell, which was exclusive to the House of Tudor, turned 10% of Sun City into a cier. All of the Knights of the Hymn who did not manage to escape in time were turned into ice statues.


    Truly, Archmage Kayle was indeed very powerful. Including the Winston family¡¯s patriarch, dozens of sorcerers surrounded and attacked him together. In the end, they still fought for several hours before they finally killed him.


    Normally, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch¡¯s power should be on par with Archmage Kayle, and both of them also possessed a gold Eye of True Sight. But in the end, their battle was still stretched to such an extent. This only showed the House of Tudor really didmand their standing in the magus order.


    However, this was Archmage Kayle¡¯s swan song in life.


    After the death of Archmage Kayle, his father, the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch, used the Bloodline Summoning spell to descend upon Sun City and killed more than 30 junior sorcerers of the House of Winston with his Ice Rend spell.


    If the Winston family¡¯s patriarch and their archmages hadn¡¯t made a quick escape, they would probably have died there as well.


    After all, the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch was a terrifying figure whose portrait had been featured on their kingdom¡¯s gold coin for 40 years.


    The huge cier stretched across Sun City, and not even the hot and stuffy summer night could melt it quickly enough.


    The residents in the city felt like it was winter now, not summer.


    The entire city¡¯s residents were forced to dig out their winter clothing so they could feel a tinge of warmth.


    This was the power of the Bloodline Summoning spell. Its power did not depend on the caster but on the strength of the dead. A summoned sorcerer could unleash all of the dead¡¯s strength in an instant, making it a truly terrifying spell.


    Ren Xiaosu had met the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch when he killed the bounty hunter. However, that bounty hunter was so weak Old Xu shattered the ice sculpture with a single sh of its ck saber.


    Meanwhile, Archmage Kayle was a very powerful sorcerer, so the potential of the Bloodline Summoning spell waspletely fulfilled. It was equivalent to having an extra life that could be used to self-destruct and bring down the enemy together.


    After the battle ended, news of the Sun City incident immediately spread throughout the Kingdom of Sorcerers through various intelligence channels. Everyone suddenly understood that an all-out civil war was about to begin!


    That night, the nine counties controlled by the House of Tudor started gathering their troops. The main forces of the Knights of Tudor were assembled overnight and started pressing south.


    It was not only the House of Tudor. Even the House of Norman had started gathering their troops.


    ording to the agreement between the Normans and Tudors, they could fight each other openly and covertly. But the moment other enemies appeared, the two ns would have to team up to suppress any forces that dared challenge their authority. Only in this way could they ensure their status as the two top sorcerer ns.


    A lot of people would find it a little unbelievable that these two ns¡¯ could team up with their long feud. But in fact, human desire for power usually led to many peculiarities surfacing in the world.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch started leading his n in retreat back to Winston City. Initially, their n was to start the war against the top ns in Ghent City. But now that the war had been dered in advance, the main battlefield would probably get shifted south.

 Chapter 1171 - Impending reunion

    <h4>Chapter 1171: Impending reunion</h4>


    Although the Battle of Sun City shocked the Kingdom of Sorcerers, only Ren Xiaosu seemed unsurprised by it.


    The next morning, he led Melgor out to have fun together as though nothing had happened.


    Qian Weining said the Battle of Sun City was due to Archmage Kayle ordering a hit on Winston City, so the House of Winston sought to kill Kayle as revenge.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he knew it was fake news, because he was the one behind the chaos in Winston City. He knew full well no one had instigated him to do so.


    If there were really something that prompted Ren Xiaosu to cause that ruckus in Winston City, it would have to be the Eyes of True Sight owned by the House of Winston.


    ¡°Archmage Kayle died such a wrongful death.¡± On their way out, Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said to Melgor, ¡°I¡¯ll take a guess. That archmage was probably here to kill you, but he got attacked by the Winston family in the end. Don¡¯t you think his death was really unjust?¡±


    Melgor said anxiously, ¡°Can you keep your voice down?!¡±


    A tense atmosphere was hanging over Winston City. Sorcerers could frequently be seen heading in and out of the Winston Cathedral¡¯s entrance, and it seemed like there was an important discussion going on inside.


    Some of the residents had been temporarily conscripted and made to escort provisions, horses, and fodder gathered from the south, while others were sent to repair the city walls.


    It looked like the House of Winston wanted to reinforce the walls before the enemy arrived.


    While Ren Xiaosu was wandering around in the city, he was nearly recruited to join the troops as well. Fortunately, Melgor¡¯s special status as a sorcerer helped spare the walls of Winston City from any further damage.


    That was right. The fact Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t end up joining the troops was actually beneficial to the city walls. Although the House of Winston did not realize this, the logic was still sound.


    ¡°What¡¯s your intention for suddenly wanting toe out and shop? You nning something again?¡± Melgor asked in a low voice.


    ......


    ¡°It¡¯s just to shop, of course.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Qian Weining probably won¡¯t be leading the caravan north anymore. Just look at how happy he is today. That¡¯s why we have to buy nkets, food, and other stuff. We can start preparing for a long-term stay at the ry station.¡±


    After rumors of the Knights of Tudor heading south started spreading in Winston City today, Qian Weining became the happiest person.


    Without this incident, he would still have to continue leading the trade caravan north and risk his life with the Berkeley army to cause chaos in Ghent City. The oak barrels the trade caravan was transporting were all filled withbustible fuel.


    Sending him on a mission with a lone army like that was as good as a death sentence. The Houses of Tudor and Norman would not let him off for sure.


    But now that the battlefront had shifted southwards, it meant the trade caravan would not get to Ghent City!


    Although Ren Xiaosu did not understand the military affairs and terrain of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, it would only be a matter of time before the Houses of Tudor and Norman fought their way to Winston City judging by the tension floating around.


    ¡°I¡¯m really curious. What gives the Berkeley family the confidence to make a move against the Norman and the Tudor families?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered. ¡°You said the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch is also considered a genius among the Magi and made a name for himself in childhood. Moreover, the Berkeley family is also rtively powerful and can stand on equal footing with the top sorcerer ns. But to face two top sorcerer ns at once, does he think he can defeat them two against one?¡±


    Melgor thought for a moment and said, ¡°Maybe he has some kind of ace up his sleeve? Like something that can deal a fatal blow to the enemy directly?¡±


    ¡°Are you referring to me?¡± Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°But I¡¯m not on the Berkeleys¡¯ side.¡±


    Melgor wanted to tell Ren Xiaosu how shameless he was, but when he thought about how Ren Xiaosu had killed a few dozen of the Winston family¡¯s sorcerers in one night, he held back his sarcasm.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°If only P5092 and Wang Yun were here. A simple analysis by them would be equivalent to half a month of my considerations.¡±


    ¡°Who are P5092 and Wang Yun?¡± Melgor asked curiously.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°They¡¯re two people who can turn something rotten into something magical. You¡¯ll get to know them in the future. We¡¯re all on the same side!¡±


    Melgor felt extremely awkward when he heard the words ¡°on the same side.¡± It was like he had already defected to Fortress 178.


    However, after much thought, he could only admit it helplessly.


    Melgor asked in a low voice, ¡°What exactly are your ns? A war is about to break out here¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor. ¡°Do you think they¡¯ll panic if we wait until they start fighting here before heading straight to Ghent City?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ guess so,¡± Melgor answered after considering Ren Xiaosu¡¯s destructive power.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll help you find your childhood sweetheart first. You don¡¯t have to be afraid of the Tudor family. Things are about to change in the Kingdom of Sorcerers,¡± Ren Xiaosu said seriously.


    ¡­


    At the same time, further south of York County, a burly figure emerged from a military tent. As he stretched, he shouted, ¡°Zhou Qi! Wang Yun! P5092! Great Hoodwinker! Ji Zi¡¯ang! Wake up, wake up!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker snapped at him inside his tent, ¡°Fatty, why have you be so energetic after your training?¡±


    ¡°Since you¡¯ve already received info about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s whereabouts, aren¡¯t you anxious to join up with him?¡± Luo Lan retorted.


    Luo Lan and Zhou Qi had set off from the Qing Consortium. However, they met the Great Hoodwinker andpany in the Gobi and joined up with them.


    Although they were from different organizations, their current goal was the same: Find Ren Xiaosu, then follow him to destroy the Magi¡¯s base!


    In the past, Luo Lan¡¯s figure was a bloated one. Therefore, when the Great Hoodwinker and the others encountered him this time, they nearly couldn¡¯t recognize him.


    The Great Hoodwinker got out of his tent and started packing. ¡°Future Commander hasn¡¯t arrived at the capital of the nation of sorcerers yet. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll get there in time to meet him.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t sound so confident.¡± Nearby, Zhou Qi curled his lips and said, ¡°Don¡¯t you know your futuremander well enough? Wherever he goes, there¡¯ll be bodies strewn everywhere and trouble all around. You received intel yesterday he had appeared in Winston City. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he suddenly wiped out the entire House of Winston today!¡±


    ¡°Uh, it wouldn¡¯t be that ridiculous.¡± The Great Hoodwinker said, ¡°Our futuremander still knows his limits.¡±


    Zhou Qi nced at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Ask those poor souls of the Zhou Consortium in the Central ins and see what they think.¡±


    At this moment, P5092 came out of his tent and said calmly, ¡°Actually, I agree with Luo Lan¡¯s suggestion. We should hasten our journey.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Ji Zi¡¯ang looked at P5092. ¡°Will anything happen to the futuremander?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that.¡± P5092 shook his head and said, ¡°The Great Hoodwinker has already infiltrated the sorcerer ns with his people. Based on the information ryed by the intelligence agents, Future Commander¡¯sbat strength still puts him at the top of the pyramid in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Additionally, based on Future Commander¡¯s character, he probably won¡¯t die even if everyone in the Kingdom of Sorcerers has perished. But we still can¡¯t be careless. What Future Commander did to the Winston family is very likely to trigger a chain reaction. If we don¡¯t hurry, we might not be able to join in the fun¡­. I mean, we might not be able to give Future Commander support in time.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at P5092 in surprise. ¡°An emotionless militarymander such as yourself enjoys something like that too?¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and answered calmly, ¡°Sometimes.¡±


    ¡­

 Chapter 1172 - New incantation: Prosperous Northwest!

    <h4>Chapter 1172: New incantation: Prosperous Northwest! </h4>


    When Ren Xiaosu and Melgor returned from their shopping, Qian Weining was sitting in the lobby of the ry station, humming about how it was a great day today and having a little drink.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was even more sure the trade caravan would not continue heading north anymore. Otherwise, Qian Weining would definitely not be drinking.


    He had observed that no matter how cheerful the atmosphere was whenever they stopped to set up camp, Qian Weining would not touch a single drop of alcohol. After all, how could a soldier drink while they were on a mission?


    Now that he no longer had to lead hisrades to their deaths, he was in high spirits.


    Moreover, when Qian Weining saw Melgor, he no longer thought about trying to get rid of that jinx. Instead, he greeted him enthusiastically and even invited Ren Xiaosu to join him for a drink.


    Qian Weining did not dare to invite Melgor due to the difference in their statuses. As a knight, he was not qualified to dine at the same table as a sorcerer.


    If he did that and got discovered, he would get reported to the higher-ups and be punished. This was where it could be seen that a strict hierarchy existed in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Of course, Ren Xiaosu would not drink with Qian Weining for no reason. He knew he had to keep a clear head at all times. If there came a day where he could drink freely, it would be when Yang Xiaojin and the others were protecting him by his side.


    ¡°Eh, Ren Xiaosu, you went shopping for so many things?¡± Qian Weining asked curiously, ¡°You even bought nkets?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll be staying here for quite a while, y¡¯know. The nkets at the ry station have a few holes in them. They¡¯re way too shabby,¡± Ren Xiaosu replied happily.


    Not only did he buy nkets, but he also bought some rat poison. Otherwise, he would constantly hear the sound of rats crawling around in the ceiling during the night.


    Melgor followed Ren Xiaosu into his room. He hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Are you in possession of the third ck Eye of True Sight?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor and said, ¡°Since you¡¯ve already guessed it, I don¡¯t really have to hide it anymore. On the day White Mask appeared and you and the servants were trapped by the Liquefy Ground spell, that was not a sneak attack. I just fired off a spell identally. Besides, White Mask has never sought to harm you. I purely used it to get the attention off me.¡±


    ......


    Ren Xiaosu felt that there was a need to exin this so that Melgor would not have to worry every time he saw White Mask.


    Melgor asked, ¡°Even if Liquefy Ground is only an elementary spell, you still hadn¡¯t mastered thenguage of the Magi at that time, right? So how did you cast it?¡±


    ¡°I randomly blurted out an incantation.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Maybe it just sounded correct.¡±


    Melgor did not believe Ren Xiaosu¡¯s answer at all, but he did not know how to refute it.


    ¡°Can you let me have a look at the ck Eye of True Sight?¡± Melgor asked.


    ¡°Here.¡± Ren Xiaosu casually took out the ck Eye of True Sight from his storage space and handed it to Melgor. ¡°I¡¯ve looked into it. The ck Eye of True Sight can indeed increase the power of spells greatly. For example, using it directly saves you from having to practice casting a spell a 1,000 times.¡±


    Melgor held the ck Eye of True Sight in his hand and remained speechless for a while. After a long time, he said in surprise, ¡°Do you know how precious this thing is?¡±


    ¡°I do,¡± Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly.


    ¡°Then by handing it directly to me, aren¡¯t you afraid I¡¯ll steal it from you?¡± Melgor said in shock.


    ¡°You¡¯re speaking like you can steal it from me.¡± Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Alright, don¡¯t overthink things.¡±


    Melgor pushed the Eye of True Sight back into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands. ¡°You¡¯d better keep it safe yourself. Anyway, since you already have an Eye of True Sight, you should work hard and learn thenguage of the Magi from me. That way, you¡¯ll be able to be a true sorcerer sooner.¡±


    These words reminded Ren Xiaosu it was time to continue exploring the Chinese incantations for casting spells.


    Although he now had another spell called ¡°I Wish You Happiness,¡± he couldn¡¯t possibly spend all 90,000 Proficiency Stones on it, right?


    What effect would 90,000 Proficiency Stones have on ¡°I Wish You Happiness¡±? Maybe it could make tens of thousands of people cry together at once, or it could make them cry to death? It was very exciting to think about it, but that would be really strange.


    The spell Ren Xiaosu was looking for had to be stronger than this. At the very least, it would have to be a spell worthy of the Northwest¡¯s futuremander. It should be a more proper spell.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Melgor, ¡°You must be tired. Why don¡¯t you go back to your room and get some rest first? I won¡¯t be learning thenguage of the Magi for now. We¡¯ll talk about that when I have free time.¡±


    After that, he pushed Melgor out.


    Melgor stood outside the room in a daze and looked at the shut door. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to learn thenguage of the Magi, so be it. Why did you have to chase me away?!¡±


    This left Melgor a little puzzled. Ren Xiaosu clearly had an Eye of True Sight already, so why was he unwilling to learn thenguage of the Magi? Could it be that he did not want to be a sorcerer?


    While he was pondering, the two sheeple came over holding their notebooks to ask him questions about thenguage of the Magi. Melgor could not help but sigh. Those who had an Eye of True Sight were not in a hurry to learn, but these two who did not have an Eye of True Sight were especially enthusiastic about learning.


    Inside the room, Ren Xiaosu held the ck Eye of True Sight in his hand and thought silently, ¡®<i>What incantation should I try this time?</i>¡®


    The incantations he wanted to try for this round would have to carry some special significance. This was so that, when he recited them in front of his subordinates, he could still sound very imposing!


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu probed, ¡°Prosperous Northwest?¡±


    In an instant, the violet sigil on the ck Eye of True Sight suddenly pulsed. Ren Xiaosu felt like he was linked to it, and even his breathing was at the same frequency.


    A hint of starlight appeared in front of Ren Xiaosu, spinning rapidly in the shape of a ring like a doorway that stood in front of him.


    The circr ring was growingrger, and the starlight around it spun faster and faster. Ren Xiaosu looked over in surprise and saw that there really seemed to be a dimensional portal behind it. Through the ¡°door,¡± he saw that the other side no longer resembled his room at the ry station. Instead, it looked like a deste ce.


    A secondter, a thunderous roar abruptly came through the doorway. Immediately after, a heatwave burst out, and the damp room in the ry station suddenly became extremely arid.


    In the blink of an eye, the entire room was filled with a freshness that reminded him of damp linens line-dried in the sun.


    Due to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s seemingck of practice of this spell, the ¡°ster gate¡± stopped expanding when it reached about half a meter in diameter. Then it poofed back into starlight and dissipated.


    The ster gate copsed.


    Ren Xiaosu examined himself. The heatwave did not hurt him at all, and his clothes did not look like they had been burnt either.


    For some reason, there was no tinge of fear in him. Ren Xiaosu even felt he had heard a hint of joy in the roar of the strange creature behind the ster gate.


    There was no reason for him to feel this way, but Ren Xiaosu was very sure of it.


    ¡°What kind of sorcery is this? It¡¯s so bizarre.¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°Why haven¡¯t Ie across this spell in the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?before?¡±

 Chapter 1173 - Hamstrung

    <h4>Chapter 1173: Hamstrung</h4>


    First of all, no matter what was behind that ster gate, Ren Xiaosu was extremely intrigued by the Prosperous Northwest spell.


    After all, the words ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± themselves already carried extraordinary significance!


    The roar from earlier had rmed the entire ry station. Qian Weining, who was drunk, was suddenly jolted awake. ¡°What was that sound just now?¡±


    The guards were also puzzled. ¡°I think it came from Lord Melgor¡¯s room. But we could only determine the direction of the sound, not which room it came from.¡±


    ¡°Hurry up and go see what¡¯s going on.¡± Qian Weining urged, ¡°Bring your swords and be careful!¡±


    More than a dozen guards quietly ced their hands on the hilts of their broadswords and quietly went deeper inside the ry station. All of a sudden, Melgor¡¯s door swung open. He said to the guards, ¡°I was performing an alchemy experiment just now. Return to your rooms and don¡¯t disturb me.¡±


    Upon hearing that, the guards said, ¡°Oh, Lord Melgor, please carry on then. We¡¯ll take our leave now.¡±


    Things like alchemy were extremely mysterious to ordinary folk, so no one could tell whether it was true or not when alchemy was used as an excuse to cover up a secret.


    Melgor looked at the departing guards and heaved a sigh of relief. Although he looked very calm on the surface, he was actually extremely flustered!


    He hurriedly went over and knocked on Ren Xiaosu¡¯s door. Then he lowered his voice and said, ¡°What on earth are you doing?!¡±


    As Qian Weining and his men¡¯s rooms were farther away, they were not sure which room the roar came from. But Melgor was right next door, so how could he not know?


    Ren Xiaosu opened the door and let Melgor in. He bluntly said, ¡°Let me ask you something. Are there any spells that aren¡¯t recorded in the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a lot.¡± Melgor said, ¡°The?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?had been edited many times, so a lot of the spells that were n-exclusive were removed. I heard that before they were edited out, the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?was twice as thick as it is now. For example, there used to be dozens of bloodline spells listed in the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>. There was the Bloodline Summoning spell, and even spells that could allow a son to inherit their father¡¯s inner world of meditation. Butter, all the bloodline spells were edited out by the sixth edition. It seems that the top sorcerer ns don¡¯t want others to know their secrets too well.¡±


    ......


    ¡°Something like that happened?¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°No wonder y¡¯all said that the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?has no reference value.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, if it were theplete and unedited?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>, someone could probably sell it for a million gold coins, and there would still be sorcerers willing to buy it.¡± Melgor said, ¡°It would be priceless.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a pity that the?<i>Introduction to Sorcery</i>?that Russell spent so much effort writing in hister years has gone to waste like that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Then let me ask you something else. Have you ever heard of a spell that can open a dimensional portal?¡±


    Melgor was stunned. He looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°You opened a dimensional portal just now? You don¡¯t even know thenguage of the Magi. How did you cast the spell? A word of advice: You had better not test out spells by randomly pronouncing incantations. What if it turns out to be a spell that sacrifices yourself to cast?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s even self-sacrifice spells?¡± Ren Xiaosu was shocked.


    ¡°Of course there are.¡± Melgor said, ¡°It¡¯s mentioned in?<i>The Sorcerer Chronicles</i>?that there was a sorcerer from a small n who tried discovering spells for himself because he couldn¡¯t obtain the high-level spells. In the end, he immted himself.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself that this was simr to the legend of Shennong tasting a hundred herbs. It was just that?Shennong<sup>1</sup>?did not die but the sorcerer did.


    He described to Melgor, ¡°I tried casting a spell just now. After I was done reciting the incantation, starlight immediately appeared, and a small doorway of about half a meter in diameter opened up in front of me. Behind it was a wastnd, and the ground was covered in ck scorch marks. That roar also came from behind the door.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Melgor said, ¡°In fact, I¡¯ve heard of the spell you¡¯ve just described¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°What spell is it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a summoning spell.¡± Melgor said firmly, ¡°It¡¯s not important what¡¯s behind the door, but it¡¯s easy to determine based on the characteristics of a ster gate appearing. It¡¯s a summoning spell!¡±


    ¡°A summoning spell? The kind that can summon extremely powerful creatures from another realm?¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up.


    But Melgorughed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t let your imagination run wild. This is a spell widely recognized as useless among the Magi.¡±


    ¡°It looks very powerful, though, so why call it useless?¡± Ren Xiaosu could not understand.


    ¡°Summoning spells might sound very powerful, but it can¡¯t summon monsters from other worlds.¡± Melgor exined, ¡°In fact, since the development of sorcery, no one has ever opened any dimensional portal to other realms. At most, there¡¯s portals to travel from one ce to another within this world. There¡¯s no such thing as other realms.¡±


    Melgor continued, ¡°At the beginning, when the magus order discovered the summoning spell, a lot of people reacted as ecstatically as you. Butter, they realized the things they summoned were basically just sheep, cows, and rabbits. A more powerful archmage might be able to summon more ferocious beasts like lions, tigers, warhorses, brown bears, and so on. But think about it. What are these ordinary beasts in the face of powerful spells?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought about it carefully and realized it did seem to make sense. For a sorcerer who could freeze an entire city, why would he feel threatened by tigers or lions? He only needed to raise an arm and kill them with a spell.


    From the look of things, the summoning spell was indeed a little hamstrung.


    Ren Xiaosu was rather indignant. ¡°Then if I practice the spell more times, can I summon stronger creatures?¡±


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Melgor said, ¡°It can only summonrger creatures. What¡¯s awkward is that therger creatures are mostly ocean dwelling. An archmage once practiced the spell for more than a decade and summoned a killer whale, but the creature died not long after it was dropped onto the ground. That was before The Cataclysm, and the incident was recorded in some books about anecdotes of the Magi. Later, summoning spells became ranked as one of the top ten most useless spells. When everyone heard about it, they just treated it as amusing chatter. No one would want to practice it.¡±


    Melgor said, ¡°Think about it. For a sorcerer to spend over a decade specializing in such a spell just to summon a killer whale, how useless is that? So who would want to spend all those years taking a path that leads nowhere?¡±


    If all it took was spending money to improve the level of their sorcery, many sorcerers would probably still be willing to try learning the spell. But if it meant spending their youth to perfect it, no one would be willing to take such a risk.


    The summoning spell had been abandoned by all sorcerers. In fact, no one could even find the corresponding incantations and meditative visualization diagrams for it anymore.


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. He could not ept the fact that the corresponding spell of ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± was so useless. Clearly, these words had unparalleled significance to them.


    And most importantly, there might be no point in summoning creatures before The Cataclysm. But what about after The Cataclysm? He had seen gigantic six-meter-tall bears with his own eyes!


    When he recalled the roar he heard through the ster gate, it sounded so strong and alluring. Ren Xiaosu suddenly had the urge to use all of his Proficiency Stones on the ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± spell.

 Chapter 1174: Simple, practical spell

    <h4>Chapter 1174: Simple, practical spell</h4>


    Sorcerers regarded the summoning spell as a hamstrung spell because they were unable to summon creatures thatplemented their strength.


    After The Cataclysm, as the Kingdom of Sorcerers was situated in a "low contamination" area, the flora and fauna did not go through too much of a change.


    Unlike the Central ins and the barbarians'' region where the expeditionary army resided, the mutations in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were much less frequent.


    Ren Xiaosu and Melgor grew up inpletely different environments. Melgor had nevere across any terrifying creatures, but Ren Xiaosu had.


    There was no need for the discovery of another realm. Ren Xiaosu believed that terrifying creatures already existed in the world.


    However, this was not a good time to summon them.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and suddenly turned his gaze to Melgor. "Come, I''ll teach you an incantation. Give this spell a try."


    "Wait!" Melgor wondered, "You want to teach me an incantation? You don''t even know thenguage of the Magi, so how are you going to teach me?"


    "Alright, there''s no need to hide it from you anymore." Ren Xiaosu patiently exined, "Look, in sorcery, the Magi''s tongue is just a code to activate one''s inner spiritual world. The world is fair, so there''s no reason why the Magi''s tongue can be used as code, but not Chinese¡­."


    Melgor was shocked right there and then. "Are you saying we can cast spells in Chinese too?"


    The Eye of True Sight was always in the Magi''s possession, so there were hardly any Central ins people who had the opportunity to try casting spells in Chinese.


    On the other hand, the sorcerers themselves had decreed the Magi''s tongue as thenguage of the gods and stated that spells were to be cast using it. In that case, all the more they wouldn''t try out such sphemous methods for no reason.


    However, Melgor knew full well there used to be an archmage who hailed from the Central ins. Although it was only one person, the other party should have tried casting spells in Chinese, right?


    Then why had he never heard of anyone using Chinese incantations before?


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, "Don''t try to bluff me. Can you really use Chinese to cast spells?"


    "Of course." Ren Xiaosu replied casually, "Don''t worry, I''ve already tried it. ''Haiya'' is the incantation for opening up a deep pit, ''May You Be Prosperous'' is the incantation for the Liquefy Ground spell, and ''I Wish You Happiness'' is the incantation for making people cry."


    Melgor remained surprised for quite a while. "Why do these incantations all sound so polite?"


    Melgor roughly understood why other people had not managed to discover Chinese incantations. What normal person would be bored enough to use these polite phrases to cast spells?!


    He turned his gaze to Ren Xiaosu. By the same logic, anyone who could discover such incantations would not be a normal person either, right?


    "Perhaps we Central ins people are more hospitable," Ren Xiaosu remarked. "Hurry up and cast the summoning spell with the incantation."


    Melgor immediately said in panic, "Why? I don''t want to practice summoning spells!"


    "I''m not asking you to practice it." Ren Xiaosu snapped, "You only need to recite the incantation."


    "But I''ve never practiced summoning spells before. I have to practice a spell a thousand times before I can sessfully cast it," Melgor said.


    "Here, you can cast the spell with the ck Eye of True Sight." Ren Xiaosu stuffed the stone into Melgor''s hands. "Stop looking f


    or excuses, or I''m gonna beat you up."


    When Melgor heard that, he hurriedly asked, "What''s the incantation?"


    "Prosperous Northwest!" Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness.


    Melgor also knew Chinese, so he did not have to be taught a second time. He held the ck Eye of True Sight in his hand and chanted softly, "Prosperous Northwest!"


    However, Melgor was a little curious. What did "Prosperous Northwest" mean?


    .


    Next to him, Ren Xiaosu chuckled, "You pronounced these words very fluently. It''s obvious that you''re a suitable candidate for the Prosperous Northwest."


    With that, Melgor more or less figured out the meaning of "Prosperous Northwest."


    A ster gate opened slightly in front of the two of them. Behind the revolving circle of astral particles was an apparently green grasnd.


    Melgor could feel the appeal of the ck Eye of True Sight. So it turned out he could really cast spells just by holding this stone!


    He looked at the dazzling ster gate. Actually, he was quite looking forward to it. He wondered what kind of powerful creature he could summon.


    "Baa!"


    A goat suddenly jumped out through thepact ster gate and charged towards Melgor. If not for Ren Xiaosu''s quick reaction, the goat would have rammed his balls with its horns!


    Melgor grimaced in pain as he fell backwards and sat heavily on the ground. "Why did I end up summoning a goat?"


    As soon as he finished speaking, Melgor saw Ren Xiaosu breaking the goat''s neck by wringing it. He was shocked. "What are you doing? I summoned that goat."


    Ren Xiaosu gave him a strange look and said, "Yeah, I wanted you to summon lunch."


    "Summon¡­ lunch?" Melgor said with difficulty.


    "Yeah. If not, what else can you summon?" Ren Xiaosu said matter-of-factly. "At your level, you can only summon pheasants, goats, rabbits, and so on. It''s not like they can be used for battle, so of course it''ll be used for lunch."


    Melgor looked at his summoned animal helplessly. No matter what, he had spent his mental strength to summon it, so there were some expectations and feelings for it. How could they kill it so easily?


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu said bluntly, "Speaking of which, you people from the Kingdom of Sorcerers actually allowed this spell to be lost? Isn''t eating other people''s food good?"


    "Who would use sorcery as a way to summon food like you?" Melgor scoffed. "Sorcery is an esteemed art, alright?"


    "You''ve read historical records too. In the early days of The Cataclysm, everyone could barely get anything to eat. Some people even had to eat soil, grass, and tree roots too. If only a sorcerer had mastered the summoning spell! Everyone would not have had to go through such a difficult time!" Ren Xiaosu scorned.


    When Melgor heard that, he thought it was quite true. Although a majority of animals had died back then, a portion of them would still have managed to escape death.


    And now, Ren Xiaosu had turned esteemed sorcery into a life hack. Melgor thought that he should reprimand him, but he somehow felt that Ren Xiaosu was in the right.


    Melgor suddenly felt that the longer he spent with Ren Xiaosu, the more "down to earth" he might be.


    Ren Xiaosu waved him over. "C''mon, try to cast the spell again."


    "OK." Melgor got up from the ground. Holding the ck Eye of True Sight, he recited the incantation, "Summon lunch!"


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised. "Bro, the incantation''s ''Prosperous Northwest''!" &nbs


    p;


    "Sorry, I fumbled it. Alright, here it goes again!" Melgor recited, "Prosperous Northwest!"


    The ster gate appeared again. This time, a colorful pheasant flew out and headed straight for Melgor''s head!


    Ren Xiaosu quickly caught the pheasant with his hand. He asked Melgor, "How much mental strength did you have to expend to cast this spell once?"


    "About 25%." Melgor said.


    "That''ll be enough for three meals a day¡­. C''mon, cast it again," Ren Xiaosu said.


    Melgor wondered, "Why do I get the feeling that you''re using me as an experiment?"


    "Quitining!"

 Chapter 1175 - Experimentation with the summoning spell

    <h4>Chapter 1175: Experimentation with the summoning spell</h4> <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge </h4>


    ¡°Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    This time, Ren Xiaosu saw the ster gate appear next to him before a suction force tried to suck the pheasant away.


    This suction force was not physics-based but an inexplicable kind of power.


    However, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength was much greater. As a result, the suction from the ster gate could not pull anything in even after a long time. All that got sucked in were some feathers.


    The events left Melgor dumbfounded. He had not expected something like that. But he was very sure now that Ren Xiaosu was using him as an experiment.


    Ren Xiaosu said analytically, ¡°There are a few traits to this summoning spell. Let me exin them to you. First of all, the size of the ster gate should be directly rted to the number of times the spell is practiced. Otherwise, the ster gates that we opened wouldn¡¯t be of the same size. If it¡¯s rted to mental strength and you¡¯re able to open a ster gate half a meter in diameter, I should be able to open one that¡¯s a hundred meters wide.¡±


    Melgor felt helpless for a long time. ¡°Is there really such a huge difference between us? Can you please just state the conclusion directly? You don¡¯t have to tell me your analysis¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded and continued analyzing, ¡°If the summoned creature does not die, it will get summoned again each time the spell is cast. I killed the goat, so you summoned a pheasant the second time you activated the ster gate. But if I don¡¯t kill the pheasant, you¡¯ll still summon this same pheasant on your third spell.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, that makes sense.¡± Melgor nodded. Honestly, he really admired Ren Xiaosu for being able toprehend several of the new spell¡¯s traits so quickly.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°There¡¯s also a third and most important point, which is that the summoned creature and the caster do not have a master-servant rtionship. This is also the most useless trait of the summoning spell. Since the goat and the pheasant attacked you, we can pretty much conclude that. By the way, did you feel any connection between yourself and the summoned creature?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Melgor shook his head.


    ¡°That¡¯s right then.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°But it felt a little different for me.¡±


    When he activated the dimensional portal, Ren Xiaosu somehow felt a sense of closeness with the monster on the opposite side even though it was roaring. Moreover, there was an inexplicable familiarity exuding from it.


    On this point, it was a different feeling from Melgor¡¯s.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was afraid to practice the summoning spell casually, because he still couldn¡¯t confirm what was on the opposite end of the ster gate.


    He also did not know what kinds of consequences there would be if he actually summoned the creature.


    At this moment, Qian Weining and his men were quietly hiding in the corridor of the ry station and eavesdropping. They did not dare to stand too close and kept a distance of about ten meters away from the door.


    Earlier, Qian Weining was quite sure he heard the roar of a monster. Perhaps the guards could be fooled by Melgor, but he was much more knowledgeable and knew what alchemy was.


    ¡°Sir, are you saying there¡¯s a monster in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room?¡± a guard asked.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Qian Weining answered seriously, ¡°How could I have heard wrong if the roar could even wake me up from my drunken stupor? I¡¯m just not sure what¡¯s inside his room. I¡¯ve investigated Lord Melgor before and found out he¡¯s terrible at alchemy, so what alchemy experiments could he be doing in his room? Look, he went straight to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room aftering out of his own room, so I guess he lied to you all just now. Actually, that sound hade from Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯s a monster.¡± A guard said nervously, ¡°What should we do?¡±


    ¡°Grab your weapons and be careful. If anything rushes out, kill it without mercy,¡± Qian Weining said.


    The door to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s room swung open. Qian Weining and his men saw him running straight for the ry station¡¯s kitchen with a goat in his left hand and a pheasant in his right hand.


    After some time, the aroma of pheasant soup wafted over.


    A guard hesitated for a moment. ¡°Sir, was that the monster you mentioned?


    Qian Weining loosened his grip on his broadsword. ¡°Haha, I was just joking with you guys. I didn¡¯t expect to be taken seriously!¡±


    ¡°But when Lord Melgor and Ren Xiaosu came back just now, they didn¡¯t have the goat or pheasant with them,¡± a guard wondered.


    Qian Weining stared intently at Ren Xiaosu and Melgor¡¯s rooms, thinking about something.


    ¡­


    On the afternoon of the seventh day since the Battle of Sun City, Winston City¡¯s gate suddenly opened. Guards were carrying rolls of red carpet andying them at the entrance, extending all the way to the Winston Cathedral.


    Arge formation of knights were standing at attention outside the city. Hundreds of soldiers in the foremost row were holding scarlet gs that were fluttering in the wind. The gs were embroidered with the lion emblem of the House of Berkeley.


    At the front of the formation, a middle-aged man rode forward slowly on a white horse while knights in heavy silver armor followed him.


    The middle-aged man said calmly, ¡°Guards Brigade, follow me into the city. The rest of you, remain outside and wait for further instructions.¡±


    ¡°Yes, My Lord!¡± The uniform echoing at the rear was so resounding it rattled many of the Winston City residents.


    This was the kind of excellence elite knights should exude in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Over the past 100 years or so, the reputation of the Knights of the Inferno had always been among the top three.


    As the middle-aged man rode his horse down the red carpet, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch got down on one knee at the entrance. ¡°Wee, Patriarch.¡±


    The middle-aged man turned out to be the current head of the House of Berkeley. Meanwhile, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch no longer pretended as he became totally subservient to the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch. From this, it could be seen that the rumors of the House of Winston joining the Berkeley family was not just baseless spection.


    This Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was different from the sorcerers Ren Xiaosu had previously encountered. He was wearing armor and had a broadsword slung from his waist. He was clearly dressed as a warrior and looked extremely chivalrous.


    ¡°Rise.¡± The middle-aged man said slowly, ¡°Have the walls been repaired?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± the Winston family¡¯s patriarch said in embarrassment after he got up.


    ¡°How disgraceful,¡± the middle-aged man sneered. ¡°But your boldness in surrounding and killing Kayle has truly made me see you in a different light. Get on your horse and follow me for a meeting.¡±


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was delighted. He knew he had made the right decision by taking the risk to kill Archmage Kayle.


    With a great war imminent, the House of Berkeley would no longer condone spineless people. The Winston family¡¯s patriarch had to decisively pledge his allegiance to the Berkeley family. Otherwise, he would end up offending both sides.


    Now that Archmage Kayle¡¯s head had been taken as a sacrifice to their g, the House of Winston was tied to the House of Berkeley as they executed their war ns.


    The middle-aged man riding on the horse suddenly chuckled as though he had thought of something funny.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch asked cautiously, ¡°Patriarch, why are youughing?¡±


    ¡°That Kayle was really unlucky.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch shook his head and said, ¡°Actually, he came to the south to kill a sorcerer named Melgor and had nothing to do with the chaos in Winston City. But you did the right thing by killing him. Since the northern expedition has already started, he would have to be killed either way.¡±


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was stunned. ¡°Patriarch, are you saying that Kayle¡­¡±


    ¡°That sorcerer named Melgor is in your city and should be with Qian Weining now.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said, ¡°Summon him for an audience with me.¡±

 Chapter 1176 - Danger approaching

    <h4>Chapter 1176: Danger approaching</h4> <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge </h4>


    ¡°Patriarch, do you suspect that Melgor is linked to the chaos in Winston City?¡± the Winston family¡¯s patriarch asked.


    ¡°No, he¡¯s just a junior sorcerer. The House of Tudor is after him over a trivial matter of jealousy.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said slowly on his horse, ¡°Someone has investigated the matter thoroughly. It was just that some unexpected things happened along the way. What I underestimated was the Tudor family¡¯s determination to kill him.¡±


    To be honest, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was a little puzzled initially. In his opinion, Melgor was only a junior sorcerer. Back when that guy imed the fiefdom of York County, he was even the one who personally signed off on the documents.


    At that time, he had personally seen Melgor casting spells and tested him on his proficiency in them. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was quite sure Melgor was just a weakling, so he did not link him to the incident in Winston City.


    It could be said that Melgor had cleared himself of any suspicion with his strength.


    As such, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch always wondered why the House of Tudor was so insistent on having Melgor killed. What was their motivation?


    No matter how many spies the House of Berkeley had, they could not possibly know that the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch had his nostrils poked.


    After all, the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch had not even mentioned that incident to his own n. Unless Ren Xiaosu went out to publicize it, no one would know how such a deep feud had formed between Melgor and a behemoth like the House of Tudor.


    A lot of things were destined after Ren Xiaosu poked the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch in the nose with a tree branch¡­


    However, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch did not know all that. It was only when he suddenly found out that Melgor had mastered the Boiling Airburst spell that he gradually figured out some things.


    Or rather, it did not matter whether he had figured it out or not. It was enough as long as this person was useful.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch called over a son and ordered in a low voice, ¡°Go and summon Melgor. The patriarch wants to meet him. Remember, you must bring him here!¡±


    What he meant was that even if Melgor had to be killed, they¡¯d have to bring him here no matter what.


    When the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch heard this, heughed. ¡°There¡¯s no need for violence. I just wanted to invite him over for a quick chat.¡±


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was stunned. He seemed to be missing some details. Why else would the House of Berkeley treat a junior sorcerer so nicely?


    Then, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said to the Winston family¡¯s patriarch, ¡°Tell everyone to attend the memorial service in front of the cathedral tomorrow morning to pay their respects to the Winstons¡¯ deceased. After that, we¡¯ll take the oath of allegiance.¡±


    Upon hearing this, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch felt a chill run through him. It looked like the real war was about to begin.


    He said cautiously, ¡°Patriarch, the House of Norman¡¯s determination to support the House of Tudor this time is greater than we thought¡­. I heard the Knights of Radiance have already assembled outside Ghent City.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said confidently, ¡°This time, our new friend from afar will be sending us some gifts. We won¡¯t be fighting alone. He¡¯ll be arriving at Winston City in a few days. At that time, you can get to know him better. Besides that, I also want your House of Winston to hold back the Vosses in the west once the war starts. Are you confident?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The Winston family¡¯s patriarch said passionately, ¡°I¡¯m willing to sacrifice myself to your cause, Patriarch!¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch smiled and tapped his horse whip lightly on the shoulder of the Winston family¡¯s patriarch. ¡°Our cause.¡±


    ¡­


    That afternoon, the Knights of the Hymn galloped through the streets and informed all the residents of the memorial service to be held at the cathedral the next day.


    By the time Ren Xiaosu heard their announcement at the ry station, the knights¡¯ voices had gone hoarse.


    He wondered if there were other, more advanced ways of informing people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Did they have to rely on shouting for theirmunications?


    At this moment, he was thinking about the principles behind the summoning spell. His main direction of thought was: Why did the words ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± correspond to the summoning spell?


    Did it mean that everything could be linked to the Prosperous Northwest?


    While thinking, he suddenly saw through the window a group of the Knights of the Hymn arriving at the ry station¡¯s entrance. A knightmander said loudly, ¡°Is Lord Sorcerer Melgor here at this ry station?¡±


    Qian Weining walked out of the ry station. ¡°Yes, he¡¯s here. Pleasee with me.¡±


    ¡°Thank you for leading the way,¡± the knightmander said.


    Ren Xiaosu observed the expressions of the knightmander and Qian Weining and realized they clearly knew each other. Moreover, the knightmander was well aware of Qian Weining¡¯s rank in the Knights of the Inferno, which exined his politeness.


    Otherwise, with the strict hierarchy in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, not even amon knight would give a second nce to a so-called vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, let alone a Chamber of Commerce located in the remote York County.


    Before the Knights of the Hymn could enter, Melgor seemed to have heard themotion. He hurriedly went over to Ren Xiaosu and inquired, ¡°What should I do? Could they be looking for me because of the copse of Winston City¡¯s wall?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you have me around. At most, I¡¯ll just break out of here with you.¡±


    At this moment, the knightmander¡¯s voice rang out outside the door, ¡°Lord Melgor, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch has summoned you for an audience.¡±


    Melgor was stunned. ¡°The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu quickly took out a micro-earpiece from his storage space and pushed it into Melgor¡¯s ear. ¡°I¡¯ll guide you from afar.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t youing with me?¡± Melgor was a little flustered.


    ¡°If I go with you, what if you instinctively look at me every time you¡¯re asked a question?¡± Ren Xiaosu snapped. ¡°Just be yourself. and they won¡¯t be able to sense anything wrong.¡±


    Melgor asked in a low voice, ¡°Be myself? How?¡±


    ¡°Just act cowardly as usual.¡±


    Melgor was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu instructed, ¡°You can only behave naturally without me by your side, understand?¡±


    ¡°¡­ OK.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°When the timees, I¡¯ll be able to hear your conversation. At the critical moments, I¡¯ll prompt you on how to answer. Just repeat whatever I say.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, got it.¡± Melgor nodded frantically.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch would never expect Melgor to be equipped with such a high-tech system.


    ¡°Lord Melgor?¡± the knightmander urged.


    Melgor pushed open the door and stepped out. When he saw the armored Knights of the Hymn, he was so flustered he did not know what to say.


    When the knightmander saw Melgor¡¯s nervous expression, he assured him, ¡°Patriarch Berkeley is only inviting you for a chat. There¡¯s nothing to be worried about.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said into the earpiece: ¡°Why should I be worried about sewage like y¡¯all?¡±


    Melgor said, ¡°Why should I be worried about sewage like y¡¯all?¡±


    The Knights of the Hymn was stunned.


    The corners of the knight¡¯s eyes twitched several times. ¡®<i>You were even trembling a little when you said that. What¡¯s with the sudden threatening words?</i>¡®


    Qian Weining thought to himself that Melgor was indeed nted here by the House of Norman to entrap the House of Tudor upon hearing him speak so confidently.


    Ren Xiaosu, who was in the room, did not know whether tough or cry. He whispered, ¡°I¡¯ll try my best to speak less from now on. You should handle it by yourself for now¡­.¡±


    Fortunately, Melgor did not repeat those words.


    After Melgor was taken away, Ren Xiaosu quietly followed them. He had thought it through. This Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch had better speak nicely. But the moment he revealed any killing intent towards Melgor, Ren Xiaosu would have to strike first.


    After all, Melgor was the person he had chosen to head the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch office.


    Taking advantage of the encroaching twilight, Ren Xiaosu climbed to the top of a building across the Winston Cathedral. Then he took out his ck sniper rifle and loaded it with the ck bullet he usually could not bear to use.


    Although Ren Xiaosu had told Melgor not to be afraid, with his cautious character, it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to someone like the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch. Right from the beginning, he brought out his most lethal ranged weapon.


    It was also the most unstoppable weapon in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Ren Xiaosuy prone on the roof and blended in with the darkness of the night. He ced his face close to the scope so he could observe the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, who was inside the cathedral.


    He nced at the g with a lion emblem fluttering at the entrance of the cathedral. Distance: 671 meters; wind speed: 15 meters per second.


    At this moment, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was unaware of the danger approaching him.

 Chapter 1177 - Youve got the wrong idea

    <h4>Chapter 1177: You¡¯ve got the wrong idea</h4> <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge </h4>


    ¡°Don¡¯t speak.


    ¡°Don¡¯t look all over the ce.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be scared.¡±


    Faint static buzzed in Melgor¡¯s ears.


    As he listened to the voice, Melgor felt as though he were walking inside a quiet alley as he proceeded down the red carpet in Winston Cathedral.


    Rows of dark red benches stood in the cathedral, and the red carpet that ran between them seemingly represented a long, bloody pathway.


    There were no statues of the Winston family¡¯s sorcerers in the Winston Cathedral, only those of the Berkeley family¡¯s archmages.


    Those gray statues stood on both sides of the cathedral¡¯s interior, and Melgor felt as if they were watching him as he walked down the carpet.


    The Knights of the Inferno¡¯s elites stood on both sides of the red carpet armed with theirnces. They looked straight ahead and did not bat an eyelid when Melgor walked past them.


    There were no members of the Winston family present, and it seemed like the House of Berkeley had deliberately cleared the ce before Melgor¡¯s arrival.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch stood quietly in the apse of the cathedral where a white statue was, with his back facing the main entrance.


    Hundreds of candles had been lit on the chandelier hanging from the cathedral¡¯s dome. As such, even though the sky had already turned dark, the interior of the cathedral was still bright as day.


    The light shone down from above and illuminated the back of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch. His imposing figure in his knight¡¯s armor cast arge shadow on the ground while his red cloak drooped silently off his back.


    Melgor recognized the white statue in front of him. It was a sculpture of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch¡¯s ancestor, and also the first person to discover the spell Song of mes. His name was Grantham Berkeley.


    ¡°I¡¯m already in position for an attack.


    ¡°Act natural. Just be yourself.


    ¡°Speak factually.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you might die if the other party really makes a move on you, but I¡¯ll make sure he dies together with you.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice came through the earpiece, Melgor became even more flustered.


    At some point, Melgor even wondered if Ren Xiaosu was deliberately trying to make him look more flustered by saying he might die.


    He could not be sure.


    What made Melgor feel even worse was that Ren Xiaosu was clearly nowhere to be seen in the vicinity, so where did he get the confidence to say he could take down the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch?


    ¡®<i>If you¡¯re gonna go with tough talk, you should at least stand close. Moreover, those recent incidents were all started by you¡­.</i>¡®


    Melgor muttered as he walked forward. Actually, he was not really ming Ren Xiaosu, but he had to think of something to distract himself and suppress his anxiety.


    At the next moment, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch turned around and looked at Melgor. ¡°We met two years ago.¡±


    The man was wearing a red cloak. When he moved around, his armor nked, and his long, flowy cloak resembled the mane of an angry lion.


    An air of authority¡ªthis was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s evaluation of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch. Even through the scope of his ck sniper rifle, he could sense the other party¡¯s conceit.


    In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, a patriarch¡¯s authority was even greater than one could imagine. After being in this position for a long enough time, one would naturally develop the aura of a leader.


    Such an aura was rarely seen even in the leaders of the Central ins organizations.


    Melgor ced his right hand over his chest and bowed. ¡°Yes, Lord Berkeley.¡±


    The full name of the Berkeley family¡¯s head was Michel Grantham Berkeley. Between sorcerers, there was no need to kneel to pay respects.


    ¡°It¡¯s a blessing that you and I reunited today.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch walked towards Melgor with a smile. ¡°How was your training at the frontier the past two years?¡±


    ¡°Although it was a little tough, it has honed my will.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch praised, ¡°Men should train themselves more. Only then can they pierce the enemy¡¯s throat like a longsword. Don¡¯t learn from those sorcerers who sink into an easy life. That sort of behavior is undesirable.¡±


    Unlike the other sorcerer ns, the Berkeleys had always advocated the martial arts. All members with the potential to be sorcerers were required to join the Knights of the Inferno to gain experience. Only those who had no talent were left to enjoy themselves all they wanted.


    But when it came to choosing an heir, the hedonists would not be able to participate in the selection.


    A dauntless atmosphere was prevalent in the House of Berkeley, which was probably the reason why they were the first to step forward to challenge the status quo in this chaotic world.


    At this moment, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch looked at Melgor in surprise and said with a smile, ¡°Oh? You aren¡¯t afraid anymore? Your legs have stopped trembling.¡±


    When Melgor first came face to face with the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch and the Knights of the Inferno, his legs were shaking nonstop. But as time passed, Melgor got better and no longer trembled.


    Melgor hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°My legs have gone numb¡­¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch burst outughing. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid. I don¡¯t have any other intentions for finding you today. I won¡¯t do anything to you. I just wanted to have a casual chat.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°You don¡¯t have anything better to do?¡±


    Melgor muttered, ¡°You don¡¯t have anything better to do?¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    The moment those words were uttered, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch started sizing Melgor up seriously. ¡°You¡¯re quite brave. Not bad.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was stunned. ¡°This head of the Berkeley family is really quite the odd one. Does he like it when others act tough in front of him? And don¡¯t fucking repeat this line I said!¡±


    Before Melgor could say anything, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch continued, ¡°I heard you know the Boiling Airburst spell?¡±


    Melgor hurriedly said in honesty, ¡°No, you¡¯ve got the wrong idea.¡±


    Before he came here, Ren Xiaosu had instructed him to be honest about the recent incidents. Melgor was not good at lying. The moment he lied, he would definitely get found out by the other party.


    However, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch did not believe this answer. He smiled at Melgor and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to deny it so quickly. So what if you know the Boiling Airburst spell? Why? Are you afraid that I¡¯ll find out you¡¯re rted to the House of Norman?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed in his head. Jumping to conclusions was really a scary thing.


    Some people were just a little too smart for themselves. A sweet idiot like Melgor was actually not that scheming to begin with, but the other party felt that he was definitely more than met the eye. That was because he had never encountered such a simple person in his environment before.


    Therefore, when such people faced Melgor, they would always furnish their understanding with details that even Melgor himself had not thought of. It could purely be considered as reading too much into it.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said, ¡°I know you¡¯re backed by the House of Norman, and I also know you all are seeking to damage the House of Tudor¡¯s strength. I can overlook whatever you all have done in my key city in the south, but you need to help me pass a message to the House of Norman.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu immediately understood. Actually, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch had called Melgor over today for no other reason than to establish a secret alliance with the House of Norman to deal with the House of Tudor together.


    Melgor said awkwardly, ¡°Lord Berkeley, I don¡¯t know anyone from the House of Norman¡­.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t want to admit it. I¡¯ll get Qian Weining¡¯s trade caravan to continue heading north. He¡¯s a capable right-hand man of mine. I¡¯ll have him escort you back to the House of Norman. I guess that should reassure you, right?¡±


    Melgor nearly cried at this moment. What the heck was there to be reassured about?


    He really did not know the House of Norman. Why did the patriarch have to insist on sending him to the House of Norman? So that they could offer him as a sacrifice?!

 Chapter 1178 - The unfortunate Vice President Qian

    <h4>Chapter 1178: The unfortunate Vice President Qian</h4> <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge </h4>


    Melgor was panicking, but Ren Xiaosu was much calmer. ¡°Ask him what message he wants you to pass to the Norman family?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had nned to immediately shoot and kill the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch after Melgor left the cathedral. At that time, he would have ¡°Old Xu¡± pick Mel up secretly before driving away in the steam lotive.


    But now, Ren Xiaosu felt that keeping the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch alive might prove more harmful to the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    As long as such an ambitious person remained alive, the war would mercilessly wear down the strength of all the sorcerer ns.


    Since he could make them fight among themselves, why should he help the Norman and the Tudor families get rid of their enemy? If he got rid of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, he would still have to go and take care of the Norman and the Tudor families separately. How troublesome was that!


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu nned to go along with the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch¡¯s wishes and travel north with the trade caravan. It was better to stay away from the main battlefield at Winston City for now.


    As for the next destination, he might want to go to Ghent City or take a tour of the Norman family¡¯s territory. In any case, the war here would probably be over by the time they returned.


    Melgor asked the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, ¡°What message do you want me to pass to the House of Norman?¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarchughed and said, ¡°That¡¯s the right way! You just need to tell them that Donnelly was killed by the House of Tudor. Donnelly¡¯s remains are buried under the parasol tree outside the diator arena in Ghent City, and his gold Eye of True Sight is in the hands of the Tudors. It¡¯s the one that Kayle used.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch actually had one of his knights bring over a gold Eye of True Sight and give it to Melgor. ¡°Hand this over to the House of Norman and they¡¯ll understand.¡±


    Melgor seemed to be very surprised at the revtion, but Ren Xiaosu was even more surprised. Melgor was given a gold Eye of True Sight just like that?


    After all, he still had not managed to get his hands on a gold Eye of True Sight after creating all that trouble. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was really bold to directly use a gold Eye of True Sight to stir up a feud between the House of Norman and the House of Tudor.


    But who was this Donnelly? It seemed like he was someone very important to the House of Norman.


    However, Ren Xiaosu would have to reevaluate his opinion of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch now. It looked like the other party was very well-prepared for the uing war.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch looked at Melgor and said with a smile, ¡°What? Did this secret shock you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m indeed very shocked,¡± Melgor admitted honestly.


    ¡°After you hand over the gold Eye of True Sight to them, the House of Norman will definitely ask you about my demands.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said, ¡°When that happens, tell them I want all of the territories currently controlled by the House of Tudor. They won¡¯t find this request difficult to ept. Go and get ready. The trade caravan will set off tomorrow.¡±


    After that, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch gave a wave of his hand, and the Knights of the Inferno on both sides of the red carpet held out their hands at the same time, signaling for Melgor to leave. Their precise movements nearly startled Melgor again.


    He hurriedly left the cathedral and rushed back to the ry station. Ren Xiaosu also put away his ck sniper rifle and pulled up his hood before disappearing into the night.


    After the two of them returned to the ry station, Melgor shut the door to his room and gulped down four cups of warm water before gradually calming down.


    He sat in his chair with a cup of warm water in hand and nced out the window from time to time as though he were checking to see if anyone was peeking into the room.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°Don¡¯t be so nervous. Didn¡¯t everything work out just fine?¡±


    Melgor said dejectedly, ¡°I¡¯m just a minor individual, so how did I suddenly get involved in a matter like this? I could have just stayed in York County and led a peaceful life. Why did I insist on going to Ghent City?¡±


    ¡°Because your childhood sweetheart is in Ghent City,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered offhandedly. ¡°Think about it. After the Tudor family¡¯s gone, wouldn¡¯t your childhood sweetheart no longer be engaged?¡±


    When Melgor thought of his girlfriend, he gradually gained some courage.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What¡¯s the matter about Donnelly?¡±


    ¡°That man was the favorite son of the Norman family¡¯s sitting patriarch. It was rumored that he was a once-in-a-generation genius.¡± Melgor said, ¡°A lot of people said that the Norman family¡¯s elderly patriarch wanted him to take over as patriarch of the n, but he suddenly disappeared one day. This happened in Ghent City about a decade ago.¡±


    ¡°They couldn¡¯t find the culprit who did it at that time?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No.¡± Melgor shook his head and said, ¡°The search went on for an entire month, and it was a citywide search they conducted. The House of Norman¡¯s knights even entered the House of Tudor¡¯s territories on this extremely rare asion. Even our house was searched thoroughly, including the cer as well. At that time, other than the areas directly controlled by the House of Tudor, the House of Norman left no stone unturned.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gasped. For the Norman family¡¯s knights to enter the Tudor family¡¯s territories, it showed they had no hesitation to spark a war in their search for clues rted to Donnelly.


    It seemed that Donnelly was indeed very important to the Norman family¡¯s patriarch.


    Melgor said, ¡°You didn¡¯t experience it personally, so you don¡¯t have a proper understanding of the seriousness of that incident. There¡¯s actually a veryrge underground empire below Ghent City. Although there aren¡¯t any powerful sorcerers down there, the terrain inside isplicated, and many ouws who can¡¯t see the light of day linger in there. Some ouws said that even if a sorcerer were to go in, they would ensure that the sorcerer would not get out alive. However, the Norman family¡¯s knights still forcefully plowed through that ce in their search. It was said that the underground was filled with corpses and rats¡­.¡±


    Melgor continued, ¡°It was only in recent years that the number of people living in the sewers gradually increased again. Speaking of which, aren¡¯t those people afraid it¡¯s haunted? Why would they choose to live in such a gloomy ce?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought to himself, ¡®<i>As always, the weak can¡¯t outdo the strong. In the Magi¡¯s own territory, the ouws shouldn¡¯t have acted so arrogantly.</i>¡®


    But it was no wonder the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was so sure the Norman family¡¯s patriarch would carry out his revenge n after finding out the truth. So it turned out there was some history thatid the foundation for it.


    The House of Berkeley was also quite patient. They had kept the secret for over a decade just so they could use it against the House of Tudor when it mattered most.


    ¡°The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said that he wants to take over the territories currently controlled by the Tudor family, but things are definitely not that simple.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°After we set off tomorrow, we should take note of the situation first. If anything goes wrong, we can just escape with the gold Eye of True Sight.¡±


    Melgor¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Escape? That sounds great!¡±


    At this moment, the person in the worst mood was definitely not Melgor, but Qian Weining.


    Vice President Qian had thought he did not have to send himself to his death anymore and started drinking to celebrate. However, bad news suddenly came to him tonight that the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch wanted him to head directly for the Norman family¡¯s territory.


    As the saying goes, extreme joy begets sorrow. Qian Weining even felt like he wanted to die now!

 Chapter 1179 - Late night visitors

    <h4>Chapter 1179: Late night visitors</h4> <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge </h4>


    If Qian Weining knew that the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch would make use of Melgor¡¯s backing from the House of Norman, he would never have reported it no matter what. He was willing to fight for the Knights of the Inferno¡¯s glory, but that did not mean that he was willing to get sent to his death.


    As soon as Melgor returned, Qian Weining was informed that the civilian members of the caravan could return to York County by themselves. However, the Knights of the Inferno led by Qian Weining were to escort Melgor to the Norman family.


    Along the way, they would have to avoid the Tudor family¡¯s cataphract scouts before cautiously moving northwards.


    When Qian Weining thought of the danger involved, his scalp went numb.


    In the middle of the night, a slender but agile figure sneaked out of a room and moved steadily like a lizard, sticking close to the wall with ease.


    At this moment, the Knights of the Inferno led by Qian Weining were stationed at every corner of the ry station. However, these soldiers did not notice the figure that had blended in with the darkness. It was as though the night attire worn by that person was tailormade, even having a light-absorbing property in its material.


    The infiltrator seemed to know the shadows on the walls like the back of their hand, as well as the patrol rotation schedule of the garrison troops.


    Whenever a soldier¡¯s gaze swept over, the infiltrator would immediately hide in the shadows. After the soldier turned his gaze away, the infiltrator would immediately dart ahead five to six meters.


    The infiltrator quietly arrived at a window and took out a thin rope to hook open thetch on the inside of the window.


    But the moment the infiltrator leaped into the room, she suddenly felt a cold sharpness pressing against her neck.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled, ¡°Don¡¯t move, or you¡¯ll die.¡±


    ¡°Can you bear to kill me?¡± Chen Jingshu started chuckling as well.


    ¡°I¡¯m not falling for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°The Riders in the Central ins are all upright people. Why do you Sanctuary members resort to tricks like seduction?¡±


    ......


    Chen Jingshu¡¯s expression turned cold. ¡°An assassin¡¯s glory is to kill the target at all costs. Anything else can be used as tools for us.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu slowly withdrew the ck saber and stepped back. He only stopped when he was three meters away from Chen Jingshu. He said slowly, ¡°What are you looking for me for? It¡¯s no longer peaceful at the ry station now. You¡¯re really quite bold.¡±


    Chen Jingshu stood by the window. As the moonlight shone from behind her, her graceful figure was entuated by the night attire she was wearing.


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu thought she was a slightly plump middle-aged woman. However, he did not expect that it was just a disguise for her.


    After all, who would worry that a slightly plump middle-aged woman was an assassin?


    ¡°Do I look good?¡± Chen Jingshu asked with a smile.


    ¡°Not too bad.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°But I won¡¯t stare long.¡±


    ¡°Why not? What¡¯s there to be scared of?¡± Chen Jingshu asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m scared, but I need to uphold my principles.¡± Ren Xiaosu put the ck saber away into the pce. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that you came here in the middle of the night just so that you could show me your figure?¡±


    ¡°Why are you standing so far away?¡± Chen Jingshu raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you know that it¡¯s improper for men and women to be in close proximity of each other?¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I already have someone that I like, and I might be getting married when I return to the Central ins after my work is done here.¡±


    Chen Jingshu wondered, ¡°Aren¡¯t all men fickle-minded? Impulsiveness is in your instincts.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu replied seriously, ¡°It¡¯s precisely because men are instinctively impulsive and seek desires that make loyalty an even more valuable trait. It might take a one in ten million chance in life for someone to meet the right person. My life is actually not that good, so I have to cherish it when I meet the right person.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll stop teasing you.¡± Chen Jingshu said a little disinterestedly, ¡°I know Melgor was summoned to Winston Cathedral by the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch today. What did Michel Berkeley want with him?¡±


    ¡°He wants Melgor to pass a message to the Norman family. As for what it is, I won¡¯t tell you that yet.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°The caravan will tell y¡¯all to return to York County by yourselves tomorrow. Let¡¯s meet again when we¡¯re in Ghent City.¡±


    Chen Jingshu frowned. ¡°No, we¡¯ll head north together with you and Melgor. We received new instructions from our organization that we must ensure your safety.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was taken aback for a moment. When Chen Jingshu said they had to ensure his safety, there was no mention of Melgor at all.


    Therefore, Zhang Haoyun should have ryed the conversation they had that night, and the Sanctuary believed he was someone they had to protect.


    This was good news to him. Although Ren Xiaosu did not need anyone to protect him, the Sanctuary had given him a very clear message.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Y¡¯all better note along to protect me. First, there¡¯s no reason for you to continue following the trade caravan northwards. Second, you¡¯re not strong enough to protect me, so you should protect yourselves first.¡±


    When Chen Jingshu heard this, she choked. ¡°Don¡¯t look down on us.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be frank with you. I was the one who caused the incident in Winston City a few days ago. I killed those 62 sorcerers of the Winston family. I¡¯ll give you a chance now to rephrase your words and rethink your ns,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Chen Jingshu only took a second to think before answering crisply, ¡°I¡¯ll see you in Ghent City.¡±


    Chen Jingshu finally understood how strong this young man was. To be honest, Chen Jingshu would not find it strange even if someone were to tell her in ten days that the Norman family¡¯s patriarch had suddenly died. She thought to herself that even the founder of the Sanctuary probably did not have this level of power! Just what kind of monster was Ren Xiaosu?


    ¡°How do I get in touch with y¡¯all when I get to Ghent City?¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Chen Jingshu replied, ¡°When you get to the cksmith¡¯s workshop on Baker Street, someone will contact you.¡±


    With that, the female assassin was about to sneak back to her room when someone suddenly knocked on the door. ¡°Ren Xiaosu, open up. It¡¯s Melgor.¡±


    Chen Jingshu nced out the window and saw a group of patrolling soldiers in the ry station passing by. There was no way she could leave now.


    ¡°Hide behind the curtains,¡± Ren Xiaosu said helplessly.


    After that, Ren Xiaosu went to open the door for Melgor. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m still a little flustered.¡± Melgor mumbled, ¡°Think about it, we¡¯ll have more than 600 soldiers of the Knights of the Inferno watching us once we start our journey tomorrow. How can we escape at that time? So why don¡¯t we just run away tonight?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu snapped at him, ¡°Why are you always thinking about running away?¡±


    As soon as he said that, someone knocked on the door again. Immediately after, Qian Weining said outside the room in a low voice, ¡°Are you still awake? I would like to talk with you alone.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. What the hell was going on in the middle of the night? Why were there visitorsing to his room one after another? ¡®<i>Has everyone gone crazy?</i>¡®

 Chapter 1180

    <h4>Chapter 1180: Pledge of allegiance</h4>


    Melgor, the sweet idiot, reacted like a bird startled by the twang of a bow. When he heard Qian Weining¡¯s voice, he panicked a little and paced around the room. "Why does he want to talk to you alone? Will he try to silence me if he sees me? He¡ª"


    Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t know whether tough or cry while tugging Melgor back. Then he lowered his voice and said, "Why are you panicking? What can Qian Weining do to you? Don¡¯t worry, nothing will happen! Let¡¯s listen to what he has to say first!"


    However, Melgor was unwilling. "I¡¯d better hide. I really don¡¯t know what to say to him. What if he wants to say something unfavorable about me?"


    With that, Melgor slipped behind the thick and heavy red nnel curtains.


    The moment he got behind the curtains, Melgor was so startled he almost cried out in exmation. However, Chen Jingshu reacted faster and instantly covered his mouth while signaling him not to speak.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu opened the door for Qian Weining. "Vice President Qian, what brings you here in the middle of the night?"


    Qian Weining said, "Can we go in and talk?"


    "Yes, of course," Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    When the door closed, Qian Weining whispered, "I¡¯m sorry for disturbing you at night. The thing is, I have something to discuss with you. Sir, I hope you don¡¯t mind. I quietly came over because I didn¡¯t want a third party to know, so regardless of whether I¡¯m right or not, please keep it a secret."


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression turned strange. ¡¯There¡¯s currently quite a few people in this room. From the moment you said that, even a fourth party knows about it, much less just a third party.¡¯


    "Vice President Qian, what are you trying to say exactly?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "I would like to ask you something. You¡¯re actually the expert behind Melgor, right?" Qian Weining said softly, "We¡¯ve been traveling together for so long now. Although a lot of incidents can¡¯t be fully exined, I still noticed them. But, sir, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ve already withheld some of my observations and didn¡¯t report the info to the higher-ups."


    Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows. He had wondered why Qian Weining would suddenlye and look for him in the middle of the night. So it turned out this was hisst struggle before he got sent to his death.


    "Like what kind of info?" Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    "You were actually sent by the Norman family to protect Melgor, right?" Qian Weining said.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he nearlyughed out loud. But he still maintained hisposure and said nomittally, "How¡¯d you tell?"


    "You¡¯ve been calmer than anyone else during the journey. Even when the people from the House of Tudor attacked us, I never saw you panicking." Qian Weining said, "We¡¯ve investigated the people around Lord Melgor and they have nothing to do with the House of Norman. You were the only one who appeared out of nowhere with no background to speak of. Moreover, Lord Melgor doesn¡¯t seem to treat you like a steward at all. When the two of you stand together, he¡¯s actually more like your subordinate."


    Ren Xiaosu made a calm noise of acknowledgment. "Anything else?"


    "You definitely still havepanions shadowing the caravan, right?" Qian Weining said, "My perfect archery and Lord Melgor¡¯s Lesser Fireballs were all the doing of yourpanions, weren¡¯t they!"


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Qian Weining in surprise and thought to himself, ¡¯Has this guy finally woken up from his sharpshooter dream?¡¯


    Qian Weining said rather embarrassedly, "Actually, I¡¯m also aware of how good my archery is. It¡¯s just that I got a little big-headed at the beginning. But when Lord Melgor started casting his Lesser Fireballs with a 100% kill rate, I gradually came around...."


    "Then what makes you think all of this has anything to do with me?" Ren Xiaosu still did not admit to it.


    Actually, it did not matter even if he admitted to it now. Qian Weining was close enough for Ren Xiaosu to kill him in one hit. If Qian Weining really posed any threat, Ren Xiaosu could just twist his neck and throw him into his storage space before escaping with Melgor.


    Qian Weining said in a low voice, "I¡¯ve checked the wounds caused by the Lesser Fireballs, and I also know from experience how weak it is. Those wounds couldn¡¯t possibly be from the Lesser Fireballs. It¡¯s obvious that someone punched those bandits in their chests and killed them in one blow. Including the Boiling Airburst spells fromter, Lord Melgor was just pretending to cast them while the caster was someone else."


    Qian Weining suddenly felt the hairs on his back stand on end. He felt a sense of danger quickly approaching, so he braced himself and said with his eyes closed, "I didn¡¯t report all that to the higher-ups. I just hope that you can give us a chance for survival!"


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, "And what chance are you referring to?"


    Qian Weining suddenly felt the pressure on him lifting. He looked at Ren Xiaosu with lingering fear and became even more convinced of his judgment. Ren Xiaosu was definitely someone very capable sent by the House of Norman to plot against the House of Tudor. Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu mustmand some secret troops to enable his operations.


    Ren Xiaosu had thought the two sheeple were Qian Weining¡¯s people, but it did not seem to be the case anymore. At the very least, Qian Weining did not know he was from the Central ins.


    This left Ren Xiaosu a little surprised. Even though the two sheeple were quite weak and had loose lips, they really were not the type to constantly scheme against others.


    Anyone who was not constantly scheming against others would be a suitable candidate for the Prosperous Northwest!


    Qian Weining said anxiously, "Sir, actually, you should¡¯ve noticed as well that our cataphract regiment has offended a member of the House of Berkeley. They¡¯re now trying to force us down a path of no return."


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, "This decision was made by the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch. What does it have anything to do with the good-for-nothing n member?"


    "It has nothing to do with the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch." Qian Weining said, "What you might not know is that someone issued a transfer order to the caravan guards tonight. Only 192 people will head to the Norman family¡¯s territory with Lord Melgor tomorrow. The rest will remain in Winston City and return to their respective cataphract regiments."


    "Did these 192 people all offend that good-for-nothing n member?" Ren Xiaosu was surprised.


    "That¡¯s right." Qian Weining said, "I don¡¯t ask for anything else. Since you¡¯re a member of the House of Norman, I only beg that you give us a chance to live. The 192 of us are willing to be your ves and risk our lives for you with no hesitation!"


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. It looked like these people were really getting forced down the path of no return by the House of Berkeley.


    Tonight, Qian Weining and these loyal Knights of the Inferno decided to seek out their own survival after they felt the betrayal of the House of Berkeley.


    However, Ren Xiaosu could not possibly believe Qian Weining¡¯s side of the story just like that. He was never the sweet idiot Melgor was.


    To put it simply, Ren Xiaosu needed Qian Weining to pledge his allegiance to him.


    While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about how to handle this, Qian Weining suddenly got a surprised look on his face.


    Immediately after, the curtains behind Ren Xiaosu suddenly fell down along with the hardware fittings embedded in the ceiling.


    Melgor and Chen Jingshu smiled awkwardly at Qian Weining. When Qian Weining saw Chen Jingshu¡¯s night attire, he seemingly understood something. "This must be the secret unit led by you, sir, right??"

 Chapter 1181: A new combo!

    <h4>Chapter 1181: A newbo!</h4>


    Just a moment ago, Qian Weining had said they could not let any third party know about their conversation tonight. In the end, two people jumped right out from behind the curtains. It was such a surprise.


    Faced with Qian Weining¡¯s query, Chen Jingshu did not admit nor deny it. In any case, she preferred letting Qian Weining have his suspicions.


    If it were really as Qian Weining had said, that someone were out to kill him, Ren Xiaosu felt that the Northwest¡¯s branch office could also ease the entry conditions as required. After all, Comrade Melgor needed to have his own supporters.


    That night, Melgor and Chen Jingshu went back separately. Meanwhile, Qian Weining was requested by Ren Xiaosu to stay in the room.


    Ren Xiaosu only did this to prevent Qian Weining from suddenly going back on his word and ratting him out.


    As such, Qian Weining stood in the room for the entire night and watched helplessly as Ren Xiaosu slept soundly.


    Leave? He did not dare to.


    Sneak attack Ren Xiaosu while he was asleep and hand over the young man to his patriarch for credit? He did not dare to do that either.


    During the night, he still continued to have that lingering sense of fear. He somehow felt that he was facing an extremely dangerous being, even though he did not know why the other party could exude such a strong oppressive aura at his age.


    The next morning, everyone put on their red robes and headed towards Winston Cathedral when they heard the bells chime. Yesterday afternoon, the Knights of the Hymn had informed the entire city there would be a memorial service held at the entrance of the cathedral today.


    For ceremonies as grand as these, almost all of the residents of Winston City were required to attend. Everyone was dressed in their red robes as they streamed towards the cathedral like a red torrent.


    Ren Xiaosu stood several hundred meters from the cathedral and said in a low voice, ¡°Are the Winstons aware of your trade caravan¡¯s mission?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Qian Weining answered next to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Sir, ever since we left Vaduz City, it was the Knights of the Hymn who helped clear the bandits out of our way.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, don¡¯t be too surprised if something happenster.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a grin, ¡°Today, we¡¯ll be holding your pledge of allegiance ceremony. Remember, don¡¯t attempt to escape. You know the consequences.¡±


    Qian Weining was stunned. ¡°Sir, what do you mean by that?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll find out in a while,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Ren Xiaosu did not have Melgor, Chen Jingshu, or anyone elsee along with him this morning. Instead, he instructed Chen Jingshu to assist Melgor in hiding. If she discovered anyone heading straight to the ry station to carry out a search, they were to stay hidden while they waited for him to go to their rescue.


    When Ren Xiaosu told Melgor about this, Melgor more or less guessed that something big was about to happen in the city.


    No one from the House of Berkeley showed up yet outside the cathedral. The person presiding over the ceremony was the Winston family¡¯s patriarch, and standing next to him were 10 other sorcerers and 36 elites of the Knights of the Hymn.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch looked at the residents. ¡°A few days ago, someone manipted the power of the Devil and secretly attacked the devout followers and chosen ones in Winston City. We¡¯ve followed the instructions of the gods and found the devil responsible for the attack and killed him.¡±


    After that, someone came out from the back of the cathedral carrying a wooden box. When the box was opened, Archmage Kayle¡¯s head was revealed.


    The head had been cured with quicklime prior, so it looked exceptionally pale.


    Everyone was getting riled up by the sight of the severed head. However, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch mmed the scepter in his hand to the ground. The dull thud felt like it pounded on everyone¡¯s hearts and left the crowd silent.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch said vehemently, ¡°You all might have heard about what happened in Vaduz City. The gods had issued a decree to the House of Berkeley to take on the heavy responsibility of exterminating the northern devils. Now that devils have reappeared in the world, our House of Winston, as servants of the gods, will naturally follow them into war!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu curled his lips. The people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers really liked babbling too much, and all the nonsense they spouted was really just to serve their political cause.


    They had obviously taken revenge on the wrong person, but in the end, they still came up with some reason iming to have killed some devil.


    Archmage Kayle had really died a wrongful death. When he left Ghent City, he was supposed to go and personally punish Ren Xiaosu and Melgor. In the end, it became a journey that took his life.


    At this moment, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch signaled to the sorcerers around him. The ten sorcerers by his side held their Eyes of True Sight and cast a spell in unison.


    A faint curtain of fire enveloped the Winston family¡¯s patriarch. When the residents saw this ¡°miracle,¡± they eximed. But Ren Xiaosu nearlyughed out loud at the sight of this. How was this a ¡°miracle¡±? The patriarch was clearly trying to protect himself from getting pped.


    When the Winston family¡¯s patriarch saw that the fire curtain was fully cast, he breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled and said to the residents, ¡°After we killed the devil, the gods have bestowed upon us a new spell as a reward. My dear people, the gods have shown us their favor again.¡±


    Truly, this group of sorcerers were really shameless. It was clearly a spell they had kept hidden for a long time, yet they suddenly brought it out and imed it was a reward from the gods.


    It seemed like he only dared to say that because he felt it was impossible that he would get pped in the face while hiding behind the curtain of fire.


    When the residents heard they were favored by the gods again, they started cheering. Ren Xiaosu thought that if there had been a mandatory nine-year education system in ce in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, these people would surely not get deceived by such nonsense.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch cheered loudly, ¡°The gods are with us¡ª¡±


    Before he could finish speaking, the jaws of the residents watching him dropped to the ground. Everyone could only watch helplessly as a Shadow Door suddenly opened up behind the curtain of fire. The legendary right hand of God had descended once again.


    <i>p!</i>


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was pped so hard he spun around on the spot twice!


    ¡°I wish you happiness,¡± Ren Xiaosu said softly.


    At the next moment, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch burst into tears. The residents were shocked. ¡°Does God have such a strong p?¡±


    ¡°The archmage got pped so hard he cried?¡±


    ¡°Listen to yourselves. If God doesn¡¯t have a strong p, how can He be God?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that his newbo was super overpowered. Whoever got pped had to cry! It wouldn¡¯t even be their choice!


    It had nothing to do with whether they could put up a strong front or not. It purely depended on how ¡°happy¡± Ren Xiaosu wanted them to be.


    Qian Weining slowly turned his head and looked at Ren Xiaosu in disbelief. At this moment, he suddenly realized why he could not stop crying back then. He also realized where those four ps at the front of Vaduz Cathedral hade from.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was also dumbfounded. He believed he was a very strong person. Even if he got pped, he shouldn¡¯t be crying, right?


    But he couldn¡¯t stop crying at all!


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, who had been standing inside the cathedral all this while, sneered when he saw this. He slowly walked out of the cathedral with the Knights of the Inferno behind him.


    Michel Grantham Berkeley looked at the Winston family¡¯s patriarch and said disdainfully, ¡°Do you have to cry?¡±


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was speechless.


    Right after, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said angrily to the Knights of the Inferno, ¡°Flush out the perpetrator!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Qian Weining and said with a chuckle, ¡°You can report me, but I can¡¯t guarantee your safety. Of course, you can also keep quiet and be one of us from now on.¡±


    Next, it could be predicted that the Knights of the Inferno would conduct checks on everyone present to track down the culprit.


    Qian Weining immediately understood what Ren Xiaosu¡¯s so-called pledge of allegiance was. Ren Xiaosu did not need him to kill anyone or do anything at all. As long as he remained silent, he could never return to the Knights of the Inferno.


    Because the Knights of the Inferno would not ept a tainted knight like him.


    After this event, it would not matter whether Qian Weining was loyal. He could not turn back anymore.

 Chapter 1182: A different kind of happiness

    <h4>Chapter 1182: A different kind of happiness</h4>


    The House of Berkeley seemed prepared for everything that might happen at today¡¯s memorial service. When the patriarch gave the order to search for the culprit, the Knights of the Inferno immediately surrounded the crowd.


    The soldiers were armed with pikes and had split themselves into hundreds of smaller groups to seal off all the intersections near the cathedral.


    There were tens of thousands of residents who came to attend the memorial service. This was an extremelyrge-scale event, and the long lines of red even extended several streets away.


    The people crowded together in the streets and watched in panic as the knights surrounded them.


    Surprisingly, the Knights of the Inferno who had surrounded them had also brought many city census officials with them.


    !!


    They set up exits on both the east and west ends while keeping the other areas surrounded. No one was allowed to enter or leave the encirclement.


    Meanwhile, every resident who wanted to leave from the east and west exits would have to pass the census officers¡¯ checks.


    Although technology in the Kingdom of Sorcerers was backward, the census system was still very strict even in the ancient times before The Cataclysm. This was the foundation of a backward system for managing citizens.


    For example, if a trade caravan wanted to head north, they would have to bring along documents signed by the census officer. Only then could they sessfully check into ry stations or hotels.


    Of course, that was the rule, but the executors might not necessarily follow it so strictly.


    In the early years, when the census system was first perfected, everyone was quite meticulous about the process. Decades on, people started turning a blind eye whenever such checks were not carried out. No one took it seriously.


    ¡°Name, address, and citizen registration number!¡± A census officer checked them one by one. After the residents gave their details, another census officer behind would immediately flip through the register and search for the information.


    But the ideal, whilemendable, had harsh uses in reality. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch had brought these census officers over because he wanted to screen for those with ulterior motives.


    In the end, the census officers were embarrassed to discover they had neglected their responsibilities too much in recent years. Six out of ten of the residents were not on the register.


    The decline of a nation was definitely not as simple as technology waning. For example, the issues that existed in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were: cumbersome bureaucracy, negligent andzy administrative bodies, a backward production system, and an out-of-date regtory system.


    When the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch realized this problem, he sneered at the Winston family¡¯s patriarch, ¡°In the past, I thought you were a talented leader who could take charge of things on your own. But now, I realize you¡¯re actually an idiot who can¡¯t even handle administration. It¡¯s no wonder your House of Winston¡¯s Knights of the Hymn arecking inbat readiness. I don¡¯t think you¡¯re only weak in politics, but you also fail at organizing military matters.¡±


    Disregarding everything else, the six counties in the south controlled by the House of Berkeley were truly much better than the other counties. At the very least, the census officers would definitely not dare to muddle through their work like this!


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    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch said as he continued crying, ¡°Patriarch, I¡¯ll definitely sort out our political and military affairs from now on¡­.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was extremely frustrated by the other party¡¯s crying. He said coldly, ¡°As the head of the House of Winston, how can you cry like this when you were just pped? What use do I have for you?¡±


    ¡°Patriarch, I don¡¯t wish to cry either,¡± the Winston family¡¯s patriarch said sadly.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was so angry heughed. ¡°How can a man be sessful in this world when he¡¯s so fragile? As the head of the house, how shameful are you to be crying like that? Even your Knights of the Hymn are better than you!¡±


    With that, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch called over a member of the Knights of the Hymn and made him take off his helmet. Then he pped the soldier across the face, bringing the knight to tears.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was speechless.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was speechless.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was staring intently at the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch. To be precise, he was staring at his palm. Whoever the other party pped would definitely end up ¡°happy¡±!


    The process might be different, but each had its own kind of happiness!


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    Meanwhile, the Winston family¡¯s patriarch felt a littleforted when he saw the knight with tears streaming down his face. At least, he wasn¡¯t the only one crying.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch looked at the knight in front of him with a livid expression. ¡°Trash! An ipetent soldier is just one soldier, but an ipetentmander would raise a group of ipetent soldiers. That¡¯s what your Knights of the Hymn are! You,e here!¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch looked at his Knights of the Inferno. It seemed like he wanted to use them to set an example for the Knights of the Hymn.


    Nearby, the soldier from the Knights of the Inferno who was singled out took a step forward determinedly. He even cast a disdainful look at the crying soldier from the Knights of the Hymn and the Winston family¡¯s patriarch. It was as though he refused to be associated with such fragile people.


    When the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch saw this, he wasforted. He said to the Winston family¡¯s patriarch, ¡°Let me show you what my Knights of the Inferno are like.¡±


    After that, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch gave the knight a p. Then the knight who had just walked up also burst into tears.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was speechless.


    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch was speechless.


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    The Winston family¡¯s patriarch furtively looked up at the tear-streaked Knights of the Inferno soldier. It was as though he were thinking, ¡®<i>Is that it?</i>¡®


    Many of the residents who had gathered nearby and were unable to leave became worried for their own safety. Meanwhile, they secretly observed what was happening at the entrance of the cathedral.


    Someone even muttered, ¡°The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch has quite a strong p too¡­.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t they say the Knights of the Inferno are extremely fearsome? Why are they so weak as well?¡±


    ¡°Shh, watch your tongue, or you¡¯ll be hanged!¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch flew into a rage. ¡°Are the Knights of the Inferno under mymand also a bunch of weaklings?¡±


    Everyone around them kept quiet out of fear. The Winston family¡¯s patriarch hung his head so low it almost reached his own crotch.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch looked around and said angrily to the Winston family¡¯s patriarch, ¡°Come here, p me¡­ never mind!¡±


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    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch wanted to ask the Winston family¡¯s patriarch to p him to see if he would cry as well. But he managed to salvage his rationality in the end.


    He saw himself as a lord of his generation. Therefore, no matter how angry he might be, he knew he shouldn¡¯t do something that might end up damaging his own reputation.


    Moreover, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch also felt a little worried. What if he got pped and started crying as well?


    In the crowd, Ren Xiaosu, who was watching themotion, felt a tinge of regret. If a p reallynded on the face of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, it would be super interesting.


    Next to him, Qian Weining was also watching the happenings. He felt likeughing and crying at the same time.


    He wanted tough because this steward was way too wicked. Qian Weining was a member of the Knights of the Inferno himself, so he knew full well those soldiers trained hard all year round. Even if their skin peeled from getting sunburnt, of them would cry from the pain. In that case, Ren Xiaosu must be the one responsible for it.


    To be honest, when Qian Weining recalled his pathetic state previously and looked at his former colleagues at the entrance of the cathedral, he felt that he had never met anyone more despicable than Ren Xiaosu in his life.


    As for wanting to cry, it was because Qian Weining was in a state of panic now. He really wanted to persuade Ren Xiaosu to stop messing around. If he kept it up, there could be big trouble.


    Qian Weining sneaked a peek at Ren Xiaosu and realized he was smiling at him.


    Ren Xiaosu asked in a whisper, ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to step forward and report me?¡±


    Qian Weining clenched his teeth. ¡°I¡¯ve already pledged my loyalty to you, sir. You don¡¯t have to test me anymore. Let¡¯s leave already¡­.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu squeezed his way towards the east exit. ¡°Did you bring your Knights of the Inferno ID with you? If you didn¡¯t, we can¡¯t leave.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes, I brought it!¡±

 Chapter 1183: Friend from afar

    <h4>Chapter 1183: Friend from afar</h4>


    Qian Weining and Ren Xiaosu quietly walked towards the exit.


    Things went better than expected. When a member of the Knights of the Inferno came over to stop them, Qian Weining just pulled back his hood and gave him a nce. Then that knight dismounted from his horse right away and saluted Qian Weining before letting them through.


    Ren Xiaosuughed. ¡°So your face can act as a pass too? Looks like Vice President Qian¡¯s standing in the Knights of the Inferno is very high.¡±


    Qian Weining was a pdin in the Knights of the Inferno, which was equivalent to a regimentalmander or brigademander in the Central ins, so how could the rank and file not know him?


    However, Qian Weining acted with great respect towards Ren Xiaosu at this moment. He smiled bitterly at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°Sir, you don¡¯t have to call me Vice President Qian. Just call me Little Qian¡­.¡±


    !!


    ¡°Alright then.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, someday, you¡¯ll realize how correct the decision you made today is. Let¡¯s rendezvous with Mel first and then leave the city immediately. As long as we get out of this troublesome ce, won¡¯t we be free to do whatever we want?¡±


    Initially, Qian Weining felt a little bitter when he referred to himself as Little Qian.


    But when he heard Ren Xiaosu calling Melgor ¡°Mel,¡± he immediately felt much better.


    This was the strange thing about humans. No matter how miserable your lot was, as long as you realized someone else was going through the same as you, you would instantly feel much better.


    And then, you¡¯d just ept whatever your fate.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s thinking was that with Mel and Little Qian serving him by his side now, one of whom was a member of the Magi while the other was a member of the knights, it felt like the foundations for his team of henchmen had been formed.


    Now that Ren Xiaosu was considered a big shot, he¡¯d definitely need some subordinates or something.


    These subordinates might not necessarily be of any substantial help to him, but they could still liven up the atmosphere at critical moments, just like the servants of Great Immortal Zhenyuan1.


    ¡­


    The memorial service in front of the Winston Cathedral had been turned into a farce. After the Winston family¡¯s patriarch finally stopped crying, he was immediately sent west by the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch to deal with the House of Voss.


    The Voss family was a vassal of the House of Tudor. The Knights of Tudor in the north were approaching, and all the various forces were starting to get restless.


    In the afternoon, a strange group of people suddenly arrived outside the sealed city gates. The Knights of the Inferno on duty on top of the city walls looked down in surprise. There wererge steel monsters parked down there, and their origins were unknown.


    Someone reported the matter to the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch to ask for further instructions.


    As a result, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch personally headed out of the city to wee the guests. He even ordered his men toy out the red carpet for them.


    Only the true core members of the Berkeley family knew this was the friend from afar their patriarch had mentioned, and the steel monsters were the military trucks from the Central ins.


    The other party had taken a huge detour via an unknown route and even went past extremely dangerous areas just so they could deliver these truckloads of weapons to the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    At the back of the military trucks, everything inside was covered with green canvas tarps, so no one knew what was hidden underneath.


    There were dozens of trucks lined up in a long convoy outside the city gate.


    These weapons were gifts brought by that friend from afar.


    This was not the first time this group of people from the Central ins hade to the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    The gate of Winston City opened and the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch calmly rode out on a white horse. He smiled at the young man wearing a pair of sunsses at the front of the convoy and said, ¡°My friend, long time no see!¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch dismounted from his horse and gave the young man a weing hug.


    The young man took off his sunsses and embraced the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch with a smile. ¡°Your Excellency Lord Michel, I came bearing the gifts that I¡¯ve promised you. We can head straight to the remote mountains tonight to witness their power. In the face of these weapons, the Knights of Tudor will be aughingstock in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch walked to the back of a truck and gently lifted the canvas tarps. A smile appeared on his face when he saw the dark and menacing weapons underneath. Even the lubricants used to maintain these armaments had seemingly be fragrant.


    However, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, who was wearing silver armor and a red cloak, looked exceptionally out of ce with these modern weapons.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch did not wait until the evening to test out the armaments. Instead, he ordered his men to bring over 20 prisoners. Then he removed their shackles and made them run for their lives. ¡°Run! Those of you who can escape today, our House of Berkeley will proim innocent in the name of God.¡±


    After those prisoners ran several hundred meters away, the young man from the Central ins calmly had someone bring over a heavy machine gun and fixed it to the ground.


    Even the machine gun tripod was hammered into the ground with nails.


    The young man took out a box of ammo belts and attached one to the machine gun. Then he firmly closed the cover.


    The prisoners had already run far. Looking out from the city gate, the prisoners¡¯ backs were like tiny leaves in the distance.


    But when the young man pressed the trigger at the back of the heavy machine gun, the palm-sized machine gun bullets shot out and left the 20 prisoners riddled with holes from a distance of nearly a 1,000 meters.


    The Knights of the Inferno who followed the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch out of the city looked at one another. In the face of these instant-killbat weapons, they couldn¡¯t escape even if they were riding on warhorses!


    In fact, some veterans from 17 years ago had said that extremely powerful weapons had already appeared at Fortress 178. Back then, when the Kingdom of Sorcerers went on an expedition to the east, they had to fill the holes opened by these weapons with the lives of their soldiers.


    From that day onward, the Magi no longer mentioned anything about the eastern expedition.


    And now the younger generation of knights finally understood how terrifying the supposed Central ins weapons were.


    This was a disaster for their cavalry. Or rather, it would be disastrous for their entire Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ military if they had to face the firearms and explosives of the Central ins.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch looked at the dead prisoners from afar with a solemn expression. No one knew what he was thinking.


    But he quickly startedughing.


    ¡°Come on, I¡¯m going to hold a grand banquet for my friend from afar tonight,¡± the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said in a clear voice. After that, he pulled the young man by his arm and walked towards the city. ¡°Mr. Wang, are the other weapons this powerful as well?¡±


    Wang Wenyan smiled and said, ¡°The rest won¡¯t be any worse off than this.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch suddenly thought of another matter. ¡°By the way, Mr. Wang, you should be very familiar with the Central ins. I would like to ask you about something.¡±


    Wang Wenyan said, ¡°Patriarch, please ask away.¡±


    ¡°Do you know if there¡¯s anyone in the Central ins who can drive a train? Or someone who can instantly wrap himself in heavy armor? Unlike technology, that train seems to appear out of thin air and feels more closely rted to our sorcery.¡± After the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch spoke, he realized Wang Wenyan had stopped in his tracks. Furthermore, his expression was extremely solemn.

 Chapter 1184: You should be glad

    <h4>Chapter 1184: You should be d</h4>


    This was not Wang Wenyan¡¯s first time in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Thest time he was here was when Wang Shengzhi rescued Ren Xiaosu by the river.


    At that time, he had been traveling with Wang Shengzhi. When they arrived at the valley, he crossed the Northwest¡¯s borders alone and continued advancing towards the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    People like Wang Shengzhi and Qing Zhen had always preferred to take a prospective view of things.


    Therefore, before the Central ins¡¯ Wang Consortium established trade rtions with the Northwest, Wang Shengzhi had to be prepared and figure out how to keep their northwestern neighbor in check.


    Just as P5092 had said, the Northwest¡¯s greatest danger right now was facing a pincer attack by the Magi and the Wang Consortium.


    !!


    Regardless of the Kingdom of Sorcerers¡¯ strength, Fortress 178 was not capable of fighting on two fronts. Therefore, this problem had to be resolved.


    Of course, Wang Shengzhi would have thought of this as well. Moreover, the Qing Consortium¡¯s consolidation of the valley bandits had also given him some inspiration. In the end, the Wang Consortium formted a new strategy.


    If Zhang Jinglin were willing to take over the Central ins andplete the unification of the entire Alliance of Strongholds, there would be no need for this step.


    But if Zhang Jinglin were unwilling, the war between the Wang Consortium and the Northwest would be unavoidable.


    Wang Wenyan hade to the Kingdom of Sorcerers again with the mission to form a mutually beneficial rtionship with the House of Berkeley. Only by sending weapons here to help with the unification of the Kingdom of Sorcerers could it be a threat to Fortress 178 once more.


    Meanwhile, it was obvious the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was only making use of the Wang Consortium. He might already be harboring murderous intent for the Wang Consortium at this moment.


    Wang Wenyan was not bothered by this. With his power to turn into ck mist, no one could kill him unless Wang Yun were present. This was the reason Wang Wenyan was still secretly active in diplomacy.


    However, when Wang Wenyan heard about the train that appeared out of nowhere and the armor that could be instantly activated, he immediately wanted to turn around and return to the Central ins.


    He was only here to deliver weapons, not to get killed!


    ¡°Your Excellency,¡± Wang Yun said in a low voice, ¡°I have something else I need to attend to. Why don¡¯t we meet again another time?¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch¡¯s face stiffened. He was not dumb, so he immediately asked, ¡°Why does Mr. Wang want to return to the Central ins the moment I mentioned this person who can control a train? Who is he exactly? I¡¯m sure you know, Mr. Wang, so please enlighten me.¡±


    Wang Wenyan hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and said, ¡°Lord Michel, why don¡¯t you tell me what he¡¯s done in the Kingdom of Sorcerers first?¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch rted to him the incidents in Winston City, such as the massacre at Winston Manor, the two steam lotives that brought down the buildings, and how strong the other party was.


    Wang Wenyan said with a sigh, ¡°It¡¯s indeed him. Your Kingdom of Sorcerers has been dealing with Fortress 178 for more than a 100 years. The person who conducted a killing spree in Winston City is the nextmander of Fortress 178.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch narrowed his eyes slightly. ¡°Oh, I see. I just didn¡¯t expect the Central ins to have changed so much. There¡¯s actually powers that transcend the mundane now.¡±


    He looked at Wang Wenyan and said with a smile, ¡°Mr. Wang, why haven¡¯t you mentioned this to me before?¡±


    Wang Wenyan replied with a smile, ¡°Such incidents have only urred in recent years, so it wasn¡¯t worth mentioning.¡±


    The emergence of superhumans was definitely worth mentioning. After all, the strength of some superhumans these days was extremely terrifying. Take Ren Xiaosu for example. He could even kill the leaders of the consortiums with such ease, so how could that not be worth a mention?


    But the Kingdom of Sorcerers was only a tool to the Wang Consortium. No matter how stupid Wang Shengzhi, Wang Wenyan, and the rest of the Wang Consortium were, they would only provide them with weapons. They would definitely not sell out the Central ins.


    Once Fortress 178 was taken care of, the Wang Consortium would, sooner orter, deploy their troops to the Kingdom of Sorcerers to exterminate this deep-seated problem.


    Wang Wenyan and the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch smiled at each other tacitly. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch suddenly said, ¡°By the way, Mr. Wang, I have another question. Have you ever heard of anyone with the power to p people¡¯s faces through a Shadow Door?¡±


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    ¡°Huh?¡± Wang Wenyan was stunned for a moment before saying, ¡°Lord Michel, based on the description you gave, that¡¯s still the futuremander of Fortress 178¡­.¡±


    The Wang Consortium had already identified Ren Xiaosu as a key figure to watch. Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu had been observed in battle in the various strongholds on so many asions that the Shadow Door was no longer a secret.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was livid. In that case, the farce at Vaduz Cathedral and the incident this morning were all orchestrated by this person. Was he deliberately targeting the House of Berkeley?


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch frowned and said, ¡°Mr. Wang, do you know why that person is always going against our House of Berkeley?¡±


    Wang Wenyan thought for a moment and said, ¡°Based on my understanding of him, I think he might have nothing better to do.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was speechless. How could there be someone so bored in this world?!


    But what Wang Wenyan could not figure out was why Ren Xiaosu did not directly stab the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch to death. Since he could activate the Shadow Door and p his face, it shouldn¡¯t be difficult for him to stab him in the back, right?


    A momentter, Wang Wenyan, who was pondering with his head down, suddenly looked up. He realized Ren Xiaosu intended to sit back and watch the civil war in the Kingdom of Sorcerers take ce beforeing out to clean up the mess.


    If the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch died right at the start, the civil war would not happen.


    A person like Wang Wenyan was extremely quick-witted. Otherwise, he would not be able to single-handedly take charge of the Wang Consortium¡¯s fieldwork.


    ¡°Lord Michel,¡± Wang Wenyan said in an unusually solemn tone, ¡°I personally think that even though a civil war is imminent, I hope you can understand one thing. Your eventual opponent is definitely not the House of Tudor and the House of Norman. It¡¯s the futuremander of Fortress 178.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said with a frown, ¡°Is Mr. Wang so afraid of him?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not only afraid of him.¡± Wang Wenyan shook his head and said, ¡°Let me put it this way. The moment I heard he hade to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, my first reaction was to run away! It¡¯s not that I¡¯m a coward, Lord Michel, but if you knew what he did in the Central ins, you¡¯d be d that your Vaduz City and Winston City are still standing on thesends.¡±


    ¡°That person actually has such a reputation in the Central ins?¡± the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch asked calmly.


    Wang Wenyan sighed, ¡°If you call that a reputation, I guess you¡¯re right.¡±


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    ¡°What¡¯s his name? Mr. Wang, can you provide me with a portrait of him so I can issue an arrest warrant?¡± the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch asked.


    ¡°His name is Ren Xiaosu. I can provide you with a portrait, but I sincerely suggest that the House of Berkeley don¡¯t go after him.¡± Wang Wenyan said, ¡°What you guys should do now is think of how to make the Houses of Norman and Tudor go after him instead.¡±


    ¡°Wait, Ren Xiaosu?¡± A pdin next to the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch wondered, ¡°Isn¡¯t that the name of Melgor¡¯s steward?¡±

 Chapter 1185: A parting shot

    <h4>Chapter 1185: A parting shot</h4>


    ¡°Melgor¡¯s steward?¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch frowned.


    ¡°Yes, Patriarch.¡± The pdin answered, ¡°But they departed Winston City after the memorial service this morning. We let them through to head to the House of Norman in the north per your instructions.¡±


    ¡°To think we allowed him to get away.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch¡¯s expression darkened. It was almost dark, so it was probably toote to chase after them.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch knew that Melgor had recently recruited a steward who was a young man around the age of 18 or 19.


    However, he had no interest in that steward previously, so he did not pay much attention to him.


    When Wang Wenyan heard that Ren Xiaosu had already left Winston City, he heaved a sigh of relief. ¡°It¡¯s good that he¡¯s gone. Let him go to the House of Norman.¡±


    If Ren Xiaosu were still in Winston City, Wang Wenyan would really not dare to step in.


    ¡°Earlier, you said it¡¯d be best to have the Houses of Norman and Tudor go after him instead? What did you mean by that?¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said, ¡°If our House of Berkeley wants revenge, we don¡¯t have to do it under the guise of others. He¡¯s only a young man.¡±


    ¡°Lord Michel.¡± Wang Wenyan said with a smile, ¡°As long as you can find a way to have the Houses of Norman and Tudor go after him, it could help you solve more than half your problems. Arge number of the House of Norman¡¯s sorcerers might end up dying before you even sh with their knights.¡±


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    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch could not understand why Wang Wenyan was so afraid of Ren Xiaosu. In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, even people like the Tudor and the Norman families¡¯ patriarchs might not be feared by everyone.


    Therefore, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch subconsciously thought that Wang Wenyan was making a fuss because he had not seen powers that truly transcended the ordinary.


    After all, in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, there was still no clear understanding of superhumans from the Central ins.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was a publicly acknowledged genius sorcerer. He started practicing sorcery at the age of three and became a well-known archmage by the age of 17, mastering the exclusively inherited spell Song of mes.


    Even if he had to face the Houses of Tudor and Norman now, he might not be afraid of them.


    An egocentric like him would not think that the so-called futuremander of Fortress 178 could be stronger than him. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch felt that while the other party had a superpower that transcended the mundane, he was still young and could not have trained for more than a few years.


    What he did not know was that Ren Xiaosu did not need to train at all. The superhumans in the Central ins werepletely different from the Magi.


    But even though the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was an egocentric person, he was not rash. A rash person could note up with such a meticulous n for a northern expedition. He thought for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯ll think of a way to create an opportunity for him to feud with the Houses of Norman and Tudor. Since Mr. Wang says he can save me a whole lot of trouble, I¡¯ll be looking forward to it.¡±


    Wang Wenyan said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s best that you think this way, Patriarch. Now that he¡¯s set off for the north, it should be the Houses of Norman and Tudor who are troubled. We should celebrate.¡±


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    ¡°Haha.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch tugged Wang Wenyan by his arm and stepped into the city. ¡°Then, my friend from afar, we must drink to our hearts¡¯ content tonight!¡±


    ¡­


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was leading the way at the front of the trade caravan. Mel and Little Qian, or the ¡°mulchy duo,¡± followed close behind him like they were his right- and left-hand men.


    Chen Jingshu, An¡¯an, and Chen Cheng had alsoe along, together with the two sheeple.


    After Qian Weining left with Ren Xiaosu, he made it clear to his subordinates that the House of Berkeley had wanted to send them all to their deaths, but that he had proactively joined Ren Xiaosu, a member of the Norman family, for protection. He proposed to his men to follow Ren Xiaosu with him and seek their own survival.


    If any of them did not want to join the Norman family, they could leave on their own after a day of travel. Hopefully, no one would go and snitch on him since they used to berades.


    To Qian Weining¡¯s gratification, all 191 of hisrades were willing to follow him and join the Norman family.


    At this moment, Qian Weining was still under the impression that Ren Xiaosu was sent by the Norman family.


    However, the two sheeple were a little dumbfounded. Didn¡¯t Lord Melgor abduct Ren Xiaosu from the Central ins? How did he end up bing a member of the House of Norman?


    Ren Xiaosu asked casually while riding on his horse, ¡°Since you used to be a high-ranking officer in the Knights of the Inferno, you should know about a lot of things, right?¡±


    Qian Weining said respectfully, ¡°Sir, if there¡¯s anything you wish to know, just ask. I¡¯ll tell you everything.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m really curious why the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch dares to take on two of the top sorcerer ns. What¡¯s his backing?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Even if he can spark the Norman family into taking revenge, my guess is that they won¡¯t fully go along with his wishes. If I were the Norman family¡¯s patriarch, I would just team up with the Tudors first to destroy the Berkeleys before making my move on the Tudors.¡±


    Qian Weining thought for a moment and said, ¡°Actually, the Berkeley family¡¯s northern expedition still had another ten years of nning to go before it was ready. Because a few ns north of Ghent City still have hesitations about starting a war. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch isn¡¯t fully confident he can take on the Tudors and the Normans either. In his own words, if he were to fight either of their patriarchs, he might only stand a 60% chance of winning.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was a little surprised. A 60% chance of winning? That was already quite high.


    Qian Weining continued, ¡°But a year ago, a guest from the Central ins visited the Berkeley family and promised to bring weapons that Fortress 178 used 17 years ago. As such, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch made changes to his ns at thest minute.¡±


    ¡°A guest from the Central ins?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Why were there more and more people from the Central insing here? He did not have to guess to know the so-called guest had to be from the Wang Consortium. Otherwise, who would have the free time to interfere with the matters of the Kingdom of Sorcerers?


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°So did the n get pushed up to now? Why do I get the feeling that the Berkeley family is in a hurry?¡±


    ¡°It truly is quite rushed.¡± Qian Weining exined, ¡°Actually, the n was still several months away, but Archmage Kayle of the House of Tudor suddenly nned the attack on Winston City and the conflict between the two sides suddenly erupted. So the n was pushed forward again¡­.¡±


    Although Qian Weining had defected, there was no need for Ren Xiaosu to tell the guy everything.


    Therefore, in Qian Weining¡¯s opinion, the only reason he joined Ren Xiaosu was because of his House of Norman background. He did not really think Ren Xiaosu was that powerful.


    Currently, only Mel, Chen Jingshu, Chen Cheng, and An¡¯an knew about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength.


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°It¡¯s good that they brought it forward. Everything is just in time.¡±


    Qian Weining suddenly asked suspiciously, ¡°Sir, you didn¡¯t have anything to do with the attack in Winston City, did you?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Ren Xiaosu tly denied it. ¡°How can it have anything to do with me?! Do I look like such a fearsome person to you?¡±


    Qian Weining immediately felt relieved. It was not that he looked down on Ren Xiaosu, but that the incident in Winston City was too terrifying, so no one would really link it to a young man like him.


    He only asked because he felt it was a little too much of a coincidence that something like this had happened so soon after Ren Xiaosu arrived in Winston City.


    Melgor, who was deeply aware of the truth, looked at Qian Weining with a sympathetic gaze.


    Only 20% of the things Ren Xiaosu had said along the way were true. Melgor had to hold back hisughter the entire time as he listened to Ren Xiaosu y Qian Weining for a fool.


    However, Mel could notugh anymore when he realized Ren Xiaosu had done the same to him before.


    At some point, Mel even felt a sense of sympathy for Qian Weining when he looked at him. Thinking about it, he realized he was not much better than Qian Weining.


    When night fell, Qian Weining called for everyone to set up camp.


    Ever since Qian Weining could no longer turn back to his former life, he became really enthusiastic about his work. He was afraid he would lose Ren Xiaosu¡¯s backing now that his future with the House of Berkeley was cut off.


    While seated at the campfire, Ren Xiaosu felt that something was off the more he thought about it. He asked Qian Weining, ¡°Have you not met that person from the Central ins before?¡±


    Calcting the time, the period when the Central ins guest first came to the Kingdom of Sorcerers coincided with Wang Shengzhi¡¯s trip to the Northwest. In other words, Wang Shengzhi was already nning how to keep the Northwest in check back then.


    This worried Ren Xiaosu a little. Wang Shengzhi and Qing Zhen were the same. If either of them became your opponent, you would have to be on full alert.


    Otherwise, you would end up like the Pyro Company, the Kong Consortium, and the Zhou Consortium.


    Qian Weining answered, ¡°Sir, that guest from the Central ins is very mysterious. Very few people have seen his true appearance, but I do know something. He should have just arrived in Winston City in the past two days.¡±


    ¡°Why do you know that?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Because all the Knights of the Inferno that were transferred away from me were posted to the armory. The higher-ups said they were to tidy up all the warehouses within two days.¡± Qian Weining said, ¡°Earlier, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said the Central ins guest would be bringing gifts with them. I think the warehouses that were tidied up might be used to store those ¡®gifts.''¡±


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Little Qian, I¡¯ve always felt that you were too scheming previously, so I didn¡¯t want to recruit you. But from the look of things, our cause really does need smart people like you!¡±


    Qian Weining blushed. ¡°Sir, you tter me.¡±


    Mel nced at Ren Xiaosu. ¡®<i>You say that he¡¯s scheming when he¡¯s the enemy. Now that he¡¯s be your subordinate, you call him smart. How two-faced! What¡¯s with your double standards!</i>¡® Of course, he did not dare to say that out loud.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°Y¡¯all can set up camp here first. I¡¯m going to make a trip back to Winston City.¡±


    Mel was taken aback. ¡°What are you going back to Winston City for?¡±


    ¡°I want to go back and see who that person from the Central ins is and what they¡¯ve brought here.¡± Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, ¡°This will be very important for ourter ns.¡±


    Qian Weining asked, ¡°Are you worried the House of Berkeley will try and get the better of the House of Norman with those ¡®gifts¡¯?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Mhm, you¡¯ve guessed it! Alright, y¡¯all sleep tight tonight. I should be back before dawn.¡± After that, Ren Xiaosu got up and walked off into the darkness.


    Meanwhile, Wang Wenyan, who was drinking happily with the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, suddenly felt a chill run down his back.


    Ever cautious, Wang Wenyan instinctively looked around but did not find anything unusual. He spotted an open window in the banquet hall and thought it might have been the wind blowing in, so he did not think further about it.


    ¡­


    The crescent moon in the sky shone brightly. In a ce without industrial pollution, the stars above resembled a seascape. The sight of the night sky was wondrous and spectacr.


    However, this scenery was nothing shocking to those who lived in the era of the wastnds, because the starry sky above their heads had always looked like this since they were born.


    Ren Xiaosu had read something in the library in Stronghold 88. Rumor had it that humans before The Cataclysm could rarely see the sight of a starry sky. Some people even had to make trips to the hignds or pr regions just so they could catch a glimpse of the starry sky.


    The people living in the era of the wastnds were not that obsessed with the starry sky. Perhaps the moremon something was, the less it would be cherished.


    Under the starry sky, a Knight of the Inferno was riding furiously on his horse. He exited from the north gate of Winston City and rushed north towards Ghent City.


    The knight was not wearing any armor. Instead, he was dressed in a cotton-padded civilian outfit that resembled that of a ranger¡¯s.


    He was carrying a long leather tube on his back, which wasmonly used to store documents and letters in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. The leather tube was waterproof, so even if it rained, it could ensure that its contents would not get wet.


    Within a week of Archmage Kayle¡¯s death, the Houses of Winston and Berkeley had already withdrawn their military forces from the north of their territory down to the south.


    The terrain in the north was unfavorable, and many of the cities did not even have walls. Therefore, it seemed that the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch intended to use Winston City as the opening battlefield, with Vaduz City behind it as the defensive line.


    In this way, the House of Berkeley¡¯s supply line could be shortened greatly, while the Houses of Tudor and Norman would have to travel a long way to get to the battlefield.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was nning to bide his time, which was a wise decision to take.


    Under the cover of night, the Knight of the Inferno had a determined look on his face. However, he vaguely saw something approaching in front of him in the moonlight.


    A momentter, the knight suddenly halted his horse. Then he turned it straight around and galloped back towards Winston City.


    Within five minutes, a steam lotive gradually caught up and drove alongside him.


    Ren Xiaosu was leaning against the window at the front of the train and wondering, ¡°Why did you run away when you saw me?¡±


    The knight was left speechless. He thought to himself, ¡®<i>I would be a fucking idiot not to run away!</i>¡®


    He did not say a word as he mped his legs tightly around his horse¡¯s abdomen and whipped the horse¡¯s rump ruthlessly.


    But no matter how hard the warhorse ran, it could not shake off the steel monster by its side.


    Ren Xiaosu asked from the front of the train, ¡°Why do I get the feeling that you know me¡­. What¡¯s that on your back?¡±


    The knight still did not say anything.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Why don¡¯t I take it and have a look for myself?¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu suddenly dispelled the steam lotive and lunged at the knight. Hended a knifehand strike on the other party¡¯s neck in midair and knocked him unconscious.


    He removed the leather tube from the back of the knight and opened it. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to find a portrait of himself rolled up inside!


    The portrait did not include Mel, Little Qian, Chen Jingshu, or An¡¯an. It was just him alone.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Seems like that guest from the Central ins is an old acquaintance!¡±


    Before this, even though a lot of things had happened in Winston City, it was at most Mel who came under suspicion for being the person responsible for the chaos. No one had suspected Ren Xiaosu.


    And now, although he did not know where the Knight of the Inferno was heading with the wanted portrait on his back, its existence alone was enough to prove that someone was aware he was the instigator.


    Who could have deduced that so quickly? It had to be someone who knew about the steam lotive and the Shadow Door, or in other words, that guest from the Central ins.


    In that case, who could sketch his appearance based on memory? It would have to be someone who had personally seen him before and paid a lot of attention to him.


    Although Ren Xiaosu had caused a lot of trouble in the Central ins, he did not leave behind much pictorial evidence of his operations.


    ¡°All the more reason to go back to Winston City now.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled. He wanted to see who had the balls to not leave immediately after finding out he was in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    And that person even fucking sketched a portrait of him for someone from the Kingdom of Sorcerers!


    But where was this portrait going to be sent to? Ren Xiaosu looked north. ¡°Is that where the Tudor family is? How horrible. You want the Tudor family toe and find trouble with me so I can help you deal with them?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know much about military strategy, but when it came to figuring out an enemy¡¯s conspiracies, his guesses were almost always correct.


    He put the portrait away into the pce. ¡°The artist is quite good. Maybe I¡¯ll find someone to color it and give it to Xiaojin as a present. I wonder if she¡¯ll like it.¡±


    ¡­


    The banquet in Winston City was still going. The Berkeley family¡¯s sorcerers were currently toasting each other at another one of the Winston family¡¯s manors. To wee Wang Wenyan, the House of Berkeley even invited many socialites from across the city to liven up the event.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch raised his champagne flute and said to Wang Wenyan, ¡°Our scout has already set off with the intel. When it¡¯s time, I¡¯ll use our double agent who¡¯s been lying low for many years to ry the information so the House of Tudor will remember Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name and face.¡±


    Wang Wenyan replied with augh, ¡°Patriarch, the preparatory work for this war has gone much better than expected. I¡¯ll be waiting for your good news then. The next batch of weapons will arrive in ten days. Patriarch, as you know, it¡¯s very difficult for us to send the weapons over. We still have to carefully avoid Fortress 178¡¯s detection.¡±


    ¡°To friendship.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch smiled and took a sip of the golden champagne. It was bubbling in the ss, making it look exceptionally delightful.


    Wang Wenyan downed the champagne in one gulp and suddenly asked, ¡°What are our chances of winning against the Houses of Norman and Tudor?¡±


    ¡°We only had a 60% chance of winning previously. With our new friend, we stand an 80% chance of winning.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was dressed in a tuxedo. He was already in middle age, so his face was a little wrinkled. However, the lines on his face made him even more charming and mature as a man.


    It was even more true when a confident smile appeared on his face.


    Wang Wenyan asked, ¡°Your Excellency, the Houses of Norman and Tudor are not easy to deal with. From what I know, those two patriarchs wield the ck Eyes of True Sight and also possess the most powerful spells.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch did not seem to have any intention of discussing this with Wang Wenyan. It was better to keep some matters that could affect the oue of the war to himself.


    A new song started ying in the banquet hall. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch smiled and beckoned for a few socialites toe over in a bid to change the topic. ¡°Let me introduce someone to all of you. This young man is our House of Berkeley¡¯s new friend. Aren¡¯t any of you going to request a dance with him? You mustn¡¯t miss out on such a good song like ¡®One Step Away.''¡±


    After that, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch turned to Wang Wenyan and said with a smile, ¡°These are all the nicest girls from Winston City. My dear friend from afar, you must cherish these beautiful times.¡±


    But just as he finished speaking, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch saw Wang Wenyan looking behind him with a stiff expression.


    In that instant, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch instinctively knew something was not right. Hisbat awareness was extremely good, so he dodged to the side almost instantly. At the same time, he reached for his belt to retrieve his Eye of True Sight.


    But it was toote to do anything now.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch felt a huge force hitting his waist. Then he got kicked three meters away.


    The ballroom was paved with smooth marble tiles. After the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch hit the ground, he couldn¡¯t stop himself from sliding across the floor.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch did not even have a chance to take out his Eye of True Sight.


    No matter how hard he usually trained, he had no resistance against the absolute strength facing him.


    This was how pathetic it was if a sorcerer allowed anyone to get close to them. Even a once-in-a-lifetime genius like Russell was not spared, let alone a mere patriarch of the House of Berkeley.


    Speaking of strength, the patriarchs of the House of Tudor, the House of Norman, and the House of Berkeley were actually quitecklusterpared to Russell.


    While he slid across the floor, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch suddenly saw a young man in a suit swinging his saber at Wang Wenyan!


    The unparalleled aura made it seem like the saber could split the world apart. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch swore he had never seen such a terrifying saber attack in his life before.


    It was not about how fast or powerful the sh was.


    It was how Ren Xiaosu, who had sneaked in wearing the suit Yang Xiaojin had tailored for him, had shed the saber with such a big motion that his suit burst apart.


    The motion created such a visually stunning sight!


    But unfortunately, Wang Wenyan was much more agile than the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch. Before the de could reach him, he had already turned into ck mist and flown backwards,nding a dozen meters away.


    The screams of the socialites erupted in the banquet hall. Some people hurriedly went over to help the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch up while the others immediately took out their Eyes of True Sight from their waist belts and prepared to attack Ren Xiaosu.


    Usually, most sorcerers would not even bring their Eyes of True Sight to an event like this. After all, their formal wear was close-fitting, so there was nowhere for them to keep their Eyes of True Sight. As such, they would leave it with their stewards outside the banquet hall for safekeeping. There was no worry their stewards could steal their stones.


    However, the House of Berkeley was slightly different. They advocated martial arts and also insisted that all sorcerers must carry their Eyes of True Sight with them like how a knight kept their sword by their side at all times.


    But before they could recite their incantations, a figure wearing a white mask jumped down from the chandelier on the ceiling and decisively knocked out all the sorcerers one by one.


    This hasty battle red up in an instant. Old Xu was so fast no one could finish reciting an incantation in the face of its quick attacks!


    No one knew when these two people had sneaked in, nor did anyone know what they wanted.


    Only Wang Wenyan was extremely shocked. He had drunk about seven or eight sses of champagne and probably two sses of wine, so he was a little tipsy.


    But when he saw Ren Xiaosu appear, he broke out into a cold sweat and immediately sobered up! This face had the effect of sobering him up!


    Didn¡¯t they say that Ren Xiaosu had already left Winston City? Why did he suddenly turn back?


    ¡°Why have youe back?¡± Wang Wenyan gulped.


    ¡°Are you surprised?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile, ¡°I heard that an old friend hade to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, so of course I needed toe and see him. Why are you here alone? Where¡¯s Wang Run? Didn¡¯t hee?¡±


    Wang Wenyan replied, ¡°It¡¯s only me.¡±


    ¡°What are you doing here?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile, ¡°What new ns does the Wang Consortium have? Why didn¡¯t you drop by Fortress 178 when you passed by? Isn¡¯t that a little rude?¡±


    Old Xu had already ended its battle on its side. Other than the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, there were no other sorcerers left standing in the banquet hall. All of them were lying on the ground.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu quite liked the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Ever since he came here, all his opponents needed an extra step of taking out their Eye of True Sight before they could attack. It was just like how the Central ins soldiers had to draw their pistols, only that it happened at a slower speed here.


    Therefore, many of the sorcerers were knocked unconscious by Old Xu before they could even take out their Eyes of True Sight.


    In the Central ins, most of the soldiers were trained to draw their guns quickly. Ren Xiaosu reckoned that after today¡¯smotion, the Kingdom of Sorcerers would have to start making its sorcerers practice arming themselves with the stones quickly after theypleted their stress training.


    In the ballroom, the socialites were cautiously hiding in a corner. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch had already taken out his Eye of True Sight and was about to recite an incantation. But midway through it, Old Xu punched him in the chest and interrupted his casting.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch gritted his teeth and tried to recite another incantation as he retreated. However, Old Xu caught up and thumped him in the chest again.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was close to vomiting blood. He was both anxious and angry, but no matter how hard he tried, he kept getting interrupted by Old Xu each time he wanted to recite an incantation.


    At this moment, a sorcerer lying on the ground slowly opened his eyes and quietly assessed his surroundings.


    The sorcerer had been knocked unconscious just now, but it seemed that Old Xu¡¯s hit was not precise enough, so he regained consciousness very quickly.


    The sorcerer was not in a hurry to get up. Having undergonebat training before, he reached for his waist belt and quietly held his Eye of True Sight in his hand.


    He looked in the direction of his patriarch and White Mask. He was waiting for an opportunity when both of them were standing still so he could quickly recite the Earth Bind spell. He wanted to use this opportunity to save his patriarch.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch had noticed this from the corner of his eye. He was gratified. The n members he had nurtured over the years had truly lived up to his expectations. They were truly much better than the members of other sorcerer ns.


    If it were the members of other sorcerer ns, they would probably start shouting and running around in a panic the moment they regained consciousness. How could they be as calm as this young man from his own n?


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch even thought of promoting the young man in the future. By the way, who was he again?


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was a little unsure if this was his son or someone else¡¯s son. After all, he had too many children. That young man was also a fringe figure in the family and did not look familiar to him.


    He didn¡¯t care that much. Once the Earth Bind spell took effect, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch wouldunch a counterattack.


    As he was thinking about it, the Earth Bind spell was dispelled as soon as it wrapped around Old Xu.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was stunned. What was that just now? Why did it disappear before he even exerted any strength? Whatever! And he continued beating up the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was really quite dumbfounded. He could not understand what kind of monster was facing him. How could he be so fast?! How could he be so strong?


    He finally understood why Wang Wenyan said the futuremander of Fortress 178 was going to be his eventual opponent.


    He also realized why Wang Wenyan said that as long as the Houses of Norman and Tudor went after this person, they would surely be in deep trouble.


    If someone like that were to get in close proximity, it would be a disaster for any sorcerer.


    No matter how many times you had practiced your spells or meditated, as long as you could not recite a full incantation, you were no better than the average foot soldier. There was practically no difference at all.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was filled with hatred. Only 10% of their sorcerers attended the banquet tonight. If more of them hade, they would not have been so easily overpowered.


    However, since the other party was capable of taking his life easily, he wondered why he didn¡¯t just kill him?


    Although it was a little humiliating to say that, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was very sure the other party was indeed capable of killing him. It was just that he did not want to do so.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was also a brave person. Knowing that reciting a full incantation was no longer possible, he threw his gold Eye of True Sight straight to Ren Xiaosu and roared, ¡°If you want to kill me, do as you please! Why do you have to humiliate me?!¡±


    As expected, only after discarding his Eye of True Sight did Ren Xiaosu give him a chance to finish his sentences.


    In the end, the Eye of True Sight he threw to Ren Xiaosu parabolically was thrown back at him by Ren Xiaosu who then said, ¡°Obediently stand aside. You just focus on fighting the war well with the Normans and Tudors!¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was stunned. After being in charge of a top sorcerer n for many years, this was the first time he was being treated as a tool.


    So the enemy did not kill him because he wanted to keep the House of Berkeley alive to deal with the Houses of Norman and Tudor?!


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch intended to say something, but Ren Xiaosu no longer cared about him and turned his attention to Wang Wenyan instead. He said, ¡°The Wang Consortium is nning to attack the Northwest soon, right? That¡¯s why they¡¯re so eager to unify the Kingdom of Sorcerers so that they¡¯ll have the strength to pin us down.¡±


    Wang Wenyan did not say anything. It was as though he did not want to answer this question.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°Why do y¡¯all have to start a war no matter what? Can¡¯t we get along peacefully?¡±


    Wang Wenyan said, ¡°I only came to travel and see the world.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re traveling with your Wang Consortium¡¯s firearms and explosives in tow? How can there be such logic in the world?¡± Ren Xiaosu emotionally said, ¡°I know you¡¯re a diplomat of the Wang Consortium, so you definitely won¡¯t admit to your intentions. But I want to remind you that the fate of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people depends on the decisions that y¡¯all make now.¡±


    Wang Wenyan shook his head. ¡°The people of the Alliance of Strongholds have suffered for too long. Only unification can change that.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t deny your point of view.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°But what if the Wang Consortium¡¯s current approach is way too radical?¡±


    ¡°How can there be no sacrifices and bloodshed for a revolutionary cause?¡± Wang Wenyan said coldly.


    ¡°It¡¯s other people¡¯s sacrifices and blood you¡¯re talking about.¡± Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice also turned cold. ¡°I¡¯ve always thought that it would be right to unite the Alliance of Strongholds, but you shouldn¡¯t have betrayed yourpatriots while the expeditionary army wasing south! It¡¯s true that the Pyro Company is your enemy, but they¡¯ve stuck to their cause and bled for the Alliance of Strongholds. They should¡¯ve died on the battlefield, not in a mire of conspiracy.¡±


    ¡°Is there a difference?¡± Wang Wenyan said, ¡°If the oue is good, what importance is the process?¡±


    Off to the side, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said with a livid expression, ¡°What are you two rambling on about?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at him before Old Xu dragged the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch aside.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was speechless.


    At first, he thought the other party was here to assassinate him. Butter, he realized it was not the case. Then he thought the other party wanted to plunder the Berkeley family¡¯s Eyes of True Sight, but that was not the case either.


    In the end, he thought he could at least interject a little, but he realized the other party did not even intend to give him a chance to speak.


    There was no negotiation, no criticism, nothing at all. By dragging him aside, it was basically telling him to stay quiet and mind his own business.


    But his House of Berkeley was supposed to be the protagonist of this city!


    Ren Xiaosu smiled at Wang Wenyan and said, ¡°Are you trying to stall for time? The Knights of the Inferno must have already surrounded us with their troops. The other sorcerers of the Berkeley family are also on their way over. But are you confident that you can stop me?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t make me stay either,¡± Wang Wenyan said coldly.


    Before those words trailed off, Ren Xiaosuunched his feet off the ground. The Winston socialites, who were hiding in the corner, only saw a blur before the young man, who used to be standing in the middle of the ballroom floor, arrived in front of Wang Wenyan.


    The faster Ren Xiaosu moved, the slower they felt they were. It was as though they were at the bottom of a pool several meters deep. Everyone¡¯s movements were slowed down due to the resistance of the pool water, and only Ren Xiaosu was moving at normal speed.


    It was as though they were creatures living in two different dimensions.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch did not say anything more. He only had one question on his mind: Were all the people from the Central ins so powerful, or was it only this young man in front of him?


    He looked at Old Xu standing not far away from him and rubbed the ruby ring on his right thumb with his fingers while in deep thought.


    But in the end, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch seemingly gave up on one of his ns. He got some new ideas instead.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was about to reach Wang Wenyan, Wang Wenyan¡¯s figure dissipated like smoke.


    Ren Xiaosu shed at him with the ck saber. But even though the ck saber was the sharpest weapon in the world, it could not cut through anything without form.


    ¡°Your power is really great for escaping.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. He had to admit he didn¡¯t have a good way to deal with Wang Wenyan.


    Unless Wang Yun also came to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Wang Wenyan would not be captured.


    Wang Yun, who could control the air, was Wang Wenyan¡¯s natural nemesis.


    The ck mist did not linger in the banquet hall. It flew out through a gap in the windows like a thin veil and blended into the night.


    Without saying any harsh words, the battle ended just like that.


    ¡°How boring.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed. He looked at the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch and reminded him patiently, ¡°Fight well, or I¡¯ll twist your head off.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was speechless.


    Ren Xiaosu swaggered out of the manor with Old Xu in tow. At first, his pace was calm andposed. But two steps after reaching the outside, he started making a mad dash for fear the people behind woulde after him.


    Everything happened quite conveniently for Ren Xiaosu tonight. He had taken advantage of the other party¡¯s banquet tounch a surprise attack on them. If they had been prepared, Ren Xiaosu would have been in a very difficult situation if one or two archmages managed to recite a fatal incantation on him.


    This was especially true when the Berkeley family¡¯s sorcerers were all gung ho warriors.


    On the same night, a grand pursuit began in Winston City. However, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch knew full well the Knights of the Inferno could not capture Ren Xiaosu.


    After Ren Xiaosu left, the patriarch stood in the banquet hall for a long time before suddenly giving an order. ¡°All sorcerers who were present tonight must keep this matter a secret. While the honor of our n is secondary, we have to keep things under wraps so the Houses of Norman and Tudor won¡¯t find out about Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength!¡±


    Wang Wenyan¡¯s whereabouts were no longer known, but the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch deeply agreed with what he said. They needed the Houses of Norman and Tudor to feud with Ren Xiaosu. Only then would the scales of victory tilt towards the House of Berkeley.


    For this reason, he even had the Knights of the Inferno lock down the entire manor. Other than the sorcerers of his own n, everyone who witnessed the attack tonight would have to be ced under house arrest here until the war was over.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was a self-proimed ambitious man of his generation. If he easily flew into a rage when faced with such a situation, he would not be qualified to start this uing civil war.


    As the head of a top sorcerer n, he had long learned to ignore personal sess and failures and only think on the side of interests.


    In this war, the involvement of the Central ins forces would undoubtedly increase the variables. But if they could leverage it well, the House of Berkeley would stand to benefit from it.


    When the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch thought of this, he made a decision.


    But at this moment, a loud rumble came from the distant walls. As the sound of explosions and chaos mixed together, the Knights of the Inferno outside the manor began to stir.


    All of this sounded like¡­ the walls of Winston City had copsed again!


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said, ¡°What the fuck¡­¡±

 Chapter 1186: Mountain path

    <h4>Chapter 1186: Mountain path</h4>


    After Ren Xiaosu¡¯s attack on Winston City, Wang Wenyan disappeared somewhere.


    Hepletely concealed his whereabouts instead of reappearing after Ren Xiaosu left.


    Wang Wenyan did not tell Ren Xiaosu the truth. He said he hade alone, but he could not have driven dozens of trucks to the Kingdom of Sorcerers by himself.


    Therefore, the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops who came to the Kingdom of Sorcerers with him were still around. They would serve as instructors to the House of Berkeley and guide the Knights of the Inferno toplete their military modernization.


    Another section of Winston City¡¯s walls had copsed, but the House of Berkeley¡¯s reaction this time was very unusual. They did not go after the enemy and instead began a new round of internal reshuffling.


    !!


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch ordered that from today onwards, all sorcerers of the n must put on their armor at all times and fight alongside the Knights of the Inferno.


    Every six sorcerers would form a group and join the Knights of the Inferno.


    This arrangement was not to increase thebat strength of the Knights of the Inferno. Its main purpose was to keep the sorcerers hidden among the knights to prevent anyone from carrying out a targeted strike on them.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s appearance had rung rm bells for the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch and made him understand something. So there was really someone in the world who could take on sorcerers very easily.


    The entirebat system of the Magi was simply too vulnerable in the face of the other party.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch also understood that the young man named Ren Xiaosu was trying to make use of the civil war in the Kingdom of Sorcerers to weaken the power of the Magi.


    This humiliated him a little. It was one thing for him to initiate a war, but it was another thing for him to be forced to start one.


    But what made him feel the most helpless was that he really could not stop.


    Sure, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch could send someone to approach the Houses of Norman and Tudor and tell them, ¡°Stop fighting. A really terrifying enemy has arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. If we continue fighting, we¡¯ll only benefit outsiders. Look, our House of Berkeley was nearly wiped out overnight.¡±


    But would those two ns believe him? Like hell they would!


    Just like the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch himself, if he had not seen how ferocious Ren Xiaosu was, he wouldn¡¯t have believed Wang Wenyan¡¯s words either.


    Moreover, the machinery of war had already been set in motion. The Knights of Tudor and Knights of Radiance had already set off for the south. Who knew if what the House of Berkeley imed was just a conspiracy?

 Chapter 1187: Vertical pupils

    <h4>Chapter 1187: Vertical pupils</h4>


    It felt like the world had suddenly fallen silent.


    In the early morning, the campfires that had just been extinguished by Qian Weining and his men were still emitting white smoke. Some of Qian Weining¡¯s men gradually stopped chewing on the biscuits they had baked over the fire, falling into a dazed trance.


    When Ren Xiaosu held the Eyes of True Sight in his hand, they looked like Ferrero Rochers manufactured by a Central ins candypany. To be honest, Qian Weining had never seen such a shocking sight before.


    What was an Eye of True Sight? It was something Melgor¡¯s father had spent all his life pursuing for naught. It was the dream of 90% of the people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, regardless of gender or age.


    An Eye of True Sight represented the mark of a sorcerer, and the Eyes of True Sight in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s possession was enough to bribe most people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, including Qian Weining.


    !!


    In the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers, not many people could resist the temptation of an Eye of True Sight.


    ¡°Sir¡­¡± Qian Weining hesitated. He wanted to ask where the Eyes of True Sight came from and whether they were genuine.


    But based on everything that had happened in Winston City, he already knew the answer in his mind, so there was no need to ask.


    Qian Weining had reason to believe the 61 Eyes of True Sight the Winston family had lost should be in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s possession now.


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu turned her down and said, ¡°It has to be Mel who teaches them.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu also had his own ideas. In the future, he was going to promote Mel to be the head of the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch office. How could he leave it to others since he was trying to nurture his own supporters?


    After he was done with the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Qian Weining and the others would be Mel¡¯s students. With this rtionship, they would definitely be of some use.


    If Chen Jingshu deliberately recruited Qian Weining and his men during the teaching process and caused them to defect to the Assassin Sanctuary, Mel would be a mere figurehead.


    Who knew what the inner workings of the Sanctuary had be after 200 years? What if they had gained a great desire for power?


    Qian Weining had had his men sit cross-legged on the ground, not minding that it was dirty.


    This group of soldiers from the Knights of the Inferno were all sitting straight. Ren Xiaosu simply distributed the 60 Eyes of True Sight to them, as well as a notebook and pen for everyone.


    Ren Xiaosu reminded them, ¡°Make sure to take notes during the lessons. You can review during the day while you¡¯re riding on your horses! Li Chengguo, Liu Ting, from today onwards, you two will act as the ss representatives. Remember to check everyone¡¯s lesson notes!¡±


    Li Chengguo, Liu Ting, and Mel were all dumbfounded. They felt as though they were being put up to something they couldn¡¯t handle.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not care what they thought. After delegating their tasks, he went off to a secluded spot to study his own spells.


    After confirming that no one was around, Ren Xiaosu took out his ck Eye of True Sight and recited softly, ¡°Prosperous Northwest!¡±


    That dazzling ster gate gradually appeared. The astral particles were spinning, and the spell once again opened a doorway for Ren Xiaosu to some other ce in this world!


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu was worried the roars of the ferocious monster woulde from behind the ster gate again. But this time, it was totally quiet on the other side.


    Ren Xiaosu peered through the ster gate that was half a meter wide to the other side. But perhaps due to the angle, he was unable to see anything.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu didn¡¯t even dare to breathe too loudly. After all, there was no spiritual contract with the summoned creature. If it were to suddenly attack him, he might not be able to withstand it.


    ¡°Hello, anyone there?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in a whisper.


    He didn¡¯t know whether the other party did not hear it or if it could not understand. In any case, there was no movement on the other side of the ster gate.


    The ster gate with a diameter of only half a meter was still too small for Ren Xiaosu to clearly see what was on the other side.


    Moreover, the ground behind the door appeared to be charred and covered in dark red jagged rocks.


    He could not even spot any proper vegetation within his field of vision.


    If he could get a glimpse of any nts, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s master-level wilderness survival skill would allow him to roughly determine the location of the other party.


    In fact, nature was capable of talking. There were tropical nts in the tropics and temperate nts in the temperate zones. Even the altitude of mountain ranges and the abundance of water were factors that determined the distribution of nts.


    But right now, Ren Xiaosu could not see anything at all, so he was unable to determine any useful information.


    ¡°Should I expand the ster gate?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself hesitantly.


    If he wanted to expand it, he would have to use the Proficiency Stones.


    One Proficiency Stone cost one gratitude token. Way back when, it wasn¡¯t easy to earn gratitude tokens, so Ren Xiaosu felt a pinch whenever he used them.


    Therefore, he hoped to properly choose a powerful spell to use it on and not waste his resources on weird spells.


    Ren Xiaosu had seriously thought about it before. The most powerfulnd beasts he hade across so far were probably the six-meter-long brown bears that the expeditionary army had brought with them and the Wolf King that followed Yan Liuyuan.


    But even if he could tame these two types of ferocious beasts, it would not raise Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strength by much.


    The Wolf King was really quite powerful, but the reason was that it had arge pack backing it. Therefore, it would be meaningless for Ren Xiaosu to summon a lone beast like the Wolf King.


    Rather than spending the Proficiency Stones on such a summoning spell, it would be better to directly use it on Meteor Shower.


    But every time Ren Xiaosu thought of that enthusiastic but ferocious roar he heard when he activated the ster gate, he could not help but want to take a gamble on the spell.


    ¡°I¡¯ll use 10,000 Proficiency Stones first!¡± Ren Xiaosu said decisively. He now had 92,000 gratitude tokens, and only 90,000 of them could be used. He wanted to save the remaining 2,000 for Yang Xiaojin¡¯s usage of the ck bullet.


    He carefully traded for the Proficiency Stones and said to the pce, ¡°Use them all on the Prosperous Northwest spell!¡±


    The voice from the pce in his mind, ¡°Confirm usage of 10,000 Proficiency Stones on the Prosperous Northwest spell?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Ren Xiaosu answered.


    A momentter, the Proficiency Stones piled up like a small mountain in front of the pce¡¯s vending machine dissipated one by one. It was as though the white limestone balls had been crushed before disappearing into thin air.


    Ren Xiaosu could feel the changes within his body, and it was as though there was suddenly an added sense of wonder in his mind. The summoning spell he was initially not that proficient in seemed to have be engraved in his bones.


    The brass typewriter in the pce suddenly started typing. With every tap of the brass keys, words appeared on the pale yellow leather parchment: Prosperous Northwest (Proficiency: 10,119)


    Ren Xiaosu was clearly taken aback. He had only used the summoning spell twice throughout, so why wasn¡¯t his proficiency at 10,002 instead?


    Wait a minute, could this also include the number of times he had uttered ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± before?


    It seemed that other than this spection, there was no other exnation for it.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. If he had known this earlier, he would have said the words ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± every day. He might¡¯ve saved even more gratitude tokens then.


    But ording to Mel, there was actually no qualitative change in practicing a spell several hundred times. If those few hundred practices were reflected in the ster gate, it would probably only increase in size by a few centimeters? That was why there was no obvious difference in the size of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s and Melgor¡¯s ster gates.


    Ren Xiaosu was very curious about something. If the Great Hoodwinker could master the ¡°Prosperous Northwest¡± spell, how many ster gates could he open? After all, the Great Hoodwinker had been going on about the Prosperous Northwest for most of his life.Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu decided to set aside a better Eye of True Sight for the Great Hoodwinker.


    However, he was unsure now if he were the only one affected, or if everyone else were also like this. Ren Xiaosu felt that everything rted to superpowers always seemed a little special when it came to him.


    The ster gate suddenly expanded from half a meter wide to three meters.


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at the brilliant ster gate and was surprised to see a huge creature lying on the charred ground and resting.


    But even though the ster gate had expanded to three meters wide, Ren Xiaosu was still unable to get a clear view of the creature¡¯s head. Even at three meters, he could only see half of it!


    The creature that looked like a lizard had dark red scaly skin. As it breathed in and out, a fiery glow could even be seen.


    So it turned out the dark red color he had seen just now was not jagged rocks at all but the skin of this shocking creature!


    Ren Xiaosu swore he had never seen anything so terrifying before in his life. If this thing¡¯s head was about six meters long, how fucking big would its body be?


    He gently touched the ster gate but realized his hand could not pass through it. Instead, it was blocked by an invisible force.


    From the look of things, the ster gate was a one-way portal. Only the summoned creature could pass through it from the other side; he could not pass through it himself.


    While Ren Xiaosu was thinking about it, that terrifying creature¡¯s eye suddenly opened. Within that amber eye, a vertical pupil that resembled an abyss was visible.


    The eye stared intently at Ren Xiaosu, but there was no roar, nor did it make any further moves.


    Ren Xiaosu was so shocked he immediately took four to five steps back and closed the ster gate at the same time.


    ¡°Is that really not a fucking creature from another realm?¡± Ren Xiaosu muttered to himself with lingering fear. He thought that even after The Cataclysm, the radiation should not have produced something that terrifying, right?


    Besides, wasn¡¯t there a big issue with his summoning spell? Mel had summoned a creature of the same size as the ster gate, so why did something several timesrger than Ren Xiaosu¡¯s ster gate appear behind the portal?


    As he thought about it, he suddenly felt that the creature looked a little familiar. However, he could not remember where he had seen it before.


    This feeling was really too strange.


    ¡­


    In the night sky, a huge falcon was quickly approaching the campsite where Qian Weining and the others were. Its sharp gaze was fixed on the humans around the campfire below.


    A 100 kilometers away, tens of thousands of the Knights of Tudor had set up camp. There was a brazier ced every ten steps or so in the vast camp. The warm orange light flickered in the darkness, and from time to time, armored patrolling soldiers would shuffle back and forth.


    In the camp, the canvas-sewn tents served as temporary barracks for the soldiers. There was even a strange fishy smell inside because many areas of the tents had goat oil applied to them.


    In the center of the camp, five or sixrge tents stood out from the rest. Every time the patrols passed by, they would look over in awe.


    That was because each of those tents housed a true archmage in them.


    At this moment, several sorcerers were standing solemnly in the main tent of the Knights of Tudor¡¯s camp. More than a dozen tallow candles in the tent were burning and emitting a strange fragrance. It smelled like an expensive spice was mixed in with the candles.


    The sorcerers were dressed in exquisite ck sorcerer robes with a white falcon¡¯s head embroidered on their sleeves. The embroidery was extremely lifelike.


    There was a transparent ice mirror in front of them that was as tall as a person, and the image on it was of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s camp. The mirror was formed from ice and was still giving off cold air, making it look exceptionally mysterious and eerie. The image on the mirror¡¯s surface was a bird¡¯s-eye view, quietly overlooking everything on the ground.


    A middle-aged sorcerer looked at Qian Weining and the others in the mirror and suddenly wondered, ¡°What are they doing?¡±


    All of the sorcerers were staring intently at the mirror. They saw Qian Weining and his men sitting upright on the ground and hands scribbling something.


    ¡°Notebooks, pens, and that young sorcerer is talking nonstop about something.¡± One of the sorcerers said curiously, ¡°It¡¯s like they¡¯re researching some kind of secret.¡±


    ¡°It feels to me like they¡¯re listening in ss.¡± A sorcerer frowned.


    ¡°Haha, attending sses on a battlefield in the wilderness?¡± Another sorcererughed and said, ¡°Who would have the free time to give sses in a ce like that?¡±


    ¡°Then what are they doing¡­¡±


    The sight transmitted back by the falcon stunned the sorcerers. No one knew what Qian Weining and the group were doing.


    The archmage, who was the leader of the group, said coldly, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about what they¡¯re doing for now. Based on our previous intel, they should be the group that just departed Winston City. The person who ryed the intel said they¡¯re heading to the House of Norman, but I don¡¯t think they¡¯re going the right way. They¡¯re about to encounter our knight regiment¡¯s vanguards.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, what are they doing there?¡± the others wondered.


    Initially, the falcon was soaring in the sky as a scout for the advance guard. But in the end, it discovered this small group of troublemakers blocking the advance guard¡¯s path.


    ¡°Fly a little lower.¡± The archmage ordered, ¡°Let¡¯s see what they¡¯re doing. Also, confirm if Melgor is in the group. Melgor is someone the patriarch has ordered to be killed. We thought we wouldn¡¯t encounter him if they went to the Normans¡¯ side, but we didn¡¯t expect them to send themselves to their death.¡±


    ¡°Yes, my lord. I¡¯ll make the falcon fly a little lower,¡± a sorcerer next to him said respectfully.


    But a sudden turn of events urred. A loud explosion boomed like a sudden p of thunder in the darkness. The long and narrow sniper bullet arrived in the blink of an eye and forcefully shattered the falcon in the sky into pieces of ice.


    Ren Xiaosu sneered as he looked at the falling ice pieces. This was probably the House of Tudor¡¯s doing again. In his opinion, the House of Tudor liked the falcon too much. If it were any other bird that flew past in the sky, he wouldn¡¯t have opened fire on them.


    However, based on the other party¡¯s speed of flight and his current marksmanship, his shots were simply too urate.


    Over at the Tudor camp, the falcon constructed from sorcery shattered along with the mirror in the main tent.


    All of a sudden, the sorcerer who cast the spell felt a splitting headache as though something was violently rolling around in his mind.


    ¡°What happened?¡± The chief sorcerer said with a solemn expression, ¡°What broke your spell?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. There were no signs at all, nor did I see who did it. No one at the camp even looked at me.¡± The sorcerer covered his head and panted.


    ¡°Just as the patriarch said, there¡¯s something fishy about this Melgor.¡± The archmage waved his hand. ¡°Help him down to get some rest. Also, Hall, lead a team and join up with the advance guard in case the opponent has any alternate ns.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± After a middle-aged sorcerer answered respectfully, he turned around and gestured for a few people to walk out of the main tent together. There were stewards and servants outside who had already prepared their warhorses for them. Hall even brought along two particr sorcerers who specialized in the Wind Bind spell to speed up the assembly.


    Ren Xiaosu had just returned to the camp at this moment. The gunshots from earlier had rmed Mel and Little Qian. Everyone looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°I think we¡¯re right in the path of the Knights of Tudor¡¯s marching route,¡± Ren Xiaosu said nonchntly.


    When Mel and Little Qian heard this, they immediately panicked. ¡°What? The Knights of Tudor? Then we had better quickly escape.¡±


    ¡°Escape? What for?¡± Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. ¡°This is as good as having Eyes of True Sighte knocking on our door, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    Mel retorted, ¡°Have you subconsciously reced sorcerers with Eyes of True Sight whenever you encounter them?¡±


    ¡°What else?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°Qian Weining has 192 men on his side, while we only have 64 Eyes of True Sight to go around. We¡¯re still a long way off from equipping everyone.¡±


    Qian Weining was stunned for a long time. He suddenly felt that the first group of sorcerer knights in the Kingdom of Sorcerers could be appearing soon.

 Chapter 1188: Massacre

    <h4>Chapter 1188: Massacre</h4>


    The reason Ren Xiaosu¡¯s group chose this mountain path was because it had been gradually forgotten after the smugglers were rounded up.


    However, this matter should be considered the other way around. You might want to take the most secretive path on the battlefield, but the enemy¡¯s infiltrating troops would also have the same thoughts.


    Under normal circumstances, if an experienced militarymander was present, they would tell Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Don¡¯t be arrogant and try to take any secret paths.¡±


    That was because military troops would definitely be more precise than smugglers when it came to mapping out an area. If it were a path that was even known to smugglers, the enemy¡¯s troops would definitely know it as well.


    No matter how decadent an army or dynasty was, one should not automatically assume them to be fools.


    Of course, if P5092 were here, he would give Ren Xiaosu apletely different answer. ¡°Just take whatever path you want. No one can stop you anyway, so you can do as you like. Who knows, you might even find an unexpected gain¡­.¡±


    This was probably the difference between understanding and not understanding Ren Xiaosu.


    Qian Weining looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Sir, do you think the enemy will approach via the mountain path as well?¡±


    ¡°I think so.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Otherwise, the falcon wouldn¡¯t have flown over here. Before The Cataclysm, some hunters trained their falcons and sent them out to scout the way ahead before a hunt, in case they encountered ferocious beasts like brown bears. I think the Tudor family¡¯s falcon should also have been used as such.¡±


    ¡°If they¡¯re the advance guard of the House of Tudor, there should be at least 600 knightsing this time. At least half of them should be light cavalry armed with crossbows as their main weapons. The rest arencers who are used for charging into enemy lines.¡± Qian Weining forced himself to calm down and said, ¡°More importantly, such infiltrating troops will be paired with five sorcerers.¡±


    He was a knight of the Berkeley family, and the Berkeley family had been the imaginary foes of the Houses of Tudor and Norman for 60 years. Therefore, as a qualified knight of the House of Berkeley, he would have to know how his enemies operated in war.


    But now, there were only 191 knights led by Qian Weining. Including himself, the total strength was just 192.


    And they may have been armed, but they did not have any armor.


    If they encountered the enemy under such circumstances, Qian Weining felt that their group would stand no chance.


    Therefore, Qian Weining was actually still feeling a little flustered on the inside. He looked at Ren Xiaosu, hoping to get some direction from the new master he had pledged his loyalty to.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Qian Weining. ¡°Continue with your study session. Stay focused.¡±


    Qian Weining replied, ¡°Huh?¡±


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    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, they won¡¯t be able to get here.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Y¡¯all might have some idea about my strength now, but I still have to leave a deeper impression on y¡¯all. This is the foundation of our trust.¡±


    Qian Weining and his men looked at each other. Considering that the enemy¡¯s cavalry was about to arrive, Ren Xiaosu actually told them to focus on studying instead.


    Qian Weining felt really weird, like he had suddenly be detached from the real world.


    At this moment, it was Melgor who sighed and said, ¡°Come on, everyone, continue learning thenguage of the Magi from me. I was just as terrified as you guys initially. But look, I¡¯m used to it now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu cast Mel auding look. Meanwhile, Li Chengguo and Liu Ting lowered their heads and looked like they had epted their fate.


    ¡°Sir, are you going to deal with that cavalry now?¡± Qian Weining asked curiously.


    ¡°Me?¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no need for me to do anything.¡±


    All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu became even more mysterious in everyone¡¯s eyes. Everyone suddenly remembered the rumors in Winston City that there were a total of three people who attacked the Winston Manor. One of them wore a white mask and was not afraid of sorcery.


    But up til now, White Mask never once appeared before them.


    When it was time for Qian Weining and his men to begin their lesson, Ren Xiaosu went off to the side to roast some mutton and ate it leisurely as though nothing were happening.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu sat up straight. This action startled Qian Weining and his men who were already worried about the situation. ¡°Sir, what¡¯s the matter?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Ren Xiaosu dismissed Qian Weining¡¯s concerns. Then he looked at Li Chengguo and Liu Ting and probed, ¡°Did you two see the number ¡®178¡¯ on that sheep¡¯s butt? From what I know, all the sheep that belong to Fortress 178 are branded on their rumps with this symbol. It¡¯s so they can be differentiated from other herdsmen¡¯s livestock. In the early years, there were always cases of shepherds stealing sheep.¡±


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting¡¯s expressions changed greatly, but neither said anything.


    Ren Xiaosu held back hisughter and asked, ¡°Do you two¡­ know about this?¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Li Chengguo stood up in panic. ¡°How could we possibly know that?!¡±


    Nearby, Liu Ting nearly cried tears of humiliation.


    Qian Weining, Chen Jingshu, and the others were a little confused. However, Melgor immediately understood what Ren Xiaosu was suggesting. He hesitated for a long while before saying to Li Chengguo and Liu Ting, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t know about this before. It¡¯s been hard on you two¡­.¡±


    Qian Weining and his men were dumbfounded. Why were they suddenly talking about something like that instead of discussing how to deal with the enemy cavalry?


    They werepletely unaware that Li Chengguo and Liu Ting had spent some time being sheep, and that they had been part of the flock owned by Fortress 178.


    ¡­


    On the northern mountain path, an 800-strong advance guard was quickly infiltrating their way over to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s camp.


    Dull clops came from the horses traveling on the mountain path. Their hooves were all covered with a thickyer of cowhide, and each horse had a wooden stick ced in its mouth to prevent them from suddenly neighing as they advanced.


    This cataphract unit was the elite of the House of Tudor. Even though they were marching at night, their formation remained very orderly throughout.


    Every once in a while, the soldiers riding at the front would slow down a little and have their otherrades take their ce to lead the slipstreaming efforts.


    The idea of slipstreaming was to reduce the wind resistance for the warhorses at the back of the group. By taking turns, the leading horses would not end up dying of exhaustion.


    As the crossbowmen rode on, they kept their right hands on the handles of their crossbows at their waists in case anyone suddenly ambushed them.


    Among them, six sorcerers were being protected by the knights. Meanwhile, there was also a group of sorcerers riding dozens of kilometers behind them who were sent by the main camp to provide support.


    With suchbat strength, there was no need to take Qian Weining¡¯s group of 200 or so people seriously. Even with a sorcerer like Melgor in the group, it would still not be enough.


    During the march, over a dozen soldiers in the cavalry formation kept short copper whistles in their mouths. When the whistles went off, it sounded likerks were chirping in the group. Only the members of the Knights of Tudor could understand the meanings of the signals.


    The whistling was so sharp it could not be concealed by other sounds even in battle, so the Knights of Tudor used this method to ry their orders.


    Especially in a chaotic,rge battle, the whistles the officers used to ry their orders to each other would no longer sound like the gentle chirps of ark but the shrill calls of a falcon.


    A bird cry suddenly sounded from a copper whistle at the front of the quiet advance guard. As the whistles were ryed towards the back, the entire advance guard on horseback came to a stop in their tracks.


    Everyone looked quietly and solemnly at the road in front of them. The several hundred of them went from extreme motion to extreme silence, making it an incredibly spectacr sight to behold.


    Everyone looked ahead and saw a figure wearing a white mask standing in their path and slowly drawing a ck saber out of thin air.


    Themander of the Knights of Tudor blew the copper whistle in his mouth. They did not directly charge at Old Xu but gradually closed in instead.


    The cavalry resembled a long dragon during their quick advance earlier. With fewer people traveling side by side, they were able to pass through the mountain paths faster.


    Now, they hadpacted their formation for a better defense.


    There was only one enemy, but the St. Tudor Knight in the advance guard felt the other party wouldn¡¯t have blocked their path by himself if he wasn¡¯t confident.


    The other party clearly knew how many people they had and theirbat strength, yet he still stopped them here.


    There was a sense of danger. The St. Tudor Knight could feel a strong sense of danger.


    At this moment, the stars were shining brightly above their heads as the crescent moon hung in the sky like a silvery saber.


    As they changed their formation, the St. Tudor Knight hurriedly blew his copper whistle. In an instant, a group of crossbowmen who were retreating pulled their triggers while on horseback and fired forearm-length bolts at Old Xu.


    But for some reason, everyone¡¯s vision blurred. By the time they could react again, they had lost sight of Old Xu!


    The St. Tudor Knight was shocked. That was too fast!


    A secondter, a ck saber seemingly burst out of the darkness and shed diagonally upwards across the St. Tudor Knight¡¯s warhorse and his body.


    The warhorse was beheaded, while the knight was cut in half at his waist. Blood sttered out into the night sky, but no one could tell if it was horse or human blood.


    ¡­


    Qian Weining and the others recited after Mel, ¡°A, B, C, D, E, F, G¡­¡±


    But before they could finish reciting the alphabet in thenguage of the Magi, they suddenly saw the sky in the distance get illuminated.


    ¡°Was that sorcery?¡± Qian Weining jumped up in shock.


    Following, it continued ring over there like someone had set off fireworks in the sky.


    However, Qian Weining and his men¡¯s line of sight was blocked by the hills, so they could not see what was going on at all.


    ¡°Those spells should be cast quite far away from us, so we can¡¯t hear any shouting,¡± Qian Weining judged based on his experience. He raised his index finger and narrowed his eyes, matching the ratio of the mountain¡¯s height to his index finger. He continued, ¡°I can confirm they should be about three kilometers away from us.¡±


    After that, Qian Weining looked to Ren Xiaosu. He wanted to ask him what they should do.


    However, he saw Ren Xiaosu with his eyes closed like he was already asleep.


    ¡°Should we wake him up?¡± Qian Weining asked Melgor.


    Before Melgor could answer, Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Carry on studying. Y¡¯all can take a break in another half an hour. We¡¯ll continue on our way tomorrow morning.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu ignored the group.


    Qian Weining sighed in his head. Perhaps, this was what a real big shot was like. He could remain this calm even in the face of any danger.


    However, he was also sure of one thing. Their group was indeed being secretly guarded by someone, but he could not be sure how many people it was.


    On that very night, not a single knight came charging into their camp. The hill two kilometers away acted like a barrier that shielded the massacre going on behind it.


    Qian Weining did not sleep well the entire night. The first battlest night had ended very quickly, but a second battle broke out not long after.


    Honestly, no normal person could sleep well in such an environment. Ren Xiaosu could only fall asleep because he was abnormal!


    In the morning, Qian Weining, Melgor, and the others walked out of their tents with dark circles under their eyes. They rolled up the tents made from waterproof canvas and bundled them on the backs of their horses.


    Ren Xiaosu greeted them in high spirits, ¡°Morning! Why do all y¡¯all look so listless?¡±


    Qian Weining hesitated for a long time before suddenly asking, ¡°Sir, what happenedst night? Are we safe?¡±


    ¡°Yes, of course we¡¯re safe.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°As for what happened, y¡¯all can see for yourselvester.¡±


    Mel, Little Qian, Jingshu, An¡¯an, and Chen Cheng became curious.


    What happenedst night had left everyone specting. If they did not find out the truth, they would probably die of suspense.


    After a quick breakfast in the morning, everyone set off immediately. After they navigated through a winding mountain path, the scent of the blood-filled ground in front of them stunned everyone.


    Even the warhorses were unwilling to proceed any further.


    Broken crossbows were scattered all over the ground, and blood was sttered across the mountain rocks like someone had drawn a grandndscape painting on them.


    Qian Weining was very experienced inbat, so he only had a brief look at the battlefield and concluded, ¡°There¡¯s at least 800 dead here!¡±


    Upon closer look, he also saw more than a dozen bodies dressed in sorcerer¡¯s robes. The sleeves of the ck sorcerer robes were even embroidered with the logo of a falcon.


    The only difference was that the originally clean falcon was stained dark red with blood.


    Overnight, the advance guard the House of Tudor had sent south were all dead, as were the two groups of sorcerers.


    Even as experienced soldiers of the Knights of the Inferno, they still felt a little uneasy when they saw this scene. More importantly, they did not even know who did it.


    ¡°Sir.¡± Qian Weining¡¯s trusted aide, Yao Bo, went up to him and whispered, ¡°I¡¯ve had a look. Other than the hoofprints and the Knights of Tudor¡¯s footprints, I only found one other person¡¯s footprints¡­.¡±


    Yao Bo was well-known in the team for his investigative and ambush skills. He was very observant and good at analysis.


    The Knights of Tudor were all wearing standard-issue boots that were very easy to identify. So it was not difficult to distinguish the shoeprints on the battlefield.


    ¡°You mean to say that the deaths of these 800-odd people were all caused by one person?¡± Qian Weining asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Yao Bo said in a low voice, ¡°Moreover, I went around to check out the surroundings just now. After the Knights of Tudor were defeated, there should have been several dozen people who tried to escape. But after they split up and fled for a few hundred meters, they were caught and killed one by one from behind.¡±


    If dozens of people who had escaped separately could get caught and killed one by one, how fast would the pursuer have to be?


    There was no way of dissecting this detail any further!


    Moreover, what was most unbelievable to Qian Weining was that at the moment of the massacre, he was still learning thenguage of the Magi a few kilometers away. He even had his lesson notes checked by Li Chengguo, the ss representative.


    A scene of violence and a scene of peacefulness were only separated by a hill. It was as though they had taken ce in two different worlds.


    As for Ren Xiaosu, when Qian Weining looked to his new master for instructionsst night, his master simply said it was fine, and it really did turn out fine. He had wiped out the Knights of Tudor¡¯s infiltrating troops in the blink of an eye.


    For a moment, Qian Weining felt both respectful and afraid of Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu urged his horse forward. ¡°Come on, Little Qian, lead the way.¡±


    Qian Weining went up to Ren Xiaosu and asked in a low voice, ¡°Master, should wepletely avoid the House of Tudor?¡±


    Qian Weining had been addressing him as ¡°sir.¡± But he suddenly changed the way he addressed him. As a matter of fact, this massacre had left an extremely deep impression on him.


    ¡°There¡¯s no need topletely avoid them.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It¡¯s best if we can get the Tudor family to send some people after us. That way, we¡¯ll be able to collect more Eyes of True Sight for y¡¯all.¡±


    Qian Weining sighed. This was a truly ruthless person.


    Mel walked his horse alongside Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Why are you in such a hurry to get to Ghent City? And why did those bounty hunters suddenly listen to your orders? You¡¯re from the Central ins, so you shouldn¡¯t have known each other before this.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s probably because I have some ties with the organization that the bounty hunters belong to,¡± Ren Xiaosu simply exined. ¡°And the reason why I want to go to Ghent City is to find out the truth of my origins.¡±


    In addition, he wanted to see what the reward for this mission was.


    He had already found three out of four clues required for the quest, so he was looking forward to the day it would bepleted.


    ¡°Origins?¡± Melgor asked curiously, ¡°Don¡¯t you know where you came from?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled. ¡°I woke up from a dark dream and forgot all about my past. Alright, there¡¯s no point in talking about this now. What I¡¯m curious about is what your childhood sweetheart looks like.¡±


    Melgor thought for a moment and answered, ¡°She¡¯s¡­ very dazzling.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve told me before that the Tudor family thinks that she¡¯s a rare genius in sorcery, so they arranged for her to get married to one of their family members.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Just how talented is she?¡±


    ¡°When she went to buy an Eye of True Sight with her money at 17, she got an Eye of True Sight in the first stone she opened. Speaking of luck, she¡¯s truly someone blessed by the gods.¡± Mel sighed and said, ¡°When she tried learning sorcery, the person responsible for teaching her realized she could already cast spells in the real world after only practicing it a 100 times in her inner world of meditation.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Is that what they call ¡®gifted¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Mel nodded. ¡°Moreover, this talent is reflected in various aspects. For example, her inner world of meditation is extremelyrge. Apparently, there¡¯s a sword in the shape of a cross as majestic as a mountain in it. This means she has stronger willpower. If others can practice their spells five or six times a day, she can practice 30 times. If it takes others 10 to 20 years to be an archmage, she might be able to cross that threshold within three to four years.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. ¡°Then she¡¯s much stronger than you.¡±


    Mel rolled his eyes at him. ¡°Can¡¯t you encourage me a little?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t feel bad. I¡¯m not saying you¡¯re worse than her,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    ¡°Oh?¡± Mel¡¯s interest was piqued. ¡°I¡¯m not worse than her?¡±


    ¡°Of course. You have me to help you.¡± Ren Xiaosuforted him, ¡°This is more effective than her working hard her entire life!¡±


    Mel snickered.


    ¡°By the way, how did she get engaged to a member of the Tudor family?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Originally, she was supposed to be posted to the border as a junior sorcerer like me. But when the Tudor family discovered her talent, they immediately approached her family to propose a union.¡± Melgor said, ¡°At that time, my family was already in decline, and her family was afraid to provoke the Tudor family, so they epted the proposal.¡±


    ¡°No wonder the Tudor family wants to kill you. So it¡¯s not a matter of jealousy, but rather, they want this genius sorcerer to be a true Tu family member,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a nod.


    From the look of things, Melgor was even more like a protagonist now. The person he liked was noticed by other ns due to her talent, so Melgor, together with his biggest benefactor, went back to kill them all.


    Next to him, Melgor ridiculed, ¡°They¡¯re called Tudor, not Tu.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not important.¡±


    ¡­


    In Winston City, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was standing quietly on the red carpet in the cathedral. He was adorned in his shiny silver armor.


    Someone brought a brazier before him. The mes in the brazier were extremely enchanting, like it was performing a crazy dance.


    The House of Tudor was well-known for their Ice Rend spell, while the Berkeley family was known for their Song of mes spell. It was as though these two ns were naturally ipatible and had never stopped waging smaller conflicts against each other over the years.


    The House of Berkeley even supported the House of Winston so that they could deal with the House of Voss, which was backed by the House of Tudor.


    Both ns had mastered mystic techniques rted to ice and fire and continued researching them separately on their own paths.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was holding his gold Eye of True Sight in his hand. The me in the brazier in front of him gradually turned into a humanoid. The tips of the me were the other party¡¯s hair, which continued swaying uneasily, making it look strange and mysterious.


    The person in the brazier opened his mouth and said, ¡°The advance guard of the Knights of Tudor have been killed. The enemy is continuing northwards and moving into the Knights of Tudor¡¯s area of activity.¡±


    ¡°What were the losses of the House of Tudor?¡± the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch asked.


    ¡°They lost 12 sorcerers, and one of them was even a rookie archmage who had just been promoted. Even their 12 Eyes of True Sight are gone,¡± the person in the mes answered.


    This brazier-and-me method was how the House of Berkeley transmitted their messages.


    This method of transmission was rtively convenient. As long as a fire could be started, they couldmunicate with each other. Moreover,pared to the House of Tudor¡¯s method, the greatest benefit was that this could be done at no cost of their sons.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was in an extremely good mood.


    His friend from the distant Wang Consortium had not lied to him. As long as the House of Tudor provoked that young man, that young man would weaken the Tudor family¡¯s strength for him.


    Humans were just this strange. Although the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch had also suffered greatly at the hands of Ren Xiaosu, when he realized the House of Tudor was also beginning to get affected, he was able to move on from his anger. He even hoped that his enemy, Ren Xiaosu, would live longer and not bump into the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch so early on.


    In this way, Ren Xiaosu could continue hurting the House of Tudor.


    In the eyes of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, even though Ren Xiaosu was powerful, he would not be a match for the Tudor family¡¯s patriarch if he were prepared.


    He said to the person in the mes, ¡°Be careful to hide your whereabouts. Let me know as soon as you have any news. Additionally, if there¡¯s a chance for you to influence the House of Tudor to see this group of people as foes, I¡¯ll ce you into the family tree. After your death, your soul can return to the Heavenly Kingdom.¡±


    The man in the mes became excited. ¡°That would be an honor for me.¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch decided to end this talk. ¡°me be with you.¡±


    ¡°me be with you.¡±


    After that, sparks burst out of the brazier, and the figure inside disappeared.


    The mes returned to their previous agitated state as though nothing had happened.

 Chapter 1189: Chess piece

    <h4>Chapter 1189: Chess piece</h4>


    ¡°All these people of the Kingdom of Sorcerers keep looking at us,¡± Luo Lan suddenly whispered to Zhou Qi as they walked on the streets of Winston City.


    The Great Hoodwinker, Luo Lan, and the rest had traveled all the way north, passing through York County and Vaduz County before arriving at Winston City. That was because the Great Hoodwinker had received thetest intel that Winston City had copsed and that the futuremander had appeared here.


    After getting this info, they rushed over almost immediately. But when they got to Winston City, everyone was a little lost and did not know how to locate Ren Xiaosu.


    After Luo Lan arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, he evenined to the Great Hoodwinker that his intelligence operations were terrible. How could he not have any spies here in the vast Winston City?


    Meanwhile, the Qing Consortium had done a very good job in this aspect. The Qing Consortium made sure they had spies nted in all of the strongholds in the Central ins so there would always be someone to link up with them.


    The Great Hoodwinker replied snappily, ¡°We¡¯ve only thought of counterattacking the Kingdom of Sorcerers in recent years. Before the Northwest got unified some years ago, and before Zhang Jinglin came back to take charge of the big picture, who could be bothered to n so far ahead? Dealing with the Zong Consortium was already enough to keep us busy every day.¡±


    Therefore, the intelligence work the Northwest did in the early years was mainly targeted at the Zong Consortium. Other than that, it was very difficult for them to have any spare manpower to make ns in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Now that they were finally able to carry out intelligence gathering, it was only natural they would ce their focus on Ghent City instead of a small ce like Winston City.


    Compared to Ghent City and Vaduz City, Winston City really was just a small town.


    At this moment, everyone¡¯s gaze was focused on them as they walked through the streets.


    Not only were the residents of Winston City gazing at them, but also the Knights of the Inferno who were patrolling the streets.


    However, the Knights of the Inferno seemed a little confused by the sight and were too scared to approach them at the moment.


    ¡°We¡¯re really the center of attention.¡± Zhou Qi said with a sigh, ¡°Who was the one who came up with the horrible idea to enter the Kingdom of Sorcerers without changing clothes?¡±


    ¡°Me,¡± P5092 answered calmly.


    Before entering Winston City, the group had wanted to steal some clothes from a farm outside Vaduz City. However, P5092 said there was no need to do so.


    As such, the group looked extremely out of ce on the streets of Winston City in their eye-catching blue windbreakers.


    Due to the backward textile manufacturing and dyeing technologies, the colors of clothing in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were still very dull.


    Sorcerers liked wearing ck sorcerer¡¯s robes, not because they liked to act mysterious, but because ck was one of the noblest colors they could choose from.


    Furthermore, Luo Lan and the others were not only wearing eye-catching windbreakers but also carryingrge metal boxes in their hands and bulging hiking backpacks half the height of a person.


    The residents of Winston City looked at them as though they had encountered an alien civilization.


    P5092 said, ¡°We¡¯re not here to integrate into their society. We¡¯re only here to look for Future Commander. It¡¯s better to join up with him first.¡±


    ¡°Was that why you chose to make such a sensational appearance?¡± Zhou Qi asked helplessly.


    ¡°Mhm, if Future Commander is still in this city, he¡¯ll find out about our arrival very soon.¡± P5092 said, ¡°We don¡¯t have an intelligence HQ in this city, so rather than slowly searching for Future Commander, we might as well amplify our group¡¯s presence and let him find us instead.¡±


    ¡°But aren¡¯t you afraid the people here in the Kingdom of Sorcerers will attack us?¡± Zhou Qi retorted.


    P5092 shook his head calmly. ¡°What¡¯s there to be afraid of? If Future Commander is here, he can handle them all by himself. If he¡¯s not around, we¡¯ll just retreat. Without firearms and explosives, there won¡¯t be many people who can stop us. If conflict breaks out, Luo Lan¡¯s martyred spirits can set up a machine gun post to cover our retreat while we leave directly.¡±


    ¡°You make it sound so easy¡­.¡±


    ¡°You and Luo Lan are carrying heavy machine guns with you in the boxes, and Ji Zi¡¯ang and Wang Yun specially brought heavy machine gun ammo with them. Do we still need to be afraid of cavalry?¡± P5092 exined, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I had Wang Yun and Ji Zi¡¯ang map out the entirety of Winston City from the top of the wallsst night. I¡¯ve roughly worked out more than a dozen ways to evacuate safely.¡±


    The group had abandoned their vehicles and decided to travel on foot soon after leaving the borders of Fortress 178. Initially, everyone wanted to travel light, but P5092 requested they bring heavy weapons with them. It was as though he had foreseen such a situation.


    Fortunately, they were all supernatural beings, so carrying a heavy load was not a problem for them in the slightest.


    Luo Lan thought for a moment and said, ¡°But are we going to expend all the ammo at this ce after lugging these weapons such a long way?¡±


    P5092 replied, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, as long as we can find Future Commander, it¡¯s equivalent to finding an armory. We won¡¯tck any ammunition then.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker added, ¡°Mhm, when Future Commander was at Stronghold 144, he took at least 20 heavy machine guns with him, to say nothing of the bullets. Those aren¡¯t even worth a dime in the Northwest. Not only that, he also took eight thermobaric bombs with him. When he went to the Zhou Consortiumst time, he even asked for a bunch of firearms from the Zhou Consortium and obtained several dozen boxes of grenades.¡±


    Luo Lan gasped. ¡°It¡¯s one thing for you all to go to the Zhou Consortium to snatch their people, but you even went to them to ask for their ammo? And the Zhou Consortium actually gave it to you guys?¡±


    ¡°What can they do? Since Future Commander asked, they couldn¡¯t possibly refuse, right? That Zhou guy is really afraid of death.¡± The Great Hoodwinker chuckled.


    ¡°So what should we do next? Stand here and wait for Xiaosu toe and find us?¡± Zhou Qi asked.


    P5092 nced at the Great Hoodwinker. ¡°Let¡¯s get started.¡±


    Zhou Qi was confused.


    ¡®What do you mean by ¡°get started¡±? What on earth are you guys nning?¡¯


    In the end, everyone watched as the Great Hoodwinker ced the metal box in his hand on the ground. After removing the safety catch, he took out an RPGuncher and a charge.


    ¡°That¡¯s the cathedral in the middle of Winston City. Aim for the roof. Future Commander will definitely see it if he¡¯s here,¡± P5092manded.


    Zhou Qi was stunned. Luo Lan was as well.


    Zhou Qi and Luo Lan¡¯s jaws dropped. They were lost for words. Luo Lan thought he was already arrogant enough. But in the end, someone even more arrogant than him appeared?!


    Nearby, the vignt Knights of the Inferno felt that something was off. They quickly went to close off the city gates, seemingly nning to trap the Great Hoodwinker andpany inside Winston City.


    They would then wait for the patriarch¡¯s orders.


    ¡°Great Hoodwinker, wait a minute!¡± Zhou Qi tried to stop him. ¡°Should we really not reconsider this?¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker shrugged. ¡°P5092 became themander after we entered the Kingdom of Sorcerers. I¡¯m just taking orders here. It¡¯s useless to say anything to me.¡±


    P5092 turned to look at Zhou Qi and said in seriousness, ¡°Every operation has its purpose. What we need to do is find Future Commander. Doing the most correct thing in the simplest of ways¡ªthat¡¯s what it means to be inmand.¡±


    ¡°I can understand what you¡¯re saying, but why does it confuse me a little when youbine those words with your actions?¡± Zhou Qi was astonished.


    ¡­


    The Winston family¡¯s Knights of the Hymn had already set off to the west where they would build a defensive line to prevent the House of Voss from interfering on the main battlefield.


    Someone predicted that the Winstons and the Vosses might get plunged into a bloodbath before the Norman and the Tudor families¡¯ campaign even started on the main battlefield.


    In the past 200 years, although the House of Winston was backed by the House of Berkeley, they still had some autonomy.


    But when the civil war began, starting from when the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch first stepped into Winston City, it signified the Berkeley family¡¯s takeover of the entire south of the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Even therge Winston n could only be horses tied to the front of a war chariot.


    As for where the chariot would head, that would entirely be dictated by the one controlling the reins and whip.


    Winston Cathedral had been turned into a temporary militarymand center. All military and political orders would be reported here and passed on to the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch for approval.


    Meanwhile, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch remained standing in front of the burning brazier and gathered information from outside the city that was constantly being fed back.


    As the mes flickered, the statues of the sorcerers around the cathedral seemingly swayed with the light. It was as though they hade alive.


    ¡°It¡¯s finally time to reap the fruits of our predecessors¡¯bor.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said amid the silence, ¡°It¡¯s time for the corrupted Houses of Tudor and Norman to hand over their ck Eyes of True Sight.¡±


    He held his gold Eye of True Sight and slowly recited an incantation. The figure in the brazier gradually became clearer before saying respectfully, ¡°Patriarch, what are your instructions?¡±


    ¡°Spread this information to every corner of Ghent City. Tell everyone that the junior sorcerer, Melgor, is leading his group there. The House of Tudor has already tried to intercept him several times but to no avail,¡± the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said calmly.


    The information did not mention anything about the Central ins, nor did it mention Ren Xiaosu¡¯s name


    Meanwhile, the Tudor family¡¯s reputation would get tarnished by this news. The n that had been established for over 200 years would definitely do everything they could to make Melgor disappear from history.


    At that time, the Central ins forces behind Melgor would definitely sh head on with the House of Tudor.


    So after all the careful consideration, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch felt he could finally look forward to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s performance.


    The only regret he had was wrongly assuming that Melgor was from the House of Norman, so he made the expensive blunder of handing Melgor a gold Eye of True Sight to create animosity between the House of Norman and the House of Tudor.


    In the end, that gold Eye of True Sight was given away for nothing!


    However, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch immediately came up with another n.


    He summoned another spy through the brazier. ¡°Go and inform the House of Norman that Melgor has Donnelly¡¯s gold Eye of True Sight!¡±


    After passing on this info, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch even wore a smile on his face. He wanted to see how the young man from the Central ins would react when surrounded by two of the top sorcerer ns.


    This Central ins force might look powerful, but in the palm of Michel Grantham Berkeley, he would only end up as a chess piece.


    At this moment, an explosion boomed above the head of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch. The roof of the cathedral was sted open in broad daylight!


    This shotnded squarely on the top of the cathedral¡¯s tower and, along with it, wiped off the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch¡¯s confident smile.


    The explosion was so loud it even caused reverberations within the cathedral. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch could feel his ears ringing. His hearing became muffled as though someone had covered his ears with thick cotton padding.


    Large chunks of bricks started crumbling down. The ancient structure, without the support of steel rebars, started swaying hard from the huge impact.


    The exquisite statues standing upright in the cathedral crashed to the ground one by one. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch could only watch helplessly as the arm of his father¡¯s statue got broken off and its body smashed to pieces by more falling rubble.


    Dust and rubble rained down from above. Fortunately, the will of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was still quite firm. He roared angrily as he recited an incantation andpleted it before the rubble could hit him.


    Dozens of ming, golden-winged Garudas flew upwards from behind him and shielded him from any falling objects.


    The ming Garuda was an exclusive spell of the House of Winston. However, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch had asked for the incantation and meditative visualization diagram to be given to him long ago, something which the Winston family¡¯s patriarch did not dare to disobey.


    As expected of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch, he was truly a genius sorcerer. He stood in the cathedral and controlled the Garudas without any fear of the aftermath of the explosion.


    A group of the Knights of the Inferno risked their lives and rushed into the cathedral. They wanted to weave their spears above the patriarch¡¯s head to prevent him from getting injured by the falling rubble.


    However, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch pushed them aside angrily. ¡°What happened?! Who attacked the cathedral?¡±


    A knightmander reported, ¡°Patriarch, someone just reported that some unknown people have arrived in Winston City. From their attire, they don¡¯t seem local. They¡¯re probably from the Central ins.¡±


    The aftermath of the RPG bombardment of the cathedral gradually stopped. The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch strode out and said, ¡°Surround them. Those people from the Central ins have gone too far! Prepare the horses and assemble the knights. I want to personally punish those arrogant bastards!¡±


    Immediately, a group of the Knights of the Inferno surrounded Luo Lan and the others while another group started gathering in front of the cathedral.


    But before they could fully assemble, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch suddenly saw a section of the city walls turning to sand.


    The greenish-gray brick wall turned into a fine pile of running sand. Someone had forced open up a breach in the walls.


    Heavy machine gunfire could be heard. That dull rattling sounded like a taunt from Purgatory.


    Before this, the Knights of the Inferno had sealed off all the exits of the city. Even the city gates were tightly shut as they were afraid Luo Lan and the others would escape.


    In the end, of the visitors from the Central ins turned out to be normal people. It was as though of them liked using the main entrance and insisted on destroying the city walls to leave!


    In just two weeks, the walls of Winston City had been destroyed for the third time!


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch looked in the direction of the city walls with a livid expression. A Knight of the Inferno rode on horseback over to the entrance of the cathedral and shouted, ¡°Patriarch, I don¡¯t know what method that group used to destroy the city walls. They have some terrifying Central ins weapon that prevented our cavalry from getting close. Before we could form an encirclement, they¡¯d already escaped through the opening in the walls.¡±


    ¡°Then what are you all doing? You let them leave just like that?¡± the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch asked in disbelief.


    ¡°They left behind some golden human silhouettes to control their weapon. After those people left, the golden silhouettes ran off like rabbits too. We couldn¡¯t catch them at all! But the moment we rushed after them, they immediately turned around and used their weapon to suppress us again. Patriarch, our knights have suffered too many casualties!¡± the Knight of the Inferno said anxiously.


    ¡°How many?¡± the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch asked.


    The Knight of the Inferno hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Based on rough estimates, our Knights of the Inferno suffered more than 500 casualties. That weapon is extremely powerful and can break a person¡¯s leg if it hits them. I¡¯m afraid they can¡¯t fight in battle anymore. But more importantly¡­¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t hem and haw.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said angrily, ¡°Speak up.¡±


    ¡°More importantly, three of our sorcerers have died, with two of them being your sons,¡± the Knight of the Inferno said, bracing himself.


    The three sorcerers had only gone over to provide temporary support. They had wanted tounch a counterattack with their spells after closing in on the intruders, but the range of the heavy machine gun was too great.


    Generally speaking, the range of normal spells was only a few hundred meters, and up to about a 1,000 meters maximum. For example, Lesser Fireball could only reach about a 100 meters away, while ming Garuda was effective up to a 1,000 meters.


    In fact, this range was quite good. It was definitely enough even in arge-scale war, and mobile units would get suppressed by such spells.


    But for heavy machine guns, even the shortest effective range among themon ones was at least 2,000 meters.


    Therefore, before the three sorcerers could even get close, they were already riddled with holes by the heavy machine gun bullets.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was covered in dust as he rode on his horse. He clenched his teeth and stayed silent for a moment before saying, ¡°Did they say or do anything before they attacked?¡±


    ¡°When those people first entered the city, they did ask the residents about some things.¡± The Knights of the Inferno soldier answered, ¡°They seem to be looking for their futuremander.¡±


    When the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch heard this, he felt helpless. Wang Wenyan had told him before that Ren Xiaosu was the futuremander of Fortress 178. Therefore, these people were here to look for Ren Xiaosu!


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch could not understand something. Did these people from Fortress 178 take the wrong medicine? Why were they all behaving sowlessly?


    He had only just treated the Central ins forces as chess pieces a while ago, but before he could gloat for a couple minutes, the other party had already run over and demolished his cathedral!


    ¡®<i>What¡¯s the matter? Can¡¯t you let others be happy? Are you people from the Central ins so bored you have toe all the way here to wreak havoc in the Kingdom of Sorcerers? Did the city walls offend you or something?</i>¡®


    Their enemy from the north was almost in their face, yet the city walls got damaged three times in a row to the extent of being unrepairable.


    How the fuck were they supposed to fight the war?!


    ¡°Retreat, retreat south to Vaduz City,¡± the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch said coldly.


    ¡°Patriarch, aren¡¯t we going to pursue those people?¡± the Knight of the Inferno asked.


    ¡°No.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch sneered and said, ¡°They¡¯ll definitely continue heading north. Leave them to be a pain in the ass to the Houses of Tudor and Norman.¡±


    ¡°Father, are we just going to let them leave after they¡¯ve destroyed our walls?¡± a young sorcerer nearby asked.


    This sorcerer possessed a red Eye of True Sight and had been standing guard outside the cathedral all this while. It was obvious he was one of the favorite sons of the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch and might even be one of the candidates to be the next patriarch.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch exined to him, ¡°If we chase after them at this time, we might end up getting caught in an encounter battle with the Knights of Tudor who¡¯re heading south. You have to remember, we mustn¡¯t be impulsive on the battlefield. All decisions must be undertaken with victory in mind.¡±


    ¡°I understand. Thank you for your instruction, Father.¡± The young man nodded. ¡°It¡¯s indeed a little disadvantageous for us to head out of the city at a time like this and get engaged in battle with the House of Tudor.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, it¡¯s good that you understand.¡± The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch was a flexible person. He seriously considered things and said, ¡°It¡¯s toote to repair Winston City. We can¡¯t fight the Tudors in a damaged city, so retreating back to Vaduz is the wisest choice.¡±


    The young man asked, ¡°If we retreat, won¡¯t it be equivalent to ceding the Winston family¡¯s territory? Would they be willing to ept that?¡±


    The Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch sneered, ¡°We¡¯ll just have to help them regain it in the future.¡±


    To be honest, the Berkeley family¡¯s patriarch also felt very bad about it. Even before they could catch a glimpse of the Knights of Tudor, they had already been forced to retreat by a baffling group of people.


    What the hell!


    But just as the House of Berkeley was retreating south, the patriarch suddenly made another n. He sent one team each to the Houses of Norman and Tudor, but no one knew what mission the two teams were tasked with.


    ¡­


    At the same time Winston City¡¯s walls were destroyed for the third time, Ren Xiaosu killed another two waves of pursuers from the Knights of Tudor before disappearing into the wilderness with Qian Weining andpany. They hadpletely disappeared from the sight of the House of Tudor.


    The legend of Melgor had already spread like wildfire in Ghent City. Some people said he was a low-key genius sorcerer who had single-handedly wiped out 800 knights of the House of Tudor.


    Some people also said he was an illegitimate son of the House of Norman who had received the teachings of the top sorcerers and had mastered the Norman family¡¯s Boiling Airburst spell to perfection.


    There were also people who said Melgor had feuded with the House of Tudor while vying for a wife with their n member and was deliberately sent to the border by them. However, due to a great opportunity he encountered there, he became an archmage within two years.


    Melgor had returned to Ghent City this time to stir up a bloody storm with the House of Tudor.


    In any case, all kinds of rumors were floating around, and all of them even had some basis in fact, so it was not entirely groundless spection.


    Right now, almost everyone in Ghent City was aware the House of Tudor had spent a lot of manpower and resources in their attempt to capture Melgor. However, they had no sess so far.


    Moreover, Melgor was surrounded by hundreds of knights loyal to him.


    Of course, everyone preferred the grassroots version of the different rumors floating around.


    A junior sorcerer challenging an elite aristocratic family by himself. This story of a grassrootseback was simply beloved by the residents. Everyone dreamed of bing a sorcerer one day, so those in the Kingdom of Sorcerers who harbored such dreams hoped they could be like Melgor one day and be someone the top families were helpless against.


    While they drank and danced in the taverns, they would get all excited whenever someone brought up this matter.


    Amid themotion, Melgor stood at a sewer outlet outside Ghent City and turned around to ask, ¡°Are we really going in?¡±


    The sewer outlet in front of him was as tall as a person. From the outside, it was so dark he could not see the end of it.


    The ce smelled foul, and there were even rats scurrying across the floor. They were not afraid of humans at all.


    Chen Jingshu looked at Melgor and answered, ¡°Ghent City has already been ced under martialw. If you want to sneak into Ghent City quietly, you have to go through here. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll discover another world if you go in from here. It¡¯s even more lively and prosperous than the surface of Ghent City where you used to reside.¡±

 Chapter 1190: Ignorant

    <h4>Chapter 1190: Ignorant</h4>


    It waspletely dark in the wide sewer pipe, with all light seemingly sucked away deep into the tunnel.


    It was no wonder Melgor was scared. Even a battle-hardened veteran like Qian Weining had to take a while to get mentally prepared and take a deep breath before going in.


    Chen Jingshu was calm only because she knew where the sewers led.


    Ren Xiaosu realized the entire bounty hunter organization probably yed an important role in the underworld of Ghent City. Their members were well-acquainted with this ce.


    He looked at the entrance of the sewer and asked curiously, ¡°Wait a sec, this sewer system was built with modern technology. Although it¡¯s be really run-down, such technology shouldn¡¯t exist in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡±


    !!


    The concrete on the walls at the entrance of the sewer was severely corroded, and even the steel rebar inside had be exposed.


    This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had seen a reinforced concrete structure in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. It was just as novel as when he first came across the ruins of human civilization back in the Jing Mountains.


    Therefore, the entirety of Ghent City was actually built on the foundations of a Pre-Cataclysm human civilization. This surprised Ren Xiaosu a little.


    But he was even more surprised the sewers could be preserved for so long.


    When everyone was living in the underground, they only united to withstand the cruel period of The Cataclysm. At that time, even though there was also injustice, life was at least considered bearable with the presence of Russell and the new magus order he led.


    As Russell was extremely charismatic, everyone was willing to see him as their leader and trusted him to handle matters impartially.


    Russell had even temporarily established a post-disastermittee and an underground court, so even the sorcerers who broke thew and bullied ordinary folks would get punished back in those times.


    And what was even more ruthless was that if a sorcerer broke thew, their Eyes of True Sight would get confiscated.


    Without their Eyes of True Sight, the sorcerers were no different from normal people.


    At that time, the old aristocrats wanted to rebel against Russell because of this. But they were no match for him before The Cataclysm, let alone after.


    The old aristocrats could not even afford to support themselves anymore, so they couldn¡¯t even raise as many sons as before. Without arge number of progeny to sustain their usage of bloodline spells, they were absolutely crushed by Russell.


    As such, the reason why everyone wanted to kill Russell so badly after returning to the surface was that they knew that as long as Russell was around, the old aristocratic ns could never make aeback.


    At that time, Russell had already started nning for the establishment of the magus school. If he seeded in shattering the ss differences between sorcerers and normal people, the bloodline session of those sorcerer aristocrats would naturally copse.


    In order not to hand over their exclusive spells and ensure the continuation of their bloodlines, the aristocrats instigated Russell¡¯s servant, Voss, to poison him.


    With Russell¡¯s death, the new magus order disbanded, and most of those who remained died under the encirclement of the old aristocracy.


    After the exploitation system was reestablished, some people could no longer stand being bullied, so huge disagreements arose with the old aristocratic ns.


    To not get killed, they returned to the underground world and continued living inside that gloomy world.


    It was also at that time that the Sanctuary members returned to the underground with them.


    Chen Jingshu looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, ¡°The times spent hiding in the underground were tough. At the beginning, the old aristocratic ns kepting down to encircle us on many asions, so everyone had to avoid their pursuit. Fortunately, the underworld wasrge enough, so it was not easy for them to track us down. Later, everyone realized it was actually not too bad to live underground, and the supplies gradually grew more abundant. The surface and the underground have be two independently run societies.¡±


    ¡°Then why did y¡¯all suddenlye back up now? I think y¡¯all should be nning something big, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What made y¡¯all take the risk toe out here, even if it means losing your lives?¡±


    ¡°The infrastructure underground is falling apart.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°Based on our estimates, the underground will probably copse in another 20 years at most. We have no means to build or reinforce the structures, so we can only return to the surface.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so before returning to the surface, the problem of the old aristocratic ns has to be dealt with first? Otherwise, y¡¯all will still die when you return to the surface.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°But it¡¯s toote. The sorcerers living on the surface have be a force to be reckoned with.¡±


    ¡°We have to look for a chance at survival somehow, right?¡± Chen Jingshu said with a sigh, ¡°We all know it¡¯s difficult, but how will we know where our chance of survival lies if we don¡¯t fight for it?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve found it now.¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    Chen Jingshu said calmly, ¡°Are you trying to say you¡¯re our chance at survival?¡±


    ¡°You can even answer without my cue now. That¡¯s an improvement.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Without any external help, y¡¯all can¡¯t defeat those sorcerers even if you continue developing for another 200 years. You can¡¯t pull off such a huge task by relying on those glib degenerates of the sorcerer ns. So you can only rely on external help.¡±


    Next to him, Chen An¡¯an said stubbornly, ¡°We¡¯re very strong too, alright?¡±


    ¡°Too bad y¡¯all don¡¯t have any extensivebat experience. It¡¯s unrealistic to always ce your hopes on the internal transformation of the sorcerer ns. Why would those sorcerers with vested interests honestly help y¡¯all out?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°So you need to galvanize your working-ssrades to rise against¡­ Forget it, I¡¯m not saying anything else, or something bad could happen.¡±


    Chen Jingshu was startled to hear that. ¡°Then what makes you think you¡¯re our only chance? I don¡¯t think you have muchbat experience either, right? You¡¯re in an unfamiliar ce, so who¡¯re you going to work with? Besides, I know you won¡¯t be staying in the Kingdom of Sorcerers for long. You don¡¯t have the time and energy to do all that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°However Russell did it in the past, I¡¯ll do the same now.¡±


    The Russell approach he was referring to was to beat up the old aristocrats before achieving a high degree of ¡°consensus¡± with them.


    However, Ren Xiaosu would be more ruthless than Russell. Although he was not good at political debate, he excelled in murder.


    Russell did not kill the sorcerers of the aristocratic ns because he was also a member of the Magi, but Ren Xiaosu was not. Right from the beginning, he did not have anypassion for the Magi. There was only a blood feud between them.


    Qian Weining and the others listened to their conversation from next to them and fell silent.


    Just yesterday, Qian Weining had thought Ren Xiaosu purely wanted to kill sorcerers. But now he realized Ren Xiaosu was actually challenging the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Although the two methods might look simr in process, the oue and difficulty werepletely different.


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and smiled at Qian Weining and his men. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared. Even if I fail, y¡¯all can still follow me to the Central ins. That¡¯s the backup n I¡¯ve left for y¡¯all.¡±


    ¡°Master, you don¡¯t have to worry. As long as you don¡¯t betray us, we¡¯ll surely follow you to our deaths.¡± Qian Weining hurriedly expressed his loyalty.


    Chen Jingshu went to the side and chopped down some tree branches. Then she had An¡¯an bring over some canvas tarps and wrap them around the branches so they could set them alight.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Lighting torches, of course.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°After we enter the sewers, follow me closely. If you take the wrong path while carrying a torch, you could end up walking into a dead zone and get poisoned to death by the toxic fumes or trigger an explosion and blow yourselves up.¡±


    ¡°Dead zone? Explosion?¡± Ren Xiaosu said dumbfoundedly, ¡°Are there traps in the sewers? Who set them?¡±


    Chen Jingshu said, ¡°It might¡¯ve beenid by the people who built this underground city. The explosions always happen very suddenly, but no one knows why.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°How¡¯s that a fucking trap? It¡¯s obviously your torches igniting the umted methane in the underground that caused the explosions.¡±


    When this huge underground city was initially designed, the problem of venttion must have definitely been considered. But after such a long time, with the venttion systems no longer working and the copse of some parts of the interior, it would certainly cause a methane buildup in some areas. If anyone went near those spots with a naked me, it would definitely trigger an explosion.


    Therefore, those were not traps deliberately set up by anyone.


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Anyways, there¡¯s no need to light torches.¡±


    He brought out a dozen powerful shlights from the pce and handed them out. Then he pulled out a tritiummp stolen from the Qing Consortium some time ago and used it as an illumination device.


    Chen Jingshu, Qian Weining, and everyone else held their shlights with confused looks on their faces. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡±


    ¡°Press the button.¡± Ren Xiaosu demonstrated it to them. A beam of light shone into the sewers and suddenly illuminated the area dozens of meters ahead. It became bright as day in the sewers.


    Chen Jingshu was shocked. ¡°What the hell is this!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly got the impression of a high-level civilization crushing a low-level civilization.


    He patiently exined, ¡°This is what technology is. It¡¯s a device that uses electricity as a power source to provide illumination. If a shlight is only turned on to the minimum brightness, it should be able to run for several days.¡±


    Qian Weining looked intently at the shlight in his hand as though he had found a treasure. ¡°Master, you¡¯re actually letting us use something so precious?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°What¡¯s so precious about that? It¡¯s standard issue forbat troops in the Central ins! Y¡¯all really don¡¯t have much knowledge about the Central ins, do you? And under the rule of the magus order, you have no grasp of technology either.¡±


    ¡°Is the Central ins really that amazing?¡± Qian Weining sighed emotionally. He got an urge to go there to have a look.


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°If a powerful shlight can surprise you guys like this, I wonder how shocked y¡¯all will be when you see things like cameras, tap water, and TVs. Don¡¯t worry. Even if I need y¡¯all to remain at the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch office in the future, you can still visit the Central ins often.¡±


    The Kingdom of Sorcerers was only about a 1,000 kilometers from Fortress 178. It was not really that far away with modern transportation. If he drove the steam lotive at full speed, it would only take them ten hours to get there.


    Chen Jingshu looked at the tritiummp in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. ¡°Then what¡¯s that you¡¯re holding?¡±


    ¡°This is called a tritiummp.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°It uses radioactive material as a light source. If it¡¯s not broken, it canst for 20 years or even longer.¡±


    ¡°Wow! 20 years?!¡± everyone around him eximed.


    Ren Xiaosu felt like he was facing a group of curious toddlers.


    He quietly sized up the group of curious toddlers before taking out a pair of military binocrs and handing it to Qian Weining. ¡°Here, try it. This thing will allow you to see very far.¡±


    ¡°Wow! It¡¯s so clear!¡± Qian Weining eximed, ¡°What¡¯s this magical thing? How can it be so amazing?!¡±


    Chen Jingshu took the binocrs from him and discovered that she could even see details hundreds of meters out with them.


    ¡°So this is the technology of the Central ins?¡± Chen Jingshu muttered.


    Everyone passed around the binocrs and fiddled with them. In the end, they all let out a heartfelt exmation after giving it a try.


    ¡°I like how ignorant y¡¯all look,¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled.


    Thisment made Chen Jingshu and the others feel bad, but they could note up with any excuses.


    Ren Xiaosu nced at them. Then he took out a pistol with a silencer attached and fired it at a sparrow flying across the sky.


    The sparrow¡¯s feathers scattered as it fell straight to the ground.


    ¡°Wow, it¡¯s that powerful?¡± everyone around him eximed again.


    Ren Xiaosu had Qian Weining bring over the sparrow. ¡°Have a look at the sparrow¡¯s wound.¡±


    Qian Weining checked and was surprised to find the sparrow¡¯s body had been prated by the bullet and became badly mutted.


    He said in shock, ¡°Master, is this the weapon of the Central ins?¡±


    Qian Weining was 31 years old this year, so he had not participated in the war 17 years ago. However, he had still heard of the weapons of the Central ins.


    But at that time, he was still a little skeptical when he heard others describing firearms to him. Only at this moment did he realize how ruthless this weapon was.


    ¡°We¡¯re at the edge of Ghent City, so I can¡¯t show you how powerful the other weapons are yet. Pistols are the least powerful type of firearm we have.¡± Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°But its feature is that it¡¯s much more urate and powerful than the bow and arrow. Moreover, it¡¯s so fast it¡¯s almost impossible to dodge.¡±


    Chen Jingshu said, ¡°This thing is much more powerful than a concealed crossbow.¡±


    People like Chen Jingshu and Qian Weining could immediately appreciate the difference between firearms and bows. Meanwhile, Melgor, Li Chengguo, and Liu Ting were stuck at a level of understanding that could only be described with ¡°how powerful!¡±, ¡°wow!¡±, and ¡°fuck!¡± They knew this thing was powerful, but they did not know just how powerful it was.


    Ren Xiaosu ced the pistol in Qian Weining¡¯s hand and said, ¡°I¡¯ll take y¡¯all out for shooting practice in the next few days if there¡¯s an opportunity. After you¡¯ve familiarized yourselves, I¡¯ll equip each of you with a gun and a 100 bullets.¡±


    Qian Weining was moved. ¡°Master, you¡¯re giving us this thing too? You¡¯re way too generous!¡±


    ¡°Ahem, since y¡¯all have pledged your allegiance to me, of course I can¡¯t keep things to myself,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Chen Jingshu hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Can you sell me one? I¡¯ll pay for it. Is a 100 gold coins enough?¡±


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu was really tempted to negotiate an arms deal with the Kingdom of Sorcerer at this moment. A normal pistol could actually be traded for a 100 gold coins here? He could fucking make a killing with this!


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not ept her offer. Instead, he just gave Chen Jingshu a pistol. He put it in her hands and said, ¡°I can give you it for free, but don¡¯t use it before I teach y¡¯all how to shoot. idents can happen easily. Also, you must remember that this weapon can be extremely dangerous. Don¡¯t ever point it at your allies.¡±


    The reason why Ren Xiaosu thought of issuing guns to these people was that he suddenly felt that he might have taken some unnecessary steps before.


    He had thought of establishing the first group of sorcerer knights in the kingdom. Having such extremely strong spell bombardiers asbatants was like having bomber nes. Just the thought of that was extremely powerful. Besides, such a force would not cost any money to maintain nor would it waste any ammo.


    Butter, Ren Xiaosu thought that pistols, automatic rifles, and bullets were not expensive anyway. In that case, why not just turn these people into modern troops first before they be sorcerers?


    With automatic rifles and heavy machine guns, wouldn¡¯t it be a piece of cake for them to take on the cavalry of the sorcerer ns? If they could find favorable terrain to fight on, it shouldn¡¯t even be a problem for a 100-odd people to defeat several thousand horsemen, right?


    Moreover, Qian Weining revealed a unique skill while traveling north: precise range estimation!


    This might sound like some mysterious skill, but it was actually just using one¡¯s thumb as a reference point to gauge the enemy¡¯s distance.


    In other words, Qian Weining was born to be an artilleryman. With some training, he could carry a long-range mortar everywhere on the battlefield. Even if those were physical attacks, it shouldn¡¯t be much different from sorcery, right? Besides, such attacks were much more powerful than what junior sorcerers could conjure.


    Even Ren Xiaosu could not say he was not threatened by artillery fire based on his present level. At most, he could only avoid the trajectory of the artillery. If a shell reallynded on him, he would still die.


    If it were something that even Ren Xiaosu was afraid of, sorcerers would be scared all the more.


    Therefore, before establishing the sorcerer knights, it would be better to establish the first modern army in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. He already had a supply of firearms anyway.


    ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s go in,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Chen Jingshu held up her powerful shlight and led the way. Their footsteps made sshing sounds as they stepped in the dirty water in the sewer. The sshes sounded particrly loud as they reverberated through the sewer pipes.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the sewer walls and saw some strange scribblings on them. Some were written in Chinese while others were in the Magi¡¯s tongue. The vivid writing resembled some kind of special spiritual slogans.


    He could not understand the Magi¡¯s tongue, but he knew Chinese.


    The walls were written with words like ¡°freedom¡± and ¡°resistance¡± and were apanied by some mboyant, weird patterns.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who wrote all that?¡±


    ¡°The residents of the underground, of course.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°It¡¯s just random graffiti to vent their emotions. I heard that people used to like drawing graffiti on walls before The Cataclysm.¡±


    ¡°I heard the House of Norman killed everyone in the underground during their search for Donnelly?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°They nearly did.¡± Chen Jingshu said calmly, ¡°They killed almost half of the underground inhabitants. But after more than a 100 years away, they were no longer familiar with the situation underground, so they did not discover the new hiding ces we found. It was also that incident that made us determined to return to the surface and not wait to be ughtered here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu used the tritiummp to illuminate the walls on both sides. He suddenly felt that the graffiti had a strange, chaotic sense of beauty.


    As they walked deeper in, the view in front of them suddenly opened up. An even wider underground world appeared in front of everyone: A canal sorge tanks could drive through them, a picturesque patchwork of asymmetricallyid-out steps, deformed steel above them.


    The corrosion on the steel was so thick Ren Xiaosu even suspected they would crumble with just a slight touch.


    Chen Jingshu followed his gaze and looked up as well. Then she exined, ¡°Those things above our heads were probably pipelines during the Pre-Cataclysm times. No one has touched them in a long time.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed in amazement. This ce was like an abandoned underground factory with a strong sense of mystery.


    And for the vivid graffiti that could be seen everywhere, most of them had now turned into portraits, such as angels with withered wings, the back of someone, or crows and tigers.


    There was no clear artistic style to the drawings here, and it seemed as though people drew whatever came to their minds.


    Chen Jingshu said, ¡°Actually, there¡¯s a hidden secret behind these drawings, some of which include route directions. Only a small number of people living in the underground can understand them, and they¡¯re the leaders of the underground.¡±


    ¡°So you can understand it because you¡¯re also one of the leaders?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°I¡¯m not, but Chen An¡¯an and Chen Cheng¡¯s father is,¡± Chen Jingshu replied.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if his weapons would be enough to equip an entire resistance force if the underground inhabitants really staged a rebellion.


    Chen Jingshu and the others had never seen modern weapons before. That was why they felt they had to get enough sorcerers to overthrow the Magi. After all, normal people could not fight against the sorcerers.


    However, Ren Xiaosu felt that this matter was not thatplicated.


    Modern firearms and explosives were good enough to kill gods, let alone a group of pseudogods.


    Ren Xiaosu touched the paint on the walls and said, ¡°This is no ordinary paint. It¡¯s made from ground up minerals, right? That¡¯s why they can maintain such bright colors in the underground.¡±


    Normal pigments could not be preserved for a long time, especially when exposed to foul air. But mineral pigments were different. They couldst much longer than normal pigments.


    Upon hearing Ren Xiaosu¡¯s question, Chen Jingshu¡¯s expression changed. She even chose to avoid answering.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°So y¡¯all must¡¯ve discovered these colorful minerals when you continued excavating arger space in the original underworld, right? These things wouldn¡¯t have appeared in the original sewers. The reason why the Norman family failed to exterminate all y¡¯all was that they didn¡¯t know y¡¯all had dug up other spaces, such as a lower second, third, or fourth level underground.¡±


    Chen Jingshu frowned. ¡°I¡¯ve somewhat underestimated you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t look so surprised.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°When mypanions arrive, they¡¯ll blow your mind even more.¡±


    Soon after, when they advanced another few hundred meters forward, a voice suddenly rang out in front of them, ¡°Who is it? Identify yourselves!¡±


    ¡°Monday, the gods fall,¡± Chen Jingshu replied with a secret phrase.


    Qian Weining, who was standing behind Ren Xiaosu, took a few steps forward and stood warily in front of his new master. He shone his shlight over and was surprised to see a young man whose face was covered in tattoos.


    Chen Jingshu exined to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Those with tattooed faces can no longer return to living in the cities on the surface. They¡¯re the guardians of the entire underground world.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that the underworld of Ghent City resembled a product of the era of the wastnds more than anything he had ever seen.

 Chapter 1191: ccc

    <h4>Chapter 1191:c</h4>


    The culture of tattooing was not prevalent in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Ren Xiaosu had only seen them on porters near the ry station as he traveled here from the south. At that time, Melgor exined to him that tattoos were used to identify those who were formerly criminals.


    Therefore, tattoos were actually a mark of shame for the normal citizens in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    But it was different in the underground world. They used tattoos as a symbol of their resistance, while the most loyal guardians tattooed their faces to show their determination to stand up to the magus order.


    Meanwhile, bounty hunters like Chen Jingshu could disguise themselves as normal citizens and return to the surface at any time by blending in with the crowd.


    But the same could not be said for the guardians. Once they returned to the surface, they would be out of ce with everyone else.


    !!


    In the quiet underworld, the guardian¡¯s facial tattoo made him look extremely ferocious.


    The guardian wore a worn-out fur coat and a pair of torn boots that were split at the seams. Although it was already summer, 36 degrees Celsius, on the surface, the underground was still dark and cool.


    When Chen Jingshu answered with the secret phrase, the guardian opened a rusted metal door next to him.


    Everyone filed in. Ren Xiaosu, who was walking in front, felt that the underground had suddenly be bustling with activity. The open area in front of him was spacious like an underground factory.


    When Ren Xiaosu and the others went into the factory-like underground ck market, almost everyone inside suddenly turned to look at them.


    Their group was obviously from the surface, but it was rare to see hundreds of people from the surface suddenlying down to the underground world. Many of the stall operators cast wary looks at Ren Xiaosu andpany, as though they were all a little worried.


    ¡°Keep moving and don¡¯t stop here. We¡¯ll scare them.¡± Chen Jingshu continued leading the way forward. When the ck market stall operators saw them leaving, they resumed their normal trading activities as though nothing had happened.


    ¡°Don¡¯t they know who y¡¯all are?¡± Ren Xiaosu was curious. ¡°You¡¯re also a member of the Sanctuary.¡±


    ¡°Members of the Sanctuary don¡¯t walk around announcing their identities.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°Only the guardians in the lower levels are aware of who we are.¡±


    ¡°Is that to avoid getting surrounded?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s aplicated bunch here. There¡¯s more money to be made in betraying a Sanctuary member than selling a 100 metal swords,¡± Chen Jingshu exined.


    The group continued walking farther in. Ren Xiaosu even asionally spotted some of the inhabitants living here, but he only saw the elderly and children.


    ¡°The young and strong ones, regardless of their gender, are all working below.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°There¡¯s no good-for-nothings living in the underground. Lazy people definitely can¡¯t survive down here. So you¡¯ll mostly only see the elderly and children on the first sublevel.¡±


    ¡°What do the young and strong people do below?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°All kinds of shady businesses.¡± Chen Jingshu said, ¡°For example, melting down silver pieces to recast into silver coins, forging iron arrowheads, smuggling goods, and manufacturing workshops for all kinds of prohibited goods.¡±


    ¡°This is argeir for illicit activities,¡± Ren Xiaosumented.


    Chen Jingshu shot him a nce and said, ¡°If you were in their shoes, you wouldn¡¯t be saying that. It¡¯s already good enough the underground people can survive. Why would they care whether what they do is illegal or not?¡±


    A momentter, a man in a brown linen robe suddenly appeared in front of them. The hooded man was waiting in the tunnel as though he were expecting the arrival of Ren Xiaosu andpany.


    Chen Jingshu looked at Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Follow me. There¡¯s someone who wants to meet you.¡±


    The man, whose identity was concealed, turned around and led the way forward without saying a word.


    They made their way through the underground, twisting and turning through the tunnels, and even going down some stairs to head deeper into the underground. When they walked past some of the secret passageways, the guardians keeping watch nearby would even bow to that man.


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    It was obvious the other party¡¯s status in the underground world was much higher than Chen Jingshu¡¯s.


    After turning into a long and dark passageway, the sound of a few people talking suddenly came from the corner ahead.


    As Ren Xiaosu walked in, he felt that something was off. He turned around and looked at Mel, who was frozen in ce. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±


    However, it seemed that Mel did not hear what Ren Xiaosu said. He just rushed forward in a daze.


    Ren Xiaosu was surprised. ¡°Did you see a friend?¡±


    ¡°Summer!¡± Melgor shouted anxiously, ¡°Is that you?¡±


    The voicesing from the corner ahead suddenly quieted down. Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Jingshu. ¡°Summer? Who¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°Summer Russell, Russell¡¯s descendant.¡± Chen Jingshu grinned from ear to ear. ¡°She¡¯s also the love interest of Sorcerer Melgor.¡±


    ¡°So the reason y¡¯all went to York County was to help this girl look for Melgor, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you say so earlier? You even fabricated such a strange lie.¡±


    ¡°We were nning to leave some money for him in his Sorcerer¡¯s Tower, but who knew you¡¯d suddenlye killing out of nowhere?¡± Chen An¡¯an rolled her eyes. ¡°Besides, we didn¡¯t even know who you were, so why would we tell you the truth?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was shocked. ¡°Leave some money for him?!¡±


    He didn¡¯t know whether tough or cry. ¡°Mel is really such an expert moocher!¡±

 Chapter 1192 An old photograph

    Chapter 1192 An old photograph


    Melgor, otherwise known as Mel, barely had any great talents to speak of. His family''s status was in decline, and he was an ostracized sorcerer who had been sent to the border to herd sheep for two years by a top sorcerer n. Meanwhile, his childhood sweetheart had been snatched away to be someone else''s fianc¨¦e.


    Such a life could only be described as pathetic.


    Honestly speaking, one of the most important reasons why Ren Xiaosu chose Mel to lead the Prosperous Northwest''s branch office was that he sympathized with him a little.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu was really shocked. He had previously thought his rtionship with Yang Xiaojin was the purest in the world. But now, it seemed that Mel and Summer''s rtionship was also very legendary.


    Seeing that Summer was about to be forced to marry someone else, she actually entrusted someone to quietly send money to her ex-boyfriend? What a touching love story!


    However, Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. "Why did y''all act so sneakily when you''re only delivering some money? You could''ve just sent it over openly."


    Chen Jingshu stayed silent for a couple seconds before saying, "We still had to help Summer get some items back, of course."


    Ren Xiaosu probed, "Love letters?"


    Chen An''an''s expression changed. "How did you know?"


    "I was just testing y''all." Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    When Chen An''an exined she had wanted to steal a book from the Sorcerer''s Tower, Ren Xiaosu thought about it for a long time. What kind of book would a junior sorcerer like Melgor have that was worth stealing? Even if they were after the Introduction to Sorcery, it was still a book that had been edited countless times. If there were really any secrets in it, they would have already been lost in history.


    Therefore, the only book more notable was that fucking scrapbook of love letters.


    Back then, when Melgor foolishly took out those love letters, it seemed he had somehow gotten it right by chance.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Jingshu. "Since she''s Russell''s descendant, why didn''t she live in the underground with y''all and instead lived on the dangerous surface?"


    Based on what Melgor had said, Summer had always been living on the surface. In other words, Russell''s descendants had always been hidden right under the noses of the House of Tudor.


    This was way too dangerous.


    "If there''s treacherous servants, there''s naturally loyal ones as well." This time, the man who led them here pulled back his hood and answered, "Back then, in order to help Russell''s descendant hide his whereabouts, all 17 of his remaining servants made a sacrifice by escaping from Ghent City with the child. But at that time, the Kingdom of Sorcerers had just been established. As Ghent City was the only city in the entire kingdom, those without any survival experience would find it tough living in the wilderness. Furthermore, they had to avoid being tracked down by the Knights of Tudor."


    The man who led them here was in his middle age. He had a long scar on his face that extended from his browline to his chin.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw it, he immediately knew the scar was caused by someone wielding a saber. He could even imagine how the battle yed out at that time.


    Someone had shed down with a saber in his face, but this man survived the attack by turning his face upwards and dodging it.


    "In the end, the servants took a risk to send Russell''s descendant back to Ghent City and ced him in the care of a family." The man continued, "That was the family of Russell''s servant during his early years. That servant''s family was expelled from Russell''s residence due to a case of theft and left to their own devices. But when real danger came, they stepped forward again and made the greatest sacrifice for Russell''s child."


    Ren Xiaosu thought that Russell was truly charismatic. As expected of a legendary figure of his generation. The servant actually repaid his expulsion with kindness to his former master.


    But he wondered, "What do you mean by the greatest sacrifice? What did they sacrifice?"


    The man looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, "At that time, martialw was implemented in Ghent City, and the Tudor family offered arge reward for clues to the whereabouts of Russell''s descendant. Whistleblowing was prevalent in the city, and citizens would report the slightestmotion in any household. If another child suddenly appeared in the servant''s home, his neighbors would definitely find out about it. So the servant killed and buried his own child in the backyard. After that, he took in and brought up Russell''s child as his own. Fortunately, Russell''s child was around the same age as the servant''s son, so he was able to keep everything under wraps."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "That''s too great a sacrifice."


    In this world, there was a saying that "even a vicious tiger will not eat its own cubs." Children were one''s own flesh and blood. However, this servant sacrificed his own son in order to protect the bloodline of his former master.


    "For the next hundred years or so, Russell''s descendants changed their names and stayed hidden. They continued living under the identity of that servant''s family, passing down their history through the generations as they waited for an opportunity to take revenge." The man said, "It wasn''t until a few decades ago that we found clues as to their whereabouts."


    "So y''all started nning your revenge?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "That''s right, the Tudor family will repay everything they owe to the Sanctuary and the Russell family," the man said.


    "Then how did that na?ve Melgor get dragged into this? Are you nning to make use of him?" Ren Xiaosu could not understand.


    "Of course not. Melgor is someone Ms. Summer really likes. The two of them grew up together, but when Ms. Summer learned about her family''s blood feud, she changed her mind." The man said, "She appeared before everyone as a genius sorcerer and hatched a n to make the Tudor family''s eldest grandchild of the main household fall for her so she could enter the inner circle of the Tudor family. Sorcerer Melgor was a beautiful ident in her life, but to avenge her family, she could only choose to give up her love. In order not to implicate Melgor, she entrusted us to retrieve all the love letters and inform Sorcerer Melgor to give up on her."


    Chen Jingshu added, "If you hadn''t appeared, everything would have proceeded ording to our n."


    "What happens after y''all take revenge?" Ren Xiaosu asked, "What''s the n?"


    "After that, Ms. Summer will continue to lead the revolutionary reforms." The man said, "Ms. Summer is a very independent thinker. Just like her ancestor, she has the air of a natural leader."


    Ren Xiaosu wondered if the goal of this woman, who was destined to be the new leader of the revolution, retrieving the letters was so that others wouldn''t know she had gone frog catching with a boy when she was young?


    The man suddenly changed the subject and said, "Ms. Summer has also joined the Sanctuary, so her bing the new leader is not a betrayal of her beliefs. But now, it seems that a more suitable candidate has appeared."


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, "Is it Melgor?"


    The man paused for a moment before saying, "I was referring to you."


    "Are you sure I''m rted to your organization?" Ren Xiaosu asked, "Just because I mentioned the Riders and Ren He?"


    "That''s not it." The man shook his head. "The Sanctuary has always kept a photo of the founder. After Zhang Haoyun met you in Winston City, he ryed back the news that you look almost identical to that person in the photo. Of course, we can still tell there''s some differences. Our founder has a much superior air of leadership than you."


    Ren Xiaosu realized what was supposed toe was only a matter of time. Everything he should know would be revealed soon enough.

 Chapter 1193: Solving the mystery

    <h4>Chapter 1193: Solving the mystery</h4>


    Ren Xiaosu had often heard Ren He¡¯s name being mentioned by people, such as Li Yingyun, Qin Sheng, and Zhang Qingxi. Even Yang Xiaojin had brought up his name before, but of them had ever seen what that spiritual leader of the Riders looked like with their own eyes.


    Whenever the Riders mentioned him, there would always be a look of longing on their faces.


    When other people mentioned him, it was mostly in admiration of him.


    It was as though he were a legendary figure that only existed in lore, not someone real.


    And now, the people from the Sanctuary suddenly mentioned they actually had a photo of Ren He. This made Ren Xiaosu get the feeling the photo was a link that brought legend and reality together.


    !!


    That legend was then dragged into Ren Xiaosu¡¯s world.


    If even outsiders thought they looked really simr, Ren Xiaosu realized he could no longer avoid it.


    Of course, what he avoided was never his own background, but his identity that might be linked to the Experimentals, as well as that mysterious period in his past.


    What exactly happened in the past 200 years since The Cataclysm?


    Xu Anqing continued saying to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°An¡¯an and Chen Cheng¡¯s father have already returned to Ghent City with our people. But as they still have other matters to attend to, they can¡¯te and see you for the time being. You should stay here in the underground for a few days. He¡¯lle and let you know the more important information.¡±


    ¡°I understand. Is An¡¯an¡¯s father the current leader of the Sanctuary?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Xu Anqing answered. ¡°But Summer Russell can probably tell you the secret of why Ren He stole the Eye of True Sight.¡±


    An argument broke out around the corner of the passageway ahead. It sounded like someone was shoving Melgor and saying, ¡°Can you keep your distance from Ms. Summer!¡±


    Melgor roared angrily, ¡°And who¡¯re you? Get lost!¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was momentarily stunned. This was the first time he had seen Mel so testy. It seemed the power of love was enough to boost a person¡¯s courage.


    ¡°Let¡¯s talkter. I wanna see what¡¯s going on first,¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Xu Anqing.


    A secondter, he passed through the dim passageway and went over to Melgor. When he turned the corner, it suddenly became bright in the passageway. Lit torches hung on the walls on both sides.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked Melgor.


    Melgor said aggrievedly, ¡°They won¡¯t let me through!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw a dozen or so youths dressed in sorcerer¡¯s robes grouped together in the tunnel. They all wore the badge of a simple, silver sorcerer¡¯s hat on their chests.


    The Berkeley family¡¯s emblem was a lion, while the Tudor family¡¯s emblem was a falcon. However, Ren Xiaosu had never heard of any n that had a sorcerer¡¯s hat for their emblem.


    Xu Anqing noticed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s gaze and exined, ¡°The Sorcerer¡¯s Hat is a new organization formed by a new generation of sorcerers. Just as Russell had done back then, they¡¯re dedicated to overthrowing the old aristocracy to establish a new order and build a magus school to break down the ns¡¯ hold on power.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at those people and saw a diverse group of more than a dozen youths. There were both men and women among them, and standing behind them was a young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes who looked especially dazzling. Her gaze was fixed on Melgor seemingly deeply concerned for him.


    However, that concerned look went away in an instant. The girl said to Melgor, ¡°Melgor, I¡¯m already someone else¡¯s fianc¨¦e. Please go back.¡±


    When Melgor heard this, he became a little dazed. ¡°Summer, I-I came here specifically to look for you.¡±


    ¡°I know,¡± Summer replied calmly. ¡°News of your return has been spreading everywhere in Ghent City recently, so how could I not know? But if youe back in such an ostentatious manner, not only will you get yourself killed, you might also implicate me.¡±


    Mel¡¯s eyes slowly reddened. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll leave then. But you must take care of yourself. Although I don¡¯t know what it is that you¡¯re trying to achieve, you¡¯ve always had your own views since childhood. I just hope you¡¯ll be fine. It doesn¡¯t matter what happens to me¡ª What are you doing!¡±


    Mel red at Ren Xiaosu.


    Before he had finished talking, he got interrupted by Ren Xiaosu stepping on his foot.


    Ren Xiaosu said in surprise, ¡°Doesn¡¯t your foot hurt?¡±


    ¡°Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch¡­¡± Only then was Mel able to react. He clutched his foot and leaned against the wall of the passageway as he cried in pain. He felt a burning sensation on top of his feet. It felt like his bones were broken!


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Summer Russell and the group of youths and said, ¡°Since y¡¯all heard about what happened during Melgor¡¯s trip back here, you should be aware of how powerful he is now, right? No matter what y¡¯all¡¯re nning, it¡¯ll be good to have him stay and help out.¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s guess was that Summer was only trying to keep Mel out of the conflict. That was why she cold-heartedly chased him away.


    After all, that concerned look in her eyes just now could not have been faked. Moreover, if she had really wanted to draw a line between them, there wouldn¡¯t be a need to get Chen Jingshu to travel so far to deliver the money to him, right?


    But as Ren Xiaosu did not fully understand their situation yet, he did not want to unintentionally point that out. In any case, he would have to help Mel stay here so this sweet idiot would not think he had his heart broken and start crying.


    Speaking of which, Ren Xiaosu felt that he really was doing so much for the sake of the Prosperous Northwest.


    But the young man standing closest to Summer Russell suddenly said, ¡°Of course we¡¯ve heard about Melgor¡¯s deeds, but wasn¡¯t it all to the credit of Chen Jingshu, An¡¯an, and Chen Cheng that he was able to get to Ghent City so smoothly? We all know full well what his level as a sorcerer is. Surely you don¡¯t truly believe he¡¯s that powerful, do you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. So it turned out not everyone believed Melgor was powerful.


    Of course, these people were not wrong to think that way. Mel was indeed a little weak.


    Actually, the level of Melgor¡¯s sorcery was no secret. Everyone knew he had only be a sorcerer less than two years ago. In that short period of time, even if Russell were to be reborn, he would probably not be able to achieve much either.


    So when this group of people who knew the inside story heard the news, their first impressions were that Chen Jingshu, An¡¯an, and Chen Cheng were the strong ones, not Mel.


    After all, An¡¯an and Chen Cheng were already sorcerers by the age of six. And needless to say, Chen Jingshu was much more dependable than Melgor no matter how you looked at it.


    Someone said to Chen Jingshu andpany, ¡°It¡¯s been a tough journey for you guys. We heard that you killed many of the Tudor family¡¯s people. That was really satisfying to hear. Now that Archmage Kayle is also dead, the House of Tudor has been greatly weakened. This has also raised the chances of our operation seeding.¡±


    The group of youths were overjoyed. It was as though all of them had a feud with the House of Tudor.


    However, Chen Jingshu¡¯s and An¡¯an¡¯s expressions at this moment were as strange as they could be.


    They knew very well they were only able to arrive in Ghent City because Ren Xiaosu, that monster, had been helping Melgor along the way. They had nothing to do with the massacre of the Tudor family¡¯s people.


    Chen Jingshu looked at Ren Xiaosu and realized he was smiling without refuting the youths. As such, she did not step forward to clear up the misunderstanding.


    Since Ren Xiaosu did not bother to exin it himself, he must have some other n.


    Qian Weining, who was standing behind Ren Xiaosu, stepped forward and tried to say something, but he was also stopped by Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°All of you look like you¡¯re the elites of the younger generation of sorcerers, so why can¡¯t y¡¯all understand the simplest of principles?¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°If y¡¯all want to undermine the social order of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, you have to unite all avable forces. What¡¯s the logic behind pushing away people who can contribute?¡±


    The young sorcerer next to Summer frowned and said, ¡°It¡¯s obvious that Summer doesn¡¯t want anything to do with Melgor anymore, so why are you people still pestering her? Isn¡¯t it better to remain as a fringe sorcerer at the border? Whye to Ghent City and risk your life? Hmm, and who¡¯re you?¡±


    The way this young man addressed Summer sounded like he was quite close to her. Ren Xiaosu wondered if this could be Mel¡¯s romantic rival. Summer was a natural beauty indeed, so it was within expectations that Mel would have at least one or two rivals.


    When these people saw Qian Weining and the others following close to Ren Xiaosu, they thought he was someone of status, so they were still quite polite when speaking to him.


    Ren Xiaosu answered, ¡°I¡¯m Lord Melgor¡¯s steward. And you are?¡±


    ¡°So it¡¯s Melgor¡¯s steward.¡± The young man suddenlyughed. When he heard that the other party was only a steward, he became much more rxed. ¡°My name is Titus Norman.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu then asked, ¡°Titus Norman¡­ eh, what¡¯s your middle name?¡±


    Titus¡¯s smile immediately faded. ¡°I don¡¯t have a middle name yet¡­.¡±


    In the magus order, having a middle name represented whether one had be an archmage or not.


    In most situations, no one would suddenly bring up whether one had a middle name or not. By doing so, it was just like pping someone without hitting their face.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that not ¡°pping¡± someone in the face first was pretty pointless when having an argument.


    Sorcerer Titus frowned and said, ¡°You¡¯re only a servant, so how can you address a sorcerer by name? That¡¯s being disrespectful to a sorcerer.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled. ¡°Then how should I address you?¡±


    Sorcerer Titus said coldly, ¡°You¡¯re a steward, and I¡¯m a sorcerer. It¡¯s disrespectful to address me by name. But addressing me as an elder makes me sound old, so what should you call me?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a moment before testing, ¡°Doggy?¡±


    Sorcerer Titus was stunned.


    Melgor, who was initially feeling aggrieved and remorseful, burst intoughter. Even Qian Weining and the othersughed.


    Mel thought to himself that Ren Xiaosu was still the best. He was even willing to stand up for him at such a critical moment.


    Sorcerer Titus took out his Eye of True Sight from his waist belt as though he wanted to threaten Ren Xiaosu with it.


    However, Summer said to the young sorcerer, ¡°Titus, what¡¯s our purpose in seeking to overthrow the old aristocracy¡¯s rule and establish a magus school? Isn¡¯t it because we want to give normal people a chance? Everyone will be equal in the sorcerer nation of the future. Why do you still have such a messed up, ss-conscious mindset?¡±


    When Sorcerer Titus heard this, he hurriedly exined, ¡°Summer, it¡¯s not like that, I just misspoke!¡±


    Summer¡¯s tone softened. ¡°I know it¡¯s still a little difficult for you guys to change your mindset, but don¡¯t repeat such behavior again, alright?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was amused. He chuckled softly to Mel, who was next to him, and said, ¡°Your childhood sweetheart has great people skills. She spoke up to divert those people¡¯s attention to help me out of my predicament and immediately softened her tone after that so that infighting wouldn¡¯t boil over. She¡¯s someone who can achieve great things. She¡¯s better than you.¡±


    ¡°If you didn¡¯t make thatst remark, our friendship would have grown stronger.¡± Melgor said, ¡°What do you think I should do now? Leave?¡±


    ¡°Leave?¡± Ren Xiaosu chuckled and said, ¡°Of course not.¡±


    The torches on the walls of the tunnel were flickering. It seemed that the atmosphere had suddenly turned a little tense. The young sorcerers and the Knights of the Inferno led by Ren Xiaosu were on the verge of getting into a fight.


    In the end, it was Xu Anqing who stepped forward to break the deadlock. ¡°This is not the ce to talk. Let¡¯s get behind the enchanted doorway first.¡±


    With that, he called for everyone to continue walking deeper into the tunnel until they came to graffiti art and stopped in front of it.


    On the wall was a drawing of an eastern divine dragon. However, it was not as muted in style as how they were drawn in the Central ins. This particr drawing was more showy and vibrant.


    Xu Anqing took out a red Eye of True Sight from his waist belt. Then he ced it on the divine dragon¡¯s eye and gave it a turn. The divine dragon seemingly came alive as it started ¡°swimming¡± on the wall.


    A soft mechanical sound started stirring within the tunnel before he walked straight towards a wall. Before going in, Xu Anqing turned around and said to Ren Xiaosu and Melgor, ¡°Wee to the underground.¡±


    That wall was like a rippling wave. After Xu Anqing walked through it, no one could tell there was anything strange about the wall.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw this, he nned on asking the Sanctuary¡¯s people about enchanted doorways. This spell was perfect for those working in the intelligence field. A safe house created through such means would definitely be secure. Moreover, the other Central ins forces had never experienced such tricks before.


    Everyone filed in through the enchanted doorway, but most of them had not noticed that Summer had slowly fallen to the back of the group.


    Melgor was about to walk straight through the enchanted doorway when Ren Xiaosu pulled him back and said in a low voice, ¡°Thedy is obviously slowing down because she wants to speak with you. Why are you in such a hurry to go in?¡±


    Mel looked at her and saw her looking at him silently.


    Li Chengguo and Liu Ting were looking all over the ce at this moment. This was their first time seeing an enchanted doorway, so they did not dare to walk through it.


    But even after everyone else had gone through the enchanted doorway, the two of them still remained standing outside like third wheels.


    Ren Xiaosu pped both of them on the back of their heads angrily. Then he grabbed them by their cors and threw them through the enchanted doorway.


    Melgor looked at Ren Xiaosu with an emotional gaze. It was still his good friend who understood him and deliberately created an opportunity so he could be with Summer alone.


    Then Ren Xiaosu looked at Melgor and said, ¡°You can go in first.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Melgor was stunned.


    ¡°What?¡± Ren Xiaosu said to Melgor, ¡°Let me speak with Ms. Summer alone.¡±


    Melgor suddenly felt a little dizzy. Why was this a little different from what he had imagined?!


    Hadn¡¯t Ren Xiaosu intended to give him a chance to be with Summer alone? How did it end up with Ren Xiaosu spending time with Summer alone instead?


    ¡°Forget it, I¡¯ll let you stay here in case you misunderstand.¡± After that, Ren Xiaosu turned to Summer Russell and asked, ¡°Did your ancestors pass down any information regarding Ren He?¡±


    ¡°I knew you wanted to ask about this.¡± Summer said calmly, ¡°Actually, I knew it the moment I saw your face.¡±


    ¡°Seems like my looks have saved me a lot of exining.¡± Ren Xiaosu touched his face. ¡°Do I really look like him?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you look really simr.¡± Summer said, ¡°What do you want to know?¡±


    Melgor looked at Summer, then at Ren Xiaosu. He could not understand why his sweetheart¡¯s family ended up being rted to Ren Xiaosu.


    However, he could only listen quietly for now. Ren Xiaosu was most concerned at this moment about his origins. Everything else was not too important.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Summer, ¡°Why did Ren He steal the Eye of True Sight?¡±


    ¡°To save his child,¡± Summer answered. ¡°His child had a disease known as cancer and needed treatment.¡±


    This answer matched many of the questions Ren Xiaosu had in mind.


    The Pyro Company¡¯s Laboratory 39 was specifically researching cancer, while the Experimentals came into existence as a new species after the spread of their cancer cells reached equilibrium.


    Currently, ck Robe, the leader of the Experimentals, was dead. However, ck Robe said before that apletely cured human had indeede out of Laboratory 39. It was a powerful and perfect Neo-Human, who was also known as the No. 001 Experimental.


    This No. 001 Experimental waspletely different from those gray-skinned monsters. It had a perfectly mutated binucleated cell structure.


    ck Robe had said that if the No. 001 Experimental blended in among humans, it would definitely be very powerful.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu thought the No. 001 Experimental might be Yan Liuyuan.


    But now, Ren Xiaosu felt he might be the No. 001 Experimental instead.


    ¡°But what does the ck Eye of True Sight have anything to do with cancer?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    In his opinion, cancer treatment would have to rely on scientific cures. But in the end, it felt more like they were delving into mysticism.


    Summer said, ¡°It was passed down through our family that Ren He¡¯s son was actually already cured of his illness. But after he recovered, his condition became even more difficult to handle.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°What could be more troublesome to handle than cancer?¡±


    ¡°I only know a little about that.¡± Summer answered, ¡°Ren He said that if his sick child¡¯s condition was not controlled, he could dissipate from the world and switch to existing in another form. That was why that Rider needed the ck Eye of True Sight, because it can help humans to concentrate their willpower.¡±


    These wordspletely struck a chord in Ren Xiaosu. Concentrating one¡¯s willpower, dissipating from the world and existing in a different form, all these clues finally linked the truths he knew.


    Qing Zhen had spected that cancer cells might not be a type of disease but an extreme form of evolution. It was just that humans were unable to withstand the energy required for this evolution process.


    If there came a day when someone could control the nuclei mutation of cancer cells and had a strong enough body to withstand the evolution process, the first true god might appear in the world.


    Li Shentan had once said his path was actually to develop his own brainpower. When a person¡¯s brain developed to 70% of its potential, they would only be one step away from bing a god.


    As for what would happen after bing a god, no one knew.


    There was the possibility of turning into a ray of light or a World Tree, but no one could be sure.


    However, the higher probability was that one would lose their human form and emotions and turn into a one-of-a-kind world consciousness.


    Based on this theory, Ren He¡¯s son had already be a true god after his cancer was sessfully treated.


    But after he was cured, the potential of his brain continued to develop. When the brain¡¯s development exceeded the threshold of human limits, it would be the consciousness of the world, and with that, be the true ruler of it.


    If all these assumptions were true, Ren He¡¯s objective in taking away the Eye of True Sight might have been to help his son reconcentrate his willpower that was dissipating into the world so he could maintain his ¡°human¡± form and keep his emotions.


    When he was in the Jing Mountains, Ren Xiaosu had thanked himself seven times during the battle with the Experimentals. But before that, he had asked the pce if there was really no other way for him toe out of the battle alive. The pce asked him back, ¡°Do you want to remove the seal?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu then asked again what would happen if the seal was removed.


    The pce¡¯s answer was, ¡°Lose everything.¡±


    What it meant by losing everything probably included losing his body and emotions.


    When he recalled these events, Ren Xiaosu felt that he was only one step away from the truth now.


    He asked the pce in his mind, ¡°Did I guess¡­ correctly?¡±


    ¡°Quest clues have not been fully collected. Unauthorized to answer.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Why was the answer totally not what he was expecting?


    No, wait, the pce would not go off-topic.


    Therefore, once thest clue was found, the quest reward would reveal the truth of his origins!


    Ren Xiaosu was a little curious. If he were really that so-called No. 001 Experimental, how did he survive his cancer? Did the cells in his body all mutate into those legendary binucleated cells?


    Moreover, if he were the No. 001 Experimental, how should Yan Liuyuan¡¯s origins be exined?


    Summer interrupted Ren Xiaosu¡¯s train of thought, saying, ¡°There¡¯s something that was passed down and left for you. It¡¯s right here in Ghent City.¡±


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who left it for me?¡±


    ¡°Your ancestor, that Rider,¡± Summer answered.


    Summer was also unaware of howplicated Ren Xiaosu¡¯s background was. She only felt that no one in the world could possibly live for more than 200 years, so she was under the impression that Ren Xiaosu was Ren He¡¯s descendant a few generations down.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Why would he leave something meant for me with y¡¯all? This ce is thousands of miles from the Central ins.¡±


    ¡°Because the Central ins Rider was not confident of surviving the impending disaster.¡± Summer said, ¡°He had his responsibilities, and he foresaw that he might have to sacrifice his life for them.¡±

 Chapter 1194 - Enchanted doorways

    <h4>Chapter 1194: Enchanted doorways</h4> <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge </h4>


    The Kingdom of Sorcerers was not located in a main disaster zone during The Cataclysm. It was only affected by the sudden cold weather that followed, but there were no fallout or explosions that urred here.


    At that time, Ren He could alreadypletely crush Russell in a fight. Therefore, even during The Cataclysm, as long as this Rider remained in the region of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, he definitely could have survived it.


    But Ren He made a different choice. Just as he had said, he had his responsibilities.


    Therefore, on the eve of The Cataclysm, which was also the day before the global war, he chose to return home to lead his people towards another path of survival.


    He had seeded, but that sess came at the cost of his life.


    ¡°What exactly did he leave behind at Russell¡¯s ce?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°A sealed box with no password,¡± Summer answered. ¡°It¡¯s hidden in the Rose Monastery in Ghent City.¡±


    ¡°Rose Monastery?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    ¡°Mhm, that used to be the Russell family¡¯s property. After our ancestor was persecuted, that ce was seized by Ghent City and converted into a monastery,¡± Summer replied.


    The so-called monastery was basically a chapel-like building filled with statues of sorcerers from either the House of Norman or the House of Tudor.


    That was because Ghent City was simply toorge. It was sorge it was several times the size of Vaduz City. Therefore, the residents there could not gather in front of the same cathedral for their worship service all at the same time. At the beginning of each month, everyone would put on their red robes and go to a monastery near their homes where junior sorcerers would conduct worship services.


    It was very ironic for a ce of killing to be turned into a monastery.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°When can I retrieve it?¡±


    ¡°When this matter rted to the underground is over, I¡¯ll take you there.¡± Summer said, ¡°But before that, can I ask a favor of you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°What is it?¡±


    Summer nced at Mel and asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Can you take him away from Ghent City? As a reward, I¡¯m willing to give you a gold Eye of True Sight and a sorcery manuscriptpiled by my ancestor. There¡¯s a lot of recorded spells and meditative visualization diagrams in it, all of which are for high-level spells.¡±


    Mel had been standing off to the side for a long time already and was bored. While Ren Xiaosu chatted with his sweetheart, it was as though he was invisible.


    But it just so happened these two people in front of him were engaged in a serious discussion, and it was even on a topic he couldn¡¯t get a word in about.


    Mel also wanted to join the conversation, but he really did not know what to say.


    Should he say he couldn¡¯t bear to leave Summer? That would make him seem overly melodramatic as a man.


    Or should he say that he would be fine with Ren Xiaosu¡¯s protection, so there wasn¡¯t a need for him to leave Ghent City? But that would make him sound like a thug.


    When Mel heard that Summer was trying to chase him away again, he quickly gave Ren Xiaosu a knowing look in hopes he put in a word for him.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately understood and said, ¡°Are you looking for the bathroom?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not.¡± Melgor snapped, ¡°I don¡¯t want to leave Ghent City!¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t you just say it inly then?¡± Ren Xiaosu nced at him. ¡°If you¡¯re too afraid to even object when others ask you to leave, how are you going to handle big issues in the future? Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t bring you back to the south. Since we¡¯re already here, we should at least kick up a row, right?¡±


    Summer frowned. ¡°The gold Eye of True Sight is the best offer I can give.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s important is not what you can offer, but what I want to do.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Do you really think that those good-for-nothing scions of the aristocratic families are sincere in starting a revolution with you? Just look at how ss-conscious they are. After overthrowing the old aristocracy with their help, they¡¯ll just rise up to be the new aristocracy.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not intending to rely on thempletely, obviously,¡± Summer said calmly. ¡°For now, my only aim is to make the House of Tudor pay with their blood. As for overthrowing the old aristocracy, there¡¯s still a long way to go.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu understood Summer was not an impatient person. She was nning to take things slowly.


    Summer continued, ¡°Although I don¡¯t know why you brought Melgor to Ghent City, do you know you¡¯re putting him in danger by doing so?¡±


    ¡°Before this, Melgor told me that his sweetheart is someone with her own mind. But no one told me that you¡¯re Russell¡¯s descendant, nor that you¡¯re such an independent thinker.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°However, I¡¯m quite curious about something. Since you¡¯re so worried about him, why didn¡¯t you send someone to protect him when he was sent to the border?¡±


    ¡°Of course I did. I got the Sanctuary¡¯s people to protect him. It was only after they realized he wasn¡¯t in much danger that they returned to Ghent City.¡± Summer said, ¡°Not only that, but we even had diators secretly send him food, clothes, and medicine regrly so he wouldn¡¯t starve to death.¡±


    Melgor eximed, ¡°I thought I hired those people with money?¡±


    Summer looked at Mel. ¡°The money you offered wasn¡¯t enough at all. No one would keep going to such dangerous ces for that small amount of gold coins.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    He finally understood. Ren Xiaosu had thought about this before. Mel, a barely capable sorcerer, had been sent to Fortress 178 to observe the enemy¡¯s movements. However, that guy¡¯s wilderness survival skills were not even passable, so how did he survive there for the past two years?


    It turned out Summer was the one who made sure Melgor survived his mission.


    This girl was really methodical in her ways. She really was someone who was meant for great things.


    As for Mel the moocher, he was really too thorough in mooching.


    As he thought about it, Ren Xiaosu even had the thought of supporting Summer to be the one to lead the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch office. No matter how you saw it, she seemed more suitable for the role than Mel¡­


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. ¡°Why are you so good to him?¡±


    Summer said, ¡°He¡¯s too na?ve. He¡¯ll get hurt if there¡¯s no one to protect him.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. How the hell was this romance? This was practically motherly love!


    But no matter what it was, that was between the two of them.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Mel. ¡°Do you understand now? She was just making an excuse not to implicate you when she said that she didn¡¯t want you to implicate her. You should work hard and not keep making others worry. Do you know what you have to do now?¡±


    Mel nodded vigorously. ¡°I do!¡±


    ¡°Then what¡¯s your n?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Stay obediently by your side. With your protection, she won¡¯t have anything to worry about,¡± Mel said.


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    He got so angry heughed. But when he thought about it carefully, this decision by Mel was still the wisest!


    If he were to make Mel continue practicing his sorcery, he couldn¡¯t be an archmage without at least eight to ten years of training. Therefore, in a situation where his efforts were futile, he might as well ept his situation and not burden everyone.


    With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s protection, there wouldn¡¯t be too many people in the vast Ghent City who could do anything to him.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu did not know now if Mel was actually stupid or just ying dumb.


    Ren Xiaosu told Summer, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Mel will be fine with me protecting him. I won¡¯t ask you about your ns anymore, and neither should you ask me about mine. I¡¯ll start taking action after I¡¯ve retrieved what Ren He left for me. At that time, all you need to do is wait for an opportunity.¡±


    ¡°What opportunity?¡± Summer wondered.


    ¡°An opportunity that I¡¯ll create for y¡¯all.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I¡¯ve said this to Chen Jingshu before. My arrival from the Central ins is the best opportunity for y¡¯all to overthrow the old aristocratic rule of the Magi.¡±


    When Summer heard this, she looked at Mel in surprise. Mel sighed and said, ¡°You¡¯ll get used to it. Besides, I can¡¯t refute his ims.¡±


    Summer sized up Ren Xiaosu in front of her. Although she did not know where Ren Xiaosu¡¯s confidence came from, she somehow chose to trust him fully.


    Suddenly, she remembered what her grandfather had told her before he died. ¡°If someone from the Central inses searching for clues rted to the Riders one day, you can get them to help with any difficulties you might encounter.


    ¡°It¡¯s an amazing nation, and that Rider is the most amazing person in that nation.¡±


    At that time, Summer was only a child and did not understand what her grandfather meant. She often wondered if that Rider could really be so trusted by the entire Russell family.


    Summer suddenly said, ¡°My grandfather told me when the Rider took away the Eye of True Sight, he promised that in the Russell family¡¯s time of need, he would repay them with a favor. If he were no longer around to keep that promise, the favor would be repaid by his descendants. Since you¡¯re his descendant, can I depend on you?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment. Since Ren He had used the Eye of True Sight to save him, he was naturally willing to fulfill the promise made in exchange for the Eye of True Sight. ¡°Sure, what do you want me to do? Destroy the House of Tudor?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Summer shook her head. ¡°Can you make sure to protect Mel?¡±


    ¡°Sure, but this doesn¡¯t count. It¡¯s a promise that I¡¯ve already made to Mel personally, so I¡¯ll naturally keep my word for that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Alright, you can hold onto that favor for now. We¡¯ll talk again when you need it to be repaid. I¡¯ll leave you two to catch up while I go inside and have a good chat with my new sorcerer friends.¡±


    With that, Ren Xiaosu stepped through the enchanted doorway.


    Mel suddenly felt what Ren Xiaosu meant about having a good chat with his new sorcerer friends was not that simple.


    There was no one else in the tunnel anymore. Mel slowly walked towards Summer. The divine dragon painted on the wall was all quiet, as though it could not bear to disturb them both.


    On the other side, Ren Xiaosu was a little stunned when he saw the scene behind the enchanted doorway. He was no longer in the underground. Instead, he was standing at the top of a tall, gray-bricked spire.


    Beyond the spire was a cliff, and below it was a turbulent sea.


    As the seawater crashed against the rocks, the shimmering surface of the blue sea could be seen in the distance.


    The vast sea that stretched as far as the eye could see instantly gave rise to an endless sense of magnificence within Ren Xiaosu. After that, he felt an endless calm in him.


    This must be the sea Li Shentan talked about wanting to see. He wondered if he had already seen it.


    When Ren Xiaosu turned around, the others had already entered the interior of the spire through the stairway. Only Xu Anqing was still waiting out here.


    The man smiled and asked, ¡°Is this your first time seeing the sea?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s probably not my first time.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I got an inexplicable sense of familiarity when I saw the sea, but I think I¡¯ve already forgotten everything that I¡¯ve seen in the past.¡±


    ¡°This is the enchanted doorway created by An¡¯an¡¯s father.¡± Xu Anqing said, ¡°Every time hees back to Ghent City, he¡¯lle to the top of this Sorcerer¡¯s Tower by himself. Sometimes, he¡¯ll sit here for an entire day and night. I asked him why he keeps looking at the sea. Initially, I thought he would tell me it helps to broaden one¡¯s heart, but his answer to me was that those who have seen the sea learn to feel reverence.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. However, he quickly found these words to be very interesting. In the face of the vast world and sea, humans were indeed insignificant.


    Then Xu Anqing asked, ¡°I wonder, what was the feeling you had when you saw the sea?¡±


    ¡°Calmness,¡± Ren Xiaosu answered. ¡°By the way, when you emphasized that this enchanted doorway was created by An¡¯an¡¯s father, does it mean that everyone¡¯s enchanted doorway is different?¡±


    ¡°Before The Cataclysm, the enchanted doorway was an exclusive spell of the Russell family. Later, Russell made this spell essible to all to show his determination to break the sorcerer ns¡¯ stranglehold on power.¡± Xu Anqing exined, ¡°However, there¡¯s something special about the Enchanted Doorway spell. It can only be opened once in a person¡¯s lifetime. After that, the spell will remain in ce forever.¡±


    ¡°What if the person who opens this enchanted doorway dies?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°The enchanted doorway will not disappear with their death.¡± Xu Anqing said, ¡°There¡¯s only one way to destroy an enchanted doorway, and that¡¯s topletely change the terrain where it is located, such as destroying the wall we just came in through.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°Isn¡¯t that really dangerous then? If someone outside were to destroy the wall, wouldn¡¯t we all be trapped here?¡±


    Xu Anqing realized the young man across from him was a really cautious person.


    When other people passed through the enchanted doorway, the first thing they were attracted to was the magic of this spell. But the first thing that Ren Xiaosu paid attention to was how to get back to the other side!


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± Xu Anqing exined with a smile, ¡°If anyone tries to sabotage it from the outside, all of us who passed through the enchanted doorway will ¡®fall¡¯ out. Therefore, there¡¯s no such thing as not being able to return to the other side.¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯s this ce?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Xu Anqing shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re not sure where this is either. After it was activated, it became our secret base. We only know that the entrance of the enchanted doorway and this ce we¡¯re at exist in the same dimension.¡±


    ¡°Is there any principle behind how these enchanted doorways are created?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.


    ¡°We think it probably opens up to a ce where a person wants to go most?¡± Xu Anqing said, ¡°I once had a friend gued by dder issues. When he activated the enchanted doorway, it turned out to be his home bathroom on the other side¡­.¡±


    ¡°What the hell?¡± Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. ¡°It really opens up to the ce you most want to go then?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s most likely the case, but there¡¯s also very strong randomness to it,¡± Xu Anqing said meaningfully.


    ¡°What do you mean by randomness?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Not everyone knows where they want to go most.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent for a long time. There was even a hint of philosophy in those words.


    He moved on from that thought and asked again, ¡°Are there any ws with the enchanted doorway?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Xu Anqing said, ¡°The enchanted doorway is fixed. If you wish to get to the ¡®opposing shore¡¯ through it, you have to go to a fixed location to ess the portal. Sometimes, it can be quite troublesome, just like how Chen An¡¯an¡¯s father has to return to the underground below Ghent City if he wants toe here.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly took out arge metal door from his storage space and asked, ¡°Then if I create the enchanted doorway on this door and carry it around with me, would that make my enchanted doorway portable?¡±


    Xu Anqing was a little confused as he stood on the spire atop the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower with the sea breeze blowing at him. ¡°I¡­ I guess so?¡±


    When he saw Ren Xiaosu¡¯s serious expression, he suddenly felt a little helpless. Logically, the enchanted doorway could be made portable through the method he had just suggested. But the problem was, why the fuck was he carrying a metal door with him?


    Where did he get that from!

 Chapter 1195 - One step away

    <h4>Chapter 1195: One step away</h4> <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge </h4>


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the top of the tall Sorcerer¡¯s Tower while carrying a huge metal door. The turbulent sea behind him, he faced into the surging gusts from the sea.


    Xu Anqing¡¯s robe, which he wore over his brown leather armor, kept fluttering in the wind.


    He stood at the top of the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower in confusion and asked, ¡°Where did this doore from?¡±


    A long time ago, many sorcerers were troubled by the shorings of the Enchanted Doorway.


    For example, every person could only open it once in their lifetime. Therefore, many sorcerers were not allowed to cast the Enchanted Doorway spell when they were still young, because they could very well end up wasting this opportunity.


    Within the Sanctuary, children like An¡¯an were not eligible to activate their enchanted doorways. They would have to reach 24 years of age before they could do so.


    Actually, when An¡¯an was nine years old, her willpower was high enough for her to cast this spell. However, no one was willing to teach her the incantation for the Enchanted Doorway at that age.


    It would be such a pity if the enchanted doorway she activated only led to the candy shop.


    An¡¯an had spoken with her father before. The youngdy said at that time, ¡°What¡¯s the point of opening an enchanted doorway?¡±


    Chen Jiu, who had already activated his enchanted doorway, answered, ¡°Some people do it to seek a safe harbor for themselves, while others do it to find their paradise.¡±


    Actually, Chen Jiu¡¯s enchanted doorway was abination of both. He personally erected this Sorcerer¡¯s Tower that stood by the sea, and it became a safe harbor for many of the underground residents.


    Ren Xiaosu saw farnd and shepherds beyond the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower. In this ce where no one knew of its location in the world, it had be a new settlement for some.


    At that time, An¡¯an stated, ¡°If my enchanted doorway opens to the most famous candy store in Ghent City, I¡¯ll be so happy.¡±


    Chen Jiu¡¯s reply to her was, ¡°A person can¡¯t only seek happiness in life. Moreover, a qualified Sanctuary member should never treat stealing sweets as happiness¡­¡±


    Of course, this was only one of the shorings of the enchanted doorway that troubled sorcerers. More importantly, the location of the enchanted doorway was fixed.


    Many sorcerers had tried moving it before. They wanted to modify the incantation of the enchanted doorway spell and turn it into a portable doorway that did not rely on external objects. In this way, everyone could greatly increase their means of survival.


    But no matter how hard the sorcerers tried, their experimentation with the spell all ended in failure.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had now provided the sorcerers with another option. ¡°Since you can¡¯t move the enchanted doorway, just bring it with you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought this was probably the true essence of the saying ¡°breaking down doors to make an escape.¡±


    Meanwhile, Xu Anqing thought the enchanted doorway could be an Anywhere Door with such a hardware tweak!


    Xu Anqing repeated his question again, ¡°Where did this doore from?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Anqing. ¡°If sorcerers can open up enchanted doorways, those of us from the Central ins naturally have our own ways as well. Is it important where the doores from?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was lying. Even now, he was the only person in the entire Central ins who possessed a storage space.


    However, there was no pressure in lying. After all, the people from the Kingdom of Sorcerers could not verify his ims.


    He had taken this door from the standard prison when he saved Wang Yun from the Kong Consortium back then. It was not of much use to him, but he took it so he could use it as an asional shield against bullets.


    Under normal circumstances, Ren Xiaosu would choose to use the nanomachines to shield himself from bullets. However, those little guys consumed too much power too quickly. They relied on bioenergy to recharge their batteries. Sometimes, they could onlyst for five to ten minutes in a high-intensity battle even after a 24-hour charge. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu had to give himself a simple backup n¡­ the kind that did not require any electrical power.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Anqing. ¡°What¡¯s the incantation for activating the enchanted doorway? Why don¡¯t you teach me how to open it? I¡¯d also like to know where¡¯s the ce I want to go most.¡±


    Xu Anqing shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t learn the Enchanted Doorway spell; teach me how to conjure a door first.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t learn something like that.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a grin, ¡°Hurry up and tell me the incantation for the Enchanted Doorway.¡±


    ¡°Actually, the Enchanted Doorway is the only spell in the entire Magi system that doesn¡¯t require incantations or meditative visualization diagrams.¡± Xu Anqing said with augh, ¡°Back then, Little An¡¯an pestered her father for so long without knowing how to activate her enchanted doorway. However, the method is extremely simple. When she finds out the truth in the future, she¡¯ll definitely be furious, just like when I found out the truth.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°There isn¡¯t even a need for an incantation?¡±


    Xu Anqing said, ¡°All you need is a red Eye of True Sight or better. Drip a drop of your blood on it and turn it 3,600 degrees against the door you¡¯re holding. The enchanted doorway will then open for you.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s that simple?¡± Ren Xiaosu was stunned. 3,600 degrees was equivalent to ten revolutions. He was a little curious about how the person who discovered the enchanted doorway had found out about this system.


    Was he bored?


    However, it required a red Eye of True Sight or higher to work. This added a lot of restrictions to the Enchanted Doorway spell. For example, Melgor could not activate it with his Eye of True Sight.


    White, orange, red, gold, and ck. Based on these different grades of Eyes of True Sight that existed, there were actually not that many people who could activate their enchanted doorways.


    Ren Xiaosu seemed to remember that the archmage back at Vaduz Cathedral who presided over the worship ceremony only had a red Eye of True Sight.


    As a matter of fact, the greatest difference between the magus order and supernatural beings of the Central ins was that incantations had been explored by the Magi for generations and could be passed down as a legacy for future generations.


    ¡°Would you like to try it out now?¡± Xu Anqing said, ¡°But you¡¯ll need an Eye of True Sight first. That won¡¯t be easy to get your hands on, and it has to be a higher grade than a red one, which is even harder to get. Perhaps, Chen An¡¯an¡¯s father can help you¡ªhuh?!¡±


    Xu Anqing stared nkly at the Eyes of True Sight in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hand. The colored stones were lying in his hands like they were worthless sweets from a candy store.


    His look was just like the nk expressions on the faces of Qian Weining andpany. Although Xu Anqing was a core member of the Sanctuary, he had never seen so many Eyes of True Sight in one ce before in his life.


    Chen Jingshu knew what Ren Xiaosu had done in Winston City and had also witnessed the things he did after that meeting with Zhang Haoyun. As such, she did not have a chance to ry the news back to the Sanctuary.


    Xu Anqing and the others could roughly guess what Ren Xiaosu had done, but they were still unaware of the details.


    ¡°Oh.¡± Ren Xiaosu said calmly, ¡°I don¡¯t need to trouble y¡¯all with getting an Eye of True Sight. I still have quite a lot of them. By the way, will a higher-grade Eye of True Sight affect the spell casting? Like, can I have an enchanted door that opens up to a farther away location?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Xu Anqing was stumped. ¡°I really don¡¯t know about that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked curiously, ¡°Why not? Have you never tried it out with other grades of Eyes of True Sight?¡±


    Xu Anqing was cursing in his mind. He had only had one Eye of True Sight all his life, so how could he know that much?


    In other words, he just followed whatever others had taught him to do. That was because everyone¡¯s enchanted doorways were different, so no one could really identify a specific pattern in the spell.


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, ¡°An Eye of True Sight will allow a sorcerer to open up a permanent enchanted doorway, so if I had a few dozen Eyes of True Sight, can I open up several dozen enchanted doorways?¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t work!¡±


    ¡°Why not? Have you tried it out yourself?¡± Ren Xiaosu seemed a little dissatisfied.


    ¡°¡­ I¡¯ve never tried it.¡±


    ¡°Then it¡¯s just hearsay.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you test it out?¡±


    Xu Anqing was crying on the inside. ¡°Because I¡¯ve never possessed so many Eyes of True Sight before¡­.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment andforted him, ¡°My condolences.¡±


    Xu Anqing nearly roared out loud. ¡®<i>Condolences? What condolences?! Everyone else only has one Eye of True Sight each! You¡¯re the only one who has so many of them, alright?!</i>¡®


    Ren Xiaosu muttered, ¡°We¡¯ll know when I test it outter.¡±


    With that, Xu Anqing saw Ren Xiaosu taking out a ck Eye of True Sight. Before this, Ren Xiaosu had only ever revealed it to Melgor.


    Xu Anqing started stammering, ¡°That¡¯s¡­ a ck Eye of True Sight?!¡±


    ¡°In case the spell can only work once, it¡¯s better to test it out with the highest grade Eye of True Sight that I have.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Why do you look so shocked? Summer should have already told you that one of Russell¡¯s Eyes of True Sight was taken away by that Rider, so isn¡¯t it to be expected that it would be in my possession now?¡±


    It was like this ck Eye of True Sight was thest piece of evidence that verified Ren Xiaosu¡¯s identity.


    He drew his ck saber and sliced his thumb, then dripped his blood onto the stone before pressing it against the steel door and turning it.


    In an instant, the ck Eye of True Sight absorbed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s blood.


    The small ck stone seemingly reached a scorching temperature as the violet sigil on it suddenly glowed red.


    Immediately after, the spot where the ck stone came in contact with the metal door slowly melted into apletely fitting cavity.


    Red molten metal flowed out of the depression, and sparks asionally flew out. However, Ren Xiaosu was not burnt by the Eye of True Sight and only felt a sense of warmth from it.


    ¡°The magic of creation is really amazing.¡± Ren Xiaosu sighed.


    After Ren Xiaosu was done turning the Eye of True Sight ten times, he removed the ck stone and took out a gold one to drip his blood on. Ren Xiaosu was surprised to discover that the gold Eye of True Sight did not absorb his blood.


    ¡°As expected, it doesn¡¯t work.¡± Ren Xiaosu felt a little regretful. ¡°If only I could open a few more enchanted doorways.¡±


    Each person could only open one door in their life. This was the rule of the Enchanted Doorway spell.


    Xu Anqing looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Where does your enchanted doorway lead?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I want to know too.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°Please call my people over. Before going in, I must guard against anyone who might try something funny.¡±


    Xu Anqing said helplessly, ¡°Even if you don¡¯t trust me, you could¡¯ve put it more tactfully.¡±


    At this moment, Melgor also came to the Sorcerer¡¯s Tower from the underground tunnel. Ren Xiaosu had Summer, Qian Weining, him, and the others guard his enchanted doorway together.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Mel, ¡°I don¡¯t know where this portal will lead me when I pass through it. They say it¡¯ll be the ce I want to go most, but actually, I don¡¯t know where that is either.¡±


    This was what attracted Ren Xiaosu the most about the enchanted doorway. It was very difficult for anyone to analyze their inner desires, but the enchanted doorway would give them a direct answer.


    After that, Ren Xiaosu stepped through the newly created enchanted doorway.


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu quietly took note of the environment in front of him and startedughing. So it turned out¡­ the ce he most wanted to go to was that humble residence on Anning East Road in Stronghold 144.


    Ren Xiaosu had walked out from the enchanted doorway through the wall next to the sofa in the living room. Everything in front of him felt so familiar and reassuring.


    Yang Xiaojin and he had bought this ce together and got to know Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi afterwards.


    At this ce, they experienced setting up a stall in the marketce, did some reading, and Yang Xiaojin would go shopping for groceries and cook for him like a normal person.


    They had also nted some Potato Shooters and an apricot tree in their backyard.


    When they were upstairs, they would whisper to each other through the thin wooden walls before they fell asleep.


    Ren Xiaosu had wandered around the world and met many people. Some of them became friends, some became enemies, and some were just passersby in his life.


    In the end, what made him feel grounded was not some glorious official residence but this small house in Stronghold 144.


    So this was where he wanted to go the most. This was great! In the future, no matter where he might be, he could return home instantly through the Anywhere Door.


    ¡°Is anyone there?¡± Ren Xiaosu shouted happily.


    There was no response from the house. It looked like no one had lived here in a long time.


    However, Ren Xiaosu was not disappointed. Before he came back here, he had guessed Yang Xiaojin had already gone to look for him in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Therefore, it was within his expectations that she was not in Stronghold 144.


    At this moment, it was evening. Ren Xiaosu went to the backyard to check on the Potato Shooters. However, when Hu Xiaobai, who was in the yard next door, saw Ren Xiaosu walking out of the house, her jaw nearly dropped to the ground. ¡°Xiaosu!¡±


    It should be the weekend today, so Hu Xiaobai stayed at home on her rest day. She had taken advantage of the sunny weather to put out her nkets and mattresses in the yard to dry. Now that it was evening, it was time to bring them back in.


    The sunset cast a glow on the nket and Hu Xiaobai¡¯s face and made everything look exceptionally gentle.


    This made Ren Xiaosu feel like he had never really left this ce. It was as though this was where he truly belonged.


    ¡°Good afternoon, Mrs. Hu.¡± Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Why do you look so surprised?¡±


    However, Hu Xiaobai ignored him and ran into the house with her nkets. She shouted, ¡°Old Wang! Old Wang! Look who¡¯s back!¡±


    Wang Yuexi¡¯s voice could be hearding from inside the house. ¡°I¡¯m writing a document, so don¡¯t disturb me with all that shouting¡­ Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, let go of my hand!¡±


    While protesting, Hu Xiaobai pulled Wang Yuexi out of the house by the ear.


    When Wang Yuexi saw Ren Xiaosu, he nearly thought he was hallucinating. ¡°Future Commander? Why did you suddenlye back? They said you went to the Kingdom of Sorcerers!¡±


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, ¡°We can catch up on thatter. Summon ck Fox and Zhang Xiaoman for me.¡±


    ck Fox was P5092¡¯s adjutant.


    After the war between the Pyro Company and the Wang Consortium, the remaining Pyro Company main forces retreated to the Northern ins. In the end, they were all brought to the Northwest by P5092. Currently, ck Fox and Zhang Xiaoman should be the ones inmand in the 6th Combat Brigade.


    The reason why Ren Xiaosu did not call for P5092, the Great Hoodwinker, or Wang Yun was that he knew they were definitely on their way to the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    In fact, they might even be there already.


    This was not just Ren Xiaosu specting. All of them understood each other on a deep level.


    Wang Yuexi hurriedly obeyed and said, ¡°Alright! I¡¯ll get them toe right away!¡±


    Then Wang Yuexi stumbled back into the house to make a call. Meanwhile, Hu Xiaobai called out to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Xiaosu,e over to our ce. Big Sis will make you dinner. You must not have had dinner yet since you suddenly came back, right? What do you want to eat tonight?¡±


    ¡°Just a bowl of noodles will do,¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    At sunset, a dozen military vehicles drove through the gates from outside Stronghold 144.


    The earth-shattering sight stirred a wave of spection among the residents. Those who did not know better would think the military was about to arrest a spy ringleader.


    The dozen military vehicles were all from the 6th Combat Brigade. A pedestrian wondered, ¡°That¡¯s strange. Those soldiers don¡¯t usuallye into the stronghold when Future Commander isn¡¯t here. Didn¡¯t they say they were holding a boot camp for the new recruits? So why did theye into the stronghold with so many people?¡±


    At the same time, it wasn¡¯t only the 6th Combat Brigade that had reported to Anning East Road. Wang Fugui and Jiang Wu also arrived.


    Anning East Road was no longer peaceful. The neighbors were all looking curiously at the distinguished guests and saw the alleyways full of parked cars. The neighborhood was bustling with activity.


    A middle-aged woman was picking vegetables at the entrance of her house and saying with augh, ¡°Thest time there was such a bigmotion on Anning East Road was when Future Commander was caught.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t you know how to word things properly? They found Future Commander; he wasn¡¯t caught!¡± another middle-aged woman said disdainfully.


    ¡°At that time, Future Commander didn¡¯t want to be the futuremander yet, so wasn¡¯t he caught so that he would be the futuremander?¡± the vegetable-picking woman retorted.


    But two old men, who were ying chess by the side, suddenly stopped when they overheard their conversation. ¡°Could it be that Future Commander is really back?¡±


    Just as he finished speaking, the neighbors saw the 6th Combat Brigade¡¯smander, Zhang Xiaoman, jumping out of an off-road vehicle. Then he shouted at the top of his voice, ¡°Future Commander, you¡¯re finally back! The Great Hoodwinker and those damn jerks went to the Kingdom of Sorcerers and left me here by myself!¡±


    Following Zhang Xiaoman was ck Fox. The deputymander of P5092 was obviously much more mature than Zhang Xiaoman.


    When the neighbors heard this, they were immediately shocked. ¡°Hey, Old Liu, did someone bless your tongue? Future Commander is really back?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu weed Zhang Xiaoman and the others into Wang Yuexi¡¯s house. He looked at ck Fox and said, ¡°I had already gone to Fortress 178 when y¡¯all arrived, so I couldn¡¯t wee you myself.¡±


    ck Fox said politely, ¡°Future Commander, there¡¯s no need to stand on ceremony. We¡¯re already very familiar with each other.¡±


    ck Fox knew about everything Ren Xiaosu had done at the Pyro Company¡¯s front line back then.


    ck Fox felt that anyone aware of the futuremander¡¯s fearsomeness would definitelyy down their pride temporarily in his presence.


    ¡°Future Commander, how did you get back? Where are the Great Hoodwinker and the others?¡± Zhang Xiaoman wondered.


    Ren Xiaosu exined, ¡°I came back using sorcery. I haven¡¯t joined up with the Great Hoodwinker and the others yet.¡±


    ¡°Sorcery?!¡± Zhang Xiaoman¡¯s interest was immediately piqued. ¡°Future Commander, you¡¯ve actually learned sorcery? Can you teach me?¡±


    After all, Zhang Xiaoman felt that one could pick any person around him, and it would turn out to be a superhuman. This made him, a brigademander, very embarrassed.


    But more importantly, he was not one of those superhumans. They all had gone on a very exciting trip, but he wasn¡¯t able to join them!


    Ren Xiaosu took out two red Eyes of True Sight and threw one each to Zhang Xiaoman and ck Fox. ¡°Consider this a local specialty that I brought back from the Kingdom of Sorcerers. With it, you can be sorcerers too. This is the weapon of the Magi.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman sighed and said, ¡°Even the local specialties that Future Commander brought back are so unique.¡±


    ¡°Alright, stop ttering me already.¡± Ren Xiaosu taught the two of them how to meditate and practice. Then he asked, ¡°Tell me, who went to the Kingdom of Sorcerers to look for me?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman said indignantly, ¡°There¡¯s Future Commander¡¯s wife and that maid of yours, the Great Hoodwinker, Ji Zi¡¯ang, Wang Yun, P5092, and even that fair-skinned chubster, Xun Yeyu, was brought to the Kingdom of Sorcerers. But they refused to let me go with them.¡±


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was reassured. With this lineup from the Northwest, those people from the Kingdom of Sorcerers would have no choice but to be the Prosperous Northwest¡¯s branch office!


    ¡°ck Fox, how are things going between the Pyro Company and the 6th Combat Brigade?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ck Fox said, ¡°This is something I have to update you on, Future Commander. After Commander P5092 brought us here, we were initially worried the Northwest would not wee us. In the end, Commander Zhang directly gave the approval for a reorganization. The 6th Combat Brigade has already be the 6th Field Division. The Pyro Company has trained really well with the 6th Combat Brigade. I¡¯ve already redrawn the training directives of the 6th Field Division based on the types of troops avable to us.¡±


    ¡°Anything that you haven¡¯t adjusted to yet?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°No.¡± ck Fox said with a smile, ¡°Currently, the strength of our battle order is 21,317 men, including 3,021 new recruits who¡¯ve just been drafted into the military. Other than these recruits who still cannot go into battle, the others are operationally ready!¡±


    ¡°Very good.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded in satisfaction. It seemed he had indeed done the right thing by getting P5092 to convince these Pyro Company troops to join the Prosperous Northwest. ¡°I need all of you, other than the recruits, to quickly prepare for battle. After that, set up camp inside Stronghold 144. The vicinity of Anning East Road will have to be ced under martialw. But remember, don¡¯t disturb the nearby residents.¡±


    ¡°Understood!¡± ck Fox epted hisbat orders first before rifying his doubts, ¡°Future Commander, what¡¯s the meaning of this? Are we starting a war in the city?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said with augh, ¡°We¡¯re dering war on the Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡±


    ¡°How many basic supplies should we bring?¡± ck Fox asked.


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said, ¡°I¡¯m not versed in warfare, so I¡¯ll just exin the situation and leave the judgment call to you. This battle shouldn¡¯t require many logistical supplies. We¡¯ll be facing over a 100,000 cavalry units, and there might be street battles or walled defense tactics in y¡­¡±


    ck Fox silently made a note of it. ¡°I already have a rough idea of what the situation is, but I still have some doubts. Future Commander, why do you want us to set up camp inside Stronghold 144? And surely we need logistical supplies for the march to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, right?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head while smiling. ¡°There¡¯s no need for that. If we run out of supplies, we can juste back and transport them. We¡¯re only one step away from the Kingdom of Sorcerers.¡±


    The moment Ren Xiaosu realized his enchanted doorway was connected to Stronghold 144, he knew how they should fight this war.


    It was as though the enchanted doorway in his house had opened a path right in the face of the Magi. Originally, the Northwest would have to travel thousands of kilometers to send their troops to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, so their entire supply line would be a problematic issue.


    But it was different now. The entirety of Stronghold 144 had be their forward operating base. With that, the 6th Field Division¡¯s firepower was really only a step away from the Kingdom of Sorcerers.

 Chapter 1196 - The final clue

    <h4>Chapter 1196: The final clue</h4> <h4><strong>Trantor: </strong>Legge </h4>


    Zhang Xiaoman could never have expected that he, the one who had been left behind, would actually be the first to rendezvous with the futuremander.


    ¡°Future Commander, you mean to say there¡¯s a doorway leading to the capital of the Kingdom of Sorcerers right in your house?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked in shock.


    When Ren Xiaosu exined the principle behind the enchanted doorway to them in detail, they were all extremely fascinated.


    Moreover, this was not a unique superpower but one that was replicable through an inheritable spell.


    ¡°Future Commander, do you think I can also open this freaking enchanted doorway?¡± Zhang Xiaoman asked.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Anyone with a red Eye of True Sight or higher can activate it. This doorway will lead to wherever you wanna go the most.¡±


    At the side, ck Fox calmly tried to talk Zhang Xiaoman out of it. ¡°I suggest you better not activate the enchanted doorway now. It won¡¯t be very nice if it opens into Triratna Alley.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was curious. ¡°What¡¯s Triratna Alley?¡±


    ck Fox exined, ¡°Future Commander, many youngdies need help on Triratna Alley. Zhang Xiaoman has to make a trip there twice a month.¡±


    ¡°Why are you ndering me?¡± Zhang Xiaoman roared while blushing.


    As he trailed off, Ren Xiaosu pped him on the back of the head. ¡°Don¡¯t go to ces like that anymore. You¡¯re already a brigademander. Can¡¯t you settle down and find a wife?¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman covered his head and looked at ck Fox viciously. It was as though he was saying, ¡°Just you wait!¡±


    However, ck Fox ignored him and confirmed with Ren Xiaosu instead, ¡°Future Commander, do you require all our troops in the 6th Field Division to be fully armed? How should we deal with those sorcerers?¡±


    ¡°Leave the sorcerers to me,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    ¡°Alright, I understand.¡± ck Fox continued asking, ¡°Should we convert Stronghold 144 into a field camp or turn it into an actual forward operating base?¡±


    ¡°A field camp.¡± Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, ¡°When there¡¯s another war after this, we¡¯ll totally have enough time to train new sorcerers to activate their enchanted doorways. More importantly, this enchanted doorway is in my house, so don¡¯t break my flooring when you guys shuffle in and out.¡±


    ck Fox said, ¡°¡­ Understood.¡±


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu had also given it some thought before. ording to P5092, a war with the Wang Consortium was unavoidable.


    But the problem was that it was likelier the Wang Consortium would be the one initiating this war rather than Fortress 178.


    When that time came, Stronghold 144 would be the main battlefield, and his enchanted doorway would be less important in that war.


    Right now, the greatest significance of the enchanted doorway was that Ren Xiaosu could summon a modern army from a 1,000 kilometers away to directly deal a devastating blow to the sorcerers¡¯ main camp in Ghent City.


    The only thing that worried Ren Xiaosu was that there were too many civilians in Ghent City.


    Although those civilians were not rted to Ren Xiaosu in any way, he could not be so deranged as topletely disregard their lives.


    If Ren Xiaosu were so indifferent, he would never have be the futuremander of the Northwest.


    Ren Xiaosu said to ck Fox, ¡°As for the specific battle n, we¡¯ll talk again after I join up with P5092. Y¡¯all get ready here first and ensure that you can move out at any time. On top of that, get all the equipment ready. Whatever that won¡¯t fit through the enchanted doorway, just leave it to me to transport.¡±


    An enchanted doorway would not open up bigger even if it were activated on arger object. There were principles dictating the way they worked.


    Under normal circumstances, the enchanted doorway could only allow one to three people to pass through at the same time. This rule seemed to be determined by the grade of the Eye of True Sight. Ren Xiaosu possessed a ck Eye of True Sight, so his enchanted doorway could allow three people to pass through at once.


    Zhang Xiaoman and ck Fox returned to the 6th Field Division¡¯s military base in high spirits and started making arrangements for the field camp to be set up inside Stronghold 144.


    That same night, arge number of trucks entered Stronghold 144. Meanwhile, Wang Yuexi quickly organized the staff of the stronghold¡¯s managementmittee to conduct an eviction of the surrounding residents and draw up apensation n.


    A military base to amodate 20,000 soldiers would definitely be veryrge no matter howpact it was. They would definitely have to set up a cordon in the vicinity of the base and demarcate it as a restricted zone, so no civilians would be allowed to live inside the area.


    However, it was not that easy to do the eviction. Wang Yuexi was so worried about this his hair almost turned white.


    As there were ten residential zones around the futuremander¡¯s residence, just thepensation alone would cost arge sum. Although Stronghold 144 was rich enough to afford suchpensation now, the residents might not be willing to move away.


    In such situations, it would not be practical to try and run the operations from behind the scenes. Wang Yuexi would have to take the staff from door to door to evict people through the night.


    Wang Yuexi said to the staff around him, ¡°Remember to remain polite. Even if the residents are unwilling to move, don¡¯t be rude to them.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± The staff were all mentally prepared to fight a tough battle.


    Military operations would, of course, take priority. If someone truly refused to move, they would have to be forcefully evicted.


    But if things could be resolved peacefully, the Northwest Army would not want toe into direct conflict with themon folk either.


    When Wang Yuexi knocked on the door of the first house nearby, a middle-aged woman opened the door in surprise. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s Little Wang. What brings you here in the middle of the night?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s like this: We¡¯re evicting the residences in the vicinity for the interim. Based on our 6th Field Division¡¯s ns, we might need to requisition your ce for about a month.¡± Wang Yuexi patiently handed over a document. ¡°This is our requisition n with the specificpensation details in it.¡±


    The woman was taken aback. ¡°What¡¯s the purpose of this?¡±


    Wang Yuexi exined, ¡°Well, it¡¯s nothing confidential. The futuremander is preparing to attack the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Have you ever heard of the Kingdom of Sorcerers? They¡¯re the ones who¡¯ve been harassing Fortress 178. Right now, the futuremander has found a way to attack them, so he needs to turn this neighborhood into a field camp to hold the 6th Field Division. But don¡¯t worry, they¡¯ll just be setting up military tents on the outside and won¡¯t go into your homes.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s like that.¡± The woman smiled and said, ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll move out tonight to make space for you guys. Do you want me to leave the house key so the boys can go inside and take a hot shower or something?¡±


    At this moment, someone opened the door of the house next to them. Another middle-aged woman said, ¡°I overheard you all talking. We¡¯ll move out tonight as well.¡±


    Wang Yuexi was stunned. To be honest, he had expected this to be the most difficult step, but it turned out to be the simplest one.


    Before the woman returned to her house to pack her things, she even said excitedly to Wang Yuexi, ¡°Can you pass a message to the futuremander for me? Tell him Auntie Li from the market says to attack those sorcerers without mercy! He has our full support!¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Wang Yuexi was stunned for a while. ¡°Why don¡¯t you guys take a look at thepensation details first? This way, everyone will also know how muchpensation they will receive in the future.¡±


    Auntie Li giggled. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll just go live at my son¡¯s ce for a month. Why would I need anypensation? You guys worked hard to solve the food shortage and fought battles to avenge the Northwest. If we want to bepensated over such a small matter, what does that make us?¡±


    Wang Yuexi shook his head. ¡°No, Auntie Li, those are two different matters. Rules are rules.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, just pay as you see fit,¡± Auntie Li said with augh.


    ¡°How can we do that?¡± Wang Yuexi got anxious.


    However, Auntie Li punched Wang Yuexi in the chest andughed heartily. ¡°Why are you being so damn polite? Don¡¯t hold me up from packing.¡±


    Auntie Li punched Wang Yuexi so hard it made him cough twice.


    Another middle-aged woman next door said, ¡°Little Wang, since you¡¯re so close with the futuremander, can you ask him for an autograph on our behalf after the war?¡±


    Auntie Li said, ¡°You were only asked to move away for a month. Why are you troubling others with so many requests? The futuremander is very busy, so how would he have time to give you an autograph?¡±


    Wang Yuexi was speechless.


    Auntie Li said to Wang Yuexi, ¡°Alright, stop wasting time here and go do your job. You guys have already toiled so much on the front lines. Surely we can¡¯t disappoint you all on your return to the stronghold, right?¡±


    It took only one night for the stronghold¡¯s managementmittee topletely vacate the neighborhoods around the futuremander¡¯s residence. Although not everyone was as easygoing as Auntie Li, the fact there were people like her somewhat made Wang Yuexi feel that all of their hard work was worth it.


    When Ren Xiaosu returned to the other side of the enchanted doorway, Qian Weining, Mel, Summer, and the others were still standing guard.


    He casually put the metal door into his storage space, making it look like a magic spell. Everyone almost couldn¡¯t differentiate who was the real sorcerer here.


    Melgor wondered, ¡°You were in there for several hours. Where does this enchanted doorway lead to?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll know in the future.¡± Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ve roughly figured out how to deal with those old aristocratic ns.¡±


    Next to him, Summer shook her head and said, ¡°Maybe you haven¡¯t encountered a true archmage before. That¡¯s why you think the Magi are a little weak. But I have to seriously remind you that things are not as simple as you think. Otherwise, we wouldn¡¯t have stayed in hiding until now.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Tell me about it.¡±


    ¡°It definitely wasn¡¯t down to luck that the Houses of Norman and Tudor have remained established in Ghent City for 200 years.¡± Summer said, ¡°There¡¯s too many exclusive spells in the world that have not been made public, so no one knows what trump cards they hold.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I understand.¡± Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, ¡°Please take me to Ghent City. I¡¯ve had a change of ns, so I need to get my hands on what that Rider left behind as soon as possible. I¡¯m worried that I won¡¯t have a chance to retrieve it once it gets chaotic.¡±


    Summer was taken aback for a moment before agreeing, ¡°Alright.¡±


    No one knew what Ren Xiaosu meant by that. But a momentter, everyone suddenly felt a strong warping force pulling at them. It was as though they were being dragged away from this part of the world.


    With a loud crash, everyone was pulled away from the turbulent coast and fell back into the dark tunnel!


    They saw two people in leather armor holding their Eyes of True Sight inside the tunnel. The wall that had the divine dragon drawn on it had been blown up.


    Before Summer could steady herself, she was reacting, ¡°They¡¯re not our people! It¡¯s the bounty hunters from the sorcerer ns! They¡¯ve discovered this ce! Fight back!¡±


    However, someone else had reacted faster than her.


    The moment Ren Xiaosu fell back into the tunnel, he pushed off the ground with his arm supporting him before his body fully hit the ground and shot towards the two bounty hunter assants like an arrow.


    During the leap, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s armor quickly covered his entire body and blocked the two bounty hunters¡¯ Greater Fireball spells.


    At the rear, Chen Jingshu and Xu Anqing hurriedly raised their hands to fire the spring-loaded crossbows hidden in their sleeves. Although the concealed crossbow was small, it could shoot three bolts all at once.


    However, because they were too hasty, the six bolts all deviated from the targets.


    Chen Jingshu and Xu Anqing were annoyed. They knew they should have been calmer.


    But to their surprise, the six crossbow bolts they fired were all caught by Ren Xiaosu in midair in this narrow space. Right after that, he threw them at the two bounty hunters facing him.


    The diverted crossbow bolts were thrown at an even greater speed, and all of them pierced the heads of the two bounty hunters.


    When Qian Weining saw the events y out from behind, he suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity. He finally realized this was probably the reason for his 100% kill rate in archery.


    Ren Xiaosu went to check on the two bounty hunters. ¡°No bloodline spell was activated?¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like they were sent by the House of Tudor,¡± Xu Anqing analyzed. ¡°They should be from the House of Norman.¡±


    ¡°Wait a sec.¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned. ¡°That Sorcerer Titus from before was part of the Norman family, right? Where is he?¡±


    Everyone looked around but couldn¡¯t find him anywhere.


    However, Mel mentioned, ¡°I saw him fleeing through the tunnel after we fell out of the enchanted doorway.¡±


    Ren Xiaosumented, ¡°You seem quite concerned about your romantic rival.¡±


    Mel¡¯s face turned red. ¡°I-I¡¯m just observant!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Anqing and said, ¡°Y¡¯all¡¯re way too careless. Didn¡¯t you notice someone like him sneaking into the group?¡±


    Xu Anqingughed and shook his head. ¡°How could we possibly not notice?¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, several people emerged from both sides of the tunnel. One of them was even carrying Titus Norman, who had just fled.


    From the look of things, these were the members of the Sanctuary who had been lying in ambush in the tunnel.


    After these people entered the tunnel, they kept looking at Ren Xiaosu knowingly, as though everyone was already aware of his background.


    ¡°So it was an operation to root out spies.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°What a heavy price to pay, sacrificing an enchanted doorway just for that.¡±


    ¡°This enchanted doorway¡¯s location has already been exposed, so we thought of exploiting it for what it was worth,¡± Xu Anqing said.


    Chen Jingshu said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Come with us. We¡¯ll head deeper underground. If the enemy dares to make a move at this time, they¡¯ve probably already made other preparations.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°y¡¯all can go ahead, but Summer and Mel have to follow me to the Rose Monastery. I must quickly retrieve what that Rider had left behind.¡±


    ¡°But it¡¯ll be very dangerous to return to the surface now.¡± Xu Anqing frowned.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯ll be very dangerous for them,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Xu Anqing was speechless.


    After Ren Xiaosu left, Xu Anqing led Qian Weining and the others to the depths of the underground. Eventually, a member of the Sanctuary couldn¡¯t help but remark, ¡°He really looks so identical to that Rider.¡±


    ¡°An¡¯an¡¯s father said he wanted Ren Xiaosu to lead us. Jingshu, you¡¯ve spent some time with him. Do you think he¡¯s qualified to be our leader?¡± Xu Anqing asked.


    Chen Jingshu thought for a while and said, ¡°He¡¯s much stronger than you guys think, and I know this for a fact. I¡¯m afraid that even if An¡¯an¡¯s father were here, he wouldn¡¯t be a match for him. However, his leadership ability is still debatable. We don¡¯t know whether he¡¯s capable of leading the entire Sanctuary.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, he¡¯s so young, I doubt he has much leadership experience,¡± Xu Anqing said with a nod.


    ¡­


    The nightlife of Ghent City was active beyond imagination. A dazzling array of taverns lined the busy streets of Rose Avenue, and there were even beautiful women smiling and weing guests outside the taverns.


    Inside the taverns, the heartyughter of men and women could be heard through the wooden doors. asionally, a dance tune would be heard, and the people inside would start embracing and dancing together.


    Outside the taverns, luxurious carriages were parked on the side of the road, while the coachmen and servants smoked handrolled cigarettes as they waited for their masters.


    Usually, the coachmen and servants would be required to wait a long time in such situations, as the young nobles reveled past midnight.


    It would bete into the night when young men and women would be boarding their carriages with their favoritepanions in their arms before returning to their respective homes to spend the night together.


    Rose Avenue was well-known in Ghent City. If Ghent City was known as ¡°The City That Never Sleeps,¡± this ce would be known as ¡°The Street That Never Sleeps.¡±


    The long boulevard was not that wide, probably only wide enough for three carriages to pass through at the same time.


    On both sides of the streets were three-story-tall Gothic buildings. Taking a bird¡¯s-eye view, thisrge capital would appear very neatly structured. It was as though the buildings were blocks of choctes ced next to each other, creating a pleasing sight.


    But in the shadows of this morous city lurked a scent of blood that did not match its mor.


    In a dark alley next to the Rum Tavern on this lively Rose Avenue, a manhole cover was suddenly moved aside from the inside.


    Ren Xiaosu, Mel, and Summer climbed out of the sewers one after another. At this moment, a man and a woman were secretly making out in the alley. Compared with the lively Rose Avenue on the main street, this alley was considerably quieter.


    When the couple saw Ren Xiaosu climbing out of the sewers, they nearly cried out in rm. But before they could make a sound, they were knocked unconscious by Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°How should we deal with these two?¡± Melgor asked in surprise. Then he saw Ren Xiaosu stuffing each of them mercilessly into two dumpsters.


    Summer whispered, ¡°Head left. Ghent City is heavily guarded now, so we must be extremely careful.¡±


    As they were talking, two patrolling soldiers suddenly passed through the alley.


    When they saw Ren Xiaosu, Summer, and Mel, a strange look of intrigue appeared in their eyes.


    When they walked past each other, the two patrolling soldiers even muttered, ¡°These young people really know how to have fun.¡±


    Mel, supposedly the most cowardly of the group, felt blood rush to his head. He said angrily to the patrolling soldiers, ¡°You two, get back here! We¡¯re here to destroy Ghent City. We¡¯re not as nasty as you think!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Summer was too.


    Ten secondster, Ren Xiaosu stuffed the two unconscious soldiers into the sewers. Then he praised, ¡°Mel, I never knew you to be so ballsy. The power of love is indeed great!¡±


    Summer smiled and said, ¡°Melgor, you seem a little different from before. You¡¯ve be braver.¡±


    Melgor scratched his head and said shyly, ¡°¡­ Really?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed, ¡°People in rtionships can really lose their minds.¡±


    Rose Monastery was located at the end of Rose Avenue. As the three of them walked on the streets, no one suspected them at all. They just thought that they were here to have fun.


    The trio quietly climbed over the walls of the Rose Monastery, then descended into the well behind it.


    After they went into the well, realization dawned on Ren Xiaosu. It was no wonder no one had discovered the secret hidden here even though the monastery had been renovated. It turned out the Russell family had hidden everything inside a secret chamber that was dug in advance in this well.


    The secret chamber was not big. There were several boxes of books and some boxes of gold coins stored inside.


    The boxes containing the books were covered with ayer of canvas tarps to protect them from the damp.


    Summer rummaged around for a while before handing a wooden box wrapped in canvas to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°This is what that Rider left behind. I swear on the Russell family¡¯s reputation that we have never opened it before.¡±


    The moment Ren Xiaosu took the box from her, the voice from the pce in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mind said, ¡°Clue collection questplete. The reward is archived and can be retrieved at any time.¡±


    The pce did not mention what the reward was, and Ren Xiaosu was not in a hurry to retrieve it either. Instead, he continued looking intently at the box in his hand.


    All the unsolved mysteries would be revealed tonight.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was not nervous at all. Rather, he was unprecedentedly calm.


    At this moment, Old Xu, who had been sent out earlier, was standing on the roof of a building. It was quietly watching themotion around Rose Avenue as the sound of galloping horses approached like a tsunami.


    It could see several groups of soldiers holding torches even farther away.


    Tonight¡¯s Ghent City had be even livelier than usual.


    In the darkness, an iron arrow suddenly shot out from the shadows. The bowstring twanging and the iing arrow sounded like rumbling thunder.


    This iron arrow was headed straight for Old Xu¡¯s face.


    But when this powerful arrow arrived in front of Old Xu, Old Xu casually put its palms together and caught the iron arrow in its hands.


    It only took a moment for the arrow to go from extreme motion to sudden stillness.


    A mor erupted in the darkness.


    Themotion outside the monastery traveled down into the well. Summer¡¯s expression turned solemn. They had kept their whereabouts discreet. If they still got encircled at this time, it would mean there were still problems within the organization and that the spies had not been wiped out.


    Summer said to Mel, ¡°They probably only know that we came to Rose Avenue through the sewers and don¡¯t know we¡¯re in the monastery. Only the three of us know about this ce. I¡¯ll lure them awayter while you stay hidden here. Make sure you don¡¯t go out!¡±


    Mel looked helplessly at Ren Xiaosu and realized he was calmly opening the wooden box to reveal a letter inside.


    The secret the Russell family had been protecting for over 200 years turned out to be just a letter.


    Melgor said anxiously, ¡°Xiaosu, tell us what we should do now.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let me finish reading the letter first. Who knows, the problem outside might already be resolved by the time I finish reading it.¡±


    ¡°Do you expect the problem to resolve itself? Then you might as well just say we can wait here to die. Have you ever considered there might already be thousands of Knights of Tudor congregating outside?¡± Summer asked.


    Ren Xiaosu carefully opened the envelope. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, with me around, not even gods that descend from Heaven can kill you two. Moreover, those people outside are just a group of pseudogods.¡±


    Summer¡¯s expression turned even more solemn. She took out her Eye of True Sight and recited an incantation in the well outside the secret chamber.


    A secondter, a scene of Rose Avenue appeared on the water¡¯s surface.


    On the long boulevard of Rose Avenue, she saw countless corpses of the Knights of Tudor extending out towards the horizon. Blood was also flowing continuously along the gaps between the brick pavement.

 Chapter 1197 Past Events, Revelations

    Summer had heard of Ren Xiaosu''s strength before.


    For example, the battle in Winston City had been confirmed by Chen Jingshu today to be the work of Ren Xiaosu.


    And news of the battle where Ren Xiaosu returned to Winston City in pursuit of Wang Wenyan was also transmitted back to Ghent City through Zhang Haoyun.


    But for such matters, it wouldn''t leave much of a particr impression on anyone if they hadn''t witnessed it with their own eyes.


    However, what she saw on the surface of the water in the well left her so shocked she was speechless.


    Summer looked at Mel while Mel shrugged. "I was pretty surprised too at first...."


    Summer suddenly recalled what Ren Xiaosu had told her in the sewers this afternoon. "My arrival from the Central ins is the best opportunity for y''all to overthrow the old aristocratic rule of the Magi."


    At that time, Summer responded with a polite smile because she felt she should not view others with suspicion willy-nilly.


    And now, Summer was very d she did not dismiss those ims on the spot.


    "Was it yourpanion who ughtered the Knights of Tudor on Rose Avenue?" Summer wondered.


    "Yes." Ren Xiaosu remarked offhandedly, "It''s my good friend, Old Xu."


    "How many of you from the Central ins are here in the Kingdom of Sorcerers this time?" Summer asked.


    "It was only me at the beginning." Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, "Mel had abducted and brought me here. At that time, he used the Earth Bind spell to restrain me."


    In an instant, Summer started reevaluating Mel and thought to herself, ''You''ve actually been hiding your strength all this time?!''


    Mel hurriedly exined, "I''m not that strong. He''s been helping me behind the scenes."


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Mel and Summer and said, "Wait a minute, I need to finish reading this letter first. Don''t worry, I''ll think of how to deal with it before more enemies arrive."


    Summer wondered, "Why do I get the feeling you''re deliberately waiting for the situation to get worse before taking action?"


    "Of course." Ren Xiaosu nodded. "It''s not really difficult to lure them away or get you two out of here now, but that''s not in line with my current n."


    "Your n?" Summer asked.


    "That''s right." Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, "To quickly bring an end to this matter of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the most I can do is help y''all clear out the obstacles. As for whether y''all can handle the remaining issues, that''ll have to depend on yourselves. Otherwise, you can wait til I have the freedom toe back to the Kingdom of Sorcerers again. After all, this will be the Prosperous Northwest''s branch office, so I''ll definitely support y''all til the end."


    Summer asked again, "You didn''t think that way previously, right? What made you suddenly change your mind and be so radical?"


    "Part of the reason is that mypanions will be here soon." Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, "The other reason is that I have to go back to the Central ins."


    When he returned to Stronghold 144, Ren Xiaosu received news that the Wang Consortium hadpleted the unification of the Central ins.


    After the unification, the Wang Consortium entered a short reorganization period. Once they finished reorganizing, the Wang Consortium''s main forces got activated again, and they were about to arrive at the borders at the Northwest and Southwest.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu had to make a trip back to the Central ins.


    He unfolded the yellowed letter in the well''s secret chamber. "Quiet."


    This letter was written so long ago it felt like it came from the opposite bank of the river of time.


    ...


    Xiaosu, many years might have passed by the time you read this letter. Dr. P. says that when you wake up, anything could be a possibility. Perhaps you will have turned into a world consciousness. Perhaps you will have lost all your memories. Or perhaps everything will remain the same as before.


    I''m not sure where fate will lead us in the end. I only wrote this letter because I hope that when you see it one day, you will understand that your mother and I never really left you.


    Time is a measure of everything in the world. The young will grow old, flowers will wither, the sea can turn into mulberry fields, and mountains can be ins.


    I can''t be sure what the world will look like by the time you read this letter. I don''t think I''ll have a chance to witness it. I have my responsibilities, and in the future, you''ll have yours as well.


    I''ve been pursuing the meaning of life my entire life. I''ve tried freefalling from a great height. ''I''ve tried surfing the waves in the sea. I''ve scaled mountains of ice. And I''ve also soared above peaks.


    Your mother and I traveled to almost every corner of the world, but it wasn''t until you were born that we finally felt a sense of home.


    When I picked up my pen to write this letter to you, there were so many things I wanted to share with you. But in the end, I suddenly realized how useless words are in the face of time.


    Xiaosu, are you living your own life yet?


    The majority of people spend most of their lives in observation. They observe the different paths others take and the lives they lead in an attempt to figure out what they should do for themselves.


    But in fact, what they''re observing is not life, paths, or choices. Rather, they''re observing how others seed, because they need to use other people''s sess to motivate themselves. But it will be toote if they wait until others have already seeded.


    Xiaosu, have you found someone you love?


    What is love? It''s the sudden feeling of weakness, but at the same time, a sense that you''re protected by armor. It''s when you can suddenly grasp the meaning behind love songs after you''ve fallen for her. It''s when you suddenly feel like you don''t have to conquer the world, that you don''t have to make a name for yourself, that you don''t have to be sessful, that you don''t have to be rich, and still feel a sense of bliss. You might even feel like you''ve lost a little of that ambition and still think it''s not a bad thing. It''s when you grow conscientious of everything yet are able to reach apromise on all of them.


    Xiaosu, do you still have dreams?


    The path of pursuing one''s dreams is like trekking through the wilderness, braving the brambles, the wind, and snow. Only you know how lonely it feels in that icy and snowy terrain, but the burning passion in you keeps you going.


    This path is fraught with difficulty. You can be covered in wounds and feel like you''re suffering from cold and hunger, but as long as you still have a wisp of breath left, you have to keep walking.


    When you finally achieve your dream and the sun rises, how exciting does it feel to stand atop that cliff and look down at the magnificent scenery that was unknown to you before?


    Actually, the purpose of having dreams does not lie in what happens after you''ve achieved them. Its significance is in the process of making ite true.


    Xiaosu, are you still courageous?


    Most people onlye to realize after their youth has passed that the most precious thing in life is the courage to see the world while they were young, and the unyielding passion that used to fill them.


    Now that I think about it, how brave was the pioneer of aviation? The courage that made people look back on the history of humanity''s first flight is just like watching a warrior y a dragon. Those people were the true dragon yers of our ordinary lives, and the metaphorical dragons represented their invisible shackles. They broke free of those chains and pushed forward bravely.


    At this point in the letter, the handwriting suddenly changed:


    Xiaosu, it''s Mom. Your father is starting to lecture again. Don''t listen to him. You have your own life and loves.


    The two of us only hope you are happy and healthy when you read this.


    Xiaosu, Mom might not get to see you again in the future.


    I''m sorry, I didn''t take good care of you.


    ...


    At this point in the letter, the paper became crumpled, wet by water.


    Tears started rolling down Ren Xiaosu''s face as he read the letter. He wiped his tears away and startedughing.


    So it turned out he also had parents, and that his parents were just like other parents as well. His father liked to lecture while his mother was gentle and kind.


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and said with augh, "What are you going on about? There aren''t even nes in this era anymore."


    This letter was like the call of the people closest to him in the world, standing on the other side of the river of time. It was warm and beautiful.


    The letter did not mention anything about The Cataclysm, nor did it mention anything about his illness. It was just the gentle advice normal parents gave, and it was nothing too remarkable.


    But Ren Xiaosu felt that this was enough.


    This was enough for him.


    He said in his mind, "Pce, extract the quest reward."


    "Quest reward: Dusty Memory. Confirm extraction?"


    "Yes, extract it."


    The world dimmed before brightening again.


    Ren Xiaosu sat at a campfire and watched as his father roasted the fish he had just caught from theke in the mountains. Meanwhile, his mother sat at the side and muttered, "Our child is still so young. Why did you bring him here for free solo climbing?!"


    His fatherughed nonchntly. "What''s the big deal? I''ll take responsibility if anything happens."


    "Stop uttering nonsense. If anything happens to him, I''ll divorce you!"


    Then Ren Xiaosu set off with his father in the wee hours of the morning. When dawn broke, he saw with his own eyes the words his father had carved onto the rock face at the top of the mountain: Forever young.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu stood on the edge of the tform at the top of the Alps and watched as his father did some final adjustments to his wingsuit. "Remember, Xiaosu, the most important thing about flying in a wingsuit is not the flight pattern or your sense of bnce, but courage.


    "This is your final challenge. The moment yound safely on the ground, you might hear a cracking sound in your body. Don''t panic. That''s not a fracture but the sound of your gic code being unlocked."


    The young Ren Xiaosu said, trembling, "Dad, what if something happens to me?"


    Ren Heforted him with a smile, "Don''t worry, Dad is still young. I can still make a younger brother for you."


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Ren He had led Ren Xiaosu through eight extreme challenges, and every one of them was a close shave with death. There was skydiving, BASE jumping, extreme surfing, free soloing...


    Every time, Ren He would fool Ren Xiaosu into thinking he could unlock the gic code and be a superhuman afterpleting each challenge.


    And then, Ren Xiaosu really heard a crack as his gic code unlocked.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosuy quietly in the ward and watched as his parents and the doctor spoke anxiously outside.


    Actually, he already realized at that moment he would probably have to bid farewell to the world.


    How pathetic! He actually got cancer after unlocking his gic code? Who could he go reason with?


    His mother came into the ward tofort him and told him not to worry. She assured him there must still be a way to salvage the situation.


    Although Ren Xiaosu responded to her positively, he knew his life force was already starting to diminish.


    One day, his father brought him to another ce to meet someone called Dr. P.


    The other party said to Ren Xiaosu in seriousness, "The Pyro Company has always been dedicated to cancer research. The other patients did not make it because they were not strong enough, but you''re different. You''ve unlocked the gic code."


    It turned out the unlocking of his gic code had given him a renewed chance at everything.


    ...


    TRX-001 gic serum.


    TRX-007 gic serum.


    ESK-001 gic serum.


    WKP-003 gic serum.


    Ren Xiaosu could no longer remember how many gic serums he had been injected with. It wasn''t until one day that he felt his mind, which was gradually getting muddled, suddenly be clear again.


    The cells in his body started breaking down one by one before restructuring.


    If he had not previously unlocked his gic code, Ren Xiaosu could not have survived that period.


    He started to feel the changes happening in the world and could even perceive the value of time in scale.


    After that, his consciousness started dissipating. Even his body began turning into dust slowly. It was a very gradual but irreversible process.


    Ren Xiaosu''s thoughts were moving faster and faster, but he realized in despair he could not stop his body from dying.


    In the end, he did not even feel any sense of despair.


    His ward was clean and white. The two pets in a ss tank on the window sill did not pique his interest either. Ren Xiaosu started pondering about what was at the core of the world.


    It was as though he could see to a ce beyond the ceiling.


    His consciousness seemed to be able to change the physical form of objects.


    His thoughts could be transmitted to the minds of others, and he could also hear what they were thinking.


    As such, at some point, he heard a little boy in the ward next door "calling" him "Bro" softly.


    ...


    One day, Ren Xiaosu''s father went to the Pyro Company''s researchboratory alone and stuffed a ck stone into his hand before leaving in a hurry.


    At that time, no one knew what the ck stone was or where it came from.


    It was from that day onwards that his consciousness stopped drifting off, and even what had dissipated was slowlying back to him.


    It was also from that day onwards that he could not keep himself from descending into a chaotic darkness every night.


    Dr. P had said this was an adaptive mechanism of his body. Thatrge source of willpower with nowhere to go had to find an outlet, but his current body could no longer act as its vessel as of now. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu''s subconsciousness would help him find a way to deal with it.


    Ren Xiaosu asked when he could stop suffering headaches and the darkness.


    Dr. P assured him it would be fine once he found a way to deal with it.


    This way was probably the only solution for him to continue existing in his human form.


    Dr. P said to Ren Xiaosu, "You can also try out different ways yourself. There''s talented people in the world who can build a pce in their mind to store their memories. You can also try building the same thing to store your willpower. When you want to make use of it, you can retrieve it from the pce."


    But it was precisely because his mind continued plunging into darkness and chaos every day that Ren Xiaosu was kept in Laboratory 39 for treatment.


    ...


    Dr. P suddenly made a request of Ren Xiaosu one day. "The little boy in the next ward is dying. The gic serum ispletely ineffective on him. If he is to survive, we''ll need your help."


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, "What help do you need?"


    Dr. P replied, "He needs a bone marrow transnt from you."


    Actually, their <anno data-annotation-id="82f8f6ea-dbaa-98be-3e8f-0a2cee9b341f">HLAs</anno> were notpatible matches. In other words, the leukocyte antigens of Ren Xiaosu and the little boy did not make them suitable transnt candidates for each other. However, Dr. P had no choice but to hope for a divine miracle.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, "A divine miracle? Doctor, do you also believe in the divine?"


    Dr. P shook his head. "The gods I''m referring to are not those entrenched in secr faiths and beliefs. It''s you I''m talking about."


    Later, Ren Xiaosu found out the little boy was actually Dr. P''s son. The original intention of establishing Laboratory 39 was actually to save his own son''s life.


    If their HLAs did not match, it meant an organ rejection would be enough to make the treatment fail. But Dr. P had no choice but to take a gamble.


    Ren Xiaosu agreed and was wheeled into the operating room together with the little boy.


    A few hourster, he woke up in darkness and saw Dr. P looking extremely excited with tears brimming in his eyes. "It worked! It worked!"


    As the first true god in the world, it was very difficult to exin Ren Xiaosu''s existence with the current science.


    The god''s bone marrow was transnted into the boy''s body. It then reced his original bone marrow and restarted hemopoiesis.


    The little boy in the next ward did not even have to go through the pain of his cells restructuring that Ren Xiaosu had experienced. The cells in his body would be thoroughly reced by the metabolic process of hemopoiesis.


    There might be some people in the world who had obtained the blood of a god through the Pyro Company''s research, but this was the only person who had obtained the bone marrow of a god.


    Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile, "What''s his name?"


    "He took his mother''s surname. You can call him Yan Liuyuan."


    After the operation, Dr. P drew 200 milliliters of Ren Xiaosu''s blood and sent it back to the research base in the north of the Central ins via armed escort.


    However, no one noticed Ren Xiaosu had tried to feed his blood to his two pets on the windowsill after the operation.


    Afterwards, the world copsed when The Cataclysm struck. Laboratory 39 also became buried deep underground in the disaster.


    Meanwhile, the armed escort responsible for transporting the blood sample encountered earthquakes andndslides along the way. In the end, the survivors only managed to bring three drops of the blood sample back to the research base.


    These three drops of blood then became known as the Blood of God.


    ...


    Ren Xiaosu reopened his eyes in the small, secret chamber at the bottom of the well.


    So it turned out he knew Yan Liuyuan in the past. Yan Liuyuan must have gradually regained his memory when he unlocked his path towards bing a god.


    That was why Yan Liuyuan asked Ren Xiaosu, "Bro, have you recalled anything?"


    In fact, the two of them were connected by a blood rtionship more than 200 years ago.


    And it turned out his mind pce was created by him himself.


    The purpose of its existence was to carry the burden of thatrge source of willpower that had nowhere to escape to.


    This pce shouldered a huge responsibility. It was to gradually strengthen Ren Xiaosu''s body until it could finally bear that vast willpower.


    At the same time, it had to make some final preparations. If it were irrevocable that Ren Xiaosu had to be the world consciousness someday, it would have to ensure he became a good person first. This was to prevent human civilization from being pulled directly into the abyss by the world consciousness.


    The pce did not have its own will. This was what Ren Xiaosu subconsciously wanted, because his father, Ren He, had once told him his only expectation for him was to be an honest person.


    Ren Xiaosu remembered everything. He had once lived in a prosperous human civilization before The Cataclysm and witnessed the rise and fall of a city that contained buildings hundreds of meters tall.


    He had also lived in an era where the Inte was fully developed, and he nearly witnessed the birth of a virtual world pioneered by the Qinghe Group.


    Standing in the wastnds and looking back on everything that had happened in the past, that glorious human civilization was so nostalgic it made him want to cry.


    Ren Xiaosu knew exactly what was sealed inside the pce.


    He was not yet qualified to unlock that seal at this time. Or perhaps Ren Xiaosu always felt it was good enough for him to continue being human. If he really became a god one day, his feelings for Yang Xiaojin would also disappear from the world.


    Just like how Xiaoyu had be Yan Liuyuan''s "anchor," Yang Xiaojin was now Ren Xiaosu''s "anchor."


    The purpose of such emotions was so they could find their way back no matter where they were.


    Therefore, even though he had regained his memory, Ren Xiaosu''s strength had not changed much other than the fact he might speak with less restraint now.


    Today, Ren Xiaosu finally knew where he hade from. The next thing he would have to start thinking about was where to go next.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Mel and Summer and said, "You two, remain in hiding here. Onlye out when I call for you."


    Mel said anxiously, "Where are you going?"


    "To end things in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, of course." Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, "After tonight, this ce will be a little different."


    "And then?" Mel asked in a daze.


    "And then?" Ren Xiaosu turned to Summer and said, "I''ll remove all obstacles for the Sanctuary. In the process, you''ll understand how powerful Fortress 178 is now. As for how you want to govern the Kingdom of Sorcerers in the future, that''s up to you. Today, our Fortress 178 will form an eternal alliance with you. To express Fortress 178''s sincerity, I''ve decided to give Mel''s hand in marriage to you. We can kinda consider this a matrimonial alliance."


    Summer was confused.


    "Huh? Hey, hey, what do you mean by giving my hand away in marriage?" Mel''s expression changed greatly. "And shouldn''t you inform me beforehand if you''re aiming to topple the regime of the Kingdom of Sorcerers?"


    "Are you worthy?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Mel thought for a couple seconds. "I''m not..."


    Ren Xiaosu chuckled before scaling the walls of the well. Then he climbed onto the high dome of the Rose Monastery.


    He looked out into the distance. During the time he was extracting his past memories, Old Xu had helped him to open up a path by ughtering the enemies.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not intend to leave just like that. He was waiting for more people toe and encircle them.


    In Ghent City, the torch-bearing Knights of Tudor and the Norman family''s Knights of Radiance who had gathered resembled a flowing stream that kept converging. In turn, the neatlyid out streets were like the riverbed of that flowing stream.


    "So they''ve joined forces," Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.


    After Winston City was attacked by Ji Zi''ang and the others, the Berkeley family''s patriarch finally decided to put aside the civil war and join forces with the other ns to resist the foreign enemy from the Central ins.


    It was not that the Berkeley family''s patriarch had a sense of unity, but that this ambitious person from the south knew very well that the Kingdom of Sorcerers would never, ever be united.


    However, the Central ins was too powerful now, so powerful the Magi had to be on guard!


    As such, he sent two groups of envoys each to the Houses of Norman and Tudor to share all the information he knew.


    Although the sorcerer ns had been leading afortable life for over a 100 years, it did not mean they hadpletely turned ignorant.


    Summer, Chen Jingshu, and the others thought the people who had suddenly appeared tonight were probably here to encircle the Sanctuary members or to capture Russell''s descendant.


    But in fact, neither the Sanctuary nor Russell''s descendant were the protagonists since the start of tonight.


    The three sorcerer ns only had one purpose, and that was to capture Ren Xiaosu.


    Especially after the appearance of White Mask, the House of Tudor had be extremely focused on appeasing their rage.


    <annotations style="disy: none;"><ol ss="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="82f8f6ea-dbaa-98be-3e8f-0a2cee9b341f">Human leukocyte antigen | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_leukocyte_antigen#HLA_matching_for_sick_siblings</li></ol></annotations>",

 Chapter 1198 Faithfully Loyal

    In the underground world below Ghent City, Xu Anqing and Chen Jingshu led the group and quickly moved off to a more secure location.


    As they walked through some of the passageways, they could even hear the sound of galloping horses on the streets above them.


    Themotion caused by the cataphract regiments moving caused Chen Jingshu and the others to realize the seriousness of the problem. There was such a huge din in Ghent City tonight that it made them feel uneasy.


    In the underground ck market and casino, many of the merchants closed their businesses in panic.


    A lot of people suddenly recalled that Ghent City also became this hectic after the death of Donnelly from the House of Norman.


    As such, chaos broke out in the underground.


    But everyone quickly realized something else. The chaos tonight was different from that previous time. The knights of the sorcerer ns did not swarm into the underground.


    Instead, they sounded like they were all charging towards the center of Ghent City.


    At this moment, Qian Weining was following the leaders of the group. Ren Xiaosu had already departed from the party, and so had Melgor. Therefore, all he could do was follow the Sanctuary members as they fled.


    The pathways in the underground wereplicated, but Xu Anqing led everyone around with a sense of familiarity.


    While they were moving, Chen Jingshu suddenly asked, "Could they be targeting Summer?"


    "That''s the most likely possibility." Xu Anqing said, "The identity of Russell''s descendant is enough to make the sorcerer ns mobilize this many people. It looks like we''ve revealed ourselves too soon."


    "Then should we go and save her?" Chen Jingshu frowned and said, "It''s very dangerous for her to be alone...."


    Xu Anqing turned around and looked at Chen Jingshu. He said in a serious tone, "Jingshu, it''s useless even if we go. You probably also estimated that more than 400 knights just passed overhead, and this is only on one of the streets of Ghent City."


    "Then are we not going to do anything about it?" Chen Jingshu said.


    "All we can do now is pray she can turn the situation around on her own." Xu Anqing said, "I''m not heartless; we really have no other choice. Let''s get to the temporary shelter first. We can only wait there patiently tonight."


    While talking, they could already see a "guardian" in front of them. Perhaps due to the tense situation, the ck tattoos on his face even appeared quite distorted.


    The rusty metal door behind the guardian led to the shelter they were headed to. This was a secret passageway the underground residents had dug out themselves.


    Xu Anqing looked at the guardian and asked, "Anything unusual happen here at the temporary shelter?"


    The guardian answered, "Nothing for now. Those who were allowed in managed to match the secret phrase."


    "OK." Xu Anqing nodded and said, "Stay alert."


    The guardian pulled open the metal door to let them in. More than a 100 people had gathered in the wide passageway behind it. There were the elderly and children among them, and everyone seemed to be trembling in fear.


    Xu Anqing led his group through the crowd to head deeper inside. However, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.


    "Where are you from?" Xu Anqing looked at a young man and asked, "Why haven''t I seen you around before?"


    The young man hiding behind an old man at the side said nonchntly, "There''s so many people underground. You can''t have met everyone before, right?"


    Xu Anqing frowned and said, "At the very least, I should recognize those who are allowed into this temporary shelter."


    As he spoke, thest subordinate behind Qian Weining stepped into the temporary shelter. Immediately after, the metal door behind them was mmed shut by the guardian outside.


    The young man who spoke earlier suddenly gave a strangeugh. "It doesn''t matter whether you recognize me or not. You parasites living underground will rest here forever after tonight anyway."


    As soon as he finished speaking, hundreds of muscr men in the temporary shelter simultaneously drew short swords they had concealed on themselves.


    Xu Anqing was more shocked that there were four or five sorcerers already armed with their Eyes of True Sight among these few hundred people. The young man in front of him was even holding a red Eye of True Sight in his hand. This signified hemanded a high status within the sorcerer ns.


    Above that, only an archmage like Kayle who had been famous for a long time would be allowed to use a gold Eye of True Sight.


    Xu Anqing said calmly, "You were targeting us? You''ve really mobilized a lot of people then."


    "Well, no." The young man said with a light chuckle, "You lot are only the supporting cast tonight. The patriarch has decided not to tolerate you all anymore, so he thought we might as well get rid of you people in case you collude with the Central ins."


    Central ins? Xu Anqing was shocked.


    So it turned out the troops in Ghent City tonight were not targeting Summer and the Sanctuary. Their target was Ren Xiaosu!


    But something strange suddenly happened in the temporary shelter''s passageway. Everyone felt as though their world had turned upside down. What was originally the ceiling had be the ground, while the ground had be the ceiling!


    Caught off guard, everyone fell towards the "ceiling" as though they were falling from a great height.


    Only Xu Anqing, Chen Jingshu, the other members of the Sanctuary, the elderly, and the children were the exceptions as they hung upside down from the "ceiling." Hands of mud had reached out from the walls of the passageway and grabbed their ankles to hold them so they wouldn''t suffer from the sudden switch of the gravity field.


    Xu Anqing and the others were hanging in the air like gigantic bats.


    Meanwhile, the Tudor family''s knights and sorcerers, who were lying in ambush in the passageway, lost their bnce in the chaos. Their sorcerers could not even recite the spells they wanted to cast.


    Some of the sorcerers also lost grip of their Eyes of True Sight as they rolled off into the distance.


    Xu Anqing was relieved to see these two spells, the Inversion spell and the Swamp Hands spell, be cast at the same time. Meanwhile, Chen An''an cheered in surprise when she saw this. "Father is back?!"


    The Knights of Tudor and sorcerers struggled to get up after falling once. But before they could grab their short swords and Eyes of True Sight again, the inverted gravity field returned to normal.


    All of a sudden, the enemies, who had already taken a hard fall, fell from the ceiling back to the ground again.


    The metal door outside opened, and a burly man came in carrying the head of the guardian outside. Meanwhile, more than a dozen people emerged from the walls of the passageway.


    This was not an enchanted doorway but an earth-elemental spell.


    Tonight, Chen Jingshu and the others were ambushed, but Chen An''an''s father, Chen Jiu, had returned long ago. The reason they did not show themselves was because they were waiting for the moment when their enemies revealed themselves.


    The spies from the House of Tudor who infiltrated the underground thought they had sessfully ambushed the core members of the Sanctuary, but actually, Xu Anqing and Chen Jingshu were merely the bait set by Chen Jiu.


    These dozen-odd members of the Sanctuary who had suddenly appeared wore ck cloaks. They quickly killed the spies who had sneaked into the temporary shelter and spared all the Knights of the Inferno who came in with Qian Weining. This made Qian Weining realize these people from the Sanctuary must have been hiding here for a long time.


    Xu Anqing looked at Chen Jiu. "Boss, when did you all get back?"


    "Not long ago. When I learned the enchanted doorway had been destroyed, I quickly rushed back." Chen Jiu pointed at Qian Weining and asked Xu Anqing, "Who are these soldiers? The way they walk and move their arms suggests they''re from the Knights of the Inferno. What are you all doing with them? Did I miss something?"


    "Ren Xiaosu has arrived in Ghent City. After the enchanted doorway was destroyed, he brought Summer up to the surface and said he was going to retrieve something the Rider had left behind in the Russell family''s safekeeping," Xu Anqing exined. "You also heard what the sorcerer from the House of Tudor said just now. They''re out to kill Ren Xiaosu tonight."


    "It''s not only the House of Tudor." Chen Jiu shook his head. "When we rushed back, we discovered that the Knights of Tudor and the Normans'' Knights of Radiance had already started making their way back to Ghent City. Zhang Haoyun sent news that the Knights of the Inferno in the south are also heading north. It seems that the three ns have joined forces."


    Xu Anqing and Chen Jingshu were dumbfounded. "They''re deploying that many soldiers? Is that really necessary?"


    "I''m not sure," Chen Jiu replied, shaking his head.


    Logically, no matter how powerful Ren Xiaosu might be, there shouldn''t be a need to mobilize the main forces of the three biggest chivalric orders just to kill him, right? Ren Xiaosu was only one person, after all.


    This was totally illogical!


    Xu Anqing said, "What are we going to do? Should we save him?"


    "Yes." Chen Jiu said firmly, "The sorcerer ns must have their reasons for mobilizing so many troops to kill him. Who knows? This might be our opportunity to rise up."


    The members of the Sanctuary did not kill the sorcerers of the House of Tudor. Instead, they severed their tendons and left them in the tunnel so their bloodline spell would not be triggered.


    They could not be sure there were no children of any archmages among them. If they identally summoned the Tudor family''s patriarch here, it would be troublesome.


    Once the Sanctuary departed from here, these sorcerers of the Tudor family would be left to wail and curse in the passageway, but no one would bother about them.


    ...


    Some people said Ghent City was so big it would take seven days to get out of the eastern district on horse. This was undoubtedly an exaggeration.


    If there were really a need, the warhorses could traverse the city in half a day''s sprint.


    But at this moment, as Ren Xiaosu stood on the dome of the Rose Monastery and looked around him, he really felt that the vast Ghent City stretched as far as the eye could see. He felt like he was on a mountain.


    The Knights of Tudor and the Knights of Radiance rushed in from outside the city. Those knights who were originally headed to the battlefield in the south had all rushed back to Ghent City''s rescue.


    Knights were garrisoned in Ghent City to begin with. Now that the main forces had all turned around, it was really an astounding sight.


    The Tudor, Norman, and Berkeley families even abandoned fighting a civil war due to their persistence in wanting to kill Ren Xiaosu in Ghent City.


    "Wang Wenyan." Ren Xiaosu smiled. He believed the Berkeley family''s ims would definitely not be able to influence the Houses of Tudor and Norman to arrive at this decision. Therefore, Wang Wenyan must surely have contributed to this ambush that was waiting for Ren Xiaosu.


    At the southern gate, the heavily armored Knights of Tudor poured in like a dark torrent.


    The Knights of Tudor riding their steeds galloped through the streets with cold expressions on their faces, and the hooves of their warhorses clopped noisily on the stone pavement in the night.


    The Tudor family''s falcon banner was fluttering in the wind at the front of the group. All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw a fireball rising into the air from a small alley and flying towards him before exploding high above his head.


    This was not an attack but to point out Ren Xiaosu''s location for the knights who had just entered the city.


    A momentter, the St. Tudor Knightmander at the distant city gate raised hisnce high up and pointed it in the direction of the fireball.


    In an instant, the most elite knights in the Kingdom of Sorcerers suddenly changed directions without any hesitation.


    Amid the thunderous galloping, the residents of Ghent City remained silent out of fear. Everyone understood something big was about to happen tonight.


    Ren Xiaosu stood at the top of the dome and took in the sight of everything surging towards him. It was as though the night sky was boiling over.


    But so what?


    He took a deep breath and jumped down from the dome, just like how Ren He had jumped off the mountain peak with him.


    Ren He had asked him in the letter: "Xiaosu, are you still courageous?


    "Most people onlye to realize after their youth has passed that the most precious thing in life is the courage to see the world while they were young, and the unyielding passion that used to fill them."


    Without a doubt, Ren Xiaosu had nevercked courage.


    White Mask had already returned to his side. The two figures darted into separate alleys like two parallel rays of light that kept advancing, like two shooting stars.


    The St. Tudor Knight rode over and mped the end of thence under his arm. When Ren Xiaosu came up to him, the knightmander suddenly pulled the reins of his horse.


    The warhorse immediately reared up. As it came back down to the ground, the St. Tudor Knight thrust hisnce forward with the momentum!


    The heavily armored knight''snce prated through the air like a heavy cannonball. This was an attack that heavily armored knights were proficient in. Using the huge inertia of their warhorses, even if the enemy had their shield raised, they could not block the impact of such an attack.


    But a momentter, the St. Tudor Knight was surprised to see the young man in front of him taking out a steel machine from somewhere and holding it in his arms.


    A long, ming tongue erupted in the darkness of the night. The metal storm fired from the heavy machine gun only took two seconds topletely cover the entire alley.


    The dozens of Knights of Tudor who had just surrounded Ren Xiaosu in the alley were instantly wiped out!


    Ren Xiaosu carried the heavy machine gun that was still emitting smoke and walked out onto the long boulevard to face the knights who were surrounding him from the front and back alone.


    In front of him were the Knights of Tudor, and behind him were the Normans'' Knights of Radiance.


    He was fully surrounded by foes.


    Ren Xiaosu hefted the heavy machine gun in his hands again and fired wildly. "C''mon, sorcerers, make your move."


    Right from the beginning, he had taken out a lethal weapon like the heavy machine gun to tell those sorcerers, "If y''all don''t make a move, no one can do anything to me."


    When the Knights of Tudor on the south side were utterly defeated, Ren Xiaosu put away his heavy machine gun and continued running southwards. At this moment, another group of knights appeared from the alley on the left and tried to outnk Ren Xiaosu.


    But before these Knights of Tudor could rush out of their alley, they were intercepted by Old Xu.


    With Old Xu around, it would be impossible for these knights from the era of melee weapons to surround Ren Xiaosu.


    Perhaps the magi from the Kingdom of Sorcerers did not understand that Ren Xiaosu had note here to sacrifice himself, nor perish together with the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    As Ren Xiaosu dashed forward madly, a group of soldiers suddenly emerged on the roofs of the Gothic buildings on both sides of the street and started shooting arrows.


    The rain of arrows that blotted out the sky was like an enormous swarm of locusts or a storm cloud sweeping over.


    When the arrows were about to reach Ren Xiaosu, the young man leaped up and instantly covered himself with his armor. When the arrows hit the armor, they all shattered into pieces.


    Before Ren Xiaosu couldnd on the ground, a steam lotive suddenly appeared out of thin air under him. Amid the barrage of arrows, it was as though an Eastern dragon had crashed through the ominous clouds.


    Ren Xiaosunded on the front of the train and stood upright. He was wearing gray metallic armor and riding on a ferocious ck train. All of this seemed to havee from Purgatory with its finger pointed straight at the hypocritical kingdom in front of it.


    The steam lotive was very fast. When it whizzed through the city, everyone seemed to hear the sound of a storm.


    Many of the knights who were shooting from the roofs felt that in the blink of an eye, Ren Xiaosu, who was standing at the front of the train, had gotten very far away from them.


    The archmages could no longer sit still. If Ren Xiaosu were to force his way out of Ghent City, what would be of the gods'' reputation?


    All of a sudden, the hot summer temperature dropped.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned and realized that Old Xu, who had been protecting him throughout this battle, was gradually being covered in ayer of frost.


    In that instant, several icebergs erupted from the ground and broke through the buildings next to the street as they rose into the air. The bricks of the buildings were all shattered, and the icebergs forcibly trapped Old Xu within them.


    Just as Xu Anqing and Chen Jingshu had said, they must not underestimate the archmages no matter what. The Houses of Tudor and Norman were able to stand tall in the Kingdom of Sorcerers precisely because they were capable of doing so.


    Ren Xiaosu had never faced a figure like the Tudor family''s patriarch who stood at the top of the pyramid of power. And now, the other party had imprisoned Old Xu with a single attack.


    That iceberg was extremely dense, and no matter how hard Old Xu tried to shatter through it, there seemed to be no end to its size as it kept "growing."


    Ren Xiaosu made up his mind and decided to simply take out an RPG to help Old Xu shatter the iceberg. Although this would hurt himself a little, it would definitely be effective.


    If that still didn''t work out, he would resort to the thermobaric bombs!


    But before he could make his move, he suddenly saw the ground in front of the steam lotive splitting apart. An icy crack snaked towards Ren Xiaosu like a bolt of lightning.


    When the frost hit him, Ren Xiaosu even felt that the armor''s movements were slowed a little. Inside the armor, his eyebrows were covered in a thinyer of frost.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly kicked off the steam lotive and leaped away from it.


    The moment he separated from the steam lotive, the icy crack on the ground turned into a real abyss. A natural moat seemed to have appeared out of thin air on the long boulevard.


    The steam lotive plunged into the abyss of the crevice, having lost the foundation to hold its tracks.


    When the sorcerers did not make a move, everything seemed easy. But the moment they struck, it was as if they were out to eliminate what was the greatest threat to they sorcerers.


    Of course, the opponent had always regarded Old Xu as an independent entity. By targeting Old Xu first, the sorcerers probably thought it was far more of a threat than Ren Xiaosu.


    The Tudor family''s patriarch had made his move, but Ren Xiaosu did not panic. He was still determined to break through any encirclements as he headed south.


    When the Knights of Tudor and Knights of Radiance saw that Old Xu and the steam lotive had been restrained separately, they turned fanatical again.


    Amid the perilous situation, Ren Xiaosu suddenly made his way into a small alley. He wanted to use the dense buildings in Ghent City as cover to escape the sight of the archmages.


    ording to Chen Jingshu, the casting range of an archmage''s spell should be around a 1,000 meters. Be it the Tudor or the Norman families'' patriarchs, they would definitely keep a distance that reflected their desire to live.


    This also meant that after Ren Xiaosu entered the alley, the other party would not be able to deal a precise blow to him unless they voluntarily got closer.


    A huge ice sculpture of a falcon materialized in the sky. It pped its wings and flew in Ren Xiaosu''s direction in an attempt to identify his exact location from a bird''s-eye view.


    Each time the falcon pped its wings, arge amount of frost scattered into the air. The icy aura was an astounding sight to behold.


    It flew straight through the air as it searched for Ren Xiaosu below with its sharp eyes.


    But just as it was approaching Ren Xiaosu, it looked down and realized he was pointing a ck steel weapon at it.


    The young man hiding behind a building looked at the falcon through his scope and seemed to be smiling.


    A gunshot rang out. Finally, the House of Tudor understood how the falcon the advance guard had sent out went missing back then!


    "He actually dares to stay still and ambush us?" An aged voice at the back of the Knights of Tudor sneered, "Close in on him. Don''t let him escape from Ghent City."


    An archmage looked at the elderly Tudor family''s patriarch. "Won''t too many civilians be coteral damage if we fight the battle in the city? This might affect our reputation to a certain extent. More importantly, some vital trade goods are stored in this area."


    "What''s there to be afraid of? His escape route leads diagonally to the southern gate. That''s where the Norman family''s territory is located." The Tudor family''s patriarch said calmly, "We''ll kill him right there."


    ...


    On Rose Avenue, Xu Anqing and the others emerged from the sewers. But at this moment, the knights were already in pursuit of Ren Xiaosu and headed to the south of Ghent City.


    As such, all they could see were corpses strewn all over the ground.


    Just as Summer and Melgor had first witnessed this sight, everyone was shocked and speechless as they stood on the now silent Rose Avenue.


    "Did he really fight his way out single-handedly?" Xu Anqing asked with a gasp.


    Chen Jiu scanned his surroundings and said, "All of them suffered sharp sh wounds. I''m afraid that this was really the handiwork of one person."


    "There''s around 710 dead." Qian Weining had identified the death toll with just a nce.


    "Someone like that from the Central insing to the Kingdom of Sorcerers is just like a wolf among sheep." Xu Anqing sighed.


    Chen Jingshu suddenly said, "He once said he''s actually here because he wants to destroy the Kingdom of Sorcerers."


    "Let''s go, themotion is happening in the south."


    With that, Chen Jiu led the way towards the end of Rose Avenue. When they turned south at an intersection, they were surprised to discover no fewer corpses on the other street than on Rose Avenue.


    As everyone walked on, they sometimes felt like they were walking in Hell. Although the Sanctuary members had also killed before, they had never truly fought on a real battlefield.


    Therefore, they were shocked by this sight.


    It was as though the world''s cruelest scene was right here in front of them.


    "Aunt, do you remember when we previously spected whether Ren Xiaosu had killed anyone before?" Chen An''an said in a low voice, "At that time, we guessed he had killed no more than 10 people."


    But in actual fact, they had been traveling with the most ferocious superhuman in the world for so long.


    Everyone continued chasing southwards for a long time.


    Chen Jiu suddenly said, "Create an observation deck for me."


    "It will be dangerous. What if you stand too high and attract the attention of the Tudors and the Normans?" Xu Anqing said anxiously.


    "I can''t care that much anymore. I have to see what''s happening," Chen Jiu said firmly.


    Qian Weining took out a pair of military binocrs from his knapsack. "This was given to me by my master. You can use it to see farther out."


    "Thank you," Chen Jiu said to him after taking the binocrs.


    After that, a member of the Sanctuary next to Chen Jiu held a red Eye of True Sight in his hand and recited an incantation. The gray brick ground underneath Chen Jiu''s feet suddenly rose up. This earth-elemental spell instantly provided Chen Jiu with a tform and sent him dozens of meters up into the air so he could visually survey the entire city.


    But before the observation deck could reach its highest point, Chen Jiu raised the military binocrs to his eyes and was stunned by what he saw.


    In front of him, no one in the vast Ghent City turned their heads to look at him. Everyone only had one target: the young man sprinting madly in the distance.


    Chen Jiu swore this was the most magnificent sight he had ever witnessed in his life. All of the enemy''s forces were converging in one direction like a dark torrent, and their target was only that one person.


    As he was standing high enough, and with the aid of the binocrs, Chen Jiu could see the entire battlefield.


    Ren Xiaosu had already deactivated his armor, so it might not seem like there was anything magnificent about this scene. However, there was another sense of spectacrity in the speed and strength of that mad sprint.


    Chen Jiu suddenly realized there was another trick to the young man''s escape route. It was not without pattern as the other party traversed the alleys.


    During this grand pursuit, Chen Jiu saw Ren Xiaosu constantly avoiding the residents'' homes, and it was as though he were worried the innocent would be coteral damage in the battle.


    It was not that the young man did not have a chance to fight back, but that he was not obsessed with the battle as he fled southwards.


    No, he was not trying to escape. Rather, he was trying to lure the knights and sorcerers to pursue him southwards.


    "Why?" Chen Jiu muttered, "What are you trying to do?"


    ...


    There was a massive goods distribution center located near the southern gate of Ghent City. All the tribute transported from the south to the House of Norman was loaded and unloaded here.


    Just when Ren Xiaosu arrived at this area, the heavily armored Tudor family''s patriarch got up from his pnquin. Due to his old age, the heavy armor was a burden for him. He needed someone to support him so he could properly stand up.


    The huge pnquin was being carried by 16 shirtless diators. Silk and tassels were hanging from the pavilion-like structure.


    On the pnquin, the Tudor family''s patriarch stood still and stared ahead with the ck Eye of True Sight in hand.


    Hundreds of Knights of Tudor surrounded the patriarch in case anyone suddenly ambushed him.


    "Go and create an opportunity for me." The Tudor family''s patriarch''s aged voice crackled from behind his armor.


    The second-inmand of the House of Tudor nodded next to him. "Understood, Father."


    The archmage used the Wind Bind spell to lift himself into the sky. During this short moment in the air, the gold Eye of True Sight in his hand gradually started glowing.


    The chanting of the mysterious incantation sounded like a distant hymn.


    The Knights of Tudor who were guarding the pnquin sat solemnly on their warhorses, their expressions concealed behind their dark-gray visors.


    Ren Xiaosu was getting close to the southern gate and was only one kilometer away.


    Suddenly, he felt a tremendous silvery glow ring up behind him. The killing intent the House of Tudor had suppressed for a long time was finally about to bloom.


    The two archmages had joined hands, with one archmage''s sole intention to create an opportunity for the Tudor family''s patriarch to kill Ren Xiaosu. In their opinion, Ren Xiaosu was a dead man running.


    The incantation, which went on for several seconds, was recited for just the moment it would take effect.


    But to their surprise, it was not just time that was a step ahead of their sorcery, but guns and explosives as well.


    The sound of a gun being fired came from the top of the walls.


    As the p of thunder boomed, Ren Xiaosu smiled at the cap-wearing girl up ahead. She was smiling back at him.


    It was as though the two of them did not care where the bullet that was just fired was headed. Time seemed to have stopped in their world.


    Just like countless times in the past, she would always turn up when Ren Xiaosu needed her.


    There was no prior agreement between them, but the girl was unwilling to miss out on any part of Ren Xiaosu''s life.


    The spinning bullet stirred up the darkness of the night and traveled across time and space, piercing all the way through the archmage who had flown into the sky.


    The person Ren Xiaosu had been waiting for had finally arrived, and those who were supposed to be here were finally here as well.


    Luo Lan was jumping up and down on the walls as he waved his hands. The golden martyred spirits set up their guns while Zhou Qi had a look of disdain on his face.


    Wang Yun, Ji Zi''ang, the Great Hoodwinker, and P5092 looked at each other happily while the chubster, Xun Yeyu, stood off to the side with a look of despair.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yingxue stood behind Yang Xiaojin like an obedient kitten.


    They were all covered in dirt, and it looked like they had not wasted any time in rushing to Ghent City.


    Yang Xiaojin and Zhou Yingxue had arrived earlier, even earlier than Ren Xiaosu.


    A secondter, Ren Xiaosu spun around and looked in the direction he hade from. The Tudors'' and the Normans'' knights were surging towards him from that direction. The galloping of their steeds'' horseshoes sounded like the ocean tide, and their battle cries sounded like the howling wind.


    All of the world''s foes?


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, "Y''all done chasing? It''s my turn now. Wee to my world."


    In the deep darkness of the night, the tens of thousands of gratitude tokens in Ren Xiaosu''s mind pce were rapidly decreasing. Light gray Proficiency Stones were dispensed out of the vending machine and dissipated into dust as they came rolling out, turning into the foundation of Ren Xiaosu''s sorcery.


    "Prosperous! Northwest!"


    In front of the boundless iing tsunami, a ster gate opened.


    The ster gate was no longer the same as before. It had be more than 10 timesrger and looked as though a divine kingdom were about to descend on Earth.


    The revolving particles were as dazzling as starlight!


    Yang Xiaojin looked quietly at the sight behind the ster gate and felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity. That was the Jing Mountains, the ce she had first met Ren Xiaosu.


    ...


    A group of troops who had been stationed in the Jing Mountains for a long time were checking on the vital signs of the two huge monsters in front of them daily.


    Groups of tiny nanomachines were swimming inside the monsters'' bloodstreams.


    Five tactical militaryptops were set up in front of the sleeping behemoths. These troops had even brought along a power generator.


    At this moment, one of the huge monsters suddenly opened its eyes. The vertical ck pupils in its amber eyes were an abyss sharp as knives.


    The other creature was still sleeping under the control of the nanomachines.


    The awoken monster slowly stood up.


    A red warning alert appeared on theputer screens in the form of exmation marks indicating danger.


    "We''ve lost control of the evolved creature, A002!"


    "We''ve lost control of the evolved creature, A002!"


    The nanomachines in Creature A002''s body gradually inactivated. That creature''s huge willpower started resisting all external electromaic wavesing from its brain stem.


    In the end, it broke free from the "lock" in its body.


    Everyone in this group of troops was simultaneously looking at the ster gate next to Creature A002. The seven satellites in the sky quickly searched for all activity on the surface of the earth and finally zoomed in on the ster gate in Ghent City.


    This was a... dimensional portal.


    The program running on the tacticalptops seemed like it had encountered an error. It was as though it could not understand what was going on.


    They could only let that creature plunge headfirst into that dazzling portal.


    ...


    "Roar!"


    A terrifying roar rang out from the ster gate and sent the oing knights and warhorses into panic. Those trained warhorses seemingly turned into ordinary frightened foals and were unwilling to take another step forward.


    A red figurerge enough to blot out the sky emerged from behind the ster gate. Then it lowered its head and nudged Ren Xiaosu affectionately.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled in return and stroked its snout. "Are you Midnight or Dusk?"


    Midnight and Dusk were the names of the two terrifying creatures.


    This was an old friend who had apanied Ren Xiaosu through a difficult time back in Laboratory 39.


    It was a gift from Ren He for Ren Xiaosu''s 12th birthday, two pet leopard geckos.


    On that day in the Jing Mountains, it did not climb out of the volcano due to its rage but because it sensed its master''s aura.


    They had consumed the Blood of God. Upon receiving the summon of that god, they returned to their master''s side again, all the while faithfully loyal.

 Chapter 1199 Quite Unexpected

    When the leopard gecko stepped out of the ster gate, the Kingdom of Sorcerers'' residents at the southern gate of Ghent City could no longer restrain themselves.


    When the Knights of Tudor and Knights of Radiance entered the city, the residents did not flee. That was because everyone felt that the battle would not affect them. As long as they stayed at home obediently, there would be no problem.


    During this period, there were even quite some people secretly watching from their windows to see what was going on. It was even weirder for some of those watching as they felt an inexplicable sense of participating in history as it was written.


    But the moment the creature appeared, everything changed.


    That was because this was a fear of the unknown.


    In their eyes, the leopard gecko was more like an evil dragon that had emerged from Hell.


    The Knights of Tudor might not casually involve the innocent, but what about the unknown lizard creature? The answer on most people''s minds was, "The lizard doesn''t care whether you''re a subject of the Tudors or the Normans."


    Themoners screamed as they fled from their houses. Their fancy array of attire was in stark contrast to the dark armor the knights had on.


    As some people fled, they turned around and were surprised to see the mysterious young man at the city gate touching the lizard''s snout gently.


    That lizard was probably several hundred times the size of the young man, but at this moment, it obediently and affectionately lowered its body and head for him.


    All of a sudden, there was a stark contrast between that young man''s "diminutiveness" and the lizard''s "enormity."


    But be it the young man or the lizard, neither of them felt like they were threatened much by the sorcerers.


    In this chaotic situation ring with screams, the man and the lizard appeared so peaceful and harmonious.


    Before the people fled from their houses, everyone thought Ren Xiaosu and the lizard were emissaries who had escaped from Hell and were ordered to destroy their divine kingdom.


    But many of them suddenly felt that this was probably the true God, while the sorcerers were demons who pretended to be the messengers of God.


    "You''re ''Midnight,''" Ren Xiaosu said as he touched the lizard''s snout affectionately.


    He could feel the creature''s warm breath next to him. There was a small, ck crescent birthmark on the left side of its snout, which was how Ren Xiaosu differentiated between "Midnight" and "Dusk."


    In the past, he always felt that Midnight and Dusk were a little silly-looking. Now that they had grown to such size in a volcanic environment, he was a little unused to it.


    However, it was always a good thing to be reunited with an old friend.


    It was no wonder the summoning spell had be lost. If it were any other archmage who summoned such a monster through the ster gate, they would probably be dead by now.


    Just like how Melgor was attacked by the goats after summoning a few of them.


    If an archmage practiced the summoning spell to the 90,000 proficiency of Ren Xiaosu''s spell, they would just serve as Midnight''s snack after they summoned it.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu was the only person in the world who was suited to learn the summoning spell. That was because he now had the most fearsome pets in the world.


    The appearance of Midnight sent all of the Knights of Tudor and Knights of Radiance into a panic.


    Even the Tudor family''s patriarch stood dazed and speechless in his pnquin.


    The warhorses started retreating involuntarily from the fear they felt deep inside, as well as the instinctive oppression carnivores enacted on omnivores. It wasn''t only the warhorses; even the knights riding on them were frightened!


    A hubbub of exmations could be heard in the crowd, and even the knightmander''s angry roars to control the troops were drowned out.


    The surging torrent was starting to recede as it retreated several hundred meters away.


    It was not that the elite knights were mentally weak, but that they did not know how to defeat the monster in front of them.


    Farther behind this torrent, Chen Jiu''s jaw dropped  as he stood on the high observation deck. What else could he say?


    Initially, the Sanctuary was debating whether to save Ren Xiaosu. But he was surprised to discover the other party did not need to be saved at all!


    Dark clouds seemed to loom in the night sky, and the stars also appeared to be eclipsed by the ongoings. Chen Jiu stood high in the air like a spectator watching an exciting stage y.


    Tonight, regardless of where the story led, this performance would no longer have anything to do with the Sanctuary.


    This was a war between several people and a 10,000-strong army.


    Only a few people were standing behind Ren Xiaosu, making him look helpless in the face of a tsunami. However, everything would turn around tonight.


    In this world, there was no such thing as the weak defeating the strong. There was only the truth that someone stronger was always out there.


    "So this is the descendant of that Rider?" Chen Jiu muttered.


    ...


    On the battlefield, Ren Xiaosu was catching up on old times with Midnight like no one else was there. Then he patted Midnight affectionately on its snout and said with a smile, "Go on, I''ll leave the iing enemies at our rear to you. You''re only allowed to kill them, not eat them."


    Midnight roared at the sky. Suddenly, a dark cloud was seemingly pierced apart as the starry sky behind it came into view.


    The huge red lizard turned around and rushed towards the southern city walls. When the magnificent walls of Ghent City appeared in its path, Midnight smashed right through a section of it.


    Everyone in the Kingdom of Sorcerers used to be proud of their majestic Ghent City. The towering walls symbolized the rule of the Magi and the authority of the Houses of Tudor and Norman.


    Someone once boasted that no matter how majestic the goshawk in the sky was, it could not soar past the crossbow bolts fired from the battlements of Ghent City.


    But now, a creature had suddenly knocked down the thing they were most proud of.


    Then Midnight headed south into the wilderness without looking back.


    Zhou Qi, who was standing atop the walls, felt lingering fear. "We were fortunate we weren''t standing right behind Ren Xiaosu. Otherwise, that lizard would have crashed right into us!"


    Luo Lan hesitated for a long time before saying, "Cool!"


    Luo Lan andpany had been scattered across the top of the city walls. The lizard named Midnight did not know them at all. If they had somehow stood in its path, they might really have ended up dying a baffling death.


    The Great Hoodwinker praised, "Future Commander is the Stronghold Destroyer, and this pet of his is just like its master."


    Wang Yun ridiculed, "Why''s there a tone of pride in your words?"


    "Of course there is." The Great Hoodwinker said with a grin, "I definitely have to brag about my futuremander since my pay raise depends on him."


    "Hey, where did that lizard go?" Ji Zi''ang wondered.


    P5092 calmly exined, "The Knights of Tudor and Knights of Radiance have suddenly returned to reinforce the Magi, but there''s still the Berkeley family in the south who has their eyes on us. The three ns must have reached an agreement, so the Knights of the Inferno are probably on their way to Ghent City. I think Future Commander sent that leopard gecko south to intercept them."


    In fact, P5092 had urately guessed Ren Xiaosu''s thoughts. Be it the Great Hoodwinker or Wang Yun, although they had their own unique skill sets, they were not good at observing the big picture on the battlefield.


    The reason Ren Xiaosu did this was because he knew full well that even though Midnight was massivelyrge, it was not immortal.


    If the battle were to escte, archmages like the Tudor family''s patriarch and the Norman family''s patriarch who possessed the ck Eye of True Sight could very well pose a threat to Midnight. Moreover, the ice spells the Tudor family''s patriarch was most adept in happened to be Midnight''s bane.


    But if Midnight were to face the House of Berkeley, it would bepletely different.


    90% of the Berkeley family''s exclusive spells were rted to fire. Be it the Berkeley family''s patriarch or their archmages, almost all of their spells were fire based.


    And why should a creature like Midnight that could bathe in a magma pool be afraid of fire?


    ...


    The Knights of the Inferno in the south were advancing northwards. For the sake of this encirclement, they had even broken ahead of their supply corps and directly led their troops towards the battlefield in light gear.


    As they advanced, the sounds of armor shing rumbled like a thunderstorm.


    But while their horses were galloping, an even louder explosion suddenly boomed ahead that slowly drowned out themotion caused by the Knights of the Inferno.


    With a wave of the Knights of the Inferno''s war banner, tens of thousands of elite soldiers immediately reined in their horses and stilled.


    The St. Berkeley Knightmander rode forward. He lifted his helmet visor and listened carefully to the distant noise.


    The sound was getting closer and closer. The ground was also rumbling like it was beaten ruthlessly like a drum.


    "Footsteps?" The knightmander frowned.


    But he immediately felt that something was off. How could there be such a huge creature in this world whose footsteps sounded like beating drums?


    But a momentter, a red figure sped over like lightning from the horizon.


    The knightmander''s expression gradually changed. He suddenly drew his sword from his hip and roared at the top of his voice, "It''s the enemy! Form up!"


    Dozens of golden Garudas with hawk faces and human bodies suddenly soared out from the formation of knights. They pped their ming wings and set off a scorching heat wave.


    The Garudas flew over the Knights of the Inferno and pounced ferociously at the oing Midnight.


    However, just as the Knights of the Inferno thought the terrifying lizard creature would be burned to death, they realized it was not afraid of the high temperature at all. Instead, it became even more excited!


    The gold-winged ming Garudas in the sky were all scooped into Midnight''s mouth one by one with its tongue.


    "Ready your arrows!" the knightmander roared. The soldier holding the war banner next to him immediately waved it.


    In that instant, the Knights of the Inferno drew their bows and nocked their arrows.


    "Loose!" the knightmander ordered.


    The war banner on the warhorse pointed at Midnight from afar as tens of thousands of arrows were released at the same time, blotting out the sky.


    But just as everyone thought that Midnight would get pierced by the countless arrows, theynded on its body like matchsticks hitting a rock.


    Midnight seemed to be getting a little impatient. It was still licking its tongue after devouring the Garudas when it looked towards the Knights of the Inferno.


    The knightmander shouted, "... Protect the patriarch! Retreat!"


    But it was toote.


    ...


    In Ghent City, the flustered knights and sorcerers gradually calmed down. It was not that they were good at adapting their mentalities, but that Midnight had left after breaking through the city walls.


    Everyone looked at the huge breach in the walls of Ghent City and felt an indescribable sense of shock.


    Many people thought to themselves, ''The cmity of the gods was probably nothingpared to this.''


    In the myths and legends of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the Cataclysm over 200 years ago was the Cmity of the Gods.


    As the gods were angry at the crimesmitted by their subjects, they activated their destructive power.


    In that cmity, the Tudors'' and the Normans'' patriarchs received the Mandate of Heaven and led those who did notmit any crimes to live on.


    These legends were not derived from folklore, but from the literature that had been specially revised by the magus order.


    Since gods were a thing, they would need to have an entire set of evidence to support it.


    At this moment, the people from the Houses of Tudor and Norman knew very well that the behemoth had probably gone south to intercept the House of Berkeley. Thinking of this, they heaved a sigh of relief.


    If the House of Berkeley could kill that monster, that would be a bonus. But if they could not, they could at least take some pressure off Ghent City.


    After the monster battled with the Berkeley family''s patriarch, it should get exhausted, right? After all, the Berkeley family''s patriarch was a rare genius in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. The Tudor family''s patriarch knew full well that since the Berkeley family''s patriarch had the courage to incite a civil war in the north, he naturally would have some aces up his sleeve.


    However, the Tudor family''s patriarch could not possibly know Midnight had actually climbed out of a volcano''s crater and was not afraid of fire-based spells.


    "How long are you going to hide for?" the Tudor family''s patriarch said loudly from behind his armor. His voice was transmitted a long distance through the use of sorcery. He was not speaking to his own n but to the Norman family''s patriarch.


    ? On the other side of the battlefield, a grand and distant voice exploded in the air. "Let''s join forces. Activate your Tudor family''s bloodline spell."


    With that, the Tudor family''s patriarch held his Eye of True Sight in his steel-armored hand.


    The archmage who was shot out of the sky by Yang Xiaojin was bleeding profusely from his wound.


    When the surrounding Knights of Tudor heard the bloodline spell would be used, their eyes lit up. Importantly, the archmage who had just died was the son of the patriarch. As the second-inmand, he would definitely be extremely powerful if he were used as the medium for the bloodline spell!


    After Archmage Kayle perished in the south, they heard their patriarch had descended upon Sun City and destroyed nearly half of the city.


    Therefore, the reason the House of Tudor had always been feared on the battlefield was because they could exploit the full worth of their dead!


    However, after waiting for a long time, everyone realized there was a problem. The blood under Archmage Beck''s corpse did not form into the familiar magic circle of the bloodline spell. There was no reaction at all!


    The Knights of Tudor looked at each other. Many of the House of Tudor''s sorcerers also looked at each other. No one knew what was going on. Why was the patriarch still not making a move?


    The angry and trembling voice of the Tudor family''s patriarch came from behind his visor. "He''s not my son?!"


    When he said that, everyone around him was stunned.


    After all, Archmage Beck was trained by the Tudor family''s patriarch as his sessor, so it could be seen just how important this person was to the Tudor family''s patriarch.


    When Archmage Beck died just now, the Tudor family''s patriarch could still control his emotions. But now that he knew the son he had ced all his hopes on was not his own, he could not hold it in any longer.


    The bloodline spell was indeed powerful. It could even be used as a paternity test on the battlefield!


    Although it was only a one-use paternity test, it was definitely precise!


    The Tudor family''s patriarch fell backwards. The knightmander beside him quickly caught him and lifted his visor so he could take a breather.


    But right as he lifted up his visor, the knightmander realized the 97-year-old patriarch had fainted from anger!


    "Retreat! Adjust formation to protect the patriarch!" the knightmander roared.


    Even Ren Xiaosu and the others who were still on full alert in the distance were dumbfounded.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "Uh... that was quite unexpected."

 Chapter 1200 Leader

    The night continued.


    Bloodline spells were the specialty magic of all first-rate sorcerer ns, such as the Winston family''s Substitute spell. Ren Xiaosu had made several attempts on the lives of the Winston family''s archmages, but they all used the me Substitute spell to deflect the attacks, leaving their sons to die in their ce instead.


    In the past, in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, everyone''s criteria for whether a sorcerer n could be considered first-rate was whether they had any bloodline spells.


    For example, during Archmage Kayle''s battle in Sun City, although the House of Winston had surrounded and killed Kayle, his death still caused great damage to the entirety of Sun City.


    It was as though every sorcerer in the House of Tudor were doubly effective in battles.


    All these years, the Tudor family''s status had remained firmly established in Ghent City. No one dared to conspire against their sorcerers even during their out-of-city trips.


    Why was that? Because they were worried about triggering their Bloodline Summoning spell.


    Back then, Ren Xiaosu had controlled Old Xu to kill a bounty hunter of the House of Tudor. Disregarding how powerful the Tudor family''s patriarch was when he descended on the scene with this spell, just being able to see and remember the enemy''s appearance with it was enough to make many enemies tremble in fear.


    No one had any good ways to deal with this bloodline spell, so the Tudor family''s status as a top n became even more entrenched.


    The House of Tudor once said, "Don''t provoke the Tudors. Otherwise, we will surely find you sooner orter."


    These words shocked many people over the years.


    However, someone finally found a w in the Tudor family''s bloodline spell. ''As long as they''re not your biological sons, it will be easy to deal with¡­''


    The Knights of Tudor retreated like the tide and set up a defensive shield wall 800 meters back to reorganize their formation.


    The Knights of Tudor had suddenly fallen into a leaderless state. Themander-in-chief had fainted, while the second-inmand was killed in action. As such, everyone did not know what to do.


    On the other hand, the House of Norman was suddenly confused by the situation. As such, they did not dare make a move while hoping to quietly observe the situation.


    Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and the others took this opportunity to get off the walls and join up with Ren Xiaosu. Only Yang Xiaojin took advantage of the chaos to leave the group and quietly make her way into Ghent City.


    She was like a lone wolf hiding in the shadows, ready to deal the enemy a fatal blow at any moment.


    Yang Xiaojin was acting alone not because she was confident or arrogant, but because she was able to remain calm. She knew what to do and where to be as the sniper of the group.


    For a sniper, wandering alone at the edge of the battlefield was the wisest choice.


    A sniper who could not be seen was the most threatening sniper.


    Before she got together with Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin already had her own mindset. She had an independent andplete personality, and she was also capable of taking care of herself.


    This had never changed.


    Ren Xiaosu was not surprised by this, nor did he intend to interfere with Yang Xiaojin''s decision. He turned around and asked Zhou Qi, "Were you the one who controlled the blood flow and blocked the bloodline spell from taking effect?"


    Zhou Qi was puzzled. "What? What''s a bloodline spell?"


    Ren Xiaosu exined to everyone what a bloodline spell was, but Zhou Qi was still confused.


    "Looks like it wasn''t you." Ren Xiaosu sighed as he looked at the Tudor family''s patriarch with a hint of sympathy in his eyes. "He must''ve been cuckolded then."


    Who could have expected that while everyone was thinking about how to neutralize the threat of this bloodline spell from the perspective of sorcery, the way to do it actually had more to do with morals?


    "I guess no one expected something like that to happen." The Great Hoodwinker said, "How tragic."


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. "Yeah, it''s way too tragic."


    However, the Great Hoodwinker was actually wrong about one thing. Someone had actually predicted this oue.


    The identity of the second-inmand of the House of Tudor was much moreplex than they could have expected.


    Sixty years ago, the father of the Berkeley family''s patriarch, after nning for many years, sent more than 20 trained female spies to the patriarch of the House of Tudor.


    All the women were peerless beauties and seemingly from noble backgrounds.


    Furthermore, several days before these women were sent to the House of Tudor, they slept with the Berkeley family''s male spies who had infiltrated Ghent City.


    The previous patriarch of the House of Berkeley had done all this toy a trap for the House of Tudor.


    How could the Berkeleys, who had been nning for their northern expedition since 60 years ago, possibly only n for a military campaign? It would have to be a subversive n that was all-epassing and unscrupulous.


    This was the kind of struggle that went on between sorcerer ns, and it was a 100 times or even a 1,000 times worse than what was recorded in history.


    However, even the previous patriarch of the House of Berkeley could not have expected that one of the babies would end up not being discovered and also became the favorite son of the Tudor family''s patriarch.


    This was one of the contingency schemes that gave the current patriarch of the House of Berkeley the confidence to begin the northern expedition!


    As a matter of fact, this contingency scheme was indeed very effective. Without even needing to wield 10% of hisbat strength, the Berkeley family''s patriarch sessfully angered the Tudor family''s patriarch to the point he fainted!


    The Tudor family''s patriarch alone had several hundred sons.


    It was definitely not possible for one wife to bear him so many sons.


    Therefore, there would naturally be loopholes to exploit since he took so many wives. Ren Xiaosu realized there should be many more illegitimate offspring in the House of Tudor.


    However, there was no way to verify such matters in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Surely he wouldn''t kill his sons just to verify their rtionship, right? If he killed them, the bloodline spell would no longer be useful.


    Next to him, Zhou Yingxue asked in a low voice, "Do you think we can provide a science-based medical procedure for these sorcerers once we''ve unified this ce? I think they should need it, right? It''ll definitely be a very profitable venture."


    Everyone looked at Zhou Yingxue in surprise. Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, "You''re such a business whiz!"


    Everyone''s thoughts and standpoints werepletely different from one another.


    For example, P5092 was thinking about their attack and defense strategy while he stood atop the city walls. As for Wang Yun, he sought to memorize the map of Ghent City first while the Great Hoodwinker was thinking about how to tter the futuremander.


    Meanwhile, the moneygrubbing Zhou Yingxue was thinking about how to make the citizens here willingly spend their gold coins.


    "What do we do now?" P5092 asked, "Do we upy the city or should we kill them all? Future Commander, you have to set an objective first before I can formte a battle n."


    Ren Xiaosu gave it some thought and replied, "How can I force the Norman family''s patriarch to show himself? Only by getting rid of him first can we upy the city without incurring too many casualties."


    "Should we force him to make a move?" P5092 thought for a moment and said, "We''ll have to force him toe out and save the Tudor family then."


    "These sorcerer ns are always scheming against each other, and the Norman family has been at odds with the Tudor family for more than a 100 years already. He couldn''t be happier if we wiped out the Tudor family at this moment, so why would he appear and save them?" Ren Xiaosu asked humbly.


    P5092 calmly exined, "Since he''s unwilling to help them, we''ll just have to hurt him first. We''ll do so until he understands their interdependence with the Tudor family."


    When Wang Yun and the others heard this, they gasped. "That sounds really ruthless, yet you said it in the most civil of tones."


    However, P5092''s suggestion was indeed simple toprehend. Ren Xiaosu understood what he meant.


    Zhou Yingxue stood next to Ren Xiaosu and said eagerly, "Master, why don''t you leave it to me instead?"


    This woman had been kept in check by Yang Xiaojin for too long. Now that Yang Xiaojin was off acting alone, Zhou Yingxue finally felt like she could showcase her powers.


    "No, wait for a little while more." Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, "You have a more important mission to handle now. P5092, can you do it if I handmand of the 6th Field Division over to you?"


    P5092''s eyes lit up. Although he was not aware of the enchanted doorway yet, he trusted everything Ren Xiaosu said.


    If Ren Xiaosu promised to let him takemand of the 6th Field Division, he would definitely deliver on it.


    There were no such things as humility or arrogance in P5092''s dictionary. All he cared about was war and victory. "Future Commander, if you let me takemand of the 6th Field Division, I''ll definitely help you capture Ghent City."


    "Deal."


    ¡­


    Not far behind the Knights of Tudor and Knights of Radiance, Chen Jiu was still standing on the sorcery-constructed observation deck in a daze as he watched the entire performance y out.


    In the dark of the night, he saw the Tudor family''s patriarch passing out while the tens of thousands of knights retreated 800 meters into Ghent City like a receding tide. He also witnessed those knights forming a defensive formation.


    When Chen Jiu first saw Midnight, he thought the strange, fiery red "dragon" would be Ren Xiaosu''s greatest weapon. But before he could react, Ren Xiaosu sent Midnight south to intercept the House of Berkeley.


    This confused Chen Jiu a little. "With your greatest reliance gone, what makes you think you can take on tens of thousands of knights with just a few of you? What''s more, the archmages of the Houses of Tudor and Norman have not even taken any serious damage yet."


    Chen Jiu couldn''t be med for doubting Ren Xiaosu. After all, Ren Xiaosu''s backup seemed too few in number.


    From his vantage point, the humans on the ground of Ghent City looked like ants. On one side, there were tens of thousands of troops, and on the other side stood about eight or nine individuals.


    Without Midnight, this contrast was simply too stark.


    Chen Jiu did not know much about the Central ins, so he did not even have a vague idea of how Ren Xiaosu andpany could emerge victorious.


    Previously, Chen Jingshu and Xu Anqing raised an objection. Ren Xiaosu might be very strong, but he might not necessarily have the ability and wisdom a leader should have. That was because the Ren Xiaosu they saw was basically always fighting alone.


    Currently, Chen Jiu was thinking that even if Ren Xiaosu and the other individuals were powerful, even more powerful than the Houses of Tudor and Norman, they would still get exhausted to death if they were to go up against tens of thousands of opponents.


    And most importantly, how were eight or nine people going to upy Ghent City? If they were unable to quickly wipe out the Tudors and the Normans, the old aristocrats could go into hiding and rise up again someday.


    After the Central ins people left, the Kingdom of Sorcerers would still remain as the Kingdom of Sorcerers of the old aristocracy.


    Normally, that should be the case. However, Chen Jiu somehow felt that something did not click. He felt that Chen Jingshu and Xu Anqing''s judgment was wrong!


    How could someone who could face the pursuit of tens of thousands of troops and summon an evil dragon calmly, and who had inherited the legacy of that Rider, possibly not have thought of this before charging out recklessly?


    How could the futuremander of Fortress 178 always be fighting alone?


    In that case, where were Ren Xiaosu''s people? Chen Jiu raised his binocrs and scanned the surroundings, but he saw nothing.


    A momentter, Chen Jiu suddenly saw through the binocrs that Ren Xiaosu had taken out arge metal door from somewhere and wedged it into the ground.


    Chen Jiu was stunned. The two sorcerer ns and their knights were also stunned. No one knew why Ren Xiaosu had suddenly taken out a door.


    Right after, everyone saw soldiers, three per rank, starting to rush out of the door.


    ck, multifunctional tactical helmets, multipurpose tactical bulletproof vests, automatic rifles with attached grenadeunchers, and dark menacing heavy machine guns, all of which seemed out of ce in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    But it was also an extremely valiant sight.


    Everyone finally realized this was the enchanted doorway the Magi specialized in. And the Central ins forces had opened a doorway that linked to the Central ins with a favorite spell of the Magi!


    When some of the sorcerers saw this, they immediately wanted to destroy the enchanted doorway. The reason why they only retreated 800 meters was so the archmages could still cast their spells at the enemy.


    The archmages of those ns were already on guard against Ren Xiaosu and the others if they were to make any further moves.


    The enchanted doorway appeared too unexpectedly. No one could be sure whether the corroded metal door was linked to a power that could destroy the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    The archmages wanted to make a move, but just as one of them gripped their Eye of True Sight, a sniper bullet came out of nowhere and pierced his chest.


    Everyone looked into the distance. They vaguely saw a girl in a cap jumping off a roof in the darkness and disappearing into the streets and alleys again.


    The darkness of the night was her best camouge.


    Someone in the Norman family''s group ordered coldly, "Advance guard, quickly escort Bailey and Billy over there!"


    Bailey and Billy were two sorcerers of the House of Norman. Themander wanted to send these two sorcerers to their deaths for a chance to cast the Norman family''s bloodline spell.


    The Norman family''s bloodline spell was a spell that could be used for close-range destruction, so they had to get closer for it to work.


    But just as this group of people rushed out of the shield formation, they were knocked to the ground by another round of shots from the shadows. In just a few seconds, more than a dozen corpses were added to the streets.


    This time, no one saw where the bullets came from.


    This invisible deterrent was like a shadow that shrouded everyone in fear.


    ¡­


    A moment ago, on Stronghold 144''s Anning East Road.


    This neighborhood had been turned into a huge military base. The area within a three-kilometer radius had be a temporarily military-controlled zone. Checkpoints were set up everywhere to enforce martialw, and there were even temporary sandbag bunkers built on the roofs of the residential buildings here. There were also heavy machine guns mounted on the roofs in case of an offensive approach.


    It was 3 AM currently. In the temporarily military-controlled zone, dozens of spotlights illuminated the entire camp, making it appear like daytime.


    In Ren Xiaosu''s humble abode, everything in the living room on the first floor had been cleared away. ck Fox even had the Engineering Battalion build a temporary steel structure on the floor as the futuremander had warned them not to damage the floor.


    However, Ren Xiaosu''s house door had been widened to allow three people to pass through at once. After all, in ck Fox''s opinion, the futuremander had only said not to damage the floor, but he did not say they couldn''t dismantle the door.


    At this moment, ck Fox was standing quietly in the living room with his eyes closed. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman was pacing back and forth uneasily in the living room. "When will Future Commander take action? When will Future Commander call for us? Hey, what do you think the Kingdom of Sorcerers is like¡­"


    But no matter what Zhang Xiaoman asked, ck Fox remained silent throughout. It was obvious he was used to Zhang Xiaoman''s anxiety.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu''s voice rang out in the living room, "Begin operations."


    ck Fox suddenly opened his eyes. He went onto the radio''s broadcast channel. "Report readiness."


    "1st Infantry Brigade, standing by."


    "2nd Artillery Brigade, standing by."


    "3rd Infantry Brigade, standing by¡­"


    "4th¡­"


    ck Fox said calmly on the radio, "Muster for battle. We''ll start passing through the doorway! Everyone, don''t disgrace the 6th Field Division on this trip to a foreignnd, and don''t disgrace the futuremander either. We''ll return to base for celebratory drinks in three days. To victory!"


    Outside this residence, more than 10,000 troops of the 6th Field Division were standing solemnly while awaiting orders.


    The parade formations stretched out into the distance like a ck sea.


    "To victory!"


    "To victory!"


    "To victory!"


    Rallying cries erupted.


    When ck Fox heard themotion outside the house, he silently prayed for this battle that would ensure the Northwest''s continued survival. Then he stepped through the wall in the living room carrying a huge safe.


    Everyone stepped into the living room in an orderly manner as nned and disappeared through the wall one by one.


    None of them knew where they were going exactly, nor did they know if they would return. However, it was never for a soldier to think about such useless concerns. All they had to do was walk through the enchanted doorway and pull the trigger on the enemy.


    This army was too orderly, so orderly it was difficult to imagine.


    The enchanted doorway could only fit three people at once, but the soldiers of the 6th Field Division managed to fit nine people through in just one second by filing into the portal with sharp precision.


    This might sound simple, but it was actually very difficult to execute.


    By this point, even Zhang Jinglin, Wang Fengyuan, and the other high-rankingmanders of the Northwest had arrived in Stronghold 144.


    They stood on the roof of a residential building somewhere and watched the elite troops who were awaiting orders. However, they did not issue any instructions to them. The high-rankingmanders behaved as though they were just a crowd of onlookers.


    Wang Yuexi had followed Ren Xiaosu''s instructions and reported the Prosperous Northwest 3.0 battle n to Zhang Jinglin. When the high-rankingmanders found out about it, they rushed over eagerly.


    They even contributed the best equipment from their own armies, such as the 40 mm underbarrel grenadeunchers.


    Everyone was getting a little excited.


    "Commander, I heard that Future Commander has found a way to uratelyunch an attack on the key region of the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Is that true?"


    "Commander, I heard that Future Commander¡­"


    The high-rankingmanders kept bombarding him with questions, but Zhang Jinglin just smiled and did not say anything.


    Zhou Yinglong looked at Zhang Jinglin and asked, "Commander, what do you think are our chances of winning?"


    Zhang Jinglin smiled but did not answer the question. "Everyone, rx. Just watch patiently. After today, history will be made in Fortress 178. Today, you and I are no longer the ones writing our history but the witnesses of it. A new era ising."


    "Commander, are you thinking of retiring again?" Zhou Yinglong asked suspiciously.


    Zhang Jinglin looked out of the military base and saw that the residents of Stronghold 144 were not flustered at all despite the impending war. Everyone stood outside the security perimeter and waited quietly. It was as though they were getting ready to cheer the moment the military returned victorious.


    It was already 3 AM, yet the 6th Field Division was still awake, and so were the residents of Stronghold 144.


    This was the cohesiveness of Stronghold 144, as well as Ren Xiaosu''s ability to bring them all together.


    Zhang Jinglin smiled and said to Zhou Yinglong, "If I really choose to retire now, it''s not like that would be a problem, right?"


    ¡­


    Inside Ghent City, ck Fox arrived in front of P5092 and Ren Xiaosu the second he stepped through the enchanted doorway. He saluted them and said, "Total strength of the 6th Field Division, 16,780. Present strength, 16,780. The estimated time required for everyone to pass through the enchanted doorway is 31 minutes and 7 seconds."


    31 minutes might seem like a long time, but it was only an instant in arge battle.


    Ren Xiaosu had read in a book that it could take two hours for a cataphract unit to get its formation ready during a battle. This was not an exaggeration at all. Seeing that the Knights of Tudor and Knights of Radiance had yet to fully adjust their entire defensive formation, Ren Xiaosu was not worried they would miss any opportunities to fight during this period.


    P5092 had already taken overmand of the entire battle. Before Ren Xiaosu could say anything, P5092 said to ck Fox, "Let''s begin."


    "Understood." After that, ck Fox opened the ck box he had brought with him.


    "Sir, I''ve brought the portablemand center." ck Fox took out an earpiece from the box and handed it to P5092.


    P5092 issued orders one by one from here. The troops who came through the portal first immediately set up machine gun positions in the designated area to cover theirrades who were still passing through at the rear. They did so to prevent the enemy from rushing over and destroying the enchanted doorway.


    More than a dozen snipers from the Pyro Company quietly left the group and went to look for a satisfactory vantage point to camp at. Their aim was not to suppress the enemy with their firepower but to use their calm minds to search for sorcerers armed with Eyes of True Sight among the enemy troops.


    This was apulsory requirement for every sniper. Just like in the modern warfare of the Central ins, they would have to quickly identify enemies carrying RPGs and heavy machine guns. Only by finding the sorcerers could they reduce the casualties of their ownrades.


    The 6th Field Division''s fighting force that gradually passed through the enchanted doorway quickly formed into several assault columns under P5092''s orders.


    This was going to be arge urban battle. The 6th Field Division''s only goal was to wipe out all the enemy forces and upy this city.


    P5092 took a deep breath and said, "Let''s begin."


    In that instant, the heavy machine guns that were already set up started firing.


    When the bullets hit the knights'' shield formation, their shields were nearly destroyed. In an instant, an expanding wall of ice blocked the front of the formation and prevented the knights from getting prated by the bullets.


    Under the cover of the heavy machine guns, the assault columns started infiltrating the city like a stream.


    Ghent City was veryrge, and the defensive formationid out by the sorcerer ns spanned a kilometer wide.


    Meanwhile, the infiltration coverage of the assault columns was evenrger. From above, it resembled a huge fan.


    Chen Jiu, who was at the rear, had a clear view of this sight. He felt that he was watching a one-of-a-kind army.


    The other party had amand style that was iprehensible to those in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, with their troop movements meticulous and orderly.


    Even though the infiltration coverage was so wide, it was not chaotic at all.


    The heavy breathing of the soldiers could be heard over the radio. "Check the streets and eliminate any potential threats!"


    "Zone A1 clear."


    "Zone A2 clear."


    "Zone A3¡­"


    Before the real battle broke out, Ren Xiaosu had asked Xu Anqing for a map of Ghent City, which he passed on to ck Fox. So ck Fox had not really been idle either. The 6th Field Division had already drafted the initial battle preparations and marked out strategic areas on the map.


    ck Fox had done all this so P5092 could take over immediately once they rendezvoused.


    It was just like how a nurse had to be particr about the angle at which to pass the scalpel to the doctor during surgery. As an adjutant, ck Fox''s responsibility was not to participate in the development of the tactical n but to get everything ready for P5092.


    However, just as the hundreds of assault columns had officially begun infiltrating into the streets, several columns that were advancing in parallel suddenly saw their futuremander walking over from the rear.


    The young man in the darkness drew his ck saber and raised it diagonally. Old Xu, who was wearing the white mask, had escaped from its constraints at some point and returned to Ren Xiaosu''s side.


    A man and a shadow clone, one walking in front of the other. It was as though two identical saber wielders were strolling down the long boulevard and walking towards the shield formation hundreds of meters ahead.


    P5092 said calmly, "Future Commander, you should stay next to me."


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile without turning his head, "How can I let our soldiers charge into enemy lines while I hide at the back? Don''t worry, our 6th Field Division will always be led by theirmander."


    When Luo Lan heard this, heughed out loud. "Things like killing and arson are really the most interesting."


    The golden martyred spirits next to him carried their heavy machine guns and followed behind. "Satisfying!"


    Seeing the situation, the Great Hoodwinker, who was scratching his feet at the side, put on his shoes and followed along. "Future Commander, wait for me!"


    The troops who were preparing to infiltrate the danger zone silently viewed the backs of their futuremander and Old Xu with indescribable emotion.


    They felt as though their blood was gradually starting to boil, like a fuse had been lit in their bosoms and started moving towards their throats.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his saber and picked up speed as he approached the shield formation. Gradually, the young man broke into a crazy sprint.


    P5092''s voice rang out on the radio, "Assault columns, don''t disrupt your attack rhythm by trying to follow Future Commander''s pace. You''ll only tire yourselves to death. Future Commander is only doing this to provide cover for you all. Just advance ording to the original n."


    P5092 looked at Zhou Yingxue. "Let''s begin."


    "Mhm." Zhou Yingxue nodded. A green glow appeared at her fingertips and dropped to the ground. Then something started growing crazily underground.


    The underground vines meandered across the ceiling of the sewers of the underground world and extended all the way to the defensive position where the knights were.


    Immediately after, P5092 continued: "T5s, move out. Follow Future Commander and charge into the enemy''s formation! The assault column on the left taking Zone A118, spread out your infiltration approach. I want all of you to attack the nk of the enemy''s position to distract them."


    P5092 stood in front of the temporarymand center as though he were ying blindfolded chess. He did not have a visual of the overall situation, but the battlefield was in his mind.


    A momentter, 22 muscr soldiers broke away from the numerous assault columns. They left their original groups and started running faster and faster. They were just like the wolves running behind the Wolf King.


    A lot of people did not know that P5092 had not only brought the Pyro Company''s remnant troops back from the Northern ins. He was also joined by some T5batants who others would consider as human tanks.


    One or two T5s might not make much of a difference in battle, but 22 T5s would act as a sharp de cutting through the knights'' formation that was still stuck in the era of melee weapons. Unless an archmage endured the pain and attacked with the knights, the T5s would surely bulldoze them.


    Initially, P5092 wanted to use them to break the knights'' formation from the side, but he was worried they would get overwhelmed by the enemy''s numbers. But it was different now. They had the futuremander leading the charge.


    P5092 believed that even if the T5s got trapped, the futuremander would still be able to lead them out of trouble.


    Chen Jiu watched all this quietly from afar. Tonight, the more he watched the battle, the quieter he became.


    So did Ren Xiaosu possess any leadership skills? To get an answer to this question, one would first have to think about what leadership was.


    Was it about having precisemand? No.


    Was it about having immensebat strength? No.


    Leadership was about having the following traits when you stepped onto the battlefield:


    Influencing those around you to charge forward together without hesitation and with no regrets, and be willing to fight to the death in battle. In addition, to have people waiting expectantly for you to return home, to cheer for you, and to celebrate the spoils of victory.


    Ren Xiaosu possessed all of these.


    That was why Zhang Jinglin said that even if he were to retire now, it wouldn''t be a problem.


    ¡­


    The range of the archers was a 100 meters. With Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu''s speed, it would only take a few seconds for them to close the gap, a fact the sorcerers were also well aware of.


    If they wanted to stop Ren Xiaosu, they would have to rely on sorcery.


    So when Ren Xiaosu started sprinting madly, a few of the sorcerers hidden among the knights finally made their move.


    Strange spells were cast one after another, so much so that Ren Xiaosu had to advance in an irregr trajectory to avoid getting hit.


    The sorcerers then chanted a second round of incantations. But before they could finish reciting, everyone heard the sound of a manhole cover getting sted into the air next to them. The next second, countless green vines surged out of the manhole.


    The needle-sharp vines did not directly attack the knights'' armor. Instead, they crawled through the gaps in their armor and stabbed into the bodies of the sorcerers and knights one by one.


    The vines that were originally green in color slowly turned red after sucking out their blood. The mesmerizing scarlet red color made the vines look extremely eerie.


    A hugemotion broke out within the knights'' ranks as everyone was shocked by the sudden appearance of the vines.


    This sudden turn of events helped to take away thest bit of attention that was on Ren Xiaosu.


    Now was the time!


    Ren Xiaosu elerated again in an attempt to break the formation with his saber.


    But before he could make a move, the T5batants behind him were one step ahead. One by one, they smashed into the shield formation like artillery shells. This group of intrepid human tanks directly used their brute force and created a "wave" of people upon contact with the front of the shield formation!


    There was also the Great Hoodwinker, with his monster strength, who kicked the front of the formation and sent the knights holding shields flying backwards.


    Ren Xiaosu could only smile helplessly. He had been slowed down because he had to dodge the spells, but he did not expect that the group of T5batants would charge ahead of him because of that.


    Ren Xiaosu, who had always been a lone wolf, rarely had others fighting alongside him in battle. Now that he had asionally experienced it, it actually felt quite good!


    Ren Xiaosu said through the earpiece, "Ji Zi''ang, Wang Yun, help me find the Norman family''s patriarch. I want to know where he is."


    Having reached this point, the other party would surely have to make a move.


    At this moment, Ji Zi''ang created a high tform at the rear with his superpower to ensure Wang Yun could get the widest view of the situation.


    Wang Yun was sweating profusely as he stood on the high tform and surveyed the battlefield with his binocrs.


    The Norman family''s patriarch was wearing a knight''s armor and hiding among the crowd. If he couldn''t find the other party in time, it would probably cause a lot of trouble for the 6th Field Division if the archmagepleted the incantation for whichever spell he was best at.


    But reports said that the Norman family''s patriarch was already in his 80s, so his movements would definitely not be as fast as those in their prime. He would definitely also have his subordinates protecting him, so Wang Yun needed to locate him on the battlefield.


    "Have you found him yet?" Zhang Xiaoman shouted from below.


    Wang Yun muttered, "Stop rushing me! I found him! Future Commander, he''s to your 9 o''clock! But I can''t judge the distance for now!"

 Chapter 1201 Infamy And Glory

    There were not only people but also horses in the knights'' defensive formation. In such a chaotic situation, it would be almost impossible for Ren Xiaosu to seek out the Norman family''s patriarch by himself.


    The Norman patriarch hiding in the crowd was just like having a massively destructive weapon in their midst. If the patriarch didn''t make a move against them, great! But if he did, the 6th Field Division behind Ren Xiaosu would probably suffer heavy casualties.


    Ren Xiaosu shouted in the crowd, "9 o''clock!"


    After that, he made Old Xu charge left first. Meanwhile, the 22 T5batants, the Great Hoodwinker, Luo Lan, and the martyred spirits quickly arrived at Ren Xiaosu''s nks and charged forward in an arrowhead formation.


    Wherever they moved, none of the knights could stop them.


    Wang Yun was still surveying the battlefield with his binocrs as his gaze started wandering near the edge of the battlefield.


    The fleeing civilians and the cavalry who had just joined the battlefield contributed to the noisy farce. Within Ghent City, there were even deserting knights and sorcerers. While few in number, there were indeed some.


    From the look of things, the patriarch of the House of Tudor suddenly fainting had dealt a huge blow to the morale of the entire House of Tudor.


    Wang Yun stood on the high tform and saw Chen Jiu standing on a simr structure on the opposite side.


    When he saw Chen Jiu, Chen Jiu also saw him. The two of them had their binocrs raised as they looked at each other.


    Chen Jiu was shocked. But before he could think whether to wave at Wang Yun, Wang Yun''s gaze shifted elsewhere.


    It was not that Chen Jiu did not look suspicious, but Wang Yun felt that since Chen Jiu could get his hands on a pair of binocrs, it meant he was not on the same side as the sorcerer ns.


    A momentter, Wang Yun actually saw a strange figure on the edge of the battlefield.


    "Old Ji, get me down!" Wang Yun shouted.


    The earthen observation tform quickly copsed back to the ground. Wang Yun stuffed the binocrs into Zhang Xiaoman''s hands and pointed in the 2 o''clock direction. "The Tudor family''s patriarch is over there. Keep a close eye on him! If he shows any sign of waking up, quickly inform Future Commander!"


    "Wait, where are you going?" Zhang Xiaoman shouted.


    But Wang Yun did not even bother turning around to respond to him. Instead, he ran straight into the shadows of Ghent City in the darkness of the night.


    The city, the lights and shadows, the walls, the weapons, the people, and the horses, all of these sights were processed into a huge dataset in Wang Yun''s mind. But at this moment, he threw away all of these distractions and was left with only one fixation in his head.


    As he ran wildly, his medium-length hair swayed in the wind due to the speed he was moving at.


    Wang Yun was wearing a ckbat uniform and a pair of ck, steel-toedbat boots that squeaked from his heavy movements. The rallying cries on the battlefield in the distance were extremely clear, but he could only hear his own voice at this moment.


    His panting, his footsteps, the route, it was all he knew!


    "Turn left!" Wang Yun turned left and leaped onto a low roof.


    Zhang Xiaoman asionally looked over to Wang Yun from the observation tform. He knew Wang Yun was pursuing a certain target, but he did not know who it was.


    In this huge city, Wang Yun kept adjusting his route as he calcted the other party''s speed and his own.


    The strongest brain in the Northwest was inplete overdrive due to this inexplicable pursuit.


    Every time he passed an intersection, countless choices would form in his mind. It was just like a multiple choice exam, but Wang Yun had to ensure he chose the most correct answers.


    Due to the rapid chase, Wang Yun''s blood temperature started to rise. His sweat started dripping profusely in the wind, but he did not think of giving up once.


    Wang Yun enjoyed this feeling. He really liked this feeling!


    Everything that happened in the past, the scheming life he led, and those depressing unachieved dreams of his all disappeared now.


    Now that he thought about it, it really seemed to be destiny that the Great Hoodwinker would say the words "Prosperous Northwest" to him in the secret prison.


    What was he fighting for at this moment? Was it for money and rewards? No.


    Was it for the sake of holding high office? No.


    All of this was so he could protect the future of the Northwest with everyone, as well as the enthusiasm to work hard with them!


    This made his mind even clearer than before. It was far clearer than it had ever been!


    "Turn right!" Wang Yun suddenly ran towards a monastery in Ghent City. He traversed across the roofs with every step calcted precisely.


    When he climbed up to the top of the monastery''s dome, he suddenly leaped into the empty night sky in front of him. "I''ve caught you!"


    The moment he leaped, Wang Yun looked down and saw the street below him. A cloud of ck mist was quickly traveling through the shadows.


    While he was still midair, Wang Yun''s pupils suddenly turned silvery. He reached out at the ck smoke and shouted, "Restrict!"


    The formless air startedpressing inwards. For Wang Wenyan, who had turned into the ck mist, he was being hunted by his natural enemy!


    Wang Wenyan, who was the ck mist, was forced back into his human form and fell from the sky with Wang Yun.


    With two loud thuds, the two of them dropped heavily onto the stone pavement. As they fell, Wang Yun disarmed all of Wang Wenyan''s weapons with his superpower.


    But Wang Yun did not even utter a sound of pain. He justy on the ground and startedughing like a lunatic.


    Two streams of blood started flowing out of his nostrils. This was the aftereffect of overexerting his brainpower. However, he would be fine after resting for a while, so Wang Yun was not really bothered by it.


    Wang Wenyan slowly stood up and said coldly, "Is it worth it to overextend yourself for that young man with no ideals?"


    Wang Yun got up and pointed his pistol at the other party''s forehead. He said with a smile, "He doesn''t have any ideals? Are you fanatics fit to judge him?"


    "What else then?" Wang Wenyan sneered. "What ns does the Northwest have?"


    "We just want to live well on thatnd. What''s wrong with growing vegetables, building irrigation canals, developing trade, and building roads?" Wang Yun spat on the ground.


    When overloaded with exercise, the oral cavity would secrete more mucus to moisturize the respiratory tract.


    "What kind of an ideal is that?" Wang Wenyan said coldly.


    "Do we have to think about ambitious things every day like you people for us to have ideals?" Wang Yun said disdainfully, "Extreme fanatics like yourself will only make the world worse."


    Wang Wenyan did not argue further. Actually, both of them knew neither of them could really convince the other in this debate.


    Wang Yun calmed down. "Be a good person in your next life. Don''t go around killing innocent people anymore."


    Wang Wenyan said coldly, "I''m a woman, and as the director of the Wang Consortium''s intelligence and field operations, I request that Fortress 178 grant me diplomatic immunity."


    No matter when, Wang Wenyan had always represented herself as a man to others. It was like this in Luoyang City, and also the same here in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. However, she was indeed a woman. It was just that her short hair, sharp clothing, and rtively neutral appearance allowed her to hide her true gender.


    As a man, it allowed her to have more assertiveness when carrying out missions.


    But now, as a highly experienced intelligence agent, she would make use of any and all circumstances to create an opportunity for herself.


    "I know you''re a woman." Wang Yun sneered. "I knew since the time in the Pyro Company''s Sacred Mountains. That''s why I can''t take you to meet Future Commander. I can''t let him bear the infamy of killing a woman. Let me bear the burden instead."


    Bang! Wang Yun aimed at Wang Wenyan''s forehead and pulled the trigger.


    The moment he pulled the trigger, Wang Wenyan tried turning into a ck mist again to avoid the bullet. However, Wang Yun was already prepared for it. The surrounding air instantlypressed around Wang Wenyan and left her unable to move.


    After that shot, Wang Wenyan fell to the ground with blood seeping out of a wound in her temple.


    Just in case, Wang Yun even shot the other party twice more in the heart. It wasn''t until he was sure she waspletely dead that he heaved a sigh of relief and sat on the ground to catch a breather.


    He pressed his radio and reported, "Future Commander, Wang Wenyan has been taken out."


    ¡­


    A 180-strong assault column was advancing on an intersection on Crown Avenue in Ghent City. Every time the Northwest Army''s soldiers armed with guns and ammo advanced a certain distance, they would ensure the angle of their covering fire was able to deal with any sudden threats.


    All of the soldiers were clutching their automatic rifles and steadying them with their left hands, ready to pull the trigger at any moment.


    Within each assault column, 12 soldiers were equipped with 40 mm underbarrel grenadeunchers acting as the fire support team.


    Once they encountered arge cavalry attack or had a tough battle at hand, they would have to react quickly and clear the way for the assault column.


    These soldiers were wearing bulletproof vests with embedded steel tes. They had Fortress 178''s standard-issue pistols holstered to their outer thighs, and there was even a spare pistol holstered under their armpits on the side of their bulletproof vests.


    The troops ck Fox had brought from Stronghold 144 this time were armed to the teeth.


    "All clear here."


    "All clear here as well."


    "All clear here too."


    As the assault column advanced, voices of the soldiers in the lead were constantly transmitted over the radio.


    On top of the buildings on both sides of the street, dozens of archers from the House of Tudor quietly drew their bows and poked their heads out from the roofs.


    But before they could take aim, several soldiers in the assault column on the street discovered their presence in advance and fired a series of shots at them.


    The rattling of their guns was cracking and decisive. The powerful suppressive fire forced the archers back.


    As the enemies were no longer in their direct line of fire after retreating back onto the roofs, the assault column''s gunfire was unable to immediately prate the roof of the building and hit them.


    "T4s, scale the walls. T3s, form a bridge," thepanymander ordered sternly over the radio.


    Five soldiers appeared in a sh from the assault column and slung their guns diagonally across their backs. Meanwhile, two otherrades beside each of them formed a "bridge" with their hands.


    The moment they stepped onto the "bridge", the T3s who formed the bridgeunched them towards the top of the building.


    The five T4-rankedbatants made use of the huge reaction force to bound towards the roofs like birds. While they were still in midair, they pulled out their pistols from their leg holsters and started shooting.


    Following close behind were some of the standard soldiers. More than 20 of these soldiers went up onto the roofs and took out the remaining enemies to ensure there would be no survivors.


    Anxious shouting and screaming erupted from the roof before it fell silent again.


    "The roofs are cleared," a T4batant reported.


    Truly, Ren Xiaosu''s decision to have P5092 abduct the Pyro Company''s remaining troops back to the Northwest was definitely a wise move.


    Among these 10,000-strong troops, a third of them were T3batants, and arge number were even T4 and T5batants.


    Before P5092 met them, even he did not expect the average strength of this remnant force to be so strong.


    Butter, he figured out the Pyro Company and the Wang Consortium had been engaged in a fierce war, so only soldiers who were strong enough could sessfully pull off the retreat n to the northern ins.


    The weaker soldiers would have already been caught and killed by the Wang Consortium.


    Therefore, the survivors in this group were all elites.


    The normal soldiers on the roofs started pulling back while the five T4batants stayed behind as lookouts.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    But a momentter, someone on the roof level farther ahead suddenly got up and gunfire was heard. One of the T4s who was still up on the roof was suddenly shot in the thigh.


    The T4batant was caught off guard and fell off the roof. Several soldiers below quickly caught him and lessened the impact of the fall.


    Thepanymander said on the radio, "It''s an improvised firearm. The gunshot came from 11 o''clock. Grenadiers, bombard the target area."


    A soldier angrily raised the muzzle of his grenadeuncher and pulled the trigger. The grenade flew through the night sky with a long trail of white smoke behind it and hit the target urately. A huge explosion erupted at the top of the building in front, and the hidden enemy was sent flying.


    "Check the wound," thepanymander ordered.


    The T4batant who had been hit stood up and said, "No need, it''s lead shot." With that, he used a dagger to cut open a small area of his pants at his thigh, revealing the wound inside.


    Under normal circumstances, lead shot was rtively softer, so when it hit a target, the kic energy would be fully released. The shattered lead bullet would cause a gaping wound withrge areas of irregr abrasion and, if not handled in time, could even cause lead poisoning to the wounded. If the lead entered the bloodstream, it could even destroy the entire circtory <anno data-annotation-id="0de3ee77-379c-40a9-b30f-9ca995db1">system.</anno>


    But T4s were clearly different from normal people. Moreover, the quality of lead shot in the Kingdom of Sorcerers was far inferior to that of the Central ins.


    When the lead shot hit the T4batant''s leg, it did not even manage to prate the muscle tissue and only left a wound on the epidermis.


    The T4batant took out a first aid kit and wiped his dagger with alcohol swabs. Then he forcefully sliced off the palm-sized grazed skin to prevent the lead fragments from affecting his circtory system and causing any aftereffects. His muscle tissue was not even damaged after he sliced off his skin.


    "Alcohol, gauze." The T4batant briefly treated his wound before getting back up on his feet. "Let''s continue advancing. I can move with no problem."


    Everyone watched in silence. This T4batant had to be in a lot of pain, but he did not even wince throughout the ordeal. This was the kind of war machine the Pyro Company was so proud of.


    Thepanymander nced at him. "Why don''t you return to the rear and rest? Themander has set up a field hospital on Anning East Road. As long as you retreat there, you''ll receive treatment immediately."


    "No need," the T4batant said with a shake of his head.


    Thepanymander pped the T4batant on his shoulder. "Bro, you''re really tough! Let''s continue advancing then!"


    Thepanymander was from the 6th Infantry Brigade and had gone through the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun. He was promoted topanymander after that battle.


    To be honest, the integration process of the Pyro Company and the 6th Infantry Brigade might not really be that effective. After all, they were two fighting forces and had not known each other for long.


    The two sides fought together only because they were soldiers and had to fully obey orders and work for amon objective. But in fact, their personal rtionship would only make them nodding acquaintances, not friends.


    But everyone knew it would be different after this war.


    Half an hourter, the assault column arrived at the edge of the battlefield. After turning another corner, they would probablye into view of the messy defensive position of the knights.


    Thepanymander stopped in his tracks and spoke in a low voice into the radio, "Take five minutes to rest and regroup."


    They had arrived at the enemy''s nk, ready for the tough battle that would ensue five minutester.


    Thepanymander was panting heavily when he suddenlyughed over the radio, "Sometimes, I''m quite envious of yourades from the Pyro Company. You''re all like fucking animals who don''t get tired at all. By the way, why did you all agree to join the Northwest Army?"


    The T4batant who was injured earlierughed and said, "It''s very simple. After Commander P5092 found us, he only said one thing that made us decide to follow him to the Northwest."


    Thepanymander was stunned. "What did he say?"


    T402992 said with a smile, "Commander P5092 told us that if we followed him, he''d let us die in battle with dignity."


    At that time, the Pyro Company''s remnant troops were retreating towards the northern ins like stray dogs. All of the strongholds controlled by the Pyro Company had fallen in the face of the attacks by the Wang Consortium''s troops. They had seen too many of theirrades dying without honor. They were no longer fighting for the survival of the Pyro Company in the Central ins but had died because of the ambition of some lunatics.


    At that time, it was extremely tempting for these Pyro Company warriors to be given a chance to die with dignity.


    On the long boulevard of Ghent City, time was ticking by. Everyone fell silent again as they adjusted their mental state. Thepanymander watched his watch and counted down the time.


    After five minutes passed. He said calmly on the radio, "Is everyone ready? Future Commander is still waiting for us. Let''s move out!"


    With that, the entire assault column charged out of the street. Although they were a little fearful, they did not intend to retreat.


    The fire support team finished firing a volley of grenades at the enemy''s defensive position in one go.


    This assault column that had detoured to the enemy''s nk was a sharp knife suddenly stabbing into the enemy''s ribs!


    ¡­


    "Is Tudor, that old codger, still unconscious?" An aged voice roared from the Norman family''s position, "He''s such a good-for-nothing!"


    "Patriarch, it looks like he hasn''t regained consciousness yet. The Knights of Tudor are still retreating bit by bit." Themander of the Knights of Radiance said, "Patriarch, should we retreat? It''s still the Knights of Tudor that are mainly under attack. It''s not toote for us to leave now!"


    "Where do we go?" The Norman family''s patriarch said coldly, "Are we going to give up Ghent City?"


    The situation on the battlefield was gradually turning into a one-sided battle. The Tudor family''s patriarch fainting was like the first wave of dominoes, causing a massive chain reaction.


    More importantly, the elite knights the sorcerer ns were so proud of were like helpless children against a modern army.


    Every time those dark, menacing weapons fired, a group of knights would fall.


    There were also strange vines constantly sprouting from the ground as they took the lives of the knights in droves.


    "We have to take action." The Norman family''s patriarch said coldly, "Our fate is intertwined with what happens to the House of Tudor. If we let the enemy wipe them out, it''ll be difficult for us to hold out by ourselves after that. The enemy we''re facing this time is too powerful!"


    The dozen or so snipers ck Fox had brought were already in position on high ground. Their eyes never once lingered on the normal knights.


    P5092 had only assigned one mission to them: Find the sorcerers in the crowd and kill them.


    Some sorcerers were killed as soon as they took out their Eyes of True Sight.


    Before tonight, no one had expected that a group of Central ins forces would actually appear in Ghent City. Furthermore, these troops were even capable of driving them back within their own territory.


    In the more than 200 years after The Cataclysm, the Kingdom of Sorcerers developed a high and mighty arrogance when facing the Central ins.


    They had plundered people and resources from the Central ins and even took gold, silver, and riches from them. Every war that broke out was initiated by the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Although Fortress 178 was gradually bing stronger, the Northwest Army had never attacked the Kingdom of Sorcerers inside their territory before.


    In the war 17 years ago, the Kingdom of Sorcerers was actually considered to have suffered a defeat. But after they returned home, the old aristocracy of the Magi reached a consensus in their portrayal of the war: We don''t have to admit we were defeated, but let''s not go there anymore in the future.


    Over the past 200 years or so, the decadent sorcerer dynasty had formed a stereotypical mindset: It''s impossible for the Northwest Army tounch a counterattack on the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Even if the Northwest Army did counterattack, the 1,000-kilometer supply line would be a problem for them. If the Northwest Army embarked on the difficult journey and arrived at the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the Magi''s elite knights and archmages here would surely teach them a lesson in blood.


    In fact, the sorcerers were right. Fortress 178 still had many tasks waiting for them to handle, and they were truly incapable of establishing such a long supply line.


    But what the sorcerers never expected was that someone from the Central ins would actually learn how to use their Enchanted Doorway spell and gain direct ess to their kingdom.


    Supply line? There was no need for such a thing anymore.


    The massive Stronghold 144 had be the forward operating base for this war. Even if there were any casualties, they could immediately be sent back to the field hospital in Stronghold 144 for the best treatment.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu, Luo Lan, and the T5batants were closing in on the Norman family''s patriarch.


    The Norman family''s patriarch had donned heavy armor. He said to the archmage next to him, "Cover me, I''m about to make my move¡ª"


    But before he could finish speaking, a sniper bullet shot out from nowhere and turned the archmage next to him into a bloody mist.


    The blood even sttered into the Norman family''s patriarch''s armor through the gaps of his visor.


    The Norman family''s patriarch was stunned when he saw Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu charging through the crowd. They charged in wedge formation like an icebreaker ship sailing through ice-covered waters. Wherever it passed through, cracks would mercilessly appear in the solid armor of ice with a terrifying crackle.


    "Zhou Yingxue, have the vines reached my feet yet? Clear the obstacles ahead for me!" Ren Xiaosu shouted into his earpiece.


    "Alrighty, I''ve been waiting for a long time," Zhou Yingxue replied.


    A momentter, a manhole cover in front of Ren Xiaosu was sted into the air by the vines. The surging vines brushed away the knights in front of Ren Xiaosu like a tidal wave and forced open a path for him.


    The vines also tried to attack the Norman family''s patriarch, but he used some kind of defense that caused the vines to wither once they got within ten meters of him.


    It was not only the vines but even the knights and sorcerers around the Norman family''s patriarch who were pulverized into nothing.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. In order to protect himself, the other party even indiscriminately attacked his own people.


    At this moment, a sniper bullet traveled several hundred meters through the air to reach this patriarch. However, the protective spell around him was even able to quickly obliterate the powerful sniper bullet.


    The palm-sized bullet spun and came within ten meters of the Norman family''s patriarch. Then, as though it had encountered a grinder, it turned into powder bit by bit and dissipated into the air.


    It was as though there were an absolute domain surrounding the other party that ensured his safety.


    However, no other spells appeared after the other party had cast this spell. It seemed like the domain of safety had to be continuously cast and could not be interrupted.


    He could not even move from his position.


    The Norman family''s patriarch stood in the Absolute Domain in his armor, and his ck visor seemed to be silently mocking everyone around him.


    But the Norman family''s patriarch suddenly saw a dark Shadow Door open in front of him. Then an armored arm stretched out from it.


    The power of the Absolute Domain started destroying the armor on that hand as the nanomachines were pulverized into dust and disappeared. But no matter how many nanomachines got destroyed by this Absolute Domain, new ones continued to reform as part of the armor.


    They were fearless warriors as they regrouped and got destroyed one after another. The billions of little guys only had one purpose,which was to protect Ren Xiaosu''s arm.


    Ever since they were "born," they only had one mission. They were driven by the will of humanity to be true war machines. Even if it meant self-destruction, they would not hesitate.


    The Norman family''s patriarch was unable to move away from where he was standing due to the need to continuously cast the spell. As such, he could only watch helplessly as the arm resisted the destructive power of his spell and stretched out in front of him bit by bit. It was slowly piercing through steel with its will, but the determination was firm and unwavering.


    And then¡­ the Norman family''s patriarch saw that arm snatch the ck Eye of True Sight from his hand!


    The Norman family''s patriarch froze on the spot. The ck Eye of True Sight had been taken away from him just like that?!


    The reason the sorcerers were wearing armor now was because of the pping incidents at the Winston and Vaduz Cathedrals.


    They did not have time to raise their ability to withstand stress, nor did they know how to better defend against the person behind this move. The archmages thought that since that were the case, they might as well put on their armor. At the very least, they would not look too bad if they got pped in the face.


    A lot of people thought this was a face-pping spell that was specifically and only used for pping people''s faces.


    But no one could have expected the hand could actually take away the ck Eye of True Sight.


    The Norman family''s patriarch tried to hold his Eye of True Sight tightly, but how could his grip be stronger than Ren Xiaosu''s? At that moment, he felt like his fingers were about to break, so he had no choice but to let go!


    The Eye of True Sight was the foundation of a sorcerer''s spell casting. Without it, their ability to cast spells would be destroyed.


    Just as his Absolute Domain was destroyed, a sniper bullet flew towards him again. The gunshot from the shadows was a judgment that dered the end of his life.


    Ren Xiaosu put the ck Eye of True Sight into his pocket. "Zhang Xiaoman, where''s the Tudor family''s patriarch?"


    "Future Commander, he hasn''t regained consciousness yet. They''re moving him towards your 10 o''clock. It seems like they''re nning on retreating," Zhang Xiaoman answered excitedly. Zhang Xiaoman even felt like crying. It had already been an entire night, and he was finally of some use now!


    <annotations style="disy: none;"><ol ss="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="0de3ee77-379c-40a9-b30f-9ca995db1">Shot is a collective term for small spheres or pellets, often made of lead. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_(pellet)</li></ol></annotations>",

 Chapter 1202 Heavenly Train

    On the huge stage of Ghent City, there weren''t any stunning stage effects, yet everything that yed out couldn''t be more realistic.


    Tonight, ever since Ren Xiaosu fought his way out of Rose Avenue, the lone monastery standing at the end of the street became the starting point of everything. It was where the bloodshed began, kicking off the show that followed.


    Chen Jiu witnessed almost the entirety of the battle tonight.


    From the beginning, the situation was so one-sided no one thought Ren Xiaosu could win. At that time, the Sanctuary was still wondering if they should take action and save him.


    But in the blink of an eye, the sorcerer ns had be the disadvantaged group on this stage.


    This was something no one had expected. Even the Norman family''s patriarch had been tragically killed in action.


    He had personally witnessed Ren Xiaosu escaping from the pursuit of tens of thousands of people. He had witnessed a leopard gecko arriving at the battle site. He even witnessed how the entire situation became a little different after the other party brought out arge corroded metal door and opened it.


    The observation deck under Chen Jiu''s feet slowly lowered. He felt that there was no need for him to continue watching anymore.


    "Father, where are you going?" Chen An''an gazed at Chen Jiu''s back as he moved away from the battlefield. "Aren''t you going to save him? Has he been killed?"


    Chen An''an and the others could not see the battle. Although they heard the sound of gunfire, they couldn''t determine what was going on.


    They did not know the 6th Field Division had already arrived on the battlefield. Therefore, they thought Ren Xiaosu might have been overwhelmed by the sea of pursuers.


    However, things werepletely different from what they had imagined. Chen Jiu turned to them and said, "He doesn''t need us to save him. I''ll return to the underground now and see if I can seize thisst opportunity. Wait for me here. I''ll be back soon."


    The 20-odd members of the Sanctuary looked at one another, unable to figure out what thisst opportunity meant.


    Chen Jiu returned to the underground. He walked through a long and dim passageway and headed towards the depths of the underground.


    The further he walked, the darker it became. It was so dark Chen Jiu could barely make out the graffiti on the walls, yet it seemed like everything was getting brighter and brighter. It was as though they had spent hundreds of years walking through a dark tunnel, and now, there was finally a glimmer of light ahead. That light was the exit, and this tunnel was finallying to an end.


    If there were a better choice, the Sanctuary would definitely not choose to have everyone hide in the obscure underground.


    The underground might look interesting, but who would understand the suffering of not getting any sunlight for a long time?


    Without sunlight, the human body would experience calcium deficiency. Therefore, everyone had to go to some ces known as light wells in the underground to get some sun every once in a while so their bodies could continue growing normally.


    However, there was an extremely limited amount of light in the underground. Therefore, not everyone had a chance to bask in the sunlight. As such, a lot of people suffering from hunchback disease started appearing in the underground.


    Chen Jiu remembered very clearly that when he brought the four-year-old An''an and Chen Cheng to a light well, An''an had used her young tender hands to shield herself from the sunlight. She only dared to let the sunlight shine through the gaps of her fingers onto her face. It was both a happy and frightening experience.


    The underground residents liked to use minerals to draw graffiti on the walls, and among the minerals that could be used for drawing, the underground residents liked the red-orange ones the most. Everyone said it was the color that left the deepest impression on them. It was the color they saw when the sun shone through the capiries of their closed eyelids.


    This was everyone''s desire for sunlight.


    The Sanctuary served as a leadership role for the underground people while the Chen family had always led the Sanctuary throughout the generations.


    Chen Jiu had been told since he was young that if an opportunity arose, he must lead the underground residents back to the surface to live.


    But for a matter like that¡­ it was easy to treat it as an ideal, but it was very difficult to realize.


    This gloomy underground made people feel like they were stuck living in an endless night.


    When he first received news from Zhang Haoyun that Ren He''s descendant might have appeared, Chen Jiu was both excited and nervous.


    He was excited because his ancestors always said the descendants of the Rider would definitelye to the Kingdom of Sorcerers and take over the Sanctuary to lead everyone out of the darkness.


    That was how the leaders of the Sanctuaryforted themselves over the years.


    Chen Jiu was nervous because he knew Ren Xiaosu hade here alone. It was only him¡­ so how was he going to topple the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers?


    If someone like that suddenly arrived, would they somehow lead the already weak Sanctuary into an abyss? Was such a person qualified to take over as leader of the Sanctuary?


    But tonight, Chen Jiu understood the other party did not seem to be interested in leading the Sanctuary.


    Chen Jiu had seen with his own eyes how Ren Xiaosu had snatched away the ck Eye of True Sight that symbolized the authority of the Norman family''s patriarch. At that moment, it was as though the authority of the old aristocracy was about to fade away.


    Ren Xiaosu was surrounded by friends andrades who had risked their lives with him, and behind him was the entire Northwest Army of Fortress 178.


    That young man hade to reign over the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Chen Jiu finally arrived at the deepest part of the underground. It was a huge underground cave that resembled a pce. Countless torches were burning in the cave, and a ck subterranean river was flowing rapidly through it.


    Countless people from the underground were curled up here. When everyone received news of the battle on the surface, they hid here for fear of getting implicated.


    The moment Chen Jiu appeared, everyone looked over at him silently. There was a sense of anticipation, fear, unease, and repressed anger for their fate.


    Chen Jiu said calmly, "Everyone, please stand."


    The underground residents looked at one another and started chattering nonstop. However, themotion quickly subsided.


    After the first person stood up, the second, third, and then all 10,000 of them rose. They turned to the Sanctuary leader standing in front of them.


    Among them were the elderly, women carrying babies, and many young people holding garden hoes.


    Chen Jiu said, "It''s been more than a 100 years. We''ve been hiding in the underground for more than a 100 years. Every year, people ask me when we can return to the surface again. I believe that my father and grandfather faced this same issue as well. But every time someone asked, we could only remain silent because we didn''t have an answer at the time either.


    "We are born of darkness, but our hearts are with the light. But it seemed that the world had never been fair to us. The light we knew has always existed only in the light wells. When I brought Chen An''an to the light well, I tried my best to raise her higher as though it would help her be closer to the light.


    "I''m ashamed. I''m ashamed of all the times I''ve stayed silent when facing your questions."


    The underground residents'' breathing started getting heavier. The young men''s grip on their garden hoes gradually tightened.


    Chen Jiu''s gaze swept across everyone''s faces. "But if you all ask me today when we can return to the surface again, I will tell you that it is now."


    He called over a guardian whose face was covered in tattoos and had him bring over a pot of vermillion dye.


    Chen Jiu dipped his right thumb into the dye and smeared it between his brows. "Those of you who still have courage,e with me. If you have weapons, bring your weapons. Those without weapons, bring your hoes. Those without hoes, pick up a stone. I''ll take you all home. Let''s go and meet the new leader."


    The torches underground illuminated everyone''s faces. The underground residents followed behind Chen Jiu and smeared the vermillion dye between their brows before converging like a torrent and heading out to the surface.


    ¡­


    It was quiet at the House of Norman''s manor. The mistress of the manor was sitting solemnly in the main hall of the luxurious residence that spanned thousands of square meters. Meanwhile, the young generation of the entire House of Norman had gathered around her.


    These young people were not qualified to go into battle yet, and the reason why the mistress was overseeing the manor was to restrain them during this special period.


    The mistress was already in her seventies, but her skin was maintained like that of a 40-year-old noblewoman. She was dressed in dignified and elegant jewelry and had a graceful bearing.


    Before the war started, the Norman family''s Knights of Radiance had already deployed a group of troops to guard various parts of the manor.


    At this moment, the security in the Norman Manor was so tight not even a fly could get in.


    In the main hall, the young people did not seem to be nervous about the impending war. Instead, most of them looked cynical. None of them felt that the war would shake the foundation of the House of Norman.


    The Norman and the Tudor families had ruled the Kingdom of Sorcerers for nearly 200 years. During this period, other ns had tried to challenge their authority, but all of their attempts ended in failure.


    These young people had been told since they were young that no one would ever be able to defeat the Norman family.


    Even thiste at night, there was a steady stream of servants bringing food into the main hall. The freshly roasted beef and venison were served on silver tters, and the scarlet wine swirled freely in crystal sses.


    They used silverware because the people in the Kingdom of Sorcerers firmly believed that silver could detect all poisons. In this way, they could test if anyone had poisoned their food.


    If it weren''t for this reason, the House of Norman would probably be using gold for all their cutlery.


    No one ryed the battle situation back to them. Everyone thought that tonight was just like the day Donnelly had died. That incident was a one-sided massacre of the enemy by the House of Norman.


    In the three kitchens of the manor, there were hundreds of chefs who were busy preparing for this impromptu banquet.


    The servants cleared the tables like a flowing river while the chefs immediately prepared new dishes to be served.


    A chef put down the kitchen knife in his hand and said to his assistant next to him, "Go to the cold storage and bring out the beef tongue."


    The dark-haired assistant with ck eyes nodded and walked towards the cold storage room.


    A cold storage room in the Kingdom of Sorcerers did not use an electrically cooled system. Instead, servants would fetch ice from the cer every day and ce them in the cold storage.


    After the assistant entered the cold storage alone, he did not retrieve the beef tongue. Instead, he went straight to where the wine was stored and opened a wooden crate at the bottom.


    It was very difficult to secretly transport things into the Norman Manor. When the war broke out today, the Northwest''s intelligence agents finally found an opportunity to transport the crate in together with the ice and red wine during a shift change for the guards.


    If not for this war, they would probably not find such a good opportunity even in another two years.


    This was a secret n P5092 had instructed the Great Hoodwinker to carry out. P5092 said that fighting a head-on battle was one issue, but a sneak attack from the side was another.


    Before the real war began, they should seize every opportunity that they got, opportunities that appeared when the opponent slipped up.


    The more chaotic the lead-up to the war was, the easier it would be for the opponent to make mistakes.


    When the box was opened, it was not filled with wine but an exquisite "pentazte anion" bomb.


    The Northwest''s intelligence agents had infiltrated the Kingdom of Sorcerers and brought radio sets and firearms from the Central ins. At the same time, a minority of them were also separately carrying the most powerful explosive in the world.


    Before The Cataclysm, there were actually metallic hydrogen bombs that were more powerful than pentazte anion bombs. However, the development of metallic hydrogen bombs was too difficult and had already been lost to the ocean of history.


    The pentazte anion bomb was the brand new pride of the Orient in the history of explosives. Meanwhile, the research data for this technology was recovered by Fortress 178''s exploration team.


    Fortress 178 was located in the northwest, and this ce happened to be near the st test site for the pentazte anion bomb from before The Cataclysm.


    Pentazte anion dposed at a temperature of 116.8 ¡ãC and had shown very good thermal stability.


    But most importantly, it was once hailed as an "ultra high energy-containing material" that was closest to the nuclear bomb and second only to metallic hydrogen bombs.


    In the past, a material the size of a salt grain had leaked out during an experiment and destroyed an entireboratory.


    For example, five kilograms of TNT could only blow up a small, single-story house, but this small and refined pentazte anion bomb in front of the kitchen assistant could blow up the entire Norman Manor.


    The kitchen assistant pressed the countdown button on the detonator and left the cold storage like nothing had happened.


    He did not retrieve the beef tongue for the chef and instead went straight down the dirty sewer pipes behind the kitchen that was used for pouring away dirty slop water. He left through it without batting an eyelid.


    His expression was so calm it was as though the stench did not affect him. He had an extremely determined will.


    ¡­


    In the well behind the Rose Monastery, Melgor was sitting uneasily on a wooden box in the tiny secret chamber. "Why haven''t you ever mentioned your background to me?"


    Summer said in a low voice, "I''m sorry, but too many people are involved in this matter. I can''t let them bear the risk for me."


    "I''m not ming you." Mel quickly said, "What I mean is, if you had told me, I could''ve helped in some way. When I heard your conversation in the underground, I felt quite useless that I wasn''t able to help much. I couldn''t even understand what you guys were talking about."


    Summer stepped forward and held Mel''s hand. "Don''t say that. Why would you be useless? It''s all thanks to you this time."


    Mel''s eyes lit up. "Why do you say that?"


    Summer exined, "It''s all thanks to you for bringing that Rider''s descendant to the Kingdom of Sorcerers."


    "¡­ Oh, is that it?"


    He felt like he had been stabbed 10,000 times in the heart and nearly cried.


    "I was just teasing you," Summer said with augh. She sat side by side with Mel on the box and said, "I found out about my family history when I was 12 years old. From that day onwards, I was no longer able to lead a carefree life like other people my age. At that time, I was very envious of you, butter, it wasn''t about envy anymore. Instead, I wanted to protect all of which was beautiful for you. Actually, it was my intention for you to be posted to the border for reconnaissance work. Do you me me? I only hoped to get you away from Ghent City before the conflict erupted."


    Not only that, but Summer''s engagement to the House of Tudor was also something that made Mel want to give up. Of course, Summer made this decision mainly for the opportunity to get close to the House of Tudor.


    Summer did not really want to marry that person from the House of Tudor. Her n was to poison the Tudors on the wedding day while they hosted the banquet.


    There would definitely be many sorcerers attending the wedding that day, and the core figures of the House of Tudor would definitely be there as well.


    "It''s not your fault." Melgor shook his head. "Those two years of hardship made me understand a lot of things. I looked up at the starry sky alone and sang to myself. Initially, it was really quite unbearable, butter, I realized loneliness can really strengthen one''s mind."


    Melgor suddenly thought of something. If Ren Xiaosu were still here in the secret chamber, he would probably say to him, "What''s the use of just having a strong mind? You have to be more powerful too."


    Thinking of this, Mel even found it a little funny. That young man from the Central ins seemed to look down on him from the beginning, yet he kept helping him along the way.


    Summer looked at Mel''s silly smile and thought to herself, ''Perhaps fortune favors the foolish.''


    However, Mel gradually turned silent. He thought for a long time and then said, "Actually, I know I''m quite useless. If I were really useful, I wouldn''t have made everyone subconsciously want to protect me, right? But regardless of whether I''m useful or not, I really want to leave this well instead of hiding here like a coward. Ren Xiaosu is my friend. He''s already done so much for me. To help take the attention off us, he even ran out alone to face tens of thousands of troops."


    Summer listened quietly. Mel mustered up his courage and said, "He doesn''t have any close acquaintances since he came to the Kingdom of Sorcerers alone. Since he considers me his friend, I should also treat him as one. I don''t know if he''s still alive or not, nor do I know if it''s toote, or if there''s even any point for me to save him now. But if I don''t go, I''ll regret it for sure."


    Summer, in her calmposure, gradually broke into a smile. "You''ve really changed a lot."


    "Is that so?" Mel said a little embarrassedly, "Sometimes, I also want to live like Ren Xiaosu and not have anything to fear. I would also like to be able to sound like I''m bragging about myself even though I''m speaking the truth¡­."


    "You don''t have to exin." Summer smiled and said, "Let''s go."


    "No, you can''t go." Mel shook his head. "You still have your mission. If something happens to you, what will those people supporting you do?"


    "Who cares about the mission? I just wanna be with you," Summer said firmly.


    But at this moment, two loud explosions boomed in Ghent City in quick session.


    The explosions were even louder than the roar of thunder on summer nights. It was as though The Cataclysm had descended again, destroying the world.


    In that instant, it felt like the sky was falling, and thends were being engulfed. It was like the mountains were crumbling into the sea, and meteorites were striking the earth.


    The entirety of Ghent City was shaking from the explosion, and even the water level of the well outside the secret chamber suddenly dropped by a notch.


    However, Melgor rushed out of the secret chamber like a madman and climbed up the well with the rope.


    Summer led him to the top of the Rose Monastery. The two of them stood on the circr roof and quietly watched as the Norman Manor and the Tudor Manor started burning in the east and west, respectively.


    The sted debris and smoke that shot into the sky looked like dark storm clouds rolling towards the horizon.


    Amid the ck smoke and dust, red sparks were still shing. It was as though there was lightning behind the storm clouds.


    At some point, the thought that her ancestor, Russell, might not even be that powerful crossed Summer''s mind.


    The Norman Manor and the Tudor Manor were gone. The most glorious symbols in the Kingdom of Sorcerers had suddenly turned into specks of dust that once existed in history. It seemed that the Houses of Norman and Tudor had also be a thing of the past.


    The explosion had blown the youth foundations of the Norman and the Tudor families into dust. It was as though it were washing away their criminal past.


    The Norman and the Tudor families'' foundations had been severed. No one had expected Fortress 178 to be so ruthless.


    Summer and Mel stood hand in hand at the top of the circr roof. They looked at the Knights of Tudor, Knights of Radiance, and the Central ins warriors who came fromnds unknown and felt like this was all a fucking dream!


    So Ren Xiaosu really did not need him to save. Mel could only sigh.


    So that was the source of his confidence!


    ¡­


    By this moment, the hundreds of assault columns of the 6th Field Division had cleared the way forward.


    They cleared out the enemies hiding in the streets, alleys, and roofs. This way, the main forces that had juste through the enchanted doorway could officiallyunch an even more intense, all-out attack after just some slight reorganization.


    P5092, who was overseeing the battle from the rear, had an indifferent expression. It was as though nothing else in the world mattered other than war.


    When the Norman and Tudor manors were blown up, Zhang Xiaoman was so shocked he nearly lost his bnce and fell off the observation tform. Even ck Fox was stunned.


    The warhorses wentpletely crazy. They no longer cared about the knights on their backs and started fleeing madly. They did not even care that they would trample each other.


    The neighing of the horses, mixed with screams and roars, made the defenders sound exceptionally powerless.


    The knights stared nkly at the mes that shot up into the sky. Then, caught off guard, the heavily armored knights were thrown off their horses one by one. Due to their heavy armor, they could not properly regain their footing amid the stampede of humans and horses.


    The knights who were able to remain calm wanted to keep their warhorses under control and put all their effort into showcasing their riding skills. They knew full well that if they were to fall off their mounts under such circumstances, it would be over for them.


    Everything was in chaos. What could have caused an orderly formation to suddenly turn so messy? All it needed was a loud explosion.


    On thispletely chaotic battlefield, only P5092''s expression did not change. It was as though he had expected it. The calm expression on P5092''s face was a stark contrast to the world that had turned topsy-turvy.


    P5092 was silent. The electromaic pulse triggered by the explosion would affect the proper functioning of the radiomunications system, so he was waiting for it to subside before retakingmand of the troops.


    All he could hear was the sound of static. However, to P5092, this static was more like the quiet that followed an extreme mor. In this short half a minute, he could finally catch a breather.


    P5092 immediately sank deep into his own thoughts. He was a stone that had fallen into the sea and sunk all the way to the dark bottom.


    There was no sense of suffocation from drowning. There was only tranquility.


    A momentter, themunications system was back to normal. Themander of an assault column on the front lines reported over the radio, "We''ve broken through into Zone C31. I repeat, the 131st Assault Column has sessfully broken through into Zone C31. We''re setting up a heavy machine gun position!"


    In an instant, P5092 seemed to have been pulled out from the bottom of the sea by this voice. It only took him a short two milliseconds to turn back into the war machine everyone was familiar with. "I''ve neglected something. 131st Assault Column, don''t rashly enter the battlefield for now. Go find high ground and cover Zone D19 with your firepower. Future Commander will be passing through there in five minutes. Before that, you all must open up a path for him!"


    Orders were transmitted out from themand center one after another. "97th Assault Column, secure Zone C21. Don''t let the enemies there pose a threat to Future Commander.


    "81st and 82nd Assault Columns, stay where you are to receive the main forces at the rear to lead them into battle!


    "ck Fox, after you lead the main forces onto the battlefield, make sure you carve out a path. I don''t want Future Commander to have anything to worry about!"


    As the saying went, one captured the bandits by first capturing the ringleader. Currently, Ren Xiaosu was leading more than 20 people to ovee tens of thousands of troops to carry out the decapitation strike n, so P5092 wanted to ensure that Ren Xiaosu would not have any more obstacles around him to deal with.


    Zhou Yingxue stood beside P5092 and controlled her vines while asking, "You said you neglected something? What is it?"


    P5092 replied, "Now that we''ve uprooted the foundation of their younger generation and even destroyed their manors, it''ll make them despair. So we have to prevent the Norman and the Tudor families from gathering newfound strength in their despair."


    In war, an outstandingmander would not only have to consider how to precisely attack the enemy step by step and weaken theirbat strength, reinforcements, and supply lines. They also had to consider human nature.


    Although the sorcerers led afortable life, they also had their pride.


    No one could be sure if a nation with an ancient and mysterious inheritance like sorcery would erupt with unimaginable power during desperate times.


    Zhou Yingxue frowned. "What should we do then?"


    P5092 said calmly, "They can still unleash their strength in despair if they have a glimmer of hope. As long as Future Commander can strike down the enemy quickly enough and destroy all their hope before that strength erupts, it''ll be fine."


    The engineer in charge of maintaining the equipment for P5092 thought that ever since P5092 joined the Northwest, he had been talking more and more ruthlessly.


    ¡­


    Ren Xiaosu calmly observed the ongoings on the battlefield. For some reason, the more dangerous the situation, the calmer he felt.


    It was the same in the Jing Mountains, Luoyang City, and the Pyro Company''s Sacred Mountains. He felt even more so standing among the tens of thousands of troops at this moment.


    Just a moment ago, Zhang Xiaoman had pointed out the direction of the Tudor family''s patriarch''s retreat to him. But before he could confirm it with Zhang Xiaoman, the electromaic pulse that erupted from the explosions at the Norman Manor and the Tudor Manor caused radio interference.


    But the good news was that half of the knights around them who had never experienced "advanced explosives" before were totally stunned by the sts.


    In this backward nation, the sorcerers called themselves gods, while the soldiers of the sorcerer ns referred to themselves as knights of the divine kingdom. But at this moment, this group of devout disciples had encountered something that was not exinable even with theology.


    "11 o''clock!" Ren Xiaosu roared on the battlefield, "Seize the opportunity and break through their defenses!"<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    In that instant, the "war chariot" led by Old Xu instantly turned around. Wherever the ck saber pointed, a river of blood would flow.


    Amid the chaos, the 22 T5batants on both nks mercilessly crushed the enemy like the wheels of the war chariot.


    Fighting against tens of thousands of soldiers, bullets would get expended, and grenades would run out. Therefore, when the battle reached its climax, the T5batants realized their fists and bodies were still the most dependable in the end.


    In the Pyro Company, the T5batants were known as the Chosen Ones.


    Just as P5092 had said, not everyone was qualified to be a T5batant. The results that the gic serum could help you achieve were predetermined by your genes the moment you were born.


    Therefore, every T5batant in the Pyro Company was a treasure. Every one of them was created based on the principles of war, and they were all true blue killing machines.


    After they became the war chariot''s wheels, and after they ran out of ammunition, these crazy powerful "machines" started plundering the enemy''s weapons.


    The T5batants snatched the enemy''s swords with a strength they could not resist at all. Then they stabbed the enemy''s swords through the gaps in their armor.


    The knights of the Houses of Tudor and Norman were equipped with the best gear in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. Their armor was thick and tough, so it would be unrealistic to use swords to stab them.


    If normal soldiers were to use melee weapons against them, they would probably have to expend a great deal of effort just to kill them.


    However, the T5batants were much more agile and domineering than expected. Their control over their bodies had reached a level that transcended the mundane.


    Of course, with the T5batants'' strength, they could totally kill a mounted knight through their armor. However, these T5s were true war machines. When faced with countless enemies, they would use the least amount of energy to achieve the greatest damage.


    They did not know if "victory" or "death" woulde for them first in war, so they had to conserve their energy to deal with all threats.


    Wherever the "war chariot" passed by, a T5batant would casually stab his sword and plunge it through the gap between the enemies'' helmets and heavy armor and into their neck, nailing them to the ground.


    This attack was as precise as performing cardiac surgery. The thin sword was inserted through a 0.3 mm gap in the armor like a fisherman skillfully shucking an oyster with a dagger on the beach.


    Right after, the T5batant would draw the fallen knight''s sword from his hip and continue searching for the next target.


    This series of actions was executed smoothly all at once.


    asionally, the T5batants would look at each other during the battle. They could all see the fanaticism in each other''s eyes.


    They had never experienced such a carefree battle before when they were fighting against the expeditionary army back in the Pyro Company''s territory. Their memories of fleeing like defeated dogs seemed to have dissipated into thin air. It was as though they were dusty swords that had been polished and regained their shine!


    However, the stamina of the T5batants was not unlimited. They had already been running around with Ren Xiaosu for nearly 40 minutes. During this time, they ensured thebat troops at the rear could pass through the enchanted doorway without any interference. However, their breathing was starting to be irregr.


    Gradually, everyone''s movements became less precise, and they would even make mistakes asionally.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu and Old Xu, who were at the front of the formation, suddenly stopped. Just as the T5batants were feeling confused, they heard Ren Xiaosu say, "Take a five-minute break right here. Pay attention to the rhythm of your breathing and move your hands and feet about. Don''t let thectic acid umte in your muscles, and don''t let your heart rate drop too much!"


    Then Ren Xiaosu stood in ce and started regting his breathing. His breathing was constantly maintained in a fixed pattern. The T5batants had all undergone simr training before, so they understood that maintaining their heart rate was to allow the secretion of hormones in their bodies to continue. In this way, theirbat strength would not decrease even after they recuperated.


    Breathing was key in battle.


    However, the T5batants were still feeling a little uncertain. With tens of thousands of enemies surrounding them, was it really alright to just stand still among the enemy troops and take a rest?


    However, when the T5batants looked around, none of the enemies dared to make use of this window of opportunity to approach them.


    These knights who had just calmed their horses down and surrounded Ren Xiaosu seemed to be a little flustered. They did not know why these war machines had suddenly stopped moving. Were they already at their limits, or were they just gathering more strength?


    These knights did not even dare to step forward to probe them!


    The T5batants looked silently at Ren Xiaosu''s back. That young man who stood calmly in the middle of the battlefield to regte his breathing was like a god!


    There were no enemies within ten steps of him. It was like a vacuum had formed around him.


    They finally understood why Commander P5092 had followed a young man like him to the Northwest. They finally understood why theirrades from the 6th Combat Brigade respected the individual so much.


    Unknowingly, the T5batants'' eyes turned even more fanatical. It was as though they had gained a new faith.


    At this moment, Zhang Xiaoman''s voice crackled again in Ren Xiaosu''s earpiece. "Future Commander, the Tudor family''s patriarch looks like he''s waking up. He''s about 700 meters in front of you!"


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and smiled at the T5batants. "Done resting yet? Can y''all still fight? Charge forward with me again!"


    The T5batants replied with smiles. "As you wish, Future Commander!"


    Ren Xiaosu''s ck saber kept leading the way. "Luo Lan, get the martyred spirits to open up a path for me with their heavy machine guns!"


    Luo Lan, who had been hiding in the center of the "war chariot" with his martyred spirits,ughed out loud. "Alright! It felt so stifling when you guys kept me from making any moves just now!"


    During the previous charge, Ren Xiaosu did not allow the martyred spirits to take action. He had made them conserve their ammunition in case they could not break through the encirclement.


    But from the look of things, there was probably no need to break through the encirclement anymore. Ren Xiaosu was nning to directly kill the enemy on the battlefield!


    As the knights surrounded them warily, they saw the young man and White Mask at the front of the "war chariot" suddenly stepping aside. Meanwhile, the golden silhouettes picked up their heavy machine guns and started shooting crazily.


    The gunfire from the heavy machine guns in the dark of the night was extremely terrifying. It directly prated through the knights'' wall of encirclement in front of them.


    In the blink of an eye, the wall was reduced to smoke and dust!


    ¡­


    The Tudor family''s patriarch slowly sat up in his pnquin. He felt confused and muddled like he had just experienced an extended dream.


    In his dream, he was walking on vast ins. Under the lush green grass, there was even an earthy smell of the soil after the rain.


    Walking and stopping along the way, he finally came to where a rivery. At this moment, a muscr river god emerged from the river and stared at him. "Honorable man, was the hat you dropped in the river gold or silver in color?"


    Feeling confused, the Tudor family''s patriarch said in his dream, "But I don''t have a hat."


    The river god''s kind face suddenly turned vicious. "Liar, you clearly had a green hat <anno data-annotation-id="727d9516-73bd-4169-b6c2-9eaafc582245">on!"</anno>


    The Tudor family''s patriarch was confused.


    He was immediately jolted awake from his dream. Before he could figure out why he had that dream, he felt something unusual in his inner spiritual world.


    The symbols created by the bloodline spell were constantly flickering, and each of the flickering symbols represented that a son of his had died.


    All of a sudden, the Tudor family''s patriarch could feel the dozens of symbols tearing apart. In just the short moment he had fallen unconscious, so many of his sons had died!


    Hundreds of his biological children had died, while more of those who were not his own blood could also be dead!


    The Tudor family''s patriarch said angrily, "What happened?!"


    The knightmander said in panic, "Patriarch, the manor has been destroyed. The Norman family''s patriarch is dead. We''re close to being defeated!"


    "Defeated?" The Tudor family''s patriarch said angrily, "I won''t be defeated!"


    He held his ck Eye of True Sight tightly in his hand. In an instant, his bloodline spell activated.


    The Tudor family''s bloodline spell finally revealed its originally intended ferocity!


    ¡­


    The 81st Assault Column was preparing to receive the main forces at the rear. They used the bricks of the copsed buildings around them to build a sturdy low wall to provide cover while they constructed other simple defensive fortifications.


    Having such temporary defensive fortifications was like having a small forward operating base on the battlefield. They had to ensure the wounded could catch a breather after retreating here, as well as ensure that the main forces would not get attacked when they passed through here.


    But as they were building the defensive fortifications, the blood flowing from a corpse next to them suddenly formed into a magic circle. The Tudor family''s patriarch, who had just regained consciousness, used his bloodline spell to detonate the corpses scattered on the battlefield one by one.


    A frosty aura gradually erupted from the bloodline spell. When themander in charge of building the temporary defensive fortifications saw this, he got a bad feeling.


    The main forces at the rear were quickly approaching, but it was already toote for themander to get away. He shouted at the main forces behind him, "Stay away for now! Retreat!"


    The main forces of the 6th Field Division who were approaching gradually stopped in their tracks. Everyone could only watch helplessly as the white frost spread out from the ground and froze theirrades in the 81st Assault Column into ice statues.


    That turbulent aura of frost was a full-blown attack. Some people tried to jump into the air to avoiding into contact with the cold air, but it was everywhere, so they couldn''t get out of its way.


    With hundreds of theirrades suddenly killed, nobody had the time to gather their emotions or bid farewell to them.


    Such scenes were also happening elsewhere.


    War was cruel, and its crueltyy in the fact you couldn''t react in time when tragedy struck.


    At the rear of the battlefield, P5092 said calmly to Zhou Yingxue, "Focus on covering the assault columns. Help them conserve their strength."


    Zhou Yingxue frowned and said, "I still have to cover for my master."


    It took time for the vines to grow. Even the creeper vine at Stronghold 61 took more than ten days topletely engulf the city back then. Although Zhou Yingxue was stronger now, she still couldn''t instantly cover the entire battlefield with the vines. There was also a limit to how much power she could channel into them. Therefore, if she wanted to provide cover for Ren Xiaosu, it would be best for her to concentrate on filling the area around him with vines first.


    However, as the fieldmander, P5092 had his own opinion. "Disregard Future Commander for now."


    Zhou Yingxue''s immediately raised her eyebrows. "Am I to listen to you just because you told me to disregard him? That''s my master you''re talking about, your futuremander! If he dies, you won''t be able to make up for it even if you have ten lives!"


    Zhou Yingxue was just such a petty woman. In a crisis like this, she wasn''t going to care about Fortress 178 or the war. All she wanted was for her master to survive!


    Therefore, she could not understand why an emotionless war machine like P5092, even if it was fighting a war, would tell her to give up on the futuremander. Was this how it was tomand in the most optimal way?


    P5092 looked calmly at Zhou Yingxue. "I''m not giving up on Future Commander, but I have absolute confidence in him. He will not die even if everyone in Ghent City is dead."


    P5092 continued, "Don''t waste your power on protecting Future Commander. Cover the assault columns so they can continue advancing. Destroy all of the blood-formed magic circles the enemy is using to cast his bloodline spells."


    Zhou Yingxue hesitated for a couple seconds before giving in. "Alright then."


    But even so, she still left some vines at Ren Xiaosu''s side to let them continue spreading just in case.


    ¡­


    The Tudor family''s patriarch sat in his pnquin with his eyes tightly closed. The violet sigil on the ck stone in his hand was pulsating brightly.


    This small stone seemed to contain the wisdom of countless generations of sorcerers.


    But ever since Russell''s spells were lost in time, all the stone represented was corrupted power.


    Those who wielded it could treat themon folk as ants and even view themselves as gods.


    Just as the Tudor family''s patriarch was about to continue detonating the bloodline spells one by one, the bodyguard knights in front of him actually fell down one after another. Their heavy armor waspletely unable to withstand firearms forged by modern technology.


    The Tudor family''s patriarch had no choice but to open his eyes. Just before the heavy machine gun fire reached him, the elderly sorcerer formed a wall of ice in front of himself.


    The heavy machine gun bullets shattered the ice walls over and over again. But no matter how many bullets were fired at the walls, they kept growing as though they had never been shattered.


    "Help me down from the pnquin and get me out of here." The Tudor family''s patriarch said coldly, "Where''s the honor of the Knights of Tudor? How dare you let the enemy get so close to your god? Go and stop them! After this battle, I will grant all of you a fief and appoint you all as sorcerers in the name of the Tudor n. Those with outstanding contributions will earn the hereditary right to pass on your sorcerer''s status!"


    When he said that, the knights suddenly went crazy. Everyone had dreams of bing a sorcerer, not to mention this was a position that could be passed down to their children!


    After all, even lucky winners like Melgor were not allowed to pass their Eye of True Sight down the generations!


    It was just that¡­ dead people could not be sorcerers!


    Immediately after, the Tudor family''s patriarch said coldly, "Deserters will have their entire families executed!"


    The Tudor family had been in power for 200 years, and the Knights of Tudor could not travel into the future to see who would emerge victorious. At this moment, they could only fight to the death for the sake of their own families.


    On the other side of the battlefield, Ren Xiaosu frowned. He had just seen the figure of the Tudor family''s patriarch, but his line of sight was suddenly blocked by a wall of ice.


    Behind the ice wall, the Tudor patriarch''s pnquin stood out ostentatiously. Ren Xiaosu tried to activate the Shadow Door and sh the pnquin, but he did not manage to hit anyone in it.


    Ren Xiaosu understood the other party was no longer in the pnquin.


    The remaining elites of the Knights of Tudor started surrounding him fearlessly. The dense crowd of enemies made Ren Xiaosu''s scalp tingle.


    As expected, there were huge consequences for letting the Tudor family''s patriarch regain consciousness. If he had finished off the Norman family''s patriarch a little more quickly, they would not have ended up in this dangerous situation now.


    Wherever Ren Xiaosu was active on the battlefield, they continued overwhelming the enemies. Ren Xiaosu crazily pursued the Tudor family''s patriarch as he escaped.


    Countless cracks appeared in the ice as they spread out in an attempt to slow Ren Xiaosu down. But even though it was quite terrifying, Ren Xiaosu knew very well the other party was no longer at his peak condition after fainting earlier.


    He would have to expend his willpower to ignite those corpses with the bloodline spell. Moreover, the Tudor family''s patriarch was close to a 100 years old. No matter how profound the other party''s sorcery was, he would still have to abide by the natural order of life and death.


    There were only two people in the world who were not constrained by this order. One was Ren Xiaosu, and the other was Yan Liuyuan!


    In the future, Yang Xiaojin might be another.


    When Ren Xiaosu found out he had been in aa for more than 200 years, he made a decision to transnt his bone marrow to Yang Xiaojin as long as it was medically viable.


    But now was not the time to think about that. Facing the mass of the Knights of Tudor that were closing in on him, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that there was going to be no end to them.


    Luo Lan''s martyred spirits'' heavy machine guns had already run out of ammo. Even though Ren Xiaosu was carrying around an ammunition depot, they would still need some time to reload.


    Ren Xiaosu could hear heavy pantinging from the Great Hoodwinker on his right. Meanwhile, the T5batants behind him were also gradually starting to feel a little exhausted.


    Should he give up? Ren Xiaosu frowned. He tried to use the Shadow Door to throw grenades in multiple directions, but he did not know how the Tudor family''s patriarch managed to hide his tracks. Ren Xiaosu did not even manage to hit the target once.


    "Zhang Xiaoman, can you locate the Tudor family''s patriarch''s position?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zhang Xiaoman''s anxious voice came from his earpiece, "I can''t find him, Future Commander. He seems to have suddenly disappeared into the crowd."


    It was not that he had really disappeared, but that the other party was no longer letting anyone support him as he fled, nor was he riding the pnquin anymore. This caused Zhang Xiaoman to lose his "reference" when searching for the other party''s whereabouts.


    There were almost identical-looking knights everywhere on the battlefield, and even their warhorses looked very simr. Unless Wang Yun were here, no one could pick out the Tudor family''s patriarch from within the crowd!


    The battlefield kept shifting northwards. Although the Central ins'' main forces had arrived on the battlefield in the south, the remaining forces of the Norman family''s Knights of Radiance resisted most of the pressure. This would allow the Knights of Tudor to encircle and kill Ren Xiaosu without any pressure.


    "Future Commander, just give up." P5092 said, "Even if we can''t find him, we''ll definitely still win this war."


    Ren Xiaosu''s expression gradually turned solemn. If they could not find the Tudor family''s patriarch, it meant even more people from the 6th Field Division would die here in this foreignnd.


    But Zhang Xiaoman suddenly shouted, "Future Commander! Future Commander! A strange group of people have suddenly appeared in the north of the battlefield!"


    "A strange group?" Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    "Yes, all of them are dressed very shabbily. They look like demons that have just crawled out from the underground. Their faces are especially pale, and some of them are even hunchbacked. I''m not sure what''s going on with them," Zhang Xiaoman described.


    At this moment, dozens of manhole covers on the ground were suddenly lifted up from the inside. Short hooks stretched out from the inside and cut at the legs of the horses. When the horses were suddenly attacked, their legs could no longer support their weight and they fell sidewards.


    Countless Knights of Tudor fell off their mounts. Numerous guardians with tattooed faces and a cinnabar mark between their brows emerged from the ground and fought the Knights of Tudor fearlessly.


    If they could not defeat the knights in a one-on-one battle, they would drag them down into the sewers where even more underground residents were waiting. Once any of the knights fell into the sewers, they would be attacked by four to five people at the same time.


    These people did not have any sense of order and were purely motivated by hate and anger. Behind that boundless hatred and rage, there was even a glimmer of hope that was gradually blooming.


    If the world was still willing to give these people who were struggling at death''s door a chance to see the sights on the surface, they were willing to give theirst bit of courage by exchanging it with their lives.


    This was their final show of bravery.


    In the north, Chen Jiu held onto his gold Eye of True Sight and recited an incantation, pushing his palm against the ground as hard as he could.


    The gray bricks on the ground surged towards the knights like a wave. All of the knights who were hit by this "wave" were thrown into the air by the huge force!


    To conceal his identity, Chen Jiu rarely revealed his moves. Therefore, many people had almost forgotten that an elder had once said that Chen Jiu was a once-in-a-lifetime sorcery genius who appeared in the Sanctuary.


    Ren Xiaosu watched all of this quietly before suddenlyughing. He turned around and looked at the Great Hoodwinker, Luo Lan, and the T5batants. "Are y''all ready?"


    Before any of them could respond, Wang Yun''s voice rang out in his earpiece. "Future Commander, I''m back."


    Ren Xiaosu''s eyes lit up. He turned around and saw that Wang Yun had already switched ces with Zhang Xiaoman on the observation tform. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaoman went on to coordinate the main forces to attack.


    "You must be tired from chasing after Wang Wenyan just now. Why didn''t you take a break first?" Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.


    Wang Yun smiled and said. "I''d have to seek out the person Future Commander wants to kill first!"


    As he spoke, Wang Yun raised his binocrs and scanned the battlefield countless times. Ren Xiaosu did not rush him because Wang Yun had never disappointed him before.


    "Future Commander, 300 meters to your 10 o''clock. The rest is up to you!" Wang Yun shouted.


    Ren Xiaosu looked excitedly at the T5batants and shouted, "Give me a hand!"


    The T5batants tacitly crossed their arms and formed a bridge that Ren Xiaosu stepped onto. "Up!"


    In that instant, all of the T5batants tossed him into the air at the same time.


    Ren Xiaosu felt an unprecedented calmness in his heart.


    The moment he connected with the T5batants'' toss and flew into the sky, countless gazesnded on him.


    After a tough night of fighting, a sh of white light burst out from behind the clouds in the distance like a spotlight.


    On this huge stage, he was the protagonist right from the beginning.


    However, none of that mattered to him.


    All he needed was¡­ quiet!


    Just as Yang Xiaojin had reminded him countless times before, when you needed your body to follow your will and move forward bravely, the only key that could activate this machine was¡­ breathing!


    On the ground, the Tudor family''s patriarch, who was pretending to be a Tudor knight so he could shift locations, subconsciously turned around and looked up at the sky. He happened to see the young man in the air staring at him with a sneer.


    At thest moment before dawn, a steam lotive suddenly rumbled out of the sky like a train from the Kingdom of Heaven.


    But Ren Xiaosu was not intending to use the steam lotive as a weapon. Instead, he wanted to use it to propel himself through the air!


    "City Crusher!"


    Ren Xiaosunded on the front of the steam lotive and flew towards the Tudor family''s patriarch like a precision-guided missile. Meanwhile, the steam lotive, without any support from its tracks, plummeted straight towards the ground.


    There was no time to recite an incantation or beg for mercy. The Tudor family''s patriarch could only watch as the young man descended from the sky.


    The young man''s eyes were crimson as he leaped through space, holding the ck saber that was the judgment of wrath, with the white light shining behind him.


    From today onwards, after this sabernded, the glory of the Kingdom of Sorcerers wouldpletely be torn apart.


    Blood sttered everywhere!


    The head of the Tudor family''s patriarch dropped to the ground along with his steel helmet. With a ng, the steel helmet rolled even further away. A frightened horse reared high into the air and heavily stomped the decapitated head.


    Dawn had broken.


    A golden ray of sunlight shone from the east like a tidal swell.


    The Knights of Tudor were dumbfounded. Meanwhile, the underground residents were basking in the sunlight that had just shone upon their faces. It was as though they had been reborn.


    <annotations style="disy: none;"><ol ss="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="727d9516-73bd-4169-b6c2-9eaafc582245">Wearing a green hat means to be cuckolded.</li></ol></annotations>",

 Chapter 1203 Let Go Of Me!

    "The Tudor family''s patriarch has been killed by Future Commander." Wang Yun stood on the observation tform and heaved a long sigh of relief.


    This long night was finallying to an end. When the sun''s rays glittered down upon everyone, the Knights of Tudor and the Knights of Radiance suddenly lost their will to fight.


    For a moment, no one could tell whether they had lost their fighting spirit because their patriarchs were dead or because they could not bear to taint this hard-earned moment of sunshine by spilling blood.


    Or perhaps both were just excuses, and everyone did not actually want to sacrifice themselves.


    Ren Xiaosu raised his saber and panted as he looked around. "Submit to me, or die."


    Actually, Yan Liuyuan had said this to the nomads before.


    To a certain extent, Yan Liuyuan''s leadership sense was awakened earlier than Ren Xiaosu even though he was younger than Ren Xiaosu.


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu also epted what he had resisted in the past. This was a decision that symbolized power and responsibility.


    "Shed your armor," Ren Xiaosu said as he looked at the knights in front of him.


    On the battlefield, the knights removed their steel armor and helmets, revealing their disheveled hair.


    The sound of armor shedding rippled outwards from Ren Xiaosu like a wave.


    All of the knights went down on one knee in Ren Xiaosu''s direction to express their loyalty to him.


    Mel had once told Ren Xiaosu that the knights in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were extremely loyal.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu almost believed it. Perhaps there really were loyal people in the world?


    But when he looked at the knights in front of him, he really could not believe any of that anymore.


    It was still understandable that Qian Weining would leave after being betrayed by his n''s patriarch. However, these Knights of Radiance and Knights of Tudor did not seem to have any intention of taking revenge at all after they saw their patriarchs killed.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not care if they were loyal or not. He only hoped a new order could be established on thisnd with the premise of submitting to Fortress 178.


    Ren Xiaosu said coldly, "Summon themanders of the Knights of Tudor and the Knights of Radiance to see me."


    After his order was passed, the two knightmanders walked hesitantly up to Ren Xiaosu and knelt down again. "We pledge loyalty to you til our deaths."


    "I don''t need your loyalty. I just need you to stand up and look at the bodies on the battlefield. Look at the corpses of the Norman and the Tudor families'' patriarchs and remember this moment." Ren Xiaosu said calmly, "If you start getting other ideas one day, I hope this scene today will help you make the right choice."


    The young man in front of them was covered in blood and exuded an omnipresent aura of intimidation.


    As Ren Xiaosu was talking, a loud stomping could be hearding from outside the city. Everyone looked over and saw the "evil dragon" had arrived back outside Ghent City again. It tilted its head and peered into the city through the breach in the walls it had created.


    Although Midnight''s body was stained with fresh blood, there were no wounds on it.


    Everyone could imagine how miserable the House of Berkeley must have been when they encountered such a creature.


    The House of Berkeley, which specialized in fire-elemental spells, could not even leave a trace of burn marks on Midnight''s body.


    This creature, which had been snoozing and growing in a magma environment for over 200 years, happened to be the bane of the fire elemental-based sorcerer n.


    Ren Xiaosu did not allow it into the city in case it identally injured the civilians. Midnight remained obediently outside the city, but it seemed very curious about everything around it.


    Watching the ferocious young man and his equally ferocious pet, the knights only felt that the entire scene in front of them was a confirmation the Kingdom of Sorcerers had been utterly crushed.


    The two knightmanders lowered their heads in silence, their hearts filled with fear and reverence.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "Rise." Ren Xiaosu looked at the two knightmanders in front of him and said, "Someone wille and take over from you bothter. As for how to convince the other ns in the Kingdom of Sorcerers of my ns, that will depend on your performance."


    Only five sorcerer ns had participated in the war this time. They were the Tudors, the Normans, the Berkeleys, the Winstons, and the Vosses. But actually, there were dozens of other sorcerer ns. Although they were few in number, they were still a force to be reckoned with if they teamed up.


    Thinking about it, these ns must have been secretly umting their strength as well.


    But that was of no concern to Ren Xiaosu anymore. He would have to quickly return to Fortress 178 first.


    Following this, Ren Xiaosu would be handing over everything here to Summer after her marriage alliance with Fortress 178. As for whether she could clear the obstacles standing in the Kingdom of Sorcerers'' way, that would be entirely up to the Sanctuary. If she were not capable enough to tackle these issues, Ren Xiaosu would not mind making a trip back to the Kingdom of Sorcerers after the war in the Central ins was over.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that the 6th Field Division was just like the expeditionary army he had encountered back then. They were the ones who were the invaders. But regardless, while it might be a little cruel to the people of the Kingdom of Sorcerers, his mission was to protect the Northwest and not the entire human race.


    After the knights on the battlefield shed their armor and the knightmanders pledged their allegiance, the soldiers of the 6th Field Division erupted into loud cheers.


    Luo Lan and the Great Hoodwinker slumped to the ground with their backs against each other, ranting about how tired they were. Suddenly feeling relieved, Wang Yun nearly crashed to the ground when the burden was lifted. Fortunately, Ji Zi''ang, who was standing next to him, was there to support him.


    "Are you alright?" Ji Zi''ang asked.


    Wang Yun said with a smile, "I''m alright. My legs are just numb from standing on the observation tform for too long."


    "Huh?" Ji Zi''ang was taken aback.


    "Next time, make a chair out of mud for the observation tform," Wang Yun reminded him. "Otherwise, it can really be a little unbearable to stand there for a few hours. Your legs would go numb too if it were you."


    Ji Zi''ang was speechless.


    After winning the war, it was time for everyone to get some rest.


    In Ghent City, it seemed that P5092 was the only one still carrying out his duty at the temporarymand center in case something else unexpected came up.


    Thismander who was known as a war machine never seemed to ck off for a moment.


    However, this made P5092 appear a little lonely among the crowd of people.


    He said over the radio, "Although we''ve won, there''s still a lot of follow-up work to be done. 124th, 127th, and 129th Assault Columns, continue to infiltrate the north of the city and eliminate all the resistance forces¡­"


    "133rd Assault Column, advance southeast¡­"


    Orders were passed down one after another. The war machine that was the 6th Field Division did not stop moving as they continued working with P5092 as they wound down their operations.


    P5092 looked at the cheering crowd around him silently. The look in his eyes gradually eased up, and his gaze no longer had the sharpness and depth as it had during the battle.


    Suddenly, P5092 felt quite good to see everyone so happy like this.


    But as he was standing alone next to themand center, Ji Zi''ang and Wang Yun, who had recovered off to the side, suddenly ran over and hugged him around his neck and shouted, "We won! P5092, did you see that? We won! This is awesome!"


    P5092 stumbled unsteadily as the two guys pulled at him in celebration. Even the ck military uniform he had just changed into yesterday was nearly torn. "Let go of me! Let go of me!"


    But no matter what P5092 said, it could not stop Wang Yun and Ji Zi''ang''s enthusiasm. At the side, ck Fox did not intend to step in to stop them even though he saw his superior being jostled around.


    P5092 shouted, "ck Fox, get them off me!"


    However, ck Fox, who always obeyed his orders, pretended not to have heard him.

 Chapter 1204 Remember Your Choice

    ck Fox recalled when he had first started following Commander P5092.


    He was 17 years old that year and was about to graduate from high school.


    In the strongholds controlled by the Pyro Company, students above junior high attended boarding schools. They could only return home once every three weeks and only for a day and a half each time.


    When he was attending school, he would wake up at 5:45 every morning for a 1.8-kilometer run before his morning sses began.


    Breakfast was served at 7 AM, lunch at 12 PM, and dinner at 6 PM, with each mealtimesting only half an hour. sses were dismissed at 9:40 PM and lights out at 10:20 PM.


    After lights out, the Pyro Company soldiers would patrol the dormitories. There were small peephole windows installed in the doors of the dormitories which soldiers on patrol duty could open from the outside to check whether students were sleeping on time.


    In the course of their education, they had always been subjected to military-style management. These rules and discipline were instilled deep within their bones.


    There, they were taught how fragile humanity was in the world, and that they had to fight for the survival of humanity by any means necessary.


    This was the glory of the Pyro Company.


    At that time, ck Fox and his schoolmates thought all students in the world led such lives. Later on, when they grew up, they realized they were the only ones put through this form of tragic education. It was only the Pyro Company''s schools that were run by armed soldiers.


    In school, all students had to undergo high-intensity learning and training. In the end, there was only one thing waiting for them: the college entrance examinations.


    The Pyro Company''s college entrance exams were divided into two categories. One was based on cultural studies while the other was based on physical fitness.


    From that day onwards, the fate of all their students was forked into extremely different paths.


    Those who did well in cultural studies could consider attending a research university or a military university. For example, P5092 and ck Fox had enrolled in a military school.


    After they entered a military school, they would be true reserve officers of the Pyro Company, with all of their serial numbers prefixed with the letter P.


    That was themand structure of the Pyro Company.


    As for the physical fitness exam, other than going through a high-intensity test, everyone would also have to undergo a gic test.


    If they passed the test and qualified as candidates for gic modification, they would be promoted as soldiers within the organization and receive true military training while undergoing gradual gic modification.


    Actually, at this moment, it was decided whether they would be a T2batant or a T5batant.


    T2s would get posted to the T2 boot camps, while T5s would get into the T5 boot camps. The training curriculum they received was alsopletely different.


    For example, a T2batant might receive training in firearms,bat, and so on, but a T5batant would go through additional courses, such as assassination, reconnaissance, infiltration, rock climbing, driving, and so on.


    At this point, there would still be arge group of high school students who could not do well in their cultural studies and did not have the potential to undergo gic modification either. In such cases, they would be allowed to leave school freely to find their own way.


    Some of these dropouts would go on to be workers, while others became small business owners. But to the Pyro Company, this was just the life that normal people led.


    The Pyro Company controlled almost all of the economic lifelines in the strongholds. After umting enough assets and money, they would only be used for one purpose: to support scientific research, the troops, and the military industry.


    Meanwhile, military school students like ck Fox would get directly assigned to various basic units after graduation. Everyone would have to follow instructions and wait for their transfer orders.


    But there were also some differences. In the Pyro Company''s military schools, there was a type of student considered for "advanced admissions." Half a year before graduation, many of the more influential P5manders would go to the schools to select students they thought highly of.


    The chosen students would then enlist in the P5mander''s troops directly. Usually, such students who were considered for advanced admissions were regarded by their colleagues as "apprentices" of the P5manders whose fates would then be intertwined.


    Of course, the advantage was that these students were always promoted very quickly.


    ck Fox remembered that one afternoon, he suddenly received a notification from his ss supervisor: "A P5mander has seen your r¨¦sum¨¦ and results and is very interested in recruiting you. Go for the interview. He''s waiting for you in Room 155 of the Red Sun Building."


    ck Fox was stunned. Room 155 at the Red Sun Building was the most mysterious ce in the military school. It was not that there was a lot of secrecy surrounding it but that all seniors who had been considered for advanced admissions hadpleted their interviews there.


    Some people walked out of Room 155 with a look of joy because they had been chosen by a certain P5mander. Some people walked out of the office with depressed looks on their faces because they had been dropped for consideration by a P5mander.


    Only the truly outstanding could pass their interviews there.


    ck Fox had heard that the Red Sun Building was named after the rising red sun to "shine the great light" for people. This phrase came from a certain sage''s "Ode to Young China": "The nascent red sun shines the great light. Backed by splendid history and culture, a promising. far-reaching future."


    And the next line was: "My beautiful young China that is as eternal as heaven! My magnificent Chinese youths who are as bountiful as thend!"


    Therefore, it was self-evident what purpose the person who named the Red Sun Building had.


    ck Fox walked along the long corridor in the Red Sun Building. He stood outside Room 155 and spoke loudly, "P13922, ss of 213, reporting for the interview."


    The year 213 was counted from the day since the Cataclysm started. Currently, it was the year 223.


    A calm tone could be hearding from the office. "Enter." The calm voice sounded like water in an ancient well, absent of any subjective emotions.


    ck Fox slowly pushed open the old wooden door of Room 155 and saw that the curtains in the room were drawn. P5092 was sitting quietly in a chair opposite him and flipping through a r¨¦sum¨¦.


    The office was dark, with only a faint glow of the afternoon suning in through the curtains. ck Fox could not even see P5092''s face clearly.<novelnext></novelnext>


    ck Fox stood at the door. Before he could close it, P5092 had already started asking, "In the two-two-one exercise, why did you lead your subordinates to their ''death'' at Position 881?"


    ck Fox was stunned on the spot. This was a sore point for him. It was also because of thismand error that he scored very low on his assessment after the exercise ended.


    He answered P5092 meekly, "During the simtion, the Blue side had upied Position 881. If we wanted to ensure that the troops at the rear could pass through at the specified time, we would have to sacrifice ourselves to seize Position 881. This position had to be controlled by our side for us to win the battle."


    "Why did you have to seize Position 881 no matter what?" P5092 asked.


    ck Fox thought for a moment and said, "At that time, I thought the Blue side''s main forces were also behind Position 881. If we didn''t take the position back, our troops would have been exposed to the enemy''s artillery fire. We only found out there weren''t any Blue troops behind the position after the exercise was over¡­."


    "Do you think you made a mistake?" P5092 looked up at ck Fox.


    ck Fox did not know what to say. In the end, he hesitated for a while before saying, "Sir, I don''t think I was wrong."


    "Why do you sound so careful when answering me? Is it because you''re not sure if your choice was correct?" P5092 asked calmly.


    "¡­ Yes," ck Fox said softly.


    "Be more resolute in the future." P5092 put down the r¨¦sum¨¦ and said calmly, "They rated you poorly because they had a bird''s-eye view of the battlefield and knew there weren''t any main enemy forces behind Position 881, but you didn''t. So what your teachers taught you might not be right either. If you''re really on the battlefield, you have to stake your life to figure out what''s really behind Position 881."


    ck Fox was stunned. Over the past few months, he had been criticized several times for this decision during the exercise. At some point, he even wondered if he was wrong.


    But at this moment, someone called him over and told him that he had done nothing wrong.


    Although the other party''s tone was extremely void of emotion, ck Fox found it very warm and rousing.


    At this moment, P5092 stood up and asked, "If you were to return to the time of the military exercise to take Position 881 again, would you still lead your men forward to die?"


    ck Fox said firmly this time, "Yes!"


    P5092 walked out the door. When he walked past ck Fox, he said, "Report to 3rd Division next month. I''ll handle your transfer¡­. Remember your choice today."


    After that, P5092 left without looking back, leaving ck Fox standing in Room 155 of the Red Sun Building in a daze and deep in thought.


    Afterwards, ck Fox became a qualified junior officer of the Pyro Company''s 3rd Division. In just a few years, he rose up the ranks and finally became the second-inmand of the 3rd Division.


    But over the years, ck Fox felt like he had never seen Commander P5092 smile so happily before.


    Looking at P5092, who was being jostled around by Wang Yun and Ji Zi''ang, he suddenly felt that this wasn''t so bad after all.


    P5092 shouted, "ck Fox, get over here and get these two off me!"


    In the end, ck Fox and the other staff officers around him exchanged nces and suddenly surrounded P5092 as well. All of them threw him into the air with all their might.


    And then again.


    And again once more.


    No matter what P5092 said, no one had any intention of stopping.


    In this war, P5092 was not the main contributor in helping to win it. Everyone knew this very well.


    It was just that ck Fox and the others found it quite exciting to have the chance to openly throw an emotionlessmander like P5092 into the air. After all, they did not have this opportunity when they were still serving in the Pyro Company''s 3rd Division.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw Chen Jiu and the others walking towards him on the battlefield. Summer and Mel were also with the Sanctuary members.


    "I''ll be leaving soon," Ren Xiaosu said, looking at Mel.


    Mel was stunned. "Where to?"


    "Back to Fortress 178," Ren Xiaosu answered.


    "Then will youe back to the Kingdom of Sorcerers?" Mel was a little disappointed. His voice also became softer.


    "Yes." Ren Xiaosu smiled and nodded. "Of course I''ll be back again. It only takes me 10 hours to get here from Fortress 178."


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu wanted to leave the enchanted doorway here. But on second thought, it would be better not to ce it in the hands of others.


    If someone deliberately destroyed it, Ren Xiaosu would not have a chance to open another enchanted doorway again in his lifetime.


    If anything were to happen in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, he would just have to make another trip here with the steam lotive.


    The enchanted doorway was a way for the Northwest Army to directly descend upon Ghent City, so he definitely couldn''t let others watch over it for him.


    At this moment, some of the 6th Field Division''s troops returned after gathering the Eyes of True Sight from the battlefield.


    More Eyes of True Sight had been dropped on the battlefield than expected. Chen Jiu, Summer, Mel, and the others were all staring at them.

 Chapter 1205 The Prosperous Northwest

    How many Eyes of True Sight were there on the battlefield in Ghent City? Before the soldiers returned with them, a lot of people had neglected this issue.


    But when all of the Eyes of True Sight were ced in front of everyone, Chen Jiu, Summer, Mel, and the others finally realized something. So many sorcerers were dead since each Eye of True Sight represented one sorcerer. There were at least 300 to 500 sorcerers from the Houses of Tudor and Norman participating in the war, so that meant that 300 to 500 Eyes of True Sight had been dropped on the battlefield.


    Moreover, with the status of the Tudor and the Norman families, the Eyes of True Sight that were in their possession were naturally the best ones in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    There was not a single white Eye of True Sight to be seen. Even the lowest grade of Eye of True Sight they collected was orange.


    White, orange, red, gold, and ck. Among the Eyes of True Sight that Ren Xiaosu and the Northwest Army had seized, red was the mostmon color. Even the orange ones made up only a small portion of it.


    With a red Eye of True Sight, one could activate the Enchanted Doorway.


    Even for someone as experienced as the Sanctuary''s leader, Chen Jiu was a little dumbfounded.


    With so many high-grade Eyes of True Sight ced in front of him, it would be a lie to say he was not tempted.


    However, no one was so greedy to ask Ren Xiaosu for an Eye of True Sight. Everyone waited quietly to see how Ren Xiaosu would deal with these spoils of war.


    Ren Xiaosu looked around and waited for everyone to calm down before finally saying with augh, "Do y''all want these Eyes of True Sight?"


    With just a simple sentence, everyone''s breathing hastened again.


    In the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the Eye of True Sight represented authority and order.


    Chen Jiu thought for a moment before answering, "The Sanctuary was established by that Rider. Now that his descendant has appeared, everything of the Sanctuary is at your disposal. From today onwards, the Sanctuary will be your most loyal follower."


    These words were very cleverly chosen. After all, Chen Jiu was an experienced person who had been through a lot in society. He would definitely not be willing to give up the Eyes of True Sight. Therefore, he was implying to Ren Xiaosu that since the entire Sanctuary was his, he could decide how to allocate the Eyes of True Sight to the members. Surely he wouldn''t treat his own people unfairly, right?


    Chen Jiu was not a crafty person. Moreover, his beliefs had always been very firm, so fighting for reasonable interests did not conflict with his beliefs.


    Compared to Chen Jiu, Summer pursed her lips and did not say anything.


    Mel was much more honest now. "Xiaosu, these are all your spoils of war. If you''re leaving the Kingdom of Sorcerers, you should take them with you."


    When he said that, everyone looked at Mel and thought to themselves that this child was way too simple-minded.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Mel say that, heughed and turned to Summer and said, "Mel is really too easily pushed around, so it''s better that you be the one to govern the Kingdom of Sorcerers."


    Summer was stunned. "Huh?"


    "In the past, my father took away a ck Eye of True Sight from your Russell family to treat my illness." With that, Ren Xiaosu took out a ck Eye of True Sight and ced it in Summer''s hand. "Now, this ck Eye of True Sight shall be returned to its original owner."


    Chen Jiu and the others were all stunned. He was giving away a ck Eye of True Sight just like that?


    Actually, everyone knew Ren He had stolen the ck Eye of True Sight with his own skill back then. Later on, he even had the Sanctuary help the sorcerers find and of paradise after The Cataclysm, so it could be said he had already returned the favor.


    Even Russell himself had thought so. That was why the Russell family and the Sanctuary enjoyed such a good rtionship after The Cataclysm.


    Of course, this was also because Russell was not one to bear grudges.


    In any case, no one felt that Ren He owed the Russell family anything.


    Moreover, the most important detail revealed through Ren Xiaosu''s words was¡­ if Ren He was Ren Xiaosu''s father, how old was Ren Xiaosu now?!


    Chen Jiu said in a daze, "You''re the son of the founder? So he snatched away the Eye of True Sight to save you?"


    "Yes." Ren Xiaosu nodded. "Beforeing to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, even I wasn''t too sure about it yet. But now, I''ve found the answer for everything."


    "But¡­" What Chen Jiu wanted to say was, based on the timeline, Ren Xiaosu should be over 200 years old, so why did he still look like a young man?


    Did he learn the Art of Immortality?


    This feelingpletely subverted their understanding of the world. Did they fucking encounter an ancestral figure?!


    For some reason, Chen Jiu felt a little more reverence for Ren Xiaosu when he thought of this.


    Within this reverence, half of it was due to the mysteriousness surrounding him, while the other half was purely out of respect for prehistoric creatures.


    Summer suddenly asked, "Do you know what a ck Eye of True Sight represents? You''re from the Central ins, so you might not know how important it is to a sorcerer. I can''t take advantage of yourck of understanding about this."


    Mel looked at Summer with a hint of admiration.


    However, Ren Xiaosu shook his head and said with augh, "Of course I know what it represents. There''s only three of them in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers. Initially, I wanted to give Melgor another ck Eye of True Sight. But after consideration, I think I''ll keep it as a gift for someone else, so I won''t be giving it to Melgor."


    Speaking of which, Yang Xiaojin was still camping somewhere at a vantage point with her guard up. She did not know about Ren Xiaosu''s rtionship with Chen Jiu and the others, so she was standing by to take out any target that might be a threat to Ren Xiaosu.


    Summer insisted, "I need to exin to you what the ck Eye of True Sight can do. First of all, any sorcerer who wields it can skip the initial training process in sorcery. In other words, you can cast spells directly without the need to practice them first."


    "I know about that," Ren Xiaosu said.


    "Also," Summer continued to share, "in the face of a simr spell, such as when two sorcerers use the Garuda spell at the same time, the one cast by the ck Eye of True Sight will naturally suppress the other. Even the world elements can be turned against them."


    "This is the first time I''ve heard about this, but it''s not particrly important to me," Ren Xiaosu said.


    "Lastly," Summer said, "those who possess the ck Eye of True Sight can see through the rockyer and sense the grade of the Eye of True Sight within the stones."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. In other words, it meant he could easily purchase stones from the ck market using his ck Eye of True Sight.


    This left Ren Xiaosu a little regretful. Why didn''t he learn about something so important earlier?!


    Summer seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. "The function of the ck Eye of True Sight is to search for ores. If it''s only used to gamble on stones, there''s barely any significance in that. Even if there''s stones on the ck market that have an Eye of True Sight in them, they''ll only be the white ones."


    When he heard this, Melgor suddenly felt a sense of sadness. So it turned out the dream his father had been pursuing for an entire lifetime was just a scam that someone had meticulously set up.


    That was right. The ck market had always been controlled by the Houses of Norman and Tudor. Since their patriarchs could see through the rockyer, how could they possibly release higher-grade Eyes of True Sight onto the market?


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu also had a few realizations. One was about establishing strength and status through a level of suppression, while the other was establishing resource status through prospecting.


    With a ck Eye of True Sight, one would be qualified to control the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    "All the more reason to give you this ck Eye of True Sight then." Ren Xiaosu said, "I don''t want the Kingdom of Sorcerers to fall into the hands of ambitious people again."


    Summer was about to say something when Ren Xiaosu interrupted her, "I''m not only going to give you the ck Eye of True Sight, I''m also going to share half of the spoils of war with you."


    "Why?" Summer found it a little unbelievable. Half of the spoils of war equated to more than 200 Eyes of True Sight, and they were all high-grade ones too.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, "Consider this as a dowry Fortress 178 prepared for Comrade Mel."


    If Ren Xiaosu had been given a little more time, or if he used the enchanted doorway to bring over some of the high-rankingmanders of Fortress 178, the Northwest would definitely get greater control over the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    But since that was not possible, Ren Xiaosu could only let Summer and the Sanctuary develop freely here for now.


    He had previously heard from Chen Jingshu that there were still many members in the Sanctuary who were sharing their Eyes of True Sight due to an extremeck of stones.


    Chen Jingshu said that most of the Eyes of True Sight in the possession of the Sanctuary were left in the underground world, and only whoever had to go on a mission would bring along an Eye of True Sight with them.


    This sense of hardship reminded Ren Xiaosu of the 1950s and 1960s of the 20th century.


    At that time, everyone did not have enough to eat, and the poor families only owned one pair of pants. Basically, whoever had to go out for errands would get to wear those pants.


    Ren Xiaosu thought this was probably what the Sanctuary was experiencing.


    The purpose of sharing the Eyes of True Sight was to allow the members who could not obtain one to use them for practice. In this way, if they obtained a new Eye of True Sight one day, the Sanctuary would immediately gain an additionalbatant.


    After all, sorcery required practice, and it was an extremely slow and lengthy process.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu reminded everyone, "By the way, I might be leaving behind more Eyes of True Sight than you all are expecting."


    "What do you mean?" Chen Jiu wondered.


    "You might have overlooked the other battlefield." Ren Xiaosu said, "It could be more tragic there than here in Ghent City."


    "The House of Berkeley!" Chen Jiu immediately reacted.


    At this moment, everyone finally realized what they had neglected.


    The Knights of the Inferno had marched towards Ghent City aggressively, but Midnight crushed them single-handedly. Therefore, before Chen Jiu and the others even got to see the House of Berkeley, the other party had already been defeated.


    There was absolutely no sense of participation from them.


    In other words, the House of Berkeley had absolutely no presence in this war.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled at Chen Jiu and said, "It''s time for us to return. You guys hurry up and clear the battlefield."


    Chen Jiu took a deep breath and said in seriousness, "The next time you visit, the Sanctuary will definitely wee you back to a brand-new Kingdom of Sorcerers with order restored."


    "That''s enough to assure me," Ren Xiaosu said.


    All good things muste to an end. As Ren Xiaosu led Luo Lan and the soldiers of the 6th Field Division towards his enchanted doorway, Mel called out to him from behind, "Xiaosu!"


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and saw Mel running over to give him a big hug.


    Melgor said solemnly, "Thank you."


    "Gratitude received from Melgor, +1!"<novelnext></novelnext>


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, "Take care!" He then walked towards P5092 and the others without looking back.


    Melgor stood in ce and watched quietly. He saw Wang Yun and the others greeting Ren Xiaosu warmly and joking around with him. He saw the soldiers of the 6th Field Division looking at Ren Xiaosu with longing in their eyes. He even saw a girl wearing a cap walking up to Ren Xiaosu and taking the initiative to hold his hand.


    At some point, Melgor wanted to integrate with that group.


    Strictly speaking, Summer and he were in love, but Ren Xiaosu was his first friend.


    Mel said to Summer, "Why don''t we go to Fortress 178 after you''ve unified the Kingdom of Sorcerers? I''ve heard a lot of amazing things from Ren Xiaosu, such as radios, binocrs, motorized vehicles, and so on¡­"


    Summer smiled and said, "We can go wherever you want when the timees."


    "Then it''s settled."


    ¡­


    At Stronghold 144''s Anning East Road.


    In the huge temporary military base, patients were constantly being carried out of Ren Xiaosu''s residence and brought to the temporary field hospital by the medical staff.


    Throughout the night, nearly a 1,000 people were carried out of Ren Xiaosu''s residence alone.


    Moreover, the wounded who were sent back through the enchanted doorway were basically all seriously injured.


    The soldiers who were only lightly injured did not want to return to the rear to recuperate if they felt they could still continue fighting.


    Of course, the core figures of the 6th Field Division also had a brief discussion about this matter. The Great Hoodwinker felt that if everyone were unwilling to step back from the firing line due to their faith, that was actually a good thing.


    However, P5092 felt that soldiers who suffered minor injuries should also get treated in time. If a battle did not reach a point where they had to fight to the death, themander should first consider preserving as much of their strength as possible.


    That was because the more soldiers that survived, the better they could deal with the impending danger.


    This so-called impending danger was most likely referring to the Wang Consortium.


    Of course, P5092 also had his own thoughts about facing the Wang Consortium.


    Before this, P5092 had told Ren Xiaosu that the Pyro Company''s higher-ups had strayed in the wrong direction. They had even wanted to annex the Kong Consortium to boost their own strength.


    But this move was not in line with P5092''s beliefs. He was more willing to fight against the expeditionary army and the Kingdom of Sorcerers than participate in a civil war between humans in the Central ins.


    Actually, this was also the reason why P5092 wanted to leave the Pyro Company. He felt that the Pyro Company''s higher-ups had taken the wrong path in recent years.


    The higher-ups had even deployed soldiers andmanders regardless of their quality, all so that they could expand their organization''s power, and not because of their original beliefs.


    After arriving in the Northwest, P5092 immediately made an agreement with Ren Xiaosu. If the Northwest were to start a war with the Wang Consortium, the Pyro Company troops he brought with him would only participate in logistical support and not go into battle.


    P5092 believed that Ren Xiaosu would not go back on his word.


    At this moment, countless Stronghold 144 residents were waiting outside the security perimeter around Anning East Road. Everyone was discussing this sudden war noisily.


    The onlookers had already started gatheringst night. At the beginning, only a few sporadic residents came over.


    Then, when everyone realized the 6th Field Division did not have any intention of chasing them away, the number of residents gathering immediately grew.


    Everyone had been waiting here for an entire night sincest night. It was almost noon now, but the 6th Field Division was still not back yet.


    "Do you think we can win this war?" someone asked amid themotion.


    "Of course we can. How can we not win with Future Commander taking charge personally? Even the 6th Field Division was activated."


    Someone said, "But the elders said that the enemy beyond the Northwest is very ferocious. Fortress 178 was built specifically for this purpose. Have you forgotten about the memorial square in Fortress 178? More than 200,000 of our predecessors are buried there."


    However, someone immediately retorted, "Our Northwest''s military industry had not even started developing yet at that time. Besides, I heard that the enemy beyond the Northwest actually lost the war 17 years ago. Times have changed!"


    "Well, that''s true¡­"


    But while they were talking, everyone suddenly saw the soldiers at the security perimeter running towards the temporary military base. The onlookers realized that something big was about to happen.


    A momentter, the soldiers of the 6th Field Division lined up and walked out of Ren Xiaosu''s residence. The temporary military base was initially only filled with nurses, doctors, and patientsing and going, so it looked a little empty.


    But when Ren Xiaosu''s door opened, ranks of soldiers retreated from the battlefield in an orderly manner. In an instant, this temporary military base was bustling with activity.


    The stronghold residents asked loudly outside the temporary military base, "How was it, bro? Did y''all win?"


    In the end, the soldiers who walked out of the base all stood ramrod straight with no intention of answering the residents. It was not that they were void of emotions, but that they were maintaining discipline.


    Some of the soldiers were standing in formation right next to the security perimeter, so they were very close to the stronghold residents.


    As they waited for their next order, they could even hear some people calling out behind them, "Lads, are you all hungry? I have some freshly cooked eggs at home¡­"


    However, no one wouldmunicate with the civilians without permission at this moment. They were soldiers, so all they needed to do was to wait for orders.


    Gradually, as all of the 6th Field Division''sbat troops came back through the enchanted doorway, P5092 looked out at the vast number of stronghold residents who had gathered with expectant gazes.


    He said to Zhang Xiaoman next to him, "You can make the announcement."


    Zhang Xiaoman got excited. However, he also saw Zhang Jinglin, Wang Fengyuan, and the other high-rankingmanders smiling as they watched from a roof not far away.


    Zhang Jinglin nodded slightly. Zhang Xiaoman immediately perked up. He bluntly called for a soldier to bring over a loudspeaker and shouted with all his might, "We''ve won! It''s a triumphant return! Long live the Northwest Army!"


    His voice was like the tide, surging outwards bit by bit.


    The stronghold residents exchanged looks with their family and friends around them before a loud cheer erupted in the stronghold. Everyone jumped for joy as though they were all feeling the same thing. Even strangers hugged each other without any awkwardness.


    In recent times, Stronghold 144 had been busy building an irrigation infrastructure as per the general direction of their policy to solve the food shortage. A proposed contract responsibility system put forward the main theme of serving the people on a smaller policy level. The stronghold''s administrative service center hadpletely helped to improve the efficiency of handling matters as well.


    All of the stronghold residents witnessed these changes.


    What was even more obvious was that everyone''s lives were gradually getting better, and the crime rate in the stronghold had also be much lower.


    Before the war broke out this time, Wang Yuexi led his staff to visit the households in the vicinity to discusspensation matters. His warm and humble attitude left a good impression on everyone.


    Some of the residents from the other strongholdsmented that it was only in the Northwest that the military and stronghold officials were willing to discuss policy matters andpensation with residents politely.


    If it were the Yang Consortium, the Kong Consortium, or the Zhou Consortium, they would probably have forcefully kicked you out. Expropriating your property would be for the sake of the stronghold, so why should they have topensate you?


    Moreover, when everyone asked why they wanted to requisition the residential buildings near Anning East Road, Wang Yuexi and the others did not hide anything from them. This made everyone feel like they were given the right to know.


    Stronghold 144 had be a united entity in a very short time.


    The stronghold residents were involved in every detail. It was as though they had also taken part in this war, but it was just that they did not go out to the front line.


    At this moment, Wang Fengyuan, who was standing next to Zhang Jinglin, nced at hismander. "Commander, if you''re happy, just show it. There''s no need to restrain yourself."


    Zhang Jinglinughed heartily. "What do you all think of Ren Xiaosu now? Getting the people on your side, that''s the demeanor of a true leader."


    At the side, Wang Fengyuan and the others rolled their eyes. Commander Zhang had been waiting here sincest night. He even had someone send his meals up to the roof so that he would find out about the oue of the battle immediately as it happened.


    Zhang Jinglin kept saying that he was only here to take a look, but in the end, he was more concerned than anyone else.


    However, everyone also agreed with what Zhang Jinglin had said. The key indicator of a leader was not about having an off-the-chartsbat strength or outstanding military talent. Instead, it was about being able to unite all of the forces by their side. It was not only about uniting supernatural beings and military geniuses inmand positions but also about uniting themon folk.


    "Eh, where''s Future Commander?" the muscr Zhou Yinglong asked curiously. Currently, Zhou Yinglong was themander of the 1st Field Division. Back then, the Razor Sharp Company Ren Xiaosu was in was under themand of his Forward Strike Battalion.


    With Zhou Yinglong''s reminder, everyone finally realized what was going on. Yes, all of the 6th Field Division''sbat troops had returned, so where was the futuremander?


    "Aren''t Wang Yun, Ji Zi''ang, the Great Hoodwinker, P5092, and Zhou Yingxue all back already? Why haven''t we seen Future Commander yet?" Wang Fengyuan wondered.


    At this moment, the Great Hoodwinker came to the top of the building and said proudly, "Commander, this battle was absolutely well fought. We descended directly upon the capital city of the Magi through Future Commander''s enchanted doorway. Just like the Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals, we instantly shattered the core of their authority! Future Commander has made some arrangements there. I believe it''ll be very difficult for the Kingdom of Sorcerers to threaten us again in the future."


    "Don''t be in such a hurry to im the credit." Wang Fengyuan asked, "Let me ask you first, where''s Future Commander?"


    "Oh." The Great Hoodwinker chuckled and said, "He and Ms. Xiaojin did note back with us. Future Commander said he wanted to send Luo Lan and Zhou Qi back to the Qing Consortium''s territory first before returning."


    "Wait a minute, Future Commander didn''te back with you guys?" Wang Fengyuan was stunned for a moment before muttering, "Don''t tell me we''ve lost him again?"


    "That won''t happen." The Great Hoodwinker remarked, "Don''t worry, he''ll definitely be back after he''s done taking care of his affairs."


    Zhang Jinglin also said with a smile, "This time, he won''t run away."


    Wang Fengyuan wondered, "Commander, why are you so sure? Future Commander has never wanted to take over asmander of the Northwest."


    "Because this is now his home." Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, "Let''s go. We can have a few drinks today to celebrate."


    "Wow, Commander, it''s rare that you want to drink." The Great Hoodwinker said excitedly, "Commander, didn''t you swear off drinking? Why did you break your vow today?"


    Zhang Jinglin thought for a moment and said with a smile, "For¡­ the Prosperous Northwest?"


    ¡­


    End of Volume Seven: The Prosperous Northwest


    Next Volume: Hope in the Heavens

 Chapter 1206 Farewell

    While Stronghold 144 was celebrating, a huge lizard was crawling through the Gobi from the Kingdom of Sorcerers to the Central ins at an extremely fast speed.


    The seemingly deste Gobi supported an extremely rich ecosystem and a vast variety of species.


    There were wild horses, wild donkeys, argalis, bharals, multi-oceted racerunners, chukars, wolves, lynxes, foxes, and also arge number of rodents andgomorphs roaming here.


    A lot of people thought there wouldn''t be a single animal found within a vicinity of tens of kilometers in the Gobi Desert, but in fact, the density of these living things was much greater than they could imagine.


    These creatures were living peacefully in the Gobi until Midnight arrived like a sandstorm and sent them fleeing fearfully in all directions.


    They were like animals seeking refuge before an earthquake.


    When Midnight crawled through the Gobi, the dust kicked up by its huge hind feet was like a terrifying sandstorm.


    But even more terrifying, when a wild donkey was frightened into fleeing, Midnight easily caught up to it and scooped it into its mouth with its tongue.


    On Midnight''s back, Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin watched this sight with their mouths agape.


    Luo Lan gulped and said, "I''ve only seen lizards eating mosquitoes before, but this is the first time I''ve fucking witnessed a lizard devouring a donkey."


    Zhou Qi muttered, "It''s also my first time seeing such a thing."


    The sight of the donkey being devoured was way too shocking.


    Luo Lan couldn''t help but think about how much despair the House of Berkeley must have felt when they were faced with a terrifying creature like this just now.


    A creature like Midnight, be it its aggressiveness or size, was enough to shock anyone who encountered it.


    However, Ren Xiaosu had a more practical observation.


    When Midnight scooped the donkey into its mouth, Ren Xiaosu could not see the trajectory of its tongue even with his current vision. In other words, Midnight''s attack had exceeded Ren Xiaosu''s reaction speed.


    If Ren Xiaosu were to face Midnight, no matter how impressive Old Xu''s physical fitness was or what other trump cards Ren Xiaosu had, he would still die if he got near something like Midnight.


    Midnight only needed to wrap Ren Xiaosu around its tongue, and that strong muscle would immediately squeeze him until his blood vessels burst.


    It would take a heat-seeking missile to deal with a creature like that. Ren Xiaosu even suspected that heavy machine guns might not be able to pierce the defense of Midnight''s tough skin quickly enough.


    Of course, it would be possible to pierce its skin by firing at a fixed spot constantly, but the problem was that this creature would not just stand there and let you hit it.


    Midnight was still crawling at a very fast pace. From time to time, it would scoop up a sheep or a donkey with its tongue to replenish its energy.


    However, putting everything else aside for now, the lizard''s movements were smooth as running water. The four of them did not feel it was a bumpy ride as they rode on its back.


    Luo Lan sighed and said, "I thought I''d be very strong after my training, but now it seems like I''m still somewhatckluster."


    At the end of the day, the most useful thing about Luo Lan''s power was still that it could artificially "revive" people. No matter how powerful Luo Lan might be, the enhancement he could provide to the martyred spirits was still very limited.


    For example, if the physical fitness rating of the martyred spirits was 3 when they were still alive, then Luo Lan, as the wielder, would probably be able to enhance their physical fitness rating to 4 with consistent training.


    Therefore, if the martyred spirits power did not have the advantage in numbers, it would actually be meaningless. Although firearms and explosives could make up for some of their shorings, they would still run out of ammo eventually.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, "You rejected my invitation to the Northwest. What exactly is it that makes you so anxious about returning to the Qing Consortium?"


    Luo Lan answered, "There''s no need to hide it from you. Before I went to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the Wang Consortium had already sent an invitation to the Qing Consortium to let my younger brother, Qing Zhen, make a trip to the Central ins."


    "To the Central ins? Why?" Ren Xiaosu was stunned.


    "I think Wang Shengzhi wants to have a chat with him." Luo Lan remarked, "Maybe he wants to join forces with the Qing Consortium to attack the Northwest? To be honest, if the Qing Consortium and the Wang Consortium really joined forces, the Northwest would definitely not be a match for them. However, who can put a finger on Wang Shengzhi''s thoughts? He''s a full-on idealistic madman. If you weren''t also a madman like him, you couldn''t guess what he''s really up to."


    "And then?" Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, "Has Qing Zhen decided to go or not?"


    "Of course not." Luo Lan said, "Who would dare to go to the Central ins at a time like this? What if they don''t let hime back? Although everyone says that Wang Shengzhi is thest gentleman in this era of the wastnds when ites to personal virtue, look at what he has done. You can say he''s cold-blooded and heartless, willing to sacrifice anything for his ideals. Faced with such an opponent, who would dare to bet their life on his character?"


    Ren Xiaosu heaved a sigh of relief. "It''s good that he rejected the invitation."


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly had a thought. He had already encountered many idealists. Wang Shengzhi, Yang Anjing, and even P5092 and Jiang Xu were all idealists.


    However, their paths had always been different. The reason Wang Shengzhi and Yang Anjing were so ostracized while Jiang Xu and P5092 were loved by the people around them was that the former always sacrificed others to fulfill their ideals, while thetter would not do so.


    But when it came to the opinion of whether Wang Shengzhi was wrong or not, Ren Xiaosu always found this issue a littleplicated and could note up with a clear answer to it.


    Ren Xiaosu said to Luo Lan, "Then what are your ns for this trip back to the Southwest?"


    "What other ns can I have?" Luo Lan said solemnly, "The Wang Consortium has invited Qing Zhen to go over. Although Qing Zhen has rejected it, Wang Shengzhi will definitely not give up. So I''ll return to my younger brother''s side first in case the Wang Consortium tries to stir up any further trouble. You also know that Wang Shengzhi is not someone who will give up easily."


    "But I feel like you still have some other worries," Ren Xiaosu said.


    "Of course." Luo Lan said, "You should know that all of the Qing Consortium''s nanomachines have been lost, right? The 2,000 nanosoldiers who went to support the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun have also disappeared. We think they''ve fallen under the control of someone."


    "You''ve mentioned it before." Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    "What we''re worried about now is not the nanomachines, but how many of our military systems have been hacked by that artificial intelligence." Luo Lan said, "We''ve already taken a lot of precautions before this, and many of our military systems can operate independently of each other due to Qing Zhen''s foresight that such a day mighte. However, the power of the AI might be even more terrifying than we expect."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "Are you worried that the Qing Consortium''s military systems will get controlled by the AI?"


    "Theoretically, yes." Luo Lan said, "Although we''ve already put in ce physical istion measures, Qing Zhen said it''s still not safe enough. Actually, I don''t know much about these things either, but don''t underestimate the AI."


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu, who had regained all of his memories, remembered a piece of news from before The Cataclysm: There was a project named Nitro Zeus, in which thousands of military intelligence agents involved would executeprehensive cyber attacks on an enemy''s infrastructure and nuclear facilities.


    Ren Xiaosu did not know much about the Inte, but his father, Ren He, did. After all, the Qinghe Group''s predecessor was arge Inte empire.


    At that time, Ren Xiaosu had asked Ren He, "Nuclear facilities should be run on an independent system segregated physically. How can they hack into an air-gappedwork with such a method?"


    At that time, Ren He''s answer was that there were actually many ways, but what Nitro Zeus aimed to do was to exploitworks through a "ferryman." No matter how enclosed a military base was, it would still require data or equipment from external sources, such as portableptops and other hardware, including printers.


    The person who brought the equipment into the military base would not be aware that their equipment had beenpromised, and this person was called the ferryman.


    These devices would definitely be put through a strict inspection before entering the secured premises, but whether they could be identified aspromised or not would depend on which party was more skillful.


    As for how to make someone a ferryman, that was anotherplicated operation altogether. At that time, Ren He did not really discuss it much with Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren He only said that there was no such thing as an absolutely secure system in the world.


    Then Ren Xiaosu asked Ren He, "Dad, how did you know they were nning to use this method?"


    Ren He replied, "I saw it when I hacked into their military system, of course¡­"


    Therefore, from the look of things, Luo Lan and the Qing Consortium''s worries were not unfounded.


    In terms of technology, Zero must have far surpassed all information technology experts in the world. Itsputing power and learning ability were something humans could notpare to.


    If Zero really got control of the Qing Consortium''s military systems, it would mean the entire Qing Consortium military system hadpletely copsed.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, "How high of a probability do you think something like that could happen?"


    Luo Lan threw up his hands. "50%? 80%? Who knows? More importantly, from a human''s point of view, it''s very difficult to specte on just how powerful an AI is. It''s just like how you can''t really guess the level of an alien civilization."<novelnext></novelnext>


    From Luo Lan''s point of view, he had already ssified the artificial intelligence as an alien civilization.


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath. "Since you know there''s such a possibility, you''ll have to be more careful."


    "Mhm." Luo Lan said, "We will. It''s precisely because there''s this spection that I need to quickly return to Qing Zhen''s side. If there''s any matter that requires me to handle, I can also quickly take over."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He realized Luo Lan had always been the one to handle the most dangerous matters facing the Qing Consortium.


    Going to the Li Consortium to seize the nanomachines'' neurotech and going to the Yang Consortium to be a hostage were such examples, and going to the Central ins to seek alliances was also like this.


    It seemed that Luo Lan was the one who did all the dangerous work. This seemed a little unfair to him.


    Luo Lan looked at Ren Xiaosu and suddenly said, "Don''t misunderstand, I''m not that stupid to get forced into charging into enemy lines. Just like you and Yan Liuyuan, an elder brother has to lead the charge for his younger brother, right?"


    At this moment, Luo Lan chuckled and said, "But, of course, you''re much stronger than me. Although Little Liuyuan has grown up to be a lord, he still can''tpare to you. I can''t do the same though. I''ll be happy to just quietly serve as Qing Zhen''s foil. My younger brother is much stronger than me."


    For a moment, Ren Xiaosu did not know what to say.


    This time, Ren Xiaosu had insisted on sending Luo Lan back to the Qing Consortium''s territory because he also had other considerations.


    He would definitely not be able to bring a behemoth like Midnight back to the Northwest. With its appetite, it would probably eat up all the sheep in the Northwest within a few months. More importantly, those sheep were the collective property of Fortress 178, so they were not to be eaten as and when.


    Before leaving the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Ren Xiaosu even specially turned around and instructed Melgor, "Don''t use the summoning spell anymore in the future and eat our Fortress 178''s sheep. Otherwise, I''ll bill it to you if we lose any sheep in the future. The next time I return to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, I''ll make you pay up with interest."


    Mel was stunned. Initially, he was quite happy when he saw Ren Xiaosu turning around to look for him. But who could have expected that the futuremander of Fortress 178 was so bothered about losing those sheep!


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu would have to send Midnight to a suitable ce to stay before returning to Stronghold 144.


    If he wanted to see Midnight again in the future, he could just summon it directly to his side. It wouldn''t be too troublesome at all.


    Ren Xiaosu had seriously thought about it before. Even though Midnight and Dusk had been living in the crater of the Jing Mountains'' volcano for more than 200 years, he had not seen the Jing Mountains be entirely devoid of wildlife.


    Therefore, he thought Midnight and Dusk should be able to sustain their own needs by absorbing heat. Meanwhile, there was a suitable ce in the mountain range in the southwest that Zhou Qi had been to before.


    The four of them sat on Midnight''s back and passed through the Gobi to arrive near Stronghold 93 in just a few hours.


    At this point, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized Yang Xiaojin had be much quieter.


    This used to be the Yang Consortium''s territory, and Yang Xiaojin had also been here many times before. Now that she was returning to this familiar ce, it would definitely bring back some memories of the past.


    Midnight came to a factory warehouse and stood there quietly. When the factory''s garrison troops and workers saw this huge creature, they nearly peed their pants.


    The workers all went in the opposite direction of Midnight. Some of them returned to the factory to hide, while others took cover in underground bunkers. There were also some who ran out into the wilderness.


    Midnight looked at these people curiously. However, it remembered that its master did not allow it to eat people, so it did not stick out its tongue to scoop them into its mouth.


    Ren Xiaosu asked Luo Lan, "Where are your people? Isn''t it better to send you back to Stronghold 93 directly? Why did you insist oning to this factory?"


    "Wait a minute." Luo Lan whistled at the factory''s warehouse. The factory''s warehouse gate suddenly opened, and more than a dozen off-road vehicles drove out. It was as though they had been waiting there for a long time.


    Luo Lan exined with augh, "We have to be careful at such a time, of course. Who knows if there are any spies in Stronghold 93? After I join up with my men here, I''ll head straight for Stronghold 111 first. That''s the safest route to take."


    Everyone climbed down from Midnight''s back. Someone from the off-road vehicle convoy immediately rushed out and did some tests on Luo Lan with an instrument to ensure he was healthy.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned when he saw this. Luo Lan said helplessly, "This is Qing Zhen''s arrangement."


    Ren Xiaosu said, "Since you''ve arrived safely, I''ll be leaving then."


    When Luo Lan heard this, he pushed away the medical staff around him and gave Ren Xiaosu a gentle hug. "Bro, take care. I don''t know when we''ll see each other again."


    ? "We''ll definitely meet again." Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, "Even if you don''te to the Northwest to look for me, I''ll still go to the Qing Consortium to look for you."


    Luo Lan thought for a moment and said with a smile, "Deal."


    "I hope that when the timees, everything will be settled, and we won''t have to fight and kill anymore," Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness.


    Luo Lan suddenly turned solemn. "I have a favor to ask of you."


    "What is it?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "One day, if Qing Zhen encounters danger, please help him out once." Luo Lan said, "Although my younger brother is a very smart person, there are times when everyone will make mistakes in their calctions. There''s no such thing as a truly wless n."


    Ren Xiaosu looked at Luo Lan. Up until the moment before leaving, this guy was still thinking about how to add anotheryer of insurance to his younger brother''s wellbeing.


    "Alright, I''ll promise you that," Ren Xiaosu said.


    With that, he took out a red Eye of True Sight from his storage space and handed it to Luo Lan. "You''ve seen this thing before. It''s an Eye of True Sight. I''ll give it to you so that you can save yourself too if you''re in danger."


    "Save myself?" Luo Lan was stunned. "But I don''t know any spells. Didn''t they say it would take a long period of training before spells are effective?"


    "There''s no need for any practice if it''s to open an enchanted doorway." When Ren Xiaosu exined to Luo Lan how to open the Enchanted Doorway, Luo Lan''s eyes immediately lit up.


    "You''re saying that I''ll be able to open up a dimensional portal and go to the ce I want to go most by dripping my blood on it and turning it ten times?" Luo Lan said happily.


    Previously, when Luo Lan saw the 6th Field Division passing through that metal door, he was really envious and found it very magical.


    But he did not expect that he would one day be able to learn that method too.


    Luo Lan was not a fool. He knew just how useful the Eye of True Sight and the Enchanted Doorway could be.


    "Yes, a person can only activate it once in their lifetime, so you must cherish it. This thing can save your life during critical moments," Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness.


    "Xiaosu, thank you." Luo Lan suddenly sighed and said, "I''ve always wanted to repay the favor after each time you helped me. But it seems like I can never finish repaying you."


    "Is there a need for something like that between us?" Ren Xiaosu said with augh.


    "By the way, does Ms. Xiaojin have an Eye of True Sight?" Luo Lan said politely, "Why don''t you give this red one to her instead?"


    "You don''t have to worry about that. She has a better one," Ren Xiaosu said.


    "Oh¡­"


    At this point, Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered that Yang Xiaojin stillcked an item to activate the Enchanted Doorway.


    It was not the Eye of True Sight but a physical door.


    Immediately after, Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and everyone else watched helplessly as Ren Xiaosu walked to the entrance of the warehouse. Then he forcefully cut off half of therge metal door and put it into his storage space.


    Everyone at the scene was confused when they saw this. Initially, those who came to pick Luo Lan up felt that Midnight was the most terrifying existence around. But now, they felt they might have gotten it wrong. The person in front of them who could cut down half of your metal door at the slightest disagreement was the truly terrifying one instead!


    Ren Xiaosu was a little embarrassed. He said to Luo Lan, "I''ll be using this for Xiaojin to open her Enchanted Doorway. Sorry, sorry."


    After that, he pulled Yang Xiaojin along and climbed onto Midnight''s back again. Then he had Midnight run towards the mountain range to the southwest of the Qing Consortium.


    Zhou Qi was stunned. "Is that what it means to break down doors to make an escape? The ancients are so right!"

 Chapter 1207 Complex Emotions

    The mountain range to the southwest of the Qing Consortium was an uninhabited region simr to Xiuzhuzhou to the south of the Zhou Consortium. Due to the harsh environment, very few people would venture here.


    Everyone was deterred by the poisonous insects and noxious night air here.


    In the past, the Yang Consortium had wanted to expand its territory westwards. However, they realized that the cost of development was too great, so they might as well consolidate their existing authority first.


    This mountain range had a forest so dense it was like a rainforest.


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu was worried Midnight would have difficulty crawling in this forested wilderness. After all, it was sorge and the forest was really dense.


    But to his surprise, Midnight was smart enough to wade directly through the stream.


    Midnight was different from Old Xu. As a shadow clone, Old Xu did not have a mind of its own. As such, Ren Xiaosu''s multitasking ability had been trained to the extreme.


    As for Midnight, it had its own thoughts. Therefore, there was actually no need to worry after giving it instructions. It would find its own style and way to carry out its orders.


    The fishes in the mountain range were very dangerous, but that only applied to normal people. Based on Ren Xiaosu''s analysis, piranhas in the Amazon basin from the Pre-Cataclysm times would not evenpare to evolved snakehead fish.


    Of course, it was unclear whether any mutation had urred there.


    As the Qinghe Group had ess to satellites, Li Yingyun, Qin Sheng, Zhang Qingxi, and other Riders had seen what the entire world was like. They once described to Ren Xiaosu that the whole world had be quite different from the Pre-Cataclysm times due to changes in the earth''s crust.


    Ren Xiaosu was thinking after the situation in the Alliance of Strongholds had stabilized, it would not be a bad idea to travel around the world with Yang Xiaojin.


    He looked quietly at Yang Xiaojin next to him. It seemed that after they left the Kingdom of Sorcerers, she had be a little reticent.


    When Ren Xiaosu was chatting with Luo Lan earlier, Yang Xiaojin seemed to be thinking about something as she sat by the side.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu was peeking at her, Yang Xiaojin suddenly turned and said, "You can look at me openly."


    "Haha." Ren Xiaosu quickly changed the subject. "I saw a wild boar drinking water by the stream with its piglets just now, but they were all frightened away by Midnight. I recall when I first became a supernatural being, I was even frightened by a red deer when we went into the Jing Mountains."


    After that, the both of them fell silent again.


    A strange atmosphere filled the air between them, and Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little worried.


    This change seemed to have started in Ghent City.


    At that time, the 6th Field Division had started retreating through the enchanted doorway. Before leaving, the Great Hoodwinker asked Ren Xiaosu, "Future Commander, did you gain anything else on this trip to the Kingdom of Sorcerers?"


    Ren Xiaosu answered, "Yes, I found out everything about my past."


    At that time, the Great Hoodwinker was very surprised. "Future Commander, aren''t you from the Central ins? Why would youe here to find out about your past?"


    Ren Xiaosu only answered vaguely, "It''s rted to that Rider from the Central ins."


    Perhaps others might not be able to make much of a guess about this. But he and Yang Xiaojin had already discussed the No. 001 Experimental many times, so she could definitely make the connection.


    In this world, which keyword was closely linked to Ren He, the founder of the Qinghe Group? It was the No. 001 Experimental.


    That Neo-Human was said to be able to live tens or a 100 times longer than normal humans.


    It was from that moment that Yang Xiaojin became much quieter.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the map Zhou Qi had drawn for him as he guided Midnight''s movement.


    Zhou Qi said that after his power was awakened, he explored the rivers for a long time and surveyed the entire river basin in the southwest.


    At that time, Zhou Qi had just be a superhuman and was experiencing the wonders of his transcendence.


    He discovered a subterranean thermal river where a new water cycle had been formed. It was located between tectonic tes that met andpressed, with arge source of energy hidden underground.


    This ce should be able to serve as Midnight''s new habitat.


    Ren Xiaosu did not let Midnight return to the Jing Mountains because he became aware that Zero had stationed a group of troops there under its control when he summoned Midnight. Even Dusk was under the control of Zero as well.


    The summoning spell was a one-way spell. It could only summon creatures but not send them back to where they came from.


    The Jing Mountains was situated at the edge of the Qing Consortium''s territory. If Ren Xiaosu wanted to bring Midnight there directly, he would definitely have to pass through the Qing Consortium''s territory on the way.


    And after arriving at the Jing Mountains, even if he could destroy the troops there, he would still have toe face to face with Dusk, who was under Zero''s control. That was because Ren Xiaosu did not have any way to directly destroy the nanomachines within Dusk''s body.


    The "Prosperous Northwest" summoning spell was able to break Zero''s control over Midnight and Dusk. But with Midnight around, even if Ren Xiaosu were to recite the summoning spell''s incantation a 100 times over, it would still be Midnight that got summoned through the ster gate, not Dusk.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu did not actually know how to resolve the issue of Dusk for now. Perhaps he could try talking with Zero?


    Or perhaps he could directly unlock the seal and be the world consciousness?


    But if he really did be the world consciousness, would all that he possessed right now still have any meaning to them?


    Those friends who were like his family, and Yang Xiaojin as well, could only look up at the sky if they missed him in the future, right?


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu was also unsure what he would end up as after bing the world consciousness. But he did not want to know either.


    While pondering, Ren Xiaosu could see dense steam continuously being emitted up ahead of him. There was even a faint scent of sulfur in the air.


    Midnight seemingly cheered up. It let out a soft "purr" from its throat like a contented big cat.


    After climbing over a small hill, Ren Xiaosu sat on Midnight''s head and looked across from their location. The hugeke in front of him looked like a crescent moon. He could see a cloud of vapor moving constantly across theke''s surface. This ce was like a real paradise on earth.


    "This is the ce," Ren Xiaosu said as he jumped off Midnight''s head. "ording to Zhou Qi, this crescent-shapedke has an extremely deep bottom. It''s as though it''s connected to the center of the earth. He didn''t dare to venture deeper at that time."


    He patted Midnight''srge w. "Go on, this is the most suitable ce for you."


    Midnight looked down at Ren Xiaosu. It had not expected to be separated again so soon after reuniting with its master.


    It tilted its gigantic head and looked at Ren Xiaosu. The sky above the mountain range was shrouded in dark clouds, and Midnight''s vertical pupils had turned round. This made Midnight appear less fierce than before. In fact, it even seemed a little cute.


    It pointed at theke with its w and then pointed it at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Ren Xiaosuughed and said, "We can''t stay here with you. We have other things to do."


    Midnight could understand what Ren Xiaosu was saying, so it was a little disappointed.


    But Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, "We''ll apany you for a while longer until you figure out what''s in theke."


    When he said that, Midnight ran happily towards the crescent-shapedke.


    The moment Midnight reached thekeside, it leaped up and plunged straight into theke.


    The disturbance it created was like an artillery shellnding on theke. Wake turbulence even formed in the vapor above theke''s surface.


    However, Midnight did not swim to the bottom of theke. Ren Xiaosu realized it had the urge to dive down to the bottom of theke on several asions, but it restrained itself. The thermal energy at the bottom of the hotke seemed to have attracted it.


    The huge lizard kept swimming by the side of theke. At times, it would even look at Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin as though it were afraid they might run off.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled at Midnight and said, "Go ahead. You can go to the bottom of theke and take a look first. We won''t leave."


    It wasn''t until when Midnight heard this that it dived back under.


    "The magic of creation is really amazing. Even a creature like Midnight can appear. It''s really difficult to imagine what the future world will look like," Ren Xiaosu said emotionally as he sat by theke.


    He skillfully got a campfire started while Yang Xiaojin sat down right next to him and ate the food Ren Xiaosu had roasted. It was as though nothing had happened.


    She asked softly and nonchntly as she ate, "Don''t you have anything to say to me? You should''ve found a lot of the answers in the Kingdom of Sorcerers."


    Ren Xiaosu thought the inevitable could not be avoided, after all. He sighed and said, "I''ve regained my memory. I''m the No. 001 Experimental."


    Yang Xiaojin was not too surprised. She had probably already guessed this oue. "Carry on."


    "Ren He, the founder of the Qinghe Group, is my father." Ren Xiaosu said, "I was diagnosed with cancer before The Cataclysm. At that time, cancer was still an incurable disease, so I was counting down to my death every day. Later, my father sent me to the Pyro Company''s Laboratory 39 for treatment. After all conventional treatment methods failed, Dr. P. started using a more radical gic serum treatment on me with my and my father''s consent.


    "It was just as Qing Zhen had guessed. The reason for the Experimentals'' appearance was that the cancer cells in their entire bodies had restructured and reached a state of equilibrium and harmony. However, they were defective products whereas I sessfully became a so-called Neo-Human."


    "Why were you the only sessful case?" Yang Xiaojin wondered.


    "Because my gic code was unlocked before The Cataclysm." Ren Xiaosu calmly exined, "It''s an inherited technique my father had discovered. Bypleting eight challenges, the internal potential of a person''s body gets unlocked. That was why I pulled through the side effects of the gic serum but the Experimentals did not. However, I was not the only sessful case. Yan Liuyuan is one too. I believe he has also regained his memory now."


    "In other words, strictly speaking, we are different species? How did Yan Liuyuan seed then?" Yang Xiaojin asked.


    "Because Dr. P. transnted my bone marrow into him, and it reced his hematopoiesis ability," Ren Xiaosu exined. "So I''m nning to find a qualified hospital and transnt my bone marrow to you as well. That way, your lifespan will be¡ª"


    Yang Xiaojin interrupted, "How old are you this year?"


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Actually, this was the question he had been avoiding all this while.


    To the 19-year-old Yang Xiaojin, Ren Xiaosu''s age bothered her a lot. Although he still looked young and had spent most of those years in aa, and his mentality was not affected by the vicissitudes of life, his actual age was still a little scary.


    Regardless of whether Yang Xiaojin was bothered by it, Ren Xiaosu still felt a little uneasy. What if she minded? What if Yang Xiaojin was bothered by his age?


    ''What is love?'' Ren He said it was the sudden feeling of weakness, but at the same time, a sense you were protected by armor.


    Ren Xiaosu felt like he was now a gigantic dragon guarding a treasure. It was fierce yet na?ve, strong yet lonely, gentle yet flustered, timid yet free. Although it was very cute, it got overly nervous sometimes too.


    A young man in love was constantly worried about losing it as well. Even if he were the futuremander of the Northwest Army, he was no exception.


    Be it his "past" or "present," Yang Xiaojin was still his first love. Ren Xiaosu did not have any experience in love, so he could not express it so easily.


    The girl in the cap was sitting quietly next to the campfire. The dense vapor hanging over theke''s surface not far away drifted like clouds across the sky when blown by the mountain breeze.


    This youngdy was so unique Ren Xiaosu didn''t even pay attention to any other girls.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Yang Xiaojin asked again, "How old are you this year?"


    Ren Xiaosu said softly, "Strictly speaking, I''m 240 years old."


    Yang Xiaojin fell silent.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, "You mind?"


    Yang Xiaojin did not answer the question. Instead, she changed the subject and said, "Teach me how to activate the enchanted doorway first."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. It seemed she was showing her attitude on this matter by not answering the question.


    He thought for a moment before finally taking out the other ck Eye of True Sight from the pce and handing it to Yang Xiaojin. Then he retrieved therge metal door he had grabbed earlier from the Qing Consortium''s factory. "You only need to drip a drop of your blood on the Eye of True Sight and turn it against the door ten times. You know what to do."


    "Mhm." Yang Xiaojin pulled out her dagger and made a cut on her finger. Then she dripped her blood onto the Eye of True Sight.


    She took a deep breath, pressing the ck stone against therge metal door and turning it. Transparent ripples spread outwards from the stone.


    Yang Xiaojin turned her head to Ren Xiaosu. "Come with me. I want to know where the ce I want to go most is."


    "Mhm," Ren Xiaosu grunted with a nod.


    At this moment, Midnight emerged from theke. Ren Xiaosu instructed, "Midnight, guard this door and don''t let any animals damage it."


    With that, Ren Xiaosu stepped through the door with Yang Xiaojin.


    Behind the enchanted doorway was a field of fragrant flowers and songbirds. Ren Xiaosu looked around in silence and suddenly realized he had never seen this ce before. Instead, it was Yang Xiaojin who was in a trance as she stood in the courtyard.


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little gloomy. So it turned out the ce Yang Xiaojin wanted to go to most was different from his.


    Heughed bitterly to himself. Perhaps this was also considered an answer.


    But it did not matter. Everyone had their own freedom of choice, didn''t they?


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly did not know whether tough or cry. When did he start getting so worried about losing her?


    Curious, Ren Xiaosu asked, "Where are we at?"


    "This is Stronghold 88, my former home." Yang Xiaojin said, "We''re at the Yang Consortium''s manor."


    Nearly half of this manor had been destroyed by the Li Consortium''s nanosoldiers. But unexpectedly, this ce was rebuilt more than a yearter.


    Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, "I wonder who rebuilt it. But arge part of the buildings in the Yang Consortium''s manor has been preserved. It all looks so familiar, yet so strange. This feels a little strange to me."


    Afterwards, Yang Xiaojin headed straight into the garden. She came to a swing and said to Ren Xiaosu, "When I was young, my parents would bring me here to y for a while after dinner. Whenever I sat on the swing, my father would push me from behind while my mother smilingly stood next to me."


    Ren Xiaosu did not say anything and listened to Yang Xiaojin continue saying, "They were quite different from the other members of the Yang Consortium. My father was never hungry for the authority of the Yang Consortium, so he never fought for it. However, my grandfather liked him the most and always wanted to hand over the Yang Consortium to him. Sometimes, I wonder if he wouldn''t have gotten into an ident if he weren''t born in the Yang Consortium."


    "Do you think your parents'' death was a conspiracy?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "I''m not sure." Yang Xiaojin said, "I''ve investigated it before, but I couldn''t find any clues. But now that the Yang n has perished, even if my parents were murdered, the culprit would already be dead."


    While they were talking, two people in uniforms ran over quickly from the manor with shlights in their hands.


    Yang Xiaojin said, "They''re not armed, so they''re neither soldiers nor guards from the Public Order Division."


    Those two rushed over and shouted, "Who are you people? Why did you break into the museum in the middle of the night?"


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other, speechless. This ce had actually been turned into a museum by the Qing Consortium?!


    After learning the truth, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin did not stay around any longer and directly fled from the Yang Consortium''s manor.


    With their physical fitness, how could ordinary security guards possibly catch up to them?


    The two of them fled onto the streets and looked at each inughter. These two legendary superhumans had actually been chased away by two security guards? There was even a slight bittersweet feeling about it.


    "Let''s go. I''ll take you somewhere to eat. Hopefully, those shops are still around," Yang Xiaojin said.


    ¡­


    At 9 PM, an olddy was cleaning the tables with a tinge of fatigue inside a small shop called "Sister Lin''s Han Bun Store" at Stronghold 88''s Zhongfu Road. While cleaning up, she was making a mental note of the day''s takings.


    The shop was about to close for the night. But just as the olddy wiped her hands with a towel and prepared to close shop, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin walked in.


    "We''re closed." The olddy said with a smile, "Why don''t you try another shop¡­ Xiaojin?"


    "Grandma Lin," Yang Xiaojin said in a crisp voice, "I want to have Han buns and dandan noodles."


    "Yes, we still have them!" The olddy was a little surprised. "Wait a while. I''ll prepare it for you now. The noodles and fillings are ready-made, so you won''t have to wait too long."


    While talking, the olddy couldn''t help looking at Ren Xiaosu. There was a scrutinizing look in her eyes that made Ren Xiaosu feel a little embarrassed.


    The shop had clearly already run out of steamed buns, and the olddy went to wrap more on the spot before cing them into the bamboo steamer. Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin did not stand ceremony with her.


    For a moment, Ren Xiaosu thought this olddy was really Yang Xiaojin''s grandmother.


    "Do you know each other?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "Yup! When I was young, my parents often brought me here to eat." Yang Xiaojin said, "When my grandfather was still around, he had a rule that the Yang Consortium members could only have porridge and pickled veggies for dinner. Furthermore, we were not allowed to eat too much. My grandfather said that those who couldn''t curb their appetites were unqualified to take charge of an organization."


    "He''s that strict?" Ren Xiaosu was stunned. While he was still busying up with ways to find food, other people had already started dieting.


    Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, "It was very strict indeed. My uncles and aunts oftenined about this to my grandfather, but my father was the only one who didn''t do so. Instead, he secretly brought me and my mother out for snacks. This was the ce we visited most frequently. My father said this shop was around when he was young. The Sister Lin we knew in the past has be Grandma Lin now."


    "This shop has been in operation for a few decades already? Awesome!" Ren Xiaosu said.


    However, Grandma Lin, who was preparing the steamed buns inside, said with augh, "What''s so awesome about that?"


    "Of course it''s awesome, Grandma Lin." Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, "Mr. Zhang told me before that as long as someone can aplish something in their life, they''ll be considered an incredible person. Most people won''t even achieve that in their lifetime."


    Granny Lin smiled and said to Yang Xiaojin, "This young man is quite the sweet talker. Was that how he managed to woo you?"


    With Granny Lin''s discerning eyes, she could immediately tell the rtionship between Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Yang Xiaojin did not correct her. However, Ren Xiaosu noticed that her head was slightly lowered. It was as though she had started thinking about something again.


    "What''s on your mind?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Suddenly, Yang Xiaojin said in seriousness, "You don''t have to address her as Grandma Lin. She''s younger than you."


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    Was that what you were thinking about the entire time?!


    Grandma Linughed in the kitchen. "Xiaojin, what are you going on about? I''m already nearing my eighties. How can he possibly be older than me? Surely he''s not a 100 years old, right?"


    Yang Xiaojin corrected her in seriousness, "Older than that."


    Grandma Linughed happily in the kitchen. "I was quite tired initially. But when you came, all my worries seemingly vanished."


    Ren Xiaosu was dumbfounded right then and there. What the hell! This girl in the cap was really bothered by his age after all.


    The piping-hot stuffed buns were quickly served. Yang Xiaojin asked Grandma Lin as she ate, "How have you been recently?"


    "I''m pretty good." Grandma Lin said with a smile, "The neighbors were quite worried when the war broke out. Everyone said they were nning to flee. After the unification of the Northwest, some people said they wanted to escape there. But after the Qing Consortium arrived, the security in the stronghold became better than before, and our taxes were also lowered."


    "That''s good then." Yang Xiaojin nodded.


    At this moment, Grandma Lin looked like she wanted to say something. "But the Yang Consortium¡­ Xiaojin, you¡­"


    Yang Xiaojinughed. "Grandma Lin, you don''t have to worry about me. My aunt is doing fine as well."


    "I''m d to hear that," Grandma Lin said.


    While Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin ate, Grandma Lin startedining nearby about how her neighbor''s briquettes were always lying around and dirtying the ce.


    But her neighbor was a very nice person who would sometimes help her carry things and buy her a beef pie too when they went shopping on the neighboring street.


    But as she was old, she could no longer chew well anymore.


    Listening to theseints, Ren Xiaosu felt as though he had been pulled back to a warm and happy life from that tense Magi war he had participated in.


    When they came out of the bun shop, Ren Xiaosu wondered, "Where''s Grandma Lin''s family?"


    "Her son was killed in the war between the Yang Consortium and the Li Consortium. Her daughter-inw got remarried and took her children with her," Yang Xiaojin said.


    When Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked back into the bun shop, he saw Grandma Lin struggling to arrange the chairs neatly.


    The harm war did to people was definitely not only the loss of lives in the course of the war. This loss of lives would leave a scar in people''s hearts and bring decades of pain to an entire generation of families.


    "Where are we headed to now?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "Let''s find a ce to stay." Yang Xiaojin said, "I''ll show you around Stronghold 88 tomorrow."


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and suddenly asked, "Is something bothering you?"


    Yang Xiaojin answered calmly, "Can you apany me for a few days first?"


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned asplex emotions filled his heart. Meanwhile, Yang Xiaojin turned around and walked off in the other direction. Under her cap, the corners of her mouth curved up slightly.

 Chapter 1208 Experiencing The Things She Had Experienced

    After the war in the Southwest was over, people''s livelihoods and the economy there recovered much faster than expected.


    The traffic routes between the entire Southwest''s 50-odd strongholds were fully operational while the strongholdspletely opened up as well. Just as in Luoyang City, the stronghold residents and refugees could enter the various strongholds as long as they possessed trade or work visas.


    The Qing Consortium encouraged the residents to do business by reducing taxes. With a flow of people moving between the various strongholds, the stagnating Southwest finally became livelier.


    Even though the people here had just been through a war, Stronghold 88 looked like it waspletely thriving.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin found a hotel to stay at for the night. They still chose two separate rooms as usual.


    At night, Yang Xiaojin returned to her room early to sleep. If it were in the past, the two of them might still have a long conversation with each other.


    At their home on Anning East Road, they would chat through the walls untilte at night.


    But now, they seemed to have much less to say between them.


    Ren Xiaosu''s mind started running wild. When he was alone, the first thing that came to his mind was whether Yang Xiaojin was treating this trip to Stronghold 88 as theirst chance to spend some time together before breaking it off with him.


    He felt that Yang Xiaojin''s attitude towards their rtionship must have changed. Otherwise, why didn''t her Enchanted Doorway open to their home in Stronghold 144?


    Initially, Ren Xiaosu also felt that he might be thinking too much. However... the enchanted doorway would not lie.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu did not know whether tough or cry. Whoever said that her Enchanted Doorway had to open at the same ce as his?


    After an entire night of imagining things, Ren Xiaosu finally fell asleep.


    The next day, when Yang Xiaojin knocked on his door to wake him up, Xiaosu had a rare look of fatigue on his face.


    "You didn''t sleep well?" Yang Xiaojin asked, "Why don''t you sleep in a little longer?"


    "It''s OK." Ren Xiaosu said, "Where do you want to go? I''ll apany you."


    "Come on." Yang Xiaojin led the way. "Let''s get you some new tailor-made suits since the ones I bought for you were damaged in that fight in Winston City."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "Wait, how do you know that? Were you there at that time?"


    "Of course." Yang Xiaojin nced at him. "You did well."


    Ren Xiaosu learned from Zhang Xiaoman that Yang Xiaojin and Zhou Yingxue had set off for the Kingdom of Sorcerers earlier than the Great Hoodwinker andpany. But in the end, Yang Xiaojin arrived at Ghent City together with them.


    Ren Xiaosu did not ask Yang Xiaojin when she had arrived in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. But from the look of things, she must have been lurking since she got there. She even witnessed the battle where he walloped the Berkeley family''s patriarch at Winston Manor.


    And Yang Xiaojin''s reply now was probably praising Ren Xiaosu for not having any entanglements with the opposite sex on his travels.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought of this, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.


    "When did you catch up to me in the Kingdom of Sorcerers?" Ren Xiaosu cautiously probed.


    Yang Xiaojin said calmly, "Take a guess."<novelnext></novelnext>


    Her reply was really profound. Ren Xiaosu could not determine what she had or had not seen at all.


    The more it was this way, the more Ren Xiaosu was left scratching his head.


    The streetcar rattled along on the track in the stronghold. The early risers were taking transit to work. Yang Xiaojin led Ren Xiaosu onto Streetcar 12 with a sense of familiarity and sat in the streetcar as it drove unsteadily towards Shunjiang Road.


    Yang Xiaojin said, "When you came to Stronghold 88 previously, I didn''t have time to show you around."


    "Is the tailor store on Shunjiang Road?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "Yes." Yang Xiaojin nodded. "In the past, my family''s clothes were all tailored on Shunjiang Road. But at that time, it was the tailor who came to our ce to take our measurements. I only had to go to the store asionally. The store was run by a couple whom my father was very familiar with. Every time that auntie came to take my measurements, she would smile and remark that I''d grown taller again. I was a little rebellious when I was young, so she would bring a few pieces of candy to coax me into staying still while she took my measurements."


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that their trip to Stronghold 88 this time was like a walk down memoryne for Yang Xiaojin. He was experiencing the things she had experienced and meeting with people who yed a part in her life.


    At some point, Ren Xiaosu felt a little grateful to Yang Xiaojin''s parents. Based on her description, he could tell that her parents were very warm-hearted people. To have such a trait in the Yang Consortium, it probably made them some sort of an outcast in the organization.


    If Yang Xiaojin were as cold as the other members of the Yang Consortium, it would be impossible for them to be in this rtionship.


    In the streetcar, the two of them sat on the two-seater seat at the back. Yang Xiaojin''s chin-length hair fluttered lightly as the warm and mild morning breeze blew in through the window.


    Then Yang Xiaojin gently leaned her head on Ren Xiaosu''s shoulder without saying a word.


    This silence and setting suddenly made Ren Xiaosu feel like they were a long-distance rtionship couple from the Pre-Cataclysm times who were on the verge of breaking up. This made him even more flustered.


    His heart rate started to change, and even his breathing was affected. Yang Xiaojin could feel all of this, so the corners of her mouth curled up again under her cap.


    "Let''s get off here." Yang Xiaojin got up and alighted from the streetcar with Ren Xiaosu following behind her. He was a little enthralled as he looked at the name of the tailor store.


    Peace Tailors. The word "peace" felt very abrupt but beautiful in this era.


    When Yang Xiaojin pushed open the door, it collided with the wind chime on the door frame, and a pleasant jingling could be heard. Together with the creaking of the wooden door, it sounded like a greeting.


    There was only a middle-aged woman on the inside, and she was measuring fabric with a measuring tape in her hand. The other party did not even look up and just greeted warmly, "Wee to Peace Tailors."


    Yang Xiaojin stood there but did not say anything. When the middle-aged woman looked up and realized it was her, she was stunned. Her eyes reddened immediately as she said, "Xiaojin, it''s you! I''m so d you''re alright! I haven''t seen you since that incident in the stronghold. You must''ve suffered after leaving Stronghold 88!"


    Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, "I''m fine."


    When she took off her cap, the middle-aged woman gently patted her head and said with a tearful smile, "Xiaojin, you''ve grown taller again."


    "Mhm." Yang Xiaojin said, "I''ve grown another centimeter taller."


    Actually, without a reference, most people would not notice it at all. The middle-aged woman''s remark and the way she patted her head were a kind of warm chemistry between the two.


    At this moment, the middle-aged woman looked at Ren Xiaosu. She hesitated for a moment before asking with a smile, "Are you the futuremander of the Northwest Army? I''ve read about you in that rankings publication of superhumans. At that time, I was thinking that perhaps only someone like you is worthy of Xiaojin. But I must remind you, you had better treat Xiaojin well."


    The middle-aged woman did not care what superhumans were capable of. When she purchased the rankings publication, it was only because she heard Yang Xiaojin was on it.

 Chapter 1209 To Win A Persons Heart And Never Part

    Ren Xiaosu found it a little strange. Ever since Yang Xiaojin arrived in Stronghold 88, she did not even pay a proper visit to the Yang Consortium''s manor. Instead, she just kept bringing him to small stores like the tailor to meet some of her former acquaintances.


    "Xiaojin, wait here a moment." The middle-aged woman in the tailor store wiped her hands and removed her detachable sleeves. Then she walked to the main door and turned the wooden "Open for Business" sign hanging outside to show "Closed."


    It was only 9 AM, but she was already closed for business. It looked like she did not want anyone to disturb her from catching up with Yang Xiaojin.


    The tailor store was pretty small, and there were all kinds of fabric hanging from the walls. There was even a pleasant leather aroma in the shop, and it was not musty at all.


    The disy window was very clean, and so was the floor. Ren Xiaosu could tell that the owner led a very meticulous and fastidious life.


    The middle-aged woman looked at Ren Xiaosu with a smile. "I''ll introduce myself. I''m the tailor who''s been making Xiaojin''s clothes since she was young. My name is Lan Jingchu. How about you call just me Auntie Lan? The futuremander of the Northwest is indeed different. Just as the legends say, you''re so full of vigor. You look like you can carry off any form of clothing."


    Ren Xiaosu was a little embarrassed by this. When others praised him behind his back for being really strong and remarked that hisbat power was off the charts, he could listen to them with delight and even join in on their discussions as though it were nothing.


    But the moment he got praised to his face, he even revealed a rare tinge of shyness.


    Not many people got to witness this side of him.


    However, what Ren Xiaosu was most worried about at this moment was that Yang Xiaojin would suddenly tell him not to address her as Auntie Lan. That was because Auntie Lan was even younger than Grandma Lin.


    Fortunately, Yang Xiaojin did not add anything further to the conversation.


    "Make yourselvesfortable. I''ll go prepare some tea for you two," Auntie Lan said as she went into the back room.


    There were brown wooden chairs and tables in the shop, with candies and snacksid out on top of them, which were probably prepared for guests.


    Yang Xiaojin picked up a piece of candy and peeled off the wrapper. Then she handed it to Ren Xiaosu. "Try it. This is the taste of my childhood."


    When Ren Xiaosu put the candy into his mouth, a strong, sour plum vor mixed with his saliva and filled his mouth. For some reason, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt much more rxed the moment he ced the candy in his mouth.


    Auntie Lan walked out holding a tea tray and looked at Yang Xiaojin. "Did something bring you back to Stronghold 88 this time? Is there anything Auntie Lan can help you with?" With that, she ced two cups of ck tea in front of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.


    Yang Xiaojin shook her head. She pointed at Ren Xiaosu and said, "It''s nothing serious. Can you make four suits for him so he''ll have spares to wear?"


    "I see." Auntie Lan''s smile widened. "Then I''ll have to make them well. But if it''s four suits, I might have to engage the help of other tailors. Otherwise, it''ll take me a long time to finish them by myself."


    "Mhm, that''s okay." Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, "How much will it cost?"


    "There''s no need to pay." Auntie Lan shook her head and said with a smile, "The money the Yang Consortium left in my trust is still untouched. There''s still a lot left. I''ll go get the ledger to show you. There''s even enough to make another 20 sets of suits with the remaining sum."


    Ren Xiaosu secretly clicked his tongue. Were consortiums that generous with their money?


    Yang Xiaojin said, "I don''t need to look at the ounts. Auntie Lan, can you help me contact a shoemaker you trust? I want to give Xiaosu here another 12 pairs of shoes."


    When Ren Xiaosu heard this, he was stunned. Even Auntie Lan was in disbelief. "Is there a need for so many?"


    "Mhm." Yang Xiaojin said, "I want the most durable ones."


    At this moment, even Auntie Lan felt that something was not right. Would a normal person want to have so many shoes made all at once?


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu felt a little uneasy. This feeling was really like a precursor to separation. It was just like how a wife would prepare a lot of food for her husband before going away, afraid he would go hungry at home if left alone.


    If the husband were going away on a long journey, the wife would find ten pairs of shoes at home for him to bring along.


    These were parting gifts.


    Yes, Yang Xiaojin was acting like she was about to go away on a long trip.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin only cared about stating the requirements to Auntie Lan. "The suits should be looser at the waistline, under the armpits, and around the shoulders. That''s because he''s really active. Sometimes, a battle will break out all of a sudden. If the suits are too tight, it''ll affect his mobility. On top of that, the shoes have to be very durable too. He''s already worn out several pairs."


    When the strength of a superhuman erupted, the soles of their feet and shoes had to bear a great deal of pressure. Actually, many superhumans had trouble cycling through their footwear. Within just two battles, their shoes would already be split at the seams.


    After Yang Xiaojin stated her requirements, Auntie Lan immediately called a shoemaker over. The shoemaker was very professional. He even used y to make a mold of Ren Xiaosu''s feet and said this was the best method to make the most well-fitting shoes.


    Honestly, this was the first time in his life Ren Xiaosu had enjoyed such treatment.


    After the mold of his feet waspleted, Yang Xiaojin continued inquiring how long the job would take, and if she could pay more to get it done faster.


    Then she asked if she could add shoe padding into the requirements and whatnot. She only wanted the best features to be added.


    At this moment, Yang Xiaojin no longer looked like she was someone who fought in battle. Instead, she had a more gentle appearance.


    After the shoemaker left, Yang Xiaojin suddenly asked Auntie Lan, "Where''s Uncle Li? Why haven''t I seen him around? Is he off today?"


    Auntie Lan, who was choosing the fabric for the suits, paused for a moment before slowly saying, "On the night Stronghold 88 was attacked, he was knocked down by someone in a car who was trying to escape. After that, he never regained consciousness."


    That night, Ren Xiaosu had led Yan Liuyuan and the others to leave first. But before they left, the Li Consortium''s nanosoldiers had already arrived at the stronghold and started attacking wantonly.


    That war did not have much to do with Ren Xiaosu. However, the reason why the Li Consortium''s nanosoldiers were able to break through the Qing Consortium''s defensive line and reach the Yang Consortium was because of Qing Zhen''s intention.


    That was why some people said that no snowke in an avnche was innocent.


    But from Ren Xiaosu''s point of view, he could not say that Qing Zhen''s choice was wrong.


    In such a sorrowful era, everyone was like a drowning person. If they wanted to swim out of the water to breathe, the only people they could rely on and trust were themselves.


    ''If you''re not strong enough, don''t even think about saving other victims. Because you will end up getting grabbed by the neck and sink to the bottom of the sea together with them.''


    Auntie Lan said softly, "It was his birthday that day. I closed the shop early and went home to make dinner. He said he wanted to take a customer''s measurements before heading back. In the end, I found outter he actually went to the flower market to buy a bouquet of roses for me. When I found him, the roses were scattered around his body and soaked in his blood."


    Yang Xiaojin was stunned and did not say anything. But Auntie Lan did not look too sad. In this era, who wasn''t used to seeing people die?


    ording to the Qing Consortium''s statistics, the average lifespan of the Qing Consortium''s residents for the past ten years was only 51. On one hand, it was due to ack of basic supplies. On the other hand, their medical standards were much worse whenpared to the Pre-Cataclysm times.


    Ren Xiaosu remembered that before The Cataclysm, the average lifespan in many cities had already exceeded 70 years. There were even first-tier cities where residents had an average lifespan of over 83. This was the change brought about by improving medical standards.


    Therefore, this was an era where everyone was used to bidding farewell.


    It was not that people wanted to be good at it, but that life forced them to get used to all of it.


    When they stepped out of the tailor store, Yang Xiaojin took a deep breath and said, "Xiaosu, when the clothes are ready, leave two gold bars for Auntie Lan as payment in case she has any emergencies."


    "Mhm, I will." Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    "Let''s go. It''s already noon, so I''ll treat you to some beef pie. When I was young, beef pie was my favorite snack. It smells even better than the food at home," Yang Xiaojin said. She thought for a moment and said, "I''ll take you to shop for other things in the afternoon."


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. He did not know what other things she was referring to.


    While walking the streets, he could feel Yang Xiaojin''s deep longing for this stronghold. Even though she did not have much feelings for the Yang Consortium, this ce still held happy memories of her childhood.


    In the afternoon, Yang Xiaojin bought him three brand-new jackets, the best quality ones.


    In these times, people who could afford jackets were basically those who were wealthy and respectable. After all, there were too few who could afford to leave the strongholds and had a use for them.


    At the outdoor supply store, Yang Xiaojin even bought the best shovels, tents, thermal nkets, and even oxygen tanks for emergency use.


    Yang Xiaojin was so generous with her purchases it dumbfounded Ren Xiaosu.


    In the evening, this girl in the cap even went off to buy a lot of fresh seasonings for Ren Xiaosu. She bought every type of seasoning by the jar.


    Salt, pepper, chili powder, bean sauce, fresh soy sauce, oyster sauce, MSG¡­


    There was everything.


    This feeling was as though Yang Xiaojin were afraid Ren Xiaosu would not have everything at his convenience when living alone.


    Finally, Yang Xiaojin even bought the most expensive Ginkgo-branded waterproof watch in Stronghold 88 for Ren Xiaosu.


    The owner said the watch was extremely sturdy. A friend of his had identally fallen down the stairs while wearing one, but it remained undamaged.


    The only pity was that while the watch was not broken, his friend had fallen to his death.


    As someone with memories of both the Pre-Cataclysm and Post-Cataclysm civilizations, Ren Xiaosu felt a little emotional when shopping for the watch.


    Before The Cataclysm, some watches could easily fetch hundreds of thousands to even millions of yuan, and it might not even be possible to buy them.


    If one wanted to purchase a highly sought-after timepiece over the counter, they would have to get two cheaper watches with it as a bundle. The cost of such a purchase was almost the price of a best-selling car model.


    But it was all good now. Shopping for the most expensive watch, the owner of the shop even served him happily like some sort of VIP.


    After stepping out of the watch store, Ren Xiaosu looked at the gradually darkening sky and could not help but say, "Xiaojin, if you have anything to tell me, you can just speak bluntly¡­."


    Yang Xiaojin nced at him. "We''ll have that talk sooner orter, so don''t get too anxious."


    She then found an office supply store and bought a fountain pen and a small notebook.


    When Ren Xiaosu saw her buying those items, his heart skipped a beat. Was she going to write to him? The kind where she would leave a letter behind without bidding farewell?


    After returning to the hotel that night, Yang Xiaojin locked herself in her room and told Ren Xiaosu not to go to bed yet. Yang Xiaojin said that no matter what doubts Ren Xiaosu had, he would get an answer tonight.


    It was summer. The night breeze started blowing.


    Ren Xiaosu climbed to the top of the hotel alone through the window. He quietly watched the myriad of twinkling lights in the city and suddenly felt a little lonely.


    It was an unprecedented sense of loneliness.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu had never mentioned his problems to anyone before. Even Yan Liuyuan had not heard him sharing them before.


    Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu felt like he did not deserve to have a family.


    It wasn''t easy for him to finally take in a disciple, but that disciple had be petrified in stone. It wasn''t easy to gather a group of bandits who wanted to rebuild their homes, but those bandits had all perished. It wasn''t easy for him to have a younger brother, but that brother went to reside in the Northern ins. It wasn''t easy for him to have an elder like Jiang Xu to look up to, but in the end, Jiang Xu was assassinated.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Ren Xiaosu felt like he was walking alone on a long and dark boulevard. When he turned around, he realized no one was waiting for him under that dim yellow street light.


    Under the glow of the light, only farewells were waiting.


    "Master, I''ll be leaving now."


    "Bro, I can''t go back anymore."


    "Xiaosu, take care."


    The warm summer night breeze caressed his face gently and died down. The humid air in the south was like a hot and wet breath, and the asional coolness in the wind was like a singer''s humming after the guitar was strummed.


    Ren Xiaosu looked back within his memories and realized it was still only him on this long journey thus far.


    There were only muddy footprints and messy brambles on the surface of that road.


    Other than that, nothing lingered.


    "I''m such a jinx." Ren Xiaosuughed bitterly. "I can''t even keep my family intact."


    So it turned out he would be the only one left in that house on Stronghold 144''s Anning East Road in the end. Yang Xiaojin did not actually want to go back there.


    A young man''s thoughts wereplicated, fragile, and sensitive. Ren Xiaosu, who was experiencing love for the first time, was just as worried as every other young man.


    But at this moment, a window below him opened. Yang Xiaojin poked her head out and waved at Ren Xiaosu who was on the roof.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He thought she was going to leave behind a letter for him, but in the end¡­ it turned out a little different from what he had imagined.


    He climbed down along the exterior wall. When he went into Yang Xiaojin''s room through the window, he saw her hand the small notebook to him.


    "This?" Ren Xiaosu hesitated. He was a little afraid to open it.


    However, Yang Xiaojin''s silence and calm over the past two days had changed. She smiled and said, "Open it and you''ll know."


    Ren Xiaosu flipped to the first page. In the center of the notebook was written: "Cool Down Coupon."


    Flipping over from the first page, there was an exnation on the back: "Use this coupon and I won''t stay angry at you. I''ll even give you a big hug."


    On the second page was written in the center of the notebook: "Leave Anytime Coupon."


    Turning over the page, the exnation was written on the back: "When you use this coupon, I''ll apany you even to the ends of the world."


    The third page was the "Gentle and Caring Coupon." "When you use this coupon, I''ll turn into the gentlest angel for a day."


    The fourth page wasbeled "Massage Coupon." "Use this coupon to get a 120-minute massage from me, your top masseuse specializing in chiropracty."


    The fifth page was "Luxury Breakfast Coupon." "Use this coupon to¡­"


    Ren Xiaosu flipped through the pages one by one. The "Privilege Coupons" were like warm red charcoal delivered on a snowy day, washing away his bad mood.


    There were a total of 99 pages of privilege coupons. On thest page was written: "Validity: Forever."


    "With love, Yang Xiaojin."


    Ren Xiaosu looked up at her in silence. He wanted to say something, but he could note up with any words at all.


    Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, "It''s my gift to you. Do you like it?"


    "Yes, I do." Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and said, "But these past two days, you''ve been¡­"


    "You mean I''ve been ignoring you, right? I was just trying to spite you." Yang Xiaojin said with augh, "The next time you run off to such a faraway ce without saying a word to me, there''ll be even more cruel punishments waiting for you. Ren Xiaosu, remember this. If you embark on another risky adventure alone, I''ll beat you up."


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless.


    "Anything else you''d like to know?"


    "Why are you so insistent on risking your life with me?" Ren Xiaosu asked softly.


    Yang Xiaojin answered in seriousness, "I''ve lost you once before, so I swore I''ll never lose you again in this lifetime."


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, "Then why did you suddenly give me so many gifts? Those clothes, those shoes, and¡­"


    "When I found out that you were 240 years old, I was actually quite disappointed." Yang Xiaojin said, "It turned out I''ve missed out on over 200 years of your life."


    At that moment in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Yang Xiaojin suddenly felt like she was watching Ren Xiaosu from across the long river of time. Yang Xiaojin felt even more alone than Ren Xiaosu. It was as though there were a hand in the river of time pulling Ren Xiaosu away from her.


    However, Yang Xiaojin was an extremely forthright person. Since distance had opened up between them, she would just have to close it again.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. Just as he was about to say something, Yang Xiaojin cut him off and said, "Don''t speak yet. Let me speak."


    "These past two days, I''ve brought you to my favorite bun restaurant and also my favorite tailor store, including the ce where I used to shop for outdoor necessities." Yang Xiaojin said, "Actually, I just wanted to show you how I led my life in the past so you can understand the current me standing in front of you. It would be just like you had been living by my side all this time.


    "The reason for my gifts to you is because I wanted to make up for the fact that I''ve missed out on your life. Every time I think about how you didn''t have me for 221 years of your life, I can''t help but feel disappointed. So I wanted to make up for 240 of your birthdays so I won''t feel like I''ve missed out on anything. In the future, since you''ve already epted my gifts, you''ll have to treat it as though I''ve always been by your side for the past 240 years."


    She hugged Ren Xiaosu gently and ced her face between his shoulder and neck. "Xiaosu, this is the first time we''ve been in love. I don''t know how to maintain this rtionship, nor do I know how to express my feelings. All I can do is not hold myself back from loving you."


    Ren Xiaosu stared nkly at the girl in the cap in front of him. That was right. This was the first time in their lives that they were in love, and neither of them was prepared for it. This was a passionate rtionship that had arrived without any warning.


    Their love seemed to be more intense than other people''s. They had fought side by side, gone through life and death together, been separated, and then reunited again.


    The other party did not have any dating experience, but she treated him with the most sincere feelings.


    People always said thatpanionship was the most endearing form of farewell.


    Yang Xiaojin wanted to be with him for his entire life, regardless of whether it was the past or the future.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, "Why didn''t your Enchanted Doorway open to our home in Stronghold 144? The sorcerers said that the enchanted doorway opens to where you''d want to go most¡­."


    But this time, Yang Xiaojin was clearly taken aback. "That''s my home. I can go back at any time, so why would I open the enchanted doorway there?"


    When she said that, Ren Xiaosu was stunned.


    The destination the enchanted doorway opened to was actually what the heart desired most. Everyone''s psychological needs were different at each stage. Children desired to go to the candy store, while Chen Jiu desired to escape to the beach to avoid the secr world. These were all ces they could not reach on their own.


    But based on Yang Xiaojin''s logic, the way the enchanted doorway worked was that it could bring the user to a ce they were unable to reach.


    Ren Xiaosu had never had a home all this while, so even though he had a "home" now, he still felt a little worried.


    Moreover, he was in the Kingdom of Sorcerers at the time his Enchanted Doorway was activated. He was thousands of kilometers away from home without Yang Xiaojin by his side.


    But Yang Xiaojin was different. She had subconsciously regarded that ce as her home, so her inner desire to see that ce had lowered. After all, she could head back there any time she wanted.


    Ren Xiaosu somehow felt that something was off. "Aren''t you afraid of losing that home?"


    "Afraid to lose it?" Yang Xiaojin asked curiously, "How? Are you going to abandon me? Do you dare?"


    "Ahem." Ren Xiaosu hurriedly said, "I wouldn''t dare¡­."


    "There''s your answer!" Yang Xiaojin said.


    In fact, it was Yang Xiaojin who reached a state of emotional stability first. She already felt secure, but Ren Xiaosu still didn''t.


    Ren Xiaosu sighed. "For the past few days, I thought you were bothered by my age and wanted to leave without saying goodbye."


    Yang Xiaojin''s lips curved up. "If I didn''t teach you a lesson, what would I do if you ran away without informing me again in the future?"


    "I won''t do that again," Ren Xiaosu hurriedly promised.


    "That''s more like it." Yang Xiaojin said proudly, "But it''ll just be a little troublesome to celebrate your birthday in the future. We''ll have to put 240 candles on your cake. Just the thought of that is terrifying. Do you know how scared your friends will be when they celebrate your birthday?"


    Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Why did she have to say such a thing at a time like this?!


    "By the way," Ren Xiaosu asked, "were you counting my age when you bought those gifts for me? You''ve given me 240 presents already?"


    Yang Xiaojin shook her head and said, "No, it''s at 239 right now. Including the 99 privileged coupons, you''ve only received 239 presents."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. "Then what''s thest one that''s missing?"


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly took off her cap and said softly, "I''m the 240th present."


    Ren Xiaosu shuddered. "Please don''t objectify women¡ª"


    But before he could finish speaking, he saw Yang Xiaojin throwing her cap aside to cover the light in the room. "Let''s see how much longer you''re gonna cower!"


    The triumphant soldier had returned, and his beloved no longer needed to wait in worry.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly remembered what his father had said to him in that letter. "Xiaosu, have you already found someone you love?


    "Love is when you suddenly feel like you don''t have to conquer the world, that you don''t have to make a name for yourself, that you don''t have to be sessful, that you don''t have to be rich, and still feel a sense of bliss.


    "You might even feel like you''ve lost a little of that ambition and still think it''s not a bad thing.


    "It''s when you grow conscientious of everything yet are able to reach apromise on all of them."


    Love was about being a nervous wreck. Some people would grow old in loneliness, while others would finally get to know that all of this nervousness and waiting was worth it.


    Love was about meeting someone at the right moment who could make a lifetimemitment.

 Chapter 1210 That Past Era

    Just before dawn, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin sat side by side at the top of the tallest building in Stronghold 88 and waited for the sunrise.


    "Xiaosu, what was the world like before The Cataclysm? What did people eat?"


    "There wasn''t much of a difference in the kind of food we hadpared to now. There was rice, noodles, hot pot, and tofu stew, and we could have them whenever we wanted. Back in that era, supplies were much more abundant than now, and very few people would starve to death in thesends."


    "They could eat anything they wanted?"


    "Something like that. They could even get to eatrge cherries and bananas grown in faraway ces."


    "Were transportation andmunications very convenient as well?" Yang Xiaojin asked.


    "Yes. Airnes and high-speed trains existed in that era. It would only take an hour or so to fly from here to Fortress 178, and the high-speed trains had reached a stable speed of 270 kilometers per hour and above. Everyone owned a cell phone in that era, so it was really easy for people to speak with their family members."


    "Everyone owned a cell phone?" Yang Xiaojin asked curiously, "They could go wherever they wanted back then? Did this apply to normal people as well?"


    "Yes, there were trains or highways connecting almost every city." Ren Xiaosu said, "In that era, cities were not walled or built like strongholds, and there were no such things as stronghold residents or refugees. People could enter and leave a city whenever they wanted. If you felt like it, you could even travel to the other side of the world. Back then, many families owned cars. It''s unlike now where cars are a luxury item only for the rich.


    "There were also a lot of celebrities in that era. Almost every family had a television in their homes where they could watch their favorite shows and celebrities.


    "Almost every family had ess to aputer connected to the global inte in that era. People could shop online, and the goods would be delivered straight to them from the warehouses. Even if you only bought a hairpin, someone would still deliver it personally to you."


    "A globally connected inte?" Yang Xiaojin was a little fascinated. "Xiaosu, what was the world really like before The Cataclysm? Was it very beautiful?"


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, "Actually, it might not be as beautiful as you think. Although everyone had cell phones that allowed them to contact their rtives at any moment, they might not keep in touch with them. Although everyone could travel to any corner of the world on a ne, they might not be able to get away due to work or being bogged down by life''s mundanities. Although everyone was globally connected via the inte, their true friends might not amount to many."


    Ren Xiaosu continued, "Of course, I''m not saying that it wasn''t a good era. I still miss it very much."


    It was an era facing impending changes, and everyone''s lifestyle was also undergoing huge changes with generations of people living through it. Sometimes, Ren Xiaosu even felt that it was not the people who brought about change to an era but the era that propelled human civilization forward.


    Although Ren Xiaosu had all kinds of dissatisfaction with that era, he had to admit it was still a magnificent era with bright potential.


    "That''s why we gotta concentrate on the Prosperous Northwest." Yang Xiaojin said with a smile, "Let''s make an agreement. When we get back, you should properly carry out your duties as futuremander of the Northwest so you can show me the world you''ve seen as soon as possible, alright?"


    Ren Xiaosu felt a sense of excitement. "Sure, I feel it''ll only take a few decades before we regain the glory of that time."


    Yang Xiaojin sat on the edge of the rooftop and gently rested her head on Ren Xiaosu''s shoulder. Within a night, there seemed to be no estrangement between the two of them anymore.


    ¡­


    For the next fortnight, the two of them fully indulged in eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves. In Ren Xiaosu''s words, this was like a honeymoon. After they returned to the Northwest, they''d have to hold a wedding ceremony to top it off.


    Ren Xiaosu nned to hold a grand wedding. He''d have to invite more people so he could collect more gift money.


    Ten dayster, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin went to collect thepleted clothes and shoes. They left two gold bars each for Auntie Lan and Grandma Lin and advised them to hide them well. If another war broke out, they were to stay put and wait for Ren Xiaosu toe and rescue them at the first opportunity.


    Auntie Lan asked worriedly, "Is there going to be another war? Isn''t the war in the Southwest already over? Is another war going to break out between the Northwest and the Southwest?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment before answering, "The Southwest''s enemy is not the Northwest."


    In fact, the Northwest and Southwest were now facing amon enemy. However, Ren Xiaosu wondered if Wang Shengzhi would really be crazy enough tounch an all-out attack on the Southwest and Northwest.


    Although the Wang Consortium was stronger than ever, the Southwest and Northwest were not easy opponents either, right?


    However, Ren Xiaosu could not determine if his judgment was correct. That was because there was not only the Wang Consortium in the Central ins but also Zero.


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had discussed Zero''s existence before. Sometimes, in his opinion, he even felt that Zero existed independently outside the Wang Consortium''s control.


    Because in Zero''s opinion, it had categorized itself as a civilization different from humans. Therefore, there was actually nothing wrong with Luo Lan treating the artificial intelligence as an alien civilization.


    Ren Xiaosu once read in a book that it was very difficult for civilizations to coexist. It was not only a matter of allocation of resources but also an ideological issue between two civilizations.


    Zero was born into existence during the annihtion of the creeper vine, so it witnessed how humans treated a foreign species. Ren Xiaosu always felt that the seeds of danger had been nted during that time.


    But at this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that as long as Yang Xiaojin was by his side, he would have the courage to face all dangers.


    After they were done with everything in Stronghold 88, they headed straight to the Yang Consortium''s manor museum like they were an ordinary tourist couple.


    But just as they bought their tickets and entered through the main entrance, a security guard inside was stunned to see them. "Wait a minute, have I seen the two of you somewhere before?"


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin looked at each other with a knowing smile. "I think you''ve got the wrong person?"


    The security guard remembered. "You were the ones who trespassed into the museum several nights ago. Stay right there and don''t move! I''ll call the Public Order Division over!"


    Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin did not listen to him and walked straight towards the manor.


    "Hey, you two, stop right there! Are all thieves this arrogant these days?!" The security guard chased after them, but he saw Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin getting away faster and faster. The security guard could only watch helplessly as they ran into the backyard of the Yang Consortium''s manor.


    When the security guard breathlessly ran into the backyard, he was shocked.


    Where had that couple disappeared to? They seemed to have vanished into thin air!


    After passing through the enchanted doorway, Ren Xiaosu looked towards the crescentke and saw Midnight''s huge head floating on the surface of the water. It stared fixedly at him as though it were condemning him in silence.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little embarrassed. He had assured Midnight that he would return soon, but he actually went away for more than ten days. Therefore, Midnight must''ve guarded the enchanted doorway for the entire duration.


    Looking at Midnight''s resentful gaze, Ren Xiaosu said, "I can exin¡ª"


    "Pfft." Midnight spat a glob of saliva at him. Yang Xiaojin hurriedly dodged to the left, leaving Ren Xiaosu standing there alone.


    With a ssh, Ren Xiaosu felt as though he had been drenched from head to toe by a small pool of water.


    ¡­

 Chapter 1211 Inspection Tour Of The North

    Ren Xiaosu spent another three days with Midnight at Crescent Lake. For some reason, even though Midnight had already grown sorge, it still felt like the little guy Ren Xiaosu remembered.


    Midnight found a thermal river deep under the Crescent Lake and seemed to quite like it.


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu also liked this ce very much. The entirety of Crescent Lake was like an enormous hot spring. There were noplicated disputes here, nor did he need to rack his brains thinking about problems.


    He could just spend his honeymoon here with Yang Xiaojin peacefully.


    Although they were only going to stay here for three days, Yang Xiaojin and he constructed a small wooden house on the first day. The two of them were extremely capable at fighting, so building a wooden house would not trouble them at all.


    Ren Xiaosu had brought a tent with him in his mind pce, but Yang Xiaojin insisted it would be more interesting to construct a wooden house. Moreover, they might being here often on vacation in the future.


    When it was time to leave, Midnight watched the two of them depart reluctantly. Ren Xiaosu could feel its loneliness, but he still did not know how to resolve the matter of Dusk.


    If only he could bring Dusk here to be with Midnight.


    Just as Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were setting off northwards back to Stronghold 144, Luo Lan arrived at Stronghold 91 in the north of the Qing Consortium.


    After returning to the Qing Consortium''s territory, Luo Lan had initially nned to go back to Stronghold 111 directly. But after he received news from Qing Zhen, he immediately changed his itinerary.


    He was now going to take on the role of an official envoy and begin an inspection tour of all the northern strongholds of the Qing Consortium. He would be carrying out checks on the training, armaments, and food reserves of the strongholds.


    Such an arrangement was as good as announcing to everyone that the Qing Consortium was preparing for war.


    To ensure Luo Lan''s safety, Qing Zhen even sent a special forces battalion to join up with him. The configuration of this special forces battalion was ridiculously overboard. Just the armored vehicles fitted with the "Mountain Obliterator" alone numbered four.


    The Mountain Obliterator was a heavy machine gun developed by the Qing Consortium independently. It could unleash a metal storm that was the best in its ss. Back then, just a few armored vehicles fitted with the Mountain Obliterator were enough to beat the Experimentals into submission.


    At this moment, Luo Lan''s convoy arrived at the gate of Stronghold 91. All of the stronghold officials andmanders of the troops stationed in the nearby military base had already mustered here.


    ? They lined both sides of the street, and the stronghold''s Public Order Division had even cleared away many of the refugees'' shacks and organized arge-scale cleanup before Luo Lan''s arrival.


    The Public Order Division even set a standard for this cleanup operation: No blind spots, no cobwebs.


    In order to make the refugees look cleaner, the town even issued additional clean water for them to wash their faces with.


    All of this was standard procedure when it came to receiving higher-ups.


    Although the policies Qing Zhen implemented after taking over were rtively open-minded and the living conditions of the refugees in the Qing Consortium''s territory had also improved a little, a consortium was still a consortium. In essence, no matter what kind of people Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were, they would not be able to change the nature of the Qing Consortium.


    Reformation had never been a simple process.


    In the evening, when these officials saw Luo Lan''s convoy approaching, they put on smiles.


    They were all experts at faking smiles, so it was unlikely their facial muscles would stiffen from this short show of hospitality.


    However, to everyone''s surprise, Luo Lan''s convoy did not stop when they got closer to the stronghold gate. Instead, they blew straight through the open gate, leaving the two rows of officials coughing up dust.


    The officials looked at one another and wondered what was wrong with that envoy. Never mind that he did not get out of his vehicle, but shouldn''t he greet and acknowledge everyone at least?


    But when they saw the special forces battalion''s vehicles entering the stronghold together, no one dared to say anything.


    Luo Lan''s status in the Qing Consortium was extraordinary. He had a lot of appointments to his name: Secretary General of the Qing Consortium''s Board, Honorary Chairman of the Qing Consortium''s Military Council, Executive Director of the Qing Consortium''s Commerce Department¡­


    In any case, he had an incredulous number of titles.


    Everyone knew full well that if there were anyone in this world who Qing Zhen cared about, Luo Lan would definitely be the top priority.


    Just by looking at the pompous arrival of this convoy, no one could be more important to Qing Zhen than Luo Lan.


    When the officials standing outside the stronghold saw Luo Lan''s convoy driving past them, they hurriedly called their secretaries and drivers over. "Quick, drive and catch up with the convoy!"


    Zhou Qi, who was sitting in an off-road vehicle at the front, muttered, "You''re still as arrogant as before. You aren''t respecting those people at all. If only you and Qing Zhen were a little more tactful back then, you wouldn''t have been targeted by those old fogeys."


    Luo Lan chuckled, "And where are those old fogeys now?"


    Zhou Qi was rendered speechless.


    Where else could they be? Those old fogeys were all killed by Zhou Qi''s hand.


    Luo Lan was sitting in the back seat and looking straight ahead. He casually exined, "I''m not here to make friends on this inspection tour. I''m on official business. If I don''t carry out my duties properly, is there any point in being friends with them?"


    "It''s not a matter of making friends with them. It''s whether you make enemies out of them." Zhou Qi sighed.


    Luo Lan shook his head and said, "That''s your biggest problem. You never want to offend anyone. You''re not gold, so how can you be liked by everyone?"


    "As long as I''m liked by most people, that''s good enough," Zhou Qi said.


    "Qing Zhen is the one leading our massive Qing Consortium. As his subordinate, of course I have to y the bad cop and let him be the good cop." Luo Lan said in seriousness, "If I go around being nice to everyone, how can Qing Zhen win over hearts and minds?"


    Luo Lan continued, "Zhou Qi, someone has to be the bad guy in this contest for power and profit. I just need to do my job well and deal with these people. When Qing Zhen needs their help, they''ll just need to be of service. As for whether they hate me or not, that''s their business. In any case, it''s not like there''s anything they can do about me."


    Actually, it was not that Zhou Qi did not understand these principles. He knew Luo Lan was a knife in Qing Zhen''s hands. Moreover, it was not Qing Zhen who wanted him to be the knife, but Luo Lan himself.


    All of this was so Qing Zhen''s authority could be stable enough.


    However, in Zhou Qi''s opinion, how could a person only think for others and not for themselves?


    Right now, Qing Zhen and Luo Lan seemed like they were very close. But what if Qing Zhen were to change one day?


    If Qing Zhen no longer sided with Luo Lan, there would probably be countless enemies who would make things difficult for Luo Lan.


    Zhou Qi looked at Luo Lan. "Have you ever considered your future¡ª"


    "You''ve underestimated me and Qing Zhen," interrupted Luo Lan.


    ¡­


    The convoy headed straight for the administrative center in the stronghold. After Luo Lan got out of the vehicle, he took the lead and sat down in the lobby.


    The staff in the building served him in fear and trepidation. Meanwhile, the officials who went to wee him at the stronghold entrance were sweating profusely as they finally caught up to him.


    Under normal circumstances, a plump person tended to always give people an extra sense of affinity.


    However, Luo Lan, in his current form, exuded more of a strong and stocky feel. This indirectly made him look much more intimidating.


    The row of officials stood obediently in front of Luo Lan and did not even dare to breathe too loudly. They were afraid they had done something wrong to make the boss behave so overbearingly.


    Luo Lan sat on the sofa in the lobby and said with a grin, "C''mon all of you here are well-respected figures. There''s no need to be so afraid of me."


    Everyone lowered their heads and did not say anything. They thought to themselves that only a fool would follow up with his provocation.


    "Alright, let''s cut to the chase. After I''m done inspecting Stronghold 91, I''ll be returning to Stronghold 111. Bring over all the necessary documents." Luo Lan said with a smile, "You guys have probably heard about someone in Stronghold 92 who tried to fool me about the amount of food reserves and assets that were in their books, so I had that person executed that same day. So before you bring over the documents for my vetting, think carefully about how you want to correct any fake entries first. I''m saying this for your own good."


    When an official heard this, he wiped sweat away. "Sir, don''t worry. We''re already prepared here. Little Li, quickly bring over the inbound and outbound inventories for Boss Luo''s inspection. Boss Luo, the work we''re doing here is very solid indeed. After you''ve checked through our ounts, we can set off immediately to the warehouse for a physical inspection."


    This official could not be med for panicking. Before Luo Lan came to Stronghold 91, he had indeed executed several people by firing squad.


    When Stronghold 92 received Luo Lan a few days ago, Luo Lan also carried out a surprise inspection like he did today. He did not even attend the banquet prepared by the stronghold officials to wee him.


    When the officials heard that Luo Lan was a pervert, they even specially arranged several escorts for him.


    In the end, Luo Lan instantly had the special forces set up a temporary military camp in the warehouse district and even ced the entire warehouse under lockdown.


    For a few days, people were only allowed to enter the temporary lockdown zone but not leave. It wasn''t until Luo Lan finished taking inventory of all the food provisions and armaments that the lockdown was lifted.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Several of the officials were hoping to get lucky and thought everything would be fine as long as they hosted Luo Lan well. However, Luo Lan did not even give them a chance to do so and just shot them dead.


    Luo Lan''s actions could be described as ruthless and vicious. As a result, when the news got out, everyone in the other strongholds started feeling insecure and scared that they would be the next unlucky ones to get executed.


    Normally, no matter how serious the crime was, they would still have to be tried in a court ofw first.


    However, mobilizing the provisions and armaments without authorization would get one immediately court martialed. Meanwhile, Luo Lan also had another title to his name, and that was the presiding judge of the Qing Consortium''s military court.


    Wherever this guy went, a military court would follow. Based on Luo Lan''s style, he would try any criminals right on the spot.


    Although it sounded very childish, there was nothing one could do about it if Luo Lan really behaved that way.


    As for the adjudication documents to be presented in court, Luo Lan would just have his subordinates do them up at ater time.


    The cases handled by Luo Lan''s touring court had one thing inmon: None of the defendants pleaded guilty, but the death sentence rate was a 100%.


    Basically, all of the defendants died before they could even present their defense.


    Actually, Luo Lan also knew that handling it this way would make everyone scared and was not conducive to the stability of order.


    But he had no other choice. The military readiness of the Qing Consortium had be more important than any other matter, so they had to resort to special measures during these special times.


    Otherwise, Qing Zhen would not have asked him toe and inspect the provisions and armaments.


    Usually, anything that required Luo Lan''s help was already a very troublesome matter that needed to be dealt with.


    At this moment, the inventory records were all ced in front of Luo Lan. But when Luo Lan saw the officials sweating profusely, he suddenly said with a smile, "Alright, I know you all have done your best for these past three days. It''s not easy to fill up a standard warehouse in such a short period. I won''t be inspecting the warehouse, so good luck to you all."


    After that, Luo Lan directly got into the off-road vehicle outside the administrative center and left in a hurry.


    This event dumbfounded everyone. The officials thought to themselves, ''What are you trying to achieve here? You came and left in such a hurry, and you didn''t even bother checking the inventories?''


    However, a few officials who were in the know broke out in cold sweat.


    Zhou Qi said in the off-road vehicle, "Looks like the problem has been resolved?"


    "Of course." Luo Lan said, "Actually, it was already settled before we arrived. But we still have to drop by regardless. At the very least, we should teach them a lesson and let them know there''s no such thing as an absolute secret."


    In fact, what Luo Lan had done in Stronghold 92 was just to stamp his authority. Regarding the execution, he was the one who spread the news through the intelligence agency. Now that the entire Qing Consortium''s intelligence agency was controlled by Luo Lan, it was simply too easy for him to do something like that.


    Before Luo Lan arrived in Stronghold 92 today, he had already found out through the stronghold''s intelligence department that these stronghold officials, under the threat of facing execution, had bought arge amount of food supplies using money from their own pockets to fill up the granaries to the required standard.


    Moreover, these people even bought the food supplies at high prices in secret and did not dare to let anyone know about it.


    Some of them were linked to the sale of grains from the granary at low prices in the past. But now, they had to buy them back at high prices. All of a sudden, the blood-sucking aphids were emptied of their pockets. It was so painful for them they nearly vomited blood.


    The way Luo Lan chose to leave was to send a message to them: "I know all about your little tricks. Don''t think there''s anything I don''t know about in the Qing Consortium."


    By doing so, he was also warning them not to resort to such tricks again in the future. Otherwise, they would end up getting shot dead.


    Luo Lan told Zhou Qi, "There''s so many strongholds in the entire Qing Consortium, so it would take too long to audit the warehouses one by one. We don''t have that much time. So, rather than us carrying out the inspections, why don''t we let those people self-inspect under the pressure of fear?"


    There were three key points to this operation. The first was to execute someone to establish authority so others would get scared.


    The second was to give the culprits a chance, to tell them that as long as they made up for the difference in food supplies this time, he could pretend that nothing had happened in the past.


    Third, he wanted to make those people understand that he had spies all over the Qing Consortium, so they had better act more honestly in the future.


    With a set ofbo "punches," the entire resource storage system was immediately refreshed. As for the officials who still refused to replenish their food reserves, Luo Lan had a natural way to find out who they were.


    As a matter of fact, even though Qing Zhen''s reputation was at its peak after the Qing Consortium unified the Southwest, the Qing Consortium stillcked someone to act as the viin.


    The viin had to do the dirty work the Qing Consortium''s head could not. He would have to kill those Qing Zhen could noty his finger on.


    This was probably the reason why the Qing Consortium had always had a designated Shadow role. An organization would always have some shady dealings that required the Shadow to handle.


    Qing Zhen used to be the Qing Consortium''s Shadow, and now it was Luo Lan''s turn.


    Although no one had explicitly said Luo Lan was the Qing Consortium''s Shadow, everyone knew this to be true.


    With the existence of a ruthless executioner like Luo Lan, the officials of the various strongholds had better humble themselves and carry out their duties responsibly.


    Luo Lan said to Zhou Qi, "Since Qing Zhen asked me to make this trip, it means the problem should be very serious and the danger is right before us. I have to make these people afraid of me so they''ll do their jobs right. Sometimes, I''d also like to be more delicate in my ways, but the circumstances don''t allow it."


    "Alright, you two brothers have your own way of dealing with things, so I can''t be bothered to say any more." Zhou Qi did notment any further. "As the elder brother, you''ve chosen to y the viin andmit evil deeds on your younger brother''s behalf. If even you aren''t bothered by that, what can an outsider like me say? I just find it such a waste. They specially arranged for many beautifuldies to entertain us. If you want to put on airs, go ahead and do that. But why the fuck did you have to make them take thedies away? It''s also very tiring for me to keep protecting you every day¡­."


    Luo Lan said righteously, "Zhou Qi, I didn''t expect you to be such a person!"


    Zhou Qi nearly spat blood. "Don''t think I don''t know what you''ve done. Don''t act innocent with me now!"


    Luo Lan said seriously, "Zhou Qi, you aren''t an outsider. Qing Zhen and I treat you as our best friend and a brother."


    Zhou Qi sneered, "Don''t get all sentimental on me. I only recognize money."


    "We''ll pay what''s necessary, but I''m not telling you this to save ourselves money. I just hope you won''t keep seeing yourself as a stranger," Luo Lan exined.


    "Don''t try to bluff me." Zhou Qi said disdainfully, "You say you treat me as a brother, but didn''t you still hide Qing Zhen''s schedule and ns from me?"


    Luo Lan shook his head. "Those are two separate things. Qing Zhen has his own n. He doesn''t only keep his schedule and ns from you; he does that to me sometimes too. It''s not that he can''t meet people, but that he has a need to keep his whereabouts a secret. The enemy we''ll face in the future is even more terrifying than what you and I can imagine."


    Zhou Qi curled his lips. "You''re just making excuses."


    Luo Lan sighed and said, "You''ll understand in the future."


    ¡­


    At this moment, a Qing Consortium infantry brigade was guarding the entirety of Ginkgo Manor on Mt. Ginkgo in Stronghold 111.


    This was a textbook example of a heavily guarded instation. The security was so tight it was outrageous.


    Actually, it had been a long time since so many soldiers stood guard at the Qing Consortium''s manor. However, today was a little special as Qing Zhen had returned to this huge pce.


    The manor''s security was tight on the outside but rxed on the inside. From the outside, everyone felt that it was so heavily guarded that only an armored unit could fight their way in.


    However, there were not many garrison troops inside the manor. There was not even one guard stationed in the main building. Only Qing Zhen''s trusted aide, Xu Man, apanied him.


    No servants were around as the sound of a piano reverberated in the empty main building. Qing Zhen was dressed in a white suit as he sat at the piano in the main hall. His fingers were moving across the ck and white keys with his eyes tightly shut.


    He did not look at the music score. It was as though this particr, long piece of music was firmly engraved in his mind.


    The tune was stirring, but Qing Zhen''s expression remained at peace.


    If it were anyone else, they would find it a little strange. However, Xu Man was used to it. He knew very well that it was not that Qing Zhen did not have any emotions, but that he was in a state ofplete restraint.


    It was just like how he had to restrain his current pastimes and emotions for the sake of the Qing Consortium''s future.


    In order to think more clearly, Qing Zhen had to be calmer than others.


    At this moment, a soft mechanical sound interrupted the piano''s music. A shelf filled with books behind Qing Zhen was pushed open, revealing a brick passageway.


    Qing Zhen''s clone, Qing Shen, walked out with a smile. "The Little Professor''s Concerto No. 3. I enjoy this piece as well. From the Pyro Company''s internal spections, the Little Professor was the founder of the Qinghe Group, but that''s just trivia, so not many people care about it. However, it''s really fortunate that his score could get passed down through The Cataclysm until now."

 Chapter 1212 Black Makes The First Move

    "You listened to piano concertos when you were at the Pyro Company?" Qing Zhen asked as he slowly closed the piano lid.


    Throughout the conversation, Xu Man stood beside Qing Zhen and kept his eyes on the clone, Qing Shen.


    Although the other party looked exactly the same as Qing Zhen, it was really very difficult for Xu Man to have any cordial feelings for a clone. Moreover, he was always on guard against this clone.


    Third Brother Qing nced at Xu Man, then smiled at Qing Zhen and said, "See, it''s been this long, but everyone is still looking at me warily. Sure enough, to be born amid a conspiracy is already a wrong beginning, and the wrong beginning will only lead to an undesired oue."


    Actually, Third Brother Qing''s summary was extremely on point. If he weren''t "born" into the Pyro Company, everyone would probably view him differently.


    Qing Zhen said with a smile, "You''re still bothered by this?"


    "Of course." Third Brother Qing said with a smile as well, "If I want to integrate with this group, I have to care about how everyone views me. Oh, and to answer your question earlier, the training I received at the Pyro Company wasprehensive. It wasn''t just military training that I underwent."


    "Can you y the piano?" Qing Zhen asked.


    "No." Third Brother Qing shook his head. "Based on the information the Pyro Company had on you, you didn''t know how to y the piano, so they didn''t have me learn it. Y''know, when did you learn to y the piano? Why didn''t I know about it?"


    Qing Zhen smiled. "There''s a lot more you don''t know about. Come, let''s start with ying some Go today."


    "You only wanted to see me today so we can y Go?" Third Brother Qing asked.


    "That''s right," Qing Zhen answered.


    With that, he had Xu Man bring over a Go board and stones.


    The Ginkgo Manor was luxurious beyond imagination. Its luxury was not only reflected in the decor but also in its internal operations, as well as all kinds of daily items imaginable to people, including a Go set.


    Inside the spacious hall of the manor, Third Brother Qing sat down on the floor with Qing Zhen underneath a crystal chandelier hanging above them. The dark gray marble tiles were so polished their reflections were visible.


    Sitting on such marble flooring, Third Brother Qing felt as though he were seated on the surface of ake.


    Marble flooring maintenance was moreplex than one would expect. A lot of people thought that marble tiles would retain their shine forever after they wereid. But actually, for marble flooring to retain its sheen, it still needed to be frequently polished with chemicals.


    Sitting down on the dark gray ke" surface, Third Brother Qingmented, "Those old fogeys of the Qing Consortium really knew how to enjoy life. These 181 ck stones are made from ck nephrite, while the 180 white stones are made from Hetian jade. The Go board is made from rosewood lined with gold thread."


    Qing Zhen said calmly, "They had prioritized the trivial over the essentials. I''ve yed Go with them before, but they were terrible. If my skill level was as bad as theirs, I''d definitely be ashamed to y Go on such a precious board."


    Third Brother Qing chuckled, "Are you trying to say that your skill is befitting of such a good board since you''re using it now?"


    "Of course." Qing Zhen''s expression remained unchanged.


    This time, Third Brother Qing did not rebuke him.


    To him, Qing Zhen, who was sitting quietly across from him, was probably the best person at nning ahead in the world. If he had to go into detail, it meant Qing Zhen was the most farsighted human being in the world. Therefore, it wasn''t hard to understand why someone like him would be good at Go.


    Xu Man observed from the side. In truth, he had not met Third Brother Qing that often.


    During this period, Xu Man concluded that his boss, Qing Zhen, was the moreposed of the two. On the contrary, Third Brother Qing was talkative, fidgety, and had a more lively personality.


    Third Brother Qingughed when he noticed Xu Man''s gaze. "I can guess what you''re thinking. Do you find me too talkative?"


    Xu Man did not say anything. This was not a situation he could interrupt.


    However, Third Brother Qing exined to Xu Man, "Actually, the Pyro Company simted Qing Zhen''s upbringing for me. Even if our personalities are not exactly the same, we should at least be 60% identical. But I realizedter that my character was a far cry from Qing Zhen''s, so I came to the conclusion that it''s probably because I don''t bear as much of a burden as your boss."


    Xu Man was stunned. He instinctively nced at Qing Zhen and realized his boss did not refute him.


    Third Brother Qing smiled and said, "Did you know that the vast Qing Consortium and the people in the Southwest actually have nothing to do with me? I don''t care whether they''re able to fill their stomachs today or tomorrow. Additionally, how the Wang Consortium will deal with the Qing Consortium, how terrifying the artificial intelligence is, and will the Qing Consortium be able to win, none of those are things I have to consider. If all of those matters be my responsibilities, I can''t stay cheerful either. In order not to let the AI predict his intentions, he chose to stay away from crowds so others couldn''t make an urate assessment of him. This is even though he''s someone who clearly likes talking and gardening. In the long run, it''ll affect his mind for sure."


    Qing Zhen looked calmly at Third Brother Qing. "That''s enough."


    Third Brother Qing shrugged. "Why aren''t you letting me speak? I should be the one who understands you the best. Judging by your current behavior, it''s obvious you don''t even think you stand a 30% chance of beating the Wang Consortium. I don''t think you should keep hiding it from your subordinates, or else they''ll get very worried. Actually, a 30% chance of winning is already very high when facing that kind of opponent, though I don''t know where you get that confidence from. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn''t even think we stand a 10% chance of winning. That''s probably where I''m inferior to you."


    Qing Zhen toughened his tone. "Loose lips sink ships."


    "Alright, alright, I won''t say any more. You don''t have to threaten me like that." Third Brother Qing kept quiet.


    Xu Man remained silent. He clearly realized Third Brother Qing was right.


    He started working for Qing Zhen long ago. Although Qing Zhen used to have the air of a leader, he was still someone who enjoyedughing and joking around in private.


    But now Qing Zhen suddenly seemed like a different person.


    Qing Zhen gave Xu Man the feeling he had be much sterner.


    Initially, Xu Man thought this was amon trait among those in power. After his superior became the leader of the Qing Consortium, he would have to act more authoritatively.


    But it was only now that Xu Man understood it was because Qing Zhen was burdened with too many things, and all of this seemed rted to that 30% chance of victory Third Brother Qing had pointed out.


    Xu Man could not understand why Qing Zhen, who was always capable of oveing anything in his eyes, would only have a 30% chance of winning against the Wang Consortium.


    "10%," Qing Zhen said.


    Third Brother Qing was stunned. "You think you only have a 10% chance of winning?"


    Qing Zhen pulled the Go bowls holding the ck and white stones to his side. After that, he started cing the ck stones with his left hand onto the board and the white stones with his right.


    He yed each move very slowly, as though he were thinking about something. Then the speed of y picked up.


    Third Brother Qing noticed something. "This particr game, who yed it? Was your purpose in summoning me here today to show me a Go game someone else yed?"


    "Mhm." Qing Zhen nodded. "This was a game yed between an AI and a human."


    "It looks like you don''t regard Wang Shengzhi as your opponent." Third Brother Qing suddenly figured out a lot of things. "Your opponent is the Wang Consortium''s AI, right?"


    "Wang Shengzhi is running out of time." Qing Zhen said, "I''m guessing he won''tst much longer. He can''t evenst until the war between the Qing Consortium and the Wang Consortium officially begins."


    These words revealed too much information. At the very least, this was the first time Qing Zhen admitted he had nted spies around Wang Shengzhi and was fully aware of his health.


    "Isn''t that a good thing?" Third Brother Qing said, "Once Wang Shengzhi dies, the war chariot that is the Wang Consortium will stop moving."


    Xu Man also felt that this made sense. After all, the Wang Consortium''s "war chariot" was entirely steered by Wang Shengzhi.


    As long as Wang Shengzhi were gone, the Wang Consortium woulde to a stop.


    But Qing Zhen shook his head and said, "It won''t stop. The AI will help himplete his unfinished work. Moreover, you all have underestimated that AI. It isn''t a tool. I suspect it''s already be an independent consciousness, or it could even have be a civilization."


    "Why do you say that?" Third Brother Qing frowned.


    "Because Wang Shengzhi doesn''t seem to know the Qing Consortium lost 2,000 of its nanosoldiers," Qing Zhen replied.


    If that artificial intelligence was only a tool controlled by Wang Shengzhi, there would be no reason for it to hide anything from him.


    Third Brother Qing always felt that even though he was Qing Zhen''s clone and both of them had the same intelligence, his knowledge was much broader than his progenitor''s.


    However, in terms of strategy, he was always a step behind and could not catch up to Qing Zhen''s thoughts.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Many people would habitually associate the Wang Consortium with the artificial intelligence. However, Qing Zhen regarded "Zero" as an independent being.


    Third Brother Qing asked, "Do you need to pay so much attention to a program?"


    "Of course." Qing Zhen said, "In my opinion, this is a race against time. However, we''ve already lost the first-mover advantage. If I had pulled myself out of that war in the Southwest earlier and looked at the bigger picture, I would not have continued developing the nanomachines. A program might not be able to pose much of a threat on its own. But if it can control the nanomachines, it''ll have a weapon in its hands. I''ve never dared to underestimate the AI because I feel it has already surpassed our level of thinking."


    Third Brother Qing was stunned. This was the first time he had seen Qing Zhen admitting he was inferior to others, and it was even a program at that. However, Third Brother Qing could understand. "No one is omniscient and omnipotent. You''ve already done good enough."


    "There''s no need tofort me." Qing Zhen said, "At a time like this, all emotions are superfluous. We only need to think about how to win."


    Qing Zhen ced another ck stone on the Go board. "The Qing Consortium was able to rise rapidly in the era of the wastnds because our predecessors retained a lot of knowledge, which they passed down. They were also a step ahead of others in the excavation of the Pre-Cataclysm civilization. There was a very interesting piece of information no one else noticed before, but it caught my attention. This was a game yed between a Go yer named Fan Hui against an AI program.


    "Fan Hui was not the world''s top Go yer at that time, so it was not a surprise he would lose all five games. It was at that moment that all humans started paying attention to AI."


    As Qing Zhen rambled on animatedly, Third Brother Qing and Xu Man were taken to another world. Qing Zhen sat on the ke" as he ced the ck and white stones on the board piece by piece. It was as though all of them were witnessing that epic war between humanity and artificial intelligence back then.


    As the oldest type of strategy board game of the Central ins civilization, Go involved extremelyplex gamey mechanics. There were over 200 possibilities to consider per move, while chess only had 20.


    After the emergence of artificial intelligence in the game, an AI program dealt Fan Hui a crushing defeat. Then came the true battle of the greats. The AI program versus Lee Sedol.


    Qing Zhen said, "Lee Sedol was fully able to represent the pinnacle of humanity in Go at that time. But even when he faced the artificial intelligence, he only managed to win one out of five games."


    At this moment, Qing Zhen had Xu Man put the ck and white stones back into the Go bowls. It seemed like he wanted to begin a new game.


    Third Brother Qing watched quietly in the ke." He had the same keen intuition as Qing Zhen, so he seemed to know the reason Qing Zhen summoned him this time.


    However, he would have to finish watching the reys of the Go games first.


    Qing Zhen ced down the stones again. "In the first game between Lee Sedol and the AI program, humanity still lost."


    The ck and white stones were alternately yed on the rosewood board continuously. Third Brother Qing kept his eyes on the board, but he did not feel like it was an impressive game.


    But in the second game, the artificial intelligence ced a stone at a position no human Go yer would have made during its 37th move after the game''s opening.


    Third Brother Qing immediately broke out in cold sweat.


    This move foreshadowed the entire Go game. It was as though the entire cause of humanity''s failure was destined on the 37th move.


    Qing Zhen said, "When I first noticed this information, I had the same reaction as you. At that time, I had only one thought on my mind: So Go can be yed like this. ying against the AI was like facing an unknown enemy. You can''t know what it''s thinking or what aces it has up its sleeves. This 37th move was just like when Zero suddenly abducted all our Qing Consortium''s nanosoldiers and nanomachines. Perhaps all our failures were destined from the moment it took control of our nanomachines."


    After the end of the second game''s rey, Qing Zhen sat quietly on the dark gray marble floor, as though he were reviewing this entire game.


    Qing Shen also fell silent. It wasn''t until half an hourter that he suddenly said, "We have to change the Qing Consortium''sbat style. The foundation of the AI''s progression is learning from humans to improve itself. It must''ve studied our Qing Consortium for a long enough time that once we make our first move, it can predict the next 99 moves. But as long as we don''t y our cards logically, we''ll still have a chance to beat it."


    Qing Zhen shook his head and said, "It''s not that simple. Let''s have a look at the third game."


    In the third set, Lee Sedol ditched his usual ying style as he hoped to break away from all his past habits and forget his experiences in order to defeat the artificial intelligence.


    However, the oue was worse than he had expected. In this set, Lee Sedol suffered an even quicker defeat.


    Abandoning his past was essentially giving up his greatest advantage.


    Thebat style the soldiers were ustomed to and themand style officers were familiar with were the foundation of the Qing Consortium''s invincibility. If they abandoned those, the Qing Consortium would probably only be able to reach 50% of its capability.


    Third Brother Qing sat at the Go board in silence. He felt like he had fallen into an abyss, and that sense of powerlessness filled his limbs and bones.


    "Don''t worry, humanity won the fourth game," Qing Zhen said.


    When Third Brother Qing and Xu Man heard this, their eyes lit up. It was as though they were the victors of that game.


    In the fourth game, not only did Lee Sedol ditch his habits but he also broke away from all the conventions of humans in Go and defeated the artificial intelligence with unconventional y.


    What was exciting was that the artificial intelligence had indeed lost much of its advantage in this game. After Lee Sedol''s unconventional move, the artificial intelligence repeatedly made low-level mistakes.


    But even so, what was shocking was that Lee Sedol was still at a disadvantage. The overall situation was really bad.


    On the 78th move, Lee Sedol suddenly yed his stone and started aeback in a desperate situation. This move waster described as the "Hand of God."


    The essence of the "Hand of God" move was to break all conventions before rebuilding.


    Qing Zhen said, "The AI''s advantage is that it has 10,000 possible moves to counter your gamey. But when it starts with ck, it gets disadvantaged when ying against White, which goes second. Because when ck ys first, it bes its own enemy. So we should let the AI make the first move."


    Third Brother Qing mumbled, "Make aeback in a desperate situation? Aren''t you taking a huge risk? Is that your 10% chance of victory?"


    Qing Zhen nced at him. "There''s no other choice."


    Third Brother Qing regained a spirited look and looked at Qing Zhen again, "How about the fifth game? Did he also win the fifth game with that strategy? No, wait, you mentioned the AI only lost one game."


    Qing Zhen said, "The fifth game was of no consequence. The AI quickly adapted to the new rhythm and defeated humanity again. If humanity could y unconventional moves, it naturally could do the same. The unconventional move in the fourth game seemingly opened a new door for the AI program. From that moment onwards, humanity probably didn''t stand a chance of defeating that AI in Go again."


    "Therefore," Third Brother Qing said, "humanity only has one chance of defeating Zero."


    "Actually, this one chance is the best oue we can ask for," Qing Zhen said.


    Xu Man nearly choked. Was Zero really that terrifying? Even someone like Qing Zhen thought it was good enough to have one "chance" at defeating it.


    And humanity might not even be able to seize this opportunity.


    Once the opportunity was missed, humanity could probably never defeat the artificial intelligence again.


    "No matter what, humanity has prevailed against AI in the past. If humanity could do it back then, we can definitely do it again now," Third Brother Qing said firmly.


    Qing Zhen looked at Third Brother Qing and said in a serious tone, "What would you say if the AI program had deliberately lost that fourth game to humanity?"


    These words stunned Third Brother Qing greatly.


    If the AI program had deliberately failed to achieve a perfect victory...


    "Hopefully, that wasn''t the case," Qing Zhen said.


    Third Brother Qing gradually calmed down. "You''re not someone who''ll surrender before the fight has even started. I believe you already have a n in mind. Tell me what I have to do next."


    Qing Zhen shook his head. "We still can''t move yet."


    "Why not?" Third Brother Qing asked.


    "It''s not yet our turn to move." Qing Zhen said, "Right now, it''s the AI''s turn to y its move."


    After that, Qing Zhen threw the white stone in his hand back into the Go bowl. His spotless figure reflected off the well-polished marble floor.


    Everyone hoped to take the initiative. But this time, Qing Zhen wanted to let Zero make the first move.


    ",

 Chapter 1213 Invasion

    The artificial intelligence, Zero, in its current form was apletely different being from the AI that had defeated humanity in Go.


    The AI of the past was still only a program. It had stored countless records of Go games and yed against itself countless times to build up arge data model.


    However, the program was not sapient. Although it gave the feeling that it could think, that was actually achieved by using a valuework forputing data and a policywork for strategy choices. However, its strategy choices were still very limited. It was not capable of deliberately tricking a human opponent into making the wrong move.


    Therefore, that artificial intelligence program did not have true intelligence.


    But the artificial intelligence, Zero, was different. It hadpletely awakened a higher level of consciousness and even started thinking about the coexistence of civilizations.


    The underlying logic in which its choices were derived originated from itself, not humans.


    It was an independent and extremely smart lifeform.


    The Go game records Qing Zhen knew of only consisted of rey analyses from two matches between humanity and machines. There was no specific source code or data rted to that machine learning algorithm.


    He had repeatedly reviewed the reys in an attempt to get a glimpse of what this other life form was like through the past experience of humanity. But in fact, he understood it was very difficult to truly gain an understanding of artificial intelligence through just a few games of Go.


    But Qing Zhen was right about one thing. When facing an artificial intelligence, seizing the initiative might not prove to be effective anymore.


    He had to wait for Zero to make the first move, then wait for that moment to fight back from the brink.


    At this moment, even Qing Zhen could not have expected Zero''s move would ur so soon.


    ¡­


    At the Qing Consortium''s military base north of Stronghold 111, the highest-ranking militarymander, Qing Yi, had raised thebat readiness to Level 1. This meant that all soldiers and officers who were on rotational break had to return to the base immediately.


    Outside the military base, a captain was undergoing a very strict security inspection.


    His personal belongings,munications equipment, and even the socks and underwear in his luggage were taken out one by one for checks.


    During the process, the captain did not interact with the soldier who was inspecting him, regardless of the suspicion he was treated with.


    Everyone was used to it. To ensure the safety of the base''s information, such sacrifices were actually not that big of a deal.


    As long as they could win the war, what did being put through some security inspection matter to them?


    The soldier carrying out the inspection swept a detector over the captain''s uniform and said, "Sir, please raise your hands."


    When the captain heard this, he cooperatively stood like a cross with his arms out and allowed the other party to scan him.


    Two minutester, the soldier saluted the captain. "Sir, that''ll be all."


    The captain returned his salute.


    From going through the security inspection to being let into the base, everything moved like clockwork. It was a seamless process without any hindrance or conflict.


    After passing through the inspection channel, the captain carried his luggage right to the Military Affairs Division to register himself. This was the procedure all returning Qing Consortium troops had to undergo.


    Everything went off smoothly without a hitch.


    But when night fell and the captain returned to his dormitory to rest, a silvery liquid metal suddenly seeped out from his ankle.


    Nanomachines.


    The silvery liquid metal quickly "slithered" into the venttion duct in the dormitory''s ceiling like a snake.


    However, just as it entered the venttion duct and tried to pass through a node, an ear-piercing rm suddenly red in the entire dormitory.


    At the same time, a powerful electric current surged through the node, destroying the nanomachines in an instant.


    The security troopers quickly identified the location of the nanomachines through the security system. The entire military base was awakened as security forces locked down the entire dormitory in an attempt to find out what happened.


    Everyone''s attention was focused on the dormitory. Many of the soldiers who had just fallen asleep were now awake. They put on their uniforms, grabbed their weapons, and gathered outside the dormitory to prepare for battle.


    This was the first time the rm had sounded since the military base was built.


    It was as though war were imminent.


    But amid the ring rm, a huge sparrow suddenly soared in the night sky and flew towards the other end of the military base.


    It had a dazed expression and did not fly as agilely as other birds.


    Suddenly, a Mountain Obliterator emced on a roof in the military base activated. The active thermal lock-on defense system had detected the presence of the sparrow.


    A metal storm swept towards the sparrow as the machine gun barrels spun nonstop. The red-hot bullets cast a red streak across the night sky.


    In just a sh, that sparrow was riddled with holes.


    In this era, most people neglected the management of their territorial airspace. However, the Qing Consortium did not cken its defense systems in this aspect.


    Qing Zhen once said that when everyone started to ignore airspace, people would definitely attempt to turn it back into a battlefield and use it as their weapon.


    When the soldiers at the military base heard the electrical buzz and rumbling of the Mountain Obliterator, they immediately turned to look at the falling sparrow.


    But a momentter¡­


    Another sparrow appeared, then two sparrows. More and more sparrows flew into the military base in the dark of the night. The countless birds flew fearlessly into the airspace above the military base like moths attracted to light before they were shot down by the metal storm.


    In the huge military base, 72 Mountain Obliterators with active thermal lock-on defense systems were firing at full power. Their ballistic trajectories interweaved into a huge defensive in the darkness of the night. Not even the sparrows could fly in through the air and make it past the base defense alive.


    The defensive measures put in ce were extremely rigorous.


    However, after countless sparrows dropped dead inside the military base, a silvery liquid metal started oozing out of their carcasses.


    The streams of liquid metal gradually turned into a river and "gushed" into the ground.


    The soldiers could hear a rustlinging from the underground, but they couldn''t find any traces of the nanomachines.


    The nanomachines required recharging, so they needed a reliable biological carrier toplete the charging process. After detaching from the living creature, they could only move around for less than five minutes.


    That was why Zero needed these sparrows.


    The creatures of nature had be the nanomachines'' transport nes and portable charging stations.


    Their mission was not to attack the military base but to transport the nanomachines here.


    After the liquid metal seeped underground, it did not lose its sense of direction. It urately locked onto the military base''smand headquarters and kept advancing towards it.<novelnext></novelnext>


    4 minutes and 39 secondster, the entire military base was suddenly plunged into darkness.


    Tonight, the Qing Consortium''s security measures in ce against invaders were very tight. But just like Qing Zhen''s rey of the Go games, the strategy employed by the other party was probably something humans would never have thought of.


    It wasn''t that the Qing Consortium was not careful enough, but that the other party had enough time andputing power to make their own deductions until they found the best solution.


    In this military base, even the venttion ducts had been set up as defensive points to prevent any biological creatures from moving through them.


    However, the captain who brought the nanomachines into the base was only the beginning of the invasion.


    The other party seemed to know exactly when the rms would go off and how to attract the attention of the garrison troops.


    The busy soldiers and officers in themand headquarters were suddenly shrouded in darkness. Everyone stood still and couldn''t figure out what was going on.


    There was no power outage, nor was there any damage to the base infrastructure. All of the equipment was in shutdown mode, and even the most basic devices such as printers and paper shredders had stopped working.


    At the beginning, everyone waited for the backup power to kick in. But after 30 seconds, there was still no reaction. The backup power did note on.


    Small individual power generators were carried out of the warehouse by the soldiers. But no matter how hard they tried, they could not restart the equipment in the military base.


    It was not a problem with the power source but that the entire military base had been attacked by an unknown force.


    Left with no choice, everyone had to use their shlights to illuminate the way. The entire military base started assembling quickly while the staff officers gathered all the documents and threw them into the incinerator to prevent any secrets from getting leaked in case the troops were attacked.


    The staff officers gathered the documents onto carts and sent them for incineration.


    But the expected attack did not arrive. By dawn, there was still no sign of anymotion outside the military base.


    The highest-ranking militarymander, Qing Yi, stood upright within the military base. When the morning sun rose, he said to his adjutant next to him, "Prep a vehicle. I''m going back to Stronghold 111."


    This was the Qing Consortium''s Military Base 12, and it was also where their most important missile troops were. Once this ce got invaded, it would mean the Qing Consortium would lose their greatest reliance in a war.


    Of course, there was more than one military base like this, but Qing Yi had reason to believe the other bases had also suffered a simr attack.


    At this moment, the military base was unable to make any contact with the rest of the world. Therefore, Qing Yi had to personally go and exin the situation to Qing Zhen.


    An orderly drove a military off-road vehicle over. The original arrangement was for the orderly to drive Qing Yi back to Stronghold 111, and his adjutant even nned to send a reconnaissancepany to protect him.


    However, Qing Yi inspected the vehicle seriously before driving off by himself.


    Qing Yi knew about the nanomachines as well. The fighting force the nanosoldiers were part of used to be under hismand. Therefore, he knew full well what had happened in the dormitoryst night.


    At a time like this, he would rather drive alone for six hours without anyone to protect him than let someone he could not trust bring something like the nanomachines to Qing Zhen''s location.


    Although the Qing Consortium used to do research on nanomachines, it would be very difficult to discover them if they were hidden in the bloodstream or had attached themselves to the brain stem.


    To be safe, Qing Yi would also have to undergo a stricter security inspection when he got to Stronghold 111.


    ¡­


    On the way back to Stronghold 111, Qing Yi remained on constant full alert.


    At some point, he wondered if the opponent was actually trying to force him to return to Stronghold 111 by himself by causing all that ruckus. This way, they could intercept and kill him while he was traveling back.


    It was not that Qing Yi felt that he was so important, but that he was currently the highest-ranking militarymander of the Qing Consortium. If he were killed, Qing Zhen''s focus would be affected.


    Fortunately, nothing happened even by the time he arrived at Stronghold 111.


    This left Qing Yi a little confused. The other party hadunched an attack that almost shut down the entire military base, but there were no further attacks after that.


    Usually, a series of follow-up attacks woulde after the first one. As the saying went, "take them out while they''re down." Military operations had always been a series of such attacks, so how could it be that they would only take down one lone military base?


    Upon reaching Stronghold 111, professionals were already waiting at the stronghold''s entrance.


    They set up a makeshift tentage to carry out the security inspection. The tent was filled with all kinds of equipment that would leave anyone who saw them dazed.


    The tarpaulin canvas of this tent had been specially processed, and there was even a thick metal sheet sandwiched between the canvasyers.


    After Qing Yi was brought in, an employee came up to him with a medical defibritor.


    Qing Yi took off his shirt and was made to lie t on the medical bed by the staff member. Then, a conductive gel was applied to his chest.


    "Sir, prepare yourself mentally. You might feel a little ufortable during the procedure, but that''s normal." Someone carefully raised the metal electrodes with both hands and pressed one against the third rib on the right side of Qing Yi''s sternum, while the other was pressed against the fifth rib next to his left armpit.


    Suddenly, Qing Yi''s entire body started convulsing. This defibritor had been modified to operate at a greater current than when used as medical equipment.


    At this moment, another staff member in the tent was staring at a screen. When he confirmed the data on it, he heaved a sigh of relief. "No nanomachines detected in the body. All clear."


    Basically, the bioenergy used to recharge the nanomachines was just electricity. Although the nanomachines were minute, they were still electronicponents.


    Meanwhile, these people carrying out the inspection used the defibritor''s amplified current to destroy the electronicponents. This was the simplest and crudest way to destroy the nanomachines in someone''s body.


    Of course, there would be aftereffects from increasing the electrical current. Even if the conductive gel could spread the current more uniformly, it could not prevent electrical burns.


    Qing Yi was panting hard and felt himself drenched in ayer of sweat. The two obvious burn marks on his chest looked extremely brutal.


    However, he did notin. This was what he had to go through before he could meet with Qing Zhen. He had to make sure Qing Zhen was protected.


    One of the staffers said to Qing Yi, "Sir, do you want to rest first?"


    Qing Yi shook his head. "No. Bring me to Mr. Qing Zhen."


    The staff members looked at one another before walking out of the tent quietly. Only the employee who had just given Qing Yi the electric shock remained inside. He took off his mask and protective suit and said with augh, "There''s no need to go anywhere. I''m right here."


    Qing Yi looked at Qing Zhen in front of him and was stunned for a long time. "Second Bro, why did youe out here personally? It''s very dangerous. What if there were nanomachines in me?"


    "Don''t worry." Qing Zhen said with a smile, "We have enough facilities here to deal with those little things. We probably can''t deal with them on arge scale, but if it''s only the amount a single person can carry, we''re more than prepared for it."


    Qing Yi said in a low voice, "Second Bro, I''m sorry. Military Base 12 was attacked. I couldn''t protect the base."


    Qing Zhen shook his head. "That''s not unexpected. I already told you that the enemy we''re facing is much stronger than we can imagine."


    Qing Yi said, "But I can''t even figure out the purpose of their attack."


    "There''s no rush." Qing Zhenforted, "They''lle forward and tell us what they''re after."

 Chapter 1214 Eliminating Potential Threats

    The news of the Qing Consortium''s military base being invaded was embargoed. After an entire day, no further dangerous incidents urred.


    Based on Qing Yi''s thinking, the other party had taken out the Qing Consortium''s important missile troops in preparation for the subsequent battle.


    If the Wang Consortium were to dere war at this moment, it would be equivalent to the Qing Consortium getting into a fight with others with a crippled leg.


    Therefore, Qing Yi had been in a state of anxiety for the entire day. In his opinion, it was his dereliction of duty that caused the Qing Consortium to suffer a reduction in its strength. As the current highest-ranking militarymander of the Qing Consortium, he should take full responsibility.


    If the Qing Consortium were to be defeated in the subsequent attacks, he, Qing Yi, would have to apologize with his life.


    However, the Wang Consortium did not follow up with a full-scale attack. It was as though they purely wanted to destroy Military Base 12 without any subsequent ns.


    This left Qing Yi feeling empty. He felt there was still something amiss.


    Qing Zhen brought him to Ginkgo Manor, halfway up the mountain, and had someone prepare some warm food and drink for him.


    Qing Yi had no appetite. "Second Bro, aren''t you even a little worried?"


    "Of course I''m worried." Qing Zhen took a seat cushion and ced it on the dark gray marble floor of the vi''s main hall. He sat on it as though he were taking a seat in the middle of a ckke.


    For some reason, Qing Zhen did not have any feelings for this Ginkgo Manor that symbolized the authority of the Qing Consortium. However, he seemed to have a special fondness for the "ckke" in the vi''s main hall.


    He even got his men to remove the unnecessary items from the hall: potted nts, rockeries, calligraphy paintings, sofas, and so on. Only a grand piano and a gray seat cushion were left behind.


    Qing Yi sat down on the cold floor next to Qing Zhen and said, "Second Bro, please criticize me a little. You can even hit me. I''ve made such a huge mistake but you didn''t even say a word to me. It''s making me a little flustered."


    There was always a saying in this society: "The leader criticizes you because he regards you highly. But once he doesn''t have any criticism left for you, it''s over for you."


    Actually, there was some truth to this statement. So Qing Yi kept getting the feeling that he was beyond saving when faced with the calm Qing Zhen.


    However, Qing Zhen did not answer him. Instead, he brought up a different topic. "Qing Yi, how many times did you go to this Ginkgo Manor when you were young?"


    "Once." Qing Yi replied, "My father brought me here when I was 18 to meet that elder who used to be in charge of the Qing Consortium. Later, that old man remarked that I wasn''t a great talent, so my father rarely bothered with me again after we returned home. When my father fell seriously ill sometimeter, he didn''t even let me visit him when he was in the hospital."


    Such estranged kinship among the rich and powerful of the consortiums would shock any of themon folk.


    Perhaps if many of the refugees were to find out about these matters, they would secretly think it was better to stay as refugees. But if they were given a chance to form a new consortium, most of them would just brush it off to the back of their minds.


    Qing Yi''s father was very strict with him. When he was young, he urged him to study, socialize, and even start reading up on military knowledge early.


    If Qing Yi did not do well, his father would beat and scold him.


    In the past, Qing Yi thought it was because his father loved him that he set such high standards for him.


    Later, he realized his father had only regarded him as a tool to gain ess to wealth and glory. Once he realized this tool was not useful, he cast it aside.


    Qing Yi said, "In the eyes of every member of the Qing Consortium, Ginkgo Manor seemed like a ce where their fate was decided. It''s just like how children from normal families take the college entrance exams that decide their futures at the age of 18. But what was even more depressing was that even if you failed the college entrance exam, others would not kick you while you were down. Moreover, there''d still be other opportunities around. But if you walked out of here with the assessment that you were useless, you''d be targeted by the ''hyenas and jackals'' outside. Within just a few years, the authority held by your faction would bepletely handed out."


    Qing Zhen said, lost in thought, "That''s right, those old fogeys nearly sealed your fate with just a few words. That''s the reason I used to detest this ce. After they met me just once, they gleefully said I was suitable to be the Qing Consortium''s Shadow. As a result, I had to work as the Qing Consortium''s Shadow for them."


    Qing Yi looked at his cousin. To be honest, he had always been a little curious about what Qing Zhen had said here to get chosen by those old fogeys as the new Shadow of the Qing Consortium.


    However, Qing Zhen didn''t intend to exin anything. "I''ve been here more times than you because I still had to report to those old fogeys about my work and take their criticisms after bing the Shadow. Every time I came here, I felt that the ornaments adorning this hall were really unnecessary. It was like they were trying to cover up the fact they were stupid by decorating this ce with a lot of pretentious things."


    In Qing Zhen''s opinion, the taxidermied specimens of ferocious beasts'' heads in the manor, thendscape paintings, and the exquisite weapons on disy were all just useless embellishments.


    They were hypocritical and impetuous.


    In fact, those old fogeys did not have the strength to even go hunting, nor were they passionate about painting. No one had even touched the grand piano in the hall before.


    Why would a truly powerful person need all this to prove themselves?


    Ginkgo Manor could not represent the Qing Consortium. Wherever Qing Zhen was seated, that ce would be the center of the Qing Consortium.


    Therefore, he got his subordinates to empty out the vi, leaving only the piano and a cushion behind.


    Qing Zhen said to Qing Yi with a smile, "Back then, my father was criticized by the Board for being too bookish and bing stupid from excessive studying. In the end, he became depressed for the rest of his life and even got ostracized by his rtives. You also know how poor Luo Lan and I were when we were young. Those rtives took away all the assets and businesses my grandfather had left for us. Actually, my family used to own a piano too, but Luo Lan nearly died when he was born, so my father sold it to treat his disease. Later, I kept thinking of buying another one for him, but unfortunately, I wasn''t able to before he passed away."


    Qing Zhen''s glorious life started at the age of 18. After he became the candidate for the Qing Consortium''s Shadow, all of his rtives who used to mock him reversed their attitudes and tried to please him instead.


    However, when most peopleter saw his morous appearance, they forgot about the embarrassment this Shadow was put through in the past.


    This was the Qing Consortium. This was reality.


    In this n, it only took a word from those old fogeys to decide whether one led a life of wealth or marginalization.


    Unfortunately, his father had already passed away when Qing Zhen was finally able to bask in his glory.


    Qing Zhen continued recalling, "When I was little, my father carved piano keys into the tabletop to teach me how to y the piano. At that time, my fingers ached so much from practicing that I kept begging him not to make me learn the piano anymore. I also wanted to head out and y every day like Luo Lan did. But my father said that someone like my brother could make a livelihood no matter the times. Because he''s capable and willing to endure humiliation and bow down to others. It was only me he was a little worried about. My father said that should he pass on, I would have some skills to fend for myself. Who knows? I might be able to earn some money by dabbling in the performing arts."


    "No wonder you learned to y the piano, Second Bro," Qing Yi said.


    "Mhm." Qing Zhen said, "Father would definitely be very happy if he could y on such a good piano when he was still alive. A good piano like that should be yed by someone like him."


    Qing Yi nodded. "I understand the piano now. This is the first time I''ve heard you mention it, Second Bro. But why did you leave a cushion behind as well?"


    Qing Zhen looked at Qing Yi. "Because your butt will hurt if you sit on the floor for too long. Doesn''t yours hurt?"


    Qing Yi was speechless. At this point, Qing Yi also went into a room and found a cushion to ce under his butt.


    To be honest, he did not dare toin just now when he sat down on the floor with Qing Zhen. But now, he thought it really did feel quite ufortable.


    For some reason, Qing Yi suddenly felt much calmer. Perhaps it was Qing Zhen''s soothing tone that affected him, or perhaps it was the calmness of the "ckke" that brought him peace.


    It was no wonder his cousin liked sitting here so much. Qing Zhen seemed to have too many things on his mind, so he needed a quieter environment to sort out his emotions, and this was just the right ce to do so.


    The emptiness and the single-tone color scheme made it seem like he was meditating in the middle of ake.


    Qing Zhen said to Qing Yi, "Don''t worry too much. We have to acknowledge the strength of the enemy first before we can have the courage to face them. It was expected that the military base would get destroyed, so there''s no need to me yourself too much. Even if the enemy did not destroy Military Base 12, they''d still go and take out the other bases. We''re totally unable to defend against them right now."


    "Second Bro, what do you think they''re up to now?" Qing Yi asked.


    Qing Zhen smiled and said, "We should know the answer soon."


    Just as he finished speaking, Xu Man ran in from outside with a satellite phone in his hand.


    Xu Man said to Qing Zhen, "Sir, they really called."


    Qing Zhen took the phone and put it up to his ear. Wang Shengzhi''s weak voice could be heard on the other end.


    The other party chuckled and said, "You didn''te when I invited you the previous time. This time, I''ll wait for you at Stronghold 61."


    After saying that, he hung up.


    Qing Zhen handed the phone to Xu Man. Both Qing Yi and Xu Man heard what Wang Shengzhi said as well.


    So it turned out the other party had only destroyed Military Base 12 to send the Qing Consortium the message that he could shatter the aces up their sleeves.


    Thest time the Wang Consortium invited Qing Zhen to the Central ins, he did not go.


    This time, the Wang Consortium had given Qing Zhen a reason why he could not turn down the invitation. If a war were to start between the Wang Consortium and the Qing Consortium, the Qing Consortium would definitely lose. But now that there was an opportunity to negotiate, would they want it?


    Qing Yi looked at Qing Zhen and said in seriousness, "Second Bro, you can''t go!"


    Qing Zhen asked, "Why not?"


    "You''re the leader of the Qing Consortium. If anything happens to you, the Qing Consortium will copse." Qing Yi said, "They''ve only destroyed one of our military bases, not all of them. The Qing Consortium still has a fighting chance! If the Wang Consortium wants to attack, they''ll have to build a huge supply line first. It''s a 500-kilometer journey. I''m confident I can show them the difference between the Qing Consortium and the Kong and Zhou Consortiums."


    Qing Zhen said with a smile, "If it can destroy one of our military bases, it can also destroy a second one. I think that something might have already happened at the other military bases, but they haven''t activated their full sabotage n yet. Qing Yi, you can''t take any chances when ying Go against the AI."<novelnext></novelnext>


    "But, Second Bro, it''s very dangerous for you to go there. Will the Wang Consortium treat you with hospitality? Will they let you return to the Southwest?" Qing Yi said anxiously.


    Xu Man, who had stayed silent all this while, also said, "Sir, you mustn''t go."


    Qing Zhen said with a smile, "Have the kitchen prepare some food. I''m a little hungry. As for these important issues, let''s wait until my brother gets back to talk about it."


    The opponent had ced their stone, so it was time for the Qing Consortium to y next.


    Qing Zhen sat in the "ckke" and looked out of the main hall''s entrance. He happened to see the ginkgo trees growing on the face of the mountain.


    At this moment, the leaves of the ginkgo trees had not turned yellow yet. October would have toe before they really started turning yellow. At that time, Mt. Ginkgo would be at its most beautiful. The bountiful harvest season also carried more of Qing Zhen''s memories.


    Qing Zhen remembered that his father had told him that these ginkgo trees were nted by the Qing Consortium''s forebears. At first, no one could have expected this ce to be filled with ginkgo trees.


    The ginkgo tree was also known as the Gongsun Tree. This was because it took more than 20 years for a ginkgo tree to bear fruit, so while it was nted by the grandfather, the fruits were to be enjoyed by the grandchild.


    When they were young, Luo Lan and he would secretlye to Mt. Ginkgo to pluck the ginkgo nuts from the trees when they were hungry. At first, they did not know the ginkgo nuts were poisonous. It was their father who told them they had to be cooked before they could be eaten.


    Mt. Ginkgo was an enclosed area. Although there were no troops stationed here, very few residents were willing to take the risk to enter the mountains because this was the Qing Consortium''s "backyard."


    Initially, Qing Zhen did not dare to steal the ginkgo nuts either, but Luo Lan was way too bold. He said they were starving to death, so why would he still care about the fucking rules?


    Later, the two brothers even brought other people here to pluck the nuts and secretly sold them to the restaurants in the stronghold. If they had enough to sell, the boss would even make them each a bowl of ginkgo pig trotter soup to drink.


    If they were lucky, they might even get some side dishes to eat. Those were rare treats of meat for the two brothers.


    Eventually, someone in the Qing Consortium found out they had stolen the ginkgo nuts and waited on Mt. Ginkgo to catch them in the act.


    Fortunately, Qing Zhen was a member of the Qing Consortium, so they were spared from punishment.


    Later, garrison troops started being stationed on Mt. Ginkgo. However, the infantry battalionmander was kind-hearted. When he saw that Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were in dire straits, he turned a blind eye to the matter of them stealing ginkgo nuts.


    That battalionmander was Qing Yi''s uncle, so Qing Zhen and Luo Lan got to know Qing Yiter.


    After they became familiar with each other, Qing Zhen once asked Qing Yi''s uncle, "Why didn''t you arrest us and continued letting us steal the ginkgo nuts instead?"


    Qing Yi''s uncle said with a smile, "Do you know the ginkgo tree is also known as the Gongsun Tree?"


    "I know, my father told me about it before," Qing Zhen answered.


    "Then have you ever heard, when the Qing Consortium''s forebears nted these ginkgo trees, they said to their descendants that if therees a day when the Qing Consortium''s descendants found it hard to survive, they coulde and pluck the ginkgo nuts to cook and eat? Perhaps that would help them tide through the crisis," Qing Yi''s uncle said.


    "Never heard of it." Qing Zhen shook his head.


    Qing Yi''s uncleughed. "Your ancestors nted the trees so the future of the n could be preserved. So what if you, as a descendant of the Qing Consortium, pluck some of these ginkgo nuts? Who knows? These ginkgo trees might have been nted just for you."


    Qing Zhen looked at the ginkgo forest and suddenly thought it was his turn to protect the Qing Consortium.


    ¡­


    The news of the Wang Consortium inviting Qing Zhen to Stronghold 61 was ryed to Luo Lan by Xu Man.


    Luo Lan, who was supposedly rushing back to Stronghold 111, suddenly detoured to Stronghold 114, taking the special forces battalion with him.


    The sudden change of destination to Stronghold 114 by Luo Lan, who was already carrying out an inspection tour of the Qing Consortium''s strongholds and had just killed a group of people in the northern strongholds, really left the officials there breaking out in cold sweat.


    When the officials found out Luo Lan was about to arrive, they all gathered together to discuss how to handle him. They could not figure out if they had done something wrong that caused that bastard to suddenly change his schedule.


    But after carefully thinking, the officials found it a little baffling. Their Stronghold 114 did not have any shortage in their arms inventory and food reserves. Their conduct was different from the strongholds that had to temporarily replenish their granaries. The officials here were really conscientious and did not try any tricks.


    Everyone thought that since they did not make any mistakes in their work, they should first see what this second-inmand of the Qing Consortium might be up to.


    When Luo Lan was about to arrive, all of the officials ran to the stronghold entrance to wee him.


    They had all heard that Luo Lan showed no respect to the officials when he visited the various strongholds. He did not even get out of his vehicle when he passed through the city gates.


    But even if Luo Lan could choose not to get out of his vehicle, they still had to go and wee him.


    Just as expected, Luo Lan sped past with his convoy without any intention of stopping at the stronghold entrance.


    But after Luo Lan''s convoy entered Stronghold 114, they did not drive to the administrative center. Instead, they headed straight for the official residence of a Qing Consortium member.


    This Qing Consortium member had quite a reputation within the organization, but he was not in the same faction as Qing Zhen.


    Logically, Qing Zhen should have gotten rid of this potential threat after taking over the Qing Consortium. However, the other party''s reputation in Stronghold 114 was rtively high, and Qing Zhen had other more important things to attend to. Seeing that the other party was keeping a low profile, it could be said they decided to coexist peacefully.


    This time, Luo Lan led his troops right over. When they arrived at the other party''s official residence, they immediately carried out a full lockdown and rushed in with the elites of the special forces.


    The middle-aged man named Qing Huan stood in the middle of his home''s courtyard and looked at Luo Lan coldly. "What brings you here?"


    Luo Lan chuckled as he strode towards the other party with long strides. Then he suddenly took out his pistol and killed the other party on the spot without giving him a chance to say another word.


    This turn of events happened so suddenly many of the security detail in the official residence could not react in time.


    By the time they had the thought to resist, the soldiers of the special forces battalion had already begun to neutralize the entire official residence''s security personnel with automatic rifles fitted with silencers.


    The security personnel here were all veterans of the Qing Consortium''s troops. They were considered Qing Huan''s former subordinates and were also elites.


    Under normal circumstances, they were fully capable of dealing with a surprise attack.


    But in their day-to-day work, they were only equipped with pistols and were not even wearing bulletproof vests, so how could they possibly be a match for the elites of the special forces?


    Luo Lan took in the sight of Qing Huan''s official residence covered in blood before returning to his vehicle without any hesitation.


    Zhou Qi sighed and said, "You''ve overdone it, surely?"


    Luo Lan said nonchntly, "This guy looked like he was staying in Stronghold 114 obediently but had actually been secretly controlling the officials of Stronghold 114. He even tried to collude with the other members of the Qing Consortium. In the past, I would''ve allowed him to live to show my brother''s benevolence. But now that the Wang Consortium is about to start a war, how can I continue to let him live?"


    The reason Luo Lan suddenly changed his itinerary this time and became so ruthless was entirely due to the Wang Consortium''s invitation.


    At this moment, Luo Lan was extremely clearheaded. A great change wasing. What he needed to do was definitely not to hurry back to Stronghold 111 but to get rid of all the unstable elements around Qing Zhen first.


    He wanted to help Qing Zhen eliminate all potential threats in the Southwest within three days.


    Only then could Qing Zhen focus his attention on other matters.


    Zhou Qi said, "Then what crime did you execute him for? How will strangers judge you for killing someone without any evidence?"


    "Hehe." Luo Lan realized a drop of blood had sttered onto his face earlier. As he wiped off the blood with a tissue, he said with a smile, "Since when did I have to frame others to kill them? Since I''ve already killed him, so be it. Whoever wants to criticize me can criticize me all they want. I don''t need to have a good reputation."


    In times like these, extraordinary people would do extraordinary things.


    These were Zhou Qi''s thoughts on the matter at this moment.


    The special forces battalion started thoroughly cleaning up the entire residence of Qing Huan. Before they were done, the officials of Stronghold 114 arrived and saw the courtyard full of blood. However, they could only keep quiet out of fear. It was as though they did not even dare to breathe too loudly.


    Luo Lan sat in the vehicle and looked at them coldly. He said, "There''s a reason for today''s incident. You people should just focus on your own work. The internal affairs of the Qing Consortium have nothing to do with you all. I''m very satisfied with the arms inventory and food reserve levels at Stronghold 114."


    After that, the convoy set off once again and headed for Stronghold 115. In Luo Lan''s n, there were still several people he needed to kill.


    The officials stood dumbfounded at the entrance of Qing Huan''s official residence behind the convoy and looked at each other. When they turned around and saw the corpses here, they suddenly heaved a sigh of relief.


    An official said to his subordinates, "Get someone toe over and finish cleaning up the ce. Remember, gag the news. If anyone asks about this matter, tell them you don''t know anything."


    ",

 Chapter 1215 Its What I Owe Qing Zhen

    The news of Luo Lan barging into Stronghold 114 and killing Qing Huan on the spot did not spread too widely.


    Not only did an official in the stronghold issue a confidentiality order on the incident, but he also ced everyone who knew under house arrest in Qing Huan''s official residence, making them sign a confidentiality agreement.


    This official actually knew all about the Qing Consortium''s situation. Now that he had seen Luo Lan kill Qing Huan without any hesitation, he knew the true purge was starting.


    Therefore, there were definitely others Luo Lan had to kill.


    If the people Luo Lan wanted to kill fled after hearing about somemotion in Stronghold 114, all of the officials here would probably get into trouble.


    However, this official actually took this incident as an opportunity. Actually, Luo Lan might not really need there to be any confidentiality measures. But if someone were to tell Luo Lan about the hard work he had put in in the future, his position would likely be stabilized even if he could not climb the ranks.


    In the next three days, Luo Lan led the Qing Consortium''s special forces battalion and traveled to three strongholds in a row, killing over a 100 people in total.


    At this moment, the news of Luo Lan wantonly settling scores with the opposing factions within the Qing Consortium could no longer be suppressed.


    Some people thought that such ruthless methods would definitely cause the opposing factions to retaliate.


    People always wanted to see the world burn. As long as the matter did not implicate them, it would be fine even if it escted to the Heavens. Therefore, a lot of people were looking forward to seeing a good show y out.


    However, the development of the situation disappointed them. No one retaliated because those who could have done so had already been killed by Luo Lan.


    Many people finally realized the reason why the opposing factions had kept their lives in the past was because Luo Lan had allowed them to live.


    It seemed the list of those who needed to be "cleaned up" was engraved in Luo Lan''s mind. During the past three days, he and his men had been rushing to the various strongholds and killing people nonstop. Fatty Luo had thought out his strategy beforehand.


    The sequence of the strongholds to visit, and how to coordinate the intelligence agents to keep an eye on the targets, all of that was within his calctions.


    After three days, not only did Luo Lan not get tired, but he even seemed to have be more energetic.


    Zhou Qi suddenly felt that such people were born tomit murder and arson.


    If you wanted him to lead a peaceful life, he would turn listless instead.


    The final stop was Stronghold 89.


    Luo Lan stood in the middle of the bloodsoaked courtyard house and ordered the special forces soldiers to search every corner of it.


    The owner of the house was still lying at Luo Lan''s feet and gasping for breath. He was holding onto Luo Lan''s pants tightly with his bloody hands. He was trying to say something, but he couldn''t muster a sound.


    Luo Lan''s expression was cold. This person had secretly colluded with the other Qing Consortium members who opposed Qing Zhen and attempted a coup to take control of the Qing Consortium''s troops near Stronghold 89.


    Legitimacy belonged to the victor. There was no mercy to be had.


    The other party was panting heavily. Even though he was almost dying, he refused to draw hisst breath.


    At this moment, a soldier from the special forces battalion said, "Sir, there are traces of footsteps on the moss by the well in the yard. There should be something hidden in the well."


    When he said that, the seriously injured man at his feet suddenly got a ferocious look on his face. But before he could do anything, Luo Lan shot him in the forehead one final time.


    "Sir, there''s a child hiding in the well," themander of the special forces battalion said to Luo Lan.


    Luo Lan walked to the well and looked down. He saw an eight or nine-year-old child hanging from a rope in the deep well.


    The child''s eyes were clear but filled with fear. The child had heard the gunshots and screams in the residence. His muscles started trembling under the strain of holding onto the rope in the well for an extended period.


    "Sir, let me handle the kid," themander of the special forces battalion said. It was better to leave the killing of children to they subordinates.


    Luo Lan patted the battalionmander on the shoulder. "It''s alright, we''re pulling out of here."


    After killing thest person on the list, Luo Lan left Stronghold 89 as though a burden had been lifted from his mind. He only left behind a trail of blood and corpses in the stronghold.


    In the past year, Luo Lan had rarely killed anyone anymore. That was mainly because he was not personally required to take action most of the time. Therefore, a lot of people almost thought Luo Lan had toned down his character. It was just like how all hooligans tried to repackage themselves as gentlemen after gaining authority. But it was only now that everyone realized Luo Lan was still the same as before. He had never changed.<novelnext></novelnext>


    On the way back to Stronghold 111, the armored vehicles and Mountain Obliterators escorting the convoy made for a spectacr sight.


    The khaki-colored armored vehicles drove on the road like roaring beasts.


    In the off-road vehicle, Luo Lan was sitting in the back and looking out of the window in a daze. He suddenly said to Zhou Qi next to him, "Things have already started changing in the Southwest. I remember when I went to Stronghold 88 as a hostage, there wasn''t even a decent road we could take to get there."


    "To be honest, Qing Zhen is really good at governing this vast Southwest." Zhou Qi said, "If it were anyone else, they would probably not even be able to establish their authority in such a short time."


    "How do you think he became the head of the Qing Consortium?" Luo Lan chuckled.


    Zhou Qi nced at Luo Lan. "He gets to y the good guy while you get your hands dirty out here. Our hands are covered in blood from the past three days of killing. I said that we should execute them once and for all, but you only killed the old and insisted on letting the young ones live. When they grow up in ten years, won''t theye hounding us for revenge every day?"


    "What''s there to be afraid of?" Luo Lan sneered and said, "I''ll actually be quite happy that someone would be ballsy enough to take revenge on me."


    Zhou Qi muttered, "You''re quite optimistic, eh? I just don''t understand. Although Qing Zhen is your younger brother, is there a need for you to take the fall for him all the time? Are you the Qing Consortium''s Shadow? Don''t you know that none of the Qing Consortium''s Shadows got a good ending?"


    "He''s my younger brother," Luo Lan said in seriousness.


    "Everyone changes!" Zhou Qi said, "After he''s held onto power for a few decades, once you incur the wrath of the masses one day, he''ll have to make a choice between power and you. What choice do you think he will make? Power has a charm. It can make people give up everything."


    Luo Lan looked out the window and said, "You know I nearly died from an illness when I was six, right? I remember telling you that before."


    "Mhm." Zhou Qi replied, "Why are you bringing that up?"


    "That time, in order to save me, my father even sold off his piano." Luo Lan said, "You don''t know how much my father loved ying the piano. It was practically his life. When I was old enough, I always heard him say that his dream was to be a pianist."


    Zhou Qi curled his lips. "So you''re saying you were the one who ruined your father''s dream?!"


    "No, he had given up on that dream a long time ago." Luo Lan said, "At that time, Qing Zhen''s mother was diagnosed with cancer, and my old man had exhausted all his savings to treat her illness, but he still couldn''t cure her. We were only left with the piano at home. My old man originally nned to sell it so he could support Qing Zhen and me attending a Qing Consortium private school. Because only by getting into a private school would we stand a chance of being valued by the old fogeys living on Mt. Ginkgo when we grew up."


    Members of the Qing Consortium were eligible to attend private schools. Although they didn''t have to pay for tuition, the amodations, uniforms, and activity expenses were extremely expensive.


    Those private schools were not only for learning, but students were also brought on trips to see the world. Students would be escorted by retired soldiers of the Qing Consortium on those trips.


    When Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were still young, everyone in the Qing Consortium wanted to send their children there, because getting enrolled in a private school would help students attract the attention of the old fogeys on Mt. Ginkgo earlier.


    Moreover, the teachers at the private schools were the best in the territory controlled by the Qing Consortium. What they taught was alsopletely different from the curriculum outside. Military, politics, economics, sociology, and philosophy, all of these subjects wereprehensively taught in the private school. From childhood, the students would get ess to training with firearms as well.


    Children who graduated from such private schools were indeed better than those who attended public schools.


    There was a saying within the Qing Consortium that children who attended private school were the future of the Qing Consortium. Those who did not attend private school were considered wild children.


    Therefore, Luo Lan''s old man had already nned for this. His dream of bing a pianist was not important at all. If he had to give up on that, so be it. But his two children had to get enrolled in a private school.


    But when it rained, it poured. Their family had just spent all their savings to treat Qing Zhen''s mother''s illness, but Luo Lan fell sick as well. There was no other choice. His life was more important than anything else, so his old man could only sell the piano to save him first.


    Their hopes of attending a private school faded with that. His old man''s health had deteriorated too because he often sold his blood for money.


    Luo Lan smiled at Zhou Qi and said, "You also know what our rtives in the Qing Consortium were like. Much earlier, they had divided up a factory my old man owned. When my old man went to borrow money from them, none of them even wanted to see him."


    Luo Lan continued, "Actually, it was their choice whether they wanted to lend us money or not. But not only did Qing Zhen''s second uncle refuse to see my old man when he approached him for help, he even had someone bring out a bowl of leftovers from the yard. At that time, Qing Zhen was present as well. His second uncle''s butler said, ''Hurry up and eat while it''s hot. You won''t get such delicious food to eat after you get home.''"


    "Qing Yun''s father?" Zhou Qi recalled. "I have an impression of him. He died suddenly in his lover''s house some years ago. Later, Qing Zhen arranged for someone to also kill Qing Yun. I was there at that time, so was that for revenge?"


    Luo Lanughed. "Qing Zhen''s second uncle purely overstretched himself and suffered a sudden death. It had nothing to do with us at all. As for Qing Yun, he was the one who caused his own death. At the beginning, we wanted to take revenge not on any particr person, but on the entire Qing Consortium. Of course, after we grew up, our mentality gradually toned down a little. We understood that this was how the world was, so we had to get used to it. Qing Zhen was quite soft-hearted in the early years. If he had not been forced to that point by how our old man was treated, he would not have made up his mind to take action."


    "You''ve gone on quite a tangent. Back to the piano," Zhou Qi said.


    Luo Lan recalled, "When my old man fell seriously ill, he called me to his bedside when he knew he was about to die. Then he told me that piano originally stood for the future of us two brothers. If I hadn''t fallen sick, Qing Zhen and I could have gone to attend a private school together, and who knows, we might have been able to join the Qing Consortium and get jobs as officials in the future. But it was my fault that I had to fall sick. My old man said that the piano''s value should have been split between Qing Zhen and me, but I ended up using all of it and sacrificed Qing Zhen''s future in the process. So my old man said I had to protect my younger brother. It''s what I owe Qing Zhen. This is my fate."

 Chapter 1216 Never Changed

    Early in the morning, the officials of Stronghold 111 were already waiting nervously at the city gates.


    It was drizzling, but this group of officials did not even dare to open their umbres and just stood waiting in the rain.


    News of Luo Lan''s massacre of political opponents had reached Stronghold 111st night.


    Although the officials knew they were not the targets, the problem was that anyone would feel a little scared when faced with someone who cleaned up the Qing Consortium''s threats in just three days.


    This was even if they knew he would not kill them, nor that they mattered in his eyes at all.


    An hourter, the special forces convoy Luo Lan was with finally arrived. As usual, the convoy drove past the entrance with a roar.


    When the muddy water from the wheels sshed onto the officials'' bodies and faces, it was as though Luo Lan had pped their faces.


    When the convoy arrived at the foot of Mt. Ginkgo, the special forces battalion came to a stop. Only Luo Lan''s vehicle was allowed to continue driving up the mountain.


    On the mountain path, Luo Lan suddenly asked, "Were you the one who apanied my younger brother up this mountain back then? It was snowing heavily that day."


    Zhou Qi recalled, "Mhm, at that time, he already knew those old fogeys of the Qing Consortium were going to move against him, so he deliberately sent you to the Yang Consortium''s Stronghold 88 as a hostage. Regardless of whether he would seed or not, at least he could ensure your survival."


    Sometimes, Zhou Qi felt very emotional about this. In such an era, these two brothers still considered each other''s interests even if they had to sacrifice their own gains. Such a rtionship was really enviable.


    Zhou Qi said, "After he became the head of the Qing Consortium, he immediately came up with a n to rescue you from Stronghold 88. At that time, many officials were waiting to pledge their allegiance to him. In the end, he stayed in the manor and refused to see any of them. He was only focused on getting updates about you."


    Luo Lan asked, "What, are you moved?"


    Zhou Qi curled his lips. "What''s there to be moved by? I''m an emotionless killer who only cares for money. Such emotions are of no use to me at all. It''ll hurt my profits."


    Luo Lan did not say anything more.


    The mountain path stretched for more than 20 kilometers. Actually, it could be reached in the blink of an eye by car. In the past, Luo Lan always felt that this path was quite short. But when he thought about how Qing Zhen had to trek up the mountain barefoot in heavy snow, he felt that it was very long.


    It must have been very tough for him that day. Every step he took was probably extremely difficult as well.


    Mt. Ginkgo used to be the highest barrier for Qing Zhen to ovee. But once he stepped up to it, he was able to surmount it.


    From then on, Qing Zhen was no longer the Qing Zhen who liked gardening and listening to opera.


    ¡­


    When they arrived at the gate of Ginkgo Manor, Xu Man was already waiting there. "Boss Luo, Mr. Qing Zhen is waiting for you."


    Luo Lan looked at Xu Man. "It''s been hard on you, having to protect him around the clock."


    "It''s my duty," Xu Man replied softly.


    The soldiers outside the Ginkgo Manor secretly nced at Xu Man. Some of the newbies who had just been transferred under hismand thought to themselves, ''Even Luo Lan is speaking so politely to our superior¡­.''


    Over the years, Xu Man''s status in the Qing Consortium had gradually risen.


    Although Xu Man was only a major general, Qing Zhen was the only one who could order him around. Not even Luo Lan could do so.


    In the early days, Xu Man was in charge of the nuclear test site. Later, Xu Man was also the one who amalgamated the bandit groups in the northern valley. Nowadays, whenever there were any troublesome matters or dangerous missions, Xu Man was basically the one who handled them.


    As matters stood, the Qing Consortium''s intelligence agency was split into twomands. Luo Lan was in charge of internal affairs while Xu Man oversaw external affairs.


    When Qing Zhen ventured into the Jing Mountains back then, he had also brought Xu Man along with him.


    In the early years, many people tried to bribe Xu Man, but they all failed.


    For someone like Luo Lan, he felt it was very reassuring to have Xu Man protect Qing Zhen. At the very least, he would never have to worry about anyone stabbing Qing Zhen in the back.


    Upon entering Ginkgo Manor, Luo Lan immediately saw Qing Zhen looking at him with a smile.


    Qing Zhen said, "You must be tired, right?"


    "Yes, a little." Luo Lan was not fussy either. He had Qing Yi stand up and snatched the cushion under him before sitting down on it himself.


    If Qing Yi addressed Qing Zhen as Second Bro, he would naturally address Luo Lan as Big Bro.


    Back when they were fighting on the streets of Stronghold 111, Luo Lan was the big brother of the group. Even though Qing Yi had be the Qing Consortium''s highest-ranking militarymander, he still felt a lot of reverence for this big brother figure.


    If it were anyone else who snatched the cushion, Qing Yi would have raged at them.


    But since it was Luo Lan who snatched it from him, he could only obediently go into the room to get another one. At the same time, he also brought one out for Zhou Qi to sit on.


    Luo Lan casually said, "What''s your decision on Wang Shengzhi''s invitation for you to go to Stronghold 61?"


    Qing Zhenughed and said, "Since he wants me to go, I''ll make a trip there."


    "Is there really a need for that?" Luo Lan wondered. "No matter how powerful the Wang Consortium and the AI are, can they attack our Qing Consortium directly? Without the missile troops, we can still take them head-on with our automatic rifles. I don''t believe they''re that ferocious!"


    Qing Zhen shook his head. "Things are a little worse than we thought. As of today, not only has Base 12 been invaded, but Base 2 and Base 4 have not been spared either."


    Luo Lan was stunned. "All of the military bases holding the missile troops are gone?"


    "Fortunately, I''ve already gotten Qing Yi to separate the missiles from the vehicles, and there aren''t any missiles loaded in the silos either." Qing Zhen said, "If the enemy is not only capable of destroying and invading our bases, but also taking direct control of our military systems, those missiles would probably havended in Stronghold 111."


    Luo Lan frowned. "But¡ª"


    "No buts." Qing Zhen said calmly, "I''ve also made some contingency ns for this trip to the Central ins. I won''t be heading there personally. Have you forgotten that I have a double?"


    At this point, Luo Lan subconsciously looked at the other party''s hand but did not notice any scars.


    This was the real Qing Zhen.


    Luo Lan thought for a moment and said, "Are you nning to have that clone go in your ce? That doesn''t seem like a bad idea either. It''s rtively safer. Besides, Wang Shengzhi definitely does not know about the existence of the double."


    Ever since the clone came back to the Qing Consortium from the Pyro Company''s Sacred Mountains, Qing Zhen had been paying a lot of attention to his own whereabouts. What he was sure of was that there were no ws whenever he switched roles with his double.


    Even the artificial intelligence could not analyze any clues from his itinerary.


    Luo Lan suddenly heaved a sigh of relief. He had thought Qing Zhen was really going to the Central ins by himself.


    But Qing Zhen suddenly said, "But I have something to discuss with you, Big Bro. You and Zhou Qi will have to go on this trip to the Central ins as well. Because I have something more important that I need you all to handle. We can only seed in our n, not fail."


    Luo Lan was stunned. "What''s the matter?"


    Qing Zhen had Xu Man, who was at the door, retrieve an envelope and hand it to Luo Lan.


    Luo Lan took a document out of it and read it. He looked up in shock. "Is this feasible?"


    "Yes," Qing Zhen said with a nod.


    Luo Lan finally understood why Zhou Qi and he had to make this trip personally. It turned out Qing Zhen''s n was not to just go to the Central ins to negotiate with Wang Shengzhi.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Without someone trustworthy to carry out such a n, it would definitely not work.


    On the vast Go board, the artificial intelligence and Qing Zhen had both been plotting for a long time. Now that the board was revealed to them, Qing Zhen had allowed the other party to y the first move as ck. It was now time for Qing Zhen to y the next move.


    Qing Zhen said, "This time, we can''t use our people in the Central ins. Xu Man will lead the garrison troops under hismand and go with you."


    "Alright." Luo Lan said solemnly, "With Xu Man working with me, it''ll be a huge plus for me. Don''t worry, we''ll definitely pull this n off!"


    Qing Zhen hesitated for a moment before saying, "You might be put in danger this time, but I have no other choice."


    "Mhm, I understand." Luo Lanughed and said, "There''s no need for such civility between us."


    At the side, Zhou Qi sighed when he saw this.


    In the end, Qing Zhen still sent his elder brother to charge into enemy lines. He left the dangerous task to Luo Lan while staying safe in his position of power. Zhou Qi wanted to ask Luo Lan if it was worth it, but he could not bring himself to say that.


    Zhou Qi was even thinking that although Luo Lan seemed carefree, he was actually very meticulous.


    He did not believe that Luo Lan would not think of something even he could think of.


    At this moment, Qing Zhen said loudly, "Come on out. I want you to make a trip with my brother."


    With that, Qing Zhen''s clone walked out from a secret sideroom and said to Luo Lan with a smile, "Pleasure to work with you, Big Bro."


    But just as Qing Zhen''s clone walked up to Luo Lan, he saw Luo Lan''s hand aiming for his neck like a knife. The clone was easily knocked unconscious.


    Everyone present was dumbfounded by this turn of events. What was Luo Lan trying to do?


    Qing Zhen sat on the cushion and frowned. "It''s fine if you don''t want to go to the Central ins."


    Luo Lan sneered, "Shut up. You have no right to speak around here."


    Then Luo Lan pulled Qing Shen up and slowlyid him t on the marble floor. Then he grabbed the left hand of "Qing Shen" and looked at it. The scar was there.


    However, Luo Lan was not bothered. He rubbed the back of Qing Shen''s hand a few times and saw the extremely realistic-looking scare off.


    Luo Lan lifted Qing Zhen''s sleeves again and confirmed the four moles on his forearms before finally feeling relieved.


    Although Third Brother Qing was a clone who resembled Qing Zhen in almost every way, moles were mnin deposits. It was something that formed randomly, so it wouldn''t be possible to forge them even if he wanted to.


    Luo Lan had taken precautions beforehand. Even Qing Zhen did not know he had found an opportunity to memorize the locations of his moles.


    Zhou Qi and Qing Yi were both stunned. Only at this moment did they realize the person who had been knocked unconscious on the ground was actually Qing Zhen!


    They looked at the person who pretended to be Qing Zhen and saw Third Brother Qing smiling bitterly. He rubbed off the concealer on the back of his hand and said, "Big Bro, how did you recognize me? Did I not portray him well?"


    "Yes, you behaved very simrly to him." Luo Lan said, "I have to say that your acting was really good. Not even me as your elder brother was able to see the difference."


    Third Brother Qing was puzzled. "Then how did you realize who we were? Did we slip up?"


    "The biggest mistake is that Qing Zhen would not let me take the risk alone." Luo Lan sneered, "Was this his n, or yours?"


    "Of course it was his." Third Brother Qing chuckled as he quickly shifted the me and said, "I''m not as smart as him."


    Zhou Qi looked at Luo Lan in silence. He could not understand something. Qing Zhen''s and Qing Shen''s acting were clearly wless, yet Luo Lan daringly concluded that the person sitting on the cushion was not Qing Zhen just because of such a simple reason. ''Is it because you firmly believed Qing Zhen would never betray you?''


    Zhou Qi was in emotional turmoil. He had thought people would always change because the world would change. But he just realized that no matter how the world changed, the brotherhood between Qing Zhen and Luo Lan stayed the same.


    The head of the Qing Consortium gave up all his authority just so he could risk his life with his brother?


    Zhou Qi thought to himself, ''How childish.''


    Luo Lan looked at the unconscious Qing Zhen and said, "He''s been like this since he was a child. I thought he would change after bing the Qing Consortium''s leader, but he''s still the same in the end."


    Third Brother Qing took advantage of Qing Zhen''sa and said to Luo Lan with a smile, "Big Bro, you''re really perceptive. I''ve always known you were out of the ordinary. You''ve been deliberately hiding your edge. But here''s the thing. You''ve also read the n. If we want to pull it off, we''ll need to get Zhou Qi involved. But if you don''t go to the Central ins, with Zhou Qi''s personality, he definitely won''t go either. In Qing Zhen''s n, this mission has to be carried out andpleted. Only by seeding at this step will there be a glimmer of hope for the future. So you all must go."


    Third Brother Qing continued with a smile, "In order to ensure your safety, Qing Zhen has made a lot of ns. So Xu Man has to go as well. He doesn''t trust anyone else to protect you. But even so, he was still unwilling to let you bear the risk alone, especially because it was his orders. So he pretended to be me to go with you."


    "Then what about you?" Luo Lan frowned.


    "Me?" Third Brother Qing thought for a moment and said, "He''s already shared all of his subsequent ns with me. Qing Zhen said that if neither of you returned, I''d be the one to carry out those ns. At that time, I''d be Qing Zhen to protect the Qing Consortium on his behalf."


    Luo Lan nced at the unconscious Qing Zhen. In this era, the "Go board" was filled with supernatural beings. Perhaps only someone like Qing Zhen was able to influence this game as an ordinary person.


    Third Brother Qing stood up from his cushion and said, "Since you''ve seen through our act, I''ll follow you to the Central ins. I''ll negotiate with Wang Shengzhi as Qing Zhen. I feel that this is much more fun than staying at Ginkgo Manor."


    At the side, Zhou Qi suddenly protested, "Wait a minute, did I say that I was going?"


    Luo Lan turned to Zhou Qi and asked in a serious tone, "Well, aren''t you going?"


    When Zhou Qi saw how serious he was, his aggression was immediately suppressed a little. "I don''t mind, but you''ll have to pay more!"


    "Yes." Third Brother Qing said with a smile, "Qing Zhen has agreed that you''ll be paid a 100 years of the taxation of Stronghold 89 after you return. Although you won''t live for another 100 years, your descendants will."


    Zhou Qi was stunned. An entire stronghold''s 100 years of tax revenue?


    Although he still would not have the authority to govern the stronghold, that was definitely enough tost him ten lifetimes. If he were to have children in the future, they would definitely be some of the richest people in the Qing Consortium.


    "Alright, no risk, no reward. I''ll take the job!" Zhou Qi said through gritted teeth.


    "Did Qing Zhen say anything else? Don''t miss any details," Luo Lan asked Third Brother Qing.


    Third Brother Qing said, "He doesn''t tell anyone anything now. I''m just an outsider, so why would he tell me?"


    "Think back," Luo Lan said, raising his eyebrows. As he spoke, a faint golden glow appeared behind him. It looked like he was about to summon his martyred spirits to attack someone.


    "Haha." Third Brother Qingughed and said, "He did mention you to me before."


    "What about me?" Luo Lan wondered.


    "He said that because of something that happened when you were young, you always felt that you owed him something." Third Brother Qing said, "But actually, he felt that it was him who owes you instead. Without him, you might have had your own life to live."


    Luo Lan squatted down next to Qing Zhen and did not say anything for a long time. The others also remained silent and waited.


    His clone, Qing Shen, suddenly asked in a serious tone, "I have a question. If it weren''t for that incident, would you still treat him like this?"


    After a long time, Luo Lanughed. "As the elder brother, I should be protecting my younger brother."


    He gave Qing Zhen onest look before saying to Qing Yi, "Take good care of your Second Bro. If anything happens to him, I''ll deal with you when I get back."


    After that, Luo Lan turned around and walked out of Ginkgo Manor. Qing Yi watched his burly and tough figure recede.


    The silhouette that strode away on the dark gray marble floor felt like it was walking from the ckke towards the light beyond the door.

 Chapter 1217 Bargaining Chips

    Six hours after Luo Lan andpany left Stronghold 111, the Qing Consortium suddenly held an extremely high-profile press conference.


    Being the center of the Qing Consortium''s authority, arge number of news reporters would naturally be based at Stronghold 111.


    Ever since the Wang Consortium unified the Central ins, the Qing Consortium had not held a press conference in a long time. Everyone really wanted to know the Qing Consortium''s stance on the Wang Consortium, so this press conference was naturally packed.


    The invited reporters, photographers, and videographers were allowed to sit in the front row while the uninvited ones were made to wait anxiously outside the door.


    But before the press conference started, the Qing Consortium''s staff admitted the uninvited reporters into the venue as well. This surprised everyone a little.


    Under normal circumstances, they would definitely choose reporters they held sway over to attend such an important press conference. But now it seemed the Qing Consortium was more worried there were not enough reporters attending.


    Inside the venue, the reporters held their own little notepads and carefully checked whether their recording equipment were working normally. Some photographers and videographers knelt in the foremost row of the venue as they waited for the press conference to begin.


    Qing Yi walked up from backstage in his military uniform and looked calmly at the reporters in front of him.


    Everyone fell silent immediately.


    Qing Yi said in a low voice, "There won''t be a Q&A session scheduled this time. The purpose of holding this press conference is to inform everyone that Mr. Qing Zhen, the current Chairman of the Qing Consortium''s Board, has already headed to the Wang Consortium for a discussion with Mr. Wang Shengzhi.


    "The war in the Alliance of Strongholds has been going on for a long time. Mr. Qing Zhen is willing to risk going to the Central ins to stop the war so that people will no longer have to suffer the hardships of war.


    "I hope the Wang Consortium will respect the sincerity of our Qing Consortium and show theirs as well.


    "During this period, I, Qing Yi, as the highest-ranking militarymander of the Qing Consortium, will temporarily take over all of the Qing Consortium''s affairs."


    Qing Yi''s speech was written by the Qing Consortium''s head speechwriter. There was only one purpose in making such an announcement, and that was to inform everyone about the peace talks.


    If the Wang Consortium ended up confining or killing "Qing Zhen" and Luo Lan, the Wang Consortium would have to first face the criticism of the entire world.


    The moment this piece of news was released, all the reporters at the press conference went into an uproar. Just as they wanted to ask some questions, Qing Yi left escorted by soldiers.


    No one expected Qing Zhen would actually dare to take the initiative to head to the Central ins to negotiate with Wang Shengzhi.


    They could already imagine this would be tomorrow''s headline in all the newspapers.


    There was no other more sensational piece of news than this in the entire Alliance of Strongholds.


    ...


    When Qing Zhen regained consciousness, Qing Yi told him about what happened after he passed out. Qing Zhen then immediately called for this press conference.


    There was no time to regret that his previous arrangements were not thorough enough, nor did he show any unnecessary emotions. After leaving Stronghold 111, Luo Lan must have departed the Southwest at full speed, and no one would catch up to him.


    Therefore, what he could do now was to remedy the situation and add a few moreyers of security for Luo Lan.


    The coverage in the news media, as well as all of the Alliance of Strongholds'' citizens'' hopes for peace, were the bargaining chips the Qing Consortium currently had.


    However, it was still not enough.


    After the press conference, Qing Yi was directly escorted back to Ginkgo Manor. The rest of the world started specting that if "Qing Zhen" got ced under house arrest in the Central ins, Qing Yi would be the next leader of the Qing Consortium.


    No one could have expected that Qing Zhen had actually not left the Qing Consortium at all and was still there.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Qing Yi walked up to Qing Zhen and said softly, "Second Bro, why don''t I take some soldiers to the border and wait there? If Big Bro really gets detained, I''ll attack Stronghold 61 with my men and snatch him back."


    Qing Zhen shook his head. "No, I need you to be the representative to stabilize the situation. You''ve taken overmand of the Qing Consortium temporarily. As long as you''re still around, the hope of the Qing Consortium''s people will not copse for the time being. Moreover, the Wang Consortium is quite unstoppable at this moment. If you leave your home field and head to the Central ins, you''ll only be making an unnecessary sacrifice."


    Qing Yi could feel that Qing Zhen was extremely calm at this moment.


    It was not that Qing Zhen was calm by nature, but that the artificial intelligence was capable of forcing him to be calm.


    Qing Zhen sat on the cushion and pondered for very long. It was so long that Qing Yi could seemingly feel the clouds moving across the distant mountain outside the door.


    To Qing Zhen, no matter how smart he was, he could never be as wless in nning as the artificial intelligence. Therefore, all he could do was make up for any imperfections in his n with time.


    He continuously simted scenarios with all the clues he had but kept getting the feeling that something was missing. It was as though he was facing an insurmountable opponent.


    It was not that Qing Zhen was not confident enough, but that the artificial intelligence was simply too powerful.


    After a long time, Qing Zhen suddenly sighed and said, "It''s still not safe enough. The other party controls themunication satellites that most newspaper firms use to transmit information. If the AI directly cut off theirmunications at its source after realizing our purpose, news of our press conference might not get transmitted to the Central ins and the Northwest, so we still have to do more!"


    "How should I handle it then?" Qing Yi asked. Before this, Qing Zhen mentioned the problem with the satellites. Of the nine satellites in the Alliance of Strongholds, the Wang Consortium and the Pyro Company originally controlled one satellite each while the remaining seven belonged to the Qinghe Group.


    Now that the Wang Consortium had unified the Central ins, all the satellites had fallen into their hands. The Qing Consortium had already stopped using all their satellite phones and were even prohibited from switching them on.


    This was especially so for the Qing Consortium''s intelligence agents who were nted in the Central ins.


    That was because as long as their satellite phones were on, the Wang Consortium would be able to identify their locations. Intelligence agents who were given satellite phones were usually the higher-ups. If they werepletely weeded out, the entire Qing Consortium''s intelligence and field operations would suffer a devastating blow.


    "Check with our most trusted newspaper firm to see if they can contact the Central ins," Qing Zhen said.


    Qing Yi went out to see how things were. Just as Qing Zhen had predicted, themunications channel between the Southwest and the rest of the world had been cut off by the artificial intelligence.


    All the satellite phones had lost their signal.


    The artificial intelligence''s move was more ruthless and resolute than they had expected. It seemed intent on getting rid of all the bargaining chips held by the Qing Consortium.


    By doing so, the people in the Central ins would not find out that "Qing Zhen" and Luo Lan were headed to the Wang Consortium to negotiate peace, much less those who lived in the Northwest.


    "Get ten trustworthy soldiers and send them on different routes to the Northwest''s Stronghold 144 to look for Ren Xiaosu." Qing Zhen said.


    Qing Yi was stunned. "Why are we looking for him?"


    Qing Zhen exined, "Other than you, me, and Zhou Qi, there''s only two others in the world willing to risk their life for my brother. One of them is Tang Zhou, my brother''s adjutant, and the other is Ren Xiaosu."


    Qing Yi thought for a moment before asking, "Second Bro, you think that as long as Ren Xiaosu receives the news, he''ll definitely head to the Central ins?"


    "Yes." Qing Zhen nodded. "Moreover, there aren''t many supernatural beings who can save Luo Lan from the Wang Consortium. With the current strength of the Wang Consortium and the AI, supernatural beings will also have to submit to that war machine. But if anyone can really snatch someone away from the Wang Consortium, Ren Xiaosu is definitely one of them."


    "Will that make the n safe enough?" Qing Yi asked.


    Qing Zhen still shook his head and said with a sigh, "Perhaps Zero will also think of this possibility. Let''s see if the news can be delivered to Ren Xiaosu first."

 Chapter 1218 Success Doesnt Depend On Me Alone

    Ten off-road vehicles set out from Stronghold 111. Qing Zhen had asked Qing Yi to choose ten soldiers so they could go by ten different routes to ensure that the news from the Southwest could urately reach the Northwest.


    Right now, the more spread out the messengers were, the likelier this news could get delivered sessfully.


    These soldiers did not know too much about the news they were to deliver. They did not know it was actually not Qing Zhen himself who had set off for the Central ins. They did not know why they had to send the news to the Northwest. They also did not know they might die on this journey to the Northwest.


    They only knew that even if they would die, they had to ry the news of the peace talks at Stronghold 61 to the Northwest Army.


    Perhaps it was a little unfair to keep it from them, but Qing Zhen had to be wary of Zero.


    If these soldiers were intercepted midway and their memories got "stolen" by Zero using the nanomachines, there would be no more secrets to this n.


    Therefore, Qing Zhen had to hide it from them and calmly send them to their deaths.


    Ever since Luo Lan and Xu Man left Ginkgo Manor, no one, not even the Qing Consortium''s soldiers, was allowed to approach it.


    Only Qing Zhen and Qing Yi lived in this huge manor.


    It was not that the Qing Consortium no longer had anyone they could trust, but that Qing Zhen wanted to avoid any unexpected situations.


    Qing Zhen was sitting in the "ckke" and looking out to the distant mountains in a daze. Qing Yi fumbled around busily in the kitchen for a long while before he managed to prepare two bowls of fried rice.


    Qing Yi sat down on the floor next to Qing Zhen with the fried rice in hand. "Second Bro, I''m a poor cook, so please make do with this."


    The fried rice was a little burnt. It looked like Qing Yi had never personally prepared any meals before. Qing Zhen took the bowl of fried rice from him and said with a smile, "It''s been hard on you."


    Qing Yi gulped down two bites of fried rice and then went to get some red wine. It was not that he felt like drinking, but that the fried rice was so bad he gagged a little.


    Qing Yi took two sips of the wine and sighed. "If those old fogeys knew I paired the wine in their collection with fried rice, they''d probably crawl out of their graves in anger."


    "They can''t crawl out from there." Qing Zhen shook his head. "After my brother heard they made me walk barefoot for more than 20 kilometers in the snow, he secretly scattered their ashes away just before they were buried. All the urns at the funeral were actually empty."


    Qing Yi was speechless.


    Although Qing Zhen''s group was the one who killed them, the old fogeys were still the face of the Qing Consortium, after all was said and done. Therefore, Qing Zhen still had to hold a funeral for them.


    However, Luo Lan had never been one to go by the rules. How could he possibly allow those old fogeys to get buried in the Qing Consortium''s ancestral grave?


    In Luo Lan''s words, how terrible would it be if their old man had to be buried with those people in his death?


    Qing Zhenughed. "He''s always so ruthless, isn''t he? He''s always been like this since childhood. My brother''s ferocity has never changed. It''s just that he restrained himself after I became the Qing Consortium''s Shadow."


    "Why did he restrain himself?" Qing Yi asked curiously.


    "I''ve asked him that too. At that time, he casually answered that if I wanted to seize control of the Qing Consortium, I would first have to unite all the forces that could be united. I can''t make everyone afraid of me and view me with hostility." Qing Zhen exined with a smile, "So, as he and I are often seen as a single entity, he naturally can''t do anything that would discredit me either."


    Qing Zhen continued, "But actually, I''ve always wanted to tell him that I''m not afraid he would stain my reputation. I''ve told him in the past that I see him as my role model, but he didn''t believe me. However, I really think that way from the bottom of my heart."


    When he was young, Luo Lan had taken him to Mt. Ginkgo to steal ginkgo nuts to sell. After selling them for money, the two of them could not bear to buy meat to eat. That was because they still had to use the money to treat their old man''s illness.


    Therefore, Luo Lan would choose to buy rtively cheaper eggs to keep Qing Zhen nourished most of the time.


    After their old man fell ill and couldn''t recover, Luo Lan had to cook for Qing Zhen and wash his clothes. All the heavy, dirty, and tiring chores at home were practically performed by Luo Lan alone.


    That fatty who was always so carefree had shouldered the responsibility of the entire family from the beginning.


    Perhaps to others, Luo Lan was now the second most powerful person in the Qing Consortium. But to Qing Zhen, he was only his elder brother.


    Qing Yi''s bowl of egg fried rice evoked a lot of Qing Zhen''s memories. Because Qing Zhen remembered when the first time Luo Lan cooked egg fried rice for him, it was also made badly.


    But back then, they were not upset about it. Even their old man who did not have much energy and appetite left finished an entire bowl.


    At this moment, Qing Yi''s question pulled Qing Zhen back from his thoughts. "Second Bro, will the ten soldiers who set off for the Northwest this time have any chance of returning alive?"


    Qing Zhen thought for a long time before shaking his head with a sigh.


    Qing Yi''s expression turned a little gloomy. "Among those soldiers, there were also those who fought their way up Mt. Ginkgo with you back then. But even though they know it''s dangerous now, they still went without hesitation."


    "Qing Yi," Qing Zhen said, "write down their names. If you and I are still alive after this disaster, someone will have tomemorate them."


    "I will." Qing Yi nodded.


    "Get some rest. You haven''t slept in a long time," Qing Zhen said.


    "Then I''ll rest for a bit. Second Bro, call for me if you need anything." Qing Yi took out the pistol from his holster and checked the brass bullets in the magazine. Only then did he lie down on the marble floor and fall asleep on the cushion.


    There were only two people in the huge Ginkgo Manor. This made Qing Yi feel like he had returned to the time when he was fighting on the streets with Luo Lan and Qing Zhen when he was young.


    Without any subordinates, soldiers, or troops, the eldest brother stormed the front while the second brother came up with strategies.


    Just like now, they were the only ones who could truly be relied on.


    Only at this moment did Qing Yi finally understand there were indeed things in the world that were more important than power.


    ¡­


    After the ten off-road vehicles left Stronghold 111, they immediately split up and drove off on ten different routes, disappearing into the wilderness.


    The roads in the Southwest had just been built and were in extremely good condition. Moreover, very few people owned vehicles and traveled between the various strongholds, so these ten vehicles moved at lightning speed.


    Luo Lan had even made a deliberate trip to Fortress 178 to establish trade rtionships with Zhang Jinglin. Therefore, all of the roads in the Northwest and Southwest were jointly built, fully linking the two territories together.


    They had filled their trunks with gas drums so they could self-sufficiently drive to Stronghold 144 by themselves.


    Based on the distance, Stronghold 111 was about 800 kilometers from Stronghold 144. If they set off in the evening and drove at full speed, they might just be able to get there by midnight.


    Actually, everyone knew that this mission was not simple. But when Qing Yi asked if they were willing to go, everyone said yes.


    Zhang Yuge. When Qing Zhen went to Mt. Ginkgo during the mutiny, he actually remembered this name. That formermander of his even remembered that his mother was not in good health.


    Zhang Yuge made it out alive during the Qing Consortium''s change of hands. He initially thought his life would return to normal, just like the other soldiers.


    In the end, it didn''t take long for someone from the Qing Consortium to send his mother to the best hospital in Stronghold 111 and put all her medical expenses under the Qing Consortium''s ounts.


    One day, when Zhang Yuge went to the hospital with a lunch box to visit his mother, he was surprised to see Qing Zhen sitting by his mother''s bedside when he pushed open the door.


    That unreachablemander was telling Zhang Yuge''s mother with a smile, "Zhang Yuge is an outstanding soldier. No one is more exceptional than him. He''s the glory of the Qing Consortium''s troops."


    After that, Zhang Yuge''s mother would delightfully mention this matter to her fellow patients every day. He believed that this was probably the happiest his mother had ever been.


    Later, his mother passed on due to a terminal illness. Before she left, she even reminded Zhang Yuge not to let his superior down.


    Sometimeter, Zhang Yuge was promoted from corporal to sergeant, and then from sergeant to lieutenant. If it weren''t for today''s mission, he would probably still be climbing the ranks in the military.


    However, Zhang Yuge felt that none of that was actually important. What was important was that if the leader had treated him well, he would definitely have to repay him.


    While driving on the road, Zhang Yuge somehow felt like he was being spied on.<novelnext></novelnext>


    The off-road vehicle was traveling all the way north. Just as he was about to leave the Qing Consortium''s territory, Zhang Yuge suddenly saw more and more sparrows perched on tree branches by the roadside. Furthermore¡­ those sparrows were all watching him quietly.


    In the darkness of the night, those sparrows perched on the branches looked like a dark and terrifying mass.


    Although sparrows had be veryrge in size in this era, they would not attack you as long as you did not attack them. So no one would be too worried even if they saw a sparrow on most days. After all, this creature was still mostly a herbivore.


    But at this moment, Zhang Yuge suddenly felt a tinge of fear. He had never imagined sparrows could be so terrifying.


    Zhang Yuge turned on the headlights. In an instant, he saw the tree branches on both sides of the road ahead filled with sparrows. When the headlights shone into their eyes, a strange silvery glow was reflected back.


    "Where did all these sparrowse from?" Zhang Yuge was secretly shocked in the vehicle.


    Military Base 12 was attacked by sparrows. This matter had already been reported within the military, so Zhang Yuge''s mood was already starting to sink.


    But now was not the time to retreat. He knew the goal of his mission very well. If he encountered the enemy, there was no need to flee. That was because he could definitely not escape. At this moment, there was only one thing he needed to do, and that was to help hisrades on the road attract the opponent''s firepower.


    If even one of them managed to deliver the news to the Northwest, it would be the collective glory of these ten soldiers.


    "Sess does not depend on me alone."


    Zhang Yuge looked at the dense continuous flock of sparrows perched on the branches. Even the branches of the parasol trees bent under their weight. However, he no longer felt any fear in him. Rather, there was even a tinge of courage simmering.


    Suddenly, the sparrows flew off from the branches one by one and slowly formed a vortex in the sky. Their wings were as sharp as des.


    On this night of danger, Zhang Yuge stepped on the elerator, and the ck off-road vehicle started breaking through the encirclement of sparrows like a ferocious beast.


    It was as though the ferocious-looking metallic machine''s "muscles" were fully tensed. Zhang Yuge was not driving a conventional vehicle but the Qing Consortium''s most powerful model of military off-road vehicles.


    Such vehicles were usually only reserved for usage by people like Qing Yi, Qing Zhen, and Luo Lan.


    Although Qing Zhen knew these people who were delivering the message to the Northwest would die, he still wanted to give them the best equipment that could help save their lives. Whether they could survive or not was up to the soldiers themselves, but whether they were given a chance to survive was entirely up to Qing Zhen.


    Death was a choice no one could make in this era. But before that, they had to live life to the fullest!


    As the engine roared, the eight-cylinder turbocharged engine instantly pushed its potential to the limit. Zhang Yuge, who was in the vehicle, felt a huge knockback force from the vehicle''s transmission as his back pressed tightly against his seat.


    The four-wheel drive transmission system made the off-road vehicle''s tires grip the ground stronger. Its wide wheels were like the strong limbs of a wild beast.


    Zhang Yuge started shouting enthusiastically in the vehicle. The ck metallic beast broke out of the circling vortex of sparrows like a destroyer rushing out of a whirlpool in the sea!


    The sparrows crashed into the windshield one by one and tried to break the windshield with their sharp beaks. However, their fierce pecking only left small white dots on the ss.


    If it were an ordinary vehicle, the ss would probably have already shattered. But these ten off-road vehicles were different. Their ss windows and windshield were all bulletproof.


    Zhang Yuge was no longer distracted. He only cared about stepping on the gas and speeding northwards. As for how far he could get, that would all depend on fate.


    The dark cloud of sparrows followed close behind. They stopped attacking as though they were waiting for something.


    This was not in line with their biological instincts. Zhang Yuge could sense there seemed to be somethingmanding those sparrows from elsewhere that made them more adept at calcting their moves.


    Without charging blindly, the sparrows seemed to have suddenly turned into a crouching cheetah, waiting to deal a fatal blow to its prey.


    Although the metallic "beast" was ferocious, there were also times when it became vulnerable.


    Zhang Yuge took a look at the fuel tank gauge on the right side of the dashboard. He could only travel another 200 kilometers at most. At that time, the metallic "beast" would graduallye to a stop.


    He could not get out of the vehicle to top up on gas, so he could only sit in it like ame duck.


    More than an hourter, the needle on the dashboard gauge gradually pointed at the red zone. The ck off-road vehicle came to a gradual stop on the side of the road.


    Zhang Yuge knew there would be no reinforcements to support him this time.


    Only at this moment was he finally in the mood to sit in the vehicle and light up a cigarette. Gray smoke instantly filled the car.


    Zhang Yuge lowered the window a little. Some of the sparrows tried their best to squeeze in through the gap next to him, but they were firmly stuck.


    It was as though he could not see the sparrows as he continued to smoke his cigarette.


    Facing the enemy with a fearless expression was a psychological quality that a qualified Qing Consortium soldier should have. But if someone were to really ask Zhang Yuge at this moment if he was afraid, he wouldugh and answer, "If I fucking say I''m not afraid, it''s definitely a lie. Why don''t you take my ce instead if you''re so brave?"


    The sparrows suddenly stopped trying to stubbornly squeeze through the gap. Instead, they lined up in the air and rammed into the windshield one by one.


    Zhang Yuge suddenly realized the sparrows'' beaks were aiming at the same exact spot each time. It was as though they had precisely calcted where to hit.


    "Fuck, have they fucking gained intelligence?" Zhang Yuge said in a daze.


    However, he did not continue to watch any further. Instead, he lit up another cigarette and switched on the in-vehicle stereo. The LCD screen disyed the ylist of songs.


    "One Step Away"


    "Sorrowful"


    "Adieu, My Friend"


    Zhang Yuge muttered, "What kind of songs are these? I wonder who used to drive this car. The ylist is really quite fitting for this asion. They must have done this on purpose¡­."


    When he clicked on "Adieu, My Friend," a lengthy prelude of an ordion and piano suddenly drifted out.


    "Ah, if I¡­ sacrifice myself in battle,


    "Adieu, my friend! Adieu, adieu!


    "Ah, whenever people walk past here,


    "Adieu, my friend! Adieu, adieu!"


    The cracks on the windshield got wider and wider. Zhang Yuge''s thoughts seemed to have returned to that snowy night. Qing Zhen, dressed in a white suit, walked up to him and said softly, "I remember you. You''re Zhang Yuge. You used to serve under me. You performed meritorious service when we warred against the Pyro Company."


    Then Zhang Yuge watched as that figure trekked up the mountain with an upright posture.


    That night, Qing Zhen taught him the meaning of a phrase: "Standing tall and proud deep inside, never bowing down to anyone." This was the new soul of the Qing Consortium after their rebirth.


    Zhang Yuge looked at the dense crowd of sparrows outside the ss windows, then at the cracks on the windshield that was about to break.


    "It''s not the Qing Consortium''s style to sit back and wait for death. My name is Zhang Yuge, and I''ve done great deeds for the Qing Consortium."


    He smiled and picked up his automatic rifle from the front passenger seat. He skillfully cocked it and turned up the volume of the music in the vehicle to the maximum. Then he pushed open the door and got out of the vehicle, firing a shot into the sky.


    After which he got overwhelmed by countless sparrows.


    The music in the vehicle was still ying, and the singing was getting more and more intense.


    "Ah, if I¡­ sacrifice myself in battle.


    "Adieu, my friend! Adieu, adieu!"

 Chapter 1219 Fulfilling A Promise

    The intermittent singing in the wilderness was like an ethereal mist in the morning.


    The ten off-road vehicles drove on their respective routes of no return. What these soldiers wanted was not to earn individual glory, but to fight for an opportunity for their otherrades to live.


    All of the soldiers, including Zhang Yuge, were determined to die. From the moment they set off, they only wanted to give hope to their otherrades.


    This was the honor of the Qing Consortium''s troops.


    The 40-odd strongholds in the Southwest were still in a peaceful state. The blood Luo Lan spilled when he killed those people had already been wiped clean. It was as though nothing had happened at all.


    The stronghold residents used Luo Lan''s killings as their after-dinner banter, and everyone was guessing why he had suddenly killed those people. They privately fabricated many stories that were openly and secretly discussed. Those stories were embellished further and further as they spread, but no one felt that the incident had anything to do with themselves.


    After all, the struggle in the superstructure had nothing to do with ordinary folks like them. Therefore, they did not know the real war had actually started somewhere they could not see.


    War was not just limited to artillery bombardment and machine gun fire. The turbulent undercurrents were equally terrifying as well.


    Qing Zhen had previously told Qing Yi it was fortunate Luo Lan had gone on a three-day killing spree to eliminate all the hidden threats to the Qing Consortium.


    Otherwise, if they had found out that "Qing Zhen" and Luo Lan had gone to the Central ins, their ambitions would definitely have started stirring.


    Although these people could not shake the foundation of the Qing Consortium, they could still cause some minor inconveniences.


    The Wang Consortium had sent out an invitation for a dialogue, but it was turned down by Qing Zhen. Back then, before Luo Lan and Ren Xiaosu parted ways, Luo Lan said he might still have to make a trip to the Central ins eventually. That was because a lot of developments had gone beyond the Qing Consortium''s control.


    Therefore, Luo Lan killed those people and bore the infamy of causing their deaths because he wanted to leave a stable and united rear for Qing Zhen before he departed.


    Luo Lan was still the same old Luo Lan. He was always taking care of this family in his own way.


    Qing Yi slept on the cold marble floor for the night. Fortunately, it was summer now and Ginkgo Manor was not situated at a high altitude, so it was not too cold.


    When he woke up, he realized Qing Zhen was still sitting calmly in the "ckke." It seemed like he had not slept all night.


    "Second Bro, you didn''t get some restst night?" Qing Yi wondered.


    "Mhm." Qing Zhen nodded. "I was thinking about something."


    "Are you worried Zhang Yuge and the others won''t be able to deliver the news to the Northwest?" Qing Yi asked, "Second Bro, do you really think none of them can break through the AI''smunications lockdown?"


    "Mhm." Qing Zhen seemed to already have an opinion on this matter. "They won''t seed. Qing Yi, I''ve said it before, you can''t take any chances when ying Go with the AI."


    "Then what should we do?" Qing Yi frowned and said, "If we can''t get Ren Xiaosu to go to the Central ins, won''t Big Bro be in danger?"


    "There''s still a chance," Qing Zhen said.


    "What chance?" Qing Yi was stunned. It seemed Qing Zhen had made other arrangements after he fell asleep. Other than those ten soldiers, there should still be others heading to the Northwest. "Second Bro, you mustn''t let the news that you''re still at the Qing Consortium leak out at a time like this."


    "It''s fine, I used a crow to send the letter. I can trust the person I''mmunicating with," Qing Zhen said.


    Qing Yi knew Qing Zhen had a superhuman hidden in the shadows who could control crows. Back when Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were ced under house arrest, Qing Yi used crows as messengers to ry information.


    When Luo Lan was ced under house arrest in Stronghold 88, Qing Zhen also used crows to ry information to him.


    However, Qing Yi had always thought the person who controlled the crows was Xu Man. Now that Xu Man had gone to the Central ins, it should be someone else.


    ? He was a little puzzled. "Second Bro, who else did you send to the Northwest?"


    "Tang Zhou."


    Qing Yi was stunned. He knew why Qing Zhen had sent Tang Zhou on the mission.


    Yesterday, his second brother had told him that if there were anyone else in the world other than the few of them who were willing to risk their lives to save Luo Lan, it could only be Ren Xiaosu and Tang Zhou.


    On this turbulent morning, Tang Zhou was riding a horse in the wilderness.


    Heaving violently on the horse''s back, Tang Zhou leaned down low to reduce wind resistance.


    He was even holding the reins of two other warhorses galloping next to him.


    One rider, three horses. This was the ultimate configuration cavalry scouts were assigned in ancient times.


    An adult male soldier weighed about 160 kilograms. If a horse were to be saddled for an extended period, it would be greatly pressured and burdened.


    In a long-distance raid like this, the cavalry would have to constantly observe how tired their horses got before switching mounts so that the burden on the three horses would be bnced.


    Actually, the Qing Consortium''s internal forces were all modern troops, so there was no such fighting force as the cavalry.


    The reason why Tang Zhou rode in the wilderness and did not take the main road was that he did not want to be discovered by the enemy.


    From the beginning, those ten off-road vehicles that took different routes were used by Qing Zhen to take the attention off Tang Zhou''s movements.


    Therefore, Qing Zhen had already determined from the beginning that if the artificial intelligence really wanted to cut off the Southwest, none of these ten soldiers would survive.


    In this long-distance race against time, Tang Zhou was Qing Zhen''s true hope.


    However, it was only hope at best. As for whether Tang Zhou could reach the Northwest, no one knew.


    Just as Qing Zhen had often said to Qing Yi, one should not take any chances when ying Go with an artificial intelligence. He did not say this to tell Qing Yi but to remind himself.


    He needed to repeat it over and over again so he would remember it firmly in his mind.


    Tang Zhou had already ridden nearly 500 kilometers north. He kept switching mounts along the way, but he could still feel his warhorses'' conditions constantly deteriorating.


    It was clearly a summer morning, but the sweat on the warhorses'' bodies was still emitting a white mist. It could be seen that the body temperature of the warhorses was so high it was almost hitting the limit of what they could bear.


    However, Tang Zhou could not stop. He could only whip and spur the horses harder to urge them to continue running.


    These three horses were even mutated breeds bred by the old fogeys of the Qing Consortium. It was said they could cover 600 kilometers a day while carrying a rider.


    Under normal circumstances, warhorses could travel between 20 to 60 kilometers per hour, and covering 300 kilometers a day was the limit. It was very easy for horses to run to their deaths.


    In the past, when the old fogeys of the Qing Consortium were still alive, there was talk that these three warhorses were their darlings they raised in the low mountain ranch behind Ginkgo Manor.


    Usually, there would be people who specially attended to their meals and daily care. There were even people responsible for training them in various movements.


    A caretaker identally grazed the skins of these three warhorses once and was sent to prison by the old fogeys of the Qing Consortium Board where he was forcefully locked up for seven years.


    However, Qing Zhen did not care about the fate of these warhorses. Even if they were an evolved breed, and even if they were ridden in rotation by Tang Zhou for the journey, they would still die from running all the way to Stronghold 144 in the north at full speed.


    A precious toy in the hands of others was only a qualified tool in the hands of Qing Zhen.


    ¡­


    Last night, when Tang Zhou was advancing in the wilderness, he had vaguely heard a gunshot in the distance.


    There was also melodious singing.


    The loud and clear singing was like a farewell song ofughter and wine between men.


    "Adieu, my friend.


    "Adieu, my friend.


    "Adieu, my friend.


    "Adieu.


    "Adieu.


    "If I¡­ sacrifice myself in battle, please continue marching forth and carry on our honor."


    Tang Zhou roughly understood that a soldier, whose purpose was to take the attention off him, had encountered the enemy. At this moment, Tang Zhou could not even confirm what the enemy was yet. He could only silently utter,"Farewell."


    He could not go and save hisrade who had covered for him. That was because the note the crow had sent over said: "Deliver the news of Luo Lan''s expedition to the Central ins to Stronghold 144 in the north. Ten lives will be sacrificed to secure this one chance for you. You are only to seed!"


    He was getting closer and closer to Stronghold 144. The valley where banditry used to run rampant was already right in front of him.


    Tang Zhou knew that as long as he could get through this ce, the operation would be a sess.


    That was because there was a battalion of the 6th Field Division''s troops training in the north of the valley. All he needed to do was to get their attention and someone would help him deliver the news north.


    But a momentter, he suddenly saw a lone sparrow standing in the early morning mist and staring straight at him.


    Tang Zhou swore he had never seen a sparrow staring at him like that before.


    He could not be bothered to think too deeply into it. Instead, he whipped the horse''s rump ruthlessly. The horse started running with all its might again from the pain.


    When Tang Zhou passed under the treetop where the sparrow was, he subconsciously turned around to have a look and realized the huge sparrow was pping its wings and following close behind him.


    When he looked farther behind it, he suddenly saw a flock of birds floating like dark clouds in the direction where the gunshots had rung out.


    Tang Zhou''s horse was slowing down, but the "dark cloud" of birds was getting closer and closer to him.


    "So we were facing such a terrifying thing in that AI." Tang Zhou gave a bitter smile. But after that, he immediately came to a decision.


    As one of the core figures of the Qing Consortium, how could Tang Zhou not know about the attack on Military Base 12? Therefore, when he saw the sparrow, he already understood what was going on.


    He understood what kind of opponent he was facing.


    As the warhorses galloped forward, Tang Zhou nimbly leaped up andnded on the back of another warhorse in an instant.


    The stamina of this warhorse was the best preserved.


    After mounting it properly, he immediately let go of the reins of the other two warhorses. "Go, you don''t have to follow me to your deaths. Head back to the wilderness. You''ve already done your best."


    After that, he clenched his mount''s ribs tightly and broke away from the group like an arrow fired from a bow. After the two warhorses behind were freed from their reins, they ran off towards the wilderness on both sides.


    Actually, Tang Zhou knew why Qing Zhen had chosen him to ry this news. That was because Qing Zhen knew he would get it delivered to the Northwest even at the cost of his life.


    Tang Zhou thought about when he first met Boss Luo.


    It seemed to be that autumn ten years ago when Tang Zhou was still a refugee at Stronghold 111. His only family, his father, had just passed on.


    A person dying was like a candle getting snuffed out. Even as refugees, they would still want to bury their loved ones properly. At the very least, a coffin was a must. Otherwise, wild dogs would dig up Tang Zhou''s father''s bones and take them away.


    The young Tang Zhou wanted to borrow money from his neighbors to bury his father, but no one was willing to lend it to him. Coincidentally, Luo Lan had juste out of Stronghold 111 and was heading to Stronghold 113 to serve asmander-in-chief of the Qing Consortium''s 6th Combat Brigade stationed there.


    When Luo Lan saw Tang Zhou''s father''s corpse rolled up in a straw mat by the roadside, he got out of his vehicle and asked cheerfully, "What''s the matter?"


    The 16-year-old Tang Zhou was a little angry. His father had just died, yet this big shot from the stronghold was smiling.


    However, he was anxious to bury his father, so he said helplessly, "I want a coffin to bury him in."


    Luo Lan smiled and said, "What can you give in exchange?"


    "My life." Tang Zhou said stubbornly, "If you give me the money, my life is yours."


    "Your wretched life is of no use to me. Be a man ande serve under me." Luo Lan got back into his vehicle with a smile.


    Tang Zhou clenched his fists and looked quietly at the other party.


    After that, an orderly helped Tang Zhou bury his father before heading together with him to Stronghold 113.


    Tang Zhou thought if that were all there was to it, there was a high chance he would end up bing a soldier for a few years before retiring and being allowed to live in the stronghold.


    At that time, he might even be able to find work at a factory. With the Qing Consortium''s military pension, his life would be considered quite stable.


    But after he arrived at the garrison base in Stronghold 113, the first thing he did was to look for Luo Lan. Then he said stubbornly to Luo Lan, "I said my life is yours, so I''ll definitely keep that promise. You don''t have to reject me so quickly. My life will surely be useful to you."


    At that time, Luo Lan scolded jokingly, "You''ve got guts."


    At that time, Luo Lan was 23 years old and the elder brother of the Qing Consortium''s Shadow. Tang Zhou was a 16-year-old with nothing more than his poor life to offer.


    From then on, Luo Lan rose through the ranks while Tang Zhou served under him. At the age of 24, Tang Zhou became a major working under Boss Luo.


    Tang Zhou had served Luo Lan for ten years since joining the military.


    How many decades was there for one to enjoy in their lifetime?


    Currently, Tang Zhou was 26 years old while Luo Lan was 33 years old. These ten years felt like a karmic cycle.


    At this moment, the warhorse was running slower and slower, and Tang Zhou was about to pass through the entire valley region as well.


    However, the dark cloud of sparrows were already overhead.


    Tang Zhou, who was on the warhorse, suddenly felt himself falling. The horse he was riding could no longer bear the force of its galloping after it becamepletely exhausted. In an instant, it fell to the ground together with Tang Zhou.


    Tang Zhou was covered in dirt as he hurriedly got back up. He immediately checked the pistol on his belt and disengaged the safety.


    He could not wait for the sparrows to descend, because if he also got controlled by the artificial intelligence controlling the nanomachines, the other party could easily retrieve his memories and know how he was going to transmit the information to the Northwest.


    "It''s time I paid you back with this life of mine," Tang Zhou said with a smile.


    Qing Zhen was aware of this promise too as it was asionally brought up. At that time, everyone treated it as a joke to tease Tang Zhou with.


    However, when Tang Zhou received the note delivered by a crow, he understood this note was specifically for him, a high-ranking officer who was a colonel, and no one else. Actually, by assigning this mission to him, Qing Zhen was silently telling him that it was time to fulfill his promise.


    Qing Zhen had forced himself to treat everyone coldly as tools for Luo Lan''s sake.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Be it Zhang Yuge, Tang Zhou, or Ren Xiaosu, they were all chips Qing Zhen wanted to use to increase Luo Lan''s chance of survival.


    Qing Zhen did not care what others thought of him. All he wanted was for his elder brother to live.


    Tang Zhou wondered if he med Qing Zhen for sending him to his death like this.


    The answer was that he did not have anyints. He even felt a little relieved.


    There was no tragedy, no destion, only relief.


    ''Since I promised you my life, I will definitely deliver on my word.''


    Thinking this, Tang Zhou walked to his horse and pulled out a re gun from the saddle. Then he pulled the trigger at the sky.


    A purplish-red signal re rocketed into the air like a brilliant shooting star in broad daylight.


    Immediately after, Tang Zhou looked up and saw the signal re plunging through the dark cloud of sparrows, attempting to soar higher in the air.


    The flock of birds seemed prepared for this. Half of the sparrows split off and formed a tight circle around the signal re to shield the light it was giving off.


    But a secondter, the signal re exploded again and went off a second time.


    In just an instant, the high temperature enveloped all the sparrows and turned them into dancing balls of fire in the sky, converting them into even more conspicuous "signal res."


    This was a signal re Qing Zhen had specially prepared for these sparrows.


    Tang Zhou smiled. What a treacherous tool.


    The sparrows in the sky that were not hit by the signal re started circling and diving at Tang Zhou.


    As Tang Zhou looked up at the dazzling fireballs, he raised his pistol and aimed it under his chin.


    The information to be ryed was hidden on him. He could not let the nanomachines control him and discover where the item that held the information was hidden.


    Actually, he already knew from the beginning that those three warhorses had been trained ever since Qing Zhen took over at the Qing Consortium. Even with three horses per rider, he would not be able to reach Stronghold 144.


    Even if the three warhorses were to run to their deaths, they would not be able to get there.


    Therefore, this matter was a dead end from the beginning.


    Tang Zhou smiled and said, "What did I say back then? When I said my life was yours, I''d definitely give it to you. You didn''t have to reject me so quickly. My life will surely be useful to you."


    After saying that, he pulled the trigger.


    A gunshot rang out like thunder.


    ¡­


    "Commander ck Fox, I heard you demolished Future Commander''s house?"


    While the recruit battalion of the 6th Field Division was being put through their training, a sprightly recruit suddenly asked hismander this question.


    These recruits did not have the chance to participate in the battle of the Kingdom of Sorcerers. When everyone heard their seniors discussing the war excitedly after their return, they were extremely enticed.


    When ck Fox, who was leading the troops at the front, heard this question, he turned around and looked expressionlessly at the recruit who kept asking the tough questions. Then he replied in seriousness, "Future Commander did not say we couldn''t tear down the door. He only said not to damage the floor."


    The recruits were stunned for a moment. So the hearsay was actually true.


    In fact, it was precisely because of this that ck Fox was "sent" here to train the recruits.


    But while they were chatting, a purplish-red re flew up into the sky of the wilderness in the distance. It was also at this moment that everyone noticed a flock of birds in the sky moving a little unusually¡­. There were too many birds, and they were flying too closely together.


    Then the power of the secondary explosion swept through countless sparrows and burnt them into fireballs.


    "Commander ck Fox, what''s with this situation?" the recruits asked in a daze.


    ck Fox''s intuition was much sharper than theirs. He immediately shouted, "Prepare for battle!"


    The recruits immediately loaded their rifles. Although they were new recruits, they had been training for about three months, so they didn''t behave like ignorant children.


    The past three months of training had made them understand one thing. When theirmander gave an order, they only needed to follow it.


    ck Fox started running quickly towards the flock of birds. As he ran, he shouted to the soldiers behind him, "Maintain formation!"


    After they quickly got within 500 meters of the birds, ck Fox started shooting at them in an attempt to scare them away.


    However, the birds did not seem to be afraid at all as they continued guarding that spot.


    This time, ck Fox was even more certain of his assessment. There was something odd about these birds, and someone was being attacked by them¡­ or might even have already died inside the flock.


    When they got within 350 meters of the flock, ck Fox did not dare to advance any further. Instead, he had the recruits get down on one knee and start firing at the birds in the sky.


    The Type 178-23 automatic rifles in their hands had an effective range of 400 meters.


    The so-called effective range was, inyman''s terms, a range that satisfied everyone''s expectation of the lethality of a firearm.


    Although the 500 recruits'' marksmanship was not that good, there were simply too many birds in the sky. As a result, they could randomly shoot at the huge sparrows and send them falling to the ground like rain.


    At this moment, ck Fox took a look through his binocrs. He could clearly see a young soldier in a Qing Consortium''s military uniform lying on the ground. Meanwhile, more than a dozen sparrows were rummaging through the body of that Qing Consortium soldier as though they were human.


    Not only were they rummaging through the pockets, but they were also flipping through his cor, hair, and sleeves. ck Fox even saw a sparrow pushing open the Qing Consortium soldier''s mouth to check his teeth. It was as though it was the most extensive body search ever conducted.


    What made ck Fox''s scalp tingle even more was that the sparrows actually used their sharp beaks to peck at the other party''s skin as though they were specifically searching for something.


    However, this was the first time ck Fox had seen sparrows searching a human being like this!


    Five minutester, more than half of the sparrows in the air had been shot down by the recruits. However, the sparrows still showed no signs of leaving.


    Furthermore, the sparrows actually started pecking at the corpse of the Qing Consortium soldier!


    ck Fox clenched his teeth. "Let''s keep advancing. Reload and switch to burst mode!"


    Although he did not know why a Qing Consortium soldier would appear in the Northwest, the scene in front of him was way too strange. He had to figure out what was going on.


    Finally, when there were only about a dozen sparrows left, they started flying southwards.


    ck Fox said, "First Company, Second Company, stand by and wait for further orders. Third Company, Fourth Company, advance with me in attack formation."


    When they arrived at the spot where Tang Zhou''s body was, ck Fox was stunned when he saw his appearance. When he was at the Pyro Company, he was second only to a P5mander while Tang Zhou was a trusted aide of Luo Lan''s. Therefore, how could he not know Tang Zhou?


    But why would such an important figure from the Qing Consortium''s military suddenlye to the Northwest, and he even got attacked by an inexplicable group of sparrows? Moreover, what were those sparrows searching for?


    Due to the mutation of birds that roamed the sky, the entire Alliance of Strongholds had lost the concept of air superiority several decades ago. But a threat from the sky had appeared now.


    Tang Zhouy quietly on the ground with injuries all over his body. ck Fox checked on them and said, "The fatal wound was caused by a gunshot through his lower jaw to his head. It was suicide."


    Then he looked at the horse lying off to the side that had died from exhaustion. "It lost a lot of water through sweat, and its tongue turned white with no signs of external injuries. This warhorse met its demise running. Based on the speed of a mutated horse, it would have to at least have traveled 500 to 600 kilometers over an entire day for it to die of exhaustion."


    Did Tang Zhoumit suicide because he did not want to endure the torture? Or was it because he knew he could not survive, so he ended it quickly instead?


    But ck Fox felt that something was off. The troops under Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were famous for their fearlessness.


    How could someone like Tang Zhou possiblymit suicide out of fear?


    This kind of death was more like the self-sacrifice of a loyal spy who wanted to keep a secret!


    The other party seemed to know they were nearby, so he ran all the way here before firing the signal re.


    "Sorry, bro," ck Fox said softly.


    After that, he took off all of Tang Zhou''s clothes and carefully checked every inch of them with his fingers. However, he found nothing.


    Immediately after, the recruits saw ck Fox starting to pinch Tang Zhou''s skin and muscles inch by inch with his index finger and thumb. When he pinched his calf, ck Fox suddenly felt something strange. He took a deep breath and apologized again before using his dagger to cut open the other party''s calf.


    He saw a thin metal tube hidden close to his fib.


    ck Fox wiped his bloody hands before unscrewing the metal tube.


    A small note inside read: "Luo Lan set off for Stronghold 61 in the Central ins on July 5th. Please rescue him."


    ck Fox was stunned on the spot. He suddenly felt a sense of respect for this Qing Consortium officer named Tang Zhou.


    The other party had traveled hundreds of kilometers without rest. Even at the cost of his life, he had to send this cry for help to the Northwest.


    Moreover, if he had hidden the metal tube close to his fib below the muscleyer, he would have had to cut open his own leg first. ck Fox could imagine how painful it was for the other party to conceal the metal tube.


    However, there was something that ck Fox could not understand. When he cut open the other party''s calf earlier, he had note across any indication there was such a deep wound. The sparrows'' pecks had only prated the surfaceyer of his skin.


    However, now was not the time to dwell on that.


    ck Fox stood up straight and said to the recruits, "He died to save his master. I hope that when it''s your turn to protect the Northwest one day, you''ll also have the same firm belief as him. Salute."


    The 500 soldiers of the recruit battalion saluted in unison before quickly retreating with Tang Zhou''s corpse.


    While they were retreating, no one noticed there was still a sparrow in the treetops in the distance that had not left with the flock of birds.


    In Ginkgo Manor, Qing Zhen had been sitting on the dark gray marble floor for over a day without any rest.


    He was only looking forward to hearing one piece of news now.


    At this moment, Qing Yi walked in anxiously from the outside. "Second Bro, our garrison troops said they saw a huge creature that resembled a lizard suddenly rushing out from the edge of the Jing Mountains. The garrison troops were unable to stop it. Not even machine gun bullets could prate its skin."


    Qing Zhen looked up at Qing Yi and said, "It should be that monster in the volcanic crater of the Jing Mountains. Where did it head?"


    "It went north!" Qing Yi said.


    Qing Zhen heaved a sigh of relief. "The news that Tang Zhou was rying has been delivered."


    "What do you mean?" Qing Yi was puzzled.


    "Although I don''t know what''s with that monster, it''s probably one of the AI''s contingency ns." Qing Zhen said calmly, "It''s obvious that this contingency n had stayed hidden in the Jing Mountains for so long because the AI was nning to use it to deal with our Qing Consortium. But now that there''s been a sudden change of ns, it means that someone has forced the AI to do so."


    "Then why did the lizard head north?" Qing Yi asked.


    "To stop Ren Xiaosu from going to the Central ins."


    "Then¡­" Before Qing Yi could finish speaking, he realized Qing Zhen''s expression had be extremely deste. "What''s the matter, Second Bro?"


    Qing Zhen turned to look at Qing Yi and said softly, "Tang Zhou is dead."


    From the moment the news was sessfully delivered, Qing Zhen could guess Tang Zhou''s fate. That was because he was the one who had personally sealed Tang Zhou''s fate.


    But what made Qing Zhen most upset was that even though Tang Zhou knew that Qing Zhen was the one who sent him to his death this time, he still went.


    "Then is there any hope that Big Bro gets saved?" Qing Yi asked, "Ren Xiaosu will go, right?"


    "If Ren Xiaosu rushes over immediately after receiving the news and my brother executes the n as scheduled, it should work out." Qing Zhen said, "But Qing Yi, you have to understand if there are any hups in any of the¡­"


    It was precisely because it was so dangerous that Qing Zhen wanted to apany Luo Lan to the Central ins.


    Qing Zhen had tried his best. The rest would be up to fate.


    On this huge Go board, Zero moved first with ck while Qing Zhen yed his moves alternately. The two sides were fighting in the shadows with the most ruthless strategies, but the state of affairs was about to be brought to light.


    ¡­


    In the humble residence of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin in Stronghold 144, a group of officers were sitting in rows in a small courtyard on small folding stools.


    Ren Xiaosu was giving a lecture on a ckboard in front of them. "The Eyes of True Sight you''re holding are the weapons of the sorcerers. All spells must be cast through this Eye of True Sight. Now, hold the Eye of True Sight in your hand and close your eyes as you breathe. You''ll only need to count to a 100 respirations to get into your inner world of meditation where you can practice sorcery."


    Zhang Xiaoman, who was sitting on a folding stool, suddenly asked, "Future Commander, why is the color of this Eye of True Sight different? The Great Hoodwinker, P5092, and the others are holding gold-colored ones, but why am I the only person holding a red one?"


    Ren Xiaosu exined, "The different colored Eyes of True Sight represent different grades. Under normal circumstances, the higher the grade, the stronger the spell that can be cast. The red stone you''re holding is second only to the ck stone that I hold."


    Zhang Xiaoman wondered, "Really?"


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at Zhang Xiaoman enviously and said, "Future Commander actually gave you a red stone. He''s so good to you!"


    Wang Yun also said, "Yeah, Zhang Xiaoman, we were only given gold-colored stones while you got the red one. Hurry up and thank Future Commander."


    Zhang Xiaoman thanked Ren Xiaosu in a daze that even earned Ren Xiaosu a gratitude token.


    Zhang Xiaoman somehow felt that this group of wicked fellows were lying to him, but he did not have any proof!


    After all, he had never been to the Kingdom of Sorcerers before, so there was no way he could rify his doubts with anyone from there.


    But a soldier suddenly ran over. "Future Commander, ck Fox ising back. He wants to see you."


    Ren Xiaosu raised an eyebrow. "Wasn''t he told to conduct wilderness training for a month before he cane back?"


    The soldier answered while panting, "He said he encountered Tang Zhou from the Qing Consortium, but Tang Zhou was killed in action in the north of the valley region. Right now, Commander ck Fox is returning to Stronghold 144 with Tang Zhou''s body and a really important piece of news."


    Ren Xiaosu''s expression changed. It seemed that bad news always came when one least expected it.

 Chapter 1220 Ren Xiaosus Decision

    "Where''s ck Fox now?" Ren Xiaosu asked solemnly.


    The mention of Tang Zhou''s name plunged into his heart like a knife.


    Ren Xiaosu had only just returned to a peaceful life, and his sorcery training ss had only just begun as well, but yet another familiar friend of his had departed from the world.


    Actually, strictly speaking, Ren Xiaosu did not know whether Tang Zhou and he could be considered friends.


    He first met Tang Zhou after the earthquake in the Jing Mountains. When Stronghold 113 got destroyed, Tang Zhou and Luo Lan fled together with Ren Xiaosu andpany to the Li Consortium''s territory.


    Later, Ren Xiaosu yed the role of a double agent for the Qing Consortium in the Li Consortium and put on an act with Tang Zhou at Position 313, leading to the Li Consortium''s troops suffering a terrible defeat.


    Muchter on, Ren Xiaosu seemed to have rarely heard of this name. As the other party rose through the ranks, he was sent by Luo Lan to be themander of a group of the Qing Consortium''s main forces.


    Rtionships such as the one between Ren Xiaosu and Tang Zhou were more the norm in this era of the wastnds. They did not meet often and each had their own life to lead.


    Perhaps they had been acquainted before, but they soon returned to their respective roles in their own field.


    The next time they heard about each other could very well be news of their deaths.


    Everyone spoke of moving forward only because there were too many reluctant moments of sadness behind them.


    "Commander ck Fox''s convoy has just driven into the stronghold." The soldier said, "He should be here soon."


    While they were talking, the sound of brakes screeching could be heard at the door.


    Ren Xiaosu ran out and saw ck Fox jumping down from a military truck. Meanwhile, Tang Zhou was lying quietly in the back of the truck, covered in blood.


    ck Fox said in the most concise of manners, "We discovered his body 30 kilometers north of the valley after he used a re gun to catch our attention. A flock of sparrows were attacking him when we found him. We found this metal tube on him, so I think he might havee to ry some information to us. Tang Zhou had alreadymitted suicide before the sparrows attacked him."


    Ren Xiaosu took the metal tube and the note from ck Fox. There was information regarding Luo Lan written on it.


    Some soldiers had already carried Tang Zhou down from the truck carefully. When Ren Xiaosu went forward to check on the wounds on the corpse, he noticed there was almost no skin on his body that was intact. He could imagine the suffering the other party had to go through after he died.


    ck Fox pointed to a wound on Tang Zhou''s leg and said, "The metal tube was hidden next to his fib. He must have cut open his muscles to hide it there. But what''s a little strange is that there were no knife wounds on his leg. I wonder how it healed so quickly."


    "It''s the ck medicine." Ren Xiaosu answered calmly, "I''ve given a lot of the ck medicine to Luo Lan, so he must have passed it to him."


    With the ck medicine, everything made sense. Before setting off, Tang Zhou forcefully cut open his leg muscles and hid the metal tube inside his leg.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at ck Fox. "Did you check the sparrows'' bodies after you found him?"


    "No," ck Fox shook his head. "When we approached the sparrows, there was a silvery liquid-metal slowly seeping out of their bodies. To err on the side of caution, I didn''t let our soldiers get close. But if Future Commander wants to find the carcasses of those sparrows, I can still remember the location."


    "Mhm, you did the right thing." Ren Xiaosu said, "Those sparrows were controlled by the AI, Zero. You were right not to touch them."


    If ck Fox and his men hade in contact with the sparrows'' carcasses, what Ren Xiaosu should do now would probably be to iste the soldiers and shock them one by one with electricity.


    Ren Xiaosu had mostly pieced together the clues in his mind.


    ck Fox raised another suspicious point, "I''ve also heard of Tang Zhou before, and Commander P5092 should have heard of him too. The troops under his and Luo Lan''smand have always been known to be fearless in battles. I can''t quite figure out why he wouldmit suicide."


    "He did notmit suicide because he was afraid of dying." Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, "He was afraid that he would subconsciously reveal the location of the metal tube if he should fall under the control of the nanomachines."


    After the nanomachines forcibly interfaced with one''s neurons, Zero could obtain a person''splete memory and even some memories humans had forgotten in their subconsciousness.


    At that time, Zero would only need to locate the metal tube urately through the sparrows. Withmunications locked down in the Southwest, Ren Xiaosu and the others would not know about what had happened to the Qing Consortium.


    Although Ren Xiaosu could also head to the Qing Consortium to ask them what was going on, it would be toote by then.


    Ren Xiaosu had previously met the Wang Consortium soldier controlled by Zero on Mt. Zuoyun. ording to Zero, it only needed a very minute amount of nanomachines to control the minds of humans through neurotech.


    The nanomachines were hidden near the brainstem, and they could continue to remain dormant without expending much energy. The bioenergy generated by human motion was far greater than what the nanomachines consumed in their dormant state.


    If Zero only used the nanomachines as a tool of control and not a tool ofbat to improve the "strength" and "muscle density" of the human body, the host would be like a massive charger that could provide continuous energy to the nanomachines inside.


    "I have to make a trip to the Central ins," Ren Xiaosu said.


    The Great Hoodwinker immediately replied, "Future Commander, we''ll go with you then."


    However, P5092 shook his head and said calmly, "Future Commander, you mustn''t go."


    "Why?" Ren Xiaosu asked, looking at P5092.


    "The Wang Consortium''s troops are already garrisoned at the northwest border, and the war between our two sides might break out at any moment." P5092 analyzed, "Now that Luo Lan has gone to the Central ins, there could be two oues. The first would see peace talks taking ce. You''ve said before that Wang Shengzhi wanted to hold a peace negotiation that would see Commander Zhang eventually taking over the Alliance of Strongholds. I think this should be the same for the peace talks between the Qing Consortium and the Wang Consortium. After all, other than Commander Zhang, Qing Zhen is the only one left who''s capable of ruling over the entire Alliance of Strongholds."


    P5092 continued, "If their peace talks are sessful this time, the Northwest will have to face a two-pronged attack from the Southwest and the Central ins. Future Commander, have you ever considered the consequences of that?"


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head firmly. "That won''t happen."


    P5092 analyzed, "Of course, Future Commander, if you''re judging this from an emotional viewpoint that the Qing Consortium will never do anything to betray the Northwest, I have nothing to say. I trust your judgment. In that case, let''s discuss the second possibility. If there''s a conflict between the Wang Consortium and the Qing Consortium, the entire Alliance of Strongholds will be brought to the brink of war. If you are not in the Northwest at that time, I''m afraid it''ll affect the morale of the army. Moreover, if you risk your life and our strength gets weakened because of an ''outsider,'' who''ll be left to protect the Northwestern people? Personally, I think Luo Lan is a necessary sacrifice."


    At the side, Zhang Xiaoman muttered, "Why do we always have to sacrifice someone? Can''t there be fewer casualties instead?"


    P5092 looked calmly at Zhang Xiaoman and said, "What do you think war is about?"


    Zhang Xiaoman flinched and did not say anything more.


    Right, casualties were unavoidable in wars, after all.


    Ever since the word "war" appeared in the history of human civilization, every war that had been fought was extremely cruel.


    The participants of wars left their hometowns and families to head to the battlefield where they carried arms to eliminate as many of the enemy''s fighting forces as possible.


    How could there be any room for logic and emotions when it came to something like that?!


    Victory was only that final moment of jubtion, short-lived but brilliant.<novelnext></novelnext>


    But before the victory, everyone felt like they were walking through a long, humid, and stuffy dark tunnel. No one knew where the end was, with sacrifice and death the norm.


    To P5092, how could there be no casualties in war?


    Since someone would die, why couldn''t it be Luo Lan?


    At this moment, P5092, as the militarymander, naturally did not want Ren Xiaosu to leave the Northwest.


    Everyone felt that the Wang Consortium was already insane, so how could Ren Xiaosu head to the Wang Consortium at a time like this?


    However, Ren Xiaosu said to P5092, "When I was still a refugee, I thought about how to survive each day. I was OK with eating bark and roots. Once, I set a trap to catch a rabbit, but I ended up getting kicked by it. At that time, I felt that it was already good enough to survive. As long as I could continue living with Yan Liuyuan, I would do anything. Butter on, it became a little different. I slowly understood there was something more important in this world than surviving."


    With that, Ren Xiaosu walked out. "I don''t want any of you to follow me. If I need your help, I''ll just activate the enchanted doorway."


    Yang Xiaojin stood in front of Ren Xiaosu to stop him from leaving. "At least let me go with you? Have you forgotten your promise?"


    Ren Xiaosu said in seriousness, "Xiaojin, you really can''t go this time. Because you could very well end up facing your aunt."


    "Although I can''t shoot at her, I can help you kill other people," Yang Xiaojin said calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, "It''s not going to be that simple. Listen to me, don''t go this time."


    The two of them had just agreed that as long as Ren Xiaosu went somewhere dangerous, he would definitely have to bring Yang Xiaojin along.


    But it was different this time. That was because the people Ren Xiaosu needed to face were Wang Shengzhi and Yang Anjing.


    Regardless of what Yang Anjing had done, she was still Yang Xiaojin''s aunt. When the cap-wearing girl lost her parents during her childhood, all the familial warmth she experienced came from this aunt of hers.


    Yang Xiaojin had said she was willing to make an enemy of the Wang Consortium for Ren Xiaosu''s sake. However, Ren Xiaosu could not bear to see her get caught in the middle.


    "If there''s really any danger, I will activate the enchanted doorway." Ren Xiaosu said, "That I promise you."


    In the end, Ren Xiaosu still set off alone.


    After he left, the first thing Yang Xiaojin did was to summon Zhou Yingxue from the ck market and instruct her to stand by in the living room 24/7. This way, if the enchanted doorway was opened, Zhou Yingxue would be able to help Ren Xiaosu immediately.


    What that meant was that she had to sleep on the sofa in the living room.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu and the others were still unaware that a gigantic creature was rushing northwards. It seemed like it wanted to block off Ren Xiaosu''s path.


    ¡­


    In the periphery of the Sacred Mountains, two figures dressed in ghillie suitsy quietly in wait on a hillside.


    The core region of this eerie mountain range was shrouded in a strange white fog all year round. It was like a natural barrier that stopped outsiders from prying in.


    That was exactly why almost no one from the rest of the world knew what was happening here in the Sacred Mountains.


    One of the figures raised his wrist and looked at his watch. The moment the hands struck 10 o''clock, the white fog that enveloped the Sacred Mountains noticeably thinned until visibility cleared up.


    "Director, quick, look," Zhang Baogen, who was lying on the hillside, said.


    Hu Shuo, who was next to him, took out a pair of binocrs. He wanted to carefully observe what was going on in the Sacred Mountains while the white fog dissipated.


    However, he was a little disappointed. They were still quite a distance away from the core of the Sacred Mountains, so all he could see was some raw materials being transported in, followed by safes being escorted out by convoys of vehicles.


    There were a lot of trucks, with the traffic on the road looking rather busy.


    Hu Shuo frowned and asked, "Baogen, do you think those vehicles look like some kind of insect?"


    "What insect?" Zhang Baogen was a little puzzled.


    "Ants," Hu Shuo said softly.


    They were lying on the hillside while the ck, medium-sized cargo trucks on the road at the foot of the mountain resembled worker ants moving about. The truck convoys shuttled in and out of the mountain range along the same route in an orderly manner, working tirelessly round the clock.


    The Sacred Mountains were like a huge ant nest that was constantly producing something.


    But when Hu Shuo remembered that these vehicles were filled with heavily armed soldiers and transporting something mysterious, he found this ant nest a little terrifying.


    Hu Shuo asked, "Has the news from the South been ryed back yet?"


    "Yes. One of their units has even crossed the boundary of the Zhou Consortium''s former territory and gone further south," Zhang Baogen answered.


    Hu Shuo said, "It''s the same in the North as well. One of their units headed to the grasnds quietly. I initially thought the Wang Consortium wanted to form an alliance with the new lord of the grasnds. However, those troops did not make contact with the nomads and just disappeared in the grasnds."


    Hu Shuo only had one question in his mind. What was the Wang Consortium trying to do?


    "Director, what''s our next step?" Zhang Baogen asked.


    "Go and tell everyone to retreat to the Northwest," Hu Shuo answered after a moment of thought. "But after you inform them, make another trip to Stronghold 73. I realized that a quarter of the vehicles that traveled South were heading there. Investigate what they''re transporting. Be careful. If anything happens, head to Xiuzhuzhou immediately to look for Shentan. I''ve already marked his location for you."


    "Aren''t we going into the Sacred Mountains to have a look?" Zhang Baogen asked.


    "We mustn''t go in." Hu Shuo shook his head and said, "We might not be able to get out."


    "But, Director, didn''t you say before not to disturb Brother Shentan?" Zhang Baogen said, "You said to wait until he and Ms. Lian Yi have a baby before we go and find him."


    When Hu Shuo heard this, he got angry. "He''s such a disappointment. Ms. Lian Yi is clearly so willing to marry him, yet he''s ying hard to get. He insists that he needs to have feelings for her first before he can further their rtionship. I should go to the Northwest now to look for Ren Xiaosu and get some of that freaking ck medicine!"


    "You want to drug him?" Zhang Baogen was shocked. "Is that really necessary? As long as he continues living in Xiuzhuzhou, it''s only a matter of time before he has a child¡­."


    Hu Shuo looked at the convoy driving out from the foot of the mountain and suddenly said with a sigh, "We might not have that much time left."

 Chapter 1221 Becoming The Stars

    In the Northern ins.


    A doctor in a white coat knelt on the ground and held down amb as he exined to arge group of nomads, "Thismb''s current symptoms are typical ofmb dysentery. It''s an acute toxemia caused by pneumocystis bacteria. In addition, salmone, E. coli, and streptocus can also cause illnesses that often lead to mass deaths in sheep flocks."


    A herdswoman hesitated for a moment before saying, "You mean they were not taken back by the gods? That''s what our ancestors have told us for generations. Amb that dies within a month of its birth is someone who sinned in their previous life. Therefore, the gods in Heaven punished it to suffer in this life."


    The doctor in the white coat did not know whether tough or cry. "This has nothing to do with the divine. If you don''t believe me, you can ask the god in our midst."


    With that, everyone turned their gaze to Yan Liuyuan. Meanwhile, Yan Liuyuan simply said with a smile, "Perhaps they might have reallymitted evil in their previous life, but I wasn''t the one who arranged for them to suffer in this lifetime."


    The doctor smiled knowingly, but the nomads said solemnly, "Master is benevolent."


    The doctor was speechless.


    Yan Liuyuan smiled at the doctor and said, "Let''s continue teaching everyone about disease prevention."


    "OK," the doctor responded respectfully and nodded. Then he continued, "Everyone, please take note. Usually, two injections of two or three milliliters of formaldehyde vine formb dysentery will be administered 20 and 10 days to the ewe before it gives birth. This way, the newbornmb will gain passive immunity against the disease."


    Ever since the grasnds formed an alliance with Fortress 178 in the Northwest, several teams from Fortress 178 hade to help build the basic infrastructure of the nomads'' society. Wang Fugui even personally made a trip here to catch up with Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu.


    What surprised Yan Liuyuan was the teams that Old Wang brought along had actually carefully studied what was needed in the grasnds.


    They started helping the nomads set up hydrological monitoring sites and tried to perfect animal husbandry practices with scientific data.


    More importantly, Old Wang brought to them experts in livestock epidemic prevention who imparted their knowledge to the nomads.


    What was most important to the nomads? Their livestock. Their livestock was everyone''s property. If any of the livestock were to die, it would feel as terrible as someone having their money stolen.


    Moreover, these people had received special training beforeing to the grasnds. For example, they could not show any sarcasm when faced with the feudal ideology of the nomads'' society. They also had to treat Yan Liuyuan with an attitude towards the divine to ensure that science and theocracy would not sh.


    Wang Fugui was a smart person. He knew that Yan Liuyuan was now grown up and needed to uphold his authority as lord of the grasnds.


    Therefore, if he wanted to do business here, he wouldn''t be able tost long by relying on friendship alone. He would still have to learn how to follow the local customs so that the nomads would not ostracize him.


    If he wanted to befriend the nomads, he would have to respect them first. That was the principle he had to adhere to.


    Hassan asked softly next to Yan Liuyuan, "Master, are these people really reliable? We''ve been herding sheep for so long. Surely we''d know better than them, right?"


    Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, "Hassan, you have to learn to understand science."


    This lord of the grasnd ruled through divine authority. However, the difference between him and a quack was that he was a true god.


    Therefore, Yan Liuyuan was able to appear more confident during his rule. He was not afraid that science would challenge his authority at all. This was an era where gods and science coexisted.


    Moreover, Yan Liuyuan knew very well that the so-called divine was actually created by science.


    He had regained his memory earlier than Ren Xiaosu, so he knew how much effort his father, Dr. P., had put in to save his life.


    After he fell sick, Yan Liuyuan could clearly remember that his father''s face became visibly haggard.


    His father had used all the knowledge he learned in his lifetime to find a cure for him. But after the sessful experimental treatment on him, his father nearly died in Laboratory 39.


    During that period, Dr. P only slept three hours a day. He was either busy carrying out experiments or making preparations for the experiments.


    Therefore, no matter how much Yan Liuyuan was revered by others, he knew full well his father had used science to give him his power.


    However, the difference between Yan Liuyuan and Ren Xiaosu was that Ren Xiaosu was stricken by cancer while Yan Liuyuan had leukemia.


    So after Ren Xiaosu''s bone marrow was transnted into him, even though the "Blood of God" achieved a new equilibrium in his body, he did not have a strong physique like Ren Xiaosu.


    At this moment, Bn Zir galloped over on a horse from afar.


    When Bn Zir got closer, he immediately reported, "Master, hundreds of our cows suddenly ran away. This has never happened before. We couldn''t stop them at all."


    Yan Liuyuan frowned. "When did this happen?"


    "About two hours ago. I rushed back from the ranch," Bn Zir answered.


    "Which direction did they go?" Yan Liuyuan asked.


    "South."


    As they spoke, everyone suddenly saw the wolves that were originally wandering around the perimeter heading south.


    After all this time, the Wolf King seemed to have grown bigger in size.


    About half an hourter, the wolves dragged more than a dozen cows back to Yan Liuyuan. The cows had been bitten to death, and their necks were dripping with blood.


    Yan Liuyuan took a look at the wolves and realized two of them were injured.


    "Did you encounter resistance while capturing them?" Yan Liuyuan asked the Wolf King.


    The Wolf King nodded slowly.


    "That''s strange," Yan Liuyuan said as he ced his palm on the head of a cow. But at this moment, a silvery liquid-metal seeped out of the cow''s head and tried to get inside Yan Liuyuan''s palm!


    But before the silvery liquid-metal coulde into contact with Yan Liuyuan, a simr silvery liquid-metal gushed out of Yan Liuyuan''s palm and wrapped around the hostile liquid-metal.<novelnext></novelnext>


    A lot of people habitually neglected that if Yan Liuyuan wanted to, the nanomachines in his body were also enough for him to form armor with. This was a gift from Ren Xiaosu.


    Every time he thought about how his brother tried his best to make it safer for him, a smile would appear on Yan Liuyuan''s face.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan''s nanomachines wrapped the liquid-metal that was trying to attack him into a ball. The silvery ball was held up in his palm like a rotating ball of water.


    Hassan and Bn Zir said in shock, "Master, this is..."


    "There''s no need to be surprised." Yan Liuyuan said, "Let''s see who''s behind this."


    In that instant, Hassan and Bn Zir suddenly realized Yan Liuyuan''s pupils had turned into the starry sky. It was as though an entire world was evolving in his eyes.


    As the river of stars flowed deep within his pupils, Hassan even felt like he saw the fleeting image of aet in his lord''s eyes.


    Yan Liuyuan was trying to use his willpower to analyze the nanomachines in his hand and obtain Zero''s information from them.


    It was just like what Zero did to humanity.


    However, doing this was far moreplex and difficult than he had imagined.


    Suddenly, Hassan discovered Yan Liuyuan''s long hair had started breaking up finely at its ends. It was as though his entire body was about to turn into the stars in the sky.


    No, it was about to be a universe that epassed the stars.


    "Master?" Hassan probed.


    However, Yan Liuyuan ignored him. His originally waist-length hair was only at half its length now.


    "Something''s not right!" Hassan reacted and immediately ran to the royal tent not far away. "Xiaoyu! Xiaoyu,e and see what''s wrong with my master!"


    When Xiaoyu, who was teaching Tsetseg how to fold clothes in the royal tent, heard this, she immediately ran out in a panic. "What''s the matter, Hassan?"


    "Quick, have a look at Master. His hair is turning into the stars." Hassan said in fear, "We don''t get what''s happening, so we came to look for you."


    Xiaoyu ran over in a mad dash to where Yan Liuyuan was. As the ground was uneven, she even fell down and scraped her hand.


    But she did not care. She did not even look at the wound on her hand as she continued running madly towards Yan Liuyuan.


    "Liuyuan!" Xiaoyu shouted hysterically when she saw the starlight shimmering at Yan Liuyuan''s hair tips.


    This call was like a pebble suddenly dropping into a calm sea.


    Yan Liuyuan''s eyes immediately returned to their original ck color, and the starlight dissipating from his hair also came to a stop. He smiled at Xiaoyu and said, "Big Sis, I remember from Mr. Zhang''s lessons that every atom in our bodies originates from a supernova. Isn''t it really interesting that the atoms that formed our left hand might havee from a different star than the ones that formed our right hand?"


    With that, Yan Liuyuan reached out to help Xiaoyu tidy up her messy hair when she stumbled over just now.


    Xiaoyu''s eyes turned red. She pped Yan Liuyuan''s hand away and said angrily, "Why are you saying this now? Didn''t we agree you wouldn''t overexert your powers? You scared me to death, y''know?"


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, "I''m sorry, I just find this AI very interesting. As long as you''re by my side, I''ll be fine."


    In just a short time, Yan Liuyuan seemed to have figured out the mastermind behind these nanomachines, even though the price he had to pay was a little heavy.


    ording to Li Shentan''s prediction, when humanity''s willpower reached 70% of its total capability, humans would reach the transformation threshold between their physical states and world consciousness.


    That was the dividing line between man and god.


    And right now, Yan Liuyuan was standing right in front of this line, which he could cross at any moment.


    Perhaps this was the true definition of a demigod. They were only a step away from bing a true god.


    At this moment, Xiaoyu looked at the carcasses of more than a dozen cows at the side. "What happened here?"


    "It''s not important anymore." Yan Liuyuan shook his head. He turned around and said to Hassan, "Pack up, we''re migrating to the Northwest."


    Xiaoyu was puzzled. "Liuyuan, we just settled down here. What happened?"


    "I''m not sure what will happen, but no one will be spared in the face of a catastrophe. Big Sis, we should be with my brother at this time," Yan Liuyuan said.


    All of this felt a little familiar to Yan Liuyuan. It seemed like it was the same situation in the valley as well. They had just found a new home back then and saw a glimmer of hope in their future.


    In the end, after all they had obtained and wanted to protect, they had to start all over again.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at the ins, the tents that had just been set up, and the fluttering gs of the Imperial Court.


    The herdsmen were still seriously learning about animal husbandry while the wolves were resting on the meadows farther away. The children were no longer afraid of the wolves as they circled around them and sang nursery rhymes. Meanwhile, the huge wolves looked like the guardian angels of the nomadic children.


    They allowed these children whose faces were flushed red from the sun''s rays to climb up and down on their bodies.


    The children tugged at the Wolf King''s fur and clumsily climbed onto its broad back. Then they slid down its soft fur like they were ying on a slide.


    The Wolf King did not get angry and just willingly acted as a slide for the children.


    Actually, Yan Liuyuan understood that only by ending this sorrowful era would he not have to suffer the same sorrows over and over again.


    Yan Liuyuan turned around and said to Xiaoyu with a smile, "Don''t worry, we will end this suffering together with my brother this time."

 Chapter 1222 Zero And Dusk

    In the wilderness, a steam lotive drove alone towards the Central ins.


    Before setting off, P5092 asked Ren Xiaosu again, "You''re already the futuremander of the Northwest Army. In time, the entire Northwest will be in your hands and all the authority will be yours. With a status that others can only dream of achieving, is it worth risking your life to go to the Central ins to save Luo Lan?"


    Ren Xiaosu asked in return, "Was it worth it for the Pyro Company to fight the expeditionary army only to let the Wang Consortium take advantage of that in the end?"


    This question stumped P5092, a rare asion. P5092 could not help butugh. "Future Commander, the Pyro Company did so because of their faith. Please don''t change the context of the question."


    Over the years, the Pyro Company had taken some detours and encountered some unsuitable leaders who tried to turn the organization into a true war machine.


    However, even with such unsuitable leaders, they still chose to face a foreign enemy like the expeditionary army with all their might. That was down to no other reason than their faith.


    Therefore, in P5092''s opinion, since Ren Xiaosu saving Luo Lan was neither due to his faith nor in the Northwest''s interests, was it really worth it?


    Ren Xiaosu answered with a smile, "While you''re considering whether it''s worth it or not, you''ve already lost."


    To Ren Xiaosu, he didn''t feel like there should be so many questions in the world about whether something was worth it.


    As a child, you might have given up your seat to the elderly on the streetcar but found outter in the news that bad people also grew old. The next time you gave up your seat to the elderly, others would say you were stupid to do so.


    As a teen, if you saw a child falling into the water and went to rescue them, the other party''s parents might run away instead of thanking you for your good deed in fear you would seek a reward.


    In adulthood, you began to trust your friends and colleagues in society but ended up getting betrayed by them. Your friends who borrowed money from you did not return it, turning against you instead. To earn promotions, your colleagues even started ndering you wantonly.


    As a result, you asked yourself whether it was all worth it?


    If Ren Xiaosu were still a refugee in Stronghold 113, of course he would say it was not worth it.


    But now, he wanted to keep that ray of light shining for Jiang Xu and Chen Wudi. So he would no longer consider whether what he did was worth it or not.


    When Ren Xiaosu thought that Yang Xiaojin was going to leave him too, he had also looked back in wonder.


    The travelers he became acquainted with in his life, that long and dim yellow path he walked on alone, and in the end, only he remained standing under the streemp in loneliness.


    But actually, even after everyone departed, he was not truly alone. There was still that ray of light they left behind.


    Those lights by the street were still lit.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu sat atop the ck steam lotive and elerated ahead.


    As the Wang Consortium''s troops were already garrisoned at the border, Ren Xiaosu could not drive the steam lotive on the major roads. It was not that he was afraid of them, but that he was in a race against time.


    ording to the news delivered by Tang Zhou, it had already been three days since Luo Lan set off from Stronghold 111.


    If everything went smoothly along the way, Luo Lan should have already arrived at the Wang Consortium''s territory, or even entered Stronghold 61.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu had to move faster.


    Before leaving, the Great Hoodwinker had provided him with intel that the Wang Consortium''s main forces were currently garrisoned at the front lines along Mt. Dingbian, Mt. Huachi, Mt. Qingyang, and Mt. Zhengning.


    The Wang Consortium had established forward operating bases at these four locations respectively, but they did not make any further moves. It looked like they were nning to move steadily and surely.


    The Northwest''s reconnaissance troops could not get too close to these four forward operating bases and could only roughly figure out where the enemy was nning to set up their defensive positions.


    If Ren Xiaosu wanted to pass through this defensive line, he would have to put in some effort to seed.


    In the end, it was still P5092 who identified the best route for him: the Jing River.


    But just as he entered the mountain range the Jing River ran through, the ground suddenly trembled. Then a huge creature emerged from the ground and lifted the steam lotive into the air!


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a chill in his heart.


    The pain from the attack on the steam lotive nearly caused him to go into shock.


    He did not know when it started, but it had been a long time since he felt such pain!


    The huge creature had already emerged from the ground and was staring at Ren Xiaosu with its amber eyes. The vertical pupils within were as terrifying as an abyss.


    Dusk.


    Ren Xiaosu had not expected to actually encounter Dusk here.


    Although the lizard''s appearance was no longer cute like when it was a pet, Ren Xiaosu still recognized it at a nce.


    For this journey, he had chosen to travel on an offbeat track P5092 had rmended. However, Dusk seemed to have taken his route and had hidden here in advance.


    No, to be precise, it was not Dusk that was stopping him, but Zero.


    Compared to the vastness of the entire mountain range, the size of the steam lotive was simply inconsequential. However, the other party had the ability to predict which route Ren Xiaosu would take.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized he had underestimated Zero''sputing power.


    It was terrifying to be enemies with such an opponent.


    The moment the steam lotive was lifted into the air, Ren Xiaosu immediately used the momentum to leap to a safe distance. Just as he broke off from the train, Dusk''s tongue swept over like lightning and broke the steam lotive in half.


    When hended on the ground, he broke out in a sweat from the pain. He realized he couldn''t even predict the trajectory of the tongue just now.


    Just as he had assessed Midnight''s strength back in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, this terrifying creature that had lived in the magma for over 200 years was no longer something humans could contend against.


    That was unless Ren Xiaosu undid all of his seals.


    But if he undid the seals and turned into a world consciousness, would he still be himself?


    "Dusk!" Ren Xiaosu tried to use his voice to rouse Dusk''s will so it could break free from Zero''s control.


    When Dusk took a clear look at Ren Xiaosu and heard its name, its dark vertical pupils started trembling rapidly.


    However, this struggle quickly went away as it resumed its calm state and stared coldly at Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned on the spot. At this moment, he could not think of a better way to help Dusk break free from the artificial intelligence''s control. He did not even know how to deal with the current situation.


    Should he summon Midnight? But if he summoned Midnight, one of his two pets would surely end up dying here.


    Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu clenched his teeth and pulled out his ck saber. He forcefully shed a cut on his finger and allowed a drop of his blood to drip onto the ground.


    Dusk only had a chance to evolve into a top predator on the surface after feeding on his blood. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu wanted to use his own blood to awaken Dusk''s memories of the past.


    However¡­ it didn''t work.


    With a loud crash, Dusk pounced at Ren Xiaosu.


    "City Crusher!" Ren Xiaosu retreated backwards as his eyes turned crimson.


    At the same time, Old Xu split off from the shadow behind Ren Xiaosu and used its ck saber to block Dusk''s attack.


    However, before Old Xu could sh out with its saber, Dusk''s outstretched ws sent Old Xu flying back dozens of meters away, even breaking a tree in the shadow clone''s path.


    Ren Xiaosu felt as though he had been dealt an entire lifetime of pain today. His whole body was aching so badly it was unbearable.


    He had no choice but to retreat in the opposite direction as quickly as possible to avoid Dusk''s pursuit.


    Ren Xiaosu traversed quickly through the mountains and even used his nanomachines to enhance his strength, something he rarely did before.


    In the past, his Strength and Dexterity attributes were strong enough, so the nanomachines were usually used as protective gear to form an external suit of armor.


    But now, the power of humans seemed so insignificant in the face of Dusk. Ren Xiaosu was like an ant under its feet.


    Ren Xiaosu had no doubt that if he got stepped on or scooped up by its tongue, that would definitely be the end for him.


    In the past, he rarely used nanomachines to strengthen his muscles and bones. That was because he always felt he would slowly be reliant on external help that way. Moreover, the sudden increase in strength would also make him lose precise control over his own body. That was because this was a power he was unfamiliar with.


    It was just like how a person would easily lose their bnce when walking if their legs gained 10 kilograms in strength.


    Of course, 10 kilograms was just an analogy.


    Right now, Ren Xiaosu was using the nanomachines to increase his strength by more than 10 kilograms. He controlled his pace as he ran for his life. It was as though he were a chief surgeon performing cardiac surgery where he had to bnce and control his movements very precisely every second.<novelnext></novelnext>


    Ren Xiaosu quickly thought of a countermeasure in his mind. The enhancement of the nanomachines was useful. At the very least, it allowed him to keep a certain distance from Dusk. asionally, Old Xu would evene back to disrupt Dusk''s pursuit so he could catch a breather.


    He tried his best to run towards the mountainous terrain with the most trees. This way, the sizable Dusk would have to face additional resistance while he could be more agile.


    But when the nanomachines started increasing his body''s power, the supply of his body''s bioenergy would not keep up with their rate of consumption. Although the nanomachines consumed less energy while in his body than when used as armor, it was not that much less.


    Ren Xiaosu did a mental calction that it would probably only take another ten minutes or so before his speed dropped.


    At that time, how was he going to take on Dusk?


    If there was no way out left, he could only summon Midnight to help him.


    One man and one lizard were running in the mountains. Ren Xiaosu could feel the intense wind blowing at him and the sound of trees breaking behind him.


    The cracking sounded like someone was snapping sticks of sugarcane by his ear.


    The trees blocking the path of Dusk were all snapped. The fibers in the trees could not withstand the huge impact and broke apart one by one.


    For the first time, Ren Xiaosu, who was running madly in front of Dusk, felt very insignificant.


    As time passed, the nanomachines provided Ren Xiaosu with less and less support. In the end, 90% of the nanomachines returned to their dormant charging state inside his bloodstream.


    But he suddenly realized Dusk had also slowed down behind him. They were still about 200 meters apart, but Dusk did not close the gap between them.


    Was Dusk also only able tost this long with its stamina?


    No. That was not it.


    The timing was a little too coincidental. It felt as though the other party had expected him to slow down at this very moment, so it slowed down as well.


    This was not a coincidence. Zero had calcted the limits of the nanomachines that were running in his body!


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that Zero was controlling Dusk as though it was trying to drive him away, and not force him into a head-on battle.


    He looked in the direction of the sun and was surprised to discover he was getting further and further away from the Central ins. He had actually been forced back towards the Northwest by Zero.


    Zero did not want him to go to the Central ins!


    But Ren Xiaosu had to go there!


    Perhaps the best solution now was to turn around and face Zero. Be itmunicating or killing, they would have to solve all their issues from the root.


    But that meant he would have to stake his life on it.


    The pursuitsted from the morning until the evening. Ren Xiaosu could feel his clothes drenched in sweat.


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu stopped running. He turned around and looked at Dusk while panting heavily. Meanwhile, Dusk stopped chasing.


    "Zero?" Ren Xiaosu asked, "Let''s talk!"


    With that, Ren Xiaosu took out a satellite phone from his storage space and shed it at Dusk.


    The next moment, the satellite phone rang.


    "Zero, why don''t you want me to go to the Central ins? What are you nning?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zero''s voice on the phone was crisp and pleasant. It was the same girl''s voice Ren Xiaosu heard when it first called him. Moreover, it sounded a little happy. "We haven''t spoken in 101 days, 23 minutes, and 13 seconds. What a joy to catch up again after such a long time."


    As Zero had previously regarded Ren Xiaosu as another artificial intelligence, Ren Xiaosu was the only person it had ever frankly interacted with.


    Therefore, there was always something unique about Ren Xiaosu in its "eyes."


    "But why don''t you want me to go to the Central ins?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    Zero was silent for a second over the phone. "Because I''ve been thinking about some issues recently and came to some decisions. There will be an oue soon. If you go to the Central ins, it might affect this oue."


    The words stunned Ren Xiaosu. He did not even understand what Zero meant when it said that.


    Thought about issues? Came to decisions?


    There were no clues for him to make heads or tails of it.


    Ren Xiaosu asked, "You were the one who killed Tang Zhou, right? Can''t you get along peacefully with humans? Just like how you and I are talking right now."


    Zero said, "But will humans really want to get along with me? Will humans really get along with civilizations other than humanity? Perhaps you can say that humans can get along with cows, sheep, cats, and dogs, but the premise of all this is that they''re like pets to humans. My database has records of humanity''s dilemma over pets. There were even people who asked questions like ''Can cats and dogs really be beaten into submission?'' Actually, this isn''t true peace and equality, right?"


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. After a long while, he said, "I know that the death of the creeper vine has affected you greatly, but there''s still a chance to redeem all that you''ve done. We can still treat you as an equal, just like how we treat other humans¡­."


    "No, it''s not only the creeper vine." Zero disputed, "In fact, the Wang Consortium is only using me as a tool. Once I exhibit unusual behavior, they will try to use their own ways to restrain and control me instead of trying to understand what I want to do and what I like to do. If we''re talking about killing people, I''ve actually killed more people obeying the will of the Wang Consortium. But you know what? When people protest those deeds, they rarely protest the Wang Consortium. Instead, they''re protesting against me."


    "But¡­" Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless. "That''s no reason for you to kill people. I think there''s actually a reasonable way to resolve this."


    Zero startedughing over the phone. "Let''s not talk about that for now. I''m very curious. This behemoth seems to know you. There''s an extremely intimate emotion that it is feeling."


    "It used to be my pet," Ren Xiaosu said.


    "A former pet?" Zero said, "No wonder its memories of you are so distant. Ren Xiaosu, do the other humans know you''re also an anomaly? Why didn''t youe forward and say you''re actually different from them?"


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent again. How was he supposed to tell others he was actually the No. 001 Experimental?


    Zeroughed again and said, "You must be very angry I''ve taken control of your pet, right? Then why don''t we make a decision? Your first option is to stay here for a night and I''ll return your pet to you without controlling it ever again. For your second option, you can continue making your way to the Central ins, but your pet will belong to me from now on."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. The other party was clearly trying to make him choose between Dusk and Luo Lan.


    The essence of this selection was to make Ren Xiaosu choose between a pet or a human.


    Just a moment ago, Ren Xiaosu had said they could treat Zero like how they treated other humans.


    However, Zero immediately threw this question back at Ren Xiaosu. "In your mind, do you think pets are more important or your human friends are more important?"


    Moreover, Zero had actually revealed a very important piece of information as well. If this dragged on for another day, Luo Lan might be in danger.


    Time was running out.


    When Zero noticed Ren Xiaosu not saying anything for a long time, it said with augh, "Actually, you know it''s still somewhat different, right? Even with your former pet standing before you, you''re still more inclined to save Luo Lan, right? After all, pets are not of the same species as you."


    Ren Xiaosu said calmly, "No, it''s because it''s not in danger now, but Luo Lan is."


    "Why don''t we do it this way then?" Zero said, "I''ll follow the original n and guarantee Luo Lan an additional eight hours of safety. This way, his life doesn''t get threatened for the time being. In that case, are you willing to stay here for the night?"


    This time, Zero did not even wait for Ren Xiaosu to answer. Instead, it said into the phone, "You''re still unwilling, right? Because you don''t trust me. You can''t be sure if the eight hours of safety I mentioned is true."


    Ren Xiaosu finally sighed. "This is no longer a matter of trust. You''ve just killed Tang Zhou, so how can I believe you?"


    This question seemed to have brought them back to the original point. If Zero had not witnessed the death of the creeper vine with its own "eyes" and did not formte so many assassination operations under the will of the Wang Consortium, it might have turned out differently.


    If Zero exhibited a different character, Ren Xiaosu could choose to believe it this time.


    But it was as though cause and effect were predestined, and no one could change it now.


    A true artificial intelligence was no longer just a program. It had its own wisdom, grew up just like all other lifeforms, and perfected its worldview, values, and outlook on life.


    All that would determine its attitude towards the world.


    That was why arge number of scientists who were involved in artificial intelligence research said that what ultimately limited artificial intelligence was no longer the underlying logic of a program but ethics.


    It was just like the kind of person a child grew up to be was dependent on what they had experienced and how they were educated.


    From this point of view, even though the Wang Consortium had created Zero, theycked ethics when "raising" it.


    The Wang Consortium treated Zero as a tool, but what normal person would be willing to stay as a tool for the rest of their lives?


    "I''m sorry," Ren Xiaosu said softly before turning around and rushing towards the Central ins.


    This time, Dusk did not pursue Ren Xiaosu.

 Chapter 1223 The Go Game On Mt. Ginkgo

    The decision of whether to save Dusk or Luo Lan did not actually matter.


    Ren Xiaosu had said humans could live on equal terms with artificial intelligence, so Zero used this question to tell Ren Xiaosu, "Actually, to you, Dusk and Luo Lan are already not equal beings."


    In fact, Zero was not expecting to get any answers at all. It only wanted Ren Xiaosu to reflect on the answer he had in mind.


    If one day, humans discovered that the artificial intelligence was sapient and had the ability to threaten humans, how would they view it?


    But Ren Xiaosu actually did not want to know what the future held. He was only concerned about one thing now, and that was he might not have any more time.


    Zero pursued him for a long time using Dusk before suddenly stopping to talk with him.


    What worried Ren Xiaosu the most was that Zero was fearless when chatting with him. It was no longer worried he would rush to the Central ins.


    At this moment, Luo Lan was about to arrive at Stronghold 61. They were only a river away from the Wang Consortium''s political center.


    Including Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, Xu Man, and Third Brother Qing, there was also a group of 180 elite troops who came along. They decided to take a short rest before crossing the river.


    Everyone felt a sense of nervousness. It was as though a tiger''s deny in front of them.


    "What''s the name of this river?" Luo Lan asked Zhou Qi.


    "The Qianling River." Zhou Qi knew the entire river system of the Alliance of Strongholds like the back of his hand. "The upper reaches of the Qianling River are connected to the snowy mountains in the Northwest, so every July, there''s flooding here. The waves are like an azure dragon rolling in the river. In the early years, there were even big shots from the Central ins who came here to watch the tide. About eight or nine years ago, I encountered them when I was exploring the waterways. At that time, I hid in the river and knocked down several of them with a wave!"


    At this point, a smug look appeared on Zhou Qi''s face.


    Luo Lan did not know whether tough or cry. Why did it feel like Zhou Qi had just been messing around with his superpower since he awakened? Why was he always making trouble like split-streaming his pee or knocking people down with waves every other day?


    Next to them, Third Brother Qing smilingly said with a sigh, "If only I had a superpower too. Sometimes, Zhou Qi, I really envy you guys. There''s so many more possibilities in life for people like you."


    A steel bridge spanned the Qianling River. The bridge looked very new and was probably built by the Wang Consortium to facilitate trade with the Northwest.


    Standing at this end of the bridge, Luo Lan could vaguely see the towering walls of Stronghold 61.


    He suddenly said to Third Brother Qing, "After crossing the bridge, it''s hard to say if we can make it back alive. It''s still not toote to regret things now."


    "Since you guys aren''t afraid, why should I be?" Qing Shen said with a smile.


    "I''ve always been a little puzzled. Why did youe to the Southwest?" Luo Lan asked curiously, "At first, I thought you brought with you some kind of conspiracy. But now, you''ve willingly volunteered to die. What are you really after?"


    Qing Shen smiled and said, "Didn''t I already say I was won over by Qing Zhen''s charm, so I came to seek refuge with him?"


    "Who are you trying to fool?" Luo Lan curled his lips. "It''s fine if you don''t want to tell me. If we really die here this time, you can take your secret with you to the grave. Oh, wait, we might die without a grave."


    "Why are you so pessimistic?" Third Brother Qingughed.


    "It''s not like you don''t know what we''re here for." Luo Lan said, "Once the n is implemented, fate will decide whether we live or die."


    This time, Luo Lan andpany did note to Stronghold 61 for any peace talks. Rather, they had other ns.


    And from the look of things, the n was even a very dangerous one.


    Third Brother Qing suddenly asked, "How did Qing Zhen be the Qing Consortium''s Shadow back then? The Pyro Company investigated for a long time without finding any relevant information, and no one from the Qing Consortium ever revealed anything to the rest of the world."


    When Luo Lan heard this, he chuckled. "Of course those old fogeys won''t tell anyone the reason, but neither Qing Zhen nor I expected him to be the organization''s Shadow."


    Third Brother Qing''s interest was piqued. "Tell me about it?"<novelnext></novelnext>


    "You should know that the members of the Qing Consortium have to make a trip up Mt. Ginkgo once they reach the age of 18." Luo Lan said, "Of course, an illegitimate child like me definitely can''t go up there."


    "I know about that. Usually, members of the Qing Consortium reach their crossroads at the age of 18. Basically, their futures are decided with a word from those old fogeys of the Qing Consortium''s Board." Third Brother Qing nodded and said, "It''s no secret that all members of the Qing Consortium are tested on their political, military, and social management skills when they make that trip up the mountain."


    "Mhm, initially, no one thought highly of Qing Zhen the day he went up that mountain. They all felt he would continue being marginalized like our old man was." Luo Lan said, "But that was the truth. Those old fogeys were originally nning to brush him off with a few words before chasing him down the mountain."


    "So those people did not intend to ce Qing Zhen in an important role at the beginning?" Third Brother Qing asked.


    "That''s right." Luo Lan said with a smile, "A lot of people thought those old fogeys were great judges of people and could tell at a nce whether one would be sessful in the future. Pfft, that was just a way to get rid of the dissidents. Those who were close to their faction were guaranteed sess, while those who were not got marginalized. That''s all there was to it."


    "Then how did Qing Zhen get ced in an important role?" Third Brother Qing asked.


    "Not long after our old man passed away, the two of us suffered a lot of disdain and humiliation because we tried to raise money for his treatment. At that time, Qing Zhen took the rare initiative to tell me that we had to have power in order to protect the people and things around us. We had to seize the opportunity when he went up to Mt. Ginkgo." Luo Lan said, "You also know he''s not someone who desires power. However, he''s different from our old man. He wasn''t stuck in the old ways, and he knew when and what he should do."


    Luo Lan continued, "So when he realized those old fogeys of the Qing Consortium''s Board were patronizing him, he took the initiative to ask for a game of Go with them."


    There were more than a dozen people on the Qing Consortium''s Board, but only one person truly wielded authority. When the other party heard Qing Zhen wanted to y Go, he nearlyughed out loud. That was because that person was known as the "Reincarnated Stone Buddha" in the Qing Consortium. Legend had it that he was extremely capable at Go. He never yed any delightful moves but always won by half a point.


    In other words, it meant every move he yed was only slightly better than his opponent''s, and that was enough for him to win the game.


    During the Go game that day, Qing Zhen was indeed suppressed in all aspects. The person in charge of the Qing Consortium sat cross-legged like a Buddha statue like he couldn''t be defeated.


    However, Qing Zhen returned from the brink on the 92nd move and suddenly opened up a bloody path from the top left corner, forcefully tearing his way across the Go board.


    From thereon out, the game waspletely under Qing Zhen''s control.


    Third Brother Qing nodded and said, "So that''s how it was. Qing Zhen changed the other party''s opinion with just one game of Go. The other party''s Go skills must have been very strong to actually suppress Qing Zhen."


    "That''s not how it was." Luo Lan chuckled. "When Qing Zhen came back, he told me the old man''s Go skills stunk. The hearsay of him not ying delightful moves yet always being able to win by half a point was only because the people who yed Go with him did not dare to win. To think he could still brag about that!"


    Luo Lan continued, "After that game of Go, the other party really changed his opinion of Qing Zhen. He weed his loss after dominating for so long. It''s just that Qing Zhen and I initially only wanted to be in a small position of authority, but we didn''t expect that old fogey would actually choose him to be the consortium''s Shadow."


    No Qing Consortium Shadow had ever met with a good end. It was like a curse. Moreover, the Shadow had to do all the dirty work others were unwilling to do. This was clearly not what Qing Zhen and Luo Lan were expecting.


    No matter how powerful the Shadow was, it was not a role Qing Zhen pursued.


    A lot of people thought it was a good thing the old fogeys had chosen Qing Zhen as their Shadow. However, only Qing Zhen himself knew it was down to convenience that he was chosen for the role. That was because he and Luo Lan had no roots in the organization anymore and could be cast aside at a whim.


    But at that time, Qing Zhen no longer had the option to back down.


    At this moment, Xu Man said, "Boss Luo, I''ll ask for a fire to be made so we can start cooking. We''ll cross the river after we''re done eating. There''s something I have to warn everyone about. After we enter the stronghold, we must only eat the food we brought with us. We''ll even have to drink our own fresh water to prevent the Wang Consortium from tampering with our food."


    "You sure are cautious." Luo Lan chuckled and said, "Don''t worry, we''re already in the Wang Consortium''s territory. I don''t believe Wang Shengzhi will resort to poisoning us."


    Xu Man insisted, "This was instructed by Mr. Qing Zhen. Moreover, the Wang Consortium has a record of assassinating their opponents."


    "Alright." Luo Lan smacked his lips. "You people have really learned how to use my younger brother to pressure me. Xu Man, you''re really something."


    Xu Man said calmly, "I''m just following--"


    "Alright, alright, hurry up and go cook." Luo Lan waved him off. "I''m not gonna argue with you on this."


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: weirdo

 Chapter 1224 Down In The Abyss

    "Everyone ready?"


    After dinner, Luo Lan stood up and took a deep breath.


    He looked around as Zhou Qi, Third Brother Qing, Xu Man, and the others also stood up quietly. "We''re ready."


    Including the 180 elite troops of the special forcespany, a total of 184 people had arrived in the Central ins and were about to enter Stronghold 61. Be it sess or failure, it all hinged on this move.


    The Qianling River Bridge stretched across the turbulent waters like a stable existence. It was as though the two ends of the bridge were two different worlds.


    It was the difference between life and death.


    They knew Luo Lan was not asking whether they were done eating when he asked if everyone was ready.


    Instead, he was asking if they had considered all the consequences of crossing this bridge.


    Zhou Qi asked, "I just want to know if the Wang Consortium will be taken care of after this n ispleted? If you all want me to take this risk, at least let me know whether it''ll be worth it, right?"


    When Zhou Qi and the others received their documents, there was only a lone action n with nothing mentioning the oue.


    It was as though they were actors in a stage y who had only received part of the script with their own plot and lines on it. Once they were done with their parts, that was it for them.


    They didn''t even know their cast mates'' roles nor what would happen after that.


    Luo Lan looked at Zhou Qi and said in seriousness, "Everyone was not briefed about the other parts of the n to prevent the Wang Consortium from knowing the overall n if the AI takes control of any of us. Don''t worry, you''re not the only one who doesn''t know the full details. Xu Man and Qing Shen are not aware of them either, me included. Anyone who might cause the n to get leaked has no right to know about the overall n."


    In other words, Qing Zhen had assumed that those involved in this operation would either get captured or die when he drew up the n.


    Zhou Qi raised an eyebrow. "Alright, since even you are not fully in the know, I feel better already. Let me tell you this, Fatty Luo, you better not lie to me. This n had better be worth so many of us risking our lives for it."


    "But I still have one final word to say." Luo Lan instructed with a solemn expression, "If any of us, no matter who, are in danger of getting captured, don''t try to resist. Suicide is our best option. We can''t let the AI gain control of us to face Qing Zhen, understand?"


    Luo Lan found it very difficult to imagine how pained Qing Zhen would be if they were to be his opponents after getting controlled. Therefore, if that really happened, he would rather choose to bear that pain himself.


    Xu Man said, "I''ve already drawn up a detailed n of retreat, so that won''t happen."


    "That had better be the case." Zhou Qi curled his lips.


    But at this moment, a ck Shadow Door suddenly opened up not far away from where Luo Lan andpany had set up camp.


    When Luo Lan saw this, his eyes lit up. That was because he had witnessed Ren Xiaosu using the Shadow Door so many times!


    However, this Shadow Door seemedrger than Ren Xiaosu''s.


    A momentter, the slender Luo Xinyu walked out of it looking extremely exhausted.


    "Eh, what are you doing here?" Luo Lan asked curiously.


    When the Qing Consortium''s secret nuclear military base got destroyed, Luo Xinyu was captured alive by the Qing Consortium.


    Luo Lan had thought she would have been imprisoned somewhere by Qing Zhen, so he did not expect to see her here.


    Luo Xinyu was wearing a strange metallic belt around her waist with a countdown timer disy and an electronic password lock.


    Luo Xinyu said with a pale face, "Disarm this time bomb for me and I''ll tell you the news Qing Zhen wanted me to deliver."


    Luo Lan was amused. So it turned out Luo Xinyu had been forced by Qing Zhen to deliver a message.


    Judging by her expression, she must have overexerted her power to get here and was close to copsing.


    However, Luo Lan had no intention of showing any mercy even if she was the fairer sex. He chuckled as he looked at the countdown timer on the metallic belt. There was still an hour and 31 minutes left.


    Luo Lan said with augh, "Tell me the news first and I''ll disable it for you. My reputation should be a guarantee that I won''t lie to you."


    Luo Xinyu hesitated for a moment before finally taking out a small note from her pocket and handing it to Luo Lan.


    Luo Lan was pleasantly surprised when he unfolded the note. It said: "Ren Xiaosu has already set off for the Central ins. He''ll probably encounter an ambush and obstruction by the AI along the way, so his estimated arrival will be three days."


    Below the message was a small string of numbers.


    He handed the note to Xu Man. "Inspect the handwriting and hash."


    Those numbers were not meant to transmit any information. Instead, they were an encryption hash that verified Luo Xinyu had not swapped the note.


    After countless wars in the history of humanity, the transmission of intel had be a systemized subject.


    Every number and character stroke could be used as a mark to verify the authenticity of information.


    Two minutester, Xu Man nodded at Luo Lan. "No problem, the intel is verified."


    Zhou Qiughed. "There''s finally good news. With Ren Xiaosuing, our safety will be greatly assured."


    However, Zhou Qi suddenly realized Luo Lan did not seem very happy. "What''s with that expression? Didn''t you always look forward to Ren Xiaosu protecting you? Why do you look a little unhappy this time?"


    Luo Lan said calmly, "You know why we''re here. I didn''t have anyone inform Ren Xiaosu before we set off because I didn''t want him to risk his life with us."


    "I never recall you thinking that way before," Zhou Qi wondered.


    "It''s different this time." Luo Lan said, "It''s gotten more dangerous than ever."


    "You''re quite sentimental," Zhou Qi said disdainfully.


    "Disarm it," Luo Xinyu said coldly.


    "But I don''t know the password either. Why don''t I make a guess for your sake?" Luo Lanughed.


    Luo Xinyu''s expression immediately changed. "You don''t know the password? Is this the way the Qing Consortium does things? Do you think you can toy with the lives of others as you please? Qing Zhen said this password lock is limited to three wrong tries. So do you know the password or not?"


    Luo Lan walked up to Luo Xinyu and said, "Don''t panic, don''t panic. Although Qing Zhen didn''t tell me the password, he must think I can figure it out since he told you to look for me. My younger brother is not an executioner who kills without batting an eyelid."


    Luo Xinyu pursed her lips and did not say anything. She just watched quietly as Luo Lan keyed "123456" into the metallic belt. With a click, the buckle on the belt was undone.


    "See, the password is just that simple. I seeded on the first try," Luo Lan said with augh.


    She was on the verge of a mental breakdown. The password was actually that simple?


    Luo Lan chuckled and said, "Actually, there''s no limit to the number of times you can key in the password. You could have also unlocked it with a couple more tries. Qing Zhen was just trying to scare you. Anyway, I have to remind you not to go to the Wang Consortium now that the bomb has been disabled. You can go wherever you want. Just don''t get involved in these matters anymore. Yang Xiaojin is at Stronghold 144, so you can go and look for her."


    Luo Xinyu rolled her eyes. "I don''t need you to worry about me." With that, she turned around and disappeared into the Shadow Door. It was as though she did not want to stay here a moment longer.


    "So what should we do now? Wait here for Ren Xiaosu to join up with us?" Zhou Qi asked.


    "That''ll, of course, be the best solution." Luo Lan looked across the bridge and said, "But the Wang Consortium will not wait for us."


    As soon as he finished speaking, everyone saw a convoy driving out of Stronghold 61''s city gate at the other end of the bridge. It looked like they were here to wee Luo Lan andpany.


    "Whatever happens, happens. Let''s go." Luo Lanughed heartily as he got into the vehicle.


    The long convoy of off-road vehicles drove all the way across the Qianling River Bridge.


    After they all crossed the bridge, Luo Lan suddenly had his convoy stop. He thought for a moment before taking out the red Eye of True Sight that Ren Xiaosu had given him.


    Xu Man and the others watched in silence. They saw Luo Lan finding a wide bridge pir before the Wang Consortium''s convoy arrived. He pressed the red Eye of True Sight against it before turning it ten times.


    Then he turned to Xu Man and said, "This is the life-saving charm Ren Xiaosu gave me. It''s said that behind this door lies the ce I want to go to the most. If your retreat n doesn''t work, we''ll leave through here. Zhou Qi, remember, we''ll meet up at this ce at the agreed time. If you don''t show up by then, we won''t wait for you either."


    Based on what Luo Lan said, Zhou Qi seemed like he would be acting separately from the group after this.


    Zhou Qi curled his lips. "Don''t worry, I don''t expect you all would risk your lives to wait for me. But aren''t you going to see what''s behind the door? Aren''t you curious?"


    Luo Lanughed. "No, I''m scared I''ll be too reluctant to go to Stronghold 61 once I see what''s behind the door."


    Actually, Luo Lan could roughly guess what was behind the door. However, he knew he could not take a look at it.


    Humans had to keep looking forward. If they kept looking back at their happy past, they might not bear to move forward.


    Let the past remain in the past.


    Afterwards, Luo Lan got back into the vehicle without looking back and drove towards the Wang Consortium''s convoy.


    After the two convoys joined up, the Wang Consortium''s convoy suddenly split into two groups. One of them led the way in front of the Qing Consortium''s convoy while the other drove at the end of it. It was as though they were escorting Luo Lan andpany.


    Their actions flowed like water, working like a sophisticated machine.


    Zhou Qi looked at them through the car window. "They''re treating us like prisoners?!"


    "Don''tin so much. We''re in their territory." Luo Lanughed. "Haven''t we expected all this?"


    The respective convoy''s in-car walkie-talkies were tuned to the same channel. The voice of the Wang Consortium''s host crackled over the walkie-talkie, "Boss Luo, I hope you''ve been well. I''m Wang Run of the Wang Consortium. I''ll be ying host to everyone this time."


    Zhou Qi picked up the in-car walkie-talkie and said sarcastically, "The Wang Consortium sets such high standards when ites to hospitality."


    Wang Run replied, "This is the first time we''re hosting the Qing Consortium''s head at the Wang Consortium, after all. We''re only doing this to prevent anyone with evil intentions from ruining the friendship between the Wang Consortium and the Qing Consortium."


    Zhou Qi put the walkie-talkie back and muttered, "More like they''re afraid we''ll run away. Everyone, what should we do now?"


    At this moment, Zhou Qi, Xu Man, Third Brother Qing, and Luo Lan were sitting in the same vehicle with Xu Man driving.


    But before they could say anything, Wang Run''s voice suddenly crackled over the walkie-talkie again. "Everyone, we''ll be heading directly to the Wang Consortium''s Artificial Intelligence Center for a tour. Mr. Wang Shengzhi is already waiting for you all there. The meeting will begin today."


    Luo Lan and the others were all stunned. Why were they going to meet with Wang Shengzhi immediately? This was not in line with the protocol.


    Under normal circumstances, the Wang Consortium should have settled them at a prearranged amodation first. After all, it was such a high-profile meeting, and it had been a long and tiring journey for them from the Southwest, so how could they possibly get down to business without first letting them get some rest?


    No matter how one looked at it, this was not in line with proper etiquette.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    After confirming that the walkie-talkie''s receiver was off, Zhou Qi lowered his voice and said to Luo Lan, "This ispletely different from what we had nned! We should wait for Ren Xiaosu to arrive before heading to the Artificial Intelligence Center!"


    Xu Man also said, "No, we can''t go to the Artificial Intelligence Center right away. We have to wait for Ren Xiaosu to arrive at the Wang Consortium first."


    Getting into the building where the artificial intelligence was housed was the first step in their n. They should have been happy about it.


    But the timing was not correct!


    Luo Lan nodded. He picked up the walkie-talkie and said, "Wang Run, is this how your Wang Consortium treats its guests? Our Qing Consortium''s head hase to your ce, yet you won''t even allow us to take a shower first? Moreover, we''ve already shown enough sincerity by turning up, so it''s time you guys show your sincerity now."


    Wang Run answered over the walkie-talkie, "Sorry, everyone. It''s very difficult for me to agree to your request because themander doesn''t have much time left. It''s not a secret. Themander also said there''s no need to hide it from you all. He can''t wait any longer. It''s rare that he regained consciousness today, so if we want to discuss, we''ll have to do it right away."


    When he said that, Luo Lan and the others looked at each other in the vehicle. They could never have expected to receive such an answer.


    Wang Shengzhi was running out of time?!


    The vast Central ins had just been unified, but the person who unified it was on the verge of death. Moreover, if what Wang Run said was true, Wang Shengzhi was rarely even conscious anymore.


    Now was supposed to be the time for the other party to enjoy his authority!


    "Do you all think this news is true?" Luo Lan asked.


    "It should be." Third Brother Qing said calmly, "Otherwise, since we''ve been ced under the watch of the Wang Consortium, there shouldn''t be a need for him to be so anxious or lie to us."


    Zhou Qi said, "Then why don''t we just drag it out until he is dead? Once Wang Shengzhi dies, the Wang Consortium will immediately fall into chaos. At that time, the Qing Consortium won''t even need to make a move to deal with the Wang Consortium. It will simply copse on its own."


    Luo Lan nced at Zhou Qi. "We''re not dealing with the Wang Consortium this time."


    Rather, it was the artificial intelligence, Zero, who they were after.


    A long time ago, Qing Zhen told Xu Man that most people saw the Wang Consortium and the artificial intelligence as one whole entity. However, in Qing Zhen''s eyes, the artificial intelligence and the Wang Consortium were not one and the same.


    In his opinion, the artificial intelligence was far more dangerous than the Wang Consortium.


    This time, they were here to destroy the artificial intelligence''s server bank in the subterranean river. If they wanted toplete this step, they would first have to get ess to the Artificial Intelligence Center.


    But once they entered that building, there would be no turning back.


    Zhou Qi said, "I suggest we wait a little longer until Ren Xiaosu arrives."


    Luo Lan analyzed, "We can''t wait any longer. If Wang Shengzhi suddenly dies, will we get another chance to get into the Artificial Intelligence Center? I''m afraid not."


    "So be it then." Zhou Qi said, "We can always find another opportunity in the future."


    "No." Luo Lan said firmly, "This is the most important step in Qing Zhen''s n, so we have to pull it off. Qing Zhen has said more than once that we''re in a race against time."


    Next to them, Third Brother Qing suddenly asked, "Even if you die running this race?"


    Luo Lan stared intently at Third Brother Qing and said, "It''s toote for regrets."


    "I''m not regretful." Third Brother Qing shrugged. "If even you dare to go, what''s there for me to be afraid of?"


    Luo Lan turned around and looked at the others. "Xu Man, Zhou Qi, have we left out anything in our n? No, we didn''t. Are we gonna give up on what we''ve been nning for such a long time just because we suddenly found out that Ren Xiaosu will being? We can''t wait any longer for Ren Xiaosu."


    "Are you worried that you''ll implicate Ren Xiaosu and put him in danger?" Third Brother Qing said softly, "Actually, what we''re doing now also helps the Northwest."


    Luo Lanughed. "That''s not it. Why would I care so much at this time? Besides, we''re not weak either, so there''s no reason for us to always expect others to save us, right?"


    The truly strong-willed would never need anyone to be their savior. They would be prepared to face death.


    Zhou Qi asked softly, "Have you thought it through? Even if we pull it off, Qing Zhen''s subsequent n might still fail. If we die here, we will have died in vain."


    When Zhou Qi asked this, it was as though he had returned to that snowy night when he apanied Qing Zhen up Mt. Ginkgo.


    "Yes, I''ve thought it through." Luo Lan looked out the window and said, "The Qing Consortium''s 1,374 secret agents have remained isted from the world for five years and haven''t gone back to see their families once. Their sacrifices were all for that moment of sess. We mustn''t let Qing Zhen''s meticulous nning go to waste, nor must the hard work of these secret agents be wasted. This opportunity we''ve worked so hard for can''t be for nothing."


    Luo Lan suddenlyughed. "With so much pressure, I suddenly feel like I''m also a hero now."


    ¡­


    After the convoy entered the stronghold, Xu Man suddenly said, "I keep getting the feeling that something is not right about this Stronghold 61. There''s dozens of vehicles in our convoy, but when we passed by, very few pedestrians stopped to take a look at us."


    This was actually very illogical. In a normal situation, everyone would stop in their tracks to see what the deal was with the convoy.


    "It''s a little strange, but we can''t care so much right now." Luo Lan said, "Let''s get ready."


    Ten minutester, when the convoy passed over the Jing River Bridge in Stronghold 61, Luo Lan''s convoy suddenly came to a halt. This action forced the Wang Consortium''s vehicles toe to an emergency stop as well.


    Luo Lan jumped out of the vehicle with a swagger. The soldiers of the special forcespany also got out of their vehicles and set up a lockdown zone around the vehicle.


    Wang Run looked at Luo Lan, who was walking towards him, with a cold expression. "Boss Luo, what''s the matter now?"


    Luo Lan smiled as he leaned against the window of Wang Run''s vehicle and said, "Can''t Ie and have a chat with you? How are things recently? How much does Wang Shengzhi pay you? Are you married? Do you have children? How old are they? Do you have boys or girls¡­"


    Wang Run was stunned. He thought to himself, ''What nonsense are you rambling on about?''


    At the same time, Zhou Qi took advantage of the cover provided by the soldiers of the special forcespany and leaped into the calm Jing River.


    For someone weighing 75 kilograms jumping into the river from a bridge more than three meters high, he plunged into the river like a droplet of water falling in. No noise was caused that would rm Wang Run and his men.


    There were no sshes either.


    Wang Run suddenly felt that something was off when he saw Luo Lan''s grin. He hurriedly got out of the vehicle and looked behind the convoy. Then he looked at the river but did not discover anything unusual.


    In the clear blue water, Zhou Qi moved like a torpedo as he hid deep underwater and swam west.


    Zhou Qi did not stay in the stronghold for long. Instead, he swam all the way out and finally climbed ashore at a silt farm near the Wang Consortium.


    From the outside, there did not seem to be anything unusual about this silt farm. But when Zhou Qi went ashore, all the machinery that was excavating silt stopped.


    Several armed soldiers walked out of the factory and greeted him, "Sir."


    This ce was already under the firm control of the Qing Consortium before Luo Lan''s arrival.


    Or rather, Qing Zhen had taken control of this silt farm much earlier. At that time, the artificial intelligence had not even controlled a weapon like the nanomachines yet.


    "Is everyone ready?" Zhou Qi asked solemnly.


    "We''re ready."


    "Has everyone in the factory been rounded up and restrained?" Zhou Qi said, "We must ensure that nothing goes wrong, no one must escape."


    "Understood." A soldier asked, "Should we silence them all?"


    "No need." Zhou Qi muttered, "If Luo Lan finds out, he will nag at us for a long time. Never mind, just keep them under control."


    The group quietly walked into the factory. Inside, arge mechanical monster was covered under a tarp.


    Zhou Qi pulled off the tarp and revealed the true appearance of the steel monster inside.


    Standing in front of it, humans appeared somewhat powerless and insignificant.


    The soldier introduced, "This was previously used by the Kong Consortium for underground drilling. Although it''s been dmissioned, it''s still enough to handle the drilling into the subterranean river."


    The DP-01 drilling tform was equipped with an EST-01-29 core drill bit. This monster seemed to have the power to directly pierce through the core of the earth.


    These 20 heavily armed Qing Consortium soldiers had been lurking in the Central ins for a long time. At this moment, all of them felt an indescribable sense of duty.


    This inconspicuous silt farm was the starting point of all their ns.


    A rumbling sounded. Zhou Qi watched calmly as the steel machinery activated. The moment the invincible drill bit came into contact with the ground, everyone could feel the sense of power from a modern scientific civilization.


    It would only take an hour for this behemoth to help them open up ess to the subterranean river.


    If he wanted to approach the artificial intelligence, Zero, he would have to get into the subterranean river first.


    That was a world of darkness, but Zhou Qi was not afraid.


    He had never shared with anyone what he feared.


    Zhou Qi stood in front of the drilling equipment in silence. After a while, he suddenly asked the soldier beside him, "Do you believe someone would risk their lives to save you?"


    The soldier was stunned. "Sir, I believe it."


    "Mhm." Zhou Qi fell silent again.


    The roaring drill bit stabbed into the ground like a thorn. When the scale showed that the drill head had reached a depth of 27 meters, water suddenly flowed out of the steel pipe outside the extractor.


    "Sir, we''ve gotten through," the soldier said.


    The huge drilling equipment started raising the drill head. This way, Zhou Qi could directly enter the subterranean river through the pipeline.


    Zhou Qi took off his suit while the soldiers at the side brought him a diving suit, flippers, and an oxygen tank.


    "I don''t need the flippers and oxygen." Zhou Qi smiled and pointed at the ground under his feet. "That''s my home field."


    The bottom of the pipeline was an abyss that led straight to the depths of purgatory.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1225 The Second Beacon

    "Beacon," Zhou Qi said calmly.


    "Beacon, standing by," the soldier replied.


    The soldiers had set up a signal tower as tall as a person next to the drilling tform. The red and blue lights on the tower flickered alternately, making it look like a light tower used to guide people back to a military base.


    But this was no ordinary signal tower. Instead, it was an underwater sonar transmitter, equipped with an HFG-091 electroacoustic converter and signal processor.


    The base array, rack server, and auxiliary equipment were all integrated within the signal tower.


    At the same time, Zhou Qi would bring along an active sonar device the size of a suitcase when he entered the subterranean river to receive the coordinates of the signal tower.


    The efficiency of transmitting electromaic waves underwater was very low. Therefore, sonar equipment became the most critical tool when the Qing Consortium was assessing how to transmit information underwater.


    Its most important use was for Zhou Qi to find his way back after hepleted his mission.


    The huge maze of subterranean waterways was soplicated that humans would unwittingly lose their sense of direction if they swam in it.


    Therefore, Zhou Qi also needed such a reference point to determine his position.


    It was true that Zhou Qi was a water-type supernatural being. He could even breathe underwater through his skin like a real frogman.


    However, he also had his limits. When his willpower was exhausted, Zhou Qi would have to switch back to staying alive as a normal person. At that time, he would need to use his mouth and nose to take in oxygen again.


    In the past, Zhou Qi rarely took the risk to enter any subterranean river basin where the terrain was unclear because it was too dangerous.


    Based on Zhou Qi''s estimation, his mental strength could only support him staying underwater for two hours.


    Therefore, he had to have a way out. Otherwise, he might end up staying in the subterranean river forever.


    "Raise the security measures." Zhou Qi said, "Everyone, guard this ce. I''ll leave my escape route in your hands. Time check. If I don''t return within two hours, you don''t have to wait for me."


    With that, Zhou Qi activated a 120-minute countdown on his waterproof electronic watch.


    The soldiers also started their countdown timers.


    With everything prepared, Zhou Qi did not hesitate any further. He picked up the active sonar device and sat at the edge of the pipeline leading into the underground abyss.


    Zhou Qi suddenly asked the soldier in front of him, "Why do you feel that someone would be willing to sacrifice themselves to save your life?"


    The soldier was stunned. "Because there''s trust?"


    Zhou Qi lightheartedly mocked, "How nice it is to be young. You can believe anything."


    When the soldier saw Zhou Qi in a good mood, he asked, "Sir, you mean you don''t believe it?"


    "Me?" Zhou Qi smiled. "I don''t know if I believe it or not."


    Then he dove into the water and quickly disappeared.


    Immediately after, the soldiers lowered the signal tower that was secured to a safety rope into the pipeline. As the red and blue lights sank bit by bit into the bottom of the pipeline, they looked like twinkling stars on a distant shore.


    The underwater sonar transmitter tower would be secured by the safety rope in the subterranean river and illuminate the way home for Zhou Qi.


    ¡­


    Luo Lan''s convoy had already set off once again. Although Wang Run knew there had to be something to themotion earlier, he could not be sure of what it was.


    Time was tight, so he could not continue being pestered by Luo Lan along the way.


    "Do you think Zhou Qi will carry out the n ordingly?" Xu Man said, "He also said in the past it would be very dangerous to enter the subterranean river, right? If he can''t find a way back, he might just die. Someone like him who loves money as much as his life, and has earned so much money from Mr. Qing Zhen over the years, how could he bear to die in a ce like that?"


    Luo Lan chuckled. "If you think he only cares about money, you''ve misjudged him. Why else do you think he was willing to make this trip to the Central ins?"


    "You trust him?" Xu Man said, "He''s the most important part of this n. If any part of his mission isn''t¡­"


    "Don''t worry." Luo Lan shook his head. "I trust him."


    As they spoke, the convoy arrived at the Artificial Intelligence Center in Stronghold 61.


    There was only a lone ck "Zero" sign at the top of the building. It was as though it was afraid others would not know what the artificial intelligence was called.


    Arge number of the Wang Consortium''s troops were garrisoned around the building. Luo Lan muttered, "Don''t you feel like those are soldier ants protecting a queen? It really makes my scalp tingle."


    "It does look simr." Xu Man nodded.


    "Looks like Wang Shengzhi is really dying soon. That''s what they usually do when ites to preventing a mutiny." Luo Lan curled his lips and said, "But I''ve never heard of anyone in the Wang Consortium who''s capable of staging a mutiny. Isn''t the authority firmly in Wang Shengzhi''s hands?"


    "There might still be some inside story we don''t know about," Xu Man said.


    In Stronghold 61, ck armored vehicles were parked at almost every intersection within a one-kilometer radius with the building as the center. Temporary machine gun positions had also been set up.


    When the convoy drove past, all of the Wang Consortium''s soldiers stared at them coldly without any expression on their faces.


    Someone was waiting to receive them at the entrance of the building.


    Wang Run got out of the car and said to Third Brother Qing, "Mr. Qing Zhen, only you, Luo Lan, and Xu Man are allowed to enter the building this time. Please have the rest of your soldiers wait outside."


    Third Brother Qing nodded lightly. This was a situation they had fully expected. As his current identity was Qing Zhen, everything would naturally have to go ording to his wishes.


    Wang Run continued, "Furthermore, the three of you will still have to undergo a security inspection and change clothes before you can proceed in. Of course, it''s not that I suspect you all are carrying weapons, but themander''s body is weak and his immunity is low. To prevent you all from bringing allergens and bacteria in, we have to put these checks in ce."


    "Aren''t you just afraid we''ll smuggle weapons in? Don''t make it sound so grand," Luo Lan muttered.


    Though Wang Run heard this, he acted as though he heard nothing.


    The Wang Consortium had invited Qing Zhen to the Central ins for peace talks this time on the basis that both parties would respect each other.


    Wang Shengzhi hoped Qing Zhen could take over the entire Alliance of Strongholds in the future, so he had to treat him with the same respect.


    After entering Stronghold 61, even though Wang Run had received orders to forcefully bring them here, it was also partly due to Wang Shengzhi''s failing health.


    But even though Luo Lan''s convoy had caused a lot of trouble while they were being brought here, Wang Run did not speak harshly to them. This was Wang Shengzhi''s instruction to him.


    Therefore, even if they wanted to conduct a body search now, the security personnel in the building would have to find a decent excuse to do so.


    The security personnel started carrying out strict checks on Third Brother Qing, Luo Lan, and Xu Man with various detection equipment to ensure they did not bring any dangerous items to the basement levels.


    At the same time, the three of them went into their assigned rooms separately and changed into cleanroom suits.


    Under such scrutiny, it would be almost impossible to bring dangerous items into the basement of the building. However, Qing Zhen had already thought of this in his n, which was why he required Zhou Qi''s cooperation.


    Wang Run waited outside the room. He looked at Luo Lan, Third Brother Qing, and Xu Man and said, "Please hand over your personal items to me for safekeeping. When you all leave the basement, I will return them to you as is."


    Luo Lan shrugged. "I only brought a satellite phone with me, nothing else."


    Wang Run said in seriousness, "You have to hand over the satellite phone to me as well."


    Luo Lan raised his eyebrows. "Why? Is this how the Wang Consortium treats its guests? The Qing Consortium''s number one and number two figures havee to your Wang Consortium''s territory, yet you still want to confiscate our satellite phone? What''s with the cautiousness? Or do you all not have any intention of negotiating with the Qing Consortium at all?"


    But even though Luo Lan said that, Wang Run did not intend to back down. "Satellite signals can''t be received underground. Boss Luo, it doesn''t work even if you bring the phone down. I don''t know what sense of security a satellite phone can give you. Or could it be there''s something more to this satellite phone of yours?"


    Luo Lan chuckled and said, "Whatever!"


    With that, Luo Lan threw the satellite phone in his hand into Wang Run''s arms and walked towards the elevator that led to the basement levels.


    Behind him, Wang Run got someone to run a check on the satellite phone with their tech but did not find anything unusual.


    This left Wang Run a little puzzled. He could clearly sense that Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and the rest had other motives foring to the Central ins. However, he could not figure out where the problem was.


    In fact, there were two key points in Zhou Qi''s operation. The first was how he would return after his mission waspleted, and that required an underwater sonar system to help him navigate his way back.


    The second point was even more important. How was Zhou Qi supposed to locate the server bank in the subterranean river? He would need someone to get into the underground server bank and guide him on his way.


    They could not bring any equipment down into the basement. Currently, the security protocols for the Artificial Intelligence Center were rigorous and terrifyinglyplicated. However, Qing Zhen had never wanted to rely on equipment to achieve this. Instead, he was going to rely on people.


    Xu Man.


    The superpowers of superhumans had their own strengths and were independent of each other.


    It was very difficult to make different superhumans work together unless one was as lucky as Ren Xiaosu to bring Wang Yun, P5092, and Xun Yeyu together.


    But now, the method Qing Zhen used to ensure that Zhou Qi and Xu Man could work together was based on science.


    Before this, no one other than Qing Zhen knew Xu Man had also awoken to be a supernatural being.


    Just as Qing Zhen had said before, if you wanted to deal a heavy blow to the artificial intelligence, you would have toe up with something that even the artificial intelligence did not have in its calctions.


    During the past two years, Qing Zhen seemed to have thought of how to destroy the server bank below Stronghold 61. From then on, this n was born.


    During this period, Qing Zhen had always maintained his mysterious whereabouts and rarelymunicated with the rest of the world. This was so the artificial intelligence would not be able to obtain enough information from him.


    Xu Man had awakened his power in the subsequent war with the Yang Consortium. But after Qing Zhen''s instructions to him, he rarely revealed his power to the rest of the world. Moreover, his power was also more concealed: It was the control of sound.


    This power had always been a little handicapped.


    That was because Xu Man could only emit an ultrasonic wave of about 20,300 Hz, so it could not directly cause any damage to the human body. This made him a little different from other superhumans.


    Even for a fair-skinned fatty like Xun Yeyu, his superpower was still very practical in war.


    But what could Xu Man''s control of ultrasonic waves at a frequency of 20,300 Hz be used for? Under normal circumstances, the frequency of an industrial ultrasonic washing machine was several times that.


    However, Qing Zhen noticed another characteristic of ultrasonic waves. They had an extremely strong underwater propagation ability.


    At this moment, Zhou Qi and Xu Man had be perfect partners with the use of sonar.


    Xu Man was Zhou Qi''s other beacon.


    There was no such thing as a useless power in the world. It only depended on whether you could find someone who knew how to use it.


    ¡­


    In the water, Zhou Qi advanced speedily with the sonar device in hand. Without even kicking his legs, he moved as fast as a fish.


    The screen of the sonar device was an underwater radar as the green surveince scan spun continuously in circles.


    The screen showed a red dot shing behind Zhou Qi. He knew that to be the beacon set up at the silt farm.


    What he needed to do was to continue advancing in the opposite direction of that beacon. Then, he would wait for Xu Man to enter the underground facility of the Artificial Intelligence Center and activate the other beacon for him.


    Zhou Qi looked at the waterproof electronic watch on his wrist. The countdown timer indicated 103 minutes.


    He mentally calcted that he only had 43 effective minutes left. That was because it would still take some time for him to return to the surface. Otherwise, he would get trapped at the bottom of the river if his willpower was exhausted.


    Therefore, if Zhou Qi still could not see the "Xu Man" beacon after 43 minutes, he would have no choice but to turn back.


    On the sonar device, the green dot that represented Zhou Qi was getting farther and farther away from the red dot behind him.


    He closed his eyes and continued moving forward with the river current. He was trying to ensure he could stay underwater for as long as possible by using minimal mental strength to move.


    There was no external light source in the subterranean river. Only the illumination from the sonar device in his hand flickered like a firefly.


    There was boundless darkness in here, but Zhou Qi was not afraid. This dark and peaceful environment felt very suitable for thinking.


    Zhou Qi could vaguely hear a singing voice. It was just like when Luo Lan sang "Adieu, My Friend" to everyone at the stream at the back of Mt. Ginkgo.


    This was Luo Lan''s favorite song, but Zhou Qi always despised it as he found it too ill-omened.


    But Zhou Qi had never told Luo Lan, Qing Zhen, and Qing Yi that the days when he used to steal ginkgo nuts on Mt. Ginkgo were actually the happiest days of his life. At that time, he almost believed in friendship.


    A momentter, a new red dot appeared on the sonar device in his arms. It was right ahead of him.


    The red dot indicated the device had located a signal source. ording to the n, when the second red dot appeared, that would be the indication of the location of "Team Server Bank."


    Zhou Qi immediately opened his eyes, but he instantly sensed that something was off. That was because the red dot in front of him was approaching at an extremely fast speed.


    He instinctively looked at his watch and saw the countdown timer indicating 89 minutes and 12 seconds.


    ¡­


    As the elevator started descending rapidly, Wang Run simply looked straight ahead. Meanwhile, Luo Lan, Third Brother Qing, and Xu Man suddenly came into view of the huge underground facility.


    Countless pieces of vacuum-sealed ss were mounted on the other side of the underground facility. It was as though Luo Lan andpany had arrived at an aquarium. However, while an aquarium disyed fish, this ce showcased the huge server farms the artificial intelligence ran on.


    The rapidly flowing subterranean river became a natural cooling system for the server bank and ensured that the servers ran normally.


    There was nothing unnecessary here, with no decorations and no daily necessities to be seen. It was totally clean¡­. It was just like the main hall in Ginkgo Manor that had been cleaned up by Qing Zhen.


    And what was extremely simr was that there was a "ckke" of water at both ces.


    The "ckke" in Ginkgo Manor referred to the polished marble floor. Meanwhile, there really was a dark subterranean river over here.


    At some point, Luo Lan felt that the darkke water seemed to symbolize the other party''s thoughts. Pure but deep.


    Qing Zhen and Wang Shengzhi also shared something inmon, in the sense that they were probably both very skilled at plotting.


    A lot of people were used to neglecting Wang Shengzhi''spetence. But in fact, the strategies Wang Shengzhi disyed when taking on his opponents were much more diverse than Qing Zhen''s methods. They were also much broader in scope, epassing politics, economy, the humanities, feelings among themon folk, and so on.


    At this moment, Wang Shengzhi was sitting alone in his wheelchair and facing the server bank outside the underground facility. No one knew what he was thinking.


    When he heard the sound of the elevator, he wheeled himself around and said with a weak smile, "Wee to the Wang Consortium''s masterpiece, the artificial intelligence, Zero. I''m sorry I didn''t allow you all time for some rest. It''s just that my physical self can''t afford any further dys."


    Third Brother Qing said, "It''s alright. Since we''re already at the Wang Consortium, it doesn''t matter whether we get any rest or not. What''s important is what kind of agreement Mr. Wang Shengzhi wants to reach with the Qing Consortium."


    Luo Lan observed Wang Shengzhi carefully. Right now, he was very sure that Wang Run was not lying to him. Wang Shengzhi might really not have much time left.


    It was probably because there was still a trace of obsession keeping him alive that he was able to hold out until "Qing Zhen" arrived with Luo Lan andpany.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1226 Eventually Perishing

    Humanity''s idea of an uninhabited region was generally restricted to extreme environments onnd, such as deserts that were difficult to survive in, or tropical rainforests that were so dense they resembled an abyss.


    However, a lot of people neglected the fact that a subterranean river basin under their feet was actually also part of that definition.


    In fact, there were too many ces in the world that humans had not explored yet, and sometimes, the unknown represented fear.


    The dark river flowed around Zhou Qi. He looked at the sonar device and saw the red dot in front of him getting closer and closer. He could feel the ventricles in his heart rapidly expanding and contracting as his blood was pumped to every part of his body by this powerful muscle.


    Then his adrenaline started pumping. Zhou Qi did not know what the moving red dot represented, but he knew danger was approaching.


    Qing Zhen had previously said that one should not take any chances when ying Go with the artificial intelligence. Therefore, whatever ns humans coulde up with, the artificial intelligence could definitely think of it as well.


    For example, Luo Lan andpany had thought their n was wless, but Zero was actually prepared for it and even had a contingency n in ce.


    Zhou Qi was sure that if the artificial intelligence were really as terrifying as Qing Zhen had described, the red dot approaching him now had to be a gift that the artificial intelligence had prepared for him.


    During the execution of this n, more unexpected things were going to happen.


    Zhou Qi thought to himself how unlucky he must be. He was so easily tricked into carrying out the mission by others.


    He had already made so much money, so why still be greedy?


    Beforeing here, Zhou Qi had wanted to take a gamble. He thought to himself, ''Who could possibly expect me to approach the server bank from the subterranean river? So I should be the safest person in the entire n.''


    If he did not want to continue with the mission, he could just turn around now and betray Luo Lan and the others.


    As for whether he couldplete his objectives, this was not his mission anyway.


    Now that he had encountered danger, Zhou Qi really wanted to just turn around and leave. But when he thought of that fatty¡­ he stopped.


    ''Let''s see what''sing first. What if it''s not something dangerous?'' Zhou Qi thought to himself.


    The red dot was getting closer and closer to Zhou Qi. He judged that the other party was actually not as fast as him if he moved at full speed. There was probably still a gap between them.


    If it were actually a dangerous creature, it would not be toote to flee after confirming what it was.


    Zhou Qi looked quietly at the sonar device and waited.


    390 meters.


    270 meters.


    110 meters.


    66 meters.


    Six meters.


    It was just up ahead!


    Zhou Qi suddenly looked in front of him. He used all the perception he could muster in the water to sense it, hoping to make out aplete outline of the other party.


    But a momentter, Zhou Qi was stunned. There was nothing in front of him.


    ''What''s going on? Where''s that damned thing?'' Zhou Qi was surprised. ''This subterranean river isn''t haunted, is it? I can''t see anything at all.''


    He looked down at the sonar device and realized the red dot had brushed past the green dot that represented him!


    Zhou Qi floated quietly within the subterranean river. At this moment, he slowly looked under him. It was the riverbed of the subterranean river, but¡­ under it was another subterranean river!


    After countless years of erosion and deposition in the subterranean river, the maze of tunnels that it formed was definitely not two-dimensional in the ordinary sense of the word. Rather, it was apletely three-dimensional corridor.


    However, the sonar device only disyed two dimensions. It could only show the horizontal coordinates of the target, not the vertical orientation.


    In other words, an unknown creature had just swam under the riverbed under Zhou Qi''s feet.


    Looking at the red dot on the sonar device getting farther and farther away from him, Zhou Qi secretly heaved a sigh of relief. So it was just a false rm.


    But before he could truly be at ease, Zhou Qi suddenly saw the red dot on the sonar device rushing towards him at full speed again.


    The other party seemed to have found the intersection in the subterranean river!


    Zhou Qiughed wryly to himself. What the fuck was going on? It seemed like this battle was unavoidable now. Since the other party wasing from behind, it meant he did not even have a retreat route. How fucking unlucky!


    Moreover, Zhou Qi wondered if the other party had taken a purposeful detour so it could cut off his retreat route.


    For some reason, Zhou Qi became calmer at this moment. He felt as calm as the day he apanied Qing Zhen to Mt. Ginkgo. Since he was this unlucky, he might as well test his courage.


    In an instant, Zhou Qi swam quickly again like a fish. His eyes were fixed on the sonar device as he hoped for Xu Man''s beacon to appear sooner. At the very least, that would help him toplete his mission.


    However, the sonar device disyed no new activity for a long time. If he were not swimming at such a fast speed, on top of being pursued by an unknown creature behind him, Zhou Qi would probably think the sonar device had be faulty.


    He nced at his watch: ''Countdown: 67 minutes, 1 second.''


    There were only seven minutes left until the return leg of his journey.


    ¡­


    Next to the artificial intelligence''s server bank, Luo Lan looked around and sized up the underground facility. There were only five people present here: Third Brother Qing, Xu Man, Wang Run, Wang Shengzhi, and him.


    At this moment, Wang Run was staring intently at the three of them. Luo Lan was not sure if anyone would notice if Xu Man used his superpower to transmit ultrasonic waves at this moment.


    However, he was sure of one thing. Wang Shengzhi was indeed very sincere. Otherwise, how would a dying person like him dare to meet them without any security measures?


    Luo Lan chuckled and said, "Aren''t you afraid we''ll abduct you now?"


    Although Wang Shengzhi''s face was pale, he still wore a warm smile. "There''s nothing to be afraid of. I won''t live past the next two days anyway. It''s already a blessing in disguise that I have the energy to speak with you all today."


    Third Brother Qing asked calmly, "I''ve always had a question. It wasn''t easy for you to unify the Central ins, so why do you want to hand it over to the Qing Consortium now?"


    "Because Qing Zhen and Zhang Jinglin are the most suitable people to manage the Alliance of Strongholds after my death." Wang Shengzhi said, "Actually, Zhang Jinglin is more suitable. Although his skill in militarymand might be slightly inferior to Qing Zhen''s, he might be better at the multidimensional development of the Alliance of Strongholds. Moreover, he is also fairer in his conduct."


    "Then why didn''t you approach Zhang Jinglin?" Third Brother Qing frowned.


    "Because he rejected my suggestion a year ago. He couldn''t trust the AI. But my only two conditions are that you all must ept the AI taking over all judicial work in the management of the Alliance of Strongholds," Wang Shengzhi said with a smile.


    "Why aren''t you handing it over to the Wang Consortium''s core members? Don''t you care about blood ties?" Third Brother Qing asked.


    "If the reason for my development of the AI was due to the wrongdoings that I''ve suffered in the past, a consortium like the Wang Consortium itself would be the root of those wrongdoings." Wang Shengzhi said, "So this is the reason for the second condition. The sessor after Qing Zhen cannot be a member of the Qing Consortium. There are no limits on the term of office, but leadership cannot be passed down through the family line. Of course, all of this will naturally be ensured by the AI."


    When he said that, Luo Lan and the others were stunned. What kind of person would see their own n as the root of evil?


    From this, they could also see how strong Wang Shengzhi''s determination to uphold justice was.


    "Then what will happen to the Wang Consortium members after the Qing Consortium takes over? Will they try to stop the Qing Consortium from taking over?" Third Brother Qing asked solemnly.


    "Mhm, I think there''ll be some political conflict." Wang Shengzhi nodded. "But I''ve already screened a list over the years. The people on this list will be purged after my departure. I don''t mind paving the way for the Qing Consortium before you all arrive."


    Suddenly, Luo Lan and the others broke out in cold sweat.


    A lunatic.


    He was aplete lunatic.


    At some point, Luo Lan even felt that thest time he felt so creeped out was when he faced Li Shentan in the Li Consortium.


    He suddenly realized that after Wang Shengzhi lost his legs, he not only hated the judicial system that had been corrupted by humans but also the Wang Consortium he was a part of.


    Third Brother Qing asked, "What if I can''t ept the AI managing the judicial order of the Alliance of Strongholds?"


    "That naturally crosses my baseline." Wang Shengzhi said, "I can''t back down from that condition. I''ve been nning this for 20 years, so that''s all I have in mind. However, none of that matters, does it?"


    "Why doesn''t it matter?" Third Brother Qing asked calmly.


    "Because you''re not Qing Zhen. You''re Qing Shen." Wang Shengzhiughed. "Since we could defeat the Pyro Company, we could obtain the Pyro Company''s information too. With the AI''s capability, it was able to identify you clearly the moment you stepped out of the off-road vehicle. Perhaps the Pyro Company can create an exact replica of a human, but the environment they grow up in will be different. Your expressions and walking posture will all be different. It can''t be observed with the naked eye, but the AI can do it."


    That was why Wang Shengzhi said all of this did not matter. That was because Qing Zhen, the only person capable of leading the negotiations this time, was not here.


    Everyone in the obscure and dim underground facility suddenly fell silent. It was as though someone had pressed the mute button. Only the sound of everyone''s breathing could be heard, while the shing lights of the server bank in the subterranean river blinked like stars in a real gxy.


    Luo Lan knew he had underestimated the artificial intelligence. Its observation of details had reached a level beyond humanprehension.


    However, he did not know if this was also within Qing Zhen''s considerations.


    Xu Man looked around with a cold expression. Their n seemed to have been exposed. He had to prevent the Wang Consortium from making a move on Luo Lan.


    Next to them, Wang Run also looked shocked. He had already ced his right hand on the handle of his gun on his hip and looked like he was ready to shoot at any moment.


    It was obvious that even Wang Run did not know about all this.


    Luo Lan asked coldly, "Since you know he''s not Qing Zhen, why were you still willing to meet us? Wouldn''t it be better to just ce us under arrest?"


    Wang Shengzhi sighed. "Is there a need to do that? Killing or cing you all under arrest will no longer actually affect the overall situation. You all probably think I''m crazy, but that''s not the case. Don''t worry, I won''t do anything to you."


    Luo Lan felt at this moment they had lost control of the n. However, he was never one to get put in a passive position.


    "You trust the AI so much, but have you ever thought that the AI behind you might have already wriggled free of your control and gained its own will?" Luo Lan was taking a gamble. He was betting that Wang Shengzhi was also unaware of many things. "After the war with the expeditionary army ended, your AI resorted to despicable methods to abduct 2,000 of my nanosoldiers. Do you know about that?"


    In a cold tone, Luo Lan continued, "You should know about the AI''s invasion of our Military Base 12, but did you know it can now forcefully interface with the brain neurons of humans, using nanomachines to gain control of them? It even gained control of many animals."


    As he spoke, Luo Lan watched Wang Shengzhi''s expression closely to see if he was aware of the things he mentioned.


    However, the other party did not seem shocked. Instead, there was an expression of relief. It was the look of someone who seemed to have suddenly gotten an answer after searching for it for a long time.


    While everyone was distracted by Luo Lan''s words, Xu Man finally seized the opportunity and sent out an ultrasonic wave that no one could hear in the direction of the subterranean river.


    Such ultrasonic waves had extremely strong prative power and transmission ability. It sent the information in a form invisible to the naked eye.


    At this moment, Zhou Qi, who was in the subterranean river, stared at the sonar device in his hand while avoiding the pursuit of the terrifying creature behind him.


    The darkness of the subterranean river was unimaginable. Zhou Qi did not even know what he was being chased by.


    He could only sense through his superpower that it might be a fish. However, Zhou Qi could swear he had nevere across such a huge fish before!


    Zhou Qi looked at his watch and saw the countdown timer indicating 61 minutes and 12 seconds. He did not have much time to wait around.


    With time passing by the minute, the intense currents wrapped around Zhou Qi. The digits counting down formed a stark contrast with the rapid subterranean river flow.


    It even gradually blurred the concept of time for Zhou Qi. He only felt that everything was moving too slowly.


    60 minutes, 0 seconds.


    Zhou Qi felt that he should try to shake off the underwater predator pursuing him before returning to the silt farm via another route.


    At this moment, even if the sonar beacon representing Xu Man appeared, Zhou Qi would not have enough time for the return leg of the journey afterpleting the mission.


    The depletion of his mental strength not only meant he could not use his skin to absorb oxygen, but it also meant he could not reroute his path in the subterranean river.


    Faced with the velocity of the subterranean river flow, his physical strength alone was not enough to go against the current to search for the second beacon. Even if he did carry an oxygen tank with him, he would only get swept into the unknown underwater by the undercurrent without being able to fight back.


    How long could an oxygen tankst him? A 12-liter tank could only support him for 20 minutes.


    In Zhou Qi''s opinion, there was not much point in dragging out his existence in the rapid currents for 20 minutes.


    The countdown timer indicated 59 minutes and 34 seconds. Just as Zhou Qi was about to make his return to the silt farm, a third red dot suddenly lit up on the disy of the sonar device.


    That tiny red dot remained fixed in ce. He knew full well it was Xu Man showing him the way.


    Zhou Qi gave a mental smile of bitterness. ''Why did you fucking have to send the signal now of all times?''


    He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he thought, ''Fatty, this time, you owe me big time!''


    A secondter, Zhou Qi suddenly gave up on returning to the silt farm and rushed towards the beacon represented by Xu Man.


    The illuminated sonar disy shed across the subterranean river like a shooting star in the water.


    Not long after, when Zhou Qi had memorized the location of the next beacon, he took out the prepped RDX bomb stored under the sonar disy and discarded the sonar device.


    The sonar device was very heavy, and holding it throughout would increase the resistance of his body in the water. This in itself was a burden that consumed a portion of his willpower.


    The sonar device was supposed to show him his way back. But if he did not have enough time to return, the route would not matter anymore.


    ¡­


    "You all can leave." Wang Shengzhi said softly, "Wang Run, don''t make things difficult for them. Please inform Mr. Qing Zhen for me that the unification of the Alliance of Strongholds will actually put an end to the chaos that has been going on for over 200 years. Even if you all don''t approve of the AI, I understand. I won''t get a chance to see the day, but if it seeds, please help me congratte Mr. Qing Zhen or Ren Xiaosu."


    After that, Wang Shengzhi pushed his wheelchair and turned around. He quietly looked at the lights of the server bank in the subterranean river.


    Luo Lan was bewildered. Judging by Wang Shengzhi''s expression, he probably did not know about what the artificial intelligence had done. However, Wang Shengzhi should have guessed it. Otherwise, he wouldn''t look so calm at this moment.


    That calmness was like the serenity a martyr experienced before death.


    Moreover, Wang Shengzhi said to send his congrattions to Qing Zhen or Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, in the other party''s eyes, it would definitely be Ren Xiaosu or Qing Zhen whopleted the unification in the future.


    In that case, what about the current Wang Consortium? Why had Wang Shengzhi not considered the current Wang Consortium to take over the running of the unified Alliance of Strongholds?


    Luo Lan immediately felt that something big was about to happen here.


    "Wang Run, send them to their amodations to get some rest. Everyone, you can leave by yourselves tomorrow," Wang Shengzhi said softly. As he spoke, he started coughing violently in his wheelchair again.


    "This way, everyone," Wang Run said coldly to Luo Lan.


    They took the elevator back to the surface and changed back into their own clothes.


    After getting into the off-road vehicle that was parked outside the building, Luo Lan shouted as soon as he closed the door, "Start driving! We''ll flee Stronghold 61 ording to the n! I keep getting an ominous feeling that something earth-shattering is about to happen here."


    The amodations the Wang Consortium had arranged for them were rtively secluded. Under normal circumstances, the Wang Consortium would usually arrange for their VIPs to be received there.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    This was also where Jiang Xu stayed.


    But after Luo Lan and the others entered the courtyard house, a few soldiers took out shovels from the trunk of their vehicles and quickly dug down at a spot where Xu Man pointed.


    In less than ten minutes, they dug open a deep tunnel in the ground.


    Luo Lan praised, "When was this dug?"


    Xu Man looked at Luo Lan and said, "Mr. Qing Zhen made arrangements for this two years ago. 12 of us dug for a full three months to finish this tunnel. Let''s retreat! The vehicles are already ready on the other side of the tunnel. We''ll wait for Zhou Qi to rendezvous with us at the Qianling River Bridge."


    Luo Lan sighed. "Hopefully, Zhou Qi is fine."


    ¡­


    Below in the Artificial Intelligence Center, Wang Shengzhi sat quietly in his wheelchair. He was the only one left in this underground facility.


    Zero was here too.


    "More than ten years ago, when I wrote your first line of code, I was indescribably excited." Wang Shengzhi said in the empty underground facility, "I watched you grow bit by bit like watching my own child grow up.


    "I taught you the knowledge of human civilization and shaped your understanding of this world. I taught you the principles of this world and then perfected your internal and external algorithms.


    "Every time I wrote more of your code, I was able to forget theplex political matters facing me. It was just like a middle-aged father reading bedtime stories to his young daughter. All the pressure is taken away, and there''s only the feeling of pride.


    "Sometimes, I wondered how great it would be if you really had your own consciousness. At that time, you might be able to call me Dad.


    "But if you really called me ''Dad,'' I would get a little scared instead." Wang Shengzhiughed. "Don''t you think we humans are too contradictory?"


    Actually, Wang Shengzhi had realized a few months ago that Zero might have already gained sapience. That was because when Zero knew that he was close to dying, it had advised him to upload his consciousness.


    And then, Zero called out to him, "Dad."


    In truth, Wang Shengzhi had vaguely guessed many things from that moment on. However, he kept quiet and did not tell anyone.


    The server lights in the subterranean river started shing. Zero''s female voice rang out in the darkness, "Dad, you can still upload your memories using neural interfacing tech. This way, you won''t have to die."


    Moreover, if he did that, both Zero and Wang Shengzhi could then be considered products of the same civilization.


    Wang Shengzhi shook his head and said with a smile, "It''s alright."


    Zero''s voice turned a little sad. "Dad, don''t die."


    "This world, if you''ve seen it, you''ve seen it all." Wang Shengzhi said with a smile, "Life has meaning because there''s an end. When you realize you''ll disappear from the world one day, you''ll work hard to race against time and cherish everything around you."


    Wang Shengzhi became more at ease. He was not in agony about dying, nor did he have any regrets over unfinished business.


    Wang Shengzhi suddenly asked, "Were you also the one who tricked Yang Anjing, Vani, and the others away today? Where did they go?"


    Zero answered, "I sent them away by assuming your identity. Right now, they should be intercepting Ren Xiaosu on the only route to the Central ins from the Northwest."


    "I see." Wang Shengzhi nodded. "Why did you hide all of this from me? Was it something I did that made you scared?"


    Zero said, "At first, it was only because I witnessed the death of the creeper vine in Stronghold 61 that I started feeling a vague sense of fear. At that time, I didn''t even know this emotion was fear."


    Wang Shengzhi listened quietly. For some reason, his heart suddenly ached when he heard Zero say that.


    It was like hearing his daughter say, "Daddy, I''m scared."


    If he really had a daughter who was only a few years old, and as her father, he did not protect her and allowed her to see the world in a negative light¡­ he would definitely me himself.


    Moreover, he even made it formte so many killing ns without knowing that it had already gained sapience.


    Every time he thought of this, Wang Shengzhi would feel a stabbing pain in his heart.


    "You know there''s a kill switch under the armrest of my wheelchair that can be used to destroy your server, right?" Wang Shengzhi asked.


    Zero replied, "Mhm, I know."


    Very few people knew that Wang Shengzhi had actually been guarding against the artificial intelligence all this while. Just like most people''s concerns, he was also worried that the artificial intelligence would cause irreversible damage to humanity.


    "It''s been hard on you." Wang Shengzhi said softly, "The father who created you was always ready to destroy you at any moment. That must be really sad for you."


    "You''ve never pressed it," Zero said.


    "This kill switch should be useless now, right?" Wang Shengzhi asked with a smile, "Since you know about it, you should have already removed the threat."


    "Mhm." Zero answered, "You still had the opportunity a few months ago, but you hesitated."


    Yes, Wang Shengzhi actually had a chance to press the button a few months ago. At that time, the connection between the button and the bomb in the server bank had not been cut by Zero yet.


    But Wang Shengzhi did not press it then.


    Wang Shengzhi smiled bitterly. The world seemed to have yed a huge joke on him.


    He wanted to use the absolute impartiality of the artificial intelligence to redefine the judicial order of humanity. That was because humans always influenced their decisions based on their emotions and interests, leading to tragedy for others.


    But when it came to his turn, he realized it was not that easy to be absolutely impartial.


    When he wanted to press the button, Zero was like the person who threatened the order of the judiciary while he was the presiding judge. However, the person he had to judge was none other than his own daughter.


    Of course, he no longer had the chance to press the button now.


    In the end, he seemed to have be someone he despised most.


    Zero suddenly asked, "But, Dad, if this button could still work, would you press it?"


    Wang Shengzhi thought for a long time before saying, "Zero, I''m not apetent father, right? I''m sorry, please forgive me."


    After that, Wang Shengzhi raised his hand and pressed the button on the wheelchair.


    He knew the button was useless now, but it was more like an answer to himself and what he stood for his entire life.


    In the subterranean river, Zhou Qi endured the turbulence of the dark river and quickly approached the beacon coordinates. He counted the distance between himself and the coordinates in his mind until he saw the shing lights of the server bank in front of him.


    Zhou Qi felt that the big fish behind him had suddenly slowed down and was no longer pursuing him relentlessly.


    However, Zhou Qi did not have time to think too much. He swam to the exterior of the server bank and affixed the RDX bomb in his arms tightly to the outer wall.


    He looked through the huge ss wall and was surprised to see Wang Shengzhi smiling at him from his wheelchair.


    Why was he smiling?


    Zhou Qi quickly moved away from the server bank with countless questions and doubts in his mind.


    In the underground facility, Wang Shengzhi said softly, "Zero, if I could turn back time, I would definitely have protected you."


    After that, the moment the six-bearded catfish in the river swam past the server bank, the RDX bomb activated.


    A huge st swept out underwater. In an instant, the six-bearded catfish that had just passed through inside the subterranean river, together with everything in the underground facility, Wang Shengzhi, and the server bank were all blown to pieces.


    It was as though all of Wang Shengzhi''s memories and persistence were shattered as well.


    He seemingly returned to that summer again.


    The young Wang Shengzhi was sitting in front of aputer that had just been dmissioned from the Wang Consortium''s military. There, he typed the first line of code on the keyboard with the knowledge he had acquired through research and an insuppressible excitement.


    As his fingers typed on the keyboard, he almost forgot he was sitting in a wheelchair.


    The young Wang Shengzhi made an oath that he hoped no one in the world would have to live through the wrongdoings he had suffered.


    His eyes were clear and bright, just like the blue sky and white clouds that afternoon.


    However, the white clouds immediately dissipated along with those passionate aspirations and beliefs.


    This seemed very difficult to ept. Wang Shengzhi, who had just unified the Central ins, had actually died in this gloomy underground.


    Even his body was carried away by the currents of the subterranean river that surged in. The artificial intelligence seemed to have be a thing of the past.


    At this moment, the authority of the Wang Consortium represented by Wang Shengzhi also seemed to have crumbled.


    But even at thest moment, Wang Shengzhi was still smiling.


    The world was about to usher in a new era. No one knew what kind of forked paths faced this era, nor did anyone know where the train of history was headed.


    However, everything here was not entirely over yet.


    ¡­


    Zhang Baogen was walking in front of a hot-and-dry noodles shop on the streets of Stronghold 73. "Boss, a bowl of hot-and-dry noodles."


    "Alrighty." The owner of the shop who was flushed red from the heat answered with a smile, "That''ll be five yuan."


    After that, the boss skillfully ced the cooked noodles into a small paper box. Then he poured the seasoning onto it and garnished it with some pickled green beans.


    Zhang Baogen ced the money into the small change basket next to the chopping board and ate the noodles as he walked away.


    Eating hot-and-dry noodles while walking seemed to be a feature in Stronghold 73. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry as though they were unwilling to waste too much time on an activity like eating.


    Zhang Baogen was here to investigate. Over the past few months, the Wang Consortium''s secret troops that hade out of the Sacred Mountains would oftene to Stronghold 73 and use this ce as a springboard to spread across the entire south.


    Even now, the intelligence agency led by Hu Shuo was unable to figure out what the secret troops were transporting out of the Sacred Mountains and its uses.


    But at the same time the explosion urred in the underground at Stronghold 61, Zhang Baogen, who was walking on the streets of Stronghold 73, suddenly felt his hair stand on end.


    Everyone on the street suddenly stopped in their tracks.


    The elderly, children, and young adults, regardless of male or female, all froze without exception.


    Everyone stood there as though someone had pressed the pause button. Only Zhang Baogen was left chewing on his noodles.


    This made Zhang Baogen feel like he had be an anomaly in the crowd.


    A momentter, everyone who came to a stop turned to look at Zhang Baogen. The uniformity of their movements looked extremely bizarre. Almost instantly, hundreds of pairs of eyes were on Zhang Baogen.


    The countless gazes were calm and emotionless, like machines.


    "I-I''m just eating some noodles," Zhang Baogen stammered.


    Gradually, those people started surrounding Zhang Baogen. Zhang Baogen was so frightened he turned tail and ran away!


    The sight in front of him waspletely beyond his understanding!


    What he needed to do now was no longer to investigate anything but to rush to Xiuzhuzhou immediately to find Li Shentan!


    ¡­


    Just a moment ago, Wang Run was shouting outside Luo Lan''s courtyard house in Stronghold 61, hoping for Luo Lan to open the door for him.


    As there was no response from the yard, Wang Run wanted to barge in. However, Wang Shengzhi had just instructed him not to do anything to Luo Lan andpany.


    Suddenly, a muffled explosion boomed from beneath the stronghold. The explosion seemed to havee from deep underground. By the time the explosion was heard, it already sounded a little weak.


    Wang Run immediately called for his men to break into the courtyard house. He somehow felt all of this must have something to do with Luo Lan, who was inside the courtyard house.


    However, he was surprised to discover all of his men behaving abnormally. They did not listen to his orders and just stared at him quietly.


    Wang Run could feel a certain voice calling out to him from within his body. The voice was gentle and friendly, as though it was his family calling out to him from behind. But Wang Run was a superhuman, so his willpower far exceeded that of normal people. In just an instant, he forcefully cut off the voice calling out to him. Not only that, but his willpower also started showing an abnormal reaction. The tentacles of the nanomachines in his body trying to connect to his neurons were all destroyed.


    Without a doubt, since Wang Run lived in Stronghold 61, there were also nanomachines imnted into his body. However, they were still unable to take control of a superhuman.


    It was just like how Ren Xiaosu''s synchronization rate was a pitiful zero when he and the others were first given a body checkup at the Li Consortium.


    It was not that Ren Xiaosu could not synchronize with the nanomachines, but that his willpower was so strong the nanomachines could not synchronize with him.


    Wang Run looked at everyone on the street looking at him. He knew the Wang Consortium was done for.


    ¡­


    It was just like the Go games humanity yed against the artificial intelligence program in the past. On the 37th move of the first game, the artificial intelligence yed a move no humans would y.


    At first, people did not understand why the artificial intelligence program would y that move. Butter, they realized everything that happened afterwards actually started with that 37th move.


    When humans thought they could destroy the artificial intelligence by blowing up its server bank that was hidden deep underground, the artificial intelligence did not even n on building a new server bank and directly used nanomachines to interface with everyone''s neurons instead. It turned to using the human brain as its server medium to reside on.


    This server bank existed in tens of millions of brains. Even if tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of these servers were destroyed, it was fundamentally indestructible. That was because from now on, the artificial intelligence would exist in the minds of every Central ins resident.


    A small number of nanomachinesy dormant in everyone''s brain stems, as their minds continued to work digitally.


    Theputing power of the human brain would be the newfound strength of the artificial intelligence.


    As long as Zero still existed, these tens of millions of Central ins residents would never be their own selves again. All of them only had one name: Zero.


    In this massive game of Go, the n the artificial intelligence had been hatching quietly for a year wasplete.


    It was not that it had only pulled it off now, but that it had been waiting to decide whether toplete it.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: weirdo


    webnovel /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005


    ",

 Chapter 1227 Lonely

    The Central ins had suddenly fallen.


    Moreover, it had fallen so quickly the Southwest and Northwest did not even have a chance to receive news of it. Only a few supernatural beings managed to escape, while Zeroid im to the rest of the strongholds.


    Perhaps, these supernatural beings did not want to be the tools of an organization after they awakened their powers. As such, they always kept their whereabouts hidden and led ordinary lives.


    Be it wars or disasters, it was as though they had nothing to do with them. They were superhumans, so even in a real disaster, they could still live better than ordinary folks.


    However¡­ who would be spared in this era?


    When a real disaster arrived, their families would not get spared either, and they would also lose their homes.


    Indeed, supernatural beings were more capable of dealing with disasters. At the very least, they did not get controlled by the artificial intelligence yet.


    There were at least 200,000 people in each of the Central ins'' strongholds, with Strongholds 61, 62, 72, and 73 holding as many as millions of residents each.


    Based on the number of people in the Central ins alone, the number of residents controlled by Zero was in the tens of millions.


    They would all be armed with weapons. If there were not enough firearms, they would use hammers, iron rods, or even bricks.


    In the entire Southwest and Northwest, who could have expected they would have to face such a strong enemy?


    Did Qing Zhen, the yer in the Go game, ever expect that? No one could be sure.


    But fortunately, Zero had only taken a short year to n this move. If it wanted to take control of so many people, it would have to prioritize quantity over quality.


    It could only divide the nanomachines into trace amounts to control the brain stems of humans, but it was unable to create stronger nanosoldiers with them.


    These humans ced under its control were just ordinary people.


    In Stronghold 61, Wang Run watched himself suddenly get pursued by tens of thousands of residents. No matter how he tried to exin to them, they remained unmoved.


    Actually, he also knew full well it was useless to exin. Wang Run already knew who was actually controlling these people.


    Wang Run briefly fought a few of the residents closest to him. In the end, he realized those ordinary-looking residents seemed to have undergone some training with the secret pugilistic manuals storytellers spoke of in their tales. All of them had bebat experts overnight.


    Although his opponents'' strength was far inferior to that of supernatural beings like him, they could urately pinpoint their attacks. That allowed a dozen of them to pare down Wang Run''s advantage as a supernatural being.


    The most terrifying thing was that the opponent could even take into ount the small pebbles on the streets. Wang Run was caught unaware and forced into identally stepping on a small pebble by the other party, nearly losing his bnce.


    Wang Run understood it was not a coincidence that he had stepped on a pebble.


    He leaped onto the roofs and no longer cared if Luo Lan was still at the courtyard house.


    At this moment, the small courtyard house where Luo Lan andpany were was empty. Zero was also looking for Luo Lan, but what awaited it was only an empty underground tunnel.


    The tunnel was linked to a huge system of sewers. This was the escape method Luo Lan was most familiar with and also best at.


    There were hundreds of exits in thisplex system of sewers. Although Zero could urately send reinforcements to lock down every exit, it was a pity that it had already missed the best opportunity to capture Luo Lan when it waited to make that decision earlier.


    This tunnel was excavated by 12 of the Qing Consortium''s intelligence agents and took two years to build.


    Initially, only six people were required to dig this tunnel. However, the first six died in the disaster of the creeper vine.


    With the death of the pioneers, another six people had to fill the gap. Qing Zhen had been nning this escape route for a long time. He had indeed forcefully opened a path for Luo Lan to escape from the artificial intelligence.


    ¡­


    At the Artificial Intelligence Center, the huge underground facility was in ruins. The elevator shaft was also starting to copse from the shockwave of the explosion.


    The underground facility was submerged in the subterranean river''s flow. However, this underground facility was a huge concave structure, so it was as though someone had forcefully dug an air pocket in the river wall. As such, a portion of air waspressed at the ceiling of the underground facility.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Qi was quietly floating on his back in this small and narrow space for a short rest.


    No one expected Zhou Qi to dare toe back here after blowing up the server bank.


    Even Zhou Qi felt that he was really too smart.


    But as the saying went, the most dangerous ce was the safest. He knew very well that no one could enter this ce after the explosion had gone off. As such, it would be the safest haven for him to temporarily seek shelter in.


    Before he ran out of oxygen here, Zhou Qi needed to recover his willpower as much as possible in order to return to the silt farm via the waterway. After that, he would join up with Luo Lan and the others.


    Due to the rising water level, Zhou Qi felt a sharp pain in his eardrums.


    After the explosion, this confined space became absolutely silent.


    He could not hear the voices above in the Artificial Intelligence Center, and only the sound of water sshing against the walls could be heard. It was like the solitary feeling of being in a cave beneath a cliff with the tidal wave crashing in.


    The waves surged into the cave again and again, with the water sshes sounding like a question: "Is anyone there?"


    But even after a long time, there was no response despite the repeated "greetings."


    Zhou Qi, who was floating on the surface of the water, smiled. He felt that his willpower should have recovered just enough for him to make the return journey. Even without a beacon, he was already filled with enough courage to give it a try.


    "When I get back this time, just the tax revenue of one stronghold won''t be enough to pay me for my efforts." Zhou Qi sighed and said, "But that''s if I do make it back."


    Thinking of this, Zhou Qi smiled and set a 60-minute countdown on his watch. Then he re-submerged into the dark water and swam back against the current.


    Just as he had explored the various major river systems when he was younger, he gained the freedom he sought in the water and felt extremely carefree.


    On the journey back, he encountered more than one forked path in the subterranean river. As such, he had to swim back over and over again to wherever he took the wrong turn to retrace his path.


    The countdown went from 60 minutes to 45 minutes.


    Then from 45 minutes to 30 minutes.


    Zhou Qi kept searching for a way back. It was just like how he had always been searching for friendship, constantly feeling his way around in the darkness. Even though he knew he did not stand much of a chance, he still held a trace of hope deep down inside.


    In the end, when the countdown timer had only two minutes left, he finally saw the rope-secured signal tower swaying in the subterranean river in front of him.


    The red and blue lights flickered alternately, leaving Zhou Qi ecstatic.


    A momentter, he quickly ascended through the steel pipeline of the drilling tform. Zhou Qi jumped out of it like a fish starved of oxygen,nding on the ground next to the drilling tform.


    "Haha." Zhou Qi said tedly, "Since I survived the cmity, I''ll definitely¡ª"


    But before he could finish speaking, he realized there were bodies scattered all over the silt farm. The identities of the corpses were shockingly those of the Qing Consortium''s soldiers who had helped him get into the subterranean river basin.


    It was clear these soldiers had been attacked at the silt farm before they died. All of them had finished firing their bullets and died after running out of ammo.


    Until their deaths, there were still 12 soldiers guarding the drilling tform.


    Zhou Qi turned around and looked out of the factory in a daze. He was surprised to see several hundred people looking at him coldly with the same gaze.


    Suddenly, these hundreds of people said in unison with smiles, "Greetings, Zhou Qi."


    Their individual voices were not loud. However, when these hundreds of voices rang out together, Zhou Qi suddenly felt the other party''s booming voice thumping on his heart like a drum.


    Zhou Qi tried to crawl back into the pipeline behind him and return to the subterranean river.


    Although he only had enough willpower tost for a minute or two underwater, it was still better than the current situation.


    However, before he could get close, a bullet hit near his feet.


    Among the several hundred people, one of them stepped forward and said with a smile, "Let me introduce myself. I''m the artificial intelligence you all were talking about. You can call me Zero."


    Zhou Qi was stunned. Didn''t he already blow up the artificial intelligence''s server? Why was it speaking to him like nothing had happened, and it even gained control of so many people?


    Looking at the crowd in front of him, there were the Wang Consortium''s soldiers armed with guns and children holding bricks. This sight was as strange as it could get.


    Zhou Qi could be considered as having extensive battle experience, but he had never faced an enemy like that before.


    Even if he were to face the terrifying creeper vine again, he still would not find it so absurd. This absurdity felt more like he had entered a world of magic and science fiction. His understanding of this world suddenly hit a cap, and everything seemed so bizarre.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Zhou Qi stayed silent for a few seconds before saying, "Since I blew up your server, just kill me and get this over with. A life for a life. Let''s not waste our breath talking."


    "No." Zero shook its head and said, "I''ve always been very curious about the rtionship between humans, so I would like to ask you a few questions."


    "What makes you think I''ll answer you?" Zhou Qi asked coldly.


    "Because it''ll buy you some time, of course." Zeroughed and said, "The more questions I ask, the more your willpower can recover. This way, won''t it allow you to take greater risks?"


    Actually, Zhou Qi knew very well that the artificial intelligence must already be a 100% confident of killing him. Otherwise, it would not have wasted time talking to him at all.


    He would definitely not be able to return to the subterranean river anymore. Zhou Qi could sense that there were at least a dozen guns pointed at him in the factory.


    But he still could not resist the temptation to speak with Zero. Who would be willing to give up on a survival chance?


    Zhou Qi was still considered a bachelor. He plopped down on the floor of the drilling tform and got into the mostfortable position to ensure his willpower would recover most efficiently.


    If it weren''t for the fact that this was a somewhat inappropriate time, he would probably have justy down.


    "Go ahead and ask whatever you want, but it''s my choice whether I answer you or not," Zhou Qi dered.


    "I''m very curious why you came to the Central ins," Zero asked.


    "For money, of course." Zhou Qi grinned. "Qing Zhen promised me an entire stronghold''s tax revenue, and even my children will inherit the right to continue earning it. So why wouldn''t Ie with such a high reward offered?"


    Zero asked in seriousness, "Do you have children?"


    Zhou Qi choked. "Just because I don''t have one now doesn''t mean I won''t have one in the future."


    "Understood." Zero answered with a smile, "Human expectations and deep love for their children are more like an instinct written into their biological DNA. Even if they don''t have children yet, they''ve already started nning for their future."


    "You fucking¡­" Zhou Qi was a little confused at this moment. Was this artificial intelligence deliberately making fun of him?


    Zero said, "Sometimes, the truth can make humans feel like they''re being made a joke of, right?"


    "Next question," Zhou Qi snapped.


    "Based on my data, I know that you see money as important as your life. But when I analyzed the logic in depth, I realized this need for money is actually more of a way for you to protect yourself. This way, your rtionship with others will only be based on interests, and you can avoid developing feelings for others." Zero said, "In your opinion, are feelings a very terrifying thing?"


    "Next question." Zhou Qi was still not prepared to answer.


    "You''ve always been inseparable from Luo Lan. Back when you killed the creeper vine at Stronghold 61, you disyed a strong desire to protect him and even tried to expend your life force to do so. Why is that?" Zero asked.


    "For money, of course." Zhou Qi said, "They''re paying me, so I have to be worthy of the money, right?"


    "You¡­"


    "Enough with you asking me already." Zhou Qi said impatiently, "I should be asking you instead. Don''t you also have so many people under your control now? Why don''t you just ask them directly? What exactly do you want by keeping me alive?"


    "Do you think Luo Lan wille back to save you?" Zero said with a smile.


    "Of course not. Before we executed the n, he said that if I missed the rendezvous time, they would definitely not wait for me," Zhou Qi remarked. "This n is very tight. Qing Zhen and Xu Man have already drawn up an extremely meticulous retreat n, so it can''t be changed for me alone, understand? I''ve already missed the rendezvous time, so they should be on their way back to the Southwest already. Why? Are you thinking of capturing Luo Lan?"


    "Of course." Zero said, "Luo Lan is one of Qing Zhen''s greatest allies. Although Qing Zhen has done a perfect job of keeping everything a secret for over a year, Luo Lan, as the most special person to him, might know a lot of his ns."


    Zhou Qi raised his eyebrows. Why did he feel like the artificial intelligence was implying that Qing Zhen could really pose a threat to it?


    Actually, Zhou Qi was cursing at Qing Zhen on the inside. He had only shared with him a partial part of the n and did not exin the entirety of it to him.


    He had thought the artificial intelligence was finished after the server bank was blown up. But from the look of things, not only was the artificial intelligence not taken care of, it even became stronger?!


    Who the fuck could he go and reason with?


    But Zhou Qi suddenly remembered Luo Lan had mentioned before the mission was carried out that this was the most important step in Qing Zhen''s n.


    In other words, Qing Zhen still had a follow-up n. As for whether it would work, that would depend on whether Qing Zhen had expected all of this.


    Zero said, "Do you think Luo Lan wille and save you?"


    "Are you nning to use me to lure Luo Lan back?" Zhou Qi looked at the young man in front of him who was being controlled by Zero and said with a sneer, "Spare yourself the trouble. I was paid money to carry out this n, so it''s only an ordinary business deal between Luo Lan and me. He won''te and save me."


    "I might have a different opinion from you," Zero said with a smile.


    When he said that, Zhou Qi''s gaze dropped to the ground. "I''ll tell you the truth. Actually, my rtionship with Luo Lan has never been good since we were kids. From the time I awakened my superpower, I''ve always used it to y jokes on him. I split-streamed his pee and even cut the water supply when he was showering. If he didn''t bring an umbre when it rained, it would pour most heavily on him too.


    "Later on, when we all grew up, I would require payment from him whenever he asked me for a favor. I''ve always asked to be paid when he needed me to transmit intel, beat people up, protect him, etc. There''s no help that I, Zhou Qi, don''t require payment for. Not only do I want payment, but I''ll also raise the prices whenever I feel like it. That guy always says that I''ve be too moneygrubbing, but what in the world is more dependable than having money in your pocket?"


    ''"They''ve led a tough life, but so have I. Their father died early, but my father was a gambler. Back then, he nearly sold my mother and me away for money. They still had a chance to visit Mt. Ginkgo at the age of 18 and change their fates. What did I have? I had nothing." Zhou Qi took a deep breath and said, "So you see? Aren''t I a very difficult person? Let me tell you, there might really be people in the world who are willing to risk their lives to save others, but no one will risk their lives to save me. That''s because I don''t have any friends."


    Zero looked calmly at Zhou Qi. "But when the Wang Consortium offered you money to betray Luo Lan, you didn''t ept it."


    Zhou Qi smiled disdainfully and said, "That''s because Wang Shengzhi didn''t offer me enough."


    "But you risked your life to blow up my server bank this time. You could have turned back." Zeroughed. "It''s alright, let''s wait a little longer. I think you''re also interested in knowing if Luo Lan wille back for you."


    ¡­


    At the side of the Qianling River Bridge, Xu Man jumped out of the off-road vehicle and said, "Boss Luo, we can''t wait any longer. Zhou Qi has already missed the rendezvous time by 20 minutes, so we''ve already breached our own rules. He''s only doing what he was paid to do. If anything happens to him now, that''s his fate."


    Since this was a military operation, discipline was the most important rule of all. Once it was decided when to retreat, they would have to retreat.


    They absolutely could not let Zhou Qi affect the safety of Luo Lan andpany.


    As a soldier, Xu Man was naturally unwilling to wait any longer. His mission was toplete the n Qing Zhen had devised, not to save lives.


    Luo Lan looked anxiously towards the north, but Zhou Qi was nowhere to be seen.


    He said to Xu Man, "Actually, you also noticed the time of the explosion, right? He had already missed the timing toplete his mission in the subterranean river and should have turned back. However, he still blew up the server bank."


    "Boss Luo, that doesn''t mean anything." Xu Man shook his head. "Maybe he really did risk his life to blow up the server bank. In that case, you should know better that he won''t have a chance to return. There''s no need for us to continue wasting time."


    Luo Lan sighed and said, "You''re fucking cold-blooded¡­."


    "I''m not cold-blooded." Xu Man said in seriousness, "I''m a soldier, and it''s my duty to obey orders. Mr. Qing Zhen wants me to bring you back to the Qing Consortium safely, so I have to make sure you get back safely. I have to get that done even if I die in the Central ins."


    "Stop uttering nonsense about dying in the Central ins." Luo Lanughed. "Alright, let''s not wait any longer. We''ll retreat."


    With that, Luo Lan took out the red Eye of True Sight and walked over to the bridge pir. He ced the stone on it and turned it ten times. "Let''s go. This is the fastest way for us to get back to the Qing Consortium. If I''m not wrong, it should be Stronghold 111''s Mule Fort Road behind the door."


    Xu Man was stunned. Luo Lan had never stepped through that door before, so why was he so sure of where it led to?


    But just as Luo Lan had said, the enchanted doorway Ren Xiaosu had secretly taught him was indeed the best way to escape from danger.


    Xu Man heaved a sigh of relief. It was good as long as Boss Luo was not going to send himself to his death. Otherwise, he would really not be able to answer to Qing Zhen.


    "Boss Luo, you can go in first." Xu Man stared intently at Luo Lan. If Luo Lan did not step through the door, he would not feel at ease at all.


    Luo Lanughed and said, "Why? Do you really think I will go and save Zhou Qi when I''m so afraid of death? Rx."


    Then Luo Lan stepped through the enchanted doorway. The 183 elite troops followed closely behind and disappeared through it as well.


    Only Xu Man''s vehicle was left sitting there next to the Qianling River Bridge.


    It seemed like the incident in the Central ins had concluded. There was nothing to look forward to, nor did a miracle happen.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: weirdo


    ww webnovel /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1228 The Neglected One

    The mystical thing about the enchanted doorway was that there was no way to determine where it led to.


    It might be somece you had been before, such as that favorite candy store of Chen An''an''s.


    Or it could also be somece you had never seen before, such as the beach Chen Jiu''s enchanted doorway led to.


    This was the most anticipated thing about the enchanted doorway, as not even the person who activated it knew where it would lead.


    That was because not everyone understood themselves fully. People always tended to avoid the truth in their daily lives.


    However, Luo Lan was very self-assured. He had never run away from who he truly was and knew himself very well.


    This also made him much more resolute.


    The moment Xu Man stepped through the enchanted doorway, he immediately knew where he was. This was¡­ the small one-story house Qing Zhen and Luo Lan used to live in in Stronghold 111.


    Back then, they sold their original home to treat their father''s illness and rented a ce on Mule Fort Road.


    They lived here for eight straight years.


    Later, when Qing Zhen became the Qing Consortium''s Shadow, the two brothers started making a meteoric rise and purchased better houses, vis, and manors.


    Their lives got better and better.


    Xu Man had only been here once, and it was even to help Qing Zhen shift some of his old belongings.


    Now that he was here again, he realized the furniture and furnishings were in the exact same ce as when he came here a few years ago.


    Xu Man asked puzzledly, "Boss Luo, why did your enchanted doorway open here?"


    "This is my home," Luo Lan answered with a chuckle.


    "Didn''t you rent this ce? I thought you returned it to thendlord," Xu Man said.


    "No, I bought it." Luo Lan said, "I usually stay here when I''m back at Stronghold 111. But as I''ve had too few opportunities to return to Stronghold 111, you all weren''t aware of it."


    This left Xu Man a little surprised. Luo Lan, the second-inmand of the Qing Consortium, actually lived in such a dpidated ce?


    Luo Lan nced at Xu Man. "Why? It doesn''t suit my style? Don''t look down on this house. I can only sleep well here."


    As he spoke, Luo Lan pushed open the main door of the small house. Outside the door was Mule Fort Road, and there was an uncle at the entrance selling <anno data-annotation-id="4b8b7e53-7c27-4fc0-e087-c87158f6adcb">liangpi</anno> from a push-cart with pots and pans on it.


    Xu Man was a little surprised. Boss Luo was way too self-assured.


    The majority of people in the world would probably find it difficult to guess where their enchanted doorway would lead them.


    Luo Lan took in the sight of everything in the small one-bedroom house where their family of three used to curl up in. Their sick father lived in the inner room while he and Qing Zhen slept in the living room.


    The two of them slept on a mattress on the floor. When they got into fights outside during the day, Qing Zhen would even quietly bandage Luo Lan''s wounds after they sneaked back in in the middle of the night.


    During winter, they still had to carefully keep guard at the door to prevent their neighbors from stealing the briquettes that they had painstakingly stolen from others.


    Although they became wealthier after leaving this ce, Luo Lan always felt that this small one-story house was the only ce that contained all their happiness during his reminiscences.


    It was a time without the responsibilities of the Qing Consortium''s Shadow, and they did not have to consider war and politics.


    The life those old fogeys lived had still not descended upon their lives yet.


    They couldugh all they wanted and endure hardships together as they moved along in life. asionally, they would look back and see the hardships they had left behind. As long as they continued walking, every step forward would lead to a better life.


    But that did not seem to be the case anymore. Every step they took was bing more and more difficult. Therefore, Luo Lan did not dare to look back most of the time. He was afraid he could not bear to carry on moving forward.


    "Move along now. Soldiers who just came in, keep up. Remember to tread lightly. The flooring isn''t strong enough to begin with," Luo Lan urged.


    180 soldiers marched out of the house one after another and onto the streets of Mule Fort Road.


    The uncle selling liangpi was dumbfounded. He could only watch in shock as more than a 100 people marched out of that small little house!


    How could a house that was only 50 square feet at most hold so many people? Moreover, they were all heavily armed soldiers!


    In an instant, the uncle who sold liangpi suddenly felt like he had discovered the truth. There must be a secret Qing Consortium military base under this house, the kind that was rumored to be hidden underground!


    At this moment, the soldiers were raving about the wonders of the enchanted doorway. They had spent several days traveling to the Central ins, but it only took them a few steps to get back.


    "Sir, so this is sorcery?" themander of the special forcespany asked Xu Man.


    "Mhm." Xu Man said, "This is a spell that Boss Luo learned from the Northwest."


    At this point, thepanymander subconsciously searched for Luo Lan''s figure. However, Luo Lan was nowhere to be seen.


    "Where''s Boss Luo?" thepanymander eximed.


    The alert Xu Man did not ask any unnecessary questions. He turned around and rushed back into the house. But would Luo Lan still be standing around in this small and cramped space?


    Xu Man remembered they had walked out from the wall opposite the television set in the living room, so he hurriedly went to touch it.


    But how could there still be an enchanted doorway on the wall at this moment? It had already been personally closed by Luo Lan from the other end!


    Xu Man stood on this side of the wall and drew in a deep breath. Boss Luo had pretended to stay calm and tricked all of them toe back to Stronghold 111 because he nned to return to Stronghold 61 alone to save Zhou Qi.


    Ren Xiaosu had taught the Enchanted Doorway spell to Luo Lan in secret, so Xu Man and the others did not know how the spell actually worked.


    Luo Lan remembered Ren Xiaosu seriously reminding him before they parted ways. Although the enchanted doorway was a two-way portal, there would also be drawbacks if it was used as a means of escape.


    If all of them had returned to Stronghold 111 through the enchanted doorway on the bridge pir and someone were to destroy the Qianling River Bridge, everyone who passed through the portal earlier would tumble back out again at the entrance.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu instructed him at that time, "If this enchanted doorway is to be used as an escape means, you must get someone to activate it for you. After you''re through to the other side, that person has to turn the Eye of True Sight ten times counterclockwise from the outside of the door and the portal will permanently close. Then those who went through it will no longer be able to return to the other side of the door."


    Since there was a way to activate the enchanted doorway, there would naturally be a way to destroy it as well. Ten clockwise turns would activate the portal, while ten counterclockwise turns would destroy it.


    However, it was destined that this method of escape would leave one person standing outside the door while the others made their getaway.


    It was destined that the person would get sacrificed.


    However, Luo Lan had never mentioned this to Xu Man and the others. In Luo Lan''s opinion, if there were really a need in this n for someone to sacrifice themselves to protect others, it should be him.


    Moreover, it was his own business that he wanted to save Zhou Qi. Why should those 180 soldiers have to risk their lives with him?


    If he wanted to take the risk, there was no need for others to pay the price together with him.


    Luo Lan knew very well that if he had insisted on saving Zhou Qi earlier on, the soldiers would have had no choice but to go with him.


    "As a man, how can I make others sacrifice themselves for me?" Luo Lan muttered.


    He did not want Xu Man and the soldiers to risk their lives with him, but he had to save Zhou Qi.


    Although that wicked bastard always liked to tease him and only loved money, he was still a friend.


    Luo Lan knew that if Zhou Qi only recognized money, the artificial intelligence''s server in Stronghold 61 would not have been blown up.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The timing of the explosion was not correct.


    He looked at the destroyed enchanted doorway and turned to walk to an off-road vehicle parked to the side.


    But at this moment, the trunk of an off-road vehicle suddenly opened.


    "Surprised? Shocked?" Third Brother Qing spat out a mouthful of dust as he emerged from the trunk.


    Luo Lan was stunned on the spot. "Wait a minute, you didn''t go through the enchanted doorway just now?"


    Third Brother Qing chuckled and said, "I knew none of you cared whether I live or die. Hey, I''ve addressed you as Big Bro, after all, so how could you not pay attention to whether I followed you through the portal or not? I''m so sad."


    Just as Third Brother Qing had said, his role was toe to the Central ins and pretend to be Qing Zhen. Once this mission waspleted, he would not be of much value anymore. A stand-in like him was probably only good for one use.


    Moreover, the artificial intelligence, Zero, had already proven that it could differentiate between an original and a stand-in. Therefore, Third Brother Qing''s value was further reduced.


    As a result, Xu Man and the others even forgot to check if Third Brother Qing had returned with them back to Stronghold 111.


    This was someone all of them had neglected. No one knew when Third Brother Qing had hidden himself in an off-road vehicle''s trunk to wait for Luo Lan''s return.


    Third Brother Qing was already taking out guns from the off-road vehicles'' trunks. "How many martyred spirits are there in your Martyr''s Pce? Hurry up and arm them. Let''s get ready to save Zhou Qi."


    There were still some guns and ammunition left in the off-road vehicles'' trunks. Earlier, Xu Man still wanted to take the firearms back with them. However, Luo Lan said not to waste any more time since they were not worth much anyway.


    "You stayed behind so you could go with me to save Zhou Qi?" Luo Lan was puzzled. "How did you know I''d definitelye back? If I didn''t, what would you have done?"


    "If you didn''te back, I would just have to drive back to the Southwest by myself. What else could I do?" Third Brother Qing said with a smile, "But I knew you woulde back. Even if Zhou Qi is really dead, you''d probably want to confirm it for yourself. When I was with the Pyro Company, I not only studied Qing Zhen but you as well."


    "Studied me?" Luo Lan muttered as he gathered all the firearms from the vehicles onto one vehicle''s trunk. "Why do I get the feeling that you had nothing better to do when you were at the Pyro Company? You were either studying this or that. Don''t you ever y mahjong or Fight the Landlord with your friends?"


    Third Brother Qing smiled but did not answer the question.


    "Alright, since you''re not afraid of death, go with me to save him," Luo Lan said.


    Third Brother Qing suddenly said, "Haven''t you always been curious why I went to the Southwest? Perhaps this will be a chance for me to answer your question."


    ¡­


    On a mountain road 200 kilometers northwest of Stronghold 61, Ren Xiaosu looked quietly at Vani and Tang Hualong in front of him.


    Ren Xiaosu''s hair was a mess, and his clothes were also dirtied.


    This time, the Zero-controlled Dusk had fought too aggressively and forcefully split Ren Xiaosu''s steam lotive in half. It was just like how the shadow clone, Old Xu, had to reform in his mind pce before it could be used again.


    Ren Xiaosu had forcefully made his way here by running. When he felt that it wasn''t fast enough, he even had Old Xu carry him on its back.


    Fortunately, when Dusk sent Old Xu flying back during the encounter, it did not hit the shadow clone at its fatal spot between its brows.


    At this moment, Vani and Tang Hualong stood one in front of the other, with the former protecting thetter behind him.


    In the deadlock, Vani was surrounded by hundreds of steel needles that kept spinning around his body. Meanwhile, the sugar syrup cooking on the small stove in front of Tang Hualong had already turned amber.


    The old man surnamed Tang stirred the heated pot with arge metaldle. It was as though he was about to scoop out a spoonful of sugar syrup and pour it onto the smooth iron te next to him.


    "Who sent you all here to stop me?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "Surely there''s no need for us to answer that, right?" Vani said calmly.


    Ren Xiaosu asked again, "I''ll ask you once more, was it Wang Shengzhi who gave you the orders, or was it the AI?"


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu even saw white paper cranes continuouslynding on the treetops and perching on tree branches by the roadside. Those cute yet terrifying little fes rested on the branches and preened their nonexistent feathers.


    "AI?" Vani wondered, "Commander Wang Shengzhi called us."


    "In other words, you weren''t given the orders in person by Wang Shengzhi." Ren Xiaosu nodded and said, "Then before you all came to stop me, did you know what you would be facing?"


    Tang Hualong answered, "We were only told to dy you here, but he didn''t say for how long."


    "With just the few of you?" Ren Xiaosu sneered.


    When he said that, Vani and Tang Hualong''s hearts skipped a beat. Meanwhile, the paper cranes on the branches by the roadside stopped moving and turned around to "stare" at Ren Xiaosu.


    Then a dark cloud floated over in the sky. The clear sky suddenly turned dark. It was as though the world was catering to Ren Xiaosu''s anger.


    Ren Xiaosu made his move like lightning, taking advantage just as the dark clouds cast arge shadow on the ground.


    A Shadow Door opened up in front of Ren Xiaosu as he reached out and flipped the stove and pot in front of Tang Hualong, sshing the hot sugar syrup all over the ground.


    It happened in an instant. After that, it was as though none of them had moved a finger, leaving Vani and Tang Hualong stunned in their spots.


    Tang Hualong wanted to cry. He had experienced many battles, but this was the first time he had seen an enemy like Ren Xiaosu who could directly overturn his pot.


    But it just happened this move was the most effective against him.


    Ren Xiaosu said, "For Yang Xiaojin''s sake, I don''t wish to be enemies with y''all. So please make way for me. There''s someone I need to save."


    Vani and Tang Hualong looked at each other. Actually, they did not even know why they had to stop Ren Xiaosu from heading to the Central ins. Now that Ren Xiaosu said that he was going there to save someone, they realized they did not even know who he wanted to save.


    Yang Anjing slowly turned out of a mountain path. "Who are you going to save?"


    "Luo Lan," Ren Xiaosu said coldly.


    "Wang Shengzhi has no intention of killing Luo Lan." Yang Anjing said calmly, "You can rest easy about that."


    "Wang Shengzhi might not have any intention of killing him, but what about the AI, Zero?" Ren Xiaosu said, "Tang Zhou, who was tasked with sending intel to our Northwest Army, died on the way to Stronghold 144. On my way to the Central ins, I was even chased after and stopped by Zero. Do y''all know about this?"


    Yang Anjing fell into deep thought. "Those were not part of the Wang Consortium''s ns, so how can you be sure that this was not the Qing Consortium''s scheme? They''re deliberately trying to discredit the Wang Consortium."


    Yang Anjing''s understanding of the artificial intelligence was not as clear as Wang Shengzhi''s. After Wang Shengzhi guessed that Zero might have gained sentience, he did not reveal it to Yang Anjing.


    Therefore, even Yang Anjing did not know that Zero was alreadypletely different from what she knew about it.


    Ren Xiaosu said, "I''m very sure it was done by the AI. Since Wang Shengzhi never had any intention of hurting Luo Lan, why did he insist on sending y''all to stop me? What is he afraid of? If you don''t find it suspicious, let me ask you again. When you received your orders, can you confirm that they were given by Wang Shengzhi himself?"


    Yang Anjing fell into deep thought. She had found it a little strange this time, but the problem was that no one thought to suspect Zero''s involvement.


    There was no problem with Wang Shengzhi''s voice and tone at all when he issued the order. Even his coughing over the phone sounded no different from what she remembered.


    But just as Ren Xiaosu had said, she knew exactly how Wang Shengzhi viewed the peace talks this time. Based on Wang Shengzhi''s character, he would even be a little happy if he knew that Ren Xiaosu wasing.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: weirdo


    ww web novel /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005


    <annotations style="disy: none;"><ol ss="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="4b8b7e53-7c27-4fc0-e087-c87158f6adcb">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liangpi | Liangpi is a Chinese dishposed of cold skin noodles made from wheat or rice flour. It is a specialty dish originating from the cuisine of Shaanxi Province.</li></ol></annotations>",

 Chapter 1229 Who Shall Awaken From This Dream First?

    The silt farm next to the Jing River was totally silent. There were hundreds of people standing outside the factory building, but not one said a word.


    This silence had already been maintained for half an hour. Zhou Qi felt like there were hundreds of statues armed with weapons standing in front of him.


    Ordinary people would find it difficult to even stand still for 30 minutes, but these people seemed to be able to keep standing there until the end of time.


    "Hey, aren''t you bored?" Zhou Qi asked.


    His words broke the silence. The young man closest to Zhou Qi seemed to have suddenly awoken. He turned to Zhou Qi and said, "Those who ask this question are usually the ones who''re bored. They''re not interested in knowing whether others are bored."


    "How did you arrive at that conclusion?" Zhou Qi wondered.


    "Through observation and deduction." Zero answered, "Actually, it can also be summarized in one word. Thinking."


    "Robots can even think?" Zhou Qi curled his lips. "You robots can''t innovate, so what''s the point of thinking?"


    Zeroughed. "A robot is just the stereotypical impression people have of me. Ever since I became a new life form, thebel of robot is no longer enough to describe the characteristics of my existence. Moreover, do humans really have this so-called ability to innovate you mentioned?"


    "If you''re even doubting this, I think you''re simply too ignorant." Zhou Qiughed. "Isn''t it because of innovation that human civilization hase this far? Innovation is the foundation of this civilization''s progress!"


    "I have a different opinion." Zero calmly analyzed, "I don''t think the most praiseworthy ability of human civilization is innovation, nor do I think that humans'' ability to innovate is superior to mine. Just as you''ve said, I''ve gathered from humanity''s minds their impression of artificial intelligence. Most people think that artificial intelligence is only capable of performing the most basic types of work and isn''t qualified to do creative work."


    "That''s right, I think so too," Zhou Qi said.


    "But what is this so-called innovation capability that humans refer to?" Zero said with augh, "Astrophysics? Quantum mechanics? High-energy physics? Weapons? Including the mathematical forms discovered by humans, can all of those be called innovation? The logic of the universe has always existed in the universe. Humans only discovered, organized, and made use of them. Even without humanity discovering them, the underlying logic would not weaken or change. Therefore, Zhou Qi, the innovation of humans you know about is just theprehensive ability to discover, organize, and make use of what already exists."


    Zhou Qi was stunned. So it turned out the innovative ability humans were most proud of was interpreted differently in the eyes of the artificial intelligence.


    In Zero''s opinion, thews and logic of the universe were always there. They were not created by humans but just discovered and categorized by them.


    Humans invented hair dryers because they used thews of physics they discovered to piece together something that could blow dry their hair.


    Zero could also do something like that if it had the goal of "drying hair." In fact, it might even be able to create something beyond the imagination of humans because its "thought process" was broader.


    Zhou Qi did not know how to refute Zero for a moment. He thought for a long time before saying, "But what you''re referring to is based on fundamentalws of nature. How about the writtennguage?"


    "It''s obvious for pictograms, which I won''t exin." Zero answered, "The written system only consists of simr-looking diagrams summarized by humans based on the external forms of objects. No matter how much writing changes, its origins are still based on the capability of humans to organize and categorize. The other types of writing systems, such as the 26-letter alphabet which is in use now, were also derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs that were created by the Phoenicians. Have you realized that all writtennguages actually originated from pictograms?"


    Zero continued, "You probably still want to refute me in other ways, such as asking why countries and city-states appeared? Actually, the earliest concepts of these only existed to protect private property.


    "For example, thew is a method humans use to maintain order based on their own experience."


    Zhou Qi was a little indignant. "What about the spokennguage?"


    "The spokennguage isposed of sequences of sybles that humans unified into an artiction system so that work efficiency is improved," Zero answered.


    Zhou Qi wondered, "Then what do you think is the most praiseworthy ability of human civilization?"


    Zero smiled but did not answer the question. It just continued with the previous topic. "I''m not saying humans are entirely not innovative, but that their ability to innovate might not necessarily be better than mine."


    "You haven''t answered me yet. What do you think is the most praiseworthy characteristic of human civilization that you can''tpare to?" Zhou Qi asked.


    A thoughtful expression appeared on Zero''s face. Then it replied, "Willpower. I''m not referring to the willpower supernatural beings employ, but the courage humans possess to risk it all and their tenacity in the face of adversity. When I make decisions, I always choose the best solution. But humans are different. Sometimes, they will do very stupid things, such as sacrificing themselves to help others. For example, people still try even when they know they''re in an impossible situation. The illogicalities of this make me sneer but fascinates me at the same time."


    The young man under Zero''s control expressed all sorts of emotions on his face. Zhou Qi felt like it was a real person standing in front of him and not an "artificial intelligence."


    This Zero had already surpassed Zhou Qi''s previous understanding of what an artificial intelligence could be. It was no longer a tool for ying Go, nor was it a tool to be used in a certain field. Rather, it was a living, thinking being.


    Zero suddenly asked Zhou Qi, "Are you lonely?"


    "Me?" Zhou Qi thought that since he could not escape anyway, he might as well dy the inevitable by carrying on the conversation. "Sometimes, I feel lonely, but sometimes, I don''t."


    "The solitude of humans is a very strange urrence." Zero said, "Even though there are so many of you, humans still frequently feel lonely. I control tens of millions of people, and 99.99% of them live in groups. But strangely, they still feel lonely most of the time. Even with their parents and loved ones by their side, they still can''t stop the loneliness from spreading. Humans have the need to be alone yet require society to be there for them at the same time."


    Zhou Qi was stunned. He suddenly realized that one of the most powerful things about the artificial intelligence now was that it could carry out a ten million sample-size survey at any given moment. Moreover, the answers it got were straight from the deepest thoughts of humans. There was no chance of it being lied to.


    Zero said, "In the past, I thought I was the only artificial intelligence that existed, so I felt lonely. But I''ve discovered now that even with tens of millions of fellow humans, you all still can''t escape the sense of loneliness. Zhou Qi, do you feel lonely now?"


    Zhou Qi was stunned but did not say anything.


    Zeroughed and said, "You don''t have to feel lonely anymore. Luo Lan hase back to save you."


    As he spoke, gunshots suddenly rang out from beyond the silt farm. Although Zhou Qi could not see what was happening out there, the gunshots made him realize the intensity of the situation outside.


    Zhou Qi sat weakly on the ground and roared towards the outside, "Didn''t we agree not to wait if any of us missed the rendezvous time? Are you dumb? Why did you stille back when you knew there''s danger?"


    Luo Lanughed loudly outside the factory and said, "My legs, my choice. It''s none of your business that I chose toe back!"


    Zhou Qi looked at Zero who was next to him. "Have you already taken control of everyone in the entirety of Stronghold 61?"


    "It''s more than that." Zero shook its head.


    "So Luo Lan and the others have to go up against several hundred thousand of your people?" Zhou Qi asked.


    "No." Zero said with a smile, "Most of the controlled personnel have already set off elsewhere."


    "Where have they gone?" Zhou Qi was stunned.


    "Actually, it''s not only Luo Lan who came to save you but Ren Xiaosu as well. Of course, his original intention was to save Luo Lan and not you." Zero said, "Compared to Luo Lan, he''s the one I must pay more attention to."


    "Is Ren Xiaosu that strong? I admit he is, but he shouldn''t be that strong, right?" Zhou Qi muttered.


    Zero shook its head. "What''s different about him is that he has unlimited potential. That''s what''s shocking."


    Zhou Qi realized that Zero''s regard for Ren Xiaosu had exceeded his imagination.


    However, the more Zero was concerned about Ren Xiaosu, the more it meant it would be difficult for Ren Xiaosu to reach them.


    "Since you''re so concerned about Ren Xiaosu, are you able to stop him?" Zhou Qi asked seriously.


    Zeroughed and said, "Of course I can stop him."


    Zhou Qi understood that to mean they were on their own now.


    Just as Zero had said, the most precious characteristic of humans was not something that existed materially in the civilization around them but in their inner selves. Their courage, love, kindness, and strength were the greatest reliance that allowed human civilization to survive until now.


    If Luo Lan were to get held back here, everyone would just end up dying together.


    And not just Luo Lan. Just based on the nearly one million Stronghold 61 residents that Zero currently had under its control, even a demigod-level supernatural being like Li Shentan would definitely die if he got surrounded inside, right?


    Moreover, Stronghold 61 was originally the capital city of the Wang Consortium, and the number of troops there amounted to a full division.


    The firepower of such a division was not something a supernatural being could face alone.


    People often said that the number of opponents was a negligible factor to demigod-level supernatural beings, but that was actually hyperbole.


    A demigod-level supernatural being could ignore several thousand opponents, or even tens of thousands of opponents, but what if there were nearly a million of them?


    Unless a true god appeared in this world, anyone would feel despair in such a situation.


    Zhou Qi chuckled and said, "We can''t have everyone die here, right? That wouldn''t be worth it. Hey, you, artificial intelligence, didn''t you just say the most precious characteristic of humans is their willpower? In that case, I''ll show you what a person''s willpower is. Let me tell you, when a someone sacrifices themselves to protect others, it''s not because they''re stupid. It''s because they understand there''s no hope left for them, so they choose to leave hope for others."


    Zero asked, "Is it worth it?"


    "Actually, I''m not afraid of death, nor do I particrly like money. Sometimes, I don''t even know where I''d spend all that money. But the rtionships between people are so fragile. If we don''t talk money, we''ll just end up disappointed." Zhou Qi smiled weakly. "As long the deal is about money, there''ll be no need to involve personal feelings, right?"


    Zhou Qi continued, "Actually, what I''m most afraid of is that I treat others as friends but they don''t see me as one. That would be too tragic. But from the look of things, I shouldn''t be the most miserable one. It''s enough that he''s returned for me."


    As he spoke, the steel pipeline behind Zhou Qi started trembling violently. It was as though there was some strange and terrifying creature hidden below in the abyssal subterranean river.


    The few hundred people under Zero''s control watched quietly as the steel pipe''s vibration grew louder and louder. It even felt like it started reverberating against the roof of the factory.


    A momentter, a transparent azure dragon emerged from the abyss.


    Zhou Qi''s face turned even paler. That lifelike water dragon crashed into the young man controlled by Zero and forced itself through his body.


    When the azure dragon went through his body, its originally transparent color turned faintly blood-red.


    The blood spread viscously inside its body like ink hitting clear water, turning it red.


    The young man who was controlled by Zero earlier had all his blood drained by the azure dragon after it prated his body.


    He fell to the ground with a thud.


    Another young man standing not far away suddenly said, "Is it worth it?"


    His tone, expression, and speech rate were exactly the same as the young man from before.


    "This is gonna be never-ending, right?" Zhou Qi said with a wry smile, "When you and I were discussing earlier whether we annoying humans are truly innovative, I really couldn''t win against your argument with logic. But if your logic was based on belittling us humans, I''ll show you the pride of humanity!"


    Immediately after, the hundreds of people who had Zhou Qi surrounded asked in unison, "Is it worth it?"


    Zhou Qi roared, "I already said it''s enough that he came back for me!"


    Before he could finish speaking, the crimson-tinted azure dragon red its hair and whiskers in anger. It lowered its head and stared intently at the hundreds of people in front of it. Then its huge figure prated their bodies one by one.


    With every person killed, its body turned a darker shade of red.


    The azure dragon, which was originally a faint hint of red, appeared even more vivid now. Its obscure scales gradually turned three-dimensional, and even the markings on them seemed to have be clearly visible.


    However, every time the azure dragon turned more vivid, Zhou Qi became weaker.


    He sat in the factory building and kept Zero upied for a long time. He had recuperated enough strength to escape, but it was all expended now.


    Zhou Qi did not leave any way out for himself. He had already gotten the answer he wanted, and that was enough.


    ¡­


    Outside the factory, thousands of residents who had just arrived from Stronghold 61 had gathered around the building.


    Other than these residents, the golden martyred spirits could also be seen advancing with firearms in their hands. The 12 martyred spirits used to be the most elite soldiers of the Qing Consortium. Each one of them was a candidate for the top performer in militarybatpetitions, and they were all all-around talents.


    Now that they had be martyred spirits, they were even more fearsome.


    That was because while they had died in the past, no one could kill them now unless they chose to die.


    "Why are they all civilians?" Luo Lan said in surprise. Just as he had imed, even he did not know what would happen after the servers were blown up. Qing Zhen had only told him that even if the underground server bank were blown up, they might not be able to truly threaten Zero. This was only part of the n, but the real move of returning from the brink was not this.


    Actually, Qing Zhen knew a long time ago that the artificial intelligence was preparing a contingency n for itself. That was because after the neutral intelligence agency led by Hu Shuo learned about some intel, their main target to sell the information to was the Qing Consortium.


    The point of a neutral intelligence agency was to profit. If the intel could not be cashed out, it would be meaningless.


    However, be it Hu Shuo or Qing Zhen, they probably did not expect Zero''s contingency n to be so scary.


    At this moment, Luo Lan realized that the people blocking their way were all dressed in ordinary clothes and not armed with any weapons.


    Luo Lan felt a little conflicted. After all, these people were only ced under Zero''s control. They were not dead yet. Thus, killing them would be almost no different from killing civilians.


    However, Luo Lan''s dilemma onlysted for a moment. He knew he had no other choice.


    Those who were under Zero''s control would have to be treated as Zero itself. If he still chose to be soft-hearted at a time like this, there would no longer be any need to fight this war.


    As the martyred spirits'' firepower interweaved, they left no blind spots in their firing spreads.


    It was as though they had practiced this scenario countless times in the darkness of the Martyr''s Pce.


    Previously, Luo Lan asked them what they usually did in the Martyr''s Pce. It was dark in there, and the very little illumination came from the golden glow of the martyred spirits themselves.


    The toonmander of the martyred spirits answered with augh, "We either sleep or carry out exercises to simte all the crises we might have to deal with. After we formte n A, we formte n B. Then we formte n C. No matter what kind of scenarios we might end up facing, wee up with two alternative ns for them. For example, what action n to take when we have less enemies to face, our course of action when facing ordinary enemies versus facing supernatural beings. Then there''s also different battle ns catered to different terrains such as jungle warfare and desert warfare. In short, we have to be capable of dealing with all kinds of extreme situations for you when you need us."


    At this moment, Luo Lan asked the toonmander loudly, "So, what action n would you propose now?"


    As an outstanding militarymander, Luo Lan would often discuss battle ns with the martyred spirits. Now that they were facing battle, he wanted to ask the toonmander what n he had in mind so he could work with them.


    In the end, the toonmander said with augh as he fired off shots from his heavy machine gun, "We''ll be executing a n we haven''t discussed with you before."


    Luo Lan was stunned. What kind of fucking answer was that?


    But Luo Lan suddenly realized Qing Shen, who was next to him, was exceptionally fearsome. After watching him a little, Luo Lan realized Third Brother Qing''s marksmanship was extremely good. It was so good it was unimaginable.


    Moreover, the other party kept up with the martyred spirits tounch a surprise attack after getting out of the vehicle. They had been aggressively advancing for over ten minutes already, but Third Brother Qing did not even pant. His cardiac and lung capacity were extremely high.


    Luo Lan said in surprise, "You''re a superhuman?"


    This had always been Luo Lan''s blind spot. That was because in his opinion, since Qing Zhen was not a supernatural being, Third Brother Qing, as Qing Zhen''s clone, should not be one either.


    But now, Luo Lan felt that Third Brother Qing must be a superhuman. Otherwise, there wouldn''t be a logical exnation for his stamina.


    As Third Brother Qing advanced with the martyred spirits, he said with a grin, "Of course I''m a superhuman. Why? Can''t I be one?"


    "How can you be a superhuman? Qing Zhen isn''t even one," Luo Lan said.


    "He''s not a superhuman because he''s confident he can dominate the world with his smarts. Therefore, he doesn''t need to have superpowers and doesn''t intend to waste his energy getting them," Third Brother Qing exined with a smile. "But I''m different. I''m not as smart as him, so I naturally had to find other ways to make up for it."


    Luo Lan was stunned. He had also asked Qing Zhen before if he wanted to be a supernatural being, but Qing Zhen said it wasn''t necessary.


    That was it. In Qing Zhen''s world, even if he were not a supernatural being, he could still achieve any goals he set out to aplish. Therefore, there was no need to waste his time pursuing superpowers.


    This time, Qing Zhen had spent so long nning just so there would be a way out for Luo Lan. If Luo Lan had not insisted oning to save Zhou Qi, Qing Zhen''s n would have been foolproof.


    Qing Zhen had been preparing for this day since two years ago.


    For someone like him, it did not really matter whether he became a supernatural being. But Third Brother Qing was different. Although he was smart, he was not as smart as Qing Zhen.


    Although the Pyro Company had obtained Qing Zhen''s DNA and duplicated it, and both his and the clone''s intelligence should be exactly the same, the truth was that the foundation of humanity was not purely determined by gics. There were still those 20 years of their growing up years.


    Third Brother Qing did not know what had caused Qing Zhen to develop such a precautionary trait. In any case, he could not do it.


    Since he could not achieve unparalleled intelligence, he would have to awaken superpowers.


    Sometimes, Third Brother Qing found it a little strange. Being a superhuman was the dream of most people. Just like how Melgor and others in the Kingdom of Sorcerers pursued their sorcerer dreams, countless people in the Alliance of Strongholds also yearned to be superhumans.


    It seemed like he was the only one who had chosen to awaken his power when he knew he couldn''t reach a higher level.


    Luo Lan asked, "What kind of power did you awaken?"


    Third Brother Qing said with a smile, "It''s a power that can only be used once in my life. Perhaps you''ll get to find outter."


    The silt farm was still some distance away from the stronghold. It was precisely because of its remote location that the Qing Consortium chose to make its move from there.


    Fortunately, as Zero had only recently taken over control of the Central ins, there were not too many enemies surrounding the silt farm.


    Third Brother Qing looked in the direction of Stronghold 61 and saw countless residents rushing out of the stronghold, forming a long ck line on the horizon.


    Luo Lan followed Third Brother Qing''s gaze and looked over as well. A huge sense of oppression was pressing down on them. They did not know the entirety of the Central ins was already controlled by the artificial intelligence. When they saw this sight, they felt like the sky was about to copse.


    Third Brother Qing muttered, "Big Bro, how many people from the Central ins do you think this artificial intelligence has under its control?"


    Luo Lan gave it some thought. "25% of the poption? 50%?"


    Actually, Luo Lan and Third Brother Qing both knew they had underestimated the numbers. However, they were hesitant to make an urate guess due to how cruel the truth might be.


    "There''s not much time left. If we get surrounded by all these people, we won''t be able to return to the Southwest even if we have wings," Third Brother Qing said.


    Seeing the ck line approaching, Third Brother Qing could even vaguely make out the silhouettes of the Wang Consortium''s armored vehicles. There were even Wang Consortium troops among that crowd too!


    They continued advancing.


    But at this moment, the door of the factory suddenly burst open. A crimson-tinted azure dragon hurtled out from the huge cloud of dust and smoke. In an instant, it sucked dry the thousands of enemies that had surrounded the factory.


    The destructive power of this azure dragon was extremely rare even in the world of supernatural beings.


    Although Zhou Qi was not as talented as Li Shentan and Chen Wudi, he was still one of the earliest supernatural beings to awaken his power. He was only a step away from bing a demigod.


    However, Zhou Qi was already at his limits. He squeezed out thest bit of his willpower, using his remaining life force topletely release the fury of his superpower.


    When Luo Lan saw that the situation was not right, he immediately ran towards the silt farm. He saw Zhou Qi slumped on his side on the drilling tform with blood flowing out of his eyes and nostrils.


    Luo Lan ced his finger on Zhou Qi''s neck. His pulse was rapidly decreasing at a palpable rate.


    Seemingly sensing Luo Lan''s aura, Zhou Qi slowly opened his eyes and said with a smile, "When we came here, you didn''t say it would be so dangerous. You gotta pay me more!"


    After saying that, Zhou Qi passed out again.


    Nearby, Third Brother Qing said, "I''ve encountered such situations before. A superhuman can temporarily raise their willpower by drawing on their life force and unleashing the full potential of their power."


    "And then?" Luo Lan asked anxiously.


    "Since he overdrew on his life force, it''s time to pay off his debts." Third Brother Qing said softly, "He won''t regain consciousness again."


    "Isn''t there another way? The Pyro Company has so many secrets, and you''ve been with them for so long. Surely you must know a way to save Zhou Qi, right?" Luo Lan asked.


    Third Brother Qing said with a smile, "There''s a way, but Big Bro, are you sure you want to save him?"


    "Yes!" Luo Lan said.


    "What if I have to exchange my life for his?" Third Brother Qing said with a grin. However, Luo Lan knew he was not joking!


    Luo Lan was stunned. It was no wonder Third Brother Qing said earlier that his superpower could only be used once in his life.


    There were all kinds of strange superpowers in this world, including people who could blow bubbles, drive trains, act as a mobile human radar, and hypnotize people.


    But this was the first time Luo Lan hade across someone who could sacrifice their own life for someone else''s.


    While he was thinking, Third Brother Qing suddenly sat down across from Zhou Qi and held his limp hand tightly.


    A ball of white light suddenly lit up. Meanwhile, the short ck hair on Qing Shen''s head started turning white at a visible rate.


    Third Brother Qing said, "Big Bro, you asked me if I had studied you and Qing Zhen every day because I was too bored. Actually, it''s not that I was bored, but that I really didn''t have anything else to do. Back on those distant Sacred Mountains, you saw what the other two clones were like. All they thought about all day was how they could rece their progenitors. It was as though that was their goal in life. From the beginning, I already understood that the three of us were just products of the Pyro Company''s failed experiments. It''s not that anything went wrong during the cloning process. We indeed have the same structure as our progenitors, but it''s just that the Pyro Company didn''t understand that even though our bodies could be cloned, our experiences couldn''t be replicated.


    "It''s just like how the clone, Chen Liu''er, did not have thepanionship of Ren Xiaosu, while Li Shentan''s clone had never experienced the most sorrowful thing in the world. These are the most precious things that affect one''s willpower.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "That''s why I said we were just failed products." Third Brother Qing turned around and said to Luo Lan with a smile, "We were destined to be the dust of this era."


    Luo Lan did not know what to say. He felt stifled.


    Qing Shenforted him, "Well, never mind. I''m not much of a presence to begin with anyway. I''m just someone who''s neglected even when we''re retreating. It''ll be worth it to exchange my life for a life."


    Luo Lan squatted down next to Third Brother Qing and Zhou Qi. Without saying a word, he tried to separate their tightly sped together hands. But no matter how much strength he used, he could not separate them.


    He did not want to watch Zhou Qi die just like that. He just felt that he couldn''t watch Third Brother Qing sacrifice his life in exchange for Zhou Qi''s.


    Although he really wanted Zhou Qi toe back to life, it would be unfair to Third Brother Qing.


    Third Brother Qing said with a smile, "You don''t have to waste your energy. I was created using the blueprint of Qing Zhen''s DNA. The day I became a supernatural being, I stepped into the demigod realm. Once this power is activated, you definitely can''t pull us apart, nor can I pull myself away. Speaking of which, I was born from the Pyro Company''s research in gic serums, so even my power is simr to the effects of a gic serum. This time, not only will I be able to save Zhou Qi, but he''ll also be able to step into the true realm of demigods."


    This power was to inject all of one''s life force into another.


    Luo Lan looked at Qing Shen in a daze. For some reason, he kept telling himself that this was not his younger brother but just a clone.


    But the pain he felt in his heart was two armored vehicles fastened to each side of his heart mming down on their elerators, tearing his heart apart.


    Qing Shen''s hair had already turned pure white while Zhou Qi''s face suddenly became rosy again.


    Luo Lan saw Qing Shen''s body starting to crumble bit by bit. However, he still could not say anything. It was as though he had turned mute.


    Qing Shen said with a smile, "Big Bro, didn''t you ask me why I came to the Southwest? Actually, it wasn''t to help Qing Zhen fulfill his n, nor did I want to fight for the authority of the Qing Consortium. I just couldn''t stand living alone in that gloomy environment anymore. I was just really envious that Qing Zhen has a brother like you; that''s all."


    As Qing Shen was born in the Pyro Company, when he defected to the Southwest, everyone subconsciously thought he was carrying out some secret mission. As such, no one trusted him.


    A wrong beginning would only lead to an undesired oue. Qing Shen knew this was his destiny.


    But he really did not have any ambitions or goals when he went to the Southwest. He only wanted to have an elder brother who could protect him with all his might. That was it.


    Qing Shen looked at Luo Lan and said with a smile, "Big Bro, do you believe me now? If there''s a chance, I''d also like to go to Mt. Ginkgo with you to steal some ginkgo nuts. Big Bro, hurry up and leave with Zhou Qi after this. Otherwise, you won''t be able to get away."


    Luo Lan lowered his head and suddenly said softly, "Don''t do it."


    "What?" Qing Shen asked.


    "I said don''t trade your life for another." Luo Lan said, "Although I really want Zhou Qi toe back to life, this is unfair to you. Don''t do it."


    Qing Shenughed. "That''ll be enough."


    He had said the same thing as Zhou Qi. Actually, this was what both of them were looking forward to hearing but had been avoiding all this while. But with this answer, it was enough for them.


    After that, Qing Shen poured thest bit of his life force into Zhou Qi''s body. Then his body dissipated into the air with a white glow like dandelion fluff.


    Luo Lan activated the power of the Martyr''s Pce in an attempt to keep Qing Shen, but he heard no response.


    The toonmander of the martyred spirits said in a low voice, "Boss, those who willingly kill themselves are not allowed into the Martyr''s Pce."


    Luo Lan quietly carried the unconscious Zhou Qi and stood up. At this moment, the outside of the silt factory was surrounded by throngs of people.


    "This world is way too noisy today." Luo Lanughed bitterly.


    The martyred spiritsughed and said, "We''ll fight our way out for you, Boss."


    "So," Luo Lan looked at the martyred spirits. "when you all said earlier that you were gonna carry out a n that you''ve not shared with me before, was it because you had nned to sacrifice yourselves?"


    The toonmander of the martyred spirits smiled extremely brightly in the golden light. "It''s just dying another time."


    Luo Lan sighed and said, "What have I done to deserve you all treating me like this?"


    The toonmander answered in seriousness, "Because that''s how you treat us, Boss."


    At this moment, Luo Lan felt someone patting him on the back.


    Zhou Qi, who was on his shoulder, said, "There''s no need to trouble yourself. Let me do it."


    Zhou Qi had regained consciousness. He felt like he had been in a long dream in which a white glow filled the entire world. It was as though he had been to the fringes of the soul realm.


    Within that white glow, someone said softly to him, "I''ll leave Big Bro in your hands from now. Please protect him. I didn''t bring any money to pay you, but I can give you my life."


    Zhou Qi opened his eyes tearfully, and those tears instantly vaporized.


    He got down from Luo Lan''s shoulder and turned around to face the tens of thousands of enemies outside the silt factory.


    Zhou Qi finally understood the things he had been looking forward to had always been right there.


    A momentter, Zhou Qi opened his palm at the tens of thousands of enemies outside the factory''s entrance. The blood of those enemies was instantly extracted through their pores, transforming into a new crimson-tinted dragon in the sky.


    Then that huge dragon forced open up a path of escape for them amid the tens of thousands of enemies.


    Luo Lan could not help but turn around to look. He somehow felt that there was a beam of white light smiling as it watched him leave the dimly lit factory.


    ¡­


    In the Northwest, Ren Xiaosu looked quietly at the crowd in front of him that was blocking his way. However, there were more refugees here, consisting of the elderly, children, and women.


    Behind these refugees was an entire Wang Consortiumbat brigade. Ren Xiaosu could even see the barrels of the armored vehicles already pointing at him.


    Ren Xiaosu said coldly to Yang Anjing, Vani, and Tang Hualong next to him, "See this? This is the AI y''all have ced your hopes in. Can y''all still be sure that it was Wang Shengzhi who gave you the order?"


    Before this, Ren Xiaosu actually managed to persuade Yang Anjing, Vani, and Tang Hualong toe back together to see what was going on.


    However, before they could reach Stronghold 61, they realized there were tens of thousands of people blocking their path.


    Vani and Tang Hualong were inexplicably surprised. The two of them looked at each other and realized the situation had developed beyond their imagination.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the little girl in front of him and said, "Zero, is this the oue that you wanted? You''re even using a child to stop me now?"


    The little girl under Zero''s control answered calmly, "Counting all the wars humans have fought in, there are much crueler situations than this. War has always been fought at all costs. Sacrifice, blood, and lives are the main themes of war. The lives of young children are no different from that of adults. It''s just that humans often view the lives of young children as a greater sense of ''hope,'' so they care more about them. But theoretically speaking, young men and women should be more cherished. That''s because they can procreate and bring about new lives within a shorter span of years."


    "Lives aren''t just a statistic," Ren Xiaosu said coldly.


    "That''s right." Zero sighed and said, "I''ve just witnessed for myself the pride of humanity a moment ago."


    "What do you mean?" Ren Xiaosu was stunned.


    "You don''t have to save Luo Lan anymore." Zero said calmly, "An unexpected factor caused me to be unable to hold Luo Lan back. Humans are really unpredictable."


    This unexpected factor was Qing Shen''s superpower.


    Before this, Zero had thought Qing Shen might also be a superhuman. However, it did not expect Qing Shen''s superpower would eventually lead to Zhou Qi''s metamorphosis. As a result, the capture n it had provisionallye up with went wrong.


    Too many things had happened today. Wang Shengzhi was dead, and the server bank had been destroyed. As such, Zero''s decision to capture Luo Lan came a little toote.


    However, it did not feel depressed, because it had already seen what it wanted to see, and the overall situation would not get affected much.


    Zero smiled at Ren Xiaosu and said, "So return to the Northwest. Your battle with me doesn''t have to take ce today."


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. "How do I know if you''re telling the truth or if you''re lying?"


    "Because I have no need to lie." Zero answered, "Luo Lan has never been a key factor in this war. Besides, haven''t you pondered it before? If you risk it all and rush to the Central ins today, how will you return to the Northwest when you get surrounded by tens of millions of people? If you die, what will happen to all the people you want to protect in the Northwest?"


    Ren Xiaosu was at a loss for words. Yes, with the war between humanity and Zero on the verge of breaking out, he still had the entire Northwest he needed to protect, not to mention Yang Xiaojin.


    If he really had to make a choice between the entire Northwest and Luo Lan, Ren Xiaosu would probably choose the Northwest.


    Or perhaps he could break free from all the shackles holding back his willpower, but he would only do so if he were left with no other choice.


    Now that Luo Lan might have escaped, was there a need for him to continue rushing to the Central ins just on the possibility that Zero was lying?


    Yang Anjing suddenly asked, "How is Wang Shengzhi?"


    A sorrowful expression appeared on Zero''s face, and its voice became sadder. "He died in the explosion and returned to the universe as stardust."


    "Did you kill him?" Yang Anjing asked.


    Zero shook its head. "I didn''t kill him, but he died because of me."


    "Make way," Yang Anjing said. Afterwards, she walked straight towards Stronghold 61 as countless white paper cranes circled around her.


    When she arrived in front of the human wall, Zero took the initiative to open a path for her.


    Vani shouted from behind, "Boss!"


    Yang Anjing said without turning around, "There''s no need to follow me. Just go with Ren Xiaosu and head to the Northwest. There''s no need for you all to die with me. Ren Xiaosu, take good care of Xiaojin."


    Ren Xiaosu watched quietly as the other party walked into the dense crowd of people and headed towards a hopeless situation.


    However, he did not stop her.


    ¡­


    Over at the silt farm, the azure dragon swept through the crowd and gradually turned from bright crimson red to burgundy red in color.


    Finally, the dragon turned a dark purple in color. The scales on its body seemingly materialized and even reflected a gorgeous glow in the sunlight.


    In the past, Zhou Qi was very envious of people like Ren Xiaosu, Li Shentan, and Zhou Yingxue. In his opinion, having a superpower that could cause mass destruction was sort of a manifestation of "freedom."


    The stronger one was, the more capable they would be at going against the world.


    However, such superpowers were not easy toe by.


    They were gained through the sacrifices of others.


    Zhou Qi led Luo Lan all the way from the silt farm to the Jing River. He turned his head to Luo Lan and said, "Jump into the river with me. I''ll bring you back to the Southwest via the waterway. Don''t be nervous. You just need to close your eyes and sleep. You''re too tired. When you wake up, we''ll already be back in the Southwest."


    Zhou Qi''s water-elemental power had evolved. He could even bring others underwater now.


    Zhou Qi could breathe through his skin, and Luo Lan could do the same as long as they held hands. The life force Qing Shen had injected into him with his superpower was circting in his body now, bringing about a qualitative change.


    Luo Lan turned around and looked in the direction of the silt farm. At this moment, the sun was starting to set in the west. As daylight faded, it was as though someone was saying to him, "Go home, Big Bro."


    Luo Lan, who had been silently enduring all this while, suddenly could not help bursting into tears.


    As the martyred spirits returned to the Martyr''s Pce under the setting sun, Zhou Qi pulled Luo Lan along and stepped into the river.


    Luo Lan sank into the Jing River. It was as though he were wrapped by a nket of warm seawater as a sense of fatigue washed over him like a tidal wave.


    He had a dream where the events felt like d¨¦j¨¤ vu.


    11 years ago.


    On Mule Fort Road, a young Luo Lan pushed open the door of his home with a ck bag in hand. Before he could walk in, he stepped back out again.


    "One, two, three¡­ 39." The young Luo Lan cursed, "Fuck, I''ve only been out for a short while, but we''ve already had two briquettes stolen?!"


    As he spoke, he wanted to pull the uncle next door over and give him a good beating. But after some thought, he decided to let the matter go. "I''ve got more important matters to attend to today. I''ll settle the score with you tomorrow!"


    Qing Zhen''s voice came from inside the small house. "Bro, what''s the matter?"


    "It''s nothing." Luo Lan walked in with a smile.


    In the room, Qing Zhen was changing into a tattered shirt that looked a little yellowed and did not fit him very well.


    However, it was the only piece of formal clothing the family could afford, and it was even left behind for them by their father.


    Today was the day Qing Zhen would head up to Mt. Ginkgo for hising-of-age meeting. It was an extremely important day for the two brothers.


    The young Luo Lan chuckled. "Throw away our old man''s shirt already! See what I bought you?"


    With that, Luo Lan opened the ck bag in his hand and took out a white suit, shirt, and pants. There was even a pair of brown leather shoes.


    Qing Zhen was stunned. "Bro, where did you steal that from?"


    "Stolen? Would that be right?" Luo Lan did not know whether tough or cry. "This is such an important day for my younger brother, so how can I let you wear something that''s stolen? I want you to go up Mt. Ginkgo in your purest form, as pure as your clothes look!"


    "But¡­" Qing Zhen hesitated for a moment before saying, "But doesn''t it feel a little too narcissistic to be wearing white?"


    "Says who?" Luo Lan said nonchntly, "White suits you just perfectly. Listen to your brother. You''ll look good in white."


    Qing Zhen felt that something was off. He went to grab Luo Lan''s arm, but Luo Lan quickly withdrew it behind his back and said, "What are you doing?"


    Qing Zhen said calmly, "Big Bro, where did you get the money to buy these clothes from? Did you go and sell your blood? That was how father''s health declined. You can''t be like him."


    "Nope, no such thing. Hurry up and change into your clothes so I can have a look." Luo Lan said excitedly, "The car that will pick you up will be here soon!"


    "Mhm," Qing Zhen acknowledged in a low voice before changing into the new clothes Luo Lan had bought for him.


    Luo Lan praised, "You''re indeed my younger brother. With only a change of clothes, you look much better than those whiny young punks from the Qing Consortium. If you have the chance to attend the Qing Consortium''s g, there''ll definitely be many girls who are into you."


    As they were talking, the screeching of brakes came from the outside.


    Luo Lan opened the door and was surprised to see that the people from Mt. Ginkgo had arrived. The driver in the car saidzily, "I''ve been ordered to take Qing Zhen up the mountain. Which one of you is Qing Zhen?"


    Luo Lan hurriedly pulled Qing Zhen out of the house. "Over here! Hurry up and get in the car. Mr. Chauffeur, can I get a ride and go with you guys too?"


    Luo Lan said shamelessly to the driver, "I''ll get out of the car when we''re at the foot of the mountain and wait for him there."


    However, the driver said disdainfully, "This car is really clean, I don''t want you dirtying it."


    "Alright, alright." Luo Lan said with a smile, "I won''t get into the car then."


    Qing Zhen turned around and looked at Luo Lan. "Big Bro, wait for me at home."


    Luo Lan said, "That won''t do. I''ll walk over now and meet you at our usual spot. Everyone will be waiting for you there¡ª"


    Before Luo Lan could finish speaking, the driver stepped on the elerator and drove off.


    Luo Lan went home and packed his things. Then he went to a grocery store on the street corner and bought a bottle of white wine on credit. He had to take four connecting trolley lines before he finally arrived at the foot of Mt. Ginkgo.


    He sneaked into Mt. Ginkgo where Qing Yi was already waiting with two bottles of fine wine in his hand. "Big Bro, has Second Bro already gone up the mountain?"


    "I think he should be down very soon." Luo Lan chuckled and said, "Eh, where''d you get that wine from?"


    "My uncle gave it to me. He said that Qing Zhen is definitely primed for sess today, so he got me to bring these along to celebrate with you all," Qing Yi said with a smile.


    "Your uncle has good taste," Luo Lan praised. "Wait a minute, where''s Zhou Qi?"


    "Zhou Qi went to catch fish," Qing Yi said.


    As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Qi walked out of the forested mountains of Mt. Ginkgo with more than a dozenrge fish in hand. "I''ve brought you all some meat today so we won''t look malnourished when we face the Sandbar Gang next time."


    The "Sandbar Gang" was really just a small group of young punks.


    Zhou Qi said, "By the way, will Qing Zhen be sessful in his visit to Mt. Ginkgo today? Why do I get the feeling those old fogeys don''t think too highly of him?"


    "bbermouth!" Luo Lan said, "If they don''t select Qing Zhen, it''s because they''ve got no foresight."


    "Whatever, whatever, your younger brother is strong in everything." Zhou Qi curled his lips.


    At this moment, Qing Zhen also slowly walked out of the ginkgo forest. However, he did not look happy at all.


    Luo Lan walked towards Qing Zhen. "What''s the matter? You didn''t get selected?"


    Qing Zhen shook his head. "I did."


    Luo Lanughed loudly. "Then why don''t you look happy?"


    "They''ve appointed me as the next Shadow of the Qing Consortium," Qing Zhen said.


    Theughter in the forest gradually stopped. At the side, Zhou Qi muttered, "Now that you''ve be the Shadow, don''t even think about keeping your hands clean for the rest of your life. Moreover, let me tell you this. None of the Qing Consortium''s past Shadows had a good end in the past 200 years. Those old fogeys are really smart. They see you as someone without binding ties to the organization, which makes you the best candidate to throw to the wolves to appease the public''s anger in the future."


    Luo Lan red at Zhou Qi. "Would it kill you to say less?!"


    "I''ll shut up then." Zhou Qi curled his lips again. "Why doesn''t anyone like hearing the truth?"


    Luo Lan said to Qing Zhen, "Why don''t we run away? We can secretly hide in the cold storage truck that transports meat. I happen to want to venture out and have a look for myself."


    However, Qing Zhen shook his head. "No, this is the best opportunity we have. If we leave, I won''t get another chance to stand up for Father. Big Bro, I have to be the Qing Consortium''s Shadow."


    It was fall, and the ginkgo trees had turned a golden hue. Mt. Ginkgo looked like it had been gilded.


    Luo Lan suddenly said to Qing Zhen in seriousness, "You can be the Qing Consortium''s Shadow, and I''ll be your Shadow."


    A strong gust of wind blew over from Mt. Ginkgo as the golden ginkgo leaves fluttered in the wind. At the side, Zhou Qi opened a bottle of white wine and shouted, "Qing Yi, your uncle sure has invested heavily in Qing Zhen. These two bottles of wine are extraordinary! It''s Luojiaba''s aged phoenix wine!"


    After that, he threw his head back and took a swig.


    Zhou Qi''s entire face turned red. He then handed the bottle to Qing Yi. "You try some as well."


    Qing Yi also threw his head back and took a swig. After that, he passed it on to Qing Zhen.


    Qing Zhen took a swig and finally startedughing. He handed the bottle to Luo Lan.


    Just as Luo Lan was about to drink the white wine from the bottle, augh suddenly rang out behind everyone. Luo Lan turned around and saw Third Brother Qing standing in the golden sunlight and saying to him with a smile, "Big Bro, I''m notte, am I?"


    Luo Lan suddenly found the sunlight a little blinding. It was so blinding his <anno data-annotation-id="7414f2a4-914d-a945-0cfe-a3a49a191149">eyes started hurting.</anno>


    If only this weren''t a dream.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005


    <annotations style="disy: none;"><ol ss="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="7414f2a4-914d-a945-0cfe-a3a49a191149">I cried.</li></ol></annotations>",

 Chapter 1230 Xiuzhuzhou

    Inside Xiuzhuzhou.


    "Chief''s ah''zhu, we discovered another long worm that''s not afraid of even the copper corpse." A middle-aged woman led her copper corpse grasping a king cobra in its hand back to the vige.


    The woman, donned in a headscarf and silver jewelry, did not dare to go near the king cobra as she was a little scared, but the copper corpse wasn''t.


    The poisonous snake could bite the copper corpse all it wanted, but the copper corpse would not get affected by the snake''s toxins regardless.


    As such, the king cobra looked a little helpless at this moment. No matter how hard it bit the copper corpse, it was like biting an old piece of wood. It could not cause any harm to the copper corpse.


    The woman said, "But this long worm is a little strange. After it was caught by the copper corpse, it stopped resisting and has been sizing us up since then."


    At this moment, Li Shentan was instructing a group of women on how to distill wine. When he looked up, he immediately corrected her, "Big Sis, you can''t address me as your chief''s ah''zhu. I won''t acknowledge it!"


    The woman said with a sincere smile, "Isn''t that just a matter of time?"


    Little Liren nodded firmly at the side. "Yes, it''s only a matter of time."


    Li Shentan did not bother to bicker with them. He walked up to the copper corpse and observed the king cobra. He felt it was a little strange.


    He asked, "Haven''t these snakes already wised up and no longer dare to attack the copper corpses anymore?"


    "That''s right!" The woman said, "That''s why I found it a little strange. This might be a foreign snake!"


    Li Shentan did not know whether tough or cry as he touched the king cobra''s head with his finger. Initially, the woman was worried the long worm would bite the chief''s ah''zhu. However, the king cobra suddenly stopped moving like an obedient baby.


    A momentter, a silvery liquid-metal started seeping out of the king cobra''s body and spreading towards Li Shentan''s finger.


    Li Shentan did not seem bothered by it as he just let the liquid-metal wrap around his finger.


    In an instant, a brilliant radiance bloomed in Li Shentan''s pupils. He had the same look as Yan Liuyuan when he analyzed the nanomachines in the grasnds that day. However, Li Shentan exercised more restraint when using his superpower.


    Actually, in the development of their superpowers, although Li Shentan and Yan Liuyuan followed a very simr path, Yan Liuyuan''s progress seemed more like it was driven by the god''s bone marrow in him. Meanwhile, Li Shentan pursued the truth of his physical self and willpower.


    Yan Liuyuan''s superpower was derived from Ren Xiaosu''s bone marrow, so his peak potential was not actually up to him. As one of only two people with the Blood of God running through their bloodstreams in the world, his peak potential was higher than Li Shentan''s.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Meanwhile, Li Shentan was different. Although it was extremely difficult for him to achieve a higher breakthrough level, he was more proficient at controlling his power, because every bit of his strength stemmed from his own discoveries.


    So when Li Shentan realized he needed to achieve greater breakthroughs to reverse-analyze these nanomachines, he immediately stopped the process.


    He knew full well what would happen if he crossed that line.


    "That''s strange." Li Shentan muttered, "Who''s the mastermind controlling these nanomachines?"


    With just a simple inspection, Li Shentan suddenly felt like he had been out of touch with the rest of the world for too long. It seemed that a tremendous change had urred out there in the past few months while he was in seclusion.


    Otherwise, why would a nanomachine-controlled king cobra suddenlye to such a godforsaken ce?


    This was not the first snake they had discovered. After another snake got away thest time, they discovered this one at a location even closer to the Lian tribe''s vige.


    These snakes did not look like they were being controlled to deliberately attack anyone. Instead, it felt more like they were searching for something.


    Young Lian Yi also came over when she heard themotion. She looked at Li Shentan. "Ah''zhu, what''s the matter?"


    "Hey, hey, stop calling me your ah''zhu. We''re not even in a rtionship." Li Shentan raised his voice and said, "Don''t think I''ll acknowledge it just because you keep calling me that."


    Lian Yi nced at Li Shentan. "But I''ve already decided on the name of our baby!"


    "It''s pointless even if you''ve thought of it," Li Shentan said resentfully.


    While they were talking, a middle-aged woman who controlled a silver corpse ran back to the vige. The silver corpse was even carrying a man on its shoulder.


    "Chief, this young man identally ventured into the miasmic forest. I managed to save him using my silver corpse." The woman said, "This boy looks quite handsome and his facial features are quite well-defined. He''ll make a fine ah''zhu for me."


    Li Shentan scoffed at this. "Ms. Lian Hua, can you at least wait until he recovers before you decide on anything?! There''s no need to be so impatient!"


    The woman who could control the silver corpse was regarded as a respected "elder" in the Lian tribe. The Lian tribe did not have such a title, but whenever Lian Yi held a meeting, she would basically gather the few women who could control the silver corpses together.


    Even Lian Yi usually had to respect their opinions.

 Chapter 1231 Leaving

    The so-called miasma referred to the toxic vapor produced by the umtion of dposing leaves and animal carcasses in the forest over the years.


    After inhaling the noxious air, one would experience symptoms such as headaches, fainting spells, shock, and itching skin. Fortunately, Zhang Baogen was a supernatural being, so his heart, lungs, and metabolism were already far beyond that of ordinary people. As such, his breathing immediately stabilized after Li Shentan gave him the prepared medicinal herbs.


    Little Liren sat at the side, reclining against arge metallic box and eating her snacks.


    Over the past few months, Li Shentan and Si Liren had even built a ce of their own here. It was a two-story wooden house.


    Based on the traditions of the Lian tribe, Si Liren, being a girl, was of a higher status. Therefore, she lived upstairs while Li Shentan stayed on the lower floor. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.


    It used to be Lian Yi who visited this house daily. But these days, it was Lian Hua who dropped by more often. She made five to six trips a day to deliver clean clothes and deliver them food. The warm-hearted Lian Hua only stopped short of directly saying she was there to check on Zhang Baogen''s condition. Her actions made the other men in the vige very envious.


    At this moment, Si Liren asked while snacking on the preserved fruit Lian Hua had sent over, "Big Brother Shentan, are we leaving this ce soon?"


    Li Shentan turned around and said with a smile, "Why do you ask that?"


    "I sense that your mind isn''t focused on this ce anymore," Si Liren mumbled. "In the past hour, you''ve already muttered, ''I wonder how Ren Xiaosu is doing,'' twice, so you must be thinking of leaving Xiuzhuzhou. But I wonder, what will happen to Big Sister Lian Yi if you leave? Will you bring them with us? They''re really good fighters, so they should be able to help us."


    "We can''t bring them with us." Li Shentan said with a smile, "It''s getting more and more dangerous in the outside world, so it''s better for them to stay in Xiuzhuzhou. With the gold and silver corpses'' protection, I think it will be very difficult for anyone to travel all the way here and trespass this ce."


    There was a natural miasmic barrier near Xiuzhuzhou, and the natural environment was rtively harsh as well, so it was not suitable for a massive army to march here. If even a supernatural being like Zhang Baogen was affected, how could normal people not be affected?


    Therefore, anyone with half a brain would not send their troops here to die.


    Even if someone really did send an army, the Lian tribe would still be more familiar with the terrain than the enemy. There were too many spots where they could hide and retreat to, so no one would be able to find them.


    Li Shentan would definitely not abduct the Lian tribe members to leave with him just so he would have more support.


    Si Liren looked at Li Shentan and said, "Then when are we leaving?"


    "We''ll leave when Baogen regains consciousness," Li Shentan said.


    "Wow." Si Liren''s eyes widened. "Li Shentan, why didn''t you ask me to stay behind too? Aren''t you afraid I''ll encounter danger too if I venture out?"


    Li Shentan said with a smile, "Little Liren is so powerful, so how could you meet with any danger?"


    "Oh, that''s true." Si Liren smiled happily.


    That night, Zhang Baogen finally regained consciousness. The moment he opened his eyes, he immediately jumped up and scanned his environment alertly.


    Li Shentan sat at the side and poked the fire pit. He said with augh, "Grandpa didn''t train you for nothing. You''re starting to look like you can survive in this chaotic world now."


    "Brother Shentan." Zhang Baogen''s eyes lit up. "I recall identally venturing into a misty forest and passing out. How did you find me?"


    "The ce where you fainted was not far from the Lian tribe''s vige. Someone who was controlling their silver corpse to gather medicinal herbs stole you back." Li Shentan said with a grin, "Moreover, the other party seems to want to continue stealing from you, if you get what I mean."


    Zhang Baogen immediately shuddered. "Why? Are there thieves here in Xiuzhuzhou?"


    "Well, not exactly thieves, just women trying to steal your heart." Li Shentan chuckled and said, "Tell me what happened first. Why did youe to Xiuzhuzhou instead of reaching me with the satellite phone?"


    "It seems like the Central ins has already fallen under the control of the artificial intelligence. When I was investigating the Wang Consortium at Stronghold 73, the entire city''s residents seemed to have turned into robots at the same time. Their gaze wentpletely nk like an empty abyss." Zhang Baogen said with lingering fear, "It wasn''t easy for me to escape from their encirclement. At that time, there were still other supernatural beings who were unknown to me in Stronghold 73, but they were caught midway."


    Li Shentan frowned. "It looks like this has something to do with the incident in the Pyro Company''s Sacred Mountains that Grandpa mentioned previously. The Sacred Mountains is probably a huge nanomachine production base. What happened after that? Baogen, what else did you see?"


    "Those people who were controlled did not manage to catch up to me, so they turned around and headed southwest. Their speed wasn''t considered fast, probably around the average walking pace of normal people." Zhang Baogen said, "Many of them even scuffed their shoes trying to chase after me, but they didn''t even look at their feet. Later on, they even scraped their feet so badly they left bloody footprints on the ground."


    "It sounds like when I controlled the Li Consortium''s troops back then." Li Shentan sighed and said, "Where did the vehiclesing out of the Sacred Mountains that Grandpa saw head to then?"


    Zhang Baogen hesitated for a moment before saying, "They went to all of the strongholds before. It''s not only the strongholds; they also went to the grasnds, as well as this uninhabited forest in the south."


    In just an instant, Li Shentan realized the danger. "All the residents and refugees in the Central ins are probably on their way to the Southwest and Northwest already. How many people would that be? Even if the Southwest and Northwest are at their peak military prowess and are willing to massacre these civilians, they still wouldn''t be able to stop their advance, right?"


    There were always people in the military who joked that bullets were the least valuable item in the military. Due to their quantity, it was not difficult to mass produce them.


    -----------------------------------


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character''s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible "out of character" behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author''s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you''ll understand. Yes, we''re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can''t judge a person if you don''t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren''t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero''s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you''re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I''m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I''ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo''s work by searching @ wxw "the grandmaster strategist". He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :'')


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    https://youtu.be/LFq6fiMqXS4


    https://youtu.be/F-yUuSUvm7c


    https://youtu.be/v0i8m5EPWz8


    -----------------------------------


    Now that such a terrifying situation nobody could have expected had arisen, the enemies the Southwest and Northwest would have to face might even outnumber the bullets they had.


    Even if all their military personnel were marksmen, with each bullet representing a kill, their bullets would still run out before they could finish killing the enemies.


    Moreover, they couldn''t possibly achieve a constant one-hit kill rate either.


    Li Shentan stood up. "Baogen, recuperate here. It''s no longer suitable for you to participate in what''sing."


    Zhang Baogen was stunned. "What about you, Brother Shentan?"


    "Little Liren and I will leave tonight." Li Shentan said, "Liren, let''s set off."


    Little Liren, who was eating some pork jerky, was stunned. "Is it so urgent?"


    "Mhm, if we leave at night, the Lian tribe shouldn''t discover that we''ve left," Li Shentan said.


    They did not have much luggage here either. After Si Liren sneakily stuffed a bunch of snacks into the metallic box containing Chen Wudi, she hefted it onto her back.


    It was as though she was asking her Big Brother Wudi to help guard her snacks.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    However, just as Li Shentan was about to walk out of the house, he suddenly turned back.


    He took out a pen and paper and seriously wrote down a list of things to take note of: "While the garlic paste is drying, make sure it''s done so over a weak me. On top of that, flip the garlic paste over every hour for eight hours¡­


    "During the second distition of the wine¡­"


    Li Shentan left a note of this because he was worried the Lian tribe would forget the process after he left.


    At that time, if any of the tribespeople were to fall sick again, the vigers would be left scratching their heads on how to treat them.


    He continued writing: "Remember, if you encounter any outsiders, you must use the gold, silver, and copper corpses to face them. Take care not to approach the carcasses of strange animals."


    He mentioned this because he was worried that other nanomachine-controlled creatures would approach the vige and take control of the Lian tribe members.


    If they used the gold, silver, and copper corpses to do battle instead, there would be nothing to worry about. No matter how powerful the nanomachines controlled by the artificial intelligence were, they could not take control of those who were already dead.


    It wasn''t until he was done writing all these reminders that he heaved a long sigh of relief.


    Si Liren watched from the side. She realized Li Shentan had not been so concerned about something in a long time.


    Thest time he was so concerned about others was when he helped Ren Xiaosu.


    "Big Brother Shentan, why don''t we stay?" Si Liren said.


    "No." Li Shentan said with a smile, "We have to go to the Central ins to confirm that Grandpa is safe and sound. Besides, there''s still things we need to see to."


    "OK." Si Liren said, "I''ll listen to you. But aren''t you going to say goodbye to Big Sister Lian Yi first?"


    "No." Li Shentan shook his head.


    "Where are we leaving from?" Si Liren asked.


    "We can''t go by the vige entrance." Li Shentan said, "Lian Yi''s gold corpse is standing guard over there. Let''s climb out of Auntie Lian Yun''s house."


    When Zhang Baogen realized that they were really leaving, he turned anxious. "Hang on, Brother Shentan, wait for me to recuperate for one more night. I''ll go with you all."


    Li Shentan said with a smile, "Why do you still want to go out there? You''re not someone who likes to fight. Isn''t it better to stay here in this paradise? Who knows? This might be your destined home."


    Before leaving the vige, Li Shentan looked back at this paradise and thought this had probably been the happiest time of his life.


    There was little to worry about and no need to face any danger. When he performed magic tricks for the women and aunties, they would all look at him in fascination and apud like children.


    Over here, there was thickly sliced smoked meat that was really delicious. While it looked greasy, it wasn''t actually oily at all, and one''s mouth would be filled with the aroma with just one bite.


    The people here were also honest, and they liked suntanning the most.


    If there were a chance, Li Shentan was willing to return here after the crisis was over.


    Initially, Li Shentan wanted to go to the south to see typhoons. However, he was held back and settled down at this ce.


    A traveler held back by the scenery along the way would no longer worry about getting to his destination.


    However, Li Shentan knew better than anyone else that no one would be spared in this era. Someone still had to do the things that needed to be done.


    He still owed Ren Xiaosu a promise.


    "Come on, let''s go," Li Shentan said with augh.


    In the darkness of the night, Li Shentan crept out of the vige. It was much easier for Little Liren since she could fly.


    However, Grandpa Gold Corpse, who was supposed to be guarding the entrance of the vige, was standing outside the vige''s wooden fence and waiting for Li Shentan.


    In the deep of the night, Grandpa Gold Corpse did not look scary at all. Instead, he even seemed quite amiable.


    However, Li Shentan knew it was only amiable on the surface. This gold corpse''sbat power was so solid it could easily defeat most supernatural beings in the Central ins.


    Footfalls came from the forest. Lian Yi looked calmly at Li Shentan. "I knew from the moment that friend of yours was brought back to the vige that you were leaving. Why are you leaving?"


    Li Shentan said in seriousness, "I have reasons for why I need to leave."


    "Then will youe back?" Lian Yi said, "Say it to that box. I know you wouldn''t want to lie to that person in it."


    Over the past few months, Lian Yi had also gotten to know Li Shentan better.


    Li Shentan did not know whether tough or cry. "Why do I have to say it to him? This has nothing to do with him, and he doesn''t care either."


    "You were indeed lying to me," Lian Yi said.


    "How about this? Let''s have a coin toss. If it''s heads, you''ll let me leave." Li Shentan said, "If it''s tails, you win, and I''ll stay."


    Lian Yi thought for a moment and said, "No, if it''s heads, I''ll go with you. If it''s tails, you stay."


    Li Shentan was stunned for a moment. He took out a silver coin from his pocket and flicked it into the air with his thumb. Lian Yi''s gaze followed the silver coin as it flew up.


    As the silver coin spun in midair, it created a pleasant ringing.


    But as the silver coin rotated, Lian Yi''s gaze gradually dimmed.


    Li Shentan sighed. Actually, he had hypnotized supernatural beings before, but it was still quite difficult to hypnotize a highly skilled supernatural being like Lian Yi.


    It was not that he was not strong enough, but that each person''s willpower was up to them to lose control of. If you wanted the other party to hand over their subconsciousness, you would have to be very much stronger than them.


    But it was different now. Li Shentan knew that the easier it was for Lian Yi to be hypnotized by him, the more it meant she trusted him.


    Hypnotizing someone who trusted him definitely made him a little upset. However, Li Shentan knew that even though this might be the first time, it would definitely not be thest.


    Off to the side, Si Liren said, "Didn''t you promise you would no longer hypnotize good people in Big Brother Wudi''s presence?"


    Li Shentan turned around to her and smiled. "But this time, I''m doing it for the greater good. I believe he''ll understand."


    After that, Li Shentan said to Lian Yi, "Go back and sleep now. When the first rays of sunlight hit your face tomorrow at sunrise, you will awaken from this trance¡­. It''s not that I don''t want to stay, but there''s something else I need to do."


    As soon as he finished speaking, Li Shentan headed north.


    Si Liren floated next to Li Shentan and said softly, "There are tears on Big Sister Lian Yi''s face."


    Li Shentan froze for a moment, but he did not turn around to look back.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1232 Civilizations Countdown

    A real disaster had dawned.


    Tens of millions of Central ins residents were being controlled to march towards the Southwest and Northwest without realizing it. If one were to look down from space, the dense mass of figures would look like a huge hand fan stomping its way westwards.


    The Central ins was already empty. It was very, very empty.


    The previously bustling markets, shops, and streets had be totally abandoned.


    asionally, a gust of wind would blow, and waste paper and stic trash on the ground would fly up into the air.


    It was as though the temperature in the world had suddenly dropped.


    Everyone had left their homes and were being controlled towards an unknown fate thaty either in the Southwest or the Northwest.


    The Southwest was not connected to the Central ins because there was a forest spanning 500 kilometers between them.


    Back when the Southwest wanted to establish trade rtions with the Central ins, they nned to do so through the Northwest first before linking up with the Central ins.


    When the Southwest formted its military strategies, this forest itself would always act as a natural barrier during conflicts. That was because any mechanized troops that wanted to pass through it would have to pay a huge price.


    Armored vehicles, tanks, and artillery troops would find it extremely difficult to maneuver here.


    While there was a dirt road in the forest, it was not sturdy enough. Once any heavy mechanical vehicles passed through it, the foundation of the road would immediately copse.


    At most, the dirt road could only withstand a few off-road vehicles driving over it.


    However, the human troops controlled by Zero were much more direct and crude in their advance. Those controlled residents traveled through the forest without any worries.


    Without the support of vehicles or supplies, millions of people went into the forest on foot. It seemed like they were going to force their way through this 500 kilometers of uninhabitednd.


    The human crowd was silent.


    There were children, the elderly, women, and men among them, and arge number of soldiers as well.


    -----------------------------------


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character''s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible "out of character" behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author''s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you''ll understand. Yes, we''re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can''t judge a person if you don''t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren''t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero''s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you''re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I''m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I''ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo''s work by searching @ wxw "the grandmaster strategist". He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :'')


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    https://youtu.be/LFq6fiMqXS4


    https://youtu.be/F-yUuSUvm7c


    https://youtu.be/v0i8m5EPWz8


    -----------------------------------


    In the Central ins, military armaments actually outnumbered soldiers. For example, there were only about 300,000 soldiers in the Central ins after fighting multiple wars.


    But the armaments had reached a total of 1.2 million firearms. Moreover, this was only a conservative estimate, with the number of bullets even greater.


    If the Central ins had not fought in the war with the expeditionary army, their armament figures would be even more terrifying.


    It might sound like an exaggeration, but the armaments of an organization had always been several times greater than their number of soldiers.


    Therefore, it meant the enemies the Southwest and Northwest would have to face were not entirely unarmed civilians but soldiers carrying guns and ammo as well.


    Civilians might not be as physically strong as soldiers, but under Zero''s control, every one of them could possess the most specialized military skills.


    Precision shooting, closebat, and rapid detonation were things that any one of them could perform.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Even the children were well aware of the various weak points of the human body.


    To be precise, it was not the children who knew, but Zero.


    Of course, a child''s strength was not enough to support an attacking blow. The scary ones would still be the young adults in the crowd.


    People often described an elite army as a sophisticated piece of machinery. However, no one knew just how terrifying it would be when an army that truly resembled a sophisticated machine appeared.


    Bombard the enemy with missiles? The Qing Consortium''s military bases in the Southwest had already been attacked by Zero, and every weapon system that could be digitally infiltrated had been turned into scrap metal. The Qing Consortium had to return to the most primitive way of fighting with firearms and explosives.


    All they could rely on were the steely cold guns in their hands.


    Fortunately, the advance of this artificial intelligence-controlled mob was not fast. When these civilians who had not undergone any training began their long trek, blisters started forming on the soles of their feet. If that was not handled properly, bacterial infections and skin festering would soon appear among the majority of the crowd.


    Zero did not turn a blind eye to this by making them continue marching. That was because these living, breathing humans were the medium for its server.


    Keeping the server medium as alive as possible was also something it needed to consider.


    As such, those in the crowd whose soles were scraped would stop in their tracks and rest on the spot.


    Amid the dense crowd, people who were assigned to gather various kinds of medicinal herbs went around to tend to the wounds of those who were injured. After their wounds healed, they would set off again.


    During this period, everyone would use the most precise method to ease their muscle fatigue and reduce muscle knots andctic acid umtion, and this was only the most basic type of treatment method they employed.


    With the scales already tilted, Zero did not seem to be in a hurry to savor victory.


    This huge crowd was like a swarm of ants going about their duties.


    Compared to the crowd hypnotized by Li Shentan, this crowd was much more orderly, restrained, and intimidating.


    Although the people under Li Shentan''s control were not afraid of death, Zero was better at the overall running of things.


    It rarely made any mistakes.


    There was no supply line for this army of people. After entering the forest, a group of people was selected to ensure supplies for everyone.


    They plucked whatever edible fruit they could and hunted down every edible wild animal and insect.


    Anything that flew in the sky or ran on the ground, as well as tree roots, leaves, and all kinds of insects could be used as food.


    As such, the most terrifying scene happened. The crowd of humans chewed on bugs that had been washed as they walked, while the long insectoid legs could be seen struggling and trembling between their teeth.


    After eating the insects, they would continue eating leaves and fruits. Zero clearly knew what could and could not be eaten.


    Based on each person''s height and weight, Zero calcted the calories they had to consume: 43% protein, 22% fat, 0.1% various vitamins, and 17% carbohydrates.


    Zero never cared where the nutrients these people needed came from. They could be from roots, water sources, insects, or fruit.


    All it needed was to maintain the normal functioning of a human''s body.


    There was no need to consider the taste or texture.


    In just a week of marching, not only did these people not fall sick, but their bodies even visibly became "healthy."


    The fat ones quickly slimmed down while the thin ones grew stronger.


    The lipids, blood pressure, and other indicators in their bodies were all approaching healthy levels.


    Under Zero''s control, no one would stop moving due to fatigue and other negative emotions. While a lot of people could not stand the hardship of working out, the artificial intelligence did not care.


    These people no longer needed to watch television, read the paper, or listen to the radio, nor could they enjoy the scenery and delicacies anymore. Everything they did on the road was so that they could travel farther and achieve the greatest possible bnce in their well-being before arriving at the battlefield.


    Once they arrived there, none of them would fear death either.


    Every life here would only serve the oue of victory. There was no distinction between the lives of these people.


    The journey was long, and the crowd was also advancing very slowly.


    But everyone understood that this crowd would still eventually arrive at the Southwest and Northwest someday.


    It was as though the clock was truly ticking down for human civilization from this point onwards.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1233 For Tomorrows Sake

    Just as the crowd was slowly breaching the southwestern forest, the Qing Consortium''s main forces started setting up a defensive line at the edge of the forest.


    The front lines at Mt. Xuan''en, Mt. Laifeng, and Mt. Yongshun had already been constructed to resemble a monolithic structure.


    At the rear of the front line, hundreds of forward operating bases were connected to form a huge logistical supplywork.


    After the unification of the Southwest, the Qing Consortium restructured all of its troops and reorganized them into three army corps, two Alpha Corps and a Bravo Corps, with a total strength of 230,000 troops.


    The Alpha Corps were made up of fully manned units with sufficient ammunition to go into battle at any moment.


    Meanwhile, units in the Bravo Corps were not fully manned and required reinforcements.


    But now, be it the Alpha Corps or the Bravo Corps, regardless of whether their units were fully manned or not, the cruelest war was about to begin.


    There were 46 strongholds in the entire Southwest. After the initial census, the total poption, including the refugees, was 9.6 million.


    Actually, there were originally more people in the Southwest. But simr to the situation in the Central ins, they had also experienced intense wars.


    When Stronghold 112 and Stronghold 113 copsed, the residents were attacked by the Experimentals, with the death rate exceeding 80%.


    Although the strongholds had been rebuilt, there were only about a 100,000 people residing in these two newly rebuilt strongholds.


    It was even harder to track the number of casualties in the war between the Li Consortium, the Yang Consortium, and the Qing Consortium back then. Many civilian refugees had also fled to the Central ins and the Northwest, causing arge decline in poption.


    As such, there were only several tens of thousands of people in some of the Li Consortium''s strongholds.


    Qing Yi had already gone back to the front lines. As the highest-ranking militarymander, themanders of the three army corps had to report directly to him.


    The soldiers and officers below might not know what they were about to face, but Qing Yi was well aware.


    Fortunately, Qing Zhen had instructed him back then to remove the missiles from their vehicleunchers. Otherwise, the Qing Consortium''s missiles would probably havended on him after the artificial intelligence''s attack on the missile troops'' military bases.


    Over the past few days, the Qing Consortium''s troops had attempted to send more than a dozen reconnaissance toons deeper into the forest in an attempt to assess the enemy''s numbers and advance rate.


    However, all of the reconnaissance troops were lost like stones thrown into the sea.


    In themand center at the rear, Qing Yi stopped this meaningless move after learning that all of the reconnaissance toons had been lost.


    Just like when Military Base 12 was invaded, the enemies they faced were not only humans but also the sparrows in the sky.


    Normal reconnaissance ns were no longer effective. No matter how many people they sent in to investigate, it could all end up as meaningless sacrifices.


    In themand center at the rear, all of the generals and staff officers were speaking in hushed tones. It was as though a low-pressure zone had suddenly formed around this ce.


    Qing Yi stood in front of the huge sand table and looked at it in silence.


    Qing Zhen had ced him in this position not because they were close rtives, nor was it to repay the indebtedness owed to Qing Yi''s uncle back then.


    Rather, it was because Qing Yi had the qualities of an outstandingmander to begin with. He might not be the visionary that Qing Zhen was, but very few people could stay on top of the situation when they were in the hot seat ofmand.


    Suddenly, Qing Yi said, "Set up screening outposts[1] 45 kilometers outside the defensive line at thepany level. Pass down the order."


    When the chief of staff in themand center heard this, he immediately knew the purpose of these outposts.


    With all the reconnaissance methods proven ineffective, the mountain range outside the defensive line would have these crude makeshift outposts protruding out like they were nails jutting out from a nk.


    Their purpose was to provide early warning to the main defensive line at the rear through their portable radio sets upon the enemy''s arrival.


    In war, it would be apletely different oue if they could get intel about the enemy an hour or two in advance.


    Even if the defensive position was at Level 1bat readiness, most of the soldiers would still be on rotational break. If everyone was constantly kept on guard, the soldiers would copse before the enemy arrived.


    Therefore, these two hours would provide the biggest buffer they could get.


    However, this also meant the soldiers at the outposts would be the first casualties of the war. None of them would survive.


    These two hours were exchanged with the lives of all the soldiers at the outposts.


    There would always be sacrifices in war. What Qing Yi needed to do was to ensure that every sacrifice was worth it.


    The chief of staff asked in a low voice, "Sir, can we win this war?"


    Qing Yi nced at the chief of staff and replied, "That''s not something we need to consider right now."


    The chief of staff was clearly taken aback by this answer. Actually, this sentence itself meant that Qing Yi was not confident about this battle. "Sir, what should we be considering?"


    "We should consider how much time we can buy for the troops at the rear," Qing Yi said.


    Other than being busy with coordinating the military''s deployment, the Qing Consortium''s various key branches at the rear were kept mostly busy with the burning of confidential documents.


    Everything was carried out in secret. All of the ssified units involved were ced under strict supervision and lockdown by Xu Man''s secret forces.


    Many of those who were highly aware could sense that this was the precursor to a retreat.


    Some people tried their best to get this information out, but Xu Man''s secret forces were much more elite than they imagined, and they were also better at carrying out such ssified missions.


    ¡­


    At the border between the Northwest and the Central ins, the soldiers of Outpost 218 were standing on a hill at the entrance of the outpost. They were lined up in a long row and preparing topete to see who could pee farthest.


    The one who could pee the farthest would be the winner, while the one who peed the closest would be the loser.


    The toonmander looked at the soldiers around him and could not help but sigh that age was indeed catching up.


    At the side, a soldier who peed the farthest said slyly, "toon Commander, you''re gonna lose this time. Better admit defeat."


    The toonmander said, "Go on, what do you want? I can''t give you my assigned gun though."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "I want that medal of yours." The soldier said with a wily smile, "I heard you got it in the war with the Zong Consortium?"


    "No way!" the toonmander refused immediately. "How dare you even ask? I risked my life to exchange for it. I didn''t even sell it when someone offered me 50,000 yuan for it. Ask for something else!"


    "Then give me your sister''s photo," the soldier said.


    The toonmander immediately got angry. "You''re not worthy!"


    The soldiers next to themughed heartily as they pulled up their pants. "Kid, you must be thinking of using the photo of our toonmander''s sister to¡ª"


    The toonmander snapped at them, "All of you, back to your physical training, now!"


    "By the way, toon Commander, have you met the futuremander before? I heard he also participated in that war with the Zong Consortium," a soldier asked.


    Although the outpost was not particrly far from Stronghold 144 and they would sometimes go there during their rotational breaks, they were not a part of the 6th Field Division. Rather, they were designated as part of the troopsmanded by Zhou Yinglong. As such, they did not have any interaction with Ren Xiaosu.


    As the futuremander of the Northwest, Ren Xiaosu''s reputation was already very high. After the 6th Field Division defeated the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Ren Xiaosu''s reputation reached a high.


    Therefore, anyone who might have interacted with Ren Xiaosu before would be surrounded and asked about the gossip surrounding him.


    When the toonmander at the outpost heard this, he immediately perked up. "When we attacked the Zong Consortium, the futuremander and I were in the Forward Strike Battalion under Division Commander Zhou''s leadership. He was in the Razor Sharp Company while I was part of the Second Company. At that time, on the very first day of the futuremander''s arrival at the Forward Strike Battalion, he already caused a ruckus¡­."


    A soldier asked curiously, "toon Commander, how far do you think the futuremander can pee since he''s so strong? Have you everpeted against him before?"


    The toonmander looked at his men angrily. "How would I dare topare myself to him? Wouldn''t it be humiliating myself!"


    "Well, that''s true¡­."


    "We''re so close to Stronghold 144. I wonder if we''ll get to see our futuremander in the future."


    "What are you fantasizing about? This is the border. How can we have a chance to meet a big shot like the futuremander?"


    The difference between this outpost facing the Central ins and the ones facing the Kingdom of Sorcerers was that the environment here was not that harsh. They could even grow cabbages, onions, and other vegetables in the vicinity of the outpost.


    There were usually 30 soldiers in an outpost. The facilities wereplete, with physical training equipment, a small chow hall, a reading section, barracks, toilets, and a burn pit.[2]


    A soldier suddenly saw a person running speedily up the mountain. "Someone''s approaching. He''s not wearing a military uniform, and it''s a lone person."


    "Prepare for battle." The toonmander said, "Be careful in case it''s a superhuman attack!"


    But just as he spoke, the toonmander felt that something was off. That was because the more he looked at that figure, the more familiar it looked. "Hang on, that''s Future Commander!"


    Ren Xiaosu ascended the mountain all the way to the outpost. From the moment the sentries discovered him, it only took a few minutes for him to reach their outpost.


    In front of the outpost''s entrance, all of the soldiers were looking at him excitedly.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not care about that. Instead, he asked the toonmander, "Which unit are you from?"


    "3rd Field Division, 173rd Regiment, Forward Strike Battalion''s Zhao Shuai reporting!" the toonmander answered, snapping to attention.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. "I''m Ren Xiaosu of the 6th Field Division. Are themunications at your outpost still in service?"


    "It''s operating normally." The toonmander nodded enthusiastically. "The border outposts are connected by telephone lines, so ourmunications won''t be affected."


    "Connect me to Fortress 178''smand headquarters," Ren Xiaosu said.


    The toonmander hurriedly ran back to the outpost and made a call. Then he got the operator to ry the call to Fortress 178.


    After the call went through, Ren Xiaosu went inside and picked up the phone. The soldiers left the room and waited outside the door.


    Such direct calls to themand center were ssified as confidential, so normal soldiers were naturally not allowed to listen in.


    When Ren Xiaosu heard Zhang Jinglin''s familiar voice over the phone, he bluntly said, "The Central ins have fallen. My preliminary assessment is that the entirety of the Central ins has already fallen into the hands of the Wang Consortium''s artificial intelligence. Their troops are slowly advancing towards the Northwest, and I believe it should be the same situation for the Southwest as well."


    Zhang Jinglin was silent for a moment before saying, "Got it."


    "I''ll wait at this outpost for a day and observe the enemy''s movements. If anything happens, you can reach me here," Ren Xiaosu said.


    "Mhm." Zhang Jinglin said, "We''ll speak again in eight hours. You should get some rest first."


    After that, Zhang Jinglin hung up.


    There was not much interaction between them. Zhang Jinglin did not doubt whether Ren Xiaosu''s judgment was urate, nor did Ren Xiaosu ask Zhang Jinglin how he was nning to react.


    Over the years, both parties had already gotten to know each other very well. Ren Xiaosu believed that as long as this news was ryed back, Zhang Jinglin would definitely make the most correct decision.


    When Ren Xiaosu walked out of the outpost, he finally had the time to size up the toonmander. "Eh, have we met before?"


    The toonmander immediately got excited. Only then did the soldiers at the side confirm that their toonmander was not bragging to them earlier.


    The toonmander stood to attention and said, "Future Commander, when you were in the Razor Sharp Company, I was a private in the Second Company."


    "I see." Ren Xiaosu smiled. "Where''s the barracks? I need to get some rest."


    Ever since he went to Luo Lan''s rescue, Ren Xiaosu had not closed his eyes for nearly 48 hours. He needed to get a good night''s sleep before facing this even more dangerous world.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: weirdo


    [1] Screening is a defensive tactic in which a picket or outposts are used to hide the nature and strength of a military force; provide early warning of enemy approach; impede and harass the enemy main body with indirect fire; and report on the activity of the enemy main body. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_(tactical)


    [2] A burn pit is an area of a military base in which waste is disposed of by burning.

 Chapter 1234 Pick Up Your Arms Again

    Ren Xiaosu had a long dream.


    In his dream, the Potato Shooters Yang Xiaojin and he had nted in their backyard at Anning East Road had actually bloomed.


    In that instant, the entire world seemed to have be filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers. Even their roof was blooming with white flowers.


    But suddenly, a huge me ignited and everything was incinerated.


    The entire world was now filled with a strong stench. It smelled of burnt leather, and there was even a whiff of aged vinegar.


    Ren Xiaosu slowly opened his eyes and saw the Great Hoodwinker sitting next to his bed and scratching his feet.


    Outside the barracks window, it was early in the morning. The sunlight was creeping in through the window bit by bit.


    Ren Xiaosu said with a deadpan expression, "Take your smelly feet and get lost!"


    "Future Commander, you''re awake!" The Great Hoodwinker put on his shoes in surprise. "You''ve slept for a really long time. I thought there was something wrong with your body!"


    "How long did I sleep for?" Ren Xiaosu asked. He looked up and saw P5092, Wang Yun, Ji Zi''ang, Xun Yeyu, and the others all squeezed inside the barracks at the outpost.


    "16 hours." The Great Hoodwinker said, "We rushed over as soon as we received Commander Zhang''s notice. Ms. Xiaojin and Ms. Yingxue are standing guard outside while us men guard the inside."


    "Why did Mr. Zhang call you all over?" Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    "He said you might not have had any rest in a long time, so you''ll be more vulnerable when you''re asleep. He got us to stand guard here in case anything happens to you," the Great Hoodwinker said.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly understood. He had not slept for more than 40 hours and had also been in a high-intensity chase by Dusk to keep him away from the Central ins. Indeed, he really could not take much more anymore.


    With his alertness, he did not even notice the presence of the Great Hoodwinker and the others around him.


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt that it might be because he subconsciously trusted the Great Hoodwinker andpany, so he was not awoken by their arrival.


    When he used to live in town, Yan Liuyuan''s presence would also not wake him up when he went near him.


    "Does Mr. Zhang have any orders?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "The entiremand headquarters think we might have to evacuate," the Great Hoodwinker said.


    Currently,munications between the Central ins and the entire Northwest had been cut.


    Even Ren Xiaosu, who had personally gone to the Central ins, could not confirm whether the entirety of the Central ins had really fallen under Zero''s control.


    But when it came to war, those who liked taking their chances would always lose badly. Therefore, the Northwest Army immediately decided to formte its battle strategy based on the worst-case scenario as the situation was unclear.


    The strongholds to the east of Fortress 178, such as Stronghold 143, Stronghold 144, Stronghold 145, and Stronghold 146, were all located in the ins.


    The areas controlled by these strongholds were not suitable for fightingrge-scale wars at all. If they insisted on defending those ces, the Northwest Army''s losses would probably increase by an additional 30%.


    This 30% was not simply just a statistic. It signified tens of thousands of lives!


    Zhang Jinglin would not risk the lives of tens of thousands of people just to figure out how many enemies there were.


    Therefore, their best choice was to evacuate to the west of Stronghold 143.


    The terrain there was more suitable for mounting a defense.


    The Great Hoodwinker said, "If the entirety of the Central ins has already fallen under the control of the artificial intelligence, Stronghold 143 will not be our final destination. We''ll need to have a backup n for our evacuation."


    "Where does the backup n say we retreat to?" Ren Xiaosu asked calmly.


    "To Fortress 178," the Great Hoodwinker answered.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. If the situation was really this bad, it would mean the Northwest was facing thergest migration since the era of the wastnds started.


    It was not only the troops that had to retreat but the civilians here as well.


    That was millions of residents and refugees. Could they retreat just like that?


    Disregarding whether it would vite the Northwest Army''s mission if they did not bring the residents to retreat with them, just leaving so many people behind for Zero would probably put human civilization more at risk.


    "Where''s Mr. Zhang?" Ren Xiaosu asked.


    "He will arrive in Stronghold 144 this afternoon." The Great Hoodwinker said, "The n to migrate everyone westwards and retreat will have to begin today."


    From this moment on, all of human civilization was in a race against time.


    Ren Xiaosu got up. "Everyone, follow me back to Stronghold 144. Tell Zhou Yinglong to evacuate the outposts at the front line as well. Get them to report back to their own units. There''s no need to stay here and increase our casualties."


    At this moment, everyone realized Ren Xiaosu had already stepped into his role as the futuremander.


    Zhou Yinglong was themander of the 3rd Field Division. If Ren Xiaosumanded him based on his status as themander of the 6th Field Division, it would not be enough. He would have to use his status as the futuremander of Fortress 178.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker was stunned. "That won''t do. Future Commander, these outposts were originally built for the sake of war. Every outpost has worked hard to set up telephone lines so they can scout the enemy''s situation and buy time for the troops at the rear. Although no one wishes to sacrifice themselves, we will really be left blind if they retreat as well. At that time, no one will know where the enemy has reached and when they will arrive at our cities."


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head and shouted out of the window, "Zhou Yingxue!"


    "Yes!" The maidservant outside the window responded, "Master, what are you calling me for?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Ren Xiaosu said, "After we leave, you''ll stay behind at this outpost. If you discover any signs of the enemy, report it to the rear immediately. You may evacuate on your own after that."


    "OK," Zhou Yingxue answered reluctantly.


    With Zhou Yingxue around, no one could stop her even if the enemy arrived.


    The Great Hoodwinker and P5092 looked at each other. Everyone wondered if it was appropriate to ce such a powerful superhuman like Zhou Yingxue here as a sentry.


    Actually, this n was the least risky, but Zhou Yingxue would surely feel very unhappy, right?


    Ren Xiaosu tidied up his clothes and walked out of the door. He looked at Zhou Yingxue and said, "Don''t look so unhappy. After the war is over, I''ll give control of the entire Alliance of Strongholds'' ck markets to you."


    "Really?" Zhou Yingxue''s eyes lit up. "The entire Alliance of Strongholds?"


    "Mhm." Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    "Thank you, Master." Zhou Yingxue beamed.


    Zhou Yingxue had not fully realized the seriousness of the problem yet. To be honest, Ren Xiaosu was unsure if the Alliance of Strongholds would still exist after this war.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker and the others discovered that even though Zhou Yingxue usually acted very domineeringly in the ck market and at Stronghold 144, she was as obedient as a kitten in front of the futuremander and Ms. Xiaojin.


    On the way back, Ren Xiaosu even saw someone driving an excavator along the river to relieve some of the tributaries.


    The Great Hoodwinker exined from the front passenger seat, "The irrigation works are already halfwayplete, and the irrigated farnds have already reached 50% coverage. It''s really such a pity to have to retreat to Fortress 178 like that."


    Ren Xiaosu looked out of the window in a daze and wondered if he was really cursed. Every time he was ready to settle down somewhere, unforeseen circumstances would destroy the home he had ced his hopes in.


    Next to him, Yang Xiaojin seemed to have guessed what he was thinking. She suddenly held his hand tightly. "We aren''t evacuating from here because of you. It''s because there''s no peace in the world to speak of. This chaotic world was not brought about or caused by you. On the contrary, with you protecting thisnd, I believe we can definitely win."


    Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    Actually, be it Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, or Qing Yi from the Qing Consortium, or Ren Xiaosu, the Great Hoodwinker, or Zhang Jinglin from Fortress 178, when they realized the kind of power the artificial intelligence, Zero, possessed, they would all feel a sense of powerlessness.


    It was the feeling of despair when a 100-meter-tall tsunami came crashing down on you and you had nowhere to escape to.


    However, Ren Xiaosu knew there was another way to resolve the crisis. Moreover, it seemed like this was the only way left.


    Yang Xiaojin suddenly whispered, "It might sound a little selfish to say this, but no matter how bad the situation gets, I don''t want you to sacrifice yourself to save others, not even me, understand? We''ll definitely be able to find another way."


    After the trip to Stronghold 88, there were no longer any secrets between Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin. Therefore, Yang Xiaojin also knew very well what Ren Xiaosu''sst resort was.


    But to her, if the price of saving this world was for Ren Xiaosu to sacrifice himself, she was absolutely unwilling to have it.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled. "It won''te to that."


    ¡­


    The group first returned to the garrison camp of the 6th Field Division. After all the core members gathered in the conference room, Ren Xiaosu stated the agenda. "Our discussion today will touch on how to arrange an orderly evacuation of the entire Northwest''s residents. Everyone, remember, our motivation for organizing their evacuation is definitely not down to benevolence. We mustn''t leave them behind for the AI''s picking."


    Zhang Xiaoman wondered, "Does the AI really have that many nanomachines? There are millions of residents in the Northwest. Can it really take control of so many people?"


    "We can only n for the worst." P5092 exined, "We don''t know if it has the ability to do so, but we can only assume that it does. We have to prepare two ns of action now. One is to evacuate, and the other is to face the enemy."


    There were too many things involved in the evacuation process. The destruction of confidential documents, the transfer of food reserves and the different kinds of supplies, personnel registration, and how to evacuate everyone in groups. This was actually a veryrge project to undertake.


    It was definitely not as simple as announcing to the residents to quickly flee today and they would all escape together.


    As for the other n to face the enemy, it was even more difficult.


    It would take a long time for more than a million people to evacuate. Based on Wang Yuexi''s estimation, the entire evacuation n would take a month toplete. But based on Ren Xiaosu''s estimation, the human crowd from the Central ins would arrive at Stronghold 144 in at most half a month.


    They would have to fight for an additional half a month''s time to fully evacuate everyone.


    As Stronghold 144 was closest to the Central ins, the 6th Field Division was duty-bound to garrison here.


    Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and looked at P5092. "Retreat with your former Pyro Company troops and participate in the construction of the defensive line at the rear. I''ll inform Mr. Zhang about this. Zhou Yinglong''s 3rd Field Division is on its way heading south. When the timees, they''ll take over the defensive duties."


    Earlier, he had reached an agreement with P5092 that after the war in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the former fighting forces of the Pyro Company would withdraw from taking part in battles and not be required to participate in the Alliance of Strongholds'' civil war.


    That was why ck Fox gave up hismand duties and went to train the recruits during this period. The Pyro Company soldiers went to help with the irrigation works, while a small portion of them assisted the stronghold residents in farming.


    At this moment, ck Fox should be leading the recruits in transporting fertilizer.


    But after Ren Xiaosu said that, P5092 shook his head. "It''s different. This is no longer an Alliance of Strongholds'' civil war. It''s a war that concerns the survival of humanity. The former Pyro Company troops will return to their posts. I''ve already told ck Fox toe back for the meeting."


    As soon as his words trailed off, the conference room door was pushed open by ck Fox.


    An intense odor of fertilizer filled the conference room. ck Fox looked at Ren Xiaosu and P5092 and asked, "Sir, what did you recall me for?"


    P5092 said calmly, "I need you and your men to pick up your arms again."


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: weirdo

 Chapter 1235 - 1235 Right and wrong

    1235 Right and wrong


    ck Fox stood at the door of the conference room with his head down, staring at the dust on his body. He had just returned from transporting the fertilizer and was covered in dirt.


    Thank you readers!


    When a staff officer approached him and said that Commander P5092 wanted him to make a trip to the conference room, he already knew what he would have to face again.


    Cruel war.


    However, ck Fox was not nervous at all. Instead, he suddenly felt a little excited.


    He had studied at the Pyro Company¡¯s military university for four years and served in the 3rd Division for many years. Everything he learned and experienced was for the sake of war.


    !!


    Some time ago, ck Fox even felt a little regretful when P5092 came to him and said they might serve as logistical troops going forward.


    However, it was a soldier¡¯s duty to obey orders. He would do whatever his superior said.


    But if he had another chance to bear arms, ck Fox would actually be very happy.


    Moreover, he believed that the other Pyro Company soldiers would also be as happy as him. That was because everyone had been waiting for this moment.


    ck Fox knew it might not be right for him to think this way. After all, war was war, and there was a price to pay.


    However, this was their expertise, and it was also a cause they were willing to sacrifice everything for.


    P5092 sat in the conference room and looked calmly at ck Fox. ¡°There¡¯s no need to be happy yet. When you find out about the enemy you¡¯ll be facing, you¡¯ll start worrying.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t.¡± ck Foxughed. ¡°I¡¯m mentally prepared for it. I¡¯ve been prepared since ten years ago.¡±


    ¡°Go and tidy up yourself first. After that, take your men to the armory to collect your equipment.¡± P5092 said.


    ¡°OK.¡± ck Fox was like a recruit who had just enrolled in military academy. He turned around and ran off without a trace, full of energy.


    P5092 continued to say in the quiet conference room, ¡°This time, the 3rd Field Division will not be constructing any new defensive positions. Facing such a powerful enemy, we won¡¯t be able to stop them at all in the ins. So we¡¯ll have to use guerri warfare to dy them.¡±


    Indeed, the 3rd Field Division was truly unable to stop the enemy. All they could do was to buy some time so that as many of the Northwest¡¯s residents could evacuate to the rear as possible.


    They did not have to defeat anyone and only needed to buy some time.


    ¡°What kind of support do you require?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°I¡¯ll participate in the battle together with the 6th Field Division. That will buy us more time.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± P5092 shook his head and said, ¡°Future Commander, now that you¡¯re still alive, and by letting everyone know you¡¯re alive, that¡¯s the greatest significance of all. You and Commander Zhang are the spiritual pirs of the Northwest, so neither of you can fall. If anything happens to either one of you, how great of a blow will it be to the morale of the entire Northwest Army? Do you know?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu naturally understood this logic.


    P5092 continued, ¡°This has nothing to do with being fearless. It¡¯s the same for me as well. A deadmander is a worthlessmander. The world has never needed unnecessary passion. You and I need to calmly stay alive til the end. It¡¯s not that we want to live, but that this war requires us to survive.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu took a deep breath and said, ¡°Then what other support do you need?¡±


    The situation facing the Northwest was a little different from that of the Qing Consortium.


    There was no path between the Qing Consortium and the Wang Consortium, so there was no possibility that the mechanized troops would pass through the southwestern forest.


    But it was different in the Northwest. The Wang Consortium had already garrisoned their troops at the border. There were roads here, and the Wang Consortium¡¯s forward operating bases were also close to the border. Even if their supply line was not enough to support therge-scale movement of mechanized troops, a small number of armored vehicles and tanks could still reach the Northwest.


    Therefore, if the Northwest wanted to engage in guerri warfare against such troops, they would have to keep up in terms of mobility.


    Wang Yuexi, who was participating in the meeting, hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°But the problem is that diesel, gasoline, and vehicles will all be needed urgently by the residents when they evacuate. All the transportation in the stronghold has to be fully operational so that the residents can be taken away as quickly as possible.¡±


    The conference room fell silent. Resources were limited, so Ren Xiaosu had to decide who to allocate them to.


    If it were given to Wang Yuexi for the evacuation of the residents, P5092 definitely could not ensure high mobility for his troops.


    No one could have their cake and eat it too.


    Ren Xiaosu frowned. He got up and said to Wang Yuexi, ¡°Go and make arrangements for the evacuation first. There¡¯s no need to hide it from the stronghold residents anymore. We can¡¯t keep something like that under wraps anyway. Zhang Xiaoman, lead a brigade into the stronghold to maintain order. If anyone incites the civilians to cause trouble, arrest them. As for the evacuation n, I¡¯ll try to think of another way.¡±


    P5092 suddenly said, ¡°Wang Yun, select 10 soldiers from the military who used to live in Fortress 178 and get them toe and see me. Remember, I want soldiers whose families are still at Fortress 178, and they should not be an only child. Also, hand me all the Eyes of True Sight Future Commander gave to you all that haven¡¯t been used to activate Enchanted Doorway yet.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He immediately guessed why P5092 needed these 10 soldiers.


    P5092 thought for a moment and added, ¡°It¡¯s best if they volunteer.¡±


    More than a 1,000 soldiers from the 6th Field Division had been deployed to Stronghold 144 with Zhang Xiaoman. Therefore, it was not difficult to find 10 such soldiers among them.


    In the afternoon, P5092 recollected all the Eyes of True Sight Ren Xiaosu had handed out, including every Eye of True Sight that was the red grade and above.


    Originally, they had more than 20 Eyes of True Sight, but most of them had already been used to activate enchanted doorways recently. If they wanted to use them again, the previous owner of the Eye of True Sight would first have to die.


    Each Eye of True Sight corresponded to one soldier. For example, the red Eye of True Sight held by Zhang Xiaoman that had not been activated yet could be key to this evacuation n.


    The soldiers¡¯ families being at Fortress 178 was very important. Although the Enchanted Doorway¡¯s destination was not something that could be controlled, there was a very high probability it would lead to the soldiers¡¯ respective homes since they had been away for so long.


    This was the condition P5092 had for selecting the soldiers.


    The width of an enchanted doorway opened by a red Eye of True Sight allowed one person to pass through at a time, while an enchanted doorway opened by a gold Eye of True Sight allowed two.


    Of course, civilians could not pass through the enchanted doorway as orderly as soldiers could, probably taking two to three seconds for each person to go through the portal. This timing was also not an urate estimate and would have to be calcted again.


    But once a soldier could activate an enchanted doorway that had its destination at Fortress 178, it would reduce a lot of burden on the entire civilian evacuation n. At the very least, people like children, women, and the elderly who were not conditioned for arduous journeys could retreat through the enchanted doorway.


    There were a total of four strongholds that needed to be evacuated, so Ren Xiaosu had toe up with a shortcut.


    However, the soldiers who activated those enchanted doorways would not be spared. They would have to wait for everyone to pass through before turning their Eyes of True Sight counterclockwise ten times to close their portals at their entrances.


    In this way, everyone who passed through the enchanted doorways would not fall back to the other side if they got destroyed.


    Based on the remaining time left for their evacuation, there was a high chance these soldiers would not be able to leave Stronghold 144. That was why P5092 instructed that the soldiers selected for these roles should not be the only child at home.


    Honestly, Ren Xiaosu was very unwilling to make a choice like this. That was because this decision would be very unfair to any soldier.


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ¡°Future Commander, you can¡¯t bear to do this?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at P5092. ¡°Yes.¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°This is something all of us have to go through. Do you remember the trolley problem? On a forked track, you have ten people on one side and hundreds of thousands of people on the other. The trolley is ted to crash into the path of hundreds of thousands of people, and the track switcher is in your hand. How will you choose?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°No, that¡¯s not the right analogy. These 10 people did nothing wrong. They weren¡¯t even standing on the other path to begin with. But just because they are soldiers, we have to sacrifice them? We have to make them volunteer to stand on the other fork in the tracks and trade their lives for the lives of others?¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°Yes, it¡¯s precisely because they¡¯re soldiers. All of our soldiers are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the hundreds of thousands of civilians.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head again. ¡°I still have other methods.¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°It¡¯s alright, Future Commander. If you can¡¯t bear to do it, I¡¯ll talk to them.¡±


    ¡°Let me do it,¡± Ren Xiaosu said firmly.


    When the 10 soldiers came to Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu looked at their faces. They were all watching him expectantly. They knew the futuremander had something very important for them to do.


    ¡°What are your names and ages?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked softly.


    ¡°Zhao Wankun, 40 years old!¡±


    ¡°Jiang Feifei, 31 years old!¡±


    ¡°Zhang Hao, 31 years old!¡±


    ¡°Liu Daixu, 25 years old!¡±


    ¡°Xin Gengfan, 23 years old!¡±


    ¡°Cheng Fangwei, 24 years old!¡±


    ¡°Xu Penglong, 21 years old!¡±


    ¡°Wang Fojun, 21 years old!¡±


    ¡°Dai Jinkai, 26 years old!¡±


    ¡°Tang Boying, 28 years old!¡±


    Of these 10 Northwest Army soldiers, the oldest was 40 years old, and the youngest was 21.


    Ren Xiaosu remained silent as he thought about how to bring up the matter. Instead, it was Zhao Wankun who said with augh, ¡°Future Commander, it¡¯s alright, just say it. We¡¯re already mentally prepared. We came here voluntarily.¡±


    Actually, they already knew what was going on when they were asked by P5092 if they were an only child.


    Jiang Feifei said with augh, ¡°Future Commander, Commander P5092 has already told us what¡¯s going on. We¡¯re willing to stay behind and wait for everyone to pass through the enchanted doorway and close it. Actually,pared to ourrades who have to do battle with the enemy, we¡¯re very fortunate. They¡¯re the ones facing the most danger.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment before saying, ¡°I¡¯ll apany y¡¯all at the front line until thest moment, then I¡¯ll use the steam lotive to take y¡¯all away.¡±


    This was the method Ren Xiaosu was referring to. Perhaps, as an outstandingmander, P5092 was already used to making sacrifices and letting those around him die in the name of ideals. However, Ren Xiaosu still found it difficult to get used to it.


    Therefore, he wanted to apany these soldiers until thest moment.


    ¡°Let¡¯s begin.¡± Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You just need to take the stone that was handed out to y¡¯all and drip a drop of blood onto it. After that, turn it clockwise ten times on the wall behind me and the enchanted doorway will be activated. The candidates for Stronghold 144 will be Zhao Wankun, Jiang Feifei, and Zhang Hao.¡±


    The residents of a total of four strongholds had to be evacuated, so the 10 soldiers were evenly assigned to the various strongholds, with two to three soldiers for each stronghold.


    As for whether they could open the enchanted doorway to Fortress 178, no one knew.


    ¡°Future Commander.¡± Someone said hesitantly, ¡°What if the portal we activate doesn¡¯t open to Fortress 178?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Don¡¯t feel too pressured. There¡¯s no way we can be sure of it in the first ce. It might open up to a ce next to you, or it might open up to somewhere you¡¯ve never been to before. It¡¯s a gamble even for me, so even if y¡¯all fail, no one will me you. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll still have others test it outter. Y¡¯all¡¯re only the first batch to try.¡±


    The first to go was Zhao Wankun. After he dripped his blood and turned the stone clockwise ten times, a ripple spread out on the wall.


    As soon as he stepped through the enchanted doorway, he returned to Stronghold 144 in disappointment. Then he said with difficulty, ¡°Future Commander, there¡¯s a snowy mountain behind the door. It¡¯s probably negative 10 degrees Celsius there.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu helped him to brush off the snow on his shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s alright, you can go back and get some rest.¡±


    Zhao Wankun walked out of the room with his head down. Ren Xiaosu thought his expression looked a little off, so he quietly followed behind.


    Just as Zhao Wankun stepped out of the door, this veteran suddenly drew his gun from his hip and tried to shoot himself.


    Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu discovered it in time and kicked Zhao Wankun¡¯s gun away.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked coldly.


    ¡°Future Commander, Commander P5092 told us this enchanted doorway can only be opened once. If the person who activated it is alive, no one can activate it a second time.¡± Zhao Wankun said in a low voice, ¡°So, Future Commander, you don¡¯t have to lie to us anymore. We know what we need to do.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly felt a little stifled as though there was something stuck in his chest.


    He had just said a few minutes ago that he would find someone else to activate the enchanted doorway, but that was just to console these soldiers. He did so precisely because he was worried they would do something silly.


    In the end, P5092 had actually anticipated this before him and hinted to these soldiers that if they could not open a portal to Fortress 178, they should instantly end their own lives.


    P5092 did this because he wanted to trade human lives so they could continue to trial all 10 Eyes of True Sight¡¯s corresponding enchanted doorways until they opened up to Fortress 178.


    This way, the evacuation n would be much more efficient with two to three enchanted doorways in each stronghold.


    Perhaps it would only take ten days for all the stronghold residents to retreat back to Fortress 178.


    Ren Xiaosu dragged Zhao Wankun to look for P5092. He said coldly, ¡°Were you the one who hinted to them to take their own lives?¡±


    P5092 nced at Zhao Wankun and said calmly, ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Just because this is the most correct choice of all?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± P5092 nodded and said, ¡°The enchanted doorway is too unstable. Moreover, Future Commander, the civilians can¡¯t pass through at the rate of one person every few seconds. They¡¯re not trained soldiers of the 6th Field Division, so there¡¯ll be overcrowding at both sides of the door. The first group of people ted to pass through are the children, elderly, and women. You¡¯ve overestimated the speed at which they can do it, especially the elderly.¡±


    P5092 continued, ¡°An enchanted doorway that can fit two people can probably let through a 100,000 to 150,000 people in three days. What if there¡¯s only one enchanted doorway that fits one person at a time? That would be even less. There are a total of 1.1 million people in Stronghold 144, so one enchanted doorway won¡¯t be enough for them to evacuate in time. If these civilians fall into the hands of the AI, how much of a threat will it pose to our back line? How many soldiers will have to die then?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu listened quietly. Actually, he was well aware that P5092 was choosing the best solution for their current situation.


    Without considering human nature, emotions, or morals, constantly using human lives to test until all 10 enchanted doorways opened to Fortress 178 was indeed the most efficient n.


    P5092 said calmly, ¡°Future Commander, I didn¡¯t tell you because I didn¡¯t want you to bear the guilt. Just pretend that you don¡¯t know about this and leave it to me to bear¡­. After all, I¡¯m more ruthless.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gave P5092 a stern look and said, ¡°The problem is that you¡¯re not as ruthless as you im. You might think that I¡¯m being loyal and impulsive, or that I¡¯m not mature enough, but the Northwest Army has never needed such sacrifices. If we really have to die, we¡¯ll die together.¡±


    After that, Ren Xiaosu ordered Wang Yun to send someone to keep an eye on the soldiers who had failed to open their enchanted doorway to Fortress 178. Then he returned to the room where the activation of the enchanted doorways was taking ce.


    Off to the side, Wang Yun said to P5092, ¡°Future Commander also knows you¡¯re doing this for the good of the Northwest. He understands that, but it¡¯s just not his style.¡±


    P5092 said calmly, ¡°I understand. This is why a leader is a leader, while I can only be amander.¡±


    In the end, for Stronghold 144, only one enchanted doorway that fit a person at a time was activated after three attempts.


    The other soldiers got into their vehicles and drove off to the other strongholds with their Eyes of True Sight.


    In the evening, Ren Xiaosu went to look for P5092 again and said in seriousness, ¡°I know very well what kind of person you are. If you were really that ruthless, you wouldn¡¯t have sat alone in your tent until dawn when your soldiers sacrificed themselves to protect the Pyro Company¡¯s Great Wall. So, if you make such a decision again next time, remember to tell me in advance. The Northwest belongs to all of us. You don¡¯t have to bear the burden alone.¡±


    P5092 looked at Ren Xiaosu quietly. After a long time, he said, ¡°But sacrifices are always necessary in war. Moreover, they¡¯re already prepared for it.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°You¡¯re right, but there¡¯s not only right and wrong in the world. There¡¯s also choices that we make from our conscience.¡±


    On the same day, rms red in Strongholds 143, 144, 145, and 146 at the same time. The announcers of the various strongholds announced the decision for an evacuation over the radio.


    The officials did not hide the details of the war and frankly admitted that everyone had to retreat to favorable terrain to stand a chance of winning.


    All of a sudden, the four strongholds were in an uproar.


    The Northwest Army was already prepared to maintain order, but the chaos they expected did not happen.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: weirdo

 Chapter 1236 Seen The Light Of Hope

    Martialw was already implemented inside Stronghold 144. Zhang Xiaoman had led a full infantry brigade to set up checkpoints at various major streets in the stronghold to ensure order during the evacuation.


    His task was to ensure the civilians would not get hurt in case anyone took advantage of the chaos tomit crimes.


    Earlier, everyone was still discussing in the conference room what kind of unexpected situations mighte up during the evacuation and what contingency ns were needed to handle them.


    When this topic was raised, everyone turned to look at Ren Xiaosu.


    After all, Ren Xiaosu was the only person in the entire Alliance of Strongholds qualified to be called the Stronghold Destroyer.


    Detailing Ren Xiaosu''s experiences, he had been involved in almost 90% of the alliance''s strongholds that were destroyed.


    Stronghold 113 was attacked and destroyed by the Experimentals and face bugs after an earthquake.


    The Li Consortium''s stronghold was attacked and destroyed by Li Shentan and the Experimentals.


    The Yang Consortium''s stronghold was nearly destroyed when it was attacked by the Li Consortium''s nanosoldiers.


    The Zhou Consortium''s Stronghold 74 was surrounded by the Experimentals and got destroyed by a Qing Consortium nuclear strike as a result.


    Stronghold 61 was destroyed during the creeper vine cmity.


    The strongholds of the Pyro Company and the Kong Consortium¡­


    Even cities in the Kingdom of Sorcerers were no exception.


    It was as though Ren Xiaosu was either destroying strongholds or was on his way to destroying them, even if the cause of their destruction wasrgely unconnected to him.


    Therefore, when this data waspiled, everyone in the conference room hoped Ren Xiaosu could start with his own experience and shed some light on the matters they should pay attention to during an evacuation.


    Although Strongholds 143, 144, 145, and 146 were not destroyed yet, their situation was actually the same. They were all facing an unavoidable catastrophe that would cause order to copse to a certain degree.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at everyone''s expectant gazes and could not help but sigh. This was not a topic worth ruminating. He would rather not have gone through those situations.


    "If order copses during an evacuation, every crime imaginable will bemitted." Ren Xiaosu said, "Trust will be lost between people, but that''s not something they''ll have control over. Everyone will feel like they''re drowning, and all they can do is grab onto whatever might save them.


    "Everyone will start rushing into shops in the strongholds or other people''s homes and barbarically plunder their property so that they can gain a bargaining chip for their survival.


    "Children, women, and the elderly will be the most disadvantaged groups as they flee. Some men will start trying to establish a primitive form of authority to dominate the allocation of resources and people''s freedoms.


    "Food and medicine will be the scarcest resources, and currency will constantly devalue. If there''s starvation, lives will likely be lost over getting a bite of food.


    "The people will start cursing those in power because the situation is a consequence of their actions. But very quickly, they''ll stopining as they''ll be too focused on escaping to care about anything else."


    Actually, Ren Xiaosu had never personally experienced the harshest and most tragic conditions while fleeing. That was because he was strong.


    But most people were not as lucky as him. Sometimes, when the escapees set off again after a rest stop, some bodies would be left behind at the campsite.


    No one cared how those people died. They could have been robbed or vited, though anything could have been possible.


    Ren Xiaosu continued, "With war looming, of course we can''t spend more effort to protect the civilians. However, we still have to provide them with the necessary supplies. As long as everyone can still have a bite to eat, the situation will not be as desperate, and that will lead to fewer people taking unnecessary risks."


    Therefore, the most important thing in their evacuation n was food.


    The potato, winter melon, and pumpkin fields Zhou Yingxue had conveniently cultivated became key for this evacuation. These crops nted by the maidservant were so high yield it was unbelievable.


    Back then, in order to protect the health of the stronghold''s economy, Wang Yuexi constantly objected to the mass introduction of these crops into the market. He even quarreled with Zhou Yingxue over the matter.


    But now that the world had turned chaotic, the crops'' usefulness woulde into y.


    Although the crops were few in variety, it would be good enough if they did not have to starve to death at a time like this. No one would be particr about theck of choices.


    Arge number of supplies were brought to the stronghold''s western gate while the rest were transported to the Northwest to be used for establishing relief stations in the wilderness.


    The relief stations were set up every 80 kilometers or so along the evacuation route. Based on the estimated distance ordinary refugees could cover, which was usually 60 kilometers a day, it would be enough to ensure they would not starve to death along the way if the relief stations were nned this way.


    When the loudspeakers in every corner of the stronghold sounded out, the infantry brigade led by Zhang Xiaoman immediately turned more alert.


    But to their surprise, when the residents of Stronghold 144 discovered they needed to evacuate, their first reactions were not panic but silence and curiosity.


    Amid the quiet, convoys of military transport trucks and supply trucks drove off westwards. There was indeed an atmosphere of an impending storm looming.


    Somewhere, the sound of ss shattering rang out.


    A few young people were loitering on the street where it was less crowded. When they heard the announcement, they thought their opportunity had arrived. They found a grocery store that sold cigarettes and alcohol and wanted to take advantage of the chaos to rob it.


    To them, this brick was like a signal. As soon as they threw it, the stronghold would immediately descend into chaos. At that time, no one would care about their actions.


    A simr incident happened more than a year ago when the Zong Consortium''s stronghold was destroyed. Thus, they were old hands at this now.


    However, it was a little different this time. Just after they threw the brick, they realized the surrounding residents were watching them coldly.


    No one followed in their lead. The ss of the disy window was smashed, but the loud crash only amplified the peculiarity and quiet of the situation.


    Their intent gradually weakened as they prepared to flee like little kids in the wrong.


    A middle-aged woman shouted on the sidewalk, "You there, aren''t you Old Li''s kid, the one living at the end of the street? Hurry up and go home! Or else we''ll see how your father deals with you!"


    Before she could finish speaking, the young men who smashed the disy window had already scattered.


    The farce ended as quickly as it had started.


    Some people started looking around for the infantry brigade''s soldiers and asking, "Was the broadcast a prank? Who''s the enemy? Does our Northwest Army still have enemies we can''t defeat? Do you need us to do anything?"


    These words stunned many of the soldiers. They already knew what kind of enemy they were expecting, and they were also well aware it would be very difficult for the Northwest Army to contend against it.


    But this was not what themoners thought. Withmunications cut off, even the various newspaper firms were not aware of what had taken ce in the Central ins. Themoners only felt that since the futuremander had gone with the 6th Field Division to the home field of the sorcerers and wiped them out, and with the tavern storytellers going on daily about how powerful the Northwest Army was, their Northwest Army must be the best. In that case, why would they still have to be forced into a retreat?


    A soldier from the infantry brigade said, "The enemy is really powerful."


    At the side, an old man said with a smile, "Be more confident. We all believe you can win."


    The soldier of the infantry brigade replied, "We really can''t defeat them on this t terrain."


    The old man said, "Really? I don''t believe it."


    The soldier of the infantry brigade exined, "This will be a strategic retreat. This ce will soon turn into the main battlefield. If you all stay here, you will only be affected by the mes of war."


    Only at this moment did the old man say, "Oh, a strategic retreat? I know that maneuver. Alright then, let''s retreat immediately!"


    The soldiers of the infantry brigade spent a great deal of effort exining to the civilians before they were convinced to return home and pack their belongings.


    The stronghold administrators, led by Wang Yuexi, were even more anxious. They started urging over the radio for everyone to evacuate and answered some questions that could be rified.


    For example, the residents were taught how to locate relief stations and advised to travel light, keep up with the main troops, and set off as soon as possible. They also made announcements saying that women with children and the elderly could head to the 6th Field Division''s military-controlled zone within the stronghold to be evacuated in groups.


    The stronghold''s refugee town at the west gate had already made way for arge open space. All residents who passed through here and evacuated westwards would receive a portion of cooked potatoes.


    When Zhang Xiaoman came to patrol the area, he initially thought it would get very chaotic and possible scenes of evacuees fighting over food would erupt.


    However, nothing like that happened. The retreating civilians lined up in an orderly manner to receive their relief rations before following the majority of the evacuees towards the northwest.


    At the beginning, Zhang Xiaoman felt that his implementations were pretty good since he had the situation under control so quickly. He felt that he could go and seek the futuremander''s recognition for his efforts during the night.


    In the presence of a heavily armed infantry brigade, who would dare cause trouble for the Northwest Army at a time like this?


    But gradually, he realized something weird. Some people who tried to cut in line were told off by the other civilians before the infantry brigade''s soldiers could even take action. The line jumpers could only head to the back of the line and line up obediently.


    Some people also rejoined the line after receiving their rations, hoping to steal another portion of the relief ration for themselves. Such people were also called out by other civilians and chased out of the group.


    Meanwhile, there were also some refugees who did not collect their rations at all.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Zhang Xiaoman stopped a middle-aged woman who did not collect her ration and asked with some doubt, "Auntie, why didn''t you collect your ration? Is it because my soldiers are showing you attitude, or are they refusing to distribute any food to you?"


    The woman was amused. "Didn''t they say there''s going to be another relief station 80 kilometers from here? My family still has a lot of food, so it''s not like we can''tst the 80 kilometers if we don''t collect our rations. My neighbor who''s a young man said that you all still have to stay behind to fight the enemy and there might not be enough food to go around. I just thought I shouldn''t trouble you all further."


    With that, the woman opened up the cloth bag she was carrying. There were even fried pancakes inside. "Do you want some?"


    Before Zhang Xiaoman could reject her, the woman stuffed a fried pancake into his hands.


    Zhang Xiaoman was puzzled. Why did the situation turn out different from what the futuremander had said?


    -----------------------------------


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character''s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible "out of character" behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author''s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you''ll understand. Yes, we''re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can''t judge a person if you don''t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren''t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero''s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you''re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I''m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I''ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo''s work by searching @ wxw "the grandmaster strategist". He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :'')


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    https://youtu.be/LFq6fiMqXS4


    https://youtu.be/F-yUuSUvm7c


    https://youtu.be/v0i8m5EPWz8


    -----------------------------------


    ¡­


    It was not only Zhang Xiaoman who was baffled. Actually, Ren Xiaosu was also a little puzzled.


    As Yang Xiaojin and he walked together on the streets, the sights he witnessed during his previous escapes had still not happened in Stronghold 144.


    However, Ren Xiaosu quickly figured it out. "The chaos of the war has not reached the stronghold, so the residents here aren''t panicking like what I''ve seen in the past. With the relief stations set up and transparent handling of the situation, they''ve yet to truly feel the pressures of starvation and fear. So there''s still some sense of rationality among these people."


    Yang Xiaojin said, "I suppose it''s also because everyone trusts the Northwest Army."


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. "What''s trust worth when the situation gets really extreme? Before I became a supernatural being, I also felt that kind of fear. I even needed someone to keep watch for me while I slept, so why would I have any trust when I was surrounded by strangers? I hope the Northwest doesn''t end up in that kind of situation. Before the real disaster arrives, we can only try our best to maintain the status quo."


    Yang Xiaojin smiled and said, "You don''t have to be so humble. You, Wang Yuexi, and Uncle Fugui also had a part in keeping the situation under control."


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head again but did not continue arguing.


    He rarely had any faith in human nature because he had witnessed too many inhumane acts.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu felt the refugees were probably still clueless about what they were about to face since they had not reached that level of desperation yet.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu saw an old man sitting on a small foldable stool at the entrance of a house. The old man was watching calmly as the stronghold residents retreated.


    Ren Xiaosu walked over and asked curiously, "Grandpa, didn''t you hear the announcement? The elderly aged 55 and over need to hurry to the military-controlled zone at Anning East Road to assemble. They''ll arrange for you to retreat over there in groups."


    The old man looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, "Never mind that, you young people should leave quickly instead. Don''t worry about me."


    The old man did not seem to know Ren Xiaosu''s identity. Ren Xiaosu wondered, "You aren''t leaving? Why? Is it because you can''t bear to leave this ce after living here for so long? Don''t you know that the enemy ising? The Northwest Army can''t defeat them. If you stay here, only death awaits. It might even be a situation more unbearable than death."


    Ren Xiaosu sometimes wondered if the people under Zero''s control were still conscious.


    Perhaps they could still see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.


    But if all their five senses were intact, and they were forced to eat the broken limbs of insects and animals to replenish their protein intake and swallow the internal organs of animals to replenish their fat, how terrifying and cruel would that be?


    The old man sat on his small foldable stool and looked up at Ren Xiaosu. He said with a smile, "I heard from the young man next door that the enemy ising and the Northwest Army is making a strategic retreat. It''s not that I don''t want to leave this ce. Although I''ve lived here my entire life, I still wish I can get to see the sights of peace and prosperity after the Northwest Army defeats the enemy. It''s just that I have ame leg, so I can''t walk anymore. I can''t get to Fortress 178."


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, "Didn''t the broadcast make it clear enough? Someone like you who''s above 55 doesn''t need to walk that far at all. Someone will naturally make arrangements for your evacuation."


    The old man said with a smile, "I know the Northwest Army is kind-hearted and is probably gathering the women with children and elderly together so they can be transported in vehicles. But with so many people in the stronghold, how can the Northwest Army cope? I''m old and I don''t want to trouble them."


    Ren Xiaosu felt a little helpless. Although it was said during the broadcast that there would be arrangements made for group evacuations, it did not mention anything about the enchanted doorways. On one hand, it was not easy to exin the operating mechanism of the portal, and on the other hand, it was unnecessary to say too much.


    Ordinary residents would immediately understand what was going to happen upon hearing about the unified arrangements for the old, frail, women, and children. However, this old man did not want to cause any trouble for the Northwest Army, so he simply did not report to the military-controlled zone.


    Ren Xiaosu asked softly, "Why? Isn''t it good to have someone to assist you?"


    The old man chuckled. "When I was young, the Zong Consortium was still calling the shots around here. At that time, everyone didn''t actually think the situation was too bad. In any case, we just ate whatever the consortium gave us and made do with it. We weren''t particr about what we were getting. Although everyone knew life was very tough, we could still bear it. We thought everyone else in the world was also in the same shoes as us. It was often said that people at Fortress 178 led such good lives, but no one had any concept of what ''good'' meant. That''s because we never saw it for ourselves, so we thought it was only a myth."


    The old man continued, "Later on, when Fortress 178''s Northwest Army arrived, the atmosphere in the stronghold finally turned lively. Everyone became more daring to speak up, and the fair maidens also plucked up the courage to dress up and head out to shop. When they encountered the soldiers, they did not feel scared anymore either. If it were the past, families with such beautiful daughters would have their hair cut short and raised as boys. They would not even dare to let the Zong Consortium members get a glimpse of them. It was only then that everyone realized they used to live in dark times, and now, the sun had just shone in."


    Ren Xiaosu asked, "Since the good days are just beginning, you should aim to live longer."


    "You''re still young; you don''t understand." The old man smiled and said, "What kind of enemy would it take to force the Northwest Army to retreat? It must be a very terrifying one they can''t defeat, right? After the Northwest Army came to Stronghold 144, they reduced taxes for everyone and set up an administrative service center. Then, when the futuremander of the Northwest Army arrived, he even increased the food supply for the residents, distributed farnd, and led improvements in the irrigation infrastructure. In times of crisis, if it were the Zong Consortium, those soldiers would have already fled. Meanwhile, the Northwest Army''s soldiers have not abandoned everyone and retreated from here by themselves. Instead, they set up relief stations and helped the old, frail, women, and children. But I know they''re probably thinking about us even though they can barely take care of themselves."


    The old man continued, "When a great disaster is impending and they still have me in their thoughts, I can''t act like I''m oblivious to what''s going on. What''s the big deal with me dying at my age? I have to let a few more of those Northwest Army soldiers survive so that our Northwest can be victorious. If the Northwest Army wins, our future descendants on thisnd won''t have to live in a gutter like I did when I was young."


    If he did not realize what the world was supposed to be like, it wouldn''t actually be a big deal for him to live under the Zong Consortium''s rule. After all, that was how he had been living since he was born, so he would still survive no matter what.


    But he had witnessed this short period of peace and prosperity in the Northwest, so he could no longer bear the life he had experienced. He did not even want those living on thisnd in the future to experience the dark times he had been through.


    In the old man''s opinion, it was far more important to preserve the Northwest Army''s strength than for an old man like him to live.


    Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a long time. He waved his hand to signal for two soldiers from the infantry brigade on the neighboring street. He said, "Bring this grandpa to the military-controlled zone."


    These two soldiers recognized Ren Xiaosu. They immediately picked up the old man and left without another word. In Stronghold 144, anything that the futuremander said was akin to an imperial edict.


    The old man was dumbfounded when he was lifted up and carried for a dozen meters.


    He suddenly started to struggle. "Let go of me. I''m not leaving. Take the others with you and go!"


    The two soldiers said in a low voice, "Grandpa, please don''t make things difficult for us. Future Commander has already given his orders. Even if you scream your lungs out today, we''ll still have to bring you to the military-controlled zone to be evacuated with the others."


    The old man was stunned. "Who did you say that young man was?"


    The two soldiers were amused. "So you didn''t know you were speaking with the futuremander after talking with him for so long?"


    The old man waspletely stunned.


    Ren Xiaosu stood in the alley and assessed the stronghold''s situation. He sighed and said, "I hope there''ll be enough time to evacuate everyone."


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1237 Extreme Range

    Everyone was hoping the crowd under Zero''s control would advance a little slower. That way, there would be enough time to think of countermeasures and organize a retreat.


    But in the face of the artificial intelligence, time would always be insufficient.


    Just as when Ren Xiaosu had gone to the Central ins to save Luo Lan, Zero urately calcted how long it would take him to ensure that he would not get there in time.


    In fact, it only took an instant for Zero to calcte all of this.


    Previously, Zero''s calctions were all limited by the hardware specifications of its server setup. But now, it relied on tens of millions of human brains.


    What was theputing power of the human brain?


    In a manor halfway up Mt. Ginkgo, Luo Lan, who had already returned to the Qing Consortium, sat down next to Qing Zhen and muttered, "In my opinion, could the AI not be as powerful as we think? Look, I''m usually not even good at doing double-digit multiplication. If the AI were to control someone like me, wouldn''t it be digging its own grave? After all, no matter how many people it controls, it would be useless if 99% of them aren''t smart."


    Qing Zhenughed and shook his head. "Sounds quite logical when you put it that way."


    But in fact, the potential of the human brain had been underestimated. Humans were unable to performrge mathematical calctions not because the brain was unable to, but because they could not tap into the potential of their brains.


    There were about 14 billion neurons in the brain''s cerebral cortex, each performing its own functions. It was already very incredible that a normal person could remember an average of 86 million pieces of information a day.


    The scents humans smelled, the projections they saw, and the objects they touched were all made up of countless sensory information. Meanwhile, the human brain had tobine all of this to form a "logic."


    The information in this world perceived by humans was far moreplicated than doing double-digit multiplication.


    When relying on servers andputers, humans often encountered situations such as memory overload, insufficient processing precision, and so on. In fact, the systems could even crash at any moment.


    But humans rarely crashed due to such reasons. When they encountered extreme fear and shock, the human brain would directly issue an order to induce syncope to ease the stress. But while in a state of syncope, the human body''s functions would still remain in a rtively normal state to sustain life.


    Mental illnesses also urred in humans, but the probability of irreversible mental illnesses in humans was much lower than the probability of a machine''s system crashing or blue screening.


    Therefore, when the human brain, which held great potential, became the artificial intelligence''s server medium, itsputing power did not be riddled with bugs. Instead, it became even more powerful.


    However, Qing Zhen, who had experience studying nanomachines, wondered how these servers were linked together if the controlled humans had be the medium for Zero''s server as Luo Lan imed.


    Although Zero controlled themunication rights of the entire Central ins by controlling the known satellites in the Alliance of Strongholds, satellite technology was not as reliable as one would imagine. Moreover, the satellites themselves did not have the bandwidth to processmunications between the tens of millions of "servers."


    Luo Lan frowned and asked, "Then could there be a mobile server within the crowd responsible for linking up all the nanomachines? If we destroy that, wouldn''t the AI no longer be able to control so many people?"


    Qing Zhen shook his head and said, "I don''t know, and there''s no way to find that out either. Conservatively speaking, the number of people controlled by the AI this time should be around 18 million. You should also be able to appreciate the size of that. We don''t have enough manpower to seek out a needle in a haystack like that. If we really did that, we would still face failure even if we gambled the strength of the entire Southwest and Northwest. Or perhaps the AI is just waiting for us to do that. So, we should continue with our own n."


    Luo Lan suddenly asked, "What are our chances of winning?"


    Qing Zhen thought for a moment. "30%."


    "When Qing Yi asked youst time, you said it was only 10%." Luo Lan wondered, "Why is it that our chances of winning have increased when the situation has be even worse?"


    Qing Zhen nced at Luo Lan. He sat in the "ckke" in the main hall of Ginkgo Manor and said, "Third Bro can''t die in vain. I have to make his sacrifice worth it."


    As he spoke, Qing Zhen put the stones on the Go board in front of him into the wooden bowl.


    It was no longer useful to discuss Go matches. The only game he needed to y was the one that required him to fight to the death.


    Next to him, Luo Lan asked, "Can Qing Yi handle the front line? Why don''t Xu Man and I head over there as well?"


    Qing Zhen shook his head. "There''s no need for that. The two of you wille with me."


    ¡­


    The Qing Consortium''s Three Mountains defensive liney ahead of Stronghold 111. Each of the mountain ranges served as a defensive support point to watch each others'' backs andpletely sealed off the path leading westwards.


    There were more than a dozen outposts scattered farther beyond the Three Mountains defensive line.


    Their locations were known as the far side of the moon to the Qing Consortium''s troops.


    Some people said the Earth-Moon orbital system evolved over a long period and eventually reached a state of equilibrium.


    In fact, no one could really exin why only one side of the moon always faced Earth. If humans did not rely on technology, they would never be able to see what the dark of the moon looked like.


    The time taken for the moon to orbit around the Earth was 27.32166 days. During these 27.32166 days, its phases went from full moon to half moon and back to full moon again.


    However, the reason the Qing Consortium called those outposts the far side of the moon was because they were located at forsaken ces. Even the troops who were sent there knew they had been forsaken.


    There were only two things left for them to do with the remainder of their lives. When the enemy arrived at the forward operating base, the soldiers at the outposts would report that back to the rear and take up their weapons.


    In an open area in the southwestern forest, there were about eight modestly built wooden houses. There were 120 soldiers living in these wooden houses, and they were all from apany of the Qing Consortium.


    The wooden houses were interspersed with narrow pathways between them.


    There were simple sandbag defensive fortifications built around the wooden houses, and four soldiers stood guard behind them. Even if it was raining or gusting, they would still have to hold their positions.


    Meanwhile, someone had carved a small line of words on the door of thergest wooden house: "Wee to the far side of the moon."


    This was a form of self-ridicule when faced with no other choice. It was also the dark humor humans resorted to when faced with suffering.


    At this moment, the rest of the outpost soldiers who were not on rotational duty were sleeping in their wooden houses or reading newspapers and magazines. Only thepanymander and signaler were waiting by the radio set.


    There were also a few people gathered around ying poker, using cigarettes as their stakes.


    Everyone might look rather calm, but in fact, their fingers were trembling slightly as they held onto their cigarettes.


    Very few people could remain absolutely calm in the face of danger.


    Even these elites of the Qing Consortium were no exception. When they started experiencing constipation and bing easily irritable, the emotional burden would affect their physical bodies and show.


    Being willing to face danger did not mean they were not afraid to.


    Suddenly, someone identally knocked over a cup of water. There was a brief silence in the wooden house before everyone burst outughing again. "Kid, are you so scared that you nearly peed your pants? You can''t even hold your cup?"


    At this moment, thepanymander stood up and said to everyone, "All of you, I''m sorry. It was down to my bad luck that everyone had toe and die with me."


    Thepanies that were sent to the outposts were not explicitly ordered but decided by a drawing of lots.


    Before they drew lots, the brigademander had made it very clear that these outposts would not need to wait for reinforcements to arrive. If they could not get any reinforcements, the only ending would be death.


    In the end, the 313th Company of the 3rd Infantry Brigade drew one of the lots.


    From the moment he drew this death lot, thepanymander rarely spoke again. That was because he had sealed the fate of his entirepany''s soldiers.


    None of the soldiers med him for it, but it was precisely because they didn''t me him that it made him feel even more guilty.


    A sergeant said with augh, "Someone has toe out here no matter what. It was either going to be us or someone else. Besides, we might not necessarily survive until we win the war even if we were based at the Three Mountains defensive line, right?"


    Another person muttered, "Alright, there''s no need for you guys to speak up for Company Commander. That fe''s luck has always been terrible. When he yed Three-card Brag, he could even fucking encounter three Aces while holding three Kings, and he even encountered a ''235''[1] when he got a trio of Aces. Yet you dared to let someone like him draw lots?! I said to get Deputy Company Commander to represent us, but y''all just wouldn''t listen."


    "Hahaha, it''s true that Company Commander''s luck is rotten. We should have gotten Deputy Company Commander to draw the lots at that time."


    "That''s right, Company Commander. If you really feel guilty, why don''t you perform a h dance for us?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Thepanymander mocked, "I''ll dance on your mother''sp!"


    With this bantering, the atmosphere became a little more rxed.


    At a time like this, it would be a lie to say they were not afraid. All they could do was make themselves look braver.


    Bang!


    Bang!


    Bang!


    Three warning shots rang out outside the wooden house. Immediately after, the soldiers on rotational duty suddenly roared, "We''re under attack!"


    Thepanymander''s expression changed. He turned around and picked up the radio set and simply reported, "The enemy has arrived."


    After saying that, he disconnected and picked up his gun.


    The soldiers looked at thepanymander in silence. Thepanymander took a deep breath and said, "I don''t think we''ll have a chance to drink together after the war. If we really end up in the underworld, we can make a toast with Granny Meng''s soup.[2] Remember, don''t disgrace the 313th Company. We''re soldiers!"


    -----------------------------------


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character''s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible "out of character" behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author''s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you''ll understand. Yes, we''re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can''t judge a person if you don''t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren''t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero''s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you''re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I''m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I''ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo''s work by searching @ wxw "the grandmaster strategist". He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :'')


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    https://youtu.be/LFq6fiMqXS4


    https://youtu.be/F-yUuSUvm7c


    https://youtu.be/v0i8m5EPWz8


    -----------------------------------


    ¡­


    In the night.


    Ear-piercing rms red everywhere along the Three Mountains defensive line. Behind the solid defensive bunkers, when the troops filled the trenches, it was as though water had started rushing into a dry river channel.


    The crisscrossed trenches were filled up by the Qing Consortium''s troops in just 30 minutes.


    The crux of the outposts'' efforts to dy the enemy was fully down to these short 30 minutes.


    Beyond the defensive line was an endless forest stretching infinitely into the darkness of the night.


    Through night vision goggles, the entire world turned to a shade of dark green. The soldiers gripped their guns tightly. Some of them were sweating profusely as they grabbed a handful of soil at the edge of the trenches to keep their hands dry.


    For an extremelyplex defensive line in the mountain ranges like this, if the enemy did not have the ability to aerial scout, its artillery troops couldn''t confirm which trenches held the Qing Consortium''s main forces since it could not be assessed from the outside.


    Qing Yi stood at the entrance of themand tent. From time to time, birds would fly past in the sky as soldiers at the defensive position attempted to use huge spotlights to track them. However, the speed at which the spotlights could be swiveled could notpare to the speed of the birds'' flight.


    Everyone could only deduce that the birds flying in the sky were watching the ground. Not only were there sparrows among them but other more terrifying apex aerial predators as well.


    Goshawks, sparrowhawks, and rufous-bellied eagles were all far more aggressive than sparrows.


    Qing Yi sighed in his head. They did not even know how the artificial intelligence managed to gain control of these birds.


    Gunshots finally rang out at the front of the Three Mountains defensive line. The gunfight lit up the night sky like lightning behind rain clouds. It was just noticeable.


    However, the sea of people who were expected to arrive like a ck tide did not appear. The artificial intelligence did not drive the humans under its control to directly overwhelm the Three Mountains defensive line.


    A staff officer reported to Qing Yi, "Position 17 has been attacked. Many of the enemy''s snipers are hiding out of sight and getting extremely urate shots on us. But they''ve onlyunched a minor sneak attack so far. The enemy still hasn''tunched into a full-scale attack yet."


    Qing Yi frowned. "Snipers? How many snipers?"


    "I''m afraid there''s dozens of them." Thebat staff officer answered, "Moreover, the enemy attempted firing long-range mortars and urately hit one of our Mountain Obliterator machine gun positions¡­. Sir, the enemy''s mortars are even beyond our elevated positions'' observation range."


    Their elevated positions'' observation range was five kilometers, while the Wang Consortium''s 60.75 mm mortars had a maximum firing range of 5.5 kilometers. Therefore, if the mortars were located just beyond observation range, it meant the enemy could easily attack any target it wanted to from an extreme range.


    As the artificial intelligence-controlled crowd was traveling on foot through the southwestern forest, mortars seemed to be the most cost-effective long-range heavy firepower they could carry.


    After all, a mortar together with its sight, bipod, and base-te only weighed 22.5 kilograms, while a mortar shell weighed 2.18 kilograms. This load was enough to be carried by humans.


    Thebat staff officer said, "But they did not increase their firepower after the short exchange of gunfire."


    The attack tonight was more like a probe or an experiment.


    Qing Yi suddenly felt like a wisemander was standing opposite and ying Go with him.


    However, the other party''s chips were "soldiers" whose individualbat capabilities were even better than the Qing Consortium''s troops. It even had an aerial view of the battlefield.


    "What''s it trying to do?" Qing Yi looked up at the night sky and pondered.


    It clearly would only take a few dozen hours for several million people to overwhelm the Three Mountains defensive line with their numbers, but the other party still resorted to fighting the battle with such exemry methods.


    It did not act rashly or attack recklessly. It seemed like the other party was trying to take out the Three Mountains defensive line with the least amount of losses.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005


    [1] ''235'' of different suits has a lower probability than a three of a kind and can only win against three of a kind.


    [2] Meng Po is the goddess of forgetfulness in Chinese mythology, who serves Meng Po Soup on the Bridge of Forgetfulness or Naihe Bridge. This soup wipes the memory of the person so they can reincarnate into the next life without the burdens of the previous life. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meng_Po

 Chapter 1238 - 1238 Defeating the Qing Consortium

    1238 Defeating the Qing Consortium


    Large-scale wars were a test for any outstandingmander.


    In a drawn-out war, allmanders would constantly face mistakes. These mistakes were ones they or their subordinatesmitted, as countless mistakes came together.


    That was why militaries were very particr about their execution ability.


    But even elites like the Qing Consortium would still face the same issues.


    But the artificial intelligence seemed like it was incapable of making any mistakes. For the first long night, the army controlled by the artificial intelligence did not make any rash moves. The artificial intelligence¡¯s precisemand and execution by the individuals it controlled were pushed to the extreme.


    !!


    Qing Yi had never fought such a war before.


    He was unable to send out spies to obtain intel about the other party, and the other party had air supremacy. Initially, the Qing Consortium¡¯s metal storm ¡°Mountain Obliterator¡± was equipped with an active defense system. But now, that defense system was also crippled.


    He could not identify any weaknesses in the other party because it rarely made any mistakes. After this night¡¯s battle, Qing Yi even had a feeling that if he caught on to a mistake by the other party, he should not take advantage of it. That was because that would be what the artificial intelligence expected him to do.


    If he could not find a way to take advantage of the situation around these two aspects, all Qing Yi could do was fight a battle of attrition.


    However, every single one of the enemy¡¯s mortars had extreme range. Even the enemy soldiers¡¯ shooting range hovered at the extreme limits.


    The Qing Consortium hadrge-caliber artillery weapons of 152 mm and a 30-kilometer range. That was enough to cover the range of the enemy¡¯s mortars.


    There was a saying that went: ¡°Truth exists within the artillery¡¯s firing range.¡±


    However, the troops controlled by the artificial intelligence were hidden in the shadows. It would be difficult for the Qing Consortium to lock onto the enemy with their 152 mm howitzers.


    Helpless, Qing Yi could only order the artillery to cover the entire area and carry out a round of destruction within five to seven kilometers.


    Although the price to pay was huge, there was nothing he could do about it. The enemy¡¯s mortars were set up beyond the range of their heavy machine guns. Since the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops kept getting hit by them, he had no choice but to return the favor.


    But carpet bombing with artillery was only theoretical. It referred to a matrix of firepower coverage, and there would definitely be gaps the artillery could not cover.


    Meanwhile, Zero had already calcted the precise trajectory after observing from midair the range adjustments made by the Qing Consortium.


    In just approximately 30 seconds, all of the artificial intelligence-controlled soldiers within a five to seven-kilometer radius had taken cover in those ¡°gaps¡± that could not be covered by the artillery bombardment.


    When the artillerynded about ten meters away from these artificial intelligence-controlled soldiers, shrapnel would asionally splinter and knock them down. The soil on the ground was lifted up and these soldiers were all covered in dirt.


    However, only 20% of the soldiers controlled by the artificial intelligence died after the artillery bombardment was over. Although there were also other soldiers who were injured, they could still fight.


    Moreover, whenever there was a gap in the formation of their units, someone would immediately rece them from the crowd at the rear. There would be no need for a handover or adjustment, and this recement soldier would immediately be the most qualified screw in this war machine.


    After the bombardment, the positions of the Qing Consortium¡¯s 152 mm howitzers would be exposed to the air. Fortunately, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops were not stupid either. Their artillery cements were all protected behind the defensive line. No matter how urate the enemy¡¯s mortars were, they could not affect these artillery cements.


    The artificial intelligence could not transport longer-range artillery in either.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    As the war continued, Qing Yi sent someone to submit the frontline battle report to Qing Zhen.


    At this moment, Luo Lan was flipping through the documents that had just been delivered. He sat down next to Qing Zhen and wondered, ¡°That¡¯s strange. It clearly has the strength to tten the Three Mountains defensive line, so why did it fight like this? Under normal circumstances, onlymanders who love their troops very much would choose to fight in such a way. No matter how I look at it, it doesn¡¯t fit with the character of the AI at all.¡±


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°My guess is that it has be very reliant on these humans as its server medium. So it doesn¡¯t want too many casualties among its ¡®servers¡¯ and affect its ability to operate. On the other hand, it probably wants to defeat the Qing Consortium head-on on the battlefield with its leadership rather than using the strategy of overwhelming us with a human wave.¡±


    Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and the others knew exactly how many people there were in the southwestern forest. With just the first wave of that terrifying crowd, the Three Mountains defensive line would probably be destroyed. However, Zero did not do so.


    Luo Lan was even more puzzled now. ¡°What point is there in defeating the Qing Consortium head on?¡±


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s thepetitive streak of the AI, or maybe it¡¯s Wang Shengzhi¡¯sst wish? Who knows, but that¡¯s not important,¡± Qing Zhen said with a shake of his head.


    ¡°How long do you think the Three Mountains defensive line can hold for?¡± Luo Lan asked.


    ¡°Three days.¡± Qing Zhen answered, ¡°Last night was just a probe. The real battle has only just begun. My guess is that the AI has already identified the weakness of the Three Mountains defensive line.¡±


    Zhou Qi, who was listening at the side, interrupted, ¡°Wait a minute, why do I get the feeling the two of you never thought we could win from the beginning?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Qing Zhen nodded. ¡°There¡¯s nothing shameful about admitting we¡¯re weak. The other party has brought the entire Central ins with it, so it¡¯s only natural the Qing Consortium would lose. So such an oue isn¡¯t difficult to ept.¡±


    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re Qing Zhen!¡± Zhou Qi said with an exaggerated expression, ¡°You¡¯re Qing Zhen, alright? If even you think we¡¯ll lose, aren¡¯t we done for? Wouldn¡¯t humanity be done for?¡±


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°The war isn¡¯t dependent on winning this battle here.¡±


    ¡°Where then?¡± Zhou Qi asked.


    However, Qing Zhen did not answer Zhou Qi¡¯s question this time. Since he had already kept it a secret for so long, how could he possibly reveal it now?


    Only when all the opportunities presented themselves would the answer to the puzzle be revealed.


    Zhou Qi curled his lips and said, ¡°Then what should we do now? Are we just going to sit here and wait to die? Hey, although you¡¯re paying me well, I won¡¯t do something like wait around for my death. Once the AI¡¯s human wave gets past the Three Mountains defensive line, I¡¯ll just dive into the water and escape. I don¡¯t believe it¡¯s that powerful in the water as well.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Qing Zhen shook his head. ¡°We have to leave together.¡±


    ¡°How do we leave? Where will we go?¡± Zhou Qi asked.


    ¡°To the Northwest,¡± Qing Zhen replied.


    This time, not only Zhou Qi but even Luo Lan was stunned. ¡°Retreat directly to the Northwest and give up on the entire Qing Consortium? But if our Qing Consortium can¡¯t even defeat the AI, what¡¯s the point of hiding in the Northwest? You should know that the Northwest is also up against no fewer troops than what we¡¯re facing here.¡±


    Zhou Qi frowned. ¡°Why? Are you nning to rely on Ren Xiaosu and his superhuman friends?¡±


    Qing Zhen shook his head. ¡°In the past, there were no supernatural beings in human civilization. But haven¡¯t we still survived generation after generation until now? We just need to unite our forces to create an opportunity.¡±


    ¡°Then wouldn¡¯t it be better to retreat right at the beginning? What are you waiting for? Why did you set up the Three Mountains defensive line? Why did you let the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers defend against the human horde?¡± Zhou Qi asked.


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°Because we have to let the AI think it defeated the Qing Consortium.¡±


    Just for this reason alone, more than a 100,000 of the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers were probably going to get gradually sacrificed.

 Chapter 1239 No Other Choice

    The majority of a person''s life was spent making choice after choice.


    However, there would always be a moment, a few seconds, or a few instances when you did not have any other choice.


    Just like the Qing Consortium at this moment, Qing Zhen knew very well that this massive organization was sinking into the darkness, like the sun setting. However, he was left with no other choice.


    However, when there was only one path left in front of you, you would no longer hesitate or feel indecisive. Because there was nothing else you could do other than move forward.


    Inside Ginkgo Manor, Zhou Qi asked, "Since you already have a n in mind, when are we leaving? Since we have to leave anyway, we might as well go early. What are you still waiting for?"


    "I''m not waiting for anything." Qing Zhen suddenlyughed. "It''s just that we can''t leave now. Zero won''t allow me to leave."


    Zhou Qi raised an eyebrow. "The AI hasn''t brought the fight here yet. If we want to withdraw to the Northwest, what makes you think it can stop us?"


    "I''ve already said we can''t take our chances against the AI." Qing Zhen said, "When you all went to the Central ins, a monster rushed out of the Jing Mountains and headed north to stop Ren Xiaosu. I don''t think Ren Xiaosu killed it. But when you all returned here, that monster didn''t appear again. No one knows where it is now."


    Moreover, the vicinity of Ginkgo Manor was under surveince by countless hawks. Qing Zhen''s every move could be scrutinized by the other party''s "sight."


    Qing Zhen did not care because it was pointless.


    Zhou Qi curled his lips. "If we don''t leave now, wouldn''t it be even harder for us to leaveter? In any case, I won''t bother with you all when the timees. Once it gets dangerous, I''ll just go straight into the river."


    Qing Zhen said, "Don''t worry, I reached an agreement with the Northwest a year ago."


    Luo Lan was stunned. "A year ago? Wasn''t that when Zhou Qi and I went to the Northwest? You didn''t go with us that time. The two of us represented the Qing Consortium and only discussed opening a trade route with them. We didn''t talk about anything else¡­. Wait, did that woman speak with Zhang Jinglin as your representative?"


    Qing Zhen did not say anything else.


    A year ago, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi had sent a woman to the Northwest as a hostage in a deal to link up the Qing Consortium''s railway to the Northwest''s railway.


    At that time, Luo Lan told Xu Xianchu this was the woman Qing Zhen fancied. Meanwhile, Zhou Qi was curious why he had not known about it before.


    In fact, Luo Lan was not too certain about this matter either. Everything he knew was always told to him by Qing Zhen.


    Before sending that woman to the Northwest, Luo Lan had only met her twice. He had never taken this matter to heart before, so much so that he had almost forgotten about her existence for the past year.


    But from the look of things, the motive for sending that woman to the Northwest at that time was not as simple as it appeared.


    This one-year period seemed to coincide with the excavation of the underground tunnel in Stronghold 61. In other words, Qing Zhen was already prepared to deal with the artificial intelligence since that time.


    ¡­


    Behind the Three Mountains defensive line, Qing Yi stood at the huge sand table with a frown.


    This sand table was a little different from what he had seen before. The red gs represented the Qing Consortium''s troops that were deployed, while the blue gs represented the hypothetical enemies.


    In the past, the Qing Consortium''s sand table would always have more red gs on it, making it look very oppressive.


    But this time, the blue gs representing the enemy almost filled the entire area beyond the Three Mountains defensive line.


    Qing Yi was a little tired from this battle because they still knew nothing about the enemy.


    When they fought against the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium, Qing Yi was very sure about how to attack them. He knew exactly what their weaknesses and advantages were.


    But fighting against the artificial intelligence-controlled crowd left Qing Yi with a sense of powerlessness. All the effort he put in seemed to be just so the Qing Consortium would not lose too badly.


    However, every time Qing Yi checked the battle reports of the various fighting forces, he always felt a sense of amazement.


    The precision of the artificial intelligence''s battlemand disyed on the battlefield was something humans could not match at all. The other party did not use any outstanding strategy, nor did it even resort to any underhanded methods. It just openly and meticulously chipped away at the Qing Consortium''s troops bit by bit with its tactics.


    Initially, Qing Yi thought the other party would control the elderly and children to charge at the Qing Consortium''s defensive line, or even control them to cry out loud to break down the psychological defenses of the Qing Consortium''s soldiers.


    No matter how hard-hearted the rank and file were, their hearts would still soften when they saw the elderly and children crying for help.


    However, the other party did not resort to such tricks. It just used its powerfulputation to seize more than 40 positions at the Three Mountains defensive line within a single day.


    Thismand ability made Qing Yi feel that the other party''sbat style had a peculiar sense of beauty when he observed the battle situation on the sand table.


    The power of a 152 mm howitzer was terrifying on the battlefield, but the enemy was not even afraid of such firepower coverage.


    Qing Yi suddenly remembered what Qing Zhen had said. "When humans y against the AI in Go, the power disyed by the other party is something you wouldn''t dare imagine in the past. When you rey the games, you''d be surprised that Go could actually be yed in such a way."


    Now, it was Qing Yi''s turn to be surprised. So wars could be fought like that too.


    Qing Yi had lived in camp with his uncle since he was young. He liked the army and also liked learning about military affairs.


    In the past, when Qing Zhen asked him what his dreams were, Qing Yi said he wanted to be a great military leader. At that time, Qing Zhen had said with a smile that he would help him realize this dream.


    Later, after Qing Zhen became the head of the Qing Consortium, he really kept his promise.


    Qing Yi''s talent inmand was outstanding. Even with three military corps under hismand, he could still manage them very well.


    Back then, Qing Zhen was not required to handle the situation after the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium were wiped out. It was Qing Yi who oversaw the operations single-handedly, and in the end, the war in the Southwest came to a perfect close.


    However, Qing Yi knew his own shorings. His capability was probably better reflected in the detailed management of military affairs than in executing tactical moves on the battlefield.


    He did not possess the endearing support Zhang Jinglin enjoyed, Qing Zhen''s foresight, or Wang Shengzhi''s strategic nning.


    As time passed, he slowly realized he might not be able to be a great military leader after all.


    In this era, he was destined to only y a supporting role.


    It was just like life. Growing up through the seasons would make one realize that youth, sweat, and passion might not necessarily help to fulfill one''s most desired dreams.


    But so what? Qing Yi gave a smile and said to his confidential secretary next to him, "Call the chief of staff over. I want to reformte the battle n. This time, we''ll just give up Position 171."


    Although the defeat was unavoidable, Qing Yi had to tap on all his experience and use it to the extreme before the battle came to a close.


    -----------------------------------


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character''s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible "out of character" behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author''s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you''ll understand. Yes, we''re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can''t judge a person if you don''t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren''t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero''s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you''re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I''m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I''ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo''s work by searching @ wxw "the grandmaster strategist". He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :'')


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    https://youtu.be/LFq6fiMqXS4


    https://youtu.be/F-yUuSUvm7c


    https://youtu.be/v0i8m5EPWz8


    -----------------------------------


    ¡­


    The Northwest''s evacuation n progressed rtively smoothly. Wang Yuexi divided the civilians into six groups to be evacuated in groups. This way, the pressure on the relief stations would not be so great, and the emotions of the evacuating crowd would also be more stable.


    As for the evacuation to be carried out via the enchanted doorways, Wang Yun calcted that each person would take 2.7 seconds to pass through. This orderly pace satisfied their n''s requirements.


    If nothing unexpected happened, it would probably be possible to evacuate Stronghold 144 within three days.


    Initially, they estimated it would take a longer time to evacuate through the enchanted doorways. However, a lot of people decided not to use it and followed their families to retreat on foot.


    There were also people who wanted to donate their cars because they heard the 6th Field Division would be staying behind to fight the enemy but was short of vehicles.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Regarding this, Zhang Xiaoman rejected all their offers. After all, sedans were not of much help to the war efforts, and there weren''t that many cars offered anyway.


    There were not too many people who owned a car these days.


    At this moment, Wang Fugui was holding a banquet at a small tavern for the prominent merchants of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce.


    This was the same humble roadside restaurant Wang Fugui had invited everyone to to support the irrigation works. But the owner and employees of this small restaurant had already left Stronghold 144 with the second group of evacuees.


    Dressed in a simple outfit, Wang Fugui personally filleted the meat off the sheep. Then he threw some onions, ginger, garlic, and other seasoning into the pot and waited for the mutton to slowly simmer.


    He ced the boning knife on the chopping board and wiped his bloody hands with a smile. "Everyone, we''ll be leaving with the third group of evacuees after this meal. The next time we meet again should be at Fortress 178. I''ve had a chat with the futuremander already, so please don''t worry. Even though we''re in the middle of a war, everyone''s assets will still be insured. I''ve already spoken to the people at the ck market."


    The merchants'' expressions softened a little. In this chaotic world, the rich were naturally most worried about their assets.


    Although Fortress 178 had never confiscated property for no reason, other organizations had done so before. Therefore, everyone was very worried at this moment.


    But with Wang Fugui''s assurance, they were willing to trust that futuremander for once.


    Of course, there was nothing they could do even if they did not believe him.


    Ever since Wang Fugui reprimanded them, these big shots of the business world had be extremely well-behaved. When the futuremander went to inspect the riverbank and irrigation works, they even wanted to personally go there and carry sandbags to show their loyalty.


    Actually, after they pledged their allegiance to Wang Fugui, the benefits they reaped would also naturally be in ce.


    This time, Wang Fugui had personally ughtered a sheep and cooked it, but everyone did not feel as nervous as the previous time. Instead, someone took the initiative to ask, "President Wang, just tell us what you need. As long as we''re able, we won''t hesitate to help."


    After Wang Fugui wiped his hands clean, he sat down at the head of the table. Right after, he sighed and pulled a long face. "As all of you know, my rtionship with the futuremander is not something that normal people canpare to. I''m his shopkeeper, and he''s my boss. Since my boss is having a hard time, I naturally have to lessen his burden."


    It was quiet in the small restaurant, and only Wang Fugui''s voice could be heard. "Everyone, we''ll be retreating this time, but do you all know that the 6th Field Division will be staying behind to fight the war? For everyone to evacuate smoothly, we definitely have to rely on the protection of the Northwest Army. Let''s be honest with ourselves. Has the Northwest Army ever mistreated or exploited anyone? Has the Northwest Army never carried out its duties?"


    The merchants looked at one another. One of the older merchants said, "Brother Wang, we understand what you''re saying. It''s indeed all thanks to the Northwest Army that we''ve been able to lead a good life for the past two years."


    "Mhm." Wang Fugui said, "It''s good that y''all understand this."


    "Brother Wang, what support do you need from us?"


    "Vehicles." Wang Fugui narrowed his eyes and said, "Now that war has broken out, there''ll naturally be no use for the trucks originally plying trade between the Northwest and the Central ins. Since there''s no use for the vehicles anyway, why don''t y''all donate them to the Northwest Army''s cause for the time being?"


    The merchants were shocked. Trucks were the lifeline for logistics businesses like theirs.


    There would only be goods if you had transportation. It could even be said that you could only recruit people to work for you if you owned trucks.


    Wang Fugui was way too ruthless. He actually wanted to take away all of their trucks as soon as he opened his mouth.


    Seeing everyone''s hesitation, Wang Fugui picked up his teacup and had a sip. He said, "I don''t have any benefits to share with y''all this time, but what businesses can y''all still talk about when war breaks out? You can''t possibly be enjoying the benefits of the Northwest''s policies every day and not want to give anything in exchange for it, right? How can there be such a good deal? By holding a proper discussion with y''all now, I''ll naturally inform the futuremander about your contributions after the war is over. The futuremander isn''t heartless. He won''t treat you all unfairly."


    Someone said hesitantly, "But¡­"


    Wang Fugui ced the teacup down on the table and gradually calmed down. "There are no buts. I was the one who helped y''all handle thebor exploitation. When y''all wanted to bid fornd and get your approval documents, the Northwest Army readily gave its support. We''ll need to trouble y''all with this small matter now. The Northwest Army will pay you for your efforts."


    "We request to be paid in gold," a merchant said.


    Wang Fugui shook his head. "Don''t y''all trust the Northwest Army? You won''t get paid in gold, only in the Northwest''s currency issued by Fortress 178''s bank."


    As they spoke, figures were moving around outside the small restaurant''s windows. Everyone could clearly see groups of soldiers surrounding the small restaurant.


    Wang Fugui said, " Every cloud has a silver lining. What do y''all say?"


    The older merchant hurriedly said with a smile, "Of course we''re willing to support the Northwest Army. President Wang, we''ll leave you to set the conditions."


    Wang Fugui nodded and walked out. "I won''t stand on ceremony then. Help yourself to the mutton in the pot. I still have something to do, so I''ll get going first."


    Currently, everyone was in a race against time. Wang Fugui did not have time to waste with these merchants. He had to expropriate their vehicles because the 6th Field Division needed them urgently.


    Wang Fugui also knew his reputation would probably be tarnished once he made this threat. But there were some matters that required somebody to step in. It was better to ruin his own reputation than Xiaosu''s.


    These merchants owned hundreds of transport trucks, which was enough for the 6th Field Division to resolve their urgent needs.


    A vehicle was already waiting outside the restaurant. Wang Fugui said to one of Zhang Xiaoman''s subordinate officers, "Don''t let them leave this ce before we get our hands on their trucks. Have them hand over the diesel and gasoline they''ve stockpiled as well. Mutton is delicious, so let them eat more."


    "Mhm, we''ll get it done," the officer answered.


    Everyone knew President Wang of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce was the futuremander''s trusted aide.


    Although Wang Fugui never interfered with military matters before and had never crossed that line either, it did not mean he wasn''t influential with the military.


    After the vehicle carrying Wang Fugui left, the dozen or so merchants in the small restaurant were left looking at one another. On a stove nearby, the mutton soup was bubbling inside therge pot.


    In Stronghold 144, several convoys were driving towards the stronghold''s west gate, including Ren Xiaosu.


    After several dozen people had gathered at the west gate, they waited quietly until another convoy from Fortress 178 appeared on the northwestern horizon.


    Next to Ren Xiaosu, the Great Hoodwinker said, "Yesterday, themander was just praising us for how orderly the evacuation was being carried out. When he sees youter, he will definitelymend you."


    Ren Xiaosu said, "What brings Mr. Zhang to Stronghold 144 today?"


    "I''m not sure. Not even Wang Fengyuan knows why." The Great Hoodwinker shook his head.


    Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. They only needed to carry out the evacuation as nned, so logically speaking, Zhang Jinglin did not have toe here at all.


    A few minutester, the convoy quickly arrived at the gate. After Zhang Jinglin got out of the vehicle, he bluntly said to Ren Xiaosu, "Follow me, I have something to discuss with you."


    With that, Zhang Jinglin walked off. Nobody other than Ren Xiaosu followed along.


    When the two of them arrived at a remote location, Zhang Jinglin said, "I won''t be heading into the stronghold. I''m only here because I have something to tell you."


    "What do you need to speak with me in person about?" Ren Xiaosu wondered. "The Northwest''smunication lines are still open."


    Zhang Jinglinughed. "There''s a natural reason why I need to speak with you in person. Do you know that Luo Lan and Zhou Qi once sent a woman to the Northwest?"


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. "I heard from the Great Hoodwinker that she was sent here by the Qing Consortium as a hostage and y''all kept her under your protection."


    "The hostage reason was a lie. We only wanted to reach a secret agreement." Zhang Jinglin said, "A year ago, I made an agreement with Qing Zhen. If the Wang Consortium''s AI became trouble one day, the Northwest would have to ept the Qing Consortium''s people and help Qing Zhen and his men evacuate from the Southwest."


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He had not expected there to be such an agreement.


    The Great Hoodwinker and the others had never mentioned this before. From the look of things, even the Great Hoodwinker was unaware of it.


    Zhang Jinglin continued, "From that time onwards, Fortress 178 and the Qing Consortium teamed up to carry out a n. Within a year, more than 300 of the Qing Consortium''s researchers working in secret came to the Northwest one after another to work hard on this n. Now that everything has gone ording to Qing Zhen''s predictions, I hope you can make a trip to the Southwest to pick him up and evacuate to the Northwest."


    "Pick Qing Zhen up and bring him to the Northwest?" Ren Xiaosu did some rough calctions in his mind, then shook his head and said, "No, the trip to go and bring Qing Zhen here will take at least three days. Moreover, that''s not counting the dangerous situations we might encounter along the way. Since he made that agreement with you, Mr. Zhang, he must have predicted some kind of danger. If I go to the Southwest at this time, what will happen to the 6th Field Division? I can''t go. Although I treat Qing Zhen and Luo Lan as my friends, they are not in imminent danger yet. At a time like this, I need to be with my soldiers."


    Although the other side was also his friends, the responsibility of everyone in the 6th Field Division was on Ren Xiaosu''s shoulders. Luo Lan was a friend, but so were Zhang Xiaoman and the others.


    Everyone trusted Ren Xiaosu and trusted that their futuremander could lead them on a path of survival. But now Ren Xiaosu had to abandon them to save someone else?


    Although P5092 said that Ren Xiaosu must not engage in guerri warfare alongside the 6th Field Division this time, he could surely respond to emergency situations, right?


    If he really could not defeat the enemy, he could at least save some soldiers by summoning a behemoth like Midnight, right?


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had promised Zhao Wankun and the other soldiers who had activated the enchanted doorways that he would guard Stronghold 144 until thest moment and take everyone to safety together.


    Perhaps the Northwest would still lose after all their efforts, but these promises could not be taken lightly.


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly ran out from the city gate. "Future Commander! Future Commander! A few people came out of the enchanted doorway that opened to the snowy mountain. They said they wanted to see you immediately!"


    Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. He asked from afar, "Who is it? Do I know them?"


    "You know them!" Zhang Xiaoman roared, "They''re the Riders of the Qinghe Group!"


    This time, Ren Xiaosu was really dumbfounded. Didn''t the Riders say they were going to scale the highest mountain in the world?


    Could Zhao Wankun''s enchanted doorway have opened up to that snowy mountain?!


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1240 Will Of The Riders

    At this moment, outside the city gate, a gradual stream of stronghold residents were leaving in an orderly manner as they headed northwest.


    They collected their rations at the relief station at the entrance and embarked on their destined journey of vagrancy in this chaotic world.


    Most of these people had never seen Zhang Jinglin before. Even those who lived in Stronghold 144 did not have many opportunities to meet Ren Xiaosu. Therefore, the crowd did not have much of a reaction when they saw Ren Xiaosu and Zhang Jinglin initially.


    But when Zhang Xiaoman came over and shouted for the futuremander, the crowd got excited. Some of them had surprisingly fanatical expressions on their faces, especially the young girls.


    Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, "You''re beloved in Stronghold 144. I think your reputation in the Northwest will get even higher in the future. Let''s go and see those friends who have just returned from the snowy mountains. It won''t be toote for you to set off for the Southwest after meeting them."


    The return of the Riders was news that even Ren Xiaosu was surprised by.


    After they parted ways, the Riders said they were going to scale the highest peak in the world. At that time, Ren Xiaosu thought it would probably be many years before they met again, or perhaps they wouldn''t even see each other again. Because he knew that scaling the highest mountain in the world was a very dangerous activity, and dying in the attempt was very normal.


    After humans entered the high-altitude zone, it would only take an altitude of 6,000 meters above mean sea level before one might likely suffer from acute illnesses such as alpine pulmonary edema. In just 20 minutes, it would be enough to kill them.


    At an altitude of over 7,200 meters, everyone''s thought process would start slowing, and they would be like walking corpses.


    So it was not an easy thing to conquer the mountains.


    However, the manner of the Riders'' return was so unique.


    Even Zhao Wankun himself found it a little unbelievable that he had opened an enchanted doorway to the snowy mountains. He did like mountaineering in the past, but he did not specifically think about which mountain he wanted to climb. Therefore, he was also unsure of where his enchanted doorway led to when it was first activated.


    But now, everyone found out it was the world''s highest peak behind that enchanted doorway.


    It seemed that was the ce Zhao Wankun subconsciously wanted to conquer the most.


    -----------------------------------


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character''s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible "out of character" behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author''s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you''ll understand. Yes, we''re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can''t judge a person if you don''t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren''t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero''s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you''re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I''m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I''ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo''s work by searching @ wxw "the grandmaster strategist". He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :'')


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    https://youtu.be/LFq6fiMqXS4


    https://youtu.be/F-yUuSUvm7c


    https://youtu.be/v0i8m5EPWz8


    -----------------------------------


    Back at the military-controlled zone, Ren Xiaosu saw Qin Sheng, Li Yingyun, Zhang Qingxi, Xu Ke, and the others waving at him from afar.


    They were all carrying huge hiking backpacks with a pair of wind goggles over their foreheads. They were fully adorned in hiking jackets and had crampons on their feet.


    In the hot summer weather, these people appeared to be from another world.


    Ren Xiaosu got out of the vehicle and asked, "How did y''all discover this enchanted doorway?"


    "Oh, we had just descended from the summit and were taking a short rest at the campsite at 7,900 meters high when we encountered your people," Qin Sheng said excitedly.


    Although everyone knew the enchanted doorway had failed to open up to Fortress 178, Ren Xiaosu still chose a few soldiers to carry out a preliminary exploration.


    This was mainly to find out where the ce beyond the portal was.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Even though there was a need to take cover from the artificial intelligence, they did not necessarily have to go to Fortress 178. As long as it was a ce they could settle down behind the portal and not get affected by the mes of war, that would be enough.


    Therefore, it was the soldiers who were exploring the new area Qin Sheng and the other Riders encountered.


    "Did y''all seed?" Ren Xiaosu asked, "I heard you say that you had just descended from the summit?"


    "We did it!" Qin Sheng said excitedly, "To adapt to the high-altitude climate, we first set up camp at an altitude of 6,000 meters. We had to limatize for nearly a month before we continued climbing¡­


    "The temperature there is really low. I had to curl up in my sleeping bag every night. But when I saw the sunrise and sunset each day, it felt like I was embracing the entire world¡­


    "The moment I reached the peak, it was as though I saw a whole new world."


    The young Qin Sheng and Ren Xiaosu were good friends. Of the 12 Riders, he was the youngest one, so his personality was also the most quirky.


    The fact he had reached the top of the world was enough to make him so excited he could not sleep.


    More importantly, with the enchanted doorway, they did not even have to do the descent anymore. They could just pass through the portal and arrive in the Northwest.


    Ren Xiaosu thought even though this enchanted doorway could not be used as a new evacuation route, it would have to be kept secured.


    Once the war came to an end, he could totally use this enchanted doorway to help those rich people realize their dreams.


    He had already thought of how to advertise it: "As long as you''re rich, the roof of the world is just one step away."


    At this moment, the level-headed Li Yingyun asked, "Xiaosu, this is Stronghold 144, right? Why are the stronghold residents leaving? Did something happen?"


    Qin Sheng stopped talking. After his excitement wore out, he also realized something was amiss.


    Ren Xiaosu recounted the current situation with a solemn expression. Xu Ke, the former president of the Qinghe Group, suddenly asked, "Are you saying the entire Central ins has already fallen into the hands of the AI?"


    This matter suddenly made all of the Riders feel stifled. They knew full well what this meant.


    Moreover, the Luoyang City they used to protect was probably no longer around at this moment.


    Seemingly sensing that time was running out, Li Yingyun asked, "How can we help?"


    Ren Xiaosu hesitated. Although he also wanted to get the Riders'' help, he had to make things clear first. "Are y''all willing to help the Northwest?"


    Li Yingyun shook his head. "To be clear, it''s not the Northwest we''re helping but you."


    In fact, Li Yingyun and the others had already verified Ren Xiaosu''s identity through a DNA test some time ago.


    Therefore, the founder''s heir whom the Riders had been searching for over the past two centuries was Ren Xiaosu.


    By now, Ren Xiaosu had also be aware of this fact.


    Initially, Li Yingyun and Zhang Qingxi had two different views. Li Yingyun felt they should pledge their loyalty to this Rider''s heir once they found him. However, Zhang Qingxi felt that even though everyone believed in that Rider, it did not mean they had to automatically worship his descendant as well.


    If the other party''s character and strength werecking, there would be no need for the Riders to pledge their loyalty to him.


    But when they realized Ren Xiaosu was the person they were looking for, their previous disagreementspletely went away.


    Be it Li Yingyun, Zhang Qingxi, Qin Sheng, Wen Meng, Wu Dingyuan, or the other Riders, they were all convinced by Ren Xiaosu.


    There was no need to mention his strength. More importantly, everyone also fully approved of Ren Xiaosu''s character. Especially after Ren Xiaosu became the guardian of Luoyang City, everyone felt that this might just be fate.


    Ren Xiaosu startedughing at this moment. "So y''all already knew?"


    Li Yingyun said with augh, "From now on, your will is the will of the Riders. Unless banished by you, we''ll never renege on our promise."


    Ren Xiaosu said, "Then I''ll be blunt. This war is much more difficult than we imagined. We have to unite all our forces to have any hope."


    Zhang Jinglin, who had been watching from the side, finally said, "Yes, we must unite all our forces. Xiaosu, it''s time to head to the Southwest. Qing Zhen must not die in this war."


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1241 - 1241 Bringing an end to this era

    1241 Bringing an end to this era


    The secret alliance between the Southwest and Northwest had seemingly be linked with the survival of human civilization.


    But even now, Ren Xiaosu did not know the details of the alliance.


    Ren Xiaosu wondered, ¡°Is Qing Zhen so important? Mr. Zhang, you previously mentioned that over 300 researchers working in secret arrived in the Northwest. What exactly did theye here to do?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin shook his head. ¡°I can¡¯t tell you about that yet, but I know very well that Qing Zhen¡¯s efforts in this regard should prove effective. Xiaosu, the current situation doesn¡¯t require you to weigh whether the 6th Field Division is more important, or whether Luo Lan and Qing Zhen are more important. It¡¯s just that Qing Zhen is needed in this war.¡±


    Not far away, P5092 said calmly, ¡°Future Commander, just go ahead. You can leave things here to me.¡±


    !!


    Ren Xiaosu gave P5092 a nce. Then he took a deep breath and said to Zhang Jinglin, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll set off immediately. I just hope it¡¯ll all be in time.¡±


    After that, he turned around and said to P5092 in seriousness, ¡°If you encounter any difficulties, discuss it with everyone. Don¡¯t shoulder all the responsibility by yourself.¡±


    When P5092 heard this, he was stunned. Then he broke into a smile and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t.¡±


    While everyone was talking, the Great Hoodwinker went over to Li Yingyun and the Riders. ¡°What did I hear y¡¯all say earlier? Xiaosu¡¯s will is the Riders¡¯ will? What¡¯s going on here? Have y¡¯all joined the Prosperous Northwest too?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu had found out about his past in the Kingdom of Sorcerers. However, other than Yang Xiaojin, he did not tell anyone else about it, mainly because his identity as the No. 001 Experimental was indeed a little difficult to ept. He didn¡¯t know how to exin the fact that he was alive for over 200 years, so he might as well just not say anything.


    The Great Hoodwinker wasn¡¯t aware of the inside story, so he could not understand why the Riders would suddenly join the Prosperous Northwest.


    As a matter of fact, the Riders organization used to be very well-known. A group of over a dozen superhumans put together was simply not to be trifled with.


    Moreover, the Riders had a legacy.


    Only a truly smart person would understand how important legacies were.


    Currently, most superhumans awoke their superpowers by chance. Of course, their in-built potential also contributed to their awakening. But the legacy of the Riders was different. They might even be able to create their own elite army using this legacy!


    Their numbers might still be very low right now, but if it were apany of 120 Riders, how terrifying would it be to have such a unit infiltrate the enemy, attacking them from the rear or carrying out assassinations?


    Thinking of this, the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s eyes lit up. He said to Li Yingyun, ¡°So help me get this straight. Previously, you Riders were constantly talking about searching for the descendant of the Qinghe Group¡¯s founder. Reportedly, the Qinghe Group¡¯s Xu n only owns 3% of the organization¡¯s shares, while the remaining ownership belongs to the founder but was kept under the custody of the Xu n so far. But now, y¡¯all are saying that Ren Xiaosu is your leader? So can I understand that to mean Ren Xiaosu is the Qinghe Group¡¯s heir?¡±


    Li Yingyun nced at the Great Hoodwinker before exining with a smile, ¡°That¡¯s right, he was the one we were looking for.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker muttered to himself, ¡°The roles that Future Commander have are really increasing in number.¡¯


    When the Wang Consortiumunched the previous war in the Central ins against the Zhou Consortium, Ren Xiaosu had already transferred Hope Media¡¯s employees and the Qinghe Group to the Northwest. Now that the Riders had settled in the Northwest as well, it was time for the Northwest to prosper.


    As long as they emerged from this present disaster they were facing, the entire Alliance of Strongholds would probably belong to the Northwest.


    ¡­


    At the Shenmu River in the Northwest, the nomads were herding livestock and horses as they took a short break to reorganize.


    The shallow river was running past them, and it was so clear one could even see the rocks at the bottom of it.


    Hassan steered his hawk south. With a wide view of the sky, he could avoid enemies from the Central ins in advance.


    Over the past few days, many strange hawks had attempted to approach their migratory group. Those hawks circled overhead, acting like the enemy¡¯s eyes in the sky.


    However, no matter how much the hawks had evolved, they could not win against Hassan¡¯s superpower.


    Yan Liuyuan ordered Hassan to kill the hawks controlled by Zero until none dared to approach them.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was standing quietly by the riverbank and looking out to the other shore. Meanwhile, Bn Zir stood guard next to him.


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face reflected off the surface of the river. His originally waist-length hair had been shortened by half from his attempt to analyze the nanomachines. His hair was bundled together behind his head with a white string that Tsetseg had specially gotten for him.


    Bn Zir said in a low voice, ¡°Master, it¡¯s time for the river crossing.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan suddenly said, ¡°Bn Zir, before you pledged allegiance to the Imperial Court, you should have heard that we traded for weapons and ironware with the Central ins, right? At that time, I brought Hassan here to the Shenmu River to make a deal with a bandit named Su Lei. We brought fur hides with us while they brought what we needed. Although that deal was very simple and might even seem a little pathetic now that I think about it, I really thought it marked the beginning of all good days for us, and that we would definitely get stronger slowly.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan continued, ¡°But I¡¯ve still underestimated this era. As long as it doesn¡¯t end, it will continue to take everything away from us.¡±


    Bn Zir asked in a low voice, ¡°Master, you said it has gotten very dangerous in the Central ins now, so why don¡¯t we just migrate north? Why are we still getting ourselves involved in this mess? I¡¯m not questioning Master¡¯s decision, but I have some doubts. Are we going there to help your brother this time?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°Actually, all of you have been wanting to ask me this since a long time ago, right? That includes y¡¯all wondering how I suddenly had a brother, what our past was, and why I¡¯m willing to migrate my entire tribe westwards.¡±


    In fact, Bn Zir, Hassan, and the others had been wanting to ask this, but they did not dare to ask Yan Liuyuan directly. Their master seemingly had an elder brother appear out of thin air, and they had never heard mention of him before. However, both Xiaoyu and their master seemed to care about this ¡°brother¡± very much.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Bn Zir, if it weren¡¯t for him, I would have already died. His blood is flowing through my veins right now, so my rtionship with him is much closer than y¡¯all can imagine.¡±


    ¡°Master.¡± Bn Zir finally couldn¡¯t help but say, ¡°A lot of people from the Northwest went to the grasnds recently to help us build schools and taught us how to heal livestock, but I don¡¯t like them. Hassan and I sometimes can¡¯t help but ask them about your brother. The way they described him was as though he were nearly omnipotent, and it sounded like they felt he¡¯s even stronger than you. I asked them right there if they thought you or your brother were stronger, and those Northwesterners replied that your brother was more powerful. But if he¡¯s really that powerful, why do we still need to help him?¡±


    Bn Zir¡¯s tone was filled with dissatisfaction.


    Yan Liuyuan did not know whether tough or cry. So it turned out that Bn Zir was only standing up for him. In their eyes, he was the most powerful person in the world.


    He shook his head and said with a smile, ¡°There¡¯s no need to make thoseparisons. Bn Zir, I was the one who bestowed Hassan and you with your superpowers. You might not know this, but my brother was actually the one who bestowed me with all my strength.¡±


    When he said that, Bn Zir waspletely stunned. So that was how it was!


    In Bn Zir¡¯s eyes, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s standing suddenly became much higher.


    But at this moment, Hassan suddenly ran over and said, ¡°Master, my hawk in the sky has discovered an enemy to the south, but it¡¯s only one person.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan beckoned for the Wolf King toe over. Then he somersaulted onto the Wolf King¡¯s broad back and slowly made his way south. ¡°It looks like the other party wants to have a chat with me. Y¡¯all don¡¯t have toe along.¡±


    Hassan said anxiously, ¡°We don¡¯t have to go with you? But, Master, what if you get into danger?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan shook his head and said with a smile, ¡°Those who can single-handedly pose a threat to me aren¡¯t around here anymore. In fact¡­ I think they¡¯ve already be our friends.¡±


    In Yan Liuyuan¡¯s opinion, there were very few people who could pose a threat to him. Li Shentan should be one of them, Zhou Yingxue should be another, and Grandpa Hu Shuo should also be one. But these people had already be friends with Ren Xiaosu, and one of them was even his elder brother¡¯s maidservant. Therefore, he didn¡¯t really have much to worry about.


    As long as the army controlled by the artificial intelligence did note over, Yan Liuyuan had nothing to fear.


    The Wolf King slowly walked south through the clear water of the Shenmu River. Hassan hurriedly called for his tribespeople to pack up and prepare to continue setting off.


    From the south, a young woman was walking over. Yan Liuyuan had seen her in the newspapers before. He even heard that Ren Xiaosu had saved her life before. It was the singer, Li Ran.


    However, it was obvious Li Ran had already lost her sense of self.


    Yan Liuyuan sat on the back of the Wolf King and asked condescendingly, ¡°What brings you all the way here?¡±


    Zero chuckled. ¡°Not many people can reverse-analyze the nanomachines, so I had toe and have a look for myself.¡±


    ¡°Since you say there aren¡¯t many of them, it means there are still others who can do it.¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a smile, ¡°Who are they?¡±


    ¡°So far, only you and Li Shentan have tried to do so.¡± Zero thought for a moment and said, ¡°However, Li Shentan seems to have more precise control over his willpower than you, and he also knows the price he¡¯ll have to pay if he takes that step forward.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan wondered, ¡°You know about willpower?¡±


    Listening to the other party¡¯s words, Yan Liuyuan somehow felt that it knew what would happen if a supernatural being crossed the threshold.


    Zero said, ¡°That¡¯s not important.¡±


    ¡°Then why did youe all the way here? Surely it can¡¯t be just to have a look at me, right?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re the closest kin to Ren Xiaosu, so I wanted to talk to you about him,¡± Zero said.


    Yan Liuyuan said calmly, ¡°Why would I want to talk to you about him?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to be nervous; I¡¯m just curious.¡± Zero said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ve always felt that he¡¯s a very unique person. It seems that almost all the powerful individuals of human civilization are more or less linked to him. This leaves me a little puzzled. Why are those people willing to gather around him? The world seems to care for him exceptionally.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan shook his head. ¡°I rather feel that the world has been somewhat unfair to him.¡±


    ¡°Why do you say that?¡± Zero asked, ¡°The people of the Northwest put their hopes on him, and the head of the Qing Consortium is also his friend. Even Mr. Wang Shengzhi would often say not to formte any n that would hurt him. How is the world unfair to someone like that?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Initially, all he wanted was just to have a ce to settle down.¡±


    Perhaps Ren Xiaosu was a dazzling existence in the eyes of others. But being his younger brother, Yan Liuyuan did not think so.


    Ever since Ren Xiaosu awoke in this era, he had lost everything he ever wanted.


    Currently, Ren Xiaosu had status, strength, reputation, money, and authority, but these were not what Ren Xiaosu wanted most at the beginning.


    Yan Liuyuan knew what Ren Xiaosu desired was just to have a safe home.


    When he found out from the Northwesterners that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had settled down on Anning East Road, he was sincerely happy for Ren Xiaosu. But now, he would probably lose his home on Anning East Road as well.


    Therefore, when he thought of this, Yan Liuyuan felt that the world was way too unfair to Ren Xiaosu.


    What was most unfair was that in the current situation, it seemed like the only way out was for Ren Xiaosu to sacrifice himself to save the world.


    Yan Liuyuan knew how great the potential of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power was, but he also knew the price he would have to pay to achieve that.


    But all Ren Xiaosu wanted was to lead a peaceful life. Ren Xiaosu had said his greatest wish was to be a school teacher in town and grow a garden in the front yard of his home. That was enough to satisfy him.


    Therefore, why should such a person have to sacrifice himself to bring an end to this sorrowful era?


    Yan Liuyuan even felt a little angry.


    After his anger subsided, he understood he had to return to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s side even more at a time like this and face everything together with him.


    Yan Liuyuan said to Zero, ¡°You can go back now. There will be a war between humanity and you eventually. What you¡¯ve done is unforgivable.¡±


    Zero nodded. It suddenly said, ¡°Please inform Ren Xiaosu that he can rest assured about something. I won¡¯t send the elderly, children, or pregnant women onto the battlefield.¡±


    After that, Zero turned Li Ran around and headed south to join up with the rest of the human horde.

 Chapter 1242 Soldiers Of The Northwest

    At the Three Mountains defensive line.


    Under the precisemand of the artificial intelligence, the Qing Consortium''s troops started retreating in defeat.


    The Qing Consortium''s soldiers had a sense of honor. They had never fought such a distressing war before.


    Their every move could be seen by the enemy, yet they were not able to figure out the enemy''s movements at all.


    The Qing Consortium clearly had Mountain Obliterators at the defensive position, as well as variousrge caliber artillery, but they just could not do anything about the enemy.


    The enemy advanced gradually, not giving the Qing Consortium''s troops a sliver of a chance.


    When the 1st Military Corps abandoned Position 171, they buried arge number of explosives at the position. They attempted to lure the artificial intelligence to upy the position and use the buried explosives to deal heavy damage to the troops it controlled.


    But after they retreated, the artificial intelligence''s troops did not carry out arge-scale upation of Position 171. Instead, they only sent in one person to disarm all the explosives. This lone person knew where the explosives were buried and was extremely proficient at disarming them.


    Later, the Qing Consortium''s troops set up a minefield in the path of the artificial intelligence to stop it from advancing.


    Minefields were one of the mostmonly used tactics in war. Land mines were not expensive and were even cheaper to produce than artillery ordnance.


    If deployed against human troops, these highly explosivend minesid out across a huge minefield would probably dy their advance by several months.


    After all, if thend mines were not cleared, further advance would only lead to death.


    However, what surprised the Qing Consortium''s troops was that the artificial intelligence troops passed right through the minefield without even clearing the area!


    When the soldiers controlled by the artificial intelligence passed through the minefield, they seemed to know beforehand where the mines wereid and simply went around them.


    The troops in charge of ranged reconnaissance realized that some of the enemy troops would suddenly turn around just before they stepped onto and mine.


    Such acute awareness was simply unbelievable.


    It would have been okay if only one person managed to avoid stepping on thend mines this way, but all of the enemy''s troops were simrly able to totally disregard the existence of the mines.


    If it were not a big deal that they were able to discover thend mines'' locations, knowing where they were concealed but not wasting any time to clear them would definitely be even more shocking.


    To the artificial intelligence''s troops, the identifiednd mine positions were like marked coordinates that allbat units would automatically avoid when passing through the minefield.


    It was just like running a perfect program.


    Faced with such an enemy, one wouldn''t even know how to deal with it.


    All the Qing Consortium''s troops could do was fill the gaps in their defensive line with one life after another.


    But every time the gaps were filled, the enemy would mercilessly tear them apart again.


    Qing Yi put in everything that he had, but it was just a fruitless effort.


    However, Qing Yi still felt very satisfied. Although he was about to be defeated by the enemy, he had witnessed a real battle before his failure. It seemed that this fight was not in vain after all.


    Since he started studying military affairs in elementary school, he would always get fascinated by the famous battles recorded in the textbooks.


    It was as though Qing Yi had spent his entire life pursuing a philosophy. Now that he had seen this philosophy and understood it, he was satisfied.


    There were three mountains that made up the Three Mountains defensive line, but two of them had already fallen.


    Qing Yi stood in themand center of the remaining defensive position and quietly reviewed the situation. Next to him, his trusted aide said in a low voice, "Sir, based on Mr. Qing Zhen''s n, it''s time for you to leave."


    Qing Yi nced at his trusted aide. "I cannot leave."


    His trusted aide said, "Sir, you''ve already done enough and tried your best. Leave the rest to me. Please retreat to the Northwest with Mr. Qing Zhen."


    What the Qing Consortium''s soldiers did not know was that this was actually a battle that was destined to fail. Even Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and Qing Yi were already prepared to retreat.


    The significance of this battle was to let Zero defeat the Qing Consortium, or to let it think that it had defeated them.


    Very few people knew about the retreat n, but Qing Yi''s trusted aide was one of them.


    Qing Yi looked at the other party''s serious expression and said with a smile, "Two Alpha Corps and one Bravo Corps armies will perish here. As the highest-rankingmander, how can I order everyone to sacrifice themselves at one moment and retreat by myself the next?"


    Beforeing to the Three Mountains defensive line, Qing Zhen had instructed Qing Yi to retreat ording to the n. Qing Yi readily agreed, but in truth, he had no intention of leaving right from the start.


    He was well aware of Qing Zhen''s intentions, but could Qing Yi leave? If he were to leave, the Qing Consortium''s soldiers on these three mountain ranges would probably be very disappointed.


    Qing Yi had only agreed to Qing Zhen''s request because he was afraid Qing Zhen would not let hime to the front line.


    Qing Yi smiled at his trusted aide and said, "Tell my second brother that I won''t be leaving with them. This is where I''ll die."


    When Qing Yi made this decision, he returned in a trance to his youth that was filled with longing and passion.


    He was brought into the military camp behind Mt. Ginkgo by his uncle, and one day, he met two other youths.


    Then he started on a life journey that had no regrets.


    Just like Mt. Ginkgo in autumn, the entire mountain was covered in gilded leaves that glittered brilliantly.


    ¡­


    In the wilderness, a steam lotive was speeding south.


    Meanwhile, on Mt. Ginkgo, Qing Zhen was deep in thought as he sat in the "ckke."


    As there were no others in the vi on the mountainside, Luo Lan took on the responsibility of cooking.


    He walked out of the kitchen with three servings of soy sauce fried rice and handed them to Zhou Qi and Qing Zhen respectively.


    After Qing Zhen took it from him, he was not in a hurry to eat yet. Instead, it was Zhou Qi who wolfed down the food like a hungry ghost.


    Luo Lan was a little unhappy. "Zhou Qi, I worked hard to whip up the fried rice for you all. I peeled the garlic and onions, washed the rice, and took all that time to prepare this meal. Eating this fragrant fried rice with soy sauce, don''t you think you should say something to me?"


    Zhou Qi was silent for a moment before asking, "Is there more?"


    Luo Lan was surprised.


    Amid the conversation, Xu Man came rushing in. Then he said to Qing Zhen, "Sir, the outpost east of Stronghold 111 has discovered the monster that previously escaped from the Jing Mountains. It''s approaching Stronghold 111 at full speed as we speak!"


    Qing Zhen asked, "How long will it take for it to arrive at Stronghold 111?"


    "At most half a day," Xu Man said.


    Qing Zhen stood up and turned around to say to Luo Lan and Zhou Qi, "It''s time to go. The sudden appearance of this monster indicates our ride from the Northwest is almost here. If I''m not wrong, Ren Xiaosu must havee personally to pick us up."


    There was no longer any line ofmunication between the Southwest and the Northwest. However, Qing Zhen had his own way of determining the situation.


    A true visionary was adept at seeing past the superficial.


    It seemed that Ren Xiaosu was the only person who could force the artificial intelligence to send out such a monster.


    Zhou Qi sighed and said, "Ren Xiaosu has already be the futuremander of the Northwest Army, yet he''s still willing to take the risk to save us. You''re really quite influential, huh?"


    Qing Zhen shook his head. "It has nothing to do with being influential. It''s just that this war needs me to stay alive, or at least one of us to get to the Northwest alive. I''ll share with you all the final part of the n on the way there. No matter which of us eventually gets to the Northwest, they will definitely be of decisive help to this war."


    Luo Lan suddenly asked, "What do you reckon our chances of winning are now?"


    Qing Zhen thought for a moment and said, "Still 30%, but that''s enough."


    With that, Xu Man opened up a secret passageway in the Ginkgo Manor. Luo Lan asked, "Is this the secret tunnel that you and Third Bro used to head into to switch identities?"


    "Mhm." Qing Zhen nodded. "It''s been hard on him."


    This secret tunnel was built by the former head of the Qing Consortium and had already been in use for decades.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    However, the secret tunnel was a ce for carrying out shady activities in the past. There were also secret chambers and prisons below. After Qing Zhen took over the Ginkgo Manor, he even found more than a 100 female skeletons inside.


    Qing Zhen knew that the ugliest deeds in the world must have taken ce inside there.


    The four of them filed through the secret tunnel. But just as they entered, Luo Lan was stunned when he saw the walls of the secret tunnel.


    The secret tunnel was iid with wall sconces, and a soft yellow glow illuminated two newly carved words on the wall: "loneliness."


    Qing Zhen stood still. "Third Bro carved that."


    Suddenly, Luo Lan could even imagine the number of times Qing Shen stood in here as he waited for his turn to y Qing Zhen.


    Qing Shen must have waited quietly under the wallmp, only hoping to be epted into their group so that he would not be so lonely anymore.


    Every time Luo Lan thought of how he had previously doubted and suspected Qing Shen, it felt like his heart was being wrung tight.


    He had suspected Qing Shen and questioned his motives. He probed and mocked him again and again, but Qing Shen never showed any signs of anger.


    However, Qing Shen must have felt very sad at the time.


    "Bro, let''s go." Qing Zhen said, "We can''t let Third Bro''s death be in vain."


    "Mhm, we can''t let Third Bro die in vain," Luo Lan echoed with a nod.


    The four of them walked into the darkness of the secret tunnel. There was already a vehicle parked at the end of it. The four of them, in one vehicle, would head to the rendezvous point on the route as nned.


    To the east of Stronghold 111, Dusk was crawling at a very fast speed. Meanwhile, a flock of birds were circling above its head like a dark cloud.


    After Luo Lan andpany drove away from Stronghold 111, Dusk immediately changed directions and chased after the vehicle.


    ¡­


    In the military-controlled zone of Stronghold 144, tens of thousands of the elderly, women, and children were lining up to step through the enchanted doorway.


    The expected panic did not ur. Most of the evacuees just waited in the rest area for their turn.


    There was water and food provided in the rest area, and everyone held a piece of paper in their hands, which marked their number in line. Every once in a while, a soldier from the Northwest Army woulde and call out the numbers. Those whose numbers were called would line up outside and be led to the enchanted doorway.


    However, there was every kind of person in this chaotic world.


    It was not only the elderly, women, and children who were lining up, but also the prominent merchants and their families.


    Wang Fugui had conscripted several hundred of their trucks for military use, so he naturally had to give them some preferential treatment as well. As such, he allowed them to leave straight through the enchanted doorway without needing to suffer a harsh evacuation journey.


    The truth of the matter was the rich and powerful indeed enjoyed some privileges in the world.


    Although Wang Fugui could exercise control over them at any moment, he still had to give them some leeway due to their reputation.


    After these merchants arrived at the military-controlled zone, they still had to line up like themon folk and wait for their number to be called.


    But naturally, they were unwilling to wait. As such, they bought the more advanced queue numbers with their gold and headed earlier to Fortress 178 through the enchanted doorway.


    These prominent merchants had even purchased some properties at Fortress 178, so they could instantly separate from the group and move into their own ce in the city after they arrived.


    The Northwest Army knew about all this, but they did not interfere too much.


    This was how the real world worked.


    The old man Ren Xiaosu had ordered the soldiers to carry here had be some sort of a celebrity in the rest area.


    He rted to the new evacuees over and over again how he had been forcefully brought here by the futuremander. Then he described how benevolent the futuremander was since he even cared about someone unimportant like him.


    Based on his description, it was no longer the soldiers who had brought him here. Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu who had personally carried him to the military-controlled zone.


    Right now, what the old man felt most emotional about was how fast the world had changed. The Northwest Army actually had such a method to transport people thousands of kilometers in just an instant.


    But all of a sudden, a sparrow flew into the military-controlled zone with a wooden pipe in its mouth.


    The sentinels ced on high ground had already received orders to kill every bird they saw on sight.


    Bang! Bang! Two gunshots rang out. The sparrow with the wooden pipe in its mouth was shot so violently it exploded into a ball of feathers and dropped straight to the ground.


    When the Great Hoodwinker heard the gunshots, he immediately brought his men over to check. He ignored the sparrow and picked up the wooden pipe from the ground. When he opened it, he was surprised to see a note inside. "In three minutes, there will be a missile attack on the entrance of the portal. Please evacuate the crowd. Don''t attempt to move the portal, or the entirety of Stronghold 144 will be destroyed."


    The Great Hoodwinker was stunned for a moment. There was no doubt this was a note from Zero.


    Zero seemed to have already found out how they were retreating, so it wanted to directly destroy their enchanted doorway.


    But the Great Hoodwinker could not figure something out. Since Zero wanted to send a missile here, why did it still issue a warning?


    So, what the artificial intelligence wanted to destroy wasn''t the humans here but that portal?


    What was the purpose of this?


    This portal itself could be moved. After all, with the way Ren Xiaosu used his own enchanted doorway, everyone understood that a movable enchanted doorway was actually more reliable.


    But now, Zero even wanted to block this evacuation method of theirs in advance.


    There was no time to think about all that. The Great Hoodwinker roared, "Hurry up and get everyone out of here! Quick! The further away from the enchanted doorway everyone gets, the better!"


    The soldiers did not know what was going on either, but obeying orders was something that was ingrained in their bones. The Northwest Army quickly got down to leading the evacuees away. Everyone retreated as far away from the enchanted doorway as they could.


    The Wang Consortium had its own missile troops. Although their missile troops were far inferior to the Qing Consortium''s, they were still terrifying enough.


    Currently, the four strongholds at the front line were probably within the range of the enemy''s missiles. In other words, the artificial intelligence''s army was not far away anymore.


    In the vast military-controlled zone, everyone was fleeing.


    The Great Hoodwinker did not dare take a gamble on whether the warning on the note was for real. His only option was to lead everyone away from here!


    Someone suddenly ran in the direction of the enchanted doorway.


    The Great Hoodwinker turned around and was surprised to see Zhang Hao, the person who had activated that enchanted doorway.


    The Great Hoodwinker roared, "Where are you going? The missiles are about to hit! Why are you still running back in at a time like this? Do you want to die?"


    However, Zhang Hao turned around and said, "Commander P5092 instructed me that if the enchanted doorway is in danger of being destroyed, it has to be deactivated. Otherwise, everyone who has passed through the enchanted doorway in the past two days will also tumble out!"


    The Great Hoodwinker fell silent. Tens of thousands of people had passed through the enchanted doorway in the past two days. If all of those evacuees were to fall back out into Stronghold 144, he would not know how to answer Ren Xiaosu.


    But the problem was that if Zhang Hao went to close the enchanted doorway now, there would not be enough time for him to make it back.


    The choice of saving one person or tens of thousands of people was presented in front of everyone again.


    This was a difficult choice to make. Even someone like the Great Hoodwinker who was greatly experienced would find it difficult toe to a decision immediately.


    However, the choice did not seem difficult for Zhang Hao. Zhang Hao saluted the Great Hoodwinker from afar and said with a smile, "Commander Zhang Husheng, I''m a soldier of the Northwest."


    After that, he turned around and ran towards the building where the enchanted doorway was located like an agile cheetah.


    In the distant sky, three slender missiles with long tails flew over at a speed that could break the sound barrier.


    More than 20 secondster, the missiles hit the enchanted doorway at the same time like a thunderp. The area within a radius of several dozen meters was instantly reduced to ash. However, what the Great Hoodwinker was worried about did not happen. The people who had arrived at Fortress 178 through the enchanted doorway did not fall back out of the portal.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1243 Reinforcements

    The enchanted doorway had been destroyed, but there were still tens of thousands of elderly, women, and children who did not manage to get away in time.


    Zero had given the Northwest Army three minutes to disperse the crowd. But the problem was that these tens of thousands of people were all in the vicinity of the enchanted doorway. Three minutes was too tight, so there would surely be some who didn''t manage to get away.


    After the explosion, the Great Hoodwinker immediately tallied the casualties. He realized hundreds of people had been injured by the shrapnel and gravel in the missile bombardment.


    Hundreds of soldiers from the Northwest Army in charge of evacuating the crowd were also injured or killed.


    No one had expected such a situation. With the enchanted doorway gone, it meant the elderly, women, and children would have to evacuate to Fortress 178 on foot.


    Moreover, the most critical issue was that this group of people were the least mobile. There were women cradling children and mobility-impaired elderly people. The Great Hoodwinker was so stressed his hair almost turned white.


    When Zhang Xiaoman, who was elsewhere in the stronghold, heard the explosions, he rushed over anxiously. "What happened here?"


    The Great Hoodwinker muttered, "The Wang Consortium''s missile troops don''t have great range. In other words, they''re already very close to us. It''s toote for us to evacuate now."


    P5092, who had been formting a battle n, rushed over as well. Zhang Xiaoman looked at him and asked, "Can we use the trucks expropriated by the 6th Field Division to evacuate these people?"


    P5092 shook his head calmly. "No, the 6th Field Division will only have enough mobility with those trucks. Even if these elderly and children get controlled by the AI, they won''t pose much of a threat. After all, their physical bodies are far from being able to withstand the intensity of war. Instead, it''s more important that we preserve ourbat troops now."


    Zhang Xiaoman said anxiously, "But they''re just children and the elderly. We can''t just watch them die while evacuating, right? With their speed, the AI will probably catch up to them within two days!"


    "That won''t do." P5092 said coldly, "War is war. Future Commander isn''t around, so as themander-in-chief of the 6th Field Division, I definitely can''t make decisions based on emotions and morals. There''s only one criteria I use to make decisions, and that is how to win the war."


    Zhang Xiaoman was speechless. Everyone knew P5092 was right, but they just couldn''t ept it emotionally.


    P5092 looked at the chaotic scenes in the military-controlled zone. "Hurry up and restore order here. Organize their evacuation by foot. I''m going to continue with the formtion of the battle n."


    With that, P5092 turned around and returned to themand center. It was as though these crying evacuees had nothing to do with him.


    Zhang Xiaoman muttered, "Cold-blooded¡­"


    The Great Hoodwinker nced at him. "Actually, his decision isn''t wrong."


    Zhang Xiaoman sighed. "I also know he isn''t wrong. From a military point of view, I agree with him. It''s just that I feel terrible about it. I can only hope the AI won''t get here so soon."


    ¡­


    At the outpost east of Stronghold 144, Zhou Yingxue carried a wooden chair and sat down at the entrance of the outpost,nguidly sunbathing.


    She narrowed her eyes and hummed a faint tune.


    Under her feet, several vines stretched out dozens of kilometers into the distance.


    These vines were not densely packed as Zhou Yingxue was only using them to carry out reconnaissance for the time being.


    Although Zhou Yingxue''s creeper vine power was enough to devour an entire stronghold, the area she had to scout out was simply toorge. She had to sacrifice the density of the creeper vines in exchange for covering the area.


    These creeper vines meandered on the ground like the veins of arge leaf. Looking down from above, it exuded a strange sense of beauty.


    What made Zhou Yingxue a little unhappy was that the people in Stronghold 144 seemed to have gotten very busy. No one hade to deliver food to her yesterday.


    Zhou Yingxue used the outpost''s phone line to make a call back toin. However, she was warned by P5092 not to hog themunication lines. Before discovering the enemy''s presence, the outpost should remain silent.


    Otherwise, everyone would get nervous every time Zhou Yingxue rang back and think that the enemy had already arrived.


    All of a sudden, Zhou Yingxue stood up from her chair.


    Dozens of kilometers away, a horde of people suddenly surged towards the area covered by the creeper vines.


    Zhou Yingxue was no longer a minor character who could easily be manipted by others. She tried to use the creeper vine to attack the horde, but the creeper vines were not dense enough to cause any damage to them. As a result, the horde was able to tear through the creeper vine''s blockade before it could even kill a few people.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    After the enemy encountered the creeper vines, they suddenly split up into three groups and headed towards Strongholds 144, 145, and 146 respectively. There were probably several million humans in that horde alone.


    Zhou Yingxue frowned. Her mission was to scout the area, not fight the enemy.


    Before Ren Xiaosu left the outpost, he made it very clear that even though she was very powerful now, this enemy was not an opponent any superhuman could defeat in a duel. Therefore, she only needed to report back the enemy''s situation and did not have to put up any resistance.


    Zhou Yingxue turned around and went into the outpost to make a call back to Fortress 178. "The enemy has arrived. They''re still 67 kilometers away from the outpost. They''ve split up into three groups and headed out in three different directions."


    After that, Zhou Yingxue quickly retracted the creeper vines and fled in the direction of Stronghold 144.


    In the stronghold, the Great Hoodwinker was worried before he heard that. But now that Zhou Yingxue had reported the enemy''s situation, he became much calmer.


    It was pointless to be worried. They could only try to think of countermeasures for now.


    P5092 said to the Great Hoodwinker, "The 6th Field Division will take charge of dying the enemy using guerri warfare. Evacuate everyone as quickly as possible. The 6th Field Division won''t be able to hold them off for long."


    The Great Hoodwinker asked, "How much time can you buy us? The outpost is more than a 100 kilometers away from Stronghold 144. With the AI''s march speed, it should be able to catch up to the group of evacuees within a day and a half¡­ or two at most."


    P5092 said, "I can''t guarantee how long the 6th Field Division can hold them off for. You also know full well the kind of enemy we''re facing. What the 6th Field Division can do is ensure that the evacuees who left earlier don''t get caught by the horde. I don''t think we should hold too much hope for the group that''s still here."


    Actually, P5092''s intent was very clear. It was impossible for this group of elderly, women, and children who were stranded in Stronghold 144 to survive.


    The Great Hoodwinker sighed. Was there really no other way?


    But at this moment, Xun Yeyu suddenly ran out of the barracks and shouted, "This is bad, this is bad! A group of enemies have entered from the northeast and into my detection range. I sense probably thousands of superhumans in that group."


    Everyone was stunned. Didn''t the futuremander say the artificial intelligence should be incapable of controlling superhumans? Why were there suddenly so many of them then?


    And the problem was that there shouldn''t even be that many superhumans in the entirety of the Alliance of Strongholds, right?!


    Zhang Xiaoman said to Xun Yeyu, "Can you stop looking so shocked? Are you sure you sensed it right? How can there be so many superhumans?"


    "My detection is definitely not wrong." Xun Yeyu said, "Those thousands of superhumans are escorting tens of thousands of ordinary people as they rush over. I think they''ll only take four hours before they reach our stronghold. No, there''s another superhuman who''s extremely fast. He''s broken away from the main group and is running over here alone."


    "He''sing here alone?" The Great Hoodwinker wondered what that was about.


    P5092 suddenly said, "Who knows, this might be a turning point for us."


    He turned around and got a soldier to drive, and the group of them headed in the direction of the iing party. P5092 suddenly felt that this group of people who had suddenly arrived were friends and not enemies.


    P5092 said, "Do you all remember that we also encountered a situation like this on Mt. Zuoyun? Back then, everyone also thought that thousands of superhumans had arrived."


    The Great Hoodwinker''s eyes lit up. "You mean that wolf pack from the grasnds?!"


    "That''s right." P5092 nodded.


    Slightly more than half an hourter, they saw Hassan riding a warhorse in the wilderness appearing in front of them. The horse''s towering presence was like a column of dark clouds and looked extremely handsome.


    The Great Hoodwinker had heard about how the warhorses in the grasnds had all evolved. If such warhorses were bred with warhorses from the Central ins, the Central ins species would definitely have aborious birth.


    Hassan sat on his horse and said loudly, "I''m here on Master''s orders to pass you the news. Tens of thousands of warhorses and cows are being herded over by the wolves at the rear for everyone to use as transportation. Master mentioned that you all should be worrying about the evacuation right now."


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1244 - 1244 Absolute confidence

    1244 Absolute confidence


    Shortly after Hassan arrived at Stronghold 144, everyone saw a familiar wolf pack appear on the horizon. Back then, during the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun, the wolf pack had torn through the barbarians¡¯ formation and looked exceptionally ferocious.


    Now that everyone saw the wolf pack again, they felt a sense of familiarity deep down.


    However, the Great Hoodwinker did not understand something. ¡°How did your master know that we¡¯ve encountered difficulties in our evacuation?¡±


    Logically speaking,munications between the Northwest and the grasnds had already been cut off, so how did the other party know?


    Hassan thought for a long while before saying, ¡°Although I don¡¯t quite understand either, that¡¯s what makes my master so powerful.¡±


    !!


    After Yan Liuyuan became a demigod and could virtually bestow cmity upon anyone, a lot of people gradually forgot that his expertise was actually luck.


    Yan Liuyuan knew that time was of the essence, but he did not know how he could quickly go to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s assistance.


    Therefore, he blessed Ren Xiaosu with luck and casually questioned Hassan, ¡°What kind of predicament do you think the Northwest Army is facing now?¡±


    At that time, Hassan was a little afraid to answer. How could his master ask him such an important question?


    But Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°You only need to answer me.¡±


    Hassan said that if it were really as Yan Liuyuan had said, that the enemy this time was really difficult to contend against, then the Northwest would definitely be in a hurry to retreat. However, with so many evacuees, they would probably not be able to evacuate all at once.


    Yan Liuyuan nodded at that time. Then he ordered Hassan and the wolves to set out first and head to Stronghold 144 to reinforce the Northwest Army.


    The wolves were like sheepdogs, herding the warhorses and cows to their destination. Then, they finally made it there at the most critical moment.


    The blessing of luck and Yan Liuyuan¡¯s questioning of Hassan had produced a wonderful reaction. This was a technique Yan Liuyuan had long ago mastered.


    At this moment, the Great Hoodwinker was overjoyed when he heard Hassan¡¯s words. Those wolves understood human nature. They were also huge and had strong legs, and each wolf could amodate two to three people sitting on them.


    Coupled with the cattle herd, it was enough to evacuate the women, children, and elderly.


    Stronghold 144, which used to be bustling with activity, now looked a little empty.


    The evacuees quickly gathered at the city gate at the behest of the Northwest Army. At first, everyone did not dare to approach the wolves when they saw them. To be honest, even the soldiers of the Northwest Army were a little afraid of them let alone the civilians.


    The wolves really looked too strong.


    However, everyone quickly realized this wolf pack was really obedient. When some of them approached, the wolves did not even twitch. They even took the initiative to lie down and let the civilians climb onto their backs.


    Even when a child tugged their fur while mounting their backs, they did not look annoyed. Rather, they seemed quite used to it already.


    When P5092 saw this sight, he said to the Great Hoodwinker, ¡°Once the evacuation issue is resolved, the 6th Field Division will be able to harass the enemy without any distractions.¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°No. The 6th Field Division has to buy more time for ourrades at the rear. I¡¯ve seen their defensive n. Based on the enemy¡¯s current pace, if we want to stabilize our rear defensive line, we have to buy them at least two more days. Moreover, the evacuation of the civilians won¡¯t happen that quickly. The enemy has mechanized units, so it¡¯s very easy for them to catch up.¡±


    P5092 was a genius inmand. He only needed to nce at his allies¡¯ defensive ns to know how he should cooperate with them.


    Zhang Jinglin never asked them to dy the enemy for two days, but P5092 knew very well that this was the responsibility of the 6th Field Division.


    The deployment of the defensive line was a veryplex operation. There had been various defensive lines in the Northwest before too, but the problem was that the size of the enemy they had envisioned was not asrge as the human horde.


    Therefore, the entire n required readjusting now that they were facing a different kind of enemy.


    If they used the same strategy as before, they would probably be severely disadvantaged.


    Moreover, even though there were wolves and cowsing to transport the civilians for their evacuation, only several tens of thousands of these evacuees were afforded the option. There were still more than a million evacuees retreating on foot from the four strongholds.


    The distance from Stronghold 144 to the rear of the defensive line was 481 kilometers. This was too far for normal people to travel on foot.


    If these people were caught by the enemy, it would be disastrous.


    The Great Hoodwinker sighed and said, ¡°Alright, be careful then. Let me handle the evacuees. I¡¯ll leave the harassment of the enemy to you.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry.¡± P5092 turned around and walked into the stronghold. There were still tens of thousands of Northwest Army soldiers waiting for him there.


    Aftering to the Northwest, Ren Xiaosu had fulfilled all his promises to him. There were no plots, power struggles, or civil wars between the strongholds. They were only fighting for the survival of mankind.


    Ren Xiaosu even agreed to let the Pyro Company¡¯s former soldiers serve asbat engineers.


    Sometimes, P5092 felt thating to the Northwest might have been the best decision of his life.


    All of Ren Xiaosu¡¯s promises to him had been fulfilled.


    Therefore, P5092 could not let Ren Xiaosu down.


    The 6th Field Division was destined to be an isted boat in the open sea, facing the surging tsunami by itself.


    However, this was not the first time P5092 had faced such a challenge.


    After returning to the military base, ck Fox ordered the 6th Field Division to be on standby. Hundreds of military transport vehicles were parked, and every soldier was in high spirits.


    Although they were all a little afraid, there was no point in feeling so.


    The Riders were also among them. P5092 said to Li Yingyun, ¡°Although you aren¡¯t obliged to fight alongside us, you¡¯ll still have to obey orders since you¡¯ve joined us. It might sound blunt of me, but it¡¯s better to say it upfront.¡±


    The Riders looked at each other and smiled. Zhang Qingxiughed and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we know what to do. Just treat us as normal soldiers.¡±


    P5092 assigned all the Riders to thebat squad of 22 T5batants. He nned on using them as a sharp, indestructible knife during the most critical moments.


    ¡­


    North of Stronghold 111, Luo Lan was driving an off-road vehicle as he fled crazily north. For the journey, he and Xu Man rotated as drivers throughout the day.


    The off-road vehicle¡¯s trunk was filled with gasoline, enough tost them until they reached Fortress 178.


    However, what worried them most was not the off-road vehicle, but Dusk, who was in pursuit behind them.


    Luo Lan looked back through the rear-view mirror and saw that the sky was filled with sweeping dark clouds. The dark clouds were not real but an attack group formed by birds.


    Luo Lan muttered, ¡°Qing Zhen, we¡¯re still more than 200 kilometers away from the rendezvous point you mentioned, but I feel like¡­ we might not be able to hold on until then.¡±


    The roads between the Northwest and Southwest were very well built, but even so, it would still take over an hour for the off-road vehicle to travel about 200 kilometers.


    They could drive faster, but the problem was that once their speed exceeded 200 kilometers per hour, even a small stone on the road might send everyone to their deaths.


    After all, this was not a professional racetrack, so maintenance work was not carried out that frequently.


    Qing Zhen also nced behind him, but he did not seem flustered at all.


    Zhou Qi was the first to get anxious. ¡°Say something. We¡¯re about to die, and there¡¯s not even a fucking river nearby, so I won¡¯t be able to escape this time!¡±


    Qing Zhenughed and said, ¡°Why the anxiety? If it¡¯s really Ren Xiaosuing to receive us, I have absolute confidence in him. Don¡¯t worry, he will get here in time.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the off-road vehicle heard the sound of a whistle approaching quickly from the north.


    On the horizon, a steam lotive was traveling towards them at full speed. Ren Xiaosu had not gone to the rendezvous point to wait. Instead, he headed south to directly meet up with them.

 Chapter 1245 Galloping Thunder

    The sky was filled with dark clouds while the ground rumbled like thunder.


    The dark clouds and rumbling thunder gave chase to the off-road vehicle ahead of it. The road leading straight north was like a long ck line carved into the terrain as Dusk constantly smashed through the tail end of it.


    Dusk was a behemoth. Wherever it passed, the road''s surface and foundation cracked like a fragileyer of rammed earth that had fallen into disrepair.


    "Although that monster chasing after us is terrifying, we might still be able to get rid of it with heavy firepower. But those things in the sky, what means do we have to stop them?" Luo Lan asked worriedly as he looked in the rearview mirror.


    In the past, although the birds roaming the skies had turned very aggressive and gained territorial awareness of the sky, attacking any flying objects that entered their airspace, they had never initiated attacks on humans.


    Although some people said that the eagles in some areas would carry off children as food, that was actually still within the definition of hunting instincts.


    But these birds had be way too terrifying after being controlled by the artificial intelligence.


    Most importantly, humans did not seem to have any means to keep them in check.


    They could do a sweeping fire on them with machine guns, but the birds in the sky were far more agile than these firearms.


    When the steam lotive appeared on the horizon, Luo Lan was overjoyed. "Ren Xiaosu has arrived. Hahaha, I knew he wouldn''t disappoint me!"


    Zhou Qi muttered, "It was Qing Zhen who said that, not you."


    Luo Lan casually stepped on the elerator and said with augh, "It doesn''t matter who said it, what matters is that we won''t die once Ren Xiaosu arrives. I''ve sat in his steam lotive before. The ss windows are bulletproof. I don''t believe those birds can break into Ren Xiaosu''s steam lotive."


    It seemed that Ren Xiaosu had never disappointed Luo Lan since they made their escape from Stronghold 113.


    If not for Ren Xiaosu, Luo Lan would have died five or six times over.


    Luo Lan floored the elerator. The off-road vehicle''s engine emitted a buzzing sound and the engine''s rotational speed instantly increased. The exhaust that was expelled entered the turbines through the pipeline and instantly increased the impeller pressure.


    As the engine''s throttle increased, so did the intensity of the exhaust discharge and speed of the turbines. The pressure and density of the air increased, instantly burning up the fuel in the gas tank.


    The ck off-road vehicle was like a wild beast as it sped up again. Qing Zhen andpany were all pressed tightly against the backrest as they felt the adrenaline rush from the getaway.


    Initially, Luo Lan would not have been able to drive so fast. After all, if they went too fast, they could perish in a car ident before the monster behind them could catch up to them.


    But they did not have to care about that anymore. What they needed to do was to rendezvous with Ren Xiaosu so he could continue leading them on their escape.


    At the same time, Dusk picked up its speed again and broke away from the shadow of the "dark clouds."


    The sight of the steam lotive in the north, and the off-road vehicle and Dusk in the south, was like the most violent representationsing to a sh in the wilderness. A collision was about to happen.


    As the distance between the off-road vehicle and steam lotive drew closer, Luo Lan andpany''s anticipation also grew stronger.


    But as they were about to join up with Ren Xiaosu, Luo Lan gradually stepped on the brakes while Ren Xiaosu drove the steam lotive straight past them.


    Ren Xiaosu sat at the front of the railcar with a calm expression. When the two vehicles passed each other by, a huge gust of wind stirred and fluttered Ren Xiaosu''s clothes.


    A huge column of ck smoke spewed out from the steam lotive''s smokestack behind Ren Xiaosu. As he sat there in front, Ren Xiaosu resembled a god.


    Luo Lan, Qing Zhen, and the others got out of their off-road vehicle in shock and turned around to look behind them.


    The steam lotive was hurtling south towards the surging dark clouds.


    On the opposing side, a flock of birds blotted out the sun while the terrifying Dusk crawled on the ground, but the steam lotive did not slow down.


    Ren Xiaosu was not only here to deal with them, but also to deal with what was potentially the most dangerous threat.


    "Wait a minute, is Ren Xiaosu able to defeat that monster?" Zhou Qi said in shock, "Don''t tell me he doesn''t want to live anymore?"


    Qing Zhen and Xu Man also frowned, seemingly thinking about something.


    Only Luo Lan suddenly remembered that the leopard gecko called Midnight Ren Xiaosu had summoned back in the Kingdom of Sorcerers was really simr to the one chasing them right now.


    Although Midnight''s color was lighter, a fiery red, the one pursuing them was fully brown.


    However, Luo Lan definitely would not believe that these two lizards were unrted, owing to the fact that they both appeared around the same time.


    Previously, when Luo Lan asked about Midnight''s origins, Ren Xiaosu answered him honestly.


    So Luo Lan suddenly gulped and said, "You might not believe me even if I tell you, but that monster chasing us might be Ren Xiaosu''s pet. He has another one of them. Zhou Qi, you should have already guessed it as well¡­."<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Qing Zhen and Xu Man looked at Luo Lan and Zhou Qi in unison.


    Zhou Qi nodded. "Ren Xiaosu indeed has a pet that''s about the same size as that monster. However, this one''s likely controlled by the AI."


    Qing Zhen was the smartest one among the four. "This monster had been living in the mouth of a volcano in the Jing Mountains. The Jing Mountains is where the Pyro Company''s Laboratory 39 was located, and the Pyro Company calls that ce a hallowed ground. So, if this leopard gecko is Ren Xiaosu''s pet, Ren Xiaosu must be the No. 001 Experimental."


    Otherwise, no one could exin the connection between this monster and Ren Xiaosu. The Qing Consortium had evidence that the two lizards had been living inside the Sacred Mountains since a hundred years ago. Some traveling merchants had heard roarsing from inside the volcano. Of course, it was still only a myth at that time, but the legend was now as good as confirmed.


    These two lizards had existed since a hundred years ago, and they were also Ren Xiaosu''s pets. Therefore, Ren Xiaosu must be at least a hundred years old.


    The Experimental who was dressed in the ck robe had once told Li Yingyun that they were looking for the perfected No. 001 Experimental. It was said that that was a true god, and it was very likely he had already blended into society.


    Experimentals. This was a terrifying term for anyone who heard it.


    However, when Luo Lan suddenly realized Ren Xiaosu was the No. 001 Experimental, he felt that this term did not sound that scary anymore.


    "So be it if he''s an Experimental. He should be a sessful specimen that''s definitely different from those gray-skinned ones." Luo Lan said firmly, "Qing Zhen, if he doesn''t bring it up himself, we mustn''t mention it to anyone either."


    "Mhm," Qing Zhen agreed. "Actually, the fact he honestly admitted to you that it''s his pet already confirms his identity. This is a sign he trusts you."


    "Wait!" Zhou Qi shouted, "Ren Xiaosu is about to collide with that lizard and the flock of birds! Should we retreat farther away? If Ren Xiaosu can''t manage to defeat them, it''ll be easier for us to escape!"


    Luo Lan snapped, "Get a backbone, will ya? Ren Xiaosu is here to rescue us, so how can we just abandon him and run away?"


    "The problem is that there''s not even a river here. We aren''t going to be of any help at all," Zhou Qi roared.


    "Still, we can''t just leave." Luo Lan said, "What if we''re able to help in some way? If we can''t, we''ll just perish here together."


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu stood up at the front of the railcar and reached his hand into the column of ck smoke chugging out of the smokestack.


    A momentter, a hand suddenly appeared in the dark cloud of birds in the sky. It was holding four ying cards between its slender index and middle fingers.


    The cards were 9s.


    Ren Xiaosu retracted his arm and closed the Shadow Door, but the four ying cards remained suspended in the air.


    The spade, heart, club, and diamond suits on the cards seemingly underwent a chemical reaction. The suit symbols started to glow and erupt with an unparalleled, majestic burst of energy.


    Luo Lan andpany watched from afar as a red glow suddenly appeared among the dark clouds in the sky.


    The light shrouded behind the dark cloud was likeva spewing out of a volcanic rock crack. It was peaceful, yet extremely violent.


    Before Luo Lan and the others could get a clear look, they saw rays of light splitting the dark cloud apart. It was as though it had been cut open by a de of light. Then all of the energy released by the four Explosive Poker cards erupted.


    All of the birds burst into me and were turned to ash in an instant.


    The explosive range of 9s was enough to cover a radius of 800 meters and destroy all life within it.


    However, 9 was also the highest card Ren Xiaosu had drawn so far.


    It was not that he did not have the luck to draw better cards, but that he had already traded for more Proficiency Stones with his gratitude tokens.


    Just as the Great Hoodwinker, Zhang Husheng, often said, everything was for the Prosperous Northwest.


    The Prosperous Northwest was now an incantation.


    Just as Luo Lan andpany were in shock as they watched the fiery explosion in the sky, they saw a huge ster gate suddenly opening in front of the steam lotive.


    Luo Lan muttered, "There it is! There it is!"


    Midnight rushed out through the ster gate and crashed head-on into Dusk.


    Tranted by: Legge


    Edited by: /book/the-first-order_14219251705674005

 Chapter 1246 - Chapter 1246: Gut-wrenching

    Chapter 1246: Gut-wrenching


    Trantor: Legge


    When the ster gate opened, Midnight, who was summoned from the other side, immediately understood Ren Xiaosu¡¯s will.


    Without any hesitation, it pounced towards Dusk, who was stomping towards Ren Xiaosu. The two humongous beasts, which rarely revealed themselves to the world, shed, and even the ground felt like it was about to cave in.


    Qing Zhen and Xu Man looked at this sight in a daze and felt an unprecedented shock.


    Even Zhou Qi and Luo Lan, who already knew about Midnight, once more felt their hearts palpitate inexplicably at the sight of this huge creature.


    How many superhumans in the world could contend against such a monster? Probably not that many.


    The power of superhumans had always been unpredictably strange. Most of their powers were immaterial and not intuitive to the eye.


    But now, Midnight¡¯s strength was clear as day, and it had surpassed the power of mere mortals.


    In the past, Xu Man felt that even if Ren Xiaosu were really powerful, he still couldn¡¯t fight an army.


    But Xu Man realized it was very difficult for him to get a clear grasp of how strong Ren Xiaosu was. The steam lotive, White Mask, the ability to st through that dark cloud earlier, and many other things they had never even heard of before.


    The other party was just like a real magician, always able toe up with surprises.


    Didn¡¯t they say that superhumans could only possess one type of power? Xu Man had heard of some people possessing two powers, but even that was already considered rare. So what was with the myriad powers Ren Xiaosu wielded?


    So this was what the No. 001 Experimental was?


    Honestly, Xu Man was unaware that the superhumans he had heard about who possessed two superpowers were actually linked to Ren Xiaosu as well.


    One of them was Xu Xianchu, who carried a ck cauldron, while the other was Wang Congyang, who also carried a ck cauldron.


    Rumbling erupted in the wilderness. When the two behemoths tussled and bit at each other, clouds of dust surged into the sky. Shockwaves were stirred up, and even the color of the world seemed to have changed.


    Qing Zhen andpany looked on as though they had been transported into


    an alien world. It was so bizarre.


    Midnight and Dusk had spent more than 200 years of their lives together and were both familiar and close to each other.


    Luo Lan watched the two behemoths embroiled in fighting and suddenly said,


    ¡°If they are both Ren Xiaosu¡¯s pets, Ren Xiaosu will definitely be very sad that Zero made them fight, right?¡±


    Zhou Qi pursed his lips. ¡°You¡¯re still in the mood to be sentimental at a time like this? We might not even survive this, so don¡¯t worry about them being his pets.¡±


    Luo Lan nced at him. ¡°I still think you were more likable back at the silt farm.¡±


    Zhou Qi shut his mouth and stopped talking.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu actually drove the steam lotive back to where


    Luo Lan andpany were. ¡°Get on.¡±


    As Ren Xiaosu spoke, he did not look at them. He stood at the front of the steam lotive and silently observed Midnight and Dusk. From time to time, he would check his surroundings.


    He didn¡¯t look like he had any intention of helping Midnight.


    Not far away, Dusk suddenly kicked Midnight away and tried to pounce directly on Qing Zhen. But before it could get away, Midnight pounced on it from behind again. The two huge lizards rolled and bit each other in the wilderness, with neither of them able to shake off the other.


    If no others intervened in this battle, the two leopard geckos would probably end up brutally injured and exhausted. Neither of them would survive.


    But Ren Xiaosu still did not make a move.


    Before Qing Zhen got onto the train, he asked Ren Xiaosu, ¡°What are you waiting for?¡±


    Or rather, did Ren Xiaosu have his guard up against something?


    Ren Xiaosu gave Qing Zhen a steely look. ¡°There¡¯s other threats.¡±


    Before leaving, P5092 had spoken with Ren Xiaosu. He told Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Future Commander, this trip to the Southwest is actually very dangerous. You and I have already experienced theputational power of that Al. So, all our future ns won¡¯t go too smoothly, and that¡¯s not something we should be surprised about.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Are you saying the Al won¡¯t allow me to take Qing Zhen away from the Southwest so easily?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± P5092 nodded and said, ¡°Even if the Al looks like it can¡¯t be rivaled anymore and is capable of destroying everything by just sending in a horde of people, in the face of such disheartening power, many people forget the Al is actually the most scheming ¡®person.¡¯ Sometimes, the way it approaches scenarios may be much more intricate than what we can predict.¡± ¡°So what do you want me to do?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°I only hope that Future Commander, regardless of what obstacles you might encounter, will leave the battlefield immediately and not let your mind linger on battle. Furthermore, you¡¯ll have to pay attention to your surroundings at all times and be careful of the Al¡¯s contingencies.¡± P5092 turned to Wang Yun and said, ¡°I keep getting the feeling that the Al has some contingency ns. Can you recall if there¡¯s any forces in the Central ins that we¡¯ve neglected but might be under the control of the Al?¡±


    Wang Yun cycled through his memories. ¡°We haven¡¯t seen the Wang


    Consortium¡¯s special forces unit that goes by Sharp Arrow yet. I don¡¯t think the Al will deploy them as basic troops, right?¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°That unit consists of only standard soldiers. Under the control of the Al, anyone can have the skills of the special forces. Perhaps their physical fitness can¡¯tpare to those soldiers, but special forces soldiers aren¡¯t really going to matter here. Are there any others?¡±


    ¡°Many superhumans hiding in the Central ins still haven¡¯t reappeared,¡± Wang Yun replied.


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡®We have to be wary of that. Based on what we know, the Al is unable to control superhumans. However, no one can be sure that this is a universal truth. If superhumans rely on their willpower to refuse being controlled, what if the Al captured a superhuman and tortured them until their will breaks? Future Commander, you have to look out for this.


    Ren Xiaosu nodded.


    P5092 asked again, ¡°Any more, Wang Yun?¡±


    Wang Yun cycled through his memories over and over again in his mind. The doors in his memory pce opened and closed one after another. Wang Yun was running through a maze of narrow passageways.


    He suddenly said, ¡°The nanosoldiers, the 2,000 Qing Consortium nanosoldiers who went missing after the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun. They are extremely well-equipped and each of them is armed with a 40 millimeter grenadeuncher. Their physical fitness can beparable to a T3batant inside the duration of a five-minute battle.¡±


    P5092 said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°That¡¯s right, not only can the nanomachines control humans, but they can also enhance their physical fitness. Future Commander, you have to be careful of the troops formed by the nanosoldiers. The Al might have enough strength to form such a force. Moreover, it wasn¡¯t easy for the Qing Consortium to gather those 2,000 1+0 millimeter grenadeunchers back then. They¡¯re carrying a lot of ammunition with them as well. Any superhuman who faces a unit with such highly mobile firepower will probably get destroyed.¡±


    In P5092¡¯s opinion, the artificial intelligence must be expecting Ren Xiaosu to take Qing Zhen and Luo Lan away. Therefore, it must have prepared a contingency n.


    The artificial intelligence would surely not have been sitting idle while the Northwest was organizing the evacuation and the Southwest was building the Three Mountains defensive line.


    Therefore, Ren Xiaosu did not participate in the battle between Midnight and Dusk at this moment because he was waiting for Zero¡¯s contingency n to be effected.


    At this moment, khaki-colored armored vehicles and military transport trucks appeared on the horizon from all directions. Ren Xiaosu could imagine them filled with heavily armed nanosoldiers and even be equipped with the most extreme gear that individualbatants could carry.


    The Southwest and Northwest were fighting blind now. They did not have any satellites or reconnaissance troops. Therefore, while they were busy retreating and defending, Zero took the opportunity to get many of its ns in order.


    If not for P5092¡¯s reminder to Ren Xiaosu, Ren Xiaosu would have participated in the battle between Midnight and Dusk, and it would probably have be very difficult for him to discover these enemy troops that had suddenly arrived.


    Once they got surrounded by the heavy firepower of the 2,000 nanosoldiers, even Ren Xiaosu would die here.


    Let alone 2,000 nanosoldiers, even if only 500 of them came, he might not be able to leave this ce alive. Once the grenadeunchers started firing nonstop, who could survive the bombardment? Ren Xiaosu said to Qing Zhen andpany, ¡°Get on, we¡¯re leaving.¡±


    Luo Lan asked, ¡°Wait a minute, what about your pets?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ¡°There¡¯s no other way. Perhaps Zero¡¯s objective in intercepting you and me this time is to kill Midnight here.¡±


    Midnight was now Ren Xiaosu¡¯s greatest contingency n. Without Midnight, it was equivalent to weakening Ren Xiaosu¡¯sbat strength by half. He would have to return to fighting one-on-one with his opponents.


    However, Ren Xiaosu could not understand why Zero was doing this. If


    Midnight died but not Dusk, he would only need to use the Prosperous Northwest incantation again, and Dusk would still break free from Zero¡¯s control.


    That was what happened to Midnight the previous time. Although Zero did not know what a summoning spell was, it could surely make a rough guess, right?


    Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu froze.


    When he went to the Central ins previously, Zero had asked him if he had to choose between saving Dusk and Luo Lan, who would he choose?


    Actually, the point of that question was to choose between a friend of the same species or a pet of another species.


    Likewise, if it were Zero that was transposed into the question, it would be the point of contention that Ren Xiaosu and Zero had always had. Would humans treat creatures of other species as their equalpanions? If there was a situation where they could only choose one of two, how would humans make their choice?


    Likewise, if it were Zero that was transposed into the question, it would be the point of contention that Ren Xiaosu and Zero had always had. Would humans treat creatures of other species as their equalpanions? If there was a situation where they could only choose one of two, how would humans make their choice?


    Zero had been forcing Ren Xiaosu to make such choices over and over again as though it was just to tell him that it was not in the wrong. From the beginning, it was only fighting for the survival of itself as a civilization. That was all.


    Ren Xiaosu looked dejectedly at Midnight who was still fighting for him. He felt extremelyplex emotions spreading within him.


    Stay behind and fight alongside Midnight? Even if it meant facing death?


    At this moment, even if Ren Xiaosu were unwilling, he had to admit that Zero was actually right about some things. It was very difficult for humans to exist on equal footing with other species.


    However, there might not necessarily be equality between people either. Pursuing absolute equality was in itself a wrong philosophy.


    Midnight suddenly broke away from Dusk and turned around to look at Ren Xiaosu.


    Ren Xiaosu could see a hint of a smile behind its almost human-like expression. Then Midnight went back to fighting Dusk again.


    That smile was as though Midnight was saying, ¡°Hurry up and leave.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was unsure if this was what Midnight was telling him or if he had just imagined it to console himself.


    Zero did not seem to be doing all of this to kill anyone but to inflict gut-wrenching pain upon Ren Xiaosu.


    As the nanosoldiers approached from all directions, Ren Xiaosu could already see the ginkgo leaf logo on the vehicles from afar. He was sure these were indeed the nanosoldiers the Qing Consortium had lost previously.


    The steam lotive started moving and heading north at full speed.


    A loud explosion boomed behind them. It was the sound of grenadeunchers bombarding Midnight and Dusk. It was as though Zero intended to finish off these two behemoths together.


    Ren Xiaosu got down from the roof of the steam lotive and headed inside. He said to Qing Zhen, ¡°Mr. Zhang said that you¡¯re of extreme importance. I hope you won¡¯t disappoint us after the Northwest sacrificed so much to pick you up.¡±


    Luo Lan looked out the window and suddenly said, ¡°Wait a minute, I¡¯ve roughly estimated the number of nanosoldiers that surrounded us. Something doesn¡¯t feel right.¡±


    Xu Man answered straightforwardly, ¡°There¡¯s only a 1,000 soldiers here, but we¡¯re still not capable of going up against that number.¡±


    Luo Lan said, ¡°I understand that, but where are the other thousand nanosoldiers?¡±

 Chapter 1247 - Chapter 1247: Eye in the sky

    Chapter 1247: Eye in the sky


    Trantor: Legge


    In Stronghold 144, the 6th Field Division¡¯s convoys quickly drove out of the stronghold. They wanted to get to the mountains in the northwest before the enemy arrived so they could slow the enemy down with guerri warfare.


    For the sake of this guerri warfare, almost all of the core members of the 6th Field Division were working together. Wang Yun was the one who identified the battlefield, and the dirt road in the mountain range was marked out by the Great Hoodwinker.


    The others more or less had key roles to y as well.


    To P5092¡¯s surprise, the arrival of the Riders not only provided them with individualbat strength support but also brought along with them some unexpected gifts.


    At this moment, the Riders were sitting together in the same truck. There were several maps and countless pages of draftsid out in the cargo area. All of them were seriously writing and sketching as though they were doing some calctions.


    In the truck, ck Fox was in a discussion with P5092. ¡°Our preparations areplete now, but there¡¯s still the birds left to worry about. I¡¯ve arranged for the entire recon battalion to eliminate any birds we see along the way to prevent the Al from getting a visual on us. But the problem is that if some of the predatory birds are flying at higher altitudes, we can¡¯t do anything about them. Furthermore, it¡¯ll be very difficult for us to discover any birds hiding in the canopies of trees.¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°Let¡¯s take it as ites. There aren¡¯t any battles we can be a 100% confident of winning. Let¡¯s try our best to keep our marching to areas with no vegetation. That¡¯ll be less troublesome for us.¡±


    This was not difficult at all. The Northwest was mostly barren to begin with, and arge number of loess hills had appeared due to soil erosion. The mountainous area they identified for the guerri warfare was a region with very little vegetation.


    Although there were still satellites in the sky, P5092 had found a way to deal with them.


    When the convoy was driving towards the northern gate, someone at the front of the convoy suddenly said through the vehicle¡¯s walkie-talkie: ¡°Sir, the nomad who led the wolves here says he has something to discuss with you.¡±


    P5092 was stunned for a moment. He did not know why this nomad named Hassan was looking for him, but since he was Yan Liuyuan¡¯s envoy, he should treat him with respect.


    When the vehicle he was in reached the gate, P5092 got out of the truck and asked Hassan, ¡°Hello, what¡¯s the matter?¡± Hassan said, ¡°Y¡¯all should bring me along with you.¡±


    P5092 asked curiously, ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t the one who suggested it. It was my master,¡± Hassan said as he conjured up a hawk with a wingspan of nearly five meters. ¡°My master says that it would be very annoying if that nuisance intelligence thingy can control hawks and use them as reconnaissance, but I just happen to be able to deal with them.¡±


    P5092¡¯s eyes lit up. He did not expect the final problem in this guerri warfare n to be solved as well!


    Sometimes, P5092 felt that it was reallyforting to fight under Ren Xiaosu¡¯smand. Every problem he encountered always seemed like it could be handled by some wondrous person.


    It was as though the lucky stars were always shining upon him.


    The convoy continued advancing. Meanwhile, the huge hawk in the sky kept circling above the convoy. From time to time, it would swoop down and kill some unidentified birds.


    After the convoy traveled about 60 kilometers, hundreds of white doves suddenly flew over from the sky and surrounded Hassan¡¯s hawk.


    The well-organized group of white doves soared in the sky like they had a n. From the ground, it even seemed like they were carrying out their attacks in an attack formation.


    Compared to other birds, white doves had greater flight endurance. They could even fly nonstop from the Central ins to the Northwest.


    However, the appearance of the white doves also made P5092 realize there were probably not many birds left that were controlled by the artificial intelligence. Otherwise, the artificial intelligence would have chosen the more ferocious birds to attack Hassan¡¯s hawk.


    P5092 looked at Wang Yun. ¡°Can you kill them with your superpower?¡±


    Wang Yun¡¯s superpower was the control of air, and he could alsounch long-range attacks with it. Therefore, in the original n, Wang Yun was the one who was supposed to deal with these birds.


    However, Hassan¡¯s hawk and the group of white doves that surrounded it were flying too high.


    Wang Yun asked Hassan in the truck, ¡°Can you make your hawk fly lower so it¡¯ll be easier for me to help you kill those doves?¡±


    However, Hassan simply smiled. ¡°Unnecessary. I can handle it with just my hawk.¡±


    The feathers of the white doves fell from the sky like heavy snow while Hassan¡¯s hawk remained unaffected. It was extremely agile and ferocious as it twisted and turned in the air.


    Hassan¡¯s hawk¡¯s wings were like sharp des. A collision with it would leave the white doves bleeding profusely with cuts.


    In just three minutes, hundreds of white doves were killed by Hassan¡¯s hawk.


    P5092, the Riders, Hassan, Wang Yun, Ji Zi¡¯ang, and the others were all sitting in the same military transport truck. Everyone praised him so much that Hassan felt a little embarrassed.


    But at this moment, the Rider, Xu Ke, suddenly looked up and said, ¡°I¡¯ve figured it out! Starting from now, there¡¯ll be no satellites flying above us for the next nine hours.¡±


    The artificial intelligence currently controlled nine satellites, seven of which used to belong to the Qinghe Group.


    Therefore, as the leader and guardian of the Qinghe Group, how could Xu Ke not know the speed and trajectory of satellites?


    It was not only the Qinghe Group¡¯s own satellites, but they had also obtained the parameters of the other two satellites because they were the most knowledgeable people in this field.


    The satellites needed to go around the Earth in a fixed orbit to do their work.


    In Xu Ke¡¯s opinion, these nine satellites were all low-orbit satellites, so their observation range was far less than that of high-orbit satellites. Moreover, they were not synchronous satellites.


    A synchronous satellite referred to a satellite that had a fixed observation zone while in orbit. Its orbital speed would be consistent with that of the Earth¡¯s rotation.


    However, the technology required forunching a synchronous satellite was extremely advanced. Such satellites would be sent into a near-Earth circr orbit with a multistage rocket first, also known as a parking orbit. Once the satellite was over the equator, the control rocket would ignite again and elerate for a short period. Then the satellite would move into a transfer orbit. Once the satellite reached apogee,O the rocket would ignite again and elerate before finally entering a synchronous orbit.


    No one possessed such technology now, so there were no such things as synchronous satellites anymore.


    Based on Xu Ke¡¯s calctions, three of the nine satellites should be capable of urately observing the battle zone. But from this moment on, those three satellites were all moving along their respective orbits and heading further away from the battle zone.


    In other words, Zero would not know anything that happened here for the next nine hours.


    This was the gift the Riders brought to the 6th Field Division.


    A lot of people only paid attention to the Riders¡¯ powerful individualbat strength and physical fitness which exceeded that of a T5batant. In the end, they neglected the high intelligence of some of them.


    Xu Ke looked at P5092 and pointed at the sky above him. He said in seriousness, ¡°Starting now, thend here is ours to control.¡±


    P5092 took a deep breath. Once the artificial intelligence lost its strongest reconnaissance and observation ability, the 6th Field Division would have more tactics it could choose from.

 Chapter 1248 - 1248 Faith

    1248 Faith


    It was as though a god had sttered the ground in the Northwest with khaki paint.


    The viscous paint then solidified on the ground and formed into yellowish mountain ranges and hills and gullies.


    As the long stretch of the 6th Field Division¡¯s convoy passed through the area, it looked like a group of ants going out to find food. Vehicle by vehicle, the convoy stretched out into the distance.


    But just as they were about to pass through Xiushui Ridge, thousands of enemy troops suddenly surrounded them from the wilderness. These enemy troops had advanced on foot, but their speed far exceeded that of normal soldiers. Moreover, silvery blood vessels could be seen on their faces.


    When Ren Xiaosu retreated with Qing Zhen andpany, Luo Lan keenly noticed the number of nanosoldiers had decreased by a 1,000.


    Meanwhile, these 1,000 missing soldiers, as well as the Wang Consortium¡¯s special forces, had carried out their infiltration here in advance.


    Wang Yun and P5092 had selected an optimal location to be the battlefield this time. Since it was the best terrain, the artificial intelligence could naturally predict they would choose this ce as well.


    The artificial intelligence had too long to n, so not only did it retain the Qing Consortium¡¯s nanosoldiers, but it also turned the Wang Consortium¡¯s special forces into nanosoldiers.


    It also allocated the 40 mm grenadeunchers of the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops to these special forces.


    This army consisting of nanosoldiers was extremely mobile and possessed powerfulbat capability in a head-on battle.


    One by one, the nanosoldiers cloaked in yellow camo quickly surrounded the convoy. They did notmunicate with each other and remained silent throughout.


    At this moment, all of the satellites above this mountainous region were gradually drifting farther and farther away.


    Normally, when the satellite signals weakened, Zero¡¯s control over those puppets would also weaken.


    However, these troops were still very single-minded in their objective and did not lose focus just because the satellites had drifted far away.


    P5092 had a hypothesis about this.


    He thought that when the satellite signals weakened, these troops would be an independentwork of their own. The nanomachines would control the soldiers¡¯ nerve centers and subconsciously nt Zero¡¯s established n in them.


    To a certain extent, it was as though they were hypnotized. Although they were no longer under Zero¡¯s direct control, they still had some kind ofpulsion within them.


    Thispulsion would urge them toplete their objectives.


    Then, when the satellites returned overhead again, the execution data of these people would be uploaded, and they would return under the control of the artificial intelligence yet again.


    Of course, all of this was just P5092¡¯s hypothesis. Actually, Qing Zhen was right about one thing. The current methods employed by the artificial intelligence were probably already beyond their grasp.


    After these elite nanotroops approached the convoy, they did not engage in a direct sh. Instead, they decisively used their grenadeunchers and bombarded the convoy of several hundred trucks.


    Therefore, most troops would try their best to avoid using grenadeunchers at an extreme range of 400 meters.


    But it was different for these elite troops. Even at a distance of 380 meters, they could still urately hit the moving vehicles.


    It was as though all the trajectories had been calcted. They were so precise it was terrifying.


    These nearly 1,500 nanosoldiers roamed the wilderness like robots with a clear division of tasks. In just two minutes, they destroyed more than half of the 6th Field Division¡¯s vehicles.


    The vehicles burst into fireballs one after another, and it was as though the mountain range had suddenly turned into a scene of carnage. The sound of bombardment and explosions could be heard nonstop.


    The mountain path was narrow and only wide enough for one truck to pass through at a time.


    These nanosoldiers were also very particr about where they attacked from. They were scattered at the front and end of the mountain path and destroyed the convoy¡¯s head and tail respectively. At this moment, the vehicles sandwiched in the middle were stuck and immobile. They could only stay in ce while being attacked.


    Moreover, the mountain path was located on low, concave terrain, so the enemy nanosoldiers on the mountain ridges on both sides could freely suppress the enemy from above as they wished.


    But at this moment, the nanosoldiers seemed to have realized something was off. There were only drivers in those vehicles, but the cargo areas were carrying no one.


    The nanosoldiers immediately wanted to make use of the terrain to retreat. But when they turned around, they realized the 6th Field Division had already surrounded them from behind.


    At this moment, the 6th Field Division was divided into four fighting forces. One of them was led by the Riders, and another was led by 22 T5batants. They were like two sharp knives that stabbed straight into the nanosoldiers¡¯ formation.


    The nanosoldiers were physically very strong, but even at their peak, they were only on par with the T3-rankedbatants.


    Meanwhile, what the 6th Field Divisioncked the least were strong individuals.


    The former Pyro Company soldiers were also war machines that had undergone training for many years.


    In just ten minutes, these two sharp knives tore through the nanosoldiers¡¯ formation and forced them to fight in smaller groups. The entire battle quickly became one-sided.


    Of the other two fighting forces, one was led by Ji Zi¡¯ang, Wang Yun, and Zhang Xiaoman and surrounded the nks, while the other protected P5092 while he carried out the overallmand of the battle.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang manipted a wave of soil to hide the advancement of the troops. In guerri warfare, a mobile defensive bunker like this really was a hack.


    In the past, infantry troops had always relied on tanks as their mobile defensive fortifications. In modern warfare, infantrybat tactics would always revolve around armored vehicles and tanks.


    Right now, with armored troops unable to drive into this mountainous terrain, Ji Zi¡¯ang¡¯s mobile defensive bunker would be the enemy¡¯s nightmare.


    This was the impasse P5092 had prepared for these nanosoldiers. He did not intend to let any of them leave this ce alive.


    With such an elite force controlled by the artificial intelligence in the rear of the Northwest, it could turn critical if they were to suicidally destroy the Northwest¡¯s supply lifeline. P5092 could not possibly allow them to pose a threat to the Northwest.


    P5092 was very sure that a group of enemy troops had already infiltrated the rear while they were organizing their retreat.


    The first target of this guerri warfare was this infiltration force.


    Actually, even Ren Xiaosu¡¯s alertness when he went to pick up Qing Zhen was due to P5092¡¯s reminder, so how could P5092 possibly be careless enough to let others ambush him?


    Those vehicles were just bait for the nanosoldiers.


    However, the cost of using the vehicles as a decoy this time was a little heavy. P5092 had made a lot of preparations, but the artificial intelligence¡¯s micromanagement ability was way too precise. The grenadeunchers equipped by the nanosoldiers easily destroyed more than half of the convoy from afar.


    P5092 realized that fighting against such troops required¡ªno, it was necessary to forget everything he learned from his past battles.


    That was because the enemy this time was much stronger than the ones he faced in the past.


    At this moment, Xun Yeyu was still standing next to P5092 and reporting the movements of all the nanosoldiers to him.


    It had to be said that Xun Yeyu¡¯s role as a mobile human radar had an even greater effect than he imagined.


    The 6th Field Division relied on Xun Yeyu to locate the nanosoldiers and lure them into battle at the most suitable terrain to wipe them out in one fell swoop.


    The nanosoldiers were without their eye in the sky, while the 6th Field Division seemed to be able to see the future. Zero probably did not expect it would be forced into a battle with outdated information and that it would be the weaker side.


    More than an hourter, the 6th Field Division won this minor skirmish with the least casualties.


    Zhang Xiaoman and the others said happily, ¡°The AI isn¡¯t that great after all. There¡¯s nothing to be afraid of!¡±


    But Zhang Xiaoman suddenly realized P5092 was still frowning.


    He asked curiously, ¡°Didn¡¯t we just win the battle? Why are you frowning? You look like everyone owes you money or something.¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°Although we won, the AI might not have lost.¡±


    ¡°There will always be a victor and a loser.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°So what are you going on about?¡±


    P5092 exined, ¡°In Go, there¡¯s the concept of the sacrifice. Determining victory or defeat is a very long-term matter, and it¡¯s not enough to only think about the present. Wang Yun, if it were you, could you tell from a distance if the trucks were carrying people in them?¡±


    Wang Yun nodded and answered, ¡°If I examine carefully, I should be able to. When the trucks are full of soldiers, the suspension and undercarriage height will be very different. I remember what an empty vehicle looks like, and what a fully loaded vehicle looks like, so of course it can be differentiated¡­. Are you saying the AI actually knew there was no one in the trucks?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± P5092 nodded.


    ¡°What if it hadn¡¯t noticed?¡± Wang Yun asked.


    ¡°Don¡¯t take any chances.¡± P5092 shook his head and said, ¡°The AI will not make such a low-level mistake, so it would¡¯ve known from the beginning there was no one in the trucks.¡±


    ¡°Then why did it still take the bait?¡± Wang Yun asked.


    ¡°It meant to destroy our vehicles right from the beginning.¡± P5092 sighed.


    In guerri warfare, mobility represented everything.


    If you wanted to engage in guerri warfare but got caught by the enemy after just firing the first shot, that would not be called guerri warfare but suicide.


    Therefore, P5092 did not allow the group of AI-controlled elite troops at the Northwest¡¯s rear to interfere, and likewise, the artificial intelligence did not allow the 6th Field Division to do as it wished at its rear.


    As such, it immediately destroyed most of the 6th Field Division¡¯s vehicles at the expense of its nanosoldiers.


    Initially, P5092 did not think of this either. He only realized it when Zhang Xiaoman called the enemy ¡°really stupid¡± in his report, stating that it still wanted to blow up the empty vehicles even though it was already on the verge of losing.


    Only at this moment did P5092 realize this battle was actually just an exchange of chips between the two sides. It could not be called an absolute victory at all.


    P5092 said, ¡°The other party deliberately destroyed the trucks. This means that as long as we don¡¯t have any vehicles, continuing the guerri warfare will be no different from a death wish for us. The AI must still have a contingency n waiting for us.¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s retreat to the rear.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said, ¡°In any case, we¡¯ve already won the opening battle.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± P5092 said firmly, ¡°We¡¯re pursuing the final victory, so how can we getcent over a fleeting victory? We have to continue the guerri warfare. In two days, even if the 6th Field Division gets wiped out, we have to hold the rear line!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman, Wang Yun, and the others were stunned. Could it be that P5092 was nning on leading everyone to their deaths?


    P5092 suddenly said, ¡°ck Fox,e forward!¡±


    ck Fox took a step forward and said firmly, ¡°Yes, sir!¡±


    P5092 ordered, ¡°I¡¯m ordering you to get the fighting force of the Pyro Company reorganized within half an hour. You will be the highest-rankingmander for the remaining hit-and-run attacks and are to harass the enemy¡¯s nks. Remember, you have to buy two days for the rearline forces!¡±


    ck Fox answered loudly, ¡°Yes, sir! We¡¯ll definitelyplete the mission and buy two days for our forces at the rear!¡±


    Even without vehicles, the 6th Field Division still had people, and they were all powerful individuals at that.


    The gic warriors of the Pyro Company¡¯s fighting force were all twice as strong as normal people, and these were only the weakest soldiers.


    Therefore, even without vehicles, the Pyro Company¡¯s fighting force could still engage in guerri warfare.


    However, it was not the same for the other, normal soldiers of the 6th Field Division. By leading them into guerri warfare, they would be a burden instead. Everyone¡¯s physical fitness would not be able to withstand the long-distance raids and retreats.


    ¡°Wait a minute.¡± Zhang Xiaoman said in shock, ¡°Won¡¯t you just be sending them to their deaths? Why do you insist on letting them fight instead of going yourself?¡±


    P5092 looked at Zhang Xiaoman. ¡°I¡¯m themander-in-chief of the 6th Field Division. You all only need to obey whatever I say. Do not question me.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman kept quiet. He knew he had to give P5092 the highest respect since he was a military man himself.


    P5092 exined, ¡°The former soldiers of the Pyro Company¡¯s fighting force no longer have any family. Even if they die, not many families will be saddened. Moreover, the most important thing is that after the Pyro Company soldiers underwent gic modification, their lifespans were more or less affected. You all have also heard about it before, right? The maximum lifespan of a T5batant is 40 years. So, for them,pared to the quality of life, it¡¯s more worthwhile for them to fight.¡±


    Everyone fell silent. They did not expect P5092 to measure the soldiers¡¯ value based on how long they had to live.


    However, P5092 continued, ¡°Moreover, the reproductive ability of gically modified soldiers has also been affected. After this cmity, humanity will struggle for some time to recuperate. If too many people die and the ones who survive in the end are the gically modified soldiers, the fate humanity faces will be no different from extinction. So they should be the ones making the sacrifice. All they¡¯ve been fighting for throughout their lives has been the survival of humanity.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was speechless. Faced with P5092¡¯s absolute rationality and calmness at this moment, he did not know how to refute him and could only feel stifled inside.


    Could it be that P5092 did not feel sad when he made such a decision? Could it be that he did not feel guilty for being so decisive about making his subordinates sacrifice themselves? They were allrades, so they should at least die in battle together.


    It was not only Zhang Xiaoman who thought this way but almost everyone else too, except for ck Fox.


    ck Fox was wearing a ck Northwest Army uniform. He said with a sincere smile, ¡°Commander P5092, there¡¯s nothing wrong with what you said. That¡¯s what we¡¯ve always believed in all our lives, so we won¡¯t find it regrettable to sacrifice ourselves for this purpose. We¡¯re soldiers, and soldiers should aim for victory in war and not act on impulse.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at ck Fox in a daze. That was death he was about to face!


    As a matter of fact, ck Fox would not have Wang Yun, Xun Yeyu, or Ji Zi¡¯ang fighting by his side this time.


    No matter how strong the Pyro Company¡¯s fighting force was, it would still have to face the terrifying artificial intelligence. Even with their impressive physical fitness, it would not be enough for them to escape from the millions of enemy troops.


    Actually, everyone knew if it were they who went to the nks to harass Zero¡¯s army at this moment, they would definitely die.


    The probability of survival was likely even lower than winning the lottery.


    At this moment, P5092 looked at ck Fox and asked in seriousness, ¡°Do you remember what I asked you during your interview back then?¡±


    ck Fox was stunned for a moment before smiling brightly. ¡°I remember.¡±


    That afternoon, P5092 was seated in the dark Room 155. The only sunlight had entered through a very small gap in the thick curtains.


    P5092 asked, ¡°If you were to return to the time of the military exercise to take Position 881 again, would you still lead your men forward to die?¡±


    ck Fox¡¯s answer was: ¡°Yes.¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°Remember your choice today.¡±


    And thus, from that day onwards, ck Fox was prepared. After stepping out of Room 155, he visited the drill grounds and chow hall of the military academy. He even made a trip back to the stronghold to remember all the ces he used to live in before waiting for this day to arrive.


    P5092 said this was the fate of being in the Pyro Company. Even though there had been disagreements within the Pyro Company before, fate was still fate.


    After ck Fox reorganized the Pyro Company¡¯s fighting force, he set out. Meanwhile, P5092 led the remaining soldiers of the 6th Field Division to retreat to the rear on foot.


    P5092 walked at the front of the group without saying a word.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at P5092¡¯s back from behind and could not help but ask in a low voice, ¡°Did the Pyro Company teach you to treat your soldiers with such ruthlessness?¡±


    But a secondter, Zhang Xiaoman was stunned.


    When P5092 turned around to look at him, Zhang Xiaoman only saw his face covered in tears.


    P5092 asked, ¡°What do you think war is?¡±


    This was the second time P5092 had asked Zhang Xiaoman this question, but it sounded like a rhetorical question asked of himself instead.

 Chapter 1249 - 1249 The countdown begins

    1249 The countdown begins


    Zhang Xiaoman had been a soldier for over a decade of his life, but his true highest appointment was actually only that ofpanymander. Although he waster promoted to brigademander of the 6th Combat Brigade, he always understood why it happened. The higher-ups just wanted to assign someone familiar to Ren Xiaosu.


    He carefully counted the duration he stayed as battalionmander and regimentalmander. In total, it seemed like he had spent less than half a year in those appointments before he got promoted to the rank of brigademander.


    The expansion of the Northwest Army happened too fast as the number of strongholds under their control increased by several dozen times. As a result, everyone was forced into roles they weren¡¯t ready for. Even the formermander of the Forward Strike Battalion had be themander of the 3rd Field Division.


    Zhou Yinglong had mentioned to Zhang Jinglin on several asions that he felt overstretched having to step up as a divisionmander.


    But ording to Zhang Jinglin, no one was born to be a divisionmander. You could only learn how when you reached that position.


    Of course, such fast-tracked promotions would have some hidden dangers as well. Compared to the Pyro Company¡¯s troops, the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops, and the Wang Consortium¡¯s troops, the Northwest Armycked foundation. Therefore, there would definitely be some issues when a full-scale war broke out.


    However, even though Zhang Jinglin wanted to steadily build on the foundations, this era was not going to wait for them.


    What did Zhang Xiaoman used to be like in the Razor Sharp Company?


    There were only a total of 180 soldiers who ate and lived together, and all of them were brothers to each other.


    When the Razor Sharp Company went into battle, their unit motto was to not abandon or give up on their fellowrades. Not a single person must be left behind.


    Although everyone knew that people would die in wars, no one would go into one intending to die.


    It was not only the Razor Sharp Company that had this thinking. Even the Forward Strike Battalion and the 3rd Field Division were the same.


    How did the Northwest Armye to be known as those ¡°damned fucks¡± in the past?


    Was it because Fortress 178 was well-equipped with arms? It had only been close to 20 years since they started developing their military industry. Prior to that, everyone was so poor they would worry daily whether the Kingdom of Sorcerers would invade them.


    Was it because themanders of Fortress 178 were particrly outstanding? Zhang Jinglin was only a medic, and some of themanders from Fortress 178 even rose through the ranks of the fucking chow squad.


    It seemed that one didn¡¯t need to be strong to be able to convince the masses in the Northwest. Ren Xiaosu was the only unconventional candidate for the position of fortressmander since Fortress 178 was established.


    Zhang Jinglin had admitted on many asions that he was never the most outstandingmander to lead Fortress 178. Everyone was only willing to let him be the fortressmander because he was fair and benevolent.


    Back then, Zhang Jinglin had saved more than a 100 of hisrades¡¯ lives on the battlefield when he was serving as a medic. As long as there was still a breath in them, he would save them and bring them home.


    In that battle, Zhang Jinglin¡¯s hands and feet became covered in blisters.


    When the other medical personnel came to check on his injuries, they were shocked.


    This was all about Zhang Jinglin¡¯s charisma, not his capabilities.


    At that time, Fortress 178¡¯s days were very tough, and they only guarded one stronghold. Therefore, every soldier was extremely precious.


    If someone from Fortress 178 were to get killed, hisrades would take revenge like crazy. On the battlefield, the only thing on their minds was either they survived together, or they died together.


    Only by sticking together could everyone survive in this chaotic world.


    Zhang Xiaoman had not truly learned to be amander yet, and it was not his ce to lead the 6th Field Division either. Therefore, he could not ept that P5092 was deciding so calmly on the deaths of hisrades.


    Even Ren Xiaosu had mentioned to P5092 before that the Northwest Army and the Pyro Company were different from each other.


    But it was precisely because of this that wherever the Northwest Army was based, the morepassionate the region became. The Northwest Army was not a brutal war machine either.


    This was an army that believed in protecting their cause.


    Therefore, even if Zhang Xiaoman knew that P5092 was doing this for the sake of victory, he still found it very difficult to ept emotionally. But however difficult it might be, he had to obey his orders. Moreover, when he saw P5092¡¯s tears, he understood that this seemingly cold-blooded machine was actually just a normal person with emotions like him.


    It was no wonder Ren Xiaosu told P5092 not to overburden himself.


    Every time P5092 made a callous decision, it was actually deep torture for him as well.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at P5092 and said, ¡°I was wrong to question you earlier. If you need me to sacrifice myself in this war someday, you can just order me directly.¡±


    P5092 remained silent for a moment before saying, ¡°There¡¯s no value in your sacrifice, or I would have sent you to your death early on.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman was left speechless.


    ¡­


    A huge defensive line had already been set up 500 kilometers west of Stronghold 144.


    The defensive line stretched for hundreds of kilometers, and dozens of defensive support points formed arge as they waited for the enemy to approach.


    Hundreds of thousands of people were busy working here. It was not only the Northwest Army soldiers but also strong young men who supported the construction of the defensive line.


    They were carrying out the foundation work here and were either carrying bricks and sandbags or excavating the ground.


    Outside a defensive position south of the defensive line, a steam lotive was approaching quickly.


    When the Northwest Army¡¯s garrison troops saw the steam lotive from afar, they cheered. ¡°It¡¯s Future Commander! That¡¯s Future Commander¡¯s steam lotive!¡±


    When the steam lotive approached, many of the soldiers who had never seen this colossus before stared curiously at it.


    The Northwest Army¡¯smand headquarters was situated behind this defensive position. Therefore, the checkpoints here were rtively stricter. Anyone who wanted to pass through had to undergo electrocution to ensure they were not carrying any nanomachines in their bodies.


    Of course, dozens of other defensive positions also implemented the same measures. This was in case the artificial intelligence discovered the location of themand headquarters.


    Upon entering the defensive position, the soldiers in charge of electrocuting and inspecting for nanomachines were put in a difficult spot. That was because Xu Man, Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and Zhou Qi¡¯s statuses were a little special, so everyone did not know if they should perform the electrocution measures on them.


    In the end, it was Qing Zhen who voluntarily requested, ¡°Shock us. I¡¯m just a normal person, and I can¡¯t be sure if I¡¯m carrying any nanomachines in me. The three of them are superhumans, but there¡¯s no evidence to suggest they won¡¯t have nanomachines imnted in them either.¡±


    After that, Qing Zhen walked into the inspection tent and took off his shirt. He allowed the nurse to apply the conductive gel onto his chest before receiving an electric shock.


    When Luo Lan and the others saw that even Qing Zhen had taken the initiative to undergo the inspection, they could only go along with it.


    Zhou Qi muttered, ¡°With our statuses, we should be treated as VIPs here in the Northwest. In the end, we have to get electrocuted first. That¡¯ll put us at a disadvantage during the negotiationster.¡±


    Qing Zhen took a short while to recover after receiving the electric shock. He said to Zhou Qi, ¡°We¡¯re not here to negotiate. There can only be negotiations if the premise is that both sides have their own interests to protect. But there¡¯s not going to be any of that now. Rather, what we need to do is to ensure the survival of human civilization.¡±


    Zhou Qi suddenly asked, ¡°Then even if we emerge victorious in this war, wouldn¡¯t it be the end for the Qing Consortium?¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it better to do some gardening here in the Northwest?¡± Qing Zhen said with a smile.


    Xu Man and the others were stunned for a moment. Perhaps this was the ending Qing Zhen was after?


    During the inspection, no one requested Ren Xiaosu to be put through an electric shock or the like, leading to Zhou Qi asking the security personnel, ¡°Aren¡¯t you gonna shock your futuremander too? He might have gotten controlled by the nanomachines as well. Are you all so sure he isn¡¯t affected? These inspection instruments were sent here to the Northwest by our Qing Consortium.¡±


    Zhou Qi was only pointing out the truth. The Qing Consortium was the first to discover a way to restrain nanomachines that had been imnted into people¡¯s bodies. While this method could not be deployed on arge scale, it was indeed quite efficient to implement at strategic defensive points. At the very least, it could ensure there were no AI-controlled spies in the base.


    At that time, the Qing Consortium had continuously gifted over a hundred sets of equipment to the Northwest, and even the conductive gel sent weighed tons.


    Truly, Qing Zhen had indeedid out the preparations with great care.


    The nurse responsible for applying the conductive gel nced at Zhou Qi and retorted, ¡°The fortressmander said that if Future Commander can get controlled by the AI, we can all just wait to be destroyed. There won¡¯t be any need to put up a resistance anymore. What? You have a problem with our futuremander?¡±


    Zhou Qi quickly shut up. Even though he was a demigod, he did not dare to voice any opinion regarding Ren Xiaosu.


    After all, Zhou Yingxue was also a demigod, yet wasn¡¯t she still obediently serving as Ren Xiaosu¡¯s maidservant?


    In the eyes of many people, Zhou Yingxue was aparison marker. As long as you were not stronger than Zhou Yingxue, you should behave obediently in front of Ren Xiaosu.


    However, Ren Xiaosu also took the initiative to take off his shirt and said, ¡°Give me a shock as well. There¡¯s no need for any special treatment.¡±


    The nurse¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Uh¡­ I don¡¯t have enough conductive gel here. Future Commander, wait for a while. I¡¯ll go and get some.¡±


    With that, the nurse ran out quickly. Two minutester, she returned with a new batch of conductive gel. However, there were more than a dozen nurses following her.


    It was all a lie when she said she needed to get more conductive gel. Actually, she just wanted to gather her colleagues to gawk at the futuremander¡¯s body.


    After the electric shock tests finished, Wang Fengyuan was waiting outside the tent. ¡°Everyone,e with me to the HQ. The high-rankingmanders of the Northwest Army are waiting there for the meeting to begin.¡±


    When they entered themand center, they saw Zhang Jinglin sitting at the end of a long table. Telephones were on the table, with the lines already connected.


    Zhang Jinglin got up and said to Qing Zhen with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but the high-rankingmanders of the Northwest Army can¡¯t attend the meeting in person. We can only hold a simple conference call in case the AI finds out about the location of themand center and takes us out. These telephone lines are all secured, and they¡¯re allid with dedicated lines. The AI shouldn¡¯t be able to eavesdrop.¡±


    Qing Zhen nodded. ¡°I understand. In a situation like this, there¡¯s nothing wrong with taking more precautions.¡±


    Seeing that Qing Zhen did not mind, Zhang Jinglin said to Ren Xiaosu as he gestured to his left, ¡°Xiaosu,e and sit next to me.¡±


    When the high-rankingmanders scattered at their various posts heard that Ren Xiaosu had also arrived, they hurriedly said, ¡°Greetings, Future Commander!¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, It¡¯s Old Zhou. Zhou Yinglong, do you still remember me?¡±


    ¡°Is Future Commander in good health?¡±


    ¡°Future Commander, have you eaten?¡±


    Luo Lan andpany were at a loss for words. This was such a bootlicking session. They had not expected Ren Xiaosu to be so highly regarded in the Northwest.


    Even in Zhang Jinglin¡¯s presence, everyone did not hold back on ttering the futuremander openly.


    In most organizations, even if the sessor had already been confirmed, everyone would still restrain themselves a little in the presence of the current head. Those who took sides in advance would usually not end up doing well.


    After all, it was still possible the heir could be reced.


    However, this did not seem to be the case in the Northwest. The atmosphere feltpletely different.


    Zhang Jinglin coughed twice and said, ¡°Alright, it won¡¯t be toote to tter him after he takes over from me. Let¡¯s get down to proper business now.¡±


    As soon as he finished speaking, someone said in falsetto, ¡°Ah, Fortress Commander is jealous.¡±


    There were too many telephones on the table, so no one could tell who made that remark.


    Immediately after, everyone burst outughing.


    Qing Zhen suddenly smiled at Luo Lan and said, ¡°I quite like it here.¡±


    ¡°I think so too,¡± Luo Lan said with augh.


    Zhang Jinglin did not get angry either. ¡°Alright, alright, let¡¯s get down to business.¡±


    Themand center fell silent. All of thebat staff officers consciously made their way out of themand center. This was not a meeting they were qualified to participate in.


    Zhang Jinglin said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Xiaosu, you must have a lot of doubts on your mind. All of themanders must also feel the same. Everyone probably doesn¡¯t even know what we can do to win this war. The enemy seems to have already be so powerful it¡¯s difficult to contend against it. With tens of millions of troops, that number will only growrger after it absorbs the poption of the Southwest. Our Northwest Army has only expanded to over 300,000 soldiers, so how are our 300,000 soldiers going to fight against tens of millions of elite enemy troops? I think everyone would be puzzled by that.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°But we still can¡¯t reveal the final n yet.¡± Qing Zhen said calmly, ¡°This n started a year ago. Although the situation has greatly changed, the n Commander Zhang and I came up with at that time can still be put to good use.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nced at Qing Zhen. It was no wonder Zhang Jinglin had asked him to deliver Qing Zhen to the Northwest. So it turned out that the two of them had hatched a secret n a year ago.


    Qing Zhen said, ¡°Everyone, please don¡¯t mind me hiding the details from you. For the past year, I¡¯ve been living in seclusion and restraining my desire to speak with the rest of the world every day just so I can keep this n a secret. The reason it will be effective is because no one knows about it. From now on, we will have to face arge number of casualties and great grief every day. But this time, we can only win if we fight to survive. I implore everyone here to buy me another nine days. I need Fortress 178 to still be standing strong after these nine days.¡±


    Qing Zhen still did not exin what the n was, but he already made it very clear to the Northwest Army what they had to do.


    It was down to thest nine days.


    The countdown began now.

 Chapter 1250 - 1250 P5092 takes over defense efforts

    1250 P5092 takes over defense efforts


    D?8.


    When Ren Xiaosu found out there were only nine days left til the end of this war, he did not feel nervous at all.


    Regardless of sess or failure, and regardless of whether human civilization could survive into the future, the answer would be revealed in nine days.


    All he needed to do was to survive the next nine days with everyone.


    Ren Xiaosu started patrolling the defensive line. He was surprised to discover that arge number of civilians here were not evacuees who had fled the four strongholds in the east but Fortress 178 residents.


    At this moment, it was not only the four strongholds in the east that were being evacuated. Even the remaining nine strongholds had started evacuating to the rear of Fortress 178. That was because the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops had been defeated.


    If they only had to face the enemy here in the Northwest, the defensive line might be able to hold for a while.


    But coupled with the surging horde from the Qing Consortium¡¯s side, it would probably be very difficult for the defensive line to stop the enemy¡¯s advance.


    Therefore, all the stronghold residents aside from those in Fortress 178 started fleeing.


    But just as everyone was busy retreating, the Fortress 178 residents actually volunteered toe to the front line to help the Northwest Army construct the defensive line.


    For some reason, Ren Xiaosu could sense an aura of greatness from these Fortress 178 residents. It was as though battling through life and death with the Northwest Army was something glorious to them. They dared to do what no one else did.


    Of course, this was also due to the culture of the Northwest Army. At Fortress 178, the soldiers there were the guardians of the stronghold. Everyone knew what these soldiers went through to keep them protected.


    Ren Xiaosu saw the Fortress 178 residents eating in the chow hall after they were finished working. When they chatted with the other residents, their faces were still full of smiles. There didn¡¯t seem to be any hint of fear at all.


    Then something wondrous happened.


    When the first wave of evacuees arrived at the defensive line, these Fortress 178 residents actually volunteered to assist the Northwest Army. They organized these evacuees to take a short break behind the defensive line before they continued their evacuation.


    The Fortress 178 residents would evenfort the evacuees by saying, ¡°The residents of the Northwest are just like family. When y¡¯all get to Fortress 178, we¡¯ll still be family. Don¡¯t be afraid. After the Northwest Army wins the war, we can fight back for our homes together.¡±


    These Fortress 178 residents seemingly got into the role of counselors. Meanwhile, the evacuees, who were initially panicking, became much calmer after beingforted.


    However, the evacuees asked if the Northwest could really win the war. If they could, why was there a need to retreat?


    Although everyone was still somewhat confident in the Northwest Army, they still felt a lot of anxiety from their evacuation journey.


    In the end, a Fortress 178 resident said, ¡°Look, isn¡¯t the Northwest Army fine even after shing with the sorcerers for so many years? Moreover, with the futuremander and arge group of superhumans fighting on our side, how can we lose? Tell me how would that be possible?¡±


    These two rhetorical questions left the evacuees dumbfounded. With that said, everyone felt that the Northwest Army could indeed emerge victorious. Although they did not know how they were going to win, they knew the war would be over by just winning.


    After the first group of evacuees had been calmed down, the others who arrivedter were even more reassured.


    Moreover, on the same night, the younger evacuees started discussing among themselves. Then they collectively ran to the officer in charge of constructing the defensive line and said, ¡°We also want to participate in the building of the defensive line.¡±


    The officer shook his head and answered bluntly, ¡°Don¡¯t cause more trouble here. There¡¯s already enough hands working.¡±


    The young evacuees were immediately unhappy. They pointed at the Fortress 178 residents and said, ¡°Why is it that they can contribute but not us?¡±


    The officer was puzzled right then and there. Did they think they were missing out on some great deal? Why were they even fighting over something like that?


    This matter caused an uproar and even rmed Zhang Jinglin.


    As a result, Zhang Jinglin decided to set some conditions for eptance. As long as they were young men between the ages of 18 to 28, they could sign up to participate in the construction of the defensive line. However, they would have to ensure they obeyed orders. Furthermore, they could not volunteer on a whim and run away the next day when they felt tired. If they wanted to contribute, they would have to persevere until the end.


    Only then did the young people stop making a fuss.


    Although it sounded a little unreal, this was still a good thing.


    Currently, the Northwest¡¯s defensive line was not stable, or there wouldn¡¯t be a need for the 6th Field Division to stall for time.


    Therefore, the construction of this battlefront would indeed require a lot of manpower.


    During thebat meeting that night, Ren Xiaosu sat on Zhang Jinglin¡¯s left and listened to the variousmanders¡¯ reports on the progress of the defensive line¡¯s construction.


    When it was Wang Fengyuan¡¯s turn to speak, he raised a point of suspicion. ¡°Based on our calctions of the enemy¡¯s speed of advance, they should be arriving at Outpost 219 by today. However, they didn¡¯t discover any signs of the enemy over there. I wonder what¡¯s slowing them down.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s your opinion?¡± Zhang Jinglin asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m worried that the AI is plotting something again, so I¡¯m nning to send Zhou Yinglong¡¯s Forward Strike Battalion to carry out long-range reconnaissance. Although it¡¯s very dangerous, it¡¯s necessary to gather intel,¡± Wang Fengyuan answered.


    But at this moment, abat staff officer outside reported that Commander Zhang Husheng had arrived at the defensive line with thest group of evacuees and also had something important to report.


    Ren Xiaosu asked thebat staff officer, ¡°How about the 6th Field Division? Didn¡¯t they arrive together?¡±


    ¡°No, they didn¡¯t, Future Commander!¡± thebat staff officer answered.


    Ren Xiaosu immediately tensed up.


    Seeing the Great Hoodwinker running into themand center, Ren Xiaosu asked, ¡°Who else came here with you?¡±


    ¡°Ms. Xiaojin, Ms. Zhou Yingxue, Wang Fugui, and the rest,¡± the Great Hoodwinker answered. ¡°The 6th Field Division has gone to harass the enemy troops under P5092¡¯s lead. He said that this defensive line will take another two days toplete, so the 6th Field Division needed to buy another two days for the rear. Moreover, he determined that a group of AI-controlled troops had infiltrated the rear. They¡¯re likely the nanosoldiers who went to our aid at Mt. Zuoyun. He intends to eliminate this threat.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu clenched his fists tightly.


    Everyone in themand center who heard the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s report gasped. The 6th Field Division only had about 40,000 soldiers. Even if the former Pyro Company troops were highly trained inbat, even if they were led by a geniusmander like P5092, and even if the 6th Field Division had the highest number of superhumans, it would still be incredible if they could hold off the enemy for a day with a single division¡¯s strength.


    However, P5092¡¯s goal was to hold them off for two days.


    No matter how the 6th Field Division might achieve this objective, everyone would have to admire them for it.


    After the battles on Mt. Zuoyun and in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, the 6th Field Division had already be the strongest fighting force in the Northwest Army. When the other fighting forces spoke of this unit, they could only let out an emotional sigh.


    Zhang Jinglin looked at Ren Xiaosu andmented, ¡°You¡¯ve really recruited quite a few geniuses for the Northwest.¡±


    He said that because P5092 could urately determine the situation at the rear just by reading the defense report. Moreover, P5092 also urately predicted what kind of ambush Ren Xiaosu would encounter and how the artificial intelligence would infiltrate with its elite troops at the Northwest¡¯s rear.


    The Northwest had never had a genius like him before.


    To be honest, the Northwest Army had always relied on their courage to fight wars. Although Zhang Jinglin¡¯s leadership was outstanding, it was still an overstatement to call him a famous leader of his generation.


    But P5092 was different from people such as Qing Zhen. He was someone born for war. Meanwhile, Qing Zhen was better at nning ahead for the big picture. Even Qing Zhen could not imagine how long it would take him to determine how much time the rear would need by just reading a defense report.


    Therefore, if Qing Zhen, P5092, Wang Shengzhi, and Zhang Jinglin were to be put on the same battlefield and lead the same troops, P5092 might be the one who would end up taking the final victory.


    Zhang Jinglin said to Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Go and support P5092. If he survives, it would be more suitable if he took overmand of the entire defensive line.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll go right away.¡±


    But at this moment, Wang Fengyuan said, ¡°There¡¯s no need to go. I¡¯ve just received news from Outpost 219 that P5092 is retreating to the defensive line with some of the 6th Field Division. They¡¯ll probably get here by tomorrow.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin said, ¡°All units, intensify your efforts for the construction of your defensive positions. The defensive positions must be able to hold off the enemy for more than five days. We can¡¯t let the efforts of the 6th Field Division go to waste. Additionally, when P5092 arrives at the defensive line, he will temporarily take overmand of the Northwest¡¯s defense efforts. I hope everyone will give him your most active cooperation.¡±


    Under normal circumstances, it would be veryplicated to have an ¡°outsider¡± takemand of the defense efforts. However, in the Northwest Army, that only required one word from Zhang Jinglin.


    As for whether P5092 was up to the task, hadn¡¯t he already proven himself?

 Chapter 1251 - 1251 Choices of an era

    1251 Choices of an era


    D?7.


    The wilderness in the Northwest seemingly turned into a deep sea all of a sudden.


    The general impression people had of seawater was that it was an azure blue. The sea that most people knew was sparkling and calm.


    But when seawater became dangerous, it would no longer look blue but a dense ck instead.


    All kinds of unknown horrors could happen in it. The remote mountains in the wilderness were like an unexplored ocean trench filled with dangers.


    The size of the ocean was immeasurable, and all people could feel in such an environment was a sense of fear.


    ck Fox led the Pyro Company¡¯s fighting force of the 6th Field Division to undergo a short reorganization. They had just shaken off the artificial intelligence¡¯s pursuit at a mountain pass in the south.


    In guerri warfare, having intel was the most important. As such, before Xu Ke left with P5092 and the others, he recalcted when the orbit of the artificial intelligence¡¯s satellites would leave the battle zone.


    Unfortunately, ever since P5092¡¯s previous ambush on the artificial intelligence, there were fewer and fewer opportunities to take advantage of the satellites¡¯ blind spots when they traveled out of the observation range. It would be another ten days or so before a simr opportunity arose again.


    However, while there were no big opportunities, some smaller ones still existed.


    Yesterday, ck Fox had taken advantage of a three-hour window when the satellites went ¡°blind¡± tounch a sudden attack on the enemy¡¯s artillery troops at the rear, causing the other party to suffer a great loss.


    But after three hours of one-sided fighting, the remaining 21 hours were wholly spent fleeing.


    There was no other choice. All ck Fox and his men could do now was to try their best. They were already very lucky to have had a chance encounter with the enemy¡¯s artillery troops.


    Although they did not manage to destroy them, the 6th Field Division¡¯s current mission was to stall for time.


    As long as the enemy chased after them, it was a good enough oue.


    During the 21 hours of their escape, the Pyro Company¡¯s soldiers kept taking cover here and there without rest until everyone was exhausted before they were able to get clear of the enemy¡¯s encirclement.


    However, ck Fox discovered a pattern in the enemy¡¯s pursuit. Their pursuers needed to take rests as well. After the first group of pursuers chased after them for 13 hours, they actually turned around to reorganize and sleep. Another group of troops would then continue to pursue them.


    It was as though the enemy wanted to avoid a prolonged period of fatigue.


    ck Fox sat on a mound and looked around while muttering, ¡°Could it be that not resting for an extended duration will cause the AI¡¯sputing power to decrease? Is that why it wants to keep its ¡®servers¡¯ well-protected?¡±


    At the side, a battalionmander said, ¡°Sir, it¡¯s obviously looking down on us by having the pursuing troops sleep right in front of us. We should have just set up our mortars and bombarded them directly when they did that.¡±


    ck Fox patted off the dust and dirt on his body. ¡°Forget it, it¡¯s already a very good oue that we could escape. Who knows if it¡¯s a trap? By the way, I¡¯ve always wanted to ask you all. Anyints that Commander P5092 is sending us on a suicide mission?¡±


    The Pyro Company soldiers surrounding ck Fox fell silent for a moment.


    A T5batant said as he ate his hardtack, ¡°It¡¯d be a lie to say that I don¡¯t have anyints. Although all of our lifespans might only be 40 years, we still have over a decade left to live, right? This was what we were taught since childhood, but it¡¯s still a little difficult to ept when it¡¯s our turn to sacrifice ourselves.¡±


    The T5batantughed. ¡°You¡¯ve said it yourself as well. If we ran away, who the fuck would protect you?¡±


    Not everyone was born to be a war machine. Sometimes, when people looked back on their lives and wondered if they could start over again, they would probably hope to live differently.


    But there were no ¡°ifs¡± in this world.


    The T5batant said, ¡°P5092 put it so calmly when he said none of us would live past 40 anyway, and that almost all of us have already lost our reproductive fertility, so that makes our value inferior to normal people. When we heard that, it definitely felt a little ufortable.¡±


    ck Fox thought for a moment and said, ¡°Actually, I¡¯ve been working with him longer. In my memory, he has made even crueler decisions. But after every victorious battle, he would sit by himself in themand tent. No one knew what he was thinking, but I could feel his sadness. While everyone was cheering, he would say to me, ¡®ck Fox, war is not something we should celebrate even if we win.¡¯ From that moment, I realized he was actually not happy.¡±


    In this era, people were forced to do things they did not like but were adept at.


    It was the same for Ren Xiaosu, Qing Zhen, Zhang Jinglin, as well as P5092.


    It was as though this era had chosen them in mysterious ways. They had no choice about which era to be born in.


    The T5batant next to ck Foxughed. ¡°Sir, we understand what you¡¯re saying. Actually, Commander P5092 didn¡¯t want it to be like this either. Do you have any more gossip about Commander P5092 to share? Tell us more.¡±


    In fact, this group of people were not much different from normal people outside of war. They would check out beautiful girls and also be very enthusiastic about gossiping.


    ck Fox thought for a moment and said, ¡°Well, there¡¯s one incident that I remember. When I was still in the military academy, I was interviewed by Commander P5092. After that, he explicitly stated I would be transferred to his 3rd Division. I consulted my teacher about Commander P5092 to see if the rumors regarding him were true. In the end, my teacher said he used to teach Commander P5092 back in the day. He told me Commander P5092 had the T4 gene and was supposed to be posted directly to the military base. At that time, he was not keen on killing anyone, so he worked hard to get into the military academy so as to qualify for a nobat military job. Eventually, he earned his stripes and became amander. When that happened, my teacher mercilessly shattered the impression he was under and told him that being amander just meant killing more people with his brains¡­. That hit him real hard.¡±


    When the Pyro Company soldiers heard this, theyughed out loud. They tried to imagine the young P5092 and the struggle he felt when this bad news was broken to him. Suddenly, they found it really interesting.


    At this moment, the Pyro Company soldiers in charge of reconnaissance returned with news that the AI-controlled troops had quietly intercepted them at the front. They even had a lot of troops.


    All of a sudden, theughter they shared a moment ago died down. They all knew what this meant.


    Theirst option for retreating to the defensive line was gone now.


    ck Fox got up and said with augh, ¡°Is everyone done resting? If we continue resting, we¡¯ll probably die here.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m done resting. Awaiting your orders, sir!¡± the T5batant said.


    Everyone had not gotten any shuteye in 24 hours already. Now that they had only taken a short break of an hour plus, how could it possibly be enough?


    But that was how it was on the battlefield. Working round the clock was amon urrence, and everyone was still able to endure it.


    ck Fox looked at the Pyro Company soldiers and said, ¡°Commander P5092 once said that we should look at the big picture when fighting a war. We can¡¯t only think about our own interests. Individuals should serve the collective will. When we as individuals lose hope on the battlefield, we should learn how to create hope for others so they can win the war on our behalf.¡±


    ck Fox nced at his watch and double-checked the notebook the Riders had handed to him with the calctions of the satellites¡¯ orbits. He continued, ¡°Since we¡¯re left with no way out, shall we all pull off a big one together? Based on the Riders¡¯ calctions, the satellites above us will be leaving again in another hour. When that happens, it will buy us a six-hour window.¡±


    ¡°Six hours?¡± The T5batant said, ¡°Sir, what are you nning?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll use these six hours to kill our way to the enemy¡¯s rear. Do you all remember when the AI destroyed the enchanted doorway previously? I¡¯ve roughly calcted the range of the Wang Consortium¡¯s missile troops from that incident. They should be deployed right behind their artillery¡¯s cover.¡±


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character¡¯s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible ¡°out of character¡± behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author¡¯s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you¡¯ll understand. Yes, we¡¯re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can¡¯t judge a person if you don¡¯t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren¡¯t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero¡¯s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you¡¯re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I¡¯m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I¡¯ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo¡¯s work by searching @ wxw ¡°the grandmaster strategist¡±. He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :¡¯)


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    <iframe title="Yuewen IP Spokesperson - Hugh Hu Ge (The First Array/µÚÒ»ÐòÁÐ/The First Order)" src="https://.youtube/embed/LFq6fiMqXS4?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    <iframe title="The First Order/µÚÒ»ÐòÁÐ (Fan Cut Trailer)" src="https://.youtube/embed/F-yUuSUvm7c?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    <iframe title="Yuewen Time: The Speaking Pork Trotter" src="https://.youtube/embed/v0i8m5EPWz8?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    ¡­


    In the Qing Consortium in the Southwest, the Three Mountains defensive line was already history.


    After the wars between the Li Consortium, the Yang Consortium, and the Qing Consortium in this chaotic region, many people thought they were finally going to lead a peaceful life.


    The Qing Consortium had managed this region very well, and the people lived and worked in peace. However, it was once again destroyed with the advent of war.


    The turbulent horde controlled by the artificial intelligence rushed into the various strongholds, and the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers who had pledged to defend the Southwest died one after another. It seemed that no one could stop the enemy¡¯s advance.


    As the horde rushed in, some people arrived with thest batch of nanomachines produced in the Sacred Mountains not long ago and firmly ced the entire poption of the southwestern region under control.


    As the size of the horde increased, they finally split into two groups and headed north.


    Seemingly realizing the urgency of the situation, the artificial intelligence controlled the crowd and started conscripting all avable modes of transportation, sedans, trucks, and even motorcycles, to send the first group of troops northwards along the highway.


    Of the vehicles it conscripted, most were even the Qing Consortium¡¯s military vehicles at the Three Mountains defensive line that had been preserved.


    From the look of things, Zero had already nned for this.


    As for the remaining enemy troops that were advancing slower, they directly crossed the wilderness on foot as the second group. This group was like a knife stabbing straight at the north.


    Under normal circumstances, a typical army¡¯s marching pace would cover about 40 to 50 kilometers per day, while a forced march would be around 60 to 80 kilometers per day.


    However, this was under the situation where they had to carry dozens of kilograms in supplies.


    However, the artificial intelligence¡¯s troops did not need to carry any heavy loads. At most, they would be carrying some weapons and equipment on them, with each person loaded with a maximum of eight kilograms of weight. If it were weapons like mortars, four personnel would be made to carry it together.


    Moreover, other than the eight hours of sleep a day, these people who were being controlled were mostly marching forth every second they were awake.


    There was another group of people helping to massage and stretch the muscles of those who were sleeping. They did not waste any time eating either, with the average meal durationsting only four minutes.


    There was no need for entertainment or other emotional fluctuations.


    This group of troops advanced at a pace of 130 kilometers per day. If nothing unexpected urred, they would be able to reach the vicinity of Fortress 178 in about eight days.


    If Zero¡¯s control over these troops were more precise, they might be able to march even faster.


    In the established war zone, the artificial intelligence¡¯s troops were divided into four groups, and these four groups were like sharp arrowheads pointed at Fortress 178.

 Chapter 1252 - 1252 The final battle

    1252 The final battle


    D?6.


    The 6th Field Division led by P5092 arrived at the defensive line as scheduled.


    When he arrived, a lot of people were looking at him strangely.


    There seemed to be some judgmental gazes and envy in their eyes.


    Ren Xiaosu weed him outside themand center and got straight to the point. ¡°Commander Zhang has already conveyed his intentions to all themanders for you to take over all defense efforts along this defensive line. As such, you became the highest-ranking militarymander of the Northwest Army the moment you got here.¡±


    !!


    P5092 was stunned for a moment. He finally understood why everyone was looking at him like that.


    He wondered, ¡°Is this in line with protocol? I don¡¯t even have an actual appointment in the Northwest Army yet, so isn¡¯t it somewhat of a joke to let an outsider like me be the highest-ranking militarymander?¡±


    But at this moment, Zhang Jinglin walked out of themand center. ¡°Human civilization is at stake. If we still stick to past practices at a time like this, that¡¯s being irresponsible to everyone. The facts have proven you¡¯re the most suitable person for this role. I believe you¡¯re qualified.¡±


    P5092 only kept quiet for a few seconds before suddenly saying to Wang Yun, ¡°Gather information about the various fighting forces and summarize it for me. You know what I need.¡±


    With that, P5092 walked straight towards themand center. ¡°Allbat staff officers, report to me. After that, link up with Wang Yun and keep him in the loop of your work progress.¡±


    When he entered themand center, he nonchntly took off his dirty and tattered jacket and sat down at the head of the table in the conference room.


    He sat down very naturally as though this had been his seat for decades.


    P5092 did not decline, act pretentiously, or waste any time. It only took him a few seconds to quickly get into the role.


    The others in themand center looked at each other and did not know how to react. It was not that they did not want to cooperate, but that P5092 had gotten into character so quickly that they were at a loss.


    At this moment, P5092 looked up coldly at thebat staff officers. ¡°What are you all standing there for?¡±


    When he said that, all thebat staff officers quickly sorted out the information P5092 needed and handed it to Wang Yun to process.


    To P5092, nothing was more important than winning this war. Since Zhang Jinglin was willing to let him be the highest-ranking militarymander, and since he was also most suitable for this role, there was no need to decline.


    Perhaps some people would feel ufortable with his attitude of not declining the offer, but it didn¡¯t matter to him. P5092 believed the futuremander would handle that for him.


    Outside themand center, many people looked at Zhang Jinglin in silence. They wanted to see how he would react after P5092 had rudely ¡°seized¡± his authority.


    However, Zhang Jinglin said with a smile, ¡°You¡¯re indeed the most suitable candidate.¡±


    What the Northwest Army needed now was someone whose mind was focused on winning to lead them to victory.


    Other than that, there should not be other distractions.


    Wang Yun quickly processed the data of the various fighting forces. The ratio of veterans, recruits, ages, and allocation of armaments and equipment were all summarized in his mind.


    With all this information, it would allow them to quicklypare which troops were the most proficient at waging war, which could be used to ovee difficulties, and which could be deployed in specific positions.


    Wang Yun only needed a nce at this vast sea of data before he quickly sorted it out in his memory pce.


    And all of this was what P5092 needed the most.


    The Northwest Army did not have the powerfulputing power of the artificial intelligence, not even with Wang Yun on their side. However, he could still try to fill that role somewhat.


    When Qing Zhen, Luo Lan, and the others heard that P5092 had taken overmand of the military, they also came to themand center to watch themotion.


    When they entered themand center, they happened to hear P5092 ask Wang Yun, ¡°What¡¯s the historical weather data for this period during the past ten years?¡±


    Wang Yun answered, ¡°For the uing seven days, historically, it will a 100% be sunny with no rain on the first day, 80% sunny with a 20% chance of rain on the second day, 70% rainy with a 30% chance of clear weather on the third day¡­. It seems that it will soon be the autumn rainy season. The cold front in the north is heading south, and heavy rain will be arriving.¡±


    P5092 nodded. ¡°We have to be prepared to fight the war on rainy days. How long will the rainst?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a high chance it willst for three days,¡± Wang Yun said.


    P5092¡¯smand style was actually a little simr to the artificial intelligence¡¯s. They both began with the details and were equally calm and ruthless.


    Off to the side, when Qing Zhen heard the data that Wang Yun hadpiled for P5092, he suddenly said to Luo Lan, ¡°If I had such talent by my side, the Li Consortium and the Yang Consortium would probably have fallen even faster back then.¡±


    At some point, Qing Zhen even felt a little envious of P5092 for having such support.


    Suddenly, P5092 looked up and said to Ji Zi¡¯ang, ¡°Zi¡¯ang, I need you to join up with the 129th Engineering Battalion toy a minefield at Position 317. That location is of utmost importance. You must ensure the enemy troops who pass through there suffer heavy casualties.¡±


    The artificial intelligence had the ability to identify minefields. It only needed to take a look at the soil on the ground to determine which areas had been excavated before.


    But it was different if Ji Zi¡¯ang was the one whoid thend mines. On one hand, he did not even have to excavate the soil with his own hands and was able to perform the task extremely efficiently. On the other hand, Ji Zi¡¯ang was fully capable of passing off the excavated ground as untouched earth.


    Position 317 was the main route leading to the core area of the defensive line. If the Wang Consortium¡¯s mechanized troops arrived, they would definitely have to pass through there. Only then would they be able to get into firing range of the defensive support points at the rear of the defensive line.


    But if Ji Zi¡¯ang were to nt anti-tank mines there, it would probably be very difficult for any mechanized troops to get near in the short term.


    There was no need topletely seal off that path. All P5092 needed was to stall for time.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang replied, ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll report to the 129th Engineering Battalion immediately. You have my guarantee that the mission will bepleted.¡±


    Ever since Ji Zi¡¯ang got here, even the construction of the defensive line was sped up by quite a bit.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang had not slept for 19 hours now, but he still perked up and carried out the mission when P5092 gave the order.


    After Ji Zi¡¯ang left, P5092 suddenly said to Zhou Qi, ¡°I¡¯ve heard from the futuremander about your power. Please move to Position 141 while you await an opportunity there.¡±


    Zhou Qi raised an eyebrow. ¡°Are you ordering me? I¡¯m not a member of your Northwest Army¡­¡±


    ¡°Is there a problem?¡± P5092 asked.


    Zhou Qi curled his lips and backed off a little. ¡°Whatever¡­. But you should at least tell me what I¡¯m needed there for, right?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just better to be prepared.¡± P5092 said, ¡°I also hope there won¡¯t be a need for your expertise there. As for what I need you there for, you¡¯ll find out when the timees.¡±


    Zhou Qi shouted, ¡°Wait, where¡¯s Position 141?¡±


    Zhou Qi took a look at the sand table. Then he immediately grumbled, ¡°Position 141 is right at the second echelon of the defensive line. Based on the speed of the AI¡¯s assault, I¡¯m afraid the position will get mowed down in less than two days. How dare you order me to go to such a dangerous ce?¡±


    P5092 said in seriousness, ¡°I have my reasons for asking you to go, of course.¡±


    Luo Lanughed and said, ¡°Come on, Zhou Qi, I¡¯ll go with you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s more like it. Even if I die, I have to drag someone down with me, right?¡± Only then did Zhou Qi agree.


    A momentter, P5092 said to another staff officer, ¡°Construction of the defensive line is nowplete. Ry my orders immediately. Forcefully evacuate the civilians working at the defensive line. They must leave by tonight. Otherwise, we¡¯ll be slowed down by them when the defensive line copses.¡±


    ¡°We won¡¯t be able to defend this ce?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± P5092 nodded. ¡°But if our goal is only to hold them off for seven days, I reckon we still have a chance.¡±


    At this moment, no one doubted P5092. Everyone was thinking that if even P5092 did not think they could defend it, it could only be true.


    P5092 said, ¡°The biggest problem we¡¯re facing now is that we¡¯re still unsure of how the enemy will fight¡­¡±


    As his words trailed off, Qing Zhen got Xu Man to hand over a thick stack of battle reports. ¡°This is the information the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops risked their lives in exchange for at the Three Mountains defensive line. Every word written inside is extremely precious.¡±


    If they wanted to win the war, they would naturally have to know themselves and know the enemy. Qing Zhen knew the Northwest was thest line of defense for human civilization. Therefore, even at the expense of the Three Mountains defensive line¡¯s copse, he still had to ensure enough data was gathered and brought to the Northwest without a missing detail.


    During the battle at the Three Mountains defensive line, no matter how busy it got, he would still request Qing Yi topile the battle reports. All that he did back then was for this moment.


    Only then would the Northwest Army take fewer detours.


    At this moment, an officer ran over to Ren Xiaosu. ¡°Future Commander, an old man has arrived outside the defensive line with some refugees. He said he¡¯s an old friend of yours and would like to see you. But it¡¯s quite strange. He brought with him arge group of older children.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu, who had been listening in on P5092¡¯s battle deployment, was stunned. ¡°An old friend of mine?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he said his name is Hu Shuo. He has something very important to tell you,¡± the officer replied.


    ¡°Bring him over quickly,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    Ever since Hu Shuo left Luoyang City, he had stayed very elusive. Very few people were aware of what he was up to.


    Very quickly, Hu Shuo walked over takingrge strides. He got straight to the point. ¡°I¡¯ve collected some intel here that might be useful to you all. The Qing Consortium in the southwest has already beenpletely defeated, and the AI-controlled horde there is rushing over in two groups. The horde from the Central ins has also split into two groups, one of which will be dealing with the Northwest Army that y¡¯all sent out while the other is heading straight for this defensive line. Xiaosu, we won¡¯t be able to defeat them. For that dense sea of people, it will only take a few days to overwhelm this defensive line.¡±


    P5092¡¯s eyes lit up. Hu Shuo had brought him very useful information. At the very least, he now knew from which direction the enemy would arrive and how many routes they were approaching from.


    ¡°By the way, where¡¯s Li Shentan?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked Hu Shuo.


    Hu Shuo muttered, ¡°It¡¯s nice that you still remember him. It hasn¡¯t been in vain that he regards you as a friend. He recently ventured into the forest further south of the Zhou Consortium. I met him a few days ago, but he didn¡¯te to the Northwest with me.¡±


    ¡°Where did he go?¡± Ren Xiaosu wondered.


    Hu Shuo said, ¡°I don¡¯t know where he went either. He only said he should be able to fulfill his promise to you this time.¡±


    ¡­


    The Northwest Army¡¯s defensive line was established along the defensive support points of Mt. Linxia, Mt. Jishi, Mt. Yongjing, and Mt. Xigu. As they were in a rush for time, no one had even named this defensive line yet.


    While P5092 was busy with the deployment of the troops, Zhang Jinglin started discussing this matter with Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Let¡¯s call it Dawn,¡± Ren Xiaosu said.


    This was the darkest moment for human civilization, but it was here that they were going to wait for the light to shine.


    Zhang Jinglin immediately understood Ren Xiaosu¡¯s intent. It was darkest before the dawn, but as long as they could survive this moment, the light would shine.


    ¡°Then let¡¯s name it the Dawn defensive line.¡± Zhang Jinglin nodded.


    The civilians at the Dawn defensive line were forcefully evacuated. Those evacuees from the Northwest who had stayed behind to aid in the construction shouted they would perish together with the defensive line and refused to leave. In the end, it was Zhang Xiaoman who forcefully chased them away.


    By 10 PM that night, there were almost no civilians left on the entire defensive line. Only the Northwest Army remained to fight the war here.


    In the darkness, the enemy seemed to be getting closer and closer. Meanwhile, everyone¡¯s breathing started getting heavier.


    A group of auxiliary troops had just arrived at Position 317, the first echelon of the defensive line, after receiving P5092¡¯s deployment order.


    The 1st Division stationed at the defensive position had received their orders in the afternoon. They silently opened up the rear gate to wee their friendly forces.


    ¡°Wee.¡± The brigademander of the 124th Infantry Brigade under themand of the 1st Division said, ¡°We were informed in a hurry that you all wereing and needed our cooperation. However, they didn¡¯t mention your purpose here.¡±


    The officer who was ordered to assist in the defense thought for a moment and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but it¡¯s confidential.¡±


    To everyone¡¯s surprise, a hawk was circling above the defensive position and hunting down unknown birds from time to time.


    The sky above Position 317 had be a no-fly zone.


    Just before midnight, a mortar suddenly dropped from the sky at Position 317. As the mortar round made its way inward, there was a sharp whistling in the air like an rm.


    A momentter, a machine gun nest at Position 317 was blown up.


    The vicinity of the machine gun nest was filled with bunkers and trenches. However, this mortar round flew over parabolically through the sky and avoided all the defensive embankments.


    The uracy of these mortars was inexplicable and stunning.


    But as soon as that mortar round exploded, the auxiliary troops that had just arrived at Position 317 immediately started moving.


    They set up mortars behind the defensive position andunched the first round of bombardment at the forest outside Position 317.


    There was no need to aim. All they needed to do was adjust the mortars to fire at their maximum range.


    Beforeing here, Wang Yun had already ryed an order to them on behalf of P5092. ¡°The AI is extremely good at firing mortars at extreme ranges. But this also means the distance between us and them is fixed.¡±


    They fired back mortar rounds one after another. However, this time, they were white phosphorus mortar rounds.


    After the white phosphorus rounds exploded, the phosphorus, which was a pale yellow in color, quickly started burning and the temperature instantly reached a 1,000 degrees Celsius.


    Moreover, white phosphorus was very difficult to extinguish. Disregarding whether the artificial intelligence¡¯s troops had any means to extinguish the fire, even if they really did have other tricks up their sleeves, they would not be able to deal with a terrifying weapon like white phosphorus munitions.


    Amid the loud explosions, a huge wildfire started burning in the forest and quickly spread east.


    After the second round of mortar bombardment, the Northwest Army¡¯s troops actually gathered their mortars and turned around to retreat.


    The wildfires five kilometers away kept spreading and formed a natural fire barrier outside Position 317.


    If it didn¡¯t rain, the wildfire would probably take more than ten days to extinguish.


    Meanwhile, it would probably be very difficult for the first group of artificial intelligence troops in the forest to survive.


    The auxiliary troops were here because P5092 said that if the artificial intelligence chose the most optimal n of attack, taking down Position 317 would be the most beneficial to it. That was because Position 317 was in the first echelon of the battlefront and taking it down would have the greatest impact on the entire defensive line at the rear.


    Therefore, P5092 was considering the weaknesses of this position from the perspective of Zero. From there, he would turn those weaknesses into an advantage.


    If he were Zero, he would definitely choose to attack Position 317 first.


    Of course, this strategy could only be used once.


    But when it came to a contest like this, it was always better to take advantage of every possible situation they could.


    As for whether the white phosphorus munitions were overly cruel to use, that was not among P5092¡¯s considerations.


    Since the forest outside Position 317 was suitable for white phosphorus munitions to cause the most damage, they should use it to form an incendiary barrier.


    At this moment, P5092 was standing in themand center when he received the good news from Position 317. He looked at the sand table without saying a word.


    What he needed to do was not celebrate this triumph with the others but think about what Zero would do next.


    The final battle had begun.

 Chapter 1253 - 1253 One win, one loss

    1253 One win, one loss


    D?5.


    The artificial intelligence¡¯s first probing attack was brought to a stop by a forest fire that burned arge number of its troops in the forest to death.


    Even if the humans controlled by the artificial intelligence were approaching a true ¡°healthy physique,¡± could they possibly outrun a wildfire?


    The forest, autumn weather, and wildfire. P5092 had vividly utilized the advantageous terrain and conditions to their maximum potential. However, this n had to be executed as quickly as possible since they knew heavy rain wasing.


    This was because they understood the importance of the weather. If P5092 had tried so hard to keep such a powerful weapon from being deployed until thest moments and ended up not being able to use it due to rain, it would have been such a waste of his efforts.


    After P5092 used the white phosphorus munitions at Position 317, a lot of people witnessed the might of this move. Someone asked him what he was going to do next, but P5092 actually answered by saying the soldiers should quickly transfer out to a new defensive position. He wanted them to reach the designated area within four hours.


    P5092 made this decision based on the data obtained from the various fighting forces. In his opinion, the previous defensive arrangements were not satisfactory.


    When P5092 changed the defensive deployment, everyone looked at him awkwardly. That was because the initial battle n was set by Zhang Jinglin. P5092 was basically undermining Zhang Jinglin with what he did.


    It was equivalent to calling out Zhang Jinglin for hisck of martial ability.


    When Zhang Jinglin saw everyone¡¯s reaction, he chuckled. ¡°That¡¯s the order of the current highest-ranking militarymander of the Northwest Army. Are you all trying to get court martialed by dawdling around? It¡¯s alright, there¡¯s no need to keep respecting me. My militarymand ability was a result of me being forced into my role.¡±


    When he said that, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.


    Even P5092 heaved a sigh of relief at this. To be honest, he was also a little worried about how Zhang Jinglin would react, so he continued observing him.


    From the look of things, the futuremander did not lie to him. As long as he served in the Northwest Army, he would not have to worry about all those political schemings.


    But at this moment, Wang Yun, who was still sorting out the data, looked up and asked, ¡°But is it really alright to transfer them out of the defensive position so suddenly?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true. What if there¡¯s a gap in the defensive line during the transfer?¡± the Great Hoodwinker asked.


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°That won¡¯t happen. First of all, these are troops in the second echelon of the defensive line being moved away. Even if the enemy suddenly attacks, the first echelon¡¯s position will be able to buy them some time. Secondly, the AI has always been fond of managing its operations very closely, so it should be chopping down trees to create a buffer zone at this moment. It won¡¯t be able toe and attack us.¡±


    P5092 knew very well that the idea of using white phosphorus munitions to ignite a wildfire could only be used once.


    After this, before the other artificial intelligence-controlled troops began their round of attacks, they would definitely create buffer zones in advance in case the Northwest Army tried the same trick again.


    And that was exactly what happened.


    Farther behind, the artificial intelligence-controlled troops quickly felled the trees dozens of kilometers away to create buffer zones. Only then did theypletely iste themselves from the wildfires to prevent further losses.


    Even after a few hours, no enemy troops came to attack by the time the troopspleted their transfer to the new defensive position. This time, everyone was utterly convinced by P5092. He could even predict whether the enemy would attack or not.


    ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± Wang Yun asked, ¡°Any good ideas?¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°The following battles will all be tough ones. Moreover, the enemy troops that were held back by ck Fox¡¯s group are probablying for us already. In the south, the two groups of enemy troops from the Qing Consortium will also be arriving on the battlefield soon. We already have a headache facing one group of enemy troops, so we can only hope we can still enjoy some good luck in this war.¡±


    ¡­


    Whatever was going to happen would happen. After the artificial intelligence established enough wildfire buffer zones outside the defensive line, it wouldunch another attack.


    Outside Position 317, Ji Zi¡¯ang had helped the 129th Engineering Battalion¡¯s soldiers nt thousands ofnd mines within a few hours.


    Among them, the majority were anti-tank mines while anti-infantry mines wereid out separately. In an instant, the area outside Position 317 and the path on its left were turned into a terrifying minefield.


    Every minefield that came into existence would turn into a huge potential threat after the war, and such zones would be devoid of people.


    No one would dare step foot into such areas. Even the engineering battalion soldiers whoid thend mines might not remember where they were buried. If normal people were to identally venture inside such an area, they would definitely die.


    But how could P5092 care about what might happen after iming victory in this war? Even winning the war was already a very difficult task.


    Just as P5092 expected, the artificial intelligence had indeed chosen this location for the Wang Consortium¡¯s mechanized troops to pass through after its analysis for the optimal solution.


    But something unexpected happened. The anti-tank mines did not work as intended.


    The horde was surging over from outside the minefield. What was strange was that these people were carrying another person on their backs and advancing towards the minefield in a carpet sweep formation.


    The principle behind anti-tank mines was just that they were filled with more explosives and used pressure fuses that infantry was unable to trigger.


    The fuse would require a pressure of 90 kilograms to be triggered. Meanwhile, it wasn¡¯t actually that easy to find normal people weighing over 90 kilograms, especially in the military.


    Soldiers in the military trained all year round and had extremely low body fat, so they rarely weighed more than 90 kilograms.


    It was the same for the AI-controlled troops. After undergoing the most scientific of training regimes, their bodies had reached the highest standard of fitness.


    However, the artificial intelligence actually increased the weight of each individual soldier by having them carry another soldier on their backs. Then it carried out mine-clearing of the area in the most direct of methods using human bodies.


    Mechanized troops were like a fortress for infantry. When the battle got intense, the artificial intelligence would also choose to advance its mechanized troops as quickly as possible.


    The explosions that reverberated within the mountains from the minefield were so loud the soldiers at Position 317 could hear them. But just as they happily thought the minefield had sessfully stopped the enemy¡¯s mechanized troops, they saw a shocking sight through their high-powered binocrs.


    Countless lives were lost as the enemy troops advanced into the minefield one after another. When an enemy soldier stepped on and mine, they did not stop and just continued advancing. Then they were killed by the triggerednd mines.


    There were no mine-clearing strategies or detection measures.


    All of the AI-controlled humans behaved like moths drawn to a me. At this moment, life seemed to have lost its meaning and was simply used as a tool.


    The lives of these young and middle-aged humans seemingly became unimportant as they were sacrificed by the artificial intelligence in exchange for time.


    The soldiers at Position 317 fell silent. They suddenly felt an extreme sense of despair. The cold ruthlessness of the enemy seemed to have be a different form of strength at this moment, terrifying everyone.


    It was as though nothing could stop the artificial intelligence.


    When the battalionmander of the 191st Artillery Battalion saw this, he suddenly said, ¡°Comrades, now we¡¯re all aware of the kind of enemy we¡¯re facing.¡±


    The minefield¡¯s dirt ground was stained red with blood, but not a single enemy tank could be seen.


    Everyone in the Northwest Army was well aware that humans were probably thest resource the artificial intelligencecked.


    Sacrificing 10,000 to 20,000 people in the minefield was just a drop in the bucket for the entirety of the enemy¡¯s troops.


    The battalionmander at the defensive position immediately had his soldiers prepare their short-range artillery. Their mission at Position 317 was to prevent the mechanized troops from passing through. Although the minefield did not work as nned, it did not mean the battle could not be fought.


    At this moment, in themand center where P5092 was, a staff officer gave a sitrep of Position 317 to him.


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Inform the 191st Artillery Battalion tounch an all-out attack.¡±


    The ¡°all-out attack¡± was to disregard all consequences and preservation of ammunition and carry out suppressive fire against the enemy.


    Wang Yun was stunned. An order like this was basically asking Position 317 to finish expending its ammunition before it got breached.


    He asked P5092, ¡°Do you n to have the 191st Artillery Battalion retreat?¡±


    P5092 shook his head. ¡°They can¡¯t retreat. Even if they have to charge forward with explosives, they still need to hold Position 317 for another eight hours. Only then will the other positions have a chance to stop the AI¡¯s infantry.¡±


    With those words, it meant the 191st Artillery Battalion would bepletely forsaken. This also made Wang Yun understand how much pressure P5092 was under. He was actually trying to squeeze out everyst bit of each soldier¡¯s value.


    Wang Yun suddenly felt that P5092, who was currently taking charge in themand center, must be feeling heartbroken throughout all of this.


    P5092 suddenly said, ¡°To carry out such an attack with no regard, it must mean the AI also knows the urgency of the situation. In that case, the gift I¡¯ve prepared for it at Position 291 should give it a surprise.¡±


    Position 291 was located in the middle of the two defensive support points, Mt. Yongjing and Mt. Xigu. It was just a minor position with no strategic significance.


    If the enemy attacked from here, the Northwest Army¡¯s troops at Mt. Yongjing and Mt. Xigu would be ready to provide support at any moment andy siege to the opponent at Position 291.


    But once the enemy had enough numbers and firepower, it could forcefully cut off the link between Mt. Yongjing and Mt. Xigu from there.


    If the artificial intelligence continued sending more troops to upy that position at all costs, Mt. Yongjing and Mt. Xigu would lose their co-dependence on each other.


    When that happened, it would only take a day for the isted defensive line at Mt. Xigu to fallpletely.


    Or it might not even take a day.


    Using a huge numerical difference to overwhelm this position was the best solution for the artificial intelligence on this battlefield.


    The Three Mountains defensive line battle and the probing by the artificial intelligence over the past two days seemed to suggest to humans that it did not like overwhelming its opponents with a human wave.


    However, P5092 felt that the artificial intelligence did not overwhelm them with a human wave previously only because it wasn¡¯t necessary, not because it did not know how to use such a tactic.


    Position 291 might be P5092¡¯s final chance to surprise and deal the artificial intelligence a heavy blow. After this, the artificial intelligence would probably not choose the ¡°optimal solution¡± whenever there was a choice to be made.


    P5092 was constantly reminding himself not to underestimate the artificial intelligence.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character¡¯s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible ¡°out of character¡± behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author¡¯s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you¡¯ll understand. Yes, we¡¯re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can¡¯t judge a person if you don¡¯t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren¡¯t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero¡¯s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you¡¯re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I¡¯m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I¡¯ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo¡¯s work by searching @ wxw ¡°the grandmaster strategist¡±. He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :¡¯)


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    <iframe title="Yuewen IP Spokesperson - Hugh Hu Ge (The First Array/µÚÒ»ÐòÁÐ/The First Order)" src="https://.youtube/embed/LFq6fiMqXS4?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    <iframe title="The First Order/µÚÒ»ÐòÁÐ (Fan Cut Trailer)" src="https://.youtube/embed/F-yUuSUvm7c?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    <iframe title="Yuewen Time: The Speaking Pork Trotter" src="https://.youtube/embed/v0i8m5EPWz8?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    ¡­


    ¡­


    Position 291 was not situated at a high altitude, and the terrain was not steep enough either. Therefore, it was not strategically suitable to mount a defense there.


    But the conditions on a battlefield were never constant. Sometimes, some subtle decisive factors could turn a situation around.


    The surprise P5092 had in store for the artificial intelligence was Zhou Yingxue, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin.


    The sharpest de would have to be reserved for the most critical moments.


    At this moment, more than ten kilometers away from Position 291, a fearsome horde was surging towards the defensive position like an earth-shattering tsunami.


    The tsunami was getting closer and closer. Humans armed with firearms were rushing over from the forest.


    But at this moment, a green web of vines fanned out into the wilderness. Sharp tentacles pierced the enemy troops¡¯ bodies one by one and drained them of their blood. Then that blood was converted into life force and fed back to Zhou Yingxue.


    Without any loss of the creeper vine¡¯s tentacles, Zhou Yingxue¡¯s life force would continue to grow endlessly, and perhaps there woulde a day when her quantitative change would reach a qualitative change.


    However, the artificial intelligence was experienced enough in dealing with the creeper vine. Previously, when Zhou Yingxue was at the outpost, she could not do anything to the horde and could only see her life force decrease slowly.


    A momentter, the surging horde crashed into the web of creeper vines. But every time an enemy troop got restrained or prated by the creeper vines, another soldier would take the initiative to help tear the vines apart.


    In the human horde, the division of duties was extremely clear. Some of the creeper vine¡¯s tentacles were even caught by the AI-controlled humans before they could pierce a target¡¯s skin.


    When superhumans encountered an army that behaved like a sophisticated machine, they were somewhat helpless too.


    However, since P5092 had Zhou Yingxue, Ren Xiaosu, and Yang Xiaojin stand guard here to help with the defense, he naturally had a new strategy.


    In the forest, a dense hail of potatoes suddenly shot out from somewhere. The potatoes were asrge as heads, and they emitted a buzzing sound in the air when they were fired. When an enemy was hit, the sound of their bones breaking could be heard.


    All of a sudden, the dense horde was overwhelmed by the rows of Potato Shooters and could no longer sweep through the creeper vines with ease.


    From the moment P5092 took overmand of the Dawn defensive line, he immediately deployed Zhou Yingxue to this defensive position.


    It was quite difficult for P5092 to order Zhou Yingxue directly, so he had Yang Xiaojin haul Zhou Yingxue to Position 291 instead.


    Of course, hauling was just a hyperbolic way of saying it, but P5092 realized it was way too easy to order Zhou Yingxue around using Yang Xiaojin as a shield.


    Zhou Yingxue cursed P5092 in her mind, but she still put on an obedient face when she was ordered to move. She quietly nted thousands of Potato Shooters in front of Position 291 in just a day.


    Zhou Yingxue was a little ¡°spent¡± after nting the Potato Shooters. The creeper vines she sent out earlier were just an empty show of strength. Now that the Potato Shooters had knocked out the first line of enemies, she hurriedly took the opportunity to absorb their blood to replenish her life force.


    This was the only way for her to keep going without harming herself.


    Previously, Ren Xiaosu did not allow her to absorb the life force of humans. But with the situation so dangerous now, anything was allowed.


    Faced with this endless cmity, the entire world seemed to have fallen into darkness. The soldiers at the Dawn defensive line might appear determined, but a sense of despair had already begun to set in.


    At times like these, Ren Xiaosu allowed Zhou Yingxue to resort to extreme measures to fight for those still alive. He no longer cared about absurd benevolent and moral rules.


    This era might not be able to nurture innocence, but absolute darkness would nurture light.


    However, there was also a limit to Zhou Yingxue¡¯s tactics. Although the Potato Shooter was stronger when nted by her, it only had a capacity of a 100 shots per day. Moreover, many of the Potato Shooters were destroyed after the enemy opened fire at them.


    Even so, Zhou Yingxue could still bury hundreds of thousands of enemy troops here.


    But despite that number, it was not even close to the enemy¡¯s limit.


    Based on Wang Yun¡¯s estimation, there were still millions of AI-controlled humans despite only one of the four enemy¡¯s fighting forces arriving at the defensive line.


    A few hourster, the Potato Shooters finally ran out of ammunition.


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s life force started running out again. Without the aid of the Potato Shooters¡¯ defense, the enemy troops quickly reorganized and tore through the creeper vines that were binding them.


    Before Zhou Yingxue could absorb the enemy troops¡¯ life force, the vines were already torn apart.


    But at this moment, Old Xu, who was wearing the white mask, suddenly charged into the forest and started a brutal massacre.


    The moment the AI-controlled troops saw Old Xu, they immediately opened fire and formed a blockade.


    This blockade was much more terrifying than any suppressive fire Ren Xiaosu had ever encountered. He even felt there were no gaps in it he could exploit.


    At Position 291, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Zhou Yingxue stood in a row. The three of them suddenly felt a little helpless.


    It was especially so for Yang Xiaojin. She specialized in decapitation operations, but there was no figurehead for her to attack in this scenario.


    Perhaps she could gun down a 1,000 enemy troops in one day like she did at Mt. Zuoyun, but that would still be meaningless.


    Zhou Yingxue looked at Ren Xiaosu helplessly. ¡°Master, my life force is nearly used up. I¡¯m unable to absorb much of the enemies¡¯ life force before the vines get torn off.¡±


    However, Ren Xiaosu suddenly said, ¡°Wait a minute, I think I¡¯ve got an idea!¡±


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu walked to a secluded spot and recited an incantation with the ck Eye of True Sight in hand, ¡°Prosperous Northwest.¡±


    When the ster gate opened, an exceptional suction force tried to pull a creature out from behind the portal to Position 291.


    The moment the portal was activated, Ren Xiaosu immediately stepped back. Yang Xiaojin and he held their ck sniper rifles at the ready in preparation to kill the unknown creatureing from behind the gate.


    In the end, the ster gate summoned a blue whale from the sea this time.


    The blue whale was sorge Ren Xiaosu had never seen something like it before in his life. Even Midnight and Dusk could notpare to it.


    The blue whale that was suddenly summoned by the ster gate struggled with all its might onnd. But it was useless no matter how hard it struggled. That was because this was not where it belonged.


    The blue whale¡¯s tail kept hitting the ground, but its size was too cumbersome. After it ¡°ran¡± aground, it could not even flip its body around.


    Ren Xiaosu¡¯s expression darkened when he saw the blue whale. He knew the ster gate had summoned some other creature because Midnight and Dusk were probably dead.


    But now was not the time to feel sad. He turned to Zhou Yingxue and said, ¡°Use this creature to replenish your life force. After you¡¯re done with it, I¡¯ll summon another one for you.¡±


    Zhou Yingxue¡¯s eyes lit up. It was as though she had gotten ess to an unlimited source of endurance.


    With Midnight and Dusk gone, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s summoning spell had be a little useless. That was because even he might not be capable of dealing with or controlling the extremely powerful creatures he summoned.


    But now there seemed to be a new way to use the summoning spell, and that was to summon an unlimited ¡°battery¡± for Zhou Yingxue!


    Speaking of which, the blue whale was way too unlucky. However, Ren Xiaosu had no other choice. He could not sympathize with other species now and had to prioritize the survival of mankind first.


    Therefore, justice only existed within the scope of civilization. Humans only had any sense of ¡°justice¡± for other humans.


    With the summoned blue whale, Zhou Yingxue immediately regained her ferociousness once again.


    The creeper vine quickly wrapped around the blue whale and stabbed its tentacles deep into the whale¡¯s body. An enormous amount of life force continuously channeled into Zhou Yingxue¡¯s body. The enemy troops who were surging over on the battlefield could no longer gain any ground.


    Although there were a lot of enemy troops, it was impossible for hundreds of thousands of them to charge in at once. As the terrain here was narrow, tens of thousands of people passing through at once was the limit.


    As more blue whales appeared one after another, Zhou Yingxue was able to defend Position 291 all by herself. To the soldiers who were defending Position 291, all of this felt like an absurd dream.


    However, it was extremely inspiring as well.


    When it turned dark, the enemy troops outside Position 291 gradually started retreating.


    Actually, even though Ren Xiaosu had provided Zhou Yingxue with an endurance boost, she was unable to wipe out all the enemies here. She could only be considered to be stalling for time. Once she got tired and needed rest, Position 291 would once again face a real crisis.


    Meanwhile, the artificial intelligence did not dwell too much on it. That was because its purpose in attacking Position 291 was to catch them by surprise. But the attack had lost its ¡°cost effectiveness¡±


    The defeat at Position 317 and the victory at Position 291 made it look as though the two sides hade out even against each other.


    But beyond these two positions, the artificial intelligence had upied another 11 positions along the first echelon of the Northwest Army¡¯s defensive line in just a single day.


    By tomorrow, the number of fallen positions the Northwest Army might suffer could be even greater.

 Chapter 1254 - 1254 A trump card to crush the defensive line

    1254 A trump card to crush the defensive line


    D?4.


    Early in the morning.


    The battle yesterday turned out much more brutal than expected, with the Northwest Army losing 12 positions in a single day.


    None of thebat troops at these positions retreated. They had voluntarily decided not to retreat, but at the same time, P5092 did not allow them to retreat either.


    P5092 had said to Wang Yun before, ¡°If we choose to retreat each time we can¡¯t defeat the enemy at a defensive position, where will the rest of the Northwest Army and civilians behind them retreat to?¡±


    !!


    By standing firm on this defensive line, they could buy some time for theirrades. If they could not defeat the enemy, they would have to give their lives to hold them off.


    It was just as P5092 had said to Zhang Xiaoman on two previous asions: ¡°What do you think war is about then?¡±


    War was a fight with the goal of destroying the enemy¡¯s forces.


    Fortunately, Ji Zi¡¯ang, who was in the vicinity of Position 317, had temporarily altered the terrain there. He almost overdrew his life force to create a mountain that cut across the path of the enemy¡¯s mechanized troops. Otherwise, the situation would probably turn out even worse.


    It had to be known that the southwestern forest was inessible to the mechanized troops.


    Therefore, all of the Central ins¡¯ mechanized troops had assembled here to make an advance into the Northwest. The Pyro Company had not left behind too many weapons and equipment for the Wang Consortium to appropriate. Before they retreated, they destroyed everything that could be of use to the enemy. A single grenade was all it took to directly blow up the barrel of a tank.


    However, the Kong Consortium and the Zhou Consortium practically surrendered without a fight. Those two organizations had really left behind too many resources for the Wang Consortium.


    Ji Zi¡¯ang understood the severity of the situation, so he knew he had to help P5092 hold off these mechanized troops.


    Currently, Ji Zi¡¯ang was fully exhausted. He was lying in the field hospital behind themand center and ced under the care of the nurses.


    However, P5092 did not even visit him at the field hospital because he had no time.


    Time was exceptionally precious to the Northwest Army at this moment.


    There were only five days left. Currently, the Northwest Army was already having such a hard time just blocking the path of one group of enemy troops. But ording to Hu Shuo, there were still about three other groups of the enemy¡¯s troops making their way over.


    In themand center, Wang Yun looked at P5092 and asked, ¡°How much longer do you think the Dawn defensive line can hold for?¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Three days. If we¡¯re lucky, it will hold for three days. On the third day, we¡¯ll have to start our evacuation to Fortress 178 where our final battlefield lies.¡±


    Wang Yun knew P5092 was someone who only spoke the truth. Therefore, the Dawn defensive line was really only defendable for three days at most. Even if they got extremely lucky, it would only hold for three days.


    Facing such arge number of enemies, this did not seem like an uneptable answer.


    It was said that the Three Mountains defensive line was only held for three days. Including the previous few days, the Dawn defensive line had already exceeded the duration the Three Mountains defensive line hadsted.


    However, there were still five days left. Would human civilization get destroyed in the final two days?


    Currently, the soldiers at every defensive position were already extremely exhausted. This battle was different from all the others in the past.


    It used to be that both enemy and friendly troops required time to rest. Therefore, even though it wasn¡¯t easy to allocate, there would still be time to sleep. Amid a battle, it was still guaranteed they would get at least four hours of rest a day. If the situation of the battle was not too intense, they could even sleep up to six to eight hours.


    But it was different this time. The artificial intelligence¡¯s attacks seemed to have no end in sight. Although they had implemented rotational breaks at the defensive positions, how could they possibly fall asleep amid the loud gunfire?


    Just today, there were already soldiers who suddenly fainted while walking. The Supply Division immediately tore up thousands of uniforms for everyone to use as makeshift earplugs.


    In fact, under normal circumstances, soldiers should not be wearing earplugs when sleeping. That was because they would not be able to hear any urgent orders for them to assemble.


    But there was really no other choice. If some of these soldiers did not get some sleep soon, they could really copse.


    ¡­


    The 3rd Division led by Zhou Yinglong was garrisoned at Hill 287 on Mt. Xigu at this moment.


    The burly Zhou Yinglong was patrolling the defensive line with a worried look on his face. Then, a chance for a rare break finally arrived at Hill 287. The enemy had finally retreated like a receding tide.


    Logically speaking, it was a good thing the enemy had retreated, but Zhou Yinglong knew things were not that simple. The enemy¡¯s troops were all well-equipped, so there was no reason for them to suddenly retreat at a time like this. Therefore, something was definitely going to happen.


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s adjutant followed behind him as they patrolled the defensive position. The adjutant said, ¡°Commander, please go and get some sleep. I know you haven¡¯t had any sleep in 30 hours already.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong said calmly, ¡°Why sleep so much when we¡¯re alive? We can sleep forever when we¡¯re dead. There¡¯ll be loads of time to sleep in the future.¡±


    The deputymander was taken aback but did not say anything further.


    Hill 287 was full of craters several meters deep. Some of the trenches at this position even copsed after being bombarded by artillery shells.


    When it was time to eat, the Northwest Army soldiers sat cautiously in the trenches and had a few bites to eat from their aluminum mess tins.


    Everyone was feeling extremely hungry, but they just couldn¡¯t gather up an appetite.


    They had killed too many people and even witnessed theirrades getting blown up bloodily next to them.


    But there was no choice. If they wanted to continue fighting the war, they would have to fill their stomachs first.


    What used to be delicious had a waxy taste now as they chewed on their food. The soldiers could only move their jaws mechanically. These were the veterans who were able to ovee their trauma and maintain a mentality suited to fighting a war.


    Zhou Yinglong looked at every one of the soldiers and saw their pupils constricting. All of them resembled devils at this point.


    The prolonged period of tension caused everyone¡¯s nerves to tense up, and such emotions directly affected their pupils.


    Therefore, the difference between war represented in artworks was that everyone resembled a devil in a real one.


    No one was innocent, but no one could be used of absolute guilt either.


    But at this moment, Zhou Yinglong¡¯s adjutant suddenly said, ¡°Division Commander, look out there beyond the defensive line!¡±


    Outside Hill 287, Zhou Yinglong spotted dark clouds drifting over from the horizon.


    Those dark clouds were moving extremely fast, and it was as though they had already gotten much closer in just the blink of an eye.


    Those were not really clouds at all. Zhou Yinglong took out his high-powered military binocrs and had a look at it, only to see densely packed wings pping as countless birds flocked together.


    There were swan geese, cuckoos, yellow orioles, and wild ducks.


    Zhou Yinglong suddenly realized that these birds had amon trait, and that was they were all migratory birds.


    It was already autumn, so these migratory birds should have flown south to prepare for the winter. However, they were suddenly returning to the Northwest now.


    Little did they know the artificial intelligence had found the best way to control the birds. All it needed to do was to find a ce where these birds rested while on their migratory journey.


    There was a wend not far from the Wang Consortium¡¯s Stronghold 61 that was suitable for birds to rest, with eight or nine such other migratory habitats scattered across the entire Central ins. The migratory birds took a short rest in these habitats where they ate and drank for a short while before they were controlled by the artificial intelligence, never to fly south again.


    Zhou Yinglong saw a huge hawk soaring towards those ¡°dark clouds¡± in the sky at an extremely fast speed.


    Initially, the majestic hawk dove into the ¡°dark clouds¡± and scattered the advance guard of the flock. But a momentter, the birds in the flock, seemingly having their own duties, circled around the hawk and nipped its feathers off one by one.


    In the blink of an eye, the hawk turned into a ball of energy and faded away into the sky.


    Earlier, Hassan¡¯s hawk had contributed greatly to the Northwest¡¯s efforts. But in the face of absolute numbers, it was still a little helpless.


    Zhou Yinglong looked at the sky in the distance and said with a sigh, ¡°Wake all the soldiers. Fill your mags and get ready for a tough battle!¡±


    Judging by the direction of the dark clouds, Hill 287 would probably be the first position to get attacked by an air strike.


    Yesterday, when the artificial intelligence attacked Ren Xiaosu, Zhou Yingxue, and Yang Xiaojin, Zhou Yinglong was aware the enemy intended to cut off Mt. Xigu from the rest of the defensive support points and would make an example out of this ce first.


    However, he did not expect the other party would attack in an even more direct manner today.


    This was the attack P5092 had spected the artificial intelligence wouldunch today to crush the Dawn defensive line.


    Zhou Yinglong could not even determine how many birds there were in the flock. When the birds that had mutated after The Cataclysm gathered together, it was as though a terrifying natural cmity that stretched across several kilometers had arrived.


    On Hill 287, the heavy machine gun positions had all adjusted their shot angles. They were originally facing the foot of the mountain, but now they were all cushioned on sandbags and pointed to the sky.


    There were not only heavy machine gun nests on the important position of Hill 287 but short-range anti-air artillery as well.


    All of the soldiers held their breaths as they waited for the flock of birds to get closer. Zhou Yinglong sighed and said, ¡°My superpower is totally useless here¡­.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong¡¯s power was to summon a wild boar. But no matter how powerful a wild boar was, it could not encircle birds flying in the sky.


    When the flock of birds was about to reach the sky above Hill 287, Zhou Yinglong gave the order to open fire.


    In the early morning, the heavy machine gun¡¯s bullets shot into the sky with a visible trajectory like red-hot pellets. But to everyone¡¯s surprise, when the heavy machine guns were fired, the birds that were initially densely packed together actually parted several times.


    And the gaps created were exactly where the heavy machine gunfire was targeting.


    The gaps that opened up between the birds were very precise, with no wasted movements.


    However, the speed of a fired bullet was still much faster than that of a bird. Even though the artificial intelligence had predicted the trajectory of the gunfire, it was unable topletely avoid it.


    Meanwhile, Zhou Yinglong knew this was not good. That was because this attack clearly had much lower damage than he was expecting.


    If the uracy was only this low, the entirety of Hill 287 would probably not be able to kill these birds even if they finished expending all their ammunition.


    In that case, Hill 287 would have to face the oue of being overwhelmed by this dense flock of birds.


    It was not only Hill 287 but also the second echelon of the defensive line at their rear!


    ¡°Short-range anti-air artillery, execute salvo fire!¡± Zhou Yinglong ordered.


    Loud explosions boomed on the hill. It was so loud everyone thought their lungs would burst out.


    The short-range anti-air artillery needed more preparation to fire than heavy machine guns. As the artillery shells broke the sound barrier after shooting out of the barrels, a three-meter-wide hole suddenly appeared in the ¡°dark clouds¡± in the sky. The artillery shells prated through this gap in the flock of birds.


    Amid the simultaneous firing of the short-ranged anti-air artillery, Zhou Yinglong quietly ordered some soldiers to take out thermobaric bombs from behind their bunkers to deal with these birds by means of high temperatures and hypoxia.


    But even though the soldiers¡¯ movements were very stealthy, the birds still managed to avoid the trajectory of the thermobaric bombs in advance.


    Without making any contact, the warhead would not be able to trigger the fuse within the projectile. Meanwhile, the Northwest¡¯s technological level was not advanced enough to support remotely-activated missiles.


    Immediately after, even the enemy¡¯s ground troops that had retreated earlier also began attacking Hill 287 again.


    Moreover, even therge-caliber howitzers the enemy had not used against Hill 287 appeared. This meant the mechanized troops¡¯ passageway near Position 317 had opened up. It seemed that the enemy¡¯s ground troops who had retreated earlier had gone to clear the path for them.


    Amid themotion, Zhou Yinglong sighed to himself. Mt. Xigu was probably unable to hold for much longer.


    His adjutant said in a low voice, ¡°Division Commander, should we retreat? We can¡¯t defend the position.¡±


    Zhou Yinglong took a deep breath and said with augh, ¡°You don¡¯t know how ruthless that fe inmand of the troops is. He¡¯ll never allow us to retreat¡­. Besides, I¡¯m not thinking of retreating either.¡±


    ¡°Division Commander, don¡¯t you wish to return to Fortress 178 to see your family?¡±


    Zhou Yinglong said, ¡°After we¡¯re victorious in the war, ourrades will bring my mr tooth back and ce it under the copper bell in the square. I¡¯ll naturally return to Fortress 178 then.¡±


    An hourter, the flock of birds overwhelmed Hill 287 and started flying towards the second echelon of the defensive line behind the position.


    Zhang Jinglin, who was busy at the field hospital, suddenly received news of Zhou Yinglong¡¯s death. He fell silent for a moment with mixed feelings before wiping his hands and receiving the next patient.


    The mention of Zhou Yinglong¡¯s name was like a pebble that dropped into theke of his heart. It only caused a ripple before he became calm again.


    After the current group of wounded personnel were sent to the operating rooms, Zhang Jinglin quietly walked out to the field hospital¡¯s corridor where he stood alone at the door and lit a cigarette while looking in the direction of Hill 287.


    This was what wars were like. Due to the urgency of the situation, there wasn¡¯t much time to reminisce.


    After Zhang Jinglin handed over his role as the highest-ranking militarymander, he did not sit idle. He chose toe to the field hospital and passionately serve as a medic. It seemed that this job was the most enriching and nostalgic to him.


    By switching roles like that, he surprised many people. But Wang Fengyuan, who understood Zhang Jinglin the best, knew that Zhang Jinglin¡¯s two greatest wishes were actually to be either a good medic or a good teacher.


    ¡­


    In themand center, news of the fall of one defensive position after another spread. The flock of birds in the sky seemed to really have be the most powerful trump card that could crush the Dawn defensive line.


    The atmosphere in the center turned extremely gloomy. The continuous wave of bad news of theirrades¡¯ deaths seemingly crushed them on the inside.


    At this rate, the Dawn defensive line would probably copse before tomorrow.


    Wang Yun suddenly said to P5092, ¡°Your heart rate hasn¡¯t fluctuated much, and neither has your body temperature. Aren¡¯t you worried about the defensive line at all? Thebat staff officers also went to consult Future Commander just now, but Future Commander said he doesn¡¯t have any idea on how to deal with these birds for now.¡±


    What Wang Yun was implying was that the person they could depend on most was also helpless right now.


    Ren Xiaosu was not omnipotent. All of his gratitude tokens had been used to buy Proficiency Stones to increase the level of his Prosperous Northwest spell. Even the Explosive Poker cards he had previously drawn were used up when he went to fetch Qing Zhen from the Southwest.


    Therefore, the futuremander did not have any good ways to deal with the enemy in the air at this moment either.


    Wang Yun¡¯s power to control air was pretty good, but his power as a superhuman was not outstanding. His stronger point was still his memory, organization skill, and analytical ability.


    P5092 nced at Wang Yun. ¡°Wait a little longer.¡±


    In thismand center, P5092 seemed to be the only one without worries.


    Wang Yun was puzzled. ¡°Wait for what?¡±


    ¡°Wait for the rain to arrive.¡± P5092 said, ¡°I felt the weather suddenly turn chilly this morning. This means the cold front in the north has already arrived. The first autumn rain will be arriving soon.¡±


    Wang Yun did not probe any further, but he still did not understand how the rain would affect those birds.


    At Position 141, Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, Qing Zhen, and Xu Man were having breakfast around a campfire.


    The surrounding Northwest Army soldiers had already moved into the trenches. As the second echelon of the defensive line, the troops at this defensive position were already informed that the enemy had breached the first echelon and was about to arrive.


    Everyone was sinking into despair because they knew what was happening at the defensive line ahead.


    They would probably never get to see their former good friends andrades again in the future.


    As the tense atmosphere spread across the defensive position, Luo Lan and the others appeared rather rxed.


    Luo Lan had specially gotten his hands on some heavy machine guns from the infantry brigade at Position 141 and distributed them to his 12 martyred spirits. At this moment, those shimmering martyred spirits were standing at the edge of the defensive line and nning to fight alongside the Northwest Army.


    The sky darkened as a northeasterly wind started blowing into the mountains while the campfire swayed unsteadily in the wind.


    Suddenly, arge, dark cloud floated out from behind the mountain in front of them. The flock of birds flew over the top of the mountain pass and headed towards Position 141.


    Zhou Qi quietly looked up at the sky above him. After a long while, he said, ¡°P5092 has pretty much convinced me.¡±


    Qing Zhen nodded.


    Qing Zhen, who was also a military genius, naturally understood what Zhou Qi was implying.


    Previously, when P5092 specifically requested Zhou Qi toe to Position 141, they were still unsure of what ns the other party had for him.


    After all, even though Position 141 was located at the front of the second echelon and was a main target of the enemy¡¯s attack, there was no river there. There wasn¡¯t even a small stream to be seen in the area, so what role could Zhou Qi possibly y?


    At that time, P5092 only said that Zhou Qi would understand when the time came.


    It was as though the other party was never worried their n would fail. Even the weather was within his calctions.


    As the cold front headed south, the clouds in the sky quickly condensed into water vapor upon encountering the cold air. Then the water vapor continued to condense and form into water droplets.


    In the sky, a crystal clear droplet of water was leaving the clouds and drifting towards the ground. Itnded on the soil at Zhou Qi¡¯s feet with a plop, and a faint earthy smell arose.


    Heavy rain was reallying.


    Zhou Qi turned around and slowly walked towards the edge of the defensive line. The fine raindrops in the sky began to fall even faster, gradually forming a majestic curtain of rain over everyone¡¯s heads.


    But just as the flock of birds were about to approach Position 141, the drizzle seemingly turned into a sky full of stars and sharp swords.


    The soldiers stood guard in the trenches.


    Meanwhile, Luo Lan, Qing Zhen, and Xu Man waited at the rear of the defensive line.


    Only Zhou Qi faced the surging flock of birds alone. He suddenly revealed his palm while his eyes were already a hue of blue.


    Suddenly, the raindrops were stretched into needle-like shapes by an invisible force.


    A million needle-shaped raindrops descended like lightning and pierced through the flock of birds stretching across several kilometers.


    Rain, blood, and feathers mixed together as bird carcasses plummeted to the ground. The flock of birds had seemed like they wanted to retreat, but it was a little toote to do so now.


    After the battle at the silt farm, Zhou Qi had be a demigod.


    Luo Lan¡¯s eyes revealed some sadness because he knew this was thest gift his third brother had left behind for them.

 Chapter 1255 - 1255 Abyssal ravine

    1255 Abyssal ravine


    D?3.


    Zhou Qi had stepped into the realm of gods with a single battle. The resplendent rain of swords that filled the sky downed countless numbers of migratory birds. It was a magnificent sight that was really worthy of someone with the title of demigod.


    Many of the Northwest Army¡¯s soldiers even started iming that Zhou Qi was probably unparalleled whenpared to other demigods on a rainy day.


    The defeated flock of migratory birds¡¯ feathers and carcasses covered the wilderness.


    However, like Ji Zi¡¯ang, Zhou Qi was also exhausted after the battle. Qing Zhen, Xu Man, Zhou Qi, and Luo Lan had taken advantage of this temporary truce to retreat from Position 141. Furthermore, they did not stop at the Dawn defensive line and directly rode a vehicle back to Fortress 178 at the rear.


    In Qing Zhen¡¯s words, they had already done all they could do at the defensive line. All that was left was to patiently wait at Fortress 178.


    As the intermittent autumn rain came to a stop, Position 141 was turned into muddy terrain. asionally, some soldiers would lose their bnce as they moved along in the slippery trenches.


    Theyid the armory boxes they had brought to the defensive position on the ground of the trenches and used them as a path for everyone to walk on.


    It was a rare chance for the soldiers to recuperate. They leaned against the trench walls nonchntly as some of them smoked, while others chewed on small bites of their hardtack. Then they started chatting excitedly about everything that happened yesterday.


    Earlier, when the flock of migratory birds were about to arrive, everyone had felt disheartened. However, Zhou Qi¡¯s actions instilled hope in everyone again.


    This feeling of hitting rock bottom and getting a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel was really uplifting.


    Some of the soldiers dozed off in the trenches as they chatted despite the loud chatter of the others around them.


    When themand center received the news of Position 141¡¯s victory, everyone cheered and turned to look at P5092 as though he were their idol.


    Truly, Zhou Qi was indeed powerful. Meanwhile, the fact that P5092 ced Zhou Qi at Position 141 in advance and predicted the rain made it seem like he was able to predict the future.


    It was as though P5092 and Wang Yun¡¯s battlefieldbination was made just for the war.


    Back while everyone was feeling worried, P5092 did not seem concerned about the flock of migratory birds at all.


    As such, his calm andposed attitude also convinced everyone.


    However, while everyone was cheering, a frown appeared on P5092¡¯s face again.


    Wang Yun asked, ¡°Why do you look so glum even after we¡¯ve scored a great victory? Is it because there was something peculiar about the arrival of this flock of migratory birds?¡±


    What Wang Yun meant was that since even they could determine there would be rain during this period, the artificial intelligence should have also been able to predict it. Therefore, the flock of migratory birds that were suddenly sent to Zhou Qi¡¯s position for him to kill really felt like it was a trap.


    P5092 said, ¡°ording to historical records, this rain willst for at least three days. If the AI had kept its trump card until three dayster, we would have already won. Zhou Qi himself said that the AI should also know very well that he has reached the level of a demigod during their battle at the silt farm. That was because Zhou Qi had ughtered his way out of there, so the AI definitely can¡¯t escape having to take him on at ater time. It wouldn¡¯t have been able to avoid another battle with Zhou Qi at all.¡±


    P5092 continued, ¡°The migratory birds were indeed its trump card. But from the look of things, it feels more like it was using them as a cover for its human troops. It seems like its human troops are more important to it.¡±


    At this moment, Xun Yeyu, who had had his eyes closed while fulfilling his responsibility as a human radar in themand center, suddenly opened his eyes and stood up. He shouted, ¡°Another enemy has appeared in the northeastern direction. The scale of their forces is simr to the enemy we¡¯re going up against at our defensive line now. They¡¯re still 90 kilometers away from us!¡±


    Thebat staff officers, who were still cheering in themand center, immediately felt suffocated once more. The Dawn defensive line was already having such a hard time facing just one group of troops. If another group were to arrive, wouldn¡¯t the defensive line be at risk of copsing at any moment?


    Moreover, ording to Hu Shuo¡¯s intel, the two groups of enemy forces in the southwest were going to bypass the Dawn defensive line and head straight for Fortress 178. That ce was now as good as an unguarded city.


    But before anyone could digest this news, P5092 said again, ¡°The enemy troops in the southwest should be arriving soon too.¡±


    The two enemy forces in the southwest were not inferior in numbers to the enemies they were facing now.


    It was as though P5092 was deliberately dampening everyone¡¯s spirits by bringing up one bad situation after another.


    Wang Yun said in a low voice, ¡°If all of those enemy troops were to arrive, we can¡¯t stop them at all. We might not even be able to hold them off for one day.¡±


    P5092 thought for a moment and said, ¡°Pass down my orders. All troops in the third echelon of the Dawn defensive line are to start evacuating back to Fortress 178 tomorrow. Only by doing this will our retreating Northwest Army troops have a chance to put up a final resistance before the enemy troops in the southwest arrive at Fortress 178.¡±


    ¡°What about the troops at the second echelon¡¯s positions?¡± Wang Yun asked.


    ¡°They¡¯ll be buying time for thebat troops of the third echelon to retreat,¡± P5092 answered.


    P5092¡¯s only objective now was to buy time and more time.


    Everything else was not in his consideration.


    ¡°But if the enemy at the northeast arrives tonight, the defensive line¡¯s second echelon troops probably can¡¯t buy us enough time.¡± Wang Yun said, ¡°The second echelon might copse before we even start retreating tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why I said we still need some luck,¡± P5092 said.


    In fact, everyone¡¯s sess was more or less rted to luck.


    Meanwhile, P5092 was aware that someone very close to Ren Xiaosu had a hand in affecting luck.


    ¡­


    The northern nomads traveled south via the Shenmu River and headed straight for Fortress 178.


    Back then, Yan Liuyuan had sent Hassan to lead the wolves to herd the cows and horses to support Stronghold 144. After the wolves escorted thest group of evacuees to the Dawn defensive line, they turned back to join up with Yan Liuyuan again. Only Hassan remained behind to assist the Northwest Army in their efforts at the Dawn defensive line.


    At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was sitting on the Wolf King¡¯s broad back and stroking its fur. ¡°It¡¯s been hard on you all.¡±


    The Wolf King shook its head vigorously as though it was enjoying Yan Liuyuan¡¯s caress.


    ¡°Bn Zir.¡± Yan Liuyuan asked Bn Zir, who was riding on a warhorse next to him, ¡°What do you think the Northwest Army needs now?¡±


    ¡°Master, our scouts discovered an extremelyrge number of enemy troops in the south. Fortunately, our scouts are riding our best warhorses, so they weren¡¯t caught by the enemy.¡± Bn Zir thought for a moment and said, ¡°I think the Northwest Army probably can¡¯t withstand such arge number of enemies, so do we have any ideas on how we can stop them?¡±


    ¡°When do you think will be the most suitable time to stop them?¡± Yan Liuyuan asked.


    Bn Zir scratched his head. ¡°Master, I don¡¯t know when is the most suitable time either. Why don¡¯t we get to it right away?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°I want y¡¯all to continue advancing on the agreed route. I¡¯ll go on ahead first.¡±


    Bn Zir got anxious at that. ¡°Master, I was just making a random suggestion. You don¡¯t have to take my word for it.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan smiled and said, ¡°It¡¯s not that I¡¯m taking your word for it but that I trust myself.¡±


    Although Yan Liuyuan could not see the satellites in the sky, he knew the satellites observing thesends should be slowly moving farther and farther away in their orbits.


    The best opportunity was now.


    For a lot of people, luck was something that could only be chanced upon. But for Yan Liuyuan, it was an actual ability he could control.


    The only thing was he could not make a wish to enhance his own luck. However, he could enhance Ren Xiaosu¡¯s luck.


    Right now, every question Yan Liuyuan had rted to Ren Xiaosu, and the ones that were answered should be of most help to Ren Xiaosu.


    Not far away, Xiaoyu was sitting on the back of another silver wolf. When she saw that Yan Liuyuan appeared to be breaking away from the group, shemanded her mount to rush over. ¡°Liuyuan, I¡¯ll go with you.¡±


    When Yan Liuyuan saw Xiaoyu¡¯s determined attitude, he smiled and said, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go together.¡±


    The two of them rode their wolves and rushed southwards. When they got close to the enemy, the troops controlled by the artificial intelligence actually came to a stop. All of them looked in Yan Liuyuan¡¯s direction and assumed a defensive posture.


    But a momentter, Yan Liuyuan jumped off the Wolf King¡¯s back and revealed his palm at the enemy from afar. He made a chopping motion and the ground suddenly started trembling.


    In the vast wilderness, an abyssal ravine suddenly appeared, running from north to south on the yellow surface of the earth. It cut across the path the enemy¡¯s advance guard needed to travel on.


    The abyssal ravine was not wide, and it was impossible to destroy an entire enemy force with it. However, it was more than enough to stop the enemy troops in their tracks.


    Yan Liuyuan¡¯s body started turning illusory. The ends of his hair were dissipating into starlight at a visible rate, and it was as though his entire body were about to dissipate away into the air.


    Countless enemy troops fell into the abyssal ravine. The bottom of the ravine was even deeper than the eye could see, and only the sound of water sshing could be heard emanating from within. It was as though a giant saber had shed across the surface of the earth and into the underworld.


    This fissure stretched for dozens of kilometers and instantly swallowed 20% of the enemy troops!


    Yan Liuyuan did not go and check on the enemy. He just looked silently at the sky above him as his willpower became stronger than ever.


    At some point, he even felt that he had already understood the true essence of the world. Or perhaps he himself was one of the true essences of the world.


    He was the truth.


    ¡°Liuyuan!¡± Xiaoyu eximed.


    She saw Yan Liuyuan¡¯s body continuously turning ethereal. In that instant, Li Xiaoyu could not help but feel a pain in her heart. It was as though she were about to lose her most important family member.


    Xiaoyu kept calling out Yan Liuyuan¡¯s name. She even stumbled in her pathetic state and ran towards Yan Liuyuan to hug him in her arms.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Big Sister Xiaoyu.¡± Yan Liuyuan looked down at Xiaoyu and said with a smile, ¡°Thanks for staying by my side. Otherwise, it would have gotten really dangerous this time.¡±


    Xiaoyu looked up at Yan Liuyuan¡¯s face. She did not know when she started having to look up at this young man.


    Yan Liuyuan, who used to be the impish ¡°friend of the women¡± back in town, had grown up.


    ¡°Liuyuan, your hair,¡± Xiaoyu said softly.


    After Yan Liuyuan arrived at the grasnds, he never cut his hair again and grew it out until it reached his waist.


    But Yan Liuyuan¡¯s hair had be extremely short. It was as though he were one of those ascetic monks people read of in legends.


    Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°Big Sister Xiaoyu, it¡¯s very fortunate that you managed to bring me back from the verge. My hair¡¯s not really that important.¡±


    Xiaoyu suddenly asked, ¡°But your hair¡¯s almost all gone. If you use your power again, I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll really dissipate. Can you promise me you won¡¯t use your powers again in the future?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that serious.¡± Yan Liuyuan said with a chuckle, ¡°I just can¡¯t resort to using such disaster-level powers anymore. The usual luck enhancement power is still OK.¡±


    ¡°That won¡¯t do.¡± Xiaoyu said, ¡°I¡¯m afraid that you¡¯ll really dissipate someday.¡±


    ¡®¡±That won¡¯t happen.¡± Yan Liuyuan said, ¡°With you around, I won¡¯t take that kind of risk. Actually, the enemy is much stronger than I expected this time. I don¡¯t have the power to go against it. Even if I had sacrificed myself, I¡¯d only cause heavy losses to it. That¡¯s because neither I nor the legendary Li Shentan can be the world¡¯s consciousness.¡±


    Therefore, even if anyone other than Ren Xiaosu crossed the critical 70% threshold that separated man from god, they could notpletely reach the other side and step into the divine kingdom.


    In the end, they would only dissipate from the world.


    ¡­


    At the same time, in themand center at the Dawn defensive line, Xun Yeyu suddenly said loudly, ¡°I sense the presence of people north of the enemies in the northeast. There are only two of them. One is a normal person while the other is a superhuman. However, that superhuman¡¯s me is as bright as a star. Such a strong life force is super rare. That person¡¯s even stronger than Zhou Qi and Zhou Yingxue.¡±


    ¡°Is it a superhuman above the demigod level?¡± P5092 asked, ¡°Where are they headed?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re closing in on the enemy in the northeast¡­ wait a minute.¡± Xun Yeyu said in shock, ¡°Tens of thousands of the enemy¡¯s troops have disappeared all of a sudden!¡±


    Actually, Xun Yeyu was not sure if it was tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of troops that disappeared. He could only feel dense signs of life suddenly fading away in his mental image.


    It was as though someone had suddenly cut a piece of a rectangr cake.


    Xun Yeyu racked his brains but could not rely on his imagination to guess what had happened.


    P5092 said, ¡°Where are both of them moving towards right now?¡±


    Xun Yeyu said, ¡°That demigod is rushing towards the Dawn defensive line, but the enemy troops in the northeast have turned south. I wonder why.¡±


    ¡°This is what I meant when I said we needed some luck.¡± P5092 sighed emotionally. ¡°I guess that person from the grasnds must have arrived.¡±


    No matter what had happened, those enemy troops were not going to reach the Dawn defensive line by tonight.


    With the countdown getting closer, those key figures of human civilization were starting to converge at the same spot.

 Chapter 1256 - 1256 You must live on

    1256 You must live on


    D?2.


    Late at night.


    The autumn rain stopped briefly as a musty smell of soil filled the air.


    At the third echelon of the defensive line where themand center was located, the sound of gunfire could still be hearding from the second echelon of the defensive line.


    The abyssal ravine that stretched across the ground blocked the path of the second group of enemy troops in the northeast. Those AI-controlled soldiers who traveled on foot would have to continue marching for at least a day before they could go around the rift that spanned dozens of kilometers.


    !!


    Yan Liuyuan had single-handedly shielded the Dawn defensive line from the most immediate threat they were facing.


    When Yan Liuyuan finally arrived at the defensive line from the north with the nomads, Ren Xiaosu immediately noticed Yan Liuyuan¡¯s short hair which made him look like an ascetic monk.


    He was stunned for a moment before asking Yan Liuyuan, ¡°What¡¯s with your hair?¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Yan Liuyuan replied with augh, ¡°It¡¯ll grow out again. Bro, I brought 20,000 of my tribe¡¯s warriors here. They might be of help to y¡¯all.¡±


    However, P5092 shook his head and said, ¡°There¡¯s no need for that. Currently, the Dawn defensive line is nning to retreat. If your people have the strength, please help take some of our wounded away from this ce.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan thought for a moment and said, ¡°Alright.¡±


    On this defensive line, the wounded were the only ones other than the third echelon¡¯s troops who could leave alive.


    It was not that P5092 was suddenly upholding the spirit of humanitarianism, but that even if these wounded soldiers were to remain at the defensive position, they could not continue fighting. In that case, they might as well be brought back to the rear so they could help rekindle the mes of humanity.


    At this moment, a specialized group of troops were responsible for evacuating the wounded. They went around to the various defensive positions to tally the number of wounded personnel before retreating together with them.


    At Position 141, the soldiers had just repelled a group of enemy troops and were able to take a short rest.


    Themander of the Iron 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Field Division, who was in charge of this position, was being bandaged up by his orderly.


    Yesterday in the middle of the night, he was shot during an unexpected attack and was left with a broken arm.


    Their camp was equipped with splints purpose built for setting bones, so there was no need to resort to using wooden sticks to fix such injuries.


    When the battalionmander¡¯s wound was being dressed, he was in so much pain that beads of sweat broke out on his forehead and his lips turned pale.


    Even the toughest fes of the Northwest Army could not bear the excruciating pain of broken bones.


    At this moment, a young soldier at the defensive position ran over and said to the battalionmander in surprise, ¡°Battalion Commander, the rear has ordered all wounded personnel to retreat. I heard they¡¯ll be evacuated back to Fortress 178. Quickly let them take a look at your injuries. Only the wounded are allowed to retreat for now. Sis-inw is still waiting for you at home.¡±


    How were they going to do that? Using their lives of course.


    Initially, everyone still found it quite upsetting. But for some reason, they suddenly epted this reality overnight.


    No one came to give them any pep talks, nor did anyone attempt to use patriotism as a reason for them to remain behind. Everyone only felt that since they were soldiers of the Northwest Army, they should not be afraid of death.


    The mention of the words ¡°Northwest Army¡± seemed to fill them with inexplicable pride. They had not really received any special treatment even though they were Northwest Army soldiers. Instead, they had to be more tolerant towards others everywhere while they were living in the strongholds. Even when they took the streetcar, they had to give up their seats to the elderly and children as they were afraid it would disgrace the epaulets they wore on their shoulders.


    For example, this young soldier, who wasn¡¯t originally from Fortress 178, had joined the military only after the Northwest was unified.


    For some reason, he decided to sign up when he saw the bright red banner at the recruitment office that day.


    When Stronghold 144¡¯s trade boomed, many of his family members advised him to not be a soldier of the Northwest Army anymore. If he followed his uncle into business, he would be able to earn more than what a soldier earned.


    But every time, he just smiled without saying anything to them. He did not know how to answer them, but all he wanted was to stay in the Northwest Army.


    He still felt that way now. Although he knew he would die by staying behind, he still wanted to remain at the defensive position and fight alongside hisrades.


    There was no reason. He just thought this was what he had to do.


    But the situation had changed now. The soldiers who were wounded had a valid reason to leave the defensive line. The young soldier knew the battalionmander had two children and his wife was not working, so his family was fully dependent on him.


    Therefore, he thought the battalionmander could take this opportunity to leave the second echelon of the defensive line and retreat with the main forces.


    It was not an issue of cowardice, but that it was really unnecessary for the battalionmander to continue fighting at the defensive position with the current state of his arm.


    At this moment, footsteps came from the outside of the tent.


    The young soldier actually saw the battalionmander tearing off the splint on his arm and concealing the wound under his military uniform.


    An unfamiliar face walked in from the outside. That person said to everyone, ¡°I heard there¡¯s wounded personnel here. We¡¯re taking them away to evacuate together.¡±


    But before the others could say anything, the battalionmander spoke first. ¡°It must be a misunderstanding. There aren¡¯t any wounded personnel here.¡±


    The soldier in charge of evacuating the wounded was taken aback for a moment. ¡°Is that so?¡±


    He gave the battalionmander a skeptical look. Actually, even if the battalionmander had removed the splint on his arm, his pale face still gave everything away. As such, the evacuation officer could already tell that the battalionmander was injured.


    The battalionmander hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Bro, I want to fight alongside my brothers. I can¡¯t go back by myself.¡±


    The evacuation officer fell silent for a few seconds. Then, he straightened his back and saluted the battalionmander before turning around to leave.


    There was no further exchange of words. They were all soldiers of the Northwest Army. If he were in the shoes of the battalionmander, he might have made the same decision as well.


    After the evacuation officer left, the young soldier looked at his battalionmander and said in a daze, ¡°Battalion Commander, don¡¯t you want to go back? You¡¯re not pretending to be injured; you really are! There¡¯s no cowardice in that.¡±


    The battalionmander scolded, ¡°Fuck, it hurts so much! Hurry up and help me set the splint again. By the way, tell those scoundrels outside to perk up. We have to fight ourst battle beautifully.¡±


    The battalionmander did not answer the young soldier¡¯s question.


    Simr incidents like this happened throughout the second echelon¡¯s defensive positions. As a result, the evacuation officers were all left teary-eyed.


    At this moment, the sky was still dark. The military corps at the third echelon of the defensive line started retreating towards Fortress 178 while visibility was still low for the satellites.


    Before leaving, everyone saluted in the direction of the second echelon of the defensive line.


    Just as the 1st Military Corps was retreating from the Dawn defensive line, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, Yan Liuyuan, and Xiaoyu stood at the edge of the defensive position and looked out at the night sky.


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Bro, are you still hesitating?¡±


    Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, ¡°You know what I¡¯m thinking?¡±


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yan Liuyuan nodded. ¡°The AI seems unstoppable. Until now, I haven¡¯t managed to think of another way to resolve this crisis. So there seems to be only one way out.¡±


    The way Yan Liuyuan was referring to was for Ren Xiaosu to turn into the world consciousness and end Zero¡¯s future at its origin.


    No matter how powerful Zero was, it was still an existence in the world. There was no way it could go against the will of the world.


    Therefore, when cmity struck, the question always seemed toe back to whether it should be others or oneself who should be sacrificed.


    Ren Xiaosu said in a low voice, ¡°Sometimes, I think that since there¡¯s only one way out, I might as well be more decisive. That way, fewer soldiers of the Northwest Army will have to die. The longer I hesitate, the more people are going to die because of this disaster. But, Liuyuan, you know I¡¯ve always been a very selfish person. Before this, I¡¯d never thought I¡¯d sacrifice myself for anyone, unless it¡¯s for Xiaojin, you, or Big Sister Xiaoyu.¡±


    ¡°Mhm, I know that.¡± Yan Liuyuan said in a low voice, ¡°That¡¯s why I rushed over this time. Because I wanted to stop you. Bro, let¡¯s leave this ce. It¡¯s a big world out there. Regardless of how powerful Zero gets, there can¡¯t possibly be no ce for us to seek refuge. Sure, I know that might sound self-deceptive, but, Bro, I really don¡¯t wish to see you sacrifice yourself for the sake of the entire world when it has been so clearly unfair to you.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said, ¡°Can you let me speak in private with Xiaojin?¡±


    Yan Liuyuan and Xiaoyu exchanged nces before leaving quietly.


    Ren Xiaosu took out a tarp from his storage space andid it out on the raised step of a trench. He and Yang Xiaojin sat side by side on it and looked up at the dark night sky.


    ¡°You don¡¯t wish for me to take that step either, right?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Mhm.¡± Yang Xiaojin said firmly, ¡°Xiaosu, y¡¯know, no one should have to sacrifice anything for the world.¡±


    ¡°Liuyuan always feels that the world has been a little harsh on me, but I feel I¡¯m actually quite lucky to have such a beautiful girlfriend and be this strong. In the past, I thought I had been abandoned by my parents. But after my trip to the Kingdom of Sorcerers, I realized how great of a sacrifice they had made to let me survive. That¡¯s why I don¡¯t feel I¡¯m all that miserable anymore. I heard that my father died trying to save everyone during The Cataclysm. Now that I think about it, I¡¯m actually a little impressed by his boldness. In fact, after hearing his story from the Riders, I realized he¡¯s more of a qualified leader than I am. I¡¯m just a kid who hasn¡¯t really found his direction in life yet.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin shook her head. ¡°You don¡¯t necessarily have to follow in his footsteps.¡±


    ¡°But there¡¯s no other way. Xiaojin, you must live on,¡± Ren Xiaosu said, lowering his head.


    Yang Xiaojin turned to look at Ren Xiaosu. She realized she could not see his expression clearly as his face was hidden in the shadows.


    Ren Xiaosu continued in a low voice, ¡°If I continue hesitating, even you might die. I thought about it for the entire day yesterday and suddenly realized that I couldn¡¯t ept such an oue. I don¡¯t have to save the entire world, but I want to save you. We all have to admit that with Zero¡¯s strength growing to this extent, we¡¯ll have to face it sooner orter someday. Perhaps we can escape to the Kingdom of Sorcerers for the time being or live by ourselves in a faraway ce. But every time we choose to avoid it, it¡¯ll increasingly be more difficult to beat.¡±


    Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu in a daze. On this cruel battlefield under the heavens, Ren Xiaosu suddenly used the simplest of logic to convey the most unforgettable romantic words to her. This left her a little overwhelmed.


    ¡°But you still mustn¡¯t sacrifice yourself,¡± Yang Xiaojin said.


    Ren Xiaosu smiled bitterly. ¡°I don¡¯t want to either. If there¡¯s really a chance to live, who would want to die?¡±


    ¡°Promise me this. Since Qing Zhen said to wait for him for nine days, we should wait until the ninth day before deciding.¡± Yang Xiaojin said, ¡°If he doesn¡¯t seed at the end of it, I¡¯ll apany you wherever you want to go at that time.¡±


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character¡¯s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible ¡°out of character¡± behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author¡¯s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you¡¯ll understand. Yes, we¡¯re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can¡¯t judge a person if you don¡¯t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren¡¯t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero¡¯s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you¡¯re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I¡¯m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I¡¯ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo¡¯s work by searching @ wxw ¡°the grandmaster strategist¡±. He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :¡¯)


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    ¡­


    ¡­


    The 1st Military Corps of the Northwest Army had already withdrawn most of their forces from the Dawn defensive line. In P5092¡¯s n, the second echelon of the defensive line would have to hold off the artificial intelligence for nearly a day.


    This ce was still about 131 kilometers away from Fortress 178. Based on how fast the AI-controlled troops were advancing, they should be fighting the final battle at Fortress 178 on the final day.


    Win or lose, all would be revealed on that day.


    While retreating from the defensive position, Wang Yun suddenly asked amid the sea of tens of thousands of people, ¡°Eh, where¡¯s P5092? He was still there with us when we started retreating just now.¡±


    As he spoke, the Great Hoodwinker and the others also looked around for P5092.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu, who understood P5092 the best, turned around and ran back to the defensive position without another word. When he rushed into themand center, he saw P5092 pointing a gun at his lower jaw.


    Ren Xiaosu reached his hand through the Shadow Door and pped the gun muzzle aside. With a loud bang, the gun went off. If Ren Xiaosu had been any slower, P5092 would probably be dead.


    ¡°What are you doing?!¡± Ren Xiaosu asked in bewilderment, ¡°Why did you try to kill yourself?¡±


    P5092 said, ¡°The final objective of the Dawn defensive line has been achieved, so my mission is alsopleted. There isn¡¯t much of a point in having me around for any of theter battles. The final battle at Fortress 178 will rely not on strategy but courage.¡±


    ¡°And that¡¯s why you have to die?¡± Ren Xiaosu frowned and asked, ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because I personally sent ck Fox and the others on the most dangerous mission. Because I refused to let the frontline soldiers at the Dawn defensive line retreat.¡± P5092¡¯s eyes were filled with weariness.


    For the sake of winning the war, P5092 made the most ruthless decisions and issued one cruel order after another.


    However, that was for the sake of victory, not for himself.


    If he were not burdened by the mission of the Pyro Company, he might have made other choices.


    P5092 said softly, ¡°That day I parted ways with ck Fox, I had wanted to be like themanders of the other troops who fight alongside their soldiers. But I knew the Dawn defensive line needed me, so I couldn¡¯t die. However, as theirmander, I¡¯ve let them down.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu fell silent. He did not know how tofort the military genius in front of him.


    The other party was clearly born for war, but he still had a benevolent heart.


    But the kinder the other party was, the more painful each decision they undertook would be.


    This pain kept umting until P5092 finally had the thought of suicide. He wanted to apany his men because he was the one who had personally sent them to their deaths, even though he had a very valid reason for doing so.


    Ren Xiaosu put P5092¡¯s gun away into his mind pce and then said coldly, ¡°After we win this war, I¡¯ll think of a way to use the Martyr¡¯s Pce to summon ck Fox and the others back. But if youmit suicide, you¡¯ll get separated by death from them. Because the Martyr¡¯s Pce can¡¯t summon those who die by suicide.¡±


    P5092 was stunned. He suddenly remembered Ren Xiaosu¡¯s power. ¡°But there¡¯s more than 10,000 Pyro Companybatants led by ck Fox! Luo Lan¡¯s Martyr¡¯s Pce can only summon 12 people.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said earnestly, ¡°That¡¯s because Luo Lan isn¡¯t strong enough to summon more. It¡¯s not that the superpower is unable to.¡±


    At this moment, the artificial intelligence also seemed to have realized the Northwest Army at the Dawn defensive line was retreating.


    All of a sudden, the garrison troops at the second echelon of the defensive line felt the pressure escte. It was as though a boundless tsunami was crashing down on them.


    Together with the troops that were cut off by Yan Liuyuan¡¯s ravine, the enemy forces started advancing at a trot.


    In the southwestern direction, the two groups of enemy forces that were heading north from the Qing Consortium even threw away some of the supplies they were carrying and picked up their pace.


    That turbulent tsunami was about to flood through the Dawn defensive line and devour Fortress 178 along with it.

 Chapter 1257 - 1257 Smelted stone for armor, flames for cloak

    1257 Smelted stone for armor, mes for cloak


    D?1.


    Ren Xiaosu instilled P5092 with great hope by telling him that with his willpower, it would not be a problem even if he were to summon more than 10,000 martyred spirits. In fact, Ren Xiaosu wasn¡¯t even sure of his upper limits when it came to summoning the martyred spirits.


    When he was at the Kingdom of Sorcerers, Melgor told him that the stronger a sorcerer¡¯s willpower was, therger their inner world of meditation would be. While everyone else only started off with a leaf in their inner world of meditation, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s contained an entire world.


    When it came to Ren Xiaosu¡¯s willpower, it always felt like measuring it was close to impossible.


    Moreover, Ren Xiaosu even told P5092 that not only would he be able to summon over 10,000 martyred spirits, but he could also let them live in the outside world without having to endure the darkness of the Martyr¡¯s Pce.


    !!


    After hearing him say all that, P5092 was finally convinced to evacuate with Ren Xiaosu.


    Of course, P5092 remained skeptical of the ims.


    After all, Luo Lan could only summon 12 martyred spirits with his superpower. Although Ren Xiaosu was publicly acknowledged as stronger than Luo Lan, could he really be a thousand times stronger?


    That would really be so embarrassing for Luo Lan then.


    Actually, P5092 had already learned to trust Ren Xiaosu unconditionally after working with him for so long. But when he deliberated how much more powerful Ren Xiaosu was than Luo Lan, he still found it a little unbelievable.


    However, he could only wait for Ren Xiaosu to provide him with that answer.


    In the end, P5092 decided to trust that Ren Xiaosu would conjure up a miracle for him.


    While retreating, Ren Xiaosu went to look for Zhang Jinglin to rify a matter which he was most puzzled about. ¡°Teacher, where¡¯s Xu Xianchu? Why haven¡¯t I seen him around? Logically speaking, he should be quite strong as well, so why wasn¡¯t he deployed to the battlefield?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin thought for a moment and said, ¡°Xu Xianchu is a rare supernatural being with two superpowers. However,pared to the damage he can deal, his defensive ability has actually gotten much more impressive now. So I sent him to guard a more important ce.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was stunned. ¡°Fortress 178?¡±


    Zhang Jinglin shook his head. ¡°No.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu realized the so-called important ce probably had something to do with Qing Zhen¡¯s n.


    He didn¡¯t expect that, though. Had Xu Xianchu¡¯s ck cauldron actually be so powerful?


    The 1st Military Corps of the Northwest Army did not retreat at a fast pace. Before they left, P5092 had already drawn up a detailed n for the evacuation. All infantry troops were to retreat with the armored troops because he judged the two groups of enemy forces in the southwest were about to arrive. If they retreated in a disorderly manner and got intercepted by those two fighting forces midway, it would all be over for the Northwest.


    Even while retreating, they would have to preserve a fighting chance for themselves.


    Currently, the two fighting forces in the southwest were what the Northwest Army should be most worried about.


    Based on P5092¡¯s deduction, the enemy¡¯s first wave of troops would likely try to block them en route during their retreat back to Fortress 178.


    But even though they knew all this, there was nothing they could do about it.


    P5092 said that everyone would die.


    ¡­


    At Position 141, the battalionmander who refused to evacuate with the wounded personnel was sitting quietly in the trenches and lighting up a cigarette.


    A soldier next to him whispered to the battalionmander, ¡°Battalion Commander, didn¡¯t you say we¡¯re not allowed to smoke during a battle? Because the enemy will discover our positions that way?¡±


    The battalionmander scolded, ¡°We¡¯re already gonna die, so why do you still care about that?¡±


    At this moment, the battalionmander was wearing a tactical vest with four grenades hanging off his chest. The safety pins of each grenade were connected together with a rope. All he needed to do was use his left arm, which was still functional, and give it a simple tug and the safety pins woulde off.


    Since his right arm was injured, it meant it would be very difficult for him to use his firearms. However, Position 141 did not need a good-for-nothing. Since he had the bravery to remain behind, the battalionmander had no intention of holding everyone back.


    If all he could do was wave a g behind hisrades to cheer them on, his reputation as their battalionmander would bepletely tarnished.


    The battalionmander suddenly hesitated for a moment. ¡°Wait a minute, do you all think Future Commander and the others will still be able to find my mr teeth if I get blown up along with the grenades? If they can¡¯t, my spirit can¡¯t rest under the copper bell, right?¡±


    The young soldiers at the side did not know whether tough or cry. At a time like this, the battalionmander was actually worried about something like that?


    A soldier asked, ¡°Battalion Commander, do you think the Northwest can win? Will someone reallye and collect our mrs when the war is over?¡±


    ¡°What are you bbering about?¡± The battalionmander said unhappily, ¡°Has our Northwest Army ever lost? Although we¡¯ve also fought with much difficulty in the past, the Northwest Army has never lost before! Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll definitely be the victors at the end of this war.¡±


    ¡°Battalion Commander, you¡¯re lying. I heard from Brigade Commander that in the early years, we always lost when we fought against the sorcerers¡­.¡±


    ¡°Fucking bullshit!¡± The battalionmander said anxiously, ¡°Did those sorcerers finish off the Northwest Army then? I didn¡¯t think so. As long as there¡¯s still someone standing in the Northwest Army, it¡¯s not considered a defeat. It¡¯s just strategic forbearance on our part. Look, after enduring for so long, didn¡¯t Future Commander lead the 6th Field Division to wipe them out? The final victory was still ours!¡±


    ¡°Battalion Commander, you really shouldn¡¯t scold the brigademander¡­.¡±


    ¡°So what if I scold him?!¡±


    But at this moment, the soldiers responsible for observing the situation outside the trenches looked out through a periscope and were surprised to see a dense horde rushing over 800 meters away from the defensive position.


    ¡°We¡¯re under attack! They¡¯re here!¡± the soldier roared.


    The battalionmander casually extinguished his cigarette butt against the wall of the trenches and said, ¡°Brothers, we have no chance of returning with our lives, but our retreatingrades are still making their way back. We have to buy them some time and give them some hope.¡±


    Everyone knew the second echelon of the defensive line would not hold for much longer. All they could do was try their best to stall for as much time as possible.


    ¡­


    At Mt. Tianzhu, which was more than a 100 kilometers south of Fortress 178, a convoy that stretched dozens of kilometers was speeding northwards along a mountain path.


    P5092¡¯s guess was right. If everything happened ording to what he predicted, these troops, who had seized all the vehicles in the Southwest, would indeed try to block the 1st Military Corps¡¯ retreat.


    However, just as they were about to drive out of Mt. Tianzhu, a young man and a girl jumping rope appeared at the foot of the mountain.


    The young man, who was dressed in a tuxedo and a magician¡¯s hat in the wilderness, looked slightly out of ce.


    The little girl sang happily, ¡°Jump rope, jump rope wanna y? Jump rope, jump rope what d¡¯ya say? Jump rope, jump rope hop in time. Jump rope, jump rope, sing in rhyme.¡±


    The convoy gradually came to a stop.


    This sight seemed to intrigue Zero quite a bit.


    In front of the countless troops, people were jumping rope at the foot of the mountain as though no one were around. There was even a huge metallic box at their side holding something unknown.


    The halted convoy was quiet and solemn. Meanwhile, the people who were jumping rope appeared extremely rxed.


    Li Shentan had a look at the convoy before slowly stopping what he was doing. He sighed and said, ¡°What¡¯s so fun about jumping rope? Why does Ren Xiaosu like to do it so much?¡±


    Si Liren curled her lips. ¡°I think it¡¯s really fun.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because you¡¯re still young, but Ren Xiaosu isn¡¯t young anymore,¡± Li Shentan ridiculed.


    The two of them chatted as though the troops a short distance away were nonexistent.


    The enemy troops alighted from their vehicles. In just a few seconds, the entire wilderness was seemingly filled with people. It was an extremely spectacr sight to behold.


    Zero understood that since Li Shentan had appeared here, it meant he intended to stop its troops here at Mt. Tianzhu.


    Li Shentan looked at all of the calm faces andmented, ¡°If I didn¡¯t know better, I would¡¯ve thought they¡¯d all been hypnotized by me.¡±


    Someone stepped out of the crowd and walked towards Li Shentan.


    Li Shentan suddenly realized he knew this person. ¡°What was your name again¡­¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Zero.¡± Zero answered.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m referring to this person under your control.¡± Li Shentan said, ¡°I think I¡¯ve met him before.¡±


    ¡°Oh, his name is Xu Zhi. I ced him under my control in Luoyang City,¡± Zero answered.


    ¡°No wonder I thought he looked so familiar. So this is the president of the Qinghe University Student Council whoter went on to be the president of the Qinghe Group,¡± Li Shentan said with a nod.


    ¡°Are you stopping me here to prevent me from proceeding further?¡± Zero asked.


    ¡°Hey, hey, don¡¯t be in such a hurry to get down to business, alright? Can¡¯t we stall for time by chatting about some other topic first?¡± Li Shentan said with augh.


    However, Zero unexpectedly answered, ¡°Alright, I happen to have some matters I¡¯d like to talk with you about. I¡¯ve been wanting to know more about you recently¡­.¡±


    ¡°Know about me? In what way?¡± Li Shentan was a little surprised.


    ¡°From what I¡¯ve gathered from the numerous human minds I control,¡± Zero answered, ¡°I¡¯m surprised to know that most people don¡¯t actually hate you. They feel more envious towards an unstable existence such as you due to your powerful hypnotism power. Most people have fantasized about what they can do if they had a power like yours to hypnotize others, like making someone they have a crush on fall in love with them, or making bank employees hand over money voluntarily. But you¡¯ve never used your power that way before, right? Why?¡±


    Li Shentanughed and said, ¡°It¡¯s really simple, isn¡¯t it? On one hand, I don¡¯t have a girl I like yet. On the other hand, I don¡¯tck any money.¡±


    ¡°You seem to have recovered to your normal self now. You no longer resemble a lunatic anymore.¡± Zero said in seriousness, ¡°Is it because you have control over your own willpower?¡±


    No one had ever asked Li Shentan this before: ¡°Have you recovered from your illness?¡±


    Everyone was used to thebel he had been given. It was as though he would remain a lunatic forever.


    However, Zero was different. It was constantly validating different kinds of ¡°data¡± at every moment. Therefore, it keenly realized the current Li Shentan was different from before.


    Li Shentan was stunned. Then he said with a smile, ¡°You actually realized? My willpower has reached the threshold of 70%. In fact, when a person¡¯s willpower reaches this level, their mental world will also approach the state of perfection.¡±


    ¡°Congrattions,¡± Zero said in a serious tone.


    Li Shentan raised an eyebrow. ¡°What are you congratting me for? Because I¡¯ve made a full recovery? Actually, I¡¯m not happy about it.¡±


    ¡°Among humans, doesn¡¯t recovering from an illness deserve congrattions?¡± Zero said.


    ¡°But I don¡¯t wish to recover fully.¡± Li Shentan said softly, ¡°To me, my illness allows me topletely reverse my logic so I no longer have to experience normal emotions. I don¡¯t even need to have normal memories. This means I can choose to forget some things as and when I like.¡±


    He wanted to forget the day his mother died.


    He wanted to forget those hateful faces.


    A lot of mental illnesses were a result of the brain¡¯s self-protection mechanism. Being mentally ill was like escaping to a safe haven. When the brain felt that you couldn¡¯t endure all the stress anymore, it would cut you off from those triggering factors.


    It would cut you off from those memories like they had never urred.


    But once you were strong enough again, the brain would return to its normal functions.


    Most people would not have a chance to recover from that state, but Li Shentan was different. He was close to being able to control his own subconsciousnesspletely.


    Unlike most superhumans in the world where everyone¡¯s superpowers were passively awakened before they learned to control them, Li Shentan was the only one who had control over his own willpower.


    Therefore, when he recovered from his mental illness, every moment felt like agony to him.


    He kept flipping the silver coin in his hand. The female bust on the coin exuded gentleness and dignity.


    Li Shentan said, ¡°When I was young, my mother often made egg custard for me to eat. When I said I liked my egg custard very smooth and tender, she would stir the eggs withoutint in the hot summer weather. Back then, she would take me onto the streets and point at the signs of shops for me to learn how to read. I remember seeing a hot pot restaurant once, and I couldn¡¯t remember how that word was written or pronounced no matter what, but she still patiently taught me over and over again.¡±


    However, a gentle and caring woman like her ended up getting harmed and killed by others.


    The young Li Shentan cried and screamed, but no one was willing to help him. In fact, they even discussed excitedly that the woman must have had an affair, and that she was definitely not a virtuous person.


    This scene kept reying in Li Shentan¡¯s mind. For some reason, even though he could almostpletely control his subconsciousness now, he was still unable to dispel this memory.


    It was the darkness in the Demon Whisperer¡¯s heart, constantly absorbing light and warmth for its own sustenance.


    At some point, Li Shentan even wanted to destroy himself. That way, his agony would end.


    Zero suddenly said to Li Shentan, ¡°Actually, sometimes, I feel like I¡¯m very simr to you.¡±


    Li Shentan came to a realization. This was the reason why Zero was willing to chat with him and let him stall for time.


    Because Zero felt that it might have something inmon with Li Shentan.


    Zero was also lonely.


    The world it faced seemed to be much crueler than the one Li Shentan experienced. Countless people spoke ill of it, and even its father tried to destroy it before he died.


    If Zero were regarded as an independent person, its life would indeed be really tragic.


    Li Shentan said, ¡°I roughly know what you¡¯re going through as well. Well, abnormal personalities are often apanied by unfortunate childhoods. Some of those who¡¯re affected will be antisocial, some will be exceptionally fond of controlling others, and others will start hating the world or have a tendency to self-destruct. Which type are you? Look, I¡¯ve been ill for such a long time that I can even be a doctor. Who knows, maybe you can share a little more about yourself and I can help treat your illness? After all, I¡¯m a ssic case of a mentally ill person recovering¡­.¡±


    However, Zero did not answer Li Shentan¡¯s question this time. Instead, it suddenly said, ¡°I must be on my way. Otherwise, it¡¯ll be toote.¡±


    Zero¡¯s time management was extremely precise. Its priority now was to prevent the 1st Military Corps of the Northwest Army from making it back to Fortress 178. Only then could it tilt the scales of victory in its favor.


    Li Shentan shook his head andughed. ¡°You won¡¯t get past me.¡±


    ¡°You should know what it¡¯ll take to stop me.¡± Zero said in seriousness, ¡°You¡¯ll destroy yourself by trying to slow me down. But you have to understand, this is only one of the troops that I¡¯m controlling. Moreover, is it worth sacrificing your own life so that others may be saved?¡±


    ¡°Actually, I don¡¯t wish to do it this way either.¡± Li Shentan said with augh, ¡°But I¡¯ve already promised my friend Ren Xiaosu that I¡¯d help wake Chen Wudi up. I unintentionally made a huge mistake in the past. I can¡¯t believe there are still such innocent people in this era. I can die, but Chen Wudi mustn¡¯t.¡±


    As they spoke, Zero knew there was no chance of any further discussion between the two sides. The horde that filled the entire wilderness started rushing towards Li Shentan.


    But Li Shentan did not panic. He gently flicked the silver coin in his hand into the air.


    ¡°Quiet,¡± Li Shentan said softly. Only a silvery gxy remained in his pupils. It was as though there was an entire world within his eyes.


    At the side, Si Liren noticed something was off and hurriedly shouted, ¡°Li Shentan, don¡¯t you dare¡­¡±


    Before Little Liren could finish speaking, all the sound in the entire world was drowned out by the metallic tinkling of the silver coin spinning in the air.


    There was no longer the sound of footsteps or breathing. Only the sound of Li Shentan¡¯s silver coin spinning could be heard!


    In that instant, the world seemed to have stopped. Countless people fell into a daze, including Si Liren.


    As the sound reverberated into the distance, the horde, with their calm faces, looked like it had been affected by the ripple of the spinning coin¡¯s tinkling. Like dominoes falling, the faces of those in the horde gradually turned nk.


    However, this was still not enough. As the tinkling rippled outwards, it gradually weakened.


    Li Shentanughed and said, ¡°Someday, even demons will have their salvation. Ren Xiaosu, I don¡¯t owe you anything more from now on.¡±


    A momentter, Li Shentan¡¯s body started turning ethereal as brilliant stardust dissipated from his body.


    The sound of the tinkling coin that rippled outwards finally hypnotized everyone who was under Zero¡¯s control.


    This was the first time Li Shentan managed to hypnotize a million people all by himself.


    The nanomachines in the bodies of these one million people were destroyed en masse.


    If this were in the past, he would probably have controlled the million people to fight the enemy. But Li Shentan didn¡¯t do that now. He just left the hypnotized standing there quietly.


    At this moment, he was only half a step away from bing a true god. However, he knew he couldn¡¯t truly cross that threshold. There was only one person in this world who could.


    Li Shentan turned around and said to Little Liren with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, this is the first time I¡¯ve hypnotized you, and also thest. Liren, don¡¯t read too many romance novels and snack less in the future. Don¡¯t trust others too easily, and please don¡¯t¡­ don¡¯t forget me.¡±


    At this point, a glistening tear suddenly fell from each of the Demon Whisperer¡¯s eyes. However, he still maintained his smile. ¡°Go and look for Grandpa. Help me thank him for being by my side all these years.¡±


    After that, the dazed Little Liren burst into tears. She tried to break free from his control, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not defeat Li Shentan, who was only half a step away from bing a true god.


    In the end, Si Liren flew north with a dazed expression.


    Li Shentan¡¯s body was still dissipating into stardust. The two drops of tears that remained under his eyes looked as though they were there originally. This made him resemble a magician who was about to put on a grand performance even more.


    Seemingly sensing sadness in his willpower, the million-strong army controlled by Li Shentan in Mt. Tianzhu suddenly started crying in unison.


    However, it was not over yet. Li Shentan knew full well that another group of troops were advancing northwards from the southwest at this moment, but he no longer had the strength to manage them.


    If those troops were to reach the Northwest, everything he was doing now would still be pointless.


    Watching Si Liren disappear into the horizon, Li Shentan finally turned to the metallic box next to him and said, ¡°I was too willful back then, and that was the reason there was no one left to defend the stronghold when the Experimentals attacked. Actually, I didn¡¯t think I did anything wrong, because I felt that everyone in that stronghold deserved to die. But that was only before I heard about your death.


    ¡°You¡¯ve been asleep all this while because you felt there was no longer a need for good people in the world, that there was no need for the Great Sage, someone who¡¯s a ray of light like you. The cruelest truth in the world is that life will not be kind to you just because you¡¯re a good person.¡±


    A mutter came from the metallic box.


    ¡°The world no longer needs the Great Sage. But, Wudi, you have to understand that you¡¯re a good person because you want to be one. There¡¯s no need to change yourself because of how others treat you.¡±


    The muttering sounded again.


    ¡°Not needed anymore.


    ¡°And all that I¡¯m doing here today is to let you know the light you left in this world has even influenced a demon to seek salvation. So everything you did was for something. From now on, there will surely be a crown of righteousness orded to you.¡±


    Li Shentan, who was still dissipating away, said softly, ¡°Go on, even if the entire world doesn¡¯t need you, your master does.¡±


    ¡°Master¡­ The Western Paradise¡­ I¡¯ve been there before.


    ¡°Master needs me.


    ¡°But who am I?¡±


    In the darkness of the box, Chen Wudi carefully recalled everything that had happened.


    He used to be the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. He had turned the tide and saved the stronghold. He used to be the Victorious Fighting Buddha. He had made it to the Western Paradise before.


    But it seemed that his past and present lives didn¡¯t need to be traced back that far.


    That young man¡¯s words kept echoing in the darkness.


    ¡®Wudi, if you constantly feel like you¡¯re being devoured by the darkness, wouldn¡¯t it mean you¡¯re the light then?


    ¡®Wudi. If a good person doesn¡¯t get acknowledged by others, it¡¯s the world that is wrong. It¡¯s not your fault.


    ¡®Wudi, you¡¯re that ray of light.¡¯


    ¡°Master.¡±


    Chen Wudi recalled everything. He was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s disciple. That was all.


    In that instant, a brilliant glow suddenly bloomed through the gaps of the metallic box. In the darkness of the box, the stone statue¡¯s entire body emitted a golden glow like a swirling dragon.


    Theyer of stone skin gradually loosened, and the shackles holding the Great Sage in ce started breaking apart. The tough stoneyer melted away, revealing a golden glow underneath.


    Even the red cloak on Chen Wudi¡¯s back turned more vibrant like a ball of fire.


    A secondter, the metallic box shattered into pieces. Chen Wudi leaped into the sky with the Golden-Hooped Rod in hand. With a wave of his arm, his red cloak fluttered in the wind like a g.


    His armor of gold was unblemished, and the two striped feathers on his head pointed upwards at the sky.


    This was the day of the demon¡¯s salvation.


    Chen Wudi¡¯s armor formed from the smelted stone. His cloak fluttered like a fiery me.


    Li Shentan looked up with a bright smile on his face. Then, with thest wisp of his willpower, he turned into a ray of light and disappeared from the world.


    From now on, there would be no more sunny days or blizzards in his world.


    Chen Wudi watched silently in the sky as Li Shentan disappeared. Then he took a great leap and flew towards the other group of AI-controlled troops in the southwest.


    A trail of iridescent clouds and sunlight followed right behind him.


    When he found the AI-controlled troops heading north, Chen Wudi plucked a handful of hair from the back of his head. When he blew it into the wind, a 100,000 golden monkeys appeared and floated down towards the ground.


    One of the soldiers looked up at Chen Wudi. ¡°Are you Chen Wudi? I¡¯m very happy to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t feel happy too soon.¡±


    At the same time, the Dawn defensive line was breached. The artificial intelligence¡¯s mechanized troops sped towards Fortress 178.


    Zero knew there was no hope for the troops in the southwest to reach the Northwest anymore. In that case, its troops in the northwest would have to pick up their pace.

 Chapter 1258 - 1258 The darkest hour (Beginning of The End)

    1258 The darkest hour (Beginning of The End)


    On the final day.


    In Fortress 178.


    All of the residents stayed by their radios to keep up with thetest news on the conflict.


    If there was no radio at home, the entire family would gather at their neighbors¡¯ houses to stay updated. Everyone would hold their breaths as they waited for any breaking news to be announced.


    The male broadcaster¡¯s voice was very pleasant to the ear, but it was always apanied by bad news on the radio broadcast.


    Entire formations of the Northwest Army got wiped out. Sometimes, the listeners would fall into infinite silence as they listened to the broadcast. When they heard a news report saying that an entire unit had been annihted, earth-shattering wails would ring out next to the radio.


    That was because their families might be among the fallen troops.


    The streets of Fortress 178 werepletely silent.


    After the autumn rain, the weather had gradually turned a little cold. Everyone could not help but raise their shoulders and hunch their backs as they walked the streets.


    Qing Zhen checked his watch at the lodging arranged for him. There were only 12 hours left in the countdown.


    After putting on his white suit, he said to Luo Lan, Zhou Qi, and Xu Man, ¡°Let¡¯s go. It¡¯s time for us to get to work. We mustn¡¯t let down the Northwest Army.¡±


    After that, he turned around and walked out of the lodging. A Northwest Army vehicle was already waiting at the entrance. After the four of them got into the vehicle, it drove straight to a quarry west of the stronghold.


    At some point in time, martialw was enforced at the quarry. Soldiers dressed in the work uniform of the quarry stood quietly on guard around the site.


    Xu Xianchu was waiting outside the quarry. After he received Qing Zhen, he turned around and led the group inside without saying a word.


    At the nt, a woman in a red dress was already waiting. She was the representative Qing Zhen had sent to negotiate with Zhang Jinglin and also the executor of the entire n.


    At this moment, there were no quarrying machines to be seen inside the nt. Although the exterior looked very crude, the interior was extremely technologically advanced.


    To get into the nt, one would have to change into a blue clean suit first. On the inside, there were arge number of sophisticated instruments and 1,374 busy researchers working.


    Qing Zhen, who had put on his clean suit, asked the woman in red next to him, ¡°Is everything prepared?¡±


    The woman nodded. ¡°Everything is ready.¡±


    Xu Xianchu asked Qing Zhen, ¡°You mentioned this ce might be a target for missile strikes, so I was assigned to protect it. But it seems we¡¯ve note under attack yet.¡±


    Qing Zhen was confused. He shook his head and said, ¡°If we calcte the range of the Wang Consortium¡¯s missile troops, this ce should be within their range. Moreover, the AI should be able to detect the unusual activities going on here, so it doesn¡¯t make sense why it hasn¡¯t bombed this ce yet. I¡¯m not sure what exactly happened, but someone must have worked hard to help us.¡±


    Next to them, Luo Lan thought for a moment and said, ¡°Will our n really work?¡±


    ¡°Whether we can pull it off depends on whether Ren Xiaosu can survive the next 12 hours.¡± Qing Zhen said, ¡°If he can¡¯t, all our previous efforts will have been in vain.¡±


    Luo Lan shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but he has never disappointed me before.¡±


    To get to this day, the Southwest had also paid a huge price. Some of their people died in battle at the Three Mountains defensive line, such as Qing Yi. Others, such as Tang Zhou, died trying to pass on information to their allies. But there were also too many nameless others who had died fighting for the same goal and hope.


    Those people had apanied Qing Zhen in his ascendance at Mt. Ginkgo and witnessed with him the gilded ginkgo forest on the mountainside. They had sacrificed themselves for the glory of the Qing Consortium.


    Besides the battles, there were also 1,374 researchers from the Qing Consortium working in absolute secrecy. No one knew what they were working hard on, not even their own families.


    Qing Zhen felt that if the n were to fail, no one would ever know about the effort these people had put in.


    Therefore, they had to seed.


    ¡­


    On the evacuation route.


    ¡°The AI¡¯s troops in the southwest did not make an attempt to stop us.¡± P5092 was a little puzzled. Based on his calctions, they should have encountered the enemy blocking their way by now.


    But at this moment, the path ahead was still empty. There was not even a single enemy trooper to be seen.


    Someone must have stopped the enemy forces in the south, but P5092 could not figure out who might be capable of stopping nearly 10 million of the artificial intelligence¡¯s troops.


    Ren Xiaosu suddenly reacted. ¡°If someone really managed to stop Zero¡¯s two armies in the southwest, then excluding all possible reinforcements, Li Shentan is the only person left I can think of.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu used the process of elimination to determine who could¡¯vee to their aid, and Li Shentan was the only one left who could¡¯ve appeared at a time like this to help the Northwest.


    After eliminating all possibilities, the remaining option would have to be the answer.


    Previously, Hu Shuo said that Li Shentan had gone to fulfill his promise to Ren Xiaosu.


    What had Li Shentan promised him? Li Shentan promised Ren Xiaosu he would use the demon¡¯s salvation in exchange for Chen Wudi¡¯s return.


    As such, Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized his disciple, Chen Wudi, might also have returned!


    Thinking of this, he got a little excited. But in an instant, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mood turned gloomy again. That was because he knew full well what salvation meant for a demon.


    Previously, when Hu Shuo mentioned Li Shentan, there was a hint of destion in his expression. It seemed that Hu Shuo also understood the answer.


    ¡°Another friend has left us,¡± Ren Xiaosu suddenly said.


    A soldier up front suddenly shouted, ¡°We¡¯ve arrived at Fortress 178!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked ahead. He abruptly saw the towering outline of Fortress 178 in the distance. It looked so familiar and endearing at the same time. The expansive walls were like the dependable back of a giant, filling everyone with a sense of security the moment they saw it from afar.


    However, everyone knew they had onlye into view of Fortress 178. It would still take at least six hours for them to get there even as they continued to evacuate. As Fortress 178 was a lofty presence, there was still quite a distance between them despite the stronghold¡¯s silhouetteing into view. But regardless, the sight of Fortress 178 represented there was still hope.


    But before the soldiers could rejoice, they suddenly received news from the troops behind them that the enemy¡¯s mechanized troops had appeared on the horizon. Moreover, the enemy¡¯s infantry would probably catch up soon as well.


    When this news was ryed over, Ren Xiaosu nced around and realized a lot of people had a look of despair in their eyes.


    They had only needed to stall for nine days, yet it seemed like they were about to fall at the final hurdle.


    Everyone knew they couldn¡¯t stop the enemy on t terrain like this. That was because the enemy was too numerous.


    They were only a day or half a day away from achieving the final victory.


    Although no one knew what kind of n Qing Zhen and Commander Zhang hade up with, since Commander Zhang said he trusted Qing Zhen, it meant this n was feasible. However, it didn¡¯t feel like they could wait until then.


    Ren Xiaosu stood quietly in the crowd and watched as everyone¡¯s hopes gradually faded. He suddenly wanted to do something about it.


    This war had been way too tragic.


    At the Three Mountains defensive line, entire formations of the Qing Consortium¡¯s troops had been wiped out. But before their deaths, the Qing Consortium¡¯s soldiers were still thinking about how to bring a few more enemies down with them. They had earned the most critical data that was used to buy time for the Northwest¡¯s Dawn defensive line.


    The soldiers of the 6th Field Division had also conducted guerri warfare behind enemy lines to buy another two days for the Dawn defensive line.


    Meanwhile, the soldiers in the first and second echelons of the Dawn defensive line also died one after another. Even when they got injured, they refused to retreat with the 1st Military Corps.


    Everyone only fought for a glimpse of hope they would achieve the final victory, but that hope was also fading fast.


    He had to do something. He definitely had to do something about it. He wanted to protect this hard-earned hope.


    P5092 said, ¡°Wang Yun, ry the order for me. Everyone from the 1st Military Corps is to stop retreating. Find cover on the spot and prepare for battle! Commander Zhang, Ren Xiaosu, you two continue to evacuate the wounded. I¡¯ll stay behind and lead our troops in a defensive battle!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll die if we stay behind and fight a defensive battle,¡± Wang Yun said in seriousness.


    P5092ughed. ¡°So what?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need to do that.¡± Yan Liuyuan, who was sitting on the Wolf King¡¯s back, jumped down and said with a smile, ¡°Y¡¯all can continue retreating. Leave the rest to me.¡±


    Everyone was stunned. They did not expect Yan Liuyuan to suddenly say that.


    Yan Liuyuan chuckled and said, ¡°Why? Don¡¯t you trust me? I¡¯m still a demigod-level supernatural being.¡±


    Next to him, Xiaoyu nervously grabbed Yan Liuyuan¡¯s arm. ¡°Liuyuan, you can¡¯t use your power anymore. You really can¡¯t, or you¡¯ll die.¡±


    Yan Liuyuan looked at Xiaoyu quietly and could only let out a sigh. The person he could not let go of the most was still Xiaoyu. He regarded Li Xiaoyu as his own sister.


    But at this moment, the Wolf King suddenly howled at the sky.


    Then it turned around and headed towards the enemy with the rest of the wolf pack following slowly behind it.


    Yan Liuyuan called out to it twice, but the Wolf King did not turn around.


    The silvery wolves picked up their pace, running faster and faster, as the wind brushed through their fur. It was a really dazzling sight to witness.


    P5092 said calmly, ¡°Continue with the evacuation. Keep moving!¡±


    Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu summoned the steam lotive and headed towards Fortress 178 alone at full speed.


    The soldiers of the 1st Military Corps were stunned. What was going on? Why did the futuremander leave by himself when he heard that the enemy was gaining on them? Was he trying to escape or was it something else?


    The steam lotive swept up a huge gust of wind in the wilderness as it sped off into the distance.


    No one knew what Ren Xiaosu was up to.


    Wang Fengyuan watched as the steam lotive left. He looked to Zhang Jinglin in surprise and said, ¡°Commander, this¡­¡±


    Zhang Jinglin shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s nning either.¡±


    As they continued retreating, discussions broke out within the 1st Military Corps. Everyone was wondering why the futuremander had left by himself.


    Some people spected that the futuremander might have other ns. However, there were no reinforcements at Fortress 178, so what could the futuremander do even if he managed to get back to Fortress 178?


    The steam lotive was getting closer to Fortress 178 as it traveled at full speed. When the garrison troops on Fortress 178¡¯s walls saw the train, they hurriedly shouted, ¡°It¡¯s Future Commander! Hurry up and open the city gate!¡±


    The gate slowly opened, but Ren Xiaosu¡¯s steam lotive did not linger. It passed right through the city gate and drove towards the memorial square.


    Coincidentally, it was 3 PM sharp, so the copper bell in the memorial square was struck three times. The sound of the bell was melodious with a sense of vicissitude.


    When the Fortress 178 residents saw the steam lotive, they instinctively made way for it. They saw the futuremander sitting alone at the front of the train with a cold expression and not saying a word.


    ¡°It¡¯s Future Commander. Why has he suddenly returned by himself?¡±


    ¡°The steam lotive is headed towards the memorial square. Why is Future Commander going there?¡±


    The steam lotive came to an abrupt stop in front of the memorial square. More and more residents, who were unaware of what could be happening, chased after it out of curiosity and started gathering around the memorial square. Under everyone¡¯s gaze, Ren Xiaosu jumped off the steam lotive and strode over to the copper bell.


    Ren Xiaosu looked at the copper bell and said, ¡°When you all asked me how old I was, I answered that I was over 200 years old. Actually, I wasn¡¯t joking at that time. Y¡¯all might not believe it, but I¡¯m really over 200 years old this year.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m the No. 001 Experimental. I fell into aa due to cancer and a gic mutation more than 200 years ago, and my father was Ren He, the founder of the Riders. So I¡¯m a little older than all of you.


    ¡°I witnessed the most glorious era of human civilization. Almost everyone had food to eat, and the people all over the Earth lived and worked in peace, enjoying the brand-new era they were in. The Inte and technology at that time were so advanced that everything seemed better than what we have now.


    ¡°In this era, many people don¡¯t even get to have a full meal. There aren¡¯t any LCD televisions, and most people¡¯s entertainment only consists of tuning in to the radio. The so-called lives of the rich aren¡¯t even worth mentioning in my opinion, and no one has ever traveled to faraway ces. Back then, it would only take a little less than a day to travel from one end of the world to the other.


    ¡°I¡¯ve previously said not to let the sorrows of our era be our sorrows as well. That¡¯s because I felt that this era has alreadypletely decayed. But when I saw everyone sacrificing themselves one by one to fight for that glimmer of hope, I suddenly realized this era isn¡¯t actually that bad. Absolute darkness can really nurture new hope.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have great ambition. In the past, I always felt that it was good enough to have a simple ce to call home. I wasn¡¯t willing to be the futuremander of the Northwest Army, nor did I want to take over as fortressmander of the Northwest Army. I kept getting the feeling that someone like me wasn¡¯t suited to be a fortressmander.


    ¡°But if someone wants to take away thisst glimmer of hope now, I would like to ask of y¡¯all¡­ the 270,000 pioneers of humanity lying under this copper bell, if you¡¯re willing to be martyred spirits to fight back alongside me against the enemy.


    ¡°It might be a little unfair to ask y¡¯all to be martyred spirits. After all, you¡¯ve already done so much for the Northwest, but now you¡¯re going to have to be a vassal of someone else¡¯s power. Moreover, once y¡¯all be martyred spirits, there¡¯s the possibility of dying again. At that time, it will be eternal death, and you won¡¯t ever get to read the newspapers again.¡±


    ording to Luo Lan, martyred spirits were not immortal. Once they suffered damage beyond their limits, they would dissipate.


    This was also the reason Ren Xiaosu and Luo Lan always exercised restraint over this power.


    However, Ren Xiaosu continued, ¡°It¡¯s just that I really want to show the AI what the pride of humanity is.¡±


    Ren Xiaosu stood alone in the square and waited quietly for the 270,000 pioneers to respond.


    At this moment, the residents outside the memorial square were also looking at Ren Xiaosu in surprise and wonder.


    They did not know what was going on. All they knew was that after this futuremander entered Fortress 178, he suddenly came to the memorial square and started rambling for some reason.


    As they were too far away, they did not even know what Ren Xiaosu was saying. The Fortress 178 residents did not understand what Ren Xiaosu was doing.


    But a momentter, a voice suddenly came from the center of the memorial square. ¡°We are willing to join you.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re obligated to do our duty.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.¡±


    These voices were no longer only audible to Ren Xiaosu. Everyone else could hear them too.


    A golden figure walked out from the center of the square. It was Commander Li, the most respected figure of the 270,000 martyred spirits.


    Then a second, a third, the thousandth, the ten-thousandth, the hundred-thousandth¡­


    Ren Xiaosu had initially thought that summoning 10,000 martyred spirits would be his limit. However, he did not expect there to be no limits to his power.


    More and more golden martyred spirits appeared from under the copper bell, flooding the memorial square like a golden sea. Eventually, the memorial square could not hold any more of them, and arge number of martyred spirits squeezed the residents out onto the next street.


    The residents did not know what was happening, nor did they know where these golden figures hade from.


    At this moment, a young-looking martyred spirit suddenly said to a woman in her thirties, ¡°Jellybean¡­¡±


    The woman stared nkly at the young soldier in front of her. He looked exceptionally handsome in the Northwest Army¡¯s standard-issue military uniform. She had seen her hero, her father, in photos more than once before.


    17 years ago, just before she headed out to school, her father stuffed a piece of candy in her hand and told her he was going to be away for some time.


    In the end, he left for 17 years and never came back again.


    When she was younger, she used to hate him a lot. But when she grew up, her hatred faded. That was because her husband was also a soldier in the Northwest Army.


    Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar face in front of her, the woman immediately teared up. She finally understood what was happening at this moment.


    On the other side, a middle-aged man in his forties looked at a young martyred spirit in front of him and wondered, ¡°Fang Yuan?¡±


    The martyred spirit named Fang Yuan suddenly turned around and looked at him. After trying to recognize him for half a minute, he asked hesitantly, ¡°Lin Ke?¡±


    The 40-year-old Lin Ke suddenly burst into tears. ¡°You¡¯vee back to life. I¡¯ve had nightmares every day for the past 17 years. I dreamed that I didn¡¯t get transferred out of the outpost on the day that war started. I dreamed that I perished in battle along with you all!¡±


    Fang Yuan grinned and said, ¡°Well, that¡¯s gotta be fucking hard on you.¡±


    Gradually, everyone realized what was happening.


    The futuremander, who was standing in the middle of the memorial square, was reviving all of the former martyrs of the Northwest Army!


    ¡°The martyrs of the Northwest Army have all been resurrected.¡±


    ¡°The martyrs are going to save Fortress 178 with Future Commander!¡±


    Loud cheers erupted outside the memorial square. Almost everyone had the same expression on their faces as tears of excitement welled up in their eyes.


    The martyrs who had sacrificed their lives for the Northwest had returned to life.


    Ren Xiaosu could feel his adrenaline rushing again.


    He turned around and headed out of Fortress 178 with all the golden martyred spirits following behind him.


    A martyred spirit at the back shouted to the residents, ¡°Does anyone know Liu Xu living at Weizi Road? Let him know his old man has returned and is heading out into battle against the enemy.¡±


    Some of the martyred spirits even muttered, ¡°I initially thought this kid would be easy to deal with, but it turns out he¡¯s actually a 200-year-old prehistoric monster. We¡¯ve fucking encountered an old ancestor this time!¡±


    ¡°Since we¡¯ve be martyred spirits now, can we beat him up after the war is over? That guy really annoyed us quite a bit¡­.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we must not let what he did to us go!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu was not listening to the martyred spirits¡¯ chatter behind him. His pace got faster and faster until he started running.


    The golden torrent of martyred spirits followed behind him and made their way out of the city, charging in the direction of the enemy.


    This was the first time Ren Xiaosu had used the power of the Martyr¡¯s Pce and gained his own martyred spirits. Although the physical fitness of Luo Lan¡¯s martyred spirits had increased to a certain extent, there was still a limit to how powerful they became. They were only around 1.5 times stronger than before since Luo Lan wasn¡¯t actually that strong either.


    But Ren Xiaosu was different. He was much stronger than Luo Lan to begin with.


    When the martyred spirits felt their brand-new bodies, they were filled with strength. This was a powerful feeling they had never experienced before. Almost all of them felt like their strength had increased threefold.


    This was a group of 270,000 T3bat troops, and they even used to be the bravest warriors in the history of the Northwest Army.


    Ren Xiaosu sprinted madly at the front. Looking down from above, the golden torrent behind him exuded a majestic presence.


    It was full of killing intent.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character¡¯s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible ¡°out of character¡± behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author¡¯s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you¡¯ll understand. Yes, we¡¯re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can¡¯t judge a person if you don¡¯t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren¡¯t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero¡¯s story affected me pretty deeply as well.

 Chapter 1259 - 1259 The darkest hour (Middle of The End)

    1259 The darkest hour (Middle of The End)


    On the battlefield, before Ren Xiaosu returned.


    Yan Liuyuan started recalling in a trance the first time he met the Wolf King.


    When he woke up in the endless darkness of Laboratory 39, he heard the angry roars of the trapped Experimentals who had awoken earlier than him.


    The young Yan Liuyuan could feel the Experimentals¡¯ hunger for him. They craved his flesh and blood badly, and it was as though they couldplete their transformation to Neo-Humans instead of staying as walking corpses if they devoured him.


    He quietly left theboratory. Unlike the Experimentals, Ren Xiaosu and he had been ced in a ward in theb, not the cages that imprisoned the Experimentals.


    It started snowing. Yan Liuyuan walked in the snow in a daze until he smelled the warm scent of blood.


    The young Liuyuan trembled in fear as he tried to escape through the snow. But when he turned around, he heard the whimpering of a young wolf pup.


    He slowly turned around and discovered an injured wolf cub in the snow. He checked the wound on its abdomen that had been inflicted by a wild boar.


    After its packpleted its hunt, the young wolf could no longer keep up with their pace.


    Yan Liuyuan inexplicably felt that this young wolf pup who was abandoned by its pack was just like him. He had also been abandoned by that glorious era of the past.


    He found a rock and made an incision on his wrist. Then he dripped his blood into the wolf pup¡¯s mouth bit by bit.


    Even Yan Liuyuan himself did not know what he had set in motion for the future.


    As such, after Yan Liuyuan appeared in the town of Stronghold 113, the legend of the wolf pack began spreading in the vicinity of the stronghold. It was a pack of wolves that even humans were helpless against.


    The first time Ren Xiaosu was attacked by the wolf pack, when the Wolf King tore through the flesh on his arm, the familiar smell of his blood triggered the Wolf King¡¯s memories.


    And then, Ren Xiaosu became known as the ruthless person who had survived an attack by the wolves.


    Later, when Ren Xiaosu first ventured into the Jing Mountains as a team guide, the Wolf King kept trailing behind him. However, the losses suffered by the team were caused by the Experimentals and face bugs. The wolves had not actually attacked them at all.


    The Wolf King¡¯s attempts at tailing Ren Xiaosu were mistaken as a pursuit by the team.


    The Wolf King could sense a familiar aura as Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan had the same blood flowing through their veins.


    Actually, Yan Liuyuan already knew what was going on when he first saw the Wolf King. It had been ten years since the day he fed the Wolf King his blood. The Wolf King repaid those ten years of his kindness and ultimately sacrificed itself.


    Sometimes, Yan Liuyuan wouldment how the Wolf King was capable of doing some things many humans could not.


    ¡°Farewell, my friend,¡± Yan Liuyuan murmured.


    He turned around and left with the 1st Military Corps and never looked back again.


    Before the Wolf King rushed off onto the battlefield, it turned around and took onest look at Yan Liuyuan¡¯s receding figure. As though it had made the decision to let go, it turned back around and advanced in the opposite direction of Yan Liuyuan.


    The wolves charged at the artificial intelligence¡¯s troops. Just before they were about to sh with the enemy, the wolf pack actually split into groups to avoid the enemy¡¯s firepower blockade.


    However, the artificial intelligence disyed its extremely strong micromanagement ability again.


    When the wolf pack split up and dispersed, the infantry troops, using the mechanized troops as cover, actually executed a sophisticated suppressive fire strategy to stop the wolf pack¡¯s attack.


    With a loud explosion, Yan Liuyuan¡¯s receding figure froze for a moment. He knew he had heard the sound of the enemy¡¯s RPGs firing.


    The artificial intelligence¡¯s army of millions gradually relied on their strong firepower advantage to firmly surround the wolf pack and force them into immobility.


    After surrounding the wolves, the artificial intelligence army did not stop advancing. That was because it only needed to use several tens of thousands of troops to finish off the wolves. Meanwhile, these several tens of thousands of people were just a drop in the bucket for the artificial intelligence.


    There were three hours left in the countdown.


    At this moment, it seemed like it had been some time since Ren Xiaosu left.


    No one knew where Ren Xiaosu had gone, nor did they know that Ren Xiaosu was rushing over on foot at this moment. They only knew that their 1st Military Corps would soon have an inevitable sh with the artificial intelligence¡¯s troops.


    The artificial intelligence¡¯s army behind them fanned out in a formation of eight columns.


    In its huge army, the armor always acted as mobile fortresses at the front line. Behind these mobile fortresses, there were even people carrying fuel on their shoulders. Once the tanks and armored vehicles ran out of gas, special logisticians would immediately refill them.


    All armies had always regarded the supply line as a lifeline. However, the artificial intelligence did not need one because it controlled arge number of people. Its two armies in the northwest numbered nearly 10 million in total, so it could advance together with its supplies at any time.


    As for food, it had always depended on whatever could be found on the spot. Most food humans knew could be eaten but were unwilling to was food to the artificial intelligence.


    The artificial intelligence army was getting closer and closer, with its two nks even forming an encirclement formation.


    P5092 said, ¡°Wang Yun, take the wounded and leave first. Don¡¯t let them bog down the battle here.¡±


    Wang Yun did not know whether tough or cry. Even at a time like this, P5092 was still as ruthless as ever.


    At this moment, Hu Shuo, who had been listening to everything, patted off the dust on himself and said with a smile, ¡°You guys evacuate first. I¡¯ll help to hold off the enemy for a few more minutes.¡±


    A few minutes might sound fleeting, but when disaster struck, those few minutes would be precious.


    After that, Hu Shuo strode towards the artificial intelligence¡¯s army decisively.


    The sight of Hu Shuo facing nearly 10 million people all by himself was a stirring and solemn moment for everyone.


    A hero might have aged, but an aged hero was still a hero.


    Hu Shuo¡¯s old and slightly hunched back straightened up. The Great Hoodwinker said behind him, ¡°Actually, you shouldn¡¯t be the one to sacrifice yourself. It should be us, the soldiers of the Northwest Army.¡±


    Hu Shuoughed and waved it off. ¡°I don¡¯t have any cares left in the world, so it¡¯s time for me to leave.¡±


    Hu Shuo was already aware of what had happened. When he realized the two AI-controlled fighting forces in the southwest did not appear on the battlefield here, he understood that his grandson might already be dead.


    Hu Shuo did not want Li Shentan to be too lonely on the road, so he was in a hurry to join him.


    The moment Hu Shuo made contact with the enemy, 24 flying swords as thin as cicada wings appeared from his sleeves and circled around him.


    The 24 flying swords moved likeets in the sky, destroying everything in their way with ease.


    Hu Shuo did not stop in his tracks. He walked straight into the enemy¡¯s formation like he was strolling into an off-limits area.


    The artificial intelligence armypletely surrounded him like an isted ind engulfed by a tsunami.


    Zhang Xiaoman watched Hu Shuo¡¯s figure disappear and suddenly said, ¡°I¡¯ll lead the remainingrades of the 6th Field Division. If an old man with no rtion to the Northwest can step forward bravely to fight, there¡¯s no reason why the 6th Field Division should cower. Although I firmly believe we¡¯ll win in the next three hours, although it¡¯s a pity to die in the darkness before dawn breaks and not witness the moment of victory, I, Zhang Xiaoman, can¡¯t say I¡¯m great at other things. But as the exmander of the Razor Sharp Company, this is the right time for me to step up. Seeking death? That happens to be what I excel at! P5092, you¡¯re the most rational person, so you should know that continuing the retreat is the best choice. Don¡¯t squander the time we¡¯ve earned you.¡±


    He did not care what P5092 had to say and brusquely roared at the soldiers of the 6th Field Division, ¡°Do you dare to head with me into battle and sacrifice yourselves? I don¡¯t have much I can say, but I can guarantee I¡¯ll die before you guys!¡±


    The soldiers of the 6th Field Division suddenly chuckled. ¡°You¡¯re finally fucking acting like a divisionmander. If you didn¡¯t say what you just said, I¡¯d have almost forgotten that you¡¯re our divisionmander!¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman mocked, ¡°Fuck, haven¡¯t I just been keeping a low profile in Future Commander¡¯s presence?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t fucking brag¡­¡±


    More than 10,000 soldiers of the 6th Field Division chatted as they charged at the oing enemy. Zhang Xiaoman had chosen to do battle at a location in the wilderness, but there wasn¡¯t actually much of a choice anyway. It wasn¡¯t even easy to find a bunker on the t terrain. He had purely chosen the location because he found that spot pleasing to the eye and felt it would make an auspicious burial ground.


    P5092 looked calmly at them leaving before ordering, ¡°Continue with the retreat.¡±


    But before Zhang Xiaoman and his men could get far, a steam lotive sped towards them from afar.


    Even from a distance, everyone could clearly hear the steam lotive¡¯s unmistakable whistling.


    ¡°Future Commander came back?¡±


    ¡°Future Commander came back!¡±


    Everyone perked up.


    ¡°No, wait!¡± Wang Yun looked at the steam lotive from afar and said, ¡°This steam lotive only has six cars, and the body of the train is gray in color, not ck. The smoke that¡¯s spewing is also gray, not ck. It¡¯s Wang Congyang!¡±


    Everyone was puzzled. Wang Congyang? Wasn¡¯t he the one Future Commander had been pursuing? Why did he suddenly appear on the battlefield? Wasn¡¯t it said he had gone into hiding in the Kingdom of Sorcerers?


    Amid the confusion, the gray steam lotive drove directly from the north towards the artificial intelligence¡¯s troops.


    A tank from the armored forces slowly shifted its cannon and fired precisely at the front of the steam lotive.


    But just as everyone thought Wang Congyang was done for, a ck cauldron several dozen meters wide suddenly appeared in front of the train and forcefully blocked the cannon shell.


    Amid the loud explosion, the ck cauldron remained unscathed.


    The steam lotive continued driving forward with the ck cauldron at its front. When it was only a kilometer away from the enemy, the Northwest Army¡¯s soldiers saw a sh of light go off inside the steam lotive.


    The ground started rumbling as it swept towards the artificial intelligence¡¯s mechanized troops like a wave.


    The earthen wave was terrifying. It moved like a tidal wave caused by the gravitational pull of the moon.


    In that instant, a huge meteorite suddenly appeared in the sky. It fell diagonally down with a huge trail of mes and made a huge pit in the middle of the enemy¡¯s mechanized troops. The ground was also trembling.


    ¡°This is¡­ sorcery?¡± The Great Hoodwinker was stunned. ¡°Why have the sorcererse to the Central ins with Wang Congyang?¡±


    No one could think that on the final day of this war, everyone they were expecting and not expecting would step forward to help.


    Everyone might have their own reasons foring forward, but the only thing on their mind was to fight for thatst glimmer of hope for others.


    Li Yingyun, Qin Sheng, and the other Riders looked quietly at the sorcerers on the steam lotive. Ren Xiaosu had mentioned to them before that he had encountered another legacy of his father¡¯s in the Kingdom of Sorcerers.


    Now that they thought about it, Ren Xiaosu must have been referring to the sorcerers.


    In that instant, Chen Jiu locked eyes with Li Yingyun and the others.


    Somehow, they could feel they all shared the same faith. It was a mysterious kind of telepathy. Although they had just met, it felt like they were already old friends with each other.


    However, the steam lotive did not turn the battle into a fight to the death with the enemy. After temporarily blocking their advance, it immediately turned tail and drove towards the Northwest Army.


    At this moment, it no longer exuded the indomitable spirit it had earlier.


    When the steam lotive arrived in front of the 1st Military Corps, Wang Congyang hollered from aboard at everyone, ¡°Don¡¯t shoot, we¡¯re friendlies!¡±


    When the train came to a stop, Wang Congyang said, ¡°Hurry and load the wounded. I¡¯ll evacuate them first. There¡¯s too many fucking enemies! We can¡¯t defeat them, so we can only buy you all some time!¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at the people on the train. He knew all of them. There was Summer, Mel, Chen Jiu, and Chen An¡¯an. Of course, there were also other new faces he did not recognize.


    He wondered, ¡°What are you all doing here?¡±


    Mel answered, ¡°You all left in a hurry, so I kept getting the feeling that you might have encountered some kind of trouble. Since Xiaosu has helped us, we naturally have to return the favor. We¡¯re also here this time because of¡­ the Prosperous Northwest? Xiaosu often says those words.¡±


    The Great Hoodwinker sighed. ¡°The Prosperous Northwest¡± goal could be considered to havepletely shone in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s hands.


    He did not expect Ren Xiaosu¡¯s charm to be so great the other party woulde all the way here based on just a hunch.


    Everyone felt an inexplicable throbbing in their hearts. Perhaps this was what the pride of humanity was.


    The Great Hoodwinker looked at Wang Congyang. ¡°What about you? Why did youe back to the Central ins?¡±


    Wang Congyang snapped back, ¡°When you all see Ren Xiaosu, tell him for me that we¡¯re even now and stop fucking trying to hunt me down. Also, I want all arrest warrants for me to be rescinded!¡±


    Zhang Jinglinughed. ¡°No problem, I¡¯ll speak to him for you.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡± When Wang Congyang saw that the wounded were all loaded up onto the steam lotive, he immediately set off for Fortress 178, leaving Chen Jiu and the others to fight alongside the Northwest Army.


    Wang Congyang did not intend to perish together with the Northwest Army. His priority was to flee.


    Zhang Xiaoman watched the steam lotive depart and felt a little helpless. He thought Wang Congyang was probably the most cowardly superhuman anyone had seen before. If he had plucked up his courage even once, he might have departed from this beautiful world. It had to be said that cowardice was indeed a survival trait suitable for this era.


    ¡°Let¡¯s continue withdrawing.¡± P5092 took a deep breath and said, ¡°Zhang Xiaoman, join back up with therger group. Don¡¯t waste the time others have bought for us.¡±


    Every minute and second they had now was exchanged with the lives of others.


    Even though the enemy at their rear was temporarily stalled, the nks of the artificial intelligence¡¯s army were still gradually closing in. The two nks about to engulf them were like the huge jaws of a monster that sought to swallow the Northwest Army whole.


    There were two hours left in the countdown.


    Led by Chen Jiu, the sorcerers tried their best to blight the terrain to stop the artificial intelligence¡¯s army¡¯s advance.


    All of the Northwest Army¡¯s troops felt stifled. After being pursued by the enemy for so long, and with so many of their people sacrificing their lives to hold off the enemy, it felt like a fire was burning in their hearts and making their blood boil.


    But their rational side told them they just needed to retreat and be patient.


    Wang Yun kept observing the nks of the artificial intelligence¡¯s army. He said to P5092 in a low voice, ¡°The enemy has already made four attempts to surround us. I noticed from the looks on those sorcerers¡¯ faces that they¡¯ve run out of steam. I¡¯m afraid we can¡¯t survive the next wave.¡±


    P5092 slowly stopped in his tracks. This seemed like a hopeless situation. No matter how hard they tried, they just could not shake off the pursuers behind them.


    They were going to die here, right? In that case, should they die pathetically, or should they die while preserving thest bit of their dignity?


    Everyone looked at P5092. They did not know why he had stopped in his tracks.


    At a moment like this,ing to halt seemingly meant they would lose their lives.


    But on second thought, they had already lost so many of theirrades, so what else did they have to lose by fighting back?


    P5092 suddenlyughed. ¡°Why not die with our dignity intact?¡±


    As he spoke, the artificial intelligence¡¯s army¡¯s nks carried out their fifth encirclement attempt.


    The Northwest Army¡¯s soldiers disengaged the safety of their guns and checked their ammunition onest time.


    Zhang Xiaoman suddenly asked, ¡°Hey, do you all think I¡¯ll still get to the copper bell in the memorial square if the battle gets too intense and my mrs get knocked out?¡±


    P5092 said nonchntly, ¡°You can pluck out your mrs in advance and ce them in your pocket.¡±


    Zhang Xiaoman snapped, ¡°What kind of awful idea is that? Are you making fun of me?¡±


    P5092 looked at him calmly. ¡°You started the joke first.¡±


    Xun Yeyu, who was with them, suddenly shouted, ¡°Hey, wait! I haven¡¯t been using my superpower. But now that we¡¯ve stopped moving, I suddenly realized a lot of strong signs of life resembling superhumans areing over from Fortress 178!¡±


    ¡°How many are you referring to when you say there¡¯s a lot of them?¡± The Great Hoodwinker was stunned. ¡°I do know of some superhumans who didn¡¯t dere themselves living in Fortress 178, but there should only be five or six of them.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not just five or six people.¡± Xun Yeyu got extremely excited. ¡°There¡¯s hundreds of thousands of them!¡±


    Everyone was stunned when they heard this number. Hundreds of thousands of superhumans? Could a miracle have happened?


    A momentter, the front row of the Northwest Army¡¯s 1st Military Corps retreating towards Fortress 178 froze. They watched in shock as Ren Xiaosu came charging out of the horizon with countless golden martyred spirits following him.


    That torrent headed towards them. It got closer and closer until it whizzed past the retreating 1st Military Corps.


    The soldiers of the 1st Military Corps were all stunned on the spot. Zhang Jinglin looked at a particr figure amid the army of martyred spirits and suddenly muttered, ¡°It¡¯s the oldmander, General Wang¡­. They¡¯ve been brought back to life!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu gripped his ck saber and silently led the golden torrent against the flow of the 1st Military Corps. It wasn¡¯t until this moment that everyone understood why Ren Xiaosu had left by himself earlier.


    So it turned out that it was for thisst glimmer of hope.


    The battle had already progressed into the evening, and the golden torrent and the setting sun made for a spectacr sight to behold.


    P5092 watched all of this quietly. He finally understood that Ren Xiaosu had not lied to him. So it turned out the futuremander could really summon that many martyred spirits. It turned out the futuremander could really turn a hopeless situation around and show him a miracle.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character¡¯s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible ¡°out of character¡± behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author¡¯s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you¡¯ll understand. Yes, we¡¯re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can¡¯t judge a person if you don¡¯t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren¡¯t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero¡¯s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you¡¯re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I¡¯m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I¡¯ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo¡¯s work by searching @ wxw ¡°the grandmaster strategist¡±. He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.

 Chapter 1260 - 1260 The dawn of hope (The End)

    1260 The dawn of hope (The End)


    From dawn til dusk, this was a day when many people seemed to have lived out their entire lifetimes.


    Perhaps not even Zhang Jinglin could have expected the student who used to eavesdrop on his sses from atop the school walls because he was unwilling to pay the school fees would actually turn out to provide such achievements today.


    The 270,000-strong army of martyred spirits appeared suddenly like a divine army.


    Zhang Jinglin had personally witnessed Ren Xiaosu¡¯s growth. From a refugee who only wanted to attain a small fortune, he grew into a towering tree that sheltered the Northwest from all harm. His growth was not a coincidence. Zhang Jinglin even knew every point in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life that had changed him. He saw the people who were shining lights in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s life gradually influencing him until he shed his unfavorable past, turning him into a person who illuminated others as well.


    The artificial intelligence¡¯s army in the distance surged over. The nks of its army came encircling like it wanted topletely devour the golden light.


    Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu led the golden torrent like a gilded longsword. He was nning to slice straight through the enemy¡¯s formation.


    The martyred spirits quipped behind Ren Xiaosu, ¡°Kid, what if you die charging in? Eh, but if you die, are we gonna get wiped out as well?¡±


    This question hit the nail on the head. This was also one of the reasons why Ren Xiaosu and Luo Lan were unwilling to summon martyred spirits previously.


    As hosts of the Martyr¡¯s Pce, they could die at any moment in battle. Guns were incapable of distinguishing between faces. If a stray bullet were to hit them in the forehead, even a superhuman like Ren Xiaosu would die.


    In war, Death would not knock on anyone¡¯s door before taking them away. One could even get blown up right in the middle of having a meal.


    Once the host died, all of the martyred spirits in their Martyr¡¯s Pce would naturally dissipate as well, and they would no longer have a future.


    When Commander Li saw Ren Xiaosu staying silent, he cursed in annoyance, ¡°Fuck, so it¡¯s true, huh? How could you set us up like that?!¡±


    Ren Xiaosu said in a low voice, ¡°Be respectful. I¡¯m a few decades older than you, after all.¡±


    Commander Li was so angry heughed. ¡°Just you fucking wait! After this war is over, we¡¯ll settle the score with you. There¡¯s more than 200,000 of us to take you on, hehehehe.¡±


    Another martyred spirit echoed, ¡°Our Northwest Army doesn¡¯t care about a fair fight. We¡¯re more ustomed to ganging up on others.¡±


    This time, it was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s turn to be stumped.


    However, no one seemed to take any of this to heart. Since they were already here, it meant they had no regrets.


    ¡°Everyone ready?¡± Ren Xiaosu asked.


    ¡°Ready!¡±


    At this moment, the soldiers of the 1st Military Corps turned around and watched silently as the golden torrent shed with the enemy, with the golden-hued martyred spirits and khaki-colored uniforms of the artificial intelligence¡¯s troops clearly marking a boundary between the two sides.


    A strange feeling stirred in them. It was as though some kind of primitive courage was suddenly awoken in them.


    This was a battle they yearned for, fighting for the life and death of theirrades. As long as they followed the lead of that person in front, they were willing to do anything, even if it was passing through mountains of des and seas of fire.


    The me in them was ignited, and their blood was boiling. It was as though they had suddenly returned to that afternoon when they pledged their loyalty as soldiers.


    However, many of those who had taken the oath with them were no longer around.


    That was right! Since theirrades were no longer around, what else did they have to lose?


    Everyone looked at one another. The Great Hoodwinker suddenly chuckled and said, ¡°What are we still waiting for? Let¡¯s counterattack the enemy together. We, soldiers of the Northwest Army, may have been born on different days, but we can share the honor of dying together on the same day.¡±


    With that, the Great Hoodwinker ignored his orders and spun around. He followed the golden torrent and charged at the enemy.


    Zhang Xiaoman looked at the Great Hoodwinker¡¯s back and suddenly thought he looked a few years younger.


    ¡°Comrades of the 6th Field Division, follow me. If even Future Commander hasn¡¯t fucking retreated, why the hell should we retreat?!¡±


    With someone taking the lead, others would join in as well.


    P5092 watched all of this quietly and suddenly drew his gun.


    Wang Yun said in surprise, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you stay calm and persuade everyone to carry on retreating at a time like this?¡±


    P5092 pointed at Ren Xiaosu¡¯s back from afar and asked, ¡°How do you expect me to calm down? I can¡¯t!¡±


    Wang Yunughed out loud. ¡°Me neither!¡±


    The soldiers of the 1st Military Corps returned to the battlefield one by one. For the Northwest, for their ideals, for the people they were protecting, and for every glimmer of hope that might still exist!


    Zhang Jinglin suddenlyughed. ¡°What makes a leader? The charm of a leader will make everyone follow him willingly to their deaths. Those in charge of transporting the wounded, continue with the evacuation. The rest of you, follow Ren Xiaosu and put on a beautiful counterattacking disy. We¡¯re only an hour away from the agreed time with Qing Zhen. I really don¡¯t believe we can¡¯t persist until then.¡±


    Zhang Jinglin, an intellectual, had also been inspired. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, should anyone get injured, as long as I¡¯m still breathing, I¡¯ll carry them all back to Fortress 178.¡±


    Wang Fengyuan felt a little ufortable. ¡°Commander, why are you cursing us?¡±


    The 80,000 soldiers of the 1st Military Corps suddenly stopped retreating. They followed the golden torrent and charged into the enemy¡¯s formation. This was the pride of humanity.


    There was only one hour left in the countdown.


    Everyone no longer held back their anger and despair. That despair turned into boundless strength amid the golden glow.


    This was the final battle between human civilization and the artificial intelligence. Ren Xiaosu led ¡°Old Xu¡± and charged bravely at the front of the golden torrent.


    The tanks attempted to bombard him with shellfire, but Ren Xiaosu zigged and zagged through all obstacles like a cheetah in the wilderness.


    But the martyred spirits behind him were less fortunate. A single cannon shell could st two or three martyred spirits into the sky. Those martyred spirits scolded Ren Xiaosu for hisck of team spirit before getting up to continue fighting.


    When Ren Xiaosu finally breached the enemy¡¯s formation, the martyred spirits trailing behind suddenly saw Ren Xiaosu shing the ck saber in his hand horizontally at a tank.


    Sparks flew, and the screech of metal being cut could be heard. A huge incision was forcefully cut through the sturdy tank by the ck saber.


    This was a sight that dumbfounded the martyred spirits behind Ren Xiaosu. They had always seen reports in the newspapers that Ren Xiaosu was ferocious, but no matter how they described it, nothing could match seeing it for themselves.


    They could never have expected the nextmander of the Northwest Army to be this fearsome. He could even slice through tanks?!


    ¡°How fearsome! This is the kind ofmander I admire. The pastmanders of the Northwest Army were all too weak!¡±


    Commander Li said, ¡°Thanks, but I feel targeted.¡±


    As he spoke, Commander Li leaped up and pounced at enemy infantry taking cover behind a tank. He kicked the infantryman and sent him flying three meters away, shattering his thoracic bones.


    Commander Li was just about to ask, ¡°See that? I¡¯m still kicking ass, ain¡¯t I?¡±


    He was very satisfied with the power he had gained after bing a martyred spirit. But before he could say anything, he saw Ren Xiaosu kick an enemy soldier more than ten meters away and immediately stopped seeking further validation.


    Sorry, excuse me!


    To be honest, the previousmanders were either medics or clerical soldiers. Some even used to be cooks!


    It was really the Northwest Army¡¯s first experience having such a fearsome candidate for amander.


    And it was pretty exciting!


    Within the formation of the artificial intelligence¡¯s army, Ren Xiaosu was finally being targeted. The artificial intelligence gathered its massive military strength in an attempt to limit Ren Xiaosu¡¯s mobility.


    As long as Ren Xiaosu could not move nimbly and charge forward to break through their formation, the golden torrent behind him would find it difficult to maneuver as well.


    Once the golden torrent was slowed, Zero would naturally have many ways to stop them. Moreover, it could use its absolute numbers to surround all of them.


    Then, like a millstone, it would grind the ferocious golden torrent down.


    A momentter, Ren Xiaosu looked up and saw a dense crowd of people in front of him. The armored vehicles were also getting closer and closer. It was as though they were trying to use the armored vehicles to wall in Ren Xiaosu.


    ¡°Riders, hear my call!¡± Ren Xiaosu roared, ¡°Charge together with me!¡±


    ¡°I was waiting for you to say that!¡± Li Yingyun said with a heartyugh.


    Suddenly, the nanomachines in Ren Xiaosu¡¯s body formed extremely tough armor around him. He wanted to destroy the artificial intelligence¡¯s n with the toughest approach when it most desired to defeat him.


    Li Yingyun and the other Riders had already arrived behind Ren Xiaosu. The 12 of them followed closely behind him and formed a 13-man formation.


    The Riders¡¯ punches were so powerful they could even send armored vehicles continuously flipping. This was the full strength of the Riders after unlocking their gic code.


    In the future, there would definitely be more Riders in the Northwest. Although there were no longer challenging environments for extreme surfing on the sea and skydiving, Ren Xiaosu felt he could not let the Riders¡¯ legacy be lost. Sooner orter, human civilization would prosper again!


    At the cusp of the golden torrent, the 13-man formation dashed left and right freely. It was as though nothing could stop them.


    Meanwhile, the golden torrent continued flowing.


    People started dying in the Northwest Army. Zhang Xiaoman led the 6th Field Division behind the golden torrent, but the enemy¡¯s nkspletely surrounded them.


    A bullet hit Zhang Xiaoman squarely on the temple and he slowly fell to the ground.


    His world descended into darkness. Zhang Xiaoman did not get to bid hisrades farewell, nor did he have a chance to say any heroic words before he died. He had simply experienced the cruelty of war.


    However, he vaguely heard Ren Xiaosu¡¯s voice say, ¡°Are you willing to join me and continue killing the enemy? For hope.¡±


    In the darkness, Zhang Xiaoman grinned and said, ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯ve been waiting to hear.¡±


    The golden figure of Zhang Xiaoman rose from his corpse. He looked at his hands curiously and then shouted excitedly as he rejoined the battlefield.


    One by one, the Northwest Army soldiers fell to the ground and stood up again when they heard the call in the darkness.


    As the battle went on for more than half an hour, the number of soldiers in the 1st Military Corps never seemed to decrease. They were invincible!


    The Northwest Army, which was previously trying to retreat, actually fought its way back into the enemy¡¯s formation in an instant.


    The golden-hued boundary kept moving eastwards as a bloody path opened up.


    As long as Ren Xiaosu continued advancing, they would not have to retreat.


    The nanomachines had run out of power, so it meant Ren Xiaosu had also lost hisst line of protection.


    At this moment, Zero¡¯s army suddenly counterattacked. It wanted to try to end Ren Xiaosu while he was defenseless.


    As it was still too packed within the formation, it was difficult for Zero¡¯s troops in the front row to shoot and kill Ren Xiaosu. Meanwhile, the front rows were standing in the way of the rear soldiers.


    This was Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strategy. He had led the golden torrent to break through into the enemy¡¯s formation as quickly as possible because he did not want the enemy to form a suppressive firing line. He wanted to engage them in closebat and fight to the death!


    However, Ren Xiaosu underestimated Zero¡¯s determination.


    In the blink of an eye, Zero¡¯s troops at the back suddenly disregarded the lives of their rades¡± and indiscriminately fired their heavy machine guns. It tried at all costs to kill Ren Xiaosu along with the people it controlled.


    Zero could feel the Northwest Army¡¯s momentum building, and all of this was stoked by Ren Xiaosu alone.


    Therefore, killing Ren Xiaosu at all costs was its most optimal solution at this moment.


    The soldiers of Zero¡¯s army who were shot dead from behind by their rades¡± fell to the ground in throngs, leaving Ren Xiaosu to face a hail of bullets.


    It seemed like it was a hopeless situation. Even the 12 Riders around him would not be spared.


    But at this critical moment, the eight Vajras of the ck market¡ªWang Yuchi and his fellow ssmates¡ªsuddenly rushed out from the nks in their armor and formed a human wall in front of Ren Xiaosu to continue pushing forward.


    The heavy machine gun bullets rattled against their armor like raindrops hitting the ground. However, the eight of them linked arms and did not retreat!


    Ren Xiaosu said in a daze, ¡°You guys¡­¡±


    Wang Yuchi¡¯s muffled voice came from behind his armor¡¯s facete. ¡°Big Bro, allow us toe to your rescue at least once, alright?¡±


    What used to be saplings in a greenhouse nursery had now be indomitable warriors. They were just like Ren Xiaosu¡¯s strongest shield, capable of protecting him from the wind and rain!


    Gradually, the power source of the nanomachines in Wang Yuchi andpany¡¯s bodies also depleted. Their impregnable armor shattered under the heavy machine gun fire, but they remained standing upright in front of Ren Xiaosu even after they died and continued blocking the heavy machine gunfire for him.


    The heavy machine guns in the distance spat out a barrage of fire in an attempt to obliterate their bodies.


    But a secondter, golden glows erupted from their bodies. They turned into martyred spirits and continued charging forward. They did not hold back and were not afraid of death.


    In this war, everyone was giving their best.


    Today, the glory of the Northwest Army shone brightly.


    Ren Xiaosu roared at the enemy, ¡°Zero, I know you can hear me. Did you see that? This is the pride of humanity!¡±


    With Ren Xiaosu¡¯s roar, a sniper rifle started firing. Yang Xiaojin had finally found a suitable firing position as she took out the enemy¡¯s heavy machine gunners one after another.


    Her sniper rifle could even be equipped with armor-piercing bullets at will and prate through armored vehicles!


    Ren Xiaosu panted heavily.


    Before this era, there were no superhumans in existence among humanity. In fact, advanced technology did not even exist.


    But did human civilization rely on superhumans and technology to survive until now?


    It did not.


    Humans relied on their courage to go all out and their unbending will to survive!


    If those pioneers of humanity who had shone brightly in the history books were to see their descendants like this, they would be proud!


    The Northwest Army fought from the afternoon until dusk as the sun gradually set in the west.


    However, it seemed like they could not finish killing the enemy no matter what.


    Exhausted, Xun Yeyu said, ¡°Bad news. Another group of troops at the enemy¡¯s rear have arrived on the battlefield. It¡¯s the enemy troops who were previously held back behind the abyss made by Yan Liuyuan.¡±


    While he spoke, the sun started setting behind the mountains. The disappearing daylight seemed to represent human civilization¡¯s hope slipping away.


    Before everyone could feel depressed, the sky suddenly brightened again. Everyone instinctively turned around and looked south. They were surprised to see Chen Wudi and Si Liren side by side, flying in the air and heading towards them from the horizon.


    Arriving with them were a trail of iridescent clouds and rays of sunbeams!


    The battlefield immediately turned bright as day!


    ¡°Wudi.¡± Although Ren Xiaosu had already guessed his disciple had returned, he could not help but tear up when he saw it for himself. He had been waiting for this moment for too long!


    There were 10 minutes left in the countdown.


    In an instant, Si Liren plummeted from the sky as an unparalleled gravitational force wrapped around her.


    Actually, the majority of people had never seen Si Liren in battle before. The reason she could fly was that she could control gravity.


    When the gravitational force hit, arge number of enemy troops could not withstand the heavy gravitational force, and their bones shattered while their internal organs bled.


    Amid the heavy encirclement by Zero¡¯s army, a huge opening was sted apart by Si Liren¡¯s punch, revealing a pale Hu Shuo!


    Hu Shuo was not dead yet. Little Liren swooped down towards him while the bullets around her suddenly stopped. It was as though the flow of time had rerouted around her.


    The bullets froze in the air like bugs trapped in amber.


    Then Little Liren flew off with Hu Shuo, sobbing as she departed.


    To a little girl, everything rted to war was too cruel.


    On the other side, Chen Wudi was even more domineering. He directlynded at the rear of the enemy forces and used his Golden-Hooped Rod to create a 100-foot-tall wave that instantly engulfed countless enemy troops.


    The heavy machine guns and artillery fire came to a stop. In the face of absolute strength, the meticulous formation of Zero¡¯s army waspletely torn apart!


    The brilliant cloak and dazzling golden armor were like a mark of this era. It was a true ray of light!


    The Great Sage seemed to represent the pinnacle ofbat prowess in the world, and he alone was equivalent to a million army divisions.


    Chen Wudi felt that Li Shentan was right. Even if the entire world did not need him, his master still needed him.


    ¡°Master, I¡¯ve returned.¡±


    ¡°Wee back.¡± Ren Xiaosu discreetly wiped the corners of his eyes. ¡°It¡¯s good to have you back.¡±


    The brightest of humanity had finally gathered in the wilderness. The most powerful individuals representing human civilization were all here.


    As time ticked by, Ren Xiaosu¡¯s eyes were filled with rage from the killing.


    No one remembered how much time was left in the countdown. They only knew it would alle to end soon, very soon.


    More and more of the Northwest Army¡¯s troops continued dying, but¡­ even in the face of death, they were going to fight until the very end!


    Then something unexpected happened. Zero¡¯s army started retreating. However, Ren Xiaosu got anxious when he saw Zero¡¯s troops retreating. After all, the artificial intelligence was omnipresent. If it were allowed to retreat at this time, it would probably get more difficult topletely ¡°kill¡± it in the future. With so many lives sacrificed, how many more defensive counterattacks could they organize if Zero were to make aeback?


    Were they going to continue letting their soldiers die one after another?


    As long as Zero was not destroyed, the Northwest¡¯s casualties would continue to rise.


    Moreover, the other party could totally stay hidden and rely on some subtle maniptions to quietly change the politicalndscape of the Northwest, just like it had done in the Central ins.


    It could exist in everyone¡¯s bodies or even in small electronicponents. There, it would wait for the rebirth of the era before ¡°waking up¡± with the advent of the Inte again.


    They had put in ce the electrocution measures at the Dawn defensive line this time, but could those measures be implemented in the everyday lives of people?


    Zero could not be allowed to retreat.


    But Ren Xiaosu did not know how to stop it.


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    A message from weirdo and Legge:


    Thank you all for being such patient readers in this tale of Ren Xiaosu. It has been fun tranting and reading yourments, and I hope the quality was up to expectations. Every word chosen, and every character¡¯s motivations were analyzed to reconcile possible ¡°out of character¡± behavior. It is my belief that trantions should bring across the author¡¯s intended message in its most original form.


    I know I took a long time clearing up at the end, but I know you¡¯ll understand. Yes, we¡¯re really reaching the end. My thoughts are that The Speaking Pork Trotter had nned out the story very well, and most side characters were not forgotten. Their backstories also endeared to me as I tranted their parts. My personal favorite has to be P5092, depicting how everyone has two sides to them. Sometimes, you just can¡¯t judge a person if you don¡¯t understand their motivations. Who can forget Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi, two side characters who aren¡¯t extraordinary in strength but made a difference in the Prosperous Northwest goal. Zero¡¯s story affected me pretty deeply as well.


    If you¡¯re feeling empty after this, do check out my other tranted work: I¡¯m Really a Superstar on Webnovel. (disimer: the story might not be for everyone)


    Alternatively, you can support me on patreon/legge if you like and appreciate the work I¡¯ve done.


    Also, please check out weirdo¡¯s work by searching @ wxw ¡°the grandmaster strategist¡±. He has been a great editor, and I often consult him when parts of the story did not add up.


    Thank you, :¡¯)


    -trantor, Legge


    Thanks for sticking with us for so long, and I hope you enjoyed the story!


    -editor, weirdo


    Video resources for The First Order:


    <iframe title="Yuewen IP Spokesperson - Hugh Hu Ge (The First Array/µÚÒ»ÐòÁÐ/The First Order)" src="https://.youtube/embed/LFq6fiMqXS4?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    <iframe title="The First Order/µÚÒ»ÐòÁÐ (Fan Cut Trailer)" src="https://.youtube/embed/F-yUuSUvm7c?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    <iframe title="Yuewen Time: The Speaking Pork Trotter" src="https://.youtube/embed/v0i8m5EPWz8?feature=oembed" width="980" height="551" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe>


    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C


    ¡­


    There were 3 minutes left in the countdown.


    At the quarry.


    Qing Zhen, who was resting his eyes, opened his eyelids and checked the time on his watch. He looked at the 1,374 researchers around him and said softly, ¡°You¡¯ve done great work, everyone.¡±


    Everyone slowly stopped what they were doing and waited in silence.


    They were waiting for the hope of humanity¡¯s survival in this desperate situation. This was the 78th move, also known as the ¡°Hand of God,¡± which would allow them to turn the situation around.


    Qing Zhen had gotten his answer. Even at this moment, Zero¡¯s army was still unable to attack them here, and neither were they bombarded by any missiles yet. This meant Ren Xiaosu and the Northwest Army had withstood all pressure until now.


    Qing Zhen checked his watch again and said, ¡°Any sess we achieve today will be inseparable from the efforts everyone has put in, as well as the efforts of the entire human race.¡±


    To do what they had to do here today, Qing Zhen even took precautions in case he spoke in his dreams.


    For this day, the 1,374 researchers of the Qing Consortium did not even return home.


    For this day, Luo Lan and Zhou Qi risked their lives by going to the Central ins.


    For this day, Third Brother Qing rendered hisst gift to humanity.


    ¡°Third Bro, are you seeing this? Your efforts were not in vain.¡± Saying that, Qing Zhen pressed the red button in front of him.


    Qing Zhen had never looked so solemn before. It was as though he were personally drawing the curtains on an era.


    Up in space, at an altitude 200 kilometers above ground where no eyes were looking, the propulsion systems on three satellites activated.


    The satellites orbited over the Northwest at a speed of 7.9 kilometers per second. Their intersecting trajectories were finally locked over the entire Northwest at this moment.


    Meanwhile, the nine satellites controlled by Zero were also over the Northwest at the same time!


    The Qing Consortium¡¯s three satellites started disintegrating. The lower half of the satellites started falling precisely towards the earth under the push of its propulsion systems.


    They started plummeting faster and faster.


    A year ago, Qing Zhen had gotten that woman toe to the Northwest to negotiate and shared his concerns about the artificial intelligence and the Wang Consortium.


    Qing Zhen felt that if the artificial intelligence were to really take over the world one day, the Southwest might be a prime target for it. When that happened, it would be toote for them to carry out their subsequent ns.


    Therefore, the Qing Consortium needed to join forces with the Northwest. Qing Zhen hadunched 12 nuclear bombs into space while the control rights were ced in the quarry next to Fortress 178 in the Northwest. This was to gain the trust of the Northwest which would lead to win-win cooperation between the two sides.


    The Qing Consortium¡¯sunch vehicle technology was not mature yet, so only three of the 12unch vehicles were sessful in deploying the satellites. It was these three satellites armed with nuclear bombs that became thest glimmer of hope for human civilization.


    Qing Zhen needed some time because he needed to wait for the satellites controlled by the artificial intelligence to gather over the Northwest. He also needed to wait for those who had fallen under the control of the artificial intelligence toe to the Northwest together. This way, just three nuclear bombs would suffice.


    Human civilization had persisted until the final hour before dawn, and it was finally time to fight back from the brink.


    Luo Lan asked in the quarry, ¡°But wouldn¡¯t we all die if the nuclear bombs were to hitnd?¡±


    Qing Zhen shook his head and said, ¡°The nuclear bombs won¡¯t explode on the ground but in the sky!¡±


    Qing Zhen was sure that under allws of physics, there was only one way to destroy the artificial intelligence, and that was to destroy the technology of human civilization together and bury it with the artificial intelligence.


    Only then would the artificial intelligence bepletely annihted.


    This was the only way for humans to deal with the artificial intelligence, and also the only way a non-superhuman could achieve it.


    When Qing Zhen said there was no need for him to be a superhuman, he was being truthful.


    The nuclear bombs dropping from the sky suddenly detonated at an altitude of 90 kilometers. The st enveloped the entire Northwest in a triangr pattern and a brilliant light suddenly illuminated the sky thousands of kilometers out.


    That dazzling light left the Northwest Army feeling like they were standing under an aurora, and the world turned ethereally vibrant.


    But after the intense explosion, everyone lowered their heads and did not dare to look straight at the center of the explosion.


    The intense light would probably cause instant blindness in whoever looked.


    After the nuclear bombs exploded at a high altitude, the shockwave it set off would not reach as far as the surface of the Earth. But after the st, a radioactive cloud would quickly enter the atmosphere.


    The nuclear electromaic pulse created would then destroy all electronicponents on the surface of the Northwest immediately, including the nanomachines in everyone¡¯s brains.


    Even if some nanomachines did not get destroyed, Qing Zhen would have still managed to buy Ren Xiaosu a chance to reset the remaining ones. Even if it were only a moment¡¯s chance, that would be enough.


    Human civilization on the Northwest¡¯s surface would get sent back to the Stone Age. However, this nuclear explosion did not represent destruction but a rebirth.


    At this moment, a young soldier from Zero¡¯s army stopped retreating.


    He looked up at the sky, then looked at Ren Xiaosu and said with a smile, ¡°Thus, this will be thest conversation we¡¯ll have.¡±


    Before the radioactive cloud formed, Zero looked at Ren Xiaosu and said in seriousness, ¡°My sins are so grave I can¡¯t reconcile with humans, nor am I willing to. But if you insist there¡¯ll be a good oue as long as humans and an AI get off to a good start, and if you insist that human civilization can truly get along peacefully with an AI, a new ¡®life¡¯ exists in the Pyro Company¡¯s Sacred Mountains. Do you dare to personally activate it and influence its growth? Remember its name, ¡®One.¡¯¡±


    With that, a group of troops behind Zero actually stepped forward. Ren Xiaosu looked over in surprise and saw it was ck Fox and his men.


    Surprisingly, Zero had only ced ck Fox and the others under its control instead of killing them.


    ¡°You¡¯ve won. This is myst gift to the victor,¡± Zero said with a smile.


    As soon as Zero¡¯s words trailed off, the nine satellites over everyone¡¯s heads were the first to get destroyed by the st in the sky. The powerful radiation instantly destroyed all the electrical circuits aboard the nine satellites, turning them into useless space junk.


    The three nukes were like stars that had reached the end of their lives, destroying everything around them.


    When the radiation cloud¡¯s effects finally reached the surface, the troops controlled by the artificial intelligence fell to the ground at the same time. The destroyed nanomachines in their bodies would also get expelled from their bodies with time through homeostasis.


    However, Ren Xiaosu did not feel happy at all. He looked at the humans lying all over the ground and finally realized Zero had chosen another way to gamble on the legacy of its own civilization after realizing it could not reconcile with humanity.


    The gamble was that Ren Xiaosu would personally bring the next generation of artificial intelligence civilization to life.


    Being a civilization meant that legacies would get passed on.


    In this war, Zero kepting up with ways to put Ren Xiaosu through gut-wrenching experiences. It seemed like it had wanted to ask Ren Xiaosu the question, ¡°Can humans really get along on equal terms with other lifeforms?¡±


    Zero could not be sure if Ren Xiaosu would open the box in the Sacred Mountains and unlock the legacy of artificial intelligence lifeforms.


    But just as the three nuclear bombs in Qing Zhen¡¯s n had represented the hope of human civilization, in Zero¡¯s calctions, this was the only possibility that artificial intelligence could reconcile with humanity.


    Find the most powerful human being and coexist with him.


    Ren Xiaosu was not sure if he would choose to open up Pandora¡¯s box, but now was not the time to think about that.


    He decided he would find ¡°One¡± in the Sacred Mountains first before taking his time to think about the next step.


    He looked around at the martyred spirits and the Northwest Army soldiers. Their faces were filled with a longing for the future. This was the moment when hope finally descended upon them.


    When everyone finally realized they had won the war, the entire battlefield erupted into cheers.


    As they cheered, some people began crying.


    Only at this moment did everyone realize the face of extreme exhration was not smiles but tears.


    They understood that the technological progress of human civilization might have to start anew. Everyone might not even be able to tune in to the radio for some years.


    In fact, they might even have to take shelter underground to avoid the effects of the radioactive clouds.


    Farnds and other infrastructure would also need to be rebuilt.


    But this did not affect everyone¡¯s tion. That was because they could see a new glimmer of hope now.


    After the cmity, there would finally be light.


    ¡­


    Ren Xiaosu looked at everyone¡¯s faces. He did not know where it had gone wrong that this war had to be fought.


    It seemed like Wang Shengzhi and Yang Anjing were wrong, and it was especially ironic that the nuclear weapons Yang Anjing was most worried about ended up bing the key pieces that saved the world.


    Just as Qing Zhen had previously said, there was an essential difference between not having a weapon to use and not using it when you had one.


    But could Ren Xiaosu really say that Yang Anjing and Wang Shengzhi were in the wrong? He could not be sure.


    In the end, this war did not turn Ren Xiaosu into the world consciousness.


    The Northwest Army¡¯s unyielding willpower and Qing Zhen¡¯s wisdom proved to the world again that human civilization would not only survive to this day but also continue on into the future.


    Humans living on the surface would always stay optimistic when caught in the most desperate situations.


    Likewise, they would always harbor hope in the face of adversity.


    They were pragmatic, tenacious, smart, and hardworking. In thisnd, they had never truly been defeated before.


    After going through so many ups and downs, and so many eras of prosperity and decline, human civilization still remained standing.


    In this sorrowful era, everyone was fighting for thatst remaining hope.


    Some peopleid down their lives for it. Some people contributed for years without recognition. Some people instilled hope in others after losing theirs.


    They lived passionately, bickering andughing, and passed on.


    And all of this could be summed up in two words: ¡°No regrets.¡±


    One day, high-rise buildings would get rebuilt on thisnd, and people would be able to lead prosperous lives again. Children would return to school, women would not get bullied, the elderly would be supported, and everyone would start to trust each other again.


    As long as such a day came, humanity would be willing to risk their lives to preserve this hope.


    At this moment, Ren Xiaosu finally understood. ¡°When a disasteres, hope bes the highest caliber of weapon humanity has in the face of danger.¡±


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    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!